Crime Junkie - MISSING: Christopher “Cole” Thomas

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

On Black Friday 2016, 22-year-old Christopher “Cole” Thomas was driving through rural North Carolina with two coworkers. Hours later, the coworkers approached police and said Cole had suddenly panicked, pulled over, and ran into the dark, never to be seen again. But their story later changed. Surveillance footage showed Cole was not alone. Phone data appeared to place the group at the scene of a late-night drug deal that went wrong. And somehow, the only person who disappeared was Cole.  In the years since, multiple men have been arrested, questioned, and released, but no one has been charged with his disappearance. His body has not been found. And despite conflicting statements, investigators believe someone knows exactly what happened that night. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Benson Police Department at 919-894-2091 or [e-mail]. You can also call the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at 919-779-8188.   Head over to our Crime Junkie YouTube channel to WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmxt6Ok6Qmo  Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit:  https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-christopher-cole-thomas/ Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/fanclub/ to view the current membership options and policies. Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie! Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuck Twitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuck TikTok: @crimejunkiepodcast Facebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllc Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat.  Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawat Twitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawat TikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkie Facebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF   Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And you guys, sometimes the hardest cases to crack aren't always the ones with nothing to go on. They're often the ones where everybody seems to know something, but they're too scared to talk. Because today's story isn't about someone disappearing into the dark alone. It's about a young man who vanished in front of, quote unquote, friends from work. Their first version? He panicked, pulled the car over, hopped out, and booked it. But the only people who say they saw what happened next are the same ones who can't keep their stories straight. And when the truth keeps bending like that, it's not confusion. It's not bad memory. Usually it's a bold-faced lie. This is the story of Christopher Cole Thomas. It's just after 3 a.m. on Black Friday in 2016. But in the small town of Benson, North Carolina, no one's lining up to snag a deal on the latest iPhone or the biggest TV. It's quiet. Most people are asleep. And the streets are practically empty.

Which is giving time for a couple of officers to finish up some paperwork in the police department parking lot. And it's in that quiet moment when two months. men walk up. Their names are Julian Vez Jr. and Jeremy Carpenter. Now, they're not panicked or screaming or anything like that. They just need a little bit of help. They're passing through after visiting Julian's family for Thanksgiving. They were on their way back to Minnesota where they both work. But now they don't have keys to their car. And the story of how that happened is weird. They say that they were traveling with a third buddy, Christopher Thomas, who goes by Cole, and he's the one who was driving.

But out of nowhere, he started acting paranoid. And before they knew it, he pulled over, took the keys, jumped out, and then, like, ran until he dropped out of sight. They don't know why or where he went. I mean, Cole couldn't have even known where he was because he's not from around there. He's from Florida. The only half explanation that Julian offers up

is that he had heard rumors that Cole might have, quote, mental problems. But he wasn't even really sure. They said they tried looking for him themselves, but they can't find him, and now they're just stuck. Now, the story is a bit odd, sure, but not enough to, like, set off alarm bells for these officers. Because even though it's an ungodly hour, these guys don't appear to be under the influence or anything like that. So the officers do what they can. The guys point them in the direction of North Johnson Street, where they say Cole ran off.

They check the few places that. might still be open for gas or coffee, but there's just no sign of him. No one who saw or heard anything either. So within hours, that's pretty much it. Because as far as police are concerned, this sounds like a grown man who just chose to leave. That is not a crime. Yeah, but he didn't know anyone else in the area, did he? No, and honestly, Cole didn't even really know these guys all that well.

They had just met while working a contract construction gig up in Minnesota. It sounds like Cole basically didn't have plans to go home to Florida for the Thanksgiving, so he kind of just like tagged along with them for something to do. And was it just for like the long weekend? Yeah. Like they all had to be back at work on Monday, which I think is part of the reason that Julian and Jeremy are stressed about getting stranded without the keys. Yeah.

Now, they eventually call up a locksmith. But strangely, when he gets there, he ends up finding the keys right underneath the car. So the guys head back. Like, they just leave Cole. Yeah. I mean, like, he ran off on his own. They have to get back for work. I mean, they filed a missing person's report with the officers that they talk to, so they go home.

Jeez, what friends. I know. And the thing is, though, like, you don't know the half of it. Because, Brett, even though they told police what they say happen, neither of them actually bothered trying to reach Cole's family down in Florida. Like, you report him missing, but you don't call anyone. So his parents are completely unaware that their son is missing until Sunday, when they get an out-of-the-blue call from. police in North Carolina. To say they were shocked is a gross understatement.

Because they didn't even know Cole was going to North Carolina. Not that he has to like tell them. He's 22. But it's kind of weird that he didn't even mention it because he'd exchanged texts with his dad on Thanksgiving, just like a simple, hey, love you, enjoy the turkey. But there was zero mention of this cross-country road trip. Which seems like it's something that would at least come up in conversation. You'd think.

So the family gets word of this. They get this phone call. And the only explanation that they're getting is that their son just like ran off into the pitch black in a place that he had probably never been to or even heard of before. And they had never heard the names Julian or Jeremy since Cole had only been on that Minnesota job site for like less than a month. But get this. Cole's dad, his name's Chris, he told our reporter Madison that even though like his mind was like racing in that moment, he actually. did know someone that he could call. The guy that Cole had been working under as an electrical apprentice, this is someone

who he knew was working with this same crew up in Minnesota. So he at least has a name, Stephen, right? So Chris didn't have his number, but like Lightning, he looks through Cole's Facebook friends, finds Stephen, says like, call me ASAP, and within minutes, Stephen is hitting him up. And he spits out something like, oh, Mr. Chris, I've been trying to get a hold of you, which right away, Chris is thinking like, no, you most definitely have not. Like, I'm not a hard guy to find. I mean, he could have done exactly what dad did and found him on Facebook.

Yes. And Chris is listed as Cole's father on his Facebook page. Oh, so he's like right there. Easy. But anyways, he doesn't harp on this. He is just listening. And what Stephen says next is far from reassuring. He wasn't on this getaway with these guys, but he sure seems to know a thing or two about it because he starts rambling on something about a strip search,

about Cole freaking out, and then he says something that stops Chris Cole. I think they killed him. They who? That is exactly what Chris is trying to figure out. He is asking all of the questions, like a strip search for what? Why was he freaking out?

Who are you talking about? And that's when Stephen starts filling in some of the blanks. He tells him that the guys Cole was traveling with, Julian and Jeremy, they weren't just passing through North Carolina for Thanksgiving. They had driven there all the way from Minnesota to buy drugs. And he says, they went to meet up with some, like, very dangerous dudes. And afterwards, something must have gone wrong. And this is like the foundation shaking for Cole's parents.

Like, this is never the kind of story they would ever expect to be hearing involving their son. I mean, obviously, you never really know who might be struggling with substance. use or fall into a lifestyle of dealing, whatever. But Cole, like, this was never something they ever had to worry about with him before. Like, he grew up in a small town, graduated as salutatorian of his high school, earned some scholarship money to attend the University of Florida, and had plans to go into medicine, inspired by his younger brother who has autism. He was smart.

He was driven. But, like a lot of people in their early 20s, he was still figuring things out. So after a few years of college, he was, like, feeling kind of burnout. out, he decided he just wanted to take a break from school. He was motivated to like make some money, get real world experience, learning a new trade. It meant traveling. It meant working long hours with his hands and being introduced to new people from widely different backgrounds. But to his family, it sounded just like this temporary detour, a way to save up some cash. And look, his mom, Kathy, even told us that Cole was seemingly so open with her. He even admitted that he tried some party

drugs here and there when he was in college. So no, this situation that he's in, not impossible, but traveling across state lines for a drug deal, like that's the part that like it just didn't sound like the Cole she knew. And for him to change that much in just one month, right? It's not he's been gone for a long time. Like it makes zero sense. Of course, Cole's dad doesn't want to believe what he's hearing, but that's not a risk that he's willing to take. So within hours of that call with Stephen, he and Cole's mom, Kathy, throw their things in the truck and they start driving from Florida to North Carolina. Because if there is even a small chance that their son is still out there hurt or scared, hiding or otherwise, they are going to find him themselves.

Now, the drive from Florida to North Carolina should take less than eight hours. But that weekend, with holiday traffic, it takes a heck of a lot longer. And the whole time, it is just like, absolutely, brutal being in that car. The drive is a blur for both of them as they try to wrap their heads around what they've just been told. So when they finally do get to Benson, North Carolina, it is the middle of the night and they don't waste a second. They go straight to the police station and tell officers the bits and pieces that they heard from Stephen, even though it's not much to go on. It's like, you know, more than they had gotten from Julian and Jeremy, more than they told police when they were in town. So the cops, when they hear this, they call Jeremy and Julian back. up and like try to get to the bottom of what's really going on. Now when they reach them, the men are supposedly still traveling back to Minnesota. And at first, Julian and Jeremy stick to the same story. But officers don't just ask once and accept their answer. I don't know if they eventually rat out Stephen as their source or what, but at some point

these two end up admitting it. Or like some of it. It's true. They didn't go all that way for mom's mashed potatoes. it was to buy meth. Not like a ton, I don't think, but like enough for them, enough to maybe sell some of the guys at their job site back in Minnesota. And Julian is from North Carolina,

so he is the one who had this hookup down there. They all drove down there. They went to the town over from Benson. It's called Mount Olive. And that's where they met up at a house of this guy who Julian knows. His name was Rudolfo Dalyon Jr., aka Rudy. And they also met with apparently Rudy's buddy, Anthony James, Jr. who goes by T.J. So Rudy and T.J.

Now, Julian and Jeremy don't really say what else happened or who else might have been there, just that they did this deal and then they left. And sometime later, in the car, the story that they first told kind of picks back up. Cole becomes frantic. But this go around, they're not saying anything about mental health struggles anymore. They're a little bit more honest. They say that he was maybe paranoid about the drug deal and thought that they were being followed by the cops. So that's why he ran. Now, investigators are sensing that like something is up,

that maybe they still don't have the full story. So together from like what we got from Stephen, this theory starts to emerge, that something with the drug deal went wrong. Or Cole, who may have just been the driver, because Julian and Jeremy, they didn't have their licenses, maybe he realized that he was in way over his head and like freaked out. If that part about him, about him taking off is even true, though. I mean, the truth is, at this point, police don't even have proof that Cole was ever in Benson at all. Like, all they have is that report from them, right?

For all they know, the entire story about Cole pulling over there, running away could have been made up to cover for whatever really happened to him, to keep police from knowing Cole's real last whereabouts. Though, that whole part about them being like 40 minutes away over in the town of Mount Olive when they met up at Rudy's with whoever else, that might actually be legit because police tracked down video from a handymark convenience store there

from earlier in the night. This would have been Thanksgiving Day. The department wouldn't share that video with us, but we spoke to Benson Police Chief Greg Percy about it. And he said that Cole, Julian, and Jeremy can all be seen on this video between like 1137 p.m. and 11.50 p.m. This is just about three hours before Julie and,

William and Jeremy would eventually report Cole missing to the cops. But at this time, Chief Percy says that everything seems completely normal. Cole goes in, grabs a drink. Apparently, he doesn't look paranoid at all. In fact, nothing about his behavior stands out as far as Chief Percy can tell. So, knowing that their son was somewhere around this area in North Carolina, right? Like, we know we can put him there. Cole's parents, Chris and Kathy, know that this is going to have to become homebe.

base for them for a while. So they go back to Florida. They pack up what they can, and then they turn right back around and head to North Carolina, this time with an entire travel trailer. And they set up at a campground nearby. Every day, they're out putting up signs. They're working on billboards. They're driving roads, checking ditches, using search dogs, combing through areas that

even have already been clear just in case something was missed. All while police are collecting surveillance footage from Mount Olive, from Benson and parts between. And back then, Chief Percy wasn't chief. He was captain. And it was his job to go through all of the footage that they were collecting, hours of it. And it takes him weeks, completely consumes him. I mean, talk about bringing your work home with you. Percy cannot just leave this at the office. He is literally reviewing footage at home in the night, like at all hours, and it's actually in one of those late nights at his kitchen table in December when he finally catches something. Now the footage he is looking at is from a camera at the Walgreens in Benson.

And it's pointed at the parking lot, but you can also kind of see like across North Johnson Street, where you get like the slightest view of a bank in its parking lot. And it's pretty good as like video like footage goes or like it would be if you were in the Walgreens parking lot, like close to the camera. But that's not where he spots movement. At 1.10 a.m., he sees something moving through the frame in the distance. So he like spots it, he rewinds, he zooms in, hits play again. When he realizes what he's looking at, he gets this rush of adrenaline.

He actually wakes up his wife to show her too because for the first time, he can prove it. Cole was actually in Benson, like a five-minute walk from where the car was left, just like Julian and Jeremy said. Except, he didn't run off alone. In the footage, Cole is just walking, and there's someone following on foot right behind him. At exactly 1.10 a.m., in the top middle of the screen, you can see two figures, and like only the bottom halves of their bodies are visible. And at first, it looks like they're walking, like, right across frame, but when they disappear behind something dark and then they don't reappear, you realize that, like, the depth. perception is a little weird without context.

And the two people are actually walking right to left on screen, but I think they're walking behind the bank. And so it takes 20 seconds, but then you see them reappear on the other side of the building. Police determine this is Cole, and walking slowly behind him, maybe kind of even to the side, is one of his fellow travel companions, who they determined to be Jeremy Carpenter. Now, it's not like he's sneaking up on him or anything. Cole most certainly knows that Jeremy was there. I mean, to me, it even looks like Cole is like gesturing.

Like maybe they're talking as they walk off camera. Now, of the three hours of footage from that Walgreens camera that we got from Cole's family, that's it. Just like 30 seconds that eagle eyes Percy caught. But it was enough to prove that the guys were still lying to them. Yes, he was in Benson, but he did not walk off 11. So when they go back to Jeremy and confront him with this, the story evolves again. Not a completely different version or anything. It's like Jeremy just drops another breadcrumb.

Something like, oh yeah, okay, so after Cole got out and walked off, I went after him so that I could calm him down or whatever. And then at some point, he says that they end up outside a nearby church. And supposedly, one that's like a pretty short walk from the bank. So it wouldn't have been like long after we saw them on that camera. And suddenly, it sounds like Jeremy, too, is convinced that they're being followed because he's now saying that he's just as freaked out as Cole. Wait, where's Julian in all of this? I don't know. I think he's actually staying behind with the car.

Like, he's not seen on any of the footage and it's not part of his story that Julian's with them. Okay. But anyways, Jeremy and Cole are supposedly at this church. And according to Jeremy, Cole says that he has to pee. So he walks off to go take care of that. And that's when Jeremy tells police that he, like, gets down on. on his knees and starts praying. For what?

Maybe that, like, if somebody's really after them, they don't find them, or maybe that they come out of whatever this is okay? I don't know. But, like, per Jeremy, by the time he says amen, Cole's just gone. Except later, another breadcrumb drops. And he admits, well, okay, actually, while I was out there, I did hear a car door. But then that car door sound eventually turns into, I think I made of her. gunshots. So he's saying someone picked up Cole or now maybe shot Cole while he himself was

praying? Praying. I guess. But he says that essentially like when he opens his eyes and he sees that Cole is gone, that like he actually does say he like tries to go look for him. But after he looks and looks and he can't find Cole anywhere, at some point he realizes he needs some water. According to him, he's diabetic. So he actually like really needs it. And, Lo and behold, one of the only places still open in a small town at this hour, he spots those bright golden arches. Mickey D's. Yes. Now, police are actually able to verify that he went to the McDonald's that night because in more surveillance footage that police got, that again, Cole's family shared with us, there goes Jeremy by himself walking into the parking lot.

It looks like he's like speaking to someone who works there, maybe like seeing if he needs to go in or maybe he could just go through the drive-thru. He ends up walking through the drive-thru, and he gets his cup of watching. just after 2.20 in the morning. No coal in sight. And no Julian either. No Julian either. But he has to meet back up with Julian at some point, somehow, because we know that they're together like 40 minutes after this talking to cops and reporting that Cole ran off. That was at like 3 a.m. But here's the super interesting part. Julian and Jeremy aren't just alone the rest of the night. Obviously, the police and later a PI brought on by. Cole's family get phone data for all the men that night.

And based on location data, it seems like Jeremy and Julian are still with and around Rudy and T.J. Sometime after Cole goes missing. And where was Cole's phone? Well, I think everyone originally made the assumption that he walked off with it. That's what you would think, right? Turns out that was a wrong assumption. Because when they finally got Jeremy and Julian to come back. to North Carolina to be questioned in person.

They were like, oh, yeah, by the way, here you go. Wait, they had Cole's phone. This whole time. Why didn't they tell police that? I don't have an answer for that. Like, it might be as simple as nobody asked. But, like, they're asking for it now. Yeah.

And they get it. Not only do they have the breadcrumbs that Jeremy and Julian have been dropping. Now they actually have. have a digital trail that shows Cole's movements the whole night and lined up with the other phones, it tells an interesting story. One that the family's private investigator, David Marshburn, really helps put together by dumping all of the data points into an app called Cellhawk. If law enforcement agencies aren't using things like this, this is my PSA. I mentioned a similar application badge app in the Melissa Cassius case recently. These programs are for law enforcement,

and they take basically huge data dumps, put them into a map that you can actually like see and make sense of. Like processes the data. Something that tells the story. Right. Now, just like the surveillance footage showed, the phone puts Cole at the handi-mark convenience store in Mount Olive at 1138 p.m. on November 24th. They now know that this is after the drug deal took place.

From there, Cole's phone starts moving. Based on what points they hit when, It is clear that these guys are in the car, but their driving doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like getting back to Minnesota should be a straight shot on the highway. And it seems like they're making their way there for a while. But then at some point, they start, like, cutting through random side roads. And it looks like they are, like, looping back. Their phones show continuous movement from Mount Olive all the way to Benson, from 11.52 p.m. to 107 a.m.

And 107 a.m. is when their phones finally come to rest near where Cole pulled the car over. And here's what's strange. We know that Cole and Jeremy get out of the car and walk away, but it doesn't look like their phones move. From 107 on November 25th to a little after 3.45 a.m., their phones just stay put, presumably left behind in the car when they took off, which I don't know why you would leave your phone. behind. And when confronted with this data, Jeremy and Julian eventually say as much that Cole left his phone behind in the car and ran off. But after they report Cole missing to police, the phones start moving again, including Coles. The guys say that what they did is they called Rudy to come pick them up so that they had somewhere to stay while they waited for the locksmith instead of just like waiting with the car. But this is odd, right? Like the fact that Cole's phone isn't moving to, not just like in the car. car.

Yes. He's missing at this point. And instead of leaving his phone in the car, in case he comes back, they take it with them as they all leave Benson completely, traveling back towards Mount Olive. And just after 4 a.m., Cole's phone goes dark. Investigators suspect that everyone in that group wised up and eventually turned off anything tracking their location at that point. That's not good.

No, especially when you hear what comes next. Cole's phone does eventually come back on hours later. But it's not in Benson where he supposedly walked off. It is still over in Wayne County. Is that where Mount Olive is, where Rudy is? Mount Olive is in Wayne County. Yeah, but like Wayne County encompasses more than just Mount Olive. And all police would tell us was that Cole's phone was somewhere in

Wayne County, which means whatever happened to Cole, it sounds like it didn't end in Benson. Now, at some point when Cole's phone is turned back on, for some odd reason, Jeremy and Julian just start repeatedly calling it. I mean, to make it, like, look like they were looking for him, maybe? Or investigators think it might be that they were trying to get into the phone, possibly to get rid of stuff. Like, maybe they thought somehow, like, if they, if it was like, if it was lost, If you answer it while it's a call, could they break into it? I don't know. Like, it's password protected.

That's not how it works. Yeah, that's... It doesn't make sense to me. I know. And I don't think they were actually able to access anything. That's just the theory that police have. So now, investigators are looking at a group of people who had Cole's phone, maybe tried to access it and didn't turn it over right away.

Yeah. That sounds a lot like interfering with an investigation, my friends. Mm-hmm. So fast forward to mid-2017. Grand jury indictments lead to the arrests of the four guys that they know about so far, who they believe are connected to Cole's case. Julian Vez Jr., Jeremy Carpenter, Rudolfo Dalyon Jr., aka Rudy, and Anthony James, Jr., known as T.J.

They are all charged with concealing Cole's death, and all but Rudy also get hit with obstruction of justice charges. All of the suspects plead not guilty to all the charges. And this was more than just like a small win till I get on the board. This was a strategic move on behalf of law enforcement. Police were hoping that separate it and maybe under pressure, maybe just maybe, the weakest link might finally break. But even with all four of these guys in custody,

the case doesn't just magically fall into place. It takes some serious legwork and a dedicated PI to come to the realization that these four guys are actually just a piece of the puzzle, not the whole thing. And to even get there, it was dangerous. The PI David had to basically infiltrate this network of people and his presence didn't go unnoticed. I mean, once he started learning more and asking more questions, he says that he started receiving three. threats, including this voicemail that he shared with us. Look, I'm calling you because I know you're an investigator for this case. Somebody supposed to be calling you today.

If they don't call you today, I will find out. I want you to answer this phone at 9 o'clock tonight. If you don't answer this phone, it's going to be personal stuff between me and knew. David believes that whoever that was who called him is part of something bigger and that this was more than just a one-off drug deal gone wrong. Through all of the conversations that he has had and the phone data that he's mapped out, David starts to piece together what he now believes may have been the plan all along. He thinks it's possible that Julian may have been double-crossing everyone.

Meaning what? So based on everything he's hearing, Cole, and honestly maybe even Jeremy, probably thought that the plan was simple. They were going to go there, pay for drugs, bring them back to Minnesota, maybe even sell them to like the guys at the job site, but like that's what they thought.

Yeah. But David believes that maybe Julian was working with the guys that they met up with and the plan was actually for them to sell the guys this like meth and then somehow, some way that night, steal the drugs back. So they get paid for the drugs they sold, but they get to keep their supply? Precisely.

And according to David, there are a couple of things that could have thrown off this whole plant. First of which is Cole himself. Everyone we spoke to still believes that when Cole agreed to drive his coworkers down to North Carolina, he probably had no idea the level of danger that he was actually getting himself into. But according to David, it seems like Cole may have slowly and surely been figuring it out, like on the fly. You see, Julian didn't know something about Cole. He'd only known him for a month and might have made some assumptions about him. Like, for instance, that this pre-med white kid from rural Florida only spoke English.

But that wasn't the case. And it's very possible that Cole picked up on the fact that he was in danger that night before he was supposed to ever even know. From what we heard, Cole actually knew a good bit of Spanish. Enough that if Julian, Rudy, or their guys started talking about the real plan around him, Cole might have been able to pick up on it. Which could have been why he was panicked on that drive back. Like it could have been warranted. Right. David believes that could explain why Cole was so freaked out, maybe why they were cutting through Benson to begin with, why he didn't just think that they were being followed.

He may have known that they were being followed. And it wasn't the cops he was afraid of. It was the drug dealers following them. Potentially. And there's a possibility that they didn't even have all of the drugs to give back to them if the dealers caught up with them. Because you see, depending on who you talk to, at some point during that drive, apparently some of the drugs got thrown out of the car, probably by Cole, possibly by Jeremy. Like trying to get rid of them? Or just like, I don't know, they're scared. I don't know if that's giving them back, trying to get them off their hands, something.

And David believes that some of the drugs may have even been hidden by Julian without everyone knowing. So like, say they catch up with them, they realize everything's not actually there. wouldn't know who had it, but who's the easiest to blame? The person who probably tossed the drugs out, the same person who doesn't really belong there to begin with. Cole. Cool. And our police bought in with David's theory? So our reporter Madison asked Chief Percy about this. And while he says it's definitely possible, he thinks it's also possible that whatever went down could have been even way less complicated than double crossing. But he does think that whatever happened involved missing drugs. He said that there's a world where maybe Julian's

boys had front of them money for drugs and then said drugs were thrown out the window. Well, now someone's got to pay up. It's also possible that harming coal wasn't part of the original plan. Chief Percy says that he got intel that Cole may have fought back when confronted about the missing meth and maybe things just escalated from there. But even if there are multiple possibilities about what led up to Cole walking away from the car after one o'clock in the morning, everyone seems to agree on one point after the fact that there was likely someone else there, someone who encountered Cole after Jeremy lost sight of him. According to what David uncovers, there is another guy who keeps popping up, a guy everyone calls Gordo. And he is one of the guys that Julian and Rudy

may have been coordinating with throughout the night once things took a turn. So it sounds like Cole really did take off of his own free will. But then he and Jeremy supposedly get separated. And then Jeremy thinks he hears a car door sign, maybe a gun, right? Somewhere like in the distance. Right. Well, based on phone records that police have, when Cole had first taken off, it sounds like Julian may have contacted Rudy,

who then gets in touch with some of his guys to, include Gordo, and they set out to try and track Cole down, who is now on foot, possibly to try to figure out what happened to their missing drugs, see if they can find out where they were tossed, if that is what happened. The thinking is maybe that car door that Jeremy heard was real. Maybe they got Cole into another car, and maybe it was Gordo's car. David's able to track Gordo down and gets him to work with the police, maybe in exchange for some kind of deal. He talks, he never ends up with any charges related to Cole's case.

That's simple. Because no one else will say a word and investigators need someone on the inside. So eventually he says, yes, he was there that night and he, along with some other guys, were instructed to find Cole, which they did. And per his story, Cole just gets into the car willingly. I doubt that. Yeah, P.I. David knows an already paranoid Cole. and going to be getting in the car with strangers. So, like, he keeps pressing him when they're having this conversation. And the story evolves, like these stories in this case keep doing. At one point, he says they threaten him with a gun.

Then in another version, they catch up to him, disorient him by hitting him with a baseball bat, and they take Cole into the car with them. Okay, but take him where, though? That's the million-dollar question. According to Gordo, they are instructed to take Cole and hold him, until the rest of the guys get back to do whatever they're going to do with him, I guess. But he claims that he doesn't know what happened after that. Whatever it was can't be good, though.

But does he say where he took cold to? This is the thing. It's not clear, like just some guy's house in Wayne County. Which is the area where the phone was. Right. Now, here's where things get tricky, though. Investigators get a warrant for the car in question that he was supposedly, like transported in.

They search it. They're looking for blood, DNA, anything that could confirm this story that Gordo is telling. But they don't end up finding anything definitive. So they're still seemingly not telling the whole truth.

Cole's dad Chris and the P.I. David feel so close, yet so far. And they know what they really need is one of those like core four to flip. They believe that they know what happened. So they start thinking outside of the box.

Like how do we get someone to finally give it up? And what they come up with is out of the box and has to be so painful for Cole's dad. They decide to hone in on T.J. Because compared to the others, he doesn't seem as deeply tied into this drug scene. Not necessarily totally innocent, but maybe less culpable. So Chris makes the decision. David is a PI and a bondsman, and Chris puts up the money, essentially taking on the risk of bonding out someone who may have been involved in whatever happened to his own son to get him out of prison, to get him away from the other three guys who are tied up in this. The thinking being that maybe if you can separate him, he could think for himself, save himself if he was given the chance.

So they free TJ. And for a little while, it actually seems like it might work. Because once he's away from the others, he is willing to do a long sit down with them. David recorded this conversation. Legally, I might add, North Carolina is a one-party consent state. And Cole's family shared that audio with us. So here's TJ. Only thing I know is that thing.

He went, when the drugs got missing, he got missing. I don't know what he's at. I really don't know. I don't know what they did with. He's sort of hinting something went wrong. But they already knew that. He just won't say what. But minute by minute, you can tell that something slowly shifting.

though. And at a certain point, they decide to bring in someone else. Kathy, Cole's mom, thinking that maybe she can appeal more to his emotions, convince him to tell the whole truth. And when she sits down with him, she doesn't come in all aggressive or angry. She just talks to him as a mom asking about her son, asking what happened, trying to get him to understand what this has done to their family. That would be so hard. And according to what they do, describe. This is when they sense that T.J. is starting to break. He doesn't tell them everything, but he does say something, something that sticks. He's gone. What did they do to in C.J.? Tell me, he's gone, y'all. This makes it feel all the more real.

Now they know what everyone already suspected, but they won't get to know any more. because TJ won't go much further. They get fragments, but nothing that could actually hold up in court. And that continues to be the pattern with just about everyone connected to this case. People talk, but only to a point. And so far, no one is willing to give this family what they really need, proof, or even a body to bury. All four men served some time,

but eventually the concealment and obstruction charges against T.J., Anthony James Jr., and Rudy, Rudolfo Delion Jr., Julian Jr., and Jeremy Carpenter, they all end up getting dropped. According to Chief Percy, this was done, at least in part, to avoid compromising any potential future homicide prosecutions. Now, we tried reaching out to everyone named in this episode, every which way we could think of. But as of this recording, we haven't heard back.

Julian Vez Jr. is currently behind bars on drug charges unrelated to Cole's case. Still, we sent him a message. So far no response. And unfortunately, we will never be able to talk to Jeremy Carpenter. Per an online obituary, he passed away in 2024. Now, some people believe that Jeremy may have been in the same boat as Cole, that he was just as surprised by the turn that things took. And that everything he did that night, his silent. and the evolving stories that followed

were out of both fear and survival. But it means that we will never be able to ask him the one question we have for everyone in this case. Where's Cole? Because when it comes to that detail, the part that matters most, everyone conveniently claims they just don't know that whatever happened next happened in secret.

But with this many people possibly involved, with some of their phones moving together, that's hard for me to believe. Because somebody knows where Cole is, and it's time that they say it out loud, before the data does the talking for them. Because no one is done with this case, not Cole's parents, not Benson PD.

They are on a mission, and they might be closer than ever to answers. So if there ever was a deal to be made, I think someone's running out of time to make it. So if anyone out there knows what happened to Christopher Cole Thomas, you can contact the Benson Police Department at 911 81942091. Or you can email info at bensonpd.org.

You can also contact the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at 911-779-8188. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, Crimejunky.com. And you can follow us. on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. I think Chuck would approve.