Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva (2023) Movie Script

1
The disappearance
of outdoorsman Gary
Hinge stunned the nation
when we shared his story.
It captured the hearts
and fears of millions
and we've had everyone from park rangers
to paratroopers offer to
help find his remains.
And yes, you can trust
that we are still following that story.
Thanks to tips from viewers
who also live in the area,
we've made another stunning discovery.
Just over a year after Gary went missing,
in the late night hours
of September 28th, 2018
the young woman was found dead
in her locked home off of Highway 50.
Hours later, another woman would vanish
along the same stretch
of remote desert highway.
Once I started looking
into this I realized
all of this is part of a bigger mystery
than I could have ever imagined
and it was unfolding right in front of us.
I first heard about
this when I was working
in Northern Nevada on a different
story at the Hotel Nevada.
And I was waiting for the elevator
in the lobby and it's an old hotel
so, you know, the elevator takes a while.
And I noticed this woman is staring at me
and right when the doors
open she rushes over to me
and she tells me, I know who you are
and you have to do a story
on what happened to that girl Minerva.
So we stepped aside
and I let the elevator doors close
and I listened to what she had to say.
Turns out she was a
former 9-1-1 dispatcher
from the neighboring
town of Cypress, Nevada,
where this event had taken place.
She rambled on for quite a bit
but what really caught my attention,
was when she said,
"When her friend came to
collect her belongings,
they accidentally gave her
all the paintings and tapes."
The night this all happened
it was only my second
week living in Cypress.
I had moved there just for
this open E-M-T position.
My old job, it was working
for a private company
and it just didn't have the excitement
that you think you're
gonna get when you go
to school to become an E-M-and work on an ambulance.
On paper, Cypress is the
perfect place for a guy like me.
I love mountain biking, I love climbing,
I love camping, I love hiking.
But,
by the time the sun came up the next day,
I was looking for another
job in a new town.
After what happened
to that missing hiker,
we were watching it on TV
and, you know, he had the video.
As soon as my husband saw it
he said to me, "Oh my god, they're back."
In the ambulance
on the way out there.
We were talking about
how weird it would be
to live out there.
So creepy and unsettling.
As we pulled up,
the scene was bizarre.
The thing I remember the most,
is the position her body was in.
So my buddy is working on the patient
and I go into the trailer to try
to see what medication I can find,
see if we can get a
medical history on her,
see how we can treat her better.
And, um
yeah, only way I can
describe the feeling is that,
it felt like when I was still in training
and we went to a call
and it was at a warehouse
and it was a stabbing victim and the cops
they told us, "Alright, stay
back a little, treat them,
but the suspect is still at large.
We're searching the warehouse currently."
And I was just nonstop
on edge watching my back.
That's the only way I could
really describe that feeling.
So I go in and I'm searching and,
it was weird, it was like empty.
I mean I found some medication
but I was just thinking
like, who is this woman?
Everybody keeps talking
about this one woman that was a student.
And you know, I was assuming that,
you know, she was a high
school student, you know,
but it turns out
that she was in her thirties
and she was taking a college course.
I had to track down this friend
that the police just gave evidence to.
And as I was doing that,
I found out that Minerva goes by Minnie.
This all started when we were
on a camping trip in upstate New York.
The woman who ran the campgrounds,
she ended up being a geologist
and the more she would
talk about her work,
you could just see Minnie's eyes light up.
She became enthralled
with everything that
this woman was saying.
You know, this woman saw this
and said this is great,
you know, you should take a class.
After the camping trip
and meeting this woman
that really inspired her,
she started to take
class at Brooklyn College
and she met a former student who told her
about this semester in Cypress, Nevada.
The semester in Nevada
was basically a program
uh
That worked with various
colleges and universities
and would bring students out
to a town called Cypress,
Nevada where there was
an actual working mine
and the students would work
in the field with actual geologists.
At the time, Cathy
was working as a nurse
at the Beth Israel
Hospital in New York City.
She was working the night shift
in the E-R and these are 12 hour shifts.
So during the day she was sleeping
but she wanted to let Minerva know
that she was there for her
that she supported her in this
decision to go to Cypress.
So they would send video messages back
and forth to each other.
Anyway, New York misses you.
Here, I'll show you where I am.
And it's through these videos
that we are able to get a glimpse
of Minnie in the last days of her life.
She gets to Cypress
and there's not a space for her there.
Somewhere along the line,
someone dropped the ball
and they did not account for her.
So there's literally not a space
for her in the dorms,
it's packed as it is.
So their solution was to put her
in this single wide trailer
that the school were
planning to convert it
into offices at some point,
but for the time being they
gave it to her as housing.
When she lived
here in this trailer,
that trailer was sitting
on this cement slab.
Not to my knowledge.
So shortly after, you know,
my husband and I took over the ranch.
My father used to allow
these hunters to come hunt
on our land.
For years, they were hunting on our land
and what happened was
apparently there was a hunter
that really didn't know what
he was doing when it came
to hunting and shooting guns
and my husband was shot.
Fortunately he didn't kill him,
so it was no longer okay with us.
So I had to go to the hunters, you know,
to let them know that
they can no longer hunt
on our land anymore.
And they were really,
really pissed about it.
They went and cut like one of my fences
and then there uh was a
sheep pen where, you know,
the little gate that kept it
closed was destroyed, you know?
So I called the police
and um they told me though
that they couldn't do anything
until I get actual proof.
There was this one night my husband and I,
you know, went to bed early,
we heard noises coming
from down in the barn.
So my husband, you know, got the camera
and said, "Okay I'm gonna
get, you know, the proof now."
And he went out there
but they weren't there.
And then all of a sudden
he looked further up
and he saw them running.
No, it's sitting off to the side
because it's getting ready for demolition
and the company doesn't
want anybody near it.
When I first
moved into this area,
there was a a housing shortage
and I stayed in my car for a while
and one afternoon as I was
on my way home from work.
I happened to find this house.
It's a little yellow house
about five miles out of town.
I found that it was
empty, that it was livable
and I was able to uh find the owners
and I was able to rent
the house from them.
They helped me unload all
my stuff I had in a trailer
and we spent most of the day
getting that stuff moved in
and get settled in and by
the time I got all done
and everything it was dark when they left.
And as I had started
settling into the house
and sitting back and
relaxing a little bit,
I started getting a really funny feeling
like there something was just outta place
and I couldn't quite
figure out what it was.
One night, I was uh, I went to bed
and I had fallen asleep
and all of a sudden my dog woke me up.
He was just growling and snarling
and at over at the front door.
I got up and went over to the door
thought maybe somebody had
broke down on the highway.
I opened up the door
and the dog was just sitting there barking
and growling and really
snarling and looking up,
like he was standing
there looking at somebody.
There was nobody there.
Slowly worked his way out
on the porch and out into the yard.
He is just like he was chasing them off
and he's looking up and
there was nobody there.
Hey girl!
Welcome to Nevada
and my semi furnished single unit,
slash trailer.
Um
Yeah, so,
I was definitely excited
not to have a roommate
Watching the first video
that she sends Kathy.
I have to stop and think,
why she even was living in that trailer?
It wasn't ready for
anyone to be living in.
I mean, construction was still happening.
There's sheet plastic in the living room.
All right girl,
let me know what you think.
Miss you, love you.
You're gonna have to visit soon.
Talk to you soon.
All righty, bye.
When she turns the camera to herself,
you could just see she was beaming.
I was able to relax.
You know she's, she's fine,
she's gonna be fine there.
What he told us
that his reason why Minnie
thought he was so weird-
Was... pretty chilling.
And I just got into bed
and I can start hearing
this uh noise outside
and I sat up, listened for moment,
and realized it was a, it was an owl
and I was out in the tree.
So I went out there and grabbed some rocks
as I went around there
to the side of the house
where the tree was at
and started throwing rocks up there
and started yelling a little
bit and cussing at it and
I started hearing this noise coming down
from up on the mountain.
In a way I sounded like a woman singing
but it wasn't quite a singing voice
it was just a,
a real odd sound.
It was sort of like be
a high pitch then low
and then just different
sounds coming down and
and it would just fade
in and out and echoing.
And I couldn't quite really tell
where it was coming out
'cause it just sounded
like it was coming from different places.
I get a phone call from my landlord
and he tells me that
there's gonna be a lady
that's gonna move into the
trailer next door to me
and then the next day this
lady moves in, this geologist,
and I go over there and
welcomed her to the area and
and while we were sitting there talking,
I started telling her
about this weird sound
I heard coming down from
the top of the hill there.
And she was just sitting
there looking at me like,
I was just, like, I flipped my lid,
you know, she just thought I was,
looked like, looking at me
like I was totally crazy.
Whenever I started getting this feeling
that I was being watched,
I would just start
getting physically sick.
I would get really nauseous
and it would just get worse
and worse and worse as time went on.
Almost immediately she starts
to have these really
odd physical symptoms.
Look no hands!
I got a tripod at the dollar store
and it's holding my fancy phone so
that I can do fun stuff,
like open this wine and talk to you.
My eyes are starting to bug me.
I can't breathe at night.
I keep waking up and
I'm just kind of foggy.
I like, I can't fall asleep,
I can't wake up.
When I lay down and go to sleep
I can hear my heart beating.
And then when I was home earlier,
there were some things that
were not where I left them
and a couple of things
that I just couldn't find.
Whatever was going on,
her physical state started to deteriorate.
So I'm going to see a doctor
in the next town tomorrow.
He recommended she go back
to where she was staying
in this trailer and possibly
look for black mold.
It didn't even occur to me
but it's the perfect explanation
for all of her symptoms and everything.
And I said, "You really need
to go look for this right now,
like inspect your trailer right now."
She goes back to her trailer
and while she's looking
for this black mold, um
she finds this canvas bag.
At the time it wasn't really a big deal
because we were way more focused
on her health at that point.
So I said, "Okay fine, send
me some pictures of it later
but let's keep inspecting your place"
and uh tore the place apart
and there is no mold.
This is the bag
that police would end up giving Kathy,
thinking it was part
of Minnie's belongings
and the contents in this bag-
Cathy is devastated
over the loss of her best friend
which is actually more of a sister to her.
She knew something had to be done.
That's when she decided to
grab Minnie's belongings.
I went through it just
to see if there was
anything that could help us.
And she found the canvas bag
and inside she finds a really old tape
and some really bizarre paintings.
And she also found her phone.
Cathy and Minnie are both
avid podcast listeners
and they especially love this one,
where the host always
tells their listeners
to make an if I go missing folder.
And basically what's in
this folder is, you know,
your passcodes, your
social security number,
anything that someone would need
to basically crack open your life
and you entrust it to one person.
And because of this,
Cathy has Minnie's cell phone passcode.
So she's able to open her phone
Safety checklist,
verification process.
There are three levels of control
and each requires a verification process
to be performed by either an instructor,
a supervisor or manager.
Areas of safety for ongoing improvements.
There are specific tools for the-
And then you slowly start
to hear Minnie breathing.
She's she's not snoring yet
but it's like this deep sleep breathing.
You could hear something else going
on in the background.
I thought maybe is she sleepwalking?
Is that what's happening here?
There's someone talking,
it's a man's voice.
I can't really make out what he's saying
but it's definitely a man talking
and she's asleep through all of it.
You know, after listening
to all of these recordings,
they really got under my
skin and into my head.
You know, I couldn't sleep that night
'cause they were playing
over and over in my head.
I didn't go to work the next day.
And then Robbie came home
with the tape transfer.
Right from the start.
You could tell that this thing was dark.
This person's voice is... unhinged.
And the minute I realized
that it was filmed
inside of the trailer itself,
my stomach just dropped.
Aah!
Slog slog slogging over Africa
foot foot foot foot
slogging over Africa.
Boots boots boots boots
Moving up and down again
There's no discharge in the war.
Seven six eleven five
nine and twenty mile today
four eleven seventeen
thirty two the day before.
Boots boots boots boots
moving up and down again
there's no discharge in the war.
Don't don't don't don't
Look at what's in front of you.
Boots boots boots boots
Moving up and down again
Men men men men
Men go mad with watching them.
There is no discharge in the war.
Count, count, count, count-
The bullets and the bandoliers
If your eyes drop they
will get atop of you.
Boots boots boots boots
moving up and down again-
There is no discharge in the war -
We can stick out
hunger thirst and weariness
but not not not
not the chronic sight of them
boots boots boots boots
moving up and down again-
there is no discharge in the war
'Taint so bad by day because of company
But night brings long strings
of forty thousand million
Boots boots boots boots
Moving up and down again
There is no discharge in the war
I have marched six weeks
in hell an certify
it is not fire devils dark or anything but
Boots boots boots boots
moving up and down again
there's no discharg in the war
try try try try
to think of something different
oh my God
Keep me from going lunatic
Boots boots boots boots
Moving up and down again-
there's no discharge in the war.
They tore the porch down
and removed the trailer
from its foundation
and where the basement was located,
right after Minnie died,
and right before Kathy
realized what was on this tape.
I'm just getting back.
But I am pretty sure
that I might be the first
Korean to ever move to
or live in or visit Cypress, Nevada.
Um the guy at the gas station,
asked me if I was Oriental,
um then one of those guys in my class,
um I mean he was sweet,
he was trying to be sweet.
He said that I look like a China doll.
And so, right, well
everyone's really sweet.
It's not like racist or anything
um it's just kind of like,
I don't know, long stares.
Um alright, talk to you later.
Love you.
Bye.
From 1993 until it was
acquired by the mine,
it was rented out to so
many different people
and those records are
pretty much not existent
because everything was kind
of done under the table.
Basically, this trailer
was just a revolving door.
Most of what we see on
this video has no context
because the tape itself is
actually so badly damaged
and warped that even
though we can hear the
person that made the video,
we can't actually hear like the cadence
of their voice and what
they really sound like.
The woman in the pink
sweatshirt has been identified
as Charity Henderson.
She went missing in the late nineties.
Okay, stop with that thing.
So weird.
Hello?
You're acting funny, you're not talking.
Hello?
There are other victims on this tape
but we never get a clear
look at their faces.
You know, back
when I was a little girl,
you know, I was sleeping in my bed
and it was late at night
and I heard my parents like, you know,
shouting and I cracked open the door
and I looked, you know,
and there was my dad
with a shotgun and my mom
and they were staring out the window
and they were yelling and I overheard,
you know, my mom say, you know "What kind
of people would be like
walking out this far?"
And my dad said,
"I don't think those are people."
I was checking out my security footage
from my security system
and I had seen this guy come walking down
from up behind my house,
down toward this lady's house.
This is right about the time that
before she had passed away
and I figured that maybe had something
to do with her passing away.
So on top of everything else,
there's a critter,
some kind of animal in my walls
that I can hear crackling
when I'm laying down.
For months trying to fall asleep.
There's now this animal.
I did.
I called 'em right away
and I came up and they looked
at it and I showed them.
The only cause of
death they could come up
with was hyperthermia.
The officer that arrived
at her trailer said
that it was so hot in there
that it was like the furnace
was just out of control.
And so he had to take her outside
and wait for the medical responders
to arrive because he couldn't
even stand to wait inside.
It was just unbearable.
It's a shame this didn't
happen in the next county over
because the White Pine
County Sheriff's Department
they would've handled it properly.
This highway here is, you've heard
of the Loneliest Road in America.
You could literally see
no car for 200 miles.
Five miles up this canyon is the entrance
to Cypress, the town,
right below the mine.
So the highway here, heads down,
five miles down the road splits.
Left, goes town of Copper
Flat about 20 miles out
or you can go right and go down
about two hours to Caliente.
If you pass Caliente,
you're taking the scenic route to Vegas.
The Brasher girl was coming
from Vegas through Caliente to Cypress.
Our ranch
is right off the highway.
It's about 30 minutes outside of Cypress.
That night my husband and I were home
and we were waiting for our daughter
to get home from Las Vegas.
We were watching our grandson, Mason.
Yes, you-
From Las Vegas to our ranch is
about a four hour drive.
Well you've got cell
service for the first half
up to about Blacktop,
but once you pass
Blacktop there is nothing.
So we have this family policy,
you stop the car and you
call home at Blacktop.
That way we know that if you're not home
within two hours we gotta
go out and look for you.
When Ameliana's mother was younger,
she also broke down in a similar area
and when they were in the car waiting
for her grandfather to show up,
this creepy old guy came
by the car and was kind of harassing them
and didn't leave until her
grandfather actually came.
There just wasn't
something right about him.
And he just looked at us
with this kind of shit eaten grin
and went pow!
And so Ameliana's
mother has kind of a rule
that if you ever break down
on this part of the highway,
you are not to remain in your car.
You go off into the dark,
you hide, you watch your car
and when you see that
the person showing up
to your car is someone that you know
and is there for you then you can get out
and you can go to them,
but not until then.
So that night she reached Blacktop
and called us in, right about midnight.
A little over an hour later, she called us
and said that she'd broken down.
She'd broken down right around
the area of Lehman Summit.
She knew the area really well
'cause well it was this area
that when she was little we used
to take all the kids out there
to this mining camp was right by there.
So she knew that if she just
hiked right up the mountain,
she could get service and call us.
I told her, you'll know it's dad
because he's gonna be flashing his light
and then you can come on out of the trees.
Right after my husband left,
I called it into the police so they'd know
that she was up there
and he was looking for her.
We have a police scanner at the ranch.
So I sat right next to that thing
for the next hour at least.
Of course I was a little anxious
but I wasn't too worried
until they'd found her car but not her,
and they were starting to search for her.
Just about daybreak,
I saw the patrol car come up the dirt road
and this police officer gets out
and asks me if I knew how
to access Em's cell phone,
if I'd come down to the station.
You know eventually,
they found her dash cam
was rolling the whole time.
And that is not my dad.
This car has turned around three times
to look at my car.
Stop!
Oh!
Oh my god no no
No No
Vroom.
Where are you going?
Later that night
after my shift ended
I texted my girlfriend at the time
to see if she was available
'cause it was late.
And so we're talking and can't even talk
for more than five minutes
and my boss calls,
and he says he needs me back right away.
A car got found and the
woman who was supposed
to be driving that car was missing
and it was an all hands on deck situation.
My buddy Ron, he was just saying,
"She probably got dragged
off by a mountain lion
and we'd be just searching for a body."
There's only four of us, but
we can't wait any longer,
we have to start the search.
So we basically just start
at her car and spread out.
The police tipped us off
that her mom told them
that she might be hiding.
So I found a patch of trees
headed in that direction
'cause it looked like a
good hiding spot to me.
Hello!
Ameliana!
If you're out here,
we're looking for you,
I'm with the volunteer fire department.
Ameliana!
I'm with the volunteer fire department!
Ameliana!
Ron?
Hello?
Hey Ron.
Where are you guys at?
,
,
,
Aah!
,
,
,
By the time I made my way out of there,
feeling around in the dark,
making my way to the door,
they were starting to get there.
We searched everywhere
for that poor woman,
we didn't find her.
This is just something
that we're left with
and that we have to live
with, just questions
and I'm never gonna stop trying
to find out the truth
of what happened to her.
We're asked almost weekly
about the influencers
that have so-called discovered the cabin
that Gary disappeared at,
and that story is still developing
and we promise that we
will bring that story
to you when it is ready to be presented.