Latest / Least of These / 229. "Footprints in the Snow" - The Case of Steven Kraft II - Benton Harbor, Michigan

Transcript

229. "Footprints in the Snow" - The Case of Steven Kraft II - Benton Harbor, Michigan · Least of These

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Least of these, where I cover the cases that need it most because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Leadie and today I'll be covering the case of Stephen Craft and Benton Harbor, Michigan.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's get right to it.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Over 400 companies from the United States and Canada fly their aircraft into the Southwest Michigan Regional Airport and Benton Harbor, Michigan, every year.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's also home to over 80 privately owned planes and the fleet of a Fortune 200 company.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those flying in for business keeping up with their busy schedules, touchdown and take off with a bird's eye view of the harbor, and the thick-witted area around the airport.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Travelers touch down and go on about their business, many of them never knowing that in 2001.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: The land that the airport was built on was at the center of a missing person's investigation.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's case takes us back 25 years, where part of the property that is now Southwest Michigan Regional Airport was a residential area on the outskirts of Bentonites neighborhood.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ben Heitz both then and now is a small, unincorporated community located in Burian County, Michigan.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's home to roughly 3,500 people.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while many things have changed over the years, the population size has remained about the same.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, people come and go, but over the years it seems it's remained a steady flow of newcomers and those moving on from the
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, back in 2001, Ben Heitz was a place 12-year-old Stephen Craft Junior called home.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: He along with his parents and seven-year-old brother lived on a dead-end street near Red Arrow Highway, and the 21-hundred-block of Holly Drive.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: While the street was on a dead-end, that highway was a well-traveled one.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Little Stephen was 12-years-old and a sixth-grader at Whole Elementary.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: He had a few friends that lived nearby and also one of his sisters, who by this point was grown and had a husband and child of her own.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He'd often play outside with his two dogs.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: He'd also wonder through the neighborhood, going door to door to stop and hang out with a friend, or to go visit his sister and his baby nephew.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Twelve-year-old Stephen headed outside to go to a friend's house, taking his two dogs with him as he usually did.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was about 630 when he walked out of the door of his home on Holly Drive, and promised his mom he'd be back home by 8pm.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But his mom likely figured he'd be in sooner.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was February and Michigan, and that night it was particularly cold, the temperatures were below freezing.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stephen threw on his tail and purple Charlotte Hornets basketball jacket, laced up his boots and headed out the door.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: His mom continued on cooking dinner, but by the time dinner was done, Stephen wasn't home.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: 8pm came and went with no sign of him.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: At first, she wasn't all that worried.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The family figured he'd probably gone onto his sister's house, was playing with his nephew, and maybe lost track of time.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: He'd done that many times before.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But minutes, and then hours ticked on, and Stephen still wasn't home.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sometime between nine and 10 pm, Stephen's mom called over to his sister's house to check if he was there.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stephen's sister told her that she hadn't seen him at all that night,
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The family started searching, going door to door in the neighborhood.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like we talked about before, Stephen was well known by most all of his neighbors.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he was at one of their houses.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to the Harold Poladium, one neighbor reported that he had seen Stephen walking with his two dogs near his home.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that was earlier in the night, sometime between 7 and 8 p.m.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: His father found footprints in the snow that he thought were Stephens and his two dogs, around where the neighbor reported seeing him.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: He followed the tracks to the end of Holly Drive, passed upon that was completely frozen over.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tracks continued a little over a block south of Holly Drive and ended near Harbor Haven Ministries on Irving Street.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: From what I could gather, Harbor Haven Ministries was a rescue mission that assisted the homeless and helped families in the area that were struggling to access food.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, as the night began to set in, the temperatures plummeted even further, and that worry that something was wrong set into panic.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stephen had only tossed on a jacket that night.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't wearing a hat or gloves.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: The 12-year-old wasn't prepared to be out there for an extended period of time and those freezing temperatures.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And with that, at around midnight, his father called the Benton Township Police to officially report his 12-year-old son Stephen Missing.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Officers responded to the home on Holly Drive and spoke with the family and neighbors.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: About a half hour after Stephen's father called to report him Missing, two young girls who attended the same school as Stephen, whole elementary, were also reported Missing.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: to have one child vanishing Benton Heights was rare, but three within an hour of each other?
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: What was happening?
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to the Charlie project, Stephen had been in a little bit of trouble at school, which wasn't like him.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just before he had gone missing, he had been suspended from school for five days after an altercation with another student.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, school administrators made it clear that Stephen had only been defending himself against another student.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: but the school had a zero tolerance policy against fighting and both Steven and the other student were suspended.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: That may sound alarming, but Steven's parents weren't upset with him.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Steven was a good kid, a good student, and the altercation was the first time he had ever been in any type of trouble.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you either want to call it that, he was defending himself, and that five days of
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was set to be back at school that following day.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: But with Stephen now missing, every detail leading up to his disappearance was scrutinized.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, rightfully so.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And with two young girls also reported missing, who attended the same school, it was getting serious really quickly.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, the two girls were located quickly.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: There aren't many details about where they were or
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: A spokesperson for the police department would later state that their disappearance had absolutely no connection to Stevens.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those two young girls came home that night, but 12-year-old Stephen Cracked was still missing.
• 8:08
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: After Benton Township police arrived to the home on Hullie Drive to search for 12-year-old Stephen Crab, officers followed the same tracks as father had and came to the same dead end.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The trail ended near Harbor Haven Ministries on Irving Street.
• 8:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Throughout the night despite freezing temperatures, family friends, neighbors and police frantically search for the 12-year-old.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But other than those tracks, they found no trace of him or his two dogs.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the sun rose, news began to spread about Stevens' disappearance.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: His family began making flyers which were posted all over Benton Heights.
• 8:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police officers came to the neighborhood and two ponds were searched.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were frozen over and there was no crack in the ice found or anything to suggest that Stevens had somehow felt through the ice.
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: The wooded areas around the neighborhood were also searched.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bloodhounds were brought in.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Lansing State Journal reported that the bloodhounds lost even sent in the ice and blowing snow behind a group's nursery, which was at the end of the street.
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The family led volunteer searches, and the community came together.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Businesses like Lowes, Kmart, and Meyer donated flashlights.
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Benton Township Pizza Hut donated pizzas for searchers.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Helicopters flew over the area, and the FBI was called in.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Registered sex offenders were looked into, and investigators asked for the public's help.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tips came in by the hundreds.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: A teenage boy told police that he had seen Stephen picking up bottles outside the red arrow tap, and he had watched as Stephen had gotten into a four-wheel
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every tip was investigated, the leads were tracked down and followed up on, in addition of course two all of the ground searches.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But despite all those efforts, not a single clue leading to Stephen was found.
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Three days after Stephen vanished, there was a spark of hope.
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Harold Poladium reported that one of his two dogs, an older German shepherd child mix, returned home.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was unendured, but acting a little strange.
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But with her return, there was renewed hope.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stephen's father told the outlet that he felt she might lead him to Stephen, and it seemed she tried.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Steven's father stated, she was about frozen but she had no injuries.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at her paws and they weren't cut or bleeding as if she'd traveled a long way.
• 10:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't find any injuries at all but she was kind of cowed.
• 10:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you raised your voice she squatted down and she's not that kind of dog.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: She's usually running around raising cane.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every time we let her out, she keeps going back to that mission back there.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, it seemed like that's where Stephen's trail ended.
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: It begged the question, had someone abducted the 12-year-old from that very spot.
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: With it being a rescue mission, people did pass through their pretty frequently.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some of them, likely, with criminal records.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: investigators would soon have an answer to that second question.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stevens' other dog, a six-month-old German shepherd puppy, was founded day after his older dog had returned home.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Lansing State Journal reported that a neighbor called police after seeing the puppy chewing on a deer carcass beside the road near Blue Creek, which was a mile and a half north of Stevens' home.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The dog was out there, wondering around, trying to survive.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The terrain in those roadside woods was swampy with trees and overgrown brush.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: The area was searched but nothing was found.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Days turned into weeks with no sign of Stephen, while investigators sifted through leads, Stephen's father searched relentlessly for his son.
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: The family raised money for a reward for information that could help them find him.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Money that they certainly didn't have.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: His father had been out of work since the day Stephen went missing.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in the midst of the search of his son, he was unable to even pay his rent.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: The hero palladium reported that the family's landlord wanted them out.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: While his son was missing, the landlord was trying to have the family evicted.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that something we don't talk about near enough, when a loved one goes missing, life for that family stops completely, but the world moves on like nothing happened.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: The rent is still due, car payments, phone bills, all of it.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their world is shattered in an instant, but the light company is still calling, wondering why the payment is late.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a cruel heartbreaking reality.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in this case, that landlord's a prick.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm just saying, we do call it like we see it around here.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it looks like the community came together to help fund the reward and to help the family not be thrown out in the cold while their 12-year-old
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: At some point, however, they didn't end up moving, although it's unclear when or why.
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those weeks turned into months in Stephen Crap Jr. remain missing, and the spring when the snow had finally melted away, a thwarty searched about four miles of blue creep near where the puppy had been found.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They also searched the pond behind Harbor Haven Ministries again.
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: By the summer, Stephen's case was featured on America's most wanted.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: As it turned out, his sister Jodie had sent a newspaper articles and asked for the show to bring attention to Stephen's disappearance, and they did.
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tips came in, but unfortunately none of them led to Stephen.
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: His family tried their best to keep his case in the news, to keep the flyers hung and the public aware that he was still missing.
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Leeds came and went, and for a brief time Stephen Craft's case was linked to the case of Sean Hornbeck and Ben Ombee.
• 14:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you don't know their stories, Sean and Ben both spoke on an episode of CBS News 48 hours mystery back in 2009, and an episode titled Kidnapped Sean Hornbeck's incredible story.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know that case, I highly recommend you check it out.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's also available in podcast form on 48 hours.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll be sure to drop a link to the podcast in the show notes.
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sean and Ben are incredible examples of resiliency and bravery and everyone should know their story.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: For today, I'll make a long horrific story short.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2002, at the age of 11, Sean Hornbeck was abducted while riding a bike to his friend's house and rich with Missouri.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sean was beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, nearly killed, and held captive in a filthy apartment for more than four years.
• 15:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then, on January 8 of 2007, 13-year-old Ben Onby was abducted by the same man and bufurt Missouri.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: His 15-year-old neighbor saw a strange truck speed off in the neighborhood, and he took note the vehicle.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: After Ben went missing, he notified police and described the vehicle to a T. That description, along with a tip from a local pizza rea owner, led police to the apartment of 41-year-old Michael Devlin.
• 15:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Devlin was a manager of the pizza ria.
• 15:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Investigators were able to quickly locate the vehicle and Michael Devlin, who confessed to kidnapping not only been owned by but also Sean Horneback.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police located both of the boys inside Devlin's apartment.
• 16:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Devlin ultimately pleaded guilty to a litany of both state and federal charges.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was sentenced in state court to 74 life sentences for kidnapping and the sexual assault of the two boys among other things.
• 16:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in federal court, he received an additional 170 years for child sexual abuse material and crimes related to that.
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those sentences are to run consecutively.
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2007, KFVS News 12 reported that a police task force was now looking at Michael Deviles' suspect in the case of five missing boys, one in Illinois, three in Missouri, and one in Western Michigan.
• 16:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: That one in Western Michigan was 12-year-old Stephen Crap.
• 17:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And of all the cases, at the time the task force felt the strongest connection was to that of the
• 17:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police told the outlet that the FBI had subpoenaed all of Devlin's time sheets from where he worked for more than 20 years, trying to see if there was a connection between him and the missing boys.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: They had also learned that as a child, Devlin's family were in a cottage in Pantwater, Michigan, which was just two hours north of Benton Township.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ben Township police chief Ben's fecky told KFVS-12 that he saw the similarities in the cases.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stating, I think the similarities are there as to what he did a Missouri could have happened up here.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stephen Sister Jodi agreed.
• 17:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: She said, it's very eerie to think this guy you've watched him on TV, and he could possibly know after six years where your brother is.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: This guy was in Michigan.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The highway was more than a mile and a half from our home than come to find out he had kidnapped two other children for sure.
• 18:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: She went on to say that if Devlin had something to do with Stephen's disappearance he should just come clean.
• 18:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: After all he wasn't going to get out anyway.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: She went on to say, what's another 10, 20 years?
• 18:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not getting out.
• 18:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let us have our children back.
• 18:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let us be able to put them to rest or bring them home.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It seems that ultimately the FBI decided there was no direct link between Michael Devlin and Steven Kraff.
• 18:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: At least not one that they could prove.
• 18:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And investigators were back at Square One.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are some that still believe Devlin might have been involved in Steven's disappearance.
• 18:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then there are other theories out there.
• 18:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Theories that someone in the neighborhood who knew Steven could be responsible for his disappearance, maybe a neighbor that he knew or someone he was close to, or maybe someone at the mission that night.
• 18:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, even as a years have passed, there's still so little evidence for investigators to go on.
• 19:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Detective Delmar Lane of the Benton Township Police Department once stated to the Harold Poladium, there are no other witnesses, no trail of clothes, nothing.
• 19:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what makes this case so unusual.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: 25 years have gone by and that statement still rings true today.
• 19:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So much has changed over those two and a half decades.
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2005, Stephen's childhood home, along with many of his neighbors' homes, were demolished to make way for the expansion of Southwest Michigan Regional Airport.
• 19:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shortly after the 20-year anniversary of Stephen's disappearance on February 19, 2021, his father, Stephen Craftsinger, died at 58 years old, never having answers as to what happened
• 19:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: A little less than two months after Steven Seenier's death, Steven's mom Cheryl, also passed away on April 3, 2021.
• 20:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: She too never stopped looking for Steven.
• 20:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: FBI Special Agent Kovac recalled that Cheryl kept books full of his sketches and shared them with her as she worked on his case.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: A lot has changed, but one thing remains the same, Stephen's family is still searching for answers.
• 20:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: His sister Jodie picking up where their parents left off.
• 20:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone out there knows something, and it's beyond time to come forward.
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stephen Earl craft the second was born on January 11, 1989 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• 20:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was last seen on February 15, 2001 in Benton Heights, Michigan.
• 20:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the time of his disappearance, he was five foot two, a hundred pounds with sandy brown hair and green eyes.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was last seen wearing an awkward purple Charlotte Hornets basketball jacket, a tan and white striped t-shirt,
• 21:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has ties to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Lexington, Kentucky.
• 21:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: He would be 37 years old today.
• 21:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anyone with information about this case can contact the Benton Township Police Department at 1-2-6-9-9-2-6-8-2-1, or crime stoppers at 1-800-34-2-7-8-6-7, or you can also reach out to your local FBI office.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that my friends is all I've got for this week.
• 21:37
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• 21:41
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• 21:49
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• 21:53
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• 22:06
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• 22:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening, thank you for caring.
• 22:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you know something, say something, and until next time, be good to each other.
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: the lack of evidence in this case is so frustrating.
• 23:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's literally nothing.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: At least not that we know of publicly.
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Steven left his house and literally vanished.
• 23:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I definitely believe there was foul play in this case.
• 23:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think Steven got lost or got hurt out there in the elements.
• 23:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: He knew that neighborhood.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when he left, I don't think he had any intention of staying out in the cold.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Who was the friend that he was going to visit?
• 23:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I could find no reports on that.
• 23:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Who were that friend's parents?
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm sure the police have looked into it and know who they are.
• 23:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're just not telling us.
• 23:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I want to know.
• 23:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: did he ever make it over there?
• 23:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: If he did, what time did he leave?
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which direction did he go?
• 23:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are so many questions.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that area of Benton Heights wasn't the greatest neighborhood at that time.
• 24:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was quite a bit of cram going on.
• 24:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd really love to know who he intended on going to see that night and who their parents were.
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: With the window of time and an area that small and a neighborhood where most everybody knew each other, my theory is that it was someone right there, someone who knew Stephen, someone he possibly trusted, and just to make it clear, I'm absolutely not talking about his family here.
• 24:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did read in one of the old articles that his dad had passed a polygraph, but I really don't get that much way to a polygraph.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: What I do give way to is the fact that this man either almost lost his house in the search for his son or actually did lose his house in the search for his son.
• 24:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: He tried to get the dog to show him where he was.
• 24:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was heartbroken, clearly.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The whole family
• 24:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone's even trusted at least a little bit, and I hate that more than anything.
• 25:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do kind of go back and forth and think there's a slight possibility that it could have been either someone around the mission or someone just passing through.
• 25:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone who saw an opportunity to do something evil and took it.
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's less likely given the circumstances, but not impossible.
• 25:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: What I do believe very strongly is that nothing happens in a vacuum, and somebody out there has information that could blow this case wide open.
• 25:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone saw something.
• 25:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone said something.
• 25:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: A family member of the perpetrator had a feeling they were involved.
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's usually someone out there that knows.
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: someone who has a piece to the puzzle, and they may not even realize it's as important as it is.
• 25:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if that's you, do the right thing.
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the very least you could do for a family that's suffered so much already.
• 25:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: They've suffered not only the loss of their loved one, but wild accusations being thrown around.
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've seen plenty of that out there in the inner webs, and it's frankly disgusting.
• 26:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's about all I got to say about that.
• 26:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: y'all know I love you more in my luggage and I can't wait to talk at you next week.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But until then, bye-bye, boo-thing!