WEBVTT - Alone Time —Talina Zar E1 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:06.239 Hi, I'm Melissa Jelson, host of What Happened to Teleinazar. 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.879 I'm excited to share episode one of our new podcast 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.480 with you, but I also wanted to let you know 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.159 that you can listen to episodes completely add free on 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:22.000 iHeart True Crime Plus, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. I'm 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.639 a subscriber and you should be too, so head to 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:30.360 Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe. 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:41.600 Today the early days of the COVID pandemic. 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:43.360 We're scary, the. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.960 Mayor today, calling the spread unpredictable and worrisome. This morning 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.159 a grim new prediction. Nearly three hundred thousand deaths in 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:52.960 the US before the New year. 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.920 People come in, I get in, debated, they die. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:01.560 The cycle repeats, but also but at some distance. The 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.080 things we did to cope with our fear were pretty weird. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:13.039 Remember disinfecting our groceries, poording toilet paper, burning our mattresses. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.160 I didn't do that, but I heard about a woman 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.720 who did because she thought it was contaminated with COVID. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.800 I remember holding my breath when I walked past another 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:29.559 person on a secluded lake in the middle of winter 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.680 with masks on. I'd left New York for rural Pennsylvania 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.600 with my boyfriend to ride out the worst of COVID. 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.400 We packed for a weekend and stayed for two months. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.200 I ended up marrying the man to we have a baby. Now, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.000 looking back, what sticks with me the most about that 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.680 time is that queasy feeling that everyone I encountered, the 0:01:55.760 --> 0:02:00.120 Amazon driver, the checkout lady at the grocery store. It 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.680 was a potential suspect, someone who could unwittingly kill me 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:12.040 and my family just by breathing. COVID. Isolation severed even 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:16.200 the strongest connections, made it easy to hide behind a 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:21.400 mask or behind closed doors, and this changed our collective 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.519 psyche made us do things we probably wouldn't have otherwise, 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.760 things we were forced into, or things would always wanted 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.240 to do and never had the opportunity. It certainly changed 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.160 the trajectory of Jess Travigno's life. 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:39.799 I was scared, you know, like most of the world. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:41.280 I didn't know what was going to happen, or how 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.760 deadly the virus was, or we didn't know very much. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:50.720 Right one day in April twenty twenty, Jess is in 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:55.080 her kitchen, newly unemployed, because you know, COVID and she's 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.960 trying to take her mind off the chaos of the pandemic. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.919 She's attempting to replicate the latest food trend she sees online, 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.840 a two layered drink called Dalgona coffee. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.160 I was making that whipped coffee that you had seen 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.840 go viral during COVID. I'm obsessed with coffee. Obsessed. It's 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.320 a terrible obsession. I drink probably two pots a day 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:18.080 plus espresso. 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:18.760 It's nuts. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.480 But I was making this coffee and I'm scrolling on 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.440 Facebook and I see this post, and I was like, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.120 this sounds insane. 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.480 The post is by a woman in Oklahoma who contracted 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:37.240 coronavirus and announced she would not be seeking medical care. 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:43.640 Something about her post stops Jess cold. Here's a recreation 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:45.040 of parts of the post. 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.800 Hey everyone, I'm on day nine of this virus, and 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.200 I am pretty sure it has reached my lungs. Feeling 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.720 a little raspy and tight. I made the decision at 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.560 the onset that if it got bad enough, I would 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.760 not go to the hospital. Those of you who know 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.960 me well know I have DNR orders in my health 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.720 directive and I'm not gonna let anyone intobate me. So 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:16.560 I've made arrangements to spend some quality alone time at 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.600 one of my favorite idaways at one of my favorite lakes, 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.800 and I've booked it for the remainder of this week. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.320 Didn't fill up to driving, so I hired a ride. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:32.080 I'm almost there. Please respect my privacy and give me 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.679 my alone time on the lake. I haven't been chatting 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.680 with some of you calling you back. I didn't want 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.600 to be talked out of this plan. After I post this, 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.200 I am turning off my phone for exactly this reason. 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:52.000 I'll catch up with everyone on the other side. 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:57.560 Jess reads closer. The woman's name is Teleina Tzar. She 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:01.280 is fifty three years old. It seems that no one 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:06.080 has heard from Telena since her post a few weeks ago. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:10.479 Jess squints at Telena's profile picture, a smiling selfie taken 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.320 in the car, her blue green eyes twinkling, and tries 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.880 to understand why a person would make such a decision. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.120 Why would someone with COVID leave their friends and family 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.680 and go off alone instead of seeking help? And where 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:31.000 did she go? Jess, We'll spend the next four years 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:32.280 searching for the answer. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.440 Sometimes when I tell this story, they're like you're making 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.120 this up, but nobody has an imagination like this. You 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.599 couldn't make this story up. There's one hundred little twists 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.200 and turns that every time you go down a different road, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.760 it's another what the fuck is this? Why is this happening? 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.960 I mean, initially, when I told you, did you believe me? 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:20.800 From iHeart Podcasts, I'm Melissa Jelson and this is what 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:29.280 happened to Telena's OAR episode one Alone Time. 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.160 My name is Jess Travino. I'm a really nosy person, 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:34.960 so that's how I got caught up in all this. 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.360 My mom said, I've always been knowsy my whole life. 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.440 She said, You've always just wanted to know everything about everything. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:43.719 So if I didn't know something, I'd be poking around 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:45.920 trying to figure it out. It's not a very endearing 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.320 thing about me, but it is who I am. It 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.320 took me like forty years to like me, so I'm 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:52.160 just gonna embrace it. 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.000 Jess's life can be divided into two parts, before she 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.520 read Telena's Facebook post and after. 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.320 My whole life has been consumed by this. Since twenty twenty, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.159 I've spent four years of my life on her. 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.159 Jess emailed me in twenty twenty three asking me to 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.760 look into the disappearance of her friend Talna'zar. She'd come 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.280 across the earlier seasons of this podcast, What Happened to 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.000 Sandy Beal, What Happened to Libby Caswell. 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.800 I remember that I couldn't stop listening. I'd listened to 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:23.840 it when I was going to buy it, and then 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:25.400 when I got out in the morning, and I'd listened 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.720 to it throughout the day, and you were so honest 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:32.720 about everything in it, like you've seen both sides, right. 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:34.680 So I was like, I'm going to reach out to her, 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.400 like maybe she'll tell a story and she can get 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:38.120 both sides, you know. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.160 Jess and I emailed back and forth a little bit 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.360 and had a few phone calls. I learned she was 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.400 using a loose definition of the word friend when she 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.600 first reached out to me. She hadn't met Telena, But 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.920 from what I was able to understand about Telena and 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.000 Jess's multi year investigation into her life, I was convinced 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.360 I needed to learn more, and so I flew to 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.480 Minnesota to meet with Jess in person. Jess lives in 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.760 an old farmhouse surrounded by cornfields, about a fifty minute 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:17.640 drive from Minneapolis. Hey, we are just about three minutes away, 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:23.040 passing some more cornfields. No grocery store, no gas stations, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:24.120 nothing absolue. 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:25.440 I think it's maybe this house. 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.720 We were a greening party. Yes, I wanted to be 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:31.560 out here when you guys can't make because this is 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:32.440 kind of like Okay, I'm. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.480 Going to the right place. That was perfect time. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.480 Melissa's nice to meet you. 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.679 So okay, heads up, the two dogs are out are 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:42.480 going to bark at you. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:44.360 Okay. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:49.480 He just doesn't grow vegetables or raise farm animals, but 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.480 her walls are dotted with signs like farm, sweet Farm 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:58.000 and farmhouse Ish. Jess does have a lot of pets, 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:02.360 three dogs, two cats, and a lot of kids and 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.160 about a dozen wall clocks that chime at different times 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.679 of the day. And well, there's a lot going on. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:09.640 I'm forty one. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:15.440 I am an events planner hospitality director for Minnesota Horse 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:15.800 and Hunt. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.280 Jess was born and raised in Minnesota and has spent 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.640 most of her life working in bars and restaurants. She 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.040 had her first child when she was seventeen. 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.800 I was a dumb teenager. I did a lot of 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.440 stuff that I mean, nothing criminal, but just stupid. The 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.280 minute I found out I was pregnant, I decided I 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:35.560 cannot screw this up. 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.560 And went on to have three more. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:40.520 Over here, we've got some family photos. 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.240 We do so the tall one, this is Riley. He's 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:49.079 my Sunnay's twenty three, says Ty. He's twenty one, Maddie seventeen, 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.720 in Jocelyn fourteen. That's my husband and myself. 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.440 Jess had wanted to be a writer, she told me, 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.720 but becoming a young mom meant she wasn't able to 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.960 finish high school. Eventually, she got her ged and took 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.880 some college level writing classes before ultimately getting a more 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:10.600 practical degree in business. Since then, Jess has worked in 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:15.480 various capacities in the hospitality industry, from bartending to large 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.520 event planning. She likes the work, but it's not her calling. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.000 I feel like the only thing I've ever done that's 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.400 been really, really good is raise my kids. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.440 While she's giving me a tour of her home, I 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.840 notice her bookshelf is cramped with true crime stories, old 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:33.400 and new. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.560 My husband makes fun of me. I am and it 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.480 sounds really bad, but let me explain. I'm obsessed with 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.520 serial killers, and I mean obsessed. I don't know what 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:45.880 my problem is. It all comes from wanting to know 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.560 how their brain works, not like obsessed with Oh I 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.680 love murder, but I love trying to figure out why 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.200 and who and what was going through their brain? What 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:56.640 makes you want to kill somebody? 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.560 Jess tells me her fascination with crime star when she 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.600 was still a kid. She remembers following the Menendaz Brother's 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:09.160 case on TV and watching oj Simpson's Bronco racing down 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:13.520 the Expressway in real time. But the first true crime 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:18.120 story that completely enthralled her was that of Eileen Warnos, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.520 who killed at least seven men between nineteen eighty nine 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.440 and nineteen ninety and has been dubbed America's first female 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:26.280 serial killer. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.960 Eileen Mornos was a huge one for me. I thought 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:31.320 she was fascinating. I felt like she was very much 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.520 a victim and tried to understand where she was coming from. 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.680 You know, she was a prostitute and she had a 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.120 really hard life growing up, really hard life. She was 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.240 molested and raped, you know, from the time she was 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.960 a child. So that I got super interested, and then 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.800 I started looking at the Green River Killer and a 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:51.160 Zodiac Killer, and just deep dived into all the serial killers. 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:52.679 I find them fascinating. 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:58.240 Jess became an avid reader of crime novels. She devoured 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.800 In Cold Blood by Truman Capoti, To Kill a Mockingbird 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:05.480 by Harperley, worked her way through the back catalog of 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.520 true crime Icon and Rule. The stories she liked the 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:14.560 best dealt with big, complicated questions of justice, punishment and fairness, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.800 what's right and what's wrong? And where those lines become blurry. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.800 As a reporter who's dedicated my life to these topics, 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:28.920 I can relate. Later, around twenty seventeen, after crime podcasts 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.120 exploded onto the scene, Jess got into those too. 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:34.240 I listened to a ton of podcasts. I started with 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.920 Crime Junkies and then I went to Morbid. I'd listened 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.360 to Dateline if I'd missed an episode on TV, I 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:41.360 found you recently. 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:46.160 Obviously, for Jess, part of the thrill of all this 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.400 was discussing the cases with others on social media. 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.520 I just would join the pages after I'd listened to 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.480 a podcast, wanting to know, like let's discuss this, and like, hey, what'. 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:55.840 Do you think of this? 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:56.600 What do you think of that? 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.520 So you were an active participant, not just a lurker. 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.040 You'll notice that about me. I don't lurk. I'm out there. 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:05.600 I'm an action kind of girl. 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:11.480 All those hours reading about true crime, listening to true crime, 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:16.240 discussing true crime provided Jess with a masterclass on how 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.200 not to get murdered. She knows, never go to a 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:25.160 second location, Always trust your instincts. You're much more likely 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.559 to be killed by someone you know than a stranger. 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.120 If you can run, run. It also taught her some 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:36.080 real world skills on how to investigate cases, the same 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.680 type of skills I use in my reporting in between 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.240 bartending shifts and putting the kids to bed. Just learned 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.440 how to do a background check, how to trace people's 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:51.120 Internet footprints, how to track down old criminal records, and 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.240 dig up archival news coverage. 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.000 I just love to know how point A got to 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.880 point F, trying to follow all the dots in between another. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.679 People get a lot of shit online about being you know, 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.840 Internet tough guys and Internet armchair detectives. But we're in 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.959 a digital age. Maybe thirty years ago you needed the 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.080 boots on the ground and be there. But this is 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.040 the way that it's happening now. I feel like a 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.199 lot of stuff is solved literally on the Internet. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.560 It's on the internet on a Facebook fan page for 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:27.480 crime Junkies, where Jess first sees Telenazar's post about having 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.640 COVID and choosing to go off into the wilderness alone 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:32.760 rather than go to the hospital. 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:38.840 Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:39.520 on the lake. 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.800 A friend of Telena's named Nicole had uploaded screenshots of 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.520 Telena's post to the group in an attempt to solicit help. 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.960 I asked Jess to read some of Nichole's plea. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.840 Hi Junkies. Since April seventh, my dear friend has been missing. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.560 She left this post and we haven't heard from her. 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:04.000 Since the information we have doesn't make sense. I've spent 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.920 every day and night going over them. Out of desperation, 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:09.960 I thought I would post here and see what you 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.040 all think. My friend lives in a very small town 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.280 near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The police would not investigate this because 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.120 of the post. She would not make people worry for 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.440 this long. She just wouldn't. And if she died from 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.880 this virus, where is her body? Am I being paranoid? 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.680 What can I do to locate her. I can't sleep, 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.600 but I can't really grieve or have any hope after 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:39.600 this time. Anyone, anyone have any ideas on what to do? 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:42.160 Thanks in advance. 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:50.480 I just didn't feel like she would leave that many 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:52.040 people worried about her. 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.240 This is Nicole Carr. She's the author of the post 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.400 asking for help finding to Lena. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.600 It wouldn't be a strange for her to go off, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.400 because if she was sick, she wouldn't have wanted to 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.880 make anyone else sick. But for her to just leave 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.720 people with no way of contacting her and knowing if 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.880 she was alive or dead was strange to me. 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.320 Nicole knew Telena's habits because she was one of her 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.080 best friends that had been close since they met in 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:17.720 twenty ten. 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.240 It was love at first to get together. 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:24.480 She was the kind of friend that you could call 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.960 at three am, knowing that she would answer with equal 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.920 part concern and humor to. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:31.280 Cheer you up. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.560 Her kitchen was her happy place, and she always had 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.360 the aroma of something simmering or cooking or frying, and 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.840 if not, she was planning something to. 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:43.960 Simmeror cooker, cook her fry. 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.480 Sharing a meal with her was really like being wrapped 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.760 up in love. She lived with her heart wide open, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.680 and you couldn't help but just feel lucky that she 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:00.000 was in your life. Nicole and Tealina's friendship had always 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.360 it has been long distance that had never lived in 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.320 the same state at the same time, but they found 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.360 ways to connect both online and in person. 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:10.240 We did text a. 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:15.200 Lot and talked on the phone, and then also through 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:20.240 Facebook a lot, sharing memes, trying to. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:20.520 Make each other laugh. 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.840 In February twenty twenty, Talina went to Tennessee to visit 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:26.119 Nicole at her home. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.000 She came and spent three days with me. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.840 We of course cooked and played video games and watched 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:40.000 TV and talked and cried and laughed, and we really 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.880 had a great visit. And it was right before they 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.199 asked everybody you know to go home and stay. 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:51.200 Telena left and immediately the friends started planning their next visit. 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.720 This time Talina would host Nicole at her house in Wagner, Oklahoma, 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.920 but COVID got too big too quickly. 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.720 She wanted me to come visit her, and I really 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.640 wasn't comfortable in traveling at that point. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.960 All in my family we have stuff wrong with us. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.160 You know they were really concerned about people like us 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:21.720 having COVID, So I declined the offer, And you know, I'll. 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:26.360 Never know what would have happened if I had gone. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.919 As the COVID pandemic took over everybody's lives, the friends 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.919 continued to communicate as they normally did, texting, keeping up 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.240 with each other's social media, and it was on Facebook 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:43.119 where Nicole saw that her friend wasn't feeling well. First 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.359 it was a post on Sunday, March twenty ninth about 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.600 a migraine, Day two of. 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.720 A bad migraine, taking more meds and turning down my 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:54.520 phone volume so I can sleep. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:56.840 I'll catch up with everyone later. 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.480 Migraines were a fairly regular occurrence for Teleina, so Nicole 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.280 didn't think much of it, But a day later, on Monday, 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:09.760 March thirtieth, she saw a post about Teleina's headache worsening 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:11.280 my weekend. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.239 Migrain developed into a fever last night and it is 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:20.000 currently hovering around one hundred point five. I'm surfacing long 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.000 enough to go to the bathroom and get a drink. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.040 Then it is back to sleep. All I want to 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:26.800 do is sleep. 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.040 Send your well wishes an energy, but please don't. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:32.040 Expect a response. 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.000 I called my doctor and was told to stay in 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.119 bed and stay hydrated and self medicate and call back 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.560 or go to the er. If my tempreach is one 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.080 oh two. I think Oklahoma's medical system is stretched thin 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:50.800 right now. Everyone stay safe, healthy, and please practice social distancing. 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.560 If you don't live with someone, don't visit them. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.560 Nicole texted Tolena a few times checking up on her, 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:05.440 but didn't hear back. A week went by, and then 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.560 on April seventh, came to Lena's cryptic post. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.680 Hey everyone, I'm on day nine of this virus. I've 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:19.159 made arrangements to spend some quality alone time. After I 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:26.359 post this, I am turning off my phone. 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.560 Tolena would occasionally that once a year go on a 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.160 sbatical where she didn't talk to anybody, and she's pretty 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.159 strict about it. She would let everybody know, if I 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:42.000 don't answer my phone, this is why, and I'm just 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:44.159 going to go off somewhere for a couple of days 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.800 and be with myself. It was just a spiritual time 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:52.320 for her to get herself together and kind of reconnect 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.320 with herself. She's a big giving person, so I think 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.840 people that give to a lot of people need that 0:20:57.880 --> 0:20:59.760 little bit of downtown. 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:04.280 Knew that her friend prized her solitude, but after a 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.880 few days without hearing from Telena, she had a feeling 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:09.080 that something wasn't right. 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.320 At the time, I was laid off from work, so 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.880 I didn't have that much to preoccupy myself with. 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.440 I wasn't leaving the house because of COVID. 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.280 Every morning I would wake up and check Facebook and 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:24.440 check the phone and text her and call her, and 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:25.560 I didn't hear anything. 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.840 Nicole was in lockdown in Tennessee, hundreds of miles away 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:35.240 from Tellina's home in Wagner, Oklahoma. Feeling antsy, Nicole started 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.679 reaching out to Tellina's friends, some of them also in 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.520 far flung states, others in the same town as Telena. 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:47.040 I kept just kind of asking everybody anyone else thinks 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:48.040 this is strange? 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.520 And everybody's like, no, no, this is you know, this 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:53.120 is Toulna. This is how she acts. 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.480 You know that experiment where they show people that are 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:58.720 in a room and there's smoke coming out of the grate. 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:02.080 Nobody does anything because they're all kind of looking around 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:03.960 to see if someone else is going to do something 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:05.159 that was. 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:05.840 Where we were. 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.960 People were just worrying in their own space. We're all 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.320 just waiting for someone else to do something, or for 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.280 a word from you know, Telena. But the more time 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.000 that went on, it just didn't Her story didn't make sense. 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.920 Nicole wasn't sure what to do, but she felt compelled 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:28.200 to at least do something, and so one night, out 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.439 of desperation, I just, you know, I listened to this 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:33.280 little podcast. 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.679 I had no idea how popular it was. 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:39.240 I just knew that I liked listening to it, and 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:40.800 so I thought I would go on there and see 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.160 if anybody else thought it was strange. So I typed 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.440 out a little message and posted it, went to sleep, 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:52.919 and I woke up two thousands of replies. Some of 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:55.560 them were from my friends, people actually knew that I 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:59.640 didn't know also listened to this podcast. And then some 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:03.320 of them were from strangers, and none of them were 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:04.679 more strange than Yes. 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:14.440 It sounded fishy. You've read the post right, It sounded 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:15.840 really weird. 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:20.240 Making her whipped coffee in Minnesota just sees Nichole's plea 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:23.880 for help and her immediate response is bullshit. 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:26.720 The way Nicole explained in the post was very weird. 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.040 And then obviously I'm bored. It's COVID and I can't 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:32.400 go anywhere or do anything. So I creep on Nichole's 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.280 Facebook and see that she has another friend who's missing 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:38.399 as well, and I was like, there's no way you 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:41.199