Latest / Devil Town / The Lead | Chapter 12

Transcript

The Lead | Chapter 12 · Devil Town

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Wes, and I am so excited to share
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that Deviltown is back. I know it's been a really
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: long time since you've heard anything from me on the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: disappearance of Kelly Wilson. So before we dive back in,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I feel like I owe you an explanation for what's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: been going on, at least from my end. It won't
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: take long. I created Deviltown for a media company called
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Imperative Entertainment, so they own the show, not me. There's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: been a lot of changes in the podcast business, and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Imperative quit making podcast right around the time Deviltown came out,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and that's why Deviltown ended with no resolution. It's like
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: we hype up these new leads that we're chasing, these
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: big developments, We get your hopes up, and then you
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: never hear from me again. Like literally years have gone
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: by at this point. It took a lot of time,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of patients negotiations, but I was finally able
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to license Deviltown back from the owner, so I can
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: keep chipping away at this story and keep searching for answers.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I've got a lot to catch you up on, So
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: let's just dive in.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Kelly Day Wilson was seventeen when she disappeared in nineteen
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: ninety two, and.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I got in my truck, she got in her car
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: and rest. As I say, is history.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I mean a little town like this, you can just
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: imagine what an impact it had. I mean, you know,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: this girl just vanished into the na It's an unsolved
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: mystery out of Upshur County involving law enforcement, a satanic cult,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and a missing girl.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Following the story that would give the small East Texas
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: town of Gilmer national exposure, but not the good kind.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: We need answers. This is thirty one years now, this
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: is ridiculous.
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: We need to get this solved, and we need to
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: make some noise until we get some answers.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Kelly needs to come.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Home from Free Range Productions in association with Imperative Entertainment.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I'm West Ferguson and this is Deviltown episode twelve. The lead.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: So back when Deviltown ended the first time around, Amanda Gammel,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that private investigator and I were both chasing this lead.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: That was extremely promising. It felt huge, And later I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: found out that the Gilmourt Police Department was also pursuing
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: this lead. Now I've got to be pretty careful about
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: what I say, because I promised not to reveal anything
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: that was told to me in confidence, and it's really
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: important that I hold up that promise I made so
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: that people in the future will also feel comfortable reaching
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: out to me with important information. But I can't tell
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: you that I took it very seriously and it seemed credible.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And I can actually give you most of the details
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: anyway about these allegations because they eventually spilled into the public.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So word got out that Kelly Wilson's body was buried
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in this tiny community outside of Gilmer called Glenwood. It's
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: about ten miles southeast of town. And what I can
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: share with you comes from an anonymous Facebook user who
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: claimed to be the cousin of this guy from Gilmer
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: named Terry Roberts. Terry and his now ex wife, Donna
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: lived in a neighborhood in that little community of Glenwood
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: that at the time was called Glenwood Acres. At the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: time that Kelly disappeared, Terry was twenty years old and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Donna was sixteen. They were in bed the night that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: she vanished, and supposedly, according to this information that we received,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Terry gets a call from an unknown caller and he
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: tells Donna that he's got to get up and go
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: help a friend, and he was supposedly gone all night
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: into the early morning. Later, Terry allegedly said that he helped
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: bury Kelly's body at a house and he even gave
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a specific location under a tree by the fence line
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: in Glenwood Acres. This is a direct quote that was
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: attributed to Terry. She's dead and I know where she is.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: And this person alleged that over the years, Terry would
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: get drunk and he would often talk about Kelly. There
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: were some other allegations also thrown out in another Facebook
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: post Terry's own son in law. This guy named Hunter
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: also said that Terry made death threats against his own
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: family members. But from what I can tell, Terry has
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: never been charged with anything, and of course we're all
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: innocent until proven guilty. Terry himself also jumped in the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: comments to defend himself against these allegations involving Kelly Wilson,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and he speculated that it was not a cousin as
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: this anonymous comment or claimed to be, but it was
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: actually his own daughter who was leveling these allegations against
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: him that tied him back to Kelly Wilson, and he
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: said that his daughter was quote trying to be messy,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and I mean it was definitely messy. But when these
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: family members looked up the property details of the house
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that Terry had allegedly pointed out to them, guess what
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: it was actually Joe Henry's old house. I'm sure you
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: remember who Joe Henry was if you listen to all
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of our earlier episodes of Deviltown. Joe was the video
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: store employee often described as the video store manager who
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: worked with Kelly there on the Courthouse Square in Gilmer,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and he was the last person we know of who
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: saw Kelly on the night she disappeared in January nineteen
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: ninety two. And from everything we've heard, Joe was never
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: really considered a suspect in the case. Like Terry, he
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: is also innocent until proven guilty. Joe doesn't own the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: house anymore, but I'm told that he did live there
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: at the time of Kelly's disappearance. Whatever was going on,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the current owner of the property was also following all
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: these allegations and this stuff that was spelling onto Facebook.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And when I talked to her. She told me that
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: she also believed that Kelly was buried on her land,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: and not only that, but she had given the Gilmer
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Police Department permission to search her property for the body. So,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can't tell you how big this was. Like,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of producing this podcast and we
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: are getting fed all of this stuff, mostly off the record.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: We're chasing down all the leaves that we can, and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: it's happening on this tight deadline. We have a new
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: episode to put out every week, and so that's why
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I know. I was so excited, and for the first time,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I thought, gosh, maybe we will crack this case. So
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I was waiting for the Gilmer Police Department to do
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: this search, and in the meantime, I was trying to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: see what else I could find about Terry, and I
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was told he had an adult son with another woman
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: named Robbie Hi Minez, and he actually got Robby pregnant
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: when they were teenagers, but they actually split up before
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: kelly disappearance and before he got together with the woman
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: who would become his wife, Donna. So it was kind
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of a long shot that Robbie would know anything. But
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I had to ask. I found an address in Kilgore,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: also the town where I grew up, about thirty miles
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: south of Gilmour. When I pulled up, there was a
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: woman standing in the doorway. I'm looking for Robbie Hemanez, Hey, Robbie.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: My name is Wes Ferguson. I'm a journalist and reporter,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and I'm working on a big project on the Kelly
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Wilson disappearance. And I heard that you were from Gilmer
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and you might have known her back in the day. No,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I did, Sweatie, I sure didn't.
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: I didn't know her like that.
• 7:40
  Speaker 7: No, I sure didn't, wish I did.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea what might have happened to her?
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: I'm no, I sure don't at all.
• 7:46
  Speaker 7: You talk about that growth.
• 7:48
  Speaker 8: And witness when I went to school, yes, oh that
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: was a long time ago.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I never really not.
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: I don't know, Sweetie, I really don't.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: So it just a wild rumor that Terry Roberts might
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: have known something. I would hope not.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I really would, I thought, not so much joking.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, this was interesting. Her son that she had with
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Terry had already told her about these allegations. You thought
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: your son was joking.
• 8:14
  Speaker 7: Not saying something to me about I said, what do
• 8:17
  Speaker 7: you talk about?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: But I never heard that.
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: I thought m's so advessent.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: So I guess Terry said something.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I never ever heard that.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Apparently Terry's been going around saying that as she really yeah,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like, in.
• 8:31
  Speaker 8: This gracious, why would he want to bring that on
• 8:33
  Speaker 8: hisself and in his.
• 8:34
  Speaker 7: Life he's doing good.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: I never ever heard anything like that.
• 8:39
  Speaker 7: Mm hmm, yeah, never had.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: He was no rumor or nothing that I remember of
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: as a irber staying at Terry had he saying, you
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: do with death?
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, Miss Robbie, I sure appreciate it.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Yes, ma'am.
• 8:51
  Speaker 9: Take care.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: So I didn't get much from Robbie, but she did
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: confirm that she had heard about Terry possibly claiming he
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: was involved with kelly disappearance, and she heard that from
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: her son Scottie, even though she says she thought he
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: was joking. I also went over to Terry's house north
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: of Gilmour, and on my way there I made the
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: mistake of calling my wife Laura and telling her what
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I was about.
• 9:14
  Speaker 7: To do.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I've been a journalist for so long that sometimes I
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: forget Going up and knocking on a stranger's door isn't
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the most normal thing, especially when this stranger is being
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: accused of some kind of crime. But anyway, I knock
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: on the door and it seems like people are home.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I could hear dogs barking, but no one ever comes
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to the door. So I call Laura and I tell
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: her she can stop freaking out, and I drive back
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: into town and interview a few other people. At this
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: point in my career, I'd written like I don't know
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a million newspaper articles, so many magazine stories, and nothing
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I'd ever done before got the kind of response that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Deviltown did. It seemed like everybody in East Texas was
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: talking about it. Half of them had leads for me,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: or suggestions, rumors, gossip. I was hearing from people like
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: on all the social media channels, text emails, phone calls.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: It was so much that I actually hired a young
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: reporter named James Hernandez to help me pursue the leads
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: that seem the most promising. I didn't have any luck
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: when I knocked on Terry's door, but James was able
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: to get in touch with Terry's son, Scotty, and Scotty
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: agreed to talk to James, or so we thought.
• 10:29
  Speaker 9: Ella, Hi Scotty, this is James. I just messaged you
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: on Facebook. Yes, how you doing today?
• 10:36
  Speaker 8: All right?
• 10:36
  Speaker 9: So I'm doing good? Thanks for asking?
• 10:39
  Speaker 8: All right?
• 10:40
  Speaker 9: Well, when West spoke to your mother, Robbie, he meant
• 10:44
  Speaker 9: is she told him about how Terry Roberts would make
• 10:48
  Speaker 9: suspicious statements about Kelly when he was drinking, like, for example,
• 10:52
  Speaker 9: that he knows where her body's buried. You know, weird
• 10:55
  Speaker 9: stuff like that. And I was just reaching out to
• 10:57
  Speaker 9: see if maybe you remember anything like this being around him.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: So let me ask this, how did you get in
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: contact with Robbie?
• 11:07
  Speaker 9: To begin with, I'm not sure it was my partner
• 11:10
  Speaker 9: Wes that got in touch with her. I know he's
• 11:13
  Speaker 9: been in touch with a lot of people from Kilmer Kilgore,
• 11:17
  Speaker 9: so you know it might have been a friend that
• 11:19
  Speaker 9: got him in touch with her.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, be honest with you're talking to Terry Roberts, trot Now,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: he told me about somebody who does his mother while.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Back, hold on, let's unpack this because what just happened
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: is kind of crazy. Here's James thinking he's talking to Scotty,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: but it's not Scotty at all. He's on the phone
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: with Terry, the guy we've actually been trying to reach.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: And I assumed it had something to do with my
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: old as Doug. We're not talking right now.
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: And she's kind of I don't.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Know how not put it, Matcy lies the stirrup trouble.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Don hers she probably talk someone there that's just trying
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to start up trouble.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Terry said he had absolutely nothing to do with Kelly
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Wilson's disappearance.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't know that girl. I heard all the stories,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: like everybody else said sitting on TV.
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: And all the rumors that kind of heard about it.
• 12:18
  Speaker 7: Everything like said like everybody else.
• 12:22
  Speaker 9: Right, So yeah, it could have just been like some
• 12:25
  Speaker 9: sort of mix up, just someone trying to steer trouble,
• 12:27
  Speaker 9: that's what you're trying to say.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, I didn't know the girl, even
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: think I watched that episode on TV pattern you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: then getting the officer mixed up in it, all the
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: curves and the devil worsh it's just all the craziness.
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: All the rumors I heard. She's under the I'll shet
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: the pizza Hud and Gilmer. You know she's burying their
• 12:58
  Speaker 7: row constructed. But no, I was sure you no, I
• 13:03
  Speaker 7: didn't even know that girl.
• 13:05
  Speaker 9: I appreciate you clearing all this up. Yeah, thank you, alrighty,
• 13:10
  Speaker 9: thank you too. Bye.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: After the break, police ask if they can search for
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Kelly's body on a property outside of town, and the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: property owner says yes.
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: Immediately, I knew it was Kelly Wilson, and I kind
• 13:24
  Speaker 8: of put two and two together because I'd already known
• 13:26
  Speaker 8: that I was living in Joe Henry's parents old house.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: So the whole terry thing didn't really go anywhere, but
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the tip that Kelly's body was in Glenwood Acres was
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: something worth looking into, according to the current owner of
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that property in question. The Gilmer Police Department eventually brought
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: two kadaver dogs, a black lab and a blonde lab
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: to the house where Joe Henry used to live outside
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of Gilmour.
• 14:00
  Speaker 8: So they had asked if they could bring Kidaber dogs
• 14:03
  Speaker 8: within the next few days. Well and behold, it was
• 14:05
  Speaker 8: like literally the next day that they came up and
• 14:08
  Speaker 8: did the kid averdogs. He went back and forth with
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: both dogs at different times.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: The dogs searched the front, the back. It was a
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: four acre property, and they go by the chicken coops
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and it turns out there's this concrete pad that is
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: mostly underground, and I can only imagine what's going through
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the current owner's mind. She didn't know Kelly, but she
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was very familiar with the story and is like, at
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: this point, totally convinced that Kelly is buried on her property.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: But when she contacted me, she was pretty critical of
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the police department. She said that they spent less than
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: an hour investigating the area, and she used investigating the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: area in scare quotes. But the dogs did have a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: change of behavior separately on the same exact location. One
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of the officers used this long probing stick under the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: concrete pad, and when they brought the black lab out,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: it went back to that pad and alerted.
• 15:03
  Speaker 8: On the spot. So it wasn't just a changing behavior,
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: it actually alerted.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So at this point they don't dig. The police say
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: they want to come back later with ground penetrating radar,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: but they admit that it might take quite a bit
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of time, like maybe a few months to even get
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: access to the equipment they need. Property owner says, okay,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that's fine. But less than an hour after the police leave,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: they call back and they ask, can we just come
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: bust up that concrete pad? So that tells you that
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: they are taking this very seriously too. A guy from
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the city water department actually comes out with his tractor
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and he digs up the pad and then they dig
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: down about half a foot. But then they stop.
• 15:45
  Speaker 8: They get here, they dig up the pad, kind of
• 15:49
  Speaker 8: go about maybe a half a foot, covered it back
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: up and said that's there. There's nothing there.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: There's nothing there. Now this really puzzles the owner and
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: her husband, And why do you go to all this
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: trouble to bust up this concrete where the dog's alert
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and then you only go down half a foot?
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: How do you know that something's not there? Well anyway,
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: So it just kind of threw us for a little
• 16:12
  Speaker 8: bit of a loot because I felt like enough wasn't done,
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: like it wasn't done carefully.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: But apparently they felt like the soil hadn't been disturbed.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Somehow they could tell that. So they just give up.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And the current owner is not happy and she says,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I'm convinced that Kelly is here, okay, and somehow. There's
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: also these paranormal investigators who are also investigating Kelly's case,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and they hear the same story that I do about
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Kelly being buried at this property, and they also get
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: permission to go search.
• 16:48
  Speaker 8: We had some paranal investigators come out. I'm sure you
• 16:51
  Speaker 8: heard about that. They came by here, and I won't
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: necessarily disclose exactly what they found because we're still trying
• 16:57
  Speaker 8: to one process at ourselves and two figure out what
• 17:01
  Speaker 8: our next steps are.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: The things they found, the convincing things were like kind
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: of in the paranormal realm, not like physical evidence.
• 17:09
  Speaker 8: Yes, yes, at the same true that the dogs alerted
• 17:13
  Speaker 8: at even when they were here. I'm like, this is weird.
• 17:15
  Speaker 8: This is just weird.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not really big on paranormal stuff. No disrespect people
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: who were into that. It's just not for me. I
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: was invited to go participate, but I just said no.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: But I'm told that while these investigators are on the property,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: they're like recording all this audio and they're getting this
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: like spooky stuff. Some people believe that it's Kelly's voice.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: That audio was never shared with me. It's not online anywhere.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Nothing really seems to come of that, I'm told that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: another excavation was also done with the soil specialist, who
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: also said the soil at that concrete pad was undisturbed.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: There's also some speculation that that concrete pad predated Kelly's
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: disappearance in nineteen ninety two. They're also interested in this
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: old burn pile they find, but the owner says that
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it's actually stuff that the previous owner had burned, so
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: supposedly not related to Kelly's case at all. And when
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: all of this information spills into the public, it all
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: gets to be a little too much for the current owner.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: And now she says that she is confident that Kelly's
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: body is nowhere on her property. She's asking the public
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to respect her private property, which of course I always
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: have and I think most people have. You know, it's
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: all kind of disappointing. It's like, in the moment, this
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: seemed real, you know, this felt credible, and I was
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: doing everything I could to help advance this case. Was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: really excited to hear that the Gilmer Police Department was
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: taking it seriously. It was disappointing that they didn't dig
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: any further. It's also kind of crazy that they weren't
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: really treating this possible crime scene with more care. They
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: were in a you know, they got a city employee
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: with this tractor to bust up the concrete and dig
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: up if something had been there, you know, it could
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: have been disturbed pretty easily. But unfortunately nothing came of it.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: It seems like this promising lead just kind of fizzled out,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: like so many other leads over the last thirty years.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: But Kelly's loved ones, they're not losing hope.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: This is thirty one years now. This is ridiculous.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: We need to get this solved, and we need to
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: make some noise until we get some answers.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: That's after the break.
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: Today mark's thirty one years since Kelly Wilson and Gilmer disappeared,
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: and her friends and family continued a wait for closure.
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: Tonight, they held a candle.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Light about a week after we shared the last episode
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: of Deviltown, thirty one years to the night since Kelly disappeared,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the people of Gilmer gathered outside the old video store,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the last place where anybody saw her, and they held
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a candlelight.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: Vigil if they baseball at the ca they've seen it
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: moved towards one group of suspects, and then nothing panned out,
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: and another group of suspects and nothing panned out, and
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: then it's like things just fizzled out.
• 20:10
  Speaker 10: The thirty year mark has really hit home and hit
• 20:12
  Speaker 10: hard for a lot of us in the community. And
• 20:15
  Speaker 10: we've decided to pull together and pull off our resources
• 20:19
  Speaker 10: and you see if we can get some answers.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: They opened the vigil the way a lot of things
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: open around here with a prayer. This is a local pastor,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Brother Mike Kessler.
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: You were from the future backwards and you knew that
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: we would be gathered here today. God, and you know
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: what happened to Kelly. And Lord Jesus, you're a God
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: of revelation, and we are gathered here today to cry
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: out to you, to reveal to us the truth.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Dean and Kelly were the same age. They would
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: have graduated together the class of ninety two, and in
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the weeks right before Kelly disappeared, the two of them
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: had been spending a lot of time together.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: If you knew Kelly, you knew a young woman that
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: was full of life. She was beautiful, she was smart,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: she was bold, she was brave, she was talented, and
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: she had dreams, and she had aspirations, she wanted to
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: go to LSU. She was just somebody that you'd go
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: your whole life and remember, even if you had a
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: brief encounter with her. It's hard to imagine things like
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: this happening in our town. A lot of us here
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: we love Gilmer, We'll have everything about Gilmer. So it
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: just really seemed so out of place, and it really
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: shattered this community. It caused a lot of suspicion and questions,
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: and everybody started locking their door, everybody started making their
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: kids come home sooner.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Jennifer had a message and a request for the people
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: of Gilmore.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: Kelly had integrity, and I believe if she knew something,
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: if she were here she knew something, she'd say something.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: This is a small town, people talk, so tonight, My
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: prayer is that people would be burdened to continue to
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: pray for her after tonight and pray for this community,
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: because really the only healing that may come is answers.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: And if we don't get answers, we know where she is,
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: we know she's arrest. We pray for peace, and we
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: pray for protection for everybody here in our sweet little town.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: And then they lit the candles.
• 22:43
  Speaker 10: We light this candle to represent the light of hope.
• 22:47
  Speaker 10: We're transformed by our loss and now walk an unfamiliar road,
• 22:52
  Speaker 10: but we are surrounded by love and grace, and we
• 22:55
  Speaker 10: are not alone.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Not everybody at the vigil had known Kelly. Lorie Stanley didn't,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: but she was a year older, living in Gilmour the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: year it happened, eight months pregnant, and like a lot
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: of people in that town, she never really shook Kelly's disappearance.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: I didn't know Kelly at all, but I've known Kelly
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: from following her story. I could see myself just like Kelly.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: It scared all of us to death. We didn't know
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: what was going on.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: We didn't know where we could go, who we could trust.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: It was a scary place to grow up and be.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: We need answers. This is thirty one years now. This
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: is ridiculous.
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: We need to get this solved, and we need to
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: make some noise until we get some answers.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Kelly needs to come home.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Heather Quinn was just a kid when Kelly went missing,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: but Heather actually saw Kelly the night she disappeared.
• 23:49
  Speaker 11: Many of us didn't know her on a personal level,
• 23:52
  Speaker 11: but the fact that she has not been found has
• 23:56
  Speaker 11: haunted this town. I mean, I follow a lot of
• 24:03
  Speaker 11: cases where people are still missing to this day, but
• 24:08
  Speaker 11: this is the one case that I have never seen haunked.
• 24:13
  Speaker 11: So many people didn't.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Never met her, never knew her.
• 24:18
  Speaker 11: The last time I entered this building, I was eleven
• 24:22
  Speaker 11: years old and handed her VHS movies. That was the
• 24:29
  Speaker 11: last night that she blocked down here.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Near the end, they said one thing together.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: Let's all say together. I stand with Kelly. I stand
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: with Kelly. Thank y'all for coming. If you do have
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: any tips or leads, you have any little morsel of
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: information I think is insignificant, you can contact the Gilmer
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: Police Department or Upshur County Crime Stoppers.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Thirty one years, Noah, nobody and no answers, but a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: crowd of people who still show up for a girl
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: most of them never met.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: We've got fresh eyes on an old case, and I
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: have hope in that.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Next time. On Deviltown, a federal police officer from Gilmer
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: sheds new light on the case, and he doubles down
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: on a lead that others dismissed as mere conspiracy. Deviltown
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: is a free range production in association with Imperative Entertainment.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Wes Ferguson and edits
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: it by Aislen Gaddis. Music by Robert Ellis. For updates
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: on this case and others, joined our free newsletter at
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Unforgotten pod dot com