Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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[Music] cry yeah yeah yeah yeah I want you to stay yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I want you to
[Music] stay a young mother Tracy sism goes missing seemingly Vanishing Into Thin Air later
her vehicle turns up under mysterious circumstances this case is not without Witnesses nor
evidence in fact some of the items found in Tracy's vehicle provide much concern
but could also provide some answers a strange mystery couple is linked to this cas case but are
overshadowed by a violent man then a body is found by pure happen stance in rural
Indiana The Remains are unidentifiable so decomposed that detectives cannot determine the gender of the
remains but detectives were convinced they were dealing with a homicide the body was wrapped in a quilt
and tossed into a wooded Ravine someone discarded this individual out there in the Woods like garbage who
could do such a thing and why now it's 17 years later and this case is still unsolved this is true crime garage and
this is the case of Tracy [Music] cisem yeah I want you to St yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah [Music] I let's go back to Thursday October 7th 2004 this week's True Crime Story takes
us to a rural area of the great hoer state Indiana today we will be starting off in Brown County Indiana near the
Bartholomew County Line Brown County is in the southern portion of Indiana but Brown County is pretty much in the
center of the state on this Thursday we have a man named Pete Jones driving on Nelson Ridge Road East of the town of
nbone that's an ominous sounding Town name it was nighttime and it was dark suddenly his heart jumped as a deer
leapt into the road he slammed on his brakes his time Screech as the brakes locked up but it was too late deer
versus truck is never good for the vehicle or the deer the two collided with a loud crash the truck came to a
stop and the deer somehow managed to run off Pete was shaken and stirred cautiously he drove off glancing around
to make sure there were no more oncoming bambies when he got home he got out of his truck and he realized that one of
his running lights was missing of course it must have come off in the Collision he decided mainly because these lights
are $75 a piece he would be going back during daylight hours in hopes that he could recover the missing running light
and that it would be in working order when he locates it so the very next day Friday October 8th Pete drove back to
the area where he thought he had hit the deer looking for the car part so he could possibly have it reattached
matched he parked so he could get out on foot and look around for this missing piece but just as soon as he got out of
his truck he noticed a foul odor and his first thought was that of the deer but quickly he thought to himself that
smells like Decay and a deer could not have decayed that quickly now here's one of those heart stopping life-changing
moments Pete saw something unusual lying in the Ravine next to the road and it was not his truck light that he was
hoping to find this was something large wrapped up in some kind of blanket when he opened it to take a look and wished
that he had not he saw death because unfortunately it was a very badly decomposed body rolled up in a quilt and
tossed into the wooded area along the roadside the authorities were called in immediately because the call came in
from a location so close to the the county line officers from both Brown and Bartholomew counties arrived on the
scene and worked the scene together yeah I think I would have just called law enforcement I don't think I would have
had the guts to open up the blanket what we have here is basically an unidentifiable murder victim the county
officers know that immediately this person did not kill themselves then roll themselves up in a quilt and get to that
wooded area but what happens here Captain is that the remains are so badly decomposed in such a advanced stage of
decomp that the detectives from the sheriff's department can't make out the gender of the victim or an age so not
much really to go on as far as the initial investigation goes the body was removed and taken off to the Brown
County morg the scene was roped off and secured and again officers from both jurisdictions blocked off the road and
and scour the scene for any possible evidence that they could find now I'm playing devil's advocate here Captain
when I say this but I've seen some photographs of this location where they recovered the body from and this is an
ideal location to dump a body this is as country road as it gets Brown County only has about 15,000 residents for the
entirety of the county which is 216 square miles well you're saying this body is very badly
decomposed what makes you think that they think it's a homicide because it could be like an accidental death or
maybe even a overdose where somebody then takes the body and dumps it out into the woods those are all certainly
possibilities but what everything that is going to point to for the detectives is they know somebody else knows
something mhm somebody out there placed this body in this location how the person person died
could be a mystery and is a mystery at this point in our timeline but we know somebody put them there now baralu
county is much more populated with about 72,000 residents back in 2004 for 49 square miles but that is still not a lot
of people so you have this area where there's not really anybody living in the immediate area and not a whole lot of
people that live in either County but this Nelson Ridge Road is as said very country I'm talking no
street lights no signage there's Woods on both sides of the road so if you needed to dispose of something or wish
that you could do it under the cover of Darkness that sort of thing could easily
be achieved at this location the other part of it too Captain is that one might expect something to sit there and go
undetected for a good amount of time as well is this a road that people would travel often or is this some place that
maybe only locals would know this is a road that's kind of by the wayside that you wouldn't you wouldn't need to travel
this road if you were just passing through the area right the other thing you can jump off the interstate and it
hit real quickly correct and the other thing too is there's no reason there's nothing on this road in this location
that would make anybody want to stop there right there's not even a stop sign placing something here
is good for the offender or for whoever needs to dump this body because a if you
were doing this at night time you could see headlights off in the distance right
you would have minutes notice not seconds minutes notice that somebody will be coming your way soon and so you
could stop what you're doing or move on and again there's no reason to stop in this location so if you're looking for
something to go unfound this is where you put it you lose it right here and hope nobody ever
finds it m now we said that the body was taken to the Brown County morg but the autopsy was actually performed at the
University of Indiana's School of Medicine forensic pathology division in Indianapolis try saying that three times
fast now here is what they were able to determine our victim is a female victim between the ages of 25 and 30 5 and
remained unidentified after the autopsy detectives released that the victim had a tattoo of a chain with a flower
located toward the back of the victim's ankle adding that they were looking at all of the missing person files
throughout the entire United States but so far have not been able to determine the identity for a second I thought
you're going to say the victim had a tattoo of a chainsaw I thinking that's a pretty badass tattoo chainsaw tattoo two
sales just went way up way up they were asking law enforcement was asking if the
public you know if they knew anything about this case or know someone with a similar tattoo that they could call the
Indiana State Police they included the following statement in the request for information from the public that because
of the manner in which the body was found detectives believe the woman was killed somewhere else and dumped at this
location prosecutor Jim Oliver said quote in most murder investigations detectives work really hard in the first
36 hours to solve the crime our investigators are frustrated with not having many leads to follow up at this
point end quote that statement was made to the Brown County Democrat newspaper editor Linda marginson 5 days after the
body was found so as we already knew but the prosecutor confirming the detectives
would work around the clock trying to get evidence and leads for the first 36 hours of their
investigation but here we have five days into this homicide and because of the nature of the case it sounds like we
have some evidence but no leads to move on and have an unidentified female homicide victim yeah all the evidence
they have is coming from the autopsy or coming from the scene in which they found the body now for us Captain we
don't have the autopsy report and frustratingly authorities have never released the cause of death here in this
case the body in the blanket was that of a young woman but she could not be identified we don't know how long the
Emy believed her to have been dead but based on the advanced level of deom we would say probably quite a while and
investigators were not certain how long the body had been lying in the wooded area where it was found although one AP
Associated Press article citing Brown County prosecutor Jim Oliver said that it had been there for up to8 weeks okay
so we know that she was found on October 8th and been there for possibly up to8 weeks as the prosecutors saying in this
article which would mean roughly August 14th 2014 so these remains wrapped in a blanket were placed
there as early as August 14th 2004 well like you said this is a tough scenario for law enforcement because they don't
have a lot to go on it's not like there's been a missing girl in the area for years and they go oh this is
probably her they don't have a lot to go off of and even after you find the body
Captain you know that whomever placed the victim there now has had some time to cover their own tracks you've not
been able to identify the victim you can't check on the victim's Inner Circle can't find out where the victim came
from obviously you find your victim in Brown County if you don't have anybody that matches a vague description missing
from your county you know you're going outside of of your box there immediately and and like you said there's if they
had any leads they're drying up real quick based off of the victim not being able to be identified as well as the
prosecutor saying the the victim could have been at this site for up to8 weeks well but they also did leave something
behind that is identifiable the blanket there could be some fibers or some DNA left or even pet hair so
that is a mistake that maybe the killer did make I'm wondering if this individual or the people that place the
victim there I'm guessing that they thought that the body would remain there for quite some time before somebody
found it yeah now this would have been late fall we've said this on the show plenty of times because it's just one of
the hardcore facts of True Crime that spring is typically when bodies are found in wooded areas this is because
Hunters go out after the winter The Long Winter short winter whatever kind of winter you have and that's when they
start going out walking these country areas and that's usually typically when something's found so had this guy not
hit this deer and lost a light there's a chance in my mind anyway that they wouldn't have found this body for
several more months well he also becomes a suspect that's true for a short period
of time I I would assume that they would start with him and go well was he just telling us this as a ruse so now let's
go figure out where he was what's his Alibi yeah at the very least show me some damage to your truck yeah because
you're you're right Captain that's that's the first thing you got to hone in on as an investigator you're going
okay well this guy has he found the body so he put himself at the dump scene why
was he there yeah nobody again this is a spot where nobody really has a reason to
be in this location so why was he there I'm sure he would have been looked at what we do know about the cause of death
which as we have said has never been addressed publicly well we know that this case was treated as a homicide very
quickly and right after the medical examiner viewed the body now per the Northwest Indiana Times Brown County
prosecutor Jim Oliver said investigators were treating the case as a homicide although the body had not been
identified at that point quote I don't think there's much doubt Foul Play was involved here end quote that's what
Oliver said okay so it was evident to someone presumably the medical examiner that this woman was murdered that she
was a murder victim and even though the cause of death has never been released and Insider in the case told us that the
cause of death is listed on the death certificate as strangulation so the ways that this
could be evident on a badly decomposed corpse is if there was some kind of ligature still on the body or marks in
the flesh from a ligature or if the hyoid bone was broken which usually results from a violent choking but like
you said the body is so badly decomposed how did they go about trying to identify
her right because that's your number one concern that's your first objective here
to hopefully get an ID on the victim now Brown County authorities looked into missing persons reports within the
county but no missing person's report had been filed in the county that matched the
description of this female victim that they found so they reached out to other nearby
jurisdictions they provided a description of the body as a young white female with dark hair in a tattoo still
visible despite the deom and as we stated earlier the prosecutor described that tattoo as a chain around the right
ankle with a rose or some kind of flower on the back of the ankle the other interesting thing though here captain
and this is something that we just don't see law enforcement do very often but something you brought up which is an
interesting angle and one that I'm curious as to why th this angle is not pursued more often you mentioned that
one thing that should be more easily identifiable if it crosses the right person's eyes would be that quilt right
they keep describing this thing as a quilt not a blanket quilt to me is like handmade passed down throughout the
years maybe grandma made it maybe your favorite aunt made it usually these are family type items yeah sometimes made
from articles of clothing that the family owned the captain is quite the quilt maker everyone should know that
but again we don't see law enforcement do that very often do we where they let's take a picture of this quilt and
there there's probably reasons why we just don't know what they are are but I question that from time to time when you
seem to be so desperate to to ID this body you think you'd be pulling out all the stops here and and post pictures of
that uh put it on the news in the newspapers and what have you well we had a handmade curtains that they found at
the scene of Amy mic's death they didn't release that information for years yeah
almost felt like a lifetime between the time that she was found and when they showed us pictures of the curtain mhm
well finally captain on October 15th a missing person's report came into the Indiana State Police or ISP for short
this report came from the police department in Indianapolis a woman named Tracy sandin storm sism was reported
missing in Indianapolis the missing woman fit the description of the body found in Brown County Tracy's dental
records were obtained from her family and sent over to the Indiana State Police it's not at all clear why it took
such a long time to definitively ID the body because eventually that's what happens we we are going to ID the body
as this Tracy system but it was not until December 17th that an announcement was made by
the Indiana State Police this is the lead invest investigator on the case Chris fears that indeed the body they
recovered from the woods was Tracy sism Tracy was just 33 years old when she was
killed detective fears learned that Tracy had last been seen on September 20th in
Indianapolis so this fits the timeline of the body that had been there for up to 8 weeks but September 20th is the
last day that she was seen and I have other information that we will we will go into as we go along here and based on
that information I believe she was killed on or very near the date of the last time that she was seen September
20th is a little more recent than I had expected based off of the quote up to 8 weeks comment now back to something real
quick before we move on the missing person's report was sent by the Indianapolis Police Department to to the
Indiana State Police on October 15th it turned out per the Indiana Star newspaper that Tracy's family reported
her missing the day after she was last seen so September 21st so this missing person's report
wasn't really connecting to anything until nearly a month later but for some unknown reason her missing person's
report was not connected to the body found on October 8th until at least a week after it was found part of that
could be though Captain it seems like the the hard push to release some information in this case and to tell the
world that we found a body that we cannot ID didn't really come about until about 5 days after they found the body
so that would account for some of that time but again it was not proven to be Tracy for another two months there's
clearly a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes here that we just don't know about and a lot of time was wasted due
to delays and lack of communication in this [Music] case yeah yeah [Music] I this show is sponsored by better help
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[Music] 2023 from the east coast to the West Coast cheers everybody and cheers to you the
crispiest cheers to you Captain cheers to the people in the back I have a quick announcement here I have an event coming
up raising some money for the Ohio history connection and for the porch light project as well Thursday August
26th is the date the event is called uncovering Ohio cold cases a conversation with myself and James rener
this is a webinar so an online event so wherever you are and whoever can attend simply by purchasing a ticket and you
can purchase a ticket at ohiooh his.org again that is Thursday August 26 and ticket information is at ohiooh his.org
so be there or B Square b square and be there we don't care mhm all right Captain this case takes place in 2004
the Tracy system case and as we said it takes quite a while for them to even identify the victim I will say that I'm
a little surprised at the how recently she had last been seen right the body's discovered on October 8th and she's
reported missing on the 21st of September as having been seen the day before September 20th and I'm just
basing this off of the prosecutor statement of well the body could have been there up to 8 weeks that makes me
think that the me or or on that day when the body is discovered when they are first looking at the body in the scene
they're going okay well we're seeing a level of decomposition here that shows us probably that the victim's been dead
for 6 weeks maybe up to eight and really we have a situation here where it was just a few weeks between the last time
that she was seen that she was alive and well and then later found dead in this wooded area
you wonder if the body was stored or kept somewhere for some period of time that may have
increased the decomposition on the body or I didn't get a chance to check into this or look it up maybe it was a
particularly hot few weeks there late that summer going into fall and that could have increased it as well there
could be any number of factors there but uh it's it's curious to me but once they
have the identification of the body and they know it's Tracy Cas just sits there
for about 2 years yeah this is going to bring us to about 2006 on our timeline here and I'm sure that there well I
shouldn't say that I'm sure I know that there was a lot of stuff going on behind
the scenes just nothing that made the news so no real news coming out for about 2 years this until the Indiana
star reported that family members have many unanswered questions but they are not getting many answers from the
Indiana State Police investigators are closely guarding many of the clues detectives did not tell the family how
Tracy sism died but insisted that the death was in fact a homicide not even the family was told
the official cause of death of the young woman in the quilt according to the article this is I mean not only did you
lose a loved one but you you naturally have so many questions when somebody dies or in this cases
murdered at such a young age but now you have a situation where you've not only lost that person and you have that giant
hole in your heart but hell you got kind of a hole in your head too because you got no answers to go along with what
happened to to your daughter or your sister yeah it makes you wonder if because she was found like in a
different location if law enforcement's just not taking it as serious as they should I think they were I think this
probably a situation where it's just it might be complicated right it might be a
complicated investigation yeah I'm just saying as the family you're you're sitting there going and and we don't
know what kind of communication law enforcement is having with the family how because in some of these cases like
Deli it seems like they're very open and letting the family in a little bit as far as what investigation tactics
they're using so we don't know what kind of communications happening between law
enforcement and the family this is true and in this case we have the Indiana State Police as well that we're talking
about in Tracy systems case so let's go and get to know our victim a little better shall we because that's the first
step in trying to get a lead on this thing so who was Tracy Tracy Sandlin storm sism was born on December 27th
1970 she was a lifelong native of Indianapolis a city that you and I have been to many
times Captain a great City Tracy graduated from how high school in 1989 when she died she left behind her
parents Rebecca and John her sister Shelly and her brother John Jr she also left behind an ex-husband and an
estranged husband and three children all of whom lived in Indianapolis according
to her obituary Tracy was a member of Holy Spirit Catholic Church and owned and operated Sugar Creek Rottweilers
where she bred and cared for her show dogs Tracy had a great love of animals obviously and worked with several
veterinarians throughout her life Tracy got married when she was young and had two girls in quick succession her
husband Richard storm filed for a divorce in October of 2000 and the divorce was granted in
December of 2001 Richard and Tracy were awarded joint custody of their girls by the
Hancock Circuit Court meanwhile during the whole divorce proceedings Tracy got married again
getting hitched to a Michael system on January 25th 2003 then she gave birth to their son
Shane so at this point we have Tracy Michael her new husband baby Shane and Tracy's two girls sharing a house this
is the house that Tracy got in the divorce settlement from her first husband from that first marriage but
that living situation didn't last long by the time Tracy was reported missing in September of
2004 Michael and Tracy had split up and had been split up for quite some time and were estranged from one another all
right let's get into Tracy's disappearance there is minimal reporting about her appearance but what little
there is all says the same thing so this is all confirmed Tracy was last seen September 20th at 30th Street and Post
Road in the Far East Side neighborhood of Indianapolis this was an apartment complex where Tracy was living at the
time but she was in the process of moving out so she is there on this day September 20th to retrieve her
belongings because she is now moving in with her mother who also lived in Indianapolis on this day Tracy called
her mom around 7 p.m. and told her that she was gathering the last of her things
and that she would be home soon I've not been able to determine Captain if this call came from a landline or a cell
phone right she said that she would be home soon but she never arrived at the time Tracy was using her
father's 1995 Chevy blade to help her move her things the vehicle was also missing so when they noticed
that Tracy is missing they noticed that the vehicle is missing as well the vehicle is not found at Tracy's
apartment like you said she's moving away from her husband well she lived in the apartment by herself they had
already been separated for quite some time by this point mhm and she's moving back in with her mother now we have zero
information whatsoever on how and when Tracy's family discovered her missing status and noted that the Blazer was
also missing so we know that she spoke with her mom on the 20th and we know that the following day a missing
person's report was placed was made by her family right so sometime after 700 p.m. on that night and sometime the next
morning they probably decide hey she should have been here by now it's been overnight we're not only missing her
we're also missing the vehicle that was lent to her to help her move her things you also have to wonder too if they went
out there and presumably they did outso Tracy's apartment to look for her and the vehicle if they were able to access
the apartment maybe they're seeing things in there that's causing concern as well maybe you know when you hear
your loved one tell you hey I'm gathering up the last of my items and I'll be home soon well you could open up
that front door to the apartment and in the apartment tell you a different a different story yeah and it's a good
thing that they didn't hesitate to report her missing so that's the best that we can narrow down the actual time
of her going missing we know that she made that phone call on at 700 p.m. on the 20th we can't say for certain if
anyone in her family went to the apartment to look for her I presume that they did that's just natural reaction
that's what most people would do so you have to wonder if they did this Captain did they find the front door locked
unlocked uh did they find things still inside the apartment was there any sign of a confrontation or struggle those
answers to those questions we just don't have any any idea we do know that someone in her family reported her
missing on the day after she was last seen this again the 21st we also have no information on Tracy's cell phone or if
in fact she even had one it was 2004 so it seems likely that she would have had one if so and if the police were able to
obtain any helpful information on the cell phone we don't have any idea this is information that's not been released
to the public but all of the reporting on the story discusses where Tracy was last known to be so that is not a
question in this case we know that she was last reported to be at her apartment this information came from her mother
who said that Tracy called her from there if there was a cell phone and it showed that she was at some other
location after that time you'd think the family would have said so publicly when
they have spoken out about this case yeah I wonder what the family's feelings are about the ex-husband because that
obviously is the I think even though they were separated for a time period before this like you said she moved into
apartment by herself and now she's moving back home with her parents you go well I mean that's the number one person
you look at right and just with identifying the body identifying The Remains how quickly we see from there
being no leads to now all of a sudden here in the garage we can see these suspects start to emerge right they they
step out of the shadows and present themselves a little bit we have her first husband that she's been divorced
from for some time MH but there could be some kind of you got issue you got to look in that direction you have the most
recent husband who she was in the process of splitting up with and moving on in her life and then once you get to
know the victim and the victim's Inner Circle that may present some other options as far as suspects or Persons of
Interest go and then as you pointed out earlier you always have to consider the person who quote unquote found the body
yeah or the possibilities that Tracy was working on husband number three and who
would that individual be so right away Captain when she goes missing when Tracy goes missing there's no sign really no
clue as to where she could be for about two weeks but then we get the missing Chevy Blazer that she had borrowed turns
up on October 4th in the vicinity of lale and Michigan Avenues so this is before the
unidentified body that we later learned would be Tracy's remains is found this is a few days before before her body is
recovered so a deputy pulled the vehicle over or although it's not clear whether
he was actually on the lookout for it you know did we know she's reported missing we can assume that they reported
the vehicle missing as well but we're police actively looking for this vehicle we can't say that for certain so the way
this story goes is that this officer a deputy was going to pull over this Chevy Blazer
or attempting to pull over the vehicle anyway is what we should say here because per the Indiana
star a Maran County Sheriff's deputy spotted two unidentified people in the Blazer on the city's East Side the maale
driver made several abrupt turns and Lane changes before he and a female passenger ditched the vehicle in the 500
block of North Oakland Avenue and ran away so an unknown couple a man and a woman
are in this Chevy Blazer right the one that Tracy was baring from her father correct she's missing and the vehicle's
missing until this point and the maale is driving but before they could successfully pull over the
driver and and pull over the vehicle the driver makes some smooth Maneuvers and they're able to flee the vehicle before
the deputy could catch up to them now a partial box of ammunition was found on the back seat of the vehicle
this is according to the report says no fingerprints or other evidence were found in the vehicle said an Indiana
State Police spokesman but since we don't know the cause of death I mean this is great evidence to have once
you're doing the autopsy because if there is if she was killed by gunshot then the these were possibly uh the ammo
that was used well and that's not what you want to hear Too a partial box of am ammunition you want to hear a full box
of ammunition yeah just bottom still in the cellophan the Blazer was abandoned by a couple about 8 and 1 half miles
from Tracy's apartment and this is just one of those really weird things no one knows who the people in the Blazer were
or at least if Indiana State Police does know who they are they've never said that they we've identified these people
or we spoke to these people or we know who they are right another thing that was reported on but that we know very
little about according to the Indiana Channel I keep saying Indiana every time I see the word Indie so according to the
Indie Channel State Police Sergeant Jeff Deckard said one of the Sis's neighbors
reported seeing a suspicious vehicle this is interesting a neighbor reported seeing a dark SUV
or the sergeant just clarifying here or they thought it was an SUV we've not narrowed it down to a specific SUV or
even eliminated a pickup truck or even eliminated a pickup truck with a camper shell said Decker but again if anything
came of this we don't know so the old creepy camper yeah think about this Captain we this is what we know here we
know that leading up to finding Tracy's remains they spot the Chevy blazes who are being driven by two
unknown individuals who are able to successfully get away from the cops long enough to park and flee on
foot we don't know if they've ever identified those people and then we have this statement of well on the last day
that she was seen neighbors I want to it says a neighbor but I've seen some reports that
are similar to this and I wonder if it was more than one person because in other reports it says
neighbors uh reported seeing a suspicious vehicle and in describing it as a possibly a dark
SUV so it looks like someone either intercepted her after she left her apartment that night
with all of her things or somebody got a hold of her at the apartment yeah and we're not getting reports like you said
from the family to let us know that all her apartment was filled with her her belongings and so when they abducted her
or like you said intercepted her and the vehicle because you're also stating in the vehicle it's not like we're seeing
piles and piles of her belongings right but that doesn't mean that they didn't intercept her in a different location
and just dump all those materials somewhere the vibe I'm getting though with that ammunition that part box of
ammunition that's found on the back seat is that the family is probably telling law enforcement that that did not belong
to Tracy right cuz the way that they state that and we know how closely they've held information in this case
and what they've chosen to release and it's been very little but they chose to release that information well and you're
also because she's barring the vehicle you go well that ammunition didn't belong to Tracy and didn't belong to
Tracy his father correct and now you have to wonder okay well could we trace this ammunition back to a person because
if we could somehow create a paper trail to trace it back to a person that person
might be the one that's responsible for her death again I believe I firmly believe that she was killed either that
night or very soon uh after she went missing on the 20th this vehicle is not found until
October 4th so we have a situation here Captain where we have this weird unknown couple
driving it but also enough time has gone by that you could say there's a good chance that somebody
else may have been in possession of this vehicle at one point especially right after the
murder you have to wonder too would the killer have been Brazen enough to use the victim's
vehicle to move the body no he can use the term brazing or you could use the term stupid let's let's create a word
that's both um yeah you have to wonder but it doesn't seem like again it's a situation where the words that they're
choosing to tell us in this case make it sound like that might not be a suspicion
by investigators they they may have tried that angle and came up with nothing there's also been reports that
are similar to this that state that there were that that a little more in depth about the the fingerprints
remember we said the ammunition was found but there's no fingerprints found in or on this ammunition or in the
Blazer that they called into concern so was it wiped down was the vehicle wiped down or was it just whoever drove the
vehicle or moved the vehicle wasn't in it long enough to leave behind a whole lot of evidence you would expect to find
some evidence of Tracy having been in the vehicle at some point maybe that muddies the waters a little bit on
whether the body was moved in that vehicle but I'm just getting the I'm getting the vibe here captain that
that's probably not what happened in this case let's sum up that timeline a little bit so the listeners aren't
confused yeah cuz we were playing detective along the way as we were telling this
story Captain the way that this thing breaks down is just like this Tracy goes missing on September 20th that's the
last time that her family speaks with her that's the last time they know that she is safe and where she
should be the following day they make the police report they they filed the missing person's report it's 14 days
after Tracy was last scene that this Blazer that she was borrowing the Chevy Blazer is located 8 and 1 half miles
from Tracy's apartment Tracy sism her body is then located 4 days later her remains were found 70 mes from her
apartment and as we know she had been dead for long enough to be decomposed to the point that dental records were
required to ID her and that someone else was driving that Blazer after her [Music]
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join us back here in the garage until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music]
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visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

Tracy Sissom /// Part 1 /// 514

Part 1 of 2

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October 8, 2004 - Unidentifiable remains are recovered in a rural area of Brown County, Indiana. The body was found wrapped in a quilt and discarded in wooded ravine off of a remote country road. The Sheriff’s department announced that the body was found in a such a stage of decomposition that not only could they not successfully identify the remains they could not immediately determine the gender. Investigators began pouring over missing persons reports from the County, then state and the country. Join us in the Garage for a few cold ones as we unravel another Cold Case mystery.

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Brief Summary

Tracy Sism went missing in 2004; her body was found weeks later, leading to an unsolved murder investigation.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance of Tracy Sism. A young mother goes missing, leading to a shocking discovery years later.
A Gruesome Discovery. Pete Jones finds a decomposed body wrapped in a quilt after a deer accident.
Identifying the Victim. Tracy Sism's body is finally identified months after being found.
Missing Person's Report. Tracy's family reported her missing on September 21st, the day after she was last seen.
Family's Unanswered Questions. Tracy's family faced a lack of communication from law enforcement regarding her case.
Tracy's Disappearance Timeline. Tracy was last seen on September 20th, 2004, while moving out of her apartment.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Who could do such a thing and why?

The shocking nature of the crime.

5:32WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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