WEBVTT - Episode 1: “Forever Pain” 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:08.800 I have nightmares about this. I have nightmares that she's 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:11.600 asking for help and I can't help her. That she 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.120 has been found after all these years, and she's alive, 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.840 and I don't know. I just want to know what 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:21.400 happened to her, But not knowing as hard picturing the 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.959 fear that she must have been in when whoever took 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.520 her took her and did whatever they did. I can 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.159 only imagine the terror that she was going through in 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.639 the last you know, the last thoughts that she was. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:36.680 Thinking when she died. 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.160 It's horrific for anyone to go through that. And then 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:43.000 I don't know, it's just horrific. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:52.200 Beneath the folksy, postcard perfect surface of any small American 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:57.200 town lies a hint of evil few can imagine actually 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:02.360 exists within their peaceful lives. Most never come face to 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.959 face with it, and yet everyone understands they are, perhaps 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.880 closer than they might think, to being swallowed up by it. 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.840 Having a loved one go missing creates a grim reality, 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.320 forcing family members to experience the worst life can throw 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:26.320 at you. Their only weapon of defense within that struggle hope. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:31.720 I've always carried hope. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.160 No matter how long it's been an unsolved murder leaves 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:40.080 behind a quiet sorrow and an intense gravity. In many ways, 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:45.040 an incredible sense of lost identity seeps into everyday life. 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.920 It's what some refer to as forever pain. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.080 I think the one thing about Dana's case is that 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.720 Bitten County skill to this day, enjoys a very low 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:04.000 crime I'm rate it is extremely rare for it to 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:08.840 be a stranger, a stranger abduction, or at least not 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:13.160 immediately understandable what happened. Right, people don't get kidnapped off 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.680 parking lots. I would imagine then people didn't lock their cars, 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.280 they left their keys in the car at the grocery store, 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.840 I mean they let their doors open. And so not 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.920 only for that to happen to a young girl, but 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.360 also for it to be not immediately known what happened 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.440 creates fear and panic in folks. I would say it's 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.600 not an overstated, say that's an earth shattering event in 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.160 terms of crime in ben County. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.560 Murder is such a profound tragedy it can take a 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:47.359 lifetime to not only understand what happened to a victim, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.440 but the process, what their loved ones went through. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:52.280 It's a part of. 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.840 The true crime experience, rarely given more than a cursory glance. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:04.440 The certainty of living with enormous loss. Murder moreover, divides 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:09.040 families and sometimes puts neighbors and even friends at odds. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.240 I'm going to tell you it can go either way. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.600 I have seen small communities that it'll bring them together. 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.040 It will bring folks that haven't been together with the 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:25.519 same mindset, and so they start to kind of look 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.639 out for each other. It becomes almost like a natural disaster. 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.600 Would They tend to talk, they tend to interact, the 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.040 division is gone. That's one one thing that I have 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.040 actually seen happen in smaller communities, and I can really 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:43.200 only speak to a smaller community, and so I would 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.440 say that it sometimes can go either way. I've seen 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.160 it bring a community together and they look out for 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.200 each other and they're concerned and they start to talk. 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:53.720 And then certainly i've seen it do the other side, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:55.600 where you have two battlegrounds. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.840 Those varying factors, however, can be an asset to a 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.360 cold case investigation, and as I would soon learn, detectives 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.680 sometimes play both sides against each other. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.360 I think you get more from a community when They're 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:15.200 divided because everybody wants their opinion heard, and they want 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.440 to explain why they feel the way they do, and 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:22.000 they want somebody to listen and acknowledge that their opinion 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:29.080 counts on this. So I've received more confidential informants, people 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.880 then off of the street on patrol that would say, hey, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:34.680 you know, I know you're working on this, and I 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.280 knew that family, or I've seen that family or what 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:39.040 have you, and I just need you to note this, 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.960 And then they'll want to recount any story that they 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:42.880 may have had or heard. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:51.040 The fact is, murder changes everything, and unsolved murder magnifies 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:56.440 that change, and when murders start to multiply, all hell 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:57.279 breaks loose. 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.400 My name is em William Phelps. 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.400 I'm an investigative journalist and author of more than forty 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.880 true crime books. This is season four of Paper Ghosts 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:39.599 the Ozarks. I arrived in Arkansas during the spring of 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.440 twenty twenty three, there to look into a three decades 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:48.279 old cold case a young woman, Danas Stidham, who'd gone 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.599 missing on a beautiful Midsummer day in nineteen eighty nine. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.880 I just see good to me. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.920 Benton County, Arkansas is a community of about three hundred 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:07.520 thousand people and literally built by Walmart, which is headquartered 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.279 in Bentonville. One of my first contacts was a woman 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.960 who knew more about Dana Stidham than most anyone else. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.440 My name is Christy Smith. I am Dina Sidam's cousin. 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.320 We grew up together in our whole life. She was 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.240 a year older than I was. We were pretty much inseparable, 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.279 our mothers or sisters. They were together all the time. 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.120 We were together all the time. She was more of 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:34.920 a sister than a cousin. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.680 At eighteen years old, during the summer of nineteen eighty nine, 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.920 Dana was at that crossroads stage of life we all 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:49.159 face in our youth, looking forward to the future after 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.599 graduating from Gravit High School, deciding which path to take. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.839 We would always go swimming together, and we went camping 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.520 one year in Missouri. And why we were camping, We 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.359 went to Whitewater. Our parents dropped us off at Whitewater 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.000 while they went shopping, and I remember we got so sunburned, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.320 but we were determined we were not going to leave early. 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.360 We were going to stay no matter how red we got. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:14.640 And then the rest of the Campion trip. We were 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.640 just miserable because we were so burned, but we still 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:18.920 we still managed to have fun. 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:20.880 And what kind of kid was she? 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.880 Oh, she was good. She was just like any kid. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.400 We we were rambunctious when we wanted to be well 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:28.560 behaved when we chose. 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.240 She was pretty quiet when she. 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.400 Was a child ten twelve that area. What did she 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.440 talk about she wanted to do in life? 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.920 Oh, at ten and twelve, we really we really didn't 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.440 have any plans in life. I don't really know that 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:42.800 we ever even talked about. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:43.840 The future at that age. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:45.440 We lived in a moment. 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:46.040 Yeah, we did. 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.680 We lived in the moment and just took every day 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.200 as it was and played and enjoyed our lives. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:56.080 And Dana and Christie were raised in Gravit, Arkansas, in 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.360 the northwest corner of the state, quite close to the 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:04.080 Missouri by Gravit had a population of just fifteen hundred. 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.800 Back then, Gravit was not much different than it's now, 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.840 very small, very close knit community. We had a very 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.520 small school system. In the last several years that has 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.119 grown tremendously, but it was very small and we did 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.480 kindergarten through sixth was all one school and then eighth 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.240 and ninth, was Junior high tenth through Telfa's High School. 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:26.559 Very Small had a community swimming pool. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:27.360 During the summer. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.960 Her dad would after we cleaned the house because I 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.000 stayed with him during while my parents worked, after we'd 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:34.960 cleaned the house and he would take us and drop 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.960 us at the city pool and we would slim swim 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.520 and probably from about one till five and every day 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:42.400 that's what we would do. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:44.280 Kids love water. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.040 Yes, yes, we do still love water again in the summers. 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.040 They lived in highwa See. So at the time they 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.040 lived in highwa See. Which have you been to haigwa See. 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:54.760 Very Small. 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.319 There's one dairy queen there at the end of the 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.440 dirt road that she lived on. So we would on 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:02.520 a good day we would walk to the dairy queen 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.679 and have lunch, always bring her dad something back. So 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.840 it was just, you know, just fun, just kids enjoying 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:08.560 life and having fun. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.280 Dana Stidham was enthusiastic about that summer of nineteen eighty nine. 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.440 Just after high school, she'd moved out of her parents' 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.040 home and into a small apartment in Centerton with her 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.040 twenty one year old brother Larry, along with two of 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.480 her closest friends. She was spreading her wings for the 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:29.760 first time in her life. 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.720 From what we know, and there's a lot of stuff 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.679 that we don't know, but from what we know, she 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.720 was at her parents' house doing laundry. It was her 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.600 and her dad in the Highwassee area. It was around 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.720 two something in the afternoon. We know that Dana placed 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.040 a phone call to a friend and that was around 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.839 two fourteen PM, and she talked to that friend for 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.559 approximately twenty minutes so talking. I think the phone record 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:03.760 show that disconnect at around two thirty five PM. So 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.720 she leaves sometimes shortly after that to go to the store. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.040 Her dad wasn't feeling well. She needed some laundry detergent, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.320 so she leaves the house. We know she stops and 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.320 gets gas. She gets like five dollars worth of gas, 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.360 writes a check for I think ten, and gets like 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.360 three dollars cash back or something to that effect. So 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:28.000 short trip to get some gas proceeds on from there 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.640 to what was then known as Phillip's Grocery, which is 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:37.160 probably from her house. Back then, you're talking about fifteen 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:38.720 minutes to get their tops. 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.840 A dozen or more people saw Dana at the Phillips 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.400 that day. They knew her because she used to work 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:47.640 at the same store. 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.880 We talked to a couple of those people. We know 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.520 that she checked out at three seventeen because the receipt 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:58.880 is time stamped, so it kind of shows. Now we 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.160 can't say for certain she left the store left the 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.679 parking lot at three seventeen. We know she checked out 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.080 at three seventeen. She's seen in the parking lot talking 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.600 to a guy. There's individuals that saw her in the 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:16.199 parking lot, older gentlemen. We don't really know how old. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.880 That's hunt to portray a current lieutenant with the Benton 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.640 County Sheriff's Office. What stands out to me in Lieutenant 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.280 Petray's comments is that there's no solid evidence to prove 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:33.160 Dana actually left the parking lot alone, no CCTV watching 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.600 her drive out. There's only an assumption, based on what 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.000 happens over the next twenty four hours, that she left 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.760 the parking lot by herself. Secondly, while at the store, 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:49.439 she interacted with several people who knew her. I stood 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.440 in the parking lot of the Phillips with a woman 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.360 who used to work there with Dana and was there 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:59.760 that last July afternoon Dana was seen. It's called Harps now, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.800 but the parking lot, although long ago repaved, is basically 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.120 set up the same. It's two tiered, one level overlooking 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:13.360 the other, so you could literally park on the upper level, 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.040 which butts up against a hill and woods, and quietly 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:22.600 stalk the lower level, watching people come and go in 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.560 and out of the store. Here's a former co worker 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:27.439 of Dana's. 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.720 She had an aura about her. She was beautiful, but 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.559 she just was just so sweet all the time. People 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.040 were drawn to her. Really, Yeah, everyone loved her. 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.400 Dana was a beautiful young woman, which is important in 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.520 this story because she had several young men as well 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.760 as several older men chasing after her. Her brunette hair 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:54.640 flowed past her shoulders, feathered and fluffed high. After all, 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.520 it was the eighties. Petit Dana was five to two 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:01.440 and about one hundred and five pounds. 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.440 So what was it like around here back then in 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:06.160 eighty nine. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.720 Well, there's a lot of construction going on, and so 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:16.640 our store would make a lot of sandwiches and food 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.440 for the construction guys that would come in. We were 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.040 pretty busy doing that. A lot of growth. There's a 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.200 lot of new people coming in a lot of growth. 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.400 So it was really secluded the parking lot. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.160 Then, yeah, I wouldn't want to be out here by myself. 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.040 I asked Lieutenant Petray what old meant in terms of 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.480 the gentleman seen talking to Dana in the parking lot 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:40.760 in the afternoon she went missing. 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:42.400 Fifty could be all. 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.600 It's all relative to the individual that you're talking to, 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.439 the witness, So we don't know, and that's one of 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.240 those things like there's things we know and there's things 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:51.920 we don't know. That's one of the things that we 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.960 don't really know. It's also kind of not baffling but 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:02.520 discouraging that she's supposedly seen, but it's unknown as far 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:07.440 as what direction she's leaving. Now, if you know Harps, 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.000 you can basically go north, south, east west from there, 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.600 like it's not cornered to where you have to go 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:18.720 one direction. So again that complicates the investigation because we 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.200 don't know when she leaves that parking lot which direction 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.920 she goes, but we're pretty sure that she leaves the 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:31.920 parking lot. Here's where it gets complicated. There's an individual 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.480 and his wife that sees her there at Phillips out 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.840 in the parking lot. They later that same day see 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.160 her vehicle sitting on the side of the road south 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.960 of Phillips, about a mile south, sitting by what's known 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.240 as the Bellevista Museum. 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.120 This location will become very important to law enforcement within 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.680 twenty four hours and a vital piece of this puzzle. 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.160 As I begin to unpack the early narrative of facts 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:02.240 behind what happened. 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:07.360 Parked on the side of the road, there's a white 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:11.320 van that's supposedly parked in front of it. There's two males, 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.600 one guy squatted down by the side of the car 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.240 looking at the tire. Supposedly he had a scraggly beard mustache. 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.360 It gets more interesting. There's a guy looking at the tire. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.960 There's also a female and another guy on the other 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:31.800 side of the car talking. This guy positively identifies this 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.680 girl as being Dana. At that time, he doesn't know 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.080 of anything, so later on he comes back, both vehicles 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:43.480 are gone. Okay. Sometime between three and five that same day, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.880 the twenty fifth, there's another individual that sees a truck 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:53.440 parked behind a car, two males and one female. Again 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:58.880 same two males, one female, driver's side tire looks flat. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:01.960 We know that Dana had a low tire, so that 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:09.160 kind of matches. This guy also identifies her as Dana. 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:15.320 Dana's cousin and best friend. Christy Smith remembers the events 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.560 of that day twenty five years ago as if it 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:19.920 all happened yesterday. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.480 She goes to the house and she is going there 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:25.640 to do laundry. They don't have a washer and dryer 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:27.000 at their apartment, so she goes over there to do 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.960 her laundry. Her dad asked her if she can run 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.120 to the Grosser store and get him some medication and 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.440 a few things that he needs from the store. Of course, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.320 she's always willing to do anything for her dad. She 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.360 says that's fine, she'll do that. She goes to the 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.000 store and that's the last time anybody's are her. 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.160 And when do you first hear about it? 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.000 Later that evening, I would probably say it's five or six, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.320 after Georgia got home from work and Laurence had told her, well, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.360 Dane's went to the store and she's never come back. 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.120 Then Georgia calls me, wants to know if I've heard 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.960 from her. Calls her son, see if he's heard from her. 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.400 None of us have heard from her, So that's when 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.320 we start getting nervous, because she didn't If she was 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.520 going to the store for her dad, she would go 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.560 and she would come back with what he needed. She 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.040 would have finish her laundry, she would go home, and 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.040 I believe she had a date that night, so she 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.320 would have come home and gotten ready for what her 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:20.840 plans were. 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.600 Whenever you begin to reinvestigate an unsolved crime, particularly a 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:45.240 cold case, victimology is one of your primary tasks. You 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.959 have to get a clear picture of who the victim is, 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.760 what they were doing within the context of what happened 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:57.680 and when. Who were her friends, the crowd she hung 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:04.399 around with, how was their home life, boyfriends, ex boyfriends. 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:07.879 I spoke to a lot of people who knew Danas 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.320 did them personally at the time she went missing. I 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:16.840 obtained hundreds of pages of documents, including interviews with friends, family, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.280 and others at the time the case broke, along with 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:26.360 exclusive audio which you will hear throughout this season. When 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.159 you're young, nobody knows you better than your best friend. 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:35.520 Christy Smith identified intimate details about Dana and her family 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.600 no one else could here. For example, she talks about 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:40.919 Dana's parents. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:43.600 Tell me about Lawrence and Georgia. 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.520 They been together since Georgia was fourteen, I think Lawrence 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.159 was probably sixteen. Very very young couple, you know, had 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.040 their moments, married in divorce several times, but only to 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.840 each other. They never married anyone else besides each other. 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.480 They had a few miss carriages before they were able 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.639 to conceive that son and carry him to term, so 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:04.520 he was a nice surprise, and then the fact that 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.719 they were able to do it again with Dana was 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.920 to them kind of a miracle. They were very proud 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.560 of their kids and very attached to their kids, very protective. 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.160 Georgia was, again, you know, just a young pair, young mother, 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:19.320 and Lawrence was a young father. 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.679 And Lawrence was great. 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:27.600 Sadly, Dana's father, Lawrence, passed away in nineteen ninety nine 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:29.040 at the age of fifty. 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:31.240 How was Dana around them? 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.120 Dana was very good. She was spoiled. 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.160 She could do whatever she wanted, and as she got 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.920 older in junior high and high school, and we all 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:42.320 did things that we probably shouldn't have done in high school, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:48.280 but sometimes her mom chose to not believe that Dana 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.600 was doing the things everybody else was doing. But in 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:52.199 the back of her mind she knew that she was. 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.439 And Lawrence, she had Lawrence, you know, wrapped around her 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.679 little finger. He just thought she was the world. She 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.840 wasn't in any of the clubs. She was very popular, 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.040 lots of friends, didn't participate in the club so much. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.439 She wasn't dance, but not not at school. It was 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.359 a separate dance class that she would do. She wasn't 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.560 in sports in the boys. Every teenage girl was in 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:16.000 the boys. 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:17.840 And did she have a boyfriend in high school? 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.479 One boyfriend her senior year she had one that she 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.840 was more deep into the relationship. I think she had 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.359 dated several people. And she dated a gentleman that she 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.399 worked with at Harps. You know, throughout high school she 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.040 had different boyfriends. One of the football players. She dated 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:32.760 him for a while. 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.880 Dana had quit working there about three weeks before her 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:42.560 disappearance and started a new job at Kmart in Rogers, Arkansas. Well, 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.159 she had been working for only three days as of 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.240 July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty nine. And so, what did 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.320 she talk about in high school that she wanted to 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:52.639 do after high school? 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.080 She talked about wanting to go to college or you know, 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.840 she would talk about wanting to live somewhere different and 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.280 getting married and kind of just doing the married life. 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.200 She didn't have any really big plans. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:08.159 Was she into art. 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.600 She was. She did like to draw, She liked to paint. 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.440 Her dad did a lot of woodwork, so she would 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.240 draw pictures and paint on the woodwork. And it wasn't 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.879 like the paintings and that sort of art. It was 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:21.919 just kind of like a hobby. 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:27.080 And so high school graduation comes and she moves in 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.360 with Larry, her brother was She lived. 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:30.040 With me for a while. 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.760 I got married very young at sixteen, and my husband 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.920 and I and our little girl. We lived halfway between 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.399 Gravet and Hawassee, and she, like everybody is ready to 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.040 get out of their parents' house, so she moved in 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.960 with us for a few months. We didn't have a 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.120 spare room, so she brought her day bed and put 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.840 it in the living room and that's where she would sleep, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.320 and then you know, we would all just hang out. 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:57.359 And did she work at the time. 0:21:57.880 --> 0:21:59.440 She was working at Harps at the time. 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.160 She did that for a few months and then Larry 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:06.240 and his girlfriend they were looking for an apartment and 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.359 couldn't afford it on their own, so they all decided, Dana, Larry, 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:12.880 and Dana's friend all decided that they would just get 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:14.639 one together so they could all split the rent and 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:17.359 make it more affordable for all of them. She wanted, 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.160 you know, the extra freedom, wanted to have her own 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:20.439 room and all that kinds of stuff. 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:25.360 Dana had July twenty fifth off from Kmart. Working had 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:29.239 always been important to her since she was sixteen, and 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.280 she had always maintained a job of some sort. 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.679 Her parents, you know, didn't have a lot of money, 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.560 and Dana was. She was fancying and she liked the 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.320 preppy clothes and all that stuff, so she knew if 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.560 she wanted that in a car and gas money and 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:45.639 she had work. 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.359 Did she ever talk about or mention that anybody was 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.400 being weird around her, stalking her or anything like that. 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:58.000 The only two things I remember was she would talk 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:03.040 about the gentleman of the store, the older guy. Yes, 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.919 the older guy worked in produce or meat or something, 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:06.639 I can't remember. 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:07.960 What would she say about him? 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:10.719 She would just say that he would tell dirty jokes 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:13.400 or talk dirty to him and things like that. 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:16.280 And did she ever talk about him following her out 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:18.080 to the parking lot or anything like that. 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:21.439 No, there was a police officer, the officer that she 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.640