The Lewis Clark Valley Murders Part 3: Civic Theater

Cold Case Murder Mysteries

True Crime

3.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2020

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On the night of September 12, 1982, 21-year-old Kristina Nelson and her 18-year-old stepsister Jacqueline “Brandy” Miller left Kristina’s Lewiston, ID apartment on foot, heading out to do laundry and buy groceries. A note was found at the residence informing Kristina’s boyfriend to make himself at home because they’d be right back. They never returned.

Later that same evening, only blocks away, 35-year-old janitor and set painter Stephen Pearsall was dropped off by his girlfriend at the Civic Theater, where he’d been working earlier in the night. He decided to return to do laundry and practice his clarinet. Once the door closed, though, he was never seen again.

Authorities initially believed Stephen Pearsall might have abducted the young women, but it’s soon revealed another man was in the theater too. Intrigued by the possibility he might have been involved in Stephen’s disappearance, law enforcement investigated his whereabouts that night, only to learn that Kristina and Brandy would have crossed his path as well. To this day, however, the cases remain unsolved.

Join host Ryan Kraus for a fascinating psychological evaluation of the Civic Theater disappearances in this final episode of the Lewis Clark Valley trilogy.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:14.5	Hey everybody welcome back to cold case murder mysteries. I'm your host Ryan Kraus pulling back the curtain on yet another fascinating unsolved case. In this episode, we'll be delving into the nearly inexplicable disappearances that occurred
0:19.7	at or near the Civic Theater in Lewiston, Idaho on September 12, 1982.
0:26.2	That evening, 35-year-old Stephen Pearsall, who was a janitor and set painter at the theater,
0:32.4	left the building after working on a stage prop that consisted of a scaled down wooden ship being constructed for an upcoming performance of the Pirates of Penzance, a Broadway musical by Gilbert and Sullivan
0:45.7	that made its way into theaters around the country after a very strong revival in
0:50.4	New York in 1981. Stephen attended a party with his girlfriend that night,
0:56.0	but they left at some point after 11 p.m. and he decided to return to the theater
1:02.0	to use the laundry facilities and practice his clarinet.
1:06.5	When she dropped him off, however, and the door closed behind him, Stephen Pierceall was simply never seen again dinner alive.
1:16.0	That same night, Lewiston residents Christina Nelson and Jacqueline Miller,
1:23.4	known as Brandy, 21 and 18 respectively,
1:27.6	also disappeared.
1:29.3	Christina lived only blocks from the Civic Theater and had previously worked there.
1:35.2	She left a note at her apartment for her boyfriend, stating that the young women were
1:39.9	headed to a local grocery store to shop, but that she would also finish doing laundry,
1:46.0	specifically putting towels in a dryer at a nearby apartment building because her basement
1:51.7	apartment didn't have facilities. The boyfriend was urged to make himself at home because they'd be back soon.
2:00.0	But they were never seen alive again. Their scattered remains were recovered approximately 18 months later
2:08.4	in the shade beneath a large tree located on a steep hillside near Kendrick, Idaho northeast of Lewiston.
2:17.0	Initially, investigators drew the seemingly obvious conclusion that Stephen Piercell was indeed the primary person of interest
2:26.6	in this case because he disappeared on the same night of the young women.
2:31.4	The narrative suggested he did something to them and fled in the aftermath. But
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Cold Case Murder Mysteries, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Cold Case Murder Mysteries and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.