Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Finding Chase Massner: Nancy Grace investigates Iraq War vet’s disappearance

Episode Date: March 15, 2017

Georgia investigators are close to declaring the disappearance of Iraq War vet Chase Massner to be a cold case. Nancy Grace, however, won’t let the search for the father of two young girls go cold. Grace has literally taken to the streets to track down witnesses and clues about what happened to Massner, who was 26 years old when he vanished. The results of her personal investigation will be presented in a week-long series of “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” episodes starting March 27, the third anniversary of Chase’s disappearance. This episode offers a preview of what she is finding. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Missing Iraq war veteran Chase Masner of Cherokee County disappeared on Wednesday. His wife told us she dropped him off at a quick trip in Cobb County where he works. Masner was honorably discharged in 2011. His family says he was diagnosed as bipolar and treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Time has not healed the pain of the family and friends of Chase Masner, the young Iraqi war veteran who disappeared without a trace. Despite some intense searching, few clues have been found. We have a missing veteran. We have a friend, a son, a father, and our main goal has always been to bring him home, and that emotion will never end until he's brought back home. What do you do when your child goes missing?

What do you do when your son is gone? And you beat the streets. You talk to the neighbors. You look at phone records. You go to police. You perform a search. You do everything you can. And then you find out the case is being handed over to cold Case. Does that mean the end of the search? Does it mean it's all over? There's nothing else you can do? I am talking about a very handsome

young man, an Iraqi war vet, a married father of two little girls. I'm talking about Chase Masner. Chase Masner was 26 when he vanished on March 27, 2014. His last known whereabouts was a friend's home in Kennesaw, Georgia, where he spent the night after an argument with his wife. Massive searches followed, but not a trace of Chase was found. An intense investigation by Cobb County, Georgia police has produced no suspects or direct evidence of foul play. But few people believe this father of two young daughters just walked away from his family. Sources are telling us within the police department in Cobb County, Georgia, that Chase's

case has gone cold. The trail is dead and the case is being sent to a cold case division within the district attorney's office. Is that true? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. For us at Crime Online and at Crime Stories, this case is anything but cold and we are doing all we can do to keep Chase's case alive. We are beating the streets. We are talking to potential witnesses. We are poring over what phone records we can get in order to find out what happened to this young man. Starting March 27th, the third anniversary of Chase's disappearance, Crime Stories with Nancy Grace will focus each day for a week and longer if needed on what might have happened to Masner and where he is today.

It all solidified for me when I met his mother, Stephanie Kadena. She's beautiful, but I don't believe 10 minutes went by without her crying. Her eyes red, her nose red, her face red. She couldn't stop. People just carried a box of Kleenex with them to hand to her because this case, going cold, is her worst nightmare. I've lived the last three years not knowing. And every single day is just hell.

You know what? I don't know what's going to happen, but I know this. We're going to try. Because I can't stand seeing you cry like this. And if it were, God forbid, my own child, I couldn't live with myself either. I started with the person who has launched the search and has steadfastly continued trying to find Chase, and that is Stephanie and Team Chase. 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. Okay, let's talk about that. Had he ever in his life gone this long without texting you or calling you? Ever? Never. And you know what I say, if you don't know a horse, look at his track record.

So what somebody has done in the past, they're likely to do again. If he had gone his whole life texting you and calling you every what day other day what all the time then why would he quit that day right and say to he double l with my mother so i don't believe that i don't either we've done it all we've visited his last known location we have sifted through the grounds there, canvassed the neighborhood, talked to every witness we can find, including the elusive Brad, the friend who saw him alive last. But now I'm wondering, was Brad the last person to see Chase Masner alive. Before I go any further, thank you to SimpliSafe for being with us and being our sponsor today.

SimpliSafe has made our podcast and this investigation possible for us by being our sponsor. Home security is not just for the elite, the wealthy, the privileged that can afford it anymore. You want to protect your home? Fine, get after it. But if you're like me, I want to protect my little twins. They're my treasures. I put that alarm on whether I'm home or gone, especially when I'm home with them. Hey, take my

TV, take my DVD player. I'd be mad if you didn't, but not my babies. And that's why I want you to know about SimpliSafe. $14.99 a month to set you up, and it is monitored 24-7, 365. Go to SimpliSafe.com and get another 10% off. SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy. Thank you, SimpliSafe. Now, I want to get back to what we're doing to try to keep the Chase Masner search alive. We started with Stephanie, the mother, and she told me that the day he goes missing, this is what went down. He, Chase, and the wife, Amanda, the mother of the two little girls, just fought endlessly about everything.

She just had another baby. He had been stationed in Iraq. The baby is born. The mom's not working. He is trying to re-assimilate into society as a civilian. He's having a hard time with it. But all of his friends say he was pretty upbeat and even funny. In fact, I found out today his ringtone was happy, you know, the one the Minions sing. And he was just a funny, fun guy. And according to his mother and all of his friends, that was his demeanor all the time. But according to the wife, Amanda, he was angry and agitated.

Well, anyway, they were getting along so badly, Chase came to stay with his mom for two or three days until Amanda called and said she wanted to come pick him up. And she did. And the argument reignited almost immediately. Within a couple of hours, she dumped him where he had managed to get a job at Quick Trip and let him off for things to cool down again. And he went to Brad, the friend Brad's home. It was there he was last seen alive, but having spoken in depth to the mystery man, Brad, I'm not so sure that's the case. There's a lot of witnesses to sift through. There's a lot of reports, phone records, a lot of tracks to retrace, but we are doing our very best. I hope you join us

on our search for the truth, finding Chase Masner. Nancy Grace signing off from Crime Stories. Thank you, friend. I don't want this case to go cold. I want to see Stephanie Kadena stop crying. I want to find out what happened to Chase Masner. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.