Nieko Lisi /// Part 1 /// 617 | Forensic Files

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talk some true [Music] crime [Music] [Music] this week in the garage we have another
missing person's case these types of cases are so incredibly heartbreaking for those of us not
connected to the missing person or their loved ones these cases are usually a real heads
scratcher often there may be a series of bizarre events or behaviors leading up to the poof moment and then they are
gone we are left to try to make some sense out of these bizarre events and or behaviors as we try to crawl Inside the
Mind of the missing person and sort it all out for those closest and especially the
parents of the missing these cases on an emotional level can be the most difficult to deal with because there is
nothing in the way of any form of closure for the loved ones they are left to deal with the endless torture of not
knowing a parent can grieve the physical loss of their child just as it would be
with the murder case the loved one is physically gone but in a missing case they are left
with the added confusion of just what am I grieving should I be mourning the loss
of my child or should I be furious with them for leaving for us the unknown and the Mysteries are intriguing and at
times can be exciting but for the loved ones it's confusing painful and unacceptable
Nico Lei is our missing person he was 18 years old when he and a friend drove off
in a vehicle that neither of them owned leaving Nico's small Hometown the friend turned up later in
Michigan and Nico was seen in Tennessee from there he vanished did this young man who was in trouble with the law and
buding heads with his family decide to hit the reset button and leave it all behind to start a new
life it's possible in Nico's case the police certainly thought so but that was until a startling and worrisome find
turned up five years later that seemed to point to foul play this week we are asking where is Nico Lei this is true
crime garage in 2011 Nico Lei was 18 and living at home with his mom stepdad and siblings
in Jasper which is in Upstate New York near the Pennsylvania line while technically he was living at home but
during the events we're going to discuss Nico had actually left his mom's house and was staying with relatives but let's
back up so we can take in the full view here Nico came from a big family he was the middle son of three boys born to
Monica button and her ex whose name has not been released the boys were in order
Joseph known as Joe then Nico then carrian they were close in age and in brotherly bonds much later after their
parents split Monica remarried and had a little girl who was only 2 years old when her big brother Nico vanished
Monica also came from a large close-knit family she lived near her sister her brother and her mother her father had
recently passed away her ex which is Nico's father lived 15 minutes away in Hornell New York the family was in
constant contact with all members connected via phone and texting Nico was no different although he was 18 he was
in regular communication with everyone in his extended family and that is something that's interesting and
something that we need to take note of here all involved say that this dude was in regular contact with not just his
mother or his brothers or his father but also extended family and any time you're
talking about a missing person it's important to know and have somewhat of an understanding of the type of
Communicator that they are yeah I wouldn't consider Nico to be a loner by any stretch of the imagination he seemed
to be I'd say uh Family Guy yes he's he's often described as family oriented however as we go through these events
we're going to see that he's starting to get into some trouble maybe running around with the wrong crowd at some
point right so he's regarded as a very outdoorsy type when he was young he liked to play pretend Navy Seals outside
and then he got into bow hunting he was also a super sports kid who loves soccer
baseball and wrestling especially wrestling he won a national championship at the young age of seven and then
helped his high school to win two sectional championships this before a neck injury his sophomore year which
ended his wrestling career if you see pictures of Nico and we'll post them on our social media pages
Facebook Instagram all that stuff at True Crime garage you're going to see that he is a fit boy and in regard to
this injury it was something captain from my understanding that the doctors said hey this is just too dangerous for
you to continue with all this activity and this was rather devastating news to Nico this was a sport that he loved that
he excelled at and he was no longer going to be able to participate in and some people in his family point that
this is possibly being the beginning the Genesis of what is ultimately a downward
spiral for n which is ultimately a downward spiral for Nico well you've probably heard of people having some
kind of head injury that makes them almost switch personalities and I I almost feel like
this head and neck injury area could could have caused Nico to kind of shift almost in personalities some have said
that Nico was the kind of kid who had SW wagger some called him Brash we know that he was outgoing he was assertive he
was very self-confident his mother his mother said that she always worried her son would get into trouble not because
he was a bad kid but because he had sort of an Untouchable attitude that could come across as arrogant and cocky he was
the kind of dude that always spoke his mind whether people like to hear it or not and he didn't like to back down from
people now despite this Nico had a ton of friends and seem to know lots of people but
Monica did her best to keep her boys on something of a tight leash as a result she says that Nico was family oriented
and spent a lot of time at his own house his grandmother's house and his uncle's
house which is outside of Addison New York and at the homes of other various relatives so this again showing how
connected he is to this extended family but Nico definitely also hung out with a
friend Network that was on the periphery and some of these kids were less than desirable companions as far as Monica
his mother was concerned when they argued about this Nico yelled at her saying that he could pick his own
friends that she's not going to pick his friends another part of his personality
though Captain was Nico was always kind of the dude that bucked at anyone in a position of authority over him and
remember what I was saying a couple episodes ago don't just tell me three great things about the kid oh he lit up
a room that's not always going to help in a situation when we're trying to find an individual that's missing and what
his mother said to us about Nico is he was a demanding child that he always had some kind of drama going on in his life
and that he was also mouthy and cocky but one of those kids kids where he wouldn't be mouthy and
cocky unless there was another person in the situation that was trying to be mouthy and cocky he was going to then
show you hey you think you're mouthy and cocky I'm going to I'm going to show you
up I'm going to be even mouthier and cockier than you are well and as we said there's a bit of a shift a big shift in
Nico's life after he's forced out of wrestling and now he's hanging out with a rough crowd he quit playing baseball
he was going through a lot man his best friend had been killed in a car crash and his grandfather who he was very
close with had passed away around this time too so well not to cut you off but was the quitting of baseball due to the
neck injury CU I couldn't I couldn't find that but it seems like if you have a severe enough neck injury that you
can't wrestle you're probably not able to play other sports it's weird because we've seen this with uh with athletes
that that we follow in college or NFL from my understanding he could physically continue to russle but the
doctors are saying it's too dangerous you know in baseball a much different sport it sounds to me like the the
injury was not really the purpose of him quitting baseball it sounds to me like maybe he was losing interest that that
wrestling was the passion maybe he played these other sports just because you know sometimes people will play to
stay in shape or because of a certain crowd that they're hanging out with but him losing the wrestling thing his
friend his best friend dying in this car crash and then his grandfather passing away like that's a
lot to to deal with at that young of an age you know she's he's just a sophomore
in in high school well in this case I think is very one it's fascinating to me because he seems to be on a path and
then like you said there's this Dark Cloud over him there's bad stuff going on in his life there's a lot to take on
not to mention that you're becoming an adult and that's hard enough but there's all these
missteps but I'm glad look I also think as much as his family has been willing to talk with individuals to try to shed
some light on this case to find some answers I think there's probably some stuff one that they didn't didn't know
about some even darker stuff that was going on that they didn't know about or they knew about it and they're just not
willing to talk publicly about that well and all of this stuff is leading up to some changes in Nico's hanging out with
people that his mother didn't love they all kind of agreed that after his sophomore year that Nico needed a change
so it wouldn't hurt him to get away from this crowd he was in and it sounded like
mom and son needed a little space between them as well so it was arranged for Nico to spend part of the summer
after his sophomore year with his mother's sister-in-law Nico's Aunt who lived in Franklin Tennessee and
this is important because Tennessee New York and also Michigan and Ohio believe it or not are all part of this story so
we got multiple States involved in this disappearance and the Tennessee part starts here this is him going to live
with his aunt and attend school in Tennessee it it started off as just the summer but then he seemed to really like
it there and all of the parties agreed that he would stay and attend school the local high school there for his junior
year the general reports are that it all the transition all went well at first Nico was great with his young cousins
and was a lifeguard at their pool but before too long Nico bulked at the rules imposed by his in-laws and started
rebelling and had outbursts of anger at them very normal teenager stuff really there came a point where he didn't come
home one night and didn't call even though he had had a curfew he skipped school the next day as well so after
failing to find him on their own and not being able to reach him on his cell phone his relatives they called the
police and the police found Nico in a hot tub at a friend's house and from my understanding Captain the way that this
goes down in Franklin Tennessee is because he wasn't returning their calls because he didn't attend school because
he didn't come home that night Nico was considered a runaway and considered truant from
school in that jurisdiction this required Nico to go to juvie which I mean seems a bit extreme but that was
the case well hold up hey for a second right because like you said yeah arguing with your ant or arguing with your
parental figure that's not out of the norm that's normal teenage Behavior what's not
normal is there's something going on in your life that we're sending you at of State for the
summer and then we're going to then continue to keep you out of state I mean and we're talking about a
distance from New York to Tennessee that's a distance we're going to keep you there so then you could attend
school and instantly you're not attending school and now like like you said I think it's extreme because once
you get in the system whether it's juvenile or as an adult it's hard to get out of the system yeah Nico was placed
in a program for teens with anger issues and according to his mother Monica he's
diagnosed with some kind of defiant disorder which I had never heard of before but he's prescribed medication
for this which he refus to take so this leads us to February of 2010 this is when his mother Monica gets a phone call
from Nico who said that I'm at the airport come pick me up so he had used his in-law's credit card without
anyone's permission he left school he got on a plane and he flew home nobody knows this until he's calling from the
airport for a ride home right so he tells his mom hey I'm done with the in-laws I'm done with their rules and
now he's going to try to settle back into his hometown and he's going to reenroll in high school there in his
hometown this to finish up the rest of his junior year let's fast forward just a moment to current day because we're
looking back on this and in hindsight monac wonders his mother wonders if something happened with something in
Tennessee that for precipitated a swift departure by Nico if there was something
that went down that she's never been made aware of interesting to me because I think this is her pointing out that
this activity him just coming back without any type of permission seems a little out of character like I said I
think the injury to the neck probably has something to do with all this but I could also see a situation where he gets
in trouble right away and he thinks well maybe if I go home it's a clean start yeah and the problems though get worse
once he gets back so Nico gets back and now he's getting into fights and the police were occasionally required to
deal with him he even spent some time in jail this after being arrested for what
was labeled a burglary now Monica his mother says Nico was arrested after throwing a brick through a convenience
store window and was charged with burglary I get it throw a brick maybe he did he go in and steal something I've
never heard or read that part of the story all I've ever seen is that he threw a brick through a
window so some vandalism you know you don't want your kids to do this but again not a huge deal to me this is just
a very poor choice made by a kid at the end of the day not a major crime but Nico being
17 he was charged as a youthful offender and then I was shocked to hear that Nico
ended up serving 8 months in jail for this and even though he was under the age of 18 at that time it sounds to me
like he served so he's sentenced to serve a year in lockup right and this was not at a juvenile facility this was
at stuben County jail and from my understanding the terminology down there a County Jail
year is eight months of being locked up and again even though he's he's charged as I don't understand these terms you
charge him as a youthful offender but he serves at a non-juvenile facility it doesn't make a whole lot of
sense to me but again he he got in trouble you do the crime you do the time again let's go through this slowly he's
getting into trouble so we send him off to Tennessee he seems to do well over the summer but then doesn't go to
class he is Mark Trent he is hanging out with some kids in a hot tub I find that
to be strange and then maybe something happens and he heads back to New York hey guys I'm here and then he's hanging
out with a bunch of bunch of Knuckleheads and they break this they're basic they basically destroy property I
don't understand why that is considered a robbery but from what from my understanding of it right right
burglary from my understanding of it he was offered 5 years probation and basically the prosecutor and and and
Nico and everybody involved is going look how much trouble he's got into in just the last 6 months he's not going to
handle this probation period well so go to jail do the eight months which we consider a year do do that and just move
on with your life which again I think this is a bad decision it's weird I I don't know what's strange
about hot tubbing but yeah the the way that I've understand this story to be is that his mother and Nico wanted to fight
this burglary charge because that's not what he did according to Nico he threw he vandalized the place he threw a brick
through a a glass window you're exactly right they they're offered 5 years probation the defense attorney and
Nico's mother and Nico I think I think Nico wanted to fight it no matter what but the mom in the defense attorney are
like yeah he's probably not staying out of trouble for 5 years straight let's let's serve this eight months and and
and get it over with this so he's going to be locked up with W with what should have been his senior year at high school
so this means he's not going to graduate from high school but he does earn his GED while he's in jail and then he was
released in May of 2011 well I think well of their issues is that he has a lot of problems with
authority figures so if he spends this eight months basically in lockdown as an adult he's
going to get his GED he's going to be done with that and then he can move on with the rest of his life and he doesn't
go he doesn't have to go back to high school and to deal with the authority figures there yeah when he comes back
home everybody says that he seemed to be happy but he's he's also breaking the household rules
at some point him and his mom are not seeing eye to eye he decides he's going to go stay with his dad for a little
while that seems to be working out great but again he's he's a dude that's not going to fall in line with the rules and
it sounds to me like this guy a needs to grow up B probably should be out living
on his own and figuring out a way to afford it because he he clearly wants to live by his own set of rules not by
Mom's rules or Not by Dad's well and you could learn some type of respect there's
a lot of people that go live out on their own when they're young 18 19 years old and they realize it's difficult and
then they move back home and they show their parents a level of respect but again and I hate to keep bringing this
up but I feel like this neck head injury could be part of the reason that he's now hanging out with these these
Knuckleheads and and thinking he can just run the world on his own possibly yeah I think it has
a lot to do with him being 16 or 17 years old at the time so this is going to take us to August of 2011 this is a
major Point here in our timeline this is when Nico gets a phone call from the local police asking him to come down to
the police station his mother of course is furious that we have another police incident on our hands she drops him off
keep in mind pay attention as we go through these events that are leading up to his disappearance he needed a ride
from the airport he needs a ride to the police station Nico doesn't drive okay that that's something of importance here
so his mother drives him to the police station and then Nico calls her and says he's very upset and he tells his mom hey
I'm being charged with rape this is a very strange story but it makes a lot of sense at the end of the day as as far as
I'm concerned what happened was there's this 14-year-old girl who reported the names of several boys that she had had
intercourse with Nico was one of these boys there were no allegations of any type of forcible intercourse against
Nico but because of the girl's age 14 she's a minor she certainly wasn't able to consent as far as that jurisdiction
is concerned she wasn't certain of the date that she slept with Nico but gave a few different dates and at least one of
those dates puts Nico at the age of 18 right they would have a onag again off again physical
relationship which started with Nico being a minor yes and from the way that I understand it and I don't want to get
into numbers here but the way that it's reported she had had an onag off again relationship with several other
boys as well and or young men as far as the law is concerned and they were going
to be charged with Nico wasn't the only person facing some type of charge so others face things like reckless
endangerment endangering the welfare of a minor and so on so there Nico is not the only person that's being rounded up
by the police because of this situation with this young girl some kids making some bad decisions irresponsible
decisions I think when people bring up this story it's a statutory rape charge and they say well the the physical
relationship started with he was a minor well even if it started when he was 17 she would have been 13 I I think that's
a bad decision I think that's too big of a age Gap I understand that they're both
minors but that's I I don't know not not something that I would recommend to you
know my children or don't know that she was 13 when the relationship started because we have to keep in mind he's
only been in town for 4 months right at at this point so yeah but no it's not a good idea 14 to 17 almost 18 anyway but
I think one thing we need to point out for the listeners and and look I'm not the person that gets to decide who did
what or we are not the moral police right and I'm not saying that Nico did nothing wrong here but I think what we
need to point out is something maybe we need to underline it a little bit there's no there's no allegation of
forcible sex or anything like that here there's it's not this girl running to the police saying this guy raped me no
this is this situation actually plays out a lot more than most people would want to hear it's this is actually
incredibly common talk to your local police officer or if you if you know a a woman or a man on the force
ask them this question and you would be surprised how often they get phone calls
about this situation or that they are looking into some situation what typically happens is a father finds out
that his daughter is sexually active right then finds out that she might be a freshman and some of the a boy or two
might be a senior in high school and oh he's 17 or 18 and she's 15 oh we're going to press charges you
know that's typically the way that this thing plays out this is what it sounds like to me is this situation but not to
we don't want to linger on this situation too long but it's important to bring it up because if Nico did in fact
decide to take off for whatever reason this could be part of it right he is being accused of being technically a
rapist right so of course he's going to be devastated he's he's mortified because his name is going to to appear
in the local paper he's going to have to register as a sex offender if he's found
guilty of these charges this dramatically changes his life and we have to remember too that he just spent
eight months in jail well and I don't want to come to his defense too much because again shouldn't be hanging out
with underage girls even if you're 17 don't hang out with a 14-year-old but the information that I
have says that he he he told his mom and and the police look I slept with her but
I did not know that she was 14 and I found one statement from in one report here that says that the the girl looked
it quote the girl looked way older and that's not Nico saying that that is another report from other people from
people that weren't charged with anything so I don't know what that means but when I hear somebody else say that
the girl looked way older and he's telling mom and the police like yeah I I know what you're accusing me of yes I
did have a relationship with her I did not know that she was 14 but ignorance there's no room for ignorance in the law
like we were talking about earlier he's gone through a rough time but some of that is stuff out of
his his control his his grandfather pass in way but some of it is in his control
and he's at a time period where he's making his situation worse by making bad [Music]
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all right we are back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain when we left off we talked about
this rape charge and this was a situation that Nico was devastated about but he wasn't running and hiding from it
as far as I can see they have a lawyer that is hired by the family and Nico and his lawyer made three court appearances
over the summer to fight these charges against him so now we're at September 2011 and Nico's next court date his next
court appearance was scheduled for October 15th right the following month as said
Nico is horrified and embarrassed by this rape charge his his mom says that socially
yes he does kind of go into hiding hunkering down down at her house and refusing to go out for a while she told
him look dude you got to get out out you got to get a job or you can't stay here
much longer this leads to an argument Nico storms out of the house on foot and somehow got to her mother's house
remember he's close with his extended family his grandmother lives outside of Addison his mom Monica to this day
doesn't really know how he got to Grandma's house because again and he doesn't drive it's conceivable that he
walked there but doesn't seem to be likely this is a tough situation because I I find when you have a a kid
especially 16 17 18 years old look we can argue about when you become an adult but I think his maturity
level here is pretty pretty low I always feel bad for it's like if a kid got straight A's and
decided that he was going to take a year off before going to college to travel and do some self-discovery people would
be okay with that you get in these situations where a kid is you know spend some time in juvie doesn't graduate gets
a GED and people are so they they almost push them too hard to try to correct the
wrongs right away go get a job stand on your own two feet you know and sometimes
these kids just need some time does that make any sense that's that's my rant I'm
scking to it I agree 100% in the eyes of the law and the government you're an adult at 18 but to me I've always look
when I was 18 I was not a man I I I know that when I was 19 not a man I I consider an adult a woman or man or what
have you to be somebody that that takes care of their responsibilities and behaves accordingly and
we don't all do that at the same age we don't all do that at 17 we don't all do that at 21 unfortunately I'm sure a lot
of us know somebody in their 30s or 40s that is that are still not doing that sometimes in their 50s and
60s some of you might have a podcast with that person but uh yeah thanks a lot I was talking about myself no okay
I'm but I think everybody out there understands this now what we have here Captain is we need to point out that the
town where he's staying so he kind of spends a decent amount of time bouncing back and forth from several different
extended relatives homes but they also own a rustic cabin and he's staying at the cabin on and off so his comings and
goings and who he's staying with are a little bit gray here but that's not very important to our story what what is
important to our story is the area where he staying is the area where his mother
grew up and she owns a hair salon and her hair salon is in this area now you go to the barber shop you go to the
salon people are talking there's a lot of chitchat so Mom is hearing from locals be it relatives or friends at the
salon what Nico is up to that's key here now this takes us to Tuesday September 27th
when mom sees Nico at a family Barbecue everybody has a great time Nico's totally normal everybody's having a
wonderful time mom gets to see son that's on a Tuesday but by Friday Nico was gone yeah Mia so Monica last saw her
son at his aunt Rachel's house for a family Barbecue on Tuesday night he spent the night there then on Thursday
September 29th he babysat his uncle Zach's daughter while while Zach and his girlfriend were at work and after
babysitting that night he goes out Nico goes out so Nico is the last seen by his
family when he shows up at his uncle Zach's house in Addison New York this is around 2 p.m. on Friday September 30th
but he's not alone he's with a guy named Robbie Knight Robbie is two years older than
Nico the two told Zach his uncle that they were heading to Buffalo to go camping with some girls that they had
met online since it was late September and it was getting chilly out Zack calls Monica that evening around 900 P pm and
says hey Nico was here getting some stuff and he and this Robbie Knight kid are going
camping so Monica says this was very odd to her because not necessarily that Nico would
go camping we mentioned that he was an outdoorsy type but that he was hanging out with with this Robbie so Robbie is
Robert better known as Robbie Nicholas Neil Knight III that's a lot of names for one person yeah he was a classmate
and friend of Nico's older brother Joe Monica didn't let Joe go to Robbie's house when Joe was in high school and
she didn't let Robbie come to her house either because Robby had a reputation and his house I guess was known as a
teen party house a party spot for teenagers Robbie's parents lived in Michigan he was living at his
grandparents house in Jasper New York I guess he had like the run of the house as far as his grandparents were
concerned and he so he's allowed to have all these other kids over and it turns into a party house Monica was aware of
this so Nico's older brother Joe not allowed to hang out with Robbie so Monica what she's saying Captain is not
surprised about the camping thing but surprised that she would hang that he would be hanging out with this Robbie
guy well I'm going to say something that that is my gut feeling my gut feeling too is it's a
little odd that he's going to go camping with these girls because he does have this lingering charge this statutory
rape charge that he's going to be facing and like like you said this can really disrupt his whole life uh he is is very
concerned about having to be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life I mean that that would be
devastating for anybody so I I I do think that's a little strange as well Monica she tries calling her son trying
trying to get a hold of Nico he's not answering her calls so she texts him saying hey look I know you are at my
house today because your the door to your room is left open and your shoes are gone what else did you take from my
house and Nico responds clothes duh Monica again she's trying to get in touch with her son phone call or
text but by the time he finally responds via text it's now like 11:00 p.m. at night so Monica is going to go to bed
but what she doesn't realize at this time this would be the last exchange that she would have with her son so the
next day without hearing from her son Monica was left to wonder how Robbie and her son Nico were going to get to
Buffalo because again Nico didn't drive he didn't have a car meanwhile Monica didn't know this but Nico and Robbie
drove out of Addison in a gold 2004 GMC Canyon extended cab pickup truck with New York plates Zach her brother
Monica's brother said that he saw the truck when the boy stopped at to his place around 2: p.m. on that Friday the
day before right and Nico tells his uncle that Robbie borrowed this truck from Robbie's
grandfather Zach says Robbie's driving the truck when he saw them so he didn't question anything he he didn't know
Robbie didn't know Robbie's situation but the super weird thing here is the truck was recently stolen from a
driveway from a home on stuan Street in Addison so the two dudes Robbie and Nico
are in this stolen truck so the GMC Canyon that the the truck has Tak it on a very important role in this case for
reasons we will certainly get into but what would what do we know about missing person cases it's hard to find a person
sometimes it's like a needle and a Hy stack what's easier to find for law enforcement Vehicles a vehicle law
enforcement love when a vehicle is involved in any type of inv investigation that they have going on
because they can track vehicles vehicles are much easier to find and then we know
a lot about the vehicle it's reported stolen we already gave a description of it the New York plate on the truck was
egy 7316 these two guys Nico and Robbie are driving around in the stolen truck and
that appears to be the method that they're going to use to get to Buffalo well wasn't this vehicle also stolen
close to where the hair salon is that Monica owns well yes that's part of the whole story here so on Saturday the
first at this time Nico is believed to have gone camping right Monica believes her son and Robbie went off camping they
don't know about the stolen truck yet what happens is Monica goes to work she's working in Addison where her
mother and her brother Zach both live where as you pointed out the same place where the vehicle was stolen from Nico
had been staying in the cabin and bouncing around in that area for some time leading up to the vehicle being
stolen so while she's at work that day she's doing a customer's hair someone mentioned a truck that was stolen the
previous day Monica ends up saying that she's hearing about this truck and immediately this is where motherly
Instinct this is where gut checks in and and tells you something is not great here the spidey sense goes off she gets
a Sinking Feeling she reads a description of the truck and then she calls her brother and asks what type of
vehicle the boys were driving and the description that her brother gives her is exactly that of the truck that was
reported stolen so now she's freaking out and she wants to get a hold of her son but she
can't she ends up obtaining a phone number for Robbie night's grandparents house she calls them and this is when
Robbie's grandmother tells her that she had dropped Robby off at Monica's family
cabin a week earlier so this is shocking to Monica too so this means that Robbie
had been staying at her family's property without anyone's knowledge and because Nico was bouncing around from
house to house this also means that Robbie may have been staying there even without
Nico on occasion that week yeah overall it's just a bad situation of course Monica asked the grandmother hey was
Robbie allowed to take your husband's truck and of course the answer is no my husband does we don't own a truck right
so that's further confirmation that her son and his Now new friend Robbie are they have something to do with this
stolen truck what's even more strange though is the grandmother tells Monica that when she dropped Robbie off to stay
at that cabin a week earlier he says to her before getting out of the vehicle I'm giving you your life back which of
course to you and I sounds like goodbye I'm I'm leaving town or I've I've been a problem for you
Grandma uh thanks for the ride here but I'm giving you your life back yeah suicide or starting my life over
somewhere else maybe this kid you know he's two years older than Nico so he's about 20 at the time maybe he thinks
that they're going to live in this cabin well here's something I can't find and maybe you found this information
statutory rape charges we talked about that there was other other boys involved was Robbie one of the other
boys I I don't have a list of the names of the others that were charged but my suspicion is no
because I think that if that were the case it would be it would have been talked about yes it would be talked
about because Robbie is talked about a lot in this story a lot uh in The Disappearance of Nico my thought was
that possibly that they're both facing the same charge and they both didn't want to deal with it both thought they
were going to have to be registered sex offenders and hey let's just go off to my grandma's cabin and we'll both start
all all over but we don't have to start all over by ourselves we can start all over together but not a good not a good
start when you steal a vehicle well and from my understanding like the keys were
in this truck and they they probably went around either Robbie by himself or Nico by himself or the two of them
together went around checking door handles and found some cars unlocked and found this one with the keys still in it
and decided to take it there's there's a whole bunch of questions here right when
we look at the stolen truck and the stolen truck is one of the most important parts of the story the most
important parts is one where the hell is Nico two why is Nico and Robbie hanging
out and what are they up to together and why this stolen vehicle right because we
know that they tell Zack Uncle Zack hey we're going to Buffalo to meet these girls that we met online we're going to
go camping with them that sounds very normal me but what we have to question here is do they steal the truck in order
to get the Buffalo or did they decide to get out of town because they stole the truck
chicken or the egg so Monica what she ends up doing is she calls the police and this is for two reasons one
she's eager to find her son but she also wants to do the right thing so she reports hey this truck that was reported
stolen I have reason to believe that my son who is missing that we're trying to get in touch with that won't call us
back that he and one of his friends Robbie are involved in the stolen truck and maybe if you guys find the truck
you'll find my son right because like what we've said so much easier to find a vehicle than just to find a just a per a
missing person but at this point you're more worried about his safety we we'll deal what the charge is of him stealing
a vehicle I I couldn't imagine what she is going through and what the rest of his family's going through they're going
this this is just he's not acting like we think he should right and he's doing things that we don't think he
should be doing and we and we don't know why and we don't know why he's hanging out with this person at this
point you have to be very concerned you have to be scared you're very concerned and but I want to give some kudos to
Monica to Nico's mother because her thinking in this moment to me is incredibly levelheaded I think that the
most good citizen most good responsible parents out there would all agree I would rather my child be safe and face
the consequences and I know what where they are rather than uh I'm not going to report that that he might have stolen
this vehicle I'm not going to I'm not going to tip off the police that maybe my son's up to no good yeah I I agree
with you I think she's doing the right thing so what happens here Captain is now that we get the police involved and
again they're they're going to start getting some hits on this truck and so they have her come down to the police
department this is a couple days later they say hey we need you to review some footage that we found and we need you to
tell us if it's Nico in the footage or not so they have grainy surveillance photos that were taken the morning of
September 30th and in these photos it's Nico and Robbie on security camera at a 24-hour
Wegman's in Rochester New York this is at 400 a.m in the morning and then they're on another camera footage at a
truck stop in canona I think is how you say it New York so is reviewing this this footage or the photos with police
officers and she says that is certainly I I'm I'm certain that that is my son that are in both of these images so the
investigators tell Monica that the boys purchased chips and energy drinks it really looks like that was just a pit
stop at both of these stops they're purchasing these items through a stolen stolen credit card right that I don't
know I think I think there was a credit card I could be wrong but I think think there was a credit card that's attached
to this vehicle so not only did they know that they had this they stole this vehicle but there was a credit card or
something like that in the truck that they're using that would make a lot of sense for the reasons that they were
able to find this footage so quickly because these are places that are not you know they're out of town both both
these places are out of town and so then they use Nico phone records police determined that Nico and Robbie drove to
Rochester First which is about a 45 minute drive from where Nico's family lives then they drove back to the Jasper
Addison area where he's from and then on to kenona which is 45 minutes away and then they drove around Nico's Hometown
area as well then they go right across the border remember they're close to the Pennsylvania line they go right across
the border into Pennsylvania and and they're driving around there this is all before showing up at his uncle's house
at 2:00 a.m. at 2 in the afternoon on that you know the last time that he's Nico's ever seen by a family member well
and this is a truck too so this is costing a lot of money and gas well what's amazing to me here Captain is
it's all of this travel and driving around in Addison as well it it's like they stole the truck and then drove
nonstop and then they get to the uncle's house all of this driving around in a stolen
truck is to me is practically begging to get arrested right this is going to lead
us to October 1st Nico's mother Monica does not know this but on Saturday October 1st Robbie turns up at his
father's house in ramulus Michigan this is 420 miles from Addison New York Robbie's father finds him asleep this
after returning home from work work at 11:00 a.m. Robbie's girlfriend later reported
that Robbie had arrived in Romulus between 6 and 10 a.m. that day Robbie told his family that Nico dropped him
off and then Nico left but Robbie's grandmother later told Monica that Robbie told him that Nico had held a gun
to his head and demanded that Robbie hand over his phone his cash which was only
$7 and his clothes Monica says she never knew her son to have any guns so she finds this to be
weird Robbie's phone was on his grandfather's plant and the family promptly shuts off service to this
phone because if he did Rob Robbie if Nico did Rob him of his phone then he would be in possession of his phone
Monica finds this out and now she trying to find Nico so she's like well cool I will I will call the stolen
phone but that's not going to work because as soon as they are told that Nico steals this phone which we we need
to be clear here this is all alleged activity like this is Robbie saying this we have no one to confirm that any of
this stuff actually happened what we do know is Robbie does not seem to be in possession of his phone and it's shut
off before Monica can use it as a means of getting a hold of her son but we have nobody no eyewitness that
saw ni in Michigan right correct other than Robbie saying that Nico had dropped him off and
left and it's hard there's a there's a part of you I think that wants to believe Robbie but
at the same time he with Nico stole somebody's truck and drove around in it and like I
said from my information they were using a stolen credit card so they have no problem stealing stuff from people if
you have no problem with stealing stuff from people you probably have no problem
with lying to cover your ass on some things exactly and this All Leads up to n his grandmother again who he was
extremely close with she calls Nico's phone around 5:00 p.m. on the 1 of the month Nico actually answers the phone
which he had not done in more than 24 hours of his mom calling him and trying to get a hold of him right he tells
Grandma I can't talk right now and I'll call you back Nico never calls back which is incredibly out of character is
what everybody says but keep in mind I I don't know how out of character it is in
the moment he's not answering mom's calls but the this brief interaction with Nico this is the last interaction
that anyone in Nico's family would have with him after that the phone was shut off what an interesting case make sure
you tell your friends make sure you share on social media and join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then
be good be kind and don't [Music] litter is it possible to predict the unpredictable could surgeons use a
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go

Nieko Lisi /// Part 1 /// 617

Part 1 of 2

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18 year old Nieko Lisi went missing sometime around October 1st, 2011. His disappearance occurred sometime during a time period filled with suspicious circumstances. Nieko is technically missing from Addison, New York. He may have gone to Michigan and/or Ohio. Nieko is said to have been seen in and interacted with persons who knew him in the Franklin/ Nashville Tennessee area. His phone also shows activity in all four of the previously mentioned states all within a short timeframe of about 48 hours. Anyone with any information about Nieko or his disappearance should call 1-800-TBI-FIND, or submit a tip online by emailing TipsToTBI@tn.gov. The Lisi family is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to Nieko's whereabouts. Franklin police and Crime Stoppers are offering an additional reward of up to $1,000 for information in this case.

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Brief Summary

Nico Lei vanished in 2011 after leaving home with a friend in a stolen truck, leading to a complex missing person's case.

Key points

The Mystery of Nico Lei. Nico Lei vanished at 18, leaving behind a trail of questions and confusion.
Nico's Troubling Transition. After moving to Tennessee, Nico's behavior spiraled out of control, leading to serious consequences.
A Troubling Arrest. Nico's vandalism led to an unexpected jail sentence, changing his life forever.
Nico's Distressing Charge. Nico reveals to his mother that he is being charged with rape, which devastates him.
The Commonality of Statutory Cases. The discussion highlights how often similar situations occur, challenging perceptions of consent.
Last Communication. Monica's last text exchange with Nico foreshadows the tragedy to come.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What am I grieving?

A poignant question posed by families of missing persons.

4:41WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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