Episode Transcript
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for details. Before
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we get started, I'd like to
1:05
direct you all to Ed
1:07
Denzel's interview with Kimberly Norwood's mother
1:09
Janice on his podcast, Unfound. You
1:13
won't find a more comprehensive talk
1:15
with Janice anywhere else on the
1:17
internet or your preferred podcast player.
1:20
In fact, I used Unfound as a
1:23
source for this episode. So
1:25
I recommend you give Unfound episode
1:27
110 a listen. It's
1:30
titled Kimberly Norwood, A Country
1:32
Mile. We'll provide a link
1:35
to the YouTube in the show notes. While
1:37
you're at it, subscribe and listen
1:40
to Unfound's entire catalog. There
1:42
are hundreds of episodes. The
1:45
Gone Cold podcast may contain violent
1:47
or graphic subject matter. Listener discretion
1:49
is advised. After
1:53
12-year-old Kimberly Norwood vanished on Saturday,
1:55
May 20, 1989 from Hallsville, Texas.
2:00
Tensions were high between the missing
2:02
girls family and the Harrison County
2:04
Sheriff's Office. Particularly the sure
2:07
of himself Bill Oldham. Authorities
2:10
had only conducted to officials searches
2:12
in the span of a month,
2:14
leaving the Nor Woods solely responsible
2:17
for looking for Kimberly and pleading
2:19
for the public's help through the
2:21
press or majority of that time.
2:24
It. Didn't go without notice. Marshall,
2:27
the county seat of Harrison
2:29
County, is just over a
2:31
dozen miles northeast of House
2:33
For and both the areas
2:36
newspaper The Marshall News Messenger
2:38
and the residence became vocal
2:40
proponents of the Norwood family.
2:42
In. Fact, In mid July, Nineteen
2:45
Eighty Nine, around twenty Harrison
2:47
County residents or radicals as
2:49
share of Oldham called them
2:51
gathered outside the courthouse to
2:53
protest the Good Sheriff's refusal
2:56
to allow outside help to
2:58
come to town. He'd
3:00
said no to plenty. No.
3:02
Outside search and recovery
3:05
organizations No Texas Rangers.
3:07
Know. F B I. The. County
3:10
was his share of Bill Old I'm
3:12
told the Nor Woods at a meeting
3:14
they recorded. Letters.
3:16
To the editor of The Marshall
3:19
News Messenger Reflected area residents frustration
3:21
with law enforcement and offered scathing
3:23
indictment of share of hold on
3:25
my. They. Considered Kimberly
3:28
Norwood a runaway and
3:30
they were conducting their
3:32
investigation accordingly. To
3:34
the Nor Woods, it seemed that
3:36
theory that she was a runaway
3:38
kept the department from realizing the
3:41
gravity of the situation. After
3:43
all runaways to are
3:45
all in potential grave
3:47
danger. Say. what
3:50
they may about share oldham
3:52
and chief deputy tom finley
3:54
there was a deputy going
3:56
above and beyond who was
3:58
pouring his heart and soul
4:00
into the case, and who
4:02
was readily willing to work
4:04
with outsiders like International Association
4:06
for Stolen Children's Greg Mingel.
4:09
Harrison County Sheriff's Deputy Clay
4:11
Madrano was invested in the case
4:14
and even performed some of
4:16
his investigation while off the
4:18
clock. His
4:20
reports were meticulously detailed unlike
4:22
the initial report filed by
4:24
Chief Deputy Finley, who didn't
4:27
even bother to document Kimberly's
4:29
description or witness details such
4:31
as addresses, phone numbers, and
4:33
even names. While
4:36
visiting Kimberly's school, Halsville Intermediate,
4:38
Deputy Madrano came upon letters
4:41
in Kimberly's locker that suggested
4:43
she was struggling with her
4:45
home life. But
4:47
the notes were written months before
4:49
she disappeared and according to Kimberly's
4:52
school counselor the problems the letters
4:54
detailed had been worked out between
4:56
the 12-year-old and her mother, Janice.
5:00
The letters fueled the Sheriff's Office
5:02
opinion that Kimberly Norwood was a
5:04
runaway. In an
5:06
act that can be easily interpreted
5:09
as passive aggression on the part
5:11
of the Harrison County Sheriff's Office,
5:13
newspaper the Shreveport Times got their
5:16
hands on copies of Kimberly's locker
5:18
letters and printed portions
5:20
of the evidence verbatim. I've
5:32
been having some family problems. An October
5:34
1988 letter obtained
5:36
by a deputy from Kimberly
5:39
Norwood's locker read, When
5:41
the letters were printed for the
5:44
first time in a mid-July Shreveport
5:46
Times newspaper article it was also
5:48
the first time Janice and Bobby
5:51
Norwood, her parents, had heard anything
5:53
about letters. My mom
5:55
hates me and I hate her. Promise
5:58
not to tell. over
6:00
1988 letter continued. Others
6:03
were quoted as saying, this
6:06
week has been the worst ever. I
6:08
feel like crud. My mom told
6:10
me she was going to send me to
6:12
a stupid penitentiary. She treats me like crud
6:15
and another, I feel like
6:18
killing myself or either running away. P
6:21
S don't tell anyone. These
6:23
letters were signed K Kim
6:26
or Kimberly, deputy
6:28
claim. Adrano's report indicates that one
6:31
of Kimberly's classmates said that another
6:33
classmate who didn't like Kimberly wrote
6:35
the notes and put them in
6:38
her locker to
6:40
more children also reported this
6:42
adding that the letters were
6:44
purposefully written in Kimberly's handwriting.
6:47
However, others confirmed that the handwriting
6:49
was Kimberly's rather
6:53
than considering them relatively normal writings
6:55
of a 12 year old going
6:57
through the physical and emotional changes
6:59
that come with her age. The
7:01
sheriff's department appeared to have taken
7:03
the letters as hard evidence that
7:06
Kimberly ran away a theory
7:08
they'd been working since the get go.
7:11
The last three friends who'd seen her had
7:13
mentioned that Kimberly didn't want to go home
7:15
that day because she didn't want to get
7:17
in trouble for not cleaning her room. And
7:20
that was the seed for the theory.
7:23
But as far as her daughter
7:25
running away from home was concerned,
7:27
Janice Norwood begged to differ. Her
7:31
daughter's home life was normal as
7:33
many attested to and Kimberly was
7:35
looking forward to some upcoming horse
7:37
shows and a road trip to
7:40
Missouri. The Norwoods had planned the
7:43
days and weeks continued with no
7:45
sign of the missing girl. The
7:50
disappearance of Kimberly Norwood caught
7:52
the attention of a major
7:54
television host, Oprah Winfrey, on
7:57
Monday, August 14th, 1989. Kimberly's
8:00
story and the plight of her
8:03
parents gained national attention when they
8:05
were interviewed on Winfrey's daytime talk
8:07
show. The
8:09
episode was special about missing children
8:12
and on it Janice made a
8:14
plea. We miss her.
8:16
We need her. We love her. Please
8:19
take care of her. Please let us know.
8:22
Let her come home. They
8:24
hoped someone out there watching would
8:26
see Kimberly's photograph and call in,
8:28
reporting they'd seen her. Twenty-six
8:31
new leads were obtained by the
8:33
Harrison County Sheriff's Office as a
8:35
direct result of the show, though
8:38
the department kept the details to
8:40
themselves. By
8:42
September 1989, the cops were
8:44
continuing to adhere to the
8:46
runaway theory. There
8:49
had been plenty of unconfirmed sightings
8:51
of Kimberly Norwood reported to authorities
8:54
by this time, but on the
8:56
second week of September, someone who
8:58
knew the twelve-year-old came forward. The
9:02
missing girl's ex-sister-in-law, Amy, had
9:04
told Harrison County Chief Deputy
9:06
Clay Medrano that should he
9:08
find Kimberly to keep her
9:11
from going back home. She
9:14
later walked back that statement when
9:16
Anne McAdams of the Marshall News
9:18
Messenger interviewed her, saying what she
9:21
meant was the girl and her
9:23
parents needed to undergo counseling first.
9:27
Then on Sunday, September 10,
9:30
1989, Amy came forward and told
9:32
police that at one-thirty that afternoon
9:34
she'd seen Kimberly at a convenience
9:36
store called JR's Food Mart in
9:39
White Oak, Texas, a
9:41
small town in Gregg County and
9:43
not twenty miles west of the
9:45
missing girl's home in Hallsville. There
9:48
had been an unspecified number of
9:51
other supposed sightings in Gregg County
9:53
by folks who didn't know her,
9:56
according to Gregg Mingel, an investigator
9:58
for the International Association. for
10:00
stolen children. Amy
10:03
said her ex-sister-in-law had cut her hair
10:05
and gained a little weight. She
10:08
was sitting in the passenger seat of
10:10
a gray primer-colored sports car, perhaps a
10:13
Trans Am or Camaro, and when Amy
10:15
called out to this girl, who was
10:17
about fifteen feet away from her, she
10:19
said, a twenty-six to
10:21
thirty-year-old white male jumped in the
10:24
driver's seat, started the engine and
10:26
sped off in a hurry heading
10:28
west down Highway 80. Amy
10:32
told police she attempted to tail
10:34
the primer gray sports car, but
10:36
couldn't keep up as it continued
10:38
to accelerate. The
10:40
man, Amy told police, was about
10:42
six feet tall with long, dirty
10:44
hair and had a tattoo on
10:46
his big arms. When
10:49
Harrison County Sheriff's Deputy Vicki
10:51
Stanfield questioned the clerks working at
10:54
JR's Food Mart, they told
10:56
the lawwoman they'd not seen the
10:58
gray primer-ed sports car nor
11:00
anyone fitting the description of
11:02
the two people within. Also,
11:06
in September of 1989,
11:08
a self-proclaimed psychic from the
11:11
Dallas-Fort Worth area offered her
11:13
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11:15
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Gonkold rarely details the often
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predatory dealings the families of
12:34
missing persons and unsolved murders
12:36
have with psychics. In
12:38
the case of Kimberly Norwood, it
12:41
is something virtually impossible to omit,
12:43
for reasons that, hopefully, will become
12:45
clear. As
12:47
Kimberly's classmates and friends headed into
12:49
their first days of junior high, the
12:53
Norwood family enlisted the help of
12:55
so-called psychic Sharon Capehart from the
12:57
Dallas-Fort Worth area, when
13:00
their desperation dictated they try
13:02
something different. Anything different.
13:06
Capehart, who described Kimberly's
13:08
disappearance as her toughest case
13:11
ever, determined, or whatever you
13:13
call it, that Kimberly had
13:15
been approached by two males
13:18
driving a dark-colored, perhaps blue,
13:20
late-model car with out-of-state license
13:23
plates. At that time, Capehart
13:25
said, she was abducted. One
13:28
of these people the twelve-year-old knew,
13:31
Capehart asserted, through their association or
13:33
friendship with her brother. There
13:36
were two locations in the area where
13:38
she found Kimberly and the strangers had
13:41
been, Capehart said. One
13:43
of those locations was on Lake of the
13:46
Pines, at a camp off Farm to Market
13:48
Road 450. In
13:51
fact, Capehart said, she believed Kimberly
13:53
to be in that area at
13:55
the present time. She
13:58
did not believe the girl was there. was
14:00
a runaway like police did, she
14:02
went on, and instead believes Kimberly
14:05
cannot return of her own free
14:07
will. What
14:09
Capehart called a lot of people
14:12
were involved in the disappearance, the
14:14
abduction, which involved drugs,
14:17
and Satanism. It
14:20
just so happens a
14:22
cult-awareness seminar was touring
14:24
Texas psychiatric hospitals, churches,
14:27
and hotel conference halls
14:29
at the time. At
14:32
the height of the Satanic Panic
14:34
Era, anyway, you would have had
14:36
outstanding odds placing a bet that
14:38
the psychic working a missing person's
14:40
case was going to get around
14:42
to mentioning devil worship at some
14:44
point. But
14:46
it's hardly the only laughable
14:49
claim Capehart made. The
14:52
blue vehicle with out-of-town plates she
14:54
supposedly saw in a vision, well,
14:57
that was information published in the
14:59
newspapers in the days following the
15:01
disappearance. A
15:03
deputy, presumably Chief Deputy Tom
15:05
Finley, told the Marshall News
15:07
Messenger within days that he
15:09
saw a blue vehicle with
15:11
Colorado plates leaving the area
15:13
around the time Kimberly was
15:15
last seen. Interestingly,
15:18
self-proclaimed psychic Sharon Capehart
15:20
commented about how much
15:22
cooperation she was getting
15:24
from Harrison County authorities.
15:28
This was hardly the last time a
15:30
psychic entered the case. On
15:34
Friday, October 6, 1989,
15:37
the short-lived television show Missing
15:39
Reward, hosted by Stacey Keach,
15:41
aired a segment about Kimberly's
15:43
case, which they'd come to
15:45
Caney Creek and filmed in
15:47
August. And a
15:50
couple days later, there was more activity.
15:53
The country music singer perhaps best
15:55
known for his song The Gambler
15:57
was related to Janice Norwood. The
16:01
month after Sharon Capehart was retained
16:03
to help the Norwoods, Janice and
16:05
her son Ricky drove to Nashville,
16:07
Tennessee, hoping to meet with her
16:10
distant cousin Kenny Rogers to see
16:12
if he could help somehow. They
16:15
arrived in Music City on October the
16:17
8th, but because he was preparing
16:20
to emcee the country music awards,
16:22
Janice and Ricky were unable to
16:24
meet with Kenny himself. It
16:27
was unfortunate timing, the CMAs were
16:30
the next day. But
16:32
they did speak with the singer's
16:34
brother, Leland. He
16:37
told them he would personally come
16:39
to Marshall, twelve miles from Halsville,
16:41
after the awards were over. Leland
16:44
didn't know how he could help, but
16:47
he was willing to try, and would
16:49
go on to discuss his findings with
16:51
his brother after he learned all he
16:53
could about Kimberly's case. After
16:56
becoming up to date, Leland
16:58
Rogers talked to Kenny, who
17:00
sent out Carol Kennedy. Carol
17:04
Kennedy was a radio talk show
17:06
host and lecturer, her most notable
17:08
lecturer the psychic detective, all about
17:10
how law enforcement works with psychics
17:12
all the time behind the scenes
17:14
and out of the earshot of
17:17
the public. When
17:19
Kennedy arrived in Halsville, she
17:21
met Leland and Harrison County
17:23
Sheriff's Office Deputy Vicki Stanfield
17:25
at the Caney Creek addition.
17:29
Together they walked the roads and explored
17:31
the pines. It's
17:33
unclear what was discussed or if
17:35
anything came of the psychic's visit,
17:38
but it isn't difficult to guess. In
17:42
the last publicized lead of 1989, investigators
17:46
were looking over a tip that
17:48
came all the way from Lee
17:50
County, Florida. In
17:52
December, an anonymous call came in
17:55
to the National Center for Missing
17:57
and Exploited Children. After a
17:59
two-minute TV B segment broadcasted on
18:01
Monday, December 11. The
18:04
caller said they'd seen a kid
18:06
matching Kimberly Norwood's description at a
18:08
grade school there. Upon
18:11
hearing the news, Harrison County
18:13
Sheriff's Office Deputy Claire Howell
18:16
wasted no time sending information
18:18
about the missing person's case
18:20
and photographs of Kimberly to
18:22
authorities there. Nothing
18:25
came of it. By
18:27
December, the Norwoods had a toll-free tip
18:29
line up and running. Listed
18:32
in directories as the Kimberly Norwood
18:34
tip line, several leads came through,
18:36
but not a one panned
18:38
out. On
18:42
May 2, 1990, the Marshall
18:44
News Messenger reported that the
18:46
Sheriff's Department was releasing the
18:48
files in the Kimberly Norwood
18:50
investigation. When
18:52
Frank Garrett said the files, which
18:54
would be released in two weeks,
18:56
did not indicate Kimberly was abducted.
19:00
Janice Norwood said that the files
19:02
had been withheld from the family
19:04
and accused the Sheriff's Office of
19:06
portraying them as child molesters. If
19:10
you lived in Halsville, or Marshall,
19:12
or perhaps anywhere in Harrison County
19:14
and had your ear to the
19:16
ground, that last line from the
19:18
newspaper article would have come as
19:20
no surprise. Rumors
19:22
about the case were rampant. On
19:25
the other hand, if you'd been hanging
19:27
out under a rock or were not
19:30
from the area, the article was shocking.
19:33
Janice told the News Messenger that she
19:35
heard that letters and drawings were turned
19:37
over to the Sheriff's Office by a
19:39
girlfriend of Kimberly, who said the missing
19:42
girl had penned and drew them, and
19:44
that they depicted sexual abuse. Sheriff's
19:48
Lt. Garrett commented that psychiatrists
19:51
analyzed drawings from Kim's room
19:53
submitted by different friends. Sheriff
19:57
Bill Oldham said in a press conference
19:59
that those professionals had determined
20:01
there was a possibility the missing
20:03
twelve-year-old was abused, and
20:05
that the letters and drawings were proven
20:07
to have been created at the hands
20:09
of Kimberly Norwood. The
20:12
truth will come out, but they
20:14
are planting doubt in people's minds
20:16
and accusing us of sexual abuse,
20:18
Janice said of both Sheriff's
20:21
deputies and the rumors going
20:23
around. An
20:25
investigator Tim Mullis, who the
20:27
Norwoods hired out of Houston,
20:29
wouldn't comment on any allegations
20:31
of sexual abuse, but
20:34
he did have one thing to say about the
20:36
subject. If I find
20:38
out anything indicating this is true, I
20:40
will do everything to see that the
20:43
responsible party goes to jail. Meanwhile,
20:45
Mullis had been following a lead
20:47
that led to trouble. A
20:50
seventeen-year-old boy, apparently, had been going
20:53
around telling folks that Kimberly was
20:55
pregnant, had run off with a
20:57
boyfriend, and was living with him
20:59
in long view. When
21:02
Mullins was able to locate and
21:04
question the teenager at his place
21:06
of employment, Janice said, deputies showed
21:08
up and threatened to arrest him
21:11
on harassment charges. The
21:13
boy's parents didn't want anyone interviewing
21:15
him. President
21:18
Garrett denied that claim, however, and
21:20
said they simply showed up and
21:22
told the persistent PI to move
21:24
along. Mullis
21:26
claimed a couple weeks later that
21:28
Kim would resurface within a short
21:30
period of time, a
21:32
pretty bold statement that obviously did
21:35
not happen, and while
21:37
the PIs and the Harrison County
21:39
Sheriff's Office continually butted heads, it's
21:41
important to note that Tim Mullis
21:43
and his brother Buck Mullis, with
21:46
whom he shared a private investigation
21:48
firm, said the Sheriff's Office
21:50
got one thing right, Kimberly
21:52
was not happy at home. He
21:55
spoke with all her peers, Mullis said,
21:58
and every one of them reported. plus
22:02
some evidence the P.I.'s collected suggested
22:04
that Kimberly was upset the day
22:06
she disappeared and was afraid to
22:08
do something she had planned. Nothing,
22:12
of course, can be discounted, but
22:15
it's also important to remember that the 12-year-old had
22:17
taken none of her possessions and none of her
22:19
money. Kimberly
22:23
had asked if one of her friends could spend
22:25
the night. While
22:27
her mother said no, the three friends
22:29
she was walking with that day said
22:32
they were planning to walk with Kimberly
22:34
all the way home and hang out
22:36
for a bit, all of
22:38
which seems at odds with her having plans
22:40
to go through with something like running away
22:42
on the way there. The
22:45
friends, it's reported, only turned around because
22:47
they got hot and decided they didn't
22:49
want to walk another mile. At
22:53
this point, tipsters from across
22:55
the Lone Star State and
22:57
in California, Utah, Florida, and
22:59
South Carolina, to name a
23:02
few, had reported seeing Kimberly
23:04
Norwood, but it appears
23:06
none actually had. As
23:10
the one-year anniversary of Kimberly
23:12
Norwood's disappearance came and went,
23:14
tensions between the Norwood family
23:16
and the Harrison County Sheriff's
23:18
Office were at a fever
23:20
pitch. While
23:33
according to some, Harrison County
23:35
Sheriff Bill Oldham referred to
23:37
the Norwoods as suspects who
23:39
were guilty of possibly destroying
23:41
evidence and not reporting leads
23:43
which could lead to the
23:45
discovery or whereabouts of Kimberly
23:48
Norwood, they saw
23:50
him as unreasonable, stubborn,
23:52
and unempathetic. Again,
23:56
the Sheriff's Office considered Kimberly
23:58
a runaway, possibly. Kimberly because
24:00
she suffered abuse at home,
24:02
and the Norwoods considered her
24:04
disappearance an abduction. Greg
24:08
Mingell of the International Association for
24:10
Stolen Children seemed to be somewhere
24:12
in the middle. He
24:15
believed Kimberly was offered a ride
24:17
from someone she knew and accepted.
24:20
Whomever this person was then ran off with her. It
24:24
wasn't clear what Mingell meant when
24:26
he said he believed Kimberly is
24:29
concerned and possibly thinks she won't
24:31
be welcome back home because of
24:33
things that have happened to her
24:35
since her abduction. Greg
24:38
Mingell, too, wrote a few letters
24:41
to the Marshall News messenger in
24:43
an attempt to steer the focus
24:45
back on Kimberly and away from
24:47
the drama and perhaps egos that
24:49
fueled a lack of cooperation. The
24:53
Norwoods had many justifiable reasons
24:55
not to trust law enforcement,
24:58
and although nothing has ever been
25:00
publicly released or proven, it's certainly
25:02
possible the sheriff's office had valid
25:05
reasons not to trust them. While
25:09
it's unclear exactly where Sheriff Bill
25:11
Oldham's heart was in the grand
25:13
scheme of the investigation, it is
25:16
abundantly clear that his ego and
25:18
pride got in the way in
25:21
Kimberly's case. In
25:24
1990, Halsville had a population of just
25:26
over 2,000. While
25:28
not totally discounting the number of
25:31
residents in nearby Marshall and Longview,
25:34
around 23,000 and 70,000 residents
25:37
respectively, the sheriff was likely
25:39
exaggerating when he claimed the
25:41
department had interviewed more than
25:43
1,000 witnesses. That's
25:46
a lot. Even
25:49
after publicizing that he would
25:51
release Kimberly's file, Oldham walked
25:54
it back, explaining that investigation
25:56
of possible criminal conduct is
25:58
being pursued. Not
26:01
publicly releasing Kimberly's file was,
26:03
without a doubt, the right
26:06
call, but the back
26:08
and forth and certainly the
26:10
public insinuations seemed like a
26:12
series of orchestrated moves that
26:15
most lawmen would consider unprofessional
26:17
and beneath them. It
26:20
is important to note that no charges
26:22
were ever brought against a member of
26:24
the Norwood family for any kind of
26:27
abuse, and to be
26:29
fair to the Harrison County Sheriff's
26:31
Office of the time, Deputy Clay
26:33
Madrano was working the case diligently,
26:36
going above and beyond what was his
26:38
duty. All
26:41
of Canie Creek, particularly the
26:43
Norwood properties, were extensively searched
26:46
again when the National Center
26:48
for Missing and Exploited Children
26:50
and the International and Texas
26:52
Associations for Stolen Children came
26:54
aboard in the late summer
26:56
of 1989. A
27:00
cadaver dog picked up absolutely no
27:02
sign of human decomposition, as was
27:05
the case with another such canine
27:07
the previous month. Neither
27:10
beast nor man, in fact,
27:12
had found even a clue
27:14
at or around the area
27:16
where Kimberly Norwood disappeared. Sometime
27:20
before, officials with the International
27:22
Association for Stolen Children and
27:24
a man named Greg Monroe,
27:26
who helped to build Canie
27:28
Creek's roads and who knew
27:30
the Norwoods, all expressed concern
27:32
that as the Norwood case
27:34
receives wider publicity, the vultures
27:37
will begin to circle. The
27:39
Norwoods have already received calls from
27:42
experts in finding lost people who,
27:44
for a fee, will be glad
27:46
to look, Monroe told the Marshall
27:48
News Messenger. What they'll
27:50
do is drink beer on the money the
27:53
Norwoods are able to raise. The
27:56
baffling disappearance had drawn in a
27:58
lot of outside attention. as
28:00
the first anniversary approached and the
28:02
sheriff's office could no longer refuse
28:04
the help. Texas
28:07
Ranger Ronnie Griffith had long
28:09
been aware of the case,
28:11
as Harrison County Sheriff's Deputy
28:13
Clay Medrano often sought the
28:15
counsel of other law enforcement
28:17
professionals, including him. Ranger
28:20
Griffith later told Janice Norwood, she
28:23
told Unfound Podcast host Ed Densel,
28:25
that a woman who lives in
28:27
the Caney Creek subdivision saw two
28:30
people leaving the area on a
28:32
motorcycle, and the girl riding on
28:34
the back, she swore, was Kimberly.
28:38
A man who had worked for
28:40
the family and was living in
28:42
a small trailer on the Norwood
28:44
property at the time, 26-year-old Jay
28:46
Bailey, rode a motorcycle, and of
28:48
course, knew Kimberly. On
28:51
the day Kimberly vanished, and just after
28:53
she spoke with her on the phone,
28:55
her mother Janice and sister Pam headed
28:57
into Marshall to do some quick shopping
28:59
and pick up dinner. Earlier,
29:02
Jay had called Janice and asked for
29:05
20 bucks, she often kept
29:07
his money at his request so he
29:09
wouldn't carelessly spend it. Jay
29:12
needed the money, he told Janice, because his
29:14
dad was in town, and they were going
29:16
to a fish fry. Before
29:19
heading out to Marshall, Janice gave her husband
29:22
and Kimberly's father, Bobby, the $20 to give
29:24
to Jay. Later,
29:27
however, the Norwoods discovered Jay
29:29
Bailey's father was not in
29:32
town, and instead he needed
29:34
the money for a party he was
29:36
going to, presumably for booze. Maybe
29:39
it was a strange thing to lie about,
29:42
and maybe not. It definitely
29:44
doesn't have to be taken as nefarious,
29:46
as it's possible he simply didn't want
29:48
them to know he was going out
29:50
to get drunk or high or whatever.
29:54
We could find no details about
29:56
this party or the possibility that
29:58
Kimberly was seen there. But
30:00
it appears Texas Ranger Ronnie Griffith
30:02
was quite interested in this lead,
30:05
as he rightfully should have been.
30:08
Anyway, as Janice and Pam were
30:10
just about to the Marshall City
30:12
limits, they passed Jay Bailey on
30:14
his motorcycle heading back toward Halsville,
30:16
which would have placed him at
30:18
Caney Creek between 5.20 and 5.30
30:21
pm. The
30:25
woman who saw the motorcycle leaving
30:27
the Caney Creek subdivision was hypnotized,
30:29
and while under hypnosis, Ranger Griffith
30:32
apparently told Janice Norwood she came
30:34
up with three or four of
30:36
the characters in the license plate
30:38
number. It's unknown
30:41
if this lead went anywhere, but
30:43
Janice at the time didn't think
30:45
Jay had anything to do with
30:47
Kimberly's disappearance. Jay
30:50
Bailey, to be fair, never inserted
30:52
himself into the case, and he
30:54
continued to work for the Norwoods
30:56
for quite some time after. In
30:59
fact, he was one of their most
31:01
trusted employees, and all
31:03
that Jay's criminal record shows is that
31:05
he doesn't like wearing his seat belt.
31:10
While Jay didn't insert himself
31:12
into the case, others certainly
31:14
did. It
31:16
wasn't only the self-proclaimed psychics
31:18
we spoke of in this
31:20
episode, but also another kind
31:23
of rock star psychic, particularly
31:25
in Texas. While
31:27
he did plenty of further damage
31:29
to Kimberly Norwood's case, a
31:32
case that was already in sort
31:34
of a shambles, it was nothing
31:36
compared to the further damage caused
31:38
by a so-called missing persons advocate.
31:41
That's next time on Gone Cold. Kimberly
31:46
Norwood would be 47 years old
31:48
today. She's a white
31:50
female with brown eyes and brown hair that
31:52
can appear to have a red tent in
31:54
light. She stood approximately
31:57
five feet, five inches tall and
31:59
weighed about 100 pounds. She
32:02
has a 2-inch scar on her abdomen
32:04
from kidney surgery. When
32:06
she was last seen, Kimberly was
32:08
wearing a white t-shirt with either
32:10
a teddy bear or red and
32:13
black cows on the front, dark
32:15
blue jeans, and black keds tennis
32:17
shoes. She was also
32:19
wearing a black bow in her hair,
32:21
a swatch watch, and a gold ring
32:23
with an aquamarine stone. If
32:27
you have any information about the
32:29
disappearance of Kimberly Rochelle Norwood, please
32:31
call the Harrison County Sheriff's Office
32:34
at 903-935-4888. Michelle
32:41
Lee Richardson, whose case we talked
32:43
about at the top of the
32:45
episode, is a white female and
32:47
was 16 years old when she
32:49
went missing from Palestine, Texas. She
32:52
stood 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed
32:54
about 150 pounds, had
32:57
reddish blonde hair and blue eyes.
33:00
Michelle occasionally wore glasses and has
33:02
a U-shaped scar on her left
33:05
arm. Michelle was
33:07
last seen wearing a pink
33:09
and white pullover sweatshirt, pink
33:11
jogging pants, and black sneakers.
33:14
If you have any information about
33:16
the disappearance of Michelle Lee Richardson,
33:19
please contact the Anderson County Sheriff's
33:21
Department at 903-729-6068. If
33:29
you like Gone Cold's mission
33:31
to renew the public's interest
33:33
in cold cases, you can
33:35
support the show at patreon.com/Gone
33:37
Cold Podcast. There for as
33:39
low as $2.50, you'll
33:42
get the show ad free. Leaving
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33:46
at iTunes also helps immensely as it
33:49
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33:51
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33:54
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33:56
appreciate it more than words can express.
34:00
find Gone Cold online at
34:02
gonecold.com or on nearly all
34:04
the social media platforms by
34:06
searching at gone cold podcast.
34:10
You can also find a link in
34:12
bio in the episodes description. Thanks
34:15
for listening y'all.
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