Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343 | Forensic Files

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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign about three weeks before Abby
disappeared her behavior changed drastically she would tell us she was going someplace or with someone and we
would find out that's not where she was Abby was provoking arguments and wanted to move out she left and eventually
ended up with my son Trevor a couple days before Abby was reported missing she she went to a party Eddie
texts me on Saturday October 24th that she needed to speak to me about something important she indicated that
an individual at this house had sexually assaulted her and videotaped it there were four boys at the party she told me
she was assaulted by one Abby was hysterical and wanted my husband to go to the police station with her I told
Abby that I would beat her after dinner to sit tight and I'd let her know when I
was on my way the last question I asked her was that she wanted to go file her police report and she stated yes I'm
certain the next afternoon my stepson Trevor came by he contacted Ebby about an hour
later and she told him that she was outside his house so Trevor travester where she was she didn't know
where she was but she knew she was with her car at that point Trevor told me what had happened told me
because damn you sounded really messed up disoriented he never heard herself like that before to my knowledge Trevor
is the last person in our family to speak to Abby I would like the four individuals that were at that party that
evening with my daughter to come forward and give a formal interview with the Little Rock Police Department to either
help them move forward in the investigation clear their name or help determine what happened to ebony
foreign [Music] the story by starting off with the main event which may be a murder an abduction
or a disappearance but in this case the events unfold in such a peculiar way we will just roll with the chronological
approach much of the biographical information we are about to relay comes from a series of articles in ay magazine
dedicated to this strange case now the trailer you just heard was taken from the Dr Phil show who has done some
extensive coverage on this case Ebbie Jane stebic was born March 31st 1997. to Lori and Peter stebic
Abby's name which Lori laughingly says she borrowed from a church friend whose daughter's name was Evie her unusual
name signified how special and unique her mother felt her child was Evie's middle name is Jane which is also her
mother's middle name as well Lori hoped her little girl would embody a combination of her mother's
traditional religious values and a free-spirited one-of-a-kind persona Abby's family consisted of an older
brother older half-brother actually named Trevor and a younger sister named Harris
Lori says she and ebby's father split when Abby was just a first grader Lori says that the marriage was a quote bad
situation but when it ended it was still abrupt and shocking to her and her daughters
Lori went on to marry Michael Jernigan who helped bring some stability to this broken family
teenaged Ebby was known as ebster to her family she loved Hot Pockets her dog furball music the beach and the color
purple when she graduated from high school Abby wanted to go to cosmetology school
and later get her real estate license she was also interested in languages she studied Spanish Turkish and Hebrew
Lori says Abby was always stubborn and independent when she was young she did not like her
name and she went through phases where she would insist on being called something else
Lori says Abby was a homey person she liked to stay home she had friends over to her house more than she would go to
their homes as she got older she developed into a fiercely loyal person while she was hard to get to know her
friends say that once you broke down her walls she was selfless and generous and
passionately stuck by her friend's sides and Abby's friend Danielle Westbrook describes her as kind loyal loving
courageous strong and perseverant one story that captures this is when her classmate this was a boy named Caleb
Boyd he was apparently wrongfully incarcerated for having a gun on school grounds
the way that this story works is instead of turning her back on him like so many
of his other friends did right Ebby took the lead in mobilizing students in support of Caleb she initiated a letter
writing campaign and petitioned the court and it worked getting Caleb released although these characteristics of ebbies
were largely positives her mom says there were some downsides to her loyal and trusting nature Ebby got hurt a lot
because her strong feelings weren't always returned and her early high school years she was bullied and she
changed schools switching to the little Scholars of Arkansas Academy from another small private school
later Abby's loyalty and stubbornness reared its head when her mom tried to get her to see that a few of her
boyfriends and other friends were less than she deserved as high school progressed her
independence morphed into full-blown rebelliousness Abby started breaking her parents rules
and hanging out with a new crowd a group that she met at her job at Foot Locker at the McCain Mall
she had worked hard to land this job this was the summer before her senior year Abby spent most of her money on makeup
and clothes and she started to work more and more to be around these other kids her parents didn't know
things were exacerbated by the car that Abby got from her father Peter Lori said
it gave her daughter the feeling that she could go wherever she wanted to whenever she wanted to right that's a
typical feeling for teens hey I got a car I'm out of here man uh Abby who was a very pretty girl five foot two 110
pounds with blonde hair and hazel eyes she is acting out in ways her parents do not like did not like and we all know
this is we don't mean to give Abby a bad name this is a phase most kids go through a lot of kids go through they
want to not be around their parents not listen to their parents and they're hanging out with these these other
people that her parents are calling kids but let's keep in mind these are people
that she's working with so as we go through this we are uncertain and the captain and I talked about this last
week we are uncertain if these are in fact actually kids right because it's a job
so at the youngest we're probably looking at what 17 or 18 but very likely 1920 maybe even 21 year old young adults
now Abby as we said she's acting out she's lying to her parents you know not going where she says she's going hanging
out with people that she says she will not hang out with she and her mom and stepdad continue to butt heads and
things escalated Abby would periodically storm out to stay at her friend's home at Danielle's home but would always
return home the next day now when Abby started her senior year in the fall of 2015 she made a decision
that her mother would not support she switched schools this was from the Lisa Academy to Little Rock Central High
which is a very big school she went from a small school to a very large school this was a major change for Ebby who had
been in a sheltered private school her whole life sure enough new kids she was hanging out
with introduced her to marijuana her parents did not approve and in a heated argument in September Ebby and
her mom agreed that she should move out Lori was determined to stand firm her house her rules and if Evie moved out
she couldn't come back Lori agreed to pay for certain things but Abby would largely be on her own and
she would have to work quite a bit of this situation reminds us of Brianna Maitland a case we covered
episode 254 and 255. Brianna switched schools as well and remember she started hanging out with the wrong crowd right
eventually moving out of her parents house and working a lot Vanishing in 2004 and unfortunately not seen since
Abby didn't have much of a plan in fact she rotated between houses quite a bit she crashed at her older brother
Trevor's home she stayed with her biological father Peter and with a friend Kaylee Foley
so she's bouncing around from all of these three homes for a time and Lori and Michael began receiving calls from
Central High Abby was missing school they decided not to confront her about this she is still in school but
technically she is an adult at this time right sometime around mid-october Abby showed
up at Danielle's Place asking to stay there for a while the two shared Danielle's room listening
to music and they went out on long drives but since they went to different schools Danielle was never really sure
what Ebby was doing if she was not at the home yeah it seems like she had to do a lot of work to figure out where she
was going to stay so it'd be a lot more work on top of that to figure out how you're going to get from this random
spot that you're staying at to school on the morning of Wednesday October 21st Ebby was supposed to drive Danielle to
school on her way to school after Danielle's doctor's appointment Danielle texted Abby that her appointment was
running late telling Abby to go on without her Abby texts back saying no it's not a big
deal at all I swear I didn't want to go to school today anyway because of all that drama
Danielle does not know what drama Ebbie was referring to Abby never ended up going to school that
day it's unclear how many days she missed but she and Danielle went to services at the Assembly of God Church
in Little Rock that evening Thursday and Friday I don't know if Ebby went to school I
could not find anything that stated that she did so we can only guess that what the drama was and if she was still
avoiding school because of it but on Friday night October 23rd we do know that Ebby went to a party
Danielle did not go with her because she did not know the other people attending
this party right we don't know if these were kids from Central High School or people that Ebby was working with at
Foot Locker or others but it was some group that she was hanging out with at this time
this will be easy to understand why we don't know who this is in just a quick bit
on Saturday October 24th Abby told Danielle that her brother Trevor was worried because she hadn't been to his
place all week long so she needed to go over there and see him the friends agreed to see each other on
Sunday at the church ice cream social so Abby went to her brother Trevor's place and then she went to her
grandparents house this is Peggy and Bill Holman Abby was close with them and loved
staying at their house Abby spent the day sleeping and watching her favorite show SpongeBob she had dinner with her
grandparents and they went out for TCBY around 7 p.m and around 8 P.M she's going to be leaving her grandparents
telling them that she's going to go hang out with her stepfather she tells her grandparents that she does plan to
return to their home for that night and asking them not to lock the doors the holmens never saw her again and when
they tried calling her later that evening before going to bed there was no answer
it turns out that that same night around 7 50 p.m Abby had begun texting her stepfather that she wanted him to bring
her to the police station so she could report an incident that happened at the party the night before
she told him that she was the victim of a sexual assault and four males were involved one guy had sexually assaulted
her and he also videotaped the whole event it's unclear what the role of the other
three boys was but it was implied that they were also complicit somehow every story is backed up by some text
that she sent on the morning of Saturday October 24th this is to a friend named Gage Fulton here's the conversation
that Gage later had with Monty Vickers a private investigator on the case describing the text between him and Abby
he says Abby says I was hanging out with some dudes last night and we smoked and I had sex with
one of them and he effing recorded me she says this was when she wasn't looking Vickers asked Gage did she tell you that
she was raped to which Gage replies says she said she felt forced into it her last text message to me is saying I am
going to kill myself well it seems like they were drinking at this party possibly these guys are older we don't
know I think we both kind of assume that that that these are probably more likely
people from Foot Locker than her High School yeah or friends of Foot Locker friends yeah so it seems to me that
maybe she felt pressured or or whatever but anyway she ends up having sex with this individual then he tapes it or
films it without her knowledge right and he's probably sharing this with the other guys at the party
and that's probably why she is saying that they're involved in some way yeah and and
we say the word sex but we're using that very vaguely well those are also her words
yeah but but we have her telling Gage that she said she felt forced in right right so now we do know that Abby did
not kill herself instead she began texting her stepfather while he was eating dinner that night Abby requested
that Michael not tell her mother she had already called the police but didn't feel that she had received any
good advice on what to do right so Abby felt it would be better if she went to the police station in person
and she wanted her stepfather to go with her the two agreed to meet around 8 pm at the holmets and head down to the
station together but we do know that Ebby left the holmen's house before Michael arrived and the grandparents
told Michael that they were under the impression that she had gone to meet him she was never seen again now Michael
fears that she may have decided to try to confront one of the boys or all of the boys at the party about this
incident by herself right and he says probably to try to get a hold of the video
according to Lori ebbie's cell phone records indicate that Abby made two calls to the Little Rock Police
Department that night around 7 30 p.m and each only lasted about a minute but the Little Rock Police Department
has said they have no record of those calls okay right right so but Abby's mob does
so we know that they happen right Abby's phone records also show that she continued to open and read text messages
until the night of Sunday October 25th unfortunately wait wait wait say that again
well the phone records show that and I I have here in my notes that she indicating Abby but I think what we
should be clear on is we don't know who was opening right and reading text messages but somebody was until Sunday
of October 25th right it's clear to me that that we have Lori her mother believes it
to be Abby but as as we just stated we don't know for sure no I think what happened is she goes missing
and somebody is going through her phone to try to clear some evidence I think that's what it is well and
nobody knows where she spent that Saturday night right I mean she could already be in
danger as you just said now the family started to be worried when no one heard from her by the next morning right we
got to keep some things in mind here there's a lot going on and there's a lot going on in this phase of Abby's life
as we already stated she's not always honest about where she is who she's hanging out with and there were times
even before moving out that she would leave in an argument and go stay somewhere and then come back the next
morning one the difficult thing is that she is 18 so technically she doesn't have to be honest about where she's
going yeah so you have like really mixed emotions and thoughts and feelings by her family right now where she didn't
show up to meet her stepdad she tells her grandparents that she left to see the stepdad he shows up at their door
and they're like what are you doing here right uh but at the same time you got these concerns but you also have a
history of somebody running out for the night right and not being where they're supposed to be they
say that they tried calling and texting Abby and all of those texts were it's according to her phone records state
that they were read by somebody they weren't responded to finally around 5 30 p.m on Sunday the
25th ebbie's brother Trevor got a phone call from her she did not sound like herself he said
she sounded panicked and disoriented Abby told him that she was in her car parked outside of his house
so he hangs up the phone he goes outside to meet her but she is not there there's
no sign of her or her car he calls her back and asks you know where are you she said she was in her car but did not
know where she was and she could not tell him who she was with the last thing she said was I'm [ __ ]
up after four minutes of back and forth with Evie not making any sense at all and not giving him any information she
hung up the phone and no one has ever heard from her again her phone started going to voicemail
on Sunday night when Ebby hadn't turned up at her grandparents home and after that worries some phone conversation
with Trevor her family started actively looking for her searching the neighborhood and calling around to her
friends Abby's sister texted Danielle asking if Abby was at her place Danielle who was
at the ice cream social said she had planned to attend with Abby right but obviously Abby's not there
correct and now Danielle is joining in the hunt as well she starts calling and texting Abby's phone she starts calling
other friends to see if anyone knew where she could be when she got no response from Abby
Danielle started driving around looking for Ebby in places she knew her friend would frequent but all of this effort
nobody would find anything [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we're back cheers mates
we are back after that strange phone call Abby's brother called the police to report her missing but he received the
typical runaround that we've seen in so many other cases it's all it almost seems just
in in a terrible way it almost seems funny to even say it because we've repeated it so many times right
throughout these different cases now this one is a little different this response is a little different than
we've heard in the past and maybe it's some form of progress I don't know Captain you'd be the the decider there
but she he's told that they need to wait 12 hours before filing a report nope there
there's no there's nothing it's a little bit of a shorter time period most of the time we
hear less of a 24 we've heard 36 hours here they want 12. so Lori her mother says the second that the clock hit the
12-hour mark she called the police she called back to the Little Rock Police Department right
a police officer came to the house on Monday to speak with the family and fill out a missing person's report
but the Little Rock Police Department did not seem too interested in the missing person's case they seem to give
Lori's concern about her daughter very little weight and took a perfunctory report without much follow-up at all
yeah now in the cops defense I I really want to know how many times do they get calls where they're getting call backs
within minutes hey we can't find my son can't find my daughter and then five minutes later they're going up sorry we
found them well we do know that that is the case most of the time and the other thing too
look we'll go down this road because you you started us down the road in this particular situation I can kind
of see it from that perspective of oh we just have some people that are overreacting and they want to file a
report but yet the person that they're trying to report missing they've already told me she's hanging out with the wrong
crowd she leaves and doesn't come home some nights she's an adult she's an adult she's living elsewhere and we
don't really know where she's living so I I I go ahead yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah uh the thing that I always drives me nuts though is when they go well they're adult and they have
the right to go missing and I would just say that that look I understand people have the right to go
missing but the person that is you know the person that has the right to go missing that normally goes missing there
probably is some conflict with the family so the family is not going to be calling for a while right yeah I mean
but when a family is calling going hey uh we can't find our son or daughter and the cops go well they're adult they have
the right yeah we know that they have the right but this is added character and and and I think the cops need to
take that more serious it's out of character and then here's the other thing too that that yes and I'm gonna be
my own devil's advocate here where I say that I understand this from the cops perspective where they're
saying here's this this 18 year old who doesn't come home some nights lives elsewhere couch surfing basically right
but then here's the other time the other thing you got to consider that's all been going on for a while and they've
never called the police before right so very likely this is very different than any of those other times and and maybe
they are not overreacting at all maybe they are reacting appropriately and we need to step in and get involved in this
thing well again this is also a day and age where we're very connected so if you're not getting a hold of somebody it
it becomes spooky pretty quickly now to put it in its shortest form possible the jernigans did not feel that
the police were treating their missing daughter's case with an appropriate sense of urgency
on October 30th the Little Rock Police Department this is Lieutenant Steve mccallahan
he's the media spokesperson for the police department he told the media that there was no immediate danger in ebbie's
case and she was likely missing because she wanted to be then Little Rock's Channel 7 News
reported that police found surveillance footage showing Abby's car traveling on Cantrell Road in West Little Rock
sometime shortly after she went missing while this report aired at the end of the week when Evie disappeared there was
no indication of when the footage of the car had been taken right so it's on TV but we don't know exactly when that
footage was taken it turned out it was most likely sometime that weekend The crucial time period in which Ebby did
vanish shallow mount Park is a neighborhood park there's a pool there and a playground it's maintained and operated
by the large Chanel Valley homeowners association a sign at the entrance of the park reads
private for residents only it is in a very upscale area of West Little Rock near Joe Robinson High
School another large High School in the city on route 10. in order to get to the private
neighborhood park drivers have to take one of two access roads one of these is shallowmont Drive which becomes
Northfield drive and takes drivers out to Chanel Parkway by the Walmart Super Center
the other way takes drivers on Charlemont drive to Cantrell Road which is route 10.
a security guard named guy Hooper who was employed by the neighborhood association to patrol the park
he called The Little Rock Police Department on the night of October 28th he was calling to report an abandoned
vehicle parked in the parking lot of the Park police took a report but didn't make it over to the park
until October 30th two days later wow so I I want you to keep in mind how this whole thing went down this this man guy
Hooper he's a security officer he calls in this abandoned vehicle and then he waits for police for a couple of hours
and they don't show up they don't respond the entire time to which he's like all right I'll be back again
tomorrow to patrol again right I believe he actually called the following day as
well and then again waited another hour or two but as said it was two days later before
anyone showed up to take a look at this vehicle well and just to go back to the the whole we don't believe that she's in
danger we think that she went missing on her own like we have a couple points of evidence
to make him believe not that one she's basically saying that there was a sexual assault that happened to me and I want
to report it I called your police station multiple times I'm making arrangements to go down there so we
should take that serious and then the remarks that she made to her friend saying well I'll kill myself now maybe
that is just you know it was just a figure of speech and it wasn't something that she was actually going to do but
just that in itself means that she's in possibly in danger of harming herself and so we should take this more serious
it seems just like a load of horseshit well once they finally went down there to investigate this abandoned
vehicle what they found was Abby's silver 2003 Volkswagen Passat Arkansas plate 137 UFM
parked in the parking lot and it had been there since the night of October 25th this is according to the security
office okay so the 25th that's the Sunday that's the same night that that she spoke with Trevor on the phone yes
that Sunday okay the car keys were still in the ignition the vehicle was out of gas and the battery was dead even more
disturbing were the contents of the vehicle which included her contact lenses her wallet and her cell phone all
of which were sitting on the front seat now really truly what they find there keep
in mind she's moving around from house to house at that time staying a little bit with her brother a little bit with
her biological father and then a friend or two they're going to find not only just
these items but they're going to find basically all of her possessions that travel along with her from house to
house in this car yeah her car becomes basically her storage unit yeah now these items are of importance because
Lori later said that Abby couldn't see without her contacts and she would never ever not take her phone somewhere with
her she Lori says this was ebbie's Lifeline to her family and now keep in mind she's not living with yeah yeah
she's not living with her family but she's still close with them and the fact that all of ebby's makeup
was still sitting in the vehicle as well that Lori says was the Clincher for her
she immediately knew that something was wrong something bad had happened now let's take our own little
investigation into this vehicle too Captain what did we say here we got the the car keys still in the ignition bad
sign we got the automobile out of gas and the battery was dead that to me suggests that somebody left the vehicle
running right in that parking spot and we do know that it was there since that what did we say Sunday the 25th
and they're not there looking at it until October 30th that's it I get abandoned vehicles
I don't get having these types of possessions being found inside the vehicle in plain sight one two vehicle
out of gas and the battery's dead keys in it somebody left that vehicle running this is very strange stuff yeah now upon
finding the car Little Rock Police called ebby's Father Peter this is her biological father
his name is on the car registration it was he who notified his ex-wife Lori the ebbie's car had turned up
police apparently failed to notice that the name of a missing young woman was also on that registration
and her license was in the vehicle while they were searching the car they left the trunk open oh it makes you
wonder did they failed to notice this or or they're choosing you know because they're they're
choosing not to look for somebody that we know that possibly is in danger well we know they're choosing not to show up
and take this report we know they're choosing not to go investigate this car for two days
it's ridiculous well and keep in mind a couple things if the security officer had called multiple times to report an
abandoned vehicle yeah the responding officer does not know I mean they may know that
somebody is missing or has been but but very likely not because like we said the
the missing persons report is filed it's probably handed off to a detective by then and if they are not showing an
actual concern for this missing individual the responding officer to this abandoned vehicle can't put two and
two together right because he doesn't have enough information to do so so it's not until he calls the father that's on
the registration father calls Mom hey they found her vehicle they're it's going to take ebbie's
family to bring it back around to police and say look our daughter is missing and now you've
found her vehicle yeah with all our stuff in it right I mean look we all know that teenagers are connected to
their phones that that to me is a huge red flag and again like you said the battery being dead no gas and the keys
in the ignition hmm while they were searching the car the officers left the trunk open and a
rainstorm soaked many of ebby's belongings Channel 7 News reported that there appeared to be no sign of a struggle
inside or outside of the vehicle and it was found abandoned since Abby's disappearance her mother
has worked non-stop to keep her daughter's case in the public eye and in the active Case Files on detective's
desk but it hasn't been easy in fact at times it has been almost impossible this is because the people who were
supposed to help her and help her family who made a pledge to protect and serve they failed on this investigation for
months the Jernigan family says that ebby's car was the subject of phone calls to the
Little Rock Police Department not only from guy Hooper but several Neighbors in the area who
called about the car that week well before police officers finally acted on the tip
if the department had not ignored these calls the trail would have been a lot fresher
and even after they finally piece together that the car and the missing young woman were connected
the police department dropped the ball the family got the run around as to who was in charge of this investigation
police never contacted people that were suspected of being at the party Danielle or any of ebby's other friends
were not contacted the security guard who found the vehicle was not contacted no it took them weeks to getting around
to pinging ebby's phone to see where it had been and when they did they initially pinged
the wrong phone number so yeah let me take you through this Horror Story well I mean let's just
reiterate the fact that they opened they left the trunk open right what are you a [ __ ] I I mean come on
it's like and what's the number one thing that we've seen time and time again one of the worst things for
evidence is water yeah and you just leave the trunk open right this is a crime scene or possibly a crime scene
and you don't know either way so you should protect it but you're too lazy or stupid
or both or both I guess there's I guess there's another option nobody's ever wearing a shirt
that says I'm lazy and stupid we're gonna make it we're gonna make a shirt like this stupid for those of you
who are proud yeah of yourself so get that trunk open here's something I'm gonna put my bike
in it let me take you through this Horror Story this is about the pinging the her phone but it ends up being the
wrong phone number all right so they ping her phone what is believed to be Abby's phone yeah
and police tell her mother and stepfather we've pinged the phone it's it's coming
from a location out about 45 minute drive from your home so kind of out away from the city
and it's coming from a field out there listen to this I mean this is not sounding good right
your daughter's messing your phone is pinging from a a field kind of out in the middle of the country you start
thinking that's possibly where her body is that's where we're going to find her but then you're going well how did our
phone get back to the car right right and that's I guess I'm a little unclear on that Captain what they're saying is
that when they trace these pings around the time that she went missing they had the phone pinging out in this other
location now as you said though that's when the parents are like oh my God we might find
her body out in that field right and this is awful look if I'm the investigator even if I ping the wrong phone right
even if I'm a freaking [ __ ] Captain [ __ ] pants right and I'm pinging the wrong phone and then I know
that the phone ended up at the car before I tell anybody I am gone and searching that field
myself or double checking the Ping information right but I'm starting I'm starting with I'm a dumbass right I I
ping the wrong phone but either way I made a mistake right but I'm going to be a good uh detective a good investigator
and before I tell the parents and freak them the freak out I am going to go check that field
and then I'm going to present the information but my Maybe by checking the field and finding nothing I would then
double check did I get the number right yeah they're looking for Ping information that would have taken place
around the time that she was trying to call her brother that she spoke to Trevor right right so
unfortunately they figure out law enforcement figures out that they were pinging the wrong
number I bet they'd even figure that out I bet somebody in our family figured that out well they I believe it was a
couple of days before they told the family oh we were paying the wrong number when they finally pinged the
correct number it did turn out that Ebby was or the phone was in Charlemont Park
when she did in fact call Trevor right now the Little Rock Police Department also claimed to be unable to access
Abby's social media this is a part of the story that I really you know we're talking about things that
that law enforcement screwed up on that they messed up on that they dropped the ball right this one is is just a small
part of the story but truly I feel like this is where they missed the bus the most
because we we have rumor of this video that might have been on somebody's phone we have
talks and Gage coming forward saying that I trade text messages with her we know that she or somebody was opening
and reading text messages on her phone on that Sunday right so I really feel like and especially given her age that
this Social Media stuff could have really helped the investigation especially in the early stages of the
investigation what's going on here is they're telling the family we don't know how to access these social media
accounts we do not know how to get in there do a little spy work and figure out what was going on who she was
talking to because we're too stupid well and then on top of that what would be really key here is to figure out where
in fact she was going when she says that she was going to meet her stepfather because we know from the stepfather
right that's not the case he says I was going to meet her here and now she's gone right so that could have really
helped the early stages of the investigation why is she at the park well at the very least let's say she
communicated with four or five other people after she left her grandparents house you need that trail of breadcrumbs
right you need to follow the breadcrumbs to get you from person a to person B to
C and D until you get to the actual last person that spoke with her or had interaction with her so you can figure
out her location yeah but I get to see the detectives the whole time on this case again
all right well we checked her we checked her phone this is the the detectives talking to
the family we checked her phone what's her name again you know I mean that's that's kind of
the work they're doing where's wow yeah we we saw her car what's her name again you know have you heard from her like no
do some work here now Lori did try to assist the investigators as much as she possibly could regarding her missing
daughter's case she was the one that spent the the man hours putting together Abby's phone records she got as much as
she could from her social media accounts and she passed all of this on to the detectives and unfortunately
she says at one point in this investigation when she is in there answering questions and talking with
Detectives she's saying the detective seemed proud to tell her we have we've collected all
this information we have tons of evidence we have all this information regarding your missing daughter and he
had it in the room with them right and Lori says she looked at all of this information that he says he has and that
has collected and she says unfortunately this was everything this guy had she provided to
him she provided this information so why he seemed proud to have that information
makes absolutely no sense at all stupid or lazy what's going on behind the scenes yeah is the trouble of having
Abby and the family come forward stating two things one ebby's intention was to meet
her stepfather at some point that evening her family saying The Stepfather was going to meet Ebby some point that
evening yeah those things are now working against Abby's family in this investigation
because now the way that they're working this investigation they're suspicious of
The Stepfather of course they want to know if if in fact he was the last person to see her and what was really
going on behind the scenes there yeah yeah basically they're basically believing that he is the murderer now
mind you they wouldn't state in the beginning that this was a real missing person's
case to begin with now all of a sudden they're saying oh we think that she disappeared because you made her
disappear right and this whatever this theory is or how they ever came up with this Theory other than knowing that he
might have been the last person that she intended to to meet with they're now using this as a theory and
they're what they're claiming when they speak with the family is you're lying to
us you're you're telling us a different story because you're trying to cover up what truly
happened to your daughter when in reality what we have is a family who's trying to be actively involved in an
investigation that would not be moving forward without them yeah it's very difficult because we were
talking about this before I think on off the Record where I do not like the idea when detectives say it's
not my job to come up with theories it's it's my job to collect the evidence and for the evidence to tell me what's
happening now now hold on a second I understand you're saying that because you want to seem like you're smart and
level-headed but the truth of the matter is that you have to collect evidence and
along the way you have to create different theories multiple theories based off of the evidence you're seeing
yeah based off the evidence but also maybe based off evidence you don't have yet and you have to come up with
multiple theories and then you have to go down those rabbit holes and and let the evidence tell you if it if that
theory is true or not in this case they come up with this theory that makes zero
sense because what we have what we have evidence of is this young woman making calls to the police saying that
she was sexually assaulted again I am sick and tired of let's just look the justice system doesn't take these
claims serious enough that's why she called the police department multiple times they should be saying you are
sexually assaulted come down to the station now we need to take this serious and then she's making claims to her
friends and now she's telling her stepfather now again we should take these claims serious because not only is
she stepping up to the plate which is so hard for these women to do but she's stepping up to the plate to
talk to police the police officers and law enforcement and that's frightening and again she's a young
woman and it's frightening to have to tell your stepfather frightening embarrassing whatever words
you want to use this is not somebody that um you know the it's just frustrating and well super
frustrating for a multitude of reasons but also frustrating in the sense that you're
telling the family that we don't want to work with you because we think you're covering something up
but but even though his wife even if that is their Theory Captain it doesn't appear that they were even investigating
or working on building a case around that theory they just weren't doing anything and having the excuse that The
Stepfather is a suspect was just that an excuse to not do anything to just sit on
our hands and not have to do anything when we already know that you had this great lead of there was something that
went down at that party that might have been a major ordeal and it happened very shortly before she went
missing that's a freaking lead yeah now now I wouldn't I wouldn't blame it so much if if the if
if the sexual assault charges were Against The Stepfather then you go okay well A to B we're looking into this guy
but that's not who the allegations were against it was about this party and I'm surprised these morons didn't turn to
the stepfather's wife ebby's mother and say collect evidence against him because he
collected evidence on everything else [Music] all right I'm looking at my phone I'm
looking at my device and on both I have the very awesome Stitcher app it is free
you can go out and get the Stitcher app and we have all of our old episodes on there for free for you to listen to also
make sure you check out our other show called off the record it is available on Stitcher premium stay tuned until
tomorrow it's going to get pretty heated in the garage until then be good be kind
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarge.com

A young woman has a traumatic experience and decides to go to the police. But before she does, she vanishes. She did make a mysterious phone call to her brother. In which she said she does not know where she is. Her car is found but as for 18 year old Ebby Steppach, there is no sign of her. Beer of Week - Shadows of the Eyes - batch 18 by Rare Barrel Micro Brewery Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

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Brief Summary

Ebby Jane Stebic's disappearance raises serious concerns about police response and family dynamics following her reported sexual assault.

Key points

Abby's Disturbing Night. Abby reveals she was sexually assaulted at a party, leading to her distress.
The Last Conversation. Trevor receives a panicked call from Abby, but she disappears shortly after.
Police Response to Missing Person. Abby's brother reports her missing, but police response is lackluster and dismissive.
Abandoned Vehicle Discovery. Abby's car is found abandoned with personal items inside, raising concerns.
Failed Investigation Protocols. Police fail to act promptly on tips about Abby's car, causing delays in the investigation.
Lori's Frustration with Investigators. Lori expresses disbelief that detectives are proud of information she already provided.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to hear you and it's good to be heard.

Nick's greeting to listeners.

1:50WatchNov 20, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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