REVISITED: The Tent
Park Predators
This episode revisits the tragic 2022 murders of the Schmidt family inside their tent at Makoketa Cave State Park in Iowa, where three famil
Key takeaways
- The killer spared Arlo Schmidt, leaving investigators to speculate on motive despite no clear evidence.
- The crime occurred during a time of heightened national debate over Second Amendment rights, which gained momentum after Iowa voters approved a constitutional amendment expanding gun protections in November 2022.
Main topics
- Unsolved homicide in a state park
- Gun violence and Second Amendment debates
Notable quotes
"Please don't take any time for granted. Go outside today. Breathe. Sarah would have wanted that." – Sarah's sister, Jana
Conclusion
The Schmidt family tragedy remains unresolved, but its legacy endures as a
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Every case on park predators has a twist, but Chameleon takes deception to a whole new level. Hosted by journalist Josh Dean, Chameleon digs into the real stories of people who reinvent themselves through lies, cons, and double lives. If you're ready to explore the world of scam artists and little white lies that spiral into unforgettable scandals, listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:27) Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And this fall, we want to try something new on the Park Predators feed. Every Thursday this month, we'll re-release an episode that features a crime that took place in the summer. And these cases happened all across the United States. They are some of the most compelling crimes that I've covered on the show. From mysterious missing persons to unsolved homicides, I cover it all. And don't worry, on Tuesdays, you'll still get your new episode. as always. Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to tell you about today is a recent one. It's a crime that happened around this time last summer in Makoketa Cave State Park in Iowa. If you paid attention to the news or scrolled through a social media feed last July, you know that the murders of Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt dominated headlines across America and overseas. The brutal slaying of this young family inside their tent caused everyone to take pause and mourn. But the murders also made many people reconsider whether to ever go camping with their families again, and if staying among strangers in the woods was really safe. The horrific nature of what happened to the Schmitz also fueled the ongoing debate about Second Amendment rights in America and what the future of carrying firearms would look like in the state of Iowa. The big thing you need to know about Maquoketa Cave State Park is that it's not some middle-of-nowhere destination. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, it's a very popular state park with tons of trails, picnic areas, and campgrounds that attract thousands of visitors every year. It's a go-to place for families who want to get a taste of the great outdoors, but who don't want to be completely off the grid. The park is about an hour east of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is a short drive away from the banks of the Mississippi River. Most visitors go there to check out the vast number of caves dotted throughout the park's six-mile trail system. These unique geologic formations are truly amazing to look at and walk through, because you never know what views you'll see around the next corner. In the summer, shadows from the park's rock formations and trees create a natural canopy over the area, making it an ideal spot for families with youngsters to traverse and not get overheated. Which is exactly what the Schmidt family had plans to do before horror visited their tent in the middle of the night and took the lives of everyone inside. Except one. This is Park Predators. Speaker 1 (3:49) According to reporting by Tyler Jett for the Des Moines Register, around 6.15 in the morning on Friday, July 22nd, 35-year-old Felicia Koh woke up inside her pop-up camper at Makoketa Cave State Park Campground. She glanced around and saw her boyfriend's teenage son had already gotten dressed and left to go running, and his other 11-year-old son was also awake but comfortably nestled on the other side of the camper reading a book. She looked at her boyfriend, who was still sound asleep, and decided to give him a few more minutes of rest before their family got going for the day. She grabbed her cell phone and clicked open the weather app to check the forecast to make sure rainstorms weren't going to be a problem for their plans. And thankfully, the update was good. All the bad weather that had previously been projected for Friday had already passed by then, and their plans to go hiking weren't going to be interrupted. As Felicia poured herself a cup of coffee, she suddenly stopped. Somewhere nearby, she heard a loud voice. Then, a bang. The sound was so noticeable, it roused her boyfriend from his sleep. They discussed what the disturbance could have been, but neither could come up with a convincing answer. He settled on the idea that the noises were probably someone lighting up a firecracker, but Felicia had her doubts. Sure, people probably had bottle rockets or Roman candles left over from the previous 4th of July weekend, but in her mind, she thought it was way too early in the morning for someone to be setting off fireworks. So she decided to go outside and investigate a little more. When she opened her camper door, she didn't see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. No smoke from a smoldering firework, nothing. Just a familiar face standing at a campsite a few spots away. It was one of her co-workers, so she walked over to talk with them. But not long after she strode up, she noticed something unusual in the middle of the campground. There, slowly walking side by side, were two Makoketa Caves employees dressed head to toe in protective body armor, and they were carrying long rifles. Not the kind of attire she'd ever seen park employees wearing before. Speaker 1 (6:07) When the workers approached Felicia and her friend, they barked a command for them to get out of the campground right away and not come back. Felicia had questions, though. She wanted to know what was going on, and most importantly, was her family in danger? She let the employees know she couldn't leave without her boyfriend's 16-year-old son, who was out for a run. He was expecting to find his family waiting for him when he got back. But the park employees didn't respond to Felicia's questions. They just walked right past her and her friend and emphasized that they all needed to get their families together and get out of the area as quickly as possible. Felicia didn't do as the employees said, though. Instead, she checked in with her boyfriend and his younger son at their camper and then walked a few minutes away out to the main road. Tyler Jett reported that when she got there, she bumped into a police officer who was pulling up in his cruiser. She asked him if he'd seen a teenage boy jogging on the road, and he replied that he had, just a few minutes back near a local highway. That news was sweet relief to Felicia. She followed the directions the cop gave her and quickly found her boyfriend's son just up the road standing next to two ambulances. He was safe and sound. But a young boy standing alone next to him,