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Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327

August 14, 2019 / 01:03:14

This episode covers the disappearance of Tony Sharples, the investigation surrounding her case, and the various theories about what happened to her. Key discussions include the party she attended before her disappearance, the involvement of her friend Crystal Jones, and the actions of private investigator Elaine Law.

On August 22, 2009, 29-year-old Tony Sharples vanished after leaving a party in Pennsylvania. The police stated there was no indication of foul play, and the partygoers were not considered suspects. However, private investigator Elaine Law criticized the lack of thorough investigation into Willie Greene's home, where Tony was last seen.

Crystal Jones, Tony's friend, was the last person known to be with her. While she initially cooperated with the investigation, doubts arose about her truthfulness. Some believe she may know more than she has disclosed, especially after passing a polygraph test.

As the investigation progressed, tips emerged suggesting possible sightings of Tony in Camden, New Jersey, an area known for crime and drug activity. Elaine Law gathered these tips and continued to investigate, believing Tony may have been trafficked.

In a twist, a letter was sent to Elaine claiming knowledge of Tony's disappearance, mentioning her car and a connection to a police officer. Despite the intriguing details, law enforcement dismissed it as a hoax. The episode concludes with ongoing uncertainty about Tony's fate and the need for further investigation.

TLDR

Tony Sharples disappeared in 2009 after a party, raising questions about foul play and the investigation's thoroughness.

Episode

1:03:14
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beers all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
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crime after a night of drinks and dancing on August 22nd 2009 29 year old mother and nurse
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Tony Sharples disappears after leaving a party in the early morning hours of August 23rd now let's get back to the
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house where Tony was last seen the people whom we know to be at the home that night according to crystal Jones
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who was with her at the party police lieutenant Frank Higgins said that they interviewed all the people at the house
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that night and I believe he said that all of them were cooperative as well so this included Willie green remember he's
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the owner of the house right and they all seemed to back up Crystal's story that Tony left the home under her own
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power the police stated publicly that there was no indication whatsoever of foul
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play no one at the party was a suspect and there were no persons of interest that they had uncovered in their
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investigation I wonder if they let them search the property from everything that
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I have seen there was never a search of the property or the house specifically lieutenant Higgins said quote nothing
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took place there that would lead us to believe that something happened there and quote so we don't know how in-depth
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any of these quote-unquote interviews with the people at the house were it was Elaine law a private investigator on
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this case whom we discussed we'll discuss her more in a bit she is under the impression that Willie green
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basically told the cops that it was mostly just his family there that night and that they didn't really know
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anything and she says they weren't really questioned in this case to be clear as we pointed
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out just a minute ago Willie Greene's home was not subject to any kind of search and none of the people at his
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house that night aside from crystal have spoken about the events of that evening publicly which is
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I find ridiculous because this is our last night and we're about so searched the property yeah so for
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many people interested in this case the quick dismissal of the partygoers as potentially involved parties does not
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sit well in the failure to investigate a possible crime scene is I think inexcusable
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Willie Greene we are told as you said he fully cooperated it does seem that the fact that a woman went missing after
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being at his home in a compromised state should warrant further investigation long there was a conflict as well right
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I always wondered if that conflict had truth or merit to it or if it was something that that everybody was making
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up to cover up something else yeah so Tony's friend Gigi haze right she's the one who organized the Texas Equusearch
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search of the river yeah she regularly contacted the police demanding that Willie green and all the others be
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formally questioned she is under the impression that Matt green somebody else who was at the party and the uncle of
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Willie and Matt green both have criminal histories and she says these two should
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have been looked into very closely repeated attempts by private investigator Elaine law to contact
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Willie green have been completely disregarded she did not even get a return call from his attorney if he is
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at all concerned about the fact that a woman disappeared from his home he certainly is not showing it so now let's
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ask the question captain is crystal telling the truth she's the only one that we've heard speak publicly about
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what happened that night why I think like you said earlier she's been pretty cooperative and she's also been very
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eager to talk and to get the story out there and as the years go by she's kind of now more reluctant to to talk about
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the case is that fair to say Oh agreed 100% and and here's here's the problem with crystal it's hard for me to really
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get a fix on her I can't I can't figure her out because we have the situation as
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you said where early on in this case I mean we're coming up on ten years now she was at one point talking and very
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active and vocal about what happened that night and about her missing friend and yes that has tapered off over the
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years some of that might not be because she is hiding anything or because she isn't telling the truth she has taken a
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lot of flack on the Internet a lot of people have gone after her yeah and it could just be for that I mean at
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some point when you're trying to help a situation you know you and I jokingly say it sometimes no good deed goes
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unpunished right if she in fact is out there trying to help find her friend and she's getting [ __ ] on for it one can
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only take that one can only take that for so long it only takes so much [ __ ] and here's
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the other thing that makes it hard for me to get a real good handle on her is that in the beginning not only is she
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talking but she seems to be doing things that are helpful to the search for Tony
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Sharples she is one that is reported to have called and report Tony is missing she is one that is reported to have
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helped the family print flyers and distribute flyers looking for Tony right and this is also your with your friend
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she might not even a known that Tony was going through these battles with her mental illness
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switching up medications she might not have known any of that well according to crystal she said she did not know any of
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them but he didn't know that Tony was not supposed to be drinking and crystal almost gives the suggestion that had she
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known had she been aware of what was going on in Tony's life that she likely wouldn't have asked her to go out
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dancing and drinking and partying with her that yes you probably want to ask that and then when you go back to this
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party and there was a confrontation that's probably seems a little strange but again she's probably just going okay
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well we had a couple drinks but you would have way more knowledge about this situation then you get into the car with
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her and you get in our argument and she tells you to leave one you're probably not gonna be let in our drive to you're
00:10:00
not getting out of that car and let's be clear if you're drunk at a party or not
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drunk let's say you're tipsy at a party and you guys decide to leave but you're forty minutes away from where you know
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your safe area and your friend drops you off and they don't come back to get you
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you're gonna be pissed and you have every right to be pissed and she she hasn't been and she's been champion to
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go hey we want to figure out what happened to my friend and she probably feels a little bit responsible because
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she didn't know about these things like you said she invited her out probably one enough and probably would have
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invited to hang out with her but one enough went to a party went to a club so she's been a champion to keep the story
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and the limelight but you see this with like when Brian Schaeffer went missing last person one of the last people to be
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with him is Clint he gets thrown under the bus in the Tyler Davis case you know his wife and his friend are now being
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thrown under the bus so you just become that part of the story so crystals being
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thrown under the bus and again how much [ __ ] can you take well and then you have
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the flip side of that same coin and on the flip side of that coin what do we see we see people that say
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Christel went out of her way to make sure that she was one of the people that reported Tony missing that she helped
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create the story and helped to give credence to that story by making two phone calls to Tony's phone so you're
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saying that people are saying that she's creating the narrative correct and Tony's friends
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Tony's longtime friends they say they believe crystal is lying and they believe it's very strange that the
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police have put all of their trust into Crystal's story about what happened right but one of the reasons why they
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put their trust into her stories because she did something that we never advised
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and that is to ask for a polygraph so she takes a polygraph which I don't think any lawyer wouldn't tell you to do
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but I think she was pretty adamant on trying to clear her name yes I have that she offered to take a polygraph did so
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and passed the polygraph test the polygraph examination the the other thing too is there are questions about
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what her relationship is with Matt green and there's still questions about what exactly went down at the party even if
00:12:47
you believe crystal or not that's just my opinion she was the first to call police
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when Tony failed to show up the next day as I pointed out she did help in the searches for Tony putting up the fliers
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she did talk to media I have a question for you I don't know if you can answer this because I couldn't figure it out
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are the initial reports when when they're talking about the events of that night are the initial reports are they
00:13:15
talking about the conflict that happened at the house and why they left the house
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because it doesn't seem that clear and I always wondered what you know which came
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first you know dude that did they not talk about why they left and then once crystal figures out that
00:13:35
her friend was dealing with some mental issues is that when the story of the conflict came out because I just think
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that would be kind of telling know the story of the conflict that the house came out once it was known that the
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otoni was missing right so it came out right away it came out fairly early yeah yes not to
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the general public but to the enforcement the people searching for Tony but you know here's the thing while
00:14:07
crystal has put up publicly anyway put up a good front as being a concerned friend and maybe she is legitimately a
00:14:15
concerned friend as you pointed out she did pass that polygraph and she has generally stuck to her story again it's
00:14:23
the it goes back to social media and things that I've seen on the Internet she clearly has not come out smelling
00:14:29
like a rose during this whole thing Elaine law the private investigator who is searching for Tony
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she says she interviewed Krystal for four hours and her statement is is this she feels that while Krystal was not
00:14:47
straight up lying about the situation she says that she believes that she is not being fully truthful either and
00:14:56
missing because he could take a polygraph test and tell the truth but but be omitting things so the right and
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the thing here is that the private investigator basically believes that Krystal knows more than what she is
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saying to law enforcement and to the public and she cites that she really does not like the fact that Krystal
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refused to show her her phone records from that time period yeah the private investigators looking
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for confirmation of the two calls correct she wants to line those up with what she
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knows about Tony's phone why not and I would also want to know who she called after that because he she claimed that
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she calls Tony's phone twice doesn't get a reply then she is calling multiple people to get a ride I want to
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know who's calling after that did she call Matt green I'd be interested in that but also maybe those two calls
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never happened but wouldn't they be able to get Tony's cell phone records at some
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point oh they do have them the private investigator has them and so that's where I question are they only
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simply coming up as incoming calls right I doubt that I'm guessing that part of the reason why maybe police are really
00:16:19
going on crystals story is two reasons one the other people at the party that night
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according to here's the other thing we don't really fully know a full list of the people at the party right all we
00:16:32
have is the people that that law enforcement spoke to saying yeah but this is it this is all the people that
00:16:38
were there that night and then on top of that they they may have Tony's records saying that it was in fact crystal that
00:16:46
called her on those two times six minutes apart around the time that she vanished and so
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that kind of backs up crystals story as well I think what a lane law is saying here is exactly what you just said she
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wants to know what other activity was going on with crystals phone before those calls between those calls and
00:17:07
afterwards who is she talking to and one thing that would would cause a big shake-up and a big wrinkle in her story
00:17:15
would be if in fact she did phone anybody that was still at that party at that time her or believed to be at
00:17:23
Willie Greene's house at that time because that doesn't seem to gel with with her actions of what she said to the
00:17:31
public you know that I called I called my friends my family looking for a ride home because I was dumped on the side of
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the road well again it's strange though too because we have the last person supposedly with her you wonder how much
00:17:44
she was questioned when they when people are people are questioning how much people were questioning at the party how
00:17:52
much was crystal questioned and she was the one that came forward and said I'll take a polygraph test
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they didn't ask her to she was the one willing to so then you wonder if they even how much they've checked her phone
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records or did they just go while we we talked to the cousin so we know that the
00:18:08
cousin came and picked her up so I know that we're kind of spinning our tires on
00:18:14
this here a bit but before do whatever we want I want to make sure that everyone has their seats in the full
00:18:20
upright position because this is where the story starts to get weird okay on September 14th this is about
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three weeks after Tony disappear authorities in Pennsylvania got word that the New Jersey State Police had a
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possible hit on Tony's car on September 8th a stationary New Jersey State Police
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vehicle parked in Camden had seen something an automated license plate reader mounted in the police car
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recorded the plate number on each car passing it a car bearing plate number DND seven seven seven two passed and was
00:19:03
recorded the automated plate reader ran the plate and because Tony's car was listed as missing remember they reported
00:19:12
it as missing it would have notified the officer Manning the vehicle that it was
00:19:18
possibly her car but the police car was parked and no one was in it so no one noticed the license plate number hit
00:19:26
until a week later right now it's worth noting that I have read that these license plate readers are not 100% 100%
00:19:39
of the time I've seen some people point out things that they're more likely closer to 90% accurate the other thing
00:19:48
that we got to keep in mind too is it's possible that it was not Tony's car that
00:19:55
was seen but simply a car with the license plate number DND 777 to Wright was in Camden on September 8th that the
00:20:05
plate was on a different vehicle now private and ball where you have that idea but you
00:20:11
serve the other idea that you can have the same license-plate number but a different state hmm so-so
00:20:19
Elaine law who is working on this case the private investigator yeah and who I spoke with briefly for this episode she
00:20:30
actually is the one that told me to cover this case I approached her about a different case that she was working
00:20:37
there there's a case out there and I won't go into specifics specifics about it because the family asks that we not
00:20:45
cover it the victim's family it was a case that I had wanted to cover for some time
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there's very little information out there in the newspapers and in the public about it and I saw Elaine law's
00:20:58
name in one of the newspaper articles so I contacted her thinking well if we're gonna learn anything about that case we
00:21:05
need to get it from her to which she says look the family doesn't really want it to be covered why don't you take a
00:21:11
look at and she tossed out a few other cases that she had been working on that really need the public's help and and
00:21:19
really need a voice thrown out there and the story told one more time in hopes that it hits the right ears so she told
00:21:29
us that a Camden police officer this is a little this is a little off the record
00:21:35
here then a Camden police officer told her that a car with Toni's plate number also got a parking ticket in the city
00:21:43
around that same time period but he didn't go into further detail about that whole situation I could not find that
00:21:53
anywhere so it seems like at least that plate number has popped up twice on Camden police radar so the New Jersey
00:22:03
State Police says both that they and the Camden police scoured the area but never
00:22:08
found any other trace of the car with that plate on it now lieutenant Higgins of Lower Merion Township Police
00:22:17
Department says quote cars don't usually disappear entirely at some point in the
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future they turn up whether it's a junkyard or somewhere else and quote but we know Tony's car has never turned up
00:22:30
and the idea that her car may have been in Camden in an area riddled with drugs prostitution and crime has led to a
00:22:40
predominant theory of what possibly could have happened to Tony now we also have private investigator Elaine law she
00:22:52
talked about tips that came in and also about possible sightings of Tony so about a month after well six weeks a
00:23:02
month and a half after Tony vanished yeah a former detective private investigator
00:23:09
Elaine law offered her services to the family for $1 she saw Tony's case on the news and felt that it was something that
00:23:20
there was possibility based on the amount of sex trafficking in the area and tips about possible sightings of
00:23:27
tony that tony was still alive and possibly either involved in drugs and prostitution or she had been trafficked
00:23:35
so Elaine started a website to gather tips she met with both Krystle and the family tried to contact Willy green held
00:23:45
a town meeting about the case she kept Tony's picture in the media even going around Camden with a picture of Tony
00:23:52
asking pimps dealers working girls and residents if they had seen her right because you have a individual that again
00:24:01
is struggling with mental illness shouldn't be drinking but was drinking has had some struggles with addiction in
00:24:09
the past is it possible that this she gets in this conflict that kind of pushes her over the edge and when she
00:24:17
leaves her friend she doesn't really know where she's at but then she goes hey you know maybe I can get some drugs
00:24:24
by going to Camden and if you go there then who knows what bad things could happen Elaine says that she has gathered
00:24:33
50 plus tips to track Tony from initial sightings near or in Lancaster where she worked to
00:24:42
Camden and then to Philly saying it's almost as if Tony was being moved around some of these tips placed Tony in the
00:24:52
presence of a large black man and a skinny Hispanic man with a goatee and there was a sighting of a woman having
00:25:00
very dark under eye circles almost raccoon eyes something that apparently Tony struggled with since her teen years
00:25:07
and then one guy said he had seen Tony four times in candid and that they had the same heroin dealer
00:25:15
another tip came from a security guard that placed an abandoned dirty scraped up black sedan with tinted windows so a
00:25:25
vehicle matching a similar description to Tony's under the Ben Franklin Bridge between Philly and Camden shortly after
00:25:33
she went missing it had no plates in the Camden police never disclosed whether they followed up
00:25:39
on that vehicle sighting or the sightings of possibly Tony now of course we also have no idea whether any of
00:25:50
these tips are correct and if Tony was actually seen and many of these tips do come from people that I would consider
00:25:58
to be less than reliable and if it was Tony that was seen then you have other things to wonder about was she abducted
00:26:08
or did she go willingly yeah it's and it's very hard to I feel for this whole situation because of her struggles with
00:26:20
the mental illness if she hits a point of a manic state and then she's using drugs the drugs could can you know have
00:26:34
her continue to stay in a manic state and and and who knows where she's at so one thing I do know though too is that
00:26:43
police they say that they looked into whether Tony ever purchased drugs in Camden they came up with nothing
00:26:51
regarding that and they also said that there is actually no evidence at all that she even knew anyone in that area
00:27:00
the other thing too if it was drugs that she went after that night or or if that's the reason that kept her away it
00:27:10
seems a little strange to me it seems like there would have been a lot of other places closer to home to make that
00:27:16
score the case did start to grow cold after these tips were coming in these were pretty early in the investigation
00:27:25
pretty early in Elaine laws investigation I do want to get to some other interesting tips in this case okay
00:27:33
a call that was made to West Brandywine Township Police Department this is a call where a man claimed to be from the
00:27:41
Canadian Security Intelligence Service this is an agency similar to the CIA in Toronto
00:27:48
the man said agents found a car parked on their lot and traced the car to Tony and the agents also found someone who
00:27:57
they believed to be Tony matching her description the man provided an email address and a phone number where he
00:28:04
could be reached and requested photos of Tony the address and phone number however turned out to be a fake Chief
00:28:14
Warner said police called the Toronto Police Department and was told the call must have been faked
00:28:20
chief Warner said that the caller was quote the guy had all the right answers he was talking the police lingo and he
00:28:30
knew what to say and quote several days later an officer in West Brandywine Police Department's radio room took a
00:28:39
call from a sheriff's deputy in South Dakota the deputy claimed the officers found Tony's car there the man promised
00:28:47
to fax information over but never did officers contacted the man's alleged department but personnel there had no
00:28:56
knowledge of the vehicle or of the man who made the call we have chief Warner again who says look we got
00:29:03
a copy of that recording and he says it was the exact same guy that he talked to
00:29:09
the the guy that claimed to be from Toronto he said that the reason why he could identify the caller as being the
00:29:16
same is he described this man as having an interesting voice it was something about the way that this man sounded the
00:29:24
chief Werner was able to believe that the caller was in fact the same the thing though that's weird
00:29:33
here and just kind of really blows my mind is why would somebody bother to stage these two hoaxes this is four
00:29:44
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00:33:42
that's better help calm slash garage [Music] all right we're back you filthy animals
00:33:55
stay filthy you Annalee he filtered well you know we were talking about this on Saturday at our presentation meetup
00:34:04
whatever you want to call it is being a true crime lover is becoming a little more acceptable in society so we're
00:34:13
becoming less filthy animals of the true crime kingdom it ain't easy being greasy
00:34:19
yes or cheesy in late 2013 something happened that could give us a significant clue into Tony's
00:34:31
disappearance private investigator Elaine law received a letter at her office the one paged unsigned letter
00:34:39
postmarked in Trenton New Jersey on November 29th arrived in her mail December 1st
00:34:46
she didn't initially notice the letter in the pile of mail and she was shocked when she observed the return address it
00:34:55
was from Toni Sharples now toni is typically spelled t o n I was T ony Sharples now here is the text of the
00:35:12
letter dear Elaine law the police and PA do not have a tip line I tried calling the Philly police where I live but they
00:35:23
said it was not in their jurisdiction one of the detectives pulled me aside and gave me your name and address in the
00:35:32
last few days of September 2009 a friend in Camden called me and offered me money
00:35:39
to move a car from Brooklyn New Jersey to Boston Massachusetts he told me he would pay me $5,000 cash plus I could
00:35:49
have the plates he asked if I knew anyone 27 or 29 that wanted to pay per trip so he gave me a social security
00:35:59
card I drove the car a black four-door pontiac grand prix and drove to an auto body shop outside of boston
00:36:07
massachusetts i took off the plates and with a black magic marker wrote down the
00:36:14
last five digits of the VIN number and cleared out the glovebox I came back to Camden a day later and he told me that
00:36:24
the car was not stolen but missing he said a friend of his a cop in Camden got into a fight with a girl she died and he
00:36:33
needed to get the car out of Jersey about a month ago my daughter was playing in the garage and found the box
00:36:40
with the plates and social security card I had forgotten all about it the plates are DND seven seven seven two
00:36:50
the social security card and this is where Sharples his cell phone number was written in this spot and the last five
00:37:00
digits of the VIN are the person wrote the last five digits of Sharples vehicle's identification number in this
00:37:08
mine no I think some of this stuff was actually reported or public knowledge but I think it's definitely that VIN
00:37:16
number would be hard to get the writer goes on to say because of Hurricane sandy I had to visit Jersey to help
00:37:23
friends clean up I decided to drop you this letter what happened to Tony I don't really know all I know is that she
00:37:32
had a run-in with the police and I was paid much-needed cash to get the car to a shop in Boston again the the letter is
00:37:41
not signed it's a one-page letter and as you said captain yes the we do know that
00:37:47
the plate number was readily available this was not only I mean it was on the internet plus it was on flyers looking
00:37:56
for for Tony because her vehicle was missing as well the difficult thing as you said are the
00:38:03
five digits of the VIN number and we could speculate day and night how difficult it could have been or how easy
00:38:10
it could have been to get Tony's cell phone number that may have been difficult we do know that it was
00:38:16
a relatively new phone I don't know if that came with a new number but we should point out the VIN number and the
00:38:24
cell phone number were both correct they were tony's now Alain turned over the letter to the West Brandywine police
00:38:34
and also notified the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office she also gave the
00:38:41
letter to the media in hopes that it would keep Tony's case alive later she learned that police believe
00:38:49
the letter to be a hoax probably because it was sent in close proximity to the to
00:38:55
hoax phone calls she's not certain why they came to this conclusion but that's what they have said publicly that this
00:39:03
letter is is a hoax what are you feeling about this letter because you're your captain letter man we will cover every
00:39:13
case that involves a strange letter yeah so I have a lot of questions about this
00:39:20
letter I think that most of the information in so this is not the same as like the zodiac who who kills Paul
00:39:29
Stine and then provides you a bloody torn off piece of his shirt right in a letter this is very different this is
00:39:37
somebody who is claiming to have done something been paid by somebody else possibly limiting their involvement
00:39:44
limiting their involvement and then my proof of you to believe my word is I'm gonna provide you with these three
00:39:53
things these three pieces of information and they could have obtained these in the exact manner that they said that
00:40:01
they took the plates they wrote down the VIN number they cleared out the glovebox
00:40:04
that easily could have obtained all these things from that exact action however I believe that somebody could
00:40:14
have got this information if they looked and spent a little bit of time on it I don't think it would have been extremely
00:40:21
difficult to find all three of these things and provide it one thing that I find interesting is that when with the
00:40:29
claim of having the Social Security card this individual then provides her cell phone number in
00:40:36
place of what what he or she probably should have put the social security number brilliant so that makes me wonder
00:40:45
well why have a hoax why write this letter well those are things that point to me point to me that it could be a
00:40:53
hoax okay before we move on I do want to clear one thing up because some people might be asking themselves this of some
00:41:00
of the wording in the letter when he says that he was asked if anyone if I knew anyone 27 or 29 that wanted to pay
00:41:10
per trip so he gave me a social security card what they mean by this is somebody
00:41:17
that wants to steal an identity to to take somebody else's information all right yeah that's that that's the paper
00:41:24
trip that he's talking about or she so here's where I have a different issue with it where I questioned the validity
00:41:35
of of the letter I'm also a bit horrified and terrified by the letter there's something very strange going on
00:41:48
here if there were to be three hoaxes and then we had the the one of the police officers the chief of police
00:41:57
saying he believes just by listening with his own ears that that the the caller of those two calls were one in
00:42:07
fact the same so if though if the two calls that come in that are hoaxes that try to put Tony in her vehicle in
00:42:14
Toronto and then the other call tries to put Tony's vehicle somewhere in South Dakota and now this letter is stating
00:42:24
that hey I live in Philadelphia right somebody from Camden hired me to do this I had to move the car from Brooklyn
00:42:32
Brooklyn New Jersey to Boston Massachusetts we have six different cities named in three different hoaxes
00:42:40
and then on top of that if it's not that big of a leap to go okay well if the same person made those phone calls did
00:42:47
then the same person write this letter and that's where I get horrified and terrified at the same time there's
00:42:55
there's something very strange there if one person is responsible for all of these communications yeah but to me it's
00:43:05
like what is the hoax trying to prove it's trying to prove that she left the area that she was last seen by her
00:43:13
friend that's to me what these are trying to prove so that he's trying to steer the direction of the investigation
00:43:23
like throwing them off the trail if they were in fact that's that's the other problem I have with this whole thought
00:43:30
it's four years later the only conceivable reason that I can come up with this somebody would would make
00:43:37
these communications would be just that to throw them off the trail but but we're under the belief that the case had
00:43:45
gone cold by this time so there is no trail what trail are they on were they even on a trail at the time right but
00:43:52
maybe I'm just saying if something happened bad at that party that they're still you know they feel guilty they
00:44:06
feel paranoid maybe they're creating this hopes for that reason let's keep you away from thinking about that party
00:44:16
unless you cuz they don't know the leads but again that doesn't make a lot of sense to me because you'd think unless
00:44:25
the cops were constantly beating down their door and asking for information why would you involve yourself anymore
00:44:34
why not just stay away right and if you had nothing to do with it why involve yourself at all that's why I'm saying
00:44:41
this it's all weird man it's all weird and and then then you are if you weren't involved you I don't think you would
00:44:47
create the hoax I'm saying but again that the other possibility that I haven't really thought about till now is
00:44:55
the idea of when when she says crystal said while she I thought she would come back for me and
00:45:02
it's like what if at some point Tony did come back and she went back to the party
00:45:08
without crystal hmm you know this is not you know we're just basing off of if the
00:45:16
cops might believe crystal and she might be telling the truth about that but that
00:45:20
does not mean that Tony didn't go back to the party yeah and but you know if we haven't done any search of this property
00:45:29
III just don't know how again and we also don't know how many individuals were at that house so is it there were
00:45:38
but I do know there was enough individuals that something bad could have happened and somebody could have
00:45:42
disposed of her car it would appear that something happened to this car in actually Tony's car going to a Chop Shop
00:45:50
out of state makes some sense why her car has never been located you know after this point I I do want to throw
00:46:01
this information out there and I have names here but I've I've purposely removed them because I question how how
00:46:13
true this this information is this is but but it does cite several of the things in the letter that we just talked
00:46:23
about so an estranged wife of an ex Camden police officer okay remember in the letter the the letter writer claimed
00:46:33
to have been paid by somebody that said that that Tony had a run-in with a police officer right so an estranged
00:46:42
wife of an ex Camden police officer who was fired after falsifying reports in order to get this estranged wife
00:46:52
arrested this wife comes forward talks with the private investigator Elaine and tells her that her ex who lived in
00:47:02
Brooklyn I keep wanting to say Brooklyn it's Brooklyn New Jersey right again the
00:47:08
town mentioned in the letter also ran an auto business where he would repo cars and resell them including the
00:47:19
area of Boston she claims that at one point she saw a black four-door Pontiac with tinted windows in their driveway
00:47:29
one day and assumed it to be one of these vehicles one of his cars that he repossessed or that took possession of
00:47:37
to resell so again that's information that was provided to us yeah it's it's always difficult when you have these
00:47:48
these marriages that go south that go away bad what the hell go south it's tough to whether or not you get a
00:47:57
divorce that's a different thing but they all go south it seems like he was definitely up to no good because we do
00:48:03
have the Camden police department who claims he was fired for falsifying reports now you're a liar right I mean
00:48:10
that's in I want to believe the letter it seems like it makes sense it seems like just with the VIN number it's not
00:48:19
the full VIN number rights as part of the VIN number five numbers the last file but it's enough for me to go okay
00:48:25
that's information that's not easy to get my issue with it is if you're gonna come forward with this letter why not
00:48:38
just come forward altogether because you see I mean like I feel like by sending this letter whoever paid you could come
00:48:53
after you could come after you and if you don't go and tell them your full story then you've offered yourself no
00:48:59
protection from that person right it's not only you know it's like oh yeah well they but they didn't put their
00:49:04
identification in the letter well no but no but the person of the person that real the person that paid this person
00:49:11
like well where you are according to the letter it was like a person that there was a middleman right
00:49:19
so right so the police officer if in fact the letters correct may not exactly know who
00:49:27
ultimately was paid to move the vehicle who ultimately wrote the letter right but it it's but some it won't work that
00:49:35
hard for him to figure it out right it wouldn't be that hard for him to figure that out so I are you ready for another
00:49:45
twist here captain sure all right on May 15th 2014 Tony's mother Donna received a
00:49:52
check in the mail from the Department of Revenue state of Indiana for jest it was
00:49:59
a little over a thousand dollars this check this was a tax refund check what's notable is that the check was made
00:50:08
payable to Tony Lee Sharples and Robert E Morales husband and wife this Tony and
00:50:18
robber apparently filed joint state returns on earnings of forty six thousand six hundred and twenty five
00:50:26
dollars from Johns Hopkins University Tony's occupation was listed as a nurse and Roberts as a doctor a bogus phone
00:50:37
number was on the return now this is mind-boggling for many reasons but mainly because a man named Robert E
00:50:47
Morales went missing from Phoenix Arizona two weeks before Tony did on August 8th
00:50:53
2009 he is still missing to this day you can see his Charley project page on their website I wonder if somebody is
00:51:04
trying to scam the system and going hey let's put these two missing people together you know but how would you file
00:51:13
a tax return so the the private investigator Elaine contacted the Department of Revenue in Indiana and she
00:51:22
said that she learned it was a legitimate refund check and that the tax returns Antoni and Roberts joint names had been
00:51:29
filed electronically as for why the check was sent to Tony's old address instead of the address listed on the
00:51:38
turn Elaine said she was told that whenever the address is less than one year old that they just send it to the
00:51:48
former address who knows how this happened but significantly someone had stolen Toni's identity and yeah but they
00:51:59
could have nothing to do with her disappear you could have nothing to do with the case but then you also wonder
00:52:04
if in fact that person had access to her social security card and we know that the anonymous letter writer mentioned
00:52:12
that he had the card Donna her mother believes that Toni kept her Social Security card in her wallet which of
00:52:21
course has never been found but this is what drives me just absolutely insane about these missing
00:52:29
person cases the investigation should have been harder on these people at the party they should investigated that
00:52:37
property period did the cops know did law enforcement know that should be going missing for the rest of her life
00:52:43
that would be sitting here ten years later wondering where she's at no but you got
00:52:50
to start by assuming that you need to assume that the worst case scenario is going to happen and you need to make
00:52:55
sure that you do your due diligence don't be a piece of [ __ ] right well here's here's the thing I see two things
00:53:05
kind of going on here there are points in this investigation where me on the outside looking in it appears to me that
00:53:12
they are doing their due diligence that they are working the case hard but there
00:53:19
are other times where I have a completely different feeling and this is not a small case this is an
00:53:25
investigation that's been 10 years now how many how long and good have they worked on it through the course of that
00:53:32
time is certainly up for the for debate and and my own opinion is at times it was not good on their end that could be
00:53:42
that we have multiple jurisdictions involved in this I will say that the local police investigating the case gave
00:53:50
the impression pretty early in what I would consider to be a very unprofessional manner that they believed
00:53:57
Tony was simply on drugs and/or crazy so when you have that coming out of their department you really have to wander and
00:54:07
I'm sure a lot of people close to Tony are wondering the same thing is in fact if they were investigating the case
00:54:15
thoroughly if they were giving her disappearance the appropriate due diligence as you were saying law it's
00:54:22
pathetic that they would call her crazy because look if you break your arm what do you do you go to a doctor got
00:54:29
something broken in your brain you go get help for that so that to me that's a sign of somebody trying to get help I
00:54:38
think my gut is telling me that this there's more truth to this letter than not and and I couldn't tell you why but
00:54:49
it's like yeah I'm not ready to dismiss it as quickly as what it appears law enforcement has yeah the VIN number I
00:54:59
can't get over that and then also I don't know how much I buy the the ex-wife of the cop coming forward and
00:55:10
saying hey I saw a car similar to this I don't know but but those are two things
00:55:17
that line up mm-hmm and and that needs to be followed and it's sad because like you said this car
00:55:24
probably went to a chop shop there was probably evidence of there's probably evidence of what happened to
00:55:31
her and and that's gone forever and I I do know that some of that for her daughter
00:55:38
I do know that some of Tony's friends absolutely believe that Tony never left Willie Greene's house that night that
00:55:45
something happened to her there and it could be any number of things an overdose died in an accident was killed
00:55:54
as the result of some kind of physical altercation there was a pool there maybe maybe she drowned in the pool but you
00:56:02
know their belief is that in order to protect Willie Greene MBA salary and reputation that she and
00:56:09
her car were later disposed of and that's and we don't have the whole story there
00:56:16
well like Forrest Gump said it maybe it's both happening at the same time hmm is there a possibility that something
00:56:24
happens at this party they know a shady cop they call the shady cop hey we need your help
00:56:31
right or they call their lawyer their lawyer knows a shady comp that could shop the cop comes the cop that knows
00:56:39
some bad people that can help take care of this problem it could be both happening at the same time is anybody
00:56:46
there that night in some shape or form of a police officer right even from another city we again we don't have the
00:56:54
full list of names we actually had two people that were unnamed in our list and we're going off and saying that that is
00:57:02
an accurate list of people there could be additional people that were there that were conveniently left off of the
00:57:08
list provided to law enforcement my only issue with all that it's like I said she
00:57:14
would have had to drop her friend off and somehow circle back around because I do think that her friend started out
00:57:22
being a champion for finding her friend and so that's the part that doesn't line
00:57:30
up and unless possibly unless she drops her off and circles back round but you'd
00:57:35
have to obviously it would not be that hard to fabricate and manufacture the story of of Tony leaving ditching her
00:57:45
friend and her phone conveniently being off all at the same time right and and to work that into her story but to be
00:57:54
the one to come forward and ask for a polygraph test again I I we don't know what questions were on that test we hear
00:58:04
from law enforcement that she passed but we don't know what questions it's just a
00:58:09
sad scenario for for whatever reason once you put mental health in it it's I think people I think people were a
00:58:19
little too dismissive of of things regarding the private investigator Elaine law she is no longer so certain
00:58:26
that Tony is still alive she does still believe that Tony was that something happened to her and she was trafficked
00:58:34
she does believe that the sightings of Tony in the area were legitimate she does continue to follow up on leads and
00:58:42
tips to this day speaking there are there is some movement on this case as far as the private investigator is
00:58:51
concerned there are still some leads that she is working on it would be it wouldn't be appropriate to discuss those
00:59:00
here today because it's not something that we have a lot of information on but regarding Tony's parents her mother and
00:59:08
her stepfather they say they don't know what to think quote it's like a rollercoaster of
00:59:15
emotion Donna told one reporter they aren't sure that Krystle is telling the truth and they say that they have had no
00:59:23
contact with her but they also know that Tony should not have been drinking and could have been disoriented and gotten
00:59:30
lost and ended up in the river or elsewhere okay both of them feel strongly that it's a that a search of
00:59:39
Willie Greene's home should have been conducted when asked if she believes that her if her daughter is still alive
00:59:45
Donna says honestly no Tony would have called by now she always did well my granddaughter is the same way if she
00:59:56
doesn't call me I know something is wrong no one knows a child like a mother Tony stepfather agrees with his wife and
01:00:05
he has also stated that someone must know what occurred the night of August 23 2009 and he adds that she didn't just
01:00:15
vanish into thin air that there must be more to this story now Tony is still listed as a missing person the 10th
01:00:23
anniversary of her disappearance is next week we will have a photo of Tony on the
01:00:29
blog at true-crime garage dot-com tony's DNA has been entered into a national database so if at some point a body is
01:00:38
found she will be identified hats go off to her our friends and family and and then her parents you know now looking
01:00:47
after her her child and and and then also what an awesome individual to take on their case
01:00:57
the private investigator taken on their case for $1 and trying to make a difference
01:01:03
in this world that's pretty amazing [Music] whatever struggles you are facing from
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simply go to better help calm slash garage and fill out a questionnaire to get match with the counselor you'll love
01:01:49
today that's better help calm slash garage how about a little recommended listening for
01:01:55
everybody this week this week I want to recommend the stitcher app you've heard it before it's free it's amazing it has
01:02:01
all of our old episodes on there to listen to and you can check out our other show our wonderful show that
01:02:08
everybody loves off the record it's available on stitcher premium I bring up the recommended listening captain
01:02:15
because this last weekend we were at the Ohio History Center and a lot of you came out and joined us there and we did
01:02:21
a discussion on Ohio cold cases which we've covered so many of them check those out on the stitcher app we will
01:02:28
see all of you back here in the garage next week until then be good be kind and don't live
01:02:34
[Music] [Applause] [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 65
    Most intense
  • 60
    Most emotional
  • 60
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of Tony Sharples
    29-year-old Tony Sharples vanished after a night of partying. Her case raises many questions.
    “A woman went missing after being at his home in a compromised state.”
    @ 05m 36s
    August 14, 2019
  • The Role of Crystal
    Crystal was the last known person with Tony and has faced scrutiny since her disappearance.
    “Crystal has been a champion to keep the story in the limelight.”
    @ 10m 46s
    August 14, 2019
  • License Plate Hit
    Tony's car was spotted by a police license plate reader, but no one was there to investigate.
    “The police car was parked and no one was in it.”
    @ 19m 24s
    August 14, 2019
  • Hoaxes and Confusion
    Multiple hoaxes complicate the investigation into Tony's case, leaving police puzzled.
    “Why would somebody bother to stage these two hoaxes?”
    @ 29m 36s
    August 14, 2019
  • The Mysterious Letter
    A letter arrives at Elaine Law's office, claiming to have information about Tony's disappearance.
    “What happened to Tony? I don't really know...”
    @ 37m 29s
    August 14, 2019
  • Identity Theft and Missing Persons
    A tax refund check reveals identity theft linked to Tony's case, raising more questions.
    “Significantly, someone had stolen Toni's identity.”
    @ 51m 55s
    August 14, 2019
  • The Ongoing Search for Answers
    Despite the years, the private investigator continues to follow leads in Tony's case.
    “There are still some leads that she is working on.”
    @ 58m 53s
    August 14, 2019
  • The Mystery of Tony's Disappearance
    Tony's case remains unsolved, with her family questioning the investigation's thoroughness.
    “Someone must know what occurred that night.”
    @ 01h 00m 08s
    August 14, 2019

Episode Quotes

  • Nothing took place there that would lead us to believe something happened there.
    Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327
  • Cars don't usually disappear entirely.
    Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327
  • It's very hard to feel for this whole situation.
    Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327
  • There's something very strange going on here.
    Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327
  • It's like a rollercoaster of emotion.
    Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327
  • No one knows a child like a mother.
    Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 2 /// 327

Key Moments

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage00:40
  • Tony's Disappearance02:48
  • License Plate Reader18:47
  • Elaine Law's Efforts23:13
  • Hoax Calls28:14
  • The Letter34:33
  • Ongoing Investigation58:53
  • Emotional Turmoil59:15

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown