162. How Reddit Solved a Cold Case // Lyle Stevik

In September 2001, a housekeeper discovered an unidentified man's body in a remote Washington motel room, no ID, no belongings, and a fake name scrawled in the guest book. For 17 years, detectives hit dead ends while an obsessive online community became consumed by one haunting question: who was the man in room five? This is the story of how thousands of strangers refused to let him be forgotten. TW: Suicide If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. If you’re outside the U. S., you can visit an international helpline directory such as ‘Find a Helpline’ at findahelpline.com, where you can search for free, confidential support in your country. Show Notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/redditcoldcase Subscribe on⁠ Patreon⁠ https://www.patreon.com/heartstartspounding to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society and enjoy ad-free listening, monthly bonus content, merch discounts and more. Members of our High Council on Patreon also have access to our weekly after-show, Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. You can also enjoy many of these same perks, including ad-free listening and bonus content when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts . Follow on⁠ Tik Tok⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@heartstartspounding?lang=en and⁠ Instagram⁠ https://www.instagram.com/heartstartspounding/ for a daily dose of horror.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Kaelyn Moore?

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• 0:43Kaelyn Moore?

  their Luxe Weave French Linen Sheets are stone washed and get softer with every wash. Really beautiful for a bedroom refresh. Go to sijohome.com and use code HSP to get 20% off your first order. That's S-I-J-O-H-O-M-E.com and use code HSP for 20% off at checkout. This episode is brought to you by Bigelow Tea. By now, you should all know that I'm obviously a very curious person, and I'm also a big tea drinker. So I've always heard about this tea called Bigelow Constant Comment. It's been around forever and people absolutely love it. I realized I had no idea what it actually tasted like. Obviously, I had to investigate, and now I'm obsessed. Constant Comment is this incredible black tea with real orange rind,

• 1:27Kaelyn Moore?

  cold-pressed orange oil, and sweet spices. The best way I can describe it is it's like Christmas in a cup, except you get to drink it all year long. Then I learned the story behind it, which made me love it even more. Constant Comment was created by Ruth Campbell Bigelow and her New York City kitchen in 1945. She shared it with her friends and everyone kept talking about it. And all of those "Constant Comments" actually gave it its name. The recipe is still a Bigelow family secret over 80 years later. So this one is a mystery worth investigating for yourself. Bigelow Constant Comment. Curiously different, impossible to forget.

• 2:03Kaelyn Moore?

  This story starts on September 16th, 2001. Marciella was a housekeeper doing her rounds at the Lake Canalt Inn, a small motel near Olympic National Park in Washington State. It was an otherwise average day, until she knocked on the door of room number five. No one answered, and typically that meant that she could just let herself in and start cleaning the room, so she did. But as she started cleaning, she jumped back in surprise when she realized that she was not alone in the room. See, there in the closet was a man who was kneeling down, not moving. He didn't react at all to her presence. She called out to him, but he just kept kneeling there, completely still.

• 2:46Kaelyn Moore?

  At first, she thought that maybe the man was deep in prayer, but there was this growing pit in her stomach. Something about this wasn't right. Marciella ran and grabbed one of the hotel owners, a man named Gabe. And when he got to the room, he realized what was going on right away. He approached the kneeling man and put his hand on his shoulder, and it was instantly clear that this man was dead. Now, Marciella and Gabe had no way of knowing this, but finding this man's body was the beginning of a years-long mystery, one that would go so viral on the internet and would bring together sleuths from all over the world. Thousands tried to answer what should have been a very simple question:

• 3:30Kaelyn Moore?

  Who was the dead man in room five? Welcome back to another episode of Heart Starts Pounding. As always, I'm your host, Kayla Moore. Today, I want to tell you a story. It's about a mystery that was solved in part by the internet. And while looking into this story, I really felt two sides of myself playing tug-of-war the whole time I was researching. There was this side of me that saw this case as, I guess, kind of an anthropological study about how the internet can band together for good, how a group of strangers can become obsessed with a cold case, really with the death of someone that they've never met, and can actually be a force for good, something that feels rarer and rarer these days with big on Online communities.

• 4:14Kaelyn Moore?

  But then there was the other side of me that started getting really emotional about kind of the other side of the coin in this story. This episode does deal with suicide, just a heads up. And that is something that has affected me in my life. I've lost loved ones, my parents have as well. And I know it's the same for a lot of you listening. So there's this other part of this story that is about a family who was left without answers for a very, very long time. And I think it's really important to remember that here. Also, before we dive in, I do have a recommendation for you all. A companion viewership piece, if you will. If you want to see another case of an internet group coming together to honor someone that they have never met in real life, I would like to throw out a documentary recommendation.

• 4:58Kaelyn Moore?

  It's called The Remarkable Life of Ebelin. It's on Netflix and be warned, I did cry the entire 90 minutes of the documentary. I'm not making that up. It is truly a beautiful story, though, so let me know if you end up watching. Okay, let's get back into it. The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office sent Detective Lane Humans to investigate. And as he pulled up, he noticed the sunshine, the beautiful green trees and snow-capped mountains of Washington. And they looked almost ironic next to the rundown Lake Canal Inn. It was this long squat building with a faded green roof. It had this sign that had small letters that looked like they were ready to fall off at any moment.

• 5:39Kaelyn Moore?

  Now Detective Humans had been on the force for years and he had investigated tons of disturbing cases. In 1988, he actually discovered that a former consultant to the United Nations named Stefan Christopher had been having teen girls from Bangladesh trafficked to his farm where he was torturing them and forcing them to do slave labor. And throughout the 1990s, Humans linked a series of brutal murders of several women on a remote logging road. This led to the discovery and sentencing of the serial killer Gerard David Allen. But that's really the thing about Detective Humans. Probably not much surprised him anymore, at least not until he walked into Room five.

• 6:23Kaelyn Moore?

  Upon inspecting the kneeling body, he quickly learned the cause of death. And that was that the man had hanged himself from the clothing rod in the closet using his belts. Now, there is a lot that doesn't make sense when someone chooses to take their own life. And I can say that from personal experience, unfortunately. But when Detective Humans looked around the room, he couldn't help but notice that there were some things about the scene that were particularly strange. First off, this was kind of an odd place to choose to die. The room wasn't much to look at, and it didn't seem to have any significance to the young man. There was an ugly brown carpet, an old plain bedspread, a simple wooden desk, a small white refrigerator, and really not much else.

• 7:08Kaelyn Moore?

  No personal touches. The man had very personal belongings on him in general, not even an ID. And the more the detective looked at the body, the stranger the circumstances of the hanging seemed. The young man had stuffed pillows in between the clothing rod and the wall, maybe for comfort, maybe to muffle any noise. But he had also placed a washcloth in between his neck and the belt, which seemed to be for comfort. And the detective thought that this was strange because he hadn't witnessed many scenes where people planned like that. Most people took their lives at home first and foremost. And hanging by kneeling rather than dangling was also pretty unusual.

• 7:49Kaelyn Moore?

  And then there was a note on the desk that simply read "for the room." Inside was $160 in cash. He had not only paid for the room, but he left a tip, which Humans noted as being pretty considerate. But one thing that seemed to be missing from the scene was a suicide note. That was at least until he checked the trash can. There, a small crumbled up piece of paper sat near the top. And when Humans unfolded it, it simply said "SUICIDE" in all caps. It felt like a cruel joke, or like the young man had started to write a suicide note and then thought better of it. Maybe he thought he would leave the note beside his body so people would know what had happened,

• 8:32Kaelyn Moore?

  only to realize it would probably be obvious. There was also a blanket that was up over a window, blocking light from coming in. And when the detective checked the man's pocket, he found the pen that he had written the note with. He also found eight $1 bills. Otherwise, there was a toothbrush and a toothpaste in the desk drawer. And that was it. Like I said, there was not even identification on this man. The only other thing humans could think to check was the Bible in the nightstand. And when he opened it up, he found that it was bookmarked to John, Chapter 12. And one verse really stuck out to him. It was verse 33, which reads, quote, "This, he said, signifying what death he should die."

• 9:15Kaelyn Moore?

  Now, this chapter talks about Jesus arriving in Jerusalem, being greeted as a Savior, and the warning everyone that he's about to die. Rather than run away, he embraces this fate. The whole scene was really dark to the detective, and it was really strange. But the worst was yet to come, because humans knew that next he had to find this man's family and let them know what happened. But with no identification found in the room, he decided he was going to go to the front desk and check what name the man had signed in with. Inside the front office was Gabe's aunt, who everyone called Aunt Barb. And she remembered the man checking in two days prior, on September 14.

• 9:55Kaelyn Moore?

  She described him as handsome, with swept back dark hair, striking eyebrows, and a square jaw. Young, maybe early twenties. She thought it was strange that he didn't have much with him, just the clothes on his back. When he asked for a room, Barb had him sign into her guestbook. And in scratchy handwriting, he wrote, "Lyle Stevik, 1019 South Progress Ave." Aunt Barb squinted at the address. It was incomplete, she told him. He hadn't written down the city or the state. "It was Meridian, Idaho," he said, in an accent that almost sounded Canadian to her. She ended up writing it down beneath his chicken scratch, using her own, much more legible handwriting.

• 10:37Kaelyn Moore?

  Now Detective Humans took this information and had other officers run it through the system so that the man's family could be notified. It was a really sad part of his job, but at least he could help provide some closure for this family. But then he got a call. The address had been run through the system, and it wasn't a home address. It was actually another hotel, maybe somewhere that the young man had stayed the night before? Well, what about the name? Humans asked. Also, nothing. Nothing. No one matching the description with that name came up. It was probably fake. So Humans turned back to Aunt Barb and asked her what else she remembered

• 11:19Kaelyn Moore?

  about this Lyle Stevik guy. She said that she had handed him a key to room number eight, and he thanked her and headed off. He was maybe a little strange, but he did seem like a nice enough kid. But then, just a few hours later, he showed up back at her desk, looking anxious and flustered. And he said that room number eight was too loud. You could hear people across the road in the trailer park, and he wanted a quieter room on the other side of the building. Now Barb thought that this was a little silly, and this was also going to make a lot more work for the staff. If he had taken a shower, or if he had used the bed already, she would have to have Marcella clean the room again. But he assured her that he hadn't done any of those things. So she figured it was okay, and she gave him the key to room number five. She thought

• 12:04Kaelyn Moore?

  she was doing something nice, but she described his demeanor as pushy and ungrateful. She wondered what had happened to the polite young man that she had met just a few hours before. The next day, Barb didn't see Lyle at all, but Marcella did. As she was finishing cleaning his room, she looked out across the street and saw that he was pacing up and down beside the highway. And she wondered what he could be thinking about. The day after that, Sunday, she knocked on his new room, room number five, and he answered, letting her know that he didn't need any housekeeping. So she tried again on Monday, and that's when she found his body and called the police. Okay, so they didn't have a name or an address, but that wasn't the end

• 12:49Kaelyn Moore?

  of the world. There's other ways to identify a person. Unfortunately, Lyle's DNA and fingerprints weren't in any local or federal law enforcement database. It was going to take a little bit of legwork to identify this guy, but like I said earlier, Detective Humans really was up for the job. He contacted local law enforcement in Meridian, Idaho, and he had them investigate the Best Western motel that was the address Lyle had left in the guestbook. But when the Showed Lyle's picture to the people at the front desk there. No one recognized him. Humans thought that perhaps he could figure out what bus Lyle had traveled on to get to Washington. That was the only other way to get to Lake Canal Inn without a car. And he had no car, as far as anyone could tell.

• 13:34Kaelyn Moore?

  And humans figured out quickly that there was a bus that arrived at the motel at the same time as Lyle on September 14th. But when he questioned the bus drivers and passengers who would have arrived with him, none of them remembered seeing him either. This guy was like a ghost. And I could see here how maybe another detective would have let this case go at this point. I mean, at the end of the day, maybe he didn't want to be identified. But Detective Humans wasn't willing to give up that easily. This was a real person. And maybe he didn't think he mattered, but for the detective, he did. And he had a real family out there that deserved to know what had happened to him. And the more Lyle Stevic evaded being identified, the deeper humans dug.

• 14:23Kaelyn Moore?

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• 15:06Kaelyn Moore?

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• 15:53Kaelyn Moore?

  The next call was to the coroner who was overseeing the autopsy. And as it happened, he was able to learn a lot about Lyle. It was discovered that he was a young adult male, likely 25 years old. He was five foot 10 inches, coming in at 140 pounds, and that left him with a bony frame, but otherwise he seemed healthy. He had a small appendectomy scar. His hair, his skin and his clothes were all clean. It didn't seem like he had been living on the street. And at the time of his death, he was wearing black Timberland boots, Levi's jeans and a Gray Fruit of the Loom t-shirt, which was pretty much the standard young man's uniform in the early 2000s. There was some light abrasions on his right knuckles and it was unclear what those were from.

• 16:36Kaelyn Moore?

  Based on his skin color and his features, the coroner felt almost certain that he had some Hispanic or Native American ancestry. And this profile narrowed things down a little bit, but ultimately it didn't do that much. It was as if Lyle had magically appeared in town from an unknown destination and without a single record of his existence before then. Without a real name or address or any identifying genetic material or fingerprints, it was going to be really impossible to ID him, at least with the technology that was available in the early 2000s. But what if there were other avenues that could help? Because even though the technology in the early 2000s was maybe not there yet,

• 17:18Kaelyn Moore?

  there was something else that was growing at this time: the internet. This was when the first wave of social media started to explode with MySpace and then with Facebook, and that was where people could rapidly share information and photos amongst their contacts. The platform Web sleuths also really started growing, providing a place for amateur detectives of all kinds to obsess over the details of different cold cases. In general, these were good-natured people who wanted to help bring closure to cold cases like Lyle's. And in April of 2006, Lyle made his first appearance on the forums. The post was titled "WA: Unidentified Male, Lyle Stevik, Grays Harbor, 17 September 2001."

• 18:01Kaelyn Moore?

  It didn't necessarily stand out amongst the sea of other posts on Web sleuths, but users were immediately really drawn to it. Maybe it was because the local sheriff's office had made many of the crime scene and autopsy photos available to the public, which allowed users to really play detective in this. Or maybe the case just really struck a chord with some users, which I tend to believe was the case. It was a young man, maybe going through a difficult time, who made a decision that he couldn't undo. And now, maybe people out there could at least figure out who he was so his family could have some closure. So, users got to work immediately. Some people focused on his possible Native American ancestry

• 18:45Kaelyn Moore?

  and tried to match his information with missing person cases from Washington-area tribes. None of those really seemed to fit, though. Next, one of them landed on a theory that never actually occurred to investigators. It was a significant development, though, something that would become a classic part of the case. One of the Web sleuths believed that they had figured out how Lyle had come up with this fake name. Now, there's a Joyce Carol Oates novel called "You Must Remember This", where there's a character named Lyle Stevik. The only difference is that that character had an extra C before the K in Stevik. Whereas Lyle's name didn't, but still it was too close to ignore. Sleuths noticed that in the book, a young woman tried to take her own life.

• 19:30Kaelyn Moore?

  And that's perhaps a theme of the book that resonated with Lyle. Realizations like this were somewhat helpful because any details that could be learned about this man's life might help lead to his identity or trigger a memory in someone who knew him. But this was also around the time where the positive well intentioned side of web sleuthing started to become a little bit dangerous. With so little information to go on, users started really grasping at straws and even spreading pretty harmful rumors. Just a month later, in May 2006, web sleuths users were posting pretty wild theories about Lyle possibly having a connection to 9/11. Just because his body was found just a few days after the attacks.

• 20:15Kaelyn Moore?

  One user wrote, quote, "What if this John Doe had a terrorist link? What if he was supposed to do something on 9/11 and failed? Flight number 77 was apparently headed for the White House. There were passengers that were turned away and did not board the flight from Dulles Airport. Maybe the airport tapes should be checked to see if John Doe was in that airport." Another user thought maybe Lyle was someone who typically worked in the Twin Towers, but had been having an affair that day and didn't die when he otherwise would have. They theorized that he fled to Washington in shame where he ultimately died by suicide. I mean, people were essentially writing Lyle fanfiction at this point.

• 20:56Kaelyn Moore?

  And because of that, it kind of became easy for some users to develop a crush on him. He had been described as having a really considerate nature and Aunt Barb at the front desk described him as pretty handsome. This led some people to start fantasizing and almost fetishizing him. One user even wrote that he, quote, "Looks like a male model." And this is something that I still see on the internet a lot, even to this day. I spend a lot of time looking at cold cases and going down all these rabbit holes. So I often see threads of people talking about victims like they knew them personally, or even fetishizing certain elements about them. It's a very strange phenomenon, and I'm sure you guys have come across it too.

• 21:38Kaelyn Moore?

  But what had started as a well-intentioned web sleuth's forum, trying to keep a man from dying in obscurity, had evolved into something totally different. And none of that was helpful to investigators. And on the other end of things, Detective Humans still wasn't able to drum up any new leads. Lyle's case was posted to additional missing persons blogs. A Native American nonprofit aimed at finding missing tribe members also shared his information with their followers, but there just weren't any matches. By 2009, Detective Humans felt like he was getting a bit old for traditional detective work, so he transitioned to the coroner's office. He learned more about DNA matching, and he hoped that one day, advanced DNA matching technology would finally help identify Lyle.

• 22:22Kaelyn Moore?

  But for now, he was at a dead end. Now, the following decade saw an increase in online speculation around Lyle's case, and his legend started to grow. The internet began writing stories and even songs about him. He even had his own ghost story. By 2014, Aunt Barb had retired from the Lake Kenalt Inn and had handed over the reins to Marcella, the former housekeeper who found Lyle's body. Marcella now had a daughter, Vanessa, who stayed at the inn after she gave birth. Vanessa then posted to Facebook, claiming that while she was staying at the inn, she and her brother had seen Lyle's ghost. Here's what she wrote, quote, "When I had my baby, I went to stay at the inn.

• 23:06Kaelyn Moore?

  I slept in the living room on the couch because it was easy for me to get the baby formula from the kitchen. I was in a deep sleep one night. When I had the feeling of someone or something staring at me, when I looked up, I saw a man looking at me. Then I wiped my eyes and he was gone." My mother told us Lyle was a kind man, but the night before his passing, he was rude. She didn't understand how he hanged himself in a closet alcove no bigger than four and a half feet tall. To this day, my mom still wonders if it was murder. Now, I will say, Marcella was not the only person to float the idea that Lyle was murdered, though that's not something that detective humans ever thought. And there was nothing

• 23:49Kaelyn Moore?

  at the scene that necessarily indicated that. If anything, I think it's just more evidence that his story was becoming more of a legend than it had been before. Now Vanessa goes on to say that her mother still occasionally does light a candle for Lyle, which I actually did think was very sweet. Those little moments of remembering someone always make me a little emotional, even if you didn't know the person. By that point, years had gone by and Lyle felt more like a legend than like a real person. The case hadn't really moved much since 2006, when his web sleuth page was created. That is, until yet another social media site arrived on the scene and provided the best online space yet for sleuths to share their theories. Reddit

• 24:33Kaelyn Moore?

  came to prominence throughout the early 2010s, and by 2015, it had become a popular place for amateur sleuthing. The r/Lyle Stevik subreddit was launched that year, and just like the web sleuth days, it began with really well-intentioned people hoping that they could bring some closure to Lyle's family, wherever they were. One of the moderators of that subreddit was Lindsay Soller. She was this caring young woman who was obsessed with John Doe cases. Lindsay grew up in Canada with a mother who was a genealogist and a historian, and she would help her mom search databases to find links between people and build family trees. This proved to be a very useful skill to have when trying to identify a John Doe. So Lindsay kept in touch with Detective

• 25:15Kaelyn Moore?

  Humans and other detectives in Washington to learn any new information she could to share with the subreddit. They learned a couple of new details, such as the results of an isotope test of Lyle's blood, which suggested that he was likely from the southwest or Midwest. Again, helpful information, but it didn't really lead to any major breakthrough. She ended up being interviewed in magazines and on podcasts, keeping Lyle's story alive and sharing the details with anyone who would listen. She even raised money to have a photo regression of Lyle Dunn, showing him alive and at a younger age, so those that knew him before might recognize him. She told Mel Magazine, quote, "I want to bring closure to a family who might be worried or mourning. I just hope that when it's all

• 25:58Kaelyn Moore?

  over, someone misses him." It's a really positive outlook to have, and it seemed like more attention on the case could only be a good thing. But just like before, some of these amateur investigators tended towards theories that were silly and a little harmful. And with more people joining the hunt every day, Lyle's legend was about to get even bigger and stranger. Now, a lot of Redditors started making big leaps with their theories and kind of coming under fire for them. Some people involved in the sleuthing noticed the autopsy mention the marks on Lyle's knuckles, and they theorized that they were potentially, quote, "Russell's sign." It's a medical term for the wounds people get

• 26:39Kaelyn Moore?

  when their knuckles scrape up against their teeth when they're gagging themselves. They said that this was more proof that Lyle had an eating disorder, because remember, he also had a pretty low weight. This was a very large and very speculative leap to make, and it also didn't really help identify him. The parasocial fantasies definitely continued as well. In one of the group's crossposts, the top comment reads, quote, "He was such a beautiful person. I find it so hard to believe that someone could not recognize him. I'm sure in life he was stunning, and he has a face that would be so hard to forget." One Facebook user wrote a short fiction story about how he and Lyle would drink

• 27:21Kaelyn Moore?

  together. The story almost seems to suggest that the writer had something to do with Lyle's death, but it stops just short of saying it outright. But fictionalizing Lyle was becoming this really strange internet subculture, and it was running the risk of not being helpful at all. But then, in the midst of all of this, Lindsay made a post saying she thought she had actually figured something out, something that might be important. The Web sleuth theory about where Lyle got his name was wrong, she said, and she thought that she had maybe found the actual origin of the name Lyle Stevik. If you recall, the theory from the 2000s was that Lyle took his name from a Joyce Carol Oates novel. But Joyce had been asked about the connection between the name and the character in her

• 28:04Kaelyn Moore?

  book, and she said that she didn't really see a lot of similarities. Instead, Lindsay actually thought that the name was an anagram, another name with its letters rearranged. Now, there was this really, really dark website from the early 2000s that users would go to in order to give each other tips on taking their own lives. And Lindsay was browsing this website one day when she found a post from a user named Kill Stevie, and this user was writing about the most effective way to hang yourself. The post is devastating to read, but a lot of the very specific details in it match up with Lyle's case. For instance, the post mentioned using material between your neck and your noose for comfort, which Humans felt like Lyle did.

• 28:47Kaelyn Moore?

  And they also talk about dying away from your family so that they won't be traumatized by finding your body. And also, Lindsay noticed, that if you rearrange the letters of Kill Stevie, you get Lyle Stevik, at least without the "why." It's a little bit of a stretch, and Lindsay actually talked about this on the Thin Air Missing Persons podcast. But with this information, she called Detective Humans, and they both wondered if he took his username and rearranged the letters when he checked into the hotel. It's at least a decent theory. And it felt like after this, the community started getting back on track with updates. There were still posts almost every day about Lyle, and Humans was just excited to see that people weren't forgetting about him.

• 29:28Kaelyn Moore?

  Maybe these little clues weren't leading directly to the man's identity, but keeping interest in the case can sometimes be half the battle. And it was because of this continued interest that there ended up being a big break in the case just a few years later.

• 29:47Kaelyn Moore?

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• 30:32Kaelyn Moore?

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• 31:48Kaelyn Moore?

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• 32:31Kaelyn Moore?

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• 32:49Kaelyn Moore?

  Doctors Margaret Press and Colleen Fitzpatrick are two experts in the field of DNA analysis. They co-founded the nonprofit DNA Doe Project to solve cases just like Lyle's. In 2018, they had heard about this case through all of Lindsay's advocacy and because of the Reddit community. And they thought that this would be something they could absolutely help with. So Colleen reached out to Detective Humans, who was now the coroner, asking if there was anything she could do to help. But there was one problem. Getting Lyle's DNA electronically sequenced was going to cost the county $1,500, and they were not going to approve that cost. But Colleen was known for her persistent approach to identifying John Does. It was her life's passion,

• 33:33Kaelyn Moore?

  and she had even innovated new DNA sequencing techniques in the pursuit of some of these cases. She was known for wearing this multi-pocketed vest that allowed her to keep different tools on her at all times because she wanted to just be ready for anything. She was definitely that kind of girl. And being told no by the county was not going to stop her. She knew that she had a great resource she could reach out to, a subreddit and a Facebook group full of thousands of people willing to do anything. Thing to help this man be identified. So Colleen started a fundraiser and with the subreddit's help, it quickly raised the $1,500 needed for DNA sequencing almost overnight. This meant that his DNA was going to be digitized and could have various snippets analyzed against

• 34:17Kaelyn Moore?

  GEDmatch, which was an online genealogy database. Dozens of volunteers spent months combing through user submitted DNA and trying to build out Lyle's family tree from what they found. Now, this is a really painstaking process to do. They had to compare segments of his DNA to other large groups of people to find any similarities, different ethnic groups and regions with people who have some of the same markers as him and some of the same ancient ancestors. That process only got them so far. For example, the DNA Doe Project discovered that Lyle had distant relatives in New Mexico, specifically near the Four Corners area where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah meet. But according to Colleen, this was actually a

• 35:01Kaelyn Moore?

  somewhat difficult area to do genealogy work in. The people in this area are largely descended from Spanish conquerors who took Native American wives. And many, many years ago, there was a lot of incest in this community because it wasn't very big. It was mostly cousin marriages. And so the genealogy of this group of people can be a really difficult tangle to unweave. So instead, volunteers had to look at the DNA matches they had in the database, no matter how distant, and they would build this massive family tree of thousands of people. And then they would just see if there was anyone on that tree who fit Lyle's description, or maybe the description of his supposed parents. Colleen oversaw all of this,

• 35:43Kaelyn Moore?

  desperately hoping that her team could make years of effort from detectives and whipsloos payoff. She wanted to show that DNA technology had come far enough to solve cases like this. But most of all, she wanted to finally bring Lyle home.

• 35:59Kaelyn Moore?

  And as it turned out, for the first time in the history of this case, things went a lot smoother than expected. Now, Lyle's genetic markers showed more genetic diversity than the average person from the Four Corners area. It was likely that he had one parent from New Mexico and one parent from South America. And that information was really going to help them as they built out the family tree and looked through marriage records and reached out to family members from this tree. And it was with this information that a volunteer called a distant relative of Lyle's in New Mexico. She had done this kind of thing before where you pick a person on a family tree and you call them to see if they know anything about the person you're calling about. It's really difficult to do because you don't know how close that person actually is to your victim.

• 36:44Kaelyn Moore?

  So she knew that this was most likely a hopeless call. The woman she was calling would probably be totally confused, maybe even think that it was some kind of prank. But the woman picked up and the volunteer began her spiel, explaining how she was from a project looking to identify a John Doe. He was a young man who had taken his own life almost two decades ago. He might be related to the woman, but he also might have one parent from South America. And to the volunteer's shock, the woman on the other end of the phone wasn't confused at all by this. In fact, she knew exactly who the volunteer was talking about. She knew who Lyle's parents were.

• 37:24Kaelyn Moore?

  The woman wasn't a close relative of Lyle's at all, but she remembered how distant cousins of hers had a son go missing years ago. And they matched the genetic description that was given by the volunteer. One parent from New Mexico or that area and one parent from South America. With the parents' contact information in hand, the volunteers passed the information on to police. And finally, after years and years of searching, humans and the rest of his department could call Lyle's parents and arrange to bring him home. In May of 2018, they made contact. The parents did confirm that their son had gone missing. And this was probably the first call that the couple had gotten in the 17 years since. I can't even begin to imagine the not knowing.

• 38:10Kaelyn Moore?

  They agreed to look at photos and try to identify the body. Once they saw them, they knew. This was their son. And after 17 years, they finally had an answer. But his name was not Lyle Stevik. It was Christian. Now, the family has requested to remain anonymous, so I don't want to share last names or too many other identifying characteristics about them. But I do think it's important to acknowledge that this man had a name. Christian's family told Detective Humans that they hadn't looked for their son because they thought that he had chosen to cut off contact with them. And of course, not all of the rabid fanbases online were willing to accept that they would not know more about who their John Doe really was, or what might have led him to take his

• 38:55Kaelyn Moore?

  own life. Some of them really did feel entitled to know after all of the work and money that they had put in to try and identify him. And it kind of separated the community into two groups. People who were genuinely in it to do good, and people who were in it for some unhealthy parasocial fantasy. Margaret Press of the DNA Doe Project stated that "there can often be shame associated with suicide. Some families don't want to know that that's how their child died, but it doesn't mean that they're not still grateful to learn about what happened to their child." And the family did tell Detective Humans that they appreciated everyone who had worked to identify their son. And while we don't have any direct statements from the family, Humans did say on Reddit

• 39:38Kaelyn Moore?

  that he had been in contact with Christian's father, and he said, quote, "It relieves the pain in our hearts to know that so many wonderful people were involved. They were able to now mourn." His body was exhumed from the unmarked burial site in Washington, cremated, and then returned to his family. This marked the end of a 17-year search. But more than that, it kind of marked something else. Proof that one person's life mattered, even when they believed it didn't. You see, Christian checked into that motel under a fake name. He left almost no trace of himself. And in doing so, he seemed to be saying that he didn't want to be remembered, that maybe he thought no one would miss him. But he was wrong.

• 40:23Kaelyn Moore?

  Detective Humans refused to let this case fade into obscurity. For 17 years, he kept this file open. He kept the memory alive, believing that somewhere there was a family who wanted answers. And then there was Lindsay Soller, who spent years coordinating with investigators, raising money, and keeping the online community focused on actually solving the case rather than just speculating. And then there was Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press. When the county wouldn't fund the DNA sequencing, they did not take no for an answer. They rallied thousands of strangers to donate, to care about someone that they'd never met. And also, all of the volunteers, the ones who spent months building family trees,

• 41:06Kaelyn Moore?

  making phone calls, searching through old records. They did it because they believe that every person deserves to be identified, to be mourned, and to be remembered. The irony of this case is that Christian went to great lengths to just disappear, but in the end, thousands of people refused to let that happen. His story became something far bigger than he probably ever imagined. And that is all I have for you this week. I wanted to mention here, too, that if you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can always reach out. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 988. Or you can text HELLO to 741741 to reach the crisis text line.

• 41:49Kaelyn Moore?

  I know that a lot of you are involved in online communities that are also looking to solve cold cases, so please, wherever you listen, feel free to leave a comment on which cases you're looking into. I personally am always going down rabbit holes and reading more about cases, whether it's on sites like Reddit or, you know, other places. But I'm always curious to hear what other things you guys are investigating in your free time. I will be here next week with another story. And until then, stay curious.

• 42:19Kaelyn Moore?

  Hearts Are Pounding is written and produced by Meek. Kayla Moore, Hearts Are Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs. Additional research and writing by Greg Castro. Sound design and mix by Red Rum Creative. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, and the team at WME. Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out heartsarepounding.com.

• 42:39Kaelyn Moore?

  This episode is brought to you by our partner, Vistaprint. If you run a small business, you know that there's a moment where you go from just doing the thing you love to realizing you need stuff, like physical stuff. Custom merch for an event, branded apparel for your team, business cards that actually look professional. That was definitely me with Heart Starts Pounding. What started as a podcast I made in my closet turned into something that had merch, had mugs, had stickers, had all of this stuff that I needed to get made. And Vistaprint made it so much less overwhelming. They are a true print expert. Premium quality products, fast turnaround, and design tools that actually make sense. I actually got custom mugs made from Vistaprint and they are gorgeous and very, very good quality. The quality feels expensive without having an expensive price tag.

• 43:24Kaelyn Moore?

  There's a reason over 17 million businesses trust Vistaprint with their print needs. Vistaprint, print your possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com using code NEW20. Do you want more Darkly Curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven-day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash Heart Starts Pounding. But whatever you do, stay curious.