Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Bizarre Circumstances Surround 1980 Disappearance of Nancy Snow

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Bizarre Circumstances Surround 1980 Disappearance of Nancy Snow · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we're taking you
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back to a specific date, November fourth, nineteen.
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Speaker 2: Eighty right, a huge day in American.
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Speaker 1: Politics, absolutely, the Reagan landslide victory. You know, massive celebrations,
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a real feeling of national high point for many. But
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underneath that national euphoria, something deeply personal and tragic was
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just starting.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, a mystery that's now forty four years old and
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still unsolved.
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Speaker 1: Exactly, And that's where we're focusing today.
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Speaker 2: That's our mission for this deep dive. Really, We've got
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this pile of sources, police reports, interviews, news articles all
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about the disappearance of Nancy Marlene Snow. She was forty
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four and RNC fundraiser flew into Baltimore Washington International BWI
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that very night, election night, after a successful campaign trip
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elated successful totally, and then she just vanished within hours.
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It seems our job is to sort of untangle this
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mess of conflicting stories, the outright lies, frankly, and these
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huge frustrating gaps in what we know.
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Speaker 1: And it's not you know, your typical missing person cases.
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The details are just bizarre.
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Speaker 2: Oh completely, it reads like fiction.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes we're talking about things like a phantom boat, captain
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Captain J was that's the.
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Speaker 2: Name, yeah, Captain J. And a specific yacht, the Cotton Blossom.
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Speaker 1: Which apparently just appeared and disappeared, poof.
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Speaker 2: Gone, along with forged checks being written for months.
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Speaker 1: After she vanished, systematically draining her accounts for.
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Speaker 2: Six months, and the house sitter she hired, he becomes
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a person of interest, then a fugitive.
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Speaker 1: And perhaps the most baffling part, she wasn't even reported
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missing for what five full months?
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Speaker 2: Five months? It's staggering. The delay is just yeah, it
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handicapped the investigation from the start, so much.
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Speaker 1: So that by nineteen eighty nine the police basically had
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to make the call.
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Speaker 2: They reclassified it from missing person to homicide, a necessary
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step but obviously heartbreaking.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so before we dive into the nuts and bolts
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of a disappearance itself, we really need to understand Nancy Snow,
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the woman, because who she was is maybe the biggest clue.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, the sources are incredibly consistent on this. Nancy Snow
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wasn't flighty, she wasn't naive, born in thirty six, she
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was well worldly.
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Speaker 1: Worldly is a good word, cosmopolitan, adventurous.
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Speaker 2: Definitely think about her life before she even got to Annapolis.
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She was in California, had her own talk show for.
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Speaker 1: A bit, right, I read that.
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Speaker 2: But that's just scratching the surface. The woman spoke seven
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languages fluently seven Yeah, lived abroad extensively, West, Germany, Brazil.
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Actually hosted a TV program down there in Brazil.
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Speaker 1: So she navigated different cultures, complex situations. This wasn't someone
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easily intimidated or you know, fool, not at all.
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Speaker 2: People describe her as really level headed, charismatic, yes, a socialite,
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good companynetic, maybe that sounds right, someone who drew people in,
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but grounded, organized, driven.
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Speaker 1: In that background that struck sure is really important when
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we look at what happened next, right like that changes
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in her life just before the.
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Speaker 2: Move crucial context. She divorced her husband, Bob Snow in
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nineteen seventy eight. Sours and say it was amicable, friendly,
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even her daughter Stacy, Justine and Kimberly stayed out in California,
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Carmel by the Sea. But Nancy was meticulous about staying connected.
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Speaker 1: Daily calls, daily letters. That comes up again and.
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Speaker 2: Again every single day, no matter where she was campaigning, traveling.
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That connection was no negotiable, which, as you said, is
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the first major red flag against the later story.
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Speaker 1: So post divorce, she gets her own place in.
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Speaker 2: Carmel, YEP, bought a condo, really embraced being independent, and
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she had a modest inheritance around then too, which helps
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cement that financial freedom.
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Speaker 1: But California wasn't the endgame for her.
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Speaker 2: No, she seemed to be looking for I don't know,
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a bigger stage, more action. Annapolis, Marilyn called to her
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in nineteen seventy nine.
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Speaker 1: Sailing capital makes sense, giving her love of the water.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, that love of sailing combined with this this growing
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fire for national politics. She wanted to be closer to
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the action on the East Coast, and she.
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Speaker 1: Jumped right in landed that RNC fundraising gig in nineteen eighty.
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Speaker 2: She did, traveling all over, working hard, fundraising for folks
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like Geen McNairy, the Senate candidate in Missouri.
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Speaker 1: Her letters from that time, Yeah you could feel the exhaustion,
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can't you.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, constant travel, hotels, events. She wrote about being
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absolutely wiped out.
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Speaker 1: But optimistic too, like she'd found her niche totally.
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Speaker 2: She felt she was finally playing in the league. She
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belonged in thriving but yet desperately needing a break, which
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makes the timing of her disappearance even more pointed.
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Speaker 1: And then there's this detail her daughter's emphasized something that
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just screams contradiction.
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Speaker 2: Of a safety thing. Yeah, this is fundamental, not.
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Speaker 1: Just careful, but obsessed with safety.
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Speaker 2: Obsessed. Her daughters use that exact word. We're talking and
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rolling them in self defense classes, constantly warning them about strangers,
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preaching vigilance.
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Speaker 1: So the idea that this woman, this incredibly caught, prepared woman,
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would just on a whim jump on a boat with
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some guy she just met, it it doesn't compute.
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Speaker 2: It flies in the face of everything we know about
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her core personality. It's not just unlikely, it feels impossible
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based on who she was.
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Speaker 1: That contradiction is probably the family's strongest argument, emotionally and
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logically for sure.
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Speaker 2: Now, shifting to the investigation, if her body had been found,
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identifications should have been straightforward. She had some very specific
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physical markers.
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Speaker 1: Right, things that became kind of haunting because they never
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let anywhere exactly.
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Speaker 2: It's a pretty long list, actually, which makes her complete
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disappearance even more baffling.
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Speaker 1: Like the gap in your teeth yep.
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Speaker 2: Very distinctive gap between her front teeth and her dental records,
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extensive lots of silver and white filling.
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Speaker 1: And missing molars, nearly all.
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Speaker 2: Of them gone except for one on the lower right
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that had a specific silver cap. You'd think a jawbone
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would be an instant match.
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Speaker 1: And physically scars unique features.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a bad scheme. Accident in the late seventies.
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Her right leg was broken in multiple places.
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Speaker 1: So evidence of surgery, uneven bone healing.
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Speaker 2: You'd expect significant signs of that. Plus she was double
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joined in her elbows, both of.
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Speaker 1: Them, huh unusual.
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Speaker 2: And get this, deformed second and third toes on both
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feet again, highly specific skeletal markers.
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Speaker 1: Wow, okay.
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Speaker 2: And then there were the items she always wore a
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Brazilian fag and necklace it's like a protective charm, white
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stone and gold okay, And a bracelet her family said
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she never took off. Ever.
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Speaker 1: So with all that, the dental records, the leg, the toes,
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the jewelry, the fact that no unidentified remains have ever
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matched her, it.
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Speaker 2: Just deepens the mystery. It tells you how thoroughly she
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or evidence of her was hidden or destroyed.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's zoom in on that critical window. Election day,
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November fourth, nineteen eighty.
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Speaker 2: Right, Nancy Vot's absentee. She's in Saint Louis, wrapping up
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campaign work.
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Speaker 1: Boards a flight lands a bwi or on eight pm.
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Speaker 2: And remember her car, that turquoise VW convertible is back
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in Annapolis. She needs a ride.
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Speaker 1: So first stop isn't home. It's a party.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, a private victory party in Baltimore, hosted by someone
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described as an old campaign flame, someone she dated sporadically. Yeah,
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but police cleared him quickly, solid alibi timeline.
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Speaker 1: Checked out and Nancy's mood at the party.
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Speaker 2: Apparently sky high, really happy, celebrating the Reagan win the
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end of the campaign. Dressed casually, turtleneck windbreaker, boat shoes.
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Speaker 1: So everything seems normal, just unwinding after.
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Speaker 2: A long haul, exactly, a quick, joyful stop before heading
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home to crash.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So that brings us to the morning of November fifth,
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the day after the election. This is where things start
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to get weird.
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Speaker 2: This is the pivot point. She has breakfast with her hosts,
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the guy from the party, at a diner nearby.
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Speaker 1: And she talks about her plans.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, normal stuff. Get back to Annapolis, unpack, unwind, maybe
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drop by mcgarvey's saloon later, catch up with locals.
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Speaker 1: Mcgarvey's that Irish pub near her condo.
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Speaker 2: That's the one familiar art. So the host drives her,
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but not all the way to Annapolis, right.
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Speaker 1: He drops her at a hotel in Towson.
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Speaker 2: Why there so she could meet her ride. The plan
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was for her house sitter to pick her up there.
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Speaker 1: And around noon he shows up. Paul Ty Collins.
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Speaker 2: The third he arrives, and Nancy's host a guy dropping
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her off. He noticed something. Collins wasn't in Nancy's vw
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us in some other car, Yeah, a nondescript sedan. The
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host specifically remembered thinking it was odd.
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Speaker 1: What odd? Maybe her car was blocked in or something maybe.
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Speaker 2: But odd enough that he mentioned it. Collins was twenty nine.
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A local handyman did chimney sweeping on the side.
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Speaker 1: And Nancy had hired him just weeks before.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, specifically to house it while she was away campaigning.
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So he had keys, He had access to her condo,
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her life, full access, total access, and this moment, this
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handover at the toson hotel. This is where the lead
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investigator believes it all went wrong.
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Speaker 1: Corporal William Noel, the current investigator.
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Speaker 2: That's him, even decades later, looking back at everything, he
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pinpoints this moment.
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Speaker 1: He thinks the tragedy happened almost immediately after pickup.
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Speaker 2: That's exactly his assessment. His quote is something like, whatever
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happened happened very soon after she was picked up from that.
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Speaker 1: Hotel, So not later that night at mcgarvey's, not the
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next morning, but right then or very shortly after, on
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November fifth.
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Speaker 2: That's the theory that the window for her murder is
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actually incredibly narrow. Sometime between noon and the fifth when
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she got in that sedan and maybe dawn on the sixth,
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at the absolute latest.
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Speaker 1: Before she could even get back to her apartment before mcgarvey's.
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Speaker 2: That's what they suspect. That she never made it back
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to a condo to unpack, never made it to the saloon.
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That the plan, whatever it was, was executed almost immediately.
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Speaker 1: Wow. But why what makes him so sure it happened
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that fast?
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Speaker 2: It's partly about what didn't happen. Knowing Nancy's character. The
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Daily calls, The Daily calls if she had gotten home,
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even for a few hours. The absolute first thing she'd
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do is call her daughters Stacy and Justine.
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Speaker 1: Unpack essentials, maybe check mail.
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Speaker 2: Right, there would likely be some trace, a receipt from
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a local store, a neighbor seeing her lights on something.
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But there were just silence, immediate, total silence, and.
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Speaker 1: Then Collins' actions later They suggests he needed her gone
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fast exactly.
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Speaker 2: The lack of any footprint after that pickup, combined with
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his later behavior, points to an interruption that was sudden,
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violent and final, happening very close to that handover point.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so the investigators believe one thing. But Paul Collins
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he told a very different story, didn't.
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Speaker 2: He Oh, completely different, the story that became known as
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the yacht Taale.
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Speaker 1: Right, So what was his initial verse?
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Speaker 2: Collins claimed he picked her up in Tosin, drove her
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straight back to her Annapolis apartment on November fifth, No.
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Speaker 1: Problem, okay, safe and sound at.
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Speaker 2: Home, according to him. Yes, Then he says, she went
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out that evening, maybe to mcgarvey's, like she'd.
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Speaker 1: Planned, and she comes back different.
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Speaker 2: She comes back giddy, he said, excited because she'd met someone.
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Captain Jay, Captain j Master of a fifty five foot
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yacht supposedly, and Jay apparently just offered her a job on.
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Speaker 1: The spotop doing.
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Speaker 2: What crew work, sailing down to the Caribbean, leaving immediately
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from Fort Lauderdale Hill.
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Speaker 1: Leaving immediately like that night.
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Speaker 2: Collins claimed that Nancy, the super organized, safety conscious woman,
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just impulsively said yes, threw a few things in a
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small bag.
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Speaker 1: Left everything else behind her checkbook, passport, clothes, papers, all of.
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Speaker 2: It, scribbled a quick note supposedly, and poof, gone by
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dawn on November sixth, sailed off into the sunset.
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Speaker 1: Okay, hey, we have to stop there. This is where
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it just falls apart based on everything we know about Nancy.
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Speaker 2: It's completely counter to her established character. It makes zero sense.
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Speaker 1: The woman who drilled safety into her kids, who called
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them every single day, abandons everything for a spur of
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the moment trip with a total stranger she met in a.
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Speaker 2: Bar, leaving no word, no arrangements, no money. It's ludicrous.
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It's the narrative equivalent of a giant flashing sign saying
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this is a lie.
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Speaker 1: And her daughters knew it instantly, right, especially when that
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birthday call was missed.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Justine's birthday, November fifteenth. When that day came
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and went with no call from Nancy for the family,
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that wasn't proof she was sailing the high seas. That
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was proof something terrible had happened.
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Speaker 1: Because she never would have missed that call.
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Speaker 2: Never, if she were really going on a long trip,
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she would have made arrangements, called them first, probably sent
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money packed, properly, told people her plans. This silent, sudden,
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vanishing act, it's the opposite of Nancy snow.
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Speaker 1: So the family starts worrying pretty quickly, and Stacy, the oldest,
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she takes action.
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Speaker 2: She does. She's only seventeen, but she flies east in
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December nineteen eighty, barely a month later, goes straight to
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the Anapple's apartment to confront Collins.
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Speaker 1: That must have taken incredible courage. What was that meeting like?
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Speaker 2: Stacy described Collins as being disturbingly casual, almost like blase
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about the.
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Speaker 1: Whole thing, really not concerned at all.
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Speaker 2: Nope, kept telling her Nancy was fine, chasing horizons, needed
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an adventure. He completely downplayed Stacy's very real fears.
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Speaker 1: And Stacy felt something was off about the apartment too.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, she said, Colin seemed too comfortable, like he wasn't
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just house sitting anymore, he was living there, settled in.
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It made her deeply uneasy.
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Speaker 1: But confronting him didn't push him to file a police
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report right away.
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Speaker 2: No, he stalled, managed to put it off for weeks more.
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This delay is just criminal.
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Speaker 1: Really definitely hindered the investigation massively.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't until January nineteen eighty one, under pressure from Stacy,
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mind you, that Colins finally agreed to do something.
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Speaker 1: And even then he didn't go straight to the Annapolis police.
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Speaker 2: No, he insisted they drive down to Fort Lauderdale. His logic,
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the boat supposedly left from there, so that's where the
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report should be filed form his direction, almost certainly. And
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then he tainted that report too. He threw in this
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bizarre detail for the Florida Police was that he claimed
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Nancy had actually arrived in Fort Lauderdale by bus from Connecticut,
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of all places.
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Speaker 1: Eticette, Where did that come from?
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Speaker 2: Out of thin air? Investigators believe, totally unverified, Probably just
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meant to muddy the waters, confuse the timeline, create a
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false trail.
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Speaker 1: So when did he finally report her missing in Annapolis
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where she actually lived and disappeared from.
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Speaker 2: Not until January eighth, nineteen eighty one, five full months
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after she was last seen.
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Speaker 1: Five months. Incredible, and during that time he wasn't just
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sitting around. He was busy.
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Speaker 2: He was very busy, busy exploiting her absence. Let's talk
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about the money.
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Speaker 1: The forged checks. This is where it moves beyond just suspicion, right.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, this is documented proof of criminal activity. The bank
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records are undeniable.
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Speaker 1: What did they show?
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Speaker 2: They showed Collins forging Nancy signature on check after check,
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made out to himself for six straight months after she disappeared.
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Speaker 1: Wow, just helping themselves to her account systematically.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't one panicked grab. It was hundreds of dollars
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a month after month. He'd write bills in the memo
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line sometimes but often just took cash.
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Speaker 1: How did he get away with that for six months?
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Didn't the bank know?
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Speaker 2: You'd think so. But the amounts maybe weren't huge enough
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individually to trigger major alarms right away, and he had
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access to her apartment, her mail. Maybe he intercepted statements clausible,
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But once the police got involved and pulled the records,
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the pattern was crystal clear. A house sitter, paying himself
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from the missing owner's account long after she supposedly left voluntarily.
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It screams guilt.
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Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the money, was it. He was
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actively getting rid of her stuff.
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Speaker 2: Yes, this part is particularly chilling because it feels so deliberate.
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It's about erasing her.
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Speaker 1: Like the car, her VW He told people.
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Speaker 2: It was in storage, safe and sound, but nope, witnesses
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saw him driving it around Annapolis.
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Speaker 1: Using her car while claiming she'd abandoned.
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Speaker 2: It exactly and then even worse, her personal belongings, clothes, papers,
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personal effects.
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Speaker 1: What did he do with them?
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Speaker 2: Donated them, got rid of them, gave them to charity.
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Speaker 1: Not selling them for cash, but just erasing her presence.
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Speaker 2: That's what it looks like, a calculated effort to scrub
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that apart clean of Nancy Snow, to remove any trace
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that could be analyzed later, any reminder of her life there.
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Speaker 1: Stacy said, when she finally got inside properly with the police,
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the apartment felt violated.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that word really sticks, doesn't it. It wasn't just robbed,
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it was contaminated. Her private, ordered world had been taken
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over and wiped clean by the person and trusted to
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protect it.
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Speaker 1: So Collins creates this elaborate yacht story. Yeah, and a
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specific yacht too, the Cotton Blossom. That detail hung around
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for a long time.
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Speaker 2: It really did. Even when pressed later Collins doubled down,
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adding details. Claimed Captain j kept the fifty five foot
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sloop docked at Petrini's shipyard right there near Annapolis.
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Speaker 1: Giving investigators something specific.
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Speaker 2: To chase exactly. And they chased it hard. Talked to
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everyone at the shipyard, checked every mooring log, every manifest nothing.
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No Captain Jay, anyone knew no record of a fifty
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five foot sloop named Cotton Blossom fitting that description sailing
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out of there right after the election.
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Speaker 1: Gotal fabrication a.
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Speaker 2: Classic red herring, a detailed lie designed to send the
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police on a wild goose chase out on the water
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while the real answers were likely much closer at home
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on land.
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Speaker 1: But didn't the police like revisit the yacht thing much
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later in twenty ten, they.
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Speaker 2: Did put out a public call for info on the
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Cotton Blossom.
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Speaker 1: Then.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the sources suggest that tip might have actually come
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from Collins himself.
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Speaker 1: Collins brought it up again, why.
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Speaker 2: Well, reports say he met with detectives around that time.
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Maybe he felt the heat rising again, decided to reassert
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the original story, try to throw them off the scent
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one more time.
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Speaker 1: Reinforced the idea of this transient boat that just.
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Speaker 2: Vanished precisely, but the police investigation was thorough. Their conclusion remains,
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the yacht story is almost certainly fiction.
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Speaker 1: A distraction, Okay, let's focus squarely on Paul Collins, the third,
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the central figure in all this. His story kept changing,
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and when things got tough, he ran.
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Speaker 2: He did. He fled in October nineteen eighty one. That's
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nearly a year after Nancy disappeared. Why then, police questioning
18:01
was ramping up. They were zeroing in on him. The
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bank records showing the check forgeries were likely coming to light.
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He panicked, and his.
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Speaker 1: Escape wasn't exactly smooth or sophisticated, was it.
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Speaker 2: Not at all? It was messy, petty theft, stole two
18:15
hundred dollars cash, his chimney cleaning tools, even ripped the
18:19
magnetic signs off his boss's truck.
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Speaker 1: Seriously, the magnetic sign Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Then he bolted for the Bahamas. It speaks more to
18:27
sudden desperation than careful planning, doesn't.
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Speaker 1: It, It really does. It doesn't sound like a master
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criminal covering his tracks. So what do investigators think the
18:35
motive really was. It wasn't about becoming rich off her
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account given.
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Speaker 2: The amount, probably not grand larceny. No, the prevailing theory
18:42
revolves around his living situation. Investigators called it a cushy setup,
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meaning he had a free place to live, rent, free bills,
18:50
paid access to your car, her money.
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Speaker 1: It was comfortable, easy, and Nancy coming home meant the end.
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Speaker 2: Of that exactly. Nancy was organized, structured, she was ready
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to reclaim her life, her space. Collins, the handyman house sitter,
19:03
would have been out on the street pretty.
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Speaker 1: Quickly, So the motive was preventing eviction, keeping the comfort.
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Speaker 2: That seems to be the strongest theory. Loss of that stability, however, modest,
19:13
was the trigger. He had, the access, he had, the opportunity,
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and Nancy's return posed a direct threat to his situation.
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Speaker 1: Which brings us to the really frustrating question with all this,
19:23
the lies, the forged checks, destroying evidence, fleeing the country. Yeah,
19:28
why hasn't Collins ever been charged? He's seventy four, now.
19:31
Speaker 2: Alive, and still officially just a person of interest. It's
19:35
agonizingly close, isn't it Corporal Noble basically calls him nearly
19:38
a suspect.
19:39
Speaker 1: That nearly isn't enough, It's not.
19:41
Speaker 2: The legal bar for a homicide charge is incredibly high,
19:44
especially without a body.
19:46
Speaker 1: Probable cause has remained elusive.
19:48
Speaker 2: What would they need a confession that.
19:50
Speaker 1: Would do it, or definitive forensic evidence linking him directly
19:54
through her death. They need proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
19:57
not just that she died, but that he killed her
20:00
within that specific timeframe he controlled access to her.
20:03
Speaker 2: But the checks, the donations. Isn't that proof of something?
20:06
Speaker 1: It's proof he's a thief and obstructed justice. Absolutely, those
20:09
are crimes, but they don't automatically equal murder.
20:12
Speaker 2: In a courtroom, his defense could still argue, however weakly,
20:16
that he thought she left on the boat, that he
20:19
panicked or got greedy after believing she'd abandon everything, and
20:22
then started taking money and getting rid of stuff.
20:24
Speaker 1: The yacht story provides cover, even if it's flimsy.
20:28
Speaker 2: It provides just enough doubt legally speaking, without a body,
20:32
a weapon, DNA evidence from the scene, or car tying
20:35
him to violence, it's incredibly hard to disprove this spontaneous
20:39
departure theory in a way that guarantee is a murder conviction.
20:42
They have the motive, the opportunity, the suspicious behavior, but
20:46
lack that definitive link to the act of killing itself.
20:50
Speaker 1: Were there any other leaves they chased down that just
20:52
fizzled out?
20:52
Speaker 2: They looked at everyone connected to her. Naturally, that old
20:55
campaign flame she parted with cleared, solid alibi.
20:59
Speaker 1: Correc husband Bob.
21:00
Speaker 2: Investigated early on standard procedure, also had a solid alibi,
21:04
quickly ruled out. There was a shoe salesman named Sam
21:07
she dated briefly cleared.
21:08
Speaker 1: And the idea she just walked away from.
21:10
Speaker 2: It all considered but dismissed. It just didn't fit Nancy.
21:14
She wanted stability. She was succeeding professionally. Missing her daughter's
21:18
birthday sealed that theory's fate. There was apparently an anonymous
21:22
tip in the nineties too, but that also went nowhere.
21:25
Speaker 1: So all roads just kept leading back to Collins consistently.
21:29
Speaker 2: He remains the single overwhelming focus. You know, the impact
21:34
on Nancy's daughters, Stacy, Justine Kimberly, it's just immense you
21:39
can't really quantify.
21:40
Speaker 1: It didn't just change their lives. It kind of defined them,
21:42
didn't They absolutely.
21:43
Speaker 2: Stacy, being the oldest at seventeen, was thrown into this
21:46
terrifying adult world overnight, flying across the country, confronting the
21:50
man she suspected, incredible pressure.
21:52
Speaker 1: And Justine with the miss birthday call, that became her focus.
21:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, that specific clue, that breaking the routine. Only they
21:59
would fully understand the significance of She became laser focused
22:03
on finding answers, digging into details than Kimberly. Sources say,
22:06
she dove into the rabbit holes of research. Years spent investigating,
22:10
trying to piece things together. It really does, as one
22:13
of them said, just take over your.
22:14
Speaker 1: Life, every family event, every milestone. Yeah, shadowed by her
22:18
absence completely.
22:19
Speaker 2: They eventually had to go through the process of having
22:21
her legally declared dead sources very slightly, maybe eighty five
22:26
or eighty eight.
22:26
Speaker 1: But legal declaration isn't closure.
22:28
Speaker 2: Is not even close. It's a formality. The emotional reality
22:31
is this huge hole at every graduation, wedding, birth of grandchildren,
22:36
everything tainted by her absens and the lack of answers.
22:40
Speaker 1: It's a story that affects the whole community too, even investigators.
22:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, that quote from retired detective Dave Cordle is striking.
22:47
Nancy disappeared on the day I started my career. It
22:50
book ended his entire professional life.
22:53
Speaker 1: But the case isn't closed. It's cold, but active.
22:56
Speaker 2: Very much so, thanks largely to the daughters. They've never
22:59
let it go Quiet offered rewards back in two thousand
23:01
and five, constantly push for updates, keep her name out there.
23:05
They are the driving force, and.
23:06
Speaker 1: Modern science offers some hope. Right with DNA, it does.
23:10
Speaker 2: Stacey provided her DNA years ago. It's been uploaded to
23:13
national databases like CODIS so they can.
23:15
Speaker 1: Compare it against unidentified remains found anywhere exactly.
23:19
Speaker 2: So far, no matches, but it's ruled Nancy out of
23:21
several Jane Doe cases, which is also important information.
23:25
Speaker 1: In the specific physical markers, the leg injury, the hysterectomy,
23:29
those help narrow things down too significantly.
23:33
Speaker 2: If remains are ever found showing evidence of a multifracture
23:36
repair on the right leg and signs of a hysterectomy,
23:40
Nancy Snow would be a primary candidate for comparison. The
23:43
fact that nothing has matched. Yet despite these unique identifiers.
23:47
Speaker 1: Suggest she's hidden very well, or maybe locally.
23:50
Speaker 2: That's the fear that she wasn't moved far but was
23:52
concealed effectively, perhaps somewhere.
23:55
Speaker 1: Calling is new well, and lately the case has gotten
23:57
a lot more attention, hasn't it. Media seems key, It's huge.
24:01
Speaker 2: The Dateline podcast episode brought it to a whole new audience.
24:04
Social media is buzzing. You see threads on x discussions
24:06
on Reddit cold case forums.
24:08
Speaker 1: People are actively investigating online.
24:10
Speaker 2: They really are trying to find old ship manifests, dissecting
24:13
Collins's statements, sharing theories. Some of its wild speculation, sure,
24:18
but sometimes.
24:19
Speaker 1: Sometimes one small detail.
24:20
Speaker 2: Clicks exactly that public pressure keeps the police file active,
24:25
keeps eyes on it, and might just shake loose that
24:28
one crucial piece of information that's been missing for forty
24:31
four years.
24:32
Speaker 1: It really highlights all the classic problems of a cold case.
24:34
Though the delayed.
24:35
Speaker 2: Report crippling allowed crucial early evidence to disappear.
24:40
Speaker 1: An evasive lying key witness who then flees.
24:43
Speaker 2: Collins's actions were textbook obstruction.
24:46
Speaker 1: And just the passage of time, evidence degrades, memories fade.
24:50
Speaker 2: Forty four years is a long, long time, but you
24:53
have the sisters determination, you have DNA technology, and you
24:56
have this renewed public interest. There's still hope. It's it's
25:00
faint maybe, but it's there. Hashtag tag outro.
25:03
Speaker 1: So when you boil it all down, what's the key
25:05
thing for listeners to take away from this deep dive?
25:08
Speaker 2: For me, it's that clash, the clash between the women
25:11
and the story.
25:11
Speaker 1: Exactly Nancy Snow organized, meticulous, safety obsessed, and then this
25:15
story impulsive, reckless, unbelievable.
25:19
Speaker 2: Her very character argues against the narrative of her disappearance.
25:22
That's the fundamental fracture.
25:23
Speaker 1: In this case, and investigators see that too.
25:25
Speaker 2: Absolutely. That's why Collins remains the focus. So if anyone
25:28
listening knows anything about Nancy Snow's disappearance, about Paul T.
25:32
Collins the third around November nineteen eighty, anything at all.
25:35
Speaker 1: The Annapolis Police want to hear from you.
25:37
Speaker 2: Yes, call four one zero two six eight nine zero zero,
25:40
ask for Corporal Nol. Any detail could matter. The sisters,
25:44
after all this time, their message is simple, we will
25:46
never stop looking.
25:48
Speaker 1: And just one final thought for you to consider something
25:50
that springs from that unbelievable yacht story itself. Given's how
25:55
detailed you, how utterly contradictory to Nancy's nature the Captain
25:58
Jay's story was. Could the point have been not just
26:01
to distract, but to create something so absurd, so outlandish
26:05
that investigators had spent years trying to disprove it, Chasing
26:08
this phantom ship like.
26:10
Speaker 2: The goal was the wild goose chase itself?
26:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, was the very unbelievability of the story, the ultimate
26:15
smoke screen, designed specifically to consume investigative resources and time,
26:20
drawing focus away from the likely immediate, simple terrestrial reality
26:24
of what happened right after she got in that car,
26:26
giving the physical evidence crucial time to disappear. Was the
26:29
ghost ship's story the most cynical misdirection of all