EPISODE 287: High Country Murder

In this episode Bill talks with filmmaker Keely Covello about the making of “High Country Murder” her documentary of a murder that exposes the raw truth of what happens when law and order collapse. In California’s Mendocino County, where cowboys once shared the hills with hippies, foreign gangs now rule.

Covello’s film begins with a simple fact: an 85-year-old rancher was found dead in his truck. But this single death opens a window into a larger truth. On America’s public lands, 6,000 illegal marijuana operations now flourish. Chinese, Bulgarian, and Mexican cartels traffic humans, force immigrants into labor, and kill with impunity. The local sheriffs fight alone – the state’s governor won’t even return their calls.

Covello knows this territory. She grew up here, watching her father drive the back roads as a ranch veterinarian. Now, with camera in hand, she rides into dangerous territory – abandoned grow sites, tribal lands, and forest camps – searching not just for a murderer, but for answers about how American soil became foreign territory.

The film asks questions our comfortable urban politicians prefer to ignore: What happens when we abandon law enforcement? Who fills the vacuum when traditional institutions collapse? And most urgently: Who killed that old rancher, and why?

This is not a story about politics. It is a story about power, territory, and what happens when we look away from evil. Watch Bill’s conversation with Covello as she talks about her film that uncovers these bitter truths.