Can't sight media.

Dale Stinson was a veteran DEA agent, and he'd work some pretty dicey assignments.

Not that he would ever put it like that.

I never considered the job dangerous.

Why?

I...

I don't know, positive attitude, I can do this.

But from what Dale told me during our conversations, and there were many of them, he'd been involved

in some high-pressure, high-stake stuff.

Sometimes working undercover to set up some pretty serious drug traffickers.

Not to mention being partnered with fellow agent Kiki Kamerina, before he was kidnapped

and murdered by the Wattala Hara cartel.

So positive attitude or not, you can understand why, in 1990, Dale was ready for a change of

pace.

He was in his mid-40s.

Had a bunch of kids.

And Alpine came open, and I talked to my wife and said, you want to go to Alpine.

She says, yeah, need to get away from the big cities.

So I applied for the job.

To be frank, Dale was overqualified for small, sleepy, Alpine taxes.

His boss told him so.

Sending him there, it was a waste of a good agent, little to no action.

...