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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:44
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man who knows that strange things are a foot here at
00:01:51
the Circle K here is the captain I know that the garage Studio smells like a foot it's good to be seen it's good to
00:01:58
see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend today we are sipping on an IPA
00:02:10
called True Believer by twin elephant brewing and any longtime listener of our little garage show knows that I love a
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little fruit to cut the bitterness of an IPA and True Believer is a great IPA with honeydew grapefruit and a little
00:02:26
hint of cantaloupe garage grade 4 and a/4 by model caps and here's the cheers to some of our true crime garage True
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Believers first up a big thank you to Norine in Highland Hills New York and a big shout out to Caroline in Stoneham
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Massachusetts next up Captain we have Vanessa in St George Utah and a big shout out to Taylor in Fort Worth Texas
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all right Captain we have chrisy and hillbilly Ville Pennsylvania that sounds made up that's where I went to high
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school right that sounds made up not not unlike our parts Unknown where we live and last but certainly not least
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a big cheers to Spencer and Houston Texas thank you to everyone for contributing to this week's beer fun
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yeah we couldn't do it without you and if you'd like to support the show and get something in return go to True Crim
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garage.com and check out our store Page and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a
00:03:24
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] very fascinating case on our hands
00:03:58
Veronica is missing scene and pretty quickly we have a very suspicious suspect in her boyfriend Jeff well where
00:04:09
we left off Veronica Bloomer has been missing for 14 years by this point the mandota police department gave
00:04:16
Veronica's family access to her case File and in that file it contained a report that Veronica's boyfriend Jeff in
00:04:24
an interview made strange statements and threw out some concerning hypotheticals
00:04:29
mhm that basically added up to Veronica was hurt and killed and placed somewhere
00:04:35
that no one would find her and there were reasons why Jeff could be responsible for this again this is
00:04:43
Jeff's statements after hours of being interviewed with no recording of any kind to back any of this up and all in a
00:04:52
report written after the interview and the case File report went on to state that according to people who knew Jeff
00:05:02
after Veronica vanished that Jeff voiced two theories he liked to share about what had happened to Veronica the first
00:05:11
was that he thought maybe she went to track down her birth parents and they were not happy about this and they did
00:05:18
something to her the second theory was that perhaps an ex-boyfriend had hurt her because he was jealous and the ex
00:05:27
decided if he couldn't have her no one could this is all a bit strange to me here Captain because let's let's pretend
00:05:37
for a second that Jeff is perfectly innocent the theories don't seem to be they don't seem to carry water very well
00:05:47
do they like the first one of her tracking down her birth parents again I'm getting the impression time and time
00:05:54
again with Veronica that she is an open book her family knew what she was up to what she was into her co-workers were
00:06:02
always told what her plans were yeah and question who took her to find her parents she left her car like if her car
00:06:11
was gone maybe that's somewhat of a plausible Theory but you also leave at 1 a.m. in the morning to go find your
00:06:20
birth parents just doesn't make a lot of sense right poor timing and to top that
00:06:25
off look maybe she didn't want to hurt her parents her adopted parents' feelings
00:06:30
for whatever reason but again this is a unique situation where she has an older sister who's adopted as well she could
00:06:37
have bounced this idea off of her and they were close and I don't see why she wouldn't and then to take it a step
00:06:45
further why would the parents decide to hurt her and do something terrible to her yeah makes no sense wouldn't you
00:06:52
just say go away you know we don't we don't have any life with you mhm um you know that so that doesn't seem seem to
00:06:59
carry much water but then you do have the ex-boyfriend Theory maybe that is something that that Jeff was was right
00:07:09
about well this okay so the story goes that she dated this police officer he became
00:07:15
Chief and they only went on a few dates and he was kind of possessive and was also like saying well maybe you should
00:07:25
wear this outfit or wear these types of clothes so it it ended as quickly as it began so and there's no evidence that
00:07:36
after they broke up that this guy was in the picture anymore right right so I do like the
00:07:44
theory of maybe an X or something of that nature but again then you have to wonder is this just Jeff coming up with
00:07:51
alternative theories that do not involve him being the bad guy mhm but he also came up with some theories that he is
00:08:00
the bad guy well maybe I thought she was pregnant maybe I pushed her maybe I hit
00:08:05
her uh so much so that they looked at his family's property mhm they did not find anything now I believe that Jeff
00:08:14
took a lie detector at some point yes he did so what we have here with the possibility of any of Veronica's exes
00:08:26
according to her family she did not date anyone as seriously as she did Jeff and
00:08:33
remained friendly with most of the guys that she was no longer seeing three guys
00:08:39
in fact were interviewed they all had aliis and two passed lie detector test from what I could find the investigators
00:08:48
considered Jeff the target of their investigation from what we have been able to gather Jeff agreed to take a lie
00:08:56
detector test the results have not been released to the public but Veronica's father said in an interview that Jeff
00:09:04
failed miserably yeah he did as well as OJ did police conducted a search of Jeff's
00:09:14
family's property they followed him on a daily basis before too long Jeff lawyered up and stopped cooperating with
00:09:22
police he has made only one public statement which was quote I have been told not to say anything end quote in
00:09:31
September of 1991 so more than a year after Veronica disappeared MH police dogs searched Lee
00:09:40
County Farmland that was owned by the vevera family on Maytown Road with kadav dogs but again found nothing yeah
00:09:52
because Jeff stopped talking to police and nothing has been found that connects him to Veronica's disappearance he has
00:09:59
never been charged or even named as a suspect or a person of interest at the public level right but he also hasn't
00:10:08
been cleared so I think that's something now a lot of people go hey big red flag
00:10:14
he failed this test we don't know obviously if that's true I think if there was information given to the
00:10:21
father and he's saying that he failed I believe that seems like the father's a standup guy but the red flag for the
00:10:29
family is that he lawyered up now I'm actually going to go against the family on this one because we have an
00:10:35
individual that had an accident has issues with memory loss he seems obviously a little unhinged by the whole
00:10:45
situation to the point where he is actually making up scenarios that don't involve him but making up
00:10:52
scenarios that do involve him at some point you have to protect this individual if this is your family member
00:10:59
well right and if the hours long interview again I take a lot of what I've been told was said in that
00:11:07
interview with a grain of salt but if maybe the hours long interview unnerved him so much that either he's guilty and
00:11:17
he lawyered up or he's perfectly innocent and he's just feeling like I'm really uncomfortable they're trying to
00:11:23
put this thing on me I need to protect myself and I do want to Champion something you said uh just a minute ago
00:11:33
in regards to the father's comments about Jeff and his lie detector and failing miserably I I feel like you feel her
00:11:44
father seems to be a standup guy a very honest guy he does not strike me as the type of person to say something just to
00:11:51
say something he doesn't strike me as the type of person to say something unless he believed it 100% to be true
00:11:59
and as you pointed out in yesterday's episode he had friends he knew some people at the police department he was
00:12:06
very likely behind closed doors told that information and he's saying this years
00:12:12
and years after the fact he doesn't even strike me as the type of dude that is saying it just to throw Jeff under the
00:12:19
bus no so I absolutely believe that if Jeff in fact failed it that that information
00:12:27
probably found its way to Veronica Father Paul and he's saying it decades later in an interview well in a normal
00:12:35
situation I'd say cuz I like Li detectors I know we can't use them in court but I like it I think it gives us
00:12:42
a a barometer so I don't think we've used the word deduce yet which I think we by
00:12:50
law because we're a true crime podcast we have to use the word deduce but what we can deduce from this also is or what
00:12:58
you you can't deduce from it is what is his capability of passing the test anyways if he has shortterm memory loss
00:13:09
issues because of his accident yeah and not only has he not been cleared as you said but it also appears that he became
00:13:20
the focus of their investigation and remained the focus of their investigation for many many years to
00:13:28
come mhm the case File also reflects a police theory of what they believe might have happened to Veronica in which it
00:13:37
says that she got into a vehicle with someone she knew person unnamed some type of argument ensued and she got
00:13:47
pushed from the vehicle suffering a fatal or near fatal injury and then the driver of the car then hid her body in a
00:13:58
panic mhm it's weird that they come up with that theory not because it's unlikely
00:14:04
but because it also kind of Echoes some of the things that officer John P was saying he was able to pull from Jeff
00:14:14
during his interview naturally police also looked at anyone who could have followed
00:14:21
Veronica home from work that night to see whether someone else could have harmed her I think we're going to get to
00:14:28
the G that I got a little gut feeling about female employees at the Super Value told investigators that a guy who
00:14:37
tended to loiter inside the store and flirt with female employees may have been in the Super Value that evening
00:14:45
during Veronica's shift Sharon vaner Veronica's friend said this guy often came in between 9 and 11:00 p.m. two to
00:14:56
three times a week and he rarely bought anything other than something small and cheap like a pack of
00:15:03
gum most of his time in the store was spent talking to female employees this obviously including Veronica he creeped
00:15:11
out the women who worked there this guy also bragged to the female workers that he was an EMT or some type of security
00:15:20
guard cops looked at this guy I could not find his name but obviously they know who he is but he is said to have
00:15:29
had an alibi for the evening of September 19th and 20th yeah but here's what I don't like about this this is
00:15:36
also a guy that's rumored I don't know if he found this but he they're like well we don't know where he was at that
00:15:43
night but there was Rumors by the the people that she worked with Veronica's co-workers that say that the guy came in
00:15:52
the next night asking about her and stating which movie she rented the night before
00:15:59
how how would he know that if he wasn't in there that the night before right and or let's say maybe he
00:16:09
was in there the night before mm but maybe his Alibi his Alibi only needs to be good from 1:07 a.m. and on MH so he
00:16:19
could have been in the store before maybe they had that conversation I'm with you I don't think it's very likely
00:16:25
that that conversation took place I think it's suspicious that he would know that she rented a movie one and be
00:16:33
so inclined to even say what the name of the movie was well not only did he have a history
00:16:40
of talking to you know people in the store a extensive history of talking with Veronica mhm and I think she had
00:16:50
such a nice demeanor that she this individual probably didn't creep her out she probably enjoyed a little bit of the
00:16:59
attention or maybe just thought he was being friendly the other thing that's tricky too is I've heard people say that
00:17:07
he was going into the store two or three or more times a week up until The Disappearance of Veronica and afterward
00:17:15
he really backed down on the number of times that he was going into the store on a weekly basis right which would lead
00:17:22
you to believe that the motivation for going into the store was Veronica mhm be it good or bad
00:17:29
police also questioned an 18-year-old man who stopped at Super Value on September 19th this to pick up a few
00:17:37
items Veronica was his cashier he checked out at 11:49 p.m. this guy told police that while in the store he heard
00:17:48
Super Value employee Jason stepanich also 18 years old telling Veronica he'd be back to pick her up at
00:17:58
the end of her shift but both the customer this this is a confusing part in the story so I need to
00:18:06
to follow along with me here everyone out there in listener land but both the customer and Jason denied that this ever
00:18:15
happened okay so Frankly Speaking here Veronica had her own car at work we know that nobody's
00:18:24
arguing that at all why would she need any one to pick her up at all it doesn't make any sense the customer said in the
00:18:34
Jim Hagerty series series that this is absolutely not true he never told the police any of this so this is just some
00:18:45
madeup report that they have he says he says I'm guessing they fabricated that into the report because I never said
00:18:53
that there was nobody else in the store besides two employees and me when I checked out I don't even know who that
00:19:01
is referring to Jason stepanic that we mentioned earlier right Jason for his part admitted talking to Veronica but
00:19:09
denies telling her he would return for her to pick her up MH both of these men you like the lie detector test both of
00:19:17
these men took polygraph test and were later cleared okay per the police report it
00:19:24
says quote Jason stated that he did talk to her but does not remember saying anything like that mhm so this doesn't
00:19:32
really help clear anything up these potential suspects did not go anywhere and failed to lead to any clues about
00:19:39
what happened to Veronica the problem I have with this statement is you have police saying in the case File this
00:19:50
customer overheard another employee say to Veronica he would return later to pick her up and then you have both of
00:19:59
those individuals going on the record and telling the media and the blumer family that no neither one of I didn't
00:20:10
say that I heard this employee say that he was going to pick her up and the employee says I never told Veronica I
00:20:15
was going to pick her up why is that in the police report why is that in the case File when both of these Witnesses
00:20:24
say this did not happen I have a word for you can you say conspiracy it makes me question the
00:20:34
interview with Jeff even more is there somebody adding or manipulating things that go into the file for their own
00:20:42
benefit well hold on the reason why I I do not like how it went down with Jeff and how
00:20:51
they you know sat down days after and said let's write down those statements that he made that doesn't work for me
00:21:00
but we also have people talking and saying that they they talked to Jeff and he was coming up with theories and even
00:21:09
putting himself into those theories so it doesn't seem like they fabricated the whole idea well we need to be clear here
00:21:19
because that the people are saying the theories that he presented to them did not include Jeff as being having carried
00:21:26
that out oh see I I thought there were some people saying that he wasn't making full theories but he
00:21:34
was saying what if I got mad at her and pushed her or what if those were the theories that he told to the police
00:21:43
interview so those were never told to other people cuz I from what we just reviewed it's it's he told police
00:21:52
according to the police file again according to the police file he told officer John P in that closed door
00:22:02
interview a hypothetical that he could have killed Veronica in an argument and maybe it that she was pregnant or maybe
00:22:11
she wasn't right it was several different versions of that same story but the people in the case File that are
00:22:18
cited as saying Jeff is spouting off theories about what happened to Veronica he's not including himself
00:22:27
right I I thought I heard from her family that he was maybe not given full theories but it was maybe we got in an
00:22:36
argument or maybe I did pick her up I I thought that was said to the family but I I could be mistaken on that it's
00:22:44
difficult because we later have the statements of another individual and I believe that they remain nameless but uh
00:22:52
we we'll continue through that before we get into that I just want to talk about
00:22:58
the difficulty of collecting DNA in a case like this if you recall Veronica was adopted
00:23:07
by the bloom Hurst she was not in contact ever with her birth parents and neither were Paul and Betty Veronica's
00:23:17
adopted parents in the interest of having Veronica's DNA on hand in case a body was found and for evidentiary
00:23:26
purposes should there be suspect investigators collected some of her personal items from her parents as we
00:23:35
shall see that did not go as planned and after time passed the availability of Veronica's DNA was significantly
00:23:44
decreased as items that she definitely came in contact with were harder to come by attempts were made by authorities to
00:23:52
unseal Veronica's adopted adoption papers but the Catholic charity that handled the adoption refused okay so
00:24:01
what does this mean there's a couple different versions of the story whether the parents willingly gave this stuff to
00:24:07
police and investigators or if the police collected It Whatever nobody is arguing that they had it that the police
00:24:15
had it forget about how it was obtained but they all agree that police had items
00:24:21
that could have contained Veronica's DNA very likely could have contained her DNA
00:24:27
yeah one of the things that the father did was he took their bed sheets her bed sheets and gave it to police so what we
00:24:35
learned after all this time is that those items have magically disappeared yeah and this is where it
00:24:44
gets a little tricky for me is they claim well we moved buildings and that's how we probably
00:24:50
lost it I think these are good cops years later trying to come up with the explanation
00:24:58
of what the bad cops did because they would have been moved out of that one building it would have
00:25:07
all been sorted out by the time she went missing so I think it's good cops looking back on going how how do we not
00:25:17
have these bed sheets and evidence well it must have been when we're moving stuff from this building to that
00:25:23
building and things probably got lost what that means at the end of the day is they do not have her DNA on file mhm
00:25:32
so if a body who is that has been hidden for 30 years is recovered or a body that
00:25:39
was hidden for 5 years 25 years ago and and uncovered if they cannot look at the
00:25:46
remains and go yep that's Veronica there is no DNA to test to confirm if it is her or not that's a very big problem for
00:25:58
this investigation now let's go to the glass half full end of it and report this it
00:26:06
has been stated that Veronica had extensive dental work which could be used to identify her but that means her
00:26:14
skull has to be found the records have been added to the National Database so we do have dental records for Veronica
00:26:24
again no DNA which really freaking [Music] stinks this show is sponsored by better
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[Music] [Music] today all right we're back cheers you filthy animals we've touched on the frustrating
00:29:04
lack of evidence in Veronica's case no evidence to lead investigators directly to a suspect this case went cold and
00:29:12
remained so for years and years decades really M despite the lack of movement Veronica's brother Todd continued to
00:29:21
campaign to find his sister he created a website dedicated to her and started the
00:29:27
Facebook page that gathers information and has directly challenged the manner in which the investigation was conducted
00:29:35
he also engineered searches of the nature preserve and other areas unfortunately Todd died in
00:29:43
2013 from a rare genetic cancer he died believing that the boyfriend Jeff killed
00:29:50
his older sister and never giving up his fight to find her Todd's mission to find
00:29:56
Veronica has been taken up by family friend Doug truckenbrod who was designated the bloom Hurst family
00:30:04
spokesperson here's where the case gets interesting Doug lived across the street
00:30:08
from the Bloomer as a kid and Doug is in some ways also a potential witness perr
00:30:14
the Rockford Advocate the day after Veronica went missing Doug recalled vividly something he had observed the
00:30:21
day before at around 11:45 p.m. on September 19th 1990 Doug was on his way to his third shift job at RNR Donnelly
00:30:33
when he pulled into a gas station there he noticed an SUV with a camouflage paint job and a logo indicating it was a
00:30:43
security vehicle for Wood Haven Lakes a camping resort which was about 12 miles away at that moment he didn't think much
00:30:52
of it when Veronica vanished Doug became fascinated with the case as many did in
00:30:58
the small town he says quote I was talking to my mom about the boyfriend and she mentioned his dad that he was
00:31:08
the head of security at woodh Haven end quote this is what doug told Jim Hagerty
00:31:14
Doug pointing out that the presence in town of the security vehicle on the very night Veronica was last seen and the
00:31:22
connection of the vehicle to remote property accessible by the Vera family mhm Doug reported the sighting of the
00:31:31
vehicle to the Mota Police Department this again investigator John P Doug troen Brad became one of the motans who
00:31:41
embraced the whispered theories that Jeff had done something fatal to Veronica the 2004 release of the police
00:31:49
report highlighting Jeff's suspicious statements solidified him as Prime Suspect number one in the eyes of men
00:31:57
many including Doug and Todd Bloom Hurst who did not try to hide the fact that he
00:32:04
suspected Jeff of killing his sister but when Doug took up the mantle from Todd in
00:32:11
2013 and began carrying out his promise to continue to pursue Justice in Veronica's case he started to unveil
00:32:19
some startling information his public pleas for people to come forward resulted in people
00:32:25
starting to talk and now after 30 years this case has been substantially Advanced over recent months by his
00:32:35
efforts Doug spent years digging into the case and keeping his ear to the ground for rumors and information that
00:32:43
could be helpful and someone who wished to remain anonymous came forward and told him some interesting information
00:32:52
the local Source had heard that quote Veronica was strangled possibly shot wrapped in a blue tarp and dumped over
00:33:00
the west side of a metal bridge in Knox Road near Bartlet Woods this area was near the part of the
00:33:09
nature preserve that had already been searched but the source said the search area needed to be expanded they didn't
00:33:17
search far enough this bridge is about 3 miles from the verika property and per the Jim Hagerty series early searches
00:33:28
had focused on a small area Northeast of Knox Road between hankle Road and big Bureau Creek about 3 miles from the town
00:33:37
of sublet Illinois The Preserve had been searched in 2012 with kadab dogs in searches
00:33:45
organized by Todd based on Psychic evaluations of the case now the source says police
00:33:54
continued West if they would have have continued West they would have likely have found clues about 475 to 500 yard
00:34:03
Downstream near a creek belly that's about 10 to 12 ft deep mhm this is a tributary of the Illinois River I cannot
00:34:12
say within feet but she's either in the belly of the creek before the 90° Bend or around the area of the hay bales next
00:34:23
to it possibly even under them the source said if they search in that area they would either find her remains in
00:34:31
the water or some sign of her buried near there the source also said he believed that a gun was used to kill
00:34:39
Veronica and this gun was disposed of in a Creek in Mendota in 1992 by a woman who had received the gun
00:34:48
from someone else so this does not sound like a murder committed by a controlling
00:34:54
boyfriend to me in a crime of of passion who then panicked and hid her body this
00:35:01
might sound like someone getting rid of Veronica in a methodical killing mhm someone who knew what he was doing and
00:35:09
who had knowledge of how to dispose of a body this is where we have to look into the idea of did the police bungle
00:35:20
the investigation or is there a cover up because this case is one of those in which it is easy to see why people
00:35:29
believe that there was some kind of police cover up either the mandota police department m a small town force
00:35:38
with zero experience investigating disappearances and possible homicides was borderline
00:35:44
incompetent or it was the typical story of a bad seed cop who was at least to a certain extent sheltered by some of his
00:35:55
own there is some evidence for this latter Theory right has more legs than you're giving it when Veronica went
00:36:04
missing the mandota police collected some of her personal items as we said a toothbrush hairbrush and bedding from
00:36:11
her room of course potential sources of DNA but no one knows where any of these things are so is that somebody removed
00:36:22
these items from police evidence or did they just screw it up the other thing you have to think about too is
00:36:30
Veronica's car and garage the area surrounding the garage this was never processed when she went missing right
00:36:38
was this on purpose or was it just all she's missing we think we'll find her there's no need to search for Footprints
00:36:46
or tire tracks or hair or any type of other evidence that could have been found at the time but why a conspiracy
00:36:54
why a conspiracy yeah what are they covering up well I don't know that I would go as far to say that the entire
00:37:03
police department would be covering this up right and to me you might only have to have one person covering their own
00:37:12
tracks so not a conspiracy at all just really one person manipulating everything to remove themselves as a
00:37:21
potential suspect right despite the small town nature of the police force and inexperience of its officers and
00:37:28
handling these types of cases the MPD repeatedly turned down requests from the Bloomer family to call in investigative
00:37:38
assistance from the Illinois State Police was this because they were certain that Jeff was their man or
00:37:47
because someone did not want an outside agency meddling in the Affairs of the mandota PD and of course we have already
00:37:56
covered that the police seem to have failed to record or properly transcribe Jeff's interview with all of his
00:38:04
supposedly incriminating statements again this is either small town incompetence or something much more
00:38:13
Sinister so now 30 years later Doug and others are calling into question the police placement of blame on
00:38:23
Jeff recordings and transcripts that do not exist that all seem to point to Jeff being the
00:38:29
guy that's the only red flag that goes up and circles itself around Jeff and further some of the things Jeff
00:38:38
said supposedly said made no sense it really does not seem likely that he would have thought Veronica was pregnant
00:38:46
at all he knew all about her mono and her upcoming doctor's appointment for that ailment yeah Veronica's family says
00:38:56
they have proof that Veronica was not pregnant at the time that she disappeared the only thing I have a
00:39:02
problem with that is again we don't know his the extent of his condition of memory
00:39:08
loss so is it possible that he did forget that she was sick we also don't know again it's it's fool's gold right
00:39:18
we we have nothing to back up these supposed statements that he made to police other than the word of of one man
00:39:26
who should be in the circle of suspects in this case so here's the thing about you you talk about his memory lost he
00:39:37
had a a motorcycle or dirt bike accident when he was like 14 or 15 so this is something he had suffered for years
00:39:44
before Veronica and him were even an item one thing that's interesting though it emerged recently that on the day
00:39:53
before Jeff was questioned by police on September 23rd Jeff participated in the bloom Hurst family session with psychic
00:40:03
Greta Alexander she is the psychic that led them to search the Nature Preserve in
00:40:11
the course of this search Greta mentioned that Veronica was hurt by someone in the course of an argument
00:40:18
about her health or possibly a baby she stated that Jeff's motivations were suspect Jeff heard all of this as he was
00:40:29
present and also privy to this psychic's observations was John P who the very next day would question Jeff supposedly
00:40:41
enlisting comments about how maybe he went crazy thinking about her being pregnant as we said a kadab dog search
00:40:50
was eventually conducted of property owned by Jeff's Family a year after Veronica went missing nothing was found
00:40:58
but but not the property his dad worked at correct of course there are plenty of
00:41:04
places to dispose of a body in the area and it's not clear whether Jeff really has an alibi for that night you know was
00:41:13
he at home watching a movie as he said his mom said that he was home as well but we know how those family member
00:41:21
aliis can be erroneous mhm but on the other hand there is nothing whatsoever tying Jeff to Veronica's disappearance
00:41:31
because it seems to me a little too good to be true that he just walked on into the police department and basically
00:41:37
offered up all of those semi incriminating statements clearly he did not offer up a full confession because
00:41:44
he was never charged never arrested never named publicly as a person of interest but didn't he also get rid of
00:41:51
his car like pretty early I don't have any information about him getting rid of a vehicle well so supposedly he gets rid
00:42:00
of his vehicle he was looking for a new vehicle before she went missing but so she goes missing he gets rid of it and
00:42:09
then he gets the same exact car as Veronica and then he doesn't get a license plate for it and she had
00:42:18
something where it was like her initials some lucky number or her initials and then like her birth
00:42:27
date or something and he did the same thing so got the same exact car and did this the whole initial birth date type
00:42:37
thing on the back of his car as well H and it's kind of a odd car her car wasn't like was a Chevy Corsica right
00:42:46
but it wasn't like uh I don't think they were super popular I don't know much about the the vehicle I always thought
00:42:54
of corsas as a pretty common vehicle back in the early 90s the weird thing too is their initials are very similar
00:43:03
as well now Jeff was mandota PDS focused from from day one day two however you want to argue it that's clear Doug troen
00:43:15
Brad does not mince words about Jeff's supposed involvement he says quote I think he was manipulated into saying
00:43:24
what he did in the police report and once he lawyered up the person who killed Veronica was free to Fumble along
00:43:31
and Destroy any Trails he himself left furthermore not only might Jeff have been railroaded but there may have been
00:43:41
someone else who was responsible for what happened to Veronica there was one more person reported to be in the Super
00:43:48
Value Store on the night that she vanished according to the Rockford Advocate series a source indic ated that
00:43:56
an unnamed man was in the Dempsey's Super Value on Veronica's last night there for about 30 minutes but purchased
00:44:06
nothing he left the store at 11:39 p.m. the presence of this man in the store did not appear in any of the police
00:44:14
reports and he was never questioned what does this have to do with Veronica and her still being missing 30 years later
00:44:23
family spokesperson Doug troen says that his team of citizens just like himself who have been sleuthing around
00:44:31
Motta uncovered evidence that Veronica kept certain things about her personal life private and that they may have
00:44:39
contributed to her disappearance mhm and Doug has a theory about who this man at
00:44:45
the Super Value may have been apparently there were reports from several independent sources that Veronica was
00:44:54
seeing another guy on the side unbeknownst to her family and certainly unbeknownst to Jeff and this man may
00:45:02
have been a police officer per the Rockford Advocate quoting family spokesperson Doug troen Brad quote we
00:45:10
are looking into details about that reported relationship it may have been going on for some time before her
00:45:17
disappearance what we are fairly certain of is that this man Veronica was seeing
00:45:24
was married he was someone who was familiar to her and not someone she had recently met apparently Veronica also
00:45:33
knew this man's wife the rumors are that she had tried to end things with Jeff in
00:45:41
order to be with this other man although these may have just been that rumors right okay so this could be far-fetched
00:45:52
right the bloom Hurst family does not seem to endorse this Theory even though the spokesperson seems to mhm according
00:46:03
to Carolyn Veronica's sister who spoke publicly for the first time earlier in 2020 Veronica was not a duplicitous
00:46:13
person she was not capable of hiding things that were going on with her again we talked about the possibility of
00:46:21
Veronica being an open book she says that she was one of those people who wears her heart on her sleeve Carolyn
00:46:28
does not believe that Veronica would have been cheating on Jeff with a married man she and Jeff have been they
00:46:34
were discussing marriage as we said and she seemed to be happy with Jeff at the time right Carolyn also says if she had
00:46:42
been seeing someone else on the side she would not have been able to hide it for
00:46:47
very long now on the other hand Carolyn did reveal to Doug that things were not all as it seemed with Veronica and her
00:46:56
relationship with her family she and her mother did Clash and she had a little bit of a Wild Streak it is not at all
00:47:05
clear what Doug is referring to when he says Veronica was hiding things because those things have not been made public
00:47:12
right but maybe there was a side of ironica that her family didn't know about including Carolyn her sister who
00:47:19
didn't live with the family at the time of The Disappearance one didn't live with her for quite a while so give a
00:47:25
couple couple years and and she's a little Veronica was getting a little older here's where things go off the
00:47:32
rails the sources who were telling Doug that Veronica was seeing a married cop they even provided Doug with a name
00:47:41
the married boyfriend was a cop who lived right across the alley behind the bloom Hurst family MH this person would
00:47:51
have had a full view of the bloom Hurst garage and from his property this married cop was also
00:47:58
seeing another neighbor on the street which this woman admitted to later in other words this 20-some cop was a
00:48:07
womanizer Carolyn later said that this cop would stare at her and her sister as they went in and out of the yard and
00:48:16
then it made them feel very uncomfortable who is this guy don't squeeze your beer cans too tightly or
00:48:23
your testicles the married cop who was alleged to have been in some kind of relationship with Veronica was John P
00:48:30
officer John P the one who lived right behind her house and was the first on the scene
00:48:37
that day when Jeff reported her missing the one who was in charge of the investigation into her disappearance the
00:48:44
one who focused the blame on her boyfriend in his police report the one who possibly deliberately messed up the
00:48:52
examination of her car and who may or may not have seen to it that her personal possessions with her DNA on
00:49:00
them went missing from the Mendota police station mhm yeah because the what I heard at first I didn't actually hear
00:49:10
about this idea that Veronica had a intimate relationship with the police officer the idea was that he would have
00:49:17
been coming home you know he he was married he he he had his wife at home he was coming home from the neighbor's
00:49:24
house that he um was having an affair with and somehow got caught by Veronica and you know made her go
00:49:35
missing so he didn't get busted that was the first that I heard that's an interesting Theory too because either
00:49:43
way it's presenting a theory where the two officer John and Veronica had some other type of relationship that wasn't
00:49:52
just we we're neighbors right that either either Veronica had some dirt on him or she was involved with him it well and
00:50:01
give a reason for them crossing paths that night right yeah so I'd like to know what his Alibi was so it seems like
00:50:11
something out of a movie Something fake something unreal but what makes this crazy tale somewhat believable is that
00:50:18
the sources who told Doug about the relationship between John officer JN and Veronica
00:50:26
whatever again whatever the nature of that relationship was Doug says that these were law enforcement officers that
00:50:33
told him this right that there was some some kind of relationship these were guys in the area of law enforcement
00:50:42
groups who knew JN one of them also knew the police chief at the time Ken Han who
00:50:48
apparently also suspected JN this crazy story appears to have some legs to it some hairy legs some hairy disgusting
00:50:58
spider legs dirty legs one way that this story would make sense without Veronica
00:51:03
being someone completely foreign to her family someone who would would date a married police officer betray her
00:51:12
boyfriend and and behave in ways that her family and friends found unbelievable is if
00:51:17
John made up the whole thing okay this guy was a known womanizer and creep who's icit relationships ended up ending
00:51:28
his marriage mhm and remember Carolyn said he would watch girls from his own yard across the way in a creepy fashion
00:51:37
so what I'm getting at here Captain is it possible that maybe officer John bragged to some of his cop buddies about
00:51:45
relationships with women that he was not in fact actually having yeah or did he pray on weaker individuals and possibly
00:51:53
it wasn't as consensual as he made it out to be and that's where you go with this thing right what if in some weird
00:52:01
way he's bragging to his cop buddies hey that 21-year-old good-looking girl over
00:52:07
there me and her are a bit of a thing but in reality he's stalking her yeah or yeah sexual fantasy or again he he might
00:52:17
have sexually assaulted her maybe he raped her and like we said he he's somebody
00:52:24
that's in the area that would have had knowledge of just you know not not that she's gullible but it would be an
00:52:32
individual like I said a weaker individual that you possibly could control yeah and you don't even have to
00:52:39
dubber as gullible because for all we know Veronica thought of Officer John as as most probably would as he's a police
00:52:49
officer he's a neighbor maybe he's a nice neighbor maybe he's nice police officer and your dad is a part of the
00:52:55
first responder family cops are part of that they're all good guys and this guy might just be number one creepo could be
00:53:05
a a a wolf in sheep's clothing as they say so what if he pulls up that night a little after 1:00 a.m. she's making her
00:53:16
way from the garage up to the house as she did several times a week which he could see that from his house from his
00:53:24
yard mhm he pulls up in a vehicle or ask her to come over to his his yard or garage because the way that if if you
00:53:34
view these on a map the way that these two houses they more so back up to one another where it looks to me like the
00:53:41
backs of the houses face one another so the garages are closer to each other than the actual houses would be could he
00:53:48
have asked her to get in his car and help him with something or talked her into some kind of ride and then they're
00:53:55
out somewhere he tries to move on her things go wrong and he freaks out and does something bad MH you can see the
00:54:03
way that this would play out the other thing too is if he was in fact the one that was in the store in the Super Value
00:54:11
store that night that in there for a half an hour and didn't buy anything then it looks even more Sinister it
00:54:19
looks like he was setting this up he was stalking her or they were in fact having
00:54:25
some type of relationship was he just in there to to chat and interact with her right and let her know that he'd meet
00:54:32
her at her car after she got off work or whatever you mentioned earlier and this
00:54:37
is a bit of an aside another potential conflict of interest in the case and you find this typically in
00:54:46
small towns the current police chief Greg Kellen went on some dates with Veronica but this is going to be way
00:54:54
back in the the day you know this case is 30 years old well I wonder if he was the quote unquote
00:55:02
possessive guy he was he was the one that Carolyn said Veronica had told her that she was uncomfortable with Greg for
00:55:12
whatever reason he was either possessive or a bit controlling please keep in mind this man
00:55:18
was not the police chief back then he was he was very low on the toad pole and um yes he is he went on to be a chief of
00:55:31
police but other than this little aside to it it doesn't seem like there was much more to the story other than they
00:55:38
went on a couple of dates Veronica for whatever reason didn't really like the guy and she broke it off with him right
00:55:44
in December of 2019 Doug troen Brad announced that a civilian search was planned for the spring of 2020 near Knox
00:55:54
Road in in big Bureau Creek about 8 m north of mandota the area is near the forest preserve that was searched
00:56:03
previously this is because the family stated in a release that they had received information that Veronica was
00:56:10
strangled wrapped in a tarp and dumped over a Knox Road Bridge into big Bureau Creek near sublet this was the
00:56:19
information from the source that we discussed earlier the land that was subject of the upcoming search was
00:56:26
private and the owner a local farmer he granted permission but this search has been put off indefinitely thanks to co
00:56:37
Doug troen bro stirred up enough movement flushing out sources who claim to have material
00:56:44
information that the Cold Case Foundation with its season investigators agreed to take on the case good for them
00:56:52
and good for him and based on all the suspicious findings and information they have managed to get the case in front of
00:57:00
the FBI who is now actively working the case got him well good for us we I helped raise a little money for the Cold
00:57:09
Case Foundation in July to help those guys out good so this is an active FBI investigation now and we have seasoned
00:57:19
investigators working this very cold case it's 30 years and by the way I cheersed you all and I'll cheers you
00:57:28
again cheers so you have to wonder is it possible that finally after 30 years does Veronica's family will they get
00:57:38
some justice done hopefully but it's it's sad that her brother didn't live to see the work that he started be finished
00:57:49
John P left the mandota police department about 14 years years ago he's currently retired possibly living in
00:57:58
Florida it sounds like the FBI may want to talk with him Veronica's family via Doug troen BR still maintains the
00:58:08
Facebook page called Remember Veronica Jill Bloom Hurst started by Todd her brother to memorialize his sister and
00:58:17
document her case it is very active with updates on her case as well as links to
00:58:24
Jim hagerty's series and posted regularly one thing I like about this case is that I feel within the last two
00:58:36
hours that we have said the three most likely suspects in this case I think that
00:58:44
Jeff he's an interesting one I think that former officer John P is very interesting as well as well as the creep
00:58:54
guy that was going into the Super Value Store two or three times a week to just bother the female employees and dress
00:59:02
the women with his eyes yeah I mean who's to say he didn't follow her home or had not followed her home before M
00:59:09
and she having spoke with him many times just thought oh he's a nuisance but he's
00:59:13
harmless right and she went over to talk to him or got in the car for any number
00:59:17
of reasons I think that what we have here Captain is a trail that doesn't lead specifically to any of these three
00:59:27
really all we have is the supposed incriminating statements that Jeff made to officer John P behind closed doors
00:59:37
what we also have is the rumors that makes John P have some kind of different relationship be it either Veronica had
00:59:45
dirt on him or they were involved somehow and then just the suspicions of the co-workers of this crepo guy coming
00:59:54
in a couple times a week El creepo it's really sad because until she is found there's nothing left to work on at the
01:00:04
moment so I hope and pray that this search gets underway and that they do find something to lead them to her and
01:00:13
possibly lead us to the actual person that did this one thing that I call in a question
01:00:20
here and would love to know is the actual time of events and how they were supposed to go down once it was known
01:00:32
that she was missing and what I mean by that is when was it discovered that Jeff
01:00:38
and Veronica were going to have lunch that day was it just that day when he called and all of a sudden he discovers
01:00:44
that she's missing oh by the way we were going to have lunch or did you know did
01:00:49
Jeff know about the what time the doctor's appointment would be and did he magically time up that call
01:00:57
perfectly to her father shortly after the doctor's office called mhm and really and it's hard to say looking back
01:01:06
30 years ago what the actual events were supposed to be in their order and the times that they were supposed to happen
01:01:14
because I think that could shed a little more light on what category to put Jeff
01:01:19
in in this case [Music] again thanks for listening thanks for the support if you're looking for our
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we have any recommended reading for this week this week we are recommending tantamount the pursuit of the freeway
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Phantom serial killer by Blaine parau and Victoria Hester we have recommended this awesome True Crime writing Duo
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before these two great authors are putting out some really fascinating Cold Case True Crime stuff so you'll want to
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check out tantamount and other great recommendations at our website true Crim garage.com and while you're there one
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thing I've been doing at my house captain I gu the beer fridge I like to put a lot of stickers on my beer fridge
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pick you up some true crime garage stickers and decorate your beer fridge and go with the super pack if you if you
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buy pack one and pack two cost you a little more money go with the super pack you get them all little discount there
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for you and until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] you can start your stay off right when
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