Speaker 1: School of Humans. On Sunday, October seventeenth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: a thirty nine year old mother of one named Heidi
Speaker 1: Plank was starting her day. Heidi was leaving her rented
Speaker 1: townhouse on the west side of Los Angeles near Culver City.
Speaker 1: She was on her way to watch her eleven year
Speaker 1: old son Bond play football. Heidi, by the way, was
Speaker 1: a huge James Bond fan, so that's how she chose
Speaker 1: her son's and her dog's names based on the Double
Speaker 1: O seven theme. So her son was Bond and her
Speaker 1: labradoodle was seven like Double oh seven. Surveillance camera footage
Speaker 1: from outside Heidie's house showed her walking out the door.
Speaker 1: She was dressed in jeans and a white T shirt
Speaker 1: with a smiley face on it. She had a sweater
Speaker 1: tied around her waist and it was described in the
Speaker 1: media as gray, but it was actually more like a
Speaker 1: grayish color, kind of a gray beige. Heidie was petite,
Speaker 1: she had long blonde hair. She was he was five
Speaker 1: foot three and was carrying a purse with her. She
Speaker 1: was holding a cup of coffee in one hand, and seven,
Speaker 1: her dog, was on his leash walking behind her. She
Speaker 1: put seven in the car and climbed behind the wheel
Speaker 1: of the silver range Rover with a license plate U
Speaker 1: eight four zero XO, and drove away. Heidi was divorced
Speaker 1: from Bond's father. Her ex husband, a sixty three year
Speaker 1: old hairstylist named Jim Wayne. Jim had a salon in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. Jim and Heidi were married in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, but they divorced four years later, and at
Speaker 1: the time Heidi went missing, they shared custody of Bond.
Speaker 1: Jim told police that the last time he saw Heidi
Speaker 1: was when she showed up to her son's football game
Speaker 1: that afternoon. The game, by the way, was in Downy,
Speaker 1: which was around seventeen miles from Heidie's home, so it
Speaker 1: would have taken her around half an hour to get
Speaker 1: there from the townhouse. Several witnesses saw Heidi at that
Speaker 1: game and interacted with her. Jim said that she seemed
Speaker 1: a little bit on edge when she left the game
Speaker 1: at halftime, which was around four thirty PM, but there
Speaker 1: was nothing that seemed extremely out of the ordinary until
Speaker 1: they were looking at these events in hindsight. It was
Speaker 1: Jim's weekend with Bond, so Jim and Bond went home
Speaker 1: after the game. Heidi and Jim got along well. Even
Speaker 1: though there had been some rocky moments in their divorce,
Speaker 1: they apparently had had a good co parenting relationship for
Speaker 1: several years. When Heidi left the game, she told her
Speaker 1: son that she would call him later, But even though
Speaker 1: Heidi always talked to her son every single day, she
Speaker 1: never called him. In fact, Bond never talked to his
Speaker 1: mother again because that day Heidi Plank vanished, and after
Speaker 1: she disappeared, it did not take long for rumors to
Speaker 1: start flying about her ex husband Jim, about her boss,
Speaker 1: Jason Sugarman, about her boss's links to big money and
Speaker 1: powerful people in Los Angeles. In fact, to me, when
Speaker 1: I first saw Heidi on the news and I about
Speaker 1: this case, it seemed like a real life version of
Speaker 1: the movie Chinatown. It's now been over two years since
Speaker 1: Heidi plant disappeared. There's been no sign of Heidi and
Speaker 1: no sign of her body. All we have are some
Speaker 1: rumors about an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: a devastated little boy without a mother. I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 1: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 1: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 1: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
Speaker 1: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
Speaker 1: eight seven four four six one four five. This is
Speaker 1: Helen Gone Murder Line. Heidi Plank was originally from New
Speaker 1: York State. She was born and raised in Buffalo. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, she moved to California and went
Speaker 1: to California State University. Before we dive into Heidie's work life,
Speaker 1: I want to follow the natural trajectory of the police
Speaker 1: investigation and take a look at her relationship with her
Speaker 1: ex husband, Jim, because, as we all know, in any investigation,
Speaker 1: and especially if there is a contentious divorce, police are
Speaker 1: always looking at x'es. I actually did an episode of
Speaker 1: another podcast called Blood Money, it's about white collar criminals
Speaker 1: and con artists who kill about this case back in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, so I want to take a look
Speaker 1: at what has changed since then. So of course police
Speaker 1: want to know about Heidie's relationship with her ex husband.
Speaker 1: Jim and Heidi seem to have a friendly relationship, but
Speaker 1: according to court records, they had had some issues over
Speaker 1: the years. Court filing show they had had a battle
Speaker 1: for custody in the past, and at one point Jim
Speaker 1: had full custody of their son, and Jim had accused
Speaker 1: Heidie of drug abuse. Jim also made some comments to
Speaker 1: the media after Heidi went missing about how they had
Speaker 1: what he called different parenting styles. He said something about
Speaker 1: how Heidi was more permissive than he was, which did
Speaker 1: lead a lot of people to wonder what was going
Speaker 1: on at home to make him say that. But in
Speaker 1: addition to Jim's movements all week and long being confirmed
Speaker 1: by police, everyone who was close to Heidi said that
Speaker 1: her relationship with Jim had been good for some time.
Speaker 1: The last text between Jim and Heidi were not contentious.
Speaker 1: They were warm. Heidi was thanking Jim for all that
Speaker 1: he did for their son. Jim told police that he
Speaker 1: and his son last heard from Heidi at around seven
Speaker 1: pm that night, October seventeenth. Heidi had responded to one
Speaker 1: of her son's texts about the football game. Heidie's son
Speaker 1: sent another text a little while later, talking about a
Speaker 1: play he made, but this time Heidi didn't respond. In fact,
Speaker 1: that was the last time that Heidie's son ever heard
Speaker 1: from her. Jim and his son were worried for the
Speaker 1: rest of the weekend, but Heidi was obviously an adult.
Speaker 1: She was single and dating and had her own life.
Speaker 1: Jim told reporters, though, that Heidi never failed to respond
Speaker 1: to her son, no matter what was going on in
Speaker 1: her personal life or how busy she was, she always
Speaker 1: made time for him. Actually looking at the court records
Speaker 1: that document the text messages that Heidie's son sent to
Speaker 1: her is heartbreaking. On October eighteenth, at seven thirty one pm,
Speaker 1: Heidi's son wrote in a text message, can you please
Speaker 1: call me back? I called you two days in a
Speaker 1: row and you haven't picked up. By Monday morning, Jim
Speaker 1: and his son still had not heard from Heidi. That afternoon,
Speaker 1: Heidie's son texted again, please call or just text me
Speaker 1: because I want to make sure you're okay and I'm
Speaker 1: worried about you. Then he sent another text that read,
Speaker 1: please call mom. I miss you and I'm worried about you.
Speaker 1: The next day, October twentieth, was the day when Heidi
Speaker 1: was supposed to pick her son up at school, but
Speaker 1: she never showed up. Jim reported Heidi missing. At some point,
Speaker 1: he went into Heidie's townhouse with a friend of hers.
Speaker 1: They found Heidi's work laptop there and her work phone.
Speaker 1: Jim took the laptop and the phone. Now he did
Speaker 1: turn over the laptop and phone to law enforcement, but
Speaker 1: apparently it took a few days. And at the time,
Speaker 1: a lot of people on online comment boards are of
Speaker 1: course asking if he's so worried about her, why would
Speaker 1: he wait. But Heidi was an adult, so she probably
Speaker 1: was not an immediate priority for the police. And of course,
Speaker 1: in every missing person's investigation, every single decision anyone makes
Speaker 1: is under a microscope. But in my opinion, and according
Speaker 1: to all evidence that has come out, Jim Wayne was
Speaker 1: totally believable, and Jim, to his credit, immediately went to
Speaker 1: the police. As we've said, Heidi was an adult. So
Speaker 1: if Jim had any reason to want to wait so
Speaker 1: the investigation would not start immediately, he probably could have,
Speaker 1: but that's not what he did. He went to her house,
Speaker 1: he told friends he was calling people. He immediately called
Speaker 1: the police. He insisted that they investigate, and he commented
Speaker 1: to the media. Police talked to Heidi's family. Her mom
Speaker 1: told them the same thing Jim had. Heidi had been
Speaker 1: behaving normally. She was planning a vacation to New York
Speaker 1: to visit her mom for Thanksgiving, so she was happy
Speaker 1: and she was making future plans. Police figured out no
Speaker 1: one had heard from Heidi at all since October seventeenth,
Speaker 1: so they started asking logically about Heidie's love life. Now,
Speaker 1: at that time, Heidi had been seeing someone who lived
Speaker 1: in northern California. He was a Silicon Valley executive who
Speaker 1: worked for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic arm of Facebook,
Speaker 1: which is now Meta. Police tracked down Haidie's boyfriend, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, was completely cooperative. He was verifiably somewhere
Speaker 1: else on the day when Hidi went missing, and he
Speaker 1: was cleared very quickly by law enforcement. But this man
Speaker 1: did tell the police something interesting. He said that Heidi
Speaker 1: had sent him a text asking him to come down
Speaker 1: to LA because she said she was afraid of something.
Speaker 1: But this guy was unable to make the trip, so
Speaker 1: actually he told police at first, after Heidie disappeared, he
Speaker 1: thought that maybe she was annoyed with him for not
Speaker 1: coming to LA, so maybe she was ghosting him. So
Speaker 1: now the police kind of hit a dead end because
Speaker 1: if this wasn't an X, then it wasn't a current.
Speaker 1: Really relationship. Who else would have a motive to want
Speaker 1: to hurt Heidi. Meanwhile, Jim Wayne, Heidie's ex husband, was
Speaker 1: playing detective and tracking down his own leads. He got
Speaker 1: the ven number for Heidie's Range Rover, but according to
Speaker 1: court documents, her location services wasn't on. He tried to
Speaker 1: find my phone feature on iPhone and Apple Watch, but
Speaker 1: those had also been turned off. At this point, Jim
Speaker 1: told the media he was starting to suspect this could
Speaker 1: be something that was planned. He believed this was not
Speaker 1: a random disappearance, and he mentioned the legal troubles that
Speaker 1: Heidie's boss, Jason Sugarman, had been having. Then there was
Speaker 1: another big break in the case. Jim checked the text
Speaker 1: messages on Heidie's phone, the one he had access to,
Speaker 1: and he found messages from a couple who lived in
Speaker 1: a luxury building in downtown LA and this couple said
Speaker 1: that they had Heidie's dog. The people who found seven
Speaker 1: lived in the Hope Flower Building in downtown Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: located at twelve oh one South Hope Street. We'll get
Speaker 1: into the history of the building in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but basically it's one of these luxury downtown high rises
Speaker 1: that have sprung up over the last couple decades in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. It bills itself as a luxury high rise
Speaker 1: with rooftop views and a lot of amenities. But a
Speaker 1: lot of residents have complained over the years that the
Speaker 1: developers have neglected this building, that there's trash in the hallways,
Speaker 1: dog poop everywhere, and management that is unresponsive. And I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about just a couple of complaints. If you
Speaker 1: look at yelper views, there are hundreds of complaints on
Speaker 1: there from current and former tenants. So there's something strange
Speaker 1: going on in that building in my opinion. But getting
Speaker 1: back to Heidi, this couple said that around seven pm
Speaker 1: on the evening of October seventeenth. Now remember this was
Speaker 1: just a few hours after the game, and right after
Speaker 1: Bond got that last text from Heidie's phone, they said
Speaker 1: they found the dog seven roaming the hallway of that building.
Speaker 1: Some reports said that the dog was on the twenty
Speaker 1: ninth floor, others said the twenty eighth, but whichever it was,
Speaker 1: Heidi was not with seven. Jim went to pick up
Speaker 1: seven and brought him home. And since I know that
Speaker 1: people will ask, and I'm also an animal lover, I
Speaker 1: will tell you all right now, the dog is absolutely
Speaker 1: fine and apparently doing well. So what was Heidi doing
Speaker 1: at the Hope and Flower Building. Jim and her friends
Speaker 1: said they weren't aware of anyone she knew in that
Speaker 1: building or any connection she had there, And even stranger
Speaker 1: than that, why would she leave her dog who went
Speaker 1: everywhere with her roaming the hallways. According to news reports,
Speaker 1: the building management Omni Property were kind of uncooperative at first,
Speaker 1: but police got a search warrant and after that, Heidie's
Speaker 1: friends and family said the building did give them the
Speaker 1: access they needed and became more helpful. Meanwhile, some of
Speaker 1: them were wondering if the thing that Heidi had been
Speaker 1: afraid of could have been connected to her job and
Speaker 1: her boss, forty eight year old Jason Sugarman. According to
Speaker 1: Heidi's LinkedIn page, she worked for Coldwell Banker between two
Speaker 1: thousand and five and twenty fifteen, then Douglas Element, so
Speaker 1: she was working in real estate before she moved on
Speaker 1: to her job at a company called Camden Capital Partners.
Speaker 1: This was Jason Sugarman's company, and it's a company that
Speaker 1: is described as quote an investment advisory firm that handles
Speaker 1: wealth management and legacy planning for prominent high net worth individuals.
Speaker 1: End quote. This could be completely legitimate. There are lots
Speaker 1: of firms like this, but it's also very vague, and
Speaker 1: Jason Sugarman would soon show up in more headlines. Jason
Speaker 1: Sugarman is connected to a lot of people in power.
Speaker 1: His father in law is Peter Gruber, the owner of
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, and Jason was facing some serious legal issues,
Speaker 1: including federal fraud charges. He was under investigation by the
Speaker 1: Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the indictment, starting in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, Jason and his business partner Jason Galanis, stole
Speaker 1: forty three million dollars from pension funds of a Native
Speaker 1: American tribe of the Sioux Nation. These guys, who were
Speaker 1: known in the press as the two Jasons, were apparently
Speaker 1: trying to acquire this global financial conglomerate made up of
Speaker 1: insurers in Europe and Bermuda, as well as some investment
Speaker 1: advisors based in the United States. In twenty fourteen, Jason
Speaker 1: Galanas and his father, John Galanis obtained tribal bonds. They
Speaker 1: convinced the tribe they would sell them and use the
Speaker 1: proceeds to invest in the tribe, but instead, according to
Speaker 1: the authorities, they didn't. They just basically straight up stole
Speaker 1: the money. And what's worse, this was not some kind
Speaker 1: of Bernie made off type of scenario that started out
Speaker 1: as a legitimate investment. According to the sec these guys
Speaker 1: knew they were planning to steal right from the beginning.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a long and complicated story with
Speaker 1: this money. But to sum it up, Jason Galanas and
Speaker 1: Jason Sugarman were accused of stealing millions of dollars from
Speaker 1: the Native American Trie Tribal Corporation and from these companies
Speaker 1: they acquired. In January of twenty seventeen, Jason Galanis pled
Speaker 1: guilty to criminal charges in connections with his fraud. He
Speaker 1: was sentenced to one hundred and seventy three months in
Speaker 1: jail the indictment read quote. Sugarman benefited immensely from the scheme. Indeed,
Speaker 1: to a large extent, he was the biggest winner from
Speaker 1: the fraud, ending up with voting control over corporate assets
Speaker 1: that were acquired with bond proceeds and from which he
Speaker 1: ultimately siphoned almost nine million dollars in cash for his
Speaker 1: direct and personal benefit end quote. So we know Jason
Speaker 1: Sugarman was accused of financial fraud. We also know that
Speaker 1: he has powerful friends, including Hunter Biden. He even has
Speaker 1: ties to Hunter Biden's now notorious Laptop of shame because
Speaker 1: emails from that laptop, in addition to photos of Hunter
Speaker 1: smoking crack and sex workers, reportedly showed that Jason was
Speaker 1: a director and shareholder of a company called Burnham Financial Group.
Speaker 1: If this name sounds familiar, that's because it's the same
Speaker 1: group that allegedly pitched a major deal to Hunter's Chinese
Speaker 1: business partners back in twenty fifteen. And one of Jason
Speaker 1: Sugarman's partners who was also mentioned in that SEC indictment
Speaker 1: is Devon Archer, the longtime friend and business partner of
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden. Devon Archer, by the way, was convicted for
Speaker 1: his involvement in that same tribal scam in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden's lawyer, by the way, has totally denied all this.
Speaker 1: He said Hunter's client had nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: Native American bond scheme and that the timing was just
Speaker 1: a coincidence. According to the Sun newspaper, the lawyer said
Speaker 1: Hunter's name had been used without his permission and that
Speaker 1: he had taken steps to ensure that his business interests
Speaker 1: were not associated with the defendants in the tribal bond case.
Speaker 1: So what does all this have to do with Heidi Plank?
Speaker 1: A woman who, by the way, had no background in
Speaker 1: finance when she started working for Jason Sugarman's company. She
Speaker 1: was the bookkeeper for that company. And then there's what
Speaker 1: happened next Next. Jim Wayne said that on October twenty first,
Speaker 1: right after Hiding went missing, he got a phone call
Speaker 1: from someone at the SEC asking questions about Jason Sugarman.
Speaker 1: And then it got even more bizarre. Because CBS Los
Speaker 1: Angeles was following the story of Heidi Plank, they were
Speaker 1: somehow able to acquire some surveillance video that had been
Speaker 1: taken outside Heidie's house. There's video of Jason Sugarman, after
Speaker 1: Hiding went missing, ringing her doorbell and then leaving muffins
Speaker 1: on the doorstep. The news station says this video is
Speaker 1: from a day or two after Hiding went missing. They
Speaker 1: weren't more specific than that. But if you look at
Speaker 1: this footage, it's odd because Jason walks up to the
Speaker 1: door rings, the bell just once and then kind of
Speaker 1: seems to PLoP the muffins down and then he's out
Speaker 1: of there. He doesn't hesitate, he doesn't try to look inside.
Speaker 1: So now I'm wondering, was he really expressing concern or
Speaker 1: was he trying to make it look like he was
Speaker 1: expressing concern and looking for Heidi. Was he going through
Speaker 1: the motions so that he would appear on camera, or
Speaker 1: was Heidie's disappearance totally unconnected to him? But perhaps he
Speaker 1: wanted to see if someone was there who would give
Speaker 1: him that work laptop, which remember, was inside her house.
Speaker 1: What did the SEC want to talk to Heidi about?
Speaker 1: Heidi obviously is not here, so it's only speculation, but
Speaker 1: she reportedly told friends and family that the company had
Speaker 1: some tax filings that were due. She had complained that
Speaker 1: her boss, presumably meaning Jason Sugarman, had her name on
Speaker 1: so much of their corporate paperwork. Now, if this is true,
Speaker 1: it's a major flag for fraud investigators. In fact, this
Speaker 1: case seems to have a lot of red flags for
Speaker 1: potential fraud investigators, including the fact that Heidi was the
Speaker 1: person being asked to sign off on these complex transactions.
Speaker 1: Jim Wayne told the media that after Hiding went missing,
Speaker 1: he called her office. He said that Jason didn't seem
Speaker 1: like he was worried about Heidi or what happened to
Speaker 1: her at all, but he did say Jason Sugarman was
Speaker 1: very worried about that work laptop. Remember this was the
Speaker 1: work laptop that had been inside Heidie's house. Jim had
Speaker 1: taken it out of there and later handed it over
Speaker 1: to police. Jim Wayne told the Daily Mail, quote, while
Speaker 1: I was on the phone with his assistant, I heard
Speaker 1: Sugarman in the background barking at his assistant to tell
Speaker 1: me make sure he knows I want my laptop. There
Speaker 1: was no concern at all from my ex wife's employer.
Speaker 1: It's a multimillion dollar company. They didn't offer to hire
Speaker 1: a private investigator or put up a reward. The only
Speaker 1: thing they really seemed concerned about was Heidie's computer end quote. Again,
Speaker 1: Heidie's job was financial controller for Camden Capital Partners, which
Speaker 1: reportedly gave her a salary of one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a year and bonuses, and Jim made
Speaker 1: a comment he said she always had spare cash lying around.
Speaker 1: Jim Wayne said that someone at Jason Sugarman's office had
Speaker 1: told him they believed that Heidi was quote siphoning off
Speaker 1: money from the company end quote. So, according to Jim Wayne,
Speaker 1: someone at Jason Sugarman's office was allegedly implying that Heidi
Speaker 1: might have embezzled funds. But when Jim talked to The
Speaker 1: Daily Mail, he said he did not believe Heidi was
Speaker 1: to blame at all, and he said if there was
Speaker 1: any wrongdoing, it was from someone at that office, not her.
Speaker 1: Jim said, quote, Heidi knows all of Jason's and the
Speaker 1: company's secrets. She knows where the bones are buried. This
Speaker 1: whole thing just stinks. Something just isn't right, and I
Speaker 1: can't put my finger on it. End quote. After Hiding
Speaker 1: went missing, Jim filed a petition for temporary emergency custody
Speaker 1: of their son, and these court papers, in my mind,
Speaker 1: provide further evidence that there was no motive for Jim
Speaker 1: to do anything to Heidie, because, according to the court documents,
Speaker 1: Jim and Heidi shared custody of their son, and Jim
Speaker 1: did not pay Heidi any alimony or child support. He
Speaker 1: had paid her a lump sum in twenty twelve and
Speaker 1: nothing since then. So the bottom line is Jim Wayne
Speaker 1: had no obvious financial motive to do anything to Heidi.
Speaker 1: In fact, if he did do something to her, it
Speaker 1: would ensure that he would never get the support that
Speaker 1: he was asking for. Some people had suggested that Heidi
Speaker 1: might have disappeared voluntarily, and we do have to look
Speaker 1: at that possibility. According to court documents, in the past,
Speaker 1: Jim had alleged Heidi had some mental health issues. He
Speaker 1: said that she was addicted to adderall and had some
Speaker 1: kind of breakdown. In twenty fifteen, Jim talked to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles magazine about what happened that day. He said that
Speaker 1: Heidi had begun acting strangely while they were driving back
Speaker 1: to her house, that their son had been in the car,
Speaker 1: and that after they got back to his place, Heidi
Speaker 1: freaked out, trash Bond's room and crawled out a window.
Speaker 1: Then he said, she started running through the neighborhood. Police
Speaker 1: were called, and when they got there, they found Heidy
Speaker 1: switching an electrical circuit breaker on and off. It seemed
Speaker 1: like reading through these court papers, Heidi it had some
Speaker 1: kind of a break with reality. According to court records,
Speaker 1: Heidi agreed to check herself voluntarily into a psychiatric hospital.
Speaker 1: But after that incident, Heidi got better. She got a job.
Speaker 1: She started working for Camden Capital Partners, first as an
Speaker 1: assistant and then by twenty seventeen, is the financial controller.
Speaker 1: After the initial flurry of media activity, the case got
Speaker 1: pretty quiet for a couple of months. Then on November fourth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, police announced they had found Heidi's Range
Speaker 1: Rover in the parking lot of a residential building that
Speaker 1: was a few blocks away from the Hope and Flower
Speaker 1: building where seven was found. And after that police announced
Speaker 1: another break they had more video footage of Heidi, footage
Speaker 1: that had been taken on that same day. On October seventeenth,
Speaker 1: at around six thirty pm, hours after she left her
Speaker 1: son's game, she was in downtown La walking in an
Speaker 1: alley between eleventh and twelve Streets. This is the little
Speaker 1: alleyway that runs behind the Hope and Flower building where
Speaker 1: the dog was found. She appeared to be wearing the
Speaker 1: same clothes and the sweater that she had been wearing earlier.
Speaker 1: She was wearing thisweater she had had tied around her waist.
Speaker 1: One of her friends told a local news station KTLA
Speaker 1: that Heidi looked like she was taking her dog for
Speaker 1: a quick walk. Now, there were some people out there
Speaker 1: who said that Heidie's hair looked darker, like she was
Speaker 1: wearing a wig. But I've looked at this footage and
Speaker 1: to me, that appears to be just a late afternoon lighting.
Speaker 1: It clearly looks like Heidi. She's wearing the same clothes
Speaker 1: she was wearing that morning, and her dog is walking
Speaker 1: with her. Heidie's friends told local news stations that this
Speaker 1: was a major break in the case because if the
Speaker 1: couple's timeline was correct and they had found the dog
Speaker 1: roaming the halls at around seven pm, that narrowed down
Speaker 1: the window of time when Heidi went missing to around
Speaker 1: half an hour or so. In the surveillance video from
Speaker 1: the alley, Heidie was wearing the same sweaters she had
Speaker 1: tied around her waist earlier, so she probably went there
Speaker 1: right after she left the game. Also, people who watched
Speaker 1: the video pointed out you could see Heidie's purse, and
Speaker 1: by the way, this was at the height of COVID,
Speaker 1: she seemed to have a mask in one hand, which
Speaker 1: meant that she was probably visiting someone in that building,
Speaker 1: so it seemed like she either parked her car, took
Speaker 1: her purse out, and was on her way up to
Speaker 1: the building, or it's also possible she had been visiting
Speaker 1: someone in the building, already left her purse in the apartment,
Speaker 1: and ducked out for a quick dog walk. And again,
Speaker 1: none of Heidie's friends or family had any idea who
Speaker 1: lived in that building, who Heidie might have been going
Speaker 1: to see, or what she was doing there. But another
Speaker 1: one of Heide's friends told reporters they had talked to
Speaker 1: building staff and apparently they recognized Heidi and her dog.
Speaker 1: Seven Attention focused more and more on the Hope and
Speaker 1: Flower Building, the last place where Heidi was seen alive.
Speaker 1: As I said before, this, Hope and Flower Building was
Speaker 1: very controversial if you look at the yelperviews the residence.
Speaker 1: Claim that there has been theft, drug use, dogs defecating
Speaker 1: on their terraces, piles of trash in the hallway. They
Speaker 1: claimed that their secured parking spaces are constantly vandalized and
Speaker 1: broken into. After Haidi disappeared, I got several messages from
Speaker 1: people who were friends of hers. I also went to
Speaker 1: a prayer vigil for Heidi that was held at the
Speaker 1: Hope and Flower Building. I met some of the residents there,
Speaker 1: and later some of the former residents contacted me and
Speaker 1: talked to me about the LAPD investigation. They told me
Speaker 1: that the police had been in that building, that there
Speaker 1: had been a foul stench coming from the trash chute.
Speaker 1: They had heard a rumor that a bloody mattress or
Speaker 1: possibly even a body had been taken from the building.
Speaker 1: Then the news broke. The LAPD was searching Shaquita Canyon landfill,
Speaker 1: which was about forty miles away, the same landfill where
Speaker 1: the Hope in Flower Buildings trash was dumped. The police
Speaker 1: has not revealed much about what they have found inside
Speaker 1: the Hope and Flower building, but on their website they
Speaker 1: did state that quote, forensic evidence was located inside the building,
Speaker 1: which has led detectives to believe an incident occurred resulting
Speaker 1: in Plank's death end quote. The LAPD stated that they
Speaker 1: believed something bad did happen to Heidi and that they
Speaker 1: believe that it happened to her at that downtown building,
Speaker 1: and they said they believed that Heidi Plank was dead,
Speaker 1: but they didn't give any more specifics. They didn't talk
Speaker 1: about what the evidence was. They haven't asked the public
Speaker 1: for information, so really it's been kind of a black hole.
Speaker 1: In December of twenty twenty three, over two years after
Speaker 1: she went missing, Heidi Plank was officially declared dead. A
Speaker 1: judge ruled she had died at around nine pm on
Speaker 1: the night she disappeared on October seventeenth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: There have been a few theories put forward by people
Speaker 1: commenting online by armchair detectives. One theory was that Heidi
Speaker 1: maybe was in trouble, maybe she did something at work,
Speaker 1: maybe she knew too much and something led her to
Speaker 1: voluntarily go missing. I'm not buying that theory. First of all,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any way that this woman would
Speaker 1: have left her son with no explanation. And secondly, other
Speaker 1: than her son, she loved her dog more than anything
Speaker 1: in the world, and I don't believe she would have
Speaker 1: just dumped her dog at this building. And of course,
Speaker 1: anytime you do have someone with a background of mental
Speaker 1: health issues or potential substance abuse, you have to ask
Speaker 1: could that have happened again? Again, I think that that's
Speaker 1: very unlikely, mainly because she was acting normally. This woman's employed,
Speaker 1: she had a good relationship with her friends and family,
Speaker 1: and she had a son who she called every day.
Speaker 1: Or some other rumors going around, including one by an
Speaker 1: amateur detective who posted on YouTube. She said she had
Speaker 1: talked to people in the Hope and Flower building. She
Speaker 1: told the Sun newspaper that she heard Heidi went to
Speaker 1: a party there on the night she disappeared that she
Speaker 1: had gotten adderall from a man she was dating, and
Speaker 1: then apparently overdosed, possibly because the drugs were laced with fentanyl. Then,
Speaker 1: according to this person, the people in the apartment panicked
Speaker 1: and Haidie's body was thrown down the garbage chute. But
Speaker 1: I have to say there was absolutely no evidence that
Speaker 1: these rumors were true, and honestly, not all parts of
Speaker 1: this story make sense. For example, Heidi didn't look like
Speaker 1: she was dressed to party. She looked like she was
Speaker 1: out on an errand when she was seen on the
Speaker 1: camera with the dog, it was early evening, six thirty
Speaker 1: or seven pm. And finally, if there was a whole
Speaker 1: party full of people as this person described, it seems
Speaker 1: really hard for me to imagine that no one from
Speaker 1: the party talk. The whole thing got completely covered up,
Speaker 1: and that they threw a body down the trash chute
Speaker 1: without it being found. But I do have a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about that building and about the people on
Speaker 1: the penthouse floor. Jim Wayne has said he was told
Speaker 1: by police that up to five people know what happened
Speaker 1: to Heidi, But which five people? Five people in the
Speaker 1: apartment building, And if that's true, again, it's very hard
Speaker 1: for me to imagine a world where there was not
Speaker 1: surveillance footage showing those people, even though it was COVID
Speaker 1: and a lot of places were probably being rented off
Speaker 1: the books. Surely they must be able to get the
Speaker 1: names of the people who were in the apartment on
Speaker 1: that day. The whole thing is very bizarre, and I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever actually seen a case where a
Speaker 1: dog was found in a location that was completely foreign
Speaker 1: to everywhere in the victim's life, and there's no trace
Speaker 1: of the victim. Jason Sugarman kind of disappeared from public
Speaker 1: view after Hiding went missing, and I'm going to say
Speaker 1: again he has not been charged with anything or any
Speaker 1: sort of wrongdoing in connection with her disappearance. On January tenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, the United States District Court for the
Speaker 1: Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against
Speaker 1: Jason Suggermant. Jason was ordered to pay over ten point
Speaker 1: two million dollars in connection to the scheme to defraud
Speaker 1: pension funds. Devin Archer was sentenced to a year and
Speaker 1: a day in prison. He appealed and he is still
Speaker 1: out on bail. In January twenty twenty four, a judge
Speaker 1: denied his appeal, so his case is continuing to work
Speaker 1: its way through the court system. Bond and seven are
Speaker 1: living with Jim Wayne. Jim told Los Angeles magazine six
Speaker 1: months after Heidi disappeared, quote, our son wants to know
Speaker 1: what happened to his mother. I want to know what
Speaker 1: happened to Heidi. I still think her boss has something
Speaker 1: to do with this, in one way or another. End quote.
Speaker 1: There was another update story done in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: near the two year anniversary of her disappearance. Heidie's family
Speaker 1: posted a bill of her in Los Angeles. Right now
Speaker 1: they hope that someone will come forward. The family is
Speaker 1: created an email address Heidi Plank H E I D
Speaker 1: I P L A n C K at ProtonMail dot com.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Police Department is asked anyone with information
Speaker 1: call the Missing Persons Unit at two one three nine
Speaker 1: nine six one eight zero zero. I'm Katherine Townsend. This
Speaker 1: is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is
Speaker 1: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's
Speaker 1: written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by
Speaker 1: Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance.
Speaker 1: Music contributed by Ben Solee. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
Speaker 1: Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley. If you have a
Speaker 1: case you'd like me and my team to look into,
Speaker 1: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
Speaker 1: Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six
Speaker 1: one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four
Speaker 1: six one four five. School of Humans