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1:22

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1:24

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1:26

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1:28

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1:56

on Up and Vanished in the

1:58

Midnight Sun. August

2:00

31st, 2020, Florence

2:03

Ocke-Bialik is reported missing. Do

2:06

you feel like the police have done

2:08

enough to solve her case? No. It

2:11

feels and looks like they haven't done anything.

2:15

If there's not some sort of accountability with

2:17

the police department, this could easily

2:20

get swept under the rug. She

2:23

had reportedly last been seen on

2:25

West Beach. And

2:28

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

2:30

West Beach before. Okay. There's a

2:32

lot of people that would migrate from the bars down

2:34

to the beach. Somebody knows

2:36

something and covered it up. And

2:41

that beach is very popular for

2:44

gold miners. But

2:48

I do know that she was supposedly last seen

2:50

with this guy. They

2:52

found her things in his tents. The

2:57

gentleman who owned the tent, the miner, this

3:00

miner may have been involved. I

3:04

don't know the guy's name. Where the guy

3:07

went, I don't know. This

3:09

guy, I just know he was a

3:12

cab driver in town and a lot of people didn't

3:14

like him. He

3:17

was a drug dealer and then

3:19

he was a cab driver for

3:21

her, her cab. She

3:25

dropped everybody else off but her. And

3:27

he says, you know what, I could have killed you

3:29

and nobody would have known about it. This

3:33

guy gives her some of Chloe's claws, but

3:36

she's not there. Why

3:38

would her belongings be there and her not be

3:40

there? It's all part of the mystery, isn't it?

3:44

Whether it was intentional or an effort to

3:46

shut her up, she's clearly

3:48

been murdered. Which

3:51

bar was she at last? BOT.

3:53

That's the one right on front street. It's the

3:55

oldest bar downtown. She

3:58

said, oh my god, the bar is clean. and so was

4:00

that West Beach. There

4:05

was problems with a cab driver.

4:08

And he followed me. He pulled

4:10

out at night. Disguised.

4:14

The name starts with Jane. The

4:16

man is a dangerous man. She'd

4:20

been missing two days. There

4:22

was a man, and

4:24

it kind of knew him because he was a cab driver. He

4:28

was sitting there drinking, and he was talking about an incident

4:30

was going on with his girlfriend. And

4:33

he was saying she'd gotten a restraining order on her own. It

4:38

turned out it was her life. I'd seen her down West Beach. She was

4:40

partying with some of the minors down there. And

4:43

she's not my exact. I was talking

4:45

to her. Her cell phone

4:48

and shoes being found outside of the tent. Her

4:50

items were around his tent. One

4:53

of the last people to see her, if not

4:55

the last. Have you ever seen him

4:57

since all this? He moved shortly after that.

5:01

What was the name that you knew him by? Oregon

5:06

John. What

5:08

do you think happened to her? Pretty

5:11

sure somebody murdered her. From

5:27

TenderfootTV in Atlanta, I'm your host, Payne Lindsey. And

5:39

this is Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun. In

5:48

the

5:53

case of Florence Ocpealec's disappearance, the biggest lead I have

5:55

is this mysterious gold miner who was

5:57

carrying a along

6:00

West Beach and known. He

6:03

was reportedly seen by multiple witnesses taking

6:05

flow to and from West Beach on

6:07

the night she vanished, and

6:09

her personal belongings were found outside his tent

6:11

the next morning. As

6:14

of right now, here's what we know about him. He's

6:17

a middle-aged white guy, potentially

6:19

overweight, and in addition

6:22

to being a freelance gold miner, he allegedly

6:24

drove a cab in town. I

6:28

heard multiple first-hand accounts of scary

6:30

run-ins with the cab driver who

6:32

also fits this loose description. A

6:35

friend of Flo's aunt Wendy described an incident where she

6:37

was picked up by a man in a cab, and

6:39

he told her he could have killed her that night

6:41

and gotten away with it. Another

6:44

story from a lady I met at the

6:46

local board of trade bar involved the cab

6:48

driver of a similar description who allegedly was

6:50

following her one night and

6:52

threatened her with a knife. And

6:54

a man meeting this same description told the

6:57

bartender Naomi just two days after Florence went

6:59

missing that she had gone to West Beach

7:01

that night. And as

7:03

far back as I can trace, it's the first time

7:05

that anyone ever mentions that Florence went to West Beach.

7:09

This is intimate knowledge that only someone who

7:11

was with Flo that night she went missing

7:13

could have possibly known. This

7:16

same man at the bar was also a cab

7:18

driver, and he admitted to the bartender

7:20

that he was in fact with her that night on

7:22

the beach. And the personal

7:24

belongings they found were outside of his

7:26

tent. According to

7:29

the bartender Naomi, his

7:31

nickname is Oregon John. And

7:36

right now above all else, he's my number

7:38

one focus. What's Oregon John's

7:40

real name? And where is he now?

7:44

Upon replaying the recording of Naomi, there

7:47

was one thing in particular that really stood out to

7:49

me. And she stopped by his tent. I was

7:51

talking to him and her

7:53

cell phone and shoes being found outside of the tent.

7:57

According to every missing persons flyer for Florence.

8:00

in every personal account I've ever heard from her

8:02

family, the items found outside

8:04

Oregon John's tent were her shoes,

8:07

shirt, and jacket. But

8:09

in that conversation at the bar, Oregon

8:11

John added a new detail that I've never heard

8:13

anywhere else in this case. Her cell

8:15

phone and shoes being found outside of a tent. He

8:18

mentioned that he had Flo's cell phone. Why

8:21

on earth would he say that if it wasn't true?

8:24

It's definitely not a good look, but

8:26

it's also strange to me that there's no mention

8:28

of her cell phone anywhere else. Did

8:30

he really have her cell phone that night too? And

8:32

if so, where the hell is it now? Do

8:35

the police have it? Do the police even know

8:37

about this stuff? The

8:39

known police department has been a revolving

8:42

door of police chiefs and investigators for

8:44

years now. It seems that

8:46

most people don't stick around for long. At

8:49

the end of last year, the current chief retired,

8:51

and for the first time in three years, the

8:53

known PD had no police chief at all. Instead,

8:57

the lead investigator, a man named

8:59

William Crockett, seemed to be unofficially

9:01

filling that role. I

9:03

don't know if he's investigator Crockett or

9:05

officer Crockett, but he now

9:07

has the case, even though he wasn't here at

9:09

all during any of the search efforts. I

9:12

met with Sue Steinecker again, a known

9:14

local who's been here for decades and

9:16

followed Flo's case from the very beginning. Now

9:20

they've decided that she must have been killed by

9:22

a bear because we can't

9:24

find any sign of her at all.

9:28

None of it makes sense. According

9:32

to the last known conversation with the police department, they're

9:34

running on a new theory now. We

9:37

do have bears, grizzlies here. I mean,

9:40

they are around. Every great once

9:42

in a while, one will come

9:44

into this region, closer to town.

9:48

A bear kill, there would have been all kinds

9:50

of signs. It's

9:52

not like they eat every last bone. That

9:55

doesn't make any sense. Bears

9:58

are most certainly present in Nome, Alaska. but

10:00

they rarely make their way into town. In

10:04

2022, officer Curtis Worland was killed by

10:06

a muskox trying to defend his dog

10:09

from the animal. A muskox

10:11

is a huge bull-like mammal native to the

10:13

Arctic region. They range from 400 to 900

10:15

pounds. It

10:18

can run up to 37 miles per hour. And

10:20

just like grizzly bears, the muskox can be

10:23

a very dangerous animal to encounter. But

10:25

overall, these incidents are extremely

10:28

rare. The

10:30

other thing that doesn't make any sense to that

10:32

is that we had people out searching all the

10:34

time. If there'd been a bear in the area,

10:36

there would have been alerts. And

10:42

it's just, it's very frustrating that the police

10:44

department can say, well, we

10:46

can't share anything with you because this is an

10:48

active case. How active is it?

10:53

It's a great way to cover your butt if you're

10:55

not doing anything, or if

10:57

you've given up. Now you're

10:59

blaming it on a magical bear that

11:02

cleans up neatly after itself. I

11:05

feel she's clearly been murdered. There's

11:08

a long history of strange disappearances

11:10

unknown that continue to remain

11:12

unsolved. There's a couple of

11:14

unsolved murder mysteries so that people have taken

11:16

advantage of being able to get out

11:18

of town. This is the same explanation

11:21

they've used for Joseph Baldaris because they can't

11:23

find his body. Well, it must have been a

11:25

bear. Four years before Florence

11:27

went missing, in June of

11:29

2016, a man named

11:31

Joseph Baldaris disappeared. He

11:33

didn't show up for work on a Monday morning. And

11:36

upon checking his residence, he was nowhere to be

11:38

found. The police theory on

11:40

his case is the same thing, a

11:42

bear attack. I mean, this seems

11:45

to be the default explanation. And

11:47

there's a lot of people not by in that line. At

11:50

the entrance to the Aurora Inn Hotel in Nome,

11:53

there was a missing poster for Joseph Baldaris taped to

11:55

the door. He was 36 years

11:57

old when he disappeared. And just like...

12:00

Like Flo's case, there's no leads

12:02

whatsoever. The man just vanished into

12:04

thin air. His family

12:06

is continuing to post reward signs. They

12:09

told me they got very frustrated with the

12:11

known police department and they hired our own

12:13

private detective. They feel like his

12:15

case is very suspicious. I

12:18

did some more reading on Joseph and started

12:21

drawing many similarities to Flo's case. Displeased

12:23

with the known PD's handling of his

12:25

case, his family decided to hire their

12:27

own private investigator, a

12:30

man named Andy Clamsor. For

12:33

years, this PI was traveling back and

12:35

forth to Nome, conducting his own investigation,

12:38

doing his own interviews. If

12:40

there was anybody out there with more insight

12:42

on how to privately investigate a disappearance in

12:45

this town, it's got to be

12:47

this guy. Investigating

12:49

a missing person's case in the sub-artic region

12:51

of Alaska is a pretty unique thing.

12:54

This is somebody I want on my team. So

12:57

I tracked him down. When

13:00

I think of an investigation like this, I think of

13:02

it as a long hallway with a lot of doors

13:04

off it. The

13:07

idea is to travel down that hallway, go

13:10

in every door and check it out. You

13:14

can go down rabbit holes and waste a lot

13:16

of time. You

13:18

really need the ability to look at all

13:20

those other issues and figure out which of

13:22

them warrant a lot of time to focus

13:25

on what is important. In

13:28

every case I've ever covered, there comes

13:30

a point where your mind becomes scrambled

13:33

with information overload. You

13:35

start going down every avenue you find, checking

13:37

off the boxes one by one, but

13:40

sometimes you find yourself stuck in a loop. It's

13:43

important to remember to zoom out and reset,

13:45

or you might get lost in minute details

13:47

that don't matter. For

13:49

whatever reason, a lot of

13:51

people seem to go missing a note. The

13:54

number of missing people does not really

13:56

match the population of the area. It

14:00

is weird, it is weird. It's

14:02

definitely wild country. There's

14:05

a lot fewer people. Some

14:07

people can't stand the winters because the winters

14:09

are long. I mean, it's a different

14:12

feel up here in the winter. Much

14:15

quieter, there's a lot fewer people who

14:18

have about six hours of daylight.

14:21

I mean, so in the summer, it's

14:23

light 20 hours out of the day.

14:27

Speaking of that, I don't think

14:29

I've slept since I've been here. The

14:31

five hour time difference is one quote. But

14:33

when I look out my bedroom window at two in the morning,

14:36

it looks like two in the afternoon. I've

14:39

been here for almost a week now. The

14:41

only darkness I've experienced is with the

14:43

blackout shades drawn. Gnome's

14:46

unusual in that you've got these

14:49

three long roads. Unlike other places in

14:51

Alaska, you can go to Gnome and

14:53

take a vehicle way out in the

14:55

middle of nowhere and do whatever you

14:57

wanna do, hunt, look for gold, whatever.

14:59

And so that would create more missing

15:01

people than other communities, I think. But

15:05

once you turn up into the hills, there's

15:08

nobody, there's nothing. It's

15:10

open country. People

15:13

don't live out there. People

15:15

go back and forth on that road

15:17

to council. But other than

15:19

that, there's nothing out there. When

15:22

you start to venture outside the downtown area, you need

15:24

to have your wits of value. If

15:26

you get a flat tire, you

15:28

could be there for days before another car drives by. Joseph

15:32

Balderes was reported missing on June 27th, 2016.

15:38

And just like Flo, despite extensive search

15:40

efforts, he too has never

15:42

been found. One

15:45

of Joseph's friends contacted me early on.

15:49

After talking to friends of Joseph,

15:53

it wasn't making sense. His

15:56

fiance was alarmed right away.

16:00

His usual practice was to stay

16:02

in touch with her multiple times

16:04

a day. Joseph

16:07

wasn't responding to anything, and nobody had

16:09

seen him other than the roommate. So

16:13

for him to not respond to her

16:15

messages was very unusual. For

16:18

him to just disappear, not reappear

16:21

in town was very unusual. According

16:24

to Joseph's friends, he was

16:26

a very skilled runner and outdoorsman who loved

16:29

camping and fishing out in the elements. He

16:32

was reported missing on the 27th, and

16:34

then the next day his truck was

16:36

found, abandoned, at the mile 44 marker

16:38

of Nome Council Road, way

16:41

outside of town. The

16:43

first sighting of his truck out there was at

16:45

10.45 a.m. Inside

16:49

the vehicle, they found his backpack.

16:52

It contained bug spray and some fishing

16:54

lures. And on the floorboard, a pair

16:57

of waders and some boots. His

17:00

truck was found parked, backed into

17:03

a pullout. It

17:05

became a very big deal in Nome quickly.

17:09

Close by, there appeared to be footprints leading

17:12

into the woods to a nearby river, but

17:15

Joseph himself was nowhere to be

17:17

found. They had done a

17:19

lot in terms of searching. Helicopters

17:21

and airplanes, I think they had the

17:23

Coast Guard helping. The

17:26

state's conclusion, he had been

17:29

attacked by a bear or had some kind

17:31

of accident, and they just

17:33

didn't find the body. If

17:36

Flo or Joseph were attacked by a bear, you'd

17:38

think there'd be some evidence of that. Bears

17:41

don't eat backpacks, clothing, or cell

17:43

phones. Those pieces

17:45

weren't fitting together. Frankly,

17:48

it would be pretty unusual for

17:50

somebody to get attacked by a

17:52

bear and then never found. That

17:56

would be unusual. That

17:58

scenario that he was... attacked

18:00

by a bear, somehow the

18:02

body was hidden. It

18:05

just seemed unlikely. And so

18:07

it was worth looking into. The

18:10

more you look into it, the

18:13

more unanswered questions and red flags

18:15

there were. Through

18:19

Randy's investigation, there seemed to be

18:21

some red flags of his own. A

18:24

suspicious alibi from his roommate, strange

18:27

text messages to his fiance, and

18:29

some associates in his life that weren't being

18:32

very forthcoming about some of the details of

18:34

their last interactions with him. There's

18:37

other things that point in

18:39

another direction. If

18:41

you look at everything in total, the

18:45

theory that he was a victim

18:47

of animal predation or that

18:49

he had an accident out there, he fell

18:51

or something, and they just didn't find the

18:53

body, that is

18:55

less likely than the scenario

18:58

where somebody killed him. The

19:04

normal course of action would be to

19:06

do in-depth interviews with all of his

19:08

friends and associates and family members. You

19:11

would do a normal homicide

19:14

investigation. And

19:16

that never happened in this case. Nome

19:20

PD is just a constant

19:22

churn. It's a weird department.

19:24

For whatever reason, it's just

19:26

unstable. They

19:29

don't pay enough for people to go out

19:31

there and actually stay. There's

19:35

no transparency. They want

19:37

to defend what they did or didn't do.

19:41

Nobody's off-limits. The more people you talk to,

19:43

the better. I

19:46

think it was time that I met with the

19:48

Nome Police Department myself, but

19:50

I didn't necessarily have high hopes. Andy

19:54

left me with some parting advice. Anywhere

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22:08

met up with Flow's sister, Blair. Remember how explosive I

22:10

mean he looks every week but especially against

22:13

us. Yep. You know the

22:15

lesson. We don't

22:17

know who's having their keys out at the time. There

22:20

was somebody sitting every week. They

22:24

didn't listen to us. Have

22:30

you ever talked to Crockett before?

22:32

I have several times. What

22:34

have your exchanges been like with him? A

22:37

lot of conversation. It's very upsetting.

22:39

I see you were

22:42

in April. He said he wanted to talk to me.

22:45

And put about what? He said, I'll

22:47

go to his case. And then I called

22:49

him. I called three times

22:51

and left three messages. And

22:54

then he never returned my call. She's

22:57

tried on numerous occasions to make

22:59

meaningful contact with Investigator Crockett from

23:01

the known police department. But

23:04

every time she's been shut down. A

23:08

few days after we talked, she tried calling him

23:10

again. I call and they asked her

23:12

and they said they haven't seen you in the office

23:14

yet. He's not here. Would

23:17

you like to read her message? I

23:20

left several messages. I want

23:22

to speak to him. I

23:24

think you should go to the police

23:26

department because then they'll know that this is

23:29

happening. If they knew it was happening,

23:31

maybe they'd get a little more motivated. Or

23:34

come up with another, maybe it was a dinosaur that

23:36

killed her. So

23:39

I went to the known police department myself to

23:41

try and figure out what the hell is going on here. Is

23:45

the police chief in today? No,

23:50

he is out at the office this week. May

23:53

I ask you, folks, you don't know what you're working on? I

23:56

spoke to an officer through a bulletproof glass window using a speaker

23:58

by the way. We're

24:01

here to discuss some missing persons cases. Then

24:09

Investigator Crockett emerged from the back. He

24:31

kept his foot on the door, casually

24:33

leaning back against it. I

24:35

don't think we're getting the invite to his office. What

24:39

time would work best for you guys? I

24:41

mean, really anytime tomorrow would be okay. Is

24:45

earlier, midday better for you? So

24:47

probably let's shoot for earlier in the morning,

24:49

you know, we'll talk to them and then

24:51

we'll make a decision. I

24:54

know you guys are out of Atlanta for some

24:57

kind of a hot cat. Yeah, yeah. So

24:59

just call his station or... Awesome.

25:01

Thanks again, I appreciate it. He

25:07

agreed to meet with me the following morning. So

25:10

I cleared my schedule. And

25:12

just like he asked me to, I called

25:14

the station before we arrived. No,

25:20

I'm police from McNope. Yes, I'm

25:22

calling for Deputy Chief Crockett. I'm

25:25

asked who's calling, what is Skirting? This

25:28

is Payne Lindsay, I'm a journalist from

25:30

Atlanta. I spoke with him yesterday briefly

25:32

about possibly meeting today. Give

25:35

me one second, please. Sure. Thanks

25:44

for holding, I appreciate that. He is unavailable for the rest

25:46

of the day. Could I take a

25:48

message? Is he not there? I

25:51

wasn't able to reach him. I'm not sure what he's got going

25:54

on right now. Okay,

25:56

do you know when he might be in again? I'm

26:00

not sure if you'd like you can check on back tomorrow

26:04

Tomorrow, huh? Do we

26:06

get free beer tomorrow, too? I

26:09

don't think tomorrow is happening Now

26:19

they've gotten on my nerves and

26:23

I can be quite persistent when I'm like this So

26:27

I tried them again the next day Is

26:41

there landline disconnected now? This

26:45

is frustrating Hello,

26:51

you have reached a city of Nome. Please

26:54

listen to the following options and make

26:56

your selection at any time To

26:59

leave a message Okay,

27:19

I think I'm getting the message It's

27:21

clear the Nome Police Department have no interest

27:24

in talking to the podcaster from Atlanta. That's

27:26

fine I got a backup plan The

27:30

private investigator Andy Clamsor warned me

27:32

of this and his

27:34

advice was to reach out to the city manager's

27:36

office My

27:38

number one focus right now is

27:40

finding the identity of Oregon John This

27:51

was going to be a Hail Mary, but

27:53

I requested any documents of police

27:55

interactions with a man named Oregon

27:57

John The

28:01

ideal person to speak with, our

28:03

actual city manager is out of

28:05

town for a week. We've

28:08

got a acting

28:10

city manager in his place.

28:14

So John J-O-H-N. Records

28:19

request with governments, they

28:21

can be months long. Just depends

28:24

on what their requester is requesting. For

28:28

now, it seemed like that was the most I could do. Fingers

28:31

crossed that there's some record of an

28:33

organ John. And

28:36

fingers crossed they even fucking look for it. But

28:39

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28:41

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Find the ideal sitters for your child care

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needs. We

31:28

were both living in Teller, which

31:31

is like 72 miles away from

31:33

Nome. Her

31:36

laugh was just like unique. Ten pages.

31:38

Yeah. It's like I could hear it now. Both

31:42

of our parents come from Wells. Our families

31:44

are from the same little village. Lowe's

31:47

family is from Wells and the

31:49

little diamond island. All

31:53

three of us worked at the hospital together. Yeah. In

31:56

different departments, but you know, we would see each other all the time.

32:00

We would go to the beach or we would take

32:03

a drive inland to go picking

32:05

for greens or tundra

32:07

berries. A lot of my memories

32:10

revolve around that. It's

32:13

a lot harder to get good

32:15

groceries up north and even before

32:18

that was the thing Alaska natives

32:20

relied on the land to sustain

32:23

themselves. She

32:25

was really enthusiastic about that. There

32:29

was a time where I hung out with her in

32:31

high school. I was being

32:34

a little mischief teenager. I

32:37

lived with my older brother and his wife

32:39

at the time and I was afraid to

32:41

go home and then Flo was just like

32:43

let's go pick berries so eight

32:45

in the morning we went to the tundra and

32:47

started berry picking. I

32:51

feel like she always looked after me

32:53

and tried to give me advice and

32:55

she would bring me desserts

32:58

or muktuk which is whale. That's

33:02

a really good memory that I always think

33:04

about her. She was thoughtful. I've

33:10

been a single mom for a while

33:12

now. Her daughter

33:14

and my daughter are about the same age and

33:17

what I really enjoyed about her is that

33:19

she was very vocal but she was also

33:21

quick to let me know what resources were

33:23

available to me. She

33:25

was quick to look after people. She

33:27

was also quick to give advice. She

33:30

would do it without judgment too. She's

33:33

always thinking about what's best for her daughter

33:35

and she always talked to her daughter, Olivia.

33:38

She would talk her through things. Her

33:41

daughter is very smart. She's

33:44

very talkative. I think that's what her

33:46

mom taught her. She would just talk her through things and

33:48

read to her. She would take the

33:50

time to explain things to her or she

33:52

would teach her about our subsistence. I

33:55

think that was really sweet. She was a really good mom. It

33:58

was really encouraging. Like if we

34:01

didn't understand some about subsistence, you know, she would

34:03

talk to us about that or she would show

34:05

us what to do Yeah, when it comes to

34:07

like picking greens or you know egg

34:10

hunting Like she just

34:12

be like you can do it. Come on. Yeah Don't

34:15

be too like don't be afraid. Yeah Like

34:20

she had a lot of knowledge I guess like

34:22

more than I did and she

34:25

just loves subsistence, so I I

34:29

was shocked and

34:31

like Still

34:34

feels unbelievable to this day

34:36

like How can

34:39

you just be missing and I don't

34:41

know if there's any leads. I don't know what's

34:44

going on, but been

34:47

so long and It's

34:49

just still unbelievable to me I Have

34:53

to be the type to just leave

34:55

her daughter Yeah, you know a lot

34:58

of our memories to involving Flo her

35:00

daughter was always right there too same with my

35:02

daughter We've only with our kids, but

35:04

she was never the type to just You

35:07

know when she had first gone missing like we only like she

35:09

was not That

35:12

was her pride and joy For

35:15

the first week were like what I

35:17

shot was like she has

35:20

to be somewhere She

35:22

has to be with someone maybe

35:24

she took a little

35:26

break. I Can't remember

35:29

at what point it was in the case, but like

35:31

it just blew my mind that You

35:33

know the story started coming out about who

35:35

saw her last after that week, you know,

35:37

it was it

35:40

felt surreal Because

35:43

she wouldn't just leave her daughter or her

35:45

family like that When

35:52

they started searching the beaches for her because

35:55

you know, they came out that Someone

35:58

so is that that they saw her walking

36:00

on the beach or hanging out with

36:02

someone on the beach and when they

36:04

started taking the search and rescue to

36:07

the beaches of Nome and up the

36:09

coastline is when like it

36:12

clicked. I don't

36:14

think she's gonna come back or maybe

36:16

something something really bad had happened

36:18

to her. It was

36:24

like a heart-sinking feeling like this is

36:26

actually real like she's actually missing she's not

36:28

just taking a break or

36:31

she's not just like hiding. You have

36:33

to understand where we're coming from

36:39

because this is Alaska. We

36:41

have a really harsh environment it's really pretty

36:43

but there's only so long

36:45

that you can be outside with the

36:48

right resources. Our

36:50

water is rough too and then the tundra is

36:52

hard to walk on and it starts

36:54

clicking when you realize that they are searching

36:56

outside. The place

37:00

is that they are searching and you

37:02

start thinking like she's not coming back what happened to her

37:04

who did this to her. Why

37:07

is she missing? Especially

37:09

because she has a daughter. That's

37:13

when it starts clicking for me. That

37:15

she's not coming back. After

37:20

time passed and there was no

37:23

success in finding her it was

37:27

just a big like sinking feeling.

37:30

Or like a slap

37:32

in the face. Like

37:34

she's just not here right now. It's just

37:37

really unbelievable like unimaginable.

37:41

Yeah because you don't know you start

37:43

questioning like if

37:46

she's out in like what's going

37:48

on here. Yeah if she's out in the elements

37:50

like is she warm

37:52

but while they find her it's

37:54

kind of like breathtaking.

37:58

You can't. Breathe

38:01

and you start thinking about

38:03

like, has she eaten? Is

38:05

she still alive? Is she

38:08

well clothed? She

38:11

just can't be gone. Especially

38:14

because at that point I was living here. And

38:17

you know I kept thinking about my sister and Flo and

38:19

all of us hanging out like, I wanted

38:22

to be there but I, you know, I

38:24

wouldn't be here with my daughter. So there was a much I

38:26

could do from here besides trying

38:28

to process my emotions or hoping

38:31

that they'll pick up on a lead in

38:33

this case while they're searching for her. But

38:36

it's just like all of that piled on

38:38

together just gives you anxiety. You're

38:43

in a town with 3,000

38:45

people. You're

38:47

telling me no one saw anything, no one

38:50

has come forward. I

38:53

mean I get it that it's the vast land out

38:55

there outside of the town but this is a town,

38:58

a small town. Someone

39:00

had to have seen something. You

39:03

know everybody talks to each other, everybody knows

39:05

each other and no

39:07

one has come forward with anything solid.

39:12

It's just, it's been three years. There's

39:15

nothing at all. This

39:20

is one of our own. Why

39:24

would anyone think that it's okay to harm

39:26

someone else or take someone away from their

39:28

family and friends? He

39:33

took a mother away from her child, sister

39:36

and aunt away from her family, daughter,

39:39

he took a daughter away from her parents.

39:44

He took a beautiful person

39:46

from this earth, you did

39:48

that. Why would you think that's okay?

39:52

Why would you pray on someone that's

39:54

very innocent and loving and caring? Why? Why

39:59

would you do that? do that. I hope

40:03

you feel horrible, then you

40:05

feel guilty. Mm

40:11

hmm. Okay. Yeah, I love

40:13

you. It's okay. And

40:16

I just hope they

40:19

feel guilty and horrible that they

40:21

just can't live with this anymore. I just

40:26

come forward. I

40:31

hope that we find something

40:33

that will open this case back

40:35

up where they find something significant

40:38

to reopen it and I hope

40:41

you get

40:43

what you deserve. And I

40:45

hope we can figure out who you are. In

40:58

terms of my investigation, it was

41:00

starting to feel like I had a serious roadblock. Flo

41:09

was last seen with a man named Oregon John. He

41:12

had her personal belongings, potentially

41:15

her cell phone. And

41:18

apparently he fled town a long time ago. If

41:26

this man holds the key to what happened to her that night,

41:29

then I need to talk to him. A

41:33

week or so went by and one

41:35

morning I woke up to an email that I

41:37

never expected to see. You

41:40

are not gonna believe what the known city hall just

41:42

sent back to us. You're not

41:44

gonna believe it. I

41:46

couldn't actually believe it. The

41:48

city's office sent me a detailed

41:51

report of every police interaction with

41:53

Oregon John. Take

41:55

Davis a report. What's

41:58

more shocking is what is... in

42:00

this fucking report. But

42:08

then we got another email and

42:10

this one was from the known police

42:12

department. I

42:15

guess they do still work there. In

42:18

addition to the police report on Oregon John

42:20

and we graciously received from the city hall,

42:23

we received a lovely letter from the known PD

42:25

as well. It reads, Dear

42:28

Sir, the city of Nome is

42:30

in receipt of your records request.

42:33

As there is an active and ongoing

42:35

investigation into this matter, your

42:38

request is hereby denied. You're

42:41

kidding me. We

42:44

already have it. Do

42:46

they know that we have it? Is

42:50

this like a fuck you? In

42:54

their denial letter, they state

42:56

there is an active and ongoing investigation

42:59

into Oregon John. I never

43:01

once mentioned Flows disappearance in any

43:04

of my requests. I got an email

43:06

here from the city hall, an

43:09

official document from the known

43:11

police department with

43:13

all the interactions with

43:16

Oregon John. But

43:19

what is even more interesting is what's

43:21

inside this report. I

43:23

have his full name now, but for

43:25

the time being, I'm still going to call him

43:28

Oregon John. Race,

43:31

white, sex, male,

43:34

age 52, weight

43:36

270. Additional

43:39

remarks from the known PD, October

43:41

2nd, 2020. Quote, John

43:44

has made threats to the known police department if

43:47

any law enforcement approaches his tent on West

43:49

Beach. But this

43:51

is just the tip of the iceberg. In

43:53

this report, there are 93 incidents and

43:55

yes, me

44:00

correctly 93 disorderly

44:04

conduct vehicle theft assault

44:07

third degree cruelty to animals

44:09

harassment probation violation

44:12

theft second degree property

44:14

theft harassment theft second

44:16

degree assault third degree

44:19

assault fourth degree assault third

44:21

degree cruelty to animals sexual

44:24

assault first degree probation

44:26

violation criminal trespass assault

44:28

fourth degree sexual

44:31

assault first degree known

44:33

aliases or

44:36

organ john this

44:49

is a real-time investigation if you

44:51

want to dig even deeper into the case go

44:54

check out my weekly show called talking to death

44:57

in the latest episode that dropped today i

44:59

break down episode three in a conversation with

45:02

the producers who helped put this show together

45:05

it's an in-depth look like i've never done before

45:07

exclusively on my weekly show called talking to death

45:09

which is out right now go

45:12

check out the latest episode featuring sarah tourney

45:14

you up

45:22

and vanished in the midnight sun is

45:24

a production of tenderfoot tv in association

45:26

with odyssey your host is pain lindsey

45:28

the show is written by pain lindsey

45:31

with additional assistance from mike runny executive

45:33

producers are donald albright and pain

45:35

lindsey lead producer is mike runny

45:38

along with producers dylan harrington and

45:40

cooper Skinner editing by mike runny

45:42

and cooper Skinner with additional editing

45:44

by dylan harrington supervising producer is

45:46

tracy carolyn additional production by victoria

45:49

mckenzie alice kenneke glenn and eric

45:51

kentana artwork by rob sheraton original

45:53

music and makeup and vanity mix

45:55

and mastered by cooper skin thank

45:57

you to aaron rosenbaum in the

45:59

team team at ETA, Beacomedia and Marketing,

46:01

and the North Group. Special thanks to all

46:03

of the families and community members that spoke

46:06

to the team. Additional information

46:08

and resources can be found in our show

46:10

notes. For more podcasts like Up

46:12

and Vanished, search Tenderfoot TV on

46:15

your favorite podcast app, or visit

46:17

us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for

46:19

listening.