Pod Insights Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder Ep. 117 | Mysterious Missing Children Cold Cases About this episode Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/g3mdtejo #CashAppPod Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N. A., pursuant to a license from Visa U. S. A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Discounts and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures.
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Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 At Edward Jones, we believe rich means opening yourself to new possibilities. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are, helping you move forward with confidence. Let's find your rich. Edward Jones. Member SIPC.
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0:45 Speaker 02 A child walks out the door one summer morning, a pool towel under her arm, and the whole day ahead of her. Two sisters play outside their building in the mid-afternoon, while a toddler clumps around a campsite in oversized cowboy boots, and a girl answers a knock at the front door. These are ordinary moments, the kind no one thinks to remember because nothing is supposed to happen, but something did. And in each case, a child was never seen again. And these are their stories, the stories of four children still missing. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder, all things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually-minded freak.
1:28 Speaker 02 Now, today, we are talking about a few cases that have not been solved, but on the chance that someone out there might know something or recognize one of these kids or anything, we are going to tell their stories. So, without further ado, let's get into these four cases.
1:58 Speaker 02 Tiana Z. Bradley was born on January 20, 1991, in Chicago, Illinois. She was 10 years old, 4'2" and 70 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. And she notably had a long ponytail and a burn scar on her left forearm around the size of a quarter. And her great aunt, Shalia Bradley Smith, described her as "sassy and quick-witted", the kind of kid who'd entertain a whole room without even trying. And dancing was her love, and she did it everywhere. And Shalia used to tell her, quote-unquote, "Dance for me, baby." And Tiana would dance and dance. And she was also the responsible one, the little mama to her younger sister, Diamond. And phone numbers stuck in her head, and she'd pick up the phone and call her great
2:43 Speaker 02 aunt for no reason other than to just check in. And her catchphrase was "girl", and when she said goodbye, it came out as "baby bye." And that summer, she was taking classes at Doolittle Elementary School, which was two blocks from where the family lived. Now Diamond Yvette Bradley was born on November 25, 1997, and she was 3 years old, 3 feet tall and 40 pounds, with black hair and deep-set brown eyes. And she wore her hair in braided ponytails with purple holders and had a scar on the left side of her scalp. Now Shalia called her "a quiet, shy, laid-back little girl with a sweet smile." And she was timid around new people, but once she felt comfortable, she loved to talk.
3:25 Speaker 02 Now the two of these girls were part of a household of four Bradley sisters. Rita, the oldest at 12, Tiana at 10, Victoria at 9, and Diamond, the baby, at 3. And they lived with their mother, Tracy Bradley, in the Lake Grove Village Apartments in Oakland, which was a neighborhood part of the Bronzeville area on Chicago's south side. Now, family wasn't far away because there were relatives nearby, and the families looked after each other's kids, with whoever was available taking a shift. They really had a village. And the girls' grandmother, Mary Tiny Bradley, lived in the Robert Taylor Homes, a public housing complex in Bronzeville. And Tracy also worked there. So the two girls bounced between their moms apartments and their grandmothers.
4:07 Speaker 02 And over at Robert Taylor Park, they were enrolled in dance and gymnastics. Now, months before they vanished, Shaleah saw the girls one last time at a family funeral. And Tiana was dancing and Diamond, true to form, was hiding behind a corner, peeking out at her great aunt with that quiet little smile of hers. And they were both just full of life in their own way. So on the evening of July 5th, 2001, two of the four Bradley sisters were sent to spend the night with their grandmother. So Victoria and Rita went to Robert Taylor Homes. And Diamond and Tiana stayed behind at the apartment with Tracy. And around 9:30 PM, two of Tracy's friends came over to watch the Cubs play the Mets.
4:49 Speaker 02 And one of them was a neighbor known as Porgy, who sometimes babysat the girls, along with his friend, Steven. And they left around 10:30. And once the friends were gone, a neighbor stopped by, though he didn't go any deeper into the apartment than the entryway, and he said he didn't see the girls. Then Tracy left to go to her boyfriend George's house for the night, having told Tiana and Diamond not to let anyone inside. So Diamond and Tiana were home alone all night. A 10-year-old and a 3-year-old, all by themselves in that apartment. And throughout the night, the apartment's phone was active, with calls going in and out. And one came in around 2 AM, and another went out to George's place.
5:33 Speaker 02 And law enforcement still doesn't know who made those calls. Now, on the morning of July 6th, George drove Tracy to work for her 7 AM shift. And on her break, Tracy tried the apartment over and over again. 7:58 AM, no answer. 8:06 AM, no answer. 8:45 AM, no answer. And she left a message to pick up the phone. And at 8:17 AM, someone in the apartment dialed Tracy's cell. And it's believed to have been Tiana, but the call went unanswered. And the voicemail was, Ma, George is at the door. Around 11 AM. And around 11 AM, George picked Tracy's cell. See up from work and the two of them headed to the apartment and walked upstairs. But the girls were gone.
6:17 Speaker 02 And at 11:29 a.m., George phoned the apartment and left a voicemail saying the girls should pack up their clothes and blankets because they were going camping at Lake Shaffer, Indiana. Then George borrowed $20 from Porgy and took Tracy to Jewel Osco for Victoria's birthday cake at 12:21 p.m. And there's a receipt in support of it because Victoria had a birthday on July 7th. Now, back at the apartment, something was waiting for them. A note sitting on the back of the sofa, right next to a pile of clothes. And it was attributed to Tiana. And the message said the two of them went to the store and then the school playground. Doolittle Elementary had their summer classes running and Tiana was supposed to be there,
7:01 Speaker 02 but she never showed. And kids in the neighborhood told police they'd spotted Tiana and Diamond outside the building around noon, playing, and that was the last trace of either of them. So from roughly 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tracy searched for the girls. And George took her down 35th Street in the direction of the lakefront and told her to call Chicago P.D. and then he left. But Tracy didn't call because she was terrified the state would come for Rita and Victoria as her sister had already lost her own children to the state. And that fear kept her from picking up the phone. So, police weren't called until approximately 6 p.m., roughly seven hours after Tracy came home to an empty apartment.
7:43 Speaker 02 And no suspect has ever been formally named in the disappearance of Diamond and Tiana Bradley. But within the family's orbit, one person drew more scrutiny than anyone else, and that was Tracy's boyfriend, George. And mainstream coverage only ever called him "the boyfriend." And in documentary and podcast accounts, he's identified as George Washington. And he was actually married the whole time he was with Tracy to a woman who was also named Diamond. And DNA testing confirmed he was Diamond Bradley's father, a fact he refused to believe and never acknowledged. And Tracy had named her daughter Diamond intentionally, an act aimed squarely at George, which is just, this is so messed up. But George kept his distance from Tracy's kids.
8:28 Speaker 02 Rita described later that he had no interest in them and that he didn't want them near him. So his contact with the girls was very minimal. But on July 5th, the day before they vanished, George proposed something out of character. That camping trip to Lake Shafer, Indiana, about two hours south of Chicago. The family and their private investigator found this suspicious and P I, P Foster, was blunt about it, saying, quote, "There was a planned trip for these children to go on a camping trip. That camping trip is all fraudulent. That camping trip never manifested." Unquote. And on July 6th, George made a Home Depot run for bleach, contractor bags, and heavy duty gloves.
9:10 Speaker 02 And four bags were gone from the roll, but he claimed he had only used two, and he said it was "all for home renovations." And he told investigators she threw the garbage bags into a lagoon near Washington Park, but the trash was never found. And the bleach caught investigators' attention because they thought it could have been used to clean up in the aftermath. And neighbors told the same story. At his garage, about 10 miles from the apartment, George was seen burning something in a 55 gallon drum, then loading the barrel into his car and driving off. And when investigators examined his vehicle, they found charring and the outline of what appeared to be a metal drum. And they also found hair in the trunk, one strand matching Tiana and another matched
9:55 Speaker 02 Tracy. And according to Rita, the girls had barely ever ridden in George's car, maybe four or five times in total, and they'd never once been in the trunk. But George would have an answer for that, too, saying he'd stashed the girls in the trunk to skip the cover charge at drive-in theaters. Later that night, George got in his car and headed to Gary, Indiana, about 45 minutes from Chicago. And a woman in Gary said George turned up at her door, visibly rattled, though nobody has been able to confirm her account. And around 2 a.m., law enforcement dialed George's home number, and someone picked up and talked for about Three minutes, but it wasn't George. And then there was Tracy.
10:36 Speaker 02 Now, for 22 years, Tracy gave investigators and the press the same story. George came to her place that night and slept over. But that was a lie because she had gone to his place. And the truth didn't come out until a 2023 television special. Detectives set up meetings with her and she blew them off more than once. And in March 2002, an officer asked her to come to the precinct to discuss new leads. And she actually shoved him, so they cuffed her and brought her in. And she talked to investigators for a few minutes before her lawyer showed up and ended the conversation. And the note Tiana supposedly left raised its own questions. Relatives who spoke to Dateline said the note looked too polished because the spelling
11:20 Speaker 02 and grammar were beyond what a 10-year-old would produce. And on top of that, a note wasn't Tiana's style since she had phone numbers memorized. And if she wanted her mom to know something, she would always just call. And Shaleah was more direct, saying, quote, "The person who took the girls was right there beside her, telling her exactly what to write. She was being coached," unquote. And then there was the voicemail that may or may not exist. Tiana reportedly left a second voicemail and in it, she said she and Diamond were heading to the store with George to get Victoria's birthday cake. But police say that message never reached them because they never listened to it and they'd never had a copy. But family members say they did hear it.
12:04 Speaker 02 Tracy's sister had configured the voicemail pins for the family's phone plan, so she logged into Tracy's voicemail and heard the message herself. But days later, it vanished. Tracy's sister, April, described it as, quote, "Ending up in the wrong hands," unquote. And according to Shaleah, she captured the voicemail on her cellphone and forwarded it to her own email, but consumer cellphones in 2001 couldn't record audio. Now, retired detective Ed Carroll pleaded with Shaleah because he wanted to hear that recording himself. Nothing ever came of it. Chicago detective Pamela Childs, who worked the case from the very beginning, said, quote, "At the very beginning, in the deepest part of me, I felt that somebody had the girls", unquote.
12:46 Speaker 02 And there were no signs of forced entry, and from the beginning, children believed whoever took the girls was someone familiar to them. And in her view, only two people held the answers. Quote, "George and Tracy were the only two people that we could look at to bring more clarity to what happened to Tiana and Diamond", unquote. And the family agreed. And according to Shalia, quote, "This is not a case of stranger danger. They knew to be suspicious of strangers. It was somebody they knew, somebody they trusted", unquote. But no charges have ever been filed against George because the evidence remains circumstantial", which is just such absolute bullshit to me, given the evidence that was found, but what do I know?
13:31 Speaker 02 Now Diamond and Tiana Bradley became what investigators called "one of the biggest missing persons operations in Chicago's history", and FBI Special Agent Johnson called it, quote, "one of the longest continuous searches conducted nationwide", unquote. And the response was enormous, and for weeks, hundreds of Chicago police, FBI agents, and civilian volunteers combed the South Side, working through its streets, sewers, abandoned factories, and buildings. And they conducted dozens of interviews and ran down close to 100 of the areas registered sex offenders, and the investigation reached all the way to Wisconsin, where they went through the children's great-grandfather's house, but nothing turned up.
14:11 Speaker 02 And Tracy and George were interrogated separately, and each session lasted 22 hours, and they each sat for a polygraph, and police sources said both came back clean. But Foster, the PI working for the family, told a different story, saying George's polygraph was inconclusive. Investigators also chased leads far beyond Chicago, and there was a lead involving a North African man who'd been paying child support for one of the girls, but that stopped in the summer of 2001. And when he discovered he wasn't the biological father, FBI agents flew to Morocco to investigate, but they came up empty-handed. And over the years, around 12-
14:51 Speaker 02 People have came forward claiming to be the Bradley sisters, most of whom were quickly dismissed. And in 2019, a young woman in Texas claimed to be Diamond, but her claim was determined to be false. And then in May 2023, another woman in Harris County, Texas, posted a TikTok video making the same claim. And she reached out to Shaleah on Facebook, and she agreed to a cheek swab and submitted her fingerprints to the FBI. And her story was that she had memories of riding in a car and spending time around Tianda, and that at some point, she was separated from her and never saw Tianda again. And she also claimed she'd only recently gotten free from the people who had kept her captive.
15:33 Speaker 02 And one detail in particular stood out, because Diamond's records listed a scar on the left side of her scalp, and the woman had scarring in the same area. And Shaleah said, quote, "I've never known or experienced someone so eager to tear down the doors of the FBI to prove who they are. So that gives me a different dynamic of hope," unquote. But the FBI stayed silent on the matter, and as of the last reporting, no DNA results were made public. And police believe that if Tianda were alive and free, she would have reached out to her family by now. So the working theory is grim. Either the girls are deceased, or they were moved out of the United States.
16:14 Speaker 02 And Chicago PD is still running point on the investigation, with the FBI backing them. And as of 2021, there were no new leads. And $10,000 is on the table for anyone who could help locate Diamond and Tianda Bradley. And age progression photos from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show what the sisters might look like today. Because Tianda would be 35 now, and Diamond would be 28. And for two decades, Shaleah has been the one speaking for the family, building out Facebook pages to keep the case in front of people. And every year on the anniversary, the family gathers for a vigil. And in 2021, the 20th anniversary, more than 50 relatives gathered at Robert Taylor Park.
16:57 Speaker 02 And Tracy told reporters, quote, "We have to keep them in the public eye." In the news and hope it breaks through. We have to keep hope alive. Unquote. And Shaleah stood beside her and addressed the crowd saying, quote, "Someone took Tiana and Diamond Bradley. Everybody knows Tiana and Diamond didn't just vanish. It's time to break the silence." Unquote. And in July of 2025, they held the 24th anniversary vigil at the Dan Ryan Forest Woods. And the family sees it this way. No bodies means no charges because the evidence is circumstantial. And in their eyes, that's why prosecutors won't move forward. But Shaleah is still holding out, saying, quote, "I'm not sure that they're out there alive, but we still hold on to hope.
17:41 Speaker 02 You have to have hope." Unquote. So if you know anything about Tiana and Diamond, please, please reach out to their local authorities. I want to take a quick pause to tell you about something that happened to me. A couple of months ago, I got a text saying a package was stuck in customs and I needed to pay a small fee to release it. This has happened a million times before. Who's to think it's a scam? Right? Wrong, because I almost did it before something felt off. Now, these scams are getting genuinely convincing, and it can happen to anyone paying attention for like half a second too short. And that's exactly why I want to talk about Cash App. Because keeping your money safe from fraud deserves to be a priority, and Cash App actually treats it that way.
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19:09 Speaker 02 and send $5 to a friend within 14. ...days and terms apply. And Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Thank you so much to Cash App for sponsoring this video and supporting the channel. And let's get back to it. Dior Kuntz Jr. was two years old, born on December 30th, 2012, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. And everyone called him Little Man. He lived with his mother, Jessica Mitchell, and his father, Vernal Dior Kuntz. And two additional children came from Mitchell's earlier relationship. Vernal was a truck driver and spent a lot of time on the road.
19:51 Speaker 02 And Dior had three things he took everywhere: his blanket, his cup, and his stuffed monkey. And according to his parents, he didn't go anywhere without them. And his grandmother, Trina Clegg, adored him, calling him Sweet Baby Dior and Sweet Handsome Dior. So on July 9th, 2015, the family would take a camping trip about 125 miles northwest of Idaho Falls, out near the tiny town of Lador in LeMay County. Now, Dior's great-grandfather, Robert Walton, knew the area very well, Timber Creek Campground, because he'd been going there since he was younger. And by then, Walton was well into old age, and he personally couldn't go anywhere without an oxygen machine. And his friend, Isaac Rainwand, was coming along as well.
20:36 Speaker 02 And that trip was the first time Rainwand had ever been around Mitchell, Kuntz, or Little Dior. Now, the two groups drove separately: Dior and his parents in one vehicle, and Walton and Rainwand in another. And night had already fallen when they pulled into the campground, so Rainwand pitched a tent, and Walton slept in his camper. And Dior, along with his parents, sat up in the rear of Walton's blue Chevy Blazer. And the campground was remote, with a steep hill on one side and on the opposite side. And the ground fell away eight to 10 feet down to a creek. Nobody else was camping anywhere near them at the time. Now, the next morning, July 10th, everyone gathered for breakfast. And Dior was wearing a pair of cowboy boots that were too big for his feet. And Rainwand remembered watching-
21:21 Speaker 02 him clump around the campsite in them. And it was around midday, Mitchell and Kuntz drove Dior out to the stage stop Junction Store in Lador, which was about a 30-minute ride over rough terrain. And when they returned, Mitchell and Kuntz headed off to walk the area around the site. And Mitchell says she told Walton to watch the boy before she and Kuntz headed out. But Walton said he never heard her ask, and his version was that he'd been alone inside the trailer, just resting. But Walton's own account shifted because eventually he acknowledged that Dior had been near the water, right there with him, and that he turned away briefly. And then Dior wasn't there anymore. And Rainwan's account, meanwhile, placed him down at the water, fishing on his own,
22:05 Speaker 02 with Dior not with him. And former L.A. County Sheriff Steve Penner later summed it up, saying, quote, "They left Dior in the care of their grandfather. They went fishing for a little bit and then came back, and he was gone. And Walton thought he was with them. Isaac was off in the creek fishing." Unquote. And nobody noticed the boy was gone for about 30 minutes. His blanket was still at the campsite, and so were his cup and his stuffed monkey. The three things he never went anywhere without, all left behind. And at 2:28 PM, Mitchell called 911. Quote, "My two-year-old son, we can't find him. He was wearing cowboy boots, pajama pants, and a camo jacket, and he's got shaky blonde hair." Unquote.
22:50 Speaker 02 And Kuntz took off in his truck, racing down a dirt road until his phone found a signal. While Mitchell's phone caught enough reception right there at the site to make a call. And Kuntz later told reporters, quote, "It's such a small area. That's what a lot of people don't understand. They just assume, how could you let your kid out of your sight? Well, this area is pretty well blocked in, and there's no way you could not see him." Unquote. But Dior Kuntz Jr. was never found. And for six months, investigators worked the case without publicly naming anyone. And that changed in January 2016, when then Sheriff Lynn Boerman told reporters he believed Dior's parents were withholding information.
23:31 Speaker 02 And Bowerman's position was that Dior was dead, though whether it happened by accident or on purpose, he wouldn't say for certain. But Bowerman was direct about it, telling Dateline, quote, "I believe his parents are hiding something. There is no doubt in my mind," unquote. And he added that he believed the case, quote, "has to be a homicide," unquote, and that Dior was not anywhere on that mountain. And he pointed to a pattern that frustrated investigators, saying, quote, "Where they were keeps changing, and movements and statements about Dior Jr. keep changing. Their statements don't match, and it's frustrating because we have absolutely no idea where Dior is. And there have been so many inconsistencies that it's hard to tell the truth from everything they've said," unquote. And investigators
24:16 Speaker 02 tagged Walton and Rainwald as persons of interest, though neither were ever called a suspect. And Bowerman said, quote, "I think Mom and Dad are higher on the list," unquote. And law enforcement narrowed it down to three possibilities. One, an animal killed him, a mountain lion, a wolf, something in the wilderness. Two, he was abducted by someone. And three, foul play. The cowboy boots became a key piece of the puzzle because they were a size too big, so they kept slipping off his feet. And if a wild animal dragged a toddler away, or someone grabs him fast, the oversized boots don't stay on for that. They'd be lying
24:57 Speaker 02 somewhere in the dirt. But searchers never found them, not one boot anywhere. And still, both parents held firm that someone took their boy, and their attorney was the one who floated the possibility of a wild animal attack. Private investigator Philip Klein, however, reached a different conclusion, and that was an accidental homicide, meaning that Dior was dead and his parents had something to do with it. And Klein released a statement in 2017, saying, quote, "All evidence leads to the death of Dior Kuntz Jr. We do not believe a kidnapping or animal attack occurred, and all evidence supports this finding," unquote. But David Marshburn, another P I. working alongside the family, disagrees with all of that, because in his view, Mitchell and Kuntz
25:41 Speaker 02 are innocent and his focus is instead on Reinwand whom he thinks is holding back. Now Reinwand was denied any involvement and the sheriffs who followed Bowerman didn't share his certainty because neither Penner nor Bennett views the parents as suspects. Now the way they see it, every adult who was at the campsite carries the same weight since all four of them were the last ones around Dior before he vanished and no one has ever been arrested or charged. And within 48 hours of the 911 call, a massive search was underway. Crews on foot, ATVs and horseback, helicopters overhead, K-9 units and divers in the reservoir and the creek with guys on their stomachs in the shallow water ripping apart log jams
26:25 Speaker 02 and brush piles by hand. Former Sheriff Penner described the effort, quote, "We searched that real intently. It's not very deep, but we put divers in there on their bellies and removed all the log jams and brush piles and things like that," unquote. And three days in, the volunteer count topped 200 and John Bennett, now the sheriff, was in the water himself doing those dives. And grid searchers went up next, side by side, close enough to hold hands, walking step by step through the campsite and the surrounding terrain. And Bonneville County Sheriff's Office joined the effort and so did the FBI. And Dior's photo went up everywhere, on posters, on billboards all over eastern Idaho and leads started flooding in from every part of the United States.
27:07 Speaker 02 And investigators received a lead placing the toddler at a Motel 6 in California, but it turned out to be false. And bones turned up at the campground more than once over the years and anthropologists at Idaho State University examined photographs of each discovery, but each time the answer came back the same, which was just animal remains. And one set of the remains got sent all the way to the FBI's lab in Quantico, but it was an animal, again. Former Sheriff Penner said, quote, "Everything that we have sent to the lab has been analyzed and it has not produced anything. None of the evidence has had a positive outcome," unquote. And to this day, investigators have turned up nothing outside of the initial belongings, not one physical trace of the boy. Three private investig-
27:51 Speaker 02 Have worked the case over the years, Vilt, Klein, and Marshburn. And the saga reads like a case study in dysfunction. Frank Vilt came on in August 2015, offering to work the case for free. And at first, his read was kidnapping. But within a month, he'd reversed course and accused Mitchell and Kuntz of lying. And he cut ties in September, and Vilt died in August of 2023. And the Kuntz family originally brought on Philip Klein in November 2015. And Klein's conclusion was the same as mentioned before. The boy was dead, and his parents knew what happened. And by March 2016, the Kuntz family had cut him loose. But Klein said someone anonymous stepped in to fund his continued work on the case.
28:35 Speaker 02 And he told reporters that Mitchell, quote, "knows where Dior's body is, but refuses to say where." So Kuntz and his father, Dennis Dior Kuntz, took Klein to court in 2017 for defamation. But the case was thrown out in 2019 because the judge found insufficient evidence that Klein had slandered Kuntz. And polygraphs didn't go well for either parent. Because according to Klein, Kuntz failed five, and Mitchell failed four. And Klein said, quote, "In my 26 years, I've never heard of a person failing that bad." And David Marshburn, the third P I., is still working with the family as of 2025.
29:15 Speaker 02 And People Magazine put Dior on its cover in June 2016, headlined, quote, "Without a Trace." And in 2017, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created an age-progressed image of the boy, estimating his appearance at age four. But the public turned on the parents, and years of nonstop scrutiny, accusations, and outright vitriol followed. And it got bad enough that Kuntz had to leave Idaho Falls altogether. And his lawyer went to court over it, suing the woman who ran an online group called "Justice for Baby Dior," alleging she'd driven Kuntz to the point of near suicide. And indeed, Kuntz had gone into counselling for suicidal ideation, driven by people telling the world he'd killed his own son.
29:59 Speaker 02 And the couple split, and Mitchell remarried and stayed. in Idaho Falls while Coons packed up and left the state. And in the days right after Dior vanished, Mitchell had begged publicly for his return, saying, quote, "Who would harm us this way, especially knowing how much he means to us? He's everything to us. If somebody has him, please don't hurt him. Just bring him home safely where he belongs," unquote. And 10 years later, her statement was quieter, but no less heavy, saying, quote, "Each of the 3,647 days have felt the same. The pain of him missing is still as real as the day one. I love and miss my son every day," unquote. And Robert Walton died in 2019, and when contacted in 2025, Rainwald said he was trying
30:44 Speaker 02 to, quote, "Put this behind him and move forward," unquote. And Trina Clegg, Dior's grandmother, keeps going back to Timber Creek because something about the quiet out there makes her feel like she might still find him. And Penner figures he's returned to that site 100 times in 10 years. The badge is gone, but he stayed on with LeMay County Search and Rescue, and he and Bennett talk regularly. So quitting isn't on the table for either of them, and Penner has said it over and over, saying, quote, "When someone is lost, you look for them," unquote. And over 10 years later, there is no arrest, no charges, and no physical evidence. And Dior Coons Jr. is still missing. So if you know anything about his disappearance, please
31:28 Speaker 02 contact Idaho Falls authorities. All right, let's take a quick pause for me to confess something, okay? I will put off literally anything, but the gold medal for that goes to me and my doctor's appointments, I tell you what. I had something I needed looked at for months, maybe even years, honestly. And every single time I went to call, I'd picture the hold music in the phone tag and just not do it, you know? And if you've ever avoided a booking because you have phone anxiety, like me, you get it. But I don't want you sitting on your health the way I have in the past. And what's going to help you is Zocdoc. Now, Zocdoc, as you guys know, lets you search and compare local in-network doctors, and you can see actual appointment openings and book a visit in just a few
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32:55 Speaker 02 She was nine years old of Navajo and Italian descent. And she stood four feet seven and weighed 55 pounds with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and freckles. She had scars on her knee and lip, moles across her back, cheeks, nose, hands, and right ankle, and she wore glasses. And around her neck, she wore a silver chain with small turquoise cross pendant.
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33:33 Speaker 02 Antonette was a fourth grader at Lincoln Elementary School in Gallup, New Mexico, and people who knew her said she carried herself like someone older, mature and responsible, not your typical nine year old. And by the time she was six, she was already cooking for her younger sisters and ironing their clothes for the week. And her father called her nine going on 15. And she lived with her mother, Penny Caicedo, and her two younger sisters, including Wendy Montoya, and Penny was raising the three of them on her own. Now Penny had been out on the evening of April 6, 1986, and she got home around midnight, where a babysitter had stayed with the girls. And the two younger sisters were down for the night, but Antonette stayed up late until close to 3 a.m.
34:17 Speaker 02 Then sometime after 3 a.m., a man knocked at the front door. Antonette and her sister heard a voice they couldn't place, so they would leave it unanswered and they would go back to bed. And then came the second knock, and this time the man said he was their Uncle Joe. So Antonette got up to answer it while her sister stayed in bed. And by her sister Wendy's account, two men were at the door, one again calling himself Uncle Joe, and the moment Antonette opened it in her pink nightgown, they grabbed her, carried her to a brown van, and drove off. Now Wendy was only a child herself, and kept what she saw to herself for years. And her younger sister Sadie has never been sure a second knock even happened, and that
35:02 Speaker 02 detail has never been resolved. So around 6:30 or 7:00 AM, a neighbor noticed an older model brown truck with New Mexico plates outside the house, and a man got out and walked toward the front door, though the neighbor couldn't describe him or the truck in any detail. And by her own account, Penny slept through it all, and didn't realize anything was wrong until about 7:00 AM, when she went to wake the girls and found Antonette's bed empty. Now Penny searched the neighborhood, but no one had seen her, and she said, quote, "We went looking for her around the house, nothing. I didn't start panicking until we checked with all the neighbors, went to every house, and nobody had seen her," unquote.
35:43 Speaker 02 So it was around 11:00 AM before she called the police, and when she did, they told her she'd have to wait eight hours before she could even file a report. And for years, this looked like a stranger at the door, but whoever knocked used the name Uncle Joe, a name that would mean something to these children, so it pointed to someone who knew the family had an uncle by that name, and knew it would get the door opened. And the case never sat right with investigators, and over the years, their focus turned inward to Penny herself, because Penny's own account of that night changed. And at first, she said she woke at 7:00 AM and found Antonette's bed empty, but years later, in a 1994 interview with the FBI, she told it differently, saying that she
36:28 Speaker 02 heard the knock herself around 3:30 or 4:30 AM. And told Antonette to answer it and that she waited about thirty minutes and her daughter never came back. And in that same period Penny told FBI agents she had been involved. And according to investigators, she admitted she knew who was coming for her daughter and that she and a man she named as Emo had discussed a plan beforehand. Now Emo was Emiliano Gardella, a man Penny said had given the nine-year-old flowers three times in the days before she vanished. Penny had also failed a polygraph administered by the FBI. And the detective who worked the case, Marty Escobal, said years later that he was confident Penny knew who had taken Antonette.
37:13 Speaker 02 But no charges were ever filed. And the FBI believed Penny was involved, but she was never charged, somehow. And Penny always said Antonette would never have opened the door for a stranger and that she must have known whoever was on the other side. And once they realized that she was missing, police and Penny's neighbors searched the foothills and Gallup and found no trace of her. And from the start, they were all but certain she was kidnapped. And the first person they looked at was an uncle, after one of the younger sisters told the police that the man at the door was one of their uncles. But he was questioned and quickly cleared and was never considered a suspect. And in April of 1987, about a year after she vanished, a call reached the Gallup Police
37:56 Speaker 02 Department when a young girl said she was Antonette from Albuquerque. But before the call could be traced, an angry man's voice cut in saying, quote unquote, "Who said you could use the phone?" And the girl screamed, and there was a scuffle, and the line went dead. And the whole call lasted about forty seconds, and it was caught on tape. And it was never confirmed whether the caller really was Antonette or whether the call was simply a cruel prank. But Penny listened to the recording repeatedly and she said, quote, "I listened to that tape over and over and over, and just by the way she says her last name and the way she screamed sent chills all over my body. A mother knows, and I know that was her." The FBI released two computer-enhanced images showing what Antonette might look like at fourteen.
38:41 Speaker 02 And four months after those images went out, a waitress in Carson City, Nevada, thought she might have served her. And three people sat at the table, a disheveled couple, and a girl in her early teens. And all through the meal, the girl kept letting her fork slip to the floor, and every time the waitress brought it back, the child clutched at her hand. And after they left, the waitress cleared the table and found a napkin the girl had left under the plate, and it read, "Help me, call the police." But by the time she understood what it meant, the three of them were already gone, and no one ever confirmed that the girl was Antoinette. And the family also turned to a well-known Navajo medicine woman who carried out the crystal ritual, a ceremony meant to reach someone who has vanished. And by her reading,
39:26 Speaker 02 Antoinette was still alive, might have had a child even, and was being held somewhere in the southwest, kept there by force. And Penny held on to that, and she said, quote, "Going to the medicine lady gives me a lot of strength, and it helps me to just know that she is alive," unquote. But Penny would die in 1999, and the questions of what happened to her daughter were still unanswered at that point. And Wendy described what the loss of Antoinette meant, saying, quote, "It just broke my whole family up. It was a very dark and dysfunctional time," unquote. And the case has been told and retold on unsolved mysteries, first under Robert Stack and later under Dennis Farina. And three agencies are working the case, the FBI, the Gallup Police Department, and the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety. And Frank
40:11 Speaker 02 Fisher, a public affairs officer for the FBI's Albuquerque Division, has said, quote, "We have not stopped looking for answers. We are still working with Navajo Nation Division and Public Safety and Gallup Police Department to come up with answers," unquote. And on the 35th anniversary in 2021, the FBI renewed its public appeal, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Eric S. Brown, Sr., said, quote, "We are asking anyone who might have information about this case to come forward now and help us find Antoinette," unquote. And the case is still open, and its paperwork sits boxed up at the Gallup Police Department. A spokesperson there told Dateline that tips have grown scarce over the years, but each new detective who Joins gives the case a fresh look.
40:54 Speaker 02 And Antoinette Caidito would be 49 years old now, and she is still missing. So, anyone with information on her disappearance should contact their local FBI, or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. Nicole Louise Moran was eight years old, and she lived in a top-floor penthouse apartment at 627 The West Mall in Etobicoke, a borough of Toronto, Ontario. And the building was 21 stories tall, and she stood just four feet tall and weighed about 51 pounds. And she had a birthmark on the right side of her forehead, brown hair and brown eyes, along with pierced ears that stuck out and a little gap between her front teeth. Now Nicole was the only child of Jeanette Moran,
41:38 Speaker 02 and her husband, Arthur, called Art. And they had married about a dozen years before she was born. But Art was living separately in Mississauga, while Nicole and Jeanette were in that Etobicoke penthouse, where Jeanette ran the daycare for young children out of that apartment. Now Nicole's best friend was a seven-year-old girl named Melissa Elastek, who lived in the same apartment complex, and the two of them would walk to school every day together. And Nicole's mom used to babysit Melissa's younger brother as well. But swimming was their thing, because the building had its own pool, and meeting there was part of their routine. So they were just normal kids spending their summer exactly the way that you'd expect them to. So July 30, 1985 would come, and it was a morning like any other at the apartment on the West Mall.
42:23 Speaker 02 And Nicole had planned to take the elevator down to the lobby, head to the pool to meet her friend, and enjoy her time in the sun. So sometime around 11 o'clock, she would tell her mom that she was leaving out of the penthouse. And she wore a peach one-piece bathing suit with colored stripes across the front of it, a green headband, and a pair of red canvas shoes. And she also had a beach-colored blanket tucked under her arm, and a purple beach towel. Everything about her just screamed "pool day", but unfortunately, she would never make it to the pool, and she would never meet her friend. And nobody in that building saw where she went, or who she went with. Because Jeanette was... was occupied with the children in her daycare, so she assumed Nicole had either
43:06 Speaker 02 gone down to the pool on her own, or was playing with the other kids behind the complex. And she didn't call the police to report her daughter missing until around 3pm, roughly four hours after Nicole left. And there were no security cameras in the building at the time, because although they'd been purchased and scheduled for installation, they weren't supposed to be put up until the very next day. So one day later, and there might have been footage. One day later, and someone might have seen what happened in that lobby. But on that day, Nicole seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. And in response, Toronto Police launched a search that would become one of the largest in the department's history.
43:49 Speaker 02 A task force of 20 officers were assembled, and investigators logged more than 15,000 man-hours trying to find her. And they knocked on every unit in the building, and let themselves in to the ones that didn't answer. And eventually, someone recognized a photo of Nicole, and police were able to determine that she had in fact made it down to the lobby, but after that, there was nothing. And as Detective Sergeant Steve Smith said, quote, "We have no hard evidence. After she went into that elevator, it's almost like she disappeared." Now, the following day, more officers arrived, and the search widened into a dragnet near Highway 27. And mounted police, boats, helicopters, officers on foot, and dogs all spread out across the area near the building.
44:32 Speaker 02 And it's worth noting, about 45 minutes before Nicole vanished, a neighbor noticed a blonde woman she didn't recognize, sitting in the hallway on Nicole's floor with a notebook. And police wanted to talk to her, but they never tracked her down. Now, more than 900 people from the neighborhood also joined in on that search. And Toronto Crime Stoppers had just been informed, and this was its first big case, so it offered a $1,000 reward, and put out posters and filmed a recreation of her last known steps. And the Toronto Star ran off thousands more posters with her photo and police number, and police had thousands of watercolor sketches of her made up and sent around. Police also found a note in the apartment, written in Nicole's handwriting in pencil
45:16 Speaker 02 a few months earlier, saying quote-unquote "I'm going to disappear", which is so chilling in hindsight. Now, family and acquaintances were all checked and cleared, and eventually the case drew in homicide detectives. And the first year of the search alone ran an estimated $1.8 million, and many more would quickly pass without meaningful progress. But the search for Nicole continued on, and by 2001, Crime Stoppers had aged Nicole forward in her mid-20s in a new photo, and circulated it online to more than 1,000 programs across 17 countries. And then in 2004, researchers with a Belgian group, the foundation Princesse de Croy et
45:58 Speaker 02 Massimo Lenzolotti—definitely butchered that, apologize—used biometric analysis to compare photos of Nicole from a Canadian police site with images on a Dutch advocacy site for sexually abused children and reported a strong resemblance. But unfortunately, nothing came from it. And then Child Find Ontario kept at it as well, getting Nicole's photo and details in front of the public wherever it could: on screens, in ESO stations, in the billing envelopes Rogers and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce mailed out, on Toronto Transit Commission display screens, and even on the backs of transport trucks. And more reenactments followed, and the Forces Video Unit cut another for the case's 29th
46:42 Speaker 02 anniversary in 2014, which screened at Mac's convenience stores around Ontario. And in October 2014, a tip sent out investigators into the field. Thirty-eight officers, 10 from the Ontario Provincial Police and 28 from Toronto, searched Springwater Township with cadaver dogs. And the whole operation traced back to a tip that had first reached the OPP almost 30 years before. And back then, police had looked into it and just came up empty, but after a renewed republic appeal in the summer of 2014, police decided it warranted a second look. And Inspector Gerry Cashman wasn't optimistic, calling it "a long shot". But he said they had no choice but to follow through.
47:24 Speaker 02 Quote, "For the family, for Nicole, she's still a missing person to us. She could still be somewhere out in the world at this point, not wanting to be found. We don't know that. But if she has met with foul play, it's our duty to come out here and stand up for her and find the person responsible, if that's the case." Unquote. But, nothing came of it. And in 2015, marking 30 years, police would organize a 5K run called Nicole's Run in Centennial Park, complete with a candlelit visual, and raised $3,000 for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. And in 2019, police put out another age-progressed image, imagining Nicole in her early 40s at this point. And in 2020, a new lead would come forward.
48:06 Speaker 02 Because a woman told a missing persons group that, on the day Nicole vanished, she had seen her with a man at a West End park, a few kilometres from the building. And she had been about 12 at the time, and is now in her early 50s. And she said the man she saw with Nicole had molested her. And then in 2022, that group, Please Bring Me Home, brought cadaver dogs to the park, and the dogs alerted on a specific spot, a sign that remains could be buried there. However, an excavation has not taken place, and even if it did, there's no guarantee that they would find Nicole's body there. And over the years, one name kept surfacing though, Calvin Hoover.
48:49 Speaker 02 He had already been linked to another disappearance from the same era, so investigators looked at him for Nicole's case as well. But no charges were ever filed, and Hoover had died in 2015, taking whatever he knew, if anything, with him. And after her disappearance, Nicole's father Art quit his job, set up an office to run the search from, and chased leads for her across Canada and the United States. And for a while, he moved back in with Jeanette, but the marriage didn't survive, and the two split for good in 1987. And he also ignored police advice and put his own money for a private investigator. And as of 2020, the last update on record, Art was still living in the Atitubak area.
49:31 Speaker 02 Net, for her part, turned to a psychic in Calgary, hoping it might point her toward her daughter, but she would pass away in 2007. And then, there's Melissa Elascheck, Nicole's childhood best friend. And Melissa spoke of their pool time together plainly. Quote, "This was literally a regular occurrence for us, and it very easily could have been me," unquote. She would actually grow up to become a police officer, serving 21 years because Nicole's disappearance not only steered her into policing, but also changed how she raised her own kids. And she actually still carries a photo negative of Nicole from when they were kids, a piece of their friendship that never got to finish.
50:12 Speaker 02 And at a press conference in 2025, Melissa made a public plea, saying, quote, "There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that somebody knows something. There is no insignificant information," unquote. And she added, quote, "If you think that you may be Nicole, if you don't know what your past is, I would encourage you to come forward because we do have ways of verifying," unquote. And on July 30th, 2025, exactly 40 years after Nicole walked out of that penthouse, Toronto Police announced a $50,000 reward for information on her whereabouts. And the reward stands for one year. And police also released a new age progress photo, projecting what Nicole might look like as a grown woman now. And she would be in her late 40s.
50:56 Speaker 02 And Detective Sergeant Smith has called this one of the highest profile cases in Toronto history, maybe in all of Canada. And he noted as well, quote, "This case is not closed. It has never been forgotten, and it only takes one piece of new information to make that difference," unquote. Forty years later, there is no arrest, no remains, and no answers. And Nicole Moran is still missing. So if you know anything about her disappearance, or have just any tips, please, please contact Toronto Police. And that is it for these missing children's cases. Again, if anyone has any information on any of these missing persons, they should contact their local FBI office or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.
51:40 Speaker 02 Thank you, guys, so much for listening. Let me know if you want me to dive into any other cases down below. And until then, please stay safe out there. And I really, really, truly hope that these cases are solved.
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