Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire.

We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney.

And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction.

We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire.

I have vivid memories of the night of March 22nd, 1997. I have vivid memories of the night of March 22nd, 1997. Part of that has to do with, you know,

young, dumb love, but most of it has to do with the Halebop comet, also known as the Great Comet,

which was brilliantly visible from my hometown that night. I had a huge crush on the sky, and he invited

me to watch the comet with him, and we climbed up on the rooftop of this neighborhood bar with a

bottle of screwtop wine, and we watched the sky. And suddenly, there it was. A bright,

silvery ball with a long glowing tail. Absolute magic. I'll never forget it, wrote some terrible poetry about it later

that night, and then a couple mornings later, I woke up to the strangest news story of my life.

A group calling themselves Heaven's Gate had taken their own lives en masse out in California,

and they'd left behind a video explaining why. They were catching a ride on the

comet with the full certainty that it would take them to paradise. They were leaving their human

bodies behind, chasing the pure perfection of enlightenment. These were smart, educated

people with families who loved them. What led them to this? This is

Away Team, the story of Heaven's Gate. So, campers, for this one, we're in Rancho Santa Fe, California, just outside of San Diego, March 26, 1997.

A little after 3 p.m., the San Diego County Sheriff's Department received a strange 911 call from a man who didn't give his name.

This is regarding a mass suicide, and I can give you the address.

This was a weird call, and the police were initially skeptical,

and they were even more dubious when they heard the address,

on Colina Norte in Rancho Santa Fe,

...