Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / WHERE IS DENVER PD? WHERE IS WINTER PARK PD? 2 Women Missing, Cops Won't Help

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WHERE IS DENVER PD? WHERE IS WINTER PARK PD? 2 Women Missing, Cops Won't Help · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece.
0:15
Speaker 2: The mystery deepens as two women, Melissa and Sittlana, go
0:21
Speaker 2: missing about six miles apart from each other and the
0:26
Speaker 2: same time span. This all happening at Winter Park, Colorado.
0:33
Speaker 2: How do two women seemingly vanish into thin air just
0:38
Speaker 2: six miles apart, just days apart? Are they connected? I'm
0:46
Speaker 2: Nancy Grece, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
0:48
Speaker 2: with us here at Fox Nation and series XEM one eleven.
0:52
Speaker 2: First of all, take a listen to our forensic k
0:55
Speaker 2: C n C.
0:57
Speaker 3: So we did what a mom and dad would do
0:59
Speaker 3: and get in the so flights didn't work, so we
1:02
Speaker 3: started driving, and so we just appreciate any help and all.
1:06
Speaker 2: We're just trying to keep her face alive.
1:08
Speaker 3: We're trying to keep her out there.
1:12
Speaker 4: If you think you know where Melissa is, you're asked
1:14
Speaker 4: to please get in touch with the Denver Police Department.
1:16
Speaker 2: Out of the two women were first addressing a beautiful
1:20
Speaker 2: young girl, Melissa whits it In joining me right now,
1:24
Speaker 2: her mom and dad calling from Tennessee. Mister and missus Whitston,
1:29
Speaker 2: thank you for being with us.
1:30
Speaker 5: Thank you for having us so much. We appreciate it.
1:33
Speaker 2: No man, please, it's it's our honor to have you.
1:38
Speaker 2: We're doing all we can do to help find these
1:40
Speaker 2: two beautiful women. Tip line nine seven zero seven two
1:46
Speaker 2: to two seven seven seven nine Repeat nine seven zero
1:50
Speaker 2: seven two to two seven seven seven nine, Miss Whitset.
1:56
Speaker 2: When did you realize that Melissa is missing?
2:01
Speaker 5: It was actually Tuesday morning, Monday. She was off work
2:04
Speaker 5: and we didn't reach her, and that was not unusual
2:10
Speaker 5: because we didn't know that was her day off. We
2:12
Speaker 5: thought she was working that day. Some days in weeks,
2:14
Speaker 5: they switched it from Sunday Monday to Monday Tuesday, so
2:18
Speaker 5: when she was working as a chef, she would not
2:21
Speaker 5: have her phone and typically we wouldn't talk to her
2:23
Speaker 5: till the evening. So on the evening of Monday the fourteenth,
2:27
Speaker 5: she didn't answer her phone and we couldn't reach her,
2:31
Speaker 5: and there was no and we were very concerned Monday evening,
2:34
Speaker 5: but there was no one for me to reach out
2:36
Speaker 5: to until that I had contact with until the workers
2:39
Speaker 5: return to work on Tuesday morning. I sent an email
2:42
Speaker 5: to her supervisors in her place of employment and they
2:46
Speaker 5: responded that Melissa had not shown up Tuesday morning and
2:50
Speaker 5: that they were sending out a wellness check, and they
2:52
Speaker 5: had contacted the authority.
2:53
Speaker 2: So they did send out a wellness check. And what
2:55
Speaker 2: happened with.
2:56
Speaker 5: That They went to her apartment and the things were
2:59
Speaker 5: in packed and she was not there.
3:03
Speaker 2: Guys. Winter Park is what we call a home rural municipality,
3:08
Speaker 2: Grand County, Colorado. It's about sixty seven miles from Denver. Now.
3:14
Speaker 2: The permanent population is one thousand and thirty three on
3:19
Speaker 2: the last sentence, but the town swells when it's I
3:25
Speaker 2: guess ski season. So you've got a very very low population,
3:34
Speaker 2: which would narrow a pool of suspects that could be
3:37
Speaker 2: interested in kidnapping or harming. This young woman, beautiful, tell
3:42
Speaker 2: me about her job as a chef. Where does she work.
3:45
Speaker 5: She works at the winter Park resort. And she actually
3:49
Speaker 5: was thrilled to get Sunspot Lodge, which is a restaurant.
3:55
Speaker 5: It's the highest peak in winter Park. The lodge is
3:59
Speaker 5: on top of the mountain, so she got to ride
4:01
Speaker 5: the pardoner. I may not be pronouncing this right. The
4:04
Speaker 5: ski lift the gondola, I think is how they say
4:07
Speaker 5: it there. And she would ride that up to the
4:09
Speaker 5: side of the mountains to work every day. I think
4:12
Speaker 5: it's like eleven miles. But she was the assistant shift.
4:16
Speaker 5: She was not the main chef there.
4:18
Speaker 2: Okay, she's the main chef in the making. That's a
4:21
Speaker 2: really hard spot to get. I mean, I researched Winter
4:26
Speaker 2: Park Resort and it's amazing. It's a beautiful I didn't
4:31
Speaker 2: realize it was the very highest peak because you look
4:35
Speaker 2: out straight into the clouds. That's what I'm looking at
4:38
Speaker 2: right now. It's amazing. And the thing about it is
4:43
Speaker 2: the Denver area Denver included not only attracts thousands and
4:49
Speaker 2: thousands of tourists and visitors during snow season, but off
4:54
Speaker 2: season people like to hike there, especially for the aspens,
4:58
Speaker 2: the aspen trees. It will be whole groves of aspens,
5:02
Speaker 2: their leaves turning green and silver as the wind goes
5:05
Speaker 2: through them. So there's a huge tourist population even in
5:10
Speaker 2: the summertime. When Melissa goes missing. Had she mentioned let's
5:16
Speaker 2: go to Melissa's dad, Jerry whitson joining us. Jerry, also,
5:20
Speaker 2: thank you for being with us, mister Woodset. Had she
5:24
Speaker 2: mentioned anything about any trouble with an ex boyfriend, a customer,
5:30
Speaker 2: a coworker that was giving her trouble anything.
5:32
Speaker 6: At all, No, ma'am. Nothing. There was no mention of
5:35
Speaker 6: any problems, any trouble. She mentioned a few people she
5:39
Speaker 6: had hung out with, or she would tell us, you know,
5:41
Speaker 6: I went I went hiking with some friends, or a
5:44
Speaker 6: witch shopping or things like that, but never we never
5:46
Speaker 6: heard anything that it was trouble.
5:48
Speaker 2: Now would she have told you.
5:49
Speaker 6: I feel like she would have told us. I mean,
5:51
Speaker 6: we talked to her pretty frequently, and you know, we
5:54
Speaker 6: didn't pull any punches about her life for our lives
5:57
Speaker 6: and her living on her own, So I feel like
5:59
Speaker 6: she would have She would have made us aware of
6:01
Speaker 6: any kind of trouble she was facing.
6:03
Speaker 2: So Melissa last saying August thirteen, she fails to show
6:07
Speaker 2: it for work and just a very short drive away
6:12
Speaker 2: six miles away at the Dead Horse Trailhead area, a
6:17
Speaker 2: search COMMITSS to find set Lana Yutzemenko. Are the two
6:25
Speaker 2: disappearances connected? Take a listen now from our forensic KUSA.
6:30
Speaker 7: First responders in Grand County are searching for a woman
6:32
Speaker 7: they found her car parked at a trailhead. The Grand
6:35
Speaker 7: County Sheriff's Office says they first noticed the car parked
6:38
Speaker 7: at the dead Horse trailhead near Frasier. The car was
6:42
Speaker 7: a rental was due to be returned on Thursday, but
6:44
Speaker 7: then Thursday came and went and the car.
6:46
Speaker 2: Was still there.
6:47
Speaker 7: So investigators started looking into it and they found that
6:50
Speaker 7: car was connected to Svetlana Ustamenco.
6:52
Speaker 2: And more from our Forensic Crime online.
6:54
Speaker 8: On August thirteenth, the same day that Melissa wits It
6:57
Speaker 8: was last seen, a press release came out reguarding missings
7:00
Speaker 8: Federana Eustamenko, who hasn't been seen after parking her rental
7:04
Speaker 8: vehicle at the Dead Horse trailhead near the Grand County
7:07
Speaker 8: town of Fraser. Fraser is located just five miles northwest
7:11
Speaker 8: of Winter Park. Authorities have not indicated that the two
7:14
Speaker 8: missing and endangered cases are related, but authorities are asking
7:17
Speaker 8: if you know anything about the disappearance of Melissa Witzet
7:21
Speaker 8: or Svetlana Ustamenko to call the non emergency number for
7:24
Speaker 8: Grand County Dispatch at nine seven zero seven two five
7:28
Speaker 8: three three one one.
7:29
Speaker 2: Joining us right now in addition to mister and missus
7:32
Speaker 2: Whitshead desperately asking for your help to find her daughter.
7:37
Speaker 2: Melissa is Spencer McKee, director of content for Out There Colorado, Spencer,
7:43
Speaker 2: thank you for being with us. You can find him
7:46
Speaker 2: out there Colorado dot com. Spencer, tell me about this
7:50
Speaker 2: area where the two of them go missing.
7:52
Speaker 9: Thanks for having me. So the winter Park area's definitely
7:56
Speaker 9: count the popular monk tours a year round, like you
8:00
Speaker 9: were saying, outside of the general town areas and where
8:07
Speaker 9: there's a lot of the population, it's very rugged terrain.
8:12
Speaker 9: There are a lot of maintained trails in the area,
8:14
Speaker 9: but once you step off of those trails, it gets
8:16
Speaker 9: really rugged, really quickly. So I know that's something the
8:20
Speaker 9: authorities have been looking into. In the case of Stetlana.
8:25
Speaker 9: We're basically they've been looking off trail and it's it's
8:29
Speaker 9: been very rugged, overgrown terrain.
8:31
Speaker 2: But isn't it true, Spencer McKee joining us from out there, Colorado,
8:36
Speaker 2: that all possibilities have been exhausted. There have been drugs,
8:41
Speaker 2: there have been foot searches, there have even been cadaver
8:44
Speaker 2: dogs looking for dead bodies, and it has yielded nothing
8:48
Speaker 2: in the search force Svetlana. Is that true?
8:50
Speaker 9: Yeah, So that's accurate, and authorities have said that they
8:53
Speaker 9: believe that she is not located in their primary search area.
8:57
Speaker 9: So generally, whenever they'll do a search like this, they
9:00
Speaker 9: they use a grid approach where they basically looked in
9:04
Speaker 9: a certain area and to move on to the next
9:06
Speaker 9: block and then the next block. And yeah, they believe
9:10
Speaker 9: that they've exhausted their efforts in the primary search area
9:13
Speaker 9: with dogs, drones, and beats on the ground both on
9:16
Speaker 9: and off trail too.
9:17
Speaker 2: And take a listen our friend Dave Mack.
9:19
Speaker 8: During the week of July thirty first, a US Forest
9:22
Speaker 8: Service law enforcement officer noticed a twenty twenty two Nissan
9:25
Speaker 8: Cendra parked at the trailhead for the Dead Horse Creek
9:28
Speaker 8: Trail off County Road seventy three, according to a news
9:31
Speaker 8: release from the Grand County Sheriff's Office. To the officer,
9:34
Speaker 8: it appeared the vehicle had been parked in the same
9:36
Speaker 8: spot for an extended period of time without moving. Researching
9:39
Speaker 8: the Louisiana license plate on the car, it was determined
9:42
Speaker 8: the vehicle was a rental and not due to be
9:44
Speaker 8: returned to the rental car company until August tenth.
9:47
Speaker 2: That's right at that point, and they've gone back and
9:50
Speaker 2: forth by this vehicle. They see that it's been there
9:54
Speaker 2: for days, and there are many ways you can tell
9:58
Speaker 2: that a car has been parked for a long time.
10:00
Speaker 2: Joining me, Arlee Walters out of Colorado Springs, Colorado, president
10:04
Speaker 2: of ex Caliber Private Investigation, former special agent with the FBI.
10:11
Speaker 2: You can find him at a Caliber Illegal Support dot com.
10:15
Speaker 2: Arlee Walters, thank you for being with us.
10:17
Speaker 10: You're happy to be here.
10:18
Speaker 2: To any trained cop or investigator, you can very often
10:21
Speaker 2: tell if a car has been sitting there for a
10:24
Speaker 2: long time the first time you see it.
10:26
Speaker 10: How we I mean, mainly tracks and you know, just
10:30
Speaker 10: kind of where it's sitting and as far as you
10:33
Speaker 10: know is are you know, dirt on a vehicle? Well,
10:38
Speaker 10: I mean there's lots of ways that you know that
10:40
Speaker 10: a vehicle is going to look like it's it's been
10:42
Speaker 10: sitting there. And if you you know, and they do
10:46
Speaker 10: regularly patrol of these trail heads, that they're gonna, you know,
10:50
Speaker 10: they're going to notice that, Hey, I saw that car,
10:52
Speaker 10: you know, a day ago, two days ago, three days ago.
10:55
Speaker 10: It's going to stick out to you.
10:56
Speaker 2: But that car sat there unmoved for days on end
11:00
Speaker 2: when it wasn't returned. A search ensues on August eleven.
11:05
Speaker 2: Listen our Friends KUSA.
11:06
Speaker 7: Nine Svetlana used to Menco. She's from Florida.
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Speaker 2: She's missing.
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Speaker 7: So first responders searched the area around the car three
11:13
Speaker 7: days in a row. They used search and rescue crews,
11:16
Speaker 7: they used dogs, drones. Still no sign of used to Menco.
11:20
Speaker 7: The Sheriff's office is now hoping that some hikers and
11:22
Speaker 7: mountain bikers may have seen her on the trail or
11:25
Speaker 7: even maybe gave her a ride somewhere else. So anybody
11:28
Speaker 7: that has information about this case, they'd like you to police.
11:30
Speaker 7: Call Grand County Dispatch.
11:43
Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace.
11:48
Speaker 2: Both of these women who seemingly vanish off the face
11:53
Speaker 2: of the earth are from other places. Their families are
11:58
Speaker 2: not there. Felana Izzemenko is from Florida. Melissa is from
12:06
Speaker 2: is she originally from Tennessee? Jerry, yes, ma'am.
12:10
Speaker 6: She's actually born in Richmond, Virginia, but she's lived in
12:14
Speaker 6: Tennessee her whole life.
12:14
Speaker 2: Does she have any family living there in Colorado? Or
12:18
Speaker 2: did she go there chasing her dream?
12:20
Speaker 6: She went there to chase her dream, which was to
12:22
Speaker 6: do something that deals with outdoors. She just absolutely loved
12:26
Speaker 6: being outdoors. She loved to hike, and she just wanted
12:29
Speaker 6: to be in touch with nature, as she called it,
12:32
Speaker 6: and so she really went to live where she always
12:35
Speaker 6: wanted to live.
12:36
Speaker 2: Drawn to Colorado because of the beauty, the natural beauty,
12:40
Speaker 2: and an awesome, almost unheard of chance to be a
12:46
Speaker 2: chef at a five star dining facility at the top
12:51
Speaker 2: of the highest peak in the area, very very well known,
12:56
Speaker 2: the Winter Park Resort. Living the dream. Svetlana comes all
13:03
Speaker 2: the way from Florida to Colorado for the natural beauty,
13:07
Speaker 2: and she's loving it. There are no trails like the
13:11
Speaker 2: Colorado Hiking Trails. Again, I've hiked them many many times,
13:16
Speaker 2: and the thoughts of the winds blowing through those aspen leaves,
13:20
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. And I imagine Svetlana going and
13:24
Speaker 2: parking that rented car at that trailhead and never being
13:28
Speaker 2: seen alive again. They brought out drones, they brought out searchers,
13:33
Speaker 2: they've brought cadaver dogs. Not a sign. What more do
13:39
Speaker 2: we know? Take a listen hour cut seven. Our friend Dave.
13:43
Speaker 8: Mack Sveedlana Ustamenko is an avid hiker living in Broward County, Florida.
13:48
Speaker 8: According to The Idaho Statesman, she had been drawn to
13:51
Speaker 8: what she saw as beautiful and peaceful Colorado Mountains. After
13:54
Speaker 8: finding her real car car had not been returned by
13:57
Speaker 8: the due date, and learning that Eastamenko was report it
14:00
Speaker 8: is missing from Florida and considered endangered, authorities launched an
14:03
Speaker 8: immediate search around the area where her vehicle was located
14:07
Speaker 8: on August eleventh and more, according to a news release
14:10
Speaker 8: from the Grand County Sheriff's Office, with help from Grand
14:13
Speaker 8: County Search and Rescue, Range Rescue Dogs of the United States,
14:17
Speaker 8: Colorado Search and Rescue, as well as drones and volunteers.
14:21
Speaker 8: Searches for Svetlana Eustamenco continued on August twelfth and August thirteenth.
14:25
Speaker 8: On August eighteenth, a three hour small reconnaissance search was
14:29
Speaker 8: conducted by Grand County Search and Rescue. On August twentieth,
14:32
Speaker 8: more than twenty five people and six cadaver dogs trained
14:36
Speaker 8: to smell human remains joined the search efforts to no avail.
14:39
Speaker 2: Bekach Or Lee Walter is joining US president of ex
14:43
Speaker 2: Caliber Private Investigation. That is a lot of effort, and
14:47
Speaker 2: it tells me if she had been on that trail,
14:51
Speaker 2: one of those dogs that have picked it up.
14:52
Speaker 10: Yeah, you would think you would think so. Or anywhere
14:55
Speaker 10: anywhere just right off of the trail. They definitely should
14:59
Speaker 10: have picked a cent somewhere.
15:01
Speaker 2: But if you think about it, Arlie, if you think
15:04
Speaker 2: about it, when we were speaking to Spencer McKee, who
15:06
Speaker 2: was still with us from out there, Colorado, he was
15:09
Speaker 2: talking about off the trail. To get off the trail,
15:13
Speaker 2: you had to be on the trail to get to
15:16
Speaker 2: that location and then go off the trail. But they're
15:19
Speaker 2: picking up nothing. It's almost Wendy Patrick joining me, a
15:22
Speaker 2: California prosecutor and author of Why Bad Looks So Good
15:27
Speaker 2: and of Red Flags. You can find her at wendypatrickphd
15:30
Speaker 2: dot com. It's almost as if when she got out
15:33
Speaker 2: of that car, she never made it to the trail
15:37
Speaker 2: at all.
15:37
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It's almost as
15:40
Speaker 11: if somebody kidnapped snatched her right there. That would be
15:43
Speaker 11: the only logical explanation for there not being any clues.
15:46
Speaker 11: They're not touching a sense, there's no clothing, there's no
15:50
Speaker 11: hair fibers, there's none of the kinds of circumstantial types
15:53
Speaker 11: of evidence that we look for when somebody goes missing.
15:55
Speaker 11: So then you start thinking, well, if she didn't wander off.
15:59
Speaker 11: Who else was there that may have snatched her?
16:02
Speaker 2: Very curious Specer McKee joining us from out there Colorado
16:05
Speaker 2: dot com spencer. Are there any surveillance cameras at the
16:10
Speaker 2: trailhead or leading to the trailhead?
16:13
Speaker 9: So I can't speak specifically on this trailhead, but generally speaking,
16:16
Speaker 9: there would probably not be a camera there. Sometimes there'll
16:21
Speaker 9: be some game cameras in that country terrain from hunters
16:28
Speaker 9: and from the Colorado Parts and Wildlife Service. But yeah,
16:32
Speaker 9: generally speaking, once you get off the main roads, a
16:36
Speaker 9: lot of the cameras that are that are provided by
16:40
Speaker 9: Colorado Department of Transportation tend to drop off pretty quickly.
16:44
Speaker 9: It's pretty remote area.
16:45
Speaker 2: Do we know, Specer McKee, if there was an entry gate.
16:49
Speaker 2: Here's a perfect example. We all know the name Scott Peterson. Well,
16:54
Speaker 2: he came up with one alibi at the time. His
16:57
Speaker 2: wife Lacey, and his unborn son Connor went saying. First
17:00
Speaker 2: he said he was playing golf he saw on Christmas Eve.
17:03
Speaker 2: Then he suddenly remembered that he took his boat that
17:07
Speaker 2: he had told nobody he purchased out fishing on the
17:11
Speaker 2: icy cold waters of San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve
17:14
Speaker 2: in bad weather. Well, that alibi came up only after
17:20
Speaker 2: a Marina worker saw him going through the gate arm right,
17:28
Speaker 2: he had to go in and he got a receipt.
17:31
Speaker 2: Is there any such thing as that in this area,
17:35
Speaker 2: Spencer mckeeth, do we know?
17:37
Speaker 12: So?
17:38
Speaker 9: Most gate entries in Colorado would be at state parks
17:42
Speaker 9: and national parks. This was not a state park or
17:44
Speaker 9: national park. Generally, in this type of situation where you're
17:48
Speaker 9: looking at a trailhead on a forest road, those would
17:52
Speaker 9: be monitored by government employees, local employees on a regular
17:58
Speaker 9: basis where they're or so just driving through the area.
18:01
Speaker 9: But there would not have been a gate to pass
18:05
Speaker 9: through in this scenario for the specific trail.
18:07
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm also wondering about other people that may have
18:10
Speaker 2: been hiking in the case we're following right now, Rachel Morin.
18:14
Speaker 2: Five people have been identified and I believe spoken to that.
18:19
Speaker 2: We're also walking the same trail she was around the
18:24
Speaker 2: time she was killed on the trail. Do we know,
18:28
Speaker 2: Spencer McKee if cops have made any attempt to find
18:31
Speaker 2: other hikers on the trail that day.
18:33
Speaker 9: Yeah, so that's always going to be one of the
18:35
Speaker 9: first steps in any sort of case of this nature,
18:38
Speaker 9: they always put out the call for anyone in the
18:40
Speaker 9: area to reach.
18:41
Speaker 10: Out to them.
18:43
Speaker 9: In this case specifically, I'm not sure if they've made contact.
18:46
Speaker 9: They keep a lot of that under wraps just as
18:48
Speaker 9: the investigation is in process, but that would have been
18:51
Speaker 9: one of the first steps that they would have made.
18:53
Speaker 2: Now, interesting, dead Horse Trail is part of an eight
18:56
Speaker 2: mile loop. I want to show you something that in
18:59
Speaker 2: me mediately grab my attention. Look at these two women.
19:05
Speaker 2: How similar they look. Now, Splana is a little older
19:11
Speaker 2: than Melissa, it looks look at them, both blonde hair,
19:16
Speaker 2: both same length of hair, both even parted on the
19:20
Speaker 2: same side. Both big, beautiful, perfect smile. So we've been
19:27
Speaker 2: talking about that Lana as a disappearance at that trailhead
19:30
Speaker 2: no sign of her, not hide her hair, no trace.
19:33
Speaker 2: But what about Melissa, her parents joining us right now?
19:36
Speaker 2: Take a listen howur cut fourteen.
19:38
Speaker 8: Cindy Whitsit, Melissa's mother, in an interview with CBS Denver, says,
19:42
Speaker 8: Melissa is quote a live wire. You would see her
19:45
Speaker 8: or hear her if she was anywhere out there. Unquote.
19:49
Speaker 8: Melissa Whitsy grew up in Tennessee, but was really excited
19:52
Speaker 8: to get her job in Winter Park, Colorado, and started
19:55
Speaker 8: at the resort in May. When Melissa Whitsit didn't show
19:58
Speaker 8: up for work on August thirteenth, well check was done.
20:01
Speaker 8: That's when they discovered she was gone and.
20:03
Speaker 2: More from Crime Online.
20:05
Speaker 12: Melissa Whitst moved from Tennessee to Colorado in May to
20:08
Speaker 12: start a job at Winter Park Resort, almost seventy miles
20:11
Speaker 12: outside of Denver. On August thirteenth, w's It didn't show
20:14
Speaker 12: up for work. Police have confirmed, however, that she got
20:17
Speaker 12: on a bus to Denver that day around ten am.
20:20
Speaker 12: She was wearing blue bell bottomed jeans, a blue tank top,
20:23
Speaker 12: and or a white sweatshirt. The last person to see
20:26
Speaker 12: wits It, according to Denver Seven, was her roommate.
20:29
Speaker 2: I don't know that that means that the roommate interacted
20:32
Speaker 2: with her, and she was later seen on a bus.
20:35
Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friends KC and C.
20:38
Speaker 4: Melissa Whitst. She was working as a chef in Winter
20:40
Speaker 4: Park and was last seen on Sunday the thirteenth. Her
20:43
Speaker 4: phone has since pained in Denver, and reports say she
20:47
Speaker 4: made her way down to Denver that day. Her parents
20:50
Speaker 4: are now passing out flyers wherever they can.
20:53
Speaker 3: There's not been a lot of law enforcement availability to
21:00
Speaker 3: search apparently, you know, there's so many, and they told
21:06
Speaker 3: us they're outnumbered.
21:06
Speaker 2: Outnumbered. That's what no victim's family wants to hear the
21:11
Speaker 2: tip line nine seven zero seven two two seven seven
21:15
Speaker 2: seven nine repeat nine seven zero seven two two seven
21:20
Speaker 2: seven seven nine. Back to Melissa's parents adjoining us. Now,
21:25
Speaker 2: just think about the likelihood that two women similar in
21:29
Speaker 2: appearance would go missing from the same small town, stable
21:34
Speaker 2: population of a little over one thousand, within days of
21:38
Speaker 2: each other and just six miles of each other. Melissa
21:41
Speaker 2: Whitstt and Svetlana Utzmenko to mister and missus whitst joining us,
21:47
Speaker 2: Jerry and Cindy, Miss Whitstt. When you realized she's gone,
21:54
Speaker 2: what did you and your husband do?
21:56
Speaker 5: Well, First, we started making all the phone calls because
21:59
Speaker 5: we live in West Tennessee, and we started calling to
22:02
Speaker 5: her employment. We called law enforcement, which her employment had
22:07
Speaker 5: already done a wellness check when she didn't show up
22:09
Speaker 5: for work and they had reached out to law enforcement.
22:12
Speaker 5: So we followed up and made all of those phone calls.
22:15
Speaker 5: When we realized that there was a lack of help.
22:21
Speaker 5: Everyone was very kind and nice, but very cut to
22:23
Speaker 5: the chase and blunt that they were outnumbered and that
22:27
Speaker 5: ten to twelve people were going missing in the Denver area,
22:31
Speaker 5: and not necessarily Winter Park. Of course, like you said,
22:33
Speaker 5: it's very small and this is a very rare thing
22:35
Speaker 5: that happened there. But there basically was not a search party.
22:41
Speaker 5: There was not anyone actively looking for our daughter. In fact,
22:46
Speaker 5: we were shocked to learn, and being not familiar with
22:50
Speaker 5: the Denver area, but the size of Denver. In the
22:52
Speaker 5: missing Person's department there are two detectives, which you know,
22:57
Speaker 5: someone has to sleep so and that no one there
23:00
Speaker 5: was no one looking for her. So we tried to
23:02
Speaker 5: get a flight as soon as we could. Flights didn't
23:05
Speaker 5: work in the timing, and we wanted flexibility. Didn't know
23:08
Speaker 5: how long we would stay, so we just got in
23:10
Speaker 5: the car and started driving cross country. We went there.
23:12
Speaker 5: We printed flyers, we walked to every corner, every street,
23:17
Speaker 5: We just marked it off and we covered the area.
23:19
Speaker 5: We went to every shelter, we went to every clinic
23:22
Speaker 5: anyone that would listen. We did meet with law enforcement.
23:26
Speaker 5: There is you know, even on a side note, the
23:30
Speaker 5: mayor they are now is doing a cleanup on homeless
23:33
Speaker 5: camps downtown Denver area. So lucky for us, there were
23:38
Speaker 5: a lot of officers on the ground in Denver as
23:41
Speaker 5: part of that active project that's taking place right now,
23:45
Speaker 5: So we were able to connect with some of them
23:48
Speaker 5: and they were of help to the best that they
23:50
Speaker 5: could and doing their job. They're just not enough of them.
23:54
Speaker 2: So you and your husband get in the car and
23:56
Speaker 2: travel across country because the police officers tell you the
24:01
Speaker 2: detectives they're quote out numbered. Okay, to Jerry whit said,
24:08
Speaker 2: this is Melissa's dad joining us, who was in that
24:12
Speaker 2: car driving across country to try to help find his daughter.
24:17
Speaker 2: Mister Whitst, what's going through your mind on that trip.
24:20
Speaker 2: That's a long trip, plenty of time to think.
24:23
Speaker 6: Yes, you're exactly right. So your mind goes through every
24:27
Speaker 6: possible scenario, and with the scenario that you think about,
24:31
Speaker 6: you try to, you know, come up with ways to
24:33
Speaker 6: combat that scenario or ways that you can use that
24:37
Speaker 6: to your advantage to try to figure out what happened.
24:39
Speaker 6: And you know, as individual citizens, you're somewhat limited. You know,
24:45
Speaker 6: for example, on the way out there, I'm thinking man,
24:48
Speaker 6: if we could just get video cambridge footage of this
24:51
Speaker 6: area or this downtown area, you sure would help. But
24:55
Speaker 6: you know the reality is that, you know, the police
24:58
Speaker 6: just don't have time for the at least they can
25:00
Speaker 6: paid this, they don't have the manpower to go through
25:02
Speaker 6: any video footage, so it would kind of be up
25:04
Speaker 6: to us to hit the streets and find our own.
25:07
Speaker 6: And that's been a tough going on as well.
25:10
Speaker 2: Wendy Patrick, I've never heard anything like it in my life.
25:14
Speaker 2: The mother and father drive all the way from Tennessee
25:18
Speaker 2: to try to find their daughter because the detectives say,
25:22
Speaker 2: we're over what, we're outnumbered, really, and now they're trying
25:28
Speaker 2: to figure out that they've got to go through all
25:30
Speaker 2: the surveillance video. And you know, it reminds me of
25:32
Speaker 2: Brian Coburger that poc remember, a clerk at a local,
25:41
Speaker 2: you know, like a quickie store, gas station, takes it
25:45
Speaker 2: upon herself to go through days and days and days
25:49
Speaker 2: of surveillance video and she finds Coburger's car zooming past
25:55
Speaker 2: the night of the murders and the wee morning hours.
25:58
Speaker 2: That's how we ever found out about the why Elantra.
26:02
Speaker 2: That is not what victim's families want to hear we
26:04
Speaker 2: don't have time for your case.
26:06
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's definitely not what they want to hear. In fact,
26:08
Speaker 11: they're not supposed to be doing the investigation. Law enforcement
26:11
Speaker 11: is supposed to be doing the investigation.
26:13
Speaker 5: You know.
26:14
Speaker 11: It reminds me of, you know, defund the police and
26:16
Speaker 11: danger the public. If they don't have enough people at
26:18
Speaker 11: a particular jurisdiction, they need to get more. And while
26:22
Speaker 11: it's true that citizens often are concerned and creative enough
26:26
Speaker 11: to come up with all sorts of old fashioned evidence
26:29
Speaker 11: that help detectives crack the case, we need enough detectives
26:32
Speaker 11: to work on the case. And I can't imagine how
26:34
Speaker 11: heartbreaking and frustrating it is to hear that an office,
26:38
Speaker 11: any detective's office is outnumbered.
26:40
Speaker 2: To doctor Carla Manley joining US clinical psychologist and author.
26:45
Speaker 2: You can find her at Doctorcarlamanly dot com, doctor Manley WAYM.
26:50
Speaker 13: It's so important when we're looking at incidents like this
26:55
Speaker 13: to notice.
26:55
Speaker 5: That predators really target.
26:58
Speaker 13: Those who they see as well lovel and that's the
27:01
Speaker 13: piece that I see as the common thread. We have
27:04
Speaker 13: two single women and they are you know, apparently are
27:08
Speaker 13: on their own, living alone, starting a fresh life, and
27:11
Speaker 13: they don't have a cohesive family or support structure that
27:17
Speaker 13: we know of, and that makes them prime targets for
27:21
Speaker 13: skilled predators, because that's what predators are looking for, the
27:26
Speaker 13: person or people who are vulnerable in a crowd. To me,
27:30
Speaker 13: that's the most salient thread in the.
27:33
Speaker 2: Situation mystery surrounding the disappearance of two beautiful young women
27:38
Speaker 2: who go missing from a small Colorado resort town and
27:42
Speaker 2: notably within days of each other and just six miles apart.
27:49
Speaker 2: Question to you, Wendy Patrick, what's your take on two
27:54
Speaker 2: young women going missing a few miles apart within days
27:58
Speaker 2: of each other.
27:59
Speaker 11: It makes it sound like they're a common denominator suspect wise,
28:03
Speaker 11: and because it's not targeting so much some kinds of
28:07
Speaker 11: things that you might think, well, it's acquaintance rape, or
28:09
Speaker 11: it's a family scenario. It's two strangers tied by geography,
28:14
Speaker 11: and when you think about the timing being so close,
28:17
Speaker 11: it really makes it suspicious that the same person or
28:20
Speaker 11: persons were involved. And that's one of the clues that
28:23
Speaker 11: we can at least use at the beginning, especially when
28:26
Speaker 11: you had two women who don't know each other, and
28:29
Speaker 11: that was The very first thing that stuck out to
28:31
Speaker 11: me when I read.
28:31
Speaker 2: This story, well, that they don't know each other and
28:34
Speaker 2: they're seemingly no connection. But then we find out more
28:39
Speaker 2: regarding Melissa's taste her disappearance. Take a listen to our
28:42
Speaker 2: friend at crime Online.
28:44
Speaker 8: In an interview with CBS Denver, her parents say an
28:47
Speaker 8: unknown man was speaking on her phone that day. Investigators
28:50
Speaker 8: looking into her disappearance found an unknown man had used
28:54
Speaker 8: her phone to speak to people in the Denver area
28:56
Speaker 8: on the day she vanished, but the phone has been
28:59
Speaker 8: off ever since. Her debit card has not been used
29:02
Speaker 8: since she went missing. What's it, doesn't have a car
29:05
Speaker 8: and hasn't contacted friends or family since the day she
29:07
Speaker 8: was last seen.
29:08
Speaker 2: Spencer McKee joining us out there Colorado dot com. So
29:12
Speaker 2: they've got an unknown man, a man not connected to Melissa,
29:17
Speaker 2: using her phone in the Denver area, and this is
29:20
Speaker 2: after she had taken a bus we believe to the
29:23
Speaker 2: Denver area. Is that right?
29:25
Speaker 10: Oh?
29:25
Speaker 9: Yes, that is that is correct?
29:27
Speaker 2: Who is he?
29:28
Speaker 9: I think authority hadn't noted anything regarding his identity, so
29:32
Speaker 9: it's unknown as as far as I know. That is tone.
29:50
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy grace.
29:56
Speaker 2: To Jerry and Cindy, what's it? Who is you her phone?
30:01
Speaker 5: We have no idea, you know, I'm going to circle
30:05
Speaker 5: back around though, Nancy, to the cameras there. You're talking
30:09
Speaker 5: about Brian being picked up an unrelated case of course,
30:12
Speaker 5: that picked up by cameras found by other businesses. We
30:15
Speaker 5: did request. My husband found that Denver area has three
30:19
Speaker 5: hundred plus I think they're called Halo cameras over the
30:23
Speaker 5: downtown area, and we begged, we pleaded for those anything
30:30
Speaker 5: any video footage because if she was on that bus,
30:33
Speaker 5: she got off that bus at Union Station. We went
30:36
Speaker 5: to that security system or department they have like a
30:39
Speaker 5: city within the city at Union Station bus depot there
30:43
Speaker 5: and we went to them. They do not have any video.
30:46
Speaker 5: Theres is real time, so they don't have any recordings
30:49
Speaker 5: that we go back that far at the station, but
30:52
Speaker 5: the city as a whole does have these. I understand
30:55
Speaker 5: not all of them are recorded. I understand that some
30:57
Speaker 5: of them are not zoomed in that they are for
31:01
Speaker 5: an aerial view, but there are a number and for
31:05
Speaker 5: I don't know what they're used for. I mean, my
31:07
Speaker 5: husband pleaded for them to even let him. We will
31:10
Speaker 5: go through the videotapes to anybody. Our next step, I guess,
31:14
Speaker 5: is to go through local businesses there. I mean, we're
31:16
Speaker 5: not going to stop. It's an endurance thing. We love
31:19
Speaker 5: our daughter and you know, how do you sleep? How
31:21
Speaker 5: do you stop? But it is a shame as a city,
31:25
Speaker 5: as a whole. I don't know what the what the
31:27
Speaker 5: taxpayer dollars are put for there into cameras if they're
31:30
Speaker 5: not able to be used. And I understand she's you
31:33
Speaker 5: know not uh Donald Trump. I understand she's not an
31:37
Speaker 5: important person, but it's it's it's a shame.
31:40
Speaker 2: Well, she's important to you and she's important to us.
31:44
Speaker 2: Did you offer to sit there in their offices and
31:48
Speaker 2: review the video?
31:49
Speaker 6: They told us that they don't even have the manpower
31:53
Speaker 6: to pull the video footage.
31:55
Speaker 1: What is wrong with these people?
31:57
Speaker 2: Spencer McKee, the car are doing nothing even in Denver.
32:02
Speaker 2: I mean, we know, correct me if I'm wrong to
32:05
Speaker 2: mister and missus Winston, she took a bus to Denver.
32:08
Speaker 2: Her phone pings in Denver. Some unknown guy is calling
32:13
Speaker 2: people from your daughter's phone. And if you don't know
32:15
Speaker 2: who he is, go to the people he's calling and
32:19
Speaker 2: say who's this guy? That called you on this day.
32:22
Speaker 2: They have to remember who call them. He's calling multiple people.
32:26
Speaker 2: Can't they find out Spencer McKee? Why aren't Denver cops helping?
32:30
Speaker 9: I mean, Denver is a city that's seen a lot
32:33
Speaker 9: of population grips and in recent years, and it was
32:37
Speaker 9: definitely a bit in recent years. I think probably like
32:42
Speaker 9: we like we've been talking about, just understaffing a bit
32:47
Speaker 9: could be an issue. Yeah, I mean your guest is
32:51
Speaker 9: as good as mine.
32:53
Speaker 2: There, okay, you know Arley Walter is joining US private
32:57
Speaker 2: investigator with ex Caliber PI in Colorado Springs. What is wrong?
33:03
Speaker 2: Why is a Denver police helping?
33:05
Speaker 10: Yeah? I mean you're just as good as mine. I
33:07
Speaker 10: mean there's a lot of things they could be doing,
33:10
Speaker 10: especially that with that phone. I mean, I don't understand,
33:14
Speaker 10: like you mentioned, why they haven't reached out to the
33:17
Speaker 10: people that were on the receiving end of the calls
33:19
Speaker 10: from the unknown mail When when I read that it
33:21
Speaker 10: was an unknown mail, Like, how have they not identified
33:24
Speaker 10: that that guy already? Had they subpoenaed the telephone company
33:30
Speaker 10: to see where that phone? What south towers it pinged
33:34
Speaker 10: off of in Denver?
33:35
Speaker 2: Yes? Jump in, Yes, this is Cindy.
33:39
Speaker 5: We actually did that ourselves. Also, we called the number.
33:43
Speaker 5: We have Melissa's cell phone on our plan. We called
33:47
Speaker 5: the last known number and it was for a transport
33:50
Speaker 5: or a transit driver, not a known company. But this
33:54
Speaker 5: gentleman drives and I guess has his number posted around downtown.
33:59
Speaker 5: I'm not sure how they get his number, but the
34:01
Speaker 5: unknown male called him, he said, looking for a ride.
34:07
Speaker 5: We gave his number and his name to the Winter
34:10
Speaker 5: Park Police Department, Denver Police Department. And when I said earlier,
34:15
Speaker 5: we couldn't get an interview. When we drove cross country there,
34:18
Speaker 5: we went to meet with the missing person's detective. He
34:20
Speaker 5: didn't have time to meet with us. We never got
34:23
Speaker 5: in the Denver Police Department front doors.
34:26
Speaker 2: That whole office needs to be cleaned out, fumigated. You know.
34:31
Speaker 2: It reminds me of what Nleie Holloway's mother told me
34:34
Speaker 2: in Aruba. She went and waited and waited and waited.
34:38
Speaker 2: I'm talking five, seven, twelve hours for the Aruba police
34:42
Speaker 2: chief to come out and speak to her. All the
34:45
Speaker 2: time he's sitting back in his office, eating takeout and
34:48
Speaker 2: having his haircut all that time, and her daughter had
34:52
Speaker 2: been killed. That's in Aruba, you know, a whole different
34:59
Speaker 2: justice system. This is Denver, Colorado. The phone number seven
35:05
Speaker 2: two zero nine one three one thousand, repeat seven to
35:09
Speaker 2: two zero nine, one three one thousand is the number
35:14
Speaker 2: for Denver PD. So they won't help you get the video,
35:21
Speaker 2: they won't meet with you after you drive cross country.
35:25
Speaker 2: They're not interviewing witnesses. What good are they? And I
35:29
Speaker 2: don't want to hear anymore. Your guess is as good
35:31
Speaker 2: as mine. I want answers. I'm not sure, Wendy Patrick,
35:38
Speaker 2: what to do at this juncture, other than go over
35:41
Speaker 2: their heads to the FEDS or the state ag if
35:45
Speaker 2: the cops won't do their job.
35:47
Speaker 11: Nancy, with your profile, you are doing exactly what's necessary,
35:50
Speaker 11: is bringing a spotlight on this case because it needs
35:53
Speaker 11: to be investigated, and it needs to be sold, and
35:56
Speaker 11: the parents need to know what happened to their daughter.
35:58
Speaker 11: You know, the news report not only talk about the
36:01
Speaker 11: phone and the unknown man, but that the unknown man
36:04
Speaker 11: use the phone to speak to people in Denver on
36:07
Speaker 11: the day she vanished. So there's more to work with
36:11
Speaker 11: than some of the news reports have really talked about.
36:13
Speaker 11: And I think you're really bringing the attention that's necessary
36:17
Speaker 11: to this case so that we are able to get
36:18
Speaker 11: the manpower dedicated to find out what happened and get
36:22
Speaker 11: some man.
36:22
Speaker 2: The Denver Police chief is Ron Thomas t h O
36:29
Speaker 2: m AS and if you don't want to call, you
36:33
Speaker 2: can write the chief at R. Thomas at Denver gov
36:40
Speaker 2: dot org. R is in Red Thomas T H O
36:45
Speaker 2: m A s at Denver Gov, g O v dot
36:51
Speaker 2: org or seven two zero nine, one three, one thousand.
36:56
Speaker 2: I'm concerned, Wendy Patrick, that they're not going to do
37:02
Speaker 2: their jobs. I'm concerned that the witsets are not going
37:07
Speaker 2: to get answers to Jerry and Cindy. We've gotten conflicting
37:11
Speaker 2: reports that the roommate was the last one to see
37:14
Speaker 2: her or interact with her. Yet we also know her
37:17
Speaker 2: phone showed up in Denver. Do we know she made
37:20
Speaker 2: it to Denver?
37:22
Speaker 5: We have been out hold that she did.
37:23
Speaker 2: Who told you.
37:24
Speaker 5: That Winter Park Police Department?
37:26
Speaker 2: How do they know that when they don't know anything else?
37:29
Speaker 5: How do they know that they told us that she
37:32
Speaker 5: boarded the bus in winter Park and that she did
37:36
Speaker 5: get off the bus in Denver.
37:38
Speaker 2: So my question is, how do they know that?
37:40
Speaker 5: I believe that the bus has video camera footage there
37:44
Speaker 5: of her boarding and onboarding.
37:46
Speaker 2: I wanted to mention that to you and I'll tell
37:49
Speaker 2: you why. In a case that we investigated the case
37:53
Speaker 2: of a missing mom of five out of Connecticut, Jennifer Dulo's,
37:58
Speaker 2: there was the critical bus video inside the bus that
38:05
Speaker 2: happened to catch who I believe was the perp Go
38:08
Speaker 2: buy in his car. And that tells me that the
38:11
Speaker 2: bus does have video inside of it. So Winter Partners
38:16
Speaker 2: that we know, we're not looking for her in winter Park,
38:19
Speaker 2: We're looking for your daughter in Denver, where they do
38:22
Speaker 2: have a lot of police resources. It seems to me
38:26
Speaker 2: at this juncture, Wendy Patrick, the witsits need to reach
38:29
Speaker 2: out to the Colorado Attorney General. When the cops don't
38:32
Speaker 2: do their job, you have to jump over their head.
38:35
Speaker 2: And no, they don't like that, but there's really no choice.
38:39
Speaker 2: The Colorado Attorney General is Phil Weisser. WI se R
38:45
Speaker 2: repeat w E I S E R Phil Weisser. The
38:51
Speaker 2: number is seven two zero five zero eight six thousand
38:56
Speaker 2: repeat seven two zero five zero eight six thousand. You know,
39:01
Speaker 2: when you go to Wisser's website, they ask you what
39:07
Speaker 2: is the reason of your contact, and you make your
39:12
Speaker 2: request and then it says about what, and you simply
39:15
Speaker 2: add in investigation and to email the Colorado Attorney General.
39:20
Speaker 2: The email is Attorney dot General at State dot Co
39:29
Speaker 2: dot US. Repeat, Attorney dot General at State dot Co
39:36
Speaker 2: dot US. To mister and missus Whitston, what is the
39:40
Speaker 2: next step for you and trying to find Melissa.
39:43
Speaker 5: Well, we came home to regroup, and I run a
39:47
Speaker 5: business here, my husband's trying to hold his job. We
39:50
Speaker 5: have other children, so we came home to regroup. But
39:55
Speaker 5: you know, I don't know. We're just taking it day
39:56
Speaker 5: by day, hour by hour right now, and we're not
39:58
Speaker 5: opposed to going back.
40:00
Speaker 9: Yeah.
40:00
Speaker 6: I think the next step, thrust is, like she said,
40:02
Speaker 6: to regroup. My thought was to comb the streets in
40:05
Speaker 6: a different kind of way this time that maybe look
40:07
Speaker 6: for businesses that would voluntarily provide video footage if they
40:12
Speaker 6: had it, and try to create a trail that way.
40:15
Speaker 6: That's really all we know to do at this point.
40:18
Speaker 2: I urge you, mister miss Whitstont to please contact the
40:21
Speaker 2: Attorney General. I mean, do you agree or disagree with
40:25
Speaker 2: Wendy Patrick.
40:26
Speaker 11: Absolutely. I think the more resources the better, and they
40:29
Speaker 11: are going to be delighted at all of the excellent investigations,
40:32
Speaker 11: though it wasn't their job that the mother and father
40:36
Speaker 11: took upon themselves to do so, God bless you for
40:38
Speaker 11: doing all of that for your daughter. You're going to
40:40
Speaker 11: make law enforcements job.
40:41
Speaker 2: A lot of you there, and all the hard work
40:44
Speaker 2: the Witsets have put into finding their daughter may just
40:48
Speaker 2: tangentially help find Selana. We wait as justice and faults. Goodbye,
40:55
Speaker 2: sir and