Murder in California's Emerald Triangle

On a cold day in November 2016, a man with long, blond locks and grungy blue overalls stumbled out of the woods. He had been living up in the mountains above Laytonville, in Mendocino County, and had walked eight hours into town in search of the police. He had found the body of a man he knew, Jeff Settler. And it looked like murder.

On the other side of the country, in New Jersey, Sam Anderson had just moved back home to live with his parents. The people he grew up with were all buzzing about the lead suspect in a murder thousands of miles away: a kid they’d gone to high school with, Zachary Wuester. Wuester went out to California to make some money working on pot farms. Now it seemed he’d gotten caught up in something his friends back home couldn’t fathom.

“The idea of [Wuester] being accused of murder was just absolutely insane,” Anderson told California Report host Sasha Khokha. “And I knew that finding out his involvement would be a window into this world: the Emerald Triangle.”

Three Northern California counties — Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity — make up what is known as the Emerald Triangle. In these mountainous regions, illegal pot farms have flourished. People come from all over to make quick money cultivating and trimming the marijuana. California legalized marijuana in 2016, but black market grows still operate, shipping their product to states where weed is still illegal and the profits are higher.

As he read more about the arrest, Anderson became fascinated with the Emerald Triangle and its outlaw culture. He packed up his car and drove out to Mendocino to try to uncover what really happened in the murder case. He showed up in Laytonville, known to be hostile to outsiders, asking questions about the illegal pot growing industry.

Over five years, Anderson would befriend local characters, get caught up in some scary situations and learn how to be an investigative journalist. He had to earn the trust of people close to the victim and the accused, all while living and working out of a tent, which became his “office” as he reported. Ultimately, he stumbled upon recordings of the police investigation, which helped crack open the case.

Listen to Sasha’s interview with Anderson about the reporting process and what it was like to try to break into an insular community, all the while with a microphone in hand. Anderson did ultimately uncover some satisfying answers about Jeff Settler’s murder. Along the way he learned a lot about the conditions for workers in California’s black market weed industry.

Check out Anderson's 10-part podcast, Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle, to find out whether his friend Zach Wuester really was involved in the murder, and catch a glimpse of life among the outlaws in one of California’s most remote, mysterious regions.