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

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a young 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 eie Steck no sign of
her nothing let's dive back in shall we now remember we talked about phone data and social media in episode one and how
the investigator was confused about ebbie's phone and about her social media EB's family once again tries to get
involved they even offered to pay for an IT 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 Super Center on Chanel Drive which could have captured
eie and a final insult for8 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 EB's family were in rated 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 eie is still alive and in
the area and as Michael Jernigan put it to Kar KTV quote the whole first 30 days
was just the cops counting on Ebie 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 line down the family hired Monty
Vickers a retired 22e Little Rock Police Department detective turned private investigator to
help them someone needed to care about EB'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 goete 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 cuz 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 EB'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 eie sent several
text messages to the young 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 eie 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 EB'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 why right and it's not clear if they ask 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 eie 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 shamont 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 related to him from police instead the meeting resulted in a 45-minute taped
interview to vicker'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 3 days he waited for the police by the car for 2 to 3 hours but the police never came the police didn't
show up to take a look until 2 days later and even more startling Hooper told Vickers that he
had dash cam video of EBY 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 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 veillance 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 received some assistance from an organization called Halo's invest
instigations this is a private Mississippi firm that looks into cases of missing or trafficked kids Halo's
volunteers scoured the internet for photos of eie in the event that she was trafficked they also conducted a search
of the shamont park Woods assisted by the Little Rock Police Department this is 4 months after eie
vanished the organization also helped with publishing the case sending EB's missing person's poster to to hospitals
and police stations all over the country in case she turned up somewhere the case manager for Halos
Tina stores said her firm 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 EBY left voluntarily meanwhile the jernigans
were being inundated with all sorts of hoax messages false alarms and Facebook pranks where people claim to be Ebie but
some of these were enough to point them in the direction of sex trafficking some
emails were sent to the family showing that eie was sold for $25,000 people claim to have seen her on
back page and Craigslist Lori began to realize that this threat was very real right Sergeant
Allan hamy with the vice unit told Little Rock's thv11 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 ebbie'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 6 months after eie
was last heard from the relationship between the jernigans and the Little Rock Police Department it became tox
toic this is as stated by ay magazine they continued to treat eie as a runaway Major Crimes detectives refused to get
warrants for the phones of the young men allegedly involved in the incident involving eie 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 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 and you can't say they worked it I guess I shouldn't and like I said LA and here's what they refused to
work it yeah yeah here's what is funny though is cuz when we were 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 to 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 you're 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 but hold on here here's the reason why 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 talk 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 the 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 yeah 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 asked these individuals and they denied it and I don't think that
has been reported mhm 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
mhm yeah and remember I 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 EB'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 was 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
y 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 again again we don't know their connection if there is
a connection to any of the guys 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 MH and you can't prove that in the court of law so you can't charge the
family 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 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 test 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 and right and the reason why is because there's so much stress so
they even say after a you know event of a kid going missing or a murder that's close to you that it's 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's surpris 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 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 vicker's 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 post forensic evidence in the Pat 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 eie was last seen the case was reassigned to the homicide unit under detective Tommy Hudson this showed
that that there was going to be a fresh start although the case was still technically classified a missing
person's case Lori also received a personal telephone apology from assistant chief Wayne
bullan 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 3-day search was conducted for clues in The Disappearance of eie Steck 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 an
exploited children and cadav dogs the area searched included the wooded areas of shalom Park where EB's car was
located nothing was [Music] found this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays
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[Music] Freedom all right we're back everybody uh sniff your seats cheers by mid2 17 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 Halloway Ward came on in October of 2017 this is
2 years after eie vanished the Jernigan's 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 eie be dead than living like that well and you wonder because when she talked to her
brother we know that he he said that she sounded intoxicated M 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 and the the fears that eie
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 when talking to True Crime daily he made made
some questionable allegations regarding what he claims he saw while he was working at the
park on June 27th 2017 Little Rock PD held a press conference about new developments in
Ebby steck's case there wasn't anything to report as far as findings but the announcement was that EB'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 EB'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 Kar KTV 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 Al 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 EB's location and eie was to be featured on billboards 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 eie they donated the proceeds to Partners against trafficking
humans this is a Little Rock organization that supports victims Lori Jernigan went through hell
in the nearly 3 years since her daughter vanished Without a Trace M 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 abb's
pink Nike tennis shoe but the leg didn't belong to Abby then there was the time that the volunteer Searchers looking for
Ebie 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 EBY 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 shalat 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 eie 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 EB'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 to send robots equipped with video cameras down the drain
located right near EB'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 EB'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 EB'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 EB's car now at this location they hit an obstruction about 70 ft ft down when they ran the robots
down the other end of the drain they hit an obstruction 130 ft down investigators
decided to excavate to see what was inside the pipe on May 22nd 2018 the diggers were called it 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 ft from a
memorial for Abby and just feet from where her car was found EBY steck's remains were identified as hers within
24 hours the palaski County coroner's office has made a determination as to the cause of death but that information
has has not been released the case is considered an open homicide investigation and once they find her
remains there's going to 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 mindboggling that eie wasn't found prior to this final search right
because every time that anyone was there looking searching the park even with cab
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 EBY 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 Ebie was probably in that storm drain now let's let's break this down this is because on November
3rd 2015 uh this is just days after eie was last heard from her friend Kaylee Foley
she one of EB's best friends and we've mentioned her already Kaylee Foley and her mother
Margie went to shamont park this was after they met with the major crimes detectives who were following up on some
missing persons reports right meaning abb's case right right frustrated by abb'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 EB's car was found they parked in the same parking lot where
EB'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 911 to report the smell and she doesn't call 911 and Report like a
terrible smell she calls 911 and says I smell decomposition in an article appearing in
May of 2018 thv11 printed the contents of that 911 call to the plasy 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 eie Steck 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 2 minutes for a supervisor to come to the phone before the launch 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 you're smelling lady must be a dead an 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 Lor 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 911 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 she that she's abducted and put into SE sex trafficking and so she's
thinking that possibly that her daughter is being tortured for years mhm it's 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 911 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 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 the 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 saw 10 vehicles at this time through through the next hour or two right
uh maybe we should look into those Vehicles you know there 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 maybe even more terrible we we we're sitting here today analyzing the case and the story and the
investigation and the investigation and the early stages was so bad it it almost
overshadows the this young woman got murdered right and it'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 eie 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 see it's not like these these men are Mystery Men they're they're known to
to investigators right but the things to connect the dots and build a case against them they're 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 know for a fact that
somebody's responsible for her death mhm but it 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 act 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 CU you're lazy and stupid and you're [ __ ] 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
MH so are you choosing to be stupid or 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 well that doesn't uncover evidence that should have been uncovered to begin with that apology
doesn't do much it doesn't correct what the the past Mis dealings of What What In the End will be looked
upon as the Mis dealings of the entire police department well and I what 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 as pissed off as you get for the
missteps early on they did at some point recognize that they was a problem and they pivoted from that well and I hate
to sound like I'm on a soap box but it just seems to me not just this law enforcement but
Society in general if we took sexual assault claims more serious then we'd have way more information and we'd know
who was responsible for the assault and we would know probably who's responsible
for her murder after EB's remains were found Lori and Michael Jernigan released a public statement which reads Abby's
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 eie 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 ERS 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 ebbie's Father Peter Steck who read his last letter to eie and said
quote as I closed 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 in another tragic turn of events for the Jernigan family EB's brother Trevor passed away suddenly
from a heart attack he died at the young age of [Music] 35 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 mm all right
thanks to every everybody join us back here in the garage next week until then be good be kind and don't
[Music] litter you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

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

Ebie Steck's case reveals police mishandling, family struggles, and her tragic discovery in a storm drain after years of searching.

Key points

AT&T's iPhone 15 Pro Deal. AT&T guarantees a deal on the new iPhone 15 Pro with eligible trade-in.
The Disappearance of Eie Steck. A young woman vanishes after a traumatic party experience, leaving her family desperate for answers.
Private Investigator's Involvement. The family hires a private investigator to push for action in Eie's case.
Dash Cam Footage Lost. Crucial dash cam footage related to Eie's case is lost due to police negligence.
Police Investigation Missteps. The Little Rock Police Department's mishandling of Eie's case raises serious concerns.
FBI Joins the Case. In a surprising turn, the FBI voluntarily joined the investigation despite no federal jurisdiction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Family's frustration with police inaction.

5:47WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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