Why is the Incline Village, Nevada area so murdery, by episodes?

Incline Village sits on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, in western Nevada, close to the California border. It was founded in 1882 as a logging town and named for its incline railway, which lifted timber 1,400 feet before a gravity flume dropped it into a 3,000-foot tunnel to Carson City. Population in 2025: 9,440.

The Incline Village area spreads round the lake and out into the valleys. South Lake Tahoe is 23 miles away at the southern end, on the state line in El Dorado County, with US 50 running through it. Dayton, 21 miles off, is a former gold-mining town twenty minutes from Carson City. Minden is 23 miles out.

Five episodes and thirteen murders put the area 14th overall and first in Nevada. Ten of them come from two 2017 episodes, 11 and 12, which both work the same pair of cases at South Lake Tahoe, dated 1981 and May 1987. The other three are single murders: Dayton in February 1993, Incline Village in May 1998, Minden in February 2008. That is three decades, and most of the weight sits at the south end of the lake.