The shocking disappearance of Theresa Ann Bier

CaliforniaForest DisappearancesBig FootSierra Nevada MountainsTheresa Ann BierBass Lake area

Dec 16

Theresa Ann Bier, disappeared June 1, 1987, Bass Lake area, Sierra Nevada mountains, California. Remains never located.

Revised October 2023

On June 1, 1987, 16-year-old Theresa Ann Bier and Russell "Skip" Welch, 43, reportedly became separated in the Sierra Nevada mountains after they had gone to look for Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Welch was subsequently charged with abducting Theresa, but the charge was later dismissed.

Welch went camping with Theresa near Shuteye Peak, about 25 miles northeast of Bass Lake in California and was questioned by deputies when he returned without her. She was last seen at around 7.20 pm. Welch explained that Bigfoot had abducted her, but foul play was suspected. Searches throughout that region produced no sign of Bier; she has never been seen again, nor has any evidence turned up.

Was this a simple case of kidnapping and murder by a man high on meth, or was it, as Skip claimed, a Bigfoot adduction in the Sierra? Did Theresa just run off into the woods to escape and become lost?

Skip was charged with Theresa's abduction, but the case against him was dismissed due to a lack of evidence in October 1987. He was also offered a deal for an incredibly light sentence if he were to confess and show the Police where her body was, but he refused, sticking to his Bigfoot story.

Who was Theresa Bier?

Theresa’s parents, Shirley and David Bier, did not provide a safe and loving home for Theresa and her siblings in Fresno, California. Shirley was particularly abusive towards her children.

When Theresa was about three years old, she was severely injured and ended up in hospital. Shirley twisted Theresa’s leg around the crib slats until it broke. She also beat Theresa, breaking several ribs. At this point, Social Services stepped in and took Theresa and her sisters away. This was also when Theresa's parents split up. Theresa was placed in foster care, and Sylvia Pierce, a friend from church, took in Theresa and her sister Vicki.

A few years after Theresa had been placed in care, her father, David, decided that he wanted custody as he had divorced Shirley and remarried Margie Richmond. Margie had previously been married to Shirley’s half-brother, John Richmond, and they had two daughters who lived with her and David. The father was granted custody, and they moved to Southern California to work as janitors, where Margie was reportedly abusive towards her daughters and Theresa. Allegedly, Margie would lock her refrigerator, sit there, eat her lunch, and not feed her kids anything.

Theresa would eventually return to Fresno to her great-grandmother’s house. Soon after, Theresa’s uncle, John “Blind Johnny” Richmond, was granted custody, a 42-year-old man who claimed to have lost his eyesight while playing Russian Roulette, although some people believed he could still see a little. His daughters lived with his ex-wife Margie and David, but he also had two sons with a prostitute. Blind Johnny also had a 17-year-old girlfriend, Tamara Newman, who lived with him.

John would often make Theresa miss school to babysit his sons, and it was claimed that he and his friends often sexually abused her.

At 16, Theresa was described as a “slow learner” and “immature” at school. She was 5'5 in height and 110 pounds. Theresa's upper front teeth protruded, and she had a surgical scar on her lower right leg due to a childhood fracture.

The trip to the Sierra Nevada with Russell Shelton Welch

In early June 1987, Theresa told her friends Peggy and Janice that she was going to the mountains with a man she had recently met and told them she would miss school for the trip. This man’s name was 43-year-old Russell Shelton Welch, or “Skip”, a house painter obsessed with Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, and he had claimed to have seen it many times.

Russell Shelton Welch, better known as Skip

Skip mainly lived off of disability checks, he was addicted to meth, and his wife Shannon had died of a drug overdose.

On the morning of June 1, 1987, Skip arrived at Blind Johnny’s house as they knew each other, and he noticed that Theresa was getting ready for school and offered to drive her. This was a deception, as Theresa had already planned to spend the day in the mountains with Skip.

Later that morning, Blind Johnny received a call from Central High School, wanting to know why Theresa hadn’t arrived at school that day. He told them Theresa was homesick, and he spent the day searching for her, speaking to various of their acquaintances. Despite none of them knowing where she was, many of them did warn him that Skip was not a trustworthy man. That evening at around 9.30 pm, Blind Johnny reported Theresa missing to the Fresno police.

Before they headed to the mountains, Skip and Theresa stopped at his daughter, Chandra Welch's house. Skip was having trouble with his beat-up 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Skip and Theresa had reached the Sierra Nevada mountain range near the Shuteye Peak area.

The Fresno Police spoke to Skip’s friends and family, including 17-year-old Michelle Ryan. She had been enticed to the mountains by Skip during the previous summer. Skip’s daughter, Chandra, had advised against her going; she knew that her father had a habit of taking young girls to the mountains and using drugs to lure them into having sex.

Michelle had a traumatic trip but made it back home safely. Fortunately, she had gone with two male friends, although she believed she had been drugged.

Police also spoke to Skip’s daughter and son. Her father and Theresa had visited Chandra on the day of her disappearance. On the same day, Terry had also been visited by Skip and a young girl, presumably Theresa. But Skip and Theresa could not be located.

On June 5, 1987, a police officer spotted Skip’s brown 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo by a trailer park near North Fork, a town in the foothills of the mountain. It would later be explained that Skip had come down the mountain to visit a friend, Dorothy Davis. He was distraught and told her about a young girl who had been taken by a satanic group and being kept in the Sierra. Davis said he was high and assumed he was delusional.

A few days after Theresa was reported missing, Blind Johnny received a threatening phone call from a young female. She told him that Skip was packing a pistol and wanted her to say to him, “If you continue to make trouble for him, you will have more trouble from him, even your kids can get hurt. And “tell the police that Skip had taken Theresa to school, dropped her off, and some unknown blond girl had picked Theresa up.”

Five days later, authorities were able to find Skip at his mother’s house in Sunnyside, Fresno. He was arrested for a previous drunk-driving violation.

During questioning, Skip spoke very seriously about Bigfoot and claimed that there was a very large number of them living in the mountains in underground caves and that he had communicated with them several times.

When questioned about Theresa, his story changed several times, and he insisted on calling her Sam, the nickname that he had given her.

At first, he claimed to have dropped her off at school but soon admitted that the two did go to the mountains to seek out Bigfoot. Then Skip claimed that Sam had run off into the woods with another young woman and later claimed she had left with other campers. In yet another version, he said that Sam had gotten over-excited after they had seen Bigfoot a couple of times that day, leading to her running off to find the creature again, and he was unable to find her.

Skip said Theresa would not return because she’d be happier with the Bigfoot community in the mountains than her home.

At one point, during the police interviews, Skip, without the officer asking anything, said that if they happened to find Theresa, there would be no sign of sexual abuse. He claimed that although Theresa had been willing to have a sexual relationship with him, he would have never done that with a young girl as that was not his “nature”.

Skip agreed to show authorities the campsite he and Theresa allegedly stayed at. He led them to a small grove of trees at the meadow’s edge along Brown's Creek. At the inner area of this grove, there was a smouldering fire among the heavy layer of pine needles that appeared to be somewhat damp. This burnt area was approximately 3½ feet wide by 8 feet long. There were these blankets that were put up, and they were in a specific formation. There was a camera, a purse, an off-white bra, a T-shirt, pictures of the countryside, and a picture of Welch playing the guitar while sitting by what appeared to be the blanket in the grove area. There were also pictures of Theresa.

The campsite where all this was found was staged by Skip. From the topography in the photos, the local deputies could guess that the camp was 20 miles away, possibly in Ghost Canyon. Even though he allegedly lied about the campsite, the meadow and the Canyon were searched.

A helicopter searching for clues or signs of Theresa's whereabouts spotted something on the hillside above the Brown’s Creek camp. It turned out to be a blue shirt that belonged to Skip, and it had meth in the pocket. Searches by Bloodhounds were done near the camp, and the dogs detected Theresa’s scent at one point, but no other clues were found.

Skip was charged with child endangerment and child stealing. He was arraigned and released on his recognizance by Judge Gallagher. However, this judge did not realize that Judge Austin had increased Skip’s bail to $30,000 after reviewing the case. Two days later, Skip was re-arrested.

Three days before Skip’s trial, authorities dropped the child stealing charge. They had offered to recommend a one-year sentence if Skip signed a waiver allowing them to go forward with murder charges if Theresa’s body were located, but Skip refused. The prosecution decided to drop the case to avoid double jeopardy if they wanted to charge him with murder later.

Theresa Ann Bier has never been found.

What happened to Theresa?

Most people believe that Skip is guilty of killing Theresa and disposing of her body. However, there is a theory put forward by Skip’s family that the Speed Freak Killers abducted and killed her.

Despite Chandra admitting her father was a predator at the time of Theresa’s disappearance, she defended him after his arrest, claiming that her father’s only crime was practicing poor judgment by taking a young girl to the Sierra.

Blind Johnny died of cancer around 2008, and Skip died in 1998 at the age of 54 due to severe coronary artery disease.

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