0:00

On a winter night and a small community near

0:02

Denver, Colorado, Jim Matthews arrived

0:04

home late. He expected to find his twelve

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year old daughter, and then dropped off after a Christmas

0:09

concert. But when he called out, hey Janelle,

0:11

the house was really quiet. His

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daughter's shoes were on the floor, but she

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was gone. And it would be thirty five

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years before she would be found. Dead.

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After the discovery of Janelle Mathew's body

0:22

in two thousand nineteen, the police turned their

0:24

attention to a man who had told law enforcement

0:27

years ago that he knew something. But

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they dismissed him. The man

0:31

did seem obsessed with the case. But is

0:33

that all he was? A true crime fanatic

0:36

or a killer? Hi. I'm Matt Sharon.

0:38

I'm the host of season one of Wondery Campside

0:41

Media's shocking true crime podcast

0:43

suspect. We're back for a new season

0:45

with a story that attempts to separate fact

0:48

from fiction, compulsion from

0:50

guilt and one man's true crime obsession

0:52

from a motive for murder. I'm about

0:54

to play a clip from suspect. Vanished in

0:57

the snow. While you're listening, follow

0:59

suspect wherever you get your podcasts.

1:01

Hey, Prime members. You can binge all six episodes

1:04

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1:06

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1:12

Weld County is a desert. Feels

1:15

relatively warm outside for Colorado

1:17

in December. And

1:19

this the sky eye is just this

1:21

caribbean blue. It's

1:24

winter, but it's hot out, dry,

1:26

and dusty. The snow happed

1:28

Rocky Mountains are all behind

1:30

us. Ahead, it's

1:33

flat. The horizon goes

1:35

on our episodes. I feel like we're

1:37

on the Wikipedia of tumbleweeds. Don't

1:39

you feel rich and Tombrish and Tombrish Tombrish. Yeah.

1:42

Oh, shit. People tear ass

1:44

down this road. A few of the trucks

1:47

passing us are souped up, brand

1:49

new, tires, jacked high, Oil

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and gas workers apparently un

1:53

bothered by speed limits if

1:55

there is a speed limit out here.

1:58

We're relieved to turn into a dirt drive

2:01

way of a lone rambling house.

2:03

Hi, guys. Hello

2:06

again? I'm

2:11

Jody. You can drive. Vance and

2:13

Jody Gilliland lives so far from

2:15

most of their neighbors that it's easier to

2:17

drive. To see them. Across

2:20

from their house is a field that stretches

2:22

about a thousand acres. It's

2:24

full of brush and weeds. The

2:27

kind of place where people often well

2:29

abandon things. Old

2:31

mattresses, washers, and dryers,

2:33

even boats, It's like,

2:35

wow. Almost tended

2:37

to hook that up and take it home and see what I can do.

2:39

But No.

2:42

I mean, people still still do dump

2:44

things out here, but

2:45

it's usually quick and run, quick and run. I mean,

2:48

what they can show off the back with trucking two seconds.

2:51

In the summer of twenty nineteen, Vance

2:54

and Jody were in their kitchen when they

2:56

saw blue and red lights flashing

2:58

across the perimeter of their property.

3:00

All of a sudden, there was cop cars

3:03

going by and I was like, uh-oh, until

3:05

it was dark

3:05

actually. They were out there.

3:07

And they

3:09

were out there forever. Vance

3:11

and Jody soon learned those oil and

3:13

gas workers and their fancy pickups,

3:16

they'd unearth a small

3:18

human skull with a

3:20

single bullet hole in

3:21

it. And authorities knew

3:24

exactly who the remains belong

3:26

to. It is the cold case that has

3:28

baffled the Greeley community for nearly

3:30

thirty five years, but tonight Police

3:32

may be closer to figuring out what happened

3:34

to Janelle Matthews. The twelve year

3:36

old disappeared from her home in late nineteen

3:39

eighty four. Her remains were discovered

3:41

this week by a construction crew in

3:43

rural Weld County. Gone

3:45

for thirty five years today, human

3:47

remains found at an oil and gas I didn't

3:49

really give investigators new leads on

3:52

a decades old cold case.

3:55

Like a lot of Colorado residents

3:57

who had been following Janelle's case since

3:59

the nineteen eighties. Vance

4:01

and Jody watched the news reports with

4:04

fascination. They waited

4:06

to hear what would happen next, hoping

4:09

that the remains in the field would finally

4:11

lead investigators to the killer.

4:14

As it turned out, it wouldn't

4:16

be nearly so simple. This

4:20

is a story about obsession, my

4:23

own. Sure. So

4:25

I am working on podcast

4:28

about the Janelle Matthews

4:29

case. I

4:30

know you know about that case. Right?

4:32

I assume you're probably well versed.

4:34

I thought I'd probably one last time,

4:37

but also the obsession of a community

4:40

that kept pushing to find Janelle

4:42

to get her name into the national spotlight

4:45

and all the way to the White

4:47

House. For example, I learned

4:49

about Jonelle Matthews of Greeley,

4:51

Colorado. Who would have celebrated

4:53

a happy thirteenth birthday with her

4:55

family just last month.

4:58

And it's about the obsessions of

5:00

a self scribe true crime

5:02

junkie. A man who had started

5:04

talking about the Janelle Matthews

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case just a few days

5:08

after police responded to a

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distress call from her home.

5:12

And over the next thirty five years,

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he kept talking

5:17

and talking It

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was just me trying

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to be a big

5:22

man in the case. He's a busy

5:24

body. He gets himself in the middle of

5:26

murder cases. But that doesn't

5:28

necessarily mean he actually

5:30

was involved in them. People are like, oh, he's

5:32

just crazy he's just he's he's

5:34

just a ding bad or or

5:36

whatever else and he's he's

5:38

harmless. He wouldn't hurt anybody. He's

5:40

such a good liar that he can convince

5:42

the juror that he wasn't involved.

5:44

So You know?

5:46

He's a liar. He is. He was a good one.

5:48

I turned around and I said, you're gonna

5:50

be arrested for obstructing. If

5:52

you don't get back in your car, And

5:55

he says, don't fuck with

5:56

me, officer Rederton. I bury

5:59

more people than you'll know. When

6:01

you shot, you know Matthews in the floor end

6:03

was she dating for her life? Never

6:05

happened.

6:10

Hey, Prime members, you can binge all six

6:12

episodes of suspect, vanished in the snow,

6:15

ad free on Amazon Music. Download

6:17

the Amazon Music app today.