A handyman's gate code lets him enter a secluded timber property the morning its owner is killed - who used the code, and why was it never revoked?

The Gate Code That Still Opened Her Property After a Year

In this episode, we follow the timeline around a rural Montana property where a woman is found dead and the gate shows no sign of forced entry. We lay out the sequence of routine calls, contractor access, flood-silenced evidence, and the mystery about who kept walking through her gate.

Person: Megan Smith
Date: June 5 (last call) - June 9 (body found)
Location: Twelve-acre timber property outside Callard Creek, Montana; Siler Creek
Person: Shannon Bell
Investigator: Detective Teresa Norris

- Megan Smith made her last recorded call at 6:03 AM on June 5 and was later estimated to have died between 7:30 and 9:00 AM that morning.
- Fourteen months earlier Shannon Bell was hired to repair an outbuilding and re-grade the access road; his gate code remained active afterward.
- A cell-tower ping at 7:51 AM on June 5 placed Bell’s phone 0.4 miles from Megan’s gate, contradicting his claim of being 90 minutes away in Kalispell.
- A flash flood on June 7 deposited fresh silt and created boot prints leading from the creek toward a truck-prints that could only have been made after Megan’s estimated time of death.
- Detective Teresa Norris found no forced entry at the single coded gate and no record that Megan or anyone had revoked the contractor's access.

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