Tucked in off the road to Mount Hood, the Hoodland Plaza Shopping Center serves as a gathering place for the people of Welches, Oregon, where they sometimes get things that money just can't buy.Sarah Caswell: It's kind of a — a community hub … if someone needed to vent or talk or … need help, that's where they'd go.The plaza is home to Sarah Caswell's pizza shop and the neighboring Hoodland Bazaar – the whimsical

gift shop where her friend Phoenix Lane worked.

Sarah Caswell: November 22, 2024, we showed up to work … and she hadn't showed up. Phoenix was supposed to open the store at 11 a.m. that Friday.Sarah Caswell: She hadn't put the signs out yet. And I was like, that's crazy … she would never not show up.The search for Susan "Phoenix" LanePhoenix's boss tried texting her, but she didn't respond. Sarah became so concerned, she did something unusual.

She reached out for help. Sarah Caswell: … up here we don't have a lot of law enforcement. … Even if you call them and you need them, it can take up to two hours because the county is so big. … so, a lot of the times when we have to deal with things up here, we take it on as mountain justice.

What the community calls "mountain justice" is a kind of self-reliance – lending a hand when a neighbor is in trouble.Deputy Aaron Clark: It's a very tight-knit community … they definitely, uh, tend to take care of their own problems.Sarah called Aaron Clark, a Clackamas County sheriff's deputy who often patrols the Mount Hood region.

He wasn't working in the area that day and suggested that Phoenix's boss call the sheriff's office to request a welfare check. 911 CALL: My employee did not show up for work today, you know, unexpectedly. And, uh, we were worried about, uh, her well-being.Two deputies arrived at Phoenix's house that night. The lights were on and the door was unlocked. But there was no sign of 61-year-old Phoenix or her two dogs.

Sarah Caswell: Elrond and Elros were wolf hybrids. … You wouldn't know they were hybrids. They looked exactly like wolves. … They were very, very protective of her. When Phoenix did not show up for work again on Saturday, Clark drove up to the mountain to talk to her friends and coworkers.

Deputy Aaron Clark: Everybody knew Phoenix. … Everybody really cared for her.Though everybody there knew her as Phoenix, for many years, she went by her legal name – Susan. She had two adult sons, Jesse and Dakota, who she had raised in California and Kansas with her former husband, Fred. Jesse Lane: She loved being goofy.

She loved being silly, she loved being an artist.Dakota Lane: A very distinctive memory … was being in kindergarten and her rolling up to the school on a motorcycle to pick me up and all the kids on the playground being really excited. … "Wow. Your mom rides a bike? That's awesome."Peter Van Sant: The coolest mom in the world.Dakota Lane: Coolest, coolest mom ever.

Sadly, their lives were upended in 2009 when Fred died in a car accident.Peter Van Sant: Give me a sense of his death and the impact on — on the two of you.Dakota Lane: Devastating. … She lost her soul mate. … I don't want to say she lost her way, but she definitely struggled … to realign herself. … There was nothing keeping us in that area anymore. So, she was looking for a way to escape with us.

Several months later, Susan met Michel Fournier, a divorced, French-Canadian long-haul trucker who spent a lot of time on the road.Mike Lane: That was pretty much his life, running his truck, making a life.Susan's brother, Mike Lane, says she was struggling to raise her teenage sons alone when Michel came into her life. Mike Lane: He sees Susan and the kids and he goes, hey, wow, I can contribute to this.

This could work.Susan got her trucking license, and the two began driving as a team, trading shifts behind the wheel. A trip later in 2009 would change the course of their lives.Jesse Lane: She kind of stumbled across … Mount Hood … and fell in love.

She's like, this is where I want to be.She bought a fixer-upper just off Highway 26, and they all moved up to the mountain.Jesse Lane: It was kind of a run-down home. … But, I mean, she wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I mean, that's what she really desired was simple life up in the woods.Susan and Michel married in 2012 and she later adopted her new name, Phoenix.

Sarah Caswell: All the trials and tribulations she had been to with her husband dying and rebuilding her life … that she felt that she had built herself up from the ashes. So … she gave herself the name Phoenix.Christen Prudence: She was into meditation … and energy work. Phoenix made deep connections with like-minded friends in the mountain community, including Christen Prudence.

Christen Prudence: I would lead guided meditations. … And we would have these beautiful, restorative women's circles, and we had Phoenix join us and do a sound bath at one of them.Peter Van Sant: It's the first time I've ever heard of it.

What is a sound bath?Christen Prudence: A sound bath is where participants will relax … usually laying down. … It's channeling the vibrational … frequencies of the instruments … which provide healing.In 2023, Phoenix began working at the Hoodland Bazaar, where her art adorned the walls.

She sold Afghan rugs and Turkish lamps along with crystals and rocks, often dispensing her new-age wisdom.Christen Prudence: She had so much knowledge with crystals … and just the way that energy works. … It was … almost like a store was made for her to be…