# 10 Cases You've Never Heard About And Need To Know

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 20 Nov 2025, 1 h 17 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO7251166895.mp3

Join me as we discuss disturbing true crime cases you need to know. 👇 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

## Transcript

[0:00] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy with a reminder to like, subscribe and
[0:03] hit the notification bell and turn on all notifications.
[0:06] Also, don't forget to drop a quick comment saying where
[0:09] you're listening from since that really helps me out in the
[0:12] algorithm. On a warm late summer afternoon
[0:16] in 1984, a group of teenagers boating along Rhode Island's
[0:21] Narrow River made a gruesome discovery.
[0:24] Floating in the water was a floral patterned sleeping bag,
[0:28] tightly secured with rope and weighed down by a cement cinder
[0:32] block. Inside, authorities found the
[0:35] body of 24 year old Deborah Stone.
[0:38] The state medical examiner later confirmed what the scene had
[0:41] already suggested. Deborah had met with foul play.
[0:46] This chilling find on September 2nd, 1984 in the quiet town of
[0:51] Narragansett marked the beginning of a decades long
[0:54] search for the truth about what happened to Deborah Stone.
[0:59] In the days before her body surfaced, Deborah had simply
[1:03] vanished. The young woman was last seen on
[1:06] the night of August 28th, 1984, when she went to visit an
[1:11] acquaintance, 32 year old Robert Jeremiah, in Johnston, RI.
[1:17] According to witnesses in Jeremiah's own statements,
[1:20] Deborah had come by hoping to barter a stolen watch in
[1:24] exchange for drugs. Jeremiah, a man known to be
[1:28] involved in drug dealing and rumored to have possible mob
[1:31] connections, claimed he had no drugs to offer that night.
[1:36] He later told police that he gave Deborah a ride back to her
[1:39] apartment in Cranston and that she was alive and well when he
[1:43] left her. In fact, a few other people even
[1:47] reported seeing Deborah on August 30th, 2 days after her
[1:51] visit to Jeremiah. These accounts initially muddied
[1:55] the timeline of her disappearance and gave Jeremiah
[1:58] an air of plausible innocence in the early stages of the
[2:01] investigation. When questioned by investigators
[2:06] after Deborah's body was found, Jeremiah stuck to his story and
[2:10] offered an alternate explanation for her death.
[2:13] He claimed that Deborah had probably just overdosed on
[2:16] drugs. However, this story quickly fell
[2:20] apart. The medical examiner's autopsy
[2:23] showed clear signs of trauma to Deborah's neck, definitively
[2:27] ruling out an overdose and pointing to strangulation as the
[2:31] cause of death. In other words, Deborah had been
[2:34] forcibly choked, not accidentally overdosed, making
[2:39] it apparent that her death was no accident.
[2:42] With Jeremiah being the last known person to see her alive,
[2:46] suspicions began to circle around him.
[2:48] Despite his denials from the outset, Narragansett police had
[2:54] reasons to eye Robert as the prime suspect, and what follows
[2:58] next is either a major dropping of the ball or perhaps something
[3:01] more sinister. Multiple witnesses confirmed
[3:04] that Deborah was with Jeremiah the night she disappeared.
[3:08] Investigators learned that Deborah took a taxi to
[3:11] Jeremiah's place and even had the stolen watch with her,
[3:15] corroborating parts of his account of that evening.
[3:19] Because some witnesses believed they saw Deborah alive after
[3:22] that night and parts of Jeremiah's story checked out,
[3:26] detectives initially held off on naming him an official suspect.
[3:31] In hindsight, this hesitation proved costly, and it wasn't
[3:35] long before more damning information surfaced.
[3:40] In January 1986, about a year and a half after Deborah's
[3:44] death, an informant came forward with a shocking confession.
[3:49] He told police that he had been at Jeremiah's apartment on
[3:51] August 29th, 1984, the night of Deborah's presumed slaying, and
[3:57] into the early hours of August 30th.
[4:00] This informant revealed that he had seen Deborah's lifeless body
[4:04] in Jeremiah's apartment, and it even helped Jeremiah dispose of
[4:07] the body by dumping it into the narrow river.
[4:11] He recounted specific details about the crime scene, details
[4:15] authorities had never released publicly, which lent significant
[4:19] credibility to his story. According to the informant,
[4:23] Jeremiah himself admitted that he, quote, had to eliminate
[4:28] Deborah because she was stealing from him.
[4:32] Despite the informants insider knowledge and involvement, the
[4:36] investigation hit a frustrating standstill.
[4:40] As credible as his testimony seemed, the informants
[4:43] reliability was thrown into doubt when he failed a police
[4:46] administered polygraph in the mid 1980s.
[4:51] Law enforcement still put considerable trust in polygraph
[4:54] results, so when the informant stumbled on the lie detector,
[4:59] detectives grew skeptical of his account.
[5:02] In fact, investigators terminated their cooperation
[5:06] with this major informant after the single failed polygraph
[5:09] exam, even though he agreed to take another test to prove
[5:13] himself. With their key witness suddenly
[5:17] deemed unreliable, the case against Jeremiah collapsed, no
[5:22] arrest was made, and the investigation into Deborah
[5:26] Stone's death went cold. Today, polygraph tests are
[5:30] recognized as unreliable, but back in the 80s and over,
[5:34] reliance on that flawed tool likely derailed the case.
[5:38] Whether that derailing was entirely organic, though, is
[5:41] something I'll be investigating further in a moment.
[5:46] For decades, Deborah's case languished without justice,
[5:50] leads dried up, and without new evidence or willing witnesses,
[5:54] the file eventually found its way to the cold case shelves.
[5:58] Robert Jeremiah, the man long suspected in the shadows, never
[6:02] faced A courtroom for Deborah's slaying.
[6:05] He continued on with his life while suspicion quietly trailed
[6:09] him. Jeremiah's life, however, was
[6:12] about to come to an end as well. He died of either natural causes
[6:17] or an overdose in 1995 at the age of 43, and given his age and
[6:23] his proclivities, I'm going to lean towards the latter.
[6:26] Over the former, as years turned into decades, it seemed possible
[6:31] that the truth of what happened on that August night in 1984
[6:35] might never fully come to light. Deborah's family and friends
[6:40] were left with painful questions and no closure, the memory of
[6:44] her loss hanging over them for 41 years.
[6:49] It wasn't until recent years that Deborah Stone's story was
[6:52] pulled back into the spotlight. In 2019, the Narragansett Police
[6:58] Department decided to reopen the dormant case, spurred by a fresh
[7:03] look at old evidence and a determination to set things
[7:06] right. Around the same time, Rhode
[7:09] Island's Attorney General launched A dedicated cold case
[7:12] unit in 2023 to re examine unsolved homicides like
[7:18] Deborah's. This new unit brought together
[7:21] veteran investigators and modern forensic resources with a clear
[7:25] mission deliver long-awaited answers for victims families.
[7:30] The cold case investigators began meticulously retracing the
[7:33] original investigation. They combed through old reports,
[7:38] revisited physical evidence, and perhaps most critically, tracked
[7:43] down and re interviewed witnesses from the 1980s.
[7:48] Over an 11 month period, the team interviewed 32 people
[7:51] connected to the case, effectively reliving the
[7:55] investigation step by step. The passage of time had not
[8:00] weakened the witnesses memories or their resolve.
[8:04] Remarkably, all of their statements in the present day
[8:07] lined up with what they had said decades earlier.
[8:10] Among those they spoke to was the very same informant from
[8:14] 1986. After so many years, he was
[8:18] still willing to tell his story. In fact, when detectives showed
[8:23] up at his door, the first thing he said was I've been waiting
[8:27] for you, indicating his eagerness to work with the cops.
[8:32] His account remained consistent with the details he'd provided
[8:35] back in the 80s, reinforcing that his testimony had been
[8:39] truthful all along. Crucially, investigators
[8:43] recognized that the only thing which had saved Jeremiah from
[8:46] being charged in the 1980s was the misplaced faith in a
[8:50] polygraph test. With that barrier removed, the
[8:55] accumulated evidence against Jeremiah became overwhelming.
[9:01] By late 2025, Rhode Island authorities were ready to
[9:05] declare Deborah Stone's case solved at last.
[9:08] Attorney General Peter Narona publicly announced that
[9:11] investigators had concluded Robert Jeremiah was the person
[9:14] responsible for Deborah's death. The reopened investigation had
[9:19] pieced together a compelling narrative of what happened.
[9:22] Deborah was strangled to death in Jeremiah's apartment, and her
[9:26] body was secretly transported and dumped in the narrow river
[9:29] shortly thereafter. According to the Cold Case Unit,
[9:33] there was now more than enough evidence to have charged
[9:36] Jeremiah with Deborah's slaying and likely win a conviction in
[9:40] court. Of course, this last piece is a
[9:43] bittersweet victory at best, since Jeremiah would never face
[9:48] justice for his crimes. I've got some thoughts on this
[9:53] case since it just doesn't sit right with me.
[9:56] Looking back at the way investigators handled Robert
[9:59] Jeremiah in the mid 1980s, it's hard not to feel a deep sense of
[10:03] disbelief. Here was a man openly dealing
[10:07] drugs, whispered to have mob ties, and directly linked to the
[10:11] last confirmed moments of Deborah Stone's life.
[10:15] Yet he was never arrested, never charged, and barely pressured.
[10:21] The fact that police let him walk away at a moment when the
[10:24] case was still warm has always raised uncomfortable questions.
[10:29] Detectives had an informant willing to implicate both
[10:32] himself and Jeremiah offering specific non public details
[10:37] about the disposal of Deborah's body.
[10:40] They had Jeremiah's shifting explanations, his suspiciously
[10:44] casual claim that she must have overdosed, and an autopsy that
[10:48] clearly contradicted that. But instead of building on the
[10:52] momentum, investigators stopped cold after one failed polygraph.
[10:58] Notably, while polygraphs weren't as discredited as they
[11:01] are today, they were still a highly controversial
[11:04] investigative tool even back in the 80s.
[11:09] It's impossible to ignore the broader context.
[11:12] This was an era when organized crime had significant influence
[11:16] in parts of Rhode Island. No one has ever proven
[11:19] corruption in Deborah's case, but the optics are undeniably
[11:23] troubling. A mob connected dealer avoids
[11:26] arrest despite being the last person seen with a woman who
[11:30] ended up strangled and hidden in a weighted sleeping bag.
[11:34] At best, it was a catastrophic investigative misjudgment.
[11:38] At worst, it hints at forces operating behind the scenes.
[11:46] It was 2:00 AM in the quiet of Mule Creek State Prison.
[11:50] This wasn't the main cell block, but one of the private apartment
[11:53] like units reserved for the prison's family visit program.
[11:57] An inmate, 54 year old David Brinson, used a phone to call
[12:02] correctional officers reporting a medical emergency.
[12:06] His wife, he claimed, had passed out.
[12:10] Prison fire department staff responded attempting life saving
[12:14] measures, but it was too late. Within the hour, 62 year old
[12:19] Stephanie Dowells was pronounced dead.
[12:22] Brinson's call was the start of a cover up.
[12:25] What appeared to be a tragic medical event was in reality a
[12:29] killing. And it wasn't the first time
[12:32] this had happened. In fact, it wasn't even the
[12:35] first time that year. Stephanie was visiting her
[12:40] husband David Brinson at the time.
[12:42] But he wasn't just any inmate. He was a notorious killer
[12:47] convicted in the 1990s for the execution style slayings of four
[12:51] men during a robbery in Los Angeles.
[12:55] His sentence was absolute, 4 consecutive life terms without
[13:00] the possibility of parole. He was a man the state of
[13:04] California had legally determined was beyond
[13:07] rehabilitation, yet he was granted the privilege of a multi
[13:12] day unmonitored visit with his wife in a private unit.
[13:17] Stephanie's family's confusion was profound.
[13:21] They couldn't understand how, given Brinson's violent history,
[13:25] he was ever eligible for such a visit in the first place.
[13:31] The investigation into Stephanie's November 2024 death
[13:34] was slow, and for months it was shrouded in silence.
[13:39] Brinson's initial report that Stephanie had passed out from a
[13:42] medical event was, at least for a time, the prevailing
[13:46] narrative. The prison and the California
[13:49] Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR,
[13:54] released no public information. The breakthrough came not from a
[13:58] confession, but from the methodical work of the Amador
[14:02] County Coroner's office. In March 2025, four long months
[14:07] after her death, the coroner's findings were finally made
[14:11] public. Stephanie's death was caused by
[14:14] strangulation. Brinson's lie was exposed.
[14:18] The Amador County District Attorney's Office, led by Todd
[14:21] Reeby, had to wait for the prison's own complete
[14:24] investigation before filing charges.
[14:28] Finally, on August 14th, 2025, nine months after Stephanie was
[14:33] slain, Brinson was formally charged.
[14:39] The delay in the official silence were devastating, but
[14:42] what Stephanie's family and the public didn't know was that the
[14:46] CDCR was already sitting on a dark secret.
[14:50] Stephanie Dowels wasn't the first woman slain in the Mule
[14:53] Creek family visiting units that year.
[14:56] She was the second. Four months earlier, in July, 2
[15:01] thousand 2447 year old Tanya Thomas arrived at the same
[15:06] prison for a four day, three night visit with her partner
[15:11] Anthony Curry. The circumstances of her death
[15:15] are a chilling echo of Stephanie's.
[15:18] On the morning of July 1st, 2024, Curry used the intercom in
[15:23] the visiting unit to call correctional staff, reporting
[15:27] that his partner was having a medical emergency.
[15:30] Tanya Thomas was found unconscious and pronounced dead.
[15:35] Like Brinson, Curry was a violent offender serving a life
[15:39] sentence. And just like Stephanie's case,
[15:42] the coroner's report on Tanya would later confirm the cause of
[15:45] death with strangulation. 2 violent inmates serving life
[15:50] sentences, 2 identical quote UN quote medical emergency alibis,
[15:55] and two strangulations. This wasn't a tragic isolated
[16:00] incident. It was a pattern.
[16:04] The slayings of Stephanie Dowels and Tanya Thomas exposed A
[16:07] stunning and paradoxical flaw at the heart of California's family
[16:11] visit program. California is one of only a
[16:14] handful of states that still allows these extended overnight
[16:18] visits, often called conjugal visits.
[16:22] Notably, these visits place the privacy of the couple above
[16:26] security, a fact that has now come under heavy criticism.
[16:30] As of now, David Brinson remains charged but not yet convicted of
[16:34] killing Stephanie Dowels. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here
[16:42] reminding you to subscribe and hit the notification bell and
[16:45] turn on all those notifications. Also remember to check out the
[16:49] membership option by clicking Join or hit the Patreon link in
[16:53] the description. On the morning of July 20th,
[16:59] 2019, a Lafayette County deputy was on a routine patrol when he
[17:04] stumbled upon a scene that was anything but routine.
[17:08] At an abandoned, desolate fishing camp near Sardis Lake,
[17:11] Ms. he found a body. The location was remote, some 30
[17:17] miles from the bustling campus of the University of
[17:20] Mississippi, commonly known as Ole Miss.
[17:24] The victim, found near a picnic table, was quickly identified as
[17:28] 21 year old Alexandria Castiel, a student at the university.
[17:34] Her purse and I DS were found nearby, ruling out robbery.
[17:39] Foul play was immediately apparent.
[17:43] Ally, as she was known to her friends, had been shot multiple
[17:47] times. Investigators on the scene were
[17:50] struck by the sheer brutality. She had been shot at least nine
[17:54] times. This wasn't a random act of
[17:57] violence. This level of overkill was
[18:00] personal, pointing to a perpetrator driven by a deep,
[18:04] volatile rage. The discovery sent a shockwave
[18:10] through the community. Ali Castiel was well liked and
[18:14] respected. A native of St.
[18:16] Louis, MO, she was a senior staying in Oxford to take summer
[18:20] classes. She was ambitious and bright,
[18:24] studying marketing with dreams of working in the fashion
[18:27] industry. On campus, she was a leader,
[18:31] teaching yoga and Pilates and founding the student Golf Club.
[18:37] Investigators moved quickly to Allie's apartment, searching for
[18:41] any clue that could explain her final hours.
[18:44] They hit an immediate roadblock. Her cell phone was missing.
[18:48] It was a clear attempt by the perpetrator to erase their
[18:51] digital connection and any record of their final
[18:54] communications. But the killer made a critical
[18:58] technological mistake. In his haste to destroy the
[19:02] phone, he'd forgotten something. On her bedside table, police
[19:06] found Allie's Apple Watch. Even with the phone gone, her
[19:11] most recent text messages had synced to the watch.
[19:14] The watch, in effect, became the prosecution's star witness.
[19:19] It provided investigators with a digital map of Allie's life and
[19:22] her anxieties. And it offered up a single
[19:26] strong and immediate lead. The last person Allie had been
[19:31] in contact with, the person her final messages were with, was a
[19:36] 22 year old fellow student named Brandon Thiesfeld.
[19:42] But the watch didn't just provide a name, it provided a
[19:45] motive. The text logs revealed what
[19:48] investigators called life changing news.
[19:51] For the past three months, Allie had been communicating with
[19:55] Thiesfeld about a terrifying possibility.
[19:58] She was concerned she might be pregnant because of that simple
[20:02] synced device. This case was never a whodunit.
[20:06] Within hours of finding Allie's body, police had a primary
[20:10] suspect and the quote UN quote problem he desperately wanted to
[20:14] solve. Ally and Brandon Thiesfeld first
[20:19] met in 2016. Their relationship, however, was
[20:23] a complicated one. Friends described it as an on
[20:27] and off affair, but they were never an official couple.
[20:31] Ally was clearly more attached to him than he was to her, an
[20:35] attachment that confused her friends, who said Thiesfeld
[20:39] treated her poorly and sent her rude text messages.
[20:44] Thiesfeld's reputation on campus match this private behavior.
[20:48] A former dorm neighbor described him in no uncertain terms as
[20:52] extremely arrogant. Thiesfeld constantly referenced
[20:56] his father's money and bragged that his dad could get him out
[20:59] of anything. This was the man Ali turned to
[21:03] in April 2019, when she feared she was pregnant.
[21:09] She texted him her concerns and even sent a photo of an
[21:13] inconclusive home pregnancy test.
[21:16] His reaction was immediate and cold.
[21:19] He messaged her that he wasn't ready to become a parent and
[21:22] that becoming a father would ruin his life.
[21:25] For the next three months, Allie tried to do what any reasonable
[21:29] person would. She tried to meet with him in
[21:31] person to discuss what to do, but Thiesfeld refused.
[21:36] He avoided her cancelling plans at the last minute.
[21:40] This digital only relationship gave him all the power.
[21:44] He could ignore her and she had no recourse.
[21:47] Her desperation for a simple face to face conversation would
[21:51] become her greatest vulnerability.
[21:54] As the prosecution would later argue, these Feld didn't just
[21:58] see this as a difficult situation.
[22:01] It wasn't just the potential child, it was Allie herself, the
[22:06] inconvenience that threatened his consequence free lifestyle.
[22:11] Tragically, this entire motive was based on a fear, not a
[22:15] confirmed fact. An autopsy and a later admission
[22:19] from Thiesfeld's own defense attorney would confirm the awful
[22:23] irony. Ali Costeol wasn't pregnant at
[22:26] any point After Allie's initial text in April, his Google search
[22:32] history showed him looking up ways to end a pregnancy without
[22:35] her knowing. He was looking for a simple
[22:38] solution, but by July, his mindset had shifted from ending
[22:43] a pregnancy to ending a life. On July 12th, Allie texted him
[22:48] again, this time with photos of two more ambiguous pregnancy
[22:52] tests. This appears to have been the
[22:55] trigger. That same day, Thiesfeld drove
[22:59] from Mississippi to his home in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
[23:03] He returned with a pistol, a weapon that had been purchased
[23:06] by his father. His Internet searches became
[23:10] sinister. He was no longer looking for
[23:12] pills. He was researching silencers,
[23:16] suppressors, and ammunition types.
[23:19] Most disturbingly of all, he made a bunch of searches about
[23:22] Ted Bundy and wanted to find insights into how he lured his
[23:26] victims. Also, perhaps this doesn't bear
[23:30] mentioning, but I found it to just reveal what an arrogant
[23:34] amateur this idiot actually was. He also searched up quote what
[23:40] button does what on a Glock. For all his dark fantasies, he
[23:44] didn't even know how to use his weapon of choice.
[23:49] The plan was put into motion on the night of July 19th, 2019.
[23:54] Ali's evening began normally. Prosecutors later claimed that
[23:58] he had taken inspiration from Ted Bundy and committing his own
[24:01] crime, deciding to disarm Allie with charm.
[24:05] At 7:00 that night, she had a happy phone call with her
[24:08] mother, Cindy. They had just spent time
[24:11] decorating her apartment for the upcoming school year, and Allie
[24:15] was excited. She told her mom she'd just
[24:18] woken from a nap and was planning to go out with friends.
[24:22] Surveillance footage confirmed she did just that.
[24:26] At 11:52 PM, cameras captured Allie leaving a bar called
[24:30] Funky's in Oxford Square. She was safe.
[24:34] Just minutes later at 11:57 PM, video shows her getting into an
[24:40] Uber alone. She arrived at her apartment
[24:43] safely around midnight. But sometime after she got home,
[24:47] the trap was sprung. She received the one message she
[24:51] had been waiting three months for.
[24:54] Brandon Thiesfeld had finally agreed to meet around 1:28 AM.
[25:00] Security footage and phone data show Thiesfeld's truck pulling
[25:03] up to her apartment, believing she was finally going to get the
[25:07] face to face conversation she's so desperately needed.
[25:11] Allie voluntarily got in his truck, but according to Brandon,
[25:15] this wasn't to be a discussion for an apartment parking lot and
[25:19] he suggested they take a drive. Unfortunately, Ali trusted
[25:23] Thiesfeld and she went along with him.
[25:26] Thiesfeld drove her 30 minutes away from campus, away from the
[25:29] town to the pre selected abandoned fishing camp at Sardis
[25:34] Lake. Phone data from both Ali and
[25:37] Thiesfeld pinged at that remote location at the time of the
[25:40] shooting. There he shot her and dumped off
[25:43] her body. Just hours later, the deputy on
[25:46] patrol would find her body. These Feld's plan unravelled
[25:52] almost immediately, thanks to the Apple Watch.
[25:56] When investigators called him for questioning, he kept making
[25:59] excuses, promising to come in on Monday.
[26:03] He never intended to. On Monday, July 22nd, when he
[26:08] failed to appear, police, who had already obtained an
[26:12] affidavit, began tracking his cell phone.
[26:15] He was fleeing. The data showed him driving
[26:18] north toward Memphis, TN Authorities issued an alert for
[26:22] his pickup truck. It was easy to identify thanks
[26:26] to its arrogant custom vanity plate, which read Take It.
[26:32] He was arrested without incident at a Memphis gas station, and
[26:35] dash Cam video captured the end of his short run.
[26:39] Unsurprisingly, he wasn't quite as tough when he was confronted
[26:42] by police. Either that or his self
[26:45] preservation instinct kicked in. The evidence he was caught with
[26:49] was overwhelming. He still had blood on his
[26:52] clothes. Inside his truck, the cops found
[26:55] his dad's Glock, which was a match for the shell casings
[26:59] found at the crime scene. The case was sealed, but there
[27:03] was one more piece. Back in his apartment, police
[27:07] found a letter he'd written to his parents that weekend.
[27:11] Prosecutors called it a confession.
[27:13] In it, he wrote, quote, I've always had terrible thoughts
[27:19] blaming them on substance usage. He apologized for them and said
[27:23] that he was either going to die on the run or end up in jail for
[27:27] life, a prediction which would have been prophetic if it wasn't
[27:30] so obvious. In August 2019, a grand jury
[27:37] indicted Brandon Thiesfeld on capital offense charges.
[27:41] The charge rested on the allegation that he had kidnapped
[27:44] Ali by luring her to the lake under false pretenses.
[27:48] He was facing the death penalty, and despite the overwhelming
[27:51] evidence, he initially pled not guilty.
[27:55] After significant delays due to the events of 2020, the case
[28:00] came to a pragmatic conclusion. He agreed to life without parole
[28:05] in an effort to spare his own life and with the potential for
[28:08] a conditional release when he's 65 years old.
[28:12] Personally, I think having spent your entire adult life in prison
[28:17] and then being turned out to the world at age 65 sounds like
[28:21] another level of punishment entirely.
[28:26] In court, Thiesfeld, who had reportedly shown no emotion for
[28:30] two years, broke down during sentencing.
[28:33] He read a statement to Allie's family saying he was, quote,
[28:37] sincerely sorry for the pain he'd caused, that there is no
[28:41] excuse for his actions. Allie's family responded with a
[28:45] victim impact statement read in court by the assistant District
[28:49] Attorney. Her mother, Cindy, wrote that
[28:53] their lives had been shattered by her loss.
[28:56] These Felds own mother, in a separate statement said she was
[29:00] disturbed that her son didn't share his inner demons with his
[29:03] family. She urged other parents to have
[29:06] a talk with their own children about their deepest darkest
[29:09] secrets. Which given the context of what
[29:12] kind of guy Thiesfeld was, I find questionable.
[29:16] His parents had clearly raised an affluenza style kid who was
[29:19] being handed everything. So they're cautionary tale is
[29:22] much deeper than having a little talk now and then.
[29:29] On a cold winter day in February 19, 7819, year old Mary Francis
[29:34] Gregory stepped into a car with a friend and set off from her
[29:38] hometown of Perry Sound in Ontario, Canada.
[29:41] She was headed for what she imagined would be a dream
[29:44] vacation in California, but she would never come home.
[29:49] Mary Francis Gregory's disappearance remains one of the
[29:52] most baffling cold cases to straddle the United States and
[29:55] Canada. More than four decades later,
[29:59] her fate is still unknown, leaving her family and
[30:02] investigators with more questions than answers.
[30:08] Mary was a 19 year old resident of Perry Sound, a small close
[30:13] knit town on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada.
[30:17] Born on May 27th, 1958, she was a young adult with her whole
[30:22] life ahead of her when she decided to embark on a trip to
[30:26] California. Like many teenagers of her era,
[30:30] she was excited for adventure, specifically a vacation to sunny
[30:35] California, a state which has an almost mythical level of
[30:39] magnetism for tourists. For reasons that aren't entirely
[30:43] known, her chosen destination was Palo Alto.
[30:49] Mary left Perry Sound on February 15th, 1978, to begin
[30:54] her trip to California. She didn't travel alone.
[30:58] Accompanying her was a male acquaintance, described as a
[31:01] friend, who had agreed to drive her to the United States.
[31:05] The pair reportedly crossed the border via New York State on
[31:09] February 18th, 1978. From there, according to the
[31:13] man's account, they embarked on a zigzagging road trip across
[31:17] the country. This indirect path, rather than
[31:21] a more direct route to California, has drawn scrutiny.
[31:26] At any rate, he later told authorities that he drove with
[31:29] Mary through New York, PA, Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, Utah,
[31:36] Arizona, and then finally reaching Nevada.
[31:40] This trip took place over 10 days and covered approximately
[31:43] 2500 miles. Nearly two weeks after leaving
[31:47] Canada, the man claimed he dropped Mary off alone at a bus
[31:51] station in Las Vegas on February 28th, 1978.
[31:58] This Las Vegas bus station drop off is the last reported point
[32:02] where Mary was seen. However, it's important to note
[32:05] that this detail comes solely from the companions account.
[32:09] Mary herself wasn't definitively cited by any independent
[32:12] witnesses in Las Vegas. No public explanation has ever
[32:17] been given for why Mary would have been left at a Las Vegas
[32:20] bus depot when her intended destination in California was
[32:25] still over 500 miles away. Mary never arrived in Palo Alto,
[32:30] or at least was never confirmed to be there and was never heard
[32:34] from again. She had been carrying luggage on
[32:37] the trip, but her bags were never found after her
[32:39] disappearance. While some people find this part
[32:43] odd, personally I find this to be the least unusual part of the
[32:48] case since luggage gets lost all the time and travel and just
[32:53] ends up discarded. Her family received no calls or
[32:57] letters from her after she left home, and she simply vanished
[33:00] somewhere on the journey to her California dream.
[33:05] The disappearance of Mary Frances Gregory has been handled
[33:08] primarily by the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada.
[33:13] However, her case was also entered into California's
[33:16] missing persons records, given that Palo Alto was her intended
[33:20] destination. Notably, however, Mary is not
[33:24] listed as a missing person in Nevada, which raises questions
[33:28] about the legitimacy of the Las Vegas bus station account.
[33:34] Authorities have never publicly named the male travel companion
[33:37] who was with Mary, but police did speak with him and he
[33:41] provided the cross country travel story.
[33:44] His account remains the only version of events, and no
[33:47] independent witnesses have confirmed seeing Mary in Las
[33:50] Vegas or anywhere beyond her departure from Canada.
[33:54] Investigators have kept most details of the case confidential
[33:58] and without concrete evidence of a crime.
[34:01] No arrests have been made without this concrete evidence.
[34:07] Several theories have emerged about what might have happened
[34:10] to Mary. Since the case is just so ripe
[34:13] for speculation. One possibility is that her
[34:16] companion story was virtually entirely false.
[34:20] Skeptics wonder if Mary ever made it as far as Las Vegas, or
[34:24] if something befell her earlier in the trip.
[34:27] If the man harmed her somewhere along the way, he might have
[34:30] fabricated the bus station drop off as a cover story.
[34:34] For instance, it's unclear why he would have left Mary in
[34:37] Nevada instead of driving her the rest of the way to
[34:40] California, a detail that many find deeply suspicious.
[34:46] The fact that Mary's bags disappeared with her never
[34:49] turning up at any bus depot or with any lost luggage reinforces
[34:53] the idea that she met with foul play.
[34:59] Many are skeptical that Mary even left Canada at all, and
[35:02] that perhaps the companion did something to her before even
[35:05] leaving the country. Notably, it's never been
[35:08] confirmed that the two ever crossed the border.
[35:11] In the 1970s it was possible to cross the border just by
[35:15] swearing an oral declaration that you were indeed a Canadian
[35:19] citizen. Absolutely no identification was
[35:23] required whatsoever, and record keeping at the border for non
[35:26] commercial travel was absolutely minimal.
[35:32] Some have suggested that the male companion may have taken
[35:34] Mary in an entirely different direction.
[35:37] While going South from Perry Sound leads to the metropolis of
[35:41] Toronto, going north from this town leads to vast wilderness.
[35:46] Further, Perry Sound itself has thousands of small, deep lakes,
[35:50] many of which are only accessible by foot or by plane.
[35:54] If the companion used a local lake as a dump site, it's
[35:57] entirely possible that this lake may be holding this dark secret
[36:01] until this day. As the last person to see her,
[36:06] the unnamed companion remains a focus of suspicion to this day
[36:10] in the minds of many, though authorities have never publicly
[36:13] labeled him a suspect. Another theory is that the
[36:18] friend was telling the truth about leaving Mary in Las Vegas
[36:22] and that she fell victim to a stranger afterward.
[36:25] If Mary truly arrived alone in Las Vegas on February 28th,
[36:29] 1978, she may have tried to continue on to California by
[36:34] herself. The late 1970s saw many young
[36:38] travelers come to harm while hitch hiking or trusting
[36:42] strangers. Mary could have been picked up
[36:45] by a predator that left her missing without a trace.
[36:50] Her family, for their part, believes that she may have had a
[36:54] dissociative fugue and simply went on to live a new life after
[36:58] this period of amnesia. I can see why this idea would be
[37:02] very attractive to her family members as this is something
[37:05] that can legitimately happen. This theory would allow Mary to
[37:10] both be alive and living her best life while having not ever
[37:14] intentionally abandoned her family.
[37:17] However, it's important to remember these states are
[37:19] extremely rare and usually only last a couple weeks at most, so
[37:25] while it may be comforting, it doesn't seem likely.
[37:30] Further yet, this scenario becomes even more unlikely when
[37:33] you take into account the surrounding circumstances with
[37:36] the male companion she was with. While both Ontario and
[37:42] California have open investigations into this case,
[37:45] given the jurisdictional issues, it's unclear how significant any
[37:50] ongoing efforts are. Unfortunately, it seems that
[37:53] Mary's case largely fell through the jurisdictional cracks and
[37:57] into obscurity. It was a routine Saturday
[38:03] afternoon in Crest Hill, IL when 50 year old Wendy Guessing
[38:07] walked out of her job and seemingly vanished into thin
[38:10] air. On June 12th, 2021, Wendy was
[38:16] part way through her shift at Pizzas by Marchelloni, which was
[38:20] a local pizza shop owned by her longtime boyfriend.
[38:24] She stepped away to run a quick errand and ended up dropping off
[38:28] the face of the earth, leaving people still wondering where she
[38:31] is over four years later. However, in 2025, it would turn
[38:37] out that a dark secret from Wendy's past might provide the
[38:41] most plausible explanation for what happened in this disturbing
[38:44] unsolved mystery. On the afternoon of June 12th,
[38:49] 2021, around 4:00 PM, Wendy received a phone call while at
[38:54] work. She told a Co worker she was
[38:57] stepping out briefly to give someone a ride and then drove
[39:00] off in her Gray Honda CRV, possibly heading toward nearby
[39:04] Joliet. That was the last time anyone
[39:07] saw Wendy and she never returned to the pizzeria and didn't make
[39:10] it home. When Wendy failed to come back,
[39:13] her family reported her missing and police began to search in
[39:18] the next few days. Two puzzling clues turned up.
[39:22] On June 15th, her cell phone was found discarded along a road in
[39:26] Romeoville, a town several miles away.
[39:30] Two days later, on June 17th, Wendy's Honda was discovered
[39:34] abandoned on a Dead End St. in Joliet.
[39:37] The car was parked on Bell Ave. A St. known for frequent police
[39:41] calls and criminal activity. Law enforcement mobilized
[39:47] significant resources and expertise to find Wendy.
[39:50] Crest Hill Police led the case, assisted by the Will County
[39:54] Sheriff's Office and the FBI. Detectives executed numerous
[39:59] searches and warrants, analyzing cell phone records, surveillance
[40:03] videos and any physical evidence from her car.
[40:07] By 2025 / 25 search warrants had been issued and at least eight
[40:13] locations, from homes to wooded areas, had been scoured for any
[40:18] trace of Wendy. Nearly 200 pieces of potential
[40:22] evidence were collected, and Wendy's vehicle itself was
[40:25] combed for clues. Yet nothing has definitively
[40:29] revealed what happened to her. Early on, a tip suggested Wendy
[40:35] might have been spotted at a Motel 6 in Joliet a few days
[40:38] after she vanished. Reports claim that extremely
[40:42] grainy security footage did show a woman who could technically be
[40:45] her at that motel, but the image was too poor to be conclusive.
[40:50] Notably here I say reports claimed, since I haven't been
[40:54] able to find this footage myself online, and I'm usually pretty
[40:58] good at sniffing that sort of thing out on local news sites.
[41:04] Notably, Wendy's boyfriend doubted that the woman on the
[41:07] tape was her, and police could not confirm the sighting.
[41:10] Aside from that unverified lead, no confirmed trace of Wendy ever
[41:15] surfaced after she left the pizza shop.
[41:20] Throughout the investigation, Wendy's digital footprint
[41:23] remained eerily silent. No bank withdrawals or social
[41:27] media activity occurred after she went missing.
[41:30] Her boyfriend had an extremely solid alibi at a nearby social
[41:34] club during the time of her disappearance.
[41:37] In fact, authorities explicitly ruled him out and he has been
[41:41] fully cooperative with the investigation throughout the
[41:43] entire time. And while sometimes I would
[41:47] question these findings when it's just a local Police
[41:49] Department involved, this is a case where the FBI is on it as
[41:53] well. With her inner circle largely
[41:58] ruled out, detectives focused on leads beyond her immediate
[42:01] family. Nearly four years later, in
[42:07] 2025, police announced A breakthrough.
[42:10] Crest Hills Police chief revealed they had identified a
[42:12] person of interest in Wendy's case.
[42:15] This individual had been in contact with Wendy in the weeks
[42:18] leading up to her disappearance and was allegedly involved in
[42:22] the local St. Pharmaceuticals scene.
[42:25] Investigators noted that the person of interest was known to
[42:28] frequent the same Joliet neighborhood where Wendy's car
[42:31] had been dumped. Furthermore, Wendy's phone had
[42:35] last pinged in an area that this person was known to often visit.
[42:39] These overlaps, personal contact with Wendy and ties to the
[42:44] locations where her belongings turned up made the unnamed
[42:48] individual a major focus of the investigation.
[42:52] Police have kept tabs on this person and have been in
[42:55] communication with them, though no arrest has been made as of
[42:59] yet. While authorities stopped short
[43:02] of officially calling this person a suspect, the
[43:05] development has given the case a new direction and renewed hope
[43:09] of finally finding answers. Given the evidence, a voluntary
[43:15] runaway scenario appears very unlikely.
[43:18] Wendy did nothing to prepare for disappearing and left behind
[43:21] everything important to her. Her finances were untouched and
[43:25] she contacted no one after June 12th.
[43:28] Those who knew her insist she would never have simply walked
[43:31] away from her life, and all signs suggest Wendy did not
[43:35] vanish by choice. Most theories therefore involve
[43:40] foul play. The most plausible scenario is
[43:44] that Wendy met with someone that afternoon who intended to harm
[43:47] her. As I mentioned at the beginning
[43:49] of this segment, she left work to help someone by giving them a
[43:53] ride, implying she met a specific individual.
[43:58] If that meeting turned dangerous, it could explain why
[44:02] her car was later left in a particular spot and her phone
[44:05] discarded elsewhere. This was likely an attempt by a
[44:09] perpetrator to cover their tracks.
[44:13] The person of interest identified by police fits this
[44:16] narrative. Someone who knew Wendy and had
[44:19] potential criminal motives. It's possible Wendy was
[44:22] unwittingly pulled into a situation involving illegal
[44:25] activity and became a target of violence.
[44:31] However, there's that one dark secret I hinted at in the
[44:34] beginning of this segment. Wendy had a history of substance
[44:38] use problems, though she had been clean for some time.
[44:42] The early stages of a relapse are generally considered the
[44:45] most risky in terms of an overdose.
[44:48] Since the tolerance for the substance has faded, an
[44:52] individual may believe they can take the sort of dose they took
[44:55] while they were in their addiction and had built up a
[44:57] tolerance and then unfortunately, accidentally OD.
[45:03] It's possible that she ended up overdosing in a trap house and
[45:07] that the dealer took steps to cover up what happened.
[45:10] Personally, this is the theory I prefer since it appears to fit
[45:15] all the evidence in the case. Now that the authorities have
[45:18] identified the person of interest in the case.
[45:24] Today, Wendy Guessing's fate remains unresolved, though it
[45:28] appears that the police are closer than ever to closing this
[45:31] case out once and for all. For four years, no one even
[45:38] realized that Heather Bloom was missing.
[45:40] From late 2005 until 2009, her disappearance went entirely
[45:45] unreported, a delay that hindered efforts to find her.
[45:50] Heather was a 28 year old woman with Down syndrome who depended
[45:53] on others for every aspect of her care.
[45:57] Yet she managed to vanish without a trace from Berkeley,
[45:59] CA in 2005 on a trip from New York where her mother dumped her
[46:04] off with her sister. Even more chilling, the only
[46:08] person who might know what happened refused to let anyone
[46:11] see Heather and then quietly left the country.
[46:14] In the years that followed, it seemed unthinkable that a
[46:18] vulnerable woman like Heather could vanish without anyone
[46:21] noticing. But it happened.
[46:24] Nearly two decades later, the question remains, what really
[46:29] happened to Heather Bloom? Heather had spent her entire
[46:36] life in New York, so a trip to California was a major change
[46:40] for her. Heather's story took a
[46:42] mysterious turn in the fall of 2005, when she and her mother
[46:46] stayed with Heather's sister, Sherry.
[46:49] This visit would be the last time Heather was seen by anyone
[46:52] outside her family. During the stay, police were
[46:56] called to Sherry's apartment to intervene in a loud argument
[46:59] between Phyllis, the mother, and Sherry, With Heather in the
[47:03] middle of the commotion, the officers diffused the situation,
[47:08] and once things calmed down, Phyllis returned home to New
[47:11] York, leaving Heather and Sherry's care at the Berkeley
[47:15] apartment. That unusual handoff of Heather
[47:18] to Sherry marked the beginning of Heather's unexplained
[47:21] absence. For a while, nothing apparently
[47:26] seemed to miss, and after Phyllis left California, she
[47:30] apparently lost contact with both of her daughters.
[47:33] She heard no updates from Sherry and had no direct communication
[47:38] with Heather. Heather, a vulnerable adult who
[47:42] couldn't speak for herself, simply vanished from public
[47:45] view. There were no familiar neighbors
[47:48] or friends in California to notice her absence, and Heather
[47:52] wasn't enrolled in any local care programs or services that
[47:55] might have raised an alarm. It wasn't until June 2009,
[48:01] nearly four years later, that Phyllis finally reported Heather
[48:05] missing. When Berkeley police opened a
[48:10] missing person investigation in 2009, they were already years
[48:14] behind. Detectives discovered that
[48:17] Sherri had moved out of her apartment back in 2007, leaving
[48:21] no sign of where Heather had gone.
[48:24] It took months to track Sherry down, and when they finally
[48:28] located her in March 2010, the mystery only deepened.
[48:33] Sherry refused to let officers inside her home, speaking to
[48:37] them only through a window. She insisted that Heather was
[48:41] fine but would not allow anyone to see her, offering no evidence
[48:45] of her sister's well-being. This evasive behavior raised
[48:49] immediate red flags for the police, who feared for Heather's
[48:53] safety. However, it also put law
[48:56] enforcement in a bind. They were alarmed, but without
[49:00] clear evidence of wrongdoing or a court order, there was little
[49:03] they could do to force Sherry's compliance.
[49:08] Police soon uncovered more unsettling details.
[49:11] Sherry's landlord and neighbors reported that they had never
[49:14] seen Heather at the apartment, not even once.
[49:18] Shortly after that tense welfare check, Sherri abruptly packed up
[49:23] and moved again, disappearing before authorities could learn
[49:26] anything more about Heather's fate.
[49:29] She was evicted from the apartment for owing around
[49:31] $13,000 in back rent, suggesting A chaotic and unstable
[49:36] situation. Once Sherri left town, this
[49:40] time, the trail to find Heather went cold again.
[49:45] Years passed with no sign of either sister.
[49:49] Finally, in 2016, a breakthrough investigators learned that
[49:53] Sherri had left the country and gone to Norway on a student
[49:57] visa. She had moved overseas for
[49:59] school, which explained why she had been so hard to find.
[50:04] Sherri's relocation abroad posed a major roadblock for the
[50:07] investigation. Berkeley police and local
[50:10] journalists tried to contact Sherri in Norway, but she never
[50:14] responded. Given Heather's disabilities, it
[50:17] seemed unlikely she could have travelled overseas under the
[50:20] radar. Most likely, if she was still
[50:23] alive, she remained somewhere in California.
[50:27] But with Sherry out of reach and refusing to cooperate,
[50:31] authorities had no leads on where to look next and no way to
[50:35] verify Heather's condition or whereabouts.
[50:40] Several theories have emerged to explain Heather Bloom's
[50:43] disappearance. The most direct suspicion falls
[50:47] on Sherry as the last person with Heather.
[50:51] Sherry's odd behaviour has led many to believe she knows
[50:55] exactly what happened. Her refusal to produce Heather
[50:58] on demand and her pattern of abruptly moving away suggest she
[51:03] may have been hiding something all along.
[51:06] Neighbors didn't report seeing Heather around at any time.
[51:12] This fuels A grim theory that Heather may have perished under
[51:15] Sherry's care, whether due to untreated health issues, an
[51:19] accident, or even something more sinister.
[51:23] For the first two options, there's always the potential
[51:26] that Sherry panicked and covered it up instead of reporting it.
[51:31] However, authorities have found no evidence of foul play and
[51:35] have not charged Sherry with any crime.
[51:38] Officially, Heather remains a missing person, not a confirmed
[51:41] crime victim. Another possibility is that
[51:46] Heather is alive but was secretly placed in a care
[51:49] facility or with a caretaker, and even the police have
[51:52] entertained this hopeful scenario.
[51:55] Perhaps Sherry became overwhelmed by the
[51:57] responsibility and, without telling anyone, arranged for
[52:02] Heather to live in a private care home or with another
[52:05] caregiver. It's even possible that she took
[52:08] her out of state to dump her off somewhere else, perhaps simply
[52:12] leaving her abandoned in a hospital waiting room.
[52:15] If so, Sherri's secretiveness could have been her way of
[52:18] avoiding legal trouble for abandoning her dependent sister.
[52:23] This theory lines up with the optimism police expressed, the
[52:27] hope that somewhere Heather has been receiving the care she
[52:31] needs, even if her identity isn't known to authorities.
[52:35] However, so far, checks of hospitals and care homes haven't
[52:39] turned up any trace of Heather under another identity.
[52:43] But the possibility cannot be ruled out.
[52:47] Perhaps the most sinister allegation is that Heather's
[52:50] mother and sister colluded to make her quote UN quote
[52:53] disappear. Some have speculated that
[52:56] Phyllis might have willingly left Heather with Sherry as part
[52:59] of a plan. Moving Heather across the
[53:01] country would make her absence in New York much less noticeable
[53:05] and would provide an easy explanation for why Heather was
[53:08] no longer there. However, this allegation falls
[53:13] apart extremely quickly under scrutiny.
[53:16] It was Phyllis who eventually sounded the alarm in 2009, an
[53:21] unlikely move if she had intended for Heather's
[53:23] disappearance to go unnoticed as it had been.
[53:27] Authorities have never implicated Phyllis in any
[53:30] wrongdoing, and officially she was a distraught parent seeking
[53:34] help to find her missing child. Though of course, it's
[53:39] inescapable that even in the official version of events told
[53:43] by Phyllis, it appears she dumped off her disabled daughter
[53:47] with her non disabled daughter. After that, Phyllis washed her
[53:51] hands clean of both of them for four years.
[53:54] Which brings me to my next point.
[53:58] One lingering question is why Phyllis waited so long to report
[54:01] Heather missing and what triggered her to eventually do
[54:04] so. It's an aspect of the case that
[54:07] continues to baffle observers. We may never know what was going
[54:11] through the mother's mind during those four years.
[54:15] What is certain is that the delay in reporting has made
[54:18] investigating Heather's disappearance that much more
[54:21] difficult. This lost time is one of the
[54:23] most frustrating facets of the case, leaving basically everyone
[54:28] to wonder if the outcome might have been different had the
[54:31] alarm been raised sooner. Another question that's been
[54:36] raised is who was cashing Heather's government checks
[54:38] intended for her care during those four years, if anyone?
[54:43] I suspect the authorities already know the answer to this
[54:46] question and simply haven't released this to the public.
[54:50] However, I do question whether a forensic accountant has looked
[54:53] over the accounts of both Sherry and Phyllis, though I suspect
[54:57] that isn't possible since neither have been implicated
[55:00] officially. Today, nearly 20 years after she
[55:05] vanished, there is still no answer to Heather Bloom's fate.
[55:09] Heather would be in her late 40s now, but no one knows whether
[55:13] she is alive or not. However, I'm hopeful that the
[55:16] simplest solution is the accurate one.
[55:18] In this case, Heather may have been abandoned as an unknown
[55:22] person somewhere safe, and she's now being cared for by the
[55:26] state. It's not ideal by any means, and
[55:29] it's both incredibly sad and infuriating, but the
[55:33] alternatives are so much more disturbing.
[55:38] Of course, the conduct of the sister and the mother is already
[55:41] disturbing. Regardless, Heather needed love
[55:44] and care, and it appears that at best, she got abandonment twice
[55:50] by two of the people who were supposed to love and care for
[55:52] her most. So yeah, this is one of those
[55:55] stories that really makes me question humanity, which is
[55:59] saying a lot considering that I constantly research and cover
[56:02] dark content. On January 28th, 2001, as
[56:09] Americans gathered to watch the Super Bowl, 1 Syracuse family's
[56:13] day took a horrific turn. 18 year old Jill Lynn, Utah was
[56:17] supposed to join her mother and sister to watch the game that
[56:20] evening, but she never showed up.
[56:23] Concern quickly set in when Jill Lynn didn't answer her phone.
[56:27] The next day, her mother, Joanne Browning, visited her daughter's
[56:31] 6th floor apartment at 600 James St. and walked into a nightmare.
[56:37] Inside, she found Jill Lynn lying unresponsive on a futon,
[56:41] brutally slain with multiple stab wounds and a deep cut
[56:45] across her neck. To this day, no one has been
[56:49] arrested for the crime. For family members and
[56:52] investigators alike, the question remains, who would
[56:55] viciously stab an 18 year old in her own home on a Sunday
[56:58] afternoon and why? Born on March 20th, 1982, Jill
[57:06] Lynn grew up with her mother and two sisters, Jenna and Carrie.
[57:10] Her family had moved from Colorado to upstate New York in
[57:14] the late 1990s in search of a different environment to raise
[57:18] the girls in Syracuse. Jill Lynn came into her own as a
[57:23] friendly, outgoing teenager. By the start of 2001, Jill Lynn
[57:28] was striving for independence and building her future.
[57:32] At 18, she had recently moved out of her mother's house to
[57:37] live on her own for the first time.
[57:40] She rented a small studio apartment in a brick high rise
[57:43] at 600 James St. in Syracuse's near Northeast neighborhood.
[57:49] Jill Lynn was proud to be living on her own, even if it meant
[57:52] working hard to support herself. She juggled 2 retail jobs,
[57:57] including a position at a clothing store in the local
[58:00] shopping town mall. When Joanne Browning unlocked
[58:05] the door to Jill Lynn's apartment on January 29th, 2001,
[58:09] she walked into a scene no mother should ever have to face.
[58:13] Jill Lynn had been stabbed inside her own home in a vicious
[58:16] attack. The perpetrator had used one of
[58:19] Jill Lynn's own kitchen knives as the weapon, turning an
[58:23] everyday household item into an instrument of horror.
[58:27] Investigators later noted that the attack was frenzied and
[58:30] deeply personal. Jill Lynn had suffered numerous
[58:33] stab wounds and her throat had been slashed.
[58:37] This level of violence suggested a lot of rage on the part of the
[58:41] perpetrator directed specifically towards Jill Lynn.
[58:45] Jill Lynn's body was found on her futon couch, indicating she
[58:49] may have been relaxing or sitting down when the assault
[58:52] began. One chilling detail of the crime
[58:57] was that there were no obvious signs of forced entry into the
[59:00] apartment. Police didn't find a kicked in
[59:03] door or broken lock, which implies that Jill Lynn likely
[59:07] let the perpetrator inside willingly.
[59:10] Neighbors reported seeing Jill Lynn returned to her apartment
[59:13] alone on the day of the slaying, with no stranger following
[59:16] behind. Sometime after she entered her
[59:19] apartment, she encountered the perpetrator.
[59:23] Whether this person knocked on her door or had arranged to
[59:25] visit, we may never know, but the lack of forced entry
[59:28] strongly suggests Jill Lynn knew and trusted the person.
[59:34] Investigators believe the attack happened on Sunday, January
[59:37] 28th, likely in the late afternoon or early evening.
[59:42] It appears the individual struck quickly and then slipped away
[59:45] quietly, as none of the neighbors in the busy building
[59:48] reported hearing a struggle loud enough to call police.
[59:53] In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the Syracuse Police
[59:56] Department launched an intensive investigation.
[59:59] Detectives swarmed the apartment on James St. searching for any
[1:00:03] clues the perpetrator might have left behind.
[1:00:07] But from the start, tangible evidence was extremely scarce.
[1:00:11] The crime scene didn't yield obvious fingerprints and the
[1:00:15] perpetrator had not brought a weapon, using a knife from Jill
[1:00:18] Lynn's kitchen instead. This weapon yielded no
[1:00:22] fingerprints with the belief that the man was likely wearing
[1:00:25] gloves, a fact that wouldn't have stood out to anyone.
[1:00:28] In January in upstate New York, forensic teams collected
[1:00:34] potential DNA samples, fingerprints and fibers from the
[1:00:38] apartment, hoping something would eventually lead to a
[1:00:41] suspect. Over the years, law enforcement
[1:00:46] interviewed multiple suspects and persons of interest, but
[1:00:49] none of those leads ever panned out into an arrest. 1 beacon of
[1:00:56] hope in the investigation emerged from DNA evidence In
[1:01:00] 2016, fifteen years after Jill Lynn's slaying, Syracuse police
[1:01:05] revealed that they had obtained adna profile that could help
[1:01:09] identify the perpetrator. This was a significant
[1:01:12] development, indicating that some biological material was
[1:01:16] recovered from the scene or the victim's body.
[1:01:19] With advancements in forensic technology, detectives hope to
[1:01:23] use this DNA to build a suspect profile or even find a match.
[1:01:28] However, as of today, that DNA has not conclusively identified
[1:01:33] the perpetrator, and it's unclear whether more modern
[1:01:37] techniques have been applied to the evidence.
[1:01:40] And yes, for everyone waiting for it, by more modern
[1:01:44] techniques, I do indeed mean genetic genealogy.
[1:01:50] What is known is that Syracuse does have a cold case squad and
[1:01:54] that they are actively investigating her case.
[1:01:56] Still, in the absence of an arrest, many theories have
[1:02:02] swirled around who might have slain Jill Lynn Youdo and why.
[1:02:06] Investigators and those close to Jill Lynn have long debated
[1:02:09] whether the perpetrator was someone she knew or a stranger
[1:02:12] who targeted her at random. The evidence, or lack of it, can
[1:02:17] be interpreted to support either scenario, though most signs
[1:02:22] point towards someone familiar to the victim.
[1:02:25] Simply put, it's hard to imagine a young woman on her own
[1:02:28] willingly letting a total stranger into her apartment on a
[1:02:31] Sunday evening. Moreover, using a kitchen knife
[1:02:37] from the victim's own home as the weapon could imply that the
[1:02:40] attack wasn't pre planned by an outside assailant.
[1:02:43] Instead, it might have been an impromptu crime of passion or
[1:02:46] anger. The sheer brutality multiple
[1:02:50] stab wounds delivered in what appears to be a rage hints at a
[1:02:54] personal motive. As forensic experts often note,
[1:02:58] stabbing is an intensely personal form of violence, often
[1:03:03] associated with strong emotions. Police scrutinized her circle of
[1:03:09] acquaintances in the months and years after the killing.
[1:03:13] Jill Lynn was known to have a wide social circle and her uncle
[1:03:17] came out in an interview and publicly stated that not all of
[1:03:21] her friends were positive influences.
[1:03:24] It's conceivable she befriended someone with a volatile temper
[1:03:27] or dangerous tendencies. Detectives likely interviewed
[1:03:31] her recent ex boyfriends, male friends, Co workers and
[1:03:35] neighbors. However, none of those
[1:03:38] individuals have ever been publicly labeled as suspects.
[1:03:44] However, the idea of a Co worker when it comes to Jill Lynn is
[1:03:47] actually potentially a very wide net since she worked in a mall.
[1:03:52] While perhaps her immediate Co workers were cleared, there's
[1:03:56] also the more generalized concept of Co workers within the
[1:03:59] mall. Perhaps someone at another
[1:04:02] store, or the food court, or in the administrative or security
[1:04:06] staff had become obsessed with her.
[1:04:10] While I can't prove it one way or the other, I suspect the
[1:04:13] authorities simply didn't have the resources to question
[1:04:15] literally every person connected to the mall.
[1:04:21] Notably, some have wondered if the attacker could have been a
[1:04:24] female friend rather than a male assailant, given the likely
[1:04:28] absence of an indecent assault. If she was subject to this sort
[1:04:32] of assault, the police would have had to release this
[1:04:35] information to the public due to concerns over safety.
[1:04:40] Female perpetrated stabbings are rarer but not unheard of,
[1:04:45] especially if jealousy or personal betrayal was at play.
[1:04:50] Without any publicly known suspects, however, the gender
[1:04:53] and identity of the perpetrator remain pure conjecture given
[1:04:58] that investigators have advised that they do have ADNA profile.
[1:05:02] If this was from a woman, I suspect that this information
[1:05:06] would have been released to the public.
[1:05:09] After all, the default assumption is that a male
[1:05:12] committed the crime, so if it came out that it was a woman,
[1:05:16] this may generate significant new tips in the case.
[1:05:21] Another angle is the slim chance that a stranger did slay Jill
[1:05:25] Lynn. Skeptics of the known attacker
[1:05:27] theory point out that we can't be entirely sure she willingly
[1:05:31] let the person in. Perhaps her door was unlocked
[1:05:35] briefly or the person knocked claiming some innocuous reason
[1:05:39] like needing help or using the phone.
[1:05:42] Jill Lynn was known as kind hearted and kind of naive, so
[1:05:46] she might have been vulnerable to a deceitful stranger.
[1:05:52] For now, those who love Jill Lynn refused to let her case be
[1:05:56] forgotten. Each year, around the
[1:05:59] anniversary of her death, local media run stories to generate
[1:06:03] new attention, and the police reaffirm their commitment to
[1:06:06] solving the case. This collective perseverance
[1:06:10] means that the mystery of Jill Lynn's slaying is still very
[1:06:14] much in the public consciousness, raising the
[1:06:16] likelihood her case will be solved.
[1:06:22] The next time I talk about this case, I hope it's an update on
[1:06:25] how some genetic genealogy company and investigators
[1:06:28] cracked it once and for all. Cindy Weingar was a typical
[1:06:35] Vermont teenager in the late 1970s until the night she
[1:06:39] vanished without a trace. In March 1979, the 16 year old
[1:06:44] left her family's home on Forest St. to visit a friend and never
[1:06:48] returned. Just days later, her parents
[1:06:52] received a chilling anonymous phone call claiming that Cindy
[1:06:55] was dead and her body was at the bottom of the Winooski River.
[1:07:01] For over 4 decades, the fate of this Burlington high schooler
[1:07:04] has remained one of Vermont's most haunting unsolved
[1:07:07] mysteries. Cindy Winegar grew up as the
[1:07:12] youngest of a big family. In fact, she was the youngest of
[1:07:16] six siblings, born 13 years after her nearest sister.
[1:07:20] By her junior year of high school, Cindy was a bright girl,
[1:07:25] but also a teenager testing boundaries.
[1:07:28] The family's strict rules couldn't stop her from
[1:07:31] befriending a rough crowd and occasionally blazing the
[1:07:34] broccoli. This phase worried her family,
[1:07:37] and in the weeks before she vanished, they even received
[1:07:40] eerie, anonymous phone calls directed at Cindy.
[1:07:44] Despite these troubles, she was still a beloved kid at home,
[1:07:48] which made her abrupt disappearance all the more
[1:07:50] shocking. On the evening of March 21st,
[1:07:56] 1979, everything seemed normal at the family home on Forest St.
[1:08:02] 16 year old Cindy was last seen watching TV with her family
[1:08:06] before she said she was heading out to visit a friend nearby.
[1:08:10] She walked out wearing blue jeans, a green and white striped
[1:08:13] shirt, and low top sneakers, and she never came back.
[1:08:19] When Cindy hadn't returned by the next morning, her mother
[1:08:22] knew something was wrong. The family contacted Burlington
[1:08:26] police and the family started to frantically search the
[1:08:29] neighborhood and Cindy's usual Hangouts.
[1:08:34] I'm going to shock you here. The authorities weren't very
[1:08:37] alarmed. Given Cindy's recent teenage
[1:08:40] rebellion, the police suspected she might have run away on her
[1:08:44] own and didn't immediately escalate the search.
[1:08:48] This response left the family feeling helpless and dismissed
[1:08:51] at the worst moment. Then came the phone call that
[1:08:56] turned their fear into a nightmare.
[1:08:59] A few days after Cindy went missing, her mother received an
[1:09:02] anonymous call from a man who delivered a disturbing message.
[1:09:06] Their daughter was tied up dead at the bottom of the Winooski
[1:09:09] River. The caller hung up without
[1:09:12] identifying himself, but there's a twist that made this even more
[1:09:18] disturbing than it usually would have been.
[1:09:20] The family changed their number recently in response to the
[1:09:23] threatening calls. Sources vary as to whether the
[1:09:27] new number was intentionally unlisted or whether it just
[1:09:30] hadn't hit the new phone books, but at any rate, the result is
[1:09:34] the same. That he somehow knew the
[1:09:37] family's new Incognito number made the situation seem less
[1:09:41] like a cruel hoax and more like someone had obtained it from
[1:09:44] Cindy directly. They begged the police to take
[1:09:50] this tip seriously, but no organized search of the river
[1:09:53] was done. At the time, investigators
[1:09:56] couldn't verify the gruesome claim and still lean toward the
[1:09:59] theory that Cindy had left by choice.
[1:10:02] For the Winegar family, however, that call felt like proof that
[1:10:07] something terrible had happened to their daughter.
[1:10:11] Reading between the lines here, it appears to me that the quote
[1:10:15] UN quote investigators may have believed that the call was
[1:10:18] hoaxed by the family to get the cops to take the case seriously.
[1:10:24] With few leads and a lackluster police response in 1979, Cindy's
[1:10:29] trail went cold fast and years passed without any sign of her.
[1:10:35] In 1981, the family suffered another tragedy when Cindy's
[1:10:39] father, John, drowned in the river near their home.
[1:10:43] At John's funeral, a relative swore they saw a young woman
[1:10:47] standing in the back of the church who looked exactly like
[1:10:50] Cindy. Before anyone could approach,
[1:10:53] that woman slipped away, leaving the family wondering if Cindy
[1:10:57] had quietly returned to say goodbye to her dad.
[1:11:02] In the years that followed, a few other people claimed to spot
[1:11:05] someone resembling Cindy around Burlington, but none of these
[1:11:09] sightings could be confirmed. In 1985, a peculiar discovery
[1:11:16] briefly raised hopes one of Cindy's sister's friends, while
[1:11:20] fishing in the Winooski River, snagged a clump of long blonde
[1:11:24] hair on her line. Recalling the anonymous caller's
[1:11:27] dire warning, she alerted the police.
[1:11:31] Unfortunately, without any other evidence or the ability to test
[1:11:34] DNA at that time, it was impossible to prove if the hair
[1:11:38] was Cindy's. Over the ensuing decades,
[1:11:42] Burlington police did periodically review Cindy's cold
[1:11:45] case, but no solid leads ever emerged.
[1:11:49] Officially, the case remained open, although her family
[1:11:52] strongly believed that labeling her a runaway early on had
[1:11:56] caused critical delays in the investigation.
[1:12:00] Cindy's parents passed away never knowing what happened, and
[1:12:04] her surviving siblings have refused to declare her dead,
[1:12:07] holding out hope that the truth will be discovered one day.
[1:12:13] When examining what might have happened to Cindy, 2 main
[1:12:16] theories stand out, each telling a very different story.
[1:12:20] Personally, I find myself torn between them, trying to weigh
[1:12:24] the evidence on each side. One possibility is that Cindy
[1:12:30] left on her own that night, essentially running away.
[1:12:34] This was the initial assumption by law enforcement.
[1:12:37] Indeed, Cindy was a teenager in a rebellious phase, chafing
[1:12:42] under strict rules and hanging out with a new crowd.
[1:12:46] Perhaps she wanted a taste of freedom, as so many people
[1:12:49] around that age do. Supporters of this theory note
[1:12:52] that there were reported sightings of her after she
[1:12:55] disappeared as evidence in favor of her survival.
[1:12:59] Maybe she felt she couldn't come back and chose to start over
[1:13:01] elsewhere in secret. However, it must be noted that
[1:13:05] all these so-called sightings remain completely unconfirmed
[1:13:09] and could honestly be wishful thinking on the part of her
[1:13:12] friends and family. Personally, I find the runaway
[1:13:17] theory hard to fully buy unless there was a much more sinister
[1:13:21] force pulling her away from home.
[1:13:24] Cindy left without taking any belongings or money, which is
[1:13:27] unusual for someone planning to be gone long.
[1:13:31] And would she really cut off all contact for decades?
[1:13:35] It's hard to imagine her watching her family suffer all
[1:13:38] this time without ever letting them know she was OK.
[1:13:42] Moreover, the sinister phone calls that targeted her both
[1:13:46] before and after she vanished don't fit with a simple runaway
[1:13:50] scenario. Those calls strongly imply that
[1:13:54] she was in some kind of danger, not just a teen quietly slipping
[1:13:58] away. So yeah, I have serious doubts
[1:14:02] that Cindy simply ran off to start a new life by choice.
[1:14:08] If this theory is accurate at all, I believe there's the
[1:14:11] possibility that she may have been trafficked, though there's
[1:14:14] no real evidence for it. She may have believed that she
[1:14:17] was running off to start a new life with an older, quote UN
[1:14:20] quote, boyfriend. This scenario is all too common,
[1:14:25] and she may have met someone participating in this disturbing
[1:14:28] trade when she started falling in with the wrong crowd.
[1:14:32] Traffickers directly prey on vulnerable young people and
[1:14:36] trick them into believing there's someone that can be
[1:14:38] trusted and has their best interest in mind instead of
[1:14:42] their family. But let's put this theory aside
[1:14:46] for a second. The other theory is that Cindy
[1:14:50] met with foul play, that she intended only a short outing but
[1:14:55] fell victim to someone who meant her harm.
[1:14:58] The menacing calls to the family home before Cindy disappeared
[1:15:01] suggest that someone was threatening or stalking her.
[1:15:05] Then the anonymous caller who claimed she was dead in the
[1:15:08] river could well have been the perpetrator taunting her family
[1:15:12] with a confession. The fact that he knew an
[1:15:15] unlisted number hints that this person was likely someone
[1:15:18] acquainted with Cindy or her family.
[1:15:21] All of these points indicate that Cindy may have been
[1:15:23] targeted by someone she knew or encountered rather than choosing
[1:15:27] to disappear. To me, the foul play theory is
[1:15:32] unfortunately the more convincing 1 Perhaps Cindy went
[1:15:36] to meet a friend or acquaintance that night and something went
[1:15:39] terribly wrong. If she was harmed, the guilty
[1:15:42] party may have panicked and disposed of her body, and that
[1:15:46] disturbing phone call might have been a twisted attempt to
[1:15:48] confess. Given the evidence of direct
[1:15:51] threats and the complete silence from Cindy after that night,
[1:15:55] foul play by someone in her orbit seems the most plausible
[1:15:58] explanation. But back to the trafficking
[1:16:03] theory once more. Since it potentially intersects
[1:16:06] with this theory, it's entirely possible that Cindy wasn't
[1:16:10] willing to do what a trafficker wanted her to do.
[1:16:13] Rather than let her go and leave evidence of the crime that was
[1:16:16] already committed. The perpetrator may have slain
[1:16:20] Cindy. Nearly half a century has passed
[1:16:24] since Cindy Weingar walked out of her Burlington home and
[1:16:27] vanished, yet her case remains as perplexing as ever.
[1:16:32] She's still listed as a missing person, and the investigation is
[1:16:35] still open to this day. That said, this is an
[1:16:39] investigation that was likely botched from the start by the
[1:16:42] common assumption that every teenager is simply a runaway.
[1:16:46] Her siblings haven't given up hope that they might one day
[1:16:49] learn what really happened on that March night in 1979.

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