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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Heidi Planck · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans. On Sunday, October seventeenth, twenty twenty one,
0:16
Speaker 1: a thirty nine year old mother of one named Heidi
0:19
Speaker 1: Plank was starting her day. Heidi was leaving her rented
0:23
Speaker 1: townhouse on the west side of Los Angeles near Culver City.
0:27
Speaker 1: She was on her way to watch her eleven year
0:29
Speaker 1: old son Bond play football. Heidi, by the way, was
0:33
Speaker 1: a huge James Bond fan, so that's how she chose
0:36
Speaker 1: her son's and her dog's names based on the Double
0:39
Speaker 1: O seven theme. So her son was Bond and her
0:41
Speaker 1: labradoodle was seven like Double oh seven. Surveillance camera footage
0:46
Speaker 1: from outside Heidie's house showed her walking out the door.
0:49
Speaker 1: She was dressed in jeans and a white T shirt
0:51
Speaker 1: with a smiley face on it. She had a sweater
0:54
Speaker 1: tied around her waist and it was described in the
0:56
Speaker 1: media as gray, but it was actually more like a
0:59
Speaker 1: grayish color, kind of a gray beige. Heidie was petite,
1:03
Speaker 1: she had long blonde hair. She was he was five
1:05
Speaker 1: foot three and was carrying a purse with her. She
1:08
Speaker 1: was holding a cup of coffee in one hand, and seven,
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Speaker 1: her dog, was on his leash walking behind her. She
1:16
Speaker 1: put seven in the car and climbed behind the wheel
1:18
Speaker 1: of the silver range Rover with a license plate U
1:21
Speaker 1: eight four zero XO, and drove away. Heidi was divorced
1:26
Speaker 1: from Bond's father. Her ex husband, a sixty three year
1:29
Speaker 1: old hairstylist named Jim Wayne. Jim had a salon in
1:32
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. Jim and Heidi were married in two thousand
1:36
Speaker 1: and eight, but they divorced four years later, and at
1:39
Speaker 1: the time Heidi went missing, they shared custody of Bond.
1:43
Speaker 1: Jim told police that the last time he saw Heidi
1:46
Speaker 1: was when she showed up to her son's football game
1:48
Speaker 1: that afternoon. The game, by the way, was in Downy,
1:51
Speaker 1: which was around seventeen miles from Heidie's home, so it
1:54
Speaker 1: would have taken her around half an hour to get
1:56
Speaker 1: there from the townhouse. Several witnesses saw Heidi at that
2:00
Speaker 1: game and interacted with her. Jim said that she seemed
2:05
Speaker 1: a little bit on edge when she left the game
2:07
Speaker 1: at halftime, which was around four thirty PM, but there
2:10
Speaker 1: was nothing that seemed extremely out of the ordinary until
2:13
Speaker 1: they were looking at these events in hindsight. It was
2:16
Speaker 1: Jim's weekend with Bond, so Jim and Bond went home
2:20
Speaker 1: after the game. Heidi and Jim got along well. Even
2:24
Speaker 1: though there had been some rocky moments in their divorce,
2:27
Speaker 1: they apparently had had a good co parenting relationship for
2:30
Speaker 1: several years. When Heidi left the game, she told her
2:34
Speaker 1: son that she would call him later, But even though
2:36
Speaker 1: Heidi always talked to her son every single day, she
2:40
Speaker 1: never called him. In fact, Bond never talked to his
2:43
Speaker 1: mother again because that day Heidi Plank vanished, and after
2:49
Speaker 1: she disappeared, it did not take long for rumors to
2:52
Speaker 1: start flying about her ex husband Jim, about her boss,
2:56
Speaker 1: Jason Sugarman, about her boss's links to big money and
2:59
Speaker 1: powerful people in Los Angeles. In fact, to me, when
3:03
Speaker 1: I first saw Heidi on the news and I about
3:05
Speaker 1: this case, it seemed like a real life version of
3:09
Speaker 1: the movie Chinatown. It's now been over two years since
3:13
Speaker 1: Heidi plant disappeared. There's been no sign of Heidi and
3:17
Speaker 1: no sign of her body. All we have are some
3:20
Speaker 1: rumors about an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles and
3:24
Speaker 1: a devastated little boy without a mother. I'm Catherine Townsend.
3:30
Speaker 1: If you have a case you'd like me and my
3:32
Speaker 1: team to look into, you can reach out to us
3:34
Speaker 1: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
3:37
Speaker 1: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
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Speaker 1: eight seven four four six one four five. This is
3:45
Speaker 1: Helen Gone Murder Line. Heidi Plank was originally from New
4:20
Speaker 1: York State. She was born and raised in Buffalo. In
4:23
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, she moved to California and went
4:26
Speaker 1: to California State University. Before we dive into Heidie's work life,
4:31
Speaker 1: I want to follow the natural trajectory of the police
4:33
Speaker 1: investigation and take a look at her relationship with her
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Speaker 1: ex husband, Jim, because, as we all know, in any investigation,
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Speaker 1: and especially if there is a contentious divorce, police are
4:45
Speaker 1: always looking at x'es. I actually did an episode of
4:49
Speaker 1: another podcast called Blood Money, it's about white collar criminals
4:54
Speaker 1: and con artists who kill about this case back in
4:57
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, so I want to take a look
4:59
Speaker 1: at what has changed since then. So of course police
5:04
Speaker 1: want to know about Heidie's relationship with her ex husband.
5:07
Speaker 1: Jim and Heidi seem to have a friendly relationship, but
5:11
Speaker 1: according to court records, they had had some issues over
5:14
Speaker 1: the years. Court filing show they had had a battle
5:18
Speaker 1: for custody in the past, and at one point Jim
5:21
Speaker 1: had full custody of their son, and Jim had accused
5:25
Speaker 1: Heidie of drug abuse. Jim also made some comments to
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Speaker 1: the media after Heidi went missing about how they had
5:32
Speaker 1: what he called different parenting styles. He said something about
5:35
Speaker 1: how Heidi was more permissive than he was, which did
5:39
Speaker 1: lead a lot of people to wonder what was going
5:41
Speaker 1: on at home to make him say that. But in
5:44
Speaker 1: addition to Jim's movements all week and long being confirmed
5:48
Speaker 1: by police, everyone who was close to Heidi said that
5:51
Speaker 1: her relationship with Jim had been good for some time.
5:55
Speaker 1: The last text between Jim and Heidi were not contentious.
5:58
Speaker 1: They were warm. Heidi was thanking Jim for all that
6:01
Speaker 1: he did for their son. Jim told police that he
6:05
Speaker 1: and his son last heard from Heidi at around seven
6:07
Speaker 1: pm that night, October seventeenth. Heidi had responded to one
6:11
Speaker 1: of her son's texts about the football game. Heidie's son
6:15
Speaker 1: sent another text a little while later, talking about a
6:17
Speaker 1: play he made, but this time Heidi didn't respond. In fact,
6:23
Speaker 1: that was the last time that Heidie's son ever heard
6:26
Speaker 1: from her. Jim and his son were worried for the
6:29
Speaker 1: rest of the weekend, but Heidi was obviously an adult.
6:34
Speaker 1: She was single and dating and had her own life.
6:36
Speaker 1: Jim told reporters, though, that Heidi never failed to respond
6:40
Speaker 1: to her son, no matter what was going on in
6:43
Speaker 1: her personal life or how busy she was, she always
6:46
Speaker 1: made time for him. Actually looking at the court records
6:50
Speaker 1: that document the text messages that Heidie's son sent to
6:53
Speaker 1: her is heartbreaking. On October eighteenth, at seven thirty one pm,
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Speaker 1: Heidi's son wrote in a text message, can you please
7:02
Speaker 1: call me back? I called you two days in a
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Speaker 1: row and you haven't picked up. By Monday morning, Jim
7:09
Speaker 1: and his son still had not heard from Heidi. That afternoon,
7:13
Speaker 1: Heidie's son texted again, please call or just text me
7:17
Speaker 1: because I want to make sure you're okay and I'm
7:19
Speaker 1: worried about you. Then he sent another text that read,
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Speaker 1: please call mom. I miss you and I'm worried about you.
7:29
Speaker 1: The next day, October twentieth, was the day when Heidi
7:32
Speaker 1: was supposed to pick her son up at school, but
7:34
Speaker 1: she never showed up. Jim reported Heidi missing. At some point,
7:40
Speaker 1: he went into Heidie's townhouse with a friend of hers.
7:42
Speaker 1: They found Heidi's work laptop there and her work phone.
7:46
Speaker 1: Jim took the laptop and the phone. Now he did
7:49
Speaker 1: turn over the laptop and phone to law enforcement, but
7:52
Speaker 1: apparently it took a few days. And at the time,
7:55
Speaker 1: a lot of people on online comment boards are of
7:58
Speaker 1: course asking if he's so worried about her, why would
8:00
Speaker 1: he wait. But Heidi was an adult, so she probably
8:05
Speaker 1: was not an immediate priority for the police. And of course,
8:08
Speaker 1: in every missing person's investigation, every single decision anyone makes
8:13
Speaker 1: is under a microscope. But in my opinion, and according
8:17
Speaker 1: to all evidence that has come out, Jim Wayne was
8:20
Speaker 1: totally believable, and Jim, to his credit, immediately went to
8:24
Speaker 1: the police. As we've said, Heidi was an adult. So
8:27
Speaker 1: if Jim had any reason to want to wait so
8:30
Speaker 1: the investigation would not start immediately, he probably could have,
8:34
Speaker 1: but that's not what he did. He went to her house,
8:36
Speaker 1: he told friends he was calling people. He immediately called
8:39
Speaker 1: the police. He insisted that they investigate, and he commented
8:43
Speaker 1: to the media. Police talked to Heidi's family. Her mom
8:47
Speaker 1: told them the same thing Jim had. Heidi had been
8:50
Speaker 1: behaving normally. She was planning a vacation to New York
8:53
Speaker 1: to visit her mom for Thanksgiving, so she was happy
8:56
Speaker 1: and she was making future plans. Police figured out no
9:00
Speaker 1: one had heard from Heidi at all since October seventeenth,
9:06
Speaker 1: so they started asking logically about Heidie's love life. Now,
9:10
Speaker 1: at that time, Heidi had been seeing someone who lived
9:14
Speaker 1: in northern California. He was a Silicon Valley executive who
9:18
Speaker 1: worked for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic arm of Facebook,
9:22
Speaker 1: which is now Meta. Police tracked down Haidie's boyfriend, who,
9:25
Speaker 1: by the way, was completely cooperative. He was verifiably somewhere
9:29
Speaker 1: else on the day when Hidi went missing, and he
9:31
Speaker 1: was cleared very quickly by law enforcement. But this man
9:35
Speaker 1: did tell the police something interesting. He said that Heidi
9:38
Speaker 1: had sent him a text asking him to come down
9:41
Speaker 1: to LA because she said she was afraid of something.
9:47
Speaker 1: But this guy was unable to make the trip, so
9:50
Speaker 1: actually he told police at first, after Heidie disappeared, he
9:54
Speaker 1: thought that maybe she was annoyed with him for not
9:56
Speaker 1: coming to LA, so maybe she was ghosting him. So
9:59
Speaker 1: now the police kind of hit a dead end because
10:03
Speaker 1: if this wasn't an X, then it wasn't a current.
10:05
Speaker 1: Really relationship. Who else would have a motive to want
10:08
Speaker 1: to hurt Heidi. Meanwhile, Jim Wayne, Heidie's ex husband, was
10:13
Speaker 1: playing detective and tracking down his own leads. He got
10:17
Speaker 1: the ven number for Heidie's Range Rover, but according to
10:19
Speaker 1: court documents, her location services wasn't on. He tried to
10:23
Speaker 1: find my phone feature on iPhone and Apple Watch, but
10:26
Speaker 1: those had also been turned off. At this point, Jim
10:29
Speaker 1: told the media he was starting to suspect this could
10:31
Speaker 1: be something that was planned. He believed this was not
10:34
Speaker 1: a random disappearance, and he mentioned the legal troubles that
10:37
Speaker 1: Heidie's boss, Jason Sugarman, had been having. Then there was
10:41
Speaker 1: another big break in the case. Jim checked the text
10:45
Speaker 1: messages on Heidie's phone, the one he had access to,
10:48
Speaker 1: and he found messages from a couple who lived in
10:51
Speaker 1: a luxury building in downtown LA and this couple said
10:54
Speaker 1: that they had Heidie's dog. The people who found seven
11:04
Speaker 1: lived in the Hope Flower Building in downtown Los Angeles,
11:08
Speaker 1: located at twelve oh one South Hope Street. We'll get
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Speaker 1: into the history of the building in a little bit,
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Speaker 1: but basically it's one of these luxury downtown high rises
11:17
Speaker 1: that have sprung up over the last couple decades in
11:19
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. It bills itself as a luxury high rise
11:23
Speaker 1: with rooftop views and a lot of amenities. But a
11:26
Speaker 1: lot of residents have complained over the years that the
11:29
Speaker 1: developers have neglected this building, that there's trash in the hallways,
11:34
Speaker 1: dog poop everywhere, and management that is unresponsive. And I'm
11:38
Speaker 1: not talking about just a couple of complaints. If you
11:40
Speaker 1: look at yelper views, there are hundreds of complaints on
11:43
Speaker 1: there from current and former tenants. So there's something strange
11:46
Speaker 1: going on in that building in my opinion. But getting
11:50
Speaker 1: back to Heidi, this couple said that around seven pm
11:54
Speaker 1: on the evening of October seventeenth. Now remember this was
11:57
Speaker 1: just a few hours after the game, and right after
12:00
Speaker 1: Bond got that last text from Heidie's phone, they said
12:03
Speaker 1: they found the dog seven roaming the hallway of that building.
12:06
Speaker 1: Some reports said that the dog was on the twenty
12:09
Speaker 1: ninth floor, others said the twenty eighth, but whichever it was,
12:12
Speaker 1: Heidi was not with seven. Jim went to pick up
12:15
Speaker 1: seven and brought him home. And since I know that
12:17
Speaker 1: people will ask, and I'm also an animal lover, I
12:19
Speaker 1: will tell you all right now, the dog is absolutely
12:22
Speaker 1: fine and apparently doing well. So what was Heidi doing
12:26
Speaker 1: at the Hope and Flower Building. Jim and her friends
12:29
Speaker 1: said they weren't aware of anyone she knew in that
12:31
Speaker 1: building or any connection she had there, And even stranger
12:35
Speaker 1: than that, why would she leave her dog who went
12:38
Speaker 1: everywhere with her roaming the hallways. According to news reports,
12:43
Speaker 1: the building management Omni Property were kind of uncooperative at first,
12:48
Speaker 1: but police got a search warrant and after that, Heidie's
12:51
Speaker 1: friends and family said the building did give them the
12:53
Speaker 1: access they needed and became more helpful. Meanwhile, some of
12:58
Speaker 1: them were wondering if the thing that Heidi had been
13:00
Speaker 1: afraid of could have been connected to her job and
13:03
Speaker 1: her boss, forty eight year old Jason Sugarman. According to
13:06
Speaker 1: Heidi's LinkedIn page, she worked for Coldwell Banker between two
13:09
Speaker 1: thousand and five and twenty fifteen, then Douglas Element, so
13:13
Speaker 1: she was working in real estate before she moved on
13:16
Speaker 1: to her job at a company called Camden Capital Partners.
13:19
Speaker 1: This was Jason Sugarman's company, and it's a company that
13:23
Speaker 1: is described as quote an investment advisory firm that handles
13:26
Speaker 1: wealth management and legacy planning for prominent high net worth individuals.
13:30
Speaker 1: End quote. This could be completely legitimate. There are lots
13:34
Speaker 1: of firms like this, but it's also very vague, and
13:38
Speaker 1: Jason Sugarman would soon show up in more headlines. Jason
13:43
Speaker 1: Sugarman is connected to a lot of people in power.
13:46
Speaker 1: His father in law is Peter Gruber, the owner of
13:48
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, and Jason was facing some serious legal issues,
13:53
Speaker 1: including federal fraud charges. He was under investigation by the
13:57
Speaker 1: Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the indictment, starting in
14:01
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, Jason and his business partner Jason Galanis, stole
14:06
Speaker 1: forty three million dollars from pension funds of a Native
14:09
Speaker 1: American tribe of the Sioux Nation. These guys, who were
14:12
Speaker 1: known in the press as the two Jasons, were apparently
14:15
Speaker 1: trying to acquire this global financial conglomerate made up of
14:19
Speaker 1: insurers in Europe and Bermuda, as well as some investment
14:22
Speaker 1: advisors based in the United States. In twenty fourteen, Jason
14:27
Speaker 1: Galanas and his father, John Galanis obtained tribal bonds. They
14:31
Speaker 1: convinced the tribe they would sell them and use the
14:34
Speaker 1: proceeds to invest in the tribe, but instead, according to
14:38
Speaker 1: the authorities, they didn't. They just basically straight up stole
14:41
Speaker 1: the money. And what's worse, this was not some kind
14:44
Speaker 1: of Bernie made off type of scenario that started out
14:46
Speaker 1: as a legitimate investment. According to the sec these guys
14:50
Speaker 1: knew they were planning to steal right from the beginning.
14:54
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a long and complicated story with
14:56
Speaker 1: this money. But to sum it up, Jason Galanas and
15:00
Speaker 1: Jason Sugarman were accused of stealing millions of dollars from
15:04
Speaker 1: the Native American Trie Tribal Corporation and from these companies
15:07
Speaker 1: they acquired. In January of twenty seventeen, Jason Galanis pled
15:12
Speaker 1: guilty to criminal charges in connections with his fraud. He
15:15
Speaker 1: was sentenced to one hundred and seventy three months in
15:17
Speaker 1: jail the indictment read quote. Sugarman benefited immensely from the scheme. Indeed,
15:23
Speaker 1: to a large extent, he was the biggest winner from
15:25
Speaker 1: the fraud, ending up with voting control over corporate assets
15:28
Speaker 1: that were acquired with bond proceeds and from which he
15:32
Speaker 1: ultimately siphoned almost nine million dollars in cash for his
15:35
Speaker 1: direct and personal benefit end quote. So we know Jason
15:39
Speaker 1: Sugarman was accused of financial fraud. We also know that
15:42
Speaker 1: he has powerful friends, including Hunter Biden. He even has
15:47
Speaker 1: ties to Hunter Biden's now notorious Laptop of shame because
15:51
Speaker 1: emails from that laptop, in addition to photos of Hunter
15:54
Speaker 1: smoking crack and sex workers, reportedly showed that Jason was
15:58
Speaker 1: a director and shareholder of a company called Burnham Financial Group.
16:03
Speaker 1: If this name sounds familiar, that's because it's the same
16:06
Speaker 1: group that allegedly pitched a major deal to Hunter's Chinese
16:09
Speaker 1: business partners back in twenty fifteen. And one of Jason
16:14
Speaker 1: Sugarman's partners who was also mentioned in that SEC indictment
16:17
Speaker 1: is Devon Archer, the longtime friend and business partner of
16:21
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden. Devon Archer, by the way, was convicted for
16:24
Speaker 1: his involvement in that same tribal scam in twenty eighteen.
16:28
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden's lawyer, by the way, has totally denied all this.
16:32
Speaker 1: He said Hunter's client had nothing to do with the
16:34
Speaker 1: Native American bond scheme and that the timing was just
16:37
Speaker 1: a coincidence. According to the Sun newspaper, the lawyer said
16:41
Speaker 1: Hunter's name had been used without his permission and that
16:45
Speaker 1: he had taken steps to ensure that his business interests
16:48
Speaker 1: were not associated with the defendants in the tribal bond case.
16:52
Speaker 1: So what does all this have to do with Heidi Plank?
16:55
Speaker 1: A woman who, by the way, had no background in
16:57
Speaker 1: finance when she started working for Jason Sugarman's company. She
17:01
Speaker 1: was the bookkeeper for that company. And then there's what
17:04
Speaker 1: happened next Next. Jim Wayne said that on October twenty first,
17:09
Speaker 1: right after Hiding went missing, he got a phone call
17:12
Speaker 1: from someone at the SEC asking questions about Jason Sugarman.
17:16
Speaker 1: And then it got even more bizarre. Because CBS Los
17:20
Speaker 1: Angeles was following the story of Heidi Plank, they were
17:24
Speaker 1: somehow able to acquire some surveillance video that had been
17:27
Speaker 1: taken outside Heidie's house. There's video of Jason Sugarman, after
17:32
Speaker 1: Hiding went missing, ringing her doorbell and then leaving muffins
17:35
Speaker 1: on the doorstep. The news station says this video is
17:39
Speaker 1: from a day or two after Hiding went missing. They
17:41
Speaker 1: weren't more specific than that. But if you look at
17:44
Speaker 1: this footage, it's odd because Jason walks up to the
17:47
Speaker 1: door rings, the bell just once and then kind of
17:51
Speaker 1: seems to PLoP the muffins down and then he's out
17:53
Speaker 1: of there. He doesn't hesitate, he doesn't try to look inside.
17:57
Speaker 1: So now I'm wondering, was he really expressing concern or
18:01
Speaker 1: was he trying to make it look like he was
18:03
Speaker 1: expressing concern and looking for Heidi. Was he going through
18:06
Speaker 1: the motions so that he would appear on camera, or
18:10
Speaker 1: was Heidie's disappearance totally unconnected to him? But perhaps he
18:15
Speaker 1: wanted to see if someone was there who would give
18:17
Speaker 1: him that work laptop, which remember, was inside her house.
18:20
Speaker 1: What did the SEC want to talk to Heidi about?
18:23
Speaker 1: Heidi obviously is not here, so it's only speculation, but
18:27
Speaker 1: she reportedly told friends and family that the company had
18:30
Speaker 1: some tax filings that were due. She had complained that
18:34
Speaker 1: her boss, presumably meaning Jason Sugarman, had her name on
18:38
Speaker 1: so much of their corporate paperwork. Now, if this is true,
18:41
Speaker 1: it's a major flag for fraud investigators. In fact, this
18:45
Speaker 1: case seems to have a lot of red flags for
18:47
Speaker 1: potential fraud investigators, including the fact that Heidi was the
18:51
Speaker 1: person being asked to sign off on these complex transactions.
18:55
Speaker 1: Jim Wayne told the media that after Hiding went missing,
18:59
Speaker 1: he called her office. He said that Jason didn't seem
19:02
Speaker 1: like he was worried about Heidi or what happened to
19:05
Speaker 1: her at all, but he did say Jason Sugarman was
19:09
Speaker 1: very worried about that work laptop. Remember this was the
19:12
Speaker 1: work laptop that had been inside Heidie's house. Jim had
19:16
Speaker 1: taken it out of there and later handed it over
19:18
Speaker 1: to police. Jim Wayne told the Daily Mail, quote, while
19:22
Speaker 1: I was on the phone with his assistant, I heard
19:24
Speaker 1: Sugarman in the background barking at his assistant to tell
19:27
Speaker 1: me make sure he knows I want my laptop. There
19:30
Speaker 1: was no concern at all from my ex wife's employer.
19:33
Speaker 1: It's a multimillion dollar company. They didn't offer to hire
19:36
Speaker 1: a private investigator or put up a reward. The only
19:39
Speaker 1: thing they really seemed concerned about was Heidie's computer end quote. Again,
19:47
Speaker 1: Heidie's job was financial controller for Camden Capital Partners, which
19:51
Speaker 1: reportedly gave her a salary of one hundred and forty
19:54
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a year and bonuses, and Jim made
19:59
Speaker 1: a comment he said she always had spare cash lying around.
20:04
Speaker 1: Jim Wayne said that someone at Jason Sugarman's office had
20:07
Speaker 1: told him they believed that Heidi was quote siphoning off
20:12
Speaker 1: money from the company end quote. So, according to Jim Wayne,
20:18
Speaker 1: someone at Jason Sugarman's office was allegedly implying that Heidi
20:22
Speaker 1: might have embezzled funds. But when Jim talked to The
20:25
Speaker 1: Daily Mail, he said he did not believe Heidi was
20:28
Speaker 1: to blame at all, and he said if there was
20:30
Speaker 1: any wrongdoing, it was from someone at that office, not her.
20:34
Speaker 1: Jim said, quote, Heidi knows all of Jason's and the
20:37
Speaker 1: company's secrets. She knows where the bones are buried. This
20:40
Speaker 1: whole thing just stinks. Something just isn't right, and I
20:43
Speaker 1: can't put my finger on it. End quote. After Hiding
20:48
Speaker 1: went missing, Jim filed a petition for temporary emergency custody
20:52
Speaker 1: of their son, and these court papers, in my mind,
20:56
Speaker 1: provide further evidence that there was no motive for Jim
20:59
Speaker 1: to do anything to Heidie, because, according to the court documents,
21:03
Speaker 1: Jim and Heidi shared custody of their son, and Jim
21:07
Speaker 1: did not pay Heidi any alimony or child support. He
21:10
Speaker 1: had paid her a lump sum in twenty twelve and
21:12
Speaker 1: nothing since then. So the bottom line is Jim Wayne
21:16
Speaker 1: had no obvious financial motive to do anything to Heidi.
21:19
Speaker 1: In fact, if he did do something to her, it
21:21
Speaker 1: would ensure that he would never get the support that
21:23
Speaker 1: he was asking for. Some people had suggested that Heidi
21:27
Speaker 1: might have disappeared voluntarily, and we do have to look
21:29
Speaker 1: at that possibility. According to court documents, in the past,
21:34
Speaker 1: Jim had alleged Heidi had some mental health issues. He
21:37
Speaker 1: said that she was addicted to adderall and had some
21:40
Speaker 1: kind of breakdown. In twenty fifteen, Jim talked to Los
21:44
Speaker 1: Angeles magazine about what happened that day. He said that
21:47
Speaker 1: Heidi had begun acting strangely while they were driving back
21:50
Speaker 1: to her house, that their son had been in the car,
21:53
Speaker 1: and that after they got back to his place, Heidi
21:55
Speaker 1: freaked out, trash Bond's room and crawled out a window.
21:59
Speaker 1: Then he said, she started running through the neighborhood. Police
22:02
Speaker 1: were called, and when they got there, they found Heidy
22:05
Speaker 1: switching an electrical circuit breaker on and off. It seemed
22:09
Speaker 1: like reading through these court papers, Heidi it had some
22:12
Speaker 1: kind of a break with reality. According to court records,
22:15
Speaker 1: Heidi agreed to check herself voluntarily into a psychiatric hospital.
22:20
Speaker 1: But after that incident, Heidi got better. She got a job.
22:23
Speaker 1: She started working for Camden Capital Partners, first as an
22:26
Speaker 1: assistant and then by twenty seventeen, is the financial controller.
22:31
Speaker 1: After the initial flurry of media activity, the case got
22:34
Speaker 1: pretty quiet for a couple of months. Then on November fourth,
22:38
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, police announced they had found Heidi's Range
22:42
Speaker 1: Rover in the parking lot of a residential building that
22:44
Speaker 1: was a few blocks away from the Hope and Flower
22:46
Speaker 1: building where seven was found. And after that police announced
22:51
Speaker 1: another break they had more video footage of Heidi, footage
22:55
Speaker 1: that had been taken on that same day. On October seventeenth,
22:58
Speaker 1: at around six thirty pm, hours after she left her
23:02
Speaker 1: son's game, she was in downtown La walking in an
23:06
Speaker 1: alley between eleventh and twelve Streets. This is the little
23:09
Speaker 1: alleyway that runs behind the Hope and Flower building where
23:12
Speaker 1: the dog was found. She appeared to be wearing the
23:16
Speaker 1: same clothes and the sweater that she had been wearing earlier.
23:19
Speaker 1: She was wearing thisweater she had had tied around her waist.
23:23
Speaker 1: One of her friends told a local news station KTLA
23:26
Speaker 1: that Heidi looked like she was taking her dog for
23:28
Speaker 1: a quick walk. Now, there were some people out there
23:32
Speaker 1: who said that Heidie's hair looked darker, like she was
23:35
Speaker 1: wearing a wig. But I've looked at this footage and
23:37
Speaker 1: to me, that appears to be just a late afternoon lighting.
23:40
Speaker 1: It clearly looks like Heidi. She's wearing the same clothes
23:43
Speaker 1: she was wearing that morning, and her dog is walking
23:46
Speaker 1: with her. Heidie's friends told local news stations that this
23:52
Speaker 1: was a major break in the case because if the
23:54
Speaker 1: couple's timeline was correct and they had found the dog
23:57
Speaker 1: roaming the halls at around seven pm, that narrowed down
24:00
Speaker 1: the window of time when Heidi went missing to around
24:03
Speaker 1: half an hour or so. In the surveillance video from
24:06
Speaker 1: the alley, Heidie was wearing the same sweaters she had
24:09
Speaker 1: tied around her waist earlier, so she probably went there
24:13
Speaker 1: right after she left the game. Also, people who watched
24:16
Speaker 1: the video pointed out you could see Heidie's purse, and
24:19
Speaker 1: by the way, this was at the height of COVID,
24:21
Speaker 1: she seemed to have a mask in one hand, which
24:24
Speaker 1: meant that she was probably visiting someone in that building,
24:27
Speaker 1: so it seemed like she either parked her car, took
24:31
Speaker 1: her purse out, and was on her way up to
24:32
Speaker 1: the building, or it's also possible she had been visiting
24:36
Speaker 1: someone in the building, already left her purse in the apartment,
24:39
Speaker 1: and ducked out for a quick dog walk. And again,
24:43
Speaker 1: none of Heidie's friends or family had any idea who
24:47
Speaker 1: lived in that building, who Heidie might have been going
24:49
Speaker 1: to see, or what she was doing there. But another
24:52
Speaker 1: one of Heide's friends told reporters they had talked to
24:55
Speaker 1: building staff and apparently they recognized Heidi and her dog.
24:59
Speaker 1: Seven Attention focused more and more on the Hope and
25:03
Speaker 1: Flower Building, the last place where Heidi was seen alive.
25:15
Speaker 1: As I said before, this, Hope and Flower Building was
25:18
Speaker 1: very controversial if you look at the yelperviews the residence.
25:22
Speaker 1: Claim that there has been theft, drug use, dogs defecating
25:26
Speaker 1: on their terraces, piles of trash in the hallway. They
25:29
Speaker 1: claimed that their secured parking spaces are constantly vandalized and
25:33
Speaker 1: broken into. After Haidi disappeared, I got several messages from
25:37
Speaker 1: people who were friends of hers. I also went to
25:40
Speaker 1: a prayer vigil for Heidi that was held at the
25:42
Speaker 1: Hope and Flower Building. I met some of the residents there,
25:45
Speaker 1: and later some of the former residents contacted me and
25:48
Speaker 1: talked to me about the LAPD investigation. They told me
25:52
Speaker 1: that the police had been in that building, that there
25:55
Speaker 1: had been a foul stench coming from the trash chute.
25:58
Speaker 1: They had heard a rumor that a bloody mattress or
26:01
Speaker 1: possibly even a body had been taken from the building.
26:05
Speaker 1: Then the news broke. The LAPD was searching Shaquita Canyon landfill,
26:09
Speaker 1: which was about forty miles away, the same landfill where
26:12
Speaker 1: the Hope in Flower Buildings trash was dumped. The police
26:16
Speaker 1: has not revealed much about what they have found inside
26:19
Speaker 1: the Hope and Flower building, but on their website they
26:22
Speaker 1: did state that quote, forensic evidence was located inside the building,
26:26
Speaker 1: which has led detectives to believe an incident occurred resulting
26:29
Speaker 1: in Plank's death end quote. The LAPD stated that they
26:34
Speaker 1: believed something bad did happen to Heidi and that they
26:37
Speaker 1: believe that it happened to her at that downtown building,
26:41
Speaker 1: and they said they believed that Heidi Plank was dead,
26:45
Speaker 1: but they didn't give any more specifics. They didn't talk
26:48
Speaker 1: about what the evidence was. They haven't asked the public
26:51
Speaker 1: for information, so really it's been kind of a black hole.
26:56
Speaker 1: In December of twenty twenty three, over two years after
26:59
Speaker 1: she went missing, Heidi Plank was officially declared dead. A
27:03
Speaker 1: judge ruled she had died at around nine pm on
27:06
Speaker 1: the night she disappeared on October seventeenth, twenty twenty one.
27:10
Speaker 1: There have been a few theories put forward by people
27:13
Speaker 1: commenting online by armchair detectives. One theory was that Heidi
27:18
Speaker 1: maybe was in trouble, maybe she did something at work,
27:22
Speaker 1: maybe she knew too much and something led her to
27:25
Speaker 1: voluntarily go missing. I'm not buying that theory. First of all,
27:30
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any way that this woman would
27:32
Speaker 1: have left her son with no explanation. And secondly, other
27:36
Speaker 1: than her son, she loved her dog more than anything
27:39
Speaker 1: in the world, and I don't believe she would have
27:41
Speaker 1: just dumped her dog at this building. And of course,
27:43
Speaker 1: anytime you do have someone with a background of mental
27:46
Speaker 1: health issues or potential substance abuse, you have to ask
27:49
Speaker 1: could that have happened again? Again, I think that that's
27:53
Speaker 1: very unlikely, mainly because she was acting normally. This woman's employed,
27:58
Speaker 1: she had a good relationship with her friends and family,
28:00
Speaker 1: and she had a son who she called every day.
28:05
Speaker 1: Or some other rumors going around, including one by an
28:10
Speaker 1: amateur detective who posted on YouTube. She said she had
28:13
Speaker 1: talked to people in the Hope and Flower building. She
28:16
Speaker 1: told the Sun newspaper that she heard Heidi went to
28:19
Speaker 1: a party there on the night she disappeared that she
28:21
Speaker 1: had gotten adderall from a man she was dating, and
28:23
Speaker 1: then apparently overdosed, possibly because the drugs were laced with fentanyl. Then,
28:30
Speaker 1: according to this person, the people in the apartment panicked
28:33
Speaker 1: and Haidie's body was thrown down the garbage chute. But
28:37
Speaker 1: I have to say there was absolutely no evidence that
28:39
Speaker 1: these rumors were true, and honestly, not all parts of
28:42
Speaker 1: this story make sense. For example, Heidi didn't look like
28:45
Speaker 1: she was dressed to party. She looked like she was
28:47
Speaker 1: out on an errand when she was seen on the
28:49
Speaker 1: camera with the dog, it was early evening, six thirty
28:52
Speaker 1: or seven pm. And finally, if there was a whole
28:55
Speaker 1: party full of people as this person described, it seems
28:58
Speaker 1: really hard for me to imagine that no one from
29:02
Speaker 1: the party talk. The whole thing got completely covered up,
29:04
Speaker 1: and that they threw a body down the trash chute
29:07
Speaker 1: without it being found. But I do have a lot
29:10
Speaker 1: of questions about that building and about the people on
29:13
Speaker 1: the penthouse floor. Jim Wayne has said he was told
29:17
Speaker 1: by police that up to five people know what happened
29:20
Speaker 1: to Heidi, But which five people? Five people in the
29:25
Speaker 1: apartment building, And if that's true, again, it's very hard
29:29
Speaker 1: for me to imagine a world where there was not
29:31
Speaker 1: surveillance footage showing those people, even though it was COVID
29:35
Speaker 1: and a lot of places were probably being rented off
29:38
Speaker 1: the books. Surely they must be able to get the
29:40
Speaker 1: names of the people who were in the apartment on
29:43
Speaker 1: that day. The whole thing is very bizarre, and I
29:46
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever actually seen a case where a
29:48
Speaker 1: dog was found in a location that was completely foreign
29:52
Speaker 1: to everywhere in the victim's life, and there's no trace
29:54
Speaker 1: of the victim. Jason Sugarman kind of disappeared from public
30:00
Speaker 1: view after Hiding went missing, and I'm going to say
30:02
Speaker 1: again he has not been charged with anything or any
30:05
Speaker 1: sort of wrongdoing in connection with her disappearance. On January tenth,
30:10
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, the United States District Court for the
30:14
Speaker 1: Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against
30:17
Speaker 1: Jason Suggermant. Jason was ordered to pay over ten point
30:20
Speaker 1: two million dollars in connection to the scheme to defraud
30:23
Speaker 1: pension funds. Devin Archer was sentenced to a year and
30:27
Speaker 1: a day in prison. He appealed and he is still
30:30
Speaker 1: out on bail. In January twenty twenty four, a judge
30:33
Speaker 1: denied his appeal, so his case is continuing to work
30:36
Speaker 1: its way through the court system. Bond and seven are
30:39
Speaker 1: living with Jim Wayne. Jim told Los Angeles magazine six
30:43
Speaker 1: months after Heidi disappeared, quote, our son wants to know
30:47
Speaker 1: what happened to his mother. I want to know what
30:49
Speaker 1: happened to Heidi. I still think her boss has something
30:52
Speaker 1: to do with this, in one way or another. End quote.
30:57
Speaker 1: There was another update story done in twenty twenty four,
31:01
Speaker 1: near the two year anniversary of her disappearance. Heidie's family
31:04
Speaker 1: posted a bill of her in Los Angeles. Right now
31:08
Speaker 1: they hope that someone will come forward. The family is
31:12
Speaker 1: created an email address Heidi Plank H E I D
31:16
Speaker 1: I P L A n C K at ProtonMail dot com.
31:22
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Police Department is asked anyone with information
31:25
Speaker 1: call the Missing Persons Unit at two one three nine
31:29
Speaker 1: nine six one eight zero zero. I'm Katherine Townsend. This
31:33
Speaker 1: is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is
31:39
Speaker 1: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's
31:42
Speaker 1: written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by
31:45
Speaker 1: Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance.
31:50
Speaker 1: Music contributed by Ben Solee. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
31:55
Speaker 1: Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley. If you have a
31:58
Speaker 1: case you'd like me and my team to look into,
32:00
Speaker 1: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
32:02
Speaker 1: Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six
32:06
Speaker 1: one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four
32:09
Speaker 1: six one four five. School of Humans