About

On January 3rd, 2020, something violent happened to Sean Stevenson inside a homeless shelter in Missoula, Montana. January 3rd was also the day I hit send on an email expressing my intent to leave my job at a local non-profit after more than a decade of non-profit work, including 7 years at the same homeless shelter where Sean was attacked.

On January 3rd, 2006, John Engen was sworn in to his position as Mayor of Missoula, a position he would be elected to 5 times, making him Missoula’s longest serving Mayor. After my departure from non-profit work, I set out to expose Missoula’s corruption, taking direct aim at one of Mayor Engen’s favorite tools of control: the Tax Increment Financing scheme for local redevelopment projects.

On January 5th, 2020, Sean Stevenson was removed from life support inside a hospital room at St. Patrick’s hospital in Missoula, Montana. This decision to end Sean’s life was made by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office in its capacity as the Coroner for Missoula County. Sean’s family was told of his death AFTER this fateful decision was made without their knowledge or approval. How could this happen? 

On January 5th, 2022, I uploaded the documentary Engen’s Missoula to my Vimeo account. In March, Mayor Engen announced he was battling Pancreatic cancer. On August 15th, 2022, Mayor Engen died in office as the longest serving Mayor in Missoula’s history.

One-3-Twenty is something I still don’t understand, but it’s turned my world upside down. The local tax uprising I documented was followed by a global fear pandemic, then more mysterious deaths emerged. What is happening here? And why have synchronicities become like a storm of activated meaning in my life?

That is what I’m trying to figure out.