Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Son Vanishes Without a Trace, Mom DISTRAUGHT: WHERE'S RICKY?

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Son Vanishes Without a Trace, Mom DISTRAUGHT: WHERE'S RICKY? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: A southern Kentucky family is desperate to find their missing son,
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Speaker 1: story their brother. Where is Ricky Griffiths. I'm Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
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Speaker 1: here at Fox Station and series XEM one eleven. As
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Speaker 1: I mentioned, a beloved son, a loving brother seemingly vanishes
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Speaker 1: into thin air. That's physically impossible. This guy did not
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Speaker 1: just disappear. He's somewhere and somebody knows where he is.
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Speaker 1: First of all, take a listen to our friends at
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Speaker 1: w K Whitey.
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Speaker 2: Ricky Griffiths was last seen here in the Burnside area
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Speaker 2: of Pulaski County, but then no sign of him. His
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Speaker 2: family did receive some strange text messages from his phone,
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Speaker 2: they question whether he actually sentos, and then his phone,
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Speaker 2: his car, and his wallet were all found in a
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Speaker 2: remote area of Wayne County. Since that point, nothing but
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Speaker 2: a lot of questions of what exactly happened to him.
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Speaker 1: I've learned a lot about Burnside, Kentucky since I first
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Speaker 1: heard about Ricky's disappearance. It reminds me so much of
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Speaker 1: the little community, the Rutland community south of Macon, Georgia,
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Speaker 1: in the center of the state, where I was born,
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Speaker 1: very small, tight knit, makes it very difficult for me
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Speaker 1: to believe somebody doesn't know where is Ricky? With me
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Speaker 1: an all star panel to make sense of what we
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Speaker 1: know right now in Ricky's disappearance. But first I'm going
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Speaker 1: to go to a special guest joining us with us,
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Speaker 1: Cheyenne Carnie. This is Ricky's sister, and thank you for
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Speaker 1: being with us.
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Speaker 3: Thank you, Nancy, Cheyenne.
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Speaker 1: By all accounts, Ricky is just beloved. You know how
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Speaker 1: in every family there's the technical legal term jackass that
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Speaker 1: nobody wants Ober for Thanksgiving that you're like, oh no,
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Speaker 1: it's so and so calling that person that couldn't be
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Speaker 1: further from who Ricky is. Everyone is the kind of
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Speaker 1: guy that he walks into a room, everybody wants to
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Speaker 1: talk to him. That's what I've learned about Ricky. Do
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Speaker 1: you remember when you realized you hadn't heard from him,
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Speaker 1: he was gone.
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Speaker 4: Oh yes, Nancy.
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Speaker 3: Whenever my mom called me the morning that we realized
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Speaker 3: that it had been over twenty four hours that you know,
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Speaker 3: we had we had spoke with him, and she had
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Speaker 3: kind of mentioned that she was worried about him. She
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Speaker 3: threw that out there because she knew that we are
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Speaker 3: very we are very connected. We do talk often, and
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Speaker 3: then I realize why I haven't either.
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Speaker 1: Now, wait a minute, I want to talk to you
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Speaker 1: about what you just said. You suddenly realized, wait a minute,
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Speaker 1: I haven't talked to him either. Had it been twenty
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Speaker 1: four hours since you talked to him? Forty eight hours?
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Speaker 1: Seventy two? How many days or hours had passed and
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Speaker 1: you hadn't talked to your brother?
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Speaker 3: Well, with me, my brother knew my work schedule, and
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Speaker 3: then he knows that when I operate on business time,
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Speaker 3: operate on business time. So he knew I was working
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Speaker 3: because I work with the travel and nursing agency. I'm
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Speaker 3: also a first responder, so on my time, you know,
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Speaker 3: he don't really unless if I need help with my children,
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Speaker 3: is you know, are the boys good or whatnot?
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Speaker 1: Yeah? A quick hellower text? What about with your mom?
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Speaker 3: With my parents? Yes, with my parents at that time,
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Speaker 3: he was living with them in between his ex girlfriend.
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Speaker 3: You know, like he would go back home. He always
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Speaker 3: he always kept his stuff at home. He always showered
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Speaker 3: at our house or at their house. So whenever they
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Speaker 3: they realized that flag that they had only talked to
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Speaker 3: him at that one point, they knew something was wrong.
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Speaker 3: That's why they reached out to me, and having talked
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Speaker 3: to him, when I tried to reach out to him,
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Speaker 3: I couldn't get a hold of him. So that's when
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Speaker 3: I started breaking into his of his atn T account
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Speaker 3: because like I have access to that. Like I said,
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Speaker 3: me and my brother were very close. He always gave me,
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Speaker 3: gave me account permissions, and even if he didn't, I
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Speaker 3: always knew his passwords because we always shared our stuff
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Speaker 3: in case of anything like this ever come about. So
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Speaker 3: I was able to get into there. And the moment
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Speaker 3: my mother had to worry in her voice that she
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Speaker 3: thought something was wrong. I was at work, about four
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Speaker 3: hours from from their hometown, and I told my I
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Speaker 3: told my supervisor, I'm going to get on here and
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Speaker 3: I'm getting I'm like, I stopped, I stopped my rounds.
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Speaker 3: I turned over everything I was supposed to do on
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Speaker 3: my job to another nurse, another at that facility, and
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Speaker 3: they all understood, and I started digging. We got into
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Speaker 3: his account. We started finding the paper trail of the
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Speaker 3: phone numbers and when his phone was last used, the
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Speaker 3: last call, the last text. I started contacting these people
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Speaker 3: myself and I'm saying this is by the time I
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Speaker 3: could I could do all of that, it was probably
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Speaker 3: about three o'clock in the morning, and then I ended
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Speaker 3: up calling my mom and saying, the first as soon
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Speaker 3: as seven o'clock comes, you go and follow missing persons
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Speaker 3: report because the numbers that I was searching, I was
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Speaker 3: also doing my own private searches and seeing the types
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Speaker 3: of folks that were on these calls.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting to me. Guys, you are
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Speaker 1: hearing the sister of Ricky Griffiths and when it hit her, wait,
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Speaker 1: something is way wrong. You know, it's interesting to me,
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Speaker 1: and I want to go out to Brian Fitzgibbons joining
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Speaker 1: us along with an all star panel. VP of Operations
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Speaker 1: at USPA Nationwide Security, Brian, I have, you know, interviewed
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Speaker 1: literally thousands of crime victims and their families, and it's
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Speaker 1: really interesting to me, and I don't have a scientific
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Speaker 1: explanation for it. There's a difference when you say, hey,
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Speaker 1: have you talked to so and so and the mom
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Speaker 1: says no, and that's okay, And then there are those
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Speaker 1: moments where the sisters says, hey have you talked to
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Speaker 1: my brother? Or hey, have you talked to your brother
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Speaker 1: and the responses note and suddenly they get an innate feeling.
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Speaker 1: As you just heard Cheyenne Carney say, she dropped what
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Speaker 1: she was doing, handed her duties over to a nurse,
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Speaker 1: and got to a phone, broke into her brothers. Of course,
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Speaker 1: she had the passwords AT and T access to start tracing. Wait,
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Speaker 1: where has he been? Who has he been calling? There's
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Speaker 1: something that I can't describe that you know instinctively something
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Speaker 1: is wrong.
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Speaker 3: Well, Nancy, he was a family man. I mean he like,
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Speaker 3: he was very respectful like our to our parents. When
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Speaker 3: he was not coming home, he would tell him, when
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Speaker 3: you know, I'm going to go run around, I might
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Speaker 3: be back later, I might not, you know, stuff like that.
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Speaker 3: He was very very open and honest.
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Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, and so him not getting back with
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Speaker 1: your mom was very unusual. Brian Fitzgibbons, have you noticed
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Speaker 1: that over the course of your investigations, that there's just
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Speaker 1: some instinctive feeling that something is wrong as opposed to
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Speaker 1: every other time when there's not anything wrong.
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Speaker 5: Absolutely, Nancy, And when the family has that intuition, it's
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Speaker 5: one of those powerful things that as an investigator can't
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Speaker 5: be dismissed that you can't overlook that fact. And I
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Speaker 5: say back, because, as you mentioned, you know, thousands of
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Speaker 5: interviews and a lot of years doing this, that's not
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Speaker 5: every time that a family member has that gut feeling
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Speaker 5: and follows that intuition that immediately something's wrong. And you know, unfortunately,
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Speaker 5: what we have here is that local law enforcement did
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Speaker 5: dismiss that and missed some opportunities to process a crime
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Speaker 5: scene quickly and react to some of the data points
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Speaker 5: that the family was sharing with them.
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Speaker 1: You know, Wendy Patrick, I want to follow up on
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Speaker 1: what Brian Fitzgibbon has just said with me. Is Wendy Patrick,
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Speaker 1: California prosecutor, author of Why Bad Looks So Good and
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Speaker 1: the book Read Flags, both on Amazon. She's the host
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Speaker 1: of Today with Doctor Wendy on KCBQ. Wendy Patrick, thanks
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Speaker 1: for being with us. I would never put it that
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Speaker 1: way in front of a jury, and I'll tell you why,
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Speaker 1: because while the jurors may agree with what we're saying,
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Speaker 1: and I think that they would, the defense would have
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Speaker 1: a field day arguing, oh, so it was just a hunch.
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Speaker 1: You want us to accept that you had a hunch.
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Speaker 1: The reality is Wendy Patrick I spoke to. I can't
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Speaker 1: even count how many moms, dads, sisters and brothers that
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Speaker 1: had a hunch and they were right.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's exactly right. And so you know, one way
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Speaker 6: that you and I probably have dealt with this in
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Speaker 6: the trial is you can elicit this this about the hunch,
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Speaker 6: the intuition, the instinct, but then the basis for it,
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Speaker 6: you know, the basis, the foundation for why something struck
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Speaker 6: a chord. I mean, you just heard it from Cheyenne.
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Speaker 6: His parents' home was his home base, He kept his
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Speaker 6: clothes there, and he had planned to be gone. He
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Speaker 6: would have said something that explains why she heard what
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Speaker 6: she did in her mother's voice when she called that instinct,
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Speaker 6: that gut feeling, that intuition wasn't just a hunch. It
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Speaker 6: was based on facts and growing up with this young man.
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Speaker 6: So that I think is one of the things that
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Speaker 6: every jury can relate to.
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Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Nancy Grace here, please join us now on
10:37
Speaker 1: Fox Nation for a brand new investigation, Parallels of Evil
10:42
Speaker 1: the Bundy and Idaho killings. In this gripping special investigation,
10:48
Speaker 1: we bring together an incredible panel of guests who analyze
10:51
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10:59
Speaker 1: with two female Ted Bundy survivors, Karen Pryor and Cheryl Thomas,
11:05
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Speaker 1: of Ted Bundy. We also speak with the renowned private
11:15
Speaker 1: investigator Bill Warner who worked the cases, and Ted Bundy's
11:19
Speaker 1: defense attorney, John Henry Brown. We traveled to Moscow, Idaho,
11:24
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11:29
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11:34
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11:40
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11:45
Speaker 1: on Fox Nation. Worries with Nancy Grace with me you
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Speaker 1: know him well. The commander of the Cajun Coast Search
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Speaker 1: and Rescue Team, Tony Wade, is joining us. Tony, how
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Speaker 1: many times have you gone out on a search for
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Speaker 1: a body or a living person based on routine evidence?
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Speaker 1: And when I say routine, I don't mean oh, that's
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Speaker 1: just routine. I mean evidence of someone's routine. For instance, Tony,
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Speaker 1: if I was not here in this studio to start
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Speaker 1: this program with you guys on time, ready to go.
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Speaker 1: Jackie here would know I had to be in the hospital.
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Speaker 1: Something horrible must have happened, because that's my routine to
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Speaker 1: be there on time at work, or if I'm not
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Speaker 1: there to put the twins to bed. Everybody knows something's
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Speaker 1: very wrong. It's evidence of.
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Speaker 7: Routine, you know, Nancy. We worked thousands of cases like
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Speaker 7: that every year, just one, no different than a lot
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Speaker 7: of the other cases we work. We do know something happened.
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Speaker 7: It's out of character for Ricky to just disappear like this.
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Speaker 7: You know. I've interviewed hundreds of people with this case,
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Speaker 7: and everybody has the same agreement that he never missed work.
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Speaker 7: He was always early, he always stayed late. You know,
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Speaker 7: the family has somebody he sees, somebody count on. Someone
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Speaker 7: knew something was wrong that we were happy to get
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Speaker 7: involved to try and find answers. And we have brought
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Speaker 7: a lot of heat, a lot of attentions, shook up
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Speaker 7: a lot of people, and we have a lot of
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Speaker 7: answers now that we didn't have before. This case is
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Speaker 7: so familiar to the thousands of cases that we work in.
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Speaker 1: Ye and it's the family and the friends know at
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Speaker 1: the beginning this is wrong. I don't have any evidence.
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Speaker 1: I don't have blood, I don't have fingerprints, I don't
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Speaker 1: have a murder weapon lying in the bedroom or in
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Speaker 1: the front yard. But I can tell you something is
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Speaker 1: very wrong. Guys, take a listen to our friends at WYMT.
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Speaker 2: This family is about it their wits end, with many
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Speaker 2: questions on what exactly took place. They believe something happened
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Speaker 2: last week, possibly Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of last week,
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Speaker 2: sometime around to fourth that's about the last time they
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Speaker 2: receive communication from him.
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Speaker 3: I'm very convinced that there's a foul play going on.
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Speaker 3: I'm very convinced that there are people who know what
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Speaker 3: has happened to my brother.
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Speaker 2: Seanne Carney says their brother, Ricky Griffiths, was last seen
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Speaker 2: on fourth, but in the days after that he did
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Speaker 2: make some strange phone calls talking about being stuck in
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Speaker 2: the mud or being stuck on a mat outa. His
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Speaker 2: car was later found in a lot of mud in
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Speaker 2: the Coopersville area. His phone was found there too, but
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Speaker 2: no sign of him.
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Speaker 1: I always find it very problematic when someone leaves their
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Speaker 1: phone behind. Doctor Lisa Long joining me well known forensic psychologist,
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Speaker 1: owner of doctor Long and Associates, and you can find
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Speaker 1: doctor Lisa at doctor Lisa Loong dot com. Doctor Lisa Long,
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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. You know what to
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Speaker 1: disattach a cell phone. I started to use my twins
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Speaker 1: who were fifteen as an example, but basically anybody. I
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Speaker 1: heard a doctor recommending to patients, if they want a
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Speaker 1: good night's sleep, don't be on your phone an hour
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Speaker 1: ahead of time before you go to bed, and they
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Speaker 1: went berserk. Then one of the women went, wait a minute,
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Speaker 1: I always go to the bathroom before I go to bed.
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Speaker 1: What do you mean I don't have the phone when
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Speaker 1: I'm on the commode, I can't look things up. And
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Speaker 1: the doctor went, that's right. People are attached to their phone.
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Speaker 1: I find it very problematic when we find a phone
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Speaker 1: left behind. I don't think anybody would willingly do that.
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Speaker 6: That is a good question.
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Speaker 4: I also do want to touch back on Cheyenne and
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Speaker 4: her mom having that gut feeling. You know, even from
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Speaker 4: a psychological standpoint, we have bodily cues with our muscle tone,
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Speaker 4: our heart rate, even our endocrine activity to be able
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Speaker 4: to make rapid decisions about how to navigate what's happening
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Speaker 4: around us. When we are having those gut feelings, those
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Speaker 4: are often considered somatic markers, and we've got to pay
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Speaker 4: attention to those gut instincts. It's an evolutionary strategy that
16:45
Speaker 4: helps us make very fast decisions. Just like Cyanne indicated,
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Speaker 4: you know, she called her mom and then they contacted
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Speaker 4: law enforcements. Those gut feelings are very important things to
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Speaker 4: pay attention to with everything going on around us.
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Speaker 1: When you said that you can even identify those gut
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Speaker 1: feelings through the endocrine activity, in other words, the release
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Speaker 1: of hormones through your blood and glands.
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Speaker 4: Yes, yes, absolutely, I mean you can tell a difference
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Speaker 4: even with just paying attention to how your breathing pattern is.
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Speaker 1: Everything is change really.
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Speaker 3: In all of your senses. You can feel one symptom's
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Speaker 3: not right exactly exactly.
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Speaker 1: Guys joining me right now, who's been on the case
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Speaker 1: from the very very beginning is Phil Pendleton, investigative reporter
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Speaker 1: multimedia journalists for wk y T. Phil, thank you for
17:49
Speaker 1: being with us. Phil. I was just thinking about this
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Speaker 1: area Burnside, Burnside, Kentucky. What's the population now? When I
17:59
Speaker 1: looked up the population investigating this case, it was under
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Speaker 1: a thousand.
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Speaker 8: Yes, it's a very small community right there on Lake Cumberland,
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Speaker 8: a very popular tourist destination, very beautiful area of Kentucky.
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Speaker 8: Burnside actually named for General Ambrose Burnside, which was famous
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Speaker 8: for the Civil War, was in the Battle of bull
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Speaker 8: Run and some of Kentucky's battles as well. It's just
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Speaker 8: a gorgeous area. And to have something like this a tragedy,
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Speaker 8: it's just so heartbreaking for this family and I feel
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Speaker 8: for them, and sadly, I've interviewed just so many families
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Speaker 8: with missing loved ones. I can't tell you how many
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Speaker 8: stories of missing persons that I have done, not just
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Speaker 8: in that area of Kentucky, but all over the area
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Speaker 8: of Kentucky that I cover. It's very unfortunate.
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Speaker 1: Tell me about the area is at Mountainous is a
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Speaker 1: horse country with big green pastures, very wooded. Why can
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Speaker 1: you tell me about the area?
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Speaker 8: Well, very wooded, and it's it's like I said that,
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Speaker 8: you know the Lake Cumberland there, and Lake Cumberland was
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Speaker 8: formed I believe in the nineteen forties nineteen fifties from
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Speaker 8: the Cumberland River. It's the terrain is very rugged, very hilly,
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Speaker 8: rolling hills. It's not like the pasture land of course
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Speaker 8: farms that you would see in central Kentucky. So it
19:25
Speaker 8: is very and there's a lot of forest land, a
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Speaker 8: lot of places I would say to hide something or
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Speaker 8: maybe someone. It's very difficult to get in and out
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Speaker 8: of there. I remember my first time as a young
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Speaker 8: person traveling in that area, trying to get around Burnside
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Speaker 8: and you're basically, you know, the lake is everywhere, and
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Speaker 8: trying to get to certain places. You're constantly driving over
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Speaker 8: bridges and going through you know, hilly terrain, curvy roadway,
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Speaker 8: that kind of thing.
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Speaker 1: Guys, you're hearing our friend Phil Pendleton on the case
20:04
Speaker 1: from the very beginning. Now take close to our friends
20:08
Speaker 1: at crimeonline dot com.
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Speaker 9: The search for Ricky Griffiths began two days after his
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Speaker 9: last contact with his mother, when Alice Maybe texted with
20:15
Speaker 9: her son asking if he was coming home that night.
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Speaker 9: He said no, but then he didn't come home the
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Speaker 9: next night either. Then he didn't show up for work.
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Speaker 9: Family members and those who know Griffiths say he's polite
20:27
Speaker 9: and respectful. He loves to collect tools and fix things,
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Speaker 9: a life that seems to mirror his routine of genes
20:33
Speaker 9: and tennis shoes.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that's telling me a lot about your brother, Cheyenne Carney.
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Speaker 1: When I start investigating a case, I typically start with
20:44
Speaker 1: finding out about the victim. What can you tell me
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Speaker 1: about your brother? He's described as a jeens and tennishes
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Speaker 1: kind of guy. He collects tools and he fixes things.
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Speaker 3: Tell me about him, well, another thing that'll bring back,
20:56
Speaker 3: bring us back to the Coopersville community where his car
21:00
Speaker 3: was found. When we when we did investigate, and we
21:04
Speaker 3: did do some searches. Now this is this isn't Cajun
21:09
Speaker 3: Coast searches. This, this is not using a cadaver dog.
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Speaker 3: But Ricky was also a chain smoker my whole life.
21:16
Speaker 3: Ricky was a smoker. And and with me out there
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Speaker 3: on foot the very as soon as they found the car,
21:27
Speaker 3: there was no cigarette. But anywhere in a walking distance
21:32
Speaker 3: from where we found his car, there's no way not
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Speaker 3: and there's no way that Ricky would have left his
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Speaker 3: phone and and water with it being in the summer
21:45
Speaker 3: in that area, which that area he is very familiar with.
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Speaker 8: He would never be lost or stuck.
21:52
Speaker 3: Because we grew up in that area that his car
21:55
Speaker 3: was was found in. Right, there was no, there was
21:59
Speaker 3: no cigarette surround nothing. It was almost like whoever placed
22:04
Speaker 3: that car there, the seat was not where he would
22:07
Speaker 3: have had the seat at. So I was taking these observations.
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Speaker 3: The seat is not placed properly, there's no cigarette butts here.
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Speaker 3: I'm looking around. There is no trace of Ricky. And
22:21
Speaker 3: then they had they did. We did have dogs. We
22:24
Speaker 3: did at nightfall, by the time we could get help
22:28
Speaker 3: in to search that area or whatnot. That the dogs
22:33
Speaker 3: did smell the sense of They did smell that scent,
22:37
Speaker 3: but it was whoever was in the car. They went up,
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Speaker 3: they went up to the mountain to get some self
22:44
Speaker 3: throne service, couldn't find any, and they went back to
22:46
Speaker 3: the road. The dog stalked where the scent. The scent stalked.
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Speaker 3: The dogs said, the ones that could smell who was
22:55
Speaker 3: in that vehicle, but there was there was no evidence
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Speaker 3: of Ricky being out there.
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Speaker 1: So you believe, Cheyenne, that the dogs are hitting on
23:05
Speaker 1: the scent of the person who left the car there,
23:09
Speaker 1: which you believe is not your brother, based on the
23:12
Speaker 1: lack of any cigarette butts in the area, and the seat.
23:16
Speaker 3: Was moved yet, yes, I mean that, but that that's
23:19
Speaker 3: my goa that's my with me doing I'm I'm pretty
23:23
Speaker 3: good at I'm pretty good at hounding things out myself.
23:28
Speaker 3: I mean, Ricky always said I was the nosiest human
23:30
Speaker 3: he'd ever he'd ever come across. I'm nosier than our
23:34
Speaker 3: mother even. I mean he's even He's even said I
23:39
Speaker 3: had a motor mouth.
23:40
Speaker 1: Question for you regarding your brother. He's over six feet tall,
23:43
Speaker 1: and it really it reminds me of another case. Wendy
23:47
Speaker 1: Patrick with me, California prosecutor and author of Tara Grinstead,
23:52
Speaker 1: who I remember when her mother showed me her home.
23:55
Speaker 1: I've said it a million times. Her home looked like
23:57
Speaker 1: a little jewel box. Everything was perfect, designed in there
24:01
Speaker 1: by her and decorated. Nothing was out of place except
24:07
Speaker 1: a string of pearls, as I recall, had been broken
24:10
Speaker 1: and had rolled across the floor, which what lady is
24:14
Speaker 1: not going to gather up the pearls off a pearl necklace?
24:17
Speaker 1: And two in her car, she was a neat neck.
24:20
Speaker 1: Her car always smelled brand new, and it was perfect.
24:24
Speaker 1: You know those people that have a perfect interior of
24:26
Speaker 1: their car. Her car was covered in mud, parked in
24:31
Speaker 1: the car port, and her driver's seat was way back
24:36
Speaker 1: and She was a tiny, small bone, tiny woman, Tara Grinstead.
24:44
Speaker 1: And in this case, Ricky's over six feet tall and
24:48
Speaker 1: the seat is in the wrong place for him to
24:52
Speaker 1: have been driving. That means something to me. Wendy Patrick.
24:56
Speaker 6: Absolutely. You know, Seanna is a great detective because this
25:00
Speaker 6: exactly is the type of thing that investigators can go on.
25:02
Speaker 6: It's evidence of an intruder, foul play that it wasn't
25:06
Speaker 6: Ricky driving that car. You know, the lack of cigarette
25:09
Speaker 6: butts that has a very perceptive observation, the leaving of
25:12
Speaker 6: the water at the end of summer, the moving of
25:14
Speaker 6: the seat.
25:15
Speaker 2: You know.
25:15
Speaker 6: When she first started explaining it, I thought, well, you know,
25:18
Speaker 6: sometimes crime scenes are staged, but this appears to be
25:21
Speaker 6: the opposite. This appears to be some good evidence that
25:24
Speaker 6: it wasn't Ricky in his own car.
25:26
Speaker 1: Take a listen again to Dave Max Crime Online.
25:29
Speaker 9: Ricky Griffiths was seen leaving an acquaintance place of business
25:33
Speaker 9: on July fifth. Several text messages were exchanged with the acquaintance.
25:37
Speaker 9: The next day, his car was found near the Coopersville
25:40
Speaker 9: Strip mines. That morning, Griffith sent his family a strange
25:44
Speaker 9: text message around nine am. It said he was stuck
25:46
Speaker 9: in the woods, but Griffith's cell phone was found in
25:50
Speaker 9: the vehicle along with his wallet.
25:52
Speaker 1: Very curious, and it brings to mind the Gabby Potato case.
25:56
Speaker 1: Remember when Brian Laundry after he murdered Gab be out
26:00
Speaker 1: in a dispersed camping area out west. He then brings
26:05
Speaker 1: her van, leaves her body there, drives her van, uses
26:09
Speaker 1: her credit cards to cross the country back home to
26:11
Speaker 1: Florida to Mommy and Daddy, sending garbled odd texts to
26:16
Speaker 1: her family along the way to pretend to make it
26:20
Speaker 1: appear that she was still alive. His big screw up
26:25
Speaker 1: was he referred to Gabby's father a grandfather by his name.
26:32
Speaker 1: That would be like me calling instead of my grandmother
26:35
Speaker 1: calling her Mama, was Hi, Lucy Minerva Fullwood Stokes Hartley.
26:41
Speaker 1: That would just never happen. And so only someone that
26:45
Speaker 1: knows Ricky would realize there's something wrong with the message.
26:51
Speaker 1: Before I go off on that tangent, I want to
26:55
Speaker 1: find out about the last time, Cheyenne Carney, that your
26:59
Speaker 1: brother Ricky had used his ATM or his credit cards.
27:02
Speaker 1: I did his his activity.
27:07
Speaker 3: We do know that he stopped at at ATM. We
27:09
Speaker 3: do know the bank that he stopped at in that location.
27:13
Speaker 3: Our leads have indicated us that not only did he
27:17
Speaker 3: stop at one location, he might have possibly stopped at
27:20
Speaker 3: another location. I believe he pulled one hundred out. I
27:24
Speaker 3: believe he went on to the next location. There's a
27:26
Speaker 3: possibility he went into the store.
27:28
Speaker 1: Okay, wait wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait, you're
27:31
Speaker 1: saying there's a possibility. Are you telling me the cops
27:34
Speaker 1: haven't pulled the video surveillance or the ATM photograph.
27:37
Speaker 3: I'm telling you that absolutely. And they're saying that they
27:44
Speaker 3: pulled on but we don't have no factual evidence that
27:47
Speaker 3: they pulled them with all the gross negligence that the
27:52
Speaker 3: police have done with not processing his car, setting back
27:56
Speaker 3: on the heel, waiting for them to pull the car
27:59
Speaker 3: out of the terrain, not a detective search the car
28:02
Speaker 3: or take it seriously. Do I believe that they pulled it? Yeah,
28:08
Speaker 3: they might have pulled it, but it would have been
28:10
Speaker 3: seven eight months later.
28:12
Speaker 1: Shanne Carney, do you believe it was your brother that
28:15
Speaker 1: took the money out of the ATMs just before his disappearance? Yes?
28:18
Speaker 3: No, the first couple times, he.
28:19
Speaker 1: Is Okay, how many times was money taken out? Did
28:23
Speaker 1: he withdraw money on his ATM? Just a number, not
28:25
Speaker 1: a clue.
28:26
Speaker 3: We cannot get nothing else from any.
28:28
Speaker 1: Do you think two times? Shanne Conway? Why do you
28:31
Speaker 1: believe five people were with him at the time he
28:33
Speaker 1: withdrew money? Video surveillance, video surveillance from where the gas
28:37
Speaker 1: station that he was at. Gotcha, guys, I want you
28:40
Speaker 1: to take a listen to our friends at crimeonline dot com.
28:44
Speaker 1: Did a mystery note emerge.
28:47
Speaker 9: After Griffiths Carr was found. A note was uncovered inside
28:50
Speaker 9: written on the back of a receipt from the Cove
28:53
Speaker 9: Bar and Grill in Somerset, Kentucky. It said, quote, thank
28:56
Speaker 9: you for the thought. Indeed it was excessive, but deeply
29:00
Speaker 9: appreciated unquote. The family confirmed that Griffiths went to the
29:03
Speaker 9: restaurant for lunch. The owner, manager, and server said the
29:07
Speaker 9: note had been written by a regular customer after Griffiths
29:10
Speaker 9: had paid for a meal for the man and his wife.
29:12
Speaker 1: So let me understand, The owner, manager and server at
29:15
Speaker 1: the restaurant said, the note was written by a customer
29:19
Speaker 1: because your brother paid for their meal. Is that right, cheyenne, Yes,
29:26
Speaker 1: that is right? Okay? So was that the day he
29:28
Speaker 1: goes missing, that that was.
29:30
Speaker 3: The morning or the afternoon before. And Nancy, he was
29:35
Speaker 3: a wonderful man. He said that Ricky was one of
29:38
Speaker 3: the most kind. He said that his energy, his smile, everything.
29:43
Speaker 3: He was surprised that Ricky had paid for every pay
29:47
Speaker 3: for their meals. But my brother is the type of
29:50
Speaker 3: person that would pinpoint certain folks out and he would
29:54
Speaker 3: do very kind things for them. That's the type of
29:57
Speaker 3: man that Ricky was.
29:58
Speaker 1: Shann what did your brother do?
30:00
Speaker 3: He was a mister fix it. He mostly worked construction
30:05
Speaker 3: his entire life. My father has taught him how to
30:10
Speaker 3: run cable, how to deghole. I mean, my father has
30:15
Speaker 3: taught him a lot of very handyman work. And then
30:19
Speaker 3: Ricky with his with his drive and motivation, and he
30:23
Speaker 3: sees like other people in help Ricky. Ricky was a
30:25
Speaker 3: first responder at heart. He just never knew it. That's
30:28
Speaker 3: why I always told him he had a story to tell.
30:43
Speaker 1: Prime stories with Nancy Grace guys. Now claims are emerging
30:47
Speaker 1: that local law enforcement ignored the family when they report
30:53
Speaker 1: Ricky missing, and ultimately an out of state agency comes
31:00
Speaker 1: in to search for Ricky. Take a listen to our
31:04
Speaker 1: cut fifteen from w k YT.
31:07
Speaker 2: Cage and Coast Search and Rescue responded to a call
31:10
Speaker 2: for help. Tony Wade came up with his can and
31:13
Speaker 2: I and holder to help out. His crew has been
31:15
Speaker 2: instrumental in searches and recovery operations all over the United States,
31:20
Speaker 2: and they assisted with the search for Savannah Spurlock in
31:22
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen.
31:23
Speaker 10: So he puts cent on Facebook. I think yesterday that
31:26
Speaker 10: Kentucky always holds a special place in my heart. I
31:28
Speaker 10: think this is my fourth trip up here. Every time
31:31
Speaker 10: we come, we handle two or three cases each time.
31:35
Speaker 10: You know, we've had some luck up here, you know,
31:38
Speaker 10: make some recoveries. You know the people of Kentucky that
31:41
Speaker 10: we've been so kind to me.
31:42
Speaker 1: And joining me right now is the commander of the
31:45
Speaker 1: Cajun Coast Search and Rescue Team, Tony Wade. Tony, how
31:50
Speaker 1: did you get pulled in on Ricky's disappearance?
31:52
Speaker 7: You know this this is and it's been a tough
31:55
Speaker 7: k for us. You know, just the terrain itself. We
32:00
Speaker 7: have zero and when I tell you zero help from
32:04
Speaker 7: law enforcement area. I actually I've been here a little
32:08
Speaker 7: over a week on this case. I actually talked to
32:11
Speaker 7: the sheriff Away County yesterday for the first time. So
32:15
Speaker 7: the case has been difficult to us. The lease and
32:17
Speaker 7: a police departmer, we're going off family and I have
32:21
Speaker 7: personally spoke to some of the individuals involved in the
32:24
Speaker 7: case of our suspects and questioned them, and it's just
32:29
Speaker 7: it's difficult because we have not only do the searches
32:31
Speaker 7: and some very extreme terrains, but we're having to do
32:35
Speaker 7: all the investigative work ourselves as well. So this case
32:38
Speaker 7: has been really tough, you know, and even more so
32:41
Speaker 7: because it has become personal to me because the family
32:45
Speaker 7: is with me every day. Cheyenne has been with me
32:47
Speaker 7: since day one on every search. You know. I'm grateful
32:52
Speaker 7: to have my teammate Shelley King with me that has
32:54
Speaker 7: been extraordinary and helping with case. It's just been a
32:58
Speaker 7: really tough case.
32:59
Speaker 1: Nancy A very surprised the local authorities are not there
33:04
Speaker 1: helping you. What would this be Wayne County.
33:06
Speaker 7: Wayne County, Pulaska County, you know. And the funny thing
33:10
Speaker 7: is we have a sheriff from mccrurie County that his
33:13
Speaker 7: county is not even involved in the case, but he
33:15
Speaker 7: is calling and checking on us every day. Offering us help.
33:20
Speaker 7: The only law enforcement that we've had any success with,
33:22
Speaker 7: and his county is not even involved in the case.
33:25
Speaker 7: You know, we did have Kentucky State Police detectives out
33:28
Speaker 7: with us yesterday. We found something and felt the need
33:31
Speaker 7: to be checked out. They sent three detectors to help us,
33:33
Speaker 7: and unfortunately they can't take the case until we can
33:37
Speaker 7: find the body because it's already an open investigation behind
33:40
Speaker 7: the part of the agency.
33:41
Speaker 1: Tony, how did you get involved? Who called you?
33:43
Speaker 7: Well, actually, I have a very good friend of mine
33:46
Speaker 7: that has helped me with multiple searches here at Kentucky.
33:50
Speaker 7: Ricky worked for him. He reached out to me to
33:52
Speaker 7: get involved in the case, and that I was tagged
33:55
Speaker 7: in one of Cheyenne's Facebook posts. So I reached out
33:59
Speaker 7: to Cheyenne and the family actually come.
34:01
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, what can you tell me about
34:05
Speaker 1: the canine searches, the fact that a canine picked up
34:09
Speaker 1: on a scent in the car, followed it up the
34:12
Speaker 1: mountain side to try to I guess, get a cell
34:15
Speaker 1: tower connection, and then back down to the road. Do
34:18
Speaker 1: you believe that the canine was onto ricky scent or
34:22
Speaker 1: the driver of the vehicle.
34:23
Speaker 7: Well, you know, that's something that we just don't know
34:26
Speaker 7: for sure from my professional experience when we're going to
34:31
Speaker 7: try and send someone like that. Well, we started to
34:34
Speaker 7: drive receipt, we get a scent out of the driver's seat,
34:37
Speaker 7: and then we allowed the dog to follow that scent.
34:39
Speaker 7: I think the dog was tracking whoever it was that
34:42
Speaker 7: was driving the car, whether that be Ricky or somebody else.
34:47
Speaker 7: You know. Unfortunately, the dogs can't tell us who they're tracking.
34:49
Speaker 7: We just know they're tracking. The dog did pick up
34:52
Speaker 7: a sen from the driver's seat and followed it up
34:54
Speaker 7: to the top of the ridge and then back down
34:58
Speaker 7: to the road where it looked like somebody had picked
34:59
Speaker 7: them up. Oh, so we just don't know who it was.
35:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I take a listen to our cut eleven our
35:04
Speaker 1: friends at WKYT.
35:06
Speaker 2: The Wayne County Sheriff's Office is investigating, but she says
35:10
Speaker 2: an out of state search crew has agreed to look
35:12
Speaker 2: for him and other missing Kentuckians. She says that is
35:15
Speaker 2: outstanding welcome news that she feels very good about.
35:19
Speaker 1: Have I read her post and our post hers touched
35:24
Speaker 1: their heart and I've read it to gather up their
35:29
Speaker 1: stuff and come look for Ricky.
35:30
Speaker 2: The Wayne County Sheriff says they are planning to have
35:33
Speaker 2: another search in the area where his car was found.
35:36
Speaker 2: He says they have conducted a lot of investigations on this,
35:39
Speaker 2: including four polygraph tests, but still nothing but more questions
35:44
Speaker 2: on what happened to this man.
35:46
Speaker 1: So let me understand. Phil Pendleton is with us from WKYT.
35:51
Speaker 1: Four polygraph tests have been conducted. Do you believe, Peel
35:57
Speaker 1: that those pollies were taken from the people that showed
36:01
Speaker 1: up insurveillance video is being in the car with Ricky.
36:05
Speaker 8: That's a good question. We asked the sheriff at you know,
36:08
Speaker 8: several times about like who. He didn't tell us who
36:11
Speaker 8: they were, what names of the people that were given
36:14
Speaker 8: the polygraph test. But on several occasions the Wayne County
36:17
Speaker 8: Sheriff did tell me that they had done a number
36:20
Speaker 8: of these polygraph light detector tests, and it's just from him,
36:24
Speaker 8: it sounded like that that didn't give them any any
36:27
Speaker 8: more clear answers that it actually caused more questions to
36:32
Speaker 8: be asked. That's according to what he told me.
36:34
Speaker 1: Shyanne Carney is with me. This is Ricky's sister, Cheyenne.
36:38
Speaker 1: We have learned that there are allegations that local LA
36:42
Speaker 1: law enforcement did not take Ricky's disappearance seriously. What happened.
36:49
Speaker 3: What happened absolutely nothing. Everything everything that had happened I did.
36:55
Speaker 3: There was There was no processing of the car. They
36:59
Speaker 3: looked at as a joke. They left the car unattended
37:03
Speaker 3: for over forty eight hours. No sheriff or detective ever
37:09
Speaker 3: actually went down in the terrain to where the car was,
37:12
Speaker 3: even though there were forty ATVs.
37:16
Speaker 8: That they could get there.
37:17
Speaker 3: There was no one took a ride, even on the
37:21
Speaker 3: back of anything to process the car or to tape
37:24
Speaker 3: it off.
37:25
Speaker 1: What is the jurisdiction Cheyenne, Is that Wayne County where
37:28
Speaker 1: his car was found?
37:29
Speaker 8: Yes?
37:29
Speaker 3: Yes, the jurisdiction where the car is what the car?
37:33
Speaker 3: The car was found is Wayne County.
37:35
Speaker 1: Can I ask you why why did they have it?
37:37
Speaker 1: They told you why they're not doing anything to find
37:40
Speaker 1: your brother.
37:40
Speaker 3: Your guess is the good as mine, because like they
37:44
Speaker 3: set back on the hill, and then whenever they came
37:47
Speaker 3: to my home, my mother's home, and my mother and
37:51
Speaker 3: my father, they said, well, why didn't nobody go to
37:53
Speaker 3: the car, not the first sheriff, No one went to
37:58
Speaker 3: the car. Why did you want here, and in front
38:01
Speaker 3: of eleven and two minors, he said publicly he had
38:08
Speaker 3: a seventy thousand dollars vehicle that he did not want
38:11
Speaker 3: to get scratched up or dirty.
38:13
Speaker 1: Phil Pendleton, is this true?
38:15
Speaker 8: He has not told that to me.
38:17
Speaker 1: Who is the sheriff of Wayne County, Kentucky.
38:21
Speaker 8: That would be Tim Catcheron.
38:22
Speaker 1: How do you spell that last name? I'm not understanding it.
38:25
Speaker 8: C at ro N.
38:27
Speaker 1: How long has he been in office?
38:29
Speaker 8: I believe this is his second or third term.
38:32
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out why they would not have
38:34
Speaker 1: anyone go search the scene or follow up on these leads,
38:38
Speaker 1: or maybe they're doing things we don't know about. The
38:42
Speaker 1: contact number for the Wayne County Sheriff is six zero
38:45
Speaker 1: six three four eight five four one six repeat six
38:52
Speaker 1: zero six three four eight five four one six if
38:57
Speaker 1: you're interested in answers as to why this is languishing
39:01
Speaker 1: and why an out of state search team had to
39:05
Speaker 1: come do all the work regarding bringing in k nines,
39:11
Speaker 1: looking at the car, following the scent, and so much more.
39:16
Speaker 1: To Shanne Carney, this is Ricky's sister. You say that
39:19
Speaker 1: you know more now than you did before to what
39:23
Speaker 1: are you referring.
39:24
Speaker 3: The leads that Tony has received, the leads vote that
39:28
Speaker 3: we've received since since now, since you, Nancy, since you,
39:32
Speaker 3: and I hate to say even we had to apply that
39:36
Speaker 3: pressure because the law enforcement here was not applying any pressure.
39:42
Speaker 3: There was a lot of detector tests, Nancy. We have
39:45
Speaker 3: a video of we have we have someone admitting to
39:50
Speaker 3: killing my brother. We have people that he admitted that too,
39:55
Speaker 3: to come forth and they're just brushed under the rug.
39:59
Speaker 3: It has to take us to reach out to you
40:04
Speaker 3: before we got to respond.
40:06
Speaker 1: And what was the response.
40:07
Speaker 3: I'm very curious just answering the phone. We've not had
40:12
Speaker 3: nobody answer the phone.
40:14
Speaker 1: You know what that is embarrassing to Brian Fitzgibbons, VP
40:19
Speaker 1: Operation USBA Nationwide Security. When I hear that law enforcement
40:24
Speaker 1: won't even pick up the phone. That's like a chick
40:28
Speaker 1: in the teeth.
40:29
Speaker 7: It's absolutely despicable.
40:31
Speaker 5: And there has to be some accountability here for the
40:35
Speaker 5: contamination of the crime team in the first instance, with
40:41
Speaker 5: the vehicle being pulled out of the woods the way
40:43
Speaker 5: that it was. The second thing is, you know, i'd
40:47
Speaker 5: advise the family to make sure that they get records
40:50
Speaker 5: of everything that's been submitted to law enforcement thus far.
40:56
Speaker 5: It's absolutely despicable the way this case has been handled.
40:59
Speaker 1: You know, when you go into law enforcement, you do
41:03
Speaker 1: it because you want to. You're never gonna make a
41:06
Speaker 1: lot of money in and I can tell you that myself,
41:08
Speaker 1: but you do it because you believe in helping other people.
41:13
Speaker 1: And when you lose the desire to help other people,
41:16
Speaker 1: you need to quit and go somewhere and sit behind
41:19
Speaker 1: a desk and do that. I'm very concerned about what
41:23
Speaker 1: I'm hearing about the lack of energy put into this case.
41:29
Speaker 1: The tip line to help Cheyenne and her family find
41:33
Speaker 1: her brother three one eight seven three two one two
41:38
Speaker 1: six ' one. I'm giving you the number for the
41:41
Speaker 1: Cajun Co Search and Rescue Team. Three one eight seven
41:45
Speaker 1: three two one two six ' one. Please help us
41:50
Speaker 1: find answers. Goodbye friend,