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Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343

November 20, 2022 / 53:44

This episode covers the disappearance of Ebby Stebic, her troubled behavior leading up to her vanishing, and the police investigation that followed. Key discussions include Ebby's alleged sexual assault, her family dynamics, and the police's handling of her missing person's case.

The episode begins with a description of Ebby's life, including her relationships with her family and friends. Her mother, Lori, shares how Ebby's behavior changed before her disappearance, including a troubling incident at a party where she claimed to have been sexually assaulted.

Listeners hear about the timeline of events leading up to Ebby's disappearance, including her last known interactions with friends and family. The narrative highlights the confusion and concern from her loved ones as they try to locate her.

The episode details the police response to Ebby's disappearance, including the initial reluctance to take her case seriously. The family's frustration with law enforcement's lack of urgency is a central theme, as they struggle to get help in finding Ebby.

Finally, the episode discusses the discovery of Ebby's abandoned car and the items found inside, raising further questions about her fate. The ongoing investigation and the family's efforts to keep Ebby's case in the public eye are emphasized.

TLDR

Ebby Stebic's disappearance is examined, highlighting her troubled life and the police's inadequate response to her case.

Episode

53:44
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foreign [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always as a man who drinks apple juice because OJ will kill you he is the captain it also unclogs
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[Music] this week in the fridge we have an interesting one this is called Shadows
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caps and today we are giving thanks to these gems right here first up a big barrel cheers to Sarah and vadnass
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you and it's good to be heard so little tip of the cap to the captain there uh word to the wise though
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the extra crispy kernel all right that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign about three weeks before Abby
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disappeared her behavior changed drastically she would tell us she was going someplace or with someone and we
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would find out that's not where she was Abby was provoking arguments and wanted to move out she left and eventually
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ended up with my son Trevor a couple days before Abby was reported missing she she went to a party Eddie
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texts me on Saturday October 24th that she needed to speak to me about something important she indicated that
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an individual at this house had sexually assaulted her and videotaped it there were four boys at the party she told me
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she was assaulted by one Abby was hysterical and wanted my husband to go to the police station with her I told
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Abby that I would beat her after dinner to sit tight and I'd let her know when I
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was on my way the last question I asked her was that she wanted to go file her police report and she stated yes I'm
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certain the next afternoon my stepson Trevor came by he contacted Ebby about an hour
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later and she told him that she was outside his house so Trevor travester where she was she didn't know
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where she was but she knew she was with her car at that point Trevor told me what had happened told me
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because damn you sounded really messed up disoriented he never heard herself like that before to my knowledge Trevor
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is the last person in our family to speak to Abby I would like the four individuals that were at that party that
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evening with my daughter to come forward and give a formal interview with the Little Rock Police Department to either
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help them move forward in the investigation clear their name or help determine what happened to ebony
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foreign [Music] the story by starting off with the main event which may be a murder an abduction
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or a disappearance but in this case the events unfold in such a peculiar way we will just roll with the chronological
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approach much of the biographical information we are about to relay comes from a series of articles in ay magazine
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dedicated to this strange case now the trailer you just heard was taken from the Dr Phil show who has done some
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extensive coverage on this case Ebbie Jane stebic was born March 31st 1997. to Lori and Peter stebic
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Abby's name which Lori laughingly says she borrowed from a church friend whose daughter's name was Evie her unusual
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name signified how special and unique her mother felt her child was Evie's middle name is Jane which is also her
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mother's middle name as well Lori hoped her little girl would embody a combination of her mother's
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traditional religious values and a free-spirited one-of-a-kind persona Abby's family consisted of an older
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brother older half-brother actually named Trevor and a younger sister named Harris
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Lori says she and ebby's father split when Abby was just a first grader Lori says that the marriage was a quote bad
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situation but when it ended it was still abrupt and shocking to her and her daughters
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Lori went on to marry Michael Jernigan who helped bring some stability to this broken family
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teenaged Ebby was known as ebster to her family she loved Hot Pockets her dog furball music the beach and the color
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purple when she graduated from high school Abby wanted to go to cosmetology school
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and later get her real estate license she was also interested in languages she studied Spanish Turkish and Hebrew
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Lori says Abby was always stubborn and independent when she was young she did not like her
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name and she went through phases where she would insist on being called something else
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Lori says Abby was a homey person she liked to stay home she had friends over to her house more than she would go to
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their homes as she got older she developed into a fiercely loyal person while she was hard to get to know her
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friends say that once you broke down her walls she was selfless and generous and
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passionately stuck by her friend's sides and Abby's friend Danielle Westbrook describes her as kind loyal loving
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courageous strong and perseverant one story that captures this is when her classmate this was a boy named Caleb
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Boyd he was apparently wrongfully incarcerated for having a gun on school grounds
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the way that this story works is instead of turning her back on him like so many
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of his other friends did right Ebby took the lead in mobilizing students in support of Caleb she initiated a letter
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writing campaign and petitioned the court and it worked getting Caleb released although these characteristics of ebbies
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were largely positives her mom says there were some downsides to her loyal and trusting nature Ebby got hurt a lot
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because her strong feelings weren't always returned and her early high school years she was bullied and she
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changed schools switching to the little Scholars of Arkansas Academy from another small private school
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later Abby's loyalty and stubbornness reared its head when her mom tried to get her to see that a few of her
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boyfriends and other friends were less than she deserved as high school progressed her
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independence morphed into full-blown rebelliousness Abby started breaking her parents rules
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and hanging out with a new crowd a group that she met at her job at Foot Locker at the McCain Mall
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she had worked hard to land this job this was the summer before her senior year Abby spent most of her money on makeup
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and clothes and she started to work more and more to be around these other kids her parents didn't know
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things were exacerbated by the car that Abby got from her father Peter Lori said
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it gave her daughter the feeling that she could go wherever she wanted to whenever she wanted to right that's a
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typical feeling for teens hey I got a car I'm out of here man uh Abby who was a very pretty girl five foot two 110
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pounds with blonde hair and hazel eyes she is acting out in ways her parents do not like did not like and we all know
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this is we don't mean to give Abby a bad name this is a phase most kids go through a lot of kids go through they
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want to not be around their parents not listen to their parents and they're hanging out with these these other
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people that her parents are calling kids but let's keep in mind these are people
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that she's working with so as we go through this we are uncertain and the captain and I talked about this last
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week we are uncertain if these are in fact actually kids right because it's a job
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so at the youngest we're probably looking at what 17 or 18 but very likely 1920 maybe even 21 year old young adults
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now Abby as we said she's acting out she's lying to her parents you know not going where she says she's going hanging
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out with people that she says she will not hang out with she and her mom and stepdad continue to butt heads and
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things escalated Abby would periodically storm out to stay at her friend's home at Danielle's home but would always
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return home the next day now when Abby started her senior year in the fall of 2015 she made a decision
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that her mother would not support she switched schools this was from the Lisa Academy to Little Rock Central High
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which is a very big school she went from a small school to a very large school this was a major change for Ebby who had
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been in a sheltered private school her whole life sure enough new kids she was hanging out
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with introduced her to marijuana her parents did not approve and in a heated argument in September Ebby and
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her mom agreed that she should move out Lori was determined to stand firm her house her rules and if Evie moved out
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she couldn't come back Lori agreed to pay for certain things but Abby would largely be on her own and
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she would have to work quite a bit of this situation reminds us of Brianna Maitland a case we covered
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episode 254 and 255. Brianna switched schools as well and remember she started hanging out with the wrong crowd right
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eventually moving out of her parents house and working a lot Vanishing in 2004 and unfortunately not seen since
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Abby didn't have much of a plan in fact she rotated between houses quite a bit she crashed at her older brother
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Trevor's home she stayed with her biological father Peter and with a friend Kaylee Foley
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so she's bouncing around from all of these three homes for a time and Lori and Michael began receiving calls from
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Central High Abby was missing school they decided not to confront her about this she is still in school but
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technically she is an adult at this time right sometime around mid-october Abby showed
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up at Danielle's Place asking to stay there for a while the two shared Danielle's room listening
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to music and they went out on long drives but since they went to different schools Danielle was never really sure
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what Ebby was doing if she was not at the home yeah it seems like she had to do a lot of work to figure out where she
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was going to stay so it'd be a lot more work on top of that to figure out how you're going to get from this random
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spot that you're staying at to school on the morning of Wednesday October 21st Ebby was supposed to drive Danielle to
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school on her way to school after Danielle's doctor's appointment Danielle texted Abby that her appointment was
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running late telling Abby to go on without her Abby texts back saying no it's not a big
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deal at all I swear I didn't want to go to school today anyway because of all that drama
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Danielle does not know what drama Ebbie was referring to Abby never ended up going to school that
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day it's unclear how many days she missed but she and Danielle went to services at the Assembly of God Church
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in Little Rock that evening Thursday and Friday I don't know if Ebby went to school I
00:15:00
could not find anything that stated that she did so we can only guess that what the drama was and if she was still
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avoiding school because of it but on Friday night October 23rd we do know that Ebby went to a party
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Danielle did not go with her because she did not know the other people attending
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this party right we don't know if these were kids from Central High School or people that Ebby was working with at
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Foot Locker or others but it was some group that she was hanging out with at this time
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this will be easy to understand why we don't know who this is in just a quick bit
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on Saturday October 24th Abby told Danielle that her brother Trevor was worried because she hadn't been to his
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place all week long so she needed to go over there and see him the friends agreed to see each other on
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Sunday at the church ice cream social so Abby went to her brother Trevor's place and then she went to her
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grandparents house this is Peggy and Bill Holman Abby was close with them and loved
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staying at their house Abby spent the day sleeping and watching her favorite show SpongeBob she had dinner with her
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grandparents and they went out for TCBY around 7 p.m and around 8 P.M she's going to be leaving her grandparents
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telling them that she's going to go hang out with her stepfather she tells her grandparents that she does plan to
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return to their home for that night and asking them not to lock the doors the holmens never saw her again and when
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they tried calling her later that evening before going to bed there was no answer
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it turns out that that same night around 7 50 p.m Abby had begun texting her stepfather that she wanted him to bring
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her to the police station so she could report an incident that happened at the party the night before
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she told him that she was the victim of a sexual assault and four males were involved one guy had sexually assaulted
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her and he also videotaped the whole event it's unclear what the role of the other
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three boys was but it was implied that they were also complicit somehow every story is backed up by some text
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that she sent on the morning of Saturday October 24th this is to a friend named Gage Fulton here's the conversation
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that Gage later had with Monty Vickers a private investigator on the case describing the text between him and Abby
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he says Abby says I was hanging out with some dudes last night and we smoked and I had sex with
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one of them and he effing recorded me she says this was when she wasn't looking Vickers asked Gage did she tell you that
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she was raped to which Gage replies says she said she felt forced into it her last text message to me is saying I am
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going to kill myself well it seems like they were drinking at this party possibly these guys are older we don't
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know I think we both kind of assume that that that these are probably more likely
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people from Foot Locker than her High School yeah or friends of Foot Locker friends yeah so it seems to me that
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maybe she felt pressured or or whatever but anyway she ends up having sex with this individual then he tapes it or
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films it without her knowledge right and he's probably sharing this with the other guys at the party
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and that's probably why she is saying that they're involved in some way yeah and and
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we say the word sex but we're using that very vaguely well those are also her words
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yeah but but we have her telling Gage that she said she felt forced in right right so now we do know that Abby did
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not kill herself instead she began texting her stepfather while he was eating dinner that night Abby requested
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that Michael not tell her mother she had already called the police but didn't feel that she had received any
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good advice on what to do right so Abby felt it would be better if she went to the police station in person
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and she wanted her stepfather to go with her the two agreed to meet around 8 pm at the holmets and head down to the
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station together but we do know that Ebby left the holmen's house before Michael arrived and the grandparents
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told Michael that they were under the impression that she had gone to meet him she was never seen again now Michael
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fears that she may have decided to try to confront one of the boys or all of the boys at the party about this
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incident by herself right and he says probably to try to get a hold of the video
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according to Lori ebbie's cell phone records indicate that Abby made two calls to the Little Rock Police
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Department that night around 7 30 p.m and each only lasted about a minute but the Little Rock Police Department
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has said they have no record of those calls okay right right so but Abby's mob does
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so we know that they happen right Abby's phone records also show that she continued to open and read text messages
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until the night of Sunday October 25th unfortunately wait wait wait say that again
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well the phone records show that and I I have here in my notes that she indicating Abby but I think what we
00:20:57
should be clear on is we don't know who was opening right and reading text messages but somebody was until Sunday
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of October 25th right it's clear to me that that we have Lori her mother believes it
00:21:13
to be Abby but as as we just stated we don't know for sure no I think what happened is she goes missing
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and somebody is going through her phone to try to clear some evidence I think that's what it is well and
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nobody knows where she spent that Saturday night right I mean she could already be in
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danger as you just said now the family started to be worried when no one heard from her by the next morning right we
00:21:42
got to keep some things in mind here there's a lot going on and there's a lot going on in this phase of Abby's life
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as we already stated she's not always honest about where she is who she's hanging out with and there were times
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even before moving out that she would leave in an argument and go stay somewhere and then come back the next
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morning one the difficult thing is that she is 18 so technically she doesn't have to be honest about where she's
00:22:09
going yeah so you have like really mixed emotions and thoughts and feelings by her family right now where she didn't
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show up to meet her stepdad she tells her grandparents that she left to see the stepdad he shows up at their door
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and they're like what are you doing here right uh but at the same time you got these concerns but you also have a
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history of somebody running out for the night right and not being where they're supposed to be they
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say that they tried calling and texting Abby and all of those texts were it's according to her phone records state
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that they were read by somebody they weren't responded to finally around 5 30 p.m on Sunday the
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25th ebbie's brother Trevor got a phone call from her she did not sound like herself he said
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she sounded panicked and disoriented Abby told him that she was in her car parked outside of his house
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so he hangs up the phone he goes outside to meet her but she is not there there's
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no sign of her or her car he calls her back and asks you know where are you she said she was in her car but did not
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know where she was and she could not tell him who she was with the last thing she said was I'm [ __ ]
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up after four minutes of back and forth with Evie not making any sense at all and not giving him any information she
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hung up the phone and no one has ever heard from her again her phone started going to voicemail
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on Sunday night when Ebby hadn't turned up at her grandparents home and after that worries some phone conversation
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with Trevor her family started actively looking for her searching the neighborhood and calling around to her
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friends Abby's sister texted Danielle asking if Abby was at her place Danielle who was
00:24:10
at the ice cream social said she had planned to attend with Abby right but obviously Abby's not there
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correct and now Danielle is joining in the hunt as well she starts calling and texting Abby's phone she starts calling
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other friends to see if anyone knew where she could be when she got no response from Abby
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Danielle started driving around looking for Ebby in places she knew her friend would frequent but all of this effort
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nobody would find anything [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we're back cheers mates
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we are back after that strange phone call Abby's brother called the police to report her missing but he received the
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typical runaround that we've seen in so many other cases it's all it almost seems just
00:25:23
in in a terrible way it almost seems funny to even say it because we've repeated it so many times right
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throughout these different cases now this one is a little different this response is a little different than
00:25:36
we've heard in the past and maybe it's some form of progress I don't know Captain you'd be the the decider there
00:25:42
but she he's told that they need to wait 12 hours before filing a report nope there
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there's no there's nothing it's a little bit of a shorter time period most of the time we
00:25:53
hear less of a 24 we've heard 36 hours here they want 12. so Lori her mother says the second that the clock hit the
00:26:04
12-hour mark she called the police she called back to the Little Rock Police Department right
00:26:11
a police officer came to the house on Monday to speak with the family and fill out a missing person's report
00:26:18
but the Little Rock Police Department did not seem too interested in the missing person's case they seem to give
00:26:25
Lori's concern about her daughter very little weight and took a perfunctory report without much follow-up at all
00:26:35
yeah now in the cops defense I I really want to know how many times do they get calls where they're getting call backs
00:26:42
within minutes hey we can't find my son can't find my daughter and then five minutes later they're going up sorry we
00:26:49
found them well we do know that that is the case most of the time and the other thing too
00:26:58
look we'll go down this road because you you started us down the road in this particular situation I can kind
00:27:05
of see it from that perspective of oh we just have some people that are overreacting and they want to file a
00:27:13
report but yet the person that they're trying to report missing they've already told me she's hanging out with the wrong
00:27:19
crowd she leaves and doesn't come home some nights she's an adult she's an adult she's living elsewhere and we
00:27:26
don't really know where she's living so I I I go ahead yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:27:33
yeah yeah yeah uh the thing that I always drives me nuts though is when they go well they're adult and they have
00:27:39
the right to go missing and I would just say that that look I understand people have the right to go
00:27:47
missing but the person that is you know the person that has the right to go missing that normally goes missing there
00:27:54
probably is some conflict with the family so the family is not going to be calling for a while right yeah I mean
00:28:01
but when a family is calling going hey uh we can't find our son or daughter and the cops go well they're adult they have
00:28:08
the right yeah we know that they have the right but this is added character and and and I think the cops need to
00:28:16
take that more serious it's out of character and then here's the other thing too that that yes and I'm gonna be
00:28:24
my own devil's advocate here where I say that I understand this from the cops perspective where they're
00:28:30
saying here's this this 18 year old who doesn't come home some nights lives elsewhere couch surfing basically right
00:28:39
but then here's the other time the other thing you got to consider that's all been going on for a while and they've
00:28:45
never called the police before right so very likely this is very different than any of those other times and and maybe
00:28:51
they are not overreacting at all maybe they are reacting appropriately and we need to step in and get involved in this
00:28:59
thing well again this is also a day and age where we're very connected so if you're not getting a hold of somebody it
00:29:07
it becomes spooky pretty quickly now to put it in its shortest form possible the jernigans did not feel that
00:29:16
the police were treating their missing daughter's case with an appropriate sense of urgency
00:29:21
on October 30th the Little Rock Police Department this is Lieutenant Steve mccallahan
00:29:28
he's the media spokesperson for the police department he told the media that there was no immediate danger in ebbie's
00:29:36
case and she was likely missing because she wanted to be then Little Rock's Channel 7 News
00:29:44
reported that police found surveillance footage showing Abby's car traveling on Cantrell Road in West Little Rock
00:29:52
sometime shortly after she went missing while this report aired at the end of the week when Evie disappeared there was
00:30:01
no indication of when the footage of the car had been taken right so it's on TV but we don't know exactly when that
00:30:10
footage was taken it turned out it was most likely sometime that weekend The crucial time period in which Ebby did
00:30:17
vanish shallow mount Park is a neighborhood park there's a pool there and a playground it's maintained and operated
00:30:26
by the large Chanel Valley homeowners association a sign at the entrance of the park reads
00:30:33
private for residents only it is in a very upscale area of West Little Rock near Joe Robinson High
00:30:42
School another large High School in the city on route 10. in order to get to the private
00:30:50
neighborhood park drivers have to take one of two access roads one of these is shallowmont Drive which becomes
00:30:59
Northfield drive and takes drivers out to Chanel Parkway by the Walmart Super Center
00:31:05
the other way takes drivers on Charlemont drive to Cantrell Road which is route 10.
00:31:12
a security guard named guy Hooper who was employed by the neighborhood association to patrol the park
00:31:21
he called The Little Rock Police Department on the night of October 28th he was calling to report an abandoned
00:31:28
vehicle parked in the parking lot of the Park police took a report but didn't make it over to the park
00:31:36
until October 30th two days later wow so I I want you to keep in mind how this whole thing went down this this man guy
00:31:48
Hooper he's a security officer he calls in this abandoned vehicle and then he waits for police for a couple of hours
00:31:56
and they don't show up they don't respond the entire time to which he's like all right I'll be back again
00:32:01
tomorrow to patrol again right I believe he actually called the following day as
00:32:07
well and then again waited another hour or two but as said it was two days later before
00:32:13
anyone showed up to take a look at this vehicle well and just to go back to the the whole we don't believe that she's in
00:32:21
danger we think that she went missing on her own like we have a couple points of evidence
00:32:28
to make him believe not that one she's basically saying that there was a sexual assault that happened to me and I want
00:32:35
to report it I called your police station multiple times I'm making arrangements to go down there so we
00:32:41
should take that serious and then the remarks that she made to her friend saying well I'll kill myself now maybe
00:32:48
that is just you know it was just a figure of speech and it wasn't something that she was actually going to do but
00:32:55
just that in itself means that she's in possibly in danger of harming herself and so we should take this more serious
00:33:03
it seems just like a load of horseshit well once they finally went down there to investigate this abandoned
00:33:12
vehicle what they found was Abby's silver 2003 Volkswagen Passat Arkansas plate 137 UFM
00:33:23
parked in the parking lot and it had been there since the night of October 25th this is according to the security
00:33:30
office okay so the 25th that's the Sunday that's the same night that that she spoke with Trevor on the phone yes
00:33:38
that Sunday okay the car keys were still in the ignition the vehicle was out of gas and the battery was dead even more
00:33:48
disturbing were the contents of the vehicle which included her contact lenses her wallet and her cell phone all
00:33:55
of which were sitting on the front seat now really truly what they find there keep
00:34:01
in mind she's moving around from house to house at that time staying a little bit with her brother a little bit with
00:34:07
her biological father and then a friend or two they're going to find not only just
00:34:12
these items but they're going to find basically all of her possessions that travel along with her from house to
00:34:19
house in this car yeah her car becomes basically her storage unit yeah now these items are of importance because
00:34:27
Lori later said that Abby couldn't see without her contacts and she would never ever not take her phone somewhere with
00:34:35
her she Lori says this was ebbie's Lifeline to her family and now keep in mind she's not living with yeah yeah
00:34:42
she's not living with her family but she's still close with them and the fact that all of ebby's makeup
00:34:48
was still sitting in the vehicle as well that Lori says was the Clincher for her
00:34:54
she immediately knew that something was wrong something bad had happened now let's take our own little
00:35:03
investigation into this vehicle too Captain what did we say here we got the the car keys still in the ignition bad
00:35:09
sign we got the automobile out of gas and the battery was dead that to me suggests that somebody left the vehicle
00:35:18
running right in that parking spot and we do know that it was there since that what did we say Sunday the 25th
00:35:26
and they're not there looking at it until October 30th that's it I get abandoned vehicles
00:35:35
I don't get having these types of possessions being found inside the vehicle in plain sight one two vehicle
00:35:42
out of gas and the battery's dead keys in it somebody left that vehicle running this is very strange stuff yeah now upon
00:35:49
finding the car Little Rock Police called ebby's Father Peter this is her biological father
00:35:57
his name is on the car registration it was he who notified his ex-wife Lori the ebbie's car had turned up
00:36:08
police apparently failed to notice that the name of a missing young woman was also on that registration
00:36:15
and her license was in the vehicle while they were searching the car they left the trunk open oh it makes you
00:36:24
wonder did they failed to notice this or or they're choosing you know because they're they're
00:36:31
choosing not to look for somebody that we know that possibly is in danger well we know they're choosing not to show up
00:36:38
and take this report we know they're choosing not to go investigate this car for two days
00:36:45
it's ridiculous well and keep in mind a couple things if the security officer had called multiple times to report an
00:36:53
abandoned vehicle yeah the responding officer does not know I mean they may know that
00:37:01
somebody is missing or has been but but very likely not because like we said the
00:37:07
the missing persons report is filed it's probably handed off to a detective by then and if they are not showing an
00:37:14
actual concern for this missing individual the responding officer to this abandoned vehicle can't put two and
00:37:20
two together right because he doesn't have enough information to do so so it's not until he calls the father that's on
00:37:27
the registration father calls Mom hey they found her vehicle they're it's going to take ebbie's
00:37:34
family to bring it back around to police and say look our daughter is missing and now you've
00:37:39
found her vehicle yeah with all our stuff in it right I mean look we all know that teenagers are connected to
00:37:45
their phones that that to me is a huge red flag and again like you said the battery being dead no gas and the keys
00:37:53
in the ignition hmm while they were searching the car the officers left the trunk open and a
00:38:01
rainstorm soaked many of ebby's belongings Channel 7 News reported that there appeared to be no sign of a struggle
00:38:09
inside or outside of the vehicle and it was found abandoned since Abby's disappearance her mother
00:38:16
has worked non-stop to keep her daughter's case in the public eye and in the active Case Files on detective's
00:38:24
desk but it hasn't been easy in fact at times it has been almost impossible this is because the people who were
00:38:33
supposed to help her and help her family who made a pledge to protect and serve they failed on this investigation for
00:38:42
months the Jernigan family says that ebby's car was the subject of phone calls to the
00:38:50
Little Rock Police Department not only from guy Hooper but several Neighbors in the area who
00:38:56
called about the car that week well before police officers finally acted on the tip
00:39:02
if the department had not ignored these calls the trail would have been a lot fresher
00:39:09
and even after they finally piece together that the car and the missing young woman were connected
00:39:15
the police department dropped the ball the family got the run around as to who was in charge of this investigation
00:39:22
police never contacted people that were suspected of being at the party Danielle or any of ebby's other friends
00:39:31
were not contacted the security guard who found the vehicle was not contacted no it took them weeks to getting around
00:39:40
to pinging ebby's phone to see where it had been and when they did they initially pinged
00:39:47
the wrong phone number so yeah let me take you through this Horror Story well I mean let's just
00:39:54
reiterate the fact that they opened they left the trunk open right what are you a [ __ ] I I mean come on
00:40:03
it's like and what's the number one thing that we've seen time and time again one of the worst things for
00:40:09
evidence is water yeah and you just leave the trunk open right this is a crime scene or possibly a crime scene
00:40:19
and you don't know either way so you should protect it but you're too lazy or stupid
00:40:28
or both or both I guess there's I guess there's another option nobody's ever wearing a shirt
00:40:36
that says I'm lazy and stupid we're gonna make it we're gonna make a shirt like this stupid for those of you
00:40:42
who are proud yeah of yourself so get that trunk open here's something I'm gonna put my bike
00:40:48
in it let me take you through this Horror Story this is about the pinging the her phone but it ends up being the
00:40:56
wrong phone number all right so they ping her phone what is believed to be Abby's phone yeah
00:41:03
and police tell her mother and stepfather we've pinged the phone it's it's coming
00:41:12
from a location out about 45 minute drive from your home so kind of out away from the city
00:41:20
and it's coming from a field out there listen to this I mean this is not sounding good right
00:41:28
your daughter's messing your phone is pinging from a a field kind of out in the middle of the country you start
00:41:36
thinking that's possibly where her body is that's where we're going to find her but then you're going well how did our
00:41:43
phone get back to the car right right and that's I guess I'm a little unclear on that Captain what they're saying is
00:41:50
that when they trace these pings around the time that she went missing they had the phone pinging out in this other
00:41:57
location now as you said though that's when the parents are like oh my God we might find
00:42:03
her body out in that field right and this is awful look if I'm the investigator even if I ping the wrong phone right
00:42:14
even if I'm a freaking [ __ ] Captain [ __ ] pants right and I'm pinging the wrong phone and then I know
00:42:24
that the phone ended up at the car before I tell anybody I am gone and searching that field
00:42:32
myself or double checking the Ping information right but I'm starting I'm starting with I'm a dumbass right I I
00:42:41
ping the wrong phone but either way I made a mistake right but I'm going to be a good uh detective a good investigator
00:42:50
and before I tell the parents and freak them the freak out I am going to go check that field
00:42:57
and then I'm going to present the information but my Maybe by checking the field and finding nothing I would then
00:43:05
double check did I get the number right yeah they're looking for Ping information that would have taken place
00:43:13
around the time that she was trying to call her brother that she spoke to Trevor right right so
00:43:19
unfortunately they figure out law enforcement figures out that they were pinging the wrong
00:43:26
number I bet they'd even figure that out I bet somebody in our family figured that out well they I believe it was a
00:43:33
couple of days before they told the family oh we were paying the wrong number when they finally pinged the
00:43:40
correct number it did turn out that Ebby was or the phone was in Charlemont Park
00:43:46
when she did in fact call Trevor right now the Little Rock Police Department also claimed to be unable to access
00:43:55
Abby's social media this is a part of the story that I really you know we're talking about things that
00:44:03
that law enforcement screwed up on that they messed up on that they dropped the ball right this one is is just a small
00:44:10
part of the story but truly I feel like this is where they missed the bus the most
00:44:16
because we we have rumor of this video that might have been on somebody's phone we have
00:44:23
talks and Gage coming forward saying that I trade text messages with her we know that she or somebody was opening
00:44:31
and reading text messages on her phone on that Sunday right so I really feel like and especially given her age that
00:44:40
this Social Media stuff could have really helped the investigation especially in the early stages of the
00:44:47
investigation what's going on here is they're telling the family we don't know how to access these social media
00:44:54
accounts we do not know how to get in there do a little spy work and figure out what was going on who she was
00:45:00
talking to because we're too stupid well and then on top of that what would be really key here is to figure out where
00:45:08
in fact she was going when she says that she was going to meet her stepfather because we know from the stepfather
00:45:13
right that's not the case he says I was going to meet her here and now she's gone right so that could have really
00:45:22
helped the early stages of the investigation why is she at the park well at the very least let's say she
00:45:27
communicated with four or five other people after she left her grandparents house you need that trail of breadcrumbs
00:45:34
right you need to follow the breadcrumbs to get you from person a to person B to
00:45:38
C and D until you get to the actual last person that spoke with her or had interaction with her so you can figure
00:45:45
out her location yeah but I get to see the detectives the whole time on this case again
00:45:52
all right well we checked her we checked her phone this is the the detectives talking to
00:45:58
the family we checked her phone what's her name again you know I mean that's that's kind of
00:46:05
the work they're doing where's wow yeah we we saw her car what's her name again you know have you heard from her like no
00:46:13
do some work here now Lori did try to assist the investigators as much as she possibly could regarding her missing
00:46:21
daughter's case she was the one that spent the the man hours putting together Abby's phone records she got as much as
00:46:30
she could from her social media accounts and she passed all of this on to the detectives and unfortunately
00:46:39
she says at one point in this investigation when she is in there answering questions and talking with
00:46:45
Detectives she's saying the detective seemed proud to tell her we have we've collected all
00:46:53
this information we have tons of evidence we have all this information regarding your missing daughter and he
00:47:00
had it in the room with them right and Lori says she looked at all of this information that he says he has and that
00:47:09
has collected and she says unfortunately this was everything this guy had she provided to
00:47:18
him she provided this information so why he seemed proud to have that information
00:47:23
makes absolutely no sense at all stupid or lazy what's going on behind the scenes yeah is the trouble of having
00:47:33
Abby and the family come forward stating two things one ebby's intention was to meet
00:47:39
her stepfather at some point that evening her family saying The Stepfather was going to meet Ebby some point that
00:47:46
evening yeah those things are now working against Abby's family in this investigation
00:47:53
because now the way that they're working this investigation they're suspicious of
00:47:58
The Stepfather of course they want to know if if in fact he was the last person to see her and what was really
00:48:05
going on behind the scenes there yeah yeah basically they're basically believing that he is the murderer now
00:48:14
mind you they wouldn't state in the beginning that this was a real missing person's
00:48:19
case to begin with now all of a sudden they're saying oh we think that she disappeared because you made her
00:48:24
disappear right and this whatever this theory is or how they ever came up with this Theory other than knowing that he
00:48:31
might have been the last person that she intended to to meet with they're now using this as a theory and
00:48:38
they're what they're claiming when they speak with the family is you're lying to
00:48:43
us you're you're telling us a different story because you're trying to cover up what truly
00:48:49
happened to your daughter when in reality what we have is a family who's trying to be actively involved in an
00:48:57
investigation that would not be moving forward without them yeah it's very difficult because we were
00:49:05
talking about this before I think on off the Record where I do not like the idea when detectives say it's
00:49:15
not my job to come up with theories it's it's my job to collect the evidence and for the evidence to tell me what's
00:49:22
happening now now hold on a second I understand you're saying that because you want to seem like you're smart and
00:49:29
level-headed but the truth of the matter is that you have to collect evidence and
00:49:34
along the way you have to create different theories multiple theories based off of the evidence you're seeing
00:49:40
yeah based off the evidence but also maybe based off evidence you don't have yet and you have to come up with
00:49:47
multiple theories and then you have to go down those rabbit holes and and let the evidence tell you if it if that
00:49:54
theory is true or not in this case they come up with this theory that makes zero
00:49:59
sense because what we have what we have evidence of is this young woman making calls to the police saying that
00:50:10
she was sexually assaulted again I am sick and tired of let's just look the justice system doesn't take these
00:50:20
claims serious enough that's why she called the police department multiple times they should be saying you are
00:50:27
sexually assaulted come down to the station now we need to take this serious and then she's making claims to her
00:50:34
friends and now she's telling her stepfather now again we should take these claims serious because not only is
00:50:41
she stepping up to the plate which is so hard for these women to do but she's stepping up to the plate to
00:50:48
talk to police the police officers and law enforcement and that's frightening and again she's a young
00:50:56
woman and it's frightening to have to tell your stepfather frightening embarrassing whatever words
00:51:03
you want to use this is not somebody that um you know the it's just frustrating and well super
00:51:14
frustrating for a multitude of reasons but also frustrating in the sense that you're
00:51:21
telling the family that we don't want to work with you because we think you're covering something up
00:51:28
but but even though his wife even if that is their Theory Captain it doesn't appear that they were even investigating
00:51:34
or working on building a case around that theory they just weren't doing anything and having the excuse that The
00:51:41
Stepfather is a suspect was just that an excuse to not do anything to just sit on
00:51:47
our hands and not have to do anything when we already know that you had this great lead of there was something that
00:51:54
went down at that party that might have been a major ordeal and it happened very shortly before she went
00:52:02
missing that's a freaking lead yeah now now I wouldn't I wouldn't blame it so much if if the if
00:52:11
if the sexual assault charges were Against The Stepfather then you go okay well A to B we're looking into this guy
00:52:19
but that's not who the allegations were against it was about this party and I'm surprised these morons didn't turn to
00:52:27
the stepfather's wife ebby's mother and say collect evidence against him because he
00:52:33
collected evidence on everything else [Music] all right I'm looking at my phone I'm
00:52:47
looking at my device and on both I have the very awesome Stitcher app it is free
00:52:54
you can go out and get the Stitcher app and we have all of our old episodes on there for free for you to listen to also
00:53:01
make sure you check out our other show called off the record it is available on Stitcher premium stay tuned until
00:53:08
tomorrow it's going to get pretty heated in the garage until then be good be kind
00:53:20
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 75
    Most intense
  • 70
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • Abby's Disturbing Change
    Three weeks before her disappearance, Abby's behavior changed drastically, leading to alarming signs.
    “Abby was provoking arguments and wanted to move out.”
    @ 03m 37s
    November 20, 2022
  • A Night of Horror
    Abby reported a sexual assault to her stepfather, leading to her disappearance.
    “She indicated that an individual at this house had sexually assaulted her and videotaped it.”
    @ 03m 58s
    November 20, 2022
  • The Last Contact
    Abby's final phone call with her brother left him worried and confused about her state.
    “She sounded panicked and disoriented.”
    @ 23m 00s
    November 20, 2022
  • Police Report Runaround
    Abby's brother called the police to report her missing but received the typical runaround.
    “It's almost funny to even say it because we've repeated it so many times.”
    @ 25m 23s
    November 20, 2022
  • Abandoned Vehicle Found
    Abby's car was found abandoned with her belongings inside, raising concerns about her safety.
    “The car keys were still in the ignition, a bad sign.”
    @ 33m 41s
    November 20, 2022
  • Failed Investigation
    The police failed to act on multiple tips about Abby's car, delaying the investigation.
    “If the department had not ignored these calls, the trail would have been a lot fresher.”
    @ 39m 05s
    November 20, 2022
  • Lori's Efforts in the Investigation
    Lori worked tirelessly to assist investigators in her daughter's case, providing crucial information.
    “She was the one that spent the man hours putting together Abby's phone records.”
    @ 46m 21s
    November 20, 2022
  • Detective's Pride in Information
    Lori was shocked when the detective seemed proud of the information she had already provided.
    “Why he seemed proud to have that information makes absolutely no sense at all.”
    @ 47m 23s
    November 20, 2022
  • Frustration with Investigation
    The family felt the investigation was hindered by suspicion towards them instead of focusing on leads.
    “You're lying to us... you're trying to cover up what truly happened to your daughter.”
    @ 48m 46s
    November 20, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • It's good to hear you and it's good to be heard.
    Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343
  • I am going to kill myself.
    Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343
  • It almost seems funny to even say it because we've repeated it so many times.
    Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343
  • They need to take that more serious; it's out of character.
    Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343
  • What are you a [ __ ]? I mean, come on!
    Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343
  • It's frightening to have to tell your stepfather.
    Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343

Key Moments

  • Disappearance23:44
  • Missing Person Report25:11
  • Car Found33:15
  • Investigation Delays38:44
  • Social Media Oversight44:49
  • Lori's Dedication46:17
  • Victim's Courage50:41
  • Investigation Issues51:45

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown