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[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a guy whose baby's got a locomotive here is
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the captain chugga chugga choo choo it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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a friend [Music] this week we are very happy to be featuring tiger chainsaw Arms by the
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good folks down at Singing River Brewing Company why the crazy name probably because it's a crazy good beer tiger
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chainsaw arms is a Belgian triple American IPA hybrid just like the Exotic cat slash power tool featured on the can
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art it's exotic and weird and wild and you're gonna love it garage grade 4 out of five bottle caps and here's some of
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime oh the last time that Nico Lisa was heard
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from was around 5 PM on the first this is when he spoke with his grandmother via phone she called him he actually
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picked up he said he cannot talk to her at that time and he would call her back this is the last interaction that Nico
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has with any of his family at some point on the same day and this is weird captain because we're already talking
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about New York and then we're talking about Nico dropping Robbie off or supposedly That's How The Story Goes
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anyway that Nico dropped off Robbie at his parents home in Michigan and then one thing that we do know that happened
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for certain is that somebody retrieves a Western Union money order for ninety dollars made out to Nico he
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picks that this up at a Western Union location that is in the state of Ohio in our state so they steal the truck in New
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York eyewitnesses of that no eyewitnesses of him dropping off Robbie in Michigan and
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no eyewitnesses of him picking up this money order that's how the timeline works out now we should point out here
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before we move too far along Nico's family they're a little suspicious of Robbie Knight and Robbie's
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family you know so they're getting this information from Robbie Knight's family that Robbie was dropped off by Nico Nico
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may have robbed Robbie at gunpoint before dropping him off again the only place with that story
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comes from is Robbie and his family I'm not saying that it's not true just pointing out that Nico's family at least
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calls this into question so we should as well as we continue on with the rest of
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this timeline this will make that money order pick up in Ohio even more questionable right we know that it
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happened but what happens here is on October 3rd Monica receives an envelope in the mail that's
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postmarked October 1st inside of this envelope is her son's driver's license Nico's driver's license so he has a
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driver's license no vehicle until he and Robbie steal this vehicle or one of them
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stole it there's a note inside the envelope as well that says that someone had found
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Nico's driver's license on the street in front of the post office in Hornell New
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York again this is about 20 miles from Jasper where he was living at the time or supposed to be living at the time now
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keep in mind his father lived in Hornell so it wouldn't be out of question that he would be there what I'm throwing in
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here as a big question mark is if he lost his license in New York drops it or some people have wondered did he drop it
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on purpose as like a call for help or to try to warn somebody that that something
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was going on he picks up the Western Union in Ohio now I know that not everybody follows
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protocol all of the time he would need his driver's license or some form of ID to to retrieve that
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Western Union money order which we know that he did but his license he would not
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have had that at the time that he picked up that money order right is it possible
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that he had a student ID or some other form of ID that that would let him pick up this money which is possible and
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we'll we'll I imagine we'll get back to the money order in a little more detail as we go through the timeline but what
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I'm pointing out here is the money order was made out to nicolisi and it was retrieved from a Western Union location
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Ohio all of that is fact that we cannot change that that's what happened what I'm pointing out is because he didn't
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have his driver's license with him I don't think that any of us can say with 100 certainty that
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he was the actual person that picked up the money order yeah basically what you're saying is somebody picked up the
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money in order we just have no way of confirming that right the the money order was picked up it was made out to
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Nico Lisi it was retrieved I don't think we can say one with 100 certainty who picked it up because if if whoever gave
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the money order out if they allowed somebody to retrieve it without showing ID or like you said
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could somebody have had a debit card or a credit card just with the name on there no picture
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and hey I'm I'm Nick from True Crime garage and I'm retrieving this uh Western Union money order for 90 bucks
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but you don't know it because I'm showing you a debit card with Nico lisi's name on it and you just believe
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it to be me so that part's a little wonky right just because that Western Union is picked up I don't know that we
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can 100 say that it was Nico that picked it up that he was at that Western Union
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location in Ohio on October the 1st this whole story is a little wonky and full of people that are full of my life some
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people were really put off by this driver's license being found a lot of people question that big time I
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don't question it so much because I've actually done that I've found a driver's license before and mailed it to the
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address on the license now just just to clarify it's a driver's license so Nico has his
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driver's license he just doesn't have a vehicle that's what's reported for all I
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know Captain it could be a state ID but but the way that it's reported is it's reported as a driver's license now
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according to Nico's mother Monica she somehow was able to speak with the person the man that actually that says
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he found the driver's license and mailed it to her and then she also says that he
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was interviewed by police and Monica says that she believes that this man had nothing to do with Nico
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disappearing that he was just he just did the right thing he found a license and was attempting to return it to the
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person that lost it now what I question about the license is how did it get lost is it just he
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happened to drop it or if something if I were being taken against my will I would
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make every attempt to clue some people in that hey Something's Happened to Me Right mom
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can't get a hold of Nico and she believes that he's involved in some kind of stolen vehicle situation his
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state ID or driver's license turns up in her mailbox so she's going to as we said
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she reports her son missing and also makes the police aware that he may have something to do with this stolen vehicle
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she's trying to do the right thing but she's also mostly worried about finding her son
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so by Wednesday October 5th she's frantic and she's calling everybody that she can
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think of her and her husband find out that Robbie's grandmother that threw Robbie's grandmother that Robbie
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had ended up at home in Michigan Monica and her husband Nico's stepfather they speak with
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Robbie's father via phone there's a couple of things that Monica says that are weird about
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this phone call again they're already suspicious of Robbie Knight this is where they become
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suspicious of Robbie Knight's family on the phone with Nico's family Robbie's Father Robert
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tells Nico's family that he had never seen Nico even though according to the story Nico
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dropped Robbie off there goes on to tell them that Robbie once he ended up here back at
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home he's been home all weekend meaning after Robbie showed up he never left the house again never left this
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man's sight again which Nico's family finds this to be very suspicious because they're saying Robbie Knight's father
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offered up this information even though nobody's asking where his son or Sons were because Robbie has a brother named
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Christopher and that was part of the conversation Robbie's been here all weekend Christopher's been here all
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weekend it's almost like creating an alibi yeah pretty strange when you're not even asked where these people were
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I'd call that being a little fishy according to the information I have here Captain is that the same day that the
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missing persons report is filed in New York for Nico that same day Michigan State Police go to Robbie's house in
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Romulus Michigan they want to talk to Robbie of course because now he's linked to this stolen truck
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so they bring him into the police station to question him about one wears Nico and two where's this truck
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during this questioning and this goes bad really quick it sounds to me like they don't get very far in the
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questioning or at least they don't get very much in the way of information so this is because Robbie suffers some kind
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of meltdown during this questioning we don't know exactly what happened but it's bad enough that they take him to
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the hospital the police take him to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation that's beyond strange
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and and that's I believe the first time we've ever heard of somebody being questioned by the police
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and then taken for a psych evaluation I just figured out my cover if I'm ever involved in something horrible and need
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to weasel my way out of that interrogation room oh baby I'm breaking down like you've
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never seen before like worse than Tom Petty said in Breakdown I'm breaking down big time I'm getting
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out of there Robbie gets sent to the hospital and he's there they keep him there at a
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mental hospital until Saturday the 9th and during that time during that time period the police don't
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talk to him they don't they are not afforded the opportunity to speak with them so this gives a lot of time and a
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lot of days to figure out what am I going to tell these people number one but then it gets worse because on the
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10th the following day after Robbie is released from the mental hospital he posted one of those messages that you
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do not want to see on social because that tells you your friend is in a bad place that that they probably need some
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help so this is on the 10th Robbie post on his Facebook page at 3 47 p.m quote can someone send me some love I just got
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out of the hospital I'm at a low place but I'm getting better I need someone to show me some love now
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that's 3 47 P.M sometime after 8 PM that same day Robbie Knight dies oh [ __ ] according to Nico's
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mother Monica she says that she learned from a police report that she obtained through a foia
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request that Robbie OD'd on his own prescription drugs now to be perfectly clear whether this was
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an accident or deliberate we do not know that's that's unclear here well and we don't know when he was prescribed the
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this medication was this something he's been subscribed he was prescribed to for
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years and that he took with him from New York to Michigan or was this something that
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they gave to him after he spoke with police after being put in the psych evaluation right you're exactly right my
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guess would be that it was from the mental hospital but we can't say that with any level of certainty here but the
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the what's really disturbing to this case is now we have someone who could very likely shed some serious light on what
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Nico was up to or what was going on with the stolen truck situation they're no longer around
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to provide answers well very sad that we're losing a life but also we're losing this information about Nico of
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course that's going to shock and scare Nico's family all at the same time but while we're on the subject of Facebook
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here yeah the book of faces Nico's family at some point becomes aware that Nico's Facebook page
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had been deleted that's fishy this is because the family they they try to access
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you know they go to this Facebook page to see if there's any activity on it while he's missing the page does not
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exist anymore I was just going to say that there's so many strange things I mean
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we can't prove that Nico was in Ohio we can't even prove that Nico was in Michigan
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like you said there then Robbie's family is establishing Alibis not just for him
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but for his brother as well it's it's beyond strange then you have Robbie where he's
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not going to talk to the the police oh you want me to get psych evaluation well I'm not going to speak with you and then
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he dies and this is after he wasn't he the one that said you know hey I'm not going to
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bother you anymore yeah Robbie said something cryptic to his grandmother when she drops him off at the cabin at
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what is Nico's family's cabin says something like I'll I'll be getting out of your life now or I'm giving you your
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life back that's what he said which almost sounds like hey I've been a burden to you the last several years I'm
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freeing you of that burden which may mean something as simple as hey I mean Robbie's 20 at the time
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did he die by Suicide we can't say that but he does die shortly after that interaction with his grandmother so was
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that his plan all along or was it just something as simple as I'm 20 and you don't have to
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care for me you don't have to provide a a shelter and food for me I'm gonna I'm gonna relieve you of of your
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responsibilities and your duties that have been weighing you down for a while but maybe they thought look maybe they
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were running from something we did something bad we're going to get out of town we're going to start a new life in
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the process yeah we're gonna steal a truck to get us there there's a credit card in this truck we're going to use
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that for gas and food and this is going to get us to Michigan and so we can start over and as long as we don't get
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caught then we won't have to deal with any of the charges from the stolen car the stolen credit card stuff like that
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and then when you get caught it's like he's not he's still running by this OD like you said you can't 100 say
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that it was an accident or it was on purpose well and again the truck thing's confusing too because did he did he
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steal it did Robbie steal it did they steal it together and where the heck is it at do you steal the truck so you can
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get out of Dodge or did you get out of Dodge because you stole a truck right so this is where the Tennessee
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connection all comes back in so we've got New York Pennsylvania if if they were to have traveled and everything
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went down the way that Robbie says it went down then that meant that him and Nico went from New York to Pennsylvania
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to Ohio up to Michigan and then Nico went back to Ohio to retrieve that Western Union 90 transfer but so
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remember Nico spent his junior year at Franklin High School in Franklin Tennessee
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and of course during that year he's going to make some friends while he's there Monica his mother says that she's not
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really certain if he stayed in touch with any of these people once he moved back to New York for his senior year or
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even After High School in New York now he could have just because she doesn't know that he if he stayed in touch
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doesn't mean that he didn't but now we're at the situation where police are looking for Nico they use his phone
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records and his phone did Ping in Nashville Tennessee on October 1st and it last pinged in Franklin Tennessee at
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505 PM eastern time which would be 405 Central Time there on October 1st so the Ping that takes place at 505 eastern
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time this is when his grandmother called him remember somebody picked up the phone said I can't talk right now I'll
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call back so the flown records reflect that indeed on September 30th through October 1st my notes say Nico here but I
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think maybe we should point out that maybe what's more accurate is Nico's phone traveled from New York to Michigan and
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then down to Tennessee the phone records also showed evidence of a series of calls
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that involved some interactions once he gets to Tennessee or on his way to Tennessee the unfortunate thing though
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is nobody has Nico's actual phone they're going off of phone records and what they can get from the phone company
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this being law enforcement and Nico's family what they cannot get access to is the content of Nico's text
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which is incredibly unfortunate because I mean we're talking about 2011. and we're talking about a kid that's 18
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almost 19 years old yeah there's probably more communication going through text messages than are going
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through by actual phone conversation I would bet you that most of the important stuff that we want to know
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is would be in text if if you were hoping to find something that's where I would be looking
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now at this point Monica again I give kudos to her she's taking matters into her own hands as
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much as she can remember Nico's phone was on the family account so this is going to get her
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access to certain information on that phone what she does is she gets a list of contacts that were on that phone
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and she's calling everybody on those contacts to see if anybody's seen him heard from him now some of his contacts
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this would be evidence that maybe he was staying in touch with these people or maybe these are just leftover numbers
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and contacts that were on his phone from when he spent his junior year and Franklin
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Tennessee right but some of the numbers in his contacts are the 615 area code which is Franklin in Nashville Tennessee
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area again she's calling all these numbers finally one of these phone calls pays off
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this is when a young man in the 615 area code area calls her back he calls back on October 15th we can
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only call him by his first initial so we will refer to him as e this is because this this name is known to law
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enforcement but some of these names that we are going to refer to just by initial
00:22:40
right law enforcement have stated to Nico's family that they've been advised to not use these names publicly to
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they've been advised please keep speaking about your son's missing persons case because getting it out there in the
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media can help but we would advise you against saying these persons actual names so e went to Franklin High School
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with Nico during the 2009-2010 school year when Nico was down in Tennessee so e tells Monica Nico's mother that yes
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Nico was here at my place the night of October 1st e says that he picked up Nico about two
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blocks from his home the home is located on Flintlock Drive in Franklin and he brings Nico back to the house he
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says the two of them played soccer with some buddies and then Nico spent the night Nico did some laundry and then the
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next day Nico packed up his stuff and left he was carrying a backpack but he says
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that at no point did he see a vehicle and he also tells Monica I don't know where he was going even though he left
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Monica's sister-in-law the one that Nico lived with in Franklin knew this family
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and confirmed that Nico had spent time there and when he lived in Franklin two years earlier
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the other thing that's weird here though Captain is though although he told Monica
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that he had not seen Nico in two years we know from the phone records that Nico called E's phone number 30 plus times in
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one day this is that's a lot of times yeah September 30th into October 1st e or at least E's phone number called
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Nico's phone back several times so there's a lot of communication there and where does e live again
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Flintlock Drive and Franklin Tennessee so I I'm trying to keep this all straight in my head they they leave from
00:24:51
New York possibly go to Michigan drop Robbie off Robbie's claiming that Nico robs him Nico goes to Ohio collects
00:25:02
money and then goes to Tennessee where this e character claims that they hung out in Tennessee correct and he says
00:25:11
that other people hung out there with them and this is where everything gets really wonky because we're going to keep
00:25:18
saying that Nico went from New York up to Michigan through Ohio and down to Tennessee but what I think we should
00:25:25
point out is the only thing that we can definitively say is that Nico's phone made those travels
00:25:32
because all right so let's go back to the grandma phone call because this is a big
00:25:37
pivotal point in the story in my opinion because now we know we have the phone records and the phone is traveling to
00:25:45
Michigan then to Tennessee this is great because it gives some kind of trail for
00:25:50
Nico's family to try to follow but what we have here is the phone call from Grandma at 505.
00:25:59
p.m that's the Ping that puts Nico or at least his phone in Franklin Tennessee at
00:26:06
that time so that goes along with this e-person story but if you ask Grandma today
00:26:16
she says now I'm not certain that it was Nico that I spoke to on the phone for years she said that it was Nico now
00:26:24
she questions that and the other problem with this case is the multiple law enforcement jurisdictions that are at
00:26:30
play here the New York State Police were in charge of the case at one point but for the first few years in their
00:26:38
investigation it seems that they believe that Nico was on the run which would make some sense
00:26:44
the investigators seemed to embrace the theory that Nico was anxious wanted to elude that rape charge he's
00:26:52
having fallouts with his family he stole a truck that he simply just split town that he got out of Dodge
00:26:59
we have seen time and time again that when law enforcement or police believe that someone has voluntarily
00:27:08
disappeared that can dramatically impact the actual investigation but here we have the issue of multiple jurisdictions
00:27:17
at play we have Monica who's dealing with the New York State Police about her missing son
00:27:24
we have the Franklin Tennessee Sheriff's Department who are now dealing with the possibility
00:27:29
that Nico and the stolen vehicle may be in their County we also have the fact that the Michigan State Police are
00:27:36
completely stymied when Robbie Knight dies [Music] [Music] foreign just around the corner as the seasons
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and code garage 50 for 50 off your first care of order all right we are back everybody cheers
00:29:51
it's people in the front and the people in the back and to the colonel cheers to
00:29:57
you captain and cheers to hopefully Nico's family getting some information getting some answers soon
00:30:04
our timeline we're going to go to March of 2012. this is Monica Nico's mother conducting her own investigation and
00:30:13
she's been looking for her son since October of 2011. but in March of 2012 she traveled to
00:30:22
Franklin Tennessee this to talk to the teen who says that he saw Nico the night of
00:30:31
October 1st so she goes to this kid's home she sits down with E the the teenager that we're calling e and E's
00:30:42
father and what Monica learned from them really didn't help the situation at all so this
00:30:48
is from The Tennessean in 2016 that's quoting Monica in this situation saying I said to the young man
00:30:56
you haven't seen him in two years what did he say what did he want where did he go and he couldn't deliver anything
00:31:04
positive or anything concrete as far as information for me so Monica says that she gets three
00:31:12
different versions of how Nico got to their house he told her one time that he picked Nico up two blocks away that was
00:31:20
the original story then he said Nico got dropped off at their home in another version of that same story and then
00:31:27
later he says that Nico drove up but this young man e denies ever seeing the truck he and his father for the most
00:31:37
part according to Monica were very casual but they were also very vague on any of the details she wasn't able to
00:31:43
get really much in the way of answers from them regarding her son or what the manner of his Transportation was well
00:31:51
again Nico is in this place in his life this Dark Cloud if you will and on top of that he's making bad decisions he's
00:32:01
hanging out with people that also make bad decisions and we don't know much about this e-guy but if he's hanging out
00:32:07
with Nico around this time period Then e is probably a person that's making bad decisions and you just can't trust
00:32:14
everything that they're saying because they might be telling you a story that makes them look better what's weird here
00:32:23
too Captain is this is when Monica finds out about the Western Union MoneyGram for ninety
00:32:29
dollars that someone picked up that we're told that Nico picked up in Ohio and this is because he was the one who
00:32:37
had sent the MoneyGram but he refused to tell Nico's mother Monica why they sent the money of course Monica
00:32:47
says that she just assumes the money was for gas right so he could continue to drive the truck that he was making his
00:32:53
way to Tennessee I do want to point out you know there's always these little missteps you know not all the time but
00:33:00
but oftentimes there are these little missteps there are so many cases out there that
00:33:05
don't have missteps by the police and we don't discuss those because they get solved right right we don't hear about
00:33:11
all the things that they got right because when they get it right they find the person that perpetrated or they find
00:33:15
the missing person and everything's squared away but here we have a missing person with a set of bizarre events and
00:33:22
behaviors in my opinion leading up to his disappearance it's really actually even hard for me to say did he disappear
00:33:28
in New York did he disappear in Michigan did he disappear in Tennessee I I can't
00:33:33
look at this information and decipher which of those is most correct what's interesting to me Captain is that
00:33:40
and this is incredibly surprising it seems that there was never an APB out for this stolen truck even though it's
00:33:47
reported stolen we know that it passes through multiple States you know you would think that maybe it went through
00:33:53
some tolls or toll records it would be have some of the information on this truck I think that that was a misstep
00:34:00
here by investigators now who knows if they had put out an APB and it didn't get out until October 2nd or 3rd or
00:34:09
fourth or fifth it might have been too late because based off of the phone records and based off of all of the
00:34:15
information we have if Nico did in fact travel from New York to Michigan down to
00:34:21
Tennessee he would have completed his trip to Tennessee before those dates as of today have we found that truck yes
00:34:29
the truck has been located but it took several years so let's get into that but before we
00:34:35
lead up to that I want to point out another part of the problem we've already pointed out that Robbie Knight
00:34:41
who was traveling with Nico who was at least traveled with him in the stolen vehicle while it was in the state of New
00:34:48
York we know that that is fact we pointed out that he passed away that he OD'd shortly after Nico disappears but
00:34:56
then in 2012 Robbie Knight's father who had had some communication and interaction with Nico's family he passes
00:35:04
away as well this is not helpful to the investigation because remember Monica and Nico's family have said that they
00:35:11
were suspicious of Robbie Knight of Robbie Knight's father and Robbie's brother Christopher Christopher from my
00:35:21
understanding was later incarcerated on charges not related in any way or form to this case this is one of the most
00:35:29
bizarre missing person cases that I think we have covered in the last six years this takes us to November of 2015.
00:35:37
now we still have the New York State Police the the investigators from that agency they're still the lead
00:35:42
technically on this case at this point they go to Romulus Michigan this to question the two people in Robbie's
00:35:50
family who were still alive this seems a little after the fact to me right there's four people in this family Nico
00:35:57
was supposedly close enough to this home that he drops off Robbie or robbed Robbie two of these family members have
00:36:04
passed away before New York State Police go out to interview these individuals but again
00:36:11
State Police believe that Nico had left voluntarily in law enforcement's defense
00:36:15
they were or Robbie was questioned by local law enforcement which led to him being psych evaluated correct and so
00:36:25
what we have here Captain is some new information that comes out because of these interviews they learn from
00:36:33
Christopher he's not admitting to really much uh he's not doesn't have any information on where Nico went but
00:36:42
he admits that he and Robbie his brother Robbie who's now deceased they were the
00:36:48
ones that shut down Nico's Facebook page they did that from their house this was
00:36:53
something that was done sometime after Robbie showed up back in Michigan but before Robbie died a few days later so
00:37:01
this makes you wonder even though Christopher gives this information he's not incredibly helpful but was there
00:37:08
some kind of conspiracy to make Nico completely disappear we know his phone was shut off at some
00:37:14
point yeah or maybe they maybe they knew he was having a okay hypothetically he Nico's having a hard
00:37:22
time communicating with his phone or his phone's not working or something maybe he didn't have a charger
00:37:29
and he takes off on the road now he doesn't have a charger so he then robs Robbie so now he has his phone but we're
00:37:36
gonna shut that down and well he can communicate with people through Facebook and we're going to shut that down as
00:37:42
well well my head goes to this end of it because one of the first things I look at in these cases is trying to figure
00:37:48
out did this person hit the reset button and choose to disappear or are they running from something or did something
00:37:56
terrible happen to them where I go with this is I I see the Facebook page shut down and I go okay
00:38:02
well maybe Nico shut it down because he does not want to have any communication with his family and he wants to
00:38:09
disappear but now we find out years later that no these two guys Robbie and Christopher they shut it down they shut
00:38:18
down the communication yeah why did they shut down Nico's Facebook page is that to make Nico disappear because they did
00:38:25
something to him or was that because would there be something incriminating that somebody could find on the Facebook
00:38:33
page yeah very good point and this is why you're the colonel and they don't let me leave my house he's not allowed
00:38:40
to leave just research cases give us the information as long as I wear that ankle
00:38:47
bracelet I can I can go in in one handcuff yeah so this leads us up to the point that you wanted to get to here
00:38:55
Captain July 2016. this is it when e the person that we are calling e he's finally questioned
00:39:03
and by the New York State Police and the Franklin Police Department this was the
00:39:09
first time that New York state police came to Franklin to talk to e and his family in person they've had some
00:39:15
communication over the phone but this was the first time they were going to interview him in person this is five
00:39:21
years after Nico goes missing so Nico's family says that e was initially helpful
00:39:30
in the investigation but at some point lawyered up and he shut up but we know that police got a tip while
00:39:36
they were on the ground in Franklin Tennessee this is because the truck that Robbie and Nico were driving that Nico
00:39:44
was believed to have driven to Tennessee or at least that's the story that we're
00:39:48
getting told was found they found the truck it was found stripped and dismantled
00:39:55
in a locked detached garage of a home in Sylvan Park which is a residential area
00:40:02
in Nashville so this is about 21 miles from Franklin Tennessee a statement from the Franklin
00:40:10
Police Department posted by Lieutenant Charles Warner on July 22nd 2016 reads as follows new lead uncovers dismantled
00:40:20
truck missing New York teen last seen driving in Franklin a Cold Case investigation Into The Disappearance of
00:40:27
a missing New York teen has led to the discovery of the truck he drove to Franklin following a lead yesterday
00:40:34
afternoon Franklin police detectives and New York State Police investigators found the stripped-down truck locked
00:40:41
inside the garage of a middle Tennessee home the discovery only increases the concern of Foul Play In The
00:40:49
Disappearance of Nico Lisi who was last seen on Flintlock Drive in Franklin on October 1st
00:40:56
2011. investigators are hopeful that forensic processing of the truck will help to provide answers in the case
00:41:05
police urge anyone with information to come forward so that's 2016. so now we sit back and we look at that and we soak
00:41:14
that all in we absorb that information and we go unfortunately the truck probably didn't
00:41:20
provide any answers forensically at all right because we've not heard anything well and they said the vehicle was
00:41:27
stripped yes but it goes back to this idea like you were talking about with the Facebook page is it to stop
00:41:33
communication or is it to erase some kind of evidence or hide some kind of evidence and we know with with we know
00:41:42
with Robbie's father he seemed to be establishing Alibis for his sons and then we find this vehicle which is
00:41:51
hidden right it's this individual was hiding this vehicle for some reason well and here's the thing
00:42:03
let's go in in depth here the truck when they found it was completely dismantled it had no
00:42:10
remaining parts on it so we're talking no lights no wires knobs no engine no doors no tires nothing
00:42:18
all that remained of this truck was the gray painted frame of a truck bed and the cab
00:42:25
so if police were planning on searching it as they said in their release for forensic evidence
00:42:32
well you know me Captain I'm a betting man I got a crispy piece of paper here that's green in color and it's got a
00:42:39
picture of Benjamin Franklin on it in the center I would wager that against other pieces of paper with other
00:42:46
important figures on them that they didn't find anything I mean this is years later this thing is
00:42:52
completely stripped down and in fact someone had even attempted to remove all of the vehicle identification numbers
00:42:59
off of off of this piece of tin what the reason that they know that they found the right truck is somebody missed one
00:43:07
and they found the VIN on some place of this dispano truck right because let's go back to the beginning this truck was
00:43:16
a gold truck right yes and now now this vehicle doesn't even have any pain on it
00:43:24
and luckily again a lot of these criminals are stupid and luckily they made a mistake and left
00:43:33
one of the VIN numbers right and what we have here is they do not police do not release the exact
00:43:40
location of where the truck was found because it is found on private property it's found in a detached garage of a
00:43:48
home that is owned by a family I'm guessing what we do know is that the something that Nico's family
00:44:00
says that they learned during the course of this investigation they say that at some
00:44:07
point they overheard that the truck was found at a certain address in Nashville and that Monica was later able to piece
00:44:14
together some more information based on other information that she's received so
00:44:19
the house where the truck was found stripped and locked in the separate garage belongs to a family who lives in
00:44:25
Franklin Tennessee this is not we need to be clear here this is not the person who we are calling e this is not
00:44:34
ease family home on flint lock drive that we've referenced a couple times so this is another family now in 2011 when
00:44:43
Nico went missing and the house that the truck was later found in it was considered a party house the
00:44:50
franklin-based parents own the home but their teen son who we've been instructed
00:44:56
to call Jay lived there so J and E they know each other and Nico knew them both a family member of Jay whose parents own
00:45:06
the home was renting the home in 2016 and was the one who allowed the New York State Police investigators to access the
00:45:13
garage so what's really weird here is that back in December of 2011 Monica receives a tip
00:45:23
on Facebook from a girl who lived in Tennessee who gave her the name of Jay's family and suggested that she talked to
00:45:29
Jay and his parents so there was somebody that came forward years earlier saying hey you might want
00:45:35
to talk to this J fella and his parents and that's ultimately where they end up finding the truck stripped down in a
00:45:42
locked detached garage and this case is so difficult for me because the truck being found in Tennessee to me
00:45:51
leans more towards the idea that maybe Robbie was telling the truth and he dropped me off in Michigan and then he
00:45:58
took off down to Ohio collected some money from there went to Tennessee but then it becomes a big question of
00:46:09
Foul Play because you have this vehicle that somebody's obviously trying to destroy or make it so nobody knows who
00:46:19
this vehicle belongs to or is it simply that Nico was some bad things were happening in his life and he was also
00:46:31
making some bad decisions and then he made some more bad decisions to run from those well plug your ears here Captain
00:46:39
because I don't want your head to explode because this case is very frustrating to look at
00:46:45
and this will make it even more frustrating so the family that owns the home remember they when it was found the
00:46:54
family that owned it at the time in 2016 they granted the police access to the garage there doesn't appear that they're
00:47:02
trying to hide anything they let them look in the garage they find this dismantled truck they find a VIN a
00:47:08
vehicle identification number on this scrap of metal that confirms that it was the truck that was stolen reported
00:47:15
stolen in New York but this is 2016. the family that allowed access to the police to the
00:47:23
garage they say we don't know how the truck got here we have no information on the truck why don't you have any
00:47:29
information on the truck oh because Jay who lived here who knew the person that we are calling e who also knew Nico
00:47:38
he died in 2014 two years earlier of a suspected overdose the second individual the second eyewitness
00:47:46
to die of an overdose yes exactly so this really leads us into really the theory
00:47:56
portion of our show because with all these people that have passed away that likely had information
00:48:06
we no longer have access to that information so we're hoping police investigators Nico's family are all
00:48:13
hoping that those people before they passed away told somebody whatever it is that they knew of the situation
00:48:20
this is a case that needs to blow up on the blog so if you have a thought that you think would help this case at
00:48:29
all go to our blog at truecrime garage.com and leave a comment on this episode so
00:48:36
when we discuss theories here we we got to point out the obvious first there's almost an infinite number of theories in
00:48:44
this case because we have a lot of confusing information and a lot of the people that may know something well
00:48:49
they are not around to tell they are dead they've passed away now one theory that I think that we can
00:48:56
dismiss and I I say this with great sadness and I wish that I could offer more of a
00:49:02
light at the end of the tunnel for Nico's family but the theory that I think that I can kind of dismiss from my
00:49:08
investigation is that Nico is alive and well somewhere after leaving to start a new life this to me seems very
00:49:16
unlikely in this situation and I say that for a multitude of reasons one given how close he was at one time with
00:49:22
his family his mother extended and otherwise uh for the record Monica has said unequivocally that that
00:49:31
she does not believe that her son is still alive based off of the relationship that she
00:49:38
had with him and that he would not hurt her and hurt the family for this long without some form of communication
00:49:45
she and the investigators now even though the state police at one time believed he left voluntarily
00:49:51
and that may be the case he may have left their state voluntarily but it seems like investigators now in Nico's
00:49:59
family now believe that Foul Play is responsible for whatever happened to Nico and the other thing that we should point
00:50:09
out too is that some people are going to go well Nick calm down buddy he was running from a
00:50:14
rape charge well that charge was eventually dropped the charge against those other boys or
00:50:21
men or whoever they were that that were the allegations were put forward of rape on those guys those
00:50:28
charges were dropped as well yeah and that's a big thing because if to me this idea that he was running from
00:50:36
something that's what he's running from he's running from that statutory rape charge
00:50:42
but then bad [ __ ] happen and if he was only running from that charge and because that would have
00:50:50
dramatically affected his future once that charge has dropped do you come forward
00:51:00
but maybe because of him running from those charges and making bad decisions like stealing a vehicle maybe that would
00:51:07
make him not want to come forward well and to further bolster this opinion that Foul Play is involved here Monica
00:51:18
actually told True Crime garage some relatively new information that's not really out there to the masses
00:51:25
and so we'll share that with you now this went down in March of 2017. Monica says that the New York State Police
00:51:33
informed the Steuben County New York D.A that they believed that they had reason
00:51:41
to believe and found this these reasons in the course of their investigation that Nico
00:51:48
was killed shortly after arriving in Tennessee they said that they had obtained reliable information that Nico had died
00:51:56
by means of homicide so that really helps in the way of creating some kind of breadcrumb Trail
00:52:08
where we called everything into question earlier we now sit here with this information
00:52:14
and go well the New York State Police seem to believe enough so to tell the district
00:52:20
attorney of Steuben County that what we came up with what we found in our investigation was that yes Nico left
00:52:30
New York voluntarily Nico arrived in Tennessee he was physically present at some point in
00:52:38
Tennessee and he's no longer with us because he died by means of a homicide well and remember
00:52:47
what is mother was saying and what the family was talking about how he left Tennessee
00:52:55
abruptly and to do so just because you were true from school doesn't make a lot of sense
00:53:05
was he trying to get out of Dodge gets out of Dodge you know is he trying to get out of Tennessee for some reason
00:53:14
something bad happened he goes back home some bad [ __ ] happens he he then makes a
00:53:23
break for it and then he's met with Foul Play in Tennessee based off of something that
00:53:30
happened months earlier here's one thing that I want to Circle back to because when we look at these cases I'm always
00:53:37
trying to evaluate these individuals these characters if you will within the story
00:53:45
and one of the characters is Nico's mother Monica I have found time and time again her
00:53:54
actions to be incredibly level-headed right oh I I'm not going to dodge the police
00:54:03
I'm going to inform them that my son's missing and also inform them that he may be involved in a stolen vehicle
00:54:10
situation if you find that truck you might find my son right very level-headed thinking now one
00:54:18
interaction that I cannot vouch for I was not present when this interaction went went down but what we are told by
00:54:25
Monica and her family is that when they spoke with Robbie Knight's Father Robert
00:54:33
Knight the second who is now deceased in Robbie Knight III is now deceased when they spoke with
00:54:41
Robbie Knight's father the father said Nico dropped him off here and my son Robbie and my son Christopher
00:54:52
have been home the whole weekend they've not gone anywhere since Robbie Got Back
00:54:57
according to Monica and that's the thing when you review somebody's actions and their behavior
00:55:03
she's not the type that comes off as all she's just suspicious of everybody because she's she's pointed to certain
00:55:10
people that are involved throughout the story and said I don't think that person has anything
00:55:15
to do with this or I don't think that this person was up to no good they were just trying to help out
00:55:20
example being the person that found the driver's license or the state ID and mailed it to her
00:55:25
and so she seems to be very level-headed and yet she says she was very almost instantly suspicious of this statement
00:55:34
Robbie and my son Christopher have been here the whole weekend ever since he got
00:55:38
back offering up this information creating an alibi when one was not requested to me
00:55:46
the police say that they have evidence they have reason to believe that he was killed shortly after arriving in
00:55:52
Tennessee I'm starting to wonder did Nico arrive in Tennessee by himself or do we have one or both of these
00:56:00
Knight Brothers in the truck with him and then this whole case too is it's like it's like a snake chasing its tail
00:56:10
eating itself right cannibalizing itself it's it's the chicken or the egg in a lot of these questions did they steal
00:56:17
the truck because they needed to leave or did they leave because they stole the truck
00:56:21
what happened after they got the Michigan at what point do things turn for Nico turned bad for Nico from these people
00:56:30
that are supposed to be his friends everybody that we mentioned was considered to be a friend of his at
00:56:36
one point this e fella this J fella Robbie all who have passed away by the way some of them
00:56:44
from drug overdoses accidental or purposely we don't know did something Drive these
00:56:54
individuals did they do something that they that drove them to that end and it's why did they go to Tennessee
00:57:03
what happened with the truck was he killed because of the truck did they try to sell it for parts did
00:57:11
they try to fence a stolen truck and and that went wrong and that's what happened
00:57:15
to Nico it's a lot of of the chicken or the egg just to touch on something that you were
00:57:21
saying did he arrive in Tennessee did Nico arrive in Tennessee in that truck by himself
00:57:28
or was Robbie or his brother with him or was there a confrontation like Robbie claims it was a little more heated or a
00:57:40
little more involved or maybe Nico knew more information about Robbie than he wanted him to know and they
00:57:50
chased him down to Tennessee in November of 2017 the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation took over this case
00:58:00
and in September of 2020 the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation premiered a video on this investigation Into The
00:58:09
Disappearance of Nico this video shows the home where the truck was found and shows the truck as
00:58:17
it is now itself and also includes a plea for information as far as Nico's mother Monica goes she
00:58:25
says she is long since past worrying about Justice or convicting anyone or retribution she has spent the past 11
00:58:33
years Plastering Flyers up traveling to talk to Witnesses or potential Witnesses
00:58:39
she's spent some of that time harassing the police for information also attending missing persons rallies and
00:58:46
conferences creating the search for Nico Lisi Facebook page and of course making her rounds to
00:58:53
different shows and podcasts like ours and speaking with us after more than a decade of searching she is exhausted and
00:59:00
has just one goal she just wants to get her son's remains back she does not believe that he's
00:59:07
alive she says if he were he would have been in contact especially after the charges
00:59:13
against him were dropped as she told Williamson homepage.com quote my main focus is just to find my
00:59:20
son's remains if anyone if anybody knows anything I want them to come forward to
00:59:25
police to me anonymously to either I don't care my focus is to find my son my focus is not on the people responsible
00:59:34
anymore I need to know where my son is the investigators from TBI continue to seek information from anyone that was
00:59:44
hanging out at the house where the truck was found or remember being at a party at that
00:59:51
what was known to be a party house at one point the investigator says that someone knows
00:59:57
how the truck got there and someone knows how it was dismantled and the people in the Nashville and Franklin
01:00:03
area know exactly what happened to Nico Monica tells us that there are several families in Tennessee who are involved
01:00:10
in what happened to her son Nico Lisi is a Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes 5 foot 10 to 5 foot 11 inches
01:00:18
tall 160 pounds he was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt red shorts sneakers and a silver crucifix
01:00:27
Nico had several tattoos including an unfinished guardian angel and a crescent moon on his left side
01:00:34
four Chinese symbols on the back of his upper right arm and a large kneeling woman with a Devil's Tail on his right
01:00:40
side anyone with any information about Nico or his disappearance should call 1-800
01:00:46
TBI find that's 1-800 TBI f-i-n-d or submit a tip online by emailing tips to TBI at tn.gov the Lisi family has
01:00:59
offered up twenty five hundred dollars in reward money for information leading to Nico's whereabouts and the Franklin
01:01:05
Police and Crime Stoppers are offering up an additional reward of up to one thousand dollars for information in this
01:01:11
case foreign thank you so much I want to give you hugs and kisses if I can let me get
01:01:31
close to you Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful people yes we do Captain this week we
01:01:37
are recommending a book called Ohio Heist historic Bank hold UPS train robberies Jewel stings and more by Jane
01:01:45
torzillo you're going to want to check this out if you love you some true crime if you love you some Ohio True Crime
01:01:51
this book features all of the great Bank hold UPS train robberies and Heist that
01:01:57
you can think of coming out of the great state of Ohio including some of the John
01:02:01
Dillinger crimes that were committed check out Ohio Heist by Jane torzillo you can find that on our website at
01:02:08
truecrimegarage.com click on the recommended page yeah all the guy wanted to do was go watch a movie and his
01:02:14
girlfriend had to turn him in ain't that the life and until next week be good be
01:02:19
kind and don't live [Music] thank you