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

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that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
crime [Music] about 3 weeks before eie 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 Abie was provoking arguments and wanted to move out she left and eventually ended up with my son
Trevor a couple days before eie was reported missing she went to a party eie text 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 in videotaped there were four boys at the party she told me she was assaulted by one eie was
hysterical and wanted my husband to go to the police station with her I told eie that I would meet 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 if 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 eie about an hour l later and she told him that she was outside his house so Trevor went out
didn't see her asked her 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 that Abby sounded really messed up disoriented he never heard her sound
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 lck Police Department to either help them move forward in the investigation clear
their name for help determine what happened to [Music] e some cases we approach 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 pecul 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 eie Jane Steck was born March 31st 1997 to Lori and Peter Steck Abbie's
name which Lori laughingly says she borrowed from a church friend whose daughter's name was eie her unusual name
signified how special and unique her mother felt her child was Abby'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 EB's family consisted of an older brother older half-brother
actually named Trevor and a younger sister named Harris Lori says she and ebbie's father split when eie 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 eie was known as eer to her family she loved Hot Pockets her dog
furball music the beach and The Color Purple when she graduated from high school eie 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 Lorie says eie 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 eie 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 friends sides and EB'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 eie 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 aby's were largely positives her mom says there were some downsides to her loyal and trusting nature eie got hurt a
lot because her strong feelings weren't always returned in 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 ebbie'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
and more to be around these other kids her parents didn't know things were exacerbated by the car that eie 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 mhm uh Abby who was a very
pretty girl 5'2 110 lb with blonde hair and little 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 eie 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 19 20 maybe even 21y 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 continued 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 Abie 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 eie and her mom
agreed that she should move out Lori was determined to stand firm her house her room rules and if eie moved out she
couldn't come back Lori agreed to pay for certain things but eie would largely be on her own and she would have to work
quite a bit of this situation reminds us of Brianna Matlin 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 for and unfortunately not seen since Abie 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 eie 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 eie was doing if she was not at the home 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 Abby was supposed to drive Danielle to school on her way to school after
Danielle's doctor's appointment Danielle text 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 eie was referring to eie 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 eie 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 eie 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 eie 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 eie 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 700 p.m. and around 8:00 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 homans 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 EB's story is backed up by some text that she sent on the morning of Saturday October 24th this is to a
friend named Gage Folton here's the conversation that Gage later had with Monty Vickers a private investigator on
the case describing the text between him and eie he says eie 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 mhm she says this was 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 uh 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 V well those are also her words yeah but
but we have her telling Gage that she said she felt forced into so now we do know that eie 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 8:00 p.m. at the Holman's and head down to the station together but we
do know that eie left the homan'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 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 EB's cell phone
records indicate that eie 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 the but EB's mom does so we know that they happened right EB's phone records also show that she
continued to open and read text messages until the night of Sunday October 25th unfortunately well 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 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 eie but as as we just
stated we don't know for sure no I think what happen 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 EB'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 a in an argument and go stay somewhere and then come back the next morning well 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 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 eie and all of those texts were it's according to her phone records
state that they were read by somebody mhm 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 eie 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 mhm 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 4 minutes of back and forth with eie 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 eie hadn't turned up at her grandparents home and after that worrisome phone
conversation with forever her family started actively looking for her searching the neighborhood and calling
around to her friends EB's sister texted Danielle asking if Abie was at her place
Danielle who was at the ice cream social said she had planned to attend with eie
right but obviously EB's not there correct and now Danielle is joining in the hunt as well she starts calling and
texting EB's phone she starts calling other friends to see if if anyone knew where she could be when she got no
response from eie Danielle started driving around looking for eie and places she knew her friend would
frequent mhm but all of this effort nobody would find [Music] anything this show is sponsored by
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[Music] 2023 [Music] all right we're back cheers mates we are back after that strange
phone call M Abbie'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 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 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 piece4 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 Lor's
concern about her daughter very little weight and took a perun 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 oh 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 be 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 the go ahead yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah uh the thing that I always drives me nuts though is when they go well there are 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
you 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 add a
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 going to be my own devil's advocate here where I
say that I understand this from the cops perspective where they're saying here's
the 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 so in a day and age where we're very connected mhm 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 mallahan he's the media spokesperson for
the police department he told the media that there was no immediate danger in EB's case and she was likely missing
because she wanted to be then little rocks Channel 7 News reported that police found surveillance
footage showing EB's car traveling on cantrail Road in West Little Rock sometime shortly after she went missing
while this report aired at the end of the week when eie 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 eie did
vanish sham 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 shamont Drive which becomes Northfield drive and takes Drive out to Chanel
Parkway by the Walmart Super Center the other way takes drivers on shomont drive
to canant Trail 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 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 this 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 mhm 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 EB's silver 2003 Volkswagen Pat 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 eie couldn't see without her contacts and she would never
ever not take her phone somewhere with her she Lori says this was E's life line to her family and now keep in mind she's
not living with she's not living with her family but she's still close with them mhm and the fact that all of EB'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 mhm 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 ebbie's Father Peter this is her biological
father his name is on the car registration it was he who notified his ex-wife Lori that EB's car had turned up
mhm 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 makes
you wonder did they fail to notice this or are they're choosing you know because
they they're choosing not to look for somebody that we know possibly is in danger or we know they're choosing not
to show up and 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 person's 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 EB's family to bring it back around to police and say look
our daughter is missing and now you found her vehicle yeah with all her stuff in it right I mean look we all
know that teenagers are connected to their phones that to 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 mhm while they were searching the car
the officers left the trunk open and a rainstorm soaked many of EB'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 EB'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 EB'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 off 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 pieced
together that the car and the missing young woman were connected the police department dropped the ball the family
got the runaround 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 EB's other friends were not contacted the security guard who found
the vehicle was not contacted yeah it took them weeks to getting around to pinging EB's phone to see where it had
been and when they did they initially pinged the wrong phone number so oh God yeah let me take you
through this Horror Story well I mean let's just reiterate the fact that they open 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 mhm and you don't know either way so you should protect it but
you're too lazy or stupid or both or B 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 going to make we're going to make a shirt like that for those of
you who are proud yeah of yourself leave that trunk open here's I'm going to 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 EB'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 daughters 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 mhm but then you're going well how did
her 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 mm 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 going 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 I
ping the wrong phone but either way I made a mistake right but I'm going to be a good uh detective 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 them information but might Maybe by checking the field and finding nothing MH I would then double check did
I get the number right M 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 didn't 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 pinging the wrong number when they finally pinged the correct number it did
turn out that eie was or the phone was in shomont park when she did in fact call Trevor right now the Little Rock
Police Department also claimed to be unable to access EB's social media this is a part of the story that I
really you know we're 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 gauge 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 was going on who she was talking to cuz 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 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 could just see the
detectives the whole time on this case 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 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
EB'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 eie and the family come forward
stating two things one EB's intention was to meet her stepfather at some point that evening her family saying The
Stepfather was going to meet eie some point that evening yeah those things are now working against EB'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 they're 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 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 you are 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 MH 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 cuz you want to seem like you're smart
and levelheaded 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 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'm 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 were 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 M and that's frightening and again she's a young woman and it's
frightening to have to tell your your stepfather frightening embarrassing whatever words you want to
use this is not somebody that um you know it 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 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 him so much if
if the 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 EB's mother and say collect evidence against him cuz you
collected evidence on everything [Music] else 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 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 [Music] kind [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams
when you find a professional on Angie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skill professionals
to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you
Angie that

Ebby Steppach /// Part 1 /// 343

Part 1 of 2

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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

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Brief Summary

Abby Jane Steck went missing after reporting a sexual assault, highlighting police inaction and family struggles for justice.

Key points

The Disappearance of Abby Steck. Abby Steck's behavior changed drastically before her disappearance, leading to a series of alarming events.
The Night of the Party. Abby attended a party where she was sexually assaulted, leading to her desperate texts for help.
The Mysterious Calls. Abby's phone records show she made calls to the police, but they have no record of them.
Eie's Disappearance. Eie goes missing after a confusing phone call, leaving her family worried.
Police Response. The police's lack of urgency in Eie's case raises concerns for her family.
Abandoned Vehicle Discovery. Eie's car is found abandoned, raising alarms about her safety.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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2:51WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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