Yet Another Gold Basin Murder

[jasong 2,974]

I am on my phone so I can't figure out how to paste this, but a friend just forwarded a missing person report to me. A prospector went missing. He was just found dead, I believe with a gunshot. 

2 other prospectors have been arrested for murder and are in custody, they both are prospecters and stayed in Gold Basin.

I will try to post the police information when I get to a normal computer. 

Please delete this Steve if not appropriate. I am only posting because the murder was right in Gold Basin and victim and accused are all prospectors. 

The area is not what it once was and people need to use caution out there these days. this is now 2 murders in a tiny area and then of course the lethal shootout between the leader of the thievery gang that hit me, and a neighbor during a botched robbery.

[Swegin 319]

Well that's two less POS in the world.  

[Joe D. 2,100]

    I think that warnings on the forum are appropriate, if they will help prevent this in the future to anymore of our hobby mates!! This is not political, it's unfortunately real life directly relating to our hobby!

    My prayer's go out to the family and friends of lost prospectors!🙏 😪

[jasong 2,974]

The missing man's wife posted on Facebook that the victim had gotten into a truck with a stranger and then disappeared, in Gold Basin while prospecting. The charges we see here are "premeditated murder". Which is pretty specific, and the further charges make it sound like they tried to hide what happened afterwards.

So, the chances of it being something off the cuff like a fight leading to a shooting are slim sounding at this point. From the reports, looks like a planned murder. 

Hopefully not over gold/greed, but all parties were prospectors.

[1515Art 1,340]

One good reason I’m packing the 10mm... , but geez talk about the Wild West, problem is I don’t want to use the damn thing, puts the guy packing in self defense at a big disadvantage. Jason,  thanks for posting, the fact that one of the perps and victim were mining partners makes it not exactly random be interesting to find out what the hell went wrong out there, you just can’t ever let your guard down and seems things are getting worse not better.

[jasong 2,974]

It's definitely getting worse out there. Meth, cartels, rampant unemployment, criminals looking for a hideout. And it attracts a huge contingent of "Mad Max" style sorts from the cities who don't really take law and order into much consideration after being out there for a year or so.

I still have professional business down there which I need to attend to occasionally otherwise I'd skip it and look at moving on to better places, but I have to say that for the first time in my life I'm going to have to start carrying my pistol with me for some other reason than being in bear/lion country. It makes me sad beyond words that this is the reality there now as it shouldn't need to be that way. This place used to be so vastly empty, calm, peaceful, and beautiful. We shouldn't have to watch over our shoulders constnatly while detecting in nature, in a civilized country. 😞

[beatup 1,267]

It is a real shame that it has come to this ,one more reason i don't go to gold basin anymore.                                                           Hope that his family will get through all this without more grief put on them .

[Redz 64]

In prospecting half the people are lying because they are finding nothing, and half are lying because they are finding something.

This doesnt sound like a casual detectorist being waylaid

[flakmagnet 1,689]

The real shame of this kind of thing is that it further erodes trust in the people around you and that is not fixed easily. I used to love gold basin but stopped going there many years ago for exactly the reasons being talked about now. I just can't bring myself to pack a weapon when the reason is because of other people. I would rather find somewhere else to go.

 

[mn90403 6,119]

7 hours ago, phrunt said:

Geez, and I thought a few prospectors didn't get along on this forum, but the disagreements are nothing compare to this.  Scary!  I really hope there is more to the story and it wasn't just some guy out swinging his detector peacefully and lawfully that was targeted, either way it's very wrong what happened to the poor guy.  Those two guys just ruined their lives and somebody elses, and then all the families and friends involved too, senseless really.

Simon,

I'm afraid to tell you that we are a country that has lost much of its 'sensibilities' at this point.  We have nomads and homeless that no one knows about and many don't care about.  We have a large percentage of murders that are never solved.  The fact that they knew someone about this 'missing person' indicates that they would know each other and things went wrong.

This was like the other murder that I reported on in Gold Basin over the last few years where the guy who killed someone was actually the nearest neighbor.

https://nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/topic/31485-gold-basin-murder-update/?tab=comments#comment-288448 

Mitchel