WEBVTT - CHAPTER ONE: The Missing Boys

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, I'm Keith. I'm a producer. As we were getting

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<v Speaker 1>ready to wrap the series, the nature of this project

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<v Speaker 1>changed suddenly. I won't tell you what happens now because

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<v Speaker 1>it happens much later on in the series, and I

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<v Speaker 1>want to be truthful to that. But I hope you'll

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<v Speaker 1>listen to the end. Okay, let's take the first stup.

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<v Speaker 2>You know those John and Jane does that you hear

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<v Speaker 2>about in the news or in some mystery detective thriller

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<v Speaker 2>Bodies without names. Those are the people I'm interested in

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<v Speaker 2>figuring out who they are and bringing them home to

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<v Speaker 2>their families, even if it's sometimes years or decades later.

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<v Speaker 2>I've been on this flip side of crime fighting for

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<v Speaker 2>a long time now. I want to bring peace to

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<v Speaker 2>the families who bloss someone. Almost since the beginning, one

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<v Speaker 2>case has been on my mind. It's a long story.

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<v Speaker 2>It's about a family with the misfortune of not having

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<v Speaker 2>one missing person in it, but two. Two boys have vanished.

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<v Speaker 2>Their body's never found. Decades ago, this family's path was

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<v Speaker 2>blown off course by one man, a serial killer. He

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<v Speaker 2>set into motion a series of events that would leave

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<v Speaker 2>relatives in the dark. They didn't know who their people were,

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<v Speaker 2>whether they have been abandoned altogether, or whether they've been

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<v Speaker 2>spared some terrible fate. That's when I came into the picture.

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<v Speaker 2>I was a stranger, but very soon I wouldn't be.

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<v Speaker 2>And somehow, with my.

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<v Speaker 3>Help, these folks had basically.

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<v Speaker 2>Given up on getting answers.

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<v Speaker 3>Would find them. Let me start by.

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<v Speaker 2>Telling you how I got to where I am today.

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<v Speaker 2>People often wonder how I got into this line of work,

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<v Speaker 2>and I tell them it all started with a ghost story.

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<v Speaker 2>Well it is a ghost story, but it's also a

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<v Speaker 2>love story. It was October of nineteen eighty seven. I

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<v Speaker 2>was in my senior year of high school. It was

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<v Speaker 2>Halloween and everyone was telling spooky stories. I was in Livingston, Tennessee.

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<v Speaker 2>Actually still live It's a beautiful town right on the

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<v Speaker 2>foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Actually I should probably introduce myself.

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<v Speaker 2>My name is Todd Matthews. I'm fifty three years old.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I have

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of years of investigating under my belt, and

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<v Speaker 2>I've also worked at the Department of Justice for more

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<v Speaker 2>than a decade. But back in nineteen eighty seven, I

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<v Speaker 2>wouldn't any of that. I was just sitting around fifth

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<v Speaker 2>period study hall when this pretty Barnette Laurie walked in.

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<v Speaker 2>She is a transfer student who just moved to town.

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<v Speaker 4>He saw me first, and then we got to study

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<v Speaker 4>hall and he come up to me and he said,

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<v Speaker 4>can I sit down?

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<v Speaker 5>And I'm like sure?

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<v Speaker 4>And he sat down literally in the same seat that

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<v Speaker 4>I was in, even though there was open seats next

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<v Speaker 4>to me.

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<v Speaker 5>He said, in my seat.

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<v Speaker 2>She had those pretty dark brown eyes, pretty dark brown

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<v Speaker 2>hair that basically mirrored mine, almost like we were made

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<v Speaker 2>to match each other.

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<v Speaker 4>Neighbor telling ghost stories and they were like, does anybody

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<v Speaker 4>else have a ghost story?

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<v Speaker 5>I'm like, well, yeah, I have one.

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<v Speaker 2>She heard it from her dad, Wilbur Riddle, two decades ago,

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<v Speaker 2>the year Martin Luther King Jr.

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<v Speaker 3>And Robert F.

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<v Speaker 2>Kennedy Jr. Were assassinated. Wilbur was living near a town

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<v Speaker 2>called Georgetown, Kentucky, just outside of Lexington. Wilbur drilled holes

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<v Speaker 2>for whales, and one day it was walking up the

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<v Speaker 2>side of the road when he saw a tent wrapper.

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<v Speaker 2>It was gray green, and it looked like there was

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<v Speaker 2>something in it. He wasn't really sure, and he bumped

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<v Speaker 2>it with his foot and Wilbur could tell by the

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<v Speaker 2>way it was rolled down the hill, shifting around that

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<v Speaker 2>it had had something in it, maybe something bad. And

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<v Speaker 2>he walks down to the bottom of the hill and

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<v Speaker 2>he cuts into the back and the smell that comes

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<v Speaker 2>out is overwhelming, so he calls his sheriff the corner.

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<v Speaker 3>They all show up.

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<v Speaker 2>Local officials confirmed what Wilbur already suspected. There was a

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<v Speaker 2>young woman wrapped in that camp, Miss tent Rapper. She'd

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<v Speaker 2>been murdered. Everybody wanted to find her killer, but first

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<v Speaker 2>dad to figure out who this woman was. That proved

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<v Speaker 2>much harder than you think. No one recognized her. She

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<v Speaker 2>was a real mystery. By the time I heard this story,

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<v Speaker 2>she was a cold case. She'd been dead for twenty

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<v Speaker 2>damn years. She's what you'd call it Jane Doe, dead

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<v Speaker 2>body without a non identity. But after Wilbur found her,

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<v Speaker 2>the newspaper started calling her tent Girl, named for the

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<v Speaker 2>canvas tent rapper she was found in. Imagine your life,

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<v Speaker 2>your identity boiled down to the stuff of urban legends,

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<v Speaker 2>being reduced to the place that your body was found.

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<v Speaker 2>Something about this story shook something inside of me.

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<v Speaker 3>Changed my life.

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<v Speaker 2>First because that girl, Laurie, the newcomer with the dark

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<v Speaker 2>brown eyes. I married her not long after that. There's

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<v Speaker 2>another reason. For the next ten years, I wouldn't stop

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<v Speaker 2>thinking about Tent Girl. And that's not an exaggeration.

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<v Speaker 5>I had no clue it was going to lead to this.

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<v Speaker 4>I thought he would just forget it in a couple

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<v Speaker 4>of months, but no, he never forgot it.

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<v Speaker 2>When we go visit Lori's family, we'd stop in Georgetown, Kentucky.

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<v Speaker 2>I'd stop and see the local newspaper office to see

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<v Speaker 2>if anything you have been written about the tent Girl.

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<v Speaker 2>It wasn't on the web back end because there wouldn't one.

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<v Speaker 2>Print copies is all we had. And then the Internet

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<v Speaker 2>came along, and I remember hearing it called the Information

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<v Speaker 2>super Highway.

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<v Speaker 3>I thought, that's the road I need to be on.

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<v Speaker 2>I heard about ten Girl when I was seventeen, so

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<v Speaker 2>you could kind of say I grew up with her.

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<v Speaker 2>Technology advanced my wife and I grew into her marriage.

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<v Speaker 2>We had our first son, Dylan, and night after night,

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<v Speaker 2>I kept trying to put the pieces back together. At

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<v Speaker 2>the time, I worked on an assembly line putting together

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<v Speaker 2>air conditioning parts. I didn't know a lot about the

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<v Speaker 2>internet been in the early nineties.

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<v Speaker 3>Who didn't.

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<v Speaker 2>But I built myself a website for Tent Girl, kind

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<v Speaker 2>of clunky in plane. I put every detail I could

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<v Speaker 2>find in there. I guess I just hoped someone was

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<v Speaker 2>missing this woman and then find my web page. It

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<v Speaker 2>was like going on a backward scavenger hunt. I had

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<v Speaker 2>the answer to someone's question what happened to my sister

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<v Speaker 2>daughter friend. I had to find the family member who

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<v Speaker 2>recognized Tent Girl as their own. But obsessing over a

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<v Speaker 2>dead woman didn't do me any favors.

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<v Speaker 3>At home.

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<v Speaker 4>We did have marriage issues because he didn't want to

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<v Speaker 4>do anything but work on the Tent Girl. If we

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<v Speaker 4>went on a vacation and involved the Tent Girl, it

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<v Speaker 4>was something to do with her. I no longer felt married.

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<v Speaker 4>I guess I feel like he was more married to

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<v Speaker 4>the tent Girl story than me. I kind of regretted

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<v Speaker 4>telling him about it, and I've told him.

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<v Speaker 3>That, you know, that was kind of hard to hear.

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<v Speaker 2>So I started helping him put my kid to bed,

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<v Speaker 2>go to bed with Laurie, then waking up in the

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<v Speaker 2>middle of the night to search the net.

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<v Speaker 3>Back then it was dial up internet.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, you had had to find a way to

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<v Speaker 2>get yourself onto the web, and hoped to god somebody

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<v Speaker 2>didn't call you knock you back off of it.

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<v Speaker 3>Good thing.

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<v Speaker 2>I was working mostly at night, not a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>people calling at three am. And then in nineteen ninety eight,

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<v Speaker 2>a miracle happened. I found a message in the bottle.

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<v Speaker 2>It was online posting from a woman named Rosemary. She

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<v Speaker 2>had a sister who had gone missing around the time

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<v Speaker 2>the tent Curly been found.

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<v Speaker 6>I said, I have a missing sister. She is twenty

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<v Speaker 6>four years old. She's five foot two, brown hair, brown eyes,

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<v Speaker 6>medium petite build. Was last seen in Lexington, Kentucky.

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<v Speaker 3>She worked the carnival.

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<v Speaker 2>So by then a lot of people expecting me to

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<v Speaker 2>give up hope. You know who else is stubborn up

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<v Speaker 2>to keep searching on the internet long past the time

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<v Speaker 2>It makes a lick of sense. But that's why it

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<v Speaker 2>brought me to Rosemary.

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<v Speaker 6>And it was just your luck that he went on

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<v Speaker 6>that website and found my post that night. It's just

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<v Speaker 6>pure luck.

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<v Speaker 2>After I come across the missing person's posting that Rosemary.

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<v Speaker 3>Wrote, I got in touch with her.

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<v Speaker 2>That's when everything really started falling into place.

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<v Speaker 6>I didn't know whether to cry or to just drop

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<v Speaker 6>down in disbelief. It was more like relief that, oh

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<v Speaker 6>my god, this is over.

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<v Speaker 2>We had to do an exhumation at that point and

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<v Speaker 2>get more officials involved, but finally we were able to

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<v Speaker 2>tell the ten girls' family where she had been.

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<v Speaker 6>It's the end of wondering all these years, well where

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<v Speaker 6>is she? It's all those thoughts running through your head,

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<v Speaker 6>and then you think, I know where she is now,

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<v Speaker 6>and I can let that rest. I don't have to

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<v Speaker 6>worry about that anymore. At long, last ten Girl was

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<v Speaker 6>giving back her name. She was Barbara and Hackman Taylor.

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<v Speaker 2>So after I saw this case, I really didn't know

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<v Speaker 2>what was next, but I found out real quick. I

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<v Speaker 2>got a ton of national attention that was new for me.

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<v Speaker 2>The tarp wrapped body of a nude female now called

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<v Speaker 2>the Tent Girl.

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<v Speaker 4>She was known as Tent Girl until the late nineteen nineties,

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<v Speaker 4>when her true identity was discovered.

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<v Speaker 3>A dark obsession helped this man's dreams helped identifying the

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<v Speaker 3>Tent Girl as.

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<v Speaker 2>Todd Matthews is with us all the way from Cook Phil.

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<v Speaker 3>This was just a beginning.

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<v Speaker 2>Solving the Tent grow case would lead to figuring out

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<v Speaker 2>who a lot of John and Jane Does were Soon

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<v Speaker 2>I'd find a lot of other part times loves. We

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<v Speaker 2>could start solving cases together, cruising down the information super

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<v Speaker 2>Highway we now call the Internet. My work would end

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<v Speaker 2>up laying the foundation for a sea of change in

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<v Speaker 2>how this country identifies John and Jane Does. Many of

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<v Speaker 2>these cases were solved with the tools that I held

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<v Speaker 2>build that some remain cold cases. This one case got

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<v Speaker 2>stuck in my head, almost like it chose me.

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<v Speaker 3>A serial killer cross paths.

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<v Speaker 2>With two little boys from the same family, one missing

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen seventy four.

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<v Speaker 3>It was just a baby.

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<v Speaker 2>The other boy was an elementary school kid with an

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<v Speaker 2>Aladdin backpack. He disappeared twenty years later in nineteen ninety four.

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<v Speaker 2>Both boys were never found. I heard about him in

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<v Speaker 2>the early two thousands. I wrote to the serial carelling myself,

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<v Speaker 2>asking what happened to the boys, But I didn't get

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<v Speaker 2>anything useful out of him, that is until twenty nineteen.

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<v Speaker 2>I got a break in the case that wrought my world.

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<v Speaker 3>It's a story that started at.

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<v Speaker 2>His work and ended up being one of the most

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<v Speaker 2>personal cases I ever had. The kind of story that

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<v Speaker 2>starts from something and then starts unwinding and unwinding, like

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<v Speaker 2>pulling a never ending piece of twine. And that is

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<v Speaker 2>why I have to tell him, because I'm haunted by

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<v Speaker 2>the alternative. My name is Todd Matthews, and this is

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<v Speaker 2>hello John Doe, a sleuth, a family, and a serial kill.

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<v Speaker 2>The story of a family torn apart by tragedy and

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<v Speaker 2>my quest to bring them back together.

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<v Speaker 3>Chapter one, The Missing Boys.

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<v Speaker 2>In the late nineties, it was incredible to me that

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<v Speaker 2>missing people could fall through the cracks the way they would.

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<v Speaker 2>If you were from Miami and took a quick business

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<v Speaker 2>trip to Tulsa and told no one and happened to

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<v Speaker 2>die in a car accident in between, your body could

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<v Speaker 2>remain unidentified for years, even if your loving wife is

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<v Speaker 2>looking for you. Actually, you could come missing and die

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<v Speaker 2>in one county over and no one would know because

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<v Speaker 2>no one was sharing data, or because the killer might

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<v Speaker 2>take the victim's clothes or idea on purpose so they

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<v Speaker 2>wouldn't get caught.

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<v Speaker 3>Without a national database to.

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<v Speaker 2>Identify John Doe's lying in Moorgs, it was near impossible

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<v Speaker 2>to put a name to a body.

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<v Speaker 3>Man.

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<v Speaker 2>If a thing like that did exist, Tinker would have

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<v Speaker 2>been identified a lot sooner. So I decided to just

0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.599
<v Speaker 2>make the damn thing. I volunteered myself and build a

0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.160
<v Speaker 2>national database and filled it with the profiles of people

0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.160
<v Speaker 2>who were nameless and deceased and others who had gone missing.

0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:11.440
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't just me, there were lots of us. The

0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.440
<v Speaker 2>idea was, as we like to say, give the nameless

0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.240
<v Speaker 2>back their names and return the missing to their families.

0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.840
<v Speaker 2>We called it the Dough Network. Remember this was something

0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:23.840
<v Speaker 2>I did on the side. I had to keep the

0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.400
<v Speaker 2>money coming in, so by day I was working in

0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.400
<v Speaker 2>a factory here in Tennessee, first on the assembly line

0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.760
<v Speaker 2>putting together air conditioner parts, then in quality control.

0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:34.600
<v Speaker 3>But I want to idea you.

0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.079
<v Speaker 2>My attention was fixed on the Dough Network, and once

0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.880
<v Speaker 2>we launched the thing, I had no idea how to

0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:45.040
<v Speaker 2>spent on its own. Almost instantly, the website attracted people

0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.480
<v Speaker 2>all over the world, other amateur sleuths. These were all

0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.480
<v Speaker 2>people looking to contribute and help families find their loved ones.

0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.560
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't really call them volunteers. They were people just

0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.959
<v Speaker 2>like me. These weren't police officers. They were factory workers, housewives,

0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.480
<v Speaker 2>people who found little pieces up the puzzle in their

0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.720
<v Speaker 2>own local newspaper, and they wanted to contribute.

0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:05.800
<v Speaker 3>Even the cops were coming to us.

0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.880
<v Speaker 2>They wanted to look through profiles of unidentified people to

0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.760
<v Speaker 2>help them solve their own missing person cases. And these

0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.600
<v Speaker 2>guys were impressed with their little network. It woke their

0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.679
<v Speaker 2>asses up. The website did and still does, look like

0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.560
<v Speaker 2>it was put together by a ragtag group of volunteers.

0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:25.080
<v Speaker 2>It's honestly pretty clinking. If you pull it up, you

0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:25.679
<v Speaker 2>can look.

0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.440
<v Speaker 3>Through a whole database of missing and dead people. I'll

0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:29.319
<v Speaker 3>pull one up right now.

0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:34.840
<v Speaker 2>For a missing person, there's a physical description, day of birth, height, weight, etc.

0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.600
<v Speaker 2>Then there's circumstances of death and identifiers like if they

0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.280
<v Speaker 2>were wearing jewelry when they die. The idea is that

0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.960
<v Speaker 2>an unidentified body with jewelry would match a person who

0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.720
<v Speaker 2>went missing wearing the same jewelry. That just might be

0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.000
<v Speaker 2>a match. By two thousand and one, the do network

0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:50.920
<v Speaker 2>was pretty popular.

0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:52.360
<v Speaker 3>People would call their.

0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.200
<v Speaker 2>Tip line, which was actually my home phone number, or

0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.280
<v Speaker 2>just send in information about a missing relative.

0:13:57.920 --> 0:13:58.760
<v Speaker 3>We'd try to make.

0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.199
<v Speaker 2>Matches and then send the info go to local law enforcement.

0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.000
<v Speaker 2>We all had our reasons for getting in to the

0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.600
<v Speaker 2>dough network. For me, I really wanted answers, and I

0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.679
<v Speaker 2>felt like it was actually investigating. But some people were

0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.000
<v Speaker 2>less invested in answers and just morbidly fascinating with death.

0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:19.400
<v Speaker 3>Let's face it, people have.

0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.280
<v Speaker 2>Always been fascinated with death, but this was the early

0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.720
<v Speaker 2>two thousands. With the rise of cable TV and procedurals

0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.720
<v Speaker 2>like CSI and Law and Order, true crime quickly became

0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.000
<v Speaker 2>an obsession. I remember one of my medical examine her

0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.920
<v Speaker 2>friends once said, before the Dough Network, you couldn't give

0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.040
<v Speaker 2>away a dead body. Now they're fighting over them. I

0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.560
<v Speaker 2>guess Dough Network allowed volunteers to play detective, pretend they

0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.560
<v Speaker 2>were on CSI or something. But for me, this is

0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.160
<v Speaker 2>not a hobby. It's not a toy. People were looking

0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.120
<v Speaker 2>for loved ones. By this point in my life, I'd

0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.480
<v Speaker 2>lost people too. I could imagine the hell these families

0:14:55.480 --> 0:15:00.320
<v Speaker 2>were going through. Sometime around two thousand and seven, after

0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.880
<v Speaker 2>I'd been investigating for a few years, I got this

0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.840
<v Speaker 2>call while I was at the warehouse. I had to

0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.600
<v Speaker 2>step out on the loading dot to answer. It's from

0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.960
<v Speaker 2>this guide never talked to it before. His name was

0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.040
<v Speaker 2>John Paul Jones, and he said he worked with the

0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.880
<v Speaker 2>National Institute of Justice in Washington, d C. Now by

0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.120
<v Speaker 2>that time I'd been on national shows to talk about

0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:22.800
<v Speaker 2>my investigating, but this.

0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:23.840
<v Speaker 3>Was a whole new level.

0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.080
<v Speaker 2>John Paul was inviting me to go to the National

0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.920
<v Speaker 2>Press Club. They were announcing the formation of the first

0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:34.160
<v Speaker 2>federally funded database for missing and unidentified people. I remember

0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:39.400
<v Speaker 2>being a little scared. This was a federal government, the

0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.120
<v Speaker 2>big leagues. My mama didn't actually want me to go.

0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.080
<v Speaker 2>She thought I was in trouble for something. But I

0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.440
<v Speaker 2>went anyway, with no disrespect to my mama. She was

0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.240
<v Speaker 2>dead wrong. I'd been invited to be part of the

0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.680
<v Speaker 2>working group to develop this federal database. I remembering at

0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.560
<v Speaker 2>the Press Club in DC for this new initiative. I

0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.480
<v Speaker 2>wasn't wearing a brand new suit. I'd gone to Goodwill

0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.880
<v Speaker 2>and bought a super probably ten or fifteen dollars, because

0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.000
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know if i'd ever need it again. I

0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:07.920
<v Speaker 2>showed up at the Press Club and it was covered

0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.640
<v Speaker 2>with DC policy people and reporters. I thought, what any

0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.720
<v Speaker 2>hell can I do for these people? I thought, just

0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.640
<v Speaker 2>don't embarrass yourself, Todd. They were developing something that would

0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.840
<v Speaker 2>end up being called nameous, the National Missing and Unidentified

0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.320
<v Speaker 2>Person system light down network, but the government would run

0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.480
<v Speaker 2>it on a massive, grant funded scale and the best

0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:30.880
<v Speaker 2>part of all, they wanted me to help build it.

0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.400
<v Speaker 7>What the purpose of this database is is to literally

0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:43.200
<v Speaker 7>resolve unidentified persons cases against the missing person's data so

0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:47.880
<v Speaker 7>that ultimately, you know, these individuals can be identified a

0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:48.960
<v Speaker 7>return to family.

0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.400
<v Speaker 2>That's Tony Falseti. He's a forensic anthropologist now with the

0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.920
<v Speaker 2>Chief Medical Seminar in Washington, DC. It's a serious job.

0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.480
<v Speaker 2>You have to go through security and be escorted up

0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.720
<v Speaker 2>to this. All was in this massive government building. But

0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:04.520
<v Speaker 2>he didn't take long for me to cut through all

0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:05.800
<v Speaker 2>of that and become Tony's friend.

0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.320
<v Speaker 8>Todd was he efficient at our wedding in Knoxville, Tennessee.

0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.360
<v Speaker 8>He was very nervous. He was more nervous than we are.

0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:15.960
<v Speaker 8>But he did a fantastic job.

0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.960
<v Speaker 9>Yes, you know, he had to give himself ordained and

0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:24.199
<v Speaker 9>we were his first wedding, and as I understand it,

0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:25.760
<v Speaker 9>he's done several since.

0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.000
<v Speaker 3>Yep, he's got that right.

0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.280
<v Speaker 2>I introduced him and his wife, kait Yanna, a forensic artist,

0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.000
<v Speaker 2>and they thought I was a right fit for the job. Nowadays,

0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.760
<v Speaker 2>Tony basically spends his day looking at bones to learn

0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:39.399
<v Speaker 2>more about the person they once belonged to.

0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.400
<v Speaker 8>It's surprising how much you can tell from your bones.

0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:44.760
<v Speaker 3>But he's lighthearted about the work too.

0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.320
<v Speaker 2>His desk is filled with all these toy bone and

0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.160
<v Speaker 2>skull knick knacks, and he has sports jerseys on the wall.

0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.480
<v Speaker 2>Here's what he says makes a good forensic anthropologist.

0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.359
<v Speaker 9>Tenacity patients, attention to detail, critical thinking, and maybe a

0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:04.720
<v Speaker 9>little bit of awkwardness, introvertedness. You know, we enjoyed doing

0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.760
<v Speaker 9>these kinds of things, mostly on our own.

0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.639
<v Speaker 2>He was actually raised in Tennessee like me, but he

0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.359
<v Speaker 2>didn't have the accent at all. I met him at

0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.359
<v Speaker 2>the working group and we were all in Florida trying

0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.040
<v Speaker 2>to figure out what name is needed to be liked

0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.280
<v Speaker 2>him from the start, but I'm not sure he knew

0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:21.879
<v Speaker 2>what to make of me.

0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:27.440
<v Speaker 9>I really didn't know anything other than, you know, there

0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.919
<v Speaker 9>was this new individual who had joined us, who, you know,

0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.480
<v Speaker 9>we were told had experience, who was the first person

0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:39.440
<v Speaker 9>to actually sort of use the Internet and publicly generated

0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:44.080
<v Speaker 9>data or information to actually solve an unidentified person's case.

0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.879
<v Speaker 2>And it's true, I really wasn't the bitter government type.

0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:50.440
<v Speaker 2>Many times I have phone calls and I think people

0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.320
<v Speaker 2>were quite disarmed because they weren't expecting a Southern voice.

0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:54.280
<v Speaker 3>I didn't come for.

0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.760
<v Speaker 2>Other guys come from you know, they went through police

0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.600
<v Speaker 2>academy or whatever training. I floated into this career path

0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:06.200
<v Speaker 2>a different way. This thing called name US again, the

0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.520
<v Speaker 2>National Missing and Unidentified Person System. It's supposed to be

0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.080
<v Speaker 2>a tool, a clearinghouse for all missing and unidentified bodies.

0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.000
<v Speaker 2>If do network looks like a clunky, early two thousands website,

0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.520
<v Speaker 2>names looks awfully sterling clinical. There's no doubt it's a

0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:21.600
<v Speaker 2>government website.

0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.560
<v Speaker 8>But do you think it was based on well, ultimately

0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:25.600
<v Speaker 8>Todd's model.

0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.480
<v Speaker 2>At the time, I was still working at the factory,

0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.120
<v Speaker 2>so I basically used up my vacation time to help

0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:31.560
<v Speaker 2>him out.

0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:32.680
<v Speaker 3>It felt worth it.

0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.880
<v Speaker 2>We all had same goal. We wanted to match two

0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.119
<v Speaker 2>groups of people, missing people and John and Jane does

0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:41.520
<v Speaker 2>people like the two boys I couldn't.

0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:41.840
<v Speaker 3>Get out of my head.

0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.639
<v Speaker 2>Around two thousand and nine, two years after that press

0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.720
<v Speaker 2>club trip, I was able to quit my job at

0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.000
<v Speaker 2>the factory and started working as a contractor for the

0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.199
<v Speaker 2>Department of Justice. I had to scare police reports and

0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.840
<v Speaker 2>autopsies for details to build out missing person's profiles. The

0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:59.359
<v Speaker 2>work actually isn't all that complicating, but you got to

0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.120
<v Speaker 2>be relentless about finding facts.

0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.240
<v Speaker 3>What idea is basically.

0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.200
<v Speaker 2>Entering data, putting in clues like a person's height, weight,

0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.040
<v Speaker 2>circumstances of I'm going missing.

0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.480
<v Speaker 3>I loved it. I was all in.

0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.639
<v Speaker 2>One of my bosses, doctor Arthur Eisenberg, great guy. I

0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:17.440
<v Speaker 2>once told him I wasn't sure I was the right

0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.000
<v Speaker 2>man for this job. Said, you're giving me a job

0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.719
<v Speaker 2>that people a PhDs have and I don't have their training.

0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.520
<v Speaker 2>But he didn't care. He saw something in me. He said,

0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.080
<v Speaker 2>go forth and heal the broken hearts.

0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:28.520
<v Speaker 3>How's that?

0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.200
<v Speaker 2>And he turned his little chair around and went back

0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:32.240
<v Speaker 2>to work, And.

0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:32.720
<v Speaker 3>So did I.

0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.440
<v Speaker 2>When people die, use of the next to ken is notified.

0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:42.960
<v Speaker 2>But what if there's no known next to ken? What

0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:45.520
<v Speaker 2>if there's no one to identify the body and say, yep,

0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.240
<v Speaker 2>that's my son in that case, in medical examiner's office

0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.000
<v Speaker 2>will take down data points. Maybe they'll send their bones

0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.960
<v Speaker 2>to the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, or to Tony, a

0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.720
<v Speaker 2>forensic anthropologist with all the bones in his office.

0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:00.840
<v Speaker 9>What we do is we examine humans going remains for

0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:04.520
<v Speaker 9>the purposes of identification, and in doing that, we developed

0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.800
<v Speaker 9>the basic biological profile of that individual, which would be

0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:12.840
<v Speaker 9>their age, sex, hopefully some information about their ancestry, whether

0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.200
<v Speaker 9>it's Europe, Asia, Africa, and then how tall they were.

0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:19.399
<v Speaker 2>Tony can even tell if someone has healed fractures or

0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.320
<v Speaker 2>head cavities that they got filled.

0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:26.320
<v Speaker 9>Our entire life, Everything that we encounter, whether their childhood

0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:31.280
<v Speaker 9>diseases or illnesses or injuries, are written in our bones

0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:33.159
<v Speaker 9>and they stay there now.

0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.960
<v Speaker 2>At the same time, people go missing and there's date

0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:39.560
<v Speaker 2>on that too. Let's say your sister goes missing, she's black,

0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.680
<v Speaker 2>mid forties, had dental fillings on two molars, and a

0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.520
<v Speaker 2>tattoo on the right shoulder of a butterfly. That all

0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.200
<v Speaker 2>gets entered into name us and when there's enough overlap

0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.640
<v Speaker 2>in information, there's a potential match and we look into

0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.960
<v Speaker 2>it further. Mike Nancy's job at NamUs was basically to

0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.120
<v Speaker 2>fill out the profile. He's a former homicide detective who

0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:00.080
<v Speaker 2>gives like one hundred and ten percent.

0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:01.120
<v Speaker 3>Cares about the work.

0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:03.239
<v Speaker 2>He wants to see a family made wholes so they

0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:04.640
<v Speaker 2>can stop spinning out of control.

0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:09.080
<v Speaker 10>I kind of characterize it as the movie roundhog Day,

0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:11.680
<v Speaker 10>when Bill Murray woke up every day at six o'clock

0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.320
<v Speaker 10>to the same music. What's what families do? They wake

0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.800
<v Speaker 10>up every morning to the same nightmare that they have

0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.200
<v Speaker 10>of what can they do to find their loved one.

0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.640
<v Speaker 2>We help answer those questions, but Names is not out

0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.840
<v Speaker 2>on the street solving crimes. We're helping law enforcement do that,

0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:31.040
<v Speaker 2>but we're also doing something cops often and don't have

0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.040
<v Speaker 2>time to do, helping family who've lost loved ones. He'll

0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.639
<v Speaker 2>I was the first regional systems administrator handling missing people

0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.159
<v Speaker 2>and unknown people around the Southeast. There were thousands of

0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.879
<v Speaker 2>open cases at any given time. Among those thousands was

0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:47.840
<v Speaker 2>a case I'd come across in two thousand and four.

0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.240
<v Speaker 2>It eluded me. It was the one with the serial

0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:57.760
<v Speaker 2>killer and the two boys. In the early two thousand,

0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:00.600
<v Speaker 2>I'd read a book about a suspected cereal killer and

0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.320
<v Speaker 2>the murder of this one young woman in Oklahoma. Now,

0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:08.119
<v Speaker 2>this serial killer, a man named Franklin Floyd, wasn't famous

0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:10.760
<v Speaker 2>on the level of say, Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy,

0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:13.199
<v Speaker 2>but the impact he had on this one family was

0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:15.879
<v Speaker 2>immeasurable and that's what I wanted to know more about.

0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:20.120
<v Speaker 2>The book mentioned two of her relatives, two boys. They

0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.439
<v Speaker 2>have both vanished, one in the seventies and one in

0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:27.000
<v Speaker 2>the nineties. This boggled my mind. How could they have

0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.000
<v Speaker 2>disappeared and no one was looking for him? What made

0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.679
<v Speaker 2>these cases even more challenged and was neither body was

0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:35.520
<v Speaker 2>ever found. So I entered what I knew about Michael

0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.680
<v Speaker 2>Hughes the school age boy, into the databases. He was

0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:43.680
<v Speaker 2>six years old, brown hair, brown eyes, scar on the forehead,

0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:46.840
<v Speaker 2>two crooked bottom teeth. But the infant was a real

0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:49.679
<v Speaker 2>mystery to me. All I had to start with was

0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:54.560
<v Speaker 2>a name. Philip Stephen Brandenburg was so little to go

0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:56.840
<v Speaker 2>on it was really hard to fill out his profile

0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:01.280
<v Speaker 2>on the dough Network and especially name us I because

0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.679
<v Speaker 2>infants don't have dental records or tattoos.

0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:05.400
<v Speaker 3>Lots of babies start.

0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:07.000
<v Speaker 2>At with a mop of blonde hair and a year

0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:10.399
<v Speaker 2>later have a totally different color, or they started with

0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:13.520
<v Speaker 2>curly hair and end up with it straight. The other

0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:17.000
<v Speaker 2>challenge is if for some reason, your parents aren't looking

0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:20.080
<v Speaker 2>for you. It's not like a coworker or landlord is either.

0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.960
<v Speaker 2>For all intents and purposes, Philip Stephen Brandyburg never existed

0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:25.800
<v Speaker 2>in the first place.

0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:28.000
<v Speaker 3>I only knew about him because.

0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:29.200
<v Speaker 2>He was mentioned in a book that I'd written in

0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:38.080
<v Speaker 2>early two thousands about a serial killer. I had no

0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.560
<v Speaker 2>paperwork to go off of, nothing official. I'd hope that

0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:44.280
<v Speaker 2>be I would have tracked down those documents, But when

0:24:44.320 --> 0:24:46.840
<v Speaker 2>it came to them with questions about the Brandenburgs, we

0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:49.640
<v Speaker 2>were pretty shocked. Here's my buddy mite nance again.

0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:53.840
<v Speaker 10>In the case of Philip Brandenburgh, the FBI agent could

0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:58.040
<v Speaker 10>not validate or could not determine if Brandenburg was ever born,

0:24:58.600 --> 0:24:59.560
<v Speaker 10>had ever existed.

0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:03.480
<v Speaker 2>I was taken with the case, possibly the toughest I

0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.480
<v Speaker 2>ever took on. I knew there was more to the story.

0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:09.160
<v Speaker 2>I just had a feeling if I found out more

0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:12.240
<v Speaker 2>information about Philip, it would leave me somewhere. I had

0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:15.600
<v Speaker 2>to go. You'll learn this about me. It's kind of

0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:18.760
<v Speaker 2>just the way I am. I feel things pretty strongly

0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:22.679
<v Speaker 2>more than others. Maybe, like I said, the case chose me.

0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:26.520
<v Speaker 2>At the time. I was still at the DOJ, so

0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:28.920
<v Speaker 2>the happy I were compelled to talk to me. If

0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:31.960
<v Speaker 2>I weren't, they might have said, none of your business.

0:25:32.280 --> 0:25:35.159
<v Speaker 2>But asking them about Philip was an ass backwards way

0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:38.520
<v Speaker 2>of finding out. They didn't have any paperwork on him period.

0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:43.240
<v Speaker 2>But I thought he had to be born somewhere everybody is,

0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:48.760
<v Speaker 2>and maybe this person existed somehow, some way, maybe someone

0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:51.639
<v Speaker 2>out there was missing him and he deserved to be

0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:56.400
<v Speaker 2>found dead or alive. The network is populated by public records,

0:25:56.520 --> 0:26:00.320
<v Speaker 2>stuff like newspaper clippings, missing persons pages. We went in

0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:03.320
<v Speaker 2>and added everything we could about Philip where we thought

0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:05.720
<v Speaker 2>he was born, for he might have been last seen,

0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:08.479
<v Speaker 2>and then Mike and I put this case into NamUs,

0:26:09.119 --> 0:26:11.359
<v Speaker 2>Michael's regional specialist in charge of the case.

0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:14.520
<v Speaker 10>So we had the missing person case and names as

0:26:14.560 --> 0:26:18.439
<v Speaker 10>Philip Brandenburgh and so then it became my task to

0:26:18.480 --> 0:26:21.240
<v Speaker 10>try to enhance that as much as possible.

0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:24.560
<v Speaker 2>His job was to find more clues about this missing boy,

0:26:24.840 --> 0:26:27.320
<v Speaker 2>like if you had any distinguishing marks or features, or

0:26:27.359 --> 0:26:30.040
<v Speaker 2>where he was last seen. And then I had to wait.

0:26:30.560 --> 0:26:33.480
<v Speaker 2>But I'm not a patient person. There's just some things

0:26:33.480 --> 0:26:36.320
<v Speaker 2>I want to let go. That could be something people

0:26:36.359 --> 0:26:37.360
<v Speaker 2>say as applaw.

0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:40.040
<v Speaker 5>He is committed. He does not stop. If he gets

0:26:40.040 --> 0:26:42.120
<v Speaker 5>his mind on a case, he finishes it through.

0:26:42.880 --> 0:26:45.400
<v Speaker 2>I know what this all sounds like a little morbid,

0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:48.199
<v Speaker 2>but it's not to me. I have something of a

0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:50.919
<v Speaker 2>connection to dead people. They've been in my life for

0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:53.879
<v Speaker 2>as long as I can remember. I was two years

0:26:53.880 --> 0:26:56.840
<v Speaker 2>old when my mother had my sister. Her name was

0:26:56.880 --> 0:27:01.360
<v Speaker 2>Sue Anne. She lived for just a bury, brief sparkle

0:27:01.359 --> 0:27:01.720
<v Speaker 2>of life.

0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:02.199
<v Speaker 8>That was it.

0:27:03.480 --> 0:27:06.440
<v Speaker 2>Most days I can't talk about this, but one night

0:27:06.960 --> 0:27:09.960
<v Speaker 2>I was able to just once. And that's a tape

0:27:09.960 --> 0:27:14.080
<v Speaker 2>you're hearing right now. Mom still never got over my sister.

0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:18.080
<v Speaker 2>It was always there. And she was pregnant again, this

0:27:18.240 --> 0:27:21.280
<v Speaker 2>time with my brother Greg, and we waited for him.

0:27:21.560 --> 0:27:22.800
<v Speaker 3>We even had a name if he.

0:27:22.880 --> 0:27:25.600
<v Speaker 2>Was a boy or if he's a girl. So he

0:27:25.720 --> 0:27:29.160
<v Speaker 2>was born and he was sick. He was very clear

0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:32.320
<v Speaker 2>that there was visible birth effects. So they took him

0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:35.720
<v Speaker 2>to Vanderbilt in an ambulance. So he was gone, and

0:27:35.760 --> 0:27:38.560
<v Speaker 2>it was the second day that he passed away by hisself.

0:27:40.840 --> 0:27:42.240
<v Speaker 3>And that's hard to think about.

0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:45.680
<v Speaker 2>I was only nine years old but then and had

0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:49.359
<v Speaker 2>lost two siblings. Our family was shell shocked. It was

0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:53.040
<v Speaker 2>no period of time. And I remember the first time

0:27:53.080 --> 0:27:58.399
<v Speaker 2>we went to his grave. I remember my mom, she

0:27:58.720 --> 0:28:02.520
<v Speaker 2>of the red mud, and she caught it all over

0:28:04.520 --> 0:28:06.440
<v Speaker 2>that put her in a car and it almost looked

0:28:06.440 --> 0:28:09.119
<v Speaker 2>like blood on her hands. She just holding her hands

0:28:09.119 --> 0:28:12.360
<v Speaker 2>and she just stunned, and she said, I can't leave

0:28:12.400 --> 0:28:13.479
<v Speaker 2>him in this cold ground.

0:28:14.119 --> 0:28:16.119
<v Speaker 3>But we had to. We had to.

0:28:17.880 --> 0:28:20.320
<v Speaker 2>Most people aren't exposed to death until later in life.

0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:22.920
<v Speaker 2>But me, I knew about death before I even set

0:28:22.960 --> 0:28:25.760
<v Speaker 2>foot in kindergarten. No one tried to shelter me from

0:28:25.760 --> 0:28:27.800
<v Speaker 2>the death of my siblings, even when I was a

0:28:27.840 --> 0:28:32.440
<v Speaker 2>child myself. Our family actually owned the cemetery before even

0:28:32.480 --> 0:28:35.359
<v Speaker 2>my mom and dad were alive. As a result, I

0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:37.960
<v Speaker 2>never thought of death as taboo or creepy. These were

0:28:38.000 --> 0:28:40.560
<v Speaker 2>my family members and they were present in my life

0:28:42.000 --> 0:28:44.400
<v Speaker 2>the way that I knew my brother and sister. They

0:28:44.480 --> 0:28:47.320
<v Speaker 2>were never really gone in a way, they were there.

0:28:47.520 --> 0:28:49.200
<v Speaker 2>Their names were on the grave. You know.

0:28:49.280 --> 0:28:50.720
<v Speaker 3>We took care of the cemetery.

0:28:50.880 --> 0:28:53.880
<v Speaker 2>We would play while my mom and dad, my aunt

0:28:53.920 --> 0:28:57.920
<v Speaker 2>and uncle, they would mow the cemetery. And as I

0:28:57.960 --> 0:29:01.160
<v Speaker 2>got older, working with the tent Girl and other cases,

0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:03.280
<v Speaker 2>I'm hearing all of these stories and they don't even

0:29:03.320 --> 0:29:06.840
<v Speaker 2>know where they are. Missing can be worse than dead.

0:29:08.000 --> 0:29:10.480
<v Speaker 2>And then having a tombstone with John or Jane Doe

0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:12.760
<v Speaker 2>on it it just didn't compute. You know, I thought,

0:29:13.120 --> 0:29:15.520
<v Speaker 2>at least I know where mine are, at least I

0:29:15.640 --> 0:29:16.560
<v Speaker 2>know who they are.

0:29:16.800 --> 0:29:21.080
<v Speaker 3>How could you not have a name on your tombstone?

0:29:21.200 --> 0:29:23.840
<v Speaker 2>If I really think about it, I think I became

0:29:23.960 --> 0:29:26.680
<v Speaker 2>so focused on these two children because of my own

0:29:26.720 --> 0:29:29.760
<v Speaker 2>brother and sister. I had to give these two missing

0:29:29.800 --> 0:29:35.640
<v Speaker 2>boys the dignity of a headstone. Anyone who knows me

0:29:35.800 --> 0:29:39.080
<v Speaker 2>knows I'm a long way from perfect, and they might.

0:29:38.960 --> 0:29:41.000
<v Speaker 3>Also say that I should have let this case go.

0:29:41.960 --> 0:29:44.040
<v Speaker 2>But just like I did with the tent girl, I

0:29:44.120 --> 0:29:45.320
<v Speaker 2>held on to hope.

0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:46.440
<v Speaker 3>It's kind of like fishing.

0:29:47.040 --> 0:29:49.640
<v Speaker 2>I put up my line and worm and waited for someone,

0:29:49.680 --> 0:29:52.720
<v Speaker 2>and you feel it to bite. But I had to

0:29:52.720 --> 0:29:55.160
<v Speaker 2>go about my life. My wife and I had our

0:29:55.240 --> 0:29:58.560
<v Speaker 2>second son. There were other cases that needed my attention.

0:30:00.000 --> 0:30:01.719
<v Speaker 2>Then one day I got a call from an unknown

0:30:01.800 --> 0:30:05.720
<v Speaker 2>number in twenty nineteen, fifteen years after I started looking.

0:30:06.720 --> 0:30:08.120
<v Speaker 3>I don't even know how I got your number.

0:30:08.600 --> 0:30:10.520
<v Speaker 2>I was in my house in the kitchen doing something,

0:30:10.640 --> 0:30:15.160
<v Speaker 2>probably pasting. I never really sat down. I didn't recognize

0:30:15.160 --> 0:30:17.240
<v Speaker 2>the number. I thought it might have been a telemarketer

0:30:17.400 --> 0:30:21.280
<v Speaker 2>or wrong number, but then I thought, you never know.

0:30:22.280 --> 0:30:24.320
<v Speaker 2>I'll pick this one up, and I.

0:30:24.240 --> 0:30:26.240
<v Speaker 11>Told him myselught our conversation, I was like, you don't

0:30:26.400 --> 0:30:28.560
<v Speaker 11>believe this. I said, I don't blame you if you

0:30:28.560 --> 0:30:33.240
<v Speaker 11>don't believe it, because this sounds crazy. And I started explaining.

0:30:33.320 --> 0:30:34.400
<v Speaker 3>He took the time to listen.

0:30:35.800 --> 0:30:36.840
<v Speaker 8>He picked up the phone.

0:30:37.000 --> 0:30:41.360
<v Speaker 11>I mean, it was just one in a billion. I

0:30:41.360 --> 0:30:47.880
<v Speaker 11>guess my name is Steve Patterson living in Chervynth, Carolina.

0:30:47.920 --> 0:30:51.600
<v Speaker 11>I'm forty nine years old, and I searched my name

0:30:52.320 --> 0:30:54.280
<v Speaker 11>and found the missing person's report.

0:30:55.200 --> 0:30:58.240
<v Speaker 2>This guy, Steve Patterson, was calling to say that he

0:30:58.280 --> 0:31:01.400
<v Speaker 2>thought he was Phillip Stephen brandon Burg, that maybe this

0:31:01.560 --> 0:31:03.920
<v Speaker 2>was his real name that had been changed to me.

0:31:03.920 --> 0:31:06.440
<v Speaker 2>It was just a baby, he'd later tell me. He

0:31:06.520 --> 0:31:08.880
<v Speaker 2>was looking at the Dough Network, that clinky website I

0:31:08.960 --> 0:31:11.880
<v Speaker 2>helped build. What he found was a missing person's page

0:31:11.880 --> 0:31:14.680
<v Speaker 2>for a boy with the last named Brandenburgh. The details

0:31:14.720 --> 0:31:19.080
<v Speaker 2>seemed familiar, first because the baby was born in April

0:31:19.160 --> 0:31:23.600
<v Speaker 2>nineteen seventy four, just like Steve. Second because that name,

0:31:24.120 --> 0:31:28.040
<v Speaker 2>Philip Stephen Brandenburg. He had seen it once written on

0:31:28.080 --> 0:31:30.800
<v Speaker 2>a manila envelope in his parents house. And now he

0:31:30.840 --> 0:31:33.560
<v Speaker 2>had called me because he was wondering if it might

0:31:33.600 --> 0:31:37.800
<v Speaker 2>be his real name. Steve was looking for the authorities instead,

0:31:38.240 --> 0:31:39.360
<v Speaker 2>he called me directly.

0:31:40.520 --> 0:31:43.200
<v Speaker 11>It just opened a pluggate then, I mean, it just started.

0:31:43.520 --> 0:31:46.040
<v Speaker 11>Everything started falling into place, and I'm not gonna go

0:31:46.080 --> 0:31:48.720
<v Speaker 11>with computers. I don't know how in the world I

0:31:48.760 --> 0:31:50.000
<v Speaker 11>found all this out.

0:31:50.440 --> 0:31:55.240
<v Speaker 2>Steve and I started talking and talking and talking. This

0:31:55.320 --> 0:31:57.560
<v Speaker 2>was the first time in a long career of working

0:31:57.560 --> 0:31:59.840
<v Speaker 2>on John and Jane Doe cases that one of them

0:32:00.200 --> 0:32:02.800
<v Speaker 2>me up on the phone. Was he the infant I

0:32:02.840 --> 0:32:05.480
<v Speaker 2>was looking for? At the time, there was no way

0:32:05.520 --> 0:32:08.160
<v Speaker 2>to know for sure. The time in lined up, he

0:32:08.160 --> 0:32:10.880
<v Speaker 2>would have been an infant in nineteen seventy four. Now

0:32:10.880 --> 0:32:13.800
<v Speaker 2>he's a grown man. But there was something about Steve's

0:32:13.840 --> 0:32:16.920
<v Speaker 2>tone that shook me. He sounded so desperate to find

0:32:16.920 --> 0:32:19.400
<v Speaker 2>out who his people were. I remember the way he

0:32:19.480 --> 0:32:22.960
<v Speaker 2>said it, I don't know who I am. I don't

0:32:22.960 --> 0:32:25.080
<v Speaker 2>think in that moment Steve knew how far I'd gone

0:32:25.120 --> 0:32:30.800
<v Speaker 2>looking for him, or that in order to find him,

0:32:30.880 --> 0:32:34.240
<v Speaker 2>I'd written to a convicted murderer so many years ago.

0:32:34.560 --> 0:32:37.040
<v Speaker 2>If this man was who he said he was, it

0:32:37.080 --> 0:32:38.840
<v Speaker 2>would have meant he had escaped the clutches of a

0:32:38.880 --> 0:32:42.960
<v Speaker 2>serial killer while his siblings didn't. It would have been

0:32:43.000 --> 0:32:45.360
<v Speaker 2>a miracle, but by now you know.

0:32:46.040 --> 0:32:47.800
<v Speaker 3>Stranger things have happened.

0:32:50.600 --> 0:32:53.400
<v Speaker 2>This season of Hello John Doe a fugitive on the

0:32:53.480 --> 0:32:55.040
<v Speaker 2>run for thirty plus years.

0:32:55.480 --> 0:32:59.960
<v Speaker 10>The actual folders for the case, I would say, would

0:33:00.120 --> 0:33:01.640
<v Speaker 10>stack about six feet.

0:33:01.440 --> 0:33:04.320
<v Speaker 2>High, mixedup identities and screwed up pseud anuns.

0:33:04.920 --> 0:33:07.960
<v Speaker 6>It's one of the most unique cases I was ever

0:33:08.000 --> 0:33:08.960
<v Speaker 6>involved with.

0:33:09.200 --> 0:33:12.200
<v Speaker 2>And a family left behind trying to solve a lifetime

0:33:12.200 --> 0:33:12.800
<v Speaker 2>of mysteries.

0:33:13.400 --> 0:33:16.400
<v Speaker 12>Yes, they did take a DNAC and then I said,

0:33:16.440 --> 0:33:17.520
<v Speaker 12>well did you find Steve?

0:33:18.960 --> 0:33:20.400
<v Speaker 7>And they said, who's Steve?

0:33:21.760 --> 0:33:23.080
<v Speaker 12>I said, Steve Swain little boy.

0:33:23.800 --> 0:33:24.840
<v Speaker 2>Well, it was thunderstruck.

0:33:25.040 --> 0:33:27.600
<v Speaker 9>It was something I never and no parent ever wants

0:33:27.640 --> 0:33:29.880
<v Speaker 9>to hear their child go through.

0:33:30.240 --> 0:33:32.840
<v Speaker 12>You know, instead of being part of the family, he

0:33:32.960 --> 0:33:41.280
<v Speaker 12>was given away, when in all reality it saved his life.

0:33:42.560 --> 0:33:45.760
<v Speaker 2>Hello John Doe is an original productions by Revelations Entertainment

0:33:45.920 --> 0:33:49.920
<v Speaker 2>and association with First and Life's Productions from Revelations. Our

0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:53.960
<v Speaker 2>executive producers are Morgan Freeman and James Younger from First

0:33:54.000 --> 0:33:57.920
<v Speaker 2>to Last. Lindsay Moreno is the executive producer. Our producing

0:33:58.000 --> 0:34:00.440
<v Speaker 2>partner is New on Home Media. It was written and

0:34:00.480 --> 0:34:03.760
<v Speaker 2>produced by Katee Michigan. Our editor is Katherine Saint Louis.

0:34:04.160 --> 0:34:07.080
<v Speaker 2>She is also nil on Home Media's executive editor. Our

0:34:07.120 --> 0:34:11.280
<v Speaker 2>executive producer is Sharah Morris. Our development producer is Ian Lindsay.

0:34:11.880 --> 0:34:16.520
<v Speaker 2>Our associate producer is Rufaro Faith Maserua. Sound design and

0:34:16.600 --> 0:34:19.880
<v Speaker 2>mixing by Scott Summerville. Theme and original music composed by

0:34:19.960 --> 0:34:23.480
<v Speaker 2>Jesse Pearlstein. Additional music came from Epidemic Sound and Blue

0:34:23.560 --> 0:34:24.280
<v Speaker 2>Dot Sessions.

0:34:24.680 --> 0:34:26.240
<v Speaker 3>Bendall Faulton is our fact checker.

0:34:26.719 --> 0:34:30.200
<v Speaker 2>Our production manager is Samantha Allison from my Heart Media.

0:34:30.320 --> 0:34:34.320
<v Speaker 2>Dylan Fagans our executive producer. Special thanks to Adelia Ruben

0:34:34.360 --> 0:34:37.200
<v Speaker 2>at n on HUM and Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson

0:34:37.320 --> 0:34:41.000
<v Speaker 2>at iHeartMedia. I'm Todd Matthews. You can learn more about

0:34:41.040 --> 0:34:43.640
<v Speaker 2>name us at NamUs dot com. The number for the

0:34:43.719 --> 0:34:46.560
<v Speaker 2>National Center for Missing Exploited Children's Call Center is one

0:34:46.560 --> 0:34:49.960
<v Speaker 2>eight hundredth the loss that's one eight hundred eight four

0:34:50.040 --> 0:34:54.400
<v Speaker 2>three five six seven eight. The National Sexual Assault Hotline

0:34:54.480 --> 0:34:57.680
<v Speaker 2>from the Rate Abuse and Incest National Network is one

0:34:57.680 --> 0:34:58.560
<v Speaker 2>eight hundred.

0:34:58.600 --> 0:35:02.840
<v Speaker 3>Sixty five six six seven through. Okay, guys, this is

0:35:02.840 --> 0:35:03.720
<v Speaker 3>the end of the show.

0:35:04.000 --> 0:35:06.560
<v Speaker 2>If you didn't like it, don't do anything. But if

0:35:06.600 --> 0:35:08.520
<v Speaker 2>you did like it, you make sure that you rate

0:35:08.560 --> 0:35:10.839
<v Speaker 2>and review the show. It helps more people to find

0:35:10.840 --> 0:35:13.600
<v Speaker 2>it and hear this wonderful story. Thanks again for listening.