GARNET PEAK HAS A SECRET.

 Something happened on the mountain — and only you can solve it.

Each month, join Kim, Dominic & Jason as they uncover a new clue in the mystery of The Last Light on Garnet Peak.

Watch the videos, study the suspects, and piece together

Who Did It?

Marcus Ashby

Founder and Director, Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Marcus Ashby built the Juniper Peak Wellness Institute from forty acres of high country meadow and an idea that the mountains could heal what the modern world damaged. Over twenty-two years, he turned that idea into a nationally recognized retreat program, a licensing deal worth nearly $300,000, and a personal brand that studios across the country paid to reproduce. He was generous with credit in his public presentations and careful about it in his contracts. His staff described him as visionary, demanding, and, in the words of more than one departing employee‘ very good at making other people’s ideas feel like his own.’ He was found in the meditation pavilion on the fifth morning of Ascent Week. The cedar cabinet beside him had been opened.

Theo Marsh

Night Meditation Facilitator

Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Theo Marsh leads the Institute’s 9 PM meditation session six nights a week, guiding guests through the transition from the mountain’s last light into its deep quiet. He has held this role for three years, and staff describe him as steady, observant, and deeply loyal to the people he works alongside. His session on the night of the murder ended at 10 PM. He was the last staff member in the pavilion building before investigators arrived. When first asked whether he had seen anything unusual, he said no. When asked a second time, his answer changed slightly. By the third interview, it had changed again. He says his hesitation was not dishonesty. He says he was afraid of what telling the truth would cost.

Callum Reed

Wellness Influencer

Sponsored Residency Guest

Callum Reed arrived at the Juniper Peak Wellness Institute with a brand deal, a ring light, and the reasonable expectation that his three-week sponsored residency would proceed as agreed. It did not. Marcus had rescinded the partnership agreement eight days before Callum’s arrival, citing what he described as ‘misaligned brand values’, a phrase Callum found both vague and offensive. He drove up from San Diego anyway. He described the trip as an opportunity to ‘resolve the situation in person,’ though investigators noted that he had also been filming continuously since his arrival. His east terrace footage from the night of the murder placed him clearly in view of three other guests. He offered the footage voluntarily. This, too, was filmed.

Renata Solano

Institute Operations Manager

Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Renata Solano has managed the day-to-day operations of the Juniper Peak Wellness Institute for six years. She handles bookings, staffing, vendor relationships, and the quiet work of keeping a mountain retreat functional across all four seasons. She knew about the Ascend Collective licensing agreement before it was signed. She processed the contract renewal paperwork that removed Nadia Vasquez’s profit-sharing clause. When investigators asked whether she had told Nadia about the change, she said that hadn’t been her role. She said this carefully, and did not add anything further.

Sterling Vale

Former Co-Founder

Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Sterling Vale’s family owned the land on which the Juniper Peak Wellness Institute was built. Marcus Ashby had been running an informal retreat practice on that land for seven years before he and Vale formalized it as the Institute fifteen years ago. Vale contributed the land as his founding investment and co-founded the Institute as an equal partner. Then he was bought out five years later at a figure that a subsequent independent appraisal found to be significantly below market value. He had been trying to renegotiate that settlement for a decade. His most recent attempt, a formal mediation request, was declined by Marcus’s legal team two months before the murder. He came to the Institute in person, unannounced, as a personal guest. He was overheard telling Marcus: ‘You owe me this, and you know it.’ He says the conversation ended there.

Nadia Vasquez

Lead Wellness Guide and Ascent Protocol Developer

Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Nadia Vasquez has guided guests at the Juniper Peak Wellness Institute for eight years, longer than any other current staff member. She developed the breathwork foundations of the Ascent Protocol during her second year at the Institute, a seven-step methodology she described in her personal notes as ‘the most complete work I’ve ever done.’ She leads the morning breathwork session, the afternoon yoga practice, and the summit meditation on the final day. She wears a hand-dyed garnet-red silk lanyard at every session, a symbol, the Institute says, of senior guide status. She appears composed under questioning. She has an explanation for every piece of evidence investigators have placed before her. She is, by every account, a woman who has thought carefully about a great many things.

Petra Voss

Resident Herbalist and Supplement Developer

Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Petra Voss supplies every tea, tincture, and recovery blend used in the Institute’s retreat program — formulas she developed herself over four years of working with the high-altitude plant life of the Garnet Peak region. She is methodical, self-contained, and not particularly interested in what other people think of her. She was in the kitchen garden at 10:15 PM on the night Marcus died, harvesting chamomile by lamplight. She says she goes there when she cannot sleep, which is often. Investigators asked her about the licensing agreement and whether any of her formulas had been included in it. She became very still before answering. She said she was not sure what was in the agreement. Whether this was true is a question that remains open.

Elena Whitmore

Silent Founding Partner (Former)

Juniper Peak Wellness Institute

Elena Whitmore’s name appeared in the LLC formation records recovered from the cedar cabinet, listed as a silent founding partner whose share was transferred to Marcus Ashby in the Institute’s second year, in exchange for a cash payment of $12,000. She had not been to the Institute in seventeen years. When investigators located her, she expressed what she described as ‘no surprise whatsoever’ at the news of Marcus’s death. She said she had signed away her share willingly, that the payment had seemed fair at the time, and that she had not thought about Marcus Ashby since. Her alibi for the night of the murder placed her in Phoenix, Arizona. It was confirmed within twenty-four hours.