In July 1976, an engaged couple set up their tent at McClintock Park in Silver Cliff, Wisconsin, and were never seen alive again. In October 2013, a 25-year-old woman on a Halloween-weekend family vacation at Cherrystone Family Camping Resort in Virginia was attacked in the women's bathhouse at 6:30 in the morning. In July 2024, two women hiking near a campground in Tillamook County, Oregon, were bound and blindfolded by a man who later told investigators he had planned a sexual assault. Three cases. Five decades. Different states, different parks, different decades of technology. Every one of them happened at or adjacent to a campground that an independent operator was running. The point of this article is not the cases themselves. It is what the recurring patterns can teach park owners about being a harder target than the parks around you.
The Wisconsin case (1976): why visibility matters
According to court documents reported by ABC News, David Schuldes (25) and Ellen Matheys (24) had just set up their tent when David was shot in the neck. The attacker then sexually assaulted Ellen and shot her twice in the chest. The case remained unsolved for 43 years. In 2019, investigators working with Parabon Nanolabs used genetic genealogy to narrow the suspect pool through relatives' voluntary DNA submissions. Surveillance and a deceptive saliva collection led to an arrest of an 82-year-old man whose DNA matched the crime scene evidence.
What the case quietly tells an operator: remote sites with poor visibility have always been the highest-risk locations in any park. The park-design language for this is "natural surveillance." Sites that are visible from a managed path, from another occupied site, or from a camera have a measurably different risk profile than sites tucked into the back corner of a wooded loop with no sightline to anywhere else.
The Cherrystone case (2013): why bathhouses are the operational weakest point
According to 13News Now reporting, the assault occurred inside the female-only bathhouse at Cherrystone Family Camping Resort on the morning of October 27, 2013. The victim was a 25-year-old vacationing with her family on what the park was promoting as a Halloween-themed weekend. The attacker wore a tan Halloween mask. The case eventually concluded with a 20-year sentence after a plea agreement.
For independent operators, the operational lesson is uncomfortable. Bathhouses are the single facility in any park where guests are most vulnerable, most isolated, and most predictably scheduled. They are also the single facility most independent parks underspend on for lighting, sightlines, and access control. Strong lighting, clear sightlines from the bathhouse approach to the rest of the park, and a posted "door locks during quiet hours" policy are not luxuries. They are the operational floor on a facility that is otherwise the most attractive target on the property.
The Oregon case (2024): why prior convictions matter to park policy
According to GearJunkie's reporting on the U.S. Attorney's Office filing, on July 4, 2024, around midnight, Gene Arnold McLenithan (58) allegedly kidnapped two women camping along a public hiking trail in Tillamook County, Oregon. He had a prior 2000 conviction for two sodomy counts and burglary in the same county after a 1999 home break-in. He was arrested for the new case on May 28, 2026, on federal kidnapping and attempted abusive sexual contact charges.
The case is a case study in why screening matters. An independent park that ran reservations against the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW.gov, the free federal portal) would have caught a prior conviction record before check-in. The Oregon case did not involve a campground reservation. It involved public trail access where no screening was possible. But the pattern is what matters. Prior offenders do return to similar settings. Screening is the single most effective policy a park can implement.
Three patterns the cases share
| Pattern | What an operator can do |
|---|---|
| Isolation as the primary risk factor | Site assignments that put singles, couples, and women-only groups in higher-visibility loops with neighbors close enough to hear a scream. |
| Predictable timing (early morning bathhouse, late-night trail) | Lighting and access control that match the timing. Bathhouse doors lock during quiet hours. Trail access points lit or gated. |
| Prior offender involvement | NSOPW screening at reservation and check-in. Documented policy that the park screens. |
What history actually teaches: No park can prevent every incident. Operators who pretend otherwise produce false confidence. What operators can do is remove the easy opportunities, document the policy that says they are removing them, and post visible signals that the park is paying attention. Predators target unattended environments. A park that is visibly attended is a noticeably harder target than the park down the road that is not.
The five operational moves a park can make this week
- Walk every bathhouse after dark with a notebook. Document dark spots. Add lighting. Post that the door locks at quiet hours.
- Sign up for NSOPW (free) and screen every long-term and seasonal reservation. Document the check in a log. See the screening policy article in this catalog for the procedure.
- Add a camera at the bathhouse exterior and the office entry. Never inside a bathhouse. The exterior approach is what reduces the high-risk approach window.
- Train every staff member on the human trafficking indicators. The pocket card in this catalog covers the basics. Most staff have never been asked to think about this.
- Post that the park screens. A small sign at the office. A line in the booking confirmation email. Visible deterrence is half of operational deterrence.
Free template: park safety and crime awareness checklist (PDF)
The PDF below walks through lighting, sightlines, camera coverage, access control, staff training, posted information, and records. Print one per year, walk the park, fill it in. The walkthrough takes about three hours. The investments it identifies usually return within one season in lower insurance premiums and fewer incident reports.
Sources and further reading
- ABC News: How a 1976 couple killed while camping was solved in 2019
- 13News Now: Cherrystone sex assault case coverage
- GearJunkie: Oregon campground assault arrest reporting
- Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (free, federal): NSOPW.gov
- National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 · humantraffickinghotline.org
Disclaimer
This article references publicly reported facts about real cases as a way to discuss operational patterns. Park owners are not law enforcement. None of the suggestions in this article are a substitute for trained security professionals, local law enforcement consultation, or your park's licensed legal counsel. In any active emergency, call 911. In any active human trafficking situation, call 1-888-373-7888.
About the author
Sean Hakes is the founder of Campground Management. He has spent the last decade working with independent park owners on the operational documents and habits that make their parks measurably harder targets than the parks around them. Send him a note if you want a hand walking the safety checklist for your park.
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