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Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515

August 19, 2021 / 46:25

This episode covers the case of Tracy Sissom, her disappearance, and the investigation into her murder. Key discussions include the discovery of her remains, the involvement of her estranged husband Michael Sissom, and comparisons to other cases.

Tracy Sissom was last seen in Indianapolis, Indiana, before her remains were found 70 miles away. The hosts discuss the timeline of events, including the discovery of her abandoned vehicle and the unknown couple seen driving it.

Michael Sissom, Tracy's estranged husband, is identified as a prime suspect. The hosts detail his violent history and connections to the area where Tracy's body was found, suggesting he may have been involved in her death.

The episode highlights the lack of information released by law enforcement and the frustration surrounding the case. The hosts express hope that new leads will emerge to bring justice for Tracy and her family.

Listeners are encouraged to contact the Indiana State Police with any information regarding the case. The episode concludes with a recommendation for further reading on true crime.

TLDR

Tracy Sissom's murder investigation focuses on her estranged husband Michael, with discussions on evidence and law enforcement challenges.

Episode

46:25
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so [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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listening i'm your host nick and with me as always is a man who has discovered the body of john wilkes booth here is
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the captain let me tell you it smelled horribly it's good to be seen good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
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telling a friend [Music] today we are still sipping on three's co-company what is that you ask well
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it's a creamy full bodied imperial style with coconut vanilla and milk sugar garage grade four and a quarter bottle
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caps out of five and here in the garage we are always surrounded by good company
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so let's give a long distance cheers to rachel and says japan and a big shout out to jessica in cincinnati ohio and
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here's the cheers to casey and tyler texas and a big we like your jib to rebecca and piedmont oklahoma and here's
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a double fisted cheers to scott and lacey in madison indiana and last but certainly not least we have devana in
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silver spring maryland thank you to everybody who helped us out with this week's beer run yeah
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bwrun beer run make sure you're patient with us we are behind but if you haven't donated you need to
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pitch in do your part to save parts unknown also if you're done with this episode and
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you're thinking what should i listen to next you should be listening to off the record that's our bonus show check that
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out on stitcher premium and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab
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a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] is [Music] 14 days after 33 year old tracy sissom
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was last seen the chevy blazer that she borrowed from her father was found abandoned eight and a half miles from
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tracy's apartment tracy systems remains were found 70 miles from her apartment and as we know she had been dead for a
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while probably about 18 days and we also know that someone else was driving that chevy blazer after her
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death this reminds me captain of the jennifer kessie case by the way we covered the jennifer kessey case in
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depth in four parts that's episodes 362-365 if anyone wants to look those up i am in no way saying that these cases
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are connected in any possible way just kind of stuck on this idea about the vehicles in both cases jennifer kessey
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from orlando florida has been missing since january 23 of 2006 shortly after she vanished her car was
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discovered parked around a mile or so from her home a local security camera recorded a person parking kessie's car
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and walking away now that person could not be identified due to poor camera quality in the person's
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face and any distinguishing features being obscured now one glaring difference here is
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obviously in the tracy system case we have found and recovered her remains i know we also know that there was a
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couple uh unknown couple that was driving the vehicle that eluded law enforcement right so in the kessie case
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we're not certain what happened to jennifer but in both cases we have recovered the
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vehicle that the victim was driving and we know that they were moved by somebody else
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now again here we have a very similar situation in the system case the blazer that tracy was borrowing turns up with
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these weird people that we don't know we don't know who they were so what were these two people doing in the
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blazer doing with that blazer were they simply moving it and almost got caught along the way
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but were able to duck the police or were they responsible for you know does this mean that they're
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responsible for tracy's murder or do we have something else going on here captain because we have discussed this
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several times before in other cases here in the garage could this be just one of
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those weird and rare situations that the real killer simply gets lucky and the case becomes
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more confusing for detectives because our killer got lucky and what i mean by that is there seems to be a pretty
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general belief shared amongst a lot of people that these two people that were seen
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driving the blazer and then fleeing the vehicle that they're just part of the story but don't really have
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anything to do with what happened to tracy sissom well what we know about tracy is that her
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body was dumped into a rural area a street that most people wouldn't travel on unless it was a
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local situation but a distance away from where she was last seen you said 70 miles yeah 7-0 is
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it possible that the killer of tracy also abandoned that vehicle and somebody like you were saying this
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couple then happens upon that vehicle that is kind of the general belief here uh that is shared amongst many people is
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that these two people may have found this vehicle somewhere now keep in mind tracy is last seen in indianapolis a big
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city a major city 70 miles from where her remains are found it's very likely whatever happened to
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tracy happened to her that night at the apartment or right after she left her apartment that night
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so whatever happened to tracy happened in indianapolis and if you're going to let's say
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you have a personal cause homicide where you murder someone that is somewhat close to you that there
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would be an easy a direct connection for law enforcement from victim to offender
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but you have killed somebody that you know personal cause homicide and now you are
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tasked with a couple things right you could just leave the body to be discovered and then they can go
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about their investigation but if you do that you know that they're very quickly going to wind up on your doorstep
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knocking on your door asking you the tough questions what you're tasked with is i need to get
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rid of this body a and b i need to get rid of this vehicle because it's a quick and easy leap from
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body to vehicle when you go you know what okay who cares what she told anybody that day or the weeks before
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if they don't find her and they don't find this vehicle and as long as i can create that delay
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between them locating the vehicle or locating her the more and more this starts to look
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like the people maybe she just took off maybe she just packed up her [ __ ] put it
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in this blazer and took off well on every missing person case that we recover we talk about those
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possibilities was there foul play did this person want to commit suicide did this person want to take off and
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start a life of their own well and we've talked about several cases where people report
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somebody missing and the local law enforcement agency they don't have something to investigate because the
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adult is allowed to go missing they finish your food before you so i think that's what you're looking at from a
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strategy point and from something you brought up there's a good chance that whoever is responsible for this
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may have moved her vehicle and left it somewhere abandon it and then these people found it
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and moved it and when they get pulled over by the cops they get scared and they you know these could be drug
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users this could be people doing a favor for somebody this could be homeless people it does not have to be
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somebody directly connected to tracy or her murder well because if you find a banded car and let's say you find the
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keys in the car party time well yeah i'm gonna go pick up the captain yeah and we're gonna blast some bohemian
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rhapsody don't vomit in the back seat yeah give if you're gonna spew spewing this but
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when you have that scenario and you're the driver and you see law enforcement you're going to
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assume that somebody reported the car stolen right because you essentially stole the car and we've said it a
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thousand times vehicles are easier to find than people and the weird thing here too is we have
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information that is telling us that the cause of death in tracy's case was strangulation and then you have that
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partial box of ammunition in the back seat it doesn't sound like some rando people
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that are moving this vehicle for you or that that found it abandoned that they would leave ammunition in the vehicle
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for any reason that's just another confusing part of the story that may really have nothing to do with anything
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other than again if you could create a paper trail between that partial box of ammunition and somebody else especially
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somebody in tracy's inner circle well now we have a problem now we have something to to talk about
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and something to investigate like you're also saying a really good strategy if something happened in
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indianapolis have the vehicle be in indianapolis yep even if it's 10 miles from where
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tracy would have been you're not going to be thinking about trying to locate a body 75 miles away
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once you find that vehicle you're gonna go okay well now her apartment is considered a crime
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scene and this vehicle is now considered a crime scene so you might again you would have to put
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one plus one plus one equals three you know yeah your strategy would be to want that
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vehicle to be in indianapolis or as chaz barkley would say in the annapolis but uh
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yeah you you would want to separate yourself from the victim and from her from the
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crime scene itself too and the best way to do that is not have them find the body if you're
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the perpetrator of this crime and it seems like police were were really working under the theory
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that yes she was killed elsewhere and then dumped in this location but we have her last
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known whereabouts is that apartment so do they believe that she was killed or attacked
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in that apartment or in the parking lot of her apartment complex and then you have the statement from
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the police this is what's interesting though captain we people go why are you really hyper
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focused on these ideas it's because police have not released very much information in these cases
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in this case they've not even officially released the cause of death so we know that they're very strategic about what
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they are allowing to come out so they probably are only allowing things to come out that they know that they have
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other proof or evidence that this is very much case related this is information that we want to allow to go
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out to the public and what was that one statement that they had that a neighbor or neighbors had seen a suspicious
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vehicle that they reported to be possibly a dark suv that whole statement too and knowing that the last time she spoke
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with her mother was 7 p.m that night i'm starting to feel like the sun goes down
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in indiana that night and something bad happened to tracy in that general location after the
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sun went down because again i'm going back to the difficult vague description provided to police
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by a potential witness of a possibly dark suv something either their memory is not
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great or something is causing them to not be able to see the vehicle extremely well over the next couple of years after
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tracy's body was recovered in 2004 only little bits of information trickled out but nothing that really changed
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what we've already related to you thus far in this case indiana state police sergeant jeff
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decker told the republic that the police were choosing not to release the cause of
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death so it would not create problems in any police interviews decker did confirm
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that they believe tracy to have been killed elsewhere and dumped in the area where she was found investigators
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continue to work the case and would say only that they continue to talk with people they haven't ruled
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either way on this being in or out as possible suspects well people have to understand something that's simple again
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you see this in like the delphi case where people want to know the cause of death they want to know
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what happened they want to know those details they think that somehow those details are going to help them solve the
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case when they're doing their internet web sleuthing right but in this case you might have somebody
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that comes forward and says hey look i was talking with my boyfriend i was talking with my girlfriend or whoever i
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was talking to and they said that they're responsible for her death well how did they kill her oh well they
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said they shot her and if that's not the cause of death then you're less likely to believe that
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lead and people might naturally think that she may have been shot and it not be the case at all right right why would
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they naturally think that because ammunition was found in her abandoned vehicle now one thing that did come out this was
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in 2006 so what you're saying is by releasing that information it's kind of a deceptive
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way to put out information there that might not actually matter by law enforcement well not only that
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but you may not have any control over it you may be going back and retroactively
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creating that strategy meaning if they announced that the vehicle was found remember the vehicle was found before
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her body was located right and even months before the body was even identified so there may have already
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been information out there to the general public whether it was in a newspaper or on the news or just known
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in her inner circle that all they found they found her vehicle before they found
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her body and there was there was bullets in that you know sitting in a box in that back the back
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seat of that vehicle now one thing that did come out in 2006 that the police discovered in their
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investigation and this is per the indy star was that tracy system was trying to kick a drug habit or recently had kicked
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a drug habit her family said that she had a troubled marriage and that her body had no trace of drugs
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in her system so there was a toxicology report done on the body on the remains and there were
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no drugs found to be in her system at the time of her death well that's what i wondered because you know in the missing
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or the vanishing women case in chillicothe there was several victims that they thought were
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just overdoses right and so if there's an overdose at a party they don't know what to do and and
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because they're all drug addicts uh struggling with that addiction they don't want to go to jail
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so then they get rid of their they get rid of the body well in this case we know for sure that it's a
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homicide the people who know tracy told us that tracy's estranged husband michael sissom
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had a crack cocaine habit and that he had gotten tracy hooked on drugs as well but we know that they were not together
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at the time that she disappeared and we also know based off of what the family has said that she was trying to
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kick the habit or had kicked the habit and then you have to go back to the toxicology report that may back up that
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statement that she did in fact kick the habit and she ain't going back to michael's system
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if he's if he's hooked on drugs and and part of the problem now clearly based on this clean talk
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screen at her autopsy again we know that this shows tracy was moving forward moving on from that
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addiction but her troubles with drugs and an ongoing court situation with her first husband and her estrangement from
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her second husband and again the unknown identity of the people driving the blazer provided a
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fairly long list of potential suspects in my opinion yeah i agree in 2006 the family announced that they were offering
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a ten thousand dollar reward for credible information on tracy's death her sister shelly
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told the indie star quote we are pleading for any information anyone will have on my sister it has been two long
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years there is a void it makes you wonder how cooperative these exes are with law
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enforcement because you'd think that even her first husband look he has a he has a dog in the fight in the sense
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they have children together and he would you know want to know her whereabouts obviously and then
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for his children's sake he would want to know one what happened to their mother so he can explain that to them later but
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also who is responsible and to see that justice is done for the mother of his children well and
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along with this same announcement here captain of the family offering up ten thousand dollars reward for credible
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information on tracy's death they did quote rebecca sandlin who is tracy's mother as saying quote someone out there
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did this to her it's not fair they are living eating breathing having fun acting like nothing happened
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no something happened something terrible happened [Music] all right we're back you filthy
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filthy filthy animals take a bath i can smell you from here somebody in this garage needs to take a bath
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somebody stinks up in this garage oh by the way uh tcg 10 gets you 10 off of crime con in las vegas and the plan is
00:20:28
that we will be there so that's our promo code unless something changes i like to say it's a definite but
00:20:38
we've been some through some trying times yes and we're all in this together so a little stat for you
00:20:45
and a hopeful stat is that there were three phases of the spanish flu so we're in the third phase
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of covid so maybe we're closer to the end than the beginning so keep your fingers crossed
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and here's something that i found online here captain that i want to make sure that we
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send out to the whole world here because it's a case that's near and dear to our
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hearts the tony muncie case which was one of our bonus episodes that we released years ago and still is
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available to this day for purchase and download to listen to but on sunday august 29th
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and again this is something i found online this is not a direct advertisement so don't don't hold my
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feet to the flames here everyone but on sunday august 29th at 10 pm eastern tony's episode will be airing on tv on
00:21:39
the investigation discovery channel so if you want to continue to follow that case and that case was successfully
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solved check that out on sunday yeah you can find our episode on our website truechromegarage.com or
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also in the itunes store you can buy it directly from itunes i'd recommend getting the episode
00:22:02
listening to it and then sitting down and watching what uh id has to say yeah in 2008 tracy's case was featured on a
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deck of playing cards now we've seen this in several other cases throughout the years this is a deck of playing
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cards that is handed out to inmates in the state prison system they will often put missing persons or
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unsolved homicide victims on these playing cards and give them out to the inmates because they
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have time to sit around and play cards and they're hoping that maybe someone will see her picture
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get a little bit of information maybe they know something maybe somebody on the inside has told them something or
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maybe someone they knew on the outside told them something and then they can pass that information along to law
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enforcement now remember that tracy's body was found wrapped in a quilt far from the apartment that she was vacating
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found in rural brown county investigators said that they had not been able to uncover any nexus between
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tracy and that area tracy was from indianapolis and had no connection whatsoever that they could find
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to that rural area at all brown county prosecutor jim oliver told the republic quote she was last seen in indy she
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lived in indy we don't know what the brown county connection is he said he believed investigators should
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focus on marion county where indianapolis is located this seems like a very important hint
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that officials believe that whoever killed tracy was close to home now before we proceed any further it has to
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be said that this is one of the most frustrating cases that we've looked at in a while due to the lack of
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information our efforts to obtain documents and reports were stonewalled in every direction we
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submitted foia requests for police reports and autopsy reports those were denied
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but again this case is 17 years old right we've not seen a ton of movement on it
00:24:08
it's time it's time to put out some more information well it's so frustrating because you know that there's people
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involved or people that are possibly close to her that have information that they're sitting on
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and it's you know why wait and and this idea that somebody committed this murder and
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just sitting around like eating their hot cheetos having a good time no this is weighing on them
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well it weighs on them all the time we managed to unearth some information some more information and
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talk to some sources that we will relay to the listeners in hopes of stirring up
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some interest in tracy systems case we did a lot of digging in this case to try to get to the bottom of who killed tracy
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our feeling was that police have to know a lot more than they are saying and i think we're right our sources
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people close to the case we are not naming them tell us that there is indeed a prime suspect a number one suspect in
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the murder of tracy sissom and police know exactly who he is we are talking about tracy's estranged husband michael
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lee sissom according to our sources when tracy went missing and then turned up murdered police went after michael's
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system incredibly hard so she's in i bet you they thought that they were going to
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get an arrest and soon a conviction early on in this case right police were convinced that michael
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had shown up to the apartment that night that tracy was cleaning out and that the
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two had some kind of altercation and he killed her and then dumped her body system was a
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indianapolis native as well growing up in the same neighborhood as tracy did but our sources tell us that michael
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system had many ties to brown county as well that he grew up hunting in that area and that he
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is intimately familiar with the area where he dumped tracy or where her remains were found
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that is interesting we're being told that this guy is the prime suspect we're being told by law enforcement the tracy
00:26:21
system has no ties we can't find any connection between our victim and where we found her body brown county
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how now brown cow yeah but we're being told by the sources that not only is this dude the prime
00:26:36
suspect but there are obvious connections between him the suspect and where the body was later found
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according to the sources michael was dealing drugs when the police were pressuring him about tracy's murder
00:26:51
and the cops started badgering his drug associates about his activities so the the heat was getting too hot hot in the
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hot so he skipped town he ended up in oklahoma and then he was in missouri for a while where he beat up
00:27:06
a guy who owed him money from a pool game apparently he beat this guy up so bad that he was arrested in january 2006
00:27:15
and he was facing a decades-long sentence for the assault some have said that the woman that he married right
00:27:22
around that same time he married this quote unquote girlfriend so that she could not
00:27:29
testify against him and that all of the other witnesses were deemed incompetent in that case because
00:27:36
they had all been drinking in the bar when the fight occurred so these charges captain end up getting reduced to
00:27:43
felony theft right so he beats up this guy the motive for beating him up was because the guy owed him money from a
00:27:50
pool game well apparently after he beat up this guy he took that money from the dude so
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they didn't charge him with the physical assault they charged him with stealing the money well how much money
00:28:02
i you know i don't know how much it was but what happens here is five dollar bill and a coke
00:28:09
not only do the charges get reduced but the sentence gets reduced as well so he he ends up looking at decades long or
00:28:17
more charges originally this ends up only being with him plea taking a plea deal and
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getting sentenced to six years he ends up serving one now here's what we've learned obviously
00:28:30
michael sissom has a violent past in which he faced charges for that assault right
00:28:36
but women who have dated him say that he would choke them and that he was abusive
00:28:42
during their relationships what a romantic they said that at first he would come across as a great guy but
00:28:48
then he would become emotionally and physically abusive and manipulative he assaulted one woman he lived with in
00:28:55
indiana after his release from prison and when she filed charges and saw his restraining order he sent someone over
00:29:03
to tell her to keep quiet so there is a conviction on his record relating to that incident a misdemeanor
00:29:12
battery charge for the assault which occurred december 23rd 2008. he also has a disorderly conduct
00:29:21
conviction in indiana from 2002 and as we said he did a little bit of time in prison for that missouri assault
00:29:29
on the pool player so he has a violent temperament and he likes to put his hands on women that's
00:29:34
what we are being told tracy's family has not spoken out to the media directly about michael and tracy's relationship
00:29:42
and whether it was violent or not but we do know the two were estranged and tracy was living on her own in that
00:29:49
apartment that she was clearing out when she vanished and our sources tell us that tracy had filed for and been
00:29:56
awarded a restraining order against michael so if if the dead could talk then that's
00:30:05
tracy telling us that yes this guy was violent to me toward me as well [Music] tracy and michael met i guess
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much earlier in life when they were in high school michael actually dated tracy's younger sister shelly
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now shelly was the most vocal advocate for her sister's case shelley would even call up michael
00:30:27
sissom and beg him to provide the family with answers and tracy's death asking him to confess
00:30:34
to the murder for the sake of their child because remember the two had a kid together
00:30:39
and not only that residents of the tight-knit community where both tracy's family and michael's
00:30:46
family live i'm being told that it they all seem to know that michael had something to do
00:30:53
with tracy's death that this is sort of an open secret in that area well here again let's go through the list real
00:31:00
quick violent temperament puts his hands on women we have a restraining order that was issued against him
00:31:07
from the victim and he has connections to brown county which he would his connections are not just that he
00:31:16
knew the area but he was very familiar with the royal parts of the area because he went there to hunt not only that some
00:31:23
are saying the specific area where tracy was later found right now let's go back to 2004 right around
00:31:31
the disappearance time when tracy disappeared michael sissom was telling people who asked about you
00:31:38
know what happened to his wife that she had left permanently that she had taken the two girls and left and
00:31:47
then went to live in various crack houses in indianapolis he said that he had gotten her out of
00:31:53
the crack houses and moved her in with his mother and that one day she went to pick up her child
00:32:00
support payment from her ex-husband and he warned her not to blow it on drugs and she just never came back
00:32:08
okay so of course this story is absolutely ridiculous this is what our prime suspect is telling people in town
00:32:14
so this okay this weiner spanker he is saying oh no no no no no no she she laughed and and she was she was going to
00:32:22
all these different crack houses and i'm the one that that was trying to get her clean
00:32:27
yeah he's saying hey don't be doing that stuff around our kids and don't be spending your money on drugs but the
00:32:33
problem with his story captain is this does not account for any of the time that she's living on her own in her own
00:32:40
apartment or moving in with her mother borrowing the blazer from her father to move you know what i mean it's it's like
00:32:47
a convenient way for him to explain away why she is not around anymore and blame it on the victim and what's
00:32:56
interesting here too you go okay well what does any of this mean does it mean anything nick and i say yes it does
00:33:02
it what it means to me is you have her other family the rest of her family are going
00:33:08
where is she we don't know what happened to her oh but this guy's got a story right
00:33:12
right he's got a story a story that we know does not line up with the facts of her life leading up to her disappearance
00:33:20
how convenient and he can say whatever he wants i i that's the unfortunate truth here that's
00:33:26
the harsh truth here is that the the possible offender lives to die another day and can tell
00:33:34
whatever tale he wants between between then and now she's not here to to defend herself and
00:33:42
and tell us exactly what happened what we do know from the talks report captain is that
00:33:49
drugs were not found in her system when she was murdered right so look like you said
00:33:55
he can say anything he decided to create some story some fictitious [ __ ] and it doesn't make any logical sense
00:34:04
with what we know that she was moving out of her apartment that she was going to move in with her family that she
00:34:09
borrowed her father's vehicle it doesn't make any logical sense but it doesn't matter to him he just
00:34:16
this is the story i'm going to tell and i'm just going to stick to that and you can you know it's [ __ ] because you
00:34:22
go doesn't make any logical sense well and what it looks like to me here captain is that the family's theory is
00:34:28
that tracy was at her apartment loading things into the blazer as she said to everyone michael must have shown up
00:34:36
despite this restraining order the two argued he strangled her then he wrapped her
00:34:42
body in a quilt and drove her to another part of the state a part of the state that he is familiar with to dump her
00:34:50
and here's the thing too it would be really important and i know that the family's not been very vocal and shelley
00:34:57
was really tracy's most vocal advocate sadly shelley has passed away in the years
00:35:06
so it would be really interesting to know and i think it would be important to know whether the quilt tracy was
00:35:11
wrapped up in was this recognized by her family as one that belonged to her or the family or is
00:35:18
this something that we can put up there and say look this this quilt did not come from the victim did not
00:35:25
come from the victim's family our most the best explanation we would have is that it belonged to the killer
00:35:32
well and the tough thing here again is if the point of interception or the point of
00:35:40
abduction is her apartment what was she doing at the time she was packing up stuff
00:35:46
so the killer would have plenty of opportunity especially when you're moving you have your boxes everywhere
00:35:52
and things are open and you're packing blankets that you normally don't use did they just pull this quilt from our
00:35:59
own belongings did they move her body with her father's blazer these are things obviously we don't know
00:36:06
but a very good point if the family goes we don't know whose quilt this is never seen it before
00:36:14
but but then the difficult thing is if you say well this quilt is from her ex-husband
00:36:20
well one could argue well maybe she took that with her when she moved out so that that becomes the difficulty
00:36:29
thing or if you go well that quilt is from you know from his mother's house or something i
00:36:39
still think that becomes difficult to prove because they they did have a relationship they were married
00:36:45
they did live together for a time period some of his belongings could have become hers
00:36:52
another thing that would be very helpful to know is what happened with this chevy
00:36:56
blazer right how did how did it get into the possession of this man and woman who ditched it when
00:37:02
they were pulled over by police well i bet mine hurt i would bet money that maybe her ex he's sitting there going oh
00:37:09
yeah i had to go around to different crack houses and get her out of those crack houses
00:37:14
okay you're a crackhead yourself that means you run in circles with crackheads it probably won't be that
00:37:20
hard to sell that car for a little bit of drugs it's a nice vehicle hey if you just give
00:37:28
me some drugs i'll give you this vehicle well in this look he's not a great guy he's not even a good guy right this
00:37:35
michael guy that we've discussed oh he's a bag of [ __ ] but everything i've been
00:37:39
told is he's a you know he's an intelligent man and that he's would not be dumb enough to if he killed tracy he would
00:37:47
not be dumb enough to be driving around the chevy blazer that he would have known better than to drive around
00:37:53
the vehicle that was tied to his missing and murdered wife with whom he was not supposed to be in contact with
00:38:00
right but people close to the case believe that he likely ditched it somewhere which makes sense so that
00:38:05
somebody else could magically come along and steal it in the middle of the night
00:38:10
or that maybe you know if he if he is dealing drugs then maybe he traded it off to one of
00:38:17
his drug associates or called in a favor from somebody well again that goes back
00:38:23
to the circle of people that he runs around with you have a currency that's different than money because you
00:38:31
have addicts and so they sometimes they'll do things that they normally wouldn't do
00:38:38
maybe at some point they're a good person but because of this addiction they'll steal from their families they'll steal
00:38:45
from others they'll burglarize the neighborhood they'll steal from little kids they
00:38:51
might even murder somebody well and you have a situation here that i find to be very interesting captain where we have
00:38:57
the potential of other suspects right we have a fairly large suspect pool that i would say we have it could be an
00:39:04
unknown person it could be these two unknown people that were seen driving the vehicle
00:39:09
it could be her first husband but what we end up having at the end of the day is sources telling us no it was
00:39:16
the most recent husband it was michael's system and he had a violent past he was
00:39:20
not supposed to be around her and he probably was trolling her and bothering her
00:39:26
and that somehow they met up or he found her that night cleaning out the apartment and they got into some kind of
00:39:34
altercation well no i i would lean towards that because i think the other thing too is
00:39:39
she's not found with drugs in her system and so that was probably a control technique for him hey i'm using drugs if
00:39:47
i get you hooked on drugs i can control you more we already know he's abusive and one of the things that abusive men
00:39:55
do is they divide and conquer divide them from their family divide them from their their actual personality by
00:40:03
getting them hooked on a substance and one of the things that i believe and i don't know how true it
00:40:11
is but what i believe is sometimes these guys get in these horrible rages when they realize
00:40:18
i can't control this person anymore i have lost the ability to continue the path of abusing them and doing whatever
00:40:27
i wish to them and having them be under my control so we already see some kind of separation she's living in our own
00:40:35
apartment but maybe he shows up that day and realizes she's clean she has kicked the habit
00:40:41
she's kicked me out she's kicked the habit she's moving back in with her parents i can't control her anymore and
00:40:48
then flies into a rage and not only that if everything that we're being told is true
00:40:54
michael was an addict himself i don't know his current situation but you just said all of the things that
00:41:01
that people that are drug addicted may do for money or for whatever other resource
00:41:08
he was an addict at the time of her disappearance so that becomes a whole another
00:41:14
possibility it could be it could be the the drugs are more responsible for his actions than he is
00:41:22
and that's where look he got a plea deal one time in in missouri there's still time if he in fact did
00:41:28
this there's still time for him to do the right thing and if he's not going to do the right thing there's other people
00:41:34
out there that know i i'm convinced of that that there would probably usually these people
00:41:41
even in personal cause homicides usually they tell somebody something and i gotta believe man if this guy is
00:41:49
hanging out with people that aren't so much on the up and up or if he had a call in a favor to have the vehicle
00:41:54
moved or or help him in any part of cleaning up and covering up this murder right somebody definitely knows
00:42:02
something well it makes you wonder what happened to the children because like you're saying this 17 years ago
00:42:08
and yes she had three children they're all grown adults now they grew up without a
00:42:15
mother but they also grew up without knowing what happened to their mom yep and again like we said what we
00:42:21
suspect is that she kicked a habit that she was turning her life around and like i've always said like and we see it
00:42:29
a lot of times with true crime cases where they don't get as much attention because you find out the person
00:42:36
was suffering with an addiction and i always go well it's just as sad to me because they lost the opportunity to
00:42:43
turn everything around they lost the opportunity to become maybe what they were supposed to become
00:42:50
all along but they got sidetracked and so these poor children grow up not knowing what happened to their mom
00:42:58
probably being fed lies from other parts of their family they deserve answers just as well as the rest of her family
00:43:06
does her oldest two were raised by her husband you know their father and then her youngest who she had with
00:43:15
michael system was eventually raised by tracy's family they're probably all in lockstep with of
00:43:23
trying to figure out what happened not just to their mother but to their daughter their sister
00:43:29
and so on now as we said captain this is a very frustrating case tracy deserves justice and so far she has not received
00:43:36
it based on what we were able to learn this is one of those cases like another indiana case that we've covered of a
00:43:44
murdered wife charisse bingham where police know who did it but for whatever reason the powers that be
00:43:51
don't feel like they have enough to bring charges we can only hope that the indiana state
00:43:56
police detective chris fears who told us that this is an open and active investigation is correct and that this
00:44:04
case is being worked and might one day be solved the recent arrest of heidi ferkis's
00:44:10
husband nick 11 years after her murder also gives us hope that this even after all of these years have passed that
00:44:18
these murdered wives can find justice [Music] if you have any information that can
00:44:37
help in this case of tracy system or any of the other indiana cases that we have
00:44:42
mentioned in today's podcast please contact the indiana state police at one 1-317-232-8262
00:44:54
or for other ways to reach out to the indiana state police you can go on their website at in.gov
00:45:02
can't thank you guys enough you filthy animals can't thank you enough for listening to us every week in the garage
00:45:10
joining us in here being our friends being our buddies and for that we got a little something for you how
00:45:17
about some recommended reading thank you captain this week we are recommending the corridor killer by prolific and new
00:45:24
york times best-selling true crime author catherine ramzlin this book the corridor killer is not about just one
00:45:32
particular killer but about several true crime stories from the great state of delaware check out the corridor killer
00:45:40
and for more recommendations visit us at truecrimegarage.com until next week be good be kind and don't litter
00:45:56
[Applause] [Music] you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most heartbreaking

Episode Highlights

  • Tracy Sissom's Mysterious Disappearance
    14 days after Tracy Sissom was last seen, her abandoned vehicle was found. Her remains were discovered 70 miles away.
    “Her body was dumped into a rural area.”
    @ 03m 15s
    August 19, 2021
  • Family's Plea for Information
    In 2006, Tracy's family offered a $10,000 reward for credible information regarding her death.
    “We are pleading for any information anyone will have on my sister.”
    @ 18m 31s
    August 19, 2021
  • Frustrating Case
    This case is one of the most frustrating due to the lack of information.
    “This is one of the most frustrating cases that we've looked at.”
    @ 23m 45s
    August 19, 2021
  • Prime Suspect Identified
    Sources indicate that Tracy's estranged husband, Michael, is the prime suspect in her murder.
    “We are talking about Tracy's estranged husband, Michael Lee Sissom.”
    @ 25m 12s
    August 19, 2021
  • Tracy's Children Deserve Answers
    Tracy's children grew up without knowing what happened to their mother, leaving them with unanswered questions.
    “These poor children grow up not knowing what happened to their mom.”
    @ 42m 56s
    August 19, 2021
  • Hope for Justice
    The recent arrest of Heidi Ferkis's husband gives hope that justice can be found.
    “These murdered wives can find justice.”
    @ 44m 18s
    August 19, 2021
  • Recommended Reading
    This week’s recommendation is 'The Corridor Killer' by Catherine Ramzlin, exploring multiple true crime stories.
    “Check out 'The Corridor Killer'.”
    @ 45m 27s
    August 19, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • It has been two long years.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515
  • Someone out there did this to her, it's not fair.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515
  • It's time to put out some more information.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515
  • This story is absolutely ridiculous.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515
  • The possible offender lives to die another day and can tell whatever tale he wants.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515
  • These poor children grow up not knowing what happened to their mom.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 2 /// 515

Key Moments

  • Cheers to Listeners01:19
  • Investigation Updates01:24
  • Tracy Sissom Case03:01
  • Frustration23:45
  • Children's Pain42:56
  • Hope for Resolution44:06
  • Gratitude to Listeners45:05
  • Closing Remarks45:45

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown