3 Missing Person Cases That Don’t Add Up | Forensic Files

Hi Crime Junkies. You know that we always go a layer deeper. And this week the team and I have been working on a
case that just keeps unfolding. Like every time I think I've reached the end, there is another twist, another detail,
another question that needs answering. So that episode is coming out this week, but because I just keep learning more, I
need a couple extra days to make sure that I can bring you the full story. So while you wait, I have pulled together
some of our most chilling, mysterious disappearance cases. Episodes that will keep you guessing and maybe make you
even rethink [music] everything you thought you knew. Settle in and make sure you're subscribed with that bell
notification on so you are the first to know when this week's new episode drops.
Hi Crime Junkies, I'm Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And this is Chuck. The Chuck of audio
chat. Please forgive us, but our 14-year-old man wanted to cuddle today and I'm I'm allowing it. Totally. And
it's not going to keep me from telling you an incredible story. And that story [music]
is a mystery right out of our home state of Indiana. I've heard this story, but listen Brit, the circumstances of this
are so foreign but always felt so far away to me. We're talking horse mobsters. Illegal medical boats
operating out in open waters. There has been no >> case like this before or since. And
that's why it's one of Indiana's most infamous cases. The work day has barely started on
Monday, July 4th, 1966 when Indiana Dunes State Park, which today is surrounded by Indiana Dunes National
Park, like it's like a whole thing, anyways. Superintendent William Spedick is getting a panicked call on his office
phone. The caller ID's himself as Harold Blau, and he's like, "Look, my daughter
and her friends were at your park on Saturday. It's Monday now, and they haven't come home. My wife and I are
super worried. You know, these are three young women." Harold's daughter, Patricia, she's 19.
Her friends, Ann Miller and Renee Broll are around the same age, like 21 and 19, respectively.
>> Okay. But, Patricia still lives at home, and she wouldn't leave for days without
giving her parents a heads-up. And Patricia had even told her mom Saturday [music] that morning when she left that
she would be home that night for dinner. And the other girls were supposed to be
home, too, but none of them returned to their Chicago homes just [music] over the state line. Swedek tells Harold,
"Okay, listen. I'll look into it." But, this uneasy feeling starts to creep in his belly because he might already know
something about the missing girls, and it could be bad. You see, 2 days before, on Saturday, a park ranger had brought a
bunch of random items into his office saying that there was things that had been left on the beach of Lake Michigan
by three women who went into the water and boarded a boat around noon that day, but then never returned.
>> How did they know that? Because there were witnesses. There were some teenagers nearby that had seen them get
onto the boat. They saw them leave their stuff, and then they alerted the ranger
when they were like those teenagers were getting ready to go, and the stuff was still there because it seemed like this
is the kind of stuff that you like wouldn't you would leave only if you were planning to come back, right? Like
there's like the thermos, there's some sunglasses, lotion, those kind of things. Even more significant items,
too, like cash, a purse, clothes, a pair of shoes. Like they should have been back.
>> Right. Now, at the time, the ranger wasn't especially concerned when he collected these things. Though, the
Chicago Tribune reports that he [music] did get a description of the boat, at least, which they said was a small boat
with white exterior and a blue interior, maybe turquoise-ish blue. And it had an
outboard motor. They even gave the ranger a description of the driver. Which they say was a tan, dark-haired
young man. But listen, people leave stuff on the beach all the time, especially on
crowded days like the Saturday before the 4th of July. So at the time, he just gathered the things up and dropped them
in Svedics office. But no one was like out manning a massive search or trying to find the owners of these items at the
time. Now everyone kind of thought that whoever it was that owned these things would eventually come looking for the
stuff at some point. But now with this phone call, a darker thought washes over Svedic. Lake Michigan is notorious for
its strong, unpredictable currents. Like it is not outside the realm of possibility that the women, maybe even
their captain, too, had gone for a swim or gotten into an accident and found themselves outmatched by Mother Nature.
Like we live here, so many people underestimate Lake Michigan. >> Yeah. Yeah. So once he hangs up with
Harold, Svedic starts rifling through the items. He's looking for clues. And I mean, to be fair, he doesn't even know
that the women who left these things were Patricia Ann and Renee. It just like to him feels too much like of a
coincidence not to be. >> Mhm. But that's the first order of business, right? [music] Now when he
finds a keychain with car keys and a miniature Illinois license plate and realizes that the plate has what looks
like a pretty legitimate plate number, he gets this idea. He calls a few employees, sends them out to check the
parking lot near the dunes. And sure enough, there is a car with that exact plate in the lot. And sure enough, when
they run down the plate number with Chicago PD, Svedic gets the confirmation he needs. The car in the parking lot is
registered to Ann Miller from the Chicago suburb of Westchester, which makes this official. He has got a triple
disappearance on his hands and [music] something of that magnitude is above his pay grade. So, that's when seasoned
Indiana State Police investigator, Detective First Sergeant Edward Burke, steps in to help [music] the
investigation. And he doesn't waste any time. One of his first moves is to go through the purse that had been left
[music] on the beach and it turns out that purse belonged to Renee. And he knows it's hers because inside he finds
this rather intriguing letter. Now, Anne and Patricia lived at home with their parents, but 19-year-old Renee is
actually married and lives with her husband at the time. And this letter that they find was addressed to him and
>> Is he like away somewhere? >> No, so they live together. I mean, I assume they see each other like on the
daily, but it seems like maybe they were a couple that like to get thoughts down
on paper when there were like big things, which I think is what this was cuz basically in this letter there are
some issues that she brings up. Like her husband spending way too much time with
his buddies tinkering with hot rods, which is like sounds light and almost cute, but it wasn't either of those
things to Renee. She even threatens to split up over this. But it looks like I mean, maybe she had second thoughts
about giving this to him because according to the date scribbled on this letter, it's like 2 weeks old by that
point, like when he's seeing it. So, Sergeant Burke isn't quite sure what to make of it, [music] but he also
doesn't have time to really ponder this. Feeling like Svitak might be right about
the woman's fate, he calls the US Coast Guard to search the lake near the park way at the southern end. And boy, does
the Coast Guard have their work cut out for them because Lake Michigan is enormous. I said, you guys everyone
underestimates it. Lake is like not even the right word. Over 22,000 square miles enormous is how big we're
talking about. And even if you've seen the lakes on like a map in school or geography or whatever, like it doesn't
give you a sense for it. >> No, like standing on the shore, it honestly looks like an ocean.
>> yeah. I mean, you can get out there at some point and literally not see land on
any side of you. It is huge. So, it's not all that surprising when they end the day [music] empty-handed. So, first
thing next morning, Sergeant Burke gets a huge ground search going to complement
the Coast Guard's efforts. He wants every last square inch of the park covered and also a good stretch of
shoreline beyond [music] the park. It's a hell of a task and for it, he assembles a hell of a search party. A
bunch of troopers and park rangers, obviously, and even soldiers from a nearby base, deputies from Porter County
Sheriff's Office, citizen volunteers who will eventually be joined by their bloodhounds. And with the Coast Guard
still at it, they're searching literally plane, train, and automobile here. And maybe not literally, but almost. You get
what I'm saying. And by the end of the day, the searches have covered 40% of the park almost and still there is just
nothing. Now, the Chicago Tribune reports that while the search is put on hold overnight, Sergeant Burke orders a
patrol to man the shore until sunrise [music] thinking if the women maybe drowned, their bodies could wash up
soon. And while drowning from a boating accident is only one theory, it's not at
all out of the question that they also could have met with foul play. So, they got to find this boat like if they're
going to know either way, right? And while there are some sightings of white boats with blue interiors, they don't
find a boat that could have been in the area like the boat when the girls went missing. Are they sure they even got on
a boat in the first place? I know we have that one sighting of the three girls getting on the boat, but did
anyone else see that happen? They're not sure of anything. I mean, you're right.
All they have to back up even this boat story like from the beginning is just the word from those teenagers who
alerted the ranger. But, I will say over the first couple of days as this goes on, like when the story starts making
news, people start coming forward, they start getting some more witness tips, and that does seem to support the boat
story. More people who say they saw the women climb onto a white boat with a dark-haired well-tanned man that day.
And actually, there are even a few reports of them being seen on a larger boat, like this time with three men. And
that was at some point that same [music] afternoon. But for some reason, I think
that like those are mostly discounted. So, a few days into the search, the idea of some sort of fatality-causing boat
accident starts [music] to gain traction. But according to more reporting in the Chicago Tribune, random
boat debris starts washing up on shore not far from the park. Pieces of seats, Styrofoam, scraps of metal, plywood,
turquoise plywood. And they can tell that this wreckage came from what the reporting refers to as a {quote}
"outboard motorboat." And like I said, this stuff isn't washing up hours away. It's
washing up like 3 mi away near some sort of power plant. Now, at this time, there
haven't been any reports of a missing boat, no reports of a crash, or of missing or injured boaters, which some
find kind of strange. But it also might just mean that the guy who owned the boat isn't around to report it missing,
or couldn't call it in before something happens. >> Right. Or destroying the boat was
intentional because they find something weird among the wreckage. The debris is strewn with cans [music]
of oil and gasoline. Some of the plywood is even drenched in it. So, it feels like something fishy is a
foot. And yet, pretty quickly, authorities announce that the wreckage couldn't have anything to do with the
missing women because there were no reports of a boating accident. >> All the more reason to be suspicious. I
mean, something clearly happened here. The boat didn't douse itself in gasoline.
>> And it only gets worse from there because the Terre Haute Star reports that soon, authorities announce that the
wreckage [music] is from a rowboat. A metal rowboat. A metal rowboat that was also made of
turquoise [music] plywood and collided with something with enough force to just completely disintegrate it into pieces.
Yes. Right, like it feels like there's some tunnel vision going on here because the
Terre Haute Tribune reports that when investigators are asked about three different [music] possibilities, right?
So like drowning, foul play, or a planned disappearance, their response is telling. They say that there is no
evidence of drowning or foul play. >> So now they think the women pieced out on purpose? Well, at first they play it
coy, but by the one week mark, Sergeant Burke is like, "Yeah, we're pretty sure this was all orchestrated."
>> The boat stuff, too? Like they blew it up or that's unrelated? >> Still unrelated. They're not even trying
to make sense of the wreckage. And I get why they start doubting the drowning theory. Like, maybe a little premature,
but I mean they've devoted so much manpower to searching the southern end of Lake Michigan and from like every
angle, too. They've got those ground searches, boat searches, whatever. Like divers are even in there. And with
everything, they're thinking like if the women did drown, like someone should have found something by now [music] that
indicated that. >> Okay, so not drowning, but no evidence of foul play based on what? On the fact
that that there's no evidence. But there's also no evidence that it wasn't foul play.
>> I feel like we've done this like dance before. Oh, Chuck's getting up. What do you want to do, Bubba?
You can get down. Good job, buddy. You were a star. Anyways, the the whole idea of it not
being foul play cuz there's no evidence of foul play. To me, that's bananas, especially when the one thing that might
have been the evidence of foul play has been discounted. >> Yeah, and listen, I get that walked off
on their own is always a theory when you have a person go missing. But to me, it
seems super far-fetched to think about three women with three different lives, three different sets of circumstances,
all committing to disappearing at once on purpose. It's not not possible, it's just
>> it's way less likely. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think mostly they think this because there start to be some
supposed sightings, I guess, like near and far. One like on a bus or like in a bar or a club or whatever. And these are
like miles and miles away with strange men. Sometimes they're even saying like hitchhiking, according to the Chicago
Tribune. And all of these, like they never turn out to be legit, but investigators run each one down, and
they keep coming in. So, I'm sure that's playing a role here. But I also suspect that it has a lot to
do with the letter that they found in Renee's purse, the one to her husband. >> So, what about the hot rods?
>> Yeah, they decided basically that she may have wanted to just skip town on account of her marital discord. She
didn't even give him the letter, though. And that does nothing to explain the other two disappearing with her. I know.
And they obviously questioned the husband, by the way, like he's in the clear. So, her loved ones are like,
"Okay, we hear you, but also, are you serious right now? Like she's 19 years old, and her
feelings were hurt over like something you can probably work through." >> Right. And that was weeks ago. And
again, you say it has nothing to do with why Ann and Patricia would have left. Like, they're not giving up their lives
in what, solidarity over a husband's hobby? Not maybe in solidarity. The Chicago Tribune reports that according
to Sergeant Burke, all three, Ann and Patricia included, have, quote unquote, personal problems, but he wouldn't say
what those are. Which isn't to say like we don't know what he's getting at, because long story
short, what we know is that Patricia's sister Janice tells Dateline in a recent interview. So like we find this out way
later, that Patricia had been connoodling with a married man. And Ann had supposedly told friends that she was
3 months pregnant and might enter a {quote} home for unwed mothers, which is very much a thing in 1966.
But it is such an antiquated concept in like the year of our Lord 2025, well at least for now, that um I asked you to do
some digging and give the Crime Junkies a quick explainer for the young folk listening. Can't know where you're going
unless you know where you've been, right? So being a pregnant unwed woman in the '60s, give it to us. Obviously,
like you said, like I knew about the concept, but I wanted to read up a little bit before this episode. So I
found an article on Scary Mommy, which I'll link to if you want to go deeper. There's even like a book on this. But
basically, there were these homes where families of unmarried pregnant girls and
women hid their daughters away while they were pregnant, so no one would have to see
them because God forbid. God forbid. What a shame. Where were the men who got these women and girls pregnant?
Obviously, they were out there living their lives. The women were the ones forced to wear the scarlet letter in the
form >> [music] >> of that baby bump. Then once they gave birth and their babies were adopted out,
voluntarily or otherwise, then and only then could the women and girls be returned to polite society.
>> Love it. So these are supposedly some of the personal problems that Sergeant Burke is referring to. Although put a
pin in that because we're going to circle back to it later. But personal problems or not, the women's families
don't agree. And they are just more convinced by the day that the disappearances weren't by choice. And on
July 14th, this is just 12 days in, that fear starts to gain traction when a brutal crime captures the attention of
well, everyone. Now it's very different, but it involves multiple young women being held and killed at a single time
by a single person and from the same area where the women are from, Chicago. It at the time does feel worth looking
into. And let me just give you a little, like, the SparkNotes on this case. Corky
Siemaszko reports for NBC News that around 11:00 p.m. on the night of July 13th, a man armed with a gun and a
hunting knife climbed through the first floor window of a Chicago townhouse [music] where six student nurses were
sleeping in two upstairs bedrooms. He crept up the stairs, [music] woke up all six, and corralled them into a third
bedroom, binding their hands behind their back. And he spent the next few hours walking them out of the room one
by one >> [music] >> and killing them one after another. Some of them by stabbing, some by
strangulation, and some by a combination of the two. And I don't know why this next detail bothers me so much, but his
victims weren't even just the six women in the house when he broke in because three more residents had the great
fortune of being gone when the bloodshed started and the even greater misfortune
of coming home while it was unfolding. Siemaszko writes that eight women were tortured and killed over like four and a
half long hours that night. At least one victim was sexually assaulted, although
I would wager that she probably wasn't the only one. >> But wouldn't it be nine victims? If six
were already there and then three came home? It would have if one woman didn't have the right combination of courage,
quick thinking, and [music] honestly maybe sheer luck to survive. Her name was Corazon Amurao, and seeing her last
chance at survival, she actually crawled under one of the beds while the killer was out of the room. And from her hiding
spot, she heard each of her roommates get marched out of the room followed by what Shamasko describes as muffled cries
and then silence. And somehow, he just didn't notice. Like there were so many victims that this dude lost count. And
so when Corazon crawled back out around 6:00 in the morning, it was just carnage. Shamasko writes that she was so
traumatized and so terrified that she [music] climbed onto the ledge of a second story window and just started
screaming. I mean, for all she knew, the killer was still inside somewhere. So once she was safe, she gave police a
pretty damn detailed description of the perp, right down to his Born to Raise Hell tattoo. And that ends up being the
key, because just 2 days later, a Chicago physician feels his blood go cold when he sees the same four words on
a patient's forearm. This patient was 24-year-old Richard Speck. Having grown up in Texas, Speck is new to the Chicago
area where he's been staying with his sister and her husband. And like so many killers before him, he's like, "No,
officers. I swear to you, I you have the wrong guy. Absolutely not." Which, like
they absolutely do not because his prints are all over the crime scene. Shamasko reports that the assistant DA
who eventually prosecutes him for eight [music] counts of capital murder gives him the dubious distinction of being the
country's first random mass murderer. Random being the operative word since organized crime was definitely a thing
in Chicago before this guy, but you get what I'm saying. So this random massacre happens to a
group of women from the same area just 2 weeks after the Indiana Dunes women go missing. And everyone's like, "Hey,
maybe you should look at this because you got Truly, at this point, nothing else other than they walked away, and
nobody's buying that. ISP Superintendent Robert O'Neal he's like, "Yeah, listen, we're checking
on it, but like don't get your hopes up." And Sergeant Burke is even blunter saying like there is no suggestion Speck
was near, let alone at Lake Michigan the day that the women went missing. And even if he was, let's just say that in
addition to not being a criminal mastermind, Speck isn't [music] tall, dark, or handsome. And he doesn't
have resources to get his hands on a boat or even to charm or lure three victims aboard a boat. I will admit that
it's a little intriguing that he worked as what the Chicago History Museum calls
a {quote} {unquote} apprentice seaman, but I won't waste any of your time on him. Like at the end of the day, it is
decided by all that this is just an intriguing coincidence [music] and nothing more.
So, the next theory that comes up, it might even be more of a stretch, I guess is what I should say. And [music] it all
starts with this guy named Dick Whaley, who according to the New York Daily News
was supposedly the first reporter on the scene the morning that the women were reported missing. Now, he only covered
the case briefly. It's not like [music] he was deeply involved. And within a few
years of the disappearances, he quit journalism altogether and jumped into a career in law enforcement down in
Florida. [music] But he couldn't get the disappearances out of his mind. Like they became his
own personal Roman Empire, if you will. So, Dick Whaley believes Are you ready for this? I'll answer it
for you, no you're not. He believes that the women died aboard an abortion boat. A what? Whaley is
absolutely certain that the disappearances can be traced back to an abortion boat.
>> You just keep repeating that like it's going to make more sense the second time
around. What the is an abortion boat? It's exactly what it sounds like. He He says it's a boat
on Lake Michigan where illicit abortions are performed. Is that a real thing? If
you ask Dick Wylie, yes. And the theory he has behind this abortion boat is wild. Now, we know that
Anne may have been pregnant and that Patricia may have been seeing a married guy, right?
>> Mhm. Well, Wylie posits, what if Anne and Patricia were both pregnant by married men? Nothing to back
this up, I assume. Just kind of a combining of their two possible scenarios? It seems that way. I like
like he doesn't give any explanation other than like a what if. >> Okay. I'm not sure how or why, but
basically he just says that in the course of his personal investigation, he learns that that's the situation.
[music] Now, he says that puts them both in a pickle because it was 1960 whatever
and years before Roe v. Wade gave us, you know, brief bodily autonomy before controlling women became everyone's
[music] top priority again. And we've already talked about what a moral stain out of wedlock pregnancies were back
then. And in all seriousness, back alley abortions absolutely were a thing in 1966. Botched back alley abortions were,
too. So, basically Wylie believes that there was this married couple operating an illicit abortion clinic in Gary,
Indiana. For those of you who don't know, that's what like on the coast of Lake Michigan near Chicago and the
Indiana Dunes. So, like right in that area. >> Can we prove that that part is real?
That this duo and their clinic? >> had the same question. Google couldn't tell me, so I reached out to the Indiana
State Police. They were were super duper helpful and they confirmed that the couple he's talking about was a real
couple. Their names are known by police. But, as far as the whole illicit abortion operation part of it goes,
police don't know. They say that they have never been able to substantiate [music]
that part of Wylie's story. But, the story goes that one of the women's procedures went south. Either Anne or
Patricia, they died. And with this being an illegal enterprise, the other two had
to just be disposed of. >> Is he saying that they did this procedure on the boat? Like or like the boat that picked
them up and was supposed to take them to where the abortion would happen. >> Well, so okay, so supposedly that young
dark handsome captain was actually this couple's relative. And the thought is that he escorted them to a larger boat.
And remember if you like a couple of witnesses saw them on [clears throat] a larger boat? And the thinking is maybe
like that's where the procedures happened or were supposed to have happened. Where is Wylie getting all
this from? >> This is the thing, we don't know. And we tried to get to the bottom of it,
believe me, because all you got to do is spend a few minutes on Google to realize
like how wide this theory has spread. Not so much in traditional reporting, more like in blogs and on web forums and
all of that stuff. And so of course we thought like, okay, what better way to evaluate these claims than to go
straight to the source. >> Mhm. I mean, Dick Wylie is still alive and kicking. So we did our damndest to
talk to him about this case. Our reporter Courtney was like straight up giddy at the prospect of interviewing
him. And she reached out to him on Facebook. She called every number she could find. No dice. Like there was one
person she even got on the phone. We got like a very like gruff wrong number before they hang up. So all we know is
that he claims to have interviewed more people more times and with more tenacity
than the actual investigators, he says. And based on those interviews, this is what he has uncovered. But the more we
dug in, the more it seems like all roads on the abortion theory just lead back to
Wylie himself. Like this man talks a big game. There is no doubt about that. But
I don't know if he actually has the work to show like show your math, right? Like how did you get the answer?
I I think he's been able to do that. And he supposedly had plans to publish a book on this case like since the early
aughts. There's even an Amazon listing for it still. It's called Life and Death Through the Lens. And it had like a
publication date way back in 2004, I think. Except the book is not available. Not on Amazon, not anywhere else in the
worldwide web that we could find. And there is a 2012 New York Daily News interview with Wylie that references a
120,000 [music] word manuscript. But here we are like 13 years later and that manuscript has yet
to see the light of day. So, if you're going to believe this theory, you just have to like take him at his
word. And his word, like I don't know, I think it it it bears emphasizing that Wylie seems to be blessed with a very
active imagination. His Facebook persona, for example, is like very much conspiracy-obsessed angry
grandpa who posts like in all caps. Cool. And you know, your girl loves like a good conspiracy theory. Like that's my
jam. It's who I intend on being a little bit when I'm older. But I also don't want to sugarcoat the fact that his
posts get really ugly at times, to put it mildly. And the man specifically seems to have a mild fixation on
reproductive rights in general, which I think is relevant [music] considering his theory. And I I have to give you
just a little bit of context. So, I printed out one of his posts. This is one of his public posts that he made on
May 9th, [music] 2021. It's made of his own hand. Just so you know, I'm thrilled about
having my voice recording this. >> [laughter] >> Okay, this post is in all caps.
>> Literally. Want to wish all mothers a last Mother's Day. Yes, I said last Mother's Day.
Just now, over TV, the name has been changed to Birthing Person Day. I hope all you women {slash} mothers see the
respect the Democrats have for your kind of devotion to America's youth. Let me be one of the first to announce support
for renaming all abortion centers, abortion doctors, >> [music] >> and Planned Parenthood groups killing
centers from this day forward as a last vestige of true patriotic Americanism. Our mothers. Yesterday, my dear Aunt
Shirley was buried at 90 years old. The devoted mother to four wonderful children and the surrogate mother of
more than 30 foster children in her busy lifetime. She was more than a birthing person. She was God's angel sent to
Earth to become a mother, not to be a murderer of children or killing centers where confused women go who don't have
the ability to be a mother. Thank God she was already in heaven today and didn't have to bear being demoted from a
truly loving mother to just another person the Democrats can add to their voter rolls as a person. Sort of like
changing the name applied to an illegal criminal alien to a poor undocumented person. [music]
Wow, Ashley. What? And listen. >> [laughter] >> Not to make this episode about Wylie or
getting like to extreme ends of like either side or getting people fired up. Like, I don't know. I'm having a hard
time holding my tongue these days, you guys. I got to say [clears throat] like this inflammatory
like I think we're all over it, right? Like everyone's working to divide us as a people because the truth is we're
stronger together. And if we're distracted by issues like what things are called, like we can't come together
on issues that matter. Like who gives a flying what the day is called. It's not hurting
anybody. It doesn't take away from me. I'm a mom. Like live your own life. Worry about your own damn self. Like if
it makes someone like feel included, great. Why would I care? I care about things that actually affect my life, my
daughter's life. Like the fact that insurance companies are like us over right and left and basic health care
isn't considered a human right. I also don't care if it's called the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America or the
Gulf of whatever. And while we're on the topic of meaningless rhetoric intended to like
pit people against each other, there is even a proposed resolution in the house right now that expresses support for
pro-women's health centers. Like I posted about this, I don't know if you saw it. And I [ __ ] you not, it says that
like these health care centers are supposed to address the needs of men. For women's health care should address
the needs of men. And who by the way is Wiley? Is like that's who we're worried about. Like
>> Right. Right. Anyways, >> [music] >> so I know I got a little sidetracked, but I wanted to show you who Wiley is
while also saying like Give us some perspective and I wanted to show you who he was with but also saying like let's
not let the thing that Wiley said take over this episode. Like I swear to God if all the comments on this episode
become about Mother's Day, I'm going to quit. So like I need everyone to stay focused.
So to bring it back to Dick Wiley, that's who he is. He hasn't shown any proof of his findings that could be
verified by other journalists or police. While his theory might be one of the loudest ones on the internet, it is not
the only one. Because what if I told you that there is another theory out there,
one that is every bit as wild, every bit as fantastical, every bit as conspiratorial?
And it is the one that seems the most likely to be true. Now to explain this theory, I need to tell you a little bit
more about Ann Patricia and Renee and their shared love of horses. I know, you're a horse girl. I'm in. In fact,
the Chicago Tribune reports that while Patricia and Renee had been high school classmates, Patricia met Ann at the Oak
Brook Polo Club where they both boarded their riding horses. And Ann also worked
there. In fact, at the time of the disappearances, Patricia owned a racehorse named Hank and he was one of
the biggest reasons that her dad Harold never like bought into the idea that the
women would have like gone off on their own. Even if all of the other weird [ __ ]
could be explained away, which it can't, so like there's so much that doesn't make sense. Harold knew that his
daughter would not abandon Hank. It wasn't possible. It was something that he said over and over and over again,
including to Sergeant Burke. Like she would never have left that horse behind. You guys know how much I like Charlie.
Charlie's like my mini horse. That's how I feel. I just say I am a horse girl. I
grew up with a horse that I would have never, in a million years, left behind for anything. He was my baby.
>> girls are next level, too. So, anyway, so remember how I told you to put a pin
in the women's personal problems? Yes. Okay. So, Renee's were the marital issues that we know, and was this
potential pregnancy. And I think Patricia's had to do with the wide world of horse racing.
So, when her sister Janice sat with Dateline for an interview in 2023, she talked about some weird stuff going on
with Patricia at the time leading up to her disappearance. Like how she was acting strangely the day before she
disappeared, scared even. Although Janice didn't elaborate. She also described this conversation they had had
recently or like before they went missing. And Patricia was crying, which alone is super out of character. Now,
some people are cryers, some people aren't, and Patricia was not. And she told Janice that she was in a lot of
trouble. Janice's mind immediately went to the married boyfriend we know that she might have had. So, she asked if she
was pregnant. >> Don't tell Dick Wiley. >> I know. But according to Janice, she wasn't pregnant. That's not it. Whatever
it was was worse in her mind than that because her response was quote, "I wish it was that easy."
>> Which is saying a lot in 1966. >> I know. And Janice wasn't the only person close to Patricia who noticed
something was off before she disappeared. A friend of hers had told Sergeant Burke's team way back at the
beginning of the investigation about this weird situation in March of that year when Patricia had some sort of like
bruising on her face. And the friend was [music] like, "WTF, what actually happened to your face?" I mean, it
looked like she got straight-up clocked. And according to the Chicago Tribune, Patricia said that she was in trouble
with some {quote} "syndicate people." Like the mob? This is where the horse mob comes in. So, get this.
And I'm going to give you a little backstory for just a sec, but I promise we are like coming back around and
you're going to want to know this. So, apparently, the 1960s equestrian scene in Chicago was run by a rough crowd
known as the horse syndicate. And at the center of this horse syndicate was a man
by the name of Silas Jayne. Silas had been playing fast [music] and loose in the industry since the late
1930s when he opened a place called the Green Tree Stables and embarked on a long and storied career of lying,
cheating, and stealing his way to the top. And defending his interests by any means necessary, including, possibly, by
ordering a hit on one of the nation's wealthiest heiresses in 1977, by the way. Now, most of his brothers were cut from
the same cloth, but one of them wasn't. His much younger half-brother, George. And that infuriated Silas. By 1952,
according to the Chicago Tribune magazine, George had also joined the stable business. And the thing was,
whereas Silas made his money kind of in the shadows, George made his by being a generally competent business owner. And
now that the brothers were competitors, that was something Silas just could not have, which led to poor George having
some seriously bad luck. Like in 1952, when his house went up in flames for who knows what reason while he and his
family were out of town. Brotherly relations took an especially dark turn after George's horse beat Silas's horse
at a jumping competition in the early 1960s, and before he knew it, it wasn't just George's property at risk. A hit
was carried out on one of his best horses, and George himself was surviving brushes with death damn near on the
weekly. Everywhere he went, someone was trying to run him off the road or blow up his house. Like no joke, one day he
and his wife found dynamite affixed to their back door, and it had actually fizzled out before it could cause any
damage, but clearly a message was trying to be sent, clearly by Silas, and George
wasn't getting it. Now, 1965 is when really hit the fan. By this point, George owned Tricolor
Riding Stables, and one day in June of that year, George asked one of his employees, a 22-year-old named Cheryl
Lynn Rude, to move his car for him. So, she hopped into the driver seat, turns the key in the ignition, which is when
the car exploded in spectacular fashion. It had been rigged with dynamite, [music] which meant that George had just
survived his most dramatic brush with death yet. But Cheryl wasn't so fortunate. She was killed instantly, and
for once in his life, Silas came so close to paying for it when investigators convinced his hired
henchman to turn state's evidence. But fast forward to March of 1966, on the eve of Silas's trial on conspiracy
charges, the whole case gets dropped when the prosecution's star witness, one of Silas's henchman, was struck with
what the Chicago Tribune magazine reporters called a quote baffling attack of amnesia. Now, this is where the women
come back in. So, March of '66 is when Patricia had a busted face, the one that had to do with the trouble that she was
in with some syndicate people. And by the way, no one questions that the women were acquainted with these guys. We know
for a fact all three women rode at George's stables, and Indiana State Police confirmed that for us. But is
Silas the married man or George? I don't get why the women are made to disappear
in July of '66. >> No, so I I I don't think that either of them were Patricia's paramour. I think
the guy she was dating was like another shady character in the horse scene, like
not even related. And we don't know for sure why someone would have hit her or threatened her or whatever, but there is
one possible and like the prevailing theory that I've seen come from the Chicago Tribune magazine. And it comes
from a quote by retired Sergeant Fred Miller of the Westchester PD. What he says is that there was always a strong
suspicion that their disappearances had something to do with the car bombing. Namely, that maybe one or more of the
women overheard something or knew something about that, and that is what led to their deaths.
>> But you think that something would have happened to them like before the trial
was set to start in March. Yeah, I but I guess it depends on maybe what they knew
and why or how they knew it. Like I think there's a world where their importance as potential witnesses only
increased once Silas's conspirators were scared into submission, maybe. Like I don't quite know. And that's just
speculation on my part, but I think it's like maybe the best theory because Well,
get this. So, among all of the belongings left behind, and I'm talking about the women's on the beach,
investigators found not only George's phone number, but also a phone number for Silas's wife Martha. So, like I
mean, clearly like they have those for a reason. And by the way, guess who owned
a blue and white powerboat. Well, actually I don't know exactly who, but like I don't I don't have a name,
which would be really helpful right now, I know. But I know that a man, an unnamed man, who was reported to have
like supposedly once worked for Silas did own one. And supposedly this boat that he supposedly owned he often took
to the Indiana Dunes. Did they find this supposed boat? >> No, they wish. Like the guy's wife told
them that that boat got destroyed in a fire, which leads me to the last kernel of
information that we were able to glean from ISP. They say that as of December 2024, so like 5 minutes ago,
>> Yeah. they no longer dismiss the possibility that the boat wreckage that washed ashore way back in 1966 was
related to the women's disappearances. So much for that whole like spontaneously combusting rowboat thing.
>> Right. And I wish I could wrap this story up with a pretty bow, but what that leaves us with are family members
like Patricia's sister Janice, who are running out of time to learn the truth about what happened to their loved ones
way back in 1966. So, if you have any information about what happened that day on the shores of
Lake Michigan, please contact the Westchester Police Department at 708-345-0060.
And if you are as offended as I am by House Resolution 7, head on over to congress.gov/contact-us
to find your representative's contact information and tell them that women's health care should be about women. Novel
concept, right? You can find all the source material for this episode on our website [music]
crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. >> We'll be back with another video
episode, but don't [music] forget we have hundreds of podcast episodes. Just search for Crime Junkie wherever you get
your podcasts. The story I have for you today is wild. It has art world drama, it has
mysterious telegrams, a snowstorm, ransom plots. This is the story of Jennette Bishop May and Gabriella
Guerin. On the morning of Sunday, November 30th, 1980, snow is falling in Sarnano, Italy.
It's this medieval hilltop village turned ski resort tucked into the base of a mountain range. The kind of place
that looks like something out of a fairy tale almost. I think my daughter would call it Arendelle, essentially.
[laughter] But this isn't a picturesque blanket of snow that we're talking about. Right
now, there is a full-on [music] snowstorm. One that is worrying a local surveyor. This guy named Nazareno
Vinanzi. And he's worried because just the day before, so that would have been Saturday, November 29th, two women
walked into his office to hire him for a project. And in conversation and over snacks as they like went about their
stuff and talked about what they were doing, it came up that they were planning to
take a drive up into the mountains later that afternoon, which he was like, "Absolutely not a good idea because of
the impending snowstorm." But he was afraid that maybe they hadn't listened because after they left, he
expected to hear from them again. But it was now 24 hours later, full storm here now, and he hasn't heard
from them. And are these two like locals who would be used to the weather, know what to expect?
>> So, one is and one isn't. 40-year-old Jennette Bishop May, she lives in London
normally, but she just bought a country house nearby. She was trying to line up contractors and stuff for a renovation,
that's actually why they were meeting with the surveyor. But her friend with her, 39-year-old Gabriella Guerin, she
lives in Italy. Like not this part exactly, but she is there with Jennette to translate for her. So, when the
surveyor guy starts getting nervous, he starts making calls. First to the boarding house where he knew that the
women had been staying >> [music] >> and they confirm his fears. The owner says that the women never came back the
night before. So then he tries the man who sold Janette her house. Maybe, just maybe she decided to spend the night at
her new place. But he says no and he adds that Janette actually asked to meet him yesterday, but then she never showed
up. So now Nazareno's really [music] worried and so he goes straight to police and reports Janette and Gabriella
missing. And at first police are probably thinking the same as most people probably would, right? Two women
unfamiliar with the area, they drive into a mountain snowstorm and they get [music] stuck. Maybe they lost their
way, maybe they pulled over to wait it out. Now, when they're reported missing, like the storm is still raging. So they
can't do anything in that instant, but as soon as it calms down a little bit, police launch [music] a full search
effort. We're talking helicopter, dogs, ski patrol, volunteers, like they're all
scouring the mountain for these women or even their car, which is this small dark
colored hatchback with license plates from a city called Sienna. And Sienna is about 3 hours away. So a car with those
plates would kind of stand out here, right? It's not like they're unheard of, but
like easier to look for. >> For sure. And at the same time investigators start piecing together the
women's last known movements. And some of it tracks, right? Like witnesses report seeing their car
heading down toward the mountain [music] at around 1 p.m., which was like right after Nazareno said that they left. But
then either they changed their minds or they went up the mountain and came back and like it was just like a quick trip
because somebody sees them again at 4:15 in town. And it's this employee of a construction store and he knows it was
them at 4:15 because he actually saw them earlier with that surveyor. They had like come in to pay an invoice. But
the interesting thing is that he says at 4:15 Janette is wearing different clothing
than she was before. So I I know that that means they did or didn't go up the mountain. Like I said, it would have
been a short trip. >> But, if she changed, she at some point in time had to go back to like where
they were staying to change her clothes. >> Correct. The thing is though, we don't
have any sightings of them between 1:00 and 4:15. Especially, like we don't have
anyone at the boarding house who saw them in that time. There are, however, people who saw them after that.
Witnesses remember seeing them heading to their rooms, and they remember seeing their car parked out front of the
boarding house at around 5:00 p.m. And this is notable because this is about when the street lights come on. And
around this same time, they see the women actually like driving away from the boarding house. So, like we know
they're there after 4:00. We know at 5:00 they're driving away. But, we don't know where they go [music] at 5:00.
There aren't any other sightings of them or their car for the next 2-plus hours until around 7:20 [music] p.m. when
their car is seen heading downhill from the town center [music] with two people inside. Why would they wait until 7:20
to leave then and go to the mountain? Presumably, like this is happening in a snowstorm. Right. And it makes you think
that they didn't go before, cuz if you did, then why would you go back in a snowstorm? Right. And listen, I don't
know for sure if they were going to the mountain at that time. >> you said, they could have gone up and
come back already. >> Right. Like the way it works is you have to like go down the hill to like the
base and then go up into it. So, just cuz they were going down doesn't mean they were, but it's kind of like the
assumption everyone is making. And to your point, it makes no sense to do that when the storm is like beginning. Like
you know you're going to be putting yourself in a bad spot. Like you're already warned at 12:45 when you leave,
don't do it. Why would you do it at 7:20? So, police don't know where they were going, if it was even them. But, in all
this time that they're searching, there is still no sign of Janette, Gabriella, or their car. And by this time, it's
Sunday afternoon, and the storm is picking back up. So, the mountain search is temporarily called off. Now, it's
around this time that Jeannette's husband, [music] Steven, arrives in town. Now, he's been notified about her
disappearance. He's ready to help any way he can, [music] starting with more background on his wife, who turns out is
the ex-wife of Evelyn de Rothschild, one of the richest men in the world at the time. Jeannette and Evelyn met when
Jeannette was a model, and they were married for 5 years. That's actually how Jeannette and Gabriella met. Gabriella
worked as a cook for the Rothschilds in the UK. And even after Jeannette and Evelyn divorced in 1971, Jeannette and
Gabriella stayed close. So close even that Jeannette is the godmother of Gabriella's daughter.
And then, Jeannette met Steven a few years after her divorce, and then they got married in 1977. Now, Jeannette's
mom said in an interview with The Evening Standard that her and Evelyn's relationship post-divorce was amicable.
So, if she had enemies, they probably weren't in her past marriage, right? But, her being the ex-wife of a
Rothschild is enough to draw attention and set off a media frenzy, because abductions for ransom are happening all
over Italy at this point. I mean, like a lot of people know about John Paul Getty,
>> Right. but I had no idea that between the 1960s and the 1990s, over 700 people
were abducted by organized crime syndicates. Yeah, in Italy, and they were held for ransom.
So, if someone thought a member of the Rothschild family was alone in a small town village, like that is a potential
goldmine for the wrong person. I mean, and you're not even going to believe this. So, just a year before this, a
British businessman named Rothschild was abducted in Italy by criminals who thought that his name was Rothschild. I
mean, you truly can't even make that up. I know. [laughter] But the all that to say, would they even know
that she like at one point in time was a Rothschild? She hasn't been married to one in years, and you can't like Google
her right now. >> Yeah, not just like her walking down the street or something, but her passport
still says Janette de Rothschild with It just has like this note that she now uses the last name May. So, the thinking
is I I believe that if someone would have seen documentation, right? She checks in somewhere, somehow they see
her passport, like that's a dead giveaway. >> Okay, well, um if this is a ransom abduction, there has to be a
ransom demand. Like has that happened? >> No, that's the thing. It hasn't. >> [music]
>> And from the jump, Steven's not even buying this theory. He says that he and Janette lived comfortably, but they
weren't as wealthy as people might think. I mean, he works in HR at a department store. And according to Town
& Country magazine, Janette's divorce settlement from Evelyn had been modest. Like she got a home in London, and then
a small investment fund. And since then, she's like built a career as an interior
designer, like an antique stealer. >> Okay, but all of that is kind of internal knowledge, right? Like it's
totally possible for someone to see her passport, realize who she is or who she was married to, and think that she's a
lot wealthier than she actually is. Right. Again, like Steven's saying it doesn't make sense for them, but I think
the whole point is like if someone thought she was connected to someone else still.
>> Right, it still could be like something that someone thought and acted on. Well,
and it's especially believable when a new witness comes forward. He says that he saw two cars at around 4:00 p.m. on
Sunday. So, this is the day after they go missing. And he sees them in a town about 10 minutes outside of Sarnano. He
said the first car was a bigger car with Siena plates, and there were two people
inside. One of them looked like a woman. The other person he couldn't tell. And then the second car was a small, dark
hatchback, also with Siena plates, and like that matches up with what Janette's car was. And that car also had two
people inside and one of them looked like Janette. So, we talked about this a little bit, but are Sienna plates really
that out of the ordinary like in this region? I'm thinking about like seeing a Michigan plate or a New York plate or an
Ohio plate here in Indiana. It's And it's a ton, but it's not unheard of. Yeah, and it is a ski resort. So, like
one or two cars with Sienna plates like it's probably not a big deal. But I think it's just the fact that they're
seeing them like together, they're seeing the hatchback, like it's all it's all the things. And there are a few
people in Saranac that start recalling this same thing. That in the days before and after the women disappeared, there
were a lot of cars with Sienna plates. So, it must have been like more than usual. Enough that it raises eyebrows.
Now, police can't link any of those specifically like to any of this, but it kind of gets them thinking. So, what if
Janette and Gabriella were in two separate cars? Like not that they brought two cars, but like that
that sighting was real. Like did someone follow them? Did someone come like who >> get separated somehow? Yeah, but
basically and if that sighting's legit and you combine it with everything else that stood out to an investigator we
spoke to, like them missing the meeting with the homeowner and possibly going to
the mountains more than once, then maybe this wasn't just a wrong turn in a snowstorm. Maybe, now they're thinking,
they were taken against their will. Did they ever fully search the boarding house where the women were staying? Like
was anything missing? So, from what I like I saw, it like doesn't look from like what police can tell that anything
had been disturbed. I don't know how much they actually tore it apart though and like did a detail search. I get the
sense it wasn't very much because something interesting is found there that like doesn't come to their
attention until December 4th when Steven finds it. And what he finds in their room was this handwritten note
seemingly written by Jeanette. And it lists a few phone numbers and it has a line that just says,
"Please do not hesitate." Hesitate to do what? Yeah, so I I I've gone in circles with so many things on
this. This is one of them. One of our writers I was talking to thought that maybe it was like a note for the front
desk. Like, "Hey, if these people call, like don't hesitate to >> Like approved numbers.
>> Yeah, but A, why would it be with the front desk is my question. B, even if it was going to be given to
the front desk, like it just hadn't yet, wouldn't you put someone's name and not
the number? Like if this person calls >> What if it's like the opposite? Like maybe don't hesitate to reach out to
these people for in case of emergency? I don't know. >> Exactly. Like reach out to them for like
It doesn't give enough information. Like and it doesn't add up. Doesn't even make
more sense after they find out who those numbers belong to. I guess one was to a
beach club 2 hours south of Rome and the others went to like three different men
who they were able to or they were at least able to find two of them that I know of. And it doesn't seem like any of
them have anything to do with any of this. >> Mhm. And it doesn't seem like any of the
numbers or people connected to the numbers get tied to an incoming telegram that gets delivered to the boarding
house from Rome shortly after. So, this telegram is addressed to someone named Jeanine May. And this is where things
get so weird. I mean cuz right off the bat, like the telegram itself is strange. Like it
feels like it's for Jeanette May, but as far as police know, nobody calls her Jeanine. So, like where did that come
from? >> Yeah, that's off already. All this thing says is, "I am waiting for you."
And then it's followed by a Roma dress and it's signed by someone named Roland. And is this address a house, a a
business Does it Does it exist at all? Yeah, I know. So, this is where things get super
weird. Not only does the address exist, they don't even have to look up the address to know that it exists.
>> They know it. Because the address is already on their radar in connection to another crime.
On December 3rd, so a couple of days after the women disappeared, but before that Janine May telegram was [music]
received, another mysterious telegram was the center of an investigation unfolding in Rome.
This one was sent to a director of the famous auction house Christie's at its Rome headquarters. And it said something
like, "Recovery is possible." And then it directs them to the address that was on the Janine May telegram. But this one
was signed by someone named Rodrigo. Okay, but recovery of what is possible? Probably art. At least that's what
police think because >> Because of Christie's. Yeah, and because the night after Janette and Gabriella
went missing, there was a major art theft at Christie's in Rome. Like things are feeling like a little backwards, but
art probably. Wait, so these two women were somehow tied up in an art theft operation? Is that what
you're saying? >> I don't know if they're tied up in it necessarily, but it sure like seems like
the two events have to be connected in some way, right? Right, we have this address.
>> Same one being used. I mean that alone is enough to sell me on it, but on top
of that, it turns out that Janette does have some connections to the art world through her interior design work. So,
it's not like it was a completely foreign, right? Like it's not like if all of a sudden people are like asking
for ransom and tying me to the art world. Like >> [laughter] >> But then things get more complicated
because while police are trying to wrap their heads around a connection between these two telegrams, they learn that
three more have been sent to families of prominent people who have been abducted
in Rome. And again, they instruct them to go to that same address [music] in all of them. And
they were addressed to the family members telling them again, specifically to go to this address or was it like
Janette's where it was like addressed to >> go. So, I know one of them was addressed
to the family members. I don't know about the other two. So, I know one is different than Janette's. I don't know
about the other ones. >> And it's weird because like they when I say ransom, they weren't even making
straight-up ransom demands. They were actually like more similar to the Christie's telegram saying like go to
this place if you want answers kind of thing. [music] And I don't know if those families went
to the address or what happened if they did. I just know that one of the people who'd been abducted, this industrialist,
is eventually found dead. He had been shot in the head even after part of the $450,000
ransom had been paid. The other two people, however, did eventually get released. But police are probably
feeling like time is running out to track down whoever sent these telegrams. Like how dangerous are these people?
Now, they're able to figure out the addresses that the telegrams were supposedly sent from. [music]
And there are like a couple of different from addresses. But surprise, surprise,
when they look it up, they're able to figure out that the addresses that the telegrams were supposedly sent from cuz
they're like they're from address, there were a couple different ones. They were
different like numbers but all on the same street. They don't exist. >> Or like the numbers don't. The street
itself, though, does exist. And so police obviously like search it except they don't find anything or like find
anyone who knows about like the person who would have sent this. Except when they're doing this like canvassing, they
do find, interestingly, that another director who works for Christie's art house or auction house
actually lives on that street. >> Oh. Yeah, which is you know, a huge red flag. And police
search his apartment, where they find illegal firearms, they find narcotics. They also search his girlfriend's place,
and according to Corriere della Sera, there they find a diagram of Christie's alarm system. So, it's looking more and
more likely that this director may have sent the telegram to the other director,
as well as maybe even planned that heist. But, even like with all the weird things they collect, apparently there's
nothing concrete to prove that this guy was [music] involved, and none of the art that was
taken is ever recovered. So, they can't tie this director to any of the telegrams or the ransom plots, either.
And even though police do arrest him, he is eventually released. And all the while, police are still
wondering if he has any connection to Gabriella and Jeanette's disappearance. I feel like the key to all of this is
this address that everyone was told to go to. >> like that it was involved in all the
telegrams. Which I told you was real. Yes, okay. So, when they go to this address, it does not disappoint.
According to the Manchester Evening News, they find at this address a group of South Americans living there. One of
whom is a woman out on bail who had been charged in 1976 with abducting an ambassador to Rome. Oh.
>> I know, like kind of the thing we're looking into. Yeah. So, she and everyone
else in the apartment end up getting arrested when they find like narcotics in the place, right? They can't tie them
to the abductions, yes, but they like Any connection to the Christie's director with narcotics at the other
address? No, so like Different, okay. Well, I don't know that it's different, but I just know they didn't find any
connection to him. Like except for the telegrams. Like But on paper, no. No connection except
for all the connections. Got it. >> Right. So, but when police start digging into the people who live there, they
uncover this whole other layer. So, they learn that two people in the apartment had some kind of beef with another
woman, and that she might have sent the telegrams to set them up. Like she knew police would investigate and that they
would get raided. >> Okay, but you got to be real lucky if you just like guess addresses that tie back to the
street where the connections lived, and that guy also turns out to be shady. Like that's a lot.
I agree. I I will say sometimes things can be stranger than fiction because when they
start like going down this road and looking into this woman, what they see is that the Peruvian
embassy was on the same street as that like shady Christie's director, and this woman that they suspect was the sender
was from Peru. So, they're like, I mean, it's a street she would have been familiar with.
>> Or she's connected to the guy, too. Two birds, one stone. Police don't think so.
They think that she probably saw these big cases in the news and took advantage of that because she had some kind of axe
to grind. [music] And police just write it off. Like just like that. I mean, So,
>> [laughter] >> just to recap what they're writing off. >> Mhm. Finding a known kidnapper at the address
that the telegrams referenced. Mhm. Finding a director of the auction house where the heist like where the heist
happened on the same street as the other address referenced. Mhm. Oh. I All coincidence. I'm having trouble I
know. like processing that many coincidences. I know. But police now are of the mindset that
the telegrams were just some kind of hoax. And so they put that line of investigation to the side. And maybe
because at that point they have a bigger, better lead. Almost 3 weeks after Jennette and
Gabriella went missing, we are now December 18th, the women's car is found. It's spotted by police on a snowy
roadside about 20 to 30 minutes from the boarding [music] house. And truthfully,
I don't even think they know it's a car at first. Like it's almost completely buried under a pile of snow. There's
just like this part of it that was reflecting the sun, which is what caught police's eye when they were up in a
helicopter. But when search teams dig it out, they know for sure it is Jennette and Gabriella's car.
Doors are locked, but they can still see the keys inside along with some valuables. The car is in neutral with
the handbrake pulled, and when they later examine it, the car is totally fine and working. And importantly, when
they got to it, they noticed that the wheels are on top of asphalt, not a like huge layer of snow, which means that
whoever drove it was driving on a at least clearish road. They stopped intentionally on that road and left it
there before the storm came down. And is this like up the mountain or like down in the valley? Like on the way?
Okay. Yeah, so it's up a mountain road about 4 miles or like 12 minutes from the closest town. And not too far from
where they were staying. So, okay, the car is parked on again, clearish road at least. If it wasn't
snowing so bad, why would they stop? I don't know. And I mean, I should clarify. Like just
because like they're not on top of a ton of snow, doesn't mean that it wasn't getting bad. Well, but you I mean, you
know, we're in Indiana. Like it takes a minute for for ground to actually freeze
up hard enough to hold snow, especially on a road that's being driven. So really
like what police are thinking is that they pulled over because it was getting really bad. In my mind it had to have
been really bad for them not to be able to go 12 minutes back to like the nearest town. You know what I mean? But
they talked to some workers who say that they got stuck in a snowbank on the same
day that the same women went missing near where Gabriella and Jeanette's car was found. Police think that [music]
like they saw it getting bad, they like stopped, they pulled over to kind of like wait it out cuz you are in a
mountain. Maybe you don't want to like drive down in whiteout conditions. I mean fair.
>> But then why leave their fully functioning car to venture out into the snow? You and I are super familiar with
snow. You don't just like get out of a car to wander, to go someplace to like maybe find something TBD.
I know. So [music] yes, like I understand that sitting and waiting kind of. If they decided to go
in what is a snowstorm, they're 12 minutes away from the nearest town. because not too far off the road. It's like a
short walk from where the car is parked. Police end up finding this house. So they learn that the owner of the house
used it as a place for shepherds to stay during the summer, which is like a line straight out of the Bible.
>> [laughter] >> But in the winter, it's typically empty. And the house owner even confirms that
it should have been empty that November/December because repairs were being done on it. Except when police go
to this house, they search the house, there were signs that someone had been there recently. Like the fireplace is
full of ashes and there's burnt furniture and there are used plates and silverware. Are there any like
fingerprints or DNA? So there's actually a note about them finding unknown fingerprints in the car
that they sent off to agencies across Italy as like I mean they sent Interpol, Scotland Yard, all of that. And they
never say if anything comes of that. Though I know Jeanette actually borrowed the car from a guy, could be his, blah
blah blah. All that to say, they never say anything about Prince in the house, which I think is kind of weird because I
know they searched it pretty well. Like enough that they did find hair in the bathroom that they think might belong to
Janette or to Gabriella. >> Mhm. But in 1980, it's not like they can say for sure it's theirs with DNA.
They're just doing like a visual comparison. >> Yeah, maybe under a microscope or
something. So they think that the women had been there. Like again, they pull over, they go to
this house. They even think that maybe they tried to signal for help by lighting fire on the balcony because
they found burnt wood out there, too. Which how would all the searchers miss that? Well, from what I can tell, this
house is in a remote spot and I think it got buried in snow during the storm. Like I don't even know how
long a fire outside would have lasted Okay, but there's fire inside, too. There You said there's like ashes there,
like smoke from the fireplace inside. >> Yeah, but if you remember, like they don't start the search right away and
even when they do, they have to call it off for a little bit because the storm like picks up again. And so like maybe,
I don't know, I'm just guessing, but like maybe like when there is a fire going on, there's no helicopters to see
the smoke, no one out there to see the smoke and then by the time that second storm passes through, like everything's
buried in snow, you're not setting fires on anything. >> Mhm. So because they're not there, then
police wonder like, "Okay, did you see that like all your options for like sending for help are gone?" [music]
Did they possibly try to venture out on their own like to one of those nearby towns, right? Car's buried, can't use
that. So they go to this like other local town, which is another ski resort, to try and piece together what other
locals might have seen. But that honestly ends up muddying the waters even more because no one reports seeing Janette
and Gabriella after the storm. Instead, there are even more reported sightings from the day they disappeared.
Two hunters tell police that around 3:00 p.m. that day, they saw three people, two that they think were women, standing
near a dark-colored car close to where their car ends up being found. And then, the manager of a hotel in town claims
that he saw Jeanette and Gabriella three times that same day between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. when they came into his
hotel for a drink. And when they left, the manager noticed Jeanette speaking to a man outside in a car. Now, I don't
have a full description of this guy, but Generale Carlo Felice Corsetti. That is a mouthful, but he was an
original investigator on the case. Told us that the manager described this guy as well-dressed in a way that stood out
to him. So, we've got that. And then around 8:00 p.m., the manager was driving down the mountain to Sarnano
when he passed three cars, one of them a dark-colored car like Jeanette's. Now, this doesn't totally add up
because police double-check with Nazareno and the owner of the boarding house, and they both say that the women
didn't leave the boarding house until around 9:45 a.m. Which automatically doesn't make that
that manager's timeline work. If he's saying he starts seeing them at like 10:00. And because of that
inconsistency, police decide to toss his whole statement. Which sends them back to square one. But
I think that that sighting of her at 3:00 is interesting because is that where they went in between Right, cuz we
don't have them in Sarnano between 1:00 and 4:00. Right. So, is is that possible? Is that where they
went? Maybe not up the mountain. Doesn't explain why you're still going up there
at 7:20, but it could be why no one saw them in that town. They're at this other ski
resort. I don't know. >> Mhm. But that sighting of her at 2:00 p.m. I think is really interesting
because we don't Like right, we have that window. >> It's in the middle of that like 1:00 and
4:00. >> Right. So, is this where they went in that time? Did they not go up the
mountain, but they went to this ski resort at that time. For what, I don't know.
Now, at this point, Jennette's husband, Steven, had to go back to London. So, police traveled there to talk to him. In
the time since he's been back, he's been looking into Jennette's finances, [music] and he tells police that she had
a few bank accounts, some in England, some in Italy, but there hasn't been any activity [music]
in any of them since the day she disappeared. And none of the travelers checks that were issued to her in
November had been cashed either. But in this meeting, he also mentions that Jennette did some business with a
gallerist living in London who happens to share a last name with a Sicilian crime family. And this starts to make
police rethink those telegrams. Even if they still can't make a clear connection to the Christie heist.
This is like, I don't know, another red flag. >> Mhm. They know mafia bosses apparently
used stolen art to launder money. So, did Jennette somehow get mixed up with the wrong crowd? Which, don't get me
wrong, I would love to go back to these telegrams because they're >> [laughter] >> very interesting and I have so many
questions. When it comes to Jennette, everything else seems to be pointing to an
accident. >> It's almost like police are going around and around, [music] like in circles, right? Like
back and forth between theories because even in accident, like there isn't one single theory that totally fits.
Accident, why stop the car? Why take shelter? And then if you're going to take shelter, why leave?
And then what are those like possible sightings of them with other people, other cars? Then why do they find stuff
at that house? Where did What if they were like held there, though? I mean, that makes just as much sense as
like anything else to me, but by who? Right. That's what they can't get a firm grip on. And listen, they keep getting
tips about possible suspects, >> [music] >> and they run them down, but then it ends
up being nothing. Like there was one woman who implicated her ex-boyfriend, said that he was a Brazilian gem dealer
who bragged to her about killing two women, but they end up arresting him on something else. They show his picture
around to people. None of those people can confirm that they ever saw him with the women, and they end up releasing him
because, according to a Scottish newspaper, the ex-girlfriend eventually even admits that she made it all up to
get back at him for their breakup. And amidst all these bogus allegations and false leads they're chasing down,
probably the most promising one gets totally missed. On January 30th, 1981, so this is almost 2 months exactly after
[music] Jenette and Gabriella disappeared, someone calls the Daily Mail's Rome office late at night claiming to have
information about the women. The tipster says that his name is Ian Sayre, and that Jenette got a telegram
the day she disappeared. >> Another telegram? Well, no, no, no. This is This is the first telegram that she got.
But he says he he says that he knows about the telegram, and then he says another telegram has been sent to
Christie's. The important part of this is that none of this had been made public yet.
Now, because it had not been made public, the editor didn't take this seriously. So, like, we know this is
important. >> editor who took the call didn't and was like, "LOL, what are you talking about?
Bye-bye." >> Yeah, thank you, but no thank you. So, this kind of just stays in the back of
this editor's mind. Doesn't even mention it to anyone. But as more and more time starts
passing, [music] as police start getting hard up for leads, and they eventually start telling
the public more and more about the case, >> he finds out about the telegram. >> Yes. And that's when he's like, "Oh,
shoot." So, the editor first tries calling this Ian Sayre fellow at the number that came
through on his old school telex. The number was for an Austrian hotel. And magically, Ian is still there.
He is there researching a book with two journalists. But get this, when the editor has a reporter reach out, this
Ian guy tells the reporter, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't call you. I don't know
anything about missing women in Italy or telegrams or Christie's auction house."
But whoever made that call had to have made it from the hotel that Ian was staying at. It's not like they could
just like say that because the way that it came through on the telex like I was talking about,
>> [music] >> it's basically like a fancy typewriter that automatically records the number
that the message is coming from. Oh, so it's not like the guy even like left the
number. It came out of the machine. >> Yeah, you can't fake it back then. >> Right. So, when they're kind of just
like like stumped, right? Like they're like, "Okay, what do I don't know what this means." That's when the editor
eventually passes this on to police who go and question Ian and the two journalists that are with him trying to
establish some kind of connection between him or Christie's or the women or freaking anything in this story. And
it turns out Ian grew a door-to-door parcel business into this huge logistics company. Christie's was one of their
clients. But they had like tens of thousands of clients. So, like that doesn't seem like a a good
enough connection. >> Yeah. His wife was a model like Janette was at one point in her life, but he
told police and us cuz girl like the team put in the work on this episode. They were making international phone
calls. >> [laughter] >> He said that he had never met Janette or Gabriella who who by the way like
Janette met Gabriella like long after her modeling days. And while we couldn't talk to the other two journalists that
Ian was with because [music] they've since died, their statements are in court documents and both of them say
that they had never heard Ian even mention Jeanette or this case until after that call from the Daily Mail came
in. >> Yeah, cuz he was like, "Dude, this is weird." So, they've got nothing here.
And it like it kind of just goes away, but they still will like follow up and question
him for years afterwards. [music] Like just seeing if this makes sense, like seeing if they missed something,
seeing if stories change, but eventually they they completely move on from this tip.
>> Which I kind of agree with. I feel like we can cross him off the list, right?
Ian didn't have anything to do with this. He doesn't like it seems super bizarre that he's even involved, but
I mean someone staying at his hotel knew about those telegrams. They called. >> somebody like passing through. I mean,
they don't have to be staying at the hotel, but they had to have like been around.
>> Yeah, even if they're just passing through, how do you know Ian's name to give?
>> This is what I'm saying. It feels like such a spider web. Like it's no wonder
people get tangled up in this case. Cuz you want to just say like, "Oh, someone maybe knew Ian and knew he was staying
there and used his name." No, like we know it had to have come from the hotel, so someone had to like
know he was staying there and be there. >> So, what is this person doing in Austria
then 2 months after the women go missing? It's not even like this is like a bad hoax. This person had to have
actually known legit information that wasn't public. >> Right, because the telegrams weren't
public yet. Okay, so did police look at other guests at the hotel? Did the hotel like keep records
of who did what calls? Were any of the employees looked at maybe? Geraldo Corsetti told us that he like straight
up flew to Austria. Actually, he flew to many countries as part of his investigation, but he actually couldn't
say much more than that. So, I don't know what that entailed. I have to imagine you look at like everyone who
was in that hotel or whatever. Especially if I'm thinking like employees who are at the hotel would
have access to the phones, would have like >> there? Like Who knows exactly who knows
who's staying there. From the court I will I will say I don't know what they did. From the court records that we
have, the things I can actually see, it seems like police were focused on Ian. [music]
I don't know how much they checked out other possibilities if at all, and I just know that Ian doesn't go anywhere.
So, months pass, the snow melts, seasons come and go, winter comes again, and there is still no Jeanette or no
Gabriella. So, on January 14, 1982, Steven decides to make a broadcast, like a public appeal for information. And
Brett, I'm going to have you read the sections for me, one sec. It has now been a year since the
mysterious disappearance of my wife, Jeanette, and Gabriella Guerin in the mountains above Sernano in the Marche
region. Gabriella's [music] two small children, 12-year-old Ottavio and 4-year-old Gioia, lost their father
almost 4 years ago in a car accident. Now they have been without their mother for over a year, and it is not fair to
ask them to go on living in the uncertainty of what might have happened to her. My wife's family and I, too, have
endured the anguish and false hopes of a year marked by uncertainty. Despite repeated searches and police
investigations, and despite the generous help of volunteers and local residents,
this tragic disappearance remains a mystery. What could have happened? Surely someone must be able to release
us from the torment and uncertainty of not knowing the truth. Was this disappearance the result of a
terrible crime, or is there another explanation? So, I'm really glad that he brought up Gabriella so much in this
statement, cuz it really does seem like all the focus has been around Jeanette, especially when it comes to like all the
foul play stuff. Did police ever really dig into Gabriella's life? >> So, this is one of those other things
where it's like if they did, I don't know about it. Like, it's not in any of the official documents or the reporting
that we looked at. I think that police were much more heavily focused on Jeanette because like
the world that she was in, right? The Rothschild, the It was my It felt much bigger. Right. Like, the world she moved
in just had more connections to what they think could be possible. Like, I mean, Gabriella lives a relatively
simple life in comparison. Like, she provides for her kids the best she could after her husband's death. She didn't
have enemies. She wasn't moving in the same world. So, it seems like the consensus was that she
was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we even tried to reach out to her
family to ask like some of these questions, but we couldn't get in touch with anyone who knew her or her kids
well. So, this statement goes out because if anyone is still holding on to tips, police [music] and Steven want to
know. So, Steven offers up a reward of up to 100 million lire, which is like it would be today like $235,000.
And he's basically looking for any information that will help solve this case. And he says there'll be even more
if it leads to finding Jeanette and Gabriella alive. And [music] this money, this is everything Steven has to his
name, and he is willing to give it all up to bring them home. And maybe that's what it took. Because
within 2 weeks, on January 27th, he gets his wish. But not what he'd actually hoped for.
Hunters hiking up the mountain find objects [music] scattered across the snow in a ravine in this like
densely wooded area about 8 miles from where the cabin was. They're finding boots, purses, clothing,
and then bones. When police get there and do a formal search, right away, they zero in on a
couple of things. First, they find a fork that looks just like the ones at the house that they
believe Janette and Gabriella sheltered in during the storm. The second thing was inside the purses,
which by the way, nothing is missing from, [music] they noticed two watches that they
believed belonged to the women. According to a local Italian newspaper, Janette's watch is manually wound and
Gabriella's is like a battery-powered watch. Janette's stopped on December [music]
12th, 1980 at 7:20 a.m. Gabriella's stopped a week later, December 19th at 7:30 a.m.
So, a week and 10 minutes apart. Exactly. >> Kind of spooky, I know. And when was the
car and the cabin found? Uh so, December 18th is when they found those things. So,
basically, Janette's manually wound watch stopped two weeks after they went missing.
Gabriella's battery one stopped three weeks after and just one day after the car was found. So, I mean, if they would
have waited just a little longer, they might have been found. Maybe. If you want to stick to the theory that
they took shelter from the storm in the cabin and then they ventured out to get help, which is clearly what this is
meant to look like, but there are some real problems with that theory now that they have located
the women. First of all, if the bodies were there the whole time, why didn't anyone see them?
The investigator that we talked to said that that area that they were found in, it was outside of police's official
search radius. But, a local veterinarian says that he had set a fox trap less than 15 ft away from where they found
the remains, but he never noticed a smell there. >> [music] >> I mean, he even remembers the exact spot
when he goes back with police and sure enough, there is still a bit of trap sitting tied to like a nearby shrub.
Also, like okay, fine, the guy didn't notice them. What, they both just laid down and died in the exact same spot?
Like I mean animals had like gotten to the remains, right? Like some of them had been scattered like bones, but like
they're still pretty much intact in their clothes with their bags. Nothing seems to be missing.
>> Well, and I'm thinking also they were found in January and like not that January. Like time had passed. Like you
said season had seasons had changed. Again, I think it's weird that they weren't found, but I'm just like I also
like you think about two women, okay, we're going to venture out to get help. They just Like what are the odds I'm I'm
saying that they like even like succumb to the elements at the exact same spot together and lay down. Like what if I I
can see one of them was like, okay, well I'm going to keep going and I'm going to
get help because now the situation is even more dire. Right. And like you need help, I need to be able to bring people
back to you. And like the even the watches. I mean maybe it's because one was wound, one is
battery, who knows. It's I just like I think about other cases we've done where people have where they think that they
die in the snow. They're they're not all found like in the same spot. >> bodies are found together, it usually
means they died together and that seems really unlikely when exposure is the cause of death.
>> Yes. And then more holes are poked in the exposure theory when police talk to a
mountain rescue volunteer who helped with the original [music] search. He remembers that when the searchers went
out, the snow was so deep that they could only get through on skis. So, again, the women are waiting until
after the storm theoretically to venture out to get help because they don't think
anyone's coming. He doesn't think the women could have even physically made it to where they were found in that ravine
on foot. Especially because by the way, didn't mention this, Gabriella was wearing a skirt.
So, I don't think she would have made it 8 miles and I go back to like the fact that they're found together. Jeanette is
not wearing a skirt. Like she was in pants or something. So, theoretically in my mind she could have
gotten farther if they did at least try, but I don't think they get the 8 miles to begin with. And there was even still
some uncertainty over whose remains were found. Like there's no DNA testing yet,
so Janette ends up getting identified through dental records. There aren't any on file for Gabriella, so it seems like
police are mostly just relying on her clothes and stuff to identify her. And eventually
forensic testing confirms that the remains belong to a woman, but that's like it. I mean police seem pretty sure
it's Gabriella. I mean, that's who went missing with Janette and they have Janette, but they
also don't like look at any other possibilities based on the court documents that we read. But that ends up
being like a huge open question to her family. Well, Yeah, and again, I have questions about
all of this. Honestly, especially these hunters that found them. Like they just happened to
stumble on these remains conveniently right after a reward was announced. >> which they fully expect to cash in on by
the way. Just 2 days after finding the bodies, one of those hunters writes a demand
letter to Steven's lawyer for the reward money. Remember, like all the money to Steven's name. And Steven's lawyer is
like, "No. You legally have to tell police if you find human remains. Like that's a civic
duty, not information." Yeah. And even though Steven's still willing to pay them a portion of the reward, the hunter
ends up suing [snorts] him for the full amount and wins. He He sues this grieving husband who put this money up
Yes. to find his missing wife. >> And he Like I said, he ends up winning. He gets the full reward plus interest,
but it doesn't seem like police ever look into any of the hunters as suspects. And
maybe that's because at this point they're not looking at this as a murder at all anymore, especially when the
medical examiner's report comes in on April 3rd. It shows there's no physical evidence of
trauma. So, like no blunt force injuries, no stab [music] wounds, bullets, and which again, we're just
probably dealing with bones, but you can see that on the skeleton. And so, going
up with what he has, the medical examiner thinks that the cause of death is probably just exposure. And based on
what quote-unquote he says is logic, he believes that the women likely died sometime right after they went missing.
But there's no way, he says, to tell how long the remains had been in the ravine
where they were found. So, the ME rules their deaths as accidental deaths from exposure to snow.
Steven gets permission to fly Jeannette's remains home to London, where they're cremated. Gabriella is
buried in her hometown. And a prosecutor moves to close the case. Close the case with so many open
questions yet? Mhm. I'm with you. Steven is with you. According to Town & Country magazine, in
1982, he reaches out to two journalists at The Sunday Times who have been reporting on the case.
And he like he can't let it go. So, he asked them to do their own investigation.
And after months of work, the journalists come up with a brand new theory that they publish in this 20-page
feature on November 7th, 1982. You ready? Sure. So, they think that Jeannette [music]
set up a meeting in the mountains to sell an antique. Who she thought was a buyer was actually
part of a Sardinian abduction ring. And they abducted Jeannette and Gabriella. And when the abductors
thought that the women knew enough to identify them, they killed them. Right? Like we know there's no ransom note.
>> Right. But the journalists allege that if a note went to a family like the Rothschilds, the journalists say that
they would keep that kind of thing quiet. Why? Partially for safety. Like I mean they
have money to hire people outside of law enforcement to advise them on things like this, right? Like so
why risk getting police involved if kidnappers are threatening who they think is your family member,
who was your family member? >> of keep it in the family. Yeah. And like plus like I remember this from the Getty
kidnapping. The Gettys didn't want to publicize or pay the ransom at all because they thought that that would
lead to more family members getting >> Oh. kidnapped. >> Yeah. I would think that like at least
they would tell Steven, but again maybe Steven would tell police because it just
kind of seems wild to me to like protect your whole family just like like leave her family wondering forever,
but this is the theory. And whether that theory is true or not, it gets enough attention that investigators actually do
take a deep dive into the evidence and re-interview witnesses. So like closed no more. This time around they notice
another problem with the initial like theory or ruling or decision. And it comes to something so basic.
It turns out the women probably couldn't have seen the house from the road where
their car stopped. >> I had this question to begin with cuz like they pull off on the side of the
road because it's so bad. >> bad. And they don't want to stay in their running car. I've driven in really
really bad snow and visibility is like zero. It's so bad they don't want to drive 12 minutes back to the town.
Right. But they can see like they get out of the car because why? >> Mhm. In theory, they're going to seek
shelter in this house. But if it's so bad that they can't drive the 12 minutes back,
how can they see the house? >> They can't. >> So they're just getting out of their car
into the white void of a snowstorm? Yeah. So So when you put it that way, like yes, they would have left their
perfectly fine running car to just walk into the woods in a snowstorm. Which is bananas.
>> Bonkers. All that to say, when they're found and their stuff is found, there is a fork
from the house. >> house. And there are hairs in the house. They make it seem like they were there.
>> Right. So, how did they get there if they went there? >> Or who took them there? Because you
would have had to know that this house was there to get from the car to the house.
>> a snowstorm. >> It makes me wonder like, is the house not a shelter place, but like a meeting
place? Mhm. So, it was like a pointed place that they were going to. >> Or someone took them to right like like
someone took them there. >> point. >> Uh yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So, listen. Okay, so they're looking
into this now cuz they they've realized they had this big flaw in their initial theory. Yeah. And when they dig, like
when you actually like go down this road, the police end up learning that there may have been a connection between
Jennette and a very dangerous man, who they discover also has ties to the Christie's heist. Christie's is back.
>> At Christie's is back. So, as they're interviewing and then re-interviewing people for this new investigation,
police speak to one of Jennette's friends who they show photos of people that they think she might have known.
So, they end up showing her pictures of some guys that they think might be connected to Jennette. And the friend
recognizes one of them, this guy named Sergio Vaccari. He is an Italian antique dealer and reported drug dealer who'd
lived in London until he was stabbed to death in his apartment on September 15th, 1982.
Which is after the women have like disappeared, whatever. So, police in London were still
investigating Sergio's murder when they searched his safe deposit box and found photos of stolen antiques, some of
which, by the way, were taken during Christie's heist in '80. They shared that with the Italian police looking
into the heist, which is how Sergio got on their radar. So, thank god they had reopened this investigation cuz I almost
wonder like if it had been closed and nobody was thinking about it like would this have ever been like brought up,
tied back together? >> So, they keep going down this road. I mean, this finally feels like it has
some real weight to it and like maybe can explain the things we couldn't before.
And it keeps getting more solid. Through a man who knew Sergio, they find out that there was a name written in
Sergio's diary. Janette. No last name, though. And that guy remembers that next to her
name, he saw a phone number. Problem is police can't track down Sergio's diary, so they can't track down
the number or tie it to Janette in any way. But even without the diary, the more police look into Sergio, the more
they think they may finally be on the right track. Because Sergio may have been involved in another mysterious
death of an Italian banker. So, I know I'm getting out a little bit of a tangent, but like you got to
understand who this guy is and like the world that we're operating in. So, a British journalist tells police
that a source, he can't say who, but it's someone in the antique dealing world who has come up in the
investigation before. This source told him that Sergio had something to do with the death of man
named Roberto Calvi. Roberto was the chairman of a Vatican-backed bank [music] that collapsed in June 1982
after an investigation showed that the bank had committed massive [music] financial fraud involving like secret
offshore accounts, unauthorized loans, and I mean, they had ties to mafia groups. [music]
After all of that, this Roberto guy fled to London and then he's found hanging under a bridge 12 days later.
His death gets ruled a suicide, like all that. Now, this journalist source says that he knows Sergio is connected to
Roberto's death because once when he was in Sergio's car, he had opened Sergio's
bag. This is the point where he's like alone in the car with the bag. And he says a few photos fall out. One of them
was Roberto. And then there was another photo of Janette. And the journalist tells
police that the source was still in the car with the pictures when Sergio came back. And Sergio actually told him that
he was involved in Roberto's death. What did he say about the picture of Janette?
According to the source, nothing. Which makes this a great lead that they can't do anything with.
>> Right, that's kind of a dead end. Even though they're are now more convinced that the women met with foul play,
they still can't say when or how. Even the why still feels fuzzy. Mhm. And they definitely can't say who.
So, without any suspects to charge, even though like they feel like something different happened, the case
still gets closed out in October of 1989. Uh okay. Do police ever retest the physical evidence from the house or the
remains or anything? >> Not that I can tell. I mean, certainly not before '89. Like
there was a whole lot new they could do. I know that according to an Italian daily newspaper, so in uh 2005, a
biology professor actually reached out to Gabriella's family asking to analyze her remains. Like I think they were
hoping once and for all to confirm whether or not the remains belonged to Gabriella. Remember there was kind of
like a question about that. So, her family lets this guy exhume the remains. They also give him a DNA sample.
But this is so weird. When he runs the tests, it's only Gabriella's DNA that is present.
No one else's. Which like feels like you're like, "Yeah, so what? No big deal." You would kind of expect something from
Janette. Right? Because like back in the day, Right, this is it. >> in '80, so they're kind of just like
pushing everything together. But not even pushing everything, like even with how they were found. Like animals like
could have moved stuff or whatever. Back in the day, like what they had wasn't advanced enough, like the their
type of tech or whatever to like separate the remains when they were processed, right? You have like certain
bones and and you can probably guess based on height or whatever. But I think everyone kind of expected
some mixing. And like we said, like Jeanette's remains end up being cremated. And Steven refused to provide
any samples. Though like like I don't even know like what samples he would have. So answers about like what what
what could have been hers or not hers, like that's long gone. It's just like a weird thing. Again, I don't know that it
means anything. It's just like strange and if you like look into this case, you're going to see it pop up. And for
people who want to get really conspiratorial, I think it it lends to that, like what what was Jeanette
actually dead? Again, they they ID'd her though through dental record. I don't know. I don't know. But it's like things
I've seen people spiral on. So this testing gets done, but it doesn't bring police any new leads.
And the case again goes cold and interest wanes until 2013. That's when a photographer named Marco
Accetti makes some wild claims. Which brings the Vatican back to this case. And an old Crime Junkie episode. So we
did a fan club episode about the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi. She was a 15-year-old girl who went to a
Vatican City school. I'll link to it in the show notes if you guys need a reminder. But Marco is the
guy who claimed responsibility for her kidnapping. While he was already in prison for running over a 12-year-old
boy. So when police had questioned him about Emanuela, Marco says that in the '80s he
was involved with this secret group that acted on behalf of religious figures who
opposed mainstream Vatican politics. They And he says, like back to this case, that they wanted to recruit Jeanette for
some kind of blackmail plan. Like they wanted her to falsely accuse the president of the Vatican bank.
And this is the bank that Roberto Calvi chaired. They wanted her to accuse him of sexual
assault. Which so he throws that out there and then he makes a 180° turn and says that
they never actually got in contact with Jeanette and that her death doesn't have
anything to do with him. So So why bring her up at all? But okay. Is there any connection between Jeanette
and Emanuela? Or does this guy just confess to everything for fun? >> don't Like I If I remember correctly,
like he They never actually found a connection. >> No, I don't think there's any connection
besides like him, right? Like in He's just like bringing it up. >> In both his versions, like Jeanette and
Emanuela were like tangential pieces in his group's Vatican blackmail plot. And like when I try to like see if there's
any like ties, like the only thing I could find was that Stephen hired [music] the same lawyer as Emanuela's
family. But that's about it. And Emanuela's family has been clear that they think Marco made up the
allegations involving their daughter for attention. So if that's true, it's very
possible he's doing it again. Mhm. But I mean it's a clickbaity story. So it's no
wonder that the media just kind of runs with it when it happens. Which like you know, it's like double-edged sword,
right? Like it's It's media attention, but it's like the wrong kind. It's the wrong direction.
>> bring attention back to the case. And maybe because of that, maybe because of
something else that's happening that we don't know, I do know that just in November of 2024, Jeanette and
Gabriella's case got reopened as a double murder investigation. [music] And the one thing they said is they did this
based on inconsistencies that they found in witness statements, which like Which witnesses? When? Yeah.
Would love to know. But like we're seven, eight months now into the reinvestigation and they
haven't shared much more than that. Like I spiral and I'm like, okay, are we talking witnesses that get tied up in
this? Like are whatever are we talking about like The people in the town like there's so
many options for I know. witnesses. [music] I know. And if what we need is stuff from witnesses like time's running
out to get to the bottom of this mystery. Steven is still alive as is Gabriella's
daughter Gioia. But so many people, some witnesses included, maybe even suspects are being
lost. Two families have been waiting for answers for over 40 years now. And according to what Gioia told an Italian
news outlet last year, hope is a hard thing to have anymore. I mean, she's been let down too many times.
But she also said that knowing the truth, like whatever the truth is, it might finally lift her burden that she's
carried for over 40 years. So if anyone listening has information about Jeanette
and Gabriella's case, it's not too late to come forward. You can contact the local prosecutor's
office in Italy >> [music] >> and we are going to list their contact information right in the show notes.
You can find all the source material [music] for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com.
You can also follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. [music] We'll be back next week with a brand new
episode. A woman named Twania is getting kind of nervous. She and her 23-year-old
boyfriend Marcus Rutledge were supposed to meet up, but he's a no-show. [music] So when Twania pulls up to Marcus's
apartment, his car isn't there. She's actually convinced that something is up. So, she reaches out to Marcus's
best friend and he's just as concerned. But, this is where they encountered the first big twist.
It turns out Marcus has been keeping some major secrets from his family. So, it's the afternoon on Monday, June
8th, 1998 and a woman named Tawania is getting kind of nervous. She and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Marcus Rutledge,
were supposed to meet up, but he's a no-show. Not even answering his cell phone. She's like calling him and
calling him, but she's just not hearing anything back. And when's the last time she spoke to him? So, it actually hasn't
been very long. I mean, he had spent the night at her place and then took their 2-year-old daughter to daycare around
like 10:00 that morning. And they've even honestly talked on the phone since at like 1:00, 1:30 that afternoon. So,
truly very little time has passed. It might not even ring alarm bells for some people, but the thing [clears throat]
is, this is totally uncharacteristic of Marcus not to answer his phone. And if he did miss a call, he would get back to
whoever tried him like ASAP. So, right away, she knows in her gut that something just doesn't feel right. So,
she reaches out to Marcus's parents, David and Geraldine, known as Jerry. And she's just trying to see if like they
have heard anything from him. They're not local. They're in Southeast Michigan while Tawania and Marcus both live in
Nashville, Tennessee. Marcus had actually moved to Nashville to attend Tennessee State University, TSU. But,
even with the distance, like his family talks to him pretty regularly. So, Tawania is hoping that they might know
where he is. But, it turns out they haven't heard from him either. Now, according to what his dad, David,
told our reporter, Nina, when he got that first call from Tawania, he understood her concern. Like, Marcus
going MIA, even to him, is unheard of. But, you know, he tries to reassure her at first. Maybe Marcus [music] just got
held up somewhere. It'll be fine. Just like give it a beat. >> Right. But, Towania says that she wants
to go to Marcus's duplex apartment to just check on him. So, David tells her like, "Okay, just like keep me posted."
And meanwhile, he and Jerry start making a series of unsuccessful calls to Marcus
themselves trying to reach him. So, when Towania pulls up to Marcus's apartment,
his car, this red 1995 Plymouth Neon, isn't there. But, instead of that reassuring her like, "Oh, he's just out
for some reason." She's actually more convinced than ever that something is up, and she needs to get into his
apartment. Now, even though they've been together for a little bit, it doesn't look like she has a key to his place.
So, she devises this plan to call Marcus's best friend Ethan Gibbs Jr., who basically helps her just break into
the place. That feels like a pretty big leap. I guess. I mean, I think it's it's the unanswered phone calls that
just again, I I I can't >> unlike him. >> him. Even when she calls Ethan, like he
doesn't think she's overreacting. He's just as concerned. So, when Ethan gets there, he and Towania break in through a
back window. And what they find inside just kind of confirms for them that they made the right decision because even
though there's no sign of a struggle or foul play, Marcus's Rottweiler is shut in his bathroom with no food or water
except like the water in the toilet. >> Oh. And they can tell that he's been there for a while because he had eaten
part of the bathroom carpet. And they know that Marcus would never leave his dog like [music] that, not even for a
short amount of time, let alone for however long it took this dog to start chewing on the rug. [clears throat]
So, there's no indication that Marcus was planning for any kind of trip, [music]
right? Like his clothes are still there. There's no bag or suitcase that's packed
or even missing. Like nothing is standing out to them. So, with David and Jerry's
encouragement, Tawania calls the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department that very night. And an officer comes to
take a missing person's report. Now, initially he gets some basic details about Marcus. He puts out a bolo for his
car, which should stick out because like it has not only is it red but like has Michigan plates still.
>> local. >> Right. Now, even though there is nothing in his apartment that is obviously out
of place. [music] Like it doesn't appear that he was even robbed, nothing like that. David told us that something was
taken from Marcus's apartment that day that police do kind of check out. So, Marcus's landline phone was taken, but
there's no mystery about who took it. It was Tawania. Why? Uh she says apparently it was her
phone and she wanted it back. Question mark. Why did police let her take anything? I
don't know. I don't know if they didn't realize that she even did at first. Like
we actually got to speak with Nashville cold case detective [music] Matt Filter.
He is the one heading up the investigation now, although he wasn't on the force when this all started, but he
told us that Tawania actually took Marcus's caller ID because apparently she wanted to look for numbers that she
might recognize. Like I don't know if the caller ID is like built into the phone. I don't know why she would take
it instead of telling police. >> I was going to say, but couldn't she have checked it right there at the
apartment? >> this part like doesn't totally add up for me, but for whatever reason, she
took it with her. Police do though get it back from her pretty quickly. Like once they realize, but it's useless to
everyone because Detective Filter says that when she unplugged it at Marcus's house, all of the numbers were
automatically erased. >> It's like factory reset. So, if she was trying to see something, that
information is now gone. And that's just one of the things weighing on David and
Jerry's minds as they make the 500-plus mile drive to Nashville the next day. >> [music]
>> So, when they arrive, Tawania's house is their first stop. Now, Tawania isn't a stranger to them.
On like a past trip to Nashville, David and Jerry had taken her and Marcus out to dinner, but this time they're not
here for a friendly visit. Like, they want answers from her. >> Yeah. But, Tawania tells them she has no
idea what could have happened to Marcus or where he might be. And the only person she can think of who Marcus spent
a lot of time with is Ethan. So, Marcus's parents arrange to meet up with him at their son's duplex, but he
doesn't have any insight to share either. He says he is just as lost as they are and he wants to help them find
Marcus any way he can. However, David and Jerry can't help but notice that their son's friend seems
awfully nervous. Like, he's literally sweating. He can't sit still. And there's just this uncomfortable
energy that is like vibrating off of him. Had they ever met Ethan before? So, they actually know him pretty well
because up until a few months ago, Ethan and Marcus shared an apartment. They were roommates.
But, like Marcus had recently decided to get his own place, so he moved out, like
moved into this duplex that they had now looked at. >> Did anything prompt that move or was it
just like kind of growing up, wanting your own space? >> Yeah, I think you can call it that. I
think the two just had like roommate issues, but stuff that like two people who live together might encounter,
little things that just like get under your skin. Marcus >> you and I have never lived together.
Preach. [laughter] Marcus had I guess vented to his family about Ethan. He's messy, his bills
weren't getting paid on time, like that kind of thing. But, even after Marcus moved out, he and Ethan stayed really
close friends. So, like, there is no bad blood between them. And honestly, Marcus's family had always
liked Ethan. He is a respectful guy from a good family. They never had any cause
for concern about Marcus being around him. And even now, they're wondering if his reaction is maybe just because of
the circumstances. I mean, his best friend is now missing, seemingly vanished into thin air.
But, Marcus's sister Felicia notices the same strange vibe when Ethan takes her driving around to look for her brother's
missing car. She's like, "Ethan's acting tense. He's not saying much." Like, other than like suggesting places where
they should maybe look for the car. He's saying that he's worried about the whole
situation. But again, nothing like incriminating. It's just like it could be chalked up to
the same thing, right? Now, as detectives start digging in, they begin to learn more about Marcus's life.
He has two children, a nearly 4-year-old son with a former girlfriend in Knoxville, and a 2-year-old daughter
with Tawania. He is super involved with both kids, always checks in with his son, but that child and his mom haven't
heard from him either. According to Tennessean reporter Beth Warren, Marcus had last seen his son in May when they
went to the zoo, and they had been planning a big party for his upcoming birthday.
>> Was there any relationship drama? No. No, he gets along well with both of his
children's mothers, so like that feels like a quick dead end, which is when they turn to his school. Maybe
someone at the university there can help them piece things together. >> Right. But, this is where they
encountered the first big twist in their investigation. It turns out Marcus has been keeping some major secrets from his
family. So, police learn that Marcus actually dropped out of college the year before,
back in 1997. >> What? >> Yeah, he's basically been pretending to be a student ever since.
>> And his family had no idea. Mhm. In fact, the last time Marcus visited his parents, which was just a few weeks
before he went missing. This was for Memorial Day. He was there for a cookout. He said he left early because
he had to study for an exam. >> Did Tawania know? I don't know. So, the detective we talked to didn't know
either. And Nina tried calling the number that Marcus's dad had for Tawania. We're not sure if it's still the right
number for her anymore. Like, long story short, we haven't been able to talk to her to figure that out. But either way,
his family [music] was shocked to find this out from police. Like, going to TSU was the entire reason Marcus moved to
Nashville in the first place. I mean, both his parents went there. He wanted to follow in their footsteps. I mean,
the wild part is they thought he was close to graduating. It's not just that he was going there. They were expecting
to go to a graduation soon. But, that's not the only surprise in store for the family.
Because even though Marcus doesn't have a criminal record, investigators also learn that he'd been selling weed. And
they think that he might have started when he was still a student because his clientele seems to mostly be other
students. Like, it doesn't seem that he was out on the streets dealing. And we're talking a small-scale stuff. Like,
not some big-time operation. And Ethan actually admits this to police. He says that he and Marcus both sell weed.
Although, I'm not sure if they work together or what. And I don't know if Ethan is the first person that they hear
this from or if he's just confirming this info that they learn or already had. But, he doesn't try to hide it. I
think it's the main point. But, that could be why he's acting so strange around Marcus's family. He knows they're
all going to find out about this and be upset about the drugs. >> Maybe, yeah. But, here's the thing. Even
while he's being honest about the weed, investigators still can't shake this feeling like Ethan is holding something
back. They just don't know what. Cuz like, I don't think that all that stuff like just stops after they learn the
thing, right? Or what they think could be the thing. Did he know that Marcus had dropped out of school? I
assume he knew because they spent a decent amount of time together. I mean, like
I think I would tell you things I wouldn't necessarily tell my parents like when I was his age, but there
doesn't seem to be any solid confirmation of that. Like it it's kind of like with Towania. I
mean, and even his other ex, I don't know what any of them did or did not know about him dropping out of college.
But, I do know that both women, Towania and his other ex, seem to be aware that he was selling weed. I know that much.
In an interview with Dateline NBC reporter Josh Mankiewicz, his son's mom said that he was doing it to help
provide for their child. And Towania tells detectives the same thing that this was just a way he could make enough
money to support everyone. But, whatever the reason, his parents are hurt and confused to find all of
this out like this. Like it completely goes against his upbringing. Like they raised Marcus and his sister in this
solid home they felt that like centered around family, it centered around church. David is actually an elected
official. Jerry is an elementary school teacher. So, like selling drugs, lying about being in
college, all of this is the last thing they expected [music] from their son. However, speaking of secrets, this
wasn't the only time Marcus had kept a big one from his parents. They actually didn't know about their grandson until
he was born. And Marcus was only 19 at the time. I don't know how like churchy they raised him, but I can see that
maybe being a reason why he hid it. Yeah, I mean, I think he was probably just afraid that David and Jerry would
be disappointed in him, right? >> And that's probably the reason he kept the school thing to himself. Like the
disappointment that like he's al- Not only is he disappointing them, but he's already disappointed them. so it's
like one more thing. Had they noticed any changes in Marcus's behavior like looking back like knowing or finding out
about all this now? So, at that Memorial Day cookout I mentioned earlier, his sister Felicia thought that he seemed
unusually stressed. But when she asked him about it, he just said that he had a lot going on in Nashville. He didn't
really elaborate and as far as his parents knew, everything was fine. Like you can chalk stress up to the finals he
said he was going to go study for. >> schooling, yeah. >> Right. So, you can imagine how
overwhelming this is for his family. They are already dealing with him being missing, but then to discover that he
was living a life they really knew nothing about. It was a lot. And David told us it's like walking through a
nightmare. And as investigators dig deeper into Marcus's life, more concerning details emerge. He had gotten
into a couple of altercations. One reported to police when it happened about a year before his disappearance,
and then another just a few months before he went missing. Both incidents were apparently related to him selling
weed, although Detective Filter won't share specifics about those altercations. >> Were there people after him? Like was
there anybody like Not that investigators can tell. I like I don't think there's anyone specific or
if there is, they're not sharing that. It seems like from everything they look at, they can't find any immediate
dangers in his life. No one is saying Marcus owed them money. No one has been like making threats to him.
But they do discover something interesting. Back in mid-May, Marcus, they find out, had rented a car for like
10 days. And this stood out because they know that he didn't get into an accident or
anything. So, it doesn't look like his own car was out of commission or anything.
>> So, why rent? >> Right. Now, did he drive back and forth from Nashville to Knoxville a lot to see
his son? You know, that's like 360 miles each trip. Maybe he didn't want to put the miles on his car. But Detective
Filter pointed out an alternative possibility. He says that when you're doing something
illegal, you might not want to use your own car to do that. But they don't know [music] if he was
doing something illegal with the car or what he was using it for in those 10 days. They truly just have no idea.
>> Right, he just had a rental for 10 days. >> Right. So they find that out, but then
beyond that, not much turns up. There is a recent traffic ticket, some receipts from a car wash, like nothing that
points investigators in any real direction. here you have this devoted father who
has suddenly stopped checking in with his kids, which seems completely out of character.
But they've also just learned that he's been living this whole other life that his family knew nothing about. And they
really can't tell if he left on his own or if something happened to him. But their thinking starts to shift on
Tuesday, June 30th. That is when a maintenance man at an apartment complex more than 20 miles
from where Marcus lives spots Marcus's missing Plymouth. And this guy tells investigators that
this car has been sitting in the same spot at Riverwood Apartments for at least a couple of weeks. Why is he just
calling about it now? Well, according to David, the guy contacts police because he saw something on the news about
Marcus's disappearance and the car. So maybe he had only just realized I mean again, it's not like anything bad about
this car. It's just kind of been there. And then once they make known what car everyone's looking for, he's like, "Oh,
that's the car." Does Marcus know someone who lives at this complex? >> that's the thing. As far as anyone
knows, Marcus has zero connection to this complex. And while investigators don't find any signs of violence in the
car when they look at it, like there's no blood or anything like that, the fact that it's just sitting there abandoned
makes them think something bad must have happened to Marcus. I mean, if he wanted
to take off and start a new life, like How's he going to get there? >> is the thing you need, right? Like or if
you're going to leave your car behind, like just leave it parked at your place. Why drive 20 miles and then ditch it at
this random apartment complex? >> Right. And what's even more wild is apparently
someone had been driving the car around. The maintenance man tells detectives that he saw this middle-aged guy
occasionally using it before it was left there for good around mid-June. So, somebody who was definitely not
23-year-old Marcus. Now, Detective Filter says that they never identified who this mystery driver
was, but he also says that there could be explanations that don't necessarily include this driver
being the one who did something to Marcus. Like he says like there is a world where someone
could have just handed this person the car without telling them anything about Marcus. Like could have been someone who
didn't realize what they were driving around until they had like found out it belonged to a missing person and then
when they did, like that's when they left it there, didn't go back for it. >> And was it locked up? Were the keys
there? >> It wasn't locked, but Detective Filter couldn't find anything in the reports
that indicated if the keys were in it or not. >> Mhm. And the maintenance man had no clue who
the driver was, by the way. Like hence the vague description. And this is a guy, the maintenance guy, he's like
around a lot and he's like, "I don't recognize him. I hadn't seen him around before. No idea why he was in the
complex at all." But it makes you feel like the driver had to have lived there or was close to someone who did live
there if he like was at the complex like back and forth a couple times. Like he was there and then he wasn't and then he
like >> would think, but all I know is that according to David, police canvassed the
complex and that didn't lead them to Marcus or to anyone who knew Marcus. Yeah, but what about the people who knew
the driver? I know we don't know who he is, but like he doesn't live there, but that guy has
to have a tie there. To me, it like it's a chain, right? Like the person in the complex leads you to the driver, the
driver leads you to who gave him to the car. And like if they're that goes all the way back to Marcus and why he
doesn't have his car and where he is. >> And if they did have something to do with it, right? And it's not just like a
car that was given to them. Or even if again they now know it belongs to a missing person. Like I don't think
they're going to be like fessing up to knowing him, right? Right. I don't know. So, it's possible
all the things are possible. It's also possible that the canvassing they did was just light. Again, maybe people were
lying. Or option C, I just truly don't know. But, they're hopeful that now that they
have the car, maybe they can find the driver another way. And maybe through forensic evidence. So, police have the
Plymouth towed to their lab and inside they find a gun that's tucked under the driver's seat. Now, is this more
evidence of Marcus's double life? Like did the gun belong to the person who was driving the car?
Did it belong to Marcus? Like couldn't tell you because it doesn't look like the gun was actually registered to
anyone. Though it seems like from, you know, what we learned from Detective Filter
that everyone assumes the gun was Marcus's. They also managed to lift two fingerprints from the car. One from
inside the driver's side window and then another from a rented VHS tape that they
find in the car. Now, the print from the tape leads nowhere. The detective told us they confirmed it belonged to an
employee at the video rental place, which is like give me an older sentence, right? And the fingerprint on the window
they eliminated. They or they eliminated Ethan and Tawanya as the sources of it,
but they didn't like eliminate anyone else. They couldn't determine who it belonged to.
Here's the wild part to me. They said it could be Marcus's because Detective Filter says they don't have his prints
on file. But like here's where I get a little skeptical. Like sure, Marcus was never
arrested, so his prints weren't in the system. But they have access to his apartment. Like
couldn't they have lifted his prints from there to compare? I mean you'd think. So
those two prints were the only prints in the car. Right? Like I guess I thought you were
saying that those were the only prints that weren't his. >> Those are the only prints that were
identifiable. So Detective Filter like smudged or smeared or incomplete. >> Yeah, Detective Filter told us the car
was examined meticulously is what he said and that it didn't appear to be wiped down or anything like that. That's
a question we asked. But he says he also can't say for sure. Again, he wasn't on
the case back then. So from what I can tell, those are the ones that were they were able to pull. And here's the thing,
prints aside, what really concerns investigators is what they don't find in the car, which is any proof that Marcus
was alive after June 8th. All of the receipts, everything in the car predates his disappearance. Meanwhile, so they
find this, Marcus's family is back in Michigan at this point trying to process their new reality. To David and Jerry,
each revelation about their son feels like another piece of the puzzle, one that they never thought they would have
to solve. His student loan notices are starting to come in the mail, which is just this reminder of a life that he was
supposed to be building. And there's something else that's coming in, something far stranger than student loan
bills. Shortly after their son goes missing, Jerry and David start [music] getting
these strange phone calls on their home phone in Michigan. The phone will ring and ring, but when they pick up it's
nothing. Just silence on the other end. And Jerry, they don't just like say hello
and stop talking. I mean, Jerry pleads with the caller. Like, Marcus, if this is you, please just say something. But
whoever is on the other end never speaks. And Felicia remembers it happening like
two or three times in those first couple of months. And according to an article by Jax Miller for Oxygen Network,
Marcus's son's mom was getting the same kind of unsettling quiet calls. Did police try to trace these calls?
>> Not that I'm aware of. Like, I I don't know if they even try to begin with I or if the problem was
like they From what I can tell, there's no pattern to this or anything. So, I don't know if they just think they're
weird and if or if they just didn't care enough to do it. I don't know. But these
calls do give his loved ones hope that Marcus is still out there maybe, maybe still alive.
>> Mhm. Investigators though, they're not as optimistic. The calls are, like I said,
super sporadic. Months will go by without a single one. And in that time, the leads are even
fewer. So, almost as quickly as it all begins, the case goes cold. Police don't have
enough to work with, no real trail to follow. All of the fragments that they've uncovered about Marcus haven't
even fit together into any kind of coherent picture. No one they speak with seems to have the whole story.
Well, almost no one. They're still pretty sure that Ethan knows way more than he's letting on.
Maybe he doesn't know exactly what happened to Marcus, but Detective Filter believes that he had some idea of what
happened or who might have been involved. Cuz even though he was upfront about, you know, selling weed, for
whatever reason, after that and beyond that point, it appears that he kind of just shut down.
And while it's possible given time, he might have decided to share more, that is a chance that he doesn't get.
Because little do detectives know, they are about to have a new case to work. And their victim
will be Ethan. So, let me take you to February 1999. By now, Marcus has been missing for
about 8 and 1/2 months, and the case is at a complete standstill. Investigators are convinced that Ethan knows more than
he's letting on, but he's not talking. Now, around this time, Ethan is tied up with someone new. This brand new
roommate of sorts, this guy named Charles D. Brown, Jr. [music] And this new arrangement
is raising some eyebrows, especially with Ethan's brother, Jonathan. Jonathan has been staying with Ethan, but as soon
as Charles moves in, Jonathan's like, "I'm piecing out for a bit." just wants to get away from the guy, [music]
because Charles is one of Ethan's closest friends, but Jonathan has never approved
of him. He didn't think that Charles was the type of person his brother should hang out with.
And there was definitely reasons for concern. So, according to articles in The Tennessean by Kirk Loggins and Kathy
Carlson, Charles had past arrests for aggravated assault, unlawful weapon possession, and selling and possessing
weed. He had also been shot and shot someone during the attempted home invasion that happened.
Interestingly, that attempted home invasion happened 1 day after Marcus went missing.
>> Mhm. You know we don't believe in coincidences anymore. >> Right. So, let me rewind real quick and
tell you about this home invasion, because the details are interesting, to say the least.
So, in the morning on June 9th, 1998, three or four masked men broke into Charles's apartment. And at the time he
was living with his girlfriend and two young children and everyone was home when the intruders broke in. They
demanded money and then they started shooting. They're like spraying bullets everywhere with at least two guns.
>> [music] >> Charles gets shot five times and somehow not only did he manage to survive, he
also returned fire and hit one of the gunmen who then took off. And John Yates reported something really intriguing for
the Tennessean. Witnesses told police that they saw the suspects flee from Charles's place in
two vehicles including a red one that they thought looked like a Chevy Corsica. And when I Googled a red Chevy
Corsica, it looks an awful lot like Marcus's then missing red Plymouth. Which I actually have the photos to show
you because it's just too bonkers. Okay, so this one is the Corsica. And this is the
Ashley. They're like identical. They're kind of like the same car. They definitely look incredibly similar.
>> like if you weren't like a car person Right. Or like I I'm not even a car person but like you knew your makes and
models I you could easily mix those up. >> you're just like an eyewitness to something and say like yeah, I saw a guy
in a red car. It looked a little bit like this one. >> Right. Either of those cars.
>> Right. So one of the two cars in that whole thing was this. Anyway, within an
hour of the home invasion, a man named James Cowan shows up at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. Cowan
tells police some story about getting shot from a car but court records show that the bullet recovered during his
surgery matched a gun that the shooters left behind at Charles's apartment. So I'm guessing that Cowan was hit by maybe
friendly fire during the chaos cuz again it didn't come from like Charles's gun.
Supposedly it was a gun left behind. [music] Now this Cowen guy was no stranger to
detectives. He was actually a potential suspect in six homicides. Oh my god. Yeah, as far as I can tell, Cowen was
never arrested for murder. He was, however, arrested and convicted of attempted first-degree murder,
especially aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary for the home invasion on Charles, and he was
sentenced to six [music] decades in prison because of the violent nature of the crime and his extensive rap sheet,
which included multiple drug-related felonies. Now, [music] in connection to all of this, Charles wasn't arrested
since he was acting in self-defense, but investigators didn't believe that Cowen
and the crew he came with just randomly chose Charles's house to rob. Did they arrest anyone else in connection to it?
I mean, it's It was more than one person, right? >> but as far as I know, they didn't like
arrest anyone or charge anyone except for Cowen. Did they recover the gun used to shoot at Charles with? So, that's not
totally clear from the court records. They say they recovered two guns. They recovered a 9-mm found in the backyard,
and they had Charles's gun, which is a .357 revolver, but there were at least three guns involved because according to
testimony, at one point during this struggle, an accomplice of Cowen's threw him a {quote} "big gun" when the first
gun that he was using ran out of ammunition. What about the gun in Marcus's car?
Well, so at the time this is happening, I mean, they're not going to find that for weeks, but when they do find it, I
know that they run the bullets through their database to check for links to other crimes, but nothing comes up. So,
I don't think that gun was used in this, >> Okay. >> what you're getting at. >> Yeah. Okay, so that happens. Now, let's
jump back to February of 1999. According to Kirk Loggins, on the 18th, Ethan informs his brother that Charles is
going to crash with him, right? And so, this is when Jonathan's like, "Don't like like guy. I'm going to peace
[music] out." A couple of days after that, Ethan tells him that Charles was {quote} "going
crazy." Like apparently, he was super paranoid. He was saying that his girlfriend was trying to have him
killed. Uh Jonathan had the exact right idea getting out of there. But it's not like Jonathan moved away. I mean, I
don't think Charles was supposed to be a permanent fixture. He just needed to crash for a couple of days. So, the
night of [music] Tuesday, February 23rd, Jonathan comes back to the house. And when he pulls up, the door to the duplex
is wide open. And when he makes his way inside, there on the floor, he sees his brother,
Ethan's body, stiff and cold. He had been shot multiple times. Now, police believe that Ethan was actually killed
days before he was found, sometime before noon that past Sunday. They also think that there might have been more
than one weapon used, and shell casings that they find appear to be from a .40 caliber gun.
Now, they don't see any signs of forced entry, although they do notice that something is missing. Ethan's white
Pontiac Grand Am. But the next day, someone spots this vehicle in Nashville's Inglewood neighborhood,
which is like 18 mi from Ethan's apartment, and they recognize it from the news reports.
>> Mhm. This is feeling too similar. Right? And Ethan's aunt tells Kathy Carlson
that his family doesn't know of any connections that he has to that area. >> Now, obviously, the biggest difference
between Marcus and Ethan's cases are that Ethan's is clearly a homicide. He's been found, while Marcus is still a
missing person. >> Right. And while detectives are still basically in the dark about what
happened to Marcus, they've got a pretty good theory forming about who might be responsible for
Ethan's murder. >> It's got to be Charles. Yeah, and mostly because an Inglewood woman IDs him as
the guy that she saw leaving Athens car on her street the day before his body was found.
Wait, how old is Charles? I'm wondering if he could have been the one seen driving Marcus's car?
>> No, that they thought that guy was middle-aged. Charles is like Marcus's age, so like
20, early 20s. Right. But still, police can't ignore how sketchy his behavior gets. Kirk Logans reported that Charles
skips Ethan's funeral and completely ghost police when they try to question him further. A friend who hung out with
Charles and Ethan over the weekend tells investigators that Charles was seriously
worried about his own safety, possibly because of that home invasion that we talked about.
Now, Charles was apparently so convinced that someone was after him that he was wearing a bulletproof vest around and he
had at least two guns in his SUV, including a .40 caliber, like the shell casings found at the scene.
So, talking or not, they do have enough on him to charge him with Ethan's murder
in early March. And after a few days on the run, he ends up turning himself in. Hold up. What's the motive? Charles got
paranoid and then just snapped on Ethan? >> No, so not likely. Detective Filter actually refers to Ethan's murder as
drug-related cuz he believes that Ethan was selling weed when he was killed. So,
he was wrapped up in what could have been a dangerous crowd. Although, if he was I mean, he was clearly keeping some
secrets of his own from certain family members because his aunt says that Ethan was working as a tax consultant at his
father's like income tax business. So, I don't know that they're connecting it to like Charles's paranoia like it or
if they're saying the paranoia is separate and Charles did it because it was a drug thing. I don't know, it's a
little like convoluted and muddy. Either way, at first investigators suspect that there could be a connection
between Ethan's murder and Marcus's disappearance. And when the Rutledge family hears about Ethan's death,
they can hardly believe it. Marcus's sister, Felicia, is devastated [music] cuz in her mind, Ethan was the one
person who could fill in maybe someday all the blanks about her brother, and now he's gone. But Charles's arrest is a
hopeful sign for Marcus's dad, David, because he figures that once police start like pushing on Charles, maybe the
dam will burst, and maybe they can finally find his son. But, here comes another unexpected
twist. I wish I could tell you more about what investigators learned from Charles,
but there is not much info available. We know that a preliminary hearing is held
later that March. Charles is emotional. He's sobbing at times and like shaking his head throughout the proceedings. The
judge finds sufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury, but it doesn't look like Charles is ever
actually indicted. Or if he is, the DA decides not to pursue it because the murder charge just disappears. What?
How? I guess there just wasn't enough to move forward. I mean, the headline for Kirk Logan's article about the prelim
was literally "Hearing Short on Evidence in Bellevue Slaying." So, the evidence presented by the state, I mean, we know
was mostly circumstantial. Like, I mean, they had witnesses who could talk about
Charles's behavior. They could talk about the fact that he had guns, but they couldn't actually connect him to
the murder itself or even, like I said, establish a clear timeline or motive. But,
I thought his gun was used to kill Ethan. >> No, he just had the same type of gun
>> Oh. >> as the one used to kill Ethan. What about that witness who ID'd him dropping Ethan's car, though? Not
enough. Detective Filter thinks that the DA in the end just like wasn't confident
that they could get a conviction, so they just dismissed the charges, probably hoping that they'd be able to
build a stronger case later. But for whatever reason, that never happened. Ethan's murder is still considered
unsolved today. And when it comes to any connection between Ethan's murder and Marcus going missing, while there might
be some witness overlap between the investigations, police say they've never been able to
establish any direct link between the two. Though it's interesting, Detective Filter says that as far as he can tell
from the case file, investigators only really looked at Charles. Like there's nothing showing that they ever dug into
Cowan or his associates in connection with Marcus's disappearance. And then we asked him about it, he told us like,
"Yeah, you know, that's an angle maybe worth exploring." Which like, yeah. But no one has in oh, about three decades.
>> No. I mean, um, to me the timing alone, the home invasion a day after he went missing,
not to mention the red car stuff. >> I know. It definitely raises like a couple of
questions at least. >> Right. Plus, we know that Cowan was already being looked at for other
violent crimes at that point, right? So, I don't know, we'll have to see we'll have to wait and see if Filter pursues
that lead. Oh, and we actually did try and to get in touch with Cowan, who was actually released from prison more than
a decade ago and is out there on parole, but we couldn't reach him. And Charles,
who has been in and out of lockup over the years for various crimes, he is in prison now on drug-related charges, so
we couldn't make contact with him. Now, whether or not any of these guys were involved, police still believe that
Ethan knew more than he let on and that he took some secrets about Marcus's disappearance to his grave.
Do they have any theories about where Marcus could be? I mean, as similar and connected as these cases
seem, it's it stands out so much that Marcus just vanished [music] while Ethan was just shot and left in his home
on the floor. Like, why the difference? Well, I mean, they don't have any theories on a connection because they
can't prove the cases are connected at all. So, like, without that link, you can't even build upon that, right? Like,
they're just stuck. So, that was pretty much it. Like, years passed, tips aren't coming in, media
coverage is minimal, and the case just sits there. But, around 2010, something significant
[music] does happen. The Rutledge family learns that Marcus had another big secret.
They find out that he had a daughter. With who? Tawania. A- another one? No. But, they never knew he had a daughter.
How is that even possible? I mean, didn't investigators know? So, they did. I don't know how this happened, but it
looks like they never communicated that to his family, which like, why would you, right? Like,
I can maybe they thought like, oh, surely they know about this grandchild. >> no need to bring up something so
obvious. >> Right. But, like, wouldn't it come up when the police were getting basic
information? Like, if his parents had mentioned their grandson, wouldn't someone have said like, oh, and what
about your granddaughter? >> You would think, but it didn't happen. >> [music] >> And I guess like, the part that I can't
get over is like, the fact that Tawania never mentioned it either, which makes you wonder like what other secrets she
had because that feels like a secret. It doesn't feel like something that just like gets missed, right? Like they come,
they have dinner with her before. They're like they're all >> She's like a main contact when Marcus
goes missing. Like they're in communication with her. >> Yeah, you would think when she calls
them to be like, "Oh, he's like he's not answering his phone. Oh, when's the last
time you saw him?" When he went to drop our daughter off at daycare. That's how we started the
>> Yeah. >> story. So, it feels like something that got intentionally left out. >> Mhm. I don't know. [music] I wish we
could talk to her, but we haven't been able to get a hold of her, like I said. I mean, how did they even find out about
their granddaughter? I don't know the exact details of how this unfold. I just know that Marcus's son somehow connected
with her on Facebook, and then that's when the rest of the family found out. So, like it's it's fuzzy. But, this
is one of those that even though it's a shock, it's at least a good surprise. >> Mhm.
>> like they have another little piece of Marcus to hold on to. And despite Marcus
keeping her a secret, I have to imagine that even he'd be happy knowing that they all have finally found each other.
And just in time because in 2015, Marcus's mom, Jerri, passes away. And then in 2020, Detective Filter, who
is in the Nashville PD's Cold Case Unit, he This is when he picks up the investigation for what started as like a
pretty routine reason. Basically, they were doing like DNA housekeeping. They only have DNA from one of Marcus's kids
in CODIS. So, Filter wanted to get more family profiles into the system so that they can be prepared if they ever need
to make comparisons, if they ever find remains. >> Did something specific prompt that? Like
were there remains that could have been his that were found? >> Nothing like that. I think he just
wanted to be proactive. He was making sure all of their bases were covered, and that DNA update was going to be the
extent of it. But, once he started talking to David and learning more about Marcus, he just like
I don't know, the case like latched onto him. He like kept digging. He wanted to
see if he could help the Rutledges like get some answers some way. Hi, me. Uh big update. So, that was kind
of where our episode was supposed to end. Britt and I wrapped it up, did the usual call to action, but literally just
this last week, like right as we were about to release this episode, something huge happened. A major break in the
case. On January 31st, police announced that Marcus's remains have been found. There
was a skull that had been found by a hunter back on December 8th, 2010, in some woods near Ashland City Highway and
Pecan Valley Road. >> [music] >> That is nearly 13 mi from where Marcus's car was found and 30 mi from his
apartment. Now, the sequence of events is a little baffling for me, and I'm sure
frustrating for Marcus's family who are still coping with the news. And I say baffling because DNA from this
unidentified skull wasn't uploaded to CODIS until a month after we interviewed the police. So, we interviewed them in
October, and then the ME submitted the skull DNA to CODIS in November. This is a 2024, and we don't know why it took so
long. Marcus's DNA had been in CODIS for years. And you heard right before our like record scratch moment that even
more of his family's DNA had been added by Detective Filter to ensure that there
would be enough to get a match to any unidentified remains that might surface. The DNA match that they got was a match
to DNA collected from Marcus's [music] daughter. It's just a shame that it didn't come 14
years sooner. Cuz it puts detectives even further behind than they would have been in
2010. Detective Filter told us it is unclear if police searched the woods thoroughly
at [music] the time when the skull was found. So, he is planning to do a search of his own hoping to find more.
Because unfortunately, even though they now know where Marcus has been, [music] the skull hasn't told them much. There
were no wounds or markings on it that gave a clue as to how Marcus was killed. But, detectives are clear that they do
believe Marcus was killed. And this missing person's case is now actively being worked as a homicide, which Filter
believed was the case even before finding Marcus's skull. He believes that Marcus's involvement in
selling weed likely played a role in his death. The problem is, even after this major breakthrough,
police still have not gotten a single solid lead. I'm not kidding you, not even one. And Detective Filter doesn't
think this case is going to be solved by science. What they need is for someone who knows the truth to finally start
talking. Now, Marcus's family, they were holding out hope for so long that he was
still alive. Like, they held out that hope till the very end. It's what our whole ending was about.
So, this news was devastating to them. But maybe now that everyone knows where he was and where he was found, it could
help connect some of the dots about what happened in those crucial days after June 8th, 1998.
They are convinced someone out there knows exactly what happened to him. And maybe you're that someone.
So, if you have any information about the death of Marcus Rutledge or even Athens murder, contact the department's
Crime Stoppers division at 615-74-Crime. That's 615-742-7463. >> [music] >> You can find all the source material for
this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. Make sure you hit subscribe, follow us
[music] on our socials, and we will be back with more episodes here on YouTube, but also you can find hundreds of
episodes on our podcast feed. Just search for Crime Junkie wherever you get your podcast.

Ashley Flowers has pulled together some of Crime Junkie’s most chilling missing persons cases. These stories are filled with twists, unanswered questions, and details that still don’t add up. These are the cases that stay with you.

Included in this compilation: Indiana Dunes Disappearances (1966) At the Indiana Dunes State Park, Indiana on July 4, 1966, 19-year-old Patricia Blough, 21-year-old Ann Miller, and 19-year-old Renee Bruhl vanished after a day at the beach. Witnesses say they boarded a boat… but they never returned.

Jeannette Bishop May & Gabriella Guerin (1980) In November 1980 in Sarnano, Italy, 40-year-old Jeannette Bishop May and 39-year-old Gabriella Guerin disappeared after a drive into the mountains during a snowstorm. What followed included mysterious telegrams, art theft connections, and decades of unanswered questions.

Marcus Rutledge (1998) On June 8, 1998, in Nashville, Tennessee, 23-year-old Marcus Rutledge vanished after dropping off his daughter at daycare. His car is later found abandoned miles away… and years later, a major break raised even more questions about what happened to him.

Follow Crime Junkie: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crimejunkiepodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrimeJunkiePodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrimeJunkiePod Crime Junkie is created and hosted by Ashley Flowers.

About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of Audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

Follow Ashley: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ASHLEYFLOWERS/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ash_flowers TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleyflowerscrimejunkie Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyflowers.af/

Check out these other great crime channels: @annieelise Lust, Money, Stalking & Obsession | Abigail Saldaña & Stanley Szeliga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ethuNewsb-w @EleanorNeale She Tracked Her Missing Sister to Her Killer's Door https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdweZiXzyyA&t=3s @bellafiori The Twisted Case of Dan Markel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v45cDjLN6ZQ @kallmekris The Most BRUTAL Updates On Reddit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLM670gihKw

Brief Summary

Three young women vanished from Indiana Dunes State Park in 1966, sparking an unsolved mystery involving potential organized crime connections.

Key points

The Search Begins. Authorities launch a massive search for the missing women, fearing the worst.
Corazon Amurao's Survival. Corazon Amurao crawled under a bed and survived a massacre, witnessing the horror unfold.
The Horse Syndicate Connection. Patricia's ties to a dangerous horse syndicate may explain her disappearance.
Witnesses and Disappearances. The women connected to George's stables vanish, raising questions about their fate.
Mysterious Telegrams. A telegram sent to Christie's hints at a possible connection to an art theft.
Conflicting Sightings. Witnesses report seeing the women on the day they disappeared, but timelines don't match.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What?

A shocked reaction to the revelation about Marcus's college status.

12:52WatchApr 27, 2026

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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