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Disappearance of 14-year-old Misty Copsey Remains a Mystery · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: All right, get ready, because today we're really digging into
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  a case that's both fascinating and truly heartbreaking. It's the
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  disappearance of Misty Copsey. We're talking about a fourteen year
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  old girl who vanished without a trace from the prealliped
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  Fair back in ninety two, and even after all these years,
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  over three decades, the case still has investigators and of
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  course Misty's family desperately searching for answers. Now, some of
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  you might already be familiar with this case. It's pretty
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  well known, especially in the Pacific Northwest. But today we're
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  taking you all on a deep dive. We're using these
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  excerpts from this article called pasted text, and we really
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  want to uncover why this case still resonates so strongly
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  after all these years. So let's all try to picture
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  this September seventeenth, nineteen ninety two. It's the pre al
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  ab Fair, Right. Can you just imagine that, the excitement,
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  that bustling energy, the crowds, the smell of elephant ears
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  and cotton candy just kind of hanging in the air. Misty,
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  after I'm sure days of some pretty serious pleading, finally
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  convinces her mom, Diana to let her go to the fair.
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  She went with her friend Trina, you know, that classic
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  teenage anticipation for a day of just pure fun.
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  Speaker 2: And what's really interesting here is that this wasn't a
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  case of Misty sneaking out or like defying her mom
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  or anything like that. There was a plan in place, right.
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  Misty had actually promised Diana, who worked the night shift,
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  that she'd be responsible and take the last bus home exactly.
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  Speaker 3: That's a really important detail that always stood out to me.
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  It really establishedes this sense of, you know, Misty being reliable, responsible,
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  and it just makes her disappearance even more baffling. So
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  now let's try to imagine this. The fairs winding down,
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  the crowds are starting to thin out, and the last
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  denounced bus has already left. So Misty finds herself at
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  the fairgrounds and she ends up talking to a bus driver.
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  He tells her that the official buses are done for
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  the night, but he gives her directions to catch a
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  later one. Now, this is where things start to get
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  really murky, this encounter with the bus driver. It's the
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  last confirmed sighting of Misty.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, this whole bus driver interaction is
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  like a perfect example of how these seemingly insignificant details
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  they can become absolutely crucial in a missing person case.
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  Did she misunderstand the directions he gave her? Was there
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  another reason she didn't make it to that later bus stop.
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  It's just every possibility seems to lead to more questions,
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  and that's one of the biggest hurdles investigator's face, you know,
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  especially in cases like Misty's where we're talking several decades ago,
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  the passage of time, it can be a real, a
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  real enemy in these situations.
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  Speaker 3: It's like it's like you're trying to solve this incredibly
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  complex puzzle, but the pieces are constantly fading, becoming more
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  difficult to make sense of exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Memories get fuzzy, people move on with their lives, relocate,
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  and any physical evidence, if there was any to begin with,
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  it might.
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  Speaker 3: Be long gone, right, right, So the odds are stacked
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  against you.
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  Speaker 2: They really are. But you know, in Misty's case, there
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  was a discovery a few months after her disappearance, and
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  it's a detail that well, let's just say it sends
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  chills down your spine. They found a pair of Misty's jenes.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, hold on so now we're getting in some serious
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  twists and turns here. So they find her genes, which
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  for her family that must have brought this wave of
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  I don't know, mixed emotions right, like a glimmer of hope,
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  but also this dread, knowing that.
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  Speaker 2: It could mean absolutely and the location where they found
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  the jenes, it just adds this whole other layer to it. Okay,
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  they were discovered near Mud Mountain Dam, which, if you're
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  not familiar, it's a place that's sadly known for the
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  discovery of other murder victims.
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  Speaker 3: Oh wow, So not only do they find this incredibly
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  personal item belonging to Misty, but it's in a location
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  that's already shrouded in this heavy tragic history. That must
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  have been just absolute dut wrenching for her family.
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  Speaker 2: It was devastating Diana, Misty's mom, she identified the genes,
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  clinging to this hope right that it meant they had
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  found her daughter.
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  Speaker 3: I can't even imagine that emotional roller coaster, to hold
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  onto that sliver of hope, but knowing that it could
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  lead to something so so dark it's unimaginable.
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  Speaker 2: And here's where the case takes an even stranger term.
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  Remember how I mentioned earlier about those seemingly small details,
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  how they can be so crucial.
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  Speaker 3: Right right? Keep going?
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  Speaker 2: Well, even though those genes were found near the remains
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  of other victims, the DNA on the Jenes, it wasn't
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  Misty's bhy what it belonged to an unidentified man?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, hold on, so let get this straight. We have
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  Misty's jenes found in a location known for other grim discoveries,
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  but her DNA isn't even on them. What could that
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  even mean?
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  Speaker 2: It's a question that has haunted investigators ever since. Does
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  it point to a connection with another case? Was it
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  a deliberate attempt to mislead the investigation? We're left grappling
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  with more questions than answers.
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  Speaker 3: This is why I find these deep dies so fascinating.
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  Just when you think you're starting to grasp the case,
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  another layer gets peeled back and it reveals even more complexity.
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  So we're dealing with this incredibly complex case, more questions
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  than answers, it seems like. But the story doesn't just
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  end there. Fast forward to two thousand and nine. The
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  peel At Police Department. They're determined to find some answers. Right, so,
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  they reopen Misty's case.
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  Speaker 2: And this is where things get really interesting, you know,
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  because now we're talking about the double edged sort of time.
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  On one hand, we have these incredible advancements in forensic technology,
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  DNA analysis being a prime example, something that wasn't even
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  available back in the early nineties, right, So there's.
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  Speaker 3: This potential for like brand new breakthroughs with all these
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  new technologies.
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  Speaker 2: Huh exactly. But then on the other hand, you're also
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  dealing with the fading of memories. As we talked about,
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  witnesses that are now even harder to locate after all
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  this time, and that always lingering question did the initial
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  investigation miss something crucial, which.
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  Speaker 3: Actually brings us to another really really important aspect of
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  this case. Captain Visno who you know, he's been heading
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  up the investigation since they reopened it back in nine.
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  He's publicly acknowledged that Misty's case it might not have
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  gotten the attention it deserved back in ninety two. Initially,
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  you know, it was treated as a runaway situation, even
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  though we've kind of already discussed this, but the evidence
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  it didn't really support that, and that happens sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, it's easy for us to look back now and
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  you know, maybe judge those past investigations, especially with what
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  we know now about these types of cases. But back
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  then things were different. Investigative approaches there were just different,
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  and what might seem like a huge red flag now
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  might not have been perceived the same way back then.
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  Speaker 3: It's a good point, yeah, And it really makes you
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  think about how much those initial decisions, as early assumptions,
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  how much they can really impact the entire trajectory of case.
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  Speaker 2: No, yeah, for sure. And it highlights just how important
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  it is to constantly learn, you know, and evolve how
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  we approach these investigations.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, in amidst all of this, you know, there's another
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  key figure in Misty's story that we really need to
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  talk about, her half brother, Colton Smith.
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  Speaker 2: Colton's story as a whole other layer of I don't know,
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  like complexity and heartbreak to this. He was born after
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  Misty's disappearance, so he never even got to meet his sister.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I can't even imagine growing up with that constant absence. Yeah,
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  you know, that missing piece in your family. It's heartbreaking,
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  it really is.
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  Speaker 2: And you know what's even more poignant is that Colton,
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  He's essentially taken up the torch from his mother Diana.
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  Sadly she passed away a few years ago, but he's
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  continuing her fight, making sure all of her efforts to
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  find Misty they weren't in vain.
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  Speaker 3: It really speaks to like the strength and resilience of
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  the human spirit, especially when faced with such just unimaginable loss.
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  It's incredible. So here we are at the end of
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  our deep dive, and we're still left with these haunting
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  questions about Misty's case. Did she ever actually make it
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  onto that later bus, what happened after she left the
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  fair grounds? Was she a runaway or was there something
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  more sinister a play? And how much did those early
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  missteps in the investigation, How much did they really impact
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  the search for answers.
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  Speaker 2: Those are the questions that continue to drive investigators today,
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  and they haunt Misty's family understandably so. And it's exactly
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  why these cases, even after thirty years, they capture our attention,
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  you know, they remind us that even the smallest detail,
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  something seemingly insignificant, that could be the key to finally
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  unlocking the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Like that's saying, right, the truth is out there somewhere,
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  and that's why we do what we do here on
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  the Deep Dive. We delve into these cases, we examine
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  the evidence, explore all the complexities, and hopefully you know,
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  even if it's in just some small way, we keep
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  these stories alive. We keep searching for those answers, So
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  until next time, keep digging, keep asking those tough questions,
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  and never ever give up hope.