0:00

Criminology is a true crime podcast

0:02

that may contain discussion about violent

0:04

or disturbing topics. Your

0:06

discretion is advised. Hello

0:37

everyone and welcome to episode two 88

0:40

of the criminology podcast. This is Mike

0:42

Ferguson and this is Mike Morford.

0:45

Mr. Morford. How are you doing? I'm

0:47

doing good. How about you? Doing great. Still

0:50

making preparations for the holidays, preparations

0:52

for this cruise that we're getting ready

0:54

to go on. So we've got a

0:56

lot going on over here at the

0:58

Ferguson household. Yeah, it's busy here

1:01

too. It's crunch time getting the last holiday

1:03

stuff done and planning a party

1:05

and, and looking forward to a little bit of

1:07

downtime, to be honest with you. Yeah, this

1:09

is our last episode of 2023 and we'll be back

1:12

on January 6th. So

1:16

we got a week off, which is,

1:18

you know, very nice. That

1:21

helps recharge the batteries and, uh, get

1:23

your mind going again and give you a little

1:25

bit of energy, hopefully. So this

1:28

episode is dropping two days before

1:30

Christmas. And, you know, with Christmas

1:32

just days away, many of us

1:34

are making last minute plans and

1:36

preparations, just like you and I

1:38

talked about wrapping presents, buying presents,

1:41

decorating the house for company, making

1:43

sure that we have everything ready

1:45

to cook, maybe a last

1:48

minute run to the store for milk

1:50

and cookies for Santa. It's a time

1:52

of year for many people to see

1:54

their loved ones and spend time with

1:56

them for one set of grandparents, though,

1:58

around Christmas in 19. 1977,

2:01

they saw their granddaughter for the last time. And

2:04

after that, what happened to her remains

2:06

a mystery to this day. We're talking

2:08

about the case of Nicole Bederson. Nicole's

2:11

mom was Susan Clingal and her

2:13

father, Jared Bederson. Since Jared

2:16

and Susan weren't married, her parents, Bill

2:18

and Mary Clingal, didn't approve of their

2:20

relationship. They believed that he was a bad

2:22

influence on their daughter. And in that

2:24

time period, historically, when they were in Dearborn, Michigan,

2:27

the fact that they were in an interracial

2:29

relationship was frowned upon by some.

2:32

On Labor Day weekend in September 1977, when

2:35

Nicole Bederson was just two years old,

2:37

the family was in a car accident.

2:40

Though the car rolled multiple times,

2:42

Nicole and Jared, who was driving,

2:45

were not seriously injured. Sadly,

2:47

Susan, who was just 22 years

2:50

old, was thrown from the car in the crash

2:52

and killed. Authorities found marijuana in

2:54

the trunk of the car and

2:56

felt that it would be appropriate

2:58

to charge Jared with vehicular homicide.

3:01

But apparently, there was what the Las

3:03

Vegas Sun called a sloppy investigation

3:06

and no charges were ever filed.

3:08

Susan's parents were devastated and

3:10

they laid their daughter to rest

3:12

in the St. Hedwig Cemetery in

3:14

Dearborn Heights, Michigan. There's no

3:17

doubt more if this was tough

3:19

on Susan's parents, right? Tough

3:21

anytime a parent loses a

3:23

child and then there's two-year-old

3:25

Nicole who loses her mother.

3:28

It's just sad all the way around. And

3:31

Susan was almost a kid

3:33

herself, 22 years old, her whole life,

3:35

ahead of her, so young. And then

3:37

a two-year-old child, you

3:40

know, she had that initial bonding with her mom, but

3:42

how much will she really remember later on in

3:44

life that had to be something

3:47

that was heartbreaking for her grandparents

3:49

too. Bill and Mary not

3:51

only lose her daughter, but then they

3:54

realize her granddaughter is probably not going to remember

3:56

her mom growing up. And

3:59

in the research, When we kind of

4:01

hinted at it, they didn't really

4:03

seem to approve all that

4:06

much of this relationship. I don't know

4:08

how they felt about

4:10

Jarrett after and

4:13

the fact that he wasn't charged with anything.

4:16

Couldn't find much definitive in

4:18

the research, but my thought is

4:20

they probably weren't happy about it. We

4:23

really don't know a lot about the relationship between

4:25

Jarrett and Susan and how close they were or

4:27

if they plan to get married. We don't

4:29

know how Jarrett took the loss of the mother of his

4:31

child, but what we do know is that

4:34

about two months after the crash, sometime

4:36

in November, Jarrett met Barbara

4:38

Sadler and they began dating. She

4:40

went with him when he took Nicole to see

4:42

Susan's parents for Christmas. It was

4:44

at this time that they informed the Klingels that

4:47

they were going to take Nicole and move somewhere

4:49

out west. They didn't say exactly where

4:51

they were going and Bill and Mary

4:53

were in shock at the thought of losing their granddaughter

4:56

right after losing their daughter. Jarrett

4:58

and Barbara had already told their friends they would be

5:00

leaving, but again, their location wasn't

5:02

certain. They had said Las Vegas

5:04

to some friends and California to others.

5:07

Before leaving, Barbara promised the Klingels

5:09

that she would take care of Nicole and

5:11

love her as if she were her own daughter. According

5:14

to the Las Vegas son, she told them, I'll

5:17

be a good mother to Nicole. She'll be

5:19

well taken care of. Despite this

5:21

assurance, the Klingels were heartbroken. As

5:24

Jarrett, Barbara, and Nicole left, Bill

5:26

and Mary said goodbye to them with tears streaming down

5:28

their cheeks. So we've talked

5:30

about the Klingels being heartbroken and no

5:32

doubt they were. They lost their daughter.

5:35

Now they're being informed that they

5:38

may not be seeing their granddaughter

5:41

at all. And I just

5:43

wonder more what they thought about Jarrett

5:46

at this point. You know, we've already talked

5:48

about the fact that they weren't crazy about

5:50

him, but here just a

5:52

few months after Susan

5:55

was killed, he shows

5:57

up with a new woman in his house.

5:59

his life who's talking

6:01

about taking great care of

6:04

Nicole. Yeah, that had

6:06

to come as a bombshell to them to just

6:08

have him come in and out of the blue and here's

6:10

this new person and all of a sudden they're

6:12

leaving. Cause I'm sure that as grieving

6:15

grandparents, they probably, their plan

6:18

was to dote on their granddaughter and spend as

6:20

much time as they could with her. And to

6:22

have that stripped away, that had to be, you

6:25

know, as you said heartbreaking for them to

6:27

feel that. On August 28th, 1982, when

6:31

Nicole would have been about ready to

6:33

start the first grade, Barbara

6:35

and Jared were married in Clark, Nevada.

6:38

It's not clear how much contact,

6:40

if any, Jared and Barbara had

6:42

with Bill and Mary Clingall after

6:44

they moved away, but apparently it

6:46

wasn't much. In 1997, the

6:49

Clingalls felt it was finally time to contact

6:52

Nicole. She would have been 22 by then,

6:55

the same age her mother was when

6:57

she passed away in that

6:59

car accident two decades before. She

7:01

would definitely be old enough to learn

7:03

the truth about who her mother was

7:06

and how she died and to make

7:08

her own decisions as to whether or

7:10

not she wanted to stay in contact

7:12

with her maternal grandparents. But first they

7:14

had to find her. So they

7:16

hired Peggy Bezi, a private

7:18

investigator, to track her down. After

7:21

finding Jared and Barbara Betterson, now a

7:23

married couple living in Las Vegas, but

7:25

seeing no sign of Nicole anywhere in any

7:27

records, Peggy Bezi contacted

7:30

Las Vegas police department detective

7:32

Jeff Rosgen, neither Bezi

7:34

or Rosgen got any mention of Nicole

7:36

in any official record. She

7:38

had never had a driver's license. She had

7:40

no criminal record and there were no

7:42

adoption records linked to her name. And

7:44

she had never been enrolled in any Las Vegas school.

7:47

This wasn't good news for the Clingalls. Not

7:49

only could they not find their granddaughter, but

7:51

it seemed that Nicole sometime in early 1978 had simply ceased

7:54

to exist. Despite

7:57

this, Jared had continued to collect

7:59

survivors. benefits for Nicole until 1993

8:01

when she would have turned 18. These

8:04

payments were from Social Security, a

8:06

portion of Susan Clingles' eventual benefits

8:09

used to supplement the loss of her support. So

8:12

I said more that we

8:14

really don't know how much contact

8:17

if any Bill and

8:19

Mary had with Jared

8:21

and or Barbara, but

8:24

I did think it was a little

8:26

strange that they

8:28

waited until 1997 to try to contact Nicole. Again,

8:34

we don't know what obstacles they had

8:36

in their way, but she would have

8:38

been 22 years old at that

8:40

point. Why not 18? Why

8:43

not earlier? I mean, those are just

8:45

questions that kind of popped into my mind. And

8:48

as grandparents, I think most grandparents,

8:51

they didn't see or hear anything about their

8:53

grandkids for a stretch

8:55

of time, whether it's weeks or months or

8:57

eventually a year. It seems

8:59

odd to me that they wouldn't try

9:02

and track her down sooner and just make sure

9:04

she's okay. Again, maybe they did and we just

9:06

don't have that information, but

9:09

definitely it was a long

9:11

time in past before they finally really

9:13

started trying to get aggressive

9:15

in finding her. And then obviously

9:17

the news that came back

9:20

to them from this private investigative would

9:22

be very worrisome. Here

9:26

it's 1997 and they're

9:28

finding out that really there's no

9:31

record of Nicole since early

9:33

1978. Yeah,

9:36

definitely very troubling. You think there would be some kind

9:38

of paper trail for them to follow that would show

9:40

what she had done, where she had been, and there

9:43

was none of that. Detective

9:45

Rosgan, alarmed at the lack of

9:47

any evidence of Nicole's existence, decided

9:49

to dig further into her disappearance

9:52

and his next move is

9:54

frustrating. On the one hand,

9:56

it was clearly effective at putting pressure

9:59

on a suspect. and creating some

10:01

movement in the case. On the other

10:03

hand, though, any chance at

10:05

learning anything from either of the

10:07

Beddersons about where Nicole was or

10:09

what happened to her would soon

10:11

evaporate. With no clues or

10:13

leads to go off of, Detective

10:16

Roskin decided to bluff. In

10:18

November 1998, he met with Jared and pretended

10:20

to know exactly

10:23

what had happened to Nicole, telling

10:25

Jared if he cooperated with the

10:27

investigation, they wouldn't take the case to

10:29

the grand jury. Per cincinnati.com,

10:31

he said to Jared, it

10:34

will be easier on you if you tell us the

10:36

whole story. This shocked Jared,

10:38

but he agreed to cooperate and

10:40

asked Detective Roskin for more time. He

10:43

said he just needed about a week. Figuring

10:45

they had already waited 20 years, Roskin

10:48

agreed and left. Just four days

10:50

later, Jared called the detective and said

10:53

he was actually willing to set up a meeting between

10:56

the detective and Nicole, but

10:58

that he needed time to arrange it. 10

11:00

days after that, Jared called him again, asking

11:03

for more time to set up the meeting. There

11:06

was no further word from him as Thanksgiving came

11:08

and went. Detective Roskin

11:11

decided to call Jared, but

11:13

the phone rang and rang. No one

11:15

answered. So obviously,

11:17

this detective was very suspicious of

11:21

Jared and or Barbara to go

11:23

to this link of,

11:25

you know, kind of bluffing that he knew

11:28

what happened. He must have suspected

11:30

that maybe they were somehow

11:33

involved. What I thought was

11:35

strange was like all this

11:37

time passing. I

11:39

mean, how long does it really take to set

11:41

up a meeting? You know,

11:43

I need four days. I need a

11:46

week. I need 10 days. Well,

11:48

no, really, nobody needs that much time.

11:51

It makes it seem as though

11:54

Jared is putting the detective off

11:57

while he gets, you know, something

11:59

cooking. kind of what it sounds like. And

12:01

I think it I'm sure it made the

12:03

detective even more suspicious when he kept stalling

12:06

and putting it off and you

12:08

know is he putting it off

12:10

to buy time so he can arrange

12:12

a real meeting with Nicole that she is

12:15

around someplace or is he trying to cover

12:17

his tracks or get rid of evidence you

12:19

know who knows what he was doing during

12:21

that time. In Georgia Jared's

12:24

mother Joni Beddersen opened the letter she received

12:26

in the mail. It was from

12:28

her son and Barbara who she hadn't seen or spoken

12:30

to in over 20 years. The letter

12:33

read, by the time you get this we

12:35

should be dead. Jared is about to go

12:37

to jail and I don't want to live without him. I'm

12:40

sorry about living apart from our family. I'm

12:42

sorry about so many things. We've had

12:45

a sad and difficult life. We

12:47

had hoped our troubles would never touch our families

12:49

so we kept to ourselves. We've tried

12:51

to follow God. Now it's about time

12:53

for him to judge us. Go to

12:55

your Bibles to see peace and

12:58

please forgive us for all the wounds we

13:00

have put in your hearts with our tragic

13:02

and youthful blunders. Inside the

13:04

envelope there was $900

13:06

money order to cover cremation cost and

13:09

request that the ashes of the two Beddersons be

13:11

placed into a single urn together. Joni

13:14

Beddersen was clearly floored by this letter

13:16

and reached out to the authorities and

13:18

alerted them. So it turns

13:20

out that you know it

13:22

wasn't just Bill and Mary

13:25

who hadn't been in contact with

13:27

the Beddersons. Jared's mother

13:30

Joni hadn't talked to them in

13:32

over 20 years and you

13:34

use the word floored morph and I think

13:36

that's a pretty good word. I mean I

13:38

don't know what you think when you open

13:40

this letter and read it and

13:43

it essentially says hey

13:45

by the time you read this we'll

13:47

be dead. It had to be a

13:50

pretty shocking letter to open up and to

13:52

me the whole situation is weird that multiple

13:55

family members you know haven't

13:57

heard from them in 20 years they just sort of cut off.

14:00

contact and you know obviously and

14:35

then you know what's in this letter is so

14:37

cryptic we've had a sad and

14:39

difficult life and what are these

14:41

troubles that they were experiencing

14:44

that they're saying

14:46

led them to keep

14:48

to themselves and not have contact

14:50

with the family and around

14:53

the same time jonie received this

14:55

letter just days before christmas 1997

14:58

almost exactly 20 years since the last

15:01

time nicole was known to be alive

15:03

and well at her grandparents

15:05

house in michigan the manager of

15:07

the apartment complex the bettersons were

15:09

living in unlock their unit

15:12

there were multiple eviction notices on the

15:14

door and it was time to start

15:16

the process instead of a

15:18

tough conversation with his tenants he

15:21

found them both dead a note had

15:23

been left for him on the fridge it read

15:26

forgive us for having to deal

15:28

with the mess we left they

15:30

had died about three weeks before

15:32

being found barbara was lying

15:34

in bed holding a bible and

15:37

a single red rose that had

15:39

completely wilted and withered she'd been

15:41

shot in the chest twice with

15:43

the 22 caliber rifle the

15:45

bed had been made around her body and

15:48

a second red rose was placed over her

15:50

heart in their second bedroom lying

15:52

on the bed and covered with a

15:54

blanket jared had shined himself

15:56

once in the head initially authority

15:59

saw him that 49 year

16:01

old Jared had killed 50 year

16:03

old Barbara and then taken his

16:05

own life and a murder suicide while

16:08

that is technically correct it

16:10

was clear from the letter to Joni

16:12

Betterson and the pressure

16:15

from Detective Roskin that Barbara

16:17

too had wanted to take her own

16:19

life it was technically a double

16:21

suicide though Barbara had not died at

16:23

her own hand. On

16:26

December 26th on his first day of

16:28

work back from Christmas vacation Detective

16:31

Roskin learned the news about the Bettersons. Roskin

16:33

informed Lieutenant Wayne Peterson of their link

16:36

to Nicole and about his visit

16:38

weeks earlier. Lieutenant Peterson had the

16:40

same questions listeners are probably asking was

16:42

Nicole out there someplace? It's unknown

16:45

where they stopped on their way from Michigan to

16:47

Las Vegas. Peterson told the Las

16:49

Vegas Sun that he thinks if she's

16:51

still alive she could have grown up with

16:53

another family another name never

16:56

knowing her past. Of course this is

16:58

the best case scenario different detectives

17:00

working the case noted long drive to

17:02

Vegas and put forth a second theory

17:05

perhaps she was fussing on the trip west and

17:07

attempt to quiet her turn tragic. So

17:10

just like that Barbara and Jared

17:12

Betterson were gone and potentially so

17:15

was any hope for the Klingles

17:17

of reuniting with their granddaughter Nicole

17:20

Lieutenant Peterson told the Las Vegas

17:22

Sun it may forever remain a

17:24

mystery the only people who can solve

17:27

this mystery may be dead their secret

17:29

may have died with them and this

17:31

is what makes Detective Roskins

17:33

bluff so frustrating to some

17:36

it did work in a way

17:38

it proved that the Bettersons were

17:40

aware at the very least that

17:43

they had been committing fraud by

17:45

collecting benefits for Nicole when Detective

17:47

Roskin said he knew what happened

17:49

to Nicole and Jared

17:52

began to cooperate it basically

17:54

confirmed that something did happen

17:57

but there was not even a mention of

17:59

Nicole in any of Barbara's letters, there

18:01

was no confession at all, just a

18:03

plea for forgiveness. The problem

18:06

is that we're not sure though, what

18:09

they should be forgiven for. It

18:12

could seem cruel that neither

18:14

Barbara nor Jared left answers

18:16

for Nicole's maternal grandparents, leaving

18:19

them wondering whether or not she

18:21

was even alive. However, if they

18:23

thought that Detective Rosgan did really

18:25

know what happened to Nicole, would

18:27

they feel the need to spell

18:29

it out again in a letter?

18:32

It seems that they could have

18:34

possibly taken him at his word

18:37

when he said he knew the truth, and

18:39

sadly now the truth may never

18:41

be known. We mentioned earlier,

18:43

it's unknown why the Klingels waited until Nicole

18:45

was 22 to try and find

18:47

her, or if they had any kind

18:49

of contact at all with her father Jared during

18:51

all those years. If they

18:53

were trying to wait until she wasn't a minor anymore,

18:56

they still waited an extra four years, maybe

18:59

Nicole reaching the age that her mother Susan

19:01

was when she died made them want to

19:03

reach out at that point. One

19:05

article mentions that Nicole was her sole heir,

19:08

so it's possible that they had been doing

19:10

some estate planning and writing their wills

19:12

when they decided to try and find her. Sadly,

19:15

there are many children who have disappeared with

19:17

no one noticed for years, and you

19:19

would think that when a child goes missing, a

19:21

loved one would sound the alarm quickly. When

19:24

they don't, you have to wonder why they didn't.

19:27

One earlier case is that of Patricia Ann Wood,

19:29

who had vanished by 1976 when she would have been

19:32

four years old. More recently,

19:34

you can point to cases of multiple

19:36

children who weren't reported missing immediately and

19:39

still haven't been found. Directed

19:42

by Martin Scorsese, Killers of

19:44

the Flower Moon is a

19:46

masterpiece and it's now available

19:48

on digital. Lily Glanston, alongside

19:51

Academy Award winners Leonardo DiCaprio

19:53

and Robert De Niro, give

19:55

powerful performances in this riveting

19:57

film based on a true

20:00

story by the epic western crime

20:02

saga, Killers of the Flower Moon

20:04

on digital, rated R from Apple

20:07

Original Films and Paramount Pictures. One

20:10

of those more recent cases is

20:12

that of Harmony Montgomery, who was

20:15

reported missing in November

20:17

2021 when she would have

20:19

been 7 years old, but no one

20:21

had seen her for almost two years by

20:23

that point. Sadly, authorities have

20:26

good reason to believe that Harmony

20:28

is no longer alive. Her

20:30

father Adam is set to go on trial for

20:32

her murder in February of 2024. In

20:35

this case, authorities were able

20:37

to use welfare fraud to

20:40

bring Adam and Harmony's stepmother,

20:42

Kayla Montgomery, in for questioning

20:44

and Kayla quickly testified against

20:46

Adam in a weapons charge

20:48

trial earlier this year as

20:50

part of a plea deal. Kayla Montgomery

20:52

told investigators that Adam Montgomery

20:54

killed his daughter on December

20:56

7, 2019. At the time,

20:58

the Montgomery's were living in

21:00

their car, which they kept

21:02

parked in a lot of a friend's

21:04

apartment complex. Harmony just 5

21:07

years old at the time, was having frequent

21:09

accidents in the car, unable

21:11

to hold it until they made it to a bathroom.

21:14

This absolutely enraged Adam, who

21:16

Kayla says punched Harmony multiple

21:19

times while he was driving.

21:21

This attack killed her. Instead of getting

21:23

help, Adam put her body

21:26

into a duffel bag that he

21:28

moved from location to location until

21:30

March 2020 when he ultimately

21:32

disposed of her body. Thankfully,

21:35

Harmony's younger half-brother, Jameson, had

21:37

been adopted and is safe,

21:40

but while Jameson was adopted, Harmony was sent

21:42

to live with Adam. And

21:44

tragically, Jameson's family, the Millers,

21:46

would have happily adopted her

21:48

too. Jameson's adopted father

21:51

Blair Miller told News Nation

21:53

now that Harmony did have

21:55

loving family and Harmony

21:57

does have a loving brother. We

22:00

may not have met her face to face,

22:02

but we certainly know how important she is

22:04

to our family. Another recent

22:06

case is that of Oakley Carlson, who

22:09

was four years old when she was

22:11

last seen on February 10, 2021.

22:13

She wasn't reported missing until December 2021. One month earlier,

22:15

there had been

22:18

a fire at the Carlson home. Her

22:20

father, Andrew Carlson, claims

22:22

this is when he quote, unquote, lost

22:25

track of Oakley. Like Jameson

22:27

and Harmony, Oakley had a loving

22:29

family who was eager to adopt her. Oakley

22:31

and her younger sister were both in foster care

22:33

for more than two years. The Heils

22:35

family had practically raised her, but

22:38

as soon as Andrew Carlson and

22:40

Jordan Bowers completed drug addiction and

22:43

domestic violence treatment, they were granted

22:45

custody of their children over the

22:47

concerns of the Heils. Jamie Jo

22:49

Heils, Oakley's foster mother, told the New

22:51

York Times, that hole in my heart

22:54

and that concern for Oakley was

22:56

there the moment she left. And

22:59

while there's hope that they simply got

23:01

tired of caring for Oakley, so they

23:03

gave her up to someone who wanted

23:05

a child and they are showering her

23:07

with love. It's kind of

23:09

hard to stay optimistic. Oakley's little

23:11

sister, only known as DC, has

23:13

made a few statements that don't

23:15

give police a lot of hope.

23:18

Not only did DC tell investigators

23:20

that her parents kept Oakley locked

23:22

under the stairs, she also said

23:24

that their mother Jordan had

23:27

told her not to talk about Oakley

23:29

and that she had gone into

23:32

the woods and had been eaten by

23:34

wool. Jamie Jo Heils told

23:36

the Times, when you read those

23:38

reports about the abuse that she suffered,

23:41

how can you not let your mind think

23:43

of dark things? Oakley's seventh

23:45

birthday, the third since the last

23:47

credible sighting of her, was just

23:49

two weeks ago. Some of

23:52

these children who weren't reported missing immediately

23:54

have the same tragic ending, which

23:56

is no ending, No answers, and

23:58

no one left alive to have the questions.

24:01

To similar cases com the mine. In.

24:03

November. Two thousand and eight. Chino

24:05

Loose and or girlfriend Sky Hansen.

24:08

Were. Featured on America's Most Wanted. They.

24:10

Were suspects in the murder of Keen as

24:12

mother Barbara. In. January Nineteen Ninety

24:14

Eight. Barbara's. Husband Gary.

24:17

Have. Been shot and killed two years earlier. Know.

24:19

Suspect was named in that case. Three.

24:21

Hours after the episode aired. Teen.

24:24

And Sky were both found dead. Tina.

24:26

Headshots: guy in the head for taking her own

24:28

life. Penis. Son Christopher.

24:31

Would have been eighteen at the time. Was nowhere to

24:33

be found. The. Last record of him

24:35

being alive was from Nineteen Ninety Nine in

24:38

Tucson, Arizona. Lieutenant. Great Maclean

24:40

of the Post Falls, Idaho Police

24:42

Department. Spoke. To A B C

24:44

News about Christopher saying. He. Says

24:46

fans. We. Don't know if we

24:48

potentially found another homicide. Christopher. Los

24:51

would now be thirty two years old,

24:53

remains missing, Another case is

24:55

one Listers may have heard of the

24:57

fourth on May Twenty fourth, Two Thousand

25:00

Web. Amy fried pits and

25:02

was found dead in a Rockford,

25:04

Illinois hotel room three days earlier.

25:06

She had signed her son six

25:08

year old Timothy out of kindergarten

25:10

just thirty minutes after his father,

25:12

Jim, had dropped him off. When.

25:15

Jim return an afternoon to

25:17

pick Timothy up. Alarm Bell

25:19

South. Amy's. Phone when straight

25:21

to voicemail and she wasn't home

25:23

or work. Amy. Did get in

25:25

touch with her mother. In. The shirt or that

25:27

they would be home in a few day. Around

25:30

the same time she called Gyms brother

25:32

and told him. Timothy belongs

25:34

to me. During. The time they

25:36

were missing. Amy intimacy per day Have a

25:38

lot of fun. They. Went to the

25:41

Brookfield Zoo just outside of Chicago. Key.

25:43

Lime Cove Water Resort in Gurney.

25:46

And Wisconsin Dells resort called

25:48

Kalahari. They. Were captured together

25:50

and surveillance footage multiple times. Gym.

25:53

Told cincinnati.com. Timothy.

25:55

Was happy and didn't seem to have any

25:57

distress or anything. They. checked out of the

25:59

resort 10 a.m. and the

26:01

next time Amy was spotted on security camera

26:04

she was alone at Sullivan's Foods in

26:06

Winnebago near Rockford, Illinois. It

26:09

was around 8 p.m. Her purchase included

26:11

stamps and stationery. Amy

26:13

checked into a hotel still alone at

26:16

11.15 the same night at around 12.30

26:18

the next afternoon. A housekeeper

26:20

discovered the upsetting scene. Amy

26:23

had taken an overdose of antihistamines before

26:26

cutting her own wrist and neck. There

26:28

was a suicide note left for the staff apologizing

26:31

for the mess they would have to clean but

26:33

there was no sign of her son Timothy. Like

26:35

Barbara Batterson did, Amy sent letters

26:38

before she ended her life. One

26:40

letter to her mother read, I've

26:43

taken him somewhere safe. He will

26:45

be well cared for and he says

26:47

that he loves you. Please know that

26:49

there is nothing you could have said or done

26:51

that would have changed my mind. Authorities

26:53

have never released the exact wording

26:55

of Amy's suicide note but it

26:57

is clear that while she claimed

26:59

that Timothy was safe, no

27:02

one would ever find him and to

27:04

this date no one has. He remains

27:06

missing. Oakley's parents and Harmony's

27:08

father and stepmother were all arrested before they

27:10

had a chance to flee or take their

27:12

own lives. Whatever happened to

27:14

Oakley and Harmony seems to have been

27:17

fueled by a life of addiction and crime. Nothing

27:19

could have been reported without very severe

27:21

consequences or perhaps losing the

27:23

financial benefit of keeping it quiet made

27:25

the risk seem worth it. For

27:28

Tina Loesch and Amy Fry-Pitson though, the

27:30

disappearance of their children seemed to be a

27:33

very deliberate and vital part of their overall

27:35

plan. All of these cases of children

27:37

missing without ever being found and missing

27:39

at the hands of someone who is supposed to love

27:42

and protect them is hard to fathom for many. So

27:44

all of these cases are

27:46

heartbreaking morph and some

27:49

of them have some

27:51

of the same characteristics of

27:54

Nicole's case. I think

27:56

it's hard not to listen to some of

27:58

the details and things. that

28:01

one of those same scenarios could

28:23

they don't they just leave the mystery and

28:25

they in these

28:27

cases we've talked about take their own lives

28:30

and leave these unanswered questions for

28:32

everyone else to to be

28:34

puzzled by after they're gone well

28:36

and there's there's one thought that

28:39

I have about you know

28:41

children when you're talking about

28:43

children who let's say

28:46

haven't been enrolled in a school

28:48

yet well if

28:50

they don't have a lot of contact

28:52

with other family members there's

28:54

not a ton of record

28:57

of them you know where where's the

28:59

paper trail much different than

29:01

an adult you know you're going to

29:04

a job or you're going to a

29:06

school there's a record of where

29:08

you've been what you've done but

29:11

a two-year-old three-year-old four-year-old something like that

29:13

they don't have that same kind of

29:15

record much harder to track yeah

29:18

but even then it seems

29:20

like they would be neighbors or friends

29:22

of the family somebody that

29:24

might help fill in the

29:27

pieces of the puzzle and say well you

29:30

know I babysat her or I she

29:32

played with my child or something like

29:34

that and when you don't

29:36

even have that it really seems as if

29:39

we mentioned earlier they also if

29:41

they never existed they just completely

29:43

vanished with no interaction with

29:45

anyone that they were able to recall

29:47

that yeah I think unlike

29:50

Nicole's case with some of these newer

29:52

cases that we talked about at

29:55

least you have security camera

29:57

footage you have that type

29:59

of of information that can provide

30:02

a record of where

30:04

at least someone was at a

30:06

certain time. But in some of

30:08

the older cases, you're not even going to have that.

30:11

So going back to Nicole's case, Jared

30:14

could have easily played dumb and pretended

30:16

that Nicole left when she turned 18.

30:19

He could have made up a story

30:21

about their estrangement. Maybe she

30:23

left home and said she would never look

30:25

back, but he didn't. It's possible

30:27

he could have gotten away with it, especially

30:30

without a body and no

30:32

real timeline. Where would

30:34

police even start to look for Nicole?

30:37

Then again, maybe Jared and Barbara

30:39

were truly sorry for whatever happened

30:41

as was stated in their letter.

30:44

So maybe rather than make up an

30:46

elaborate story filled with lies, they

30:49

chose not to deal with the

30:51

situation altogether. It seems that whatever

30:53

it was that happened to Nicole,

30:56

it was long before anyone came

30:58

looking for her. If something

31:00

happened to Nicole on the way to

31:02

Las Vegas, she could

31:05

be anywhere along the route.

31:07

She may have even already been found

31:10

and has not been identified, but

31:12

that hasn't stopped people from trying to look

31:14

for her remains. And

31:16

they have come up with some possible

31:19

matches. One

31:21

possible match could be unidentified person number

31:23

6655. In

31:26

that case, the partial remains of a

31:28

child estimated to be between 1 and 2

31:30

years old was found in a

31:32

field in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 4, 1979. Nicole's

31:37

actual date of birth is unknown, so

31:39

if she had turned 2 just before Christmas 1977,

31:42

she would have been 3, assuming she

31:44

was neglected before she was killed, she

31:47

would likely be on the smaller side due to

31:49

malnutrition. This is a lot of speculation,

31:52

and the eye color of this child could not even

31:54

be determined, but her hair indicates

31:56

that she was African American. It's

31:58

unknown if Nicole has been ruled out as a child. a

32:00

match to this baby doe. And

32:02

we're going to talk about some, you know,

32:04

possible matches. There's no way

32:07

to know for sure whether or not,

32:09

you know, any of these could be

32:11

in a coal. My thought

32:13

about this unidentified child

32:16

is that the location seems

32:18

a little odd to me, you

32:21

know, if you're driving from

32:23

Michigan to Las Vegas,

32:26

there wouldn't really be the need

32:28

to come as far south as

32:30

Cincinnati. You know, I'd live

32:32

just north of Cincinnati and

32:34

actually it would be, you know,

32:37

pretty far north of me, even where

32:39

you would make your turn to go west.

32:42

Where most people would make their turn to go

32:44

west. Now somebody could have gone

32:47

out of their way to throw,

32:49

you know, people off of the

32:51

trail. I, there's a lot of possibilities

32:53

here. I just did want to point

32:55

that out. The location seems a little

32:57

odd. It's not technically

32:59

on the way from

33:02

Dearborn, Michigan to Las Vegas.

33:05

With not having much information

33:07

to go on, if this was

33:09

Nicole, perhaps Jarrett

33:12

and Barbara went there to dispose

33:14

of her to throw police off their track,

33:16

as you mentioned, or maybe they went

33:18

there to visit somebody that we don't know about, or

33:21

maybe it's just not Nicole at all. And

33:23

this is somebody else's job. Another

33:25

unidentified person that many believe was

33:28

a good lead is known as

33:30

St. Louis Jane Doe on February

33:32

24th, 1983. Two

33:35

men entered the boiler room in the basement

33:37

of 5635 Clemens Avenue in St.

33:41

Louis, Missouri, looking for scrap metal.

33:43

Instead, as one of them tried

33:46

to light their cigarette, they saw a

33:48

body illuminated in the middle of

33:50

the dark room. They had discovered

33:52

the body of an African American

33:54

child who hadn't reached puberty.

33:57

Her hands were bound together behind her

33:59

back. with a red and white

34:01

nylon cord. Her head was missing.

34:04

It had been severed from the body after

34:06

she was killed. An autopsy

34:08

discovered signs of sexual assault

34:10

and strangulation. There was

34:12

no food found in her stomach. She

34:14

had likely not been taken care of,

34:17

well, for at least multiple days

34:19

before she died, but there were

34:21

no signs of prior abuse on

34:23

her body. The lack of blood at

34:25

the scene told investigators that

34:27

she had not been killed in the

34:29

building. St. Louis Jane Doe is

34:32

estimated to have been between 8 and 11

34:34

years old. Based on Nicole's age of

34:36

2 in September 1977, in February 1983, she

34:41

would have been 8 or just shy of that. St.

34:43

Louis is on a direct route from Dearborn,

34:45

Michigan to Las Vegas that exists

34:48

today. A lot of factors seem

34:50

to fit with Nicole Betterson possibly being St.

34:52

Louis Jane Doe, but Jarrett and

34:54

Barbara were already in Clark, Nevada

34:56

by August 1982. There is no reason

34:59

that we know of for them to be

35:01

closer to Michigan the next year. Nicole was

35:03

submitted as a possible identity for St. Louis

35:05

Jane Doe, but she and 10

35:07

other people have been ruled out as a match.

35:10

This isn't Nicole, and there appears

35:12

to be no matching missing persons report for

35:14

this little girl. It's likely that she

35:16

was killed by a parent or guardian since they didn't

35:18

seem to be looking for her. Unfortunately,

35:21

her sweater and the nylon rope used to tie

35:23

her hands were sent by mail to a

35:25

psychic in Florida and they were lost. These

35:28

items can never be retested for evidence

35:30

using new technology. One

35:33

thing that is very difficult when

35:35

you're researching this type of case

35:38

is that you stumble

35:40

upon a bunch

35:42

of other similar cases. They're

35:44

all heartbreaking because we're talking

35:47

about very young children

35:49

here. It seems as if

35:52

a lot of these children were

35:54

either killed by someone close to

35:57

them, they were neglected, at

35:59

the very Least they work

36:01

well looked after, And in

36:03

some cases. It's. As if no

36:05

one was even looking for them at all. Now.

36:08

That may be because the

36:10

person who. Would. Or

36:12

should come looking for them is

36:14

the one that. You. Know had a

36:16

hand in their death. As very tragic

36:18

that there's this many. Little.

36:21

Girls out there that are own Downside:

36:23

To. This day. But one.

36:26

Good thing that we knows his. Dna.

36:28

Genealogy console these cases. You know

36:30

it's not just use for. Identifying.

36:33

Serial killers. It's use

36:35

for identifying jane and genders to

36:38

so. Perhaps. If is that can

36:40

be done in a these cases we can find

36:42

out who these little girls are. And.

36:44

Maybe that will lead. Back.

36:46

A. Trial for police to follow. To.

36:48

The people who may have been involved

36:51

in the best and I hope that

36:53

happens. Yeah, I added to you and

36:55

have spent a lot of time talking

36:57

about. Some. Of the newer, Uses.

37:00

Of Dna and in some of the

37:02

new technology. Yeah. It's great!

37:05

When. It's used to help. Solve.

37:07

A crime Catch a killer. but

37:09

it's also very important. To.

37:11

Give. Name. And

37:14

an identity to some of

37:16

these. Missing. Person. These.

37:19

Jane. And John Doe's That's

37:21

extremely important. One. Thing that.

37:24

Many. People have pointed out on

37:26

line suggesting that Nicole better sing

37:28

could be alive is that if

37:31

Jarrett thought that Detective Rask was

37:33

telling the truth about knowing what

37:35

happens in a coal, his reaction

37:37

Stone didn't seem like the actions

37:39

of someone who realize the detectives

37:42

on to him about the murder

37:44

of his child. He called the

37:46

detective back and agreed to set

37:48

up a meeting with her if

37:50

she was dead endured thought that

37:53

Detective Raskin knew she was. Why

37:55

would he repeatedly said up and reschedule

37:57

the point with him? now i think

37:59

the flip side of that argument

38:02

is that of course maybe Jared was trying to

38:04

figure out what

38:07

the detective really knew and

38:09

really just stole for time while he

38:11

figured out his next move. And I

38:13

think that's entirely plausible.

38:16

But to those who try to remain

38:18

optimistic, their thought is maybe he

38:21

was trying to track her down if she

38:23

was out there some place. Whatever

38:25

the reason, Jared and Barbara eventually decided

38:27

that ending their lives was preferable over

38:30

dealing with the outcome. Perhaps

38:32

they realized that even if Nicole was alive

38:34

and safe someplace, they'd collected her

38:36

survivor's benefits and they weren't used on

38:38

her. That in itself was enough to send

38:40

them to prison. For people who are

38:42

less optimistic, they think Jared could

38:45

have known the detective's lying from the beginning

38:47

and tried to find someone who looked

38:49

enough like Nicole to pull both the police

38:51

and her grandparents and soon gave

38:53

up on their plan, realizing that it would fail. It

38:56

might seem naive to some to think

38:58

Nicole could still be alive, but if

39:00

Jared knew she was dead, and

39:03

especially if he was responsible for

39:05

her death, it's hard to

39:07

understand why he would take

39:09

the chance to wait over a week to end his

39:13

life. He was certainly in no shape

39:15

to flee. A bus accident had

39:17

injured him severely and he used

39:19

a motorized wheelchair to get

39:22

around. Barbara had severe health

39:24

issues as well. Her prescriptions

39:26

were so numerous the bottles

39:28

filled their bathroom. Maybe

39:31

the law finally catching up with

39:33

Jared coupled with their medical problems

39:35

was enough for them to decide that

39:37

they didn't want to go on living.

39:40

Barbara wrote about what she called youthful

39:42

blunders in her letter to her mother-in-law

39:45

online. Many people discussing the case

39:47

feel that the death of a child is not

39:49

really a blunder, keeping the term

39:52

synonymous with the mistake, but a

39:54

blunder is a very serious error by definition.

39:57

It's very possible that Barbara uses word for

39:59

its precise. meaning, a gross

40:01

error or mistake resulting usually

40:03

from stupidity, ignorance, or carelessness.

40:06

In chess, it's a critically bad

40:08

decision that usually ends with a loss.

40:11

Would Barber describe harming Nicole and covering

40:13

it up as a blunder? We

40:15

don't know. Yeah, I get what

40:18

the actual definition of the word

40:20

blunder is, but I think

40:22

to most of us, blunder

40:25

wouldn't be a term used to

40:28

talk about covering up or

40:30

being responsible for the death of a child.

40:33

But who knows everybody's

40:35

vocabulary is a little different.

40:38

I guess you could look at it both ways. Unless

40:40

Nicole is found, we may never know the

40:43

truth. When it comes to a child, you

40:45

never want to give up on them.

40:48

Even when searching for them seems futile,

40:51

keeping an open mind is painful.

40:53

Hoping that Timothy was still alive. Jim

40:56

Pittson continued building a tree house

40:58

for him until he couldn't bear

41:00

to live in the home any longer. Timothy

41:03

is still missing. If you have

41:05

any information about his whereabouts, you

41:07

can contact the Aurora police department

41:10

at 630-256-5000. Those

41:14

who love Timothy hold out the hope

41:16

that he will come home someday, noting

41:19

that many would have

41:21

doubted that J.C. Dugar was

41:23

alive after 18 years, but she was.

41:26

Maybe Timothy is and

41:28

maybe Nicole lives. There's only one

41:31

known photo of Nicole. It's

41:33

blurry and grainy and

41:35

not very close up. And it's

41:37

not clear if it's even good

41:39

enough quality to get an age

41:41

progression created. And I think

41:44

when you talk about keeping hope

41:46

alive, you know, some of

41:48

these cases seem very dour

41:51

as to maybe what the

41:53

outcome is. But then, you

41:56

know, you think about a J.C. Dugar,

41:58

you think about a Steven Stane. There

42:01

are a lot of different

42:03

examples of children, you know, who

42:06

went missing. And I'm sure

42:08

it crossed people's minds

42:10

that they would never come back.

42:12

And yet they did. Yeah. And you

42:15

just mentioned a couple of big ones. Another one that

42:17

just came down my mind was Elizabeth Smart. So

42:19

we know that sometimes,

42:22

although the odds are against it, a lot of times

42:25

there is hope. And these kids

42:27

do show back up alive

42:30

eventually. And hopefully that might

42:32

be the situation here with Nicole. Nicole's

42:35

maternal grandfather, Bill Clingall, passed

42:37

away on April 12, 2016, without

42:40

ever finding out what happened to his granddaughter, Nicole. He was 86

42:43

years old. In

42:46

January 2023, just more than

42:48

45 years since she had seen Nicole,

42:51

Mary Clingall passed away at the age of 90. It

42:53

would have been her 46th Christmas without Nicole,

42:56

her 45th without her daughter Susan, and

42:59

her seventh without her husband of 65 years, Bill. Bill

43:02

and Mary have surviving daughters, and

43:05

they may very well want to know what happened to

43:07

their niece, Nicole. If someone out there

43:09

is listening and has information, those details

43:11

could lead to a Christmas miracle and solve

43:14

Nicole's case, finally. While Nicole

43:16

Beterson is still missing, there is

43:18

DNA from the Clingalls on file

43:20

that can help identify her in

43:22

the event she has found or

43:25

comes forward. If you have

43:27

any information about her whereabouts or what

43:29

happened to her after Christmas 1977, you

43:33

can contact the Las Vegas Police

43:35

Department at 702-229-3111. So,

43:41

more if we wrap up this case,

43:44

it's a tough one. I mean, there's no doubt

43:46

about that. I think a

43:48

lot of people listening will

43:50

lean toward Jared and

43:52

Barbara, having had

43:55

some hand in

43:57

what happened to Nicole, but

43:59

like, we said, I mean, there are possibilities.

44:03

Could they have given Nicole to

44:05

another family when she was

44:07

very, very young and

44:09

she doesn't even remember who

44:12

she was before that family. And

44:14

she's out there living somewhere as

44:17

a family of her own. Now we

44:19

just don't know. I think what

44:22

makes that hard to

44:24

comprehend is the fact

44:27

that Jared and Barbara ended

44:29

their life for them to make

44:32

the decision to do

44:34

that. And, you know,

44:36

couple that with the letters that were

44:38

sent to Jared's mother. It

44:41

makes it seem like they

44:44

knew they were about ready to

44:47

be discovered for some

44:50

really bad things that they had done. And

44:53

to me, it's

44:55

hard not to think that something

44:57

bad happening to Nicole was part

44:59

of that. And if

45:01

they did have some involvement in something

45:03

happening to her, even in

45:06

death, they couldn't admit to it,

45:08

which is kind of odd because

45:10

they're not going to be around to face

45:12

justice or backlash or anything

45:14

along those lines, but maybe admitting

45:18

to hurting a child is

45:20

just something so terrible

45:22

in their situation that they couldn't even

45:24

bring themselves to admit it in a

45:26

final letter. And they chose

45:29

to take their lives without

45:31

ever sharing that information. Yeah.

45:33

I mean, on the one hand, you could

45:35

say, well, why not disclose

45:39

what you've done? You're not

45:41

going to be around to face the

45:43

consequences, but I think you

45:45

make a good point more, maybe

45:48

what they did was so

45:50

heinous that they just

45:52

couldn't bring themselves to own

45:54

up to it, even in death. Well,

45:57

even if the worst is true and something.

45:59

did happen to Nicole, hopefully

46:02

one day, if her remains are found

46:04

or maybe they've already been found and

46:06

are just waiting to be identified,

46:08

you know, we talked

46:10

about it. Maybe DNA genealogy can

46:13

play a role in identifying her

46:15

and some of the other kids we've

46:17

mentioned in this episode. Maybe

46:20

those remains will one day be identified

46:22

as well. Yeah, we always hope

46:24

for that. And I think that

46:27

hope is justified. I mean, we

46:29

have seen some amazing things

46:31

happen with some of this new

46:33

technology. But that's it for our

46:35

episode on Nicole Batterson. And

46:37

we mentioned it upfront, but Morph and I

46:40

are taking a little time off to spend

46:42

with our families over the holidays. And,

46:45

you know, we want to say happy

46:47

holidays, happy new year from our families

46:49

to yours. Yeah, we're definitely hoping

46:51

everyone out there has a safe and with

46:53

holiday season with their family and friends. If

46:56

you love the show but haven't done so yet,

46:58

take a minute, go out and give us a

47:00

five star rating, leave a review, tell

47:03

your friends over the holidays about

47:05

the Criminology Podcast. If

47:07

you want to find us on social

47:09

media, run X with the handle at

47:11

Criminology Pod. You can also find us

47:13

on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash

47:16

Criminology Podcast. And you can

47:18

join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology

47:20

Podcast, discussion and fans. So

47:23

that is it for our last episode of 2023.

47:27

But we'll see you back here

47:29

with a brand new episode of

47:31

Criminology, which drops January 6, 2024.

47:33

So for Mike and Morph, we'll

47:36

talk to

47:39

you then. Happy holidays, everyone. Thanks

47:53

for watching.