WEBVTT - The Little Rock Girl 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:14.205 School of Humans. Every single time I listen to a 0:00:14.245 --> 0:00:18.445 true crime podcast or watch a TV show, they say 0:00:18.485 --> 0:00:22.365 the same thing. It was such a small town, you 0:00:22.525 --> 0:00:27.205 never expected such a horrific murder to happen there. But 0:00:27.325 --> 0:00:30.165 one thing you learn working in true crime is that 0:00:30.245 --> 0:00:34.485 evil is everywhere, and it definitely does not discriminate by 0:00:34.525 --> 0:00:39.125 zip code. But there are some cold cases that captivate 0:00:39.165 --> 0:00:42.645 the public imagination, and as the years go by and 0:00:42.725 --> 0:00:46.885 the cases remain unsolved, the names of these victims become 0:00:46.965 --> 0:00:52.045 synonymous with the town itself. In Little Rock, Arkansas, that 0:00:52.125 --> 0:00:57.405 name is Ebbie Jane Steppack. It seems like everyone in 0:00:57.525 --> 0:01:02.085 Arkansas knows Ebbie Steppeck. They know that Ebbie was eighteen 0:01:02.165 --> 0:01:05.125 years old when she vanished without a trace. They know 0:01:05.205 --> 0:01:07.805 that her case has been one of the most extensively 0:01:07.845 --> 0:01:12.365 covered cold cases ever in Arkansas. Maybe they've seen her 0:01:12.405 --> 0:01:15.725 high school portrait or the missing posters that have papered 0:01:15.725 --> 0:01:19.325 the city streets and been all over social media since 0:01:19.325 --> 0:01:24.405 Ebie disappeared in twenty fifteen. And yet, even though Ebbie 0:01:24.445 --> 0:01:28.365 is everywhere, so much of her life and her case 0:01:28.965 --> 0:01:35.005 remain a mystery. What really happened to Ebbie Steppick. I'm 0:01:35.125 --> 0:02:07.645 Catherine Townsend. This is hell and gone. You just you 0:02:07.685 --> 0:02:11.325 just go straight. It's out's up here on the right, 0:02:12.285 --> 0:02:15.925 and I'm back in Arkansas. This time I'm in Little Rock. 0:02:16.805 --> 0:02:20.005 My producer, Gabby is driving us to our first stop 0:02:20.045 --> 0:02:22.725 of the day. I had a lot of weird dreams 0:02:22.805 --> 0:02:25.405 last night about men surrounding our car, so hopefully that 0:02:25.445 --> 0:02:30.405 won't happen. But yeah, So this is our first day 0:02:31.365 --> 0:02:35.485 on the case. We're going to be meeting with Ebbie 0:02:35.565 --> 0:02:40.525 Steppeck's mom. I've been in contact with Ebbie's mom, Laurie 0:02:40.605 --> 0:02:43.845 for a few months now. She's walked me through the case, 0:02:44.325 --> 0:02:47.845 what's missing and what they don't know. She's also been 0:02:47.885 --> 0:02:52.765 telling me a lot about Ebby in many ways, Ebbie 0:02:52.805 --> 0:02:56.565 Steppeck was a typical teenager. She was living in West 0:02:56.605 --> 0:03:00.245 Little Rock with Laurie, her stepdad, Michael, and her younger sister. 0:03:00.965 --> 0:03:05.325 Her older brother Trevor lived nearby, so did her maternal grandparents. 0:03:07.045 --> 0:03:10.605 Both of Ebbie's parents, her mom, Laurie and her dad Peter, 0:03:10.845 --> 0:03:16.045 were hairstylists, and Ebbie had dreams of going to cosmetology school. 0:03:16.805 --> 0:03:20.525 She loved doing her hair and switching up styles and colors. 0:03:21.205 --> 0:03:25.805 She also loved to do her makeup. Ebbie's friends and 0:03:25.845 --> 0:03:29.285 families say that as she grew up, she developed a 0:03:29.325 --> 0:03:33.725 strong personality. She was fiercely loyal, she loved to make 0:03:33.765 --> 0:03:37.965 everyone laugh, and she loved to entertain. Like a lot 0:03:38.005 --> 0:03:40.925 of teens, she was a child of divorce, and she 0:03:41.005 --> 0:03:43.325 was dealing with the conflicts that come with being part 0:03:43.365 --> 0:03:47.685 of a blended family. Ebbie was eighteen years old. She 0:03:47.765 --> 0:03:51.005 was at a crossroads, deciding who she wanted to be 0:03:51.365 --> 0:03:55.125 and what she wanted to do with her life. Loved 0:03:55.885 --> 0:03:58.685 and just make sure we're right on the rightway. Okay, 0:03:58.685 --> 0:04:00.605 So we take a left here, and then we take 0:04:00.605 --> 0:04:03.725 a right, and then it's really close. I've been a 0:04:03.725 --> 0:04:06.965 Little Rock a lot. I was actually born in Little Rock, 0:04:07.525 --> 0:04:09.405 and I grew up just a few miles from here 0:04:09.565 --> 0:04:12.445 in the southern part of the state. While working on 0:04:12.525 --> 0:04:15.645 previous seasons of the podcast, it seemed like I was 0:04:15.725 --> 0:04:18.285 always driving through Little Rock for one reason or another. 0:04:19.645 --> 0:04:22.685 It's also where the Arkansas State Police and the Little 0:04:22.765 --> 0:04:26.645 Rock Police Department are based. Little Rock is divided by 0:04:26.685 --> 0:04:31.485 several highways. Interstate thirty divides north and south, Interstate four 0:04:31.605 --> 0:04:35.125 thirty and six thirty divide east and west, and basically 0:04:35.245 --> 0:04:38.925 anything west of Interstate four thirty is considered West Little 0:04:39.005 --> 0:04:43.005 Rock and it's an area that has expanded rapidly over 0:04:43.045 --> 0:04:47.565 the past two decades. Cantrell Road and Channell Parkway are 0:04:47.605 --> 0:04:49.725 the major roads that run through this part of town. 0:04:50.565 --> 0:04:54.405 It's full of affluent neighborhoods with names like Brody Creek, 0:04:54.605 --> 0:04:59.045 Woodland's Edge, and the Channel Valley. Channell Valley is where 0:04:59.085 --> 0:05:02.805 Ebby's family lives. It looks a little like the Ozarks. 0:05:02.845 --> 0:05:04.965 I mean, there are kind of rolling hills, there are 0:05:04.965 --> 0:05:08.325 a lot of trees. It's got almost like a semi 0:05:08.445 --> 0:05:11.285 rural feel in this part of West Little Rock. There 0:05:11.325 --> 0:05:15.765 are a lot of little gated communities and lakes. In general, 0:05:15.765 --> 0:05:22.245 it's very safe, very friendly, nice area. We arrive at Laurie's, 0:05:24.005 --> 0:05:27.405 so you turn into this little subdivision and it's basically 0:05:28.125 --> 0:05:32.965 it's just a planned little community. Really nice houses, nice yards. 0:05:33.685 --> 0:05:36.285 They're set, they're close to each other. They look like 0:05:36.325 --> 0:05:50.485 they're all kind of a similar architectural style. Hi, how 0:05:50.525 --> 0:05:56.685 are you. Hi's our producer. Hello, thank you. She listens 0:05:56.685 --> 0:05:58.565 to sounds. I don't want to I want to worry 0:05:58.565 --> 0:06:03.845 about hi talking, So y'all come on here. Laurie and 0:06:03.885 --> 0:06:06.885 her family have moved since we went missing, but they 0:06:06.925 --> 0:06:10.685 still live in the same general area. The house is gorgeous, 0:06:11.405 --> 0:06:15.645 with white walls, big overstuffed sofas, and while we're there, 0:06:15.965 --> 0:06:19.965 it's beautifully decorated for the holidays. In Ebbie's senior picture, 0:06:20.725 --> 0:06:24.725 she looks exactly like her mom, Laurie. Both are petite 0:06:24.725 --> 0:06:29.005 and blonde. Laurie says they were alike in personality too. 0:06:29.485 --> 0:06:33.845 The personality traits they shared made them super close, but 0:06:33.965 --> 0:06:36.245 it also meant that as Ebbie grew up and became 0:06:36.285 --> 0:06:42.645 a teenager, they clashed. Ebbie's the strongest filled person that 0:06:42.765 --> 0:06:48.845 I know, other than myself. We are both so stubborn. 0:06:49.405 --> 0:06:53.925 That is our biggest defective character, but it's also our 0:06:54.085 --> 0:06:59.925 strongest thing we have going for us too. Like a 0:07:00.005 --> 0:07:04.165 lot of teens, Ebbie was rebellious. She was, also, according 0:07:04.205 --> 0:07:07.925 to her friends and family, a combination of naive and fierce. 0:07:08.765 --> 0:07:11.645 She would do anything for a friend in need. She 0:07:11.685 --> 0:07:14.605 would also not shy away from speaking out for people 0:07:14.645 --> 0:07:18.245 she believed were being wronged, Like in her junior year 0:07:18.285 --> 0:07:21.645 of high school, she defended a classmate who was wrongly 0:07:21.685 --> 0:07:24.285 incarcerated after a gun was found in his car in 0:07:24.325 --> 0:07:28.405 the school parking lot. Ebbie rallied her classmates and wrote 0:07:28.485 --> 0:07:30.405 letters to help the young man get his name cleared. 0:07:31.485 --> 0:07:34.445 In the summer of twenty fifteen, after her junior year 0:07:34.445 --> 0:07:38.525 of high school, Ebbie's independent street kicked into high gear. 0:07:39.525 --> 0:07:43.325 She started working first at Playtime Pizza, then at the 0:07:43.325 --> 0:07:46.325 footlocker store in McCay Mall, which was a few miles 0:07:46.325 --> 0:07:50.005 away in north Little Rock. She started arguing more and 0:07:50.045 --> 0:07:53.845 more with her stepdad and her mom. Soon she was 0:07:53.885 --> 0:07:56.445 hanging out with a new set of friends, friends that 0:07:56.485 --> 0:08:00.245 her parents and her old friends didn't know. Ebbie had 0:08:00.245 --> 0:08:03.245 been attending a private Magnet school called Lisa Academy for 0:08:03.325 --> 0:08:07.365 several years. The school was and according to some of 0:08:07.365 --> 0:08:11.805 her fellow students, it was a fairly sheltered environment. But 0:08:11.925 --> 0:08:14.885 that summer, Ebbie told her parents that she planned to 0:08:14.925 --> 0:08:18.165 transfer to Little Rock Central High School for her senior year. 0:08:19.125 --> 0:08:22.125 Central High was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. 0:08:22.765 --> 0:08:25.125 You may recognize it from the famous case of the 0:08:25.205 --> 0:08:30.685 Arkansas Nine. As a large public school, at Central, it 0:08:30.805 --> 0:08:33.045 was easier for Ebby to get lost in the crowd. 0:08:34.405 --> 0:08:38.485 She started skipping school, staying out late, and defying her parents. 0:08:38.565 --> 0:08:43.085 More and more frustrated, Michael and Laurie laid down the law. 0:08:43.885 --> 0:08:46.285 They told Ebbie that if she couldn't follow their rules, 0:08:46.605 --> 0:08:49.965 she couldn't live under their roof. So Ebby made the 0:08:50.005 --> 0:08:56.885 decision to move out. Ebbie started CouchSurfing. She would stay 0:08:56.925 --> 0:09:00.365 with her brother, Trevor or sometimes were their grandparents or 0:09:00.605 --> 0:09:05.125 one of her girlfriends. Talking to Laurie, it's obvious that 0:09:05.165 --> 0:09:08.045 this was a heartbreaking decision for she and her husband 0:09:08.045 --> 0:09:11.605 to make, but it's one that they stuck with because 0:09:11.605 --> 0:09:14.285 they were worried that Ebbie was going off the rails. 0:09:14.845 --> 0:09:17.445 They wanted to help her get back on the right track. 0:09:18.125 --> 0:09:21.685 She told Trevor she was tired. She was tired of 0:09:21.725 --> 0:09:24.125 living the way she was living. She'd seen more things 0:09:24.245 --> 0:09:28.805 than she ever wanted to see again. He was talking 0:09:28.845 --> 0:09:32.965 to her about not necessarily coming back home, but letting 0:09:32.965 --> 0:09:39.005 Michael help her, letting us help her to get her ged, 0:09:39.645 --> 0:09:43.685 get in beauty school, as getting her an apartment, helping 0:09:43.685 --> 0:09:47.445 her just get her life going. Trevor and Michael were 0:09:47.485 --> 0:09:50.565 talking there was gonna be a conversation that they were 0:09:50.565 --> 0:09:52.805 going to sit down and talk to Ebbie and say, hey, 0:09:54.365 --> 0:09:58.085 we're gonna help you get your life back, and she was. 0:09:58.605 --> 0:10:06.165 She said she was really ready to stop. During this time, 0:10:06.845 --> 0:10:10.885 one of the friends Ebbie was staying with was Danielle. Hello, Hey, 0:10:10.965 --> 0:10:16.085 is this Danielle. Yes, Hey, it's Catherine Townsend. Hey. I 0:10:16.165 --> 0:10:19.045 talked to Danielle on the phone about what Ebbie's life 0:10:19.085 --> 0:10:21.845 was like during this time. First, I just wanted to ask, 0:10:21.885 --> 0:10:23.405 can you tell me how you met her and what 0:10:23.525 --> 0:10:30.525 she was like? Yeah? So, well, I had known her. 0:10:30.685 --> 0:10:34.565 Danielle was one of Ebbie's best friends. She talked about 0:10:34.565 --> 0:10:37.325 how when she met Ebbie, they didn't like each other 0:10:37.365 --> 0:10:41.925 at first, probably because, as Danielle explained, they both liked 0:10:41.965 --> 0:10:45.565 the same guy. It was nothing serious, she said, just 0:10:45.605 --> 0:10:50.165 your typical teenage drama. They became friends a few months later. 0:10:50.845 --> 0:10:53.485 I reached out to her via social media and I 0:10:53.525 --> 0:10:56.885 just said, hey, I just want to apologize, you know, 0:10:57.085 --> 0:11:00.885 for being the way that I was during said situation, 0:11:01.885 --> 0:11:04.445 and I would really like it if we could be friends. 0:11:05.285 --> 0:11:09.405 And she apologized back, and so anyways, that was the 0:11:09.445 --> 0:11:13.165 beginning of us becoming friends. I mean, as far as 0:11:13.165 --> 0:11:16.485 her personality, you know, she she had a very strong personality. 0:11:16.725 --> 0:11:20.285 She came off one way, but like I think she 0:11:20.365 --> 0:11:23.765 kind of did it to sort of intimidate people, like 0:11:23.805 --> 0:11:26.805 I'm not one to be played with. Once we got 0:11:26.845 --> 0:11:28.685 past that, I mean, she was so sweet to me, 0:11:28.765 --> 0:11:31.005 and you know, we would hang out all the time 0:11:31.205 --> 0:11:34.285 and we really just we enjoyed doing anything. That pretty 0:11:34.365 --> 0:11:37.485 much got both of us out of the house. Danielle 0:11:37.525 --> 0:11:41.125 never knew why Ebby decided to transfer from Lisa Academy 0:11:41.165 --> 0:11:44.525 to Central High School, but she also didn't know a 0:11:44.525 --> 0:11:46.765 lot of what Ebby was up to in the weeks 0:11:46.805 --> 0:11:51.965 before she disappeared. After Ebbie left home, she was always 0:11:52.005 --> 0:11:56.205 on the road in her Volkeswagon Pacade. On Tuesday, October twentieth, 0:11:56.325 --> 0:12:00.325 twenty fifteen, Ebbie sent a message to Danielle on Snapchat. 0:12:01.085 --> 0:12:04.205 The message read, Hey, I know this is a lot 0:12:04.205 --> 0:12:06.165 to ask, but is there any way your mom would 0:12:06.205 --> 0:12:09.405 let me stay the night tonight. Danielle wrote back that 0:12:09.405 --> 0:12:12.125 that was fine. She told Ebbie to come on over 0:12:12.165 --> 0:12:14.885 for dinner. You know, she would come here and there 0:12:14.885 --> 0:12:16.885 would be some night she'd be like, well, I'm gonna 0:12:16.925 --> 0:12:18.485 go home for the night, you know. Of course, I 0:12:18.565 --> 0:12:21.125 never really know she actually went home, or if she 0:12:21.165 --> 0:12:24.565 went somewhere else, But I know for sure there were 0:12:24.605 --> 0:12:26.805 at least a couple of nights when she said, well, 0:12:27.165 --> 0:12:29.445 I'm going to go to a friend's house and then 0:12:29.885 --> 0:12:33.165 I'll come back, and she just wouldn't come back. I 0:12:33.205 --> 0:12:35.965 know there were several days when she would like skip school, 0:12:36.325 --> 0:12:40.525 just wouldn't go. But you know, of course, again that 0:12:40.605 --> 0:12:42.525 was one of the situations where I didn't know where 0:12:42.525 --> 0:12:44.805 she went, or who she was with or anything like that. 0:12:45.645 --> 0:12:49.645 On Wednesday, October twenty one, Danielle and Ebbie went together 0:12:49.805 --> 0:12:53.725 to an event at a local church. They went home afterward, 0:12:54.125 --> 0:12:57.445 and Ebbie spent Wednesday and Thursday nights at Danielle's house. 0:12:58.405 --> 0:13:02.485 On Friday, October twenty three, Ebbie told Danielle that she 0:13:02.565 --> 0:13:05.765 was going to a party. She asked Danielle if she 0:13:05.805 --> 0:13:08.725 wanted to go with her, but Danielle said she didn't 0:13:08.765 --> 0:13:11.765 know anyone who was going to be there, so she declined, 0:13:12.805 --> 0:13:17.525 and something happened at that party, something that would change 0:13:17.525 --> 0:13:29.445 the course of Ebbie's life. For several years, every time 0:13:29.525 --> 0:13:32.405 you would see a news story about Ebbie Steppit, the 0:13:32.565 --> 0:13:36.605 same narrative gets reported about what allegedly happened that Friday, night. 0:13:37.645 --> 0:13:40.725 The reports say that Ebbie was gang raped by several 0:13:40.765 --> 0:13:44.245 young men at a party, but that's not what happened. 0:13:46.205 --> 0:13:49.445 On Friday night, Ebbie went out with a male friend 0:13:49.485 --> 0:13:52.525 from Central High School. Together, they went over to the 0:13:52.525 --> 0:13:55.205 home of another Central High School student in Little Rock, 0:13:56.045 --> 0:13:58.485 and it wasn't really a party. It was just a 0:13:58.485 --> 0:14:02.325 few friends hanging out. Ebbie, her friend, the friend they 0:14:02.365 --> 0:14:06.645 went there to see, and two other guys. We'll never 0:14:06.765 --> 0:14:11.325 know exactly what happened that night, but piecing together Ebbie's 0:14:11.365 --> 0:14:14.765 text messages after the fact, it seems like what happened 0:14:14.765 --> 0:14:18.485 to Ebby may have started out as a consensual sexual 0:14:18.525 --> 0:14:22.445 encounter with one guy. Then at some point she thought 0:14:22.485 --> 0:14:25.525 that the person she was having the sexual encounter with 0:14:26.205 --> 0:14:32.365 was videotaping her without her permission. Ebbie was angry. She 0:14:32.525 --> 0:14:35.365 texted another one of her friends, a guy named Gage. 0:14:36.205 --> 0:14:39.445 The text read, I was hanging with some dudes last 0:14:39.525 --> 0:14:41.725 night and we smoked and I was having sex with 0:14:41.765 --> 0:14:44.805 one of them and he fucking recorded me, dude, like 0:14:44.885 --> 0:14:48.765 when I wasn't looking. There is a black hole of 0:14:48.845 --> 0:14:52.525 information about what was going on that weekend, and we're 0:14:52.565 --> 0:14:55.925 working to try to find out what happened. But we 0:14:56.005 --> 0:14:58.365 do know that Ebby must have made her way back 0:14:58.405 --> 0:15:01.605 to her brother Trevor's house later on Friday night, because 0:15:01.605 --> 0:15:04.405 Trevor told Laurie that Ebby was there when he woke 0:15:04.485 --> 0:15:08.485 up that Saturday. Now, at this point, Ebbie and her mom, 0:15:08.605 --> 0:15:12.165 Laurie were still not communicating at all. This was part 0:15:12.205 --> 0:15:15.805 of their agreement after Ebbie moved out, So the whole 0:15:15.845 --> 0:15:19.565 time this was playing out, Laurie had no idea what 0:15:19.605 --> 0:15:22.925 was happening to her daughter after that happened. That was 0:15:23.005 --> 0:15:27.405 on a Friday night, she came home to Trevor's. He 0:15:27.405 --> 0:15:30.765 didn't know anything that happened. He called me and asked 0:15:30.805 --> 0:15:33.845 if Ebbie could stay with me that day, so he 0:15:33.885 --> 0:15:35.365 had a wedding to go to and didn't want to 0:15:35.445 --> 0:15:39.205 leave her home by herself. I said no, If she 0:15:39.325 --> 0:15:44.245 couldn't come home, that was the deal. And I knew 0:15:44.845 --> 0:15:47.845 if Ebbie and I saw each other, everything would break, 0:15:48.285 --> 0:15:52.645 and then she would lie and be gone two days later, 0:15:52.845 --> 0:15:56.845 and we'd read right back where we started from. Danielle 0:15:56.885 --> 0:16:00.605 saw Ebbie on Saturday, the day after the party. She 0:16:00.765 --> 0:16:03.245 said she had no idea that her friend had been 0:16:03.245 --> 0:16:06.285 through a trauma the night before Saturday I saw her. 0:16:06.485 --> 0:16:09.005 She came to my mom's house, but she had to leave. 0:16:09.925 --> 0:16:11.685 She didn't tell me where she was going. She just 0:16:11.685 --> 0:16:13.445 told me she had something that she had to take 0:16:13.485 --> 0:16:16.045 care of and then she would be back. Ebbie never 0:16:16.085 --> 0:16:19.285 went back to Danielle's and that's the last time that 0:16:19.405 --> 0:16:22.725 Danielle ever saw her friend. We know that she spent 0:16:22.765 --> 0:16:26.245 the afternoon at her grandparents' house, just hanging around in 0:16:26.245 --> 0:16:29.685 her pj's watching her favorite shows. So she went to 0:16:29.725 --> 0:16:34.125 my mom and dad's all day until at night. She 0:16:34.285 --> 0:16:38.085 stayed over there, slept, had a great day. My parents 0:16:38.125 --> 0:16:43.245 didn't know anything that had happened. On Saturday evening, Laurie 0:16:43.285 --> 0:16:46.565 and Michael were out to dinner when Laurie started feeling sick, 0:16:47.365 --> 0:16:50.925 and then Michael got a text from Ebbie. She said, 0:16:51.405 --> 0:16:54.525 I gotta tell you something, but don't tell mom. I 0:16:54.685 --> 0:17:00.165 was raped and video taped and I want you to 0:17:00.205 --> 0:17:03.285 go to the police with me, but I don't want 0:17:03.285 --> 0:17:07.725 mom to know. And he said, okay, let me get 0:17:07.725 --> 0:17:11.805 your mom home and then well, you know, we'll figure 0:17:11.805 --> 0:17:15.525 out a place to meet. She said, okay, he said, 0:17:15.565 --> 0:17:20.725 stay put. Michael was focused on getting Marie home and 0:17:20.725 --> 0:17:23.205 then he says his plan was to meet up with 0:17:23.205 --> 0:17:25.685 Ebbie so they could go to the police station together. 0:17:26.645 --> 0:17:29.405 He told her to stay where she was at her 0:17:29.405 --> 0:17:34.325 grandparents house, but Ebbie didn't stay put. Instead, she told 0:17:34.365 --> 0:17:36.645 her grandparents that she was going out to meet Michael. 0:17:37.925 --> 0:17:40.525 When Michael got Laurie home, he tried to get in 0:17:40.565 --> 0:17:45.125 touch with Ebbie, but she never replied. Eventually, he called 0:17:45.165 --> 0:17:49.845 her grandparents house, so he was calling my mom to 0:17:49.885 --> 0:17:53.205 ask her where she was. She said she didn't know 0:17:53.445 --> 0:17:56.205 she was going to meet him, and my mom didn't 0:17:56.205 --> 0:18:01.445 get She wasn't alarmed because Ebbie was real flighty. Anyway, 0:18:01.645 --> 0:18:05.725 Trevor was at a wedding, so I think that's what 0:18:05.805 --> 0:18:09.965 Michael was thinking. There's just nothing he could do but wait. 0:18:11.005 --> 0:18:14.925 To this day, no one in Ebbie's family knows where 0:18:14.965 --> 0:18:24.285 she went on Saturday night. It's Sunday, October twenty five, 0:18:24.645 --> 0:18:28.605 twenty fifteen, and it's the day after Ebbie texted her 0:18:28.605 --> 0:18:33.085 stepdad Michael about wanting to file a sexual assault claim. 0:18:33.165 --> 0:18:35.325 Michael had been trying to get in touch with her 0:18:35.405 --> 0:18:36.965 so they could meet up and make a plan to 0:18:37.005 --> 0:18:41.285 go to the police, but Ebbie never answered. Now, at 0:18:41.285 --> 0:18:45.005 this point, Michael says he was concerned, but not panicked. 0:18:45.685 --> 0:18:48.925 He just assumed that Ebby, like she had many times before, 0:18:49.485 --> 0:18:53.805 gone back to her brother Trevor's house. Meanwhile, Trevor and 0:18:53.845 --> 0:18:57.005 Ebbie's sister were calling her all day and not getting 0:18:57.045 --> 0:19:00.765 any response. Ebbie was supposed to go to a church 0:19:00.765 --> 0:19:06.845 event with Danielle, but she didn't show on Sunday afternoon, 0:19:07.685 --> 0:19:11.445 is when I was at a separate church event and 0:19:11.805 --> 0:19:14.405 I got a call from her sister and she had 0:19:14.405 --> 0:19:16.565 asked me like, hey, have you talked to Ebbie? Have 0:19:16.645 --> 0:19:18.965 you seen her? Because we haven't talked to her or 0:19:19.005 --> 0:19:22.165 heard from her, And I said no. I said, I 0:19:22.205 --> 0:19:24.245 can go make sure that she's not at my mom's house, 0:19:24.485 --> 0:19:26.285 you know, just in case like her phone had died 0:19:26.365 --> 0:19:29.405 or something. So I left the event that I was 0:19:29.485 --> 0:19:31.645 at and went to my mom's house to see if 0:19:31.685 --> 0:19:34.645 she was there, and she wasn't. So that was kind 0:19:34.685 --> 0:19:38.205 of once we started to realize, hey, something's up. A 0:19:38.245 --> 0:19:41.565 few hours later, Danielle got another call from Ebbe's sister. 0:19:42.045 --> 0:19:44.045 That was when she told me about she had talked 0:19:44.045 --> 0:19:47.565 to Trevor, and then after that we were just completely 0:19:47.645 --> 0:19:52.885 in the dark. What she's talking about is this Trevor 0:19:52.965 --> 0:19:56.605 dialed Ebbie's number at around five thirty on Sunday afternoon. 0:19:58.445 --> 0:20:01.325 No one answered, but then just a few minutes later, 0:20:01.725 --> 0:20:05.005 his phone rang and it was Ebby, and that phone 0:20:05.045 --> 0:20:10.045 conversation with Trevor would change everything. One of the most 0:20:10.085 --> 0:20:13.285 heartbreaking parts of this case is the fact that Trevor 0:20:13.405 --> 0:20:16.645 also passed away in twenty nineteen of a heart attack, 0:20:17.885 --> 0:20:20.525 so we can't ask him exactly what was said on 0:20:20.525 --> 0:20:27.525 this phone call. Here's what Laurie remembers. Trevor just runs 0:20:27.565 --> 0:20:34.045 in the house, bust in the house. Heys like, Mom, Mom, like, 0:20:34.285 --> 0:20:39.805 what Something's happened to Ebbie? Something has happened. And I'm like, 0:20:40.005 --> 0:20:43.685 what what are you talking about? He was like, I 0:20:43.725 --> 0:20:47.725 was talking to her on the phone. She's somewhere. She's 0:20:47.845 --> 0:20:51.965 fucked up, she can't talk. She's in her car. She 0:20:52.005 --> 0:20:55.485 doesn't know where she is or who's with her. But 0:20:55.845 --> 0:20:58.925 something's happened. We got to find her, call the police. 0:21:00.085 --> 0:21:04.085 When Trevor comes in and tells me that I can't 0:21:04.125 --> 0:21:11.725 even describe. I know that something bad is happening. And 0:21:12.725 --> 0:21:16.565 Trevor said, Mom, I just talked to her. I said 0:21:16.685 --> 0:21:19.045 where are you and she said, I'm out in front 0:21:19.085 --> 0:21:22.005 of your house, and Trevor's like, I hung up, walked 0:21:22.005 --> 0:21:25.085 outside and she's not there. So I called her bag 0:21:25.365 --> 0:21:26.925 and I said, Ebbie, you're not out in front of 0:21:26.925 --> 0:21:30.845 my house. Where are you? And she said, I'm in 0:21:30.925 --> 0:21:34.925 my car and I'm really fucked up. I don't know 0:21:34.965 --> 0:21:41.245 who I'm with, I don't know where I am. And 0:21:41.365 --> 0:21:44.565 even though she had no idea where she was and 0:21:44.765 --> 0:21:48.165 she was messed up, Ebbie knew that she was in trouble. 0:21:49.125 --> 0:21:54.045 That's all that I know that kept going on in 0:21:54.085 --> 0:22:00.125 the phone conversation. I could never get Trevor to tell 0:22:00.165 --> 0:22:03.605 me every single word that was said. I wanted to 0:22:03.645 --> 0:22:06.325 know every single word, and he couldn't tell me every 0:22:06.325 --> 0:22:09.565 single word. This is how the call with Ebbie ended. 0:22:10.085 --> 0:22:13.365 He said, Okay, I'm gonna hang up and get Michael 0:22:13.805 --> 0:22:19.125 to turn your location on your phone. And she said okay, 0:22:19.285 --> 0:22:22.125 and she hung up, and that's the last that we 0:22:22.205 --> 0:22:26.565 ever heard from her, and her phone was never answered again. 0:22:27.845 --> 0:22:32.845 At this point, Laurie and Trevor are freaking out. Laurie 0:22:32.965 --> 0:22:36.565 was trying to absorb this. This was the first time 0:22:36.605 --> 0:22:38.765 that she was hearing that her daughter may have been 0:22:38.805 --> 0:22:42.965 sexually assaulted and now could be in serious danger and 0:22:43.085 --> 0:22:46.125 a lot of this is a blur. But Trevor's on 0:22:46.165 --> 0:22:49.005 the phone with the police. He's like, something's happened to 0:22:49.045 --> 0:22:51.365 my sister. You've got to do something. You've got to 0:22:51.405 --> 0:22:54.565 find her. And the police are like, there's nothing we 0:22:54.605 --> 0:22:57.765 can do, and he said, then put an all points 0:22:57.765 --> 0:23:02.005 bulletin out for her car because something has happened to 0:23:02.045 --> 0:23:05.645 her right now. Somebody's done something to her or was 0:23:05.765 --> 0:23:10.605 doing something to her. So, according to Laurie, the police 0:23:10.645 --> 0:23:13.005 said they would put out an all points bulletin on 0:23:13.045 --> 0:23:17.005 the car. She says after that they didn't do anything. 0:23:18.365 --> 0:23:21.565 Trevor told Michael to track Ebbie's location on her iPhone. 0:23:22.325 --> 0:23:25.885 Michael said that he tried, but Ebbie's location services feature 0:23:26.325 --> 0:23:30.285 was turned off. Then, Laurie says they tried to report 0:23:30.285 --> 0:23:33.605 Ebbie missing, but the police told her that she had 0:23:33.605 --> 0:23:38.165 to wait twelve hours. This is not true, but it 0:23:38.285 --> 0:23:42.045 is a common misconception that people have and because of that, 0:23:42.685 --> 0:23:47.405 crucial hours can be lost when someone goes missing. Over 0:23:47.445 --> 0:23:51.205 the next several days, after Ebbie's phone called Trevor, her 0:23:51.205 --> 0:23:54.245 family and friends called everyone they could think of. They 0:23:54.365 --> 0:23:58.485 papered the area with flyers, Laurie is a hairdresser and 0:23:58.565 --> 0:24:01.085 some of her clients worked in the media, so that 0:24:01.205 --> 0:24:05.925 night had her face in car in everything on TV 0:24:06.205 --> 0:24:09.845 that night. Ebbie was a kid who lived and breathed 0:24:09.885 --> 0:24:14.165 on social media. Her family scoured her Facebook, her Instagram, 0:24:14.205 --> 0:24:17.765 and her Snapchat for potential clues. They also looked through 0:24:17.765 --> 0:24:22.445 Ebbie's phone records. They found out that after that four 0:24:22.485 --> 0:24:27.525 minute call with Trevor, all contact with Ebbie stopped. After that, 0:24:27.925 --> 0:24:32.205 her phone was never answered again. They could also see 0:24:32.245 --> 0:24:36.485 her last Instagram post. It looks like she's belted into 0:24:36.485 --> 0:24:40.325 the passenger seat of a car, maybe her car. She's 0:24:40.405 --> 0:24:44.245 looking into the lens. The caption reads, I Know what 0:24:44.325 --> 0:24:50.005 you did. On October thirtieth, twenty fifteen, five days after 0:24:50.005 --> 0:24:54.165 Ebbie went missing, police searched Ebbie's two thousand and three 0:24:54.285 --> 0:24:58.285 silver Volkswagen Pasade. It was sitting in the parking lot 0:24:58.445 --> 0:25:02.365 of Shalamont Park, a small residential park near her home 0:25:02.445 --> 0:25:07.085 in West Little Rock. La and Michael find out to 0:25:07.165 --> 0:25:10.805 their horror that Ebby's car has been sitting there in 0:25:10.845 --> 0:25:14.165 the park since the day she disappeared, and that people 0:25:14.205 --> 0:25:17.365 in the area had been calling the police for days 0:25:17.485 --> 0:25:21.925 about an abandoned car. It was called in every day 0:25:21.925 --> 0:25:27.085 by the security guard by neighbors. Lee was a neighbor 0:25:27.245 --> 0:25:30.165 who lived very close to the park and regularly took 0:25:30.205 --> 0:25:32.525 walks there in the mornings. And Lee is the one 0:25:32.565 --> 0:25:35.605 who called Laurie to tell her the police had found 0:25:35.605 --> 0:25:39.845 Ebby's car. And she calls me and says, Laurie, they're 0:25:39.965 --> 0:25:45.245 up here with Peter with the car. Peter is Ebbie's 0:25:45.285 --> 0:25:49.045 biological father, and because both Peter's name and Ebbie's name 0:25:49.085 --> 0:25:51.885 were on the title of the car, police called him 0:25:51.885 --> 0:25:56.125 to let him know that the Volkswagen had been found abandoned. So, 0:25:56.245 --> 0:25:59.845 even though Ebby's family had reported her missing several days earlier, 0:26:00.605 --> 0:26:03.125 and even though there were supposed to have been an 0:26:03.125 --> 0:26:06.365 all points bulletin put out on that car, when police 0:26:06.445 --> 0:26:08.965 called Peter to tell him that his abandoned car had 0:26:08.965 --> 0:26:13.005 been found, police had not connected that Volkswagen to Ebby. 0:26:13.445 --> 0:26:17.125 They called Peter and said, Peter, we have your car 0:26:17.205 --> 0:26:20.365 up Peter, and Peter's like, what, Yeah, we have your 0:26:20.365 --> 0:26:23.125 car up here, and he said, that's my daughter's car. 0:26:23.165 --> 0:26:29.045 Who's missing. Who's missing. Peter raced over to the park 0:26:29.565 --> 0:26:35.085 and met police there. This is what they found. Ebby's 0:26:35.125 --> 0:26:38.205 car was unlocked, the keys were in the ignition, and 0:26:38.245 --> 0:26:40.165 the car was out of gas, as if it had 0:26:40.165 --> 0:26:44.005 been left running. All of Ebbie's personal belongings were left 0:26:44.045 --> 0:26:47.765