WEBVTT - Chapter 1 | Criminal Mischief 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:05.160 This series includes sensitive and potentially distressing topics, including sexual 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:19.880 assault and abuse involving children. Listener discretion is advised. On 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.560 November twenty second, nineteen ninety five, a hunter named Peter 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.159 Erickson walked the woods of Carmel, New York, fifty or 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.440 so yards in from Fields Lane. He was out there 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.320 that morning with a buddy of his name, Bruce. It 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.040 was the first day of a hunting season in Putnam County, 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.560 and the two friends were setting up a tree stand 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.239 that morning. That's the perch that hunters hinden waiting for 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:42.760 a deer. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.320 My buddy was down below. He's afraid to height, so 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.280 he was handing me stuff and I was up in 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.639 this tree and all of a sudden, I look out 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.800 in the road and there's like twenty cop cars pull up, 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.480 you know, all at once, and then they start walking 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.920 into the woods, and you're like, what is going on here? 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.559 The Carminlson County seat of Putnam. It's still a pretty 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.640 small town enough so that Peter knew some of the 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:13.679 cops who swarmed the woods that morning. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.600 I recognized a few of them, one of them pat. 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:19.560 His name was Pacistaldo. 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.679 Pacistaldo a detective for the Putnam County Sheriff straight out 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.720 of a drugstore novel. He slicked his hair back in 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.600 a tight pompadour and wore a top coat even when 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.479 it was warm. Oh and he moonlighted on weekends as 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.800 an Elvis impersonator in several of the local dives. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.160 The guy kind of looked like Elvis a little bit, 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.520 But that's why he was so memorable to me. It 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.920 wasn't my friend. I was like an acquaintance that we 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.560 knew from working there in the jail periodically doing electrical work. 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.880 So as they were coming in, I said, if a 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.480 you doing, what's going on? And he goes, well, somebody 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.160 found something in the woods. 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.640 Earlier that morning, another hunter had stumbled over something in 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.920 those woods. He bent to check it out. It was 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:11.680 the skull of a preteen girl. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.040 He had found that skull, took it home, took it home. 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.639 Later that day the hunter called the cops. And now, 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.679 as Costalgo told Peter and Bruce, he was out there 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:30.040 looking for her body. 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.240 So we're like, no way. 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.960 You know, this is Putnam County. Back then it was 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.640 a quieter town. You don't hear this stuff here. So 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.680 my friend Bruce and I said, do you mind if 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.160 we kind of look around. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:46.280 And help you. 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:48.720 So he goes, uh, yeah, no problem. 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:54.359 Cops rarely let civilians walk their crime scene. According to Peter, though, 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:55.640 that's what happened here. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:03.519 So I'm walking look in and my buddy Bruce goes, hey, 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:04.320 come over here. 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.720 Castaldo and the other cops rushed over to Bruce. He 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.920 was crouched in the clearing between the trees, over a 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.079 mound of sticks and leaves that looked composed. He lifted 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.200 one of the branches and a chunk of the ground 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:23.000 cover came up. He saw something underneath it. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:29.959 It was her skeleton. There's a tremendous amount of debris 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.280 as well. I mean, you see the skeleton, but it's 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.720 not like this bright white thing that's sticking out in 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.920 the woods. There was a mandible the lower part of 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.760 the jaw, and her morale was tied in the mandible 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.120 was sitting on the ground. There was hair there. You 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.520 could see there was hair there, dirty blonde like hair, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:55.080 just laying there in the leaves. It was the rib cage. 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.640 It looked like it's kind of sickening. I mean, it 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.000 looked like the rib cage was mostly intact. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.800 This skeleton was small too. It was It was a 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:05.680 small skeleton. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:06.680 It was horrible. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.720 The body belonged to a twelve year old girl, a 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.120 girl going missing a full year prior. Her name was 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.599 Josette Right and it was Costaldo they put in charge 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:26.039 of finding her. The cops taped the site off and 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:30.200 gathered forensics. They were clothes draped over the body, including 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.000 the coach she was last seen wearing. It was badly moldered, 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.920 with plant where it's growing through it. Her broad been 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.920 tied around her head. Forensics pros would later say that 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.360 it had been used to gagger, along with her underwear, 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.840 which had been stuffed in her mouth. Her hands were 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.760 bound in a complex odd tie. A sash cord ran 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.760 from her wrist to both her neck and ankle, yanking 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.320 her right foot back behind her and not far from 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.960 her body, cops found a hunting knife rusted in the damp. 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.000 I'm Paul Salatarov, and for thirty three years I've written 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.960 for Rolling Stone magazine. I go after racist cops who 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.360 shoot and kill on her black kids. I investigate me 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.599 on Nazi's bent on genocide in Virginia, and social media 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.640 tech lords who look the other way, while the cartel's 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:32.400 poisoned children on their platforms. Now, when you write those 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.119 kinds of stories, one after another, you build a layer 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.960 of callous around your heart. But this story has pierced 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.320 the skin and will not give me peace. I keep 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.880 hearing the voices of girls who'd warned the cops about 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.560 a demon, a hundred of girls hiding in the woods. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.599 And I keep hearing the voice of that demon in 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.760 the woods, a voice that's still in my head five 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:01.920 years later. You'll soon meet him in this sea. In fact, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:06.279 he's lurking here in this episode. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:28.800 You my madness, laughter, my fears, sorrows, depths are endless. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:30.000 In this. 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:39.480 Valley of the years. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.920 I want to see revelation. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.560 I want to know holy water. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:07:01.880 I'm reading out desperately. Shune to the one who's holding 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:08.760 the stars, to the one who is holding. 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.240 Holding the stars. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:46.000 This is the Devil's quarry. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.600 I was in the group homing Caramel. I'd say we 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.320 were pretty tight with the crew that was there. You know, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.880 we all came from different backgrounds. We were all kind 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.440 of there for same reasons, but for. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:06.360 Different Rachel was seven or eight when her mom's new 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:10.720 boyfriend crashed into their lives. Within weeks, he was abusing 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.360 both Rachel and her mom. It's why she landed in 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.640 the group home a few years later. That home was 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.560 known as Saint Cabrini, and it proved to be a 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:21.760 blessing for Rachel. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.880 When it came to Carmel, it was like kind of 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:27.320 like a clean slate for me. 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.080 Cabrini was a haven for the yanked out girls of 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.360 Putnam County, the ones who had been abused by man 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.640 in their house were ignored by their drug distracted mother. 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.720 They ranged an age from eleven to eighteen, but looked 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.040 out for each other. Like sisters. Rachel and the others 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.520 loved to hang on the big stone porch out front, 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:52.920 smoking menthols with the boys who stopped by. That porch 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.800 is where she first met Josette. Right. 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.640 She was an average ten eleven year old. You know, 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.120 she had long blonde hair. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.760 Rachel is one of the first people that Putnam cops 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.720 spoke to after Josette's body was found. Rachel, by the way, 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.839 is a pseudonym. You'll see why she needs one soon enough. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.600 As it happened, she was classmates with Josette's sister, who 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.320 was four years older than Josette. Their house was the 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.920 Hank Spot on weekday afternoons. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.640 It was the house to go to, you know, it 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.840 was the party house. It was a place where kids 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.360 went to hang out to get drunk. There was people 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:35.479 there all the time. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.120 Well hanging at that house. She met Josette's mom, Susan, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.959 and spent time with her boyfriend, Freddie. Freddie wore a ponytail, 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.280 who was missing three front teeth and had a nasty 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:48.440 scar under his lip. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.280 He was very free spirited, I guess want to say. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.960 You know, he spent a lot of his life in jail, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.560 and he was very for his age, kind of sure. 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.640 The house was the sort of place where the adults 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.040 often behaved like teens instead of authority figures. They partied 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.840 just as hard as the kids they were raising, shared 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.040 their beer and Newports with him, and brought around men 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.120 like Freddy. How did Freddy support himself? 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.920 I think he did odd jobs. I think he was 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:27.040 a carpenter. He did do carpentry work. He also said 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:27.920 he was a reverend. 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:30.839 Did Freddie strike you as religious? 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:37.720 No, you he wasn't godly at all. You're covered in 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.600 tattoos and you know, I remember them being on his 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.080 arms and they were like Jeilhouse tattoos, So you know, 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.480 like the tattoos that after years they just looked like blah. 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.360 That's kind of like how I remember his tattoos being 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.240 like some you can't even make out exactly. He tell 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.160 you it was a horse, and you're like what. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.959 The Putnam cops took a run at Freddy after joe 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.680 His body was found. His mugshots are in the case file, 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.520 as well as pages of handwritten notes about him. One 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.960 of those pages describes his jail house tats and that 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.480 wasn't all worse on Freddy's forearm. It was a circle 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.560 of clansmen burning crosses. And there's another note in that 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.800 file apparently Freddie had founded a white supremacist gang while 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:28.079 in prison. There's also a number of people said that 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.880 Freddy held neo Nazi hughes. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.439 Well maybe that's what he was a reverend in. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.720 I couldn't corroborate that Freddy was ordained in anything, but 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.720 it was easy enough to confirm that he'd done a 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.000 serious stretch in prison. Do you know what he went 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:47.760 to prison for? 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.400 I honestly killing a man for killing him man, I 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:52.560 want to say killing a man. 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.600 There aren't any murders on Freddy's sheet, at least none 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.720 I could find, and there aren't any details on his 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.360 egg evaded assaults, the counts that sent him to prison. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.440 But there are statements in that file from Josette's friends. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.760 They said Freddie often called Josette nasty names, and one 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.520 of them said he slapped her hard in the face 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:16.840 after she asked him for pizza money. 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.080 I know that she didn't like Freddy. 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:23.920 Josette's dad was in California and been out of the 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.760 picture for years. Her mom worked two jobs to support 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.480 three school age kids and often left Josette to her 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:32.439 own devices. 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.640 She wanted to be seen, and her mom probably was 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.480 the person she needed to be seen by. 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.040 To keep herself busy, Josette wandered the streets. She was 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.360 constantly seen walking the town at all hours alone, from 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:56.120 the age of ten. Carmel, New York, is a town 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.600 surrounded on four sides by the lakes of the Hudson Valley. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.400 It's an hour or so from midtown Manhattan, as one 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.120 of the more well off towns in Putnam County, but 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.120 Carmel isn't a suburb for CFOs. It's where cops and 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.080 firemen move their families. In the white flight panic of 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:18.120 the nineteen seventies, they built their homes on banks of 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:22.080 Lake Carmel. Then it advertently fouled the waters with the 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.000 runoff from their cheap septic tanks. I've spoken to a 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.319 number of locals who swam the lake as kids. They 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.160 tell me they'd come down with weird sinus problems or 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.800 gastric flare ups that hung on for a week after 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:39.000 they took a dip. Still, you can certainly find beauty 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:43.040 on Carmel. There's the post guard, perfect town square with 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:47.000 its quaint old courthouse and banners hanging from lampposts to 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.840 the Sons who went to War. They're twisty roads up 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:56.160 dense green hills where lakeviews sparkle between the trees. But 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.240 drive the main drag in either direction, you'll pass strip 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.600 malls with down her shuttered stores. From the first time 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.160 I walked here, I had the sense I was being watched. 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.199 There's a vibe here you don't get in the posher 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:14.080 towns west of Carmel, A deep going suspicion of strangers. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.880 A mile up the hill from carmel'stown square stands the 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.520 house where Josette lived. On her walk down that hill, 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:26.920 she'd passed the girls home. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.400 On her left, she walked by the group home a lot. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.880 We were like a pit stop. I guess I think 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.040 that's how we ended up starting to talk to her, 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:40.680 and she became like talking to all the group home girls. 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.200 Having seen firsthand what her home life was like, Rachel 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.760 got why that group home was Josette's pit stop. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.520 It gave her something to do. She wasn't just walking 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:54.440 around aimlessly, or she wasn't, you know, by herself. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.680 Something the lost girl herself. Rachel felt for Josette became 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.920 a kind a big sister to her. She made time 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.320 for at the group home and bought her snacks at 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.560 the deli. The two of them formed a bond that 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.400 deepened the following year. When Rachel left Cabrini and moved 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.080 back home, her mom would rented an apartment in Carmel, 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.480 a ten minute walk from the group home. Within weeks, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.080 if not days, Josette showed up there. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.280 She spent a lot of time with my mom as well. 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:30.440 My mama taught her how to crochet and just you know, 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:40.720 passing the time together. My mom would make everything like potholders, napkins, blankets, scarves, 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.880 you know, like she would make everything. But I remember 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.920 her just teaching her, how do you like just do 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.520 a single stitch, or to do a little box. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.600 And they'd sit at a table together. 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.120 My mom never sat at a table show. We sat 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:59.320 on the floor, so they probably sit on the floor. 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.800 After a while. Josette was over there all the time. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.600 She was a part of the household and you know, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:13.360 eating dinners together and things like that. Yeah, she belonged. 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.000 She was very energetic, she was very loving, she was 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.640 very kind. I don't know why I think of a horse, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:25.640 but she was very a gentile person, you know, was 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:30.800 just looking in the pastor looking to belong somewhere and 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:31.760 and feel like she did. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.120 But several months later, in the summer of ninety four, 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.840 Rachel and her family decided to move to Pauling, half 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:46.840 hour drive from Carmel. The day they finished packing, Josette 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:48.160 showed up at their front door. 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.560 She was there as we were leaving, and I remember 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.600 her saying, just take me. They won't even notice I'm gone. 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.120 I was like, we can't, we can't take you. I 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:01.880 told her that she couldn't come with us. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:02.920 She was crying. 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.080 I think we both were should have just taken her, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:14.240 you know. It crusted me. I worried about her. They 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.960 worried about her. 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.960 After she moved away, Rachel lost touch with Josette. Then, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.439 four months after she left, Rachel got news from her 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:54.400 mother Josette had gone missing, just vanished. October third, nineteen 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.560 ninety four. It was the last day Josette was seen 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.920 in Carmel. She stepped off a scool bus in front 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.520 of her small ranch house at three o'clock that afternoon. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.520 The house, per usual, was packed with teens, Josette's two 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:15.680 older sisters their friends. Putnam detectives would later interview those teens. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.639 Once said Josette had argued with her sister Chloe before 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:24.080 walking out of the house. Josette, she said, admired Chloe 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.199 and tried to mix in with her click, but the 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.399 older girls would have none of it. That day, nasty 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:35.080 words were exchanged, according to those teens. Joseph called her mom, 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.120 saying she was going over to a friend's house. Then 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.240 she went to the basement and made a second call. 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.600 She briefly left the house and stood on the porch, 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.760 waiting there in her thin brown jacket. When no one 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.199 showed up, she went back in the house. There she 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.959 did a very odd thing. She went up to her sister, Shelley, 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.320 stood in front of her staring, then said goodbye and left. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.119 At three forty five, she went walking down the hill, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.200 headed toward the shops downtown. That night, when she didn't 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.359 come home for dinner, her mom, Susan, called around to 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.919 Josette's friends and knocked on the doors of their houses. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:17.920 None of them had seen her since school let out, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.200 so Susan asked her daughters if she should call the cops. 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.320 Her oldest girl, Shelley, nixed the idea, saying that cops 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.439 do nothing till forty eight hours have passed. Nonetheless, Susan 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.440 called the next morning when there was still no sign 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:40.600 up Josette. Pa Castaldo, the others impersonating detective, was a 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.919 sign to find Josette, but he had no training in 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.560 missing person searches. He'd spent the bulk of his career 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:52.320 as a deputy and detective in a narcotic squad, so 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.000 with no leads to go on, he focused on the 0:19:55.000 --> 0:20:00.840 town's drug dealers, starting with Anthony to Pippo, I. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.800 Would not really argue that I was a successful drug dealer. 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.199 I wouldn't even argue that I broke even you know, 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:13.359 I covered some costs, but mostly ingested more than. 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.960 I was ever intent. Anthony was all of eighteen when 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.520 Josette Wright went missing, at six or five and two 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.439 hundred and thirty pounds. He walked and talked like an 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:28.199 underground wrestler, which was exactly the sort of vibe he 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.600 was going for. He and his boys got up the 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:36.520 crazy stuff together. They staged many WrestleManias in their yards, 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:41.120 breaking chairs and tube lights over each other's skulls. They 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.560 ditched class to get high and sell we to their classmates, 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:49.359 and any money Anthony made never amounted him much was 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:54.280 used to fund his rave trips to the city. You know, 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:55.240 the music was like. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.160 And then they would have these laser lights and these 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:06.000 smoke machines. You got five thousand kids and they're just 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.480 in there in half of them don't even know they're there, 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:11.160 and the other half are just dancing until they drop. 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.640 And his buddies would walk the South Bronx at night, 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.400 the cop weed an angel dust and dance still dawn 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:20.880 at the Rays and Chelsea clubs, so. 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.720 Like the city ones are early the best ones, and 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.840 it's like just it's it's it's an experience, you know. 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.560 I was. They drive home with Carmel high off their heads, 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.960 seem to have everything, including the Cross County Parkway. 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.480 Listening to the music on the way there, listening to 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.440 music on the way back. We're driving our vehicle smoking 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.399 space base. Now we're mixing the crack and the dust 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.359 and off the cloud. 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:53.400 Night in a town with a little or no violent crime, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.880 Anthony had his run ins with the cops. 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:01.480 My first real encounter with the cops was it was 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:07.439 criminal mischief. I threw a metal garbage can at the 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.639 window of a Metro North train and then the cops 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.119 all of a sudden came and they started running after us, 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:16.160 and so I ran and I got in the woods 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:16.520 and they. 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.000 Were bringing the dog, Rebel, the canine. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:21.320 So I'm like fox, I tried to bury myself in 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.040 these leaves, and I'm like, the fucking dog comes right 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.560 up there, she find something like you got me. It 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.119 takes me in jail, and it felt like, you know, 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:34.000 it felt kind of like a badge honor. That was crazy. 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:36.679 I had just shaved the sides of my head and 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.520 I had all this leaf particles on it, and I 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.960 was itchy, and I guess I probably ran into some poison, 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:45.879 ivy or something. I would love to have all of 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:46.960 my mug shots back. 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.080 You could say Anthony had a rep around too. 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:57.199 They stood out based on their clothes and actually this 0:22:57.320 --> 0:22:59.920 was probably cutting edge at that time to have them bag, 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:04.280 you know, hanging you know, your butt hanging out. They 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:06.680 looked exactly like unsavories. 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.200 That's Peter Erickson again, he's one of the hunters who 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:14.520 was in the woods today Joset's bones were found. You 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.200 remember seeing Anthony and his boys around town. 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:20.600 They had that type of look like they were the 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:22.360 type of kids that were selling drugs and school kids 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:23.720 as they were walking up from the school of the 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.160 Delhi not kids i'd want my daughter. 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:26.440 To come home with. 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:29.960 And I would assume at that time a lot of 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:31.480 people had that same opinion. 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:42.160 You couldn't you couldn't miss Anthony. He's huge. I'm sure 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:45.119 they like stereotyped him to be a thug or you know, 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.440 a hood rat or however you want to call him. 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.040 But yet he was always soft spoken, you know, like 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.600 he's he was this big guy, but yet so teddy bears. 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:58.399 Rachel got to know Anthony on that group home porch 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:01.639 he dropped by of with a dozen or so girls 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:02.359 who lived there. 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:07.320 Saint Cobrini's group homeer was on Seminary Hill Road. We'd 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:10.920 hang we'd hang out and talk and you know, sometimes 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:14.120 we'd sneak off a little bit and smoke. 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:15.200 Or make out whatever. 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:17.919 And from a young guy, there's a lot of young girls, 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.040 it's like, you know, hey, you don't know, you don't 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:23.119 want to smoke pot? Yeah, they were already having pot problems, 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:24.360 so that's what we did. 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:28.920 Anthony was often there with his best friend Andy. Andy 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:32.520 was a lot smaller than Anthony, maybe five seven in boots, 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:37.000 but at a short king's confidence around girls around guys. 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:38.840 Though he had a quick, fused temper. 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:44.320 Andy he was more of the well, what you know, 0:24:45.200 --> 0:24:48.639 I'm not I'm not trying to you know, like, but 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:52.439 if if you had a problem with him, he wanted 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:57.399 to know why. And I remember Anthony and Andy with 0:24:57.520 --> 0:25:01.040 this big old juke box, you know, like they would 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:03.679 just be doing nothing and get blamed for something like 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:06.879 something just as walking up and down a hill with 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:09.200 a juke box, you know, like Watery Order. 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:13.720 Or Detective Nostaldo suspected Anthony was more than just a 0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:17.600 two bit dealer. Anthony found that out one cold winter morning, 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:20.200 three months after jezz Hat disappeared. 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:22.880 I'm walking down three on one. 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:23.320 Now. 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:26.159 Three on one is a road that goes to Cold Spring. 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:29.800 It's a long road. I didn't have my license yet. 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:31.640 I just had a permit, and I didn't. 0:25:31.440 --> 0:25:34.760 Have a car. He was walking home from a girlfriend's 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:37.840 house where he just spent the night. Now, if you 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:41.080