Gretchen Fleming /// Part 1 /// 807 | Forensic Files

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[Music] parkerburg West Virginia a young woman goes out for some late night bar hopping as the night goes
on she becomes more and more inebriated she finds herself without her purse her phone or her
wallet but a friendly Good Samaritan comes to the rescue and offers her a safe ride home
however she has never been seen since this is true crime garage and this is the case of Gretchen
[Music] Fleming want to take you home [Music] want to take you [Music] home Gretchen Eve Fleming was born in
Warrington Virginia on Christmas Eve that's December 24th 1994 I'm making a guess here but that
could be why her parents chose the middle name Eve for their Christmas Eve baby Gretchen had a younger sister her
name is Emma but when the girls were young their parents split up it's unclear why their mother did not seem to
be involved but their father David raised the two girls in parkerburg West Virginia David remarried a woman named
Jennifer who brought three-year-old twins into the family and David and Jennifer had a child of their own the
family now numbered seven with Gretchen being the oldest of those children Gretchen graduated from from parkerburg
high school in 2013 and went on to Marshall College in Huntington West Virginia as well as some
schools in North Carolina she apparently studied political science at William Peace University and also attended Shaw
University there after college she lived in Raleigh North Carolina but things weren't as rosy as they should have been
for a young woman in her mid 20s living and working independently when our Story begins in
December of 2022 Gretchen is 27 years old and had returned home to West Virginia she had
experienced a recent breakup of a year-long relationship in North Carolina then there was this and this is some
very rough stuff here Captain Gretchen was in a way reunited with her biom mom but this was when her mother became very
ill Gretchen tried to take care of her mother she at this point due to the divorce is the next of kin and because
she's an adult she is going to have to make the very tough decision that very few of us are even somewhat equipped or
prepared to make she was in charge with the decision to take her mother off of life support needless to say it was a
traumatic time for Gretchen and those who knew her described her as a bit lost back in parkerburg she moved in with her
father David's mother and dad this is Lise and Phil Fleming this is in Vienna because David and Jennifer still had
four kids at home and it was I'm sure a little chaotic in the household with a child Centric lifestyle and household
I'm sure a young woman in in her mid-20s is not going to love that setup so she's
living some what out on her own if you will but technically with David's mom and dad her grandparents now Vienna is
right next door to parkerburg so to speak it's just a short Drive North from parkerburg Gretchen was basically
hitting the reset button on life and trying to figure out what to do with her young adult life she was considering
being a flight attendant but in the meantime she was working at an H&M store this was located at the Grand Central
Mall she didn't drive as she had no driver's license so her grandparents her friends and Ubers and lifts drove her
practically everywhere Gretchen was definitely the Moody artist type her Facebook page shows A Soulful looking
slender young brunette with huge dark eyes and quite a few selfies but her profile photo is a cat Gretchen was
described by those who knew her as a musician a writer someone who made a statement with her clothing and hair who
didn't look like everyone else she was creative smart well-traveled and educated her father told
WTAP that Gretchen was very unique she loved her fashion and she was a Thrifty fashioned girl yeah very artistic and it
seems like she put that not just into songwriting and music but she also put that into her own personal style
Gretchen was about 5' 1 in tall and 110 lb she was quiet but not a Wallflower or
doormat types this from West Virginia Metro News quoting her father David quote she went to Washington DC for the
women's March when she attended Marshall University she sent me one picture she was on some kind of stage in with
Marshall with a megaphone talking to the crowd she wasn't afraid to stand up for
what she believed in end quote and Gretchen's grandmother Lis Fleming said her granddaughter had been living with
her and her husband in Vienna for the past six months leading up to her disappearance Gretchen Louie said was a
joy to have in the house she brought new life into the older couple's lives Gretchen came and went spending a lot of
time at work or with friends but most of her childhood friends were gone from the
area by this time having moved away she was meeting new people not a lot of them
whom were known to her family now I want to hone in on something real quickly here before we move
into the days and events in question from that statement from Grandmother Louise she's saying when she says
Gretchen came and went what she meant was was not that she came to live with us and then she left
right what she's stating is that because of Gretchen's age and because of the rules of their household Gretchen was
free to come and go as she pleased with the exception of this like there was a cut off time not necessarily a curfew
she didn't have to be home it was just if you're going to arrive after this hour just stay with your friends you
know these are these are folks that that didn't want to be you know don't wake us
up in the middle of the night when you're coming and going and this was something that was pretty regular as we
will see when we go through our timeline here now in early December of 20202 this is
when Gretch and Fleming went missing so let's start with December 3rd this is a Saturday Captain Gretchen's grandmother
drops her off at the mall she's going to work that day that's where she works Gretchen's grandmother says this was at
1:15 p.m. and Gretchen told her that she was going going out with friends after work which happened often and so it was
expected by all that Gretchen would be staying with friends that night after going out after work Lis didn't give it
a second thought when Gretchen didn't come home that night Gretchen's stepmother Jennifer later told the TV
show disappeared that Gretchen's grandparents had strict rules in the house including not really a curfew but as
said she would stay with friends and according to the Stepmom couch surfing sometimes for three or four days at a
time so she basically popped in and out of her grandparents house using it as a bit of a home base right but it was
common for her to be gone for several days at a time unfortunately this is what everybody
thought was going on and Gretchen does not ever come home when Gretchen didn't come home for over a week her
grandmother began to get very worried so now we're going to go to December 11th Lise drove over to Jennifer and David's
house and told Jennifer she's worried I've not seen Gretchen and I've not seen Gretchen since December 3rd so we're
like seven eight days later right by this point when she dropped Gretchen off at work on Saturday afternoon the
previous Saturday that's what she's telling Jennifer and David this is the last time
that I've seen her by the way I've sent her some text she's not responding and her phone is going immediately to
voicemail by this time so now everybody's kind of alerted and they all agree something was wrong David Gets in
his car Dad gets in his car and went to the bars in the area that he knew that young people liked they knew that
Gretchen liked a bar called the front row so David went in with a photo of Gretchen that he had on his phone and
now he's asking the people that work there have you seen this girl right the bartender working that day says yes I've
seen her not only have I seen her she was here last weekend and oh by the way we have her purse it was dropped off by
a male friend last Sunday morning okay this is weird and not in a good way yeah so
Gretchen's been missing for almost a week she's not returning anybody's texts or
calls like you said the when you call her it's going straight to voicemail so we can almost assume that her phone is
dead at this point they go to this local bar have you seen my daughter yes we have and by the way we have her purse I
mean this is um many red flags that's exactly right we don't know Gretchen's whereabouts for a oim 8 days now there's
no communication since now dad in an attempt to track down his daughter or at least possibly find a lead as to where
he may find his daughter he finds her purse Instead at the front row bar Sports Bar and Grill do we have a list
of what items are in the purse yes we do so th this is to be clear here if I'm Dad this is not a lead this feels more
like a dead end a bad bad sign yes all right so what we do have inside of this purse Captain David finds Gretchen's
phone her ID wallet credit cards her tablet and so on like the list is actually longer than
that but it's to sum it up nice and short it's everything he expected to find in her purse in fact we could
probably phrase it this way it's everything he didn't want to find in her purse right you yeah you would hope to
maybe that she has her phone on her her that she has her credit cards she had none of this stuff on her all this stuff
is in her purse and her purse has not been with her since last Sunday so this is beyond bad news for a father with a
missing daughter yeah if all the important items her phone her IDs or credit cards if those weren't in the
purse then that' give you some kind of hope but when you're finding all these items that you know that she uses daily
you know you your heart breaks for this guy yeah he said that he panicked which is a natural reaction yeah and in the
moment he kind of lost touch with reality he he was hoping that maybe finding the purse meant that his
daughter had been at the front row very recently and had left her belongings there on accident but remember the
bartender said that Gretchen was last in the previous weekend 8 days ago the same
day that her grandmother had dropped off at work but it gets even more mysterious
than that the bar staff said Gretchen left the bar last Saturday night with some guy and she had her purse with her
when they left and it seems like there's not a guy in her life as far as like a there's no solid boyfriend like you said
she broke up with somebody she's coming back to town she's resetting her life and so
when you hear I mean it's not that Weir we to hear that she was in the bar with a guy that could be a guy friend or it
could be somebody that she's been seeing and she's not telling she doesn't live with her dad so but still not a great
sign no I wouldn't I mean she's in her mid 20s it would almost be weird if she wasn't hanging out with friends so right
I don't find it strange at all and especially when we're talking about she's out at a public place but maybe a
lead for the dad you know you said is he finds these items it's not a good sign but okay so
now do we know who she was with yes and I think you're tapping into something important here because In This Moment In
This Very crucial moment he finds the purse at the bar he's he's informed that she had left that Saturday night with
some guy but guess what her phone is in the purse so maybe the phone could provide the Le
and her phone was not password protected so rather quickly it he he could access
the phone unfortunately the first thing that Dad notices is that Gretchen had not
responded to any Communications since December third David spoke with Gretchen's
friends his friends her friends tell him that Gretchen was with a guy named John
that night he was driving her around Gretchen's family did not know him the DJ that was working at the front row bar
also confirmed that Gretchen was there with a guy that the DJ knew the guy's name to be John right so the DJ confirms
the bartender confirms the staff confirms that from what everybody's eyeballs saw that Saturday night
Gretchen left with this guy that they all believe or know him as John now the next morning after finding the purse at
the bar this is is when the missing person's report was filed with the police because of the circumstances here
Captain the police jumped on this immediately by this point it's been over a week and they have her purse so the
investigation went into high gear very quickly this is something we scream at the top of our lungs especially these
small law enforcement agencies what else are you going to do write some tickets we have an emergency
here let's get all hands on deck and they do so and we should applaud them for that yeah the parkerburg police
department posted about Gretchen's disappearance on Facebook immediately stating that if anyone had any
information on the current whereabouts of greten Fleming age 27 please contact detective Zimmerman this Facebook post
was shared over 1,000 times in the first 24 hours behind the scenes police learned that Gretchen went to a number
of bars on the evening of December 3rd here are her movements to the best of everyone's knowledge Gretchen arrived at
the front row sports bar and grill at located at 4000 Emerson Avenue in downtown parkerburg in the company of a
young man this could be the John person or the person that is known as John according to two female employees at the
front row who went to high school with Gretchen this is helpful because these are people that actually know her yeah
and so you're you're not getting you're not getting some strangers going yeah I think I saw that that young lady these
two female employees are telling police and the family Gretchen was regularly in
the establishment it was said that Gretchen was at the bar with a male friend until
about 11 p.m. when they left together Gretchen's family said on the show disappeared the guy named John and
Gretchen headed to a bar called my way for some karaoke some late night karaoke not my thing but I'm not a hater either
if you want to sing some T Swift or some black street I'm down oh if it's late enough baby it is my thing I'll hit you
with some I'll hit you hardcore with some Billy Idol there you right to the face so this bar the my way carry I I
shouldn't Define it as a karaoke bar I've never been there but they that's what they went there for is what we're
told and remember Gretchen is a a musician she's she's likes to perform and so this makes a lot of sense right
she's into karaoke this bar is located at 501 Julianne Street in parkerburg now when this John fella learned that
Gretchen was missing he contacted the Parkersburg police to help them fill in some of the blanks about this night in
question so this is helpful right we're somehow this information gets back to this John character might have been the
Facebook P post might have been any of these employees or staff at at these two establishments but somehow this
information gets to JN rather quickly that she's missing well I guess it's a positive thing that he finds you and you
don't have to find him but we've seen another cases that doesn't mean much but now we have made contact with Jon so we
can figure out who Jon is and is he involved in her disappearance and if he even if he's not right he could likely
provide some information because you're looking for a breadcrumb trail right and
right now the breadcrumb trail led to John and then we learn from other people that oh well that John person and
Gretchen went to this other bar so now your bre from Trail takes you to the my way bar now this dude's calling you he's
reaching out to police and so so you're hoping to get some more information so to fill in some of the blanks here John
tells police that he and Gretchen they were he was the one that was with her at the front row and he said that Gretchen
was the one that wanted to go to the MyWay Bar for karaoke and John was the driver so they went together he said
that Gretchen left her purse in his car now now we don't know if this was accidentally maybe she was intoxicated I
don't know or could be simply on purpose right perhaps thinking it was better to
leave it in the car rather than to maybe accidentally leave it in the bar or maybe she didn't want to take it in the
bar for any other reason if you're law enforcement at this point with JN telling you the story you don't know if
Jon's telling you the truth oh of course not no if if you're a good detective you
think everybody's lying to you yeah so but but the thing that we need to focus in on here is it sounds to me I can't
speak for John or Gretchen of course but it sounds to me that the general thought
was that they arrived at this second bar together and they were probably going to
leave together now John said that he got caught up talking with some friends of his so these are people he knew that
Gretchen didn't know we have eyewitnesses saying that they came into the bar but they basically sat on
opposite sides of the bar yeah he says that once he's hanging out with these other folks he kind of loses track
aggression and he said that she must have left the bar because he couldn't find her and he says I didn't see her
leave the bar at closing time John says he looked for Gretchen to attempt to give her a ride home and again he
couldn't find her he was actually kind of freaking out a little bit and all he can think is well at some point I went
to the restroom and when I came back out I I never saw her after I came back from
the restroom and in fact one thing that we know that is backed up by some of the
security camera footage in the area is that when he's looking for her he not only appears to be looking for her in
the bar but he goes outside he looks around for her out there she's nowhere in sight and he actually went to other
bars or other other places very close within walking distance to see if maybe she was there as well he never finds her
that night now let's fast forward to the next morning where on Sunday December 4th Jon Turned Gretchen's purse into the
bartender or the owner of the front row bar now this was verified by several employees so he left her purse at the
front row he tells police look I I know that she goes there on occasion I don't know her I have no way of getting in
touch with her I mean she doesn't even have her phone he simply said my thought was that she would be at this bar before
I would have an opportunity to get in touch with her so he leaves the purse at the bar assuming that they might even be
able to contact her and she would just come and pick up her her bag and as said John didn't know Gretchen very well and
he didn't know to drop her things off at her grandparents house so he may not even known that they that she lived with
her grandparents or where that was located I do want to point something out though I don't know what time this cut
off was for arriving home but one thing I find strange about John's story and it
may just be that he doesn't have the information yeah it's implied that he was going to drive her home that night
the Witnesses are saying they left the front row at 11:00 p.m. and then went to another bar if there's a cutof point
what was he really going to drive her home were there other plans yeah or is home just a relative
term hey we're going to go to this other bar and I can drop you back at home when
we're done oh yeah great yeah I I what I'm saying here is there's something missing from this part of the story
right but again it could be simply that JN doesn't he doesn't know Gretchen very
well this is backed up by other people he may just not have all the information Gretchen may have had what we don't is
anybody coming forward saying that oh yeah Gretchen was going to go out and have a good time and then get dropped
off at my house that that's kind of what's missing here because it would seem to me that she's probably already
passed the cut off point of going back to Grandma and Grandpa's house I totally agree but it is very possible that she
just thought I'll figure this out when we're leaving oh yes but I mean we've we've all been in our 20s sometimes
you're just flying by the seat of your pants what I'm sure at least one or two of the beautiful listeners are out there
thinking is all right well here's this missing young woman John must have did it he must have
had some he must be responsible for whatever happened to Gretchen but to be clear here Gretchen's
parents don't agree with that thought in fact they told disappeared that Jon was
very upset and worried and they feel he has nothing to do with what happened to Gretchen and and police agree for
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filthy animals tall cans in the air cheers to everybody in the back back and cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
and merry Christmas you filthy animals so this is the change yeah keep the change this is from news Nation now
again we have that delay and when she is last seen to when she's reported missing
and from news Nation it says quote authorities were not concerned about the delay in reporting she was close with
her family says Park urg police chief Matthew bour sometimes you just go a few days without speaking to family so they
didn't really feel it was strange but the delay in reporting was of course disastrous for what would end up being a
missing person's investigation yeah but we have a couple things working for us couple things working against us the
thing working against us and this happens with any young adult they're not in constant contact with their family
they don't have set schedules I mean if she's working at H&M she probably doesn't have a Monday through Friday
schedule so their schedules are constantly changing so it's really hard unless she was supposed to be somewhere
and didn't show up and that's my big question is you know people can question the family and go well why did it take
you so long to report this but my question would be for her EMP lawyer at some point I'm sure she was scheduled to
show up to work that week and she didn't show up and why didn't you contact anybody yeah that's a good point and so
one of the things that we don't have that we're not equipped with is what was on her phone what did Dad see on her
phone when he accessed it could it have been miss calls from her employer that maybe they the only number that they
knew of to attempt to contact her was her cell phone which which we know unfortunately was sitting in her purse
basically in the lost and found at the front row day after day waiting for their owner to come back who would never
return to retrieve it yeah but normally you have some kind of emergency contact person and maybe they just didn't fill
out that paperwork correctly I mean I'm I'm sure I uh gave false information on some of those forms when I was younger
but what we do have working for us if we're law enforcement if we're the family the search for Gretchen is the
last person seen with her or the last person we think was seen with her in public was John he's cooperating with
law enforcement and that's a good thing because we've seen in so many missing person cases the last person that
they're seen with or the last group of people somebody seen with where they get scared and they lawyer up and they they
don't give us information that could be vital to figuring out what happened to the
individual well and we're going to be able to move on from John rather quickly because as said our breadcrumb Trail now
takes us to the my way Lounge we have several witnesses there that remember seeing Gretchen remember we have several
witnesses that say they saw Gretchen with this John person arriving there however we get some other people at the
bar that say well we saw her without John a lot of the people are not going to know who Gretchen is some of these
people are not going to know who J is but what what these Witnesses are saying is yeah I saw that young lady at the bar
that night but she was with an older man with a guy with gray hair hey there's some young men with gray hair as well
they call us silver foxes this is very true however what we're getting is the description of this person that she's
seen with does not match the description of John yeah I believe believe the bartender says that he he bought her a
drink maybe and they were sharing or they were sharing a drink um not sharing the same drink not like one cup two
straws but um that this individual was sitting at the bar with her and and chatting yeah so police will actually
technically see her with this older man as well because the MyWay Lounge provided all of their surveillance
footage from that evening as we had mentioned prior so on this surveillance footage they're seeing her talking with
this guy who is not John so John was not to be clear not the last person to see Gretchen on this night and why is it so
important to report somebody missing as soon as you can is because of many reasons but one of the major
reasons is like you're saying here they're able to go to the bar and go do you guys have cameras yeah we do okay
can we get that footage from this time great now we have her outside of the bar on surveillance footage with this older
gentleman and then they're able law enforcement is able to go to other businesses and say okay well if they're
leaving this bar if they left together which direction would they go in and they're able to reach out to other
businesses especially in a small town and so now we're going to get all this surveillance footage of this guy's
movements after he leaves the bar yeah so let's let's back it up just a bit I'm sorry I got excited because
what we we have statements from her parents you know the the police have are going to be tight lipped about certain
information parents if they have the same information they may or may not be so closed lipped about it and her father
David watched the video from the surveillance footage as well and he says that it showed Gretchen
was sitting at the bar alone while John was standing talking to other people this is backing up John's
story now attached to this bar or attach to this room that they're in is a gambling room so David says that at some
point on the surveillance footage an older man came out of the gambling room Stood Beside Gretchen and then bought
her a drink then they went into the gambling room together this is for about 30 minutes when they come back into the
main bar area then the man walked out the front door and Gretchen walked out behind him the video verified that John
was not around when Gretchen left yeah I believe he was in the the bathroom shortly after that the bar
closes and then John has to leave this without Gretchen detective Zimmerman actually appeared on the Disappeared TV
show talking about the case he said that the video footage they obtained showed the man and Gretchen leaving through the
front door with her following behind him at approximately 0310 hours on December 4th they believed
that the man the only person of interest in this case was parked in the parking lot near the News and Sentinel offices
at 519 Juliana street but the car and the people who got into to it were not captured on video let's go to December
14th the police obtained surveillance footage from numerous locations as the captain had said around the city on the
14th of December detective Zimmerman explaining quote from there he's talking about that parking lot we have video
footage that captured headlights heading down the alley towards Sixth Street we believe that to be the person of
interest's vehicle footage from a nearby gas station showed what they believe to
be the same vehicle on Ann Street heading toward Southside parkerburg the vehicle continued on various
surveillance footage Snippets continuing in the direction of the person of interest's home yes they quickly found
out who the man was whom Gretchen was believed to have left the bar with the police called him the person of interest
the media reported his name as Preston Pierce now everybody's saying Gretchen did not know this
guy David guessed that perhaps Gretchen left with him only because she was inebriated perhaps the older man
promised to give her a ride or perhaps she was drugged or he tricked her to going
outside and you know if he has a gun or something thing is there a way that he could make a
threat and go hey you better get in the car with me back to the Reconstruction of the route Pierce's car was believed
to have taken police traced the route visible on surveillance footage they conducted a search in the area under the
Fifth Street Bridge because the car went in that direction and police unfortunately thought that this was a
logical dump site they tried to figure out from the time stamps if the car stopped anywhere and they looked to see
if Gretchen was seen walking anywhere along the Route they found nothing well something that's also going to be
helpful or should be helpful for law enforcement is this Pierce's guy's car it's a all black small SUV but he has
these Darth Vader stickers on it so MH it's a car that you would be able to recognize if you if you saw it so
detective Zimmerman he drafts three search warrants and a judge found probable cause existed to search Preston
Pierce's home vehicle and a storage unit he had access to for any evidence relating to gret and Fleming all three
warrants were executed on the 15th of December the police refused to release any more information in the active
investigation but it got out that the search warrants were executed by the West Virginia State Police on at least
one private property which was a small home on the 1300 block of Division Street owned by Preston Pierce yeah the
police collected some undisclosed items and sent those to the State Police lab they impounded Pierce's car and started
a forensic examination of the vehicle and they hauled Pierce in for question detective Zimmerman much later flat out
said that he believes Foul Play has occurred and that pierce was the last person to see Gretchen yeah one of my
first questions when reading about this case is do we have any eyewitnesses that
saw them together going into his house and if not does he have a garage that's connected to the house that you could
you know pull in the garage sh the garage door and then then walk into the house and nobody would have seen her but
he has no garage on the house but I also think what makes this difficult is if you just look at the footage of the
house in this guy's backyard backyard's a bunch of woods I mean that's dumping grounds in
itself yeah most certainly while all of this is going on of course we have her family and all the people that loved and
cared for Gretchen so they organized vigils and prayer meetings Gathering to pray that
Gretchen would be found safe Dateline spoke with Gretchen's father this was on Friday December 23rd one night before
Gretchen's 28th birthday he said quote we love her something happened to her I don't know what to say tomorrow would be
her 28th birthday which will be hard she's an amazing little girl I just want her home Gretchen did not come home for
her birthday and then on December 29th police announced that they had a person of interest they did not call him a
suspect and did not release his name on that same day Dateline spoke with parkerburg police chief Matthew bour Who
provided an update on Gretchen's case saying we have a person of interest that we believe has information in regard to
this case pertaining to Gretchen this person we know was at the MyWay Lounge the evening that Gretchen was there and
we have cause to believe Gretchen left with this person Gretchen's Father David told dayline that the community had been
extremely supportive of their family during this very tough time he said he was also extremely grateful to detective
Zimmerman who was working around the clock on Gretchen's case so this part here to me is rather interesting because
it's a little bit of a different statement coming from the Parker B police this is from Fox digital news now
keep in mind what what we have going on at this time this might be a little unclear for some of the listeners so
maybe we should clear it up here Captain yeah the police have identified Preston
Pierce as their Person of Interest they decided not to release his name to the media but at some point what is
happening in this case is the media gets this name out somehow gets figures out the name it's probably not very hard
right if you if you know that they're executing a search warrant you get that that
documentation will have I think somebody at the bar knew him or knew of him and so then that gets out to the media and
but this guy's strain yeah so this this bit of information from the police as said is is a little bit different
because it takes it a step forward where they've not announced his name yet to the media but this is is a direct
statement from police Lieutenant James staler so he Lieutenant staler says quote he is a person of interest in this
investigation we know she left with him we believe that she traveled back to his
residence with him he's given inconsistent statements it turned out that in his interview with police
Preston Pierce admitted that Gretchen had been in his vehicle on the night in question but then he stopped cooperating
with the invest ation yeah I think his story was I headed home but in the process of heading home I dropped her
off and I think he was very unclear or maybe even claims I don't remember which part of town that I
dropped her off and like I said we have surveillance footage so we know that his
car was heading in the direction of his house from the bar we don't have every second of his traveling back to his
house on record so it's possible and law enforcement knows it's possible that he
could have just stopped at a stop sign and and she said okay let me out here none of that makes any sense because why
would you leave your purse behind why would you leave your phone behind and that's why I
question was there some ruse or some threat or some way that he got her into into the
vehicle because I just don't think even if she was intoxicated I don't think she
would leave her her purse and her phone and just doesn't make a lot of sense yeah but I could line up a hundred
people for you rather quickly who have been have had enough drinks to leave a bar without their credit card or leave a
bar without their cell phone or their coach or their keys so she it may be as simple as she left the the purse in the
other man's vehicle and totally forgot all about it by the time she's leaving this bar at 3 a.m. yeah now here's the
here's the very difficult thing let's go inside the investigation and get into the heads of the detectives here and
really break this down and explain it to the the public how difficult just how difficult this job can be a lot of times
you are in a catch22 situation and I believe the detectives unfortunately were in a catch 22 situation here why
because if this is my case you're trying to figure out what do I do here do I go
and I've identified this person do I go and try to get a statement from him and then move forward with these search
warrants or do we try to catch him so that he doesn't know that we we've identified him before he can get rid of
any evidence and just execute the search warrants right okay why is that important because of this next this next
bit remember he once he's brought in he admits that oh yeah I gave her a ride that night his statement is that I
dropped her off at a location downtown in downtown parkerburg now he named according to the
information I have he named the location but police have not released it the um part here though that I want to hone in
on is this is why it's a catch22 captain because Pierce admitted he gave Gretchen
a ride that night so on one hand he puts himself as the last person known to be with her or potentially which is not
good for him however on the other hand this provides an explanation for why evidence of her presence in the vehicle
might be found in his vehicle so if you have no statement the the problem for the detectives is this if you go and get
the statement from him first you've now clued him in that you're looking at him and if he needs to get rid of evidence
he may have that opportunity if you execute the search warrant without getting a statement well now he knows
that well you're probably asking him some questions that you may already know the answers to thus I will admit that
she was in my car but I dropped her off somewhere where before you might have been able to catch him with the
statement of yeah I've never seen that girl before in my life right and then you go yeah but we found her hair in
your vehicle so explain that well on this Preston Pierce this is this is what they say he
has a dubious reputation and unsettling demeanor this guy was known as a local creep yeah that that's the general
consensus so the the vehicle was processed by police some things that the captain was talking
about earlier we'll we'll give a little detail here it was a black Nissan Rogue with matching Darth Vader stickers in
the mini triangular rear passenger windows and an oval OBX sticker on the right rear near the top of the back
window the plate holder was a Pittsburgh Penguins frame this is from the Sun quote police are asking all residents in
the area to review home surveillance footage for a vehicle that has been connected to Fleming's disappearance
they believe the vcle may have traveled through the parkerburg area between the early morning hours of December 4th to
noon on December 5th well and this is very troubling to me because if you're telling if you're asking the public for
help and you're saying specifically here's the description of the vehicle does anybody have any information
specifically surveillance footage ring doorbell camera Simply Safe home security camera footage of a vehicle
matching this description traveling between the early morning hours of December 4th to noon on
December 5th if you're if you're giving me that time frame yeah that means they have
something that's telling them that whatever was done to Gretchen was done by the 5th of December correct again
3:00 a.m. on the 4th to noon on the 5th is a significant 33h hour window in which Preston Pierce had plenty of
time to get rid of anything that he may need to dispose of a 33-hour window to hide conceal bury burn the
evidence later police return to Pierce's home with a second search warrant looking for unspecified evidence they
did not specify whether anything was collected with this second search warrant so by the 31st of December Chief
boor told wch STV things have been collected as standard sent to the state laboratory for analysis and just
awaiting results there that's commonplace in a lot of Investigations and when that comes back hopefully that
provides fruitful but in the meantime this is not a waiting game our Detectives are still following leads
because as I keep reiterating the community really stepped up the leads the tips the info the phone calls the
Facebook messages the emails every one of them is getting vetted the agency was also reaching out to other law
enforcement agencies at this time throughout the state sending missing persons bulletins and so on but everyone
knew that Gretchen most likely had not gone far at all right you you can you can reach out you can send out this
information and hope that something comes back and maybe that just you get lucky and she's just in another city I
mean we just had a case here out of California where a missing woman was located safe and sound in in Mexico that
she had willingly went off on her own but by the one Monon anniversary of Gretchen's disappearance Chief board
gave gave an on camera interview with WTAP saying I just want to reassure the community that the Parkersburg Police
Department is dedicated to helping Gretchen and Gretchen's family and just because we are not releasing some
aspects of information that some people would like does not mean that we don't have information that does not mean that
we are not actively and aggressively pursuing the case but while looking for gretan we also have to protect the
Integrity of the invest want to take you [Music] home so much more to get to join us back
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Gretchen Fleming /// Part 1 /// 807

Part 1 of 2

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Parkersburg, West Virginia - On the evening of December 3, 2022 twenty seven year old Gretchen Fleming went to a popular downtown bar for a night of fun. She has not been seen since. Parkersburg Police and her family have been desperately seeking answers and help trying to locate Gretchen. Now, after the passage of time they all fear the very worst. Police worked diligently and swiftly with their investigation. Evidence brought them to question the actions, movements, and motivations of one man in particular. Police believe that late that night Gretchen’s path crossed with his and law enforcement wants to know what he knows. Parkersburg Police is seeking help from the general public as well. If you have any information regarding this case, information about Gretchen Fleming, or information about the publicly named person of interest Preston Pierce a.k.a. Darrell Lott the telephone number for the Parkersburg Police Department is 1-304-485-8501.

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Brief Summary

Gretchen Fleming, 27, disappeared after a night out; investigation reveals troubling details about her last known companion, Preston Pierce.

Key points

The Disappearance of Gretchen Fleming. A young woman goes missing after a night out, leaving her family desperate for answers.
Gretchen's Troubled Times. Before her disappearance, Gretchen faced personal struggles, including a breakup and family illness.
The Search Begins. Gretchen's family grows concerned after she fails to return home for days.
John's Alibi. John claims he lost track of Gretchen while talking to friends at the bar.
Delay in Reporting. Authorities were not concerned about the delay in reporting Gretchen missing.
Surveillance Footage. Video evidence shows Gretchen leaving the bar with an older man, not John.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is true crime garage and this is the case of Gretchen.

Introduction to the case being discussed.

4:39WatchDec 18, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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