Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Finding Chase Massner ep. 7: His wife speaks

Episode Date: June 26, 2017

Amanda Massner has stayed publicly silent in the 3 years since her husband Chase Massner mysteriously disappeared 3 years ago. Not only has she suffered through the pain of losing her husband and the father of her 2 young daughters, but she has also been targeted by those who think she knows what happened to the Iraqi War vet. This 7th episode of our Finding Chase series is the first of 2 with Amanda speaking exclusively to Nancy Grace. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Finding Chase Massner, Episode 7. This week marks three years since her son, Chase Massner, vanished in Cobb County. Living the last three years with the not knowing and without him here is pure hell. Chase Massner is an Iraq War veteran, a husband, a father. His wife told us she dropped him off at a quick trip in Cobb County where he works. His family says he was last seen at a friend's house in Kennesaw three years ago on March 27th. It's like he vanished from that home not to be seen or heard from again.

If he was able to reach out to any one of us, he would. Despite some intense searching, few clues have been found. She tells me that as a mother, in her heart, she feels her son Chase is dead. We have absolutely no answers at all. Not even the slightest clue in three years. I've lived the last three years not knowing. And every single day is just hell. Can you imagine going to sleep every single night

wondering, where is your son? Is he dead? Is he alive? Is he somewhere calling your name, needing you, needing help? Is he in pain? Is he dead? Is he alive the child you spent your life raising poured all of your hopes all of your dreams into and somehow just like that he's just gone as if all the years and all the love

never happened i'm nancy grace this is crime, and that is what has happened to a young, handsome, Iraqi war vet, US soldier, Chase Masner. We are devoted to finding Chase. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of this young man, a husband and a father, a son, really hit home with me when I met his mother, Stephanie Kadena. The first several weeks, they were not actively investigating because in their words, it's not a crime to be missing. If he wanted to walk away, it's not a crime. Every day, she looks at her son's picture. Every day, she wonders, where is he?

What happened? What can I do to find him? And I put myself in that spot, and I can imagine myself just running out the door like a wild animal screaming to the neighborhood, have you seen John david have you seen lucy and at a certain point when you can't cry anymore and you can't speak anymore and your voice is cracked and you've got nobody to turn to you just go numb i just want to know the truth i want to know what happened to chase. Do you believe Chase is still alive?

I do not. Now, are you saying that with your heart and your head, or...? Yes, I don't believe he's alive. Can you think of a reason that anyone would have wanted him dead? Not a single reason. Would you be willing to forgo a prosecution in exchange for knowing what happened to Chase? Absolutely. I'm not trying to get revenge or get anyone in trouble.

I'm just trying to find justice for Chase. We have to talk to Brad. That's the missing link here now we know he has refused to polygraph and then stated again he will take a polygraph i'm going looking for him okay okay armed with nothing but my iphone and i am going to find him and i'm going to ask him what happened i'm going to see what story he's going to tell me and we'll take it from there. We found Brad Clements. We found him. I beat on his door. He opened the door and he let me in. Take me through what happened that when he goes missing.

I mean, it's really not that much. Like it's like everybody says, I like changed my story and all this stuff. But it's like, that was like, like, changed my story and all this stuff, but it's like, that was, like, what I did that day, you know, I mean, that wasn't really anything to do with Chase, it was like, you know, I ran a bunch of errands, what I was doing, you know, most of the time when I was fixing up my house, like, he was there that night, and then, you know, basically left sometime between when I was coming back from the store to when I started cooking. Like, I mean, he had to have. Like, I mean, that's the only logical thing.

What became of Chase Masner, a handsome young Iraqi war vet who comes home to reestablish his family with his wife, a beautiful young woman, Amanda Masner. They're two little girls, and then he goes missing. There's no way some sort of foul play was not involved in this guy's disappearance. We managed to track down the wild card, Brad Clements, who allegedly was the last person with Chase Masner. But there has always been the unknown. And that is his wife, Amanda, who has cut off contact, cut off the phones, packed up, moved away with the children. Why?

Joining us now, finally, she speaks. Amanda Masner. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. thank you for being with us is this the missing piece of the puzzle we need i want to pause and thank our sponsor today zip recruiter are you hiring do you know where to post your job to find the very best candidates? Well, with ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with one click. Then their technology matches the right people to your job better than anybody else does it. I'm all for people getting hired.

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today that posts on ZipRecruiter, you do it for free. Repeat, free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. Try it free. Free. Find the person you're looking for. Hire somebody today. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. ZipRecruiter, thank you for what you are doing and thank you for being our partner. Finally, I get to meet the Amanda Masner. Did you, do you go by Amanda Masner? I do. Okay. How old are your girls now? Adeline's four and Sydney will be seven in June. How long has it been since Chase went missing? Three years, a little over. What day did we go? Marchth that's right that was the last day I saw him it was official March 27th that's interesting that you say that's the last day that you saw him because we really don't know was it that day the next day what exactly happened

do you believe even if you and Chase were having an argument or not getting along at the time, do you believe Chase would have gone this long without contacting the girls? No. I don't either. What did the girls ask about Daddy? They don't. They're at peace with it. Do they believe he's dead? They do.

Why? They came to terms with it on their own time. I mean, why would they believe he's dead instead of missing? I think that they, in their heart, feel the same thing, that he wouldn't go this long without contacting them. Have they verbally expressed that? Mm-hmm. And obviously they've done counseling. They've done all the steps for grief counseling.

And not Adalind as much. Adalind doesn't remember, but Sydney. Mm-hmm. And so I really feel Adalind just kind of absorbs Sydney's feelings. So she takes on Sydney's recollections and feelings. Okay. When you look back on Chase's disappearance, what is your feeling about the time surrounding him going missing?

What do you think happened? Really depends on the day. Depends on my emotions that day. There's, I mean, what I think happened. I have a thousand different things that I could think happened. So what do you think? You knew him better than anybody. You're one of the last people to talk to him. What do you think happened? You know, honestly, I've decided that I'm not going to put a stamp on what I think happened. I'm just not. What does that mean, put a stamp on it?

Because it changes. And I could say, oh, I think that it was this, and then a couple weeks later, I'll be like, no, no, I think it was this. What theories have you worked through in your mind? Honestly, Nancy, I'm not going to go there. Why? Because it's not healthy for me. Oh, okay. I learned a long time ago that without knowing for sure facts, all it does is it tears me apart. And so long ago, I gave to God the fact that he knows for sure.

And God gave to me the peace that I don't have to know. And every time I go down the road of well this could have happened or this could have happened or this could have happened I mean it's devastating to me and it doesn't do me any good there are investigators and there are people out there that is their. There are people like you that I feel God is using. And I have facts that I am more than willing to share with everybody. I have details that I'm happy to give you and give detectives. But my feelings and going down these different scenarios in my mind, that doesn't bring me to a healthy place to be a mom for the kids that she's left behind.

That doesn't bring me to a healthy place to be stable for them or to be able to look at them and talk to them about their dad. And so I have closed the door on that part of my mind and made a decision that my feelings about what happened are all there in my life right now. And it's not because I don't care. It's because I care more than anybody. Obviously no scenario is good at all. Chase had mental illness and it wasn't PTSD like people like to try to play it off like it was. Yes, the military played a role in making his bipolar disorder worse. But Chase had bipolar disorder before the military. All the military experience did was make it worse. When you say the military experience,

did he actually see action? No, not serious action, no. You know, people ask me a lot, did you go to the scene where your fiance was murdered? Have you been to his grave? Have you gone through his footsteps that day to find out more about his murder? Have you read the trial transcript? No, I haven't because it is so devastating for me to do that. I could easily slide back into a depression that I can't get out of for I don't

know how long. And I mean a dark depression. And I have children now. I can't let myself do that. And I would. I know I would. And it's been many, many years since Keith was murdered. So when you're saying this, don't feel like it's just you. A lot of people go through the same thing. I don't want to read a child's transcript and find out what exactly Keith lived through when he was murdered. When I even think about it, it's hard enough all these years later. I'm trying to figure out, you said he did not see serious action. Where was he stationed? He was stationed in Fort Riley technically. Yeah. Which is in Kansas. He spent one year, well, less than one year. He had disciplinary action the first couple

months, so he didn't get to go right away. So it was about nine months that he spent in Iraq. So he was in Iraq for nine months. Why do you say he did not see serious action? I mean he never got blown up. He was never in, never saw anybody get shot. He wasn't injured. I mean he, but there are things that everybody that gets deployed goes through. I mean, he, but there are things that everybody that gets deployed goes through. Having to leave home, leave your family, have friends that do get shot and

killed or blown up. Or get mortars shot at your camp. You're in the middle of the desert. I mean those are things, you wake up in the middle of the night, you have to run and you know go into bunkers because there are mortars coming to your dam. Those are things that are traumatizing. Those are things that you don't think about, but those are things that everybody that goes to battle experience. It's a war zone. You mentioned that he had mental illness. Did you know, for instance, his mom said and friends say they don't know of that kind of mental illness, that he was always carefree and happy-go-lucky around them. You're giving me a knowing smile, like yes, you're aware of those comments.

What mental illness did he have that only you knew about? No, it's not only me. Bipolar disorder, for people that are familiar with it, one of the characteristics of bipolar disorder is that people that have it are very, very good at putting up that wall and that front and not letting people past it. And they will be whatever type of person that they want people to see. And when Chase, before Chase went into the military, he did seem like a very carefree person. All through high school he was a carefree person and Chase was a self-medicated person and he was very

very private and there were very few people that he let into his life. When you say self-medicated, I mean how could his mom not even know? With all due respect, I'm not going to talk about Chase and his mom's relationship. I respect his mom. Okay, let me then ask you this way. How do you believe that Chase hid it from his mother? I'm not going to talk about his mom's relationship. Okay. I'm asking you about Chase.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Did he hide his mental condition from other people? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Was he diagnosed on paper and medicated? When you say medicated, you mean a prescribed medication? Lamictal, lithium, wellbutrin. You guys had a lot of arguments over what? Yeah, people say we have a lot of arguments and. That's what his friends say.

That's where that comes from. Right. So they got that from him. What friends did Chase have? You don't know? You were married to him. I know, but I would like to know what friends other people think Chase had. Oh, so you're asking me who were your husband's friends?

Well, I guess I would start with the people that he worked with. Right. So what friends do I'm just curious because okay let me rephrase them to be a snow what they say that they heard you guys arguing a lot over the phone that they saw the text that you would send him about arguments you know that you would put him out of the car when he was in the middle of an argument and leave him. And that's an argument. When you put your spouse out of the car and leave, that's an argument. And all of that, everything that they're stating was one instance, one time. They're all referring to that one time. And all of those things that people have stated, unfortunately, over time and through rumor mills

and the way that social media and gossip work is it gets elaborated over and over and over again to one argument or two arguments turns into extreme marital issues and a horrible marriage full of problems where bipolar disorder, mental illness, episodes, drug use, alcoholism, all of those things. You mean your drug use with the pot? No. Oh, him. Okay. Yeah.

Because, I mean, there was pot at your house. Yeah, absolutely. So your drug use or his drug use? His. Okay. Well, the day that he, hadn't he been staying at his mom's because y'all were having arguments? No. Why was he staying at his mom's?

And he went to his mom's on Sunday and left on Wednesday. So he was not there very long. Well, he stayed there, though. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and left Wednesday. Correct. Why? Because he was having so many episodes and we were fighting. And that is factual.

Fine. So that circled back to my original question. Fighting about what? About his mental illness. And that is what keeps getting pushed under the rug. There was no fighting about what. There was no what cause. There was no issue that we were directly fighting about.

Chase had episodes. That is what they are called. Episodes where he would be self-loathing. Episodes where he would have a panic attack or he would freak out, where he would cry for no reason, where he would punch the side of his truck, where he would punch a hole in his wall. These are things that he didn't like for the children to see and I didn't like for the children to see. Okay, financial stress brought on by outside sources puts very much strain on a marriage do you think his mental illness well you told me that he was self

medicating he says self-medicating that means not a prescription drug yes in high school okay I'm talking about the time of his disappearance was he taking his medication yes then why was he still having these episodes that you're describing? Well, his medicine, they kept changing because it was not working. You said that all those fights were one episode. No. That might have been misunderstood. That's what you said. You said all the fights people describe are really one,

then later you amended it to say two fights. I think the one that his co-workers were describing, the phone call, the putting him out of the car, that all happened that night. That he went missing. Correct. That I dropped him off. Was that at night you dropped him off? 8 30. Preceding that he had been staying with his moms? Correct. Over arguments? Correct. And you came to the mom's house and picked him up in the driveway. And before y'all could even be gone an hour, you were in another argument?

Correct. Over what? I think that it would be more clear if we go to the beginning. Let's do. You start. Okay, so it's Tuesday, which is the day before I pick him up. On Tuesday, we talk on the phone. We agree that he wants to come home. I want him to come home.

We plan on me picking him up on Wednesday. So, on Wednesday, nobody can get in touch with him. I call his phone a bunch of times. I call his mom. His mom calls his phone a bunch of times and he's not answering, which is very out of character. He's not a heavy sleeper. He doesn't typically sleep a lot. Even though he works nights, he does struggle with sleep. So finally, I would say four-ish, his mom goes over there because she's at work at the shop without the air. So nobody's at the house. His mom goes over there and he's sleeping. She wakes him up. She tells him that people are, you know, I'm trying to get in touch with him. He wakes up. He looks at his phone.

Not only does he have a lot of missed calls from me, but he has a lot of missed calls from his job Because he had taken the security pager. He had worked down as a relief on the highway 92 quick trip Not his normal quick trip, okay And it was down highway 92. I don't know how many miles and he had taken the security pager from his job Went back to his mom's and fallen asleep. So they were upset with him and have been calling him all day. He wakes up and he says he had like over 20 missed calls from them, his manager. So that right there is a trigger for him. He has severe anxiety. I show up and this is all within maybe an hour. I go inside, Stephanie comes outside and sits in the car with my positive. So on Wednesday when I show up there and he is so frustrated again, I am frustrated. I am disappointed and I am

very irritated because I don't want to go through this again and on Tuesday when he's telling me that he loves me and he feels like he wants to come home, I am hopeful. So yeah, when I show up on Wednesday and he's already full of anxiety and angry and I haven't even seen him for five minutes, I am not in a good mood. And I am not really happy. So, yeah, were we irritated at each other? Absolutely. Did he still want to leave?

Yes. And we get his stuff, and we put it in the trunk, and he gets in the car, and I'm driving. We start heading down Highway 92 to go bring the pager back. And he starts having an episode again. And when he's having an episode he starts punching the front of the car the dash and the girls are in the back seat and he starts saying that he's going to jump out of the car while i'm driving down highway 92 and so i pull

over into the bbc Bank parking lot on Highway 92. It's on the left-hand side of the road, and I can see it in my mind just like it's yesterday. It's empty. It's closed. I stop. He gets out, and I get out. He tells me to pop the trunk. So I pop the trunk, and he starts ripping his bag. He r me to pop the trunk. So I pop the trunk and he starts ripping his bag, rips it open, throws his clothes around and I'm sure that the surveillance camera on that bank will show you that and the police should have that footage. And he takes the little bit of pop that he has in that glass, which is something that

everybody's been asking about, and he smashes it on the ground. And that is something that has been in question since the beginning of this investigation. And that surveillance tape will show that as well. And he is yelling and freaking out and saying that he's going to go in the woods and he's going to just run away and he hates himself and everybody's better off without him and horrible things. What did you do? And I know what to do. I always know what to do. Okay, I know him. So what did you do? I didn't say anything. I let him calm down. It's the same thing we always do. And then you get really close to him and you talk to him really calmly.

And you tell him that, baby, it's okay. You don't have to come home. We don't have to go to your work and take the pager back. We can go wherever you want. Where do you want to go right now? I'm not going to let you go in the woods. You know I'm gonna go right now. I'm not gonna let you go in the woods, you know I'm not.

But there's no pressure on you to go home. I will take your pager bag tomorrow. I will take you wherever you want, but I'm not leaving you here right now, okay? So he smokes a cigarette, and he picks up the stuff, and I help him. I put it in the trunk, and he agrees if I take him to Bratz. And I say, okay, as long as he lets me take him somewhere.

And so we get back in the car, and I start driving. And we start driving down to Kennesaw from Highway 92. He texts Brad. Brad says he's not home. But he's welcome to come over. So Chase tells me, Brad's not home, dropped me off at my work.

I said okay. Why couldn't he just go home with you? He couldn't, not in his mind. Okay, so you get the quick trip. So I just dropped him off. What happened when you dropped him off? I popped the trunk, and got his stuff, and he got out. And I said, I love you, I'll talk to you tomorrow. He got out, he set his stuff down, and he walked across the street to Walgreens. Why? I don't know. Brad has stated that you blew his phone up about picking him up from Brad's house. Later on, what happened?

Later on. That night, the next day. I don't know what to tell you. That's false. You didn't ask him, do not text and phone calls, messages about coming to pick him up? No. You never planned to come pick him up at Brad's? Well, later, I mean, the next day I did.

I wanted to come pick him up the next day, yeah. Did you tell him that? Yeah. On text? Yeah. Because that's what I'm talking about. The next day. Right.

So, after you drop him at Quick Trip, you see him walking to Walgreens, did you talk to him again? That night. Okay, what happened? The only thing I said was, just want to make sure you're okay before I go to bed. Are you okay? And it was between 10 and 11 o'clock at night. And he said, yeah, I'm okay. How did you end up with his cell phone? I did not have Chase's cell phone. That is yet again false. Where did that come from? Oh, I know where it came from.

Because you said you were going to check his cell phone, that you would go check his cell phone. This is after he had disappeared. I could have been referring to cell phone records and somebody might have gotten that confused. What was that? It was a conversation with Brad. You were really sleepy. Brad called and said something about a drug dealer in his neighborhood and you said you he woke you up dead of night and you said oh I'll check Chase's cell phone tomorrow and let you know his number.

Yeah, I had all of Chase's cell phone records. And every call, in and out, that he made ever. So when you said, I'm going to check his cell phone, you meant cell phone records? Yeah, I referred to them all the time. So, I mean, I can't tell you for sure what I even said. I don't even remember that conversation, to be honest with you. Hey, Amanda. Yeah.

You sleeping? Mm-hmm. Hey, I'm sorry to call you so late. I was just thinking, I was kind of walking through the neighborhood, and I just remembered, do you know the guy that lived down the street from me that chases to get stuff from? I remember he lived in my neighborhood. And I couldn't remember.

Have you tried to call that guy? Do you know who he is? Do you know who I'm talking about? No, I don't. He said that he lived right in my neighborhood, and I think that is a big step to this. We could just figure out who that guy is. You're talking about the guy that he got weed for that one day? Yeah, yeah, that's the guy I'm talking about.

That's like some 45-year-old. His name is Bo. Bo? Bo or something. Do you know him well? Do you think that he could have gone there that day? No, Chase doesn't really know him that well either. He just met him a few weeks ago.

He's like some old business guy, like kind of a nerd. And Chase just hooked him up and got him a few times. Okay. Well, I was just wondering. But I think the number should be in Chase's phone. Okay. Tomorrow I'll try to get that number. Okay.

Cool. Cool. I'm just, you know, still doing what I can, Amanda, and trying to... trying to find him and do... get this, you know, get some closure and, you know, just all of us are finally getting, you know, accused of just all kinds of stuff, I feel like. So, I just want to... I just want to get it done, you know, accused of just all kinds of stuff, I feel like. So I just want to get it done, you know. Yeah, definitely.

Definitely just sleep tight, and I hope everything's doing all right with you, all right? And if you, you know, like I said, need anything, don't hesitate to call me if you, you know, if you need anything that's not going to get you in trouble from talking to me, but I just thought that that guy really could have some importance for this because I don't think we've gone that route at all. Yeah, I'll look at his number. Okay, well, see you soon. I'll talk to you soon, all right? Okay, thank you. Take care. Bye.

That was it. It was three years ago. Pretty much that was the conversation. But I did not have his cell phone, ever. When did you cut off his cell phone? Four or five months after he disappeared. Like, when was the phone cut off? Sounds about right, like three or four months. Yeah.

Something like that. Yeah. I said four to five. Could have been. Somewhere in there. Yeah. Why? Because I couldn't pay the that. Yeah, I said four to five. Could have been somewhere there. Yeah. Why? Because I couldn't pay the bill.

Yeah. And you also moved. I did. When did you move? A year after he disappeared. Were you concerned that if he came back, he would not be able to find you? No, I wasn't. Have you been cooperating with police?

Yes. Have they asked you for an interview? Yes. Did you give the interview? Yes. And are you willing to take a polygraph test? Anytime. So if we arrange a polygraph test, you would be happy to take it?

Absolutely. That's good to know. What do you make of concerns that you guys were growing or had pot in the home? Yeah, I'd be happy to tell you about it. Okay. So, Chase and I did smoke pot. Something that I've always been open about. Is it something I'm proud of? Absolutely not.

Is it something that since then I have realized is completely irresponsible? And I regret, yes. I'm not the same person that I was then. And since then, God has come into my life and I'm grateful for that. God has changed so much about who I am. And it took obviously extreme brokenness to do so, but Chase got to a point where he smoked so much that he couldn't afford it. And so he decided that he was going to try to grow a pot. So he had like four plants in our hot water heater room downstairs that he was trying to grow. And he did research and tried. Okay. And he was never even actually successful.

He was growing them successfully, but was not even successful at it before he disappeared. They were still down there. The night that he, around the night that he went missing, that Chase went missing, did Brad Clements come over to your place? It was not around the night he went missing. When was it?

It was several nights later when everybody, not I say everybody, that's broad, when people were starting to get confused about what actually happened. So me and one of my very good friends, Lauren Bundy, and her husband at the time, Stephen Pugh, were at my house. And I asked them to come over, and I asked Brad to come over. I wanted to hear from him what happened. And I didn't know him very well. So I asked him to sit down with us. And I just wanted to hear it from him.

Would you be surprised to know that he reports that you want him dope that night? I've already heard it. Okay. And what's your response to that? I mean, to be honest, it doesn't surprise me. I have opinions of Brad, but I don't think that it benefits anybody. Well, is it true that you guys smoked pot that night? My opinions. And did we smoke pot? He said he was going to bring pot. And then when he got there, he was like, oh, I forgot. I guess I didn't bring it. And then he scraped what's called scraping a bowl. I don't know if you're familiar with the term.

Yes, I've prosecuted a lot of people that scraped the bowl and put them in jail. That's what he did. Yeah. And so that is, so technically, yes, we smoked. But the purpose of him coming over. I mean, you've got to understand how that strikes people that are still looking for Chase.

Oddly, that while the search is on for your husband, you're kicked back smoking pot. And it makes people think you don't care whether that's true or not. Yeah, and that's, I don't have a response to that. Because to be honest with you, for people that do smoke pot, it's a pretty normal part of their life. And it was a pretty normal part of life. Were your children there at the time? No. Where were the girls that night? They were sleeping. In the home? Yeah. Where you guys were smoking pot? Yeah. We were outside. Did Brad ever give an explanation that made sense to you?

No. That night, what was his explanation about what happened? I'm curious to find out. What was he saying at the time? Not what he may be saying now.

But what did he say that night about what happened? His explanation then, it really didn't make much sense even then. What did he say happened? His exploration then, it really didn't make much sense even then. What did he say happened? He said that Chase came up, or he picked him up from Quikter. And he said they went back to his house, stayed up late, they both went to sleep. He said that Chase wanted to get heroin. And that...

I didn't know Chase ever used heroin. He did a little bit in high school. And...but it was never a part of his life. Our married life. Brad says, if you choose to believe it, that Chase wanted to score heroin. Okay. then what happened Brad said he convinced him not to okay and that he was drinking hey that chase was okay and that they just go to sleep okay and then chase just kept sleeping

Brad woke up the next morning and Chase was sleeping and he continued to sleep. But you told me that Chase had sleep problems and he very rarely had a whole night's sleep. Correct. Okay. And Chase also had slept all day on Wednesday and Brad said that Chase continued to sleep, checked on him before he left his house, and he was still asleep. And that was in the morning? And that was in the morning. To deliver a computer, I think he said.

And he said that's when he took his phone. Why did Brad take Chase's phone with him when Brad went to deliver the computer to a client? He said to text me and to make sure he didn't leave. Why was he concerned chase might leave I don't know what difference would it have made if chase decided to leave so okay did he text you from chase's phone he did did he represent himself as chase no okay and he told you at the time he had chase's

phone yes he said hey this is Brad did he say in those the time he had Chase's phone? Yes. He said, hey, this is Brad. Did he say in those texts why he took the phone? No. He was just saying things like, just wanted to let you know that Chase is okay, he's sleeping, making comments like, Chase really cares about you. I'm paraphrasing.

Yeah. Did you have any reason to believe at that time, that following morning after you had dropped him off the day before, that anything was wrong? No, I didn't. What happened next,

according to Brad? He went and delivered. I mean, he just said it was an errand at the time. Yeah. No, I didn't. What happened next, according to Raph? He went and delivered. I mean, he just said it was an errand at the time. Yeah. Now I know that he was saying he was delivering my computer or something. He said he came back, checked on Chase, and he was still sleeping. That's odd.

Gave him his phone back. Did he wake him up to give him his phone back? See, this is where I don't remember remember he's told me the story multiple times and so i don't remember if it was that night that he said this or at a different point when he told me his story but at one occasion that he told me his story he said that he had moved chase from one room to another woke him up gave him his phone and moved him to a different room and i'm'm really not sure why, what that motivation was for doing so. Yeah, he told me that it was because he needed to work in the room where Chase was sleeping. Yeah, I remember that.

So he did wake him up for that, and that was after the errand. What happened then? And he said he gave him his phone then. Mm-hmm. And he said he had to go run another errand. And he said he went and ran that errand, came back, started barbecuing, lit his backyard on fire, got that put out, and then went back upstairs to check on Chase and realized he was gone. And he said he didn't think much of it until I contacted him via Facebook. He said he assumed that I

picked him up. I was going to ask you, Brad believes that you came and picked up Chase. That's what he said. Where were you at that time? In court. In court doing what? I worked part-time for my best friend's husband. My best friend's husband's dad, you can connect those dots, he owns an automotive shop. And so I worked kind of like the secretary or office manager part-time for him. And so he was in court for a civil issue, and so I was in court with him helping him. Okay. What time did you go to court that day?

Like 8 or 9 a.m. Okay. And what time did you leave court that day? Like 4 or something. So the day he goes missing, you're in court. Correct. When did you start trying to find Chase? When I got out of court.

I mean, I was texting him. Like on and on. Did he ever text back? No. I didn't speak to him one time that first day. The last time you spoke to him was when you dropped him off? Or that night when you said, check and see if you're okay? Correct. What do you make of Brad's comments that you hit on him the night he came over with the pot? I don't have anything to say about that. I definitely did not hit on him and I have no idea why he would say that.

Do you believe Chase committed suicide, either on purpose or inadvertently? It doesn't matter what I believe. It matters to me. Well then, maybe off the record you and I can talk about that. We're trying to figure out if you, the person that knew the best, thinks he was killed or met with foul play. I don't believe that. You don't believe somebody killed him? I don't.

Do you think there's any chance he's still alive? No. Chase Masner. Sorry I wasn't able to come to the phone. Chase, call me right now. Please. Please. End of message.

The search for Chase Masner and the search for justice goes on. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.