Cabin in the Woods S01E05 Alone at the Cabin
A father’s desperate search for his pregnant daughter leads him to an abandoned cabin in rural Canada. When police come in to investigate, a crucial surprise witness helps expose unspeakable crimes.
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00:00St. Joseph Island is the very isolated area.
00:12Anything could happen down there and you wouldn't see it or hear it.
00:18They told him that you don't want to go down there.
00:20If you go, you probably won't come back.
00:28There was a cabin and inside that cabin were miserable living conditions.
00:37The first thing that we found was a human finger bone.
00:45The second thing was an elbow joint.
00:51That was the worst thing to hear.
00:53No one deserves what happened to her.
00:56No one does.
00:58I'm so sorry.
01:17At the time of this investigation, I was the area crime supervisor.
01:22David Lopez was a man with a mission.
01:25He was here looking for his daughter who went missing on St. Joseph Island.
01:34Their last known location was at a cabin on a remote piece of property in Canada.
01:43I knew that I had to send a detective over there.
01:51It's very, very remote.
01:53You can't drive there.
01:58There's bog and marsh and water and trees and stumps and you have to walk up this road
02:06to get to the cabin out in the middle of the bush.
02:15That officer had to walk in there in the dark.
02:21It was mire, mud.
02:25There's so many pitfalls and dangers out there.
02:32But he got there.
02:34The property, it almost looked like what you would see in a horror movie.
02:44That officer is in there in the dark.
02:52But when he was at the cabin, he wasn't alone.
03:14The first time I ever saw Melody Lopez, it was 1993 when she had just moved and she had
03:25just gotten to school for the day.
03:28Melody came in and was stunning.
03:31Absolutely gorgeous.
03:32Black hair, dark lipstick, and I was just like, that's going to be my friend.
03:38Me and Melody were both 15.
03:41So we went to the mall, we went to the arcade.
03:46Every day she introduced me to new music, to new ideas.
03:53Melody always wanted everybody just to be themselves.
03:56Me and Mel were together every day for that whole summer.
04:03She was actively present in my life for six months, but then she moved.
04:14When Melody was a teenager, her parents split up.
04:21So Robin moved to Eugene, Oregon, and they decided that Melody would live with David
04:26in Columbus, Ohio.
04:29Melody was his only child.
04:31David was crazy about her.
04:33I mean, he just thought she hung the moon.
04:37And they had a really special relationship.
04:44When she moved to Columbus, we kept in touch for so long, for years.
04:49We would write letters back and forth, send each other pictures.
04:54She found a lot of really great friends when she moved to Columbus, and they were all very
04:59punk.
05:00Melody always took and accepted everybody for who they were.
05:05And I think that's one of the other reasons why she was so drawn to the punk community.
05:10Because they were themselves, for themselves, and didn't care about what other people thought.
05:23I talked to her one day, and she said she had planned to go down to Mardi Gras.
05:29And I was like, that sounds so cool.
05:32And I was like, Melody, have fun, be safe, let me know when you get back.
05:38So I remember when she got back, Melody didn't talk about the boys she met.
05:43She met boys all the time.
05:44But Melody met Sean, and she didn't talk about anything else that trip.
05:49I didn't hear much about the trip.
05:52I heard about Sean, and how great he was, and how cute he was, and she was excited.
06:00She really was dead set on him from pretty much the very beginning.
06:05She knew that he was her one.
06:09She had found her one person.
06:12She said, we're going to settle down in Oregon, get married, buy a house, all the fun stuff
06:16on the beach.
06:18And then I learned that she was pregnant.
06:24I was so excited when she said that, because I'm like, we're going to get to be grownups
06:28together.
06:29We're not going to be kids.
06:31Our parents aren't going to have to drive us around to visit each other.
06:35They don't have to pay our phone bills.
06:37We're going to be grownups.
06:39And we can see each other again, and we can visit.
06:42I wanted me and her to have our babies together, and grow up, and it made me very happy.
06:50But Sean and Melody had a plan.
06:55Sean's father, her dad, was a free spirit.
07:00He had a history of hitchhiking all over the country.
07:04David used to hop trains, and that's something I never would have done.
07:09But he told us stories about that.
07:12And Melody wanted to experiment with that, like David had done.
07:17Sean and Melody were planning to go see Sean's parents, who lived in Ottawa.
07:24They would hitchhike through Canada, maybe hopping some trains to save money, and then
07:32go to Eugene, where my sister Robin was living.
07:36That was the plan.
07:38That's what she told her dad.
07:40That's what she told Robin.
07:42That's what they planned to do.
07:44I was completely against it, because I didn't want him to hitchhike.
07:49But she wasn't stopped from anybody.
07:51I like to stop her, but she wouldn't let me.
07:53She wants to do this all on her own.
07:58What did you know about Sean?
08:00I don't know a lot about Sean.
08:02I only spoke to Sean once for a moment, and he made me feel worried.
08:11Sean was very quiet.
08:14You know, he was very quiet.
08:18That trip was going to be their last big adventure before they settled down.
08:24They hitchhiked to Canada.
08:31She called us from there and told them they was hitchhiking to Oregon.
08:36And then, that was the last time she called.
08:42And then time starts passing, and Robin and David are not hearing anything from Melody.
08:48They're not getting any more phone calls, none.
08:52She would call David every three or four days and always let him know where she was and
08:56who she was with.
08:58When she fell silent, that sparked something in David.
09:03You just get that intuition.
09:05So David's wheels were turning.
09:07David started his own investigation to track her down.
09:12David was talking to Sean's parents, trying to figure out what to do.
09:18David went all over Columbus looking for Melody's friends to talk to them and see if anybody
09:26had heard anything, and nobody had heard.
09:28It was just silence.
09:31They were in communication with Sean's parents, too.
09:34They had silence from Sean, no phone calls, none.
09:41It was extremely frustrating, because what were they to do?
09:45What was Robin to do?
09:47She's in Eugene, Oregon, waiting for her daughter to, you know, suddenly appear there.
10:01One day, I talked to Robin, her mother, where she told me about someone who showed up at
10:08her house.
10:18His name was Chris, Chris Rogers.
10:21Chris had told Robin that he had been traveling with Mel and Sean.
10:28Robin asked where Melody was, and he got cagey.
10:35That's when Robin knew something was definitely wrong.
10:41Chris had said he left them in a cabin.
10:49Not a nice place.
10:50Nothing nice.
10:51A scary shack.
10:52He had said they don't want to go down there.
10:59If you go, you probably won't come back.
11:11The last we heard, Sean was taking Melody to meet his parents, and this guy, Chris Rogers,
11:19turned up at my sister Robin's house in Eugene, Oregon.
11:27Chris was an interesting character.
11:29He was pretty rough around the edges, and he basically said that Melody and Sean were
11:35traveling together with him, and so they were hitchhiking outside of Ottawa, near where
11:46Sean's parents lived.
11:49Chris Rogers was a drifter, a skateboarder.
11:54Chris Rogers described himself as a friend of Sean's.
11:58He mentioned several of her friends, but she never talked about Chris.
12:08Robin had a really hard time because she didn't know if Chris was being honest.
12:17Chris said they had hitchhiked to Ottawa and started hitchhiking west to Sault Ste.
12:25Marie.
12:28There's an international rail line there that crosses the border, and they were going
12:34to pick up a train there and then head out to the U.S. west coast.
12:44According to Chris, it was around August the 4th, 1999, when they'd been picked up by a
12:52man in a truck whose name was Robert.
13:12They rode with him into the night.
13:19He was financially flush enough that he looked after them.
13:24He stopped and got him snacks and something to drink.
13:28You know, everything seemed fine.
13:29He seemed really sweet.
13:33During this time, the driver of the vehicle, Robert, he said, well, we live in St. Joseph
13:39Island, and that's really close to Sault Ste.
13:42Marie, Ontario.
13:43The train should come up.
13:49He talked them into coming to his cabin.
13:52They were going to celebrate his younger brother's birthday.
13:55They were going to have a party, and these are all young people.
13:59And he invited them to come and stay with him, come and take a break, relax, come for
14:05the party.
14:08And they decided to do that.
14:13I don't think they, for one minute, believed or knew how remote it really was.
14:21St. Joseph Island is a very isolated area.
14:26The forest is so dense, and it goes for miles and miles.
14:33Lots of trees, lots of old camp roads that wind in and out of the bush.
14:41Nothing could happen down there, and you wouldn't see it or hear it.
14:49To get to the man's cabin, you can't drive there.
14:58You go up, and the road ends.
15:02They had to walk a mile up this trail.
15:12It would be the very early hours of the morning of August the 5th.
15:21They get to the cabin.
15:34The driver of the vehicle, Robert, his cousin and brother, were there.
15:45The property was 100% isolated.
15:50They had a generator, but there was no hydro, there was no water.
15:54Chris said they had a big bonfire going, everybody was having a good time.
16:05The next day, they had a lovely day.
16:08From what Chris said, they hung out, they had some beers.
16:14They were a hunting family, so they played some target practice.
16:23And the decision was made to stay one more day, continue the party.
16:35There was a lot of alcohol flowing one evening, and Melody was tired and had gone into the
16:42cabin.
16:44Chris had said Melody went to bed then.
16:47I can imagine Melody thought, one more day of rest, and then they were leaving to head
16:55home.
16:58It would have been around 8 o'clock at night when they ran out of alcohol.
17:06And about 9 o'clock that night, the guys decided that they needed more beer.
17:15And it was cheaper and easier, apparently, to go across the border to get it.
17:23The United States is minimum 45 minutes away.
17:29Melody was left at the cabin, and Robert went with Chris Rogers and Sean Barrett.
17:41When they get to the border, Sean didn't have his passport with him.
17:46He got left on the Canadian side.
17:48And Chris Rogers and Robert crossed over into Michigan, made alcohol purchases.
18:05Chris Rogers was an American and had a minor record from the United States.
18:13And because of that, Chris Rogers was not allowed back into Canada.
18:21So he was turned back, sent back on the American side.
18:26Chris was left to make his way across the United States to Oregon, and Sean and Melody
18:31were going to follow.
18:34But apparently, Sean and Melody had never made it there.
18:41These parents did not have the full story.
18:45And they had absolutely no idea anything more other than the story that they get from Chris
18:51Rogers.
18:52It was heartbreaking that they didn't know where she was.
19:01Was she still at that cabin, or had they moved on?
19:07Were they still hitchhiking?
19:09What had happened?
19:10They knew.
19:11If it wasn't true, Sean and Melody were left here in Canada at a cabin in the middle of
19:21the bush.
19:23And they had no idea who these people are or what they were capable of doing.
19:41David wanted to file a missing persons report, and he tried to file in Canada because that's
19:50where he last heard from her.
19:55And they said, well, but you live in Columbus, and she's from Columbus, so you have to file
20:01there.
20:03And so he tried to file in Columbus, Ohio.
20:07And then he was told, yeah, but she's headed to Eugene, Oregon, so you have to file with
20:14Eugene, Oregon.
20:15Even though Melody had never been there, she was just on the way there.
20:20It was sort of like they were getting the runaround a lot.
20:26The police were saying, she's an adult.
20:28She's not missing.
20:30She's just running around.
20:31Sean's parents had the same issue.
20:36David was aware that she'd been on a remote piece of property in Canada with a man, but
20:43they had absolutely no idea anything more other than his name was Robert.
20:52It was extremely frustrating because we had no clue.
20:56Me and David, we decided to drive to the island.
21:05We went to St. Joseph Island.
21:09We drove around.
21:10We walked around.
21:11We didn't know where a cabin was or anything, you know.
21:19I was working as a reporter, and I received a call in the office that there was someone
21:25down on St. Joseph Island who was looking for their daughter and putting up posters.
21:33He had contacted various police agencies, but had been for months.
21:38However, nobody was really listening.
21:42Because David, I think, is from outside of Canada, I don't think he knew all the places
21:47that he could go, what was available to him.
21:50So he was going to the wrong places, and they weren't always able to give him information
21:56either.
21:59It was December of 1999.
22:06David was about to give up and went to the border crossing again.
22:13David was lucky enough to meet the same border guard that was working the night that Chris
22:18got turned back.
22:23So he remembered Chris.
22:27The border guard remembered that whole incident because it wasn't a pleasant one.
22:33So because David had the date and all the information from Chris, the border patrol
22:38guy looked it up, and that's how he was able to find the full name of the person they were
22:44with, Robert Armstrong, and he had a cabin on St. Joseph Island.
22:54David wanted to go right now, wanted to go to the cabin, but he was told that Robert
23:01Armstrong had some records of sexual assault.
23:08There were not people that you just happened to go by and knock on their door.
23:15David was told at the border to go to Ontario Provincial Police, which covers outlying areas
23:20from municipalities.
23:27The population is sparser, and St. Joseph Island is their jurisdiction, and that they
23:33would be able to help.
23:36The OPP is similar to a state police force.
23:39He didn't even know that the OPP existed.
23:43He didn't know anything about us until then.
23:47So what happened next, we decided to go to the Ontario Provincial Police Department,
23:54and we told them who we were.
23:57We asked them if they could check out Robert Armstrong.
24:07We knew the cabin.
24:09We knew the people.
24:13David Lopez was a man with a mission.
24:16At one point, I remember David saying, I thought maybe she was being held hostage somewhere.
24:29So immediately, I assigned a detective to go to the Armstrong property and see if anybody's
24:40there.
24:41That officer was Detective Jason Nichol.
24:51Detective Nichol had to walk in there in the dark.
25:07It was mire mud.
25:10There's so many pitfalls and dangers out there.
25:24Amazing he got in there without getting hurt.
25:34There were wrecked vehicles in the yard at the man's cabin, and they got wrecked on the
25:41road trying to get in there.
25:56There was a wood stove inside the cabin, but there wasn't much firewood around, and it
26:02was cold.
26:06When Detective Nichol got there, it looked like Robert Armstrong is no longer there.
26:12There's no one else at the camp.
26:21The cabin had beds and mattresses and blankets, but that wasn't all.
26:47When Detective Nichol was sent to the Armstrong property, inside that cabin was
27:17Robert Armstrong's younger brother, Richard Armstrong.
27:21Richard is there alone in December under miserable living conditions.
27:30Richard was 19 years old.
27:32He was vulnerable.
27:34He was young.
27:36He eventually told police that Robert and Dale McRae, the cousin, left him at the cabin
27:43for the winter.
27:46Detective Nichol asked about Melody, Sean, and Chris being there, and his response was,
27:53can't help you, never saw them, don't know who they are.
27:59From being a police officer, Jason learned to take their story, listen to them, write
28:04it down, and then when you're done, you can confront them with their lies.
28:14And then Jason said, I think those people are still here.
28:22And then, as Jason pressed him, Richard actually turned around and he said, if my brother knew
28:31I was talking to you, he'll kill me too.
28:37And that was suspicious.
28:40He wouldn't say what happened to those two kids because he was concerned about his life.
28:47We at that point ensured him of his safety, and we took Richard Armstrong into protective
28:54custody.
28:56We put him up in a motel, and we left an officer with him at all times throughout the initial
29:02stages of this investigation.
29:06We knew we needed extensive work and further interviews.
29:10We needed scene examination.
29:11We needed scene security.
29:14We didn't know where Sean and Melody were, but we had information that they had been
29:19there, that there was a disruption at the border, that Chris Rogers, who was part of
29:28the traveling companionship, had said Melody was left at the cabin.
29:34We had enough information to conduct a more exhaustive investigation at the Armstrong
29:39property.
29:43We undertook a search in the area.
29:47It's a good-sized island, but it's a prime hunting area.
29:51And the Armstrong cabin was nowhere near any cleared fields nor farm field.
29:58It's dense, thick, heavy bush.
30:02We couldn't find them.
30:06And then we literally moved old, rotten, dead trees and threw them to the side until we
30:14got to what looked like was a makeshift grave.
30:22And we just peeled back the top.
30:25And then we found the first bone.
30:33My name is Scott Fairgreave.
30:36I am a Ph.D., forensic anthropologist.
30:40I interpret skeletal remains by essentially building up a biography of the person in life
30:48from the bones, a bone biography.
30:53I came out to the scene because police had never seen anything like this before.
30:58It was at that point we could say the bone was a finger bone.
31:05But then I focused directly on the fire pit that, shall we say, got my full attention.
31:16It's had so much debris in it.
31:18There wasn't just ash and logs.
31:22There's a cardboard box sitting in it full of ash.
31:27What is all the metal debris that is inside?
31:34Nothing about this looked typical, looked right.
31:42It's wintertime.
31:44We had tents set up over top of the fire pit with propane heaters running inside the tent
31:50trying to thaw the ground so we could excavate just even the fire pit.
31:58Then myself and another officer, we started with shovels and we dug until we found another
32:05bone.
32:08The second thing eventually uncovered in the fire pit was an elbow joint that had been
32:16crushed in place.
32:22We have to dig deeper.
32:27Once we had melted the ground, it was producing a lot of bone, but it was fragmented.
32:37I could say that we had remains that represented a young male and a young female, young adults.
32:48But as far as a positive identification was concerned, it wasn't possible.
32:57So the big question in my mind was, as we were doing that, who died?
33:05Where did they die?
33:07When did they die?
33:08And what was the manner of death?
33:19Robert Armstrong's younger brother, Richard, was brought back to the scene.
33:25And seeing what the remains were on the property, and we pressed him again.
33:33Richard immediately broke, and a statement subsequently followed with what we believe
33:40to be the truth.
33:46It was the very early hours of the morning of the 6th of August, 1999, when Robert and
33:57Sean got back from the trip across the border.
34:04Richard Armstrong, his cousin, Dale McCrae, and Melody had been asleep in the cabin.
34:11Robert had developed an interest in Melody.
34:18Robert Armstrong had made a comment to Sean about wanting to have sex with Melody, and
34:26she's pregnant and it won't matter now anyway.
34:33Sean took offense to that, and a fight ensued.
34:39Robert Armstrong took a shovel
34:55and hit Sean with the shovel.
35:00Robert then went, retrieved the gun that had been out during target practice earlier in
35:07the day, and shot Sean dead.
35:21Robert Armstrong tells Dale McCrae, grab his feet, help me throw him on the fire.
35:34Dale McCrae and Robert throw Sean Barrett on the campfire, and throw a whole bunch of
35:41firewood on too.
35:51Robert still had the gun.
35:53He wakes Melody up, tells Melody, Sean's outside, he wants to talk to you.
36:01Melody walks outside and says to Robert Armstrong, where's Sean?
36:12And Robert Armstrong tells her, look in the fire.
36:18Melody turns around saying, don't kill me, don't kill me, please don't kill me, I'm pregnant.
36:31Robert Armstrong pulls a gun out and shoots Melody.
36:41Richard Armstrong said they put her body into the fire pit as well, and then they proceeded
36:49to burn all of Sean's and Melody's possessions in that fire pit.
37:02We found in the pit itself all sorts of artifacts, but we found a bracelet that had some sort
37:13of a Hindi script on it.
37:15It was badly charred and bent by the heat.
37:20And as it turns out, Melody's mother has the make to that bracelet.
37:26They bought them together apparently at some carnival.
37:31The bracelet was key as it was the most profound piece of physical evidence supporting an identification
37:40of Melody.
37:46I think about her all the time.
37:51I don't know anybody can do stuff like this.
38:02When we find out about this, this was one of the hardest thing of my life, ever.
38:08How can anybody kill two human beings and an unborn child?
38:14It was like a nightmare for me.
38:19That was the worst thing to hear.
38:21She didn't get a chance to hold her baby.
38:29And that her and Sean didn't get a chance to be the good parents I know they would have
38:33been.
38:36Please excuse me again.
38:37I'm so sorry.
38:40Really tried not to let the tears go.
38:45And it doesn't matter how long it's been.
38:48It doesn't get any easier.
38:52I don't think there's any amount of time that I'll be able to not be upset when I talk about
38:56this because she didn't.
39:00No one deserves what happened to her.
39:03No one does.
39:08Robert and Dale were arrested near their home in Windsor, Ontario in December.
39:25Robert received a life sentence for the first degree murder of Melody Lopez and second
39:31degree murder for the shooting death of Sean Barrett.
39:38Dale McRae, the cousin of the Armstrongs, received six years for accessory after the
39:43fact.
39:46His sentence was reversed on appeal.
39:49His defense being that if he didn't listen, he was next.
39:57If it wasn't for David Lopez and what he did, Sean and Melody would still be missing.
40:07The Armstrongs would still be living their lives.
40:12And no one would know what happened.
40:16That man would never give up.
40:20He'd be looking for her today.
40:23He would, he was going to find his daughter.
40:29No question.
40:34And I don't think David and Robin ever got over it.
40:40Robin passed away in 2018.
40:49David was ill and passed away in 2020.
40:59But you know, maybe they are with Melody now.
41:13It was a requirement for Cindy to live in the middle of nowhere.
41:17Cindy liked it.
41:18I'm out in the cabin.
41:20You might not hear somebody scream.
41:23He kept putting the gun on me and asked me if I could feel it.
41:26Is anybody going to find me?
41:28Are they going to know how I died?