WEBVTT - 4. Hopscotch 0:00:15.036 --> 0:00:15.476 Pushkin. 0:00:24.876 --> 0:00:27.116 She sat on the top step and I looked out 0:00:27.156 --> 0:00:30.556 that window got my husband. By the time I got 0:00:30.556 --> 0:00:32.356 my husband to look out the window, she was gone 0:00:32.916 --> 0:00:34.676 and we looked out the front. We never did find 0:00:34.676 --> 0:00:35.996 her sere again. 0:00:37.996 --> 0:00:39.316 This is Karen Smith. 0:00:40.036 --> 0:00:42.196 My name is Karen Smith, and I saw my Terce 0:00:42.276 --> 0:00:46.916 richardson the last day that she was seen by anyone 0:00:46.956 --> 0:00:48.196 that has come forward. 0:00:49.796 --> 0:00:52.356 The Smith's house is at the bottom of Cold Canyon Road. 0:00:52.996 --> 0:00:57.396 It's the tennis courthouse in Montanito. Karen had been reluctant 0:00:57.436 --> 0:01:00.116 to let me come over. Her husband, Bill, was the 0:01:00.156 --> 0:01:02.956 TV reporter who'd called the cops about a prowler in 0:01:02.996 --> 0:01:05.716 the yard and what turned out to be the last 0:01:05.796 --> 0:01:09.116 confirmed sighting of my trees. He passed away a few 0:01:09.236 --> 0:01:11.596 years ago, and she wasn't feeling her best. 0:01:12.596 --> 0:01:18.676 I found cheese, bad hips, bad shoulder. I'm a mess. 0:01:19.396 --> 0:01:21.316 She walked me around the side of the house to 0:01:21.356 --> 0:01:23.356 the back and we sat down on a couple of 0:01:23.356 --> 0:01:28.596 white plastic chairs. The patio was strewn with dark feathers. 0:01:28.596 --> 0:01:32.836 Probably the vultures, the Turkey vultures that like to land 0:01:32.876 --> 0:01:35.196 on my tennis court lights and leave me a gift 0:01:35.196 --> 0:01:39.516 every time they take off. Well, that's very The tennis 0:01:39.516 --> 0:01:42.796 court has all these white blotches right below the lights. 0:01:43.236 --> 0:01:46.356 They liked to open their wings in the morning and 0:01:46.436 --> 0:01:47.556 dry them. 0:01:48.116 --> 0:01:51.516 Beyond the patio was a large dusty yard with a 0:01:51.596 --> 0:01:55.996 sun bleached plastic play structure left over from her son's childhood. 0:01:56.716 --> 0:02:00.436 There were some railroad ties serving as steps. That's where 0:02:00.516 --> 0:02:03.596 Karen saw my trees around six thirty am on the 0:02:03.636 --> 0:02:08.196 morning of her disappearance. And it was Karen, even though 0:02:08.196 --> 0:02:11.476 her husband Bill, talking to the cops, described the scene 0:02:11.476 --> 0:02:12.956 as if he'd been the one to see her. 0:02:13.956 --> 0:02:17.636 He's the one that talked to the sheriffs. Mostly. I 0:02:17.716 --> 0:02:20.956 was being quiet, and he was a news reporter for 0:02:21.036 --> 0:02:25.956 thirty five years, so he took control of the discussion. 0:02:25.996 --> 0:02:29.476 And maybe they just assumed because my son said the 0:02:29.516 --> 0:02:31.236 same thing, No, Dad saw her, and I go, no, 0:02:31.396 --> 0:02:35.556 it was me. I'm the one that saw her. She 0:02:35.636 --> 0:02:39.476 was sitting on the top step here or in the back, 0:02:40.396 --> 0:02:43.276 and it was unusual because nobody really comes on the property, 0:02:43.476 --> 0:02:46.396 even though we don't have any offenses in the back 0:02:46.436 --> 0:02:52.476 of it. But I looked down and I said, are 0:02:52.516 --> 0:02:54.676 you all right? And she said, I'm just resting, And 0:02:54.676 --> 0:02:59.076 I said okay, And then I left went to get 0:02:59.076 --> 0:03:00.596 my husband, and by the time I got to the 0:03:00.636 --> 0:03:04.356 other bathroom window, she was gone. And then I looked 0:03:04.356 --> 0:03:07.076 out the front window of the dining room to see 0:03:07.076 --> 0:03:09.716 if she went one way or the other there never 0:03:09.756 --> 0:03:10.356 did see her. 0:03:12.836 --> 0:03:15.476 At the edge of the yard, beyond some dried out 0:03:15.556 --> 0:03:21.236 century plants, I noticed a trail. What does the backyard 0:03:21.396 --> 0:03:23.636 open out to just into the neighborhood, just. 0:03:23.556 --> 0:03:27.796 To another property, other properties, And people walk the horse 0:03:27.836 --> 0:03:31.316 trail which is above and over and down and they 0:03:31.316 --> 0:03:33.236 go to a cul de sac on the other side. 0:03:33.676 --> 0:03:34.796 Oh, what's that cul desac? 0:03:36.556 --> 0:03:40.236 Let's see, it's Malibu Meadows Road, is what it's called. 0:03:41.076 --> 0:03:44.396 And that's over there. It's wide open too, just like 0:03:44.756 --> 0:03:45.916 most of these properties. 0:03:46.156 --> 0:03:48.476 Uh huh. So there's a horse trail that leads from 0:03:48.476 --> 0:03:49.156 there to here. 0:03:49.316 --> 0:03:51.916 Yes, there's a horse trail. It comes up over and 0:03:51.956 --> 0:03:56.276 it goes around and down into the street right above 0:03:56.756 --> 0:03:57.836 the side of those trees. 0:03:59.476 --> 0:04:02.796 Riders can come along the trail, cross Cold Canyon Road 0:04:02.996 --> 0:04:06.396 and connect to the Backbone Trail, a sixty seven mile 0:04:06.476 --> 0:04:10.316 long trail that runs all through the Santa Mona the mountains. 0:04:10.876 --> 0:04:14.036 The Backbone passes by the mouth of Dark Canyon, the 0:04:14.116 --> 0:04:19.996 canyon where my Trees's remains were ultimately found. And she 0:04:20.156 --> 0:04:22.276 was definitely alone when you spotted her. 0:04:22.276 --> 0:04:25.756 Oh, yes, she was all by herself and non threatening. 0:04:26.516 --> 0:04:31.036 That's all I remember. That's it. Yeah, I wish I 0:04:31.116 --> 0:04:33.836 had more information than I was so upset that I 0:04:33.996 --> 0:04:37.356 just let her go like that, knowing what happened later 0:04:37.796 --> 0:04:44.316 that you know, she unfortunately made her demise. I always 0:04:44.316 --> 0:04:46.276 shook my head thinking, I wonder, I just don't know 0:04:46.316 --> 0:04:48.556 what happened, and I always wish I had done more, 0:04:48.636 --> 0:04:50.396 but at the time there was nothing more to do. 0:04:52.076 --> 0:04:54.596 I asked her about that other story, the one the 0:04:54.636 --> 0:04:58.036 Montanito lifer told in the video where he claimed My 0:04:58.116 --> 0:05:00.396 Trees had been at the front door of the Smith's 0:05:00.396 --> 0:05:05.516 house earlier in the morning, shouting. Karen said she didn't 0:05:05.516 --> 0:05:08.636 know anything about that. She did say I could check 0:05:08.636 --> 0:05:11.996 out the trail well. I followed it to where it started, 0:05:12.316 --> 0:05:14.876 in a grove of mature oak trees in the heart 0:05:14.956 --> 0:05:19.436 of Montanito. I looked around. There was no sign to 0:05:19.476 --> 0:05:23.316 mark the trail. In broad daylight, it was barely visible, 0:05:23.676 --> 0:05:26.956 just a faint impression in the dust, mostly obscured by 0:05:26.996 --> 0:05:31.476 fallen leaves. How had my Trees made her way here 0:05:32.436 --> 0:05:35.316 all the way from Lost Hill Station in the dark? 0:05:37.196 --> 0:05:46.436 And where had she gone? I'm Dana Goodyear and this 0:05:47.116 --> 0:06:22.956 is Lost Hills episode four, Hopscotch. My Terse went missing 0:06:23.076 --> 0:06:26.836 early on a Thursday morning. On Friday night, her mother 0:06:26.916 --> 0:06:29.756 called my Terce's mentor, doctor Ronda Hampton. 0:06:30.556 --> 0:06:33.156 I was driving home from work. I remember it, you know, 0:06:33.236 --> 0:06:35.836 like it was yesterday, and her mom called and said, 0:06:35.836 --> 0:06:37.876 you know, has my Riese reached out to you? I 0:06:37.916 --> 0:06:40.676 haven't seen her, So on my drive home, I'm telling 0:06:40.676 --> 0:06:42.636 her no, you know, we were going to have lunch 0:06:42.676 --> 0:06:44.476 on Monday, but I haven't talked to her since then. 0:06:45.036 --> 0:06:48.316 And then mom proceeded to tell me how she had 0:06:48.356 --> 0:06:51.556 been at the restaurant and acting, you know, strangely, and 0:06:51.676 --> 0:06:53.796 that she had been arrested and released. 0:06:55.516 --> 0:06:58.916 My Terce had been released approximately forty three hours earlier, 0:06:59.236 --> 0:07:01.956 and no one had heard from her, and besides the 0:07:02.036 --> 0:07:04.796 sighting at the Smiths, there'd been no other reports of 0:07:04.836 --> 0:07:10.116 anyone seeing her. Her girlfriend, Desiree Black finds this odd. 0:07:10.956 --> 0:07:16.676 I think that it would be just kind of missing 0:07:16.716 --> 0:07:22.556 the point if we didn't acknowledge the fact that she 0:07:22.956 --> 0:07:33.676 was a young black, single female in Malibu, calabassies somewhere 0:07:33.796 --> 0:07:41.276 where wasn't exactly made for us, somewhere where she should 0:07:41.316 --> 0:07:48.076 have stuck out. Somebody should have seen her. And I 0:07:48.116 --> 0:07:51.116 think that is one of the pieces to the story 0:07:51.156 --> 0:07:58.756 that's kind of still astonishing to me that nobody saw her, 0:08:00.356 --> 0:08:07.236 because those just being facts, the fact that she was young, attractive, 0:08:07.556 --> 0:08:15.916 black female alone alone. If someone saw her, they would 0:08:15.996 --> 0:08:20.956 have remembered that. In Calabasas, she would have been hard 0:08:20.956 --> 0:08:24.356 to miss, and that makes people a target. 0:08:27.276 --> 0:08:30.116 Latisa had filed a missing persons report at Lost Hills 0:08:30.116 --> 0:08:33.476 station the day she disappeared. Deputies took it as a 0:08:33.516 --> 0:08:36.596 courtesy because my Terce being a resident of the city 0:08:36.596 --> 0:08:41.036 of la it was really an LAPD case. When the 0:08:41.036 --> 0:08:44.796 deputy at Lost Hills told Latis that someone matching my 0:08:44.916 --> 0:08:49.276 Teresa's description had been seen in Montanito early Thursday morning, 0:08:49.796 --> 0:08:52.876 Latisa had driven out there, but no one else seemed 0:08:52.876 --> 0:08:55.596 to be looking for her daughter, and she felt that 0:08:55.796 --> 0:08:57.476 crucial time was being lost. 0:08:58.396 --> 0:09:00.796 And Mom called me because she said she did not 0:09:00.956 --> 0:09:02.996 know what to do because they were not searching for 0:09:03.036 --> 0:09:06.076 her and there was no plan search, and she asked 0:09:06.276 --> 0:09:09.276 if I would contact the detective on the case to 0:09:09.716 --> 0:09:10.516 plead for help. 0:09:11.236 --> 0:09:15.476 The detective was Kristen Merrill with the LAPD Missing Persons Unit. 0:09:16.676 --> 0:09:21.076 Doctor Hampton says detective Merrill told her LAPD Missing Persons 0:09:21.156 --> 0:09:24.076 didn't have funds to mount a search. There would need 0:09:24.076 --> 0:09:26.876 to be a compelling reason to search for my trees. 0:09:28.076 --> 0:09:31.356 If you go to the LAPD Missing Person's website, this 0:09:31.436 --> 0:09:35.876 is all spelled out quote. Since being a missing person 0:09:36.076 --> 0:09:38.796 is not a crime, police are given a very limited 0:09:38.916 --> 0:09:42.876 role while conducting these types of investigations. As a general rule, 0:09:43.276 --> 0:09:45.756 all people have a right to be left alone and 0:09:45.876 --> 0:09:49.956 police intrusion into their lives must be minimal. It goes 0:09:49.996 --> 0:09:52.916 on to say that where foul play is suspected or 0:09:52.916 --> 0:09:56.876 the person is otherwise endangered, the police will investigate. 0:09:58.396 --> 0:10:00.596 So when it started looking like they weren't going to search, 0:10:00.756 --> 0:10:02.436 you know, of course, my anxiety is rising, and you 0:10:02.516 --> 0:10:04.476 just say whatever it is you can say to get 0:10:04.476 --> 0:10:05.396 the help that you need. 0:10:06.596 --> 0:10:09.436 She shared some background on my Teres's mental health and 0:10:09.476 --> 0:10:11.676 the details about her behavior at Jeffrey's. 0:10:12.276 --> 0:10:14.276 So then I just start quoting the law. If she 0:10:14.356 --> 0:10:16.516 was at the restaurant, saying she was from Mars, if 0:10:16.516 --> 0:10:18.476 she was saying she was there to avenge the death 0:10:18.476 --> 0:10:21.316 of Michael Jackson. You know, the people, the patrons in 0:10:21.356 --> 0:10:24.876 the restaurant were saying she was acting strange. I was like, well, 0:10:25.036 --> 0:10:27.516 why wasn't she fifty one to fifty. So after about 0:10:27.556 --> 0:10:29.396 an hour and a half of talking to the detective, 0:10:29.996 --> 0:10:32.796 they did agree to do a search. So they agreed 0:10:32.836 --> 0:10:35.276 to do the search on Saturday, and at that they 0:10:35.316 --> 0:10:37.196 weren't going to start that search until ten o'clock in 0:10:37.196 --> 0:10:40.556 the morning, So that's a lot of time that went by. 0:10:41.236 --> 0:10:45.836 I couldn't sleep, obviously, and I had never been to Malibu, 0:10:46.036 --> 0:10:48.956 and so somewhere around five o'clock in the morning, I 0:10:48.996 --> 0:10:51.916 called my girlfriend and asked her, could have you ever 0:10:51.916 --> 0:10:53.596 been to Malibu? And can you come out with me? 0:10:54.076 --> 0:10:56.716 She's another therapist who worked in my office, so we 0:10:57.276 --> 0:10:59.596 both had clients that day, we shut the practice down 0:11:00.076 --> 0:11:01.436 and drove out to Malibu. 0:11:03.196 --> 0:11:06.876 Over the next several days, doctor Hampton, along with members 0:11:06.916 --> 0:11:10.916 of my Teresa's family and other supporters, kept returning to malibill. 0:11:11.756 --> 0:11:13.196 They didn't really know where to go. 0:11:13.836 --> 0:11:17.636 We were frantic passing out flyers, you know, at Pepperdine 0:11:17.756 --> 0:11:21.036 on Pacific clas Highway in calabasas anywhere we can think of. 0:11:21.636 --> 0:11:25.556 We stayed on Pacific Close Highway passing out flyers until 0:11:25.556 --> 0:11:26.276 about midnight. 0:11:27.316 --> 0:11:31.756 She remembers taking flyers to the Ralph Supermarket on PCH. 0:11:31.596 --> 0:11:33.796 And then on the side of that Ralph so there's 0:11:33.836 --> 0:11:36.956 like a homeless encampment kind of like on this hill. 0:11:37.436 --> 0:11:39.476 So we walked up there just to search, you know, 0:11:39.516 --> 0:11:42.196 maybe she ended up there or something, right, And so 0:11:42.356 --> 0:11:44.996 as we're searching, we saw this group of homeless men 0:11:45.036 --> 0:11:48.316 and we kind of just stopped and hey, we're looking 0:11:48.396 --> 0:11:52.116 for this person. And then one of the men he 0:11:52.276 --> 0:11:56.996 sits up and says, look, the police don't care about her. 0:11:57.516 --> 0:12:00.316 The law enforcement doesn't care about her because she's un here, 0:12:00.516 --> 0:12:03.476 and you guys just need to get over it. And 0:12:04.276 --> 0:12:07.356 that was my first kind of in my face, like, 0:12:07.396 --> 0:12:10.156 oh wait, this is a race component to this. 0:12:10.956 --> 0:12:13.836 Before long, doctor Hampton had reason to believe that the 0:12:13.836 --> 0:12:17.596 Sheriff's department didn't care except maybe about itself. 0:12:18.396 --> 0:12:21.836 And then we came home, you know, retired, turn on 0:12:21.876 --> 0:12:25.596 the TV and Steve Whitmore, who was the spokesperson from 0:12:25.676 --> 0:12:31.276 LASD is putting this twist on the story that was unbelievable, 0:12:31.756 --> 0:12:34.916 where he was kind of indicating that my Ruse was 0:12:34.956 --> 0:12:38.276 perfectly fine. Nothing was wrong with her. She's an adult. 0:12:38.436 --> 0:12:40.476 She wanted to leave, so we had to let her leave. 0:12:42.156 --> 0:12:46.676 Doctor Hampton was shocked. This was not only untrue, she thought, 0:12:46.876 --> 0:12:50.516 but entirely beside the point. They needed to find my 0:12:50.636 --> 0:12:54.196 Trese now. 0:13:04.556 --> 0:13:04.716 Well. 0:13:04.756 --> 0:13:07.676 My Teresa's friends and family were passing out flyers on 0:13:07.716 --> 0:13:11.236 Pacific Coast Highway. Law enforcement was searching too. 0:13:12.316 --> 0:13:16.916 I'm retired Sergeant tow we Right, and at the time 0:13:16.956 --> 0:13:20.116 of this investigation, I was in charge of Malibu Search 0:13:20.156 --> 0:13:22.876 and Rescue at Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff Station. 0:13:23.796 --> 0:13:25.996 I met Sergeant Wright back when I was working on 0:13:26.036 --> 0:13:28.796 the first season of Lost Hills. He's one of the 0:13:28.836 --> 0:13:32.196 people who helped solve the murder of Tristan Boudett, the 0:13:32.276 --> 0:13:35.516 scientist who was shot and killed in twenty eighteen while 0:13:35.556 --> 0:13:38.396 camping with his young daughters in Malibu Creek State Park. 0:13:39.316 --> 0:13:42.996 Sergeant Wright tracked the killer, a drifter named Anthony Rauda, 0:13:43.236 --> 0:13:46.076 to his encampment in the hills behind Lost Hills Station, 0:13:46.636 --> 0:13:50.116 where he was ultimately arrested with the murder weapon. In 0:13:50.156 --> 0:13:53.556 the spring of twenty twenty three, Rauda was found guilty 0:13:53.716 --> 0:13:56.636 and sentenced to one hundred and nineteen years to life 0:13:56.756 --> 0:14:01.756 in prison. He's appealing his conviction. Over his career, Sergeant 0:14:01.796 --> 0:14:04.596 Wright searched for hundreds of lost and missing people in 0:14:04.636 --> 0:14:07.996 the Santa Monica Mountains. The LAPD didn't know the area, 0:14:08.236 --> 0:14:12.556 but Malibu sarch and Rescue did. On September nineteenth, two 0:14:12.596 --> 0:14:16.236 thousand and nine, two days after my Trees disappeared, Sergeant 0:14:16.236 --> 0:14:19.836 Wright conducted a search. He started at the Smith's house 0:14:19.956 --> 0:14:22.836 where my Trees was last seen, rather than at Lost 0:14:22.876 --> 0:14:24.756 Hill Station where she'd been released. 0:14:25.756 --> 0:14:31.036 Basically what I call a hopscotch. We basically start a 0:14:31.076 --> 0:14:34.476 search for missing persons at the last known location where 0:14:34.516 --> 0:14:40.676 somebody's seen. To start it before that just consumes unnecessary time. 0:14:41.876 --> 0:14:45.236 That day, Sergeant Wright was working with a certified man 0:14:45.316 --> 0:14:47.756 tracker who found an important clue. 0:14:48.516 --> 0:14:53.396 He's the one that found footprints going They were basically 0:14:53.396 --> 0:14:57.636 in the side yard I would call that the southwest 0:14:57.756 --> 0:14:58.636 side of the house. 0:14:59.516 --> 0:15:03.356 The footprints were clearly directional. They found them entering the 0:15:03.396 --> 0:15:05.836 Smith's property from the back by way of the trail 0:15:06.116 --> 0:15:09.676 and exiting at the front, and they were identif fiable. 0:15:10.236 --> 0:15:13.916 They had the waffle pattern unique to vans. They'd soon 0:15:13.996 --> 0:15:17.516 learn my trese was wearing vans when she left Lost 0:15:17.596 --> 0:15:22.116 Hill Station, and her shoe size matched the prints found 0:15:22.156 --> 0:15:26.316 at the smith's. It wasn't much, but the tracks told 0:15:26.316 --> 0:15:30.556 a story, or a fragment of one. 0:15:30.676 --> 0:15:34.076 Now, when you're looking at footprints, an expert can tell 0:15:34.156 --> 0:15:37.796 whether somebody's walking or running. It's usually pretty easy to 0:15:37.836 --> 0:15:41.996 tell a running individual because the print goes down into 0:15:41.996 --> 0:15:42.756 the ground different. 0:15:43.556 --> 0:15:48.596 The tracker measured each footfall at first entering the backyard, 0:15:48.876 --> 0:15:52.396 my trees had been walking. There was a consistent fourteen 0:15:52.436 --> 0:15:55.356 inch gap between the toe of one print and the 0:15:55.396 --> 0:15:58.596 heel of the next, but the prints leading from the 0:15:58.636 --> 0:16:02.516 backyard to the front should pronounced toe digs, and the 0:16:02.636 --> 0:16:06.796 stride was much longer twenty six inches between footfalls. 0:16:07.116 --> 0:16:11.596 They indicated running motion to the front of the house 0:16:12.036 --> 0:16:16.556 to the driveway area, so we assumed she was seen 0:16:16.596 --> 0:16:19.556 in the backyard and that she ran alongside the house 0:16:20.116 --> 0:16:22.396 out to the front, out of the driveway on to 0:16:22.476 --> 0:16:23.116 Cole Canyon. 0:16:24.196 --> 0:16:27.276 Sergeant Wright and the tracker found a few more footprints 0:16:27.316 --> 0:16:29.396 in the dirt at the front of the house, but 0:16:29.436 --> 0:16:33.196 they couldn't tell which way my trees had gone. The 0:16:33.236 --> 0:16:36.356 footprints stopped, but a team of dogs that was also 0:16:36.436 --> 0:16:39.356 working that day picked up my trees as sent and 0:16:39.476 --> 0:16:43.516 led their handlers to the neighboring house. That house, set 0:16:43.556 --> 0:16:46.796 back from the road and surrounded by trees, belongs to 0:16:46.836 --> 0:16:51.196 a family called the After Goods. Sergeant Wright obtained permission 0:16:51.196 --> 0:16:51.716 to search it. 0:16:52.676 --> 0:16:56.436 I made sure that we looked in the type of 0:16:56.436 --> 0:17:03.516 places where somebody could be hiding or secreted, such as closets, 0:17:03.956 --> 0:17:05.916 rooms under the stairs, things like that. 0:17:06.716 --> 0:17:10.716 I'm wondering if anyone in either house was ever considered 0:17:11.436 --> 0:17:13.756 a suspect in my Teresa's disappearance. 0:17:15.316 --> 0:17:18.236 I wouldn't use the term suspect at that point. We 0:17:18.236 --> 0:17:20.796 were just looking at a missing person. At the time, 0:17:20.876 --> 0:17:24.956 we were thinking, well, maybe Matries was wondering from house 0:17:24.996 --> 0:17:25.476 to house. 0:17:26.316 --> 0:17:29.676 But at the After Goods, my Teresa's scent went cold. 0:17:30.436 --> 0:17:32.636 Now I don't recall if it petered out at that 0:17:32.716 --> 0:17:36.276 house's door or if it went a little further, but 0:17:36.396 --> 0:17:39.756 I'm pretty sure it petered out before we got to 0:17:40.036 --> 0:17:44.076 what I would call the bridge over Dark Canyon Creek 0:17:45.476 --> 0:17:48.636 on Co Canyon. I'm sure it didn't go past that. 0:17:49.556 --> 0:17:52.236 You know, I've heard rumors of people saying things about 0:17:52.436 --> 0:17:54.876 the scent all over the place. I am not aware 0:17:54.876 --> 0:18:01.116 of any other scent that was worked or located during 0:18:01.156 --> 0:18:01.596 the search. 0:18:02.556 --> 0:18:05.196 He remembers checking the sand on the banks of Dark 0:18:05.236 --> 0:18:08.396 Creek for signs that my rise had followed the creek 0:18:08.556 --> 0:18:09.676 up into Dark Canyon. 0:18:10.756 --> 0:18:13.396 And I got out of the vehicle and I looked 0:18:13.956 --> 0:18:16.116 in that area. It was an area where the creek 0:18:16.236 --> 0:18:18.716 flattened out, and it was there was quite a bit 0:18:18.756 --> 0:18:22.836 of sand there, and I looked for footprints at that time, 0:18:22.956 --> 0:18:28.316 and I did not see any footprints none whatsoever. So 0:18:28.916 --> 0:18:32.676 I didn't have any reason to believe that she had 0:18:32.716 --> 0:18:36.156 walked up there, at least from that direction, from that 0:18:36.356 --> 0:18:37.876 entryway into Dark Canyan. 0:18:39.996 --> 0:18:41.956 At the time of the first search, my Teres had 0:18:41.956 --> 0:18:45.316 only been missing for two days. Law enforcement was looking 0:18:45.396 --> 0:18:48.596 for a woman who might be lost or disoriented. They 0:18:48.636 --> 0:18:51.836 were looking for a missing person. They weren't looking for 0:18:51.876 --> 0:18:57.236 a victim. They weren't thinking about suspects. But three days later, 0:18:57.476 --> 0:19:01.676 on September twenty, second LAPD Missing Persons handed the case 0:19:01.756 --> 0:19:06.356 over to a pair of LAPD Robbery homicide detectives, Chuck 0:19:06.436 --> 0:19:11.076 Knowles and Steve Agucci, Sheriff's Department, which was assisting the 0:19:11.196 --> 0:19:16.236 laped investigation also assigned a full time team of homicide detectives. 0:19:17.236 --> 0:19:20.756 There were a lot of tips to investigate My Trees. 0:19:20.916 --> 0:19:25.636 While being nowhere, was suddenly seemingly everywhere. She was at 0:19:25.636 --> 0:19:28.876 the Ralphs in Malibu in a silver sports car. She 0:19:28.996 --> 0:19:33.076 was in carmel Or, Santa Monica, Topanga, a Kinko's in 0:19:33.116 --> 0:19:36.476 Culver City on a train, headed for the airport in 0:19:36.516 --> 0:19:41.516 pink slippers, talking to herself. These were phantoms. None of 0:19:41.596 --> 0:19:45.516 them turned out to be My trees. Back in Montanito, though, 0:19:45.876 --> 0:19:49.356 neighbors were starting to get scared. They didn't think My 0:19:49.436 --> 0:19:53.196 Trees had gone far. They'd started to believe that My 0:19:53.316 --> 0:19:56.956 Trees was in and around Montanito well past the morning 0:19:56.996 --> 0:20:02.916 of September seventeenth, hiding or being hidden, possibly for days 0:20:03.556 --> 0:20:20.716 before she died. There's not much to Montanito, just a 0:20:20.716 --> 0:20:23.716 few hundred homes clustered in the foothills of the Santa 0:20:23.716 --> 0:20:28.236 Monica Mountains under a canopy of oaks. People there claim 0:20:28.396 --> 0:20:31.276 it was the winter camp of the Schumash Indians and 0:20:31.316 --> 0:20:35.796 that it has mystical protection. Fires may rage all around, 0:20:35.916 --> 0:20:41.876 they say, but Montanito never burns. There are no sidewalks 0:20:42.076 --> 0:20:47.116 or street lamps. Intentionally, it's an official dark sky community, 0:20:47.796 --> 0:20:51.316 a haven for nocturnal animals, a place where you can 0:20:51.356 --> 0:20:56.236 see the stars. You get morning frost and Montanito in 0:20:56.276 --> 0:21:00.716 the afternoon. The peaks block out the sun. The stark 0:21:00.876 --> 0:21:05.356 nature is all there in the place names Cold Canyon, 0:21:06.476 --> 0:21:14.876 Dark Creek, Dark Cainion. The residents are private and circumspect, 0:21:15.196 --> 0:21:18.956 and they don't love talking to law enforcement. It's always 0:21:18.956 --> 0:21:23.916 been a place for alternative lifestyles, swingers, potheads, cowgirls and 0:21:23.956 --> 0:21:28.356 pornographers alongside the doctors and lawyers and shobaz folks and 0:21:28.396 --> 0:21:30.276 people who just want to raise their kids where they 0:21:30.276 --> 0:21:35.116 can play barefoot in a creek. My Teresa's vanishing threatened 0:21:35.156 --> 0:21:39.356 an essential myth about Montanito, a story about its safety, 0:21:39.796 --> 0:21:43.916 its special bubble of protection. Now it seemed like a 0:21:43.956 --> 0:21:48.436 place where bad things could happen. Or maybe bad things 0:21:48.476 --> 0:21:55.196 had always happened there, and now people were noticing. In 0:21:55.236 --> 0:21:58.316 the days after my Teresa's disappearance, there were a number 0:21:58.316 --> 0:22:02.276 of disturbances reported in the neighborhood. Many of them involved 0:22:02.316 --> 0:22:07.956 a woman seemingly in distress. One neighbor reported hearing a 0:22:07.996 --> 0:22:12.316 woman babbling in an unfinished house across from the Smiths, 0:22:12.556 --> 0:22:18.036 in an area known as the Triangle. There were multiple 0:22:18.076 --> 0:22:21.036 reports of a woman's screaming near Dark Creek, where it 0:22:21.076 --> 0:22:25.876 comes down from Dark Canyon into the neighborhood. According to 0:22:25.876 --> 0:22:29.756 a documentary about the case made by local filmmaker Chip Croft, 0:22:30.196 --> 0:22:34.236 residents heard a woman's scream two times around eleven PM, 0:22:34.516 --> 0:22:38.476 just a few days after my Trese disappeared. The second scream, 0:22:38.796 --> 0:22:43.276 one of the witnesses said, was cut short. Some speculated 0:22:43.596 --> 0:22:49.996 maybe the screamer's throat had been slit. Recently, Haley and 0:22:49.996 --> 0:22:52.676 I met up with a woman named Emma Schultz who 0:22:52.716 --> 0:22:55.916 lived in Montanito back in two thousand and nine. She 0:22:56.076 --> 0:22:58.956 remembers seeing police cars at the Smith's house on the 0:22:58.996 --> 0:23:01.796 morning that my Terse went missing. She'd been driving her 0:23:01.876 --> 0:23:05.476 kids to school. It was the deputies responding to Bill 0:23:05.556 --> 0:23:09.276 Smith's call about a prowler, the last official sighting of 0:23:09.316 --> 0:23:09.796 my Trees. 0:23:10.636 --> 0:23:12.556 I knew when she was last seen, so I knew 0:23:12.556 --> 0:23:13.156 where she was. 0:23:13.916 --> 0:23:17.436 She remembered seeing an unfamiliar white car parked near the 0:23:17.436 --> 0:23:20.636 Smith's house on Cold Canyon Road right around the time 0:23:20.636 --> 0:23:24.356 of the disappearance. She thought it could be significant. 0:23:24.796 --> 0:23:27.156 Maybe somebody picked her up, maybe she called somebody. Maybe 0:23:27.196 --> 0:23:29.436 she did get to a phone and called somebody, and 0:23:29.676 --> 0:23:31.356 somehow they ended up here and lost. 0:23:31.436 --> 0:23:31.876 I don't know. 0:23:31.956 --> 0:23:34.356 I was just thinking there could have been any story. 0:23:34.396 --> 0:23:36.436 You know, in your head, you make up all these stories. 0:23:36.916 --> 0:23:39.396 She called the phone number on a bulletin she'd seen 0:23:39.436 --> 0:23:42.356 about my trees and talked to doctor Ronda Hampton. 0:23:43.316 --> 0:23:47.156 I called, and I said, I know you were missing 0:23:47.396 --> 0:23:49.996 my trees, and I don't know what the police have 0:23:50.076 --> 0:23:52.556 told you, but I and this may mean nothing or 0:23:52.636 --> 0:23:54.716 may mean something, but there was a white car that's 0:23:54.756 --> 0:23:58.836 parked where my treece was last seen. And they said, 0:23:58.876 --> 0:24:01.436 well where is that? And I said, well, what do 0:24:01.476 --> 0:24:04.556 you mean? It was where the police interviewed the couple 0:24:04.596 --> 0:24:07.356 that last saw her. And she said, I don't know 0:24:07.396 --> 0:24:08.036 where that is. 0:24:09.316 --> 0:24:12.636 Shocked, she figured everyone in my Teresa's inner circle would 0:24:12.636 --> 0:24:15.316 have had the address of the last place she'd been seen. 0:24:16.276 --> 0:24:18.596 And so I told Rohnda to come out. I'll walk 0:24:18.636 --> 0:24:21.156 you to where she was last seen. You can understand 0:24:21.196 --> 0:24:24.476 where you know that their daughter was last scene alive. 0:24:24.716 --> 0:24:26.756 And then I told them, you know, feel free also 0:24:26.836 --> 0:24:30.476 to walk around and put flyers out and shared with them, 0:24:30.596 --> 0:24:33.036 you know what the community was about. I think they 0:24:33.076 --> 0:24:36.316 were surprised how far it was and how woulded it was. 0:24:37.116 --> 0:24:40.316 I think that was surprising to them, and how dark 0:24:40.356 --> 0:24:40.876 it would have been. 0:24:45.036 --> 0:24:48.596 Emma agreed to drive us around Montonito too. We left 0:24:48.636 --> 0:24:51.116 the parking lot of the Saddle Peak Lodge, the only 0:24:51.156 --> 0:24:54.476 public building in the community, and followed Cold Canyon Road 0:24:54.596 --> 0:24:57.436 into a network of narrow streets. 0:24:58.276 --> 0:25:00.636 You know, your brain kind of goes crazy when you 0:25:00.716 --> 0:25:03.396 think someone just went missing right around the corner and 0:25:03.436 --> 0:25:06.476 she was last seen like right there and never seen again. 0:25:07.516 --> 0:25:10.916 And again, this is a small, very kind of closed, 0:25:10.916 --> 0:25:13.836 tight community, and you don't you don't kind of drive 0:25:13.876 --> 0:25:15.996 in here if you don't know somebody. You don't wander 0:25:16.036 --> 0:25:16.756 your way in here. 0:25:20.516 --> 0:25:21.916 Yeah, it's a real tight community. 0:25:21.956 --> 0:25:24.396