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discretion is advised. By

1:30

been on four different flights in the last eighteen

1:32

hours. Small

1:34

rickety planes in the remote

1:37

region of northern Alaska. Nutter.

1:41

A while you get used to the turbulence.

1:44

The planes engine starts to feel like

1:46

white noise. When

1:50

I get here and going to have to face

1:52

the music. for

1:55

about a year now i've been investigating

1:57

an unsolved missing persons case And

2:00

it's all led me to this moment, to

2:02

this place, a tiny

2:05

town in remote Alaska. I'm

2:09

minutes away from what is likely the

2:11

most terrifying encounter of my entire life.

2:16

And there's no escape plan, but

2:19

I've mentally prepared for this moment. I

2:22

know exactly why I'm here. I

2:25

know why the victim's family wants me to come here. And

2:29

I know why the police have never seen me here. I'm

2:34

about to meet the number one suspect in a

2:37

murder case. I

2:39

know they're dangerous. I

2:42

know that they're in. There's

2:45

no time for second thoughts now. But

2:48

what if I'm walking into a trap? What

2:52

if this confrontation goes way south? You

2:54

need to snap out of it. Turn

2:57

around. But

2:59

we both know we can't do that. I

3:05

didn't come this far for nothing. It's

3:09

time to approach them. And

3:13

even though the anxiety is crippling me, I

3:17

took a breath and looked back on the

3:19

wild journeys of the past. I'm

3:24

going to flood me here. It's

3:29

safer to be in numbers. Never

3:32

alone. That's not safe. She

3:36

was murdered. Take it

3:38

out on the tundra and dump somewhere. There's no

3:40

way they'd take something like that if they

3:42

didn't know what happened. Somebody's

3:44

being heard or taken advantage of. You

3:47

don't just look the other way. Stay on the phone with

3:49

you, please. Sure. Do you

3:51

have a license to take this example? There's

3:53

a truck that's following you guys. We

3:56

heard gunshots. Where were the gunshots at? If

3:59

you say... I think you're investigating a murder

4:01

scene. Things have to be documented.

4:06

I hope we made the right decision here. He says,

4:08

you know what? I could have killed you and nobody

4:10

would have known about it. If I walked

4:12

out the store with them, you have to follow the rules. This is way

4:14

more dangerous than we thought it was. We

4:17

don't know who to trust. We

4:19

don't know who to trust. Welcome

4:24

to season four of Up and Vanished, in

4:26

the midnight sun. And

4:29

your host, Payne Lindsey. About

4:58

a year ago, one of my

5:00

good friends, Cooper, who also works

5:03

as a producer on this show,

5:06

sent me an article about a missing person. Her

5:09

name is Florence Okpialik. She's 33 years

5:11

old, an Alaska native, and

5:14

was last seen on the evening of August, in

5:17

the early days of the war. She

5:20

was a young woman, and she was a young

5:22

woman, and she was a young woman. And

5:25

was last seen on the evening of August 31st,

5:27

2020. She

5:31

went missing from a small town in the sub-artic region of Alaska,

5:34

a town called Nome. What

5:38

struck me immediately was how incredibly

5:40

small this place was. Nome, Alaska has

5:43

a population, barely over 3,000 people, and

5:46

the town area itself is

5:49

geographically under one square mile, .53 square miles

5:52

to be exact. How does

5:55

anyone at all go missing from a place

5:57

like this? I

6:00

spent a few weeks trying to read as much as

6:02

I could about Florence Ocpeoloc's disappearance. According

6:06

to the official missing poster from the Alaska

6:08

State Troopers, her last

6:10

known clothing description and direction of

6:12

travel remain unknown. And

6:16

after four years, the case had

6:18

gone completely cold. From

6:21

Atlanta, Georgia, where I live, Nome,

6:23

Alaska, is nearly 4,000 miles away. And

6:27

that's if you drew a straight line on a map. Driving

6:30

there isn't even possible. That's because no

6:32

road systems connect to this town. The

6:35

only way in or out of Nome, Alaska

6:38

is by boat or plane. Logistically

6:43

speaking, this case would be very

6:45

difficult to cover. I'd

6:48

need to spend time on the ground there and

6:50

genuinely immerse myself in the environment. I'm

6:53

not interested in doing a quick gloss over of this case.

6:56

I want to try and solve it. So

7:00

I kept researching Florence Ocpeoloc's disappearance.

7:03

The coverage on her case was pretty limited, but

7:06

I needed to find anything there was on the internet. I

7:09

found a Reddit post about it. It seemed to have a

7:11

few more details about the case. She's

7:13

the youngest of seven siblings. To

7:16

friends and family, she went by flow. She

7:18

has a daughter who was six years old at

7:21

the time of her disappearance. She

7:23

was born in Wales, Alaska, one of the

7:25

oldest communities in the Bering Strait region called

7:28

Anupiat. Nome, where

7:30

she went missing, has a very high population

7:33

of indigenous people, 53%. Having

7:37

covered the disappearance of Ashley Loring Heavy Runner

7:39

in season three of Up and Vanished, I

7:41

learned firsthand about the crisis of missing and

7:43

murdered indigenous people. The

7:45

statistics are just horrific. According

7:47

to data collected from 1979 to 2020, the rate of violent

7:49

crimes in Alaska has

7:54

been on a steady increase since

7:56

1993. American Indians and Alaska

7:58

Natives are two and a half. Times

8:00

more likely to experience violent crimes

8:02

More than forty five women have

8:04

experienced violence in their lifetime, and

8:06

homicide is the fifth leading cause

8:09

of death. between the ages of

8:11

twenty five and thirty four, Florence

8:13

Archaeologist was thirty three when she

8:15

went missing. I

8:18

eventually found another website called the

8:20

Charlie Project, an independent internet database

8:23

of missing persons cases. Here

8:25

I discovered some more details about the nice

8:28

he vanished. According to

8:30

the Charlie projects, Lawrence was last seen

8:32

in Nome, Alaska in an area called

8:34

West Beach and around four pm in

8:37

the afternoon on August. Thirty First Twenty

8:39

Twenty. She

8:41

was allegedly seen coming out of a

8:43

tense on West Beach. as

8:46

he's never been seen since then. But

8:48

perhaps the most important detail is what

8:50

the police found outside that tenth. In.

8:53

The sand they discovered her shoes and

8:56

her jacket. My. First

8:58

question is who the hell's tenses That.

9:01

And trust me is that sacked existed somewhere

9:03

on the internet and would have already found

9:05

it. I look for days. The

9:08

owner of this tends to Florence was

9:10

last seen leaving remains a complete mystery.

9:13

To see with that night. And who

9:15

was the witness who saw are leaving that tent. Why

9:18

would you leave or susan jacket behind Or

9:20

was she go? If. She

9:23

wandered barefoot down the beach. How

9:25

far could she have actually gone? And

9:27

how could nobody finder of that was

9:29

the case? Based on this information alone,

9:31

finding the owner of that tent is

9:34

my number one priority. Before

9:40

I knew it, I was up late

9:42

almost every night of the week, completely

9:44

submerged. In this case, try to make

9:46

sense of it. It

9:49

was driving me crazy. I kept

9:51

searching her name hoping I'd magically

9:53

find some new information. Mad Naughty

9:55

Senior. was

9:58

becoming clear that i'd reached the in trail.

10:00

If I wanted

10:02

to know more, I was going to have

10:04

to go and find it myself. Getting

10:08

to Nome would take me roughly two days,

10:11

accounting for connecting flights to Anchorage, 10

10:14

hours of airtime, and an overnight layover.

10:18

If I was going to take on this case, I

10:20

wouldn't have the freedom to quickly bounce back and forth,

10:22

but if I planned it all out, meticulously,

10:25

I know I could make it work. At

10:28

this point, the case was becoming a bit of

10:30

an obsession, but

10:32

this was the exact energy I needed in order to

10:34

take on this case. So

10:37

I made it official. Let's go. I booked

10:40

a flight to Nome, Alaska, completely

10:42

unsure of where I was going to even start.

10:46

This case was going to be the focus

10:48

of the newest season of Up and Vanished.

10:56

Since 2016, when I first started the

10:58

podcast, we received tens of

11:00

thousands of emails, many from other

11:02

families in search of their loved ones. And

11:05

the team and I do our best to read as many of them

11:07

as possible, offering support whenever and

11:09

however we can. One

11:12

morning, about a year ago now, just a few

11:14

days before my flight to Nome, I

11:17

woke up with this strange feeling. I

11:20

couldn't really pinpoint it. I

11:23

logged into the Up and Vanished email account,

11:25

typed in Alaska, 14

11:30

different results, different missing

11:32

persons cases spanning all the way back to 1978.

11:38

Then I typed in Nome, and lo and

11:42

behold, there was one email. It read,

11:44

I love the podcast. I

11:47

started listening a month ago, and I'm all caught up on the latest episode

11:50

in season three. I'd like to request that you look into

11:52

the case of my friend who went missing. A

12:00

young Native American, law

12:02

enforcement has made zero progress. I

12:05

want your help. Nobody

12:08

trusts the police station in Nome. I'd

12:12

like to find Florence Ocpealek. Someone

12:15

hurt her. An

12:19

email from one of Florence Ocpealek's friends,

12:22

buried in the up and vanished inbox from

12:24

over two years ago. I

12:28

don't really believe in luck, but

12:30

I do believe in serendipity. Discovering

12:34

a lost email in my inbox about an unsolved

12:36

case I've been obsessing over for the past month.

12:40

You could call it fate or kismet, but

12:42

I don't. The

12:44

logical part of my brain yearns for a

12:46

more grounded explanation of things, even

12:49

if my emotions want to override it. Having

12:52

the right intentions and following your gut instincts is

12:54

everything. Leaning

12:58

into life's mysteries, instead of being

13:00

fearful of the unexplained. I

13:03

have that funny, familiar feeling inside me right now. So

13:07

instead of looking at this email as if the world's conspired to

13:09

bring it to my attention, I

13:11

simply see it as a sign that I'm heading in the

13:13

right direction. And

13:15

if I can stay the course, maybe I can help find

13:17

the truth that's been eluding this community. What

13:22

really happened to Florence Ocpealek? The

13:26

email was from October 2021, signed Deilah. But

13:30

she left no number, and I'm not

13:32

convinced she even uses that email address anymore. So

13:35

I tried to find her on social media. Okay,

13:38

there's her Facebook, I think.

13:42

I'm going to message her here, too. Days

13:47

before my scheduled flight to Nome, we had a change

13:49

of plans. My producer

13:51

Mike and I took a detour to the

13:54

coast of Oregon, where Florence Ocpealek's friend, Deilah,

13:56

currently resides. We

14:02

agreed to meet at a hotel downtown. This

14:06

is where my journey into the

14:08

investigation of Florence Ocpeolic's disappearance truly

14:11

began. Your

14:25

fever is high and the pressure to log

14:27

in at work is too. But when you

14:30

finally decide to take care of you, there's

14:32

Instacart. Just because that one perfect coworker of

14:34

yours is attending all meetings, camera on while

14:36

she's sneezing, coughing and aching doesn't mean you

14:39

have to do the same. Take it from

14:41

us. Trying to stay on top of things

14:43

will only get you further behind. Instead, get

14:45

everything from tissues and teas to cough suppressants

14:48

and comforting soups delivered through Instacart in as

14:50

fast as 30 minutes. If anyone needs anything,

14:52

they can just redirect their questions to that

14:54

one perfect coworker of yours. Evidence

14:59

wise, we had virtually no evidence.

15:02

We had the word of a

15:04

15 year old who told lies,

15:08

a lot of lies. In

15:13

1995, Detective Tony Richardson was

15:16

trying to figure out who

15:18

killed a fellow officer, Deputy

15:20

Bill Hardy. Without

15:23

solid evidence, the case comes

15:25

down to who is believed and

15:28

who is ignored. We

15:30

did convict an innocent man and

15:32

he's been on death row all

15:35

these years and I didn't know it. I'm

15:38

Beth Shelburne from Lava for Good

15:41

Podcasts. This is Ear

15:43

Witness. Listen

15:45

to Ear Witness on the iHeartRadio

15:47

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

15:49

get your podcasts. And to

15:51

hear episodes with no ads, subscribe

15:53

to Lava for Good Plus on

15:55

Apple Podcasts. I

16:04

really enjoyed the care you put

16:07

into the investigation on the Terry

16:09

Grinstead case. I

16:11

was only crossing fingers and toes that you

16:13

might look at Flo's case. DeIsla

16:18

had known Florence for several years when she lived

16:20

in Nome. To friends and family

16:22

closest to her, she went by Flo. Florence

16:26

was born August 26, 1987, and she's the youngest

16:28

of seven siblings. She

16:31

grew up in the native village of Wales, Alaska,

16:34

one of the oldest communities in the

16:36

Bering Strait region, called Inupiat. A

16:38

lot of people in the lower 48 probably

16:41

call it indigenous. We

16:43

don't say Eskimo or indigenous, we

16:45

say Alaska native or Inupiat. It

16:51

feels like it's been so long. The

16:54

last time I saw her was in 2020. Yeah.

17:00

And like I remember everything I wore

17:02

that day. Strange.

17:07

In 2013, while Florence was pregnant, she

17:09

moved to Nome in search of better

17:11

healthcare and schooling opportunities for her daughter.

17:14

I was becoming a mom and she was already a

17:16

mom and she was embracing my

17:18

pregnancy. She was just really sweet. She

17:24

would touch my belly and made me feel

17:27

like I don't have to be afraid. Just

17:30

five days after her 33rd birthday, she

17:33

disappeared. Day

17:35

two, it was all over Facebook. No

17:38

one could find her. I didn't

17:40

really think much of it at first.

17:43

Maybe she got lost. She didn't have

17:45

cell service and she was stuck somewhere. I mean,

17:47

that happens too. She was

17:50

last seen coming out of a tent on

17:52

West Beach and Nome with consistently

17:54

spotty cell service on the whole town. It

17:56

wasn't entirely uncommon for someone to drop out

17:58

of communication for a long time. a while. In

18:01

my mind, they were going to find her. But

18:05

after two days of radio silence, Flo's family

18:08

knew that something was clearly wrong. When

18:10

they struggled to pinpoint her whereabouts, they band together

18:12

in search parties to go look for her. Massive

18:16

search parties. What

18:19

the hell is going on? Where is

18:21

she? Someone has to know something. The

18:24

local newspaper began covering her disappearance. And

18:26

with each day that passed, the tiny

18:28

town of Nome was growing more on

18:30

edge. With little

18:32

to no information at all, the rumor mill

18:34

was ignited. You can't tell.

18:37

What's a rumor and what's a

18:40

fact? Deilah held a march for missing and

18:43

murdered indigenous people in the downtown city of

18:45

Nome. The people

18:50

who marched wore red face paint and red

18:52

shirts and cried out for justice. Florence's

18:55

sister, Blair, spoke at the event too.

18:58

She was hysterically crying. My life

19:00

has forever changed. I'm

19:02

just trying to be like

19:04

the part of you. She

19:07

wanted to express concern

19:09

about what the police

19:12

department isn't doing. He's

19:14

like the police, the local police and

19:16

Nome police have done enough to solve

19:18

her case. No. It feels

19:22

and looks like they haven't

19:24

done anything. Deilah Johnson is one

19:26

of the main organizers of the event. She

19:28

told the crowd when any person goes missing

19:30

or is murdered, it affects the whole community.

19:40

According to Deilah, the Nome police

19:42

chief made an appearance at the

19:44

event too. The chief of police came

19:46

in to work out. He wasn't

19:48

on duty, but he was wearing

19:51

his police jacket while we're having this

19:53

event. The police chief

19:55

of Nome showed up to the community

19:57

gym where the MMIW event was being

19:59

held. to squeeze in a workout.

20:02

Not a good look. We

20:05

know who you are. We can

20:07

all see your jacket too, but he

20:09

didn't care. On

20:12

a Friday during business hours? Yeah. Did

20:14

he use the off on Fridays? I don't know. His

20:19

bizarre appearance at this event left a

20:21

lasting impression on those who attended, and

20:24

his behavior only seemed to mirror how the police

20:26

have handled Flo's case from the very beginning, in

20:29

the eyes of her friends and family. I

20:31

don't want to bash anyone, but

20:34

it feels like the police department

20:36

priority of cases is not based

20:38

on the protection of the actual

20:41

people that live there. That is

20:43

not safe. Period. The

20:47

city of Nome runs along the sewer peninsula

20:49

coast on the edge of the Bering Sea.

20:52

When Florence disappeared in August 2020, she

20:55

was last seen by a witness coming

20:57

out of a tent in the West Beach area.

21:01

West Beach is primarily occupied by

21:04

freelance gold miners, living in

21:06

tents along the coastline. But at

21:08

night time in the summer, it can be a popular

21:10

hangout spot. The

21:12

beach itself is just maybe a quarter mile

21:14

along the sand. There's tons

21:17

of camping tents. And

21:20

I have to be honest, I've gone to party

21:22

at West Beach before. Okay. There's

21:24

a lot of people that would migrate from the bars

21:26

down to the beach. What

21:30

happened? Did somebody hurt her?

21:32

And if they did, then they need to

21:34

be held accountable. In

21:36

your gut, what do you think happened?

21:40

I don't know. One

21:43

possibility is that

21:45

she was drunk and

21:47

then just drowned. I

21:51

feel like someone is

21:53

responsible for getting rid of

21:55

her, whether it was an accident and

21:57

they didn't want to get in trouble. for

22:00

how it looked or if

22:02

it was an intentional incident,

22:05

she was harmed. Somebody

22:07

knows something and covered it

22:09

up. Where

22:12

else could she have gone? If

22:14

Flo's disappearance was a result of a

22:16

tragic accident, common sense tells me there

22:18

would at least be one shred of

22:20

evidence out there to support that. Where

22:23

is her body? Or all the clothes she

22:25

was wearing that night? Why is

22:28

it that in over four years, none of that

22:30

has ever washed ashore, unless

22:32

something nefarious happened that night? These

22:35

facts, combined with the overall lack

22:38

of evidence in this case, can easily

22:40

send your mind to strange places, just

22:42

to try to make sense of it all. Have

22:46

you heard of the movie The Fourth Kind? These

22:49

people in normal Alaska see an

22:51

owl and then they just disappear into

22:54

thin air. In

23:00

2009, Hollywood released a movie called The

23:02

Fourth Kind. The movie

23:04

takes place in normal Alaska and claims

23:06

to be based on true stories, a

23:08

long history of unexplained disappearances in the

23:10

town. Was there a

23:12

serial killer on the loose? Not

23:14

in this story. In the movie, it

23:17

was alien abductions that were responsible. Right.

23:20

The Fourth Kind was met with some pretty strong

23:23

criticism. Clicked at 18%

23:25

on Rotten Tomatoes, the critic consensus

23:27

reads, The Fourth Kind is hokey

23:29

and clumsy and makes its close

23:31

encounters seem eerily mundane. I

23:34

watched the movie myself and it was just okay.

23:37

I'm no expert and I myself am a

23:39

believer of the existence of intelligent life beyond

23:41

our planet. But let's be real

23:43

here. I'm pretty confident aliens aren't the reason

23:45

people are going missing here. The

23:48

sheer remoteness of normal Alaska tends to create

23:50

a mystique of its own. But

23:53

when you pair that with a Hollywood

23:55

mockumentary about an FBI investigation into alien

23:57

abductions, now you're just sitting on the fringe

23:59

of baseless conspiracy. conspiracy theories. What

24:02

is interesting, and actually true, is

24:04

that in 2005, the FBI did

24:07

launch an investigation into the bizarre number

24:09

of disappearances occurring in Nome. Going

24:12

back to the 1960s, there's a list

24:14

of over 20 unexplained disappearances in Nome.

24:17

For a population around 3,000, those numbers

24:20

just don't add up, so

24:22

the FBI did in fact step in to investigate, and

24:25

ultimately concluded, quote, alcohol

24:27

consumption and the town's harsh climate

24:29

were the most likely factor. To

24:32

satiate my own curiosity, and to check this

24:35

box off for good, I made

24:37

a strange FOIA request with the Nome Police Department,

24:40

asking for any reports they have

24:42

about UFO abductions. And

24:44

to my own surprise, they sent me something back.

24:47

In an official document from the Nome Police

24:49

Department, they reported a weird exchange they had

24:51

on July 20th, 2020, with

24:54

a man named Andrew, last name

24:56

unknown. An excerpt

24:58

from the transcript reads, I need

25:00

to know if other people are

25:02

experiencing extra-dimensional experiences, aliens, you

25:04

know, extra-dimensional creatures.

25:08

They don't take physical form, they mess with

25:10

your mind. You've heard about people

25:12

disappearing in your area, right? This isn't about

25:14

the movies. There's a

25:16

lot of bodies disappearing, and I need to

25:18

investigate. There are literally people that

25:21

disappear over there. They melt your

25:23

brain and turn you into nothingness. I'll

25:26

just stop there, because it goes a lot longer. It

25:29

seems to me that Andrew Unknown may have

25:31

been reading a little too much into Nome's

25:33

fictional portrayal in the movies. And

25:35

the more I've looked into it all, it appears

25:37

that the lore of alien abductions in this town

25:39

was more or less created entirely by the film

25:42

itself, and its influence on

25:44

the internet over the years has perpetuated all

25:46

kinds of wacky theories. It's

25:50

safer to be in numbers. Never

25:53

alone. After

26:16

meeting with the Isla, we were still a good 2,000 miles

26:19

away from Nome, and the fastest route to

26:21

get there was to fly into Anchorage through

26:23

Seattle. So we packed

26:25

up and headed further northwest. And

26:29

about a cool 10 hours later, we

26:31

arrived in Anchorage a little after midnight. But

26:34

if you didn't have a watch, you wouldn't know that. You'd

26:37

probably think it was 1 p.m. in the

26:39

afternoon, because it was broad daylight outside. Alaska

26:42

is home to the shortest and longest day

26:44

of the year. In

26:46

the northernmost city of the Arctic Circle, there

26:49

are 67 days of complete darkness in

26:51

the winter. And in the summertime,

26:54

there are 80 days of uninterrupted daylight.

26:57

They call this the midnight sun. Life

27:02

in Nome and in the region is focused

27:04

on the seasons, the extreme summer with all

27:07

the daylight. In the wintertime, the

27:09

hardest season for a lot of folks. Three

27:11

and a half, four hours of daylight when you get to the

27:13

peak. This is Davis

27:16

Hovey, a freelance journalist in Anchorage. For

27:18

years, he worked at KNOM news station

27:20

in Nome, where Florence went missing back

27:22

in 2020. He

27:24

was covering her story on the ground in real

27:26

time, as the initial search for her was unfolding.

27:30

It was very remote, no running water in

27:32

some of our communities, no road

27:34

system. It

27:36

takes a special kind of person to live out here,

27:39

especially if you weren't born here. There's

27:41

dangers everywhere, even when you walk outside your door.

27:44

The threat of bears, extreme temperatures

27:47

and frostbite could ruin you in five

27:49

minutes. It's a dangerous place.

27:54

August 31st, 2020, Florence

27:56

Ockby Alec is reported missing. and

28:00

I were covering this nonstop because we've

28:02

seen enough instances leading up to this

28:05

to know that if there's not action

28:07

taken within a certain time frame if

28:10

there's not some sort of accountability with the

28:12

police department this could

28:14

easily get swept under the

28:17

rug. Another Alaska Native person is missing

28:19

and that is what it is and then nothing

28:21

happens. We

28:23

started reporting on it from day one after

28:25

the known police department got the call. Real

28:35

search and rescue efforts didn't start for Florence

28:37

until maybe day two or day three. If

28:45

you talk to some locals I'm sure a lot of

28:47

them will say they were disappointed at the very least

28:50

the known police department didn't actually do anything in

28:53

the first 24 hours. Like

28:57

a lot of missing person cases the police

28:59

are often slow to respond. Operating

29:01

under the assumption the individual is simply

29:03

lost or missing on their own accord

29:05

and will soon reappear but

29:08

this mentality can be detrimental to a

29:10

case. She

29:13

had reportedly last been seen on

29:15

West Beach. That beach

29:18

is very popular for gold miners

29:20

because there have been some good

29:22

deposits found out there offshore. A

29:25

lot of miners will have small dredges

29:28

with suction hoses mining for gold just

29:30

offshore out of West Beach. Most

29:33

of them are seasonal. They come

29:35

up during the summer they'll set up tents, old

29:37

beat-up trucks, temporary housing options that

29:40

they can set up on the beach. That's

29:43

where she was last seen. From

29:45

that point on we were doing updates on

29:47

a daily basis as to what was happening

29:50

with the search efforts. had

30:00

found a piece of her clothing that she

30:02

had with her at the time. As

30:05

time moved on and it became

30:07

apparent that there were no suspects,

30:09

there were no breakthroughs in the

30:11

case, Nome Police

30:13

Department needed additional help. So

30:15

the FBI got involved. On

30:19

September 12, 2020, nearly two

30:21

weeks after Florence went missing, the

30:23

search conducted by the Nome PD was at

30:25

a standstill, and by request of the

30:28

police chief, FBI agents from Anchorage

30:30

flew in to assist. By

30:34

early September, we had FBI on

30:36

the ground in Nome, canine

30:40

units that had been paid for and

30:42

donated through a series of organizations, the

30:45

public out in numbers of local search

30:47

and rescue teams every day.

30:51

At some point, the FBI

30:53

had to leave. Nome Police

30:56

Department suspended daily search

30:58

efforts. And that was the last we heard. Three

31:02

years later, I don't think I've heard anything

31:04

else come out of the Nome Police Department

31:06

that indicates that they're anywhere near solving that

31:08

case. Give

31:11

it enough time and things tend

31:13

to just disappear, be swept under the

31:15

rug in this town, unfortunately, going

31:18

missing without a trace and you never hear from them

31:20

again, you're not quite sure what happened. To

31:25

me, the strongest evidence of Florence Ocpealec's

31:28

disappearance were her personal belongings that were

31:30

found on the beach where she was

31:32

last seen. And they

31:34

weren't just found off the beaten path or hidden

31:36

in the brush somewhere. Her personal

31:38

belongings were found next to a tent that

31:40

allegedly belonged to one of the gold miners

31:42

that camped out there. The

31:46

gentleman who owned the tent, the miner, the Nome

31:49

Police Department never mentioned they had suspects. This miner may have been

31:51

involved. What

32:00

happened to her or was there a vocal?

32:02

I don't know. You all helped? Yeah,

32:07

I mean, I guess I should just... So

32:12

I'll just be candid. For

32:14

me and I think for a lot of folks, she

32:17

was murdered, was

32:20

taken from that West Beach

32:22

area, probably

32:24

on a four-wheeler, four-wheel drive

32:26

vehicle, taken out on the Tundra and

32:28

done it somewhere. What was the

32:30

worst part of the Tundra? There's

32:34

definitely areas where it would

32:36

be relatively easy to hide

32:39

a body. I think

32:41

she was murdered. I

32:43

think her body was dumped somewhere. I

32:48

don't know if the Goldminer theory is

32:50

right or not. But

32:53

I definitely think so, boy, it was a move. We

33:05

had plans for an early flight to Nome

33:07

the next morning. My

33:09

first order of business was to try to talk to some of

33:11

Flo's friends and family. Her cousin, Deilah,

33:13

who we met a few days ago, connected me to

33:16

her aunt, Wendy, who played a major

33:18

role in the initial search for Florence. So I called her and said,

33:21

I'm going to go to the Tundra. I'm

33:23

going to go to the Tundra. I'm

33:25

going to go to the Tundra. I

33:27

saw her role in the initial search for Florence. So

33:29

I called her. The police department

33:32

fell slow. They

33:34

failed her because she's

33:36

not Caucasian. And I'm

33:38

not trying to be racist. So,

33:40

when a Caucasian person comes missing

33:43

in Nome, they search day one

33:45

full-fledged until they find the person.

33:48

They don't stop. Goldminers

33:50

come up here that want a

33:53

tiny gold. For Generations,

33:55

Nome, Alaska has long been home

33:57

to a Nupiat Native people. But

34:00

an eighty ninety eight go was discovered

34:02

along the beaches and the tell became

34:04

flooded with outsiders. This is known as

34:06

the No Gold Rush and for the

34:08

last hundred years the Towers continued to

34:11

see large numbers of outside people migrating

34:13

to Nome in search of gold. Lot

34:17

of that minors the parodies and

34:19

I urge or. Windy.

34:23

along with other friends and family members

34:25

extensively com the sands of West Beach

34:27

the area she was supposedly last seen.

34:30

Every day they would do this and

34:32

according to windy while they were searching

34:34

they were met with another terrifying obstacle.

34:38

We were terrified the entire time. The

34:40

search. An entire

34:42

time. We.

34:44

Were at my speech is called me.

34:47

She. Said actually, there's a truck

34:49

that's all of a guy.

34:53

It appeared that a particular group of people in

34:55

town didn't like the fact that there were searching

34:57

up and down the speech. Mindy

34:59

said that on multiple occasions Sierra family

35:01

were being followed by strangers in a

35:04

black truck who for whatever reason wanted

35:06

to make it a point, but they

35:08

weren't welcome here. To

35:10

be doing that. Other than somebody related

35:12

to her disappearance. Windy. Took

35:15

video on her phone of all this.

35:17

Being. Followed by these men in a black truck.

35:20

We've got videotape that pictures. And.

35:23

She went to the local police claiming

35:25

she was being followed. him recorded the

35:27

police interaction to. She. Sent

35:29

me the videos and a text man

35:31

no license plate of. We

35:38

were to care of. Him

35:41

a regular thing. We. Can lead

35:43

to no matter what direction these trucks

35:45

that show up for were searching. And.

35:48

Hours. Now

35:56

there's no license plates.

35:58

New Life. license plate nothing.

36:01

What kind of vehicle is this? Two

36:04

white guys and a black truck with

36:06

tinted windows. You can

36:09

see the truck in the video, but the cameras

36:11

a bit zoomed in and shaky. And

36:13

she's right, no license plate. While

36:15

being followed by this unknown black truck,

36:17

the occupants of the vehicle appear to

36:19

fire gunshots out their window. We all

36:22

heard gunfire. We were

36:24

mortified. I don't know

36:26

who these individuals are, but from what I've

36:28

seen, it appears their motive was to intimidate

36:30

Flo's family. Wendy pled for help

36:32

to one of the local known police officers, the

36:34

male voice you can hear in the background. We

36:37

heard gunshots. Where were the gunshots at?

36:39

We were looking where she might be,

36:42

and there was a truck that followed us from the port.

36:44

Were they shooting at you? No. Where

36:47

were you seeing anybody shooting? No,

36:49

but I've got it recorded when it sounds like

36:51

gunshot, and I just heard the same thing. Are

36:54

they trying to scare us? And

36:57

that same truck was also scanning up and

36:59

down the street to Mone, watching

37:01

kids. They

37:03

watched my nephew's daughter and her sibling.

37:07

Please, let us do our jobs. Yeah.

37:12

Keep up. Let us do our jobs, please. Nobody

37:14

wants this situation to be worse. Tap on. You

37:21

can hear the genuine sound of fear in their voices.

37:24

I wasn't there in person, but I have some

37:26

pretty clear video of their interactions with known PD,

37:29

and it looks like they weren't being taken seriously.

37:32

Whoever was in that truck, I definitely had some

37:34

questions for them. We

37:36

don't feel safe in this town at all.

37:38

I understand your concern. They've been

37:40

following us on every road that we go

37:42

on. They've been following you? Yes, they've got

37:44

with no license plates, and we don't

37:46

know who they are. We've got all kinds

37:49

of footage. Please turn

37:52

those videos into those departments. Okay.

37:55

Okay. We're scared. We're scared

37:57

everywhere we go because somebody's usually following me.

38:00

I understand that. We do. We're

38:02

recording everything because we don't trust anybody.

38:07

A police department, they neglected her.

38:10

They neglected Flo in every

38:12

way, shape, and form. And

38:14

I'm really mad about it. They

38:16

judge natives. I

38:19

think that there could be

38:21

human trafficking, sex trafficking, and

38:23

somebody's holding a secret. And

38:27

they're not telling. They're

38:29

not going to tell anything. I

38:34

think they killed her. And

38:37

they got away with it. If

38:41

you know the history of Nome, there has been a

38:43

lot of people missing. We

38:49

all believe these people are going

38:52

to do it again. Here

38:59

in Anchorage, we're still a good 500 miles away from

39:02

the shores of Nome. And before

39:05

we embarked, I wanted to talk to anyone else I could find here in

39:07

the city for some more insight on this

39:09

place. I've learned over the

39:11

years the more people I talk to, the better.

39:13

And with a place shrouded in mystery like Nome,

39:15

Alaska, I want as much information as I can

39:17

get before I touch down there. Through

39:20

some internet searching, I stumbled upon an older gentleman

39:22

who was a little bit more than a man.

39:26

He was a little bit more than a man.

39:28

I stumbled upon an older gentleman named Bill Cox,

39:30

who used to work at the hospital in Nome,

39:32

and now lives here in Anchorage. And

39:34

he agreed to come meet us at our Airbnb before we

39:36

took off the next morning. Nome

39:44

is a hub for 15 surrounding

39:47

villages over an area the size of

39:49

Ohio. People

39:52

escaping come to Nome because it's

39:54

so far removed. People

39:57

running away from stuff. I

40:00

was the radiologist at

40:03

the hospital in Nome. Florence

40:17

worked at the hospital. She

40:21

was always showing up to work with bruises and stuff.

40:26

She would always show up with bruises. She

40:30

was abusing her. I

40:32

shared all this with the DEA. There's

40:37

a lot of good people out there, but there's a

40:40

dark side. You

40:42

can get into power up there and you can get

40:44

away with so much. Because

40:48

the people that you can control, people that

40:50

grew up there, they lived there in Nome,

40:52

their families are there. Their

40:55

job is there, their kids are there, they can't go

40:57

anywhere. They

41:01

can't speak up against these power

41:03

structures. Too

41:09

many people are aware of this stuff. If

41:12

you hear that something's happening, somebody's

41:15

being hurt or taken advantage of or

41:17

abused or stolen from, you

41:20

don't just look the other way. There's

41:22

three categories that put these people, and there's people that

41:25

commit a crime. The next

41:27

category is people that actively help. They

41:29

didn't actually do the crime, but they actually

41:31

participate in a cover up. The

41:36

third category, they're

41:38

aware that this person's covering this up, and

41:41

they're aware that this person did this, and

41:44

they don't say anything. Eventually

41:47

you're going to get to the dark click. It's going

41:49

to be very tight knit. It's

41:52

like when you take down a serial killer. They

41:55

give you information about all the other unsolved

41:57

Cases that they were involved in. This

42:00

a bit up there. Sitting

42:04

here, I'm starting to become distracted by

42:06

the weight of my own interpretation. What

42:09

exactly is hiding in them? To

42:12

these bad guys seem to move in

42:14

silence, leaving behind a trail of questions

42:17

and Greece or is is all just

42:19

a web of rumors spun by the

42:21

fact that florists archaeologists just disappear without

42:24

a trace. This

42:26

is the puzzle on determined to piece together.

42:31

People. Just don't want to speak. They're

42:34

just afraid. A

42:37

little bit you can solve crimes. The

42:40

Bad Guys on Mars. Then

42:44

I realized as a stranger to this

42:46

town, gaining the trust of gnomes community

42:48

is crucial. To get

42:50

anywhere close to the truth. I'm

42:52

going to need to approach this with patience. And

42:56

if the time ever comes I can't be

42:58

too afraid to approach new one. I feel

43:00

a suspicious. I'm going to

43:02

need to gain their trust to. On

43:10

August eighth, Two Thousand and Sixteen release

43:12

the very first episode of Up and

43:15

Vanished. A lot's

43:17

changed since then. Back then,

43:19

I was knowingly naive and

43:21

inexperienced. Clueless too

43:23

eager. And. Diving headfirst into

43:25

the deep end of a cold case. They

43:28

even express this in the very first

43:30

episode in that moment, not fully grasping

43:32

the whirlwind of a journey I was

43:34

about to embark on. And

43:36

I got sucked and. Everything

43:39

became tunnel vision and I became

43:41

consumed by an unsolved case. Deep

43:44

down. I knew that I was building

43:46

something special. I could feel it in my core.

43:49

But. I didn't know. That. I was

43:51

also constructing a labyrinth that I'd eventually

43:54

find myself lost in. The

43:56

mental toll was real. and

43:58

it's quite easy to begin questioning everything.

44:02

Am I a journalist? Am I suited

44:04

for this? Can I even handle it?

44:07

Or does that even matter anymore in the grand scheme of

44:09

things? When you're neck

44:11

deep in an active cold case, sometimes

44:13

your impulses can start to feel unbalanced.

44:16

It's so easy to fall off course. And

44:19

the next thing you know, you're simply fighting for your

44:21

own composure again. If

44:24

I wanted to continue down the path

44:26

of independently investigating unsolved cases and

44:28

are producing podcast seasons about it, this is

44:30

what comes with the territory. And

44:32

it's made me recognize the true value and

44:35

importance of the journalists and storytellers out there

44:37

who are still willing to take a risk

44:40

and actually investigate these cold cases

44:42

themselves. And

44:44

so here we are, embarking on a new

44:46

season of Up and Vanished. And I'm willing

44:49

to take risks that terrify me, all

44:52

in hopes of solving this case. This

44:55

season of the podcast has been

44:57

methodically designed to shake the trees, apply

45:00

pressure, and to expose

45:03

the individuals responsible for a heinous crime.

45:07

Throughout every season of this show, I'm

45:09

still continually learning. I

45:12

want you to connect with the story, the

45:14

sadness, and the hope for resolution.

45:18

And I want you to be angry about the injustice motivated

45:20

to support the cause. And

45:23

if we can both do that, then

45:25

maybe we can really make a difference. I

45:36

woke up in the morning, packed my suitcase

45:38

again, made some coffee at

45:40

the Airbnb, and then we

45:42

were off to the airport. And I walked

45:48

around this, and

45:51

I had to find this frozen, this

45:54

whole place. Maybe it

45:56

was serendipity, but during our

45:58

two-hour flight to Nune, He struck

46:00

up a conversation with the man next to me. He

46:02

was an older white man, gray hair, shorter

46:05

in height, and appeared to be in his

46:07

mid-70s or so. He

46:09

told me his name was Ray. In

46:12

a friendly, casual conversation, I asked

46:14

him, what brings you to know? He

46:16

said, I'm a gold miner. I've been mining gold

46:19

here for over 25 years. I

46:22

don't know what the reaction was on my face,

46:24

but whatever it was, I tried my best to

46:26

hide it while my mind began racing in all

46:28

different directions. And I felt compelled

46:30

to push a little further. I

46:32

told Ray I was working on a

46:35

documentary about the disappearance of Florence Ocpealek

46:38

and asked if he would be a part of it. To

46:40

my surprise, he said yes

46:43

instantly. And before I knew

46:45

it, we had touched down and known, and he was

46:47

on his way to our AirBnB for an interview. When

46:50

someone says yes, it's best to seize the

46:52

moment. You call the sis? Yes.

46:54

Hey man, how you doing? Good. At

46:58

this point, it seemed like a whole lot was happening at

47:00

once. I mean, we just

47:02

got here. Florence was last seen

47:05

outside of a tent on West Beach, where the

47:07

gold miners liked to camp, and we just met

47:09

this man like an hour ago, who's been a

47:11

gold miner here for over two decades. And

47:14

before I let my own panic set in, I

47:16

just need to chill. This

47:18

is when I got to step back, shut

47:20

up, and just listen. If

47:27

you come to Nome, you're not going to go very far. You'll

47:32

go about 90 miles that way, and 90 miles

47:34

that way, and about 75 that way, and that's

47:37

it. There's

47:41

a lot of people that come up to hide,

47:45

because you can disappear up

47:47

here, if you wanted to. But

47:51

I've been in Nome now for 25 years. There's

47:55

a lot of people that show up here. All

47:59

of them are chasing me out. I

48:02

mean

48:04

you

48:07

can go out here in this driveway here and dig a

48:10

bunch of dirt up, you'll find gold in it. I'll

48:12

be very surprised to be getting speckled to. But

48:15

just go there. There's

48:23

a lot of different people that come here. But

48:26

most of the community, you know, we're

48:28

close-knacked. I mean

48:30

if you live here, if

48:33

you're around, you know, they

48:35

know who you are. Back

48:37

in the day, everybody was camped out on that

48:39

beach up there. Living

48:42

in Tansford, Squallowing, Gold

48:45

Mine and the beach. It

48:50

got to be a problem with the city because

48:52

of fire hazards and stuff like that. So they

48:54

came to us, just get everybody off that beach.

48:58

All these miners that came to know, watch TV. They

49:02

think, God, you know, I'm just coming from them. Hey, maybe we're

49:04

going to sell the house and that, that, that. I'm going to

49:06

go out there and look at this mine. Well,

49:09

they don't realize, you know, you can't just

49:11

cook here and fill out rules and regulations.

49:19

West Beach, there was a lot of

49:21

people out there looking for her. Always

49:25

the rivers, all the way up through that place.

49:33

Haven't found a body, they haven't found anything. The

49:36

evidence is gone. You sure about that?

49:41

So what does that tell you? She's

49:43

not there. As

49:48

I'm sitting here talking to Ray, I'm slowly

49:50

remembering how much of a stranger we are

49:52

to each other. He

49:54

barely knows anything about me. So

49:57

why do you even agree to come here? I

50:01

mean, I appreciate his willingness, am grateful

50:03

for all the simply because damn we

50:05

do need it. The

50:08

Why Was he so willing to talk about this today?

50:12

Now I'm getting a my own head again.

50:14

I'm just going to keep listening. I

50:19

don't know what framers' who she was

50:21

with or worse yet know but I

50:23

do you know they some supposedly last

50:25

scene where this guy. They

50:29

found her things and his

50:32

chance. Did you

50:34

ever come in contact with versus? not

50:36

that I recall. I must say I

50:38

didn't seem or something. you know. I

50:41

guess Hershey's where. This guy i don't

50:43

know that through the guy wasn't the

50:45

beijing of i just heard you know

50:47

who they gave me. No.

50:51

I don't know. the guys named Tiger.

50:53

I don't even unmissable man. This and

50:56

I and I think logically and I'm

50:58

a logical sinker. Spinner

51:02

One Syndrome to. Say

51:04

something the know, like. I

51:09

mean your identity drive. Down the damn beach

51:11

and you see somebody was along and

51:13

job that skill? That

51:17

will make any sense either. You

51:19

might as such, literature. And

51:23

the people on that basis moons had

51:26

a reaction. wizard. Where

51:29

the guy when I know of? no. Return

51:34

it to. Us.

51:38

My yeah, he's not here. known for year of

51:41

his mouth. I

51:45

don't know really when, but I do know that.

51:48

If I was in and distributors. My

51:52

beer. He has asthma symptoms. You. Up

52:17

and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is

52:19

a production of Tenderfoot TV in association

52:22

with Odyssey. Your host

52:24

is Payne Lindsey. The show is

52:26

written by Payne Lindsey with additional assistance in

52:28

Mike Rooney. Executive producers

52:30

are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey. Lead

52:34

producer is Mike Rooney along with producers

52:36

Dylan Harrington and Cooper Skinner. Editing

52:39

by Mike Rooney and Cooper Skinner with

52:41

additional editing by Dylan Harrington. Supervising

52:44

producer is Tracy Givplin. Additional

52:47

production by Victoria McKenzie, Alice

52:49

Keneak-Glenn and Eric Quintana. Art

52:52

work by Rob Sheridan. Original

52:55

music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Mixed

52:58

and mastered by Cooper Skinner. Thank

53:01

you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at ETA,

53:03

Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group.

53:06

A special thanks to all of the families

53:08

and community members of the team. Additional

53:11

information and resources can be found

53:13

in our show notes. For

53:15

more podcasts like Up and Vanished, search

53:18

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53:22

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