WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Blair Adams 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.520 Thinking Sideways is not brought to you by rock Me Amadeus. 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.600 Instead is supported by the generous contributions of people like you, 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:12.040 our listeners on Patreon. Visit patreon dot com slash thinking 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:28.200 Sideways to learn more Thinking Sideways. I don't just stories 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:33.960 of things we simply don't know the answer too. Hey, everybody, 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:38.000 welcome again to another episode of Thinking Sideways. I am Steve, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:48.000 of course, joined by Yeah, I don't forget my pseudonym. 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.800 I also say I was gonna say Devon because it's 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.920 your real name. This week, we've got another mystery, which 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.880 is not how do we do the same bit every week, 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:03.560 but instead a real mystery. Uh. This week we're gonna 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.679 be talking about Well, this is kind of an oddball 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.080 mystery to me, and it's one of those ones that 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:10.440 keep reading over and over and over and you just 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:15.559 kind of scratch your head, going what's going on? Yeah? Yeah, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.120 And this is the death of a gentleman by the 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.760 name of Blair Adams for we forget this was just 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:27.640 by Denise you. We do get to them, yes, we do. 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:34.720 Usually is it really? And it just keeps growing? Okay, 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.080 We'll let me give everybody a quick summary before we 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:38.800 get into the story because there is kind of a 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:43.119 bunch of details here. Blair Adams was a Canadian man 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:48.000 whose body was found on the eleventh of July in 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.040 the parking lot of a hotel that was currently under 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:55.800 construction in Knoxville, Tennessee. Uh. He was wearing a ripped 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.720 shirt and nothing else. Was it ripped or had just 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.120 been torn open like ripen without on button. I think 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.200 it was probably torn open, but you hear it referred 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.040 to as ripped. So we'll go which wherever one you like? 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.200 There was somewhere Here's what really kind of catches everybody's attention. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.200 There was somewhere between four to six thousand dollars in 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.119 paper currency laying on the ground around him, and that 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:25.680 was in US, Canadian and German currencies. He also had 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.919 a bag near him which had about two thousand dollars 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.200 in precious metals and jewelry. And was that that was 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.359 That was his fanny pack, right, that was his fanny pack. 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.440 So that wasn't that wasn't on him, that was near him? Right? No, No, 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:40.320 it wasn't on him. But thanks for giving away the 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.080 fact that I was holding on it that he had 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:48.480 a fanny pack ruined the night. But by all indications, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.800 Blair had no reason to be in Knoxville, and it 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.919 doesn't appear that he knew anybody there, so we don't 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.320 really know what happened and why he died there. Yeah, 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:05.200 and it's obviously not a robbery, not unless there was 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:09.120 like four times as much for and they just left 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.079 it some behind because they're like, well, there's so much here, 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.120 make it look like it wasn't for that. Yeah. No, no, 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:21.120 that's unlikely. Well, let's go ahead and start at the 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.919 very beginning of the story. Blair Adams was thirty one 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.959 years old and he lived in Surrey, British Columbia, which 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.840 is right on the border between the US and Canada. 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.600 And it's uh, I couldn't ever tell if it was 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.760 just kind of if it was its own city or 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.320 a sub community of Vancouver, you know. I don't know. 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.720 Maybe it's Sara quivalent of the county. I don't know. 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.440 I looked it up. But the point is it's right there. 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.280 And this is kind of important in that that relationship 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.680 of the border because if you look at the West Coast, 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.920 I five or Interstate five, runs from the bottom of 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.080 California up through Oregon up through Washington and where he 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:06.040 hits the Canadian border, that's Surrey. So it runs right 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.800 into there, right there at pace arch before right. I 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.040 don't know that I have. I haven't. I've never been 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.240 to Canada. I've never been to Canada. Really, yeah, I 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.800 know it's weird, right at I've lived here my entire 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:23.080 life and I've never been to Canada. Yeah, it's not 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:24.840 that far. You should go to Vancouver sometime. It's a 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:30.080 cool town. Yeah, Okay. So Blair, he was a foreman 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.120 at a construction company, and by all accounts, he was 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.800 a nice, normal, well liked guy. You do see some 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.480 things in the internet reading that hint at some other 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:44.039 problems that he might have had, but will address those later. Basically, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:50.880 there was nothing unusual about his character. Yeah, nothing stood out. 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.760 According to his mother, though, in the beginning of the 0:04:54.800 --> 0:05:00.719 summer of he started acting more and more radic, to 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.920 the point that he started having to her what seemed 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.520 like mood swings. She describes him as pretty a ratic 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.560 or strong mood swings. And he was single, right, Yes, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.760 she was a single man. Pretty much the closest relationship 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.960 of his that I got that impression She did eventually 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:23.320 ask him, you know what's going on here, and he replied, 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.680 I don't think I should tell you about it, which 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:28.920 you could read a lot of things into that, but 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.960 that's what he said. Uh, there have been some after 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.680 the fact reporting. I'm going to call it after the 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.839 fact reporting that says that he told other people around 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:44.880 him that someone was out to kill him, which makes 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.120 him sound pretty paranoid unless somebody was actually have to 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.920 kill him, that's alway said, unless there actually was somebody. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.400 Yeah right, it's like you're only paranoid unless unless something 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:59.760 actually does happen, and then it's too late. Yeah, nobody 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:07.200 leaved you, if only they had. On the fifth of July, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.719 Blair went to the bank and he drained his savings 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.440 account and he emptied out his safety deposit box, so 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.559 he got all of his money in cash, and then 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.920 he went to the safety deposit box and that's where 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.479 he got the coins and the jewelry, the precious metals 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.599 that he would have on him when he was found dead. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.560 And forgive me, I may have missed it, but has 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.160 it ever explained why he owned those things so that 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.080 it wasn't like a family heirloom. It wasn't like, I 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.320 don't know. I mean, I know that some of the 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.839 medals were coined, so it may have been that he 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.880 was a coin collector, but I don't know if it 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:51.480 was maybe the families. Some people like to buy gold. Yeah, 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.560 that's true. Actually, you know, I was planning, if I 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.760 hadn't been cheated out of my one point six billion 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:00.279 dollar powerball jack weeks ago, I was planning, I'm buying 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:02.640 a stout wooden chest and filling it with golden silver 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.000 coins and burying it in your basement. No, I was 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:06.800 just gonna have it out so like that could just 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:13.640 open it up and my hat into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.960 To answer your question, I don't know why. Okay, okay, okay. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.160 So Blair goes to the bank, gets all his money. 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:20.960 By the way, the Fannie pack is where he, like 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.640 we said he was keeping all of it has been 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.360 a big fanny pack. Well that's where he. I don't 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.560 think he kept the cash in the Fannie pack. Well, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.040 I've heard it both ways. I've heard it in the 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.840 fanny pack. I've heard he stuffed it into his duffel bag. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.120 That amount of money four to six thousand dollars, and 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.520 I don't know the exact conversion to say how many 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.480 bills were in what versus what, But that's still a 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.040 lot of cash. It seemed like too much to put 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.680 into a Fannie pack. Not really. If you get it 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.480 in twenties, that's it's gonna be. Uh, it's gonna be 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.320 a hundred bills in a packet, as simbing some packets. 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.800 So that's two thousand bucks. So basically three packets of bills, 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.360 not that much. Thanks for just at rolling that on me, Joe. 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:07.800 On top of yeah, it would have been it would 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.720 have been a tight squeeze. Yeah. Some of those fanny 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:14.520 packs were pretty big, remember, Yeah. Yeah, back to our 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.880 story though, enough about fanny packs. So he went to 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.560 the bank on the fifth, which was Friday. On Sunday, 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:26.040 which was July seven, he went to the US border 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.880 and tried to cross. And this was this is by 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.400 car or car Now I heard this he was going 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:33.920 to get I think it was he You drove to 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.040 the ferry, if I remember correctly, and the ferry took 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.800 you across, so it wasn't like he was just driving 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:41.840 down the road. Well, this is the part I don't 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.240 really get is that why if you're if you live 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.920 in Surrey, why would you Because I had heard that 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.240 he arrived from Vancouver Island, which means you get there 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.200 by ferry, But when you're at Surrey, you just drive 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.079 a little way south and you're at the border. Why 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.640 would he Why would he go by go over to 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.640 the island and then catch a fair are from the 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.839 island and it's that's just a really expensive way to go. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.680 So there are so many things that he did that 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.680 are so unexplainable that I don't even know where to 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.200 begin with that question, let alone a bunch of the 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.000 other questions that we're going to have. Yeah, I have. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:21.439 I can't answer that, Joe, Yeah, it's it's yes. Again. 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.200 This has been kind of muddled because I almost wonder 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.319 if he just thought it would be easier to get 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.599 across there, you know that like on the ferry, he 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.600 could just blend in with a group of people and 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.000 you know, sneak through somehow or something like that, versus 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.760 that is one thing about especially if you catch a 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.079 big ferry, then it's just suddenly those guys are the 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.959 custom shed all of a sudden are overwhelmed with people. 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:45.240 There are a lot you know, and I've been through 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.400 that whole thing. Yeah, yeah, and going up to Victoria 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.680 and yeah, it's a lot of people getting off that 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.320 boat all. So that would be my guess is that 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.959 maybe he just thought, since he probably thought just by 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.520 his actions, it seems like he was he was trying 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.360 to blend in. He was trying to hrying to not 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.480 be stopped at the border. And if you're driving across 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.040 in a car, you're gonna get stopped. They're going to 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:11.000 search you, versus if you're just blending. They don't search everybody, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.800 but they'll pick out the ones that are acting suspicious, 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.280 which he was. He was very agitated. Customs stops him, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.800 checks him out, realizes he's got all his cash on him, 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.920 the flag him as being involved in the drug trade 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.320 in some way, either as a dealer or a curier. Yeah, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.439 because he's a white male, he's unmarried, and he's got 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.840 a boatload of money on him. Yeah, we're not letting 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.040 you across the border. So they turn him around and 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.520 they send him home next time. You know, I mean, 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.199 the smart thing to do in situations like that, it's 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.040 to like duct tape the money to your back instead 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:50.480 of having a fanti pack. Yeah, I don't know, but okay, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.840 so let's move forward here. We're gonna go to the 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.199 next day, which is Monday, the eighth of July. Blair 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.600 went to work and promptly quit. And as for his paycheck, okay, 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:06.440 I have read conjecture in both directions of whether he 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:08.560 did or did not get that check and if he 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.040 did or did not get it cashed at the bank. 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.840 So I can't say if he did that, but he 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.480 got a job out of the way. He then turned around, 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.160 he went to the airport and he bought a ticket 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.840 for the next day to go to Germany. Spend seventeen 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.240 hundred bucks going to get an airplane ticket, which you 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.040 know means he wants to get out of town. He's 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.440 trying to get out of town. And that explains why 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:37.600 he had German money in Okay, that totally does um 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:41.280 and then um se h bucks. You probably could have 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.680 got a better deal if you bought it like a 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:48.720 little earlier, if things had been planned instead of what 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:50.720 seems to be spurred the moment. Although in the nineties 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.040 it was a little easier to just kind of get 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.360 you know that, like really flags you these days, right, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.040 if You're like, I need to get out of this 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.120 country immediately. I will take the first flight. Blair is 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.200 doing everything in cash at this point, but I'm just 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.319 saying like that is the sort of thing that these 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:13.000 days people are probably not but in the nineties that 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:17.240 didn't stand out at all. But he couldn't wait to 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.200 leave the country the next lead. Flying out the next 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.320 day was not soon enough for him. So what he 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.920 does is he he has a ticket. He then goes 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.600 to a friend's house that night and knocks on the 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.520 doors in the middle of the night, saying, Hey, can 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.120 you take me the border? Can you get me out 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:35.960 of town? I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go. 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.200 His friend has her kids at home, says Claire, my 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.040 kids are here. I can't just drive you to the border, 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.200 at which point he gets all flustered and frustrated and leaves. 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.600 And then we know that the next day he does 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.559 make it to the airport. He does go to the 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.920 Vancouver airport. That's this is going to be Tuesday the night, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.200 but instead of getting on his plane, he cashes out 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:07.040 his ticket, turns around and rents a car and drives 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.480 south to Seattle. He manages to get across the border 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:16.400 this time, Well, he's seventeen thou less, No, I got 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:17.800 as far as I can tell, he gets his money back, 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.480 his money back. But yeah, and then he got it 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.480 in cash. He didn't get it as a voucher. I 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:26.960 am under the impression that he got in his cash, 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.480 but I cannot say. I just wonder, because of the 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.080 things that happened next, he could have gotten it as 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.000 a voucher maybe, and that would have been less suspicious 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.640 crossing the border. We know, there's some weirdness about the 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.280 cost of talking. But what We're almost there, so okay, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.560 he this is again, We're still on Tuesday. He drives 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.080 across the border. He doesn't get stopped this time. He 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:52.199 goes to Seattle. He then books a ticket at the airport. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.120 I believe he would have been at sea tack at 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.559 this point. He books a ticket to Washington, d C. Okay, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.000 weird thing about the getting This is what I what 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.440 I was just pointing at, is again he buys a 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.760 one way ticket. That one way ticket costs seven and 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.880 seventy bucks. He could have got a round trip ticket 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:15.320 for three to four hundred dollars. Well, and that's I 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.360 mean that's maybe a little bit why I wonder if 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.880 it wasn't that he got a voucher or it was 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.880 like part cast, part part cash, part voucher that they 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.360 gave they would refunds so much, right that they would 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.440 only refund certain percent. And then they said, you know 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.680 what he got. Actually they said, all right, fine, here's 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.240 a voucher for you know, a ticket that it didn't 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.600 really matter. That could be I don't know that the 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.400 value of the ticket is just so weird. I'm a 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.800 natural cheapskate. Though, even if I don't intend to come 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.760 back on the return flight, I'm totally going to go 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.520 for the cheaper. I mean, it's not so much that 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.200 case anymore. But at that time, one way flights were 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.840 obscenely expensive compared to round trips. Yeah. Yeah, but I 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.040 don't know that's that was one of the things that 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.400 I was thinking, is that, like it would make sense 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.600 that he didn't really care how much he had spent 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.840 on the plane ticket because he had that voucher. Who cares? 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.280 So he had you know, eight nine or maybe a 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.600 thousand dollars on the voucher, and it was like, I 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.960 don't care, it doesn't matter. It's there. I have to 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:23.200 spend it to say that, based on his behavior, subsequent behavior, 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.160 in previous behavior, he didn't seem to really care that 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:29.240 much about money. The money was no object, it was 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.080 not it was not high on the list at all. Yeah, 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.880 Blair got on the plane to Washington, d C. Is 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:41.920 one way ticket. The flight, uh didn't leave on Tuesday. 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.640 He actually left sometime in the early part of Wednesday, 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.720 so that again, this would be July tenth. Just moving 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.040 forward in the timeline, I have no idea what he 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.000 did during the time that he was waiting for that 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.480 plane to take off. I'm guessing he just milled about 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.960 the airport. Oh. I was going to say he went 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:05.680 and set up the mystery soda machine. Honestly, I don't 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:10.280 think that was it. Regardless, though he gets on his flight, 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.200 he lands in d C. He then goes ahead and 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.760 he rents another car. He rents a white Toyota camera 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.240 and he starts driving south. Talk about let's talk about 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.840 the things that are expensive one way. A rental car 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:29.640 one way incredibly expensive. He's incredibly expensive. I don't know 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.480 that the rental was a one way. I know that 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.600 he was due to return the rental on the twelfth 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:41.680 of But I'm just I'm trying to remember, and I 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.160 don't know that it was ever said where he was 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.680 supposed to be taking it back to. It's insanely expensive 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.680 to get to to return to any kind of car 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.560 rental facility that's, you know, not within two miles of 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.640 the original one. It's insane, Yes, it is. It's super expensive. 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.320 But the point is he takes his car and he 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.720 drives Chad south. We know he heads south because he 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:11.240 shows up in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is at a He's 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:16.440 actually at a gas station on Strawberry Planes Pike, which 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.960 is about five hundred miles south. It's kind of it's 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:20.760 worth the driving, kind of. I don't even know if 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.000 it's within the city limits of knox It does not 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.600 look like it's actually in the It's on the outskirts. 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.480 It's one of those freeway interchanges where they got a 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.879 bunch of gas stations, a couple of fast food places, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:34.199 a few hotels. It's nothing but gas stations and hotels. Yeah, 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:38.680 this area where he shows up Strawberry Planes Here's uh, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:43.119 here's where things start to get even weirder. Okay, so 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.640 Blair gets his gas, He pays for it, and then 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.280 he can't get his car started. He goes up to 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.720 the attendant. The attendant, being nice, comes and see what's 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:54.840 going on. What's wrong? He says, I can't start the car. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.760 He says, oh, well, let me see your key. He 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.160 figures out quite quickly that Blair has the wrong key 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.239 for the car, as in, he's driving a Toyota and 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:12.080 he's got a key for a completely different brand of vehicle. Okay, 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.560 which begs the question how the hell did he get there? Well, also, 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.440 you know, when you're driving a rail car, the key 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.240 always has one of those little tags hanging on. You 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.840 have like four keys on there. Yeah, they're they're they're 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.639 giant wads of plastic and stuff. They're they're not convenient 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.520 at They're made to be obtrusive so that you don't 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.520 forget that you have them. Yes, yeah, So gas station 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:38.040 attendant says, you can't use this key, it's the wrong key. 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:40.600 He tries to help me, says, okay, let's go through 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.920 your pockets, let's go through your stuff. They can't find 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.960 the proper key to this vehicle that he drove to 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:52.439 the gas station with. Anywhere is there surveillance footage of 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:54.720 at this gas station, not that I am aware of now. 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:59.520 I don't think that it was. It's vance footage, wasn't. 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.399 I just I just wonder, because you know, maybe he 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.760 wasn't driving the car. That is a very good question, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:11.120 and that does show up later on in our theory. Sex. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.399 But the attendant, the gas station attend didn't say anything 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:16.320 about seeing somebody with him. But I don't know that 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:21.240 you would necessarily notice itself, sir. You're doing other stuff. 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.440 You might not notice who shows up in every car. 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:29.680 That's completely One would think that if Blair was like, oh, yeah, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.879 but my friend had the key, so if there was 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:33.880 a second person, yeah, you would think that would happen. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:37.640 Now we're used, we're really used to this now. But 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.320 this is the mid nineties when chipped keys were really 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.639 starting to take off. So for anybody who says, well, 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:45.960 it was a nineties car, they should have just had 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.120 a locksmith figure out what it was and they could 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.560 have cut a new key. That wasn't a possibility. So 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.119 it was so they were that cam was a chipped 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.040 I did have chip keys. Toyota in the nineties was 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.280 starting the chipping. I know that they were because I 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.080 know that Fords in the nineties had the chips, and 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.800 Fords were the slowest to pick up the technology. Yeah, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.600 so I'm I'm pretty sure that it would have been 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:12.440 a chip key. But even if they did, I mean, 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:14.919 it's not as though, like, you know, you take a 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.399 car with no key to a locksmith and they've come 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.439 you a new key. It's especially at what five thirty 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.000 in the evening, right, It's not as though you just 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:24.760 like walk up to a locksmith and they're like, oh, yeah, 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:26.880 give me like five minutes and I'll do that. It's 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:31.400 a process. The work day out a lot. You would 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.919 want to go to the rental place, I think, and 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.840 they were closed, Yeah, they were closed. But here's the deal. 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.240 I can't remember. I don't actually rent cars very often. 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.040 It's been a while since I have. But it seems 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:44.400 to me that when you rent a car, they give 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.359 you two keys. Okay, okay, this is actually this is 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:49.760 like on the heels. They do give you two keys, 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.919 but they lock them together with one of those a 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:57.040 brand or a Rivet Rivet. They like clamp it together 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.199 on a big ring, so they're they're two key, but 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.399 it's on the same key rank, it's the dumbest thing 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:04.399 in the world. Why give me two keys if I 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.400 can't separate them? You can't separate them, Yeah, I think 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.560 you can if you I think it's because you're only 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.840 meant to have the one driver unless you actively say 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.600 we're gonna have two drivers, and I presume that they 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.800 can separate them. At that point they say, Okay, here's 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.040 your two keys. But typically they just hand you a 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:22.679 lot of keys that are on that same thing. I 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:24.959 rent cars a lot, as it turns out, um, and 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.840 they do they stick them together. That's stupid. I agree, 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:34.520 it's very it's super stupid. Car rental is the worst. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:37.679 But I just wanted to say though, just coincidentally, I 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:41.600 lost my keys just this morning, and well, and in 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:43.600 my defense, I gotta say I had only had one 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:45.320 cup of coffee and I frankly didn't get a good, 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.359 nice sleep last night. Yeah you want to talk about 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:52.920 not good Yeah you too. But anyways, but he could 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:54.600 have done the same thing that I did this morning. 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:56.959 I'm patting out my pants with or not there, so 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.200 I go look in the usual places where the usual 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.240 place where I leave them, and I like at other 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:03.960 flat surfaces like the kitchen, counters and everywhere the bureau 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.439 of my bedroom, you know, and and uh no, nothing. 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.720 So I go through my my jacket pockets not there, 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:12.400 And I go through there's a pair of pants laying 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:14.000 in my bed. I don't remember if I wore those 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.920 yesterday or not. But I go through the pockets, not there, 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.639 and I go go do the whole thing over again. 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.440 Finally find my keys because I was wearing a fleece 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.000 and they were in the pocket of the fleece. And 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:26.879