Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - ANOTHER young private goes missing from Fort Bliss; MOM OUTRAGED

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

More than a month passed before the parents of Pvt. Richard Halliday knew their soldier son was missing. Even then, it was because they reached out to the Army only to find out that the military considered him AWOL, absent without leave. Reports say the Army is no longer certain Halliday left intentionally. What happened to Pvt. Richard Halliday?Joining Nancy Grace today: Patricia Halliday - Mother Rob Halliday - Father James Shelnutt - 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case detective, SWAT Officer (RET) Attorney www.shelnuttlawfirm.com  Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com Robbert Crispin - Private Investigator “Crispin Special Investigations”  www.crispinsinvestigations.com   Anne Emerson, WCIV ABC 4  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. How in the world does the Army lose yet another shining star? Why? You'd think after Vanessa Guillen's case, they would have learned. And don't get me wrong, I love our military. My father fought for his country. But why is this happening? This time the superstar, number one in the basic training class. Number

one in AIT advanced individual training. And they're not worried. I'm worried. Today is a very urgent program. We are searching for a young trainee, a young recruit, just 21 years old. What has happened to Richard Halliday? Take a listen to this. This is our friend Natasha Paloma at KTSM 9. Richard was born in Poland. We adopted him when he was about five years old with his brother, who was almost eight at the time. We brought him home and I have

to remind myself that they're adopted. His mother describing him as intelligent and talented. Likes to play the piano. Loves the outdoors. Loves the outdoors. Richard Halliday was always so independent, his parents say, so much so that he decided he would join the service. He was number one in basic training, received a $500 award for that, which we were like, yay! Patricia Halliday says her son excelled and even loved being deployed. He became an E4 very quickly and went to Qatar.

Well, he's not a trainee. He's not a recruit. He's a full-on soldier, already accomplishing so much. Comes to our country from Poland. He is adopted along with his brother. And yet he who comes to this country from another is ready to die for the United States. What are we ready to do for him? You were just hearing the voice of his mother, who, of course, like me, will not miss any opportunity to brag about her children. And joining me right now is Richard's mother, Patricia Halliday. Father, Rob Halliday, also with me. James Shelnut, 27 years, Metro Major case, SWAT officer, now lawyer at ShelnutLawFirm.com.

New York psychologist joining us today from Manhattan, Karen Stark at KarenStark.com with a C. Robert Crispin, private investigator, former cop at CrispinSpecialInvestigations.com. And Ann Emerson, WCIV ABC4. First of all, to you, Ann Emerson, before I get to Richard's mother and father, what do we know, first of all, about where Richard was stationed? Well, what we know, Nancy, is that he was at Fort Bliss. That's in Texas. According to reports, 21-year-old Richard Holiday had been in the military,

as we've seen, for two years and just recently returned from Qatar. They certainly do talk about his stellar early military record. And what we understand is he was at this base. At Fort Bliss. And what can you tell me about Fort Bliss and how big is it? Where exactly is it? What do we know about Fort Bliss, Anne? How big is it? Where exactly is it? What do we know about Fort Bliss? Well, Fort Bliss is certainly one of our well-regarded Army bases.

It's near, closer to the El Paso, Texas area. It is a pretty much, I mean, it's just a straightforward Army base. It's been home to the 1st Armored Division. And it's huge, actually. It's 1.1 million acres of land. I was just about to say, it's huge. It's about 1,700 square miles. It may be a little bit bigger than that.

And it is the largest installation and FORSCOM, U.S. Army Forces Command, the second largest in the entire Army. To the parents of Richard Halliday, I want to thank you for being with us. First to you, his mom, Patricia Halliday. I was just going over what you were telling us about Richard, I remember getting my children through piano, and I can imagine you giving him piano lessons and how smart he is and how you took him in, brought him from Poland. Tell me about the day you realized Richard is missing. Well, it was a horrific day. We hadn't heard from

Richard. We had thought, because he had told us that he was going into the field, and so we thought we'd give him a little bit of time. What does that mean? Hold on. What does that mean, he's going into the field? Well, that they would, you know, just do maneuvers out in the desert with their equipment. And they sleep out there. In the U.S.? Yes, in the U.S. here at Fort Bliss. Because, like you said, I always try to tell my friends because we did live in Ireland for a bit. I think Fort Bliss is bigger than Ireland. So it's a huge, vast post.

And on day 36, my husband finally succumbed to my nagging and called his leadership, his command. Okay, hold on, Patricia. I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but I want to understand the timeline because I consider that very critical and really one of the elementary blocks on which you build in a case. He's so handsome. He doesn't even look real. I mean, I'm looking at a picture of him right now in his army outfit. And he is so proud. He's got some kind of a ribbon around his neck where he's obviously won some type of... That's illegal. My dad did that. My dad was proud of him. Oh, look at him. And there he is. That's got to be you standing there in a tunic top and hugging each other. And I just keep thinking about my own son.

And honestly, he really doesn't look that much older. I mean, he's just so handsome and I'm looking at him. But back to the timeline, let me get my mind on my own son and back into your son. I know you speak to him regularly, but the fact that several weeks went by, you attributed that to him being out in the field, correct? Yes. And also because he left his phone in the laundromat. Oh, no. Yes. And he was using his old phone. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, today's program is dear to our hearts. We love our military, and right now, one of our own needs your help.

Tip line 941-677-0060. Repeat 941-677-0060. We're talking about, of course, this handsome young man, Richard Halliday, his mom and dad with us. Back to you, Patricia. So when several days passed and you didn't hear from him, you weren't as worried as you normally would have been. So you get your husband, Rob, to call Rob Halliday with us. This is Richard's dad. How did Patricia get you to start calling? Well, you know, we're married. She's my wife.

I say, well, let's give him some time. He's a single man. He'll get a hold of well, let's give him some time. He's a single man. He'll get a hold of us. He's doing his own thing. He could be out training. We don't know. And I'm going to give him some time.

I'm not going to call his boss and check up on him. But finally, I just succumbed to it. 28th of August, 36 days after he went missing, I called the Battalion 143 ADA staff duty officer, and they passed me to his battery, and the battery commander says, your son is a deserter. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Just when you said that, I felt chills going down my whole body. A deserter?

No, Richard Halliday is not a deserter. What did you think when they said that? Well, my mouth dropped open. I think the commander was almost in tears because they had a hard time getting a hold of us, but they didn't really try very hard, if you ask me, because I'm a 30-year veteran of the United States Army. And in less than one minute, they can get my phone number and where I live.

I mean, Rob, Patricia, let's be real. If we could put a man on the moon, they can't find your phone number? Really? Exactly. I mean, we found you, for Pete's sake. We found you. And we're not the Army with all their intel. So there's an example right there.

So I'm just telling you, as much as you don't want to hear it, Rob, as a trial lawyer, I'm telling you they did not try to find you because we found you. Right. Now, back to that moment. Then what happened, Rob? Well, you know, we were kind of like. A deserter? How did you bring that to Patricia? I just kind of, she was across from me because we were working on our little business,

and she just, she couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I stopped kind of hearing the commander and talked maybe a few more minutes. I don't even remember the rest of the conversation, and we had to call back. You know what, Rob? You know what's interesting? When I first started prosecuting, if people would tell me they blanked out, I would poo-poo. And I'm like, right. It's just something you don't want to tell me. So you're saying you're blanked, you blanked out, but that's not true. That is not true because I've been asked a lot of questions

about my fiance's murder, his funeral, the trial of the guy that killed him. And Rob, I've got to tell you, a lot of it, I immediately did not remember it. I just guess I don't want to remember it. But I hear you. I get it. What is that called, Karen Stark? You're the psychologist. What is it when you don't want to hear something, so you don't hear it? It's repression and denial, Nancy.

It's something that's too painful and huge to hold on to it. And so your unconscious takes over, and it winds up repressing it so that you sort of know it's there, but you don't really, or just deny it, that it ever happened. To Patricia Halliday, could you make out what they were telling your husband, Rob, that your son's a deserter? Well, right, because my husband was mouthing to me. We have a desk where it's two-sided,

so over the desk he was mouthing to me what they were saying, and it was absolutely shocking. But what shocked me is the 36 days, because our daughter, Hannah, when we told her, she goes, Mom, get in the car. Hurry up. Go to El Paso. Get Richard. And I'm like, Hannah, 36 days. Where do we start?

36 days. And that has just echoed in my memory, in my memory, the helplessness. Because we couldn't even file a missing persons report. Why? Why couldn't you? Because he was not in the jurisdiction of the El Paso police and he wasn't in the jurisdiction of anyone in Florida where we live. And he was dropped from the rolls from the Army. The Army had hands off. They didn't, you know, oh, well. I had told the Stars and Stripes reporter they kind of threw him out like an old shoe.

You know, that feeling you're talking about of helplessness, I remember when I had just flown back to New York, home to New York with the twins, and had gotten them in bed, and I called home, and my mom said, they want to put your dad on life support. I got us all out in the street to hail a cab at midnight, Patricia, to try to get home. And the next, let's just say, 14 hours was just a horrible odyssey of trying to get to get home. And the next, let's just say 14 hours was just a horrible odyssey of trying to get to my dad. I didn't know what I was going to be able to do when I got to him, but I knew I couldn't do anything until I got there. So Patricia, what did you guys do? Well, after we got our

bearings a little bit and no one was willing to help except for family and friends. We took to the media. We tried to call media. We started our Find Richard Holiday Facebook page and just started trying to reach out to people and tell our story over and over again. And I said that this is a failure of leadership from the U.S. Army and that got people's attention. So you have to be a little bold and fearless. And then some people listen to you. And that's when the Army came back and contacted us. And said what? To say that we were using bad words like failure in leadership. And it was to intimidate us not to go to the media.

And so I'm like, well, then you need to give us help. When you said no one was willing to help you but friends and family, did you ask the Army for details when Richard was last seen and to help you find him? Yes. What did they say? Well, they said they don't look for AWOL or deserters. He has a federal warrant out for his arrest. But then when the media started kicking

in, our daughter had an Instagram post that had over 40,000 shares. And so they came back and said, okay, well, we'll give you a gesture. We'll give you the CID. But we have a witness saying that he walked away. Well, that turned out to be a lie. They have no one that saw him walk away. And they also said they knew what he was wearing, but that also turned out to be a lie. You know what? This reminds me so much, Ms. Halliday, of the Vanessa Guillen case where Vanessa's sister, Myra, drove through the night alone in the rain, hours and hours drive by herself, gets there.

They basically turn her away from Fort Hood. She goes back and gets misinformation, complete misinformation. Guys, we really need your help and we need it now. Please, the tip line is 941-677-0060. Repeat, 941-677-0060. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We're trying to find, handsome may not be the right word. I think he's beautiful.

He's perfectly chiseled. This young man, just 21 years old, deserter, no way. This guy, 21 year old, Richard Halliday, number one in his entire basic training class, number one in the AIT, the individual training, number one. Somebody that works that hard is not going to turn around and desert. That did not happen. Their mother, his mother and father are pleading for your help and I am joining them. How many young people in our military must die or go missing before they get it? We need help from the military and we need your help. Straight back to you, Ann Emerson, WCIV, ABC4.

Ann, what can you tell me? Now, we hear the mother, Patricia Halliday, talking about the Army stating he was seen, quote, walking away. That turned out to be not true. First of all, I want you to take a listen to our friend, Natisha Paloma at KTSM. After getting back from deployment, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and things changed. 36 days went by. We didn't hear from him. Something the parents say Richard would never do. Richard's father calling Fort Bliss only to find out his son was gone. 36 days. What do we do? Where do we go? You know, 36 days.

Fort Bliss telling the family the soldier went AWOL or absent without leave. They say the military never reached out to them. It took like two days to think things through, start calling people. You know, I also want you to hear this. Our friends at KFOX, take a listen. Richard Halliday was last seen by other soldiers at Fort Bliss on July 24th. His mother, Patricia, says they didn't know he was missing until more than a month later when she contacted his unit on August 28th. The Hallidays drove more than 20 hours from Sarasota, Florida to El Paso. And for the past two weeks, they've been holding demonstrations and rallies to raise awareness about his disappearance.

The family is now searching across the border into Juarez, filing a missing persons report with the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office. Here in El Paso, they met with Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. They say their meeting was very productive and that she'll be helping with the search. And we are really, I'm very excited that Representative Escobar is going to come to one of our candle rallies. Candle rallies, tip lines, Facebook pages, but still no spottings of Richard Halliday that can be believed.

Anne Emerson, WCIV, what do you know? What about that last sighting? Well, what we've heard so far is that there were a couple of things that have happened. One is that when they first started investigating the CID, which is the Criminal Investigation Division for the Army, the special agents took over on September 1st. They did conduct an in-depth, according to them, an in-depth forensic search. It said that they found nothing that suggested foul play. Now, they also have done searches with they said up to 200 members of the military joined them in 20 miles of trails in the Franklin Mountain State Park and another trail near Fort Bliss. They've gone through 80 barracks to just kind of talk about what, you know, the extent that they say that they've been through, as well as look at surrounding homes that are around the Fort Bliss area. What's particularly concerning is that about three weeks later, a spokesperson for the Army came back and said there's new evidence

that suggests he may have left the base earlier than thought, which would have been July 23rd. That was the date. Okay, I have a concern with that. Don't they call muster? I mean, don't they know to you, Rob Halliday, you're Richard's dad, but you're a 30-year veteran. Don't they call muster and know who's there and who's not there? Yes, they usually have formations depending on the company or the battery level and their routine.

When I was in the military, we'd have three a day, but I don't know what Richard was doing because we never talked that. But, yeah, they usually have at least one formation a day at the beginning. So how could they not know the last day he was there? Well, you know, there's things you can think about, but are they covering up something? I mean, somebody saw him. I mean, he was under escort 24-7 because they were putting him out of the Army.

So there's a lot of different scenarios or courses of action, but, you know, we're not told anything. Well, I don't understand what you mean he was under escort. Well, we were told because, you know, there's a lot of things we didn't know about Richard from January till now. Things happened to him. And we did know that when he was in Qatar, you know, I talked to him a lot. And he had some concerns about leadership. And he was really thinking about getting out of the military. Now, this is the guy that was doing really, really, really well.

You know, he had three Army Achievement Medals in less than 14 months. You know, I didn't get an Army Achievement Medal until I was about fifth or sixth year in the service. So he was, and then all of a sudden it just changed because I don't know if he noticed something or he, you know. Something in Qatar, uh, well with his leadership, he didn't mention any kind of, uh, other things other than leadership. And he kind of still talked to that when he got back from Qatar, you know, he did visit us last August after his return from his deployment, he was there for about eight days. And then he went back to,

when he first started saying he was having concerns with leadership, he was in Qatar at the time? Yes, ma'am. Interesting. So it seems to me that he may have voiced those concerns, and now he's missing. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Richard Halliday has a certain clearance. He's done very, very well in the Army. And even though he's been upset with some of the leadership decisions,

I find it very difficult to believe that he would, A, desert when he could have very easily left at the end of a term, and, B, not contact his parents. Patricia Halliday, this is Richard's mother who is joining us today to try to help find her son. Put yourself in her shoes for a moment. Think about it. Your son goes missing and you don't find out for 36 days. Patricia, didn't you guys have a rule of sorts that at the very least, every two weeks, he would check in? And it was two weeks because you don't know what assignment he would have been sent on. And he had always done that, correct? Absolutely.

And the Army has a standard operating procedure to notify family or closest relative when a soldier goes missing right after 24 hours. And then two weeks after, it's their duty to send a letter to the address also. That didn't happen. Yeah, none of that happened. So they broke their own protocol, which tells me we're not getting a true story. Guys, I want you to take a listen to a public service announcement. My name is Breeder General Dave Stewart, the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Commanding General here on Fort Bliss. Mr. and Mrs. Halliday are looking for their son and our soldier, Private Richard Halliday. He was last seen on Fort Bliss July 23rd. Yes, I'm Rob Halliday, Richard's father. And yes, officials believe our son may be in the El Paso or greater El Paso area.

He is 21 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, weight of 160 pounds with black hair and hazel eyes. Straight out to Rob Halliday. This is Richard's father. I noticed then when the Brigadier General Dave Stewart was speaking, he said, our soldier. That doesn't sound like he's talking about a deserter to me. Oh, yes. Things changed when we got here. And they did, for lack of better words, pacify us with changing his status or adding to his status, missing along with it.

But they never removed the desertion because, you know, there has to be a crime. I guess it doesn't have to be a crime, but it is the criminal investigation division. So there needs to be a crime, and this crime was desertion, and that helps with their investigation. Where is this coming from? Ann Emerson, WCIV ABC4, that he was last seen in El Paso? Where is that information coming from? Well, there is a claim as well that there's a woman who said that she saw the credit card of Richard Halliday when she was with another soldier. This claim was made that

when she talked to this other soldier that he told her that Halliday had fled the country and was in Cancun with a girlfriend. That was one of the reasons, from what I understand, that this search was extended into Mexico. And this claim was just a month ago in October. So that was part of how this has started to extend. There's been several sightings. I mean, when we talk about El Paso, when this started finally getting into the hands of law enforcement in the area,

they were getting people to come forward who said that they possibly saw Richard Halliday in that area. So that's where those sort of claims are coming from because people are speaking up. I got it. Guys, take a listen to our friend Natasha Paloma, KTSM. I'll cut 16. He ordered a meal and when he opened his wallet, all the cards fell. In that mess of credit

cards, Jane says she noticed a blue and white one with a familiar name. I saw the Halliday last name on it. He was like, oh, I need to hide this one. I said, why? He said, because it's from a missing soldier. Jane tells us the soldier remained calm and relaxed and told her Richard Halliday had fled to Cancun with his girlfriend. She says the soldier told her he was doing Halliday a favor. They're looking for him, so I need to use them here in order for the military to think that he's still here. We did reach out to CID or the Army's Criminal Investigation Command.

They sent us a statement that said in part, quote, we are fully aware of the allegations and have conducted extensive investigative activity surrounding the allegations and continue to do so. To Rob Halliday, this is Richard's father. Rob, I understand that some of the sightings are overlapping, that there's an allegation that he's in Cancun with a woman, but yet there are sightings of him in El Paso, and none of it has been verified to my understanding well that's correct there's been uh there's been sightings of a of a of a gentleman that that looks like richard now we've seen some pictures of these and there's no way that they're richard but many of

them don't we don't have any proof so like uh was said most of the leads leads are in war as right now and not much happening at Fort Bliss where he was last seen. Not really El Paso now. It was Fort Bliss proper. Someone, probably the last person we don't know a name because CID won't give us any info because they're investigating. They don't give us anything except, you know, maybe some results of all the many subpoenas and warrants they've done to try to get information about Richard. But we don't know who saw him last. It's probably one of his escorts. Let me understand. So the last confirmed sighting, he was on Fort Bliss. Correct. I mean, if your son would call you practically every day all the way from Qatar, you don't think, Patricia, he would call from Cancun?

I don't believe for a minute that he's in Cancun, even though I would be happy if that was the case, because that would mean he's alive. But because of our war rewards and also the military reward of $25,000. All in is $37,000, right? Yes, $25,000, exactly. And so people were calling in, you know, with any kind of siding. And Richard looks a little Puerto Rican, so he blends in really well in Juarez and in this El Paso area. So that's why we receive those kind of calls. There is a $25,000 reward from the military, a $12,000 reward put up by the family. They have traveled to the location and are desperately looking for their son.

Won't you please help them? Go online. Look for Richard Halliday. And you guys have made a Facebook page. Is that correct, Patricia? Yes. Find Richard Halliday. And we have a petition right now to change his designation, which the Army did do.

We'll find out more today. They designated him as Dust 1, which is more of a OCONUS casualty designation. But they will let us know more about that because this is set precedent. He's the first CONUS soldier with that designation. So we're trying to, I guess, try to get them to do their duty and find our son. Go to find Richard Halliday online or to crimeonline.com for more on Richard Halliday. Patricia, when you wake up first thing in the morning, do you ever forget just for a few seconds that Richard is gone? No, I run down to the computer on my pad and write down everything that I was thinking of

during the night. It's all consuming. Rob, how do you guys even put your head on the pillow knowing that Richard is missing? Well, there's only one way. There's our triune God's number one in our lives. We've had a lot of help from the church here. We receive a lot of prayers from not only El Pasoans, but citizens of Mexico there in Juarez. Many rallies has helped out, but prayer and going to God with prayer gives us strength and energy to keep moving forward. It is very hard. It's very time-consuming to get motivated, to stay active.

It's like, you know, for lack of better words, Rob and Pat is really leading this investigation, not the CID. They're waiting for leads from us. You know, I know they're doing some work, but, you know, I mean, and it's safe to say that, you know, if the Army after 24 hours says a soldier is, or female-male is AWOL, and then

30 days later is a deserter, they have no experience in how to find a missing soldier. Unless it's somebody during the time of war and conflict, they'll send a bunch of folks out, like what they do with this Dust One, OCONUS, which Dust One is an acronym meaning a duty status whereabouts unknown. And they'll search real hard, spend a lot of money. But it's kind of a day late, a dollar short for my son.

But if this goes forward, it's great for future things that happen with soldiers to actively spend some time and money and search and then label him or her an AWOL soldier. I don't know how much the search could have been taken seriously if they didn't even call mom and dad. So I don't know what the search that is. Ms. Halliday, what more can you tell us? Well, we have information now from three sources that said that there was some extortion going on in the barracks that if you wanted to leave the barracks because of these uh sickness measures that uh you had to you had to pay the cq um and that could range up to eighty dollars and some soldiers uh didn't want to pay that eighty dollars so they went out the back door to have a little freedom in their own country so um you know so there was, you know, there's just a lot of new developments. Why he was being harassed were even really complaining about this Article 15 that they had against him.

That is a bunch of garbage. It's soup sandwich. And they are investigating because my husband sent an email all the way up to General McConville about the sources of what was going on in that unit. And they're investigating that unit right now. So we have names. We have even as high up as a lieutenant colonel participating in this extortion of the soldiers being locked in shelter in place in the barracks. Guys, please, the tip line 941-677-0060. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.