Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On Sunday, October seventeenth, twenty twenty one, thirty nine year
Speaker 2: old Heidi Plank left her home in West Los Angeles
Speaker 2: near Culver City to head out to her eleven year
Speaker 2: old son's football game in Downey, which was about seventeen
Speaker 2: miles away. Heidi and her husband, Jim Wayne, had divorced
Speaker 2: a few years earlier. They shared custody of their son.
Speaker 2: When she left the house that day, security footage showed
Speaker 2: her dressed in jeans and a white T shirt with
Speaker 2: a smiley face on it. She had a gray sweater
Speaker 2: wrapped around her waist. Heidi had her black purse with
Speaker 2: her and also had her dog, a labradoodle named Seven,
Speaker 2: with her when she got into her silver range Rover.
Speaker 2: The dog and the purse will become very important later.
Speaker 2: I have covered and followed this story for several years now.
Speaker 2: We covered it a couple of years ago on a
Speaker 2: previous episode of Helengne Murder Line. And when I first
Speaker 2: saw this story, I remember thinking that I related to
Speaker 2: Heidie immediately because I also have a small dog who
Speaker 2: goes everywhere with me. Heidi Plank went to her son's game.
Speaker 2: At that game, people noticed that she seemed nervous. Her
Speaker 2: ex husband, Jim Wayne later used the word agitated. Heidi
Speaker 2: left abruptly at halftime at around four thirty pm and
Speaker 2: was never seen alive again by her friends and family,
Speaker 2: and it didn't take long for the rumors to start
Speaker 2: flying about Heidie's past struggles with drugs, Heidie's boss, his
Speaker 2: links to big money and powerful people in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I said before that this story was playing out like
Speaker 2: a real life version of the movie Chinatown, and there
Speaker 2: are a lot of new updates in this case about
Speaker 2: illegal gambling rings, organized crime, and what happened to Heidie's boss,
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman and the millions of dollars that prosecutors allege
Speaker 2: he stole from a Native American tribe. I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: Over the past eight years of making my true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: Telling Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
Speaker 2: as a small town where murder never happens. I have
Speaker 2: received hundreds of messages from people all around the country
Speaker 2: asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
Speaker 2: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
Speaker 2: you'd like me and team to look into, you can
Speaker 2: reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line
Speaker 2: at six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
Speaker 2: or you can send us a message on Instagram at
Speaker 2: Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Everyone in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles seemed to be obsessed with the Heidi Plank case.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of threads to follow, and from
Speaker 2: the beginning, one thing that struck a lot of people
Speaker 2: was that, from the outside, Heidi's story didn't seem to
Speaker 2: make sense. The details of her life didn't quite add up.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of angles for police to consider.
Speaker 2: Heidi had had a contentious divorce with her ex husband,
Speaker 2: a high power job that it wasn't clear that she
Speaker 2: had the experience for, and her boss was being investigated
Speaker 2: by the SEC. But before all that, and before the
Speaker 2: rumors of wild parties, illegal gambling rings, and organized crime
Speaker 2: kicked in, we have to back up and figure out
Speaker 2: who was Heidi and what was going on in her
Speaker 2: life at the time she disappeared. Heidi was born and
Speaker 2: raised in Buffalo, New York. She moved to California in
Speaker 2: two thousand and one to go to college. Heidi started
Speaker 2: her career in in real estate. After graduation. According to
Speaker 2: her LinkedIn page, Heidi worked for Coldwell Banker and Douglas Ellman,
Speaker 2: and then she started working for a company called Camden
Speaker 2: Capital Partners. Her boss there was forty eight year old
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman. Now Jason Sugarman is well known in Los
Speaker 2: Angeles finance circles. He graduated from Yale and is described
Speaker 2: as a leader in the finance industry, and he describes
Speaker 2: himself on his website as a father, CEO, and philanthropist.
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman's father in law is Peter Goober, the owner
Speaker 2: of the Dodgers. Police were taking a look at everyone
Speaker 2: in Heidie's life, including her ex husband, Jim Wayne, a
Speaker 2: sixty three year old hairstylist in Beverly Hills. Heidi and
Speaker 2: Jim married in two thousand and eight, and they divorced
Speaker 2: four years later. Now, Jim and Heidi had had their
Speaker 2: issues like many divorce couples, and they went through a
Speaker 2: custody battle during their divorce. Jim claimed that after their
Speaker 2: son was born, Heidi had to struggled with postpartum depression,
Speaker 2: and according to court documents, Jim claimed that in late
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, Heidi had had what he described as a
Speaker 2: full psychotic break. He said due to her addiction to adderall.
Speaker 2: At that time, Jim had had full custody of their son,
Speaker 2: named Bond, But then Jim said that Heidi got better
Speaker 2: and in twenty seventeen they began sharing joint custody. Since then,
Speaker 2: they had been getting along and successfully co parenting. Police
Speaker 2: did look into the relationship between Jim Wayne and Heidi.
Speaker 2: He was completely cooperative with the investigation. He reported her
Speaker 2: missing immediately and also court records show that Jim had
Speaker 2: paid Heidi a lump sum in twenty twelve when they divorced,
Speaker 2: but he had not sent her money since then. Heidi
Speaker 2: earned more than Jim, and actually Heidi paid Jim child support,
Speaker 2: So Jim did not appear to have any motive, either
Speaker 2: personal or financial, for causing Heidi harm, and the police
Speaker 2: did not consider Jim a suspect in Heidie's disappearance. Jim
Speaker 2: told LA magazine that after their split, Heidi had started
Speaker 2: her new job working for Camden Capital Partners, first as
Speaker 2: an assistant and later as a financial controller. Jim later
Speaker 2: told Dateline Heidi didn't have the education for that type
Speaker 2: of senior finance job, and he claimed that before Heidi
Speaker 2: went missing, she told him that she was nervous about
Speaker 2: the fact that her boss, Jason Sugarman, supposedly put her
Speaker 2: name on financial documents connected to the firm. So what
Speaker 2: was going on on the day Heidi disappeared? What caused
Speaker 2: her to be on edge at the game and to
Speaker 2: leave early. Jim said that after the game, the last
Speaker 2: time that he saw or heard from Heidi was at
Speaker 2: around seven pm that night, when she responded to one
Speaker 2: of her son Bond's texts about the game. Bond sent
Speaker 2: another text after that, talking about a play he made,
Speaker 2: but Heidi did not respond to that text. Jim told
Speaker 2: multiple media outlets that that was completely out of character
Speaker 2: for Heidi and that she would never not respond to
Speaker 2: her son. Court record show that Bond continued to reach
Speaker 2: out to his mother. On October eighteenth, at seven thirty
Speaker 2: one pm, Bond wrote in a text message, can you
Speaker 2: please call me back? I called you two days in
Speaker 2: a row and you haven't picked up. On October twentieth,
Speaker 2: Heidi was supposed to pick Bond up from school to
Speaker 2: start her custody time, but she never showed up. Jim
Speaker 2: picked his son up and drove straight to the police
Speaker 2: station to report Heidi missing, and once Jim started calling
Speaker 2: around to Heidie's friends, he realized the last confirmed sighting
Speaker 2: of her seemed to be at Bond's football game on Friday.
Speaker 2: Police talked to Heidie's friends and acquaintances, including a guy
Speaker 2: she was seeing at the time, Naim Salaam, who worked
Speaker 2: for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in San Francisco, but police
Speaker 2: quickly found out Heidie's boyfriend had been in the Bay
Speaker 2: Area during the entire time when Hidie went missing. In fact,
Speaker 2: he told police he thought Hidie had been annoyed with
Speaker 2: him and possibly ghosting him. Police quickly confirmed he was
Speaker 2: hundreds of miles away at his home when Hidie went missing,
Speaker 2: and they did not consider him a suspect. Hide's boyfriend
Speaker 2: told police something else. He said that one of the
Speaker 2: last times he talked with her, Heidi said she was
Speaker 2: afraid or worried about something. Heidie's boyfriend told Jim Wayne
Speaker 2: that she had texted him that she was scared and
Speaker 2: asked him to come down to La to visit her
Speaker 2: the weekend she went missing, but Naim said he couldn't
Speaker 2: make it that weekend. So what was the source of
Speaker 2: Heidie's stress and fear? Could it have been connected to
Speaker 2: her job or her boss, Jason Sugarman. There had been
Speaker 2: some major stresses on Jason Sugarman at that time related
Speaker 2: to the SEC investigation that detailed an alleged multimillion dollar
Speaker 2: scam perpetuated by Jason and his business partner, Jason Galanis.
Speaker 2: Jason Galanas had a lot of business interests, including creating
Speaker 2: a billing service for adult websites, which led to Forbes
Speaker 2: calling Jason Galanis, Porn's new king. According to the SEC indictment,
Speaker 2: Galanas and Sugarman, the two Jasons, as they referred to them,
Speaker 2: stole forty three million dollars from pension funds of a
Speaker 2: Native American tribe of the Sioux Nation. Court documents stated
Speaker 2: that this alleged scam started back in twenty fourteen, when
Speaker 2: Jason Galanis and his father, John Galanis obtained tribal bonds
Speaker 2: and convinced the tribe that they would sell these bonds
Speaker 2: and use the proceeds to invest the money for the tribe. Instead,
Speaker 2: the SEC claimed they simply stole the money. Later, Jason
Speaker 2: Galanis and Jason Sugarman bought a bunch of companies together,
Speaker 2: including Hughes Capital Management LLC and Atlantic Asset Management LLC. Now,
Speaker 2: the SEC said that they also named a code defendant
Speaker 2: into a management role of these enterprises, but the indictment
Speaker 2: claimed this person they had named was really just a
Speaker 2: straw man, and that actually the two Jasons remained in
Speaker 2: control of everything. And then, according to the indictment, Jason
Speaker 2: Galanis and Jason Sugarman allegedly began laundering money through a
Speaker 2: series of fraudulent transactions. They and their co defendants allegedly
Speaker 2: stole sixty million dollars from the Native American Travel Corporation
Speaker 2: and more money from other companies they'd acquired. The indictment
Speaker 2: stated that Jason Sugarman was quote the biggest winner from
Speaker 2: the fraud and that he ultimately siphoned almost nine million
Speaker 2: dollars in cash for his direct and personal benefit end quote.
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman was also mentioned in connection with Hunter Biden's
Speaker 2: now notorious life laptop. Emails from Hunter's laptop reportedly showed
Speaker 2: that Jason was a director and key shareholder of Burnham
Speaker 2: Financial Group, and that group pitched a major deal to
Speaker 2: Hunter's Chinese business partners in twenty fifteen. Another one of
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman's partners who's also mentioned in the SEC indictment
Speaker 2: is Hunter's friend and business partner Devon Archer. Hunter Biden's
Speaker 2: lawyer has said that Hunter had nothing to do with
Speaker 2: the Native American bond scheme. The lawyer said this scheme
Speaker 2: just happened to be happening at the same time as
Speaker 2: the negotiations with the Chinese investors. According to The Sun,
Speaker 2: Hunter's lawyer said Hunter's name had been used without his knowledge,
Speaker 2: and that Hunter's business interests were not affiliated with the
Speaker 2: Burnham Group or with the defendants and the tribal bond case.
Speaker 2: In January of twenty seventeen, Jason Galanis pled guilty to
Speaker 2: criminal charges in connection with the fraud, and he began
Speaker 2: serving a sentence of one hundred and seventy three months.
Speaker 2: Devin Archer was convicted for his involvement in the tribal
Speaker 2: scam in twenty eighteen. He was sentenced to three hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty six days in federal prison and ordered to
Speaker 2: make restitution in the amount of over forty three million
Speaker 2: dollars according to the Department of Justice. But the case
Speaker 2: against Jason Sugarman was very much active in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one when Heidi Plankq went missing and there was another
Speaker 2: piece of evidence that would come into play, Heidi's work laptop.
Speaker 2: Jim Wayne went to Heidie's house on October twentieth. He
Speaker 2: found her work laptop and phone. He turned those over
Speaker 2: to police, and at the same time, Jim was also
Speaker 2: starting to do some of his own detective work by
Speaker 2: trying to track some of Heidi's other devices. Jim tried
Speaker 2: to track Heidi's car with the location tracking system, but
Speaker 2: according to court documents, Heidi's location services were not on,
Speaker 2: and he tried to find my phone feature on her
Speaker 2: iPhone and Apple Watch and her earbuds, but he later
Speaker 2: said the location features for all of those devices were
Speaker 2: disabled as well. He openly stated he wondered if this
Speaker 2: was a coincidence or if someone other than Heidi had
Speaker 2: turned those tracking devices off. Jim Wayne said that on
Speaker 2: October twenty first, the day after he reported Heidi missing,
Speaker 2: he got a phone call from an SEC executive asking
Speaker 2: questions about Jason Sugarman. Then something else, very strange happened.
Speaker 2: CBS Los Angeles ran video of Jason Sugarman ringing Heidi's
Speaker 2: doorbell and then leaving donuts on the doorstep, video that
Speaker 2: the news station says was captured a day or two
Speaker 2: after Heidi went missing. In that footage, you can see
Speaker 2: Jason ringing the bell once, dropping the donuts, and leaving.
Speaker 2: He doesn't seem to hesitate at all or try to
Speaker 2: look inside. Heidi's finances were also being question by investigators.
Speaker 2: As we said before, Heidi worked as a financial controller
Speaker 2: for Camden Capital Partners, which reportedly gave her a salary
Speaker 2: of one hundred and forty five thousand dollars per year,
Speaker 2: plus generous bonuses. Police were starting to ask how she
Speaker 2: could afford the rent on her one point seven million
Speaker 2: dollar townhouse and how she could afford to buy a
Speaker 2: ninety thousand dollars fully loaded land Rover. To complicate matters further,
Speaker 2: Heidi's rented Culver City property was listed in corporate documents
Speaker 2: and public records as the company office of Camden Capital Partners.
Speaker 2: When he was questioned about her finances, Jim Wayne told
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Magazine, quote, You're going to have to ask
Speaker 2: Heidi or her boss. All I know is that she
Speaker 2: always had piles of cash and took a lot of vacations.
Speaker 2: She told me that her boss floats her money when
Speaker 2: they close a deal. End quote. According to a transcript
Speaker 2: of a hearing relation to Heidie's laptop, the prosecution in
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman's case stated that Heidie's disappearance was separately being
Speaker 2: investigated by the LAPD as a homicide, while the judge
Speaker 2: in Jason's case was trying to figure out who might
Speaker 2: have rights to the items in Heidie's home in a
Speaker 2: rented storage unit. The filings to the SEC connected to
Speaker 2: the case were sealed with a protective order, so a
Speaker 2: lot of the details were not made public, which just
Speaker 2: added to the speculation and intrigue around this case. Jim
Speaker 2: Wayne told LA magazine and others that he believed Jason
Speaker 2: Sugarman could be connected to Heidie's disappearance, but there was
Speaker 2: no evidence that the police ever considered Jason Sugarman a
Speaker 2: suspect in Heide's disappearance, and he has never been arrested
Speaker 2: or charged in connection with her disappearance. Jim Wayne threw
Speaker 2: even more shade on Jason Sugarman when he said that
Speaker 2: shortly after Heidie disappeared that Jim had called Heidie's office,
Speaker 2: and he said he did not feel that Jason was
Speaker 2: concerned about Heidie's whereabouts, but he told The Daily Mail,
Speaker 2: Jason Sugarman did seem to be very worried about something else,
Speaker 2: Heidi's work laptop. The laptop, again, was the one that
Speaker 2: was inside Heidie's house, the one that Jim had taken
Speaker 2: out of there and handed over to the police. But
Speaker 2: Jason's attorney told LA magazine that the work laptop should
Speaker 2: never have been taken by the sec and that the
Speaker 2: work laptop should have been considered stolen property. Jim Wayne
Speaker 2: said someone at Jason Sugarman's office had told him that
Speaker 2: they believed that Heidi was quote siphoning off money from
Speaker 2: the company end quote. Jim said, in his opinion, stealing
Speaker 2: would be completely out of character for Heidi and he
Speaker 2: does not believe that this could be true. Jim also
Speaker 2: claimed that he learned from police that Heidi did not
Speaker 2: have a lot of money in her personal accounts. On
Speaker 2: October twenty ninth, news broke that police and federal agents
Speaker 2: were entering Heidi planks townhouse, but they found no signs
Speaker 2: of Heidi inside. Then there was another break in the case.
Speaker 2: Jim Wayne got messages from a young couple who lived
Speaker 2: in a downtown apartment building called the Hope and Flower Building.
Speaker 2: They said that Seven had been roaming the hallways on
Speaker 2: either the twenty eighth or twenty ninth floor alone. There
Speaker 2: was no sign of Heidi. Police were then able to
Speaker 2: pull surveillance footage from in and around the building where
Speaker 2: seven was found, and they found more footage of Heidi alive.
Speaker 2: She was alive on October seventeenth, at around six thirty PM,
Speaker 2: several hours after she left her house and her son's game.
Speaker 2: The footage showed Heidi wearing the same clothing she'd had
Speaker 2: on when leaving her house and at the football game,
Speaker 2: with her dog, walking down an alley between eleventh and
Speaker 2: twelfth Streets. This is an alleyway that runs behind the
Speaker 2: Hope and Flower building. Speared to be wearing the sweater
Speaker 2: that had been tied around her waist in the earlier footage.
Speaker 2: There was some question in the beginning, even about the
Speaker 2: footage in a case where nothing is what it appeared
Speaker 2: to be. Some people said the footage did not look
Speaker 2: like Heidi, that the hair looked darker, almost brown, or
Speaker 2: like she was wearing a wig. But some of Heidie's
Speaker 2: close friends did come forward and they stated that it
Speaker 2: was definitely Heidie, that the lighting was just a little
Speaker 2: bit weird. This footage appeared to be a major break
Speaker 2: in the case because it massively narrowed down the window
Speaker 2: of time when Heidie went missing. Heidi didn't have her
Speaker 2: purse with her, just her dog, and by the way,
Speaker 2: her black purse was never recovered, which pointed to the
Speaker 2: theory that Heidie could have gone to visit someone in
Speaker 2: the building and ducked out to walk her dog in
Speaker 2: that little alley. A lot of people online made the
Speaker 2: same comment that I was thinking, I wouldn't leave my
Speaker 2: purse with anyone that I did not fully trust. Again,
Speaker 2: none of Heidie's friends nor Jim had any idea if
Speaker 2: Heidi knew any one who lived in that building or
Speaker 2: what she was doing there, except for one person. Another
Speaker 2: one of Heidi's friends told reporters that they had talked
Speaker 2: to building staff, who apparently told a friend that they
Speaker 2: had recognized Heidi and her dog. Seven attention focused more
Speaker 2: and more on the Hope and Flower Building. The Hope
Speaker 2: and Flower Building was billed as a luxury high rise,
Speaker 2: but several residents claimed that there had been theft, drug use,
Speaker 2: dogs defecating on their terraces, piles of trash in the hallway,
Speaker 2: and they claimed that their secured parking spaces are constantly
Speaker 2: vandalized and broken into. When I first started investigating this case,
Speaker 2: I went to a prayer vigil for Heidi held at
Speaker 2: the Hope and Flower Building. I met some of the
Speaker 2: residents there and a lot of reporters. This was a
Speaker 2: big story. A mom of one who seemed to have
Speaker 2: vanished into thin air in the middle of downtown LA
Speaker 2: in the middle of the afternoon. Then, on November fourth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, police found Heidie's Range Rover. It was
Speaker 2: parked in a garage several blocks from the Hope and
Speaker 2: Flower building. The car, by the way, was very near
Speaker 2: the alley where Heidie was seen walking on video. So
Speaker 2: why would Heidie not park in the building's parking lot.
Speaker 2: Why would she park several blocks away? Was Heidie's disappearance
Speaker 2: in any way connected to information on that work laptop
Speaker 2: and the pending SEC investigation. Could Heidi have had access
Speaker 2: to information that could have put her in danger? Or
Speaker 2: was everything going on at work just a coincidence. Police
Speaker 2: also considered the possibility the given Heidie's background, she could
Speaker 2: have gone missing voluntarily. Maybe she had some sort of
Speaker 2: mental health issue. Heidie's family said no way. They said
Speaker 2: that would not explain while all of her tracking devices
Speaker 2: were shut off, and they have been adamant that nothing
Speaker 2: in Haidee's behavior ever suggested that she would voluntarily leave
Speaker 2: her son, And apart from that, they say there's no
Speaker 2: way that Heidi would have abandoned her dog. She would
Speaker 2: never have left her dog to fend for himself by choice.
Speaker 2: I lived in la for a long time, and I'm
Speaker 2: very familiar with the downtown area where Heidi went missing.
Speaker 2: I got messages on Instagram from several residents of that
Speaker 2: building who told me the LAPD had been to the
Speaker 2: Hope and Flower building. The residence said they had been
Speaker 2: smelling a foul stench from the trash chute. They said
Speaker 2: that they had heard that a bloody mattress or possibly
Speaker 2: even a body, had been taken from the building. Then
Speaker 2: the LAPD released a statement that indicated they might be
Speaker 2: following the evidence trail inside that building. The LAPD said
Speaker 2: in a statement quote forensic evidence was located inside the building,
Speaker 2: which has led detectives to believe an incident occurred resulting
Speaker 2: in Plank's death end quote, but they never publicly said
Speaker 2: what that forensic evidence was. They also said that further
Speaker 2: investigation has led investigators to the Chakiitaki Canyon landfill, which
Speaker 2: is about forty miles northwest of the downtown location where
Speaker 2: Heidi was last seen. The LAPD released a statement and
Speaker 2: said they were looking in a specific area of the
Speaker 2: landfill for human remains. The Sun newspaper reported that the
Speaker 2: Shaquita Canyon Landfill is where the waste disposal company that
Speaker 2: services the Hope and Flower Building dumps its trash. The
Speaker 2: LAPD has not revealed much about what they found inside
Speaker 2: that building or at the landfill, if anything. The case
Speaker 2: was transferred from Missing Persons to LAPD Robbery Homicide in
Speaker 2: December of twenty twenty one. The LAPD stated that they
Speaker 2: now believe that the incident involving Heidi happened on October seventeenth,
Speaker 2: and that Heidi is now dead and they believe that
Speaker 2: whatever bad thing happened to her happened at that downtown building.
Speaker 2: Jim Wayne told the Son that he has talked to
Speaker 2: the LAPD and says police have told him that up
Speaker 2: to five people were involved in what happened to Heidi.
Speaker 2: He wasn't the only one, because rumors started circulating among
Speaker 2: residents in the building and in downtown LA that Heidi
Speaker 2: had died at a party in the Hope and Flower
Speaker 2: Building and that her body and possibly a blood soaked
Speaker 2: mattress had been thrown into the trash shoe. Then the
Speaker 2: case took another weird twist. The Sun reported that people
Speaker 2: who lived in the Hope and Flower Building had told
Speaker 2: the LAPD that Heidi went to a party in the
Speaker 2: building and may have overdosed on drugs, and that someone
Speaker 2: at the party panicked and dumped her body in a
Speaker 2: trash shoe. A woman who hosts a true crime show
Speaker 2: on YouTube told the newspaper she went to the building
Speaker 2: and ran into someone there who claimed to have witnessed
Speaker 2: Heidi die of an overdose at a huge party in
Speaker 2: the building. This person claimed they had been told that
Speaker 2: Heidi had stopped at the building to see a guy
Speaker 2: she had been dating and to get some adderall from him,
Speaker 2: and that Heidi dropped her dog off with a dog
Speaker 2: sitter to go to this party. Then this person claimed
Speaker 2: Heidi was at the party with drugs and strippers and
Speaker 2: cryptocurrency gambling. But then this person stated that Heidi overdosed
Speaker 2: in the middle of the dance floor and that she
Speaker 2: was later told that Heidi had taken something, possibly adderall
Speaker 2: lace with fentanyl. She then told the newspaper that quote
Speaker 2: a bunch of them took her out and put her
Speaker 2: in the garbage chute and pushed her down end quote.
Speaker 2: A reporter from the Sun saw one of these video
Speaker 2: clips that this person claimed showed Heidi overdosing, but the
Speaker 2: reporters said they were not able to verify either the
Speaker 2: videos or the photo, and this story sounded wild, but
Speaker 2: later a version of it would come up again. Dateline
Speaker 2: covered this case, and police stated that surveillance data from
Speaker 2: the Hope and Flower building showed that there were lots
Speaker 2: of people there to question. This was kind of a
Speaker 2: vague statement, but it seemed clear that investigators were considering
Speaker 2: the possibility that Heidi had gone to a party in
Speaker 2: this building. But Heidie's friend Natalie told Dateline she didn't
Speaker 2: buy the party theory. She pointed out that Heidi was
Speaker 2: dressed super casually, not for a party. Dateline also interviewed
Speaker 2: an investigative reporter, Eric Leonard, who covered the case extensively
Speaker 2: for K ANDBC. Eric said that his reporting indicated that
Speaker 2: investigators were working on a theory that Heidi might have
Speaker 2: taken something laser fentanyl. He told Dateline that they were
Speaker 2: able to confirm that after Heidi died, she was likely
Speaker 2: put into an upper floor trash shoe and her body
Speaker 2: fell into the trash compactor. Heidi Plank was officially declared
Speaker 2: dead by a judge in twenty twenty three. Jason Sugarman
Speaker 2: has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with
Speaker 2: Heidie's disappearance. He settled his case with the SEC and
Speaker 2: paid his fine. Since we last reported on this story,
Speaker 2: there have been more developments in Jason Galanis and Devon
Speaker 2: Archer's cases. Both Jason Galanis and Devon Archer were pardoned
Speaker 2: by President Trump. When Jason Galanis was pardoned in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, it was reported that he does not have
Speaker 2: to pay back the one hundred and sixty two million
Speaker 2: dollars in fines. Jason Sugarman's civil case has also come
Speaker 2: to a close. On January tenth, twenty twenty three, the
Speaker 2: United States District Court for the Southern District of New
Speaker 2: York entered a final judgment against Jason Sugarman. He was
Speaker 2: ordered to pay over ten point two million dollars and
Speaker 2: as a result, the charges against him were dropped. He
Speaker 2: was also banned from participating in the securities industry for
Speaker 2: three years. After settling his case with the SEC and
Speaker 2: paying his fine, Jason Sugarman moved on with his life.
Speaker 2: Heidi Plank's case faded into the background, but then into
Speaker 2: tenty twenty five Heidie's name was in the news again.
Speaker 2: A big story broke that people were being indicted in
Speaker 2: connection with an underground gambling ring based in the San
Speaker 2: Fernando Valley, and that some of those same people had
Speaker 2: been suspected of running an illegal poker room in the
Speaker 2: Hope and Flower Building, the same building where Heidie was
Speaker 2: last seen. NBCLA reported that they had spoken to sources
Speaker 2: who indicated that Heidi might have either met up with
Speaker 2: someone who was at that poker game or visited the
Speaker 2: party in the building that day. This story was big
Speaker 2: news in Los Angeles because former NBA player Gilbert Arenas
Speaker 2: was one of the eight people, according to the indictment,
Speaker 2: who were alleged to have been involved in the San
Speaker 2: Fernando Valley gambling ring. However, NBCLA reported that there was
Speaker 2: no evidence that Gilbert, who played for the Washington Wizards,
Speaker 2: had any connection to the downtown gaming room. After appearing
Speaker 2: in court, Gilbert posted on x that he was back
Speaker 2: on the streets and that he was not part of
Speaker 2: any alleged illegal gambling at that residence. But federal prosecutors
Speaker 2: claimed that Gilbert texted co defendants' images of a poker
Speaker 2: table with Arana's Poker Club printed on it and provided
Speaker 2: fourteen thousand dollars in startup funds. Federal prosecutors say that
Speaker 2: a forty eight year old professional poker player Evgeney, Eugene Terrevski,
Speaker 2: and ev Gueney Jora Gershman, a forty nine year old
Speaker 2: Israeli national from Woodland Hills, were involved in the illegal
Speaker 2: poker games, which prosecutors further alleged were run by Israeli
Speaker 2: or Russian organized crime families. Yeb Gueney Gershman, Eugene Tcherevsky,
Speaker 2: and Gilbert Arenas have pleaded not guilty and are slated
Speaker 2: to face trial in November of twenty twenty six. One
Speaker 2: investigator wrote in the affidavit about the organized crime families
Speaker 2: quote they are known for engaging in murder, car bombings,
Speaker 2: and extortion rackets throughout the world as a tool for
Speaker 2: intimidation and control end quote. According to the two ty
Speaker 2: twenty two search warrants, one of the people running these
Speaker 2: games told investigators that the players there could win or
Speaker 2: lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single night,
Speaker 2: and that the minimum by in was normally at least
Speaker 2: fifteen thousand dollars. But what connection do any of these
Speaker 2: people have with Heidi? If any, we don't know for sure.
Speaker 2: Court records indicate that Heidi Plank attended a similar game
Speaker 2: in the Hope and Flower Building. Media reports indicate that
Speaker 2: the FBI raided homes in Sherman Oaks while investigating leads
Speaker 2: about Heidie's case, but the FBI has not made any
Speaker 2: public statements about these alleged connections. Law enforcement sources have
Speaker 2: stated that they believe that people who were at the
Speaker 2: building on the day Heidi vanished no more information, but
Speaker 2: they believe some people are unwilling to come forward due
Speaker 2: to their own involvement in alleged illegal activity. Heidi's family
Speaker 2: has continued to tell her story. They're still looking for her,
Speaker 2: and they have posted billboards all over Los Angeles asking
Speaker 2: for anyone who knows anything to please come forward. Jim
Speaker 2: Wayne now has full custody of Bond and Heidie's dog
Speaker 2: is also living with them. He has made statements to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Magazine and others indicating that he continues to
Speaker 2: believe that Heidie's boss, Jason Sugarman, could somehow be involved
Speaker 2: in her disappearance. The Los Angeles Police Department has asked
Speaker 2: that anyone who was near or in twelve oh one
Speaker 2: South Hope Street on or around October seventeenth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: and has any information that could help detectives to contact
Speaker 2: the Robbery Homicide Division at two Pine three four eight
Speaker 2: six six eight four to zero. Everyone is talking about
Speaker 2: conspiracy theories and million dollar deals and alleged connections to
Speaker 2: politicians or drug dealing or poker rings. Meanwhile, a young
Speaker 2: boy has lost his mother and Heidie's family is unable
Speaker 2: to bear her because her remains have never been found.
Speaker 2: Eric Lennard, the reporter who covered this case, told Dayline that,
Speaker 2: in his opinion, the theory about attending a poker game
Speaker 2: would seem to explain why Heidi was reportedly seen on
Speaker 2: camera going into the building but was not seen leaving.
Speaker 2: One thing that really sticks out to me about this
Speaker 2: case is Heidie's dog. All of Heidi's digital device's location
Speaker 2: services were turned off, so if her dog had not
Speaker 2: been microchipped, there would have been no connection to the
Speaker 2: Hope and Flower building, and no one might have ever
Speaker 2: known about the possibility that. On October seventeenth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: Heidi Plank went into that building in downtown LA, and
Speaker 2: she never came out. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production
Speaker 2: of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and
Speaker 2: narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Etily's pres
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
Speaker 2: to Sarah Burns for legal review. Noah camer mixed and
Speaker 2: scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale,
Speaker 2: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad Fred by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonpod
Speaker 2: or on Patreon at Catherine Townsend Investigates. If you have
Speaker 2: a case you'd like me and my team to look into,
Speaker 2: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
Speaker 2: Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six'
Speaker 2: one four five at six seven eight seven four four six' one.
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