Speaker 1: On October two fifteen, the Little Rock Police Department searched
Speaker 1: an abandoned car in a small residential part. The keys
Speaker 1: were in the ignition and the car was out of
Speaker 1: gas as if it had been left running. The car
Speaker 1: belonged to eighteen year old Ebbie Steppa. And then the
Speaker 1: fact that they found her makeup in her car, her
Speaker 1: phone in her car, her wallet, her keys in her car,
Speaker 1: and that right there tells me someone planned this. Ebbie
Speaker 1: had vanished without a trace. I'm Catherine Townsend, journalist, private investigator,
Speaker 1: and host of the true crime podcast Hell and Gone,
Speaker 1: and I'm back in Arkansas trying to find out what
Speaker 1: really happened to Ebby Steppa. It seems like every one
Speaker 1: in Arkansas knows about Ebby. They know she disappeared in
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, and that her body was found in
Speaker 1: a storm drain three years later. They know that there
Speaker 1: have been multiple investigations that have led nowhere. And even
Speaker 1: though Ebbie's case has been one of the most extensively
Speaker 1: covered cold cases in Arkansas, so much of her life
Speaker 1: and what really happened to her remain a mystery. We
Speaker 1: didn't know anything that was going on with her, Where
Speaker 1: she was going. None of her friends knew any of
Speaker 1: the people she was hanging out with or where she
Speaker 1: met him. I didn't know any of the people she
Speaker 1: was hanging out with at the time. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a million scenarios that played through my head every day.
Speaker 1: After all this time, no one has been ruled out
Speaker 1: or in. Everybody's on the radar. Why are they on
Speaker 1: the radar? They've been on the radar for years. I
Speaker 1: feel for these people too, because like they're not cleared,
Speaker 1: but they're not prosecuted. I didn't want to get involved,
Speaker 1: and they're saying at all I said, I don't need
Speaker 1: to interfere with a BRACE part. I regret that. Now
Speaker 1: I'm falling up on old leads, chasing new leads, and
Speaker 1: doing anything that can get us closer to the truth.
Speaker 1: No one would be able to see what I was
Speaker 1: doing from the street side. If I was putting the
Speaker 1: body in here, no one would see that happen. Did
Speaker 1: she take somebody there with her? Did somebody kill her
Speaker 1: or put her down there? Did something else happen? And
Speaker 1: then somebody panic and they put her down there. All
Speaker 1: those things are on the table. We're going to get close.
Speaker 1: We're gonna figure out if he's home or not. We're
Speaker 1: gonna go knock on the door, and we're gonna try
Speaker 1: to just talk to him. I just started shaking. It's
Speaker 1: like this, I'm never gonna I'm never gonna win. Nothing's
Speaker 1: ever gonna happen. Some people tell me to just leave
Speaker 1: things to law enforcement. I know from experience that once
Speaker 1: you start digging up dark secrets, life can get messy
Speaker 1: and things can get complicated. But I also know that
Speaker 1: sometimes digging is the only way to get answers and justice.
Speaker 1: From School of Humans and I Heart Radio, I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 1: This is Helen Gone. Listen to Helen Gone on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Season four is out March