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Speaker 1: Pushkin.

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Speaker 2: Hello Tim Harford here. Today I'm taking you to Malibu,

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Speaker 2: California to explore one of the city's great unsolved mysteries.

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Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, a woman named my Terce

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Speaker 2: Richardson was released from the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff's station.

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Speaker 2: She never made it home. Nearly a year later, my

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Speaker 2: Trece's remains were discovered in a canyon six miles from

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Speaker 2: the station. Everyone knows something horrible happened to my trees,

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Speaker 2: and for fifteen years the Sheriff's department has failed to

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Speaker 2: solve her case. From Pushkin Industries, host Day in a

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Speaker 2: Goodyear is investigating what happened to my trees in Lost

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Speaker 2: Hills Dark Canyon. Today you'll hear the first episode, and

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Speaker 2: if you want to hear more, you can find the

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Speaker 2: show in your favorite podcast player. And now over to Dana.

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Speaker 3: A couple of years ago, I found a video buried

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Speaker 3: on the Internet, deep in the metadata behind the four

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Speaker 3: or four error codes. In it, a young black woman

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Speaker 3: is questioning a middle aged white guy who's sitting on

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Speaker 3: the edge of his bed drinking a beer.

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Speaker 4: Did you hear being it on the door talking at

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Speaker 4: the door like they just shut.

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Speaker 3: It on her or something on The person they're talking

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Speaker 3: about is my Terse Richardson, a twenty four year old

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Speaker 3: black woman who disappeared in Malibu in two thousand and

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Speaker 3: nine and whose remains were discovered there eleven months later.

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Speaker 3: They're talking about the day of her disappearance.

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Speaker 1: And was above when I first heart a void him

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Speaker 1: by the time I got down with love and kind

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Speaker 1: of curiosity kind of drugged me.

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Speaker 4: Closer to the Facebook.

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Speaker 3: The interview is being shot vertical, seemingly on a cell phone,

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Speaker 3: with the guy taking up the whole frame. He looks

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Speaker 3: like an aging California golden boy with gray and blonde hair,

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Speaker 3: a tan and a barrel chest. He's relaxed, wearing a

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Speaker 3: sky blue Henley shirt tucked into a pair of camouflage shorts.

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Speaker 4: So I really couldn't see her face, but I could

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Speaker 4: see her shadow. That's his.

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Speaker 3: While he says this, he gestures broadly, waving his big

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Speaker 3: paws around in the air.

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Speaker 4: In the light of the night, you know, with the

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Speaker 4: light of the front porch. And she was screaming at something. Yeah,

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

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Speaker 4: three of the more.

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Speaker 1: What was she saying?

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Speaker 4: She was saying, God, damn, buddy, yo yo, she was

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Speaker 4: pit or something, you know something.

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Speaker 1: He was the people at the house, she's angry and

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Speaker 1: maybe they told her she had to read get a

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Speaker 1: call lease and she was telling him you shut him whatever.

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Speaker 3: He got curious. The scene was so out of place

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Speaker 3: in this quiet neighborhood, a young woman alone in the

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Speaker 3: early morning hours, shouting she might be in trouble.

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Speaker 4: Because I figure, well, if there's some dude there, I'm

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Speaker 4: not going to let some do here her. You know,

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Speaker 4: I would have hesitated to walk on that property.

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Speaker 1: But since I wasn't, you know, and I couldn't see

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Speaker 1: anybody else except for her, or not really even her,

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Speaker 1: just tru she was she was angry something.

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

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Speaker 4: I Donald protected.

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Speaker 3: The interviewer. Her name's Raven Masterson. She made the video

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Speaker 3: sometime after my Terce's remains were found. Like so many people,

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Speaker 3: she wanted to figure out what happened to my es

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Speaker 3: because the death of my Teres Richardson is Malibu's most horrifying, notorious,

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Speaker 3: and scandalous unsolved case. For fifteen years, my Teresa's story

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Speaker 3: has been shrouded in mystery. The scant clues have been

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Speaker 3: worked over a thousand times to no end. There's no resolution,

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Speaker 3: no satisfying explanation, and no one has been held accountable.

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Speaker 3: Many people blame the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for

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Speaker 3: her death. Some take it farther, and this is how

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Speaker 3: Ravenlean's in the video. They even think a deputy may

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Speaker 3: have killed my teres My Trees was arrested at Jeoffrey's

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Speaker 3: Restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway on September sixteenth, two thousand

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Speaker 3: and nine. She was released from Lost Hill Station at

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Speaker 3: twelve twenty five am on the seventeenth. After that, there

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Speaker 3: was one official sighting of her at six thirty am

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Speaker 3: in the backyard of a house in Montanito, a secluded

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Speaker 3: neighborhood off Malibu Canyon that's about six miles from the

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Speaker 3: Lost Hill Sheriff Station. But the guy in the video,

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Speaker 3: he says he saw her too two hours earlier, at

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Speaker 3: four thirty am, making a commotion in the front yard

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Speaker 3: of that same house. Montaneito Mountain nest It's a tight

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Speaker 3: knit community in the shadow of the Santa Monica Mountains.

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Speaker 3: Most people in La don't even.

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Speaker 4: Know it exists.

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Speaker 3: It's got creeks and horses and neighbors that have known

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Speaker 3: each other in some cases for generations. Kids run around barefoot.

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Speaker 3: There's a big Fourth of July parade and an annual

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Speaker 3: square Dance. It's a place out of time. It feels

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Speaker 3: like the rustic Horsey California of the nineteen forties mixed

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Speaker 3: with the freewheeling party culture of the nineteen seventies. And

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Speaker 3: it's got none of the flash of coastal Malibu or

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Speaker 3: the near by gated communities of Calabasas. This is California,

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Speaker 3: so of course there have been a couple of waves

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Speaker 3: of gentrifiers. But among the old timers, the people who

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Speaker 3: practically homesteaded there in the fifties, there's a distinct backwoods

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Speaker 3: ingrown feeling, and it bears mentioning. The whole place is

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Speaker 3: extremely white, with one notable exception. Will Smith, one of

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Speaker 3: the most famous black men in America, owns an estate

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Speaker 3: in Montanito, but I don't think he frequents the square

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Speaker 3: dance or the Fourth of July Parade. It's hard to

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Speaker 3: express how unlikely it is that my trace would end

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Speaker 3: up in this isolated community. There isn't even a sign

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Speaker 3: for Montanito on Malibu Canyon. How would she even have

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Speaker 3: known it was there. Eleven months after my Terce Richardson disappeared,

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Speaker 3: park rangers checking a known illegal pot grow found her

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Speaker 3: remains in a treacherous canyon above Montanito called Dark Canyon.

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Speaker 3: During this time, the Santa Monica Mountains were notorious for

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Speaker 3: harboring large marijuana operations run by organized crime syndicates. These

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Speaker 3: massive grows were often protected with armed guards who would

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Speaker 3: camp out in the canyons for extended periods. The rangers

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Speaker 3: had disrupted a Dark Canyon grow in July two thousand

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Speaker 3: and nine, two months before my Teresa's disappearance. When they

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Speaker 3: returned in August of twenty ten, they didn't report any

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Speaker 3: fresh signs of pot growing activity. But there in the

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Speaker 3: dormant grow were the remains of a black woman. She

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Speaker 3: was mostly bones, a skeleton with small flaps of mummified

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Speaker 3: skin remaining, and she was naked. From the beginning, every

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Speaker 3: hour respect of the case seemed off. What was wrong,

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Speaker 3: How she was arrested, how she was released, how she

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Speaker 3: was searched for, how her remains were discovered, how her

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Speaker 3: remains were recovered, and how her death was investigated. All

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Speaker 3: of it looked like a colossal screw up on the

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Speaker 3: part of law enforcement, starting with the Lost Hills cops

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Speaker 3: and what the Sheriff's Department has said about the case

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Speaker 3: over the years. It just makes no sense. Their refrain,

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Speaker 3: essentially is some cases can't be solved. This is a

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Speaker 3: Sheriff's spokesman, three days after my Teres's body was found.

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Speaker 4: Homicide will continue their investigation.

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Speaker 2: It's likely that we can never find out exactly how

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Speaker 2: she got there, but they're going to do their.

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Speaker 3: Very best to figure And they're still saying my Teres's

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Speaker 3: death will always be a mystery. But I don't accept

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Speaker 3: that it's a stubborn, strange, problematic case. But I do

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Speaker 3: think it's solvable because someone in that secluded, tight knit

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Speaker 3: community of Montanito knows what happened to her. I'm Dana

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Speaker 3: Goodyear and this is Lost Hills Season four, Dark Canyon,

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Speaker 3: Episode one, Vultures. Right off Pacific Coast Highway, across from

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Speaker 3: the Malibu Lagoon and next to the gas there's a

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Speaker 3: small memorial. It's a rock with a plaque on it

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Speaker 3: commemorating the life of a man who was known as

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Speaker 3: Malibu Jo. Malibujo was Joe Costello. He was originally from Genoa, Italy,

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Speaker 3: but starting in the mid nineteen fifties, he became a

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Speaker 3: beloved Malibu figure, riding his bike slowly up and down

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Speaker 3: pH in a fedora and a baggy overcoat. In the

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Speaker 3: summer of nineteen eighty eight, he was beaten and left

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Speaker 3: for dead in the only under bushes where he lived,

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Speaker 3: where the memorial is today. He died a few days later.

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Speaker 3: He was ninety six years old. The Sheriff's department investigated,

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Speaker 3: but the killing was never solved, so no one was

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Speaker 3: ever punished. Malibu Jo died two decades before My treece Richardson.

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Speaker 3: The cases have nothing to do with one another except this.

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Speaker 3: Both Joe and My Trees show moments of rupture. They're

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Speaker 3: both signals that Malibu isn't what it seems. Malibu is

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Speaker 3: not paradise sunshine, nature, beauty, health, wealth, and eternal youth.

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Speaker 3: That's the myth. But if I've learned one thing reporting here,

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Speaker 3: it's that every seductive surface has its dark side. The

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Speaker 3: beauty is the danger. It makes you let down your

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Speaker 3: guard and believe in the fantasy, the unspoiled wilderness hides

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Speaker 3: unspeakable crimes, and a place like that, a place like

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Speaker 3: that breeds monsters. In the fall of two thousand and nine,

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Speaker 3: my Teresa's disappearance was all over the local news.

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Speaker 5: The mystery unraveled on a September night in two thousand

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Speaker 5: and nine, right where the Pacific reached the shores of Malibu.

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Speaker 3: It all started when my Teres tried to leave Jeoffrey's,

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Speaker 3: a pricey restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway, without paying her bill.

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Speaker 3: She was arrested and taken to Lost Hill station, about

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Speaker 3: 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 if you will keep her there.

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Speaker 5: Deputy said we will.

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Speaker 3: But instead of staying at the station, my Teres walked

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Speaker 3: out into the Malibu night. Her car was at a

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Speaker 3: towyard near pch with her belongings inside.

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Speaker 1: She was released at twelve thirty a m no wallet,

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Speaker 1: no cell phone, no credit cards, no car.

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Speaker 3: She was gorgeous and charismatic, and as would later come out,

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Speaker 3: she was in the midst of a mental health crisis.

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Speaker 5: A beauty contestant and honor student, and now a missing person.

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Speaker 3: According to her mom, she had no street savvy whatsoever,

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Speaker 3: and she didn't know Malibu at all.

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Speaker 5: My Terce Richardson walked out of a Los Angeles County

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Speaker 5: Sheriff's office and into a mystery that continues to baffle investigators.

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Speaker 3: And then the mystery became a horror.

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Speaker 5: Eleven months later, the twenty four year old college graduates.

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Speaker 4: Remains were found here in Dark Canyon.

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Speaker 1: She was naked and partially mummified. They discovered a skull,

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Speaker 1: they discovered a pelvis, and they discovered a lake just bones.

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Speaker 1: They determined officially, unequivocally, and unfortunately it was my Terce

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Speaker 1: Richardson Corners.

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Speaker 6: Officials haven't determined the cause of death, and they say

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Speaker 6: Richardson's body was in the canyon for more than six months.

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Speaker 1: Whatever happened in Dark Canyon remains from the moment a

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Speaker 1: dark secret.

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Speaker 3: It's been fifteen years since my Trees disappeared, fourteen years

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Speaker 3: since her remains were found, and there's been no progress

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Speaker 3: on her case. There's no sign that law enforcement is

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Speaker 3: actively working on it. But it's not a cold case.

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Speaker 3: It's a quote active criminal investigation, which means the Sheriff's

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Speaker 3: department doesn't have to share information, and believe me, they

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Speaker 3: take that very seriously. They do not like to talk

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Speaker 3: about this case. In the midst of their silence, a

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Speaker 3: sinister narrative has taken hold in the public imagination that

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Speaker 3: the La County Sheriff's Department, specifically the Lost Heils cops,

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Speaker 3: are behind my Teres's death. They deny this, but the

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Speaker 3: idea lives on in a new generation of true crime

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Speaker 3: TikTokers and YouTubers.

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Speaker 7: Welcome to another episode of Murder, Mystery and Makeup Monday.

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Speaker 7: Today's story was about Matrise Richardson.

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Speaker 1: Kind of feels like that they were hiding something.

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Speaker 7: The police work in this case was off long.

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Speaker 8: Is this incompetence or cover up?

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Speaker 7: I mean they originally were trying to hide the fact

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Speaker 7: that they had security footage.

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Speaker 1: The previous captain was in on it and promoted for

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Speaker 1: his cover up job.

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Speaker 5: I believe that Matrise Richardson was murdered and it was

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Speaker 5: covered up by the La County Sheriff's office.

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Speaker 3: We know the cops took my trees to the station

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Speaker 3: and the cops letter go in the dark. This part

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Speaker 3: is true, undisputed fact. And then what how did she

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Speaker 3: get from the station to Montanito, six miles away. How

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Speaker 3: did she end up in Dark Canyon? Why was she naked?

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Speaker 3: And what happened to her missing bones?

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Speaker 8: Oh?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's one more undisputed fact. While most of my

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Speaker 3: Teresa's bones were eventually accounted for, discovered in the canyon's

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Speaker 3: heavy leaf litter, an important one has not been found,

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Speaker 3: the fragile bone above the larynx that often breaks when

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Speaker 3: a person is strangled. Lace Richardson's death is not officially

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Speaker 3: a homicide. The autopsy reads, quote, While there is no

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Speaker 3: evidence of antimortem trauma to the bones or the limited

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Speaker 3: amount of tissue accompanying them, in the absence of internal viscera,

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Speaker 3: internal injury cannot be completely ruled out and quote, in

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Speaker 3: the absence of suitable specimens for toxicology testing, the possibility

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Speaker 3: of fatal substance abuse cannot be ruled out. And quote

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Speaker 3: death due to exposure, snake bite, pneumonia, or other natural

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Speaker 3: diseases also cannot be ruled out. Therefore, quote, both cause

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Speaker 3: and manner of death remain undetermined. Unquote.

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Speaker 4: Hello, How I'm Dana Danah.

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Speaker 3: Nice to meet. I'm at the home of Lisa Shinan.

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Speaker 3: She's the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy of my

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Speaker 3: Terce's remains. She's also one of the world's foremost authorities

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Speaker 3: on roller coasters.

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Speaker 8: That is my big hobby, that collecting butterflies.

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Speaker 3: Her house, a normal looking suburban house in Redondo Beach,

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Speaker 3: is basically a natural history museum. So do you capture

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Speaker 3: them in a net and then pick a loup shadow box?

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Speaker 3: Frames filled with specimens are stacked in every corner.

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Speaker 8: There's something called a killing jar which you can make.

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Speaker 8: It's a jar that has a plaster of Paris base

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Speaker 8: and then you pour in. You can use cyanide when

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Speaker 8: you screw the cap on. It's a closed environment and

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Speaker 8: it makes fumes that kill the butterfly, basically put it

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Speaker 8: to sleep in seconds.

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Speaker 3: Doctor Shinen worked for the La County Coroner's Office for

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Speaker 3: twenty four years or I was.

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Speaker 8: A deputy medical examiner at the La County Coroner's Office,

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Speaker 8: now retired.

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Speaker 3: She worked on a lot of high profile cases. The

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Speaker 3: autopsies on the musicians Elliot Smith, a notorious big.

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Speaker 8: My autopsyed Steve Allen, doctor nor from the Killing Fields,

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Speaker 8: Britney Murphy, Brian Keith.

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Speaker 3: That goes back, but my Teresa's case stands out.

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Speaker 8: There are, over the years some cases that do stick

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Speaker 8: with me because of the circumstances of the case. There

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Speaker 8: were so many unknowns. I mean, every time I've been

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Speaker 8: near Malibu, I'd start thinking of, oh, geez, this is

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Speaker 8: where my trace was, and this is just such a

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Speaker 8: tragic case.

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Speaker 3: But she knew at the start was very basic. A

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Speaker 3: few scattered pieces of clothing and a human skeleton had

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Speaker 3: been found in an inaccessible canyon in Malibu. The autopsy

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Speaker 3: report details the pieces of my Teresa's clothing that were

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Speaker 3: recovered from their remain site. One navy blue or black

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Speaker 3: padded bra two pink narrow belt, medium large alligator skin pattern,

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Speaker 3: three blue jeans US size twenty nine, dirty, empty pockets.

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Speaker 3: She'd been wearing a Bob Marley T shirt and a

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Speaker 3: pair of vans when she left Lost Hill Station. She

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Speaker 3: also had her California driver's license on her. Those items,

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Speaker 3: along with her hat and her keys, were missing.

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Speaker 8: I had the investigator's report. This particular investigator's report was

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Speaker 8: very straightforward. It said somebody from law enforcement was checking

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Speaker 8: an area in a remote canyon and found the bones

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Speaker 8: and the clothing and the clothing was about one hundred

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Speaker 8: feet away from the skeleton. You know, that's very limited information.

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Speaker 8: Sometimes we have two or three pages of information, but

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Speaker 8: not so in this case. So the first thing you

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00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:10,410
Speaker 8: do is you lay everything out in anatom order and

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Speaker 8: count what you've got. It was a nearly complete skeleton.

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Speaker 8: It wasn't in an intact skeleton, and that everything was connected.

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Speaker 8: There were a lot of disarticulated bones, but there were

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Speaker 8: some areas or certain blocks, like some parts of the

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Speaker 8: lower extremities parts of some of the upper extremities were

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Speaker 8: held together by a minimal amount of soft tissue.

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Speaker 3: The soft tissue was mostly skin that had been mummified.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, mummification is a process. It can be accidental. If

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Speaker 8: you have a body in a very dry, hot environment,

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Speaker 8: the liquid essentially disappears and what you get is this

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Speaker 8: very leathery, rigid skin. Sometimes some soft tissue, Usually the

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Speaker 8: internal organs don't mummify, so it's mostly the skin, muscle tendons,

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Speaker 8: that type of thing.

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Speaker 3: There were a few small marks on some of the bones.

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Speaker 1: The work.

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Speaker 3: Doctor Shinen thought of animals scavenging the remains.

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Speaker 8: The toes of the left foot were missing, and that

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Speaker 8: was consistent with animal activity.

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Speaker 3: But otherwise the bones were intact.

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Speaker 8: We look for things like fractures, which would usually mean

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Speaker 8: some sort of a blunt force impact. We would look

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Speaker 8: for any evidence of a gunshot wound or a stabbing.

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Speaker 8: I didn't see any evidence of a physical traumatic injury.

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Speaker 3: There was also no way to tell if my Trees

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Speaker 3: had been sexually assaulted.

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Speaker 8: Without soft tissue, there's really nothing that you can do

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Speaker 8: or see, and sperm doesn't last.

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00:21:59,650 --> 00:22:02,410
Speaker 3: Without internal organs. There was no way to tell if

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Speaker 3: she had overdosed.

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Speaker 8: She wasn't found with cocaine, with amphetamine, heroin, anything like that.

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Speaker 8: Didn't really have a history of that type of thing.

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Speaker 8: But again without being able to do an accurate test,

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Speaker 8: we don't know.

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Speaker 3: There was a small amount of leg muscle. Doctor Shinen

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Speaker 3: sent it in for toxicology, and that report came back inconclusive.

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Speaker 3: As soon as my Trees's remains were discovered, law enforcement

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Speaker 3: began suggesting that my Trees, experiencing a mental health episode,

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Speaker 3: had probably wandered into Dark Canyon by herself and died

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Speaker 3: from exposure, dehydration, venom, or something. Her death, they implied,

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Speaker 3: was tragic but natural. I asked doctor shinin about the

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Speaker 3: natural causes theory.

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Speaker 8: In this particular case, there's several possibilities. There are rattlesnakes there.

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Speaker 8: She could have been bitten by a rattlesnake. There's also

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Speaker 8: a fire ants. She could have had a severe allergic

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Speaker 8: reaction to something. There's poison oak there. That's horrible. It's everywhere,

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Speaker 8: and some people are more sensitive than others.

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Speaker 3: But why would the skeleton be naked. My Trees's broad

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00:23:19,570 --> 00:23:22,570
Speaker 3: belt and jeans were found hundreds of feet from the skeleton,

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Speaker 3: and the belt was no longer on the jeans. A

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00:23:27,210 --> 00:23:31,530
Speaker 3: seasonal stream dark Creek runs through the canyon, and cops

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Speaker 3: suggested that a flashed flood could have removed her clothes,

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Speaker 3: carrying them downstream. The winter my trese was missing was

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Speaker 3: a rainy one. But even so, it takes a real

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Speaker 3: contortion of logic to imagine a flood could strip a

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Speaker 3: body naked and remove a belt from a pair of pants.

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Speaker 8: Usually, when we have a person who's dead with their

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Speaker 8: clothes on, the clothes will stay on. Even if the

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Speaker 8: body mummifies, the clothes are going to stay on. Water

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00:24:00,490 --> 00:24:03,050
Speaker 8: might wash off socks or something like that, but it's

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Speaker 8: not going to completely undress a body.

350
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Speaker 3: Doctor Shinen raised a different natural explanation for my Teresa's

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Speaker 3: nudity hypothermia.

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Speaker 8: There's something that happens with extreme cold cold, paradoxical undressing. Normally,

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Speaker 8: when you're cold, your blood vessels will constrict to try

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Speaker 8: to keep the blood more central in the body. Well,

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Speaker 8: what happens with paradoxical undressing is there is a reflex

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00:24:31,090 --> 00:24:34,330
Speaker 8: dilatation of these blood vessels. So all of a sudden,

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Speaker 8: you get this rush of nice warm blood into these

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Speaker 8: areas that were previously cold, and people who were probably

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Speaker 8: a little bit out of it by this point think,

360
00:24:46,010 --> 00:24:48,210
Speaker 8: oh my gosh, it's so warm. I'm too hot, and

361
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Speaker 8: they take their clothes off. However, that tends to happen

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00:24:52,890 --> 00:24:56,530
Speaker 8: more often in extreme cold where there's snow.

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00:24:57,770 --> 00:25:00,890
Speaker 3: In mid September two thousand and nine, the average overnight

364
00:25:00,970 --> 00:25:03,850
Speaker 3: low at the weather recording station nearest to Dark Canyon

365
00:25:04,130 --> 00:25:05,130
Speaker 3: was in the mid sixties.

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Speaker 8: And I'm not sure it would get cold enough up

367
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Speaker 8: in the canyon for that to happen, but it's just

368
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Speaker 8: something to think about.

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00:25:14,090 --> 00:25:18,570
Speaker 3: Obviously, there's another possible explanation, foul play.

370
00:25:19,730 --> 00:25:22,890
Speaker 8: There are sinister reasons for the person not having their

371
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Speaker 8: clothes on. I mean, could she have been sexually assaulted

372
00:25:28,370 --> 00:25:32,210
Speaker 8: and they just took her clothes off and left them off.

373
00:25:33,410 --> 00:25:38,090
Speaker 8: Who knows. It's certainly a real possibility.

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Speaker 3: And what about the missing clothing.

375
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Speaker 8: And also the fact that it was an incomplete set

376
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Speaker 8: of clothes and none of the additional items of clothing

377
00:25:48,650 --> 00:25:51,810
Speaker 8: were ever found, and including shoes, which I think have

378
00:25:51,930 --> 00:25:54,290
Speaker 8: a little more weight than other clothing.

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00:25:55,690 --> 00:25:58,810
Speaker 3: As with everything about my Teresa's case, the story of

380
00:25:58,890 --> 00:26:03,010
Speaker 3: her remains is a story of absences, gaps, and guesses.

381
00:26:04,130 --> 00:26:07,970
Speaker 3: A forensic pathologist works by process of elimination, but with

382
00:26:08,170 --> 00:26:11,050
Speaker 3: so little hard of it, it was difficult to rule

383
00:26:11,090 --> 00:26:11,730
Speaker 3: out anything.

384
00:26:13,090 --> 00:26:17,130
Speaker 8: So the fact that I didn't see any trauma in

385
00:26:17,250 --> 00:26:22,890
Speaker 8: the bones doesn't mean trauma didn't happen. It's always possible

386
00:26:23,570 --> 00:26:26,730
Speaker 8: that a gunshot wound can go through and through a

387
00:26:26,810 --> 00:26:30,690
Speaker 8: body without hitting bone, same thing for a stab wound.

388
00:26:31,330 --> 00:26:37,130
Speaker 8: What's also possible is asphyxia or a manual strangulation or

389
00:26:37,210 --> 00:26:42,010
Speaker 8: maybe you know, choked with a rope. The reason people

390
00:26:42,370 --> 00:26:47,690
Speaker 8: die when they're strangled is you're cutting off the blood

391
00:26:47,770 --> 00:26:52,330
Speaker 8: flow to the brain. We're looking for things that reflect

392
00:26:52,450 --> 00:26:55,650
Speaker 8: the fact that you are compressing neck structures.

393
00:26:57,650 --> 00:27:00,370
Speaker 3: In the autopsy report, there's a list of missing bones,

394
00:27:00,930 --> 00:27:04,370
Speaker 3: some bones from the hand, the left toes, presumably scavenged

395
00:27:04,410 --> 00:27:08,530
Speaker 3: by animals, the tailbone, the zeyphoid process at the bottom

396
00:27:08,570 --> 00:27:13,050
Speaker 3: of the stern, and a thin, fragile neck bone called

397
00:27:13,370 --> 00:27:13,970
Speaker 3: the hyoid.

398
00:27:15,610 --> 00:27:19,650
Speaker 8: The hyoid bone is the only floating bone in the body.

399
00:27:19,690 --> 00:27:23,450
Speaker 8: It's not attached to any other bone. It sits a

400
00:27:23,570 --> 00:27:28,690
Speaker 8: little bit above the thyroid cartilage and it's essentially there

401
00:27:29,170 --> 00:27:31,530
Speaker 8: as a base of muscle attachment.

402
00:27:32,490 --> 00:27:35,170
Speaker 3: Because of its shape and position in the body, a

403
00:27:35,250 --> 00:27:39,810
Speaker 3: broken hyoid can provide clear evidence of strangulation for a

404
00:27:39,890 --> 00:27:42,930
Speaker 3: forensic pathologist. It's a very significant bone.

405
00:27:44,050 --> 00:27:47,690
Speaker 8: And what's important about it is it's a U shaped

406
00:27:47,730 --> 00:27:52,850
Speaker 8: bone with the projections heading towards the back of the neck.

407
00:27:53,370 --> 00:27:55,890
Speaker 8: So if it's compressed from both sides, which is what

408
00:27:56,090 --> 00:28:01,330
Speaker 8: happens when you have a strangulation case with manual strangulation,

409
00:28:02,210 --> 00:28:05,410
Speaker 8: is that you're putting pressure on the wings of the

410
00:28:05,530 --> 00:28:10,370
Speaker 8: hyoid bone and a can fracture. The thing with the

411
00:28:10,490 --> 00:28:12,690
Speaker 8: hywaid is if you found it and it was broken,

412
00:28:12,850 --> 00:28:15,050
Speaker 8: you could say, aha, this person was strangled.

413
00:28:17,050 --> 00:28:20,570
Speaker 3: But like the missing clothing and her id. My Teresa's

414
00:28:20,650 --> 00:28:25,890
Speaker 3: hyoid bone was never found. Doctor Shinen says my Teresa's

415
00:28:26,010 --> 00:28:30,330
Speaker 3: case could still be resolved with new evidence. The coroner

416
00:28:30,410 --> 00:28:33,250
Speaker 3: could change the cause of death from undetermined.

417
00:28:34,370 --> 00:28:39,930
Speaker 8: If there was foul play involved, someone could confess. You

418
00:28:40,090 --> 00:28:45,690
Speaker 8: never know, could be deathbed confession. Maybe they'll raid somewhere

419
00:28:45,890 --> 00:28:50,530
Speaker 8: someplace and they'll find pictures of her. Anything is possible.

420
00:28:50,770 --> 00:28:55,130
Speaker 8: They could just investigate the right person at the right time.

421
00:28:56,330 --> 00:29:00,330
Speaker 8: Sometimes killers will save souvenirs that can be recognized as

422
00:29:00,370 --> 00:29:03,330
Speaker 8: something from the person. Anything like that could happen.

423
00:29:04,650 --> 00:29:10,530
Speaker 3: Anything could happen, including this, if someone who knows something

424
00:29:11,610 --> 00:29:36,010
Speaker 3: could decide they've kept the secret for too long. My

425
00:29:36,170 --> 00:29:39,770
Speaker 3: Teresa's movements on September seventeenth, two thousand and nine, are

426
00:29:39,890 --> 00:29:43,570
Speaker 3: mostly unknown. After she was released from Lost Hil Station

427
00:29:43,930 --> 00:29:46,930
Speaker 3: at twelve twenty five am, she somehow made her way

428
00:29:47,130 --> 00:29:51,290
Speaker 3: six miles to Montanito in the dark. The next morning,

429
00:29:51,450 --> 00:29:54,370
Speaker 3: around six thirty am, she was spotted there in the

430
00:29:54,410 --> 00:29:57,850
Speaker 3: backyard of a house at the bottom of Cold Canyon Road, and.

431
00:29:57,970 --> 00:30:00,690
Speaker 6: I saw somebody sitting on the top step of the

432
00:30:00,770 --> 00:30:03,810
Speaker 6: sixth railroad ties that we have in the backyard. I

433
00:30:03,930 --> 00:30:08,410
Speaker 6: called David, said are you okay? And the answer was yes,

434
00:30:08,490 --> 00:30:11,050
Speaker 6: I've just and by the time we were around to

435
00:30:11,090 --> 00:30:12,930
Speaker 6: the other window, he was gone.

436
00:30:14,130 --> 00:30:17,930
Speaker 3: That's Karen Smith speaking in an ABC seven documentary about

437
00:30:17,970 --> 00:30:21,930
Speaker 3: my Teres's disappearance. Karen's house is kind of a landmark

438
00:30:21,970 --> 00:30:24,330
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood because it has a tennis court out front.

439
00:30:25,010 --> 00:30:28,490
Speaker 3: Her husband, Bill Smith, who died in twenty seventeen, was

440
00:30:28,530 --> 00:30:33,290
Speaker 3: a reporter on KTLA, a local TV news station. The

441
00:30:33,370 --> 00:30:36,410
Speaker 3: Smith's called the cops, and later deputies confirmed that the

442
00:30:36,450 --> 00:30:40,410
Speaker 3: woman who'd been in the backyard was my Terce. That's

443
00:30:40,490 --> 00:30:43,890
Speaker 3: the one official sighting of my Terce Richardson after she

444
00:30:44,090 --> 00:30:48,770
Speaker 3: left Lost Hill Station. But then there's the other story,

445
00:30:49,730 --> 00:30:52,610
Speaker 3: the unofficial story, the one the guy on the edge

446
00:30:52,650 --> 00:30:55,250
Speaker 3: of his bed told Raven in the Lost interview.

447
00:30:56,250 --> 00:30:58,170
Speaker 4: It was four thirty in the morning. I'm coming down

448
00:30:58,250 --> 00:31:00,010
Speaker 4: off my mountain a little higher.

449
00:31:00,370 --> 00:31:01,290
Speaker 1: So where do you live?

450
00:31:03,650 --> 00:31:06,090
Speaker 4: Yeah, right down the street. I've lived in want Alino

451
00:31:06,130 --> 00:31:07,970
Speaker 4: all my life, so my folks.

452
00:31:07,770 --> 00:31:10,850
Speaker 3: Lived here early, so he says he was heading down

453
00:31:10,930 --> 00:31:13,890
Speaker 3: into the neighborhood from his spot on the mountain in

454
00:31:13,930 --> 00:31:15,810
Speaker 3: the early morning hours, come down.

455
00:31:15,810 --> 00:31:16,890
Speaker 4: It was four to thirty in the morning.

456
00:31:18,410 --> 00:31:20,850
Speaker 1: And because I left about four fifteen for my spot,

457
00:31:20,930 --> 00:31:24,130
Speaker 1: tixt by that ten minutes seventeen minutes. Seat down and

458
00:31:24,250 --> 00:31:26,250
Speaker 1: I'm coming down and there's that well almost step with

459
00:31:26,450 --> 00:31:29,850
Speaker 1: bluff and Cold Canny, and there was a right with

460
00:31:30,370 --> 00:31:33,290
Speaker 1: Cold Canyon. There's a house with a tennis court right

461
00:31:33,370 --> 00:31:36,890
Speaker 1: there and as a as a big horseshoe driveway.

462
00:31:37,370 --> 00:31:38,450
Speaker 3: That's the Smith's house.

463
00:31:38,890 --> 00:31:40,770
Speaker 4: Are you to look it up on the internet. Because

464
00:31:41,410 --> 00:31:42,090
Speaker 4: the guy gave a.

465
00:31:42,130 --> 00:31:46,610
Speaker 3: Statement, but his story and the Smith's story they're really different.

466
00:31:47,490 --> 00:31:51,410
Speaker 3: The time where my terrace was on the property, they

467
00:31:51,450 --> 00:31:52,050
Speaker 3: don't line up.

468
00:31:52,730 --> 00:31:55,770
Speaker 1: They found her in the backyard talking to herself, but

469
00:31:55,890 --> 00:31:57,610
Speaker 1: you know when she wasn't in the backyard, and I

470
00:31:57,890 --> 00:32:00,410
Speaker 1: thought she was at the front door, but I couldn't.

471
00:32:00,610 --> 00:32:05,090
Speaker 3: And in his account, she wasn't quietly resting. She was

472
00:32:05,290 --> 00:32:06,410
Speaker 3: audibly distressed.

473
00:32:07,410 --> 00:32:08,730
Speaker 4: But I could hear his scream back. Can tell you

474
00:32:09,210 --> 00:32:12,130
Speaker 4: it's fit her draw Yeah, the intonation in your voice.

475
00:32:12,850 --> 00:32:14,890
Speaker 4: I didn't know that black people lived in want Nedo.

476
00:32:16,730 --> 00:32:19,850
Speaker 3: So he says he decided to hang out just to

477
00:32:19,930 --> 00:32:20,930
Speaker 3: make sure she was safe.

478
00:32:21,290 --> 00:32:25,690
Speaker 1: Stay there for about thirty seconds, and I said, come

479
00:32:25,690 --> 00:32:27,050
Speaker 1: a little bit of fight of this right now.

480
00:32:28,010 --> 00:32:30,170
Speaker 3: But when she didn't seem to be in danger, he

481
00:32:30,290 --> 00:32:31,410
Speaker 3: figured he should move along.

482
00:32:33,610 --> 00:32:35,210
Speaker 4: She was scam of out enough did I go to

483
00:32:35,290 --> 00:32:38,290
Speaker 4: the couse is going to be here? I got to

484
00:32:38,330 --> 00:32:39,730
Speaker 4: get out of here, so I wasn't home.

485
00:32:40,730 --> 00:32:43,850
Speaker 3: The woman, he says, was a total stranger to him

486
00:32:43,890 --> 00:32:48,050
Speaker 3: at the time. He didn't know she was about to

487
00:32:48,090 --> 00:32:49,890
Speaker 3: become a household name.

488
00:32:50,970 --> 00:32:52,210
Speaker 6: And so.

489
00:32:53,850 --> 00:32:56,370
Speaker 4: I just I didn't think much of it. You know,

490
00:32:56,530 --> 00:32:59,010
Speaker 4: I didn't know that she did been harassed. It was

491
00:32:59,050 --> 00:33:02,890
Speaker 4: the same night, you know, a certaint situation.

492
00:33:04,050 --> 00:33:07,210
Speaker 3: He didn't know that deputies and search parties with horses,

493
00:33:07,410 --> 00:33:10,570
Speaker 3: drones and dogs were going to be pouring into sleepy

494
00:33:10,610 --> 00:33:14,370
Speaker 3: little Montanito looking for her, this young woman who was

495
00:33:14,450 --> 00:33:18,130
Speaker 3: not from Malibu, who he thought didn't really fit in there.

496
00:33:19,570 --> 00:33:22,010
Speaker 4: There, I go, huh, Yeah.

497
00:33:22,090 --> 00:33:24,730
Speaker 1: I didn't think much about it until like two days

498
00:33:24,810 --> 00:33:26,850
Speaker 1: later when all this came on my news.

499
00:33:27,010 --> 00:33:30,370
Speaker 3: You know why the wood Even though he didn't know

500
00:33:30,610 --> 00:33:34,210
Speaker 3: any of that, he knew something out of the ordinary

501
00:33:34,250 --> 00:33:34,810
Speaker 3: had happened.

502
00:33:35,490 --> 00:33:37,450
Speaker 4: I told my land on the next morning, I said,

503
00:33:38,090 --> 00:33:39,890
Speaker 4: whatdline should be able to vound? Last night?

504
00:33:40,850 --> 00:33:44,770
Speaker 3: The next thing that happened, he saw the vultures, so

505
00:33:44,930 --> 00:33:49,330
Speaker 3: many vultures. Vultures are a fact of life in Montanito,

506
00:33:49,970 --> 00:33:52,930
Speaker 3: but this was more than he'd ever seen before, more

507
00:33:52,970 --> 00:33:53,690
Speaker 3: than he could count.

508
00:33:54,170 --> 00:33:59,290
Speaker 1: But so I just hear this couple days later, you know,

509
00:34:00,410 --> 00:34:02,650
Speaker 1: I hear that she's missing and that you know, worked

510
00:34:02,690 --> 00:34:07,650
Speaker 1: the wood. All this stuff's going on, like sorry, I'm

511
00:34:07,730 --> 00:34:12,770
Speaker 1: up at my spot. Two days later, I see And

512
00:34:12,930 --> 00:34:14,970
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of vultures in my life. I

513
00:34:15,050 --> 00:34:17,370
Speaker 1: lived after here in fifty years, right right, never.

514
00:34:17,330 --> 00:34:18,690
Speaker 4: Seen one hundred vultures.

515
00:34:19,930 --> 00:34:24,010
Speaker 1: It's swoop, that's I seemed like a thousand of them,

516
00:34:24,090 --> 00:34:26,410
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I've never seen that many. So

517
00:34:26,490 --> 00:34:30,290
Speaker 1: when did you see this? I saw this like ew

518
00:34:30,370 --> 00:34:33,170
Speaker 1: days after she was missing, maybe four days after she

519
00:34:33,370 --> 00:34:36,490
Speaker 1: was missing. You know, I thought to myself, you know,

520
00:34:37,410 --> 00:34:39,090
Speaker 1: because I haven't got through all my life now, I'm

521
00:34:39,130 --> 00:34:41,890
Speaker 1: kinel like a trapper o'kind of mountainin right like that,

522
00:34:42,970 --> 00:34:46,410
Speaker 1: I wondered what they're doing up there? You know, there's

523
00:34:46,450 --> 00:34:49,490
Speaker 1: something dead out there. You know, obviously there's that any cultures.

524
00:34:53,890 --> 00:34:57,010
Speaker 3: This story of the Montanito lifer who saw my trees

525
00:34:57,130 --> 00:35:01,410
Speaker 3: the morning of her disappearance, it's not out there. The

526
00:35:01,530 --> 00:35:04,890
Speaker 3: recording and all the new information in It got buried

527
00:35:05,010 --> 00:35:10,570
Speaker 3: under so much other information, so much misinformation, conspiracy theories,

528
00:35:10,890 --> 00:35:16,010
Speaker 3: dead ends lies. It was lost in the leaf litter,

529
00:35:16,130 --> 00:35:19,930
Speaker 3: detritus of the Internet. But it's kind of like that

530
00:35:20,090 --> 00:35:26,010
Speaker 3: hyoid bone, tiny and super significant because this ordinary guy,

531
00:35:26,330 --> 00:35:28,490
Speaker 3: sitting on the edge of his bed, drinking a beer,

532
00:35:28,850 --> 00:35:33,050
Speaker 3: telling a story, he makes what is probably the single

533
00:35:33,210 --> 00:35:36,570
Speaker 3: most important statement of any witness in this case.

534
00:35:37,930 --> 00:35:39,650
Speaker 4: Oh, I don't know.

535
00:35:41,490 --> 00:35:44,010
Speaker 1: Any of the facts except for that the constant eye

536
00:35:44,250 --> 00:35:45,370
Speaker 1: was the last one to see her.

537
00:35:45,490 --> 00:35:45,690
Speaker 4: Lie.

538
00:35:49,930 --> 00:35:52,330
Speaker 3: If he was the last one to see her alive,

539
00:35:53,130 --> 00:35:57,970
Speaker 3: did he know something about her death? This season on

540
00:35:58,130 --> 00:35:59,130
Speaker 3: Lost Hills.

541
00:36:00,090 --> 00:36:02,330
Speaker 4: I know one of them officers had something to do

542
00:36:02,410 --> 00:36:02,610
Speaker 4: with it.

543
00:36:02,770 --> 00:36:04,010
Speaker 1: It's like when I've seen a nose.

544
00:36:04,090 --> 00:36:06,410
Speaker 3: It was like, damn, that's crazy. Because I was like

545
00:36:06,490 --> 00:36:07,650
Speaker 3: in a cell with this woman.

546
00:36:07,890 --> 00:36:11,530
Speaker 8: Somebody shaid they act we followed her after she left.

547
00:36:11,570 --> 00:36:13,490
Speaker 5: Do you think you heard someone talking about how the

548
00:36:13,530 --> 00:36:15,210
Speaker 5: deputy could give her a ride somewhere.

549
00:36:15,370 --> 00:36:16,730
Speaker 6: Yes, I was a male deputy.

550
00:36:16,850 --> 00:36:18,930
Speaker 4: I'm get murdered anybody it's going to be a cop.

551
00:36:19,130 --> 00:36:20,210
Speaker 4: I mean, I had to sleep in front of my

552
00:36:20,330 --> 00:36:23,370
Speaker 4: kid's door because of people coming to kill my kids.

553
00:36:23,570 --> 00:36:25,410
Speaker 1: I was dating her at the time, and she ended

554
00:36:25,490 --> 00:36:28,050
Speaker 1: up going missing, and I was questioned by LA Homicide

555
00:36:28,050 --> 00:36:29,410
Speaker 1: as a possible suspect for her.

556
00:36:29,370 --> 00:36:31,490
Speaker 8: Disappearance, and one of the other guys came in and said,

557
00:36:31,490 --> 00:36:32,770
Speaker 8: what do you know about my trees?

558
00:36:33,330 --> 00:36:37,250
Speaker 2: He knew exactly where she was, which gives me the chills.

559
00:36:37,570 --> 00:36:40,850
Speaker 4: Imagine if this was your kid that was swept up

560
00:36:40,930 --> 00:36:42,210
Speaker 4: and put in a box like this.

561
00:36:46,250 --> 00:36:50,090
Speaker 3: Lost Tails Season four, Dark Canyon is written and hosted

562
00:36:50,210 --> 00:36:53,770
Speaker 3: by Me Dana Goodyear. It was reported by Me and

563
00:36:53,930 --> 00:36:57,530
Speaker 3: Hailey Fox, our senior producer. The show was created by

564
00:36:57,650 --> 00:37:01,010
Speaker 3: me and Ben Adare. Lost Tails is a production of

565
00:37:01,090 --> 00:37:11,850
Speaker 3: Western Sound and Pushkin Industries. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and

566
00:37:11,970 --> 00:37:14,770
Speaker 3: you can binge the whole season right now ad free.

567
00:37:15,370 --> 00:37:18,210
Speaker 3: Find Pushkin Plus on the Lost Hill Show page in

568
00:37:18,290 --> 00:37:22,090
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot Fm, slash plus