Hunting Warhead Introduces: Dirtbag Climber from Uncover

September 15, 2025·35 min·3 clips

Rob Carrico found a charred SUV in the woods, but hours later learned it contained the body of climber Jesse James.

A CBC introduction leads elsewhere. Stephen Chua opens Dirtbag Climber, a five-part investigation into Jesse James and his unsolved death. The place is Squamish, and the starting point is blunt: a dirtbag rock climber found dead in British Columbia in June 2017. From there, the story spreads into false identities, movement across North America, and a past Jesse kept mostly offstage. Online, he was not hard to find. Friends remember him in climbing forums and Facebook groups, pushing back on who got sponsorships, company attention, and public support. Jackie and Joe Wong both recall that side of him after his death. Then the picture gets harder to hold. Joe describes a friendly climbing partner who answered questions about work or earlier years with scraps, never enough to make a clean story. Jesse said he had money, had played tennis, played chess, invested, and did not need a job. Then Joe finds Psychology of Seduction, a book tied to Jesse's name and pickup-artist thinking. Suddenly privacy looks less simple. Chua keeps the uncertainty alive, letting friends speak before the darker material takes over. The credits place Dirtbag Climber as the newest Uncover season, with the next episode already in that feed.

As heard by us

A grave, patient opener about a climber, false identities, and a death that stays complicated.

A Squamish climber found dead in June 2017, along with the dozens of false identities tied to him, anchors this first episode. Stephen Chua handles the material with care, beginning on a stark note before widening into an unsolved homicide and a portrait of Jesse James that…

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Why you'd press play

A murder victim with dozens of false identities, and a case that widens from Squamish to North America.

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