WEBVTT - 1 | The Pinky Swear 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:04.760 The Red Weather is a work of fiction. Any resemblance 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.360 to actual persons or events reflects the adaptation of real, 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:10.959 publicly available materials for creative and legal reasons. The content 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:13.640 of this podcast is the sole responsibility of Red Weather 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.520 LLC and does not reflect the views of responsibilities of 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:21.960 iHeartMedia or its affiliates. A few days before she died, 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:28.760 I got a letter from Willow. Willow was my neighbor 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:30.840 and one of my best friends as a kid. We 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.320 grew up in the Redwoods outside of Sebastopol, California. It's 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.440 about sixty miles north of San Francisco, and even though 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.559 we were just through the woods from one another, we 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.120 had very different childhoods. Willow was part of a commune, 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.280 or what they called it a collective. It was a 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.320 group of maybe thirty people and it was called tender Hearts. 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.720 It was one guy, really, the leader, Elric, and then women, 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:53.560 then kids. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.520 That's Sheriff Maldonado. He was the sheriff back in the 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:58.680 eighties and the nineties, so he ended up dealing with 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.000 the tender Hearts when birds would complain or if kids 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.000 got into trouble. It was hard to wrap your head 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:09.120 around it. Was nature and trees and praying. I guess 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.840 it would be called meditating today, and drugs those pot 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:19.639 mushrooms Mescoon. Willow's mom was a founding member of Tender Hearts, 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.720 so she lived there with Willow and her sister Anna. 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.559 When we were young, Willow and I were close, really close. 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:27.800 We used to meet in the woods between our houses 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.640 and spend all afternoon together, sometimes camping out, but things 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.520 got complicated in our teens. By the time I got 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.160 her letter, I hadn't talked to her in years. I 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.360 didn't even know she had my address. She was in Panama, 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.160 in Pocas del Toro. It's a series of islands close 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.520 to Costa Rica. Apparently she'd gone with an organization to 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.240 help sea turtles protect their habitat or something, but really 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.000 it sounds like she went to get away and to 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.960 get sober. The letter was mostly about what she was 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:58.520 up to in Panama, working in a vegan pizza place 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.280 down there. Before I could at her back, I found 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.440 out she took her own life. My mom saw it 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:08.640 on Facebook. So you're still in touch with her mom. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.160 Well, only through Facebook. I mean, it's not like I 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.880 see her or talk to her, have private phone calls, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.160 but you know, she posts things, and this was one 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.240 of the things she posted. I was surprised. It's really sad. 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:23.639 It's really sad. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:25.680 She was begging me to come visit her. 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.160 This is Noah. He grew up with Willow too. 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.920 She begged me. She was like, hey, please please come visit. 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.640 I'm really lonely. I need a friend, I need some help. 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:33.880 You know. 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:34.680 She wrote me this. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.680 Poem that was very you know, in that context, was 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.359 quite deep and dark and basically just talking about loneliness 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.160 and isolation and kind of meaninglessness of everything. 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:45.800 He's now a psychiatrist up in Seattle. 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.400 And it's really challenging. It's really I mean, I've had 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.919 a number of patient suicide and even with that, it's 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.400 really hard to reconcile that of like, could I have 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:55.119 done something more? 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.040 If I was honest, I might not have even written 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.560 her back. I mean, we were in very different places. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:12.200 She was single, childless, hopping around different countries. I'm married, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.000 I had a kid. I live in LA I work 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.720 as a writer director, and as you might know, I 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.000 host a podcast about the TV show I was on 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:21.920 as a kid, Welcome to Vodney's World. 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:22.720 I'm Dannie official. 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:28.960 I'm rather strong than I'm will Fordell. Willow was still 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.600 chasing new experiences, new people, and new places in a 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.600 way that when we were young was exciting and admirable, 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.480 but now that we're in our forties, it felt a 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:40.080 little desperate, erratic. 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.960 I remember for the first few years of our friendship, 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.240 you know, like it was kind of like being a 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:47.560 being on a drug near her. She had so much 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:51.320 energy and excitement and spotanity and like. But then I 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:55.120 remember as she started to decompensate in our teen years, 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.840 it was like it was it was really challenging to 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:00.800 be around her. I should say all this with a 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.760 caveat that it's impossible for me not to use my 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.800 psychiatric nosology on her now now looking back, I mean, 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.640 she was just the archetype of someone who had had 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.240 clearly had a lot of childhood trauma. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.679 There's a few traumas Noah could be referring to here. 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:29.880 There was the fact that she grew up on a 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.720 collective in the woods. She definitely had some awful boyfriends, 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.760 there were drugs, But the central trauma of Willow's life 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.640 had to do with her sister Anna. Anna was two 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.720 years older than us, which isn't much except when you're fifteen. 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.760 Back then, she was in a whole other category of existence, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.680 and I probably would have gotten to nowhere better. Except 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:57.560 on Halloween night nineteen ninety five, Anna disappeared. It was 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.760 a horrible time for a couple of there. It seemed 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.600 like everyone we knew was a suspect or had a secret. 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.000 We all got interviewed by the cops. People blamed Willow's mom, 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.760 people blamed the Tender Hearts and his boyfriend. People blamed 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:17.280 the town. But no one knew what actually happened. Nobody 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.599 was ever found, no charges ever filed. Most everyone assumed 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.080 that Anna ran away, that she just wanted out of 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.840 Tender Hearts or small town took off. But Willow never 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.880 thought that she knew her sister would never leave without her, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:38.080 or at least without saying goodbye. This is from Willow's letter. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.120 I know I made you promise something about the night 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.920 Anna disappeared. You and Christo Vecchio and Oriyan and Connor 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.599 were there too. Do you remember we pinky swore. So 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.160 here's the deal. I want you to know I don't 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.279 fucking care anymore. I released your pinky, Sir, I am no. 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.400 I can't read this, but I think she wrote authority. 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.800 But I want to know the truth. If Anna is 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:04.480 still out there, or the person who killed her is 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.440 out there, then keeping my secret is stupid. It always 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.760 has been. I kept going back over the letter, going 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.400 back over my memories and my relationship with Willow. I 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:18.920 kept wondering, why did she send this to me? Why 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:24.559 didn't she decide to tell the truth herself. In nineteen 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.719 ninety five, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared. She was seventeen. 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.960 Her body was never found, no one was ever arrested, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:37.120 no explanation given. And back then, I lied to my parents, 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.120 I lied to police, I lied to everybody because Anna's sister, 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.839 Willow asked me to. I've decided to go back to 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.599 my hometown, interview my friends and family, and talk to 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.040 police and journalists whoever I can to try to find 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.840 out what actually happened. I am actor and filmmaker writer 0:06:55.000 --> 0:07:51.840 Strong This is the Red Weather. Before I left for Sebastopol, 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.360 I called up my friend Chris because he's one of 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.360 the few people who knew what Willow was talking about. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:00.680 Yeah, what's up right? Recorded? 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.960 What that you no it's the thing Elly, that it's recording. 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.320 That is Sean Hayes with you telling me that this 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:09.760 all being recorded. 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.160 Chris is a comedy writer now who also lives in 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.400 La So I don't I don't know if you've heard, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:15.520 but Willow Trainer died. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:16.680 Yeah. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:17.920 My cousin Tarn texted me. 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.760 You've never torn, right, No, Sacramento torn. Uh, there was 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:24.640 a Thanksgiving you came with I'm pretty sure you came 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.480 with me anyways. Crazy. I don't know if she killed 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:32.199 herself in Puerto Rico or Panama, Panama. Well, she was 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.720 always a fucking train rack, dude, I mean, even before 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:36.800 the kid fucking grew up in a cult. 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:38.920 Well, I don't know if I would even call it that. 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.480 I think that's because you're a sweetheart, sweetheart. Okay, I'm 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.560 gonna call it a call, because there's a creepy fucking 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:48.160 tree calls. They were out, They were basically like rural homeless. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.960 Before she killed herself, she sent me a letter she's 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:56.400 I know and saying that we can uh tell the truth. 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:58.800 Chris had also made a promise because he was with 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.520 me and Willow the night that Anna disappeared. 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.160 Who cares if we could tell the truth now, like 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.040 I know, I know, but I mean there's there's so 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.040 much that I don't even know about the case. The case, 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.400 you know, oh, yes, oh the case. Like these detective 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:12.320 riders on the case. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.120 Now there was a first party and they didn't they 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.239 like find a bullet in a tree. 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.600 Or bullets in yes, three bullets country, multiple bullets. 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:21.120 That's what I mean. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.319 I don't even know the basics. It's like and then 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:24.600 let alone the fact of. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.440 Like what we did, but what Willow did? Right, So 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.680 that is why you're recording this phone call. Yeah, I mean, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:32.040 I don't know. 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:33.680 I'm just I you know, I feel like I've got 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.040 this this this platform. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.160 You know, dat's a public figure. I did a podcast 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.040 and all right, Colombo, well you're not going to go 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.000 solo on this. Brother will be the Hardy Boys or 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.360 the Scooby Gang. And I'm not gonna be Shaggy. It's 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.559 too on the nose. I want to be Scooby or Velma. 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:59.400 I'm definitely Velma and testing testing one about sound gear 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.480 so I could doc a man everything I could. I 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.720 said goodbye to my wife Alex and her son. Indeed 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.640 recording right now, Yeah, I'm never gonna stop rowing. 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:15.280 That's the whole point, okay. 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:16.520 And you have the draft. 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.800 Too, Yeah, but it's I've got time, so I think 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:21.640 while I'm up there, I'll be able to get writing 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:27.040 done with this loud guy. Hey dude, I'm saying goodbye. 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.280 I had three months to write a script, a horror 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.000 movie for a small studio. It wasn't my original idea. 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:34.720 They had brought me in after they sold the pitch, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.760 but they were pain This sort of thing has become 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.400 my life, writing movies that never get made. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:48.960 All right, I love you having fun having special, dude, 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:54.280 time special, all right, I love you guys. 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:11.080 A week or two week or two? What? Yes, we're two? 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.240 Hell hello it is. 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:18.760 I drove across town and I picked up Chris. I 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:19.880 was glad he was coming with me. 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.840 I knew there'd be gaps in memory, conflicting versions and 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.000 things people maybe didn't want to think about it or 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.080 talk about, so I thought it'd be good to have 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:27.480 his help. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.920 I am not driving at all. 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:31.360 Not at all. 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:33.160 You do not need to see my road rage. Bro 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:35.640 Ooh another fun rule. 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:40.079 You get one moody whiny white guys song per hour. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:41.840 That's okay, that's all I have. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:42.679 I know that. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.400 So we're gonna put on your phone. Yeah, dude, you're 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.440 getting beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett. He'd also, I know, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.480 keep things lighthearted. I did some research before we left 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.400 l A. And when I looked into Anna's case, there 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.160 was one name that kept coming up. Monica Tremblaine. 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.920 All right, Hi, I are you doing. 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.480 Hey? She was the journalist who covered the story for 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:06.720 the Press Democrat or local paper. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:07.040 Hey. 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.559 You know we've met before, right, Well, yeah, I mean 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.040 we talked back in the day. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.760 I mean I feel like my mom was there. No, no, no, no, no, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:16.959 this was way after then. It was in the two 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.160 thousand and three. Yeah. I came to the Graduate play 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:21.400 when you did it with Jerry Hall. 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.280 We talked for a second at uh huh at the 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:29.080 opening night party. Okay, yeah, I was for sure. I 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.080 was like, oh, he doesn't remember me, or either you 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:31.760 were avoiding me. 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.480 No, oh god, sorry, do me a favor, though. Don't 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:36.840 look up the review of that play. 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.880 Manica graduated from Berkeley and then moved to Santa Rosa 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.160 to work for the Press Democrat only a month before 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.560 Anna disappeared. It was a small paper doing all the 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.800 things paper did in the nineties, classified its town hall meetings, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.280 the kind of things today you just find online if 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:53.560 at all. 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.760 You know, it was like my first real story. I 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.880 mean I was only twenty three then. I was so young. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:05.640 Yeah, But what was interesting was that, like everybody, everybody 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.320 at the paper assumed that Anna was a runaway. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.360 But I did not believe that. Why hmmm, you know, there. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.240 Was something off and everything about this, I mean everything 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.360 just felt like there was something there, felt like there 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.240 was something more, like more going on. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.000 I felt a vibe vibe. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.080 I was younger than everybody at the paper, you know, 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:31.680 and so when I talked to the kids, you kids, 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.240 I felt closer to you than everybody else. But then again, 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.000 you guys were a bunch of white kids in this 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:39.559 very white hippie town. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:41.200 I mean y'all had money. 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.160 I mean you you were already on TV, you were famous, 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.959 so right right, it was a lot, you know, the commune, 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.640 the drugs fire, that's. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:52.520 Like I want to get into all of that stuff, 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.840 but let's just start with this. What can we just do? 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.840 Like the uh, what where Hannah was that night? What 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.800 happened to her? Just like the pure only the facts 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:03.960 version of what we know. 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.959 Anna Trainer was at a party in downtown Sebasketball that. 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.760 Would be Heather Colburn's house, a Halloween party. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.400 There are a lot of witnesses that said Anna was 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.600 there and she was drinking, and that she had a 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:18.920 fight with her. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.360 Boyfriend or ex boyfriend, depending on your point of view. 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.680 His name is Mick Bowden. My brother Shilah was actually 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.480 there at the party. I remember sitting there. I just 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.080 remember he punched the window. 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.600 There was a lot of screaming and arguing going on, 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.840 and then, you know, I don't remember exactly what it 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.840 was about, but it definitely stopped the situation. Lateryone was 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:43.920 like whoa, okay, and then you know, but it's kind 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:45.480 of in a party scene, so like everybody's you know, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.040 and I think they might have been out smoking. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.040 Well yeah, Mick, he left the party an hour or 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.440 so before Anna. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:52.680 More on that later. 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:54.280 So she gets a ride. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.960 So she gets its ride from these three girls, Lindsay Green, 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.080 Gianna Parata, and Audrey Wick. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.200 So I don't know if I should tell you this, 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.600 but I call them the mean girls. 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.640 Were they pretending to help her or I mean they 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.320 were you know, honestly, there was a lot of back 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:12.320 and forth with that. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.040 Lindsay, Jenna and Audrey gave her a ride and when 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.280 they were asked by the police, they said they drove 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:18.720 her home. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.200 On Lindsay told the police that they were actually messing 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.400 with Anna and that they dropped her off a few 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:24.560 miles from her house. 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.040 Actually, like I said, mean girls. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.360 But we can assume at least that she didn't go 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.720 home because then Nick got that page from Anna ten 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:34.360 oh three. 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.720 This was the era of pagers. We all had them, 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.240 and we all had our own code that we used 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:41.880 to let someone know if we wanted them to call 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:43.440 us back or meet us somewhere. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:48.000 Well, first she paged him to a phone number, which 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.240 we let her found out was the Juniver Street pay phone, 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.120 and he told police that he paid her back with 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.960 his cold that he was going to meet her there. 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.720 But then the fire a devastating night in western Sonoma 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.440 County as fire rage over one hundred acres and burned 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:02.680 four homes in its path. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.880 Sources te well, we have that the first witness caught 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.960 in the fires at ten twenty pm. It started out 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.840 on the Tenderheart property and then you know, as we know, 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:13.920 it's bread. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.000 No one was hurt, but a lot of loss. 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.840 It was a big deal to firefighters I don't know 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:19.320 their names. 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.120 In front of me on the way towards the fire, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.520 they saw a young woman, blonde walking alone on Juniper. 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:36.040 That was the last time anyone saw an a trainer. Well, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.680 I have some info, some new info, maybe answers for 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:41.200 some of this. 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:49.680 Well, damn rider, it's only been thirty years. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.200 It's an eight hour drive from La to Sebasterful. So 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.680 along the way, Chris and I talked about our hometown. Yes, 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.240 I mean when we were kids, it was like this tiny, 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:12.800 crusty and now it's like now it's like nice, nice 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:17.840 restaurants and cute little shops. Yeah, and like even the 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.879 Foster Freeze is now a place that you know, you 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.840 get like milkshakes and fifteen dollars Hamburgers are so good. 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.000 So Basketball isn't all that different from a lot of 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.800 small towns in California. But back in the seventies it 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.520 had a very particular culture. Here's how my brother Shiloh 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:33.840 put it. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.359 A lot of hippies that moved from San Francisco, like 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.400 our parents. But then there were also the pot growers 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:46.080 and like that sort of edgyness to it. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.600 Kind of where the hate Ashbury Summer of Love crowd 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.760 went to grow up, grow some vegetables, grow some pot 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.320 and raise kids with names like Rioter and Willow. In 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:57.640 the actual town where Chris grew up, you could still 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.960 have a pretty typical suburban childhood. But outside of town 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:06.159 it was the wild West of alternative parenting. There were 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.800 all kinds of situations. Take my buddy Ryan. He grew 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:10.600 up on a commune. 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.200 It was fifty four acres of land. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.640 There was a ranch house where all of this stuff happened, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.520 like a central ranch house that was owned and common 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:20.000 by everybody. 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:21.200 So this was the common land. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.200 You know, people would take turns with, like running the daycare. 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.840 It wasn't religious or spiritual, but it was certainly a 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:29.320 counter cultural. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.200 Scene, kind of like you know, hippie dancy thrill your 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:33.920 hands and spacey, you know. 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.280 Kind of just like you know tied I. That was 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:38.280 so much Tied Die. 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:39.720 Yeah, yeah, a. 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.239 Love as it really was that it really was. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.800 Yeah, my own home life wasn't that extreme. Chris and 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:47.960 I pulled into my parents place that evening, I. 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:54.240 All right Island. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:57.480 They moved into the woods, put in a well built 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.439 our house. As a kid, we had electricity, but we 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.280 didn't have TV. I was homeschooled on and off. We 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.920 were vegetarians. And while my parents' property has a name, 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.919 we call it redwood Shire, unlike Tender Hearts. That started 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:12.080 as kind of a joke. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.320 As soon as we bought it, you know, we just 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.600 the redwoods were just so beautiful, and so Dad, coming 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.160 from an accounting background, he wanted to make something that 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:30.359 was productible. So we made it an experimental farm, and 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.479 we had to give it a name, so I said, well, 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.840 it has to be redwood Yeah, and then. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.879 It also relates to my dad's name, which is for real, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:39.359 King Arthur Strong. 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.680 Well yeah, but a lot of it came from King 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:45.280 Arthur like Shire. 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.560 Yeah, so redwood Shire. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:49.840 It's just stuck. 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.040 Our day to day life was positively mainstream, compared to 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.960 Willow and Anna, who were literally a few hundred yards 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.480 away living in tents and barns with some kind of 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.760 guiding spirituality or philosophy, which I was realizing I knew 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.440 nothing about, and neither did Oryan. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:09.720 I think I understood what was going on more even later, 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:11.480 when I was in my twenties or something like that. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:12.280 But girth family. 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.520 So this guy was called was he called like the 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:21.320 father or something creepy like that? You know, very much polyamory, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.720 but like not modern you know, consensual, et cetera, much 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:27.760 more of kind of like dude has a bunch of 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:28.680 wives kind of thing. 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.879 Our lives couldn't be more different. But we were within 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.439 walking distance, which is how I ended up physically smack 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.800 dab in the middle of this case. And that was 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:40.720 news to Monica. 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:45.879 So I was. I was with Anna's sister Willow that night, and. 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:47.679 Yeah, you and your friends are at kind of Drake's 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:49.240 house watching horror movies. 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.800 Well that's that's what we said. Yeah, that's what she said. 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.199 But we were actually in the woods. We were on 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:57.320 the Tender Hearts property. 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.840 Wait, if you're on the Tender Hearts property, you can 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:02.680 confirm none of the adults were there. 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.200 Yeah, I mean we didn't. As far as we knew, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.280 no one was there. They were all on the sunrise 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.720 seance hike the night that Anna vanished. The adults of 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.240 Tender Hearts said they were holding something called a sunrise seance, 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.280 which was an annual tradition for them. El Rick and 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.600 the women would hike up Mount Saint Helena for a 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:25.560 ceremony and apparently it involves psychedelics. Shiloh and I actually 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:27.720 went on one of these with Oryan and Willow when 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.480