A Missing Nurse, A Missing Jeep: The Unsolved Disappearance of Audrey Herron

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In August of two thousand and two, thirty one year
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old nurse Audrey Herron finished her shift, climbed into her
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jeep Grand Cherokee, and began the thirteen mile drive home
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on a rainy, foggy evening. She would never arrive. From
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that night forward. Neither Audrey nor her jeep has ever
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been found. Some believe she was involved in a crash
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in that both she and her vehicle remain hidden somewhere
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within the region's waterways or rugged terrain despite years of
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extensive searches. Others believe she encountered someone on that dark
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drive home, or perhaps even after she arrived. Whatever happened,
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Audrey left behind a husband, family, friends, and three young
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children who have now grown into adults still searching for
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answers about what happened to their mother. I'm your host, Megan,
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and each week on a Simpler Time True Crime, I
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cover older unsolved cases and challenge the idea that a
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simpler time meant a safer time. This week, I'm bringing
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to you the unsolved mysterious disappearance of Audrey May Herron. Hi, everyone,
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and thank you for joining me for another episode. This
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week's case has been one that has been requested of
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me several times. In fact, nearly a year ago, I
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attended a class reunion with my boyfriend who grew up
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in this area of New York State, which is a
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few hours from where I live. When I travel and
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people find out about the podcast, it's not uncommon to
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get regional case suggestions, which I always appree she ate,
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and this was no different. People said to me, do
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you know about the young nurse that went missing on
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her drive home? There used to be billboards up, I think,
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so I decided to look into it, and it's one
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of the more bizarre and perplexing cases I've ever featured
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on the podcast. Online discussions in community chatter speculate many things.
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That someone in her life was involved, and that her
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disappearance is the result of fell play, that she ended
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up down a ravine somewhere, and that her car is
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hidden just enough she hasn't been found, and that it's
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all just a tragic accident. Was she supposed to meet
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up with someone after her shift? Did she encounter someone
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on the dark winding roads home who did her harm
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and somehow managed to hide any trace of Audrey and
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her vehicle. Of course, none of us know, but today
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I'll share what is known, walk through the possibilities, and
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tell you where the case stands today. And with that,
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let's get into it. It was around eleven pm on Thursday,
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August twenty ninth, two thousand and two. Part time nurse
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Audrey Herron had just wrapped up her shift at the
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Columbia Green Long Term Care Facility in Catskill, New York,
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and set to drive the thirteen mile drive home to Freehold,
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New York. The town of Catskill sits along the west
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bank of the Hudson River in Green County, about thirty
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miles south of Albany. The village is centered around a
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historic downtown near the river and serves as the gateway
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to the Catskill Mountains. But it doesn't take long before
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the landscape begins to change. As you leave Catskill and
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head west, the traffic thins out and the road begins
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winding through rolling hills and wooded stretches. The farther you drive,
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the fewer buildings you see. Before long you're passing farmland,
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quiet back roads, and small rural communities tucked into the landscape. Freehold,
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where Audrey lived, is even more rural. It's a small
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hamlet surround by farmland, woods and scattered homes, connected by
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narrow county roads. In two thousand and two, the drive
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home would have taken Audrey away from the busier Hudson
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River corridor and deeper into the countryside. It was a
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route Audrey knew well and one she had driven countless
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times after finishing her shift. Investigators believe the drive would
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have been mapped out like this, and all have maps
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and pictures from along the possible routes along the way
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on the Instagram page, which is at simpler time crime pod.
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So first, she would have turned left out of the
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parking lot of her workplace onto Main Street in the
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town of Catskill. She then would have merged westbound onto
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Route twenty three and taken that to Route thirty two
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in the town of Cairo. She would have then headed
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west on Caniff Road, north on Plattekill Road, and then
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west into her residence on County Route sixty seven. A
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couple of those roads in the middle are back roads
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enough that I could didn't even do a Google street
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Map capture of them. According to Audrey's husband, Jeff, she
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never made it home. There are a few different conflicting
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reports as to the timeline, but the one I've heard
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the most is that Jeff woke up around two am.
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He noticed that she wasn't home yet, but he thought
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maybe she had gone to her mother's house, so he
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drifted back off to sleep, and then a few hours later,
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around six, when she still hadn't come home, he decided
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he was going to call her mother, Shirley, and ask
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if Audrey was there. It wouldn't have been unusual for
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Audrey to spend an overnight with her mother, and Audrey's
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oldest daughter was going to be at Shirley's after a
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long vacation, so Audrey had not seen her daughter or
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her mother in nearly a month, but normally Audrey would
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communicate that to Jeff. Sureley let Jeff know that no,
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Audrey was not with her. An hour later, he called
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back again and said she still hadn't come home from
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work and he was concerned. Audrey was reported missing on
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the morning of Friday, August thirtieth, two thousand and two,
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heading into Labor Day weekend. According to Audrey's husband, Jeff,
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Audrey called home from work at approximately nine thirty pm
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on the night she went missing. He said that she
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was in a great mood because she found out that
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day at work she was going to get a raise.
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Audrey had worked on and off at the nursing home
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facility for about a decade, starting as a CNA and
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then getting her LPN license. She told Jeff she would
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be heading straight home from work and that she was
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going to get out around eleven. So what happened then?
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Police first set out to do a search along the
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route she took and several other likely routes given the circumstances.
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Accham's razor at that point is that her car went
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off the road somewhere and her vehicle was disabled in
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some way, and she was potentially injured in or unable
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to get out of her car. Much of Audrey's drive
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home followed two lane state and county roads through Green County.
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While Route twenty three and Route thirty two are larger highways,
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portions of the drive become narrower as they passed through forests, farmland,
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and increasingly hilly back roads. The road curves with the
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landscape and in places there are drainage ditches, small creeks,
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wooded embankments, and limited shoulders. That evening, the weather added
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a layer of difficulty. Rain had moved through the area,
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leaving the pavement wet, and fog was reported in parts
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of Green County, reducing visibility for drivers. Even so, it
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wasn't a route considered unusually hazardous under normal conditions, but
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the combination of darkness, wet pavement, reduced visibility, and the
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rural landscape meant investigators couldn't dismiss the possibility that Audrey's
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jeep had somehow left the roadway unnoticed. At the same time,
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they found no evidence that an accident had occurred. Nobody
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heard a crash or witnessed an accident, but it had
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to be ruled out. In addition to her regular route,
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there are a couple of other reasonable ones that she
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could have taken. If you put both the start and
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end addresses into Google Maps, the fastest and most direct
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route is actually different than the one police said was
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her usual. This route would have kept her on a
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road called County Road forty one, off of Route twenty three,
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instead of heading on to Route thirty two. I know
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that doesn't mean too much to you as listeners if
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you're from outside the area, but I'm sharing it so
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you can peek at a map for yourself if you'd like,
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or make sense of some of the pictures I share
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on Instagram to summarize. Though this route is fairly equal,
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she would have approached her house from the other direction
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using these directions, and she would have avoided more of
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the true back roads. It's possible she did this instead
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because of the weather. There's also a third possible route
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where instead of going on to Roote twenty three, she
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continued off on to Main Street and took all back
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roads home. Given the nature of this disappearance, they couldn't
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ignore any of the possibilities, but considering the weather, it
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seems less likely that she would take windy, slippery back
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roads in the darkness of night after she's exhausted from
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working a shift. Police, firemen, and search and rescue conducted
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massive ground searches. Audrey's name and photo were released to
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the general public to be on the lookout. Audrey was
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described as just five feet tall and one hundred and
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five pounds, with wearing a blue turtleneck, dark green medical scrubs,
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and a yellow gold necklace that had a pendant that
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read number one mom. She was also wearing a white
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leather watch with a white metal face. Audrey departed the
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nursing home in her black nineteen ninety four Jeep Grand
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Cherokee with New York state license plates X two three
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three UV as. The search by l and car along
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her potential routes turned up nothing. They incorporated canine searches
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in those by air as well. According to reporting in
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the Wyndham Journal, New York State troopers checked rest areas
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and service areas on the New York State Thruway and
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state highways. They also went to New York City impound yards, airports,
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bus stations, or any place where the vehicle could have
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been stored for long periods of time without being noticed,
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which I think, you know, that's good police work and
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I think really creative. Some of the spots that they
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looked but that also came up empty. Starting at her residence,
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police expanded upon the search by going door to door,
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building to building for a ten mile radius, talking to
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neighbors and business owners, trying to find anyone who saw anything.
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They did the same thing around the Columbia Green Long
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Term Care facility. To that end, they also stopped at
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any convenience stores that may have been open at the time.
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Audrey would have been leaving work. They wanted to see
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if they could find footage of her jeep on any
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outdoor cameras driving by, and there was one convenience store
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tape that was thought to have caught it. I phrase
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it that way because the footage was incredibly grainy and
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detectives couldn't say with absolute certainty it was her jeep,
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but they believed it was. It showed what looked to
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be her car on the surveillance tapes of the Cumberland
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Farms convenience store turning left on to Route twenty three B,
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which is the same as the main street I talked
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about that she would have turned onto immediately after turning
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out of her workplace, and then she heads west towards home,
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so that would have been at the very beginning of
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her drive, right after pulling out of work. If that
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is her, which again they think it was, that would
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have at least confirmed that, yes, her vehicle pulled out
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of the parking lot. I don't want to go as
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far as to say that she safely made it out
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of the parking lot because the footage is too grainy
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to tell if it was her driving or if there
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was another path you get the idea after that, there's
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no other footage of her that exists after leaving work.
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State Police Senior Investigator Steve Darling said, quote, we have
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to explore every possibility at this time. We can't limit
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it to one possibility. Everything has to be investigated, even
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the possibility up to and including the fact that she
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went out of this area end quote. And so those
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searching for Audrey heron looked into that too. Was there
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some reason in her life where she would want to
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start over and leave the area, but that seemed pretty unlikely.
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Audrey was the mother to three children, two girls and
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a boy. As you can probably already imagine based on
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the pendant I told you she was wearing. Audrey was
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a devoted mother whose life revolved around her children. One
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thing to consider is that this is a post nine
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to eleven America, a little less than a year later,
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and so airports are tracking a bit more, requiring security
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and more information. And there was no indication that she
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got on any plane, no record of it. Her car
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was listed nationwide as a be on the lookout for
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it and nobody had seen it. And she had a
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debit card and credit cards on her as well. As
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her cell phone with her, none of which she touched.
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After she disappeared. They actually tried to ping her phone,
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but they were unable to, so they felt it was
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either destroyed or turned off. So she would have had
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to have a pretty elaborate plan and some very specific
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reasons to leave, and nothing in the investigation pointed in
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that direction. Investigators couldn't with one hundred percent certainty rule
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it out because anything's possible, but again it's the very
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very bottom of their list. Detective Steve Darling told the press, quote,
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we have no reason to believe that she would leave
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the area. We have researched. That she was a family person.
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She has three young kids that she was devoted to.
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As the physical search didn't turn up any leads, lead
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investigator Steve Darling started to use the word suspicious more
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when describing her disappearance. Still they kept pushing. They took
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out a specialized New York State Police helicopter in early December.
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One thing to know about searching this area of New
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York State is that it's a place in the fall
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that has immense colorful leaf peeping and then foliage, and
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you hardly get any break in between that and then snow.
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While in early December, they got the perfect conditions to
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do an overhead search because the trees were bare and
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there was no snow on the ground, a winning combination,
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but yet again the search came up empty. Just to
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give you an idea of all the resources they had
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pulled in, they had members of the State Department of
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Environmental Conservation, the Green County Sheriff's Department, the Catskill Police,
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State Police Aviation Unit, state Police Mobile Response Team, state
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Police dive team, and the entire State Canine Training School.
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At this time, Detective Steve Darling stated that he felt
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the biggest thing for them would be to find her vehicle.
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If they could find the jeep, maybe they find Audrey
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with it, but if nothing else, the circumstances and conditions
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they find the jeep in would likely give them a
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lead on what type of case this was and what
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happened to Audrey. Though if you follow cases like say
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Jason Landry's, you know that's not always the case. It
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wasn't until around the holidays in two thousand and two,
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nearly four months after Audrey disappeared, that investigators publicly spoke
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more plainly about where the case stood and they announced
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they believed they were investigating a homicide. I haven't told
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you much about Audrey or her family picture up to
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this point. Audrey was thirty one years old at the
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time of her disappearance and she had three children. Like
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I mentioned, she had a ten year old daughter, Sancia,
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from a previous relationship. She then had another daughter, Katie,
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who was soon to be four, and a young fiddler's
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son named Quinn. I didn't interview Sancia for this podcast,
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so anything I share about things she has said comes
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from additional source material that I'll have linked in the
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show notes. But now as an adult, Santia has become
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arguably the biggest advocate for her mother's case. She has
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kept it at the forefront of investigator's minds. She's done
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interviews for podcasts like The Vanished podcast, and she has
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spoken out about her opinions on her mother's case. I
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listened to Audrey's case on the Vanished podcast, and if
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you haven't yet already, you should check it out after
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you listen to this one, because Marissa always does a
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fantastic job, and she interviews Santia and some of the
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other friends and family of Audrey. On the podcast, they
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talk more about that trip that Sancia was on with
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her grandmother and how they had been gone for like
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a month and they were just returning that same evening
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that she went missing, and that Sancia was due to
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see her mother the very next day but never did,
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And that just adds such a sad layer to this
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case because she already had this period of time before
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her mother's disappearance that she couldn't see her, and then
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she's looking forward and really missing her and then this happens.
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It's just really tragic. Not only that Sancia's life was
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really upended after this. She went to live with her
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biological father after her mother went missing, and so that
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was fine to be living with her dad, but she
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got separated from the home she knew, the siblings she
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loved well. Everyone was going through this traumatic event together.
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There was just no easy way to approach this, and
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either way it was going to be difficult, but just
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her whole life got turned upside down. Just before Christmas
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in two thousand and two, police updated the press and
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community on the case and stated that as the week's
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in now months past, they no longer believed that they
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were investigating any sort of an accident. They believed they
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were working a homicide, and they were treating it as
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such until they received different information. Captain Wayne Olsen said, quote,
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we have followed literally hundreds of leads in this case,
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and this is still a mystery that remains unsolved. And
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while it's listed as a disappearance, we have enough experience
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to fear the worst, and usually that is valid. He
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also shared quote, Truthfully, I think it's safe to say
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her driving off the road is an unlikely scenario. At
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this point. We've done searches along the road, the probable routes,
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We've been all over the area to different routes that
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she may take. I would think it is unlikely that
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she's driven off the road at this point. There has
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been no contact with any family members. There has been
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no contact at all where we could trace her anywhere
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she had a cell phone. It has not worked for us.
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End quote. If you follow a lot of true crime cases,
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you know that when investigating a homicide with an unknown offender,
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police always start by investigating closest to home. Captain Wayne
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Olson shared that while Jeff Herron had cooperated with the investigation,
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like he had allowed searches of the home, of vehicles
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and all of that along the way. He had refused
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to take a polygraph test on the advice of counsel.
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Of course, many people did see this as suspicious, and
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if you listen to my recent episode on Amy roe Bechtel,
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I spoke a lot about voluntarily taking a polygraph test
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and the reasons of person may or may not want
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to take one. I won't go too far into it here,
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but I'll reiterate this. It will be rare for you
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to find an attorney who will advise you to take
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a polygraph exam. They can't be used in court, and
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their reliability has been debated. Having said that, I also
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understand law enforcement wanting him to take it as a
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tool to help get a sense of if they should
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be focusing their investigation on him or focusing it on
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different areas. But notice I said tool, And one problem
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I have with the way police were phrasing it in
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these interviews is they kept saying things like if he
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took the polygraph test, he'd have this opportunity to eliminate
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himself as a suspect. In fact, the exact quote Olsen
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said was family members are always potential lead suspects, and
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although Jeffrey Heron has been given the opportunity to clear
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himself as a suspect, I think it is safe to
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say that he has not chosen to do that, so
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he is still considered a suspect. Jeff has cooperated to
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a degree, as the captain said, but he has not
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excluded himself from the investigation. He had the opportunity to
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do so, but he hasn't. The polygraph would be a
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way to exclude himself. I would like to exclude him.
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I would like to rule him out. I would like
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to get it straight in my mind. If there are
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any concerns and we think it can be cleared up,
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a polygraph is a really good way for us to
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do that. And no matter what, a polygraph exam should
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never be used as the be all and all investigative
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technique used to rule people in or out. There should
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always be other reasons you have identified to show that
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Jeff Heron did or did not commit this crime. I
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suspect that they did intend to use it as a
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tool and just use this more conclusive language to try
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to entice him to take the exam. Nevertheless, he did
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not and just like with Steve Bechdel in the Amy
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ro Bechtel case, once Jeff Heron did not take the
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polygraph exam, the relationship with law enforcement became fractured and
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the court of public opinion began to see Jeff differently.
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Jeff also didn't do himself any favors. It was reported
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that he didn't attend any of the vigils, he didn't
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attempt to raise money. So Jeff stayed on the list
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of potential suspects and police continued to work other leads
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as well. And I'll also just add that part of
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their issue with Jeff not taking the polygraph is that
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they shared that other potential suspects they identified had. One
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thing they did was look for offenders living in the area,
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such as living around where she worked her drive home route,
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and they also started looking for alibis for them or
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if they knew Audrey or could have encountered her, even
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if they weren't on any of her potential routes home,
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but they had a checkered pasted and lived in the
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general region they were checked out. That didn't lead to
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anything conclusive, so onward they continued. As two thousand and two,
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gave way to two thousand and three, Some of Audrey's
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closest friends came together to establish a reward fund for
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information that could help bring her home. As the months passed,
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new leads became fewer and farther between, and the investigation
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settled into the frustrating rhythm that so many long term
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missing persons cases do. For the people who loved Audrey,
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though life never really settled, every day was another reminder
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that she was missing, and another day without answers. About
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eighteen months after she disappeared, family friends and members of
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the community gathered for a candlelight vigil in her honor.
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Those who organized it hoped to hold another one every
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six months until Audrey was found. At the same time,
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they shared a hope that they wouldn't have to, and
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that she would be found before another vigil was ever needed.
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In the summer of two thousand and four, Audrey's photo
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appeared on the NASCAR race car driven by Darryl Lemore
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during the Featherlight Southwest Series race in Sonoma, California. At
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the time, Lamore had partnered with the National Center for
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Missing Adults to help raise awareness of missing persons cases
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across the country. Her disappearance was also featured on The
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00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:47.880
Mantel Williams Show, bringing national attention to her case. One
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thing that's really stood out to me as I've researched
402
00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:54.480
this case is the circle of friends Audrey had. More
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00:23:54.519 --> 00:23:57.359
than two decades later, there still advocating for her. They're
404
00:23:57.400 --> 00:24:01.440
still sharing her story, still pushing for answers. Seriously, get
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00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:03.480
yourself a group of friends like that. They have just
406
00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:06.519
never given up. And by the way, if any of
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00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:09.000
you are listening to this and you want to connect
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with me to share more about Audrey and things, I
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00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:15.960
can always do additional content, additional mini episodes, anything to
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help get more information out there. I'm game. At the
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hospital where Audrey worked, a memorial bench was installed in
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her honor, a quiet place that serves as a lasting
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reminder of the nurse, friend and mother so many people
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continue to miss. In April of two thousand and five,
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her friends pulled together again to raise awareness of the
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one thousand days that had passed. Police told the press
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during that time they had actually processed and followed up
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on about a thousand leads. They had continued doing ongoing
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searches when resources and weather permitted, including diving searches, additional
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canine ones, helicopters, you name it. In two thousand and eight,
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New York State jumped on the cold case playing deck
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cards trend, where cold cases were featured on cards distributed
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to inmates, and Audrey Heron became the jack of diamonds.
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When someone disappears without a trace, the absence of answers
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leaves room for theories to take hold. If you've been
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listening to this podcast for a while, you know I'm
427
00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.960
careful when it comes to speculation. I don't believe in
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presenting rumors as facts or assigning guilt where there is
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an evidence, But I do think it's important to acknowledge
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the different possibilities that have been discussed over the years.
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Some came from investigators following leads. Others have come from
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community conversations or people close to the case trying to
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make sense of what happened. One thing Audrey's friends have
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said that has really stuck with me is that they
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believe it's important to keep talking about her case because
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you never know when something that once seemed insignificant or
437
00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:02.079
even sounded like rumor might contain a piece of the
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00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:05.880
truth that sparks someone's memory or encourages the right person
439
00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:09.119
to finally come forward. So I'm going to take the
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next couple of minutes to run through these and hope
441
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to do just that. Let's first start by revisiting Jeff
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00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:20.480
for a moment. Whenever someone goes missing, investigators naturally begin
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00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:24.119
with the people closest to them, and that meant Audrey's husband.
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Over the years, Jeff has remained the focus of one
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00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:31.359
of the most common theories surrounding Audrey's disappearance. Police have
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00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:34.599
confirmed that he did not take a polygraph, he wasn't
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on television pleading for Audrey's safe return, and he didn't
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attend the vigils organized by Audrey's family and friends. He
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also wasn't involved when the friends put together the reward,
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and Jeff was known from coming from a pretty wealthy
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family who owned a golf course in the area, So
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many people found that odd. Those closest to Audrey, including
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her daughter, have acknowledged that Audrey and Jeff's marriage had
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its struggles. They argued fairly often, and by all accounts,
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it wasn't a perfect marriage. That has led some people
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00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:06.680
to wonder whether an argument could have happened after Audrey
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returned home that night, or whether the calls Jeff made
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reporting her missing were somehow staged. It should also be
459
00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:18.720
said that Audrey's daughter has consistently maintained on the Vanished
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00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:21.799
podcast and in other interviews that while her mother and
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stepfather certainly had marital problems, she doesn't believe he harmed Audrey.
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Investigators have never publicly identified evidence tying Jeff to Audrey's disappearance,
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00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:35.000
and more than two decades later, no charges have ever
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00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:39.319
been filed against him. There also wasn't an obvious financial motive.
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Jeff came from a well off family that owned the
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golf course and the surrounding property where he and Audrey lived,
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00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:49.680
and by all accounts, he was financially comfortable, So that
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00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:53.240
makes theories centered around money or life insurance considerably more
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00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:57.079
difficult to support, especially because even if there was secretly
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00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:00.519
a money concern, that an outside entity was aware of
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00:28:00.920 --> 00:28:04.680
Audrey being missing would make life insurance claims near impossible
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00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:07.880
to collect on. But the money piece does lead me
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00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:11.799
into theory number two. Another theory that surfaced over the
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00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:17.200
years involved alleged ties to Russian organized crime. Yes, you
475
00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:20.960
heard me correctly, Russian organized crime in a little teeny
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00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:24.519
town in upstate New York. The idea was not something
477
00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:29.119
investigators introduced publicly, but rather a rumor that began circulating
478
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:32.000
in the community before eventually becoming part of the conversation
479
00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:36.640
surrounding Audrey's case. The theory suggested that her disappearance may
480
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:41.119
somehow have been connected to business dealings or financial relationships
481
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:44.640
involving people around Jeff's family and the golf course they owned.
482
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:49.599
Investigators did take the information seriously enough to look into it,
483
00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:52.839
and according to later interviews, law enforcement even maintained a
484
00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:55.000
presence around the hare and home for a period of
485
00:28:55.039 --> 00:28:58.279
time in case Audrey had been abducted and a ransom
486
00:28:58.359 --> 00:29:02.200
demand was made. But no ransom call ever came, and
487
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:06.359
despite investigating the possibility, police have never publicly identified evidence
488
00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:11.200
connecting Audrey's disappearance to Russian organized crime or any financial
489
00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:15.240
concerns relating to Jeff's family. Like many theories in the case,
490
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:17.799
there remains one that was explored but has never been
491
00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:22.039
substantiated publicly. I've even seen some sources say that the
492
00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:24.720
theory was debunked by law enforcement, but I couldn't find
493
00:29:24.759 --> 00:29:29.680
where law enforcement specifically said so. Next is the person
494
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.119
from work. Another theory that gained attention years later centered
495
00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:36.119
on an unnamed man connected to the care facility where
496
00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:40.519
Audrey worked. According to reporting that surfaced in twenty sixteen,
497
00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:44.720
the man had reportedly shown a romantic interest in Audrey
498
00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:50.599
and she did not return his advances. Investigators also learned
499
00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:53.839
that he had a prior criminal history that included rape
500
00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:57.799
and attempted kidnapping, which the idea that he worked at
501
00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:00.279
a care facility with vulnerable people in that was his
502
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:02.440
background check. I don't know the timeline of his crimes,
503
00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:06.880
but that doesn't feel great. That discovery led detectives to
504
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:09.599
search his property with cadaver dogs and even drain a
505
00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:13.119
pond in hopes of finding evidence connected to Audrey's disappearance.
506
00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:18.000
Despite those efforts, that search also came up empty, and
507
00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:22.519
no publicly known evidence emerged linking the man to Audrey's disappearance.
508
00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:26.799
Next is the meetup I'll call it The four theory
509
00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:31.079
revolves around Audrey's generosity. Friends have shared that she often
510
00:30:31.079 --> 00:30:34.079
passed along children's hand me down clothes to families who
511
00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:36.400
could use it, and it's been reported that she had
512
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:38.880
bags of children's clothes in the back of her jeep
513
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:42.240
around the time she disappeared. That has led some to
514
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:44.839
wonder whether Audrey may have planned to meet someone after
515
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:47.799
work to drop those items off, and whether that meeting
516
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:52.079
somehow went wrong. If you've listened to my episodes with
517
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:55.160
Detective Robert Klein, you know he says that in his
518
00:30:55.319 --> 00:30:59.119
years as an NYPD detective, he worked countless cases where
519
00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:03.319
meetups for goods and services went awry. However, there has
520
00:31:03.480 --> 00:31:07.759
never been any public confirmation that such a meeting was planned,
521
00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:11.160
but the possibility continues to be discussed because it could
522
00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:14.720
explain why Audrey may have made an unexpected stop on
523
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:18.200
her way home, if she made one at all. Another
524
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:20.920
detail that has been discussed over the years is Audrey's
525
00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:24.200
spare tire, which was found at the home. Because her
526
00:31:24.279 --> 00:31:27.519
jeep stored the spare tire inside the cargo area, some
527
00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:30.519
have wondered whether someone removed it to make room to
528
00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:34.680
conceal a body. Others point to a much simpler explanation.
529
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:37.839
Audrey was reportedly carrying bags of hand me down clothing
530
00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:40.559
around at that time, and removing the spare tire would
531
00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:44.400
have created additional cargo space. It's one of those details
532
00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:46.839
that can be interpreted in very different ways, and on
533
00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.480
its own, it doesn't appear to move the investigation in
534
00:31:49.559 --> 00:31:54.839
one direction or another. There's one reported detail that could
535
00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:58.720
significantly change the timeline in Audrey's case, and it involves
536
00:31:58.759 --> 00:32:02.920
her purse. There have been reports that Audrey's purse may
537
00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:06.559
have been left inside the home after she disappeared. If
538
00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.720
that's true, it would suggest Audrey made it home from
539
00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:13.559
work before whatever happened to her occurred. But because that
540
00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:18.200
detail has never been publicly confirmed by investigators, it's difficult
541
00:32:18.200 --> 00:32:20.920
to know how much weight to give it. Even so,
542
00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:23.799
it's one of the reasons why some people believe the
543
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:28.000
answers to Audrey's disappearance may lie closer to home than
544
00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:33.200
somewhere along her drive. And let's give that final theory
545
00:32:33.319 --> 00:32:36.880
another look. The idea that she and her vehicle are
546
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.839
somewhere in the county after she suffered a car accident
547
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.960
and she's just never been found. Two decades after Audrey disappeared,
548
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.039
her case received another wave of attention when the volunteer
549
00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:53.039
dive team Adventures with Purpose traveled to Green County to
550
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:57.960
conduct an independent search. The group has gained national recognition
551
00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:02.160
for locating missing people and their vehicles in waterways that
552
00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:06.240
had previously been searched, giving Audrey's family and many followers
553
00:33:06.279 --> 00:33:08.960
of the case renewed hope that her jeep might finally
554
00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:14.119
be found. Using side scan sonar, the team examined multiple
555
00:33:14.119 --> 00:33:17.279
bodies of water along and near Audrey's likely route home,
556
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:20.319
focusing on places where a vehicle could have entered the
557
00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:24.599
water unnoticed. They also revisited areas that had either been
558
00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:28.039
searched years earlier or had never been thoroughly examined with
559
00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:33.119
modern sonar technology. Despite spending days on the water and
560
00:33:33.279 --> 00:33:38.079
investigating numerous sonar targets, the search did not locate Audrey's
561
00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:42.680
jeep or uncover evidence explaining what happened to her. I
562
00:33:42.759 --> 00:33:45.400
will link the multi part series in the show notes,
563
00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:47.799
and I highly recommend you give it a watch and
564
00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:52.480
see for yourself. The jeep itself has become one of
565
00:33:52.519 --> 00:33:57.000
the biggest mysteries in Audrey's disappearance. If someone was responsible
566
00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:00.400
for her disappearance, they would have had to face the
567
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:03.920
challenge of hiding not only Audrey but also a very
568
00:34:03.960 --> 00:34:08.360
recognizable vehicle. Over the years, people have questioned whether the
569
00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:13.199
jeep was abandoned somewhere remote, concealed on private property, submerged
570
00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:17.920
in a body of water, or deliberately destroyed. Investigators even
571
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:21.199
looked into the possibility that it had been dismantled or crushed,
572
00:34:21.599 --> 00:34:25.280
checking salvage yards, scrapyards, and junk yards for any sign
573
00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:28.320
that had been processed before anyone realized it was connected
574
00:34:28.360 --> 00:34:32.239
to a missing person's case. More than two decades later,
575
00:34:32.280 --> 00:34:36.559
despite countless searches and thousands of investigative hours, Audrey's jeep
576
00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:39.639
has never been found, leaving it as one of the
577
00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:43.679
most important pieces of evidence in the case, missing alongside her.
578
00:34:44.719 --> 00:34:47.280
This is far from an exhaustive list of what could
579
00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:50.679
have happened to Audrey. One thing I wanted to share
580
00:34:50.760 --> 00:34:53.440
as a positive as we wrap up this show is
581
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:57.119
that both of Audrey's daughters went on to become nurses.
582
00:34:57.239 --> 00:35:01.679
In her memory, Santia told Daylight that going to vigils
583
00:35:01.719 --> 00:35:05.119
and hearing her mother's coworkers and even her mother's patience
584
00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:08.239
talk about how wonderful she was and her ways of
585
00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:12.920
being a nurse, it just impacted her greatly. Sancia has
586
00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:16.239
beautiful memories of her mother, she told Dateline Quote. She
587
00:35:16.360 --> 00:35:19.119
was a great mom. She loved to take me everywhere
588
00:35:19.159 --> 00:35:21.440
with her, which I loved. She would take me shopping,
589
00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:23.920
to her friend's house. We would play in girls' dates,
590
00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:26.559
get our nails done, see a movie, and get dinner.
591
00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:29.639
She would play video games with me. She was a
592
00:35:29.679 --> 00:35:35.000
great mom end. Quote. Senior investigator Peter Kasminski, who has
593
00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:38.199
worked the case in different positions and capacities from the beginning,
594
00:35:38.679 --> 00:35:41.920
told Dateline that the case occurring when it did created
595
00:35:41.960 --> 00:35:44.599
a lot of barriers that modern tech can help solve,
596
00:35:44.719 --> 00:35:48.039
something that is of course a reoccurring theme on this podcast.
597
00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:52.000
He said, quote, Currently, obviously technology is much better, much
598
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:55.360
much better. There's more cameras, there's more ways to track people.
599
00:35:55.960 --> 00:36:01.360
Back then there wasn't. Still Ody's family and friends and
600
00:36:01.480 --> 00:36:07.400
investigators hold out hope. I'll end with Sansia's quote to Dateline.
601
00:36:07.519 --> 00:36:09.960
I don't ever give up hope. It's hard, especially after
602
00:36:10.039 --> 00:36:14.519
many years, but someone has to know something. Don't ever
603
00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:18.360
stop fighting for your loved ones, because someone will hopefully
604
00:36:18.360 --> 00:36:22.039
come forward and get justice. I have hope that one
605
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:24.639
day we will have answers and I will know what
606
00:36:24.760 --> 00:36:30.599
happened and have some closure. If you have any information
607
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:35.519
on the mysterious disappearance of Audrey May Turkharen in two
608
00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:38.880
thousand and two. Please call the New York State Police
609
00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:42.639
at five Poine eight six' two two eighty six, hundred
610
00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:49.320
or email the information to NYS VCaP at troopers dot
611
00:36:49.400 --> 00:36:52.360
n y dot. Gov That's New York STATE ViCAP at
612
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:57.039
troopers dot ny dot. Gov this has been another episode
613
00:36:57.079 --> 00:37:00.280
of a simpler Time true. CRIME i am taking a
614
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:03.079
week off for, vacation but fear, not you will still
615
00:37:03.119 --> 00:37:06.480
have an episode in your. Feed my Friend kylie From
616
00:37:06.559 --> 00:37:09.840
Primetime Crime pod will be guest hosting And i'll be
617
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:13.159
sharing an episode of hers for you. Guys she approaches
618
00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:15.719
these cases very similar to, me and her work is,
619
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:19.000
Phenomenal so after you listen to her and love, her
620
00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:22.039
make sure to go follow her podcast as. Well she's
621
00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:25.639
also weekly and releases later in the. Week if you
622
00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:28.320
appreciate the Work i'm, doing please leave a five star
623
00:37:28.360 --> 00:37:32.760
review on your favorite podcasting. Platform follow the podcast On
624
00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:36.519
instagram for weekly, photos And i'm also starting to do
625
00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:39.920
a little more on TikTok. Facebook i'm still terrible at
626
00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:42.800
But i'm hoping to get better at. It just haven't
627
00:37:42.800 --> 00:37:44.679
gotten there, yet but you can still follow me there
628
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:48.760
and hope with. Me case suggestions can be made by
629
00:37:49.079 --> 00:37:53.079
dming me On instagram or emailing me At Simpler timecrimepod
630
00:37:53.079 --> 00:37:55.400
at gmail dot. COM i see them quicker in my
631
00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:58.159
email because SOMETIMES i miss messages when they go into
632
00:37:58.159 --> 00:38:01.039
my private messages. Folder so just be patient with me
633
00:38:01.079 --> 00:38:03.920
IF i don't immediately get back to you BECAUSE i miss.
634
00:38:03.960 --> 00:38:07.679
It but it's very important to, Me and as, always
635
00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:10.199
thank you so much for, listening And i'll be back
636
00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:13.519
again with a regularly scheduled episode after. Vacation