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on August 25th 2020 Cassandra Cantrell went missing from her hometown near Tacoma Washington Cassandra's mother
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said that her daughter had a shopping day planned and would be meeting up with her friend the next day
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I remember I was late by about 15 minutes I texted her hey where are you hey I'm
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sorry I'm late I got no response Alexandra McNary said she left panicked messages until Cassandra's voicemail box
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was full she never just went dark like that before a month before she disappeared Cassandra had
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confided a secret to her best friend she texted me a positive pregnancy test and said I think I might be preggers
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the day Cassandra was supposed to meet Alexandra but never showed up was what would have been her first ultrasound
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appointment for detective Franz helmke learning that Cassandra was pregnant during the time
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of her disappearance changed everything this is what is now peaking my my interest normally in a situation where
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pregnant woman disappears you look at who the partner is first correct Cassandra had told Alexandra that the
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father of her baby was Colin Dudley an ex-boyfriend she was still in touch with she was very excited she
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talked about you know names and games she wanted at the baby shower she had she had a Amazon registry
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already made Cassandra was hesitant about telling Colin because he had mentioned that he
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didn't want to have kids but Alexandra says Cassandra claimed he took the news well she called me and she said well I
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told him and it went better than expected he was calm and said not to worry about it
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and that they would talk detective helmke wondered if Colin knew where Cassandra was Colin sat and talked
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with Detective Helm key on his front porch in recorded conversation talking to other people talking to Cassandra's
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family and some other friends they reported that she was about 10 weeks pregnant and
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what we've been hearing is that she's been telling people that you are the father
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no way now hell no Colin was adamant that he was not the father of Cassandra's child in fact he
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insisted he hadn't seen Cassandra since they broke up in 2006 except once when he ran into her at the mall do you have
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any no contact with no messages or no Facebook or anything no helmkey believed Colin was lying but
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could he prove it Cassandra's mother Marie was anxious for any morsel of information and she had done her part
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combing through Cassandra's old phone bills where she noticed a mystery number that kept reappearing I said so okay so
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what's that number and she tells me that I immediately know it's Colin helmke wanted forensic investigators to take a
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closer look at Dudley's phone which he had taken when they spoke on Dudley's front porch investigators obtained the
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phone records for both Cassandra and Dudley's phones they discovered Cassandra was outside Dudley's house at
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8 49 a.m on August 25th the day she went missing Detective Ryan salmon said these
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texts were deleted from Dudley's phone she said I'm a bit early that okay and he says he says yep come on down those
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two messages were both deleted out of his phone and so the two phones are then pinpointed in that same location at the
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house for a couple of hours right about a month after Cassandra went missing investigators obtained GPS
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coordinates from the black box of Dudley's truck they noticed that Dudley had driven his truck to a wooded area by
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a ravine early on August 26th the day after Cassandra disappeared detectives went to that Ravine and found
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Cassandra's remains Colin Dudley was arrested and charged with first-degree murder it was premeditated it was
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literally cold-blooded on November 14 2022 Colin Dudley pleaded guilty to first-degree
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murder and was sentenced to 26 years in prison I I have no words that would even
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encompass the frustration anger sadness heartache Cassandra's family and friends were
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upset that someone guilty of murdering a pregnant woman would only get 26 years in prison
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you think the system is broken very broken in this case how is it that somebody can do what he did and not have
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to spend his life in prison with good behavior Dudley could be free again as early as 2044. you should never
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see the light of day again Cassandra's family wants to make sure that no one else suffers the way they
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say they have they want a new law that if someone is guilty of knowingly killing a pregnant woman they would
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automatically get a life sentence no possibility parole you die in jail until there's any sort of resemblance of
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Justice I'm not letting this go