MISSING: Misty Copsey

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now wherever you get your podcasts. [00:30] Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And welcome back to another episode of Crime Junkie. I want to give you guys a little bit of a heads up. We might be dropping a special update episode soon. Yay! Hint. So if you are not subscribed to the podcast, wherever you listen, make sure you follow us or subscribe so that the episode downloads automatically. Our update episodes never come out on the same day. [01:00] So if you want to make sure you don't miss it, please subscribe. And please don't forget about our friends over at Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana. They're the whole reason we started this podcast. So if you want more information on the program or if you'd like to know how to donate to this nonprofit, you can go to crimetips.org. [01:30] Thank you.

[01:50] Today, I'm actually going to be telling you a story that was a listener suggestion. And for all of you who don't know, we actually have a form now on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com, where you can send us your case suggestions. And today's is from Sandy, whose sister was actually really good friends with a girl named Misty Copsey, who in 1992 went missing from Washington. [02:20] questions and sometimes I'll look up a case and there's like not a ton on it and this is one that was just a giant. [02:28] rabbit hole. So I'm going to tell you the story the best I can in the most concise way I can. And it all starts back in September of 1992 in Puyallup, Washington. And Puyallup is a suburb of Tacoma. And twice a year, what they're really known for is they have this big fair. They have it once in the fall and once in the spring. And for a town of about, in 1992, like 25,000 people, [02:58] mother. Her mother was a single parent and she raised Misty pretty well. She was a student athlete. She had really good grades and her best friend at the time was a girl named Trina. [03:08] And sometime in the summer, there was an incident between Misty and her mother where Misty had gone missing for a little while. And her mother, Diana, had actually filed a missing persons report. And not long after she filed the report, Misty actually ended up showing up. She was just like in her room one day. And it was a total misunderstanding. There's no cell phones. At least they didn't have any back in 1992. So it was just bad communication. She didn't realize she was supposed to be home. Her mom didn't know where she was.

[03:38] Well, Diana, whether she was just like forgot or she was a little bit embarrassed, she never told the police that she had found Misty. And it's a little concerning that they weren't actually doing any follow up. Like the police never came back and asked her if they found her. But she never closed out that report. [03:56] So just kind of have that in the back of your mind. So on September 17th, 1992, Misty convinces her mom that her and Trina want to go to the fair and they want to go without any adults. Her mom had to work that night so she couldn't take them. And her mom agrees you can go to the fair without me, but I work evening. [04:26] or you're going to have to take the bus back home. And she was familiar with riding the bus. She had some friends with cars, so it wasn't a really big deal. And she knew the last bus left from the fairgrounds at 8.40 to get home. So they had the whole day to spend out there. And they did. They spent the whole day at the fair. They had a great time. But... [04:45] such a great time that they end up missing the 840 bus home. And that was the last one headed home. And when they missed the bus, her friend Trina just decides, you know what, I'm going to walk. She actually lived just the next town over, which wouldn't have been that far of a walk from her. And [05:02] Misty is left then to decide what to do. So at 8:45, Misty calls her mom to say, "Hey, I missed the bus. Is there any way you can give me a ride?" And her mom's like understandably upset. She's just being irresponsible. She knew when the bus was supposed to go. She knows her mom can't leave because she's at work. So she says, "Listen, you need to call around. You call your friend, see if you can get a ride." And

[05:26] Misty says, OK, I'm going to call Ruben to give me a ride. Ruben was one of her 18-year-old friends. And her mom is like, no way. She does not like Ruben because, again, he's this 18-year-old hanging out with a 14-year-old. And people said that he liked Misty, but she didn't have feelings for him in that way. And her mom just did not get good vibes from him. She'd overheard some dirty calls that he had tried to say things. And she just wasn't into it. [05:56] ride you're still gonna find a ride from somebody else yeah I get why mom's not comfortable with that right so Diana told Misty like look through your electronic organizer which she had it was 1992 super cool find someone to give you a ride and when you find somebody call me back so I know that you know you found a ride and you're okay well that call never came and nobody ever heard from Misty ever again [06:18] And when Diana didn't hear back, she got pretty nervous, but there wasn't much she could do. Like I said, it was 1992. She didn't have a cell phone she could call. Misty had called her from a payphone, so she couldn't even call that back. She just had to hope that she had found a ride and that she would see her when she gets home. When Diana returned home a few hours later, she expected to see Misty there, like sleeping, sitting on the couch, watching TV. But her house was completely empty, and she started calling everyone she could think of. [06:48] Trina, but her family didn't answer the phone because it was so late. She next tried to reach family, trying Misty's grandmother to see if maybe she had called her grandma and gone there, but she hadn't. And then she even tries Ruben, thinking maybe her daughter didn't listen to her and she's off with this boy that her mother doesn't approve of. She learns that Misty had, in fact, called him for a ride, but...

[07:11] He said that he didn't have enough gas to go get her. [07:14] Eventually, when she tries everyone and can't find her daughter, she calls 911 in the early morning hours and may tell her she has to wait. [07:22] 30 days to report her daughter missing. What? Another one of these? I know. We heard this back in the Herb Baumeister episode. 30 days. And so she's looking around, driving frantically, looking all morning long for her daughter. She left a note on Trina's door asking her to call her when she gets home from school. And she eventually goes to the sheriff's department. And she learns that the dispatcher shouldn't have told her that. She said the whole waiting 30 days thing isn't actually [07:52] I feel like these are rules that dispatchers should know before they start giving out advice about [07:58] reporting missing people. [08:00] Yeah, I'm not sure what the dispatcher handbook looks like, but Diana had new obstacles to overcome because Misty had last been seen in Puyallup, which is the Puyallup PD jurisdiction. But where she lived was Pierce County, and Pierce County couldn't get involved unless Puyallup PD invited them. But the Pierce County told her that Misty was going to be considered a runaway for 30 days. [08:30] So while the whole 30 days you can't report her wasn't necessarily true, they still won't do anything for 30 days. So maybe that's how the dispatcher got confused. [08:40] Well, when Trina gets home from school, she saw the note left by Diana. And Trina calls her and she tells her what we already know, that she started walking home when Missy missed the bus and...

[08:51] That was basically it. She never heard from her. She didn't show up to school, and she hasn't seen her since. [08:57] Diana decides to call Ruben again because, again, she did not like him. Like something is sticking with her about this guy. And she decided to see if maybe Misty had reached out to him. If she is a runaway, if she is somewhere by herself, like maybe she would reach out to Ruben. [09:12] Well, Reuben isn't home, but his teenage roommate is. And want to know what we learned? Of course. [09:17] The roommate, James, tells Diana that Ruben had, in fact, gone with his uncle to pick up Misty the night before. The roommate, James, tells Diana that Ruben had, in fact, gone with his uncle to pick up Misty the night before. [09:26] Thank you. [09:27] So Diana is immediately suspecting Ruben, and she calls back later that day and demands to know where Misty is. She's like, listen, your roommate told me you went to go get her. Where is my daughter? Right. [09:38] Ruben says that his roommate had it all wrong. Him and his uncle had actually just gone to a party that night. [09:44] And so now we have two different stories from Ruben. At the time, this didn't really phase her mom. Diana had a ton on her mind. She had a ton going on. I assume she just thinks that he didn't like get his facts straight the first time. I don't really know why it didn't stick with her, but it doesn't stick with her right away. [10:01] And all Diana was left to do is wait. She made missing person flyers and she begged Misty's friends to let her know if she made any contact with them. She told them, listen, even if she ran away, even if she did something she wasn't supposed to do or was with someone she wasn't supposed to be with, it doesn't matter. I just want to know that she's okay. So please tell me.

[10:21] Diana even tracked down the bus driver who had the route that Misty should have been on that night. And he said that he actually remembered seeing her on the night she went missing, but he had been finishing up for the night and wasn't headed back up to her stop. So he told her, listen, you can catch the next bus to Tacoma and it's like [redacted address]. But when you get to Tacoma, then you can catch a bus back to your house. But he doesn't know if she did or what happened to her after he talked to her. [10:51] here and could have helped. Yeah, you know, if he ended up following the case, I'm sure he does. It could have been, you know, a one-off thing where just some random mom's asking and he never really knew the significance of this, but it was a big case in a small town. So I have to think, you know, it would stick with me. I'm sure like it would stick with anyone else. [11:08] As time goes on, Ruben would call in and check every once in a while with Diana, just like her other friends and family, to see if Diana had found out anything or learned anything new. And this only made Diana more suspicious of him. Granted, I'm sure if he didn't call, people would think that was suspicious too. On September 23rd, they rolled up on almost a week, and Diana was finally able to file an official missing persons report with the Puyallup PD. [11:38] police did was to canvas the areas around the fairgrounds asking if anyone might have seen Misty that night, but no one had. [11:45] Their second move was to start investigating Diana. I get why they have to do this, but this would eat me up as a parent because when you know you have nothing to do with it, it just feels like such a waste of time.

[11:58] yeah and Diana wasn't perfect she had drinking problems like she was able to function normally in her day-to-day life but she had a couple of DUIs and a prior conviction for welfare fraud and in looking in her background this is when the police found that other missing persons report that was never closed out so this really worked against Diana police aren't feeling great about her she feels a little sketchy and dishonest and now they're saying listen she obviously ran away before she probably just ran away again [12:28] By the 29th, police finally go to Misty's middle school to question her fellow students. Police were hearing tons of conflicting stories. One kid said that she had gotten a call from her after her disappearance. Another one said they saw her at a concert. [12:42] And because of these sightings from people who didn't even know Misty and weren't actually with Misty, police officers left the school and told Diana that they're planning on removing Misty from the missing persons database and labeling her a runaway. [12:56] And this was a devastating blow to the investigation that I don't think they ever really recovered from because for a long time, this label as a runaway really stuck with the case and it took years and years for it to be removed. [13:11] And one of the girls who actually told the story about, you know, getting a call from her or seeing her actually came out later and said that she totally made it up. She just wanted to feel involved in the case and feel popular. So it's such a shame that people were making up these stories and hindered the investigation of a missing girl.

[13:30] The next day, the sergeant who decided that Misty wasn't missing gave an interview to the local radio station that would basically change the public's view. He said, nope, no. [13:41] This girl is not missing. She's just a runaway. And actually, I think her mom knows exactly where she's at. What? [13:48] How could he say that? You know, I don't know. Like, I don't know if it was a gut feeling. But again, like, it's one thing if you think she's a runaway. But to tell the whole public to not look for her doesn't seem fair. And then to say, you know, her mom knows where she is. You don't even need to keep an eye out for this runaway. [14:06] is, I think, wrong. And this is where the official investigation froze for a long time. Police weren't willing to search. They assumed Diana knew exactly where she was, or were at least willing to tell the public that. So when Diana got a call from a stranger who was interested in taking on her daughter's case, she finally felt like a slight glimmer of hope. [14:27] Thank you. [14:27] But this lifeline that she got was really controversial. [14:31] It was a man named Corey Bober, and I need to give you a little backstory on Corey before I can tell you about him getting involved in Misty's case. Corey was obsessed with the Green River Killer, who was a serial killer that operated in the state of Washington in the 80s and 90s. In the time before Misty's disappearance, he was thought to have killed mostly sex workers and sometimes runaways. [14:56] By 1992, [14:58] Corey had become convinced of two things.

[15:01] The first is that an acquaintance of his named Randy was the killer. Because according to Corey, Randy had told him about a vital clue in the case that only the killer would have known. What was the clue? I don't know, and it's killing me. But apparently, Randy said that he only heard this information from a drunk police captain. Corey thought this excuse was BS, and he basically went on a one-man crusade against Randy, [15:31] would listen to him that randy was the green river killer he even pushed the police and called them out publicly enough times that police were forced to put randy on their suspect list and vet him but they were able to eventually remove him as a suspect still cory didn't care he was totally obsessed he made threats to carry out like vigilante justice and he would even send people undercover to record conversations with randy at least one time he had snuck on his property as [16:01] looking for some kind of clue to connect him to the killings, but obviously he never came up with anything, like no smoking gun. What was the second thing Corey was convinced of? The second was that the murders of two young girls in Puyallup in 1988 and 1990 were the work of the Green River Killer. Had the police connected these killings to the Green River Killer yet? No, they were two teenage girls, a 15-year-old named Kim and a 14-year-old named Anna, [16:28] Now, according to Corey in 1992, he noticed a pattern between the murders of the two young girls. They had exactly two years and one month.

[16:38] in between each murder. [16:40] The time in between isn't really a pattern, though. It's just one instance between two cases. Right. But somehow, Corey swore he knew it was a pattern, and he predicted that another girl would go missing two years and one month after Anna, who went missing in 1990. And the two years and one month mark would have been September of 1992. [17:04] Okay, that's a little spooky. Yeah, he claims that he even warned police of this upcoming murder before Misty went missing, but there's no official record of this warning. [17:14] I mean, even if he did, [17:15] I get why no one is confirming it. A, I'm sure police thought this guy was a lunatic and ignored everything he said. And if he did say something and somehow he was right, it wouldn't look great that the police ignored him, even if he did seem crazy. Totally. So when Corey's mom tells him about a young girl who's gone missing in Puyallup in September of 1992, he's immediately convinced that his prediction has come to fruition. [17:45] Misty's mom. He tells her all his theories about the Green River Killer and the girls who were killed in Puyallup and how they're connected to the Green River Killer and he thinks Misty is connected to these girls and he basically flat out tells her there is zero chance that your daughter is going to be found alive. [18:03] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades.

[18:23] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. [18:28] Listen to the deck now. [18:30] wherever you get your podcasts. [18:33] Oh my god, not what a mom needs to hear in that moment, or ever. Yeah, it took away so much hope Diana had, but she at least had someone who was willing to help her, so they actually become allies. [18:46] And on October 5th, Corey calls the sergeant in charge of the police department. Oh, the same sergeant who ruled Misty as a runaway. Yes, this sergeant had had a history with Corey. So when Corey calls him to tell him his theories about Misty and these other girls, the sergeant shuts him down and says, nope, sorry, she's a runaway. And he further tells him that they passed her case off to the sheriff's department where she lived. [19:11] Wait, why? Well, if something happened to her, it would have happened to her at the last place she was seen, which was in the Puyallup Police Department's jurisdiction. But since they've decided nothing happened to her and that she ran away, then she technically ran away from home, which is in the Sheriff's Department's district. So when Corey goes to talk to the Sheriff's Department, he learns that they too believe Misty is a runaway. And the deputy basically tells him, even if we found her, [19:41] or her mother where she is. [19:43] So they're all basically convinced that her mom is part of the problem. I guess so. And of course, this just fueled Corey's fire. He started making threats, going to the media, just like he did with the Green River case. And in the Green River killer case, he was able to twist their arm into doing what he wanted and looking into who he wanted. So he thought that maybe he could do it again. But a bit of friendly advice, don't make threats to police if you're engaged in illegal activity.

[20:13] and police set up a sting and ended up arresting him for his drug activity in October. [20:19] While his case was pending, they go to Diana with the arrest and say, listen, you're hitching your wagon to some small-time weed dealer who's probably crazy, and he's going to hurt the investigation in your daughter's case. And it's their advice that leads her to eventually file a restraining order against Corey. [20:37] At this point, it's now been more than 30 days since Misty, quote, ran away. So they put her down as missing instead of a runaway. But them just changing her status didn't really change their eagerness to actually do the legwork into investigating her case. The case wasn't moving forward and Diana didn't know how to push it forward on her own. So just two weeks later in early November, she ends up dropping the restraining order against Corey. Now, he had been arrested, but his case hadn't gone to court yet. [21:07] out investigating. That same month in November, Corey felt more sure of his case than ever because officials revealed that they were going to reopen the Green River Killer case and they were officially counting the two young Puyallup girls, Anna and Kim, as his victims. So I don't know how he did this but somehow he convinces one of the investigators to tell him where the bodies of [21:37] 410 near mile marker 30. [21:41] Corey starts to organize search parties because he is convinced that Misty is the victim of the same killer and she fits perfectly into his pattern. She was taken exactly two years, one month after these girls, which fit. So surely she's going to be found in the same place as these other two girls.

[21:58] They search and they search with no luck. Misty isn't found. But something shifts in investigators' minds because in early December, the sheriff's office changes Misty's official file once again and lists her as missing under suspicious circumstances. [22:16] Finally, it's about time. I know. And just a week after, Corey did a story with the News Tribune about his searches and how he believed Misty's case was connected to Anna and Kim's. He had a theory that this publicity would get the killer to act out, but nothing ended up happening. The killer either didn't see this or wasn't drawn to act. [22:36] Now, mind you, while all of this is going on, while Corey is thinking that Misty is connected to the Green River Killer and the Green River Killer is his acquaintance, Randy, there are still some very real suspects who had personal connections to Misty that needed to be investigated, specifically Ruben. [22:53] Diana actually ran into him once at the grocery store just about three months after Misty's disappearance, and he literally ran from her. Uh, that's not suspicious at all. Yeah, red flags all over the place, but there really is still nothing being done. Police are finally considering Misty a missing and endangered person, but they're dragging their feet and still haven't done any real investigative work. As this drags on, another suspect emerges in January of 1993. [23:23] the country. [23:24] This is just about four months since Misty had gone missing. A man named Robert Hickey is arrested for forcing a 15-year-old girl into his car just five blocks from where Misty had disappeared. He ended up raping the girl and then dropping her off of a ravine, thinking that she would fall to her death. But luckily, she survived, and he was later sentenced to seven years for first-degree rape. He seems like a really good suspect in Misty's case. He does, but police never even listed him as a suspect.

[23:54] even though he attacked another girl when he was released after serving only five years. Oh, that's so frustrating. I know, but again, it's not like police weren't just investigating this lead. They really weren't investigating anything. [24:09] Not talking to her friends, not talking to Ruben, and not talking to this guy who got convicted of picking up a girl almost exactly where Misty was last seen, raping her and attempting to murder her. But even this new suspect didn't sway Corey. He was still convinced that he was on the right track. But he wasn't finding anything on his searches. He figured that something had to be wrong. He believed in his heart of hearts that his theory was right. So what was he missing? [24:39] who gave him the tip about where Anna and Kim were found, and it turns out that he had been searching on the wrong side of the 410. He had been searching on the north side, but both of the girls had actually been found on the south side. So Corey does... [24:55] all of the media hype again and he says they're going to be doing this big search on the other side of the 410 in just a couple of days. Isn't this a bad move? If there was a serial killer, he has a heads up for where they're going to be looking and he could just move the body, right? I think so, but I guess Corey is thinking that this guy's psychology is such that he would want them to find something. So I assume he actually thinks the opposite. If something wasn't there

[25:25] guess that's plausible. So by now it's February when they go do this search for the second time on the south side of the freeway. And this time they actually find something. Wait for real? For real. They found the very jeans that Misty was wearing the night that she was last seen. Near the jeans were a pair of socks and underwear that her mom said also belonged to her. Now no one could confirm what socks or underwear she was wearing that night but those items likely were worn by [25:55] her since her mom confirmed that she owned them. [25:58] Now what the investigators saw that Corey probably didn't know is that the pants, socks, and underwear weren't actually located near where Anna and Kim's remains were found. The other two girls were found about a 10-minute hike into the woods off of the highway, and Misty's stuff had been found just a few hundred feet from the road. [26:19] Also a little concerning, the same investigator who had gotten called out there when they found the items had actually done an unofficial search of the area just weeks before and he didn't find anything. Hold up, so they were just recently put there? Well, maybe not. He was literally just eyeballing it when he was walking out there. Nothing official, no forensic testing, just one guy searching the area. [26:44] It's possible that he missed it, and when forensic tests were later done, they said that the pants had in fact been covered in dirt for some time. So they wouldn't have just been placed out there a couple of days or even weeks before. I still have a thousand questions. Like what? Well, the forensic test said it was covered in dirt, but do they know it was that specific dirt?

[27:05] in that specific spot. Maybe they were covered in dirt somewhere else and then moved when the news talked about the search. [27:12] It's probably possible, but, like, I don't have all the details on the search, or they never released, like, the specifics of the forensic investigation. Okay, you know how much I like conspiracy theories. What are the chances that maybe Corey put the pants there himself? Well, actually, you're not alone in that theory. The original agent who had the case became really suspicious of both Diana and Corey, and he kept thinking that the same thing, like, what are the odds that they just happened upon this? Exactly. [27:42] In my personal opinion, I think that [27:44] A, the odds are pretty good, since there was no official search being done by anyone else, so... [27:51] If they're the only people looking, they're bound to be the only people that find something. And B, if Corey and Diana were conspiring, why do this whole charade about searching the wrong side of the freeway? If they were searching the north side, wouldn't they have put the pants on the north side before they realized that's not where the other girls were found? True. But even Diana started suspecting Corey. She couldn't help it. And I can't help it. [28:14] It's always strange when someone so obsessed with the case and seemingly off their rocker can find what no one else does. [28:22] Yeah, it definitely makes you wonder if he wanted there to be a pattern so badly that he himself created one. [28:28] Exactly. But there is no proof that that's true. Later the same month, Corey finally had his sentencing for his drug arrest and he ended up getting 14 months in jail.

[28:39] Police were now taking the case seriously that he's kind of out of the way. I feel like you've said that they're taking it seriously like 20 times, but... [28:48] All 20 times they weren't really. Yeah, I guess you're right. Like, they are taking it more seriously. Each time they get a little bit more involved in the investigation. Which is a weird thing to say since they're supposed to own the investigation. I know, but they didn't. And when Corey goes to jail, some detectives actually go visit him and they ask him for his case file since he's the one who has been investigating it since day one and probably has the most information. But he refuses to give it to them. I don't understand why he won't help them. [29:18] this whole time was to be taken seriously by police. - No, it turns out all along, he wanted the attention and the glory of being the one who solved the case, because he basically told them to go F themselves. And if he couldn't be involved in the investigation, he wasn't gonna help them at all. [29:34] So the investigators have to start from square one. And mind you, this is six months after Misty went missing, and they just now start interviewing witnesses. And they first start by interviewing Trina, who she was with that night. [29:46] Trina tells them that nothing fishy happened at the fair. [29:49] There weren't any creeps lingering or watching them. However, she reveals something that they didn't know. She said apparently the plan all along was for the girls to get a ride home from Ruben. But, she says, when they were about to get a ride home from him, he said that he didn't have enough gas money to get them home. [30:07] Apparently, Misty even told him how to get inside of her house to get money to come get her, but he still said no.

[30:15] And the rest of Trina's story was the same that they heard from other people. They both separate after 8.30 and she didn't see Misty again. I feel like we keep coming back to Ruben. They have to take a serious look at him again, right? [30:26] Like they're starting from square one? Right. And they do on the behest of Misty's mom. So they start looking at Ruben's life around the time of her disappearance and they check first with his work, which is a restaurant where he sometimes picked up shifts. Apparently, he had been telling people at his work, specifically his boss, Frank, that he knew where Misty was buried and investigators were off by about six and a half miles in their search for her. [30:52] They tried to wait for him after work to question him about this, but when he saw them, he ended up running again. And they finally catch up with him and bring him in for an official interview. Ruben tells investigators that he was just saying those things to be a big guy and to get his boss off his back. And it's all just a story. And he said, the story I told Diana was the truth. I didn't have enough gas money to pick up the girls that night. I did not see Misty. [31:19] So maybe he's being honest? Oh, but by the way... [31:22] Ruben says he suffers from blackouts, and he had an episode right after Misty's second call to him. Wait, excuse me? Yeah, he says that he has these episodes where he can't remember anything, and that that night, immediately following Misty's second call, he experienced one of these blackouts, and he didn't come to until the morning. What about the whole story he told Diana about going to that party with his uncle? Well, it sounds like a lie to me, and it gets even fishier.

[31:52] the morning that he wakes up from this blackout, for no reason in particular, he says he went to his grandma's hundred acre farmhouse. I thought he had no gas money. Yeah, it doesn't quite fit, does it? And also in the morning, he went there when no one was home. So it's not like he was even going to visit his grandma. Um, someone searched this farm. I know. And I have one more thing. Okay, so the town where his grandma's farm was, was less than a [redacted address] from where [32:22] off of 410. [32:24] Oh my god! [32:25] I will search that farm. Someone, please. I know. Like, I feel like there has to be answers there. But they didn't search the farm. All they did was give Ruben a polygraph. But the whole time that he's taking the polygraph, he was trying to make himself fall asleep. Which is, as you all know, because we've talked about polygraphs before, this will totally skew the results. Polygraphs don't actually tell if you're lying. They just detect changes in your body. [32:55] The results don't mean anything. So after this, police let him go and they do no more investigating into him. What? Yep. [33:04] They list him as a person of interest, but that is it. They tell Diana that he passed the polygraph with flying colors. But there was no way he did. Those results had to have been inconclusive at best. I would have to think so. And not long after they tell her this, she actually gets a call from Ruben's boss, the one that he made all of those comments to about burying Misty's body. The boss, Frank, was like, listen, I don't care what the police say. He was not just talking.

[33:34] don't say stuff like that. So right then, Diana was done with the police. Either they were lying to her or they were completely incompetent, but either way, she didn't trust them anymore. And in the time shortly after police released Ruben, he ends up selling his car. You mean he got rid of the vehicle he could have used to transport Misty? Yeah. [33:54] That's convenient. And not just sold it. He sold it to a wrecking yard to be destroyed. Oh my god. Stop. We can't keep going. Ruben did it, you guys. I know we don't make wild Nancy Grace-like accusations on the show, but come on. Girl, I know, but I have more things to tell you. So let's save our Nancy Grace moments for the end. So the sergeant in charge, for whatever reason... [34:19] doesn't want to look at Ruben, but that doesn't mean that he has given up on doing anything. He starts digging into Trina's story more and finds out that she actually didn't walk home that night. She got a ride from her super skeezy 23-year-old boyfriend. This guy's name was Michael. His record showed that he had an incident of rape when he was a juvenile that he had never been charged for. And it turns out that not only did he have a connection to Misty through Trina, [34:49] he actually also knew Kim and Anna, the two girls that were murdered and left near the 410. [34:55] Apparently, the night that Misty went missing, Trina offered Michael as both of their rides home, but Misty didn't want to accept it for reasons unknown.

[35:04] Wait, so he could have given Trina a ride? [35:07] and known Misty was stranded and gone back for her? That was one of the theories. He just dropped off Trina at home and then left, so he didn't have Trina as an alibi for the rest of the night. [35:18] Then in April, he too tries to sell his car. But what he doesn't know [35:24] is he sold it to an undercover officer who gets it forensically tested. Yes! [35:29] What did they find? - Girl, you know things don't move that fast. They have to wait a long time. Because there was a backlog, [35:36] So you have to wait, I have to wait, and if I'm being honest, [35:40] They never released a report about what they found. But in the meantime, in the years where they were even waiting for these results, they bring Michael in for a real interview. They confront him about the rape in his juvenile record. And he tells them, listen, I was accused, but it got dropped. It's totally cleared up, which they know it got dropped because he never got charged for anything. And because it's in his juvenile record, they can't get to the records to find out exactly what happened. So they give him a polygraph to which he passes. [36:10] Yeah, I have no idea if those results were accurate, but they did make a note that he was somewhat deceptive in his interview. So there wasn't really anything they can hold him on. They're just waiting till they get the forensic results back from his car and then thought maybe they could make an arrest. But since we know years later that he was never arrested, I have to wonder if nothing came back in his car. [36:31] So the case drags on into September of 1993, a full year after Misty had gone missing, when they finally circle back to Ruben and decide to interview his roommate at the time. Because even though Ruben blacked out, surely his roommate would have some recollection of that night if Ruben's story is that he was home.

[36:51] And he did. Apparently, his roommate does remember Misty calling for a ride, and Ruben's saying no, [36:58] But there's a little twist that we hadn't heard before. [37:02] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [37:21] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. [37:26] Listen to the deck now. [37:28] wherever you get your podcasts. [37:31] The roommate says that Ruben said no because he had a 13-year-old girlfriend over at his house, and when Misty called, she got upset and ended up leaving. Then he said Ruben left, and he didn't come back again until around midnight. Investigators bring Ruben back in for questioning, where he sticks mainly to his story, except this time he moves the trip to his grandmother's farm to the night instead of the morning. [38:01] and nothing happens until 1997. By this time, Corey has long since been released from jail, but after another court battle, he's able to get the forensic results from Misty's pants after they were processed in 1993. [38:17] On the pants were found hairs, fibers, and three red paint chips.

[38:23] Corey, of course, wants to tie these red paint chips back to Randy. [38:27] Man, he is a dog with a bone over this Randy guy. [38:30] Oh yeah, he tries and tries to tie him to anything, any of these cases, and nothing works. And a few more years go by when, remember Robert Hickey, who we talked about earlier in this episode, he was the one who got arrested for pulling that girl into his car just a few blocks from where Misty was last seen? Yeah, he dropped her off in her vein thinking she would die. Well, by 2001, he's back at it. He was following this woman down the street and he asked her for a cigarette. [39:00] her some serious creep vibes because she crosses the street to get away from him and pulls out her phone to dial 911 and while she's dialing he rushes at her pushes her off the side of the embankment down 15 feet and then he starts attacking her like ripping off of her clothes groping her and as soon as he sees though that she had actually started dialing 911 and was on the phone with them he runs off and she goes to the police and they're actually able to apprehend him [39:30] Turns out, [39:31] He had a red Camaro. [39:34] which many say may have been where the red flecks of paint on Misty's pants came from. [39:39] But we don't know for sure. No testing has been released to include or exclude that possibility. [39:45] Later that same year, in 2001, there was a huge break in the Green River Killer case. The guy was captured, and it was a man named Gary Ridgway. And although he killed so many women, no one was able to definitively tie him to Anna, Kim, or Misty. Was there any connection there whatsoever? Not that I know of. I know in Misty's case that Gary was said to have worked the entire day that day and wouldn't have been able to abduct her. But I don't know...

[40:15] how much that means so many years later. I'm not sure if... [40:18] He had alibis for Anna and Kim's. I don't know if he had connections to them. I haven't fully looked into the Green River Killer case, so I'm not an expert on it. I need to know what Corey thought about Gary Ridgway being the Green River Killer. Oh my God, what do you think? He didn't believe it for a second. He still believed wholeheartedly that Randy did all of these and he kept trying to prove it. He thought that basically Gary Ridgway was this scapegoat that the police were pinning this on because they didn't want to go after the real guy. [40:48] Did the police ever seriously look at Corey as a suspect in Misty's case? I know there was one investigator who thought he was suspicious, but did anyone actually do interviews or... [40:57] really thoroughly look into him [40:59] Not in the way they did some other suspects, but he did have a pretty airtight alibi the night that Misty went missing. He was assaulted by a neighbor and there was actually a police report filed that night at 1.30 in the morning. So nothing came of the paint samples as far as we know. What about the hair? They actually tested that in 2013, but it didn't match anyone. Not Misty, not her mom, or anyone the FBI had in their forensic database. [41:29] and picked up from being outside for so long, some random person she had contact with at the fair, or it actually does belong to her killer and we just haven't found him yet. [41:40] As the years passed, weird tips started coming in. And in 2015, a strange posting on a UK website was from a person claiming to be a relative of Ruben's. And they said it was a big family secret that they all knew about and all had been keeping that Ruben had involvement in the case. They say Ruben and his uncles had something to do with her disappearance.

[42:05] That would kinda match Ruben's second story he told Diana about being with his uncle at a party that night. [42:11] Almost like there was a little bit of truth in every version of the story he told. Yeah, in my opinion, I think Ruben seems like one of the most obvious suspects. But they did have a lot of really good suspects. I mean, that Hickey guy who was... [42:26] taking young girls off the street almost right where she was. We have the Green River Killer who attacked sex workers and runaways. You have Corey who probably had nothing to do with it, but gosh, that guy's super weird. You have Ruben who is telling people that he knows where her body is and has gone [42:44] you know, had that weird trip to his grandma's farm. I mean, there's a ton. [42:47] of good suspects and as for Cory he seems now to have gone even further off the deep end than ever if you look up Cory D Bober online he has these posts that are like rambling in all caps they don't make sense there's photoshopped pictures of Misty claiming to have seen her around and he is still to this day going after Randy who he says is the Antichrist so he's not totally all there now to be fair [43:14] Randy wasn't a perfect angel either. So I think part of the reason that Corey kept going after him for so long is years down the line, he was actually arrested for molesting two seven-year-old girls. And he did have a red car, which Corey said could have been where the paint flecks came from. [43:33] And the night that Misty went missing, Randy was actually really close to the fairgrounds. He was at a nearby hospital where his sister was giving birth.

[43:42] There's all these little things that I think was enough for Corey to keep going since he was already so obsessed. But I don't think Randy actually had anything to do with it. I just can't let go of the fact that these three... [43:54] cases [43:55] Anna, Kim, and Misty are so similar. And I kinda have to agree with Corey with the two-years-one-month thing. It seems like more than a coincidence. But the fact that Anna and Kim were found and Misty never was… [44:10] is so bizarre. It's really bizarre to me, too. And I kind of go back and forth. I think either... [44:17] And the guy decided to dispose of them in a new way. Maybe she has nothing to do with it, but it's weird that her clothes were found so close. Or Corey made such a show in the media of them doing a search for them. [44:29] Maybe whoever this was felt like there's somebody really coming after him and they're getting close and he moved her. I really have no idea, but I am dying to know what our listeners think. You can go on our Facebook discussion group. This is where we always go and talk about the cases with our listeners after the show. Just search for Crime Junkie Discussion Group on Facebook. And follow us on Twitter at Crime Junkie Pod and on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. And don't forget to tell your friends about the show. If you've been listening for all these weeks and love what we're doing, please share it. [44:59] And we will see you again next week with a new story. [45:02] crime junkie is written and hosted by me all of our sound production and editing comes from brick and all of our music including our theme comes from justin daniel crime junkie is an audio chuck production so what do you think chuck do you approve

[45:28] *Mario's scream* [45:33] Okay, crime junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that? [45:51] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now and I've been listening for years. [45:55] I think you'll love it too. [45:56] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.