TRANSCRIPT 🔗
Jess n Sarah: Welcome back. I'm Jessica. And I'm Sarah. Today we're diving into a case that has haunted Toledo, Ohio for nearly two decades. A disappearance that has left a family shattered and raised questions that still haven't been answered. What's frustrating is that someone out there almost certainly knows what happened. For sure. So on March 30th, 2006, 41 year old Susan G. Smith. walked into a VFW post on Summit Street in Toledo. She was wearing a white shirt, black pants, her work ID tag. She had bright red hair dyed from her usual natural strawberry blonde and green eyes. She was five foot five, about 125 pounds, and she was driving her boyfriend's blue Dodge Durango. And then she was never seen again. Never. And what's striking about this case, Sarah, is how quickly police determined it wasn't a voluntary disappearance. They treated it as a homicide from day one, even though they never found the body. Which tells us they knew something they weren't saying publicly. But let's back up. Susan wasn't just some transient person who drifted through life. She had a daughter, Caitlin, who was sixteen at the time. A son who was nineteen. She herself worked at Toledo Yacht Club. She had a home on Holiday Drive in Point Place. And according to her daughter, she was trying to get her life together. She had struggled with depression and some substance issues, but Caitlin was adamant. She was trying so hard to get on her feet. I know she wouldn't just take off. The last person to speak with Susan was Caitlin herself. On March twenty eighth, Susan told her she was going to meet a friend at a gas station, that he was going to fill up her vehicle. She sounded happy, normal. That was the last time anyone in her family heard her voice. Two days later, when no one could reach her, her son went to her house on holiday drive. The phone was off the hook, which weirdly wasn't unusual for Susan. But her purse was there. Her makeup, ten dollars cash on the dresser, and her cell phone. Everything. Everything except Susan. She was supposed to work at five PM on March 30th. She never showed. And here's where it gets really interesting, Sarah. About a week later, April tenth, police found her blue Dodge Durango abandoned in the fifteen hundred block of Brooke Park Drive. The Brook Park off of Jackman Road. And no Susan, no signs of a struggle, just part. Now who owned that Durango, Jess? It was her boyfriend, Sean Ollers, the son of the police captain that we talked about on our last week episode. this is where our story takes a turn. Because when you start looking into Sean Ollers, you find a very troubling pattern of behavior. This isn't just a guy who had some minor traffic tickets. Not even close. Sean had felony drug trafficking charges, cocaine trafficking in 2007, multiple drug possession cases. But it gets worse, Sarah. He had a domestic violence charge on his record and voyeurism. He was convicted of trespassing to spy or eavesdrop. So we're talking about a
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man with a demonstrated pattern of controlling behavior, substance abuse, and violating boundaries. And he's the last person connected to Susan's vehicle. But wait. It gets more complicated because Sean Ollers comes from a family with deep, deep ties to Toledo law enforcement. How deep? Just well, I already said it, but let's make it more dramatic. His father, Richard E. Ollers, O E H L E R S, was a Toledo police captain. His grandfather, Edward Ollers, was also a police captain. Three generations of police service in that family here in Toledo. And Mr. Ollers, the father, was part of that 1978. Willie's Park police scandal. So if you don't know what we're talking about, go back and watch our last week's episode and you will get a little more information there. Because that's significant. That is significant, especially given how the case was handled So on Holiday Drive, the one where Susan had been staying as of November twenty twenty five. He bought it in two thousand. And here's a detail that gives me chills. One month before Susan disappeared, Sean established a P.O. box. in Harbor View, Ohio. Harbor View? Yeah. It's a marina area with the docks. Water access. And Sarah, they never found Susan's body. You're thinking water disposal? I mean bodies of water. Did you ever there's a crime show based on the fact of I couldn't imagine how many bodies were in Lake Erie. And I do love that bodies of water show. I've never actually watched it, but I've always thought about it. So That's one I gotta watch. It's not a cheesy one. Good to know. Yeah, it's great. We'll have to like put that in the show notes for you guys. So I'm thinking it's a question that should have been asked very loudly. And here's another timeline detail that bothers me. Richard Ollers married Bonnie Henry in June of 2001. They divorced by July two thousand six. Susan disappeared in March two thousand six. So in March Susan disappeared and by July this man was divorced from his wife. Right in the middle of a divorce proceeding. That's not a very long marriage either. That's what, five years? Yeah. So you've got family turmoil, a boyfriend with violent tendencies and drug connections, a police captain's father and a missing woman who left every single possession behind. And not to mention the phone was off the hook, which is weird to me. It is weird. It's like they're setting it up to make it look like she wanted to leave on her own. Ugh, it is very strange. So every single one, phone, her Money, makeup. And if you're leaving voluntarily, you definitely take your purse, you take your phone, and you take your damn ten dollars. So Susan took nothing. And the police response, let's talk about that. They brought in the Toledo police cadets, 30 of them, to search a business on Telegraph Road and the surrounding woods. Sergeant Steve Forrester said it was the first of many searches they anticipated. But here's what strikes me as odd. In all the media coverage from 2006, in all the official missing person bulletins, in every database entry I could find, the Charlie Project, Namus, Ohio Attorney General's office, nobody names Sean Ollers. they refer to him as her boyfriend, and they say he was in Florida when she disappeared, but they never name him. Even though he owned the V. She was last seen driving, even though he had the criminal record, even though his father was a police captain. Even though. And when the vehicle was found abandoned on Brook Park Drive, the police noted the location carefully. But here's something from the research. Susan had the connection to 1539 Brook Park Drive, apartment number five. Going back to two thousand three and the vehicle was found on that same street. That's not a coincidence. That's a connection. Yeah. So it feels like pieces of the puzzle that someone decided not to assemble publicly. But there are anomalies. Anomalies in his property records that suggest someone should verify his actual timeline. And Sean, Sean had addresses in Michigan too. Atlanta, and Vanderbilt. He could move between states easily. So we're left with a mother of two who disappeared 19 years ago. A daughter who was 16 and is now in her mid-30s. Still without answers. A son who found that phone off the hook and probably still wonders what he missed. Yeah, so we're left with a case officially classified as a homicide, treated as such from day one. Yet somehow the boyfriend with the violent record, the drug history, the domestic violence charge, and the police captain father was never publicly named as a person of interest. we're left with questions. Who was the Friend Susan was meeting at the gas station. Where did she go between the VFW and that mysterious meeting? Why was the Durango left on Brook Park Drive? And why, in a case with so many threads pointing in one direction, has no one ever been charged? So if you have any information about the disappearance of Susan G. Smith, you can contact the Washington Township Police Department their phone number is for. 419-726-0478. there is a significant reward available through Crime Stoppers. If someone knows what happened to Susan Smith, it's never too late to do the right thing. One conversation, one tip, one person deciding they're tired of carrying a secret. They could definitely give Susan's family the answers they've been waiting two decades for. Until then, Susan remains missing and her family is still waiting. Yeah, so thanks for listening. I'm Jessica. And I'm Sarah. We'll see you next time. Bye.