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

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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] each year as we venture through life
there are markers along our journey holidays birthdays and anniversaries these can be caused 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 love 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 10year 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 [Music] [Music] Tony Lee sharpless was born on December
27th 1979 her father was killed in an accident when she was just 6 years old later Tony's mother remarried so Tony
and her sister candy were raised by her mother instead stepfather in West Brandy
Wine Township an area of about 4,500 people West Brandy Wine is about 60 Mi 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 total 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 Aid 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 described Tony as a
brilliant woman who loved her job it seemed 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 3-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 order 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 MH 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 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 antis 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 three laps 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 pent
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 a a different layer to this now Saturday morning after getting off work Tony went
over to her sister candi's apartment remember they're very close these two sisters she hung out with candi'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 John's 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 sometime 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 MH 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 G 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 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 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 now 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 G'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 in King of Prussia which is in
lower Marian Township and then they drove to G Lounge in Philly yeah G Lounge right that's where I get my swe
on it was here that they met up with Matt Green MH 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 while 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 sto 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 6 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 point what's
closing time there cuz 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 oh okay so they're 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 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 than normal trying to find this place cuz they
didn't know where they going they went to H Lounge first that's right they had to circle back around up to the M Lounge
down to the Z back to the a found found themselves at the G ski 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
glad wine 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 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 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 a.m. this is while on
the on the Skool 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 F friend figured out the GPS right mhm right but 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 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 T 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 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 paulling a Rick James yeah that [ __ ] y' couch this
Behavior was out of character for T 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 mhm and they You're Expecting the party and they pull
out taboo give me a break yeah yeah I I again I don't know what was going on but but when she says
that Pictionary no I want a 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 the drinking
alone you know with 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 well
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 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 [Music] bit this show is sponsored by better
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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 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 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 453 a.m. and 459 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 story uh I don't know if it makes a
whole lot of sense to me mhm right so she told why 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 she said she was scared
she was alone she felt abandoned on the the road yet she's within just a couple blocks of of the party that she just
left now mind you according to Crystal 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 is 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 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 Brandy Wine 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 brand wine 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 Moore that Tony had plans on Monday to take her daughter to a state par 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 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' 5 in tall
135 lbs auburn hair blue and gray eyes last scen 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 boar 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 along the skook
hill River a sharp 90° 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 onramp mhm could Tony have driven her
car off the boat ramp and into the river now even if she didn't the row 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 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 Maran Township Police Department he said quote there are very few areas where you
cannot find a guard rail 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 Maran Police Department did not see
probable cause to search the river so remember Tony's friend Gigi she contacted Texas Equis search 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 top-of-the-line search company that was founded by a victim's father search and rescue team
yeah so Texas equa search was lined up by gii and this was all scheduled and arranged by gii 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 Equis 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 Equis search 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 school kill River off of that boat ramp wow 11 cars were down there 11 i'
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 do you roughly know how long these cars were in
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 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
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 oh okay and so these all of these vehicles
could have been put there by the same person or the same group okay 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 and her car
for her phone and that we would get some kind of cell phone ping from her just moving areas you like
you said it's 30 some minutes away mhm 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 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 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 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 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 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 quarter of a tank roughly according to
Tony she's or I'm sorry according to Crystal she's 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 MH um we we don't know if she's on medication or not
but she could be impaired either way she's not good with directions phone might not be working
and if it is she seems to be might not know how to use the GPS right and in 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 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 Chrystal 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 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 um 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% 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 boost yeah is that like a term for
stealing boost okay yes um but shows you how hip I am what seems strange to me it's a seven-year-old
Pontiac no offense to the 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 7 years old the the aesthetic
to these cars um didn't date themselves mhm so I I could see why they said that cuz
this this was the type of car that 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 car
jacking 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 hotwire the vehicle something like that so I when I when I see these things and and I see that uh media
saying that uh 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 do you mean carjacking or do you mean stealing a car cuz those are two
completely completely different things so you 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 of town or did she end up out in
the middle of nowhere 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 that 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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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, raising questions about her mental health and the circumstances of her disappearance.

Key points

The Impact of Life's Markers. Reflecting on how anniversaries and celebrations can be painful for victims' families.
The Disappearance of Tony Lee Sharpless. Next week marks the 10-year anniversary of Tony's mysterious disappearance.
Tony's Struggles with Mental Health. Tony's journey through addiction and mental health challenges shaped her life significantly.
Uncertainty in Communication. Questions arise about the authenticity of Tony's last text to her daughter.
The Night of the Party. Tony's behavior at Willie Green's party raises questions about her state of mind.
Tony's Disturbing Behavior. Tony's actions at the party raise concerns about her mental state and decisions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

These markers along Life's Highway are not only something we welcome but look forward to.

Reflecting on life's milestones and their significance.

4:18WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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