STAD Ep 6-A Quiet Drive To Snake River Canyon Turns Chilling

He doesn’t come off charming. He doesn’t look like trouble. He just seems normal, and that’s exactly why this story hits so hard.

We’re Holly and Pearl, and we’re sharing an anonymous listener submission that takes us to Idaho, where Kara works nights at a truck stop diner outside Twin Falls. She’s a caring single mom, and when a quiet guy from a local feed store asks her out, she gives him a chance. Dinner is mostly boring, until the questions start getting too personal: where she lives, whether she’s alone, where she goes, what her routine looks like. When she asks about him, he redirects right back to her, like he’s collecting details instead of getting to know her.

Then he suggests a drive to Snake River Canyon to watch the stars. The sky is beautiful, the truck is parked, and the silence stretches until he asks, out of nowhere, “Do you think people know when they’re about to die?” The vibe shifts so fast it’s physical. Kara finds a way to leave without setting him off, but the fear lingers in the days that follow with texts, random silent calls, and the uneasy feeling of being watched.

Months later, the TV news brings the confirmation no one wants: a man arrested in connection with missing and murdered women, and Kara recognizes his face. One chilling line from that night seals it for us: slowing down near a missing person flyer, he says, “They always look in the wrong places.” We unpack the red flags, talk dating safety strategies that actually work, and remind you to trust your gut before your mind talks you out of it. If this episode rattles you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave us a review so more listeners find Sweet Tea After Dark.

Transcript

Welcome To Sweet Tea After Dark

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Good evening, gentle listeners and violent listeners. Welcome to Sweet Tea After Dark. I'm Holly.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

And I'm Lady Whistleblower. No. I mean.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That could be taken in two different ways.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Oops, I mean Pearl.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Oh my lord. Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

That could have been wrongly misconstrued.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

But welcome to Sweet Tea After Dark. And we hope that you're having a lovely evening. And you're you've got your beverage. You've got your either comfort animal, comfort blanket, comfort candle, or all of the above. Comfort wine. Comfort wine.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Instead of tea.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Whatever you have for comfort. Comfort bubble bath.

A Listener Story Stays Anonymous

SPEAKER_00 1:30

You absolutely just don't drop your phone in the bath. But I I I set mine up all the time and I like listen to stuff while I'm taking a bubble bath. It's relaxing.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

It is.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

It is. But we have a listener submission. Yay! Um our listener would like to remain anonymous. Okay. And she did change the name of her friend that she's telling the story about.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

So everybody in this story is staying anonymous, but when I read it, I was like, what? It was crazy. So this one is titled That Guy from Twin Falls. Oh. So she writes, okay, this story didn't directly happen to me. It happened to a friend of mine that I used to work with years ago in Idaho. Good old Idaho. This was sometime around late summer 2012. Do they have summer in Idaho? They do, but it's not like not like summer down here. Summer in Idaho is much more pleasant than summer in Louisiana. I bet.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I bet.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Where you get swamp ass and it's just you you get near your front door and it's already like you start sweating.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah, your booty's like, it's happening already. Anticipation sweat.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yes. It's like here it comes.

unknown 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

As soon as you open the door, you're soaking wet. Sweat. Anticipation. Yeah. Antisipation. So she said, I work nights at a little truck stop diner off the highway. And one of the waitresses, a friend of mine since high school named Kara, she was always like super sweet, quiet at first, but really funny once you got to know her. She was a very caring single mom who kept mostly to herself. Kara sounds lovely.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah. And uh y'all's job sounds scary as shit. Right. Uh truck stop diner. I don't even need the rest of the story. That's scary by itself.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

I'm like, you always think back to like those uh, you know, movies that always have the truck stop diner. That's like immediately what popped

The Normal Guy From The Feed Store

SPEAKER_00 4:10

in my head. And I'm like, I mean that's like Do they even have those? But yeah, Murder Central right there.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

You got people coming in out of those from all over the place. So she says, one night she came into work. Kara came into work excited because she had met a man There's the end of the story. Come on. No, I'm kidding. She had met a man um a few weeks earlier at a local feed store. She had gone over there to get some stuff, and um, she had gone back in, and I guess the guy had talked to her again, and he he asked her on a date. He's like, Would you like to go have buy chicken food with me?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

I see you're buying chicken food. Would you like to go have some chicken? I was like, I wonder if it was like tractor supply.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Oh my goodness, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

But she said a local feed store, so it was probably just one of those mom and popcorn. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah, I was gonna say, I do like me some tractor supply. I always go buy the red barn candles.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

There you go. They got good stuff in there. She said one thing that she noticed though, about when Kara was describing him, she kept saying he just seemed normal. Like he wasn't like other guys she had met around here. He wasn't like overly handsome, he wasn't charming, he didn't try to like overplay things. He was just normal.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

He was an average Joe.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Just an average Joe in a feed store.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Ain't that something?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

And she said, you know, that type of town, they kind of knew everybody in that local area, but she didn't know him? She didn't know him, and you know, he he said that he wasn't from around there, but he was, you know, working. So I'm like, oh, okay, okay. She said he was soft-spoken, polite, had kind eyes. I'm like, mm, that's the ones you gotta watch out for. Tricky, tricky. Probably a Pisces.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Oh god. It's the devil. Run, run!

SPEAKER_00 6:30

They agreed to meet in town at a local restaurant to grab a bite to eat. So, according to Kara, the whole date was honestly kind of boring. She said he asked her a lot of personal questions, like where she lived. Did she live alone? What you know, what are some of the places she goes to? And things just just these really odd questions of like me, I'd have been like, What are you asking me that for? What kind of stalker shit we got going on here? I mean, at least she didn't go like, oh, come to my house and pick me up or anything. She met him at the place. Smart at the time, she just brushed it off as just awkward small talk, like, okay, he's just trying to like ask her some questions and all that. But when she would ask him something about himself, he would just kind of like divert back to her back to her. So, like now she's our anonymous submitter says, it sounds terrifying. Yeah. But like, you know, after dinner, he asked if she wanted to go out by Snake River Canyon to look at the stars and get to know each other better. No, because that sounds like you're trying to hook up. Right. And Kara said something about the way he phrased it kind of gave her chills, but she still went. Oh my god. No.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Kara, are you desperate, girl?

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Right. He's average and boring. Like what is it?

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Boring out? You don't get none of this?

unknown 8:14

What?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

So he drove them out there in his older dark green truck. Um, they drove out to one of the darker areas near the canyon where there weren't many people around. I guess people kind of frequent out there and stuff and go look at the stars and park. He parked the truck, turned the engine off, and they just sat there staring out into the dark. The sky was really pretty though, she said. It was all lit up with stars. And for a long time there was no music, no conversation, just

A Boring Date With Weird Questions

SPEAKER_00 8:55

awkward silence. But then, completely out of nowhere, he asked her, Do you think people know when they're about to die? Girl, run. Get out in the dark and run. Yeah. Kara said she was completely caught off guard and kind of laughed nervously because what else do you do when somebody asks you that?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

You grab the door handle and you get out as fast as you can, like we did on Canal Street. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

But she said he didn't laugh. He didn't smile. He just kept staring out into the night sky and said, I think their body knows before their mind does. She said at that point, Kara told her I wanted to leave like yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I would have left like yesterday. Right. On foot. She's out of shape, out of right. I don't care. Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I'm out like through the desert or whatever it is. No, I don't think it's a desert, but like it's a canyon. Rocks and all. Yep. She said, flip-flops.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I don't care my feet be bleeding when I get home.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Kick them flip-flops off. That's noise. You can hear that. We barefoot and I don't feel anything. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

My feet be bleeding when I get home, but that's all right. That's okay. I'm alive. My feet are bleeding.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

She said the whole atmosphere inside the truck changed. But she was kind of scared at that point to upset him. So instead, she lied and said that her babysitter had to leave at 10 o'clock and she needed to get home. She said he turned and looked at her for a few seconds without saying anything. Then he smiled. I would have ran. This just gets worse. Everything about this is like at that point I would have started swinging. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

I mean, if I'm not getting out, he is. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

One of us is getting out of this truck. So then he smiled and said, probably a good idea you go home tonight. She told us later that the drive back felt wrong, heavy. Like she had narrowly avoided something she couldn't explain. Girl, you had narrowly avoided death.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

That's all you can explain it. It's called I Almost Got Murdered.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Even though nothing happened, he never threatened her. He never touched her. She said every instinct in her body was screaming at her to get away from him.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Oh, so he's just like, Oh, look, I proved myself right. Her body knew before her mind. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

And that's what that's the scary part. Yep. I answered the question. There you go. So Kara said that after you know, he had dropped her off back at the restaurant. She went on her car and she was like, she was out of there. She said that he texted her a few times over the next few days after that, but she ignored him. She

Stars, Silence, And A Death Question

SPEAKER_00 12:20

did say that she felt like at one point someone had followed her home one night. So she drove around to a few different roads she wouldn't normally take until she could finally ditch whoever it was. Like pull up in somebody's driveway and hide, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, I was like, did you like find like pull into somebody's driveway, go knock on their door, and be like, hey, I just need to come in for a minute. I know this is weird, but I think somebody was following me. Can I please stay here for like 10 minutes and then I'll leave? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

You don't even have to let me in. Just uh I'll go in your backyard. Something. But she said um she would also get calls from random phone numbers, and the person wouldn't say anything.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I don't answer random phone numbers.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Me either. I'll be looking at it going, I don't know you. I'm not answering this phone.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah. If if it's important and you don't leave a voicemail, that's your bad. Because I'm not calling you back if I don't know your number.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

So she said this went on for about six weeks. Um, and then it just stopped. I'm like, girl, did you call the police?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Yeah, no, I yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Be like, random numbers are calling me. I think somebody followed me home. This guy's creepy.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah, I'd be like reporting my whole date.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

I'd be like, just in case something happens to me, she needs an if I go missing folder and he's in it. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

So here's the thing though. About eight months later, while we were at working one night, there was uh the diner had like a TV, one of those big old ones that was mounted on the wall, and the news was on. It was a report that police had arrested a man in another Idaho County connected to the disappearance and murder of two women. When they described him and the truck he drove, it immediately caught Kara's attention. Then she saw his mugshot. It was the same guy. Oh my chits. She nearly passed out at work when she recognized him. She just started shaking and crying. She said, That's the guy I went out that took me out to the canyon. So that night we did what any friend would do. We took her out for drinks. And she told us a chilling detail that she never told anyone about that night. I was like, oh, there's more.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

But wait.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

There's more. She said during their drive that night, they had come to a crossroad that had like a telephone pole there. It was covered with flyers and stuff that were stapled to it. And there was a missing person's flyer with a woman on it. Kara said that he slowed the truck down, pulled over, like, looked at the flyer, and he said, They always look in the wrong places. And honestly, that sentence has haunted me ever since. Because how many dangerous people walk around looking completely ordinary, completely normal, boring people? All the way average. And how many people only realize what they escaped after it's already too late for someone else? Like, that's insane.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

That is crazy.

The Get-Home Lie And Aftermath

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Also, you have to sit and wonder how they decide if you're it or you're not.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Right. Well, and I think his maybe his question was the test. What maybe he maybe the thrill of the hunt soaked him? Maybe if she would have ran, then that would have kicked in his like animal instinct and he would want to chase her down and kill her.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

That's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

So maybe good thing she didn't run.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

She like So what you're saying is you and I would have been murdered.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Yes. No. If we would have got caught. But maybe he knew that area, but again, nobody she said that she had never seen the guy before around town, so I don't know, but that's freaking scary. Don't ever go to a dark canyon.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Why would you do that? Why would you put yourself in that position anyway? Right. With somebody you just met and it's your first day. Yeah. First day. And you're a single mom. You have a child to help. Hell to the knob. We can go in anywhere where there's not a bunch of other people.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

You out your crazy ass mind. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

But I guess she was like, oh, well, he's just this normal guy. He works at the feed store. People know him. I've seen him a couple of times.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

And now you've seen his ass on the news.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yep. And now he's done sh murdered somebody. Two that they know of at least. So Lord. Serial killer.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Well, we're glad you're still alive, Kara. Yeah. Hope you don't go to any dark places with strangers again. No.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

And thanks to our anonymous listener who sent us the story. We appreciate that because that gave me chills.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Yeah. Like big time chills.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

I'd have been like one with the rocks and the snakes and whatever else was in that canyon, but not that. Not that guy.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

The coyotes.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

And while I was running, I'd be looking for something sharp and large.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Right. Right. In the dark. Like, I must find something.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

I need a weapon because I'm gonna run out of breath. And he's gonna catch up.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Indeed. Like that shit's scary. Like when he yeah, like when he asked that question, I would have just like, I don't know. I internalize everything, so inside I'll be freaking out, but outside I'll be like, what the fuck are you trying to say, bruh?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

I would have been like, why are you scared?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

You should be. Do you get a bad vibe from me? Are you scared, brah?

The News Report That Confirms It

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Do I freak you out?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Because you fucking freaked me out.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Do you want me to freak you out?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Are you into that? Alright.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Oh my god, it's like that freaking video I sent you today. Um, that woman, and she's like, you know, she's listened to the lyrics of that song as a kid, and it just kind of had the girl, you'll be a woman soon. And she's like, got this like face, like, what the sh I always say that about Winger, and she's only 17 and all these songs, and I'm like, oh my god, they like made songs about young girls, you know, can't wait till you're a woman, or you know, just talking about how they look and stuff. I'm like, that's disgusting. It's disgusting.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

It is. And you you talk about that one, and I'm like, I don't even remember the name of the song.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

There's so many of them though. There's a lot of like creepy ass songs about men stalking young girls or girls, women in general.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

That song that's like the chorus is like, if I could fly, I would pick you up and take you into the sky and show you a love like you've never seen. Yeah. That one. Because she's a teenager in that too. And like people are telling him to leave her alone.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Leave her alone, but he's like, no, bruh. I'm like into that.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Like, what in the hell is wrong with you? You dirty bit.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I mean, 8675309. Jenny Jenny. This guy's obsessed.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

I don't know how old Jenny is. I hope Jenny was old enough to be in a bar. Yeah. At least.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Right. Because it's just weird. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Also, you know, they were calling Jenny's home phone, so I would hope she didn't have like live in with her parents because that would be awkward.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Right. And be like, uh, so I found your name and number on the wall. This is her dad. Right, exactly. Can I speak to Jenny, please?

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Right. This is her father.

Safety Rules And Trusting Your Gut

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Stop calling. Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Yeah, there's a lot of weird songs out there. But yeah, this story just got me shook. Yeah. Don't go off with strangers. Like, are you gonna go out to dinner? Cool. Meet them at a restaurant. Awesome. They're boring. Bye. But also don't go off. In a dark canyon. Like, save that for like the third date at least. Like after you get to know the guy.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yeah. Make sure people have like crazy with it with my my daughter. I'm like, take a picture of their license plate and their car and send it to me. And like your where you're gonna be at, your location, things like that. Because I'm cray cray with it. I mean. I have a true crime podcast. But I also like anytime I went anywhere with someone new, I sent stuff to you. I send stuff to my aunt. I sent stuff to my dad. I'm like, just in case y'all die too, I want more than one person to know where I was.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

But when I was younger, it was just like da-da-da, whatever, you know. So I mean, maybe kind of get that, but I don't know. I don't think I took that big of a risk.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

No. Risque?

unknown 22:26

No.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

But if you have a story like our anonymous listener did, send it in. Send it on in. Because we want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Send it to Hold MySweet Tea Podcast at gmail.com. Yas.

unknown 22:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Dust Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Right now, while you're in the bathtub, just go on and voice to text this story. We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

I don't care if there's typos. Work it out.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Just do something, please.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

I mean, obviously, if if you send me something and it says that you were grilling in the jacuzzi and your dolphin fell out, I'm gonna message you back and be like, what?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Can you just clarify a tiny bit? Can you can you still read it though?

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Can you explain this portion right here about the dolphin?

SPEAKER_00 23:29

But yeah. Send us a message, send us a story, all those things, and we hope you enjoyed this one.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Yes, indeed. Just as much as we hope you enjoyed our theme music.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yep. Hattie Salzetta.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

And we hope she's enjoying these sweet tea after darks.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

I am not positive she knows that we did this. Right?

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Could be. And I hope she had a great

Send Your Stories And Goodnight

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Memorial Day weekend.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Indeed. Y'all stay scared enough to not go in the canyon.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yep, stay out of the canyon. In the Idaho's.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

And as always, Sweet Tea After Dark is a drunken psycho B production. And just because we're good nighting doesn't mean you can't keep frightened. Bye.