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In January 2006, 20-year-old Derek Comrie from Hartford, Connecticut went to a basketball game.
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While he was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend's car, a stranger approached and shot him.
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On June 7, 2014, 19-year-old Ariel Morgan was attending a block party in Berkeley County,
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South Carolina to celebrate the end of the school year. There, she too was shot to death and her
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killer has never been caught. On September 12, 2019, Ernie Ortiz was found dead outside of the
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restaurant he owned in Garden City, Kansas. Investigators believe that he had been shot
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to death during a robbery as he was closing his shop for the night. These are just a couple
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examples of cold case homicides that investigators work to solve every day in the United States.
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It doesn't even include missing persons, fugitives, or other criminal activities, but federal, state,
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and local crime agencies have found a fascinating way to expand their resources to get a little
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closer to closing their cases. Welcome everyone. You're listening to episode 5,
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Cold Case Playing Cards on Dying to be Found, The Dash. Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to
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be Found. Before we get started, I just wanted to say that episodes contain disturbing discussions
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on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind. Recordings are not intended for young
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or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast. Listener discretion is strongly
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advised. Hi everyone, this is Deb, your host from the True Crime Podcast,
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Dying to be Found. Welcome to D2BF's mini episode series called The Dash, where twice a month I'll
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bring you bonus solo episodes or talk to fellow podcasters or true crime enthusiasts. Thank you
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so much for everyone who's emailed me, shared, or commented on The Dash. Honestly, this is going
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so much better than I ever imagined, but please continue letting me know what you think of our D2BF
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Dash series. You can do this by going to our show notes to see how you can get in touch. Otherwise,
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look for us on all the socials and drop a comment. Also, if you have a short true crime story you
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want to hear, let me know and I'll get working on it right away. You can always let me know now
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how we're doing by clicking on that follow button. Be sure to rate, review, and consider buying us a
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coffee so we can continue to bring quality episodes. If you're a true crime podcaster or
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work in the true crime industry and want to be featured on an episode of The Dash, send me your
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email and I'll send you information on how to get on one of our future episodes. So here's my question
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for you today. How often do you go to the casino to play a little blackjack or poker or sit around
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with friends playing cards? What kind of deck do you use? Did you know that at least 18 states in
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the US use a special deck of cards to send out information on cold cases? These decks are called
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cold case playing cards and each deck consists of 52 unsolved crime cases that authorities need
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your help in solving. Many of the cases highlighted on the cards range from unsolved homicides to
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missing persons. Although there are hundreds of cards not highlighted in the playing cards
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distributed throughout the 18 states, investigators still feel this program is a gateway to gaining
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leads and closing some of their files. Believe it or not, playing cards featuring criminal cases
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date all the way back to the Civil War. This tactic continued through World War II where US military
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officials created special cards to distribute amongst the troops to 1. give them a pastime
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activity and 2. to help them memorize foreign enemies. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. Most
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recently, the US military issued a newer set of playing cards featuring high-profile criminals
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such as Saddam Hussein and people directly linked to him. By 2007, Special Agent Tommy Ray,
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based out of Florida, came up with the concept of playing cards that would feature unsolved cases.
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All this came about when he was sitting in a meeting brainstorming on active and cold cases
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from around the state. Ray believed it would be beneficial to manufacture playing cards that could
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be distributed to inmates in the Florida Department of Corrections system. Apparently, the agency Tommy
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Ray worked for liked the idea and worked quickly with district attorneys throughout the state to
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identify which cold cases would be featured on a deck of cards. The agency felt the best avenue to
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distribute the cards would be throughout
Load full transcript
Florida's correction facilities. Within three months of
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distributing those cards to inmates, three cold cases were solved. I know that doesn't sound like
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a lot folks, but you need to start somewhere and to me this is an incredible number. Once word got
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around on some of Florida's successes in cold case playing card distribution, other states began to
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follow suit. As I mentioned, 18 states actively participate in stocking these cards in their prison
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systems. As of 2022, cold case playing cards are no longer limited to the United States because
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Australia has also jumped on board to adopt this program and is sponsored by Crime Stoppers, an
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anonymous tip line that anyone can contact to provide information on crimes throughout the world.
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Not-for-profit organizations are also beginning to pop up to help distribute playing cards. In 2009,
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Ryan Backman lost his father to a violent crime, which compelled him to start Project Cold Case,
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a not-for-profit company that helps families of unsolved homicides and suspicious deaths also in
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the state of Florida. There are many different ways these unsolved case playing cards are
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distributed. As I mentioned, military outlets still use these cards to print details of war
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criminals and other identified enemies, which began back in 2003 when the world was on the hunt
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for Saddam Hussein and members of his regime. According to Forensic Magazine, Rhode Island
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distributed 5,000 decks throughout their Department of Corrections system in December 2018. By July
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2019, the Utah Cold Case Coalition also created cards to distribute within their Department of
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Corrections system. Project Cold Case, the not-for-profit organization started by Ryan
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Backman, distributes these cards to poker rooms, tattoo parlors, and craft breweries throughout
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Florida to spread awareness. This is just a small list of agencies that actively put cards out to
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gain exposure on unsolved crimes. Ultimately, cold case playing cards are considered a success
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amongst the states who are participating in this program. Authorities continue to remain
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hopeful that distributing, and I'll call these true crime playing cards, will continue to help
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bring cold cases to a close. The cases chosen to be highlighted range from unsolved mysteries to
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violent crimes, missing or exploited persons, and fugitive alerts. Investigators from Connecticut
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say it is a win-win because, quote, it's like interviewing 93,000 inmates for new leads and
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it's worked wonders, unquote. The reason a lot of these playing cards are getting solved is pretty
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simple. Inmates like to brag or swap stories as to why they're in their current position and in
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prison in the first place. Of course, other inmates think that they can get something in return,
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like some added incentives for calling in tips to the free phone number listed on the deck.
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Some of the incentives that I found but are by no means a sure thing include better food or
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even access to education or rehab programs. Okay, folks, am I wrong here? I don't consider
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either of these an obstacle. First of all, human rights, but how many times have you heard of
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inmates receiving a degree while behind bars? All right, I'm going to add my opinion here for
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just a split second. If you know me well enough, you know I'm an advocate for educating people.
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I feel that there is a better chance of rehabilitation when you allow those education
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programs when people are incarcerated. Otherwise, I'm thinking the only obstacle that prisons are
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facing are budgets. Regardless, incentives are somewhat of a given here. Inmates are more
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susceptible to come forward with information, especially if they know that there's something
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in it for them because in the whole scheme of things, we as humans are selfish and always want
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to know what's in it for us. Am I right? The list of positive feedback in these cold case playing
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cards definitely outweigh the negatives, but here's one promising little tidbit on the
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effectiveness of installing a cold case playing card program. Connecticut prisons have received
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over 770 tips since 2010, which has led to further investigating about 7% of their cases. Of course,
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this number is relatively low, but you've got to start somewhere and I'm saying solving even one
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case is a big win. There are some downsides to these cards. You might be wondering why only 18
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out of 50 states actively support this program. Even though the pros do outweigh the cons,
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there are still
concerns that violence can increase, especially when we're talking about
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prison systems here. Some jurisdictions say that although these playing card programs are a great
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concept, they do contain some negative setbacks. For example, the Butler County system out of Ohio
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actually removed these cards from their penal system due to security issues inside the jail.
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Why, you ask? Because criminals are behind bars for a reason. They don't follow society's rules.
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And in the instance of Butler County jails, inmates were using the playing cards to block
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the locking mechanisms to their cells. Have you seen the last several episodes of Oranges of the
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New Black? And do you remember what happened when inmates take over the facility? So for obvious
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reasons, Ohio jails put the program on hold until they could come up with a better way to use cold
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case playing cards to their advantage. Other concerns about these cold case playing cards
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is how the information provided by inmates proves to be more unreliable than helpful.
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Delaware officials cite that nearly 50% of the informants testimony proves to be false,
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mostly due to those incentives I discussed earlier. And I'm not sure there are more
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incentive programs than just better food or self-improvement programs. Heck, I've learned
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that if you just give someone a lollipop, they're happy and will do anything for that freebie.
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Secondly, we know snitches get stitches and many prison systems are dealing with just that,
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which adds to the fact that prisoners and jail officials don't need inmates to police themselves.
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Like I mentioned, cold case playing cards are not limited to the United States.
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Shout out to my friends and listeners in Australia because you have these too.
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New South Wales jail systems introduced cards in 2022 after friends and family members of victims
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tried for over five years to get these programs off the ground. As far as any other countries
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who have this program in place, again, I really couldn't find much information on this. I do
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believe there are some international versions for fugitives or crimes overseas, but there's
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just not a global effort yet to distribute this type of card around the world. Let me end by
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giving you a couple of incidents where cold case playing cards have been a success. In 2007,
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a friendly game of go fish amongst Florida prisoners produced tips that led to the arrest of
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one of their cases on that deck. As of today, Connecticut alone has solved over 20 cases using
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these cards. One of those cases is that of Derek Comrie. One of the cases I mentioned at the
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beginning of this episode, Derek was the young man who had attended that basketball game and was
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shot by the stranger while he was sitting in the passenger side of his friend's car. An inmate who
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was serving time in the Connecticut prison system came forward to provide information on Derek's
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case after a card game with fellow inmates. This tipster had purchased a deck of cold case cards
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from the commissary, say that 10 times fast, and saw Derek's case on the deck. He remembered hearing
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a fellow inmate bragging about shooting Derek back in 2006 and contacted that tipster line provided
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on the card. This case was solved and Derek's killer received a 37-year sentence. Well, that's
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the story of cold case playing cards. I tried to find a list of all the states that have these
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cards in their correction systems, but couldn't find it all in one spot. I would suggest that you
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Google this to see if your state has the cold case playing card program and write to your state
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and local officials if it doesn't. You can refer them to this episode of Dying to be Found, The
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Dash, to find out what they need to know about how effective this program is and what things they
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need to avoid. If you have any agencies interested in featuring cold cases on playing cards, please
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have them contact Project Cold Case at 904-525-8080 or email info at projectcoldcase.org. You can
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contact the Federal Department of Corrections to inquire how cases can be featured on cards from
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your own state. If you're wondering where you can find a deck of cold case playing cards, Amazon or
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eBay are your best bets. Distribution is limited mainly to the prison systems. Unless you live in
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Florida, then you can stop by your local brewery or tattoo parlor. Alright you all, let me know
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your thoughts on this episode. If you have a storyline you'd like to specifically hear on the
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Dash, let me know that too. Don't forget, if you want to hear less of me and more collabs, shoot me
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your email and I'll get you on that Dash lineup. Until next time, be sure to click on the links in
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our show notes to find out more about this podcast and check us out every Wednesday on the Dash and
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every Thursday when I get together with my family members. Talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to
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Dying to be Found, True Crime Podcast and our Dash mini series. Every week we'll bring you a variety
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of True Crime episodes, a little dash of hope, plus special bonus episodes with some really cool
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on our Linktree account found in the show notes where you'll find all the information in one place.
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Be sure to Dash in every Wednesday for our mini episodes, plus every Thursday when I get together
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with some of my family members. Thanks again everyone and we'll talk to you soon.