Ebby Steppach /// Part 2 /// 344 | Forensic Files

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foreign [Music] woman has a traumatic experience at a party she decided to go to the police about
what happened to her but before she does she vanishes the only contact with her a
mysterious phone call to her brother in which she says she doesn't know where she is then she disappears her car is
found as for our missing 18 year old Ebbie stebic no sign of her nothing let's dive back in shall we now remember
we talked about phone data and social media and episode one and how the investigator was confused about ebby's
phone and about her social media Abby's family once again tries to get involved they even offered to pay for an
I.T expert to help to access and analyze all of this data and then all of this only to be told that the department
would not accept outside help detectives also failed to obtain surveillance footage from the Walmart
Supercenter on Chanel Drive which could have captured Ebby and a final insult for eight months the
Little Rock Police Department treated the case essentially as a runaway and the case sat in the Major Crimes
division with virtually no movement even as late as November 2nd when Abby's family reiterated that she would not
have been out of contact for so long Channel 7 News in Little Rock reported that quote police tell Channel 7 they
believe Abby is still alive and in the area and as Michael Jernigan put it to k-a-r-k-tv quote the whole first 30 days
was just the cops counting on Ebby showing back up Lori echoed this sentiment saying for
the first part of the investigation no one was looking for her now Lori is not the type to take this
lying down the family hired Monty Vickers a retired 22-year Little Rock Police Department
detective turned private investigator to help them someone needed to care about ebby's case
as ex-police himself at first Vickers was hesitant to get involved in such a recent
active case being handled by the force he had once been a part of right but he decided he could perhaps act as a
go-between he doesn't want to take over the investigation he doesn't want to get
in the way of the investigators he thinks that they need a go-between for the parties involved to help with what
seemed to be a poor relationship between the police department and the jernigans
but when the Little Rock Police Department would not return his calls and he caught wind of the botched
investigation he says that was enough for him that he was now going to actively get involved
in the investigation yeah because a lot of these departments they hold a lot of respect for former employees so when
they call it's a big deal but when they're not making a big deal of it something's fishy he says and he's on
record as saying such he says quote I found out pretty quickly they didn't give a damn what I had to say they
wouldn't call me back they basically just wouldn't talk to us to the family or to him
he said he charged the family one single dollar to get to work on this investigation
Vickers discovered that none of Abby's bank cards or accounts had been accessed in any way since she disappeared
that plus the fact that she would never have left without her car and all of her
possessions the family feared the worst even more alarming Vickers uncovered that Ebbie sent several text messages to
the young men she had had the encounter with at the party on the Friday before she vanished threatening to go to the
police and have them arrested it seems that Michael's concerns that Abby might have confronted
one of these boys or all of them alone might be correct right or they could have said oh she's going to go to the
cops and there's and she could say I have a copy of the video Let's just say she said that
then that gives us motive even if she's not going to confront them that gives them a reason to find her
right well Vickers found out who these boys were and searched the areas near their
homes this is for any clues as to Abby's whereabouts he came up with nothing to his dismay he discovered that the
police had in fact talked to these guys at some point but never looked at their phones despite the family telling the
police department about the rape allegations and that there may be a video what right and it's not clear if
they asked for the phones but we know that they didn't look at them well what we do know is the detectives on the case
told the family and they told Vickers the private investigator that they did not have probable cause to search the
phone so basically they're stating we could have asked these boys to see their phones and they said no and we
don't have probable cause to to search the phones Beyond them allowing us or not allowing us
now five months after Ebbie was last seen Vickers made arrangements to meet with guy Hooper remember he's the
security guard who called the police when he found a vehicle in shalomont park yeah Little Rock Police assured
Vickers that they had spoke to this man to the security officer so he assumed this would be just like a quick
confirmation that Hooper didn't know anything more than what was relayed to him from police
instead the meeting resulted in a 45-minute taped interview to Vicar's shock he was told by Hooper that he had
never been contacted by police further he told Vickers he had made a report to the police about the abandoned
car on Tuesday night after it had been sitting there for three days he waited for the police by the car for two to
three hours but the police never came the police didn't show up to take a look until two days later and even more
startling Hooper told Vickers that he had dash cam video of Abby and a man that she had met
at the park on multiple occasions Hooper had gotten fairly close to the pair in some words I guess right
apparently he had quote run them off several times the guard saved all of the dash cam video on his hard drive at his
home he finished his shift he had this dash cam and he would put this video at the
end of every shift on his computer at home unfortunately his computer had died and
this took place in January of 2016 and the computer could not be fixed so it was thrown out
all of this potential dash cam surveillance footage went with the computer it's gone
it's gone because nobody nobody thought to reach out to this guy and in fact the
private investigator working for the family he was a little slow to reach out to him too because he had already been
told by his old buddies at the police department that they they spoke to this guy while Vickers was trying to dig up
any evidence and clues Lori and Michael receive some assistance from an organization called Halos investigations
this is a private Mississippi firm that looks into cases of missing or trafficked kids
Halos volunteers scoured the internet for photos of Abby in the event that she was trafficked
they also conducted a search of the Charlemont Park Woods assisted by the Little Rock Police Department
this is four months after Abby vanished the organization also helped with publishing the case sending ebby's
missing persons poster to hospitals and police stations all over the country in case she turned up somewhere
the case manager for Halos Tina stores said her form often sees cases of missing kids that police have dismissed
as runaways as they seem to have here to her it didn't look like Abby left voluntarily meanwhile the jernigans were
being inundated with all sorts of hoax messages false alarms and Facebook pranks where people claim to be Ebbie
but some of these were enough to point them in the direction of sex trafficking some emails were sent to the family
showing that Abby was sold for twenty five thousand dollars people claim to have seen her on
Backpage and Craigslist Lori began to realize that this threat was very real right Sergeant Alan Hamby
with the vice unit told Little Rock's THV 11 that his detectives handle reports of human and sex trafficking
every single day but he still didn't seem to feel a sense of urgency about ebby's case despite her parents real
concerns he said quote we're going to try everything we can to help them find her and locate her and see if she wants
to be found we don't know that finally about six months after Abby was last heard from the relationship between
the jernigans and the Little Rock Police Department it became toxic this is as stated by ay magazine
they continue to treat Ebby as a runaway Major Crimes detectives refused to get warrants for the phones of the young men
allegedly involved in the incident involving Abby at the party the Little Rock PD did not seem to
appreciate the involvement of the private investigator or of halos or of anyone else and wouldn't budge on
investigating the case as a possible abduction or something worse well basically what they were saying is we're
going to sit on our fat asses right and unless the case gets solved by somebody else or the information comes
to us we're not going to do anything yeah and you know what I think we have here captain and I can't say this with
100 certainty but I feel very confident saying this I feel like in this situation we
probably have two detectives that are sitting as you put it sitting on their fat asses and choosing not to do
anything yeah sitting on their thumbs and spinning and I feel like when we when we talk about this case when we
tell this story we cannot tell it without telling these mishandlings of the case however I think that these two
detectives make the whole department have a bad name and probably undeservingly so you
know there's probably a lot of good officers with inside of this department and for whatever reason the jernigans
just got extremely unlucky that when the phone rang that day and the call came in
it went to this detective's desk and him and this guy worked it and they didn't really work it you can't say they worked
I guess I shouldn't and like I said like and here's what they refuse to work yeah
yeah here's what is funny though is because when we're talking about the case last week
I kept on trying to come up with reasons and and try to go well maybe they're going through a divorce maybe there's
bad things in their life happening maybe uh maybe they knew people at the party maybe they didn't want you know I mean
like I was trying to come up with all these reasons but after a week and the constant neglect it's like these
are the guys that sit in their office all day farting in their chair and then when they get up to get coffee come back
they sniff their chair that's what kind of guys these are so and I get what you were getting at when we talked last week
and that's not out of bounds that wouldn't be out of bounds are you talking about there's a
potential here for some type of cover-up that maybe we have people that should be
looked into that was at this party but it it almost seems like these investigators are choosing not to look
in that direction for whatever reason right like they're connected to somebody at that party but then at the end of the
day when you really look at this thing you see that they're choosing not to look in any direction at all and so it
to me it doesn't feel so much like a cover-up it feels more like hold on here here's the reason why there's a couple
guys that are bad at their job yeah seat sniffers but here's where it makes it feel like a cover-up
because the what do we know that the lead seems so obvious right because yes the motive
seems obvious and then we go we got these individuals yes we talked to them uh but there's no probable cause so we
can't get this information well they're not looking anywhere else right okay so the first place you looked you stopped
looking after that so do you know what happened do you know somebody at that party that makes it seem more likely to
me that it's a cover-up well right and when they are pressured when they are pushed and pressured to give some kind
of theory or some kind of answer to somebody look they feel like they need to give an answer to the media he says
we're going to try everything we can to help find her to help locate her and see
if she wants to be found they're still pointing to the idea that she just took off on her own
yeah and if I was the family I'd be going not only did she want to be found she actually wanted to go to the police
department to press charges against these these douche nozzles you know right well
around this time Lori lost it and she started writing letters to the chief of police the the head of the major crimes
division the mayor of Little Rock the governor of Arkansas and anyone else that she could think of so she's not
going to let it be the the buck stops with this guy that's not helping our case at all I'm going to your bosses I'm
going to the higher ups and I'm going to get some people involved and see what they think of this situation
A Little Rock Police Department their representatives agreed to meet with the family and at this meeting Major Crimes
division head Captain Mike Davis again denied that they had probable cause to search the young men's phones telling
Lori that quote there's probable cause when we say there's probable cause yeah when she's pushing for them to look into
these phones and they're they're not budging yeah but obviously that's not the way the law works but start with the
idea that you ask these individuals and they denied it and I don't think that has been reported
and so it's like do that but also if they would have had any social media contact or
or any of the information from her phone I guarantee you there was text messages
back and forth and if you could if you could have got that information that would have gave you the probable cause
yeah and remember I do want to Circle back to the idea that police were or at least these investigators
were insinuating that Michael that The Stepfather perhaps was responsible for ebby's disappearance again this is a
situation where you only see them putting forth a different Theory they keep reminding the media and everybody
in the general public this is just a runaway she just took off and if we find her we'll ask her if she wants to come
back or she'll probably turn up on her own but then when when pressured and pushed again here now we have to come up
with a different Theory and oh we want to remind you family who's now breathing down our necks and writing letters to
the higher ups maybe Michael is the one responsible for her disappearance yeah oh okay which one is it which one is it
do you think that there is Foul Play involved in this thing or do you think that she just walked off on her own it
seems weird now they did push the jernigans to take a lie detector test you have to wonder if part of this is
actual investigation or if it's more of a interrogation yeah let's let's scare them to leave us alone
yeah they were not willing to take these tests which the investigator is going to point out
that that makes them look to be guilty they are going to point out the jernigans are going to point out and say
we don't know what these what this officer is doing we don't know what this investigator is up to
we we don't feel like comfortable doing a lie detector test right again again we
don't know their connection if there is a connection to any of the guys at this party and if there is and that and there
is a cover-up then what better thing to do to go well they failed the lie detector and you can't prove that in the
court of law so you can't charge the family no but it gives enough suspicion in the media where they go well we
shouldn't be looking at these guys anymore we should be looking at the family right and and with their point
people with their contacts there at the police department being what they deemed
what the jernigans deemed untrustworthy they're not in trade going to trust the department itself and you're not going
to take a test with with the Department you do not trust yeah and this is when you
Pony up and hire an attorney you've already got the private investigator but now you got to start watching out for
your own back oh well at this point I'm hiring another private investigator also
one that's not connected to that department but I like lie detector tests I I don't
you know lean on them too much I like them but in their case there's no win because even if you pass well lie
detectors don't mean anything that's yeah it only means something if the person fails so there's really no win on
taking one well and if they fail we've talked about the false false positives that can come about when a parent
is interrogated when a parent is is questioned and the and right and the reason why is because there's so much
stress so they even say after uh you know event of a kid going missing or a murder that's close to you that it takes
months for that stress to come down enough for you to be able to take a test where it
possibly will read correctly and I know it doesn't seem like we were heading in this direction Captain but let me tell
you as far as this story in this case goes better times are ahead and it's right around this time after
the family retained an attorney that to everyone surprised the FBI voluntarily joined the case although
there was no federal jurisdiction or Interstate crime alleged well here's what happened somebody probably read
about the case and went uh there's some morons down there and we needed to investigate this well but keep in mind
she's by this time wrote letters to the governor right to the mayor she's gotten
other people involved in this thing so who knows who called who made that phone call and put the FBI there what we do
have is Little Rock Police Department their public affairs division refused to comment on whether this was an
indication that the case had been badly mishandled from the start Vickers the private investigator he gave the feds
his files but of course possible crucial evidence like the dash cam videos cell phone tower pings social
media posts forensic evidence in the Passat in the vehicle and who knows what else
this stuff's already lost and gone right all of this seems to have gave the police department a nice swift
kick in the pants right a much needed kick in the pants right in the grundle eight months after Ebby was last seen
the case was reassigned to the homicide unit under detective Tommy Hudson this showed that there was going to be a
fresh start although the case was still technically classified a missing person's case
Laurie also received a personal telephone apology from assistant chief Wayne bullion
he pledged to work better with the family Lori said he was a man with Integrity whom she felt she could trust
finally she could feel confident that someone with authority was on her side at the end of 2016 an official three-day
search was conducted for clues in The Disappearance of Evy stebic this search was in addition to those conducted by
Halos and Volunteers in the past the search which lasted from November 29th to December 1st involved family members
the Little Rock Police Department volunteers from the national Center for missing and exploited children and
cadaver dogs the area searched included the wooded areas of Shalimar Park where ebby's car was located nothing was found
foreign [Music] [Music] we're back everybody uh sniff your seats cheers by mid 2017 private investigator Vickers
was in poor health so the family hired TJ Ward a private investigator based in Atlanta who worked on high profile cases
like Natalie Holloway Ward came on in October of 2017. this is two years after Ebby vanished the
jernigans hopes were bolstered by occasional leads in the case that did lead somewhere although always leading
to other missing girls detective Hudson's perseverance following up on leads led to finding two other women who
were sold as sex slaves these women were drugged to the point where they had lost all sense of
themselves Lori told an interviewer that if that is the choice she was facing she would
rather Emmy be dead than living like that one you wonder because when she talked to her brother
we know that he he said that she sounded intoxicated on some level so that you wonder is that because she's dealing
with this assault from a couple nights before and or or did somebody drug her yeah in the the fears that Abby had been
trafficked did persist this especially after True Crime daily covered the case in May of 2017 the show sat down with
guy Hooper he was the security guard who went talking to True Crime daily he made
some questionable allegations regarding what he claims he saw while he was working at the park
on June 27 2017 Little Rock PD held a press conference about new developments in
Ebbie stevic's case there wasn't anything to report as far as findings but the announcement was that ebby's
case was going to be taken over by an elite unit of semi-retired detectives who worked on only a few select older
cold cases the detective in charge of Abby's case was still going to be Tommy Hudson
now retired he would be able to dedicate almost all of his time to finding Abby he said that not All Leads had yet been
exhausted and detectives were still receiving the assistance of the FBI Hudson acknowledged to KARK TV that
quote when I got the case there were things that weren't done that should have been done on the front end
these included asking for the surveillance footage from Walmart by then the tapes had already been erased
also some key people were never interviewed he said quote I believe there's somebody out there that's in her
Circle in her social media Circle that may know what happened to her and hasn't come forward for whatever reason
it didn't help that Hudson says the original detective skipped parts of the social media search
Hudson also acknowledged that the case had the potential of being a homicide at this press conference the jernigans
announced a 50 000 reward for information leading to ebbie's location and Abby was to be featured on
Billboard's all over Central Arkansas the case also received publicity on Dr Phil and Nancy Grace yeah in March of
2018 the family is going to celebrate her 21st birthday at the celebration they well for the
celebration Captain they held a fundraiser party selling items commemorating Evie
they donated the proceeds to Partners against trafficking humans this is a Little Rock organization that supports
victims Laurie Jernigan went through hell in the nearly three years since her daughter
vanished Without a Trace there were false sightings false alarms fruitless searches baseless tips poor
investigative work there was the time police showed her a shoe taken off of a severed leg of a
female corpse found in the Arkansas River she said it did look like Evie's pink Nike tennis shoe but the leg didn't
belong to Abby then there was the time that the volunteer Searchers are looking for Ebby
in 2016 searched a wooded area in Little Rock and found a skeleton and a bag containing women's clothes and
a pair of handcuffs but again it wasn't heavy then Tommy Hudson his Cold Case unit issued a media release in
May of 2018 and it said that since June of 2017 the unit resubmitted unspecified
evidence to the Arkansas State Crime Lab these tests produced quote some positive
results that led us to believe that we need to search the area of Charlemont park again
this was combined with the fact that investigators in the unit had quote run through some scenarios about what could
have happened to Ebby and they arrived at the conclusion that they really needed to revisit the area where her car
was found they decided to conduct a search of the piping and drainage systems close to
where her car was found ebby's car was found parked in a paved lot in the park within feet of a storm sewer and they
wanted to search this so police Enlisted the assistance of the Public's works department to send robots
equipped with video cameras down the drain located right near Evie's car this is a storm drain the kind that is
rectangular in shape opening between the sidewalk and the street that led to underground pipes
a manhole on the sidewalk provided access to the pipe the pipe had two openings not far apart in the park one
opening was in one side of the parking lot near ebby's car then it ran underneath a landscaped area
of plantings and trees and the other end emerged in a different part of what is a U-shaped parking lot
so this other opening is opposite where ebby's car was parked so they're sending
robots down the drain with camera equipment on them correct and they first go down the drain that was nearest
ebbie's car now at this location they hit an obstruction about 70 feet down when they ran the robots down the other
end of the drain they hit an obstruction 130 feet down investigators decided to excavate to see
what was inside the pipe on May 22nd 2018 the diggers were called in and they dug up the pipe
in the area between the obstructions human remains were found the excavation was halted the family
notified a new crime scene area was designated and the FBI evidence recovery team was brought in
according to the media release new evidence was also found inside the piping system
The Remains were found not 50 feet from a memorial for Abby and just feet from where her car was found
Ebbie stebic's remains were identified as hers within 24 hours the Pulaski County coroner's office has
made a determination as to the cause of death but that information has not been released the case is considered an open
homicide investigation and once they find her remains there's gonna be several people that come forward and say
hey we actually tried to report this to the detectives yeah so I mean really truly it was
mind-boggling that Abby wasn't found prior to this final search right because every time that anyone was there looking
searching the park even with cadaver dogs she had been right there and there were several times her mom
speaking to TV cameras in connection with searches memorials and vigils for her daughter
she's standing right in front of that very storm drain leading to the pipe where Abby was found
the thing is you sit there and in hindsight you wonder how could no one have thought to investigate the storm
drain which was literally right under the front bumper of her car right especially if there's claims that it was
there was a smell coming from there as well right right and you say there was a smell well we know that there was a
smell that permeated the area because in fact the Little Rock Police Department had been on notice the whole time that
Ebby was probably in that storm drain now let's let's break this down this is because on November 3rd 2015. this is
just days after Abby was last heard from her friend Kaylee Foley she's one of ebby's best friends and
we've mentioned her already Kaylee Foley and her mother Margie went to shalamonte park this was after they
met with the major crimes detectives who were following up on some missing persons reports right
meaning Abby's right right frustrated by Abby's disappearance and the lack of information this mother and
daughter team decided that they were going to go and see the park for themselves they wanted to go and just
look around the place where Evie's car was found they parked in the same parking lot
where Evie's car was located and they started just looking around and then Margie says as they walked by the
drainage pipe area they both smelled something terrible so she called 9-1-1 to report the smell
and she doesn't call 9-1-1 and Report like a terrible smell she calls 9-1-1 and says I smell decomposition
and an article appearing in May of 2018 thv11 printed the contents of that 911 call to the Pulaski County Sheriff's
Office it says and this is Margie talking says I just came out of a meeting with
Detective Williams in regards to a missing person named Ebbie stevik I brought my daughter who's a friend of
hers we just started walking around here and I smelled decomposition I just called his phone meaning
Detective Williams right he didn't call me back could you send somebody here to investigate
the sheriff's office then called Little Rock Police Department they needed to relay this information
the dispatcher waited for more than two minutes for a supervisor to come to the phone before the line goes dead
the dispatcher called again and spoke to a different dispatcher before speaking with an
unidentified woman that's when the information was relayed she says she smelled something terrible she says
she smelled decomposition and she's worried that this might be related to the case that she just spoke to you
about Margie Foley claims she called police at least three times leaving phone messages
for the investigator in charge of the case she says more than an hour passed before the police department officers
showed up at the scene and she says I was kind of dismissed by them she told this to a reporter when she
explained what officers said to her at the scene she said they told me this park has gone through with some it's
been gone through with some dogs and they would have picked up on that scent they would have picked up on that if it
was important to our case right what your smelling lady must be a dead animal or something
she said that the officers did look into the storm drain with flashlights but then they told her you're smelling
sewage right later she would say it just makes me physically ill thinking that the girl
that I had in my home had taken in was decaying down there and that's what she said she smelled and
nobody did anything for three years they just left her there Margie Foley says she also reported her
story about the odor wafting up from the storm drain to officers conducting the search of the park in late
November of 2016. and again nothing came of her reports Lori Jernigan in response to learning
she's just now learning after her daughter's remains are found right she's just now learning about these 9-1-1
calls she says in response to these calls that she could have had closure within
days not years of what went on in her daughter's case well not to mention that one of the
leads or one of the Avenues rabbit holes that you have to go down is that possibly shoot that she's abducted and
put into sex trafficking and so she's thinking that possibly that her daughter is being tortured for years
it's unbelievable it's Unforgivable yeah and here's the thing the reason why I mean I kind of went through the long
version of parts of that story and that you might not find in that detail elsewhere
but the thing that I really wanted to hone in on and reiterate very strongly was this was not a case of where a woman
says she found a came across a strange smell right and just simply called 9-1-1 and left it at that no she called and
left a message for the detective that she just spoke to she went and spoke to that detective in person and I believe
it was at his request and so afterwards she leaves his office with her daughter they go to the park
and she's saying look I I believe this might be in relationship to the case that we just spoke about right and this
is I don't know it's just it just seems like there was so much opportunity to not
miss this step and somehow they still managed to do so yeah it's it's pathetic it's absolutely pathetic and
it's law enforcement and detectives like this that give the good guys a bad name
right and the thing too um is the Walmart the possible footage that they could have come up with from
that Walmart Super Center yeah this one of the routes that somebody would have to take to that park or to leave
that Park they don't have to go by the Walmart but one of a chosen route could Lead You
past that Walmart right either on your way in or your way out of the park or both now they could have come across
surveillance footage that could have been extremely helpful to this investigation
there's I don't know the distance between the cameras and the road but we know that her car was found in
that Park and we know look this is not this is not hard man this is not rocket science
the officers the investigators would know there's a Walmart down the street maybe we should go over there and check
their footage they could have seen a vehicle following hers or leading hers or you could even go all right well we
we sold 10 vehicles at this time through through the next hour or two right uh maybe we should look into those
Vehicles you know there was all kinds of leads that weren't followed up upon that
were just missed in the beginning and then the case essentially it ends up with the Cold Case detectives because it
went cold because it was not worked and that's really the sad sick truth of of this and and what's what's even terrible
it may be even more terrible we we're sitting here today analyzing the case and the story and the investigation and
the investigation in the early stages was so bad it almost overshadows the this young
woman got murdered right and that's not solved it's not solved there's some very
good leads there I do want to I do want to throw out a possible silver lining it seems to me I couldn't find any
anything printed with these four boys or men or whoever they were at this party [ __ ] bags or what what they may have
done to Abby what their level of involvement in that crime was right or what their level of involvement is with
her disappearance and murder I couldn't find that what what I do believe though is even
though that that's not out there based off of the private investigators we had two throughout the duration of of this
case and through some of the words that that are said and chosen to be chose to be
used in statements given to the media it seems to me Captain like those persons are probably known to the
investigators yeah that's good but because I mean we have them on record stating we spoke to
these guys they wouldn't let us see their phones we didn't have profitable calls to get a search warrant and we
have the family complaining you should have got a damn search warrant and searched their phone so it seems It's
not like these these men are Mystery Men they're they're known to to investigate
right but the things to connect the dots and build a case against them they're lost probably gone so now it just
becomes Dust in the Wind does one of these guys one day you know does he grow a pair of balls and say hey you know
what this thing happened and yes I saw the video and I also heard rumors or no for a fact that somebody's responsible
for her death but it'll take somebody that seems like a [ __ ] bag to step up to
the plate and be a man and what it comes down to is the the law enforcement didn't take the
initial claims of sexual assault serious at the beginning and then didn't take that a step further
once she went missing and it's and it's actually it's so it's pathetic and then the again the torture
that they put the family through that's pathetic yeah and it's like and then but
the question to me is it because you're lazy and stupid and you're a [ __ ] or or
did you start talking did you start doing some did you actually do some investigation and realize that somebody
you knew was involved in this so are you choosing to be stupid or or is this a cover-up and what's so sad is it seems
like these guys just got to keep their jobs and nothing happened to them and there's you know nothing done uh yeah we
apologized we put new people on the case but that doesn't uncover evidence that should have been
uncovered to begin with an apology doesn't do much it doesn't correct what the the past misdealings of What
What In the End will be looked upon as the misdealings of the entire police department right when I and what it does
do is I am happy that at some point they realize somebody realized yeah that this
isn't working out it's our fault even though they've not publicly claimed any any blame
we we have to take this in a different direction or or we're never going to get anywhere
with this so I I you know it's as angry as you get with them and as as pissed off as you get for the missteps early on
they did at some point recognize that there was a problem and they pivoted from that well and I hate to sound like
I'm on a soapbox but it just seems to me not just this law enforcement but Society in general if we took sexual
assault claims more serious than we'd have way more information and would know who was
responsible for the assault and we would know probably who's responsible for her
murder after ebby's remains were found Lori and Michael Jernigan released a public
statement which reads every story over the past 30 plus months has touched Many Lives Many have seen the beauty in her
eyes that revealed a deep passion and care for others so it is only fitting that the search to find Abby has sparked
open conversations and brought a heightened awareness to missing children and young adults the existence of sex
trafficking along with the need for improved policies and processes within the law enforcement community in these
areas her story has touched many in ways that she could not have ever imagined at
her funeral several speakers addressed the positives that have come out of her case before her funeral the family
requested that instead of sending flowers people who wanted to show support should send donations to Halo's
investigations or path instead one of the final family speakers was ebby's Father Peter stevik who read his last
letter to Ebbie and said quote as I close the last love letter from a dad to his daughter I need you to know it was
an honor to know you and to spend time with you and another tragic turn of events for the Jernigan family Abby's
brother Trevor passed away suddenly from a heart attack he died at the young age
of 35. thank you I want to thank everybody for joining us in the garage and thank you so much for
sharing our show on social media and thank you to you Captain all right thanks to everybody join us back here in
the garage next week until then be good be kind and don't live thank you [Music]

Ebby Steppach /// Part 2 /// 344

Part 2 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

Ebbie Stebic's case highlights police negligence and the eventual discovery of her remains after years of searching.

Key points

The Disappearance of Ebby Stebic. Ebby Stebic vanishes after a traumatic experience, leading to a frustrating investigation.
Frustration with Police Response. The Jernigan family faces neglect from the police in Ebby's case.
Private Investigator Steps In. Monty Vickers, a former detective, takes on Ebby's case after police inaction.
Dash Cam Footage Lost. Vital dash cam footage of Ebby is lost due to police negligence.
FBI Joins the Case. Surprisingly, the FBI voluntarily joins the investigation into Ebby's disappearance.
FBI Joins Investigation. The FBI unexpectedly joins the case despite no federal jurisdiction, raising questions about the investigation's handling.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The whole first 30 days was just the cops counting on Ebby showing back up.

Family's frustration with police response

4:45WatchNov 20, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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