Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

And I'm Brett.

And the story I have for you today takes us deep into the woods on the borders of Appalachia.

An evening joyride turns deadly when three men are gunned down on their way to a local landmark,

leaving behind a haunting mystery.

This is the story of the Signal Mountain murders.

On the evening of July 9, 1988, in the woods of Signal Mountain in South Eastern Tennessee,

a family adventure is about to get underway.

Signal Mountain is actually a town and not the official name of a specific mountain,

but it's what the locals call their part of Walden's Ridge.

The population growth has been slow over the past 150 years or so,

but as more people have moved into the region, more public land has gone into private hands.

Signal Mountain is this really gorgeous suburb of Chattanooga,

covered in rolling hills and ridges, breathtaking skies and trees as far as the eye can see.

Signal Mountain is situated kind of between a pair of good-sized natural markers,

the Chigamaga and the Chattanooga National Military Park to the south,

and the Prentice Cooper State Forest to the east with the Signal Point lookout,

right there on Walden's Ridge listed as a military park district.

Now for visitors, it's an outdoorsy person's paradise,

and the perfect place to get back to nature without going too far off the beaten path.

For local residents who spent their whole lives learning these woods, it's home.

So, tonight, with that in mind, a woman named Martha Mason isn't all that worried

...