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

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details Rosetta Stone
is the language learning program with a lasting impact I've been using the rap to learn French and it's not just about
memorizing words but actually having real conversations and it's not just French they offer 25 languages right now
Rosetta Stone has an awesome holiday deal 50% off their lifetime membership every language unlimited access forever
for anyone keen on diving deep into a new language check out rosettastone.com it's a
GameChanger [Music] [Music] n welcome to True Crime 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 tell a friend this week we round out the great summer month of August in my running theme of
clutch 1995 album references and this unfortunately will be our last brewery beer for a while but we are going out on
a high note my friends today we are very excited to be featuring sweet Magnolias by the good folks over at the
brewery the one I had came in an absolutely beautiful 12.7 o bot this is an imperial style aged in
Bourbon barrels with bananas Madagascar vanilla beans and Nilla wafers added garage grade sound the trumpets please a
solid five out of five bottle caps and let's sound the trumpets for our friends that helped us out with this week's beer
fund first up a cheers to Alex in Orlando Florida and a big shout out to Eric and Loi California here's the
cheers to Hayden in night Dale North Carolina and a big shout out to Taylor in Old
waterl yeah waterl Iowa and last but certainly not least today we have Haley in Tempe Arizona everyone we just
mentioned they went to True Crim garage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fun yeah that's what they
did cuz they're awesome and why aren't you doing it are you lazy you got your lazy pants on take your lazy pants off
and go to True Crime garage and donate to the Beer fun for our weekly bwe r n beer run and that is enough of the
business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
crime running just let me save you be running just let me SA [Music] you're rning just let me save
you be rning just let me say you [Music] you 5-year-old lyanna Marie 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 or mines pits and lakes created by mining the area has
mountains of iron ore tailings and 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 Chisum was founded as a mining settlement in this area the chipa
walk called Ru Earth it's about 3 hours north of Minneapolis lyanna lived in the
town of Chisum Minnesota a small town of about 5,300 people the Warner family home was a gry stucco duplex located in
a friendly neighborhood with treine blocks of houses in the developed residential area near the iron
mines the neighborhood bordered a lake longear lake which was a recreation spot for those who lived in the town
according to everyone who lived there even in 2003 Chisum was sort of a throwback was a small community where
kids played freely outside neighbors were friendly and bad stuff just didn't happen lyanna Warner who was 5 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 3' 2 in tall and weighed 48 lb lyanna 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 is video footage taken by her parents available online she was an
adorable normal 5-year-old little lyanna went missing on a warm Midsummer Saturday afternoon from
an area in a neighborhood where bad stuff did not happen the date was June 14th 2003 little lyanna 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 in 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 lyanna
Warner just let me save you be rning just let me sa [Music] you Saturday June 14th 2003 lyanna and
her mom kin had hit some yard sales where lyanna bought a heart-shaped pillow then they spent the rest of the
summer day enjoying the lake in early interviews lyanna's mom said that they went to the lake swam and played with
friends and relatives and returned home around 4:30 p.m. after the day at longear Lake lyanna like most
5-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 2 Street lyanna 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 lyanna asked if she could walk
around the corner to their neighbor's house this is The Quirk family their little girls Janine ag4 and Melissa ag3
were great friends of lyanna'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 kayin said yes go ahead it was totally standard procedure for lyanna to
walk over to the quirks to play kayn did tell the media later that she told lyanna to come back home in a half an
hour although how a 5-year-old would have any concept of half of an hour is questionable Katie Quirk Janine and
Melissa's mother said that lyanna was a daily visitor to The Quirk house in fact
lyanna 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 lyanna 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 hannes 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 Leana walks off Barefoot and kayn goes inside the Warner's home after
she says watching lyanna as she walked down their street toward her friend's home until she went around the corner
two neighbors report seeing lyanna 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 Chisum Mayor John
shampa 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 L continue on her walk she may have never have vanished but this case being said in
2003 if it was set in today's time we would have ring cameras and and so many more houses have security cameras that
face the streets 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 a
Simply Safe video camage video camera footage yeah some news reports say that lyanna was seen in the
area around 6:00 p.m. walking West others say more specifically that she was seen walking West on Southwest 2 or
third streets and there were also reports that one neighbor actually spoke with lyanna 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 kin
reported initially that she started to wonder where lyanna was around 6:00 p.m. we know that lyanna's Dad Chris Warner
went out on an ambulance run at 6:21 p.m. he was a volunteer with the Chisum Ambulance Service and it seems that at
that time he did not know that his daughter was missing so so it seems likely that kin actually noticed lyanna
being gone later than this we're going to 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 kayn originally says when they get back to their home her daughter
lyanna wants to go down to their friend's house and then she tells originally she tells her no 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 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 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 5 years old but we have her mom her father and the quirks family the
adults of that home saying this was an everyday thing this was you know as normal as could be the yeah but 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 were 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 could have done the same thing here agreed but in
this situation we have kin who says she watched lyan walked 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 and to everyone involved and like I try to tell
other people you know that they say oh so you live in a bad neighborhood or or this area is ter 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 can only happen
in America and like you were stating Kaylin was saying you can be gone but for just a little while and so once she
noticed that she's hasn't come back in a little while she starts getting a little
concerned yeah her first reaction as soon as she notices lyanna is not home you know didn't return home as she
should have kayin 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 kayn she started canvasing the neighborhood assuming that lyanna had just wandered to someone
else's yard or home and again this kind of plays into what even the mayor of Chisum 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 lyanna 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 kayn returned to the Cork's home looking for lyanna again at 8:30 p.m. this time
finding them home but they had not seen lyanna at this whole point right the 911
call from kayn Warner came in at 8:4 88: p.m. by this point lyanna was missing for more than 3
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 911 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 9:00 p.m. 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 but boat houses boats yards
sewers Barns and vacant houses mhm 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 had scent dogs on scene they did
blood hounds were sent in relatively quickly I believe that they arrived either that night or the the very next
morning I have that in my notes and 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 M BCA is their acronym we'll 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 Chisum police chief Scott
Ericson 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 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 mhm 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 seeing it we just don't have that we have no ear Witnesses or
eyewitnesses to what happened 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 are
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 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 assume that lyanna had just kind of wandered off or gotten lost or stuck or maybe had some accident
Beall her Erikson said that on Sunday this is the chief that there was nothing indicating Foul Play Chief Ericson 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's scent to the edge of a Road at longear 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 Lana was at the lake
that day and that she had ridden her two wheeel 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 deck
I'm not sure how they can tell this footprint was old or that it could May was a different shoe and then they knew
which shoes she was wearing that day yeah I they describe it as a footprint um oh not a shoe print a foot 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 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 and 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 house 100%
1,000% 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 is out there thinking that that lyanna
and her mom and her sister were the only three people at that Lake that day well
you you can tune into to another show cuz 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 Litman 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 sight of two events that brought Out of
Towners to Chisum 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 1,000 people into this small town so think about that
population increase just for that weekend the weekend that this little girl goes missing MH 5,3 residents in
the town of Chisum 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 Glenn 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 question them well no
we see this all the time in other missing cases look at like the Joey leuk case guy goes missing when there's a
huge the Arnold Classic is in town mhm so again when you have those outer Towners it's really hard to vet every
single person that was there mhm and if anybody was still in the area that came in for these events
the police asked to check their RVs in 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 Leanna's case as a search rather than a rescue or recovery although they hadn't ruled out abduction
Sheriff Litman said he felt it was unlikely that lyanna was in the lake and he believed lyanna could have survived s
2 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 smell like warms here's the other thing too is
you know my thought goes instantly when you have a situation where she's she's seeing close to the home you start then
questioning the parents right M and now my issue with the investigation is and look we're going to argue with people to
the death about polygraph tests but to me you bring them in for questioning and you have them take a polygraph test mhm
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 teas 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 inv tigation
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 when 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 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 this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe
you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even
anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings
therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to
manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
betterhelp visit betterhelp.com garag toay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp
hp.com garage dreaming of overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family from
afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice
feedback technology are game changers dive into 25 Languages by learning intuitively just like when you were a
kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now and save 50% gift yourself the world head to
rosettastone.com now and save 50 % at Consumer Cellular you get the same exact coverage as the largest carriers
but for up to half the cost same thing up to half the cost up to half the cost for the same thing 50% the money for
100% the same thing I hope I'm making myself clear Consumer Cellular when Freedom calls we're here to answer call
us at 1888 Freedom half the cost savings based on cost of consumer cellular single line 5 GB data plan with
unlimited talk and text compared to lowest cost single line postpaid unlimited talk text and data plan offer
by T-Mobile and Verizon May [Music] 2023 all right we're back you 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 lanna's shoes
mhm 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 kayn Warner her mother stated to the media that lyanna shoes were in fact found
there and no one could explain that or why well there's eyewitnesses that saw her 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
lyanna 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 down 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 the she she may have simply forgot them right by Wednesday with no sign of lyanna 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 she'd 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 a event that's bringing all these people
and there's a percentage of those people that are pedos 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 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 canvases 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 6:00 p.m. authorities requested that everyone in the area
check 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 friend 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 wouldbe 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 wouldbe 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 Chisum 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 feel calls about any tips and potential leads but just
when we think that there's nothing to go on other than probably a 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 Ericson who directly asked the public to contact his
Department if anyone had any information on a faded light blue midsize car with an antenna mounted in the middle of the
trunk there was no make model or license plate that was available Erikson said he
did not know whether this vehicle was actually significant but it was a lead that they were following up on and chief
Ericson 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 or all
neighbors allowed the police to actually access and search their houses Erikson was confident that they had the area 98%
covered so this is going to be like Erikson'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 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 lyanna was believed to have left her home at
4:35 p.m. 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 round up a spokesman for the Chism PD said that there were roughly 20
to 25 classified sex offenders in Chisum but none that were level three we've talked about 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 Reed 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 and
that's so we just have level one and level two dirty perves mhm so no level 3es this is
why their names and addresses were not required to be 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 lyanna'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 wling 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 wling case there were witnesses to these abductions so we knew
immediately 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 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
snowing 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 8 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 frell said in my own personal experience I haven't had a case
where a child has disappeared so completely now Chief Ericson remained optimistic saying anything is possible
but unfortunately we've found nothing so far yeah and he was holding out hope that 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 $10,000 a $10,000 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 possibility that she got back to the lake were 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 treating this as she wandered off she got lost maybe an accident something happened to her right
how far could a 5-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 to frequently we know that she has 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 8 mile radius from the house that is a very large distance yeah 8 square miles from uh the
Warner home yeah once that search happens and they not it's not just that they don't they don't find her it's the
fact that they find nothing 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 there 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 finder.org and accompanying them on
these trips and on these appearances was Chief Ericson so they are in close contact with one another they're working
arm in-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 her here's where
things get a little interesting to me Captain on June 24th the 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 line here in this case and it's as follows at 4:35 p.m. lyanna leaves to walk to the quirks
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 quirks home but no one is home and she turns around 5:30 p.m. kayn notices that lyanna isn't
home yet she sends lyanna's older sister over to the quirks but she returns and reports that they are not home
6: to 6:30 p.m. kin and lyanna's sister start walking around the neighborhood looking for lyanna 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 kin in the search of the neighborhood at 747
Chris Warner's ambulance run ends and he returns home he immediately joins the a
search for his daughter at 8:48 kin Warner places the 911 call to report lyanna missing 900 p.m. 12 minutes later
Chisum police arrive and start searching the neighborhood 10:15 p.m. Rescue Squad
personnel and blood hound so the dogs are there at 10:15 p.m. arriving on the scene 4:00 a.m. Sunday a state patrol
helicopter is out searching for lyanna by air they moved very quickly we got to get 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 lyanna really left the Warner home at 4:35 p.m. and neighbors
saw her knocking on the quirks door 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 2 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 to question letting your 5-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 it's a walk that she's done a 100 times I question it myself not going
to lie but but be that as it may this is the situation so let's say it takes a little girl double that time 5 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 and the captain get distracted easily who knows hey look but 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
believe the time to be 5:15 p.m. well we 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 cuz 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 mhm 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 w
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 scent at the lake
they say that they trace lyanna's scent to the edge of a Road near the lake we've discuss 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 tra the scent back to Lanna 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 lyanna
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 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 quirks 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 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 mhm the mother the daughter and neighbors are out searching
for lyenna very quickly mhm let's say within I think we can agree within half an hour to an hour and a
half somewhere in that time range we have we start seeing people from the neighborhood and Jo 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 5 days later if you saw lyanna on Saturday or Friday or Sunday m 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 quirks 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' 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 you 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 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 back to my own childhood I 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 Shawn'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
lyanna'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 515 time from a second attempt at knocking
on the door after she's gone out looking the neighborhood for her friends m one thing that's also difficult and
troubling here I mean this is good for the parents in the people searching for lyanna that night but also might be bad
because she could be wandering far 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 Chisum
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 presume 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 in 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 asked 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 sha Raymond Berk of Hibbing Jason Wayne Smith of Hibbing and Justin Michael Jenkins of Chisum the
Sheriff's Office also asked for the Public's help in finding an unidentified white man in his mid-30s about 5' 10 in
tall and 155 lb 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 an older Rusty brown pickup truck with a
Topper driven by a white man with curly black hair the sheriff's 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 in an
interesting statement though Sheriff Litman 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
Chisum 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 specific speically
the deli 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 deli 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 got to find that individual which might be living a criminal life and then that criminal or
that that dirt bag now has to explain to the police where who was at where you know what's his
Alibi and sometimes they're not as Cooperative with poli 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 cuz we're kind of guessing
here but you also have to wonder is that simply that these know 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 you're going okay I want to find bleach blond hair guy I want to
find the African-American male with the shaved head I want to find the guy D 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 to prove to
me and tell me that day then I 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 just let we save
[Music] you rning just let me [Music] you so much more to get to please join us here for episode 2 and until tomorrow
be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the Angie's List you know and trust is
now Angie and we're so much more than just a list we still connect you with top local pros and show you ratings and
reviews but now we also let you compare upfront prices on hundreds of projects and book a service instantly we can even
handle the rest of your project from start to finish so remember Angie's List is now Angie and we're here to get your
job done right get started at angie.com that's a ngi or download the app today

LeeAnna Warner /// Part 1 /// 516

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://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 (http://www.missingkids.org/)

Beer of the Week - Sweet Magnolias by The Bruery Garage Grade - 5 out of 5 bottle caps

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the 2003 disappearance of 5-year-old Lyanna Warner in Chisum, Minnesota, and the ensuing search efforts.

Key points

The Disappearance of Lyanna Warner. On June 14, 2003, 5-year-old Lyanna Warner vanished from her neighborhood in Minnesota, sparking a massive search effort.
Community Response to Lyanna's Disappearance. The search for Lyanna involved over 300 people and extensive efforts by local authorities.
A Community's Heartfelt Plea. Lyanna's father, Chris, makes an emotional appeal for her return during a televised address.
Search Efforts Intensify. The national Center for Missing and Exploited Children joins the search for Lyanna.
Eyewitness Accounts. Two neighbors report seeing Lyanna at the quirks' home, raising questions about her timeline.
Investigation Expands. Authorities seek public help in finding persons of interest related to Lyanna's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How does a child disappear in thin air?

Introduction to Lyanna's case

7:13WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.

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