WEBVTT - Small Town, Big Secrets — Talina Zar E2 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.880 This episode mentioned suicide. Please take care while listening. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.600 Middletown have their skeleton. I mean they're not with that. 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.840 Greg Thompson is fifty three years old and has lived 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:17.400 within a forty five minute drive of Wagner, Oklahoma, his 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:18.439 entire life. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.239 Wagner is a small town. I don't even remember what 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.400 the population is here rad off In. I want to 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.080 say three to five thousand people or something, but that 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:29.160 could be totally out. 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:30.040 I looked it up. 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:34.720 It's about double that eight thousand. Still small, a place 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.239 where everyone kind of knows everyone and neighbors act neighborly. 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.920 When Greg meets Tealina, she's a recent transplant to the area. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:49.559 Outsiders don't normally take interest in what tier. With Tlena 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.120 not being from the area, that made her even more special. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.040 In my opinion, Greg became friends with Telina because he's 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.480 the guy you call when you've got odd jobs that 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:00.160 need doing. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.759 She hired me for like candy man stuff like mowing 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.280 and weed eat and hanging TVs and just all kinds 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.240 there's handyman type stuff. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.759 In early twenty twenty, before COVID shuts the world down, 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.240 Teleina is on the hunt for the perfect mattress to 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.560 help her troubled sleep. This turns out to be a 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.560 tedious task for the fifty three year old who buys 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.880 and returns multiple mattresses in the process, but luckily she 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.240 has Greg to help her with the heavy lifting. 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.600 Telena wanted to change the mattress out in her bedroom, 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.120 and she got a new mattress and needed somebody to 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.480 unpack it and put it on and then haul the 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.399 old and off. And so I did all that well. 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.680 A couple of weeks later she said that she didn't 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.120 care for the mattress, who wanted it return. She's got 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:52.080 another one, Kevin. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.440 Finally, Teleina finds a mattress that checks all the boxes, 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.640 but now she has an extra mattress on her hands. 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.600 Luckily she knows a family in need. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.520 She was going to guess that bed to us. Our 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.000 son is like six foot one now, so like make 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:10.399 bed to word that for him. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.919 This is aris house, another one of Tolena's local friends. 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.760 Aris had just closed on her very first house. Teleina 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:25.000 had guided her through the process emotionally and sometimes even financially. 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.520 In fact, the bed was just one of many things 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.040 Teleina offered to help make Eris's new house a home. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.320 She was a part of the reason why we were 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:35.880 able to. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:41.919 Get utilities turned on new law, new light. She had 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:47.000 been saving up a Nashtag for I've ever since I 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.120 told her that we were starting a profit to buy 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.920 a house. I can't even put a name to all 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:56.680 the kitchen appliances and trinkets and items that she's put 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.800 in our house and added to our lives. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:00.480 The way she did. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.880 As COVID hits Oklahoma, Aris doesn't get to see her 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:09.560 friend very often. Tuleina has rheumatoid arthritis and other health 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.880 issues that make contracting the virus a real concern. 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.200 She was a you know, compromised, so she was taking 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:18.359 it very, very seriously. 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.840 But Tealina still wants to hand off the mattress as 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:26.400 she promised, and so on Friday, March twenty seventh, Tulina 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.480 texts Eiris to organize a pickup. 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:30.920 She was checking to see if we were coming to 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.520 get to bed this weekend. That next morning, the twenty eighth, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:36.680 I got a message that said. 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.520 A bort mission. I've got a terrible migraine. I've been 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:41.600 staying in bed today. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.640 I said, okay out. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.400 A few days go by, having not heard from. Her 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.280 friend Aris checks in. 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.320 On a third and I said her that I hope 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.680 you're feeling Betters wanting you know, if I get dropped 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:55.920 by it. 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.120 Yes, I don't. 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.480 Want anybody coming to the porch and making the dogs 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:02.920 bark because I'm sleeping a lot. 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:05.960 I said, that's okay, maybe another time. 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:11.200 This is her last exchange with Telena before she goes 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:17.480 missing from iHeart Podcasts. I'm Melissa Jelson, and this is 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.440 what happened to Teleina's oar. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.880 Hey everyone, I'm on day nine of this virus, and 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.600 I am pretty sure it has reached my lungs. 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.760 For her to just leave people with no way of 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.040 contacting her and knowing if she was alive or. 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.440 Dead was strange to me. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.680 There were a lot of secrets that were very hard 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.000 to find, and no one wanted to talk about anything. 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.520 I'm a really nosy person, so that's how I got 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:06.320 caught up in all this. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.520 I was like, this is this is crazy. 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:16.400 Episode two small town big Secrets. 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.480 She wanted to help anybody and anybody. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.680 This is Greg, the local handyman in Wagner. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:30.160 She helped us volunteer picking up trash a few times. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.360 I'd heard of her giving food to people that needed 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.160 it or giving them little jobs to do. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:37.599 Like me. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.000 You know, she knew that I needed something to do, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.880 so she'd give me jobs. And she had other people 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:49.000 that would you know, do little odd jobs for or 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.880 somebody he moved through the area from bigger towns and 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.800 just take in the interest in what's going on here 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.960 and trying to help people that live here that may 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:01.440 impression on me. 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.720 When Teleina moved to Wagner, Oklahoma, in late twenty sixteen, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.240 she did it with her partner Tom. They left their 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.560 longtime home in Indianapolis and purchased a brown ranch house 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:18.520 in Whitehorn Cove, a lake community near the border of Arkansas. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.760 From the outside, the home is rustic looking, cozy, private, 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.320 set back from the road and nestled among the tall trees. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.040 It's not easy to move to a totally new place 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.240 when you're in your fifties and beyond. But the couple 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.200 had their reasons for choosing Wagner, of all places, one 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:40.880 being they had a group of friends who were already 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.919 established there, Like Aris Howe, she. 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:49.320 Could be exactly the person that she was here and 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:55.239 that was a little weird, a lot filly a little 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:59.839 queer Oklahoma had all the people who brought out the 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.320 those aspects for her. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.679 The two women were several decades apart, and ers looked 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:07.800 up to Telena like a big sister. 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.320 She always left you kind of enraptured by what she 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.920 was saying because she had a unique way of telling stories. 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.320 She had a very dry wit, and it. 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.320 Helped that they shared the same offbeat sense of humor. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.760 Aris told me about one time Telena was giving her 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.640 some spices from her pantry that she no longer needed. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.200 I grabbed a bottle of dill weed and I said, oh, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.720 look at the bottom of my husband the dill weed. 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.240 And we laughed really hard about it, and then she 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.560 snatched the bottle away from me and a land of 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:39.239 the other round. 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.560 She had a label maker. She typed in that labels at. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.480 The bottle of Jason and clapped it on the bottle 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.120 of dill weed and handed it back the look. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.120 Of absolute joy and mischief in her faith. When she 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.520 handed me that bottle, it was like sharing the best secret, 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:57.960 and we both fell apart in laughter. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.280 To her friends, to Lena was not only kind, generous, 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:07.040 and hilarious, she was also super smart, here's Greg again. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.880 She was a self proclaimed computer I called her my 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:12.840 own little hacker. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.520 Talina was a techie and a good one. She worked 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.280 on Microsoft products, fixing code errors that no one else 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:20.880 could solve. 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:23.200 My wife was going to school at the time for 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:28.480 her bachelor's and didn't know anything about powerpart presentations and 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:34.760 Microsoft Office and all these things. In Tolena had worked 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.520 for Microsoft and she dropped some of these program so 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.200 she saw another opportunity to help my wife, and she 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.560 started helping her with these presentations and showed her how 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:50.160 to do it herself and things like that. She felt 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.680 like she could help you out of the hole you're in. 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:54.760 She was here, was all in. 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.160 Telena was helpful to her community and also devoted to 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.920 her partner to The two had been together for more 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:03.920 than a decade. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.360 They had one of those bonds that you know, everybody 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:08.160 could aspire to. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:10.880 You could see you could just look at him in 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:12.880 a glance, the way they looked at each other. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.720 They were young fool anytime they looked at each other. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:22.360 But Teleina wasn't a homebody. She travels a lot for work, 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.280 often swinging through Indiana, where she and Tom used to live, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:32.200 and some of her extended family remained, and then while 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:36.439 she was on one of those routine trips, the unthinkable happened. 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:42.040 They both went here and then like not even I 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.040 don't even think it was a year later. Tom had 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.240 a stroke while she was away on work, and when 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.480 she came back from work, you know, they had found 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.319 it on the floor. He was still alive. He had 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.360 hung on long enough for her to say goodbye. 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:02.160 Tom was only fifty nine. In his obituary, he was 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.080 described as a twenty two year veteran of the army 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.400 and an avid gun enthusiast. The family asked that in 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:13.559 lieu of flowers, well wishers could donate to his favorite charity, 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:15.640 for Love of Dogs. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.560 I remember after Tom and path and we went over 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.480 to her house for the memorial. It was an intimate 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.040 gathering with probably about twenty of us, and we all 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.680 kind of said a word for Tom, and you could 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.760 see around the house where she left ticket that they 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:39.240 do not move, do not touch. The general assumption was 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.800 so I was was the left eye inst he had 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.520 cut and she wasn't ready for those to. 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.119 Move Toalina was shattered by the loss. 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:55.360 They were deeply connected and while she was able to 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.079 regate her joy and find life again. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.120 It wasn't the same as she couldn't share it with him. 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:06.800 Tom's death on moored Toelena, and for a long while 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.600 afterwards she battled with a stubborn depression. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.840 And I actually spend a lot of phone calls together afterwards, 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.559 because whenever you spend an amount of your life with 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:22.280 somebody bouncing decisions off of them, or you know, looking 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.000 for validation for a decision, you get kind of lost. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.079 And there were a lot of time where she would 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:30.959 call me and ask me, Hey, what do you think 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:35.280 about this? That happened a lot more after Tom had passed. 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.840 I had her come afterwards, and I was a little nervous. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.960 This is Kim, a hairdresser and wagner who cut Telena's hair. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.319 She remembered Telena's first appointment after Tom passed. 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.440 I had my mom, who is a widow as well, 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.080 come fit and be with us so that i'd have 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.920 like them backup in case it got to too sad. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.320 I don't like to handle that stuff, and I'm not 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:02.400 good at saying. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:02.800 The right word. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:04.400 But we got through it. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.640 There was just a few, you know, peers that were 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:12.120 shed Tolena. She had even asked if my mom would 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.680 maybe be her roommate for a while after, you know, 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.320 because my dad had passed and she was living alone too, 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:21.560 and she had been talking about finding a roommate to 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:23.280 share in the bills and stuff. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.760 Telena didn't like living alone in the house she'd shared 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:31.679 with Tom. Nicole, her friend in Tennessee, remembered how Telena 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.360 navigated her new role as a relatively young widow. 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.320 Of course, she missed him greatly and missed their life together. 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.240 She was dealing with it with grace and moving on 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.360 with her life the best she could. She had told 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.120 me that she had taken in a roommate and that 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:57.280 was mostly more for having someone around them necessity. 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:02.240 It was in twenty nineteen that Lena invited Corey Bamiley, 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.120 a fifty eight year old woman she knew through friends, 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.440 to move in with her. Corey was also in a 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.760 transitional period, in the middle of a divorce. I couldn't 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.600 get Corey to speak to me, but from what I've learned, 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.040 the two had a lot in common. They were both 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:23.480 adjusting to life without a partner. They were both enthusiastic 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:28.920 pet owners, sharing a singular love for animals, and they 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:33.280 both dabbled in pagan culture and attended local renaissance fairs 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:33.880 for fun. 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.079 After they had moved in together, every time I cut 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.480 Tolena's hair, the first thing I would say was, how 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:40.960 was how's your roommate going? 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.760 And she always answered the best I've ever had. 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.000 It didn't take long for Toleina and Corey's lives to 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.600 become intertwined. Soon enough, Corey was over at Kim's getting 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.600 her own haircut, while Teleina was adventurous with her hair, 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.520 dyeing at different colors and even giving a perm Corey 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:03.960 preferred a look some might call a mullet. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.840 We'd go short on the you know, straight across prop 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:08.720 of the ears, and a little bit longer in the back. 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.120 It wasn't anything that I wanted to do to her, 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:13.720 but that's what she wanted. 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.520 Corey quickly fell in with Teleina's social circle too. Here's 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:19.200 Greg again. 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.160 We'd had Telena and Corey over for dinner, and a 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.760 couple of times went out with him. You would have 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.840 thought they were best friends. Had had noting Cheddar for 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:29.520 a long time. 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.200 Greg found a kindred spirit in Corey. She too was 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.920 a handyman of sorts, strong, industrious. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.880 From the term that I met Corey Bromley, she was 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.840 somebody that you know, I could relate to, and you know, 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.000 at the time I was going to things that you know, 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:51.760 I could talk to her about. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.320 Corey also found unique ways to make money, like buying 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.920 people's old stuff and selling it on eBay and Greg's 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.080 maybe he could do that too. 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.080 I like, you know, pilfer and through stuff. I had 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:10.240 done some other work elsewhere and accumulated a bunch of things, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.040 and she was helping me, you know, kind of take 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.880 inventory and possibly help meself some of it. 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.680 Telena seemed to really enjoy having a friend around too. 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:26.200 It lifted her spirits. Here's ris again. Having Corey air 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:27.960 improved their quality of life. 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.160 He would go out in the yard and you know, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.240 play with the dog. They would go on car ride 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.720 together and just take the bogs out of the lake. 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:41.360 While Corey's presence was a comfort, there were clues that 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.440 Teleina was still struggling with Tom's loss. In November of 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.520 twenty nineteen, a few months before COVID hit, Tlena wrote 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.960 a note to her friends on Facebook entitled Grief Etiquette. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.040 Here's a reenactment of some of that post. 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.600 Over the last two years, many people have said they 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.840 don't know how to interact with me ari Tom's death. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:10.320 The anniversary of Tom's death is approaching. I'm already struggling 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.160 with that, combined with lonely holidays. What I do not 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:19.120 need right now are unsolicited videos and picks of Tom. 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.200 At this point, it's difficult for me to concentrate on 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.680 work or have pockets of happiness if I see an 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:28.360 unsolicited pick or video. 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.640 During those times, I feel like I ran flat out 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.160 into a wall. It's painful. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.520 If you ask first, I can respond when I'm emotionally 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.320 and physically available to reminisce. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.640 If you post on your own feed, I can choose 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:45.560 whether or not to serve that content. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:51.760 If you send me or tag me in unsolicited reminiscence, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.880 I will block you to save my sanity. 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.600 Please don't slap me in the face with my grief. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:00.880 Thanks for hearing me. 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.360 Heelena was never one to let anything do. She would 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:12.560 say that head on and a threat it because you know, 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.880 sitting in silence is uncomfortable. Let figure out what went 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.080 wrong and how we can avoid it in the future. 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:23.399 Aris described to Lena as assertive and good at setting boundaries, 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:29.440 and so in April twenty twenty, when Telena posts on Facebook. 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.159 I made the decision at the ownset that if it 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.560 got bad enough, I would not go to the hospital. 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:41.320 Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time, 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:42.960 Aris does. 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:45.480 There were a lot of parts of her life that 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.360 she kept private, and we respected that, like we love 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:54.560 the person that she gave us every time we got 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:59.040 to see her. It did seem out of character, but 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.040 considering the fact that she had lost her husband not 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.280 so long ago. People can be consumed with Greece at 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.320 different times, it would make sense to me. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:16.520 Quick note, you've heard most of Telena's cryptic Facebook post already, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.360 but there's a few lines I withheld that mentioned Tom. 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:22.760 Now that you know who he is, this will make 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:23.320 more sense. 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.719 In and out of fever and chills with Tom just 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:33.920 out of reach, I'm going to either beat this virus 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:36.920 or be with Tom. 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.080 I see it as a win win situation. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:45.000 Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.760 on the lake with Tom. 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.160 In this part of the post, it resonates with those 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.320 who knew Telena in real life, who had witnessed her 0:18:55.320 --> 0:19:00.720 debilitating depression after Tom's death. Here again is Nicole, who 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.480 saw Telena just a few weeks before she went missing. 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.960 I didn't take it as her being suicidal. I just 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.800 took it to mean that if she passed away from COVID, 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:13.800 she was at peace with it because she would be 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.679 with Tom, not that she was actively licking doorknobs and 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:19.800 trying to get COVID so that she could pass away. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:23.359 I took it that she was. 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.119 Good either way, and I feel like I feel like 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.840 that was true. Telena fashioned you know, well, if I die, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:31.320 I die. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.000 Yeah, There's not much I can do about it. 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.080 And if I live, I'll hug you again. 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.280 A week before Telena disappeared, she posted about her illness 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:48.360 on Facebook. 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.119 I called my doctor and was told to stay in 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.200 bed and stay hydrated and self medicate and call back 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.680 or go to the er. If my tempreach is one 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.200 O two. I think Oklahoma's medicals system is stretched thin 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.680 right now. I am thankful and grateful that I do 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.360 have someone watching out for me and running the household. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.200 Back to bed. I'm exhausted. I love you all. 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:16.240 Telena is talking about Corey, her roommate, running the household 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.720 and watching out for her. Corey had been the last 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.760 person to see Telena before she disappeared. On the day 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.640 Telena posted her mysterious message, Corey said she'd been out 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:32.040 running errands and came home to an empty house. The 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:36.160 next day, Corey posted to her own Facebook page, alerting 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:40.280 everyone to her missing roommate and asking for help. Here's 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.440 a recreation of parts of the post. 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.760 I called every taxi service I could think of last Eve, 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.040 and drivers don't keep records. I also called our phone 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.119 carrier to try and trace or track Telena's phone and 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.440 was told of an app that could do this if 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:00.800 the phone was turned on with location services activated. As 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:04.480 of this morning, she hasn't called home and her phone 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.360 still appears to be turned off. Anyone else hears from her, 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:10.040 please update me. 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:15.440 A day later, core posts again, this time sharing insight 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.639 into what Telena's experience with COVID had been like. 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.960 So this is my COVID nineteen rant and the state 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:24.440 of affairs here in rural Oklahoma. 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:26.760 Feel free to bypass this post. 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.679 I just need to rant or I will scream. 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:33.840 Maybe I need to do that. Anyway. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.520 When Telena first got a fever of one hundred point five, 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.480 We packed up and went to the er. We expected 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:44.880 to be able to get her a test. A tech 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.320 met us outside, questioned all of her symptoms and sent 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:55.160 us home without even allowing us to check in. We 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.400 determined that the healthcare system, at least here in Oklahoma 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.080 was not equipped to take care of everyone with viral 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:06.800 symptoms and would only do so if you got bad 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:12.359 enough to probably be admitted in Looking back, I think 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:16.960 her attitude changed on that car ride home from the er. 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:24.439 A few days go by. Talina's friends hear nothing and 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:28.359 start to worry she's died of COVID alone in a 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:34.560 remote cabin. But they also start imagining other worst case scenarios, 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:39.159 like Greg who speculates that maybe Tolena was abducted. 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.959 When she came up Methan and put this big Facebook 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.600 post on there say I'm going to the wood to die. 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:50.840 It didn't sound like her. We didn't, I mean me 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.600 and my wife and talked about it. We live on 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:57.640 the Highway sixty nine and Highways sixty nine goes from 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:02.920 the heart attackes all the way into Tangas. At the time, 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.000 you know, there was a lot of abductions and stuff 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.359 from even walmarts. You know, over here in our area 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:15.359 there was ladies picked up from Walmart for suspected sex 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.960 trade type things. Me and my wife watch a lot 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:23.920 of crime shows. We're armchair investigators over here. I mean, 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.640 we get a little lead and we follow it and 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:30.880 it you know, we're not trained investigators, That's what I'm 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.480 saying it. So we just didn't know something like that 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:36.120 could have happened to Colena. 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:41.920 Her friends think hope, maybe Toleina will emerge over the weekend, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:46.080 But as Saturday and Sunday come and go, they're polite. 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:51.639 Respect for her privacy kurdles into concern and dread, and 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:55.320 there's consensus that the police now need to be involved. 0:23:56.880 --> 0:24:00.880