Betty Lou Japel, 70, and her longtime companion Kenneth Miller, 73, were last heard from in 2006 while traveling in Quartzsite, Arizona. Their motorhome was later found abandoned in Redmond, Oregon, by Bureau of Land Management employees between May and July 2006, and their Dodge Ram pickup turned up in Montana. Bank activity on their accounts stopped in June 2006.

In June 2007 Miller’s body was recovered in a shallow grave near where the motorhome had been abandoned in Oregon. Law enforcement suspected Japel had also been killed, and a man named Gregory Allen Cole became the primary suspect. Cole engaged in a shootout with an officer, fled, and was later found dead by suicide in the desert north of the Mexican border.

Skeletal remains discovered in March 2008 in Churchill County, Nevada, were finally identified in February 2024 through advanced DNA testing as Betty Lou Japel; the remains showed multiple gunshot wounds. The identification confirms Japel was a homicide victim, but many questions about their final days remain. If anyone knew Betty Lou Japel, Kenneth Miller, or saw them in 2006, please share what might help fill gaps in the timeline.