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Case Update: Bob Christian DNA Results · Blood Trails

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There's been an update in the Bob Christian case we
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: covered last season and I have all the details, But first,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: if you missed it, here's a quick recap. Bob Christian
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: was an eighteen year old bowhunter from Wisconsin. On the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: eve of the opening day of deer season in nineteen
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: seventy seven, Bob drove from his home in Madison to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: his buddy's house in Barriboo, or at least he was
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: supposed to. When he didn't show up, his family, friends,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and local law enforcement launched a search effort to try
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to find him, but all they really found were more questions.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: His car had been abandoned and stripped of its wheels
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and tires. A nun who lived nearby said her home
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: had been burglarized, and a friend of that nun said
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: she talked to a man driving Bob's car who said
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: he was looking for his friend. In some tellings of
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: this encounter, he said his friend's name was Bob. Authorities
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: found the hub caps from Bob's car at a nearby cory,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and another witness said he saw a car with stacked
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: headlights parked next to Bob's car the night he went missing,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: but none of these clues led them to the missing teenager,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and the case went icebox cold until just a few
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: years ago Detective Tyler Poyton with the Sauk County Sheriff's
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Office reopened the investigation, and he made a startling and
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: disturbing discovery. John Wayne Gacy, the famous Chicago Land serial killer,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: had worked near bear Aboo just a few months before
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Bob went missing.
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  Speaker 2: We had information that he had been in our County
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: doing pharmacy for model jobs. Basically, his trade was he
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: would go around to pharmacies and update them to more
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  Speaker 2: modern look. And a city in our county Reidsburg, which
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: is about twenty minutes from Barboo. They had had him
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: at their pharmacy in Reedsburg in July of seventy seven.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Found a news article that he was in Boston, which
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: is to the next county north of US, about forty
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  Speaker 2: forty five minutes from barbou doing a pharmacy job there.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: If a serial killer who targeted young men was in
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  Speaker 1: the area around the same time a young man inexplicably
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: went missing, it made sense to follow that lead as
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: far as it went. Several of Gaysey's victims found in
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the basement of a Chicago home have yet to be identified,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: so Detective Point requested that the DNA from those victims
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  Speaker 1: be compared to the DNA from Bob's relatives. When we
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: released this episode back in November, the detective was still
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: waiting for those results. Now we have them, so.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I requested they do a direct side by side comparison
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: with the remains from the Gaycy case and then Amy
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and her father's profile, and unfortunately, they did not find
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: a match with the with the remains from Gacy's house
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: did not match the DNA profiles of the Christian family.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Of course, this doesn't mean that Gaysey wasn't involved in
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Bob's disappearance. That's because to this day, no one knows
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  Speaker 1: exactly how many people Gaysey killed. We also know that
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  Speaker 1: he didn't bring all of his victims back to his home.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: You know, he may have committed more down there that
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: they don't know about. He wasn't very forthcoming and cooperative
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: when they questioned him. And some of the Gaysey victims
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  Speaker 2: I know were disposed of and the Displain's river in Illinois,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: but they're also too is suspicion. He didn't give up
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  Speaker 2: all of his victims, so I mean still a possibility again,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: but not one of them that was in the house.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I asked Detective Point and whether Gasey could have abducted
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Bob and then, like some of his other victims, dumped
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: him in one of the rivers or lakes in the area.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: The detective said, it's possible, but without any specific information
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: about where to look, it would be incredibly difficult to
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  Speaker 1: find him.
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  Speaker 2: Devil's Lake was at the time and still is to
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  Speaker 2: this day, a pretty heavily dove lake, lots of divers,
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  Speaker 2: It's very clear water. Given its popularity as a tourist destination,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of divers out there. There was actually
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  Speaker 2: a diving school that was out there for many years.
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  Speaker 1: With so many people in the water, you'd think someone
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  Speaker 1: would have found something by now if Bob was there.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not the case. With the other water bodies
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  Speaker 1: in the area.
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  Speaker 2: The Wisconsin River Lake Wisconsin very dark stained water. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it'd be about like diving and coffee, you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: that color. So yeah, without really any information that he'd
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  Speaker 2: been disposed in a body of water, it'd just be
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  Speaker 2: really hard to like where do you start at?
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  Speaker 1: You know, Detective Point is following other leads, which we'll
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  Speaker 1: get to in a minute. But at the end of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the day, the Gaysey theory was always going to be
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a long shot. Gaysey wasn't known to
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  Speaker 1: kill people outside the Chicago area, and while Bob was
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  Speaker 1: in the right age bracket, he didn't fit other aspects
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: of Gaysey's mo O.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't fit like the socio econonomic or the type
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  Speaker 2: of kid that Gaysey was after, like disadvantage kids he'd find,
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  Speaker 2: you know, basically on the streets or at bus depots
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  Speaker 2: or train stations in the Chicago Land area. And clearly
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  Speaker 2: this was up here and was kind of outside of
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: that m a.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: When Detective Point emailed me with this update, the first
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: person I wanted to talk to was Amy, Bob's sister.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: In our previous interview, she told me she'd had some
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: mixed feelings about the results of that DNA test, and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I was curious to hear what she thought and felt
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  Speaker 1: when she got this latest update.
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  Speaker 3: Well, some of it was relief that well, in a way,
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  Speaker 3: at least he wasn't that a victim of that situation.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: But then there's again the disappointment of.
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  Speaker 3: Not knowing and the reality is that it doesn't mean
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  Speaker 3: John Wayne Gacy wasn't involved. It just means it wasn't
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  Speaker 3: one of the four victims that were found in Illinois.
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  Speaker 3: So it doesn't really discount him completely, but it doesn't
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  Speaker 3: point rate at him either. And you know, I just
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  Speaker 3: feel like, Okay, it's back to square one again.
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  Speaker 1: Gacy was never very forthcoming to law enforcement. But Amy
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  Speaker 1: wonders if time would have eventually cracked that shell.
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  Speaker 3: And unfortunately, there's no way of confirming any of his
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  Speaker 3: activities in Wisconsin.
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  Speaker 4: They don't know if he.
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  Speaker 3: Had committed murders or not because he's he was executed,
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  Speaker 3: so there's no way even if he was alive, would
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  Speaker 3: he answer it.
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  Speaker 4: Who knows.
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  Speaker 3: But the bottom line is, since they executed him, there's
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  Speaker 3: no way of ever getting any more information from him again.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I'm not saying that he didn't deserve what
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  Speaker 3: he got, but you know, it was the investigation full.
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  Speaker 3: You know, he wasn't really disclosing much more. I don't
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  Speaker 3: think maybe time would have made him want to spill
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  Speaker 3: the beans more too, you know what I mean, maybe
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  Speaker 3: after sitting in jail for how many people do we
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: have sitting in jail for how many years, you know,
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  Speaker 3: with somebody like him, it might have been worth keeping
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: him around a little longer.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Thinking about what happened to Bob at the hands of
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: a man like Gacy is extremely difficult, but finding Bob's
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: remains would have provided some closure and allowed Amy to
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: put her brother to rest.
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  Speaker 3: If John Wayne Gacy did have something to do with it,
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  Speaker 3: and he disposed of his body, there's probably never going
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  Speaker 3: to be any kind of recovery.
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  Speaker 4: That was the only thing.
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  Speaker 3: If it had been one of the four, there was
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  Speaker 3: a chance to get part of his remains put to rest,
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  Speaker 3: so to speak. But again, my faith in God is
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: he took care of them, you know, I have to
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: believe that.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: As this case has attracted more and more attention, Amy
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and her family have been forced to confront realities that
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: had been smoothed over by the passage of time.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: You know, I think I described it before as like
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  Speaker 3: having a band aid ripped off. You know, you've had
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  Speaker 3: a wound that's been covered and healed over, and you've
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: have it ripped back again, not necessarily as raw as
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  Speaker 3: it was before, but it opens it opens other.
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  Speaker 4: Things back up again.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I think my brother, Mike and I both
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  Speaker 3: feel kind of like it's opened some of that up.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: One of those band aids has been the fact that
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the investigation into Bob's disappearance should have been handled much differently.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: It's the shoulda Kulda would haves kind of back then,
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  Speaker 3: and they didn't do the things that you know now
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  Speaker 3: it would be just standard procedure. So it's a little
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: disappointing when you go back and know that certain people
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: that were right in that area never were interviewed. They
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: never really look into these people and really tried to
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: find out. So it's, like I said, kind of reinforces
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  Speaker 3: what we felt before that it wasn't investigated and handled well.
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  Speaker 3: They really thought he just took off. I think that's
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  Speaker 3: what they wanted to believe, and our family was adamant
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  Speaker 3: that that's not what happened. That wasn't the type of
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  Speaker 3: person he was.
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  Speaker 1: It hasn't been all bad, though, Amy said, remembering Bob
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  Speaker 1: has given her a different perspective on her other brother, Mike.
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  Speaker 1: She's learned more about how difficult it was for Mike
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  Speaker 1: when Bob went missing, and heard stories about Bob that
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: were new to her.
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  Speaker 3: You know, Mike shared his experience of him getting his
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  Speaker 3: first buck and Bob never getting a buck and being
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  Speaker 3: so excited for my brother, you know, and just that
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  Speaker 3: was the kind of person my brother, Bob was. He
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  Speaker 3: wasn't jealous or mad or anything like that. He was
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  Speaker 3: happy for Mike, but he's like, man, are you lucky,
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  Speaker 3: you know, to Ben's as young as he was to
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  Speaker 3: get his first buck.
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  Speaker 4: So, I mean, he Mike.
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  Speaker 3: Shared that with me, and it just it just re
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  Speaker 3: reiterated the way I felt about my brother, you know,
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  Speaker 3: being eleven and a half. He was one of my
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  Speaker 3: first heroes.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 4: He was somebody that I looked up to.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Time has made solving Bob's case exponentially more difficult, but
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Detective point and told me he recently caught a break
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  Speaker 1: since our last episode aired. He's made contact with someone
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  Speaker 1: else from the area who was previously unknown to law enforcement.
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  Speaker 2: A person who we hadn't really known about before was
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: living up there at the time, and was able to
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  Speaker 2: track that person down and talk to them and got
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  Speaker 2: some more information of other people that were kind of
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: hanging around that area up there at the time, and
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: got more of a better picture, I would say, into
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: the goings on up there, not necessarily anything you know,
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  Speaker 2: suspicious or illegal, but just kind of the people that
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: were hanging out up there in that neck of the woods.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: So I got a bunch of names, so people I'm
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: trying to run down to talk to from that time period.
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  Speaker 1: This person had been living in a house close to
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  Speaker 1: where Bob's car was found, but they didn't own it.
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  Speaker 1: Detective Point told me that several people had rented that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: property over the years, but he was finally able to
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: track down the resident at the time of Bob's disappearance.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: They weren't living there very long, only a couple of
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: years around that time, and it was kind of a
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: common name. So then that kind of threw a wrench
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: into things trying to figure out who exactly this person
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: was that The other problems were like addresses have changed,
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  Speaker 2: Like that road was all Brecked Road at the time.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Now it's Tower Road. So it took a little sifting
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: through and finding out this person lived there, okay, who
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: lived there before you, who lived there before them, who
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: lived there before them, and finally narrowing down who was
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: there at the time and track that person down.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: This person now lives out of state, so Detective Point
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  Speaker 1: and flew out to meet them rather than have a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: phone conversation.
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  Speaker 2: This person I went and talked to knew that it
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: had happened, but just had never had contact with law
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  Speaker 2: enforcement about it. And so they had a whole lot
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: of good information that we didn't know about before. Good
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: info about the goings on up there at the time,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: and again other names of people who were up there
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: and would have been in that area at the time.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: None of this information was the proverbial smoking gun the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: detective is looking for, but it will allow him to
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: expand the web of possible witnesses, people who may have
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: seen or heard that small detail that will blow the
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: case wide open. Amy said she's appreciated the way detective
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Point has taken on this case, and they both know
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that time may be running out.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Times of killer for this stuff. I mean, like I said, everybody,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: you know a lot of people are deceased or like
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: you said, memories fade. It's fifty years ago, next year
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: or so. Even that were you know, in their thirties.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: You know they're their eighty, in their eighties now, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: so yeah, it's getting harder and harder. But that's the
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: reason I want to try and like in another ten years.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Good luck trying to get anybody you know who was
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: alive at that time.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: If you think you know something about Bob's disappearance, no
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: matter how minor, get in touch with Detective Pointing at
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: six oh eight three five five three two zero five.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: You can also reach out anonymously to the Sauk County
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Crime Stoppers at one eight eight eight eight four seven
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: seven two eight five. You don't need to have seen
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Bob's abduction to have important information. If you saw something
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: a little out of the ordinary, hurd a rumor from
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: a neighbor, or just had a bad feeling about a
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: stranger walking down the road, get in touch with Detective Pointing.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Bob disappeared on September sixteenth, nineteen seventy seven, just south
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: of Barriboo, Wisconsin, off of Tower Road near Derward's Glint.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: If anybody remembers anything or any kind of information that
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: would be useful to detect a point and to certainly
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: call sac County. You know, that's the only thing we
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: can count on, is if somebody that knew something back
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: then and still alive can can share that. You know,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: it's the only hope we really have anymore. Is anybody
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: that might have been involved or saw or knew somebody
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: involved with it or heard about it, then they should
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: give them a call.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: We'll let you know if there are any updates in
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Bob's story or any of the other cases we've covered
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: so far. To make sure you don't miss one of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: these special episodes, be sure to follow Blood Trails on
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: iHeart Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As always,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: if you have a tip about another case or a
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: theory about this one, shoot me an email at blood
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Trails at the meat eater dot org. See you next time,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and stay safe out there.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Mhmhm