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What happened to Pamela Mitchell? Nashville, TN · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, get ready everyone, because today we're diving deep
• 0:02
  into a case. And let me tell you this one's
• 0:05
  a real head scratcher. We're talking about Pamela Jean Mitchell,
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  a young mom from Nashville. And get this, she disappears
• 0:12
  just gone poof back in ninety two.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cases like this they stick with you, the details,
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  the what ifs. It's easy to get pulled.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: In, no kidding, right, Okay, So picture this summer of
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  ninety two, Nashville, Tennessee. Pamela, She's just thirty years old,
• 0:27
  and she spotted at of all places, a crystal, you know,
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  the fast food joint.
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  Speaker 2: Sure Crystal, late night cravings, I get it exactly.
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  Speaker 1: So she's at this crystal on West Trinity Lane. And
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  here's where it gets weird. Witnesses see her getting into
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  a car with a man, and nobody seems to know
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  who This sky is.
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  Speaker 2: Unidentified vehicle, unidentified mail, always a red flag.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Right there, big time. And hold on, it gets even
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  more strange because Pamela's home it was only two miles
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  away from this crystal on Dickerson Road, two miles. She
• 0:55
  never made it.
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  Speaker 2: Back two miles. You'd think someone would have seen something
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  noticed something.
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  Speaker 1: Off, you would think, but nope, nothing. Officially, she was
• 1:04
  reported missing on August nineteenth, nineteen ninety two. So what happened?
• 1:10
  Why is this case still so puzzling after all these years.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Well, you got to remember, this is the early nineties.
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  We didn't have the tech then that we do now,
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  no widespread security cameras, no cell phone tracking. It's like
• 1:22
  piecing together a puzzle, but half the pieces are missing.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And even the pieces we do have, they're kind of jumbled. Right.
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  What we know is there was a search, and it
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  wasn't just a quick look around Pamela's own daughter. She
• 1:34
  talked about how investigators even searched a river, the bottom
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  of the river in Shelby Park.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Wow, a river search. That's a significant resource commitment right there.
• 1:43
  Tells you they were looking for, well, probably a body.
• 1:45
  That's grim, But that's often the reality of these cases.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Definitely grim. And it makes you think, what did they
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  know or what did they suspect to make them focus
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  on that river. Was there a tip, some piece of
• 1:55
  evidence pointing them there. We don't know, and that's part
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  of what makes this whole thing so frustration.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you mentioned earlier about the details how they're jumbled.
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  This is where it gets even more complicated. Look, Pamela's life,
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  it wasn't all straightforward, you know. Some sources we looked
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  at they suggest she might have been caught up in
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  some tough stuff, maybe drugs, maybe prostitution. We don't have
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  concrete proof, but it paints.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: A picture, and in a more complicated picture for sure.
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  So how does that kind of information, How does that
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  impact an investigation? I'm guessing it doesn't make things easier
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  for the police.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Not at all. Think about it. If Pamela was involved
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  in those worlds, that means a wider circle of contacts
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  some maybe not so savory people involved in those lifestyles.
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  They sometimes drop off the radar, disappear intentionally, you know.
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  Makes it harder to separate what's voluntary and what might
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  be well sinister.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Look, was she trying to lay low or is
• 2:49
  something more nefarious going on? Man? That's heavy.
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  Speaker 2: It is heavy, And there's another aspect of this, a
• 2:54
  really uncomfortable truth. Back then, cases involving people on the
• 2:58
  fringes of society may be caught up in drugs or
• 3:00
  sex work, they weren't always given the same priority.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: You mean, like some cases got more attention than others.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Sadly, yes, not saying that's definitely what happened here, but
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  something to think about. Did the fact that Pamela's life
• 3:13
  maybe wasn't picture perfect did that mean her case got
• 3:16
  less attention than it deserved. Did it mean leads weren't
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  followed as aggressively. We just don't know.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: It's awful to think about. You know, a young woman
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  goes missing and maybe her circumstances, maybe they played a
• 3:27
  role in how seriously her disappearance was taken. It's just
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  it's heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 2: It is. And through all of this we can't forget
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  there's a family out there who still doesn't know what happened. Yeah,
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  Pamela's daughter, she was only nine years old when her
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  mom vanished. Nine years old.
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine growing up with that kind of hole
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  in your life, that kind of question mark hanging over everything.
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  That's a heavy burden to carry, even all these years later.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And Pamela, she'd be sixty one years old today
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  if she was still alive, sixty one. Every birthday, every holiday,
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  it's a reminder of what's missing, of the answers that
• 4:01
  haven't come.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: So after all this time, after decades of uncertainty, is
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  there any hope left? Is it even possible to find
• 4:09
  out what happened to Pamela Jean Mitchell.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: You know, one thing I've learned is that you can
• 4:13
  never say never. Especially with cold cases. Technology is always advancing.
• 4:18
  DNA analysis is more sophisticated than ever before. Sometimes all
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  it takes is a fresh set of eyes, someone looking
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  at the old evidence with a new perspective.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: So you're saying, there's still a chance, even after all
• 4:30
  this time.
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  Speaker 2: There's always a chance, and that's why we have to
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  hold onto that chance, however small. And you know what,
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  sometimes it's the smallest details that crack a case wide open.
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  Something seemingly insignificant, a face in a crowd, a car
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  parked on a street. You never know.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So to everyone listening, if anything anything at all about
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  Pamela Jean Mitchell rings a bell, even if you think
• 4:50
  it doesn't matter, please reach out. Contact the Metro Nashville
• 4:53
  Police Department or crime stoppers. You might just hold that
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  missing piece of the puzzle that helps bring Pamela homesolute.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Don't underestimate the power of a single memory, a single detail.
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  It could make all the difference Tamela's story.
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  Speaker 1: It's a stark reminder that sometimes the ordinary can turn
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  into the unimaginable and the blink of an eye. And
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  it's a reminder that even though decades might pass some mysteries,
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  they just refuse to stay buried. We can't bring back
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  the lost time, but maybe, just maybe we can help
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  bring some answers to light.
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  Speaker 2: It makes you think, what will it take, What would
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  finally break this case open and give Pamela's family some peace.
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  Those are the questions we have to keep asking ourselves
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  as we delve into these mysteries.