DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR: The Blue Mesa Hotel. Despite its current two and a half star yelp rating, The Blue Mesa Hotel has survived and thrived in Northern New Mexico for over 120 years. Depending upon which blogs you read, the Hotel is either an out of date cash grab nightmare or a gateway to hell, built splinter by splinter by the devil himself.
What we can say for certain is that in 1896, a man named Edgar Brown, purchased a large plot of land just East of Taos and immediately went to work building what he claimed would be the epicenter of art and culture in New Mexico. The Blue Mesa Hotel. After its completion in 1896, Brown ran the day to day operations of the hotel and lived on the fourth floor for the remainder of his life. Edgar married a local woman, Gertrude Stein, with which he raised two sons, Charles and George. Unfortunately, Edgar Brown was taken by tuberculosis in 1907, and upon his death ownership of the hotel was passed to his sons. It still remains in the Brown family today, with Edgar’s great great Granddaughter Sabrina Robinson currently manning the reigns.
In the one hundred years following Edgar’s death, guests staying in the Blue Mesa have often claimed to hear his ghost coughing from the hallway just outside their door. But Mr. Brown isn’t alone. Another ghostly apparition you might hear are quiet whispers of help coming from your closet door. These are the Marden Children.
In 1971, while listening to the Beatles song, Strawberry Fields Forever, Joseph Marden believed he received a message from God. As it turned out, Joseph was the second coming of Christ, and God wanted Joseph to move to New Mexico and build a church. A church that would serve as the foundation for a new age. But first, God needed him to do one thing to prove his faith. He would need Joseph to kill his wife.
So, being the obedient holy man that he is, Joseph Marden does as God asks of him. He buys a gun. He puts a bullet in his wife’s skull. And he packs her up along with their two children into his 1965 Chrysler Newport and drove the 1800 miles from Clearwater, Florida, to Taos, New Mexico. Once Joseph arrived in Taos he assumed the next step would be obvious. God would give him another sign. After about two weeks of living out of their car, Joseph decided to move the family into a local hotel, The Blue Mesa. During the Marden Family’s two week stay in the Hotel other guests would often complain about a terrible odor emanating from their room.
One day while Joseph was away with the kids, Hotel staff searched the room and discovered the tubs containing the remains of Mrs. Marden. When Joseph arrived back the hotel, police were waiting in the lobby for him, but he noticed their presence and quickly ducked into another open hotel room. He barricaded the door and threatened to kill the children if anyone attempted to come inside. Joseph knew the police would never let him leave peacefully. So he did what he thought he had to do.... The story was largely forgotten until the early 2000s when it was featured on the TV Show, Killer Dads.
And interestingly enough, since the episodes airing, Blue Mesa Hotel guests have started sharing stories of children standing at the foot of their bed, waking them up in the middle of the night and asking for help. Others claim to hear loud knocking on the walls or whispers of help coming from the closet door.
If you hear the faint sound of crying baby you might actually be hearing the disembodied voice of Stephanie Jacobsen’s missing baby, Kenny. In the early morning hours of August 11, 1990, guests heard loud screams coming from Room 2312. A woman claimed to have woken up in the room with no memory of how she arrived. According to her story she had been in Stockton, California, when she went to sleep and then she woke up 1200 miles away at The Blue Mesa Hotel. In the weeks following the incident her story continued to get stranger and stranger.
Jacobsen claimed to have had an infant son prior to going to sleep in Stockton and after waking up in Taos, she’s the only person who remembers him. To this day, she believes that she somehow traveled into an alternate dimension, one in which her son, Kenny Jacobsen never existed. (Beat) We'll be back with more Haunted Hotels after a quick word from our sponsors.
GRAHAM: Why is any of this important? Because The Blue Mesa Hotel is also the place where Amy Kline claims to have woken up with no memory of how she arrived there. I’m Graham Anderson and this is The Subjective Truth.
AMY: I really don’t know what happened. I went straight from standing in the woods to seeing all blue to seeing all black and then blam, I’m in bed. I... I know no one believes me. I wouldn’t believe me. I mean it makes no sense at all.
GRAHAM: What doesn’t make any sense?
AMY: Outside of the obvious... it... I just... I don’t understand... Did I just go autopilot and walk to the Blue Mesa? Did someone attack me or bring me here? I don’t know what happened from the time I saw the lights in the woods to when I woke up in bed at the hotel. I’ve never even heard of the Blue Mesa Hotel. I had no fucking clue where I was until I saw the Blue Mesa logo on the nightstand.
GRAHAM: Do you know what room it was?
AMY: 1421. They call it the Writer’s Room. It’s some bullshit ghost story. You write a message and the spirit or whatever is supposed to write you back.
GRAHAM: Ah. Sounds fun, like a supernatural chatroom. But I take it you probably weren’t worried about any of that at the time.
AMY: Our clothes were folded up nice and neat sitting inside the dresser. Our shoes were sitting side by side under the bed. The recording equipment was all laid out and separated on a side table. Everything was so neat and orderly. As if it had just been unpacked.... That’s absolutely something my lazy ass would never do. So at that point I was pretty sure I wasn’t alone.
GRAHAM: Did you sense you were in any kind of danger?
AMY: I was just hoping Buddha had found me and brought me back here. I called out his name a few times. I checked the bathroom. I went outside and shouted in the parking lot to nothing. To no one.
GRAHAM: Did you speak with any Hotel employees?
AMY: Only one guest on the room ticket. My name. Paid for with my card. No mention of Buddha or anyone else. I found my cell phone and charger. Buddha’s cell kept going straight to voicemail. Over and over and over.
BUDDHA: (voicemail greeting) Hello? Oh, hey. (Pause) yeah. (pause) okay that sounds cool. We can definitely do that... (beat) once I answer my phone because this is a voicemail greeting.
AMY: He had one of those joke voicemails where you think someone answered... I... kept falling for it. Sort of. I mean I knew it was coming, but every time I heard him say “Hello” my heart stopped and I thought for a moment, okay, he’s okay. This is all over. I waited for hours. I honestly believed he would show up. And then the next morning, when I was still alone. I knew things weren’t going back to normal. I wasn’t sure what exactly to do to get the process started, so I called 911 and reported Buddha as a missing person.
DISPATCH: 911, where is your emergency?
AMY: (Inaudible)
DISPATCH: Hello? Do you need Police, Fire or Medic?
AMY: Police? I need to report a missing... (frustrated sigh)... My husband is missing.
DISPATCH: Where are you at right now?
AMY: I’m at The Blue Mesa Hotel in Taos.
DISPATCH: And how long has it been since you’ve seen your husband.
AMY: Four days.
DISPATCH: What’s your name, ma’am?
AMY: Amy Kline.
DISPATCH: And your husband’s name?
AMY: Buddha. Buddha Kline.
DISPATCH: You said Buddha.. B-U-D-D-H-A? Is that correct?
AMY: Yes.
DISPATCH: And where did you last see him?
AMY: I don’t know... we were out in the woods...
DISPATCH: Officers are en route and we’ll contact Taos Search and Rescue. But please stay on the line with me until they arrive. I want to compile as much information as possible. How old is Buddha?
AMY: Thirty-one.
DISPATCH: Okay, and what was Buddha wearing the last time you saw him?
GRAHAM: I don’t want to upset you Amy, but some of your critics... they want to know why you waited so long to report it.
AMY: Believe me, I know. Every hour matters, every second matters and I wasted a lot of them. I thought he was okay. He’s always okay. It was like I blinked and then suddenly there were a dozen people swirling around me, organizing the efforts to find Buddha.
GRAHAM: Did you call Buddha’s parents?
AMY: No. I... I really didn’t want to see them. I knew they would blame me for what happened. How could you not?
BETH: (on phone) Oh my god, as soon as we got the call, we were in the car and driving to New Mexico. I still had on my nightgown and I’m pretty sure Jerry was just wearing house slippers, boxers and an old nascar t-shirt. (laughs) We had to pick up some extra clothes at a gas station along the way. And that’s why... Lord help me... I look like such a dang fool on those news clips when we got there.
GRAHAM: (On phone) What do you mean?
BETH: (on phone) I appreciate you being kind to me, Graham, but really... I was wearing a Garfield, ‘I Hate Mondays shirt’ that was two sizes too big for me.
GRAHAM: (on phone) I guess I just...
BETH: (on phone) You, what? Thought I was the kind of lady who wears Garfield shirts?
GRAHAM: (on phone) No, well...
BETH: (on phone) I’m kidding, Graham. But the funny thing is... So many people must’ve gotten that impression because I received tons of Garfield junk. I mean, comic books. Shirts. Mugs. Socks. Board Games. Oh my god... the board games. Garfield Monopoly. Garfield Clue. Garfield Battleship.
GRAHAM: (on phone) Wait a second. You had me at Garfield Clue, but Garfield Battleship? That's not real.
BETH: (on phone) You know thats what I thought when I opened it. Wait a sec.
GRAHAM (V.O.): Two minutes later Beth sent a pic and there it was... Garfield Battleship.
GRAHAM: (on phone) How does it work? Is it just like Battleship? But with Jon and Odie instead...
BETH: (on phone) Hell, Graham, I don’t know. I never played the damn thing.
GRAHAM: (on phone) Do you still receive things from... I don’t want to say fans, but... concerned strangers... I guess?
BETH: (on phone) Not so much anymore. It's been months since anything came in. And you know it’s strange because when it was happening I was so annoyed by all the packages and everything, but when I think about it now I miss it. I really do. It was a nice distraction.
GRAHAM (V.O.): Taos Search and Rescue canvassed the area from June 14th to July 3rd. At its highest point the team swelled to over five hundred volunteer searchers. On the last day it was five. Despite the valiant effort made by Taos Search and Rescue, not a single trace of Buddha was ever found, and eventually, the day the Kline’s had been dreading arrived.
BETH: (on phone) It was a hard decision to make, but we had to make it. What really upset me was when I was back at home a few months later and I was watching a documentary about missing people. I saw that when some little boy went missing in Yosemite they brought out thousands of volunteers, hundreds of deputies, the National Guard and even the 82nd Airborne. Buddha didn’t get that kind of help. And, it’s not that I don’t love and appreciate every single person who helped search for my son, its just that... more of an effort could have been made and we will never get that chance again.
[MUTED BABY CRYING IN BETH'S BACKGROUND]
GRAHAM: (on phone) Is it a bad time? I can let you go and get back in touch tomorrow or something if you’re busy...
BETH: (on phone) No, I’m sorry I’m just... I’ve been a little all over the place lately. (sigh) we can keep going if you want.
GRAHAM: (on phone) Actually, I need to go get myself some Tacos, so I’ll let you go for now.
BETH: (on phone) Thank you for everything you're doing, Graham. It means the world to me.
GRAHAM: (on phone) Glad I could help even if this can all be kind of annoying at times. I’m the human equivalent of a Garfield Calendar.
BETH: (on phone) No, you’re so much more than that, Graham. You’re at least Garfield Battleship.
GRAHAM: (on phone) (laughs) Thank you.
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GRAHAM (V.O.): According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Database, 80 percent of all missing person cases are solved within the first twenty-four hours. 90 percent are solved within the first week. Ninety-Nine percent are solved within the first year.
AMY: I didn’t want to leave. There was this deep-seeded need to keep searching. This constant feeling of guilt for any time I spent doing anything else. The crowd had thinned out, and everyone was ready to give up, but I felt like I was abandoning him. I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, but I had no choice. Everyone was moving on with their lives so I had to get back in line.
GRAHAM: How did you get home?
AMY: Beth offered to let me ride with them, but I couldn’t do it. And I have this thing about flying. So, I found out the hard way that it’s a long twenty-four hour bus ride from Taos back to Austin. When I did finally get home I opened the door to a dust covered dead silent apartment full of spoiled food. All of our things were still where we left them. All these little dumb things that were once so important, but in that moment seemed so trivial and stupid. It started with some overdue library books I saw sitting on the coffee table. I couldn’t understand how these stupid books could try to act so important and entitled, so just... I trashed the place. I was throwing frames, kicking over chairs, dumping out drawers, and just screaming. Really screaming. Next thing I know there’s that distinct cop knock at my door. I answer it. They ask if anyone else is home. And I just started bawling my eyes out. Full on snotting on their badges. I told them about the trip and about Buddha going missing. And to their credit they listened to all of it. All of it. Then they gave me a warning about ‘keeping my music down’ and left.
GRAHAM: What did you do next? How were you able to transition back to, for lack of a better term, regular life?
AMY: I hated myself. I hated my life. I hated everyone and everything for a long while. I binged The Office on Netflix, took lots of naps, and eventually one day I woke up and I knew it was time to try and be normal again. I wasn’t really sure what to do next. I wanted to go back to Taos and keep searching, but I didn’t have much money. So I regretfully started a GoFundMe Campaign, but that didn’t last long. I had to take it down within the first week.
GRAHAM: Why?
AMY: I was receiving daily messages from strangers accusing me of trying to profit off my husbands death. Or other more direct messages saying that I should be raped or murdered or both in various orders.
GRAHAM: I get a little bit of that too. Not quite to that extent. Usually they just insult my nose. Amy, one thing that I’ve always wondered was why you decided to do the Tammy Nance interview?
AMY: Well... you don’t ever want your name to be a trending Twitter hashtag. After they found the Jeep, people were talking about me and Buddha. Everyone wanted to share their own opinion on who I was or what had really happened... I thought that by doing the Tammy Nance interview, I’d be taking control of the situation and how it was presented. How I was presented. If I stayed quiet, like I had been doing, other people would just fill in the blanks with whatever they wanted.
GRAHAM: Is that what we’re doing now with this podcast? Filling in blanks?
AMY: Yes, Graham, absolutely. When you first messaged me I could tell that you were probably going to make this podcast with or without my help, and I wanted to have some control over how I was going to be portrayed.
GRAHAM: There are these moments throughout your story when-
AMY: My story?
GRAHAM: Your account of what happened..
AMY: Sure... Listen, I’m not trying to be an asshole. I just want it to be clear with you and with everyone listening... This isn’t fiction. This isn’t some NoSleep story. This is my life.
GRAHAM: I understand...
AMY: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m all... Ugh... emotional. Just give me a sec.
GRAHAM: We can take another break if you want.
AMY: No, no, I’m fine.
GRAHAM: Amy, I understand where you’re coming from and I promise we’re going to do everything we can to find Buddha. And along the way we’re going to tell your side of the...
AMY: Story?
GRAHAM: I did it again.
AMY: It’s okay.
GRAHAM: What I am trying to say is that I trust you, Amy. And I hope that I continue to earn your trust.
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AMY: Have I told you about my encounter with the Men in Black?
GRAHAM: Not only do I not remember you ever mentioning it. I don’t remember ever hearing about it. You didn’t say anything about it during the Tammy Nance interview.
AMY: That’s because it happened after the interview. Maybe a week or two passed and I started noticing this Black Cadillac everywhere I went. I wasn’t going to a lot of places at that time, but the few places I did go, Sprouts, Specs, Work, Home, it was there... lurking.
GRAHAM: Did you ever see who was driving it?
AMY: Yep. I got a really good long look at both of them. One day I get a knock at my door and there’s these two guys standing there wearing the classic Men in Black uniform. They looked young and nervous. Sweaty. Pasty. But not all ‘out of this world or inhuman’ the way they are usually described as...
GRAHAM (V.O.) The first reported encounter with the Men In Black, came in June of 1947. A man named Howard Dahl was in a boat on the Puget Sound just off the coast of Washington when a saucer shaped airship appeared over the lake, hovered over his boat and dumped debris into the water. Then the saucer hovered away. The next day, when Dahl was eating at a local diner he was approached by a man in a black suit. According to Dahl, the mysterious man seemed to know all about what had occurred on the Puget Sound the previous day and warned Dahl to never again speak of what had happened. An ominous warning... which Dahl ignored as he went on to tell this story to many UFO Investigators and reporters, included Gray Barker, who related Dahl’s experience in his 1956 book, “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers.” Another encounter included in the book came from Albert K. Bender, the founder of the International Flying Saucer Bureau. Bender claimed he had been visited on multiple occasions by men in black suits who threatened him and demanded that he disband the organization. Bender, of course, remained defiant and continued his research into the UFO phenomenon until his death in 2016. In the many years since the release of Barker’s book, there have been countless reports of encounters with The Men in Black. They often visit UFO witnesses, alien abductees or those who are investigating the subject matter.
AMY: Its strange because I hate people and for some reason I found myself inviting these two guys into my living room. I sit on the couch and they sit on the other. One of them is incredibly shifty, looking around like he’s taking notes with his eyes. He never speaks, but the other one starts talking almost immediately, spitting out questions back to back, like, are you Amy Kline? Did you really see a UFO? Were you abducted? Did they impregnate you? Weird invasive shit like that.
GRAHAM: Some people who have had encounters with the Men in Black report a strong smell of sulfur accompanying them. Did you pick up on any strange scents while they were in your home?
AMY: Uh... sulfur, no. But these guys definitely didn’t smell great. I did my best to backtrack and answer his questions. After about twenty minutes they seemed satisfied with what I had said, stood up in unison and each shook my hand. Said they’d be in touch, but if I thought of anything else, to call them, and he hands me a business card. It says, Jason Woodworth, Official Moufon Research Agent. He even used a little gray alien clipart.
GRAHAM: Just a couple of awkward UFO Investigators.
AMY: Exactly. For a little bit there I legit thought I was talking to the Men in Black.
GRAHAM: They had to know what they were doing by dressing that way.
AMY: Oh, for sure it was definitely intentional. I looked out my blinds and saw them both get back into the Black Cadillac and drive away. Never heard from them again. Buddha would have absolutely loved that shit.
GRAHAM (V.O.): The legend of the Men in Black can all be traced back to one man, Gray Barker, the man who had published both Dahl's and Bender’s experiences in his book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. In 1998, fourteen years after Barker’s death, an associate of Barker’s named John Sherwood published an article in the Skeptical Inquirer titled, "Gray Barker: My Friend, The Myth Maker," in the article Sherwood details how he and Barker concocted the myth. According to Sherwood, Barker would often instruct Sherwood to make his short stories seem like real conspiracies and coverups rather than science fiction. Acting on Barker's advice, Sherwood wrote a short story titled, ‘Flying Saucers: Time Machines by Dr. Richard H. Pratt’ in which a fictional scientist, Dr. Richard H. Pratt, ruminates on UFOs and a possible connection to time travel. In his final book, ‘MIB: The Secret Terror Among Us’ Gray Barker spent an entire chapter of the book discussing Dr. Richard Pratt as if Pratt were a real person rather than a character in Sherwood's story. So to summarize, Gray Barker and John Sherwood exaggerated UFO claims, and sometimes even invented them out of whole cloth in an attempt to mislead the public and sell more books. In his 1998 confession, Sherwood apologized for his role in what he called the Men In Black Hoax.
[PHONE DIALING AND RINGING]
ODETTE: (phone) This is Odette at The Blue Mesa Hotel, how may I help you?
GRAHAM: (phone) Hello, my name is Graham Anderson and I’m—
ODETTE: (phone) Is that Anderson with an O or an E?
GRAHAM: (phone) With an O. I actually have some questions I’d like to ask first if you don’t mind.
ODETTE: (phone) Not a problem we’re here to help.
GRAHAM: (phone) Well, like I was saying earlier, I’m Graham Anderson. I have a podcast, The Subjective Truth, and we’re doing a story about one of your previous guests.
ODETTE: (phone) The Marden Family?
GRAHAM: (phone) No. It’s about Amy Kline.
ODETTE: (phone) The missing hiker’s wife? The one who was searching for the Fenn Treasure?
GRAHAM: (phone) That’s the one. Well, I was wondering if, during June of last year, you had security cameras at the hotel?
ODETTE: (phone) We absolutely did. And still do. Security is something we take very seriously at The Blue Mesa. We like to say that the only thing you have to be scared of are the ghosts.
GRAHAM: (phone) Is there any chance you’d still be able to pull footage?
ODETTE: (phone) I’m sure if we needed to it wouldn’t be a problem..
GRAHAM: (phone) If I were to give you a date-
ODETTE: (phone) Oh no. I’m sorry, but it’s our policy to only cooperate with law enforcement agencies. Not, you know, podcasters.
GRAHAM: (phone) Right. Right.
ODETTE: (phone) Is there anything else I can help you with?
GRAHAM: (phone) Actually... yeah. Room 1421, is it available for extended stays? I believe it’s also called, The Writer’s Room.
ODETTE: (phone) You have great taste. The Writer’s Room is my personal favorite. I think you’ll really enjoy it. When would you like to stay with us?
GRAHAM (V.O.): Before I make the long strange journey out to Taos, New Mexico and the Blue Mesa Hotel, I want to take some time off from behind the mic and come meet all you wonderful listeners. Join me on Saturday, November 6th, at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, for the first ever live recording of The Subjective Truth. T If you have information, theories or ideas about what might have happened to Buddha Kline, please give us a Call at 575-224-2262.
[VOICEMAIL BEEP]
DAVE FROM BUFFALO: Hey this is Dave from Buffalo. Loving the show Graham, but I do have an issue with one thing and it's not you, it’s a problem that really extends all over the paranormal community. All these sightings of tall pale humanoid cryptids like The Rake, The Dover Demon and now Amy’s cave monster... they all sound to me like a bear with mange. I know you’re probably thinking, no way, it didn’t look anything like a bear. Well, neither does a bear with mange. They look like walking skeleton monsters with gray patchy skin and skinny claw-like hands. Sound familiar? Just google it. See for yourself.
[VOICEMAIL BEEP]
CALLER (CLAIRVOYANT): I've been a clairvoyant my entire life. I don't necessarily believe in aliens, but there has definitely been an entity from the fourth dimension communicating with me since my childhood.
[VOICEMAIL BEEP]
CALLER (BIGFOOT HUNTER): Graham, it is an absolute disappointment that no one has posed the most obvious theory. There are Bigfoots and Sasquatches all over that area. I’m not necessarily saying he was kidnapped and turned into a Bigfoot’s pet. But it does remain a possibility.
GRAHAM: We'll be back soon with more of The Subjective Truth. Until then, stay safe and don't become a story.
