What had occurred between January and February for you to believe it was okay that your mother was not there?
Well, she had told me that she was going to go out of town.
She had made preparations to go out of town. at her doctor's visit, made sure that her medications were all current and she had refills and all of that, had the oil changed in the car.
She had told several other people that she needed to get away for a while also.
Even as a young investigator and even as a common person, it just did not seem right to me from the beginning.The minute I heard the details of her not being available and the checks and the line of stories that they were telling,
that she had gone to visit a family member who had recently had surgery and no one had heard from her.And so that raised the level of suspicion.
They did a reanimation, like a clay thing of what her face would have looked like.And they ran that on the news here in Little Rock.Because they didn't run it in Northwest Arkansas, we didn't see it.
The neighbor Mike, he was at a baseball game in Fayetteville. And he approached one of the police officers and mentioned that story and told them that he thought it might be Goldie Sorensberry and that they should look into that.
It was the summer of 2000 when two development consultants were surveying land on Cantrell Road in Little Rock, Arkansas.They noticed a drainage area and went to find the source.They walked into the woods a short distance and came upon a well.
One of the workers thought he saw something down in the well and poked at it with a stick.As the item shifted, it became clear that it was a human skull.That's when they decided to call the Little Rock Police Department.
Human remains were removed from the well, and it was later determined that the murder victim was a woman, and someone had dismembered her before placing her inside the well.
She didn't match any missing persons in the area, so Jane Doe's case went ice cold.
Ten years later, the police department decided to have a clay recreation made with the hope that circulating photos of what this woman may have looked like would jog someone's memory.
A man who lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas back in the 90s, was tuning into the news one night in Little Rock, and thought the clay recreation looked like his neighbor, Goldie Thornsberry, who had vanished back in 96.
He decided to contact authorities, and that tip brought a cold case off the shelf that some had hoped time had forgotten, and thrust it back into the spotlight.I'm Marisa, and from Wondery, this is episode 459 of The Vanished.
Goldie Thornsberry's story, part one, The Woman in the Well.
I'm Marsha Clark, host of Informants Lawyer X. Join me as we tell the shocking true story of a lawyer who wasn't just representing some of Australia's most dangerous gangland criminals.She was informing on them to the police.
Informants Lawyer X is available exclusively on Wondery Plus.Join Wondery Plus for access to this and more Exhibit C true crime podcasts.
When surveyors happened upon human remains in a well on a wooded lot in Little Rock, they uncovered puzzle pieces that an investigator in Fayetteville, Arkansas had been looking for for more than four years.
However, it would take an entire decade for them to figure that out.It was a hot summer day in 2000 when police were called out to this wooded lot.They cleared brush from the area and it was determined that the well was about five feet deep.
They noted that the skull was found in two plastic sacks with a ligature tied in a knot around the bags.The coroner climbed into the well, removed the skull and debris.
They excavated about three more feet and found more bones, a plaid shirt and bra, and a single boot with remains inside.
The remains and other items were transferred to the Arkansas State Crime Lab, and later they were sent to the University of Arkansas Department of Anthropology for analysis.
The report states that human skeletal remains referred to as MEA-612-00 are believed to be those of a single adult individual.
The remains were complete with the exception of the hyoid, the bones of each hand, left tibia, and fibula, both right and left patellae, and the bones of the left foot.
It was estimated that the postmortem interval was greater than five years, and they concluded that this was a woman of Euro-American ancestry. between the ages of 45 and 60 at the time of her death.
It's also noted they believe this woman would fall at the lower end of that range.Jane Doe's bones had a lot to tell about how she had died.There were cuts and fracture patterns consistent with an attempted dismemberment.Her hands were never found.
It appeared they had been cut off with a sharp object.There were other bones that appeared to have been cut as well.
There was a fracture to the skull, and it was theorized to have occurred when she was thrown in the well or by blunt force shortly before death. Jane Doe's cause of death was listed as obstruction of air passages with ligature strangulation.
Notes in the records we obtained discuss those bags that were found with Jane Doe's remains.One bag was described as a black bag, and the description sounds generic.
However, the other bag was described as a heavy plastic white bag with a drawstring, and it said Northwest Medical Center on it. Northwest Medical Center was located in the Northwest Arkansas region.
And most of us would assume that the next logical step would be to contact law enforcement in that area to see if they had a missing person that fit the description of Jane Doe.But unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Jane Doe's case was put on the shelf where it collected dust for another 10 years.Meanwhile, a few hours away, there was an investigator looking for Jane Doe.And there were many grandchildren growing up wondering what had happened to their nanny.
In 2010, a clay bust was created to illustrate what Jane Doe likely looked like.That would give them the opportunity to circulate an image in the media, and hopefully someone would recognize her.Here's Lt.
Tim Franklin from the Fayetteville Police Department.
I mean, it's just a set of circumstances that just worked out.That gentleman, Mr. Mike McAvoy, who was Goldie's neighbor back in the 90s, had moved down to the Little Rock area.
And 14 years later, he's watching the news and he sees this clay creation of the skull that they use to make an image of who they believe the person was that the skull belonged to.
He looked at that and he called and said, Hey, I think that's my old neighbor that's missing from Fayetteville.Not only did he do that, he also picked up the phone and called Fayetteville police department.
And got in touch with me and I started from there calling Little Rock and moving forward with the investigation.
Mike lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas back in the 90s.
He later moved to a different area of the state and just so happened to see that clay recreation on the news and thought it looked like his old neighbor who had disappeared from Fayetteville in 96, Goldie Thornsberry.
And that bag that was found with Jane Doe, the one that said Northwest Medical Center, well, that wasn't far from where Goldie Thornsberry lived and was a hospital that she had visited in the past. By 2010, Lt.
Tim Franklin had been working Goldie's case for 14 years, and this lead from Goldie's neighbor was the tip he had been waiting for.
We had obtained DNA samples from the family members and a profile was created and entered into NCIC.And as well as we had the physical description and things of that nature entered way back in 96 when she first went missing.
So when she first went missing, you have a variety of options entering into the national database. And so we entered her as a missing person with her name and her physical characteristics that went nationwide.
So if an agency runs someone remains of a female, approximately this height, approximately this weight, approximately this age, we get what's called a hit.And that hit encourages the department that's running that person to contact our department.
and then you can compare notes and you'll know A, B or C, yes, this is a potential person or we need to do a little more investigating.We had that entered as well as the DNA from the family that made a profile for Ms.
Thornsberry and that's why once Mr. McAvoy contacted us, we were able to contact our Arkansas State Laboratory who maintains profiles on the missing.They pulled DNA sample from one of the bones and it was a match.
Goldy's disappearance was one of those cases that always stuck with him.Lieutenant Franklin desperately wanted to solve it.He was a rookie investigator back in 96 when Goldy's case landed on his desk.
I'd only been here four years.I had recently joined the investigation division, probably three months prior to that.And being one of the younger guys here at the time, I was just really self-initiated.
And it just did not seem right to me from the beginning.
What Lieutenant Franklin couldn't have known at the time was that Goldie's case would follow and haunt him for the next 28 years of his career.Now we're going to go back to the beginning and start in 1996, when Goldie was reported missing.
Most of the cases we cover, the person is reported missing by a family member or friend.But that isn't where Goldie's case began.
It was actually someone from the bank where Goldie had a checking account who noticed something fishy going on and decided to alert authorities.
Let's go back.I mean, we're talking about 1996.1996, it was just standard for checks to be written.You could write a check at your local convenience store or at your gas station. and you can ask the clerk, can I write it for $5 more or $20 more?
And that was a standard process back in that time.There was no debit cards.There was in fact credit cards, but checks was the pretty much the main method of transactions outside of cash.
And so as a result of that, if you were living in a certain area and you were known to the clerks in the stores back then, they called them hot checks.If you had insufficient funds, it was called the hot check.And
the stores would start a list of people who not to take a check from.But there was no central system like there is now where it would register, but it was just word of mouth and knowing.
So if I wrote a check at Walmart on the east side of town and it bounced, the west side of town Walmart would not know anything about that.So I could go there and write a couple of checks. Today a check comes back within 24 hours.
Back then a check came back anywhere from 3 days to 10 days.So you had a large window to be writing these bad checks and getting money.
Now, as far as her, she was a known customer in the bank and Fayetteville was a smaller community back then and people were known and our banks, local banks took pride in knowing their customers.She was on a fixed income of about $400.
And so they recognized that she was not one that would have frequent amount of checks coming through her account outside of a grocery check, outside of utilities and things of that nature.
and they were seeing checks coming from the local liquor stores, convenience stores, and just a variety of places that were outside of the norm for her.The bank at the time was McElroy Bank.
It was a locally owned and operated bank, so they took pride for sure in knowing their customers and seeing that unusual activity.
We had such close relationships with our banks because we work forgeries and hot checks all the time that a bank would say, Hey, we've seen some irregularities say on Tim Franklin's bank account.And they might say, are you guys seeing the same?
And the city of Fayetteville ran its own hot check office.So if our hot check office started seeing checks coming in on Ms.Goldie Thornberry's account, as well as the bank reporting it, then that drove that level of suspicion higher.
even as a young investigator and even as a common person from the beginning, the minute I heard the details of her not being available and the checks.And I mean, there's a place for people who hurt the elderly.
That was some of the things we cherish as a younger child that Neighbors knew neighbors and bin owners knew their customers and those times are gone.
But I think that's why this case carried so much weight and so many people stayed attentive to it because, you know, everybody could relate.That could have been my grandmother or my mother.
Back in 96, Goldie was a 65-year-old single woman who lived in an apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas.As Lieutenant Franklin mentioned, she lived on a fixed income, and her banking transactions were predictable.
So when all of these checks began coming in written to liquor stores and various other places that Goldie never shopped at, leaving her account very overdrawn, the bank decided to contact the Fayetteville Police Department, who attempted to conduct a welfare check on Goldie.
So initially it started with our patrol level.I think they called the detective division and the detective division secretary referred it back to a patrol division to go out and do a welfare check.I think that happened on two occasions.
They went out to the house and were told various stories and then the checks continued to come in.And that's when the detective division was notified and I was contacted.I think by the time I went out there, no one was there to answer the door.
At the time, one of Goldie's daughters, Rita, was living at Goldie's apartment, along with her husband, Raymond, and her daughter, Brittany.Attempts were made to establish contact with them, and eventually they did.
Rita told investigators that her mother had left town to visit family.
So that was the line of stories that they were telling, that she had gone to visit a family member who had recently had surgery, and she would not just go visit that one.She might make different stops at various family members
around the state as she traveled to see this family member that was supposed to be in Clinton, Arkansas, I believe is where she's at, Clinton or Danville, Arkansas.And so she would probably not drive the entire route then.
She would stop at maybe her brother's house in Madison County, Arkansas, and then proceed on.Well, I contacted each and every one of those family members and no one had heard from her. And so that raised the level of suspicion.
As a result, I was able to locate one of her daughters, Debbie McClure, who lived in Clinton, Arkansas.She traveled to Fayetteville to make the initial report.Things were a lot different back in the 90s as far as reporting someone as missing.
We had to have a written statement from a family member that said, these are the reasons why they find it suspicious that this person is missing.And Debbie was the only person available at that time to
make that statement so that we could enter in the national computer and start our investigation.
One of Goldie's other daughters, Debbie, assisted Lt.Franklin in reporting Goldie missing.And her other daughter, Barbara, went to Goldie's apartment to see if she could get more information out of her sister, Rita.
Barbara Carnes, she'd gone there on two occasions, and Rita had given her a various amount of excuses.And I think on the third occasion, she forced her way into the home. and realized all her mama possessions were there.
As a result, eventually she came into the police department as well.There was a lot of frustration between the sisters at that time.And I mean, I counseled both sisters repeatedly.
I was really concerned about it getting violent at some point, but they were able to maintain themselves, but it was a lot of strife in the family.
It quickly became clear to Lt.Franklin that it wasn't Goldie Thornsberry blowing all of her money writing checks at local liquor stores, and the people who would have had access to her checkbook were the ones living with her.
Yeah, I mean, it was pretty easy because they're the only ones who had access to the home, access to Ms.Thornsberry, and access to her banking account.There was no one else living in the home.Her granddaughter was there, but she was a minor.
They were the ones who had access and were seen and known to people writing the checks.Some of the checks actually had their date of birth on them, perhaps, handwritten on there.And so it was pretty easy to isolate.
And back then we did handwriting analysis.And I had looked at some of their previous records that were on file with the police department.It was pretty easy to ascertain that they were the ones writing the checks.
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Goldie's daughter Rita and her husband Raymond were not criminal masterminds, and they left a well-defined trail of clues.Clerks at the various stores where checks had been written were able to identify Rita and Raymond.
They were later charged with forgery and both pleaded guilty.While the forgery seemed to be an open and shut case, that didn't lead them to find Goldie.But it put Rita and Raymond in the spotlight as the main suspects in her disappearance.
as they were the ones spending Goldie's money after she vanished, as if they knew she wasn't coming back.One hurdle they had to overcome at the start of the investigation was to pin down when exactly Goldie had gone missing.
It was a bank employee who had sounded the alarm in mid-February, but by that time, Rita and Raymond had already been using Goldie's checks for quite a while.Rita and Raymond told stories about Goldie leaving to visit family who lived out of town.
And as Lt.Franklin mentioned, he tracked down some of Goldie's relatives and called them.They were reporting to him that they hadn't seen or heard from her in a month or two, and they found this to be extremely odd and out of character for Goldie.
One family member noted that the last time he had spoken to Goldie, she voiced that she was extremely fed up with Rita and Raymond.
In a March 11, 1996 statement written by one of Goldie's other daughters, Barbara, she said, I know she would not go out of town without letting anyone know, and she would not bounce a check.This is not like mom.
Also, she has not had her medicine filled, and she has to have it.She's a diabetic.I feel that something is bad wrong, and she needs to be found.I know she can't go this long without her medicine.
Barbara also recalled that during the last conversation she had with her mother, Goldie did mention that she wanted to go somewhere.But Barbara couldn't recall exactly what she had said about the destination.
Goldie said that some checks were missing from her checkbook, and Barbara told her that it was probably Rita who had taken them.Barbara's birthday is in early February. So she decided to stop over on the 2nd to see her mother for her birthday.
And Rita told Barbara that Goldie wasn't home.Barbara returned for a second time the following day.And Rita again said that Goldie wasn't home.She had gone to Madison County to visit her mother.
Barbara returned again on March 2, and forced her way inside Goldie's apartment, because Rita wasn't about to invite anyone inside.Goldie's stuff was still there.Rita said that she still wasn't back from Grandma's.Barbara continued to press Rita.
She wanted to know what was going on, where their mother was, and she wanted to know now.Rita wouldn't budge, so Barbara left, but promised Rita she would be back.
Barbara said she called her grandmother to check and see if Goldie was there, but she wasn't. She said she then checked the route to her grandmother's, to see if her mom's car was along the road somewhere.But still, nothing.
After this time, the housing authority kicked Rita and Raymond out of Goldie's apartment, and they skipped town.Barbara didn't know where they had gone.A March 15, 1996 report stated,
As of this date, I'm trying to locate Rita and Raymond Douglas, to question them about the whereabouts of Goldie Thornsberry and her checking account.
Much of the information the Douglas' gave me when first questioned about Goldie's whereabouts has proven to be false.They lied to several family members and bill collectors when they came to the residence.
The Douglases have been unconcerned about Goldie, even though they were living with her at the time she was last seen.They've apparently left Fayetteville and moved to Little Rock.
On March 22, 1996, two of Goldie's sisters went to the police department after they had cleaned out Goldie's apartment.Since the housing authority had evicted Rita and Raymond and changed the locks, someone needed to go retrieve her belongings.
Goldie's sisters turned over two pairs of Goldie's glasses that they had found inside the apartment.They advised that Goldie was very dependent on her glasses and wouldn't have left on a trip without them.
On March 30, 1996, Lieutenant Franklin caught up with Rita and Raymond after they were arrested for forgery.He now had the opportunity to interview both of them. Rita recalled that she had last seen her mother on January 25th.
She claimed that her mother said she was going to visit a relative named Karen, or a sister in Danville, or her mother's home in Madison County.
Rita said she offered to drive Goldie, due to a problem she had with her neck after long drives, but Goldie declined.Lt.Franklin asked how many pairs of glasses Goldie had.
since he had just learned days prior that her sisters found two pairs of glasses inside Goldie's apartment.Was there a third pair that Goldie could have left town with?Rita told him that she only knew of her mother having two pairs of glasses.
When asked what Goldie took with her when she left the apartment, Rita said her mother took her medications, some lotion, a tan suitcase, and a bag from a medical center.
When Lieutenant Franklin pressed Rita for more information about the forged checks, Rita became concerned that perhaps she should have a lawyer and asked to speak to Raymond about that.
During Raymond's interview, he said that he last saw Goldie in January or early February.He said she was angry with her kids for falling back into old habits.
He recalled that she left with a pair of boots and various other items, but he couldn't remember the exact details.
When confronted about the forged checks, he said that he had given Goldie $3,300, and they had agreed that she would put the money in her checking account and Raymond could spend it.
He alleged that he thought the money was in the bank, and that's why he and Rita had written all of those checks.
And when he learned that the cash hadn't been deposited, he contacted the bank to attempt to repay the money, though it's noted in reports that there's no record of such an attempt being made.
When asked where Raymond had gotten the money, he said small wins at the racetrack and working his construction job. He claimed that he did this because he didn't want to put an account in his name, but didn't offer an explanation as to why.
When asked where Goldie might be, Raymond said that she liked to go play bingo in Siloam Springs and parts of Oklahoma.He was sure she would be back when she wanted to return.
At this point in the interview, Raymond asked for an attorney and the conversation ended. One major takeaway from these early interviews with Rita and Raymond is that they each mentioned an item that was found with Goldie in the well.
They didn't mention the exact same item, though.Rita recalled seeing her mother leave with a bag from a medical center.And Raymond mentioned Goldie had boots on.
A medical center bag and one boot were with Goldie in the well when she was found in 2000.For Lieutenant Franklin, this only served to confirm his suspicions.And he said that it's common for people to include bits of the truth mixed in with lies.
That's pretty common in law enforcement where you want to give a little bit of the truth so that you can remember it a little easier but without giving the particular details.
One important date that later came into focus was a medical appointment that Goldie went to on January 15, 1996.That's the last confirmed time that an impartial witness had seen her.
So sometime between mid-January and when the bank contacted law enforcement in mid-February, something happened to Goldie Thornsberry. Missing along with Goldie was her 1989 Pontiac Le Mans.
And that kind of fit into the storyline that Rita and Raymond were telling, that Goldie had left town.Lieutenant Franklin attempted to track the car down.
One of the forged checks was written to University Auto, so he went there on March 23, 1996, to see what he could find out.He learned that the check was written for work that was performed on a Pontiac Le Mans.
The vehicle had been towed there for repair, and the invoice was dated January 23, 1996.After the check was returned due to insufficient funds, someone from the repair shop went to Goldie's address.
Goldie's daughter, and we can assume it was Rita, met the man at the door and told him that her mother was out of town in Texas.
Another interesting piece of information about Goldie's car came to light after a story about Goldie's disappearance aired on the local news.
Owners of a local pawn shop saw the news piece about Goldie and how her daughter and son-in-law were arrested for forging her checks.They remembered Goldie's last name and interactions they had with Rita and Raymond.
so they reached out to the police department.Lieutenant Franklin interviewed the owners on April 3, 1996.The couple who owned the pawn shop stated that Rita and Raymond brought the car in to pawn or sell on two different occasions.
But the title was still in Goldie's name, so they refused to take it.The story Rita and Raymond gave them was that Goldie had given the car to them a few days prior.
When asked if they could narrow down when this occurred, the shop owners said that Raymond pawned something on February 9, then called to ask if they bought cars a few days later.
The owners said yes, and Rita and Raymond showed up the very same day with a car that they wanted to get rid of.Later, the pawn shop owner said she couldn't remember if it was within a week before or a week after the 9th.
Goldie's missing car was another mystery of the case, but not for long.Just days after Lt.Franklin had spoken to the owners of the pawn shop, Goldie's Pontiac Le Mans turned up at a Walmart in Fayetteville.
And the discovery of Goldie's car made that story about her traveling out of town to visit relatives seem much less likely to be true.
It was located in a Walmart parking lot, and things have changed so much over the years. But at that time, Walmart had employee parking, which was usually in a non-common area off from where the customers would be at.
And they had parked that car back in that area and just driving through the parking lot, you wouldn't see it or normal patrols or anyone visiting.It took an employee to say, hey, this car has been sitting here for a while.
Once one of the officers on night shift was just on the backside of Walmart looking and she ran into the car. I think the car was there almost the entire time until it was discovered.
In the 90s, you would get flyers on cars from different religious organizations, people selling things.There was no use of the internet like it is now in things.
And so that was a lot of ways of communicating or marketing your product is by putting flyers on windshield wipers.And that's what that car had.It had a bunch of faded flyers on it.
And we were able to isolate it back at least to within a month of the time in which those flyers were handed out, which made us surmise that the car had been left there the entire time.
As we try to narrow down exactly when Goldie vanished, just as Lieutenant Franklin did years ago, we know that Goldie went to the doctor on January 15th.She also had her oil changed that very day.
The receipt for the oil change shows that the mileage on her vehicle was 83,606. You learned a couple of minutes ago that Rita and Raymond had forged a check for a repair on Goldie's Pontiac on January 23rd.
On the invoice for that repair, it was noted that there was 83,776 miles on the vehicle at that time.When the car was recovered in April in the Walmart employee parking lot, it now had 83,864 miles on it.
So from the date that Goldie had her oil changed, which is the same date that she was last seen at the doctor, her car had only been driven 258 miles.It's roughly 200 miles each way from Fayetteville to Little Rock.
So whoever dumped Goldie in that well must not have driven her all the way there and back in the Pontiac. However, there is one interesting detail to mention here.
Days after Goldie's Pontiac was discovered at the Walmart, they brought out a cadaver dog to search a wooded area of interest and go over the vehicle.
The dog didn't indicate in the woods, but it did give an indication on the passenger side rear door of Goldie's car, about halfway up the door above the handle. Lt.
Franklin believed it was likely that Rita and Raymond were behind Goldie's disappearance, but he couldn't prove it.They didn't find any physical evidence in Goldie's home or the car.
And back then, Goldie was still missing, and she wouldn't be found for several years.Then 10 more years would pass before she was identified.Rita and Raymond had a story, and they were sticking to it.
They maintained that story and pretty much didn't back off it.Raymond couldn't give as many details as Rita. But Rita was more of a, what did Raymond tell you?Or what was told to you by Raymond?
Like they didn't want to get their stories mixed up, but it was pretty clear that they had information that they were not going to divulge.They stayed together pretty tough and pretty tight.
And so it left me to believe and all the other investigators to believe that they had acted in concert to do this, whatever had occurred to her.
Today, we have the knowledge that Goldie's remains were later discovered in a well in Little Rock.If you look up that trip on a map today, Google Maps will tell you that it's roughly a two hour and 45 minute drive from Fayetteville to Little Rock.
But Lieutenant Franklin pointed out that it wasn't quite as easy to travel between the two cities back in the 90s.
I'll tell you also, just as a resident of Arkansas, and I get this all the time for family members out of town and everything as well. People think Arkansas is a very small state and that's what they think the nexus of Arkansas is Little Rock.
And so I think it's important that you express how far apart Fayetteville and Little Rock are.And just the fact that the interstate system was not in place that's in place now that allow you to travel to Little Rock in a little over two hours.
It was a three plus hour trip back then because we did not have the I-49, I-540 exchange. We used to have to drive what's called 71 Business, and that was through a mountainous area of about 45 miles that took every bit of an hour to traverse.
So how did Goldie end up in a shallow well in Little Rock?Did she know someone there?Did her killer or killers have connections in Little Rock?And that's a point that we'll come back to later on in this series.
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There's so much more to Goldie's life and story than the mystery of her disappearance and the gruesome discovery of her remains in a well years later.Goldie was a mother and grandmother.
It's Goldie's grandchildren who are advocating to keep her story alive today.Back in the 90s, Goldie was their rock.Goldie had four children, Robert, Barbara, Deborah, and Rita.
By the mid-90s, some of Goldie's children were struggling with substance abuse and weren't always there for their kids as much as they should have been.But Goldie stepped up to bridge the gap for her grandchildren.
She never missed a visit, and they leaned on her.Goldie's home was a soft place for them to land.They always knew they were safe with their nanny.Here's Goldie's granddaughter, Casey.
My grandmother's house was kind of a safe house.My parents divorced when I was two. Whenever my older sister and I were supposed to have time with our mom, who I refer to Barbie as my biological mom.
So whenever we were supposed to have time with her, we were usually dropped off with my nanny.And that's what we called Goldie was nanny.And my mom just kind of took off and did what she wanted to do.
And that's where we were with all of our cousins and her.She had a one bedroom little apartment. And half the time, she had at least six of us in that apartment with her.It was shelter and it was fun.It was where we got to play.Nanny was strict.
She had rules and we followed them or there were consequences.But at the same time, we would watch Tales of the Crypt with her.We would watch her soap operas with her.
We would go down to the playground that they had at the apartments and we would all play.We were outside a lot.She grew up on a farm. I remember going to my great-grandma Mae's house with her a lot, and we would visit out there.
She liked to be out there with the chickens.She'd go out and feed the chickens, and she always had honeycombs for us.She would keep the comb parts from the bees.That would be our special treat.She would let us have a piece of the honeycomb.
Casey explained that Goldie had been married for many years, but later she got divorced, and that's how she ended up in that apartment in Fayetteville.
Her and my grandpa George were married for a long time.I'm not sure exactly when they separated, but I know they ended up divorcing.
They had a little patch of land with a farm and that was where I originally remember being with her, but I was super young then.And then her and grandpa George ended up separating.
Then she got the apartment in town because I think the farm either got lost in the divorce or it got sold or something happened with that.
Casey's older sister Nikki recalls that it was after Goldie's move from the farm that life changed, not just for Goldie, but for everyone.
Before my grandparents divorced, they had a farm on Wyman here in Fayetteville.And I remember being there a lot.At that point, she was just a grandma then.
And so we would come out and stay the weekend and go gather eggs and go to the garden and help get the vegetables in and snap peas and green beans.
And then when she had to move and sell the farm, that's when life got kind of hard for her and her kids kind of went off the deep end.And then she was more raising grandkids than just loving on them and spilling them rotten.
She probably wasn't your most typical grandma, just because she had to be more strict because she raised both of her grandkids.So it wasn't like come over and like cookies in the bed and
She still had to have like those rules you would have at home, but she was very loving and would do anything for us.On the weekends that I was with my mom, my mom would go out with her friends or whatever.
And I could call her and say, Hey, I'm home by myself with my sisters and they're scared.And she would come over in the middle of the night and just end up staying the night with us.So she was always very dependable.
So my parents had joint custody for a while, and so every other weekend I was at the farm or the apartment.My other cousin, Brittany, she lived with her full-time.
When my Aunt Debbie and her kids and husband lived in Arkansas, on the weekends she would have their four boys.
Goldie wasn't just a mother figure to her grandchildren.Goldie's sister Karen said that going back to her childhood, Goldie was her second mother as well.
Goldie was the oldest girl in the family, and she tended to the younger children while her parents worked in the fields.
She was my oldest sister.She was the second oldest of nine.She was the second mother to all of us younger ones, because my mom and dad at that particular time raised tomatoes from the canneries that were around.
And Goldie took care of the rest of us kids while mom and dad was out working in the field.But she was the best big sister in the world and the best daughter to my mom.She helped mama do everything.She was strong-willed, opinionated.
One of Rita's daughters, Brittany, lived with Goldie at the time of her disappearance.
Brittany had an especially close relationship with her grandmother and considered her to be more of a mother figure, because even when Rita wasn't living with Goldie, Brittany did.
The nanny had pretty much full custody of me.Most of our mothers weren't very stable and had habits and things like that.So we were always at her house.Before they moved in, it was just me and nanny there. She was just an amazing person.
She was loving.She didn't take shit.She was just great.Her door was always open to all of her grandkids.She was like just a glue to our family.And you can tell.I know Rita's my biological mom, but she was my mother.I had a mother taken from me.
Life had already been tumultuous for Goldie's grandchildren.But when Rita met Raymond, things only got worse.
My first introduction to Raymond was, I came home from school one day and he was there.And he was like, oh, call me dad.They were married and all of this.It was just tumultuous because they were just addicts.So they argued a lot.
He was violent towards her.He threatened my little sisters one time and stabbed the door.I don't know.It was just bad.And then, um, they ended up losing their apartment and having moved in with Nanny. And it was just bad from there.
Like Raymond went to run her household.It was always just arguing and he just wanted to change everything.Nobody ever liked Raymond.Like who's going to like a dude who just shows up one day after school like, oh, I'm your daddy.Call me dad.
No, that's weird.I got a dad and I don't need you.So just weird.
Casey can remember how she saw Raymond when she was a child and she was afraid of him.
From what I understand, and from what I remember, Raymond was very abusive and pretty violent.They were doing drugs.I can't verify which ones, because I know that my biological mom and Rita were doing drugs together at the time.
And Rita and Raymond were living with Nanny when all of this happened.And she was actually pregnant with Raymond's son.I was scared of him. Rita and Raymond moved into Nanny's apartment with her.They did have their own place.
And I remember my sister and I going to stay the night with Brittany, but Nanny wasn't really sure.She didn't really want to let us go, but Rita told her that Raymond wouldn't be there.
So she agreed to let us go stay the night with Brittany at their apartment. And I do remember Raymond coming over at some point, Brittany telling us that we needed to hide behind the couch.And then we ended up hiding outside for a little bit.
I don't remember how it ended, but I just remember him being loud and there being a lot of yelling and just being scared behind the couch and just wanting it to be over.
Casey's sister Nikki was also at the sleepover at Rita's apartment, and it was an event that she's never forgotten.
He just went into this fiery rage and was sewing Rita up against the wall and screaming and yelling.And me and Casey had never seen anything that violent before.I mean, my dad and stepmom have a great relationship.
And so Brittany was like, just come to my room.It'll be over in a few minutes.If it doesn't get better, I'll call Nanny and she'll come get it.And I was like, okay.And then after that, me and Casey said we would never go back for a sleepover.
We probably didn't really know much that was going on because most of the time when we were there, Rita and Raymond weren't there.
Casey and Nikki were raised primarily by their father and stepmother, but would have visitation with their mother at Goldie's.Casey recalls that she was at home with her father when she learned that Goldie was missing.
I don't remember when the last time I saw her really was.I know I found out that she was missing My sister and I were getting ready for school and my dad came and got us out of our bedroom and told us that we needed to go and watch the news.
And we went in there and we sat down and I was like, why are you making us watch the news?I need to get ready for school.And then they showed a picture of Nanny and they said that she was missing.
I kind of understood, didn't really understand what was going on.I think my dad said that was the first time he had heard about it.The family hadn't reached out to him about it yet.
The news story I saw when they reported her missing is like the only one that I really remember ever seeing around that time.
I remember people talking about it and mentioning things, but I don't remember seeing anything else like that on the news or in the papers.It took until about the middle of February for people to start asking questions.Rita told them that she was in
Madison County with some family or that she was in Kansas with some family or that she was in Clarksville visiting my Aunt Debbie.Each time it was a different story that she was out of town.
From the police reports that I have, what I understand is like they, they were just trying to reach out to different family members.So she wasn't really declared a missing persons until March.My mom went over, so her birthday is February 2nd.
And she says she went over there around her birthday because usually Nanny would cook her something special for her birthday.And so when she went over on her birthday, Rita wouldn't let her in the apartment and told mom that Nanny was out of town.
I guess mom went back the next day, tried to force her way into the apartment and Nanny still wasn't there and Rita really couldn't answer questions.But again, nobody did anything at that point.
Casey's memories of exactly when she found out her grandmother had disappeared are murky.But since Brittany lived with Goldie, her memories are more clear.
In the records we obtained from law enforcement, it's obvious that a lot of work went into attempting to pin down exactly when Goldie vanished.And Brittany remembers it being right after a doctor's appointment.
And if you recall, the last verified sighting of Goldie was at a doctor's appointment on January 15th.
The day before we had went to the doctor.I went to the doctor's office with her.We had like, went and got ice cream.There's this little flea market she likes to go to.And then I went to sleep that night.
I woke up the next morning, and Rita and Raymond were telling me, oh, she left.And I just remember bawling my eyes out, crying, like, no, she would never leave me.Like, she would not leave me.They got up, made me go to school.
Everything was just the same. I remember it.I woke up, it was pouring down rain outside and the worst news of my life.And to the point I even looked up the weather for this day just to make sure.
And literally it was the exact weather, the exact day, the exact everything.
In the aftermath of Goldie's disappearance, her grandchildren felt lost without her.And they were so young.Naturally, they weren't given much information at the time.Goldie had been Brittany's everything for so long.
Now she was left with Rita and Raymond, and she was scared.I do remember there wasn't plenty of time.
I was really sad.And my teacher at the time at Bates was like, what's wrong?What's wrong?And I just told her, I was like, my grandma died. She had been gone for so long.I'm so sad.
The teacher tried to talk to my mom about it, but she just got me out of there so fast and left.I don't know.My sister Courtney tells me all the time.I used to tell them, Raymond killed Nanny.Raymond killed Nanny, but I don't even remember it.
I don't know.So much stuff has happened since then, and you try to bury so much.
You're likely wondering about searches of Goldie's apartment and if they discovered any signs of foul play.
Now remember, Goldie had been missing for some time before she was actually reported missing, and that would have given a potential suspect time to clean up a crime scene.
A report dated 3-14-96 stated that Luminol was used to locate blood in the apartment, but they found no evidence of a crime or that a struggle had occurred there.
Looking back on this with what she knows today, Casey believes that some opportunities were missed early on, due to how things unfolded.
Since it took so long to report Goldie missing, and her own daughter was sending investigators on a wild goose chase, claiming she was traveling here and there to visit relatives, it took a long time for them to come back and search Goldie's apartment.
If the apartment had been a crime scene, plenty of time had passed by before investigators came back around to take a hard look at it.
By the time the police decided to investigate this and look at the apartment, Rita and Raymond had already been kicked out of the apartment.They were told they couldn't be living there.
And the apartment was empty for a little bit because everybody was trying to figure out, you know, where Nanny was.But then the housing authority
old Nanny's sisters that they had to get everything out of the apartment or it was going to be set on the curb.At that time, they didn't know any better.It hadn't been declared a crime scene.
So by the time the police got around to going to look at the apartment, the apartment had been pretty much emptied of Nanny's things and partially cleaned by the housing authority so they could turn it over to another renter.
During the early investigation, one thing that seemed to stand out to Lieutenant Franklin was that multiple witnesses reported that a freezer was missing from Goldie's apartment.
One witness said that they had seen it there as late as January 14th, and it was in working order.Rita claimed that the freezer had an electrical problem and couldn't be fixed.
However, a representative from the housing department stated that there was never a complaint made regarding that. One of Goldie's neighbors reported that sometime in January, she witnessed Rita and Raymond loading a freezer onto a U-Haul trailer.
This neighbor also mentioned that she spoke to Brittany at the bus stop approximately two days after she saw the U-Haul.Brittany said that Goldie was on vacation and that they had been moving a freezer out of the apartment in the U-Haul.
In a March 1996 interview with Raymond, he claimed the motor went out on the freezer, and that it was removed from the apartment by unknown persons, which contradicted Rita's version of events, that they had moved it with a U-Haul trailer.
In Rita's interview from March of 96, she claimed the freezer went out in December, and they rented a U-Haul and dropped the freezer off at a Salvation Army as a donation.So which was it?In an April 1996 report written by Lieutenant Franklin,
It says that after learning that Rita had rented a U-Haul trailer to move the freezer, he went to the U-Haul location and was told that Rita had rented it on February 12, 1996, at 9 a.m.and returned it the following day at 8 a.m.
It was paid for with cash. In a quest to find the freezer, Lt.Franklin found that Rita had rented a storage unit.He wasn't able to get inside without a warrant, but there was concern that the freezer and Goldie could be inside the storage unit.
In February of 1998, the Benton County Volunteer Dive Team searched Siloam Springs Lake after a tip came in about Goldie being dumped in the lake inside of a freezer. But that didn't turn up any clues.
Goldie's neighborhood was canvassed, and no one reported hearing anything that had alarmed them.There was that one neighbor who did report seeing the freezer being moved, which was odd.
Investigators spoke to Mike McAvoy, the neighbor who would break this case wide open many years later, after he recognized the clay recreation of Jane Doe on the news.
In March of 96, he told Lieutenant Franklin that Rita and Raymond often asked him for rides.He even allowed them to borrow his vehicle. That was until he began to suspect that they had stolen checks from him.
He mentioned that Rita and Raymond owned a truck that was frequently in the shop, thinking that perhaps that could have been used in Goldie's disappearance somehow.Lieutenant Franklin tracked it down to a repair shop.
The shop owner said that it had been there for two months, which would place it right around the time that Goldie vanished.
The owner believed that Rita and Raymond weren't going to pick it up, that they had abandoned it there, because they had left it for an estimate, and then he never heard from them again.
The story that Rita and Raymond gave to police, and anyone who turned up looking for Goldie, was that she had left town.Brittany was living with Goldie at the time, but she was a young child, just 8 years old.
She remembers that there were talks of Goldie planning to leave town, but this was just going to be a short trip. Goldie had expressed that she wanted to take some time away from Rita and Raymond.They had been fighting.
Goldie didn't like Raymond and believed they were stealing from her.But most importantly, Goldie's plans to go on a trip included bringing Brittany along with her.
There had already been talks.
And that's kind of just what they played off of her leaving and things like that, just because they had been arguing a lot about things that, I mean, at the time I was unaware of, but I mean, as I get older, it makes sense that they were arguing a lot up until that time that my nanny was saying, yes, I am going to leave, but she wasn't saying I'm leaving by myself.
She knows that she has custody of me and she has to take care of me. Nanny was saying me and her are going to stay at Debbie's when she gets her next check because I didn't know that they were arguing because they were stealing her checks and stuff.
She knew that they were stealing her money and writing hot checks and she chose not to call the police and get them in trouble.She was going to leave her own house just to get away from you and take me with her.
That's what they got in trouble for with everything they were doing after her disappearance on her account. And she lives on Social Security in project housing.It's not like it's a lot to take.
They were just putting her in bad situations that she just didn't want to deal with or be in.And I don't blame her.
Brittany knew about Goldie's plans to go visit family.And that's why she was so heartbroken and confused when she woke up one day and was told that her grandmother left without her.
Investigators wanted to talk to Brittany since she lived at the apartment and may have witnessed something.But Rita and Raymond wouldn't allow it.
The one time that they tried to talk to me, when they pulled Rita and Raymond in, they had me across the hall, but they had the door open.
And when the detective left out, Raymond was in the other room and he was telling me, he was like, don't say nothing.Don't say nothing.Don't tell them nothing.So I just, I was quieted.I did as I was told, as Jillian and I tried to do.
She wouldn't let them talk to me at all, but yeah, they wanted to interview me.They wanted to hear what I had to say. what I remembered from the time, all of that.
Goldie's sister Karen recalls a conversation that she had with Goldie in the lead up to her disappearance.Karen remembers Goldie saying that she had to get out of there, or they were going to kill her.
In the moment, Karen didn't take that as Goldie stating that her life was in danger.She believed her sister was stressed out because her children were in and out of trouble, and she was the one caring for all of their children.
As much as Goldie adored her grandchildren, it was getting to be a bit much for her as she was aging.
She told me she was coming to stay with me.And I lived three hours away from home.She said, they're going to kill me.But now I thought she was talking about Barbie dumping her kids and leaving them.Hey, that's what she said.
They're going to kill me if I don't get out of here.Now, I don't think she was talking about Rita K. I really don't because she thought Rita K had remained.But before we hung up, one of the last things I said to her
was, Goldie, please don't let them kill you.Come and stay with me.And that was the last time I talked to her.
Nikki, too, has memories of how stressed Goldie was trying to keep up with all of her grandchildren.And there was a time early on that Nikki thought maybe she did go on a trip.
But in hindsight, she knows that this was just her wishful thinking from a child's perspective.
But I do remember thinking, that maybe she had left and we didn't know where she was because she had us kids all the time.Sometimes she would just say, oh, I might run away one day so I can get a break because she was just so tired.
And I remember joking with her at some point saying, well, where would you want to go?Where would you go to get a break?And she'd be like, I don't know, maybe the Bahamas because she had us all the time.
And I said, well, Mamie, if you ever go, I want to go with you and you won't have to take care of me because I'm older.
Lieutenant Franklin worked hard on this case.He had a hunch about who was behind this, but struggled to find the physical evidence to prove it.
He said that he often turned to the media to appeal to the public for information, just hoping that someone out there knew something.
The sisters, Barbara Coynes and Debbie McClure, and even their brother and their uncles and aunts, everybody was 100 percent cooperative. whenever they were available.
We never missed an anniversary of her missing date without putting something out to the media.We published flyers, and once the internet kicked up, we had everything on the internet.
But every chance we had, if the media called and said, hey, we're looking for a story, we put Goldie Thornsberry's story out there.
I think it's those values that as a small town we had that allowed me to keep this case in the media over all those years.I never was turned down by the media about doing a story on this.Every time I asked, they put this story on.
For Goldie's grandchildren, this tore their family apart.You can probably understand how it would affect a family, having one of Goldie's own children at the center of the investigation and a suspect in the case.
No one knew who to trust, and distance grew between relatives.In many cases, contact was cut off altogether.Brittany had been very close to her cousins, but she was pulled away by Rita and Raymond.Goldie was no longer there to shield her.
For Casey and Nikki, it was like losing a sister.
We never knew where she went after Nannie disappeared.Nobody would tell us anything about where she was or who she was with.
My sister Nikki and I were just talking about that the other day, like, why did no one, it didn't seem like anybody really asked or fought for her.So I didn't understand.It was almost like she disappeared for us too.
They wanted her not to be able to be around us. I think they wanted her separated in every possible way.And that was the part that I didn't know that they told her that Nanny was just gone and she wouldn't have left without Brittany.
Nobody is going to talk about it and you have to act like nothing happens.Like it was hard enough for me.Like it, it really hurt all of us.And for me, I had an amazing father and a wonderful stepmother and we, I had stability on that side.
I hadn't had at least one stable parent.If I hadn't had my dad, there's no telling how it could have turned out different for me.And I look at my other cousins and see situations and you have to be grateful for what you have.
But at the same time, if we would have been allowed to have Nanny in our lives, if she could have stayed, the differences that that would have made for us and the way that I think we would have relationships now is what I mourn.He only had Nanny.
When they took out Nanny's stuff from her apartment, we kept all of Brittany's stuff from her school.We had yearbooks and school pictures and photo albums that my dad kept at our house for her.There was a basketball that we used to play with.
when we were at Nanny's that we would all play and we kept that.I remember just going out and looking at the stuff and just thinking about her and wishing that it all could have been different.
In 2005, one of Rita's other daughters wrote an email seeking information.It said, I'm 16 years old, and I live in Little Rock.My twin sister and I are two of Goldie Thornsberry's granddaughters.
My mother, Rita Thornsberry, was her youngest daughter.I've been desperately trying to find out any information concerning my grandmother, better known as Nanny, since the day she disappeared.
I don't know if my mother had anything to do with it or not, but I do know that I love my Nanny more than life itself. For the short time that I was blessed with her presence, she was my universe, my everything.
All that I'm asking is for any information you may have on my family.I would really like to get in touch with my Aunt Barbie and Aunt Debbie.
I haven't seen them in years, and if you could just email me their phone numbers, or email them mine, it would be greatly appreciated. My family is the most important thing in my life.
There's not one day that goes by that I don't wonder about what my cousins Jack and Matt look like, or what my Aunt Barbie's voice sounds like.I'd give anything to have that part of my life back.
Thank you so much for your time, and I hope that you know and understand how much this truly means to me.I will be forever grateful."
Casey can recall these years in the middle phase of all of this, when Goldie was still missing and not much was happening with her case because they had run out of leads to hunt down.
What I remember always hearing is, there's no body.You can't do anything because there's no body.So tired of hearing that throughout my life.
I mean, as a kid, it was nice because we could make up fantasies like, well, maybe Nanny just needed a vacation.She always talked about just going to the beach or taking a break.She always said she was tired and she wanted a break.
So maybe she just took a vacation and she's going to come back.But as you get older, you want answers and all anybody can tell you is, well, there's no body.It gets frustrating.
Years came and went with no news about Goldie, but then Casey received a phone call in 2010 that changed everything.
I remember them calling me.My aunt called my sister, my sister called me, and they were telling me to put on the news again.No wonder I don't like the news.They were running the story that she had been identified.
I thought we were going to get answers.I thought it was going to be over.You know, I was like, oh my God, we can finally give her peace. We can give her justice.We can give her something.We can heal.We can move on.It was a relief.
Goldie's sister Karen was so shocked when she learned that Goldie had been found.She had her suspicions all along about what had happened and who was behind this.
But it had been so long that Karen had begun to believe that they would never find her sister.
I almost passed out and I was at work.One of the nurses at the hospital heard it first and came to me. And said, Karen sat down and coach, they all knew what had happened all those years ago.We didn't know what to do.
We were just shot the whole family, especially my poor little mama.I can't even describe it.It's one thing.I mean, it's horrible.If somebody gets killed in a car wreck, but this had never happened in our family before.Praise the Lord.
It was unbelievable.Unbelievable.
Nikki never lost faith that Goldie would be found someday.This was the news she had been praying for since she was a child.
That was very shocking.I mean, I always had faith because I would always pray, Jesus, we need closure.We need her body.And there was a point where I was just angry too.And I was like, this is it, God.If you don't give me closure on this, I'm done.
I'm not coming back to church.I'm not praying and I'm not doing anything.And I was kind of in the middle of that where I wasn't all the way in. with my faith anymore than to come to find out we were able to identify her.
And I remember looking at the drawing they had of her and none of us recognized that drawing as her.I don't know.And her neighbor, he recognized her.And I'm just so thankful that he did because I would have never thought that was my grandma.
The drawing made her look not like her.My aunt Debbie was like, that's not my mom.
And so until they did the DNA as we knew it, that it could have been her, but not because of that drawing and they were showing me all this, the news report and all of that stuff from little rock.
And at first when it happened, of course, I hit my knees.I was like, oh my God, Lord, you answered my prayers.We found her. But then as I went to see the drawing in the news report, I'm like, are y'all sure?
And this is where we're going to pick up Goldie's story next week.You learn the details of how Goldie went missing.It's believed that she disappeared sometime after her January 15, 1996 doctor's appointment.
Goldie's Pontiac Le Mans also went missing around the same time.Goldie's daughter Rita and her husband Raymond were using her checks all around town and telling anyone who inquired about her that she had left the area to visit family members.
In the months that followed, Goldie's car was discovered in the employee parking lot of a Walmart in Fayetteville.And none of the relatives she was supposedly going to visit had seen or heard from Goldie.
Tensions mounted as investigators narrowed their focus on Rita and Raymond. They were able to charge them with forgery, which they pleaded guilty to and served time for.But Goldie was still missing.
In 2010, they learned that Goldie's remains had been recovered in a well in Little Rock a decade earlier.The clues left behind in that well told a horrific story of how Goldie's life had ended.But where did the investigation go after that?
Next week, you'll learn more about the evidence that was uncovered, the criminal trials, and where things stand today, 28 years later.
If you have any information about the murder of Goldie Thornsberry, please call the Fayetteville Police Department at 479-587-3555.They weren't there to protect us.
Annie was the one who took care of us and protected us when we were supposed to be with our mothers.It could have been so different, but I think a lot of people were scared of Ray.I remember not feeling safer on him.
When I was a kid and he was around, he was not a person who gave off a feeling of ease.What I want is just to get her story out there again, see if anything new happens, just to get people talking about it again.
It's not to hurt anybody, and I hate that our family is broken.It is one of the worst things in the world, I think, to live with a broken family and to see the harm that it does to each individual in different ways.And you can do nothing to stop it.
I literally feel like we could do nothing to stop it.And maybe by talking about it, maybe by letting people know it is okay to speak about it, we can say this happened and it hurt. And we still don't have all the answers.
And maybe we never will have all the answers.But it happened, and we have to deal with it.
She was upset because she was wanting to know why I hadn't told her that mom was gone or that mom was missing.Because I think at that time, she had already filed a missing persons report.
So what was your explanation then to Debbie?
I told her that I didn't know that she was missing, that she had told me she was going to go out of town.
So at that point, you now know that she didn't show up at Debbie's.She didn't show up at your grandmother's.And I'm sure Debbie informed you that she didn't show up at your aunt's house down in Clinton.I talked to you shortly thereafter.
You still tell me, though, that your mom's going out of town.Is that correct?
I don't remember exactly what I told you at that point.
But what you're saying is you told me what Raymond said to her.Yes.Did you find that odd?
Why did you listen to what he said?
Because at the time, I guess what he was saying kind of made sense.Because he said something to the effect of, if she was missing, that since we were living in her house, that y'all were going to try to pin something on us.
So based off that, he told you not to cooperate?
He told me not to talk.He told me not to say anything.
It was truly a trying case over that entire time span, from beginning to end. And it's one of those cases that'll stay with me forever because I was on this case from the beginning to the end.That's not common.
I wouldn't want her to be forgotten as well.I mean, I put a lot of time and hours into this, but that is nothing compared to what that family has gone through.
That brings us to the end of episode 459.I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this series.If you have a missing loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com.
If you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page and discussion group on Facebook.You can also find us on Instagram.If you like our show, please give us a five-star rating and review.You can also support the show by contributing on Patreon.
Be sure to tune in next week for part two of Goldie's story.Thanks for listening. you If you like The Vanished, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island.It's a little-known British territory. called Pitcairn and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.
There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that was still a virgin.It just happens to all of us.
I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn.
When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it. people will get away with what they can get away with.
In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, Pacific Island to the brink of extinction.Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus.
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