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Speaker 1: Pushkin.

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Speaker 2: A couple of years ago, I found a video buried

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Speaker 2: on the Internet, deep in the metadata behind the four

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Speaker 2: or four error codes. In it, a young black woman

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Speaker 2: is questioning a middle aged white guy who's sitting on

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Speaker 2: the edge of his bed drinking a beer.

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Speaker 1: Did you hear baiting on the door?

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Speaker 3: Talking at the door like they just shut it on

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Speaker 3: it or something.

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Speaker 2: The person they're talking about is my Teres Richardson, a

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Speaker 2: twenty four year old black woman who disappeared in Malibu

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Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine and whose remains were discovered

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Speaker 2: there eleven months later. They're talking about the day of

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Speaker 2: her disappearance and.

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Speaker 3: Was above when I first started voice him.

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Speaker 4: By the time I got down, the love and kind

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Speaker 4: of curiosity kind of drugged me closer to the Facebook.

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Speaker 2: The interview is being shot vertical, seemingly on a cell phone,

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Speaker 2: with the guy taking up the whole frame. He looks

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Speaker 2: like an aging California golden boy with gray and blonde hair,

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Speaker 2: a tan and a barrel chest. He's relaxed, wearing a

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Speaker 2: sky blue Henley shirt tucked into a pair of camouflage shorts.

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Speaker 3: So I really couldn't see her face, but I could

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Speaker 3: see her shadow. It's.

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Speaker 2: While he says this, he gestures broadly, waving his big

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Speaker 2: paws around in the air.

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Speaker 4: The light of the knife, you know, with the light

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Speaker 4: of the front porch. She was screaming at something. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: it was pretty loud, and I'm thinking, God, damn's.

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Speaker 3: For three of them. Mort What was she saying? She

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Speaker 3: was saying, God damn buddy.

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Speaker 4: Oh yo, she was pitt or something, you know, something

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Speaker 4: to be with the people at the house. She was

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Speaker 4: angry and maybe they told her she had to read

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Speaker 4: get a call at police, and she was telling.

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Speaker 3: Him, you shun.

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Speaker 4: What he got.

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Speaker 2: Curious the scene was so out of place in this

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Speaker 2: quiet neighborhood, a young woman alone in the early morning hours,

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Speaker 2: shouting she might be in trouble, because I think.

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Speaker 4: Well, if there's some dude there, I'm not gonna let

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Speaker 4: some dody here, you know, right, I wouldn't have hesitated

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Speaker 4: to walk on that property.

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Speaker 3: But since there wasn't, you.

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Speaker 4: Know, and I couldn't see anybody else except for her,

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Speaker 4: or not really even her. Just she was angry something.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I'm kind of that would have been right there.

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Speaker 4: I have a good donald protected.

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Speaker 2: The interviewer. Her name's Raven Masterson. She made the video

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Speaker 2: sometime after my Terce's remains were found. Like so many people,

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Speaker 2: she wanted to figure out what happened to my trees

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Speaker 2: because the death of my Teres Richardson is Malibu's most horrifying, notorious,

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Speaker 2: and scandalous unsolved case. For fifteen years, my Teresa's story

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Speaker 2: has been shrouded in mystery. The scant clues have been

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Speaker 2: worked over a thousand times to no end. There's no resolution,

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Speaker 2: no satisfying explanation, and no one has been held accountable.

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Speaker 2: Many people blame the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for

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Speaker 2: her death. Some take it farther, and this is how

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Speaker 2: Ravenlean's in the video. They even think a deputy may

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Speaker 2: have killed my Teres. My Rise was arrested at Jeoffrey's

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Speaker 2: Restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway on September sixteenth, two thousand

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Speaker 2: and nine. She was released from Lost Hill Station at

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Speaker 2: twelve twenty five am on the seventeenth. After that, there

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Speaker 2: was one official sighting of her at six thirty am

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Speaker 2: in the backyard of a house in Montanito, a secluded

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Speaker 2: neighborhood off Malibuqion. That's about six miles from the Lost

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Speaker 2: Hill Sheriff station. But the guy in the video, he

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Speaker 2: says he saw her too, two hours earlier at four

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Speaker 2: thirty am, making a commotion in the front yard of

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Speaker 2: that same house. Montaneito Mountain Nest. It's a tight knit

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Speaker 2: community in the shadow of the Santa Monica Mountains. Most

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Speaker 2: people in La don't even know it exists. It's got

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Speaker 2: creeks and horses and neighbors that have known each other

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Speaker 2: in some cases for generations. Kids run around barefoot. There's

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Speaker 2: a big Fourth of July parade and an annual square dance.

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Speaker 2: It's a place out of time. It feels like the

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Speaker 2: rustic Horsey California of the nineteen forties mixed with the

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Speaker 2: freewheeling party culture of the nineteen seventies. And it's got

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Speaker 2: none of the flash of coastal Malibise or the nearby

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Speaker 2: gated communities of Calabasas. This is California, so of course

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Speaker 2: there have been a couple of waves of gentrifiers. But

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Speaker 2: among the old timers, the people who practically homesteaded there

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Speaker 2: in the fifties, there's a distinct backwoods ingrown feeling, and

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Speaker 2: it bears mentioning The whole place is extremely white, with

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Speaker 2: one notable exception. Will Smith, one of the most famous

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Speaker 2: black men in America, owns an estate in Montanito. But

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Speaker 2: I don't think he frequents the Square Dance or the

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Speaker 2: Fourth of July parade. It's hard to express how unlikely

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Speaker 2: it is that my trace would end up in this

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Speaker 2: isolated community. There isn't even a sign for Montanito on

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Speaker 2: Malibu Canyon. How would she even have known it was there.

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Speaker 2: Eleven months after my Teres Richardson disappeared, park rangers checking

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Speaker 2: a known illegal pot grow found her remains in a

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Speaker 2: treacherous canyon above Montanito called Dark Canyon. During this time,

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Speaker 2: the Santa Monica Mountains were notorious for harboring large marijuana

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Speaker 2: operations run by organized crime syndicates. These massive grows were

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Speaker 2: often protected with armed guards who would camp out in

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Speaker 2: the canyons for extended periods. The rangers had disrupted a

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Speaker 2: Dark Canyon grow in July two thousand and nine, two

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Speaker 2: months before my Teres's disappearance. When they returned in August

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Speaker 2: of twenty ten, they didn't report any fresh signs of

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Speaker 2: pot growing activity, but there in the dormant grow were

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Speaker 2: the remains of a black woman. She was mostly bones,

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Speaker 2: a skeleton with small flaps of mummified skin remaining, and

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Speaker 2: she was naked. From the beginning, every aspect of the

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Speaker 2: case seemed off. What was wrong, how she was arrested,

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Speaker 2: how she was released, how she was searched for, how

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Speaker 2: her remains were discovered, how her remains were recovered, and

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Speaker 2: how her death was investigated. All of it looked like

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Speaker 2: a colossal screw up on the part of law enforcement,

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Speaker 2: starting with the Lost Hills cops and what the Sheriff's

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Speaker 2: department has said about the case over the years, it

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Speaker 2: just makes no sense. Their refrain, essentially is some cases

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Speaker 2: can't be solved. This is a Sheriff's spokesman three days

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Speaker 2: after my Teresa's body was found.

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Speaker 5: Homicide will continue their investigation. It's likely that we can

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Speaker 5: never find out exactly how she got there, but they're

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Speaker 5: going to do their very best to figure that.

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Speaker 2: And they're still saying my Teresa's death will always be

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Speaker 2: a mystery. But I don't accept that it's a stubborn, strange,

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Speaker 2: problematic case. But I do think it's solvable because someone

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Speaker 2: in that secluded, tight knit community of Montanito knows what

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Speaker 2: happened to her. I'm Dana Goodyear and this is Lost

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Speaker 2: Hills Season four, Dark Canyon, Episode one, Vultures. Right off

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Speaker 2: Pacific Coast Highway, across from the Malibu Lagoon, next to

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Speaker 2: the gas station, there's a small memorial. It's a rock

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Speaker 2: with a plaque on it, commemorating the life of a

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Speaker 2: man who was known as Malibu Jo. Malibujo was Jo Costello.

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Speaker 2: He was originally from Genoa, Italy, but starting in the

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Speaker 2: mid nineteen fifties, he became a beloved Malibu figure, riding

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Speaker 2: his bike slowly up and down pH in a fedora

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Speaker 2: and a baggy overcoat. In the summer of nineteen eighty eight,

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Speaker 2: he was beaten and left for dead in the only

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Speaker 2: under bushes where he lived, where the memorial is today.

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Speaker 2: He died a few days later. He was ninety six

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Speaker 2: years old. The Sheriff's department investigated, but the killing was

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Speaker 2: never solved, so no one was ever punished. Malibu Jo

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Speaker 2: died two decades before my Terse Richardson. The cases have

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Speaker 2: nothing to do with one another except this. Both Joe

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Speaker 2: and my Trees show moments of rupture. They're both signs

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Speaker 2: that Malibu isn't what it seems. Malibu is not paradise, sunshine, nature, beauty, health, wealth,

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Speaker 2: and eternal youth. That's the myth. But if I've learned

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Speaker 2: one thing reporting here, it's that every seductive surface has

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Speaker 2: its dark side. The beauty is the danger. It makes

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Speaker 2: you let down your guard and believe in the fantasy.

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Speaker 2: The unspoiled wilderness hides unspeakable crimes, and a place like that,

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Speaker 2: a place like that breeds monsters. In the fall of

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Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, my Teresa's disappearance was all over

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Speaker 2: the local news.

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Speaker 6: The mystery unraveled on a September night in two thousand

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Speaker 6: and nine, right where the Pacific reached the shores of Malibu.

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Speaker 2: It all started when my Teres tried to leave Jeoffrey's,

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Speaker 2: a pricey restaurant on Pacific Coast high without paying her bill.

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Speaker 2: She was arrested and taken to Lost Hill station, about

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Speaker 2: thirteen miles away.

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Speaker 5: They contacted her mother, who said that she will pick

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Speaker 5: her up in the morning.

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Speaker 7: If you will keep her there. Deputy said, we will.

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Speaker 2: But instead of staying at the station, my Teres walked

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Speaker 2: out into the Malibu night. Her car was at a

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Speaker 2: tow yard near pch with her belongings inside.

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Speaker 4: She was released at twelve thirty a m no wallet,

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Speaker 4: no cell phone, no credit cards, no car.

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Speaker 2: She was gorgeous and charismatic, and as would later come out,

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Speaker 2: she was in the midst of a mental health crisis.

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Speaker 7: A beauty contestant and honor student, and now a missing person.

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Speaker 2: According to her mom, she had no street savvy whatsoever,

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Speaker 2: and she didn't know Malibu at all.

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Speaker 7: My Teres Richardson walked out of a Los Angeles County

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Speaker 7: Sheriff's office and into a mystery that continues to baffle investigators.

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Speaker 2: And then the mystery became a horror.

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Speaker 4: Eleven months later, the twenty four year old college graduates.

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Speaker 5: Remains were found here in Dark Canyon. She was naked

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Speaker 5: and partially mummified. They discovered a skull, they discovered a pelvis,

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Speaker 5: and they discovered a lake on just bones. They determined officially, unequivocally,

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Speaker 5: and unfortunately, it was my Terce Richardson.

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Speaker 1: Corners Officials haven't determined the cause of death, and they

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Speaker 1: say Richardson's body was in the canyon for more than

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Speaker 1: six months.

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Speaker 4: Whatever happened in Dark Canyon remains in the moment a

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Speaker 4: dark secret.

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Speaker 2: It's been fifteen years since my trace disappeared, fourteen years

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Speaker 2: since her remains were found, and there's been no progress

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Speaker 2: on her case. There's no sign that law enforcement is

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Speaker 2: actively working on it. But it's not a cold case.

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Speaker 2: It's a quote active criminal investigation, which means the Sheriff's

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Speaker 2: department doesn't have to share information. And believe me, they

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Speaker 2: take that very seriously. They do not like to talk

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Speaker 2: about this case. In the midst of their silence, a

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Speaker 2: sinister narrative has taken hold in the public imagination that

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Speaker 2: the La County Sheriff's Department, specifically the Lost Heils cops,

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Speaker 2: are behind my Teres's death. They deny this, but the

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Speaker 2: idea lives on in a new generation of true crime

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Speaker 2: TikTokers and YouTubers. Welcome to another episode of Murder, Mystery

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Speaker 2: and Makeup Monday.

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Speaker 6: Today's story was about Matrise Richardson.

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Speaker 3: Kind of feels like that they were hiding something.

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Speaker 6: The police work in this case was off long.

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Speaker 4: Is this incompetence or cover up?

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Speaker 6: I mean they originally were trying to hide the fact

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Speaker 6: that they had security footage.

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Speaker 5: The previous captain was in on it and promoted for

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Speaker 5: his cover up job.

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Speaker 7: I believe that Maturse Richardson was murdered and it was

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Speaker 7: covered up by the La County Sheriff's office.

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Speaker 2: We know the cops took my trees to the station,

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Speaker 2: and the cops let her go in the dark. This

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Speaker 2: part is true, undisputed fact. And then what how did

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Speaker 2: she get from the station to Montanito six miles away?

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Speaker 2: How did she end up in dark canyon? Why was

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Speaker 2: she naked? And what happened to her missing bones?

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Speaker 6: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one more undisputed fact. While most of my

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Speaker 2: Teresa's bones were eventually accounted for, discovered in the canyon's

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Speaker 2: heavy leaf litter, an important one has not been found,

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Speaker 2: the fragile bone above the larynx that often breaks when

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Speaker 2: a person is strangled. My Terce Richardson's death is not

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Speaker 2: officially a homicide. The autopsy reads, quote, while there is

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Speaker 2: no evidence of antimortem trauma to the bones or the

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Speaker 2: limited amount of tissue accompanying them, in the absence of

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Speaker 2: internal viscera, internal injury cannot be completely ruled out and quote,

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Speaker 2: in the absence of suitable specimens for toxicology testing, the

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Speaker 2: possibility of fatal substance abuse cannot be ruled out, and

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Speaker 2: quote death due to exposure, snake bite, pneumonia, or other

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Speaker 2: natural diseases also cannot be ruled out. Therefore, quote both

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Speaker 2: cause and manner of death remain undetermined. Unquote Hello, I'm

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Speaker 2: Dana Danah, nice to meet to meet. I'm at the

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Speaker 2: home of Lisa Shinan. She's the forensic pathologist who conducted

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Speaker 2: the autopsy of my Terce's remains. She's also one of

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Speaker 2: the world's foremost authorities on roller coasters.

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Speaker 6: That is my big hobby, that collecting butterflies.

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Speaker 2: Her house, a normal looking suburban house in Redondo Beach,

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Speaker 2: is basically a natural history museum. So do you capture

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Speaker 2: them in a net and then pick a loup shadow box?

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Speaker 2: Frames filled with specimens are stacked in every corner.

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Speaker 6: There's something called a killing jar which you can make.

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Speaker 6: It's a jar that has a plaster of Paris base

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Speaker 6: and then you pour in. You can use cyanide when

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Speaker 6: you screw the cap on. It's a closed environment and

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Speaker 6: it makes fumes that kill the butterfly, basically put it

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Speaker 6: to sleep in seconds.

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Speaker 2: Doctor Shinen worked for the La County Coroner's Office for

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Speaker 2: twenty four years or I was.

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Speaker 6: A deputy medical examiner at the La County Coroner's Office,

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Speaker 6: now retired.

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Speaker 2: She worked on a lot of high profile cases. She

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Speaker 2: did the autopsies on the musicians Elliott Smith, a notorious big.

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Speaker 6: My autopsied Steve Allen, Doctor nor from the Killing Fields,

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Speaker 6: Brittany Murphy, Brian Keith.

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Speaker 2: That goes back away, but my Teresa's case stands out.

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Speaker 6: There are over the years some cases that do stick

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Speaker 6: with me because of the circumstances of the case. There

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Speaker 6: were so many unknowns. I mean, every time I've been

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Speaker 6: near Malibu, I'd start thinking of, oh, geez, this is

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Speaker 6: where my race was, and this is just such a

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Speaker 6: tragic case.

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Speaker 2: But she knew at the start was very basic. A

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Speaker 2: few scattered pieces of clothing and a human skeleton had

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Speaker 2: been found in an inaccessible canyon in Malibu. The autopsy

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Speaker 2: report details the pieces of my Teresa's clothing that were

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Speaker 2: recovered from their remain site. One navy blue or black

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Speaker 2: padded bra two pink narrow belt, medium large alligator skin pattern,

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Speaker 2: three blue jeans US size twenty nine, dirty empty pockets.

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Speaker 2: She'd been wearing a bob Marley T shirt and a

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Speaker 2: pair of vans when she left Lost Hill station. She

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Speaker 2: also had her California driver's license on her. Those items,

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Speaker 2: along with her hat and her keys, were missing.

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Speaker 6: I had the investigator's report. This particular investigator's report was

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Speaker 6: very straightforward. It said somebody from law enforcement was checking

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Speaker 6: an area in a remote canyon and found the bones

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Speaker 6: and the clothing, and the clothing was about one hundred

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Speaker 6: feet away from the skeleton. You know, that's very limited information,

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Speaker 6: and sometimes we have two or three pages of information,

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Speaker 6: but not so in this case. So the first thing

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Speaker 6: you do is you lay everything out in anatomical order

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Speaker 6: and count what you've got. It was a nearly complete skeleton.

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Speaker 6: It wasn't in an intact skeleton, and that everything was connected.

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Speaker 6: There were a lot of disarticulated bones, but there were

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Speaker 6: some areas or certain blocks, like some parts of the

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Speaker 6: lower extremities parts of some of the upper extremities were

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Speaker 6: held together by a minimal amount of soft tissue.

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Speaker 2: The soft tissue was mostly skin that had been mummified.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, mummification is a process. It can be accidental. If

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Speaker 6: you have a body in a very dry, hot environment,

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Speaker 6: the liquid essentially disappears, and what you get is this

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Speaker 6: very leathery, rigid skin, sometimes some soft tissue. Usually the

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Speaker 6: internal organs don't mummify, so it's mostly the skin muscle

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Speaker 6: tendons at that type of thing.

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Speaker 2: There were a few small marks on some of the

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Speaker 2: bones the work. Doctor Shinen thought of animals scavenging the remains.

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Speaker 6: The toes of the left foot were missing, and that

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Speaker 6: was consistent with animal activity.

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Speaker 2: But otherwise the bones were intact.

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Speaker 6: We look for things like fractures, which would usually mean

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Speaker 6: some sort of a blunt force impact. We would look

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Speaker 6: for any evidence of a gunshot wound, or a stabbing.

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Speaker 6: I didn't see any evidence of a physical traumatic injury.

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Speaker 2: There was also no way to tell if my trees

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Speaker 2: had been sexually assaulted.

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Speaker 6: Without soft tissue, there's really nothing that you can do

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Speaker 6: or see, and sperm doesn't last.

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Speaker 2: Without internal organs. There was no way to tell if

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Speaker 2: she had overdosed.

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Speaker 6: She wasn't found with cocaine, with amphetamine, heroin, anything like that.

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Speaker 6: Shouldn't really have a history of that type of thing,

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Speaker 6: But again without being able to do an accurate test,

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Speaker 6: we don't know.

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Speaker 2: There was a small amount of leg muscle. Doctor Shinan

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Speaker 2: sent it in for toxicology, and that report came back inconclusive.

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Speaker 2: As soon as my Trees's remains were discovered, law enforcement

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Speaker 2: began suggesting that my Trees, experiencing a mental health episode,

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Speaker 2: had probably wandered into Dark Canyon by herself and died

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Speaker 2: from exposure, dehydration, venom, or something. Her death, they implied,

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Speaker 2: was tragic but natural. I asked doctor Shinen about the

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Speaker 2: natural causes theory.

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Speaker 6: In this particular case. There's several possibilities. There are rattlesnakes there.

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Speaker 6: She could have been bitten by a rattlesnake. There's also

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Speaker 6: a fire ants. She could have had a severe allergic

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Speaker 6: reaction to something. There's poison oak there. That's horrible. It's everywhere,

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Speaker 6: and some people are more sensitive than others.

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Speaker 2: But why would the skeleton be naked. My Trees's broad

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Speaker 2: belt and jeans were found hundreds of feet from the skeleton,

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Speaker 2: and the belt was no longer on the jeans. A

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Speaker 2: seasonal stream, Dark Creek runs through the canyon, and cops

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Speaker 2: suggested that a flashed flood could have removed her clothes,

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Speaker 2: carrying them downstream. The winter my Trese was missing was

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Speaker 2: a rainy one. But even so, it takes a real

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Speaker 2: contortion of logic to imagine a flood could strip a

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Speaker 2: body naked and remove a belt from a pair of pants.

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Speaker 6: Usually, when we have a person who's dead with their

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Speaker 6: clothes on, the clothes will stay on. Even if the

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Speaker 6: body mummifies, the clothes are going to stay on. Water

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00:23:01,236 --> 00:23:03,836
Speaker 6: might wash off socks or something like that, but it's

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Speaker 6: not going to completely undress a body.

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Speaker 2: Doctor Shinen raised different natural explanation for my Trees's nudity hypothermia.

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Speaker 6: There's something that happens with extreme cold cold, paradoxical undressing. Normally,

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Speaker 6: when you're cold, your blood vessels will constrict to try

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Speaker 6: to keep the blood more central in the body. Well,

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Speaker 6: what happens with paradoxical undressing is there is a reflex

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Speaker 6: dilatation of these blood vessels. So all of a sudden,

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Speaker 6: you get this rush of nice, warm blood into these

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Speaker 6: areas that were previously cold, and people who were probably

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Speaker 6: a little bit out of it by this point think,

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Speaker 6: oh my gosh, it's so warm, I'm too hot, and

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Speaker 6: they take their clothes off. However, that tends to happen

346
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Speaker 6: more often in extreme cold, where there's snow.

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Speaker 2: In mid September two thousand and nine, the average overnight

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00:24:01,716 --> 00:24:04,676
Speaker 2: low at the weather recording station nearest to Dark Canyon

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Speaker 2: was in the mid sixties, and.

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Speaker 6: I'm not sure it would get cold enough up in

351
00:24:08,836 --> 00:24:12,836
Speaker 6: the Care Canyon for that to happen, But it's just

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00:24:12,836 --> 00:24:14,076
Speaker 6: something to think about.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, there's another possible explanation, foul play.

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Speaker 6: There are sinister reasons for the person not having their

355
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Speaker 6: their clothes on. I mean, could she have been sexually

356
00:24:27,556 --> 00:24:32,636
Speaker 6: assaulted and they just took her clothes off and left

357
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Speaker 6: them off. Who knows. It's certainly a real possibility.

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Speaker 2: And what about the missing clothing.

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Speaker 6: And also the fact that it was an incomplete set

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Speaker 6: of clothes and none of the additional items of clothing

361
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Speaker 6: were ever found, and including shoes, which I think have

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Speaker 6: a little more weight than other clothing.

363
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Speaker 2: As with everything about my Teresa's case, the story of

364
00:24:59,676 --> 00:25:03,796
Speaker 2: her remains is a story of absences, gaps, and guesses.

365
00:25:04,916 --> 00:25:08,796
Speaker 2: A forensic pathologist works by process of elimination, but was

366
00:25:08,876 --> 00:25:12,556
Speaker 2: so little hard evidence it was difficult to rule out anything.

367
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Speaker 6: So the fact that I didn't see any trauma in

368
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Speaker 6: the bones doesn't mean trauma didn't happen. It's always possible

369
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Speaker 6: that a gunshot wound can go through and through a

370
00:25:27,556 --> 00:25:31,516
Speaker 6: body without hitting bone, same thing for a stab wound.

371
00:25:32,116 --> 00:25:37,916
Speaker 6: What's also possible is asphyxia or a manual strangulation or

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Speaker 6: maybe you know, choked with a rope. The reason people

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Speaker 6: die when they're strangled is you're cutting off the blood

374
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Speaker 6: flow to the brain. We're looking for things that reflect

375
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Speaker 6: the fact that you are compressing neck structures.

376
00:25:58,396 --> 00:26:01,196
Speaker 2: In the autopsy report, there's a list of missing bones.

377
00:26:01,676 --> 00:26:05,156
Speaker 2: Some bones from the hand, the left toes, presumably scavenged

378
00:26:05,156 --> 00:26:09,356
Speaker 2: by animals, the tailbone, the zyphoid process at the bottom

379
00:26:09,396 --> 00:26:13,876
Speaker 2: of the sternum, and a thin, fragile neck bone called

380
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Speaker 2: the hyoid.

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00:26:16,396 --> 00:26:20,436
Speaker 6: The hyoid bone is the only floating bone in the body.

382
00:26:20,476 --> 00:26:24,316
Speaker 6: It's not attached to any other bone. It sits a

383
00:26:24,356 --> 00:26:29,476
Speaker 6: little bit above the thyroid cartilage, and it's essentially there

384
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Speaker 6: as a base of muscle attachment.

385
00:26:33,236 --> 00:26:35,956
Speaker 2: Because of its shape and position in the body, a

386
00:26:35,996 --> 00:26:40,636
Speaker 2: broken hyoid can provide clear evidence of strangulation for a

387
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Speaker 2: forensic pathologist. It's a very significant bone.

388
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Speaker 6: And what's important about it is it's a U shaped

389
00:26:48,516 --> 00:26:53,636
Speaker 6: bone with the projections heading towards the back of the neck.

390
00:26:54,156 --> 00:26:56,676
Speaker 6: So if it's compressed from both sides, which is what

391
00:26:56,876 --> 00:27:02,156
Speaker 6: happens when you have a strangulation. Case with manual strangulation

392
00:27:02,996 --> 00:27:06,196
Speaker 6: is that you're putting pressure on the wings of the

393
00:27:06,276 --> 00:27:11,196
Speaker 6: hyoid bone and a can fracture. The thing with the

394
00:27:11,276 --> 00:27:13,476
Speaker 6: hyoid is if you found it and it was broken,

395
00:27:13,596 --> 00:27:15,876
Speaker 6: you could say, aha, this person was strangled.

396
00:27:17,796 --> 00:27:21,316
Speaker 2: But like the missing clothing and her id, my Teresa's

397
00:27:21,436 --> 00:27:26,716
Speaker 2: hyoid bone was never found. Doctor Shinen says my Teresa's

398
00:27:26,756 --> 00:27:31,116
Speaker 2: case could still be resolved with new evidence. The coroner

399
00:27:31,196 --> 00:27:34,036
Speaker 2: could change the cause of death from undetermined.

400
00:27:35,156 --> 00:27:40,756
Speaker 6: If there was foul play involved, someone could confess. You

401
00:27:40,876 --> 00:27:46,476
Speaker 6: never know, could be deathbed confession. Maybe they'll raid somewhere

402
00:27:46,676 --> 00:27:51,356
Speaker 6: someplace and they'll find pictures of her. Anything is possible.

403
00:27:51,516 --> 00:27:55,996
Speaker 6: They could just investigate the right person at the right time.

404
00:27:57,076 --> 00:28:01,116
Speaker 6: Sometimes killers will save souvenirs that can be recognized as

405
00:28:01,156 --> 00:28:04,156
Speaker 6: something from the person. Anything like that could happen.

406
00:28:05,436 --> 00:28:12,596
Speaker 2: Anything could happen, including this. Someone who knows something could

407
00:28:12,636 --> 00:28:37,396
Speaker 2: decide they've kept the secret for too long. My Teresa's

408
00:28:37,436 --> 00:28:41,596
Speaker 2: movements on September seventeenth, two thousand and nine, are mostly unknown.

409
00:28:42,116 --> 00:28:45,116
Speaker 2: After she was released from Lost Hil Station at twelve

410
00:28:45,236 --> 00:28:48,556
Speaker 2: twenty five am. She somehow made her way six miles

411
00:28:48,596 --> 00:28:52,756
Speaker 2: to Montanito in the dark. The next morning, around six

412
00:28:52,876 --> 00:28:55,796
Speaker 2: thirty am, she was spotted there in the backyard of

413
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Speaker 2: a house at the bottom of Cold Canyon Road.

414
00:28:58,516 --> 00:29:01,356
Speaker 1: And I saw somebody sitting on the top step of

415
00:29:01,396 --> 00:29:04,196
Speaker 1: the six railroad ties that we have in the backyard.

416
00:29:04,556 --> 00:29:08,236
Speaker 1: I called David, said are you okay? And the answer

417
00:29:08,396 --> 00:29:11,156
Speaker 1: was I thought yes, resting on And by the time

418
00:29:11,196 --> 00:29:12,916
Speaker 1: we were around to the other window.

419
00:29:13,076 --> 00:29:17,116
Speaker 2: He was gone. That's Karen Smith speaking in an ABC

420
00:29:17,316 --> 00:29:22,076
Speaker 2: seven documentary about my Teres's disappearance. Karen's house is kind

421
00:29:22,116 --> 00:29:24,156
Speaker 2: of a landmark in the neighborhood because it has a

422
00:29:24,156 --> 00:29:27,476
Speaker 2: tennis court out front. Her husband, Bill Smith, who died

423
00:29:27,516 --> 00:29:31,636
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen, was a reporter on KTLA, a local

424
00:29:31,676 --> 00:29:35,916
Speaker 2: TV news station. The Smith's called the cops, and later

425
00:29:35,996 --> 00:29:38,636
Speaker 2: deputies confirmed that the woman who'd been in the backyard

426
00:29:39,036 --> 00:29:43,036
Speaker 2: was my Terce. That's the one official sighting of my

427
00:29:43,156 --> 00:29:48,356
Speaker 2: Terce Richardson after she left Lost Hill Station. But then

428
00:29:48,596 --> 00:29:52,676
Speaker 2: there's the other story, the unofficial story, the one the

429
00:29:52,716 --> 00:29:55,036
Speaker 2: guy on the edge of his bed told Raven in

430
00:29:55,076 --> 00:29:56,476
Speaker 2: the lost interview.

431
00:29:57,036 --> 00:29:58,956
Speaker 3: It was four thirty in the morning. I'm coming down

432
00:29:59,036 --> 00:30:04,636
Speaker 3: off my mountain, my little higher. So where do you live? Yeah,

433
00:30:04,996 --> 00:30:07,676
Speaker 3: right down the street. I've lived in Lonlino all my life.

434
00:30:07,796 --> 00:30:09,116
Speaker 3: It's my folks live here.

435
00:30:09,916 --> 00:30:12,636
Speaker 2: So he says he was heading down into the neighborhood

436
00:30:12,836 --> 00:30:15,836
Speaker 2: from his spot on the mountain in the early morning hours.

437
00:30:16,156 --> 00:30:17,676
Speaker 3: Come down four to thirty in the morning.

438
00:30:19,156 --> 00:30:21,636
Speaker 4: And because I left about four fifteen for my spot,

439
00:30:21,676 --> 00:30:24,916
Speaker 4: tis by that ten minutes seventeen minutes seat down and

440
00:30:25,036 --> 00:30:27,036
Speaker 4: I'm coming down and there's that well almost step with

441
00:30:27,196 --> 00:30:30,596
Speaker 4: bluff in Cold Canyon, and it was a right with

442
00:30:30,756 --> 00:30:33,116
Speaker 4: bluff and Cold Canyon, and there's a house with a

443
00:30:33,236 --> 00:30:36,716
Speaker 4: tennis court right there and as a as a big

444
00:30:36,756 --> 00:30:37,676
Speaker 4: horseshoe driveway.

445
00:30:38,116 --> 00:30:39,236
Speaker 2: That's the Smith's house.

446
00:30:40,116 --> 00:30:43,876
Speaker 3: Looking up on the internet because the guy gave a statement, but.

447
00:30:43,956 --> 00:30:48,316
Speaker 2: His story and the Smith's story they're really different. The

448
00:30:48,436 --> 00:30:52,396
Speaker 2: time where my Trase was on the property, they don't

449
00:30:52,436 --> 00:30:52,876
Speaker 2: line up.

450
00:30:53,476 --> 00:30:56,556
Speaker 4: They found her in the backyard talking to herself, but

451
00:30:56,676 --> 00:30:58,676
Speaker 4: you know when she wasn't in the backyard, and I

452
00:30:58,676 --> 00:31:01,196
Speaker 4: thought she was in the front door, but I couldn't.

453
00:31:01,396 --> 00:31:05,876
Speaker 2: And in his account, she wasn't quietly resting. She was

454
00:31:06,036 --> 00:31:07,196
Speaker 2: audibly distressed.

455
00:31:08,196 --> 00:31:09,556
Speaker 3: But I could hear his scream. I could teuch you

456
00:31:09,716 --> 00:31:11,476
Speaker 3: black is by her withdraw Yeah.

457
00:31:11,316 --> 00:31:12,916
Speaker 6: The intonation in your voice.

458
00:31:13,596 --> 00:31:15,716
Speaker 3: I didn't know that black people lived in want Neo.

459
00:31:17,516 --> 00:31:20,676
Speaker 2: So he says he decided to hang out just to

460
00:31:20,676 --> 00:31:21,716
Speaker 2: make sure she was safe.

461
00:31:22,076 --> 00:31:26,476
Speaker 4: Stayed there for about thirty seconds, and I said, come

462
00:31:26,476 --> 00:31:27,876
Speaker 4: a little bit of fight of this right now.

463
00:31:28,796 --> 00:31:30,996
Speaker 2: But when she didn't seem to be in danger, he

464
00:31:31,036 --> 00:31:32,196
Speaker 2: figured he should move along.

465
00:31:34,356 --> 00:31:36,436
Speaker 3: She was scaraming enough, did I go over the couse

466
00:31:36,596 --> 00:31:39,596
Speaker 3: going to be here? I better get out of here.

467
00:31:39,716 --> 00:31:40,516
Speaker 3: So I wasn't home.

468
00:31:41,476 --> 00:31:44,596
Speaker 2: The woman, he says, was a total stranger to him

469
00:31:44,636 --> 00:31:48,836
Speaker 2: at the time. He didn't know she was about to

470
00:31:48,876 --> 00:31:50,476
Speaker 2: become a household name.

471
00:31:51,756 --> 00:31:53,076
Speaker 3: And uh so.

472
00:31:54,636 --> 00:31:57,196
Speaker 4: I just I didn't think much of it, you know,

473
00:31:57,316 --> 00:31:59,636
Speaker 4: I didn't know that she did be harassed. Oh it

474
00:31:59,716 --> 00:32:02,916
Speaker 4: was the same night, you know, a certain stance of

475
00:32:02,956 --> 00:32:03,676
Speaker 4: the situation.

476
00:32:04,836 --> 00:32:08,036
Speaker 2: He didn't know that deputies and search parties with horses,

477
00:32:08,156 --> 00:32:11,396
Speaker 2: drones and dogs, we're going to be pouring into sleepy

478
00:32:11,396 --> 00:32:15,156
Speaker 2: little Montanito looking for her, This young woman who was

479
00:32:15,236 --> 00:32:18,676
Speaker 2: not from Malibu, who he thought didn't really fit in

480
00:32:18,716 --> 00:32:20,596
Speaker 2: there there.

481
00:32:20,476 --> 00:32:22,796
Speaker 3: I go, huh, yeah.

482
00:32:22,876 --> 00:32:25,796
Speaker 4: I didn't think much about it until like two leagues later,

483
00:32:25,916 --> 00:32:27,676
Speaker 4: when all this came on my news.

484
00:32:27,756 --> 00:32:29,116
Speaker 3: You know why worked the wood.

485
00:32:30,116 --> 00:32:33,636
Speaker 2: Even though he didn't know any of that, he knew

486
00:32:33,716 --> 00:32:35,596
Speaker 2: something out of the ordinary had happened.

487
00:32:36,236 --> 00:32:38,236
Speaker 3: I told my land on the next morning, I said,

488
00:32:38,876 --> 00:32:40,676
Speaker 3: what I like to be able to vouad last night.

489
00:32:41,636 --> 00:32:45,556
Speaker 2: The next thing that happened, he saw the vultures, so

490
00:32:45,716 --> 00:32:50,156
Speaker 2: many vultures. Vultures are a fact of life in Montanito,

491
00:32:50,716 --> 00:32:53,716
Speaker 2: but this was more than he'd ever seen before, more

492
00:32:53,716 --> 00:32:54,476
Speaker 2: than he could count.

493
00:32:54,916 --> 00:32:59,796
Speaker 4: But so I just hear this a couple days later,

494
00:32:59,916 --> 00:33:03,436
Speaker 4: you know, I hear that she's missing and that worked

495
00:33:03,436 --> 00:33:08,396
Speaker 4: the wood. All this stuff's going on, like sorry, I'm

496
00:33:08,596 --> 00:33:13,916
Speaker 4: hing my Like two days later, I see and I've

497
00:33:13,996 --> 00:33:16,036
Speaker 4: seen a lot of vultures in my life. I lived

498
00:33:16,036 --> 00:33:18,236
Speaker 4: after fifty years, right right, never.

499
00:33:18,076 --> 00:33:23,796
Speaker 3: Seen one hundred vultures it swoop, that's I seem like

500
00:33:23,836 --> 00:33:25,556
Speaker 3: a thousand of them, you know what I mean. I've

501
00:33:25,556 --> 00:33:26,196
Speaker 3: never seen that.

502
00:33:26,316 --> 00:33:29,436
Speaker 4: Mean, So when did you see this? I saw this

503
00:33:29,676 --> 00:33:33,516
Speaker 4: like two days after she was missing, maybe four days

504
00:33:33,556 --> 00:33:34,596
Speaker 4: after she was missing.

505
00:33:35,756 --> 00:33:38,556
Speaker 3: You know, I thought to myself, you know, because i.

506
00:33:38,556 --> 00:33:40,156
Speaker 4: Haven't got through all my life, and I'm kind of

507
00:33:40,156 --> 00:33:43,636
Speaker 4: like a trapper, okay, a mountain right like that.

508
00:33:43,716 --> 00:33:46,756
Speaker 3: I wondered what they doing up there.

509
00:33:46,756 --> 00:33:48,876
Speaker 4: You know there's something dead out there, you know, obviously

510
00:33:49,116 --> 00:33:50,316
Speaker 4: there's that many poultures.

511
00:33:54,676 --> 00:33:57,796
Speaker 2: This story of the Montanito lifer who saw my trees

512
00:33:57,876 --> 00:34:02,196
Speaker 2: the morning of her disappearance, it's not out there. The

513
00:34:02,276 --> 00:34:05,676
Speaker 2: recording and all the new information in it got buried

514
00:34:05,756 --> 00:34:11,436
Speaker 2: under so much other information, so much missing conspiracy theories,

515
00:34:11,636 --> 00:34:16,796
Speaker 2: dead ends lies. It was lost in the leaf litter

516
00:34:16,916 --> 00:34:20,716
Speaker 2: detritus of the internet. But it's kind of like that

517
00:34:20,876 --> 00:34:26,836
Speaker 2: hyoid bone, tiny and super significant because this ordinary guy,

518
00:34:27,116 --> 00:34:29,356
Speaker 2: sitting on the edge of his bed, drinking a beer,

519
00:34:29,596 --> 00:34:33,876
Speaker 2: telling a story, he makes what is probably the single

520
00:34:33,956 --> 00:34:37,356
Speaker 2: most important statement of any witness in this case.

521
00:34:39,756 --> 00:34:40,556
Speaker 3: I don't know.

522
00:34:42,236 --> 00:34:44,836
Speaker 4: Any of the facts except for that the constant eye

523
00:34:44,996 --> 00:34:47,276
Speaker 4: was the last one to see her lie.

524
00:34:50,676 --> 00:34:53,116
Speaker 2: If he was the last one to see her alive,

525
00:34:53,876 --> 00:34:58,756
Speaker 2: did he know something about her death? This season on

526
00:34:58,916 --> 00:35:01,356
Speaker 2: Lost Hills, I know.

527
00:35:01,396 --> 00:35:03,396
Speaker 5: One of them officers had something to do with it.

528
00:35:03,556 --> 00:35:04,796
Speaker 4: It's like when I've seen a nose.

529
00:35:04,836 --> 00:35:07,196
Speaker 1: It was like, damn, that's crazy, because I was like

530
00:35:07,276 --> 00:35:08,436
Speaker 1: in a sale with this woman.

531
00:35:09,116 --> 00:35:12,316
Speaker 6: She said they actually followed her after she left.

532
00:35:12,356 --> 00:35:14,676
Speaker 2: You think you heard someone talking about how the deputy

533
00:35:14,716 --> 00:35:15,996
Speaker 2: could give her a ride somewhere.

534
00:35:16,156 --> 00:35:17,556
Speaker 1: Yes, I was a male deputy.

535
00:35:17,756 --> 00:35:19,716
Speaker 3: I'm gonna murder anybody. It's going to be a cop.

536
00:35:19,916 --> 00:35:21,036
Speaker 5: I mean, I had to sleep in front of my

537
00:35:21,116 --> 00:35:24,236
Speaker 5: kid's door because of people coming to kill my kids.

538
00:35:24,356 --> 00:35:26,196
Speaker 2: I was dating her at the time, and she ended

539
00:35:26,236 --> 00:35:28,236
Speaker 2: up going missing, and I was questioned.

540
00:35:27,876 --> 00:35:30,756
Speaker 4: By LA Homicide as a possible suspect for her disappearance.

541
00:35:30,796 --> 00:35:32,276
Speaker 4: And then one of the other guys came in and said,

542
00:35:32,276 --> 00:35:34,956
Speaker 4: what do you know about my trees? He knew exactly

543
00:35:34,956 --> 00:35:38,036
Speaker 4: where she was, which gives me the chills.

544
00:35:38,236 --> 00:35:41,636
Speaker 5: Imagine if this was your kid that was swept up

545
00:35:41,676 --> 00:35:42,316
Speaker 5: and put in.

546
00:35:42,196 --> 00:35:43,076
Speaker 3: A box like this.

547
00:35:46,996 --> 00:35:50,916
Speaker 2: Lost Tails Season four, Dark Canyon is written and hosted

548
00:35:50,956 --> 00:35:54,596
Speaker 2: by Me Dana Goodyear. It was reported by me and

549
00:35:54,676 --> 00:35:58,356
Speaker 2: Haley Fox, our senior producer. The show was created by

550
00:35:58,396 --> 00:36:01,796
Speaker 2: me and Ben Adair. Lost Tails is a production of

551
00:36:01,836 --> 00:36:12,636
Speaker 2: Western Sound and Pushkin Industries. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and

552
00:36:12,716 --> 00:36:15,756
Speaker 2: you can binge the whole season right now. Add free

553
00:36:16,156 --> 00:36:18,996
Speaker 2: find Pushkin Plus on the Lost Hill Show page in

554
00:36:19,076 --> 00:36:24,276
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot Fm, slash plus,