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[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:46
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that goes over the top like Sylvester Stallone he
00:01:53
is the captain I also ride a mechanical bull like Urban Cowboy it's good to be SE see and good to see you thanks for
00:02:01
listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend this week we are very happy to be featuring killer cupcake Panda by the
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creative minds over at the Flying Monkeys Craft brewery killer cupcake panda is a luscious and crushes double
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IPA doused with pandon leaves Citrus custard and vanilla cupcake Aromas garage grade 4 and 3/4 bottle caps out
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of five and this week our fridge is full thanks to Marley and Roy Utah I wonder if it's a Wizard of Oz reference the
00:02:39
flying monkeys a big we like your jib to Monique and creedmore Texas and a big we
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like your jiby to Haley in Lexington Kentucky and Kelly from my hometown of dummerston Vermont next up we have
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Jacqueline in Parts Unknown she says we are the best part of her Tuesday and last but not least we have Suzanne and
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confession of the Stephen Avery case this week so check that out and that is enough of the beers now all right
00:03:48
everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime
00:04:03
[Music] he Black Forest Colorado about 20 mi Northwest of Colorado Springs the church family lived in a
00:04:40
single family home with four bedrooms the smaller bedroom was used as a family Den the house was nice and it was rather
00:04:51
secluded which was just what parents Mike and Diane Church wanted they had over five Acres on
00:05:00
eastonville road this was a family of six Mike and Diane church and their four kids Heather Chris gunar and
00:05:13
Sage Mike and Diane were College sweethearts and they worked very hard to build a nice and happy home for their
00:05:22
family this was their dream house and Diane said it was the perfect place to raise
00:05:28
children but things were not always perfect in fact by early 1991 Mike had moved out Diane filed for
00:05:39
divorce Mike was living in an apartment in town closer to his work and Diane stayed in the home with the four
00:05:49
children everyone was working through this tough time Diane sought some counseling Mike
00:05:57
had regular visitation and equal time with the kids and their oldest child Heather Dawn church was excelling in
00:06:08
school Heather played the violin and even at an early age she was telling her parents she was going to be an astronaut
00:06:16
when she grew up her parents played along even though they thought it was just a phase and
00:06:24
sent Heather to one of those summer space camps when she returned she was even more excited about becoming an astronaut
00:06:33
and told her folks she was the only kid that did not throw up when in the shuttle
00:06:41
simulator as the finalizing of the impending divorce Drew near Mike and Diane put the house on the market but
00:06:48
Diane and the kids would stay there until it sold the school year started up in September of
00:06:56
1991 and the kids were back to being bus busy on Tuesday September 17th this was to be just another
00:07:08
ordinary day at 6:30 a.m. 13-year-old Heather Dawn church and her younger brothers got
00:07:17
on the school bus they lived out in the sticks so the bus ride was as long as an hour some
00:07:27
days Heather was in the eth grade at Falcon middle school after school Diane prepared
00:07:35
dinner for the kids she and two of her boys had some commitments at their local church the two middle boys Chris and
00:07:45
Gunner were involved with the Cub Scouts and they had a meeting on this evening the church was just 15 M down
00:07:55
the road while the two boys were at Cub Scouts Diane was going to attend a homemaking
00:08:03
class Heather explained if she and 5-year-old Sage tagged along they would have nothing to
00:08:11
do Heather offered to stay home babysit and tidy up the house this would work out nicely because
00:08:20
Sage could keep his normal bedtime of about 8:00 before leaving Heather and Diane
00:08:28
discussed several things two of the most important Sage had a flu shot earlier that day and Heather should look out for
00:08:38
adverse reactions and Heather told her mother about a school dance that would be that
00:08:44
Friday she was asking for permission to go Diane agreed as long as Heather went with a group of
00:08:52
friends before leaving Diane checked the doors and made sure they were all locked she hurried Chris and gunar into
00:09:01
the back seat of their vehicle and she pulled out of the driveway while leaving the property she
00:09:08
noticed that one of the bedroom windows was slightly open just about 5 in she planned to call Heather later on
00:09:17
anyway to check in on Sage so Diane made a mental note to ask Heather to close the window during that
00:09:28
call at 8:30 Diane called home Heather picked up the phone Diane wanted to know if Sage
00:09:37
was in bed Heather says no she let him stay up to watch the TV show Home Improvement they were watching together
00:09:46
in the family room after the show he was going to bed Diane told Heather that she loved
00:09:54
her and she and the two boys would be home by 10:00 p.m. Diane pulled into the driveway just
00:10:05
before 10:15 she noticed that the outside house lights were not on her and the boys got
00:10:13
out of the vehicle and made their way up to the house they went to the patio sliding door which was pretty
00:10:21
common Diane found the door unlocked so she did not need to use her key the door being unlocked was also
00:10:31
common the church family had two cats and they would typically let the cats outside for the night and Diane says the
00:10:40
kids were always forgetting to lock the door after doing so inside the house was
00:10:47
dark Diane turned on some lights and told the two boys to go to bed all three boys shared a room and Diane went and
00:10:56
checked on little Sage finding him asleep in his bed wrapped up in the blankets like a
00:11:04
burrito Diane went to the family room to talk to Heather she expected to find her
00:11:10
sitting in the dark watching TV as usual however Heather was not in the family room she was not in her bedroom
00:11:19
Diane searched the house and could not find Heather at all she went outside and walked the
00:11:25
property around the house shouting Heather's name and in the dark still nothing no
00:11:34
Heather Diane was worried and afraid she called her husband Mike she asked him if
00:11:41
he had Heather was she with him Mike said no he asked if she called Heather's friends or the
00:11:51
neighbors then he asked Diane does it look like someone came in the house before Dian man could answer Mike said
00:12:01
call 911 [Music] now we start off Captain by jumping right into the search for 13-year-old
00:12:22
Heather Dawn church now we must keep in mind how large the church family's property is now that guy that we just
00:12:32
heard said it was over 5 Acres there are two really good books on this week's case and we will have those as this
00:12:41
week's recommended reading and maybe next week as well one source says the property was 6 acres and the other list
00:12:50
the plot of land at 5.8 acres so both probably very accurate but that's what size of property we are dealing with
00:13:00
now because of the remoteness of where they lived Diane Heather's mother she was thinking that Heather must have gone
00:13:08
outside maybe in search of one of the cats and walked too far maybe she fell Twisted an ankle or busted her knee
00:13:17
couldn't walk back to the home that sort of thing on the other hand we have Heather's father Mike he had a
00:13:25
completely different feeling that night Mike said immediately after the phone call with Diane where he tells her to
00:13:34
call 911 he jumped into his pickup truck racing like a jet to get to his family's
00:13:41
home later he would say he knew right away that someone took his daughter yeah and they have the extra stress already
00:13:49
by their family separating Diane did exactly as Mike said he she called 911 her call was routed to the El Paso
00:13:59
County Colorado Sheriff's Department it was not customary for this Sheriff's Department to take a missing report
00:14:06
until the person in question was gone for more than 24 hours sadly this included teenagers as well Diane
00:14:16
requested that a deputy at the very least come out to the house this request was
00:14:22
denied Diane was told by the deputy on the phone that she should be calling Heather's friends because 99% of the
00:14:31
time missing kids are with a friend or at a party Diane asked her what about the other
00:14:40
1% because the sheriff's office would not send a deputy Diane started calling her friends and family asking if anyone
00:14:50
would come to the house and help look for Heather by the time Mike arrived others were already there
00:14:58
looking for the missing 13-year-old after several more calls to 911 a deputy was finally dispatched to
00:15:06
the house arriving just before midnight yeah and we don't like how they handled it initially but at least they sent on a
00:15:13
cop yeah regardless of how the 911 calls were handled the deputy that was dispatched to go to the house the
00:15:20
churches have and had nothing but good things to say about this officer we are talking about sheriff's deputy Les
00:15:27
Milligan Les was very young and very green officer Milligan went right into action as soon as he arrived on the
00:15:36
scene he he took control of the scene and ordered the El Paso search and rescue team to come out to the property
00:15:46
ASAP Unfortunately they never found Heather that night in fact they did not even find any clues as to where she may
00:15:54
be or what could have happened Diane later said it was like the girl just vanished Into Thin
00:16:02
Air the next morning the questions started the officers wanted to know everything everything about Heather the
00:16:10
house their marriage the divorce everything so they're looking around the house they're calling friends and family
00:16:17
they can't find her now they want to know is it possible that she would want to run away for any reasons yeah law
00:16:24
enforcement they're speculating here Captain they want to know could the 13-year-old be said about the divorce
00:16:30
yeah so from which from my understanding this was going to be final the divorce was going to be final just before
00:16:38
Thanksgiving so it was coming soon could she have been upset about the whole situation and maybe she took off Diane
00:16:46
believed no that could not be what happened here she tells the officers that Mike moved out of the house months
00:16:54
before and Heather did not seem upset or to be having any difficulty with the situation at all so she's explaining
00:17:02
here this isn't anything new this didn't just happen this week or last month this
00:17:06
has been going on for months and me as a parent and my my husband living elsewhere us as parents we've not seen
00:17:14
any indication from her that she's struggling with this in fact she's excelling in school Diane told the Daily
00:17:22
Sentinel many reasons why her daughter Heather why her life was great and why she would not run away citing that
00:17:30
Heather was a very reasonable kid she got really good grades She was recently accepted into the gifted and talented
00:17:38
program at school she asked about going to the school dance on that Friday right
00:17:44
we talk about usually when people were making plans they don't have these underlining plans to disappear well I
00:17:53
understand that law enforcement has to look at all these different angles but it's sad that you see in so many cases
00:18:00
that parents or loved ones have to try to convince law enforcement of of what they
00:18:07
believe yeah yeah and she she also pointed out back to the dance she said you know I've not only did I give her
00:18:14
permission to do this thing so it's not like we got in some kind of argument she
00:18:17
wanted to do something and I said no right I gave her permission to go to the dance to which we have Heather telling
00:18:26
her mother great I have a new outfit I'm going to save that outfit to wear it to
00:18:32
the dance yeah it seems like something that she was looking forward to seems like something that she was uh making a
00:18:38
big deal to herself and she recently applied for the school yearbook staff as well now obviously we don't know all
00:18:46
that was said to investigators or exactly how they arrived at this conclusion but I will say that very
00:18:53
early on the sheriff's office said publicly and to the med and this is an exact quote it's unlikely
00:19:02
the girl ran away in fact very quickly in the investigation the sheriff's department brought in the FBI to
00:19:11
investigate this as a likely abduction but it was that morning that next morning where things would start to
00:19:19
get a little weird so it's during this questioning that Diane remembers the open window
00:19:27
this is the window to the master bedroom she opened it and forgot to close it before she left and then saw it open
00:19:35
when pulling out of the driveway right and like you stated before she went around locking all the doors making sure
00:19:42
that her kids were safe when she's pulling out of the driveway she notices this window but the fact that you're
00:19:48
hearing this the next day I think it would raise a little bit of alarm I agree I agree she tells law enforcement
00:19:58
that that she meant to tell Heather about the open window when she called home at 8:30 p.m. the night before but
00:20:06
states that she forgot to she told them that all of the doors were locked when she left the house but when she came
00:20:13
home the sliding glass door to the patio was unlocked she added that other than a
00:20:19
couple of items nothing was out of place no signs of a struggle no forced entry and in fact 5-year-old Sage was asleep
00:20:27
in perfectly fine when she arrived home at 10:15 p.m. now I don't think we know this information like you said one one
00:20:36
site reports 5.8 acres uh one reports 6 Acres but I wonder how far away from the
00:20:43
road the house actually was I don't know the exact distance but the description that I've seen a few times is that it's
00:20:53
it's a long driveway that we're talking about right that there's a decent amount
00:20:57
of distance between the house and and the yard so if you're an investigator I think I get what they're what they're
00:21:07
thinking about I mean you're looking at this thing like well is this even a crime scene there there's no clues here
00:21:13
no evidence and I'm guessing but I would bet some of the detectives were probably
00:21:18
wondering if Heather went with someone willingly or open the door willingly for her then
00:21:26
abductor right because it could be a friend that she went with possibly uh a boyfriend or a male friend
00:21:34
that she maybe hasn't told the family about yeah we do know about that dance um now the thing about this master
00:21:42
bedroom window when Diane went to show them show Law Enforcement exactly which window she was talking about she found
00:21:51
the window was now closed she told them she did not close the window and they asked everyone who was there that night
00:21:59
looking for Heather if any of them had closed the window and everyone says no so they are dusting the window in other
00:22:10
areas of the home for fingerprints upon further examination they found that the screen to the window
00:22:17
was a skew so they take the screen off and quickly notice it was actually in the track but it was
00:22:24
backwards a technician inspected the metal frame all in all windows and the screen the tech found three possible
00:22:34
fingerprints and so remov these fingerprints or the latent fingerprints these were submitted to the automated
00:22:43
fingerprint identification system or aphis for short in hopes that a match would be found in the National
00:22:50
databases but no such match was found the investigators did not like that the churches called called so many friends
00:22:59
that night people who walked through the house and property possibly disturbing the crime scene but I mean what are you
00:23:06
going to do if you call the sheriff's office and they offer no help yeah at first you're going I mean you're going
00:23:12
to call your friends relatives and such for help sounds like a bunch of malarkey
00:23:17
and a bunch of hor [ __ ] I mean like you said it it it's very similar to uh John
00:23:25
Ben Ramsey case where they had a lot of people inside the crime scene basically but
00:23:31
like you said when you're calling for help and nobody shows up what what what else are you supposed to do so the
00:23:37
morning after The Disappearance after questioning Diane says she got tired of doing nothing so everybody is out that
00:23:45
night and all the next morning looking for Heather meanwhile dianae is supposed to just kind of sit tight inside the
00:23:54
home she I mean as a parent you got to be going freaking crazy here she says she got tired of doing nothing while
00:24:02
everybody else was out looking for Heather so she decided to calm herself by cleaning the house she started off by
00:24:09
doing some dishes and then she turned on the vacuum cleaner she's vacuuming the carpet when one of the investigators
00:24:16
standing outside he's just outside the house right he heard the vacuum he heard the noise he went running into the house
00:24:23
and he yelled at Diane wanting to know what she was doing why are you doing this we need to process the
00:24:30
scene yeah in the days after Heather vanished Lieutenant bill mrea of the El Paso Sheriff's Department
00:24:39
kept the media and the public informed he said the FBI was brought in and the FBI was conducting interviews at
00:24:47
Heather's Middle School the sheriff's department and the FBI together were questioning classmates teachers
00:24:53
counselors friends neighbors and church Associates but grounded and aerial searches turned up
00:25:00
nothing Lieutenant mrea said the case was taking no positive direction and we are just continuing at it with no new
00:25:11
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00:27:16
cheers captain now let's talk about one lead that did come in so first we need to understand that with a lot of these
00:27:25
missing kid cases the community really comes together we're talking missing Flyers everywhere pictures of Heather
00:27:33
seen all over town they were not just posting missing Flyers at local businesses far and wide middle school
00:27:40
kids made big signs with poster board and small wooden handles standing in crowds and on the sides of streets
00:27:48
holding these signs high as cars drove by asking everyone have you seen this girl there was also a command center of
00:27:59
sorts set up this place was for volunteers to meet and man the phone lines there were phones set up with a
00:28:08
tip number that people could call on Monday October 13th in the morning less than 1 month after Heather disappeared A
00:28:16
call came in the caller an anonymous female caller said there is a body at the Fox Run Regional Park area this is
00:28:27
in Black Forest this sent the sheriff's department 30 members of the El Paso search and rescue team two tracking dogs
00:28:36
and two helicopters on an all day search that covered 400 Acres but turned up nothing wow afterward the Sheriff's
00:28:45
Office publicly urged the caller to call again but this time with more details because of the size of the park right
00:28:55
they would get another call this this time another anonymous female caller sending them on another fruitless
00:29:03
search later information provided by several in law enforcement would state that both calls were believed to be
00:29:09
hoaxes even before the searches were conducted but they had to follow up on all tips and leads well it's amazing how
00:29:18
sick individuals are it's it's very strange that that stuff even happens and it's unclear if law enforcement believes
00:29:28
that both calls came from the same person but they have stated it's believed both calls came from a teenage
00:29:35
girl from a teenage sounding girl it's just strange that somebody would be sitting there watching the case unfold
00:29:42
and and want to make something up to waste law enforcement's time what's the motive yeah it it just
00:29:51
doesn't make any sense but to this day Captain the caller or callers have not been
00:29:57
identified well they have been identified as real pieces of [ __ ] that's that's right Zinger you're a real [ __ ]
00:30:04
stain yeah so we talk about the community coming together but then we also talk about these ass hats of
00:30:11
society with these harmful and hurtful fake calls which destroy the parents and loved ones of Heather and compromise
00:30:19
search efforts and the investigation itself yeah but I much rather prefer to talk about people coming together and
00:30:26
helping one another one of many instances was when we see this case this is the the uh Matthews family they
00:30:36
reached out offering friendship to Mike and Diane Church Jim and Gloria Matthews
00:30:44
were able to offer the churches their sympathies and they were two people that can truly understand and empathize just
00:30:52
exactly what the churches were going through 7 years before he Heather Church went missing and the believed Abduction
00:31:00
of Heather Church 12-year-old Janelle Matthews was believed to have been abducted from her home this is in
00:31:08
Greenley Colorado about a 2-hour Drive North of Black Forest Colorado Janelle was dropped off at the family's home
00:31:16
after she attended a Christmas choir concert she was last seen walking into her empty home by her friend and her
00:31:24
friend's father when they dropped her off at the house house later Janelle's parents found the house empty but
00:31:31
Janelle's shoes placed neatly in the family room near a space heater with the TV
00:31:38
on there was no sign of a struggle or forced entry but police said they believe the 12-year-old was abducted
00:31:45
from the home her case remains unsolved to this day now over 34 years later in recent developments her body was finally
00:31:56
located just just a little over 2 months ago in July of this year the body was found by oil field workers about 20
00:32:05
miles from her home I believe they are putting in a pipeline in that area and that's how they found the remains police
00:32:12
have named Idaho resident and two-time candidate for governor 68-year-old Steve Panky as a person of interest and
00:32:20
continue to investigate this case I would expect further movement in this case and that could and hopefully come
00:32:28
very soon so what we know here Captain with as the police say we're working this
00:32:36
case with really no leads really no clues we're working it we need it to take some kind of Direction all we
00:32:44
really know at this point is that something happened to Heather Dawn Church on September 17th
00:32:50
1991 between the hours of 8:30 p.m. when her mother called home and talked to Heather Heather was just fine and 10:15
00:32:58
when her mother arrived at the house yeah at least we're pointed in a direction I think law enforcement is
00:33:05
going okay based off what her parents are saying based off what people are saying around the community we don't
00:33:12
think that she took off on her own there's some evidence to suggest that somebody came through the house so so
00:33:20
she if she is alive she is in danger the search in the investigation was huge it
00:33:28
was rather big and I think Lieutenant Ken Hilt of the investigations division of the AL Paso County Sheriff's Office
00:33:37
summed up the search best in his summary for the case where he States a detailed
00:33:44
crime scene search was conducted of the church home search and rescue teams coupled with search dogs scoured the
00:33:51
area fingerprints were recovered and forwarded to both the Federal Bureau of of in investigation and the Colorado
00:33:59
Bureau of Investigation both local and National media took part in the quote we's
00:34:05
Heather missing persons campaign as the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation combined
00:34:14
efforts to solve the case in the years that followed detectives continued to pursue hundreds of leads which came in
00:34:22
from all parts of the country in addition to being featured in National Publications and television shows the
00:34:29
FBI's Behavioral Science unit produced a suspect profile the suspect profile that
00:34:35
was released to the media was a summarized version of the profile and it is as follows the Unknown Subject is a
00:34:44
male in his early to late 20s shy introverted and a loner subject is unable to achieve sexually whatever he
00:34:54
wants with women and has difficulty with women in general the subject would probably have knowledge of the victim
00:35:02
and her family after the crime the subject would have behavioral changes which would be noticeable by Associates
00:35:11
persons close to the offender would notice changes which include an increase in alcohol or drug use a deterioration
00:35:19
in personal appearance sleeping disorder a desire to be alone possibly fail to show up for work after the abduction I'm
00:35:29
wondering since we have little to no clues how they're getting this possible age
00:35:34
range of the perpetrator so I I would think that they're basing a lot of this off of previous crimes that that have a
00:35:42
similar similar victimology and maybe even a similar um modus operandi where somebody's coming into an actual home
00:35:51
that's very rare in abducting a child from inside the home the is 13 years old what we're also seeing here what is what
00:36:00
is released it's interesting on a few different levels because one we are getting a summarized version they're
00:36:07
getting they're they're going okay this version we're going to release to the media so that they share it with the
00:36:14
public because we do need the Public's help but there's another version of this profile that would have been given to
00:36:22
law enforcement to to agencies actually working the case yeah now I don't know how much they
00:36:29
would vary I imagine in some cases they vary greatly but this specific case we don't know what we do see here is
00:36:38
typical things of what we see in other profiles it's it's all kind of vague stuff but they're saying to the public
00:36:46
with this profile we're looking for somebody that has changed this is a dramatic change for this person this
00:36:53
person committed an abduction this this would be a dramatic change therefore their appearance their behavior their
00:37:01
mannerisms their their routine their drinking or drug use all of that is going to be affected in
00:37:08
change as well right because of this big change so if you've noticed a big change
00:37:13
in your cousin your your uncle your your brother your husband boyfriend whomever
00:37:20
right that might be somebody that we might want to talk to this is also trying to ring bells with employers
00:37:27
do you have somebody that showed up and they were missing work and when they return to work are they are they cover
00:37:33
you know covered in scratches or do they look like they've been in a fight or something like that I feel
00:37:39
like some of the things we see here Captain are kind of repetitive from other profiles the the the age of late
00:37:50
20s is one that we typically see with a victim of this age and I think think that they come up with that age now
00:37:59
profilers will tell you that age is by far the hardest thing to come up with but typically when we see a victim in
00:38:08
their early teens female victim early teens I often see that late 20s is kind of where they put that that number for
00:38:16
age yeah I also wonder if that has a effect I mean if you look at Heather in the pictures I've seen she looks like a
00:38:24
young 13 yeah and so I wonder if they take that into account as well I think the thought
00:38:32
with with being late 20s is is simply this it's it's one they're old enough to show
00:38:42
some some form of sophistication some form of not being so impulsive uhuh and also they're old enough to have
00:38:52
committed more Petty type crimes but similar in nature where they may not have been locked up they these may have
00:38:59
been things where they made a pass at at a young girl maybe it's a relative maybe
00:39:05
it's somebody close to the offender but maybe it was never reported usually those types of
00:39:13
crimes we need those to occur for something like this to take place usually there's escalation going on the
00:39:20
the the offender will escalate into abduction and then I mean I'm sorry to say it but possible
00:39:27
murder so that's why I think we have the age of 29 plus it it's you wonder why they don't go higher than that but you
00:39:36
also wonder does that factor in that that this there is some impulsiveness because of the risk level of going into
00:39:43
somebody else's home yeah I would also lean towards the idea though as law enforcement I mean this is not something
00:39:49
I would want to share with the family but the way she was abducted the lack of Clues um we have have no sightings seems
00:39:58
like we have no leads coming in and and she's been gone for quite a while at some point you have to start
00:40:06
leaning towards the idea that that she might not be alive anymore yeah and and then that that doesn't really change the
00:40:15
pro profile much but I think as far as drinking and all those things those will get even more
00:40:21
escalated um because of a of a murder the really weird thing the strange things to me that stand out one there's
00:40:29
no blood there's no evidence of any type of struggle inside their home and then on top of that if she wasn't abducted
00:40:38
from inside the home removed from the home the the little boy was sleeping right I mean he didn't wake up and and
00:40:46
hear screams or see anybody strange in their home this was all if she's removed from inside that home this all went down
00:40:55
very stealth likee now the case as mentioned was featured on several different TV shows Diane
00:41:02
Church she was really the one she was the the face of this investigation she did countless interviews she handled the
00:41:11
newspapers and TV interviews on a national level she was on several programs including but not limited to
00:41:19
the Oprah Winfrey Show and The Jerry Springer Show the Oprah Winfrey Show C am I showing my age
00:41:27
here wasn't it recent more recently just called Oprah did when did it make the change from the Oprah Winfree show to
00:41:34
just Oprah I don't know I'm not the head of the fan club I feel like when I was a
00:41:38
kid it was the the Oprah Winfree show well the national Spotlight and the huge focus on this case even just at the
00:41:47
local level Sparks what this week's recommended readings author would call the usual confusion and lunacy this next
00:41:57
part is from the book The Devil's right-hand man callers reported Heather lookalikes at a credit union in peblo at
00:42:06
a Taco Bell in Colorado Springs and at a mall in Aurora Diane would remember her
00:42:13
missing daughter once was cited in four states in one day and as far away as Israel investigators checked out a white
00:42:22
van a blue truck an old green barn where Satanic rituals allegedly were held they
00:42:30
even went so far as to research important dates for practitioners of Witchcraft and Satanism and rode around
00:42:38
El Paso County for hours with a mental patient who claimed to have information about the crime psychics popped up one
00:42:47
offered Diane an eerily exact description of the last meal she prepared for Heather and the boys saying
00:42:54
quote you cooked hot dogs because you were in a hurry and the boys like them but Heather didn't like hot dogs and she
00:43:02
told you she would fix a peanut butter sandwich for herself the woman was able to offer Diana little more other than to
00:43:09
say she thought Heather was dead another psychic Dorothy Allison of New Jersey told members of Diane's support group
00:43:20
that she saw a property with lots of trees a building with a triangular roof a tan pickup truck and a man named Brown
00:43:30
except there was something unusual about the spelling on September 13th 1993 almost 2 years to the day when Heather
00:43:40
vanished an unkempt scruffy Drifter named Timothy belbeck walked into the Colorado State Police Station and he had
00:43:48
a story to tell 4 days earlier he found quote a body off of Rampart Range Road the officer Tim spoke with told him
00:44:01
that's not our jurisdiction you're going to need to go to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and so he did right
00:44:09
there he told a deputy that down a deep ruine that 4 days earlier he found a body and an old rusted out beat up 1960s
00:44:20
Chevy the front door to the vehicle was open and the car was filled with dirt from likely a
00:44:28
Mudslide near the vehicle among some larger rocks Tim spotted what he later determined to be a human skull he
00:44:35
freaked out and ran back up to the top and left the area the deputy listened to Tim's story and then told him to take
00:44:45
his information to the state police a vehicle death would be their investigation so Tim did so there he met
00:44:55
officer Quintana after being turned away twice finally someone wanted to talk with him
00:45:03
Quintana and Tim got in the officer's state trooper vehicle and made their way back out to Rampart Range Road there the
00:45:12
two slowly worked their way down to the vehicle just as Tim had said sure enough
00:45:19
there was this old rusted out blue and white 1961 Chevy Impala with the door open and the car full of
00:45:28
dirt the officer looked around and thought that a body it should be easy to find right I
00:45:36
want everybody to to note that when Tim is reporting this information all three times he's saying that he found a body
00:45:47
but it it turns out that there was just a skull there he had only in fact found a skull right after more searching than
00:45:55
they did find a small pile of bones now the officer bagged up the skull bagged up the bones and took all of this all of
00:46:05
Timothy's information and his full story and how and why he found the skull officer Quintana then with the skull
00:46:13
went to the El Paso Sheriff's Department again where he too was told that it sounded like a car fatality so it was
00:46:23
his the it was the state police's investigation the state police's case officer Quintana put the bags in
00:46:32
his work car and drove to meet his family eventually he he's going to take Polaroids of the
00:46:40
skull and he believed that that maybe the the body didn't have anything to do with the V the the vehicle at all he
00:46:51
thought maybe it was left there from decades and decades and decades ago that it could have even been like a
00:46:58
Native American um or anything of that nature right at this time so now he's got these
00:47:06
these polaroid pictures of the skull in his work car and he goes to meet his family and I believe they were meeting
00:47:14
either to like go shopping or or go out to eat something of that nature he's meeting them there now keep in mind this
00:47:22
is almost two years to the day when Heather disappeared and still at this point in
00:47:31
our timeline there have been ribbons put up all over the neighborhoods to to you
00:47:38
know cheer on the return of this girl there were missing posters put up there were
00:47:45
Heather's picture all over town so his daughter officer Quintana his daughter gets into his vehicle and she's rumaging
00:47:57
around she finds the Polaroids of the skull and she's looking at them and and and unfortunately officer Quintana once
00:48:05
he realized that his daughter was in the car he realized he had some things in there he didn't want her to
00:48:12
see she's looking at these pictures and he's trying to tell her you know hey I think this is what was going on that's
00:48:19
this is why dad has these pictures it's his daughter that says you found Heather you found Heather Dawn
00:48:29
Church she recognized the layout of the teeth so the the picture of the skull there is no lower jaw just the upper
00:48:41
teeth there right and she recognized the two large inzersdorf it's very distinct look yeah
00:48:58
so on the second anniversary of Heather's disappearance the state police announced that they had recovered the
00:49:04
body of missing 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church investigators were quite skeptical about Timothy Bel Beck's Story
00:49:13
how did he find the skull so well hidden this was not a spot where people go this
00:49:19
isn't you know there's no traffic in this area he had to climb down into this Ravine to find
00:49:26
the skull why did he tell police he found a body when he said he only saw a skull
00:49:34
right why would he call a skull a body why did he wait 4 days before reporting what he
00:49:43
found Tim's story is pretty uh complicated let's say okay what we know is he's he's a Drifter he
00:49:53
is somebody that is may just be passing through the area right he states that he
00:50:00
was staying when he had money he would stay at the Pink Panther motel but on a night about 5 days before
00:50:10
he led Quintana to the skull he says he was forced to camp in his truck because he didn't have enough
00:50:17
money for the motel so he's trying to sleep in his truck he's sitting in there drinking whis
00:50:26
uh for his camping trip and he he said that he saw like um I don't know if they were teenagers or just young adults that
00:50:35
parked some distance away and they were they were partying as well and throughout the night they were
00:50:42
kind of tossing rocks down into this Ravine and when the Rocks would land down below he could hear them bouncing
00:50:50
off of what he thought was metal now we do know that there was a vehicle down in
00:50:56
that Ravine right this dude does not have much money he's a Drifter his he's thinking there's
00:51:03
metal down there I can turn that metal into money so the next day he decides to climb down into the Ravine looking to
00:51:12
pull all that scrap metal out of the Ravine and turn it into walking around money he finds the car down there that's
00:51:19
a good sign he said he saw a washing machine down there as well this is a place that people were dumping
00:51:26
large siiz throwaway objects probably for a very long time it's when he's down there conducting the search for scrap
00:51:35
metal that he says he saw the skull amongst some of the Rocks near the vehicle these rocks were uh you know
00:51:44
bigger bigger rocks almost bowling ball size but he said what stood out for him was the color of the skull was
00:51:51
significantly different than the color of the Rocks so he went to investigate when he saw that it was a skull he did
00:51:57
in fact freak out when he returned you know gathered his thoughts got back to to normal he thought well if it's a uh
00:52:10
vehicle fatality right cuz it's right by this vehicle mhm he's thinking he should
00:52:17
report it because the family of this missing person should know what happened to
00:52:23
their loved one exactly he tells one of his drinking buddies hey I'm I'm going this is what I found and I'm going to
00:52:30
report it the drinking buddy quickly points out if it's not a vehicle fatality if it was Foul Play they might
00:52:40
think you did something so that kind of talks him out of reporting it right a couple days go
00:52:46
by and Timothy starts thinking well maybe there would be a reward involved even if it was a vehicle accident if
00:52:54
it's a missing person or if there was Foul Play Timothy thinks well maybe I should
00:53:00
report it due to there being a possible reward so his whole story is complicated
00:53:08
and I'm sure the investigators when they find out that this was a missing 13-year-old girl you found her skull
00:53:15
your story is strange you didn't report it for a few days they you're a Drifter yeah yeah
00:53:23
they don't like this guy they're they're looking at him is okay not only did we find her but we now may possibly have
00:53:30
for the first time a suspect in this whole case mhm they walked around him in the
00:53:36
interrogation room going trying to smell if he is a piece of [ __ ] or not yeah in the end though
00:53:46
Captain they ended up believing Timothy's story they were probably able to um back up some of the things that he
00:53:54
was telling them right so the other thing too with him being a Drifter I don't know how they ruled him out but I
00:54:01
know they ruled him out fairly quickly they may have been able to figure out that he wasn't even in the area when
00:54:09
Heather went missing right so now we have recovered the body but really that did nothing for the investigation other
00:54:16
than rule out a runaway scenario now they knew she was abducted and killed but they still didn't know by who and
00:54:28
[Music] why for everything true crime go to True Crim garage.com and join us back here
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tomorrow for more on this case until then be good be kind and don't [Music] litter
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