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Hi Crime Junkies. You know that we always go a layer deeper. And this week the team and I have been working on a
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case that just keeps unfolding. Like every time I think I've reached the end, there is another twist, another detail,
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another question that needs answering. So that episode is coming out this week, but because I just keep learning more, I
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need a couple extra days to make sure that I can bring you the full story. So while you wait, I have pulled together
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some of our most chilling, mysterious disappearance cases. Episodes that will keep you guessing and maybe make you
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even rethink [music] everything you thought you knew. Settle in and make sure you're subscribed with that bell
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notification on so you are the first to know when this week's new episode drops.
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Hi Crime Junkies, I'm Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And this is Chuck. The Chuck of audio
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chat. Please forgive us, but our 14-year-old man wanted to cuddle today and I'm I'm allowing it. Totally. And
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it's not going to keep me from telling you an incredible story. And that story [music]
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is a mystery right out of our home state of Indiana. I've heard this story, but listen Brit, the circumstances of this
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are so foreign but always felt so far away to me. We're talking horse mobsters. Illegal medical boats
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operating out in open waters. There has been no >> case like this before or since. And
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that's why it's one of Indiana's most infamous cases. The work day has barely started on
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Monday, July 4th, 1966 when Indiana Dunes State Park, which today is surrounded by Indiana Dunes National
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Park, like it's like a whole thing, anyways. Superintendent William Spedick is getting a panicked call on his office
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phone. The caller ID's himself as Harold Blau, and he's like, "Look, my daughter
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and her friends were at your park on Saturday. It's Monday now, and they haven't come home. My wife and I are
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super worried. You know, these are three young women." Harold's daughter, Patricia, she's 19.
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Her friends, Ann Miller and Renee Broll are around the same age, like 21 and 19, respectively.
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>> Okay. But, Patricia still lives at home, and she wouldn't leave for days without
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giving her parents a heads-up. And Patricia had even told her mom Saturday [music] that morning when she left that
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she would be home that night for dinner. And the other girls were supposed to be
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home, too, but none of them returned to their Chicago homes just [music] over the state line. Swedek tells Harold,
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"Okay, listen. I'll look into it." But, this uneasy feeling starts to creep in his belly because he might already know
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something about the missing girls, and it could be bad. You see, 2 days before, on Saturday, a park ranger had brought a
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bunch of random items into his office saying that there was things that had been left on the beach of Lake Michigan
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by three women who went into the water and boarded a boat around noon that day, but then never returned.
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>> How did they know that? Because there were witnesses. There were some teenagers nearby that had seen them get
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onto the boat. They saw them leave their stuff, and then they alerted the ranger
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when they were like those teenagers were getting ready to go, and the stuff was still there because it seemed like this
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is the kind of stuff that you like wouldn't you would leave only if you were planning to come back, right? Like
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there's like the thermos, there's some sunglasses, lotion, those kind of things. Even more significant items,
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too, like cash, a purse, clothes, a pair of shoes. Like they should have been back.
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>> Right. Now, at the time, the ranger wasn't especially concerned when he collected these things. Though, the
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Chicago Tribune reports that he [music] did get a description of the boat, at least, which they said was a small boat
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with white exterior and a blue interior, maybe turquoise-ish blue. And it had an
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outboard motor. They even gave the ranger a description of the driver. Which they say was a tan, dark-haired
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young man. But listen, people leave stuff on the beach all the time, especially on
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crowded days like the Saturday before the 4th of July. So at the time, he just gathered the things up and dropped them
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in Svedics office. But no one was like out manning a massive search or trying to find the owners of these items at the
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time. Now everyone kind of thought that whoever it was that owned these things would eventually come looking for the
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stuff at some point. But now with this phone call, a darker thought washes over Svedic. Lake Michigan is notorious for
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its strong, unpredictable currents. Like it is not outside the realm of possibility that the women, maybe even
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their captain, too, had gone for a swim or gotten into an accident and found themselves outmatched by Mother Nature.
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Like we live here, so many people underestimate Lake Michigan. >> Yeah. Yeah. So once he hangs up with
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Harold, Svedic starts rifling through the items. He's looking for clues. And I mean, to be fair, he doesn't even know
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that the women who left these things were Patricia Ann and Renee. It just like to him feels too much like of a
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coincidence not to be. >> Mhm. But that's the first order of business, right? [music] Now when he
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finds a keychain with car keys and a miniature Illinois license plate and realizes that the plate has what looks
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like a pretty legitimate plate number, he gets this idea. He calls a few employees, sends them out to check the
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parking lot near the dunes. And sure enough, there is a car with that exact plate in the lot. And sure enough, when
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they run down the plate number with Chicago PD, Svedic gets the confirmation he needs. The car in the parking lot is
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registered to Ann Miller from the Chicago suburb of Westchester, which makes this official. He has got a triple
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disappearance on his hands and [music] something of that magnitude is above his pay grade. So, that's when seasoned
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Indiana State Police investigator, Detective First Sergeant Edward Burke, steps in to help [music] the
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investigation. And he doesn't waste any time. One of his first moves is to go through the purse that had been left
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[music] on the beach and it turns out that purse belonged to Renee. And he knows it's hers because inside he finds
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this rather intriguing letter. Now, Anne and Patricia lived at home with their parents, but 19-year-old Renee is
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actually married and lives with her husband at the time. And this letter that they find was addressed to him and
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>> Is he like away somewhere? >> No, so they live together. I mean, I assume they see each other like on the
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daily, but it seems like maybe they were a couple that like to get thoughts down
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on paper when there were like big things, which I think is what this was cuz basically in this letter there are
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some issues that she brings up. Like her husband spending way too much time with
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his buddies tinkering with hot rods, which is like sounds light and almost cute, but it wasn't either of those
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things to Renee. She even threatens to split up over this. But it looks like I mean, maybe she had second thoughts
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about giving this to him because according to the date scribbled on this letter, it's like 2 weeks old by that
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point, like when he's seeing it. So, Sergeant Burke isn't quite sure what to make of it, [music] but he also
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doesn't have time to really ponder this. Feeling like Svitak might be right about
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the woman's fate, he calls the US Coast Guard to search the lake near the park way at the southern end. And boy, does
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the Coast Guard have their work cut out for them because Lake Michigan is enormous. I said, you guys everyone
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underestimates it. Lake is like not even the right word. Over 22,000 square miles enormous is how big we're
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talking about. And even if you've seen the lakes on like a map in school or geography or whatever, like it doesn't
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give you a sense for it. >> No, like standing on the shore, it honestly looks like an ocean.
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>> yeah. I mean, you can get out there at some point and literally not see land on
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any side of you. It is huge. So, it's not all that surprising when they end the day [music] empty-handed. So, first
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thing next morning, Sergeant Burke gets a huge ground search going to complement
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the Coast Guard's efforts. He wants every last square inch of the park covered and also a good stretch of
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shoreline beyond [music] the park. It's a hell of a task and for it, he assembles a hell of a search party. A
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bunch of troopers and park rangers, obviously, and even soldiers from a nearby base, deputies from Porter County
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Sheriff's Office, citizen volunteers who will eventually be joined by their bloodhounds. And with the Coast Guard
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still at it, they're searching literally plane, train, and automobile here. And maybe not literally, but almost. You get
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what I'm saying. And by the end of the day, the searches have covered 40% of the park almost and still there is just
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nothing. Now, the Chicago Tribune reports that while the search is put on hold overnight, Sergeant Burke orders a
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patrol to man the shore until sunrise [music] thinking if the women maybe drowned, their bodies could wash up
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soon. And while drowning from a boating accident is only one theory, it's not at
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all out of the question that they also could have met with foul play. So, they got to find this boat like if they're
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going to know either way, right? And while there are some sightings of white boats with blue interiors, they don't
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find a boat that could have been in the area like the boat when the girls went missing. Are they sure they even got on
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a boat in the first place? I know we have that one sighting of the three girls getting on the boat, but did
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anyone else see that happen? They're not sure of anything. I mean, you're right.
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All they have to back up even this boat story like from the beginning is just the word from those teenagers who
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alerted the ranger. But, I will say over the first couple of days as this goes on, like when the story starts making
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news, people start coming forward, they start getting some more witness tips, and that does seem to support the boat
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story. More people who say they saw the women climb onto a white boat with a dark-haired well-tanned man that day.
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And actually, there are even a few reports of them being seen on a larger boat, like this time with three men. And
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that was at some point that same [music] afternoon. But for some reason, I think
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that like those are mostly discounted. So, a few days into the search, the idea of some sort of fatality-causing boat
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accident starts [music] to gain traction. But according to more reporting in the Chicago Tribune, random
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boat debris starts washing up on shore not far from the park. Pieces of seats, Styrofoam, scraps of metal, plywood,
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turquoise plywood. And they can tell that this wreckage came from what the reporting refers to as a {quote}
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"outboard motorboat." And like I said, this stuff isn't washing up hours away. It's
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washing up like 3 mi away near some sort of power plant. Now, at this time, there
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haven't been any reports of a missing boat, no reports of a crash, or of missing or injured boaters, which some
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find kind of strange. But it also might just mean that the guy who owned the boat isn't around to report it missing,
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or couldn't call it in before something happens. >> Right. Or destroying the boat was
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intentional because they find something weird among the wreckage. The debris is strewn with cans [music]
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of oil and gasoline. Some of the plywood is even drenched in it. So, it feels like something fishy is a
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foot. And yet, pretty quickly, authorities announce that the wreckage couldn't have anything to do with the
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missing women because there were no reports of a boating accident. >> All the more reason to be suspicious. I
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mean, something clearly happened here. The boat didn't douse itself in gasoline.
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>> And it only gets worse from there because the Terre Haute Star reports that soon, authorities announce that the
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wreckage [music] is from a rowboat. A metal rowboat. A metal rowboat that was also made of
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turquoise [music] plywood and collided with something with enough force to just completely disintegrate it into pieces.
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Yes. Right, like it feels like there's some tunnel vision going on here because the
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Terre Haute Tribune reports that when investigators are asked about three different [music] possibilities, right?
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So like drowning, foul play, or a planned disappearance, their response is telling. They say that there is no
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evidence of drowning or foul play. >> So now they think the women pieced out on purpose? Well, at first they play it
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coy, but by the one week mark, Sergeant Burke is like, "Yeah, we're pretty sure this was all orchestrated."
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>> The boat stuff, too? Like they blew it up or that's unrelated? >> Still unrelated. They're not even trying
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to make sense of the wreckage. And I get why they start doubting the drowning theory. Like, maybe a little premature,
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but I mean they've devoted so much manpower to searching the southern end of Lake Michigan and from like every
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angle, too. They've got those ground searches, boat searches, whatever. Like divers are even in there. And with
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everything, they're thinking like if the women did drown, like someone should have found something by now [music] that
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indicated that. >> Okay, so not drowning, but no evidence of foul play based on what? On the fact
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that that there's no evidence. But there's also no evidence that it wasn't foul play.
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>> I feel like we've done this like dance before. Oh, Chuck's getting up. What do you want to do, Bubba?
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You can get down. Good job, buddy. You were a star. Anyways, the the whole idea of it not
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being foul play cuz there's no evidence of foul play. To me, that's bananas, especially when the one thing that might
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have been the evidence of foul play has been discounted. >> Yeah, and listen, I get that walked off
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on their own is always a theory when you have a person go missing. But to me, it
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seems super far-fetched to think about three women with three different lives, three different sets of circumstances,
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all committing to disappearing at once on purpose. It's not not possible, it's just
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>> it's way less likely. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think mostly they think this because there start to be some
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supposed sightings, I guess, like near and far. One like on a bus or like in a bar or a club or whatever. And these are
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like miles and miles away with strange men. Sometimes they're even saying like hitchhiking, according to the Chicago
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Tribune. And all of these, like they never turn out to be legit, but investigators run each one down, and
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they keep coming in. So, I'm sure that's playing a role here. But I also suspect that it has a lot to
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do with the letter that they found in Renee's purse, the one to her husband. >> So, what about the hot rods?
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>> Yeah, they decided basically that she may have wanted to just skip town on account of her marital discord. She
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didn't even give him the letter, though. And that does nothing to explain the other two disappearing with her. I know.
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And they obviously questioned the husband, by the way, like he's in the clear. So, her loved ones are like,
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"Okay, we hear you, but also, are you serious right now? Like she's 19 years old, and her
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feelings were hurt over like something you can probably work through." >> Right. And that was weeks ago. And
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again, you say it has nothing to do with why Ann and Patricia would have left. Like, they're not giving up their lives
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in what, solidarity over a husband's hobby? Not maybe in solidarity. The Chicago Tribune reports that according
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to Sergeant Burke, all three, Ann and Patricia included, have, quote unquote, personal problems, but he wouldn't say
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what those are. Which isn't to say like we don't know what he's getting at, because long story
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short, what we know is that Patricia's sister Janice tells Dateline in a recent interview. So like we find this out way
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later, that Patricia had been connoodling with a married man. And Ann had supposedly told friends that she was
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3 months pregnant and might enter a {quote} home for unwed mothers, which is very much a thing in 1966.
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But it is such an antiquated concept in like the year of our Lord 2025, well at least for now, that um I asked you to do
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some digging and give the Crime Junkies a quick explainer for the young folk listening. Can't know where you're going
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unless you know where you've been, right? So being a pregnant unwed woman in the '60s, give it to us. Obviously,
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like you said, like I knew about the concept, but I wanted to read up a little bit before this episode. So I
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found an article on Scary Mommy, which I'll link to if you want to go deeper. There's even like a book on this. But
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basically, there were these homes where families of unmarried pregnant girls and
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women hid their daughters away while they were pregnant, so no one would have to see
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them because God forbid. God forbid. What a shame. Where were the men who got these women and girls pregnant?
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Obviously, they were out there living their lives. The women were the ones forced to wear the scarlet letter in the
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form >> [music] >> of that baby bump. Then once they gave birth and their babies were adopted out,
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voluntarily or otherwise, then and only then could the women and girls be returned to polite society.
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>> Love it. So these are supposedly some of the personal problems that Sergeant Burke is referring to. Although put a
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pin in that because we're going to circle back to it later. But personal problems or not, the women's families
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don't agree. And they are just more convinced by the day that the disappearances weren't by choice. And on
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July 14th, this is just 12 days in, that fear starts to gain traction when a brutal crime captures the attention of
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well, everyone. Now it's very different, but it involves multiple young women being held and killed at a single time
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by a single person and from the same area where the women are from, Chicago. It at the time does feel worth looking
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into. And let me just give you a little, like, the SparkNotes on this case. Corky
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Siemaszko reports for NBC News that around 11:00 p.m. on the night of July 13th, a man armed with a gun and a
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hunting knife climbed through the first floor window of a Chicago townhouse [music] where six student nurses were
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sleeping in two upstairs bedrooms. He crept up the stairs, [music] woke up all six, and corralled them into a third
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bedroom, binding their hands behind their back. And he spent the next few hours walking them out of the room one
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by one >> [music] >> and killing them one after another. Some of them by stabbing, some by
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strangulation, and some by a combination of the two. And I don't know why this next detail bothers me so much, but his
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victims weren't even just the six women in the house when he broke in because three more residents had the great
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fortune of being gone when the bloodshed started and the even greater misfortune
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of coming home while it was unfolding. Siemaszko writes that eight women were tortured and killed over like four and a
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half long hours that night. At least one victim was sexually assaulted, although
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I would wager that she probably wasn't the only one. >> But wouldn't it be nine victims? If six
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were already there and then three came home? It would have if one woman didn't have the right combination of courage,
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quick thinking, and [music] honestly maybe sheer luck to survive. Her name was Corazon Amurao, and seeing her last
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chance at survival, she actually crawled under one of the beds while the killer was out of the room. And from her hiding
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spot, she heard each of her roommates get marched out of the room followed by what Shamasko describes as muffled cries
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and then silence. And somehow, he just didn't notice. Like there were so many victims that this dude lost count. And
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so when Corazon crawled back out around 6:00 in the morning, it was just carnage. Shamasko writes that she was so
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traumatized and so terrified that she [music] climbed onto the ledge of a second story window and just started
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screaming. I mean, for all she knew, the killer was still inside somewhere. So once she was safe, she gave police a
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pretty damn detailed description of the perp, right down to his Born to Raise Hell tattoo. And that ends up being the
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key, because just 2 days later, a Chicago physician feels his blood go cold when he sees the same four words on
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a patient's forearm. This patient was 24-year-old Richard Speck. Having grown up in Texas, Speck is new to the Chicago
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area where he's been staying with his sister and her husband. And like so many killers before him, he's like, "No,
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officers. I swear to you, I you have the wrong guy. Absolutely not." Which, like
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they absolutely do not because his prints are all over the crime scene. Shamasko reports that the assistant DA
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who eventually prosecutes him for eight [music] counts of capital murder gives him the dubious distinction of being the
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country's first random mass murderer. Random being the operative word since organized crime was definitely a thing
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in Chicago before this guy, but you get what I'm saying. So this random massacre happens to a
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group of women from the same area just 2 weeks after the Indiana Dunes women go missing. And everyone's like, "Hey,
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maybe you should look at this because you got Truly, at this point, nothing else other than they walked away, and
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nobody's buying that. ISP Superintendent Robert O'Neal he's like, "Yeah, listen, we're checking
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on it, but like don't get your hopes up." And Sergeant Burke is even blunter saying like there is no suggestion Speck
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was near, let alone at Lake Michigan the day that the women went missing. And even if he was, let's just say that in
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addition to not being a criminal mastermind, Speck isn't [music] tall, dark, or handsome. And he doesn't
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have resources to get his hands on a boat or even to charm or lure three victims aboard a boat. I will admit that
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it's a little intriguing that he worked as what the Chicago History Museum calls
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a {quote} {unquote} apprentice seaman, but I won't waste any of your time on him. Like at the end of the day, it is
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decided by all that this is just an intriguing coincidence [music] and nothing more.
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So, the next theory that comes up, it might even be more of a stretch, I guess is what I should say. And [music] it all
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starts with this guy named Dick Whaley, who according to the New York Daily News
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was supposedly the first reporter on the scene the morning that the women were reported missing. Now, he only covered
00:22:14
the case briefly. It's not like [music] he was deeply involved. And within a few
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years of the disappearances, he quit journalism altogether and jumped into a career in law enforcement down in
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Florida. [music] But he couldn't get the disappearances out of his mind. Like they became his
00:22:29
own personal Roman Empire, if you will. So, Dick Whaley believes Are you ready for this? I'll answer it
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for you, no you're not. He believes that the women died aboard an abortion boat. A what? Whaley is
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absolutely certain that the disappearances can be traced back to an abortion boat.
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>> You just keep repeating that like it's going to make more sense the second time
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around. What the is an abortion boat? It's exactly what it sounds like. He He says it's a boat
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on Lake Michigan where illicit abortions are performed. Is that a real thing? If
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you ask Dick Wylie, yes. And the theory he has behind this abortion boat is wild. Now, we know that
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Anne may have been pregnant and that Patricia may have been seeing a married guy, right?
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>> Mhm. Well, Wylie posits, what if Anne and Patricia were both pregnant by married men? Nothing to back
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this up, I assume. Just kind of a combining of their two possible scenarios? It seems that way. I like
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like he doesn't give any explanation other than like a what if. >> Okay. I'm not sure how or why, but
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basically he just says that in the course of his personal investigation, he learns that that's the situation.
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[music] Now, he says that puts them both in a pickle because it was 1960 whatever
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and years before Roe v. Wade gave us, you know, brief bodily autonomy before controlling women became everyone's
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[music] top priority again. And we've already talked about what a moral stain out of wedlock pregnancies were back
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then. And in all seriousness, back alley abortions absolutely were a thing in 1966. Botched back alley abortions were,
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too. So, basically Wylie believes that there was this married couple operating an illicit abortion clinic in Gary,
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Indiana. For those of you who don't know, that's what like on the coast of Lake Michigan near Chicago and the
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Indiana Dunes. So, like right in that area. >> Can we prove that that part is real?
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That this duo and their clinic? >> had the same question. Google couldn't tell me, so I reached out to the Indiana
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State Police. They were were super duper helpful and they confirmed that the couple he's talking about was a real
00:24:35
couple. Their names are known by police. But, as far as the whole illicit abortion operation part of it goes,
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police don't know. They say that they have never been able to substantiate [music]
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that part of Wylie's story. But, the story goes that one of the women's procedures went south. Either Anne or
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Patricia, they died. And with this being an illegal enterprise, the other two had
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to just be disposed of. >> Is he saying that they did this procedure on the boat? Like or like the boat that picked
00:25:06
them up and was supposed to take them to where the abortion would happen. >> Well, so okay, so supposedly that young
00:25:12
dark handsome captain was actually this couple's relative. And the thought is that he escorted them to a larger boat.
00:25:20
And remember if you like a couple of witnesses saw them on [clears throat] a larger boat? And the thinking is maybe
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like that's where the procedures happened or were supposed to have happened. Where is Wylie getting all
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this from? >> This is the thing, we don't know. And we tried to get to the bottom of it,
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believe me, because all you got to do is spend a few minutes on Google to realize
00:25:40
like how wide this theory has spread. Not so much in traditional reporting, more like in blogs and on web forums and
00:25:49
all of that stuff. And so of course we thought like, okay, what better way to evaluate these claims than to go
00:25:54
straight to the source. >> Mhm. I mean, Dick Wylie is still alive and kicking. So we did our damndest to
00:26:00
talk to him about this case. Our reporter Courtney was like straight up giddy at the prospect of interviewing
00:26:05
him. And she reached out to him on Facebook. She called every number she could find. No dice. Like there was one
00:26:12
person she even got on the phone. We got like a very like gruff wrong number before they hang up. So all we know is
00:26:19
that he claims to have interviewed more people more times and with more tenacity
00:26:23
than the actual investigators, he says. And based on those interviews, this is what he has uncovered. But the more we
00:26:31
dug in, the more it seems like all roads on the abortion theory just lead back to
00:26:38
Wylie himself. Like this man talks a big game. There is no doubt about that. But
00:26:44
I don't know if he actually has the work to show like show your math, right? Like how did you get the answer?
00:26:49
I I think he's been able to do that. And he supposedly had plans to publish a book on this case like since the early
00:26:56
aughts. There's even an Amazon listing for it still. It's called Life and Death Through the Lens. And it had like a
00:27:01
publication date way back in 2004, I think. Except the book is not available. Not on Amazon, not anywhere else in the
00:27:08
worldwide web that we could find. And there is a 2012 New York Daily News interview with Wylie that references a
00:27:15
120,000 [music] word manuscript. But here we are like 13 years later and that manuscript has yet
00:27:23
to see the light of day. So, if you're going to believe this theory, you just have to like take him at his
00:27:28
word. And his word, like I don't know, I think it it it bears emphasizing that Wylie seems to be blessed with a very
00:27:37
active imagination. His Facebook persona, for example, is like very much conspiracy-obsessed angry
00:27:43
grandpa who posts like in all caps. Cool. And you know, your girl loves like a good conspiracy theory. Like that's my
00:27:50
jam. It's who I intend on being a little bit when I'm older. But I also don't want to sugarcoat the fact that his
00:27:56
posts get really ugly at times, to put it mildly. And the man specifically seems to have a mild fixation on
00:28:04
reproductive rights in general, which I think is relevant [music] considering his theory. And I I have to give you
00:28:10
just a little bit of context. So, I printed out one of his posts. This is one of his public posts that he made on
00:28:16
May 9th, [music] 2021. It's made of his own hand. Just so you know, I'm thrilled about
00:28:22
having my voice recording this. >> [laughter] >> Okay, this post is in all caps.
00:28:28
>> Literally. Want to wish all mothers a last Mother's Day. Yes, I said last Mother's Day.
00:28:35
Just now, over TV, the name has been changed to Birthing Person Day. I hope all you women {slash} mothers see the
00:28:42
respect the Democrats have for your kind of devotion to America's youth. Let me be one of the first to announce support
00:28:47
for renaming all abortion centers, abortion doctors, >> [music] >> and Planned Parenthood groups killing
00:28:53
centers from this day forward as a last vestige of true patriotic Americanism. Our mothers. Yesterday, my dear Aunt
00:29:01
Shirley was buried at 90 years old. The devoted mother to four wonderful children and the surrogate mother of
00:29:08
more than 30 foster children in her busy lifetime. She was more than a birthing person. She was God's angel sent to
00:29:16
Earth to become a mother, not to be a murderer of children or killing centers where confused women go who don't have
00:29:24
the ability to be a mother. Thank God she was already in heaven today and didn't have to bear being demoted from a
00:29:30
truly loving mother to just another person the Democrats can add to their voter rolls as a person. Sort of like
00:29:37
changing the name applied to an illegal criminal alien to a poor undocumented person. [music]
00:29:45
Wow, Ashley. What? And listen. >> [laughter] >> Not to make this episode about Wylie or
00:29:51
getting like to extreme ends of like either side or getting people fired up. Like, I don't know. I'm having a hard
00:29:57
time holding my tongue these days, you guys. I got to say [clears throat] like this inflammatory
00:30:02
like I think we're all over it, right? Like everyone's working to divide us as a people because the truth is we're
00:30:08
stronger together. And if we're distracted by issues like what things are called, like we can't come together
00:30:14
on issues that matter. Like who gives a flying what the day is called. It's not hurting
00:30:19
anybody. It doesn't take away from me. I'm a mom. Like live your own life. Worry about your own damn self. Like if
00:30:25
it makes someone like feel included, great. Why would I care? I care about things that actually affect my life, my
00:30:31
daughter's life. Like the fact that insurance companies are like us over right and left and basic health care
00:30:37
isn't considered a human right. I also don't care if it's called the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America or the
00:30:41
Gulf of whatever. And while we're on the topic of meaningless rhetoric intended to like
00:30:47
pit people against each other, there is even a proposed resolution in the house right now that expresses support for
00:30:53
pro-women's health centers. Like I posted about this, I don't know if you saw it. And I [ __ ] you not, it says that
00:30:58
like these health care centers are supposed to address the needs of men. For women's health care should address
00:31:04
the needs of men. And who by the way is Wiley? Is like that's who we're worried about. Like
00:31:08
>> Right. Right. Anyways, >> [music] >> so I know I got a little sidetracked, but I wanted to show you who Wiley is
00:31:15
while also saying like Give us some perspective and I wanted to show you who he was with but also saying like let's
00:31:21
not let the thing that Wiley said take over this episode. Like I swear to God if all the comments on this episode
00:31:26
become about Mother's Day, I'm going to quit. So like I need everyone to stay focused.
00:31:31
So to bring it back to Dick Wiley, that's who he is. He hasn't shown any proof of his findings that could be
00:31:38
verified by other journalists or police. While his theory might be one of the loudest ones on the internet, it is not
00:31:47
the only one. Because what if I told you that there is another theory out there,
00:31:51
one that is every bit as wild, every bit as fantastical, every bit as conspiratorial?
00:31:58
And it is the one that seems the most likely to be true. Now to explain this theory, I need to tell you a little bit
00:32:06
more about Ann Patricia and Renee and their shared love of horses. I know, you're a horse girl. I'm in. In fact,
00:32:13
the Chicago Tribune reports that while Patricia and Renee had been high school classmates, Patricia met Ann at the Oak
00:32:20
Brook Polo Club where they both boarded their riding horses. And Ann also worked
00:32:25
there. In fact, at the time of the disappearances, Patricia owned a racehorse named Hank and he was one of
00:32:31
the biggest reasons that her dad Harold never like bought into the idea that the
00:32:35
women would have like gone off on their own. Even if all of the other weird [ __ ]
00:32:40
could be explained away, which it can't, so like there's so much that doesn't make sense. Harold knew that his
00:32:46
daughter would not abandon Hank. It wasn't possible. It was something that he said over and over and over again,
00:32:54
including to Sergeant Burke. Like she would never have left that horse behind. You guys know how much I like Charlie.
00:32:59
Charlie's like my mini horse. That's how I feel. I just say I am a horse girl. I
00:33:03
grew up with a horse that I would have never, in a million years, left behind for anything. He was my baby.
00:33:10
>> girls are next level, too. So, anyway, so remember how I told you to put a pin
00:33:13
in the women's personal problems? Yes. Okay. So, Renee's were the marital issues that we know, and was this
00:33:22
potential pregnancy. And I think Patricia's had to do with the wide world of horse racing.
00:33:31
So, when her sister Janice sat with Dateline for an interview in 2023, she talked about some weird stuff going on
00:33:38
with Patricia at the time leading up to her disappearance. Like how she was acting strangely the day before she
00:33:44
disappeared, scared even. Although Janice didn't elaborate. She also described this conversation they had had
00:33:51
recently or like before they went missing. And Patricia was crying, which alone is super out of character. Now,
00:33:57
some people are cryers, some people aren't, and Patricia was not. And she told Janice that she was in a lot of
00:34:04
trouble. Janice's mind immediately went to the married boyfriend we know that she might have had. So, she asked if she
00:34:10
was pregnant. >> Don't tell Dick Wiley. >> I know. But according to Janice, she wasn't pregnant. That's not it. Whatever
00:34:16
it was was worse in her mind than that because her response was quote, "I wish it was that easy."
00:34:22
>> Which is saying a lot in 1966. >> I know. And Janice wasn't the only person close to Patricia who noticed
00:34:30
something was off before she disappeared. A friend of hers had told Sergeant Burke's team way back at the
00:34:35
beginning of the investigation about this weird situation in March of that year when Patricia had some sort of like
00:34:41
bruising on her face. And the friend was [music] like, "WTF, what actually happened to your face?" I mean, it
00:34:47
looked like she got straight-up clocked. And according to the Chicago Tribune, Patricia said that she was in trouble
00:34:53
with some {quote} "syndicate people." Like the mob? This is where the horse mob comes in. So, get this.
00:35:00
And I'm going to give you a little backstory for just a sec, but I promise we are like coming back around and
00:35:05
you're going to want to know this. So, apparently, the 1960s equestrian scene in Chicago was run by a rough crowd
00:35:12
known as the horse syndicate. And at the center of this horse syndicate was a man
00:35:17
by the name of Silas Jayne. Silas had been playing fast [music] and loose in the industry since the late
00:35:23
1930s when he opened a place called the Green Tree Stables and embarked on a long and storied career of lying,
00:35:32
cheating, and stealing his way to the top. And defending his interests by any means necessary, including, possibly, by
00:35:40
ordering a hit on one of the nation's wealthiest heiresses in 1977, by the way. Now, most of his brothers were cut from
00:35:47
the same cloth, but one of them wasn't. His much younger half-brother, George. And that infuriated Silas. By 1952,
00:35:56
according to the Chicago Tribune magazine, George had also joined the stable business. And the thing was,
00:36:02
whereas Silas made his money kind of in the shadows, George made his by being a generally competent business owner. And
00:36:10
now that the brothers were competitors, that was something Silas just could not have, which led to poor George having
00:36:17
some seriously bad luck. Like in 1952, when his house went up in flames for who knows what reason while he and his
00:36:24
family were out of town. Brotherly relations took an especially dark turn after George's horse beat Silas's horse
00:36:31
at a jumping competition in the early 1960s, and before he knew it, it wasn't just George's property at risk. A hit
00:36:38
was carried out on one of his best horses, and George himself was surviving brushes with death damn near on the
00:36:45
weekly. Everywhere he went, someone was trying to run him off the road or blow up his house. Like no joke, one day he
00:36:51
and his wife found dynamite affixed to their back door, and it had actually fizzled out before it could cause any
00:36:57
damage, but clearly a message was trying to be sent, clearly by Silas, and George
00:37:03
wasn't getting it. Now, 1965 is when really hit the fan. By this point, George owned Tricolor
00:37:12
Riding Stables, and one day in June of that year, George asked one of his employees, a 22-year-old named Cheryl
00:37:19
Lynn Rude, to move his car for him. So, she hopped into the driver seat, turns the key in the ignition, which is when
00:37:25
the car exploded in spectacular fashion. It had been rigged with dynamite, [music] which meant that George had just
00:37:33
survived his most dramatic brush with death yet. But Cheryl wasn't so fortunate. She was killed instantly, and
00:37:40
for once in his life, Silas came so close to paying for it when investigators convinced his hired
00:37:47
henchman to turn state's evidence. But fast forward to March of 1966, on the eve of Silas's trial on conspiracy
00:37:55
charges, the whole case gets dropped when the prosecution's star witness, one of Silas's henchman, was struck with
00:38:03
what the Chicago Tribune magazine reporters called a quote baffling attack of amnesia. Now, this is where the women
00:38:10
come back in. So, March of '66 is when Patricia had a busted face, the one that had to do with the trouble that she was
00:38:18
in with some syndicate people. And by the way, no one questions that the women were acquainted with these guys. We know
00:38:24
for a fact all three women rode at George's stables, and Indiana State Police confirmed that for us. But is
00:38:30
Silas the married man or George? I don't get why the women are made to disappear
00:38:36
in July of '66. >> No, so I I I don't think that either of them were Patricia's paramour. I think
00:38:41
the guy she was dating was like another shady character in the horse scene, like
00:38:44
not even related. And we don't know for sure why someone would have hit her or threatened her or whatever, but there is
00:38:51
one possible and like the prevailing theory that I've seen come from the Chicago Tribune magazine. And it comes
00:38:58
from a quote by retired Sergeant Fred Miller of the Westchester PD. What he says is that there was always a strong
00:39:05
suspicion that their disappearances had something to do with the car bombing. Namely, that maybe one or more of the
00:39:12
women overheard something or knew something about that, and that is what led to their deaths.
00:39:19
>> But you think that something would have happened to them like before the trial
00:39:23
was set to start in March. Yeah, I but I guess it depends on maybe what they knew
00:39:29
and why or how they knew it. Like I think there's a world where their importance as potential witnesses only
00:39:35
increased once Silas's conspirators were scared into submission, maybe. Like I don't quite know. And that's just
00:39:41
speculation on my part, but I think it's like maybe the best theory because Well,
00:39:45
get this. So, among all of the belongings left behind, and I'm talking about the women's on the beach,
00:39:50
investigators found not only George's phone number, but also a phone number for Silas's wife Martha. So, like I
00:39:57
mean, clearly like they have those for a reason. And by the way, guess who owned
00:40:03
a blue and white powerboat. Well, actually I don't know exactly who, but like I don't I don't have a name,
00:40:09
which would be really helpful right now, I know. But I know that a man, an unnamed man, who was reported to have
00:40:15
like supposedly once worked for Silas did own one. And supposedly this boat that he supposedly owned he often took
00:40:22
to the Indiana Dunes. Did they find this supposed boat? >> No, they wish. Like the guy's wife told
00:40:28
them that that boat got destroyed in a fire, which leads me to the last kernel of
00:40:33
information that we were able to glean from ISP. They say that as of December 2024, so like 5 minutes ago,
00:40:41
>> Yeah. they no longer dismiss the possibility that the boat wreckage that washed ashore way back in 1966 was
00:40:49
related to the women's disappearances. So much for that whole like spontaneously combusting rowboat thing.
00:40:54
>> Right. And I wish I could wrap this story up with a pretty bow, but what that leaves us with are family members
00:41:00
like Patricia's sister Janice, who are running out of time to learn the truth about what happened to their loved ones
00:41:07
way back in 1966. So, if you have any information about what happened that day on the shores of
00:41:14
Lake Michigan, please contact the Westchester Police Department at 708-345-0060.
00:41:24
And if you are as offended as I am by House Resolution 7, head on over to congress.gov/contact-us
00:41:32
to find your representative's contact information and tell them that women's health care should be about women. Novel
00:41:39
concept, right? You can find all the source material for this episode on our website [music]
00:41:43
crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. >> We'll be back with another video
00:41:50
episode, but don't [music] forget we have hundreds of podcast episodes. Just search for Crime Junkie wherever you get
00:41:55
your podcasts. The story I have for you today is wild. It has art world drama, it has
00:42:13
mysterious telegrams, a snowstorm, ransom plots. This is the story of Jennette Bishop May and Gabriella
00:42:21
Guerin. On the morning of Sunday, November 30th, 1980, snow is falling in Sarnano, Italy.
00:42:34
It's this medieval hilltop village turned ski resort tucked into the base of a mountain range. The kind of place
00:42:40
that looks like something out of a fairy tale almost. I think my daughter would call it Arendelle, essentially.
00:42:46
[laughter] But this isn't a picturesque blanket of snow that we're talking about. Right
00:42:50
now, there is a full-on [music] snowstorm. One that is worrying a local surveyor. This guy named Nazareno
00:42:57
Vinanzi. And he's worried because just the day before, so that would have been Saturday, November 29th, two women
00:43:03
walked into his office to hire him for a project. And in conversation and over snacks as they like went about their
00:43:09
stuff and talked about what they were doing, it came up that they were planning to
00:43:13
take a drive up into the mountains later that afternoon, which he was like, "Absolutely not a good idea because of
00:43:19
the impending snowstorm." But he was afraid that maybe they hadn't listened because after they left, he
00:43:26
expected to hear from them again. But it was now 24 hours later, full storm here now, and he hasn't heard
00:43:35
from them. And are these two like locals who would be used to the weather, know what to expect?
00:43:40
>> So, one is and one isn't. 40-year-old Jennette Bishop May, she lives in London
00:43:45
normally, but she just bought a country house nearby. She was trying to line up contractors and stuff for a renovation,
00:43:49
that's actually why they were meeting with the surveyor. But her friend with her, 39-year-old Gabriella Guerin, she
00:43:55
lives in Italy. Like not this part exactly, but she is there with Jennette to translate for her. So, when the
00:44:01
surveyor guy starts getting nervous, he starts making calls. First to the boarding house where he knew that the
00:44:06
women had been staying >> [music] >> and they confirm his fears. The owner says that the women never came back the
00:44:12
night before. So then he tries the man who sold Janette her house. Maybe, just maybe she decided to spend the night at
00:44:20
her new place. But he says no and he adds that Janette actually asked to meet him yesterday, but then she never showed
00:44:27
up. So now Nazareno's really [music] worried and so he goes straight to police and reports Janette and Gabriella
00:44:34
missing. And at first police are probably thinking the same as most people probably would, right? Two women
00:44:39
unfamiliar with the area, they drive into a mountain snowstorm and they get [music] stuck. Maybe they lost their
00:44:45
way, maybe they pulled over to wait it out. Now, when they're reported missing, like the storm is still raging. So they
00:44:51
can't do anything in that instant, but as soon as it calms down a little bit, police launch [music] a full search
00:44:56
effort. We're talking helicopter, dogs, ski patrol, volunteers, like they're all
00:45:00
scouring the mountain for these women or even their car, which is this small dark
00:45:05
colored hatchback with license plates from a city called Sienna. And Sienna is about 3 hours away. So a car with those
00:45:12
plates would kind of stand out here, right? It's not like they're unheard of, but
00:45:15
like easier to look for. >> For sure. And at the same time investigators start piecing together the
00:45:20
women's last known movements. And some of it tracks, right? Like witnesses report seeing their car
00:45:26
heading down toward the mountain [music] at around 1 p.m., which was like right after Nazareno said that they left. But
00:45:33
then either they changed their minds or they went up the mountain and came back and like it was just like a quick trip
00:45:39
because somebody sees them again at 4:15 in town. And it's this employee of a construction store and he knows it was
00:45:46
them at 4:15 because he actually saw them earlier with that surveyor. They had like come in to pay an invoice. But
00:45:53
the interesting thing is that he says at 4:15 Janette is wearing different clothing
00:45:59
than she was before. So I I know that that means they did or didn't go up the mountain. Like I said, it would have
00:46:04
been a short trip. >> But, if she changed, she at some point in time had to go back to like where
00:46:08
they were staying to change her clothes. >> Correct. The thing is though, we don't
00:46:13
have any sightings of them between 1:00 and 4:15. Especially, like we don't have
00:46:18
anyone at the boarding house who saw them in that time. There are, however, people who saw them after that.
00:46:25
Witnesses remember seeing them heading to their rooms, and they remember seeing their car parked out front of the
00:46:31
boarding house at around 5:00 p.m. And this is notable because this is about when the street lights come on. And
00:46:38
around this same time, they see the women actually like driving away from the boarding house. So, like we know
00:46:45
they're there after 4:00. We know at 5:00 they're driving away. But, we don't know where they go [music] at 5:00.
00:46:51
There aren't any other sightings of them or their car for the next 2-plus hours until around 7:20 [music] p.m. when
00:46:58
their car is seen heading downhill from the town center [music] with two people inside. Why would they wait until 7:20
00:47:06
to leave then and go to the mountain? Presumably, like this is happening in a snowstorm. Right. And it makes you think
00:47:13
that they didn't go before, cuz if you did, then why would you go back in a snowstorm? Right. And listen, I don't
00:47:18
know for sure if they were going to the mountain at that time. >> you said, they could have gone up and
00:47:22
come back already. >> Right. Like the way it works is you have to like go down the hill to like the
00:47:25
base and then go up into it. So, just cuz they were going down doesn't mean they were, but it's kind of like the
00:47:29
assumption everyone is making. And to your point, it makes no sense to do that when the storm is like beginning. Like
00:47:35
you know you're going to be putting yourself in a bad spot. Like you're already warned at 12:45 when you leave,
00:47:40
don't do it. Why would you do it at 7:20? So, police don't know where they were going, if it was even them. But, in all
00:47:48
this time that they're searching, there is still no sign of Janette, Gabriella, or their car. And by this time, it's
00:47:55
Sunday afternoon, and the storm is picking back up. So, the mountain search is temporarily called off. Now, it's
00:48:02
around this time that Jeannette's husband, [music] Steven, arrives in town. Now, he's been notified about her
00:48:07
disappearance. He's ready to help any way he can, [music] starting with more background on his wife, who turns out is
00:48:14
the ex-wife of Evelyn de Rothschild, one of the richest men in the world at the time. Jeannette and Evelyn met when
00:48:22
Jeannette was a model, and they were married for 5 years. That's actually how Jeannette and Gabriella met. Gabriella
00:48:28
worked as a cook for the Rothschilds in the UK. And even after Jeannette and Evelyn divorced in 1971, Jeannette and
00:48:35
Gabriella stayed close. So close even that Jeannette is the godmother of Gabriella's daughter.
00:48:41
And then, Jeannette met Steven a few years after her divorce, and then they got married in 1977. Now, Jeannette's
00:48:48
mom said in an interview with The Evening Standard that her and Evelyn's relationship post-divorce was amicable.
00:48:54
So, if she had enemies, they probably weren't in her past marriage, right? But, her being the ex-wife of a
00:49:02
Rothschild is enough to draw attention and set off a media frenzy, because abductions for ransom are happening all
00:49:10
over Italy at this point. I mean, like a lot of people know about John Paul Getty,
00:49:15
>> Right. but I had no idea that between the 1960s and the 1990s, over 700 people
00:49:20
were abducted by organized crime syndicates. Yeah, in Italy, and they were held for ransom.
00:49:25
So, if someone thought a member of the Rothschild family was alone in a small town village, like that is a potential
00:49:33
goldmine for the wrong person. I mean, and you're not even going to believe this. So, just a year before this, a
00:49:39
British businessman named Rothschild was abducted in Italy by criminals who thought that his name was Rothschild. I
00:49:49
mean, you truly can't even make that up. I know. [laughter] But the all that to say, would they even know
00:49:56
that she like at one point in time was a Rothschild? She hasn't been married to one in years, and you can't like Google
00:50:03
her right now. >> Yeah, not just like her walking down the street or something, but her passport
00:50:07
still says Janette de Rothschild with It just has like this note that she now uses the last name May. So, the thinking
00:50:14
is I I believe that if someone would have seen documentation, right? She checks in somewhere, somehow they see
00:50:18
her passport, like that's a dead giveaway. >> Okay, well, um if this is a ransom abduction, there has to be a
00:50:26
ransom demand. Like has that happened? >> No, that's the thing. It hasn't. >> [music]
00:50:30
>> And from the jump, Steven's not even buying this theory. He says that he and Janette lived comfortably, but they
00:50:36
weren't as wealthy as people might think. I mean, he works in HR at a department store. And according to Town
00:50:43
& Country magazine, Janette's divorce settlement from Evelyn had been modest. Like she got a home in London, and then
00:50:48
a small investment fund. And since then, she's like built a career as an interior
00:50:52
designer, like an antique stealer. >> Okay, but all of that is kind of internal knowledge, right? Like it's
00:50:57
totally possible for someone to see her passport, realize who she is or who she was married to, and think that she's a
00:51:03
lot wealthier than she actually is. Right. Again, like Steven's saying it doesn't make sense for them, but I think
00:51:08
the whole point is like if someone thought she was connected to someone else still.
00:51:11
>> Right, it still could be like something that someone thought and acted on. Well,
00:51:14
and it's especially believable when a new witness comes forward. He says that he saw two cars at around 4:00 p.m. on
00:51:22
Sunday. So, this is the day after they go missing. And he sees them in a town about 10 minutes outside of Sarnano. He
00:51:30
said the first car was a bigger car with Siena plates, and there were two people
00:51:36
inside. One of them looked like a woman. The other person he couldn't tell. And then the second car was a small, dark
00:51:43
hatchback, also with Siena plates, and like that matches up with what Janette's car was. And that car also had two
00:51:51
people inside and one of them looked like Janette. So, we talked about this a little bit, but are Sienna plates really
00:51:58
that out of the ordinary like in this region? I'm thinking about like seeing a Michigan plate or a New York plate or an
00:52:05
Ohio plate here in Indiana. It's And it's a ton, but it's not unheard of. Yeah, and it is a ski resort. So, like
00:52:10
one or two cars with Sienna plates like it's probably not a big deal. But I think it's just the fact that they're
00:52:15
seeing them like together, they're seeing the hatchback, like it's all it's all the things. And there are a few
00:52:21
people in Saranac that start recalling this same thing. That in the days before and after the women disappeared, there
00:52:27
were a lot of cars with Sienna plates. So, it must have been like more than usual. Enough that it raises eyebrows.
00:52:34
Now, police can't link any of those specifically like to any of this, but it kind of gets them thinking. So, what if
00:52:41
Janette and Gabriella were in two separate cars? Like not that they brought two cars, but like that
00:52:47
that sighting was real. Like did someone follow them? Did someone come like who >> get separated somehow? Yeah, but
00:52:54
basically and if that sighting's legit and you combine it with everything else that stood out to an investigator we
00:52:59
spoke to, like them missing the meeting with the homeowner and possibly going to
00:53:04
the mountains more than once, then maybe this wasn't just a wrong turn in a snowstorm. Maybe, now they're thinking,
00:53:13
they were taken against their will. Did they ever fully search the boarding house where the women were staying? Like
00:53:19
was anything missing? So, from what I like I saw, it like doesn't look from like what police can tell that anything
00:53:25
had been disturbed. I don't know how much they actually tore it apart though and like did a detail search. I get the
00:53:31
sense it wasn't very much because something interesting is found there that like doesn't come to their
00:53:37
attention until December 4th when Steven finds it. And what he finds in their room was this handwritten note
00:53:44
seemingly written by Jeanette. And it lists a few phone numbers and it has a line that just says,
00:53:52
"Please do not hesitate." Hesitate to do what? Yeah, so I I I've gone in circles with so many things on
00:54:01
this. This is one of them. One of our writers I was talking to thought that maybe it was like a note for the front
00:54:07
desk. Like, "Hey, if these people call, like don't hesitate to >> Like approved numbers.
00:54:10
>> Yeah, but A, why would it be with the front desk is my question. B, even if it was going to be given to
00:54:17
the front desk, like it just hadn't yet, wouldn't you put someone's name and not
00:54:21
the number? Like if this person calls >> What if it's like the opposite? Like maybe don't hesitate to reach out to
00:54:26
these people for in case of emergency? I don't know. >> Exactly. Like reach out to them for like
00:54:33
It doesn't give enough information. Like and it doesn't add up. Doesn't even make
00:54:37
more sense after they find out who those numbers belong to. I guess one was to a
00:54:43
beach club 2 hours south of Rome and the others went to like three different men
00:54:47
who they were able to or they were at least able to find two of them that I know of. And it doesn't seem like any of
00:54:53
them have anything to do with any of this. >> Mhm. And it doesn't seem like any of the
00:54:58
numbers or people connected to the numbers get tied to an incoming telegram that gets delivered to the boarding
00:55:05
house from Rome shortly after. So, this telegram is addressed to someone named Jeanine May. And this is where things
00:55:16
get so weird. I mean cuz right off the bat, like the telegram itself is strange. Like it
00:55:22
feels like it's for Jeanette May, but as far as police know, nobody calls her Jeanine. So, like where did that come
00:55:30
from? >> Yeah, that's off already. All this thing says is, "I am waiting for you."
00:55:36
And then it's followed by a Roma dress and it's signed by someone named Roland. And is this address a house, a a
00:55:44
business Does it Does it exist at all? Yeah, I know. So, this is where things get super
00:55:49
weird. Not only does the address exist, they don't even have to look up the address to know that it exists.
00:55:57
>> They know it. Because the address is already on their radar in connection to another crime.
00:56:06
On December 3rd, so a couple of days after the women disappeared, but before that Janine May telegram was [music]
00:56:12
received, another mysterious telegram was the center of an investigation unfolding in Rome.
00:56:19
This one was sent to a director of the famous auction house Christie's at its Rome headquarters. And it said something
00:56:26
like, "Recovery is possible." And then it directs them to the address that was on the Janine May telegram. But this one
00:56:34
was signed by someone named Rodrigo. Okay, but recovery of what is possible? Probably art. At least that's what
00:56:42
police think because >> Because of Christie's. Yeah, and because the night after Janette and Gabriella
00:56:46
went missing, there was a major art theft at Christie's in Rome. Like things are feeling like a little backwards, but
00:56:52
art probably. Wait, so these two women were somehow tied up in an art theft operation? Is that what
00:56:58
you're saying? >> I don't know if they're tied up in it necessarily, but it sure like seems like
00:57:04
the two events have to be connected in some way, right? Right, we have this address.
00:57:09
>> Same one being used. I mean that alone is enough to sell me on it, but on top
00:57:13
of that, it turns out that Janette does have some connections to the art world through her interior design work. So,
00:57:20
it's not like it was a completely foreign, right? Like it's not like if all of a sudden people are like asking
00:57:24
for ransom and tying me to the art world. Like >> [laughter] >> But then things get more complicated
00:57:29
because while police are trying to wrap their heads around a connection between these two telegrams, they learn that
00:57:37
three more have been sent to families of prominent people who have been abducted
00:57:42
in Rome. And again, they instruct them to go to that same address [music] in all of them. And
00:57:50
they were addressed to the family members telling them again, specifically to go to this address or was it like
00:57:56
Janette's where it was like addressed to >> go. So, I know one of them was addressed
00:58:02
to the family members. I don't know about the other two. So, I know one is different than Janette's. I don't know
00:58:08
about the other ones. >> And it's weird because like they when I say ransom, they weren't even making
00:58:12
straight-up ransom demands. They were actually like more similar to the Christie's telegram saying like go to
00:58:19
this place if you want answers kind of thing. [music] And I don't know if those families went
00:58:23
to the address or what happened if they did. I just know that one of the people who'd been abducted, this industrialist,
00:58:30
is eventually found dead. He had been shot in the head even after part of the $450,000
00:58:37
ransom had been paid. The other two people, however, did eventually get released. But police are probably
00:58:43
feeling like time is running out to track down whoever sent these telegrams. Like how dangerous are these people?
00:58:50
Now, they're able to figure out the addresses that the telegrams were supposedly sent from. [music]
00:58:55
And there are like a couple of different from addresses. But surprise, surprise,
00:59:00
when they look it up, they're able to figure out that the addresses that the telegrams were supposedly sent from cuz
00:59:06
they're like they're from address, there were a couple different ones. They were
00:59:08
different like numbers but all on the same street. They don't exist. >> Or like the numbers don't. The street
00:59:14
itself, though, does exist. And so police obviously like search it except they don't find anything or like find
00:59:22
anyone who knows about like the person who would have sent this. Except when they're doing this like canvassing, they
00:59:28
do find, interestingly, that another director who works for Christie's art house or auction house
00:59:36
actually lives on that street. >> Oh. Yeah, which is you know, a huge red flag. And police
00:59:42
search his apartment, where they find illegal firearms, they find narcotics. They also search his girlfriend's place,
00:59:50
and according to Corriere della Sera, there they find a diagram of Christie's alarm system. So, it's looking more and
00:59:58
more likely that this director may have sent the telegram to the other director,
01:00:04
as well as maybe even planned that heist. But, even like with all the weird things they collect, apparently there's
01:00:10
nothing concrete to prove that this guy was [music] involved, and none of the art that was
01:00:16
taken is ever recovered. So, they can't tie this director to any of the telegrams or the ransom plots, either.
01:00:24
And even though police do arrest him, he is eventually released. And all the while, police are still
01:00:31
wondering if he has any connection to Gabriella and Jeanette's disappearance. I feel like the key to all of this is
01:00:38
this address that everyone was told to go to. >> like that it was involved in all the
01:00:43
telegrams. Which I told you was real. Yes, okay. So, when they go to this address, it does not disappoint.
01:00:50
According to the Manchester Evening News, they find at this address a group of South Americans living there. One of
01:00:57
whom is a woman out on bail who had been charged in 1976 with abducting an ambassador to Rome. Oh.
01:01:05
>> I know, like kind of the thing we're looking into. Yeah. So, she and everyone
01:01:09
else in the apartment end up getting arrested when they find like narcotics in the place, right? They can't tie them
01:01:14
to the abductions, yes, but they like Any connection to the Christie's director with narcotics at the other
01:01:19
address? No, so like Different, okay. Well, I don't know that it's different, but I just know they didn't find any
01:01:24
connection to him. Like except for the telegrams. Like But on paper, no. No connection except
01:01:31
for all the connections. Got it. >> Right. So, but when police start digging into the people who live there, they
01:01:36
uncover this whole other layer. So, they learn that two people in the apartment had some kind of beef with another
01:01:43
woman, and that she might have sent the telegrams to set them up. Like she knew police would investigate and that they
01:01:51
would get raided. >> Okay, but you got to be real lucky if you just like guess addresses that tie back to the
01:01:57
street where the connections lived, and that guy also turns out to be shady. Like that's a lot.
01:02:03
I agree. I I will say sometimes things can be stranger than fiction because when they
01:02:10
start like going down this road and looking into this woman, what they see is that the Peruvian
01:02:17
embassy was on the same street as that like shady Christie's director, and this woman that they suspect was the sender
01:02:25
was from Peru. So, they're like, I mean, it's a street she would have been familiar with.
01:02:31
>> Or she's connected to the guy, too. Two birds, one stone. Police don't think so.
01:02:38
They think that she probably saw these big cases in the news and took advantage of that because she had some kind of axe
01:02:46
to grind. [music] And police just write it off. Like just like that. I mean, So,
01:02:50
>> [laughter] >> just to recap what they're writing off. >> Mhm. Finding a known kidnapper at the address
01:02:56
that the telegrams referenced. Mhm. Finding a director of the auction house where the heist like where the heist
01:03:04
happened on the same street as the other address referenced. Mhm. Oh. I All coincidence. I'm having trouble I
01:03:11
know. like processing that many coincidences. I know. But police now are of the mindset that
01:03:20
the telegrams were just some kind of hoax. And so they put that line of investigation to the side. And maybe
01:03:27
because at that point they have a bigger, better lead. Almost 3 weeks after Jennette and
01:03:32
Gabriella went missing, we are now December 18th, the women's car is found. It's spotted by police on a snowy
01:03:40
roadside about 20 to 30 minutes from the boarding [music] house. And truthfully,
01:03:45
I don't even think they know it's a car at first. Like it's almost completely buried under a pile of snow. There's
01:03:50
just like this part of it that was reflecting the sun, which is what caught police's eye when they were up in a
01:03:54
helicopter. But when search teams dig it out, they know for sure it is Jennette and Gabriella's car.
01:04:01
Doors are locked, but they can still see the keys inside along with some valuables. The car is in neutral with
01:04:07
the handbrake pulled, and when they later examine it, the car is totally fine and working. And importantly, when
01:04:14
they got to it, they noticed that the wheels are on top of asphalt, not a like huge layer of snow, which means that
01:04:22
whoever drove it was driving on a at least clearish road. They stopped intentionally on that road and left it
01:04:31
there before the storm came down. And is this like up the mountain or like down in the valley? Like on the way?
01:04:41
Okay. Yeah, so it's up a mountain road about 4 miles or like 12 minutes from the closest town. And not too far from
01:04:49
where they were staying. So, okay, the car is parked on again, clearish road at least. If it wasn't
01:04:57
snowing so bad, why would they stop? I don't know. And I mean, I should clarify. Like just
01:05:02
because like they're not on top of a ton of snow, doesn't mean that it wasn't getting bad. Well, but you I mean, you
01:05:08
know, we're in Indiana. Like it takes a minute for for ground to actually freeze
01:05:11
up hard enough to hold snow, especially on a road that's being driven. So really
01:05:15
like what police are thinking is that they pulled over because it was getting really bad. In my mind it had to have
01:05:20
been really bad for them not to be able to go 12 minutes back to like the nearest town. You know what I mean? But
01:05:26
they talked to some workers who say that they got stuck in a snowbank on the same
01:05:29
day that the same women went missing near where Gabriella and Jeanette's car was found. Police think that [music]
01:05:34
like they saw it getting bad, they like stopped, they pulled over to kind of like wait it out cuz you are in a
01:05:39
mountain. Maybe you don't want to like drive down in whiteout conditions. I mean fair.
01:05:43
>> But then why leave their fully functioning car to venture out into the snow? You and I are super familiar with
01:05:50
snow. You don't just like get out of a car to wander, to go someplace to like maybe find something TBD.
01:05:58
I know. So [music] yes, like I understand that sitting and waiting kind of. If they decided to go
01:06:03
in what is a snowstorm, they're 12 minutes away from the nearest town. because not too far off the road. It's like a
01:06:13
short walk from where the car is parked. Police end up finding this house. So they learn that the owner of the house
01:06:19
used it as a place for shepherds to stay during the summer, which is like a line straight out of the Bible.
01:06:25
>> [laughter] >> But in the winter, it's typically empty. And the house owner even confirms that
01:06:31
it should have been empty that November/December because repairs were being done on it. Except when police go
01:06:38
to this house, they search the house, there were signs that someone had been there recently. Like the fireplace is
01:06:45
full of ashes and there's burnt furniture and there are used plates and silverware. Are there any like
01:06:52
fingerprints or DNA? So there's actually a note about them finding unknown fingerprints in the car
01:06:59
that they sent off to agencies across Italy as like I mean they sent Interpol, Scotland Yard, all of that. And they
01:07:04
never say if anything comes of that. Though I know Jeanette actually borrowed the car from a guy, could be his, blah
01:07:08
blah blah. All that to say, they never say anything about Prince in the house, which I think is kind of weird because I
01:07:15
know they searched it pretty well. Like enough that they did find hair in the bathroom that they think might belong to
01:07:21
Janette or to Gabriella. >> Mhm. But in 1980, it's not like they can say for sure it's theirs with DNA.
01:07:26
They're just doing like a visual comparison. >> Yeah, maybe under a microscope or
01:07:30
something. So they think that the women had been there. Like again, they pull over, they go to
01:07:36
this house. They even think that maybe they tried to signal for help by lighting fire on the balcony because
01:07:41
they found burnt wood out there, too. Which how would all the searchers miss that? Well, from what I can tell, this
01:07:47
house is in a remote spot and I think it got buried in snow during the storm. Like I don't even know how
01:07:53
long a fire outside would have lasted Okay, but there's fire inside, too. There You said there's like ashes there,
01:08:00
like smoke from the fireplace inside. >> Yeah, but if you remember, like they don't start the search right away and
01:08:07
even when they do, they have to call it off for a little bit because the storm like picks up again. And so like maybe,
01:08:14
I don't know, I'm just guessing, but like maybe like when there is a fire going on, there's no helicopters to see
01:08:18
the smoke, no one out there to see the smoke and then by the time that second storm passes through, like everything's
01:08:23
buried in snow, you're not setting fires on anything. >> Mhm. So because they're not there, then
01:08:28
police wonder like, "Okay, did you see that like all your options for like sending for help are gone?" [music]
01:08:34
Did they possibly try to venture out on their own like to one of those nearby towns, right? Car's buried, can't use
01:08:40
that. So they go to this like other local town, which is another ski resort, to try and piece together what other
01:08:46
locals might have seen. But that honestly ends up muddying the waters even more because no one reports seeing Janette
01:08:53
and Gabriella after the storm. Instead, there are even more reported sightings from the day they disappeared.
01:09:03
Two hunters tell police that around 3:00 p.m. that day, they saw three people, two that they think were women, standing
01:09:11
near a dark-colored car close to where their car ends up being found. And then, the manager of a hotel in town claims
01:09:18
that he saw Jeanette and Gabriella three times that same day between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. when they came into his
01:09:25
hotel for a drink. And when they left, the manager noticed Jeanette speaking to a man outside in a car. Now, I don't
01:09:31
have a full description of this guy, but Generale Carlo Felice Corsetti. That is a mouthful, but he was an
01:09:39
original investigator on the case. Told us that the manager described this guy as well-dressed in a way that stood out
01:09:47
to him. So, we've got that. And then around 8:00 p.m., the manager was driving down the mountain to Sarnano
01:09:52
when he passed three cars, one of them a dark-colored car like Jeanette's. Now, this doesn't totally add up
01:10:00
because police double-check with Nazareno and the owner of the boarding house, and they both say that the women
01:10:06
didn't leave the boarding house until around 9:45 a.m. Which automatically doesn't make that
01:10:12
that manager's timeline work. If he's saying he starts seeing them at like 10:00. And because of that
01:10:16
inconsistency, police decide to toss his whole statement. Which sends them back to square one. But
01:10:23
I think that that sighting of her at 3:00 is interesting because is that where they went in between Right, cuz we
01:10:30
don't have them in Sarnano between 1:00 and 4:00. Right. So, is is that possible? Is that where they
01:10:37
went? Maybe not up the mountain. Doesn't explain why you're still going up there
01:10:40
at 7:20, but it could be why no one saw them in that town. They're at this other ski
01:10:43
resort. I don't know. >> Mhm. But that sighting of her at 2:00 p.m. I think is really interesting
01:10:48
because we don't Like right, we have that window. >> It's in the middle of that like 1:00 and
01:10:52
4:00. >> Right. So, is this where they went in that time? Did they not go up the
01:10:56
mountain, but they went to this ski resort at that time. For what, I don't know.
01:11:01
Now, at this point, Jennette's husband, Steven, had to go back to London. So, police traveled there to talk to him. In
01:11:08
the time since he's been back, he's been looking into Jennette's finances, [music] and he tells police that she had
01:11:13
a few bank accounts, some in England, some in Italy, but there hasn't been any activity [music]
01:11:17
in any of them since the day she disappeared. And none of the travelers checks that were issued to her in
01:11:23
November had been cashed either. But in this meeting, he also mentions that Jennette did some business with a
01:11:30
gallerist living in London who happens to share a last name with a Sicilian crime family. And this starts to make
01:11:37
police rethink those telegrams. Even if they still can't make a clear connection to the Christie heist.
01:11:46
This is like, I don't know, another red flag. >> Mhm. They know mafia bosses apparently
01:11:52
used stolen art to launder money. So, did Jennette somehow get mixed up with the wrong crowd? Which, don't get me
01:12:00
wrong, I would love to go back to these telegrams because they're >> [laughter] >> very interesting and I have so many
01:12:05
questions. When it comes to Jennette, everything else seems to be pointing to an
01:12:11
accident. >> It's almost like police are going around and around, [music] like in circles, right? Like
01:12:18
back and forth between theories because even in accident, like there isn't one single theory that totally fits.
01:12:25
Accident, why stop the car? Why take shelter? And then if you're going to take shelter, why leave?
01:12:30
And then what are those like possible sightings of them with other people, other cars? Then why do they find stuff
01:12:37
at that house? Where did What if they were like held there, though? I mean, that makes just as much sense as
01:12:42
like anything else to me, but by who? Right. That's what they can't get a firm grip on. And listen, they keep getting
01:12:49
tips about possible suspects, >> [music] >> and they run them down, but then it ends
01:12:53
up being nothing. Like there was one woman who implicated her ex-boyfriend, said that he was a Brazilian gem dealer
01:13:00
who bragged to her about killing two women, but they end up arresting him on something else. They show his picture
01:13:05
around to people. None of those people can confirm that they ever saw him with the women, and they end up releasing him
01:13:11
because, according to a Scottish newspaper, the ex-girlfriend eventually even admits that she made it all up to
01:13:16
get back at him for their breakup. And amidst all these bogus allegations and false leads they're chasing down,
01:13:22
probably the most promising one gets totally missed. On January 30th, 1981, so this is almost 2 months exactly after
01:13:36
[music] Jenette and Gabriella disappeared, someone calls the Daily Mail's Rome office late at night claiming to have
01:13:43
information about the women. The tipster says that his name is Ian Sayre, and that Jenette got a telegram
01:13:52
the day she disappeared. >> Another telegram? Well, no, no, no. This is This is the first telegram that she got.
01:13:59
But he says he he says that he knows about the telegram, and then he says another telegram has been sent to
01:14:04
Christie's. The important part of this is that none of this had been made public yet.
01:14:10
Now, because it had not been made public, the editor didn't take this seriously. So, like, we know this is
01:14:16
important. >> editor who took the call didn't and was like, "LOL, what are you talking about?
01:14:20
Bye-bye." >> Yeah, thank you, but no thank you. So, this kind of just stays in the back of
01:14:24
this editor's mind. Doesn't even mention it to anyone. But as more and more time starts
01:14:31
passing, [music] as police start getting hard up for leads, and they eventually start telling
01:14:35
the public more and more about the case, >> he finds out about the telegram. >> Yes. And that's when he's like, "Oh,
01:14:41
shoot." So, the editor first tries calling this Ian Sayre fellow at the number that came
01:14:48
through on his old school telex. The number was for an Austrian hotel. And magically, Ian is still there.
01:14:58
He is there researching a book with two journalists. But get this, when the editor has a reporter reach out, this
01:15:04
Ian guy tells the reporter, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't call you. I don't know
01:15:10
anything about missing women in Italy or telegrams or Christie's auction house."
01:15:15
But whoever made that call had to have made it from the hotel that Ian was staying at. It's not like they could
01:15:20
just like say that because the way that it came through on the telex like I was talking about,
01:15:26
>> [music] >> it's basically like a fancy typewriter that automatically records the number
01:15:30
that the message is coming from. Oh, so it's not like the guy even like left the
01:15:33
number. It came out of the machine. >> Yeah, you can't fake it back then. >> Right. So, when they're kind of just
01:15:39
like like stumped, right? Like they're like, "Okay, what do I don't know what this means." That's when the editor
01:15:42
eventually passes this on to police who go and question Ian and the two journalists that are with him trying to
01:15:49
establish some kind of connection between him or Christie's or the women or freaking anything in this story. And
01:15:56
it turns out Ian grew a door-to-door parcel business into this huge logistics company. Christie's was one of their
01:16:04
clients. But they had like tens of thousands of clients. So, like that doesn't seem like a a good
01:16:12
enough connection. >> Yeah. His wife was a model like Janette was at one point in her life, but he
01:16:18
told police and us cuz girl like the team put in the work on this episode. They were making international phone
01:16:24
calls. >> [laughter] >> He said that he had never met Janette or Gabriella who who by the way like
01:16:30
Janette met Gabriella like long after her modeling days. And while we couldn't talk to the other two journalists that
01:16:35
Ian was with because [music] they've since died, their statements are in court documents and both of them say
01:16:40
that they had never heard Ian even mention Jeanette or this case until after that call from the Daily Mail came
01:16:47
in. >> Yeah, cuz he was like, "Dude, this is weird." So, they've got nothing here.
01:16:52
And it like it kind of just goes away, but they still will like follow up and question
01:16:57
him for years afterwards. [music] Like just seeing if this makes sense, like seeing if they missed something,
01:17:04
seeing if stories change, but eventually they they completely move on from this tip.
01:17:08
>> Which I kind of agree with. I feel like we can cross him off the list, right?
01:17:11
Ian didn't have anything to do with this. He doesn't like it seems super bizarre that he's even involved, but
01:17:19
I mean someone staying at his hotel knew about those telegrams. They called. >> somebody like passing through. I mean,
01:17:27
they don't have to be staying at the hotel, but they had to have like been around.
01:17:30
>> Yeah, even if they're just passing through, how do you know Ian's name to give?
01:17:37
>> This is what I'm saying. It feels like such a spider web. Like it's no wonder
01:17:41
people get tangled up in this case. Cuz you want to just say like, "Oh, someone maybe knew Ian and knew he was staying
01:17:47
there and used his name." No, like we know it had to have come from the hotel, so someone had to like
01:17:52
know he was staying there and be there. >> So, what is this person doing in Austria
01:17:56
then 2 months after the women go missing? It's not even like this is like a bad hoax. This person had to have
01:18:01
actually known legit information that wasn't public. >> Right, because the telegrams weren't
01:18:05
public yet. Okay, so did police look at other guests at the hotel? Did the hotel like keep records
01:18:14
of who did what calls? Were any of the employees looked at maybe? Geraldo Corsetti told us that he like straight
01:18:20
up flew to Austria. Actually, he flew to many countries as part of his investigation, but he actually couldn't
01:18:25
say much more than that. So, I don't know what that entailed. I have to imagine you look at like everyone who
01:18:31
was in that hotel or whatever. Especially if I'm thinking like employees who are at the hotel would
01:18:36
have access to the phones, would have like >> there? Like Who knows exactly who knows
01:18:40
who's staying there. From the court I will I will say I don't know what they did. From the court records that we
01:18:45
have, the things I can actually see, it seems like police were focused on Ian. [music]
01:18:49
I don't know how much they checked out other possibilities if at all, and I just know that Ian doesn't go anywhere.
01:18:56
So, months pass, the snow melts, seasons come and go, winter comes again, and there is still no Jeanette or no
01:19:06
Gabriella. So, on January 14, 1982, Steven decides to make a broadcast, like a public appeal for information. And
01:19:16
Brett, I'm going to have you read the sections for me, one sec. It has now been a year since the
01:19:23
mysterious disappearance of my wife, Jeanette, and Gabriella Guerin in the mountains above Sernano in the Marche
01:19:30
region. Gabriella's [music] two small children, 12-year-old Ottavio and 4-year-old Gioia, lost their father
01:19:36
almost 4 years ago in a car accident. Now they have been without their mother for over a year, and it is not fair to
01:19:43
ask them to go on living in the uncertainty of what might have happened to her. My wife's family and I, too, have
01:19:50
endured the anguish and false hopes of a year marked by uncertainty. Despite repeated searches and police
01:19:56
investigations, and despite the generous help of volunteers and local residents,
01:20:00
this tragic disappearance remains a mystery. What could have happened? Surely someone must be able to release
01:20:08
us from the torment and uncertainty of not knowing the truth. Was this disappearance the result of a
01:20:13
terrible crime, or is there another explanation? So, I'm really glad that he brought up Gabriella so much in this
01:20:20
statement, cuz it really does seem like all the focus has been around Jeanette, especially when it comes to like all the
01:20:25
foul play stuff. Did police ever really dig into Gabriella's life? >> So, this is one of those other things
01:20:30
where it's like if they did, I don't know about it. Like, it's not in any of the official documents or the reporting
01:20:35
that we looked at. I think that police were much more heavily focused on Jeanette because like
01:20:42
the world that she was in, right? The Rothschild, the It was my It felt much bigger. Right. Like, the world she moved
01:20:49
in just had more connections to what they think could be possible. Like, I mean, Gabriella lives a relatively
01:20:54
simple life in comparison. Like, she provides for her kids the best she could after her husband's death. She didn't
01:21:00
have enemies. She wasn't moving in the same world. So, it seems like the consensus was that she
01:21:05
was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we even tried to reach out to her
01:21:09
family to ask like some of these questions, but we couldn't get in touch with anyone who knew her or her kids
01:21:13
well. So, this statement goes out because if anyone is still holding on to tips, police [music] and Steven want to
01:21:20
know. So, Steven offers up a reward of up to 100 million lire, which is like it would be today like $235,000.
01:21:28
And he's basically looking for any information that will help solve this case. And he says there'll be even more
01:21:33
if it leads to finding Jeanette and Gabriella alive. And [music] this money, this is everything Steven has to his
01:21:40
name, and he is willing to give it all up to bring them home. And maybe that's what it took. Because
01:21:48
within 2 weeks, on January 27th, he gets his wish. But not what he'd actually hoped for.
01:21:57
Hunters hiking up the mountain find objects [music] scattered across the snow in a ravine in this like
01:22:03
densely wooded area about 8 miles from where the cabin was. They're finding boots, purses, clothing,
01:22:12
and then bones. When police get there and do a formal search, right away, they zero in on a
01:22:20
couple of things. First, they find a fork that looks just like the ones at the house that they
01:22:26
believe Janette and Gabriella sheltered in during the storm. The second thing was inside the purses,
01:22:32
which by the way, nothing is missing from, [music] they noticed two watches that they
01:22:37
believed belonged to the women. According to a local Italian newspaper, Janette's watch is manually wound and
01:22:44
Gabriella's is like a battery-powered watch. Janette's stopped on December [music]
01:22:48
12th, 1980 at 7:20 a.m. Gabriella's stopped a week later, December 19th at 7:30 a.m.
01:22:58
So, a week and 10 minutes apart. Exactly. >> Kind of spooky, I know. And when was the
01:23:04
car and the cabin found? Uh so, December 18th is when they found those things. So,
01:23:11
basically, Janette's manually wound watch stopped two weeks after they went missing.
01:23:16
Gabriella's battery one stopped three weeks after and just one day after the car was found. So, I mean, if they would
01:23:24
have waited just a little longer, they might have been found. Maybe. If you want to stick to the theory that
01:23:31
they took shelter from the storm in the cabin and then they ventured out to get help, which is clearly what this is
01:23:37
meant to look like, but there are some real problems with that theory now that they have located
01:23:43
the women. First of all, if the bodies were there the whole time, why didn't anyone see them?
01:23:53
The investigator that we talked to said that that area that they were found in, it was outside of police's official
01:23:59
search radius. But, a local veterinarian says that he had set a fox trap less than 15 ft away from where they found
01:24:05
the remains, but he never noticed a smell there. >> [music] >> I mean, he even remembers the exact spot
01:24:10
when he goes back with police and sure enough, there is still a bit of trap sitting tied to like a nearby shrub.
01:24:16
Also, like okay, fine, the guy didn't notice them. What, they both just laid down and died in the exact same spot?
01:24:23
Like I mean animals had like gotten to the remains, right? Like some of them had been scattered like bones, but like
01:24:28
they're still pretty much intact in their clothes with their bags. Nothing seems to be missing.
01:24:34
>> Well, and I'm thinking also they were found in January and like not that January. Like time had passed. Like you
01:24:42
said season had seasons had changed. Again, I think it's weird that they weren't found, but I'm just like I also
01:24:47
like you think about two women, okay, we're going to venture out to get help. They just Like what are the odds I'm I'm
01:24:52
saying that they like even like succumb to the elements at the exact same spot together and lay down. Like what if I I
01:24:58
can see one of them was like, okay, well I'm going to keep going and I'm going to
01:25:00
get help because now the situation is even more dire. Right. And like you need help, I need to be able to bring people
01:25:07
back to you. And like the even the watches. I mean maybe it's because one was wound, one is
01:25:12
battery, who knows. It's I just like I think about other cases we've done where people have where they think that they
01:25:20
die in the snow. They're they're not all found like in the same spot. >> bodies are found together, it usually
01:25:25
means they died together and that seems really unlikely when exposure is the cause of death.
01:25:30
>> Yes. And then more holes are poked in the exposure theory when police talk to a
01:25:35
mountain rescue volunteer who helped with the original [music] search. He remembers that when the searchers went
01:25:42
out, the snow was so deep that they could only get through on skis. So, again, the women are waiting until
01:25:50
after the storm theoretically to venture out to get help because they don't think
01:25:54
anyone's coming. He doesn't think the women could have even physically made it to where they were found in that ravine
01:26:00
on foot. Especially because by the way, didn't mention this, Gabriella was wearing a skirt.
01:26:07
So, I don't think she would have made it 8 miles and I go back to like the fact that they're found together. Jeanette is
01:26:12
not wearing a skirt. Like she was in pants or something. So, theoretically in my mind she could have
01:26:17
gotten farther if they did at least try, but I don't think they get the 8 miles to begin with. And there was even still
01:26:23
some uncertainty over whose remains were found. Like there's no DNA testing yet,
01:26:28
so Janette ends up getting identified through dental records. There aren't any on file for Gabriella, so it seems like
01:26:34
police are mostly just relying on her clothes and stuff to identify her. And eventually
01:26:39
forensic testing confirms that the remains belong to a woman, but that's like it. I mean police seem pretty sure
01:26:46
it's Gabriella. I mean, that's who went missing with Janette and they have Janette, but they
01:26:51
also don't like look at any other possibilities based on the court documents that we read. But that ends up
01:26:55
being like a huge open question to her family. Well, Yeah, and again, I have questions about
01:27:01
all of this. Honestly, especially these hunters that found them. Like they just happened to
01:27:08
stumble on these remains conveniently right after a reward was announced. >> which they fully expect to cash in on by
01:27:15
the way. Just 2 days after finding the bodies, one of those hunters writes a demand
01:27:21
letter to Steven's lawyer for the reward money. Remember, like all the money to Steven's name. And Steven's lawyer is
01:27:27
like, "No. You legally have to tell police if you find human remains. Like that's a civic
01:27:34
duty, not information." Yeah. And even though Steven's still willing to pay them a portion of the reward, the hunter
01:27:42
ends up suing [snorts] him for the full amount and wins. He He sues this grieving husband who put this money up
01:27:50
Yes. to find his missing wife. >> And he Like I said, he ends up winning. He gets the full reward plus interest,
01:27:58
but it doesn't seem like police ever look into any of the hunters as suspects. And
01:28:04
maybe that's because at this point they're not looking at this as a murder at all anymore, especially when the
01:28:11
medical examiner's report comes in on April 3rd. It shows there's no physical evidence of
01:28:17
trauma. So, like no blunt force injuries, no stab [music] wounds, bullets, and which again, we're just
01:28:21
probably dealing with bones, but you can see that on the skeleton. And so, going
01:28:25
up with what he has, the medical examiner thinks that the cause of death is probably just exposure. And based on
01:28:32
what quote-unquote he says is logic, he believes that the women likely died sometime right after they went missing.
01:28:38
But there's no way, he says, to tell how long the remains had been in the ravine
01:28:42
where they were found. So, the ME rules their deaths as accidental deaths from exposure to snow.
01:28:48
Steven gets permission to fly Jeannette's remains home to London, where they're cremated. Gabriella is
01:28:54
buried in her hometown. And a prosecutor moves to close the case. Close the case with so many open
01:29:02
questions yet? Mhm. I'm with you. Steven is with you. According to Town & Country magazine, in
01:29:09
1982, he reaches out to two journalists at The Sunday Times who have been reporting on the case.
01:29:15
And he like he can't let it go. So, he asked them to do their own investigation.
01:29:20
And after months of work, the journalists come up with a brand new theory that they publish in this 20-page
01:29:29
feature on November 7th, 1982. You ready? Sure. So, they think that Jeannette [music]
01:29:36
set up a meeting in the mountains to sell an antique. Who she thought was a buyer was actually
01:29:43
part of a Sardinian abduction ring. And they abducted Jeannette and Gabriella. And when the abductors
01:29:50
thought that the women knew enough to identify them, they killed them. Right? Like we know there's no ransom note.
01:29:56
>> Right. But the journalists allege that if a note went to a family like the Rothschilds, the journalists say that
01:30:03
they would keep that kind of thing quiet. Why? Partially for safety. Like I mean they
01:30:10
have money to hire people outside of law enforcement to advise them on things like this, right? Like so
01:30:15
why risk getting police involved if kidnappers are threatening who they think is your family member,
01:30:21
who was your family member? >> of keep it in the family. Yeah. And like plus like I remember this from the Getty
01:30:26
kidnapping. The Gettys didn't want to publicize or pay the ransom at all because they thought that that would
01:30:31
lead to more family members getting >> Oh. kidnapped. >> Yeah. I would think that like at least
01:30:36
they would tell Steven, but again maybe Steven would tell police because it just
01:30:40
kind of seems wild to me to like protect your whole family just like like leave her family wondering forever,
01:30:45
but this is the theory. And whether that theory is true or not, it gets enough attention that investigators actually do
01:30:51
take a deep dive into the evidence and re-interview witnesses. So like closed no more. This time around they notice
01:30:58
another problem with the initial like theory or ruling or decision. And it comes to something so basic.
01:31:06
It turns out the women probably couldn't have seen the house from the road where
01:31:11
their car stopped. >> I had this question to begin with cuz like they pull off on the side of the
01:31:15
road because it's so bad. >> bad. And they don't want to stay in their running car. I've driven in really
01:31:20
really bad snow and visibility is like zero. It's so bad they don't want to drive 12 minutes back to the town.
01:31:26
Right. But they can see like they get out of the car because why? >> Mhm. In theory, they're going to seek
01:31:34
shelter in this house. But if it's so bad that they can't drive the 12 minutes back,
01:31:40
how can they see the house? >> They can't. >> So they're just getting out of their car
01:31:44
into the white void of a snowstorm? Yeah. So So when you put it that way, like yes, they would have left their
01:31:51
perfectly fine running car to just walk into the woods in a snowstorm. Which is bananas.
01:31:58
>> Bonkers. All that to say, when they're found and their stuff is found, there is a fork
01:32:05
from the house. >> house. And there are hairs in the house. They make it seem like they were there.
01:32:10
>> Right. So, how did they get there if they went there? >> Or who took them there? Because you
01:32:16
would have had to know that this house was there to get from the car to the house.
01:32:19
>> a snowstorm. >> It makes me wonder like, is the house not a shelter place, but like a meeting
01:32:25
place? Mhm. So, it was like a pointed place that they were going to. >> Or someone took them to right like like
01:32:30
someone took them there. >> point. >> Uh yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So, listen. Okay, so they're looking
01:32:36
into this now cuz they they've realized they had this big flaw in their initial theory. Yeah. And when they dig, like
01:32:43
when you actually like go down this road, the police end up learning that there may have been a connection between
01:32:50
Jennette and a very dangerous man, who they discover also has ties to the Christie's heist. Christie's is back.
01:33:00
>> At Christie's is back. So, as they're interviewing and then re-interviewing people for this new investigation,
01:33:05
police speak to one of Jennette's friends who they show photos of people that they think she might have known.
01:33:10
So, they end up showing her pictures of some guys that they think might be connected to Jennette. And the friend
01:33:16
recognizes one of them, this guy named Sergio Vaccari. He is an Italian antique dealer and reported drug dealer who'd
01:33:26
lived in London until he was stabbed to death in his apartment on September 15th, 1982.
01:33:34
Which is after the women have like disappeared, whatever. So, police in London were still
01:33:39
investigating Sergio's murder when they searched his safe deposit box and found photos of stolen antiques, some of
01:33:48
which, by the way, were taken during Christie's heist in '80. They shared that with the Italian police looking
01:33:55
into the heist, which is how Sergio got on their radar. So, thank god they had reopened this investigation cuz I almost
01:34:01
wonder like if it had been closed and nobody was thinking about it like would this have ever been like brought up,
01:34:06
tied back together? >> So, they keep going down this road. I mean, this finally feels like it has
01:34:12
some real weight to it and like maybe can explain the things we couldn't before.
01:34:18
And it keeps getting more solid. Through a man who knew Sergio, they find out that there was a name written in
01:34:25
Sergio's diary. Janette. No last name, though. And that guy remembers that next to her
01:34:31
name, he saw a phone number. Problem is police can't track down Sergio's diary, so they can't track down
01:34:38
the number or tie it to Janette in any way. But even without the diary, the more police look into Sergio, the more
01:34:44
they think they may finally be on the right track. Because Sergio may have been involved in another mysterious
01:34:51
death of an Italian banker. So, I know I'm getting out a little bit of a tangent, but like you got to
01:34:56
understand who this guy is and like the world that we're operating in. So, a British journalist tells police
01:35:01
that a source, he can't say who, but it's someone in the antique dealing world who has come up in the
01:35:08
investigation before. This source told him that Sergio had something to do with the death of man
01:35:15
named Roberto Calvi. Roberto was the chairman of a Vatican-backed bank [music] that collapsed in June 1982
01:35:22
after an investigation showed that the bank had committed massive [music] financial fraud involving like secret
01:35:28
offshore accounts, unauthorized loans, and I mean, they had ties to mafia groups. [music]
01:35:32
After all of that, this Roberto guy fled to London and then he's found hanging under a bridge 12 days later.
01:35:39
His death gets ruled a suicide, like all that. Now, this journalist source says that he knows Sergio is connected to
01:35:47
Roberto's death because once when he was in Sergio's car, he had opened Sergio's
01:35:52
bag. This is the point where he's like alone in the car with the bag. And he says a few photos fall out. One of them
01:35:58
was Roberto. And then there was another photo of Janette. And the journalist tells
01:36:05
police that the source was still in the car with the pictures when Sergio came back. And Sergio actually told him that
01:36:14
he was involved in Roberto's death. What did he say about the picture of Janette?
01:36:19
According to the source, nothing. Which makes this a great lead that they can't do anything with.
01:36:27
>> Right, that's kind of a dead end. Even though they're are now more convinced that the women met with foul play,
01:36:33
they still can't say when or how. Even the why still feels fuzzy. Mhm. And they definitely can't say who.
01:36:42
So, without any suspects to charge, even though like they feel like something different happened, the case
01:36:50
still gets closed out in October of 1989. Uh okay. Do police ever retest the physical evidence from the house or the
01:37:00
remains or anything? >> Not that I can tell. I mean, certainly not before '89. Like
01:37:05
there was a whole lot new they could do. I know that according to an Italian daily newspaper, so in uh 2005, a
01:37:11
biology professor actually reached out to Gabriella's family asking to analyze her remains. Like I think they were
01:37:17
hoping once and for all to confirm whether or not the remains belonged to Gabriella. Remember there was kind of
01:37:21
like a question about that. So, her family lets this guy exhume the remains. They also give him a DNA sample.
01:37:29
But this is so weird. When he runs the tests, it's only Gabriella's DNA that is present.
01:37:35
No one else's. Which like feels like you're like, "Yeah, so what? No big deal." You would kind of expect something from
01:37:43
Janette. Right? Because like back in the day, Right, this is it. >> in '80, so they're kind of just like
01:37:49
pushing everything together. But not even pushing everything, like even with how they were found. Like animals like
01:37:53
could have moved stuff or whatever. Back in the day, like what they had wasn't advanced enough, like the their
01:37:58
type of tech or whatever to like separate the remains when they were processed, right? You have like certain
01:38:03
bones and and you can probably guess based on height or whatever. But I think everyone kind of expected
01:38:10
some mixing. And like we said, like Jeanette's remains end up being cremated. And Steven refused to provide
01:38:16
any samples. Though like like I don't even know like what samples he would have. So answers about like what what
01:38:22
what could have been hers or not hers, like that's long gone. It's just like a weird thing. Again, I don't know that it
01:38:26
means anything. It's just like strange and if you like look into this case, you're going to see it pop up. And for
01:38:31
people who want to get really conspiratorial, I think it it lends to that, like what what was Jeanette
01:38:37
actually dead? Again, they they ID'd her though through dental record. I don't know. I don't know. But it's like things
01:38:42
I've seen people spiral on. So this testing gets done, but it doesn't bring police any new leads.
01:38:48
And the case again goes cold and interest wanes until 2013. That's when a photographer named Marco
01:38:57
Accetti makes some wild claims. Which brings the Vatican back to this case. And an old Crime Junkie episode. So we
01:39:08
did a fan club episode about the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi. She was a 15-year-old girl who went to a
01:39:17
Vatican City school. I'll link to it in the show notes if you guys need a reminder. But Marco is the
01:39:22
guy who claimed responsibility for her kidnapping. While he was already in prison for running over a 12-year-old
01:39:28
boy. So when police had questioned him about Emanuela, Marco says that in the '80s he
01:39:34
was involved with this secret group that acted on behalf of religious figures who
01:39:39
opposed mainstream Vatican politics. They And he says, like back to this case, that they wanted to recruit Jeanette for
01:39:48
some kind of blackmail plan. Like they wanted her to falsely accuse the president of the Vatican bank.
01:39:57
And this is the bank that Roberto Calvi chaired. They wanted her to accuse him of sexual
01:40:04
assault. Which so he throws that out there and then he makes a 180° turn and says that
01:40:12
they never actually got in contact with Jeanette and that her death doesn't have
01:40:14
anything to do with him. So So why bring her up at all? But okay. Is there any connection between Jeanette
01:40:23
and Emanuela? Or does this guy just confess to everything for fun? >> don't Like I If I remember correctly,
01:40:28
like he They never actually found a connection. >> No, I don't think there's any connection
01:40:33
besides like him, right? Like in He's just like bringing it up. >> In both his versions, like Jeanette and
01:40:38
Emanuela were like tangential pieces in his group's Vatican blackmail plot. And like when I try to like see if there's
01:40:46
any like ties, like the only thing I could find was that Stephen hired [music] the same lawyer as Emanuela's
01:40:51
family. But that's about it. And Emanuela's family has been clear that they think Marco made up the
01:40:58
allegations involving their daughter for attention. So if that's true, it's very
01:41:02
possible he's doing it again. Mhm. But I mean it's a clickbaity story. So it's no
01:41:10
wonder that the media just kind of runs with it when it happens. Which like you know, it's like double-edged sword,
01:41:18
right? Like it's It's media attention, but it's like the wrong kind. It's the wrong direction.
01:41:24
>> bring attention back to the case. And maybe because of that, maybe because of
01:41:28
something else that's happening that we don't know, I do know that just in November of 2024, Jeanette and
01:41:33
Gabriella's case got reopened as a double murder investigation. [music] And the one thing they said is they did this
01:41:39
based on inconsistencies that they found in witness statements, which like Which witnesses? When? Yeah.
01:41:47
Would love to know. But like we're seven, eight months now into the reinvestigation and they
01:41:53
haven't shared much more than that. Like I spiral and I'm like, okay, are we talking witnesses that get tied up in
01:41:58
this? Like are whatever are we talking about like The people in the town like there's so
01:42:04
many options for I know. witnesses. [music] I know. And if what we need is stuff from witnesses like time's running
01:42:11
out to get to the bottom of this mystery. Steven is still alive as is Gabriella's
01:42:16
daughter Gioia. But so many people, some witnesses included, maybe even suspects are being
01:42:22
lost. Two families have been waiting for answers for over 40 years now. And according to what Gioia told an Italian
01:42:28
news outlet last year, hope is a hard thing to have anymore. I mean, she's been let down too many times.
01:42:35
But she also said that knowing the truth, like whatever the truth is, it might finally lift her burden that she's
01:42:41
carried for over 40 years. So if anyone listening has information about Jeanette
01:42:47
and Gabriella's case, it's not too late to come forward. You can contact the local prosecutor's
01:42:52
office in Italy >> [music] >> and we are going to list their contact information right in the show notes.
01:42:58
You can find all the source material [music] for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com.
01:43:03
You can also follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. [music] We'll be back next week with a brand new
01:43:07
episode. A woman named Twania is getting kind of nervous. She and her 23-year-old
01:43:22
boyfriend Marcus Rutledge were supposed to meet up, but he's a no-show. [music] So when Twania pulls up to Marcus's
01:43:28
apartment, his car isn't there. She's actually convinced that something is up. So, she reaches out to Marcus's
01:43:35
best friend and he's just as concerned. But, this is where they encountered the first big twist.
01:43:43
It turns out Marcus has been keeping some major secrets from his family. So, it's the afternoon on Monday, June
01:43:57
8th, 1998 and a woman named Tawania is getting kind of nervous. She and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Marcus Rutledge,
01:44:04
were supposed to meet up, but he's a no-show. Not even answering his cell phone. She's like calling him and
01:44:09
calling him, but she's just not hearing anything back. And when's the last time she spoke to him? So, it actually hasn't
01:44:15
been very long. I mean, he had spent the night at her place and then took their 2-year-old daughter to daycare around
01:44:20
like 10:00 that morning. And they've even honestly talked on the phone since at like 1:00, 1:30 that afternoon. So,
01:44:26
truly very little time has passed. It might not even ring alarm bells for some people, but the thing [clears throat]
01:44:31
is, this is totally uncharacteristic of Marcus not to answer his phone. And if he did miss a call, he would get back to
01:44:38
whoever tried him like ASAP. So, right away, she knows in her gut that something just doesn't feel right. So,
01:44:44
she reaches out to Marcus's parents, David and Geraldine, known as Jerry. And she's just trying to see if like they
01:44:50
have heard anything from him. They're not local. They're in Southeast Michigan while Tawania and Marcus both live in
01:44:55
Nashville, Tennessee. Marcus had actually moved to Nashville to attend Tennessee State University, TSU. But,
01:45:03
even with the distance, like his family talks to him pretty regularly. So, Tawania is hoping that they might know
01:45:09
where he is. But, it turns out they haven't heard from him either. Now, according to what his dad, David,
01:45:16
told our reporter, Nina, when he got that first call from Tawania, he understood her concern. Like, Marcus
01:45:22
going MIA, even to him, is unheard of. But, you know, he tries to reassure her at first. Maybe Marcus [music] just got
01:45:29
held up somewhere. It'll be fine. Just like give it a beat. >> Right. But, Towania says that she wants
01:45:35
to go to Marcus's duplex apartment to just check on him. So, David tells her like, "Okay, just like keep me posted."
01:45:41
And meanwhile, he and Jerry start making a series of unsuccessful calls to Marcus
01:45:45
themselves trying to reach him. So, when Towania pulls up to Marcus's apartment,
01:45:49
his car, this red 1995 Plymouth Neon, isn't there. But, instead of that reassuring her like, "Oh, he's just out
01:45:57
for some reason." She's actually more convinced than ever that something is up, and she needs to get into his
01:46:02
apartment. Now, even though they've been together for a little bit, it doesn't look like she has a key to his place.
01:46:07
So, she devises this plan to call Marcus's best friend Ethan Gibbs Jr., who basically helps her just break into
01:46:14
the place. That feels like a pretty big leap. I guess. I mean, I think it's it's the unanswered phone calls that
01:46:21
just again, I I I can't >> unlike him. >> him. Even when she calls Ethan, like he
01:46:26
doesn't think she's overreacting. He's just as concerned. So, when Ethan gets there, he and Towania break in through a
01:46:33
back window. And what they find inside just kind of confirms for them that they made the right decision because even
01:46:40
though there's no sign of a struggle or foul play, Marcus's Rottweiler is shut in his bathroom with no food or water
01:46:48
except like the water in the toilet. >> Oh. And they can tell that he's been there for a while because he had eaten
01:46:53
part of the bathroom carpet. And they know that Marcus would never leave his dog like [music] that, not even for a
01:46:59
short amount of time, let alone for however long it took this dog to start chewing on the rug. [clears throat]
01:47:05
So, there's no indication that Marcus was planning for any kind of trip, [music]
01:47:11
right? Like his clothes are still there. There's no bag or suitcase that's packed
01:47:15
or even missing. Like nothing is standing out to them. So, with David and Jerry's
01:47:21
encouragement, Tawania calls the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department that very night. And an officer comes to
01:47:28
take a missing person's report. Now, initially he gets some basic details about Marcus. He puts out a bolo for his
01:47:34
car, which should stick out because like it has not only is it red but like has Michigan plates still.
01:47:40
>> local. >> Right. Now, even though there is nothing in his apartment that is obviously out
01:47:44
of place. [music] Like it doesn't appear that he was even robbed, nothing like that. David told us that something was
01:47:50
taken from Marcus's apartment that day that police do kind of check out. So, Marcus's landline phone was taken, but
01:47:59
there's no mystery about who took it. It was Tawania. Why? Uh she says apparently it was her
01:48:06
phone and she wanted it back. Question mark. Why did police let her take anything? I
01:48:14
don't know. I don't know if they didn't realize that she even did at first. Like
01:48:18
we actually got to speak with Nashville cold case detective [music] Matt Filter.
01:48:23
He is the one heading up the investigation now, although he wasn't on the force when this all started, but he
01:48:27
told us that Tawania actually took Marcus's caller ID because apparently she wanted to look for numbers that she
01:48:35
might recognize. Like I don't know if the caller ID is like built into the phone. I don't know why she would take
01:48:40
it instead of telling police. >> I was going to say, but couldn't she have checked it right there at the
01:48:45
apartment? >> this part like doesn't totally add up for me, but for whatever reason, she
01:48:50
took it with her. Police do though get it back from her pretty quickly. Like once they realize, but it's useless to
01:48:57
everyone because Detective Filter says that when she unplugged it at Marcus's house, all of the numbers were
01:49:04
automatically erased. >> It's like factory reset. So, if she was trying to see something, that
01:49:11
information is now gone. And that's just one of the things weighing on David and
01:49:16
Jerry's minds as they make the 500-plus mile drive to Nashville the next day. >> [music]
01:49:22
>> So, when they arrive, Tawania's house is their first stop. Now, Tawania isn't a stranger to them.
01:49:28
On like a past trip to Nashville, David and Jerry had taken her and Marcus out to dinner, but this time they're not
01:49:34
here for a friendly visit. Like, they want answers from her. >> Yeah. But, Tawania tells them she has no
01:49:40
idea what could have happened to Marcus or where he might be. And the only person she can think of who Marcus spent
01:49:46
a lot of time with is Ethan. So, Marcus's parents arrange to meet up with him at their son's duplex, but he
01:49:54
doesn't have any insight to share either. He says he is just as lost as they are and he wants to help them find
01:49:59
Marcus any way he can. However, David and Jerry can't help but notice that their son's friend seems
01:50:08
awfully nervous. Like, he's literally sweating. He can't sit still. And there's just this uncomfortable
01:50:17
energy that is like vibrating off of him. Had they ever met Ethan before? So, they actually know him pretty well
01:50:25
because up until a few months ago, Ethan and Marcus shared an apartment. They were roommates.
01:50:30
But, like Marcus had recently decided to get his own place, so he moved out, like
01:50:34
moved into this duplex that they had now looked at. >> Did anything prompt that move or was it
01:50:38
just like kind of growing up, wanting your own space? >> Yeah, I think you can call it that. I
01:50:42
think the two just had like roommate issues, but stuff that like two people who live together might encounter,
01:50:46
little things that just like get under your skin. Marcus >> you and I have never lived together.
01:50:51
Preach. [laughter] Marcus had I guess vented to his family about Ethan. He's messy, his bills
01:50:56
weren't getting paid on time, like that kind of thing. But, even after Marcus moved out, he and Ethan stayed really
01:51:01
close friends. So, like, there is no bad blood between them. And honestly, Marcus's family had always
01:51:07
liked Ethan. He is a respectful guy from a good family. They never had any cause
01:51:11
for concern about Marcus being around him. And even now, they're wondering if his reaction is maybe just because of
01:51:18
the circumstances. I mean, his best friend is now missing, seemingly vanished into thin air.
01:51:24
But, Marcus's sister Felicia notices the same strange vibe when Ethan takes her driving around to look for her brother's
01:51:32
missing car. She's like, "Ethan's acting tense. He's not saying much." Like, other than like suggesting places where
01:51:39
they should maybe look for the car. He's saying that he's worried about the whole
01:51:42
situation. But again, nothing like incriminating. It's just like it could be chalked up to
01:51:47
the same thing, right? Now, as detectives start digging in, they begin to learn more about Marcus's life.
01:51:55
He has two children, a nearly 4-year-old son with a former girlfriend in Knoxville, and a 2-year-old daughter
01:52:01
with Tawania. He is super involved with both kids, always checks in with his son, but that child and his mom haven't
01:52:08
heard from him either. According to Tennessean reporter Beth Warren, Marcus had last seen his son in May when they
01:52:14
went to the zoo, and they had been planning a big party for his upcoming birthday.
01:52:19
>> Was there any relationship drama? No. No, he gets along well with both of his
01:52:23
children's mothers, so like that feels like a quick dead end, which is when they turn to his school. Maybe
01:52:30
someone at the university there can help them piece things together. >> Right. But, this is where they
01:52:36
encountered the first big twist in their investigation. It turns out Marcus has been keeping some major secrets from his
01:52:45
family. So, police learn that Marcus actually dropped out of college the year before,
01:52:55
back in 1997. >> What? >> Yeah, he's basically been pretending to be a student ever since.
01:53:02
>> And his family had no idea. Mhm. In fact, the last time Marcus visited his parents, which was just a few weeks
01:53:08
before he went missing. This was for Memorial Day. He was there for a cookout. He said he left early because
01:53:15
he had to study for an exam. >> Did Tawania know? I don't know. So, the detective we talked to didn't know
01:53:22
either. And Nina tried calling the number that Marcus's dad had for Tawania. We're not sure if it's still the right
01:53:29
number for her anymore. Like, long story short, we haven't been able to talk to her to figure that out. But either way,
01:53:34
his family [music] was shocked to find this out from police. Like, going to TSU was the entire reason Marcus moved to
01:53:42
Nashville in the first place. I mean, both his parents went there. He wanted to follow in their footsteps. I mean,
01:53:48
the wild part is they thought he was close to graduating. It's not just that he was going there. They were expecting
01:53:53
to go to a graduation soon. But, that's not the only surprise in store for the family.
01:53:59
Because even though Marcus doesn't have a criminal record, investigators also learn that he'd been selling weed. And
01:54:05
they think that he might have started when he was still a student because his clientele seems to mostly be other
01:54:11
students. Like, it doesn't seem that he was out on the streets dealing. And we're talking a small-scale stuff. Like,
01:54:16
not some big-time operation. And Ethan actually admits this to police. He says that he and Marcus both sell weed.
01:54:23
Although, I'm not sure if they work together or what. And I don't know if Ethan is the first person that they hear
01:54:28
this from or if he's just confirming this info that they learn or already had. But, he doesn't try to hide it. I
01:54:34
think it's the main point. But, that could be why he's acting so strange around Marcus's family. He knows they're
01:54:40
all going to find out about this and be upset about the drugs. >> Maybe, yeah. But, here's the thing. Even
01:54:47
while he's being honest about the weed, investigators still can't shake this feeling like Ethan is holding something
01:54:54
back. They just don't know what. Cuz like, I don't think that all that stuff like just stops after they learn the
01:54:59
thing, right? Or what they think could be the thing. Did he know that Marcus had dropped out of school? I
01:55:05
assume he knew because they spent a decent amount of time together. I mean, like
01:55:11
I think I would tell you things I wouldn't necessarily tell my parents like when I was his age, but there
01:55:15
doesn't seem to be any solid confirmation of that. Like it it's kind of like with Towania. I
01:55:20
mean, and even his other ex, I don't know what any of them did or did not know about him dropping out of college.
01:55:27
But, I do know that both women, Towania and his other ex, seem to be aware that he was selling weed. I know that much.
01:55:34
In an interview with Dateline NBC reporter Josh Mankiewicz, his son's mom said that he was doing it to help
01:55:40
provide for their child. And Towania tells detectives the same thing that this was just a way he could make enough
01:55:46
money to support everyone. But, whatever the reason, his parents are hurt and confused to find all of
01:55:54
this out like this. Like it completely goes against his upbringing. Like they raised Marcus and his sister in this
01:56:01
solid home they felt that like centered around family, it centered around church. David is actually an elected
01:56:07
official. Jerry is an elementary school teacher. So, like selling drugs, lying about being in
01:56:13
college, all of this is the last thing they expected [music] from their son. However, speaking of secrets, this
01:56:21
wasn't the only time Marcus had kept a big one from his parents. They actually didn't know about their grandson until
01:56:30
he was born. And Marcus was only 19 at the time. I don't know how like churchy they raised him, but I can see that
01:56:39
maybe being a reason why he hid it. Yeah, I mean, I think he was probably just afraid that David and Jerry would
01:56:45
be disappointed in him, right? >> And that's probably the reason he kept the school thing to himself. Like the
01:56:51
disappointment that like he's al- Not only is he disappointing them, but he's already disappointed them. so it's
01:56:57
like one more thing. Had they noticed any changes in Marcus's behavior like looking back like knowing or finding out
01:57:04
about all this now? So, at that Memorial Day cookout I mentioned earlier, his sister Felicia thought that he seemed
01:57:10
unusually stressed. But when she asked him about it, he just said that he had a lot going on in Nashville. He didn't
01:57:16
really elaborate and as far as his parents knew, everything was fine. Like you can chalk stress up to the finals he
01:57:21
said he was going to go study for. >> schooling, yeah. >> Right. So, you can imagine how
01:57:26
overwhelming this is for his family. They are already dealing with him being missing, but then to discover that he
01:57:33
was living a life they really knew nothing about. It was a lot. And David told us it's like walking through a
01:57:40
nightmare. And as investigators dig deeper into Marcus's life, more concerning details emerge. He had gotten
01:57:48
into a couple of altercations. One reported to police when it happened about a year before his disappearance,
01:57:54
and then another just a few months before he went missing. Both incidents were apparently related to him selling
01:58:00
weed, although Detective Filter won't share specifics about those altercations. >> Were there people after him? Like was
01:58:07
there anybody like Not that investigators can tell. I like I don't think there's anyone specific or
01:58:13
if there is, they're not sharing that. It seems like from everything they look at, they can't find any immediate
01:58:19
dangers in his life. No one is saying Marcus owed them money. No one has been like making threats to him.
01:58:27
But they do discover something interesting. Back in mid-May, Marcus, they find out, had rented a car for like
01:58:36
10 days. And this stood out because they know that he didn't get into an accident or
01:58:41
anything. So, it doesn't look like his own car was out of commission or anything.
01:58:46
>> So, why rent? >> Right. Now, did he drive back and forth from Nashville to Knoxville a lot to see
01:58:50
his son? You know, that's like 360 miles each trip. Maybe he didn't want to put the miles on his car. But Detective
01:58:57
Filter pointed out an alternative possibility. He says that when you're doing something
01:59:03
illegal, you might not want to use your own car to do that. But they don't know [music] if he was
01:59:09
doing something illegal with the car or what he was using it for in those 10 days. They truly just have no idea.
01:59:15
>> Right, he just had a rental for 10 days. >> Right. So they find that out, but then
01:59:19
beyond that, not much turns up. There is a recent traffic ticket, some receipts from a car wash, like nothing that
01:59:27
points investigators in any real direction. here you have this devoted father who
01:59:32
has suddenly stopped checking in with his kids, which seems completely out of character.
01:59:37
But they've also just learned that he's been living this whole other life that his family knew nothing about. And they
01:59:43
really can't tell if he left on his own or if something happened to him. But their thinking starts to shift on
01:59:52
Tuesday, June 30th. That is when a maintenance man at an apartment complex more than 20 miles
01:59:59
from where Marcus lives spots Marcus's missing Plymouth. And this guy tells investigators that
02:00:05
this car has been sitting in the same spot at Riverwood Apartments for at least a couple of weeks. Why is he just
02:00:12
calling about it now? Well, according to David, the guy contacts police because he saw something on the news about
02:00:18
Marcus's disappearance and the car. So maybe he had only just realized I mean again, it's not like anything bad about
02:00:24
this car. It's just kind of been there. And then once they make known what car everyone's looking for, he's like, "Oh,
02:00:29
that's the car." Does Marcus know someone who lives at this complex? >> that's the thing. As far as anyone
02:00:35
knows, Marcus has zero connection to this complex. And while investigators don't find any signs of violence in the
02:00:43
car when they look at it, like there's no blood or anything like that, the fact that it's just sitting there abandoned
02:00:49
makes them think something bad must have happened to Marcus. I mean, if he wanted
02:00:53
to take off and start a new life, like How's he going to get there? >> is the thing you need, right? Like or if
02:00:59
you're going to leave your car behind, like just leave it parked at your place. Why drive 20 miles and then ditch it at
02:01:04
this random apartment complex? >> Right. And what's even more wild is apparently
02:01:10
someone had been driving the car around. The maintenance man tells detectives that he saw this middle-aged guy
02:01:17
occasionally using it before it was left there for good around mid-June. So, somebody who was definitely not
02:01:23
23-year-old Marcus. Now, Detective Filter says that they never identified who this mystery driver
02:01:30
was, but he also says that there could be explanations that don't necessarily include this driver
02:01:37
being the one who did something to Marcus. Like he says like there is a world where someone
02:01:42
could have just handed this person the car without telling them anything about Marcus. Like could have been someone who
02:01:47
didn't realize what they were driving around until they had like found out it belonged to a missing person and then
02:01:51
when they did, like that's when they left it there, didn't go back for it. >> And was it locked up? Were the keys
02:01:57
there? >> It wasn't locked, but Detective Filter couldn't find anything in the reports
02:02:00
that indicated if the keys were in it or not. >> Mhm. And the maintenance man had no clue who
02:02:07
the driver was, by the way. Like hence the vague description. And this is a guy, the maintenance guy, he's like
02:02:11
around a lot and he's like, "I don't recognize him. I hadn't seen him around before. No idea why he was in the
02:02:17
complex at all." But it makes you feel like the driver had to have lived there or was close to someone who did live
02:02:24
there if he like was at the complex like back and forth a couple times. Like he was there and then he wasn't and then he
02:02:31
like >> would think, but all I know is that according to David, police canvassed the
02:02:35
complex and that didn't lead them to Marcus or to anyone who knew Marcus. Yeah, but what about the people who knew
02:02:43
the driver? I know we don't know who he is, but like he doesn't live there, but that guy has
02:02:48
to have a tie there. To me, it like it's a chain, right? Like the person in the complex leads you to the driver, the
02:02:56
driver leads you to who gave him to the car. And like if they're that goes all the way back to Marcus and why he
02:03:01
doesn't have his car and where he is. >> And if they did have something to do with it, right? And it's not just like a
02:03:05
car that was given to them. Or even if again they now know it belongs to a missing person. Like I don't think
02:03:09
they're going to be like fessing up to knowing him, right? Right. I don't know. So, it's possible
02:03:15
all the things are possible. It's also possible that the canvassing they did was just light. Again, maybe people were
02:03:20
lying. Or option C, I just truly don't know. But, they're hopeful that now that they
02:03:28
have the car, maybe they can find the driver another way. And maybe through forensic evidence. So, police have the
02:03:35
Plymouth towed to their lab and inside they find a gun that's tucked under the driver's seat. Now, is this more
02:03:42
evidence of Marcus's double life? Like did the gun belong to the person who was driving the car?
02:03:48
Did it belong to Marcus? Like couldn't tell you because it doesn't look like the gun was actually registered to
02:03:54
anyone. Though it seems like from, you know, what we learned from Detective Filter
02:03:59
that everyone assumes the gun was Marcus's. They also managed to lift two fingerprints from the car. One from
02:04:07
inside the driver's side window and then another from a rented VHS tape that they
02:04:12
find in the car. Now, the print from the tape leads nowhere. The detective told us they confirmed it belonged to an
02:04:17
employee at the video rental place, which is like give me an older sentence, right? And the fingerprint on the window
02:04:24
they eliminated. They or they eliminated Ethan and Tawanya as the sources of it,
02:04:30
but they didn't like eliminate anyone else. They couldn't determine who it belonged to.
02:04:35
Here's the wild part to me. They said it could be Marcus's because Detective Filter says they don't have his prints
02:04:41
on file. But like here's where I get a little skeptical. Like sure, Marcus was never
02:04:47
arrested, so his prints weren't in the system. But they have access to his apartment. Like
02:04:52
couldn't they have lifted his prints from there to compare? I mean you'd think. So
02:04:59
those two prints were the only prints in the car. Right? Like I guess I thought you were
02:05:04
saying that those were the only prints that weren't his. >> Those are the only prints that were
02:05:08
identifiable. So Detective Filter like smudged or smeared or incomplete. >> Yeah, Detective Filter told us the car
02:05:14
was examined meticulously is what he said and that it didn't appear to be wiped down or anything like that. That's
02:05:19
a question we asked. But he says he also can't say for sure. Again, he wasn't on
02:05:23
the case back then. So from what I can tell, those are the ones that were they were able to pull. And here's the thing,
02:05:30
prints aside, what really concerns investigators is what they don't find in the car, which is any proof that Marcus
02:05:37
was alive after June 8th. All of the receipts, everything in the car predates his disappearance. Meanwhile, so they
02:05:45
find this, Marcus's family is back in Michigan at this point trying to process their new reality. To David and Jerry,
02:05:53
each revelation about their son feels like another piece of the puzzle, one that they never thought they would have
02:05:58
to solve. His student loan notices are starting to come in the mail, which is just this reminder of a life that he was
02:06:04
supposed to be building. And there's something else that's coming in, something far stranger than student loan
02:06:12
bills. Shortly after their son goes missing, Jerry and David start [music] getting
02:06:18
these strange phone calls on their home phone in Michigan. The phone will ring and ring, but when they pick up it's
02:06:27
nothing. Just silence on the other end. And Jerry, they don't just like say hello
02:06:34
and stop talking. I mean, Jerry pleads with the caller. Like, Marcus, if this is you, please just say something. But
02:06:41
whoever is on the other end never speaks. And Felicia remembers it happening like
02:06:47
two or three times in those first couple of months. And according to an article by Jax Miller for Oxygen Network,
02:06:54
Marcus's son's mom was getting the same kind of unsettling quiet calls. Did police try to trace these calls?
02:07:02
>> Not that I'm aware of. Like, I I don't know if they even try to begin with I or if the problem was
02:07:10
like they From what I can tell, there's no pattern to this or anything. So, I don't know if they just think they're
02:07:16
weird and if or if they just didn't care enough to do it. I don't know. But these
02:07:20
calls do give his loved ones hope that Marcus is still out there maybe, maybe still alive.
02:07:26
>> Mhm. Investigators though, they're not as optimistic. The calls are, like I said,
02:07:32
super sporadic. Months will go by without a single one. And in that time, the leads are even
02:07:38
fewer. So, almost as quickly as it all begins, the case goes cold. Police don't have
02:07:44
enough to work with, no real trail to follow. All of the fragments that they've uncovered about Marcus haven't
02:07:51
even fit together into any kind of coherent picture. No one they speak with seems to have the whole story.
02:07:58
Well, almost no one. They're still pretty sure that Ethan knows way more than he's letting on.
02:08:06
Maybe he doesn't know exactly what happened to Marcus, but Detective Filter believes that he had some idea of what
02:08:13
happened or who might have been involved. Cuz even though he was upfront about, you know, selling weed, for
02:08:20
whatever reason, after that and beyond that point, it appears that he kind of just shut down.
02:08:27
And while it's possible given time, he might have decided to share more, that is a chance that he doesn't get.
02:08:34
Because little do detectives know, they are about to have a new case to work. And their victim
02:08:41
will be Ethan. So, let me take you to February 1999. By now, Marcus has been missing for
02:08:55
about 8 and 1/2 months, and the case is at a complete standstill. Investigators are convinced that Ethan knows more than
02:09:01
he's letting on, but he's not talking. Now, around this time, Ethan is tied up with someone new. This brand new
02:09:08
roommate of sorts, this guy named Charles D. Brown, Jr. [music] And this new arrangement
02:09:15
is raising some eyebrows, especially with Ethan's brother, Jonathan. Jonathan has been staying with Ethan, but as soon
02:09:22
as Charles moves in, Jonathan's like, "I'm piecing out for a bit." just wants to get away from the guy, [music]
02:09:26
because Charles is one of Ethan's closest friends, but Jonathan has never approved
02:09:31
of him. He didn't think that Charles was the type of person his brother should hang out with.
02:09:36
And there was definitely reasons for concern. So, according to articles in The Tennessean by Kirk Loggins and Kathy
02:09:43
Carlson, Charles had past arrests for aggravated assault, unlawful weapon possession, and selling and possessing
02:09:51
weed. He had also been shot and shot someone during the attempted home invasion that happened.
02:09:57
Interestingly, that attempted home invasion happened 1 day after Marcus went missing.
02:10:03
>> Mhm. You know we don't believe in coincidences anymore. >> Right. So, let me rewind real quick and
02:10:08
tell you about this home invasion, because the details are interesting, to say the least.
02:10:15
So, in the morning on June 9th, 1998, three or four masked men broke into Charles's apartment. And at the time he
02:10:23
was living with his girlfriend and two young children and everyone was home when the intruders broke in. They
02:10:28
demanded money and then they started shooting. They're like spraying bullets everywhere with at least two guns.
02:10:35
>> [music] >> Charles gets shot five times and somehow not only did he manage to survive, he
02:10:41
also returned fire and hit one of the gunmen who then took off. And John Yates reported something really intriguing for
02:10:48
the Tennessean. Witnesses told police that they saw the suspects flee from Charles's place in
02:10:55
two vehicles including a red one that they thought looked like a Chevy Corsica. And when I Googled a red Chevy
02:11:03
Corsica, it looks an awful lot like Marcus's then missing red Plymouth. Which I actually have the photos to show
02:11:11
you because it's just too bonkers. Okay, so this one is the Corsica. And this is the
02:11:25
Ashley. They're like identical. They're kind of like the same car. They definitely look incredibly similar.
02:11:32
>> like if you weren't like a car person Right. Or like I I'm not even a car person but like you knew your makes and
02:11:38
models I you could easily mix those up. >> you're just like an eyewitness to something and say like yeah, I saw a guy
02:11:43
in a red car. It looked a little bit like this one. >> Right. Either of those cars.
02:11:47
>> Right. So one of the two cars in that whole thing was this. Anyway, within an
02:11:51
hour of the home invasion, a man named James Cowan shows up at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. Cowan
02:11:57
tells police some story about getting shot from a car but court records show that the bullet recovered during his
02:12:03
surgery matched a gun that the shooters left behind at Charles's apartment. So I'm guessing that Cowan was hit by maybe
02:12:11
friendly fire during the chaos cuz again it didn't come from like Charles's gun.
02:12:14
Supposedly it was a gun left behind. [music] Now this Cowen guy was no stranger to
02:12:19
detectives. He was actually a potential suspect in six homicides. Oh my god. Yeah, as far as I can tell, Cowen was
02:12:27
never arrested for murder. He was, however, arrested and convicted of attempted first-degree murder,
02:12:33
especially aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary for the home invasion on Charles, and he was
02:12:39
sentenced to six [music] decades in prison because of the violent nature of the crime and his extensive rap sheet,
02:12:45
which included multiple drug-related felonies. Now, [music] in connection to all of this, Charles wasn't arrested
02:12:51
since he was acting in self-defense, but investigators didn't believe that Cowen
02:12:55
and the crew he came with just randomly chose Charles's house to rob. Did they arrest anyone else in connection to it?
02:13:02
I mean, it's It was more than one person, right? >> but as far as I know, they didn't like
02:13:08
arrest anyone or charge anyone except for Cowen. Did they recover the gun used to shoot at Charles with? So, that's not
02:13:16
totally clear from the court records. They say they recovered two guns. They recovered a 9-mm found in the backyard,
02:13:23
and they had Charles's gun, which is a .357 revolver, but there were at least three guns involved because according to
02:13:30
testimony, at one point during this struggle, an accomplice of Cowen's threw him a {quote} "big gun" when the first
02:13:36
gun that he was using ran out of ammunition. What about the gun in Marcus's car?
02:13:42
Well, so at the time this is happening, I mean, they're not going to find that for weeks, but when they do find it, I
02:13:47
know that they run the bullets through their database to check for links to other crimes, but nothing comes up. So,
02:13:52
I don't think that gun was used in this, >> Okay. >> what you're getting at. >> Yeah. Okay, so that happens. Now, let's
02:13:59
jump back to February of 1999. According to Kirk Loggins, on the 18th, Ethan informs his brother that Charles is
02:14:06
going to crash with him, right? And so, this is when Jonathan's like, "Don't like like guy. I'm going to peace
02:14:11
[music] out." A couple of days after that, Ethan tells him that Charles was {quote} "going
02:14:17
crazy." Like apparently, he was super paranoid. He was saying that his girlfriend was trying to have him
02:14:22
killed. Uh Jonathan had the exact right idea getting out of there. But it's not like Jonathan moved away. I mean, I
02:14:29
don't think Charles was supposed to be a permanent fixture. He just needed to crash for a couple of days. So, the
02:14:33
night of [music] Tuesday, February 23rd, Jonathan comes back to the house. And when he pulls up, the door to the duplex
02:14:41
is wide open. And when he makes his way inside, there on the floor, he sees his brother,
02:14:48
Ethan's body, stiff and cold. He had been shot multiple times. Now, police believe that Ethan was actually killed
02:14:56
days before he was found, sometime before noon that past Sunday. They also think that there might have been more
02:15:03
than one weapon used, and shell casings that they find appear to be from a .40 caliber gun.
02:15:09
Now, they don't see any signs of forced entry, although they do notice that something is missing. Ethan's white
02:15:15
Pontiac Grand Am. But the next day, someone spots this vehicle in Nashville's Inglewood neighborhood,
02:15:21
which is like 18 mi from Ethan's apartment, and they recognize it from the news reports.
02:15:27
>> Mhm. This is feeling too similar. Right? And Ethan's aunt tells Kathy Carlson
02:15:32
that his family doesn't know of any connections that he has to that area. >> Now, obviously, the biggest difference
02:15:40
between Marcus and Ethan's cases are that Ethan's is clearly a homicide. He's been found, while Marcus is still a
02:15:48
missing person. >> Right. And while detectives are still basically in the dark about what
02:15:53
happened to Marcus, they've got a pretty good theory forming about who might be responsible for
02:15:59
Ethan's murder. >> It's got to be Charles. Yeah, and mostly because an Inglewood woman IDs him as
02:16:05
the guy that she saw leaving Athens car on her street the day before his body was found.
02:16:11
Wait, how old is Charles? I'm wondering if he could have been the one seen driving Marcus's car?
02:16:19
>> No, that they thought that guy was middle-aged. Charles is like Marcus's age, so like
02:16:23
20, early 20s. Right. But still, police can't ignore how sketchy his behavior gets. Kirk Logans reported that Charles
02:16:30
skips Ethan's funeral and completely ghost police when they try to question him further. A friend who hung out with
02:16:37
Charles and Ethan over the weekend tells investigators that Charles was seriously
02:16:41
worried about his own safety, possibly because of that home invasion that we talked about.
02:16:47
Now, Charles was apparently so convinced that someone was after him that he was wearing a bulletproof vest around and he
02:16:54
had at least two guns in his SUV, including a .40 caliber, like the shell casings found at the scene.
02:17:01
So, talking or not, they do have enough on him to charge him with Ethan's murder
02:17:07
in early March. And after a few days on the run, he ends up turning himself in. Hold up. What's the motive? Charles got
02:17:17
paranoid and then just snapped on Ethan? >> No, so not likely. Detective Filter actually refers to Ethan's murder as
02:17:24
drug-related cuz he believes that Ethan was selling weed when he was killed. So,
02:17:28
he was wrapped up in what could have been a dangerous crowd. Although, if he was I mean, he was clearly keeping some
02:17:36
secrets of his own from certain family members because his aunt says that Ethan was working as a tax consultant at his
02:17:43
father's like income tax business. So, I don't know that they're connecting it to like Charles's paranoia like it or
02:17:50
if they're saying the paranoia is separate and Charles did it because it was a drug thing. I don't know, it's a
02:17:54
little like convoluted and muddy. Either way, at first investigators suspect that there could be a connection
02:18:02
between Ethan's murder and Marcus's disappearance. And when the Rutledge family hears about Ethan's death,
02:18:08
they can hardly believe it. Marcus's sister, Felicia, is devastated [music] cuz in her mind, Ethan was the one
02:18:14
person who could fill in maybe someday all the blanks about her brother, and now he's gone. But Charles's arrest is a
02:18:22
hopeful sign for Marcus's dad, David, because he figures that once police start like pushing on Charles, maybe the
02:18:29
dam will burst, and maybe they can finally find his son. But, here comes another unexpected
02:18:37
twist. I wish I could tell you more about what investigators learned from Charles,
02:18:49
but there is not much info available. We know that a preliminary hearing is held
02:18:54
later that March. Charles is emotional. He's sobbing at times and like shaking his head throughout the proceedings. The
02:19:01
judge finds sufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury, but it doesn't look like Charles is ever
02:19:08
actually indicted. Or if he is, the DA decides not to pursue it because the murder charge just disappears. What?
02:19:18
How? I guess there just wasn't enough to move forward. I mean, the headline for Kirk Logan's article about the prelim
02:19:25
was literally "Hearing Short on Evidence in Bellevue Slaying." So, the evidence presented by the state, I mean, we know
02:19:34
was mostly circumstantial. Like, I mean, they had witnesses who could talk about
02:19:37
Charles's behavior. They could talk about the fact that he had guns, but they couldn't actually connect him to
02:19:43
the murder itself or even, like I said, establish a clear timeline or motive. But,
02:19:49
I thought his gun was used to kill Ethan. >> No, he just had the same type of gun
02:19:54
>> Oh. >> as the one used to kill Ethan. What about that witness who ID'd him dropping Ethan's car, though? Not
02:20:02
enough. Detective Filter thinks that the DA in the end just like wasn't confident
02:20:07
that they could get a conviction, so they just dismissed the charges, probably hoping that they'd be able to
02:20:12
build a stronger case later. But for whatever reason, that never happened. Ethan's murder is still considered
02:20:20
unsolved today. And when it comes to any connection between Ethan's murder and Marcus going missing, while there might
02:20:26
be some witness overlap between the investigations, police say they've never been able to
02:20:32
establish any direct link between the two. Though it's interesting, Detective Filter says that as far as he can tell
02:20:40
from the case file, investigators only really looked at Charles. Like there's nothing showing that they ever dug into
02:20:47
Cowan or his associates in connection with Marcus's disappearance. And then we asked him about it, he told us like,
02:20:53
"Yeah, you know, that's an angle maybe worth exploring." Which like, yeah. But no one has in oh, about three decades.
02:21:02
>> No. I mean, um, to me the timing alone, the home invasion a day after he went missing,
02:21:08
not to mention the red car stuff. >> I know. It definitely raises like a couple of
02:21:14
questions at least. >> Right. Plus, we know that Cowan was already being looked at for other
02:21:20
violent crimes at that point, right? So, I don't know, we'll have to see we'll have to wait and see if Filter pursues
02:21:25
that lead. Oh, and we actually did try and to get in touch with Cowan, who was actually released from prison more than
02:21:31
a decade ago and is out there on parole, but we couldn't reach him. And Charles,
02:21:37
who has been in and out of lockup over the years for various crimes, he is in prison now on drug-related charges, so
02:21:43
we couldn't make contact with him. Now, whether or not any of these guys were involved, police still believe that
02:21:51
Ethan knew more than he let on and that he took some secrets about Marcus's disappearance to his grave.
02:21:59
Do they have any theories about where Marcus could be? I mean, as similar and connected as these cases
02:22:05
seem, it's it stands out so much that Marcus just vanished [music] while Ethan was just shot and left in his home
02:22:17
on the floor. Like, why the difference? Well, I mean, they don't have any theories on a connection because they
02:22:23
can't prove the cases are connected at all. So, like, without that link, you can't even build upon that, right? Like,
02:22:29
they're just stuck. So, that was pretty much it. Like, years passed, tips aren't coming in, media
02:22:37
coverage is minimal, and the case just sits there. But, around 2010, something significant
02:22:44
[music] does happen. The Rutledge family learns that Marcus had another big secret.
02:22:51
They find out that he had a daughter. With who? Tawania. A- another one? No. But, they never knew he had a daughter.
02:23:05
How is that even possible? I mean, didn't investigators know? So, they did. I don't know how this happened, but it
02:23:13
looks like they never communicated that to his family, which like, why would you, right? Like,
02:23:18
I can maybe they thought like, oh, surely they know about this grandchild. >> no need to bring up something so
02:23:25
obvious. >> Right. But, like, wouldn't it come up when the police were getting basic
02:23:31
information? Like, if his parents had mentioned their grandson, wouldn't someone have said like, oh, and what
02:23:38
about your granddaughter? >> You would think, but it didn't happen. >> [music] >> And I guess like, the part that I can't
02:23:43
get over is like, the fact that Tawania never mentioned it either, which makes you wonder like what other secrets she
02:23:50
had because that feels like a secret. It doesn't feel like something that just like gets missed, right? Like they come,
02:23:55
they have dinner with her before. They're like they're all >> She's like a main contact when Marcus
02:24:03
goes missing. Like they're in communication with her. >> Yeah, you would think when she calls
02:24:07
them to be like, "Oh, he's like he's not answering his phone. Oh, when's the last
02:24:11
time you saw him?" When he went to drop our daughter off at daycare. That's how we started the
02:24:15
>> Yeah. >> story. So, it feels like something that got intentionally left out. >> Mhm. I don't know. [music] I wish we
02:24:21
could talk to her, but we haven't been able to get a hold of her, like I said. I mean, how did they even find out about
02:24:27
their granddaughter? I don't know the exact details of how this unfold. I just know that Marcus's son somehow connected
02:24:34
with her on Facebook, and then that's when the rest of the family found out. So, like it's it's fuzzy. But, this
02:24:41
is one of those that even though it's a shock, it's at least a good surprise. >> Mhm.
02:24:45
>> like they have another little piece of Marcus to hold on to. And despite Marcus
02:24:49
keeping her a secret, I have to imagine that even he'd be happy knowing that they all have finally found each other.
02:24:56
And just in time because in 2015, Marcus's mom, Jerri, passes away. And then in 2020, Detective Filter, who
02:25:04
is in the Nashville PD's Cold Case Unit, he This is when he picks up the investigation for what started as like a
02:25:10
pretty routine reason. Basically, they were doing like DNA housekeeping. They only have DNA from one of Marcus's kids
02:25:17
in CODIS. So, Filter wanted to get more family profiles into the system so that they can be prepared if they ever need
02:25:23
to make comparisons, if they ever find remains. >> Did something specific prompt that? Like
02:25:29
were there remains that could have been his that were found? >> Nothing like that. I think he just
02:25:32
wanted to be proactive. He was making sure all of their bases were covered, and that DNA update was going to be the
02:25:39
extent of it. But, once he started talking to David and learning more about Marcus, he just like
02:25:45
I don't know, the case like latched onto him. He like kept digging. He wanted to
02:25:48
see if he could help the Rutledges like get some answers some way. Hi, me. Uh big update. So, that was kind
02:26:00
of where our episode was supposed to end. Britt and I wrapped it up, did the usual call to action, but literally just
02:26:06
this last week, like right as we were about to release this episode, something huge happened. A major break in the
02:26:13
case. On January 31st, police announced that Marcus's remains have been found. There
02:26:20
was a skull that had been found by a hunter back on December 8th, 2010, in some woods near Ashland City Highway and
02:26:29
Pecan Valley Road. >> [music] >> That is nearly 13 mi from where Marcus's car was found and 30 mi from his
02:26:36
apartment. Now, the sequence of events is a little baffling for me, and I'm sure
02:26:42
frustrating for Marcus's family who are still coping with the news. And I say baffling because DNA from this
02:26:49
unidentified skull wasn't uploaded to CODIS until a month after we interviewed the police. So, we interviewed them in
02:26:57
October, and then the ME submitted the skull DNA to CODIS in November. This is a 2024, and we don't know why it took so
02:27:05
long. Marcus's DNA had been in CODIS for years. And you heard right before our like record scratch moment that even
02:27:13
more of his family's DNA had been added by Detective Filter to ensure that there
02:27:18
would be enough to get a match to any unidentified remains that might surface. The DNA match that they got was a match
02:27:25
to DNA collected from Marcus's [music] daughter. It's just a shame that it didn't come 14
02:27:31
years sooner. Cuz it puts detectives even further behind than they would have been in
02:27:36
2010. Detective Filter told us it is unclear if police searched the woods thoroughly
02:27:42
at [music] the time when the skull was found. So, he is planning to do a search of his own hoping to find more.
02:27:49
Because unfortunately, even though they now know where Marcus has been, [music] the skull hasn't told them much. There
02:27:56
were no wounds or markings on it that gave a clue as to how Marcus was killed. But, detectives are clear that they do
02:28:03
believe Marcus was killed. And this missing person's case is now actively being worked as a homicide, which Filter
02:28:10
believed was the case even before finding Marcus's skull. He believes that Marcus's involvement in
02:28:17
selling weed likely played a role in his death. The problem is, even after this major breakthrough,
02:28:24
police still have not gotten a single solid lead. I'm not kidding you, not even one. And Detective Filter doesn't
02:28:30
think this case is going to be solved by science. What they need is for someone who knows the truth to finally start
02:28:37
talking. Now, Marcus's family, they were holding out hope for so long that he was
02:28:42
still alive. Like, they held out that hope till the very end. It's what our whole ending was about.
02:28:48
So, this news was devastating to them. But maybe now that everyone knows where he was and where he was found, it could
02:28:55
help connect some of the dots about what happened in those crucial days after June 8th, 1998.
02:29:02
They are convinced someone out there knows exactly what happened to him. And maybe you're that someone.
02:29:10
So, if you have any information about the death of Marcus Rutledge or even Athens murder, contact the department's
02:29:17
Crime Stoppers division at 615-74-Crime. That's 615-742-7463. >> [music] >> You can find all the source material for
02:29:29
this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. Make sure you hit subscribe, follow us
02:29:35
[music] on our socials, and we will be back with more episodes here on YouTube, but also you can find hundreds of
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