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

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[Music] 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 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
ten 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 [Music] [Music] Tony Lee sharpless was born on December
27 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 Tony's parents helped her as she worked
on the weekends as a nurse's aide and navigated nursing school everyone says Tony 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 Tony 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 seem 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 Tony was cycling between Mania and depression Tony entered a three-week stint in a
psych rehab facility in April of 2009 according to her family it was here that Tony 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 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
diagnose right away and start prescribing right away well at this point Tony was working as
an infectious disease nurse typically working a 12-hour night shift than coming home in the morning
things went smoothly for about four 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 antipsychotics 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. 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 at 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 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 deserves 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 Gigi Hayes told us that she spoke with Tony
that day and she believes Tony was clearly in or possibly entering a manic stage which
Gigi had seen and witnessed before she says that in those stages Tony would do very impulsive things
Gigi 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 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 crystals where the two got glammed up to go out Tony
wore black pants or tights and a turquoise top and sandals a 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 Gigi Crystal
was not a great influence for Tony that's that's Gigi's opinion she had serious reservations about Tony's
decision to go out with Crystal that night now the two young women went off to two
different clubs first they hit up Club Ice and King of Prussia which is in Lower Marion Township and then they
drove to G Lounge in Philly yeah G Lounge right that's where I get my swerve on it was here that they met up with Matt
Greene 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 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 Gladwin Pennsylvania this is about a 30 to 40 minute drive from where they are 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 one what's closing time there because closing time here is 2 A.M but well serving stops at 2 A.M and everyone
has to be out of the bar at 2 30. okay so same same as us Tony drove herself and Crystal in her black four-door 2002
Pontiac Grand Prix GT 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 a crystal categorically denies that either she or Tony did any drugs that
night so we'll give Crystal a 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 the normal trying to find this place because they didn't know where they're going they
went to H Lounge first that's right they had the circle background up to the M Lounge down to the Z yeah back to the a
found found themselves at the Jeep 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 Gladwin 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 seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars 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 John's 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 am this is while on these 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 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 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
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 and just pointing all that out I wasn't at the party I don't know exactly what went
down right when Willy 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 [ __ ] yo 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 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
and they You're Expecting the 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 Pictionary no I want to party she's asked to leave and
she you 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 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 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 with having some times in her life where she was abusing alcohol and
and you know 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 if 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 I don't want to uh pretend like I'm I'm better than anybody I was actually thinking about this on my way here 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 everybody should have the right to let their hair down a little bit
foreign [Music] [Music] 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
now 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 and 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 six 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 and all the
reports that there were two calls that took place and they occurred six 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 the crystal
story uh I don't know if it makes a whole lot of sense to me right so she told what
was that well I'm gonna 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 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 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
and 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 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 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 end it up in a hospital neither was the case Crystal called the
West Brandywine PD around 9pm 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 her daughter was her whole world and she never would have left her
now the family told officer more 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 five foot five
inches tall 135 pounds auburn hair blue and gray eyes last scene 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 bow Barn Drive in Gladwin 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 Tony 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 Tony 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 SKU kill River a Sharp 90 degree left turn onto River Road would have wound Tony along the
river and led right to the Flat Rock Park boat access ramp that could possibly be mistaken for a highway
on-ramp could Tony 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
it 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 guard rails 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 Marion Township Police Department
he said quote there are very few areas where you cannot find a guard rail or somebody's front lawn and 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 Marion Police Department did not see probable cause to search the
river so remember Tony's friend Gigi she contacted Texas equisearch 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 search and rescue team
yeah so Texas equiseearch was lined up by Gigi 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 feet deep at its
deepest points Texas equisearch 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 equisearch sonar continued to scan the river it found another anomaly on the riverbed
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
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 roughly know how
long these cars were in River four 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 not 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 that's not 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
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 so maybe you'd have to stop and get gas maybe nobody saw you to 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 eyewitness that came
forward or again maybe we 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 now I often wondered about this 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 is shut off we don't know that to be true so 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'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 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 a quarter of a tank roughly according to Tony she's I'm
sorry according to Crystal which is possibly impaired one she's impaired because she's tired she's impaired
because we know that she's at least had a couple drinks um we we don't know if she's on
medication or not but she could be an impaired either way she's not good with directions
[Music] phone might not be working and if it is she seems to be not know how to use the
GPS right and then she's in an 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 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
uh 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 a night 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 percent 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 uh Grand Prix GT was considered a
desirable Target for carjackers uh I could see that I'm not into boosting cars never have been uh
boosting yeah is that like a term for stealing yes um but it shows you how hip I am what
seems strange to me it's a seven-year-old Pontiac Pontiac owners out there but this is a
seven-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 no 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 seven years old the the aesthetic to these
cars um didn't date themselves so I I could see why they said that because this this was the type of car that it kind of
appealed to the the a younger crowd 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 carjacker 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
hotwire the vehicle something like that so I when I when I see these things and I see that uh media is saying that news
outlets saying that this is a desirable Target for carjackers I that's when I want to ask the person telling me that
information maybe lean carjacking or do you mean stealing a car because those are two completely completely different
things so I mean 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 uh 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 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 [Music] if you'd like to check out our old episodes make sure you download the
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thank you [Music]

Toni Lee Sharpless /// Part 1 /// 326

Part 1 of 2

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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

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Brief Summary

Tony Lee Sharpless vanished in 2009 after a night out, leaving behind unanswered questions and a mystery surrounding her disappearance.

Key points

The Case of Tony Lee Sharpless. Exploring the life and disappearance of Tony Lee Sharpless, who vanished ten years ago.
A Life of Struggles. Tony faced numerous challenges, including addiction and mental health issues, throughout her life.
A Night Out Gone Wrong. Tony's decision to go out with friends leads to a series of troubling events.
Tony's Disappearance. Tony Sharpless vanished after a night of partying, leaving behind unanswered questions.
Search for Tony. A search team discovers multiple cars in the river, but not Tony's.
The Dangerous Unknowns. The discussion reveals the potential danger zones Crystal could have ended up in.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Next week marks the 10-year anniversary of when Tony Lee Sharpless vanished.

Introduction to the case of Tony Lee Sharpless.

5:09WatchNov 21, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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