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Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514

August 18, 2021 / 48:28

This episode covers the case of Tracy Sissom, a young mother who went missing in 2004, the discovery of her remains, and the investigation surrounding her death.

Tracy Sissom was last seen on September 20, 2004, in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was reported missing the following day when her family noticed her absence and the missing vehicle she was using. Her body was discovered on October 8, 2004, wrapped in a quilt in a wooded area in Brown County, Indiana.

The investigation revealed that Tracy's remains were badly decomposed, making identification difficult. An autopsy indicated she was a female between the ages of 25 and 35, and detectives believed she was a homicide victim. Tracy's vehicle was found abandoned on October 4, driven by an unidentified couple.

Despite the evidence, including a tattoo on the victim and a partial box of ammunition found in the vehicle, the case remains unsolved. The episode discusses the challenges faced by investigators and the lack of leads in the case.

Listeners are encouraged to visit truecrimegarage.com for more information and to engage with the podcast community.

TLDR

Tracy Sissom went missing in 2004; her remains were found later, and the case remains unsolved.

Episode

48:28
00:00:07
[Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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that beer fun and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's
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talk some true crime [Music] a young mother tracy sissom goes missing seemingly vanishing into thin air
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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
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by a violent man then a body is found by pure happenstance in rural indiana the remains are unidentifiable so
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decompose that 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 and this case is still unsolved this is true crime garage
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and this is the case of tracy sisson [Music] let's go back to thursday october 7
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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 nalbone that's an ominous sounding town name
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it was nighttime and it was dark suddenly his heart jumped as a deer leapt into the road he slammed on his
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brakes his tires screeched as the brakes locked up but it was too late deer versus truck is never good for the
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vehicle or the deer the two collided with a loud crash the truck came to a stop and the deer
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somehow managed to run off pete was shaken and stirred cautiously he drove off glancing around
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to make sure there were no more oncoming bambi's when he got home he got out of his truck
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and he realized that one of his running lights was missing of course it must have come off in the collision
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he decided mainly because these lights are 75 dollars a piece he would be going back
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during daylight hours and hopes that he could recover the missing running light and that it would be in working order
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when he locates it so the very next day friday october 8th pete drove back to the area where he
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thought he had hit the deer looking for the car part so he could possibly have it reattached
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he parked so he could get out on foot and look around for this missing piece but just as soon as he got out of his
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truck he noticed a foul odor and his first thought was that of the deer but quickly he thought to himself that
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smells like decay and a deer could not have decayed that quickly now here's one of those heart-stopping
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life-changing moments pete saw something unusual lying in the ravine next to the road
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and it was not his truck light that 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
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immediately this person did not kill themselves then roll themselves up in a quilt and get to that wooded area but
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what happens here captain is that the remains are so badly decomposed in such a advanced stage of decomp that the
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detectives from the sheriff's department can't make out the gender of the victim or an age
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so not much really to go on as far as the initial investigation goes the body was removed
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and taken off to the brown county morgue the scene was roped off and secured and
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again officers from both jurisdictions blocked off the road and scoured the scene for any possible evidence that
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they could find now i'm playing devil's advocate here captain when i say this but i've seen
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some photographs of this location where they recovered the body from and this is an ideal location to dump a
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body this is as country road as it gets brown county only has about 15 000 residents for the entirety
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of the county which is 216 square miles well you're saying this body is very badly decomposed
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what makes you think that they think it's a homicide because it could be like an accidental death or maybe even a
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overdose where somebody then takes the body and dumps it out into the woods those are all certainly possibilities
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but what everything that is going to point to for the detectives is they know somebody else knows something
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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
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bartholomew county is much more populated with about 72 000 residents back in 2004
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for 409 square miles but that is still not a lot of people so you have this area where there's not really anybody
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living in the immediate area and not a whole lot of people that live in either county but this nelson ridge road
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is as said very country i'm talking no street lights no signage there's woods on both sides of the road so if you
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needed to dispose of something or wish that you could do it under the cover of darkness that sort of thing
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could easily be achieved at this location the other part of it too captain is that
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one might expect something to sit there and go undetected for a good amount of time as well
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is this a road that people would travel often or is this some place that maybe only locals would know this is a road
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that's kind of by the way side that you wouldn't you wouldn't need to travel this road if
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you were just passing through the area right the other thing jump off of the interstate and hit real
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quickly correct and the other thing too is there's no reason there's nothing on this road in this location that would
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make anybody want to stop there right there's not even a stop sign placing something here is
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good for the offender or for whoever needs to dump this body because a if you were doing this at nighttime you
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could see headlights off in the distance right you would have minutes notice not seconds
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minutes notice that somebody will be coming your way soon and so you could stop what you're doing or move on
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and again there's no reason to stop in this location so if you're looking for something to go
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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
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university of indiana school of medicine forensic pathology division in indianapolis try saying that three times
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fast 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
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with a flower located toward the back of the victim's ankle adding that they were
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looking at all of the missing person files throughout the entire united states but so far have not been able to
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determine the identity for a second i thought you were going to say the victim had a tattoo of a chainsaw i
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was thinking that's a pretty badass test right chainsaw tattoo sales just went way up way up they were asking law
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enforcement was asking if the public you know if they knew anything about this case or know someone with a similar
00:13:07
tattoo that they could call the indiana state police they included the following statement
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and the request for information from the public that because of the manner in which the
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body was found detectives believe the woman was killed somewhere else and dumped at this location prosecutor jim
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oliver said quote in most murder investigations detectives work really hard in the first 36 hours to solve the
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crime our investigators are frustrated with not having many leads to follow up at this point
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and quote that statement was made to the brown county democrat newspaper editor linda marginson
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five days after the body was found so as we already knew but the prosecutor confirming the detectives would work
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around the clock trying to get evidence and leads for the first 36 hours of their investigation
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but here we have five days into this homicide and because the nature of the case
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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
00:14:32
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
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decomp we would say probably quite a while and investigators were not certain how
00:14:52
long the body had been lying in the wooded area where it was found although one ap associated press article citing
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brown county prosecutor jim oliver said that it had been there for up to eight weeks
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okay so we know that she was found on october 8th and been there for possibly up to
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eight weeks as the prosecutors saying in this article which would mean roughly august 14 2004 so these remains wrapped
00:15:23
in a blanket were placed there as early as august 14th 2004. well like you said this is a tough scenario for law
00:15:31
enforcement because they don't have a lot to go on it's not like there's been a missing
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girl in the area for years and they go oh this is probably her they don't have a lot to go off of and
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even after you find the body captain you know that whoever placed the victim there
00:15:50
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
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from obviously you find your victim in brown county if you don't have anybody that matches a
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vague description missing from your county you know you're going outside of of your box there immediately and and
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like you said there's if they had any leads they're drying up real quick based off of the victim not
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being able to be identified as well as the prosecutor saying the the victim could have been
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at this site for up to eight weeks well but they also did leave something behind
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that is identifiable the blanket there could be some fibers or some dna left or even
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pet hair so that is a mistake that maybe the killer did make i'm wondering if this individual or the people that
00:16:53
placed the victim there i'm guessing that they thought that the body would remain there for quite some
00:16:59
time before somebody found it yeah now this would have been late fall we've said this on the show plenty of times
00:17:07
because it's just one of the hardcore facts of true crime that spring is typically when bodies are
00:17:15
found in wooded areas this is because hunters go out after the winter the long winter short winter whatever kind of
00:17:23
winter you have and that's when they start going out and walking these country areas
00:17:30
and that's usually typically when something's found so had this guy not hit this deer
00:17:36
and lost a light there's a chance in my mind anyway that they wouldn't have found this body for
00:17:43
several more months well he also becomes a suspect that's true for a short period
00:17:48
of time i i would assume that they would start with him and go was he just telling us this as a ruse
00:17:55
so now let's go figure out where he was what's his alibi yeah at the very least show me some damage to your truck yeah
00:18:03
because you're you're right captain that's that's the first thing you got to hone in on as an investigator you're
00:18:08
going okay well this guy has he found the body so he put himself at the dump scene why was he there yeah nobody again
00:18:16
this is a spot where nobody really has a reason to be in this location so why was
00:18:22
he there i'm sure he would have been looked at what we do know about the cause of death
00:18:27
which as we have said has never been addressed publicly well we know that this case was treated as a homicide very
00:18:35
quickly and right after the medical examiner viewed the body now per the northwest indiana times brown county
00:18:42
prosecutor jim oliver said investigators were treating the case as a homicide although the body had not been
00:18:48
identified at that point quote i don't think there's much doubt foul play was involved here end quote
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that's what oliver said okay so it was evident to someone presumably the medical examiner that this woman was
00:19:06
murdered that she was a murder victim and even though the cause of death has never been released an insider in the
00:19:13
case told us that the cause of death is listed on the death certificate as strangulation
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so the ways that this could be evident on a badly decomposed corpse is if there was some kind of ligature still on the
00:19:30
body or marks in the flesh from a ligature or if the hyoid bone was broken which
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usually results from a violent choking but like you said the body's so badly decomposed how did they go about trying
00:19:43
to identify her right because that's your number one concern that's your first objective here
00:19:48
to hopefully get an id on the victim now brown county authorities looked into missing persons reports within the
00:19:56
county but no missing persons report had been filed in the county that matched the
00:20:00
description of this female victim that they found so they reached out to other nearby
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jurisdictions they provided a description of the body as a young white female with dark hair
00:20:13
and a tattoo still visible despite the decomp and as we stated earlier the prosecutor
00:20:19
described that tattoo as a chain around the right ankle with a rose or some kind
00:20:24
of flower on the back of the ankle the other interesting thing though here captain and this is something that we
00:20:30
just don't see law enforcement do very often but something you brought up which is an
00:20:36
interesting angle and one that i'm curious as to why the this angle is not pursued more often
00:20:43
you mentioned that one thing that should be more easily identifiable if it crosses
00:20:49
the right person's eyes would be that quilt right they keep describing this thing as
00:20:54
a quilt not a blanket quilt to me is like handmade passed down throughout the years maybe
00:21:01
grandma made it maybe your favorite aunt made it usually these are family type items yeah sometimes made from articles
00:21:08
of clothing that the family owned the captain is quite the quilt maker everyone should know that but
00:21:16
again we don't see law enforcement do that very often do we where they let's take a picture of this quilt and there
00:21:23
there's probably reasons why we just don't know what they are but i question that
00:21:29
from time to time when you seem to be so desperate to to id this body you think you'll be pulling out all the
00:21:36
stops here and and post pictures of that uh put it on the news in the newspapers and what have you well
00:21:43
we had a handmade curtains that they found at the scene of amy malovic's death they didn't
00:21:50
release that information for years yeah it almost felt like a lifetime between the time that she was found and when
00:21:58
they showed us pictures of the curtain well finally captain on october 15th a missing person's report came into the
00:22:07
indiana state police or isp for short this report came from the police department in indianapolis a woman named
00:22:16
tracy sandlin storm system was reported missing in indianapolis the missing woman fit the description of the
00:22:25
body found in brown county tracy's dental records were obtained from her family and sent over to the
00:22:33
indiana state police it's not at all clear why it took such a long time to definitively id the body
00:22:43
because eventually that's what happens we are going to id the body as this tracy system
00:22:48
but it was not until december 17th that an announcement was made by the indiana state police this is the lead
00:22:56
investigator on the case chris fears that indeed the body they recovered from the woods was tracy sissom
00:23:03
tracy was just 33 years old when she was killed detective fears learned that tracy had
00:23:09
last been seen on september 20th in indianapolis so this fits the timeline of the body
00:23:17
that had been there for up to eight weeks but september 20th is the last day that
00:23:23
she was seen and i have other information that we will we will go into as we go along here
00:23:32
and based on that information i believe she was killed on or very near the date of the last time that she was seen
00:23:40
september 20th is a little more recent than i had expected based off of the quote up to eight weeks comment
00:23:48
now back to something real quick before we move on the missing persons report was sent by the indianapolis police
00:23:55
department to the indiana state police on october 15th it turned out per the indiana star
00:24:03
newspaper that tracy's family reported her missing the day after she was last seen so september 21st
00:24:11
so this missing person's report wasn't really connecting to anything until nearly a month later but for some
00:24:18
unknown reason her missing persons report was not connected to the body found on october 8th
00:24:25
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
00:24:38
body that we cannot id didn't really come about until about five days after they found the body so
00:24:44
that would account for some of that time but again it was not proven to be tracy
00:24:49
for another two months there's clearly a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes
00:24:54
here that we just don't know about and a lot of time was wasted due to delays and lack of communication in
00:25:02
this [Music] case yeah [Music] from the east coast to the west coast cheers everybody and cheers to you
00:25:35
the crispiest cheers to you captain cheers to the people in the back i have a quick
00:25:41
announcement here i have an event coming up raising some money for the ohio history connection and for the porch
00:25:48
light project as well thursday august 26th is the date the event is called uncovering ohio cold
00:25:55
cases a conversation with myself and james renner this is a webinar so an online event so wherever you are and
00:26:03
whoever can attend simply by purchasing a ticket and you can purchase a ticket at ohio ohiohistory.org
00:26:11
again that is thursday august 26th and ticket information is at ohiohistory.org so be there or be square be square and
00:26:21
be there we don't care all right captain this case takes place in 2004 the tracy
00:26:29
system case and as we said it takes quite a while for them to even identify the victim i will say that i'm a little
00:26:36
surprised at the how recently she had last been seen right the bodies discovered on october
00:26:43
8th and she's reported missing on the 21st of september as having been seen the day before
00:26:51
september 20th and i'm just basing this off of the prosecutor's statement of well the body could have been there up
00:26:57
to eight weeks that makes me think that the me or or on that day when the body is discovered
00:27:05
when they are first looking at the body and the scene they're going okay well we're seeing a level of decomposition
00:27:12
here that shows us probably that the victim's been dead for six weeks maybe up to eight
00:27:18
and really we have a situation here where it was just a few weeks between the last time that she was seen that she
00:27:24
was alive and well and then later found dead in this wooded area you wonder if the body was stored or kept somewhere
00:27:34
for some period of time that may have increased the decomposition on the body or i
00:27:41
didn't get a chance to check into this or look it up maybe it was a particularly hot
00:27:46
few weeks there late that summer going into fall and that could have increased it as well there could be any number of
00:27:53
factors there but uh it's it's curious to me but once they have the identification of the body and they know
00:27:59
it's tracy the case just sits there for about two years yeah this is going to bring us to about
00:28:06
2006 on our timeline here and i'm sure that they're well i shouldn't say that i'm sure i know that there was a lot of
00:28:13
stuff going on behind the scenes just nothing that made the news so no real news coming out for about two years this
00:28:21
until the indiana star reported that family members have many unanswered questions
00:28:27
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
00:28:57
when somebody dies or in this case is murdered at such a young age but now you have a situation where
00:29:05
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 your head
00:29:12
too because you got no answers to go along with what happened to to your daughter or your sister yeah it makes
00:29:19
you wonder if because she was found like in a different location if law enforcement's just not taking it
00:29:25
as serious as they should i think they were i think that'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
00:29:37
you're sitting there going and we don't know what kind of communication law enforcement's having with the family how
00:29:44
because in some of these cases like delphi it seems like they're very open and letting the family
00:29:50
in a little bit as far as what investigation tactics they're using so we don't know what kind
00:29:56
of communication is happening between law enforcement and the family this is true and in this case we have the
00:30:03
indiana state police as well that we're talking about in tracy systems case so let's go
00:30:09
and get to know our victim a little better shall we because that's the first step in trying to get a lead on this
00:30:16
thing so who was tracy tracy sandlin storm system was born on december 27 1970. she was a lifelong native of
00:30:27
indianapolis a city that you and i have been to many times captain a great city tracy
00:30:33
graduated from howe high school in 1989 when she died she left behind her parents rebecca and john her sister
00:30:42
shelly and her brother john jr she also left behind an ex-husband and an estranged husband and three children all
00:30:50
of whom lived in indianapolis according to her obituary tracy was a member of holy spirit catholic church and owned
00:30:59
and operated sugar creek rottweilers where she bred and cared for her show dogs tracy had a great love of animals
00:31:08
obviously and worked with several veterinarians throughout her life tracy got married when she was young and
00:31:15
had two girls in quick succession her husband richard storm filed for a divorce in october of 2000
00:31:24
and the divorce was granted in december of 2001. richard and tracy were awarded joint
00:31:30
custody of their girls by the hancock circuit court meanwhile during the whole divorce proceedings
00:31:40
tracy got married again getting hitched to a michael system on january 25th 2003 then she gave birth to their son
00:31:50
shane so at this point we have tracy michael her new husband baby shane and tracy's two girls
00:31:59
sharing a house this is the house that tracy got in the divorce settlement from her first husband from that first
00:32:06
marriage but that living situation didn't last long by the time tracy was reported missing
00:32:12
in september of 2004 michael and tracy had split up and had been split up for quite some time and
00:32:20
were estranged from one another all right let's get into tracy's disappearance there is minimal reporting
00:32:28
about her disappearance but what little there is all says the same thing so this
00:32:34
is all confirmed tracy was last seen september 20th at 30th street and post road in the far
00:32:41
east side neighborhood of indianapolis this was an apartment complex where tracy was living at the time
00:32:49
but she was in the process of moving out so she is there on this day september 20th
00:32:55
to 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 the last
00:33:10
of her things and that 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 notice that the vehicle is missing
00:33:39
as well the vehicle is not found at tracy's apartment nike said she's moving away from her husband well she
00:33:48
lived in the apartment by herself they had already been separated for quite some time by this point
00:33:53
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 p.m 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
00:34:42
if they were able to access the apartment maybe they're seeing things in there that's causing concern as well maybe you
00:34:48
know when you hear your loved one tell you hey i'm gathering up the last of my items and i'll be home soon well you
00:34:56
could open up that front door to the apartment and the apartment tell you a different
00:35:00
a different story yeah that's a good thing that they didn't hesitate to report her missing so that's the best
00:35:06
that we can narrow down the actual time of her going missing we know that she made that phone call on at 7 pm on
00:35:14
the 20th we can't say for certain if anyone in her family went to the apartment to look for her i presume that
00:35:20
they did that's just natural reaction that's what most people would do so you have to wonder if they did this captain
00:35:28
did they find the front door locked unlocked did they find things still inside the
00:35:33
apartment was there any sign of a confrontation or struggle those answers to those questions we just
00:35:40
don't have any any idea we do know that someone in her family reported her missing on the day after she was last
00:35:47
seen this again the 21st we also have no information on tracy's cell phone or if in fact she even had one
00:35:54
it was 2004 so it seems likely that she would have had one if so and if the police were able to
00:36:02
obtain any helpful information on the cell phone we don't have any idea this is information that's not been released to
00:36:09
the public but all of the reporting on the story discusses where tracy was last known to be so that
00:36:17
is not a question in this case we know that she was last reported to be at her apartment this information came from her
00:36:25
mother who said that tracy called her from there if there was a cell phone and it showed
00:36:29
that she was at some other location after that time you'd think the family would have said so publicly when they
00:36:36
have spoken out about this case yeah i wonder what the family's feelings are about the ex-husband because
00:36:43
that obviously is the i think even though they were separated for a time period before this like you said she
00:36:50
moved into apartment by herself and now she's moving back home with her parents you go
00:36:56
well i mean that's the number one person you look at right and just with identifying the body
00:37:02
identifying the remains how quickly we see from there being no leads to now all of a sudden here in the garage we can
00:37:09
see these suspects start to emerge right they they step out of the shadows and present themselves a little bit we have
00:37:15
her first husband that she's been divorced from for some time but you gotta you got to look in that direction you
00:37:25
have the most recent husband who she was in the process of splitting up with and
00:37:30
moving on in her life and then once you get to know the victim and the victim's inner circle
00:37:36
that may present some other options as far as suspects or persons of interest go and then as you pointed out earlier
00:37:44
you always have to consider the person who quote unquote found the body yeah or the
00:37:50
possibilities that tracy was working on husband number three and who would that individual be so right away captain when
00:37:57
she goes missing when tracy goes missing there's no sign really no clue as to where she could be
00:38:05
for about two weeks but then we get the missing chevy blazer that she had borrowed turns up on october 4th
00:38:16
in the vicinity of la sale and michigan avenues so this is before the unidentified body
00:38:23
that we later learned would be tracy's remains is found this is a few days before her body is recovered
00:38:30
so a deputy pulled the vehicle over or although it's not clear whether he was actually on the lookout for it you know
00:38:38
did we know she's reported missing we can assume that they reported the vehicle missing as well but were police
00:38:46
actively looking for this vehicle we can't say that for certain so the way this story goes is that this
00:38:53
officer a deputy was going to pull over this chevy blazer or attempting to pull over the vehicle
00:39:01
anyway is what we should say here because per the indiana star a marion county sheriff's deputy spotted
00:39:09
two unidentified people in the blazer on the city's east side the male driver made several abrupt
00:39:18
turns and lane changes before he and a female passenger ditched the vehicle in the 500 block of north oakland avenue
00:39:27
and ran away so an unknown couple a man and a woman are in this chevy blazer right the one
00:39:34
that tracy was borrowing from her father correct she's missing and the vehicle's
00:39:39
missing until this point and the mail is driving but before they could successfully
00:39:45
pull over the driver and and pull over the vehicle the driver makes some smooth maneuvers and they're
00:39:52
able to flee the vehicle before the deputy could catch up to them now a partial box of ammunition was
00:40:01
found on the back seat of the vehicle this is according to the report says no fingerprints or other evidence were
00:40:09
found in the vehicle said an indiana state police spokesman but since we don't know the cause of death i mean
00:40:16
this is great evidence to have once you're doing the autopsy because if there is
00:40:22
if she was killed by gunshot then the these were possibly uh the ammo that was used well and that's
00:40:30
not what you want to hear too a partial box of ammunition you want to hear a full box of ammunition yeah just bottom
00:40:37
still in the cellophane the blazer was abandoned by a couple about eight and a half miles from
00:40:44
tracy's apartment and this is just one of those really weird things no one knows who the people in
00:40:50
the blazer were or at least if indiana state police does know who they are they've never said
00:40:57
that they we've identified these people or we spoke to these people or we know who they are right another thing that
00:41:03
was reported on but that we know very little about according to the indiana channel
00:41:10
i keep saying indiana every time i see the word indy so according to the indie channel state police sergeant jeff
00:41:17
deckard said one of the system's neighbors reported seeing a suspicious vehicle this is interesting a neighbor reported
00:41:26
seeing a dark suv or the sergeant just clarifying here or they thought it was an suv
00:41:35
we've not narrowed it down to a specific suv or even eliminated a pickup truck or
00:41:41
even eliminated a pickup truck with a camper shell said decker but again if anything came of this we don't know so
00:41:48
the old creepy camper yeah think about this captain we this is what we know here we know that
00:41:54
leading up to 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 wanna 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
reported seeing a suspicious vehicle and describing it as a possibly a dark suv so it looks like
00:42:46
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
00:42:58
said from the family to let us know that all her apartment was filled with her her belongings and so when they abducted
00:43:05
her or like you said intercepted her and the vehicle because you're also stating in the
00:43:11
vehicle it's not like we're seeing piles and piles for her belongings right but that doesn't mean that they didn't
00:43:17
intercept her in a different location just dump all those materials somewhere the vibe i'm getting though with that
00:43:26
ammunition that partial box of ammunition that's found on the back seat is that the family is probably telling law
00:43:34
enforcement that that did not belong to tracy right because the way that they state
00:43:39
that and we know how closely they've held information in this case and what they've chosen to
00:43:45
release and it's been very little but they chose to release that information well and you're also because she's
00:43:52
borrowing the vehicle you go well that ammunition didn't belong to tracy and didn't belong to tracy's father correct
00:43:59
and now you have 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
00:44:13
her death again i believe i firmly believe that she was killed either that night or very soon
00:44:21
after she went missing on the 20th this vehicle is not found until october 4th so
00:44:28
we have a situation here captain where we have this weird unknown couple driving it but also enough time has gone
00:44:34
by that you could say there's a good chance that somebody else may have been in possession of this
00:44:40
vehicle at one point especially right after the murder you have to wonder too would the killer have been
00:44:50
brazen enough to use the victim's vehicle to move the body no you can use the term brazen or you
00:44:58
use the term stupid let's let's create a word that's both um yeah you have to wonder but it doesn't
00:45:05
seem like again it's a situation 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
00:45:19
and came up with nothing there's also been reports that are similar to this that state that there
00:45:26
were that are a little more in depth about the the fingerprints remember we said the ammunition was
00:45:32
found but there's no fingerprints found in or on this ammunition or in the blazer
00:45:38
that they called into concern so was it wiped down was the vehicle wiped down or was it just whoever drove
00:45:47
the vehicle or moved the vehicle wasn't in it long enough to leave behind a whole lot of evidence
00:45:53
you would expect to find some evidence of tracy having been in the vehicle at some point maybe that muddies the waters
00:46:00
a little bit on whether the body was moved in that vehicle but i'm just getting the i'm getting the vibe here
00:46:06
captain that that's probably not what happened in this case let's sum up that timeline a little bit so the listeners
00:46:12
aren't confused yeah because we were playing detective along the way as we were telling this story
00:46:19
captain the way that this thing breaks down is just like this tracy goes missing on september 20th that's the
00:46:26
last time that her family speaks with her that's the last time they know that she is safe
00:46:32
and where she should be the following day they make the police report they they filed the missing persons report
00:46:40
it's 14 days after tracy was last seen that this blazer that she was borrowing the chevy blazer is located eight and a
00:46:49
half miles from tracy's apartment tracy system her body is then located four days later her remains were found
00:46:58
70 miles from her apartment and as we know she had been dead for long enough to be decomposed to the
00:47:05
point that dental records were required to id her and that someone else was driving that blazer after her death
00:47:14
[Music] and like always we want to hear from you so make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com and check out the
00:47:31
blog on this week's episode also if you need more true crime garage check out our
00:47:38
bonus show called off the record it's on stitcher premium and you can also find a
00:47:44
link to that at truechromegarage.com and join us back here in the garage until then be good be
00:47:50
kind and don't litter [Applause] [Music] you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 60
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • The Mysterious Case of Tracy Sissom
    A young mother goes missing, and her body is found under mysterious circumstances. 'Someone discarded this individual out there in the woods like garbage.'
    “Someone discarded this individual out there in the woods like garbage.”
    @ 04m 27s
    August 18, 2021
  • Foul Play Confirmed
    Prosecutor Jim Oliver states that foul play was involved in the case. 'I don't think there's much doubt foul play was involved here.'
    “I don't think there's much doubt foul play was involved here.”
    @ 18m 53s
    August 18, 2021
  • Strangulation Identified as Cause of Death
    The autopsy reveals that the cause of death is strangulation, adding to the mystery. 'The cause of death is listed on the death certificate as strangulation.'
    “The cause of death is listed on the death certificate as strangulation.”
    @ 19m 18s
    August 18, 2021
  • Unanswered Questions
    Tracy's family faced a two-year wait for answers about her death, which was ruled a homicide.
    “Not even the family was told the official cause of death.”
    @ 28m 43s
    August 18, 2021
  • Tracy's Disappearance
    Tracy was last seen on September 20, 2004, while moving out of her apartment.
    “She said she would be home soon but never arrived.”
    @ 33m 10s
    August 18, 2021
  • Missing Vehicle Found
    Tracy's borrowed Chevy Blazer was found on October 4, 2004, days before her body was discovered.
    “The vehicle was abandoned by a couple who fled before police could catch them.”
    @ 39m 24s
    August 18, 2021
  • Tracy Goes Missing
    Tracy was last seen on September 20th, the last time her family spoke with her.
    “That's the last time they know that she is safe.”
    @ 46m 26s
    August 18, 2021
  • Discovery of the Blazer
    The Chevy blazer Tracy was borrowing was found 8.5 miles from her apartment.
    @ 46m 44s
    August 18, 2021
  • Tracy's Remains Found
    Tracy's remains were discovered four days later, 70 miles from her apartment.
    “Her remains were found 70 miles from her apartment.”
    @ 46m 52s
    August 18, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • Someone discarded this individual out there in the woods like garbage.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • I don't think there's much doubt foul play was involved here.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • The cause of death is listed on the death certificate as strangulation.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • This case takes place in 2004, the Tracy System case.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • You lost a loved one, but you have so many questions.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514
  • That's the last time they know that she is safe.
    Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514

Key Moments

  • Body Wrapped in Quilt07:46
  • Investigation Begins08:00
  • Unidentified Victim08:16
  • Cause of Death Revealed19:18
  • Body Identification27:59
  • Tracy's Background30:11
  • Suspicious Vehicle41:24
  • Missing Person Report46:38

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown