Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / AMISH GIRL VANISHES AFTER CHURCH. WHAT BEFELL LINDA STOLTZFOOS?

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AMISH GIRL VANISHES AFTER CHURCH. WHAT BEFELL LINDA STOLTZFOOS? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A teen girl. A young
0:13
Speaker 1: Amish girl goes missing, seemingly without a trace, after church
0:20
Speaker 1: on a Sunday afternoon. How does this happen? Where is Linda?
0:32
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It was Father's Day and
0:41
Speaker 1: Linda Stultzfus was on her way home from church. She
0:44
Speaker 1: told friends she'd meet the Metta Youth meeting after she
0:47
Speaker 1: went back to her family's Burdenhand farm to change her clothes.
0:50
Speaker 1: Staltsfus was seen at a farm on Stumptown Road, between
0:53
Speaker 1: the intersection of Beechdale and Gibbons Roads in burden Hand.
0:56
Speaker 1: When Staltsfoots didn't meet her friends at the youth meeting,
0:59
Speaker 1: they worried. Her parents later told the East Lampeter Township
1:02
Speaker 1: Police that they looked in her room and when they
1:04
Speaker 1: couldn't find any church clothes in a room, they knew
1:07
Speaker 1: she'd never made it home from church. She never changed
1:10
Speaker 1: her clothes, she never made it back to the youth meeting.
1:13
Speaker 1: The eighteen year old Amish girl's disappearance on June twenty
1:15
Speaker 1: first left authority scrambling for answers. The FBI, Pennsylvania State
1:20
Speaker 1: Police have all joined the search, but still nobody knows
1:23
Speaker 1: what happened to Linda stultsfus what happened to this teen girl?
1:28
Speaker 1: Now you would think in the middle of Amish country
1:32
Speaker 1: nothing could go wrong, but it did. Joining me an
1:37
Speaker 1: all star panel to break it down and put it
1:39
Speaker 1: back together again. First of all, TROYE. Layton right now,
1:42
Speaker 1: criminal defense attorney, joining me out of la Karen Start,
1:46
Speaker 1: New York psychologist. You can find her at Karen dot com.
1:50
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, director of the Coalcase Research Institute and forensics expert.
1:55
Speaker 1: Special guests joining us. Karen Johnson Winer, Professor Emerita of
2:00
Speaker 1: Anthropology at Sunny that is in New York, author of
2:05
Speaker 1: the Lives of Amish Women. Sierra Gillespie Crime Online dot
2:11
Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter. First to you, Sierra, explain to me
2:16
Speaker 1: how in Amish Country, where typically there's not a lot
2:21
Speaker 1: of cars, very tight knit community, no one saw what
2:29
Speaker 1: happened to Linda. Let's start at the beginning. How what
2:33
Speaker 1: was she last saying for sure? So, Nancy, she was
2:37
Speaker 1: last seen for sure at church on June twenty, twenty twenty.
2:41
Speaker 1: So that's Father's Day. Most of us can remember where
2:44
Speaker 1: we were in Father's Day. So she was seen at
2:47
Speaker 1: church in the morning, and the plan was for her
2:50
Speaker 1: to go home. She had made a dessert that she
2:52
Speaker 1: was planning to bring to her youth group. She was
2:55
Speaker 1: going to change her clothes, grab that dessert, and then
2:58
Speaker 1: head over to her youth group, which was two pm
3:00
Speaker 1: to eleven PM. But nobody at youth group saw her,
3:05
Speaker 1: and again her parents figure she never even came home
3:08
Speaker 1: to change her quotes. But one thing we can say
3:11
Speaker 1: for sure is this area bird in Hand. It's about
3:15
Speaker 1: an hour fifteen east of Philadelphia, and it is a
3:19
Speaker 1: large Amish Mennonite community. However, it is somewhat of like
3:23
Speaker 1: a tourist attraction for people in the area, like if
3:26
Speaker 1: you want to take a look at what it would
3:28
Speaker 1: be like to live in an Amish community community, or
3:32
Speaker 1: if you want to, I don't know, purchase whatever they're selling.
3:35
Speaker 1: So there are vehicles that are driving through that area. Okay,
3:39
Speaker 1: so there is a fair bit of car traffic. Because
3:43
Speaker 1: it's really hard for me to believe she can be
3:45
Speaker 1: abducted on foot or in a horse drawn carriage with
3:48
Speaker 1: nobody seeing her. Where I grew up, I would say
3:52
Speaker 1: about forty five minutes to an hour away, a huge
3:55
Speaker 1: Mennonite community in a very rural area, some comparing to that.
4:00
Speaker 1: Joining me a special guest, Karen Johnson Weiner, Professor Emerita Anthropology, Suny,
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Speaker 1: author of the Lives of Amish Women. Karen, thank you
4:11
Speaker 1: so much for being with us. Tell me about the
4:14
Speaker 1: life of an Amish woman at this age, particularly eighteen. Well,
4:19
Speaker 1: at eighteen, her her life would have revolved around whatever
4:24
Speaker 1: work she was doing. I don't know if Linda was employed,
4:28
Speaker 1: either with a family business or working for friends. But
4:34
Speaker 1: on Sunday it would have been on the Sunday that
4:38
Speaker 1: church meant it would have involved church and the youth
4:42
Speaker 1: group that she was with, the young folk. Well, of
4:45
Speaker 1: her social life would have been with that young folk,
4:48
Speaker 1: So she would have been busy, she would have been
4:51
Speaker 1: helping at home, she would have been with her friends.
4:53
Speaker 1: How often do you see Amish teens defect leave the community? Um, Well,
5:02
Speaker 1: that depends on the particular Amish group. Um. There's there's
5:08
Speaker 1: a lot of diversity in the Amish world. And UM
5:12
Speaker 1: and in some communities the rate of leaving maybe fifteen
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Speaker 1: twenty percent, and others it's it's much much lower. Um,
5:24
Speaker 1: there's no indication that that Linda was leaving her church community. Um.
5:29
Speaker 1: She I don't know Linda or her family, but UM,
5:34
Speaker 1: her friends would have known. And that doesn't seem to
5:37
Speaker 1: be the case. Why do you say her friends would
5:40
Speaker 1: have known if she were leaving. Wouldn't she have kept
5:43
Speaker 1: that a secret? Probably her friends would have known. Um,
5:48
Speaker 1: she took nothing. She took no money. Um, it would
5:52
Speaker 1: have been something that that those closest to her would
5:56
Speaker 1: have suspected. U. The Lancaster Amish young people are quite
6:05
Speaker 1: connected with each other. There's a lot of the Amish,
6:11
Speaker 1: don't let me put it this way. Being with others
6:15
Speaker 1: is important in the community, and so she would not
6:19
Speaker 1: have been so isolated. People would have suspected straight out
6:23
Speaker 1: to Sierra Gillespie, Crime Online dot Com investigator reporter way
6:27
Speaker 1: in what do we know, if anything, about the possibility
6:31
Speaker 1: she wanted to leave? Nancy were told that she did
6:34
Speaker 1: not want to leave. Investigators say that they did interview
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Speaker 1: family friends. She was kind of a timid young woman.
6:42
Speaker 1: She was happy in groups, but she wasn't like super
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Speaker 1: outspoken or anything like that, and she made no indication
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Speaker 1: to anyone that she wanted to actually read the Amish community.
6:54
Speaker 1: Guys take a listen to this. Investigators in Lancster County
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Speaker 1: spent the day searching for a teen year old Linda
7:00
Speaker 1: Stultspus State Polis. About six hundred trained search and rescue
7:05
Speaker 1: volunteers focused on a two and a half square mile
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Speaker 1: area in the Welsh Mountains in East Earl Township. They
7:11
Speaker 1: searched from seven this morning until six and this evening.
7:14
Speaker 1: So far, Linda has not been found, but investigators say
7:17
Speaker 1: their goal is to continue to work together with the
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Speaker 1: community to locate her. Stultspus has been missing since June
7:23
Speaker 1: twenty first. Police believe she was abducted while walking home
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Speaker 1: from church in Burdenhead to Cheryl McCollum, director to Colcase
7:30
Speaker 1: Research Institute, if she were abducted on the street walking
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Speaker 1: home from church to home, why are there no witnesses? Well, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: one of the biggest concerns is going to be she
7:43
Speaker 1: obviously will not have a cell phone. She wouldn't have
7:45
Speaker 1: a way to call for help or have us, even
7:48
Speaker 1: through GPS, know her whereabouts. You know, in her community,
7:52
Speaker 1: there's not going to be any cameras. There's not going
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Speaker 1: to be any surveillance near her farm or the farms
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Speaker 1: of other people in the Amish community. What we're going
8:00
Speaker 1: to have to rely on is somebody in a typical
8:04
Speaker 1: American family that may have a ring camera. Of course,
8:07
Speaker 1: there are no ring cameras, there's no video surveillance. And
8:10
Speaker 1: according to what we're learning, many people come to the
8:14
Speaker 1: area to buy furniture, to buy vegetables and fruits, to
8:20
Speaker 1: buy homemade jams and jellies. What do we know about
8:24
Speaker 1: the disappearance of this teen girl? How did you just
8:27
Speaker 1: disappear off the street? Climb stories with Nancy Grace. We
8:46
Speaker 1: are talking about the disappearance of a precious young girl,
8:49
Speaker 1: a teen girl lend Us Doultfus who goes missing? What
8:54
Speaker 1: do we know? We were just listening to our friend
8:56
Speaker 1: and Shannon a w GAL News eight. Now take to
9:00
Speaker 1: listen to our friend Dave Mackett crime online dot Com.
9:04
Speaker 1: When Linda Stultsfoos failed to meet her friend's bank at
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Speaker 1: church for a youth meeting, they were confused and a
9:08
Speaker 1: bit scared. It was totally unlike Linda to not be
9:11
Speaker 1: where she was expected. Friends and family immediately started looking
9:14
Speaker 1: for retracing her footsteps, but no Linda. As members of
9:18
Speaker 1: the community trying to remember every minute of the day.
9:20
Speaker 1: Several members of the Amish community said they saw red
9:23
Speaker 1: Kia rio passing through the area that day with someone
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Speaker 1: resembling Stults food sitting in the passenger seat. That same
9:30
Speaker 1: red Kia rio was later spotted park next to railroad tracks.
9:34
Speaker 1: A red Kia You know, I want to go to
9:37
Speaker 1: Karen Stark, New York Psychologists joining me from Manhattan today,
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark. When someone is brought up in a very
9:44
Speaker 1: sheltered environment, they might get into a car if somebody said, hey,
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Speaker 1: can you hop in and show me how to get
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Speaker 1: to X y Z where my children I've had it,
9:56
Speaker 1: you know, drummed into their head day one. Don't get
10:00
Speaker 1: into a car with anybody you don't know, no matter
10:02
Speaker 1: how nice they may seem. And of course they're always
10:06
Speaker 1: doing you know, those tests on a group of children,
10:09
Speaker 1: and they still get in the car. But especially growing
10:13
Speaker 1: up in a sheltered environment, she may think it's okay
10:18
Speaker 1: to get in a car with someone to give them directions. Well,
10:21
Speaker 1: I think that's a good point, Nancy, because she might
10:24
Speaker 1: even go close to the car. It's a rural area,
10:30
Speaker 1: it's not that developed, and she's very naive, and so
10:35
Speaker 1: I also think there's this whole emphasis. You know, I'm
10:38
Speaker 1: helping and being cooperative toward each other. So it's a
10:42
Speaker 1: stranger what to say. I'm totally lucky. I don't know
10:44
Speaker 1: where I am. I don't know if she'd get in
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Speaker 1: the car, but she might come close enough to the
10:48
Speaker 1: car for someone to grab her, frighten her, you know,
10:53
Speaker 1: pull out a knife, a gun and say you've got
10:55
Speaker 1: to get into the car. So I do agree that
10:58
Speaker 1: that's a possibility. To Cheryl McCollum, called director of the
11:02
Speaker 1: Cold Case Research Institute, Cheryl, what kind of a search
11:06
Speaker 1: needed to take place as soon as it was realized
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Speaker 1: she was missing? And remember, whatever happened, if someone did
11:13
Speaker 1: take her, they've got to jump on us, because it
11:16
Speaker 1: was until hours later that the parents went and saw
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Speaker 1: her church clothes were still missing, so she didn't come
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Speaker 1: home and change. Nancy, I think that it's significant to
11:27
Speaker 1: point out that when you have a missing person, the
11:29
Speaker 1: first three hours are so critical and at that point,
11:33
Speaker 1: to me, they should have been able to utilize drones, cars, dogs, volunteers,
11:40
Speaker 1: you know, even on foot for certain places that needed
11:43
Speaker 1: to happen literally as soon as possible. To Karen Johnson, Weiner,
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Speaker 1: Professor Emerita Anthropology at Sunny author of the Lives of
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Speaker 1: Amish Women. The Amish society heavily emphasize emphasizes being friends
12:04
Speaker 1: to others. Is it conceivable to you that she would
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Speaker 1: have gotten into the car with someone trying to help them?
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Speaker 1: Not very I mean Lancaster County is I mean, they're
12:18
Speaker 1: not isolated in their homes away from non Amish or
12:22
Speaker 1: English as as we are called. Burnton, Lancaster County is
12:28
Speaker 1: a center for tourism, and thousands of tourists come every year.
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Speaker 1: Now that said she would have tried to be helpful,
12:37
Speaker 1: It's also a very confusing place, and I'm sure tourists
12:40
Speaker 1: get lost all the time, and so it wouldn't have
12:42
Speaker 1: been an odd thing for someone to perhaps ask her
12:47
Speaker 1: for help. But she would have known better than to
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Speaker 1: get in someone's car. Even the most conservative, isolated Amish
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Speaker 1: teach their children not to do that. So it's very
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Speaker 1: hard for me to think that she would get in
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Speaker 1: the car of someone she didn't know, had never met,
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Speaker 1: willingly to go someway and point it out, especially walking
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Speaker 1: along the road, when she could have just said go
13:19
Speaker 1: three miles that way in turn right, So they're not
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Speaker 1: so isolated as to be completely naive about the world,
13:31
Speaker 1: and in fact, they learned that the world is a
13:33
Speaker 1: dangerous place, the world outside their community. You know, you
13:37
Speaker 1: dedicated your book to the lives of Amish women. Yes,
13:42
Speaker 1: let me ask you this, Karen Johnson Weiner. Are marriages
13:47
Speaker 1: arranged wouldin the Amish community? No, absolutely not. Young people
13:53
Speaker 1: meet each other in the context of those young groups
13:56
Speaker 1: or the youth groups, and they date. And while it's
14:01
Speaker 1: important that the person they choose to marry be a
14:06
Speaker 1: fellow church member, and that you know, and parents will
14:11
Speaker 1: certainly speak up if they think someone is unsuitable, those
14:14
Speaker 1: are love matches. From what we are learning from the
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Speaker 1: local township police and from the Pennsylvania State Police, Linda
14:23
Speaker 1: was very happy in the Amish lifestyle. No one, not
14:29
Speaker 1: one person that they interviewed reported she was unhappy in
14:34
Speaker 1: any way. She was very timid in groups in public.
14:40
Speaker 1: She never had any boyfriends or non Amish friends. Police
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Speaker 1: searched her bedroom and found her money still there, along
14:51
Speaker 1: with her travel bag and other belongings. The only thing
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Speaker 1: missing or her church clothes. Police also checked for any
15:01
Speaker 1: activity on this young girl's bank accounts. There has been none.
15:09
Speaker 1: That tells me a lot. You know, when I compare
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark, New York Psychologists joining us Lucy's behavior to
15:18
Speaker 1: John David's behavior my children, they're completely different. John David
15:24
Speaker 1: is the mayor of Happyville. He will walk into a
15:29
Speaker 1: room and he may not know anybody at the beginning.
15:32
Speaker 1: By the time he leaves will know everybody, and while
15:36
Speaker 1: not being the center of attention, will have a perfectly
15:40
Speaker 1: wonderful time. Lucy, my daughter at home, is very She
15:46
Speaker 1: runs the whole ship, okay, because it's just easier because
15:51
Speaker 1: she's very particular for us to go along with her desires.
15:58
Speaker 1: But in a group, she's really timid and shy, very
16:04
Speaker 1: very quiet. So I believe that what do you make
16:10
Speaker 1: of the fact that police are saying very timid and shy,
16:13
Speaker 1: no indication she was unhappy with the Amish lifestyle. Well,
16:16
Speaker 1: that's a very strong indication that this is not a
16:21
Speaker 1: girl who just decided one day I'm going to leave
16:24
Speaker 1: and walked off wearing her Amish clothes and decided that
16:29
Speaker 1: she's going to start her life again. It's not like
16:32
Speaker 1: the kind of movies that we see where someone leaves
16:35
Speaker 1: that kind of a strict religious community and decides to
16:39
Speaker 1: be independent because there was no indication, and much like Lucy,
16:43
Speaker 1: who by the way, was like that since she was born,
16:46
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, much shyer. You know, she's very shy,
16:52
Speaker 1: so she would never just approach a stranger. I'm sure
16:55
Speaker 1: she was taught not to and there would be no
16:58
Speaker 1: reason for her to do that. So something is indeed
17:01
Speaker 1: very suspicious here. And that's where you look at the beginning,
17:03
Speaker 1: Troy s Layton renewn on criminal defense attorney joining me
17:06
Speaker 1: out of la You look to see if they left
17:08
Speaker 1: on their own, and a lot of people would thinking, oh,
17:10
Speaker 1: she hated the Amish lifestyles too repressive. No, as a
17:13
Speaker 1: matter of fact, she loved it. So that's where you start.
17:16
Speaker 1: Did she leave on her own? Was she in the
17:19
Speaker 1: car with some guy and this rig Kia that may
17:22
Speaker 1: or may not have been her because a woman in
17:24
Speaker 1: the car had all one of the traditional headdresses, But
17:27
Speaker 1: that does is not supported by the facts that we know, Troy.
17:30
Speaker 1: Isn't that where you the jumping off point? Well, the
17:34
Speaker 1: people that they asked about whether or not she was
17:37
Speaker 1: happy with the Amish lifestyle were other Amish people, So
17:41
Speaker 1: of course everyone is going to say that she was
17:45
Speaker 1: happy with that lifestyle. I don't believe you've got a
17:47
Speaker 1: girl missing. I think they're going to tell the truth.
17:50
Speaker 1: We heard from the anthropologist up that there's an up
17:54
Speaker 1: to fifteen percent defection rate for Amish. Yes, all of
18:01
Speaker 1: that aside, we don't have anybody. We don't have any
18:07
Speaker 1: forensic evidence that we know of that's been publicly reported
18:11
Speaker 1: that shows that there was any type of foul play.
18:17
Speaker 1: And although she may have left her money and other belongings,
18:22
Speaker 1: if she was trying to make a quick getaway and
18:25
Speaker 1: not raise suspicion in the Amish community where everybody is
18:29
Speaker 1: looking in on everybody else's business, then maybe that makes
18:34
Speaker 1: perfect sense. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Guys, we were
18:48
Speaker 1: talking about the disappearance of a teen girl, Linda Stultzfus.
18:52
Speaker 1: When you think of Amish communities, you don't think I've kidnapped,
18:56
Speaker 1: much less anything worse. So what did happened to Linda?
19:01
Speaker 1: Where is she now? I want to go back to
19:04
Speaker 1: our special guest joining us, Karen Johnson Weiner, author of
19:07
Speaker 1: the Lives of Amish Women. We just heard Troice Layton,
19:11
Speaker 1: defense attorney out of la reiterate the fact that there's
19:14
Speaker 1: a fifteen percent defection rate in the Amish community. Hey,
19:18
Speaker 1: I think that's a very low defection rate. Eighty five
19:21
Speaker 1: percent of people Amish people stay within the community. And two,
19:27
Speaker 1: I'm not the expert you are, but I would be
19:29
Speaker 1: willing to guess at a large percentage of those that
19:31
Speaker 1: defect our male. You would be correct. It's the defection
19:37
Speaker 1: rate is higher among male than female, and females tend
19:40
Speaker 1: to leave the church if they're unhappy with the church teachings.
19:47
Speaker 1: And so far there seems to be no indication that
19:49
Speaker 1: Linda was unhappy with church teachings. Men awesome leave to
19:53
Speaker 1: get things, you know, they want to have cars or something,
20:00
Speaker 1: so it's even less likely that she defected. When people defect,
20:08
Speaker 1: they often have plans in advance and have and do
20:11
Speaker 1: make arrangements with outsiders. But there's been no indication that,
20:16
Speaker 1: or at least none has been mentioned that Linda had
20:18
Speaker 1: those kinds of connections with non Amish people that would
20:23
Speaker 1: facilitate such a departure. And Karen Joy, why are I
20:27
Speaker 1: assume they don't have social media either? Well, that would
20:30
Speaker 1: be false, Particularly in Lancaster County, Amish young people, many
20:35
Speaker 1: of them do have cell phones. Many of them are
20:38
Speaker 1: on Facebook. As I said, there's great diversity in the
20:42
Speaker 1: Amish world and the Amish and Lancaster, and you know
20:47
Speaker 1: this is not uniform across all of Lancaster, but the
20:50
Speaker 1: Amish in Lancaster tend to be among the most progressive
20:56
Speaker 1: of Amish. So you will find Amish young people with
20:59
Speaker 1: cell phone. You will find them u participating in social media. Um,
21:08
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like Linda was one of those. And
21:11
Speaker 1: I don't know what the nature of the youth group
21:15
Speaker 1: that she was in. That's that's not been reported. There
21:19
Speaker 1: are different kinds of youth groups. Some are supervised by
21:22
Speaker 1: it all, some are not. I don't know about Linda's group,
21:26
Speaker 1: but nothing in what's reported suggests that she was unhappy
21:30
Speaker 1: with the church, that she was one of those who
21:36
Speaker 1: crowded the senses. The Amish say that she was partying
21:40
Speaker 1: wildly with a wild youth group. Well, it was said earlier,
21:44
Speaker 1: and I thought this really stuck in my head, that
21:48
Speaker 1: they don't have cars. It sometimes men lay the Amish
21:51
Speaker 1: community because they want things like cars. But we think
21:55
Speaker 1: she may have been spotted in a red ki of
21:58
Speaker 1: which tells me if that was her it was a
22:03
Speaker 1: non Amish person she was with earlier. Troice Latton mentioned
22:09
Speaker 1: forensic cavinets take a listen to our friend Grace Griffithin
22:12
Speaker 1: at Fox forty three, the authorities said they have not
22:16
Speaker 1: found eighteen year old Linda Stultspus. They reiterated all evidence
22:20
Speaker 1: suggests that she may have been harmed. They're also asking
22:24
Speaker 1: people in Lakester County to check their home surveillance systems
22:27
Speaker 1: to see if there are any clues there. Something that
22:31
Speaker 1: seems so insignificant could be of great impact of this case.
22:35
Speaker 1: That's the message from the four main agencies investigating the
22:38
Speaker 1: Linda Stultspus abduction. The Pennsylvania State Police, East lamp Peter
22:42
Speaker 1: Township Police, the FBI, and the Lakester County District Attorney's
22:45
Speaker 1: Office authority spoke publicly on the case for the first time.
22:49
Speaker 1: There have also been many questions about what steps police
22:52
Speaker 1: are taking in this investigation, and while we cannot answer
22:56
Speaker 1: that in detail at this time, I want to assure
22:59
Speaker 1: you that you're using all investigative tools at our disposal
23:04
Speaker 1: to completely inappropriately investigate the disappearance of Linda Stoltzfus. I
23:10
Speaker 1: do not believe it's appropriate to just assume she wanted
23:14
Speaker 1: to leave the Amish community a The defection rate very
23:19
Speaker 1: very low for Amish women too. She exhibited no unhappiness
23:25
Speaker 1: amongst her religion or her friends and family, but the
23:30
Speaker 1: red Kia keeps looming. Take a listen to Barbara Barr
23:37
Speaker 1: w g al Core Papers provide information on the alleged
23:42
Speaker 1: abduction and detail what led police to arrest thirty four
23:46
Speaker 1: year old Yousto Smoker. The paper cites surveillance cameras that
23:50
Speaker 1: put his car in this area when Linda Stoltzfus disappeared.
23:54
Speaker 1: The afternoon of June twenty first, The video, enhanced by
23:57
Speaker 1: the FBI captured a red Kia. Police rully traced the
24:00
Speaker 1: Smoker driving along Stumptown in Beechdale Roads between twelve thirty
24:04
Speaker 1: six and twelve forty two that Sunday afternoon. The camera
24:07
Speaker 1: show a person walking in the direction Linda would have
24:10
Speaker 1: been going, and a second unknown person coming from where
24:12
Speaker 1: the vehicle pulled off. In the affidavit, witnesses told investigators
24:16
Speaker 1: they saw an Amish woman riding in a red car
24:18
Speaker 1: on Amish Roading Gap around one thirty that afternoon. Two
24:22
Speaker 1: days later, around five pm. Police say. Another witness reported
24:25
Speaker 1: seeing the vehicle park near train tracks and rocks. Police
24:28
Speaker 1: would eventually find some of Linda's clothing buried there. The
24:32
Speaker 1: search for this team girl takes an ominous turn when
24:36
Speaker 1: items believe to be hers are found buried near a
24:41
Speaker 1: railroad track straight out to Cheryl McCollum, director cole Case
24:46
Speaker 1: Research Institute, where did the surveillance video come from? And
24:51
Speaker 1: how can we be sure that that was Linda in
24:55
Speaker 1: the surveillance video, Nancy. It came from a private home.
24:59
Speaker 1: It was the path that she would take to go
25:01
Speaker 1: back home to get the dessert that she made for
25:03
Speaker 1: the party. She was walking in the right direction. And
25:07
Speaker 1: they've identified her from that video. And here's the thing that,
25:11
Speaker 1: of course is completely just twisted devil to me. This
25:16
Speaker 1: person in the red kid knew from a distance that
25:19
Speaker 1: she was Amish. The cathlink dress, the apron, the bonnet,
25:23
Speaker 1: he knew. So even from a distance, he knew again,
25:27
Speaker 1: she wouldn't have a cell phone, nobody would have GPS
25:30
Speaker 1: on her. He knew there wouldn't be a phone at
25:33
Speaker 1: the family home. So when she didn't return home, they
25:35
Speaker 1: would literally have to take a horse and buggy to
25:39
Speaker 1: the next place that maybe had a phone. You're talking
25:42
Speaker 1: about a lot of time before they can search places
25:45
Speaker 1: for this child, the church where the party is, her
25:49
Speaker 1: best friend's farm. You're talking about a lot of time
25:51
Speaker 1: wasted trying just to figure out issue where she's supposed
25:55
Speaker 1: to be. The other thing that is good, though, forensically,
25:59
Speaker 1: is that they did recover some items that have been buried.
26:03
Speaker 1: Those items, if the assailant touched them and buried them
26:07
Speaker 1: her braun stockings, they would possibly have touched DNA on them. Two.
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Speaker 1: Karen Justin Weiner, author of The Lives of Amish Women,
26:16
Speaker 1: is it true that Amish do not have telephones? You
26:20
Speaker 1: told me that many of them have cell phones. Yes, certainly,
26:25
Speaker 1: some of the young folkous cell phones, others have. Others
26:29
Speaker 1: in the community will have cell phones. It really depends
26:34
Speaker 1: on which Amish community you're talking about, and that's the
26:37
Speaker 1: case in Lancaster. People will have cell phones. Now, whether
26:41
Speaker 1: Linda had a cellphone is another question. It sounds to
26:45
Speaker 1: me like her family was conservative and that she was
26:49
Speaker 1: with a conservative youth group, and so she may not
26:55
Speaker 1: have and people there may not have had cellphones. My
26:59
Speaker 1: guest for a base, she did not and that they
27:02
Speaker 1: did not Karen, because I think they would have called
27:04
Speaker 1: her if she didn't show up. Sunday. Yeah, it's Sunday
27:08
Speaker 1: and people, you know that Sunday is important. She's not
27:14
Speaker 1: going to have it on Sunday. Sunday is for church
27:33
Speaker 1: crime stories with Nancy Grace, guys were talking about a
27:37
Speaker 1: missing Amish girl, Linda Saltspoo's eighteen years old, very shy,
27:42
Speaker 1: very timid, walking home from church, goes missing. We believe
27:46
Speaker 1: she was spotted in a red kio. I'm speaking with
27:50
Speaker 1: Karen Johnson Weiner, author of the Lives of Amish Women. So, Karen,
27:56
Speaker 1: if they're going to have a cell phone, which many
27:59
Speaker 1: of them do not, but if they do, I don't understand.
28:02
Speaker 1: I've never known that there is a rule they can't
28:04
Speaker 1: use it on Sunday. They wouldn't be using it on Sunday.
28:08
Speaker 1: Um that Sunday is is, Well, it's the Sabbath. She's
28:15
Speaker 1: at church. She's not going to take a cell phone
28:17
Speaker 1: to church. Others aren't going to take a cell phone
28:20
Speaker 1: to church. Churches in in someone's home. So so you're
28:24
Speaker 1: not going to do that. Um, they're not going to
28:28
Speaker 1: be buying and selling things on Sunday, so there's not
28:32
Speaker 1: going to be much traffic past the road where an
28:35
Speaker 1: Amish stand might be right, right, So they do have
28:39
Speaker 1: stands on Sunday, so they do buy and sell on
28:42
Speaker 1: Sunday to tourists that they won't that's a done thing. Okay,
28:46
Speaker 1: they won't. Um, you know, young people who may have
28:50
Speaker 1: cell phones are not going to take them to church. Um,
28:55
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're the Sabbath is a day win.
29:02
Speaker 1: You don't do worldly things when it's for the church.
29:06
Speaker 1: It's with family. It's for young people to get together. Guys,
29:11
Speaker 1: we are speaking with Karen Johnson wine Or, author of
29:14
Speaker 1: the Lives of Amish Women. What more do we know
29:17
Speaker 1: about the driver of that red car and about the
29:21
Speaker 1: car itself? Take a listen to our friends at wg
29:25
Speaker 1: Al Police have arrest of thirty four year old used
29:28
Speaker 1: to smoke or for kidnapping eighteen year old Linda Stulfspus.
29:32
Speaker 1: They're still searching for and we're reaching out their residence
29:35
Speaker 1: for help. We are asking for residence of East Earl,
29:39
Speaker 1: East Lamp, Peter, Laycock, Paradise and Salisbury townships to think
29:45
Speaker 1: whether they might have seen the red Kia red Kia
29:48
Speaker 1: rio pictured here in recent weeks, and if so, where
29:52
Speaker 1: they saw it. That's the car belonging to Smoker. It
29:55
Speaker 1: was key to his arrest and police hope it will
29:57
Speaker 1: lead them to Linda. Surveillance video captured it on Beechdale Road,
30:01
Speaker 1: where police say she was kidnapped walking home from church
30:05
Speaker 1: the afternoon of June twenty first. The Stultsu's family did
30:08
Speaker 1: not know Smoker, and we found no reason that Linda
30:12
Speaker 1: would have voluntarily entered Smoker's vehicle only a short distance
30:17
Speaker 1: from her home. A witness also spotted the car near
30:19
Speaker 1: train tracks, where investigators found some of Linda's clothing buried underground.
30:24
Speaker 1: The discovery of intimate clothing buried in a location where
30:28
Speaker 1: Smoker's vehicle was seen lends only to the conclusion that
30:33
Speaker 1: she suffered harm. What are we learning? We are learning
30:37
Speaker 1: a lot and one simple move by this girl, Linda
30:41
Speaker 1: Stultzfus tells me a lot taking listen to John Borack
30:45
Speaker 1: WGAL News eight. Several eyewitnesses say they saw Stultzfus in
30:51
Speaker 1: the passenger seat all that car. They waved in her,
30:55
Speaker 1: but she did not wave back. Two days after her disappearance,
30:59
Speaker 1: that same car was spotted at a lumber company in
31:02
Speaker 1: Rocks and just yesterday detectives found some of Linda's clothing
31:07
Speaker 1: buried in a wooded area at that same location. As
31:11
Speaker 1: of now, though detectives have not found Linda Stultsis, but
31:14
Speaker 1: the search continues. Sierra Gillestie with me Crime online dot
31:18
Speaker 1: Com investigatory porter. What specifically were the items of clothing
31:23
Speaker 1: that have been found and is it true zip ties
31:25
Speaker 1: were also recovered? Nancy, It is true ziptides were recovered
31:29
Speaker 1: in that area. Investigators were searching around. They even brought
31:33
Speaker 1: in cadaver dogs, which were dogs that would smell out
31:37
Speaker 1: if there was a body. The dogs did not find anything,
31:41
Speaker 1: but eventually investigators decided to dig and relatively deep down
31:46
Speaker 1: they found some of her personal items. So they found
31:48
Speaker 1: her stockings and Linda's bra in that area. Cheryl McCollum,
31:54
Speaker 1: Director Cold Case Research Institute forensics expert, joining us, this
31:59
Speaker 1: young girl who was so shy and timid from the
32:02
Speaker 1: Amish community would never have parnered with her stockings or
32:07
Speaker 1: her bra willingly never would not have happened again. Nancy.
32:13
Speaker 1: What's concerning, obviously is that this person that was last
32:17
Speaker 1: seen with her had at least three days the day
32:20
Speaker 1: of the abduction, and then two days later his car
32:23
Speaker 1: has seen so he's had three days to dispose of
32:28
Speaker 1: evidence and to hide evidence and hide her. And he did,
32:32
Speaker 1: of course obviously have access to a vehicle, so we
32:35
Speaker 1: don't know where she is right now. But again, if
32:41
Speaker 1: she's recovered, obviously I think zip ties are going to
32:44
Speaker 1: be involved, it'll be the exact same zip tie that's
32:47
Speaker 1: already been found. And again, his DNA quite possibly is
32:52
Speaker 1: on all three items that they have recovered so far.
32:55
Speaker 1: If he has a cell phone, they will also start
32:58
Speaker 1: pinging that cell phone to see us how far outside
33:01
Speaker 1: Lancaster he might have gone to dispose of her. But
33:04
Speaker 1: if I can just say one more thing, the FBI
33:07
Speaker 1: has done something unique that I've never heard of before,
33:10
Speaker 1: and have done a photo with her end just regular
33:14
Speaker 1: street clothes that any seventeen year old, eighteen year old
33:16
Speaker 1: teenager would wear, and have done a photo with her
33:20
Speaker 1: with her hair down, without the bonnet, so just in
33:23
Speaker 1: case he's putting her somewhere else to look like a
33:26
Speaker 1: typical American teenager, non amish, a typical American teenager without
33:31
Speaker 1: her bra stockings. Okay too, this is what I don't understand.
33:38
Speaker 1: Who is this guy? And as Sheryl mccollin pointed out earlier,
33:43
Speaker 1: he could target her as Amish at a distance based
33:46
Speaker 1: on her outfit. Karen Johnson Winder, what would her outfit
33:51
Speaker 1: have been? Well, it would be it would have been
33:55
Speaker 1: a black dress with a white apron. She would have
33:58
Speaker 1: had a bonnet or perhaps just her prayer cap on
34:02
Speaker 1: which would have been white for church. And she would
34:09
Speaker 1: have had the black stockings, black shoes, so she would
34:14
Speaker 1: have stood out easily. It's a it's a well known outfit.
34:19
Speaker 1: It's in all sorts of tourist pictures all over Lancaster County.
34:23
Speaker 1: Jeu Sierra Gillespie. What do we know about who? Stout
34:27
Speaker 1: Smoker thirty four years old, Nancy. What we know about
34:30
Speaker 1: him is he's from the Paradise township, which is relatively
34:34
Speaker 1: close to burn in Hand. It's like ten or fifteen
34:37
Speaker 1: minutes away, So we know that this guy is very
34:41
Speaker 1: familiar with an Amish community, growing up or living in
34:44
Speaker 1: that area. Something else that's very important to note too
34:47
Speaker 1: is he was just released from prison back in twenty nineteen,
34:51
Speaker 1: so just last year, and this was after a string
34:54
Speaker 1: of armed robberies that took place in two thousand and six,
34:58
Speaker 1: so he spent a great deal of time in prison
35:01
Speaker 1: for that and was just recently released. Troy Slight and
35:05
Speaker 1: criminal defense attorney, why is he even out number one?
35:10
Speaker 1: And it's my understanding he's pled not guilty. Shouldn't he
35:16
Speaker 1: be trying to work a deal and tell where Linda is?
35:20
Speaker 1: That's assuming that he knows where she is. But at
35:24
Speaker 1: this point, he's pled not guilty and he is presumed
35:28
Speaker 1: innocent until the government can prove each and every element
35:32
Speaker 1: of the crime against him beyond a reasonable doubt. And
35:35
Speaker 1: at this point, according to his attorney, the chief public
35:39
Speaker 1: Defender in Lancaster County, the only images that the government
35:44
Speaker 1: have are blurry images that show pixels and not any people.
35:49
Speaker 1: And there's no way to prove from those photos or
35:52
Speaker 1: videos that it was Stoltzfus in the video with Smoker.
35:58
Speaker 1: So the Chary mc column, how do I prove she
36:01
Speaker 1: was in the car? Well, I think what they're gonna
36:03
Speaker 1: do again, They're gonna look at his cell phone in
36:04
Speaker 1: that data, and you know, when they interviewed him, he
36:07
Speaker 1: even admitted, yeah, that looks like my car. The other
36:10
Speaker 1: thing is Nancy. He has no alibi, so it's not
36:13
Speaker 1: like he was visiting his own father that day. He
36:15
Speaker 1: wasn't at work, he wasn't with other family or friends.
36:18
Speaker 1: He wasn't golfing, he wasn't at church, he didn't check
36:21
Speaker 1: in anywhere with his cell phone like Starbucks. The fact
36:24
Speaker 1: that he does not have an alibi is very concerning
36:26
Speaker 1: for me as well. I've got another break, and that
36:29
Speaker 1: is that the suspect who has been arrested in her disappearance,
36:33
Speaker 1: we now believe may has been a third cousin, once removed,
36:39
Speaker 1: translation a distant relative that gives him a connection, although
36:46
Speaker 1: it's tenuous to this girl. We wait as justice unfolds.
36:52
Speaker 1: Tipline one eight hundred two two five five three two four.
36:56
Speaker 1: There is a ten thousand dollar reward. Goodbye friend,