Disappeared from the Dorms: The Unsolved Case of Michael Negrete

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It was the end of the semester at UCLA. Students
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were finishing exams, celebrating, and preparing to head home for
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the holidays. A freshman named Michael joined friends at a
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dorm party before winding down with a late night computer
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game with another friend in the building in the early
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morning hours, he stepped out to congratulate his friend on
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the win. Then he headed back toward his room. From
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that moment on, Michael was never seen again. In missing
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persons cases, people will often say someone vanished into thin air,
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and in Michael's case, that phrase feels hauntingly true now
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over twenty five years later. Those closest to him rely
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on the hope that someone will come forward with the
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clue that makes a difference. I'm your host, Megan, and
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each week on a Simpler Time True Crime, I cover
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older unsolved cases and challenge the idea that a simpler
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time means a safer time. This week, I'm bringing to
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you the unsolved disappearance of Michael Negretti. I want to
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give a heartfelt thank you to listener Aaron s who
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reached out by email and encouraged me to cover this case.
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I knew about it, but I'll be honest, I hesitated.
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It's one of those cases that stirs a lot of
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debate online, and I didn't want to simply add to
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the noise. But once I started digging in, I realized
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that the lack of solid, verifiable information and has created
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a maze of theories, and it's easy to get lost
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in it. At the heart of it, though, is a
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kind and talented young man and a family who had
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him with them one day and lost him the next
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without any warning or answers. They've been left holding both
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worst case fears and small threads of hope. My goal
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today is to walk you through what is actually known,
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touch on the theories with care, and encourage you to
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stay open minded with me, because at the time of
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this recording, there truly are no definitive answers. So let's
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get into it. It was December of nineteen ninety nine.
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As the year two thousand approached, a wave of anxiety
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swept across the world over what came to be known
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as the Y two K bug. Computers had long been
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programmed to record years with just two digits, like ninety
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nine for nineteen ninety nine. The fear was that when
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the clocks rolled over to zero. Systems everywhere might interpret
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it as nineteen hundred instead of two thousand, potentially causing
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failures in banks, hospitals, power grids, and even airplanes. Governments, businesses,
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and IT professionals scrambled to fix the issue, and the
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media fed the sense of looming crisis. I myself remember
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it being all over the news, and I imagine Michael
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Negretti and his friends at UCLA were talking about it too,
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and predicting if it was something to really be worried
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about or if it was just going to be one
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big societal overreaction. Of course, we now know that when
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the clock struck midnight, the world carried on just fine.
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But all things point to Michael Negretti never getting to
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find this out, because the last time Michael was accounted
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for was the early morning hours of December tenth, nineteen
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ninety nine. Michael was a freshman at UCLA in the
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summer of nineteen ninety nine. He had graduated from Rancho
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Bernardo High School in San Diego. He was born on
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March twenty fifth, nineteen eighty one, in Virginia to his parents,
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Mary and Miguel Negretti. After Michael would follow two more boys,
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Steve and Dave, and their family would be complete, and
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at some point the family moved to the Saber Springs
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neighborhood of San Diego. Saber Springs has around ten thousand
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people in it. It's one of those master planned communities
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with a big suburban vibe to it. Lots of houses
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on these rolling hillsides, and also lots of amenities like
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parks and good schools, and from everything I can tell,
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it's considered an upper middle class neighborhood. Michael was a
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gifted musician who played the steel drums in the trumpet,
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and because of his musical talent, he was awarded a
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scholarship to UCLA, which is about two and a half
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hours north of where he graduated from. During that first
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freshman semester at UCLA, Michael seemed to be doing really well.
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He had made friends, He was involved with music gigs
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on and off campus. He was actually part of a
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band called Island Fever, and all of his bandmates were
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a bit older than him, But they'd later say that
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they had him join not only because of how amazing
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he was musically. They said he was really reliable and
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a responsible kid who they knew they could count on.
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He was getting good grades and was looking forward to
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wrapping up finals and going home to visit with his
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family for the holidays. Just before his disappearance, he spoke
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to his mother Mary and talked about his plans to visit,
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and she said he seemed completely normal and in good spirits.
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Michael lived on the sixth floor of Dykstra Hall on
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the UCLA campus, which was huge. It's a co ed
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building and there were around nine hundred students living in it.
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Besides music, Michael was an avid video game player, and
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something great about college campuses in nineteen ninety nine was
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that they were early adopters of advanced Internet and technol
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and so Michael was able to actually do online computer
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games with classmates who lived in other rooms in his
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residence hall on campus. On the evening of Thursday, December ninth,
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nineteen ninety nine, Michael attended a dorm party across the
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hall from his room. The person hosting the party was
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a good friend of his, someone who he had really
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hit it off with during that semester. His name was
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Ross Wolf, and I was able to see him do
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an interview with student reporters with the Daily Bruin, which
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is the UCLA student newspaper and its spinoff podcast, Ross
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and others who attended the party said it was pretty
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laid back for the most part. There was some drinking
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and listening to music, and Michael had been drinking some margaritas.
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Michael may have been a bit intoxicated or buzzed, but
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nobody had the impression that he was wasted and falling
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all over or anything. As that party wrapped up, he
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went back across the hall to his dorm to play
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a vide on the computer with a friend who lived
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on the hall. In that same Daily Bruin podcast about
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Michael's case that I referenced before, one student sat down
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with current day law enforcement who had reviewed Michael's case,
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specifically the early case notes, and they answered the question
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of how were they all gaming in nineteen ninety nine
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and what was the internet like? And as many people remember,
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a lot of people's home internet during this time was
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dial up internet, which it was really funny seeing the
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officers explaining that to students who were absolutely not born
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when dial up internet was having its moment. But in
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this case, the officer said that the UCLA campus had
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DSL Internet, so back then high speed internet and dorms
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wasn't the Wi Fi were used to you today. DSL
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used the regular phone line in their room, but ran
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through a special modem that gave a much faster always
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on connection than dial up. You'd plug in a chunky
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beige desktop PCs straight into it with a cable, and
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that made it possible to play games or share files
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with friends down the hall without tying up the phone line.
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Michael and his friend did this until computer record show
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he logged off at around three forty or three forty
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five am on Friday, December tenth. He then walked down
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the hallway to congratulate his friend who had won the game.
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There is never any definitive discussion over who this friend is,
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but a lot of the source material presents it as
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if they just sort of met up in the hallway,
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gave a quick handshake, and then Michael returned to his dorm.
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The source material also makes it seem like this friend
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was right on the same floor and down the hall,
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but unlike Ross Wolfe's party that we know was right
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across the hall because he said as much in an interview.
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There's nothing concrete that I can confirm with one hundred
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percent certainty that the guy he was playing computer games
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with was just down the hall, saying Michael departed his
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presence to head back to his room. That was the
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last confirmed sighting of Michael Negretti. His roommate was asleep
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when all of this was happening. At nine am, the
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roommate woke up and noticed Michael wasn't there, but all
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of his personal belongings were his shoes, his clothes, his wallet,
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all of his musical instruments, his toothbrush, anything of value.
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Just to be clear, it sounds like the clothes he
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was last seen wearing were missing along with him, but
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all the rest of his clothes were left behind. The
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next part isn't really clearly reported on. We don't know
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exactly the order in which people grew concerned, but we
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know that he missed a final exam and obligations with
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his band, and this was hugely out of character for him.
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Several sources say that not much happened over that first weekend,
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and that his parents were contacted about him missing his
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social and school engagements, and that it was that Monday
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that his parents filed the police report it was a
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little tricky with him going missing heading into a weekend,
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because those are a little less predictable on a college schedule.
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On a college campus, it's not uncommon for kids to
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leave for a weekend, and especially at this point in
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the semester. This is during finals time, so that definitely
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kind of threw a wrench into things. UCPD, which is
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the campus police department at UCLA, did start the search
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for Michael pretty quickly, though later articles would state that
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Michael's family thought their response was a bit lukewarm, sort
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of we've seen this before. A college student goes away
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for a few days and comes back, he'll turn up.
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And they were basically like, no, this isn't how he operates.
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His mother, Mary, actually told the La Times a few
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days into the search quote, He's usually quite aware of
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his schedule and the things he asked to do. This
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is a complete shock to me end quote. Police started
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by interviewing Michael's roommate as well as partygoer There's the
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friend down the hall who he had been playing the
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video game against, and eventually branched out to other people
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in Diykster Hall. Over the next several days, sent tracking
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dogs were used and followed his trail to a bus stop.
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This bus stop is at the corner of Sunset Boulevard
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and Bellagio Drive, and some sources say this is miles
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down the road. I mapped it and we'll have a
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picture on the Instagram at simpler time crime Pod, but
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it's only point seven miles away from Diykster Hall. Having
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said that, the police went on to say that his
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scent zigzagged all over campus. Now that could mean that
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the actual path from say a high level perspective was
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zigzagged if you were to do a bird's eye view
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over campus, or it could mean that his gate was zigzagging.
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I tend to think it's more the first scenario, because
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I think it would be hard for scent dogs to
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be so precise that they're picking up on someone's walking pattern.
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And it could also explain the longer mileage referenced in
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the source material, because they could be saying he didn't
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take a straight path to the bus stop. All of
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that conjecture may not even be important, though, because police
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would later say they didn't think the dogs were reliable
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and described them as possibly confused. In that recent interview
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with the student podcast The Daily brun Current law enforcement
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elaborated on that a little bit more, and it sounds
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like there were various jurisdictions on this search. There were
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opportunities where there could have been contamination that would have
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possibly misled the dogs. And also Michael attended this campus
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and walked all over it all the time, so it's
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possible that the dogs were picking up on his scent
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from his previous days of attending classes. Still, investigators spoke
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to all the company bus drivers and they passed around
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Michael's flyers to them as well as distributed them on buses,
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hoping anybody would recognize him. But nobody was able to
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place him on a bus or share that they had
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seen him since that night. Nancy Greenstein, the campus police
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spokesperson at the time, told the La Times quote, We've
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searched door to door, talked to his friends. He doesn't
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seem to have a girlfriend. We have no hints of
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where he could go or where he might be. That's
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why we're asking the public for assistance. And police truly
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did search door to door. Current law enforcement told The
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Daily Bruin that when they reviewed the old police files
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that it can confirm that officers spoke to everyone in
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that building and their search was comprehensive. They actually sent
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an officer down the garbage chute to look personally on
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the off chance that Michael suffered some sort of mishap
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or went down there after a more nefarious encounter on campus.
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Within a week of his disappearance, Michael's family created a
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website for him titled Please help Us Find Mike Negretti.
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Just before Christmas, Michael's case was featured on the Nash
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syndicated TV show Extra. His uncle Bill Klein said, quote,
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my hope is that Michael or someone who knows Michael
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or where he is, is going to pick up the
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phone and call. All his money, keys, and ID card
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were left behind in his dorm room. He left with nothing,
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no jacket, no toothbrush, nothing. Now, one question that has
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come up was did a campus like UCLA have surveillance
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or CCTV footage from back then? There has actually been
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internet rumors that footage exists of Michael leaving Dykstra Hall.
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But I've done a deep dive on this case, as
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have others, and no such footage is out there. In fact,
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I actually located an article in the Daily Bruin from
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the year Michael went missing, but before his disappearance that
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I've linked in the show notes. In it, they discuss
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the increase in campus surveillance footage, but it was primarily
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focused on helping to prevent retail theft in stores on campus.
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And I'll just read a few notes from the article here.
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It says departments such as Parking Services, the Administrative Cashier's Office,
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the Central Ticket Office, and the UCLA Store use security
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cameras to monitor visitors and employees. At Parking Services, two
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security cameras scan the customer lobby, while each employee entrance
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is equipped with a large security camera and card key scanner.
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In addition, each of the Parking Services booths are equipped
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with security cameras. Each of the cameras is connected to
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a VCR with a long record tape. The cameras are
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not monitored in real time. Other areas on campus which
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handle cash, such as the Central Ticket Office and the
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Administrative Cashier's Office in Murphy Hall, have security cameras. Another
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campus location with security cameras is the UCLA Store in
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Ackerman Union. The Ackerman Store has fifty four security cameras
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on the A level so that gives you a snapshot
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of where they were located on campus, and none of
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them mentioned having any in the dorm areas, pivoting back
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to searching the campus, though they also did a search
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of all construction sites. There was a ton of construction
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happening at UCLA at the time, and one theory was
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that Michael may have fallen into some sort of construction
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hazard and then his body was accidentally or intentionally buried
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in a construction site, but university police stated they searched
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this out completely and that they've ruled it out as
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a possibility. After the year two thousand rang in, the
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Negretti family and all those close to Michael felt a
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deeper sense of dread. With each day passing. They felt
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their hope of finding Michael safe and alive dwindling, and
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they were just as puzzled as ever. At this point,
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the campus police and university officials felt that Michael chose
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to leave on his own, but his family did not agree.
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They felt that Michael would not leave and not loop
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them in, and his mom told the North County Times quote,
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I honestly feel that the Michael I know would at
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least tell me where he was. My perception is of
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great puzzlement. I wonder where are you and why end quote.
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At Around this time, Michael's computer was turned over to
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an IT forensic technician to see if they could find
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any information about Michael's online behavior. Michael had an AOL
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instant Messenger account and was active in the gaming community.
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Had he met up with someone in a chat room
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or could they identify anyone he may have been talking
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to on the Internet. People were using chat rooms on
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AOL and MSN messaging a lot during this time, and
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learning about online safety and how dangerous this could be
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was a bit of the wild West at the time,
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millennial over here. And I remember being in online chat
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rooms without my family's knowledge and responding when people would
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put asl age sex location in there and just giving
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it out on the Internet. And then oftentimes my friends
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and I would be on these chat rooms and we
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would be giving fake information and we thought it was
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so funny. We had no sense of what could have happened.
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I think at the time many people still just held
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this belief that the Internet still held this great barrier
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between you and whoever was on the other side of it.
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But we know through a few tragic cases that that's
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wasn't the case, is not the case. And when I
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talk about simpler time true crime and how things weren't
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always simpler, really that was at this time where we
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were at a bit of a learning curve with how
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dangerous the Internet could be. But going back to the
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computer stuff, I'm not going to bury the lead, and
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even though this might be a little out of order,
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I'm going to just tell you the computer outcome. Now,
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something happened to Michael's computer that rendered tracing his usage impossible.
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Some websites say that his hard drive got corrupted or
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erased in error, and some point to the campus law
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enforcement is watching this. Some say when they turned it
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over to the FBI it happened. We don't know exactly
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the chain of events and whose custody the computer was
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in when this happened, but either way, this unfortunately was
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a dead end, which is bad because I personally believe
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it could have told us a lot of information. Despite
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this setback, Current day law enforcement told the Daily Bruined
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podcast that the original investigators did serve a search warrant
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to AOL to find any of his chat logs, and
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if that did produce anything. They aren't saying or releasing that,
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but I got the sense that it was a dead end.
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In January, a fundraising concert was held for Michael at
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Long Beach Poly High School and featured the school's jazz
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combo as well as a jazz solo vocalist and steel
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drum band. Michael loved jazz, and he used to walk
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around and sing jazz songs to himself, which when I
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was reading that, I couldn't help it smile to myself.
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It's those pieces that are mentioned about him, like how
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he was known to have a loud and sudden laugh
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that was very distinctive, and how he was an expert
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at reciting Simpson's trivia, and how he hates bare feet.
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It's those things that gave you the glimpses of the
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little idiosyncrasies that Michael had that we all have and
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reminds us that the people at the heart of these
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cases are so much more than the mystery that surrounds
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their final circumstances. It's those little things that we remember
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most about our loved ones when they're gone, and the
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things his family probably still thinks about to this day.
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The concert was ten dollars a ticket, and the money
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went back to the Michael Negretti Search Fund. A week later,
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Michael's family put up a five thousand dollars reward for information.
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At the end of January, there was another benefit concert,
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this time in Solana Beach. In March, Michael's name began
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showing up in the classified ads. In between people selling
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puppies and advertisements for childcare was a line that read
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missing persons, Please help Missing Michael Negretti, with a link
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to a phone number in the family run website. Michael's
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nineteenth birthday arrived with no sign of him, marking for
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his family yet another milestone passing without Michael, and about
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a week after his birthday, his parents told the paper
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that they believed their son was dead and that foul
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play was involved. On April thirteenth, two thousand, the Negretti
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family upped the reward to one hundred thousand dollars. Mary
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Negretti told the North County Times quote, I've always figured
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that something terrible happened to him, but there's no evidence
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of it. UCLA Police spokesperson Nancy Greenstein added the additional
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reward hopefully will lead to more information and will allow
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us to continue our investigation. Still, at this time, university
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officials in law enforcement stood by the fact that while
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they were completely baffled by the case, they had no
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indication that he had met with foul play. They felt
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it was just as likely that he suffered some sort
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of accident or had become disoriented and something had happened
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to him. The increased reward did not bring out any
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new substantial leads, and with that the university Police Department
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turned over the missing person's investigation to the Sheriff's office.
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In early June, his family and friends held a rally
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at UCLA. Mary Negretti said, quote, our goal is to
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attract a crowd of people, make some noise, and let
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the students see that there are still people who are
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actively looking for Michael. At the rally, they handed out
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missing persons flyers, pictures of Michael, and bumper stickers. Mary
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continued on by saying, if there are any students who
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are hold holding back any information about Michael and what
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may have happened to him, we hope this will show
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them that a lot of people have been and still
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are affected by Michael's disappearance. We want Michael to be
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utmost in students' minds before they scatter for the summer,
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and the Sheriff's department had the same idea, So while
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students were still present, they handed out a questionnaire to
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all nine hundred Dykster Hall residents, and after they got
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them back and started going through them, it was then
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in July of two thousand that something struck their attention.
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It was a detail in one of the surveys about
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a man in the dorms that night, someone who didn't
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quite fit in. One of the students reported that around
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four thirty am on the morning that Michael went missing,
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they witnessed a man who was inside Dykster Hall who
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looked like he didn't belong. He was white, with a
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stocky build, about five foot eight, and was in his
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mid thirties, so with most of the kids in the
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storm being eighteen to twenty years old, he stood out.
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Some sources say he was acting suspiciously and was in
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close proximity to Michael's dorm room, with one even saying
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that when this student went to pass him, he turned
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away and sort of obscured his face. This student was
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able to provide details for a composite sketch and all
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00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:23.720
have that on the Instagram. Like many composite sketches, it's
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kind of generic, but it's what we have. Just how
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00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:31.119
relevant is this information? That's hard to say. Some people
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have been skeptical as to why it took so long
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for this student to come forward, but one of the
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00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:38.960
source material states that this student said they did come
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forward at the beginning, but no one did anything with it,
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so I don't know. Police said that they didn't want
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to treat this person as a suspect, but they wanted
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to speak with them in case they were a witness,
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you know, the classic approach. And unsurprisingly, this mystery person
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did not come forward. In all of the years since.
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With this man never being a identified, sleuths all over
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the internet have tried to do side by sides of
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people who may look like the composite sketch. I don't
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know how much you all followed the Delphi case out
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of Indiana, but that was another one where people relentlessly
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try to compare people to the suspect sketch. And it's
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really a tricky balance. On one hand, the power of
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community can be a great thing. It can generate possible
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leads or things to look into, But in general, the
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family feedback from that case was largely discouraging of the practice.
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It's a slippery slope because you end up putting people
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on trial with the court of public opinion, and we
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don't even know for sure that this person in Dexter
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Hall exists or if he holds any significance to Michael's disappearance.
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Having said that, a little bit later, as I get
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into the theories discussed in Michael's case, I'll be addressing
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00:25:48.680 --> 00:26:01.839
the two most common composite sketch comparisons. The one year
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mark came with no new leads, and then another year
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00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:09.400
passed After that. William Howell and Joe Purcell from the
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Sheriff's Department were completely baffled. They were interviewed along with
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Michael's parents. In an April two thousand and one interview
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with The LA Times, Sergeant Howell said, quote, it seems
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like there's nowhere to turn. This is a kid who
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00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:28.799
wasn't inny lick of trouble. Usually those kinds of cases
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00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:31.519
lead us in a certain direction. There's a light at
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the end of the tunnel. In this case, there's absolutely
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no certainty anywhere. It's maddening. Howell's partner, Joe Purcell went
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00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:42.519
on to say, it's like he never walked the earth.
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At this stage in the investigation, Purcell and Howell were
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working in the homicide unit and Michael's case was finally
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being investigated. As such, he hadn't touched his bank cards
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or bank account since his disappearance. His social Security number
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hasn't been used. Howell also shared that they found a
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profiler within the Sheriff's department. He was an expert who
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tries to solve crimes by looking at statistical data and
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probing into criminal psychology, and the Sheriff's profile advised them
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that they had more than likely already interviewed somebody who
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knew what happened, and this just was really hard for Howell.
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He said, I just don't see it. If we've already
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interviewed somebody who knows what happened, we don't know it.
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I don't know it. I've been fooled. And if that's
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the case, I should just retire right now. The frustration
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00:27:36.759 --> 00:27:39.640
can clearly be felt in this exchange, and Michael's family
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felt that, amongst a ton of other ever changing emotions themselves.
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They talked about how they had now spent two Christmases
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and two birthdays without him, and how they even tried
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to hold a small birthday celebration for him a few
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weeks back. The Negrettes gathered in their dining room with
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this little lemon cake and one single candle, and Mary
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said quote, it was pitiful. There was no joy, only
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emptiness and heartache. Later in the interview, Mary shared that
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she no longer felt she would ever see her son
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alive again, and only had hopes that someday someone would
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come forward with information to at least give her answers.
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In two thousand and three, Mary Negretti went on The
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Mantel Williams Show. On the show, he had infamous psychic
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Sylvia Brown. And if you don't know about Sylvia Brown,
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go look her up. She's awful. She has a long
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history of being wrong and weighing in with her psychic
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visions to vulnerable people desperate for closure and answers. She's
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dead now, but she's just been replaced by other people
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who prey upon vulnerable people in the same way. On
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the show, Sylvia Brown told Mary Negretty that her son
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was still alive and residing in the West Los Angeles area,
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She said, quote, he's still around the UCLA or close
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to the UCLA area, in like Brentwood Westwood, around the
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same area. He's not dead. Mary would later say that
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she didn't really believe in psychics, but went on the
479
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:10.799
show to get his name out there, something that only
480
00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:14.480
happened briefly once during the airing, so she was pretty disappointed.
481
00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:18.880
In the years since, his family has understandably backed away
482
00:29:18.920 --> 00:29:22.839
from the spotlight. They just as much want answers today
483
00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:25.720
as they did nearly twenty six years ago, but they
484
00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:29.119
also had to resume some of their life back. In
485
00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:32.160
that two thousand and one article with La Times, Mary
486
00:29:32.200 --> 00:29:34.559
said that she and her family tried to distract themselves
487
00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:38.000
by staying busy, but it wasn't easy. She said, quote
488
00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:42.559
mostly we're totally down. I'm asking myself how am I
489
00:29:42.599 --> 00:29:45.599
supposed to deal with this? And that's where she said,
490
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:48.319
I must admit I really don't have any hope I
491
00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:51.160
will ever see him again. I do tell myself, we
492
00:29:51.200 --> 00:30:04.079
will find out what happened someday with what time we
493
00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:06.640
have left. I'd like to go into the various theories
494
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:09.359
that are out there and the possibilities of what could
495
00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:13.440
have happened to Michael Negretti. These are just that theories.
496
00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:17.799
Nobody knows what happened, and anybody mentioned is presumed innocent
497
00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:21.920
until found guilty. The first is that Michael left his
498
00:30:21.960 --> 00:30:25.559
dorm room, and he left Dykster Hall that night and
499
00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:28.400
something happened to him on campus. Now, a lot of
500
00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:31.400
sources refer to Michael as being barefoot, but you'll remember
501
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:34.680
me saying he was actually known to hate being barefoot.
502
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:37.319
His shoes were left behind in the dorm, so my
503
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:40.079
personal belief is that it's more likely he was wearing
504
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:42.799
some sort of hard sold slipper or the type of
505
00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:45.559
shoes you'd wear around your house, and that to me,
506
00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:48.200
would indicate that he was intending to be right back
507
00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:51.799
whatever it is that he was doing so as sort
508
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:54.960
of a sub theory underneath that, what might have made
509
00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:58.960
him leave that night? You know, was there an opportunistic person,
510
00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:01.279
maybe even that man in the hallway that saw him
511
00:31:01.279 --> 00:31:03.920
and said something like, hey, can you help me with something?
512
00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:06.920
It's just outside here, and we have no idea what
513
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:09.519
he'd be asking for help with, but maybe Michael goes
514
00:31:09.559 --> 00:31:13.359
outside and the person then has a weapon. Did he
515
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:17.039
meet someone he met online. Sources say he didn't have
516
00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:19.680
a girlfriend, but maybe he met with someone in a
517
00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:24.240
chat room or a gaming community. Number two, let's talk
518
00:31:24.319 --> 00:31:27.440
the accident while on campus. Theory did he fall into
519
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:30.880
a construction site. Police ruled this out because they said
520
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:34.319
they searched everything. But some have speculated that maybe he'd
521
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:36.680
locked himself out because we know he left his keys
522
00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:38.640
in the room, and that maybe he was trying to
523
00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:42.799
navigate some back doorway in through some sort of construction zone,
524
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:47.519
and that he fell into a dangerous area and died. Again,
525
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:50.599
there's no evidence of this, but the idea does get
526
00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:54.400
passed around, and police have never spoken to that specific scenario,
527
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:57.720
just that they've gone through all the different construction work
528
00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:01.359
and that they had ruled that theory out. Number three,
529
00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:05.000
was Michael involved in drugs? Police said they didn't reveal
530
00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:08.480
anything like that in their investigation. He had been drinking
531
00:32:08.519 --> 00:32:12.319
that night, but not excessively. But Michael's younger brother allegedly
532
00:32:12.359 --> 00:32:15.039
made a tumbler post in twenty thirteen that has since
533
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:17.559
been deleted. And I want to tread carefully with this
534
00:32:17.720 --> 00:32:20.839
because he's not only deleted it, it's been removed now
535
00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:24.079
from places like Wayback Machine, which is an Internet web
536
00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:27.079
page archive. So to me, that shows he's gone through
537
00:32:27.119 --> 00:32:29.440
a great deal of hassle to just get this off
538
00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:31.640
the internet, and it makes me think that his brother
539
00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:34.680
doesn't want to be a focal point of this conversation anymore.
540
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:37.559
But just briefly, I'll say that in it, he mentioned
541
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:40.000
that his family had found out that he had gotten
542
00:32:40.039 --> 00:32:43.599
involved in the rave scene and taken ecstasy, and that
543
00:32:43.799 --> 00:32:46.039
it was his opinion that maybe he was on drugs
544
00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:49.359
that night, wandered off in an incoherent type of state,
545
00:32:49.400 --> 00:32:51.839
and that someone took advantage of him and he ran
546
00:32:51.880 --> 00:32:55.119
ined the wrong person. Is it possible that a college
547
00:32:55.119 --> 00:32:58.319
student was on drugs? Absolutely? Do I trust that his
548
00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:01.000
family probably got a deeper in side scoop into his
549
00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:06.680
life than what's been publicly reported. Yes, but his behavior
550
00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:09.640
didn't really align with that that night. He had been
551
00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:13.200
already to a party earlier and then he just pivoted
552
00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:15.960
to going online and playing video games on his computer.
553
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:19.920
That's not exactly the vibe of taking ecstasy. If anything,
554
00:33:19.960 --> 00:33:23.279
he's being wanting to take something to mellow out. Still,
555
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:26.799
it can't be ruled out completely. And adjacent to that theory,
556
00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:29.440
is that that's the whole reason he left the dorm
557
00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:32.880
that night to attend some rave, which they did fly
558
00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:36.240
pretty under the radar, is my understanding of rave culture
559
00:33:36.279 --> 00:33:38.119
at the time. You had to kind of be invited.
560
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:41.519
They were secretive, they were in these concealed locations. So
561
00:33:41.640 --> 00:33:44.279
did he go to a rave when something happened, or
562
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:47.319
did he go out to buy drugs? Others have mentioned
563
00:33:47.319 --> 00:33:50.160
that it's really not the most primetime of day to
564
00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:53.119
go buy drugs, and that kids pretty much dealt drugs
565
00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:55.880
right on campus, so the idea of leaving and going
566
00:33:55.920 --> 00:33:58.119
off campus or somewhere else to get them was kind
567
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:02.279
of a stretch. But you now, the next theory is
568
00:34:02.279 --> 00:34:04.839
that something happened to him in Dykster Hall that night,
569
00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:08.599
and that his body was disposed of, either in accidental
570
00:34:08.679 --> 00:34:12.480
overdose and someone panicked or an altercation that turned deadly.
571
00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:15.440
And just going along with that, one thing I haven't
572
00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:18.679
yet told you about is the phone calls. According to
573
00:34:18.760 --> 00:34:22.800
reporting in the North County Times in November of two thousand,
574
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:26.480
just before the one year anniversary of his disappearance, something
575
00:34:26.519 --> 00:34:30.559
odd happened. It was at an apartment complex off campus
576
00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:34.199
where former students of Dykster Hall were now residing, and
577
00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:36.440
they had all lived at Dykster Hall at the time
578
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:41.599
Michael went missing. Three people reported hearing a phone conversation
579
00:34:41.719 --> 00:34:44.639
from someone in the complex who spoke about details in
580
00:34:44.679 --> 00:34:48.960
the Negretti case that were unknown to the public. And
581
00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:53.920
then the detectives went through all the residents. There was
582
00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:57.199
forty to forty five apartments and they interviewed all the
583
00:34:57.239 --> 00:35:00.800
residents there, but no information surfaced to locate who that
584
00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:05.360
caller was. So are the students at Michael's residence hall
585
00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:09.159
holding a secret? If multiple people know what happened, it's
586
00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:13.119
a long buried secret, something that's not very common, you
587
00:35:13.119 --> 00:35:15.679
know what they say about two can keep a secret.
588
00:35:16.199 --> 00:35:18.519
If that's the case, and now is definitely the time
589
00:35:18.519 --> 00:35:21.039
to come forward and allow this family to get answers
590
00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:24.360
on what happened and give them at least a little closure.
591
00:35:24.519 --> 00:35:29.159
Whatever that looks like. Number five I guess would be
592
00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:31.960
that theory that he ran away, or he has amnesia,
593
00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:35.679
he's living under a new identity. Now, there isn't a
594
00:35:35.719 --> 00:35:38.480
single piece of evidence that supports this, other than people
595
00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:41.280
who occasionally post pictures of people they think look like
596
00:35:41.400 --> 00:35:45.880
a Michael in his forties, so, while not impossible, highly
597
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:51.000
improbable in my very personal opinion. And finally there's the
598
00:35:51.079 --> 00:35:54.679
composite sketch. Did this man in the building have something
599
00:35:54.719 --> 00:35:58.920
to do with Michael's disappearance? And who was he? I
600
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:01.599
mentioned earlier that there are two main people who come
601
00:36:01.679 --> 00:36:04.719
up a lot. The first I just want to get
602
00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:06.679
out of the way because I feel kind of awful
603
00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:10.159
even mentioning this one, but it gets discussed online so
604
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:13.440
much I really couldn't avoid it. Michael grew up in
605
00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:16.159
Saber Springs, and one of the people who was friends
606
00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:19.079
with Michael's dad, Miguel Negretti, was a man named Damon
607
00:36:19.239 --> 00:36:22.599
van Dam. If that name sounds familiar, it may be
608
00:36:22.599 --> 00:36:25.480
because you recognize it from the high profile murder case
609
00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:28.760
of his daughter. Seven year old Danielle Vin Dam was
610
00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:31.599
abducted from her Saber Springs home in February of two
611
00:36:31.639 --> 00:36:35.000
thousand and two. A neighbor of the Van Dams, a
612
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:38.119
man named David Westerfield, was arrested and found guilty of
613
00:36:38.159 --> 00:36:42.880
Danielle's murder. He's currently serving a life sentence. Damon Van
614
00:36:42.960 --> 00:36:45.960
Dam has gone on a radio show background that time
615
00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:48.400
in two thousand and two and he actually brought up
616
00:36:48.440 --> 00:36:50.719
Michael Neggretty. He said on it quote, I was in
617
00:36:50.760 --> 00:36:54.679
Los Angeles in nineteen ninety nine when Michael Negretti disappeared.
618
00:36:55.280 --> 00:36:58.079
I am a friend of Miguel Negretti and Michael's father,
619
00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:01.119
and I worked with the men when it happened. End quote,
620
00:37:01.159 --> 00:37:03.119
which I believe he means he helped in the search.
621
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:07.400
A website popped up that did a side by side
622
00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:10.440
of Damon van Dam to the composite, and it surmised
623
00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:13.239
that he met up with Michael Negretti on the night
624
00:37:13.280 --> 00:37:17.079
of his disappearance. While Damon does resemble this sketch, so
625
00:37:17.239 --> 00:37:19.559
do a lot of men, and like I said, it's
626
00:37:19.639 --> 00:37:23.760
kind of on the generic side. The website that fuels
627
00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:26.760
this rumor also tries to connect Damon to the disappearance
628
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:30.000
of Adam Walsh and the disappearance of Tiffany Sessions out
629
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:32.679
of Florida. It all seems to want to draw a
630
00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:36.320
pattern of behavior out of Damon van dam thus implying
631
00:37:36.360 --> 00:37:38.039
he may have had something to do with his own
632
00:37:38.079 --> 00:37:42.559
daughter's murder and that David Westerfield is innocent. The motives
633
00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:45.480
with this one are suspicious, and this whole theory feels
634
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:49.920
like a gigantic leap. The second is a theory related
635
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:53.480
to sex offender Mark Collins Rector. He was huge into
636
00:37:53.519 --> 00:37:56.320
gaming and was nearby the UCLA campus at the time
637
00:37:56.360 --> 00:37:59.960
of Michael's disappearance. He was one of the early two
638
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:04.000
thousands dot com failures, but was more notably arrested for
639
00:38:04.119 --> 00:38:07.960
various sex crimes against teenage boys. He does look a
640
00:38:08.039 --> 00:38:11.320
lot like the composite sketch, so many have speculated that
641
00:38:11.360 --> 00:38:13.320
he may have met Michael in some sort of chat
642
00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:17.039
room or on aim or the gaming community and lured
643
00:38:17.079 --> 00:38:20.199
him out. It's hard to say. It also feels like
644
00:38:20.199 --> 00:38:23.440
a stretch to me. Any connection to him is pure
645
00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:26.159
speculation at this point, and police have never named him
646
00:38:26.199 --> 00:38:29.840
as a suspect. Not much has happened in the case
647
00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:32.679
for years. At one point there was a burst of
648
00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:36.239
hope when Michael's Aol instant messenger screen name train fan
649
00:38:36.360 --> 00:38:39.480
one was activated, but it turns out that his username
650
00:38:39.519 --> 00:38:42.360
had expired from inactivity and that someone knew had just
651
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:46.440
taken his name. There is an active Facebook group that
652
00:38:46.519 --> 00:38:49.800
tries to keep Mike's name out there. I've even seen
653
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:52.639
them out there trying to compare Mike to John Doe's
654
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:54.760
that were found, and there was one that was kind
655
00:38:54.760 --> 00:38:57.199
of promising a few years back, but he was ruled
656
00:38:57.199 --> 00:39:00.760
out as a match. And Michael's case is still brought
657
00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:03.719
up as one of those mysteries that people just can't shake,
658
00:39:04.280 --> 00:39:07.800
similar to the case of Brandon Swanson or Jason Jolkowski.
659
00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:11.679
It's like the earth just swallowed them whole. But I
660
00:39:11.800 --> 00:39:15.920
believe someone out there holds the answers, and it's never
661
00:39:16.039 --> 00:39:19.840
too late to speak up. Michael would be forty four
662
00:39:19.880 --> 00:39:22.239
years old now, and he would no doubt still be
663
00:39:22.280 --> 00:39:25.639
gifting the world with his musical talents and warming his
664
00:39:25.679 --> 00:39:31.000
family's hearts with his contagious laugh. While they can't get
665
00:39:31.039 --> 00:39:33.639
all of that back, they can get the knowledge of
666
00:39:33.639 --> 00:39:36.800
what happened that night and have the chance of giving
667
00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:40.880
him a proper burial. If you can give them those answers,
668
00:39:41.039 --> 00:39:44.559
or you know absolutely anything about the disappearance of Michael
669
00:39:44.599 --> 00:39:48.880
Negretti from the UCLA campus in nineteen ninety nine, please
670
00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:52.280
contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office at three two
671
00:39:52.320 --> 00:39:57.480
three eight nine zero five to five zero zero. This
672
00:39:57.519 --> 00:40:00.000
has been another episode of a simpler time to true.
673
00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:03.440
If you appreciate the work I'm doing. Please leave a
674
00:40:03.480 --> 00:40:06.679
five star review and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
675
00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:09.000
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676
00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:12.039
ability to do so, consider clicking the link to my
677
00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:14.760
spreaker supporter page at the bottom of the show notes
678
00:40:14.760 --> 00:40:17.559
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679
00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:20.119
continue doing the work I'm doing and dedicate even more
680
00:40:20.199 --> 00:40:22.360
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681
00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:26.519
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682
00:40:26.599 --> 00:40:29.639
at gmail dot com. As always, thank you so much
683
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:32.199
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