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Missing In Hush Town - Season Two - Bethany Markowski - Prologue · Least of These

0:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to least of these, where I cover the cases that need it most because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
0:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Leah D. and I'm off this week.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
0:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you're all enjoying this day with good food, family, and good friends.
0:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And today in this special episode, I'm here to tell you all about one of my good friends, Jules.
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: At crime con a Nashville, I had the honor and privilege to meet the one and only Jules Thorpe.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Jules was bouncing around from table to table telling anybody and everybody about Jennifer and Adriana Wix, missing from crossplains Tennessee, and the upcoming podcast she hosted and produced with Jennifer Sister Casey.
0:49
[SPEAKER_00]: you meet a lot of people at CrimeCon and sometimes it can kind of blur together, but I knew from the instant we met that there was something special about jewels.
0:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And man was I right y'all, her passion and drive to help families get justice is unmatched.
1:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I've since gotten to work alongside Jules to bring Jennifer and Adriana's story to you here on this podcast and on a few seasons of you should be here.
1:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I can tell you is that she is one of the kindest and sweetest human beings that I know.
1:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so glad she stopped at my table that day.
1:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And that little podcast she was talking about when we first met Missing in Hushtown, well it's spread like wildfire, hit the charts, and raised so much awareness for Jennifer and Adriana Wix.
1:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jules wasn't done there.
1:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, of course she wasn't.
1:41
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point I think our girl has not won, not two, but three podcasts.
1:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do know for sure that Missing in Hushtown is in its second season.
1:52
[SPEAKER_00]: and this season Jules takes you deep inside the investigation into the disappearance of Bethany Markowski.
1:58
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2001, Bethany was only 11 years old when she vanished from Jackson, Tennessee.
2:06
[SPEAKER_00]: For 25 years, Bethany's mother Johnny has searched for answers.
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Missing in Hushtown season 2, Bethany Markowski takes you along in the search and asks a question, where is Bethany Markowski?
2:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Jules has so graciously shared an episode with all of us today, but before we get into it, I just want to let you know that all episodes can be found at missing in Hushtown on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now.
2:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll also drop links in the show notes to make it easy.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You all make sure to subscribe, follow, press all the buttons, and do all the things.
2:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Without further ado, let's join Jules from missing in Hushtown season 2, Bethany Markowski,
3:00
[SPEAKER_02]: the phone rings.
3:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Johnny Carter recognizes the number.
3:04
[SPEAKER_02]: There was never a day she ever envisioned that she would form such close connections with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, missing children's unit, but here she found herself 15 years into the nightmare that was her now life.
3:18
[SPEAKER_02]: The mother of a missing child, which means each call could either lead to closure,
3:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Johnny knew this call was about her little girl, Bethany.
3:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Her heart begins to raise and her hands tremble as she puts the receiver to her ear.
3:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello?
3:37
[SPEAKER_02]: She says her thick southern accent wavering with half-worry and half-hole.
3:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Miss Johnny says the voice on the other line.
3:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It's about Bethany.
3:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we found her.
4:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I never wanted to cover missing children, it hits too close to home for me.
4:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It fuels my fears, my worries, my interests of thoughts, maybe my paranoia, and some make claim it makes us wiser and smarter or more streetwise.
4:39
[SPEAKER_02]: but it actually really doesn't matter if I wanted to cover this case or not, does it?
4:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Because sometimes these cases, they find us.
4:50
[SPEAKER_02]: They come to us, not because we can solve them.
4:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But because there is one reason and I think it's this, we can get loud and we need your help.
4:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Please join us as part of Bethany's Brigade and Get Loud to ask the question, where is Bethany?
5:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Markowski, you know there are so many, so many missing children in these cases.
5:12
[SPEAKER_02]: The ones that we all may casually scroll past on social media, these are real people, real missing babies of real parents who never wanted to be in this position.
5:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So when the team went searching for the season 2 case of missing in Hushtown and I saw Bethany's face, something in my soul stirred and we all pointed to her and we all agreed that this is the case, this is the cause, this is our girl.
5:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And here we find ourselves on Bethany's brigade standing alongside her mother Johnny Carter and her family and friends to ask one
5:51
[SPEAKER_02]: This season, on Missing and Hush Town Season 2, Bethany Markowski.
5:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Throughout the season, you'll hear from family, friends, and the producers behind missing in Hushtown.
6:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm your host, Jules Thorpeye, and for the season, I called in a team.
6:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Jan Rivera, co-founder of Fire Eyes Media, and the amazing women behind mom-cast productions, Rachel Holloway, and Heather Northcraft.
6:15
[SPEAKER_02]: The four of us have poured hours upon hours into this story to ensure that we tell it as holistically and truthfully to the sources we obtained as we can.
6:25
[SPEAKER_02]: This is about following the evidence, the leads, but also following our hearts.
6:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll hear from all four of us as we did take turns conducting interviews, being boots on the ground, and you know it won't even bring you along our production meetings where we discuss information and theories.
6:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I learned a lot from season one in missing in Hushtown, Jennifer and Adriana Wix, and I'm back.
6:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And together with our team, we're
6:54
[SPEAKER_02]: There are two possible outcomes.
6:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Number one, Bethany Leanne Markowski is alive.
6:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Or two, Bethany Leanne Markowski is dead.
7:04
[SPEAKER_02]: What we want to know, what we really want to know is this.
7:10
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened between one and two?
7:14
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened at the one point five?
7:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Could Bethany be out there alive and living her life?
7:20
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the sliver of hope nobody wants to let go of, isn't it?
7:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We always vow to look into missing person cases with that sliver of hope that this will end in a picturesque reunion.
7:31
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, so often families themselves waver between their belief that their loved one is dead
7:39
[SPEAKER_02]: The belief that they know or loved one is alive, there is a tug of war of guilt that we see so often in their eyes that pulls them to say they have to hold hope and so for them with them alongside them we will hold hope together.
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: missing in Hatch Town will never do a season without working with the families and alongside them each step of the way.
8:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And this goes beyond the words you're about to hear.
8:06
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a partnership and promise and heart to stay by their side.
8:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, we're biased where humans and we're not here as journalists, although true crime investigative podcasting doesn't have the same standard as journalistic integrity, we strive to be an equal opportunity
8:24
[SPEAKER_02]: But since we show up to events, we hug the families, we talk with them weekly, sometimes daily.
8:30
[SPEAKER_02]: They become parts of us.
8:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm pretty soon, you guys, we're not just looking for Bethany Liam or Kowsky, but we're looking for that little girl that we grew to love through her family in a long way.
8:41
[SPEAKER_02]: It does become personal.
8:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know what, I hope that if that ever stops, then we know it's time for us to move on.
8:49
[SPEAKER_02]: We invited every party, which will be discussed in this podcast to come and talk on the podcast.
8:56
[SPEAKER_02]: We invited parties to remain anonymous.
8:59
[SPEAKER_02]: We invited every party to have equal access to every piece of information we have, yet some declined.
9:05
[SPEAKER_02]: But not first without giving us statements that we may use and don't worry, we will share it all.
9:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you're wondering if the producers believe whether Bethany Markowski is alive, here's the truth.
9:19
[SPEAKER_02]: The full transparency.
9:20
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't know.
9:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Some days, two of us believe she's out there and other days, three of us believe that we're searching for Bethany's remains.
9:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there's that day where we get a few promising tips.
9:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll all four of us know that there is actually hope she's alive.
9:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Only to be followed by a tip of where Bethany's remains may be waiting for us to discover.
9:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And while we work diligently to follow that lead, and the source of that tip, we get where that sadly, that source has just died.
9:52
[SPEAKER_02]: But we still go on, trying hard not to define the outcome beforehand.
9:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's been hard.
9:59
[SPEAKER_02]: People have claimed to be Bethany over the year, some people saw her, some people say she was taken someplace, some people say that she's at the
10:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And believe me, I'll take you along every single lead we got because if there's one thing we can't afford to do, it's this, not take every tip or lead seriously.
10:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if it means conducting a foot search team ourselves because when a child is missing, are you going to leave one stone unturned?
10:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you going to walk past the one stone?
10:33
[SPEAKER_02]: that you come across which may hold the secrets the keys the answers to where your loved one is underneath.
10:41
[SPEAKER_02]: If you flip it over and there's nothing there, then you're back where you started.
10:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But if there's something, something under there that could bring you back to your baby, it was worth it.
10:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, before I give all the details, I do want to make a note.
10:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I do not believe this is a cold case.
11:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody on our team believes this is a cold case.
11:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Not myself, not Jen, not Rachel, not Heather, and I also believe that we can work together.
11:08
[SPEAKER_02]: That means you, listening, right now, to bring Bethany home.
11:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You are now a part of Bethany's brigade.
11:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go.
11:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And we ever gonna know for Bethany as we ever gonna know what happened.
11:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I know Bethany is not the most famous missing person she is to me.
11:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know she's not the most important person in the world she's made.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Missing in Hushtown Season 2 is executive-produced and partnership by FireEyes Media LLCs Jules Thorpe and Genre Vera, as well as mom-cast productions Rachel Holloway and Heather Northcraft.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: The script is written by Jules Thorpe and edited by Heather Northcraft.
12:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Project Lead is Rachel Holloway and Master Editing and Audio Production is done by John Rivera.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Jules Thorpe is your host.
12:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Mom has your dad's shoes.
12:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Raising voices?
12:27
[SPEAKER_03]: While raising kids.