Walter Gilmour was shaken by this murder more than any other he’d experienced. Beth’s disappearance and death were beyond mysterious. Investigators still desperately needed insights into her behavior and actions the night she went missing. Something. Anything. Troopers scoured the greater Anchorage area, interviewing anyone and everyone who knew Beth or claimed they’d been friends.
More Insights
Diane Carlow: I have known Beth van Zanten for years. She was boy crazy, I suppose more than normal. I knew her boyfriend Ed… She also ran with a few of the Brothers motorcycle gang… She liked to walk. She walked everywhere. I don’t think she would accept rides from strangers. I don’t think she would scare easy, since she walked a lot by herself at night. I would classify her as an extrovert.”
Betty Haycox: “I would say Beth was quite shy, reserved.”
McHugh Creek Falls, showing the upper parking area and the slope that Beth van Zanten descended as she tried to escape her captor. (photo: Jay Singer)