Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / AMISH GIRL VANISHES AFTER CHURCH, WHAT BEFELL LINDA STOLTZFOOS?

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AMISH GIRL VANISHES AFTER CHURCH, WHAT BEFELL LINDA STOLTZFOOS? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A teen girl. A young
0:13
Speaker 1: Amish girl goes missing, seemingly without a trace, after church
0:20
Speaker 1: on a Sunday afternoon. How does this happen? Where is Linda?
0:33
Speaker 1: First of all, take a listen to our friends at
0:36
Speaker 1: crime online dot com. It was Father's Day and Linda
0:40
Speaker 1: Stultzfus was on her way home from church. She told
0:42
Speaker 1: friends she'd meet the meta youth meeting after she went
0:45
Speaker 1: back to her family's Burdenhand farm to change her clothes.
0:48
Speaker 1: Stultsfuss was seen at a farm on Stumptown Road, between
0:51
Speaker 1: the intersection of Beechdale and Gibbons Roads in Burdenhand. When
0:54
Speaker 1: Stultzfus didn't meet her friends at the youth meeting, they worried.
0:58
Speaker 1: Her parents later told the East lamp Your Township police
1:01
Speaker 1: that they looked in her room and when they couldn't
1:03
Speaker 1: find any church clothes in a room, they knew she'd
1:05
Speaker 1: never made it home from church. She never changed her clothes,
1:08
Speaker 1: She never made it back to the youth meeting. The
1:11
Speaker 1: eighteen year old Amish girl's disappearance on June twenty first
1:14
Speaker 1: left authority scrambling for answers. The FBI, Pennsylvania State police
1:18
Speaker 1: have all joined the search, but still nobody knows what
1:21
Speaker 1: happened to Linda stultsfus what happened to this teen girl?
1:26
Speaker 1: Now you would think in the middle of Amish country
1:30
Speaker 1: nothing could go wrong, but it did. Joining me an
1:35
Speaker 1: all star panel to break it down and put it
1:37
Speaker 1: back together again. First of all, TROYE. Layton right now,
1:40
Speaker 1: criminal defense attorney, joining me out of la Karen Start,
1:44
Speaker 1: New York psychologist. You can find her at Karen dot com.
1:48
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, director of the Coalcase Research Institute and forensics expert.
1:53
Speaker 1: Special guests joining us. Karen Johnson Winer, Professor Emerita of
1:58
Speaker 1: Anthropology at Sunny that is in New York, author of
2:03
Speaker 1: the Lives of Amish Women, Coming Out that came out
2:08
Speaker 1: in Coming Out September twenty twenty and just a few days.
2:12
Speaker 1: Sierra Gillespie Crime online dot Com investigative reporter. First to you. Sierra,
2:18
Speaker 1: explain to me how in Amish country, where typically there's
2:25
Speaker 1: not a lot of cars, very tight knit community, no
2:31
Speaker 1: one saw what happened to Linda. Let's start at the beginning.
2:36
Speaker 1: How what was she last saying? For sure? Nancy? She
2:41
Speaker 1: was last seen for sure at church and June twenty,
2:45
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, so that's Father's Day. Most of us can
2:47
Speaker 1: remember where we were in Father's Day. So she was
2:50
Speaker 1: seen at church in the morning and the plan was
2:53
Speaker 1: for her to go home. She had made a dessert
2:56
Speaker 1: that she was planning to bring to her youth group.
2:59
Speaker 1: She was going to change her clothes, grab that dessert,
3:02
Speaker 1: and then head over to her youth group, which was
3:04
Speaker 1: two pm to eleven pm. But nobody at youth group
3:08
Speaker 1: saw her, and again her parents figure she never even
3:12
Speaker 1: came home to change her quotes. But one thing we
3:15
Speaker 1: can say for sure is this area bird in Hand.
3:18
Speaker 1: It's about an hour fifteen east of Philadelphia, and it
3:23
Speaker 1: is a large Amish Mennonite community. However, it is somewhat
3:27
Speaker 1: of like a tourist attraction for people in the area,
3:30
Speaker 1: like if you want to take a look at what
3:32
Speaker 1: it would be like to live in an Amish community community,
3:36
Speaker 1: or if you want to, I don't know, purchase whatever
3:38
Speaker 1: they're selling. So there are vehicles that are driving through
3:42
Speaker 1: that area. Okay, so there is a fair bit of
3:46
Speaker 1: car traffic. Because it's really hard for me to believe
3:49
Speaker 1: she can be abducted on foot or in a horse
3:50
Speaker 1: drawn carriage with nobody seeing her. Where I grew up,
3:55
Speaker 1: I would say about forty five minutes to an hour away,
3:58
Speaker 1: a huge min and I community in a very rural area.
4:02
Speaker 1: So I'm comparing to that. Joining me a special guest,
4:06
Speaker 1: Karen Johnson Weiner, Professor Emerita Anthropology, Sunny, author of the
4:11
Speaker 1: Lives of Amish Women. Coming Out you can get a
4:15
Speaker 1: September twenty twenty, Karen, thank you so much for being
4:19
Speaker 1: with us. Tell me about the life of an Amish
4:24
Speaker 1: woman at this age, particularly eighteen. Well, at eighteen, her
4:28
Speaker 1: life would have revolved around whatever work she was doing.
4:32
Speaker 1: I don't know if Linda was employed, either with a
4:37
Speaker 1: family business or working for friend motel work. But on Sunday,
4:43
Speaker 1: it would has been on the Sunday that church met.
4:47
Speaker 1: It would have involved church and the youth group that
4:51
Speaker 1: she was with, the young folk that she would would join.
4:56
Speaker 1: All of her social life would have been with that
4:58
Speaker 1: young folk, So she would have been busy. She would
5:01
Speaker 1: have been helping at home, she would have been with
5:03
Speaker 1: her friends. How often do you say Amish chains defect
5:11
Speaker 1: leave the community. Um, well, that depends on the particular
5:17
Speaker 1: Amish group. Um, there's there's a lot of diversity in
5:20
Speaker 1: the Amish world. And UM, and in some communities the
5:27
Speaker 1: rate of leaving maybe fifteen twenty percent, and others it's
5:32
Speaker 1: it's much much lower. Um, there's no indication that that
5:37
Speaker 1: Linda was leaving her church community. UM. I don't know
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Speaker 1: Linda or her family, but UM, her friends would have known,
5:48
Speaker 1: and that doesn't seem to be the case. Why do
5:51
Speaker 1: you say her friends would have known if she were leaving.
5:54
Speaker 1: Wouldn't she have kept that a secret? Probably her friends
5:58
Speaker 1: would have known. Um, she took nothing, She took no money.
6:04
Speaker 1: It would have been something that those closest to her
6:08
Speaker 1: would have suspected. This. The Lancaster Amish young people are
6:17
Speaker 1: quite connected with each other. There's a lot of the Amish,
6:23
Speaker 1: don't let me put it this way. Being with others
6:28
Speaker 1: is important in the community, and so she would not
6:32
Speaker 1: have been so isolated. People would have suspected straight out
6:36
Speaker 1: to Seierra Gillespie, Crime Online dot Com investigator reporter way in,
6:40
Speaker 1: what do we know, if anything, about the possibility she
6:44
Speaker 1: wanted to leave? Nancy were told that she did not
6:48
Speaker 1: want to leave. Investigators say that they did interview family friends.
6:53
Speaker 1: She was kind of a timid young woman. She was
6:57
Speaker 1: happy in groups, but she wasn't like super out spoken
7:00
Speaker 1: or anything like that, and she made no indication to
7:03
Speaker 1: anyone that she wanted to actually read the Amish community. Guys,
7:08
Speaker 1: take a listen to this. Investigators in Lancaster County spent
7:12
Speaker 1: the day searching for eighteen year old Linda Stultspus. State
7:15
Speaker 1: Police about six hundred trained search and rescue volunteers focused
7:20
Speaker 1: on a two and a half square mile area in
7:22
Speaker 1: the Welsh Mountains in East Earl Township. They searched from
7:25
Speaker 1: seven this morning until six in this evening. So far,
7:29
Speaker 1: Linda has not been found, but investigators say their goal
7:32
Speaker 1: is to continue to work together with the community to
7:34
Speaker 1: locate her. Stultspus has been missing since June twenty first.
7:38
Speaker 1: Police believe she was abducted while walking home from church
7:41
Speaker 1: in Burdenhad Too. Cheryl McCollum, director to Colcase Research Institute.
7:46
Speaker 1: If she were abducted on the street walking home from
7:51
Speaker 1: church to home, why are there no witnesses, Well, Nancy,
7:56
Speaker 1: one of the biggest concerns is going to be she
7:58
Speaker 1: obviously will not have a cell phone. She wouldn't have
8:00
Speaker 1: a way to call for help or have us, even
8:03
Speaker 1: through GPS, know her whereabouts. You know, in her community.
8:07
Speaker 1: There's not going to be any cameras. There's not going
8:09
Speaker 1: to be any surveillance near her farm or the farms
8:12
Speaker 1: of other people in the Amish community. So what we're
8:15
Speaker 1: going to have to rely on is somebody in a
8:18
Speaker 1: typical American family that may have a ring camera. Of course,
8:22
Speaker 1: there are no ring cameras, there's no video surveillance. And
8:26
Speaker 1: according to what we're learning, many people come to the
8:29
Speaker 1: area to buy furniture, to buy vegetables and fruits, to
8:36
Speaker 1: buy homemade gems and jellies. What do we know about
8:39
Speaker 1: the disappearance of this teen girl? How did she just
8:42
Speaker 1: disappear off the street? Was she still wearing her Amish
8:46
Speaker 1: clothes or was she changed into regular street clothes? Crime
9:02
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking about the disappearance
9:08
Speaker 1: of a precious young girl, a teen girl, Linda Stultsfus,
9:13
Speaker 1: who goes missing. What do we know? We were just
9:16
Speaker 1: listening to our friend and Shannon at WGA L News eight.
9:20
Speaker 1: Now take a listen to our friend Dave Mackett crime
9:23
Speaker 1: online dot Com. When Linda Stultsfus failed to meet her
9:26
Speaker 1: friend's bank at church for a youth meeting. They were
9:28
Speaker 1: confused and a bit scared. It was totally unlike Linda
9:31
Speaker 1: to not be where she was expected. Friends and family
9:34
Speaker 1: immediately started looking for retracing her footsteps, but no Linda.
9:38
Speaker 1: As members of the community trying to remember every minute
9:41
Speaker 1: of the day, several members of the Amish community said
9:44
Speaker 1: they saw red Kia rio passing through the area that
9:47
Speaker 1: day with someone resembling stultsfoods sitting in the passenger seat.
9:51
Speaker 1: That same red Kia Rio was later spotted park next
9:54
Speaker 1: to railroad tracks. A red Kia you know, I want
9:57
Speaker 1: to go to Karen Stark, New York Psychologists joining me
10:01
Speaker 1: from Manhattan today, Karen Stark. When someone is brought up
10:05
Speaker 1: in a very sheltered environment, they might get into a
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Speaker 1: car if somebody said, hey, can you hop in and
10:13
Speaker 1: show me how to get to X y Z where
10:16
Speaker 1: my children I've had it, you know, drummed into their
10:19
Speaker 1: head day one. Don't get into a car with anybody
10:23
Speaker 1: you don't know, no matter how nice they may seem.
10:26
Speaker 1: And of course they're always doing you know, those tests
10:29
Speaker 1: on a group of children, and they still get in
10:32
Speaker 1: the car. But especially growing up in a sheltered environment.
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Speaker 1: She may think it's okay to get in a car
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Speaker 1: with someone to give them directions. Well, I think that's
10:44
Speaker 1: a good point, Nancy, because she might even go close
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Speaker 1: to the car. It's a rural area, it's not that
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Speaker 1: develop and she's very naive, and so I also think
10:58
Speaker 1: there's this whole emphasis, you know, helping and being cooperative
11:02
Speaker 1: toward each other. So it's a stranger of what to say.
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Speaker 1: I'm totally lust I don't know where I am. I
11:07
Speaker 1: don't know if she'd get in the car, but she
11:09
Speaker 1: might come close enough to the car to someone to
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Speaker 1: grab her frighten her, you know, pull out a knife,
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Speaker 1: a gun, and say you've got to get into the car.
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Speaker 1: So I do agree that that's a possibility. To Cheryl McCollum,
11:24
Speaker 1: director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Cheryl, what kind
11:27
Speaker 1: of a search needed to take place as soon as
11:31
Speaker 1: it was realized she was missing? And remember, whatever happened,
11:35
Speaker 1: if someone did take her, they've got to jump on us,
11:38
Speaker 1: because it was until hours later that the parents went
11:43
Speaker 1: and saw her church clothes were still missing, so she
11:45
Speaker 1: didn't come home and change. Nancy, I think that it's
11:48
Speaker 1: significant to point out that when you have a missing person,
11:51
Speaker 1: the first three hours are so critical and at that point,
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Speaker 1: to me, they should have been able to utilize drones,
11:59
Speaker 1: call dogs, volunteers, you know, David old Foote for certain
12:05
Speaker 1: places that needed to happen literally as soon as possible.
12:09
Speaker 1: To Karen Johnson Weiner, Professor Emerita Anthropology at Sunny, author
12:15
Speaker 1: of the Lives of Amish Women. The Amish society heavily
12:22
Speaker 1: emphasize emphasizes being friends to others. Is it conceivable to
12:31
Speaker 1: you that she would have gotten into the car with
12:33
Speaker 1: someone trying to help them? Not very I mean, I
12:38
Speaker 1: mean Lancaster County is I mean they're not isolated in
12:43
Speaker 1: their homes away from non Amish or English as as
12:48
Speaker 1: we are called burntam Lancaster County is a center for
12:53
Speaker 1: tourism and thousands of tourists come every year. Now that
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Speaker 1: said she would have tried to be helpful. It's also
13:01
Speaker 1: a very confusing place and I'm sure tourists get lost
13:04
Speaker 1: all the time, and so it wouldn't have been an
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Speaker 1: odd thing for someone to perhaps ask her for help.
13:12
Speaker 1: But she would have known better than to get in
13:17
Speaker 1: someone's car. Even the most conservative, isolated Amish teach their
13:22
Speaker 1: children not to do that. So it's very hard for
13:28
Speaker 1: me to think that she would get in the car
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Speaker 1: of someone she didn't know, had never met, willingly to
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Speaker 1: go some way and point it out, especially walking along
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Speaker 1: the road, when she could have just said go three
13:44
Speaker 1: miles that way in turn right. So they're not so
13:50
Speaker 1: isolated as to be completely naive about the world, and
13:55
Speaker 1: in fact, they learned that the world is a dangerous place,
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Speaker 1: the world outside their community. You know, you have dedicated
14:02
Speaker 1: your book to the lives of Amish women. Yes, let
14:06
Speaker 1: me ask you this, Karen Johnson Weiner. Are marriages arranged
14:13
Speaker 1: within the Amish community, No, absolutely not. Young people meet
14:17
Speaker 1: each other in the context of those young groups or
14:21
Speaker 1: the youth groups, and they date. And while it's important
14:27
Speaker 1: that the person they choose to marry be a fellow
14:31
Speaker 1: church member and that you know, and parents will certainly
14:36
Speaker 1: speak up if they think someone is unsuitable, those are
14:39
Speaker 1: love matches. From what we are learning from the local
14:44
Speaker 1: township police and from the Pennsylvania State Police, Linda was
14:48
Speaker 1: very happy in the Amish lifestyle. No one, not one
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Speaker 1: person that they interviewed reported she was unhappy in any way.
15:00
Speaker 1: She was very timid in groups in public. She never
15:06
Speaker 1: had any boyfriends or non Amish friends. Police searched her
15:13
Speaker 1: bedroom and found her money still there, along with her
15:16
Speaker 1: travel bag and other belongings. The only thing missing or
15:22
Speaker 1: her church clothes. Police also checked for any activity on
15:28
Speaker 1: this young girl's bank accounts. There has been none. That
15:34
Speaker 1: tells me a lot. You know, when I compare Karen Stark,
15:40
Speaker 1: New York psychologists joining us Lucy's behavior to John David's
15:44
Speaker 1: behavior my children, they're completely different. John David is the
15:50
Speaker 1: mayor of Happyville. He will walk into a room and
15:56
Speaker 1: he may not know anybody at the beginning. By the
15:58
Speaker 1: time he leaves will know every body, and while not
16:02
Speaker 1: being the center of attention, will have a perfectly wonderful time. Lucy,
16:08
Speaker 1: my daughter at home, is very She runs the whole ship, okay,
16:15
Speaker 1: because it's just easier because she's very particular for us
16:19
Speaker 1: to go along with her desires. But in a group,
16:25
Speaker 1: she's really timid and shy, very very quiet. So I
16:34
Speaker 1: believe that What do you make of the fact that
16:36
Speaker 1: police are saying very timid and shy, no indication she
16:40
Speaker 1: was unhappy with the Amish lifestyle. Well, that's a very
16:43
Speaker 1: strong indication that this is not a girl who just
16:48
Speaker 1: decided one day I'm going to leave and walked off
16:53
Speaker 1: wearing her Amish clothes and decided that she's going to
16:56
Speaker 1: start her life again. It's not like the kind of
16:59
Speaker 1: movies we see where someone leaves that kind of a
17:02
Speaker 1: strict religious community and decides to be independent, because there
17:07
Speaker 1: was no indication. And much like Lucy, who by the way,
17:11
Speaker 1: was like that since she was born, I think, yeah,
17:14
Speaker 1: much shyer. You know, she's very shy, so she would
17:19
Speaker 1: never just approach a stranger. I'm sure she was taught
17:22
Speaker 1: not to and there would be no reason for her
17:25
Speaker 1: to do that. So something is indeed very suspicious here.
17:29
Speaker 1: And that's where you look at the beginning Troy s
17:30
Speaker 1: Layton renew on criminal defense attorney, joining me out of
17:33
Speaker 1: LA You look to see if they left on their own,
17:36
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were thinking, oh, she hated
17:38
Speaker 1: the Amish lifestyles too repressive. No, as a matter of fact,
17:41
Speaker 1: she loved it. So that's where you start. Did she
17:44
Speaker 1: leave on her own? Was she in the car with
17:46
Speaker 1: some guy and it's red Kia that may or may
17:49
Speaker 1: not have been her because a woman in the car
17:51
Speaker 1: had all of the traditional headdresses, but that does is
17:55
Speaker 1: not supported by the facts that we know, Troy, Isn't
17:58
Speaker 1: that where you the jumping off point? Well, the people
18:01
Speaker 1: that they asked about whether or not she was happy
18:04
Speaker 1: with the Amish lifestyle were other Amish people, So of
18:09
Speaker 1: course everyone is going to say that she was happy
18:12
Speaker 1: with that lifestyle. They've got a girl missing, do I
18:15
Speaker 1: think they're going to tell the truth? We heard from
18:18
Speaker 1: the anthropologist up that there's an up to fifteen percent
18:23
Speaker 1: defection rate for Amishness. All of that aside, we don't
18:30
Speaker 1: have anybody, We don't have any forensic evidence that we
18:36
Speaker 1: know of that's been publicly reported that shows that there
18:40
Speaker 1: was any type of foul play. And although she may
18:46
Speaker 1: have left her money and other belongings, if she was
18:50
Speaker 1: trying to make a quick getaway and not raise suspicion
18:54
Speaker 1: in the Amish community where everybody is looking in on
18:57
Speaker 1: everybody else's business, then maybe that makes perfect sense. Crime
19:12
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace, Guys, we were talking about the
19:16
Speaker 1: disappearance of a teen girl, Linda Stoltzfus. When you think
19:20
Speaker 1: of Amish communities, you don't think of kidnap, much less
19:24
Speaker 1: anything worse. So what did happen to Linda? Where is
19:29
Speaker 1: she now? I want to go back to our special
19:32
Speaker 1: guest joining us, Karen Johnson Weiner, author of the Lies
19:35
Speaker 1: of Amish Women. At South September one, twenty twenty, we
19:41
Speaker 1: just heard Troy Slayton, defense attorney out of la reiterate
19:44
Speaker 1: the fact that there's a fifteen percent defection rate in
19:47
Speaker 1: the Amish community. Ay, I think that's a very low
19:51
Speaker 1: defection rate. Eighty five percent of people Amish people stay
19:55
Speaker 1: within the community. And two, I'm not the expert you are,
19:59
Speaker 1: but would be willing to guess at a large percentage
20:02
Speaker 1: of those that affect our male you would be correct.
20:06
Speaker 1: It's the defection rate is higher among male than female,
20:10
Speaker 1: and females tend to leave the church um if they're
20:15
Speaker 1: unhappy with the church teachings. And so far there seems
20:19
Speaker 1: to be no indication that Linda was unhappy with church teachings.
20:23
Speaker 1: Men often leave to get things, you know, um, they
20:27
Speaker 1: want to have cars or something, um, So it's even
20:34
Speaker 1: less likely that that she defected. UM. When people defect,
20:39
Speaker 1: they often have plans in advance and have and do
20:42
Speaker 1: make arrangements with outsiders. But there's been no indication that,
20:47
Speaker 1: or at least none has been mentioned that Linda had
20:49
Speaker 1: those kinds of connections with non Amish people that would
20:54
Speaker 1: facilitate such a departure. And Karen Johnson, why are I
20:58
Speaker 1: assume they don't have such media either, Well, that would
21:01
Speaker 1: be false. Particularly in Lancaster County, Amish young people, many
21:07
Speaker 1: of them do have cell phones, many of them are
21:09
Speaker 1: on Facebook. As I said, there's great diversity in the
21:13
Speaker 1: Amish world and the Amish in Lancaster. And you know
21:18
Speaker 1: this is not uniform across all of Lancaster, but the
21:21
Speaker 1: Amish in Lancaster tend to be among the most progressive
21:27
Speaker 1: of Amish. So you will find Amish young people with
21:30
Speaker 1: cell phones, you will find them participating in social media.
21:39
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like Linda was one of those. And
21:42
Speaker 1: I don't know what the nature of the youth group
21:46
Speaker 1: that she was in. That's that's not been reported. There
21:50
Speaker 1: are different kinds of youth groups. Some are supervised by
21:53
Speaker 1: it all, some are not. I don't know about Linda's group,
21:57
Speaker 1: but nothing in what's reported suggest that she was unhappy
22:01
Speaker 1: with the church, that she was one of those who
22:07
Speaker 1: crowded defenses. The Amish say that she was partying wildly
22:12
Speaker 1: with a wild youth group. Well, it was said earlier,
22:15
Speaker 1: and I thought this really stuck in my head that
22:19
Speaker 1: they don't have cars. It sometimes men lay the Amish
22:22
Speaker 1: community because they want things like cars. But we think
22:26
Speaker 1: she may have been spotted in a red Kia, which
22:30
Speaker 1: tells me if that was her, it was a non
22:34
Speaker 1: Amish person she was with earlier. Troice Layton mentioned forensic
22:40
Speaker 1: kevinants take a listen to our friend Grace Griffithin at
22:43
Speaker 1: Fox forty three, the authorities said they have not found
22:47
Speaker 1: eighteen year old Linda Stoltspus. They reiterated all evidence suggests
22:52
Speaker 1: that she may have been harmed. They're also asking people
22:55
Speaker 1: in Lancaster County to check their home surveillance systems to
22:58
Speaker 1: see if there are any clue. Who's there Something that
23:02
Speaker 1: seems so insignificant could be of great impact of this case.
23:06
Speaker 1: That's the message from the four main agencies investigating the
23:09
Speaker 1: Linda Staltzpou's abduction. The Pennsylvania State Police, East lad Peter
23:13
Speaker 1: Township Police, the FBI, and the Lakester County District Attorney's
23:17
Speaker 1: Office authority spoke publicly on the case for the first time.
23:20
Speaker 1: There have also been many questions about what steps police
23:24
Speaker 1: are taking in this investigation, and while we cannot answer
23:27
Speaker 1: that in detail at this time, I want to assure
23:30
Speaker 1: you that we are using all investigative tools at our
23:34
Speaker 1: disposal to completely and appropriately investigate the disappearance of Linda Staltzfus.
23:41
Speaker 1: I do not believe it's appropriate to just assume she
23:45
Speaker 1: wanted to leave the Amish community. A the defection right
23:50
Speaker 1: very very life for Amish women too. She exhibited no
23:55
Speaker 1: unhappiness amongst her religion or her friends and family, but
24:00
Speaker 1: the red Kia keeps looming. Take a listen to Barbara
24:08
Speaker 1: Barr w g al Core Papers provide information on the
24:12
Speaker 1: alleged abduction and detail what led police to arrest thirty
24:16
Speaker 1: four year old Eusto Smoker. The papers site surveillance cameras
24:21
Speaker 1: that put his car in this area when Linda Stolsfus
24:24
Speaker 1: disappeared the afternoon of June twenty first. The video enhanced
24:28
Speaker 1: by the FBI captured a Red Kia police eventually traced
24:31
Speaker 1: to Smoker driving along Stumptown in Beechdale Roads between twelve
24:35
Speaker 1: thirty six and twelve forty two that Sunday, afternoon. The
24:38
Speaker 1: cameras show a person walking in the direction Linda would
24:41
Speaker 1: have been going, and a second unknown person coming from
24:43
Speaker 1: where the vehicle pulled off. In the affidavit, witnesses told
24:46
Speaker 1: investigators they saw an Amish woman riding in a red
24:49
Speaker 1: car on Amish Roading Gap around one thirty that afternoon.
24:53
Speaker 1: Two days later, around five pm, police say another witness
24:56
Speaker 1: reported seeing the vehicle park near train tracks and ronks.
24:59
Speaker 1: Police would eventually find some of Linda's clothing buried there.
25:03
Speaker 1: The search for this team girl takes an ominous turn
25:07
Speaker 1: when items believe to be hers are found buried near
25:12
Speaker 1: a railroad track straight out to Cheryl McCollum, director a
25:17
Speaker 1: cold case research institute, where did the surveillance video come from?
25:22
Speaker 1: And how can we be sure that that was Linda?
25:26
Speaker 1: And the surveillance video Nancy. It came from a private home.
25:30
Speaker 1: It was on the path that she would take to
25:32
Speaker 1: go back home to get the dessert that she made
25:34
Speaker 1: for the party. She was walking in the right direction
25:38
Speaker 1: and they've identified her from that video. And here's the
25:41
Speaker 1: thing that, of course is completely just twisted devil to me.
25:47
Speaker 1: This person in the red kid knew from a distance
25:50
Speaker 1: that she was Amish. The cathlink dress, the apron, the bonnet.
25:55
Speaker 1: He knew, so even from a distance, he knew again
25:58
Speaker 1: she wouldn't have a cell phone. Nobody would have GPS
26:01
Speaker 1: on her. He knew there wouldn't be a phone at
26:04
Speaker 1: the family home, so when she didn't return home, they
26:06
Speaker 1: would literally have to take a horse and buggy to
26:10
Speaker 1: the next place that maybe had a phone. You're talking
26:13
Speaker 1: about a lot of tom before they can search places
26:17
Speaker 1: for this child. The church where the party is, her
26:20
Speaker 1: best friend's farm. You're talking about a lot of time
26:23
Speaker 1: wasted trying just to figure out issue where she's supposed
26:26
Speaker 1: to be. The other thing that is good, though, forensically,
26:30
Speaker 1: is that they did recover some items that had been buried.
26:34
Speaker 1: Those items, if the assailant touched them and buried them
26:38
Speaker 1: her bronze stockings, they would possibly have touched DNA on them.
26:43
Speaker 1: Two Karen Johnston Weiner, author of the Lives of Amish Women,
26:47
Speaker 1: comes out September one, twenty Karen. I looked was walking
26:53
Speaker 1: and on either side of it tall tall grass, trees
27:00
Speaker 1: fields on either side beyond that, I don't I don't
27:04
Speaker 1: think anyone could have seen what was happening because the
27:07
Speaker 1: grasses are so high. And is it true that Amish
27:11
Speaker 1: do not have telephones. You told me that many of
27:14
Speaker 1: them have cell phones. Yes, certainly some of the young
27:19
Speaker 1: folkus cell phones, others have Others in the community will
27:23
Speaker 1: have cell phones. It really depends on which Amish community
27:28
Speaker 1: you're talking about, and that's the case in Lancaster. People
27:32
Speaker 1: will have cellphones. Now, whether Linda had a cellphone is
27:36
Speaker 1: another question. It sounds to me like her family was
27:40
Speaker 1: conservative and that she was with a conservative youth group,
27:46
Speaker 1: and so she may not have and people there may
27:50
Speaker 1: not have had cellphones. My guests would be she did
27:53
Speaker 1: not and that they did not, Karen, because I think
27:56
Speaker 1: they would have called her if she didn't. Sunday. Yeah,
28:01
Speaker 1: it's Sunday, and people keep you know that that Sunday
28:05
Speaker 1: is important. She's not going to have it on Sunday.
28:09
Speaker 1: Sunday is for church, Sunday is for for the youth
28:13
Speaker 1: to meet. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking
28:29
Speaker 1: about a missing Amish girl. Linda salts Fool's eighteen years old,
28:33
Speaker 1: very shy, very timid, walking home from church, goes missing.
28:37
Speaker 1: We believe she was spotted in a red Kio. I'm
28:41
Speaker 1: speaking with Karen Johnson Winer, author of the Lives of
28:44
Speaker 1: Amish Women. So, Karen, unlike for instance, Orthodox number or
28:51
Speaker 1: push an elevator button, or do anything that may be
28:56
Speaker 1: construed as work on their Sabbath, I don't believe that
29:00
Speaker 1: the Amish have that rule that they can't even if
29:05
Speaker 1: they're going to have a cell phone, which many of
29:07
Speaker 1: them do not, But if they do, I don't understand.
29:10
Speaker 1: I've never known that there is a rule they can't
29:13
Speaker 1: use it on Sunday. They wouldn't be using it on Sunday.
29:17
Speaker 1: Um that Sunday is, well, it's the Sabbath. She's at church.
29:24
Speaker 1: She's not going to take a cell phone to church.
29:26
Speaker 1: Others aren't going to take a cell phone to church,
29:29
Speaker 1: churches in in someone's home. So so you're not going
29:33
Speaker 1: to do that. M They're not going to be buying
29:37
Speaker 1: and selling things on Sunday, so there's not going to
29:41
Speaker 1: be much traffic past the road where an Amish stand
29:45
Speaker 1: might be right, right, So they do have stands on Sunday,
29:49
Speaker 1: So they do buy and sell on Sunday to tourists
29:52
Speaker 1: that they won't that they don't think, Okay, they won't Um,
29:56
Speaker 1: you know, young people who may have cell phones are
29:59
Speaker 1: not going to take them to church. Um you know
30:04
Speaker 1: they're they're the Sabbath is a day when you don't
30:11
Speaker 1: do worldly things. Um when when it's for the church,
30:15
Speaker 1: it's with family, it's for young people to get together
30:19
Speaker 1: and got it. So, Um, well, there may be cellphones
30:23
Speaker 1: in the community, and I know there are. They wouldn't
30:26
Speaker 1: have been in play on Sunday and so and I
30:30
Speaker 1: don't know if Linda even had one. Guys, we are
30:32
Speaker 1: speaking with Karen Johnson wine Or, author of the Lives
30:35
Speaker 1: of Amish Women. What more do we know about the
30:39
Speaker 1: driver of that red car and about the car itself?
30:43
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at wg al Police
30:47
Speaker 1: have arrest of thirty four year old used to smoke
30:49
Speaker 1: or for kidnapping eighteen year old Linda Stullus. They're still
30:53
Speaker 1: searching for and reaching out their residence for help. We
30:57
Speaker 1: are asking for residence of East Earl, East Lampeter, Laycock,
31:02
Speaker 1: Paradise and Salisbury townships to think whether they might have
31:07
Speaker 1: seen the red ka red Kia rio pictured here in
31:10
Speaker 1: recent weeks and if so, where they saw it. That's
31:14
Speaker 1: the car belonging to Smoker. It was key to his
31:16
Speaker 1: arrest and police hope it will lead them to Linda.
31:19
Speaker 1: Surveillance video captured it on Beechdale Road, where police say
31:23
Speaker 1: she was kidnapped walking home from church the afternoon of
31:26
Speaker 1: June twenty first. The Staltzuitz family did not know Smoker,
31:31
Speaker 1: and we found no reason that Linda would have voluntarily
31:35
Speaker 1: entered Smoker's vehicle only a short distance from her home.
31:38
Speaker 1: A witness also spotted the car near train tracks, where
31:41
Speaker 1: investigators found some of Linda's clothing buried underground. The discovery
31:46
Speaker 1: of intimate clothing buried in a location where Smoker's vehicle
31:50
Speaker 1: was seen lends only to the conclusion that she suffered harm.
31:55
Speaker 1: What are we learning? We are learning a lot and
31:59
Speaker 1: one simple move by this girl. Linda Stoltzfus tells me
32:04
Speaker 1: a lot. Take a listen to John Borack wgal niece eight.
32:09
Speaker 1: Police have made an arrest in the disappearance of eighteen
32:12
Speaker 1: year old Linda Stultzfus, who went missing just three weeks
32:15
Speaker 1: ago as she was walking home following a Sunday morning
32:19
Speaker 1: church service. Thirty four year old Housto Smoker has been
32:23
Speaker 1: arrested and charged with kidnapping and intent to inflict bodily injury.
32:27
Speaker 1: He's currently being hailed without bail. Authorities believed Smoker abducted
32:32
Speaker 1: Stoltzfus on Beachdale Road where Linda was walking home, and
32:36
Speaker 1: then proceeded to drive away with her in his two
32:39
Speaker 1: thousand and seven red Kiaio. Several eyewitnesses say they saw
32:44
Speaker 1: Stultzfus in the passenger seat of that car. They waved
32:48
Speaker 1: at her, but she did not wave back. Two days
32:51
Speaker 1: after her disappearance, that same car was spotted at a
32:54
Speaker 1: lumber company in Rocks and just yesterday detectives found some
32:59
Speaker 1: of linda His clothing buried in a wooded area at
33:02
Speaker 1: that same location. As of now, though detectives have not
33:06
Speaker 1: found Linda Stults, but the search continues. Sierra Gillespie with
33:11
Speaker 1: me Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, What specifically were
33:15
Speaker 1: the items of clothing that have been found and is
33:18
Speaker 1: it true zip ties were also recovered? Nancy, It is
33:21
Speaker 1: true ziptides were recovered in that area. Investigators were searching around.
33:26
Speaker 1: They even brought in cadaver dogs, which were dogs that
33:30
Speaker 1: would smell out if there was a body. The dogs
33:33
Speaker 1: did not find anything, but Eventually investigators decided to dig
33:37
Speaker 1: and relatively deep down they found some of her personal items.
33:41
Speaker 1: So they found her stockings and Linda's braw in that area.
33:47
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, director Coal Case Research Institute forensics expert, joining us,
33:52
Speaker 1: this young girl who was so shy and timid from
33:55
Speaker 1: the Amish community would never have parted with her stings
34:00
Speaker 1: or her bra willingly never would not have happened again, Nancy.
34:07
Speaker 1: What's concerning, obviously is that this person that was last
34:11
Speaker 1: seen with her had at least three days the day
34:14
Speaker 1: of the abduction, and then two days later his car
34:17
Speaker 1: has seen so he's had three days to dispose of
34:21
Speaker 1: evidence and to hide evidence and hide her and he did,
34:26
Speaker 1: of course obviously have access to a vehicle, so we
34:29
Speaker 1: don't know where she is right now. But again, if
34:34
Speaker 1: she's recovered, obviously I think zip ties are going to
34:38
Speaker 1: be involved. It'll be the exact same zip tie that's
34:41
Speaker 1: already been found. And again, his DNA quite possibly is
34:45
Speaker 1: on all three items that they have recovered so far.
34:49
Speaker 1: If he has a cell phone, they will also start
34:52
Speaker 1: pinging that cell phone to see just how far outside
34:55
Speaker 1: Lancaster he might have gone to dispose of her. But
34:58
Speaker 1: if I can just say one more thing, the FBI
35:00
Speaker 1: has done something unique that I've never heard of before,
35:04
Speaker 1: in just regular street clothes that any seventeen year old,
35:07
Speaker 1: eighteen year old teenager would wear, and have done a
35:11
Speaker 1: photo with her with her hair down, without the bonnet,
35:14
Speaker 1: so just in case he's putting her somewhere else to
35:17
Speaker 1: look like a typical American teenager, non Amish, typical American
35:22
Speaker 1: teenager without her bra stockings. Okay, um two, this is
35:30
Speaker 1: what I don't understand. Who is this guy? And as
35:34
Speaker 1: Sheryl McCollum pointed out earlier, he could target her as
35:37
Speaker 1: Amish at a distance based on her outfit. Karen Johnson Winder,
35:42
Speaker 1: what would her outfit have been? Well, it would be
35:46
Speaker 1: it would have been a black dress with a white apron.
35:50
Speaker 1: She would have had a bonnet or perhaps just her
35:54
Speaker 1: prayer cap on which would have been white for church.
36:00
Speaker 1: And she would have had the black stockings, black shoes,
36:05
Speaker 1: so she would have stood out easily. It's a it's
36:10
Speaker 1: a well known outfit. It's in all sorts of tourist
36:13
Speaker 1: pictures all over Lancaster County. Jeu Sierra Gillespie. What do
36:18
Speaker 1: we know about Whostou Smoker, thirty four years old, Nancy.
36:22
Speaker 1: What we know about him is he's from the Paradise township,
36:26
Speaker 1: which is relatively close to burn in hand. It's like
36:29
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen minutes away, So we know that this
36:32
Speaker 1: guy is very familiar with an Amish community growing up
36:36
Speaker 1: or living in that area. Something else that's very important
36:39
Speaker 1: to note too, is he was just released from prison
36:42
Speaker 1: back in twenty nineteen, so just last year. And this
36:46
Speaker 1: was after a string of armed robberies that took place
36:49
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, so he spent a great
36:52
Speaker 1: deal of time in prison for that and was just
36:55
Speaker 1: recently released. Troice light and criminal defense attorney, why is
37:00
Speaker 1: he even out number one? And it's my understanding he
37:06
Speaker 1: has just pled not guilty. Shouldn't he be trying to
37:10
Speaker 1: work a deal and tell where Linda is? That's assuming
37:14
Speaker 1: that he knows where she is. But at this point,
37:18
Speaker 1: he's pled not guilty and he is presumed innocent until
37:23
Speaker 1: the government can prove each and every element of the
37:26
Speaker 1: crime against him beyond a reasonable doubt. The only thing
37:30
Speaker 1: that's happened so far is that there's been a preliminary
37:33
Speaker 1: hearing where the burden is so low, just probable cause
37:38
Speaker 1: to believe that a crime has occurred and that he
37:41
Speaker 1: may possibly be involved with that crime. And at this point,
37:46
Speaker 1: according to his attorney, the Chief Public Defender in Lancaster County,
37:52
Speaker 1: the only images that the government have are blurry images
37:56
Speaker 1: that show pixels and not any people. And there's no
38:01
Speaker 1: way to prove from those photos or videos that it
38:05
Speaker 1: was Stoltzfus in the video with Smoker. So charyon McCollum,
38:11
Speaker 1: how do I prove she was in the car? Well,
38:13
Speaker 1: I think what they're going to do again, They're going
38:15
Speaker 1: to look at his cell phone in that data. And
38:17
Speaker 1: you know, when they interviewed him, he even admitted, yeah,
38:20
Speaker 1: that looks like my car. The other thing is Nancy.
38:22
Speaker 1: He has no alibi. So it's not like he was
38:25
Speaker 1: visiting his own father that day. He wasn't at work,
38:28
Speaker 1: he wasn't with other family or friends, he wasn't golfing,
38:31
Speaker 1: he wasn't at church, he didn't check in anywhere with
38:34
Speaker 1: his cellphone like Starbucks. The fact that he does not
38:37
Speaker 1: have an alibi is very concerning for me as well.
38:39
Speaker 1: I've got another break, and that is that the suspect
38:43
Speaker 1: who has been arrested in her disappearance. We now believe
38:47
Speaker 1: May has been a third cousin, once removed, translation a
38:53
Speaker 1: distant relative that gives him a connection, although it's tenuous
39:01
Speaker 1: to this girl. We wait as justice unfolds tipline one
39:07
Speaker 1: eight hundred two two five five three two four. There
39:10
Speaker 1: is a ten thousand dollars reward. Goodbye friend,