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00:01:42
welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
00:01:48
as always is a guy whose baby's got a locomotive here is the captain chugga chugga cho cho it's good to be seen and
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good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are very happy to be
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featuring tiger chainsaw Arms by the good folks down at Singing River Brewing Company why the crazy name probably
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because it's a crazy good beer tiger chainsaw arms is a Belgian triple American IPA hybrid just like the Exotic
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out of five bottle caps and here's some of our friends that helped us out with this week's beer run first up a big
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cheers to Judy and Gana Ohio and a big shout out to Darlene Danielson and Sugar Grove Illinois thank you to everyone for
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make sure you subscribe to that Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
00:03:31
grab a beer let's talk some true crime the last time that niik Lisa was heard from was around 5:00 p.m. on the
00:03:58
1st this is when when he spoke with his grandmother via phone she called him he actually picked up he said he cannot
00:04:06
talk to her at that time and he would call her back this is the last interaction that Nico has with any of
00:04:14
his family at some point on the same day and this is weird captain because we're
00:04:19
already talking about New York and then we're talking about Nico dropping Robbie
00:04:25
off or supposedly That's How The Story Goes anyway that Nico dropped off Robbie at his parents home in Michigan and then
00:04:36
one thing that we do know that happened for certain is that somebody retrieves a Western Union money
00:04:44
order for $90 made out to Nico he picks that this up at a Western Union location
00:04:51
that is in the state of Ohio in our state so they steal the truck in New York eyewitnesses of that no
00:04:58
eyewitnesses of him dropping off Robbie in Michigan and no eyewitnesses of him picking up this money order that's how
00:05:07
the timeline works out now we should point out here before we move too far along Nico's family they're a little
00:05:15
suspicious of Robbie Knight and Robbie's family you know so they're getting this
00:05:21
information from Robbie Knight's family that Robbie was dropped off by Nico Nico
00:05:26
may have robbed Robbie at gunpoint before dropping him off again the only place that that story
00:05:33
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
00:05:40
calls this into question so we should as well as we continue on with the rest of
00:05:46
this timeline this will make that money order pickup in Ohio even more questionable right we know that
00:05:56
happened but what happens here is on October 3rd Monica receives an envelope in the mail
00:06:06
that's postmarked October 1st inside of this envelope is her son's driver's license Nico's driver's license so he
00:06:14
has a driver's license no vehicle until he and Robbie steal this vehicle or one of them stole it there's a note inside
00:06:21
the envelope as well that says that someone had found Nico's driver's license on the street in front of the
00:06:28
post office in Corell New York again this is about 20 miles from Jasper where he was living at the time or supposed to
00:06:37
be living at the time now keep in mind his father lived in Hornell so it wouldn't be out of question that he
00:06:44
would be there what I'm throwing in here as a big question mark is if he lost his
00:06:51
license in New York drops it or some people have wondered did he drop it on purpose as
00:06:59
like a a call for help or or to try to warn somebody that that something was going on he picks up the Western Union
00:07:08
in Ohio now I know that not everybody follows protocol all of the time he would need his driver's license or some
00:07:16
form of ID to to retrieve that Western Union money order which we know that he did but his license he would not have
00:07:23
had that at the time that he picked up that money order right is it possible that he had a student ID or some other
00:07:30
form of ID that they would let him pick up this money which is possible and we'll we'll I imagine we'll get back to
00:07:37
the money order in a little more detail as we go through the timeline but what I'm pointing out here is the money order
00:07:44
was made out to niiki and it was retrieved from a Western Union location Ohio all of that is fact that we cannot
00:07:52
change that that's what happened what I'm pointing out is because he didn't have his driver's license with him I
00:07:58
don't think that any of us can say with 100% certainty that he was the actual person that picked up the money order
00:08:05
yeah basically what you're saying is somebody picked up the money order we just have no way of confirming that
00:08:10
right the the money order was picked up it was made out to Nico Lei it was retrieved I don't think we can say one
00:08:18
with 100% certainty who picked it up because if if whoever gave the money order out if they allowed somebody to
00:08:27
retrieve it without showing ID or like you said could somebody have had a debit card or a credit card just with the name
00:08:36
on there no picture and hey I'm I'm Nick from True Crime garage and I'm retrieving this uh Western Union money
00:08:43
order for 90 bucks but you don't know it because I'm showing you a debit card with niik Le's name on it and you just
00:08:49
believe it to be me so that part's a little wonky right just because that Western Union is picked up I don't know
00:08:55
that we can 100% say that it was Nico that picked it up that he was at that Western Union location in Ohio on
00:09:02
October the 1st this whole story is a little wonky and full of people that are full of my lock some people were really
00:09:11
put off by this driver's license being found a lot of people question that big time I don't question it so much because
00:09:20
I've actually done that I've found a driver's license before and mailed it to the address on the license now just just
00:09:30
to clarify it's a driver's license so Nico has his driver's license he just doesn't have a vehicle that's what's
00:09:38
reported it for all I know Captain it could be a state ID but but the way that it's reported is it's reported as a
00:09:46
driver's license now according to Nico's mother Monica she somehow was able to speak with the
00:09:54
person the man that actually that says he found the driver's license and made nailed it to her and then she also says
00:10:02
that he was interviewed by police and monicaa says that she believes that this man had nothing to do
00:10:11
with Nico disappearing that he was just he just did the right thing he found a license and was attempting to return it
00:10:18
to the person that lost it now what I question about the license is how did it get lost is it just he happened to drop
00:10:26
it or if if something if I were being taken against my will I would make every attempt to clue some people in that hey
00:10:36
something's happened to me right mom can't get a hold of Nico and she believes that he's involved in
00:10:45
some kind of stolen vehicle situation his state ID or driver's license turns up in her mailbox so she's going to as
00:10:53
we said she reports her son missing and also makes the police aware that he may have something to do with this stolen
00:11:02
vehicle she's trying to do the right thing but she's also mostly worried about finding her son so by Wednesday
00:11:09
October 5th she's frantic and she's calling everybody that she can think of her and her husband find out that
00:11:17
Robbie's grandmother that uh through Robbie's grandmother that Robbie had ended up at home in Michigan Monica and
00:11:24
her husband Nico's stepfather they speak with Robbie's father via phone there's a
00:11:33
couple of things that Monica says that are weird about this phone call again they're already suspicious of Robbie
00:11:40
Knight this is where they become suspicious of Robbie Knight's family on the phone with Nico's family Robbie's
00:11:48
Father Robert tells Nico's family that he had never seen Nico even though according to the story Nico dropped
00:11:57
Robbie off there goes on want to tell them that Robbie once he ended up here back at home he's been home all weekend
00:12:07
meaning after Robbie showed up he never left the house again never left this man's site again which Nico's family
00:12:14
finds this to be very suspicious because they're saying Robbie Knight's father offered up this information even though
00:12:22
nobody's asking where his son or Sons were uh because Robbie has a brother named Christopher and that was part of
00:12:29
the conversation Robbie's been here all weekend Christopher's been here all weekend it's almost like creating an
00:12:35
alibi yeah pretty strange when you're not even asked where these people were I'd call that being a little fishy
00:12:43
according to the information I have here Captain is that the same day that the missing persons report is filed in New
00:12:49
York for Nico that same day Michigan State Police go to Robbie's house in ramulus Michigan they want to talk to
00:12:59
Robbie of course because now he's linked to this stolen truck so they bring him into the police station to question him
00:13:06
about one where's Nico and two where's this truck during this questioning and this goes bad really quick it it sounds
00:13:14
to me like they don't get very far in the questioning or at least they don't get very much in the way of information
00:13:21
so this is because Robbie suffers some kind of meltdown during this questioning we don't know exact what happened but
00:13:30
it's bad enough that they take him to the hospital the police take him to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation
00:13:38
that's beyond strange and and that's I believe the first time we've ever heard of somebody
00:13:46
being questioned by the police and then taken for a psych evaluation I just figured out my cover if I'm ever
00:13:56
involved in something horrible and need to weasle my way out of that interrogation room oh baby I'm breaking
00:14:03
down like you've never seen before like worse than Tom Petty said in in Breakdown I'm breaking down big time I'm
00:14:10
getting out of there Robbie gets sent to the hospital and he's there they keep him there at a mental hospital until
00:14:19
Saturday the 9th and during that time during that time period the police don't talk to them they don't they are not
00:14:27
afforded the opportunity to speak with them so this gives a lot of time and a lot of days to figure out what am I
00:14:33
going to tell these people number one but then it gets worse because on the 10th the following day after Robbie is
00:14:41
released from the mental hospital he posted one of those messages that you do not want to see on social
00:14:47
because that tells you your friend is in a bad place that that they probably need
00:14:52
some help so this is on the 10th Robbie posts on his Facebook page at 3:47 p.m. quote can someone send me some love I
00:15:02
just got out of the hospital I'm at a low place but I'm getting better I need someone to show me some love
00:15:10
now that's 3:47 p.m. sometime after 8:00 P.M that same day Robbie Knight dies oh [ __ ] according
00:15:19
to Nico's mother Monica she says that she learned from a police report that she obtained through a foyer request
00:15:27
that Robbie o on his own prescription drugs now to be perfectly clear whether this was an accident or deliberate we do
00:15:36
not know that's that's unclear here well and we don't know when he was prescribed
00:15:41
the this medication was this something he's been subscribed he was prescribed to for years and that he took with him
00:15:50
from New York to Michigan or was this something that they gave to him after he spoke with police after after being put
00:15:59
in the psych evaluation right you're exactly right my guess would be that it was from the mental hospital but we
00:16:06
can't say that with any level of certainty here but the the what's really disturbing to this case is now we have
00:16:13
someone who could very likely shed some serious light on what Nico was up to or what was going on with the stolen truck
00:16:21
situation they're no longer around to provide answers well very sad that we're losing a life but also so we're losing
00:16:29
this information about Nico of course that's going to shock and scare Nico's family all at the same time but while
00:16:36
we're on the subject of Facebook here captain book of faces Nico's family at some point becomes aware that Nico's
00:16:43
Facebook page had been deleted that's fishy this is because the family they they try to
00:16:50
access you know they go to his Facebook page to see if there's any activity on it while he's missing the page does not
00:16:57
exist anymore more I was just going to say that there there's so many strange things I mean we can't prove that Nico
00:17:06
was an Ohio we can't even prove that Nico was in Michigan like you said there then
00:17:12
Robbie's family is establishing Alibi not just for him but for his brother as well
00:17:21
it's it's beyond strange then you have Robbie where he's not going to talk to the the
00:17:28
police oh you want me to get psych psych evaluation well I'm not going to speak with you and then he
00:17:34
dies and this is after he what wasn't he the one that said you know hey I'm not going to bother you anymore yeah Robbie
00:17:41
said something cryptic to his grandmother when she drops him off at the cabin at what is Nico's family's
00:17:48
cabin says something like I'll I'll be getting out of your life now or I'm giving you your life back that's what he
00:17:55
said which almost sounds like hey I've been a burden to you the last several years I'm freeing you of that burden
00:18:02
which may mean something as simple as hey I mean Robbie's 20 at the time did he die by Suicide we can't say that but
00:18:11
he does die shortly after that interaction with his grandmother so was that his plan all along or was it just
00:18:18
something as simple as I'm 20 and you don't have to care for me you don't have to provide a a shelter and food for me
00:18:27
I'm going to going to relieve you of of your responsibilities and your duties that have been weighing you down for a
00:18:33
while maybe they thought look maybe they were running from something we did something bad we're going to get out of
00:18:40
town we're going to start a new life in the process yeah we're going to steal a truck to get us there there's a credit
00:18:46
card in this truck we're going to use that for gas and food and this is going to get us to Michigan and so we can
00:18:53
start over and as long as we don't get caught then we won't have to deal with any of the charges from the stolen car
00:19:02
the stolen credit card stuff like that and then when you get caught it's like he's not he's still running by this OD
00:19:12
like you said you can't 100% say that it was an accident or it was on purpose well and again the truck thing's
00:19:19
confusing too because did did he steal it did Robbie steal it did they steal it together and where the heck is it at you
00:19:28
steal the truck so you can get out of Dodge or did you get out of Dodge because you stole a truck right so this
00:19:35
is where the Tennessee connection all comes back in so we've got New York Pennsylvania if if they were to have
00:19:43
traveled and everything went down the way that Robbie says it went down then that meant that him and Nico went from
00:19:49
New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio up to Michigan and then Nico went back to Ohio to retrieve that Western Union $90
00:19:59
transfer but so remember Nico spent his junior year at Franklin High School in Franklin
00:20:06
Tennessee and of course during that year he's going to make some friends while he's there Monica his mother says that
00:20:12
she's not really certain if he stayed in touch with any of these people once he moved back to New York for his senior
00:20:19
year or even After High School in New York now he could have just because she doesn't know that he if he stayed in
00:20:26
touch doesn't mean that he didn't but now we're at the situation where police are looking for Nico they use his phone
00:20:34
records and his phone did Ping in Nashville Tennessee on October 1st and it last pinged in Franklin Tennessee at
00:20:43
505 p.m eastern time which would be 4:05 Central Time there on October 1st so the
00:20:51
Ping that takes place at :05 Eastern time this is when his grandmother called him remember somebody picked up the
00:20:57
phone said I can't talk right now I'll call back so the phone records reflect that indeed on September 30th through
00:21:06
October 1st my notes say Nico here but I think maybe we should point out that maybe what's more accurate is Nico's
00:21:13
phone traveled from New York to Michigan and then down to Tennessee the phone records also showed evidence of a series
00:21:21
of calls that involv some interactions once he gets to Tennessee or on his way to
00:21:28
Tennessee the unfortunate thing though is nobody has Nico's actual phone they're going off of phone records and
00:21:36
what they can get from the phone company this being law enforcement and Nico's family what they cannot get access to is
00:21:46
the content of Nico's text which is incredibly unfortunate because I mean we're talking about
00:21:55
2011 and we're talking about a kid that's 18 almost 19 years old yeah there's probably more communication going
00:22:03
through text messages than are going through by actual phone conversation I would bet you that most of the important
00:22:11
stuff that we want to know is would be in text if if you were hoping to find something that's where I
00:22:18
would be looking now at this point Monica again I give kudos to her she's taking matters into her own hands
00:22:27
as much as she can remember Nico's phone was on the family account so this is going to get
00:22:33
her access to certain information on that phone what she does is she gets a list of contacts that were on that phone
00:22:44
and she's calling everybody on those contacts to see if anybody's seen him heard from him now some of his contacts
00:22:52
this would be evidence that maybe he was staying in touch with these people or maybe these are just leftover numbers
00:22:58
and contacts that were on his phone from when he spent his junior year in Franklin Tennessee right but some of the
00:23:05
numbers in his contacts are the 615 area code which is Franklin and Nashville Tennessee area again she's calling all
00:23:14
these numbers finally one of these phone calls pays off this is when a young man in the 615
00:23:21
area code area calls her back he calls back on October 15th we can only call him by his first initial so we will
00:23:31
refer to him as e this is because this this name is known to law enforcement but some of these names that we are
00:23:40
going to refer to just by initial right law enforcement have stated to Nico's family that they've been advised to not
00:23:49
use these names publicly to they've been advis please keep speaking about your son's missing person's case because
00:23:56
getting it out there in the media can help but we would advise you against saying these person's actual names so e
00:24:05
went to Franklin High School with Nico during the 200920 school year when Nico was down in
00:24:13
Tennessee so e tells Monica Nico's mother that yes Nico was here at my place the night of October 1st e says
00:24:25
that he picked up Nico about two blocks from his home the home is located on flint lock Drive in Franklin and he
00:24:32
brings Nico back to the house he says the two of them played soccer with some buddies and then Nico spent the night
00:24:39
Nico did some laundry and then the next day Nico packed up his stuff and left he
00:24:44
was carrying a backpack but e says that at no point did he see a vehicle and E also tells Monica I don't
00:24:53
know where he was going even though he left Monica's sister in-law the one that Nico lived with in Franklin knew this
00:25:00
family and confirmed that Nico had spent time there when he lived in Franklin two
00:25:06
years earlier the other thing that's weird here though Captain is though although e told
00:25:12
Monica that he had not seen Nico in two years we know from the phone records that Nico called E's phone number 30
00:25:22
plus times in one day this is that's a lot of times yeah September 30th into October 1st e or at least E's phone
00:25:32
number called Nico's phone back several times so there's a lot of communication there and where does e live
00:25:42
again flint lock Drive in Franklin Tennessee so I'm trying to keep this all straight in my head they they
00:25:53
leave from New York possibly go to Michigan drop Robbie off Robbie's claiming that Nico robs him Nico goes to
00:26:03
Ohio collects money and then goes to Tennessee where this e character claims that they hung out in Tennessee correct
00:26:13
and he says that other people hung out there with them and this is where everything gets really wonky because
00:26:19
we're going to keep saying that Nico went from New York up to Michigan through Ohio and down to Tennessee but
00:26:27
what I think we should point out is the only thing that we can definitively say is that Nico's phone made those
00:26:33
travels because all right so let's go back to the grandma phone call because this is a big pivotal point in this
00:26:41
story in my opinion because now we know we have the phone records and the phone is traveling to Michigan then to
00:26:49
Tennessee this is great because it gives some kind of trail for Nico's family to
00:26:53
try to follow but what we have here is the phone call from Grandma at 50:05 p.m. that's the Ping that puts n
00:27:06
or at least his phone in Franklin Tennessee at that time so that goes along with this eers story but if you
00:27:14
ask Grandma today she says now I'm not certain that it was Nico that I spoke to on the
00:27:23
phone for years she said that it was Nico now she questions that and the other problem with this case is the
00:27:30
multiple law enforcement jurisdictions that are at play here the New York State Police were in charge of the case at one
00:27:37
point but for the first few years in their investigation it seems that they believe
00:27:43
that Nico was on the run which would make some sense the investigators seem to embrace the theory that Nico was
00:27:50
anxious wanted to elude that rape charge he's having fallouts with his family he
00:27:57
St old truck that he simply just split town that he got out of Dodge we have seen time and time
00:28:05
again that when law enforcement or police believe that someone has voluntarily disappeared that can dramatically impact
00:28:14
the actual investigation but here we have the issue of multiple jurisdictions at play we have Monica who's dealing
00:28:22
with the New York State Police about her missing son we have the Franklin Tennessee Sheriff's Department who are
00:28:29
now dealing with the possibility that Nico and the stolen vehicle may be in their County we also have the fact that
00:28:37
the Michigan State Police are completely styed when Robbie Knight [Music] dies this show is sponsored by better help do
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cheers the people in the front and the people in the back and to the colonel cheers to you captain and cheers to
00:31:35
hopefully Nico's family getting some information getting some answers soon our timeline we're going to go to March
00:31:43
of 2012 this is Monica Nico's mother conducting her own investigation and she's been looking for her son since
00:31:52
October of 2011 but in March of 201 12 she traveled to Franklin Tennessee this to talk to
00:32:02
the teen who says that he saw Nico the night of October 1st so she goes to this kid's
00:32:12
home she sits down with E the the teenager that we're calling e and E's father and what Monica learned from them
00:32:21
really didn't help the situation at all so this is from The Tennessean in 2016 that's quoting Monica in this
00:32:30
situation saying I said to the young man you haven't seen him in two years what did he say what did he want where did he
00:32:39
go and he couldn't deliver anything positive or anything concrete as far as information for me so Monica says that
00:32:48
she gets three different versions of how Nico got to their house e told her one time that he picked Nico up two blocks
00:32:56
away that was the the original story then he said Nico got dropped off at their home in another version of that
00:33:02
same story and then later he says that Nico drove up but this young man e denies ever seeing the truck e and his
00:33:13
father for the most part according to Monica were very casual but they were also very vague on any of the details
00:33:19
she wasn't able to get really much in the way of answers from them regarding her son or what the manner of his
00:33:27
Transportation was well again Nico is in this place in his life this Dark Cloud if you will and on
00:33:35
top of that he's making bad decisions he's hanging out with people that also make bad decisions and we don't know
00:33:42
much about this e guy but if he's hanging out with Nico around this time period Then e is probably a person
00:33:48
that's making bad decisions and you just can't trust everything that they're saying because they might be telling you
00:33:55
a story that makes them look better what's weird here too Captain is this is when Monica finds out about the Western
00:34:04
Union money gram for $90 that someone picked up that we're told that Nico picked up in Ohio and this is because e
00:34:12
was the one who had sent the money gr but he refused to tell Nico's mother Monica why they sent the money of course
00:34:23
Monica says that she just assumes the money was for gas right so he could continue to drive the
00:34:29
truck that he was making his way to Tennessee I do want to point out you know there's always these little
00:34:34
missteps you know not all the time but but often times there are these little missteps there's so many cases out there
00:34:41
that don't have missteps by the police and we don't discuss those because they get solved right right we don't hear
00:34:47
about all the things that they got right because when they get it right they find
00:34:50
the person that perpetrated or they find the missing person and everything's squared away but here we have a missing
00:34:56
person person with a set of bizarre events and behaviors in my opinion leading up to his disappearance it's
00:35:02
really actually even hard for me to say did he disappear in New York did he disappear in Michigan did he disappear
00:35:08
in Tennessee I I can't look at this information and decipher which of those is most correct what's interesting to me
00:35:15
Captain is that and this is incredibly surprising it seems that there was never an APB out for this stolen truck even
00:35:24
though it's reported stolen we know that it passes through m mple States you know
00:35:28
you would think that maybe it went through some tolls or toll records that would be have some of the information on
00:35:34
this truck I think that that was a misstep here by investigators now who knows if they had put out an APB and it
00:35:43
didn't get out until October 2nd or 3rd or fourth or 5ifth it might have been too late because based off of the phone
00:35:50
records and based off of all of the information we have if Nico did in fact travel from New York to Michigan down to
00:35:57
Tennessee he would have completed his trip to Tennessee before those dates as of today have we found that truck yes
00:36:06
the truck has been located but it took several years so let's get into that but before we lead up to that I want to
00:36:13
point out another part of the problem we've already pointed out that Robbie Knight who was traveling with Nico who
00:36:21
was at least traveled with him in the stolen vehicle while it was in the state of New York we know that that is fact we
00:36:27
pointed out that he passed away that he ODed shortly after Nico disappears but then in 2012 Robbie Knight's father who
00:36:36
had had some communication and interaction with Nico's family he passes away as well this is not helpful to the
00:36:44
investigation because remember Monica and Nico's family have said that they were suspicious of Robbie Knight of
00:36:52
Robbie Knight's father and Robbie's brother Christopher Christopher from my understanding was later
00:36:59
incarcerated on charges not related in any way or form to this case this is one of the most bizarre missing person cases
00:37:08
that I think we have covered in the last six years this takes us to November of 2015 now we still have the New York
00:37:15
State Police the the investigators from that agency they're still the lead technically on this case at this point
00:37:22
they go to ramulus Michigan this to question the two people in 's family who were still alive this seems a little
00:37:30
after the fact to me right there's four people in this family Nico was supposedly close enough to this home
00:37:37
that he drops off Robbie or robbed Robbie two of these family members have passed away before New York State Police
00:37:43
go out to interview these individuals but again State Police believed that Nico had left voluntarily in law
00:37:51
enforcement's defense they were or Robbie was questioned by local law enforcement which led to him being psych
00:38:00
evaluated correct and so what we have here Captain is some new information that comes out because of these
00:38:07
interviews they learn from Christopher he's not admitting to really much uh he's not doesn't have any information on
00:38:17
where Nico went but he admits that he and Robbie his brother Robbie who's now deceased they were the ones that shut
00:38:26
down Facebook page they did that from their house this was something that was done sometime after Robbie showed up
00:38:34
back in Michigan but before Robbie died a few days later so this makes you wonder even though Christopher gives
00:38:40
this information he's not incredibly helpful but was there some kind of conspiracy to make Nico completely
00:38:48
disappear we know his phone was shut off at some point yeah or maybe they maybe they knew he was having a okay
00:38:57
hypothetically he Nico's having a hard time communicating with his phone or his phone's not working or something maybe
00:39:04
he didn't have a charger and he takes off on the road now he doesn't have a charger so he then robs Robbie so now he
00:39:11
has his phone but we're going to shut that down and well he can communicate with people through Facebook and we're
00:39:18
going to shut that down as well well my head goes to this end of it because one of the first things I look at in these
00:39:24
cases is trying to figure out did this person hit the reset button and choose to disappear or are they running from
00:39:31
something or did something terrible happen to them where I go with this is I I see the Facebook page shut down and I
00:39:38
go okay well maybe Nico shut it down because he does not want to have any communication with his family and he
00:39:45
wants to disappear but now we find out years later that no these two guys Robbie and Christopher they shut it down
00:39:54
they shut down the communication yeah why did they shut down Nico's Facebook page is that to make Nico disappear CU
00:40:01
they did something to him or was that because would there be something incriminating that somebody could find
00:40:08
on the Facebook page yeah very good point and this is why you're the colonel and they don't let me leave my house
00:40:16
he's not allowed to leave just research cases give us the information as long as
00:40:23
I wear that ankle bracelet I can I can go and in one handcuff yeah so this leads us up to the point that you wanted
00:40:31
to get to here Captain July 2016 this is it when e the person that we are calling e he's finally questioned
00:40:40
by the New York State Police and the Franklin Police Department this was the first time that New York state police
00:40:47
came to Franklin to talk to e and his family in person they've had some communication over the phone but this
00:40:54
was the first time they're going to interview him in person this is 5 years after Nico goes missing so Nico's family
00:41:02
says that e was initially helpful in the investigation but at some point lawyered
00:41:09
up and he shut up but we know that police got a tip while they were on the ground in Franklin Tennessee this is
00:41:16
because the truck that Robbie and Nico were driving that Nico was believed to have driven to Tennessee or at least
00:41:23
that's the story that we're getting told was found they found the truck it was found stripped and
00:41:31
dismantled in a locked detached garage of a home in silven Park which is a residential area in Nashville so this is
00:41:42
about 21 miles from Franklin Tennessee a statement from the Franklin Police Department posted by Lieutenant Charles
00:41:50
Warner on July 22nd 2016 reads as follows new lead of uncovers dismantled truck missing New York teen last seen
00:42:00
driving in Franklin a Cold Case investigation Into The Disappearance of a missing New York teen has led to the
00:42:06
discovery of the truck he drove to Franklin following a lead yesterday afternoon Franklin police detectives and
00:42:14
New York State Police investigators found the stripped down truck locked inside the garage of a middle Tennessee
00:42:20
home the discovery only increases the concern of Foul Play in the disappearance of Nico Lei who was last
00:42:28
seen on flint lock Drive in Franklin on October 1st 2011 investigators are hopeful that
00:42:37
forensic processing of the truck will help to provide answers in the case police urge anyone with information to
00:42:44
come forward so that's 2016 so now we sit back and we look at that and we soak that all in we absorb that information
00:42:52
and we go unfortunately the truck probably didn't provide any answers forensically
00:43:00
at all right because we've not heard anything well and they said the vehicle was stripped yes but it goes back to
00:43:06
this idea like you were talking about with the Facebook page is it to stop communication or is it to erase some
00:43:13
kind of evidence or hide some kind of evidence and we know with with we know with Robbie's father he seemed to be
00:43:21
establishing aliis for his sons and then we find this vehicle cool which is hidden
00:43:29
right it's this individual was hiding this vehicle for some reason well and here's the
00:43:39
thing let's go in in depth here the truck when they found it was completely dismantled it had no remaining parts on
00:43:47
it so we're talking no lights no wires knobs no engine no doors no tires nothing all that remain of this truck
00:43:57
was the gray painted frame of a truck bed and the cab so if police were planning on searching it as they said in
00:44:05
their release for forensic evidence well you know me Captain I'm a betting man I got a crispy piece of
00:44:13
paper here that's green in color and it's got a picture of Benjamin Franklin on it in the center I would wager that
00:44:20
against other pieces of paper with other important figures on them that they didn't find anything
00:44:26
I mean this is years later this thing is completely stripped down and in fact someone had even attempted to remove all
00:44:34
of the vehicle identification numbers off of off of this piece of 10 what the reason that they know that they found
00:44:41
the right truck is somebody missed one and they found the VIN on some place of this dismantled truck right because
00:44:50
let's go back to the beginning this truck was a gold truck right yes and now now this vehicle is doesn't even have
00:44:59
any pain on it and luckily again a lot of these criminals are stupid and luckily they made a mistake
00:45:09
and left one of the VIN numbers right and what we have here is they do not police do not release the
00:45:17
exact location of where the truck was found because it is found on private property it's found in a detached garage
00:45:24
of a of a home that is owned by a family I'm guessing what we do know is that the something that Nico's
00:45:36
family says that they learned during the course of this investigation they say that at some point they overheard that
00:45:45
the truck was found at a certain address in Nashville and that Monica was later able
00:45:50
to piece together some more information based on other information that she's received so the house where the truck
00:45:57
was found stripped and locked in the separate garage belongs to a family who lives in Franklin Tennessee this is not
00:46:05
we need to be clear here this is not the person who we are calling e this is not
00:46:11
E's family home on flint lock drive that we referenced a couple times so this is
00:46:17
another family now in 2011 when Nico went missing and the house that the truck was later found in it was
00:46:25
considered a Party House the franklin-based parents own the home but their teen son who we've been instructed
00:46:32
to call Jay lived there so Jay and E they know each other and Nico knew them both a family member of Jay whose
00:46:43
parents own the home was renting the home in 2016 and was the one who allowed the New York State Police investigators
00:46:49
to access the garage so what's really weird here is that back in December of 2011 Monica receives a
00:46:59
tip on Facebook from a girl who lived in Tennessee who gave her the name of Jay's
00:47:04
family and suggested that she talk to Jay and his parents so there was somebody that came forward years earlier
00:47:11
saying hey you might want to talk to this Jay fella and his parents and that's ultimately where they end up
00:47:16
finding the truck stripped down in a locked detached garage and this case is so difficult for me
00:47:23
because the truck being found and Tennessee to me leans more towards the idea that maybe Robbie was telling the
00:47:32
truth and he dropped me off in Michigan and then he took off down to Ohio collected some money from there went to
00:47:41
Tennessee but then it becomes a big question of Foul Play because you have this vehicle that somebody's obviously
00:47:50
trying to uh destroy or make it so nobody knows who this vehicle belongs to or is it
00:48:02
simply that Nico was some bad things were happening in his life and he was also making some bad decisions and then
00:48:09
he made some more bad decisions to run from those well plug your ears here Captain because I don't want your head
00:48:17
to explode because this case is very frustrating to look at and this will make it even more frustrating so the
00:48:25
family that owns the home remember they when it was found the family that owned it at the time in
00:48:33
2016 they granted the police access to the garage there doesn't appear that they're trying to hide anything they let
00:48:40
them look in the garage they find this dismantled truck they find a VIN a vehicle identification number on this
00:48:47
scrap of metal that confirms that it was the truck that was stolen reported stolen in New
00:48:54
York but this is 2016 the family that allowed access to the police to the garage they say we
00:49:01
don't know how the truck got here we have no information on the truck why don't you have any information on the
00:49:07
truck oh because Jay who lived here who knew the person that we are calling e who also knew
00:49:14
Nico he died in 2014 two years earlier of a suspected overdose the second individual the second
00:49:22
eyewitness to die of a overdose yes exactly so this really leads us into really the theory portion of our show
00:49:35
because with all these people that have passed away that likely had information we no longer have access to
00:49:45
that information so we're hoping police investigators Nico's family are all hoping that those people before they
00:49:52
passed away told somebody whatever it is that they knew of the situation this is
00:49:58
a case that needs to blow up on the blog so if you have a thought that you think would help this
00:50:05
case at all go to our blog at truecrime garage.com and leave a comment on this episode so when we discuss theories here
00:50:16
we we got to point out the obvious first there's almost an infinite number of theories in this case because we have a
00:50:22
lot of confusing information and a lot of the people that may know something well they are not around to tell they
00:50:29
are dead they've passed away now one theory that I think that we can dismiss and I I say this with great sadness and
00:50:37
I wish that I could offer more of a light at the end of the tunnel for Nico's family but the theory that I
00:50:42
think that I can kind of dismiss from my investigation is that Nico is Alive and
00:50:48
Well somewhere after leaving to start a new life this to me seems very unlikely in this situation and I say that for a
00:50:55
multitude of reasons one given how close he was at one time with his family his mother extended and
00:51:03
otherwise uh for the record Monica has said unequivocally that that she does not believe that her
00:51:11
son is still alive based off of the relationship that she had with him and that he would not hurt her and hurt the
00:51:17
family for this long without some form of communication she and the investigators
00:51:24
now even though the State Police at one time believe he left voluntarily and that may be the case he
00:51:30
may have left their state voluntarily but it seems like investigators now and Nico's family now believe that Foul Play
00:51:40
is responsible for whatever happened to Nico and the other thing that we should point out too is that some people are
00:51:48
going to go well Nick calm down buddy he was running from a rape charge well that
00:51:53
charge was eventually dropped the charge against those other boys or men or whoever they were that that were the
00:52:01
allegations were put forward of rape on those guys those charges were dropped as
00:52:06
well yeah and that's a big thing because if to me this idea that he was running from something that's what he's running
00:52:15
from he's running from that satutory rape charge but then bad [ __ ] happened and if he was only running from that
00:52:24
char and because that would have dramatically affected his future once that charge has
00:52:33
dropped you come forward but maybe because of him running from those charges and making bad
00:52:41
decisions like stealing a vehicle maybe that would make him not want to come forward well and to further bolster this
00:52:50
opinion that Foul Play is involved here Monica actually told True Crime garage some relatively new information that's
00:52:59
not really out there to the masses and so we'll share that with you now this went down in March of
00:53:06
2017 Monica says that the New York State Police informed the stubin county New York
00:53:15
da that they believed that they had reason to believe and found this these reasons in
00:53:22
the course of their investigation that Nico was killed shortly after arriving in
00:53:28
Tennessee they said that they had obtained reliable information that Nico had died by means of homicide
00:53:36
so that really helps in the way of creating some kind of breadcrumb Trail where we called everything into question
00:53:48
earlier we now sit here with this information and go well the New York State Police see seem to believe enough
00:53:56
so to tell the district attorney of stubin County mhm that what we came up with what we found
00:54:04
in our investigation was that yes Nico left New York voluntarily Nico arrived in Tennessee he
00:54:13
was physically present at some point in Tennessee and he's no longer with us because he died by means of a
00:54:20
homicide well and remember what his mother was saying and what the family was talking about how he
00:54:30
left Tennessee abruptly and to do so just because you were truant from school doesn't make a lot of sense was
00:54:43
he trying to get out of Dodge gets out of Dodge you know is he trying to get out of Tennessee for some
00:54:50
reason something bad happened he goes back home some bad [ __ ] happens he he then makes a
00:55:00
break for it and then he's met with Foul Play in Tennessee based off of something
00:55:06
that happened months earlier here's one thing that I want to Circle back to because when we look at these cases I'm
00:55:14
always trying to evaluate these individuals these characters if you will within the
00:55:21
story and one of the characters is Nico's mother Monica I have found time and time again
00:55:30
her actions to be incredibly levelheaded right oh I I'm not going to dodge the police I'm going to inform them that my
00:55:42
son's missing and also inform them that he may be involved in a stolen vehicle situation if you find that truck you
00:55:49
might find my son right very levelheaded thinking now one interaction that I cannot vouch for I was not present when
00:55:58
this interaction went went down but what we are told by Monica and her family is
00:56:05
that when they spoke with Robbie Knight's Father Robert Knight the second who is now deceased and Robbie Knight
00:56:15
III is now deceased when they spoke with Robbie Knight's father the father said Nico dropped him off he here and my
00:56:26
son Robbie and my son Christopher have been home the whole weekend they've not gone anywhere since Robby got back
00:56:34
according to Monica and that's the thing when you review somebody's actions and their
00:56:39
behaviors she's not the type that comes off as oh she's just suspicious of everybody because she's she's pointed to
00:56:47
certain people that are involved throughout the story and said I don't think that person has anything to do
00:56:52
with this or I don't think that this person was up to no good they were just trying to help
00:56:56
out example being the person that found the driver's license or the state ID and
00:57:01
mailed it to her and so she seems to be very levelheaded and yet she says she was very almost instantly suspicious of
00:57:10
this statement Robbie and my son Christopher have been here the whole weekend ever since he got back offering
00:57:17
up this information creating an alibi when one was not requested to me the police say that they have
00:57:25
evidence they have reason to believe that he was killed shortly after arriving in
00:57:29
Tennessee I'm starting to wonder did Nico arrive in Tennessee by himself or do we have one or both of
00:57:37
these night Brothers in the truck with him and then this whole case too is it's like it's like a snake chasing its tail
00:57:47
eating itself right cannibalizing itself it's it's the chicken or the egg in a lot of these questions did they steal
00:57:54
the truck cuz they needed to leave or did they leave CU they stole the truck what happened after they got the
00:58:00
Michigan at what point do things turn for Nico turn bad for Nico from these people that are supposed to be his
00:58:08
friends everybody that we mentioned was considered to be a friend of his at one point this e fella this J fella Robbie
00:58:18
all who have passed away by the way some of them from drug overdoses accidental or
00:58:27
purposely we don't know did something Drive these individuals did they do something that they that drove them to
00:58:35
that end and it's why did they go to Tennessee what happened with the truck was he killed because of the truck
00:58:46
did they try to sell it for parts did they try to fence a stolen truck and and that went wrong and that's what happened
00:58:52
to Nico it's a lot of of the the chicken or the egg just to touch on something that you were saying did he arrive in
00:58:59
Tennessee did Nico arrive in Tennessee in that truck by himself or was Robbie or his brother
00:59:08
with him or was there a confrontation like Robbie claims that was a little more heated or
00:59:17
a little more involved or maybe Nico knew more information about Robbie than he wanted him to know and
00:59:26
they chased him down to Tennessee in November of 2017 the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation took over this case and in
00:59:37
September of 2020 the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation premiered a video on this investigation Into The
00:59:45
Disappearance of Nico this video shows the home where the truck was found and shows the truck as
00:59:53
it is now itself and also includes a plea for information as far as Nico's mother Monica goes she says she is long
01:00:03
since pasted worrying about Justice or convicting anyone or retribution she has spent the past 11 years Plastering
01:00:11
Flyers up traveling to talk to Witnesses or potential Witnesses she spent some of
01:00:18
that time harassing the police for information also attending missing persons rallies and conferences creating
01:00:24
the search for Nico Ley Facebook page and of course making her rounds to different shows and podcasts like ours
01:00:32
and speaking with us after more than a decade of searching she is exhausted and has just one goal she just wants to get
01:00:41
her son's remains back she does not believe that he's alive she says if he were he would have been in contact
01:00:48
especially after the charges against him were dropped and she told Williamson homepage.com quote my main focus is just
01:00:55
to find my son's remains if anyone if anybody knows anything I want them to come forward to police to me anonymously
01:01:05
to either I don't care my focus is to find my son my focus is not on the people responsible anymore I need to
01:01:12
know where my son is the investigators from TBI continue to seek information from anyone that was
01:01:21
hanging out at the house where the truck was found or remember being at a party at that
01:01:28
what was known to be a party house at one point the investigator says that someone knows how the truck got there
01:01:35
and someone knows how it was dismantled and that people in the Nashville and Franklin area know exactly what happened
01:01:41
to Nico Monica tells us that there are several families in Tennessee who are involved in what happened to her son
01:01:49
niik Lei is a Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes 5' 10 to 5' 11 in tall 160 lb he was last seen wearing a
01:01:59
black hooded sweatshirt red shorts sneakers and a silver crucifix Nico had several tattoos
01:02:05
including an unfinished guardian angel and a crescent moon on his left side four Chinese symbols on the back of his
01:02:12
upper right arm and a large kneeling woman with a Devil's Tail on his right side anyone with any information about
01:02:20
Nico or his disappearance should call 1800 TBI find that's 1800 TBI f n d or submit a tip online by emailing tips to
01:02:32
TBI tn.gov the leasy family has offered up $2500 in reward money for information
01:02:39
leading to Nico's whereabouts and the Franklin Police and Crime Stoppers are offering up an additional reward of up
01:02:46
to $1,000 for information in this case want to thank you so much want to give you hugs and kisses if I can let me get
01:03:08
close to you Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful people yes we do Captain this week we
01:03:13
are recommending a book called Ohio Heist historic Bank holdups train robberies juwel stings and more by Jane
01:03:21
torzillo you're going to want to check this out if if you love you some true crime if you love you some Ohio True
01:03:27
Crime this book features all of the great Bank holdups train robberies and Heist that you can think of coming out
01:03:35
of the great state of Ohio including some of the John Dillinger crimes that were committed check out Ohio Heist by
01:03:41
Jane torzillo you can find that on our website at true Crim garage.com click on the recommended page yeah all the guy
01:03:48
wanted to do was go watch a movie and his girlfriend had to turn him in ain't that the life and until next week be
01:03:56
good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size
01:04:38
organ models help to map out complex surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you
01:04:48
know where to go