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From day one, I knew somebody's

0:22

done something to her. Her cat

0:25

that she had at her house, that was her

0:27

family. She would have never left her

0:29

cat like this. She doesn't have the money to

0:31

stay under the radar like that. It

0:33

makes me very sad because it's

0:35

hard to

0:37

mourn my friend without a body,

0:40

without laying her chest rest, just

0:42

like everything's just up in the air. She

0:45

was too good of a person for her to

0:47

just be deemed missing

0:49

and everybody shut the case and that's it. These

0:52

people need to be looked at more. I've

0:54

tried to play out a million scenarios in

0:56

my head trying to figure things out. But

0:59

if Theresa put her foot down about something,

1:01

she wasn't gonna budge. Something

1:04

bad happened to her, that's all I know.

1:07

In recent years, 66-year-old

1:10

Theresa Hartley, a Florida native who

1:12

lived in St. Augustine, was learning

1:14

to live life on her own after her husband

1:16

passed away several years earlier. In

1:19

March of 2023, Theresa

1:22

vanished, supposedly in the company

1:24

of a friend, looking for firewood in

1:26

the Ocala National Forest on March

1:28

11th. But when she was reported

1:30

missing to police on March 15th

1:33

by another friend, the details didn't

1:35

seem to add up. Even police

1:37

couldn't pinpoint the exact date, time,

1:39

and location that Theresa vanished. But

1:42

their own investigation places her disappearance

1:45

on or around March 11th. In

1:47

a real-life horror story filled with shady

1:49

characters with a history of defrauding people,

1:52

to others with a long criminal record of violent

1:54

offenses, Theresa was a vulnerable

1:57

woman who was the perfect target for

1:59

predators.

2:00

And she vanished not into thin air,

2:02

but among people who can't answer questions,

2:05

have laid claims to her assets, and

2:07

never once searched for her. Is

2:09

it because they know where she is? This

2:12

is a story you won't want to miss. I'm

2:15

Marissa

2:15

and from Wondery, this is episode 415

2:17

of The Vanished,

2:19

Teresa Hartley's story.

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Teresa had been married to her husband John for many

3:32

years. They were deeply madly

3:34

in love from the day they met until the

3:36

day in 2014 when John passed away

3:39

suddenly. By March of 2023, Teresa

3:41

was still grieving his death. She

3:45

had isolated herself after he died.

3:47

And then the COVID-19 pandemic isolated

3:50

people.

3:51

She was living on a fixed income and struggling

3:53

to keep up with her financial obligations.

3:56

She was also struggling with her own medical conditions

3:59

and possibly suffered

3:59

from memory loss or dementia, though

4:02

it was never formally diagnosed. She

4:04

was defenseless, susceptible, and open

4:07

prey for people who did not have her best interest

4:09

in mind.

4:10

At the time of her disappearance, which is where

4:13

we're going to start today's story, she

4:15

was living

4:15

with a man named Steven, who

4:17

her friend Robert had introduced her to, and

4:20

suggested he move in with Teresa as a

4:22

roommate to help her out with the bills.

4:24

Robert plays a key role in Teresa's

4:26

story, and you'll hear more about him later.

4:29

When we dive into the events that led to Teresa's

4:31

disappearance, but first,

4:33

we want to tell you about the day she vanished.

4:36

We spoke to Teresa's niece Kara, who

4:38

was the person who reached out to us and asked

4:40

us to cover her aunt's story.

4:43

This is what she told us she knew about that day

4:45

sometime in

4:46

the first half of March of 2023.

4:49

St.

4:49

John's County is where Teresa lives, and

4:52

it's where she was seen leaving her house,

4:55

reportedly by the person

4:57

who was staying with her. So the guy that

4:59

she went missing with, I guess, is like a known like

5:01

mess head from the cops told me this.

5:04

So he goes to pick up Teresa.

5:07

He drives them to a Cola

5:10

National Forest about an hour,

5:12

like a half, maybe a little over an hour from

5:14

Teresa's house. They go to the Lake Delancey

5:17

area to collect firewood for his

5:19

words, a bonfire or cookout.

5:22

Don't know why they have to drive out there to get

5:24

firewood, but then he

5:27

turns off onto an ATV trail. So

5:29

like I was saying, it's not a driving road. It's not a road

5:32

you would turn off onto with a truck, with a giant dully

5:34

truck. And gets stuck in the sand from

5:37

what he told police from the police report.

5:40

He said that this happened in the

5:42

evening. It was dark out. It was like between

5:45

late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

5:47

They tried for a few hours to get the

5:49

truck unstuck. It ran out of gas

5:52

eventually. Then they started

5:54

walking. He said they walked for two or three hours

5:56

in the woods. He said,

5:58

eventually Teresa said that she

6:01

felt like they're going in circles and wanted to go back

6:03

to the truck, but that Sydney didn't

6:05

want to go back to the truck because he was afraid of

6:07

the animals in the woods. Okay, so he

6:09

gave her a knife and told her to go back

6:11

to the truck. And he kept looking and said

6:13

he would go get help. He didn't say whether

6:15

he gave her like a flashlight or like

6:17

keys to the truck or anything.

6:19

He gave her a knife. So

6:21

then don't know really what

6:23

happens between early Sunday

6:25

morning until later that

6:27

day around noon

6:29

or one. This part is verified. A couple

6:32

picks

6:32

up Sydney walking pretty far from

6:34

where

6:34

the truck was stuck quite a distance. He's

6:37

walking barefoot along the road carrying his boots over

6:39

his shoulder. The couples that they picked

6:41

him up and asked him where he wanted to go. He said

6:43

he wanted them to take him just down the road a little

6:45

and like drop him off. But where he wanted them to

6:47

drop him off was just woods. So they were

6:49

like, no, we'll take you to the dam. His bathroom's

6:52

there. You can get like water. So they

6:54

said he was really out of it. Talking nonsense.

6:57

He used their phone. She had to make phone calls

6:59

on speakers so she could hear what he was saying. I mean,

7:02

he said he couldn't find the truck, but he told

7:04

the couple where it was. He said that

7:06

they saw ATV riders passing

7:09

them when they drove into the ATV trail. That

7:11

was what he told cops. He said, Oh, I thought she got a ride

7:13

with them maybe assumed she made her own way

7:15

out. He said he didn't want to go back to

7:18

the truck because he was afraid of animals. But then he like gave

7:20

her his knife, decided to walk by himself in the

7:22

forest. Sydney called Sydney's sister

7:25

or Sydney's wife to come pick him up from this

7:27

couple's phone. And so

7:29

the couple dropped him off at the

7:31

dam out there, the Rodman Dam. From

7:34

there, Sydney got picked up by his sister.

7:36

Sydney told the couple his truck was

7:38

stuck, but he didn't mention anything about Teresa.

7:41

He told them where his truck was stuck, but

7:43

he didn't tell them to go drive over there or anything.

7:46

In the police records we obtained Sydney,

7:49

the man that Teresa supposedly left with

7:51

to go find firewood called his

7:53

sister Pamela and told her that he had

7:55

gotten his truck stuck and he needed

7:57

her to come and get him. When Pamela came back, she was in

7:59

the car

7:59

came to get Sydney. Kara told

8:02

us something she learned from the police

8:03

that stuck out as very strange.

8:06

So Sydney's sister

8:08

picked him up at the dam. Supposedly

8:10

they drove around looking for the truck and

8:12

couldn't find it. Sydney's sister

8:15

said that Sydney was really

8:17

out of it when she picked him up, that

8:19

he was talking to his dead

8:21

father and about a woman named

8:23

Teresa. But the sister didn't realize

8:25

it was the same Teresa that Sydney had told

8:28

her the day before that he was going to collect firewood

8:30

with. She said she didn't put two and two together.

8:33

He did not, as far as I know, tell her that

8:35

he left Teresa out there. And then on Monday,

8:38

the US Forest Service found

8:41

the truck, took pictures of it and

8:43

contacted Sydney and assisted to tell them to come pick

8:46

it up. They came and got the truck. And

8:48

then I'm not sure when this was

8:51

either Monday or Tuesday. Sydney's daughter

8:53

told police that he

8:56

took Sydney to the hospital

8:58

because he was having anxiety, that

9:00

he had a dream that he stabbed someone to death.

9:02

So yeah, that's the basic story. He also

9:04

said he was hallucinating because he forgot

9:06

to take his seizure meds.

9:07

So

9:08

that was a comment he made to the police as well.

9:12

Police in multiple jurisdictions were familiar

9:14

with Sydney. In fact, Kara

9:16

told us that he had been out of jail for only days

9:19

prior to the trip into the National Forest

9:21

with Teresa.

9:23

I mean, it seemed super suspicious to

9:25

me, but also maybe just a giant

9:28

bunch of coincidences. Maybe he just looks

9:30

guilty and he's actually not. Who knows? Why

9:33

didn't he tell anyone she was missing and why didn't

9:35

he come back for her like he said he was?

9:37

If you look at the map, there's a paved road

9:39

very close to where they were, multiple roads.

9:42

His criminal record is insane. Like he had just

9:44

got out of jail two days before he

9:46

picks up my aunt. He was in jail for eight

9:48

days for a domestic assault charge, which

9:51

I believe I don't know 100%, but

9:53

like putting two and two together, I

9:55

mean, the woman he's living with, they were

9:57

in like a camper together.

10:00

he assaulted her and it said

10:02

that they had a long history of assault. I'm assuming

10:04

it's his wife. The name's blacked out in the police report.

10:07

We will come back to the aftermath of Teresa's

10:10

disappearance and dive into Sydney's history

10:12

later in this episode. But first

10:14

we need to explore why Teresa was even

10:17

in a forest looking for firewood with

10:19

a man she had only recently met. We

10:21

also have to ask if there's any evidence that

10:23

Teresa was even in the forest with Sydney

10:26

that day. According to police records,

10:29

Teresa was reported missing

10:30

by her friend Robert on March 15,

10:34

After the missing persons report was filed,

10:37

the police tried to work backwards to

10:39

find the last traces of Teresa.

10:42

One of Teresa's debit cards was used for

10:44

the last time on March 7.

10:46

The next day, her neighbor told police

10:48

that he saw her in her backyard with

10:50

several other people and identified

10:53

one of them as her roommate, Steven.

10:55

On March 9, Teresa's cell phone

10:57

sent or received its last text message

10:59

or phone call.

11:00

According to Robert, the phone's cell

11:03

service had been cut off due to non-payment

11:05

and police found it in Teresa's bedroom

11:07

and took it for processing when they conducted

11:09

the initial search of her house. They

11:12

also took a pair of slippers for use

11:14

with a live scent search and rescue canine.

11:17

Police obtained surveillance footage from

11:19

March 11 and the transaction records

11:21

showing that Teresa and Steven purchased cat

11:23

food around 10am at a local convenience

11:25

store. This is a very

11:27

important piece in the puzzle of Teresa's

11:29

disappearance. Police not only

11:32

spoke to the employees at the convenience store

11:34

but they also observed on surveillance footage

11:37

that Teresa appeared to be in good health, not

11:39

under duress or in danger and

11:41

simply running a quick errand with

11:43

her roommate. This is the last time that

11:45

there is proof that Teresa was alive. After

11:48

this transaction, Teresa would never

11:50

be seen again by impartial witnesses.

11:53

Going back to the primary questions we had,

11:56

after hearing and reading all of these different names

11:58

of people that were in Teresa's life, when she

12:00

disappeared? Who were they? How

12:02

did Teresa meet them? And what was their purpose

12:05

in Teresa's life? In order to

12:07

answer these questions, we have to go back

12:09

to the beginning, where major events throughout

12:11

her life may have led to the introduction of

12:13

these shady characters.

12:15

Every missing person's

12:16

story that we share is completely different

12:18

from any other that we've shared in the past

12:20

and Teresa

12:21

is no exception. However,

12:24

Teresa's story is especially unique

12:26

in that she was adopted and she has no

12:28

known living biological relatives. We

12:31

have no information about her early life

12:33

or anything that happened prior to her marriage.

12:36

Her legal next of kin is her niece Kara,

12:38

who you heard describe what she knows of Teresa's

12:41

disappearance.

12:42

Kara is the daughter of Teresa's brother-in-law

12:45

Jim and his wife Lynn.

12:46

Kara's dad Jim is still living,

12:49

but he suffers from

12:50

serious medical complications,

12:53

so he was unable to speak with

12:54

us. Teresa and Jim's wife

12:56

Lynn enjoyed a close relationship, especially

12:59

during the years that they lived close to each other.

13:01

We

13:01

spoke with Lynn at length and asked

13:04

her to tell us about the early years that she knew

13:06

Teresa when they were young adults in

13:08

their 20s.

13:10

I think Teresa is a little bit older than me. I

13:12

was born in 58. I think she was born in 56. I

13:15

grew up in Indiana. My grandparents

13:19

had had a house. They lived on the St. John's

13:21

River in Orenstale since the 40s. My grandfather

13:24

died and I ended up

13:28

staying with my grandmother and helping

13:30

take care of her and my great-grandmother.

13:33

And a teeny tiny town of Orenstale, which is

13:35

south of Jacksonville. I didn't

13:38

know anybody and I met her

13:40

through my boyfriend because he knew everybody.

13:42

I'm

13:42

sure that the reason that they got together

13:45

had to do with just being young

13:47

in their 20s and partying

13:49

together.

13:51

Lynn liked Teresa from the moment she met her,

13:54

but was taken aback by the difference in the way

13:56

that Teresa and her husband lived. She

13:58

told us that it was a culture shock when she got

14:00

to Florida. So

14:02

I know Teresa was brought up in Jacksonville

14:04

and I have to say I think I grew

14:06

up a very sheltered life because I grew up in Bloomington,

14:09

Indiana. We were like a middle class

14:11

family. Most of the people that we grew

14:13

up with were, you know, at least average.

14:16

And I remember just being so shocked when I

14:18

met John and Teresa because they were very

14:21

articulate, smart and like

14:23

we would play chess together and

14:26

have really good interesting discussions

14:28

about things but they were also just really,

14:31

really, really poor. And I remember

14:34

they all had bare feet. They just

14:37

lived really on the edge and I

14:39

was just a young, curious person

14:41

and I remember just being so fascinated. And

14:43

Teresa, she was very soft-booked

14:46

and she had the greatest sense of humor

14:48

and she was just real bubbly

14:50

and had like a fun,

14:53

teasing sense of humor and she

14:55

was really super sweet. She

14:57

really liked me because I was kind of exotic

14:59

to her I think and I would always make food

15:02

for her and give

15:03

her haircuts and then went on

15:05

to marry her brother-in-law.

15:07

So I spent a fair amount of time with

15:09

her over the next few years.

15:11

She was friendly with everybody, southern

15:14

manners. So she always was like, yes

15:16

ma'am, yes sir, to my grandmother and

15:18

everybody. She was always really kind.

15:21

Not too long after I met her, her father-in-law

15:24

John, he found caretaker

15:26

position for both of his sons, Jim

15:29

and John. Jim's the one that I married, John

15:32

is Teresa's husband. At

15:34

that time, there were a lot of beautiful

15:36

estates along the river that people

15:39

had moved down. I guess there was

15:41

kind of a boom in the 40s and they'd moved down

15:43

and bought fairly cheap chunks of property

15:46

on the river. So they all had really

15:48

nice houses. They went to the Sigmund's

15:51

house and they had a little

15:52

caretaker cottage right on the river

15:54

and

15:54

they helped Miss Sigmund who was very elderly

15:57

then take care of her. She had

15:59

guinea hands and peacocks and chickens

16:01

and a big piece of property for them

16:03

to mow and oranges to

16:05

pick and it was cool. It was

16:08

really beautiful and we all had socks

16:10

and we all had boats so we were out on the river

16:12

a lot fishing. Jim

16:14

and John were fishermen

16:17

and shrimpers and the shrimp would run

16:19

in the river once or twice a year and

16:21

they would go out and get shrimp and sell them

16:23

and they had crab chop.

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We also spoke with a lifelong friend of

18:46

Teresa's. Her name is Phyllis,

18:49

and we asked her to tell us about the Teresa she

18:51

knew and loved.

18:53

I've known Teresa since elementary school.

18:56

Well, when I first met her, she was really

18:58

shy and quiet. I mean, she

19:00

talked in a whisper all the time. I finally

19:02

got her out of her shell on that one, and then,

19:05

you know, we lost touch with her a

19:07

while back ago, and before

19:09

high school ended, to be honest with

19:11

you, I didn't get back in touch with her until after

19:13

her husband died. I think it was

19:16

on Facebook that she noted on Facebook that he

19:18

died. Either that or Debbie Renfoe told me

19:20

about it. That was her, one of her

19:22

good friends. Basically, I went down

19:24

there with Debbie to go see her. She was

19:26

in a trailer out in the woods,

19:28

and we went down there and started talking,

19:30

and she would visit Debbie every now and then, and Debbie

19:33

and I started hanging out, and we started making what

19:35

we call old ladies' day out. We would

19:37

go out to the

19:38

antique stores and then go

19:40

out to dinner or lunch, and all

19:42

three of us, you know, we just had old ladies' days.

19:45

Because Teresa would come down here sometimes to go to the doctor.

19:47

She had certain doctors that she had down here, and

19:49

she would come down every so often and go see one

19:51

of these doctors. She had COPD,

19:54

I know that, because her and I both have it. Every

19:56

so often, I'd go down there and we'd go shopping, and

19:58

then we'd go back to her

19:59

I wanted to, I'd spend the night if I wasn't

20:02

doing anything, I'd spend the night, we'd sit there and

20:04

watch TV.

20:05

We also spoke to another friend of Teresa's

20:08

who had known her for decades, Katie,

20:10

and asked her to give us some insight on

20:13

who Teresa is as we desperately

20:15

wanted to know the person whose story we were telling

20:17

with so little information

20:19

about her life history.

20:21

I met her when I was 19. We

20:24

worked together, a little job that I got at an

20:26

insurance agency. She had worked there as well.

20:29

She had a skill set for it, she even went

20:30

to school for it for a little while. It

20:32

would be a customer service rep for

20:35

insurance. And we

20:36

just became really good friends. I mean, we ended up

20:38

going to Vegas together. We've always

20:40

stayed in touch throughout all these years.

20:42

Just the kindest, sweetest person

20:45

you'd ever want to meet. Very gentle

20:47

soul.

20:48

She was like an old hippie, but she

20:50

would do anything for anybody that she could. She

20:53

was very sweet.

20:54

Very outgoing with her friends, but also

20:57

a homebody.

20:58

If you can be outgoing and introverted

21:00

at the same time, that was her.

21:02

I had met many friends throughout

21:04

the years that she had been friends with for

21:06

her whole life. I mean, I went

21:09

over to her house several times. I even

21:11

helped her when her husband John passed

21:13

away, planned the funeral and everything for

21:15

her because it was such a distraught time

21:18

for her. She was just kind of out of it when

21:20

her husband died. Very loyal

21:22

friends,

21:23

many friends that she had just for

21:26

years and years. I mean, I became friends

21:28

with some of them through this too.

21:31

Kara grew up close to her aunt and

21:33

she has many fond memories of the time they

21:35

spent together.

21:37

She's really funny. She's sweet.

21:39

She's like a very kind person. She's

21:41

always not had a lot of money. But when I first

21:43

moved to St. Augustine, she's like, stay with me anytime.

21:46

We'll make it work. I mean,

21:48

she's also kind of a badass

21:50

country. Lived out in St. John's

21:52

County but kind of out in the swampy

21:55

woods area. I remember being a little

21:57

kid and us going to visit her and my

21:59

uncle.

21:59

and they just took us around the property and

22:02

were like chopping up the cotton mouse, like

22:04

they got in our way, just like machete in them. And

22:07

she was just like bear on her property too. Like

22:09

pretty, pretty country. She's an animal lover.

22:12

My aunt loves cats. Her cats are like her

22:14

whole life. She's always like rescuing cats

22:16

and she's had a lot of cats all

22:18

the time.

22:19

She's for real the cat lady.

22:21

Kara explained that Teresa had worked when she

22:24

was younger, but the details are things

22:26

Kara isn't old enough to recall or

22:28

Teresa didn't share. She

22:30

worked for an insurance company and I think

22:32

she did something with computers, some kind

22:35

of computer work, but I'm not sure what that

22:37

entailed. I wasn't very privy

22:39

to that information. I don't really know how

22:41

they got by. We didn't really talk about

22:44

money or anything like that. I mean,

22:46

she would comment being like, Oh, like I'm, I'm

22:48

getting low on funds this month, but she like never

22:50

asked me for a loan or anything like that.

22:53

All these people now are like, Oh yeah, I was lending

22:55

Teresa money. She's always asking me for

22:57

money. So I don't know. Maybe

22:59

it's like a pride thing. Like you don't want to ask

23:01

your younger family for, for help like

23:03

that. I don't know. And maybe she just didn't want to bother

23:05

me because I had the baby and everything.

23:08

These memories are from what we could define

23:10

as the before period

23:11

of Teresa's life. When her

23:13

husband was still alive, Kara

23:15

told us about how special Teresa's relationship

23:18

with her husband was.

23:20

Oh, she's been married since she was a teenager to

23:22

my uncle, John. She was deeply in love

23:24

with my uncle. Like you should see the love letters. She would

23:27

write her. I don't know that people actually love like

23:29

that, except in the movies. So they

23:31

were in love, love to lose that. Who

23:33

knows what that does to you? You know, and that sounds

23:35

super cliche, but they're like perfectly matched for

23:37

each other. And she was devastated

23:40

when he passed away and missed him really badly.

23:43

It was always like posting about, Oh,

23:45

you know, it's like his birthday. I miss you. It's

23:47

like a holiday. I miss you

23:49

saying that she thought it would get easier, but it

23:51

just didn't get easier. It was really

23:53

hard on her to lose. John

23:56

Teresa's sister-in-law, Lynn, who was

23:58

married

23:58

to John's brother.

23:59

that as long as Teresa knew John,

24:02

they completely

24:04

shattered Teresa's world.

24:32

Steve

24:34

talked to me about when he died, just

24:37

what a shock it was. And

24:39

so where she was living then was

24:41

still on the river that John

24:44

had gotten this property. Teresa was left

24:46

out in the country in a really rough,

24:49

it was like a trailer and it was very

24:52

ramsackal. She had

24:53

our, we went, been there a couple of times. She

24:56

just had like a hundred little kittens running

24:58

all around. I remember the first

25:00

time I went there, John was out there, came

25:03

back with a couple of cotton mouths, just

25:05

walk out barefoot, walk down to the river

25:07

and just a very country, very

25:11

simple and very rustic.

25:14

After John's death, Teresa fell

25:16

into a deep depression. They had

25:18

no children and with very few

25:20

living relatives. Teresa probably

25:22

felt very alone and wasn't sure

25:24

what to do with her life going forward.

25:26

Lynn explained that at this point in time, it

25:29

seems that Teresa's grief compounded with her

25:31

naturally sweet and trusting personality

25:34

which made her very vulnerable to the wrong people

25:36

at a time when she needed people

25:38

in her life the most.

25:40

I think she was very upset when John

25:42

died and this letter really

25:45

done a bad pass.

25:46

She did stop hanging out with us.

25:49

I had a job where I traveled and I would come

25:51

down to Florida to see Cara and we would

25:54

always get together with Teresa and go get barbecue

25:56

or something and

25:57

she just started getting really

25:59

busy every day.

25:59

time I'd come or every time we'd call and

26:02

Kara had her baby and had the shower. She

26:04

just got really busy and I really think, I

26:07

think that was her being protective

26:09

of us and not wanting to drag us down

26:11

into whatever was going on with her.

26:12

She was really fun to be around.

26:15

She was super sweet and she really

26:17

liked me and I always really liked

26:19

her kind of against all odds.

26:22

She wasn't really someone I would have normally picked

26:24

to be friends with but somehow we met

26:26

and then we were friends and I don't know maybe

26:28

that's just the way she is. Maybe a lot of people felt like

26:30

that about her but she was to

26:32

be like more of a complicated person than

26:35

it even seems. Everybody has secrets

26:37

right and nobody does anything for

26:39

no reason. So I think she was super

26:41

sad about John and she started

26:44

hanging around with a really wrong crowd

26:46

and what happened? I don't know.

26:48

It seems to me like Bob and

26:50

Sid had something to do with

26:53

it for sure. Kara

26:54

and I are both super disgusted by

26:56

all her friends, most of them, almost

26:59

all of them. They're like scavengers,

27:01

vultures. They just come in for the

27:03

kill. We're sad about that because we

27:06

did love Teresa and it just seems like it's

27:08

such a sad end.

27:10

Kara mentioned something that clicked with what

27:12

Lynn

27:13

shared about Teresa not coming around as

27:15

much, feeling to show up for family

27:17

events or keep in contact with the

27:19

relatives she had always been close to.

27:21

While her family chalked it up to isolation

27:24

due to grief and later the pandemic,

27:26

there came a point where it felt like maybe Teresa

27:28

didn't want her family to know something. What

27:31

was it she was hiding? They didn't

27:33

know the answer to that but Kara shared

27:35

with us the change that she saw in her aunt.

27:39

So

27:39

I haven't really talked to her

27:41

over the last couple years very much.

27:43

I was pregnant and then she's afraid

27:46

of COVID. Like she didn't want to come out. She didn't come

27:48

to my baby shower because of COVID and then

27:50

she brought me like a dreamtoucher

27:53

she made for my daughter and

27:54

some little baby clothes.

27:56

And then I just hadn't talked to her

27:58

very much over the last year.

27:59

message her and call her and she just wouldn't answer.

28:02

She would message and be like, oh, I'm busy, honey. She

28:04

didn't come to my daughter's first birthday last year. She said

28:07

she was at the doctor. So we hadn't seen

28:09

each other very much at all. Me

28:11

and my little brother went and visited her right before I got

28:13

pregnant. And she seemed fine, like

28:16

normal, but we weren't like super close. We

28:18

live in the same town, but we would just see each other like a few

28:21

times. I mean, COVID did really make

28:23

things different. She was very afraid

28:25

of it,

28:26

very afraid of going out and she

28:28

liked parties. She liked being around families.

28:30

She always wanted to do stuff to just suddenly like kind

28:32

of drop off like that and not want to come. I don't

28:35

understand that. It doesn't make sense. She told me she was afraid

28:37

of COVID, but then Phyllis messaged me

28:39

two days ago and said that she like went there right

28:41

after having COVID. So to Teresa's house,

28:44

I don't know. Maybe it was just something she said if

28:46

she was trying to protect me from whatever was going on in her life.

28:48

I can't even imagine. She really

28:50

didn't tell me anything that was going on. I don't

28:52

know if she didn't want to like burden me with what was going

28:55

on.

28:56

Teresa's friend Phyllis was able to tell

28:58

us more

28:58

about Teresa's life after John had

29:00

died and how some people like Robert

29:03

and Sidney came into Teresa's life.

29:06

After her husband died, she wanted to meet

29:08

new guys and I would hook her up

29:10

with some of the guys that I know. That said

29:12

guy, I don't know who said is. I've never

29:15

met him. According to Robert, he met, he

29:17

was over there and he asked him to come over and help

29:19

mow Teresa's yard with his riding

29:22

lawnmower. Him and Teresa just kind

29:24

of hit it off. He was

29:26

seeing Teresa off on the side, I

29:29

guess, from what I understand from Robert.

29:31

I never knew she was seeing him, said. I know

29:34

the last time I talked to her was on the 9th.

29:36

She called me because I went down there on the 3rd, I

29:38

think, with Lyft because sometimes I

29:40

left and I had a ride to St. Augustine.

29:43

So it was like, well, while I'm down there, I'll go

29:45

visit Teresa. But she wasn't home when I got

29:47

there. So I went in the house

29:50

and she went there and I left

29:52

her a note saying I had been there so that she knew

29:55

somebody was in her house. And then she

29:57

called me on the 9th and yeah,

29:59

yeah, I'm sorry.

29:59

missed you and

30:01

you're more than welcome to come down anytime you want

30:03

to." And I said, well, as soon as I get everything together,

30:05

I'll be down to see you. And she said, okay.

30:08

And Steve was in the background. That was a roommate,

30:10

which I didn't know she had a roommate. He

30:12

was in the background wanting to know who she

30:14

was talking to.

30:16

And she told him it was me.

30:18

It should have triggered my head to say, you

30:20

know, something's wrong. You need to go down there. But

30:23

I didn't think about it right then and there.

30:25

I figured, well, you know, she's got money problems

30:27

and she wants to try having a roommate and that's fine

30:29

with me. I'll go down eventually and

30:31

I'll meet him. And I texted her on

30:33

the 15th and I was, you know, if she wasn't busy,

30:36

I'll come down and see her and I never got a reply.

30:39

Next day I found out she was missing.

30:41

You heard that Teresa and her husband had lived

30:44

on a rural property in St. John's County,

30:46

Florida for many years.

30:48

In early 2020, Teresa

30:50

sold that property and purchased a home in

30:52

St. Augustine.

30:53

It was a little two bedroom house on a more

30:56

manageable lot for the now single Teresa,

30:59

if you've never been to St. Augustine, it's

31:01

a city on the Atlantic coast of Florida,

31:04

just about 40 miles south of Jacksonville.

31:07

It's known for its Spanish colonial architecture,

31:09

rich history, and beautiful beaches, which

31:12

draws millions of tourists each year.

31:15

It's certainly not a place that anyone expected

31:17

Teresa to disappear from, but

31:19

that's exactly what happened in March

31:21

of 2023.

31:23

According to the police records we received

31:25

the deputies with the St. John's County Sheriff's

31:28

office determined that Teresa was a missing endangered

31:30

person on March 16th, 2023.

31:34

One day after her friend Robert made the report

31:37

and after they had spoken to a number of

31:38

individuals,

31:40

Teresa was formally entered into multiple

31:42

databases as a missing person on this

31:44

date. We shared with you earlier that

31:46

it was on this same day that investigators

31:49

obtained the surveillance footage. They interviewed

31:51

Sydney multiple times, as well as his

31:53

sister, Pamela, Robert, and

31:55

Teresa's neighbor, Jerry.

31:57

The day before, when Robert initially

31:59

reported.

31:59

Teresa missing. A deputy

32:02

went out to Teresa's house and did a cursed

32:04

research for any signs of foul play

32:06

or a disturbance and collected evidence including

32:09

Teresa's cell phone and a pair of slippers

32:11

for a later search using a live scent canine.

32:14

During a subsequent search police looked

32:17

for evidence of disturbed areas on the property

32:19

or for any presence of cleaning products and

32:21

didn't find anything that indicated foul play

32:24

had occurred there. Well at Teresa's

32:26

home they took into evidence a toothbrush

32:28

razor and hairbrush belonging to Teresa

32:31

for DNA analysis and upload Dakotas

32:33

because as we mentioned earlier Teresa

32:36

had no known living biological relatives

32:39

from whom family reference samples could be obtained.

32:42

When we talked with Kara she told us

32:44

that she felt like the police hadn't done enough to look

32:46

for her aunt who needed medication

32:48

and could be in danger. We asked her

32:50

to tell us how the investigation had started

32:52

and how it was going the first time we spoke

32:55

with her in

32:55

early June of this year approximately

32:58

three months after Teresa had disappeared.

33:00

So

33:01

St. John's took some initial missing

33:03

persons report their investigation

33:05

is still open and active. They

33:07

do not have evidence

33:09

that foul play is involved so they

33:12

it's not suspected of this term by

33:14

St. John's. Marion County

33:15

is supposedly where she was

33:17

last seen where she was last reported

33:20

seen by the person she was with. I

33:22

just found out last week that Marion there was some kind

33:24

of

33:24

mix-up with the records department and Marion

33:26

County never received the police

33:28

report from St. John's County and then Marion

33:31

County is where the

33:33

truck broke down and where the guy Sidney

33:35

was with her said that he left her. They're

33:37

both open investigations.

33:39

They seem to have differing ideas

33:41

of what happened. St. John seems to believe

33:44

the guy's story and it doesn't seem

33:46

like Marion County does.

33:48

There was a controlled burn last week. I

33:50

was trying to get another search

33:52

to go like look at an area of interest out there

33:54

and

33:55

I called Marion County

33:57

to say found out there was a

33:58

controlled burn.

33:59

534 acres in the Ocala National Forest.

34:02

And they said, yeah, sure, let's have a search.

34:04

But then I was like, hey, can you postpone the burn

34:07

till the search happens? And the

34:09

detective in charge of the case in Marion

34:11

County said he can't move burn lines

34:13

based on suspicion. Those are your suspicions,

34:16

though. So the fire happened, damaged

34:18

the roads out there, and I've just been waiting for the Forest

34:20

Service to call me back and tell me when the roads

34:22

will be passable so that we can get the search out there.

34:25

It's been really pretty disheartening, this whole thing. Angie's

34:30

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34:32

lot of theories about why. I thought

34:34

it was an eco move. You're worth less paper.

34:38

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36:07

The controlled burn took place despite

36:10

the objections of Teresa's relatives.

36:12

What if she was out there and she was lost in the

36:14

burn? What if there was evidence of her

36:16

having been there or signs of a crime scene?

36:19

According to police records, one deputy

36:22

said he smelled the scent of decomposition where

36:24

Sidney's car had been stuck. Why

36:26

couldn't the burn be postponed?

36:28

I never got answers to that question.

36:31

Police records document that multiple searches

36:33

took place at the end of March and multiple

36:36

agencies participated. They

36:38

didn't find any evidence of Teresa or

36:40

anything to prove that she had been in the forest at

36:43

all. Police also searched Sidney's

36:45

truck with his consent and found nothing

36:47

of note but did observe that it was

36:49

dirty and had not been cleaned in a long

36:52

period of time.

36:53

After this, the report ends and we don't have

36:55

any further information about what police have

36:58

done to search for Teresa.

36:59

We contacted the sheriff's office for an interview

37:02

but unfortunately they declined.

37:04

We also requested body camera footage that

37:06

recorded many of the conversations we described.

37:10

That request was approved and then rescinded.

37:12

During our correspondence with Marion County,

37:15

they initially offered body cam

37:17

footage and calls for service. After

37:19

they rescinded that offer, they asked us

37:21

if we would like them to preserve the audio in

37:23

Teresa's case and we could request it in

37:26

the future if the status of the case changed.

37:29

This conversation occurred in July of 2023 and we

37:31

said yes, absolutely. But

37:35

we were also confused as to why that question

37:37

was posed to us

37:38

and why the audio was not already preserved

37:40

in a missing persons case.

37:42

On October 13th, 2023,

37:45

we received word from Marion County that

37:47

the audio had been deleted. They began

37:49

looking for it on August 29th in

37:52

response to our record request in mid-July.

37:54

By late August, the retention period had passed

37:57

and the audio was already deleted.

37:59

The letter states that the audio was not recoverable.

38:03

We aren't sure why no attempts were made

38:05

to preserve that potential evidence in

38:07

a month's old missing persons case until

38:09

we requested records.

38:11

But it was a major disappointment for Kara

38:14

to learn this information after we shared

38:16

the letter we received

38:17

with her.

38:18

During Kara's own search for her aunt, she

38:20

learned that independent witnesses believed that Teresa

38:23

was having memory problems and maybe that

38:25

had contributed to a number of events in

38:27

her life.

38:29

So when I had spoken with her, which hadn't been since

38:31

last October, she seemed normal.

38:33

But yeah, it seems like something was going on

38:35

with her mentally.

38:37

So when she first went missing, her

38:39

friends who were close to her, I mean, they have so many

38:41

different things to say. But they were saying, yeah,

38:43

she's been having memory problems. I

38:45

went and spoke with her bank and

38:48

with a pawn shop that she used to frequent.

38:50

And they both said that, yeah, she was not the same

38:52

person. She'd been really going downhill the past

38:54

few months before she went missing. She would come

38:57

in multiple times a day trying to cash

38:59

the same check or get something she'd already picked

39:01

up from pawn.

39:02

So that was stuff I found out after

39:04

that.

39:05

There was a darker aspect to reports Kara

39:08

got

39:08

from people who said that Teresa seemed to be struggling

39:11

with her memory. Until she disappeared,

39:13

Kara had not heard any of the names of these

39:15

friends that seemed to dominate all aspects

39:18

of Teresa's life. She shared with us

39:20

her feelings about them and how she often

39:22

finds herself thinking about who these people were.

39:26

It seems like she was really

39:28

struggling the last year or so. And

39:31

I don't know that she had any

39:34

of the people that she called her friends who were

39:36

actually looking out for her best interests

39:37

or if they were just taking

39:39

advantage of her.

39:40

There's just all these people who call themselves

39:42

her friends who are just kind of like, just

39:45

shitty. I've had two of her

39:47

friends tell me that they have a will

39:49

from Teresa leaving everything to them.

39:52

I don't know if she trusted everybody. I

39:54

don't know that she had the best boundaries or

39:56

like judgment of character.

39:58

So I never.

39:59

heard mention a single one of these people

40:02

until now and now I kind of get it. I see

40:04

why. This is like all I think about every

40:06

single day and like I'll wake up in the night and be thinking about

40:08

it. No,

40:09

either you people you surround yourself with

40:11

will bring you up or drag you down.

40:14

As we mentioned earlier, Teresa's friend

40:16

Robert plays a leading role in her story,

40:18

though that's not an implication that he played

40:20

a role in her disappearance. However,

40:23

we wanted to learn all we could about the

40:25

people in Teresa's life. Teresa's

40:27

longtime friend Katie told us about how

40:30

she learned Teresa was missing and

40:32

her impression of Robert after meeting him

40:34

at Teresa's home.

40:36

My husband actually I was

40:39

out shopping with my sister

40:41

and he called me and he said I've

40:43

just been on the news that Teresa's

40:45

missing

40:46

and I was just in total shock

40:48

and I came straight home and we got

40:51

in the car and drove straight over to her house. Teresa

40:54

wouldn't go missing like that.

40:55

Something's wrong, something's a foul,

40:57

somebody's

40:58

done something harmful to her.

41:01

There's no other explanation for her missing

41:03

the phone. Somebody's done something to her.

41:06

When all of this went down, when she went

41:08

missing, meeting the guy,

41:10

I think he goes by Bob that

41:12

lives there at

41:13

her house now or

41:15

he says he doesn't live there but he's there

41:17

all the time and doesn't let people in. He's

41:19

just kind of like taking over and

41:22

even though

41:23

they have known each other for a while his

41:26

type of personality was very

41:28

loud, very boisterous, very

41:31

confrontational. When I first found

41:33

out that she was missing, I mean I immediately

41:35

got in

41:35

our car and we went over there and met my

41:38

husband and the guy stopped us

41:40

in the driveway, tried to start a fight

41:42

with my husband in the driveway and

41:44

we were just wondering where is Teresa?

41:47

We're here out of concern and why are you

41:49

trying to fight my husband? This is

41:51

totally not how Teresa

41:53

conducts her life and her business at all

41:56

and that just seems very odd.

41:58

These people have just kind of taken over and we're just

41:59

taken over her house now that she's missing.

42:02

It just seemed very, very odd.

42:04

Teresa would not have someone

42:07

intervene that closely in her life, to

42:09

where they had access

42:10

to paperwork and stuff

42:12

like that. It's just so unlike her.

42:15

That's why I'm wondering if they had coerced her

42:17

in some kind of a way.

42:19

The Stevie guy that's living

42:21

there is kind of mentally

42:23

challenged. This was the guy

42:25

that Bob says that

42:28

Teresa was gonna let him move in as a roommate,

42:31

but I had talked to one of Teresa's friends,

42:34

and she was at Teresa's house

42:36

just a couple of days before Teresa

42:39

had went missing, and she said

42:41

nobody was living there. And the

42:43

Stevie guy supposedly had been living

42:46

there for several months, but she said

42:48

that she went into the spare bedroom and

42:50

there was nothing in there. All of that

42:52

is fishy to me about this guy living there,

42:55

plus the guy that's living there. He went

42:57

into the Dollar General by Teresa's house

43:00

and was talking to one of the store clerks

43:02

because we went in there and talked to her,

43:04

and he was walking in saying, I'm

43:06

not supposed to talk about it. I'm not supposed

43:08

to say anything about it. And

43:11

she said, Stevie, what are you not supposed to

43:13

talk about? And he was like, I told you, I can't talk

43:15

about it.

43:16

I think if somebody could talk to that Stevie

43:18

guy, you could get some answers, but

43:20

that guy Bob is so protective of

43:23

him. He tells him, like, the

43:25

few times that I've been over there,

43:27

he has told Stevie to leave

43:29

the room. I don't want you to talk

43:31

about anything. Like, he hushes him

43:33

up.

43:35

Teresa's close friend Phyllis learned that Teresa

43:37

was missing while watching the news. She

43:39

rushed down to Teresa's home in St. Augustine,

43:42

where she was met at the door by Robert.

43:45

It was on the news. I've seen

43:47

the picture of Teresa, and I'm going, oh,

43:49

hell no, please, don't, no,

43:52

no, no, no, no. I went down there

43:54

and Bob was there, or Robert,

43:57

and he wanted to know who I was, and I

43:59

told him. I said my name and I went

44:01

in there and we sat down and we were

44:04

talking about what happened. It's

44:06

just unreal because what I heard from Bob that

44:09

night or Robert that night or

44:11

that day was not the same thing

44:13

I'm hearing now.

44:15

I was sitting down on the chair in the

44:17

front porch and Bob was telling

44:19

me about all what had happened

44:21

and

44:22

he told me that Teresa, he said

44:24

that Teresa hadn't been home in two days and that

44:27

he's the one that reported Teresa missing after

44:29

she didn't show home up for two days. Come

44:31

to find out it's five days. So

44:34

I don't believe a word that man says for what comes

44:36

out of his mouth just because of that reason. He

44:38

also was telling me about how he painted

44:41

Teresa's bathroom and put a picture

44:43

up and I had to go to the bathroom

44:45

at that time and I went in the bathroom and I'm looking

44:47

around and the house was spotless.

44:50

Teresa don't keep a spotless house and

44:52

it didn't dawn on me then. It

44:54

didn't seem right when I walked in the house like there

44:56

was stuff missing. I've noticed later

44:59

on especially when I went to go get the cats that

45:01

her dining room rug is missing. Now Bob

45:03

says that his rug is on her front porch

45:06

but I don't think Teresa would put a rug

45:08

on her front porch plus I think

45:10

the rug was too big to be put on the front porch.

45:13

It just seemed unfamiliar to me to walk in

45:15

that house the way it was.

45:17

He reported Teresa missing. He said he

45:19

then called Sid's sister and

45:21

Sid's sister told him that Sid

45:23

was in the hospital.

45:25

Now Sid from what I understand went

45:27

out in the woods, left Teresa there

45:29

and when he was picked up he didn't bother

45:31

to tell anybody she was out there. Sid

45:34

got his truck stuck in on calipars from what

45:36

I understand. There's pictures of his truck in the forest.

45:39

From what I understand his sister Pam

45:41

went to pick him up

45:43

and he didn't bother to tell his sister or anybody

45:45

that he was she was out there. Bob

45:47

told me that Sid was in the

45:48

hospital Teresa didn't come home for two days

45:51

and that's what he called the police and reported her missing.

45:54

Now if you go back through it's five days. Also

45:57

when I went in the house this is before I

45:59

found out.

45:59

and she had a roommate. Okay. Because I

46:02

went inside her bedroom, her bedroom door was shut.

46:04

And I remember opening her door and thinking, please

46:06

don't let me find you dead in that bed. And

46:08

I opened up her door

46:10

and she had a blue comforter

46:12

on her bed. And it looked like there was feet underneath

46:14

it. So I opened it up all the way, but

46:16

she wasn't in the bed.

46:18

So I went inside the spare room. The spare

46:20

room had a desk in it

46:22

and had a beanbag in it, when she kept her cats

46:24

in there. I kind of find out Steve

46:26

had been there since January. That's

46:29

when he officially moved into Teresa's

46:31

house, according to what I'm hearing. And

46:33

there was no bed in that room.

46:35

There was no bed whatsoever. So I'm thinking,

46:37

well, where was Steve sleeping? And of course the police

46:39

came back and said, well, he was sleeping on the couch. But

46:41

after I said that, and I brought that to everyone's attention,

46:44

a couple of days later, Robert came in with my bed

46:47

and that had to be in March. So that was at least two, three

46:49

months. So why wasn't Steve brought

46:51

a bed when he first moved in? This would be my

46:54

question. Why did it take you three months

46:56

in order to get my bed in there? And only

46:58

after Teresa went missing, did you put a bed

47:00

in there?

47:01

If he was living there with Teresa helping her

47:03

pay

47:03

the bills, according to Robert,

47:05

then why wasn't he given a bed to

47:07

begin with? Steve, he's also

47:10

on social security disability. And

47:12

Robin's also his caretaker. Bob

47:14

is his girlfriend, Robin. So

47:16

why didn't she go out and take some of his money

47:18

that he's getting for social security disability

47:21

and go out and buy that man a bed? Then

47:23

Robert's saying that Teresa's been going to

47:25

his house and he's been going to Teresa's house for the

47:27

past 18 months. Past 18

47:29

months, many times as I've been down there, I

47:31

haven't seen Robert. And they're sitting right

47:33

now in a house that's paid for and it's worth $250,000. So

47:37

they're trying to take a full advantage

47:39

of that opportunity right now.

47:42

Robert told the police and Kara that

47:44

he had been trying to help Teresa and

47:46

that she had been struggling with memory issues and

47:48

her finances. But Kara found

47:50

his stories varied and never added up

47:52

to a cohesive answer. And as time

47:55

progressed and then after Teresa had vanished,

47:57

things went downhill quickly. Here's...

47:59

Kara again.

48:01

Robert says he's new Teresa and John for 46

48:04

years and like is an old family friend. I

48:06

don't know how they know each

48:09

other, how they met. That's unclear.

48:11

She never mentioned a roommate to me. He told me

48:13

he was helping her a couple

48:15

months before she went missing, three to four months before

48:18

she went missing. Now it's only that he's been paying

48:20

her bills for 18 months before she went missing.

48:23

So I don't know. I talked to Winn Dixie,

48:25

the lady at Winn Dixie where she paid her FBL bill

48:27

and that lady said Teresa came in every

48:29

month like clockwork and paid her bill on her own. I

48:31

mean, she could have been borrowing money, who knows. But

48:34

Robert's whole story is insane. But

48:36

he said that he and his girlfriend started

48:39

taking care of Teresa's finances before she went

48:41

missing because of her memory problem.

48:43

So he told detectives that he had access to

48:46

her bank account and like that's how he knew where her last

48:48

bank charge was and she went missing. There's like

48:50

a whole other aspect of the story that's just

48:52

crazy. So Robert told me that

48:54

he moved his sister's

48:57

husband's brother, Steven, who

48:59

has a mental disability into Teresa's

49:01

house March

49:01

1st to help her with bills because she was

49:04

falling behind. Apparently,

49:06

Robert set something

49:08

up where he was going to loan Teresa

49:11

money for property taxes and then Steven's

49:14

disability check was going to go to Robert to like

49:16

pay him back. Robert

49:19

was trying to get me to pay the property taxes

49:22

that were due March 31st. When I told

49:24

him, you know, don't worry about it, well, family

49:26

will take care of it. I called the property tax office.

49:29

They said, don't worry about paying them right now.

49:31

She's missing. There's going to be like a $200 late

49:33

fee, but nothing will happen to her house for 22 months.

49:36

So we were like, okay. But then Robert ended up his

49:39

girlfriend paid the taxes on the 31st. So I

49:41

was like, why would you do that? That's so weird. So

49:43

Robert ended up calling me

49:45

and leaving a voicemail last month saying that if

49:48

my family pays them $2,000, he'll release

49:50

Teresa's house. Robert

49:52

told me he changed Teresa's locks a couple

49:54

months before she went missing. He doesn't remember

49:56

why. He said Teresa had him change locks.

49:59

He told someone else.

50:00

He changed them the day she went missing.

50:02

So what the cop said, because

50:05

I was like, oh, I'm going to come over to the house to Robert

50:07

and see what's going on. Oh, I changed

50:09

a lot. So I'm like, okay. The cop

50:11

said because Steven lived there,

50:14

he could have anyone that he wanted there, including

50:16

Robert. So I ended up calling the utility

50:18

companies and telling them these people like

50:20

haven't showed a lease or anything, which they won't still

50:23

haven't asked them to. I don't know what

50:25

they're telling me is true. If they had something to do with their disappearing.

50:28

When the utility companies turned off the utilities,

50:31

they said that you can't have utilities on a missing

50:33

person's name, have people using them.

50:35

Then Robert puts them in his name. So I don't know

50:37

if he's squatting, if he's living there, if anyone's

50:39

living there. Me and Robert aren't on good terms.

50:42

I had asked Robert, well, what's this guy's

50:44

phone number? This was just a few days

50:47

after she went missing. He's like, you're going to have to get that from

50:49

the police. Every step of the way, like so

50:51

unhelpful. And I did try to be nice

50:53

to him and be cordial and stuff to just try

50:55

to get information from him. He

50:57

was calling me all the time, leaving voicemails, leaving

50:59

like drunk, rambling voicemails. Finally called

51:02

me and was like, you're not her real

51:04

family. You're like

51:05

not blood relatives because my uncle

51:07

is the one who's married to her. So you

51:09

don't have any reason to be

51:12

trying to get her paperwork or anything. Always going

51:14

on about her house. You're trying to get her house.

51:17

And I just kind of like lost on him and cussed him out and hung up

51:19

on him. We haven't really talked since then. He

51:21

was just super unhelpful to me from the get go.

51:23

I was like, so do you have any paperwork or

51:25

anything? I can look and see what was going on with their finances,

51:28

with their health. And he was like, I have all Teresa's

51:30

paperwork and I'm not giving it to anyone until I have a lawyer.

51:33

He is the one who introduced Teresa to Sydney.

51:36

A week after Robert had reported Teresa

51:38

missing, police spoke to him while conducting

51:41

a search of Teresa's hands. Police

51:43

records don't indicate why Robert was at

51:45

Teresa's home, but they did take the opportunity

51:48

to examine his cell phone with his consent.

51:51

What they found disproved a claim he had made

51:53

in an earlier discussion with police. When

51:55

he said that on March 12, he called

51:57

Sydney's phone and a male he couldn't be

51:59

with Sidney answered and then

52:02

hung up on him.

52:03

But he was positive that he had heard a female's

52:05

voice in the background. However,

52:07

police had already spoken to Tom,

52:09

a friend of Sidney's, who confirmed that

52:12

on March 11th, he allowed Sidney

52:14

to drop off his trailer on his property while

52:16

he was not home. Tom returned

52:18

home on March 12th and he observed

52:20

Sidney's cell phone on top of his trailer.

52:23

He told the police that someone called the phone and

52:25

he picked it up, thinking it was Sidney, but

52:27

that it was someone yelling about a birthday party

52:30

and he hung up thinking that someone had dialed

52:32

a wrong number. While examining Robert's

52:34

phone, police noted that there was a

52:36

call between Robert and Sidney on February

52:38

25th, 2023. After that, there were no calls

52:42

made to Sidney until March 12th, the

52:45

day Tom had Sidney's phone. On

52:47

that day, Robert called Sidney's phone

52:49

between 1156 a.m. and 414

52:52

p.m. seven times with six

52:54

of the calls under 20 seconds and

52:57

one call at 105 p.m. lasting 44

52:59

seconds.

53:00

Police determined that it was the 105 p.m. call that

53:04

Tom had answered and hung up and

53:06

that this was the only call that was answered.

53:08

When police informed Robert that Sidney

53:10

was not in possession of his phone on March 12th

53:13

and that it was someone else who had answered, Robert

53:16

stated that he still believes that the person on the

53:18

other end of the call was Sidney. There was

53:20

nothing documented regarding whether or not police

53:22

asked Robert about the female voice he claimed

53:25

to hear. We first spoke to Kara

53:27

in late spring of this year. It was at

53:29

this time that she told us that Robert was living

53:31

in Teresa's house and refusing to leave,

53:34

which made sense given that he always

53:36

seemed to be at Teresa's house in police

53:38

documentation.

53:39

This has changed in the months since we first

53:41

spoke to Kara and we will come back to

53:44

where things stand with the house and Robert

53:46

now. But we first want to go back to Sidney,

53:48

the man Robert would tell police Teresa left

53:51

with on her own free will.

53:53

Why did Robert say this when he wasn't physically

53:55

present or so he claimed?

53:57

He told police he last spoke to Teresa on

53:59

March 12th.

53:59

11th at 10am, the same

54:02

time she was last seen on surveillance footage

54:04

buying cat food with her roommate. Did

54:06

Robert mix up the dates? Regardless,

54:09

how could he have known that Teresa left with Sydney voluntarily

54:12

and that she got into his truck and

54:14

that was when she was last seen when Sydney

54:16

told police that he was the last person to see Teresa

54:19

when they got lost

54:19

in the forest? The story didn't

54:21

seem to make sense.

54:23

Going back to the beginning of the episode,

54:25

we wanted to know who Sydney was. Why

54:28

did Robert introduce him to Teresa? Was

54:30

there a purpose or a reason?

54:32

Was it just so Teresa could make a new friend?

54:35

Kara told us that she learned from one of Teresa's

54:37

other friends that she hadn't known Sydney

54:40

very long and that he was not someone

54:42

that she would expect Teresa to be friends with.

54:44

Robert introduced

54:47

Teresa to Sydney

54:48

to help Teresa

54:51

mow her grass with Sydney's

54:53

big lawnmower or something right on lawnmower.

54:55

I'd never heard of him before. Sydney

54:58

says that they were just going out to get firewood

55:00

and they were supposed to come back that night. So

55:02

from her friend Kelly,

55:04

Kelly said that Teresa met

55:06

Sydney about four months before she went missing. From

55:09

Teresa's friend Robert, Robert said

55:12

that he invited

55:14

Sydney over to cut my aunt's grass

55:16

with his special mower. Her friend Kelly

55:18

said it was no more than four months before she went

55:20

missing but who knows. But Robert,

55:23

he's an alcoholic. He drinks from sunup

55:25

to sundown. He's not exactly

55:28

reliable. His stories have changed

55:30

a lot.

55:31

On the day that Teresa was

55:32

reported missing, March 15th,

55:35

police

55:35

were able to use license plate reader

55:37

technology to verify that Sydney

55:39

had driven to Teresa's house on March 11th and

55:42

arrived at approximately 11 a.m.

55:45

just about an hour after she was seen at

55:47

the convenience store. The last time

55:49

she was seen by an independent witness and on

55:51

surveillance

55:52

and he did not leave the residence until 3.30 p.m.

55:54

Why was Sydney

55:57

at Teresa's house

55:58

for over four hours?

55:59

When Robert, Stephen and Sydney all reported

56:02

to police that Sydney came and

56:04

picked her up and they left to go and find

56:06

Firewood. What did Sydney do

56:08

during that four hour period of time? Did

56:11

the police ask Stephen this question? Was

56:14

he home? Was Robert there? These

56:16

were the questions that we had before we

56:18

learned of a possible motive to make Teresa

56:20

disappear, her house. After

56:23

Teresa vanished, people started to come

56:25

out of the woodwork all making the same very

56:27

strange claim that Teresa had promised

56:30

to leave her house to them in her will. It

56:32

didn't make any sense and none of

56:34

these people were people that Kara or Lynn

56:36

or Teresa's brother-in-law had ever

56:38

heard of before.

56:39

Who were these people and why were they coming out

56:42

now? Not to search for Teresa

56:44

or show concern that she was missing

56:46

but instead to claim her property assets.

56:50

Lynn told us what her thoughts were on the situation

56:52

when we spoke with her in June.

56:55

There's the Lisa person who has

56:57

filed

56:57

for conservatorship and

57:00

she just all of a sudden

57:02

comes out of nowhere. There are

57:04

a couple of videos of her with

57:06

Donna Teresa on Facebook.

57:09

It's very unusual to me that Teresa

57:11

would be friends with a PhD.

57:14

It's not her social

57:15

circle for sure.

57:17

But then I find out that this woman has

57:19

all these different aliases

57:21

and she all of a sudden says, oh but

57:23

my stars, I looked in my paperwork

57:26

and I just realized that I have Teresa's will

57:28

and she's leaving her house to me.

57:30

Weird. What a coincidence.

57:32

So strange. I mean this was an aside

57:34

that Bob said he was going to

57:36

sit her down and get her to sign over her

57:38

house for all the things, the money he'd

57:41

helped her with. And this is something I've

57:43

never heard of people doing. And supposedly

57:46

Dr. Lisa, she signed over

57:48

her house

57:49

to Dr. Lisa for $1,900 that she loaned to

57:53

Teresa to pay her property bills. She

57:55

didn't pay too much in property taxes.

57:57

And then Bob was supposed to sit her down and get her

57:59

to sign over.

57:59

to sign over his house. Is this something people

58:02

do?

58:02

You signed over your house for like $1000?

58:05

I don't know. Was Theresa really losing

58:08

it? And she just told all her friends she was going

58:10

to sign her house over to him. She sent

58:12

Kara a copy of the first

58:14

will. And I do remember Theresa had

58:16

always said, I'm going to leave you my house,

58:18

Kara. I'm going to leave you my house. Which, you know,

58:20

we thought, Theresa, you're going to live a long

58:23

time. Don't talk about that.

58:26

You know, we wouldn't really get into it very

58:28

much. No, I'm going to leave my house to Kara

58:30

and Dan and Elliot because they're my only

58:33

relatives now. And sure enough, she

58:35

did have a will that she left to them.

58:37

But then Lisa comes up with

58:40

this other will. And then Kelly, she

58:42

has a will too. First she called Kara

58:44

and she said, well,

58:45

she said all kinds of things. But she said, yeah,

58:48

I have a will. It's made up to me

58:50

because Theresa said she doesn't have any

58:52

family. Well, Kelly was there. I

58:54

remember Kelly from when my babies

58:56

were born. She knows and I know she's

58:58

heard Theresa say she was leaving her the house. And

59:00

it's not really about the house because Kara's got

59:03

a house and a husband. And honestly,

59:05

if she didn't have anything to do with any of this

59:08

anymore, it

59:09

would be better for her just

59:11

to get away from it and get it's nasty.

59:13

And it's not about the house. But

59:15

so here's Kelly saying that Theresa,

59:18

oh, I have a will. And Theresa left me her

59:20

house because she said she doesn't have any

59:22

relatives. And she says, Theresa

59:25

told me she just wants to have a part, a big

59:27

party and all her friends come in and

59:29

just go through her house and take everything. Like

59:31

really, that doesn't sound like Theresa

59:34

either.

59:35

When we spoke with Theresa's friend Phyllis

59:37

months ago, she was absolutely furious

59:40

over what was happening with Theresa's house.

59:42

She's

59:43

having to hire a lawyer because it's a civil

59:45

suit. Nobody's got the money to do that

59:47

right now. I told Kara a while back ago, that

59:49

if I know that was going to help and she was actually

59:51

going to do it, I put a second mortgage on my house and

59:53

I'd give her the damn money for the lawyer. If anything,

59:56

just get Bob out of that house. I can't stand him

59:58

being there. I really can't. me off

1:00:00

that he's there and he's holding it for toss

1:00:02

and saying, well, you pay me all this money that I've

1:00:04

been doing to Teresa's house, I'll turn the house

1:00:07

over to you. Ain't nobody gonna pay you nothing,

1:00:09

Bob. Get the hell out of his house. You're

1:00:11

doing this of your own free will. So nobody's

1:00:13

gonna compensate you for nothing. I'm sorry, when

1:00:15

I start talking about him, the gun concussing starts.

1:00:17

Because like I said, what are you doing? It's just pissing me

1:00:20

off, Roland. He avoids all those questions.

1:00:22

He won't send pictures to

1:00:24

prove what we're saying. You know, he won't

1:00:26

send pictures of a carpet on

1:00:29

Teresa's porch to show us that the carpet

1:00:31

is still there. Although he says that all

1:00:33

of Teresa's stuff is there, but he

1:00:35

won't send pictures of it. And he says he's not tech

1:00:37

savvy and he doesn't know how to do it. But

1:00:39

yet he can post pictures of Teresa's

1:00:42

kitchen where he's got cheese

1:00:44

and refried beans and he's making some cheese

1:00:46

dip for him and his girlfriend. He

1:00:49

keeps saying the cops will handle it, cops will handle

1:00:51

it, cops will handle it. Well, as far as I know, the

1:00:53

cops aren't handling it. But in the meantime,

1:00:55

he's living in that lady's house. He said

1:00:57

he's taking care of the place, which I believe that he

1:01:00

might be. He has no right being

1:01:02

there. He said he's doing it all right because

1:01:04

he had an agreement with Teresa, but he won't prove

1:01:06

that he's done an agreement with Teresa. He's causing

1:01:09

everybody to have to spend extra money in

1:01:11

order to get shit done. Then everybody's telling

1:01:13

them just shut the house down, but he won't do

1:01:15

it. Teresa's not there anymore. There's no sense having

1:01:18

that house open. You shut the water utilities

1:01:20

off, you take the food out of the house, you lock it up and

1:01:22

you leave it alone. You won't let the cadaver

1:01:24

dogs in.

1:01:26

When we talked to Kara in late spring, she

1:01:28

told us how she felt about these people and

1:01:30

didn't believe

1:01:31

her aunt would leave her one property to multiple

1:01:33

people unknown to any of her relatives.

1:01:36

These people have been like, Oh,

1:01:38

she's leaving me your house. It's just like really

1:01:40

gross to me. Go look for her.

1:01:43

She sold her the property that her

1:01:45

and my uncle lived on in 2020 and bought

1:01:48

a house in like in closer to town in St.

1:01:50

Augustine. And just like everybody's on

1:01:52

that. They're like her property, her

1:01:54

property.

1:01:56

Well, it seemed unbelievable that

1:01:58

Teresa would offer her house to multiple people.

1:01:59

comfortable, fairly new people in her life.

1:02:02

It turns out that she did. Cara

1:02:04

had to go to court over Robert's refusal

1:02:06

to leave the house. And when we caught up

1:02:09

with Cara in early October, she

1:02:11

told us a story we never would have imagined.

1:02:13

So she has multiple

1:02:15

multiple wills out. So she had a will

1:02:18

in 2016 that left her property to

1:02:20

me and my brother. She had a will from 2019 that

1:02:24

said she would give her property to this

1:02:26

Lisa. Lisa paid Teresa's property

1:02:28

taxes until Teresa's time of death. Lisa

1:02:31

paid her Teresa's property taxes. She paid $1,900

1:02:33

of those taxes over the course of

1:02:36

a year and a half before Teresa sold that property.

1:02:39

Now it's kind of like the big reason why I went and did

1:02:41

the conservatorship hearings that seemed like weird

1:02:44

to me. Like that's a weird, a weird

1:02:46

thing to like sign your house over for $1,900. And then Teresa's friend

1:02:50

Kelly sent me two days ago,

1:02:53

I've been asking for like six months,

1:02:55

a will that says she leaves everything

1:02:57

to Kelly

1:02:59

that was created in March of 2022. And

1:03:01

who knows what kind of

1:03:03

paperwork Robert has. So there's

1:03:05

multiple multiple wills out which one

1:03:08

of the lawyers I talked to said, when people are

1:03:10

making multiple wills in a short period of time like that,

1:03:12

that's often a sign that they're done

1:03:14

either under duress

1:03:16

or in exchange for like

1:03:18

small loans of money. So that's kind of

1:03:20

kind of disturbing. I don't

1:03:22

know, there could be even more wills out there.

1:03:24

Who knows? I'm trying to find out as much as I can.

1:03:26

And it's really overwhelming because there's like, Robert

1:03:29

still has all of Teresa's paperwork from most of 2022

1:03:33

and, and all of this year and all of her mail

1:03:35

and he won't give it to me and says I have to pay him $1,700

1:03:38

to get it trying to figure

1:03:40

all that out has been really stupid. So

1:03:42

I ended up getting a lawyer and going

1:03:45

to the conservatorship hearing on August 27.

1:03:48

One of Teresa's friends named Lisa had

1:03:51

filed to be conservator for Teresa's property. And

1:03:53

I tried to get information from Lisa. And Lisa

1:03:56

told me she didn't want me to come to the hearing and just

1:03:59

remember

1:03:59

It seemed like I don't know I don't

1:04:02

understand why people are so private about everything like

1:04:04

she didn't want to show me Any of the documents

1:04:06

she had but she said she had of Teresa's and

1:04:08

she and Teresa work friends I found out from her

1:04:10

Facebook, but so I started feeling like

1:04:13

kind of sketchy kind of like suspicious

1:04:15

It's like why why don't you just tell me

1:04:17

what her intentions are? so then I ended

1:04:19

up going and getting a lawyer and seeing

1:04:21

the documents and went to

1:04:24

the conservatorship hearing and The

1:04:26

court gave me conservatorship of Teresa's

1:04:29

property We

1:04:31

were able to go in and change

1:04:33

the locks and have the house secured

1:04:35

so that no one's staying there He was

1:04:37

super mad He texted

1:04:40

me and called me and put me Facebook messages

1:04:42

over and over saying he was gonna come change

1:04:44

the locks back and take His belongings

1:04:46

he was storing at Teresa's house out of the

1:04:48

house and end up calling the cops on him

1:04:50

twice because he wouldn't leave Me alone and

1:04:53

when the police went the second time to tell him

1:04:55

that he was trespassed from Teresa's property

1:04:57

He told them that he had been living at

1:04:59

Teresa's

1:05:00

for two years. They ended up trespassing

1:05:02

him anyway

1:05:04

As you heard Robert didn't go without

1:05:06

a fight But at least one of the many questions

1:05:08

we had when we first started researching this

1:05:10

case has been resolved and since

1:05:13

Kara's dad Who would be Teresa's

1:05:15

next of kin is in poor health and

1:05:17

of advanced age? Kara has been

1:05:19

legally designated next of kin at

1:05:21

his request and has ensured the

1:05:23

house is no longer being claimed or occupied

1:05:26

by anyone and was able to finally get a cadaver dog search of the house.

1:05:28

Here's Kara again Yeah,

1:05:33

I put up a

1:05:33

security system and if anybody goes over there

1:05:37

The

1:05:37

alarm will go off and the police will automatically

1:05:39

be called. It's protected now And

1:05:42

we were able to have a cadaver dog go to the house and have

1:05:44

a search team come

1:05:45

and look through it Which

1:05:47

we weren't able to do until then because

1:05:50

of him not letting anyone in her house They

1:05:53

cleared the house. I wasn't in the house

1:05:59

there when that I didn't wasn't in there when they

1:06:02

happened. Well I was there for it. I was

1:06:04

just waiting outside so I wouldn't distract the dogs

1:06:07

and they just told me when they came out. One of the dogs

1:06:10

did hit, the second dog did not

1:06:12

and they determined that somebody

1:06:15

probably did die on like her mattress or something

1:06:17

but it was not recently. The house was

1:06:19

cleared like whatever happened to her didn't happen at

1:06:21

that and they were very professional like the

1:06:23

person who had the dog hit said you're gonna have

1:06:26

another the other dog go in and check now

1:06:28

and not tell either the handler or the dog

1:06:29

about how their dog reacted and

1:06:32

then they would see what happened. So the

1:06:35

other dog did show interest in the same area

1:06:37

but it was like if something would have happened

1:06:39

to her then I think that they determined

1:06:41

that they both would have hit

1:06:42

or alerted or whatever they do. It

1:06:44

was like an old mattress and I guess

1:06:46

they were saying like you could have been where my uncle

1:06:48

died you know like I don't know. I mean I don't

1:06:50

even know if that's the same one she might have gotten into Craigslist

1:06:53

or something.

1:06:54

With the house cleared of any suspicious

1:06:56

activity or evidence that a crime occurred

1:06:59

there, investigators are back to looking

1:07:01

at the forest. We asked Kara what

1:07:03

is next in the investigation. I mean

1:07:06

I don't really have any any information that would

1:07:08

help find her that I've gotten in the last few

1:07:10

months. The police they're gonna

1:07:13

do if she's not found in the next

1:07:15

month or so they're gonna do another search out

1:07:17

in the forest.

1:07:20

While they have cleared Teresa's home, it

1:07:22

still remains a central focus of this

1:07:24

story. Several people claim that she

1:07:27

left the home to them but one person

1:07:29

had actually taken it over her friend

1:07:31

Robert. We want to discuss adverse

1:07:33

possession for a moment. You may have

1:07:36

heard of another term more commonly

1:07:37

used for this, squatter's rights.

1:07:40

This is a way that a person

1:07:41

can gain ownership of a property by

1:07:43

occupying it. According to Florida

1:07:46

law, a person claiming adverse

1:07:48

possession must openly possess the land

1:07:50

by occupying it,

1:07:51

which Robert did by moving in and

1:07:54

changing the locks on Teresa's house.

1:07:56

And the person must pay property taxes

1:07:59

while possessing it. for seven years. We

1:08:01

know that Teresa disappeared right before

1:08:03

her property taxes were due.

1:08:06

After moving into her home, Robert paid

1:08:08

those taxes, even after the family

1:08:10

said that they would take care of it. Was this

1:08:12

all part of a

1:08:13

plan to gain ownership of Teresa's

1:08:16

home?

1:08:17

Though Teresa kept different people in her life

1:08:19

separate from each other, so many people

1:08:21

love and miss her and want answers for

1:08:23

what happened. Katie told us that she

1:08:26

feels that Teresa would have never gone down

1:08:28

without a fight.

1:08:29

She was a fighter. She was a

1:08:32

survivor. I

1:08:33

don't think she owed anybody any money.

1:08:35

Teresa was also very

1:08:39

stern. And

1:08:41

if she said no about something, I've wondered

1:08:43

if this guy maybe tried to have sex

1:08:45

with her. Maybe she declined him.

1:08:48

Maybe he could have beat her or something.

1:08:50

Maybe he hit her too hard.

1:08:52

Or

1:08:53

these people are just trying to get her property.

1:08:56

I don't know why you would get rid of her like

1:08:58

that over

1:08:59

property. That guy,

1:09:02

Bob, even from what I

1:09:04

understand, he wouldn't let the police come into the

1:09:06

house.

1:09:07

But why not?

1:09:09

Why hinder an

1:09:11

investigation? You honestly

1:09:14

could not ever meet a nicer person. And

1:09:16

I know everybody would probably want to say that about their

1:09:18

loved ones, but

1:09:19

it is 110% true

1:09:21

with her. She

1:09:23

was just the sweetest person I've ever known

1:09:26

for all of this that has happened to her

1:09:28

or whatever has happened to her. It's

1:09:30

not deserving. It's

1:09:31

totally out of character for her. Totally

1:09:34

out of character.

1:09:35

To go missing like this, this

1:09:37

wouldn't have happened if other people, I

1:09:40

don't think, had an evil part in

1:09:42

this. I really don't think that

1:09:44

they have searched. We actually went out there

1:09:47

and helped with one of the search parties.

1:09:49

Once I actually got out there

1:09:51

and saw the layout of the

1:09:53

roads and the trees and the

1:09:55

woods and everything myself, I

1:09:57

don't think she's out there. You would not. deviate

1:10:00

from a main road and the main road

1:10:02

there's constant traffic. If you walk

1:10:05

for a few hours you're

1:10:07

going to get to somebody's house at some point.

1:10:10

So to me I just felt

1:10:13

there's I don't think she's out here. I think this

1:10:15

is all just a talk of Mamie story

1:10:17

that this guy has made up and

1:10:19

if he was able to get out and he went

1:10:22

to the hospital but you never

1:10:24

mentioned that your friend's nothing.

1:10:26

Teresa's other longtime friend Phyllis

1:10:29

gave us her thoughts on what happened.

1:10:32

Like I said when she bought that house nobody was

1:10:34

there living there. All the times I was down

1:10:36

there when she had that house nobody was

1:10:38

living there. So how does he have Teresa's

1:10:41

new address on a driver's license? He

1:10:43

says he lived there. She didn't want any

1:10:45

roommates but I was helping

1:10:48

her buy cat food because she was having money problems

1:10:50

so and she didn't want the cats to suffer. So

1:10:52

I would buy cat food and she

1:10:54

would go to Walmart and pick it up. I'd order it from Walmart

1:10:57

down to St. Augustine and she'd go pick it up. So

1:10:59

I can see her get a roommate.

1:11:02

Now Steve doesn't seem like he's a violent

1:11:04

person but your utilities were

1:11:06

in Teresa's name because when

1:11:08

Kara had the water cut off Bob

1:11:10

went down to utility company and that's when

1:11:12

he changed it to his name and he

1:11:15

only did that because it was on his driver's license.

1:11:17

See that's what I'm saying there's more questions than answers.

1:11:20

Why is her address on

1:11:21

his driver's license? She never lived at that

1:11:23

house. She wasn't there as many times as I've been there.

1:11:26

She didn't have anybody living with her. I

1:11:28

was there. I saw. I saw her spare

1:11:30

room. I

1:11:31

saw her bedroom.

1:11:33

She didn't have anybody living with her and

1:11:35

I was there from day one when she bought that

1:11:37

house. That's all I'm looking for

1:11:39

is to find her. I just want some

1:11:41

her family deserves closure.

1:11:44

They need to find out where she's at and

1:11:46

if anything I can say or I can do

1:11:48

can help with that situation

1:11:50

that I'm gonna do it. I don't know about anybody

1:11:53

coming forward. I think everybody's too scared they're gonna

1:11:55

get wound up in jail because of it.

1:11:57

You know the people that are involved in it and

1:11:59

I'm all I'm saying there's going to be a few of them

1:12:01

that are involved in it. I don't think

1:12:03

he could have acted alone in her disappearance.

1:12:06

I don't think he's a lone ranger in this

1:12:09

whole situation. I think other people

1:12:11

are involved and I think they need to be held accountable

1:12:13

for what they're doing.

1:12:14

My only wish and my true

1:12:17

hearted wish is that she's

1:12:20

found good or

1:12:21

bad. She deserves to be found.

1:12:23

She doesn't need to be left wherever she

1:12:25

is

1:12:26

and what condition she's in.

1:12:28

She needs to be found and brought

1:12:30

home. So she was left out

1:12:32

in the California forest. There would be some

1:12:34

sign of

1:12:35

her. There would be hair. There would

1:12:37

be clothes. There would be shoes.

1:12:39

There would be

1:12:40

something out there and they're not finding

1:12:42

nothing.

1:12:43

I really think what happened to Theresa happened

1:12:45

at that house. And if you read the

1:12:47

police report that Finn gave

1:12:50

to the police department, none of it makes any

1:12:52

sense. I mean, you got more questions than you

1:12:54

got answers in that police

1:12:56

report. You got a lot more questions than every

1:12:58

time Robert opened his mouth, you still got more questions.

1:13:01

So I don't understand him. I don't

1:13:03

understand why he's not helping. You

1:13:05

know, to me, like he's hindering the fact

1:13:07

that he's going to postpone whatever

1:13:10

needs to be done or what can be done for

1:13:12

his own benefit. And I don't understand that

1:13:15

if he's supposed to be such a good friend of Theresa's,

1:13:17

why is he hindering so much? Why

1:13:20

is he always, well, you got to get a court order. You

1:13:22

got to do this. You got to do that. It's always

1:13:24

got to be his way. He won't volunteer.

1:13:27

But in the meantime, I got Theresa's cash here and I'm

1:13:29

taking care of him.

1:13:31

Finally, we asked Lynn what her thoughts were

1:13:33

on everything and if she had a particular

1:13:35

theory about what may have happened

1:13:37

to Theresa.

1:13:39

They all seem like they have their dirty little

1:13:41

hands in it. You know, people don't vanish.

1:13:44

She's somewhere dead alive. I

1:13:46

wish they would find her, but I don't do.

1:13:48

I believe she was out in the woods. Kind of

1:13:51

not. I kind of don't believe that. I

1:13:53

don't know though. I think there's some kind of

1:13:55

something going on that maybe the cops

1:13:57

know about and they're not talking about it or

1:13:59

maybe. Maybe they're getting some clues about it and

1:14:02

they're building a case.

1:14:03

I mean, there's some

1:14:04

weird shit going on with it to tell you

1:14:06

the truth.

1:14:07

And the more we learn, the more the weirder

1:14:10

it gets.

1:14:11

I do think the chances are greater

1:14:13

that there was foul

1:14:14

play.

1:14:16

So what happened to 66-year-old Teresa

1:14:18

Hartley in March of 2023?

1:14:21

We believe that whatever took place, she

1:14:23

most likely disappeared on March 11th,

1:14:26

the date that Robert and Sidney say that she went

1:14:28

to the Opala National Forest with Sidney

1:14:30

to look for firewood. But

1:14:32

there are so many

1:14:33

questions.

1:14:34

Like why was Sidney's vehicle

1:14:36

at Teresa's house for more than four hours

1:14:38

that day?

1:14:40

Why did Robert tell police that she left with

1:14:42

Sidney on her own free will when

1:14:44

he said that he wasn't present at the house when

1:14:46

she supposedly left? Why did

1:14:48

his statements

1:14:49

to police repeatedly contradict each

1:14:51

other? And why did he fight Teresa's family

1:14:53

for possession of her house?

1:14:55

Why did Sidney also make contradictory

1:14:57

statements to police and

1:14:59

need to be hospitalized for anxiety immediately

1:15:02

after he left the forest and claimed

1:15:04

that he left Teresa behind or got

1:15:06

separated from him?

1:15:07

If that was in fact the truth, why

1:15:10

didn't Sidney sound the alarm about Teresa

1:15:12

after he made it out of the forest?

1:15:14

Why did Sidney nor Robert ever make any

1:15:17

attempt to look for Teresa?

1:15:19

And going back even further than that, why

1:15:21

did Robert introduce Sidney to Teresa

1:15:23

to begin with?

1:15:24

There are so many questions and so many unknowns

1:15:27

in Teresa's story, and it's hard to know

1:15:29

where to begin in figuring out what happened

1:15:31

to her and ultimately finding her.

1:15:34

Teresa's disappearance is truly a cautionary

1:15:36

tale of taking care in who to trust

1:15:39

and allow into your life, and especially

1:15:41

with older people and people with medical problems.

1:15:44

If you have any information about Teresa's disappearance,

1:15:47

you're asked to call the St. John's County Sheriff's

1:15:50

Office at 904-824-8304.

1:15:54

You can also call the Marion

1:15:55

County Sheriff's Office at 352-732-8181.

1:16:00

one.

1:16:03

I go back and forth between this. I'm like, maybe

1:16:06

he does. Maybe they were like in on it together.

1:16:08

Maybe something happened and it's all like a

1:16:10

cover up. Or maybe he's just a drunk who

1:16:13

makes himself look guilty. Violence

1:16:15

against women and against elders, like abuse

1:16:17

against elders, it's like no one's immune from it.

1:16:20

Like every step of the way I'm just like met with mediocrity.

1:16:23

Yeah, I mean, if you don't want to investigate, don't

1:16:25

be an investigator. I hope it helps

1:16:27

get the word out about her and she just gets bound

1:16:29

and figure out what happened.

1:17:06

That brings us to the end of episode 415. I'd

1:17:10

like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this

1:17:12

story. If you have a missing

1:17:14

loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's

1:17:17

a case submission form at the vanished podcast.

1:17:20

If

1:17:20

you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page

1:17:23

and discussion group on Facebook. You

1:17:25

can find us on Twitter at the vanished pod

1:17:27

and also on Instagram. If

1:17:29

you like

1:17:29

our show, please give us a five star rating

1:17:32

and review. You can also support the show

1:17:34

by contributing on Patreon where

1:17:36

you can get early and add free episodes.

1:17:37

Be sure to tune in next

1:17:39

week. We'll be covering the case from Georgia.

1:17:42

Thanks. Transcribed

1:17:57

by https://otter.ai

1:18:20

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Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing

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1:18:37

Tara Pakanak woke up to the sound of

1:18:39

a door slamming in the early hours of

1:18:41

February 2022. Her

1:18:44

24-year-old son, Shad Therian, had

1:18:46

been out with friends, so she wondered if he had

1:18:48

returned home. She made her way down

1:18:50

to the basement, and as she reached the

1:18:52

bottom step, she noticed a bucket covered

1:18:55

with a towel.

1:18:56

What she discovered when she removed the towel

1:18:58

would catapult their small Wisconsin

1:19:00

town into national headlines.

1:19:03

Severed Affair,

1:19:04

a new podcast