# 10 Cold Cases You Absolutely Should Know | True Crime Compilation | 174

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 31 Jan 2026, 1 h 42 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO7871876776.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] The summer of 1988 found Keith Reinhardt at a crossroads.
[0:04] The 50 year old sports writer from Chicago's suburbs had grown
[0:07] restless with the predictable rhythm of his daily existence.
[0:11] Seeking transformation, he arranged a three month hiatus
[0:16] from his position at the Daily Herald.
[0:19] He ventured W to Silver Plume Co, a picturesque mountain
[0:24] community tucked away in the Rockies.
[0:27] Reinhardt arrived with an ambitious agenda.
[0:30] Conquering his lifelong fear of heights by tackling mountain
[0:33] peaks and rebuilding his physical fitness were top of
[0:36] mind. But there was something much
[0:38] more he wanted to do. He wanted to finally pen the
[0:42] novel he'd been thinking of for years.
[0:45] To sustain himself financially during this reinvention, he
[0:48] established an antique shop in a space that carried an eerie
[0:52] history. It was the former location of a
[0:55] bookstore operated by Tom Young, a local resident who had
[0:58] vanished without explanation the previous year.
[1:03] The mystery of Young's fate quickly captivated Reinhardt's
[1:06] imagination. On September 7th, 1987, Young
[1:10] had disappeared alongside his beloved dog, Gus.
[1:14] The puzzle remained unsolved until July 1988, when hunters
[1:19] stumbled upon their remains scattered across the mountainous
[1:23] terrain surrounding Silver Plume.
[1:26] Both had suffered fatal bullet wounds to the head.
[1:29] With a weapon discovered at the scene.
[1:32] Officials determined Young's death to be voluntary.
[1:35] Yet this verdict stirred controversy among townspeople,
[1:38] who knew the man's devotion to his canine companion.
[1:42] Many found it inconceivable that he would harm Gus, even if he
[1:46] was set on doing himself in. The circumstances surrounding
[1:52] Young's demise became the foundation for Reinhardt's
[1:55] literary project. He crafted A protagonist named
[1:59] Guy Gypsum, weaving together elements of his own identity
[2:02] with Young's story. And yeah, that's a real Chad
[2:06] Tier detective name if I've ever heard one.
[2:11] His research consumed him as he interviewed locals gathering
[2:15] fragments of Young's life and character.
[2:18] The boundary between Reinhard's emerging fiction and his daily
[2:21] reality began to dissolve as he delved deeper into the case.
[2:28] Then came August 7th, 1988, Exactly one week after the
[2:33] grisly discovery of Young's remains.
[2:36] Reinhard shuttered his antique shop and announced to friends
[2:39] his intention to scale Pendleton Mountain Summit.
[2:42] This is a demanding expedition that typically requires several
[2:46] hours of arduous hiking. What made his decision
[2:50] particularly alarming was the timing.
[2:52] He departed around 4:30 PM, far too late for such an
[2:56] undertaking, and his preparation was woefully inadequate.
[3:01] Observers noted his casual attire, tennis shoes and
[3:05] everyday clothing, along with his complete absence of hiking
[3:08] supplies. He promised to return by 10 that
[3:12] night, a deadline that came and went without his return.
[3:18] The response was swift and comprehensive.
[3:21] More than 100 search personnel mobilized, supported by
[3:25] helicopters and specially trained canines, combing the
[3:28] unforgiving landscape for any trace of the missing rider.
[3:33] The operation faced constant obstacles from the treacherous
[3:36] terrain, yielding no clues about Reinhard's whereabouts.
[3:41] Tragedy compounded the mystery when a Cessna aircraft
[3:44] participating in the search crashed, claiming the pilot's
[3:47] life. After 7 days of fruitless
[3:50] efforts, the authorities abandoned the search.
[3:54] Multiple theories have emerged to explain Reinhard's vanishing.
[3:58] One possibility suggests he encountered violence.
[4:01] It's been speculated that after discovering dangerous
[4:04] information related to Young's death, this made him a target,
[4:09] and I must place emphasis on the word speculation here, since
[4:13] there's no evidence whatsoever that indicated that he had any
[4:16] special knowledge of what happened to Young and Gus.
[4:20] An alternative explanation proposes that he orchestrated
[4:23] his own disappearance, drawing inspiration from his fictional
[4:26] character and seeking to escape into a new existence.
[4:31] Yet those closest to Reinhard reject this notion, emphasizing
[4:36] his satisfaction with life and his consistent communication
[4:39] with family and friends. An accident remains another
[4:43] viable explanation for his fate. Considering his documented fear
[4:48] of heights and the perilous mountain conditions, a fatal
[4:52] fall seems entirely possible. The puzzle deepens, however,
[4:57] with the thorough search's failure to uncover any physical
[5:00] evidence supporting this theory. Some suggest that Reinhardt had
[5:05] become so obsessed with Young's case that he ended up following
[5:09] in his footsteps. To those who believe this
[5:12] theory, the parallels between these two cases create a clear,
[5:16] unsettling pattern. Young and Reinhardt occupied the
[5:19] identical commercial space, and both vanished in the mountains
[5:23] surrounding Silver Plume. Reinhard was, of course, also
[5:28] actively developing a novel centered on Young's story when
[5:31] he himself disappeared. Despite persistent investigative
[5:36] efforts, no definitive answers have surfaced regarding
[5:39] Reinhard's ultimate fate. His case files remain active,
[5:44] perpetuating an enduring enigma that continues to cast shadows
[5:48] over silver plumes. Tranquil Facade.
[5:53] It seems to me that the depth of Reinhard's fixation with Young's
[5:56] case can't be understated. He had become so thoroughly
[6:00] absorbed in the mystery that he constructed A fictional alter
[6:03] ego blending their identities. This obsession potentially
[6:07] destabilized his judgement, possibly driving him toward the
[6:11] fateful I'll conceived mountain expedition that sealed his own
[6:15] mysterious fate. He just doesn't seem to have
[6:19] been in a good place mentally and his decision to go hiking at
[6:22] that hour and that attire indicates to me he may not have
[6:26] wanted to have come back. On a bright winter morning in
[6:33] 2019, an Icelandic tourist stepped out of his Dublin hotel
[6:38] and vanished without a trace. Jan Jansen, a 41 year old father
[6:44] of four, walked away from the Bonnington Hotel on February
[6:47] 9th, 2019 and was never seen again.
[6:52] His phone, wallet and passport were left behind in his room,
[6:56] turning a fun poker holiday into a completely baffling mystery
[7:00] that remains unsolved. Jan was a taxi driver from
[7:05] Iceland, described by family as a reliable, caring man and
[7:09] devoted father. He was engaged to his fiance
[7:13] Jana, and the couple traveled to Dublin for both leisure and
[7:17] competitive poker. As an avid poker player in a
[7:20] country where casino gambling is mostly illegal, Jan was excited
[7:24] to join the Dublin Poker Festival at the Bonington Hotel.
[7:28] He had planned to play in a three day tournament and then
[7:31] tour Ireland with Jana, a trip he had looked forward to for
[7:35] weeks. Nothing in his background
[7:38] suggested he would simply disappear.
[7:41] He had no history of impulsive behavior and it even recently
[7:44] renewed his taxi license back home.
[7:47] Anticipating his future plans, Jan arrived in Ireland on
[7:53] February 8th, 2019, one day ahead of his fiance.
[7:58] Due to a passport mix up, he spent that first night at the
[8:01] poker tables in the hotel. Witnesses said Jan lost a
[8:05] significant sum of money, several €1000, but didn't seem
[8:10] visibly upset. He drank heavily yet remained in
[8:14] good spirits, socializing with other players late into the
[8:18] night. The next morning, Yana met Yawn
[8:21] at the hotel around 10 AM and went downstairs briefly to get a
[8:25] coffee. In that short window of time, at
[8:29] approximately 11 O 5:00 AM, Yawn abruptly left the hotel on foot.
[8:35] He took only his jacket and possibly a key card, leaving his
[8:38] passport, phone, wallet and even his luggage behind in the room.
[8:45] Security cameras captured Yon walking calmly down Swords Rd.
[8:49] minutes later, heading north through the Whitehall district
[8:52] of Dublin. He was last seen on CCTV outside
[8:56] a nursing home adjacent to the hotel around 11 O 7:00 AM, after
[9:00] which the trail went cold. In the footage, Yon appeared
[9:05] relaxed and unhurried, smoking a cigarette as he walked.
[9:09] He didn't seem to be fleeing or in a hurry to meet anyone, a
[9:13] fact that deepened the confusion about why he left and where he
[9:16] went. When he failed to return that
[9:19] day, Yana grew alarmed. By the next morning, with still
[9:24] no sign of him, she reported him missing.
[9:29] Yon's family flew to Dublin immediately to assist in the
[9:32] search, utterly perplexed at how he could vanish in a busy city.
[9:38] Irish authorities and volunteers launched extensive searches of
[9:42] the area in the days after Jan's disappearance.
[9:45] Police scoured CCTV from traffic and businesses, and they
[9:50] appealed to the public for any sightings.
[9:53] Over the following weeks, dozens of possible sightings and tips
[9:57] were investigated, but none LED anywhere concrete.
[10:01] Notably, his bank accounts and credit cards saw no activity
[10:05] after he went missing, and there were no records of him leaving
[10:09] the country via airports or ferries.
[10:13] Detectives determined that all his personal effects left in the
[10:16] hotel suggested he intended to return, deepening this true
[10:20] crime mystery further. Years went by with little
[10:25] progress until some ominous leads emerged.
[10:28] In 2022 and 2023, two anonymous letters were delivered 1 to a
[10:35] Dublin police station and another to a local priest.
[10:39] They claimed that Yon had been slain and buried in a park
[10:42] called Sentry Domain. The letters mentioned that his
[10:46] remains would be found among trees near water in that park.
[10:50] Acting on this tip, the cops launched a major search of the
[10:54] park in February 2024, using cadaver dogs and dive teams to
[10:59] probe the park's lake and wooded areas.
[11:03] For a moment, hope flickered when search dogs indicated a
[11:06] spot of interest near the water and parts of the ground were
[11:10] excavated. However, after days of effort,
[11:13] nothing was discovered and the search concluded without
[11:17] answers. One hypothesis has pointed to an
[11:22] unconfirmed underworld connection as being behind his
[11:24] fate. This rumor suggests Jan may have
[11:28] crossed paths with dangerous individuals over the poker
[11:31] money. It was reported that the €4000
[11:34] he lost might have belonged to an Icelandic criminal present in
[11:38] Dublin, and that Jan met with this person to obtain more cash
[11:42] before violence broke out. An even more startling theory
[11:46] from early 2025 claims that he was an unintended victim of a
[11:50] contract killer. In this scenario, a hired hitman
[11:54] from Eastern Europe came to the poker tournament targeting a
[11:58] different Icelandic player, but mistakenly killed Jan instead.
[12:04] Disturbingly, since the theory initially came forward,
[12:07] according to the Irish Times, multiple independent sources
[12:11] have come forward with similar information.
[12:16] As of today, Jan Jansen's fate is still unknown.
[12:20] His loved ones continue to push for answers, refusing to let the
[12:24] case be forgotten. They hold on to hope that
[12:28] someone, somewhere will come forward with the missing piece
[12:31] of the puzzle. Personally though, I suspect
[12:35] that if the Hitman theory is true, we're never going to have
[12:38] any meaningful resolution to this case.
[12:44] In the pre dawn darkness of January 15th, 2013, shots
[12:49] erupted near Mexico's northeastern border.
[12:52] By sunrise, whispers spread that a notorious cartel boss had been
[12:56] slain, yet no official confirmation came.
[13:00] The fallen figure was Hector David Delgado Santiago, better
[13:05] known by his alias El Metro Quattro, or simply M4.
[13:11] His death would soon plunge the Gulf Cartel into turmoil as
[13:15] everyone from the authorities to the cartel itself tried to
[13:18] figure out who was behind this Major League hit.
[13:23] Delgado was a high-ranking leader of Mexico's Gulf Cartel.
[13:27] Born and raised in Matamoros, he earned his alias as a member of
[13:31] Los Metros, a highly feared and violent enforcement wing of the
[13:36] cartel. Rising through the ranks over
[13:39] the years, Delgado became the local boss of Reynosa, a key
[13:44] border city. From there, he worked his way up
[13:47] to being the right hand man of the Gulf Cartel boss Mario
[13:51] Ramirez Trevino. Unlike flashier cartel figures,
[13:56] Delgado kept a low profile, working in the shadows and
[14:00] staying off law enforcement radar.
[14:03] Nevertheless, he gained A grim reputation as a ruthless
[14:07] enforcer who was even willing to attack American government
[14:11] agents directly. As 2013 began, a storm was
[14:17] brewing in the cartel underworld.
[14:19] In the early hours of January 15th, 2013, violent clashes
[14:24] broke in Matamoros and Reynosa. Amid the chaos, M4 was
[14:28] reportedly caught in a firefight with an unknown band of bad
[14:32] hombres. Initial reports indicated that
[14:35] he was shot and gravely wounded in the fray.
[14:38] According to local accounts, he was rushed into surgery at a
[14:42] Reynosa hospital around 3:30 AM but succumbed to his wounds.
[14:47] During the operation, convoys of Gulf Cartel vehicles poured into
[14:52] the streets in a show of force as gunmen loyal to Delgado
[14:56] prowled the city. Panic and uncertainty gripped
[14:59] Reynosa's residents. Many sheltered in place as
[15:03] rumors of a fallen kingpin swirled.
[15:07] Confusion reigned supreme in the immediate aftermath, and Mexican
[15:11] authorities remained conspicuously silent.
[15:14] No official statement was released about Delgado's death,
[15:18] a stark contrast to the usual publicity that follows A cartel
[15:22] boss's demise. Within a day, trusted sources
[15:26] confirmed what many suspected Delgado Santiago was indeed dead
[15:31] and swiftly buried in Matamoros. With official silence came
[15:36] rampant speculation about who took out this top Gulf Cartel
[15:39] leader on his home turf. 2 Main theories soon emerged in both
[15:43] media reports and according to later underworld chatter that
[15:47] would leak out in the years that followed. 1 theory holds that
[15:51] Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartels former paramilitary wing turned
[15:55] bitter enemies, infiltrated Reynosa and targeted Delgado for
[16:00] assassination. Reynosa was traditionally a Gulf
[16:05] stronghold, and there's reason to believe the Zetas may have
[16:09] had a reason to penetrate into this territory.
[16:12] In fact, months before, Gulf enforcers had pushed into the
[16:16] Zetas territory around Monterey, dealing heavy blows to the
[16:20] Zetas. If their operatives managed to
[16:23] hit a top boss in Reynosa, it may have been a retaliatory
[16:27] strike, a message that even in his own territory he wasn't
[16:31] safe. Observers at the time noted that
[16:35] a Zeta's LED attack would fit a larger pattern of tit for tat
[16:38] violence between the cartels. This scenario paints his death
[16:42] as part of the ongoing war for Turf, an outside enemy seizing a
[16:46] chance to eliminate a key member of the Gulf cartels leadership.
[16:52] The alternative theory is far more insidious.
[16:55] Delgado was betrayed and eliminated by his own
[16:58] compatriots within the Gulf Cartel.
[17:01] At the time, the cartel was embroiled in a fierce internal
[17:04] feud. Delgado himself had been a key
[17:07] player in a split that pitted 2 heavily armed rival factions
[17:10] against one another. Ultimately, given the internal
[17:14] power structures of these operations, this has been the
[17:18] conclusion that many observers have reached in the years
[17:22] following the slaying. In the end, perhaps to the
[17:27] surprise of absolutely no one, this case has gone unsolved, and
[17:32] I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll remain that way.
[17:38] On a Halloween night in a quiet Northern California suburb, a
[17:42] Placer County sheriff's deputy noticed an abandoned Dodge
[17:45] Caravan on a roadside. Inside the vehicle was a scene
[17:49] out of a nightmare, the lifeless body of 39 year old Sherilyn
[17:54] Hockley, a beloved 5th grade teacher, lying in the back seat.
[18:00] The shocking discovery on October 31st, 1993 shattered the
[18:05] peace of Granite Bay and launched an investigation that
[18:08] has haunted the community for decades.
[18:12] Over 30 years later, Sherilyn's slaying remains unsolved.
[18:18] Sherilyn Hawkley was a mother of three and an admired teacher who
[18:22] had recently moved to the Granite Bay Area after a
[18:25] divorce. On Friday, October 29th, 1993,
[18:30] her elementary school hosted Halloween festivities and
[18:33] Sherilyn stayed late to clean up after the classroom party.
[18:37] She was last seen at the school sometime between 5:00 and 6:00
[18:40] PM. Sherlyn reportedly planned to
[18:43] head to her boyfriend's house that evening, but she never
[18:46] arrived. When Sherilyn didn't come home
[18:50] that night, her boyfriend grew alarmed.
[18:54] He drove to the school around 7:30 PM looking for her and even
[18:58] spoke with a janitor, but found no sign of Sherilyn or her van.
[19:02] As concern mounted, he contacted family and the authorities to
[19:06] report her missing. Her disappearance was entirely
[19:10] out of character. Sherilyn was reliable and deeply
[19:13] devoted to her family and her students.
[19:17] As the weekend passed with no word from her, family and
[19:20] friends feared the worst. While clinging to hope, their
[19:26] worst fears were confirmed. On Halloween night on October
[19:29] 31st, a sheriff's deputy on routine patrol noticed
[19:33] Sherilyn's blue Dodge minivan sitting oddly alongside Elmhurst
[19:37] Drive, just about a mile from the school.
[19:41] Numerous local residents had actually seen the van parked
[19:44] there throughout the weekend while attending kids soccer
[19:46] games. Some assumed it was merely an
[19:49] abandoned vehicle, while others assumed someone may have been
[19:53] living in it. Either way, no one approached
[19:56] the van at that time. When the deputy stopped to check
[20:01] it out, he made a gruesome discovery.
[20:05] Chair Lynn's body was in the back of the van.
[20:08] She was partially clothed. And had been strangled with a
[20:11] ligature left lifeless in her own vehicle.
[20:17] Detectives from the Placer County Sheriff's Office
[20:19] descended on the scene, trying to piece together what had
[20:23] happened to the, well, like teacher.
[20:25] The evidence painted a perplexing picture.
[20:28] Sherilyn had clearly been strangled, likely with a rope or
[20:32] cord. But that weapon wasn't found
[20:34] wrapped around her neck. Investigators recovered a piece
[20:38] of rope believed to be the weapon used in the attack,
[20:41] preserving it for forensic testing.
[20:46] Crucially, the crime didn't fit the pattern of a random attack.
[20:51] Chairlin's purse, wallet and personal belongings were still
[20:55] inside the van, untouched. Tests to determine if she had
[21:00] been subjected to an indecent assault came back negative as
[21:03] well. The location of the van and
[21:08] condition of the scene raised further questions.
[21:11] Detectives theorized that Sherilyn may not have been slain
[21:15] at the spot where the van was found.
[21:18] There were no signs of a struggle in that wooded roadside
[21:21] area, and no clear secondary crime scene was ever identified
[21:25] nearby. It seemed likely that the
[21:28] assailant subdued Sherilyn elsewhere, perhaps even in the
[21:31] school parking lot. He then drove her van to the
[21:35] quiet street where it was abandoned with her body inside.
[21:39] Investigators believe Sherilyn was slain on Friday evening, the
[21:44] 29th or early the next morning, and the perp left the van in
[21:49] plain sight. It's believed that he had hoped
[21:52] it would blend in for some time until the body was discovered.
[21:58] Forensic teams combed over the vehicle for clues.
[22:01] They lifted fingerprints, but unfortunately none of the prints
[22:05] matched any known person in law enforcement databases.
[22:09] No DNA profile was immediately obtained in 1993, as DNA testing
[22:15] was limited at the time, but evidence was carefully stored.
[22:20] The investigation faced A daunting challenge, a crime with
[22:24] no obvious motive, few physical leads, and a victim who by all
[22:29] accounts, had no enemies in any case like this.
[22:35] Investigators start by looking at those closest to the victim.
[22:39] Chair Lynn's recent personal life was scrutinized for clues.
[22:43] She had finalized a divorce earlier that year after a 15
[22:46] year marriage, and her three children were living with their
[22:49] father in Chico, CA. After the split, detectives
[22:54] interviewed her ex-husband and her current boyfriend, and both
[22:57] men were cooperative. After checking alibis and
[23:01] finding no evidence of involvement, police cleared the
[23:04] ex-husband and the boyfriend of any suspicion.
[23:07] Early on, eliminating these two key figures was important, but
[23:12] it also meant the case had no obvious suspect to follow.
[23:18] Investigators cast a wider net. They looked into colleagues at
[23:22] the school and any other men in Sherilyn's life, but nothing
[23:26] pointed to a specific person with motive.
[23:29] The principal of her school noted that Sherilyn appeared to
[23:32] have a good personal life. In fact, colleagues recalled
[23:37] that on the day she disappeared, Sherilyn was in an upbeat mood,
[23:41] excited about the Halloween weekend and enjoying time with
[23:45] her students. With those closest to Sherilyn
[23:50] yielding no leads, police pursued scenarios with
[23:53] strangers. 1 Early tip involved reports of an unknown man seen
[23:58] hanging around the school parking lot in a Volkswagen on
[24:01] the day Sherilyn vanished. This raised suspicions of a
[24:05] possible stalker or would be abductor.
[24:08] It's unclear whether this individual was ever tracked
[24:11] down, with some sources claiming he was cleared and others
[24:14] claiming he was never found. It appears to me that he was
[24:18] likely never found since the cops released a forensic sketch
[24:22] based on the description of the man.
[24:27] Another Ave. was the possibility of a serial offender.
[24:31] Just two years prior, in 1991, a woman named Cindy Warner had
[24:36] been kidnapped and strangled in the same general area of Placer
[24:40] County. This case also remains unsolved
[24:43] to this day, but the cops were unable to find any connection
[24:47] between the two. Over time 2 broad main theories
[24:53] about Cherylin's case have emerged.
[24:56] Either she was slain by someone she knew in a personal crime of
[24:59] passion, or she was the victim of a random attack by an unknown
[25:03] predator. The prevailing theory, however,
[25:06] is that Cherylin likely knew the perpetrator, given the lack of
[25:10] theft or other clear motivations for the crime.
[25:14] The only motive for the attack, based on the evidence as it
[25:17] exists, appears to have been ending the life of an innocent
[25:20] woman. Notably, in one quote from a
[25:23] 2015 interview, a detective working the case indicated that
[25:28] the name of the suspect was likely somewhere in the case
[25:32] file. Since it's an active and ongoing
[25:35] investigation, nothing further was said beyond this cryptic
[25:39] statement. Notably, it's not entirely clear
[25:44] whether the rope found at the scene has produced adna profile
[25:47] in the intervening years. It's also unclear if the rope
[25:51] found was even the weapon used in the Commission of the crime.
[25:54] And again, given the status of the investigation, we don't have
[25:58] all the details. For now, the unsolved case of
[26:03] Carolyn Hockley continues to haunt her family and
[26:06] investigators. Carolyn's adult children are
[26:08] still advocating for justice, which definitely increases the
[26:12] chance that this case will be cracked eventually.
[26:18] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here with a quick reminder to like,
[26:22] subscribe, and share this video. Also, don't forget to check out
[26:26] the YouTube membership or the Patreon if you want to help
[26:29] support my channel even further. It was October 12th, 1944 when
[26:37] West Hollywood's upscale El Palacio Apartments awoke to
[26:41] horror. A maid discovered 20 year old
[26:44] oil heiress Georgette Bauerdorf lifeless in her bathtub.
[26:49] The bath water was tinted pink with blood and Georgette was
[26:52] half submerged and unresponsive. The cops arrived and quickly
[26:57] determined she was the victim of foul play.
[27:00] This shocking crime scene marked the beginning of a Hollywood
[27:03] mystery that remains unsolved to this day.
[27:08] Georgette was born into privilege but yearned to
[27:10] contribute on the home front as the world had become engulfed in
[27:14] conflict. After her family moved from New
[27:17] York to Los Angeles, she graduated from a prestigious
[27:20] girls school and embraced volunteer work.
[27:24] By 1944, the young heiress was serving as a junior Hostess at
[27:28] the Hollywood Canteen, a famous club where movie stars
[27:32] entertained American servicemen on leave.
[27:36] For Georgette, being a canteen Hostess was both an honor and a
[27:39] thrill. The nightclub was Co founded by
[27:42] Hollywood heavy hitter Betty Davis and offered GIS food and
[27:46] fun. Georgette's friendly charm and
[27:49] generosity made her a favorite among the troops.
[27:53] She was known to offer weary servicemen a place to sleep at
[27:57] her apartment, letting them crash on her downstairs sofa
[28:00] while she stayed upstairs. Her friends adored her spirit,
[28:05] though some worried she was too trusting with strangers during
[28:08] these tumultuous times. On the evening of October 11th,
[28:14] 1944, Georgette reported for her usual Wednesday night shift at
[28:19] the Hollywood Canteen, greeting and dancing with servicemen.
[28:22] As always that night, a particularly persistent soldier
[28:26] kept asking her to jitterbug, a dance she disliked, but she
[28:31] politely deflected his requests and continued her Hostess
[28:34] duties. Around 11:30 PM, Georgette left
[28:39] the canteen and drove home alone in her black coop.
[28:43] She had mentioned to at least one friend that she was
[28:45] expecting a late night phone call from her boyfriend, a
[28:49] soldier in Texas, and needed to be home for it.
[28:53] In fact, she had recently purchased a plane ticket and
[28:56] planned to fly to El Paso soon to visit this sweetheart, a trip
[29:01] she would never take. Investigators later deduced that
[29:06] Georgette arrived at her West Hollywood apartment around
[29:09] midnight. An open can of green string
[29:11] beans and melon rinds in her trash suggested she fixed a
[29:15] quick snack before bed. She then changed into pyjamas
[29:19] and perhaps began writing in her diary or reading in bed.
[29:23] A diary and newspaper were found open in her room, implying she
[29:27] was winding down for the night. At roughly 230 that morning, a
[29:32] neighbor was jolted awake by a chilling scream echoing through
[29:36] the building. He heard a woman crying out and
[29:39] pleading before the voice was suddenly silenced.
[29:42] Thinking it might have been a lover's quarrel that ended
[29:44] quickly, or perhaps even something highly spicy, the
[29:49] neighbor went back to sleep. When Georgette's maid, Lulu
[29:54] Atwood, arrived the next morning, she found the apartment
[29:57] door wide open and water running.
[29:59] In the bathroom. Georgette's body was face down
[30:03] in an overflowing tub, wearing only her pyjama top.
[30:07] Police at first considered the possibility of an accidental
[30:10] drowning, but the evidence quickly proved otherwise.
[30:15] The light bulb over the outside entrance had been carefully
[30:18] unscrewed just enough to disable it, plunging the doorway Into
[30:22] Darkness. This pointed to a calculated
[30:25] attack, and police suspected the perp may have entered earlier,
[30:29] using a key and laying in wait, ambushing her once she was home.
[30:35] Inside, Georgette's knuckles were bruised and there were deep
[30:39] marks on her head and abdomen, indicating she had put up a
[30:43] fierce fight. The coroner found that she had
[30:46] been brutally assaulted and strangled.
[30:48] A strip of cloth had been viciously shoved down her throat
[30:52] to asphyxiate her. Further testing revealed that it
[30:56] was an unusual type of medical bandage rarely seen in America,
[31:00] leading to speculation her attacker was a serviceman who
[31:04] had acquired it overseas. Notably, there was no water in
[31:08] her lungs, meaning Georgette was already dead before the tub was
[31:12] filled. Other clues perplexed
[31:16] investigators. Georgette's valuable jewelry and
[31:19] money were left largely untouched, ruling out robbery as
[31:23] a motive. Only about $100 was missing from
[31:26] her purse, even though far greater sums of cash and jewels
[31:30] were in Plainview. And I'm not talking about
[31:34] regular jewels here. This is oil Baroness stuff,
[31:37] after all. Her car was gone from the
[31:42] garage, and it was soon found abandoned miles away, out of gas
[31:46] and sporting a fresh dent on one Fender.
[31:49] Fingerprints were lifted from the vehicle and from inside, but
[31:53] they matched no one in law enforcement records.
[31:56] Investigators also found cigarette butts on the floor of
[31:59] Georgette's home, an eerie discovery given that she didn't
[32:03] smoke. This LED detectives to speculate
[32:07] that he may have stayed after smoking while taking in the deed
[32:10] he had just committed. News of the glamorous young
[32:15] woman slaying made headlines around the nation, and a task
[32:19] force of Los Angeles sheriff's detectives and military police
[32:22] sprang into action. Because of Georgette's role at
[32:26] the canteen, dozens of soldiers she had met were investigated.
[32:31] Police eliminated many potential suspects by checking military
[32:34] logs. Any enlisted man absent
[32:37] overnight without leave was scrutinized, and most were
[32:41] accounted for. Some of the men were targeted by
[32:45] investigators in a more direct way for their connection or
[32:48] perceived ties to Georgette. The pushy patron from the
[32:52] canteen was tracked down and quickly cleared.
[32:56] He had been signed into his barracks at the time the attack
[32:59] went down. Detectives also tracked a very
[33:02] tall soldier who Georgette had briefly dated, as well as the
[33:06] Army Sergeant to whom she'd given a ride that night.
[33:10] Both men were questioned, but neither was ever tied to the
[33:13] crime. Leads continued to surface from
[33:17] all corners. One disturbed man in San
[33:20] Francisco actually confessed, but his story turned out to be
[33:24] false and attention seeking. Another suspect picked up for an
[33:28] unrelated slaying in Glendale was briefly suspected but
[33:32] ultimately ruled out. Because Georgette often lost her
[33:36] keys and had multiple duplicates made, police considered whether
[33:40] someone had obtained a copy to access her apartment.
[33:44] As I mentioned, it's believed that someone had ambushed her in
[33:48] her apartment. Disturbingly, he likely stayed
[33:52] in hiding for a significant time while she was already home.
[33:57] Despite extensive interviews and the tantalizing evidence left
[34:01] behind, every promising lead LED nowhere.
[34:05] Georgette's father, with the help of family friend William
[34:08] Randolph Hearst, even pressed authorities to solve the case
[34:12] swiftly to avoid scandal and gossip.
[34:16] Months passed with no arrest, and the trail grew cold.
[34:21] In the years that followed, the tragic story of Georgette
[34:24] Bauerdorf gradually faded from the headlines.
[34:28] It remains unclear if any forensic evidence from the scene
[34:31] was stored, though I assume that since forensic genetic testing
[34:35] was basically 5 decades away, it wouldn't have been.
[34:39] However, on the off chance the evidence remains in an evidence
[34:42] locker somewhere, there's a faint hope that one day this
[34:45] California unsolved mystery may be resolved.
[34:53] A chilling scream rang out on a quiet West Hollywood St. in the
[34:56] early hours of February 12th, 1977.
[35:01] Moments later, aspiring actress Krista Helm lay dying in front
[35:05] of her agent's home, stabbed dozens of times in a savage
[35:08] attack. The perp left no witnesses and
[35:11] few clues behind. Decades later, the question of
[35:15] who killed her and why remains one of Hollywood's most baffling
[35:19] unsolved mysteries of that era. Born in Milwaukee, Krista moved
[35:26] to New York and then Los Angeles chasing stardom, leaving behind
[35:30] a young daughter from a brief teenage marriage.
[35:33] Disturbingly, both parents effectively abandoned their
[35:36] daughter, though Krista promised to return at some point in the
[35:40] future. Needless to say, fate intervened
[35:44] and this promise would never be fulfilled.
[35:47] She landed some modeling gigs and a starring film role, a low
[35:51] budget action movie called Let's Go For Broke in 1974, but the
[35:56] film flopped after a short run. Instead, Krista became better
[36:01] known as a quote UN quote socialite on the Hollywood party
[36:05] scene. She mingled with big names,
[36:08] reportedly dating NFL superstar Joe Namath, rock legend Mick
[36:13] Jagger, and even having some close encounters with the Shah
[36:16] of Iran. Ambitious and charismatic,
[36:20] Krista made friends in high places and enjoyed the trappings
[36:24] of wealth without any real known source of income.
[36:28] Privately, Krista also kept a secret diary where she
[36:32] documented her intimate encounters, complete with candid
[36:36] details and a rating system for her lovers.
[36:41] Allegations made in the years following her death even claimed
[36:45] that she was working as an escort to the rich and powerful.
[36:50] I do have to include a disclaimer here and mention that
[36:52] these are just allegations, though I'm sure my description
[36:56] of her lifestyle may have already have had some of you
[36:59] thinking this. By 1977, with her career stalled
[37:04] and money running low, she whispered about turning her
[37:07] diary into fat stacks with a tell all book.
[37:11] If the rumors are to be believed, she had some seriously
[37:14] compromising material about some sick puppies in high places, but
[37:19] I'll come back to that in a moment.
[37:22] Late on February 11th, 1977, Krista left a party in Los
[37:27] Angeles and drove to meet her agent at his West Hollywood
[37:29] home. She arrived around 1:30 AM, but
[37:33] before she could reach the door, an unknown assailant ambushed
[37:37] her on the quiet residential St. The attacker stabbed Krista
[37:42] repeatedly with a knife and also struck her with a blunt object,
[37:46] leaving her collapsed in a pool of blood next to the curb.
[37:50] A passerby soon discovered her body and rushed to get help.
[37:55] By the time police arrived, however, Krista had already
[37:58] succumbed to her injuries at just 27 years old.
[38:02] Some reports said she was still clutching her car keys,
[38:06] suggesting the attacker struck the instant she stepped out of
[38:09] her vehicle. Neighbors later recalled hearing
[38:12] a single terrifying scream during the night of the attack,
[38:16] but no one witnessed the attacker.
[38:19] When investigators surveyed the scene, they realized that
[38:23] Krista's purse was missing, and with it, her infamous diary.
[38:28] It's disappearance LED police to suspect that the attacker's
[38:32] primary motive was to take or destroy that tell All journal.
[38:37] If someone feared what Krista had written, stealing the diary
[38:41] would eliminate the threat. Detectives also learned that
[38:44] Krista had allegedly sometimes tape recorded her spicy
[38:48] encounters, but those audio tapes were nowhere to be found
[38:51] either. The vanishing of these personal
[38:54] items robbed investigators of crucial evidence and strongly
[38:58] suggested that someone wanted Krista's secrets to die with
[39:02] her. With Krista's tumultuous love
[39:06] life and high profile connections, the list of
[39:09] potential suspects was long. Investigators theorized that an
[39:13] ex lover might have had a personal motive to silence her,
[39:17] especially if they knew about her diary and feared exposure.
[39:21] Given that Krista was struggling financially, she had every
[39:25] incentive to monetize her secrets, which could have
[39:28] alarmed anyone with something to hide.
[39:31] Over time, more clues have added to the intrigue.
[39:36] Krista's friends later recalled that she seemed fearful in her
[39:39] final days. In fact, a few months before the
[39:44] slaying, she sent a postcard to a close friend saying she was in
[39:48] over her head and might need to disappear for a while.
[39:51] This alarming message suggests Christa sense danger looming.
[39:55] Notably, decades later, it was claimed that she was part of an
[39:59] elite escort operation, which some have speculated had ties to
[40:03] intelligence. This raised the distinct
[40:06] possibility she was eliminated because she knew too much about
[40:09] powerful people. Even if they didn't know about
[40:12] her secret diary. In 2005, her daughter persuaded
[40:17] the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to reopen the cold
[40:21] case for a fresh investigation. A team of detectives poured over
[40:25] the old evidence and tracked down witnesses who had never
[40:28] spoken. They uncovered a few new leads,
[40:31] including the discovery that Krista's close friend allegedly
[40:35] sent an acquaintance to clean out her apartment right after
[40:38] the attack. It's believed that the tapes,
[40:42] her illicit diary, and other personal items were removed
[40:45] during this process. When questioned by the
[40:48] authorities, the individual who allegedly orchestrated this
[40:52] claimed that he didn't really remember Krista and offered no
[40:55] information whatsoever. And for my Sopranos fans out
[41:00] there. According to a report by CBS
[41:02] News in 2008, the man who actually did the removal was
[41:07] allegedly Tony Cirico, who played Polly Walnuts.
[41:11] I always thought he was just a good actor, but after browsing
[41:15] his Wikipedia article, it seems like he may have been bringing
[41:18] some serious life experience to the role.
[41:22] I don't have any evidence to directly prove it, but I can
[41:25] virtually guarantee that Krista wasn't taken out at random.
[41:29] She talked about publishing a tell all book at a moment when
[41:32] her diary allegedly named celebrities, political figures,
[41:36] and embattled foreign royalty. She was also making audio
[41:40] recordings of herself with influential and powerful men,
[41:44] for reasons which remain unclear.
[41:47] It's not hard to see how someone rich and powerful would have
[41:50] seen her as a liability who needed to be handled to back
[41:55] this up. Within hours of her slaying, the
[41:58] items that could damage reputations vanished into the
[42:02] ether, never to resurface. Her apparent fear in the months
[42:07] before her death, including the postcard hinting she might need
[42:11] to disappear, adds to the sense that pressure was building.
[42:16] I also find it weird how her so-called friend, someone who
[42:20] had apparent access to her house, claimed to barely
[42:23] remember her decades later. But hey, maybe it was all
[42:27] completely random. Stranger things have happened
[42:31] after all. For four years, no one even
[42:36] realized that Heather Bloom was missing.
[42:39] From late 2005 until 2009, her disappearance went entirely
[42:44] unreported, a delay that hindered efforts to find her.
[42:48] Heather was a 28 year old woman with Down syndrome who depended
[42:52] on others for every aspect of her care.
[42:55] Yet she managed to vanish without a trace from Berkeley,
[42:58] CA in 2005 on a trip from New York where her mother dumped her
[43:03] off with her sister. Even more chilling, the only
[43:06] person who might know what happened refused to let anyone
[43:10] see Heather and then quietly left the country.
[43:12] In the years that followed, it seemed unthinkable that a
[43:16] vulnerable woman like Heather could vanish without anyone
[43:19] noticing. But it happened.
[43:23] Nearly two decades later, the question remains, what really
[43:28] happened to Heather Bloom? Heather had spent her entire
[43:34] life in New York, so a trip to California was a major change
[43:38] for her. Heather's story took a
[43:41] mysterious turn in the fall of 2005, when she and her mother
[43:45] stayed with Heather's sister, Sherry.
[43:47] This visit would be the last time Heather was seen by anyone
[43:50] outside her family. During the stay, police were
[43:54] called to Sherry's apartment to intervene in a loud argument
[43:57] between Phyllis, the mother, and Sherry, With Heather in the
[44:01] middle of the commotion, the officers diffused the situation,
[44:06] and once things calmed down, Phyllis returned home to New
[44:10] York, leaving Heather and Sherry's care at the Berkeley
[44:13] apartment. That unusual handoff of Heather
[44:16] to Sherry marked the beginning of Heather's unexplained
[44:20] absence. For a while, nothing apparently
[44:24] seemed to miss, and after Phyllis left California, she
[44:28] apparently lost contact with both of her daughters.
[44:32] She heard no updates from Sherry and had no direct communication
[44:36] with Heather. Heather, a vulnerable adult who
[44:40] couldn't speak for herself, simply vanished from public
[44:43] view. There were no familiar neighbors
[44:46] or friends in California to notice her absence, and Heather
[44:50] wasn't enrolled in any local care programs or services that
[44:54] might have raised an alarm. It wasn't until June 2009,
[45:00] nearly four years later, that Phyllis finally reported Heather
[45:04] missing. When Berkeley police opened a
[45:08] missing person investigation in 2009, they were already years
[45:13] behind. Detectives discovered that
[45:16] Sherri had moved out of her apartment back in 2007, leaving
[45:20] no sign of where Heather had gone.
[45:22] It took months to track Sherri down, and when they finally
[45:26] located her in March 2010, the mystery only deepened.
[45:31] Sherri refused to let officers inside her home, speaking to
[45:35] them only through a window. She insisted that Heather was
[45:39] fine but would not allow anyone to see her, offering no evidence
[45:43] of her sister's well-being. This evasive behavior raised
[45:47] immediate red flags for the police, who feared for Heather's
[45:51] safety. However, it also put law
[45:54] enforcement in a bind. They were alarmed, but without
[45:58] clear evidence of wrongdoing or a court order, there was little
[46:02] they could do to force Sherry's compliance.
[46:07] Police soon uncovered more unsettling details.
[46:10] Sherri's landlord and neighbors reported that they had never
[46:13] seen Heather at the apartment, not even once.
[46:17] Shortly after that tense welfare check, Sherri abruptly packed up
[46:21] and moved again, disappearing before authorities could learn
[46:24] anything more about Heather's fate.
[46:27] She was evicted from the apartment for owing around
[46:30] $13,000 in back rent, suggesting A chaotic and unstable
[46:35] situation. Once Sherri left town, this
[46:38] time, the trail to find Heather went cold again.
[46:44] Years passed with no sign of either sister.
[46:47] Finally, in 2016, a breakthrough investigators learned that
[46:52] Sherri had left the country and gone to Norway on a student
[46:55] visa. She had moved overseas for
[46:57] school, which explained why she had been so hard to find.
[47:02] Sherri's relocation abroad posed a major roadblock for the
[47:06] investigation. Berkeley police and local
[47:09] journalists tried to contact Sherri in Norway, but she never
[47:12] responded. Given Heather's disabilities, it
[47:16] seemed unlikely she could have travelled overseas under the
[47:18] radar. Most likely, if she was still
[47:22] alive, she remains somewhere in California.
[47:25] But with Sherri out of reach and refusing to cooperate,
[47:29] authorities had no leads on where to look next and no way to
[47:33] verify Heather's condition or whereabouts.
[47:39] Several theories have emerged to explain Heather Bloom's
[47:41] disappearance. The most direct suspicion falls
[47:46] on Sherry. As the last person with Heather.
[47:49] Sherry's odd behavior has led many to believe she knows
[47:53] exactly what happened. Her refusal to produce Heather
[47:57] on demand and her pattern of abruptly moving away suggest she
[48:01] may have been hiding something all along.
[48:05] Neighbors didn't report seeing Heather around at any time.
[48:10] This fuels A grim theory that Heather may have perished under
[48:13] Sherri's care, whether due to untreated health issues, an
[48:17] accident, or even something more sinister.
[48:21] For the first two options, there's always the potential
[48:25] that Sherri panicked and covered it up instead of reporting it.
[48:30] However, authorities have found no evidence of foul play and
[48:33] have not charged Sherri with any crime.
[48:36] Officially, Heather remains a missing person, not a confirmed
[48:39] crime victim. Another possibility is that
[48:45] Heather is alive but was secretly placed in a care
[48:47] facility or with a caretaker, and even the police have
[48:51] entertained this hopeful scenario.
[48:54] Perhaps Sherri became overwhelmed by the
[48:56] responsibility and, without telling anyone, arranged for
[49:00] Heather to live in a private care home or with another
[49:03] caregiver. It's even possible that she took
[49:07] her out of state to dump her off somewhere else, perhaps simply
[49:10] leaving her abandoned in a hospital waiting room.
[49:13] If so, Sherri's secretiveness could have been her way of
[49:17] avoiding legal trouble for abandoning her dependent sister.
[49:21] This theory lines up with the optimism police expressed the
[49:25] hope that somewhere Heather has been receiving the care she
[49:29] needs, even if her identity isn't known to authorities.
[49:34] However, so far, checks of hospitals and care homes haven't
[49:38] turned up any trace of Heather under another identity.
[49:41] But the possibility cannot be ruled out.
[49:45] Perhaps the most sinister allegation is that Heather's
[49:48] mother and sister colluded to make her quote UN quote
[49:51] disappear. Some have speculated that
[49:54] Phyllis might have willingly left Heather with Sherri as part
[49:57] of a plan. Moving Heather across the
[50:00] country would make her absence in New York much less noticeable
[50:03] and would provide an easy explanation for why Heather was
[50:06] no longer there. However, this allegation falls
[50:11] apart extremely quickly under scrutiny.
[50:14] It was Phyllis who eventually sounded the alarm in 2009, an
[50:19] unlikely move if she had intended for Heather's
[50:22] disappearance to go unnoticed as it had been.
[50:26] Authorities have never implicated Phyllis in any
[50:28] wrongdoing, and officially she was a distraught parent seeking
[50:32] help to find her missing child. Though of course, it's
[50:38] inescapable that even in the official version of events told
[50:41] by Phyllis, it appears she dumped off her disabled daughter
[50:45] with her non disabled daughter. After that, Phyllis washed her
[50:49] hands clean of both of them for four years.
[50:52] Which brings me to my next point.
[50:56] One lingering question is why Phyllis waited so long to report
[51:00] Heather missing and what triggered her to eventually do
[51:03] so. It's an aspect of the case that
[51:06] continues to baffle observers. We may never know what was going
[51:10] through the mother's mind during those four years.
[51:13] What is certain is that the delay in reporting has made
[51:16] investigating Heather's disappearance that much more
[51:19] difficult. This lost time is one of the
[51:22] most frustrating facets of the case, leaving basically everyone
[51:26] to wonder if the outcome might have been different had the
[51:29] alarm been raised sooner. Another question that's been
[51:34] raised is who was cashing Heather's government checks
[51:37] intended for her care during those four years, if anyone?
[51:41] I suspect the authorities already know the answer to this
[51:44] question and simply haven't released this to the public.
[51:49] However, I do question whether a forensic accountant has looked
[51:52] over the accounts of both Sherri and Phyllis, though I suspect
[51:56] that isn't possible since neither have been implicated
[51:58] officially. Today, nearly 20 years after she
[52:04] vanished, there is still no answer to Heather Bloom's fate.
[52:08] Heather would be in her late 40s now, but no one knows whether
[52:11] she is alive or not. However, I'm hopeful that the
[52:14] simplest solution is the accurate one.
[52:17] In this case, Heather may have been abandoned as an unknown
[52:21] person somewhere safe, and she's now being cared for by the
[52:24] state. It's not ideal by any means, and
[52:28] it's both incredibly sad and infuriating, but the
[52:31] alternatives are so much more disturbing.
[52:37] Of course, the conduct of the sister and the mother is already
[52:39] disturbing. Regardless, Heather needed love
[52:42] and care, and it appears that at best, she got abandonment twice
[52:48] by two of the people who were supposed to love and care for
[52:51] her most. So yeah, this is one of those
[52:54] stories that really makes me question humanity, which is
[52:57] saying a lot considering that I constantly research and cover
[53:00] dark content. In the early 1980s, San Marino,
[53:06] CA was the picture of suburban tranquility.
[53:10] It was an affluent, insular community nestled near Los
[53:14] Angeles, a place of manicured lawns and quiet streets where
[53:18] serious crime felt like a distant abstraction.
[53:22] On one of these streets, Lorraine Rd., lived a young
[53:26] couple just starting their life together.
[53:29] John Sohus, 27, was a quiet computer programmer who worked
[53:34] for a division of NASA. His wife, Linda, 28, was a
[53:39] talented and striking artist, standing 6 feet tall with Auburn
[53:43] hair, who loved science fiction and worked at a local bookstore.
[53:49] They had married in 1983 and to get on their feet financially,
[53:54] moved into the main House of John's mother, Dee Dee.
[53:58] And just wait for it, because there was a guest house at play
[54:01] here, and it's going to factor into this story in a massive
[54:05] way. By all accounts, they were a
[54:09] happy, normal couple whose prospects were looking up.
[54:12] Linda had recently sold some major pieces at an art show, and
[54:16] they just bought a new pickup truck.
[54:19] Their domestic life, however, included an unusual element, a
[54:24] tenant living in Deedee's guest house.
[54:27] He called himself Christopher Chichester, a man who cultivated
[54:31] an air of eccentric importance. He was a master of social
[54:35] infiltration, understanding that in a community that valued
[54:39] pedigree, a fantastic story was often more compelling than a
[54:43] verifiable 1. He told people he was a film
[54:47] student at the prestigious University of Southern
[54:49] California and hinted at royal lineage.
[54:53] He even handed out business cards that identified him as the
[54:56] 13th baronet of an ancient house, and at other times he
[55:01] name dropped his Mountbatten cousins.
[55:04] For those of you who are unaware, Mountbatten is the
[55:08] official Anglicization of the German name Battenberg used by
[55:13] the House of Windsor, the British royal family.
[55:16] By dropping this slyly into conversations, he hinted to
[55:20] those in the know that he was from the high nobility at
[55:24] minimum. By joining a local church and
[55:28] charming the wealthy older residents, they gave him the
[55:31] social cover he needed to operate.
[55:34] They believed they were interacting with someone who
[55:37] could potentially be a real British royal.
[55:40] In return, he was able to semi legitimately say he was friends
[55:43] with these wealthy and influential people.
[55:46] While many were intrigued, Linda wasn't, and she found Chichester
[55:50] creepy and she and John made a point to avoid him.
[55:55] Then in February 1985, the quiet life on Lorraine Rd. fractured.
[56:01] John and Linda told friends and family they were leaving for a
[56:04] couple of weeks for a top secret government job interview for
[56:08] John in New York. After that, they simply
[56:11] vanished, leaving behind everything including Linda's 4
[56:15] beloved cats. In the weeks following the
[56:19] couple's disappearance, Christopher Chichester became
[56:23] the sole narrator of their story.
[56:25] He skillfully wove a tale designed to deflect suspicion
[56:29] and delay investigation, telling concerned friends that John and
[56:32] Linda were on a secret government mission and couldn't
[56:35] be contacted. To Dee Dee, he positioned
[56:39] himself as her official go between the only person who knew
[56:43] the details of her son's clandestine work.
[56:47] Initially, Deedee clung to this story, even repeating it to
[56:51] police and telling them she couldn't say more for fear of
[56:55] endangering the couple. But as weeks turned into months,
[56:59] the narrative began to fray. Bill collectors started calling
[57:03] for John and Linda, and friends grew more anxious.
[57:08] Deedee's confidence in Chichester crumbled, replaced by
[57:11] a creeping dread. She descended into the bottle
[57:15] and became a recluse, haunted by the silence from her son, and
[57:19] she perished in 1988, never knowing the truth of what
[57:23] happened to her son. The cover up was a strange mix
[57:28] of elaborate cunning and breathtaking arrogance.
[57:32] To lend his story credibility, a series of postcards, seemingly
[57:37] written by Linda, were sent from Paris to her mother and friends.
[57:42] This was the cunning part, physical proof to sustain the
[57:45] lie long enough for him to make his escape.
[57:48] Yet the execution was deeply flawed, and Linda's family knew
[57:53] she didn't have a passport or the money for a European trip.
[57:58] This recklessness was a core part of the perpetrator's
[58:00] psychology. When a San Marino detective
[58:06] finally came to the guest house to question him about the
[58:08] missing couple, Chichester met him at the door completely
[58:12] unclothed. He claimed to be a nudist and
[58:15] refused to dress up at all, just letting it all hang out.
[58:18] For the detective, it was a bizarre act of dominance and
[58:22] deflection that ended the interview.
[58:24] And shortly after this encounter, Chichester also
[58:27] vanished. I really questioned how the
[58:29] detective managed to be taken seriously after letting a
[58:33] criminal escape in such a bizarre way.
[58:36] The case went cold until 1988 when the couple's pickup truck
[58:41] was discovered in Greenwich, CT. The man who had been driving it,
[58:45] now using the alias Christopher Crow, disappeared before police
[58:49] could question him. The mystery lay dormant for
[58:54] years and Dee Dee Sohus's house on Lorraine Rd. was sold and the
[58:58] strange story of the vanished couple faded into local lore.
[59:03] Then in May 1994, the new owners decided to install a swimming
[59:08] pool in the backyard. As excavators dug into the
[59:12] earth, they struck something solid.
[59:14] It was a fiberglass box containing plastic bags, and
[59:18] inside were the dismembered remains of a body.
[59:23] Forensic analysis revealed the remains belong to an adult white
[59:27] male who had been slain through savage violence.
[59:30] The victim's skull had been crushed by multiple blows from a
[59:33] blunt object and his body had been subject to further
[59:37] indignities. The brutality suggested a crime
[59:41] of intense personal rage, while the methodical dismemberment and
[59:46] burial pointed to a cold blooded attempt to conceal the evidence.
[59:51] Though police strongly suspected the victim was John Sohus,
[59:55] confirming it was a challenge. John had been adopted, so there
[59:59] were no known biological relatives against whom to
[1:00:02] compare DNA samples. It wasn't until 2011, with the
[1:00:07] advent of new forensic technology, that the bones were
[1:00:11] conclusively identified as those of John.
[1:00:16] While the Sohu's case languished, the man once known
[1:00:20] as Christopher Chichester was busy constructing a new life.
[1:00:24] Or rather, a series of them. After fleeing California, the
[1:00:29] German immigrant Christian Karl Gerhardt's writer, moved to
[1:00:33] Greenwich, CT, and reinvented himself as Christopher Crowe, a
[1:00:38] supposed Hollywood producer. He was a charming man who spoke
[1:00:43] German fluently, and no one who speaks German could be a bad
[1:00:46] man, right? He talked his way into jobs at
[1:00:51] Wall Street brokerage firms, but his cons were clumsy.
[1:00:56] He was fired from one after it was discovered he was using the
[1:00:59] Social Security number of serial predator David Berkowitz.
[1:01:03] He then moved on to his most audacious and successful
[1:01:06] impersonation, relocating to New York and Boston, He became Clark
[1:01:11] Rockefeller, an eccentric and reclusive heir to the legendary
[1:01:14] American dynasty. As Rockefeller, Gerhart's writer
[1:01:20] achieved the status he had always craved.
[1:01:23] He joined exclusive clubs, wore ascots, and spun tales of his
[1:01:28] fabulous fictional life. His ultimate act of validation
[1:01:32] came when he met and married Sandra Boss.
[1:01:35] She was a highly successful Harvard Business School graduate
[1:01:38] and a partner at the consulting firm McKenzie.
[1:01:42] Her unimpeachable credentials gave his fraudulent identity a
[1:01:45] powerful veneer of legitimacy. Despite Boss being the sole
[1:01:50] breadwinner, earning over $1 million a year, Gerhart's writer
[1:01:55] maintained absolute control over her finances and her life.
[1:02:01] The carefully constructed world he built began to collapse when
[1:02:04] Boss filed for divorce in 2007. She had begun to suspect that
[1:02:09] the entire identity he had constructed was indeed a
[1:02:12] complete lie. And while she wasn't able to
[1:02:15] figure who he was, she figured out he wasn't Clark Rockefeller.
[1:02:20] For a narcissist like Gerhardt's rider, the loss of control was
[1:02:24] an intolerable injury. On July 27th, 2008, during a
[1:02:30] supervised visit in Boston, he executed a planned abduction of
[1:02:34] their seven-year old daughter. The kidnapping triggered a
[1:02:39] massive FBI manhunt that put the face of Clark Rockefeller on
[1:02:44] news broadcasts across the country and in Canada.
[1:02:48] The Rockefeller family quickly clarified that they had no idea
[1:02:52] who this guy was and that he had no connection whatsoever to the
[1:02:56] famous family. It was this crime, born of
[1:03:01] desperation and hubris, that would finally solve the slaying
[1:03:04] he had committed 23 years earlier.
[1:03:07] A week later he was arrested in Baltimore, where he had already
[1:03:11] set up a new life as Chip Smith, a yacht captain.
[1:03:15] The national publicity surrounding the case blew the
[1:03:18] lid off his 30 year con. Fingerprints taken after his
[1:03:22] arrest were matched to prints on an old immigration document.
[1:03:26] This definitively proved that Clark Rockefeller, Christopher
[1:03:30] Crowe, and Christopher Chichester we're all the same
[1:03:33] person, Christian Karl Gerhart's writer.
[1:03:38] It turned out that he had arrived in America in 1978 as a
[1:03:42] foreign exchange student and had charmed his way into a sham
[1:03:45] marriage for a green card. In 2011, while nearing the end
[1:03:52] of his Massachusetts prison sentence for kidnapping,
[1:03:55] Christian Gerhart's writer was charged with the slaying of John
[1:03:58] Sohus. The trial, which began in 2013,
[1:04:03] was a master class in prosecutorial storytelling.
[1:04:08] With no strong forensic evidence or witnesses to the crime, the
[1:04:12] case was built circumstantially. The prosecution wove together a
[1:04:16] damning narrative from the clues Gerhardt's writer had carelessly
[1:04:19] left behind. The most crucial pieces of
[1:04:25] evidence were two plastic bags found wrapped around John's
[1:04:28] skull. One was from the bookstore at
[1:04:31] the University of Southern California.
[1:04:33] The other was from the University of Wisconsin,
[1:04:36] Milwaukee. Gerhardt's rider had attended
[1:04:39] classes at both schools, effectively leaving his calling
[1:04:42] card in the grave. And honestly, it's things like
[1:04:46] this that make me wonder how this buffoon was able to pull
[1:04:49] off his cons for so long. Witnesses from San Marino, now
[1:04:56] elderly, testified about his strange behavior.
[1:05:00] A church acquaintance recalled Gerhardt's rider borrowing a
[1:05:03] chainsaw around the time the couple disappeared.
[1:05:07] Another remembered him trying to sell a fancy Turco Persian rug
[1:05:11] that appeared to have very unusual stains on it.
[1:05:14] The witness hadn't bought the rug, so it couldn't be tested to
[1:05:17] prove anything with certainty, but it was yet another piece of
[1:05:21] evidence against this predatory con man.
[1:05:26] The defense, acknowledging their client was a grifter, employed a
[1:05:30] strategy of misdirection that mirrored Gerhardt's writer's own
[1:05:33] methods. They pointed the finger at the
[1:05:36] one person who couldn't defend herself, the missing Linda
[1:05:40] Sohus. They argued that Linda, a tall,
[1:05:43] physically imposing woman, was more capable of the attack than
[1:05:47] Gerhardt's writer, which I have to say, is probably as audacious
[1:05:52] as it is disgusting. They entered into evidence the
[1:05:56] postcards from Paris, which they claimed proved she was alive
[1:05:59] after John was slain. But despite this, the jury
[1:06:03] wasn't convinced. I'm going to give you a second
[1:06:06] to guess how this defense worked out, and I mean a literal second
[1:06:10] here. In April 2013, after
[1:06:15] deliberating for less than a day, they found Christian
[1:06:18] Gerhardt's rider guilty in the first degree.
[1:06:22] He was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
[1:06:27] The verdict finally brought answers to the family of John.
[1:06:30] So who's after nearly 3 decades of uncertainty?
[1:06:35] The perpetrator had been held accountable, but the conviction
[1:06:39] only solved half of the mystery that began on that quiet San
[1:06:42] Marino St. in 1985. And the question of what
[1:06:46] happened to Linda Sohus remains unanswered.
[1:06:52] Her body has never been found, and she is still officially
[1:06:55] classified as an endangered missing person.
[1:06:58] The prevailing theory held by prosecutors and investigators is
[1:07:03] that Gerhardt's rider eliminated her as well, disposing of her
[1:07:07] body in a location that has never been discovered.
[1:07:11] The defense's theory that she was the perp who fled was a
[1:07:14] courtroom tactic unsupported by any evidence whatsoever aside
[1:07:19] from the likely fake postcard from Paris.
[1:07:23] Gerhardt's writer himself has claimed that Linda is still
[1:07:26] alive, even hinting at his sentencing that he had
[1:07:30] information about her whereabouts.
[1:07:33] This appears to have been one last attempt by the sick
[1:07:35] individual to try to assert power, though it appears no one
[1:07:39] was buying what he was selling. On a cold November morning in
[1:07:44] 1982, a Wyoming Highway Patrolman came upon an eerie
[1:07:48] scene. A Chevrolet Blazer idling on a
[1:07:51] remote off ramp in the middle of the Prairie, its doors wide open
[1:07:55] and personal belongings scattered across the asphalt.
[1:07:59] The driver, 35 year old Don Kemp, was nowhere to be found.
[1:08:04] A single set of footprints trailed away from the vehicle
[1:08:07] into the snow, as if Kemp had calmly walked off into the
[1:08:11] wilderness. It would take nearly three years
[1:08:14] before Kemp's remains were finally discovered, just a few
[1:08:17] miles from where his SUV was abandoned.
[1:08:20] By then, a series of baffling clues, including reported
[1:08:25] sightings and phone calls from after his disappearance, had
[1:08:28] turned his fate into one of Wyoming's strangest unsolved
[1:08:32] mysteries. Don Kemp wasn't an obvious
[1:08:37] candidate for vanishing into thin air.
[1:08:39] At least not until everything changed.
[1:08:42] In the late 1970s, he was a successful Madison Ave.
[1:08:46] advertising executive in New York City, intelligent,
[1:08:50] charismatic, and by all accounts, living the good life.
[1:08:56] However, a serious car accident in 1976 left him badly injured
[1:09:01] and needing several years to recover.
[1:09:04] As he recovered, Kemp became increasingly disillusioned with
[1:09:08] his high-powered lifestyle and began pursuing spiritual and
[1:09:12] historical interests. He developed an intense
[1:09:15] fascination with Abraham Lincoln, even claiming that
[1:09:19] through meditation he had contacted one of the
[1:09:22] conspirators from 1865. By 1982, Kemp had grown deeply
[1:09:29] reflective and envisioned himself as some kind of prophet
[1:09:32] or messenger with a great truth to share.
[1:09:36] He often spoke of grand plans, at one point suggesting he would
[1:09:40] start a spiritual movement related to Lincoln's legacy in
[1:09:43] the mountains of Wyoming. Personally, I don't see the
[1:09:47] connection between Lincoln and Wyoming, but hey, maybe that's
[1:09:50] just me. Determined to reinvent his life,
[1:09:55] Don Kemp sold most of his belongings, ended his engagement
[1:09:59] and set out in September 1982 on a road trip W to Wyoming.
[1:10:04] His destination was Jackson Hole, where he hoped the quiet
[1:10:08] beauty of the mountains would inspire him to write a book
[1:10:11] about Lincoln's death and his unconventional theories.
[1:10:15] Along the way, Kemp kept in touch with family via phone
[1:10:18] calls and postcards. But as he travelled, some
[1:10:22] friends and relatives noticed changes in his demeanor.
[1:10:26] In early N1, Friend received a distressing call from Don, who
[1:10:32] was sobbing and almost hysterical for reasons that
[1:10:34] remain unclear. Others observed that he had
[1:10:38] become unusually withdrawn and fixated on esoteric topics, even
[1:10:43] watching movies about people vanishing when he stopped at
[1:10:45] motels. These signs, subtle at first,
[1:10:50] hinted that Kemp's mental state might have been deteriorating as
[1:10:54] he ventured farther from his familiar life.
[1:10:59] On November 15th, 1982, the day before he disappeared, Don Kemp
[1:11:04] visited a small Western History Museum in Cheyenne, WY.
[1:11:08] Fittingly, it featured exhibits on Abraham Lincoln.
[1:11:11] He spent two hours wandering the galleries alone and spoke to no
[1:11:15] one. When he left, he accidentally
[1:11:18] left behind a briefcase containing some very important
[1:11:22] items. These included his traveller's
[1:11:25] checks, personal Diaries, address book and even the
[1:11:29] glasses he needed for driving. Museum staff later confirmed
[1:11:34] that Kemp phoned about the forgotten items and said he
[1:11:37] would return for it immediately, but he never showed up.
[1:11:42] That afternoon, he was seen at a gas station in Laramie and later
[1:11:46] near the Lincoln Memorial Monument along Interstate 80.
[1:11:50] This was the last confirmed sighting of Don Kemp while
[1:11:53] alive. By the next morning, his journey
[1:11:56] took a dramatic and mysterious turn.
[1:12:00] On November 16th, 1982, at approximately 10:00 that
[1:12:04] morning, a cop found Don Kemp's 1981 Chevy Blazer abandoned near
[1:12:10] the remote Wagon Hound rest area off I-80.
[1:12:13] The vehicle appeared oddly deserted, yet not broken down.
[1:12:18] The engine was still running, the radio played music into the
[1:12:22] empty expanse, and all the doors were open.
[1:12:26] Kemp's personal items were strewn about on the ground as if
[1:12:30] dumped or hastily pulled out of the car. 40 miles of empty land
[1:12:34] separated this spot from the nearest town, making the scene
[1:12:38] all the more perplexing. Aside from the scattered
[1:12:42] possessions, the only clue to Don's fate was a single set of
[1:12:47] footprints in the fresh snow leading away from the roadway
[1:12:51] and out into the open Prairie. There were no tracks suggesting
[1:12:55] a second person, and the packed contents of the blazer left
[1:12:59] little room for any passenger but Kemp himself.
[1:13:03] It appeared as though he had walked off on his own into the
[1:13:06] freezing wilderness, a behavior that struck investigators as
[1:13:11] irrational and dangerous given the winter conditions.
[1:13:15] A search began immediately, and the cops treated it as a missing
[1:13:19] person case. With no initial suspicion of
[1:13:21] foul play. Deputies and volunteers scoured
[1:13:25] the area on foot and by air, following Don Kemp's footprints
[1:13:29] into the open Prairie. About a mile from the highway.
[1:13:33] Searchers found a duffel bag in the sagebrush containing Don's
[1:13:36] belongings. The tracks continued for miles,
[1:13:40] leading to an old barn roughly 6 miles from the abandoned car.
[1:13:45] Inside was a crude campsite, sticks arranged as if for a
[1:13:48] fire, and three of Don's socks. Strangely, no footprints LED
[1:13:54] away from the barn, and investigators believed someone
[1:13:57] had backtracked to hide their trail.
[1:14:00] This suggested to them that Don may have been deliberately
[1:14:03] avoiding searchers. On the third day, a severe
[1:14:07] Blizzard forced authorities to suspend the search.
[1:14:10] With brutal cold and heavy snow, investigators assumed Don had
[1:14:14] perished from exposure. For the next few years, the
[1:14:19] mystery only deepened, and no further trace of Don turned up
[1:14:22] until October 1985. A group of hunters stumbled upon
[1:14:27] human remains in a patch of sagebrush approximately 4 miles
[1:14:31] from the spot where the blazer had been found.
[1:14:34] The skeleton was identified as Don Kemp.
[1:14:38] His wallet, driver's license and other identification were still
[1:14:42] with the remains. An autopsy couldn't determine an
[1:14:46] exact cause of death, but found no obvious signs of trauma or
[1:14:50] foul play. The authorities determined Don
[1:14:54] had indeed died of exposure to the elements, probably within
[1:14:57] days of his disappearance, and his body simply went
[1:15:01] undiscovered. This explanation would seem to
[1:15:04] neatly close the case, but as it turned out, the evidence didn't
[1:15:09] add up. The case of Don Kemp veered from
[1:15:14] tragic to truly bizarre in the months following his
[1:15:17] disappearance. In the spring of 1983, some five
[1:15:21] months after Kemp presumably died in the Wyoming Blizzard,
[1:15:25] witnesses began reporting that they had seen Don alive in the
[1:15:29] town of Casper, WY. This is about 150 miles from the
[1:15:33] spot where his vehicle was abandoned.
[1:15:36] One person swore they spotted him browsing a traveling exhibit
[1:15:40] of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia in Casper, which is uncanny
[1:15:44] given Don's passionate interest in Lincoln's history.
[1:15:48] Around the same time, a bartender at a Casper Tavern
[1:15:51] told Mary Kemp, his mother, that he distinctly remembered serving
[1:15:56] Don a drink. The man was certain it was Don
[1:15:59] because he recalled the customer's Maryland accent and
[1:16:02] friendly demeanor. These sightings suggested the
[1:16:06] tantalizing possibility that Don had somehow survived and
[1:16:10] secretly made his way to Casper. Even more startling was the
[1:16:14] evidence that came from Don Kemp's longtime friend and
[1:16:17] former colleague, Judy Aiello. In late February 1983, Judy
[1:16:24] returned to her New York City apartment after an extended trip
[1:16:27] overseas, unaware that Don was missing.
[1:16:31] When she checked her home answering machine, she
[1:16:34] discovered a series of voice messages left during her
[1:16:37] absence. The voice on the machine was
[1:16:40] undeniably Don's, speaking in an urgent tone and leaving a phone
[1:16:45] number where he could supposedly be reached.
[1:16:49] Judy was astonished, not only because the voice sounded like
[1:16:53] her friend, but also because her telephone number was unlisted
[1:16:57] and known to very few people. In total, she found multiple
[1:17:02] missed calls and at least 2 recorded messages from the
[1:17:05] period of late February to April 1983, all seemingly from Don
[1:17:11] Kemp. Notably, according to the
[1:17:13] official explanation, this was a time at which Don should have
[1:17:17] been long deceased. Alarmed and confused, Judy
[1:17:23] dialed the callback number that Don had provided.
[1:17:26] What happened next only compounded the mystery.
[1:17:30] A man answered the phone. Judy asked if Don Kemp was
[1:17:33] there, to which the person on the other end oddly replied yes.
[1:17:39] Then he immediately backtracked, said Don was out, and tried to
[1:17:43] get Judy off the phone as soon as possible.
[1:17:46] Sensing that this individual knew something, Judy implored
[1:17:50] him to have Don return her call, but she never heard back.
[1:17:55] When Judy alerted Mary Kemp and the authorities about these
[1:17:58] messages, an investigation traced the mysterious phone
[1:18:01] number to a trailer on the outskirts of Casper.
[1:18:05] The trailer was being rented at the time by a young man named
[1:18:08] Mark Dennis, who quickly became a person of interest in Don's
[1:18:12] case. Mark Dennis was questioned
[1:18:15] multiple times by Natrona County investigators.
[1:18:19] He flatly denied having any knowledge of Don Kemp and
[1:18:22] claimed he never placed any calls to Judy's number.
[1:18:26] Dennis suggested that perhaps someone else had snuck into his
[1:18:29] trailer to use the phone line or that the phone company had made
[1:18:33] some error. Indeed, it was hard to imagine
[1:18:36] how a stranger could have obtained Judy Aiello's private
[1:18:39] number unless Don himself provided it.
[1:18:43] Police showed Dennis a photograph of Don, but Dennis
[1:18:47] maintained he had never seen or met him.
[1:18:50] He even volunteered to take a polygraph test, which reportedly
[1:18:54] did not uncover any deception. Over the years, Don Kemp's
[1:19:00] strange death has prompted a range of theories, from the
[1:19:04] straightforward to the highly speculative.
[1:19:07] The simplest and officially accepted explanation is that Don
[1:19:11] experienced a mental breakdown or disorientation and wandered
[1:19:15] off into the wilderness voluntarily.
[1:19:18] Proponents of this theory point to Don's fragile psychological
[1:19:22] state as well as a head injury suffered in the accident.
[1:19:26] The single set of footprints, lack of evidence of other people
[1:19:30] at the scene, and the fact his remains were ultimately found
[1:19:34] not far from where he disappeared bolster this view.
[1:19:39] In this scenario, the later phone calls would have to be
[1:19:42] either an elaborate hoax or a bizarre coincidence, which I
[1:19:46] find to be an unsatisfying explanation.
[1:19:51] Don's family firmly believed that he was a victim of foul
[1:19:54] play. Under this theory, Don
[1:19:56] encountered a sick puppy, or perhaps a pack of sick puppies,
[1:20:01] somewhere along that lonely Wyoming highway in November
[1:20:04] 1982. Under this theory, he was able
[1:20:07] to briefly place a call to Judy, though for some reason didn't
[1:20:11] call the police or his family. Officially, the case of Don Kemp
[1:20:17] is considered solved, though even investigators have admitted
[1:20:20] that the facts of the official narrative don't fully add up.
[1:20:24] While I can't square all the evidence, it seems like Don
[1:20:27] Kemp's mysterious behavior stems from the serious head injury he
[1:20:31] suffered in his 1976 car accident.
[1:20:35] Traumatic brain injuries, particularly those affecting the
[1:20:39] frontal lobe, can lead to profound personality changes,
[1:20:43] emotional instability, obsessive thinking, and impaired
[1:20:47] judgement. Don's shift from a focused
[1:20:51] advertising executive to a man deeply engrossed in bizarre
[1:20:54] historical ideas may reflect such neurological trauma.
[1:20:59] It's also possible that Kemp initially wandered into the
[1:21:02] wilderness, then returned or was taken to Casper, as suggested by
[1:21:07] credible sightings and strange phone calls.
[1:21:11] If his mental state fluctuated, he may have become overwhelmed
[1:21:15] or disoriented again, prompting a second departure into the
[1:21:18] wild, where he ultimately perished.
[1:21:23] In October 19, 7919, year old Lisa Jane Borden phoned her
[1:21:28] family from California to say she'd be coming home soon.
[1:21:32] Her loved ones even arranged a plane ticket for her return, but
[1:21:35] Lisa never showed up to claim it.
[1:21:38] She had made it all the way from Texas to California on her own,
[1:21:42] but something or someone prevented her from making it
[1:21:46] back. That brief call was the last
[1:21:49] time anyone heard from the young Texas woman.
[1:21:52] Over 4 decades later, her disappearance remains an
[1:21:56] unsettling cold case, a road trip turned mystery, leaving her
[1:22:00] family with decades of unanswered questions and
[1:22:04] heartache. Lisa was from Big Spring, a
[1:22:09] small West TX city. In early October 1979, she
[1:22:13] hitchhiked W to California for that journey.
[1:22:17] She likely depended on the kindness of strangers for rides
[1:22:20] along the highways, an inherently risky way to travel.
[1:22:25] By October 10th, Lisa had reached the city of Lodi in
[1:22:30] California's San Joaquin Valley and placed a phone call to her
[1:22:34] family back in Texas. During that call, she reassured
[1:22:39] them she was safe and planned to return home soon.
[1:22:43] Her loved ones, including her worried boyfriend, responded by
[1:22:47] sending her a plane ticket home to be picked up at the airport.
[1:22:52] Mysteriously, Lisa never retrieved that ticket or boarded
[1:22:55] any flight. After her conversation from
[1:22:58] Lodi, she simply vanished without a trace.
[1:23:02] When Lisa failed to return or contact anyone again, her family
[1:23:06] grew alarmed. It wasn't like her to cut off
[1:23:09] communication, especially after travel plans had been made.
[1:23:14] Sensing something was wrong, Lisa's sister reported her
[1:23:17] missing to local authorities in Texas.
[1:23:20] With the case now officially opened, investigators had to
[1:23:23] retrace Lisa's steps across 2 states.
[1:23:28] Despite an Interstate investigation, the authorities
[1:23:31] found no physical evidence to reveal Lisa's fate after her
[1:23:36] October phone call. There were no confirmed
[1:23:39] sightings and no belongings or clues left behind to indicate
[1:23:43] what happened. Detectives confirmed that Lisa
[1:23:46] had made it to California, but beyond her one phone call, solid
[1:23:51] clues were scarce. A friend later told the family
[1:23:55] that Lisa had been spotted back in Texas after her California
[1:23:59] trip, allegedly living in Amarillo and working as a
[1:24:03] waitress. This claim briefly raised hopes
[1:24:06] that Lisa was alive, but the friend provided no details or
[1:24:10] proof. Authorities were unable to
[1:24:13] verify the Amarillo story, making it a frustrating dead end
[1:24:19] and leaving doubt whether the sighting was even real.
[1:24:24] The Texas Department of Public Safety has classified Lisa's
[1:24:27] disappearance as an involuntary missing person case.
[1:24:31] In fact, authorities have stated they believe Lisa may have been
[1:24:35] taken against her will decades after she vanished.
[1:24:39] Investigators updated the case by collecting ADNA sample from
[1:24:43] her family in 2007 to aid in identification efforts.
[1:24:49] Her information remains active in national databases, and she's
[1:24:52] been compared to numerous Jane Doe cases with no success.
[1:24:58] Over the years, several theories have emerged about what might
[1:25:02] have happened to Lisa. The leading theory is that she
[1:25:05] fell victim to foul play during her journey.
[1:25:09] As a young woman hitch hiking alone in the late 1970s, Lisa
[1:25:13] was at risk of encountering someone dangerous on the road.
[1:25:17] In fact, the late 1970s saw a surge of serial violence on the
[1:25:22] roads. This was an era when serial
[1:25:25] predators often targeted hitch hikers, and authorities suspect
[1:25:29] Lisa may have accepted a ride from the wrong person.
[1:25:32] If she was abducted while travelling, it would explain why
[1:25:36] she never made it home despite having a ticket waiting.
[1:25:39] Another consideration is that Lisa could have chosen to
[1:25:42] disappear and start a new life, though her family finds this
[1:25:46] unlikely. The Amarillo waitress story was
[1:25:50] one such lead, though that ultimately went nowhere.
[1:25:54] However, those who believe that she lived have speculated that
[1:25:57] she may have fled Amarillo after seeing her old friend where she
[1:26:01] was working. More than 45 years have passed
[1:26:05] since Lisa Jane Borden disappeared, and her fate
[1:26:09] remains unknown. Her family has endured decades
[1:26:13] of not knowing, holding out hope that one day they might learn
[1:26:17] what became of her. It's one of the most jarring
[1:26:23] pivots in modern sports history, a moment where unparalleled
[1:26:27] jubilation turned into indelible tragedy in less than 48 hours.
[1:26:32] On Tuesday, June 17th, 1986, the Boston Celtics, fresh off
[1:26:37] another NBA championship, selected the University of
[1:26:41] Maryland's Len Bias with the second overall pick in the NBA
[1:26:45] Draft. The team's leadership was
[1:26:48] convinced the young man was the key to extending the Celtics
[1:26:51] dynasty well into the next generation.
[1:26:54] Photographers captured Bias beaming while holding up the
[1:26:58] famed Celtics jersey number 30, the image of a young man on the
[1:27:02] cusp of athletic immortality. Yet by Thursday morning, June
[1:27:08] 19th, the narrative had shattered completely.
[1:27:12] The news reports weren't celebrating a future Hall of
[1:27:15] Famer, they were announcing the death of a 22 year old from a
[1:27:19] coke overdose. Bias was born in Landover, MD,
[1:27:24] and excelled as a forward at Northwestern High School in
[1:27:27] Hyattsville before committing to the University of Maryland.
[1:27:32] Over his four years playing for the Terrapins from 1982 to 1986,
[1:27:38] Bias developed into an athletic phenomenon who utterly dominated
[1:27:42] the Atlantic Coast Conference. The anticipation surrounding his
[1:27:46] move to the professional level was immense, going far beyond
[1:27:50] typical draft buzz. Many analysts believed his
[1:27:53] potential was virtually limitless and that he could
[1:27:57] potentially be one of the greatest players of all time if
[1:28:00] he played his cards right. Experts were even describing him
[1:28:04] in the same sentence of the already legendary Michael
[1:28:06] Jordan. The tragic events unfolded
[1:28:10] swiftly in the early morning hours of June 19th, 1986.
[1:28:15] After returning to his dorm room, Bias joined a small
[1:28:19] gathering of friends and teammates.
[1:28:22] Testimony later revealed that sometime between 2:30 AM and
[1:28:26] 3:00 AM, Bias, alongside his friends and teammates, began
[1:28:31] huffing Colombian confetti. The substance was reportedly
[1:28:36] piled on a mirror in the center of the dorm suite.
[1:28:39] For the next three to four hours, the group talked and
[1:28:42] snorted the polar bear powder. And then it happened.
[1:28:46] Out of the blue, Bias suffered a seizure and collapsed.
[1:28:51] A911 call was placed at 6:32 that morning, reporting that the
[1:28:55] celebrated athlete was unconscious and not breathing.
[1:28:59] Despite desperate attempts by emergency medical teams and
[1:29:02] further efforts at Leland Memorial Hospital in Riverdale,
[1:29:06] MD, Bias was pronounced dead at 855.
[1:29:11] The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was
[1:29:14] cardiac arrhythmia brought on by an overdose.
[1:29:18] Importantly, toxicology reports confirmed that there were no
[1:29:22] other substances in his system. While the immediate shock
[1:29:26] focused on the suddenness of his death, the initial public
[1:29:30] narrative was quickly established by authorities and
[1:29:33] the media. Bias was an innocent victim,
[1:29:37] perhaps trying coke only this one time, or possibly even being
[1:29:41] duped into ingesting it. However, this simple account
[1:29:45] soon collapsed under the weight of an investigation, and I
[1:29:49] really question how anyone could have been so naive as to believe
[1:29:52] that story. Grand jury testimony from Bias's
[1:29:56] teammates contradicted the prevailing story, indicating
[1:30:00] that Bias had reportedly used the substance almost 10 times
[1:30:03] prior. The revelation of Bias's drug
[1:30:08] use and the ensuing police investigation immediately hurled
[1:30:12] the University of Maryland and its athletic department into
[1:30:16] deep turmoil. The focus quickly shifted from
[1:30:19] the personal tragedy of the athlete to the integrity of the
[1:30:23] institution responsible for managing him.
[1:30:27] Allegations of a major cover up within the athletic program soon
[1:30:30] emerged. State Attorney Arthur Marshall
[1:30:33] publicly alleged that in the hours after biases collapse,
[1:30:37] Maryland's head basketball coach had instructed players to
[1:30:40] destroy any substances they had. Importantly, this allegation was
[1:30:45] never proven in a court of law. But that didn't matter.
[1:30:50] This claim of obstruction, combined with the wider
[1:30:53] questions about the special treatment afforded to top
[1:30:56] college athletes, signaled a systemic failure at the highest
[1:31:00] levels of the university. The administration launched full
[1:31:04] investigations into the athletic programs, academic standards and
[1:31:08] drug use policies. The ensuing controversy was so
[1:31:12] devastating that it forced high level resignations, including
[1:31:16] those of the basketball head coach and the athletic director,
[1:31:20] amongst others. The grand jury investigation led
[1:31:24] to criminal charges against those present during Bias's
[1:31:27] death. Brian Tribble, Bias's friend,
[1:31:31] was indicted on multiple serious counts, including possession of
[1:31:35] coke and possession with intent to distribute.
[1:31:39] Team mates Terry Long and David Gregg also face charges of
[1:31:43] possession and obstruction of justice.
[1:31:47] They were suspended from the basketball team shortly
[1:31:49] thereafter. Despite the overwhelming public
[1:31:53] pressure and the severity of the charges, the state justice
[1:31:56] system ultimately failed to secure any convictions related
[1:32:00] directly to Bias's death. In June 1987, a jury acquitted
[1:32:06] Brian Tribble of all charges concerning distribution and
[1:32:09] possession in the Bias case. Prosecutors later dismissed the
[1:32:13] misdemeanor charges against Long and Greg as well.
[1:32:18] Len Bias's death occurred at a specific moment when politicians
[1:32:22] were eager to be seen as tough on drugs and the media was
[1:32:25] heavily focused on the dangers of crack.
[1:32:28] This is, of course, despite the fact that Len Bias and his
[1:32:31] friends hadn't been smoking Timu nose candy at all.
[1:32:35] The political machinery moved with astonishing speed.
[1:32:39] Committees in the House began writing anti drug legislation
[1:32:42] within weeks of Biases passing. The legislative process bypassed
[1:32:47] normal deliberation and research, driven by political
[1:32:51] expediency and public panic. The resulting legislation, the
[1:32:56] Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986, was signed into law by President
[1:33:01] Ronald Reagan on October 27th, 1986.
[1:33:07] This was brought in just four months after Bias's death, and
[1:33:10] to many observers, the connection between the law and
[1:33:13] the actual facts of his case weren't readily apparent.
[1:33:17] This new federal statute, often dubbed the Len Bias Law,
[1:33:22] dramatically escalated penalties for substance related crimes.
[1:33:27] The key provision established harsh mandatory minimum
[1:33:30] sentences, specifically targeting cases where drug
[1:33:34] distribution led to the death or serious bodily injury of the
[1:33:37] user. For such offenses, the law
[1:33:41] mandated a minimum prison term of 20 years and a maximum life
[1:33:45] sentence, even for a first time offender.
[1:33:49] Crucially, the law made no distinction between a major
[1:33:53] international trafficker and an individual who gave a friend a
[1:33:57] dose for free. If death resulted, both could be
[1:34:01] charged and face life imprisonment.
[1:34:06] This elimination of judicial discretion, enacted in a
[1:34:09] political fever pitch, fundamentally reshaped the
[1:34:12] American criminal justice system.
[1:34:15] The Len Bias law is frequently cited as a primary catalyst for
[1:34:20] the explosion of mass incarceration in the decades
[1:34:23] that followed. Some have of course speculated
[1:34:27] that the law was already pre planned and that politicians
[1:34:30] were simply waiting for the right national tragedy to
[1:34:33] capitalize upon. On the night of March 20th,
[1:34:40] 1995, seventeen year old Julie Ferguson left work at the Linens
[1:34:45] and Things store in Greenbelt, MD and prepared to go out with
[1:34:48] friends. She was a junior at Eleanor
[1:34:51] Roosevelt High School, a bright, vivacious teen known for her
[1:34:55] love of music and close bonds with her friends.
[1:34:59] Around 9:30 PM, after closing up the store, Julie waited outside
[1:35:04] in the Greenway Shopping Center for two friends who had promised
[1:35:07] to give her a ride that evening. Moments before, she had
[1:35:12] reassured her mother by phone that her friends were on their
[1:35:15] way to pick her up. The area was well lit by a
[1:35:18] nearby liquor store, and Julie sat on a brick planter box with
[1:35:23] a soda and a shopping bag by her side.
[1:35:26] Sometime before 10:00 PM, witnesses saw Julie casually
[1:35:30] chatting with the occupants of a red 4 door car that had pulled
[1:35:34] up near where she waited. There were three people in the
[1:35:37] vehicle, reportedly two young men and a young woman, and by
[1:35:42] all accounts, Julie seemed comfortable speaking with them.
[1:35:45] Observers noted no signs of distress or struggle at that
[1:35:49] time. However, by the time her friends
[1:35:51] arrived just after 10:00 PM, Julie had vanished without a
[1:35:56] trace. All that remained were her
[1:35:59] belongings on the curb, including a bag of clothes and
[1:36:03] her soda bottle. Alarmed, her friends contacted
[1:36:07] Julie's mother and questioned the liquor store manager,
[1:36:10] quickly realizing something was terribly wrong.
[1:36:13] Within hours, Greenbelt police, aided by police helicopters,
[1:36:18] began searching the area for the missing teen.
[1:36:21] Tragically, the search ended early the next morning.
[1:36:24] At around 5:20 AM on March 21st, a pair of workers on their way
[1:36:29] to their jobs spotted Julie's body near a wooded stretch of
[1:36:32] Daisy Lane in Glendale, about 5 miles from the shopping center.
[1:36:37] She was found fully clothed on the remote roadside, and the
[1:36:41] manner of her death was brutal. An autopsy later revealed that
[1:36:45] Julie had been strangled and her throat had been slashed.
[1:36:50] There were no signs of essay robbery or any obvious motive
[1:36:53] for the attack. Simply put, there was absolutely
[1:36:57] nothing to explain why someone would target a normal girl who
[1:37:00] was just going about her evening.
[1:37:04] Julie's slaying sent shock waves through the Greenbelt community,
[1:37:08] which was unaccustomed to such violent crime.
[1:37:11] In the days that followed, police worked around the clock
[1:37:14] interviewing dozens of people, but they struggled to develop
[1:37:18] solid leads. No immediate suspect emerged,
[1:37:22] and detectives could not determine a clear motive for the
[1:37:25] crime. Julie had no apparent enemies,
[1:37:29] and nothing obvious had been taken from her.
[1:37:32] Investigators quickly concluded that she had been abducted from
[1:37:35] the shopping center, but by whom and for what purpose remained a
[1:37:39] complete mystery. The only early clues were the
[1:37:43] witness accounts of the red car and the disturbing fact that
[1:37:46] some of Julie's personal items had been discarded along a
[1:37:50] roadway. Her ID, for instance, was later
[1:37:54] found tossed in the median of Greenbelt Rd. about halfway
[1:37:57] between the mall and the location where her body was
[1:38:00] found. It appeared those responsible
[1:38:03] had scattered a few of her belongings while fleeing the
[1:38:06] area. The impact on Julie's peers was
[1:38:09] profound. Two days after the slaying, well
[1:38:13] over 1000 people gathered for a candlelight vigil at the Eleanor
[1:38:17] Roosevelt High School football field to mourn Julie and seek
[1:38:22] solace together. Grief counselors were made
[1:38:25] available to students. Overcome by the shock of losing
[1:38:28] a classmate in such a horrific way, friends described feeling
[1:38:32] as if all the safety and all the security of their world had been
[1:38:35] stripped away overnight. Despite an intensive
[1:38:39] investigation in 1995, the case gradually went cold as months
[1:38:44] and then years passed without an arrest.
[1:38:48] The crime scene yielded little forensic evidence beyond some
[1:38:51] physical items belonging to Julie, and with no eyewitnesses
[1:38:55] to the abduction itself, detectives had few leads to
[1:38:58] pursue. About five years after the
[1:39:02] slaying in March 2000, Prince George's County police announced
[1:39:07] A renewed push in Julie's case, and with it, some intriguing new
[1:39:11] clues. Cold case investigators had
[1:39:15] spent months re examining the evidence and re interviewing
[1:39:18] witnesses. At a press conference on the
[1:39:21] case's five year anniversary, police revealed that previously
[1:39:25] overlooked witness accounts pointed to three suspects who
[1:39:28] might have been involved. Crucially, multiple people had
[1:39:33] reported seeing a red Volkswagen Jetta in the Greenway Center
[1:39:36] parking lot the night Julie disappeared.
[1:39:40] The occupants were described as two men and one woman in their
[1:39:43] early 20s, and all were noted to be black.
[1:39:48] One witness saw Julie leaning in the window of this car talking
[1:39:52] to the occupants shortly before she vanished.
[1:39:56] Another witness came forward to say they had spotted a similar
[1:39:59] vehicle in the early morning hours, parked along a remote
[1:40:02] stretch of Daisy Lane with its headlights on.
[1:40:06] Notably, this was in the very area where Julie's body was
[1:40:09] later discovered, giving rise to suspicions that this may have
[1:40:13] been the occupants of the vehicle dumping her body.
[1:40:17] By the time that witness passed the spot again, the car was gone
[1:40:21] around the same period. Police explored a lead involving
[1:40:25] a different possible suspect entirely.
[1:40:28] They identified a person of interest who was a white male
[1:40:33] who was believed to have been praying on young women near the
[1:40:36] University of Maryland campus in the mid 1990s.
[1:40:42] This individual was thought to have attempted abductions in the
[1:40:45] area, raising suspicions that Julie could have been a victim
[1:40:49] of a serial predator. However, after extensive
[1:40:52] efforts, investigators were unable to track that man down or
[1:40:57] link him to the crime. The focus remained on the trio
[1:41:01] in the red car, even as the case once again began to stall for
[1:41:05] lack of concrete proof. Over the years, several theories
[1:41:10] have emerged about who was responsible for the slaying of
[1:41:13] Julie Ferguson, but many have led to dead ends.
[1:41:17] Aside from the theories already discussed, two young men who
[1:41:21] knew Julie were also investigated as possible
[1:41:24] suspects. However, both of them failed to
[1:41:28] match up to DNA found at the scene, and there was nothing
[1:41:31] concrete to link either men to the abduction and subsequent
[1:41:35] events. The primary theory that law
[1:41:38] enforcement still focuses on centers around the three unknown
[1:41:41] individuals in the red Car. Investigators have urged any of
[1:41:46] these three people to come forward for questioning in an
[1:41:50] effort to potentially clear their names if they weren't
[1:41:53] involved.

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