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It's October tenth, twenty twenty four, and Gary and Deana
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twenty five year old Emma Baum is just days away
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from what should have been one of the biggest moments
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of her life. She's nine months pregnant with her fourth
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child and getting closer and closer to her due date.
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Emma's last scene near twenty fifth Avenue in Connecticut Street.
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At some point that day, she disappears. No one sees
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where she goes, no one knows what happens next, and
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as the days begin to pass without a word from Emma,
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her family is left facing a terrifying question. How does
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a woman nine months pregnant simply vanish? Hey everyone, and
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welcome back to Case Uncovered, where we uncover some of
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the most compelling and lesser known true creme cases. I'm
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your host, John Rivera. Now we have a lot of
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new listeners, so I wanted to say welcome. I'm so
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glad you're here. For those of you that aren't familiar
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with who I am, I'm an investigative journalist, podcaster, and
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nonprofit founder, and a lot of the work I do
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both on and off this podcast centers around missing persons
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and unsolved cases. Here on Case Uncovered, you'll hear a
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little bit of everything. Sometimes we're digging into cases that
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haven't received nearly the attention they deserve. Other Times we'll
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revisit cases you may already know because they're still unsolved.
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There are still unanswered questions, and there are still families
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waiting for answers. And today's episode is part of Missing
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in the Midwest, a Case Uncovered series where we focus
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specifically on missing persons cases from communities across the Midwest.
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Today we're heading to Gary and Deana. Twenty five year
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old Emma Baum was a mother of three, and when
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she disappeared in October of twenty twenty four, she was
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nine months pregnant with her fourth child. What happened after
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Emma was last seen has left her family searching for
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answers and asking questions that, nearly two years later, still
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haven't been answered. So today we're going to walk through
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Emma's life, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, what invests the
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Gators have done to try to find her, and some
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of the questions and suspicions that have surrounded this case.
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Because somewhere in all of this there has to be
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an answer to what happened to Emma. This is the
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disappearance of Emma Bomb. Before we get into the timeline,
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I want to spend a little time talking about Emma.
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Emma Baum was twenty five years old when she disappeared.
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She was from Portage, Indiana, and was already a mother
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to three young children. By October of twenty twenty four,
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she was preparing to welcome her fourth. Her family describes
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her as outgoing, kind, and fiercely loyal to the people
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she loves. She was also someone whose life hadn't always
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been easy. Emma had struggled with addiction, some thing her
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family has spoken openly about since her disappearance. She also
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had previous drug related charges, missed court appearances, and outstanding warrants.
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Shortly before she disappeared, records show she was under a
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pre trial release supervision agreement connected to a felony case
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from earlier that year. And I think it's important that
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we talk about that, honestly, not because those things define Emma.
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They don't, but because when someone goes missing, especially someone
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who has struggled with addiction or had involvement with a
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criminal justice system, those circumstances can very quickly become the
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lens through which people view their disappearance, and that's something
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I think we have to be careful about. Emma could
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struggle with addiction and still be a daughter, a sister,
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and a mother whose family loved her. Her life could
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be complicated, and her disappearance could still deserve the same questions, attention,
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and resources as anyone else's. Those two things can exist
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at the same time, and Emma's family has never tried
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to portray her life as anything It wasn't. They knew
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she struggled, they knew there were times when Emma would
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go off on her own and not communicate with them
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for several days. But they also knew their daughter and
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their sister, and in the fall of twenty twenty four,
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Emma was approaching a major moment in her life. She
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was about to have her fourth baby. According to her family,
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Emma was excited about the baby, and just days before
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she disappeared, her sister Abigail said Emma was already one
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centimeter dilated. She was getting close. At any moment, Emma
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could have gone into labor. And that's where we need
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to begin our timeline, because on October tenth, twenty twenty four,
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Emma was in Gary and Deana, and some time after
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arriving there, the known timeline of her life stops. According
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to her family, Emma was dropped off in the twenty
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five hundred block of Connecticut Street near twenty fifth Avenue
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to visit the father of her unborn child. Gary police
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would later identify the same area as Emma's last known location.
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At the time, Emma didn't have a working phone. Her sister, Hayley,
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later explained that Emma was supposed to get her phone
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activated that day, but that never happened. And this is
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where Emma's timeline becomes incredibly difficult to follow. We know
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she made it to that area of Gary, but after that,
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there's no clear, publicly confirmed account of where she went next.
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There's been no publicly released surveillance footage showing her leaving,
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no confirmed sighting that establishes where she went afterward, and
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because Emma didn't have an active phone, investigators didn't have
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the usual digital trail that might help peace together her movements.
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Days had passed, and initially Emma's family wasn't panicking. Remember,
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they knew Emma sometimes went a few days without checking in,
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so they started asking around, had anyone talked to her,
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had anyone seen her? Was she staying with someone? Her
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family reached out to friends and people Emma knew, trying
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to figure out who had heard from her last. But
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as the days continued to pass, nobody had heard from her,
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and eventually Emma's ads since stop looking like one of
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those times when she had simply gone off on her own,
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because now there was another question becoming impossible to ignore.
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Where was the baby? At some point, her family expected
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her to give birth, but there was no call saying
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Emma was in labor, no announcement that the baby had arrived,
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and still no contact from Emma. Her family knew something
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wasn't right. Emma's mother, Jamie, began to panic. In October
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twenty eighth, Emma was reported missing to the Gary Police Department.
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By that point, eighteen days had passed since her last
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known sighting. Now I want to pause here for a second,
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because I know that's a detail people are going to
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hear and immediately question why did it take eighteen days
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to report Emma missing? Well, on paper, that sounds like
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an incredibly long time, but we have to look at
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it within the context of Emma's life now. As I
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mentioned before, her family stated that she sometimes went days,
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sometimes weeks without contacting them. Initially, they were trying to
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find her through friends, family, and other people she spent
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time with. They didn't know on October eleventh that Emma
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would still be missing. On October twenty eighth. That realization
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happened gradually, and once her family understood that this was different,
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they immediately went to police. Unfortunately, from an investigative standpoint,
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those eighteen days couldn't be recovered. And that's where this
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case becomes really difficult, because investigators weren't starting with a
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disappearance that had happened a few hours earlier. They were
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trying to reconstruct nearly three weeks, three weeks of people
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coming and going, of vehicles moving through the neighborhood, of
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memories beginning to fade, and potentially surveillance footage being overwritten
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or lost. So when Gary police began investigating Emma's disappearance,
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they had to work backward back to October tenth, back
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to the twenty five hundred block of Connecticut Street, and
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back to the people who had been around Emma that day,
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but most importantly, back to the question that's still hasn't
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been answered what happened after Emma arrived there. Sergeant Mark
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Salazar took responsibility for the investigation, and police began interviewing
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people who may have had information about Emma's whereabouts. They
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canvassed the area around twenty five hundred Connecticut Street. They
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followed tips, they searched multiple locations that emerged during the investigation,
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and according to police, investigators reviewed available video from areas
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connected to Emma's last known movements. But Emma's family wasn't
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waiting at home for someone else to find her. They
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started searching too. They walked through overgrown lots, They checked
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abandoned buildings, knocked on doors, handed out flyers. They stopped
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people in the neighborhood and asked whether anyone remembered seeing Emma.
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CA Nine teams were also brought into searches as the
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effort to locate her expanded. And I think this is
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where the location matters. The area surrounding twenty fifth Avenue
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in Connecticut Street contains vacant lots, overgrown areas, and a
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lot of abandoned properties. When you hear that someone was
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last seen at an address, it can sound incredibly specific
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you think, okay, start there, But when investigators are dealing
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with an area like this, where there are empty properties,
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open lots, alleys, and places someone could potentially move through
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without drawing much attention, that search becomes much more complicated.
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Emma's family searched those places themselves. As we mentioned, her
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sister Hayley described stopping people in their cars, stopping people
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walking down the street, talking to basically anyone who might
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have seen something, And the family made something else very
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clear publicly, they weren't going to stop looking. Emma's mother
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said she would continue searching for her daughter. Her sisters
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pleaded for anyone with information to come forward, and during
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a November press conference, Emma's sister, Abigail spoke directly to her.
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She wanted Emma to know that, regardless of anything that
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may have happened, her family still loved her and they
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wanted her home safe. That message matters because at this stage,
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investigators still had to consider different possibility. Please. Could Emma
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have left voluntarily, Could she have gone somewhere to give
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birth without telling her family, Could something have happened medically,
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or had someone else been involved in her disappearance? Those
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possibilities require very different investigations. But as the weeks passed
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without Emma, some of the people closes to her became
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increasingly convinced that she had not simply chosen to disappear,
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and their attention kept returning to the same place, the
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home Emma had reportedly gone to on October tenth, and
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the person she had gone there to see, her boyfriend
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and the father of her unborn child. Now, I want
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to be very clear before we go any further. Emma's
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family has publicly expressed suspicion about him and has questioned
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what he knows about her disappearance, but he has not
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been charged in connection with Emma's disappearance, and police have
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not publicly identified him as a suspect. At the same time,
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if we're going to look at this case in its entirety,
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we can't ignore the questions Emma's family has been asking
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publicly since she disappeared. According to Emma's mother and sistors,
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they believe he was one of the last people known
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to have been with Emma Jamie. Emma's mother has said
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publicly that she believes he knows more about what had
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happened to her daughter than he has revealed. And Emma's
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sisters have raised questions about the information they say they
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received regarding Emma's final known movements. There's also another piece
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of the timeline that brought even more attention to the boyfriend.
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On October twenty ninth, one day after Emma was officially
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reported missing, her boyfriend was arrested. Now, when you hear that,
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your immediate reaction might be arrested for what happened to Emma. No, unfortunately,
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and this is really important, the arrest was not related
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to Emma's disappearance. According to the information in this case,
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he was taken into custody on unrelated charges. He was
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questioned about Emma while he was in custody, but there
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has been no arrest or criminal charge connecting him to
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her disappearance. So where does that leave us? Well, with questions,
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a lot of them. If Emma was dropped off to
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see him on October tenth, when was the last time
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he saw her? Did Emma leave the property? If she did,
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was she alone with someone coming to pick her up?
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Did she say where she planned to go next? Is
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there anything that independently confirms her movements after arriving in
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that neighborhood? Those are the kinds of questions that matter here,
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not because asking them prove someone committed a crime, it doesn't,
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but because when someone disappears, investigators have to reconstruct the
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last known hours of that person's life as precisely as possible,
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and right now, at least publicly, there is still a
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gap after Emma arrived in that area. That gap has
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fueled a lot of speculation and rumors online, and I
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want to be careful with that too. There have been
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rumors about Emma's disappearance. There have been accusations, There have
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been people online claiming to know what happened. But a
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rumor repeated one hundred times is still a rumor unless
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we can trace something back to law enforcement, Emma's family,
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court records, or another credible source, I'm not going to
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present it to you as fact. What we can talk about, though,
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are the theories Emma's family themselves have raised. They have
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questioned whether she may have gone into labor around that
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time she disappeared. And remember, she was already at the
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very end of her pregnancy, and according to her sisters,
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she was already about a centimeter dilated. So as October
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turned into November, the family wasn't only asking where Emma was,
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but they wanted to know where the baby was, especially
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because there was no confirmed information that Emma had delivered
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the baby or that she was at a hospital. This
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created an unusual and incredibly complicated situation for investigators because
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they weren't just searching for one missing person anymore, they
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were searching for two. By November, Emma had been missing
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for weeks. Her family continued searching Gary while police followed
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leads and investigated locations connected to tips, and one of
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the most important developments came when authorities began searching properties
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in the area surrounding Emma's last known location. According to
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Gary Police, officers can act in multiple searches based on
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information they received during the investigation. Now, if someone said
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they saw Emma somewhere, police had to determine whether that
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sighting was credible. If information pointed to investigators toward a property,
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they had to evaluate it. If someone claimed to know
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where Emma might be, that information had to be followed,
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and with every search that ended without finding her, the
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same question remained, where could she be? There was another
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challenge investigators faced. Emma's physical appearance may not have remained
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exactly the same. She was visibly pregnant when she disappeared.
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If she gave birth some time afterward, someone encountering Emma
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later might not necessarily have realized they were looking at
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the same woman pictured on a missing person flyer. That
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possibility also raised questions about medical care. Was there any
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record of her seeking treatment somewhere, could she have given
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birth outside of a hospital, and if she did, where
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was the baby. These are questions Emma's family continued asking
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publicly as they pleaded for information, and despite the searches
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and the interviews, despite the attention surrounding the case, Emma
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remained missing. There are a few things about Emma's disappearance
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that I really want to dig into, because even with
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everything we've talked about so far, there are still some
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major gaps in this case. And I think the biggest
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one is also the simplest. Did Emma ever leave that
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area of Connecticut Street. That's something we still don't have
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a clear public answer to. We know where Emma was
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reportedly dropped off, but we don't have a publicly confirmed
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sighting that tells us where she went afterwards, or if
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she even left that house, And that distinction is important
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because if investigators could establish that Emma left that area
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on her own, even if they couldn't immediately determine where
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she went, it would completely change the direction of the timeline.
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Now there is another possibility we do have to talk about.
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Could Emma have simply chosen to leave on her own.
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We know there were times in the past when she
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went several days, sometimes weeks without communicating with her family.
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She also had outstanding warrants and unresolved legal issues, so
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on the surface, you could argue that there were reasons
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Emma might want to avoid contact or stay under the radar.
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But there's a difference between asking whether something is possible
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and asking whether the evidence actually supports that. If Emma
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intentionally disappeared, then what happened next? Where did she go,
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how did she support herself, who helped her, and at
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some point what happened when she gave birth. That's where
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the voluntary disappearance theory becomes much more complicated. This wasn't
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someone who could simply get into a car, leave town
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and remain unnoticed indefinitely. Emma was at a point in
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her pregnancy where delivery was approaching. That doesn't make voluntary
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disappearance impossible, but it does create another event that would
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somehow also have to occur without producing a publicly known trail.
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And now we're approaching two years. It's a very long
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time for someone to remain completely disconnected from their family,
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particularly when there has been continued attention surrounding their disappearance.
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Could it happen, of course, anything's possible, but right now
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there isn't publicly available evidence showing that it did. And
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then there's the baby. This is probably the part of
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EMA's case that I struggle with the most, because whatever
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happened to Emma, there's still another unanswered question, what happened
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to the baby. We don't know that the baby was
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actually ever born, and we don't know at this point
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whether Emma's still alive. There's too many questions that need
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to be answered, and unfortunately, unless someone comes forward and
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provide some of that information, we might never know. Now.
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The other thing that needs to be considered is what
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actually was found when the canine teams were involved. What
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investigators might be keeping from the public. As we know,
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sometimes investigators do do this to protect the integrity of
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the case. But did they find something that they haven't
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told us about is there more that they know and
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they're just not sharing. This is all possible, and I
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think this is especially important in Emma's case because there's
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been so much speculation surrounding it. But when you strip
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everything else away, we have a woman who disappeared during
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an incredibly vulnerable point in her life. We have a
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final portion of her publicly known timeline that has never
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been completely filled in. We have a family that doesn't
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believe Emma voluntarily walked away from her life, and we
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have law enforcement that has continued investigating her disappearance. But
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we have no publicly confirmed answer telling us what happened
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after October tenth, twenty twenty four. And that's the part
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I keep coming back to. Not the rumors, not the accusations,
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not what somebody on social media claims happened. It's the
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gap somewhere between Emma's last known movements and the moment
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her family realized she was truly missing. Something happened, and
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someone out there knows what that was. Someone may have
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seen something they didn't realize mattered, someone may have been
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told something afterward, or there may be evidence investigators again
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haven't made public. We simply don't know, but until Emma
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is found, I don't think any possibility can be comfortably dismissed.
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And that's why, nearly two years later, her family is
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still asking the same question, where is Emma Bomb. If
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you have any information about the disappearance of Emma Bomb,
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please contact the Gary Police Department at two one nine
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eight eight one one two two nine. You can also
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submit an anonymous tip through the Gary Police Department's text
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to tip line at two one nine two zero seven
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eight four seven seven. No piece of information is too
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small and could potentially lead to finding Emma and her baby.
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If you know something, say something. Thank you so much
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for being here and for listening to Emma's story today.
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If you'd like to help support the podcast, one of
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00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:42.799
the best things you can do is leave a five
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00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:46.319
star reading and review. It helps more people discover the podcast,
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00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.000
which means more awareness for the families and cases we
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00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:52.279
talk about here every week. To learn more about my
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advocacy work through the Regnited Project, you can visit the
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Reignited project dot com, where you can learn more about
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00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:00.960
my nonprofit and the work we're doing to support families
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00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:04.880
of the missing and those with unsolved cases. You can
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00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:08.759
also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube
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00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:12.799
at gen Rivere Investigates for more case coverage, updates, and
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00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:15.720
behind the scenes content. And if you're not already subscribed
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to my YouTube channel, make sure you do. I have
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a ton of new video content coming out aside from
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00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:24.160
the podcast and I'd love to see you over there.
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And until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and stay
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safe out there. Fire Eyes Media
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It's October tenth, twenty twenty four, and Gary and Deana
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twenty five year old Emma Baum is just days away
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from what should have been one of the biggest moments
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of her life. She's nine months pregnant with her fourth
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child and getting closer and closer to her due date.
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Emma's last scene near twenty fifth Avenue in Connecticut Street.
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At some point that day, she disappears. No one sees
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where she goes, no one knows what happens next, and
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as the days begin to pass without a word from Emma,
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00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:35.320
her family is left facing a terrifying question. How does
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a woman nine months pregnant simply vanish? Hey everyone, and
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welcome back to Case Uncovered, where we uncover some of
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00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:48.200
the most compelling and lesser known true creme cases. I'm
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your host, John Rivera. Now we have a lot of
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new listeners, so I wanted to say welcome. I'm so
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00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.799
glad you're here. For those of you that aren't familiar
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with who I am, I'm an investigative journalist, podcaster, and
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nonprofit founder, and a lot of the work I do
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both on and off this podcast centers around missing persons
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00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:09.680
and unsolved cases. Here on Case Uncovered, you'll hear a
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little bit of everything. Sometimes we're digging into cases that
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haven't received nearly the attention they deserve. Other Times we'll
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revisit cases you may already know because they're still unsolved.
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There are still unanswered questions, and there are still families
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waiting for answers. And today's episode is part of Missing
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in the Midwest, a Case Uncovered series where we focus
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specifically on missing persons cases from communities across the Midwest.
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Today we're heading to Gary and Deana. Twenty five year
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old Emma Baum was a mother of three, and when
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she disappeared in October of twenty twenty four, she was
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nine months pregnant with her fourth child. What happened after
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Emma was last seen has left her family searching for
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answers and asking questions that, nearly two years later, still
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haven't been answered. So today we're going to walk through
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Emma's life, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, what invests the
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Gators have done to try to find her, and some
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of the questions and suspicions that have surrounded this case.
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Because somewhere in all of this there has to be
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an answer to what happened to Emma. This is the
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disappearance of Emma Bomb. Before we get into the timeline,
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I want to spend a little time talking about Emma.
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Emma Baum was twenty five years old when she disappeared.
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She was from Portage, Indiana, and was already a mother
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to three young children. By October of twenty twenty four,
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she was preparing to welcome her fourth. Her family describes
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her as outgoing, kind, and fiercely loyal to the people
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she loves. She was also someone whose life hadn't always
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been easy. Emma had struggled with addiction, some thing her
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family has spoken openly about since her disappearance. She also
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had previous drug related charges, missed court appearances, and outstanding warrants.
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Shortly before she disappeared, records show she was under a
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pre trial release supervision agreement connected to a felony case
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from earlier that year. And I think it's important that
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we talk about that, honestly, not because those things define Emma.
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They don't, but because when someone goes missing, especially someone
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who has struggled with addiction or had involvement with a
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criminal justice system, those circumstances can very quickly become the
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lens through which people view their disappearance, and that's something
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I think we have to be careful about. Emma could
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struggle with addiction and still be a daughter, a sister,
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and a mother whose family loved her. Her life could
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be complicated, and her disappearance could still deserve the same questions, attention,
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and resources as anyone else's. Those two things can exist
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at the same time, and Emma's family has never tried
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to portray her life as anything It wasn't. They knew
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she struggled, they knew there were times when Emma would
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go off on her own and not communicate with them
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for several days. But they also knew their daughter and
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their sister, and in the fall of twenty twenty four,
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Emma was approaching a major moment in her life. She
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was about to have her fourth baby. According to her family,
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Emma was excited about the baby, and just days before
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she disappeared, her sister Abigail said Emma was already one
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centimeter dilated. She was getting close. At any moment, Emma
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could have gone into labor. And that's where we need
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to begin our timeline, because on October tenth, twenty twenty four,
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Emma was in Gary and Deana, and some time after
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arriving there, the known timeline of her life stops. According
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to her family, Emma was dropped off in the twenty
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five hundred block of Connecticut Street near twenty fifth Avenue
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to visit the father of her unborn child. Gary police
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would later identify the same area as Emma's last known location.
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At the time, Emma didn't have a working phone. Her sister, Hayley,
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later explained that Emma was supposed to get her phone
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activated that day, but that never happened. And this is
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where Emma's timeline becomes incredibly difficult to follow. We know
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she made it to that area of Gary, but after that,
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there's no clear, publicly confirmed account of where she went next.
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There's been no publicly released surveillance footage showing her leaving,
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no confirmed sighting that establishes where she went afterward, and
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because Emma didn't have an active phone, investigators didn't have
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the usual digital trail that might help peace together her movements.
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Days had passed, and initially Emma's family wasn't panicking. Remember,
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they knew Emma sometimes went a few days without checking in,
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so they started asking around, had anyone talked to her,
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had anyone seen her? Was she staying with someone? Her
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family reached out to friends and people Emma knew, trying
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to figure out who had heard from her last. But
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as the days continued to pass, nobody had heard from her,
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and eventually Emma's ads since stop looking like one of
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those times when she had simply gone off on her own,
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because now there was another question becoming impossible to ignore.
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Where was the baby? At some point, her family expected
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her to give birth, but there was no call saying
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Emma was in labor, no announcement that the baby had arrived,
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and still no contact from Emma. Her family knew something
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wasn't right. Emma's mother, Jamie, began to panic. In October
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twenty eighth, Emma was reported missing to the Gary Police Department.
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By that point, eighteen days had passed since her last
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known sighting. Now I want to pause here for a second,
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because I know that's a detail people are going to
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hear and immediately question why did it take eighteen days
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to report Emma missing? Well, on paper, that sounds like
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an incredibly long time, but we have to look at
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it within the context of Emma's life now. As I
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mentioned before, her family stated that she sometimes went days,
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sometimes weeks without contacting them. Initially, they were trying to
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find her through friends, family, and other people she spent
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time with. They didn't know on October eleventh that Emma
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would still be missing. On October twenty eighth. That realization
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happened gradually, and once her family understood that this was different,
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they immediately went to police. Unfortunately, from an investigative standpoint,
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those eighteen days couldn't be recovered. And that's where this
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case becomes really difficult, because investigators weren't starting with a
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disappearance that had happened a few hours earlier. They were
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trying to reconstruct nearly three weeks, three weeks of people
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coming and going, of vehicles moving through the neighborhood, of
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memories beginning to fade, and potentially surveillance footage being overwritten
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or lost. So when Gary police began investigating Emma's disappearance,
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they had to work backward back to October tenth, back
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to the twenty five hundred block of Connecticut Street, and
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back to the people who had been around Emma that day,
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but most importantly, back to the question that's still hasn't
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been answered what happened after Emma arrived there. Sergeant Mark
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Salazar took responsibility for the investigation, and police began interviewing
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people who may have had information about Emma's whereabouts. They
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canvassed the area around twenty five hundred Connecticut Street. They
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followed tips, they searched multiple locations that emerged during the investigation,
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and according to police, investigators reviewed available video from areas
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connected to Emma's last known movements. But Emma's family wasn't
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waiting at home for someone else to find her. They
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started searching too. They walked through overgrown lots, They checked
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abandoned buildings, knocked on doors, handed out flyers. They stopped
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people in the neighborhood and asked whether anyone remembered seeing Emma.
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CA Nine teams were also brought into searches as the
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effort to locate her expanded. And I think this is
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where the location matters. The area surrounding twenty fifth Avenue
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in Connecticut Street contains vacant lots, overgrown areas, and a
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lot of abandoned properties. When you hear that someone was
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last seen at an address, it can sound incredibly specific
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you think, okay, start there, But when investigators are dealing
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with an area like this, where there are empty properties,
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open lots, alleys, and places someone could potentially move through
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without drawing much attention, that search becomes much more complicated.
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Emma's family searched those places themselves. As we mentioned, her
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sister Hayley described stopping people in their cars, stopping people
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walking down the street, talking to basically anyone who might
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have seen something, And the family made something else very
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clear publicly, they weren't going to stop looking. Emma's mother
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said she would continue searching for her daughter. Her sisters
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pleaded for anyone with information to come forward, and during
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a November press conference, Emma's sister, Abigail spoke directly to her.
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She wanted Emma to know that, regardless of anything that
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may have happened, her family still loved her and they
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wanted her home safe. That message matters because at this stage,
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investigators still had to consider different possibility. Please. Could Emma
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have left voluntarily, Could she have gone somewhere to give
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birth without telling her family, Could something have happened medically,
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or had someone else been involved in her disappearance? Those
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possibilities require very different investigations. But as the weeks passed
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without Emma, some of the people closes to her became
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increasingly convinced that she had not simply chosen to disappear,
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and their attention kept returning to the same place, the
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home Emma had reportedly gone to on October tenth, and
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the person she had gone there to see, her boyfriend
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and the father of her unborn child. Now, I want
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to be very clear before we go any further. Emma's
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family has publicly expressed suspicion about him and has questioned
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what he knows about her disappearance, but he has not
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been charged in connection with Emma's disappearance, and police have
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not publicly identified him as a suspect. At the same time,
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if we're going to look at this case in its entirety,
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we can't ignore the questions Emma's family has been asking
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publicly since she disappeared. According to Emma's mother and sistors,
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they believe he was one of the last people known
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to have been with Emma Jamie. Emma's mother has said
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publicly that she believes he knows more about what had
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happened to her daughter than he has revealed. And Emma's
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sisters have raised questions about the information they say they
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received regarding Emma's final known movements. There's also another piece
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of the timeline that brought even more attention to the boyfriend.
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On October twenty ninth, one day after Emma was officially
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reported missing, her boyfriend was arrested. Now, when you hear that,
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your immediate reaction might be arrested for what happened to Emma. No, unfortunately,
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and this is really important, the arrest was not related
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to Emma's disappearance. According to the information in this case,
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he was taken into custody on unrelated charges. He was
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questioned about Emma while he was in custody, but there
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has been no arrest or criminal charge connecting him to
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her disappearance. So where does that leave us? Well, with questions,
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a lot of them. If Emma was dropped off to
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see him on October tenth, when was the last time
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he saw her? Did Emma leave the property? If she did,
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was she alone with someone coming to pick her up?
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Did she say where she planned to go next? Is
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there anything that independently confirms her movements after arriving in
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that neighborhood? Those are the kinds of questions that matter here,
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not because asking them prove someone committed a crime, it doesn't,
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but because when someone disappears, investigators have to reconstruct the
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last known hours of that person's life as precisely as possible,
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and right now, at least publicly, there is still a
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gap after Emma arrived in that area. That gap has
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fueled a lot of speculation and rumors online, and I
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want to be careful with that too. There have been
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rumors about Emma's disappearance. There have been accusations, There have
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been people online claiming to know what happened. But a
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rumor repeated one hundred times is still a rumor unless
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we can trace something back to law enforcement, Emma's family,
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court records, or another credible source, I'm not going to
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present it to you as fact. What we can talk about, though,
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are the theories Emma's family themselves have raised. They have
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questioned whether she may have gone into labor around that
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time she disappeared. And remember, she was already at the
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very end of her pregnancy, and according to her sisters,
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she was already about a centimeter dilated. So as October
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turned into November, the family wasn't only asking where Emma was,
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but they wanted to know where the baby was, especially
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because there was no confirmed information that Emma had delivered
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the baby or that she was at a hospital. This
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created an unusual and incredibly complicated situation for investigators because
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they weren't just searching for one missing person anymore, they
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were searching for two. By November, Emma had been missing
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for weeks. Her family continued searching Gary while police followed
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leads and investigated locations connected to tips, and one of
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the most important developments came when authorities began searching properties
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in the area surrounding Emma's last known location. According to
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Gary Police, officers can act in multiple searches based on
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information they received during the investigation. Now, if someone said
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they saw Emma somewhere, police had to determine whether that
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sighting was credible. If information pointed to investigators toward a property,
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they had to evaluate it. If someone claimed to know
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where Emma might be, that information had to be followed,
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and with every search that ended without finding her, the
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same question remained, where could she be? There was another
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challenge investigators faced. Emma's physical appearance may not have remained
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exactly the same. She was visibly pregnant when she disappeared.
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If she gave birth some time afterward, someone encountering Emma
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later might not necessarily have realized they were looking at
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the same woman pictured on a missing person flyer. That
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possibility also raised questions about medical care. Was there any
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record of her seeking treatment somewhere, could she have given
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birth outside of a hospital, and if she did, where
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was the baby. These are questions Emma's family continued asking
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publicly as they pleaded for information, and despite the searches
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and the interviews, despite the attention surrounding the case, Emma
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remained missing. There are a few things about Emma's disappearance
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that I really want to dig into, because even with
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everything we've talked about so far, there are still some
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major gaps in this case. And I think the biggest
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one is also the simplest. Did Emma ever leave that
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area of Connecticut Street. That's something we still don't have
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a clear public answer to. We know where Emma was
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reportedly dropped off, but we don't have a publicly confirmed
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sighting that tells us where she went afterwards, or if
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she even left that house, And that distinction is important
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because if investigators could establish that Emma left that area
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on her own, even if they couldn't immediately determine where
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she went, it would completely change the direction of the timeline.
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Now there is another possibility we do have to talk about.
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Could Emma have simply chosen to leave on her own.
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We know there were times in the past when she
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went several days, sometimes weeks without communicating with her family.
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She also had outstanding warrants and unresolved legal issues, so
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on the surface, you could argue that there were reasons
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Emma might want to avoid contact or stay under the radar.
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But there's a difference between asking whether something is possible
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and asking whether the evidence actually supports that. If Emma
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intentionally disappeared, then what happened next? Where did she go,
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how did she support herself, who helped her, and at
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some point what happened when she gave birth. That's where
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the voluntary disappearance theory becomes much more complicated. This wasn't
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someone who could simply get into a car, leave town
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and remain unnoticed indefinitely. Emma was at a point in
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her pregnancy where delivery was approaching. That doesn't make voluntary
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disappearance impossible, but it does create another event that would
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somehow also have to occur without producing a publicly known trail.
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And now we're approaching two years. It's a very long
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time for someone to remain completely disconnected from their family,
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particularly when there has been continued attention surrounding their disappearance.
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Could it happen, of course, anything's possible, but right now
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there isn't publicly available evidence showing that it did. And
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then there's the baby. This is probably the part of
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EMA's case that I struggle with the most, because whatever
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happened to Emma, there's still another unanswered question, what happened
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to the baby. We don't know that the baby was
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actually ever born, and we don't know at this point
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whether Emma's still alive. There's too many questions that need
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to be answered, and unfortunately, unless someone comes forward and
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provide some of that information, we might never know. Now.
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The other thing that needs to be considered is what
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actually was found when the canine teams were involved. What
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investigators might be keeping from the public. As we know,
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sometimes investigators do do this to protect the integrity of
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the case. But did they find something that they haven't
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told us about is there more that they know and
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they're just not sharing. This is all possible, and I
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think this is especially important in Emma's case because there's
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been so much speculation surrounding it. But when you strip
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everything else away, we have a woman who disappeared during
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an incredibly vulnerable point in her life. We have a
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final portion of her publicly known timeline that has never
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been completely filled in. We have a family that doesn't
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believe Emma voluntarily walked away from her life, and we
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have law enforcement that has continued investigating her disappearance. But
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we have no publicly confirmed answer telling us what happened
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after October tenth, twenty twenty four. And that's the part
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I keep coming back to. Not the rumors, not the accusations,
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not what somebody on social media claims happened. It's the
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gap somewhere between Emma's last known movements and the moment
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her family realized she was truly missing. Something happened, and
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someone out there knows what that was. Someone may have
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seen something they didn't realize mattered, someone may have been
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told something afterward, or there may be evidence investigators again
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haven't made public. We simply don't know, but until Emma
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is found, I don't think any possibility can be comfortably dismissed.
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And that's why, nearly two years later, her family is
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still asking the same question, where is Emma Bomb. If
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you have any information about the disappearance of Emma Bomb,
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please contact the Gary Police Department at two one nine
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eight eight one one two two nine. You can also
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submit an anonymous tip through the Gary Police Department's text
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to tip line at two one nine two zero seven
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eight four seven seven. No piece of information is too
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small and could potentially lead to finding Emma and her baby.
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If you know something, say something. Thank you so much
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for being here and for listening to Emma's story today.
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If you'd like to help support the podcast, one of
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00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:42.799
the best things you can do is leave a five
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star reading and review. It helps more people discover the podcast,
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00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.000
which means more awareness for the families and cases we
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00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:52.279
talk about here every week. To learn more about my
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advocacy work through the Regnited Project, you can visit the
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00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:58.319
Reignited project dot com, where you can learn more about
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00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:00.960
my nonprofit and the work we're doing to support families
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00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:04.880
of the missing and those with unsolved cases. You can
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00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:08.759
also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube
347
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at gen Rivere Investigates for more case coverage, updates, and
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00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:15.720
behind the scenes content. And if you're not already subscribed
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to my YouTube channel, make sure you do. I have
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00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:21.720
a ton of new video content coming out aside from
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00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:24.160
the podcast and I'd love to see you over there.
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00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:29.960
And until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and stay
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safe out there. Fire Eyes Media
