WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: The fate of the ship Freedon 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.360 This episode of Thinking Sideways is not brought to you 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.200 by Ken Leaving Barbie for g I Joe. Instead, it's 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.680 brought to you by Pitney Bows. No matter what your 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.879 small office needs or sends, Pitney Bows send pro C 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.160 two hundred. Has you covered the C two hundred, Let's 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.400 you send mail and packages right from your desk, Plus 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.560 save three cents a letter and up to thirty nine 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.920 cents off retail shipping rates. Start saving today and get 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:25.279 a free sixty day trial of a Pitney Bows C 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.320 two hundred by visiting p B dot com slash sideways. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:33.680 That's p B as in Peanut Butter dot com slash 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:58.160 sideways terms apply Sea sides for details. Ye hi there, 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:02.480 welcome to another episode of Thinking Sideways. I'm your host Joe, 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.640 joined as always by your other host, Devan and the 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.040 guy in this jour named Steve. Okay, there you go. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.959 Uh yeah, the third one, the third wheel. Now you're 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.280 not we're all yeah, we're all equally at the bottles here. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.720 It's smelling and I refused to put it on because 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.839 Joe had it last. Yeah, we're talking about my feet 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.280 don't stink. Yeah, let's uh, well, this is off to 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.959 a raging start. What are we doing here today, Joe, Oh, 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.080 I don't know. I was going to do a story 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.040 about garbage collection, and then somebody dropped this one on 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.680 my desk. Kind of interesting story. So I dropped the 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.000 garbage one and picked up this one. Alright, alright, its mystery. 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.880 It turns out it begins in late nine when the 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:51.240 freighter freed On set out for Haiti from Miami, Florida. Uh, 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:53.640 the island of Haiti, that is, the freed was under 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.320 the command of Florian meyer Busch, a German guy. It 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.360 was an a two foot tramp freighter Reggie steered in 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:04.400 the Bahamas tramp prader. Uh. Any any sort of tramp 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.800 ship is like, it's not it's one that doesn't belong 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:08.840 to a regular shipping company and so it doesn't have 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.359 a regular schedule. Essentially it does it just does sort 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.079 of spotloads, so it picks up a spot job to 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:17.480 transport cargo from the spot to this spot. But you know, 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.640 it varies all over the place. And they're called tramp 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.760 and you know, you associate that that word. What's kind 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.320 of an old, rusty kruddy looking ship, which they tend 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.040 to be because they're you know the obviously the new 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:30.919 shining ones are that those are round by the big 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.919 lines because there's lots of money. Yeah yeah, so that's 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.360 what a tramp prader is. So it it worked the 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:41.320 Carribbean waters carrying loads of whatever people want to ship 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.239 pretty much, and there's something there's some rumors that a 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.760 lot of these boats do a lot of smuggling also, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.840 which would make kind of sense, kind of desper for 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.040 cash because they're not getting the big and I mean 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.760 by they're not getting the giant lucrative contracts. Oh yeah, 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.120 they're not there, they really aren't. But they're just doing 0:02:58.120 --> 0:02:59.519 this spot stuff. Like I can say, it's kind of 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.639 a hand amout the existence, I'm sure, although most probably 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:04.640 most of what they carry is perfectly legit. And you know, 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.040 it actually is possible to carry a totally legit load 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.280 and maybe have a little bit of drugs on board, 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.639 you know, I mean, it really is. And I used 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:14.360 to know it got years ago who had had been 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.799 in the Merchant Marine and he smuggled drugs just personally 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.280 for himself while he was in the merchant Marines, and 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.040 a lot of people did, so, you know, is that 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.600 considered smuggling or just carrying your own supply considered smuggling 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.200 thisgling no matter what the what you do it for. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.320 Yeah he did smuggle. But anyway, but back to back 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.080 to our story, um with frieda on was besides carrying 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.240 the German guy at Floria and it was also carrying 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.520 Lisa Bishop, who was twenty three years old from Atlanta, Georgia. 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.440 Attractive white lady. Exactly exactly which makes us interested in 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.080 this story. Yeah, exactly exactly why we're doing it pretty much. Yeah, 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.080 Lisa was, as I said, twenty three years old, a 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.680 journalism student at Georgia State University living in Atlanta in 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.800 n She had a boyfriend, Paul Cornwell, who if you 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.920 watched Unsolved Mysteries, you can see Paul. He's on there 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.520 because this is an Unsolved Mysteries the TV show special 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.200 They actually did an episode about this one. Yeah, and 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.000 that long long time ago. It's sometimes I forget that 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.360 they would just take any story, you know what I'm saying. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.320 Like the mythos of that show made it seem like 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.800 they were always doing big important cases. They did everything, 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.039 which is the fun thing about that show. Yeah, some 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.360 of them worse, these these little smaller kind of more 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.360 obscure stories. This is a legitimate story about it. Yeah, 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.479 and it totally is. And it's a mystery. What the 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:34.919 hell happened to her? The ship and everything. Oh, I'm 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.320 giving it all the way here. Sorry, Let's go back 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.919 to Paul with his awesome haircut. And Paul did not 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.520 have the best I'm assuming he's caught up at the times. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.760 He's got a better haircut these days. I guess it 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.080 was probably the time they were filming, but yeah, even 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:54.800 ninety one. By the time they filmed that, I don't 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.400 know exactly what they did. But at the time that 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.800 Lisa left Miami on the pre dawn, he owned a 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.680 punk rock club in Atlanta called Metroplex, which apparently in 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:08.960 back in the day it was a pretty happening venue, 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.680 and my think was still around. Actually I don't know 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.440 that he didn't even I didn't even think to look 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.760 at that. Yeah I did. I did a quick look. 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.240 It does appear that's still there. It's probably totally different. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:23.840 All those venues change, you know, totally from a year practically, 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.480 but he owned it and managed it, and Lisa apparently 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.120 hung out there a lot, because why not, she'd been 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.320 dating him for like three years and she was hanging 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:35.880 out there and met this German guy we talked about 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.480 before Flori and Meyer Brush who had long hair, which 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.840 was still okay in the eighties. Yeah, he had he 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.200 had really really long hair. He had hair band kind 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.920 of hair. Yeah. I'm not making fun of it's just like, 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:49.560 if you want to get an idea of how much 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:53.640 hair this guy was, I think of poison in the eighties. Yeah, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:06:01.960 so it's okay again, is it? Yeah? Or if you're 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.320 you know, big and buff and you have a big beard, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.640 it's okay again. You could be like, what's his name, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:13.239 Flavio or Fabio? I mean Fabio, like Flaviot. There's a story, 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.880 but I'll tell you guys later, little Finn people at 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.680 At this time, as I said, Lisa was Lisa was 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:21.760 a journalism student that she was sticking of writing a 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.800 story about about Haiti. And she's done something traveling in 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.200 the Caribbean, and she was thinking to be cool to 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.479 write a story about the differences between you know, the 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.719 economies and level of wealth in America and Haiti. Something 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:35.520 that sort of lashed this all with guilt, makes us 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:37.719 feel bad about what's going on in Haiti. Versus you know, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:39.360 how well we have it here, that kind of thing, 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.880 you know, starving children in Africa plight. Yeah, I kind 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:44.920 of like that. Or you never know, I mean, maybe 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.280 she wanted to do it more seriously intellectual story about 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.200 what what are they doing wrong down there? That's something 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.040 more really actually economically right, And I don't know who knows. 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.880 I feel like I shouldn't. I should quickly clarify that 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.000 I don't think Haiti is in Africa because I feel 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:03.720 like something, Yeah that quickly say that. Anyway, Yeah, it's 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.239 hard to tell what she was trying to write about. 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.440 What she did want to write about that, yeah, assuming 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.880 you know, assuming that maybe she just wanted an excuse to, like, 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.680 you know, hop on this this ship with this handsome, 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.160 long hair German, an excuse to go down to the Caribbeans, 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.000 go somewhere. Yeah, it could have been. Uh. The story 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.320 varies a little bit though, um, and I'm not sure 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.720 how important it is, but it could be. And then 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.440 one telling I've heard, Lisa tells Florida that she wants 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.600 to do a story about Haiti, and then Florida says, 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.000 oh my god, in this German accent that hey, I'm 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:35.800 the captain of this ship which is going to sail 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.000 to Haiti, and and another telling uh, they're just chatting, 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:40.920 and Florian says, well, I have a ship that I'm 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.200 kind of the commander of, and hey, we're gonna leave 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:46.160 on this run to go to Haiti, and hey, you 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.640 want to tag along? And and then maybe she came 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:50.160 up with the idea that hey, I should write a 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.480 story about it. Is in having the trip available to 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.160 her actually spurred the idea of the yeah, other than 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.400 rather than the other way around, exactly exactly, And the 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.200 only reason this is even remotely significant is it's like, 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.360 you know, some people have said that, well, did he 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.160 sort of like, uh, find out she was interested and 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.680 sort of trick her onto the ship or you know 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.360 what I'm saying, it was convenient I got. Yeah, it 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.360 sort of works this way into the theory is there, right, 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.480 But since it's hard to say since we don't know 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.720 exactly which of these versions is true. But so back 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.640 to Lisa. She decides that getting onto a ship it 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.520 was by the way, besides Florida and there were seven 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.880 other crew members who were all Haitians. She decided to 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.680 getting onto the ship with this one guy she barely knew, 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.280 and seven other guys she didn't know at all. Was 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.880 a great idea, sure, of course, but apparently her parents 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.240 and her boyfriend didn't think it was such a hot idea. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.480 I saw Lisa's father on the Unsolved Mysteries episodes and 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.360 he I don't think he ever men you saw that quote? 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:50.880 For him? He was like, it's like, you know, I 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.079 saw that. I saw this picture, but I immediately thought, 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.320 this is just not the kind of people she ought 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.480 to be hanging out with. Something like that sentiments at 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.679 every about any history of just about every guy their 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.480 daughter was with. Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, he just 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.599 didn't think that Floyd was there kind of people. Yeah, 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.360 and at Leasa's boyfriend, Paul, was also opposed for the 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.040 obvious reasons, right and I don't need a name. Yeah. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.880 He tried to persuade her not to go, but Lisa assisted, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.559 and so she signed on aboard the freed on as 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.440 a cook. So do we know how good her cooking 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.120 skills were? I have no idea, because that might play 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.839 into our mystery. Yeah, she burned one meal too many, Yeah, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.080 you know, I mean if she was totally bad, So 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.200 I seem it could have given her paletates of just 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:39.720 TV dinners to prepare for the crew. I don't know, 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:44.160 but it's not that long of a trip though, so yeah, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.280 Miami Haiti. I don't think it would be more than 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.440 maybe three days. Yeah, well if they leave, they left 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.240 on the seventeen, and they expected to call from her 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.760 on Christmas Day, which is eight days later, so it 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.240 had to be less than a week to get there. Yeah, 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.320 I'm kind of out in that it was probably half 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.760 as much of that time. Probably. Yeah. Lisa and Florida 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.079 and left Atlanta, traveled to Miami, where the Freedown was docked, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.319 and on the morning of December sevente the ship set 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.280 sail with Lisa on board and also Florida and the 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.400 seven Haitian crew members on board. She at. Lisa did 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.600 call her parents that morning to say goodbye, and she 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:23.520 said she would call when the ship got to Haiti, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.360 and the plan was to sail the ship to go Naive, 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.640 which is a small part about sixty miles north of 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.120 Porta Prince Haiti on the west coast of Haiti. Yeah, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.600 and then her plan data return was the thirty one December. 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.439 I was going to say a kind of just south. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.080 I'd say it's half again as far as the Palmas 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.440 from Miami, wouldn't you say something like that. It's like, 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:51.200 you know, if you if you don't have a Miami 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.520 said the Bahamas is like a couple of plus like 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.160 eight or nine hours. Yeah, I mean yeah, And so 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.280 I assumed this old this this ship was old and 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.240 rusty and everything. It probably probably wasn't that fast. But yeah, 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.920 essentially to get there days down, hang out for a 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:08.200 couple of days, and then a couple of days back 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.719 up right, something like that, and then uh, if you 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:13.679 look on the map with the way it works is 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.160 you go do south from Miami to Cuba, and then 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.240 turned southeast and sort of hugged the coast of Cuba 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.319 until you get to the east end of it, turned 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.280 south and then right left, right, and eventually you wind 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.440 up in Hey. And so that's became Fidel Castro's personal chef. Well, 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.640 you know, actually that's probably that's the other way that 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:35.840 that could have gone. It could have been so good 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.439 of a chef. Oh good point. The actually the Cubans 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.800 were contacted by by the American government regarding this story. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.720 But we'll get there we'll talk there later. Yeah, no 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:50.040 one has ever seen Lisa Bishop ever since. Nobody ever 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.719 since that faithful day on the seventeenth of December that 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:57.440 they left the and left Miami. Yeah, nobody, not even 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.720 the crew members. Well that's a good point, right, she 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:02.880 wass sensibly on a ship with them for a couple 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:04.840 of days. So well, none of those people have been 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:09.080 seen either. But she's a pretty white girl, so she's 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.960 the only one that ever, anybody ever cares about. Absolutely. 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.600 What about the pretty German boy, that's a good point. 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.360 We'll talk about him. That we'll find out more about. 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:20.640 And of course the Haitians haven't been seen, but nobody 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.280 cares about them, right, yeah, exactly. By the way, if 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:30.720 you're not catching it, everybody, we're being sarcastic. Nobody cares. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.839 We care a lot, Yes, sure, a lot of people 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.800 cared actually, but uh so, Christmas Day came and went, 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.440 Lisa's parents still had not gotten a message of a 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:43.679 phone call from her, so they got a little worried, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.240 not surprisingly, and also the families of the Haitian crew 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:52.320 members also apparently became alarmed. And I heard that actually 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.920 they reported their their family members missing before Lisa's family 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.840 reported her missing. Well, they would see or have con 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.360 checked with them much sooner than her. They might have 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:04.960 been waiting at the dock for the ship to arrive, 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.320 and the ship never arrived. It never showed up. The 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.360 ship never showed up. Okay, the ship, the crew, everything, 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.319 the car. None of them have ever been seen again, gotcha, 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.680 none of them. So Lisa's family contacted the authorities, assuming 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.360 I'd hear the Coast Guard would be the people to contact. 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.320 Uh and I think family members of the crew also did. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.480 Do we have names for any of the crew, No, 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.520 not a one. Now, the stories all of the Internet, 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:36.480 this story is usually pretty stink and skimpy in the 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.400 content is available. I thought i'd make sure that I 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.560 just tendn't someholp. Yeah, no, you weren't the only one 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.880 who couldn't find that. It's actually, you know, I think 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.440 of this as your your standard in TV movie starring 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.320 Florian long haired guy and Lisa white girl. And then 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.680 there's seven extras in the background speak or yeah, doing 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.160 chores on the boat. That's kind of way it is. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.920 I know. The Coastguard contacted ports all over the Caribbean, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.040 uh and including the Cubans, because there had always been 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.800 that possibility that somehow they'd stumbled into Cuban waters and 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.080 mid seas by the Cuban navy or something like that. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.800 The Cubans swore they had not seen the ship or 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.079 any of the people. They were probably telling the truth. 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:17.520 I also did some aerial searches. That's the Coast Guard 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.480 did aerial searches in January nine of the Old Bahama Channel, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.160 which if just let me do you know what you know? 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.440 You probably know what the Old Bahama Channel is personally, Yeah, 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.080 do you want to describe it or should I? We'll 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.520 go for it. Okay, this is the obvious route between 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:33.320 Miami and Haiti, and it's again it's like what I 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.000 described before. Instead, you don't go to straight line because 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.360 west of the Bahamas there's sort of a huge area 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.720 of shallows there um and so if you want in 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:47.320 a straight line towards Haiti, you run around sound. So 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:49.520 you go around, you go south where there's a nice 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:51.560 much deeper water, and then when you get very close 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.080 to the coast of Cuba, you know, hang on, hang 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.760 on left, go southeast and hug the coast of Cuba, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.400 and then go around and that's that's the old Bahama Channel, 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.280 and they searched that with with jets um. I think 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:05.720 they stepped three or four times something something like that, 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.920 didn't spot a thing. And the immediate conclusion, of course, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.600 was at the Freedom Sink, which is not unusual by 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.680 the way we should describe it. It is a the 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.480 photo that is out there, Yeah, it is a narrow, 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.560 rusty hunk a junk, yeah, And it appears to have 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:29.160 everything stacked above the decks. So it looked in that 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.280 photo that I saw, ignoring what you see on unsolved mysteries, 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.240 it did not look as if it was all that 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.560 stable of a boat and others it looked top heavy. 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.440 Tab it was probably stable when he had everything stashed 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.280 in the whole. I'm sure that they had. They probably 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.760 were smart enough to put the heavier stuff down inside 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:51.080 the hole, you know. And face with my hands up 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.080 in the air, I don't know. Yeah. Again, these are 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.800 people who the more money, the more cargo they haul, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.360 the more money they make, so obviously they're probably going 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.040 to overload the ship. I might have been a factor here. 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:02.720 I'm not saying I want to give anything away that 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.320 could have been a factor in what happened if the 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:07.920 boat sank, but there's not a lot of other possibilities 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.120 as well. Yeah, but anyway, as far as far as 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:15.120 the Coast Guard was concerned, it was like, well, rust 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.720 bucket of a boat. You know, the weather's dicey out there, 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.760 you know, I sank. Okay, no, no mystery there. But 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.600 but Lisa's parents and Paul Cornell did not want to 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:28.160 drop this case. Yeah, they didn't understandably. Yeah, they tried 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.600 to track down everybody who knew Florian. That would be 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.880 people in Miami as well as Atlanta because and I'm 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:35.840 not sure why you hung out in Atlanta so much. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.200 She was apparently kind of a drifter. That's that's what 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.040 I've everywhere I've seen it kind of said that he 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.080 just kind of went where the wind blew. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.520 kind of that way. She's a good time. Yeah. I 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.120 think Atlanta is probably kind of cooler than Miami. If 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.240 his boat is docked in Miami, it's weird that he's 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.320 in Atlanta. There's there's no obvious reason for him to 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.200 be there, I think, is what. Yeah, I'm for it. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:03.320 It might be a cooler town and it's only about 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.239 five six centred miles away or something like that. So 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.359 you know, I don't know about that. If it was 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.119 a cooler town than than Miami, I thought you were 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:17.800 about to say, I don't know about I was really 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.040 wondered for a second there. Okay, Yeah, I had no 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.520 idea what it was. Yeah, okay they okay, yeah, we're 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.480 talking about the family. It's my fault. No, no, that's fine. Um, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:35.879 but okay, now I used my faulty keep going. Yeah. 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.560 They also besides, besides tracking down all all of his acquaintances, 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.480 they tried to get the press interested in The Miami 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:44.840 New Times published a big article about this story in 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.800 April of nineteen nine, which would be four months later. Yeah, exactly. 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:53.359 And and underwater salvagher named Bob Nyberg read the article 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.119 and he remembered something that he had seen. So it 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.960 comes forward saying he'd seen the Freedom in Georgetown Harbor 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.560 on Grant, Cayman Island, about two weeks after it supposedly disappeared. 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.200 And this Grant came in island about five hundred miles 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:11.440 to the west of Haiti, which is the wrong direction. Yeah. Yeah, 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.160 it's totally on the the opposite side of Cuba from 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.880 where our boat was supposed to be Yeah. Um, so 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.480 again he saw this. About two weeks after the boat disappeared, 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.440 he had, as he gave a statement on Unsolved Mysteries, said, 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.359 I'm gonna like I was working in Grant came in 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.359 on January that year. They've been a boat that came in. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:31.880 We were working under water, directly in the harbor area 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:33.639 where the ships pulled in and tied up. When I 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:35.520 heard the ship coming in, we came up and as 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:40.720 as then came up from underwater and uh probably and 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:42.440 as I was coming out of the water, we looked 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.280 back and noticed that the name was Freedom f R 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.480 E E d O N. And I made a statement 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:49.720 to my friend that those guys need their freedom because 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:54.320 they can't even spell the word yeah. So that anyway, 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.680 he said that the next morning the boat was gone. 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.639 Yeah that, but he said it was definitely freedom. He 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.040 made an out that, yeah, little things like that can 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.359 stick out. Well, that is, every time I read the 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.080 name of this boat, my I automatically in my head 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.159 fixed it so the end became an M because you 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:21.720 just you expected to be. I was calling it free on. Yeah, 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:27.280 I like, I like all the free on disappears should 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.800 be free. Yeah, yeah, I know. But when Lisa's family 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:36.040 and boyfriend heard about this, Paul Cornwell got together with 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.600 Bob Niberg again that the two of them traveled back 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.680 to Grant cayman In to investigate Cornwell and Ibrig's boat 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.520 to witnesses who said that they had actually seen Florian, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.320 but nobody had seen Lisa. Yeah, they had actually took 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.600 pictures of both of them down with them and showed 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:54.520 them to a lot of people, and yeah, they got 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.240 some ideas on Florian. Uh he was however, this is Florian. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.040 He was seeing what the short dude with black hair? 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.320 Is that how he described as a dude? Yeah, no, yeah, 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:06.720 the guy he was seeing with Louis Yeah, just a 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.520 short man dude. What was Lisa's hair? She was blonde, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.920 kind of a dark blond. Yeah, yeah, she was actually 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:18.040 a good looking girl. But beyond beyond that, Paul and 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.000 Bob found nothing in Grand cayman Um and so that 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.560 the trail kind of petered out. Later on, the guy 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:29.399 was ided as a Haitian man called Philip, and reportedly 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:31.879 Philip was the guy who charted the Freedom for its 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.480 trip to Haiti. Well, I'll tell you how we found 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:39.199 this out later, Paul Cornwell went back to Atlanta. He 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.919 continued looking for any acquaintances or friends of Florian, and 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.879 he found this woman who had been storing some of 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.480 his stuff for him, Florian's Yeah, yeah, Florian stuff. And 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.000 I'm still a little hazy on exactly what the connection 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.600 was to Florida. How and how Paul found this woman. Well, 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.760 I know that they were apparently they had had a relationship, 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.680 but I don't know how they how Paul found her. Yeah, 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.680 I don't know. That's never really explained. Yeah, I don't 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:07.560 know either, and that we don't know her name. So 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.720 I'm calling her Jane Doe. So Dan, is that okay 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.000 with you? You know, that's fine. I'm just considering, I mean, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.679 Janelle Mett thinking about what Matt Damon. No, I'm just 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:18.920