Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Patreon Summer Sampler: Elizabeth Campbell

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Patreon Summer Sampler: Elizabeth Campbell · The Path Went Chilly

0:00
Speaker 1: Thank you. Welcome back to this month's bonus Patreon mini-sode.
0:33
Speaker 1: I'm Robin.
0:34
Speaker 2: I'm Jules.
0:35
Speaker 3: And I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this month's case.
0:40
Speaker 2: April 25th, 1988. Copperas Cove, Texas. After an argument with
0:47
Speaker 2: her boyfriend, 20-year-old college student Elizabeth Campbell storms out of
0:52
Speaker 2: his house and... 20-year-old college student Elizabeth Campbell storms out
1:00
Speaker 2: of his house and hitches a ride to a convenience store.
1:04
Speaker 2: After phoning her boyfriend and making an unsuccessful attempt to
1:07
Speaker 2: convince him to pick her up, Elizabeth vanishes without a trace.
1:12
Speaker 2: Over the next few weeks, there are multiple sightings of
1:14
Speaker 2: Elizabeth in the company of a possessive man, leading to
1:18
Speaker 2: speculation that she was abducted and forced into sex trafficking.
1:22
Speaker 2: But she is never tracked down.
1:25
Speaker 1: After that, the path went chilly. So this month, we
1:29
Speaker 1: will be covering another case which was featured on Unsolved Mysteries,
1:33
Speaker 1: the 1988 disappearance of Elizabeth Campbell. This is the sad
1:37
Speaker 1: story of a young woman who vanished after attempting to
1:40
Speaker 1: secure a ride at a convenience store, and it seems
1:43
Speaker 1: very likely that she crossed paths with the wrong person.
1:46
Speaker 1: Like many unsolved disappearances, there would later be unconfirmed eyewitness
1:50
Speaker 1: sightings of Elizabeth after she vanished. As we mentioned many
1:54
Speaker 1: times on this show before, more often than not, eyewitnesses
1:58
Speaker 1: in missing persons cases are often mistaken about who they
2:01
Speaker 1: saw and likely mixed up the victim with someone else. However,
2:05
Speaker 1: there is something about the eyewitness sightings in this case
2:07
Speaker 1: which intrigued the authorities and opened up the possibility that
2:11
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was abducted, kept alive by her captor, and possibly
2:15
Speaker 1: forced into sex slavery. Of course, when this was originally
2:18
Speaker 1: featured in Unsolved Mysteries, only a year and a half
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Speaker 1: had passed since Elizabeth vanished, so there was still hope
2:23
Speaker 1: from her family that she was still alive somewhere, but
2:26
Speaker 1: we've now almost reached the 36-year anniversary of her disappearance,
2:30
Speaker 1: and she has still never been found. I originally covered
2:33
Speaker 1: this on a mini-sode of The Trail Went Cold seven
2:36
Speaker 1: years ago, and I actually got a nice message from
2:38
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's sister, Carol Ann, who had heard my mini-sode, and
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Speaker 1: was very grateful that there were still people out there
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Speaker 1: that remembered and cared about Elizabeth. So I thought we
2:48
Speaker 1: should revisit it on The Path Went Chilly.
2:51
Speaker 3: Isn't that the reason we do what we do, right?
2:53
Speaker 3: For those of us who are true crime quote unquote fans,
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Speaker 3: our focus should always be on the victim and justice
3:01
Speaker 3: for the family and keeping someone's name alive. Because at
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Speaker 3: the end of the day, that's what truly matters. So
3:06
Speaker 3: what an amazing compliment from her sister to reach out
3:09
Speaker 3: and say thank you, right? What an honor to say
3:13
Speaker 3: you're making a big difference, Robin. So thanks for sharing
3:15
Speaker 3: this case today specifically. It's one of those that's really
3:20
Speaker 3: heartbreaking because you think about the fact that she is
3:23
Speaker 3: a young college student who's getting in a fuss with
3:26
Speaker 3: her boyfriend, which let's be honest, who does not disagree
3:30
Speaker 3: and have fusses with their significant other, right? And she
3:33
Speaker 3: storms out. And as she cools down, she's trying to
3:36
Speaker 3: get him to come pick her up at this convenience store.
3:38
Speaker 3: And he's probably still really frustrated with her. So he
3:41
Speaker 3: says no. And those kind of common frustrated 20-year-old problems
3:48
Speaker 3: ends up where she possibly hitched a ride with someone
3:51
Speaker 3: she didn't know. Someone abducted her. And now we're looking
3:55
Speaker 3: at this case, like you said, 36 years later, and
3:58
Speaker 3: it's absolutely heartbreaking. I can't imagine as a young college
4:04
Speaker 3: student thinking, if we just hadn't gotten in this fuss,
4:07
Speaker 3: which everyone does, where would we be today? And what
4:11
Speaker 3: would have happened if he had gone to get her?
4:13
Speaker 3: And all these just very minor, minute things. things ended
4:17
Speaker 3: where her life could have also been ended that night.
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Speaker 3: So very, very, very sad.
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Speaker 2: Robin, what episode of Unsolved Mysteries was it? It's on
4:27
Speaker 2: the tip of my tongue. And it was one of
4:29
Speaker 2: the most terrifying segments. And she was taken from a
4:32
Speaker 2: convenience store. We covered the case.
4:35
Speaker 1: Oh, Deborah Poe. Deborah Poe. With the infamous Megadeth guy, remember?
4:41
Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking of another one. Is it Angela?
4:43
Speaker 2: I can't remember.
4:45
Speaker 1: Angela Hammond was abducted from a phone booth.
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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's the one I'm thinking of.
4:50
Speaker 2: So our story begins in Texas in 1988. Our central
4:55
Speaker 2: figure is 20-year-old Elizabeth Campbell, who lives with her parents
4:58
Speaker 2: in the town of Lampasas. Elizabeth is a biracial child
5:02
Speaker 2: of an American father, Tom Campbell, and a Korean mother,
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Speaker 2: Samsoon Campbell. As her parents met while Tom was serving
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Speaker 2: in the army in Korea, Elizabeth is the youngest of
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Speaker 2: their five children and is currently a student at Central
5:15
Speaker 2: Texas College, who's planning to attend Texas A & M
5:19
Speaker 2: University in the fall in order to study marine biology.
5:22
Speaker 2: Elizabeth also works part-time at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Killeen,
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Speaker 2: and since she's led a relatively sheltered life, she's greatly
5:30
Speaker 2: looking forward to her time at Texas A & M.
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Speaker 2: On the evening of April 25th, Elizabeth finished her classes
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Speaker 2: at the college and went to work her shift at
5:39
Speaker 2: the 7-Eleven until 9 p.m. Since her sister had borrowed
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Speaker 2: her car that night, Elizabeth's boyfriend, Ricky Ray, picked her
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Speaker 2: up from the 7-Eleven and drove her to his house.
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Speaker 2: Several students from Central Texas College had gathered at Ricky's
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Speaker 2: house as a part of a study group to prepare
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Speaker 2: for the upcoming exams, and Elizabeth had an important trigonometry
6:00
Speaker 2: exam the following morning. However... Since Elizabeth and Ricky each
6:05
Speaker 2: wanted to study for different subjects, they wound up getting
6:08
Speaker 2: into a heated argument, so Elizabeth said that she wanted
6:12
Speaker 2: to call her parents to come pick her up. As
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Speaker 2: her residence in Lampasas was located nearly 30 miles away,
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Speaker 2: Ricky told Elizabeth that he would give her a ride,
6:22
Speaker 2: but said he wasn't ready to leave yet because of
6:24
Speaker 2: his studying. This apparently prompted Elizabeth to angrily storm outside
6:29
Speaker 2: without telling Ricky, and approximately 45 minutes later, shortly after 11pm,
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Speaker 2: Ricky received a call from Elizabeth. who said she was
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Speaker 2: calling from a 7-Eleven at the intersection of Highway 190
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Speaker 2: and Martin Luther King Drive in the town of Copperas Cove,
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Speaker 2: located over 10 miles away. Elizabeth had apparently gotten a
6:49
Speaker 2: ride from someone, but she was still 17 miles from
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Speaker 2: her parents' house, so she asked Ricky to come pick
6:55
Speaker 2: her up after telling him that she was a little scared. However,
6:59
Speaker 2: Ricky was angry that Elizabeth stormed out of his house
7:01
Speaker 2: without telling him and refused to come get her. So
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Speaker 2: Elizabeth said that she would find another ride and hung up.
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Speaker 2: And unfortunately, this would turn out to be the last
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Speaker 2: time anyone ever spoke to her.
7:13
Speaker 3: I actually feel sorry for Ricky. He's doing this stubborn,
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Speaker 3: you know, young adult thing where it's like, oh, you
7:22
Speaker 3: really frustrated me. You did something really stupid and you
7:24
Speaker 3: allowed someone to drive you away from this place when
7:27
Speaker 3: I told you if you would just wait, I'll take you.
7:30
Speaker 3: So I can understand where he'd be so frustrated with her. And,
7:34
Speaker 3: you know, kind of digging his heels and saying, you
7:37
Speaker 3: know what, you left, you figure it out. And then
7:40
Speaker 3: never in a million years would he think something would
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Speaker 3: happen to her. Like surely her parents are going to
7:44
Speaker 3: come get her or a friend's going to come get her.
7:47
Speaker 3: And yet she's expressing on the other end, I did
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Speaker 3: get a ride. I'm still like in the middle of
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Speaker 3: between my parents' house and your place. And I'm scared.
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Speaker 3: I need help. And he doesn't show up to help her.
8:00
Speaker 3: So of course, if she's scared and anxious, she's likely
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Speaker 3: looking for someone who can give her a ride. And
8:07
Speaker 3: so her best bet is looking around to say who
8:10
Speaker 3: looks safe. And we all know if people looked as
8:14
Speaker 3: scary as they were, most people would never get hurt, right?
8:17
Speaker 3: That it's unsuspecting people that can often be the most dangerous.
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Speaker 3: And so it's so sad. She really is being set
8:23
Speaker 3: up for the perfect situation. opportunity for someone to either
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Speaker 3: abduct her or to you know take her and do
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Speaker 3: whatever they want with her.
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Speaker 1: Yeah ricky was interviewed on unsolved mysteries and he definitely
8:36
Speaker 1: gets a bad rap from fans of the show who
8:38
Speaker 1: wonder how he could have left elizabeth there when she
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Speaker 1: was so frightened and needed a ride but it was
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Speaker 1: kind of a heat of the moment thing where he
8:45
Speaker 1: was just kind of angry with her and selfish and
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Speaker 1: probably never envisioned that she would go missing so even
8:50
Speaker 1: though he made a mistake he was clearly haunted by
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Speaker 1: his decision.
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Speaker 3: I would love to know one person who hasn't, can't
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Speaker 3: look back and see multiple times they were disrespectful, not responsible,
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Speaker 3: and stubborn when they got in a fight with their
9:06
Speaker 3: significant other. Like I can count three times this past.
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Speaker 2: And especially when you're in your 20s or your teens,
9:13
Speaker 2: those are the years where a lot of us can
9:15
Speaker 2: be really toxic because we aren't quite sure how to
9:19
Speaker 2: act in relationships. Our interpersonal skills aren't polished. We don't
9:22
Speaker 2: really know what our attachment styles are. trying to have
9:27
Speaker 2: this dynamic interplay in a romantic way with somebody else,
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Speaker 2: you could act out of spite or act out of
9:33
Speaker 2: anger a lot more than you would as you get
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Speaker 2: a little bit older and you've had more relationship experience
9:39
Speaker 2: under your belt. So you will be a little more
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Speaker 2: cognizant of the actions that you're taking and the potential ramifications.
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Speaker 2: But at their age, they're not really thinking of the ramifications.
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Speaker 2: And I agree with you, Ash. I feel sorry for
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Speaker 2: him because I think in retrospect, he probably looked back
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Speaker 2: and went, whoa, this was a little bit harsh. And
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Speaker 2: then later finding out what happens. it's like, if I
10:01
Speaker 2: would have done this differently, you know, she probably would
10:04
Speaker 2: be alive today. Like that sort of survivor's guilt probably
10:07
Speaker 2: plagued him and may continue to plague him.
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Speaker 1: Oh, for sure.
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Speaker 3: And think about her sister too. Her sister had borrowed
10:13
Speaker 3: the car. I mean, there were just this perfect storm
10:15
Speaker 3: of events. Ricky was simply saying, listen, You left. I
10:19
Speaker 3: told you I would take you home. I said I
10:21
Speaker 3: needed to study for my test. You didn't respect that.
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Speaker 3: In fact, you got in the car with God knows
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Speaker 3: who and left to figure it out. I mean, he's
10:28
Speaker 3: literally just reacting in the moment, like you said. He's
10:30
Speaker 3: a young kid being dumb. And never in a million
10:33
Speaker 3: years would you think that these simple events, these kind
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Speaker 3: of common events, would line up to have her go missing.
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Speaker 1: So Elizabeth never returned home. And when her parents woke
10:44
Speaker 1: up the following morning and realized she wasn't there... they
10:47
Speaker 1: attempted to report her missing to the police. Unfortunately, since
10:51
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was technically a legal adult, the police said she
10:54
Speaker 1: had to be missing for at least 72 hours before
10:57
Speaker 1: they'd file a report. So this prompted Tom and Samsoon
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Speaker 1: Campbell to do their own investigative work for the next
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Speaker 1: few days. After Ricky told the Campbells about Elizabeth's phone
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Speaker 1: call from the 7-Eleven in Copperas Cove, Tom and Samsoon
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Speaker 1: went there and spoke to the employees. They remembered having
11:14
Speaker 1: seen Elizabeth and said she was dropped off by a
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Speaker 1: man in a light green Gremlin. She came in and
11:20
Speaker 1: asked to use the phone, and the staff allowed her
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Speaker 1: to do so, since they knew Elizabeth from the 7-Eleven
11:25
Speaker 1: she worked at in Killeen. Of course, Elizabeth called Ricky,
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Speaker 1: who refused to come pick her up, so she told
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Speaker 1: the staff she would try to call her brother. However,
11:34
Speaker 1: since it would have been a long-distance call, and Elizabeth
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Speaker 1: didn't want to use the store's phone for that, she
11:38
Speaker 1: decided to go outside to use the payphone. It's unclear
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Speaker 1: if Elizabeth attempted to call her brother... but it turned
11:45
Speaker 1: out that she likely made an attempt to call her parents.
11:48
Speaker 1: Sam soon remembered being woken up by the sound of
11:51
Speaker 1: a ringing phone at around midnight, but the ringing stopped
11:54
Speaker 1: before she could get up to answer it. The clerk
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Speaker 1: at the 7-Eleven told the Campbells that they saw Elizabeth
12:00
Speaker 1: climbing into a white or silver vehicle with a maroon
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Speaker 1: vinyl top, and it appeared to be driving south towards Killeen,
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Speaker 1: but no one knows what happened to her after that.
12:11
Speaker 3: And at the time, I'm assuming because the police are
12:13
Speaker 3: saying you need to wait 72 hours, right? We're not
12:16
Speaker 3: going to be able to help you. They're not looking
12:19
Speaker 3: for surveillance cameras if they had surveillance cameras at that 7-Eleven, probably.
12:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, even if the Campbells had asked for them,
12:26
Speaker 1: I don't know if they would have been allowed to
12:27
Speaker 1: see them since they were civilians. But I haven't heard
12:30
Speaker 1: anything about surveillance cameras. So I'm assuming that it either
12:33
Speaker 1: came up empty or because this was 1988, maybe they
12:37
Speaker 1: didn't even have surveillance cameras.
12:39
Speaker 3: Very possible, and if they did, how high quality would
12:42
Speaker 3: they have been at that time?
12:45
Speaker 2: While the description of the vehicle which picked up Elizabeth
12:48
Speaker 2: from the 7-Eleven was very vague, Tom and Sam soon
12:52
Speaker 2: decided to go searching for the Green Gremlin which dropped
12:54
Speaker 2: Elizabeth off there since it was a distinct vehicle. And
12:58
Speaker 2: believe it or not, they actually found it in a
13:00
Speaker 2: campus parking lot at Central Texas College. They waited around
13:04
Speaker 2: until the owner, who happened to be a student there,
13:07
Speaker 2: showed up at his vehicle, and he would confirm having
13:10
Speaker 2: given Elizabeth a ride on the evening of April 25th.
13:13
Speaker 2: He claimed that after leaving the college that night, he
13:16
Speaker 2: came across Elizabeth walking down Highway 190, so he offered
13:20
Speaker 2: her a lift. While Elizabeth said that she was heading
13:23
Speaker 2: for Lampasas, the driver told her that he was only
13:27
Speaker 2: going as far as Copperas Cove, so he dropped Elizabeth
13:30
Speaker 2: off at the 7-Eleven. where she said that she would
13:32
Speaker 2: secure another ride. When Elizabeth did not resurface for 72 hours,
13:37
Speaker 2: her parents finally filed an official missing persons report with
13:41
Speaker 2: the Copperas Cove Police Department. Ricky was immediately cleared as
13:45
Speaker 2: a suspect as the other students from the study group
13:48
Speaker 2: confirmed that he'd remained at his home the entire time
13:51
Speaker 2: after Elizabeth left. The police seemed inclined to believe that
13:55
Speaker 2: Elizabeth disappeared voluntarily due to her fight with Ricky. which
13:59
Speaker 2: her parents did not believe since Elizabeth did not show
14:02
Speaker 2: up for her scheduled exam at Central Texas College and
14:05
Speaker 2: left behind a $ 200 paycheck at her workplace. So the
14:10
Speaker 2: Campbells continued to perform their own independent investigation, and they
14:14
Speaker 2: would spend the next several weeks distributing thousands of missing
14:18
Speaker 2: persons flyers throughout the state of Texas.
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Speaker 3: What would you do as a parent when you say, okay,
14:25
Speaker 3: I know something's wrong, she didn't show up, And you're saying,
14:30
Speaker 3: I know there's a problem. The police say you have
14:32
Speaker 3: to wait 72 hours. Okay, so we're going to go
14:34
Speaker 3: to town. We're going to get all of our investigative
14:37
Speaker 3: tools in order. We're going to try to figure this
14:39
Speaker 3: out ourselves because we know this is an important time
14:41
Speaker 3: and our daughter's not voluntarily missing. They wait the 72
14:45
Speaker 3: hours and then they're basically told, sorry, she left voluntarily,
14:50
Speaker 3: despite the fact that we know she was asking for
14:53
Speaker 3: another ride. She was relaying that she was scared and
14:57
Speaker 3: felt uncomfortable where she was and that she has these
15:00
Speaker 3: things like not showing up to her exam, not taking
15:03
Speaker 3: her paycheck or having any kind of financial tracking that
15:06
Speaker 3: they can do on her. She's not cashing that check
15:09
Speaker 3: to use on the run. The parents know there's a problem.
15:13
Speaker 3: Ricky knows there's a problem. And the police basically say
15:17
Speaker 3: because she's 20 and she left that dorm voluntarily, we're
15:23
Speaker 3: not helping. I can't imagine what you would do as
15:25
Speaker 3: a parent. I would be so angry, so devastated, so helpless.
15:29
Speaker 3: And yet you'd be all consumed with saying we have
15:32
Speaker 3: to do this on our own with no training and
15:34
Speaker 3: having no idea where to start.
15:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's infuriating, but I will say that the Campbells
15:39
Speaker 1: are a pretty amazing family with all the legwork they
15:42
Speaker 1: did just to try to search for Elizabeth. Like, it
15:44
Speaker 1: is pretty amazing that they had nothing to go on
15:47
Speaker 1: but a Green Gremlin, and they just happened to go
15:49
Speaker 1: around and find it and speak to the driver that
15:52
Speaker 1: gave Elizabeth the ride. They're essentially doing the police's work
15:55
Speaker 1: for them. And then for years, they go around distributing
15:59
Speaker 1: all these flyers, and they are pretty much the whole
16:01
Speaker 1: reason anyone has even heard of this case, because... Apparently
16:04
Speaker 1: they hounded Unsolved Mysteries until they agreed to air Elizabeth's story.
16:09
Speaker 1: So it's great when you see families that are so
16:11
Speaker 1: gung-ho like that, but it's also frustrating when you realize
16:14
Speaker 1: that they're not getting any support from law enforcement.
16:18
Speaker 3: And just imagine how devastating that is for them emotionally
16:21
Speaker 3: and physically and financially. These are people that have full-time jobs.
16:25
Speaker 3: These are people who don't have their daughter in their
16:28
Speaker 3: care right now. So they're overwhelmed with grief and trauma
16:31
Speaker 3: and fear. And yet they're having to focus their entire
16:36
Speaker 3: life to be an investigator, to be a press release officer,
16:40
Speaker 3: to be, you know, all of these different tasks that
16:43
Speaker 3: they had no training for. They have no concept of
16:46
Speaker 3: how you actually function in that role. And that's what's
16:49
Speaker 3: so sad when you see families that have to be
16:52
Speaker 3: placed in that role because they're not having professionals step
16:55
Speaker 3: up and help them. Is there ever a time law
16:58
Speaker 3: enforcement gets serious and comes to try to help?
17:01
Speaker 1: I have done some cases like that where someone is
17:04
Speaker 1: reported missing or someone is killed and they go to
17:06
Speaker 1: work immediately. But I do find that a lot of
17:09
Speaker 1: the bad investigations are older ones, which took place in
17:12
Speaker 1: the 70s and 80s, because they just weren't as serious
17:15
Speaker 1: about missing persons. They just said, well, if there's no
17:17
Speaker 1: evidence of foul play, they must have run away on
17:19
Speaker 1: their own accord. But thankfully, even though there's still a
17:22
Speaker 1: lot of work to be done, things have improved in
17:24
Speaker 1: that area over the past few decades.
17:27
Speaker 2: Back then, minors would go missing. And they'd be like, oh,
17:30
Speaker 2: they left on their own accord. They must have ran
17:32
Speaker 2: off to join the circus. Yes, I remember that one.
17:38
Speaker 2: Like just absurd. And I can't imagine what it would
17:40
Speaker 2: feel like to be a family during that time period
17:44
Speaker 2: when you had your child go missing because you would
17:47
Speaker 2: be hitting a brick wall when you're talking to police.
17:49
Speaker 2: They're going if they're of age, if they're over the
17:52
Speaker 2: age of 18, then it's like, well, they're an adult.
17:54
Speaker 2: If they want to go missing, they can go missing.
17:57
Speaker 2: And I think it's only a recent thing within the
18:00
Speaker 2: last maybe 20 years, maybe that's even being generous, where
18:05
Speaker 2: law enforcement has taken missing persons cases a lot more seriously.
18:09
Speaker 2: And I think with the internet and with people's interest
18:11
Speaker 2: in true crime, it's been proven again and again that
18:16
Speaker 2: A lot of times this lazy approach to investigation that
18:19
Speaker 2: law enforcement had where we'll just sit back and see
18:21
Speaker 2: what happens and leave it up to the family. That
18:23
Speaker 2: just doesn't cut it because in a lot of those cases,
18:26
Speaker 2: it turned out that the individuals had been murdered or
18:29
Speaker 2: foul play had taken place. So I think now they
18:32
Speaker 2: know from the outset that you need to take it
18:34
Speaker 2: a little bit more seriously.
18:36
Speaker 3: Now, what about in this case? Did the police ever
18:39
Speaker 3: step forward and say, we'll help you?
18:41
Speaker 1: I mean, they did agree to be interviewed on Unsolved Mysteries.
18:44
Speaker 1: I think maybe when they realized this was going to
18:46
Speaker 1: be featured on national television, they suddenly got more enthusiastic, saying, oh, sure,
18:50
Speaker 1: we'll help try to find Elizabeth. But at the outset,
18:54
Speaker 1: they really didn't do much of anything. As a clarification,
18:57
Speaker 1: our circus line, that's a reference to the Jeremy Bright disappearance,
19:00
Speaker 1: which we covered, where he was, quote-unquote, seduced by the
19:03
Speaker 1: romantic allure of the carnival, and that's why he ran away.
19:06
Speaker 1: They actually said that. So, during her search for her daughter,
19:11
Speaker 1: Samsoon traveled to a gas station near Waco, which was
19:14
Speaker 1: about 85 miles from where Elizabeth was last seen, and
19:17
Speaker 1: when Samsoon showed the convenience store clerk a missing persons flyer,
19:21
Speaker 1: he actually recognized Elizabeth from her photo. The clerk remembered
19:25
Speaker 1: seeing a young woman matching Elizabeth's description six days after
19:29
Speaker 1: she was reported missing. The woman was accompanied by an
19:32
Speaker 1: unidentified Asian man who looked like he was very possessive
19:35
Speaker 1: of her. The man spoke harshly to his female companion
19:38
Speaker 1: in a language the clerk did not understand, and she
19:41
Speaker 1: pretty much kept her head down the entire time she
19:44
Speaker 1: was in the store. The man had a strong grip
19:47
Speaker 1: on the woman's arm and did not let go of
19:49
Speaker 1: her even when he was paying for his transaction. When
19:53
Speaker 1: the woman briefly looked up at the clerk, her male
19:55
Speaker 1: companion briskly dragged her out of the store. Well, it
19:59
Speaker 1: wasn't long before a clerk at another convenience store thought
20:02
Speaker 1: she recognized Elizabeth from her missing persons flyer. but this time,
20:06
Speaker 1: the sighting took place in Copperas Cove, only two miles
20:09
Speaker 1: away from the 7-Eleven where Elizabeth disappeared, and about two
20:13
Speaker 1: weeks after she was reported missing. The clerk described a
20:16
Speaker 1: strikingly similar incident in which she saw a young woman
20:20
Speaker 1: matching Elizabeth's description in the company of an Asian man
20:23
Speaker 1: who held onto her wrist the entire time they were
20:26
Speaker 1: there and seemed very possessive of her. The couple purchased
20:29
Speaker 1: some ice cream, but the woman kept her head down
20:32
Speaker 1: the entire time and did not speak, even after the
20:35
Speaker 1: clerk spoke to her. The clerk got the impression that
20:38
Speaker 1: she was not with her male companion by choice.
20:42
Speaker 3: Now, here's my concern with this. If this was Elizabeth,
20:46
Speaker 3: she has her head tucked down the entire time, and
20:49
Speaker 3: she's not really making eye contact with the clerk. Unless
20:52
Speaker 3: there's a distinct feature about her and there's something that
20:55
Speaker 3: stands out, You would really not get a clear look
20:58
Speaker 3: of her if she's kind of in that unassuming position
21:02
Speaker 3: where she's not making eye contact with you. You don't
21:04
Speaker 3: see that kind of personal connection. I think it's very
21:08
Speaker 3: possible these are the same sightings of the same girl.
21:12
Speaker 1: Is it Elizabeth?
21:13
Speaker 3: Unless Elizabeth has something distinct. I don't know that we
21:16
Speaker 3: can confirm that.
21:17
Speaker 2: How much racial diversity was there in this area? Do
21:20
Speaker 2: you know, Robin?
21:22
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know. But I remember, though, that the female
21:25
Speaker 1: clerk at Unsolved Mysteries, this is a politically incorrect term,
21:28
Speaker 1: but she referred to the woman as an Oriental woman.
21:31
Speaker 1: So I think it's kind of a thing where she
21:33
Speaker 1: probably has not seen too many Asian people in that area.
21:36
Speaker 1: So that might be one of the reasons why the
21:38
Speaker 1: sighting stuck out to her.
21:40
Speaker 2: And we know that eyewitness identification outside of our own
21:43
Speaker 2: race can be problematic. Like, Caucasian people can have a
21:47
Speaker 2: difficult time identifying African American, Black people, or Asian individuals,
21:52
Speaker 2: and it works the other way, too.
21:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
21:56
Speaker 3: Cross-racial identification is much more difficult because we're not putting
22:00
Speaker 3: features on our same skin tone. And so the things
22:03
Speaker 3: that make us feel distinct from another Caucasian, we're not
22:07
Speaker 3: able to do that same comparison in our brain. It's
22:10
Speaker 3: not even a conscious thing. But it's when the canvas
22:13
Speaker 3: isn't a similar skin tone, then we start to see
22:17
Speaker 3: more similarities and features that are actually quite distinct.
22:22
Speaker 2: There would be one more reported sighting of Elizabeth. which
22:26
Speaker 2: took place on July 10th, over four months after she vanished.
22:30
Speaker 2: This time it was at a gas station in Garland,
22:33
Speaker 2: located over 150 miles away from Copperas Cove. An eyewitness
22:38
Speaker 2: reported bumping into a frightened-looking woman who resembled Elizabeth as
22:42
Speaker 2: she was exiting the convenience store and saw her heading
22:45
Speaker 2: towards a nearby parked car. What particularly interested the witness
22:49
Speaker 2: is that they claimed that the woman had a tooth
22:52
Speaker 2: that overlapped on the right side of her mouth, which
22:54
Speaker 2: Elizabeth also had. Now, even though investigators were skeptical that
23:00
Speaker 2: any of the women from these reported sightings was Elizabeth,
23:03
Speaker 2: her parents became fearful that she might have been abducted,
23:06
Speaker 2: held against her will, and possibly forced into sex trafficking
23:10
Speaker 2: by her unidentified male companion. It turned out that on
23:14
Speaker 2: the night Elizabeth went missing, the Copperas Cove PD had
23:18
Speaker 2: received a phone call from a man who claimed he
23:20
Speaker 2: saw a young woman matching Elizabeth's description and heading eastbound
23:24
Speaker 2: on Clark Road. But even though the caller claimed he
23:28
Speaker 2: was calling from a residence in Copperas Cove, he provided
23:31
Speaker 2: a name and address which did not exist, and phone
23:35
Speaker 2: records would show that he'd actually made a call from
23:37
Speaker 2: a payphone on Clark Road. Another bizarre phone call took
23:41
Speaker 2: place the week after Elizabeth vanished, when a hospital worker
23:45
Speaker 2: in Lampasas reported that they received a call from a
23:49
Speaker 2: man who asked if an ambulance containing Elizabeth Campbell's body
23:53
Speaker 2: had arrived at their hospital yet. However, the identity of
23:56
Speaker 2: these two separate callers has never been established, and it's
24:00
Speaker 2: unclear if they have any significance to the case.
24:05
Speaker 3: I have chills from both those calls. The first call
24:08
Speaker 3: from the payphone, I'm wondering, is this someone trying to
24:10
Speaker 3: set themselves up to not be suspected of human trafficking,
24:15
Speaker 3: where they're saying, we're going to report this random girl
24:17
Speaker 3: walking down the street And what we're really doing is
24:20
Speaker 3: whatever we just told the police, we're going to do
24:22
Speaker 3: the opposite of that. And we're just going to take
24:24
Speaker 3: her a different direction. And they'll be on this trail
24:27
Speaker 3: of chasing her this direction where she was on foot
24:30
Speaker 3: and kind of distracting the police that way. The other
24:34
Speaker 3: one where it's asking about an ambulance containing her body
24:37
Speaker 3: and they used her first and last name. That's horrifying.
24:42
Speaker 3: I want to know, is it any potential way that
24:46
Speaker 3: maybe this is someone like Ricky or somebody trying to check?
24:50
Speaker 3: Do you know where she is? Did someone named Elizabeth
24:53
Speaker 3: Campbell come to your hospital? Could it have been a
24:55
Speaker 3: call like that? And it was confused or was no
24:59
Speaker 3: one really worrying about that at this point?
25:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wondered about that myself. I mean, this was
25:06
Speaker 1: a week after Elizabeth vanished, and knowing that the police
25:09
Speaker 1: didn't really want to launch an investigation, I'm not sure
25:13
Speaker 1: if her disappearance got much publicity after that first week,
25:16
Speaker 1: if a stranger would have known the name Elizabeth Campbell.
25:19
Speaker 1: But you're right, it could have been just someone who
25:21
Speaker 1: knew her personally, who was just checking all the local
25:24
Speaker 1: hospitals in the area and seeing was anyone named Elizabeth
25:27
Speaker 1: Campbell admitted there. So perhaps it's a misunderstanding, and the
25:31
Speaker 1: hospital worker just kind of blew it out of proportion
25:34
Speaker 1: to make it sound more ominous than it really was.
25:37
Speaker 3: That's how that call was interpreted when you described it
25:40
Speaker 3: to me. Hey, did you guys get Elizabeth Campbell in
25:43
Speaker 3: an ambulance at your hospital? Because they're trying to check
25:46
Speaker 3: and maybe the way they worded it was odd, but
25:48
Speaker 3: they're kind of frantically, like I said, they don't have
25:50
Speaker 3: training of how to properly reach out and ask questions
25:54
Speaker 3: and track down people. And so that could be very innocent.
25:57
Speaker 3: The one where he provides the wrong number and address
26:01
Speaker 3: and says he's calling from his residence, all of that
26:03
Speaker 3: is very, very concerning that they're trying to dissuade police
26:08
Speaker 3: from actually looking in the correct direction.
26:12
Speaker 1: Even though the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in
26:15
Speaker 1: November of 1989, the investigation hit a standstill for the
26:19
Speaker 1: next few years until there was a very strange and
26:21
Speaker 1: unexpected development in May of 1992 as the Crockett County
26:26
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office in the unincorporated community of Ozona discovered that
26:30
Speaker 1: they had Elizabeth's purse in their property room. The purse
26:34
Speaker 1: contained some of Elizabeth's identification, including her social security card,
26:38
Speaker 1: military identification, credit card, and checkbook, but her makeup, hairbrush,
26:43
Speaker 1: and keys were missing. It was only after a deputy
26:46
Speaker 1: was cleaning out the property room and decided to run
26:48
Speaker 1: a check on Elizabeth's name when he realized that the
26:51
Speaker 1: purse belonged to a missing person. But the really weird
26:55
Speaker 1: part is that no one knows how the purse got there,
26:58
Speaker 1: as the zona is located 230 miles west from where
27:02
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was last seen. According to police records, it was
27:06
Speaker 1: originally discovered at a gas station off Interstate 10 in Ozona,
27:10
Speaker 1: but they don't seem to have any documentation about when
27:13
Speaker 1: it was found or who turned it in. Since the
27:16
Speaker 1: purse was in good condition, investigators do not believe it
27:19
Speaker 1: would have been out in the elements that long, but
27:21
Speaker 1: when they sent the purse to a lab to check
27:23
Speaker 1: for fingerprints, none were found. And of course, when they
27:26
Speaker 1: ran an update about this development on Unsolved Mysteries, they
27:29
Speaker 1: somehow managed to make a photograph of a purse look
27:32
Speaker 1: as creepy as hell with eerie music and Robert Stack's
27:36
Speaker 1: ominous narration playing in the background.
27:39
Speaker 3: So it's almost as if she was transported 200 and
27:42
Speaker 3: some odd miles away, and maybe that purse was left
27:46
Speaker 3: inside the gas station. Again, we have no idea what
27:50
Speaker 3: the details are here. It was left maybe by a payphone.
27:53
Speaker 3: But like you said, if it had been sitting out
27:55
Speaker 3: in the rain, if it had been out tossed on
27:58
Speaker 3: the side of the road, if it had been in
28:00
Speaker 3: a garbage can, you might have been able to tell
28:03
Speaker 3: that kind of wear and tear on the purse. But
28:05
Speaker 3: if it was in good condition... You know, my goodness,
28:09
Speaker 3: why don't we know more about when this was located?
28:12
Speaker 3: Who was keeping evidence but not having any kind of
28:16
Speaker 3: accurate record keeping when there's somebody's purse? That's something you
28:20
Speaker 3: would think at least if the person's alive and okay,
28:23
Speaker 3: they'd be calling around trying to figure out where they
28:25
Speaker 3: left all of their belongings. And if they're somebody who's
28:28
Speaker 3: missing or it's evidence, you need to make sure that
28:30
Speaker 3: it's properly preserved. So it's like no matter what the
28:33
Speaker 3: circumstance was, this purse ends up being a very important
28:36
Speaker 3: key piece, and yet it's irrelevant because we know none
28:39
Speaker 3: of the details of how it was located or when
28:41
Speaker 3: or where.
28:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very frustrating. I mean, it'd be one thing
28:45
Speaker 1: if it was a purse that did not have any
28:47
Speaker 1: identification in it, but they had Elizabeth's social security card,
28:51
Speaker 1: her military ID, like her name was on everything. So
28:54
Speaker 1: it seems like after it was turned in, somebody should
28:56
Speaker 1: have gone to the trouble of like looking up Elizabeth
28:59
Speaker 1: Campbell's name or trying to contact her. and finding out
29:02
Speaker 1: she was missing, so it just seems ridiculous that nobody
29:05
Speaker 1: bothered to do that until 1992, which was four years
29:09
Speaker 1: after she originally went missing, so something went really wrong
29:12
Speaker 1: here with the record-keeping at the sheriff's office.
29:17
Speaker 2: Over the next three decades, the Campbell family would sell cattle, jewelry, cars,
29:22
Speaker 2: and properties in order to help finance their search for Elizabeth,
29:26
Speaker 2: as they traveled all over the country to look for her. However,
29:30
Speaker 2: even though her daughter could not be found, Sam soon
29:33
Speaker 2: would bake a cake for Elizabeth every year to celebrate
29:36
Speaker 2: her birthday with their family. Sadly, Tom Campbell passed away
29:40
Speaker 2: in June of 2018, at the age of 83, and
29:44
Speaker 2: while I believe that Samsoon is still alive at the
29:47
Speaker 2: age of 90, she is apparently in poor health. Last year,
29:51
Speaker 2: investigators announced that they were hoping to send Elizabeth's purse
29:54
Speaker 2: to a private lab in order to test for any
29:57
Speaker 2: potential DNA evidence. But it's unclear if this has taken
30:01
Speaker 2: place yet. So after 36 years, Elizabeth Campbell continues to
30:05
Speaker 2: remain a missing person.
30:08
Speaker 1: So I guess you could say the path went chilly.
30:12
Speaker 3: It's heartbreaking to think their lives had such a different
30:16
Speaker 3: trajectory until the night their daughter went missing and no
30:20
Speaker 3: one seemed to be willing to help them. their rest
30:23
Speaker 3: of their life was fixated on how do we locate Elizabeth?
30:28
Speaker 3: How do we try to find out where she is?
30:30
Speaker 3: It's possible she's alive and being hurt. We have to
30:33
Speaker 3: help her. And yet dad passes away. Mom is very
30:38
Speaker 3: elderly and not doing well and will likely pass away
30:40
Speaker 3: not knowing where Elizabeth is. It's sad because a life
30:46
Speaker 3: that should have been one of retirement and Elizabeth maybe
30:48
Speaker 3: getting married and possibly having grandbabies or her first big
30:51
Speaker 3: career after graduation. None of those things happened for this family.
30:56
Speaker 3: In fact, the whole rest of their narrative became we're
31:01
Speaker 3: private investigators doing everything, sacrificing everything we've worked for to
31:06
Speaker 3: make sure we bring our baby girl home. And unfortunately,
31:09
Speaker 3: that hasn't happened.
31:12
Speaker 1: Well, the most tragic missing persons cases are often the
31:15
Speaker 1: ones which may have been prevented if only a few
31:17
Speaker 1: things had gone differently. Elizabeth would not have gone missing
31:20
Speaker 1: if she hadn't decided to leave her boyfriend, Ricky Racehouse,
31:24
Speaker 1: or if Ricky had gone to pick her up from
31:25
Speaker 1: the 7-Eleven in Copper's Cove when she phoned him for
31:28
Speaker 1: a ride, but I'm sure he beats himself up for
31:30
Speaker 1: that decision. It also sounds like Elizabeth's mother, Sam Soon,
31:34
Speaker 1: was just seconds away from answering the phone when Elizabeth
31:37
Speaker 1: called her for a ride, and I know Sam Soon
31:40
Speaker 1: has always been haunted by that as well. I wish
31:43
Speaker 1: we had more information on the college student who picked
31:45
Speaker 1: up Elizabeth in the Green Gremlin and dropped her off
31:48
Speaker 1: at the 7-Eleven. It sounds like Elizabeth's parents spoke to
31:51
Speaker 1: him before the police did, but I'd like to think
31:54
Speaker 1: that he was formally questioned at some point and cleared
31:56
Speaker 1: as a suspect. But of course, if he had been
31:59
Speaker 1: able to drive Elizabeth all the way back to her
32:01
Speaker 1: residence in La Pansas and not dropped her off in
32:04
Speaker 1: Copperas Cove, things would have turned out differently. Elizabeth's family
32:08
Speaker 1: described her as being a naive, trusting girl, and since
32:11
Speaker 1: the clerk of the 7-Eleven recalled seeing her climb into
32:15
Speaker 1: a white or silver vehicle with a maroon vinyl top,
32:18
Speaker 1: it seems she likely hitched a ride with the wrong person.
32:22
Speaker 1: We still don't know the identity of the person who
32:24
Speaker 1: drove this vehicle, but since the driver of the Green
32:27
Speaker 1: Gremlin dropped Elizabeth off unharmed, it is possible that this
32:31
Speaker 1: other driver did the same thing at some point and
32:34
Speaker 1: was not necessarily responsible for Elizabeth's disappearance. She may have
32:38
Speaker 1: crossed paths with another person at another time who harmed her.
32:42
Speaker 3: That's very possible. I mean, if you think about it,
32:44
Speaker 3: even if this person takes her close to her parents' house,
32:47
Speaker 3: let's say they're not getting off the interstate, but they say, hey,
32:50
Speaker 3: I can drop you right at the edge of, you know,
32:53
Speaker 3: this street and this street, and you'll only have about
32:55
Speaker 3: a mile to walk to your parents. There's a chance
32:58
Speaker 3: someone could have abducted her on the walk to her parents.
33:00
Speaker 3: There is a chance this person in the white or
33:02
Speaker 3: silver car with a maroon top is the one who
33:05
Speaker 3: did something nefarious with her. But with the person with
33:08
Speaker 3: the green gremlin, the green gremlin, They're this college kid
33:12
Speaker 3: that's going, oh, my gosh, one of my fellow students
33:15
Speaker 3: is walking down the interstate. I'm going to pick her
33:18
Speaker 3: up and help take her. I'm grateful that he did
33:21
Speaker 3: because she did make it safely to that 7-Eleven and
33:23
Speaker 3: was attempting to make other phone calls. A lot of
33:26
Speaker 3: time passed. So that student really was doing something. They said, listen,
33:30
Speaker 3: it's convenient for me. I'll get you off the street
33:32
Speaker 3: and you can get to a phone. I don't think
33:35
Speaker 3: they had any idea. that she wasn't going to be
33:37
Speaker 3: able to get in touch with her sister, her parents,
33:40
Speaker 3: or her boyfriend and get a safe ride home. I
33:43
Speaker 3: agree with you. She got there safely. It's possible she
33:46
Speaker 3: got another 10 miles safely or two, you know, a
33:50
Speaker 3: mile away from her parents' house. And it's a third
33:52
Speaker 3: person that we need to be looking at.
33:55
Speaker 2: It's true.
33:55
Speaker 1: It's just so frustrating that we don't have like any
33:58
Speaker 1: tracking of Elizabeth's movements after she left the 7-Eleven. So
34:02
Speaker 1: But since the person who gave her a ride did
34:05
Speaker 1: not come forward, even after this case got a lot
34:08
Speaker 1: of publicity, I can see why people might think that
34:10
Speaker 1: this driver was the one who harmed her.
34:13
Speaker 2: It seems pretty likely that Elizabeth was taken against her
34:16
Speaker 2: will at some point. But the big question is, was
34:20
Speaker 2: she a victim of foul play, or was she actually
34:22
Speaker 2: kept alive and forced into sex trafficking? Well, whenever a
34:26
Speaker 2: young woman goes missing and there's no direct evidence of
34:29
Speaker 2: foul play, there will often be speculation about sex trafficking.
34:33
Speaker 2: But this might be one of the few cases where
34:35
Speaker 2: there is a distinct possibility. The original Unsolved Mysteries segment
34:40
Speaker 2: contained an interview with Lois Lee, the founder of Children
34:43
Speaker 2: of the Night, a private-funded non-profit organization which has rescued
34:48
Speaker 2: over 12,000 victims from sex trafficking since 1979. During her interview,
34:54
Speaker 2: Lee went into detail about how these victims were often
34:57
Speaker 2: repeatedly abused by their captors until their identity is stripped
35:01
Speaker 2: away and they're supplied with a new one. This process
35:04
Speaker 2: would allow the victim's captor to have total control over
35:07
Speaker 2: them at all times when they force them into sex trafficking.
35:11
Speaker 2: While no one wants to believe that their child was
35:13
Speaker 2: abducted and forced into sex slavery, I can understand why
35:17
Speaker 2: Elizabeth's parents would have thought this was the best case
35:20
Speaker 2: scenario because at least it would mean that she was
35:22
Speaker 2: still alive. If this theory was true, then the possessive
35:26
Speaker 2: Asian male seen at the convenience stores with the woman
35:29
Speaker 2: resembling Elizabeth might have been her pimp.
35:33
Speaker 3: As a mother and a father saying the best case
35:36
Speaker 3: scenario for our baby girl is that she's being human
35:39
Speaker 3: trafficked and kept and sold because at least we can
35:44
Speaker 3: get her back. Like that's what these poor human beings,
35:46
Speaker 3: that's their best case scenario, which is one of the
35:49
Speaker 3: most horrifying, pitiful situations you could think of. And yet
35:53
Speaker 3: you're right. It's the only scenario we really see here
35:56
Speaker 3: where she could still be alive because we know Elizabeth
36:00
Speaker 3: did not leave on her own. She was about to
36:03
Speaker 3: finish school. She had a boyfriend. She had plans to
36:05
Speaker 3: get back to her parents' house. She had a paycheck
36:08
Speaker 3: waiting for her. This is not someone who scripted out
36:10
Speaker 3: and planned to run away. She was frustrated. She wanted
36:14
Speaker 3: to get away from her boyfriend and make a point
36:16
Speaker 3: that he didn't do what she wanted and now he
36:18
Speaker 3: was going to be punished for it and he did
36:20
Speaker 3: the exact same thing to her. I'm going to punish
36:22
Speaker 3: you for a stupid decision you made leaving this house
36:25
Speaker 3: before I was ready to take you. And yet this
36:28
Speaker 3: family dedicates the rest of their life to saying, our
36:32
Speaker 3: best bet is that we rescue her from a human
36:34
Speaker 3: trafficking situation. And you have to think about how human
36:37
Speaker 3: trafficking works. Jules, you described it beautifully. The reality is
36:41
Speaker 3: through the use of alcohol and drugs and manipulation and abuse,
36:46
Speaker 3: they get these men and women that are trafficked for sex,
36:50
Speaker 3: they get them in a condition so vulnerable that so
36:53
Speaker 3: dependent on their abductor that they really lose sight of
36:59
Speaker 3: what their real name is, where they live, who they're
37:02
Speaker 3: trying to get back to. And there's all kinds of
37:06
Speaker 3: complications like Stockholm syndrome and all these issues where in
37:10
Speaker 3: order to survive, I have to play into this life
37:13
Speaker 3: I now lead And escaping that is nearly impossible, which
37:17
Speaker 3: is why this Asian man taking this woman out with
37:22
Speaker 3: a grip on the back of her arm, being brazen
37:24
Speaker 3: enough to take her in public, even if it's not Elizabeth,
37:28
Speaker 3: what that shows is that he's gotten that victim so
37:32
Speaker 3: conditioned that he can take her in public and know
37:35
Speaker 3: that she's not going to say something or ask for
37:37
Speaker 3: help because she's that dependent on her captor. It's such
37:40
Speaker 3: a tragic, scary situation.
37:46
Speaker 1: But there's a big issue which prevents me from believing
37:48
Speaker 1: that the woman all these eyewitnesses saw was Elizabeth. The
37:52
Speaker 1: sightings took place a very short time after she disappeared.
37:56
Speaker 1: The first sighting was only six days after Elizabeth was
37:59
Speaker 1: reported missing, and I had my doubts that a kidnapper
38:02
Speaker 1: would take his victim out into a busy public place
38:05
Speaker 1: so soon after he abducted her. Like Jules just said,
38:08
Speaker 1: Lois Lee went into great detail about the methods that
38:11
Speaker 1: sex traffickers will use to control their victims, such as
38:15
Speaker 1: keeping them confined, and putting them through hell for a
38:17
Speaker 1: protracted period of time. By using such tactics as physical
38:21
Speaker 1: and sexual abuse, and depriving them of food, water, and light,
38:26
Speaker 1: the captor creates, as Lee describes it, a quote-unquote invisible leash.
38:31
Speaker 1: It will reach the point where they will feel comfortable
38:33
Speaker 1: taking their victim out in public, because they're confident she
38:36
Speaker 1: won't dare try to escape. Well, could Elizabeth's kidnapper have
38:40
Speaker 1: reached this point after holding her in captivity for only
38:43
Speaker 1: six days? Granted, The first sighting took place in Waco,
38:47
Speaker 1: 85 miles from where Elizabeth disappeared, so maybe her captor
38:51
Speaker 1: thought it was okay to bring her out in a
38:53
Speaker 1: public place which was far from home. But remember, the
38:57
Speaker 1: second sighting took place in Copperas Cove, the very same
39:00
Speaker 1: town she vanished from. By this point, two weeks had
39:04
Speaker 1: passed since Elizabeth went missing, so her face was going
39:07
Speaker 1: to be plastered all over the area on missing persons
39:09
Speaker 1: flyers and in the newspapers, making it an enormous risk
39:13
Speaker 1: to bring her out into the open. It also really
39:16
Speaker 1: doesn't make much sense for someone to kidnap Elizabeth in
39:19
Speaker 1: Copper's Cove, take her 85 miles away to Waco, and
39:23
Speaker 1: then bring her all the way back to the same
39:24
Speaker 1: place she was abducted from two weeks later.
39:28
Speaker 3: That is a very suspicious... occurrence. When you look at
39:32
Speaker 3: the fact that the first one was 85 miles away,
39:34
Speaker 3: I do believe there's a chance that the abductor would
39:37
Speaker 3: be confident enough to say, listen, she's, you know, high
39:41
Speaker 3: on drugs. She maybe is intoxicated. Maybe he's threatened to
39:45
Speaker 3: hurt her family and has given her information. Like, I
39:48
Speaker 3: know your mother lives here and her name's this. We
39:51
Speaker 3: already have someone watching her. I mean, there's there's a
39:53
Speaker 3: lot of very powerful tactics you could use on somebody
39:56
Speaker 3: a few days into captivity that would keep my head
39:58
Speaker 3: down and my mouth quiet. But when you talk about
40:02
Speaker 3: then I'm going to transport her back to the place
40:04
Speaker 3: where people are currently looking for her. Very, very suspicious.
40:08
Speaker 3: I will say, though, Robin, I believe you said or
40:11
Speaker 3: maybe Jules, you were telling us that one of the sightings,
40:14
Speaker 3: a third sighting was a girl with a a tooth
40:18
Speaker 3: that was slightly off or tilted in front of the
40:21
Speaker 3: other tooth, which is very, very distinct when you look
40:24
Speaker 3: at somebody's smile. And that sighting is the one that
40:28
Speaker 3: had me going, okay, tell me more about that, right?
40:31
Speaker 3: Tell me more about where this girl was and what
40:34
Speaker 3: we saw and who she was with. But of the
40:37
Speaker 3: other two, I think it could be the same girl,
40:38
Speaker 3: but potentially not Elizabeth.
40:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, like the one that you're talking about took place
40:44
Speaker 1: in Garland, which is 150 miles away from where Elizabeth
40:48
Speaker 1: went missing. And it was also two months after the fact.
40:50
Speaker 1: So that would have been enough time for a captor
40:52
Speaker 1: to keep her under control and make her reach the
40:55
Speaker 1: point where even if she goes out in public, she's
40:58
Speaker 1: not going to try to do anything because the captor
41:00
Speaker 1: has such control over her. So you definitely can't rule
41:03
Speaker 1: out the possibility that the girl in Garland was her.
41:06
Speaker 2: I always think of Colleen Stan when I think of
41:10
Speaker 2: somebody who had Stockholm Syndrome and She's classic case of it.
41:15
Speaker 2: But she was told by I can't remember what the
41:18
Speaker 2: man's name was and his wife that there was like
41:21
Speaker 2: people watching them that was like the organization or the
41:25
Speaker 2: family or something like that. And so she believed that
41:27
Speaker 2: if she ever tried to escape, that these people would
41:30
Speaker 2: capture her and that there was always these people watching
41:33
Speaker 2: and that he was part of this network. So over time,
41:36
Speaker 2: you can chip away at somebody's sense of self, and
41:39
Speaker 2: you can also put these ideas out there that there's
41:42
Speaker 2: people watching, or there's certain types of consequences, or we
41:46
Speaker 2: will come for your family if you try to escape,
41:48
Speaker 2: we know where you live. There's so many different tactics
41:51
Speaker 2: that captors can use, so we definitely can't rule out
41:54
Speaker 2: the possibility here. And I guess it's not impossible that
41:58
Speaker 2: the scared-looking woman that the witness saw in Garland two
42:01
Speaker 2: months after Elizabeth vanished could have been her. However, as
42:05
Speaker 2: we've stated on this podcast numerous times before, there are
42:08
Speaker 2: so many missing persons cases in which eyewitnesses have been
42:12
Speaker 2: mistaken about who they saw. So I'm actually inclined to
42:15
Speaker 2: believe that none of the three sightings were actually of Elizabeth.
42:19
Speaker 2: All that being said, the two sightings of the woman
42:22
Speaker 2: and her possessive male companion are so similar that I'm
42:25
Speaker 2: willing to believe that they might actually have been the
42:27
Speaker 2: same people who happened to stop at separate convenience stores
42:31
Speaker 2: in Waco and Copperas Cove. So I'd be very curious
42:34
Speaker 2: to know what the actual backstory for these two people
42:37
Speaker 2: might be. And that's not to say that the Asian
42:40
Speaker 2: man was a pimp and the woman was a sex worker,
42:43
Speaker 2: but it's possible they were a couple trapped in a
42:45
Speaker 2: very controlling relationship, and the man was a jerk who
42:48
Speaker 2: always kept his spouse on a tight leash whenever they
42:51
Speaker 2: went out in public.
42:53
Speaker 3: Very true, Jules. That dynamic can mirror a lot of
42:56
Speaker 3: different relationships, right? It could be a drug dealer and his, um, buyer,
43:00
Speaker 3: it can be a sex worker and or pimp, but
43:02
Speaker 3: it could also be like you said, a abusive boyfriend
43:06
Speaker 3: or husband who's manipulating his partner, or, you know, somebody
43:11
Speaker 3: who let's say, you broke up and it went back
43:14
Speaker 3: to domestic violence situation. And they're kind of caught in
43:17
Speaker 3: that I need to escape. I know this is unsafe,
43:19
Speaker 3: but I can't and they're under such control that they
43:22
Speaker 3: function in a very similar way as someone who would
43:24
Speaker 3: be kidnapped or taken against their will. And so Very,
43:28
Speaker 3: very good point to point out.
43:31
Speaker 1: The most bizarre clue in this case is undoubtedly the
43:33
Speaker 1: discovery of Elizabeth's purse in the property room of the
43:36
Speaker 1: Crockett County Sheriff's Department in Ozona four years after she vanished.
43:41
Speaker 1: It's pretty strange that no one knows how it got there,
43:44
Speaker 1: but that's likely just the result of poor record keeping
43:47
Speaker 1: from the department. However, one interesting detail which always stuck
43:51
Speaker 1: out was that all of Elizabeth's identification and her credit
43:54
Speaker 1: card were left in the purse, but some of her
43:56
Speaker 1: personal items, including her makeup and hairbrush, were missing. If
44:01
Speaker 1: you were to look at the sex trafficking angle, you
44:03
Speaker 1: could almost interpret this as Elizabeth's abductor getting rid of
44:06
Speaker 1: all of her identification to symbolize the stripping away of
44:10
Speaker 1: her former identity, but he allows her to hold on
44:12
Speaker 1: to her makeup and hairbrush while keeping her in captivity.
44:16
Speaker 3: Very true. It's something that he needs her to do,
44:19
Speaker 3: take care of herself, um, in a physical way so
44:23
Speaker 3: that she is a usable item, right? So having makeup
44:27
Speaker 3: to look beautiful and her hairbrush, those are things that
44:32
Speaker 3: he would need her to use on a regular basis.
44:34
Speaker 3: But by taking her personal belongings, her purse, taking all
44:38
Speaker 3: of the identifiers away from her and having her leave
44:42
Speaker 3: that behind, That's that kind of last-ditch effort. Look, now
44:45
Speaker 3: no one's going to be able to find you. You
44:47
Speaker 3: don't have any of your personal belongings. How would you
44:49
Speaker 3: even get help if you wanted help? Because no one
44:52
Speaker 3: would know who you are and you can't prove it.
44:54
Speaker 3: So definitely could be a manipulative technique. She could have
44:57
Speaker 3: also set it down to hope that someone was watching
45:01
Speaker 3: and trying to help her, right? Like, let's say he
45:04
Speaker 3: pulled over at a gas station and allows her to
45:06
Speaker 3: go to the restroom on a very, very tight leash.
45:08
Speaker 1: Did he.
45:09
Speaker 3: look away and she set it down in the restroom?
45:11
Speaker 3: Did she set it on the counter and leave purposely?
45:13
Speaker 3: Did she set it by a payphone purposely, hoping that
45:17
Speaker 3: someone would look not four years later, but four minutes
45:21
Speaker 3: later and say, very odd, a girl just left her purse,
45:23
Speaker 3: we got to find her.
45:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is why it's so frustrating, because you think
45:27
Speaker 1: that if they had started an investigation right after they
45:30
Speaker 1: found the purse, then maybe things would have turned out differently.
45:33
Speaker 1: Because If it's a scenario like you described, they could
45:36
Speaker 1: go to this gas station and see if they have
45:38
Speaker 1: any security cameras and see if Elizabeth pops up in
45:41
Speaker 1: any of them. But of course, since they didn't do
45:43
Speaker 1: an investigation until four years after the fact, this wouldn't
45:46
Speaker 1: have been possible.
45:48
Speaker 2: However, I'm inclined to dismiss the sex trafficking theory as
45:52
Speaker 2: I believe that Elizabeth was likely kidnapped and murdered by
45:55
Speaker 2: an opportunistic predator. When Elizabeth left her boyfriend's home, she
45:59
Speaker 2: was seen picked up by the college student while walking
46:02
Speaker 2: down Highway 190. and he dropped her off at the
46:05
Speaker 2: 7-11 in Copperas Cove. In order for Elizabeth to make
46:08
Speaker 2: it from the 7-11 back to her home in Lampasas,
46:11
Speaker 2: it would have required traveling west on Highway 190. And
46:15
Speaker 2: if you were to drive through Lampasas and continue west
46:18
Speaker 2: on that highway, you would wind up in Ozona. So
46:21
Speaker 2: if the person who gave Elizabeth a ride at the
46:24
Speaker 2: 7-11 was her killer, they might have continued going west
46:27
Speaker 2: on Highway 190 before they eventually murdered and disposed of
46:31
Speaker 2: her body. If they didn't live in Copperas Cove and
46:34
Speaker 2: were just passing through the area, they may not have
46:37
Speaker 2: even realized that Elizabeth's purse was still in their vehicle
46:41
Speaker 2: until they reached Ozona, so they decided to toss it.
46:44
Speaker 2: The person who turned in the purse to the Crockett
46:46
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Office may have just been an innocent bystander
46:50
Speaker 2: who found it.
46:52
Speaker 3: Jules, you mentioned a really strong point. It is a heavy,
46:56
Speaker 3: big industry to run a sex trafficking ring. And when
47:00
Speaker 3: you think about where she was, she's in this college town. Clearly,
47:05
Speaker 3: there's college students passing by her that say, well, one
47:07
Speaker 3: of our classmates is walking down the interstate. I'm going
47:09
Speaker 3: to help her get somewhere safe. But not everybody is
47:12
Speaker 3: watching out for the people around them. Some people watch
47:15
Speaker 3: for someone who's vulnerable that they can pull over and
47:18
Speaker 3: get into their car for a power dynamic and a
47:23
Speaker 3: struggle where they can sexually assault their victim, murder them
47:26
Speaker 3: and move on.
47:27
Speaker 2: Right.
47:27
Speaker 3: The idea that you have to be responsible for a
47:30
Speaker 3: victim who's alive in your care. Unless it is a
47:34
Speaker 3: well-organized network of human traffickers who took her, it is
47:38
Speaker 3: more likely that someone said, wow, there's a young girl
47:40
Speaker 3: in the middle of the night walking down the interstate.
47:43
Speaker 3: I'm going to pick her up and ask her if
47:44
Speaker 3: she wants a ride and I can do whatever I
47:47
Speaker 3: want with her. And when she says, I need to
47:49
Speaker 3: go to my parents' house, this is where it is.
47:50
Speaker 1: They say, sure.
47:52
Speaker 3: They start in that direction. And you see this all
47:54
Speaker 3: the time where the person says, and they did not
47:57
Speaker 3: turn off where they were supposed to. We started heading
47:59
Speaker 3: in an opposite direction, right? They wouldn't pull over. And
48:02
Speaker 3: then they take advantage of the person in their car.
48:05
Speaker 3: A victim who's deceased is less likely to get you
48:08
Speaker 3: caught than someone you let go later. So I think
48:11
Speaker 3: you could be onto something where they need to just
48:14
Speaker 3: get rid of that purse and they try to dispose
48:16
Speaker 3: of it and it's actually found.
48:19
Speaker 1: I mean, if it wasn't for the fact that Elizabeth
48:21
Speaker 1: was seen climbing into a car at the 7-Eleven, I
48:24
Speaker 1: would be inclined to think that maybe she was abducted
48:26
Speaker 1: by a truck driver because she We've found that so
48:30
Speaker 1: many truck drivers turn out to be serial killers because
48:32
Speaker 1: you find out because they travel through the area, they
48:35
Speaker 1: never stop at one location. So if they pick someone
48:38
Speaker 1: up in one town and then murder them, they can
48:40
Speaker 1: just evade the authorities by just staying away from that area.
48:43
Speaker 1: And that would explain why her purse was found in
48:46
Speaker 1: a zona hundreds of miles away.
48:49
Speaker 2: I always think of Amber Tuccaro's case. She was at MMIW.
48:53
Speaker 2: And I think it happened in Edmonton. She was on
48:57
Speaker 2: the phone with her brother who was in jail. And
49:00
Speaker 2: because he was in jail at the time when this
49:02
Speaker 2: guy wasn't turning where he was supposed to, and she
49:05
Speaker 2: was very aware of it, she was voicing her concerns
49:08
Speaker 2: to her brother. It was so eerie because we have
49:11
Speaker 2: this phone call left behind, but no idea who this
49:14
Speaker 2: man is and no idea what happened to Amber. Are
49:16
Speaker 2: either of you familiar with that case?
49:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually covered it on The Trail Went Cold
49:21
Speaker 1: a couple years ago, so I have heard that audio.
49:23
Speaker 1: They have never released the entire audio of the call,
49:26
Speaker 1: just like a one-minute snippet, but it's still pretty terrifying
49:29
Speaker 1: because Amber is clearly concerned that this man is not
49:32
Speaker 1: driving her where he's supposed to, and he's trying to
49:35
Speaker 1: tell her to calm down and stuff, but you know
49:37
Speaker 1: that whoever this man was would kill her like a
49:40
Speaker 1: short time later. It's a major shame that the sheriff's
49:43
Speaker 1: office just put Elizabeth's purse aside and did not realize
49:46
Speaker 1: it belonged to a missing person until years later. But
49:50
Speaker 1: it's possible this purse may still be the key to
49:52
Speaker 1: solving the case, as investigators have stated that they hope
49:55
Speaker 1: to perform DNA testing, and fingers crossed that this might
49:59
Speaker 1: turn up some new evidence. At the time the Unsolved
50:02
Speaker 1: Mysteries segment originally aired, Elizabeth had been missing for only
50:05
Speaker 1: a year and a half, so there was still hope
50:07
Speaker 1: that she was being held in captivity somewhere and was
50:10
Speaker 1: still alive. However, since nearly 36 years have now passed,
50:14
Speaker 1: it seems likely that even if Elizabeth was kept alive
50:17
Speaker 1: for a period of time after she disappeared, the odds
50:20
Speaker 1: of her still being with us today are not good.
50:23
Speaker 1: We know that the Campbell family has worked relentlessly to
50:26
Speaker 1: try and find Elizabeth, and even though her father has
50:29
Speaker 1: passed away and her mother might not have much time left,
50:32
Speaker 1: her siblings are still working diligently to keep her case
50:35
Speaker 1: in the spotlight. So if you happen to have any
50:37
Speaker 1: information on the unsolved disappearance of Elizabeth Campbell, please contact
50:41
Speaker 1: the Copperas Cove Police Department at 817-547-4273. That's 817-547-4273. Jules, Ashley,
50:44
Speaker 1: any final thoughts on this case?
50:56
Speaker 3: So this one, like you said, it's incredibly traumatic because
51:00
Speaker 3: you have a missing person. There's no finality to this
51:05
Speaker 3: case except for the fact that the people who are
51:07
Speaker 3: fighting the hardest for Elizabeth are passing away. And they're
51:11
Speaker 3: passing away without answers to it. And so it's incredibly devastating.
51:15
Speaker 3: I find it so heroic that she has a mother
51:19
Speaker 3: and a sister who have said, we will never stop
51:22
Speaker 3: fighting for Elizabeth and to find out what happened to her.
51:24
Speaker 3: Her father passed away doing the same thing, making that
51:27
Speaker 3: the priority for their life. It speaks volumes about the
51:30
Speaker 3: kind of people they are. I'm so disappointed in law
51:33
Speaker 3: enforcement in this case that they assumed a 20-year-old girl
51:37
Speaker 3: who had everything going for her, abandoned her. everything in
51:40
Speaker 3: her life, put her family through all of this trauma
51:44
Speaker 3: over a fight with her boyfriend. She was young. She
51:47
Speaker 3: was naive. She was acting out of emotion. None of
51:51
Speaker 3: that should have cost her her life or her freedom.
51:55
Speaker 3: And here we are almost four decades later saying what
51:59
Speaker 3: happened to Elizabeth. One of the more devastating cases you
52:02
Speaker 3: look at when you see such minor acts kind of
52:06
Speaker 3: fell into line to set her up for disaster that night.
52:10
Speaker 2: I feel like this is a true sliding doors type
52:13
Speaker 2: of case. So many things conspired to set Elizabeth on
52:17
Speaker 2: this path where this potentially opportunistic predator abducted her and
52:23
Speaker 2: murdered her. We just don't know what became of her
52:27
Speaker 2: and where her body lays if she is indeed deceased,
52:30
Speaker 2: which I think there's a strong likelihood of that. I
52:32
Speaker 2: think we've got the sister who borrowed the car. And
52:36
Speaker 2: like Ashley and I'd said earlier, she probably has that
52:39
Speaker 2: survivor's guilt and goes, wow, like if I hadn't taken
52:42
Speaker 2: the car, then Elizabeth would still be alive. And then
52:45
Speaker 2: we have Ricky who there's two instances, you know, she
52:48
Speaker 2: wanted to leave and just left. And then also when
52:53
Speaker 2: she wanted, when she wanted Ricky to come pick her
52:56
Speaker 2: up and said that she was scared, I think Ricky
52:58
Speaker 2: was probably pissed off that she just hightailed it out
53:00
Speaker 2: of there and was like, no, you know, I'm busy studying.
53:03
Speaker 2: I'm doing this. And I'm sure he went on to
53:05
Speaker 2: regret that. And I'm sure he still regrets that. These
53:08
Speaker 2: are the types of things that stick with people. And
53:11
Speaker 2: then we've got her mom who... goes to answer the phone,
53:14
Speaker 2: but it stops ringing. And I'm sure that not a
53:16
Speaker 2: day goes by that she doesn't think about what would
53:20
Speaker 2: have happened had she picked up the phone and was
53:22
Speaker 2: able to go, I'll pick you up. And I think
53:25
Speaker 2: that that just makes this even more heartbreaking because we've
53:29
Speaker 2: got law enforcement that clearly didn't do a good job
53:32
Speaker 2: from the outset along the way, a family that's you know,
53:35
Speaker 2: had to sell considerable resources to be able to fund
53:39
Speaker 2: the search for Elizabeth and to not have any answers.
53:43
Speaker 2: I just really hope that if anybody has any information,
53:46
Speaker 2: that they'll come forward before it's too late and her
53:50
Speaker 2: mother passes away, too.
53:53
Speaker 1: Yes, I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that
53:55
Speaker 1: I received a very nice message from Elizabeth's sister, Carol Ann,
53:59
Speaker 1: shortly after I released my Trail When Cold mini-sode several
54:02
Speaker 1: years ago. And when you read the full story, you
54:04
Speaker 1: can understand why she was so grateful that I covered it.
54:07
Speaker 1: Because just the way she said, I'm just so happy
54:10
Speaker 1: to see that people still care for Elizabeth all these years.
54:13
Speaker 1: Because her family, like, went through an ordeal early on
54:16
Speaker 1: where they could not get the police to do anything.
54:19
Speaker 1: Where they tried to report her missing and they said, nope,
54:22
Speaker 1: you have to wait 72 hours. And then when they
54:24
Speaker 1: waited the 72 hours, the police said, oh, we just
54:26
Speaker 1: think that she ran away on her own. So essentially,
54:29
Speaker 1: the Campbell family was doing, like, all the investigative work,
54:32
Speaker 1: traveling around, circulating missing persons flyers, and that's where they
54:36
Speaker 1: turned up this lead about potential sex trafficking, because they
54:39
Speaker 1: were the ones who spoke to these convenience store clerks
54:42
Speaker 1: who thought they had seen Elizabeth with another man who
54:45
Speaker 1: was controlling her. But I do think that's probably a
54:48
Speaker 1: red herring, that these witnesses probably saw a completely different
54:51
Speaker 1: woman who may have been in her own abusive relationship,
54:54
Speaker 1: And I think it's most likely that Elizabeth was abducted
54:57
Speaker 1: and murdered sometime after she left the 7-Eleven. But I'm
55:01
Speaker 1: sure her remains are out there somewhere, but her family
55:04
Speaker 1: definitely deserves a resolution and deserves closure because, like we
55:08
Speaker 1: just talked about, she's lost her father, her mother is
55:11
Speaker 1: getting up there in age, and I've seen Carol Ann
55:13
Speaker 1: do media interviews over the years, so it sounds like
55:16
Speaker 1: even after both their parents are gone, they're probably going
55:20
Speaker 1: to pick up the reins and continue to spread as
55:22
Speaker 1: much awareness as they can about this case. to try
55:25
Speaker 1: to find out what happened, because even if Elizabeth is
55:27
Speaker 1: no longer with us, her family deserves to have some answers.
55:31
Speaker 1: So that brings an end to this month's bonus Patreon mini-sode,
55:34
Speaker 1: and we thank you all so much for your support,
55:37
Speaker 1: and join us again next month when we release another
55:39
Speaker 1: bonus episode just like this.