00:00:05
[music] [music] [music] All right, finally fall weather. >> That's right. I actually got some rain
00:00:25
uh this last week. >> The rain falls. It hasn't rained in my neck of the woods in two or three
00:00:31
months. It feels like it's very, very dry. >> Very dry. It is. >> Um, on Friday, I went to walked out to
00:00:40
the mailbox, grabbed the mail, and >> skipped out. >> You know those um penny saver
00:00:47
>> magazine. Not a magazine, but they're they're like an advertisement for >> goods and services. Plus, they also have
00:00:55
coupons in them. Yeah. They're they're junk mail. goods and services. It sounds like it's they put out ads for
00:01:01
prostitutes, >> but some of these, this is not the first time that I've seen this, and I'm sure
00:01:07
others know what I'm talking about, but sometimes this one in particular, they it seems like they quite frequently work
00:01:16
with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. >> Okay. And that's a comp that's a I was
00:01:24
going to say company, but it's an organization that is near and dear to us. It's an organization that the garage
00:01:31
has donated to several times and will continue to do so. But this one in particular caught my eye. It was a
00:01:38
missing person's flyer of a and this is this is sad. Uh but stay with me on this. This was of a little boy um a
00:01:49
baby. I mean, it's uh a little Caucasian boy, Matthew Crocker, missing since June
00:01:57
9th of 1983 from Van Beern, Arizona. >> His birth date was just earlier that year in February of 83. He would be 36
00:02:08
years old now. Uh he has brown hair, brown eyes, 2 foot 5 in, and only 15 lbs is what they have him listed as. And of
00:02:19
course, when you see these from years ago, they'll have the age progression photo of what they believe Matthew would
00:02:27
look like, right? >> Uh today, well, not today because this says age progress to 32 years of age.
00:02:35
And that's actually a uh service that the missing and exploited children's organization, the center for missing and
00:02:42
exploited children, that's one of the services that they provide. That's something that they have to spend money
00:02:47
on and come up with this computer image and then release it to the public hoping
00:02:52
that it brings a renewed interest in an old cold case. Now, along with the the age progression photo and a real photo
00:03:05
of Matthew from when he was just a little baby is a sketch of a white woman with dark
00:03:12
hair and it just on my little penny saver flyer that they sent out. They just list this person as unknown female.
00:03:22
So, this this really got my interest. So, I I wanted to look into this a little bit more and I found a couple of
00:03:30
Reddit posts regarding this missing person's case. And I I'll read from these here. Uh, one person says, "This
00:03:39
is one of the strangest unsolved missing cases I've seen, and I had never heard of it,
00:03:44
>> even though it's from my home state. I just happened upon it on a sleepless night. Matthew's parents met a woman in
00:03:52
1983." This is this person's understanding of the of the story. Matthew's parents met a woman in 1983
00:03:59
who called herself Kathy Johnson. She was a worker at a fair that had stopped in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
00:04:08
Damn it. You know what I did? I do that sometimes. Arizona, Nick, Arizona is AZ and I will never remember that.
00:04:18
So when I said went missing from Van Beern, Arizona, it's Van Beern, Arkansas. Okay.
00:04:23
>> So I'm a [ __ ] >> What What's AZ is Arizona, >> right? But for whatever reason, when I
00:04:30
see a R because it just gave the state abbreviation. >> Okay. >> My mind immediately goes to Arizona,
00:04:37
which is >> That's all right. I'll make you start shipping out shirts more. You'll learn
00:04:40
that real quick. >> Right. Right. Uh, so this woman supposedly was a worker at a fair that
00:04:47
stopped in Fort Smith, Arkansas. And a friend of Matthew's family who met this woman persuaded Matthew's family to take
00:04:54
her into their home in Van Beern, Arkansas. >> Matthew's parents went to bed on June
00:04:59
9th, 1983. And when they woke up, Matthew and this woman were both gone. Neither of them have ever been seen
00:05:07
again. A composite sketch of the possible abductor is posted below this case summary. She's described as
00:05:15
Caucasian with a tattoo of a green and yellow star on the left side of her chest, a tattoo of a unicorn on her
00:05:24
upper left arm, and a long scar on the back of her right shoulder, and a tattoo on her upper right arm of the name Kathy
00:05:33
with a ribbon above it. Authorities believe the abductor may have taken Matthew to raise him as her son. So
00:05:41
that's a bit of the silver lining here. That's the one good thing that that >> seems like everybody believes this boy
00:05:50
now a man is still alive, >> right? >> They think he is probably still alive and doesn't know his true identity. I
00:05:56
can't find anything detailing much of the investigation. This is just going on and on with their post, but that gives
00:06:02
you a general idea of it. Now, the reason why this really caught my eye and the reason why I really wanted to make
00:06:08
sure that we talked about it here is the description of those tattoos. >> Yeah. >> It's you can presume that this person
00:06:17
might still have these tattoos >> that this woman still has. >> Yeah. >> So, it was a
00:06:23
>> um >> unless they were covered up, >> right? Right. But somebody might be able
00:06:27
to figure something out just by the description of those tattoos. Now, >> in another Reddit post,
00:06:34
it says, this has got some insightful stuff in it, but it's got some questionable things in it, too, as well,
00:06:39
and we'll get into that. But, um, in 1983, there was no National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It was
00:06:48
founded in 1984, so there was no system to track these cases or standard for which they were handled. According to
00:06:56
this poster, it was a giant cluster [ __ ] Actually, that's why John Walsh uh created NCMC,
00:07:05
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It looks like Matthew was one of those unfortunate
00:07:11
children who disappeared before the center was founded and he somehow slipped through the cracks. There is
00:07:17
really no information on the case and it was just added to uh the National Center
00:07:22
for Missing and Exploited Children. >> Well, yeah. >> And Charlie's project recently. Yeah,
00:07:27
that's because for years people were looking in Arizona. >> Well, this poster goes on to have
00:07:35
two theories about the case. >> They say their first theory is the police department handling this case
00:07:42
wasn't familiar with missing children and they had little resources. They questioned if the FBI was even called
00:07:49
in. the really famous missing children from this time period that we know of had very proactive parents and they did
00:07:58
not um and they not the police were the driving force behind the media coverage.
00:08:06
This person says that their best guess is that Matthew's parents didn't know how to get their missing son in the
00:08:12
papers and such and therefore it received little press coverage. Now, their second theory is that there
00:08:20
was no carney lady at all. That she's an imaginary perpetrator, much like Xany the nanny or, you know, some other
00:08:27
people that we've fictitious individuals that we've talked about in different cases on uh that we've covered here.
00:08:35
>> Yeah. Where are we getting the reports from the about these tattoos? Is this just coming from the the parents?
00:08:42
>> So, this comes from the parents. But here's one thing that I found was really
00:08:46
interesting. And and to be honest with you, Captain, I don't want to sound like I'm I'm uh you know,
00:08:53
>> throwing shade on this on this person on this commenter that that posted their
00:08:58
two theories there because >> my mind went there as well was like, well, did this carnival lady really even
00:09:05
exist? You know, the parents go to bed, they wake up, their son's gone, >> this lady's gone. But then I got on to
00:09:13
remember the line in here on Reddit says it was just added to the Charlie project, Charlie's project recently.
00:09:22
>> So I wanted to check the Charlie's Project website and I did so and they had some different details of the
00:09:29
disappearance. >> It says Matthew's mother met a woman in 1983 who called herself Kathy Johnson.
00:09:37
She was a worker at a rodeo that had stopped in Fort Smith, Arkansas. >> A friend of Matthew's family met her and
00:09:45
introduced her to Matthew's mother. The baby's father was in jail at the time, and Matthew's mother needed help with
00:09:51
child care. So, she asked Johnson to stay in her Van Burren, Arkansas home for a week to watch her her three
00:10:01
children. She had more than uh just Matthew. Mhm. >> There was a party at Matthew's home on
00:10:07
the night of June 9th, 1983, and alcohol was served. When Matthew's mother woke up in the morning, Matthew and this
00:10:15
Kathy Johnson were both gone, and the family car was also missing. Three other children were left at the trailer.
00:10:24
Neither Matthew nor his abductor have ever been seen again. Kathy Johnson had told Matthew's mother that she was 26
00:10:31
years old. She also said she had lost two children shortly after they were born. She said her children, had they
00:10:39
lived, would have been 9 and 6 years old. This is in 1983. She may also use the first name Judy.
00:10:49
And a composite sketch of the abductor is posted with case summary. She is described as Caucasian, about 5'4 inches
00:10:57
tall with blonde hair. That's weird because the the composite looks like she would have dark hair. She had a chipped
00:11:04
or decayed front tooth, a 6 to 7 in scar on her left shoulder blade, a puncture scar 68 in above her right knee. She had
00:11:15
a tattoo of a green and yellow star or sunburst on her left side of her chest, a tattoo of a unicorn on her upper right
00:11:22
arm, I'm sorry, upper left arm, a long scar on the back of her right shoulder, and a tattoo on her upper right arm with
00:11:30
the name again Kathy with a ribbon above it. The interesting thing here is when we
00:11:37
get a little bit more of the story, it does seem now like this this person actually existed. That it's not just
00:11:45
some story that the parents came up with because something happened to their kid
00:11:49
and they needed a good story to cover it up. >> Mhm. goes on to say that Matthew and his
00:11:54
abductor may have traveled to, I'm sorry, through Utah to California after Matthew's abduction, possibly driving a
00:12:04
1973 Chevy Vega. Authorities believe the abductor may have taken Matthew to raise
00:12:11
him as her son, and he's probably still alive and doesn't know his true identity.
00:12:17
So, not just Matthew was gone, but the car was gone. We have other witnesses. There was a party there that night. We
00:12:24
have a little bit more of a story of the mother saying, "I didn't just meet this woman and she
00:12:30
stayed in my home one night. I asked her to stay and watch my children for me." >> Right?
00:12:35
>> And one thing that we we have too that is in the favor of Matthew's mother for
00:12:42
believing her story is not just the other potential witnesses, >> but the missing vehicle.
00:12:49
>> Their car was stolen as well. And I'm guessing when we have when we have the website saying that
00:12:57
they may have been traveling through Utah to get to California, that's either judging by words that were communicated
00:13:05
from this quote unquote Kathy Johnson to Matthew's mother or the vehicle that was
00:13:10
stolen would have been seen in Utah heading in the direction of California. >> Right.
00:13:16
>> So interesting stuff. I and I I do very much like when we have when we have a case like this and you
00:13:26
have the the tattoos. Again, that's one way of of solving this. >> Not Yeah. And it doesn't rule out that
00:13:32
it's not completely made up. Uh there was this lady and she had a tattoo and what does the tattoo say? Uh Kathy on
00:13:39
her arm, star. But when you start getting into multiple tattoos, multiple details, we talked about scar honor. Um,
00:13:50
it's either, you know, it's either great clues or it's completely made up. So, there's a lot to go off of. And and and
00:13:59
also like the the decay decaying front tooth now that was all that was 83, you said.
00:14:05
>> Yeah. So, that tooth if it was decaying, it's gone by now. >> Yeah. So, >> um, but yeah, if I mean if you know
00:14:12
somebody that has those tattoos, >> Yeah. If you have a grandma with a tattoo, >> weird. Can you imagine?
00:14:21
>> That says Kathy. >> 36. >> Let her name's not Kathy. >> So, this Matthew would be what? 36. Is
00:14:28
that right? 36 years old. 37 years old. >> Can you imagine growing up and believing
00:14:35
you were somebody else from some different family? Yeah, I don't buy the the story of the
00:14:41
parents though. Um it's one of those things where it's like there's probably more to the story
00:14:47
they're not telling us type thing. >> Well, I don't know that they're not telling us. This is just
00:14:51
>> right that's not reported or we don't have that information on >> Yeah. Sometimes sometimes the
00:14:56
information doesn't stand the test of time. You know, father timeated as they say. Yeah.
00:15:03
>> And so >> just like her front tooth didn't stand the test of time. Yeah. >> Either does.
00:15:09
>> So what the the more information about this story may just not have lasted all
00:15:15
of these years. >> Yeah. And then what do you do? What if you had a good childhood and good
00:15:20
upbringing and and things worked out and you were doing well with with your life?
00:15:26
Would you would you be mad? >> I I don't know. I can't put myself in >> 36 years old
00:15:32
>> in that situation. I have no >> I'm assuming that things didn't work out that well though.
00:15:38
Um, so but it's it's interesting that they they believe that he's still alive. So I I don't put it past somebody that
00:15:52
is willing to steal a child and to steal a vehicle. I don't put it past them >> that they uh dispose of the kid at some
00:16:00
point. So, but I guess it's better to keep hope, right? >> Yes, of course. [music]
00:16:13
[music]