Situated at Lake Mohave’s southern end, Bullhead City, Arizona, is a small desert community on the banks of the Colorado River straddling both the California and Nevada borders. On April 3, 1974, the Bullhead City Volunteer Fire Department found the charred bodies of eight-year-old Scott Johnson and six-year-old Peter Hill inside a burned shed.

The coroner concluded the boys died accidentally, suggesting they were probably playing with matches and gasoline when the shed caught fire. The firemen disagreed, believing the shed was the scene of murder.

Scott Johnson

Less than fifty yards from Scott Johnson’s home, the roughly 7’ x 9’ shed had exterior stone walls, a wooden floor, and a log ceiling covered with concrete. Dating back many years, it had been used by copper miners as a powder magazine to store supplies, then as a camp for Army war games, and later as a storage building for skeet and trap shooting enthusiasts.

By the 1970s, it had become a playhouse for area kids.

The Shed

The firemen noticed the shack’s door had not been locked or obstructed in any way, meaning the boys could have escaped by simply pushing the door open. In addition, a few feet outside the door lay a 2” x 11” wooden plank. A small, charred circle on one side of the board suggested it been used to prevent the boys’ escape through the door. The firemen believed two people tried to hold the door closed, but because it was metal, they needed insulation from the heat and used the wooden plank with one person on each end.

Despite the firemen’s suspicions, the boys’ deaths were ruled accidental, largely because they were known to play with fire and matches. Peter is believed to have caused a small fire at his home shortly before this incident.

Police Photograph

Four years later, however, New Mexico inmate Dale Meador told a story seemingly supporting the firemen’s suspicions.

Meador, who lived in Bullhead City at the time of the fire, told police he saw two men forcing two young boys into the powder magazine. He said one of the boys looked as though he were drugged while the other boy was fighting. When Meador inquired as to what was occurring, he said one of the men told him the boys had seen them smoking marijuana and told him, in a threatening manner, to mind his own business. Meador says the men used a gas can to burn the shack with the two boys inside.

Meador said he did not know the men at the time but became acquainted with one of them while they were imprisoned in Nevada in 1976. He identified that man as Marc Stubblefield and said he identified his accomplice as Mark Walby.

After questioning Stubblefield, authorities were satisfied he was not involved in the fire and no charges were filed against him. They believe Meador concocted the story in an effort to attain a reduced sentence and dismissed his claims as uncredible.

Was It Murder?

Other witnesses, however, also believe the boys were murdered, and what they reported seemed to confirm Meador’s story.

John Kalous and Tena Rhee, both teenagers living in Bullhead City at the time, reported seeing two men around the shed shortly before it was torched. After noticing them, one of the men ran from the scene. They believe their statements were ignored by police because of their youth and previous scrapes with the law.

Kalous was later imprisoned for aggravated assault and the then-married Tena Moe also served time in prison, but I could not find for what charge.

John Kalous and Tina Moe

Three weeks before the fire, Scott had found a $100 bill near the shack that some suspect may have been from a drug drop. It is theorized the boys may have been murdered because they came upon a drug transaction or related illegal activity.

In 1989 the new Chief of Detectives for Mojave County re-opened the case as a murder investigation. Many of the case files, as well as physical evidence, however, have been misplaced or discarded. Unless a new witness comes forward or there is a deathbed confession, it may never be known who killed the boys in the shed if they were, in fact, murdered.

Were The Boys’ Deaths Drug-Related?

Peter Hill’s family accepted the ruling of accidental death; Scott Johnson’s family did not.

I could not find a picture of Peter Hill.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9563978/peter-hill#

In 1994, Dale Meador sought a preliminary injunction restraining the New Times, Inc., from publishing an article by Terry Greene suggesting he may have had involvement in the boys’ deaths. The court denied his request.

Meador later served time California for burglary, robbery, and murder. Some sources say he is currently imprisoned in Nevada, but the Nevada Department of Corrections does not list anyone by his full name of “Gordon Dale Meador” as currently incarcerated in the state. A person by that name is, however, imprisoned in Arizona.

I could not find a picture of Dale Meador.

Meador’s Lawsuit

SOURCES:

• Arizona Republic
• Phoenix New Time
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Yuma Daily Sun