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Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514

November 05, 2022 / 48:28

This episode covers the case of Tracy Sisson, a missing woman from Indianapolis, Indiana, whose body was discovered in a wooded area in 2004. Key discussions include the timeline of her disappearance, the discovery of her remains, and the investigation that followed. The hosts, Nick and the Captain, analyze the circumstances surrounding her case, including the unidentified couple linked to her vehicle and the challenges faced by law enforcement.

Tracy Sisson was last seen on September 20, 2004, while moving out of her apartment. Her family reported her missing the next day after she failed to return home. The investigation took a turn when her vehicle was found on October 4, 2004, driven by an unidentified couple who fled the scene.

On October 8, 2004, a body was discovered wrapped in a quilt in Brown County, Indiana. The remains were later identified as Tracy's, but the cause of death remains undisclosed. The hosts discuss the lack of leads and the frustration of investigators as they try to piece together the timeline and circumstances of her death.

Throughout the episode, the hosts highlight the importance of community involvement in solving cold cases and the emotional toll on Tracy's family as they seek answers. They also reflect on the challenges faced by law enforcement in identifying victims and pursuing leads.

The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to engage with the case and share any information they may have, emphasizing the ongoing mystery surrounding Tracy's death.

TLDR

Tracy Sisson vanished in 2004; her body was found weeks later, leading to an unsolved homicide investigation.

Episode

48:28
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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
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says Today's show starts in T-minus whenever it feels right here is the captain yeah and it always feels right
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it's good to be seen good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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also donate to that beer fun and that is 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 foreign [Music] foreign [Music] goes missing seemingly Vanishing Into
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Thin Air later her vehicle turns up under mysterious circumstances this case is not without Witnesses nor
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evidence in fact some of the items found in Tracy's vehicle provide much concern but
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could also provide some answers a strange mystery couple is linked to this case but are overshadowed by a violent man
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then a body is found by pure happenstance in rural Indiana The Remains are unidentifiable so
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decompose the detectives cannot determine the gender of the remains but detectives were convinced they were
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dealing with a homicide the body was wrapped in a quilt and tossed into a wooded ravine
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someone discarded this individual out there in the woods like garbage who could do such a thing
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and why now it's 17 years later in this case is still unsolved this is true crime garage and this is
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the case of Tracy Sisson [Music] thank you let's go back to Thursday October 7th
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2004 this week's True Crime Story takes us to a rural area of the great Hoosier State Indiana today we will be starting
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off in Brown County Indiana near the Bartholomew County Line Brown County is in the southern portion of Indiana but
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Brown County is pretty much in the center of the state on this Thursday we have a man named Pete Jones driving on
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Nelson Ridge Road East of the town of gnawbone that's an ominous sounding Town name it was nighttime and it was dark
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suddenly his heart jumped as a deer leapt into the road he slammed on his brakes his tires Screech as the brakes
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locked up but it was too late deer versus truck is never good for the vehicle or the deer the two collided
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with a loud crash the truck came to a stop and the deer somehow managed to run off Pete was
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shaken and stirred cautiously he drove off glancing around to make sure there were no more oncoming Bambi's when he
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got home he got out of his truck and he realized that one of his running lights was missing of course it must have come
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off in the Collision he decided mainly because these lights are 75 dollars a piece he would be going back during
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daylight hours in hopes that he could recover the missing running light and that it would be in working order when
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he locates it so the very next day Friday October 8th Pete drove back to the area where he thought he had hit the
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deer looking for the car part so he could possibly have it reattached he parked so he could get out on foot and
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look around for this missing piece but just as soon as he got out of his truck he noticed a foul odor and his first
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thought was that of the deer but quickly he thought to himself that smells like Decay and a deer could not have decayed
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that quickly now here's one of those heart-stopping life-changing moments Pete saw something
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unusual lying in the Ravine next to the road and it was not his truck light that
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he was hoping to find this was something large wrapped up in some kind of blanket
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when he opened it to take a look and wish that he had not he saw death because unfortunately it was a very
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badly decomposed body rolled up in a quilt and tossed into the wooded area along the roadside
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the authorities were called in immediately because the call came in from a location so close to the county
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line officers from both Brown and Bartholomew counties arrived on the scene and worked the scene together yeah
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I think I would have just called law enforcement I don't think I would have had the guts to open up the blanket what
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we have here is basically an unidentifiable murder victim the county officers know that immediately this
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person did not kill themselves then roll themselves up in a quilt and get to that
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wooded area but what happens here Captain is that the remains are so badly decomposed in
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such a advanced stage of d-comp that the detectives from the sheriff's department
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can't make out the gender of the victim or an age so not much really to go on as
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far as the initial investigation goes the body was removed and taken off to the Brown County Morgue the scene was
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roped off and secured and again officers from both jurisdictions blocked off the
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road and scoured the scene for any possible evidence that they could find now I'm playing devil's advocate here
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Captain when I say this but I've seen some photographs of this location where they recovered the body from
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and this is an ideal location to dump a body this is as country road as it gets Brown County only has about 15 000
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residents for the entirety of the county which is 216 square miles well you're saying this body is very badly
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decomposed what makes you think that they think it's a homicide because it could be like an accidental death or
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maybe even a overdose where somebody then takes the body and dumps it out into the woods those are all certainly
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possibilities but what everything that is going to point to for the detectives is they know somebody else knows
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something somebody out there placed this body in this location how the person died could be a mystery
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and is a mystery at this point in our timeline but we know somebody put them there now Bartholomew County
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is much more populated with about 72 000 residents back in 2004 for 409 square miles but that is still not a lot of
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people so you have this area where there's not really anybody living in the immediate area and not a whole lot of
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people that live in either County but this Nelson Ridge Road is as said very country I'm talking no
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street lights no signage there's Woods on both sides of the road so if you needed to dispose of something or wish
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that you could do it under the cover of Darkness that sort of thing could easily
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be achieved at this location the other part of it too Captain is that one might expect something to sit there
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and go undetected for a good amount of time as well is this a road that people would travel often or is this some place
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that maybe only locals would know this is a road that's kind of by the wayside that you wouldn't you wouldn't need to
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travel this road if you were just passing through the area right the other thing jump off of the interstate and hit
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real quickly correct and the other thing too is there's no reason there's nothing
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on this road in this location that would make anybody want to stop there right there's not even a stop sign placing
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something here is good for the offender or for whoever needs to dump this body because a
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if you were doing this at night time you could see headlights off in the distance
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right you would have minutes notice not seconds minutes notice that somebody will be coming your way soon and so you
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could stop what you're doing or move on and again there's no reason to stop in this location so if you're looking for
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something to go unfound this is where you put it you lose it right here and hope nobody ever finds it
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now we said that the body was taken to the Brown County Morgue but the autopsy was actually performed at the University
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of Indiana School of Medicine forensic pathology division in Indianapolis try saying that three times fast
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now here is what they were able to determine our victim is a female victim between the ages of 25 and 35 and
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remained unidentified after the autopsy detectives released that the victim had a tattoo of a chain with a flower
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located toward the back of the victim's ankle adding that they were looking at all of the missing person files
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throughout the entire United States but so far have not been able to determine the identity for a second I thought you
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were going to say the victim had a tattoo of a chainsaw I was thinking that's a pretty badass test right
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chainsaw tattoo sales just went way up way up they were asking law enforcement was asking if the public you know if
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they knew anything about this case or know someone with a similar tattoo that they could call the Indiana State
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Police they included the following statement and the request for information from the
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public that because of the manner in which the body was found detectives believe the woman was killed somewhere
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else and dumped at this location prosecutor Jim Oliver said quote in most murder investigations detectives work
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really hard in the first 36 hours to solve the crime our investigators are frustrated with not having many leads to
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follow up at this point end quote that statement was made to the Brown County Democrat newspaper editor Linda
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marginson five days after the body was found so as we already knew but the prosecutor
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confirming the detectives would work around the clock trying to get evidence and leads for the first 36 hours of
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their investigation but here we have five days into this homicide and because the nature of the
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case it sounds like we have some evidence but no leads to move on and have an unidentified female homicide
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victim yeah all the evidence they have is coming from the autopsy or coming from the scene in which they found the
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body now for us Captain we don't have the autopsy report and frustratingly authorities have never released the
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cause of death here in this case the body in the blanket was that of a young woman but she could not be identified we
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don't know how long the Emmy believed her to have been dead but based on the advanced level of D comp we would say
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probably quite a while and investigators were not certain how long the body had been lying in the
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wooded area where it was found although one AP Associated Press article citing Brown County prosecutor Jim Oliver said
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that it had been there for up to eight weeks okay so we know that she was found on October 8th and been there for
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possibly up to eight weeks as the prosecutors saying in this article which would mean roughly
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August 14 2004. so these remains wrapped in a blanket were placed there as early as
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August 14 2004. well like you said this is a tough scenario for law enforcement because they'll have a lot to go on it's
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not like there's been a missing girl in the area for years and they go oh this is probably her they don't have a lot to
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go off of and even after you find the body Captain you know that whomever placed the victim there
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now has had some time to cover their own tracks you've not been able to identify
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the victim you can't check on the victim's Inner Circle can't find out where the victim came from obviously you
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find your victim in Brown County if you don't have anybody that matches a vague description
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missing from your county you know you're going outside of of your box there immediately and and like you said
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there's if they had any leads they're drying up real quick based off of the victim not being able to be identified
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as well as the prosecutor saying the the victim could have been at this site for up to eight weeks well
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but they also did leave something behind that is identifiable the blanket there could be some fibers
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or some DNA left or even pet hair so that is a mistake that maybe the killer did
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make I'm wondering if this individual or the people that place the victim there I'm guessing that they thought that the
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body would remain there for quite some time before somebody found it yeah now this would have been late fall we've
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said this on the show plenty of times because it's just one of the hardcore facts of True Crime that spring is
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typically when bodies are found in wooded areas this is because Hunters go out after the winter The Long Winter
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short winter whatever kind of winter you have and that's when they start going out and
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walking these country areas and that's usually typically when something's found so had this guy not hit this deer and
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lost a light there's a chance in my mind anyway that they wouldn't have found this body for several more months well
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he also becomes a suspect that's true for a short period of time I I would assume that they would start with him
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and go was he just telling us this as a ruse so now let's go figure out where he was
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what's his Alibi yeah at the very least show me some damage to your truck yeah because you're you're right Captain
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that's that's the first thing you gotta hone in on as an investigator you're going okay well this guy has he found
00:18:10
the body so he put himself at the dump scene why was he there yeah nobody again this is a spot where nobody really has a
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reason to be in this location so why was he there I'm sure he would have been looked at
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what we do know about the cause of death which as we have said has never been addressed publicly well we know that
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this case was treated as a homicide very quickly and right after the medical examiner viewed the body now per the
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Northwest Indiana Times Brown County prosecutor Jim Oliver said investigators were treating the case as a homicide
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although the body had not been identified at that point quote I don't think there's much doubt
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Foul Play was involved here end quote that's what Oliver said okay so it was evident to someone presumably the
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medical examiner that this woman was murdered that she was a murder victim and even though the cause of death has
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never been released an Insider in the case told us that the cause of death is listed on the death certificate as
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strangulation so the ways that this could be evident on a badly decomposed corpse is if there
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was some kind of ligature still on the body or marks in the flesh from a ligature or if the hyoid bone was broken
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which usually results from a violent choking but like you said the bodies so badly decomposed how did they go about
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trying to identifier right because that's your number one concern that's your first objective here
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to hopefully get an ID on the victim now Brown County authorities looked into missing persons reports within the
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county but no missing persons report had been filed in the county that matched the
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description of this female victim that they found so they reached out to other nearby jurisdictions
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they provided a description of the body as a young white female with dark hair and a tattoo still visible despite the
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d-comp and as we stated earlier the prosecutor described that tattoo as a chain around the right ankle with a rose
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or some kind of flower on the back of the ankle the other interesting thing though here captain and this is
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something that we just don't see law enforcement do very often but something you brought up which is an interesting
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angle and one that I'm curious as to why the this angle is not pursued more often
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you mentioned that one thing that should be more easily identifiable if it crosses
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the right person's eyes would be that quilt right they keep describing this thing as
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a quilt not a blanket quilt to me is like handmade passed down throughout the years maybe grandma made it maybe your
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favorite aunt made it usually these are family type items yeah sometimes made from articles of clothing that the
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family owned the captain is quite the quilt maker everyone should know that but again we don't see law enforcement
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do that very often do we where they let's take a picture of this quilt and there there's probably reasons why we
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just don't know what they are but I question that from time to time when you seem to be so desperate to to ID this
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body you think you'd be pulling out all the stops here and and post pictures of that uh put it on the news in the
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newspapers and what have you well we had a handmade curtains that they found at the scene of Amy malovic's death they
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didn't release that information for years yeah it almost felt like a lifetime between the time that she was
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found and when they showed us pictures of the curtain well finally captain on October 15th a missing person's report
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came into the Indiana State Police or ISP for short this report came from the police department in Indianapolis a
00:22:15
woman named Tracy Sandlin storm system was reported missing in Indianapolis the missing woman fit the description of the
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body found in Brown County Tracy's dental records were obtained from her family and sent over to the Indiana
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State Police it's not at all clear why it took such a long time to definitively ID the body
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because eventually that's what happens we are going to ID the body as this Tracy system but it was not until
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December 17th that an announcement was made by the Indiana State Police this is the lead
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investigator on the case Chris fears that indeed the body they recovered from the woods was Tracy sissom Tracy was
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just 33 years old when she was killed detective fears learned that Tracy had last been seen on September 20th in
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Indianapolis so this fits the timeline of the body that had been there for up to eight
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weeks but September 20th is the last day that she was seen and I have other information that we will
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we will go into as we go along here and based on that information I believe she was killed on or very near the date of
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the last time that she was seen September 20th is a little more recent than I had expected based off of the
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quote up to eight weeks comment now back to something real quick before we move on the missing persons report was sent
00:23:53
by the Indianapolis Police Department to the Indiana State Police on October 15th
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it turned out per the Indiana Star newspaper that Tracy's family reported her missing the day after she was last
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seen so September 21st so this missing person's report wasn't really connecting to anything until
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nearly a month later but for some unknown reason her missing persons report was not connected to the
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body found on October 8th until at least a week after it was found part of that could be though Captain it
00:24:30
seems like the the hard push to release some information in this case and to tell the world that we found a body that
00:24:38
we cannot ID didn't really come about until about five days after they found the body so that would account for some
00:24:46
of that time but again it was not proven to be Tracy for another two months there's clearly a lot of stuff going on
00:24:53
behind the scenes here that we just don't know about and a lot of time was wasted due to delays and lack of
00:25:01
communication in this case [Music] from the east coast to the West Coast cheers everybody and cheers to you the
00:25:35
crispiest cheers to you Captain cheers to the people in the back I have a quick announcement here I have an event coming
00:25:43
up raising some money for the Ohio history connection and for the porch light project as well
00:25:49
Thursday August 26th is the date the event is called uncovering Ohio cold cases a conversation with myself and
00:25:58
James Renner this is a webinar so an online event so wherever you are and whoever can attend simply by purchasing
00:26:05
a ticket and you can purchase a ticket at Ohio history.org again that is Thursday
00:26:13
August 26 and ticket information is at Ohio history.org so be there or be square be
00:26:21
square and be there we don't care all right Captain this case takes place in 2004 the Tracy System case and as we
00:26:30
said it takes quite a while for them to even identify the victim I will say that
00:26:36
I'm a little surprised at the how recently she had last been seen right the bodies discovered on October 8th and
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she's reported missing on the 21st of September as having been seen the day before
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September 20th and I'm just basing this off of the prosecutor's statement of well the body could have been there up
00:26:58
to eight weeks that makes me think that the me or or on that day when the body is discovered when they are first
00:27:06
looking at the body and the scene they're going okay well we're seeing a level of decomposition here that shows
00:27:13
us probably that the victim's been dead for six weeks maybe up to eight and really we have a situation here
00:27:20
where it was just a few weeks between the last time that she was seen that she was alive and well and then later found
00:27:28
dead in this wooded area you wonder if the body was stored or kept somewhere for some period of time that may have
00:27:37
increased the decomposition on the body or I didn't get a chance to check into this
00:27:43
or look it up maybe it was a particularly hot few weeks there late that summer going into fall and that
00:27:51
could have increased it as well there could be any number of factors there but uh it's it's curious to me but once they
00:27:57
have the identification of the body and they know it's Tracy the case just sits there for about two years
00:28:04
yeah this is going to bring us to about 2006 on our timeline here and I'm sure that they're well I shouldn't say that
00:28:11
I'm sure I know that there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes just nothing that made the news so no real
00:28:18
news coming out for about two years this until the Indiana star reported that family members have many unanswered
00:28:26
questions but they are not getting many answers from the Indiana State Police investigators are closely guarding many
00:28:34
of the clues detectives did not tell the family how Tracy system died but insisted that the death was in fact a
00:28:41
homicide not even the family was told the official cause of death of the young woman in the quilt according to the
00:28:49
article this is I mean not only did you lose a loved one but you you naturally have so many questions when somebody
00:28:57
dies or in this case is murdered at such a young age but now you have a situation
00:29:05
where you've not only lost that person and you have that giant hole in your heart but hell you got kind of a hole in
00:29:12
your head too because you got no answers to go along with what happened to to your daughter or your sister yeah it
00:29:19
makes you wonder if because she was found like in a different location if law enforcement's just not taking it as
00:29:26
serious as they should I think they were I think there's probably a situation where it's just it might be complicated
00:29:32
right it might be a complicated investigation yeah I'm just saying as the family you're you're sitting there
00:29:38
going and and we don't know what kind of communication law enforcement's having with the family how because in some of
00:29:45
these cases like Delphi it seems like they're very open and letting the family in a little bit
00:29:52
as far as what investigation tactics they're using so we don't know what kind of communications happening between law
00:29:59
enforcement and the family this is true and in this case we have the Indiana State Police as well that we're talking
00:30:06
about and Tracy systems case so let's go and get to know our victim a little better shall we because that's the first
00:30:13
step in trying to get a lead on this thing so who was Tracy Tracy Sandlin storm system was born on December 27
00:30:24
1970. she was a lifelong native of Indianapolis a city that you and I have been to many
00:30:31
times Captain a great City Tracy graduated from Howe High School in 1989 when she died she left behind her
00:30:39
parents Rebecca and John her sister Shelly and her brother John Jr she also left behind an ex-husband and an
00:30:48
estranged husband and three children all of whom lived in Indianapolis according to her obituary Tracy was a
00:30:56
member of Holy Spirit Catholic church and owned an operated Sugar Creek Rottweilers where she bred and cared for
00:31:05
her show dogs Tracy had a great love of animals obviously and worked with several
00:31:10
veterinarians throughout her life Tracy got married when she was young and had two girls in quick succession her
00:31:18
husband Richard storm filed for a divorce in October of 2000 and the divorce was granted in December of 2001.
00:31:28
Richard and Tracy were awarded joint custody of their girls by the Hancock Circuit Court
00:31:35
meanwhile during the whole divorce proceedings Tracy got married again getting hitched
00:31:43
to a Michael system on January 25th 2003 then she gave birth to their son Shane so at this point we have Tracy
00:31:53
Michael her new husband baby Shane and Tracy's two girls sharing a house this is a house that Tracy got in the divorce
00:32:03
settlement from her first husband from that first marriage but that living situation didn't last
00:32:09
long by the time Tracy was reported missing in September of 2004 Michael and Tracy had split up and had been split up
00:32:18
for quite some time and were estranged from one another all right let's get into Tracy's
00:32:25
disappearance there is minimal reporting about her disappearance but what little
00:32:31
there is all says the same thing so this is all confirmed Tracy was last seen September 20th at 30th Street and Post
00:32:40
Road in the Far East Side neighborhood of Indianapolis this was an apartment complex where
00:32:47
Tracy was living at the time but she was in the process of moving out so she is there on this day September 20th to
00:32:55
retrieve her belongings because she is now moving in with her mother who also lived in Indianapolis
00:33:03
on this day Tracy called her mom around 7 pm and told her that she was gathering
00:33:09
the last of her things and then she would be home soon I've not been able to determine Captain
00:33:15
if this call came from a landline or a cell phone right she said that she would be home soon but she never arrived
00:33:24
at the time Tracy was using her father's 1995 Chevy Blazer to help her move her things
00:33:32
the vehicle was also missing so when they noticed that Tracy is missing they noticed that
00:33:38
the vehicle is missing as well the vehicle is not found at Tracy's apartment like you said she's moving
00:33:45
away from her husband well she lived in the apartment by herself they had already been separated for quite some
00:33:51
time by this point and she's moving back in with her mother now we have zero information whatsoever
00:33:59
on how and when Tracy's family discovered her missing status and noted that the Blazer was also missing so we
00:34:07
know that she spoke with her mom on the 20th and we know that the following day a missing person's report was placed
00:34:15
was made by her family right so sometime after 7 pm on that night and sometime the next
00:34:22
morning they probably decide hey she should have been here by now it's been overnight we're not only missing her
00:34:28
we're also missing the vehicle that was lent to her to help her move her things you also have to wonder too if they went
00:34:36
out there and presumably they did out Sue Tracy's apartment to look for her and the vehicle if they were able to
00:34:43
access the apartment maybe they're seeing things in there that's causing concern as well maybe you know when you
00:34:49
hear your loved one tell you hey I'm gathering up the last of my items and I'll be home soon well you could open up
00:34:57
that front door to the apartment and the apartment tell you a different a different story yeah and it's a good
00:35:03
thing that they didn't hesitate to report her missing so that's the best that we can narrow down the actual time
00:35:09
of her going missing we know that she made that phone call on at 7 pm on the 20th we can't say for certain if anyone
00:35:17
in her family went to the apartment to look for her I presume that they did that's just natural reaction that's what
00:35:24
most people would do so you have to wonder if they did this Captain did they find the front door locked unlocked uh
00:35:32
did they find things still inside the apartment was there any sign of a confrontation or struggle those answers
00:35:39
to those questions we just don't have any any idea we do know that someone in her family reported her missing on the
00:35:46
day after she was last seen this again the 21st we also have no information on Tracy's cell phone or if in fact she
00:35:53
even had one it was 2004 so it seems likely that she would have had one if so and if the police were able to obtain
00:36:03
any helpful information on the cell phone we don't have any idea this is information that's not been released to
00:36:10
the public but all of the reporting on the story discusses where Tracy was last known to be so that is not a question in
00:36:18
this case we know that she was last reported to be at her apartment this information came from her mother who
00:36:26
said that Tracy called her from there if there was a cell phone and it showed that she was at some other location
00:36:32
after that time you'd think the family would have said so publicly when they have spoken out about this case yeah I
00:36:39
wonder what the family's feelings are about the ex-husband because that obviously is the I think even though
00:36:45
they were separated for a time period before this like you said she moved on to apartment by herself and now she's
00:36:53
moving back home with her parents you go well I mean that's the number one person
00:36:58
you look at right and just with identifying the body identifying The Remains how quickly we see from there
00:37:06
being no leads to now all of a sudden here in the garage we can see the suspects start to emerge right they they
00:37:12
step out of the shadows and present themselves ourselves a little bit we have her first husband that she's been
00:37:17
divorced from for some time but you've got to look some kind of you custody issue you got to look in that
00:37:24
direction you have the most recent husband who she was in the process of splitting up with and moving on in her
00:37:32
life and then once you get to know the victim and the victim's Inner Circle that may present some other options as
00:37:39
far as suspects or Persons of Interest go and then as you pointed out earlier you always have to consider the person
00:37:46
who quote unquote found the body yeah or the possibilities that Tracy was working
00:37:52
on husband number three and who would that individual be so right away Captain when she goes missing when Tracy goes
00:38:00
missing there's no sign really no clue as to where she could be for about two weeks
00:38:08
but then we get the missing Chevy Blazer that she had borrowed turns up on October 4th in the vicinity of LaSalle
00:38:18
and Michigan Avenues so this is before the unidentified body that we later learned would be Tracy's
00:38:25
remains is found this is a few days before her body is recovered so a deputy pulled the vehicle over or
00:38:33
although it's not clear whether he was actually on the lookout for it you know did we know she's reported missing
00:38:41
we can assume that they reported the vehicle missing as well but were police actively looking for this vehicle we
00:38:48
can't say that for certain so the way this story goes is that this officer a deputy was going to pull over
00:38:57
this Chevy Blazer or attempting to pull over the vehicle anyway is what we should say here
00:39:03
because per the Indiana star a Marion County Sheriff's deputy spotted two unidentified people in the Blazer on
00:39:14
the city's East Side the male driver made several abrupt turns in Lane changes before he and a
00:39:21
female passenger ditched the vehicle in the 500 block of North Oakland Avenue and ran away
00:39:28
so an unknown couple a man and a woman are in this Chevy Blazer right the one that Tracy was borrowing from her father
00:39:36
correct she's missing and the vehicle's missing until this point and the male is driving but before they
00:39:44
could successfully pull over the driver and and pull over the vehicle the driver
00:39:50
makes some smooth Maneuvers and they're able to flee the vehicle before the deputy could catch up to them
00:39:58
now a partial box of ammunition was found on the back seat of the vehicle this is
00:40:05
according to the report says no fingerprints or other evidence were found in the vehicle said an Indiana
00:40:12
State Police spokesman but since we don't know the cause of death I mean this is great evidence to have
00:40:19
once you're doing the autopsy because if there is if she was killed by gunshot then these
00:40:26
were possibly uh the ammo that was used well and that's not what you want to hear Too a partial box of ammunition you
00:40:34
want to hear a full box of ammunition yeah just bottom still in the cellophane the Blazer was abandoned by a couple
00:40:42
about eight and a half miles from Tracy's apartment and this is just one of those really weird things no one
00:40:49
knows who the people in the Blazer were or at least if Indiana State Police does
00:40:54
know who they are they've never said the date we've identified these people or we spoke to these people or we know
00:41:01
who they are right another thing that was reported on but that we know very little about according to the Indiana
00:41:08
Channel I keep saying Indiana every time I see the word Indie so according to the Indie
00:41:15
Channel State Police Sergeant Jeff Deckard said one of the systems neighbors reported seeing a suspicious vehicle
00:41:24
this is interesting a neighbor reported seeing a dark SUV or the sergeant just clarifying here or
00:41:33
they thought it was an SUV we've not narrowed it down to a specific SUV or even eliminated a pickup truck or even
00:41:41
eliminated a pickup truck with a camper shell said Decker but again if anything came of this we don't know so the old
00:41:49
creepy camper yeah think about this Captain we this is what we know here we know that leading up to
00:41:57
finding Tracy's remains they spot the Chevy Blazer being driven by two unknown individuals
00:42:04
who are able to successfully get away from the cops long enough to park and flee on foot
00:42:12
we don't know if they've ever identified those people and then we have this statement of well
00:42:19
on the last day that she was seen neighbors I want to it says a neighbor but I've seen some reports that are
00:42:29
similar to this and I wonder if it was more than one person because in other reports it says Neighbors
00:42:35
uh reported seeing a suspicious vehicle in in describing it as a possibly a dark
00:42:42
SUV so it looks like someone either intercepted her after she left her apartment that night with all of her
00:42:52
things or somebody got a hold of her at the apartment yeah we're not getting reports like you said from the family to
00:42:59
let us know that oh her apartment was filled with her her belongings and so when they abducted her or like you said
00:43:07
intercepted her and the vehicle because you're also stating in the vehicle it's not like we're seeing piles
00:43:14
and piles for her belongings right but that doesn't mean that they didn't intercept her in a different location
00:43:19
just dump all those materials somewhere the vibe I'm getting though with that ammunition that partial box of
00:43:28
ammunition that's found on the back seat is that the family is probably telling law
00:43:35
enforcement that that did not belong to Tracy right because the way that they state that and we know how closely
00:43:41
they've held information in this case and what they've chosen to release and it's been very little but they chose to
00:43:49
release that information well you're also because she's barring the vehicle you go well that ammunition didn't
00:43:55
belong to the Tracy and didn't belong to Tracy's father correct and now you have
00:44:00
to wonder okay well could we trace this ammunition back to a person because if we could somehow
00:44:07
create a paper trail to trace it back to a person that person might be the one that's responsible for her death again
00:44:15
I believe I firmly believe that she was killed either that night or very soon after she went missing on the 20th this
00:44:24
vehicle is not found until October 4th so we have a situation here Captain where
00:44:30
we have this weird unknown couple driving it but also enough time has gone by that you could say
00:44:37
there's a good chance that somebody else may have been in possession of this vehicle at one point especially right
00:44:43
after the murder you have to wonder too would the killer have been Brazen enough to use the victim's
00:44:53
vehicle to move the body no you can use the term Brazen or you could use the term stupid let's let's create a word
00:45:01
that's both um yeah you have to wonder but it doesn't seem like again it's a situation
00:45:07
where the words that they're choosing to tell us in this case make it sound like
00:45:13
that might not be a suspicion by investigators they they may have tried that angle and came up with nothing
00:45:22
there's also been reports that are similar to this that state that there were that are a little more in depth
00:45:30
about the the fingerprints remember we said the ammunition was found but there's no fingerprints found in
00:45:36
or on this ammunition or in the Blazer that they called into concern so was it wiped down was the vehicle
00:45:44
wiped down or was it just whoever drove the vehicle or moved the vehicle wasn't in it long enough to
00:45:50
leave behind a whole lot of evidence you would expect to find some evidence of Tracy having been in the vehicle at
00:45:57
some point maybe that muddies the waters a little bit on whether the body was moved in that vehicle but I'm just
00:46:04
getting the I'm getting the vibe here captain that that's probably not what happened in this case let's sum up that
00:46:10
timeline a little bit so the listeners aren't confused yeah because we were playing detective along the way as we
00:46:17
were telling this story Captain the way that this thing breaks down is just like this Tracy goes
00:46:24
missing on September 20th that's the last time that her family speaks with her that's the last time they know that
00:46:31
she is safe and where she should be the following day they make the police report they they filed the missing
00:46:40
persons report it's 14 days after Tracy was last seen that this Blazer that she was borrowing
00:46:47
the Chevy Blazer is located eight and a half miles from Tracy's apartment Tracy system her body is then located
00:46:54
four days later her remains were found 70 miles from her apartment and as we know she had been dead for long enough
00:47:03
to be decomposed to the point that dental records were required to ID her and that someone else was driving that
00:47:12
Blazer after her death [Music] like always we want to hear from you so make sure you go to True Crime
00:47:29
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00:47:39
bonus show called off the Record it's on Stitcher premium and you can also find a
00:47:44
link to that at truecrime garage.com and join us back here in the garage until then be good be kind and don't litter
00:47:55
foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • The Mysterious Case of Tracy Sisson
    Tracy Sisson goes missing, and her body is found under mysterious circumstances.
    “This case is not without Witnesses nor evidence.”
    @ 03m 42s
    November 05, 2022
  • Discovery of the Body
    A man discovers a decomposed body wrapped in a quilt in rural Indiana.
    “He saw death because unfortunately it was a very badly decomposed body.”
    @ 07m 41s
    November 05, 2022
  • Identification of the Victim
    Tracy Sisson is identified months after her body is found.
    “Tracy was just 33 years old when she was killed.”
    @ 23m 06s
    November 05, 2022
  • Unidentified Body Found
    The body found on October 8th was not identified as Tracy until two months later, raising many questions about the investigation.
    “It was not proven to be Tracy for another two months.”
    @ 24m 48s
    November 05, 2022
  • Tracy's Mysterious Disappearance
    Tracy was last seen on September 20, 2004, while moving out of her apartment. She called her mother, saying she would be home soon, but never arrived.
    “She said that she would be home soon but she never arrived.”
    @ 33m 21s
    November 05, 2022
  • The Chevy Blazer Incident
    Tracy's borrowed Chevy Blazer was found on October 4th, driven by an unidentified couple who fled the scene.
    “An unknown couple... ditched the vehicle and ran away.”
    @ 39m 27s
    November 05, 2022
  • Tracy's Disappearance
    Tracy was last seen on September 20th, and her family reported her missing the next day.
    “That's the last time they know that she is safe.”
    @ 46m 26s
    November 05, 2022
  • Discovery of Remains
    Tracy's body was found 70 miles from her apartment, requiring dental records for identification.
    “Dental records were required to ID her.”
    @ 47m 03s
    November 05, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • The body was wrapped in a quilt and tossed into a wooded ravine.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • I don't think there's much doubt Foul Play was involved here.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • You have that giant hole in your heart but a hole in your head too.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • You have to wonder if they intercepted her after she left her apartment that night.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • That's the last time they know that she is safe.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • Her remains were found 70 miles from her apartment.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514

Key Moments

  • Cheers to Listeners01:31
  • Body Discovery07:24
  • Missing Person Report22:03
  • Body Identification Delays24:48
  • Unanswered Questions28:27
  • Tracy's Background30:11
  • Disappearance Timeline32:25
  • Identification Challenges47:03

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown