Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / TEEN GIRL STEFANIE, 13, "LOST IN WOODS"

Transcript

TEEN GIRL STEFANIE, 13, "LOST IN WOODS" · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:06
Speaker 2: A teen girl, Stephanie, just thirteen, is lost in the woods,
0:12
Speaker 2: say her parents. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
0:17
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for being with us.
0:21
Speaker 3: A teen girl disappears from her New Sweden main home,
0:24
Speaker 3: last seen by her grandfather walking into the woods.
0:29
Speaker 2: Where is Stephanie who saw her go into the woods?
0:36
Speaker 1: We're getting a lot.
0:37
Speaker 2: Of conflicting reports about the last time Stephanie was saying
0:42
Speaker 2: just thirteen years old. And I've got a problem with that,
0:45
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you why. It was over twenty years
0:49
Speaker 2: ago that I last saw my fiance before he was murdered.
0:54
Speaker 2: I know what time it was, I know what he
0:56
Speaker 2: was wearing, I know what he said. I can identify
1:00
Speaker 2: his vehicle, his shirt, everything.
1:03
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with that. It's crystal clear
1:05
Speaker 1: in my mind.
1:07
Speaker 2: So why is there confusion about what happened to thirteen
1:11
Speaker 2: year old Stephanie? Joining me in All Star panel, But
1:15
Speaker 2: first listen to this.
1:16
Speaker 3: Main State Police and the FBI are asking the public
1:19
Speaker 3: for help locating a teen from New Sweden, Maine, who
1:22
Speaker 3: walked into the woods and hasn't been seen again. Stephanie
1:25
Speaker 3: Damron has turned fourteen since her disappearance four months ago.
1:28
Speaker 3: Stephanie is five feet tall, one hundred and thirty pounds,
1:31
Speaker 3: with green eyes and brown hair. She was last seen
1:33
Speaker 3: wearing a long sleeved blue shirt and black Harley Davidson
1:36
Speaker 3: hiking boots.
1:37
Speaker 2: There is a fifteen thousand dollar reward and it's climbing.
1:41
Speaker 2: And now we understand the FBI has been called in
1:45
Speaker 2: on the search for Stephanie. The description of her is
1:50
Speaker 2: shoulder length, light brown hair, and I've seen repeatedly striking
1:56
Speaker 2: green eyes.
1:58
Speaker 1: Now we just.
1:59
Speaker 2: Saw her speaking and that's from our friends at Patrol Life.
2:02
Speaker 2: I want to see the dad one more time. Please,
2:04
Speaker 2: let's watch dad, Christopher Dale.
2:08
Speaker 4: It was not her phone. It was her grandfather's phone.
2:11
Speaker 4: We had bought an old simple phone. We didn't even
2:12
Speaker 4: know it could connect to the internet. Come to find out,
2:15
Speaker 4: this cheap twenty dollars flip phone was the house she
2:17
Speaker 4: ended up connecting to the internet again.
2:19
Speaker 2: Joining me an all star panel, including a volunteer searcher
2:23
Speaker 2: who has been out searching for Stephanie. I'm trying to
2:27
Speaker 2: figure something out to Tom Green, joining us former Chief
2:31
Speaker 2: Deputy Washoe County Sheriff's Office, former homicide detective colek squad Burglary,
2:37
Speaker 2: owner of Nevada Investigative Services, Tom, what can you tell
2:41
Speaker 2: me about this family living as homesteaders?
2:46
Speaker 1: As you say, yes.
2:48
Speaker 5: So you know this is a different lifestyle. These are
2:51
Speaker 5: folks that want to sustain on their own. They don't
2:55
Speaker 5: want to be meddled with. They don't want to be
2:57
Speaker 5: fiddled with.
2:57
Speaker 6: They don't want to back that.
2:58
Speaker 2: Please speak English to me. What do you mean sustain?
3:03
Speaker 2: I sustain myself every day when I work in dinner
3:06
Speaker 2: on the table.
3:07
Speaker 1: But I've got an idea. You mean something entirely different.
3:10
Speaker 6: I do.
3:10
Speaker 5: So we're talking about no power, any power that any
3:14
Speaker 5: electricity they have is gonna be generators.
3:17
Speaker 6: As you heard a flip phone. One flip phone supposed
3:22
Speaker 6: to no power.
3:24
Speaker 1: Why don't they have any power?
3:26
Speaker 6: Well, they're using generators to run things when they need power.
3:30
Speaker 6: But this is off the grid, right.
3:33
Speaker 2: Do you want a generator that can go down? I've
3:35
Speaker 2: got a generator and I go test the thing every week.
3:38
Speaker 2: But wait a minute. If you're not going to have power,
3:41
Speaker 2: that's a lifestyle choice, I guess. But if you're gonna
3:46
Speaker 2: use a generator and you do have power, what's the
3:49
Speaker 2: point of not having power?
3:52
Speaker 1: Do they not want any connection to the power company?
3:55
Speaker 5: You know, it could be and it could be just
3:56
Speaker 5: a it could be cost prohibitive. They live like a
4:00
Speaker 5: mile off from my road in a forested area of
4:02
Speaker 5: a town of five hundred and seventy five people.
4:04
Speaker 6: And this is remote as remote as it gets.
4:06
Speaker 2: But I guarantee you the next door neighbors have electricity.
4:09
Speaker 2: What do you mean it's cost prohibitive. Well, and it
4:11
Speaker 2: could be how much a generator costs. If you can
4:13
Speaker 2: afford a generator, you can afford a monthly power bill, right,
4:18
Speaker 2: And you know.
4:19
Speaker 5: According to them, that's what they were doing when their.
4:22
Speaker 6: Daughter went missing.
4:23
Speaker 2: What did you say about sustaining themselves. I'm sorry, I'm
4:25
Speaker 2: just trying to get an understanding of how this little
4:27
Speaker 2: girl was living.
4:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know, like I said before, it's you know,
4:31
Speaker 5: you've got you've got four of their six children living
4:34
Speaker 5: at home in a home fashioned yurt with no power.
4:39
Speaker 6: No plumbing, no running up.
4:43
Speaker 2: Whoa wait a minute, a yurt. That's a fancy name
4:48
Speaker 2: for a tent.
4:50
Speaker 6: Basically, yes, where.
4:51
Speaker 1: Are the other two children? Do we know where they are?
4:53
Speaker 5: My understanding is that their adults and have left the
4:57
Speaker 5: home and on their own.
4:58
Speaker 1: Gee. I wonder why they'd want to get out of
4:59
Speaker 1: the Tom.
5:02
Speaker 2: I don't want to get too far afield from the
5:03
Speaker 2: fact that Stephanie's missing and their conflicting stories about when
5:08
Speaker 2: she was seen last, but I want Christy rand is
5:12
Speaker 2: joining me a special guest. In addition to Tom Green, doctor
5:15
Speaker 2: Angie Arnold, and Alysis Teschuk, Christy is a volunteer searcher
5:20
Speaker 2: who does not really know the family, but took it
5:24
Speaker 2: upon herself to go out and try to find this
5:27
Speaker 2: little girl. Christy, first of all, what led you to
5:31
Speaker 2: join the search for Stephanie.
5:32
Speaker 7: I have a distant family connection to another missing person
5:37
Speaker 7: here in the States, so I've done advocacy work for
5:40
Speaker 7: that relative for about six or seven years, and she
5:45
Speaker 7: had a similar circumstance of being presumed to have walked away,
5:50
Speaker 7: and in her case, hundreds of volunteers searched her area
5:56
Speaker 7: for almost a month, And the stark difference response for
6:00
Speaker 7: Stephanie was really what called me to her case.
6:03
Speaker 1: What was the difference, Christie?
6:05
Speaker 7: Stephanie had no on the boots ground volunteer searches for
6:10
Speaker 7: the first at least twenty four hours since the delay
6:14
Speaker 7: in reporting, and beyond that scale of even.
6:19
Speaker 8: A third or a fourth of the size of what
6:22
Speaker 8: should have happened didn't happen for over a month. So
6:27
Speaker 8: there was a lack of real serious response that would
6:32
Speaker 8: lead you to think that she could be lost in
6:34
Speaker 8: the woods or had fallen and been injured, just based
6:37
Speaker 8: on the lack of volunteers and searching that was happening
6:40
Speaker 8: on the ground.
6:40
Speaker 2: Okay, Christie, got a cramp in my hand trying to
6:44
Speaker 2: write down everything that you just said. That was a
6:46
Speaker 2: lot of information. First of all, delay in reporting. My
6:51
Speaker 2: ears pricked up when I heard that. What delay in reporting?
6:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, so we've been told it's about a twenty four
6:56
Speaker 7: hour delay, and we like to consider that it was
6:59
Speaker 7: actually long, closer to probably twenty seven or twenty eight hours.
7:03
Speaker 9: The parents claim that they received the.
7:06
Speaker 10: Call that Stephanie had walked off in the early afternoon,
7:10
Speaker 10: let's say, after noontime, and the call to report her
7:15
Speaker 10: missing didn't.
7:16
Speaker 9: Come in until around four pm the following day.
7:20
Speaker 2: We know a little bit about circumstances surrounding her disappearance,
7:25
Speaker 2: yet even the facts we have gleaned have become a marquie.
7:29
Speaker 1: But this is what we originally learned. Listen.
7:33
Speaker 11: Stephanie Damron, thirteen, is one of six siblings homeschooled by
7:36
Speaker 11: their parents, Lisa and Christopher Damron. The family of eight,
7:39
Speaker 11: along with the children's grandfather, live in a rural, wooded area,
7:43
Speaker 11: preferring an off grid lifestyle. The children are all very
7:47
Speaker 11: familiar with the woods surrounding their home, with Stephanie spending
7:50
Speaker 11: hours outside for time to herself while their parents are away.
7:54
Speaker 11: Stephanie gets in an argument with her sister over their
7:57
Speaker 11: chores and storms out of the open front door. Paup
8:00
Speaker 11: tries to stop Stephanie, but after noticing tears in her eyes,
8:03
Speaker 11: he lets the thirteen year old go, assuming she'll return
8:06
Speaker 11: after cooling off.
8:07
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm trying to make sense of what I am
8:09
Speaker 2: hearing right now. I've since heard Grandpa did not see
8:15
Speaker 2: her walking off into the woods. I've also heard that
8:20
Speaker 2: what was saying is Stephanie walking into the backyard. Okay,
8:25
Speaker 2: Alexis Tereschuk joining me. Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter
8:30
Speaker 2: alexis which of these versions is true?
8:33
Speaker 1: Could they both be true?
8:35
Speaker 2: You remember I told you about my former judge, one
8:38
Speaker 2: of the many judges I practiced in front of but
8:40
Speaker 2: this one particular judge, jose Luther Alberson, the oldest working judge.
8:44
Speaker 1: In the courthouse.
8:45
Speaker 2: And I might like to add the best he would
8:48
Speaker 2: tell jury's it is your duty to make all witnesses
8:52
Speaker 2: speak the truth, impugning perjury on no one. In other words,
8:57
Speaker 2: two people can have different stories, but they're both telling
9:02
Speaker 2: the truth right based on their vantage point, what.
9:06
Speaker 1: They recall, what they heard.
9:10
Speaker 2: It can be true that two witnesses statements can both
9:14
Speaker 2: be true. But yeah, they are diametrically opposed to each other.
9:19
Speaker 2: So help me understand what happened when Stephanie went into
9:25
Speaker 2: the woods and is never seen again.
9:27
Speaker 12: So she got in a fight with her sister. It
9:30
Speaker 12: was over the chores they.
9:31
Speaker 1: Have in their property.
9:32
Speaker 12: Also our homeschooled, so she could having to be doing
9:34
Speaker 12: her homework. It was school time, it was the fall,
9:37
Speaker 12: and anything about that, taking care of the other children, laundry, dishes, anything.
9:41
Speaker 12: So she gets in a fight with her sister, she leaves.
9:44
Speaker 12: The sister says she sees her walk in the woods.
9:46
Speaker 12: Grandpa says he looked at her.
9:48
Speaker 1: She was crying.
9:48
Speaker 12: He wasn't going to stop her. Now he could have
9:51
Speaker 12: just not turned around and watched her walk away. She
9:54
Speaker 12: has apparently done this a.
9:55
Speaker 1: Lot in the past.
9:56
Speaker 9: She gets upset, she's a teenager.
9:57
Speaker 12: She gets upset, she walks around the property, she kicks
9:59
Speaker 12: some rock, she cools off, and she comes home. So
10:02
Speaker 12: they weren't initially worried. Is perhaps why they didn't call
10:06
Speaker 12: the police originally.
10:07
Speaker 1: After twenty seven hours.
10:10
Speaker 12: Well, they weren't originally worried in the beginning. This is
10:13
Speaker 12: something she has done before. They've said that she has
10:15
Speaker 12: often sort of left and walked on her own. Again,
10:17
Speaker 12: they own a huge property. She could have just wanted
10:20
Speaker 12: to be outside.
10:21
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it a huge property, Christy Rand? Do
10:24
Speaker 1: you have searched the property before you?
10:27
Speaker 2: Members of the volunteers were blocked by the family according
10:31
Speaker 2: to reports from coming back on the property to search.
10:34
Speaker 2: How big is that property, Christy?
10:37
Speaker 7: It's a good tunk of acres and it backs up
10:40
Speaker 7: to another set of wooded.
10:42
Speaker 9: Land that could take you eventually out to a street.
10:45
Speaker 9: But it's going to be really dense and difficult to
10:48
Speaker 9: walk through.
10:49
Speaker 7: But Jessa said before, the driveway itself is over a
10:54
Speaker 7: quarter mile, so it is dense forest with.
10:59
Speaker 2: It's a five minute that's not that much. I mean
11:01
Speaker 2: you have to be walking slowly to make it twenty
11:03
Speaker 2: minute a mile.
11:04
Speaker 7: It's not even necessarily a driveway. So like this time
11:08
Speaker 7: of year, there is no access by vehicle. It would
11:11
Speaker 7: be walking only if not paved. There's no plow trap
11:15
Speaker 7: coming through in the winter like we have right now, if.
11:18
Speaker 1: Not covered crime stores with Nancy Grace.
11:31
Speaker 2: Christy Rand, I am looking at a three hundred and
11:34
Speaker 2: sixty five degree view.
11:39
Speaker 1: There's nothing but trees. I see exactly what you mean.
11:42
Speaker 7: And it should be said the neighbor directly across the
11:45
Speaker 7: street from them, that home is also empty.
11:47
Speaker 9: So walking to the end of the street, someone there.
11:50
Speaker 9: If she was walking to the road, they wouldn't have
11:52
Speaker 9: seen anything.
11:53
Speaker 2: But the reality is, isn't it true, Alexisterresschuck that canines
11:58
Speaker 2: were ultimately brought out?
11:59
Speaker 12: They were, and I didn't They didn't find anything that
12:02
Speaker 12: led them to her at all. They didn't say, oh,
12:04
Speaker 12: it went right up to the street edge, we lost
12:06
Speaker 12: it here, meaning that maybe she got into a car
12:09
Speaker 12: with the person that she had contacted on this cell phone.
12:12
Speaker 12: They couldn't really find anything of her.
12:14
Speaker 2: You know, I find a lot of this to be inconsistent,
12:17
Speaker 2: But what I do know is a thirteen year old
12:19
Speaker 2: girl is missing.
12:21
Speaker 1: Listen to this.
12:22
Speaker 11: Stephanie still hasn't returned an hour and a half later.
12:25
Speaker 11: Stephanie is very familiar with the woods near their home,
12:28
Speaker 11: and they check all her usual spots, but find no
12:31
Speaker 11: trace of the thirteen year old. The family doesn't think
12:33
Speaker 11: Stephanie would have headed to the main road, but as
12:36
Speaker 11: they walked the half mile trail leading to the street,
12:39
Speaker 11: Grandpa and some of her siblings remember hearing some kind
12:43
Speaker 11: of vehicle passed by just a few minutes after Stephanie left.
12:47
Speaker 4: Where we live at and the way we live at
12:49
Speaker 4: the first few hours, there was no reason to raise
12:50
Speaker 4: the right flag, so we got the phone calls that
12:52
Speaker 4: she took off with the road, and we figured by
12:55
Speaker 4: the time we get home she'd be back.
12:56
Speaker 2: You are hearing Dad speaking this dale damn run with
13:00
Speaker 2: our friends at on patrol life.
13:03
Speaker 1: I'm trying to analyze what I'm hearing. He says. Where
13:08
Speaker 1: we live and the way we.
13:10
Speaker 2: Live the first few hours, there was no reason to
13:12
Speaker 2: raise the red flag, so we got the phone calls
13:17
Speaker 2: that she took off up the road and figured by
13:20
Speaker 2: the time we'd get home, she'd be back and that
13:23
Speaker 2: would be.
13:23
Speaker 1: The end of it.
13:25
Speaker 2: Okay, that's conflicting, Christy rand I thought that the parents
13:34
Speaker 2: went in town to fill out applications for jobs. That
13:39
Speaker 2: while they were gone, Stephanie argues with a sister about chores,
13:43
Speaker 2: and she tears.
13:44
Speaker 1: Up and walks out of the home into the woods.
13:49
Speaker 2: Now we've heard she just went into the backyard and
13:52
Speaker 2: then suddenly disappears. Now I'm hearing that they heard a
13:56
Speaker 2: car go by a quarter of a mile away on
14:02
Speaker 2: the road.
14:02
Speaker 1: They heard a car go by.
14:04
Speaker 2: I'm also hearing the father say, we got the phone call.
14:09
Speaker 2: She took off off the road when we got home.
14:11
Speaker 2: We thought she'd be back and that would be the
14:13
Speaker 2: end of it. When he says she took off up
14:18
Speaker 2: the road to see made the public.
14:20
Speaker 1: Road or up the driveway, what does this mean?
14:24
Speaker 9: It's definitely concerning that. At first the answer is.
14:28
Speaker 13: We aren't sure if she would have gone to the
14:31
Speaker 13: road at all, And then we've heard.
14:33
Speaker 9: A car near the road, and now it's that she
14:36
Speaker 9: took off towards the road, So that in itself.
14:39
Speaker 7: Can be confusing, and hearing a car on the road
14:44
Speaker 7: doesn't really I mean, do we not expect to hear
14:48
Speaker 7: cars on the road.
14:49
Speaker 9: It was the middle of the afternoon. For all we know,
14:51
Speaker 9: that could have been a.
14:52
Speaker 13: Neighbor coming home, a mailman out front.
14:57
Speaker 7: I don't think there's anything significant to be heard from
15:00
Speaker 7: any of that other than discrepancies.
15:04
Speaker 3: A thirteen year old girl goes for a walk but
15:07
Speaker 3: doesn't return. The family reports hearing but not seeing a
15:10
Speaker 3: vehicle on Where is Stephanie Damron?
15:15
Speaker 2: A lot of confusing and murky facts, but I absolutely
15:18
Speaker 2: know this that police were not called the entire evening.
15:26
Speaker 1: She was not.
15:26
Speaker 2: Reported missing until first thing the following morning. Now, I
15:32
Speaker 2: don't understand that to Christy Rand, have you ever gotten
15:36
Speaker 2: an explanation why the parents went overnight without reporting their
15:42
Speaker 2: thirteen year old girl was gone? Do I have that
15:45
Speaker 2: timeline correct? She was not reported missing till the next morning.
15:49
Speaker 7: The earliest confirmation that we've gotten for the reason that
15:53
Speaker 7: happened is that they were.
15:54
Speaker 13: Under the assumption that you needed to wait twenty four
15:59
Speaker 13: hours to report missing, and so they were supposedly waiting
16:04
Speaker 13: for that twenty.
16:04
Speaker 14: Four hour mark, and unfortunately they weren't waiting by the
16:09
Speaker 14: clock and missed the twenty four hour mark before making
16:13
Speaker 14: the phone call, and as far as the quote saying.
16:17
Speaker 15: That they were in the wood screaming and looking for her,
16:20
Speaker 15: you know that leading up to that twenty four hour mark,
16:23
Speaker 15: there are no neighbors that ever received a knock from them.
16:28
Speaker 13: If they were.
16:29
Speaker 7: Out looking for those twenty four hours, it was not
16:31
Speaker 7: to a neighbor.
16:32
Speaker 2: Hey, Christy, how close is the home to, say, for instance,
16:36
Speaker 2: a convenience store miles ten miles, twenty miles one mile.
16:40
Speaker 7: I'm not comfortable staying for sure, but I would say
16:42
Speaker 7: about ten miles. It would be a leafy walk for
16:46
Speaker 7: a teenage girl who be going to the local gas
16:50
Speaker 7: station on foot.
16:53
Speaker 9: Her closest univers would have been safer locations for her
16:56
Speaker 9: to go where they have figured it.
17:00
Speaker 16: Of Uncle Andrew, who lives nearby, there are other people
17:04
Speaker 16: on their street that she would have been more likely
17:08
Speaker 16: to walk to before attempting to reach town.
17:11
Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something.
17:13
Speaker 2: Tom Green and I both say the family lived in
17:16
Speaker 2: a yurt, which is a glorified tint. You say, no,
17:21
Speaker 2: it's not a yur, then what is it? So?
17:24
Speaker 9: I'm also from Maine, where we have homesteads.
17:27
Speaker 7: Here, there's a lot of people who choose to live
17:28
Speaker 7: kind of an alternative homesteading lifestyle, and to me, a
17:32
Speaker 7: ur would be a solid structure built to withstand the
17:37
Speaker 7: elements of Mainz weather. You could potentially have woodstove in
17:41
Speaker 7: there and it would it would come in a way
17:43
Speaker 7: that it's built to.
17:45
Speaker 9: Last and protect, provide protection from.
17:48
Speaker 7: The elements and anything else you need to sustain yourself
17:52
Speaker 7: long term over winters. There are people who rent them
17:55
Speaker 7: for airbnbs and anything, and beyond up.
17:57
Speaker 17: Here what they have call a DIY version of that
18:02
Speaker 17: where they have a handmade center structure that they've extended
18:09
Speaker 17: with tent like structures off of the perimeter to create
18:15
Speaker 17: a DIY version of a tent.
18:17
Speaker 1: So they're living in a tent like structure.
18:21
Speaker 2: Does each child have their have their own space or
18:24
Speaker 2: they all in one room?
18:26
Speaker 9: They have small separate room like living quarters.
18:30
Speaker 7: They wouldn't be what we consider rooms with our own
18:33
Speaker 7: windows and doors, but they would be separated from each
18:38
Speaker 7: other for a little.
18:40
Speaker 9: Bit of privacy. There's no indoor bathroom or anything like that.
18:45
Speaker 9: So it isn't the.
18:50
Speaker 7: It's not the structure that we would all want to
18:53
Speaker 7: see our kids raised in. But for people who are
18:55
Speaker 7: choosing an alternative lifestyle.
18:57
Speaker 9: It could be seen as fit.
18:59
Speaker 2: When you were to them as homesteaders. What is your
19:02
Speaker 2: interpretation of the word homesteader.
19:05
Speaker 7: Possibly being off of the grid like they are using
19:07
Speaker 7: a generator when they absolutely need power, not using everyday
19:12
Speaker 7: amenities like the running water, but still having access to
19:16
Speaker 7: ploudible water to use for washing dishes or cleaning yourself up,
19:20
Speaker 7: potentially using animals and other techniques to you know, have
19:25
Speaker 7: your own garden, grow your own vegetables, process your own chicken,
19:29
Speaker 7: survive off the land, and need as much outside subsidence
19:34
Speaker 7: as possible possible.
19:35
Speaker 2: Okay, Doctor Angel Arnold joining me renowned psychiatrist joining us
19:40
Speaker 2: out of the Atlanta jurisdiction voted my Buckhead's best psychiatric
19:44
Speaker 2: practice of twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four. Doctor Angie,
19:50
Speaker 2: I'm not judging. I don't care. I have lived in
19:54
Speaker 2: a tent over the summer when I was camp counselor
19:58
Speaker 2: in the National Forest. I have in a yurt. I
20:02
Speaker 2: certainly don't live that way now with the children and
20:05
Speaker 2: my mother living with us. But that said, I don't
20:07
Speaker 2: care how these people live. What I do care about
20:11
Speaker 2: is the fact that quote off the grid and homesteading, homeschooling.
20:19
Speaker 2: That gives a lot less eyes on the child. I
20:23
Speaker 2: can't even figure out when she was last scene. For
20:26
Speaker 2: Pete's sake.
20:26
Speaker 18: Well, and my big question is why, Nancy, Why are
20:31
Speaker 18: they living like this?
20:32
Speaker 2: Like it?
20:33
Speaker 18: It makes us wonder if they're running away from something.
20:38
Speaker 18: And this little girl at thirteen or fourteen years old
20:43
Speaker 18: sounds like she may be getting tired of this way
20:46
Speaker 18: of living. Oftentimes, when people run away, they can either
20:50
Speaker 18: be running away from something that's going on in the
20:54
Speaker 18: home environment, or they can also actually be running towards
20:58
Speaker 18: something that they're looking for. Okay, so remember that they
21:01
Speaker 18: can be running away or towards something else. So we're
21:06
Speaker 18: all questioning this way of life.
21:09
Speaker 1: What about the other four children?
21:11
Speaker 18: Are they questioning this ray of life?
21:13
Speaker 1: I mean, you become doctor their way of life. This
21:18
Speaker 1: is America.
21:19
Speaker 2: It's not common as China, where they know everything is
21:23
Speaker 2: thinking and doing.
21:25
Speaker 18: But is the little girl questioning their way of life?
21:27
Speaker 18: And is she running away from something that's going on
21:30
Speaker 18: in the home or is she running towards something another
21:34
Speaker 18: way of life that she would prefer to live. That's
21:37
Speaker 18: my question in all of this, because I don't believe
21:40
Speaker 18: we have enough information past that the girl is gone.
21:45
Speaker 18: Was she running away from something or was she running
21:48
Speaker 18: towards something? Okay, Nancy, And all we know is that
21:53
Speaker 18: that little girl is gone.
21:54
Speaker 19: Despite extensive investigative efforts including a neighborhood cannabis and video search,
21:58
Speaker 19: along with an expansive grid search utilizing canines from Maine
22:02
Speaker 19: Warden Service and main stay police, Stephanie is still missing.
22:05
Speaker 2: That from our friends at News Center Maine, we just
22:10
Speaker 2: heard doctor Angela Arnold state that this little girl, just
22:14
Speaker 2: thirteen years old, described as having shoulder linked, light brown
22:19
Speaker 2: hair and strikingly green eyes, was either running away from
22:25
Speaker 2: something or running to something. Let's explore the theory. She's
22:30
Speaker 2: running away from something, isn't it true? Alexis Tereschuk that
22:35
Speaker 2: there was a quote CPS fiasco back in Texas, and
22:40
Speaker 2: I'm getting that from what purports to be one of
22:42
Speaker 2: the parents' Facebook a quote CPS Child Protective Services fiasco
22:49
Speaker 2: back in Texas, and they fled Texas and moved to Maine.
22:53
Speaker 1: Explain what happened?
22:55
Speaker 12: So the police recalled because the parents were inside a
22:58
Speaker 12: McDonald's and they appeared drunk, so the police came up.
23:02
Speaker 12: They found them, they arrested them for being drug public.
23:05
Speaker 12: Then they realized two of their children were in the
23:07
Speaker 12: car outside, so the parents weren't even taking care of
23:10
Speaker 12: the children that were in the car, and that's where
23:12
Speaker 12: they were charged with child abandonment. I believe they definitely
23:16
Speaker 12: got much lesser charges and they didn't serve any time
23:19
Speaker 12: in jail, But it was definitely CPS was involved after
23:22
Speaker 12: the police found them having left their children in the
23:24
Speaker 12: car while they were drunk inside McDonald's.
23:26
Speaker 2: The tip line everyone is one eight hundred and nine
23:30
Speaker 2: two four two two six ' one or the FBI
23:35
Speaker 2: one eight hundred call FBI. That's one eight hundred two
23:38
Speaker 2: two five five three two four. There is a reward
23:43
Speaker 2: with information leading to the whereabouts of this little thirteen
23:47
Speaker 2: year old girl. Now, you mentioned earlier, Christy Rand that
23:52
Speaker 2: some people were searching the property.
23:54
Speaker 1: Under the theory she may have quote fallen. What I
23:58
Speaker 1: think it was.
23:58
Speaker 7: Important for everyone was volunteering to search the general area
24:03
Speaker 7: that since we did not find Stephanie in the first
24:05
Speaker 7: twenty four hours or in that first week, there was
24:09
Speaker 7: some possibility since there were also no sightings, no credible
24:14
Speaker 7: reports of her being seen in town or in their
24:18
Speaker 7: closest city or anywhere else in the state.
24:21
Speaker 9: It was important to make sure that if she had
24:24
Speaker 9: taken her adventure in the woods to.
24:26
Speaker 7: Go cool off, that she had not fallen, tripped, gotten injured.
24:31
Speaker 9: Or anything of the sort and just was unable to
24:34
Speaker 9: reach out.
24:34
Speaker 2: You stated that neighbors did not hear anyone calling out
24:38
Speaker 2: her name or screaming or going door to door looking
24:41
Speaker 2: for her.
24:42
Speaker 9: No, so no neighbors heard anything that twenty.
24:44
Speaker 10: Four hour period delay of reporting her missing that they
24:48
Speaker 10: were out screaming.
24:49
Speaker 7: In the woods looking for her. Neighbors heard nothing. They
24:53
Speaker 7: also never received.
24:54
Speaker 9: A knock on their door from dad or mom.
24:57
Speaker 7: The neighbors actually the first knock they received was from
25:00
Speaker 7: author of these days later asking for video footage and
25:04
Speaker 7: if they have seen anything.
25:05
Speaker 2: To Tom Green joining me, owner of Nevada Investigative Services
25:10
Speaker 2: and former Chief Deputy in Washa County, I want you
25:16
Speaker 2: to hear again what the father is saying.
25:20
Speaker 4: It was not her phone. It was her grandfather's phone.
25:23
Speaker 4: We had bought an old simple phone. We didn't even
25:25
Speaker 4: know it could connect to the internet. Come to find out,
25:27
Speaker 4: this cheap twenty dollars flip phone was the how she
25:29
Speaker 4: ended up connecting to the internet.
25:31
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to analyze that.
25:33
Speaker 2: And you're seeing that video from our friends that on
25:35
Speaker 2: patrol live. To connect to the internet, of course, you
25:37
Speaker 2: have to have wife.
25:38
Speaker 9: Hi.
25:39
Speaker 2: Okay, if you don't have electricity and you don't have
25:44
Speaker 2: an indoor bathroom, is it consistent that Grandpa hasn't quote
25:52
Speaker 2: old simple phone that connects to the internet.
25:58
Speaker 1: Does that make sense to you?
26:00
Speaker 6: Not exactly.
26:01
Speaker 5: But what also doesn't make sense to me is the
26:05
Speaker 5: mom and dad said they received a call about her
26:07
Speaker 5: going missing. How did that call occur? Did it occur
26:09
Speaker 5: from the property, from a neighbor, did somebody drive to town.
26:14
Speaker 5: We don't know how close the nearest cell tower is
26:17
Speaker 5: to their home. Theoretically, you could get data and access
26:21
Speaker 5: the Internet on a device that's capable of doing those
26:25
Speaker 5: things if you're in a range of a cell tower.
26:28
Speaker 6: Maybe the neighbor has WiFi. We just don't know.
26:31
Speaker 2: I think I know about the call. Correct me if
26:33
Speaker 2: I'm wrong. Alexis and Christy after she went out the
26:38
Speaker 2: door after a spat with her sister regarding chores. Apparently someone,
26:44
Speaker 2: I guess the grandpa someone called the mom and dad
26:47
Speaker 2: who say they were in town filling out a job
26:50
Speaker 2: application and said she stormed out.
26:53
Speaker 1: They believe, well, she'll be back.
26:55
Speaker 2: In an hour and a half or so. When we
26:57
Speaker 2: get home, they come home, she's not there. I'm assuming
27:00
Speaker 2: that call came from Grandpapa's flip phone. Is that you're understanding, Alexis.
27:05
Speaker 12: Tereschuk, Yes, it is, And there haven't been in your
27:08
Speaker 12: report saying she took Grandpa's phone, so she was. They've
27:11
Speaker 12: always admitted that Grandpa has a phone, and just because
27:14
Speaker 12: it was a flip phone doesn't mean it can't make calls.
27:15
Speaker 9: So they called the parents with the flup phone.
27:18
Speaker 1: What about it?
27:18
Speaker 7: Christy Rand, Yes, I believe that's That's exactly what we've
27:21
Speaker 7: been told as well, that he had a flip phone,
27:24
Speaker 7: that Stephanie was commonly using it, but.
27:26
Speaker 9: Did not take it with her when she left that day.
27:29
Speaker 9: And we are unclear on whether or not.
27:33
Speaker 7: The phone call happened immediately as she was walking away,
27:36
Speaker 7: or if they waited twenty or thirty minutes to connect
27:39
Speaker 7: to service, connect to Wi Fi, get to a neighbor's.
27:43
Speaker 9: House to make the call. It's unclear of how soon
27:45
Speaker 9: that call happened.
27:46
Speaker 1: So to your knowledge, do they have Internet access there.
27:49
Speaker 2: Do they have Wi Fi? I mean they don't have
27:51
Speaker 2: a commode. I'm not judging if you're I don't care asking,
27:56
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to figure out if you don't have
27:57
Speaker 2: a commode you have Wi Fi.
27:59
Speaker 7: What we've asked about the Wi Fi and we're unable
28:02
Speaker 7: to get a clear answer as.
28:03
Speaker 9: To whether or not they had it. But if you
28:05
Speaker 9: notice the on patrol interview that Dad.
28:08
Speaker 7: Has done, he appears to be recording that video from
28:12
Speaker 7: the UR and as far as we know, it appeared
28:16
Speaker 7: like it may be live. So for that to be possible,
28:20
Speaker 7: there is some type of Wi Fi connection, whether it's
28:22
Speaker 7: coming from a hotspot or a cell phone. He is
28:26
Speaker 7: in that UR, it appears, and clearly has a device
28:30
Speaker 7: that he can use to record a video and send
28:33
Speaker 7: to on patrol. So there must be some way to
28:36
Speaker 7: connect to the Internet via a phone, a hotspot, or
28:39
Speaker 7: a Wi Fi router.
28:40
Speaker 2: Okay, Christy and everybody on the panel and jump in
28:43
Speaker 2: if you have insight onto this is it true. Search
28:47
Speaker 2: teams were ultimately barred from searching the property.
28:52
Speaker 7: Yes, we have search teams that were denied access. After
28:56
Speaker 7: the first initial searches, there was a series of events
28:59
Speaker 7: that went now that became hostile. We were denied access
29:04
Speaker 7: to the property without a warrant, and I believe there
29:07
Speaker 7: was a Facebook post made in the Mysteries of Main
29:11
Speaker 7: group by Dale himself explaining that no one was welcome
29:16
Speaker 7: to return without a war and or permission. And so
29:19
Speaker 7: that is part of why we've created the why.
29:22
Speaker 2: I don't think he needed a reason, but I mean,
29:24
Speaker 2: I would want everybody and their brother and sister looking
29:28
Speaker 2: from my child. I don't understand why would you bar
29:33
Speaker 2: searchers from looking for your child.
29:35
Speaker 20: I'm going to just try to keep that there's a
29:38
Speaker 20: possibility he is extremely uncomfortable with the press and the
29:44
Speaker 20: publicity that this.
29:45
Speaker 7: Has gotten, and for his own reasons, may just want
29:49
Speaker 7: official search teams to.
29:50
Speaker 9: Be there and maybe only wants FBI and police to
29:55
Speaker 9: be honest property from now on. It also could be extremely.
29:59
Speaker 7: Uncomfortable for for them as parents to have US volunteers
30:02
Speaker 7: coming out to search for Stephanie and also asking questions,
30:05
Speaker 7: you know, about the electricity, the Wi Fi connection, whether
30:09
Speaker 7: or not there was cell service. Because of course, when
30:12
Speaker 7: you have a dozen volunteer searchers invited to your property,
30:16
Speaker 7: all of us are going to be bringing our smartphones,
30:19
Speaker 7: using maps and devices to communicate with each other.
30:22
Speaker 13: So it was.
30:22
Speaker 7: Fairly instantly that volunteers were able to determine there's no
30:26
Speaker 7: cell service here.
30:27
Speaker 9: So where's this phone call coming from? And how did
30:30
Speaker 9: this all work?
30:36
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
30:42
Speaker 21: Their tips from the public that maybe she had a
30:46
Speaker 21: social media friend at the time or an acquaintance, So
30:50
Speaker 21: we just try to follow up on any information for
30:52
Speaker 21: those outside states.
30:54
Speaker 2: That was the tenant, Darren carn from the main state
30:57
Speaker 2: Police currency of our friends at New Center, Maine. Let's
31:00
Speaker 2: talk about the so called internet searches. Tom, you said
31:04
Speaker 2: something very significant, you said. Let's listen to the exact
31:09
Speaker 2: words we're hearing. Why did you say that, What do
31:13
Speaker 2: you mean? What have you gleaned?
31:14
Speaker 6: Well, you know, a statement analysis is critical. People say
31:19
Speaker 6: things that they may not want to because it's the truth.
31:25
Speaker 5: In an instance like that where he said that she
31:28
Speaker 5: had been on the internet, it wasn't a speculation. He
31:31
Speaker 5: knows somehow that she had accessed the internet.
31:34
Speaker 2: To Alexis, to reschat crime online dot com investigative reporter.
31:38
Speaker 1: He said that she had been on dating sites.
31:43
Speaker 12: Right, he did say that, And you remember she is
31:45
Speaker 12: only thirteen. You're not supposed to be on dating sites
31:49
Speaker 12: when you are thirteen.
31:50
Speaker 1: They really try to.
31:52
Speaker 12: You have to put in details and identification and things
31:55
Speaker 12: like that. But dad said she had been on dating
31:57
Speaker 12: websites all through a little flip phone.
32:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll throw a flip front and no one knew
32:01
Speaker 1: she was doing it.
32:02
Speaker 2: Doctor Angie Arnold renowned psychiatry is doctor Angie, isn't it true?
32:07
Speaker 1: The more you.
32:10
Speaker 2: I guess it'd be reverse psychology. The more you try
32:12
Speaker 2: to keep a child away from a certain thing that's
32:15
Speaker 2: the thing that they want, the more. Okay, they fled
32:18
Speaker 2: Texas after a CPS fiasco. They come to homestead here
32:23
Speaker 2: in New Sweden, Maine, and you've seen let's take a
32:27
Speaker 2: look at that three hundred and sixty five degree photo
32:30
Speaker 2: and an aerial. You can't get your child much further
32:35
Speaker 2: away from society, from school, from other people, from other
32:40
Speaker 2: children than here, and still live in the US.
32:43
Speaker 1: It's on the Canadian border. So she tries.
32:46
Speaker 2: They try so much to keep the child away that
32:50
Speaker 2: that's exactly what Stephanie did.
32:53
Speaker 1: Nancy.
32:53
Speaker 18: They don't go to school, they don't have a phone.
32:56
Speaker 18: So if this child can gain access to a phone
33:02
Speaker 18: via her grandfather, and she's vulnerable because of her age.
33:07
Speaker 1: Okay, what else is she.
33:10
Speaker 18: Going to do but look at some sort of a
33:12
Speaker 18: website where she could possibly find someone else.
33:15
Speaker 9: To talk to.
33:17
Speaker 18: So she So she is very much vulnerable, and she
33:22
Speaker 18: could be a victim to any number of things that
33:24
Speaker 18: can happen to her on the internet. But oftentimes children
33:29
Speaker 18: will reach out when they get the opportunity because they
33:32
Speaker 18: feel so pinned down by all of this isolation that
33:37
Speaker 18: the parents are trying to, you know, sometimes under the
33:40
Speaker 18: guise of keeping them safe. I don't know much about
33:43
Speaker 18: this family, but you know, there are a lot of
33:45
Speaker 18: conspiracy theorists out there. They don't want children to hear
33:48
Speaker 18: other things that are going on in the world, and
33:51
Speaker 18: so she very well could have reached out.
33:52
Speaker 2: On the only well, it seems to me getting back
33:55
Speaker 2: to the facts that we know, Tom Green, if the authorities,
34:01
Speaker 2: if LA law enforcement took all the devices and looked
34:06
Speaker 2: at them, wouldn't they know which dating site she had
34:10
Speaker 2: allegedly gone to, and if so, who would be her
34:14
Speaker 2: social media friend and then find that person.
34:17
Speaker 1: It's not rocket science.
34:19
Speaker 5: I agree with you, and the fact that the FBI
34:22
Speaker 5: is still involved makes it seem that it's less of
34:27
Speaker 5: a chance that she ran away and is deceased in
34:30
Speaker 5: the woods, God forbid, and that there's more of a
34:33
Speaker 5: chance that she either got picked up, met someone something
34:38
Speaker 5: like that, and is in a vulnerable state because.
34:41
Speaker 6: Of her age.
34:42
Speaker 2: Christi Rand, there was recently a vigil. A vigil was
34:47
Speaker 2: held for Stephanie to keep her disappearance in the news media.
34:52
Speaker 2: Did you attend the vigil? I did not, Christy. You
34:54
Speaker 2: have devoted so much of your time to try to
34:56
Speaker 2: find Stephanie.
34:57
Speaker 1: Why did you not go to the vigil?
35:00
Speaker 20: Safety concerns for volunteers and organizers, and we were hoping
35:04
Speaker 20: to have confirmation that law enforcement would be president that
35:08
Speaker 20: day so that we could be protected, the family could
35:10
Speaker 20: be protected, and since we weren't able to have that,
35:14
Speaker 20: there were members that decided it would be best not
35:16
Speaker 20: to attend.
35:17
Speaker 2: Were you actually afraid that you would be confronted at
35:21
Speaker 2: the vigil?
35:21
Speaker 1: I think it was a possibility.
35:24
Speaker 7: And if not for confrontation, family members, town residents, anyone.
35:29
Speaker 9: Who would have a reason to not want us on
35:31
Speaker 9: their property.
35:31
Speaker 22: In general, there are people that live in New Sweden
35:34
Speaker 22: who just genuinely want their privacy and are not interested
35:38
Speaker 22: in dozens of volunteers knocking on doors with permission slips
35:42
Speaker 22: asking to put boots on their ground.
35:46
Speaker 3: The FBI and Maine State Police working to find a
35:49
Speaker 3: teen who vanishes from her New Sweden home. The reward
35:53
Speaker 3: talks fifteen thousand dollars.
35:57
Speaker 2: Tom Green, I'm very surprised at their search dogs nor
36:02
Speaker 2: cadaver dogs picked up a cent that tells me she
36:07
Speaker 2: did leave the property, But how they don't have a
36:11
Speaker 2: trail of her leaving exactly.
36:13
Speaker 5: And you know that area, they're eighteen miles to the
36:16
Speaker 5: crowflies about to the Canadian border. It is heavily wooded, chopped,
36:20
Speaker 5: full of trails and roads for ATVs, not easily surveilled
36:25
Speaker 5: from the sky.
36:27
Speaker 6: That night it got down to forty one degrees.
36:31
Speaker 5: All these things, the time delay, the temperature of the humidity,
36:34
Speaker 5: all these things factor in with the dog's ability to
36:37
Speaker 5: gather a scent, and the fact that they didn't get
36:40
Speaker 5: a cent is obviously not good and could be an
36:44
Speaker 5: indication that she left in some sort of motorized vehicle
36:48
Speaker 5: or walked along a roadway, a paved roadway somewhere leaving
36:52
Speaker 5: the area.
36:53
Speaker 2: You know, the parents have been quoted as saying, everybody's
36:56
Speaker 2: looking at them as having something to do with Stephanie's disappearance.
37:01
Speaker 1: That's not uncommon.
37:03
Speaker 2: The first place you look is at family and those
37:06
Speaker 2: closest to the missing child. That in no way suggests
37:11
Speaker 2: the parents are responsible for her disappearance, not at all.
37:15
Speaker 2: That is where every investigation starts when there is a
37:18
Speaker 2: missing person. Now regarding hearing a vehicle, they are quoted,
37:23
Speaker 2: the family is quoted as saying they don't know if
37:25
Speaker 2: it was a vehicle, a four wheel or a motorcycle,
37:28
Speaker 2: and by the time anyone got to the road, the
37:30
Speaker 2: vehicle was already gone. The mom also states that she
37:34
Speaker 2: began looking immediately, going up and down the roads and everything,
37:38
Speaker 2: because she Stephanie has done this before. I've been able
37:42
Speaker 2: to find her in the past, but this time I
37:44
Speaker 2: could not find her. Is that accurate, Alexis Tereschuk, That
37:50
Speaker 2: is absolutely.
37:51
Speaker 12: They said that she had a history of leaving the property,
37:54
Speaker 12: running up they we'd call it running away, but she
37:55
Speaker 12: didn't run away. She was just on their big property.
37:58
Speaker 12: She was hiding in the woods, hiding in different places.
38:01
Speaker 12: They always found her to come back, So that was
38:03
Speaker 12: one of the reasons why they weren't as panicked as
38:06
Speaker 12: if she had not had this history of doing this,
38:09
Speaker 12: they would have said immediately, let's find her. But this
38:11
Speaker 12: was something she had done before, so it didn't raise
38:13
Speaker 12: a red flag for them right away.
38:14
Speaker 2: Christy Ran, who has searched repeatedly for Stephanie. Christy, you
38:19
Speaker 2: stated that their property backs up against a much bigger
38:23
Speaker 2: and more densely wooded area.
38:26
Speaker 1: Has that area been searched? It does.
38:29
Speaker 7: Volunteers have searched from their roadside all the way through
38:32
Speaker 7: their property to the property line and then back to
38:35
Speaker 7: the next parallel road. So any possibility that Stephanie had
38:39
Speaker 7: taken any trail from their side of town to another
38:43
Speaker 7: has been check. So is that we are definitely not
38:46
Speaker 7: just looking at the parents. We're looking at every possibility.
38:48
Speaker 2: And again that means nothing when we say we're looking
38:52
Speaker 2: at the parents.
38:53
Speaker 1: Of course, we're looking at the parents.
38:55
Speaker 2: Everybody looks at the parents in the family first, and
38:58
Speaker 2: then the investigation moves out out from there. Why because statistically,
39:03
Speaker 2: very often, especially when the child is very young, like
39:06
Speaker 2: a toddler, the family is responsible for the disappearance. That's
39:11
Speaker 2: not to say that happened here. Take a listen to
39:15
Speaker 2: Lieutenant Darren Karn with Main State Police.
39:18
Speaker 21: Everything is still on the table for us, from her
39:20
Speaker 21: simply being missing to run away to the worst situation
39:24
Speaker 21: because we don't have any concrete leads or tips that
39:27
Speaker 21: have led us basically in one direction or the other.
39:30
Speaker 2: That's for our friends and New Center, Maine. Everyone is
39:34
Speaker 2: being eyeballed. All scenarios are being researched. I'm curious about
39:40
Speaker 2: what if any leaves came from Grandpa's flip phone, where
39:45
Speaker 2: reportedly Stephanie had been on a dating site, if that
39:49
Speaker 2: had anything to do with her disappearance, think about it.
39:52
Speaker 2: When mom and dad leave to go to town to
39:55
Speaker 2: apply for this job, she gets grandpa's phone, has met
40:00
Speaker 2: somebody online at just thirteen years old, and tries to
40:04
Speaker 2: meet up with them. It's happened so many times before
40:09
Speaker 2: with tragic results.
40:11
Speaker 1: We just don't know.
40:13
Speaker 2: But what we do know is this thirteen year old
40:17
Speaker 2: little girl is missing. If you know or think you
40:22
Speaker 2: know anything about the whereabouts of Stephanie Damreun just thirteen
40:29
Speaker 2: years old when she disappeared, please dial one eight hundred
40:34
Speaker 2: call FBI one eight hundred two two five five.
40:38
Speaker 1: Three two four.
40:39
Speaker 2: There is a fifteen thousand dollars reward that is climbing.
40:45
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfalls. Goodbye friend,