Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Duke Univ. junior home for summer, vanishes

Episode Date: May 16, 2017

Michael Doherty decided to walk the mile home from a house party early Sunday, but he disappeared along the way in Franklin, Massachusetts. After three days of searching, only the Duke University junior’s shirt and shoes have been found. Doherty was home for summer break. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss the case of the missing 20 year old in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You're at Duke University School of Engineering. His family lives in Massachusetts. He is home for the summer. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. He attended a house party early Sunday morning, and we're told he left that party around 1.30. It was pouring, raining, dark, and Daugherty's phone wasn't charged. It should have been a short walk home for him. He just left on his own. He lives right down there. So I think he had the confidence to walk home at that time. Daugherty is 5 feet 10 inches tall.

Police are focusing on a specific area now. As the time goes on, the search for him intensifies. Police found his sneaker and a shirt at the edge of a swamp. Day three. Day three of parents on the standby waiting to find out if their missing boy will be found. Imagine saving your money your whole life for a college fund and sending your kid off to an awesome school, Duke University, and then he goes missing. The desperate search for a missing college student, Michael Daugherty, enters day three. Officers begin searching the woods in a swamp land with dogs, boats, helicopters, even drones at 5 30 a.m. in the morning for this young man, Michael Daugherty, and today we join the search. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. We are on pins and needles as the search goes

on for this young man. He's a junior mechanical engineering major at Duke University. He was home for the summer break. His family says he's out with his friends at a party on Phyllis Lane. He left alone Sunday morning early, a little after midnight. He never made it home to Catherine Avenue. That's only less than a mile away from the party. Now, he charged his cell phone a little bit before leaving home, but police say his phone has shown no activity since then. He was at the party, we know that, but what happened in less than a mile? So far, we've heard from sources at WBZ-TV that Michael's t-shirt and a shoe were found Sunday in the area now being searched. A second shoe has been found on the edge of a golf course. Franklin Police have interviewed over 30 people who are at the party

as they're trying to piece together a timeline of events. Let me give you the tip line right now. Anyone who knows anything about Michael Doherty's disappearance, call Franklin Police immediately at 508-528-1212 or go to crimeonline.com. We have a tip line and an email tip line as well. Joining me right now, the Duke, Alan Duke. Alan, what more do we know? Looking at the map, the satellite view, which you can see on Google, and we'll post it on our story, you can see that he didn't have very far to walk. It was 1.30 in the morning, early Sunday.

There was a house party going on in Phyllis Lane. About 30 or more people, mostly friends of Michael's, perhaps from high school days, were there. And it seems that the way it is today, you depend on your cell phone for everything, your Snapchatting and everything. So his battery had run down and he charged it a little bit, borrowed a friend's charger, charged it for a few minutes before starting to walk home. Now, you would think he'd be just fine, because if you look at this neighborhood, it's a residential neighborhood, one of those what we call a good neighborhood in Franklin, Massachusetts, by the way, about 50 miles southwest of Boston, right near a country club. So he was walking down Phyllis Lane. He just had to make a couple of

turns, didn't even have to cross any major roads or anything, over to where he lived and where his family was at Catherine Avenue. So it was just about 1.3 miles away. But he disappeared. He never made it home in those early morning hours. And it seems that his cell phone finally died and they can't ping it now. It just, no sign of him. Police say he was wearing a blue T-shirt with a Nike logo, black pants and sneakers the night of the get-together. Very innocent get-together. No word of any crazy drugs or alcohol or out-of-control behavior.

This was a neighborhood home not far at all from his parents. I would walk this far with my twins, Alan. Certainly. But, you know, and there's the swampy area, but it doesn't make sense that he got, if he were even inebriated, which we don't have evidence of, by the way, but for him to get disoriented, this was his home turf. So another thing doesn't make sense to me that he could have gotten in a swampy area and drowned because his shirt is found in one place, one shoe is found in one place, and another shoe is found in another place. That does not a drowning make. No. If you look at this map, Nancy, and he's going down Phyllis Lane, headed north. He takes a right at the first street at the end of, this is a cul-de-sac street, you know. It goes nowhere other than where you are.

If he takes a left turn, he goes toward the swamp, takes a right turn, he should have gone to go home. Unless, this is what I'm thinking. I was a kid, young, one time, and I used to take shortcuts through the woods. If it was a neighborhood I was really familiar with, you know, we all had our own trails. I know you did too, Nancy. You had your own little shortcut trails through the woods. Still take them. When I go home to Macon, and I'm in my mom and dad's neighborhood, when I go out and about with the twins by foot, We take all the old shortcuts through people's yards, through some woods. I'm betting you that is what happened. I mean, you don't use Google Maps to walk a mile to your own home where you grew up.

And this is exactly the kind of neighborhood where you would have cut-throughs. Well, you may be onto something, Alan, because neighbors say they've observed the police going through people's backyards with a big German Shepherd dog and that means that they're looking through cuts or shortcuts cut throughs this kid had just completed his junior year as a mechanical engineering major smart smart bright boy at Duke University motorboats and canine dogs are being used to find this guy. And you know what about this kid, Michael Daugherty? You know, we hear all these horrible things about like this last fraternity party where everybody was drunk out of their minds and

they were hitting the guy and they basically left him to die. He kept falling and hitting his head and he did die. Nothing like that in this kid's background, Michael Daugherty. Just a good kid, a good boy. Yes. Really good grades, a nice family that loves him, who right now are probably just out of their minds, out of their minds. His fraternity brothers, he was Alpha Tau Omega in that fraternity at Duke. His fraternity brothers are converging.

The president, John Clark, is at home in Connecticut, made the drive to Massachusetts, and is organizing other fraternity brothers to help in the search. So this is the good side. You know, we talk about the hazing and everything. You know, here's another thing. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Well, I mean, you know, coming from my sorority where we never had parties like that, our whole thing was about raising money for the Ronald McDonald house. I'm going to pause

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you. Now let's get back to our podcast. Listen to this. He left the party alone. So he didn't leave with a group of other guys that could have like beat him up or hurt him. So what happened? He had less than a mile to walk. He knew the neighborhood. What in the hay is a young guy 20 years old? It's really an enigma because typically you hear of young kids, younger boys, younger girls, teen girls, but very rarely do you hear of a guy, 20-year-old guy in his neighborhood that goes missing and it went down in this neighborhood. It's not like somebody took him to another location. Whatever happened, happened there because his shirt and two of his shoes have been found

in different locations unless that happened during a struggle and somebody stuffed him in a car. He is still missing. The search is going on and this is right beside his home. Less than a mile. So we know about the shirt. We know about the two shoes. Police are using a helicopter, boats, canines, drones. Doherty leaving a party late Saturday night, really a little after midnight, we think, to walk less than a mile home.

Now, that second she was found on a nearby golf course. What does that mean, Alan? Out on a golf course. Was he cutting across a golf course? That wouldn't make any sense. The golf course is parallel to the swamp, which there's a creek that runs through it, which is parallel to the swamp, which there's a creek that runs through it, which is parallel to his walk. Now, if he took these shortcuts, and I'm looking, I'm zooming in on that wooded area, you do see

trails through there, and you even see a trail that goes across the swamp, it appears to be. I wouldn't want to take it, certainly at 1 30 in the morning, but it goes over to the golf course so there could be a connection there but my goodness this is a nice neighborhood as far as just the kind of place you'd want if you were going to have a kid walking home from a party yeah five feet 10 inches brown hair brown eyes again the number 508-528-1212 let's's take a look at the map. Hey, when you post your article on Crime Online, can you include that map? I'm going to do it. I want everybody to see what we're talking about because it really lays out the shortcuts he may have taken. I wonder if they're going to start looking in houses, in homes, in garages, things like that. Because looking at the map, it's very clear how he would

have walked on a street unless he took a cut through. And I see that golf course. I see if something happened to him in this wooded area, how could his shoe get to that golf course? You have to cross that creek. That's the only way. And that's not going to be an easy thing. I think you're right. Whatever happened went down right there. But it was dark. It was maybe two in the morning. And bad things happen then. Yeah, they do. But in a residential neighborhood, honestly, people are asleep. So what the hay is going down in this neat little neighborhood at 12, 1 o'clock in the morning when he's walking home? Who is out and about? I just don't see how he goes missing in less than a mile in his own neighborhood unless somebody removed him from the neighborhood.

Well, I think bottom line is we'll probably know fairly soon if he is still in the area of the neighborhood, unless he's someplace in one of those houses. But it's not a big area. It's not the area where they found the shoes. It's all within about a quarter of a mile of where everything was found there and where the party was happening. You know, and I think you're right. I think these were probably friends of his from where he went to high school, Xavier High School, a rising junior now at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke, and really an upstanding student. He was home for the summer, went out to a party with friends in the neighborhood Saturday night. The parents report him missing when he didn't come home from the party. Police officers spend the whole day the next day scouring the area with their canines and even a canoe to explore a swampy area near Phyllis Lane. The operation, of course, was hampered by weather.

It made it impossible for helicopters to search. For a little while, they They resume the next morning. Even the environmental police are joining in to comb through a very wooded and marshy area, very close to where he was. They're urging local residents to check outside their homes, including sheds or detached buildings on their property. This reminds me of a case, I think out of Savannah it was, where this awesome young guy goes missing. We could not figure it out. You know what happened to him? He had gotten into, he had walked through the wrong door in a hotel and gotten in where they had those giant

fans and was hurt in one of the fans. That's what happened to him. I mean, it could be something totally that we're not expecting. There's video of cops looking in along the curtilage, which is the outside of buildings, searching, you know, in sheds, in garages, searching for him. Nancy, this reminds me of something that I say to my daughter, 25 years old, every time she goes out, is your phone charged? I have bought so many backup batteries and made sure she's got them in her pocketbook that she's got them with her because she spends so much time on Instagram, Snapchat and everything, it runs down. And my fear is that it's going to be dead when she actually needs it. So for parents, grandparents, if you're looking for presents for your kid,

get them backup batteries for their cell phone. Good thinking, Alan. I'm right there with you. Of course, the twins don't have a cell phone. Not yet. Not yet. But, you know, that's all they want. All they want is a cell phone.

They've got iPads. Otherwise, Santa got crazy and gave them a darn iPad. I'm going to have a word with Chris Kringle because mommy would never have approved it. I had to take it away from him constantly. But it is a source of power, the iPad. But what I know right now is these parents are hurting, and I want this boy, this young Duke student, brought home safely, God willing. And again, if you're not there when a fire starts, who will be there to save your home?

With SimpliSafe Home Security, your smoke detectors immediately alert emergency services at the first sign of a fire. Get 10% off your system today at simplisafe.com slash nancy. That's simplisafe.com slash nancy. Guys, thank you for being with us as we continue to help in the search for Michael Daugherty. I just can't even imagine what his family is going through. Alan, the tip line, I'm looking it up one more time. Do you have it by chance? Here we go. I've got it. 508-528-1212. Please help bring Michael home. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.