WEBVTT - If I Go Missing - Talina Zar E5 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.760 We are not a family that is all up in 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:05.160 each other's business. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:06.400 We never have been. 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:11.000 We are very close without having the need to talk 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.120 or even see each other on a regular basis. It's 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.959 like I live my life, she lived her life, My 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.080 brother lives his life. 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.320 It hasn't been easy to get people in Telena's life 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.160 to speak to me on the record. It's clear she 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.560 was well loved, and you've heard from some of her 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.000 friends already. I've reached out to many more and to 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.800 her family, but for whatever reason, most have been apprehensive 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.960 to participate. I was able to talk to Telina's sister, 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.000 Cheryl Jones. She called me back the day she received 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.879 my letter. She said she was relieved to have the 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.680 chance to talk about her sister. She refers to Telena 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:53.440 as Jenna, her birth name. 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.600 My sister kept a part of her life private from 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:05.360 the family. Tolena, I believe comes from that secret part 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.160 of her life. The secret part that we all knew 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.800 was the secret part. We just didn't know the details 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:11.520 of the secret. 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.959 As you may recall, Telena was part of the Gorrian community, 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.640 a niche group of BDSM followers who live by the 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:23.520 strict social structure outlined in the Gore Books, a sci 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.880 fi series where men of the dominant gender and women 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.600 are naturally subservient. For the better part of a decade, 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.720 Tealina lived as a twenty four to seventh slave to 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:38.560 her husband Tom or Master Csarius, doing whatever and acting 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.679 however he wished in the bedroom and outside of it. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.280 Gore was a world of slaves and beautiful women of 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.559 human domination by the alien secret priest kings. 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:55.080 Did you have any sense of what the Sacred life 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:56.120 was about, like? 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.320 Did you get the sense that it was like sex relating? 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.760 Yes, we kind of got it that it was something 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:04.680 along that line. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:05.120 Yes. 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.680 Tolena was active online and her nieces were too. They 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.240 saw the types of things she posted, the term she used, 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.280 and eventually worked out that Tolena was part of the 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.920 BDSM community and that that identity was very important to her. 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.160 We figured it out through clues amongst us. 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.960 We didn't talk to her about it, and when I 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:29.840 say if, I mean me and my mom and my 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.680 three daughters, we. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.080 Had figured out that that was the secret life. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.600 One day, Cheryl heard her sister Jenna refer to herself 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:40.520 as Toelena. 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:46.080 When I first hear think Tolena. I'm like Colna, And 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:47.680 I finally got up enough nerve to. 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.079 Just flat out ask her, you. 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.000 Know, where did Helena come from? But how did you 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:58.720 come about choosing that? And she was very evasive about it. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.000 And it was also the world of Telena, the tempestuous 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.720 daughter of Bor's great warlord. She waited for the man 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.600 who could subdue her, the man who would be her master. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.200 When Cheryl learned that Teleina legally changed her name, she 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.239 was surprised to find out that she kept Jenna as 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:20.079 her middle name. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:25.079 To me, it spoke of the acknowledgment that she had 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:30.359 chewed different identities. She still identified that Jenna because Jenna 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:31.280 was her. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.040 Identity to family and then the Telena. 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.760 I think that was probably the first time I kind 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.560 of really felt that the duality and her embrace of 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:42.320 the duality. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.640 We all have duality in our lives, present different versions 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.880 of ourselves in different contexts. On Instagram, the image we 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.040 portray might be a lot shinier than reality. The voice 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.960 we adopt on a work call might be more optimistic 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.200 or confident we really feel. But what happens when the 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.640 line between our different selves becomes sharper severing the two 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.840 worlds when the people in one part of your life 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.040 can't protect you from the other. 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:15.920 We thought we were respecting her privacy. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:18.640 She said she wanted this to be a private part 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.640 of her life, and we accepted that because that's the 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.120 kind of family we are that. I have to wonder 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.760 did she ultimately maybe feel a little alienated because of 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.040 that too. I think that's why she kept it from us. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.920 She thought that maybe we wouldn't love her or accept her. Maybe, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.160 And the thing was, it wouldn't have changed it at all. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:55.000 From iHeart Podcasts, I'm Melissa Jelson, and this is what 0:04:55.120 --> 0:05:00.680 happened to Tealinazar. I just took it to me that 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.520 if she passed away from COVID, she was at peace 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.159 with it because she would be with Tom. 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.520 How well did I adapt to being property? Well, that 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.600 depends on whether you ask me or Master, Lol. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.760 We both kind of a trust. You become really vulnerable 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:19.040 with me, he cry. 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.200 Just because they're missing doesn't mean anything. Was the fairies? 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.839 So all of us wear masks? Right? 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.600 Episode five? If I go missing. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:38.039 My birthday is November the fourth, and her birthday is 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.720 November the third. She was born one day before I 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.600 was one years old, so we were raised. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.520 A lot like almost like twin. 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.880 Tealina's sister, Cheryl, is now a fifty eight year old 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:54.600 nurse who lives in Pennsylvania. 0:05:55.800 --> 0:06:00.560 We grew up in Blimmington, Indiana, and then when I 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.360 was twelve, where she would have been eleven, my dad 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.960 was transferred to a place called Washington, Indiana. My parents 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.080 joined a Pentecostal church, and that's the way we were raised. 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.599 It was strict. You know, we didn't have TV in 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.360 our home growing up. He went to church and. 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:20.600 You went to Sunday school and those kinds of things. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.839 Cheryl remembers to Lena as a shy kid, someone she 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:26.240 felt she had to stand up for. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.240 I remember getting in fight. 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.440 Growing up because somebody would pick on her if they 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.120 called her a name. I would have to be the 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.440 one to go and kind of shove them around when 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.479 we were kids. And then the funny thing was when 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.159 we got older as we grew up. 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.960 I am only five foot tall and she was five. 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.719 At ten, he ended up being much colored than me. 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.919 But I was a big sister when we were really young, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.080 even though there's only a year was in our personalities. 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:03.760 Somehow she seemed to be. 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.200 A little more free spirited, whereas I was always like 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.360 very cask oriented and goal oriented, that kind of thing. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.480 As kids, Cheryl and Teleina were inseparable. As adults, their 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.679 lives moved in different directions. Cheryl went to nursing school, 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.200 got married, and had four children before getting a divorce 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:29.040 and moving to Pennsylvania. Talina stayed in Indiana wandered a 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.440 bit to find her way. She joined the National Guard, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.760 then got into computer programming. Like her sister, she also 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.880 got married and divorced at a young age to a 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:44.680 man named Russell Lovic, but she never had any kids. Instead, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.480 Talina played the auntie role with glee. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.480 I had four kids and so many would be tight es. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.440 Firstly, run Christmas con and you know, she always made 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.560 sure my kids had Christmas. 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.000 That was one of her deals. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:06.560 She would bring a whole van full of presence, you know, 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.360 and that was a good relief to us. 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.280 Cheryl's kids loved to come visit Aunt Jana, where they 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:13.440 were often spoiled. 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.360 Navid spend weeks at her house and they always did 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.360 fun things. She'd take them one at a time, but 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.720 everyone got a turn to go and spend a couple 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.760 of weeks with Aunt Jana and do all of the 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.280 fun things that Aunt Jana could. 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:32.520 Talina's close relationship with her three nieces, Cherie, Chantal, and 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:37.040 Chelsea continued into their adulthoods. The girls all settled in 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.440 the Indianapolis area, close to Teleina and most of their 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:45.080 extended family. Even after Teleina moved to Oklahoma, she made 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:46.599 a point to visit frequently. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:52.760 Jana came through Indiana every two three four months, three 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:53.560 four times a year. 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.360 By twenty twenty, Cheryl and Telena had fallen out of touch, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.440 and so when her little sister goes missing, she hasn't 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.480 spoken to her in almost three years, but her daughters 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:11.120 are in regular contact with Tealina. Teleina was especially close 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.680 with Chantal, Cheryl's middle daughter. They both had office jobs 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.200 and so it was common for them to send messages 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.240 back and forth throughout the workday. In late March, during 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.440 the start of the COVID lockdown, Talina and Chantal are 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:26.520 chatting like usual. 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.679 It just happened that her and Chantelle, my middle daughter, 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.200 have been communicating throughout the day on Facebook, which is 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:36.440 something they often did. 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:40.800 Then Telena messages Chantal that she has to go. She's 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:42.559 tired and has a headache. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.839 She was going to lay down for a while and 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:50.760 said that she would chat with her later. The next 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.040 day she's not online, and then the next day she's 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.600 not online, and then the next day she's not online, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.040 and so then she began to try to didn't get 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.480 an answer, did get an answer, She didn't contact Scherie, 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:12.079 the oldest one, and she's telling SCHERI, I think something's 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:12.680 wrong here. 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:19.160 Then on April seventh, Chantal sees Telena's Facebook post I'll. 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.520 Catch up with everyone on the other side now. 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.280 When they decided that they needed to tell the family 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:25.679 that something was going. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.400 On, Chantale tells her mom, there's no way Telena wrote 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.679 the post. She thinks someone else must have. 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.800 Well, what makes you think it's not Dianna? 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.400 She said, this was sloppy, not at all, not at 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.240 all like anything Janna would have written or the way 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:44.080 she'd have written it. 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:45.679 She was alarmed immediately. 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.000 Once the whole family is in the loop about Telena's disappearance, 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.480 they start comparing notes trying to work out the last 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.000 time anyone had any real contact with her. The date 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.439 they come up with is March twenty seventh, that's the 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.640 day chantal was last Facebook messaging with her aunt. 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:10.840 And now we're up to near two weeks later. My 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.440 immediate gut response was this is not good. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.280 I just knew this was not good. 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.439 Of all the crazy things my sister would do and 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:28.640 flighty things and air brain things she might do, just 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:30.800 totally dropping off the face of the earth, he is 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.520 not one of them. 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.360 A few days later, the Wagner County Sheriff's Department calls 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.439 to Lena's family and speaks to her mother and brother. 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.240 I did it, being probably close to two hour talk 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.560 with the both of them, and it was the questions 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.120 that she would normally expect. Is there any place you 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.040 can think of she might have gone, Are there any 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:54.480 friends somewhere that she. 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:58.400 Might have gone to visit? What would she normally do? 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.000 And of course wended you laugh talk career. 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.880 Tealina's family, who are spread out across multiple states, face 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.640 a difficult question. Should they go to Wagner, Oklahoma to 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:15.880 look for Tealina themselves in the middle of COVID lockdowns? 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.079 You know, so we had to wrestle around, well do 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.800 we stay here and wage did somebody go out there? 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.400 That was really hard and we were torn about it. 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.160 Even if they went, they didn't know where to start looking. 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.720 Talina had kept so much of her life their secret. 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.520 She made it clear her life with these group of 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:41.400 friends were her and Tom's private matter. And that's what 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.440 made it so difficult, because we don't know this part 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.720 of her life. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.520 Cheryl and her family knew of only one person in 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.120 Wagner that Talina had ever mentioned. 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.960 She talked about Mario Pine. She had one hundred pictures 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.960 of Marthy and her food. They were the best friends. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:01.240 Day were so close. 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.560 But the last time they'd seen Teleina she told them 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.280 that Marty was out of the picture. 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.240 And she says, Marty and I are not friends and 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:11.400 I don't want to talk about it. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:12.680 And like, oh, we've heard. 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.200 About this Marty for freaking last five years, and all 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:20.000 of a sudden, boom, Marty's gone. No explanation, No, this 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.960 is what happened. Marty's gone. 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.880 I was questioning him as early as beginning of May. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.959 This is Jess, our internet sleuth in Minnesota. A few 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:36.480 weeks into her own investigation. She's also discovering that Telena 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.480 and Marty's relationship may not have been exactly how he 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:44.319 described it, and she's beginning to suspect that he's been 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:49.319 lying to her, which is tough because they've become very close, 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:50.559 very fast. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.800 I probably spent six plus hours a day on FaceTime 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.880 or the phone with him or texting about what we knew, theories, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.000 who we'd talked to. We talked about a lot of stuff. 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.480 I mean, some of our conversations weren't even about Telena. 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:08.520 They were about life. Like we had conversations about when 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.560 his mom was murdered. His mom was murdered in front 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.719 of him, and he got really vulnerable with me. And sometimes, 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.760 like trauma, bonding is a thing. Talking about stuff like 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:19.720 that with somebody, you get close really quick. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.080 When Marty talks about his relationship with Telena, he makes 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.560 it seem as though they were extremely close, the best 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:32.560 of friends. But Jess is learning new information that introduces 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:37.400 some ambiguity into the picture. For one, she finds out 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:41.560 from another friend of Tolena's that Marty had allegedly stolen 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.520 from Telena a few months before her disappearance. 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:50.320 I'd heard from Rachel that in December, Marty had stolen 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.200 from Telena. Telena didn't exactly tell her what kind of 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.960 theft it was, but she had told Rachel that Marty 0:14:58.080 --> 0:14:59.600 was no longer welcome in her home. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.920 Jess also suspects that Telena had been helping Marty out 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.240 financially for a while. 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:08.440 My thoughts at the time were that he was taking 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.040 advantage of Telena monetarily wise, because there was at one 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.560 point where he said, I missed my Teleina wife. You know, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.480 if I went over there and I was upset, she 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.080 would slip some money into my pocket and make things better. 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.200 So I mean that sat with me kind of funny, 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.160 like she was financially supporting them, and there was a 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.040 bunch of stuff that he said she would help him, 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.600 quote unquote help him with. Where I think his idea 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.520 was help was her fully funding it. 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:34.240 As Marty explains to Jess, he suffers from chronic pain 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.720 and addiction has had a hard time holding down a job. 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.280 On one of their calls, Marty even goes so far 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.440 as to ask Jess for some money for his pain medication. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.600 But that's a line Jess isn't willing to cross. According 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.440 to Jess, Marty said Telena would sometimes pay his phone 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.440 and water bills, even chip in for his meds. 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.280 He needed painkillers, and she felt for him because she 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.360 was kind of a bleeding heart with people, and probably 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.200 gave him the money to help him alleviate some of 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:07.000 his pain. And he was in treatment several times for 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.120 illegal drugs dependency of them. 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.640 Things were messy between Marty and Telena. But when I 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:19.200 asked Jess about Marty and Tellina's friendship ending abruptly just 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.800 before her disappearance, Jess didn't think it was that black 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.880 and white. As far as she could tell, the two 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:27.800 had been communicating regularly. 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.320 I don't know if she was willing to forgive him 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.600 for whatever it happened, or maybe he had paid her back. 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.320 The relationship was strained, but I don't know if she 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:37.120 was willing to forgive or she was so used to 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.040 that master slave relationship that they had all enjoyed. I 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:43.920 can't speak to her feelings. I never actually talked to 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.680 Tulina and Marty. I don't feel as a reliable source anymore. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:52.160 By the pandemic's start, it looks as though Corey, not Marty, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:57.440 had become the primary recipient of Toleina's generosity. According to 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:02.200 Jess's research, Corey was living free in Telena's home. She 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.600 used Toelena's cars to get around, and while she worked 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.119 odd jobs, it was Toelena's steady paycheck that provided the 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:14.640 household income. It seems in those crucial months before Toelina's disappearance, 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.240 the people in her close orbit were shifting places. Marty 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.119 Starr was fading and Corey's was ascending. 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.679 She did remove him from her will and change it 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:26.240 to Corey. 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.800 I was able to get a hold of a copy 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.840 of Telena's will. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.719 I Telena Jenna Galloway of Wagner County, Oklahoma, being of 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.240 full age and of sound mind and disposing memory, but 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.600 sensitive of the uncertainties of life and desiring which may 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.760 positions of the prophet mind may die. If you want missing, 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.800 I appoint Corey Bamile Adams to serve as the personal 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:52.399 representative of my estate. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.360 The sleuths feels certain that Corey had something to do 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:06.320 with Telena's disappearance. I mean, becoming the beneficiary of someone 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:10.400 else's estate months before they go missing, that's motive one 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:14.560 oh one. They've also heard through the grapevine about Corey 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:20.600 burning Telena's mattress, selling her items on eBay, and Corey's 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:25.360 criminal past suggests she's no stranger to lying and manipulation. 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:31.280 But what about Marty To the sleuths, he presents himself 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:36.680 as someone who's also suspicious of Corey, even though they're friends. 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.479 He tells the sleuths he'll use his friendship with Corey 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.160 to try to get more information. Here's Brittany. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.280 He was like, I've been talking to Corey, trying to 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.280 get Hurt to tell me what happened. He said at 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.840 one point he'd he's Ben drove by the house to 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.920 see if he saw anything weird, and that ahead of Corey. 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.240 But the sleuths aren't sure if he's being entirely transparent 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:09.440 about his relationship with Corey either. Here's Rosie. 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.600 I felt like he would give us half truth and 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.760 then backtrack on things, and some of the stories that 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:22.639 he told me I couldn't verify in any sort of 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.720 legal records anywhere. He wanted us to believe him so 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.760 much that it felt like he was hiding something. 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.960 And they're hearing rumors from other people in Wagner that 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.919 contradict how Marty describes his relationship with Corey. 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:42.640 I remember he had said that he had gone over 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.520 there and really laid into her and yelled at her, 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.600 and the neighbor reported something completely different, that it was 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:55.760 like a friendly interaction, and you know, it just felt 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:01.240 he was very much trying to control the story. 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.040 Jess, as usual, cuts to the chase. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.560 I questioned about why he played both sides of the 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.840 fence with Team Telena and then Corey, because he'd always 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.719 have good terms with her, and he'd keep telling me, well, 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.480 I have to play nice. You catch more flies with 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:16.679 Honey than you do Vinegar. I have to, you know, 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.000 play nice with Corey because then maybe she'll tell me something. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:24.520 Just suspects maybe they're in cahoots, maybe Marty's telling Corey 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.160 everything they're telling him, And Jess tells him that too. 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.320 Anybody that plays both sides of the fence is definitely 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.920 not your friend. And so I told him that. I said, 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:35.720 I can't sit here and confide in you about what 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.919 we're finding about Corey and all these people that are 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:40.800 coming to us with information when I feel like you're 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.439 going to feed it right back to her. You know, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.159 you come to us and you say, oh, Corey's doing this, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.879 and I'm outside the house watching or do that, and 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.600 then I find out from somebody in Wagner that they 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.400 seen you guys at the gas station together, down by 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.640 the lake together, or that you were sitting outside the house, 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.879 or that you went into the house. Like it was 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:01.000 a constant questioning. 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.080 Because Jess was the person who was calling and asking 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.360 the questions, it really took up a lot of her 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.760 time emotionally and mentally, and I'm sure that it was 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.560 draining for her to try to keep all of that straight. 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:24.000 Jess is starting to feel exhausted. The investigation is hard work, 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.879 so is changing her persona with each new source she 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.760 reaches out to, trying to get them to open up, 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.639 trying to find the thing that's going to crack the 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:38.800 case wide open. Sometimes she pretends she knew Telena. Other 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:42.119 times she gives fake backstories to gain access. 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:47.480 I lied to a lot of people, a lot friends 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:53.800 of Telena's, friends of Marty's. I mean, I just lied 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:55.440 my way into their life. I manipulated them. 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:58.720 Can you give some examples of like the kind of 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:00.320 lies we're talking about, Well. 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.800 There's a lot, Oh, I know so and so, you know, 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.480 I lie about who I knew, or I think I'm 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:10.200 one of the things I had said. I was a 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:13.440 private investigator, which is a huge lie, but it's a 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.040 lie none the less. I told people that I got 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:18.000 their information from a friend of a friend, when i'd 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.040 actually like use an app online to get their information. 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:27.520 When Jess told me all of this that she lied 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.439 to get information out of people, I had to wonder 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.800 could I trust her to be completely truthful with me? 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.560 After all, in her very first email, she had mischaracterized 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:43.560 her relationship to Tealina, saying she was her friend. Over 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.159 the year I spent reporting this story, I've tried to 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.920 confirm every detail just told me. In some cases I 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:54.040 only have her account to rely on, but her version 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.520 of events has held up. I believe she's been honest 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:01.840 about everything that transpired and when it reflected negatively on her, 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:06.120 and she's been especially candid when talking about the personal 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:07.240 toll of all of this. 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:10.800 The whole thing seemed kind of Sometimes I felt like 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:11.640 I was in over my head. 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:17.800 Talina's case is consuming Jess day and night. She's strategizing 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:22.520 with her fellow sleuths, managing Marty, and sharing her findings 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.280 with the Wagner County Sheriff's Office, whose reaction to her 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:29.439 tips vary depending on the day and their level of 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:35.119