Latest / Luke's English Podcast / S1E7 - Ian Rogers - Missing Person Case Review(M4A_128K)

Transcript

S1E7 - Ian Rogers - Missing Person Case Review(M4A_128K) · Luke's English Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In Tragedy a True Crime podcast, we discuss crimes that
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: may be violent in nature. At times, we may cover homicides,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: missing people, and other topics that may be unsettling. Listener
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: discretion is advised. In this series of Tragedy a True
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Crime Podcast, we'll be covering the missing case of Ian
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Rogers out of Crawfordville, Florida. I'm Alisa, I'm Michael, and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: we just want to start out by thanking a listener
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: for this recommendation. If you have heard our voices before,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: that means you have listened to our six episode series
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: on the unsolved homicide of Jody Kilgore, and one of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: those people recommended this case as our next case to cover.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's in the same county. Yeah, in this case we
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: have someone who is missing, and so we want to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: thank that listener for giving us this recommendation. And if
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you're new to our podcast, we do want to take
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a moment just to clear our intent so that you
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: understand what we are trying to do with our podcast.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Would you like to talk about that?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the big thing that we want to focus on
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: is we're not looking for notoriety, we're not looking for money,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: We're not looking for anything other than giving back to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the community. And so we're looking for cases that have
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: maybe been poorly represented in the media, poorly covered by
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: law enforcement, or least not extensively covered by law enforcement,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and just the type of cases that seem to be
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: getting left behind. So that's what led us to the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Jody Kilgore case, and that's of course what's now led
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: us to this one.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: All right, well, let's get into it with just a
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: quick summary.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do it.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of August twenty six, twenty
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: twenty four, Ian Rodgers dropped his girlfriend off at work.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: He returned to the home they shared, he got ready
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: for work, he stopped by his mother's house to pick
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: up work tools, and he was never verifiably seen again.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Ian worked for Spartan Exteriors, where he had recently received
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a promotion. With his promotion, he was enjoying a salary
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: increase and he was provided with a work truck. The
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: work truck, a twenty nineteen Dodge Ram, was captured on
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: at least one that we know of traffic camera, but
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: it was unclear if Ian was the driver of the truck,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: as the image is super Greeny between nine thirty and
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: twelve thirty pm. We are aware of some phone calls
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that he made to family and to co workers, and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a phone call was made from his phone late in
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the morning that indicated that the truck was overheating and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that he would be late to work. And it wasn't
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: until that evening when Ian's boss, Joe, arrived at Ian's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: mom's house to tell her that Ian had not arrived
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: at work that day. And since that day, family and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: friends have focused on taking action on finding Ian and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Ian's disappearance was immediately reported to the Walcolla County Sheriff's Office.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: A Facebook page was created and missing Persons flyers were distributed. Also,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: this case was added to the Nameless website, which is
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a website that houses critical information about people who are missing.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And at this time June of twenty twenty five, there
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: has been no contact or word from Ian all right.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: So at this point, because it's a missing person, there
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: doesn't seem to be a lot of information at all here.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: We have Basically, we've talked about a truck that's missing,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: We've talked to him that's missing, and it's just poof,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: He's just gone and no one seems to have any
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: idea of really what to go on. So let's see,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: based on that summary, I want to start with, we
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: understand he was getting promoted or was promoted. Do we
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: know what he was supposed to be doing that day?
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, he was supposed to be reporting to work at
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the work site, which is in Killarn, which is in Tallahassee.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And he lived at the time in Crawfordville, which is
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: south of Tallahassee. So he was supposed to be traveling
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: in the work truck north, either up the Crawfordville Highway
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: or the Woodville Highway, and then most likely circling around
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Capital Circle there are several different ways to do it,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and heading up into that Kolarn neighborhood, which is the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: northeast part of Tallahassee.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, what about was there anything going on around this time?
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Yes? The day he disappeared was August twenty sixth, twenty
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: twenty four. And what's really notable about the timing of
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: this disappearance or of him being missing, is it the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: next day, August twenty seventh, is his only child's birthday,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and we know from talking to family that he had
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: been talking with his child about a birthday party. They
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: had been making plans. He disappeared on a Monday. They
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: had been making plans for the next weekend to continue
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the celebration of his birthday, and it just seemed very
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's obviously unusual for someone just to go
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: missing anyway, but for that to happen the day before
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: your only child's birthday was just even more unsettling to people.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: So you're this is probably one of the reasons why
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: most people have we spoken with so far don't believe
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that this person just got up and walked away, And
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: it was out of character for ng. Plus with these
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: events and this person, you know, his child that he
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: cared for, extremely unlikely he would have just vanished on
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: his on accord, right? And is this also the reason
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: that law enforcement is treating this now like it was
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: foul play? Because now as a missing person for what
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: we understand they now treat as foul play. What led
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: up to them changing that decision?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, And so we know it was originally reported as
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a missing persons because Teresa Ian's moms, the person who
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: reported him missing the evening that the boss came and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: visited her and she lives in Crawfordville, which is why
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the case is held with Walkal County Sheriff's office originally,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and about three months later they changed it from a
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: missing person's investigation to a criminal investigation. And it seems
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: that that shift happened because we know that that's about
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the time that they were able to get the cell
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: phone records. I can tell that from doing some reading
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and some researching, and that they also had the bank
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: accounts at that time, so there was nothing happening with
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: bank accounts, nothing happening with phone or anything like that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: after the day he disappeared. So I think those are
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: some of the things that triggered the change to a
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: criminal investigation.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: All right, So let's talk about the media cover, right.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: So WFLA, a local radio station, did a quick cover
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of the story shortly after Ian disappeared. WTXL, which is
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a local TV channel, initially covered the disappearance. We also
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: know that there was an article in the Wallcullis Sun
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: on October tenth of twenty twenty four, which is around
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the sixth week mark of his disappearance. It's like, not
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: even a half page article in the Wallcullis Sun shows
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the flier that the family and friends made and just
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: talks briefly about his disappearance. And that's really all that
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: we have that we know we can direct attribute to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Ian's disappearance as far as media coverage.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: All right, So what I find notable here is you
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: haven't indicated anything so far in your story about have
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: we even gone looking for this person? Have we gone
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: looking for the truck? What kind of efforts for recovery
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: have been made so far?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, the best place to start to learn what that
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: looked like for the family is the Operation Bring Ian
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Rogers facebook page. And you can tell pretty immediately that
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: several close friends and family members created this Facebook page
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and they made flyers. They posted flyers everywhere you can
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: see on the Facebook page, people are saying, where do
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: you think he Where do you think his truck? His
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: cell phone pinged? Nobody knew it at that time, but
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: they started talking where do I take my ATV? Where
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: do I take my metal detector? Like people who were
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: supporting the family were coming out initially at the beginning,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: lots of people, how can we help, Let us give
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: you money so we can get these flyers out.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Let us call.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: The local news channel so Initially there was a lot
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: going on, and some people then took that a step
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: further and they were able to contact several search and
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: rescue organizations. There were a couple we know for sure
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: we're involved, and one is the Sunshine State Sonar Organization,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and then the second one is called Depths of History.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: There's a really interesting I think it's about eight minutes
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I think so on YouTube where this organization, Depths of History.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: They have some kind of sonar equipment that they lower
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: into sinkholes and they were searching for the truck. We'll
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: put that in the description if you're interested in watching that.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And according to that YouTube eight minute thing on YouTube,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: somehow they got the information about where the cell phone
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: had last pinged. Doesn't necessarily say how he got that,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: but there is that that search and rescue effort as
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: well as with Depths of History, they were launching drones
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: in the area as well. Turns out it was private property.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Then we also know that the truck. Let's just talk
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: about where the truck was seen because that's really connected
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: to the search and rescue efforts. So we know that
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: there was what a traffic camera or some kind of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: camera that did capture an image of the truck near
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the intersection of Connor and Appalachi Parkway. Now, again, as
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: we mentioned at the beginning, we don't know that it
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: was Ian in the truck because it's a little grainy,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: but it definitely was the truck. And because of that,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: some search and rescue organizations checked several bodies of water
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in that area, which is up in Tallahassee, and did
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: some additional drone footage and even went as far as
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to searching the Wasisa River in that area.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not sure why they went to search the
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Wasasa River. We don't have any information on that yet. Well,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: we do know they did search there.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: So it does appear that there are at least two,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: maybe more organizations that did go out and try to
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: find the truck. I guess, you know, I'm not from Tallahassee,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: but it does seem that people ditch cars and trucks
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: in Saint Hol's.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: It's been known to happen.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: So this seemed like a logical thing for people to do.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Is you know, I think you're going to be able
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to find a truck a little faster than you might,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: you know, find a body. If that's the case, and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: so maybe hitting on the truck was a good decision. Yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: And the other thing challenge about the truck, and we
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: first heard about the case, I was I was interested
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: in had this truck just disappear? And one of the
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: things that you have to keep in mind is this
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: is the This was pointed out by someone we spoke
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: with recently that you know, it's such a generic truck.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: It's a Dodge white contractor looking truck. There's got to
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: be a thousand of them that you see on an
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: everyday basis if you're driving around the city. So this
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: is a truck that would blend into something very very
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: easily and something that people would probably not notice.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Yep, and they do have the license plate number. We
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: did put it at the very beginning, but I'll just
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: put it in again. It's a Florida tag RSKU and
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: then the numbers five and seven. So, just to go
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: back to your question about search efforts, it sounds like
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a lot of things were done ATVs drones going into
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Sinkhohle's and that's just what we know from family and friends.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: We don't have any information about law enforcements efforts for
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: any searches of the truck or Ian. Because it's an
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: active care we can't get that information.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one thing we did is we and we're going
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: to get into more detail in some later episodes, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: we did some searches of various types of other activities
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: that were happening in this area. And one thing that
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: we found it was notable, is the discovery of a skeleton.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Now alsa you want to go into that.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: In January seventeenth, twenty twenty five, skeletal remains were found
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: in a wooded area near the Blairstone Forest area, and
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: this was posted in an article on the WCTV web
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: page on January twenty third, twenty twenty five. And we
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: found this interesting because if we think about the path
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: that we talked about the very beginning that Ian would
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: have been taking from Crawfordville up to Klarn, and we
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: also know that the truck was spotted near Tom Brown Park.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: We know that this area, this wooded area near Blairstone
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Forest is not far out of the way between Crawfordville
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and Tom Brown Park. And so again we don't know
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: that this has anything to do with Ian, but we
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: find that if we think about his path, it's just
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: an interesting thing that we want to bring up and
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: know that as far as media coverage, we're discussing, Yeah.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So this could be related, cannot be related. More information
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: on that later that it was notable enough that we
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: felt it was worth bringing into this case.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it does. Location is important, all right.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: So one of the things that we're going to be
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: doing next is we'll be talking to Teresa Ian's bom
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: and so we're going to give you her perspective, you know,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: what her day look like. Maybe she can fill in
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: a few holes for us for the future, but we're
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: looking forward to getting that done.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yep Ian Rogers was last seen in Crawfordville, Florida, the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: morning of August twenty sixth, twenty twenty four. At the time,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: he was wearing a black hat, sunglasses, a blue long
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: sleeve dry fit shirt, a white undershirt, tan cargo shorts,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and brown work boots. Ian has a half tattoo on
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: his right forearm, which consists of two gorillas and a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: sault shaker, a tribal tattoo on his left calf, and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: a scroll tattoo with the word mom on his right calf.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: He was driving a white twenty nineteen Dodge Ram truck
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Florida license plate rsk U five seven. The truck is
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: also missing. Ian told family, friends, and work colleagues he
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: was on his way to work, but he never made it.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: If you have any information, please call the Walcolla County
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office at eight five oh seven four five seven
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: one zero zero, or you can email us at Tragedy
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a True Crime Podcast at gmail dot com. Please join
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the Operation Bring Ian Rogers Home Facebook page to support
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Ian's family