# Southern Crime Mysteries | 2025 True Crime Compilation Part 2

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 26 Dec 2025, 1 h 26 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO9776412203.mp3

Join me for part 2 of this two part compilation of my southern true crime mysteries from 2025. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories, Alabama true crime, Arkansas true crime, Florida true crime, Georgia true crime, Kentucky true crime, Louisiana true crime, Mississippi true crime, North Carolina true crime, South Carolina true crime, Tennessee true crime, Texas true crime, Virginia true crime, West Virginia true crime, Oklahoma true crime

## Transcript

[0:01] On February 2nd, 1982, law enforcement in Ascension Parish
[0:06] in Louisiana made a grim discovery the body of a young
[0:11] man floating in the Mississippi River near Darrow.
[0:14] The victim had no identification and the remains were badly
[0:18] decomposed from days or weeks in the water.
[0:22] The Sheriff's Office treated the incident as suspicious since no
[0:25] COD was immediately evident. Despite some publicity at the
[0:29] time, no family ever came forward to claim him and no
[0:33] clues to his identity emerged. An autopsy and forensic exam
[0:38] provided a general profile of the John Doe while also
[0:42] underscoring the difficulties investigators faced.
[0:45] He was a white male, approximately 18 to 21 years old
[0:49] and around 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing about 130 to 140 lbs.
[0:58] He had brown hair, though eye color couldn't be determined at
[1:01] the time due to the condition of the remains.
[1:04] Notably, he had a slight overbite, a chipped front tooth,
[1:08] and several dental fillings. These dental details were
[1:12] documented in case they might later help identify him.
[1:16] The coroner couldn't pinpoint an exact cause but noted no trauma
[1:20] on his body. No personal items were recovered
[1:24] and his clothing was generic, a Plaid western style shirt from
[1:28] Sears, blue jeans, a black belt, and Adidas sneakers.
[1:34] This common attire provided no unique leads.
[1:37] Unfortunately, the advanced decomposition also prevented
[1:41] officials from obtaining usable fingerprints in 1982 without DNA
[1:46] profiling or centralized databases.
[1:49] The lack of identification evidence left investigators with
[1:53] very little to go on in the investigation.
[1:58] Over the decades, various theories have been proposed
[2:02] about what might have happened to the John Doe.
[2:05] Foul play is 1 possibility as the body may have been dumped in
[2:09] the river to conceal a crime. However, this remains
[2:13] speculative since no obvious injuries were found on the
[2:16] remains. It's also possible that the
[2:19] death was accidental, for example a fall from a boat or a
[2:24] bridge into the river. As years passed, the case was
[2:29] entered into national databases like Name Us, and a number of
[2:33] other men were ruled out. As for his identity, one
[2:38] prominent theory is that he was a hitchhiker from out of state.
[2:43] In the early 1980s, many young people travelled long distances
[2:47] by hitchhiking, and some disappeared far from home.
[2:51] This John Doe potentially fits the pattern of a traveller who
[2:54] died on the road, with no one local to report him missing 43
[3:01] years later. The case is currently receiving
[3:03] renewed attention thanks to modern forensic tools.
[3:07] In 2025, the Faces Lab at Louisiana State University
[3:11] completed a new digital facial reconstruction of the John Doe,
[3:16] using his skull to reconstruct his face.
[3:20] The image was recently publicized by the Sheriff's
[3:22] Office in hopes that someone might recognize him after so
[3:25] many years. The Sheriff's Office asked that
[3:28] people share the image widely. So here I am, doing my part.
[3:33] Notably, his profile on the Doe Network indicates that his DNA
[3:37] was properly preserved. It's unclear if this DNA profile
[3:41] has been sent for forensic genealogy testing at this time.
[3:45] Notably, this process is still new and resource intensive, so
[3:49] the spotlight generated by the new forensic facial
[3:52] reconstruction may get the ball rolling on this as well.
[3:58] It was an ordinary summer evening on June 26th, 2020.
[4:02] Five 29 year old Rachel Dawson, a devoted fiance and caregiver,
[4:08] told her family she was stepping out for a quick walk near her
[4:11] rural home in Irving, Kentucky. When Rachel didn't return or
[4:16] answer her phone, her worried fiance, Caleb Thompson, tracked
[4:20] her cell phone to a Red Roof Inn about 30 miles away in
[4:24] Winchester. Thompson and other family
[4:27] members rushed to the motel and alerted authorities, who arrived
[4:30] with sirens blaring. Officers raced inside, bracing
[4:35] for the worst, and inside one of the motel rooms they found
[4:39] Rachel. The young woman who had been
[4:42] full of life just hours before, was now lying unresponsive on
[4:46] the floor. Paramedics and police could do
[4:49] nothing. Rachel Dawson was pronounced
[4:51] dead at the scene. The initial indications pointed
[4:54] to a substance overdose, which baffled her loved ones.
[4:59] Rachel had no history of usage and was even known to be fearful
[5:03] of illicit substances. Upon further digging, the motel
[5:09] room had been rented by a 44 year old man named Brian
[5:13] Epperson, who was nowhere to be found when police arrived.
[5:17] Court records later confirmed Epperson had booked that room
[5:21] and when officers tracked him down, they discovered meth in
[5:24] his truck. Epperson was promptly arrested
[5:27] on drug possession charges, while detectives sent Rachel's
[5:31] body for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
[5:36] From the start, Rachel's family doubted that her death was an
[5:39] accident. They knew she would never
[5:42] voluntarily use meth. They also had no idea who Brian
[5:46] Epperson was or how she would have crossed paths with him.
[5:53] Epperson, 44, worked as a home improvement contractor in
[5:58] Central Kentucky, a job that often put him in contact with
[6:02] new people in their homes. When police apprehended him,
[6:06] they quickly learned that this was not the first time Epperson
[6:09] had been linked to a suspicious death.
[6:12] In fact, Epperson was already facing a charge in a separate
[6:16] but eerily similar case, the overdose death of 32 year old
[6:21] Kristen Morris in May 2025. Morris was found unresponsive at
[6:28] a rental cabin in Powell County on May 31st, with Epperson
[6:32] present at the scene. Her toxicology report later
[6:36] revealed an astronomically high level of meth in her system,
[6:39] nearly 300 times a typical fatal overdose.
[6:43] Disturbingly, beyond the overdose investigations,
[6:47] Epperson has also been accused of other predatory behavior.
[6:53] In July 2025, he was charged with video voyeurism in an
[6:57] unrelated case after an ex-girlfriend discovered a
[7:01] hidden camera in her bedroom. Police say Epperson had given
[7:05] the woman a digital clock containing a secret recording
[7:08] device, and a search of his phone uncovered illicit footage
[7:13] that he had secretly recorded. This revelation painted a
[7:17] picture of a man with dangerous, obsessive tendencies, someone
[7:22] who was willing to violate others privacy and safety in
[7:25] deeply invasive ways. As detectives dug into
[7:31] Epperson's background, a chilling pattern began to
[7:34] emerge. In both Rachel's and Morris's
[7:37] deaths, investigators recovered unusual gelatin capsules filled
[7:42] with meth, this method that suggested the victims had been
[7:45] deliberately dosed with lethal quantities of the substance.
[7:49] Perhaps most striking, a review of Epperson's phone and online
[7:54] activity yielded evidence of planning.
[7:58] Investigators discovered that he had recently searched the
[8:00] Internet for overdose deaths, and they found an Amazon receipt
[8:04] for the purchase of empty pill capsules.
[8:07] In other words, it appeared Epperson had researched how to
[8:11] fatally overdose someone and had acquired the tools to do it.
[8:16] When questioned, he claimed he did not know the women were dead
[8:20] and did not admit to spiking the capsules.
[8:24] With two cases now linked, authorities also revisited 1/3
[8:29] Mysterious death the November 2024 overdose of a woman named
[8:34] Hillary Davis in Lexington. Davis had been found dead in a
[8:38] hotel room under similar conditions, and detectives now
[8:42] identified a tie between Davis and Epperson.
[8:46] Although Davis's case had initially been treated as an
[8:48] accidental overdose, it's now part of the broader
[8:52] investigation into Epperson's activities.
[8:55] Police publicly named Brian Epperson as the primary suspect
[8:59] in all three women's deaths and began exploring the possibility
[9:03] that there are even more victims beyond these cases.
[9:09] Winchester police have put out a public call for anyone who has
[9:12] ever interacted with Brian Epperson to come forward with
[9:15] information. Kentucky State Police have
[9:18] similarly urged families of any overdose victims with possible
[9:22] ties to Epperson to contact authorities.
[9:27] The full extent of the alleged crimes of Brian Epperson remain
[9:30] unknown at present. It's also important to remember
[9:34] that Brian Epperson remains innocent until proven guilty in
[9:37] a court of law. On a warm 4th of July night in
[9:42] 1988, two Texas teenagers vanished without a trace. 18
[9:46] year old Sally Mcnelly and 16 year old Shane Stewart had
[9:50] reunited that holiday evening to watch the fireworks in their
[9:53] hometown of San Angelo, TX. It was the first time they'd
[9:57] been together in months, and tragically, the last time they
[10:01] would ever be seen alive. By the next morning, Shane's
[10:05] prized Camaro was found abandoned near the lake, keys
[10:09] resting on the dashboard and fast food wrappers littering the
[10:13] front seat. There were no obvious signs of a
[10:16] struggle and initially some hoped the young couple had
[10:20] simply run off together. But as days turned into weeks,
[10:24] that hopeful notion faded and four months later, in November
[10:28] 1988, Hunter's made a grim discovery that would set this
[10:33] mystery into motion. The Sally McNally and Shane
[10:38] Stewart case is built on fragments of facts and long held
[10:42] suspicions, as well as a surprise twist that wouldn't be
[10:45] revealed until 2017. What is definitively known is
[10:50] that on July 4th, 1988, Sally and Shane spent the evening
[10:55] together at Lake Nasworthy, enjoying the Independence Day
[10:58] festivities. They were former high school
[11:02] sweethearts who had recently reconnected after a brief
[11:05] breakup, and both had only just returned to San Angelo that
[11:09] summer. Sometime around 9:00 that
[11:12] evening, they watched the annual fireworks show at the lake, and
[11:16] they likely left the crowded area late that night.
[11:20] In the early hours of July 5th, a park Ranger discovered Shane's
[11:24] copper colored Camaro abandoned near Fisher Lake, another
[11:28] reservoir in the area. The car's presence was puzzling.
[11:33] It was parked in a different section of the park than where
[11:35] the fireworks took place, and Shane's keys were left in plain
[11:39] sight on the dash. Inside, nothing seemed to miss,
[11:44] and there were no obvious signs of foul play.
[11:47] That said, because no crime had knowingly been committed at the
[11:51] time, it's unclear how closely the authorities examined this
[11:56] vehicle. Authorities at first treated the
[12:01] situation as a possible runaway or teenage escapade gone awry,
[12:06] but the families of the teens felt in their gut that something
[12:09] was very wrong. Shane had promised to be home by
[12:13] 11:00 PM on the 4th and it wasn't like him to disappear.
[12:18] A search was launched when the pair failed to turn up after a
[12:21] couple of days, with friends and family frantically checking any
[12:26] places the teens might have gone.
[12:30] On November 11th, 1988, the first breakthrough came in a
[12:34] devastating fashion. Remains, later identified as
[12:38] Sally's, were found on a remote ranch property off a rural farm
[12:42] Rd. in Tom, Greene County. Three days later, on November
[12:46] 14th, searchers discovered skeletal remains of Shane in the
[12:50] same general vicinity. The two were found only a short
[12:54] distance apart, confirming they had met the same fate.
[12:59] The condition of the remains indicated they had been exposed
[13:02] to the elements for quite some time.
[13:05] Any forensic clues that might have lingered had likely been
[13:08] eliminated by West TX weather and scavengers.
[13:11] Over those four months, investigators could determine
[13:15] little beyond the cause of death.
[13:17] Both teens had been slain by a shotgun blast, likely on the
[13:21] night they disappeared. As the investigation unfolded,
[13:27] an unsettling picture emerged of the teenagers lives before their
[13:31] deaths. These allegations involve
[13:34] alleged occult activities and a circle of friends that many in
[13:38] town would later describe as a satanic cult.
[13:42] In the year leading up to the event, both Sally and Shane had
[13:45] become involved with a clandestine group of local
[13:48] youths engaged in bizarre rituals.
[13:52] And I should note here that the existence of this group has been
[13:55] confirmed by the authorities, for what that's worth.
[14:01] Sally's close friends and even her mother Pat Wade, recalled
[14:06] that the 18 year old had been attending strange late night
[14:09] parties featuring black magic ceremonies.
[14:13] When Sally started dating Shane in late 1987, she introduced him
[14:18] to these new friends and their so-called ritualistic parties.
[14:23] Marshall Stewart, Shane's father, noticed an abrupt change
[14:26] in his son's behavior around that time, claiming the once
[14:30] easygoing teen was now getting into fights and acting out.
[14:36] The influence of this group was clearly negative, and both sets
[14:39] of parents feared the teens were in over their heads.
[14:42] And unlike most of these stories involving the occult, those
[14:46] fears weren't unfounded, since this occult group really sounds
[14:50] more like a local gang with some occult trappings.
[14:54] In March 1988, just a few months before their disappearance,
[14:59] Sally and Shane themselves went to the police with alarming
[15:03] information. Sally contacted a sheriff's
[15:07] deputy, Larry Counts, and reported that members of the
[15:10] cult were involved in serious crimes.
[15:14] She handed over a weapon that, according to her, a cult member
[15:18] had given the couple. The person allegedly told Sally
[15:22] and Shane that the weapon had recently been used in a slaying.
[15:26] Skeptical at first, Deputy Counts checked the serial number
[15:31] and discovered it was indeed stolen property, which lent some
[15:35] credibility to the teen story. The teens confided to law
[15:41] enforcement that they were trying to extricate themselves
[15:44] from the cult, but they feared retaliation if they were caught
[15:47] betraying the group secrets. This chilling warning that their
[15:52] lives could be in danger would prove to be eerily prophetic.
[15:57] But at any rate, even with the stolen weapon being turned over,
[16:01] the cops didn't seem to take the case overly seriously.
[16:07] In fact, this led to rumors at the time that there was a cover
[16:11] up related to the occult group, A theory which leaned fully into
[16:15] the Satanic Panic memes of the time.
[16:18] This theory essentially suggested that all the
[16:20] institutions in this Texas town had been infiltrated by agents
[16:25] of the Devil, a theory that has later been dismissed as mass
[16:28] hysteria. But I'll come back to this
[16:31] peculiar phenomenon shortly, so just hang tight for a moment.
[16:37] Shortly after turning over the weapon, Sally and Shane took
[16:41] steps to distance themselves from the occult group and appear
[16:44] to have initially had some success, at least for a short
[16:47] time. They moved out of the apartment
[16:50] they had briefly shared and actually left San Angelo for a
[16:53] time in the spring of 1988. But by early summer, both teens
[16:58] found themselves drawn back to their hometown.
[17:01] In mid June 1988, roughly 2 weeks before she went missing,
[17:05] Sally made a distressed phone call to her friend Helen.
[17:10] Sally was frantic in the extreme and claimed someone was trying
[17:14] to eliminate her due to her connections with the group she
[17:16] had been trying to distance herself from.
[17:19] Helen, not fully understanding the gravity of the situation,
[17:24] tried to calm her down and didn't report the incident to
[17:27] Sally's family at the time. With hindsight, this plea for
[17:31] help was another ominous red flag that went unheeded.
[17:36] Piercing together, the events of July 4th, 1988 has been critical
[17:41] to understanding what might have happened to Shane and Sally.
[17:44] Thanks to witness accounts, investigators have a general
[17:48] timeline of the couple's last hours.
[17:51] After watching the 9:00 PM fireworks at Lake Nosworthy, the
[17:55] pair left the busy lake area and at some point travelled in
[17:58] Shane's car to a secluded spot by Fisher Lake a few miles away.
[18:05] Why they went there remains uncertain, though it's been
[18:08] speculated that they may have been using it as a lover's lane
[18:11] of sorts. This theory makes a lot of sense
[18:15] to me since they were just reconnecting and they no longer
[18:18] had a shared private apartment where they could spend some
[18:21] alone time. One eyewitness later came
[18:26] forward to say he saw Sally and Shane near a park at Fisher Lake
[18:30] in the late night hours. This witness, fishing from a
[18:34] boat, noticed a pickup truck approached the couple's parked
[18:37] Camaro. He distinctly heard Sally's
[18:40] voice carrying over the water, telling the truck's occupants
[18:44] that they didn't want to be involved with the group anymore.
[18:47] An argument ensued, but the witness assumed it was just some
[18:51] teens partying or quarrelling and paid little attention as he
[18:55] departed the area. That snippet of overheard
[19:01] conversation, if accurate, is incredibly telling.
[19:05] It suggests that the people who met Sally and Shane at the lake
[19:08] that night were likely connected to the very group the teens were
[19:12] trying to escape. Notably, this was the last known
[19:16] sighting of them alive and by daylight on July 5th, when the
[19:20] Camaro was found abandoned, the teens were nowhere to be found.
[19:27] Marshall Stewart, who never believed the runaway theory in
[19:30] the wake of July 4th, took it upon himself to investigate.
[19:35] He recalled that Shane had been having trouble with a particular
[19:38] individual. This was another teenager from
[19:41] the cult crowd whom Shane didn't get along with.
[19:44] According to Marshall, Shane had once said that if he ever saw
[19:48] this person again, a fight would be inevitable.
[19:52] Now, in the wake of the disappearance, Marshall went to
[19:56] that young man's home to confront him.
[19:59] The teen refused to talk about Shane and Sally, but Marshall
[20:03] noticed something. Chilling scratch marks on the
[20:06] boy's face, as if he'd been in a recent scuffle.
[20:11] It was suspicious, to say the least.
[20:14] But with no further evidence, nothing was ever done further.
[20:18] Yet. The authorities were still
[20:19] treating the case as a runaway at the time.
[20:22] And wouldn't have interviewed Shane's scratched up rival.
[20:27] Also, I note that this individual's name has never been
[20:30] released to the public, and you're going to want to keep
[20:33] this in mind going forward since it may be important given the
[20:39] eerie circumstances of the case. A number of theories have been
[20:43] proposed to explain who eliminated Sally and Shane and
[20:46] why. The most prevalent theory,
[20:49] especially at the time, was that their slayings were connected to
[20:52] Satanic cult activity. The late 1980s were the height
[20:57] of the Satanic Panic in America, when fear of cults and ritual
[21:01] crime was rampant. According to the media,
[21:05] teenagers would get together, listen to heavy metal while
[21:08] summoning demons and Dungeons and Dragons, all for the glory
[21:12] of the devil, as was the style at the time.
[21:16] Sally and Shane's story, teenagers dabbling in devil
[21:20] worship who then mysteriously disappeared fit neatly into that
[21:24] narrative. In 1991, Unsolved Mysteries ran
[21:30] a segment on the case, heavily implying that the couple might
[21:34] have been slain as part of a satanic ritual or cult
[21:37] retribution. This is where I first found out
[21:41] about the case, and where I'm sure most of you who heard about
[21:44] it previous to this segment did as well.
[21:48] The show dramatized the occult angle, suggesting that sinister
[21:53] ceremonies or even a sacrifice could be involved.
[21:56] However, as time passed, investigators began to question
[22:00] whether the slayings were really ritualistic at all.
[22:04] Despite the rumors, no concrete evidence of an actual Satanic
[22:08] ceremony or symbols was ever reported at the crime scene.
[22:13] In fact, decades later, law enforcement has stated they
[22:17] don't believe the teens were slain because of a Satanic rite.
[22:22] More likely, the cult story provided A dramatic backdrop,
[22:26] but the real motive may have been more mundane.
[22:29] Notably, the so-called cult was also involved in a lucrative
[22:33] side business for Satan. They were pushing the devil's
[22:37] lettuce on the local youth and making a tidy profit doing so.
[22:42] Shane and Sally had recently turned over a weapon to the
[22:45] police and were clearly interested in getting out of
[22:48] this group. Under this theory, the two of
[22:52] them were seen as liabilities who would sink a profitable St.
[22:55] pharmaceutical operation and land the ringleaders in the
[22:59] slammer. Another theory that has been
[23:03] floated over the years involves specific suspects within the
[23:06] victims social circle. As mentioned, Shane had conflict
[23:11] with at least one other teenager who was involved in the occult
[23:14] group. Marshall Stewart's encounter
[23:17] with that individual noticing scratches on his face is often
[23:21] cited as a clue that a fight happened around the time of the
[23:24] slayings. Some have speculated that this
[23:28] teen confronted Shane and Sally on July 4th and things turned
[23:32] violent. Under this theory, while this
[23:35] teenager may have been a social connection from the occult
[23:38] group, he didn't commit the ACT on the authority of the group.
[23:44] For nearly three decades, the mystery of who slew Sally
[23:48] Mcnelly and Shane Stewart saw little movement until a shocking
[23:52] break in 2017 injected New Hope into the cold case.
[23:57] And trust me, this is going to be one of the weirdest and most
[24:00] disturbing twists I've ever discussed and suggest the occult
[24:04] group wasn't your typical group of edgy teenagers.
[24:09] In June 2017, a 47 year old San Angelo man named John Cyrus
[24:15] Gilbreth was pulled over by Tom Greene County deputies on a
[24:18] routine stop. This minor incident quickly
[24:22] escalated into something far more significant.
[24:25] Gilbreth's passenger made a remark to officers that he was
[24:28] involved in the street pharmacy game, prompting investigators to
[24:32] obtain a warrant to search his home.
[24:35] What they found instead was a trove of items that appeared to
[24:39] tie Gilbreth directly to the 1988 double slaying.
[24:45] According to police statements and reports from local media,
[24:48] the search of Gilbreth's residence uncovered personal
[24:51] writings and notes explicitly mentioning Shane and Sally.
[24:56] There were also three cassette tapes, all of which contain the
[24:59] initials of the couple, though the sound quality was so
[25:03] degraded that it was impossible to determine what was going on.
[25:09] Even more damning, they discovered physical evidence,
[25:12] including hair and fingernails, that are believed to have
[25:14] belonged to the deceased pair. The revelation was stunning, and
[25:18] for the first time, authorities publicly named John Gilbreath as
[25:23] a person of interest in the slayings of Sally and Shane.
[25:27] It turned out Gilbreath was not an unknown figure in the case.
[25:32] Investigators acknowledged that he had been on their radar from
[25:35] the very beginning, and he was one of the teenagers involved in
[25:38] the same occult group back in 1988.
[25:42] In other words, Gilbreth was one of Sally and Shane's alleged
[25:45] friends who had a penchant for Satanic themed gatherings.
[25:52] He had a checkered past in the years after the slayings,
[25:55] including a felony theft conviction in 1989 and a
[25:59] substance related conviction in 1994.
[26:03] Gilbreth was eventually convicted on unrelated charges
[26:07] based upon an arsenal of weaponry that was also
[26:11] incidentally found during the search.
[26:14] As a convicted felon, he was, of course, not allowed to be in
[26:18] possession of these items, and he was sent to federal prison in
[26:21] 2018. Notably, however, he has never
[26:26] been charged with the slayings of Shane and Sally.
[26:29] The evidence found at his home is strongly suggestive, but
[26:33] likely not enough on its own to secure an indictment without
[26:36] corroborating proof or testimony.
[26:40] As of now, the slayings of Sally Mcnelly and Shane Stewart remain
[26:45] officially unsolved. Cold case detectives and Texas
[26:49] Rangers continue to follow leads, and advancements in
[26:52] forensic technology offer new possibilities.
[26:56] Perhaps the most interesting potential new forensic
[26:59] opportunity will come from those cassette tapes.
[27:03] If new technology improves the ability to restore the tapes,
[27:06] these recordings may contain the truth of what happened to the
[27:09] young couple. My own theory is that while John
[27:14] Gilbreath sits in federal custody, investigators are
[27:18] quietly stacking evidence against him and re examining
[27:21] items seized in 2017. Given that he's out of the game
[27:26] for the foreseeable future, the authorities have been gifted the
[27:29] ability to build the absolute strongest case possible against
[27:33] him. Prosecutors have strong
[27:35] incentives to wait until the case is airtight.
[27:39] Cold cases can hinge on so many different factors, and an
[27:42] acquittal triggers double jeopardy protections in almost
[27:45] all cases. Of course, it may be that
[27:50] there's simply no evidence that this guy actually did it, and he
[27:54] may have received these disturbing mementos from the
[27:56] person who did. After all, they all hung out in
[28:00] the same spooky cult like group, so it's very possible that
[28:04] biological material from the victims was distributed amongst
[28:08] the members. Also, personally, I wonder if
[28:13] Gilbreth is the guy that Shane's dad confronted back in the day.
[28:17] If he's not, I would hope that the cops have paid that guy a
[28:21] visit as well. A United States congressman
[28:26] vanishing without a trace sounds like something out of a Netflix
[28:29] series. Yet that's exactly what happened
[28:31] to Jeremiah Harrelson. Harrelson, A pioneering African
[28:36] American politician during the Reconstruction Era, survived the
[28:40] horrors of an antebellum plantation to enter Congress.
[28:44] Despite this, we know remarkably little about his last years, and
[28:49] he disappeared without a trace, having become a disgraced public
[28:53] figure. The only thing that's certain is
[28:57] that this man's journey from the very bottom to the halls of
[29:00] Congress to his mystery end make for one of American history's
[29:04] most intriguing unsolved stories.
[29:09] Born in Georgia in 1846, he was sold twice as a child and
[29:14] endured brutal whippings that left his back scarred for life.
[29:18] With no formal schooling available, Harrelson taught
[29:21] himself to read and write as a young man.
[29:24] This self education, combined with his natural gift for public
[29:28] speaking, propelled him into politics.
[29:32] By 1870, just five years after his emancipation, Harrelson won
[29:37] election to the Alabama State Legislature as one of the first
[29:41] black lawmakers in the Reconstruction Era.
[29:44] Two years later, he advanced to the state Senate, where he
[29:47] pushed through laws focusing on equality between black and white
[29:51] citizens of the state. Harrelson quickly earned A
[29:56] reputation as a witty, eloquent speaker and an independent
[30:00] thinker. His talents didn't go unnoticed,
[30:03] and Frederick Douglass himself applauded Harrelson for
[30:06] combining keen humor with sound sense in his oratory.
[30:10] In 1874, at just 28 years old, Jeremiah Harrelson set his
[30:16] sights on the United States Congress.
[30:19] He ran for a House seat in one of Alabama's black majority
[30:22] congressional districts and one with roughly 55% of the vote.
[30:28] Taking office in 1875, he joined the very small group of African
[30:34] Americans then serving in Congress.
[30:37] Harrelson sat on the House Committee on Public Expenditures
[30:41] and introduced bills to support public education and aid his
[30:44] constituents back home. However, the same forces that
[30:51] had propelled him to office also made his tenure precarious.
[30:55] His service deeply angered many ex Confederates, and they worked
[30:59] incredibly hard, both through legal and illegal means, to
[31:03] ensure Harrelson wouldn't remain in Washington.
[31:07] In the 1876 election, Harrelson's voter base faced A
[31:11] rampant voter intimidation campaign, allowing an ex
[31:15] Confederate Democrat to take his seat essentially by force.
[31:20] Due to the suppression campaign against him and his supporters,
[31:24] in early 1877, Harrelson traveled to Washington to
[31:28] testify about voter intimidation tactics.
[31:33] Even after losing office, Harrelson didn't give up on
[31:36] public service, and he later served roles within the
[31:39] Washington bureaucracy. By the early 1890s, he had
[31:44] relocated to Arkansas to serve as a federal pension agent,
[31:48] helping veterans and widows file claims.
[31:52] Unfortunately for Harrelson, this chapter of his life ended
[31:55] in extreme disgrace. In late 1894, Harrelson was
[32:00] arrested on charges of fraud, accused of forging pension
[32:04] paperwork, and swiftly convicted in federal court.
[32:08] A judge sentenced him to two years in prison, the maximum
[32:11] penalty, which he served in the Albany County Penitentiary in
[32:15] New York. Newspapers in America and around
[32:19] the world picked up the story of the former congressman who would
[32:23] now be serving hard time for fraud.
[32:27] Harrelson was about 49 years old when he entered prison in 1895,
[32:32] and that's the last time he appears in known historical
[32:35] records. From that point forward, he
[32:39] vanished entirely from newspaper accounts and official documents.
[32:43] After serving his sentence, likely by 1897, Harrelson
[32:49] effectively stepped off the public stage.
[32:53] Once Harrelson dropped out of sight, his final fate became a
[32:56] subject of speculation. Lacking concrete evidence,
[33:00] biographers struggled to determine when or how he
[33:03] perished. The most infamous account of his
[33:06] demise emerged in the 1920s, when a congressional
[33:10] biographical directory reported that Harrelson had moved to
[33:13] Colorado after his release. In this biography, it was
[33:17] claimed that he had been slain by, quote, wild beasts while
[33:21] hunting around 1916. Even Harrelson's portrait in the
[33:26] Library of Congress archives was long captioned with that grisly
[33:30] claim. According to the tale, the
[33:33] former congressman met that brutal end in the Rocky
[33:36] Mountains at age 69 or 70. In the absence of any other
[33:41] information, this lurid story took hold and was repeated for
[33:46] decades as fact. Today, historians generally
[33:51] doubt the wild animal story. Modern research has found no
[33:55] evidence that Harrelson ever relocated to Colorado
[33:57] permanently, and there's no evidence that he ever even
[34:00] traveled there. There's no death certificate, no
[34:05] known grave, and no contemporary news report to verify the
[34:09] account. The wild beast's tale appears to
[34:12] have been based on nothing more than hearsay or mistaken
[34:15] identity. Some have suggested that he may
[34:20] have perished while he was in federal custody and that the
[34:24] authorities simply never reported it or even covered it
[34:27] up. In support of this theory,
[34:30] proponents have argued that the living standards in American
[34:32] prisons in the late 19th century were abysmal and diseases ran
[34:37] rampant. Further, despite being a
[34:40] disgraced politician, Harrelson still had access to politically
[34:44] powerful friends who may have made life very difficult for
[34:48] those who had custody of him when he perished.
[34:51] However, all that said, this theory is purely speculative and
[34:56] simply relies upon the circumstantial evidence that he
[34:59] was in prison and the prisons were unsanitary.
[35:04] Yet another theory suggests that Harrelson was released and
[35:07] simply left the country afterwards.
[35:10] It's been speculated that he may have quietly moved to Canada or
[35:13] Latin America, where he lived out his life under an assumed
[35:17] identity, escaping the disgrace of his criminal conviction.
[35:22] Supporters of this theory believe that given that he was
[35:24] released from prison in upstate New York, Canada would have been
[35:28] his most likely destination. Despite substantial efforts over
[35:35] the last decades, no new evidence has turned up, and the
[35:38] consensus among experts is that Jeremiah Harrelson's fate
[35:42] remains a mystery. He remains one of the few people
[35:45] to have served in Congress whose fates are entirely unknown to
[35:49] history. The quiet calm of a Texas summer
[35:53] afternoon was shattered on August 2nd, 1997, when a
[35:57] passerby stumbled upon a gruesome find on the east side
[36:00] of Lake Arlington. There, near the water's edge,
[36:04] lay the decomposed body of an unknown man.
[36:07] Authorities were called and a baffling mystery began that
[36:11] endures to this day. The victim was a white male,
[36:16] estimated to be between 40 and 55 years old and around 5 foot
[36:21] 10. Forensic analysis suggested he
[36:24] had been deceased for about one to two months, likely since June
[36:28] or July of 1997. There were no signs of any acute
[36:33] injuries, and the medical examiner couldn't determine A
[36:36] cause of death from the remains found in a relatively remote
[36:41] spot by the lake. This John Doe raised many
[36:44] questions from the start and his mystery continues on today,
[36:47] nearly 20 years later. The man had medium length brown
[36:53] hair and was discovered wearing casual summer attire.
[36:57] He was dressed in cut off Wrangler denim shorts, white
[37:01] Converse sneakers with red trim, and a pair of Ray Ban
[37:04] sunglasses. Along with his clothing, several
[37:08] personal items were recovered which could serve to identify
[37:12] who this man is. These included a silver colored
[37:16] necklace, a lighter, a folding pocket knife, a purple comb, and
[37:21] a gold tone token emblazoned with a riverboat and the words
[37:25] No cash value. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to
[37:30] find any photographs of these items online, on Name Us or on
[37:34] any other sources. This is, of course, a bit of an
[37:37] issue, since silver colored necklace doesn't serve to narrow
[37:41] things down very much. At any rate, these belongings
[37:47] painted a rough sketch of his life, at least to those
[37:50] investigators who were able to view them directly.
[37:54] Notably, the token was what has been described as a generic
[37:57] arcade or casino token. Investigators checked its
[38:00] origin, but that went nowhere since such tokens were mass
[38:04] produced. Personally though, without
[38:07] seeing the token itself, I'd be wary of any such conclusion, and
[38:11] I suspect there may have been some minor distinctions added
[38:14] that could be a clue. Despite the evidence recovered,
[38:20] nothing found with the body gave away the man's identity.
[38:24] Unfortunately, he carried no wallet, no identification, and
[38:28] no other forms of identifying paperwork.
[38:31] Authorities released a forensic sketch as well, which is quite
[38:35] distinctive, but this too led to nothing.
[38:41] Notably, his fingerprints were taken, but they didn't match any
[38:44] entries in law enforcement databases.
[38:47] Dental records were also compared against missing persons
[38:50] reports, with no success. Years later, ADNA profile was
[38:55] eventually obtained from his remains and uploaded to national
[38:59] databases, but as yet it returned no matches either.
[39:05] It quickly became clear that this case wasn't about to be
[39:08] cracked with 90s forensic technology, so detectives looked
[39:12] at the context in which he was found.
[39:15] He was on an isolated patch of shoreline littered with empty
[39:18] bottles and trash, and there was evidence it was a local party
[39:22] spot. This environmental clue hinted
[39:26] that he might have been there socializing or camping, but the
[39:30] cops were unable to find any abandoned campsite that might
[39:33] have been his. That said, this isn't
[39:37] necessarily unusual given the post mortem interval on this
[39:40] case, and any number of factors could have led to his camp being
[39:44] taken down within that interval. Unfortunately, despite police
[39:50] requests, no witnesses ever came forward to say they saw a
[39:53] stranger in the area in the relevant time period.
[39:57] That said, investigators didn't find his body until months
[40:01] later, and of course, memories had already begun to fade at
[40:05] that point. With each Ave. turning up empty,
[40:09] the case went cold. In the absence of answers,
[40:14] several theories have been put forward about who this man was
[40:18] and how he perished. One theory is that he was a
[40:21] transient or homeless drifter who lived off the grid.
[40:26] Perhaps he had no fixed home and moved from place to place, which
[40:30] would explain why no missing person report ever matched him.
[40:34] He might not have had close family in touch or those who
[40:37] knew him didn't realize he was missing.
[40:41] However, running against the homeless theory is that he
[40:44] wasn't dressed in the layered style that homeless people
[40:47] generally adopt so they can carry their entire wardrobe with
[40:50] them. Another possibility is that his
[40:55] death was a misadventure or a simple accident.
[40:59] He could have been fishing or drinking by the water and ended
[41:02] up drowning or suffering A fatal fall or medical emergency.
[41:06] The fact that the area appeared to be a party spot supports this
[41:10] idea. He might have been out there
[41:12] with others late at night and something went wrong.
[41:16] If he was intoxicated or unwell and collapsed, the people with
[41:20] him might have panicked and left him, especially if they were
[41:24] afraid of legal trouble. Notably, under this theory, both
[41:29] the John Doe and the other people involved may have been
[41:31] partaking in less than legitimate pharmaceuticals.
[41:35] An accident in such a secluded area could easily go unreported
[41:39] and undocumented under these circumstances.
[41:44] There is also the theory of foul play, though evidence for this
[41:47] is limited. The remote location raises the
[41:50] question of whether someone could have slain him elsewhere
[41:53] and dumped his body by the lake to avoid detection.
[41:57] However, without obvious trauma on the remains, there's no clear
[42:01] indication of this actually happening.
[42:04] That said, it's possible he was suffocated, something that
[42:07] wouldn't necessarily leave a mark on bones.
[42:11] But again, this is purely speculative.
[42:14] Investigators didn't have enough information to label the case as
[42:17] foul play, so it remains classified as an unexplained
[42:21] event. As of 2025, this John Doe found
[42:28] on the shores of Lake Arlington is still unidentified.
[42:32] However, forensic science is advancing rapidly, and there's
[42:37] hope that forensic genetic genealogy can finally crack the
[42:41] mystery of his identity. From there, the cops will
[42:44] theoretically be able to build out the last days, weeks and
[42:48] months of his life and determine what actually happened to him.
[42:55] In July 1971, two boys walking near Route 99 in Woodstock, MD,
[43:02] found a woman clinging to life in a wooded field off a dirt Rd.
[43:06] She was unconscious, badly sunburned and had no
[43:10] identification on her whatsoever.
[43:13] Rescuers rushed her to a Baltimore hospital, where
[43:16] doctors performed emergency brain surgery in an attempt to
[43:20] save her life, but she never regained consciousness to tell
[43:24] anyone who she was. She perished about two months
[43:27] later on what would have been her 47th birthday, her name
[43:32] still unknown. The medical examiner determined
[43:36] that a violent blow to her abdomen had caused a fatal
[43:38] stroke, so her death was ruled a slaying.
[43:44] For more than 50 years, the mystery of the Woodstock Jane
[43:48] Doe remained completely unsolved.
[43:51] Police periodically revisited the case, but every effort to
[43:55] identify the woman fell short. Investigators even circulated
[44:00] sketches of her face in newspapers, but nobody
[44:03] recognized her. Finally, in 2024, Howard County
[44:09] investigators turned to Advanced Forensic Technology to crack the
[44:13] case and referred the case to Othrum.
[44:16] Othrum is a forensic genetic genealogy company that has been
[44:20] on an absolute tear in the last number of years helping solve
[44:24] cold cases. Genetic genealogy led to an
[44:29] elderly man in Ohio named Charles Sharkey, who turned out
[44:32] to be a very close relative of the mystery woman.
[44:35] In fact, further testing revealed Charles was her son.
[44:39] Armed with this discovery, detectives located another
[44:43] potential relative, Charles's older sister, Mildred Cantwell,
[44:47] living in Illinois. In September 2025, fifty four
[44:53] years after the woman's death, authorities announced that the
[44:57] Jane Doe had been identified as Sarah Belle Sharkey.
[45:03] She was a Pennsylvania native who had taken the last name
[45:06] Sharkey after marriage in the 1940s.
[45:09] It was an astonishing twist. The victim not only got her name
[45:12] back, but also had two children still alive to learn the truth.
[45:17] Sharkey was the 47 year old mother of two who had vanished
[45:21] from her children's lives in the mid 20th century, only to be
[45:25] found brutally assaulted in Maryland years later.
[45:28] Solving Sarah Sharkey's identity also brought about an unexpected
[45:32] family reunion, as children Charles and Mildred had been
[45:36] placed in an orphanage and adopted into different families,
[45:40] losing track of each other and of their mother entirely.
[45:45] The siblings had been separated since the early 1950s and hadn't
[45:49] seen one another since childhood.
[45:54] Since they were so young when they were split up, they only
[45:57] had vague memories of one another and they never knew what
[46:00] happened to their biological mother.
[46:02] In fact, both Charles and Mildred had spent significant
[46:06] portions of their life trying to piece together their own
[46:09] personal history. That all changed when, 70 years
[46:13] apart, the brother and sister were put back in touch by the
[46:16] cold case detectives. The two began speaking on the
[46:19] phone nearly every day and planned to meet in person for
[46:23] the first time in nearly 70 years.
[46:26] They expressed relief at finally learning their mother's fate and
[46:30] an overwhelming sense of joy at finding each other again.
[46:34] Charles said he had believed he would never reconnect with his
[46:37] family, and Mildred said knowing the truth about her mother gave
[46:40] her long-awaited peace. But of course, this is a series
[46:46] on unsolved mysteries, and the obvious question remains here.
[46:51] The investigation has now been reopened into the slaying of
[46:54] Sarah Sharkey, and detectives are working to retrace her last
[46:57] known steps. They know she spent most of her
[47:02] life in Pennsylvania, which makes her presence in rural
[47:05] Howard County in Maryland perplexing.
[47:08] One theory is that she may have travelled to Maryland with
[47:11] someone she knew and that this person turned violent.
[47:16] The fact that her purse was missing hints at a possible
[47:19] robbery or an assailant's attempt to conceal her identity.
[47:24] Investigators have revealed that they believe she was left in
[47:27] that field on purpose, perhaps dumped there after an assault in
[47:31] a different location. No suspects have been publicly
[47:36] named yet, but knowing Sarah's identity gives police new
[47:40] avenues to explore. They are interviewing any
[47:43] remaining friends, acquaintances and relatives of Sarah to learn
[47:47] about her life in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
[47:53] Unfortunately, as yet, there's been no photograph released of
[47:57] Sarah to indicate what she looked like.
[48:00] However, a forensic drawing has been released, which the
[48:04] authorities hope will jog someone's memory.
[48:09] Anyway, if you think you recognize this woman, please
[48:12] reach out to the Howard County Cold Case Unit since they're
[48:15] looking to talk to anyone with any potential connections to
[48:18] Sharkey. On a calm September night in
[48:22] 1989, at a convenience store along a lonely highway in North
[48:27] Florida, 36 year old Darlene Messer vanished without a trace.
[48:33] Two days later, a railroad conductor crossing a small
[48:36] bridge made a horrifying discovery.
[48:38] Darlene's crumpled body lay face down in the shallow water below.
[48:43] Her face had been beaten so savagely that identification was
[48:47] nearly impossible, and it was later determined that Darlene
[48:50] had been abducted from her workplace and brutally
[48:53] eliminated. This is the haunting story of
[48:57] what happened to Darlene Messer and the enduring mystery that
[49:00] continues to this day. Darlene was a 36 year old mother
[49:06] originally from Calgary in Canada.
[49:09] In 1987 she moved to Florida to be near a prison pen pal,
[49:13] Charles Messer, who would soon become her husband.
[49:17] Charles was imprisoned for slaying an individual during a
[49:20] robbery and was actually scheduled to get the big state
[49:24] sponsored DP. According to those who knew
[49:27] Darlene, she knew about the nature of his criminal offenses,
[49:31] but she had been led to believe that he was going to get
[49:34] paroled. I'm guessing she didn't know too
[49:38] much about Florida justice, but hey, it was the 80s.
[49:42] By that year, Darlene was living in Lake City and working the
[49:46] overnight shift at a convenience store.
[49:49] Her mother was visiting from Canada at the time, completely
[49:52] unaware of the tragedy about to unfold.
[49:57] Late on September 18th, 1989, Darlene was behind the counter
[50:01] on her usual graveyard shift. Shortly after midnight, a couple
[50:06] from Georgia stopped in around 12:35 for coffee and snacks.
[50:11] They stayed for about 15 minutes and as they left they nearly
[50:15] collided with an incoming vehicle, an older rust colored
[50:18] Pontiac Grand Prix. This was the last car seen at
[50:22] the store before everything went wrong.
[50:24] At about 12:55 AM, minutes after that mystery car arrived, the
[50:30] store's silent alarm went off. Police rushed to the scene and
[50:36] found the place empty and chaotic.
[50:39] Around $100 was missing from the register, and money and goods
[50:43] were strewn across the floor. And Darlene was gone.
[50:47] She was packing a Roscoe in her purse, but it appeared that the
[50:51] weapon was simply too far away from her.
[50:54] This suggested that this was a violent and sudden abduction.
[51:00] A frantic search began for the missing clerk almost
[51:03] immediately, with her mother attempting to help in any way
[51:06] she could. Two days later, on September
[51:09] 20th, a train conductor passing over a bridge about 13 miles
[51:13] from the store spotted a body in the shallow water below.
[51:18] Authorities found Darlene lying face down in water under the
[51:22] bridge. She was fully clothed but
[51:24] missing 1 shoe as well as a necklace and an earring.
[51:29] These are items that were potentially lost in the struggle
[51:32] or potentially dark souvenirs taken by the predator.
[51:38] She had been beaten, possibly with a hammer, and the blows to
[51:41] her face were so severe she was almost unrecognizable.
[51:45] I don't usually get into the gruesome details, but here it's
[51:49] important since some have suggested that this hints at a
[51:52] personal grudge against Darlene. And keep that in mind because
[51:57] there were two men who definitely had some serious
[51:59] hatred of her. But I'll get to that in a
[52:02] moment. Evidence on the bridge indicated
[52:06] she was probably eliminated there and her body thrown into
[52:10] the Creek afterward. Investigators also noted an oil
[52:13] stain on the bridge possibly left by the perp's vehicle.
[52:19] Detectives began piercing together leads.
[52:22] The couple who last saw Darlene described the car they
[52:25] encountered, but they couldn't see the driver. 10 days before
[52:30] the slaying, Darlene had reported 2 suspicious men
[52:33] lurking around the convenience store's parking lot.
[52:37] Police responded and arrested the pair, who were armed.
[52:41] These men, known as Bob and Roger, were former Co workers of
[52:46] Darlene's. She had even reported them for
[52:49] theft at a previous job, suggesting A grudge when they
[52:53] were arrested. Bob and Roger were driving a
[52:56] rust colored Grand Prix that leaked oil eerily similar to the
[53:00] car and clues in Darlene's case. Further, the very personal way
[53:05] in which Darlene was eliminated by the perpetrator or
[53:08] perpetrators does suggest a grudge may have been at play.
[53:12] And Bob and Roger definitely had one.
[53:17] Investigators focused on these two men and both denied
[53:20] involvement and claimed they were nowhere near Lake City that
[53:23] night. Ultimately, forensic evidence at
[53:26] the scene suggested they weren't solely responsible.
[53:30] That said, the authorities have speculated that they may have
[53:33] had help from another man, explaining why the forensic
[53:37] situation doesn't line up neatly and they've never been cleared.
[53:43] Another lead pointed to a 31 year old man arrested in
[53:46] Gainesville for a string of convenience store robberies.
[53:49] Around that time, a witness had reported seeing a blue car with
[53:53] a woman screaming near Lake City on the night Darlene disappeared
[53:57] and this suspect drove a blue car.
[54:00] He also had a violent past, and his own wife reportedly made
[54:04] statements implicating him. Police impounded his vehicle but
[54:09] found nothing to tie him to Darlene's abduction.
[54:14] Given Darlene's unusual personal life, detectives considered her
[54:17] husband as well. Charles Messer was in prison at
[54:21] the time, and some speculated he orchestrated an attack from
[54:24] prison out of jealousy. This theory never gained
[54:27] traction, and police found no evidence for it and believed
[54:31] Charles had no role in his wife's death.
[54:36] Others have speculated that her connection to Messer may have
[54:39] made her a target. Under this line of reasoning,
[54:42] she may have been targeted by someone who Messer wronged,
[54:45] either in his criminal career or inside prison.
[54:49] Ultimately, however, there's no proof of this, despite how
[54:53] intriguing the theory may be. In the summer of 1996, one man
[55:01] embarked on a frantic journey across North America, convinced
[55:05] he was running for his life. Just days later, he was found
[55:09] deceased in a Tennessee parking lot, surrounded by thousands of
[55:13] dollars in cash and gold that the perpetrator mysteriously
[55:17] left untouched. Authorities were baffled as this
[55:21] man had no known ties to Tennessee and the way he arrived
[55:25] made as little sense as the way he died.
[55:30] Blair Adams was a 31 year old construction foreman from
[55:33] Surrey, BC and Canada. By all accounts, he was a hard
[55:37] worker. He had recently returned from a
[55:40] project in Germany and was well regarded in his job at his
[55:44] stepfather's construction company.
[55:47] Adams had battled the bottle in the past, but had been sober for
[55:50] two years. In early 1996, however, those
[55:54] close to him noticed alarming changes in his behavior.
[55:58] He abruptly quit his job without even collecting his last
[56:01] paycheck and began exhibiting paranoia and mood swings.
[56:06] He told his mother that people were spreading rumors about him
[56:09] and told friends that someone was trying to knock him off.
[56:13] By July of 1996, Blair Adams genuinely believed his life was
[56:18] in danger, whether the threat was real or imagined.
[56:24] On Friday, July 5th, 1996, Blair Adams took drastic action.
[56:29] He withdrew nearly all the money from his bank account and
[56:32] emptied his safe deposit box of cash, gold and jewelry.
[56:37] With this small fortune on hand, he abruptly left Canada,
[56:41] convinced he had to escape whoever he feared.
[56:45] That same day, Adams tried to enter the United States by car
[56:49] ferry from Victoria, BC, to Seattle.
[56:53] His plan immediately hit a snag. As a lone man carrying a large
[56:58] amount of cash, Adams drew suspicion from US immigration
[57:02] officials who feared he might be doing something illicit.
[57:07] When they discovered his past minor criminal charges for
[57:10] possession of a controlled substance, they denied him entry
[57:14] at the border. Adams was turned back, thwarting
[57:18] his first attempt to flee Canada.
[57:22] Over the next few days, Blair Adams grew only more desperate.
[57:26] On July 8th, he avoided his own apartment and stayed with his
[57:30] mother, refusing to say exactly what was wrong, but remaining
[57:34] convinced someone wanted him dead that day.
[57:37] He even bought an expensive round trip plane ticket to
[57:40] Frankfurt, Germany, possibly to visit a girlfriend he had met
[57:44] while working there, only to cancel it later the same day.
[57:51] His erratic planning suggested he couldn't decide where to run.
[57:54] He seemed to be grasping at any escape route.
[57:57] In the early hours of July 9th, Adams tried once more to cross
[58:01] into the US, this time on foot via the Pacific Highway border
[58:06] crossing from British Columbia into Washington State.
[58:11] Border agents noticed that Blair had fresh scratches on his hands
[58:14] and legs, and that he oddly matched the description of a man
[58:18] linked to a recently stolen car found nearby.
[58:22] They briefly detained him, suspecting he might be the car
[58:25] thief, but with no hard evidence, they had to let him
[58:28] go. Once again, Blair Adams was back
[58:32] on Canadian soil, but not for long.
[58:36] Determined to get away, Adams quickly devised a new plan.
[58:40] He drove his own car to the Vancouver airport and left it
[58:43] there, renting a Nissan Altima to make another attempt at the
[58:47] border. This third try was successful.
[58:51] Later, on July 9th, Adams finally managed to slip into the
[58:55] United States by car and headed to Seattle.
[58:59] Upon arriving at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, his
[59:03] movements became even more puzzling.
[59:06] He abandoned the rental car at the airport and purchased an
[59:09] overnight one way plane ticket to the nation's capital.
[59:12] It was a costly and illogical choice.
[59:15] Adams paid more specifically for a one way ticket when agents
[59:20] advised him he could get a cheaper round trip ticket.
[59:23] Why he chose Washington DC, and why he didn't simply fly
[59:27] directly somewhere closer to his perceived safe haven remains
[59:31] unclear. Some have speculated that this
[59:34] bizarre pattern of travel was intended to show off the forces
[59:38] that he perceived to be trailing him.
[59:41] What is clear is that early on July 10th, Blair Adams landed at
[59:45] Dulles International Airport and immediately rented a Toyota
[59:49] Camry for a long road trip. After renting the car, Adams set
[59:56] off driving with no one really knowing his ultimate
[59:58] destination. By that evening, July 10th,
[1:00:02] 1996, he had travelled about 500 miles southwest to East
[1:00:07] Tennessee around 5:30 PM. Blair Adams turned up at a gas
[1:00:13] station off Interstate 40 in the Strawberry Plains area just
[1:00:17] outside Knoxville. Here, he encountered yet another
[1:00:20] bizarre hurdle. Adams told the gas station staff
[1:00:24] that he couldn't start his car, believing the key wasn't
[1:00:27] working. A repair service employee
[1:00:30] responded to the call for help, and he quickly discovered the
[1:00:34] simple problem. Blair was using the wrong key
[1:00:37] for the car. Adams had accidentally grabbed
[1:00:40] the Nissan key from his previous rental and was trying to use it
[1:00:44] on the Toyota Camry he was now driving.
[1:00:47] The employee later recalled that Blair appeared completely
[1:00:50] confused and irrationally insisted that he had the right
[1:00:54] key, even when it clearly didn't fit.
[1:00:59] Unable to persuade Adams to simply check his pockets for the
[1:01:02] correct car key, the employee arranged for the Camry to be
[1:01:05] towed to a repair shop. He then gave Blair Adams a lift
[1:01:09] to a nearby motel called the Fairfield Inn.
[1:01:12] It was now about 7:00 at night on July 10th, and Adams had
[1:01:17] nowhere to go until his car could be sorted out the next
[1:01:19] day. At the Fairfield Inn, Blair's
[1:01:23] nervous, erratic behavior continued.
[1:01:26] He paid $100 cash for a room and even left a $50.00 deposit for
[1:01:31] the key. But oddly, he walked away
[1:01:34] without waiting to get his change back.
[1:01:37] Over the next 40 minutes, surveillance cameras captured
[1:01:40] him entering and exiting the hotel lobby 5 separate times
[1:01:45] before finally heading out of the building for good.
[1:01:48] According to a hotel employee, Adams appeared paranoid and kept
[1:01:53] looking over his shoulder, as if expecting someone to follow him
[1:01:56] or show up any moment. He never actually went to the
[1:02:00] room he'd purchased, and by 7:30 that evening, Blair Adams walked
[1:02:05] out of the Fairfield Inns front door for the last time, never to
[1:02:08] return. What Adams did during the
[1:02:13] overnight hours of July 10th into July 11th is one of the
[1:02:17] lingering mysteries of this case.
[1:02:19] With his car in the shop and his hotel room unused, he was
[1:02:23] essentially stranded on foot in an unfamiliar city.
[1:02:28] There were a couple of unconfirmed sightings later that
[1:02:30] night. Employees at a nearby truck stop
[1:02:34] claimed they saw a man matching Adams's description around 10
[1:02:37] that night. He was reportedly talking to
[1:02:40] another man about Canadian currency, which strongly
[1:02:44] bolsters the potential that it was him.
[1:02:48] Two women also reported seeing him chatting with an
[1:02:51] unidentified man outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant
[1:02:54] adjacent to his motel. These leads never panned out,
[1:02:58] and the descriptions of the mysterious man varied, so
[1:03:01] investigators couldn't be sure of anything.
[1:03:04] It wasn't entirely clear if these sightings were Blair, and
[1:03:08] it wasn't clear either if he was sighted with the same man each
[1:03:11] time. Notably, A forensic sketch of
[1:03:14] the man seen with Blair was produced, but this sketch
[1:03:17] produced no results. Personally, I think this sketch
[1:03:21] actually looks a lot like Blair himself if he was in a fairly
[1:03:25] bad state, and I've put their pictures up side by side for
[1:03:29] comparison. Let me know what you think in
[1:03:32] the comments below and feel free to tell me I'm totally off base
[1:03:36] since I'm awful with face comparisons.
[1:03:40] What is known is that at some point that night, Adams got a
[1:03:43] meal from somewhere because an autopsy later found he had eaten
[1:03:47] lettuce, meat, and shrimp not long before he died.
[1:03:51] But beyond those scant clues, Blair Adams's movements in his
[1:03:54] final hours remain uncertain. Early the next morning, on July
[1:04:02] 11th, 1996, the tragic culmination of Blair's odyssey
[1:04:06] came to light. At about 7:30 that morning, a
[1:04:10] pair of construction workers arrived at their job site and
[1:04:14] stumbled upon a disturbing site. Initially, they noticed what
[1:04:19] looked like a man lying on the ground in the parking lot and
[1:04:22] assumed he might be a homeless person sleeping there.
[1:04:26] As they got closer, it became clear the man wasn't asleep at
[1:04:29] all. He was dead, and the scene was
[1:04:32] anything but ordinary. The lifeless body was indeed
[1:04:35] Blair Adams, and he was stripped from the waist down.
[1:04:40] His pants had been pulled off and lay inside out near his
[1:04:43] body, along with his socks and shoes.
[1:04:46] One of his shoes was oddly propped beneath his head, almost
[1:04:50] like a makeshift pillow, as if someone had placed it there
[1:04:53] while he was dying. Scattered all around Blair Adams
[1:04:59] body was a small fortune in cash.
[1:05:02] The workers and police who soon arrived found roughly $4000 in
[1:05:06] American, Canadian and German cash in the pockets of his
[1:05:10] jeans. Nearby was an open Fanny pack
[1:05:13] containing small gold bars, gold and platinum coins, jewelry and
[1:05:19] various other valuables Adams had been carrying.
[1:05:23] Astonishingly, it appeared that nothing had been taken.
[1:05:29] Whatever happened to Blair that night clearly was not a simple
[1:05:32] robbery. The rental car's missing key,
[1:05:36] the 1 Blair had insisted he couldn't find at the gas
[1:05:38] station, turned up lying on the ground close to his body, as did
[1:05:43] the key card for his unused hotel room.
[1:05:46] It was as if someone had dumped out the contents of his pockets
[1:05:49] after ending his life, yet chose not to steal a thing.
[1:05:54] Investigators processed the scene in the body, uncovering
[1:05:57] more grim details, and found that Blair Adams had been
[1:06:01] viciously attacked. He had sustained numerous cuts,
[1:06:05] abrasions and bruises, and one of his hands was deeply gashed
[1:06:09] and blackened, as if it had been slammed into the pavement during
[1:06:13] a struggle. Tufts of his hair had been
[1:06:15] ripped out, indicating A fierce fight for his life.
[1:06:20] A later autopsy determined that the fatal blow was a violent
[1:06:24] impact to his abdomen and his stomach was ruptured, causing
[1:06:27] internal bleeding and deadly septic shock.
[1:06:31] Investigators believe this massive abdominal trauma could
[1:06:35] have been caused by a very hard kick or even being struck by a
[1:06:38] vehicle's bumper. Blair also suffered a severe
[1:06:44] wound to his forehead, likely from a blunt instrument such as
[1:06:47] a crowbar or club. Certain injuries suggested a
[1:06:51] possible indecent assault, though the police were never
[1:06:55] able to recover any biological evidence to prove this.
[1:07:01] The investigation into Blair Adams's slaying turned up
[1:07:04] bizarre clues but few solid answers.
[1:07:07] One perplexing piece of evidence was literally in Blair's hand.
[1:07:11] Clenched in his first was a single long strand of hair.
[1:07:15] The hair didn't appear to be Blair's own, strongly raising
[1:07:19] the possibility that it came from his attacker during the
[1:07:21] struggle. Unfortunately, aside from that
[1:07:25] lone hare, no other DNA or forensic evidence was found at
[1:07:30] the scene that could identify the perpetrator.
[1:07:35] It's unclear whether this hair was preserved, since it's
[1:07:38] theoretically possible that this hair may be able to yield adna
[1:07:41] profile when it wasn't able to in 1996 with the forensic
[1:07:46] technology. Then police scoured the
[1:07:50] construction site for a weapon, even testing pieces of metal
[1:07:54] rebar lying around, but nothing could be definitively linked to
[1:07:58] the crime. The case had no eyewitnesses to
[1:08:01] the attack itself. The closest thing to a witness
[1:08:04] was a security guard at a business nearby who reported
[1:08:08] hearing a short, sharp scream around 3:30 on the night of the
[1:08:11] attack. The guard initially thought it
[1:08:14] sounded like a woman's scream and simply went about his
[1:08:18] business without alerting anyone at the time.
[1:08:23] As detectives dug into Blair Adams background and movements,
[1:08:26] they grew increasingly puzzled. Here was a man far from home
[1:08:31] with no clear reason to be in Knoxville.
[1:08:34] He didn't know anyone in the area and had made no contact
[1:08:37] with friends or family during his journey.
[1:08:40] Investigators retraced his steps using receipts and tickets found
[1:08:44] in Blair's duffel bag at the scene, confirming the odd path
[1:08:47] he took from Canada to Tennessee.
[1:08:50] They interviewed his friends and family back in Canada, who
[1:08:53] uniformly said Blair was not involved in anything illegal.
[1:08:58] In fact, despite Blair's own fear that someone was after him,
[1:09:01] authorities began to suspect that this threat might have been
[1:09:04] largely a product of his own mental state.
[1:09:08] By all indications, Blair Adams was suffering from paranoia and
[1:09:11] delusions in the weeks before his death.
[1:09:14] Tragically, despite appearing to suffer from a mental break, he
[1:09:18] did end up encountering real deadly danger without a clear
[1:09:25] suspect. Several theories have emerged
[1:09:27] about what might have happened to Blair Adams.
[1:09:30] One theory favored by the authorities revolves around an
[1:09:33] indecent assault, which escalated into Blair being
[1:09:36] attacked. Blair was likely in the midst of
[1:09:39] psychosis at the time and was processing everything through
[1:09:43] this delusional framework. It's believed that some
[1:09:47] miscommunication may have occurred, leading to violence.
[1:09:52] Another theory is that Blair Adams fell victim to a random
[1:09:55] act of violence. Some have speculated about a
[1:09:58] robbery attempt gone bad. Maybe Blair fought back fiercely
[1:10:03] and the attacker panicked and fled without taking the money.
[1:10:07] The single scream heard at 3:30 in the morning lends credence to
[1:10:11] a sudden, swift altercation. That said, like all the other
[1:10:15] theories of the case, there's simply not enough to prove
[1:10:18] anything. The story of Blair Adams is as
[1:10:23] haunting as it is baffling. He left behind a trail of clues,
[1:10:28] from his frantic cross country movements to the eerie crime
[1:10:31] scene littered with cash and gold.
[1:10:33] Yet none of it adds up to a coherent answer.
[1:10:37] The Sheriff's Office continues to classify the 1996 attack on
[1:10:40] Blair Adams as an active cold case, holding out hope that new
[1:10:45] information might one day provide a breakthrough.
[1:10:50] Heather Sellers was a 20 year old woman living with family in
[1:10:53] Spartanburg, SC. She had some previous troubles
[1:10:57] with addiction, but according to her family, she had gotten her
[1:11:02] life together in the previous year.
[1:11:05] On September 24th, 2002, Heather's grandmother dropped
[1:11:10] her off for an evening shift at the Waffle House near Hwy. 9 and
[1:11:14] Interstate 85. Heather carried an overnight
[1:11:17] bag, planning to stay at her aunt's house after work.
[1:11:21] Tragically, she never made it home that night.
[1:11:25] After finishing work, Heather met up with her ex fiance, 22
[1:11:30] year old Jonathan Vick. They had broken off their
[1:11:34] engagement just two weeks earlier, but we're still seeing
[1:11:37] each other despite the breakup. That evening, the 2 visited 2
[1:11:42] local bars, a place called the Rainbow Lounge and another
[1:11:46] called Cocktails and Dreams. Those outings were the last
[1:11:50] confirmed sightings of Heather. She never returned to her aunts
[1:11:55] and she never showed up to collect her last paycheck at the
[1:11:57] Waffle House. Heather's family realized
[1:12:03] immediately that something was wrong when she failed to come
[1:12:05] home or call. Disappearing without a word was
[1:12:08] completely out of character for her.
[1:12:11] Heather was in regular touch with her relatives and wouldn't
[1:12:14] drop out of contact like that. Alarmed, her family reported her
[1:12:19] missing to the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and
[1:12:22] quickly mobilized to search. They contacted friends, drove
[1:12:26] along Heather's usual routes, and put up missing person Flyers
[1:12:30] around town. Despite these efforts, the early
[1:12:34] searches turned up nothing. No clues to what happened at
[1:12:37] all. From the start, Jonathan Vick
[1:12:42] became the primary focus of the investigation.
[1:12:46] He was the last person known to have seen Heather alive, as
[1:12:50] witnesses had spotted them together on the night she
[1:12:52] disappeared. Heather and Victoria's
[1:12:55] relationship had been tumultuous, and she had confided
[1:12:59] to family that Victoria was abusive during their time
[1:13:01] together. Further, their breakup 2 weeks
[1:13:04] before had been extremely tense, and she advised her family that
[1:13:09] she was scared. Naturally, detectives questioned
[1:13:14] Victoria right away, and he denied any involvement and
[1:13:17] claimed he didn't know where Heather went that night.
[1:13:21] With no physical evidence in the early stages and no body, police
[1:13:26] couldn't charge him, but their suspicion remained.
[1:13:31] Investigators also considered other possibilities.
[1:13:34] For a time they looked at a potential connection to another
[1:13:38] missing woman in the area. One of Heather's Co workers at
[1:13:42] the Waffle House, 32 year old Michelle Whitaker, had vanished
[1:13:46] in August 2002, just a month before Heather.
[1:13:51] This coincidence raised fears of a serial predator and even
[1:13:55] speculation that Victoria might somehow be involved in both
[1:13:57] cases. However, in 2008, Whitaker was
[1:14:02] found alive and well. She had left the state
[1:14:05] voluntarily and was apparently unaware that people back home
[1:14:09] thought she was missing. In October 2005, three years
[1:14:16] after Heather vanished, A dramatic turn of events cast new
[1:14:19] suspicion on Vic. That fall, Jonathan Vick was
[1:14:23] arrested and charged with an unrelated crime, the 1995
[1:14:29] slaying of a local woman named Dana Satterfield.
[1:14:33] Satterfield, a 27 year old hairdresser, had been slain in
[1:14:37] her Roebuck, South Carolina beauty salon.
[1:14:40] In 2006, Victoria was convicted of that slaying and sentenced to
[1:14:45] life in prison. For Heather's loved ones and the
[1:14:49] authorities, this revelation was chilling.
[1:14:53] It confirmed that the man they suspected in her disappearance
[1:14:57] was undeniably capable of truly evil and heinous acts.
[1:15:03] Following Victoria's conviction, Spartanburg authorities
[1:15:06] revisited Heather's cold case in 2006.
[1:15:11] They discovered an abandoned car that had been registered to
[1:15:14] Victoria, and inside it they found blood stains and a few
[1:15:19] strands of long blonde hair. Investigators indicated that
[1:15:23] this evidence was believed to belong to Heather, though it's
[1:15:26] unclear from the sources what forensic testing was done at
[1:15:29] that time. That said, it was the most
[1:15:33] significant clue yet, potentially suggesting that
[1:15:36] Heather met with foul play at the hands of Jonathan Vick.
[1:15:42] Even so, the evidence alone wasn't enough to bring charges.
[1:15:46] By way of reminder, the prosecution only gets one shot
[1:15:50] to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
[1:15:54] The defense, on the other hand, has to prove absolutely nothing
[1:15:56] whatsoever. It may be helpful for their case
[1:16:00] to attempt to push back the evidence of the prosecution, but
[1:16:03] there are no reverse onuses placed upon the defendant in our
[1:16:07] legal system. The inherent problem with the
[1:16:12] blood stains in a hair strand being found in Victoria's
[1:16:15] vehicle is that she had been his girlfriend.
[1:16:18] It doesn't take a brilliant defense attorney to see how a
[1:16:21] plausible, innocent explanation for the presence of these
[1:16:24] materials could exist. To complicate matters even
[1:16:28] further, strictly speaking, the only evidence that Heather is
[1:16:32] deceased is circumstantial. Notably, the authorities thought
[1:16:39] the same and emphasize that they couldn't move forward without
[1:16:43] more definitive proof. Today, Jonathan Vick remains the
[1:16:47] prime suspect in Heather Sellers's disappearance.
[1:16:51] Nearly all signs point to him, from Heather's troubled history
[1:16:55] with Victoria to the fact he was last with her and the apparent
[1:17:00] traces of her blood in his vehicle.
[1:17:04] Alternative theories have been explored, but they seem less
[1:17:07] likely both to the authorities and to casual observers such as
[1:17:12] myself. Some have wondered if Heather
[1:17:15] might have simply left town due to her fear of Victoria, and
[1:17:19] simply didn't let anyone know so as to minimize any chance that
[1:17:24] she'd be tracked down. Theoretically, it's possible
[1:17:29] that she did this for the protection of the people around
[1:17:32] her as well, as Victoria was capable of extreme violence and
[1:17:36] had threatened her. She may have been worried that
[1:17:39] giving anyone her location could make those people targets for
[1:17:43] reprisals as well. However, this of course is just
[1:17:47] speculation and there's no evidence to indicate that this
[1:17:50] was the case. This narrative is also
[1:17:53] challenged by the fact that she could have come forward after
[1:17:56] Victoria was convicted, though perhaps she had established a
[1:17:59] new and separate identity by that point.
[1:18:05] Another theory revolves around Heather's history of substance
[1:18:08] use. While she was reported to be
[1:18:10] clean at the time of her disappearance, witnesses
[1:18:14] reported believing that she was under the influence on the night
[1:18:17] in question. This has LED some to believe
[1:18:20] that she may have suffered from an accidental overdose.
[1:18:25] As of 2025, the disappearance of Heather Sellers is still
[1:18:29] unsolved. If she's alive, Heather would be
[1:18:32] 42 years old today, though sadly the consensus is that she almost
[1:18:36] certainly isn't 16 year old. Amber Cates from Columbia, TN,
[1:18:45] planned to spend her spring break visiting relatives in
[1:18:48] Florida. On April 11th, 2004, Amber was
[1:18:53] dropped off at her mother's house, expecting to leave for
[1:18:56] the trip that day. Instead, a friend arrived to
[1:19:00] pick her up, and Amber rode away with him, never to be seen
[1:19:03] again. By all accounts, Amber was a
[1:19:07] bright and spirited teenager. But Amber had also begun to test
[1:19:11] boundaries. She was hanging out with older,
[1:19:14] questionable friends and is believed to have occasionally
[1:19:17] indulged in illicit substances when she vanished that spring
[1:19:21] day. What initially seemed like a
[1:19:24] potential runaway case soon turned into something far more
[1:19:28] troubling. Now, more than 20 years later,
[1:19:32] Amber's disappearance remains an unsolved mystery that haunts her
[1:19:36] community and family. In early April 2004, Amber was
[1:19:44] living with her older half sister, Brenda, who had just
[1:19:47] become Amber's legal guardian a few days earlier.
[1:19:50] Brenda was trying to provide stability for Amber after a
[1:19:53] difficult few years. Their father had died around
[1:19:57] 1999, and Amber had spent time in foster care and lived in
[1:20:02] multiple states before returning to Tennessee.
[1:20:06] That spring, Amber made plans to visit a relative in Panama City,
[1:20:10] FL for a short vacation during spring break.
[1:20:15] On April 11th, 2004, which was Easter Sunday, Brenda dropped
[1:20:19] Amber off at their mother Trudy's home in Columbia so
[1:20:23] Amber could depart from there for her trip.
[1:20:26] However, Amber never actually left town with any relative.
[1:20:30] Instead, a 20 year old man named James Gordon arrived that day to
[1:20:35] pick her up. Gordon was described as Amber's
[1:20:38] friend and possibly her boyfriend at the time.
[1:20:42] Amber climbed into the car with him, telling family she would be
[1:20:46] back in 2 days, and the pair drove off.
[1:20:50] She didn't pack, as if she were running away for good.
[1:20:53] It appeared to be just a quick spring break outing.
[1:20:56] That was the last time Amber's family ever saw her.
[1:21:00] When two days passed and Amber failed to return or call her,
[1:21:04] family grew worried. They soon discovered that Amber
[1:21:08] had never arrived in Florida at all.
[1:21:11] On April 13th or 14th, 2004, Amber's family filed a missing
[1:21:16] persons report with local authorities.
[1:21:19] At first, police considered the possibility that Amber had run
[1:21:22] away on her own, and based on Amber's history, they assumed
[1:21:27] she was a runaway. But Amber's family insisted she
[1:21:31] wouldn't just disappear without contacting anyone.
[1:21:34] Indeed, as days went by with no word from Amber, signs began to
[1:21:39] point to something more sinister than a teenage runaway case.
[1:21:44] Her cell phone showed no activity and her bank account
[1:21:47] showed no withdrawals, 2 facts which strongly indicated that
[1:21:51] she hadn't planned any sort of disappearance.
[1:21:54] The timeline of Amber's last known movements would soon raise
[1:21:58] even more red flags. According to what James Gordon
[1:22:04] told police, he and Amber spent some time together in Colombia
[1:22:08] on the day she disappeared. Gordon claimed that after he
[1:22:12] picked Amber up, he later dropped her off with another
[1:22:15] friend of his that evening. This other friend was 39 year
[1:22:19] old Ronald in Zuriaga. It's unclear how well Amber
[1:22:23] herself knew in Zuriaga. He was a much older man with an
[1:22:26] extremely serious and violent criminal background.
[1:22:30] He had been convicted of SA in 1992 and spent several years in
[1:22:35] prison. What is known is that Amber
[1:22:38] somehow ended up in in Zuriaga's company after leaving with
[1:22:42] Gordon. Police immediately tried to
[1:22:44] locate this man but ran into dead ends and ultimately it took
[1:22:49] three years to track him down. The story Ronald later gave
[1:22:54] would be the last known trace of Amber.
[1:22:57] He said that he and Amber went to lunch at a Waffle House on
[1:22:59] James Campbell Blvd. in Columbia.
[1:23:02] They then stopped so Amber could buy some hair dye and finally he
[1:23:06] dropped her off at a garage that was a local hangout spot for
[1:23:10] teens. It was at that garage in Zuriaga
[1:23:14] claimed that Amber completely disappeared.
[1:23:18] Curiously, no witnesses have ever definitively confirmed
[1:23:21] seeing her at the garage, Despite that location being the
[1:23:24] last place she was reported to be.
[1:23:29] Over the years, several theories have been proposed by law
[1:23:33] enforcement, by Amber's family, and by community members to
[1:23:38] explain what might have happened on that April day in 2004.
[1:23:42] The earliest credible theory was the idea that she was a runaway.
[1:23:47] However, given that she never contacted friends and family
[1:23:50] further at any point in the last two decades, and given that her
[1:23:54] Social Security number was never used, this is considered
[1:23:58] unlikely. Another theory that has been
[1:24:01] discussed is that Amber could have fallen victim to
[1:24:04] trafficking or some form of exploitation.
[1:24:08] This idea arose mainly because of Amber's age and the
[1:24:11] circumstances. She was a 16 year old girl out
[1:24:15] with older men, one of whom had an extremely disturbing past.
[1:24:21] While this theory remains plausible, there's nothing
[1:24:24] beyond the initial circumstantial evidence to
[1:24:26] support it. Crucially, despite over 2
[1:24:29] decades having passed, there have been no sightings of her
[1:24:33] whatsoever. By and large, the most credible
[1:24:37] theory in Amber Cates's disappearance is that she met
[1:24:40] with foul play at the hands of the individuals she was last
[1:24:43] seen with. The suspicious sequence of
[1:24:46] events on April 11th, 2004 raises many questions, and just
[1:24:52] allow me to very briefly sum up how shady this is. 1 adult man
[1:24:57] picks up a troubled 16 year old girl, then hands her off to
[1:25:01] another even older adult man who happens to be on a very bad
[1:25:05] registry. Later that same day, the second
[1:25:10] man, the dude on the registry hanging around with the troubled
[1:25:13] 16 year old girl, claims he simply dropped said girl off and
[1:25:18] claims no knowledge beyond that. Oh yeah, and also no one saw her
[1:25:24] at the popular hangout where she was supposedly dropped off.
[1:25:28] Literally everything about that detour in Columbia seems
[1:25:31] suspect. It's also necessary to ask why
[1:25:35] was a 16 year old girl quote UN quote friends with a 39 year old
[1:25:39] like this guy in the first place.
[1:25:42] Further, it's been questioned to what extent the two of them even
[1:25:45] knew each other, with the source that they were friends being
[1:25:49] James Gordon, another questionable individual.
[1:25:54] Ronald's background makes it hard not to consider him a prime
[1:25:57] suspect in whatever befell Amber.
[1:26:00] To be clear, neither man has ever been charged in connection
[1:26:04] with the case and both have denied wrongdoing.

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