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Vanished on the Lake: The Unsolved Murder of Edward Nichols, Roy Wilson, and Dewey Morris, The Lava Lake Murders, Oregon Wilderness
Paperback
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Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 23 2025
Pages: 326
Weight: 0.96
Height: 0.68 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Three men. One cabin. A winter that would not let them go. In January 1924, trappers Edward Nichols (53), Roy Wilson (36), and Dewey Morris (24) disappeared from a fox-raising outpost at Little Lava Lake in Oregon's Deschutes National Forest. When the thaw came in April, their bodies surfaced beneath the ice-one shot at close range, one beaten after a bullet tore through his arm, one found with a pocket watch frozen at 9:10. The cabin held eight shotgun shells, a bloodied hammer, untouched rifles-and a calendar still turned to January. The case has never been solved.
Vanished on the Lake reconstructs the last weeks inside that cabin and follows the trail outward: a suspicious fur sale in Portland on January 22 using Nichols's license; whispers of an accomplice; and the long shadow of an ex-con with aliases-Charles Hyde Kimsey-whose Colorado tunneling alibi kept him beyond the prosecutor's reach. This is a work of historical true crime and meticulous narrative reporting, not myth.
This book contains no images-only cinematic narrative written in the style of a detective-investigator.
Inside you'll find a clear timeline, crisp forensic insights, and a sober look at the legal and social aftershocks in Bend and across the Cascades. You'll walk the trapline; you'll stand over the hacked ice; you'll sit with a mother who knew her son should have been home by February. The mystery endures; so do the people.
Reader Promise - You Will Uncover:
A scene-by-scene reconstruction from the last confirmed sighting (Jan 15) to the recovery (Apr 23, 1924).
Evidence patterns (shells, sled marks, hammer) and competing theories-without sensationalism.
The Kimsey file, aliases, flight path, and the Moffat Tunnel alibi that muddied prosecution.
How wilderness, winter, and silence can conspire to bury truth.
This Book Is For Readers Who...
Seek Oregon true crime grounded in documents, not rumor.
Love cold case investigations that respect victims first.
Prefer forensic investigation and human context over gore.
Want historical true crime that reads like a boots-on-the-ground inquiry.
Are drawn to wilderness murders and the psychology of isolation.
Perfect For Fans Of...
Gregg Olsen, Ann Rule, Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark, David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon, Harold Schechter, and Dead Mountain.
Why This Story Endures: Because some crimes reshape a place. The Lava Lake murders made winter itself a suspect-and left a town keeping vigil long after the headlines faded. This is that vigil, rendered in full.
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