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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brit. [music] And you guys, sometimes the hardest cases to
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crack aren't always the ones with nothing to go on. They're often the ones where everybody seems to know something,
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but they're just too scared to talk. Because today's story isn't about someone disappearing into the dark
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alone. [music] It's about a young man who vanished in front of his quote unquote friends from
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work. their first version. He panicked, pulled the car over, hopped out, and booked it. But the only people who say
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they saw what happened are the same ones who can't keep their stories straight. And when the truth keeps bending like
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that, it's not confusion. It's not bad memory, usually it's a bold-faced lie. This is the story of Christopher Cole
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Thomas. It's just after 3:00 a.m. on Black Friday in 2016. But in the small town of
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Benson, North Carolina, no one's lining up to snag a deal on the latest iPhone or the biggest TV. It's quiet. Most
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people are asleep [music] and the streets are practically empty, which is giving time for a couple of officers to
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finish up some paperwork in the police department parking lot. And it's in that quiet moment when two men walk up. Their
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names are Julian Vayz Jr. and Jeremy Carpenter. Now, they're not panicked or screaming or anything like that. They
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just need a little bit of help. They're passing through after visiting Julian's family for Thanksgiving. [music] They
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were on their way back to Minnesota where they both work, but now they don't have keys to their car. And the story of
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how that happened is weird. They say that they were traveling with a third buddy, Christopher Thomas, who goes by
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Cole, and he's the one who was driving, but out of nowhere, he started acting [music] paranoid, and before they knew
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it, he pulled over, took the keys, jumped out, and then like ran until he dropped out of sight. They don't know
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why or where he went. I mean, Cole couldn't have even known where he was because he's not from around there. He's
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from Florida. The only half explanation that Julian offers up is that he had heard rumors that Cole might have quote
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mental problems, but he wasn't even really sure. They said they tried looking for him themselves, but they
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can't find him, and now they're just stuck. Now, the story is a bit odd, sure, but not enough to like set off
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alarm bells for these officers because even though it's an ungodly hour, these guys don't appear to be under the
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influence or anything like that. So, the officers do what they can. The guys point them in the direction of North
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Johnson Street where they say Cole ran off. [music] They check the few places that might still be open for gas or
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coffee, but there's just no sign of him. No one who saw or heard anything either.
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So within hours, that's pretty much it because as far as police are concerned, this sounds like a grown man who just
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chose to leave. That is not a crime. >> Yeah, but he didn't know anyone else in the area, did he?
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>> No. And honestly, Cole didn't even really know these guys all that well. They had just met while working a
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contract construction gig up in Minnesota. It sounds like Cole basically didn't have plans to go home to Florida
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for Thanksgiving, so he kind of just like tagged along with them for something to do.
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>> And was it just for like the long weekend? >> Yeah, like they all had to be back at
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work on Monday, which I think is part of the reason that Julian and Jeremy are stressed about getting stranded without
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the keys. Now, they eventually call up a locksmith, but strangely when he gets there, he ends up finding the keys right
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underneath the car, >> so [music] the guys head back. >> They just leave Cole. >> Yeah. I mean like he ran off on his own.
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They have to get back for work. I mean they filed a missing person's report with the officers that they talked to.
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So they go home. >> Jeez, what friends? >> I know. And the thing is though, like
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you don't know the half of it because Brett, even though they told police what they say happened, neither of them
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actually bothered trying to reach Cole's family down in Florida. Like you report
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him missing, but you don't call anyone. So, his parents are completely unaware that their son is missing until Sunday
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when they get an out ofthe- blue call from police in North Carolina. To say they were shocked is a gross
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understatement cuz they didn't even know Cole was going to North Carolina. Not that he has to like tell them he's 22,
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but it's kind of weird that he didn't even mention [music] it because he had exchanged texts with his dad on
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Thanksgiving. Just like a simple, "Hey, love you. Enjoy the turkey." But there was zero mention of this crosscountry
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road trip, >> which seems like it's something that would at least come up in conversation,
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>> you'd think. So, the family gets word of this. They get this phone call and the
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only explanation that they're getting is that their son just like ran off into the pitch black in a place that he had
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probably never been to or even heard of before. And they had never heard the names Julian or Jeremy since Cole had
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only been on that Minnesota job site for like less than a month. But get this. Cole's dad, his name's Chris, he told
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our reporter Madison, that even though like his mind was like racing in that moment, he actually did know someone
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that he could call. [music] The guy that Cole had been working under as an electrical apprentice. This is
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someone who he knew was working with this same crew up in Minnesota. So he he at least has a name, Steven, right? So
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Chris didn't have his number, but like lightning, he looks through Cole's Facebook friends, [music] finds Steven,
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messages his cell, says like, "Call me ASAP." And within minutes, Steven is hitting him up, and he spits out
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something like, "Oh, Mr. Chris, I've been trying to get a hold of you." Which right away, Chris is thinking like, "No,
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you most definitely have not. Like, I'm not a hard guy to find." >> I mean, he could have done exactly what
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dad did and found him on Facebook. >> Facebook. Yes. And Chris is listed as Cole's father on his Facebook page. Oh,
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so he's like right there. >> Easy. But anyways, he doesn't harp on this. He is just listening. And what
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Steven says next is far from reassuring. He wasn't on this getaway with these guys, but he sure seems to know a thing
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or two about it because he starts rambling on something about a strip search, about Cole freaking out, and
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then he says something that stops Chris cold. I think they killed him. >> They who? That is exactly what Chris is
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trying to figure out. He is asking all of the questions like a strip search for what? Why was he freaking out? Who are
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you talking about? And that's when Steven starts filling in some of the blanks. He tells him that the guys Cole
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was traveling with, Julian and Jeremy. They weren't just passing through North Carolina for Thanksgiving. They had
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driven there all the way from Minnesota to buy drugs. And he says they went to meet up with some like very dangerous
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dudes. And afterwards, something must have gone wrong. And this is like the foundation shaking for Cole's parents.
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Like, this is never the kind of story they would ever expect to be hearing involving their son. I mean, obviously,
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you never really know who might be struggling with substance use or fall into a lifestyle of dealing, whatever.
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But Cole, like, this was never something they ever had to worry about with him before. like he grew up in a small town,
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graduated as saludiatoran of his high school, earned some scholarship money to attend the University of Florida, and
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had plans to go into medicine, inspired by his younger brother who has autism. He was smart, he was driven, but like a
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lot of people in their early 20s, he was still figuring things out. So, after a few years of college, he was like
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feeling kind of burned out. He decided he just wanted to take a break from school. He was motivated to like make
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some money, get real world experience, learning a new trade. It meant traveling. It meant working long hours
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with his hands and being introduced to new people from widely different backgrounds. But to his family, it
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sounded just like this temporary detour, a way to save up some cash. And look, his mom Kathy even told us that Cole was
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seemingly so open with her. He even admitted that he tried some party drugs here and there when he was in college.
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So, no, this situation that he's in, not impossible, but traveling across state lines for a drug deal, like that's the
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part that like it just didn't sound like the Cole she knew. >> And for him to change that much in just
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one month, right? It's not like he's been gone for a long time. Like, it makes zero sense. Of course, Cole's dad
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doesn't want to believe what he's hearing, but that's not a risk that he's willing to take. So within hours of that
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call with Steven, he and Cole's mom, Kathy, throw their things in the truck and they start driving from Florida to
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North Carolina because if there is even a small chance that their son is still out there hurt or scared, hiding or
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otherwise, they are going to find him themselves. Now, the drive from Florida to North Carolina should take less than
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8 hours. But that weekend with holiday traffic, it takes a heck of a lot longer. And the whole time it is just
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like absolutely brutal being in that car. The drive is a blur for both of them as they try to wrap their heads
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around what they've just been told. So when they finally do get to Benson, North Carolina, it is the middle of the
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night and they don't waste a second. They go straight to the police station and tell officers the bits and pieces
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that they heard from Steven. Even though it's not much to go on, it's like, you know, more than they had gotten from
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Julian and Jeremy or more than they told police when they were in town. So the cops when they hear this, they call
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Jeremy and Julian back up and like try to get to the bottom of what's really going on. Now when they reach them, the
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men are supposedly still traveling back to Minnesota. And at first, Julian and Jeremy stick to the same story. But
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officers don't just ask once and accept their answer. I don't know if they eventually rat out Steven as their
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source or what, but at some point these two end up admitting it, or like some of
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it. [music] It's true. They didn't go all that way for mom's mashed potatoes. It was to buy meth. Not like a ton, I
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don't think, but like enough for them. Enough to maybe sell to some of the guys at their job site back in Minnesota. And
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Julian is from North Carolina. So, he is the one who had this hookup down there.
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They went to the town over from Benson. It's called Mount Olive. And that's where they met up at a house of this guy
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who Julian knows. His name was Rudalfo Deleon Jr. aka Rudy. And they also met with apparently Rudy's buddy Anthony
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James Jr. who goes by TJ. So Rudy and TJ. Now Julian and Jeremy don't really say what else happened or who else might
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have been there, just that they did this deal and then they left. And sometime later in the car, the story that they
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first told kind of picks back up. Cole becomes frantic. But this go around they're not saying anything about mental
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health struggles anymore. They're a little bit more honest. They say that he was maybe paranoid about the drug deal
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and thought that they were being followed by the cops. So that's why he ran. Now investigators are sensing that
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like something is up that maybe they still don't have the full story. So together from like what we got from
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Steven, this theory starts to emerge that something with the drug deal went wrong or Cole who may have just been the
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driver because Julian and Jeremy they didn't have their licenses. Maybe he realized that he was in way over his
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head and like freaked out. >> If that part about him taking off [music] is even true, though. I mean,
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the truth is at this point, police don't even have proof that Cole was ever in Benson at all. Like, they all they have
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is that report from them, right? For all they know, the entire story about Cole pulling over there, running away could
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have been made up to cover for whatever really happened to him to keep police from knowing Cole's real last
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whereabouts. though, that whole part about them being like 40 minutes away over in the town of Mount Olive when
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they met up with whoever else, that might actually be legit because police tracked down video from a Handymark
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convenience store there from earlier in the night. This would have been Thanksgiving Day. Yeah, the department
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wouldn't share that video with us, but we spoke to Benson Police Chief Greg Percy about it, [music] and he said that
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Cole, Julian, and Jeremy can all be seen on this video between like 11:37 p.m. and [music] 11:50 p.m. This is just
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about 3 hours before Julian and Jeremy would eventually report Cole missing to the cops.
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>> But at this time, Chief Percy says that everything seems completely normal. Cole
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goes in, grabs a drink. Apparently, he doesn't look paranoid at all. In fact, nothing about his behavior stands out as
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far as Chief Percy can tell. >> Knowing that their son was somewhere around this area in North Carolina,
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right? Like we know we can put him there. >> Paul's parents, Chris and Kathy, know
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that this is going to have to become home base for them for a while. >> So, they go back to Florida. They pack
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up what they can and then they turn right back around and head to North Carolina. This time with an entire
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travel trailer. and they set up at a campground nearby. Every day they're out putting up signs. They're working on
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billboards. They're driving roads, checking ditches, using search dogs, combing through areas that even have
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already been cleared just in case something was missed. All while police are collecting surveillance footage from
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Mount Olive, from Benson, and parts in between. And back then, Chief Percy wasn't chief. He was captain. And it was
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his job to go through all of the footage that they were collecting, hours of it.
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And it takes him weeks, completely consumes him. I mean, talk about bringing your work home with you. Percy
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cannot just leave this at the office. He's literally reviewing footage at home in the night, like at all hours, and
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it's actually in one of those late nights at his kitchen table in December when he finally catches something. Now,
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the footage he is looking at is from a camera at the Walgreens in Benson, [music]
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and it's pointed at the parking lot, but you can also kind of see like across North Johnson Street where you get like
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the slightest view of a bank in its parking lot. And it's pretty good as like video like footage goes or like it
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would be if you were in the Walgreens parking lot, like close to the camera. But that's not where he spots movement.
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At 1:10 a.m., he sees something moving through the frame in the distance. So he like spots it, he rewinds, he zooms in,
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hits play again. When he realizes what he's looking at, [music] he gets this rush of adrenaline. He actually wakes up
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his wife to show her, too. Because for the first time, he can prove it. Cole was actually in Benson, like a 5-minute
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walk from where the car was left, [music] just like Julian and Jeremy said, except he didn't run off [music]
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alone. In the footage, Cole is just walking and there's someone following on foot right behind him.
00:15:06
In the parks and forest you love, there are stories waiting to be told. I'm Dillia Deira, the host of Park
00:15:12
Predators, [music] a true crime podcast that reminds you sometimes the most beautiful places hide the darkest
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secrets. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. At exactly 1:10 a.m. in the top middle
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of the screen, you can see two figures and like only the bottom halves of their bodies are visible. And at first it
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looks like they're walking like right across frame. But when they disappear behind something dark and then they
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don't reappear, you realize that like the depth perception is a little weird without context. [music] And the two
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people are actually walking right to left on screen, but I think they're walking behind the bank.
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>> And so it takes 20 seconds, but then you see them reappear on the other side of
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the building. Police determined this is Cole. And walking slowly behind him, maybe kind of even to the side is one of
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his fellow travel companions who they determined to be Jeremy Carpenter. Now, it's not like he's sneaking up on him or
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anything. Cole most certainly knows that Jeremy was there. I mean, to me, it even
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looks like Cole is like gesturing like maybe they're talking as they walk off camera.
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Now, of the 3 hours of footage from that Walgreens camera that we got from Cole's
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family, that's it. Just like 30 seconds that eagle eyes Percy caught. But it was
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enough to prove that the guys were still lying to them. >> Yes, he was in Benson, but he did not
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walk off alone. So when they go back to Jeremy and confront him with this, the story evolves again. Not a completely
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different version or anything. It's like Jeremy just drops another breadcrumb. Something like, "Oh yeah, okay. So after
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Cole got out and walked off, I went after him so that I could calm him down or whatever." And then at some point he
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says that they end up outside a nearby church. And supposedly one that's like a pretty short walk from the bank. So it
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wouldn't have been like long after we saw them on that camera. And suddenly it sounds like Jeremy too is convinced that
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[music] they're being followed because he's now saying that he's just as freaked out as Cole. Wait, where's
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Julian in all of this? >> I don't know. I think he's actually staying behind with the car. Like he's
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not seen on any of the footage and it's not part of his story that Julian's like
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with them. >> Okay. >> But anyways, Jeremy and Cole are supposedly at this church and according
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to Jeremy, Cole says that he has to pee. So he walks off to go take care of that.
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>> And that's when Jeremy tells police that he like gets down on his knees and starts [music] praying
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>> for what? >> Maybe that like if somebody's really after them, they don't find them or
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maybe that they come out of whatever this is. Okay, >> I don't know. But like per Jeremy, by
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the time he says amen, Cole's just gone. Except later another breadcrumb drops and he admits, "Well, okay, actually
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while I was out there, I did hear a car door." But then that car door sound eventually turns into I think I may have
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heard gunshots. >> So he's saying someone picked up Cole or now maybe shot Cole while he himself was
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>> praying. >> Praying, >> I guess. But he says that essentially like when he opens his eyes and he sees
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that Cole is gone that like he he actually does say he like tries to go look for him. But after he looks and
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looks and he can't find Cole anywhere. At some point he realizes he needs some water. According to him, he's diabetic.
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So he actually like really needs it. And lo and behold, one of the only places still open in a small town at this hour,
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he spots those like bright golden arches. Mickey De's. Yes. Now, police are actually able to verify that he went
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to the McDonald's that night because in more surveillance footage that police got that again Cole's family shared with
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us, there goes Jeremy by himself walking into the parking lot. It looks like he's
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like speaking to someone who works there, maybe like seeing if he needs to go in or maybe he could just go through
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the drive-thru. He ends up walking through the drive-thru and he gets his cup of water just after 2:20 in the
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morning. No coal in sight >> and no Julian either. No, Julian either, but he has to meet back up with Julian
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at some point somehow because we know that they're together like 40 minutes after this talking to cops and reporting
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that Cole ran off. That was at like 3:00 a.m. >> But here's the super interesting part.
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Julian and Jeremy aren't just alone the rest of the night. Obviously, the police
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and later a PI brought on by Cole's family [music] get phone data for all the men that
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night. And based on location data, it seems like Jeremy and Julian are still with and around Rudy and TJ sometime
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after Cole goes missing. >> And where was Cole's phone? >> Well, I think everyone originally made
00:20:03
the assumption that he walked off with it. That's what you would think, right? Turns out that was a wrong assumption
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because when they finally got Jeremy and Julian to come back to North Carolina to
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be questioned in person, they were like, "Oh, yeah. By the way, here you go. >> Wait, they had Cole's phone
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>> this whole time. >> Why didn't they tell police that? >> I don't have an answer for that. Like,
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it might be as simple as nobody asked, but like they're asking for it now. >> Yeah.
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>> And they get it. Not only do they have the breadcrumbs that Jeremy and Julian
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have been dropping, now they actually have a digital trail that shows Cole's movements the whole night.
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>> And lined up with the other phones, it tells an interesting story, one that the
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family's private investigator, David Marshburn, really helps put together by dumping all of the data points into an
00:21:01
app called Cellhawk. If law enforcement agencies aren't using things like this, this is my PSA. I mentioned a similar
00:21:07
application, Badge app, in the Melissa Cas case recently. These programs are for law enforcement and they take
00:21:13
basically huge data dumps, put them into a map that you can actually like see and
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make sense of, >> like processes the data, >> something that tells a story right now.
00:21:22
Just like the surveillance footage showed, the phone puts Cole at the Handymark Convenience Store in Mount
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Olive at 11:38 p.m. on November 24th. They now know that this is after the drug deal took place. From there, Cole's
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phone starts moving, and it seems like they're making their way there for a while, but then at some point, they
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start like cutting through random side roads, and it looks like they like are like looping back. Their phones show
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continuous movement from Mount Olive all the way to Benson [music] from 11:52 p.m. to 10:07 a.m. And 10:07 a.m. is
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when their phones finally come to rest near where Cole pulled the car over. And here's what's strange. We know that Cole
00:22:07
and Jeremy get out of the car and walk away, but it doesn't look like their phones move. From 107 on November 25th
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to a little after 3:45 a.m., their phones just stay [music] put. presumably left behind in the car when they took
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off, which like I don't know why you would leave your phone behind, right? >> But and when confronted with this data,
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Jeremy and Julian eventually say as much that Cole left his phone behind in the car and ran off. But after they report
00:22:35
Cole missing to police, the phones start moving again, including Kohl's, [music]
00:22:41
the guys say that what they did is they called Rudy to come pick them up so that
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they had somewhere to stay while they waited for the locksmith instead of just like waiting with the car.
00:22:50
>> But this is odd, right? Like the fact that Cole's phone is moving to, not just
00:22:55
like in the car. >> Yes, he's missing at this point. And instead of leaving his phone in the car
00:23:00
in case he comes back, they take it with them as they all leave Benson completely
00:23:07
traveling back towards Mount Olive. And just after 4:00 a.m., Cole's phone goes dark. Investigators suspect that
00:23:16
everyone in that group wised up and eventually turned off anything tracking their location at that point.
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>> That's not good. >> No. especially when you hear what comes next. Cole's phone does eventually come
00:23:32
back on [music] hours later, but it's not in Benson where he supposedly walked off. It is still over in Wayne County.
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>> Is that where like Mount Olive is where Rudy is? >> Mount Olive is in Wayne County. Yeah,
00:23:47
but like Wayne County encompasses more than just Mount Olive. And all police would tell us was that Cole's phone was
00:23:54
somewhere in Wayne County, which means whatever happened to Cole. [music] It sounds like it didn't end in Benson.
00:24:03
Now, at some point when Cole's phone is turned back on, for some odd reason, Jeremy and Julian just start repeatedly
00:24:12
calling it. >> I mean, to make it like look like they were looking for him, maybe. Or
00:24:17
investigators think it might be that they were trying to get into the phone possibly to get rid of stuff. Like maybe
00:24:24
they thought somehow like if if they could if it was locked, right? If you answer it while it's a call, could they
00:24:28
break into it? I don't know. Like it's password protected. That's not how it works.
00:24:31
>> Yeah, that's >> it doesn't make sense to me. I know. And I don't think they were actually able to
00:24:36
access anything. That's just the theory that police have. [music] So now investigators are looking at a group of
00:24:41
people who had Cole's phone, maybe tried to access it, and didn't turn it over right away.
00:24:48
>> Yeah, >> that sounds a lot like interfering with an investigation, my friends.
00:24:52
>> So, fast forward to mid 2017. A grand jury indictments lead to the arrests of
00:24:58
the four guys that they know about so far who they believe are connected to Cole's case. Julian Vayz Jr., Jeremy
00:25:06
Carpenter, Rudalfo Deleon Jr. aka Rudy, and Anthony James Jr. known as TJ. They are all charged with concealing Cole's
00:25:16
death. And all but Rudy also get hit with obstruction of justice charges. All of the suspects plead not guilty to all
00:25:24
the charges. And this was more than just like a small win to like get on the board. This was a strategic move on
00:25:30
behalf of law enforcement. Police were hoping that [music] separated and maybe under pressure, maybe, just maybe, the
00:25:38
weakest link might finally break. [music] But even with all four of these guys in custody, the case doesn't just
00:25:46
magically fall into place. [music] It takes some serious leg work and a dedicated PI to come to the realization
00:25:54
that these four guys are actually just a [music] piece of the puzzle, not the whole thing. And to even get there, it
00:26:02
was dangerous. The PI, David, had to basically infiltrate [music] this network of people. And his presence
00:26:09
didn't go unnoticed. I mean, once he started learning more and asking more questions, he says that he started
00:26:16
receiving threats, including this voicemail that he shared with us. >> Look, I'm calling you because I know you
00:26:24
investigator for this case. Somebody supposed to be calling you today. If they don't call you today, I will find
00:26:33
out. I want you to answer this phone at 9:00 tonight. If you don't answer this phone,
00:26:43
it's going to be personal stuff between me and you. David believes that whoever that was who
00:26:49
called him is part of something bigger and that this was more than just a one-off drug deal gone wrong. Through
00:26:58
all of the conversations that he has had and the phone data that he's mapped out,
00:27:03
David starts to piece together what he now believes may have been the plan all along. He thinks it's possible that
00:27:11
Julian may have been double crossing everyone. >> Meaning what? >> Based on everything David's hearing,
00:27:19
Cole and honestly maybe even Jeremy probably thought that the plan was simple. They were going to go there, pay
00:27:26
for drugs, [music] bring them back to Minnesota, maybe even sell them to like the guys at the job site. But like
00:27:31
that's what they thought. >> Yeah. But David believes that maybe Julian was working with the guys that
00:27:37
they met up with and the plan was actually for them to sell the guys this like meth and then somehow someway that
00:27:46
night steal the drugs back. [music] >> So they get paid for the drugs they sold, but they get to keep their supply.
00:27:53
>> Precisely. And according to David, there are a couple of things that could have
00:27:57
thrown off this whole plan. First of which is Cole himself. Everyone we spoke to still believes that when Cole agreed
00:28:05
to drive his co-workers down to North Carolina, he probably had no idea the level of danger that he was actually
00:28:12
getting himself into. But according to David, it seems like Cole may have slowly and surely been figuring it out
00:28:22
like on the fly. You see, Julian didn't know something about Cole. he'd only known him for a month and might have
00:28:30
made some assumptions about him. Like for instance, that this [music] premed white kid from rural Florida only spoke
00:28:36
English, but that wasn't the case. And it's very possible that Cole picked up on the fact that he was in danger that
00:28:46
night before he was supposed to ever even know. From what we heard, Cole actually knew a
00:28:57
good bit of Spanish. Enough that if Julian, Rudy, or their guys started talking about the real plan around him,
00:29:04
Cole might have been able to pick up on it, >> which could have been why he was [music]
00:29:09
panicked on that drive back. Like, it could have been warranted, >> right? David believes that could explain
00:29:14
why Cole was so freaked out. Maybe why they were cutting through Benson to begin with. Why he didn't just think
00:29:20
that they were being followed. He may have known that they were being followed. >> And it wasn't the cops he was afraid of.
00:29:26
It was the drug dealers following them >> potentially. And there's a possibility
00:29:31
that they didn't even have all of the drugs to give back to them if the dealers caught [music] up with them. Cuz
00:29:37
you see, depending on who you talked to, at some point during that drive, apparently some of the drugs got thrown
00:29:44
out of the car, probably by Cole, possibly by Jeremy, >> trying to get rid of them
00:29:49
>> or just like I don't know, they're scared. I don't know if that's giving them back, trying to get them off their
00:29:54
hands, something. >> And David believes that some of the drugs may have even been hidden by
00:30:00
Julian without everyone knowing. So, like say they catch up with them, they realize everything's not actually there.
00:30:07
They wouldn't know who had it. But who's the easiest to blame? The person who probably tossed the drugs out. The same
00:30:14
person who doesn't really belong there to begin with. >> Cole. >> Cole. And our police [music] bought in
00:30:19
with this David theory. >> So, our reporter Madison asked Chief Percy about this. And while he says it's
00:30:26
definitely possible, he thinks it's also possible that whatever went down could have been even way less complicated than
00:30:33
double crossing. But he does think that whatever happened involved missing drugs. He said that there is a world
00:30:40
where maybe Julian's boys had fronted them money for drugs and then said drugs were thrown out the window. Well, now
00:30:47
someone's got to pay up. >> It's also possible that harming Cole wasn't part of the original plan. Chief
00:30:54
Percy says that he got intel that Cole may have fought back when confronted about the missing meth and maybe things
00:31:00
just escalated from there. But even if there are multiple possibilities about what led up to Cole walking away from
00:31:07
the car after 1:00 in the morning, everyone seems to agree on one point after the fact that there was likely
00:31:15
someone else there. Someone who encountered Cole after Jeremy lost sight of him. According to what David
00:31:23
uncovers, [music] there is another guy who keeps popping up. A guy everyone calls Gordo, and he is one of the guys
00:31:32
that Julian and Rudy may have been coordinating [music] with throughout the night once things took a turn. So, it
00:31:38
sounds like Cole really did take off like of his own free will, but then he and Jeremy supposedly get separated and
00:31:46
then Jeremy thinks he hears a car door. Maybe a gun right somewhere like in the distance,
00:31:51
>> right? >> Well, when Cole had first taken off, it sounds like Julian may have contacted
00:31:56
Rudy, who then gets in touch with some of his guys to include Gordo. And they set out to try and track Cole down, who
00:32:04
is now on foot, possibly to try to figure out what happened to their missing drugs, see if they can find out
00:32:10
where they were tossed, if that is what happened. >> The thinking is maybe that car door that
00:32:15
Jeremy heard was real. Maybe they got Cole into another car and maybe it was Gordo's car. David's able to track Gordo
00:32:24
down and gets him to work with the police. Maybe in exchange for some kind of deal. He talks. He never ends up with
00:32:31
any charges related to Cole's case. That simple. >> Cuz no one else will say a word and
00:32:36
investigators need someone on the inside. So eventually he says yes, he was there that night and he along with
00:32:44
some other guys were instructed to find Cole, which they did. And per his story,
00:32:51
Cole just gets into the car willingly. >> I doubt that. >> Yeah. Pi David knows an already paranoid
00:32:57
Cole ain't going to be getting in the car with strangers. >> So like he keeps pressing him when
00:33:02
they're having this conversation. And the story evolves like so many of the stories in this case keep doing. At one
00:33:07
point, he says they threaten him with a gun. Then in another version, they catch
00:33:11
up to him, disorient him by hitting him with a baseball bat, and they take Cole into the car with them.
00:33:18
>> Okay, but take him where, though? >> That's [music] the milliondoll question.
00:33:23
According to Gordo, they are instructed to take Cole and hold him until the rest
00:33:28
of the guys get back to do whatever they're going to do with him, I guess. But he claims that he doesn't know what
00:33:34
happened after that. Whatever it was can't be good, though. [music] >> But does he say where he took Cole to?
00:33:41
>> This is the thing. It's not clear. Like just some guy's house in Wayne County,
00:33:47
>> which is the area where the phone was. >> Right now, here's where things get tricky, though. Investigators get a
00:33:54
warrant for the car in question that he was supposedly like transported in. >> They search it. They're looking for
00:34:01
blood, DNA, anything that could confirm this story that Gordo is telling. They don't [music] end up finding anything
00:34:08
definitive. So, they're still seemingly not telling the whole truth. Cole's dad,
00:34:14
Chris, and the PI David feel so close yet so far. And they know what they really need is one of those like core
00:34:24
four to flip. They believe that they know what happened. So, they start thinking outside of the box. Like, how
00:34:32
do we get someone to finally give it up and what they come up with is out of the
00:34:38
box and has to be [music] so painful for Cole's dad. They decide to hone in on TJ
00:34:44
because compared to the others, he doesn't seem as deeply tied into this drug scene. Not necessarily totally
00:34:51
innocent, but maybe less culpable. So, Chris makes a decision. David is a PI and a bondsman, and Chris puts up the
00:35:01
money, essentially taking on the risk of bonding out someone who may have been involved in whatever happened to his own
00:35:08
son to get him out of prison, to get him away from the other three guys who are tied up in this. The thinking being that
00:35:17
maybe if you can separate him, he could [music] think for himself, >> save himself if he was given the chance.
00:35:24
[music] So they free TJ and for a little while it actually seems like it might work because once he's away from the
00:35:32
others he is willing to do a long sit down with them. David recorded this conversation legally I might add North
00:35:39
Carolina is a one party consent state and Cole's family shared that audio with us. So here's TJ. Only thing I know
00:35:50
exactly. >> Mhm. >> When he went when the um when the drugs got missing, he got missing. [clears throat]
00:36:01
I don't know where he's at. I really don't know. I don't know what he what they did with him.
00:36:08
>> He's sort of hinting something went wrong, but they already knew that. >> He just won't say what. But minute by
00:36:16
minute, you can tell that something's slowly shifting, though. And at a certain point, they decide to bring in
00:36:23
someone else, Kathy, Cole's mom, thinking that maybe she can appeal more to his emotions, convince him to tell
00:36:30
the whole truth. And when she sits down with him, she doesn't come in all aggressive or angry. She just talks to
00:36:38
him as a mom, asking about her son, [music] asking what happened, trying to get him to understand what this has done
00:36:45
to their family. >> That'd be so hard. >> And according to what they describe, this is when they sense that TJ is
00:36:52
starting to break. Now, he doesn't tell [music] them everything, but he does say
00:36:57
something. Something that [music] sticks. >> He's [snorts] gone. What did they do to him? Tell me.
00:37:09
He's gone, y'all. >> This makes it feel all the more real. Now they know what everyone already
00:37:17
suspected, but they won't get to know anymore [music] cuz TJ won't go much further. They get fragments, but nothing
00:37:24
that could actually hold up in court. [music] And that continues to be the pattern
00:37:29
with just about everyone connected to this case. People talk, but only to a point. And so far, no one is willing to
00:37:37
give this family what they really need, proof, or even a body to bury. >> All four men served some time, but
00:37:46
eventually the concealment and obstruction charges against TJ Anthony James Jr. and Rudy Rudolph Deleon Jr.,
00:37:54
Julian Viz Jr., [music] and Jeremy Carpenter. They all end up getting dropped. According to Chief Percy, this
00:38:01
was done at least in part to avoid compromising any potential future homicide prosecutions. Now, we tried
00:38:08
reaching out to everyone named in this episode, every which way we could think of, [music] but as of this recording, we
00:38:15
haven't heard back. Julian Vayz Jr. is currently behind bars on drug charges unrelated to Cole's case. Still, we sent
00:38:23
him a message. So far, no response. And unfortunately, we will never be able to talk to Jeremy Carpenter. Per an online
00:38:31
obituary, he passed away in 2024. Now, some people believe that Jeremy may have been in the same boat as Cole, that he
00:38:38
was just as surprised by the turn that things took, and that everything he did that night, his silence and the evolving
00:38:45
stories that followed were out of both fear and survival. But it means that we will never be able to ask him the one
00:38:52
question we have for everyone in this case. Where's Cole? Because when it comes to that detail, the part that
00:39:00
matters most, everyone conveniently claims they just don't know that whatever happened next happened in
00:39:08
secret. But with this many people possibly involved with some of their phones moving together, that's hard for
00:39:15
me to believe because somebody knows where Cole is. And it's time that they say it out loud before the data does the
00:39:23
talking for them because no one is done with this case. Not Cole's parents, not Benson PD. They are on a mission and
00:39:30
they might be closer than ever to answers. >> [music] >> So, if there ever was a deal to be made,
00:39:37
I think someone's running out of time to make it. So, if anyone out there knows what happened to Christopher Cold
00:39:44
Thomas, you can contact the Benson Police Department at 9198942091 or you can email info@benson
00:39:54
pd.org. You can also contact the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at
00:39:59
919-7798188.