'Fearful' Man Kills Dog and Sleeping Hiker with Single Bullet | Aron Christensen Case Analysis

well this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Aaron Christensen just a reminder I'm not diagnosing You by this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the incident then offer my analysis Aaron Christensen was born on January 20 1973 and grew up in Klamath Falls Oregon this is in southern Oregon on the border with California Aaron was a musician he traveled up and down the West Coast playing in many bands before eventually settling in Portland Oregon in August of 2022 49 year old Aaron and 15 of his friends were on an annual camping trip to Wallop lake in Lewis County Washington this is in the Cascade Mountains Aaron was accompanied by his four-month-old Australian cattle dog named Buzz many sources report the dog's name as buzzo but Aaron's family referred to the dog as Buzz now moving to the timeline of the incident on Friday august 19 2022 Aaron left the camp at about 8 30 a.m to go for a 13-mile hike on the Wild Lake Trail in the goat rocks wilderness this was not unusual for Aaron he was an avid Outdoorsman and often went for hikes alone Aaron took Buzz with him and planned to be back to the camp on Saturday night to have dinner with his friends the next day Saturday August 20 a married couple was hiking along the Wild Lake Trail at about 3 55 PM when the couple was about three or four miles from the trailhead they saw a man lying beside the trail the wife called out to the man but he failed to respond as she approached him she noticed that there was a dead dog about five feet from him the man appeared to have an injury on his rib cage the wife thought that he may have been shot the married couple contacted the authorities Deputy Andrew scrivener arrived at the scene at 7 31 pm he saw what appeared to be a puncture wound on the left side of the man's body but could not tell if it was from a bullet or from a stick he did not see any bullet wounds on the dog the officer searched the area for 25 minutes but was unable to find any spent cartridge cases he concluded that no foul play was involved and sent a message to dispatch at 7 45 PM which read not gunshot he told dispatch he didn't need detectives or more units because the death was not suspicious the deputy went down to the campsite he spoke to Aaron's friends and was able to identify the dead man as Aaron Christensen the dog with Aaron was of course Buzz at 7 48 PM forced service and Wildlife officers arrived with several campers who had volunteered to help carry Aaron's body down the mountain the police had decided not to investigate Aaron's death as a homicide Aaron's body was removed from the mountain on Sunday August 21 the day after Aaron's body was found a man named Michael osbach called the Lewis County Sheriff's department at 2 45 pm he reported that his 19 year old son Ethan osbach told him that while he was hiking near Wild Lake he encountered a dog and a man fired a shot and possibly struck the man the police spoke to Ethan isbach here is the story Ethan supplied on Friday august 19 the same day Aaron left Camp to go on a hike alone Ethan and his 17 year old girlfriend started hiking around 9pm with the intention of meeting Ethan's father at a hunting camp at the Sheep Lake Campground the hike was supposed to take three and a half hours Ethan was armed with a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol which was owned by his father after crossing a dry riverbed sometime after 10 pm Ethan and his girlfriend heard a possible growling noise which they believed could have been from a mountain lion the noise became louder and louder Ethan and his girlfriend started making loud noises of their own in an effort to scare the animal away like they were screaming however the creature approached them Ethan removed the nine millimeter pistol from his backpack inserted a magazine and chambered around he shined a headlamp at the animal as it continued to approach and became more aggressive Ethan and his girlfriend saw a pair of glowing eyes presumably from the animal Ethan fired one round at the mysterious animal it made a howling noise and ran away after waiting for several minutes Ethan walked over to investigate and found the body of a man on the ground there was a bullet hole in the man's chest and a dog lying Dead next to him it appears as though the bullet that Ethan fired traveled through the dog and struck the man Ethan walked back to his girlfriend and told her that he believed he had just shot a man and his dog instead of going for help Ethan and his girlfriend continued to hike they became lost and camped for the night during the early morning hours of August 20. eventually they gave up and returned to the town of tanino where Ethan lived Ethan did not attempt to call 9-1-1 at any point not even after he entered cell phone range Ethan explained his actions by saying quote I was just thinking about all the trouble that I'm getting everybody else into and not just myself like I am completely at fault I pulled the trigger I did that I'm responsible but it was my dad's gun unquote the coroner performed x-rays and found that there was a bullet inside of Aaron's body the bullet was removed and matched to the weapon that Ethan fired canine DNA was found on Aaron which also supports the theory that the same bullet killed both Aaron and Buzz the police recommended that Ethan be charged with first degree manslaughter and first degree animal cruelty but prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said no charges would be filed Jonathan said quote the responding Deputy made the obvious error When indicating detectives were not needed to respond to the report of a gunshot victim the old adage of investigate it like it's a homicide until it isn't was not followed here unquote he claimed that the evidence did not meet the threshold for proving criminal recklessness or criminal negligence Jonathan told the media quote had the case been fully investigated and from the beginning been treated like a homicide I don't know what evidence would have been found it's hard to say all I know is with the evidence we have now there's not enough to go forward unquote Aaron's brother Corey said that Jonathan met with the family and the prosecutor blamed the incompetence of the police as the main reason he decided not to pursue criminal charges against Ethan in May of 2023 the family of Aaron Christensen sued Lewis County Washington for 20 million dollars they accused the county of sabotaging the investigation into Aaron's death now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one the authorities had trouble figuring out what caused Aaron christensen's death the day after Aaron's body was discovered the police notified Aaron's brother Corey Christensen saying that Aaron probably died from a massive heart attack and his death did not appear to be suspicious a detective called Corey a few weeks later and told him that Aaron may have died from using marijuana which had been laced with another substance apparently Aaron had THC in his system the coroner said that Aaron had a heart attack less than 12 hours before he died but he was alive when he was shot it appears as though being struck with the bullet is what killed Aaron this creates a confusing and unlikely situation where Aaron might have actually been dying from a heart attack when he was killed by boat item number two in addition to confusion about Aaron's death experts had trouble figuring out how Buzz the dog died a local veterinarian said that buzz had died of a stab wound claiming that there was no exit wound on his body a second veterinarian said that there was an exit wound the first veterinarian asked to see the exit wound she noticed that there was no bleeding around it and thought that maybe somebody had made the wound after she examined the dog this supports the theory that there was some type of conspiracy or cover-up surrounding the dog's death but it's not clear what purpose that would serve I guess if Buzz was stabbed instead of shot it would support the idea that Ethan had not told the truth about the encounter maybe the police were trying to protect Ethan they did describe him as a good kid with a good family almost like they were arguing that he would not have acted maliciously at the same time the police recommended that Ethan be charged so I'm not sure there is adequate evidence supporting a conspiracy or cover-up item number three there is no question that the police botched the investigation the first Deputy on the scene thought that a stick may have killed Aaron like Aaron fell on a stick this Deputy appeared to have a lot of respect for the dangers associated with sticks maybe he was worried that Aaron was attacked with one of those high-capacity magazine assault sticks even after making this unbelievable mistake I find it curious that the deputy did not believe that Foul Play was involved so it was possible that Aaron felt on a stick but impossible that somebody stabbed him with one also the absence of spent cartridge cases around Aaron's body did not exclude the possibility of a shooting a killer can pick up a spat cartridge case and some guns do not automatically eject spent cases for example revolvers pump action shotguns and bolt action rifles item number four Ethan's girlfriend who is referred to as KB and court documents due to her age changed her story when she talked to investigators she originally said that Ethan went alone to investigate after shooting the animal later she said that she went with him she saw Aaron with his arm over his head which is consistent with what the police found at the scene KB said the man appeared to be dead dead and that he looked blue I guess this is as opposed to other possible statuses like alive dead Dead Alive or of course alive alive now moving to the last item number five did Ethan commit some type of offense in this case again the police recommended that charges be filed against him but the prosecutor felt as though the police compromised the case let's take a look at the evidence both for and against the idea that Ethan was responsible for some type of crime starting with the inculpatory factors Ethan's explanation for why he was wandering around the woods with a pisto at night leaves a lot to be desired if it was for self-defense why was it in a backpack unloaded it was Ethan's responsibility to identify his Target and what was behind his Target prior to pulling the trigger Ethan's girlfriend KB changed her initial story about what happened Ethan admitted that he was the one who shot and killed Aaron and Buzz the bullet found in Aaron's body matched the gun Ethan was carrying Ethan's story about the shooting doesn't make any sense he would have people believe that he was confronted by what he thought was a wild animal based on age and breed Buzz should have weighed about 20 pounds at the most yet somehow Ethan confused buzz from a mountain lion which typically weigh between 65 and 220 pounds confronted with this wild animal which was actually domesticated Ethan retrieved a pistol from his backpack inserted a magazine into the pesto cycled the action aimed and fired one shot he felt like his life was threatened yet he took all the time to do this he did not try to run away Ethan and KB claimed that the dog approached them and ran away after being shot but if those statements were true how did the bullet that struck the dog also strike Aaron the geometry doesn't work as far as Aaron being struck with the same bullet it stands to reason that Ethan shot the dog at a relatively close range perhaps 10 feet and almost certainly not more than 15 feet the dog was not a large Target and there's no reason to believe that Ethan was a good shot presumably Ethan fired the gun from a height of five feet and struck a dog who was a foot and a half tall from 15 feet away that means that the angle of the bullet had it dropping by three and a half feet vertically over 15 feet horizontally this means that in order for Aaron to be struck by the same bullet he was less than seven feet behind bus Ethan should have seen Aaron at that distance again it was his responsibility to know what was behind his Target both Ethan and his girlfriend claim that they screamed at the dog but if that was true why didn't Aaron wake up they were supposedly terrified yet after the shooting they went to investigate after finding Aaron dead the couple decided to continue hiking and not to call for help Ethan claimed he did this to protect other people this is impossible to believe now moving to the exculpatory factors Ethan did not have a motive to kill Aaron if any crime was committed it was probably not intentional certain aspects of Ethan's story were corroborated by the police for example cell phone data corroborated the account of his travels around the time of the shooting the coroner said that Aaron died of a gunshot wound but had a heart attack less than 12 hours earlier Ethan could argue that Aaron died of a heart attack maybe Aaron did not hear Ethan and KB screaming because he was unconscious or dead from the heart attack this would explain why Buzz was being aggressive his dog was trying to protect him as far as the geometry not working it's possible that Ethan fired from a lower height or was on Lower ground when considering all the evidence do I think that Ethan committed some type of crime in this case yes I agree with the police I believe that Ethan should have been charged with manslaughter and animal cruelty the most logical explanation for what happened based on the available evidence is that Ethan intentionally killed buzz and unintentionally killed Aaron this whole story about being attacked by a vicious Australian cattle dog makes no sense at all I think the state could make an adequate case for manslaughter and a very good case for animal cruelty it is beyond suspicious that Ethan and his girlfriend failed to report Aaron's death this Behavior could be considered cows self-centered and perhaps even sadistic police incompetence really paid a massive benefit to Ethan and delivered a horrible Injustice to Aaron Christensen and his dog Buzz those are my thoughts in the case of Aaron Christensen please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: 47oL05jUtGQ

Length: 16min 54sec (1014 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2023