Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 1 /// 326 | Forensic Files

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truecrimegarage.com and that's enough of the business. All right, everybody gather around, grab
a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Each year, as we venture through life,
there are markers along our journey. Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. These can be cause for celebration, gift
giving, and reflection. These markers along life's highway are not only something we welcome, but
something we look forward to. We all will celebrate a birthday in 2019. And I, like so many of you out there,
I will observe my own holidays and anniversaries throughout this year. Think about your life,
your loved ones, and celebrations you've had so far, and the ones you are looking forward to.
Now, put yourself in the shoes of the loved one or family member of a victim of someone no longer with us.
Of course, these loved ones are victims as well. But these victims, so very unfortunately, are victimized repeatedly
over and over again. Each year, they experience holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries,
but without their loved one. Unlike the rest of us, these are not dates or markers
that they look forward to, often choosing to spend this time alone, unable to celebrate.
The days that we are often the happiest are the times that they struggle the most.
And then, they get to do it all over again next year, and the next year, and the year after that.
Next week, we will recognize an anniversary, but not one that anyone will be looking
forward to. Next week marks the 10-year anniversary of when Tony Lee Sharpless vanished.
10 years have gone by, and there's still no trace of her. Or is there? This is True Crime Garage,
and this is the case of Tony Lee Sharpless. Tony Lee Sharpless was born on December
27th, 1979. Her father was killed in an accident when she was just six years old. Later
Tony's mother remarried, so Tony and her sister Candy were raised by her mother and stepfather in West Brandywine
Township, an area of about 4,500 people. West Brandywine is about 60 miles west of Philadelphia. From what we can tell,
the parents provided a loving and supportive home to the two girls. But Tony would struggle getting involved
in her teen years with drugs and alcohol. At 17, she was pregnant. Her mom says Tony was determined to keep the baby and
to get herself together and be a good mother. Tony started working full-time leaving her daughter in the care of her
parents and she focused on being a good parent herself. Tony wanted to provide a good life for
her daughter and be a good example, but life as a young single mother was not easy and her mom says Tony had her first
breakdown at either age 19 or 20. Tony suddenly lapsed into several days of uncontrollable crying. She was
hospitalized and examined but wasn't diagnosed with any condition at that time. She went back to drinking and
occasionally taking drugs and even totaled her car. Now this was very traumatic and it was
something that she vowed never to repeat. Unfortunately, there were two suicide attempts as well.
She and her daughter moved to Florida briefly. Tony and her daughter moved back in with
Tony's mom and stepdad in Pennsylvania after this short trip to Florida. These behavior cycles continued until
2005 when Tony was diagnosed bipolar and placed on prescription medication. This
was to allow her to stabilize to the point that she could be able to enroll in a
nursing program. Toni's parents helped her as she worked on the weekends as a nurse's aide and
navigated nursing school. Everyone says Toni was managing well for most of this time.
She stayed stable throughout nursing school and in 2007 started working at Lancaster General Hospital.
Friends describe Toni as a brilliant woman who loved her job. It seems she had put her addiction
issues behind her and her disease was under control thanks to proper medication and things seemed to be
looking up for her. Yeah, but at some point she's going to be convicted of a DUI. And in early 2009 she started
behaving erratically. Her friend Crystal Johns says that in early 2009 Toni was cycling between mania and depression.
Toni entered a 3-week stint in a psych rehab facility in April of 2009. According to her family, it was here
that Toni was issued a new prescription for bipolar disorder and treated for alcohol abuse
and she came out of rehab a renewed person. She stabilized and was able to return to work and resumed her routine
as a dependable mom to her now 12-year-old daughter. Right, but let's be clear. There's no test that they can
give somebody to be like, "Oh, you took this test, you are bipolar." So, most psychologists won't diagnose somebody
with bipolar disease. They they monitor it for years, actually. So, with therapy
and trying different prescriptions, and this is kind of what they're doing. So, when they said that but some doctors
will um diagnose right away and start prescribing right away. Mhm. Well, at this point Tony was working as
an infectious disease nurse, typically working a 12-hour night shift then coming home in the morning.
Things went smoothly for about 4 months. The one thing that seemed to have been very tough for Tony to adjust to was her
bipolar meds prohibited her from drinking. Just like a lot of other medications,
alcohol and her medications, they do not mix well together, basically giving you undesirable side effects to
things like mood, behavior, and your health. Well, some of the anti-psychotics, if you drink on them,
they actually could cause death. So, we know that Tony had a problem with alcohol in the past, but after this
relapse, Tony seems to have changed her lifestyle to avoid drinking, at least initially. She wasn't going
out, she was staying focused on work and family. Now, Captain, we need to talk about the
events of August 22nd and 23rd, 2019. Uh August 22nd was a Saturday, and Tony finished a long shift at the hospital.
She was down because of a couple different reasons. A patient had committed suicide
at the hospital by jumping out of the window just weeks earlier, and a close friend of hers
her her brother had been killed in a car accident. So, she's got her own struggles, but there's there's some
other things going on here to add to this, add a a different layer to this. Now, Saturday morning after getting off
work, Tony went over to her sister Candy's apartment. Remember, they're very close, these two sisters.
She hung out with Candy's kids and and helped Candy clean her apartment. Then they picked up Tony's daughter, and they
went to a mall, a shopping mall for a day of shopping. Now, the shopping group was joined by Tony's old friend Crystal
Johns. Tony bought some new clothes and and some new hair color and the two friends caught up on life. It's my
understanding that these two are are old friends and they didn't have a relationship for quite
some time. And at some point this relationship is renewed. Now, Crystal said she was going to go
out that night to some clubs to meet up with some of her friends. And she encouraged Tony to join her.
Candy was also included in this invitation, but Candy declined. Mhm. She said later that she was somewhat
surprised that Tony agreed to go out because this was going to be a partying situation.
But she guessed that Tony felt that you know, maybe she deserved some fun after not being out for several months.
Now, Tony dropped off her daughter with her parents and said goodbye to the three of them. This is around like 9:30
p.m. Tony's friend from nursing school, GG Hayes, told us that she spoke with Tony
that day. And she believes Tony was clearly in or possibly entering a manic stage which GG
had seen and witnessed before. She says that in those stages Tony would do very impulsive things.
GG cautioned her about going out with Crystal and says that she and Tony's mother, Donna, both were
concerned. Now, Donna says that while Tony most of the time took her medications as
required, the day before she called and asked Donna to call into the pharmacy for refills. Mhm. Apparently, Tony would
often fail to take medication when she decided she was feeling good. You know, she would kind of We see this a lot
where where people decide they don't need their medication because of the way they feel.
Um, and this seems to be the case here as well. Well, I'm not a doctor. I'm a captain.
And all medicines work differently, but skipping one day of these medications are not going to derail you completely.
We don't know this for certain, but what we can say is that Tony's family seems to think that it's possible that Tony
did not take her pills that day or maybe in the past day or past few days leading
up to this day. Again, we don't know for certain. And again, we don't know how these
medications are going to react with her. That's correct. After saying goodbye, Tony went over to Crystal's, where the
two got glammed up to go out. Tony wore black pants or tights and a turquoise top and sandals.
Uh, Crystal later said in an interview that she didn't know that Tony wasn't supposed to drink while on her
medication. According to her, she didn't even know that Tony was bipolar. Remember, we said that the the
relationship is uh, kind of a new spark to an old friendship, right? According to Tony's friend GG, Crystal
was not a great influence for Tony. That's that's GG's opinion. She had serious reservations about Tony's
decision to go out with Crystal that night. Uh, the two young women went off to two
different clubs. First, they hit up Club Ice in King of Prussia, which is in Lower Merion Township, and then they
drove to G Lounge in Philly. Yeah, G Lounge. Right. It's where I get my swerve on.
It was here that they met up with Matt Green Mhm. who was hanging out with his brother. His brother at the time played
for the 76ers, a professional basketball team in the NBA. His name is Willie Green.
It's not really clear what exactly the relationship was between Crystal and Matt. We know that they met up that
night. We know that Crystal told Tony earlier that day, "Hey, I'm going out with friends, meeting up with some
friends. Why don't you come with me?" What I've heard is that it that sometimes this relationship between Crystal and
Matt may have just been a casual hookup. You know, that they were had some type of relationship when he was around kind
of thing. Right. Now, the girls, from what we've been told, received VIP treatment at G Lounge, drinking
champagne, vodka, doing shots. Sounds like they're having a good time. Now, Tony spent quite a bit of time on
the dance floor. One incident did happen here at the club that upset Tony. This is according to
Crystal. Apparently, two Hispanic men who were hitting on her, they were conversing in
Spanish about Tony. And one of them said that Tony looked like she was 35 years old. Now,
remember, Tony is only 29 at this time. Tony actually spoke fluent Spanish and could understand everything that they
were saying. And this really upset her. Now, clubs in Philly stop serving alcohol at 2:00 a.m. And everybody has
to be out of the bars at 2:30. They are with a crew of about six or seven total.
And it sounds like they wanted to keep partying. So, Willie, Willie Green, the basketball
player, invited everyone back to his mansion. This is in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
This is about a 30-40 minute drive from where they're currently located. Yeah, that's that's never good. Hey,
we've been drinking and doing a bunch of drugs. Let's drive 30-40 minutes. And I'm I'm not certain as to what time
they arrived at the first club, but one thing we do know is they stayed at the second club until closing time. So,
we can assume that most of them are pretty sauced up by this point. What what's closing time there? Cuz
closing time here is 2:00 a.m., but Well, serving stops at 2:00 a.m. and everyone has to be out of the bar at
2:30. Okay, so the same same as us. Tony drove herself and Crystal in her black four-door 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GT, uh
which had tinted windows. Whether or not she should have been driving is not clear. This has never
been made clear by anybody that night, but Tony was operating on, from what we know, 36 hours of no sleep,
medication, which is either wearing off or no medication, Right. bipolar disorder, and plenty of
alcohol. Uh Crystal categorically denies that either she or Tony did any drugs that
night. So, we'll give Crystal the benefit of the doubt and say we won't include drugs in that in that statement.
Now, Tony was also very bad with directions. She was driving to an unfamiliar area.
She had a new phone that she had just got like a few days before, and she wasn't able to figure out the
GPS on this new phone. In fact, they had a real tough go of it trying to get to the G Lounge. I guess they drove around
a lot longer than than normal trying to find this place cuz they didn't know where they were
going. they went to H lounge first and had to circle back around. Up to the M lounge, down to the Z, back
to the A, found found themselves at the G. Skipped the B, yeah. Apparently when they were heading out to
Willie Green's house, Crystal was the one who was able to figure out the GPS. So they used GPS to get to his house.
Now Gladwyne is a very upper-crust suburb of Philadelphia. One news article says that it's one of the most expensive
towns in the United States. The NBA player and party host Willie Green was making quite a bit of money
uh in those days. And his house that he lived in cost about $780,000. This was uh
purchased in 2006 from my understanding. It's not totally clear how many people ended up at his house.
We have heard that it was Willie, Matt, their uncle, another girl also named Crystal,
and according to Crystal Johns, this other Crystal wasn't too happy that she and Tony were there.
And possibly one other person that I don't have a name for. We also don't know exactly what what
happened there. You know, we do know that Tony texted her daughter at 2:57 a.m. This is while on the
on the School Kill Expressway. I hope I said that right. This is Interstate 76 and it was on the way to
the house party. Now Tony is responding to a text from her daughter. The daughter's saying,
"Hey, I can't sleep." And Tony texts back saying something like, "Honey, I'll be home soon. Get some sleep." or "I
hope you can get to sleep. See you soon. Love you. Something like that. Right, which is the typical parent
[ __ ] text like, "Hey, we'll be back soon." Which really means, "Just go to sleep and I'll see you in the morning."
Whatever the exact wording of this response was, it sounded totally normal. Although
moving forward, I want everybody to keep in mind there's no proof that it was actually Tony that that sent that text.
Well, if she's driving, she could have just had her friend send the text. Her friend figured out the GPS, right? Mhm.
Right. But it But again, what I want to point out is I I don't mean just whose fingers were on the
phone. I mean we There's a lot of questions about that night. And you And that will become very
clear very soon. But just to point out, even though the text came from Tony's phone and it was to her daughter in
response to a text I don't want anybody to believe 100% that that Tony sent this text or was the
one that chose the words for the text. Now, only Crystal Johns, out of all the people that apparently were there or
could have been there that night, only Crystal Johns has spoken publicly about that night. She has done
interviews, TV shows, blogs, and other forms of media about what she says exactly went down at Willie Green's
home. Now, she was initially very eager to talk. Right, you know, right from the get.
Yeah. But to be clear, Crystal's story of what occurred that evening is the only narrative we have to go on.
While it appears that her story has changed in in in little ways, somewhat in the
especially in the early days the gist of what she said happened is this. The crew at the house was playing a
drinking game that involves the card game Taboo. At some point during the game, Tony made
Again, she's she's worded this several different ways and I don't want to upset anybody here. But from my understanding,
she Tony made a joking comment that either was or could have been a racial slur.
Now, it's worth noting that both Crystal and Tony are white and Willie and Matt are black.
Also, Tony's daughter is mixed-race. I'm just pointing all that out. I wasn't at the party. I don't know exactly what
went down. Right. When Willie expressed displeasure at Tony's word choice, yeah.
I guess Tony lost it, according to Crystal. She started pouring champagne on the
floor and getting belligerent. Now, in another account, Crystal says she herself was in the pool and someone came
out and found her and said there was something going on or something wrong with her friend.
And she found Tony kicking furniture, cursing, and throwing things and acting extremely drunk. Pulling a
Rick James. Yeah, that [ __ ] your couch. This behavior was out of character for Tony, said
Crystal. But others who knew Tony said that it was not totally out of character if she was having an episode.
And Crystal says that Willie asked the two of them to leave. Mhm. And angry and crying, Tony grabbed her keys and said
that she was she was driving. Well, in all fairness, I mean, you go to a house party with Willie Green,
basketball player, NBA, right? Mhm. And they you're expecting a party and they pull out Taboo?
Give me a break. Yeah. Yeah, I Again, I don't know what was going on, but but when she says that
she's No, I want to party. She's asked to leave, and she know, she grabs her keys.
She says she's driving. I guess some of the guys in the group started laughing and told her, you know, "Hey, by the
way, don't hit any of our cars on the way out of the driveway." As soon as she and Crystal got to
Tony's Grand Prix, Tony started yelling at Crystal. Accusing her of laughing at her with the others. You know, the
"Hey, you you you brought me here. You asked me to join along on this party." Maybe maybe she screwed up. Maybe she
didn't. I don't know, but whatever went down, according to Crystal, Tony at this
point not only feels like the people that stayed at the party are against her, but her friend or so-called friend
Crystal is now against her, as well. Well, this is a tough situation. There's a lot of people that are
uh suffering with bipolar or mental illnesses that that um once they get their medication right,
they might be advised from their psychologist that it Yeah, maybe some of the side effects aren't great, but it's
okay if you you drink a little bit on your medication, but like you said, they switched her medication. So, maybe she
drank drank on her old medication, and she kind of knew how to handle this, but now she's having
a different effect Mhm. um with the new medication. My general understanding was
I don't think she was supposed to be drinking at all. And then top that off with
it looks like she had a bit of a roller coaster ride with drinking alone. You know, with Right. with having some times
in her life where she was abusing alcohol. And and and you know what and I'm here's the thing.
In Tony's defense, she obviously was somebody that wanted to make the right decisions. I think
sometimes she struggled with that. And we all do on some level, right? you have a mental illness, that's a
you know, that's an obstacle that that a lot of people can't get over. Yeah. And
and and I don't want to pretend like I'm I'm better than anybody. I was actually thinking about
this on my way here and and and really doing some self-reflecting and thinking to myself, you know, I'm in
my 30s now and I think I could probably handle being told, "Hey, you can't drink." I don't know if I would have
been able to roll with that very well in my 20s. Well, and it's not like she's been
irresponsible with her whole life. She's taking care of her kid. Uh she went to school. She's a She's a hard worker.
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today. All right, we're back. Cheers, everybody. Cheers to you, Captain. Where we left off,
Tony was asked to leave or told to leave this party. Yeah. So, she decides she's
going to drive and she's taking her friend Crystal, who arrived with her. She's taking Crystal with her. Now, once
they're at Tony's car, Tony starts yelling at Crystal and in fact Crystal says Tony got so mad and
became so unreasonable that just within two blocks from Willie's house, she pulled over and yelled at Crystal
telling her to get out of the car. Well, Crystal said later that she knew Tony shouldn't have been driving.
Crystal said she was so shocked and surprised by Tony's behavior that she did exactly as she said she was told.
She in fact got out of the car. Now, this put Crystal alone on the side of the road in a somewhat strange place
around 4:45 a.m. She says that Tony sped off taking a left turn toward Hollow Road heading
back in the direction of the interstate. Heading back in the direction in which they came. Right, but we don't know if
Tony knew where she was going. After this takes place, there are two phone calls on the call
logs to Tony's phone. One at 4:47 a.m. and one at 4:53 a.m. So, two phone calls 6 minutes apart.
Some reports state that these calls were at 4:53 a.m. and 4:59 a.m. But the key thing to mention here and to keep in
mind here is there's not a big discrepancy in these two times that were given from different
reports. And it's very clear in all the reports that there were two calls that took place and they occurred 6 minutes
apart. These match up with the panicked calls Crystal said she made to Tony in the minutes after Tony told her to get
out of the car. She said she was sure that Tony would come back for her. And she said that her
calls, the two calls, went straight to Tony's voicemail. Crystal says to her it was obvious that
the phone was turned off. That's her opinion. We've seen reports that Tony's phone
last pinged a cell tower that serves near the area where the party was located. What's strange here to me is that
Crystal's story Uh I don't know if it makes a whole lot of sense to me. Mhm. Right? So, she told
is that? Well, I'm going to get into that. Okay. She told the TV show ID disappeared that
she was stranded there within walking distance from the party house. Right. And that even men some of the men at the
party even yelled at her to come back. But she refused because she said she was embarrassed about the whole episode. So,
instead she started walking alone in the direction of the interstate. Now, this seems
it just seems to me very unlikely unless unless I do believe that that she's stating that she thought
Tony would eventually turn around. Right. Um but to take that a step further, then you have to believe that
she continued to walk and at some point got to a point where she just felt like she was too far away to turn around.
Again, I I if she's she said she was scared, she was alone, she felt abandoned on the
side of the road, yet she's within just a couple blocks of of the party that she
just left. Now, mind you, according to Crystal's story, she's not the one that that did the
party foul that made made them have to exit the party, right? Right. She says that that she's dropped off,
she starts walking, refuses to turn around to the party. Um here's the thing. We we don't know how intoxicated Tony is
at this point. We don't know how intoxicated Crystal was at this point. So, maybe Crystal's just making a bad,
irrational, illogical decision. In other accounts, Crystal was already far enough away from
the party that she didn't know where to go, she says. In any event, Crystal says that she sat
on a curb on the side of the road and started calling family, finally getting a hold of a 17-year-old nephew of hers
who agreed to make the 40-minute drive to come and get her. Now, Crystal says that she was scared
and a little mad at Tony. Little did she know that this would be the last time anyone would see Tony.
The two calls to Tony's phone from Crystal were the last activity ever recorded on Tony's cell phone.
Tony Sharpless disappeared sometime around 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009.
At some point after she failed to reach Tony, Crystal called Tony's sister, Candy, and left a voicemail for her,
explaining what had happened, and saying that she would drop off Tony's things later that day.
When Candy got the voicemail from Crystal, she called over to her mom's house and was immediately concerned when
she discovered that Tony did not come home that night. Crystal and Tony's family started calling the local police
stations to see if Tony could have been pulled over for a DUI. And then they tried local hospitals as
well to see if she would ended up in a hospital. Neither was the case. Crystal called the
West Brandywine PD around 9:00 p.m. to report Tony missing. And Candy, Tony's sister, went in and filed a missing
person's report. Tony Lee Sharpless officially became a missing person at this time.
Officer Russell Moore with the Brandywine Police Department told ID Disappeared that he was immediately
concerned about Tony after hearing of her unstable past and a night of partying.
Although her family insisted that she would never have hurt herself or take off leaving her daughter.
They say that that her daughter was her whole world and she never would have left her.
Now, the family told Officer Moore that Tony had plans on Monday to take her daughter to a state park in the area
with a lifelong friend and her kids. This is to further bolster the the point that they would not be
uh she would not be taking off. Now, Officer Moore entered Tony's car into a missing vehicle database, but like Tony,
her Grand Prix seemed to have disappeared into thin air. While the police geared up to search for
Tony, her family took matters into their own hands. Crystal and some of Tony's other friends
helped print off flyers describing her including pictures of Tony and her car. They had Tony listed as 5 ft 5 in tall,
135 lb, auburn hair, blue and gray eyes. Last seen wearing a turquoise top and black pants.
Tony's mother and stepfather drove out to the neighborhood where the party was and scoped out this whole area.
They drove the routes that Tony could have taken to get home. And Crystal told them that Tony's car had been low on
gas, maybe a quarter of a tank, and that would possibly not have been enough to get her home.
Suggesting that Tony would likely have to be looking for a gas station at some point.
Family and friends stopped at local gas stations asking about sightings of Tony,
but came up empty-handed. Now, I want to talk about the geographical location of that party.
Willie Green's address was 1317 Bobarn Drive in Gladwyne. To get here, Tony and Crystal took Interstate 76 and
would have got off on the Hollow Road exit. Remember Crystal said that when Tony ditched her, Tony took a left
toward Hollow Road, presumably looking for a way back onto the Interstate. But at this time, it would have been
dark. All of the unlit small roads in that area probably look very much alike. There are no commercial areas or
businesses. And it's likely that Tony's perceptions were significantly impaired.
So, on Hollow Road, there is no entrance ramp leading to the highway in the direction Tony should have gone,
assuming she intended to go home. She would have been looking for Interstate 76 West. The access ramp
accessible here leads only in the direction of Philadelphia. It's Interstate 76 East, the opposite way
from where Toni would have logically wanted to go, toward her home. Right, but like they stated before, she's
pretty bad with directions, and we don't know if she knew how to use her GPS. Well, and she didn't know this area.
Right. So, very likely not knowing that if she does in fact get it on that freeway, it's going to send her in the
wrong direction. Right. So, now one very simple possibility here could be just some kind of tragic accident.
So, let's say Toni didn't take the ramp that we just discussed, because it is going in the wrong
direction. So, if she didn't take the ramp, Hollow Road ends up just a few feet further on going under the
interstate, crossing train tracks, and then it dead ends into River Road, which runs along the Schuylkill
River. A sharp 90° left turn onto River Road would have wound Toni along the river
and led right to the Flat Rock Park boat access ramp that could possibly be mistaken for a
highway on-ramp. Mhm. Could Toni have driven her car off the boat ramp and into the river?
Now, even if she didn't, the road continues closely along the river for quite some time. At any point, she could
have veered off and then went into the water. Yeah. Or if she had turned right onto River
Road, which really is just a dirt road in a the easterly direction from Hollow Road,
could she have accidentally just have driven right into the river at that point as well? So, her family and
friends drove all along this stretch of River Road looking for things like tire marks or busted guardrails.
They didn't find anything. Now, many of the areas along the riverfront contain homes featuring
manicured lawns. So, it seems to me like it would have been obvious if a car had,
you know, mowed through these lawns and went into to the river. Right. And then we have Lieutenant Frank Higgins of the
Lower Merion Township Police Department. He said, quote, "There are very few areas where you cannot find a guardrail
or somebody's front lawn." End quote. When Tony's family expressed concern about the possibility that Tony could
have gone into this river at or near the boat ramp, the Lower Merion Police Department did
not see probable cause to search the river. So, remember Tony's friend GG. She contacted Texas EquuSearch. And
anybody that's listened to this show for any length of time, they they come up like every three or four
cases that we cover. This is a This is a a top-of-the-line search company that was founded by a victim's father.
Yeah, so Texas EquuSearch was lined up by GG. And this was all scheduled and arranged by GG to search
the river. This search took place on September 11th. A law enforcement dive team from
Philadelphia was sent to supervise the search, and they actually limited the parameters of
the search area to just a stretch of the river that they stated was most likely where Tony could
have gone in. This area started at the Flat Rock boat ramp and proceeded up the river away
from Flat Rock Dam to the next boat ramp where the river starts to curve to the left.
The river was about 25 ft deep at its deepest points. Texas Aqua Search sonar equipment
scanned the bottom of the river looking for anomalies that could be Tony's car. And to the shock of pretty much
everyone, they found one very quickly. When news of this spread, Tony's friends, including Crystal and family,
gathered They're certain that Tony had been found by this point. Now, Texas Aqua Search sonar continued
to scan the river. It found another anomaly on the river bed below. And then another, and
another. Divers confirmed that there was not one car, but multiple cars on the bottom of
the Schuylkill River off of that boat ramp. Wow. 11 cars were down there. 11? I've I've seen used car lots with
less cars. Yeah. All right. 11 cars were down there at the bottom of the river. That's a lot of
cars, man. Yeah. The The river The divers found, based on the license plates, you know,
some of these cars still had license plates on them. Uh-huh. And this was then confirmed when the
crane came in and pulled cars out of the river. I mean, I I don't want to get too far
off the subject, but do you do you roughly know how long these cars were in the river for?
I I don't, and it it will become You'll see why that's probably not important. Yeah, I know it's I I think it's
non-important, but what I'm saying is like if these cars if it's a span of 20 years
or 30 years, well, maybe 11 cars isn't that much, you know, but uh it seems like there's a lot of accidents
over there. Well, actually, what they learned is they they believe this area was a dumping ground for stolen
vehicles. Okay. And so, the these all of these vehicles could have been put there
by the same person or the same group, okay? Um yeah, so these were all and that's
easily confirmed, you know, when they look up the VIN numbers and things like that. They go, "Oh, this this vehicle
was reported stolen." Now, Tony's Grand Prix remained missing even after they found all these other
cars. Unless the sophisticated sonar equipment missed something, Tony was not in that part of the river.
She did not enter that part of the river. After this, police were just at a loss
saying, quote, "We checked all the bridges, bank statements, her telephone, followed up on all the leads we could
electronically, and we just never came up with anything." This is a quote from Lieutenant Higgins. And he went on to
say, "It's still quite a mystery that her car was never turned up. People disappear with no trace, but the car
usually turns up at some point." Well, I know she wasn't using her cell phone, but I would assume at this point she had
a charger in her car for her phone and that we would get some kind of cell phone ping
from her just moving areas. You know, like you said, it's 30-some minutes away. Mhm. So, maybe you'd have to stop
and get gas. Maybe nobody saw you get gas. Maybe you did that with cash and not a debit card. But, wouldn't at some
point um you you would think one there's just not going to be that many drivers on the road that that day. So,
maybe one would get an eyewitness that came forward or again, maybe we'd get that cell phone ping. Uh
you know, maybe not again, not using the phone, but you'd get it by switching locations, wouldn't you?
Yeah, and so what that means is that the phone is off or dead by that time. Right. And we do have Crystal John's
statement where she said, "Hey, it seemed obvious to me that my two calls placed to her went straight to voicemail
because the phone was was off." Mhm. Now, I often wondered about this when when looking into this case, one thing
that I was highly suspicious of because some of the reports, the way that they report it,
it makes it sound like magically Tony kicks Crystal out of her car and then about the same time her phone goes
dead or shut off. We don't know that to be true. So, when when when I see these reports and watch
them on on YouTube or on TV and the way that they word it, it makes it seem like
that. And I think to me that's just that's wrong because look, I have a lot of suspicions of the
people that she was hanging out with that night. And Crystal's story in particular. And the the biggest part of
the story that I didn't like was that magically at the same time she's kicked out of the car and the phone goes dead
or is shut off. That just seemed like way too much of a coincidence. But when we really examine this thing and really
take a deep dive and look at it here, we don't know what time, if the phone did die, if it lost power, we don't know
what time that it that it went down. Right. And anybody using G- GPS knows that there's several things that you can
do on your phone that will drain the battery battery significantly faster. And if you're not plugged into your your
car dash or or running off of some other power supply, Yeah. the GPS could very likely drain
her battery quite quickly. We know that she was up for quite some time. Who knows the last time that she charged
her phone, one. And two, if she didn't know how to use the GPS, how do we know she didn't leave it on after arriving at
the party and it continued to drain the battery while there? So, that's one thing I've always been
very suspicious with in this case, but I just find it to be that it it's not this magical
coincidence. So, the other thing, while we're on the topic of the geographical location of
that party, I think it's also important to point out here for those that are unfamiliar with
this region, the area of Pennsylvania where Tony disappeared from is close to several large cities where
it would be easy to disappear or encounter trouble. Mhm. So, we have Camden, New Jersey, was
just a 20-minute drive east. This is a notoriously dangerous city. Also, North Philly has some sketchy
areas as well. Both of these urban trouble zones are within a reasonably short drive from where Tony was last
seen. Well, let's kind of go over this. So, she she's low on gas, right? Quarter of a
tank, roughly. According to Tony. She's sorry, according to Crystal. She's possibly impaired. One, she's impaired
cuz she's tired. She's impaired because we know that she's at least had a couple drinks. Mhm.
Um we we don't know if she's on medication or not, but she could be impaired either way. Mhm. She's not good
with directions. Mhm. Phone might not be working. And if it is, she seems to be know how to use the GPS. Right. And in a
she's in a unfamiliar area, right? So, really the this is where this gets very problematic
for this whole case and the the story of this disappearance. The possibilities here
seem somewhat endless, right? Yeah. When when you talk about these two, let's call them danger zones, all right? These
this dangerous areas of that are short drives from where she was known to have been according to Crystal's story and
according to the cell phone ping that happened roughly in that area. Right. She could have ended up in these danger
zones in any by any way. I mean, it could have been just as simple as she took a wrong turn
or was heading in the wrong direction on the Interstate. This could have put her in the very very
wrong side of town. On the bad side of the tracks as they say. And then the other side of the tracks. But yeah,
yeah, so but it also could put you in an area again you're not familiar with. Um might not be the safest of areas
and you're low on gas. If not running out of gas at that point. So, police determined that none of
Tony's credit or debit cards to this day they've still not been used. So, what does that tell us? Well, we know
that she did not buy gas unless she paid cash that night. Further, since none of her cards or bank
accounts were accessed, it seems very unlikely that she was the victim of a robbery gone bad.
Right. And she's not running away. I mean, she had too much going on. She's a mother, she had a good relationship with
her family. She had a good job, she she was working uh higher education to to further her
career. She's not running away from her life. No, she might have been somebody that
needed a temporary break. A night out. out. We all do. Um she was working very hard and look,
single mom, yes, mom and stepdad are helping her out. She's probably getting some help from her sister, but she's
helping her sister as well. We know that according to her sister, she came over that day, hung out with her sister's
kids, helped her clean her apartment. Right. As you said, she's very close to her family and it seems like while we
can't rule it out 100% it seems an extremely low probability that she went out, got blasted and just
decided to take off. Extremely low probability. Well, very Yeah, and on on top of that, we don't
have any record of her having cash, and we know that she's low on gas, and there's no, you know,
activity on her debit card. I saw rumors that her car, her her model of vehicle, Mhm. uh Grand
Prix GT was considered a desirable target for carjackers. I look I could see that. I'm not into boosting
cars, never have been. Um Boosting? Yeah. Is that like a term for stealing? Boosting? Yes. Um but
Shows you how hip I am. What seems strange to me, it's a 7-year-old Pontiac. Uh-huh.
No offense to the Pontiac owners out there, but this is a 7-year-old Pontiac. So, I I
just don't I don't get it, but again, I don't I don't know. Maybe it's targeted for some other reason.
I could see that. Um these these these cars drove really well. Uh they had a pretty cool aesthetic to
them. So, even though they'd be 7 years old, that the aesthetic to these cars um
didn't date themselves. Mhm. So, I I could see why they said that, cuz this the this was the type of car that it kind of
appealed to the the a younger crowd. Mhm. So, I think that's why they're saying these are cars that
people look to steal. Well, and the other thing that's always confused me, and I think that the media
flubs this up pretty good, is there's a big difference between a stolen car and a carjacking.
And so, to say that it's a desirable target for a car jacker is one thing, and but I know that when
stealing cars, there are desirable targets for stolen cars because of the way that they are
it's easy to break into them, it's easy to hot-wire the vehicle, something like that. So, I when I when I see these
things and I and I see that media saying that news outlets saying that this is a
desirable target for car jackers, I that's when I want to ask the person telling me that information, Maybe. do
you mean carjacking or do you mean stealing a car? Cuz those are two completely completely different things.
So, jacking or do you mean stealing? Do you mean jacking? So, here's the other thing. This is is
the big question, and a lot of people ask this time and time again regarding this case.
If in fact she ended up in a bad area town, or did she end up out in the middle of nowhere
a stranded because she ran out of gas? Because her vehicle, as reported by Crystal, was a quarter of a tank or
less. Crystal says she would have been likely looking for a gas station because I don't believe she had enough gas in
the tank to make it home that night. Right, but this should kind of limit our radius of search,
and we should be able to at least find her car, or find some evidence Thank you.
of Tony. Thank you, because that's the thing that people point out a lot with this case. They go, "Well, she could
have run out of gas and somebody evil, some evil monster could have just happened upon her, taken the opportunity
to abduct her." Mhm. You bring up the most obvious answer to why that's that seems also
very unlikely here. Because if in fact her car was incapacitated at all, where is it?
Where is it? Just like the officer says that the people disappear. Cars usually turn up eventually. Right.
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Just click on that listen button. Until tomorrow. Everybody be good, be kind, and don't litter.
Hey.

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-926rj-bb79d3

Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 1 /// 326 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com Next week will mark the ten year anniversary of the disappearance of 29 year old mother and nurse Toni Sharpless. Almost ten years have gone by and there is no trace of her - Or is there? This week, join us as we discuss the details of the night she was last seen and the strange events that occurred after. Beer of the Week - Speed Wobbles - Key Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5 A BIG thank you to this week’s sponsors - check it out! Getting in-shape is not just about losing weight. www.Noom.com/Garage - to start your trial today! www.Stamps.com click on the microphone and enter code GARAGE to get a special offer that includes a 4 week trial plus FREE postage and a digital scale! www.HelloFresh.com/Garage80 and use code GARAGE80 for $80 off your first month of Hello Fresh!

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Brief Summary

Tony Lee Sharpless vanished in 2009 after a night out, with no trace of her or her car ever found.

Key points

The Case of Tony Lee Sharpless. Exploring the life and struggles of Tony Lee Sharpless leading up to her disappearance.
Understanding Bipolar Disorder. A look into the challenges of diagnosing and managing bipolar disorder in Tony's life.
Tony's Disappearance. Tony Sharpless went missing after a night of partying, leaving her friend Crystal behind.
Search for Tony. A dive team discovers multiple cars in the Schuylkill River, raising hopes of finding Tony.
The Mystery of the Missing Car. Despite extensive searches, Tony's car remains unfound, raising questions about her disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

These are not dates or markers that they look forward to.

Reflecting on the pain of victims' families during celebrations.

4:29WatchAug 14, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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