U.S. Route 2 in Washington

Nearly four months later, a grim discovery confirmed his family's worst fears.

Turcotte's body was found in a remote shelter belt near US Highway 2, not far from Devil's Lake, North Dakota.

His death was ruled to be a slaying, yet over two decades later, the case remains unsolved.

Russell Turcotte was last seen alive on July 12th, 2002, at a truck stop gas station on the outskirts of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

He had spent the previous night with friends in Fargo and was planning to return to Montana for a family wedding.

Despite this case taking place in 2002, Turcotte was hitchhiking west along US Highway 2.

This was a time when hitchhiking had already gone out of style due to the associated dangers.

Notably, reports on this case indicate that Russell was very trusting and easygoing, which is perhaps why he still had faith in the hitchhiking systems that previous generations enjoyed.

For the US Highway system, the low odd numbers are in the east, like US 1 on the East Coast, and climb as you head west, like US 101 in California.

The low even numbers are in the north, like US 2 near Canada, and climb as you head south.

Why on earth would the engineers intentionally design the new interstate system to run in the exact opposite direction of the old system? That sounds like a recipe for total civic confusion.

I'd actually argue it was an engineering necessity to prevent confusion.

Can't go wrong, right?

And did you guys take Highway 2 to, I think it is Thedford, that you go north, straight north to

Valentine.

Would we do, would I do that?

Yeah.

so he's like got the cottonwood singing to him and i never forget his arms raised in the air going yeah you know like yeah i can't believe i'm hearing this great music oh i'm camp sunnybrook in the night that's

really cool when we went up and around and did like car hands in the wildcat hills the one time We came from Alliance and we were driving on Highway 2 and we stopped at a gas station out in the middle.

It was like in the middle of nowhere there was a gas station.

That's what it costs.

Spokane, though, the city, literally you'll be going down the main highway, which is what they call Highway 2, which is the main north-south road that goes through our whole town.

And they'll literally just pull up a truck in the middle of the three-lane highway and put a cone out and then go down on the sewer line to go clean it out or whatever.

But if you did that...

Definitely mentally messes with you, though, for sure.

Just a heads up to give everybody on Highway 2.

Oh, there it is.

Procter & Town.

But my, my dad, he was, uh, I wanna say, so he was about 87 years old when he came and visited me here in Washington State when I was living in a town called Gold Bar.

So that's out Highway 2, for those that don't know, just at the base of the Cascade Mountains, and you actually have to drive two cities to even find a traffic signal.

So we're talking about just a little town, not a whole lot of people, not a lot going on, and that's what...

And that'll tie into a story in a little bit, Wes.

So then I said, "Well, by the way, Dad, I've had this experience." And then the second one I'll get into shortly happened a couple years later.

But on this first one, I was, again, I was a Washington State correctional officer, um, working in Monroe, Washington, living-- And I'm kinda just getting specific for the, for anybody that might know the area, but living in Gold Bar.

So I was, worked graveyard shift, so I was kinda heading into work, uh, on Highway 2 and just kinda leaving the, the towns called Startup and Sultan.

And there were probably, you know, we're probably going, so I was in a vehicle.

I got...

I was had by the fake violin player over at the Super 1, um, out there on Highway 2.

Forget what they call that out there.

Harbor View.

Even more specific than that, we're headed to the Western Washington Cascade Mountain Range, and even more specific than that, we're heading to Goblin Creek.

It's up by the Index Galena Road off Highway 2.

'Cause you might want to experience this story for yourself.

You're gonna have to, you know, [laughs] you're gonna have to collect rocks.

Before doing so, however, she indicated to me that it was less Bigfoot or supernatural and more Deliverance.

This particular incident, Rhiannon told me, was on the Necklace Valley Trail off Foss River Road off Highway 2 in Washington.

The trailhead is remote.

It's about five miles up a wilderness road after leaving the highway, with the nearest populated area being the town of Skykomish.