WEBVTT - 25 Miles South 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.440 Welcome to The Piked and Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:07.440 and Katie Studios. There were always these rumors about Michael 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.880 Moran and the women that he was around and the 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.360 circles he ran in. This guy trafficking women all over 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.320 the country from this little town that's known as the 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.040 epicenter of the opioid epidemic. It was public knowledge, that 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.520 was the crazy thing. Everybody knew the rumors and had 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.160 known somebody that knew somebody that had worked for him. 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.760 She loved papers and it said Michael Moran's name, his 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.440 cell phone number. I had all this information that really 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.320 impacted our area, and so this could have brought a 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.200 lot of closure to these families who were being told 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:48.239 nothing by our local officials, in our local enforcement. This 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.960 is the Piked and Massacre. Returned to Pike County Season two, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:56.520 Episode seven, twenty five miles South. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.520 television producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker and of Shane. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.240 In episode five of this season, we explored the allegations 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.240 of corruption and the subsequent arrest of Pike County shaff 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.840 of Charlie Reader. But his story is just one of 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.600 many that has illuminated alleged abuses of power perpetrated by 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.520 those involved in southern Ohio's criminal justice system. So in 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:19.959 this episode, we want to focus on another case that 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.880 has long affected a community just twenty five miles south 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:28.720 of Piketon, in a town called Portsmouth, Ohio. In twenty fifteen, 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.199 a reporter named Nicki Blankenship began investigating rumors of human 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.640 trafficking in the town. Like many small Ohio towns, Portsmouth 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.720 has a long, rich history of industrial might, preceding an 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.920 era of rapid urban decay. Here's James Pilcher, a reporter 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.000 for Local twelve News and Cincinnati, speaking with our producer 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.280 Chris Graves. Portsmouth is the county seat of Theodore County, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.960 which fits right below Pike County, so it's about thirty 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.920 to forty five minutes south of Piketon. Portsmouth has this 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:02.360 rust belt burned out in industrial field. There are half 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.680 empty two empty factories in the middle of the city. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.480 At one point US Shoe had their biggest plant there, 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:12.320 and then obviously you know the global economy and we 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.120 all know what happened to manufacturing in the Midwest. It 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:19.280 still has a small profitable steel mill downtown, but it's 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.120 barely hanging on. So it's kind of like a city 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:28.000 that was forgotten. Yes, when the manufacturing industry began to disappear, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.720 Portsmouth was besieged by the drug trade. Nicky Blanketship grew 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.239 up in the area and saw the devastation firsthand. Your 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.959 area has been really hit by the opiate crisis, right, Yeah, 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.000 we call ourselves ground zero for the opiate ever the 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:48.040 met I've lived in Ohio since nineteen eighty four, Insider County, 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.560 so yeah, I've lived here in my whole life. I 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.160 remember in high school people around me, they would start 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.720 out with small pain pills and an oxycott and hit 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.840 and it was no longer recreational drug use that people 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.520 to one at parties. You were seeing people become addicted 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:07.240 very very very quickly. In two thousand and eight, Nikki 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.359 started writing about the issue for a local newspaper. I 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.000 started out covering the drug epidemic. I was the first 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.720 in the area to do stories on oxycotton and looking 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.760 at overdose rates in the area and started asking those 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.639 questions from the corner's office about how many of these 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.000 depths that we're seeing are connected to opiate use, and 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:29.920 then started looking into pill mills and we ended up 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.680 shutting down over twenty three pill mills inside a county. 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.160 Nikki's reporting helped shut a light on the area's drug problem, 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.600 but other illicit industries sprung up around it. Nikki was 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.240 there to cover it all. In twenty thirteen, I did 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:50.080 a series that ran for months on prostitution, and I 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.040 was walking the streets with some of these girls. I 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.840 also talked to like parents of women that were working 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.400 on the streets and talked to officers about the problem 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.440 and local instances about how it affected them. It was 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.160 interesting because when I was doing these stories, I started 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.960 seeing a lot of names come up from these girls. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.520 The one mentioned most often was Michael Moran. Michael Moran, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.960 he's in his mid seventies, long time defense attorney, you know, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.800 d wise, drug offenses, those kinds of things. He had 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.800 his own firm in Portsmouth, and at one point in 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.080 the late two thousands he got himself appointed as a 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:35.039 city councilman of Portsmouth. He's a very public person, so 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.560 if there was a Red Cross banquet or something that 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.640 I was covering, he would be there. So he's been 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.840 around my whole career pretty much now. Rumors have been 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.440 circulating about Mike Moran for years. These stories about him 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.279 being involved in prostitution go all the way back to 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.440 the seventies. A lot of those stories are just about 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:59.400 him hiring girls dance and at local parties and poker games. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.680 It was the secret that everyone choked about, but no 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.159 one really talked about, and it was pretty common knowledge. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.880 I think I mentioned like a Red Cross banquet I 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.760 had to cover once. He was there with a girl 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.760 known to be arrested for prostitution, known to be arrested 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.360 for drug abuse, and she was there. You could tell 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.520 that she was under the influence by her behavior. She 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.279 was being very loud and on a cell phone in 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.960 the middle of this banquet and speaking very appropriately for 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.880 the setting, and Mike's just laughing with her. And a 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.320 city councilman at the time actually leaned over towards me 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.599 jokingly elbowed me on the side and said, there's Mike 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.880 and one of his girls. It's just always been known 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.880 as Nicky began exploring Moran's ties to the local sex trade. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.839 The story grew much darker. I was interviewing some people 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.560 who were in an impatient treatment facility, and I found 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:57.200 out that one of the women over the program was 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.799 involved with a human trafficking program, and so I started 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.880 talking with her about human trafficking and she said that 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.000 when women are arrested at a certain age, Moran has 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.880 been going to see them in jail and gotten them 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.839 judge charges and exchange for doing sexual favors for him 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:23.080 and working in prostitution. Nikki further explained the allegations leveled 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.000 against Moran by area women at the corrupt of what 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.520 he does is he offers his legal services to get 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.640 these women out of jail and then puts them under 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:37.240 his employee. Yes, he gets women out of jail and 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:42.360 that basically gets them into his clutches. Other stories are 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.880 that people are hired as dog walkers or as cleaners 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:53.360 and and said are actually working in prostitution, and affidavit 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.800 filed by the DA would later support these accounts. James 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.360 Pilcher explained that this method of manipulation marks the ditinction 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.600 between prostitution and human trafficking. Some people will say, oh, well, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.120 these women knew what they were doing. They were just 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.240 trying to make money. These women were prostitutes. Well, if 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.640 you talk to the experts. It went one step beyond that, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.160 it went into trafficking because some of those allegations Moran 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.920 was holding over them, the fact that they were drug addicts, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.400 even he would withhold their money or withhold their wherewithal 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.920 to get drugs. So the statute says, if you withhold 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.239 or threatened to withhold money that women need for drugs 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.880 or withhold the drugs, it's trafficking because it's coercion. Anytime 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.640 you can prove coercion, it's trafficking, both in the Ohio 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:45.080 law and federal level. We're going to take a quick 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:58.239 break here. We'll be back in a moment. Some believe 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.840 Michael Moran's reach goes farther than even human trafficking. In 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:06.920 twenty thirteen, a Portsmouth woman named Megan Lancaster disappeared. Michael 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:11.920 Moran has denied any involvement or responsibility in her disappearance. Additionally, 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.000 authorities have not brought any charges against him in the case. 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.360 At this time, it's unclear whether they have questioned him 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.800 in the matter. Megan, it's probably the case that is 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.960 closest to my heart, and that's mostly her sister in law, 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.040 Katie Lancaster has just screamed and screamed and screamed on 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.800 her behalf. My name is Katie Lancaster, and I am 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.880 the sister in law and best friend of Megan Lancaster 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:40.319 who has been missing from Soda County since April third, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:45.120 twenty and thirteen. Who was Megan Lancaster and how did 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:49.120 you meet? We met at a it was called Soda 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.240 County Joint Vocational School. We were both taking cosmetology. And 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.199 she is a wonderful, loving, gives a shirt off her 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.160 back person that I know for a fact that if 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.960 this tragedy had to happen to anybody, she would have 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:11.839 given everything she had to save the next person. Megan 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.000 and Katie formed an unbreakable bond and soon they became 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.320 family members. I was spending about every night with Megan, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.079 pretty much on school night. Megan would say, my brother 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.480 wants to take you on a date. So I said, okay, okay, 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.080 like I'll let him take me for dinner and so 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:32.600 on and so forth. And I did that well. I 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:38.880 never left. I was seventeen and we just hit it 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:44.240 off and fell in love. Katie and Megan's brother Jimmy, 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:47.280 were married in two thousand and five. A few months later, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.440 Katie became pregnant. Soon after, Megan did as well. I 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:56.720 went into labor August thirty first, had my baby September first, 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.640 like in the middle of the night, and she had 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:05.800 her baby November fourth, So we were legitimately only, you know, 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.280 a couple months apart. In two thousand and six, Megan 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.240 gave birth to a son named Reese. Being a young 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.680 single mother was tough, but Megan seemed to have a 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.360 bright future ahead of her. Any sports she played, she 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.040 played to the fullest. She was there for her team, 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.880 always cheering everybody. On the softball she was the pitcher. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.040 She had a full ride scholarship to Shawnee State. I mean, 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.920 I mean, Megan couldn't have been any smarter than what 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:36.280 she was. Despite her intelligence and athleticism, Megan fell victim 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.720 to the drug epidemic that gripped the Portsmouth area. She 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.880 was open back that you know that she used drugs, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.280 that she used a needle. It was rough, and I 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.840 would tell her, I would say, Megan, I would try 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:53.000 to play both sides, like her friend and her sister 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.960 in law, because I would say, Megan, you need to 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.280 get help and you need to change for you first 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:04.280 and foremost, but at the same time, you need to 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.480 do it for Reeese because he needs you. And her 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:13.199 answer was, Katie, why change it? Now? Everybody's gonna look 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.800 at me the same way. I'm never gonna live down 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.920 the things I've done. I'm never gonna be able to 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:26.000 change that opinion that people have of me. She just 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.600 couldn't see past the past, you know, path the things 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:35.360 that she felt people would never forgive. And then that 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:43.080 point took over Megan and it led to more years later, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.560 a strange encounter with Megan would leave Katie forever suspicious 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.480 of one local man, Michael Moran. I was in walmoret 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.040 with Jeremy, and all of a sudden, I see Megan 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.800 got bouncing down the aisle and I'm like, what the 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:01.640 hell was she wearing? It was literally Anta lingerie. To 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.760 be honest, she said, I'm here to get something for 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.760 this party I'm doing for Marian It's a bachelor party. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:14.520 And I'm just like, okay, but again, why are you 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.760 in here in that outfit? Is you like? Because this 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:18.600 is what I'm wearing to the party, And I'm like, 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.240 get get whatever you're getting in and get the heck 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.040 out of here before you get arrested for indecent exposure? 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:31.320 Can you describe April third, twenty thirteen. April third, twenty thirteen, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.959 Megan went missing. That day, she was with her mom. 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.520 She went to her mom's early in the morning, said mom, 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.760 I need to pay my insurance because she had been 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.360 pulled over and called over card been impounded for literally 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:50.319 like sixty dollars in back child support or something. So 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.360 her mom followed her to Portsmouth. Megan got in her 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.280 mom's card down in Portsmouth, they rode down to the 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.400 bonding company. They paid her insurance, then got back in 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.559 her own care her Mustang, and they went their own ways. 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.439 Later that day, Megan called her mother, Marcy, to make 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.720 arrangements to see her son. She said, Mom, I'll be 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:18.040 there to stay the night with Reese. But that night 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:23.600 Megan never showed up, you know. And then the next 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:25.960 day Marcy tried to get a hold of her cut 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.000 and went by her apartment. Her car wasn't there, so 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.400 Mar's thought she's out running the streets or whatever, you know, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.280 out running the road, and didn't think much more about it. 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.840 Two days later, on April fifth, Megan's car was found 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.240 in the parking lot of a local fast food restaurant. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:50.280 She was nowhere to be found. What stuck out about 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.640 the car was the fact that it was up on 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.880 the curb, and Megan would never have parked it like that, 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.960 as she especially. She might have pulled in if she 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.800 was in a hurry and got out and got something, 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:05.640 got right back in the car and left, but she 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.400 would have never pulled in there to leave it there 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.920 like that. Inside the car, police found Megan's wallet and 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.439 a small notebook that contained some suspicious entries. She left 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.760 clues as to who she'd been working for, what's she'd 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.880 been up to. Right, Yes, she left papers in it. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:27.800 They actually said dance for and Michael Marian's name, his 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.960 cell phone number, and how much he paid for her 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:38.880 to dance. We know we have this problem with missing women, 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:41.480 and we know we have this problem with women who 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.920 have been found dead in their cases that never their 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.720 murders have never been solved. And despite that car set 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.360 her mom said t October of twenty thirteen. And there's 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.640 a documents where they took it, where they took the 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.480 car into evidence that are dated showing that and it 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.680 was really Katie and Megan's family that did all of 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.960 the investigating, and higher private investigators they couldn't get in 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:08.360 cooperation from local police. So it's Megan's case really, it's 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.400 the only one that has really been made public so 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.240 people can see exactly what these women have gone through 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.240 and how these things have happened. If Moran was running 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:23.000 a decades long sex trafficking operation, we're talking about some 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.960 serious abuse of power. What are your thoughts on that. 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.320 The abuse of power makes me completely fucking sick. Excuse 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.120 my language, but I don't know how else to put 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.280 it. It It makes me sick because you know, he's in 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.960 this position to help people, to help rebuild their lives 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.120 if they been in trouble once or twice, you know, 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.920 a drug charge, whatever, they send them to treatment, they 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.720 do this, they do that, but he takes it a 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.280 step further and takes them, like, buys them what they want, 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.080 courses them into these things, shows them a life that 0:15:56.160 --> 0:16:02.080 they've never had before, and then boom back on drugs, 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.000 back to doing what they were doing back in trouble. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:10.120 And to me, that is sickening and there's no excuse sport. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.280 Do you think Mike Moran is involved in Megan's disappearance. 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:19.040 I do believe Michael Moran is involved in Megan's disappearance, 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.760 and I do believe that we will eventually tie Mike 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:32.040 Moran to Megan's disappearance. Let's stop here for another quick break. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:45.200 We'll be back in a moment. What's it like to 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.560 go through losing a family member or a friend but 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.200 not actually knowing what happened to them? It's hell. I 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:55.280 was talking to my mother in law about this today. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.400 You know, people lose people all the time, and they 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.120 have a grave to go to somewhere they can go 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.159 visit that they know that that person is there, or 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.119 they have ashes that they have or whatever, what have you. 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.240 But we have a flipping sign with missing on it 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:20.159 that we decorate, and it is heartbreaking, and it is 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.080 hard not to know whether she's hungry, she's cold, she's 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:30.480 being hurt, she's being abused, or worse, she's dead. Not 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.040 to know that. It is so hard. I see her 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.040 mama suffer daily, or importantly, I see her baby boys 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:43.679 suffer very badly. And I'm not saying that, you know, 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.280 he cries every day or no, I'm not saying that, 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.359 but he has a lot of questions but we can't answer. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.679 But I can guarantee you I won't stop to I 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.159 can answer him. I don't care if he's twenty five, thirty, 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.160 thirty five, forty, If I'm along around that long, I'll 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:08.320 fight until I can answer those questions for him. In 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.919 an interview, Moran claimed that he only knew Megan as 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.200 a police informant who was tied to a drug case 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:15.879 he tried years back. When asked about what may have 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.400 happened to her, Moran believed that she may have been murdered, 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.480 though he had no information to support his statement. It 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.040 should be noted that there have been no other specific 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.440 allegations tying Moran to the disappearance of any other women. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:33.520 Nikki Blankenship continued her investigation into human trafficking in Portsmouth, 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.320 but her attempt to report on the areas missing women 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.119 was met with some pushback. You kind of started this 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.800 with this story. This seemed to have been local knowledge 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.760 that no one was reporting on. Right when I was 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.320 first saying let me talk about the missing women, I 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.800 was told now it didn't matter if there was proof 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:53.840 it was can't we talk about the missing women? Can 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:55.920 I talk to their families, and I was told, now, 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.439 Nikki didn't let that stop her. So I I have 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.800 seen these things personally. In Cider County, we say that 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.480 everyone's been affected because if it's not your friend, it 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.240 is or your family member's at least somebody you went 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.520 to school with. Everybody knows somebody who's been affected by 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.080 the drug epidemic, and everybody knows somebody who has turned 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.440 a prostitution. So this is a pretty personal story for you. Yeah. 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.240 I spent probably my whole career, I feel like working 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.879 on this, and nobody was listening to their stories before 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.080 or seeing them as even human. That really made me 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.960 connect with a lot of these people in their stories 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.080 living here my whole life. These are my friends and 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.960 my family members as well. Not specifically, but I have 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.680 lost so many friends to overdose. I have so many 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.399 friends that have battle addiction, and a lot of people 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.960 I went to school with are gone. Now I have 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:57.240 several friends from high schools that ended up working in prostitution. 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.520 They're people, They're human, and yet seen as a prostitute 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.960 or an addict exactly, and that makes people not really 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.320 care what happens to them. That makes people assume that 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.200 they chose some lifestyle that is dangerous. It makes people 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.200 just assume that they somehow are asking for that or 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.280 whatever happens to them as a part of a lifestyle 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.440 they chose, and so they just turned a blind eye. 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.240 And I think that's another thing that has made it 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.840 so easy for it to happen, and it happened right 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.160 in public, is that people see them as prostitutes and addicts. 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.399 Nickie didn't give up searching for prooflinking Michael Moran to 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:40.400 Portsmith's sex trafficking industry. I was at home a lot 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.760 late at night, just going through court documents and talking 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:47.720 to families because a lot of these families told me 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.240 I was the only person they trusted. So then for me, 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.200 it was like, how do I get something more than 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.600 a story from a family member or even a girl. 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.800 I need some kind of career, finding some kind of document. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:05.520 In twenty seventeen, she got it. A man named Mark 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:07.920 Eubanks reached out to her and passed along a copy 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.040 of a sworn Affidavid filed by the Drug Enforcement Agency. 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.400 Mark Cubanks, he had been reading my stories on human 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:20.200 trafficking and on the heroin epidemic and he just smelled 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.760 me a copy of this Silda Affidavid. It was actually 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:27.240 a part of his case and had told me his story, 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.160 which was that he had been arrested on drug charges 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.600 and when he was arrested, he was immediately taken and 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.360 given live a detective test about missing women and dead 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.800 women and Mike Moran and human trafficking. The Affidavid laid 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.480 out Southern Ohio Drug Task Force and FBI operations that 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.080 had been UNDERWAGH since twenty fifteen investigating Michael Moran and 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.720 his ties to area sex trafficking. He's accused of trafficking 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.480 women all over the country from New York and New 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:59.600 Jersey to Florida, racketeering and compelling and promoting prostitution. In 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:01.760 other thing that is in the affidavit that he was 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:04.399 working with drug traffickers and there was a wire tap 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.119 where they were able to hear some of the conversations 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:11.280 between Moran and drug traffickers and he was getting drugs 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.720 from these drug traffickers in order to provide to the 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.840 females that he had working for him. The AffA David 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.480 specifically talks about whom working with local judges and law 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:31.600 enforcement and adult probation to make these things happen. Nikki 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.320 finally had the proof she needed that validated the stories 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:39.000 told by Portsmouth's most vulnerable women, but when she brought 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.720 the document to her editor, she was shocked and they 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:51.000 told me, no, we're not going to publish. Michael Moran 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.040 would later be arrested and charged with eighteen felony accounts, 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:58.960 including promoting prostitution and trafficking in persons. He was released 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:01.400 on a three hundred thou dollar bond, which was later 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:05.359 revoked after he violated the terms of his agreement. He 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.800 has pleaded not guilty to all charges and staunchly maintains 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.600 his innocence. He is now under house arrest while he 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.879 awaits trial. We'll bring you the second part of the 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:20.320 Michael Moran story in episode nine, but next week we'll 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:22.720 be hearing from some of our regular contributors, who will 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.160 discuss updates from accused brother George Wagner, the four's most 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:31.200 recent pre trial hearing. For more information on the case 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:35.960 and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:39.200 The Piked and Massacre Returned to Pike County is executive 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:42.919 produced by Stephanie Lydecker and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:47.119 sound designed by executive producer Jared Aston. Additional producing by 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.560 Jeff Shane, Andrew Becker, and Chris Graves. The Piked and 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.720 Massacre Returned to Pike County is a production of iHeartRadio 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:57.480 and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:01.119 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:01.840 favorite shows.