00:00:00
Miami Metro catches killers and they say it takes a village to race one if anyone
00:00:04
knows how powerful urges can be it's me catch Dexter Morgan in a new serial killer origin story hunger inside of you
00:00:12
it needs a master featuring Patrick Gibson Christian Slater special guest star Sarah Michelle killer with Patrick
00:00:18
deny and Michael C Hall as Dexter in your voice I wasn't born a killer I Was Made Dexter original sin new series now
00:00:25
streaming on the Paramount plus with Showtime plan go to paramont plus.com to try it free terms apply
00:00:31
the first ever Kia K4 seamlessly combines bold style and advanced Tech with striking starm map LED headlights
00:00:38
and an available panoramic display the Kia K4 delivers design and function the available surround View and blind spot
00:00:44
view monitors can help provide added confidence plus Sirius XM comes standard bringing you closer to what you love the
00:00:51
Kia K4 balances Aesthetics and Innovation learn more at kia.com K4 surround View and blind spot view
00:00:57
monitors may not detect all objects around or behind the vehicle [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
00:01:43
you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
00:01:47
as always is a man who stands at the edge of the frontier wearing a great pair of boots here is the captain only
00:01:56
boots I wear nothing but a great set of boots it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
00:02:03
telling a friend today we are still sipping on this fine Buckeye logger special harvest
00:02:12
Edition from the fine folks at Mommy Bay Brewing Company the Ohio State Buckey will be hosting a college football
00:02:20
playoff game this weekend and we will be sipping Buckeye logger go buck and to all of you out there I say this I hope
00:02:28
your team wins and as long as they are not playing my team Buckeye logger garage grade three and a half bottle
00:02:35
caps out of five let's give some thanks and praise to our friends for helping us
00:02:38
out this week first up a cheers to Grace David and Regina Saskatchewan Canada and
00:02:44
a big we like your CHP goes out to Reverend Karen Kelly from Minneapolis Minnesota interesting because next we
00:02:52
have Luciana in the Twin Cities Minnesota and a big shout out to Kristen Evans from New Albany Ohio oh IO next up
00:03:02
a cheers to Rachel lowick from fville Michigan and last but certainly not least we have Ron and Sherry from
00:03:10
Walnutport Pennsylvania thank you to everyone who went to our website and contributed to this week's beer fund for
00:03:18
that we thank you yeah BW you and beer run if you need more True Crime garage for your earballs don't be shy subscribe
00:03:27
to us through the Apple podcast app or through patreon and that's enough of the buiness all right everybody gather
00:03:35
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music] cry want to take you
00:03:53
[Music] home by January 7th 2023 a reward from local businesses and community members was put together this
00:04:04
is for $65,000 for help with Gretchen's case the reward fund was split in half as
00:04:11
follows a reward of $32,500 was being offered for substantial information leading to the
00:04:19
current physical location and return of Gretchen and a separate $32,500 was being offered for inform to
00:04:30
for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in Gretchen's disappearance and or physical
00:04:38
harm to her now possibly motivated by this reward a tip came in that said that Gretchen had been thrown down a specific
00:04:48
industrial well in Ravenswood this is a location that's approximately a 40 minutes Drive Away Captain for this
00:04:59
location to be searched they had to bring out engineers and a drilling company to drain this well and as it
00:05:07
would turn out this ends up being a week's worth of efforts that were completely wasted they found nothing of
00:05:14
value in this search yeah the business Community continued to support efforts to find Gretchen in February a billboard
00:05:22
was erected on southbound Murdoch Avenue this reminding the public about Gretchen
00:05:28
being missing and the Hefty reward detective Zimmerman's phone number was featured on the billboard and the
00:05:35
billboard was provided to the Fleming family free of charge by the Hicks Outdoor advertising company so shout out
00:05:42
to the Hicks Outdoor advertising company for assisting this poor family in their
00:05:48
efforts to find their daughter police decided to make use of the community's eagerness to help and called for
00:05:54
volunteers for a search party for February 4th the Parkersburg police Police Department's Facebook post said a
00:06:02
large scale search effort will take place on Saturday February 4th participation will involve strenuous
00:06:08
work in rugged wooded terrain now note here Captain they did not disclose where the search would be conducted until the
00:06:19
morning of right this turns out the search was of mountwood Park this is a massive Park located about 12 miles from
00:06:29
Park BG with over 5050 mil of trails and a 50 acre Lake a group called Mountaineer area rescue group this is an
00:06:39
all volunteer search and rescue organization based in Morgantown West Virginia provided about 25 team leaders
00:06:47
to divvy up the more than 500 civilian volunteer Searchers who showed up to help the police had received tips about
00:06:56
this area so that's why they are there this search too was a bust now a few small items that were thought to be
00:07:04
potential evidence were collected however after testing these items they proved not to be connected to
00:07:12
Gretchen so detective Zimmerman said publicly we can cross the park off of our list with every search it becomes
00:07:21
more difficult on the family because and I think they made these statements to local news you during
00:07:29
these searches you're so thankful and grateful that the community comes out and searches but you know that if you
00:07:38
find something or you find Gretchen during one of these searches it's not the way you want to find her exactly and
00:07:48
it is amazing the outpouring of help that was coming in from the the locals in March Lieutenant James
00:07:58
stalnaker confir confirmed that the PPD had a substantial amount of data being returned from search warrants remember
00:08:06
the ones that were conducted on Preston Pierce's properties his home this storage unit and his his vehicle right
00:08:16
now we have to assume that this means forensic testing was being completed on items removed from Pierce's home and
00:08:24
data was being compiled from digital sources such as the GPS on the Nissan Rogue and Pierce's cell phone records
00:08:34
both locational and contact wise it could also refer to Gretchen's phone information as well although with that
00:08:42
having been left in Jon's car it would likely not be that helpful in figuring out where Gretchen went that night after
00:08:51
walking out the doors of the MyWay bar what data are they getting from Preston Pierce's phone and is that leading them
00:08:58
to go out and search in these locations yeah this also raises a question did Pierce just get lucky that Gretchen had
00:09:09
lost her phone and was essentially untraceable by this point or did he Target her after talking with her and
00:09:18
learning that maybe she didn't have her phone with her yeah cuz if he sat at the
00:09:22
bar with her and was talking with her he might have noticed that she didn't have
00:09:27
a purse on her and so unfortunately here Captain time passes without Gretchen and
00:09:32
time passes without an arrest in the case this will lead us to May 5th of 2023 parkerburg police chief
00:09:41
Matthew bour told Fox 11 Eyewitness News this is not a cold case it's still being
00:09:48
actively pursued adding in the early morning hours she left with a gentleman who is the person of interest we were
00:09:56
able to establish contact with him within 24 hours of her disappearance being reported initially he was
00:10:02
cooperative and at this point he has completely ceased contact with law enforcement in regard to this
00:10:10
investigation later that month her family would hold a press conference announcing that the reward for
00:10:16
information had grown now to $100,000 thanks to a hefty contribution from a local business the principal of
00:10:26
the parkerburg high school Kenny de Moss kicked off the presser held outside the
00:10:33
school he talked about Gretchen reminding everyone that she was a 2013 graduate of that school and she had been
00:10:41
missing now for 6 months her grandmother gave a Ste request to the public to stop
00:10:47
criticizing the active investigation being conducted by the parkerburg PD she said there was so much going on behind
00:10:55
the scenes that they were unaware of let them do their work the family begged an
00:11:00
emotional David Fleming spoke to the community about how much he appreciated all the tips calls support and prayers
00:11:10
and how important it was to keep Gretchen's name and face out there he described his daughter as a gentle kind
00:11:17
soul who would never hurt anyone he begged anyone with even an iota of information to please come forward quote
00:11:26
Gretchen we will find you he promised it seems like with so many cases no matter what the case is people
00:11:36
will find something to complain about and in this case a lot of times you have a missing person you don't have the last
00:11:45
person that they were seen with we don't have that information some of these individuals just poof disappear Into
00:11:52
Thin Air Y and then so in this case we have a community we have a community that's rallying around
00:11:59
law enforcement helping out with searches we have not just a individual that we'd like to talk to we have a
00:12:08
person of interest and like you said that that is something that law enforcement they're
00:12:15
not they don't just willy-nilly toss out that that that phrase or that term to any person th this person's a person of
00:12:26
interest for a reason and so for all we know they have the guy they got him but they have to put together the case in
00:12:36
order to get him convicted well and Captain that is the perfect segue into this next bit here because as you said
00:12:46
they they have a person of interest Technically when you look into the details of this True Crime Story the
00:12:52
police announc that they have a person of interest but never name him publicly he was only named by the the media right
00:12:59
so now we get to the unfortunate one-year anniversary of Gretchen's disappearance this is just last December
00:13:05
man and unfortunately there was no new news but we do have the police department going on record at that time
00:13:16
who again is reminding the public that this case is not cold we have a person of interest here he is our
00:13:27
priority he's not working with us and he this is when the chief board police chief board publicly acknowledged to the
00:13:37
News and Sentinel that Preston Pierce was in fact the focus of this investigation so what information do we
00:13:43
have about this Preston Pierce before we get into that you I mean get into it now
00:13:49
all right I'll get into it now but I just I just want to say this because to to not jumble up our timeline too much
00:13:55
here right prior to the the unfortunate Oney year anniversary of her her having been missing they did State publicly
00:14:03
that they were Outsourcing forensics and evidence to outside agencies these are probably agencies that they're only
00:14:10
Outsourcing it if they believe that these agencies are better equipped her father David goes on record saying that
00:14:18
this is this is a good thing for the investigation right public Don't Panic don't read into this the wrong way this
00:14:25
is a good thing for the investigation this could provide to be fruitful and and give us some evidence or some leads
00:14:32
here this shows that the intelligence of law enforcement in this case you don't have to be the smartest guy in the room
00:14:40
you just have to be the guy that invited the smartest guy in the room and that's
00:14:45
what they're doing by Outsourcing Outsourcing information to other agencies agencies that are just more
00:14:52
equipped and they're going to get better answers and faster answers yeah will the
00:14:57
smartest guy in the room please stand up up please stand up neither one NE one there's no no one standing in the garage
00:15:05
nobody in the garage we're actually we actually have slithered down I'm now laying face down on the floor yeah can
00:15:13
you can you hear me I have I've got I've got I've got car grease on my on my shirt now we are the dumbest Boys in
00:15:22
school all right uh thank God they asked us to leave that school many years ago yeah so
00:15:30
who is this Preston Pierce this this is interesting because at this point in our
00:15:36
timeline we have the police who officially announce his name to the public for the very first time but they
00:15:42
don't expand on who this guy is the only thing they're telling the public is we believe that she got in his car and they
00:15:49
went back to his house so this person of interest Preston Pierce as we know based
00:15:56
off of law enforcement statements he was inter reviewed first on December 13th 2022 this is the day after she was
00:16:07
officially reported missing this is shortly after they find the MyWay video footage showing that Gretchen had left
00:16:13
the bar with this guy Preston Pierce because you were exactly right Captain when you had mentioned this
00:16:21
earlier it was the owners in bartenders of that bar that helped police identifying this man as Preston Pierce
00:16:27
they knew this guy so detective Zimmerman confirmed that pierce claimed to have given Gretchen a ride to
00:16:33
downtown parkerburg again in his statements to police he names the location they've never officially
00:16:40
released that location that he claims to have dropped her off now according to Eyewitness News the man at the center of
00:16:48
this investigation Preston Pierce at the time was aged 55 he lived in the general Parkersburg
00:16:57
area he had changed his name at some point in his life and and what's tricky here is nobody's really able to pinpoint
00:17:04
exactly when this took place I'm sure police are well aware of when this took place but I couldn't find it in any
00:17:10
reports out there that are available to the public his his birth name I'm assuming it's his birth name was Daryl
00:17:18
lot and he's former law enforcement he he used to be a law enforcement officer at multiple departments in the state of
00:17:26
West Virginia according to law enforcement Professional Standards Information Systems records Pierce had
00:17:33
been a cop for at least 12 years not good now so the news agency this is WTAP confirms that pierce worked for several
00:17:42
police departments in West Virginia including Barber County and in Jackson County and with the Vienna police
00:17:50
department at some point now remember she's living in Vienna at the time of her disappearance and I have a note here
00:17:57
that says that Pierce reportedly finished his career law enforcement career at the Bellington Police
00:18:03
Department well if you're moving around that often it's for a reason and it's normally not a good reason you would
00:18:09
think not look there in a lot of these jurisdictions there's a requirement for certain level of training and or
00:18:16
education and certification and things like that and so you might have one police officer that's dumped by one
00:18:23
agency because he sucks at his job for any number of reasons like could be could be a good standup guy just not
00:18:29
good at the job right and he'll get picked up by another Police Department or she will get picked up by another
00:18:35
Police Department really rather quickly um note note to self here too you also don't want to come in contact with a
00:18:43
priest that seems to be getting moved around quite a bit as well not a good thing no now there there is some
00:18:50
information out there there are some locals who say that they know Pierce a little bit and they're claiming that he
00:18:57
also spent several years with the United States Coast Guard okay but it's strange
00:19:03
that he changed his name sure says the guy on the show that's never used his real name and for and as far as anybody
00:19:11
knows Nick is a name that I just made up as well well let me tell you my real name it's uh ding dong
00:19:18
dungle the the thing here that that is rather unsettling and it really just makes the hair on the back of your neck
00:19:26
stand up if he's got this twst 12E background in law enforcement and he's spent several years with the Coast Guard
00:19:34
I hate to go down this road but doesn't that somewhat imply that he may have some kind of knowledge about disposing
00:19:42
of things in waterways or disposing of and concealing evidence he knows quite a bit about law enforcement and the
00:19:50
tactics they're going to use to try to catch a criminal but let's be frank about it right
00:19:59
this guy is known by those patrons and and the employees of that bar because he's known to be a local creep oh yeah
00:20:10
and that's why you have a guy she was with this guy John and and people just go yeah I I kind of know the guy but
00:20:18
he's John didn't know much about him well that's kind of how you want to be known if you go into two bars it's just
00:20:28
yeah seems to be a nice guy you don't want to be known as the local creep and unfortunately it would appear that from
00:20:36
the surveillance footage Gretchen is has been engaged in conversation by the local creep and yeah they don't wait for
00:20:44
you to make contact they make contact they creep up on you they creep up on you that's usually their their emot now
00:20:52
MH you want to dive into this dude a little bit more here we have gret and stepmother Jennifer who tells
00:20:59
disappeared that as soon as his name comes out she's immediately asking people about this guy mhm not only is
00:21:08
this dude a creep he's a creep with wheels and what I mean is not the Nissan Rogue that he drove and likely had
00:21:15
Gretchen in his vehicle that night he was one of these guys that was working for a food as a food delivery driver in
00:21:24
the parkerburg area yep and this is how really essentially how yeah he become how he becomes known as like a local
00:21:33
creep so women and ladies who had interacted with him from very various workplaces in the past also posted
00:21:41
things online about him saying this dude's a creep he would constantly tell me how beautiful I am uh at least one
00:21:49
person saying that he followed me on an occasion and you can use your imagination from there
00:21:56
but the the thing that really stands out here is a distinct pattern of behavior from this creep yeah it's not it's not
00:22:07
creepy to give somebody a compliment but if you give it in a creepy way or then you start following people or one of the
00:22:17
things I believe he was doing is he was you know delivering food to people's houses and because he had their
00:22:23
information he was then reaching out to them and texting them and trying to build a relationship it's like dude you
00:22:33
were just the guy that delivered my food I I'm not trying to build a relationship
00:22:37
with you and I think he even would then try to find some of those individuals online and make contact with them online
00:22:44
as well well and I think he worked a good deal of hours and look if if he was getting some kind of creepy enjoyment
00:22:53
out of these activities of course he's going to work a bunch of hours so he was a a food delivery driver for the spark
00:23:01
company and for door Dash now I'm not familiar with how these companies work but from my understanding in this case
00:23:11
this gave Pierce access to female customers names and of course their phone numbers and addresses where the
00:23:18
food had to be delivered right and sometimes you even get a photo like right when when an Uber pulls up to pick
00:23:25
you up you often have a photo of the the man woman that's supposed to be driving
00:23:29
that vehicle so this is a trove of information that is really just handed to him on a platter because of this job
00:23:38
yeah and he I mean there's no better way to sum it up than he used this information to
00:23:44
stalk some of these women he used their names and phone numbers for solicitation
00:23:50
several women coming forward saying he would text them saying hey like like very casually okay hey it's Preston I
00:23:57
delivered food to you I think you're pretty right again very strange and and the problem here is it's a it's an app
00:24:06
so to find somebody to reach out if it's the local Little Caesar Pizza Hut and the delivery driver started texting you
00:24:17
well you know who to call to complain to but it's hard to complain especially once the food is
00:24:23
delivered if he was just nice and polite you give him his five stars and you and
00:24:28
he's on his way but then two days later he starts texting you that's beyond strange well there were people you know
00:24:36
a lot of times persons who use these Services it's typically not a one-time thing right and so a lot of people were
00:24:46
coming out of the woodwork a lot of ladies coming out of the woodwork saying yeah I used to order from spark or I
00:24:52
used to order food with door Dash however I quit ordering food altogether because I was
00:24:59
sked out that Preston Pierce would be the one showing up with my food well and think about this if you order a Uber
00:25:08
driver you say I need a ride to the Little Caesar Pizza Hut and they say okay I'm going to pick you up and it
00:25:15
tells you who's going to pick you up so if that person's a creep you could cancel that ride and ask for another car
00:25:23
but when you're ordering food from the local Little Caesar Pizza Hut you don't know who's going to be the guy
00:25:30
delivering it to you so if this guy has reached out to you and that's just he reach out to you in such a creepy way
00:25:37
you're just not going to take the chance of having him show up at your door well
00:25:43
it's impossible to know how many of these encounters were later called into the Parkersburg police but we do know of one
00:25:53
for sure that is particularly disturbing so a woman claims that she was drugged and woke up
00:26:06
at Pierce's home Jesus with no idea and no recollection of how she got there at all
00:26:14
and I want to be clear here it's it's an allegation but it is an allegation that
00:26:21
was discussed with the parkerburg police detectives [Music] [Music] if you ever worry about the safety of
00:26:39
your home and family there's no better time to act right now Simply Safe is extending its massive black Friday deal
00:26:46
for our listeners get 50% off a new Simply Safe security system simply safe's active guard outdoor protection
00:26:54
changes the game by preventing crime before it even happens if someone's aler working around those agents see them in
00:27:00
real time talk to them directly set off your spotlights and even call the police
00:27:05
before they've had a chance to break in Simply Safe is the only security system that is stopping crime before it happens
00:27:13
stopping break-ins before they happen get peace of mind do what I did I love Simply Safe this is the best security
00:27:20
system that I have had and it was one of the easiest things that I have ever installed Simply Safe is extending its
00:27:26
massive black Friday deal for my listeners this week only you can get 50% off any new system with a select
00:27:33
professional monitoring plan this is your last chance to claim their best offer of the Year head to simplysafe
00:27:42
docomo that's simplysafe doccom garage there's no safe like Simply Safe Miami Metro catches killers and they say it
00:27:51
takes a village to race one if anyone knows how powerful urges can be it's me catch Dexter Morgan in a new serial
00:27:57
killer origin Story Hunger inside of you it needs a master featuring Patrick Gibson Christian Slater special guest
00:28:04
star Sarah Michelle Geller with Patrick Dempsey and Michael SE Hall as Dexter's in your voice I wasn't born a killer I
00:28:10
Was Made Dexter original sin new series now streaming on the paramont plus was Showtime plan go to paramont plus.com to
00:28:17
try it free terms apply with big Wireless providers what you see is never what you get somewhere
00:28:23
between the store and your first month's bill the price magically skyrockets with
00:28:28
mintmobile you'll never have to worry about gotas again when mttmobile says $15 a month when you purchase a 3-month
00:28:35
plan they mean it not to name names but I have had mobile providers in the past that have a less than reliable service
00:28:42
that I have paid much more than mintmobile like you I was tired of complicated bills that included new fees
00:28:49
and upcharges that made absolutely no sense mmobile was straight up great reliable service at a great and fair
00:28:57
price all Mobile plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest
00:29:04
5G Network you can use your own phone your own phone number and all of your existing contacts ditch overpriced
00:29:12
Wireless with mint Mobile's deal and get three months of Premium wireless service
00:29:16
for 15 bucks a month to get this new customer offer and your new 3month premium Wireless plan for just 15 bucks
00:29:23
a month go to mintmobile.com TCG that's mintmobile /cg cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a
00:29:32
month at mintmobile.com tcg $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month new
00:29:40
customers on first three-month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabyt on Unlimited Plan additional taxes fees and
00:29:48
restrictions apply cement mobile for details this message is sponsored by Greenlight as we enter the holiday
00:29:58
season now is the perfect time to give your kids money skills that will last that's where green light comes in greenl
00:30:06
is a debit card and money app made for families parents can send money to their kids and keep an eye out on kids
00:30:14
spending and saving while kids and teens build money confidence and lifelong financial literacy skills millions of
00:30:22
parents and kids are learning about money on green light it's the easy convenient way for parents to raise
00:30:28
financially smart kids and families to navigate life together my family absolutely loves green light if my
00:30:36
nephews want to come over help me with some yard work it's an easy way for me to pay them and it's an easy way for
00:30:43
their parents to monitor their children's spending sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com
00:30:49
garage that's greenlight.com garage to try Greenlight Today greenlight.com garage this message is proudly sponsored
00:30:59
by Green [Music] Light all right we are back you filthy animals put your eggnog in the air and
00:31:20
cheers and happy holidays Merry Christmas to everybody and cheers to you Colonel I'm looking forward to a good
00:31:28
oldfashioned Griswald family Christmas myself the [ __ ] is full my friend and if you hear the doorbell that's the door
00:31:35
Dash arriving at the garage you got hungry yeah yeah hangry yeah there was one person that posted on social and
00:31:47
again that I I don't have the police records to back this up so take this with a grain of
00:31:55
salt but one poster says on Facebook that he meaning Preston Pierce followed me and a friend from the front row to
00:32:04
the my way and then followed us to my home and states that we did call the police so if that did in fact happened
00:32:14
police should have some kind of record of that call that complaint well again I don't know if we have uh video footage
00:32:24
to see if he had any contact with her drink or not but it just makes you wonder if we think about Gretchen as a
00:32:33
person she's 51 what 10 PBS or something she's she's a tiny person if he could drug her and
00:32:43
get her alone he could easily move her and I think that's where the surveillance footage
00:32:51
becomes difficult for law enforcement because if he puts her in the car but she's either slumped over in the the
00:32:58
front seat or he puts her in the back of the vehicle as he's driving and I think
00:33:02
these W there's pictures of his car online I believe his windows are pretty tinted out so they might have video
00:33:11
footage of his car going into to the direction of his house but I don't know if there's any way of knowing when she
00:33:19
was in the vehicle or when she wasn't in the vehicle and I think this just gets a
00:33:25
little more complicated for law enforcement but I think they're building a case against this creep oh absolutely
00:33:32
I'm I'm with you on that now the look that I apologize in advance this going to be be going to be
00:33:40
rather uncomfortable for me to discuss however I think that it is important to highlight the activities of this
00:33:53
guy so we have a person who alleges that her 18-year-old daughter she reported Preston Pierce to police after
00:34:04
Gretchen went missing because she told police he had texted my daughter with inappropriate
00:34:14
communication and she had screenshots the text exchange now I cannot say that this is the entirety of
00:34:23
the text exchange but the what has been made public is this yeah Pierce text and and you can gather from the
00:34:34
from these words from the exchange that that this text exchange started prior to
00:34:39
this portion of the conversation Pierce text I'll think of something good to eat
00:34:45
the girl responds okay Preston Pierce replies can you guess what I want to eat the girl says
00:34:52
Nope Pierce responds I'm sure you can guess the girl replies I don't know and Pierce then replies take a while guess
00:35:01
it's sweet the girl shows her mom these texts and there was probably others involved
00:35:07
the mom reported Pierce because on top of this text exchange he had offered to give this 15-year-old girl a ride
00:35:16
somewhere creep and there are over 40 so when you the there is a Facebook page dedicated to Gretchen's disappearance
00:35:26
that has compiled m mesages from many different women who have had similar encounters with Preston Pierce there are
00:35:34
over 40 of them the usernames are redacted but the messages to the Facebook page are visible this guy sucks
00:35:42
tipto tail he's a piece of [ __ ] couldn't couldn't have said it better myself the
00:35:48
complaints about his skevy inappropriate behavior go on and on and on and a lot of this to back up these claims again
00:35:57
people are providing screenshots of interactions with Preston Pierce who these are coming from women and from
00:36:05
daughters who who were very uncomfortable with their communication with him some more examples of this
00:36:11
inappropriate behavior in claims by others we have one person who wrote I had a message request from him he was
00:36:19
going on about how I look pretty and my daughter looks so pretty too then a few days later he got mad and said said oh I
00:36:28
see you're too pretty to talk to me babe you could look at that as an interaction
00:36:34
that well he just attempted to compliment somebody and that person didn't give him the response that he
00:36:41
wanted right the problem being is you compound this compliment air quotes with other behaviors that we seen and then
00:36:52
note that the daughter that he says looks so pretty too is age one at the time another person claims I went to
00:37:01
college with him and he went and went to his place to study he tried to kiss me and I pushed him away and left another
00:37:08
says that he was her door dash at her workplace and he refused to give her her food until she gave him her personal
00:37:15
phone number saying he came back another time and said he had been looking for me
00:37:20
was going to wait for me and plan to call my work to find out my work hours he texted me and and was relentless I
00:37:28
deleted that door Dash account and made up another one for future use this guy gets off on stocking and he gets off on
00:37:38
putting women in these uncomfortable situations and and again I think this is probably
00:37:46
why he changed his name so people couldn't find out about any of his history another woman posted that she
00:37:54
would order door dash for her and her kids when her husband was at work and she would request that the door Dash be
00:38:02
left outside on the front porch right but he would insist on knocking and hammering on the her words are hammering
00:38:11
on the door attempting to get her or somebody to answer the door instead of just simply leaving the food as
00:38:17
requested and leaving and when he wasn't pounding on the door he's sitting outside of the house for very long
00:38:23
periods of time I guess just waiting hoping somebody will open up the door and then one woman wrote that this guy
00:38:30
is so creepy my dad was a police officer and worked with him he was certainly making excuses to come by the house and
00:38:37
hit on me I had to have my dad tell him he's not welcome at the house because he
00:38:43
creeped me out so much well when law enforcement is made aware that we have a missing person and then they start
00:38:52
looking into the events of that night and the details and then they come across this
00:38:58
Preston Pierce individual and did they work with him and did they know people that worked with him and I'm sure that
00:39:07
they were able to gather up a bunch of stories and I think that's maybe also one of the reasons he became a person of
00:39:14
interest so quickly yeah they have every reason to believe that he is most likely
00:39:19
the person that she left with again Unfortunately they do not have video footage of the two of them getting into
00:39:25
his vehicle so that seems to be a hurdle that they need to clear in this investigation and it appears at least as
00:39:33
where we sit now at the unfortunate 2-year anniversary of this poor young woman having been
00:39:42
missing they don't seem to have enough physical evidence to move forward with the case we don't know what
00:39:54
could still be out there that is in the process of being tested or or well they did another
00:40:00
search on his property I want to say within the last month um but they didn't say what was found I don't believe or if
00:40:10
anything was found yes there you are exactly right Captain there's been some recent news on this case so very good to
00:40:17
know that it's still a very very active case this is from the good Folks at the Metro News the voice of West Virginia in
00:40:25
short the news report reads FBI agents and Parkersburg police executed a search warrant this would have been November
00:40:33
20th so very recent at the former residence of a man believed to be a person of interest in the 2022
00:40:40
disappearance of Wood County resident Gretchen Fleming Gretchen Fleming 28 of Vienna was last seen on December 3rd
00:40:48
2022 the search is at the house at 1300 Division Street where Preston Pierce used to live parkerburg police chief
00:40:57
Matthew Bard released a statement later that day saying we are thankful for the FBI's ongoing assistance throughout this
00:41:05
investigation as they have assisted in various capacities from the beginning though there is no new information to be
00:41:12
released at this time the execution of the search warrant is a continuation of the investigatory process our agency
00:41:20
remains dedicated to utilizing all available resources and investigative strategies to fulfill our commitment to
00:41:29
Seeking Justice for gret and Fleming and providing answers for the Fleming family
00:41:33
the search warrant conducted is part of that effort so the chief the chief clearly is all over this and been very
00:41:42
vocal about this case and as we've seen throughout our timeline here and in reporting and our fact-f finding mission
00:41:49
is that the the public as a collective is very invested in this case and very invested in getting answers for the
00:41:58
Fleming family didn't law enforcement ask if anybody knew the whereabouts of his car as well that information I don't
00:42:06
have but I I if there's a vehicle that they're looking for we've seen time and time again them asking the public for
00:42:12
help so that would stand to reason we do know that that the Nissan that he had back then the Nissan Rogue was processed
00:42:21
because it was seized by police for a period of time yeah I just wonder if I wonder if it's a situation where where
00:42:29
the FBI got more involved and the FBI was going hey we'd love to process this car ourselves and if they can't find it
00:42:38
because it seems like this Preston Pierce has kind of fallen off the map himself he doesn't live in the house he
00:42:45
used to I don't think he has a current resident I don't think he's working for any of these food delivery services
00:42:53
anymore and we don't think he's in possession of that car anymore yeah it it seems Pierce pulled up stakes and
00:43:01
moved rather shortly after Gretchen vanished because it's been reported that he relocated to Martinsburg West
00:43:10
Virginia yeah he posted in July 2023 that he had been in the VA hospital and then was homeless and living on the
00:43:21
streets now the whole town of parkerburg then becomes on high alert to him because it was posted that he's back in
00:43:30
town right and showing screen grabs of Pierce at local businesses but as far as official police action there have been
00:43:38
no charges or arrests made in connection with this case at the end of the Disappeared episode detective zimin says
00:43:45
very clearly that Preston is a person of interest and that he does think they're
00:43:50
eventually going to get him but eventually could mean a very long time right and in the meantime the evidence
00:43:57
that they that he did something nefarious to gret and Fleming is fading away well I think what's difficult is
00:44:06
and correct me if I'm wrong but Preston Pierce's story is that she didn't go in his house so if the crime correct that
00:44:15
she had never been to his house he dropped her off before he returned to his home exactly so if the crime took
00:44:23
place outside of his car or if if it took place inside of his car and she never was in the house that's why
00:44:30
they're doing the search warrants at at his for former residency is because they're trying to connect her to that
00:44:38
house because now we can go well you're lying she she was obviously in your house but if she never was because
00:44:46
that's not where the crime scene was and and like you you said and I think again
00:44:52
this is very tough for the family the community for law enforcement you have this window of time what did you say 33
00:45:00
hours correct that they're going hey if anybody has any information and that's why it's so important for the True Crime
00:45:09
Community to keep these stories alive and to keep talking about them because somebody's going to hear this or
00:45:15
somebody's going to see a a Facebook post and and somebody might know something that they didn't think was a
00:45:24
vital piece of information and so you know whether it's our podcast or other podcasts because there's tons
00:45:33
of great podcasts out there covering stories that need to be heard share those post on your social media because
00:45:42
somebody knows something yeah and you wonder why Gretchen would leave my way with Preston
00:45:52
Pierce knowing what we now know about him well it's very likely that she didn't know any of these things about him she
00:46:01
didn't know him at all she didn't have any clue as to what kind of person he was yeah we also don't know what kind of
00:46:09
ruse a lot of these guys have these a lot of guys have ruses to get people into their car or to get them
00:46:17
outside because I don't think we have the surveillance footage to I mean I think we have surveillance footage that
00:46:25
puts her outside of the building with him yeah but I don't think we have surveillance footage of every
00:46:33
action U before that car before his car left no we in fact we have police on record saying we do not have footage of
00:46:43
anyone getting into that vehicle that we Then followed via surveillance footage so well because of his background or
00:46:51
just because he's a super creep he might know that and like you said we have other individuals that said he followed
00:46:58
us to this bar or he may have had enough to drink that he didn't care right right
00:47:04
a lot of a lot of these types of you know it's it's not terribly uncommon for a rapist to be impulsive I'm not trying
00:47:12
to say or victim blame or or put anything on her I'm simply pondering the circumstances and trying to think
00:47:18
through this and once they're out in that parking lot for all we know she went out because she was the person she
00:47:25
was talking to she was he left Preston Pierce left because the the the statement is that she follows that not
00:47:34
necessarily that she follows him but he leaves and then she leaves almost immediately after him she he's not
00:47:41
walking her out of the bar he's not holding her hand but for all we know she's done talking with that person she
00:47:47
thinks her night is over she can't find Jon and she goes out to the parking lot looking for Jon's vehicle and and
00:47:54
Preston Pierce forces her into his his car and if she's 5 foot one 110 pounds and been drinking all night long guess
00:48:02
what it doesn't take a gun to get her body into that vehicle right digging through this here clearly she's not
00:48:09
walking out with him if she knew these things that we know about him but then there's a but you said a ruse it doesn't
00:48:16
have to be a gun it could be for some reason she trusted him and there are a couple possibilities here one he bought
00:48:22
her a drink and he drugged it and she wasn't thinking she she know what hell was going on well no I think that that
00:48:29
could be a very plausible thing he leaves he knows that she's intoxicated she doesn't have her phone on her like
00:48:38
you said okay so now she's starting to feel woozy well where's John is JN in the bathroom like John says we have an
00:48:46
eyewitness that took her to the bar that says yeah I remember going into the restroom and when it came out she was
00:48:52
gone I couldn't find her and so did she look around for John and she's now uh feeling these effects of the drugs and
00:49:00
then she tries to get to her phone and then something happens in the parking lot or did she decide to go outside for
00:49:09
a cigarette I mean I don't know if she smoked or not but I mean did she go outside CU she wanted fresh air or
00:49:17
wasn't feeling well after a night of drinking or or or she was drugged and she didn't feel good right or or was it
00:49:24
as simple as she was a trusting person or he explained to her hey I I'm I I'm a police officer or a former police
00:49:32
officer and she felt safe accepting a ride home from him right I mean there's any number of scenarios here but clearly
00:49:40
she didn't know what type of person this guy really truly was and look I this this is one of the things that sickens
00:49:48
me about my gender and I know that I'm not the I'm not the representative for our gender but it but God I well maybe
00:50:00
you can say that but I'm certainly a million times better than this [ __ ] that is true so the thing here is like
00:50:06
what what sickens me and what aggravates me when I review these cases and damn it
00:50:10
there's so many of them is look and there's bad women out there too there's there's there's bad children out there
00:50:17
too it there's bad people that come in all walks of life but in all forms inap love but this is why we love dogs over
00:50:25
people I've met a few bad dogs as well let's not let's not get into it too much but what what I'm saying here Captain is
00:50:31
that I just wish and this is nothing new this isn't anything new to the 2020s this has been going on since
00:50:38
Vehicles existed I just wish that that we lived in a world where somebody could offer somebody a ride to
00:50:46
try to do something nice for somebody and that's and they what they meant is to do something nice for somebody not to
00:50:52
trick them into getting into their vehicle not to not to take them somewhere and do hard to them and then
00:50:57
this person vanishes off of the face of the Earth well we need to have serious conversations and sad that we don't have
00:51:05
serious conversations about how we're raising our society not just men but how can we all be better people and and we
00:51:16
see that I mean the amount of people I know that aren't talking with each other over politic disagreements or football
00:51:25
disagreements or or whatever it is and you just go I think we just have to have that conversation what kind of society
00:51:33
do we want to live in and are we helping or hurting the situation and and I think another thing
00:51:41
that's at least a positive uh in the True Crime space is you don't have to be polite to people
00:51:51
you don't have to be polite in the sense of if you feel that you're in danger you
00:51:55
don't have to be polite and and like back to your point it's not victim blaming but how many
00:52:03
women are put into these weird situations where these guys are being creeps and they they still feel a sense
00:52:12
that they need to be polite and and I know there's been other podcasts that been screaming from the rooftops you
00:52:20
don't have to be polite if you feel that you're in danger don't don't absolutely don't be
00:52:26
polite it's the people at the bar it's the employees at the bar we all need to do a better job of looking after each
00:52:33
other I mean especially if they knew this guy had a reputation of being a creep it's like but like you said maybe
00:52:40
this maybe this creep knows that and that's when he left and then he was just hoping for an
00:52:48
opportunity I agree I agree with everything you're saying but but from a a a former bartender
00:52:57
from what I've seen and everything I've reviewed it was extremely busy and crowded at that bar it's very difficult
00:53:05
for bartenders to police and babysit everybody there on top of that that's not what they're hired for but I agree
00:53:14
no it's it's being no and I'm not I'm not blaming them I'm just saying everybody we all can look out after we
00:53:21
can all look after each other a little bit better I think that's fair to say yes no and I 100% agree with that and
00:53:29
and there's there's a bunch of amazing bartenders out there that are doing that I agree with what you're saying about
00:53:35
you know raising our our children the the the the problem though is this really truly when you want to break it
00:53:42
down to its most simplest form unfortunately men have been raping and killing women since the since caveman
00:53:50
times yeah what what sickens me when we review these cas es and it's I what I see time
00:53:58
and time again is that there are men out there that are so evil or so backwards or
00:54:06
perverted or what have you I don't know the correct term or terminology for it there I don't know that there is a label
00:54:12
that exists to explain it bags of [ __ ] because they're all they're all slightly
00:54:17
different but in the end what it is is one person choosing that 15 or 20 minutes of
00:54:26
whatever the hell I want to do is much more important to me than your existence and your life and therefore I will take
00:54:33
it I will take your life and end you to get what I want for 15 or 20 minutes and and that's something that
00:54:42
that makes me sick to my stomach and it and it and and it hurts me it hurts me internally when we cover these
00:54:50
cases I'm sorry but this is just another story of a woman getting victimized after a going to a bar yeah we that's
00:54:59
all it is and we've reviewed a hundred of these at this point we Captain we could go on and on
00:55:06
for days we wish and hope the best for the the Fleming family and for Gretchen FL Fleming and hope
00:55:12
that answers Justice whatever is needed whatever is appropriate in this case is coming sooner than later as we said just
00:55:20
minutes ago there was recent activity in the later part of November on this case action by the parkerburg police
00:55:31
department we should give them kudos for working this case and jumping on it immediately we need to give kudos to the
00:55:38
local people that that helped out this poor family and have assisted the parkerburg police department in attempts
00:55:45
of hoping to find Gretchen Fleming if anyone listening has any information at all the best place to send that
00:55:52
information is to the Parkersburg Police Department you may submit crime tips anonymously the telephone number for the
00:55:59
Parkersburg Police Department is 304 485 8501 that number will be included in our
00:56:08
show [Music] notes want to take you home [Music] want to thank everybody for joining us
00:56:28
here in the garage and remember as a true crime Community it's important for us to share these cases somebody knows
00:56:36
something Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners thank you Captain this week we
00:56:42
are recommending Eden undone a true story of sex murder and Utopia at the dawn of World War II by Abbott caller
00:56:51
Eden undone is an incredible true story of murder romance and a fateful search for Utopia in the galpagos it's a
00:56:59
wickedly Gothic tale with Sublime storytelling check out Eden undone a true story of sex murder and Utopia at
00:57:06
the dawn of World War II by Abbott caller you can find that recommendation and many more on our recommended page at
00:57:14
true Crim garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause]
00:57:42
[Music] from the makers of rice cerroni comes macaroni a creamy delicious boxed mac
00:58:00
and cheese that's not just good it's cheesy good macaroni will please even the pickiest eaters with two magnificent
00:58:07
flavors that will melt your heart creamy cheddar and creamy white cheddar if you
00:58:12
love cheese you'll love macaroni by the makers of reron if you don't love cheese
00:58:17
well that's just unbelievable try macaroni it's cheesy good macaroni the San Francisco treat