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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Justin Gaines · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans. It was Thursday night, November one, two
0:17
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. An eighteen year old Justin Gaines was
0:20
Speaker 1: getting ready for a night out with his friends at
0:22
Speaker 1: Wild Bill's, a club in Duluth, Georgia. Justin was a
0:26
Speaker 1: freshman in college. He had just started at Gainesville State,
0:30
Speaker 1: which was about an hour away from where his family
0:32
Speaker 1: lived his mom, Erica Wilson, his stepfather, Stephen Wilson, and
0:37
Speaker 1: his siblings. Justin was fairly newly single. He had broken
0:41
Speaker 1: up with his girlfriend of two years pretty recently, but
0:44
Speaker 1: according to Atlanta Magazine, they were still friends. In fact,
0:48
Speaker 1: Justin talked on the phone to his sex shortly before
0:51
Speaker 1: he went out that night. This was a close blended family.
0:56
Speaker 1: When Justin's mom and his stepfather married, they each brought
0:59
Speaker 1: their own children to the relationship. There were seven kids
1:02
Speaker 1: in all, and apparently they all got Alongston also had
1:06
Speaker 1: a good relationship with his stepdad, Stephen, who worked at
1:09
Speaker 1: a roofing company. Sometimes Justin would do odd jobs for
1:12
Speaker 1: Stephen to pick up some extra cash. Justin was handsome
1:17
Speaker 1: five foot eleven, two hundred and thirty pounds. He was
1:21
Speaker 1: muscular and fit. He had blue eyes and short brown
1:24
Speaker 1: hair that he wore in a buzz cut. On that
1:27
Speaker 1: Thursday night, Justin was wearing a gray Abercrombie and Fitch
1:31
Speaker 1: long sleeve shirt and rip blue jeans. He also had
1:35
Speaker 1: a pair of diamond stud ear rings that he sometimes wore.
1:38
Speaker 1: That night, he was wearing a single diamond stud in
1:40
Speaker 1: his left ear. On thirsty Thursdays at Wild Bills, you
1:45
Speaker 1: only had to be eighteen years old to enter the club,
1:48
Speaker 1: but Justin did have a couple of fake id's with
1:50
Speaker 1: him so that he could buy drinks at the bar.
1:53
Speaker 1: He used the names Brad Allen and Brad's Shoe. His mom, Erica,
1:58
Speaker 1: later clarified on web slue that technically these weren't fake IDs,
2:02
Speaker 1: they were the IDs of some older friends that Justin
2:05
Speaker 1: would use. I relate to this because I did a
2:08
Speaker 1: lot of that when I was younger, old enough to
2:10
Speaker 1: get into the club but too young to drink. So
2:14
Speaker 1: Justin didn't take a wallet out with him that night.
2:16
Speaker 1: He had no credit cards, just cash, his fake IDs,
2:20
Speaker 1: and his cell phone. His stepfather told Atlanta Magazine, which
2:25
Speaker 1: by the way, did a really long and in depth
2:27
Speaker 1: feature on this case, that he remembered that night very
2:31
Speaker 1: well because Apparently, right before he went out, Justin was
2:34
Speaker 1: joking around with Stephen about what shirt he should wear
2:37
Speaker 1: to impress the ladies. Justin was a big, very fit guy.
2:42
Speaker 1: He could take care of himself. He was also charming
2:46
Speaker 1: and confident, and, according to his mother, very social, someone
2:49
Speaker 1: who had no trouble talking to anyone, including strangers. He
2:54
Speaker 1: was a regular at Wild Bills. He knew the bartenders,
2:57
Speaker 1: and apparently he also knew some people who were going
2:59
Speaker 1: to be there that night. Justin had a car, but
3:03
Speaker 1: he wasn't driving. He left his at his mom and
3:06
Speaker 1: stepdad's house. He caught a ride with a friend of
3:09
Speaker 1: his named Chris Byers and Chris's girlfriend, Amanda. According to
3:13
Speaker 1: Atlanta Magazine, Chris and Justin had been friends for a
3:16
Speaker 1: long time, ever since high school. They were now college roommates.
3:20
Speaker 1: Chris and Amanda picked Justin up at his house and
3:23
Speaker 1: they headed to Wild Bills. Along the way, they stopped
3:26
Speaker 1: at a gas station where Justin mixed some vodka and
3:28
Speaker 1: gas station energy drink in one of those big fountain cups. Again,
3:33
Speaker 1: I used to do this all the time as a teen.
3:35
Speaker 1: It's an easy way to save money. Later at the bar,
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Speaker 1: Wild Bills is huge. This club could hold thousands of people.
3:43
Speaker 1: It's closed now, but back in the day they had
3:46
Speaker 1: seven different bars and each bar had kind of a
3:49
Speaker 1: different vibe. They even had a tiki bar in there,
3:52
Speaker 1: and they would host all different kinds of events. They
3:54
Speaker 1: would host phone parties, sometimes mma fights, and they had
3:59
Speaker 1: line dancing nights. Most of their nights tended to have
4:02
Speaker 1: a country theme, but on Thursday Thursdays, the mechanical bowl
4:06
Speaker 1: and cowboy boots were replaced with girls dancing on platforms
4:10
Speaker 1: and a DJ who had spend R and B mixed
4:12
Speaker 1: with hip hop. Thursdays were also apparently the only night
4:17
Speaker 1: where eighteen year olds could go into the club. So Chris, Amanda,
4:21
Speaker 1: and Justin got to the bar and were ready to party.
4:25
Speaker 1: They were aiming to get there by eleven pm, but
4:28
Speaker 1: they were a few minutes late, and this twist of
4:31
Speaker 1: fate being a few minutes late changed everything because after
4:36
Speaker 1: eleven pm Wild Bills had a cover charge. It went
4:40
Speaker 1: from being free to ten dollars per person. Justin saw
4:44
Speaker 1: someone in line who he knew, so he was able
4:47
Speaker 1: to get a pass to get in for free, but
4:49
Speaker 1: Chris and Amanda could not, and they did not want
4:52
Speaker 1: to pay the cover charge, so they left Wild Bills
4:55
Speaker 1: and Justin went in on his own. He said that
4:58
Speaker 1: it was no problem, he would find a ride. This
5:01
Speaker 1: was something that he did often. Again, he was this big,
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Speaker 1: strong guy who could handle himself. A while later, in
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Speaker 1: the early morning hours of November two, two thousand and seven,
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Speaker 1: Justin walked out into that parking lot in Duluth and
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Speaker 1: no one ever saw him again. I'm Catherine Townsend. If
5:23
Speaker 1: you have a case you'd like me and my team
5:25
Speaker 1: to look into, you can reach out to us at
5:28
Speaker 1: our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven
5:31
Speaker 1: four four six one four or five. That's six seven
5:34
Speaker 1: eight seven four four six one four or five. This
5:39
Speaker 1: is Helen Gone Murder Line. The disappearance of Justin Gaines
6:16
Speaker 1: became a big story in Atlanta because no one could
6:19
Speaker 1: figure out how this guy just walked out into the
6:23
Speaker 1: night and never showed up again. So remember this was
6:27
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven. Instagram had just launched, and even
6:31
Speaker 1: though pretty much everyone had a cell phone then, people
6:34
Speaker 1: weren't constantly shooting video all the time like they do today.
6:40
Speaker 1: There were cameras at Wild Bill's, so there was some
6:42
Speaker 1: surveillance footage, but according to Justin's mom Erica, most of
6:48
Speaker 1: the cameras were focused on areas that handled money, like
6:51
Speaker 1: the register and the front and back doors. Erica did
6:55
Speaker 1: an interview with a podcast called Unfound, and in that interview,
7:00
Speaker 1: she explained that an FBI agent who was a friend
7:03
Speaker 1: of her, someone she knew, had come in to unofficially
7:07
Speaker 1: help her with the case, and the FBI agent was
7:09
Speaker 1: able to pull some of that surveillance footage. The footage
7:13
Speaker 1: showed that at the club, Justin had some drinks. He
7:16
Speaker 1: was on camera talking to a female bartender who he knew. Later,
7:20
Speaker 1: that bartender talked to Erica and told her that Justin
7:23
Speaker 1: seemed normal, like he was having a good time, and
7:26
Speaker 1: she said he did not appear to be super intoxicated.
7:30
Speaker 1: He apparently even made a comment to this bartender about
7:33
Speaker 1: not getting too smashed. While he was in the club,
7:37
Speaker 1: Justin made a couple of phone calls to friends of
7:39
Speaker 1: his who he believed were inside. We're not sure exactly
7:43
Speaker 1: what Justin was doing the whole time he was in
7:45
Speaker 1: the club because we only have a few moments on camera,
7:48
Speaker 1: but at one point he apparently did start talking to
7:52
Speaker 1: a girl. Later in some media reports, some reporters asked
7:56
Speaker 1: questions about what they called a minor altercation over a
8:00
Speaker 1: woman who Justin was apparently dancing with. Apparently this woman
8:05
Speaker 1: had a boyfriend, and Justin and the guys who were
8:07
Speaker 1: with this woman exchanged a few words. Some of these
8:11
Speaker 1: details came from a private investigator who was later hired
8:14
Speaker 1: by Erica, Justin's mom, but the PI said he could
8:18
Speaker 1: never nail down a description of the two guys who
8:22
Speaker 1: Justin was supposedly talking with. There are a lot of
8:25
Speaker 1: moments from Justin's time inside the club and afterward that
8:28
Speaker 1: are missing, but Justin was there for a while after
8:32
Speaker 1: he talked to this girl. He seemed to be in
8:34
Speaker 1: good spirits and he was chatting to people. Then, at
8:39
Speaker 1: around one point thirty, he got ready to leave. Justin
8:42
Speaker 1: walked outside the club at one thirty eight am. You
8:45
Speaker 1: can see that on the security footage. He started calling
8:48
Speaker 1: friends trying to find a ride home. Again. Remember this
8:52
Speaker 1: was a time before ride shares became a huge thing.
8:56
Speaker 1: Uber didn't come on the scene until around twenty ten.
9:00
Speaker 1: There were taxis, but it's never been reported how much
9:04
Speaker 1: cash Justin was carrying. So I wonder did he have
9:07
Speaker 1: a big wad of cash or just enough to cover drinks.
9:11
Speaker 1: He may not have had enough money to call a cab,
9:13
Speaker 1: and even if he did, some of his friends said
9:15
Speaker 1: he wasn't really a person who had a habit of
9:17
Speaker 1: calling taxis. He would hit up his friends for rides instead.
9:22
Speaker 1: His mother, by the way, made it clear that he
9:24
Speaker 1: could have called home at any time and she or
9:27
Speaker 1: her husband would have come to get him. She told
9:30
Speaker 1: Atlanta Magazine. Quote, I think he didn't call Stephen because
9:34
Speaker 1: he didn't want to disappoint us, and that haunts me,
9:37
Speaker 1: you know, because nothing the kids do would ever disappoint me.
9:40
Speaker 1: End quote. I find myself really feeling for Justin again here.
9:46
Speaker 1: He just wanted to go home. He made a ton
9:48
Speaker 1: of calls, but no one was able to come get him.
9:52
Speaker 1: And I can relate to this part too. He probably
9:54
Speaker 1: didn't want his parents to know he'd been drinking again.
9:58
Speaker 1: As a fit guy, he probably thought he could take
10:01
Speaker 1: care of himself. Often a person's sigh, especially a man's size,
10:07
Speaker 1: will give them a false sense of security. Most guys
10:10
Speaker 1: I know, especially young ones around this age, just don't
10:14
Speaker 1: feel that they're in danger. In the same way in general,
10:16
Speaker 1: as young women would, plus this was a safe area.
10:20
Speaker 1: Over the next half hour or so, Justin made twenty
10:24
Speaker 1: four calls to eleven different people, none of them could
10:28
Speaker 1: come get him. Justin's last call was to Chris, the
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Speaker 1: friend he rode with to Wild Bills. He made that
10:35
Speaker 1: call at two two am. Chris later told Atlanta Magazine
10:39
Speaker 1: that Justin had called him and he was kind of
10:41
Speaker 1: half asleep. He remembered Justin asking for a ride, but
10:45
Speaker 1: Chris said he had borrowed his girlfriend's dad's car. He
10:48
Speaker 1: said he couldn't really go out at that time of
10:51
Speaker 1: night and ask for the car again. He thought that
10:54
Speaker 1: Justin would be fine, and later, of course, said that
10:57
Speaker 1: if he had had any idea that his friend was
10:59
Speaker 1: in trouble, he would have gone and gotten him instantly.
11:03
Speaker 1: After that phone call nothing At first, Erica wasn't worried
11:09
Speaker 1: when Justin didn't come back home the next morning. She
11:12
Speaker 1: knew he was going out to party and he's an
11:14
Speaker 1: eighteen year old guy. But then the weekend went by.
11:18
Speaker 1: She didn't hear from him on Saturday, and on Sunday
11:21
Speaker 1: morning she started calling his friends. He never came home
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Speaker 1: to get his wallet or to pick up his car,
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Speaker 1: and on Monday morning, November fifth, she became seriously alarmed
11:31
Speaker 1: because he never showed up to give Chris a ride
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Speaker 1: back to school. Remember they were roommates. Erica told Dateline
11:37
Speaker 1: that at that point she logged onto Justin's online school portal,
11:41
Speaker 1: which she had access to. That's when she saw that
11:44
Speaker 1: he had not turned in some homework and she knew
11:46
Speaker 1: that that was completely out of character. She reported Justin
11:50
Speaker 1: missing friends, family and volunteers started trying to retrace his
11:54
Speaker 1: last steps. The police did a search as well, but
12:00
Speaker 1: Erica said that it really took about two weeks for
12:03
Speaker 1: police to start seriously searching. Everyone was trying to retrace
12:08
Speaker 1: Justin's steps. They were trying to figure out from that
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Speaker 1: parking lot what his next move would be. Several people
12:15
Speaker 1: came forward and said that they had seen him sitting
12:17
Speaker 1: on a bench in the back parking lot on his
12:20
Speaker 1: cell phone. We know that he was making a ton
12:23
Speaker 1: of calls during that time. Shortly after two two am,
12:28
Speaker 1: Justin's phone pinged one more time and then the phone
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Speaker 1: appeared to die. Erica said that he had a habit
12:36
Speaker 1: of sometimes letting his phone die, so did the battery
12:39
Speaker 1: die or did someone shut it off. Did Justin get
12:43
Speaker 1: tired of waiting for a ride, did he decide to
12:46
Speaker 1: try to walk toward home, or could someone have picked
12:49
Speaker 1: him up there. In the weeks following Justin's disappearance, some
12:55
Speaker 1: news outlets checked Justin's court history. They saw that Justin
12:59
Speaker 1: had a public intoxication charge on his record from the
13:01
Speaker 1: summer of two thousand and seven. It happened after he
13:05
Speaker 1: fell asleep in the backseat of his car with an
13:07
Speaker 1: open bottle of vodka in there. He got caught with
13:10
Speaker 1: the open container and a fake ID. So some people
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Speaker 1: suggested that maybe Justin had left voluntarily to avoid going
13:18
Speaker 1: to court on November twenty first, But this seemed extremely
13:22
Speaker 1: far fetched right from the beginning, and his family immediately
13:26
Speaker 1: dismissed this theory. They knew it wasn't plausible. Also, these
13:30
Speaker 1: were not serious charges. There was no reason for Justin
13:34
Speaker 1: to have left on his own, and by the way,
13:37
Speaker 1: if he was leaving, why would he leave his wallet
13:39
Speaker 1: with his real ID and everything else behind. Justin's family
13:46
Speaker 1: did everything they could to help the search. Erica turned
13:49
Speaker 1: her home garage into an office. She started printing up flyers.
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Speaker 1: The family put billboards up on Highway I eighty five.
13:57
Speaker 1: This tidbit was in the Atlanta magazine article, by the way,
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Speaker 1: and it's so heartbreaking to me because I've heard this
14:02
Speaker 1: before in Rebecca Gould's case and in some other According
14:07
Speaker 1: to the article, people called Justin's stepfather to report buzzard sightings,
14:12
Speaker 1: and he would take his four wheeler out to look
14:15
Speaker 1: and see if there was a body out there, but
14:19
Speaker 1: he never found anything other than animal carcasses. Of course,
14:23
Speaker 1: police talked to Justin's friends. There were rumors early on
14:27
Speaker 1: that Chris wasn't being super helpful to law enforcement. Apparently
14:31
Speaker 1: Chris believed that police were too hard on his girlfriend, Amanda,
14:36
Speaker 1: but Erica later clarified on a web sluse forum that
14:40
Speaker 1: after some initial friction, all of Justin's friends had been
14:44
Speaker 1: cooperative and police confirmed Chris and Amanda were at home
14:48
Speaker 1: in bed when Justin went missing. Erica told the Unfound
14:53
Speaker 1: podcast that she does not believe that Justin walked out
14:56
Speaker 1: of that parking lot. It was late, but not super late.
15:00
Speaker 1: There were people around, and Justin was in the back
15:03
Speaker 1: parking lot, which was less busy than the parking lot,
15:06
Speaker 1: but it wasn't deserted. In fact, it was somewhere where
15:09
Speaker 1: in the past Justin had hung out and had some
15:12
Speaker 1: drinks with friends. Again, Wild Bills was in a safe area,
15:16
Speaker 1: pretty much in the middle of suburbia. Erica believes that
15:21
Speaker 1: if Justin decided to walk along the highway toward home,
15:25
Speaker 1: she believes someone would have seen him, And I think
15:27
Speaker 1: she's right. A big guy like that probably would have
15:31
Speaker 1: been spotted on a camera somewhere or by some witnesses,
15:35
Speaker 1: which means that Justin almost certainly got picked up in
15:39
Speaker 1: that parking lot. So the question is who picked him up.
15:46
Speaker 1: Police have said they believe that Justin may have been
15:50
Speaker 1: picked up by a blonde woman, possibly driving a black car.
15:54
Speaker 1: They got this information from a friend of Justin's named James. Now,
15:59
Speaker 1: according to Erica, James, who knew Justin from college, saw
16:03
Speaker 1: him getting into a car with a blonde woman wearing
16:06
Speaker 1: a black dress. Unfortunately, James has since passed away. So
16:12
Speaker 1: who is this mystery woman? Was it someone who knew
16:15
Speaker 1: Justin before or a stranger who lured him into the car?
16:19
Speaker 1: Was she alone or was she with people? Could this
16:23
Speaker 1: have been some kind of robbery setup. Justin did not
16:27
Speaker 1: seem to have any enemies, but the Atlanta magazine reporter
16:31
Speaker 1: did talk to a friend of Justin's. This person wasn't named,
16:34
Speaker 1: but they told the reporter that he and Justin would
16:37
Speaker 1: occasionally break into cars that were unlocked around their off
16:40
Speaker 1: campus apartment. Basically, what they do is just pull the
16:43
Speaker 1: handle of the car see if it was unlocked, and
16:45
Speaker 1: if it was, they would go in and take money.
16:48
Speaker 1: The friends said there was a drug dealer living there.
16:51
Speaker 1: Apparently Justin thought that this person might have a lot
16:54
Speaker 1: of cash in his car, so they went up to
16:56
Speaker 1: the car, but they said the drug dealer was standing
16:59
Speaker 1: right there on the porch, so in the end they
17:01
Speaker 1: didn't go to the car and there was no confrontation.
17:06
Speaker 1: But it did get me thinking, if he had a
17:09
Speaker 1: habit of pulling on car doors, could he have opened
17:12
Speaker 1: someone's car or maybe tried to sleep in someone's car
17:14
Speaker 1: if he couldn't find a ride in his battery was dead.
17:17
Speaker 1: Stranger things have happened. According to Justin's mother, Erica, one
17:23
Speaker 1: very early name that came up to her was Dustin
17:26
Speaker 1: Dylan Glass, a career criminal and gang member. Now Apparently,
17:31
Speaker 1: Dustin showed up at a pawn shop in the early
17:33
Speaker 1: morning hours of November two. Police have found surveillance footage
17:38
Speaker 1: to that pawnshop and there is an image of Dustin.
17:41
Speaker 1: He's wearing a diamond studd in his ear that looked
17:43
Speaker 1: very much like the one that Justin had been wearing
17:45
Speaker 1: that night. I'm not clear on why police first got
17:50
Speaker 1: tipped off to him, but once Dustin's name was mentioned,
17:54
Speaker 1: police continued to track him. Time went by with no
17:58
Speaker 1: arrest and no sign of Justin and no body. Tips
18:01
Speaker 1: started coming in from everywhere, everything from random side dings
18:05
Speaker 1: of Justin that would turn out to be bogus, to
18:08
Speaker 1: psychics who said that they believed that he was in
18:10
Speaker 1: a body of water somewhere, which is, by the way,
18:13
Speaker 1: what psychics always seem to say. It drives me crazy.
18:16
Speaker 1: Side note there. The Walton County Sheriff's Department cold case
18:20
Speaker 1: investigator Michael Rising, who is now in charge of the investigation,
18:24
Speaker 1: told Dateline in twenty twenty three that police had investigated
18:28
Speaker 1: a couple of different theories early on. One that Justin
18:31
Speaker 1: could have been flirting with a girl who had a
18:33
Speaker 1: boyfriend and that there was some kind of altercation, and
18:36
Speaker 1: the other theory was that someone targeted Justin for a
18:38
Speaker 1: robbery based on his clothes and his diamond earing. On
18:43
Speaker 1: the Wild Bill's website back in two thousand and seven,
18:46
Speaker 1: there was a statement about Justin being missing and it
18:48
Speaker 1: read quote last scene walking toward a car that he
18:51
Speaker 1: called his ride, with two men standing by the car.
18:55
Speaker 1: Reports also say he was seen in the parking lot
18:57
Speaker 1: of Barnacles, another bar, with these same two men end quote.
19:02
Speaker 1: Now this is just a rumor. It's unconfirmed, and honestly,
19:06
Speaker 1: I can't find that information anywhere else. I don't know
19:09
Speaker 1: if it's just something someone posted or if it was
19:12
Speaker 1: a legitimate tip. And I wonder who first said it.
19:17
Speaker 1: There does seem to be more than one source saying
19:19
Speaker 1: that Justin was talking to some men that night. Again,
19:23
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have been out of character for him to
19:24
Speaker 1: talk to people. His mom and his friends say he
19:27
Speaker 1: talked to strangers all the time. But for a while,
19:31
Speaker 1: those two police theories appeared to just be dead ends.
19:35
Speaker 1: Over the next few years, justin moms Erica said openly
19:39
Speaker 1: she struggled. Even though she was printing up flyers and
19:43
Speaker 1: stickers and talking to the media, there were days where
19:46
Speaker 1: she found it hard to get out of bed, and
19:48
Speaker 1: the family had another setback in twenty eleven when one
19:51
Speaker 1: of Justin's brothers died, But even when she was going
19:54
Speaker 1: through dark times herself, Erica never stopped trying to get
19:57
Speaker 1: media coverage of this case. Police looked in a lot
20:02
Speaker 1: of different directions. They really didn't have anything to go
20:04
Speaker 1: on into rumors that could have been the National Forest
20:07
Speaker 1: serial killer Gary Hilton, but there was absolutely no evidence
20:10
Speaker 1: of that. And of course, every single time an unidentified
20:14
Speaker 1: body was found in the area, the family would have
20:17
Speaker 1: to go through the agony of waiting. None of them
20:19
Speaker 1: were Justin. As we said before, Erica hired a private
20:24
Speaker 1: investigator named Bob Pulno. He started his investigation in two
20:29
Speaker 1: thousand and eight and basically he's never stopped. According to
20:33
Speaker 1: Atlanta Magazine, Bob is retired now, but this is one
20:36
Speaker 1: of those cases he can't let go of. Bob did
20:39
Speaker 1: lots of interviews, and in two thousand and eight he
20:41
Speaker 1: said he identified several people of interest. He also looked
20:46
Speaker 1: into theories that Justin could have been extremely intoxicated or drugged.
20:51
Speaker 1: The PI also tried to track down everyone who Justin
20:54
Speaker 1: talked to on the phone that night, and he found
20:58
Speaker 1: a pattern. No one felt that Justin was behaving out
21:00
Speaker 1: of the ordinary. It's the same story with the video
21:04
Speaker 1: surveillance footage, Eric has said. And if you look online,
21:07
Speaker 1: you can see Justin walks out of the club. He's
21:11
Speaker 1: calmly walking forward, not stumbling. He has his phone pressed
21:15
Speaker 1: to his ear. He looks like he's walking with purpose,
21:17
Speaker 1: and he's talking on the phone. Seven years after Justin disappeared,
21:22
Speaker 1: a local news station WXIA broadcasts some additional footage that
21:26
Speaker 1: was taken from inside the club that night. This footage
21:30
Speaker 1: showed Justin walking out the door toward the back parking lot.
21:33
Speaker 1: Right after him, a group that looked like three girls
21:36
Speaker 1: and a guy walked outside the club. Justin seems to
21:40
Speaker 1: kind of veer left, and they look like they're veering right,
21:43
Speaker 1: but there are also a couple of other guys standing
21:45
Speaker 1: outside in that parking lot. A few minutes later, two
21:48
Speaker 1: men and a woman enter the club. They come from
21:51
Speaker 1: the same direction Justin was seen leaving. Another couple leaves.
21:56
Speaker 1: This woman has long, dark hair and jeans on. You
21:59
Speaker 1: can only see the guy from the back, but he's
22:01
Speaker 1: wearing a number twenty two jersey that the news anchor
22:04
Speaker 1: pointed out as pretty distinctive. There are also two guys
22:08
Speaker 1: in white shirts. They look like they're going into the club,
22:11
Speaker 1: but then they turn around after Justin passes them. They
22:14
Speaker 1: don't go in, and then when footage is shown from
22:17
Speaker 1: a few minutes later, you can see them entering the club. Now,
22:21
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that any of these people had anything
22:23
Speaker 1: to do with Justin's disappearance, but they may have seen something,
22:28
Speaker 1: even something small, that could help crack this case. Again,
22:33
Speaker 1: wild bills can hold thousands of people. It was a
22:35
Speaker 1: crowded night. It is mind boggling that no one saw anything.
22:41
Speaker 1: In September of twenty fifteen, seemingly out of nowhere, there
22:44
Speaker 1: were two arrests and someone said they knew exactly what
22:49
Speaker 1: happened to Justin Gaines. That it went down at a
22:52
Speaker 1: dark garage at a house in Snellville. This person said
22:55
Speaker 1: Justin had been lured to that residence and then when
22:58
Speaker 1: he walked in, he was attacked, robbed, beaten, and murdered.
23:13
Speaker 1: In September of twenty fifteen, after a long period of silence,
23:17
Speaker 1: there were two arrests in connection with the disappearance, and
23:19
Speaker 1: now police believed death of Justin Gaines in two thousand
23:23
Speaker 1: and seven. The police's original person of interest was Dustin
23:27
Speaker 1: Dylan Glass. He had been arrested for distributing methamphetamines, among
23:31
Speaker 1: other things, and was facing some serious charges, according to
23:35
Speaker 1: the arrest warrant. After he was arrested, he started cooperating
23:39
Speaker 1: with police. He told police that he and another man,
23:42
Speaker 1: fifty seven year old Martin Leonard Wilkie, had assaulted Justin
23:46
Speaker 1: and robbed him. He said that this assault and robbery
23:49
Speaker 1: of Justin had ended with Justin being fatally shot. Dustin
23:55
Speaker 1: told police that he took the earring from Justin, but
23:57
Speaker 1: said that Justin was alive when he left him. The
24:00
Speaker 1: detective who talked to reporters later said he believed Dustin
24:04
Speaker 1: was saying this to kind of confess in a roundabout way,
24:07
Speaker 1: and it seemed to me the detective believed Dustin was
24:09
Speaker 1: kind of taunting the detective. Martin Wilkee was arrested and
24:14
Speaker 1: charged with concealing a death. Then a woman backed up
24:18
Speaker 1: Dustin's story. She said she had participated in helping get
24:22
Speaker 1: rid of the body, and the crazy part was that
24:24
Speaker 1: this woman was Dustin's own mother, Thelma Ruth Blew. Let
24:31
Speaker 1: me back up for a minute, because I was trying
24:33
Speaker 1: to make sense of this story and how everything went down.
24:36
Speaker 1: So of course I went back through hundreds of pages
24:39
Speaker 1: of court records, and I found out that after Dustin
24:42
Speaker 1: got arrested, so of course he's in custody. Of course
24:45
Speaker 1: he had a residence that he wasn't staying at because
24:48
Speaker 1: he was in jail. Well, it turns out that during
24:51
Speaker 1: this time, police were doing surveillance on Dustin's house. They
24:55
Speaker 1: were there on August twenty eighth, and they saw Thelma,
24:58
Speaker 1: Dustin's mother, and some other men carrying white bags which
25:01
Speaker 1: they later determined had been stolen from a local concrete company.
25:06
Speaker 1: Thelma confessed that she'd strip some copper wire and stolen
25:09
Speaker 1: some supplies for the company and was hoping to sell
25:11
Speaker 1: them on. She was arrested on burglary charges in Walton County.
25:16
Speaker 1: She told the authorities she helped Martin Wilkie and her
25:19
Speaker 1: son Dustin get rid of Justin Gaines's body. She said
25:23
Speaker 1: they disposed of Justin's remains in the High Shoals area
25:26
Speaker 1: near the Appalachi River in Walton County. Thelma led investigators
25:30
Speaker 1: to a well there, and police searched different wells for
25:33
Speaker 1: several days, but in the end they found nothing. Thelma
25:37
Speaker 1: later told police that she had lied in order to
25:40
Speaker 1: get out of trouble. After that, Thelma was charged with
25:44
Speaker 1: making a false statement to police. So after this happened,
25:49
Speaker 1: after Thelma was arrested and charged with lying, it seemed
25:52
Speaker 1: like police and the district attorney were split over whether
25:55
Speaker 1: or not she was at all credible. Some of the
25:58
Speaker 1: detectives seemed to believe that, yes, Thelma and Dustin had
26:02
Speaker 1: lied about some stuff, but they thought there were grains
26:04
Speaker 1: of truth in what they were telling the authorities, while
26:08
Speaker 1: the Gwinnett County District Attorney, Danny Porter, said he thought
26:11
Speaker 1: the whole thing was a dead end. He told Fox five, quote,
26:16
Speaker 1: I think they are following up on an unproductive lead
26:18
Speaker 1: that has already been investigated end quote. He basically went
26:22
Speaker 1: on to say that Thelma and Dustin would come up
26:24
Speaker 1: with a different story every time they got arrested to
26:27
Speaker 1: try to get police to cut them a break on
26:29
Speaker 1: other charges. In two thousand and seven, there was more news.
26:35
Speaker 1: Authorities told WSBTV Channel two that they believed that Justin
26:39
Speaker 1: was robbed and killed and that his body was taken
26:42
Speaker 1: to Lake Lanier in a white van and dumped it
26:46
Speaker 1: seemed as though they were now disclosing more details of
26:50
Speaker 1: the story that Thelma had told the police. The lead
26:54
Speaker 1: investigator on the case at the time, Detective Simms, said
26:57
Speaker 1: that he believed that Justin got a ride from a
27:00
Speaker 1: blond woman, that the woman took him to a house
27:02
Speaker 1: in Snellville, and that he was attacked there and robbed,
27:05
Speaker 1: then killed, and his body was dumped in Lake Lanier.
27:08
Speaker 1: Then a few days later, on November fifth, Justin's body
27:13
Speaker 1: apparently floated up to the surface. After that, police say
27:17
Speaker 1: they believe his killer's panicked put the body into a
27:20
Speaker 1: black metal toolbox and carried it to another location, eventually
27:25
Speaker 1: dumping it in a well. At the time, Detective Sims
27:29
Speaker 1: said they had a vehicle of interest. He said, right
27:32
Speaker 1: after Justin went missing, the nineteen eighty four Chevy white
27:36
Speaker 1: work van that belonged to Thilma's boyfriend at the time
27:39
Speaker 1: also went missing. Police tried to locate it, but never
27:43
Speaker 1: found that vehicle. Detective Sims also talked about Justin's earring.
27:49
Speaker 1: He said, quote, this is a photograph of Dustin Dillon Glass.
27:53
Speaker 1: The day after Justin Gaines went missing, wearing an almost
27:56
Speaker 1: identical earring. Of course, the photos aren't that great, but
27:59
Speaker 1: if you look at it like this and compare them,
28:01
Speaker 1: you're gonna see this earring is pretty much the same
28:04
Speaker 1: as this earring. Dylan Glass has told me and has
28:07
Speaker 1: confessed in his own way. He said that he took
28:10
Speaker 1: that earring out of Justin's ear the night that he
28:12
Speaker 1: was killed. Enote. Police did try to run down the
28:17
Speaker 1: lead on this earring. They did go to the pawn shop,
28:19
Speaker 1: and eventually they found the earring, but Erica said when
28:22
Speaker 1: they tried to run a DNA test on it, apparently
28:25
Speaker 1: there was no trace of DNA. So in the end
28:28
Speaker 1: police had a kind of confession, but they had no
28:33
Speaker 1: trace of Justin. The people who were talking to them
28:36
Speaker 1: had their own reasons why they could be lying to
28:38
Speaker 1: police so, and they already felt like they'd wasted a
28:41
Speaker 1: lot of time on these searches. Eventually, a couple months
28:44
Speaker 1: after his arrest, the charges against Martin Wilkie were dismissed,
28:49
Speaker 1: and Martin Wilke has always denied he had anything to
28:51
Speaker 1: do with Justin's disappearance or his death. Over the next
28:56
Speaker 1: few years, occasionally stories would come up about things being
29:00
Speaker 1: dragged up from the one hundred and sixty foot depths
29:02
Speaker 1: of Lake Lanier. In twenty seventeen, a houseboat named six
29:06
Speaker 1: Pack Sally, which was kind of a local legend because
29:09
Speaker 1: the boat was a wreck that had apparently been sold
29:11
Speaker 1: for a six pack of beer, was slowly sinking. And
29:15
Speaker 1: the news story about this boat sinking was interesting to
29:18
Speaker 1: me because it talked about how many houseboats have gone
29:21
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the lake. It got me wondering
29:23
Speaker 1: what else was down there. It's also interesting because, according
29:27
Speaker 1: to Erica, the theory that the police believe is credible
29:31
Speaker 1: is that Justin's body was taken out and dumped in
29:35
Speaker 1: Lake Lanier, that it was done on a houseboat, and
29:40
Speaker 1: they also confirmed that Thelma's boyfriend at the time owned
29:44
Speaker 1: a houseboat and a home on that lake. In twenty nineteen,
29:49
Speaker 1: human remains were found near Lake Lanier again, though they
29:53
Speaker 1: were not connected to Justin. Erica also said in an
29:57
Speaker 1: interview that Thelma's boyfriend at the time owned the white van,
30:01
Speaker 1: the one police were unable to find. So we have
30:03
Speaker 1: this person out there who allegedly owns a houseboat, a
30:07
Speaker 1: house on the lake, and a van of interest. But
30:11
Speaker 1: this person was never charged with anything, and unfortunately, according
30:16
Speaker 1: to reports I've read, this person has also passed away.
30:19
Speaker 1: Since Justin went missing. In twenty twenty two, a new
30:24
Speaker 1: investigator came on the case. We've talked about him a
30:26
Speaker 1: little before. His name is Michael Rising. He works with
30:29
Speaker 1: the Walton County Sheriff's Department and he's a cold case investigator.
30:33
Speaker 1: He has stated he's following several leads and theories that
30:36
Speaker 1: Justin may have been interested in someone else's girlfriend or
30:39
Speaker 1: may have been targeted for a robbery. So this is
30:41
Speaker 1: kind of what police have said before. Of course, we
30:46
Speaker 1: don't have access to the whole case file, but I
30:48
Speaker 1: find myself wondering what if it was both? What if
30:52
Speaker 1: Justin met an attractive woman who he was talking to
30:56
Speaker 1: and she lured him into that vehicle in order to
31:00
Speaker 1: set him up for a robbery. Through the years, Erica
31:05
Speaker 1: has kept going, even through the false sightings, all the tips,
31:09
Speaker 1: and even people leaving her messages with their theories about
31:12
Speaker 1: the brutal ways in which they said that Justin was murdered,
31:15
Speaker 1: including someone who told her that he had been put
31:18
Speaker 1: through a wood chipper. Erica told Atlanta Magazine she had
31:21
Speaker 1: heard it all, but she kept doing media interviews and
31:23
Speaker 1: getting the word out there. Justin's family wants answers, but
31:27
Speaker 1: their priority is bringing him home. So let's go back
31:32
Speaker 1: and take a closer look at Dustin Dillon Glass because police,
31:37
Speaker 1: even though they believe that he was lying about certain details,
31:41
Speaker 1: seem to still have his name on their radar after
31:44
Speaker 1: all these years, and when they do make statements to
31:46
Speaker 1: the media, they continue to refer to the story that
31:49
Speaker 1: was told by Dustin and Thelma. So I wanted to
31:53
Speaker 1: know more. I've seen some references to Dustin being a
31:55
Speaker 1: gang member. Well, it turns out that this is more
31:59
Speaker 1: than just a rumor. I did a deep dive into
32:01
Speaker 1: this guy, and Dustin is a member of a very
32:04
Speaker 1: notorious gang and called the Ghost Face Gangsters. I've seen
32:08
Speaker 1: Dustin's mugshot and his entire face is covered in tattoos.
32:15
Speaker 1: I highly doubt that Justin, even if he was super intoxicated,
32:19
Speaker 1: which people say he was not, would have gotten into
32:21
Speaker 1: a car with a stranger whose face is covered in
32:24
Speaker 1: gang tattoos. So a little background on the Ghost Face
32:28
Speaker 1: Gangsters or GfG. They started around the year two thousand
32:32
Speaker 1: inside a Georgia prison and Basically, the GfG is a
32:37
Speaker 1: white supremacy prison gang, but it's spread to the streets
32:40
Speaker 1: and it's now apparently the largest gang in Georgia. It
32:44
Speaker 1: has thousands of members and these gang members have been
32:48
Speaker 1: responsible for huge crime waves. They've also since spread out
32:52
Speaker 1: to other states too. According to a twenty twenty two
32:56
Speaker 1: report by the Anti Defamation League on white supremacist gangs
32:59
Speaker 1: in prison, the Ghost Face Gangsters, while they're definitely racist,
33:04
Speaker 1: are not as overly white supremacists as some other groups. Apparently,
33:10
Speaker 1: the ghosts Faced gangster's loyalty is to making money, so
33:14
Speaker 1: they do have racist beliefs, but for example, they will
33:17
Speaker 1: form alliances outside prison with gangs that have primarily black members.
33:21
Speaker 1: And I also learn today that there are white gangs,
33:25
Speaker 1: even white supremacist gangs that sometimes have Hispanic members. Again,
33:29
Speaker 1: not to say that these groups aren't racist. Their loyalty
33:32
Speaker 1: is to the crimes they're committing and money above any
33:35
Speaker 1: sort of racial loyalty. Within the GfG, the seven original
33:40
Speaker 1: members are called the Pillars. New members are all supposed
33:44
Speaker 1: to have bloodlines they're supposed to trace back to one
33:46
Speaker 1: of those original founding members, and over the years they
33:49
Speaker 1: have been involved in a tremendous number of crimes, including drugs, murder, kidnapping, assaults,
33:57
Speaker 1: and obviously witness intimidation. There have been many high profile
34:01
Speaker 1: busts of the GfG in recent years, but in two
34:04
Speaker 1: thousand and seven and when Justin disappeared, this gang was
34:08
Speaker 1: not really making headlines yet. In twenty fifteen, after Dustin
34:13
Speaker 1: Glass's meth charges, mushroomed into a federal indictment for racketeering
34:16
Speaker 1: and conspiracy commit murder. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts
34:21
Speaker 1: of conspiracy commit murder, aggravated assault, violation of the Street
34:25
Speaker 1: Gang Terrorism Act, and possession of a firearm during the
34:28
Speaker 1: commission of a felony, so he was facing some serious
34:32
Speaker 1: federal charges. In the end, Dustin Glass was sentenced to
34:37
Speaker 1: sevent ten year sentences, but they're running concurrently, so actually
34:42
Speaker 1: it's not seventy years. This guy got just over fourteen
34:45
Speaker 1: years in federal prison instead of being behind bars for
34:48
Speaker 1: the rest of his natural life. I tried to find
34:51
Speaker 1: all the documents on this case. Some of them are sealed,
34:54
Speaker 1: so I really wonder what information he gave prosecutors to
34:57
Speaker 1: cut a deal like that. So now we go back
35:01
Speaker 1: to Justin's case. We have a lot of pieces and theories.
35:05
Speaker 1: We have the we have Dustin's gang affiliation and the
35:08
Speaker 1: story that he told about being there when his alleged
35:10
Speaker 1: accomplice fatally shot Justin, and then they all allegedly disposed
35:14
Speaker 1: of Justin's body. But there's no physical evidence, there's no body,
35:20
Speaker 1: and the people of interest are liars and not credible.
35:23
Speaker 1: So police seem to be saying they're not gonna believe
35:26
Speaker 1: these people unless there's actual evidence to back them up.
35:29
Speaker 1: And also if there is not a lot of evidence,
35:33
Speaker 1: then even if they did bring charges against Dustin or
35:37
Speaker 1: anyone else right now, there's a very high possibility that
35:41
Speaker 1: that person could get acquitted and then the charges could
35:43
Speaker 1: never be brought again. They need evidence. The prevailing theory
35:54
Speaker 1: now seems to be Justin Gaines was at the wrong
35:57
Speaker 1: place at the wrong time, and that while he was
35:59
Speaker 1: outside on that bench, a little bit tired, a little
36:02
Speaker 1: bit buzzed with a dying Poham battery, and desperately in
36:05
Speaker 1: need of a ride, someone saw his nice clothes and
36:08
Speaker 1: diamond earring and targeted him. I do believe that someone
36:14
Speaker 1: lured him into the car. Was it the two men
36:17
Speaker 1: or was it the mystery blonde woman or both or
36:20
Speaker 1: someone completely different? I should say that on my deep
36:24
Speaker 1: dive into the Ghost Face Gangsters, I saw that while
36:27
Speaker 1: women aren't allowed to be full members, they do play
36:30
Speaker 1: a crucial role in recruiting members, smuggling contraband into prisons,
36:34
Speaker 1: and luring targets to be robbed and sometimes murdered. The
36:39
Speaker 1: gang very often works in groups of several guys and
36:42
Speaker 1: one or two girls. Erica also told the Unfound podcast
36:48
Speaker 1: something else that I think was very interesting. She talked
36:51
Speaker 1: about the last time when Justin's phone pinged right before
36:56
Speaker 1: it died. It turned out that just after two am
36:59
Speaker 1: when the phone pinged, it pinged in the opposite direction
37:02
Speaker 1: of his house, a few miles toward Lake Lanier. So
37:08
Speaker 1: where was he going? Was he afraid at that point?
37:12
Speaker 1: Did these people kidnap him? Or did someone ask him
37:16
Speaker 1: if he wanted to go to a party? And if
37:18
Speaker 1: it was a woman, did she know what was going
37:20
Speaker 1: to happen to him? Or could it? As my friend
37:23
Speaker 1: Derek Lavassa brought up when he discussed this case on YouTube,
37:26
Speaker 1: could this have been some sort of accident like she
37:29
Speaker 1: thought he was cute and then took him to a party,
37:31
Speaker 1: and the men who saw Justin there were jealous or
37:33
Speaker 1: intimidated by him and jumped him. Now, let me say
37:37
Speaker 1: there's no evidence that the GfG is connected to Justin's disappearance,
37:42
Speaker 1: but just knowing about some of the people who have
37:44
Speaker 1: talked to police and their affiliations, knowing more about the gang,
37:48
Speaker 1: I think that if Justin's disappearance turns out to in
37:51
Speaker 1: any way be connected to the gang or anyone like that,
37:55
Speaker 1: the accidental theory becomes less likely because anyone who knew
37:59
Speaker 1: these guys would have to know that any interaction that
38:04
Speaker 1: Justin has with these men is probably going to end
38:07
Speaker 1: in disaster. This is the same gang who in twenty
38:11
Speaker 1: eighteen orchestrated a prison break and the men who escaped
38:15
Speaker 1: murdered two corrections officers. Another gang member was arrested separately
38:19
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen after police found the body of his
38:22
Speaker 1: six month old baby in a motel freezer. Reading the
38:27
Speaker 1: list of crimes that the GfG have committed and looking
38:31
Speaker 1: at their mugshots is like watching a real life horror movie.
38:34
Speaker 1: The gang made headlines again when several members went to
38:37
Speaker 1: the home of someone they didn't like their intention was
38:40
Speaker 1: to steal guns and beat him up, but he wasn't home. Unfortunately,
38:44
Speaker 1: his fourteen year old daughter was. When she saw these
38:47
Speaker 1: Ghost Faced Gangsters members coming to her door, she grabbed
38:51
Speaker 1: a BB gun and tried to defend herself. They started
38:54
Speaker 1: shooting and this fourteen year old girl was killed. After
38:59
Speaker 1: the fatal shooting of the fourteen year old girl and
39:01
Speaker 1: the corrections officers, the federal and state authorities accelerated their
39:04
Speaker 1: crackdown Lila the gang. In July twenty nineteen, it was
39:08
Speaker 1: announced Operation Vanilla Gorilla. By the way, they always have
39:12
Speaker 1: the craziest code names for these things. Just a side
39:14
Speaker 1: note there resulted in the arrest of forty three defendants.
39:18
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one, seventy seven Ghost Face Gangsters members
39:21
Speaker 1: were arrested. So they are cracking down on these gangsters.
39:26
Speaker 1: But authorities still say that the Ghost Face Gangsters is
39:30
Speaker 1: the fastest growing white gang in the country and the
39:33
Speaker 1: most dangerous and violent gang in the state of Georgia.
39:36
Speaker 1: And Dustin Dillon Glass, one of the police's primary people
39:40
Speaker 1: of interest, is a member of this gang, and yet
39:45
Speaker 1: I've never seen that affiliation mention anywhere on the news. Officially,
39:51
Speaker 1: police have said they're treating Justin's case as a kidnapping
39:54
Speaker 1: and presumed homicide. They have said a number of Walton
39:58
Speaker 1: County residents are witnesses to Justin's disappearance and possess knowledge
40:02
Speaker 1: of the incident that would be of great value to
40:04
Speaker 1: the investigation. This mystery blonde woman, who by the way,
40:09
Speaker 1: may not be blonde anymore, seems to be the key.
40:13
Speaker 1: Is she connected to Dustin or one of his associates.
40:16
Speaker 1: Is she someone totally random? We need to find out.
40:23
Speaker 1: I know that a lot of people have posted on
40:25
Speaker 1: social media that the police have been unresponsive. I think
40:29
Speaker 1: it might be because there was some confusion about who
40:31
Speaker 1: was handling the case. It spanned two counties. But the
40:35
Speaker 1: investigator to contact now we can confirm is Michael Rising
40:39
Speaker 1: at Michael That's m I C H A E L
40:43
Speaker 1: dot Rising R I S I N G at CO
40:48
Speaker 1: dot Walton dot g A dot us. You can also
40:53
Speaker 1: text seven seven zero three five four eight three four.
40:57
Speaker 1: I've never talked to Michael Rising, but I've seen where
41:01
Speaker 1: he has gone on Facebook and personally responded to comments
41:05
Speaker 1: with his contact information. So please, if you know something,
41:10
Speaker 1: if you were in the parking lot that night. If
41:11
Speaker 1: you know who this woman is, please reach out. In
41:16
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, Erica talked to Eleven Alive about how much
41:20
Speaker 1: Justin was missed by his family. He miss seeing his
41:23
Speaker 1: family members grow up, He missed seeing his nieces and
41:25
Speaker 1: nephews born, He missed graduating from college, and all the
41:29
Speaker 1: milestones that his proud parents should have been able to
41:31
Speaker 1: share with him. I'm Katherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone
41:36
Speaker 1: Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of
41:42
Speaker 1: School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated
41:45
Speaker 1: by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Music
41:50
Speaker 1: is contributed by Ben Sale. Jesse Niswanger scored and mixed
41:54
Speaker 1: this episode. Executive producers of Virginia Prescott Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley.
41:59
Speaker 1: If you have a case you'd like me and my
42:01
Speaker 1: team to look into, you can reach out to us
42:03
Speaker 1: at our Helen Gone Murder Line six seven eight seven
42:06
Speaker 1: four four six one four five that six seven eight
42:10
Speaker 1: seven four four six one four five School of Humans