Cold Case Files - The Missing Informant

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

After confidential informant Christine Elkins disappears before she can testify against her former boss, the trail goes cold. Six years later, when the case is reopened, it is a team of scientists and divers with a specialty in finding clandestine graves that proves to be the difference. Apartments.com: To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place. Gravity Defyer Shoes: Experience ultimate comfort and pain relief at gdefy.com and use code Coldcase for $30 off orders of $150 or more! Progressive: Progressive.com  

Let me ask you a question. You have a best friend? How big would it shock you if somebody told you that your best friend just killed somebody? Not a lawless emergency. Someone on the other end of the line said they kidnapped my son, and they're demanding $500,000. On September 12, 1995, 12-year-old McKay Everett disappeared from his home in Conroe, Texas. It was a crime that shocked the community because the suspect was so unlikely, so unexpected. Former high-ranking police official, he'd run for sheriff at one point. Law enforcement personnel were pretty much split down the middle over whether or not he actually did this. And to this day, McKay's mother, Paulette, still feels that justice was never truly served.

I've asked myself so many times, what in the world happened? Ransom is available now. Listen at ransompodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. In 1990, on the second floor of a high-rise in downtown Kansas City, a cop waits by the phone and worries.

It's been days since ATF agent Mark James last heard from a confidential informant, Christine Elkins, and he fears the worst. It's a tale that begins a year earlier and a story that's all too familiar. It's December 1989. Christine Elkins is a single mother living in Maryville, Missouri, with two children and a weakness for drugs. Christine became addicted to the drugs and basically found herself in a position

that she had to start getting involved in drug trafficking to pay for her own habit. On December 15th, Elkins turns up at a drug bust and faces a possible 10-year stretch in prison. Mark James, however, has his eye on a larger prize. Elkins' boss and drug lord for Northwest Missouri, Tony Emery. Elkins agrees to testify against Emery, a dangerous proposition at best. According to her, he told her, if you ever betray me, if you ever burn me to the police or whatever, I'll kill you.

James warns Christine to stay away from her boss. The warning doesn't take. A week later, the special agent receives a call. It's Christine. Tony Emery is offering a deal she can't refuse. A supply of money and drugs if she agrees not to testify and leaves the state. And I told her, I think he's trying to set you up and you just need to stay away. That was the last conversation I had with Christine. Anxious to stop Elkins, James tracks

her to a friend's house in Maryville, Missouri. Jerry Moser tells detectives Christine dropped one of her kids off there on the night of August 4th. It was the last time Christine Elkins was seen alive. She hung the phone up and turned around and said, if you don't see me in 10 minutes, come look at the morgue for me. And the door closed and she went out. Christine jumped into a 1980 Oldsmobile and drove into the night to a meeting with Tony Emery, a meeting from which she would not return. James now fears his informant has been killed, and the case suddenly becomes personal. I took it professionally, personal.

We needed to do what we needed to do to solve this and bring the person who was responsible to justice. At 7.30 a.m. on August 27, 1990, Mike Schmitz reports to work for his first day as a Kansas City ATF special agent. James briefs him on the Elkins' disappearance. Well, Mark's suspicions are that Tony Emery has done away with her and not sent her away, but killed her. On September 25th, a tip from Colorado bolsters James' suspicions. Drug informant James Witt claims he has information about a female drug renter killed in Missouri. Witt then drops the name of one of the players in the hit, Tug Emery, first cousin to Tony Emery. It's the connection James has been waiting for. I knew that the informant's information was going to be right and told the detective, I think your informant's right on.

And now we need to, you need to get him wired up and we need to get this conversation as fast as we possibly can. At 5.15 on December 18th, James Witt gets into Tug's pickup truck. Unknown to Tug, their conversation is being recorded. The discussion quickly turns to the business of murder. But you know, I've got a little short guy. The one that set us up. Yeah. I'm going to do that.

I don't know quite what to do with the body. I'm going to just wrap him up in a rug. A rug, yeah. As Tug talks, less than one block away, agents listen. For the first time, they hear what they believe to be the details of Christine Elkin's murder. Did you see a piece of pipe about that long? Just standing there. Man, that'd be the time.

But she was screaming and hollering, man. Mm-hmm. She wouldn't go, huh? She went. She went. With those two words, Tug Emory unknowingly confesses to murder. The conversation then shifts from killing to getting rid of the body. He described how they took a stick and held down the accelerator pedal in her vehicle, put it in gear.

Man, you must have had that pedal down. It looked like a rocket. Put a stick in there. In the water's deep. Now where I'll find that mother. You didn't check it out to see if she was floating, man. No, she was floating. We knew with that conversation the fact that she'd been killed.

We had a pretty good idea how she'd been disposed of, in some sort of body of water in her vehicle. And this was a first big break for us. On December 28, 1990, Tony and Tug Emery walk into the Quality Inn outside Denver, Colorado. They're there to pick up drugs. Little do they know, a hidden camera is there to pick up them. While the camera rolls, five pounds of methamphetamine are sold.

The conversation then turns from drugs to murder, specifically killing off those who threaten to talk to the police. He made reference in that, during that conversation, of that's just how I did that bitch. Of course, doesn't mention Christine, but there were so many little things in that conversation that told us, you know, and that tape was golden. I mean, it was good stuff. Good enough to arrest Tony and Tug for dealing methamphetamine. At 8.30 p.m., agents move in. Three months later, the Emerys are convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 10 years.

For Schmitz and James, the convictions are cold comfort. They believe Tony Emery to not just be a drug lord, but a killer. Without Elkin's body, however, they're powerless to prove it. In time, the investigation into the young woman's disappearance goes cold. A number of my fellow agents said, you need to let it go. You know, you put those guys in jail for 10 years, let it go. And so you grow frustrated thinking that, is there anything else we can do? But there really wasn't.

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into a time machine by turning the time you would have spent washing dishes into extra time for you. That could mean more time to read, more time to knit, or more time to contemplate the vastness of time itself. With Apartments.com, finding somewhere to live with an elusive dishwashing slash time-expanding device is easy. Apartments.com hosts the most rental listings with over 1 million available units. And with comprehensive search tools and instant alerts, you never have to worry about missing out on the perfect place. To find whatever you're searching for and more, visit Apartments.com, the place to find a place. In 1990, a drug informant for the ATF vanished. 32-year-old Christine Elkins disappeared just weeks before she was to testify against her boss, Tony Emery.

Since then, Special Agent Mike Schmitz has been waiting and hoping for a break in the case. Six years is long enough for the former football coach. In March of 1996, he requests the case be reopened. I was asking him, let's just show up for the game. You know, I talked about Nebraska football, and look at all the teams that go up to Nebraska. A lot of them don't have a chance, but they show up and they play the game. And that's what it's about. It's about trying and the effort.

Schmitz's request is granted. The game begins. Cold case detectives review undercover tapes made of conversations with Tony's cousin, Tug Emory. That review produces a lead. A man investigators believe was present the night Christine Elkins was killed. A man named Bobby Miller. He heard from Tony's mouth that Christine needs to die. She's going to testify. And Tony solicited Bobby to help, and Bobby agreed to do that.

Schmitz and Maryville detective Randy Strong find Miller in Greeley, Colorado. With a possible murder charge hanging over his head, Miller agrees to a deal. In exchange for immunity, he will fill in the details of Christine's death. The plan was that Tug was going to hide inside the door. He was armed with a blackjack and Tony was going to lead her in. As soon as she walked in the door, she was to be struck in the head. Bobby Miller was the wheel man. His job was to dispose of Elkin's body. As he waited outside, Miller realized things were not going according to plan. He heard a struggle and he heard her start screaming.

Stop hitting me. Why are you hitting me? Why are you doing this to me? And in silence. Bobby got scared. He was there for the planning stages, but when it happened, he was gone. He got in the truck and he left. Miller's story is enough to swear out an arrest warrant on Tug Emery for murder. Cold case detectives hope Tug will see the light and deliver his cousin, Tony. Tug had no idea who was coming to see him.

And he was seated at a table. And when we walked into the room, you could see the look of desperation in his eyes. He knew why we were there. and he knew it wasn't good. It's November 20, 1996. Detectives brace Tug Emery in the conference room of the Englewood Correctional Facility. So I started the conversation with him. I asked him, I said, Herb, do you remember me? And when we made eye contact, it was obvious he did.

His face just turned pale. He just blanched. And he said, yes, I remember you. And I said, do you remember the last time we talked? I promise you we were going to solve the murder of Christine Elkins. He said, yes, I remember that. James then places a photo on the table. It's Christine with her sons. And then he pulled out the picture of Christine and put it in front of Tug. You could just see Tug physically just disintegrate. He was sick. He was visibly shaking. Beads of sweat come in on his forehead.

And he knew that we meant business. I said, you know, this was a person. I said, she was a mother and she was a daughter and she has a son. And that family needs closure. James then places a second document on the desk, an indictment for the murder of Christine Elkins. And I said, you'll recognize here on the indictment, yours is the only name. I said, I know you didn't commit that murder by yourself,

but you're the guy that we've got the best case on right now. And then Tug made a statement that stuck to all of us, and it was something similar to, oh, I'm not taking this by myself. It wasn't, what are you talking about? I don't know what this is. It was, he knew exactly what all that was, and he couldn't believe it. There it was in front of him. And there we were. And he's like, I'm not going down on this deal alone type of thing. Six months later, the agents receive a call from Tug's lawyer.

Tug will testify against his cousin Tony. Cold case detectives have the Emery family on the run. There's no such thing as a private conversation in Leavenworth Prison. In the basements, massive reel-to-reel recorders tape every phone call from the institution. Of special interest are the calls of inmate number 22856, former drug lord and suspected killer Tony Emery. On November 22nd, Tony takes a call from his mother. She's concerned about her nephew, Tug. You didn't get in your newspapers? Yeah, why? You know what's going on?

No. Nationwide news. Tuggy. Oh, no. And she says, nationwide news, front page, Tuggy. That's the way she said it. And all he says is, oh, no. I get chills down my spine right now when I say that

because being in that phone room and hearing that on that tape, Randy Strong and I, Detective Strong and I couldn't believe that. We could envision him sinking on the phone right then. Oh, no is right. I think it's a big bluff. It's a bluff. I hope so. Somebody needs to tell him to stand his ground, you know what I mean?

Yeah. For the first time in six years, Tony Emery sounds scared. It's a sound cold case investigators have been waiting for. We were smiling like the Cheshire Cats. I mean, it was typical locker room, high-fiving, belly bumping. We were happy. I mean, it was great. It was just a great moment, and we knew that we had him on the run. The outlines of the case against Tony Emery are beginning to take shape. Problems, however, abound.

No body, no crime scene, no evidence. We've got an individual who spoke with another individual. We've got some recorded conversation. We've got a start, I guess. And we have our theory. Cold Case Files is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk,

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Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states or situations. Looking for drama? We got so much of it, you'll cry tears of joy. Reality shows, game shows, sports, Star Trek, and even more Star Trek. No matter what mood you're in, there's something on Pluto TV. Just download the app and start streaming. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never. In 1990, drug informant Christine Elkins drove off in her 1980 Oldsmobile and was never seen again.

Cold case detectives have no body, no car, no crime scene, but they do have a theory that Missouri drug lord Tony Emery killed Christine to prevent her from testifying against him. Desperate for a break, investigators dig into Emery's past and dig up Dana Kleiser. June 2nd, 1997, in Rosendale, Missouri, Dana Kleiser is a simple man with a long memory. He remembers that drug lord Tony Emory dated his sister, a fact that did not thrill Kleiser.

And he remembers the night Christine Elkins disappeared. It all just hit that night, just slick as a whistle that I was right in the middle of it. It was after midnight when the headlights hit Dana's farmhouse. First, a pickup truck, and then an Oldsmobile, driven by Tony Emery. They just come up there and he said, I need some gas. Portman, do you got any gas around here? And I said, yeah, we got some in the barrel. So he backed up to it real quick,

and I said, you ought to let a little bit of that run out because it'll clog up. Oh, no, he said, this car ain't going far. Emery has Kleiser put one gallon of gas in the Oldsmobile, and then he orders Kleiser to get into his own car and lead them to the Missouri River. gallon of gas in the Oldsmobile and then he orders Kleiser to get into his own car and lead them to the Missouri River. I said, I need you to take me to the quickest way to the river without being on the major highways where you put your boat in.

I said, okay. With Emory following, Dana drives towards the Amazonia boat ramp. About three miles from the ramp, he stops, and Emery continues on driving the Oldsmobile into the darkness down toward the water. Emery returns from the water half an hour later. The Oldsmobile does not return with him. Kleiser's story leaves cold case detectives stunned. I mean, we just can't hardly speak because now we realize that he is the missing piece that we've been looking for all these years. He leads us

to the body and then that that excitement is kind of short-lived because then I remember we're in the Missouri River and this is now 1997 and we had the great flood of 93 and that car went into 1990 and I'm thinking my gosh Christine and her cars in the Gulf of Mexico. And I didn't think we'd ever recover her. On July 26, 1997, detectives converge at the Amazonia boat ramp on the banks of the Missouri River to scout the river's bottom for Christine's car. A recovery team of sorts is flown in.

There's a group of scientists, it's a non-profit organization out in Colorado by the name of NecroSearch, and they are experts at finding clandestine graves or finding bodies. And I thought that was extremely odd. Odd, maybe. Helpful, yes. NecroSearch scans the river bottom with a magnetometer and is able to pinpoint six possible locations for Christine's car. At 11 a.m., Dennis Randall makes his first dive. And it's just black. I mean, it's just like putting electrical tape over your mask.

You can't see anything. After 20 minutes of searching and finding nothing, Randall makes a final sweep before surfacing. The last thing I hooked onto was a safe. I could tell it was a safe because of the edges and stuff. And I reached back to grab a hold of it, another object to hang onto, and that's when I found the left front bumper of the car. While Randall investigates below, Mike Schmitz waits above. In a boat, he works a two-way radio hookup with his diver.

I got on and they gave me a headset and it was Dennis Randall. I said, what do you got Denny? He's feeling around, he says, I got a two-door. Mike calls back and he was really excited. He says he's got his hands-door. Mike calls back, and he was really excited. He says he's got his hands on the license plate, and it's a cutlass car. Of course, Christine's car was in the cutlass, and the tension and the excitement in the air was just incredible. So I got on the radio, and I said, Mike, just give me a minute, and I'll bring the license plate up.

And then Mike yells into the radio. He's coming to the surface with the license plate. And I watched and I saw Dennis Randall come up and he just started bobbing around in the current like a cork. Dennis surfaces with a swing out license plate, the type used on the Oldsmobile model Christine Elkins drove the night she was killed. Somebody makes an estimate on that. That's our plate Bob. That's our plate, that's the swing up hinge plate. What you got?

When I brought it up, Mike, he knew what the license plate number was from memory and I brought it up, hand up first and he almost jumped out of the boat when he saw it. We got it! We got it! Yes! What's the longitude? 57? Yes! What's the launch time? 57. Man, he turned that around, and there it was. Boy 6E652.

I couldn't believe it. I could not believe it. It takes recovery teams five hours to pull the Oldsmobile from its watery grave, taking special care not to disturb the trunk and the evidence it may hold inside. July 28, 1997. The Maryville City garage houses a crime scene. The inside of Christine Elkin's car tells the tale of its last moments above water. Key in the ignition, gear in drive, and a stick wedged on the accelerator. Inside the trunk, cold case detectives find a rolled-up carpet. At approximately 10.30 p.m., they cut the carpet open.

They cut into that and called us over, Randy and I, and we looked at it, and you could see her mandible, you know, her teeth and whatnot. X-rays would confirm what the team already knew. What is now just a skeleton was once the body of Christine Elkins. August 4, 1990 to July 28, 1997, we were a week shy of a complete seven years that she had been in that cold, nasty water. Christine Elkins' skull is shattered. A socket wrench is recovered nearby. In one night, cold case detectives possess

all the evidence they need to charge Tony Emery with murder. On July 14, 1998, in a federal court in Kansas City, Tony Emery is found guilty of killing Christine Elkins and sentenced to life in prison. Prior to sentencing, Christine's mother tapes a final statement to her daughter's killer. Today, Tony Emery will be sentenced to spend the rest of your life behind bars in prison. I pray your life will be short.

I want to live long enough to see you dead. I want to say her name out loud to you. She wasn't Dirty Laundry, as I heard in court you called her. She was Christine Ann. Christine Ann. Christine Ann. You murdered our daughter, and then you threw her away. And for that, Tony Emery, we curse your soul.

Christine Elkins was 32 years old at the time of her death, and perhaps about to turn a corner on her life. Tony Emery made sure she never got that opportunity. Through the work of cold case detectives, Tony Emery is now paying the price for his crimes. All those times you were told that hard work pays off, it did. You know, you start wondering, will the hard work pay off? Keep your nose to the grindstone, get the first downs, the touchdowns will happen. You don't worry about the touchdowns. You just worry about getting the first down. And then the next first down, and pretty soon you score the touchdowns. Cold Case Files is hosted by Marissa Pinson, produced by Jeff DeRay, and distributed by Podcast One.

The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at ANETV.com. Pluto TV has over 300 channels and thousands of TV shows and movies for whatever mood you're in. coldcase files at anetv.com. We got so much of it, you'll cry tears of joy. Reality shows, game shows, sports, Star Trek, and even more Star Trek. No matter what mood you're in, there's something on Pluto TV. Just download the app and start streaming. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.