1 00:00:14,996 --> 00:00:21,956 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, it's Dana. I am currently writing new episodes 2 00:00:21,956 --> 00:00:24,236 Speaker 1: of Lost Tales for you, but in the meantime I 3 00:00:24,276 --> 00:00:27,756 Speaker 1: wanted to share something really awesome. It's a preview of 4 00:00:27,836 --> 00:00:30,996 Speaker 1: deep Cover, another true crime show from Pushkin and my 5 00:00:31,036 --> 00:00:34,876 Speaker 1: friend Jake Halbern. In deep Cover's new season, Jake tells 6 00:00:34,916 --> 00:00:37,396 Speaker 1: the story of two young women living on opposite sides 7 00:00:37,396 --> 00:00:40,316 Speaker 1: of the country who went missing at almost the exact 8 00:00:40,356 --> 00:00:44,516 Speaker 1: same time. Seven years later, their stories collided when one 9 00:00:44,556 --> 00:00:48,836 Speaker 1: woman resurfaced posing is the other. A small town detective 10 00:00:48,836 --> 00:00:51,636 Speaker 1: became obsessed with the case, convinced that one of them 11 00:00:51,836 --> 00:00:55,236 Speaker 1: was a spy. Okay, here's a sneak peek. I hope 12 00:00:55,236 --> 00:00:57,556 Speaker 1: you enjoyed as much as I did. You can find 13 00:00:57,596 --> 00:01:00,476 Speaker 1: deep Cover wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can 14 00:01:00,476 --> 00:01:04,516 Speaker 1: get all six episodes right now at pushkin, dot FM, 15 00:01:04,756 --> 00:01:10,956 Speaker 1: forward slash plus. This is a story about a young 16 00:01:10,996 --> 00:01:14,556 Speaker 1: woman who ran away from home. At least that's how 17 00:01:14,596 --> 00:01:17,036 Speaker 1: it all started. I think people think that I had 18 00:01:17,076 --> 00:01:18,796 Speaker 1: this master plan and I went out and did it, 19 00:01:18,836 --> 00:01:23,196 Speaker 1: and like, you know, like it's not fun, right. You're 20 00:01:23,236 --> 00:01:25,716 Speaker 1: constantly scared, you have no support, you have no one 21 00:01:25,756 --> 00:01:27,836 Speaker 1: to talk to, which is part of the reason it 22 00:01:27,916 --> 00:01:31,276 Speaker 1: got so carried away, Like if I had just talked 23 00:01:31,316 --> 00:01:35,116 Speaker 1: to somebody, they would have been like, this is crazy. 24 00:01:36,196 --> 00:01:38,836 Speaker 1: Along the way, there were plenty of moments where she 25 00:01:38,876 --> 00:01:44,516 Speaker 1: could have stopped running, but she didn't. Sort of like 26 00:01:44,556 --> 00:01:48,036 Speaker 1: I got on a train track. There was clearly the 27 00:01:48,076 --> 00:01:51,036 Speaker 1: wrong train track, and like, my train is running away, 28 00:01:51,036 --> 00:01:53,996 Speaker 1: and at some point you're not thinking, crap, how do 29 00:01:54,076 --> 00:01:56,196 Speaker 1: we get off this train track? You're just thinking, crap, 30 00:01:56,236 --> 00:01:58,476 Speaker 1: how do I stop this train from like going off 31 00:01:58,516 --> 00:02:01,876 Speaker 1: the rails? You know, I just kept making horrible decision 32 00:02:01,876 --> 00:02:05,716 Speaker 1: after horrible decision after horrible decision, just trying to keep 33 00:02:05,716 --> 00:02:08,196 Speaker 1: the train from crashing and killing me. At that point, 34 00:02:12,516 --> 00:02:14,556 Speaker 1: we're going to come back to this woman and go 35 00:02:14,636 --> 00:02:17,756 Speaker 1: deep into her story so you'll hear more about all that, 36 00:02:18,436 --> 00:02:21,916 Speaker 1: but not just yet, because this is actually a story 37 00:02:22,116 --> 00:02:26,236 Speaker 1: about not one, but two young women who vanished at 38 00:02:26,276 --> 00:02:29,276 Speaker 1: about the same time. The two of them were roughly 39 00:02:29,396 --> 00:02:32,676 Speaker 1: the same age, but in so many other ways they 40 00:02:32,716 --> 00:02:35,716 Speaker 1: could not have been more different. One grew up in 41 00:02:35,796 --> 00:02:39,436 Speaker 1: rural Montana, where she was raised in a sheltered, devoutly 42 00:02:39,436 --> 00:02:42,996 Speaker 1: religious home. She was shy and kind of a nerd. 43 00:02:43,876 --> 00:02:48,116 Speaker 1: The other was a kind hearted free spirit from South Carolina. 44 00:02:48,276 --> 00:02:51,716 Speaker 1: She partied often and sometimes hung out with a rough crowd. 45 00:02:52,596 --> 00:02:57,316 Speaker 1: They both disappeared in nineteen ninety nine. Their families searched 46 00:02:57,356 --> 00:03:01,796 Speaker 1: for them, but didn't find many clues, and then improbably 47 00:03:01,836 --> 00:03:05,796 Speaker 1: their stories collided when a lone investigator got involved and 48 00:03:05,956 --> 00:03:10,356 Speaker 1: quickly became obsessed. I think of a situation as a sweater. 49 00:03:11,276 --> 00:03:14,796 Speaker 1: So sometimes you have a loose thread and you pull 50 00:03:14,796 --> 00:03:17,116 Speaker 1: the thread and you get a naught. And sometimes you 51 00:03:17,196 --> 00:03:20,676 Speaker 1: pull a thread and it just keeps unraveling and you 52 00:03:20,756 --> 00:03:24,076 Speaker 1: just keep falling and falling and bone. This investigator was 53 00:03:24,116 --> 00:03:27,476 Speaker 1: convinced that the fates of these two young women, the 54 00:03:27,556 --> 00:03:31,636 Speaker 1: free Spirit and the nerd, were linked, and that by 55 00:03:31,756 --> 00:03:35,236 Speaker 1: solving one of their cases he might also solve the other. 56 00:03:35,716 --> 00:03:39,036 Speaker 1: Not just that he suspected that one of them was 57 00:03:39,076 --> 00:03:43,516 Speaker 1: a master of deception, a highly trained chameleon who conned 58 00:03:43,516 --> 00:03:46,876 Speaker 1: her way into the ivy leagues. He began an investigation 59 00:03:46,916 --> 00:03:50,836 Speaker 1: that ultimately drew in the Secret Service, the US Marshals, 60 00:03:50,956 --> 00:03:54,276 Speaker 1: and the Justice Department. The media soon got wind of this. 61 00:03:54,876 --> 00:04:01,116 Speaker 1: Allegations of murder, fraud, and espionage swirled. Eventually, a nationwide 62 00:04:01,116 --> 00:04:05,836 Speaker 1: manhunt got underway, all because of this one investigator and 63 00:04:05,996 --> 00:04:10,636 Speaker 1: his hunch. Now, given the giant, gantic scope of all this, 64 00:04:11,156 --> 00:04:13,876 Speaker 1: you might think that our investigator worked for some big 65 00:04:13,916 --> 00:04:17,956 Speaker 1: city police department or a fancy federal agency, or maybe 66 00:04:17,956 --> 00:04:22,396 Speaker 1: even an international outfit like Interpoll. Nope, he was a 67 00:04:22,436 --> 00:04:26,156 Speaker 1: small town cop who'd just become a detective. He didn't 68 00:04:26,156 --> 00:04:29,236 Speaker 1: have a partner, or for a while even a computer. 69 00:04:30,036 --> 00:04:35,156 Speaker 1: But he was doggedly stubborn, almost perversely. So I just 70 00:04:35,196 --> 00:04:37,956 Speaker 1: pulled a thread and it just kept going and going 71 00:04:37,996 --> 00:04:41,276 Speaker 1: and going, to the whole thing unraveled. I get it. 72 00:04:41,796 --> 00:04:44,796 Speaker 1: I love pulling on threads. As a journalist, I've done 73 00:04:44,836 --> 00:04:48,156 Speaker 1: this so many times, pulled and pulled until I have 74 00:04:48,236 --> 00:04:51,036 Speaker 1: lost track of what I was originally looking for or 75 00:04:51,036 --> 00:04:54,596 Speaker 1: whether it was worth it. And sometimes most of the time, 76 00:04:54,596 --> 00:04:59,116 Speaker 1: in fact, it's not. But every once in a while, 77 00:04:59,556 --> 00:05:03,396 Speaker 1: there's a set of facts it's so irresistibly curious that 78 00:05:03,476 --> 00:05:07,956 Speaker 1: I just can't let go. And I suppose it doesn't 79 00:05:07,996 --> 00:05:11,516 Speaker 1: matter whether you're a ernalist or a detective or just 80 00:05:11,636 --> 00:05:15,356 Speaker 1: a nosy neighbor. So many of us believe that great 81 00:05:15,556 --> 00:05:19,316 Speaker 1: mysteries lurk in the periphery of our lives. So when 82 00:05:19,316 --> 00:05:24,036 Speaker 1: we find an especially curious thread, we keep pulling because 83 00:05:24,076 --> 00:05:42,676 Speaker 1: we won't be satisfied until we've unraveled at all. I'm 84 00:05:42,756 --> 00:05:48,196 Speaker 1: Jake Alburn and this is deep Cover Season three, Never 85 00:05:48,236 --> 00:06:20,556 Speaker 1: Seen Again, Episode one, The Dark Corner. The detective that 86 00:06:20,596 --> 00:06:23,956 Speaker 1: I told you about. His name is John Campbell, and 87 00:06:24,556 --> 00:06:27,116 Speaker 1: he's just about the friendliest guy I've ever met. He 88 00:06:27,196 --> 00:06:30,396 Speaker 1: has whispy brown hair and a boyish grin. He wears 89 00:06:30,396 --> 00:06:33,516 Speaker 1: a pair of those wraparound sunglasses that dads always wear 90 00:06:33,556 --> 00:06:36,836 Speaker 1: a little league practice. He's also got this goofy and 91 00:06:36,956 --> 00:06:40,476 Speaker 1: totally lovable laugh that he breaks into all the time. 92 00:06:41,036 --> 00:06:44,516 Speaker 1: So not an old timey lawman. In fact, one of 93 00:06:44,516 --> 00:06:46,716 Speaker 1: the first things that he tells me is that he 94 00:06:46,756 --> 00:06:49,316 Speaker 1: doesn't care for guns. When I retire, I can't wait 95 00:06:49,356 --> 00:06:50,916 Speaker 1: to put this in a drawer. I mean, this is 96 00:06:51,436 --> 00:06:53,596 Speaker 1: a this is the thing I banged my elbow on 97 00:06:53,836 --> 00:06:57,796 Speaker 1: all the time. So it's not about carrying a gun. 98 00:06:57,796 --> 00:06:59,636 Speaker 1: I carried gun because we have to. I'd rather be 99 00:06:59,636 --> 00:07:02,716 Speaker 1: like Andy Griffiths and just be sharing with that a gun. 100 00:07:03,076 --> 00:07:07,516 Speaker 1: I met John Donnan Traveler's Rest, South Carolina, where he lives. This, 101 00:07:07,636 --> 00:07:09,956 Speaker 1: by the way, was also the hometown of the free 102 00:07:09,956 --> 00:07:12,756 Speaker 1: spirited young woman that I told you about, one of 103 00:07:12,756 --> 00:07:16,636 Speaker 1: the two that went missing. Back in the early two thousands, 104 00:07:16,756 --> 00:07:21,076 Speaker 1: when our story really starts. John was the town's loan detective. 105 00:07:21,716 --> 00:07:23,956 Speaker 1: I asked him what this was like. He told me 106 00:07:24,036 --> 00:07:28,836 Speaker 1: that back then, this was truly a sleepy backwater. Travel's 107 00:07:28,876 --> 00:07:32,116 Speaker 1: Rest was almost a dry town. We had one bar 108 00:07:32,516 --> 00:07:35,036 Speaker 1: and one liquor store, and the liquor store closed I 109 00:07:35,036 --> 00:07:38,156 Speaker 1: think at eight or nine o'clock at night. The bar 110 00:07:38,276 --> 00:07:41,596 Speaker 1: closed at midnight, and we rolled up the streets and 111 00:07:41,636 --> 00:07:43,796 Speaker 1: the only problems we ever had was at the bar, 112 00:07:44,836 --> 00:07:47,196 Speaker 1: and so we could shut the bar down two or 113 00:07:47,196 --> 00:07:51,036 Speaker 1: three times, took their license. Outside of town, well that 114 00:07:51,196 --> 00:07:57,556 Speaker 1: was a different story. The thickly wooded slopes quickly rose 115 00:07:57,636 --> 00:08:00,796 Speaker 1: into the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The land 116 00:08:00,876 --> 00:08:04,916 Speaker 1: was steep and craggy. Some called it the Dark Corner. 117 00:08:06,636 --> 00:08:09,276 Speaker 1: For generations it was known as a place where out 118 00:08:09,356 --> 00:08:12,716 Speaker 1: and folk brewed moonshine and lived by their own rules 119 00:08:13,316 --> 00:08:18,036 Speaker 1: mountain justice. By the nineteen nineties, that had begun to change. 120 00:08:18,236 --> 00:08:22,116 Speaker 1: Newcomers were arriving, retirees and the like, but the Dark 121 00:08:22,156 --> 00:08:25,156 Speaker 1: Corner remained a place where it wasn't wise to venture 122 00:08:25,156 --> 00:08:27,596 Speaker 1: at night or turned down a road you didn't know. 123 00:08:29,076 --> 00:08:31,716 Speaker 1: I talked to one local who told me he once 124 00:08:31,756 --> 00:08:34,636 Speaker 1: found a great big log blocking the road with a 125 00:08:34,716 --> 00:08:38,316 Speaker 1: stack of dog skulls on it, and then he just 126 00:08:38,436 --> 00:08:48,036 Speaker 1: knew better turn around. John says that occasionally the Mountain 127 00:08:48,076 --> 00:08:51,356 Speaker 1: folks would just show up at John's office and hear 128 00:08:51,396 --> 00:08:53,436 Speaker 1: this roar of a truck would come in, and people 129 00:08:53,436 --> 00:08:55,956 Speaker 1: would pile out, and they'd say, we're looking for the law, 130 00:08:56,156 --> 00:08:58,636 Speaker 1: you know, and Mountain justice had failed and they had 131 00:08:58,636 --> 00:09:02,396 Speaker 1: to come to into town to find some law enforcement 132 00:09:02,756 --> 00:09:06,636 Speaker 1: for the police and Traveler's Rest. The key was basically 133 00:09:06,676 --> 00:09:10,436 Speaker 1: to secure the town's perimeter, so I called Traveler's Rest 134 00:09:10,436 --> 00:09:12,716 Speaker 1: of the circle of wagons. So we had seven square 135 00:09:12,756 --> 00:09:14,916 Speaker 1: miles that was like a circle of wagons in our 136 00:09:14,956 --> 00:09:17,156 Speaker 1: little town, and we kept all the crime out of 137 00:09:17,196 --> 00:09:20,556 Speaker 1: our little circle out into the county, bushed it out. Wait, 138 00:09:20,596 --> 00:09:23,396 Speaker 1: so your job was basically just like make sure that 139 00:09:23,436 --> 00:09:26,636 Speaker 1: the criminals stayed out of the circle. Yeah, pretty much. 140 00:09:26,996 --> 00:09:30,076 Speaker 1: Did you ever like like tell guys like not in here, 141 00:09:30,156 --> 00:09:31,716 Speaker 1: you're on the Oh yeah, what you say, this is 142 00:09:31,716 --> 00:09:36,676 Speaker 1: our town? Out take that up the mountains. John says 143 00:09:36,716 --> 00:09:40,316 Speaker 1: this strategy. It worked. Not much happened in the way 144 00:09:40,316 --> 00:09:44,276 Speaker 1: of major crime in Traveler's Rest. But then one day, 145 00:09:44,996 --> 00:09:52,516 Speaker 1: something rather sinister happened in this small town, something that 146 00:09:52,636 --> 00:09:56,476 Speaker 1: broke the humdrum rhythm of daily life. A twenty year 147 00:09:56,516 --> 00:10:01,076 Speaker 1: old girl went missing. Her name was Brooke Henson. She 148 00:10:01,236 --> 00:10:05,116 Speaker 1: vanished from within the town's limits, inside the circle of wagons, 149 00:10:05,636 --> 00:10:09,676 Speaker 1: and her disappearance would ultimately send John Campbell on an 150 00:10:09,716 --> 00:10:14,956 Speaker 1: epic quest. It would become a huge case, a national case, 151 00:10:15,516 --> 00:10:19,876 Speaker 1: and John, the small town detective who hated carrying a gun, 152 00:10:20,516 --> 00:10:22,396 Speaker 1: would be at the center of it all.