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  • Utah Mountain Man Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison

    Troy James Knapp, better known as the Utah Mountain Man, is responsible for several cabin burglaries dating back to 2007, but managed to evade the police for over six years. He was recently found last year, and has been working with the police since agreeing to a plea deal.

    Part of the deal meant that Knapp had to help the police find at least 16 weapons that he hid in four counties within Utah. On Monday, Knapp appeared in court to agree to a package of plea deals that was created by each of the seven counties where the burglaries occurred.

    Knapp first had to meet with a federal judge who had to agree to the plea deals. Each of the counties will then bring their own charges against Knapp, who is being accused of being responsible for at least 40 cabin burglaries over the last five years.

    Knapp has been in trouble with the law throughout most of his life. He was arrested as a teenager for breaking and entering, passing bad checks and unlawful flight from authorities. He became a drifter and begin making his way across the country, using burglary to finance his travels. He eventually ended up in prison in California.

    While on parole in 2004, Knapp said he was going out for a jog and disappeared. It wasn’t until 2007 that authorities linked a chain of cabin burglaries in Utah to Knapp.

    One of the cabins that Knapp broke into had a security camera that showed footage of Knapp ransacking the place. Knapp stole weapons, food and alcohol from the cabins. He also slept in the beds and left notes to both the cabin owners and the police. Some of these notes thanked the owners and others taunted the police.

    Police finally located Knapp by tracking his snowshoe prints for over three days and arrested him after a shootout at the cabin where he had been staying.

    Knapp was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for his crimes. The details of his plea deals were not available.

    How do you think he managed to evade the police for so long?

    Image via News Inc.

  • Kari Swenson: Abductor Seeking Parole

    Kari Swenson: Abductor Seeking Parole

    In 1984, Kari Swenson was a 22-year old world-class skier training for a spot in the World Biathlon Championship. She was training in the mountains near Yellowstone National Park that July, and it was while on a training run that she was accosted by a self-proclaimed “mountain man”, Don Nichols, and his son.

    Nichols says he kidnapped Kari in the hopes that she would become his wife and be a mother to his son; the two had been living off the land for years. According to him, they led Kari into the woods and chained her to a tree but treated her very “humanely” otherwise. He wrote about the abduction and the events which followed in a series of letters and journals which are kept at the Montana library.

    “We more or less only intimidated Kari into coming with us. We were only going to keep her with us for a few days if it didn’t work out,” Nichols wrote. “Also, we treated her very humanely all the time, in fact cordially, except for the unusual circumstances. I did not hit Kari. The chain involved was a real lightweight chain. One end was fastened comfortably around her waist and other end around a tree.”

    The “unusual circumstances” he wrote about include fatally shooting Kari’s rescuer, Alan Goldstein, in a melee after Goldstein came looking for her and shooting Kari in the chest, which he claims was an accident. He then took his son and escaped into the wild for five months before they were captured. Kari survived the ordeal, making it through the several hours it took police to find her and going on to win a bronze medal in the world championships in France.

    Nichols, on the other hand, was given an 85-year prison sentence, from which he is up for parole next week. His son was released on parole in 1991 but violated that order just last month by not showing up to court on a drug charge. For Kari Swenson, her family, and the residents of the Bozeman area who remember the events well, the thought of Nichols being free is a haunting one.