Briefly an Alderpoint resident, serial “Witch Killer” denied early release from prison

Suzan and Michael Bear Carson (YouTube screengrab from Crime Watch Daily), and an unrelated cannabis farm in Alderpoint

It isn’t a long shot to believe that some current Humboldt County residents came into contact with a notorious serial-killing couple in the early 1980s. Michael Bear Carson, a brief Alderpoint resident who once proclaimed he and his wife Suzan were “Witch Killers,” was recently denied his request to be released from prison early.

The second of the couple’s three confirmed victims was Clark Stephens, a man they worked with on a cannabis farm in the Rancho Sequoia area of Alderpoint. It’s believed that following a 1982 dispute Michael shot and killed Stephens, then Suzan helped him burn the body and bury it under chicken fertilizer in the forest. Many have said this crime earned the area’s moniker “Murder Mountain.”

A report dating back to 1989 from the Associated Press noted the couple said their three known victims were witches who had to be killed in the name of religion. They had reportedly claimed to police that Stephens was a ″petty witch″ and a ″demon″ who had sexually assaulted Suzan and wanted to “live off (her) life.”

Retired officer George Hill, YouTube screengrab from ID network

In an Investigation Discovery (ID) network documentary a retired officer from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department spoke about the local case. George Hill said fellow farmers didn’t care for the Carsons much and described them as loony anarchists who bickered frequently and did a lot of drugs. Acquaintances in the area claimed the couple butted heads with Stephens, who was a friend of the owner of the cannabis garden in Alderpoint, over how to tend to the crop. Hill noted their rocky relationship was then exacerbated by claims that Stephens disrespected the Carson’s radicalized Muslim beliefs by violating Suzan and speaking to her using foul language, which caused Suzan to direct Michael to murder Stephens. Michael obliged.

In a somewhat comical next step, the author of the 1988 book “Cry for War: The Story of Suzan and Michael Carson” told the aforementioned television network that the couple headed then out 299 and in Trinity County were spooked by a search and rescue crew they mistakenly thought was looking for them.

Author Richard Reynolds says they dropped their backpacks and went their separate ways and when investigators went through their stuff they found marijuana, bullets, and a manuscript titled “A Cry For War” which he described as an “anarchists battle cry.” Among other notes, he says the manifesto contained Johnny Carson and Ronald Reagan on the couple’s hit list, partially because their names each contained six letters which they believed was in accordance with the devil’s number: 666. Jerry Brown was also reportedly on the list (Sidenote: the names “Edmund” and “Gerald” do both fit the six-letter trend).

Weeks after Stephens was killed and reported missing, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office discovered his remains. Hill said they received a call from someone stating they saw a dog playing with what they thought was a ball, but ended up being a human skull. By the time officers discovered the body and had the Carsons on their radar, the couple had already vanished.

Later in 1982, it’s said officers in Los Angeles mistakenly picked Michael up because he matched the description of an unrelated suspect. Apparently Michael gave police a false name and hid a gun in the police cruiser before officers unwittingly freed him.

Their other two confirmed murder victims were Keryn Barnes, a former roommate who in the Bay Area in 1981 was bludgeoned with a frying pan and stabbed 13 times, and Jon Charles Hellyar, who picked the hitchhiking couple up in 1983 and in Los Angeles was stabbed and shot along the highway in full view of passing motorists.

The two, eventually reunited, were finally arrested directly following Hellyar’s murder after a high-speed chase. Eventually, the Carsons were convicted of all three murders over the span of two trials.

Some may remember the irony of the attention-seeking Carsons once holding a news conference to confess to their three confirmed killings, then unsuccessfully claiming innocence during their trials.

“Evil doesn’t create, good is creative and evil is like a parasite or a leach,” rambled Michael, a self-proclaimed pacifist and vegetarian yoga practitioner. “It can’t create. It can only copy. That’s why powerful evil people are always attracted to Suzan.”

A piece from about four years ago in Rolling Stone chronicles the Carsons’ spiral into the obscure. Meeting as divorced parents in the late 1970s, they eventually took to experimenting with drugs, religious fanaticism, grandiose introspection, and fundamentalist views such as killing homosexuals and women that receive abortions. They became estranged from friends and family before their murder spree and traveled the world together. Some detectives believe the Carsons are responsible for almost a dozen additional murders across the U.S. and in Europe.

When the couple was convicted they were both given sentences of 75 years to life and to this day reportedly still show no remorse for their crimes, according to the SFGate. Michael, now 69, will continue to live east of Sacramento in Mule Creek State Prison after his request for early release was denied on May 27. A hearing for that request was made possible by the state’s Elder Parole Program which allows parole hearings for 60-plus inmates who’ve served over 25 years in prison.

In 2015, the AP noted Michael canceled his parole hearing because he said he wouldn’t renounce his beliefs.

“I truly believe that just because he’s old does not make him safe,” Michael’s only daughter Jenn Carson recently told The Daily Beast. “With his lack of regret and his views and the hate he’s filled with and his demented mind—I think in a year or less someone else will be dead.”

Jenn has been long opposed to her father’s release and has noted her father has bragged about his murders and called himself a “political prisoner.” One of her childhood memories is of her stepmom Suzan clawing her and drawing blood when she asked for a back rub.

“We treat all parole hearings very seriously — we cannot assume particular outcomes in advance,” Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming told The Daily Beast. “In this case, the Deputy District Attorney will argue that (Michael) Carson’s release would pose an unreasonable risk to society and of course we hope the parole board agrees.”

The parole board agreed.

Does anybody remember interacting with these two when they were in the area?

[An audio version of this article is featured via Humboldt Last Week]