The

The On the morning of June 25, 1983, the Marshall family woke up bright and early and made their way towards Montana's Elkhorn Mountains.

Kim Marshall, a member of the Capital City Radio Club, had been invited to attend a ham radio operator's picnic

in Helena National Forest,

which covers around a million acres of west-central Montana.

It was a fine Saturday morning,

with a clear blue summer sky,

and accompanying Kim that day,

was his four-year-old stepdaughter, Nileen.

Nileen K. Marshall was only a few months shy for fifth birthday, and despite being a child of

divorce, was a happy and well-adjusted preschooler. Only Kim and Nileen were set on attending

the operator's picnic that morning, but upon their arrival, Nilean spotted

several other children playing along a shallow water course known as Moppin Creek. Nilean told her stepfather

she wished to play with the other children, but unwilling to let his daughter play unsupervised,

Kim declined. Moments later, a 13-year-old girl approached to hesitant Kim and proposed that she keep an eye on

Nylene while he greeted his fellow radio enthusiasts.

The teenager claimed that they had been catching frogs and offered to teach Nylene how to do

the same.

Kim thanked the girl, told Nylene to go with her and then

headed off to meet with friends. He was under the impression that the teenage girl would keep a

vigilant watch over his young stepdaughter. But he was wrong. Upon returning to Moppin Creek,

Kim found the 13-year-old girl who was supposed to have been watching

...