Speaker 1: We are not a family that is all up in
Speaker 1: each other's business.
Speaker 2: We never have been.
Speaker 1: We are very close without having the need to talk
Speaker 1: or even see each other on a regular basis. It's
Speaker 1: like I live my life, she lived her life, My
Speaker 1: brother lives his life.
Speaker 3: It hasn't been easy to get people in Telena's life
Speaker 3: to speak to me on the record. It's clear she
Speaker 3: was well loved, and you've heard from some of her
Speaker 3: friends already. I've reached out to many more and to
Speaker 3: her family, but for whatever reason, most have been apprehensive
Speaker 3: to participate. I was able to talk to Telina's sister,
Speaker 3: Cheryl Jones. She called me back the day she received
Speaker 3: my letter. She said she was relieved to have the
Speaker 3: chance to talk about her sister. She refers to Telena
Speaker 3: as Jenna, her birth name.
Speaker 1: My sister kept a part of her life private from
Speaker 1: the family. Tolena, I believe comes from that secret part
Speaker 1: of her life. The secret part that we all knew
Speaker 1: was the secret part. We just didn't know the details
Speaker 1: of the secret.
Speaker 3: As you may recall, Telena was part of the Gorrian community,
Speaker 3: a niche group of BDSM followers who live by the
Speaker 3: strict social structure outlined in the Gore Books, a sci
Speaker 3: fi series where men of the dominant gender and women
Speaker 3: are naturally subservient. For the better part of a decade,
Speaker 3: Tealina lived as a twenty four to seventh slave to
Speaker 3: her husband Tom or Master Csarius, doing whatever and acting
Speaker 3: however he wished in the bedroom and outside of it.
Speaker 4: Gore was a world of slaves and beautiful women of
Speaker 4: human domination by the alien secret priest kings.
Speaker 5: Did you have any sense of what the Sacred life
Speaker 5: was about, like?
Speaker 2: Did you get the sense that it was like sex relating?
Speaker 1: Yes, we kind of got it that it was something
Speaker 1: along that line.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: Tolena was active online and her nieces were too. They
Speaker 3: saw the types of things she posted, the term she used,
Speaker 3: and eventually worked out that Tolena was part of the
Speaker 3: BDSM community and that that identity was very important to her.
Speaker 2: We figured it out through clues amongst us.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk to her about it, and when I
Speaker 1: say if, I mean me and my mom and my
Speaker 1: three daughters, we.
Speaker 2: Had figured out that that was the secret life.
Speaker 3: One day, Cheryl heard her sister Jenna refer to herself
Speaker 3: as Toelena.
Speaker 1: When I first hear think Tolena. I'm like Colna, And
Speaker 1: I finally got up enough nerve to.
Speaker 2: Just flat out ask her, you.
Speaker 1: Know, where did Helena come from? But how did you
Speaker 1: come about choosing that? And she was very evasive about it.
Speaker 4: And it was also the world of Telena, the tempestuous
Speaker 4: daughter of Bor's great warlord. She waited for the man
Speaker 4: who could subdue her, the man who would be her master.
Speaker 3: When Cheryl learned that Teleina legally changed her name, she
Speaker 3: was surprised to find out that she kept Jenna as
Speaker 3: her middle name.
Speaker 1: To me, it spoke of the acknowledgment that she had
Speaker 1: chewed different identities. She still identified that Jenna because Jenna
Speaker 1: was her.
Speaker 2: Identity to family and then the Telena.
Speaker 1: I think that was probably the first time I kind
Speaker 1: of really felt that the duality and her embrace of
Speaker 1: the duality.
Speaker 3: We all have duality in our lives, present different versions
Speaker 3: of ourselves in different contexts. On Instagram, the image we
Speaker 3: portray might be a lot shinier than reality. The voice
Speaker 3: we adopt on a work call might be more optimistic
Speaker 3: or confident we really feel. But what happens when the
Speaker 3: line between our different selves becomes sharper severing the two
Speaker 3: worlds when the people in one part of your life
Speaker 3: can't protect you from the other.
Speaker 2: We thought we were respecting her privacy.
Speaker 1: She said she wanted this to be a private part
Speaker 1: of her life, and we accepted that because that's the
Speaker 1: kind of family we are that. I have to wonder
Speaker 1: did she ultimately maybe feel a little alienated because of
Speaker 1: that too. I think that's why she kept it from us.
Speaker 1: She thought that maybe we wouldn't love her or accept her. Maybe,
Speaker 1: And the thing was, it wouldn't have changed it at all.
Speaker 3: From iHeart Podcasts, I'm Melissa Jelson, and this is what
Speaker 3: happened to Tealinazar. I just took it to me that
Speaker 3: if she passed away from COVID, she was at peace
Speaker 3: with it because she would be with Tom.
Speaker 6: How well did I adapt to being property? Well, that
Speaker 6: depends on whether you ask me or Master, Lol.
Speaker 7: We both kind of a trust. You become really vulnerable
Speaker 7: with me, he cry.
Speaker 8: Just because they're missing doesn't mean anything. Was the fairies?
Speaker 8: So all of us wear masks? Right?
Speaker 3: Episode five? If I go missing.
Speaker 1: My birthday is November the fourth, and her birthday is
Speaker 1: November the third. She was born one day before I
Speaker 1: was one years old, so we were raised.
Speaker 2: A lot like almost like twin.
Speaker 3: Tealina's sister, Cheryl, is now a fifty eight year old
Speaker 3: nurse who lives in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: We grew up in Blimmington, Indiana, and then when I
Speaker 1: was twelve, where she would have been eleven, my dad
Speaker 1: was transferred to a place called Washington, Indiana. My parents
Speaker 1: joined a Pentecostal church, and that's the way we were raised.
Speaker 1: It was strict. You know, we didn't have TV in
Speaker 1: our home growing up. He went to church and.
Speaker 2: You went to Sunday school and those kinds of things.
Speaker 3: Cheryl remembers to Lena as a shy kid, someone she
Speaker 3: felt she had to stand up for.
Speaker 2: I remember getting in fight.
Speaker 1: Growing up because somebody would pick on her if they
Speaker 1: called her a name. I would have to be the
Speaker 1: one to go and kind of shove them around when
Speaker 1: we were kids. And then the funny thing was when
Speaker 1: we got older as we grew up.
Speaker 2: I am only five foot tall and she was five.
Speaker 2: At ten, he ended up being much colored than me.
Speaker 1: But I was a big sister when we were really young,
Speaker 1: even though there's only a year was in our personalities.
Speaker 2: Somehow she seemed to be.
Speaker 1: A little more free spirited, whereas I was always like
Speaker 1: very cask oriented and goal oriented, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3: As kids, Cheryl and Teleina were inseparable. As adults, their
Speaker 3: lives moved in different directions. Cheryl went to nursing school,
Speaker 3: got married, and had four children before getting a divorce
Speaker 3: and moving to Pennsylvania. Talina stayed in Indiana wandered a
Speaker 3: bit to find her way. She joined the National Guard,
Speaker 3: then got into computer programming. Like her sister, she also
Speaker 3: got married and divorced at a young age to a
Speaker 3: man named Russell Lovic, but she never had any kids. Instead,
Speaker 3: Talina played the auntie role with glee.
Speaker 2: I had four kids and so many would be tight es.
Speaker 1: Firstly, run Christmas con and you know, she always made
Speaker 1: sure my kids had Christmas.
Speaker 2: That was one of her deals.
Speaker 1: She would bring a whole van full of presence, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was a good relief to us.
Speaker 3: Cheryl's kids loved to come visit Aunt Jana, where they
Speaker 3: were often spoiled.
Speaker 1: Navid spend weeks at her house and they always did
Speaker 1: fun things. She'd take them one at a time, but
Speaker 1: everyone got a turn to go and spend a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks with Aunt Jana and do all of the
Speaker 1: fun things that Aunt Jana could.
Speaker 3: Talina's close relationship with her three nieces, Cherie, Chantal, and
Speaker 3: Chelsea continued into their adulthoods. The girls all settled in
Speaker 3: the Indianapolis area, close to Teleina and most of their
Speaker 3: extended family. Even after Teleina moved to Oklahoma, she made
Speaker 3: a point to visit frequently.
Speaker 1: Jana came through Indiana every two three four months, three
Speaker 1: four times a year.
Speaker 3: By twenty twenty, Cheryl and Telena had fallen out of touch,
Speaker 3: and so when her little sister goes missing, she hasn't
Speaker 3: spoken to her in almost three years, but her daughters
Speaker 3: are in regular contact with Tealina. Teleina was especially close
Speaker 3: with Chantal, Cheryl's middle daughter. They both had office jobs
Speaker 3: and so it was common for them to send messages
Speaker 3: back and forth throughout the workday. In late March, during
Speaker 3: the start of the COVID lockdown, Talina and Chantal are
Speaker 3: chatting like usual.
Speaker 1: It just happened that her and Chantelle, my middle daughter,
Speaker 1: have been communicating throughout the day on Facebook, which is
Speaker 1: something they often did.
Speaker 3: Then Telena messages Chantal that she has to go. She's
Speaker 3: tired and has a headache.
Speaker 1: She was going to lay down for a while and
Speaker 1: said that she would chat with her later. The next
Speaker 1: day she's not online, and then the next day she's
Speaker 1: not online, and then the next day she's not online,
Speaker 1: and so then she began to try to didn't get
Speaker 1: an answer, did get an answer, She didn't contact Scherie,
Speaker 1: the oldest one, and she's telling SCHERI, I think something's
Speaker 1: wrong here.
Speaker 3: Then on April seventh, Chantal sees Telena's Facebook post I'll.
Speaker 6: Catch up with everyone on the other side now.
Speaker 1: When they decided that they needed to tell the family
Speaker 1: that something was going.
Speaker 3: On, Chantale tells her mom, there's no way Telena wrote
Speaker 3: the post. She thinks someone else must have.
Speaker 2: Well, what makes you think it's not Dianna?
Speaker 1: She said, this was sloppy, not at all, not at
Speaker 1: all like anything Janna would have written or the way
Speaker 1: she'd have written it.
Speaker 2: She was alarmed immediately.
Speaker 3: Once the whole family is in the loop about Telena's disappearance,
Speaker 3: they start comparing notes trying to work out the last
Speaker 3: time anyone had any real contact with her. The date
Speaker 3: they come up with is March twenty seventh, that's the
Speaker 3: day chantal was last Facebook messaging with her aunt.
Speaker 1: And now we're up to near two weeks later. My
Speaker 1: immediate gut response was this is not good.
Speaker 2: I just knew this was not good.
Speaker 1: Of all the crazy things my sister would do and
Speaker 1: flighty things and air brain things she might do, just
Speaker 1: totally dropping off the face of the earth, he is
Speaker 1: not one of them.
Speaker 3: A few days later, the Wagner County Sheriff's Department calls
Speaker 3: to Lena's family and speaks to her mother and brother.
Speaker 1: I did it, being probably close to two hour talk
Speaker 1: with the both of them, and it was the questions
Speaker 1: that she would normally expect. Is there any place you
Speaker 1: can think of she might have gone, Are there any
Speaker 1: friends somewhere that she.
Speaker 2: Might have gone to visit? What would she normally do?
Speaker 2: And of course wended you laugh talk career.
Speaker 3: Tealina's family, who are spread out across multiple states, face
Speaker 3: a difficult question. Should they go to Wagner, Oklahoma to
Speaker 3: look for Tealina themselves in the middle of COVID lockdowns?
Speaker 1: You know, so we had to wrestle around, well do
Speaker 1: we stay here and wage did somebody go out there?
Speaker 2: That was really hard and we were torn about it.
Speaker 3: Even if they went, they didn't know where to start looking.
Speaker 3: Talina had kept so much of her life their secret.
Speaker 1: She made it clear her life with these group of
Speaker 1: friends were her and Tom's private matter. And that's what
Speaker 1: made it so difficult, because we don't know this part
Speaker 1: of her life.
Speaker 3: Cheryl and her family knew of only one person in
Speaker 3: Wagner that Talina had ever mentioned.
Speaker 2: She talked about Mario Pine. She had one hundred pictures
Speaker 2: of Marthy and her food. They were the best friends.
Speaker 8: Day were so close.
Speaker 3: But the last time they'd seen Teleina she told them
Speaker 3: that Marty was out of the picture.
Speaker 9: And she says, Marty and I are not friends and
Speaker 9: I don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2: And like, oh, we've heard.
Speaker 9: About this Marty for freaking last five years, and all
Speaker 9: of a sudden, boom, Marty's gone. No explanation, No, this
Speaker 9: is what happened. Marty's gone.
Speaker 7: I was questioning him as early as beginning of May.
Speaker 3: This is Jess, our internet sleuth in Minnesota. A few
Speaker 3: weeks into her own investigation. She's also discovering that Telena
Speaker 3: and Marty's relationship may not have been exactly how he
Speaker 3: described it, and she's beginning to suspect that he's been
Speaker 3: lying to her, which is tough because they've become very close,
Speaker 3: very fast.
Speaker 7: I probably spent six plus hours a day on FaceTime
Speaker 7: or the phone with him or texting about what we knew, theories,
Speaker 7: who we'd talked to. We talked about a lot of stuff.
Speaker 7: I mean, some of our conversations weren't even about Telena.
Speaker 7: They were about life. Like we had conversations about when
Speaker 7: his mom was murdered. His mom was murdered in front
Speaker 7: of him, and he got really vulnerable with me. And sometimes,
Speaker 7: like trauma, bonding is a thing. Talking about stuff like
Speaker 7: that with somebody, you get close really quick.
Speaker 3: When Marty talks about his relationship with Telena, he makes
Speaker 3: it seem as though they were extremely close, the best
Speaker 3: of friends. But Jess is learning new information that introduces
Speaker 3: some ambiguity into the picture. For one, she finds out
Speaker 3: from another friend of Tolena's that Marty had allegedly stolen
Speaker 3: from Telena a few months before her disappearance.
Speaker 7: I'd heard from Rachel that in December, Marty had stolen
Speaker 7: from Telena. Telena didn't exactly tell her what kind of
Speaker 7: theft it was, but she had told Rachel that Marty
Speaker 7: was no longer welcome in her home.
Speaker 3: Jess also suspects that Telena had been helping Marty out
Speaker 3: financially for a while.
Speaker 7: My thoughts at the time were that he was taking
Speaker 7: advantage of Telena monetarily wise, because there was at one
Speaker 7: point where he said, I missed my Teleina wife. You know,
Speaker 7: if I went over there and I was upset, she
Speaker 7: would slip some money into my pocket and make things better.
Speaker 7: So I mean that sat with me kind of funny,
Speaker 7: like she was financially supporting them, and there was a
Speaker 7: bunch of stuff that he said she would help him,
Speaker 7: quote unquote help him with. Where I think his idea
Speaker 7: was help was her fully funding it.
Speaker 3: As Marty explains to Jess, he suffers from chronic pain
Speaker 3: and addiction has had a hard time holding down a job.
Speaker 3: On one of their calls, Marty even goes so far
Speaker 3: as to ask Jess for some money for his pain medication.
Speaker 3: But that's a line Jess isn't willing to cross. According
Speaker 3: to Jess, Marty said Telena would sometimes pay his phone
Speaker 3: and water bills, even chip in for his meds.
Speaker 7: He needed painkillers, and she felt for him because she
Speaker 7: was kind of a bleeding heart with people, and probably
Speaker 7: gave him the money to help him alleviate some of
Speaker 7: his pain. And he was in treatment several times for
Speaker 7: illegal drugs dependency of them.
Speaker 3: Things were messy between Marty and Telena. But when I
Speaker 3: asked Jess about Marty and Tellina's friendship ending abruptly just
Speaker 3: before her disappearance, Jess didn't think it was that black
Speaker 3: and white. As far as she could tell, the two
Speaker 3: had been communicating regularly.
Speaker 7: I don't know if she was willing to forgive him
Speaker 7: for whatever it happened, or maybe he had paid her back.
Speaker 7: The relationship was strained, but I don't know if she
Speaker 7: was willing to forgive or she was so used to
Speaker 7: that master slave relationship that they had all enjoyed. I
Speaker 7: can't speak to her feelings. I never actually talked to
Speaker 7: Tulina and Marty. I don't feel as a reliable source anymore.
Speaker 3: By the pandemic's start, it looks as though Corey, not Marty,
Speaker 3: had become the primary recipient of Toleina's generosity. According to
Speaker 3: Jess's research, Corey was living free in Telena's home. She
Speaker 3: used Toelena's cars to get around, and while she worked
Speaker 3: odd jobs, it was Toelena's steady paycheck that provided the
Speaker 3: household income. It seems in those crucial months before Toelina's disappearance,
Speaker 3: the people in her close orbit were shifting places. Marty
Speaker 3: Starr was fading and Corey's was ascending.
Speaker 7: She did remove him from her will and change it
Speaker 7: to Corey.
Speaker 3: I was able to get a hold of a copy
Speaker 3: of Telena's will.
Speaker 6: I Telena Jenna Galloway of Wagner County, Oklahoma, being of
Speaker 6: full age and of sound mind and disposing memory, but
Speaker 6: sensitive of the uncertainties of life and desiring which may
Speaker 6: positions of the prophet mind may die. If you want missing,
Speaker 6: I appoint Corey Bamile Adams to serve as the personal
Speaker 6: representative of my estate.
Speaker 3: The sleuths feels certain that Corey had something to do
Speaker 3: with Telena's disappearance. I mean, becoming the beneficiary of someone
Speaker 3: else's estate months before they go missing, that's motive one
Speaker 3: oh one. They've also heard through the grapevine about Corey
Speaker 3: burning Telena's mattress, selling her items on eBay, and Corey's
Speaker 3: criminal past suggests she's no stranger to lying and manipulation.
Speaker 3: But what about Marty To the sleuths, he presents himself
Speaker 3: as someone who's also suspicious of Corey, even though they're friends.
Speaker 3: He tells the sleuths he'll use his friendship with Corey
Speaker 3: to try to get more information. Here's Brittany.
Speaker 10: He was like, I've been talking to Corey, trying to
Speaker 10: get Hurt to tell me what happened. He said at
Speaker 10: one point he'd he's Ben drove by the house to
Speaker 10: see if he saw anything weird, and that ahead of Corey.
Speaker 3: But the sleuths aren't sure if he's being entirely transparent
Speaker 3: about his relationship with Corey either. Here's Rosie.
Speaker 5: I felt like he would give us half truth and
Speaker 5: then backtrack on things, and some of the stories that
Speaker 5: he told me I couldn't verify in any sort of
Speaker 5: legal records anywhere. He wanted us to believe him so
Speaker 5: much that it felt like he was hiding something.
Speaker 3: And they're hearing rumors from other people in Wagner that
Speaker 3: contradict how Marty describes his relationship with Corey.
Speaker 5: I remember he had said that he had gone over
Speaker 5: there and really laid into her and yelled at her,
Speaker 5: and the neighbor reported something completely different, that it was
Speaker 5: like a friendly interaction, and you know, it just felt
Speaker 5: he was very much trying to control the story.
Speaker 3: Jess, as usual, cuts to the chase.
Speaker 7: I questioned about why he played both sides of the
Speaker 7: fence with Team Telena and then Corey, because he'd always
Speaker 7: have good terms with her, and he'd keep telling me, well,
Speaker 7: I have to play nice. You catch more flies with
Speaker 7: Honey than you do Vinegar. I have to, you know,
Speaker 7: play nice with Corey because then maybe she'll tell me something.
Speaker 3: Just suspects maybe they're in cahoots, maybe Marty's telling Corey
Speaker 3: everything they're telling him, And Jess tells him that too.
Speaker 7: Anybody that plays both sides of the fence is definitely
Speaker 7: not your friend. And so I told him that. I said,
Speaker 7: I can't sit here and confide in you about what
Speaker 7: we're finding about Corey and all these people that are
Speaker 7: coming to us with information when I feel like you're
Speaker 7: going to feed it right back to her. You know,
Speaker 7: you come to us and you say, oh, Corey's doing this,
Speaker 7: and I'm outside the house watching or do that, and
Speaker 7: then I find out from somebody in Wagner that they
Speaker 7: seen you guys at the gas station together, down by
Speaker 7: the lake together, or that you were sitting outside the house,
Speaker 7: or that you went into the house. Like it was
Speaker 7: a constant questioning.
Speaker 5: Because Jess was the person who was calling and asking
Speaker 5: the questions, it really took up a lot of her
Speaker 5: time emotionally and mentally, and I'm sure that it was
Speaker 5: draining for her to try to keep all of that straight.
Speaker 3: Jess is starting to feel exhausted. The investigation is hard work,
Speaker 3: so is changing her persona with each new source she
Speaker 3: reaches out to, trying to get them to open up,
Speaker 3: trying to find the thing that's going to crack the
Speaker 3: case wide open. Sometimes she pretends she knew Telena. Other
Speaker 3: times she gives fake backstories to gain access.
Speaker 7: I lied to a lot of people, a lot friends
Speaker 7: of Telena's, friends of Marty's. I mean, I just lied
Speaker 7: my way into their life. I manipulated them.
Speaker 3: Can you give some examples of like the kind of
Speaker 3: lies we're talking about, Well.
Speaker 7: There's a lot, Oh, I know so and so, you know,
Speaker 7: I lie about who I knew, or I think I'm
Speaker 7: one of the things I had said. I was a
Speaker 7: private investigator, which is a huge lie, but it's a
Speaker 7: lie none the less. I told people that I got
Speaker 7: their information from a friend of a friend, when i'd
Speaker 7: actually like use an app online to get their information.
Speaker 3: When Jess told me all of this that she lied
Speaker 3: to get information out of people, I had to wonder
Speaker 3: could I trust her to be completely truthful with me?
Speaker 3: After all, in her very first email, she had mischaracterized
Speaker 3: her relationship to Tealina, saying she was her friend. Over
Speaker 3: the year I spent reporting this story, I've tried to
Speaker 3: confirm every detail just told me. In some cases I
Speaker 3: only have her account to rely on, but her version
Speaker 3: of events has held up. I believe she's been honest
Speaker 3: about everything that transpired and when it reflected negatively on her,
Speaker 3: and she's been especially candid when talking about the personal
Speaker 3: toll of all of this.
Speaker 7: The whole thing seemed kind of Sometimes I felt like
Speaker 7: I was in over my head.
Speaker 3: Talina's case is consuming Jess day and night. She's strategizing
Speaker 3: with her fellow sleuths, managing Marty, and sharing her findings
Speaker 3: with the Wagner County Sheriff's Office, whose reaction to her
Speaker 3: tips vary depending on the day and their level of
Speaker 3: patience and for what. Sometimes the absurdity of the whole
Speaker 3: endeavor catches her off guard. What is she even doing
Speaker 3: trying to solve a missing person's case involving a woman
Speaker 3: she never met. Jess keeps meticulous notes of her investigation
Speaker 3: and her feelings about all of it. Here's a little
Speaker 3: glimpse of her writing from this time.
Speaker 7: The days are becoming blurred. I talk too much to
Speaker 7: too many people. All I wanted was to find a
Speaker 7: missing woman. Want I ended up with with so much more.
Speaker 7: My days are spent researching people, connecting dots that may
Speaker 7: not even be there, and chain smoking. I sit back
Speaker 7: with my seeming cup of coffee and think, how did
Speaker 7: this happen?
Speaker 3: More than just her time and energy has just put
Speaker 3: herself in actual danger. She's now entangled with people whose
Speaker 3: true nature and capabilities she doesn't know. One day, she
Speaker 3: gets some threatening texts from a former Gorrian master she'd
Speaker 3: reached out to.
Speaker 7: He sent me his id and a knife and called
Speaker 7: me a Gorrian slave and said he was going to
Speaker 7: come get me.
Speaker 3: Another time, a gruff stranger comes into her bar, and
Speaker 3: something about him, his accent, the way he talks to
Speaker 3: her makes her extremely uncomfortable. She's not sure is she
Speaker 3: being paranoid, just decides to take some precautions. She gets
Speaker 3: a concealed Carrie permit and a gun based on advice
Speaker 3: she finds online. Justin Rosie create quote if I Go
Speaker 3: Missing folders, complete with a list of older passwords, photos
Speaker 3: of scars and tattoos, and the names of friends and
Speaker 3: family with descriptions of their relationships for safekeeping. The two
Speaker 3: women who first connected mere weeks ago, share these confidential
Speaker 3: documents with each other.
Speaker 5: Like my if I Go Missing file, Yeah, Like it
Speaker 5: just felt like something that we should do, Like at
Speaker 5: some point it kind of our eyes kind of opened
Speaker 5: that you know, I don't I had never given that
Speaker 5: information to anyone other than my husband, and I don't
Speaker 5: think she had done the same. And so just to
Speaker 5: have someone like outside of the bubble of people who
Speaker 5: we usually interact with, to be like if I go miss,
Speaker 5: saying call the cops and tell them X y Z,
Speaker 5: Like it just felt like at that moment, like it
Speaker 5: just felt like that made sense to share with each other.
Speaker 5: And I still have her information and I know she
Speaker 5: still has mine.
Speaker 3: Whatever reservations just has She's undeterred and she has a
Speaker 3: feeling that this will all come to a close soon.
Speaker 3: It has to. Surely the cops have enough evidence to
Speaker 3: at least detain Corey.
Speaker 2: Were you scared at all? Did you feel like?
Speaker 3: What have I What kind of characters have I gotten
Speaker 3: myself involved with?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 7: Hmm, I was angry with her. I was just on
Speaker 7: a mission to take her down. I wasn't scared, so
Speaker 7: I was mad. I think all of us were mad.
Speaker 7: We were like, what the hell? It's plain as day
Speaker 7: what she's doing right, Like she might as well have
Speaker 7: a guilty light flashing on her forehead.
Speaker 3: They're all waiting for something to happen, for an arrest,
Speaker 3: for a bit break in the case, for Telena to
Speaker 3: be found alive or dead. Meanwhile, Jess continues her daily,
Speaker 3: no hourly check ins with Marty, who's growing more erratic
Speaker 3: and confused.
Speaker 7: And then at nine point twenty, he says, I've been
Speaker 7: sitting here trying to find myself. I said, what do
Speaker 7: you mean, and he said, I am trying not to
Speaker 7: admit the man that I am. I said, you need
Speaker 7: to get some sleep, but I can't get past the
Speaker 7: things I've done and should have stopped a long time ago.
Speaker 3: Often it seems to Jess he's drunk or high when
Speaker 3: they're on the phone or texting.
Speaker 7: I said, you didn't sleep last night. Just sleep on it.
Speaker 7: Nothing's going to change if you sleep, aside from your
Speaker 7: state of mind. And he said, she can't get away
Speaker 7: with this. I can't live with this anymore. And I
Speaker 7: said she won't. The police are onto her, so is
Speaker 7: everybody else. He said, I love you, thank you for
Speaker 7: all you've done.
Speaker 3: And then late one night, while sitting on the couch,
Speaker 3: she gets a call from Marty.
Speaker 7: He was sitting outside Telena's house and he was drunk
Speaker 7: and high, and you could always tell when he was drunk.
Speaker 7: He was slurry and just I wondered how he had
Speaker 7: driven there right. I said, what are you doing? And
Speaker 7: he said, I've got my ar and if she comes outside,
Speaker 7: and I was like, get home, like, you can't. You
Speaker 7: can't kill somebody like that's He goes, well, she killed
Speaker 7: my Teleina wife. And I said, if you know that,
Speaker 7: let's get the sheriffs, like, let's let's do this. You can't.
Speaker 7: You can't just kill somebody like that's not I know
Speaker 7: you're mad, but let's get her in trouble, right, Let's
Speaker 7: call the police. Let's get the sheriffs out there. If
Speaker 7: you have something. He goes, I know Selena's dating.
Speaker 3: It's male eventh twenty twenty and Detective Joel Webber is
Speaker 3: at Telena and Corey's house once more. This time he's
Speaker 3: there to use a chemical called blue Star forensic spray
Speaker 3: in the garage. This spray causes blood to glow blue.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've seen it on TV shows. Corey shows
Speaker 3: the officers into the garage and tells them that her
Speaker 3: dogs had recently peed on the concrete. She'd attempted to
Speaker 3: clean it up using a combination of chemicals she had
Speaker 3: around the house bleach, pine soal, lime powder, and kitty litter,
Speaker 3: the ladder of which is sprinkled around the garage floor,
Speaker 3: still visible to officers. They get to spraying and the
Speaker 3: results are instantaneous. The floor glows. There's a large area
Speaker 3: in the center of the garage, maybe two feet in
Speaker 3: the same place where some of the kitty litter is.
Speaker 3: The visual is striking, but officers know it's not conclusive
Speaker 3: of anything. Bleach is also known to make blue Star react,
Speaker 3: so for now, the officers take photos and samples of
Speaker 3: the floor to be tested for DNA. A week later,
Speaker 3: where he goes to the Sheriff's office for her scheduled
Speaker 3: polygraph appointment. She's volunteered for a lie detector test in
Speaker 3: an effort to help police rule her out as a suspect.
Speaker 11: I I would shake your hand, but I'll give an
Speaker 11: elbow to you.
Speaker 3: The polygraph is being administered by Scott Miller, who works
Speaker 3: for the Department of Public Safety. This is a recreation
Speaker 3: of some of their interview.
Speaker 8: I don't think this is a I don't think you're
Speaker 8: a suspect. I think we're here to clear you, right.
Speaker 11: Yeah, to my knowledge, there's not even a crime at
Speaker 11: this point. What we are trying to do is just
Speaker 11: clear me from my end, because I was the last
Speaker 11: person to see her, at least to see her in
Speaker 11: our residence. I'm here on my own accord because I've
Speaker 11: been through six weeks of grief and i just want
Speaker 11: the grief to end.
Speaker 3: Miller attaches the instrument to her body. There's a cuff
Speaker 3: on her arm to watch the dips and rises in
Speaker 3: her blood pressure, two electrodes on her fingers to measure
Speaker 3: her pulse and sweat production. And two tubes wrapped around
Speaker 3: her chest to track changes in breathing. Miller explains he's
Speaker 3: going to ask her a series of questions multiple times.
Speaker 3: He instructs her to be truthful except for one question
Speaker 3: where she's supposed to purposefully lie. This helps the machine
Speaker 3: establish the way Corey's body reacts to deception. The question
Speaker 3: she's supposed to lie about uses the phrase quote in
Speaker 3: your entire life.
Speaker 8: Here we go. This portion of the test is about
Speaker 8: to begin. Please remain still. Do you understand I will
Speaker 8: only ask you the questions we discussed. Yes. Regarding the
Speaker 8: questions about whether or not you harmed Telena, do you
Speaker 8: intend to answer each question truthfully? Yes? Are you now
Speaker 8: currently sitting down?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 8: In your entire life? Have you ever told even one
Speaker 8: lie about something embarrassing? No? Since April fifth, have you
Speaker 8: participated in any harm of Teleina?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 8: Do you sometimes drink water? Yes?
Speaker 3: It goes on and on like this, with Miller repeating
Speaker 3: the questions.
Speaker 8: Are the lights currently on in this room? Yes? In
Speaker 8: your entire life, have you ever told even one lie?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 8: Since April fifth, have you harmed Telena? No? Are you
Speaker 8: currently sitting down? Yes? In your entire life have you
Speaker 8: even told one lie to someone who trusted you? No?
Speaker 8: Since April fifth, have you participated in any harm and
Speaker 8: of Teleina? No? Do you sometimes drink water? Yes? In
Speaker 8: your entire life? Have you ever told even one lie
Speaker 8: about something embarrassing?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 8: Do you know for sure who harmed Telena? No?
Speaker 3: They finish up. By this point, Corey's been in the
Speaker 3: interview room for over three hours. Miller reads through the
Speaker 3: results and he tells Corey they need to talk about
Speaker 3: what the machine found.
Speaker 8: Yeah. So, I've looked at it. We've had three clean
Speaker 8: charts there at the end, but you were having problems
Speaker 8: on two of the questions, which two? Did you harm Telena?
Speaker 8: And did you do you know for sure who harmed Telena?
Speaker 8: Those were two you had significant reactions to.
Speaker 11: Really, Yeah, so I wonder if I don't know, if
Speaker 11: you know, there are just so many scenarios that go
Speaker 11: through your mind. I try and not think about things
Speaker 11: when I'm answering questions.
Speaker 2: I don't know what else to say.
Speaker 8: I don't know the answerment here is, you know what,
Speaker 8: it doesn't like you, and it doesn't dislike you. It
Speaker 8: just reads your body and tells me you were deceptive
Speaker 8: on those two questions.
Speaker 3: When Corey doesn't offer any explanations, Miller gives her some
Speaker 3: hypothetical stories. Maybe there was an argument, an accident. Corey says, no,
Speaker 3: Maybe Toelina wanted to end her life and someone helped her.
Speaker 3: And maybe it wasn't even.
Speaker 8: Corey barn a stranger. If you suspected something like that happened,
Speaker 8: not the nefarious stuff, but helping someone out. Who would
Speaker 8: be the people you would suspect the most.
Speaker 11: I mean, Marty is the most obvious one. I mean
Speaker 11: everyone would say it's Marty.
Speaker 3: And she adds there was a recent rift between Marty
Speaker 3: and Telena, you.
Speaker 11: Know, and the only animosity there towards the end is Marty.
Speaker 11: Marty has had had a falling out this year because
Speaker 11: of he was originally the executor for her estate, and
Speaker 11: he was called several times stealing meds or he almost
Speaker 11: got a her car repossessed because he claimed it was
Speaker 11: his own on a bank loan, and then just a
Speaker 11: few other things where Telena came to me about year
Speaker 11: and a half ago and said, I can't trust him.
Speaker 3: Even so, Corey says she doesn't think Marty would hurt Toe.
Speaker 3: Lena Miller says the detectives will talk to him if
Speaker 3: they haven't already. Their conversation wraps up, he tells Corey
Speaker 3: that while she didn't do so well on the test,
Speaker 3: she's free to go. Detective Weber will be in touch soon.
Speaker 3: Lie detectors are unreliable in Oklahoma and many other places.
Speaker 3: They aren't allowed as evidence in court. Mostly cops use
Speaker 3: them as a tool to get people to confess, and
Speaker 3: Corey didn't, so they can't arrest her. But then Weber
Speaker 3: finds evidence that changes their whole understanding of the timeline
Speaker 3: of events, and he presents that evidence to a judge
Speaker 3: in order to get a search warrant.
Speaker 12: This investigation has been unable to locate anyone that spoke
Speaker 12: with Telena or saw her since the twenty seventh of
Speaker 12: March twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: She was going to get that bed to us.
Speaker 12: She was checking to see.
Speaker 2: If we're coming to get the best this weekend.
Speaker 1: Her and Chantel had been communicating throughout the day on
Speaker 1: face that Jana had signed off.
Speaker 2: She was going to lay down for a while and
Speaker 2: said that she would chat with her later.
Speaker 12: This leaves to Lena unaccounted for for a full ten
Speaker 12: days before Corey says to Lena left home.
Speaker 7: That next morning, the twenty eighth, I got a message
Speaker 7: that said, abort mission.
Speaker 2: I've got a terrible migraine. I'm saying in bed.
Speaker 6: Today, abort mission. I've got a terrible migraine. I've been
Speaker 6: staying in bed today, bed today.
Speaker 12: It has been discovered that Corey called in sick for
Speaker 12: Toelena to work on Monday, March thirty, twenty twenty, and
Speaker 12: told them she would not be at work for the
Speaker 12: remainder of the week.
Speaker 6: My weekend migraine developed into a fever last night and
Speaker 6: it is currently hovering around around one hundred point five.
Speaker 12: Another recently obtained screenshot from Telena's Facebook page on March
Speaker 12: thirty shows Talina saying she called her doctor and was
Speaker 12: told to stay in bed and self medicate.
Speaker 8: I called my.
Speaker 6: Doctor and was told to stay in bed and stay
Speaker 6: hydrated and self.
Speaker 2: Medicate and call back or go to the er if
Speaker 2: my temper reaches is one o two.
Speaker 12: We know this is untrue because of the information obtained
Speaker 12: while at the Wagner Community Hospital.
Speaker 6: I think Oklahoma's medical artistet has stretched sin right now.
Speaker 7: Stretched thin.
Speaker 12: Subsequently, it was discovered there is no record that Telena
Speaker 12: ever went to the Wagner Community Hospital or was ever seen,
Speaker 12: even though Corey states she drove to Lena there herself.
Speaker 12: It is verified that the hospital documented everyone that was screened,
Speaker 12: including people that were not admitted to the hospital.
Speaker 6: Those of you who know me well know why I
Speaker 6: have DNR orders and my health directive, and I'm not
Speaker 6: going to let anyone into be any.
Speaker 12: This investigation recently discovered Internet usage on Telena's cellular phone
Speaker 12: stopped at two fifteen pm on April seven, but the
Speaker 12: final Facebook post on Telena's account indicates she was quote
Speaker 12: almost there unquote at three point fifteen pm the same day.
Speaker 2: Didn't feel up to driving, so hired a ride. I'm
Speaker 2: almost there. After I post this, I am turning off
Speaker 2: my phone.
Speaker 12: This final post appears suspicious and unlikely to have come
Speaker 12: from Telena or her cellular phone.
Speaker 11: Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time
Speaker 11: on the link with Tom.
Speaker 12: Probable cause exists that Corey fabricated a final Facebook post
Speaker 12: on Telena Galloway's account.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to be talked out of this plan.
Speaker 6: I'll catch up with everyone on the other side.
Speaker 12: Given the numerous fabrications, offered by Corey and areas of
Speaker 12: suspicion surrounding Corey. I believe it is likely she was
Speaker 12: or has been involved in the disappearance of Telena Galloway.
Speaker 11: I am thankful and green rateful that I do have
Speaker 11: someone watching out for me.
Speaker 2: And running the household.
Speaker 3: Next time on What Happened to Telenazar, things get wild
Speaker 3: in Wagner.
Speaker 2: Out of instinct, I grabbed for my pistol, but I.
Speaker 3: Did not have, and Jess's investigation reaches a fever pitch.
Speaker 7: One of the last conversations Wolfe and I had had
Speaker 7: he was extremely drunken high and he's I can't believe
Speaker 7: you figured it out.
Speaker 3: What Happened to Tealinazar is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3: It's written, reported, and hosted by me Melissa Jelson, with
Speaker 3: writing and story editing by Lauren Hansen. Our executive producer
Speaker 3: is Ryan Murdoch. For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Jason
Speaker 3: English and Carl Catele. Fact checking by Maya Shukri. Zoe
Speaker 3: Denkla is our associate producer. Jeremy Thal is our editor.
Speaker 3: Original music by Aaron Kaufman with additional music by Jeremy
Speaker 3: Thal and Gideon Crevishe additional sound design by Mariita Speth.
Speaker 3: Episodes are mixed and mastered by Karl Catle. Voice acting
Speaker 3: by Lizzie Gore, Chris Ferry, Stephanie Frame, Pete Monica and
Speaker 3: Molly Maslin. Our logo is designed by Edo Moore. Thanks
Speaker 3: so much for listening.