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The Disappearance of Mike Jefferson Adams · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Call. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen eighty seven, Abilene sat
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: at kind of a crossroads of old and New Texas.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: With more than one hundred thousand residents, it was one
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of the largest cities in the state's west. A regional
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: center for education, healthcare, and commerce. Diis Air Force Base
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: brought a steady stream of new faces to town, while
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: generations of local families remained rooted in neighborhoods where people
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: still recognized one another at grocery stores and football games.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a small town, but it wasn't necessarily the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: big city either. Teenagers worked after school, saved for college,
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  Speaker 1: and cruised the city's streets on summer nights. Parents expected
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: their children to come home. A vast majority he did
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: nothing about Abilene back then, could have prepared its residence
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: for a mystery that would remain unsolved for nearly four decades.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: On a summer night in nineteen eighty seven, eighteen year
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: old Mike Adams pulled into the driveway of his family's
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  Speaker 1: home on Peach Street. Within minutes, he was gone. There
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: were no signs of a struggle left behind, No screams
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: heard by neighbors. Just a young man who came home
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  Speaker 1: from work, stepped out of his car, approached another vehicle
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  Speaker 1: waiting in the street, and vanished. Nearly forty years later,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: no one has been able to explain what happened. For
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the missing young man's friends and family, the passage of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: time has never changed the central question, who was waiting
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: for Mike that night? Michael Jefferson Adams was born on
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: March twenty eighth, nineteen sixty nine, in Hector, Texas, to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: parents Georgia Ann Hrasdel Adams and Howard Lee Adams. Most
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: people knew him as Mike. He was the youngest of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: three brothers. The closest one in age was born in
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, almost six years before him. When Mike
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: was only seven, His mother died after battling a long illness.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy seven. His father remarried a woman named
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Barbara Jean. The marriage gave Mike steps ins, including a
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: step sister named Beverly. Long before he disappeared, Mike had
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: developed a reputation as the kind of young man people
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: genuinely enjoyed being around. Those who knew him describe him
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: as kind, funny, intelligent, generous, and hardworking, descriptions that appeared
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: time and time again whenever people talk about him. What
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: stands out most when looking back at Mike's life is
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: how much of it seemed to be moving forward at
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  Speaker 1: eighteen years old. He wasn't just drifting through those uncertain
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: months between high school and adulthood. He actually had a plan.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: More than that, he was already putting that plan into motion.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Mike attended Cooper High School and was a good student
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: academically and certainly more motivated than most, so much so
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that he qualified for early gret situation and left school
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: five months ahead of most of his classmates. For teenagers,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: graduating high school is a milestone, but for Mike it
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: was already in the rear view mirror. By the summer
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven, he had enrolled at Texas Tech
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: University in Lubbock and planned to pursue a degree in architecture.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Architecture appealed to him for many of the same reasons
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that other interests had captured his attention throughout his life.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Mike was creative, but he was also disciplined. He loved
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and lived art and design, but he also appreciated precision, structure,
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  Speaker 1: and detail. It made him a perfect candidate for his
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: chosen career path, and those traits had followed him through
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: much of his youth. Music had also been one of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the constants in his life. While attending Jefferson Junior High,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Mike was an All City band member that's him and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: his bandmates, and later at Cooper High, he played snare
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  Speaker 1: drum in the marching band. Anyone who has spent time
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: around a marching band understands that snare drummers carry a
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: unique importance. Precision, timing, and consistency are their responsibilities. One
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: missed beat is obvious. Mike took pride in those performances.
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  Speaker 1: Drumming wasn't simply an extra curricular activity that filled a
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: few hours after school. It was something he genuinely enjoyed,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and music followed him home. He played piano regularly through
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: his senior year and continued practicing even as school work
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and plans for college demanded more of his time. But
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Mike's interests weren't limited to music and art. He also
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: enjoyed sports like tennis and golf. He had an interest
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: in law enforcement too, and occasionally participated in ride alongs
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  Speaker 1: with an active Buffalo Gap police officer. Buffalo Gap is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a small town just south of Abilene. Mike, above all else,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: seemed genuinely curious about the world around him. Looking back,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: there's a sense that Mike was standing at the beginning
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: of a life filled with possibilities. For him. As he
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: planned his move to Texas Tech in Lubbock, that city
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  Speaker 1: represented far more than just classes and a college campus.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: It represented independence and adulthood, a new place with new
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  Speaker 1: friends and new opportunities, a chance to build a future
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  Speaker 1: entirely his own. To help pay for that future, Mike
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: worked at an M System grocery store located at North
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: twelfth Street and Mockingbird Lane. His father, Howard, who worked
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  Speaker 1: at a different Abilene location, got him the job. M
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: System is a now defunct food store famous for its
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: original aisle layout, all in the shape of the letter M,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: which had long been phased out by the time Mike
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  Speaker 1: worked there, after another grocery store chain bought the company.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Like many young adults preparing for college, Mike worked hard.
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  Speaker 1: The job had already helped him accomplish something he was
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: proud of. He had purchased his own car, a red
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Dotson two eighty z X for an eighteen year old
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven. That car was more than transportation.
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  Speaker 1: It symbolized freedom and accomplishment, something he had earned through
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  Speaker 1: his own efforts. After graduating early, Mike increased his hours
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: at M System and moved into a full time role
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  Speaker 1: so he could save additional money before leaving for Texas Tech.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Everything about his life suggested someone preparing for the future.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Nothing suggested someone preparing to disappear. He had plans and responsibilities,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: commitments waiting for him in Lubbock. Most importantly, he had
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: spent years working toward those goals. People who knew him
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: couldn't imagine him abandoning all of it without explanation. It's
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: obvious and immeasurably tragic that he didn't. On Monday, June eighth,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, Mike was working at M System. At
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  Speaker 1: some point early in his shift, his manager sent him
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  Speaker 1: home to change clothes because he was wearing khaki pants
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  Speaker 1: instead of black, which was in violation of the company's
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  Speaker 1: dress code. Back at his house on Peach Street, Mike
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: complained to his parents that he felt humiliated by the incident.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: He spoke with them about quitting, complaining that the store
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: manager's style had everyone's morale low. In a heart to heart,
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  Speaker 1: his father, Howard, talked him into keeping the job. While
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: changing clothes, he dropped his wallet in his room, apparently
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: without realizing he did. He then returned to work. Mike
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was originally scheduled until two pm. At around one pm,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: he learned that he would instead be needed until closing.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Whether that is unusual or significant is unknown, but a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: recent promotion likely required he stay when needed. Whatever the case,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Mike finished the shift. As part of his duties, he
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: was responsible for closing the cash registers, setting the alarm,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and locking up the store, which closed at ten pm.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Mike left after his duties were complete. Sources place his
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: departure between eleven and eleven fifteen, although the entire timeline
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: varies slightly between reports and recollections. Multiple co workers were
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: said to be in the parking lot when Mike left, However,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: accounts about exactly what happened there have differed over the years.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: At approximately eleven thirty pm, he arrived at his family's house,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: located in Abilene's Town South neighborhood. This is the last
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  Speaker 1: confirmed point in the timeline and well documented since Mike's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: stepsister Beverly saw him. His arrival had woken her up,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: either the sound of his engine, his lights shining in
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  Speaker 1: her window, or a combination of both, and she stepped
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  Speaker 1: over to her window to see what was going on.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: When she did, she noticed a second vehicle idling in
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  Speaker 1: the street. Beverly saw Mike get out of his car,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: walk down to the waiting vehicle and speak with the driver.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: She said he appeared comfortable doing so. In fact, Mike
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: leaned up against the car with his arms partially inside
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  Speaker 1: while speaking. Nothing suggested he was fearful. There appeared to
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: be no heated argument, nothing that made it look like
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  Speaker 1: Mike felt threatened in any way. Because the interaction appeared normal,
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  Speaker 1: Beverly assumed Mike was talking with someone he knew. She
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  Speaker 1: went back to sleep and never saw him again. On Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: June ninth, nineteen eighty seven, Mike Adam red Dotson two
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  Speaker 1: eighty ZX sat in the driveway. It was in a
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  Speaker 1: spot it wasn't normally, as Mike should have switched it
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  Speaker 1: around with another one of the family vehicles. That he
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: failed to do so was odd, but there was something
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  Speaker 1: even stranger when she went to ask him if he'd
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  Speaker 1: move his car so she could get out. Mike's stepmother, Barbara,
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  Speaker 1: discovered that his bed had not been slept in. Mike's
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  Speaker 1: wallet was still in his bedroom, and nothing appeared to
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  Speaker 1: be missing out of it. There was also a lot
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  Speaker 1: of cash somewhere around one hundred and eighty dollars. Mike, however,
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  Speaker 1: was gone. It wasn't like him. Not only was he
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  Speaker 1: responsible and dependable, he simply never stayed gone long without
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  Speaker 1: letting his father or stepmother know where he'd be. He
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: was reported missing that day. Detectives, after gathering all the
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  Speaker 1: known facts, appear to have theorized a few possibilities right
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  Speaker 1: off the bat. They believed Mike may have thought he
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  Speaker 1: was going for a short ride or visiting someone briefly,
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  Speaker 1: only to be harmed in some way. Instead. It was
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: also a possibility that he was told he needed to
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  Speaker 1: do something work related. As detectives began piecing together Mike's
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  Speaker 1: final days, his workplace repeatedly became somewhere, theories and tips
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  Speaker 1: revolved around. Nothing ever emerged proving that something connected to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: m system caused Mike's disappearance. But throughout the investigation, an
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  Speaker 1: unusual collection of details continued, pulling attention back toward the store. Unusual,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: at least in hindsight. Mike had worked at the grocery
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  Speaker 1: store for a little over two years, and he was
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: well liked by both his fellow employees and customers. However,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: he was also described as somewhat of a loner, someone
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  Speaker 1: who kept to himself, did his job, and interacted little
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  Speaker 1: on a social level, though he was more open with
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  Speaker 1: the store's security guard. Not long before his disappearance, Mike
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  Speaker 1: had been promoted into a position that carried additional responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: For many employees, that might have been a positive development.
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  Speaker 1: He was honest and fair. For others, it is believed
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  Speaker 1: it created tension. Mike was intelligent, dependable, charismatic, and motivated,
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  Speaker 1: the type of teenager who moved up the ladder naturally.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't hurt that the blonde haired, blue eyed teenager
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  Speaker 1: was tall and slim at six foot one and one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds, But promotions have a way of
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  Speaker 1: creating resentment, especially when they involve someone younger than the
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  Speaker 1: people who expected to receive them. At the same time,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Mike was experiencing ongoing friction with the store manager, Steve Turner.
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  Speaker 1: Being sent home to change clothing was far from the
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  Speaker 1: only trouble he had had. The disagreements with Turner were
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: significant enough that Mike had drafted a formal complaint letter
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  Speaker 1: addressed to M System's corporate office. The letter reportedly focused
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  Speaker 1: on morale problems within the store and specifically addressed what
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  Speaker 1: Mike viewed as mistreatment of special needs employees by management.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: The fact that an eighteen year old employee was willing
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  Speaker 1: to document concerns and prepare a formal complaint certainly says
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  Speaker 1: something about his character. Mike was the type of person
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: who spoke up when he believed something wasn't right. Yet,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: for reasons that remain unclear, he never mailed that letter,
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  Speaker 1: and a few days later he disappeared. Whether the letter
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: had anything to do with what happened to him has
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: never been established, but it wasn't the only unusual event
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  Speaker 1: connected to the store during the weeks before Mike went missing.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: According to family and coworkers, Mike Adams had witnessed a
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: theft inside MS System just days before he vanished. He'd
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: seen a coworker taking merchandise from the back storage room
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: like any employee trying to do the right thing. He
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: reported what he'd seen, but the response wasn't what he expected.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Rather than focusing on the theft itself, Mike's manager questioned
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: why he'd been in the storeroom in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: It was a curious reaction, especially because access to that
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: area required a key, which Mike had. The incident raised
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: questions that, given the information that is publicly known, were
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: never fully answered. Mike's store keys were never recovered. Then
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: there was another incident. Another employee from a different m
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: System location who occasionally worked shifts at the Mockingbird store,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: had been attacked and beaten by several employees also associated
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: with that location. The timing was notable. The assault occurred
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: only days before Mike disappeared. The employee, in fact, is
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: said to have quit on the very day Mike was
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: reported missing. Details surrounding that incident have never been fully
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: explained publicly, but it became one more thread in a
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: case already filled with a seemingly endless list of unanswered questions.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Mike's records also became part of the mystery. When Abilene
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: police detectives requested his employment file, they discovered it was empty.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: There was no applicationation or hiring notes, no reprimands or
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: records of any other kind. Whether there was an innocent
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: explanation for that has never been clarified, but again, it
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: was another odd detail connected to a workplace that seemed
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to generate more questions than answers. None of these events
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: prove that what happened to Mike originated at msystem, but
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: collectively they paint a picture of a workplace experiencing tension, conflict,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and instability during the same time period that Mike vanished.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: And then there was June eighth, nineteen eighty seven, itself,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the last day anyone can account for seeing Mike Adams.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: By that evening, Mike, who had originally been scheduled until
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: two in the afternoon but had later been asked to stay,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: was performing the responsibilities of a closing employee, a closing supervisor.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Registers had to be counted, cash drawers secured, alarms had
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: to be activated, and doors had to be locked. Everything
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: had to be prepared for the following morning's opening. For Mike,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: it should have been just another shift, one of many
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: ordinary work days. A few months later, September would arrive
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and classes at Texas Tech in Lubbock would start. Abilene
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: would be a home he visited instead of being at
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the center of his daily life, and m System there
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: would be a former job. June eighth was supposed to
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: be one more step toward that future. Instead it became
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the final day anyone could account for. The exact details
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of Mike's final minutes at m System remain somewhat unclear.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Accounts provided over the years have differed in certain res spects.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: What appears consistent is that Mike completed his responsibilities and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: headed home, and nothing suggests he encountered trouble along the way.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: No witnesses reported a confrontation. No one described Mike as
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: appearing frightened or distressed. However, something else had occurred a
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: couple nights earlier that suggested he might have been. After
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: they locked up the store for the night, Mike and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: his supervisor, Anita Wilburn, headed to their cars. Before they did,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Mike grabbed a baseball bat that was leaning against the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: building just outside the door. The fact that the bat
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: was there wasn't strange at all to Anita. Mike kept
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: it around for the times the store had tent sales
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: in the parking lot. He often worked night security shifts
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: guarding the merchandize and kept the bat with him for protection,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: But Anita had never seen Mike take the bat with
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: him as they walked to their vehicles to head home,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and adding to her concern, he appeared on edge nervous.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Not wanting to embarrass him, she said nothing about it.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: There were a few possible explanations. Perhaps he was worried
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: about the incident in which an M System employee was
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: beaten by coworkers, or fearful that the person he reported
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: had stolen from the store's back room would take revenge.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was something else entirely, something unknown to friends, family,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and detectives. But on the night he was last seen,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: no one reported that anything was a miss or that
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Mike was edgy or acting unusually. If something had already
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: been set in motion a plan to harm Mike, there
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: was no visible indication of it. In the days following
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the disappearance, family members plastered abline with missing persons, flyers,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and searches were organized all over town. M System grocery
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: stores began offering a five thousand dollars reward for information
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: leading to Mike's whereabouts, and ultimately a ten thousand dollar
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: reward was offered for his safe return. It's unknown if
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: any viable leads were produced by the rewards, but if
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: they were, they did little good. As the Appilene Police
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: examined the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of eighteen year old
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Mike Adams, attention naturally returned to the vehicle his stepsister, Beverly,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: had observed when he was last seen. She was eventually
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: brought in and placed under hypnosis to try and pull
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: more details about the vehicle out of her. Beverly described
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: it as a two door General Motors car with opera windows.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Originally said to be a late model vehicle, it was
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: later referred to as possibly a nineteen seventy three to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight model. The car was dark colored and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: possibly a Monte Carlo Cutlass, Toronado or Grand Prix. Abilene
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: police detective Tony Golson said that a car matching that description,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: also described as a suspicious vehicle, had been reported to
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: police as driving around Mike's neighborhood earlier that same night.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: The headlights were flickering, perhaps malfunctioning, but it has also
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: been speculated the driver may have been flashing them as
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a signal to someone else. As they worked through names
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: connected to Mike's life, detectives discovered that at least two
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: people he knew owned vehicles that matched the general description.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: One was a former friend and classmate, a person close
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to an ex girlfriend and with whom he'd cut ties
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: after the breakup. Police could find nothing tying him to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the disappearance. Another was someone Mike worked with, a man
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: named Cheeto. Alardin his car was an older model Monte Carlo.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Accounts given about Mike's final moments after the store closed
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: were not consistent. In the original version of events, as
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: told by Cheeto, he and another m System employee named
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Abel Gonzales were in the parking lot talking as Mike
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: left the store alone. In this version, there was no
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: interaction between Cheeto, Abel and Mike. The missing young man
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: simply got into his car and drove away. In nineteen
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: ninety six, when a private investigator hired by Mike's family
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: tracked down a Bell Gonzales, a meeting was scheduled to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: reinterview the man. Two days before the meeting was to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: take place, a Bell drowned during a rafting accident. In Phoenix, Arizona.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: It's highly unlikely the death was anything but accidental. Still,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the tragedy certainly had implications, leaving questions that might never
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: be answered. But it isn't certain anyway that this version
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: of events as told by Cheeto Alarden, is what actually happened,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: because later he gave another In nineteen ninety one, when
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Mike's disappearance was featured on the television program Missing Reward,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Cheeto had a completely different story. On the show, he
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: said he and Mike walked out to the parking lot
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: together after closing. They stopped for a short chat at
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Mike's car, where he offered Cheeto a warm beer out
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of a cooler in his trunk. The man declined, telling
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Mike he didn't like warm beer, and they got into
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: their vehicles. The two lived in the same part of town,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and on their way home, Cheeto claimed he and Mike
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: pulled up next to one another, revved their engines and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: paced each other, pretending to race. Then at some point
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: they exchanged see you tomorrows and drove their separate ways.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: As he turned off, Cheeto said there was no one
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: behind Mike for as far as he could see. Later,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: after Mike was reported missing and police searched his car.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: They found no cooler or beer in the trunk. His
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: family also insisted he didn't drink, though it is possible
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: he simply never told them he had a beer every
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: now and then. Even Cheeto admitted he'd never known him
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to drink, as he recalled asking Mike to go out
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: and have a few on several occasions, and offer Mike
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: always refused. Even though police didn't find evidence of beer
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: when they searched the car, it is possible Mike took
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the cooler and beer with him wherever he went that night.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: It's hard to reconcile the teenager going anywhere with anyone
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: before going inside the house to find his wallet, which
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: he'd apparently unknowingly dropped while changing clothes earlier that day.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: But if it were thought by Mike to be a
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: quick errand favor or social interaction, perhaps he wouldn't have
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: worried about it. To be clear, inconsistencies and witness statements
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: do not automatically indicate wrongdoing. Human memory is imperfect, and
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Cheeto could have had his nights mixed up in either version.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Yet friends and family members continued returning to those discrepancies
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: because they involved some of the last own people to
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: see Mike before he arrived home, and when a person
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: vanishes without a trace, every inconsistency becomes difficult to ignore.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Cheeto had another story about Mike, one that had apparently
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: taken place earlier. On the night of his disappearance, while
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the store was still open. According to Cheeto, Mike had
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: come to him and asked for his help. There were
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: some guys in the parking lot causing trouble. Mike reportedly
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: told Cheeto and he needed his help to get rid
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of them, but when they got out to the lot,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: no one was there. Cheeto, he told the TV show
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Missing Reward, teased Mike some as he questioned whether there
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: had been anyone out there in the first place, but
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the event is perhaps consistent with Mike grabbing a baseball
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: bat to walk to his car a few nights prior.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Regardless of his conflicting stories, detectives said in nineteen ninety
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: one that they did not consider Cheeto Alardin a suspect
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: in Mike's missing person case. For much of their investigation,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the Abilene police were forced to chase down leads that
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: at their cores were little more than rumors. In March
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven, officers on loan from the Waco
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Police Department went under cover at both Cooper and Abilene
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: High Schools in Abilene. When the operation ended later in
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the month, seven students were arrested and charged for the
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: felony delivery of marijuana. Mike's father, Howard Adams, was told
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: some believed his son may have played some role in
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the bust as a narc and that was what led
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: to his disappearance. However, no evidence of this is believed
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: to have ever surfaced. Another recurring rumor claimed Mike had
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: been taken to the Fort Phantom area outside Abilene, assaulted
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and murdered. The motive is unclear. The story surfaced repeatedly
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: over the years, but despite numerous versions of that rumor,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: no evidence ever emerged to support it. Since it was
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: thirty miles away, his family believes it would have been
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: unlikely for Mike to have made the trip without letting
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: his parents know, or at least retrieving his wallet. Other
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: tips suggested that Mike may have believed he was making
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: a short visit to a nearby residence. Some pointed detectives
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: toward the sixteenth Street area. Most plausible theories proposed that
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Mike simply intended to spend a short time riding around
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: with the driver before returning home, perhaps to help with something,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: or to socialize briefly, maybe drink a beer, or was
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: led to believe he was needed back at m system
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: to take care of something quick. The common thread connecting
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: most of these theories is simple. Mike appears to have
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: trusted whoever was waiting for him, whoever he left with
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: that night. That fact remains one of the strongest conclusions
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: that Abilene police have drawn from the available evidence, most
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of which relies more on Mike's character than any witness
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: statement or physical item. In nineteen ninety four, seven years
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: after his disappearance, Mike Adams was legally declared dead. The
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: declaration reflected reality as detectives and his family understood it.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: They believed it was likely Mike died shortly after he vanished,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: but legal paperwork couldn't provide what the family truly needed answers.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: By twenty eleven, nearly twenty four years had passed, Howard
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Adams spoke about how the public attention eventually faded from
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: his son's case. The newspaper stories stopped, and the television
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: coverage had long ended. People stopped asking questions. For everyone else,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the case had become history, But for the family, it
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: never had. In twenty twenty two, thirty five years after
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Mike disappeared, his father was still searching for him. By then,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: he was in his nineties. Time had taken many things
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: from him, but not his determination to find answers. He
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: continued speaking publicly about his son and continued believing that
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: someone out there knew exactly what had happened. Howard Lee
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Adams died on Wednesday, June twelfth, twenty twenty four, at
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: age ninety three, never knowing what happened to Mike. If
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: you have any information about the disappearance of Michael Jefferson Adams,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: please contact the Abilene Police Department at three two five
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: six seven three eight three three one. If you'd like
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: to join gon Cold's mission to shine a light on
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at
• 33:29
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• 33:32
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• 33:38
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• 33:40
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• 33:45
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• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, y'all,