LeeAnna Warner /// Part 1 /// 516 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
knows that Steve McQueen ain't got nothing on him here is the captain yeah it's good to be seen and good to see you
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we round out the great summer
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[Music] with you [Music] [Music] we're already foreign [Music] [Music] Warner lived with her parents in the remote
Iron Range area of northern Minnesota this entire area has been mined for iron for decades
and there are miles of abandoned ore mines pits and lakes created by mining the area has mountains of iron ore
tailings in miles and miles of undisturbed forest it has been described by people from the
area as a vast and endless area of nothingness the town of Chisholm was founded as a
mining settlement in this area the Chippewa called rough Earth it's about three hours north of
Minneapolis lyanna lived in the town of Chisholm Minnesota a small town of about 5 300 people the
Warner family home was a gray stucco duplex located in a friendly neighborhood with
tree-lined blocks of houses and the developed residential area near the iron mines
the neighborhood bordered a lake long year Lake which was a recreation spot for those who lived in the town
according to everyone who lived there even in 2003 Chisholm was sort of a throwback
it was a small community where kids played freely outside neighbors were friendly and bad stuff
just didn't happen Leanna Warner who was five years old with brown hair and brown eyes
was known as [ __ ] to almost everyone the story is that her parents nicknamed her [ __ ] because when she was born she
reminded them of a little bean pod the name stuck and family friends and neighbors all called her by this
nickname she was three feet two inches tall and weighed 48 pounds Leanna had a mole on her left leg just
above her ankle lyanna was described as an outgoing loving little girl who adored dolls
Rugrats Barbies and babies there's video footage taken by her parents available online
she was an adorable normal five-year-old little Leanna went missing on a warm mid-summer Saturday afternoon
from an area in a neighborhood where bad stuff did not happen the date was June 14 2003.
little Leanna walked down the street to play with her friend and is never seen again
for 18 years her family has held out hope but not a trace of her has ever been found
how does a child disappear Into Thin Air seemingly Vanishing in an instant off of
the face of the Earth this is true crime garage and this is the case of Leanna Warner
[Music] [Music] [Music] Saturday June 14 2003 Leanna and her mom Kalyn had hit some yard sales where Leanna bought a
heart-shaped pillow then they spent the rest of the summer day enjoying the lake in early
interviews Leanna's mom said that they went to the lake swam and played with friends and relatives and returned home
around 4 30 pm after the day at Longyear Lake lyanna like most five-year-olds would be
well she was tired from running around in the Sun and fell asleep in the car on the way home
when they got to their house located at 19 Southwest 2nd Street Leanna woke up while her mom was busy unloading the
stuff they had bought from the yard sales from the car and making trips in and out of the house Leanna asked if she
could walk around the corner to their neighbor's house this is The Quirk family their little girls Janine age
four and Melissa Age 3 were great friends of Leanna's apparently lyanna hung out with Janine and Melissa almost
every day so even though lyanna's mom would have preferred that little [ __ ] come inside and rest for a bit Kalyn
said yes go ahead it was totally standard procedure for Leanna to walk over to the quirks to play Kalyn did
tell the media later that she told Leanna to come back home in a half an hour although how a five-year-old would
have any concept of half of an hour is questionable Katie Quirk Janine and Melissa's mother said that Lee Indiana
was a daily visitor to The Quirk house in fact Leanna was over at their home the night before on June 13th she had
come over by herself around 7 15 p.m and watched a movie with the family in any event on this Saturday Lana got out of
the car and walked down the block and around the corner when her mom last saw her she was wearing a dark blue
sleeveless denim dress with a belt orange Hanes undies and a flower petal earring with a red garnet in the middle
in her pierced right ear the reports say that she was not wearing any shoes which would be in line with a
little girl who just got back from a day of swimming but the shoes will come up again later
now the quirks lived just a few houses away maybe a block to the South lyanna would have to cross an alley to
get there and it was around the corner one article said that it would take an average adult walking at a normal Pace
no more than two minutes to get from the Warners to the quirks as short as the walk was though lyanna was not in the
sight line of her mother for the entirety of the walk and no one is really sure how long it was before
anyone noticed that she was gone so Leanna walks off Barefoot and Kailyn goes inside the Warner's home after she
says watching Leanna as she walked down their street toward her friend's home until she went around the corner two
neighbors report seeing Leanna walking that day the information that one of them gave
police tells us something important lyanna did not go inside the quirk's house this neighbor who was either
outside doing something or looking out the window told police that lyanna climbed the steps to the quirk's home
knocked on the door she knocked a few times but no one answered it was later confirmed that the
quirks were not home that afternoon the neighbor reports that after no one answered the door lyanna turned around
and started to walk back toward her home but at this point the neighbor stopped watching presumably there was nothing
remarkable about this scene since we know that lyanna was often seen walking to and from the quirk's home we know
that kids were all over the neighborhood and it seems that children were allowed
to walk around unsupervised the Chisholm Mayor John Champa lived in the neighborhood about a block
from the Warners and said that lyanna quote liked to run around the neighborhood but never went far
so apparently lyanna was known to wander around and clearly the Warners allowed this
the neighbor was in the midst of doing something while observing the door knocking and lyanna not getting admitted
into the quirk's house and the neighbor turned away and didn't watch anymore which is such an incredible tragedy
if only the neighbor had watched lyanna continue on her walk she may have never vanished with this case being said in
2003 if it was set in today's time we'd have ring cameras and and so many more houses have security cameras that face
the street so we would have a better picture or a better surveillance of what happened to Leanne and unfortunately if
an abduction did take place it may have ended up on one of those ring video footage cameras or Simply Safe video
cameras video camera footage yeah some news reports say that lyanna was seen in the area around 6 PM walking West others
say more specifically that she was seen walking West on Southwest second or third streets and there were also
reports that one neighbor actually spoke with Leanna and one article says she was
seen petting a dog but not all the reports contain all of this information and as we've seen the
timeline on all of this is fuzzy police said later that their investigation was hampered by all of the wiggle room in
the timeline Kalin reported initially that she started to wonder where Leanna was around 6 pm
we know that lyanna's Dad Chris Warner went out on an ambulance run at 6 21 pm he was a volunteer with the Chisholm
Ambulance Service and it seems that at that time he did not know that his daughter was missing
so it seems likely that Kalin actually noticed lyanna being gone later than this we're gonna throw a few questions
and wrenches into this timeline as we go because I think it's right to do so the
first question that's probably spinning around in everybody's mind is why are you letting a child this young walk to a
neighbor's house right that's the first thing I question as well and it seemed odd to me that Kailyn originally says
when they get back to their home her daughter Leanna wants to go down to their friend's house and then she tells
originally she tells her no right but then the kid does some convincing and she says yes but be back in in a half an
hour which seems to me like a why even bother kind of situation but I really started thinking back to when I was it
would have been six or seven years old I maybe not five I can't remember but I can remember the distance that we're
talking about traveling here I can remember walking by myself or with a with a brother or with a friend no
parent no supervision from adults from my house down to my friend's house on the corner Tim and Vince and regularly
making that trip and it was literally passing like three houses and so I think what we have here Captain
is a situation where I think it's right to question it the little girl is five years old but we have her mom her father
and the quirk's family the adults of that home saying this was an everyday thing this was you know as normal as
could be because it's different to allow your child to walk down there but just step outside visually see them make it
into the house if you're a parent and you drove your kid to their friend's house you wouldn't just go hey honey
thanks get out of the car and once they leave the car you don't speed away you you wait until you see them enter the
house right I'm just saying that you could have done the same thing here agreed but in this situation we have
Kalyn who says she watched Leanna walk down the street until she could no longer see her because she has to make a
turn and again I question this too but then I'd have to question my own parents because I know I was doing about the
same thing I think what we have here too Captain is a situation where a lot of kids in the neighborhood are going about
their business and having fun unsupervised it seemed to be a pretty normal thing and then you top that off
with a town of only 5 000 people I think a small town sometimes is plays a bad role in some of these cases I think
sometimes the small town provides a false sense of security to parents and to children into everyone involved and
like I tried to tell other people you know that they say oh so you live in a bad neighborhood or this area is
terrible and yes that's true you do have higher crime rates in bad areas quote unquote bad areas but again look at
Sandy Hook that was considered one of the nicest safest neighborhoods in America right not in the state not in
that county in America and if something bad is going to happen if there's a bad person out there it can
happen anywhere it can only happen in America unlike you're stating Kailyn was saying you can be gone but for just a
little while and so once she noticed that she hasn't come back in a little while
she starts getting a little concerned yeah her first reaction as soon as she notices Leanna is not home you know
didn't return home as she should have Kalyn walks down to the quirk's home herself but then that's when she finds
out that no one is home right so according to Kalin she started canvassing the neighborhood assuming
that Leanna had just wandered to someone else's yard or home and again this kind
of plays into what even the mayor of Chisholm was saying that he would often see the little girl hanging out you know
going about the neighborhood looking for friends looking for people to talk to and hang out and play with I also
wondered if it's a possibility that she got turned around and when she came back
got a little confused on which house was actually hers yeah it's weird when kids
have kind of the run of the neighborhood is what I see in this situation again thinking back to my childhood I lived on
a court when in my younger years and I felt like I don't know remember what the rules were laid down by my parents but I
know the way I behaved was kind of like well as long as I'm still somewhere in this court
I won't get in any trouble you know so I would walk freely between front yards backyards and there was even a wooded
area that I would often go into without permission so that's I just kind of see a very similar situation here this is
not just a small community but this is a tight-knit neighborhood itself Chris Warner joined his wife in the search for
Leanna when he got home from his ambulance run this is said to be around 7 40 p.m he said that they were walking
around the neighborhood calling for her and they started to get scared Kailyn returned to the quirk's home looking for
Leanna again at 8 30 p.m this time finding them home but they had not seen lyanna at this
whole point right the 9-1-1 call from Kailyn Warner came in at 8 48 p.m by this point Leanna was missing for more
than three hours the official search for lyanna began extremely promptly and I think a lot of
this has to do with the age of the child the St Louis County Rescue Squad set up
a command center and organized searches within about an hour of receiving that 9-1-1 call by late Saturday night police
sent out a helicopter that was equipped with an infrared tracing system that could pinpoint body heat in the night
neighbors also pitched in the quirks reported that they all went out to help look for lyanna around 9pm
by Sunday morning a major search was underway that day over 300 people joined in the search for lyanna including Town
residents neighbors and Friends of the little girl the search started at the Warner home
and worked its way outward looking in all the places a child could hide or get stuck or trapped this would be sheds
boat houses boats yards sewers Barns and vacant houses searches were also done of some of the
mine pits swamps Wells and other hazards in the Iron Range topography do you know
if they hadn't sent dogs on scene they did Bloodhounds were sent in relatively quickly I believe that they arrived
either that night or the the very next morning I had that in my notes I promise we'll get to that Captain we did have a
Statewide alert that was issued on Sunday Morning by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal apprehension a BCA is their
acronym we'll reference them later and the Minnesota Crime Alert Network faxed information about lyanna to over 8 000
businesses and law enforcement agencies however no Amber Alert was issued and this is because
uh Chisholm police chief Scott Erickson stated Amber Alerts were appropriate when there was evidence of an abduction
and there wasn't here and we've seen that in other cases they have a recommended criteria for when States
should use the Amber Alert System they don't tell you you know they don't they don't box you in and say this is the
only time you should use it they give you recommendations for the state and one of the recommendations is that you
have a suspect or vehicle description and unfortunately in lyanna's case we have people who see her knocking on the
door of her friend's house we have people that see her walking away from her friend's house and then we never see
anything after that we don't have a situation where we have a screaming little girl being pulled into a vehicle
or somebody snatching her up and somebody's seeing it we just don't have that we have no ear Witnesses or
eyewitnesses to what happen to this little girl after she's seen walking away from her friend's house yeah and I
don't know what else they would call it but I think in this situation when you have a missing child whether they're
abducted or not how can it hurt to send these alerts out to have people on the lookout for even if it's just simply the
age hair color the gender that's it it couldn't hurt well I agree but I mean they did send
out these alerts it's just what title are you tagging this thing right they I mean they issued a Statewide alert by
the Bureau of Criminal apprehension and they issued a Crime Alert the Minnesota Crime Alert Network
issued an alert as well I mean it this went out Statewide they just didn't call it an amber alert because it didn't meet
the criteria for technical name like the amber alert requires it seems that at least early in the
situation police knew that lyanna's reputation was as a Wanderer you know as they said and assumed that Leanna had
just kind of wandered off or gotten lost or stuck or maybe had some accident befall her Erickson said that on Sunday
this is the chief that there was nothing indicating Foul Play Chief Erickson held a press conference
on Sunday night and described lyanna as an energetic outgoing little girl you asked about dogs captain dogs were used
in the search and they tracked lyanna sent to the edge of a road at Longyear Lake about two blocks from her house but
then they tracked back to the Warner home they did not track to the quirk's house
police found a partial footprint Lakeside that could have been lyanna's but we know that Leanna was at the lake
that day and that she had ridden her two-wheel bike to the lake in the past later reports this is bizarre to me
later Reports say police decided that the footprint was in fact from a different day I'm not sure how they can
tell this footprint was old or that it could be it was a different shoe and that they knew which shoe she was
wearing that day yeah I they describe it as a footprint um oh not a shoe print yeah I mean it
could have been a shoe print this is one of those things that they seem to have come to a lot of decisions and made up
you know they seem to have a good understanding of what it is that they were seeing or what they found but they
don't offer a great description to the rest of the world about it it do you find it a little odd that there was no
scent towards her friend's house I do and I don't right because here's the problem with the with the dogs the dogs
are one only as good as they have been trained and their understanding of what their job is we forgot to tell you that
their Handler showed up drunk well and I was going to say they're also only as good as the Handler so you're already
throwing a lot of variables in there I think they're very helpful in some cases and in other cases can be a little
tricky I mean the here's the problem with the dogs in this situation do I find it odd that
they didn't go to the quirk's house 100 percent one thousand percent but we have
two eyewitnesses that saw the girl there so we know she was there so the in my opinion the dogs are just
not accurate in this situation the other thing too in regards to the footprint or shoe print or what have you
yes maybe there could be it rained the day before or you know given the weather outside how hot it is and such that
would help you determine how old the footprint or shoe print is but the other issue I take with that Captain
is this Lake as we referenced in the trailer this Lake was frequented by everybody in that
neighborhood this was a Saturday in the summertime if anybody's out there thinking that
that lyanna and her mom and her sister were the only three people at that Lake that day
well you're you can tune into another show because you don't belong here in the garage there were probably dozens if
not more people at the lake that very day on Sunday Searchers waited up to their waist in the murky Lake to no
avail the search continued on Monday with large groups of volunteers and lyanna's parents made a televised plea
for her to come home her father Chris said quote please [ __ ] come home we miss you we're never going to stop
looking for you end quote St Louis County Sheriff Ross Littman said there was no reason to believe
acquaintances or family members would have taken the girl he cited a trouble-free home and no evidence of a
stranger abduction but law enforcement was acutely aware that the small town of friendly residents had also been the
site of two events that brought Out of Towners to Chisholm on that very weekend in June first we have the rock the range
Music Festival that had brought in lots of people and there was also the United Way ride the range motorcycle fundraiser
reports state that these events could have brought more than one thousand people into this small town so think
about that population increase just for that weekend the weekend that this little girl goes missing 5 300 residents
in the town of Chisholm that weekend it's estimated that there were 6 300 and so people in the area
Festival goers were permitted to camp at the old Glen mine site it would be impossible to track down everyone who
attended these events law enforcement did what they could do to track down people that may have attended these
events they use Motel gas station and Campground records to get names of people who attended these events and
questioned them well now we see this all the time and other missing cases look at
like the Joey Le Bute case guy goes missing when there's a huge the Arnold Classic is in town so again
when you have those outer counters it's really hard to vet every single person that was there
and if anybody was still in the area that came in for these events the police asked to check their RVs and their
campsites obviously looking for lyanna or any sign of her police also started looking into known sex offenders in the
area on Tuesday authorities were still treating lyanna's case as a search rather than a rescue or recovery
although they hadn't ruled out abduction Sheriff Littman said he felt it was unlikely that lyanna was in the lake and
he believed lyanna could have survived 72 hours in the woods on the Iron Range she was known to be pretty adventurous
her grandfather Butch Warner said that if necessary she would very likely drink from mud puddles if she had to and she
had been known to eat army worms I don't know if that was off of a dare or if this is just one really hungry kid that
girl likes worms it's been raining for days here in Columbus and it smells like worms outside the search radius
here's the other thing too is you know my thought goes instantly when you have a situation where she's she's seen close
to the home you start then questioning the parents right and now my issue with the investigation is and look we're
going to argue with people to the death about polygraph but to me you bring them in for
questioning and you have them take a polygraph test just to see where it stands they didn't do that here and I
know that they weren't suspect but it's like I think you just do it to you know you
know cross your teeth and Dot your eyes well and the other thing Captain is that's your best opportunity right if
you're hoping to catch somebody even if it is the parents that you suspect you get really one shot at that you know
the the investigation is only in the early stages at one point in the investigation and to me I would think
that that's when whomever you sit down across the table from and who you are asking them the tough questions that's
what I think they would be the most nervous be it parents relative neighborhood person any type of
suspect I would think that fresh and early that's when they're going to be the most nervous and that's when they
are going to show those physical signs of deception or at least anxiety of not wanting to speak with you so I'm I'm
right with you there Captain I feel like that could have been while I'm not very
suspicious of the parents here I feel like that was kind of a missed opportunity we've said this in the past
even if you're not suspicious let's go ahead and cross one more thing off of our list if we can't figure out who did
this let's figure out who did not do this and maybe we find who did this along the way
foreign [Music] we're back filthy animals cheers to everybody out there cheers to all the post workers
cheers to all the school bus drivers that are going to be bringing the kids back to school yeah cheers to all the
people in the back tall cans in the air now regards to in regards to lyanna's shoes because that's a weird part of
this story and frankly I don't know what to make of it so we're going to lay it out here for all of you and you can
decide for yourself but one or two articles address the shoes being found on the
stoop at the quirk's house and Kalyn Warner her mother stated to the media that lyanna's shoes were in
fact found there and no one could explain that or why well there's eyewitnesses that solar Barefoot right
correct it's the shoes thing is a whole weird thing to me we don't know when these
shoes were supposedly found all the reports say that lyanna had walked away from her house Barefoot it would
certainly be strange if somehow her shoes had been placed there by someone else obviously I think it's more likely
that she probably just carried them with her when she got out of the car and her
mother didn't notice that she was carrying her shoes right and then maybe Leanna forgot them when she turned away
from the house I mean she's five she if she set them down by herself and if in fact that's where they were found and
I don't have any reason to believe that that's not the case I just I don't know why the child would set her shoes yeah
let's walk through this real quick she would well yeah but she'd put her shoes down so she could ring the doorbell or
knock on the door nobody answers when she turns back around to leave then she forgets
that she may have simply forgot them right by Wednesday with no sign of Leanna Hope was beginning to fade for
the first time members of the public began to seriously consider the abduction Theory a local daycare center
owner said that in a newspaper article that she hired an extra person to help watch the kids in her care
and should like police to publicize the names of local registered sex offenders police said that they had checked all of
the known local sex offenders by this point in their search for the little girl again I hate to bring this up but
like you said there's an event that's bringing all these people and there's a percentage of those people that are
petos well and this timeline is going to keep getting adjusted especially during
this first week which a timeline is very crucial to not only the search for this
girl but any type of investigation you're not just investigating if a CR when you know that a crime has happened
here you're investigating if a crime occurred right and so the timeline is going to be crucial I mean that is your
Bible at this point in the case when you have no evidence and you don't really have any leads on what could have
happened to this girl as an investigator that timeline is your Bible now police interviews in canvas missing the
neighborhood did bring some new information to light to their search the timeline was adjusted to indicate that
lyanna had left home closer to 5 30 on Saturday and you say well earlier you said 4 30. now the investigators are
saying 5 30. again they said at the very beginning of this case that the wiggle room in the timeline has always hampered
their investigation as we heard someone in the neighborhood said that they had seen her walking West at close to 6 p.m
authorities requested that everyone in the area checked their own properties to make sure the little girl was not at
their property the family made a public statement thanking all of the Searchers saying they were iron Rangers a strong
compassionate resourceful people who know the meaning of Faith presumably this means that they were drawing on
their strength and not giving up hope lyanna's grandfather talked to the media describing his granddaughter as an
inquisitive child who is not afraid of anything he said her outgoing nature and free spirit could have gotten her into
trouble the implication was that lyanna was trusting and friendly and might innocently be lured by the wrong person
the parents of other children in the neighborhood the grandfather they're all describing the same personality when I
review this case here Captain a little girl that is is very friendly and very talkative and not afraid of
anything and I think the grandfather's words here are very interesting to me saying that her free spirit and her
outgoing nature may have gotten her into some kind of trouble I wonder if we are
looking at an abduction here do we have a situation where she may have approached her would-be abductor
not knowing that oh this this person may not be a great person this person might
not be you know had she befriended the would-be abductor at some point earlier on before this day you know weeks prior
right investigators announced that they were further expanding the search this would include roadways and ditches
throughout Chisholm and flybys over the local lakes and mine pits they plan to retrace their steps and research all of
the areas that they had already covered there were fundraisers that were held to
raise money for the search efforts and hotlines were set up to field calls about any tips and potential leads but
just when we think that there's nothing to go on other than probably a few tips here and
there we we have a decent break in the case an interesting turn in the case because
this is late Thursday so now lyanna has been missing for six days and the tone of the news reports and information
released by investigators is clearly changing in my mind here Captain we have police chief Erickson who directly asked
the public to contact his Department if anyone had any information on a faded light blue
mid-sized car with an antenna mounted in the middle of the trunk there was no make model or license plate that was
available Erickson said he did not know whether this vehicle was actually significant but it was a lead that they
were following up on and chief Erickson said that areas around the block where the Warner's home was located had been
searched anywhere from two to five times each including homes in the vicinity it
seems that most are all neighbor allowed the police to actually access and search
their houses Erickson was confident that they had the area 98 percent covered so
this is going to be like Erickson's legit press conference after we've had several days of searching and have had
no luck looking for the girl the thing that I like here Captain while it's not extremely specific on the details you
know no make model or license plate of this vehicle it's a pretty detailed description of a
very I don't want to say very unique but it is a unique description of a car right this light blue faded light blue
so very descriptive on the color midsize car with an antenna mounted in the middle of the trunk that's not something
you see on most Vehicles yeah it sounds like something you'd see in this late 70s 80s yeah it seems a little out of
its time period and the news reports once again addressed an adjustment to the timeline now Leanna was believed to
have left her home at 4 35 PM not 5 or 5 30. two independent Witnesses saw her walking across Lawns and knocking on the
quirk's door at 5 15 and she was reported missing at 8 48 p.m now back to the sex offenders in the area as you
know Captain one of my favorite Parts in any child abduction case or suspected child abduction case is the old pervert
Roundup get ready for the Pervert Roundup a spokesman for the Chisholm PD said that
there were roughly 20 to 25 classified sex offenders in Chisholm but none that were level three we've talked about this
in the past and I've come under Fire for this and I don't know why I suspect that
I came under Fire from probably a level three sex offender but uh the level three sex offenders have the highest
recidivism rates out of any sex offender that's why they are considered the most
dangerous that's why they received the longest prison sentences and that's why nobody wants to let them out back on the
street the police are saying here in this area we had zero level three offenders so we just have level one
level ones and level twos dirty pervys so no level threes this is why their names and addresses were not required to
be released to the public 30 investigators from various agencies including the FBI were looking at each
one of these guys as well as all of the other tips and leads and so far had not been able to tie any of these perverts
to lyanna's case one thing that has been noticed since Leanna's disappearance 18
years ago is that her case didn't receive the level of national attention immediately in this case
such as some other cases like poly class or another big case from Minnesota Jacob
wetterling this may be because it seems that for almost the first week no one including lyanna's parents really
thought that she had been abducted and both the poly class case and the Jacob wetterling case there were witnesses to
these abductions so we knew immediately in both of those cases this child has been abducted
lyanna on the other hand just vanished a spokeswoman for the missing children Minnesota organization said that the
delay in treating these cases as abductions early on is quote the disbelief Factor no one wants to believe
the worst can happen in their backyard also there's a fear of pointing the finger at an innocent person especially
in a area where one you have a lake so that is going to cause a lot of issues as far as searching also a lot of
issues as far as a big Hazard for a child that is wandering on their own and like they said the wooded area I'd say
that's an equal problem now it's middle of June right so there's you don't have to worry about the
elements as far as it's knowing or being too cold but you have to worry about the
elements of being in the woods as a small child right and speaking of own backyards this is when we're told in
our timeline here that eight square miles around the Warner home had been searched by this point the national
Center for missing and exploited children was called in to join in the investigation on Friday June 20th and
spokesman Patrick Farrell said in my own personal experience I haven't had a case
where a child has disappeared so completely now Chief Erickson remained optimistic
saying anything is possible but unfortunately we've found nothing so far yeah and he was holding out hope they
were still going to find this girl but on Saturday June 21st the Warner family was notified that the organized official
searches for lyanna were coming to an end investigators felt that they had exhaustively covered any ground where
she could have re where she could realistically be the family thanked all the Searchers and asked that people not
give up hope and said that they themselves were still hoping for the best and I think that's obvious when
they point out that very quickly they are putting up ten thousand dollars a ten thousand dollar reward for
information about their daughter this was publicized just a couple days later like you said she was at the lake before
but there's a possibility that she got back to the lake where they searching the lake at all
they searched the lake big time um they they were in the water searching for her they were flying over the water
searching for her the lake was a big focal point of their investigation especially that second day that Sunday
morning and they again as the sheriff stated at some point after a few days of searching and we've covered all this
area in the beginning you're looking and you're realistically going okay how far
if she got lost we're treating this as she wandered off she got lost maybe an accident something happened to her right
how far could a five-year-old get on their own given the time frame that she's been gone and so you're using that
to really focus and hone in on where you should be searching and prioritizing those areas so the lake would have been
high priority on that because this is a place that Not only was she there earlier that day not only was this a
place that most everybody in the neighborhood went too frequently we know that she's rode her bike there at least
one time on her own so this is a place that there's nowhere in this neighborhood or down to that Lake
to me that I can see that this girl would not have been comfortable going to by herself I think the other issue like
you said is they they do a eight mile radius from the house that is a very large distance yeah eight square miles
from uh the Warner home now once that search happens and and they not it's not just that they don't they don't find her
it's the fact that they find nothing and they don't find a sock they don't find a footprint they don't there's
nothing well and we needed to get the word out here right about this missing girl we already said that they were
Statewide alerts that went out immediately when she was discovered to be missing but it was the missing
children Minnesota and the national Center for missing and exploited children organizations that highly
encouraged the Warners to go National with their daughter's case and so they went on several national televised TV
shows and they were publicizing the case and a website that they created find beaner.org and accompanying them on
these trips and on these appearances was Chief Erickson so they are in close contact with one another they're working
arm and arm in this investigation not just to search and find the child but also to publicize the case and make
everybody aware that hey this little girl is missing and we're looking for here's where things get a little
interesting to me Captain on June 24th a timeline of what authorities believe happened that night on June 14th so 10
days later appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune so this will be known as the quote unquote official timeline here
in this case and it's as follows at 4 35 p.m Leanna leaves to walk to the quirk's home mom
tells her to be back in a half an hour at 5 15 two neighbors see lyanna knocking on the door of the quirk's home
but no one is home and she turns around 5 30 p.m Kalyn notices that Leanna isn't
home yet she sends Leanna's older sister over to the quirks but she returns and reports that they are not home
6 to 6 30 p.m Kalyn and lyanna's sister start walking around the neighborhood looking for Leanna
at 6 21 we know that Chris Warner leaves on an ambulance run to Hibbing Minnesota
he does not seem to know that lyanna is missing at this point at 7 30 more people joined Kalin in the search of the
neighborhood as 747 Chris Warner's ambulance run ends and he returns home he immediately joins the search for his
daughter at 8 48 Kailyn Warner places the 911 missing 9 pm 12 minutes later Chisholm
police arrive and start searching the neighborhood 10 15 p.m Rescue Squad personnel and Bloodhounds so the dogs
are there at 10 15 PM arriving on the scene 4 a.m Sunday a state patrol helicopter
is out searching for lyanna by air they moved very quickly we gotta give props where props are due
and I think to see the actions and the efforts put forward immediately in this case is
encouraging to me because we've we've seen this in other cases well we've not seen this in other cases I think is the
best way to state that this timeline though to me Captain brings up some questions if Leanna
really left the Warner's home at 4 35 pm and neighbors saw her knocking on The Quirk store at 5 15. where was she for
that 40 minutes yeah we said that it would take the average adult it was time they did they did you know this is all
science here baby they figured out that it would take the average adult two minutes to make it
from the Warner's home to the quirk's home so again that's one of those things yes if you want a question letting your
five-year-old walk down there go ahead I don't blame you for questioning that keep in mind it's like a two minute walk
and it's a walk that she's done a hundred times I question it myself not gonna lie but be that as it may this is
the situation so let's say it takes a little girl double that time five minutes to walk down there that still
leaves 35 minutes of what's going on and you know little kids get distracted easily heck me in the
captain get distracted easily who knows Hey look it's cool we don't have anybody
that's saying that well I saw her go here or saw her go there at this time we have the witness statement of her
mother saying I saw her walking away from the house I watched her until she had to go around the corner and then we
have these two witnesses I like that we have two independent Witnesses saying that they saw her at the quirk's
doorstep and they believed the time to be 5 15 p.m well I only know with eyewitness statements that sometimes
they're not lying they're just misremembering but I don't like her mother's statement
if there's a gap that large of a gap to me it seems like she headed in a different direction before she headed to
her friend's house that's also what the scent dogs are telling us as well because they're not following her sent
to her friend's house so I just wonder if it's one of those scenes where your kid's missing and now
um again you should have watched her all the way you could have walked her all the way to
your house people are going to be questioning this and so then you make the statement that you watched her walk
towards the house and walk out of sight and maybe that's not true at all and maybe it was she's you know putting
groceries away and she goes I'm going to walk down to my friend's house and she goes okay back be back in 20 minutes and
never saw her leave I would fault her for not being honest but I could also see a situation we've seen these
situations turn against the parents very quickly and they be there becomes a wood
there becomes a Witch Hunt against parents because they made a let's say a moment of not the best
judgment oh yeah they Unfortunately they live with that every day yeah for 18 years I mean that is do you want to know
what hell is that's what hell is now in regards to the dogs here's the problem again with the dogs you have to
either throw out the dog information or the eyewitness information that said that they saw the girl knocking on the
door of the quirk's home you can't have both right because the dogs never go to the
quirk's house they go and hit on a cent at the lake they say that they trace lyanna's scent to the edge of a Road
near the lake we've discussed this in other cases Captain usually when they trace
Ascent to an edge of the road it indicates that that person got into some kind of vehicle because their scent is
then gone right the dogs then trace the scent back to lyanna Warner's home again they're only
as good as the Handler but you can't have a situation where the what the dogs are telling you is that Leanna did not
go to the Cork's home what the eyewitnesses are telling you is that she did so you have to choose which one are
you going to accept as something you want to put in your investigation and something that you're going to have to
toss out because you might be getting bad information from someone now here's the thing if the dogs never go to
the quirk's home and you trust the dogs now you need to know why people would say that she went to the quirk's home
and she didn't you see what I mean it works both ways no I agree and like I said back to the
eyewitnesses we just we know for a fact that eyewitnesses are not always completely accurate so it's not calling
them Liars it's just saying that maybe you're misremembering right I the thing that I believe here and look this is
I yes I'm I'm choosing I'm I'm picking one over the other I'm choosing these eyewitnesses here because what what we
do know given the timeline regardless of the shift and the change in the wiggle room in the timeline what we do know is
very quickly after this girl went missing the mother the daughter and neighbors are out searching for lyanna very
quickly let's say within I think we can agree Within a half an hour to an hour and a half
somewhere in that time range we have we start seeing people from the neighborhood and joining in on this
search so what I'm the reason why I'm choosing to believe the eyewitnesses here is simply that they can speak and
the dogs can't because we have eyewitnesses that are going this is all going to be fresh in their memory it's
not like you're asking somebody five days later if you saw Leanna on Saturday or Friday or Sunday you're asking them
did you see her an hour ago yeah yeah I did well a couple things one if you if you eat enough Edibles dogs
will talk to you and you'll be able to understand them um and normally I always pick dogs over humans right
because dogs are just better but I agree with you here I I think you have to go with the eyewitness report I
just I I just don't understand why there's a a gap in time between the eyewitnesses and Leanne's mother so I'm
totally with you here and I here's what I think may be a possibility I think that maybe this little girl was
excited about seeing her friends hanging out with her two friends we know that they hung out almost daily
I think that there's a chance that they're seeing these Witnesses might be seeing her later than the time that it
would take her to walk from her home to the quirk's home because I think there's
a chance that when she knocked on the door the first time and no one answered she might have gone looking for them
and it could be as simple as she went around to the backyard to see if they were out back maybe she started to make
her way toward the lake or to somebody else's home that they frequented I think there's a chance that she may
have tried that front door more than once and gone looking for them in the meantime uh looking for her friends
again well no that's a great point because if you were to bike even if it's not that far you'd you knock on the door
right nobody answers you might do the old step back look at the windows see if there's any lights on he might do the
old let me walk around the house maybe they're playing out back maybe there's a swing set that we haven't talked about
or a play area in the backyard that she went to go see if they're there oh they're not there okay now I'm coming
back around and and having a second pass and heck there could even been a third pass and and just think about how silly
we are when we're all kids right when you when you ask hey can I go hang out with can I go hang out with my friends
you're five six years old hey can I go hang out with my friends and you're granted permission to do so that becomes
the most important thing in your little Universe for that next half an hour or an hour
right seeing your friends and your buddies and as you pointed out I'm again thinking back to my own childhood I've
referenced friends Tim and Vince earlier and being about that same age and I can
I can recall similar situations granted permission go to their home nobody answers uh where would I go next well
there was a fort that we built two yards away that would be my next stop they're
probably at the Fort if they weren't there sometimes they were at Sean's house and you would see their bikes in
the driveway and you could tell you could walk a few more yards and see if the bikes were in the driveway or not
and so I worry that we have a situation here Captain where Leanna's playing detective herself trying to figure out
where her friends are and now she's wandering about and maybe as said the witnesses the eyewitnesses
are getting this 5 15 time from a second attempt at knocking on the door after she's gone out looking the
neighborhood for her friends one thing that's also difficult and troubling here I mean this is good for the parents and
the people searching for lyanna that night but also might be bad because she could be wondering further and further
away from home is June 14th is close to one of the longest days of the year so it would remain light out much longer on
this day than most days of the year sunset in Chisholm Minnesota on June 14th of this year of 2021 was 9 14 P.M
so it's one of those situations where you go okay lots of daylight hours between the time
of when she goes missing or when it's presumed that she she goes missing why don't we have more eyewitnesses
if something happened to her it seemed to me like it it happened in a relatively quick
and a relatively short period of time like you said to go back in time to think about how this would play out in
your own childhood but you know normally when I'd ask my parents like hey can I go play
with my friends they would just turn and go oh honey you don't have any friends on July 3rd so weeks after lyanna went
missing investigators had looked into an estimated 1 000 leads or tips investigators spoke with 130 sex
offenders who lived in northern Minnesota calling some Persons of Interest on July 9th investigators asked
for the Public's help in finding three men who may have information that would be helpful to this investigation
they were looking for a Sean Raymond burtick of Hibbing Jason Wayne Smith of Hibbing and Justin Michael Jenkins of
Chisholm the Sheriff's Office also asked for the Public's help in finding an unidentified white man in his mid-30s
about five foot ten inches tall and 155 pounds with bleach blonde hair feathered
over his ears and a dark tattoo of a star or a sun on his right arm wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt this man
was supposedly seen on foot in the Warner's neighborhood on June 14th the day in question they also said that they
were looking for a navy blue two-door Cadillac driven by a black male in his 20s or 30s that was either bald or had a
shaven head in an older Rusty brown pickup truck with a Topper driven by a white man with curly black hair the
Sheriff's Department Department would not say why they were seeking these people but we can presume that persons
in the neighborhood reported seeing them in the area and an interesting statement
though Sheriff Littman said he believed despite public events in the area at the
time of lyanna's disappearance that the person who was responsible for lyanna going missing was likely from Chisholm
at the same time authorities said there was no truth to Media reports that identified a 23 year old convicted sex
offender as a suspect in the case they denied that there was a suspect and stated that this man was in custody on
unrelated charges now we're really seeing the scale of this investigation here aren't we
Captain this is something that we've seen in other cases specifically the Delphi case where you start seeing the
the long arms of the law are reaching out and they are casting a wide net on known offenders suspects people seen in
the area questionable behavior all of that stuff that's what's going on here that's what's going down at this point
and we saw at the Delphi case how many search warrants and how many arrest warrants were the arrest warrants were
carried out there was like 40 50 60 carried out within days because now all of a sudden
the priority level jumps big time to start finding people the the bad guys start rounding up the bad guys at this
point and that's what we're seeing an amped up not only just amped up but here to the point where they're saying to the
public hey we're looking for these people by name we're looking for people that were described to be looking like
this we're not saying any of them are suspects any of them could have useful information to this investigation
well like you said there's a bunch of people visiting this town during that time period
so now as this is going out more regionally you have people coming forward and saying hey I know that this
dirt bag in my family was visiting there at the time he's capable of abducting a
child so now they've got to find that individual which might be living a criminal life and then that Criminal
or that that Dirtbag now has to explain to the place where who's at and where you know what's his alibi
and sometimes they're not as Cooperative with police police because their Alibi is that they're actually
doing some other kind of criminal activity well and even if they weren't getting reports that people that were
named specifically were in the area at that time because we're kind of guessing here but you also have to wonder is that
simply that these no these known individuals the ones that they're referencing by name are these people
that have outstanding warrants or are sex offenders I don't know that they are but
we weren't able to find them when we started doing our Roundup or we started looking for bad guys to talk to or
serving these arrest warrants these are people that we could not find and we want to know why we couldn't find them
and then the people that were that you're asking the public for and you're simply giving a description of them well
that's very interesting too because obviously these are not people that are they're being told their names so if
people saw them in the neighborhood you have the the neighborhood person telling
police here's a description of the person why is that interesting to me why am I bringing it up to you Mr Lawman uh
that's because I'd never seen this person in the neighborhood before but I saw them on that day and that's the day
that we're talking about and so now as an investigator going okay I want to find bleach blonde hair guy I want to
find the African-American male with the shaved head I want to find the guy driving the creepy camper pickup truck
why because I want to ask them what you were doing there that day and if I can clear you or if I can immediately tell
that there's little reason to suspect you of any wrongdoing based off of the information you're able to prove to me
and tell me that day then I'll I also want to talk to you not just to clear you or check you off my list I
want to ask you did you see anything that day did you hear anything that day maybe you're the
witness that we've been looking for that can give us the clue that's going to lead us to this little girl
[Music] see you [Music] so much more to get to please join us here for episode two and until tomorrow
be good be kind and don't litter [Music] foreign [Music]

LeeAnna Warner /// Part 1 /// 516

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

LeeAnna Warner was just 5 years old when she went missing from her neighborhood in Chisholm, Minnesota back in 2003. LeeAnna was last seen walking home from a friend’s house, which was a block and a half from the Warner residence. LeeAnna went to play with a friend at 4:30pm but no one was home. LeeAnna was last seen walking on Southwest Second or Third Street, westbound between 5 and 5:15pm on June 14th, 2003. The Chisholm Police department believe that LeeAnna was the victim of a rare “Stranger Child Abduction.” At the time of her disappearance LeeAnna was 3 feet 2 inches tall, 48 lbs., and she was wearing a sleeveless dark demin dress with an attached belt, orange Hanes underwear and a flower shaped earring with a red garnet. If you have any information please call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or submit information online (CyberTip report) at www.Missingkids.org

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Brief Summary

Leanna Warner, 5, vanished in 2003; search efforts and community response discussed.

Key points

The Disappearance of Leanna Warner. A five-year-old girl vanishes from her neighborhood, sparking a massive search effort.
Community Response. Over 300 people join the search for Leanna, showcasing community support and concern.
Father's Plea for Lyanna. Lyanna's father makes an emotional plea for her return, expressing deep concern.
Strange Discovery of Shoes. Lyanna's shoes were found at a neighbor's house, raising questions about her disappearance.
Speculation on Abduction. Questions arise about the possibility of Lyanna being abducted due to her friendly nature.
Search Efforts Conclude. The official search for Lyanna ends, but her family remains hopeful for her return.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How does a child disappear Into Thin Air?

Introduction to Leanna Warner's case

6:14WatchNov 5, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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