Veronica Blumhorst /// Part 2 /// 426 | Forensic Files

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Veronica is missing scene and pretty quickly we have a very suspicious suspect in her boyfriend Jeff well where
we left off Veronica Bloomer has been missing for 14 years by this point the mandota police department gave
Veronica's family access to her case File and in that file it contained a report that Veronica's boyfriend Jeff in
an interview made strange statements and threw out some concerning hypotheticals
mhm that basically added up to Veronica was hurt and killed and placed somewhere
that no one would find her and there were reasons why Jeff could be responsible for this again this is
Jeff's statements after hours of being interviewed with no recording of any kind to back any of this up and all in a
report written after the interview and the case File report went on to state that according to people who knew Jeff
after Veronica vanished that Jeff voiced two theories he liked to share about what had happened to Veronica the first
was that he thought maybe she went to track down her birth parents and they were not happy about this and they did
something to her the second theory was that perhaps an ex-boyfriend had hurt her because he was jealous and the ex
decided if he couldn't have her no one could this is all a bit strange to me here Captain because let's let's pretend
for a second that Jeff is perfectly innocent the theories don't seem to be they don't seem to carry water very well
do they like the first one of her tracking down her birth parents again I'm getting the impression time and time
again with Veronica that she is an open book her family knew what she was up to what she was into her co-workers were
always told what her plans were yeah and question who took her to find her parents she left her car like if her car
was gone maybe that's somewhat of a plausible Theory but you also leave at 1 a.m. in the morning to go find your
birth parents just doesn't make a lot of sense right poor timing and to top that
off look maybe she didn't want to hurt her parents her adopted parents' feelings
for whatever reason but again this is a unique situation where she has an older sister who's adopted as well she could
have bounced this idea off of her and they were close and I don't see why she wouldn't and then to take it a step
further why would the parents decide to hurt her and do something terrible to her yeah makes no sense wouldn't you
just say go away you know we don't we don't have any life with you mhm um you know that so that doesn't seem seem to
carry much water but then you do have the ex-boyfriend Theory maybe that is something that that Jeff was was right
about well this okay so the story goes that she dated this police officer he became
Chief and they only went on a few dates and he was kind of possessive and was also like saying well maybe you should
wear this outfit or wear these types of clothes so it it ended as quickly as it began so and there's no evidence that
after they broke up that this guy was in the picture anymore right right so I do like the
theory of maybe an X or something of that nature but again then you have to wonder is this just Jeff coming up with
alternative theories that do not involve him being the bad guy mhm but he also came up with some theories that he is
the bad guy well maybe I thought she was pregnant maybe I pushed her maybe I hit
her uh so much so that they looked at his family's property mhm they did not find anything now I believe that Jeff
took a lie detector at some point yes he did so what we have here with the possibility of any of Veronica's exes
according to her family she did not date anyone as seriously as she did Jeff and
remained friendly with most of the guys that she was no longer seeing three guys
in fact were interviewed they all had aliis and two passed lie detector test from what I could find the investigators
considered Jeff the target of their investigation from what we have been able to gather Jeff agreed to take a lie
detector test the results have not been released to the public but Veronica's father said in an interview that Jeff
failed miserably yeah he did as well as OJ did police conducted a search of Jeff's
family's property they followed him on a daily basis before too long Jeff lawyered up and stopped cooperating with
police he has made only one public statement which was quote I have been told not to say anything end quote in
September of 1991 so more than a year after Veronica disappeared MH police dogs searched Lee
County Farmland that was owned by the vevera family on Maytown Road with kadav dogs but again found nothing yeah
because Jeff stopped talking to police and nothing has been found that connects him to Veronica's disappearance he has
never been charged or even named as a suspect or a person of interest at the public level right but he also hasn't
been cleared so I think that's something now a lot of people go hey big red flag
he failed this test we don't know obviously if that's true I think if there was information given to the
father and he's saying that he failed I believe that seems like the father's a standup guy but the red flag for the
family is that he lawyered up now I'm actually going to go against the family on this one because we have an
individual that had an accident has issues with memory loss he seems obviously a little unhinged by the whole
situation to the point where he is actually making up scenarios that don't involve him but making up
scenarios that do involve him at some point you have to protect this individual if this is your family member
well right and if the hours long interview again I take a lot of what I've been told was said in that
interview with a grain of salt but if maybe the hours long interview unnerved him so much that either he's guilty and
he lawyered up or he's perfectly innocent and he's just feeling like I'm really uncomfortable they're trying to
put this thing on me I need to protect myself and I do want to Champion something you said uh just a minute ago
in regards to the father's comments about Jeff and his lie detector and failing miserably I I feel like you feel her
father seems to be a standup guy a very honest guy he does not strike me as the type of person to say something just to
say something he doesn't strike me as the type of person to say something unless he believed it 100% to be true
and as you pointed out in yesterday's episode he had friends he knew some people at the police department he was
very likely behind closed doors told that information and he's saying this years
and years after the fact he doesn't even strike me as the type of dude that is saying it just to throw Jeff under the
bus no so I absolutely believe that if Jeff in fact failed it that that information
probably found its way to Veronica Father Paul and he's saying it decades later in an interview well in a normal
situation I'd say cuz I like Li detectors I know we can't use them in court but I like it I think it gives us
a a barometer so I don't think we've used the word deduce yet which I think we by
law because we're a true crime podcast we have to use the word deduce but what we can deduce from this also is or what
you you can't deduce from it is what is his capability of passing the test anyways if he has shortterm memory loss
issues because of his accident yeah and not only has he not been cleared as you said but it also appears that he became
the focus of their investigation and remained the focus of their investigation for many many years to
come mhm the case File also reflects a police theory of what they believe might have happened to Veronica in which it
says that she got into a vehicle with someone she knew person unnamed some type of argument ensued and she got
pushed from the vehicle suffering a fatal or near fatal injury and then the driver of the car then hid her body in a
panic mhm it's weird that they come up with that theory not because it's unlikely
but because it also kind of Echoes some of the things that officer John P was saying he was able to pull from Jeff
during his interview naturally police also looked at anyone who could have followed
Veronica home from work that night to see whether someone else could have harmed her I think we're going to get to
the G that I got a little gut feeling about female employees at the Super Value told investigators that a guy who
tended to loiter inside the store and flirt with female employees may have been in the Super Value that evening
during Veronica's shift Sharon vaner Veronica's friend said this guy often came in between 9 and 11:00 p.m. two to
three times a week and he rarely bought anything other than something small and cheap like a pack of
gum most of his time in the store was spent talking to female employees this obviously including Veronica he creeped
out the women who worked there this guy also bragged to the female workers that he was an EMT or some type of security
guard cops looked at this guy I could not find his name but obviously they know who he is but he is said to have
had an alibi for the evening of September 19th and 20th yeah but here's what I don't like about this this is
also a guy that's rumored I don't know if he found this but he they're like well we don't know where he was at that
night but there was Rumors by the the people that she worked with Veronica's co-workers that say that the guy came in
the next night asking about her and stating which movie she rented the night before
how how would he know that if he wasn't in there that the night before right and or let's say maybe he
was in there the night before mm but maybe his Alibi his Alibi only needs to be good from 1:07 a.m. and on MH so he
could have been in the store before maybe they had that conversation I'm with you I don't think it's very likely
that that conversation took place I think it's suspicious that he would know that she rented a movie one and be
so inclined to even say what the name of the movie was well not only did he have a history
of talking to you know people in the store a extensive history of talking with Veronica mhm and I think she had
such a nice demeanor that she this individual probably didn't creep her out she probably enjoyed a little bit of the
attention or maybe just thought he was being friendly the other thing that's tricky too is I've heard people say that
he was going into the store two or three or more times a week up until The Disappearance of Veronica and afterward
he really backed down on the number of times that he was going into the store on a weekly basis right which would lead
you to believe that the motivation for going into the store was Veronica mhm be it good or bad
police also questioned an 18-year-old man who stopped at Super Value on September 19th this to pick up a few
items Veronica was his cashier he checked out at 11:49 p.m. this guy told police that while in the store he heard
Super Value employee Jason stepanich also 18 years old telling Veronica he'd be back to pick her up at
the end of her shift but both the customer this this is a confusing part in the story so I need to
to follow along with me here everyone out there in listener land but both the customer and Jason denied that this ever
happened okay so Frankly Speaking here Veronica had her own car at work we know that nobody's
arguing that at all why would she need any one to pick her up at all it doesn't make any sense the customer said in the
Jim Hagerty series series that this is absolutely not true he never told the police any of this so this is just some
madeup report that they have he says he says I'm guessing they fabricated that into the report because I never said
that there was nobody else in the store besides two employees and me when I checked out I don't even know who that
is referring to Jason stepanic that we mentioned earlier right Jason for his part admitted talking to Veronica but
denies telling her he would return for her to pick her up MH both of these men you like the lie detector test both of
these men took polygraph test and were later cleared okay per the police report it
says quote Jason stated that he did talk to her but does not remember saying anything like that mhm so this doesn't
really help clear anything up these potential suspects did not go anywhere and failed to lead to any clues about
what happened to Veronica the problem I have with this statement is you have police saying in the case File this
customer overheard another employee say to Veronica he would return later to pick her up and then you have both of
those individuals going on the record and telling the media and the blumer family that no neither one of I didn't
say that I heard this employee say that he was going to pick her up and the employee says I never told Veronica I
was going to pick her up why is that in the police report why is that in the case File when both of these Witnesses
say this did not happen I have a word for you can you say conspiracy it makes me question the
interview with Jeff even more is there somebody adding or manipulating things that go into the file for their own
benefit well hold on the reason why I I do not like how it went down with Jeff and how
they you know sat down days after and said let's write down those statements that he made that doesn't work for me
but we also have people talking and saying that they they talked to Jeff and he was coming up with theories and even
putting himself into those theories so it doesn't seem like they fabricated the whole idea well we need to be clear here
because that the people are saying the theories that he presented to them did not include Jeff as being having carried
that out oh see I I thought there were some people saying that he wasn't making full theories but he
was saying what if I got mad at her and pushed her or what if those were the theories that he told to the police
interview so those were never told to other people cuz I from what we just reviewed it's it's he told police
according to the police file again according to the police file he told officer John P in that closed door
interview a hypothetical that he could have killed Veronica in an argument and maybe it that she was pregnant or maybe
she wasn't right it was several different versions of that same story but the people in the case File that are
cited as saying Jeff is spouting off theories about what happened to Veronica he's not including himself
right I I thought I heard from her family that he was maybe not given full theories but it was maybe we got in an
argument or maybe I did pick her up I I thought that was said to the family but I I could be mistaken on that it's
difficult because we later have the statements of another individual and I believe that they remain nameless but uh
we we'll continue through that before we get into that I just want to talk about
the difficulty of collecting DNA in a case like this if you recall Veronica was adopted
by the bloom Hurst she was not in contact ever with her birth parents and neither were Paul and Betty Veronica's
adopted parents in the interest of having Veronica's DNA on hand in case a body was found and for evidentiary
purposes should there be suspect investigators collected some of her personal items from her parents as we
shall see that did not go as planned and after time passed the availability of Veronica's DNA was significantly
decreased as items that she definitely came in contact with were harder to come by attempts were made by authorities to
unseal Veronica's adopted adoption papers but the Catholic charity that handled the adoption refused okay so
what does this mean there's a couple different versions of the story whether the parents willingly gave this stuff to
police and investigators or if the police collected It Whatever nobody is arguing that they had it that the police
had it forget about how it was obtained but they all agree that police had items
that could have contained Veronica's DNA very likely could have contained her DNA
yeah one of the things that the father did was he took their bed sheets her bed sheets and gave it to police so what we
learned after all this time is that those items have magically disappeared yeah and this is where it
gets a little tricky for me is they claim well we moved buildings and that's how we probably
lost it I think these are good cops years later trying to come up with the explanation
of what the bad cops did because they would have been moved out of that one building it would have
all been sorted out by the time she went missing so I think it's good cops looking back on going how how do we not
have these bed sheets and evidence well it must have been when we're moving stuff from this building to that
building and things probably got lost what that means at the end of the day is they do not have her DNA on file mhm
so if a body who is that has been hidden for 30 years is recovered or a body that
was hidden for 5 years 25 years ago and and uncovered if they cannot look at the
remains and go yep that's Veronica there is no DNA to test to confirm if it is her or not that's a very big problem for
this investigation now let's go to the glass half full end of it and report this it
has been stated that Veronica had extensive dental work which could be used to identify her but that means her
skull has to be found the records have been added to the National Database so we do have dental records for Veronica
again no DNA which really freaking [Music] stinks this show is sponsored by better
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[Music] [Music] today all right we're back cheers you filthy animals we've touched on the frustrating
lack of evidence in Veronica's case no evidence to lead investigators directly to a suspect this case went cold and
remained so for years and years decades really M despite the lack of movement Veronica's brother Todd continued to
campaign to find his sister he created a website dedicated to her and started the
Facebook page that gathers information and has directly challenged the manner in which the investigation was conducted
he also engineered searches of the nature preserve and other areas unfortunately Todd died in
2013 from a rare genetic cancer he died believing that the boyfriend Jeff killed
his older sister and never giving up his fight to find her Todd's mission to find
Veronica has been taken up by family friend Doug truckenbrod who was designated the bloom Hurst family
spokesperson here's where the case gets interesting Doug lived across the street
from the Bloomer as a kid and Doug is in some ways also a potential witness perr
the Rockford Advocate the day after Veronica went missing Doug recalled vividly something he had observed the
day before at around 11:45 p.m. on September 19th 1990 Doug was on his way to his third shift job at RNR Donnelly
when he pulled into a gas station there he noticed an SUV with a camouflage paint job and a logo indicating it was a
security vehicle for Wood Haven Lakes a camping resort which was about 12 miles away at that moment he didn't think much
of it when Veronica vanished Doug became fascinated with the case as many did in
the small town he says quote I was talking to my mom about the boyfriend and she mentioned his dad that he was
the head of security at woodh Haven end quote this is what doug told Jim Hagerty
Doug pointing out that the presence in town of the security vehicle on the very night Veronica was last seen and the
connection of the vehicle to remote property accessible by the Vera family mhm Doug reported the sighting of the
vehicle to the Mota Police Department this again investigator John P Doug troen Brad became one of the motans who
embraced the whispered theories that Jeff had done something fatal to Veronica the 2004 release of the police
report highlighting Jeff's suspicious statements solidified him as Prime Suspect number one in the eyes of men
many including Doug and Todd Bloom Hurst who did not try to hide the fact that he
suspected Jeff of killing his sister but when Doug took up the mantle from Todd in
2013 and began carrying out his promise to continue to pursue Justice in Veronica's case he started to unveil
some startling information his public pleas for people to come forward resulted in people
starting to talk and now after 30 years this case has been substantially Advanced over recent months by his
efforts Doug spent years digging into the case and keeping his ear to the ground for rumors and information that
could be helpful and someone who wished to remain anonymous came forward and told him some interesting information
the local Source had heard that quote Veronica was strangled possibly shot wrapped in a blue tarp and dumped over
the west side of a metal bridge in Knox Road near Bartlet Woods this area was near the part of the
nature preserve that had already been searched but the source said the search area needed to be expanded they didn't
search far enough this bridge is about 3 miles from the verika property and per the Jim Hagerty series early searches
had focused on a small area Northeast of Knox Road between hankle Road and big Bureau Creek about 3 miles from the town
of sublet Illinois The Preserve had been searched in 2012 with kadab dogs in searches
organized by Todd based on Psychic evaluations of the case now the source says police
continued West if they would have have continued West they would have likely have found clues about 475 to 500 yard
Downstream near a creek belly that's about 10 to 12 ft deep mhm this is a tributary of the Illinois River I cannot
say within feet but she's either in the belly of the creek before the 90° Bend or around the area of the hay bales next
to it possibly even under them the source said if they search in that area they would either find her remains in
the water or some sign of her buried near there the source also said he believed that a gun was used to kill
Veronica and this gun was disposed of in a Creek in Mendota in 1992 by a woman who had received the gun
from someone else so this does not sound like a murder committed by a controlling
boyfriend to me in a crime of of passion who then panicked and hid her body this
might sound like someone getting rid of Veronica in a methodical killing mhm someone who knew what he was doing and
who had knowledge of how to dispose of a body this is where we have to look into the idea of did the police bungle
the investigation or is there a cover up because this case is one of those in which it is easy to see why people
believe that there was some kind of police cover up either the mandota police department m a small town force
with zero experience investigating disappearances and possible homicides was borderline
incompetent or it was the typical story of a bad seed cop who was at least to a certain extent sheltered by some of his
own there is some evidence for this latter Theory right has more legs than you're giving it when Veronica went
missing the mandota police collected some of her personal items as we said a toothbrush hairbrush and bedding from
her room of course potential sources of DNA but no one knows where any of these things are so is that somebody removed
these items from police evidence or did they just screw it up the other thing you have to think about too is
Veronica's car and garage the area surrounding the garage this was never processed when she went missing right
was this on purpose or was it just all she's missing we think we'll find her there's no need to search for Footprints
or tire tracks or hair or any type of other evidence that could have been found at the time but why a conspiracy
why a conspiracy yeah what are they covering up well I don't know that I would go as far to say that the entire
police department would be covering this up right and to me you might only have to have one person covering their own
tracks so not a conspiracy at all just really one person manipulating everything to remove themselves as a
potential suspect right despite the small town nature of the police force and inexperience of its officers and
handling these types of cases the MPD repeatedly turned down requests from the Bloomer family to call in investigative
assistance from the Illinois State Police was this because they were certain that Jeff was their man or
because someone did not want an outside agency meddling in the Affairs of the mandota PD and of course we have already
covered that the police seem to have failed to record or properly transcribe Jeff's interview with all of his
supposedly incriminating statements again this is either small town incompetence or something much more
Sinister so now 30 years later Doug and others are calling into question the police placement of blame on
Jeff recordings and transcripts that do not exist that all seem to point to Jeff being the
guy that's the only red flag that goes up and circles itself around Jeff and further some of the things Jeff
said supposedly said made no sense it really does not seem likely that he would have thought Veronica was pregnant
at all he knew all about her mono and her upcoming doctor's appointment for that ailment yeah Veronica's family says
they have proof that Veronica was not pregnant at the time that she disappeared the only thing I have a
problem with that is again we don't know his the extent of his condition of memory
loss so is it possible that he did forget that she was sick we also don't know again it's it's fool's gold right
we we have nothing to back up these supposed statements that he made to police other than the word of of one man
who should be in the circle of suspects in this case so here's the thing about you you talk about his memory lost he
had a a motorcycle or dirt bike accident when he was like 14 or 15 so this is something he had suffered for years
before Veronica and him were even an item one thing that's interesting though it emerged recently that on the day
before Jeff was questioned by police on September 23rd Jeff participated in the bloom Hurst family session with psychic
Greta Alexander she is the psychic that led them to search the Nature Preserve in
the course of this search Greta mentioned that Veronica was hurt by someone in the course of an argument
about her health or possibly a baby she stated that Jeff's motivations were suspect Jeff heard all of this as he was
present and also privy to this psychic's observations was John P who the very next day would question Jeff supposedly
enlisting comments about how maybe he went crazy thinking about her being pregnant as we said a kadab dog search
was eventually conducted of property owned by Jeff's Family a year after Veronica went missing nothing was found
but but not the property his dad worked at correct of course there are plenty of
places to dispose of a body in the area and it's not clear whether Jeff really has an alibi for that night you know was
he at home watching a movie as he said his mom said that he was home as well but we know how those family member
aliis can be erroneous mhm but on the other hand there is nothing whatsoever tying Jeff to Veronica's disappearance
because it seems to me a little too good to be true that he just walked on into the police department and basically
offered up all of those semi incriminating statements clearly he did not offer up a full confession because
he was never charged never arrested never named publicly as a person of interest but didn't he also get rid of
his car like pretty early I don't have any information about him getting rid of a vehicle well so supposedly he gets rid
of his vehicle he was looking for a new vehicle before she went missing but so she goes missing he gets rid of it and
then he gets the same exact car as Veronica and then he doesn't get a license plate for it and she had
something where it was like her initials some lucky number or her initials and then like her birth
date or something and he did the same thing so got the same exact car and did this the whole initial birth date type
thing on the back of his car as well H and it's kind of a odd car her car wasn't like was a Chevy Corsica right
but it wasn't like uh I don't think they were super popular I don't know much about the the vehicle I always thought
of corsas as a pretty common vehicle back in the early 90s the weird thing too is their initials are very similar
as well now Jeff was mandota PDS focused from from day one day two however you want to argue it that's clear Doug troen
Brad does not mince words about Jeff's supposed involvement he says quote I think he was manipulated into saying
what he did in the police report and once he lawyered up the person who killed Veronica was free to Fumble along
and Destroy any Trails he himself left furthermore not only might Jeff have been railroaded but there may have been
someone else who was responsible for what happened to Veronica there was one more person reported to be in the Super
Value Store on the night that she vanished according to the Rockford Advocate series a source indic ated that
an unnamed man was in the Dempsey's Super Value on Veronica's last night there for about 30 minutes but purchased
nothing he left the store at 11:39 p.m. the presence of this man in the store did not appear in any of the police
reports and he was never questioned what does this have to do with Veronica and her still being missing 30 years later
family spokesperson Doug troen says that his team of citizens just like himself who have been sleuthing around
Motta uncovered evidence that Veronica kept certain things about her personal life private and that they may have
contributed to her disappearance mhm and Doug has a theory about who this man at
the Super Value may have been apparently there were reports from several independent sources that Veronica was
seeing another guy on the side unbeknownst to her family and certainly unbeknownst to Jeff and this man may
have been a police officer per the Rockford Advocate quoting family spokesperson Doug troen Brad quote we
are looking into details about that reported relationship it may have been going on for some time before her
disappearance what we are fairly certain of is that this man Veronica was seeing
was married he was someone who was familiar to her and not someone she had recently met apparently Veronica also
knew this man's wife the rumors are that she had tried to end things with Jeff in
order to be with this other man although these may have just been that rumors right okay so this could be far-fetched
right the bloom Hurst family does not seem to endorse this Theory even though the spokesperson seems to mhm according
to Carolyn Veronica's sister who spoke publicly for the first time earlier in 2020 Veronica was not a duplicitous
person she was not capable of hiding things that were going on with her again we talked about the possibility of
Veronica being an open book she says that she was one of those people who wears her heart on her sleeve Carolyn
does not believe that Veronica would have been cheating on Jeff with a married man she and Jeff have been they
were discussing marriage as we said and she seemed to be happy with Jeff at the time right Carolyn also says if she had
been seeing someone else on the side she would not have been able to hide it for
very long now on the other hand Carolyn did reveal to Doug that things were not all as it seemed with Veronica and her
relationship with her family she and her mother did Clash and she had a little bit of a Wild Streak it is not at all
clear what Doug is referring to when he says Veronica was hiding things because those things have not been made public
right but maybe there was a side of ironica that her family didn't know about including Carolyn her sister who
didn't live with the family at the time of The Disappearance one didn't live with her for quite a while so give a
couple couple years and and she's a little Veronica was getting a little older here's where things go off the
rails the sources who were telling Doug that Veronica was seeing a married cop they even provided Doug with a name
the married boyfriend was a cop who lived right across the alley behind the bloom Hurst family MH this person would
have had a full view of the bloom Hurst garage and from his property this married cop was also
seeing another neighbor on the street which this woman admitted to later in other words this 20-some cop was a
womanizer Carolyn later said that this cop would stare at her and her sister as they went in and out of the yard and
then it made them feel very uncomfortable who is this guy don't squeeze your beer cans too tightly or
your testicles the married cop who was alleged to have been in some kind of relationship with Veronica was John P
officer John P the one who lived right behind her house and was the first on the scene
that day when Jeff reported her missing the one who was in charge of the investigation into her disappearance the
one who focused the blame on her boyfriend in his police report the one who possibly deliberately messed up the
examination of her car and who may or may not have seen to it that her personal possessions with her DNA on
them went missing from the Mendota police station mhm yeah because the what I heard at first I didn't actually hear
about this idea that Veronica had a intimate relationship with the police officer the idea was that he would have
been coming home you know he he was married he he he had his wife at home he was coming home from the neighbor's
house that he um was having an affair with and somehow got caught by Veronica and you know made her go
missing so he didn't get busted that was the first that I heard that's an interesting Theory too because either
way it's presenting a theory where the two officer John and Veronica had some other type of relationship that wasn't
just we we're neighbors right that either either Veronica had some dirt on him or she was involved with him it well and
give a reason for them crossing paths that night right yeah so I'd like to know what his Alibi was so it seems like
something out of a movie Something fake something unreal but what makes this crazy tale somewhat believable is that
the sources who told Doug about the relationship between John officer JN and Veronica
whatever again whatever the nature of that relationship was Doug says that these were law enforcement officers that
told him this right that there was some some kind of relationship these were guys in the area of law enforcement
groups who knew JN one of them also knew the police chief at the time Ken Han who
apparently also suspected JN this crazy story appears to have some legs to it some hairy legs some hairy disgusting
spider legs dirty legs one way that this story would make sense without Veronica
being someone completely foreign to her family someone who would would date a married police officer betray her
boyfriend and and behave in ways that her family and friends found unbelievable is if
John made up the whole thing okay this guy was a known womanizer and creep who's icit relationships ended up ending
his marriage mhm and remember Carolyn said he would watch girls from his own yard across the way in a creepy fashion
so what I'm getting at here Captain is it possible that maybe officer John bragged to some of his cop buddies about
relationships with women that he was not in fact actually having yeah or did he pray on weaker individuals and possibly
it wasn't as consensual as he made it out to be and that's where you go with this thing right what if in some weird
way he's bragging to his cop buddies hey that 21-year-old good-looking girl over
there me and her are a bit of a thing but in reality he's stalking her yeah or yeah sexual fantasy or again he he might
have sexually assaulted her maybe he raped her and like we said he he's somebody
that's in the area that would have had knowledge of just you know not not that she's gullible but it would be an
individual like I said a weaker individual that you possibly could control yeah and you don't even have to
dubber as gullible because for all we know Veronica thought of Officer John as as most probably would as he's a police
officer he's a neighbor maybe he's a nice neighbor maybe he's nice police officer and your dad is a part of the
first responder family cops are part of that they're all good guys and this guy might just be number one creepo could be
a a a wolf in sheep's clothing as they say so what if he pulls up that night a little after 1:00 a.m. she's making her
way from the garage up to the house as she did several times a week which he could see that from his house from his
yard mhm he pulls up in a vehicle or ask her to come over to his his yard or garage because the way that if if you
view these on a map the way that these two houses they more so back up to one another where it looks to me like the
backs of the houses face one another so the garages are closer to each other than the actual houses would be could he
have asked her to get in his car and help him with something or talked her into some kind of ride and then they're
out somewhere he tries to move on her things go wrong and he freaks out and does something bad MH you can see the
way that this would play out the other thing too is if he was in fact the one that was in the store in the Super Value
store that night that in there for a half an hour and didn't buy anything then it looks even more Sinister it
looks like he was setting this up he was stalking her or they were in fact having
some type of relationship was he just in there to to chat and interact with her right and let her know that he'd meet
her at her car after she got off work or whatever you mentioned earlier and this
is a bit of an aside another potential conflict of interest in the case and you find this typically in
small towns the current police chief Greg Kellen went on some dates with Veronica but this is going to be way
back in the the day you know this case is 30 years old well I wonder if he was the quote unquote
possessive guy he was he was the one that Carolyn said Veronica had told her that she was uncomfortable with Greg for
whatever reason he was either possessive or a bit controlling please keep in mind this man
was not the police chief back then he was he was very low on the toad pole and um yes he is he went on to be a chief of
police but other than this little aside to it it doesn't seem like there was much more to the story other than they
went on a couple of dates Veronica for whatever reason didn't really like the guy and she broke it off with him right
in December of 2019 Doug troen Brad announced that a civilian search was planned for the spring of 2020 near Knox
Road in in big Bureau Creek about 8 m north of mandota the area is near the forest preserve that was searched
previously this is because the family stated in a release that they had received information that Veronica was
strangled wrapped in a tarp and dumped over a Knox Road Bridge into big Bureau Creek near sublet this was the
information from the source that we discussed earlier the land that was subject of the upcoming search was
private and the owner a local farmer he granted permission but this search has been put off indefinitely thanks to co
Doug troen bro stirred up enough movement flushing out sources who claim to have material
information that the Cold Case Foundation with its season investigators agreed to take on the case good for them
and good for him and based on all the suspicious findings and information they have managed to get the case in front of
the FBI who is now actively working the case got him well good for us we I helped raise a little money for the Cold
Case Foundation in July to help those guys out good so this is an active FBI investigation now and we have seasoned
investigators working this very cold case it's 30 years and by the way I cheersed you all and I'll cheers you
again cheers so you have to wonder is it possible that finally after 30 years does Veronica's family will they get
some justice done hopefully but it's it's sad that her brother didn't live to see the work that he started be finished
John P left the mandota police department about 14 years years ago he's currently retired possibly living in
Florida it sounds like the FBI may want to talk with him Veronica's family via Doug troen BR still maintains the
Facebook page called Remember Veronica Jill Bloom Hurst started by Todd her brother to memorialize his sister and
document her case it is very active with updates on her case as well as links to
Jim hagerty's series and posted regularly one thing I like about this case is that I feel within the last two
hours that we have said the three most likely suspects in this case I think that
Jeff he's an interesting one I think that former officer John P is very interesting as well as well as the creep
guy that was going into the Super Value Store two or three times a week to just bother the female employees and dress
the women with his eyes yeah I mean who's to say he didn't follow her home or had not followed her home before M
and she having spoke with him many times just thought oh he's a nuisance but he's
harmless right and she went over to talk to him or got in the car for any number
of reasons I think that what we have here Captain is a trail that doesn't lead specifically to any of these three
really all we have is the supposed incriminating statements that Jeff made to officer John P behind closed doors
what we also have is the rumors that makes John P have some kind of different relationship be it either Veronica had
dirt on him or they were involved somehow and then just the suspicions of the co-workers of this crepo guy coming
in a couple times a week El creepo it's really sad because until she is found there's nothing left to work on at the
moment so I hope and pray that this search gets underway and that they do find something to lead them to her and
possibly lead us to the actual person that did this one thing that I call in a question
here and would love to know is the actual time of events and how they were supposed to go down once it was known
that she was missing and what I mean by that is when was it discovered that Jeff
and Veronica were going to have lunch that day was it just that day when he called and all of a sudden he discovers
that she's missing oh by the way we were going to have lunch or did you know did
Jeff know about the what time the doctor's appointment would be and did he magically time up that call
perfectly to her father shortly after the doctor's office called mhm and really and it's hard to say looking back
30 years ago what the actual events were supposed to be in their order and the times that they were supposed to happen
because I think that could shed a little more light on what category to put Jeff
in in this case [Music] again thanks for listening thanks for the support if you're looking for our
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we have any recommended reading for this week this week we are recommending tantamount the pursuit of the freeway
Phantom serial killer by Blaine parau and Victoria Hester we have recommended this awesome True Crime writing Duo
before these two great authors are putting out some really fascinating Cold Case True Crime stuff so you'll want to
check out tantamount and other great recommendations at our website true Crim garage.com and while you're there one
thing I've been doing at my house captain I gu the beer fridge I like to put a lot of stickers on my beer fridge
pick you up some true crime garage stickers and decorate your beer fridge and go with the super pack if you if you
buy pack one and pack two cost you a little more money go with the super pack you get them all little discount there
for you and until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] you can start your stay off right when
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to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you
Angie that

Veronica Blumhorst /// Part 2 /// 426

Part 2 of 2

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This week we feature the case of a strange disappearance of a young woman back from 1990 in Mendota, Illinois. As of this week it will be 30 years since anyone has seen Veronica Blumhorst. For years Veronica’s little brother Todd kept the investigation organized and ongoing. Recently new information has come out that we could possibly be dealing with a cover up.

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Brief Summary

The episode covers Veronica Bloomer's disappearance, focusing on suspicious boyfriend Jeff and potential police misconduct in the investigation.

Key points

Quality Sleep at Ashley. Ashley offers top mattress brands at winning prices with financing options.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Join Nick and the Captain as they dive into a fascinating case.
Veronica's Mysterious Disappearance. Veronica has been missing for 14 years, and her boyfriend Jeff raises suspicions.
Investigation into Jeff's Theories. Jeff presents strange theories about Veronica's disappearance, raising red flags.
The Mystery of Missing Evidence. Veronica's case suffers from a frustrating lack of evidence, leaving investigators at a standstill.
Todd's Unwavering Fight. Despite the cold case, Todd Bloom Hurst campaigned tirelessly to find his sister.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This sounds made up!

2:53WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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