Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - GORGEOUS MOM DISAPPEARS FROM OWN HOME: WHERE'S ECHO?

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

After divorcing, Echo Lloyd moves 16 miles from her home to rural Edwards, Missouri. The property is remote. Kelsey Smith says her mother loves the quiet and begins planning renovations, cleaning up the landscaping, and deciding how to paint the house. Kelsey visits her mother’s home with Mother’s Day gifts. Echo’s car is not in the driveway. Kelsey leaves a purple potted plant and a card asking Echo to call when she gets the gifts. Echo never does. After a week without contact, Kelsey returns. The search for Echo Lloyd begins immediately when she does not answer the door. Kelsey walks around the home, knocking on the front and back doors, but gets no response. Echo’s car is now in the driveway. Walking around the property, Kelsey calls out for her mother but hears nothing. She notices a cracked back window and slides it open enough to climb inside. Inside, Kelsey finds the home in disarray, which is unusual. Echo, who had OCD, kept everything in place. Her purse is under the nightstand with her wallet and ID inside. However, her car keys, pistol, and medications are missing. Kelsey reports her mother missing. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Kelsey Smith - Echo’s Daughter; Facebook: Bring Echo Home, Gofundme: Bring Echo Home:  Wendy Patrick - California Prosecutor, President and Founder of Black Swan Verdicts, and Author:  "Red Flags: Frenemies, Underminers, and Ruthless People;" Host of ‘Today with Dr Wendy’ on KCBQ San Diego; X: @WendyPatrickPHD  Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, and Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital; Voted My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2022, 2023 and 2024 Barry Hutchison - former police officer and detective, owner & Chief Investigator Barry & Associates Investigative Services Kansas & Missouri  www.pibarry.com;  Tim Miller - Founder, Texas EquuSearch; TexasEquuSearch.org  Sherae Honeycutt - Emmy-winning Journalist, Public Relations Professional, Foster Care Advocate and Current Press Secretary and City Spokesperson for the City of Kansas City; IG: @sheraeloveskc; X: @sheraehoneycutt See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous mom disappears from her own home. Where is Echo? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. A Missouri mother disappears,

last seen at a local discount store. Her family desperate to find Echo Lloyd. Mom for Echo Lloyd goes to a discount store, then comes home and is apparently never seen again. That doesn't make sense. Listen. Kelsey Smith drops by her mother's home with Mother's Day gifts. Echo's car is not in the driveway. Kelsey leaves a purple potted plant and a card. The card has a message for Echo to call when she gets the gifts. Echo doesn't. After a week with no contact, Kelsey returns to

her mom's home. Highly, highly unusual for mom Echo to go over a day without speaking to her daughter. The daughter going to the home, banging, banging on the door, trying to reach mom. Echo can't reach her. Take a look at this beautiful mom of four, Echo Lloyd. Where is Echo? Joining me, Wendy Patrick, renowned prosecutor, author of Why Bad Looks So Good, second book, Reading People, How to Understand People, Predict Their Behavior Anytime, Anyplace. She is the star of Today with Dr. Wendy on KCBQ. Wendy,

behavior evidence or routine evidence, not predictable as in routine, but evidence of your normal routine. For instance, if the camera came to this seat and I was not in it, that would be breaking routine. And that means something, Wendy. What does it mean? It is powerful evidence of habit of custom of pattern of practice and it comes into evidence most frequently when there's a gap when there's a lag when somebody like echo who follows the same routine or anybody suddenly fails to follow the routine they're disappearing they don't show up at work they don't show up to pick children up from

school so that type of pattern evidence even the route somebody takes to and from work, all of that is powerful evidence in court when it's disrupted. That's when we start asking questions. routine. I do. I wake up at five o'clock. I clean out the guinea pig cage. I take care of my mom and take her breakfast. I then wake up the twins, get them ready and out the door for school. And then my workday starts. That is a predictable routine. Same thing happened in another very high profile case, the disappearance of a beautiful young girl, Jennifer Kessie. It looked like she slept in her bed. She had two or three outfits laid out on the bed as if she was choosing an outfit to wear. She, as was stated, the bathroom looked like someone got ready to go to work. The rest of the condo was just perfect. It honestly looked like a maid came through right down to a full setting, four-piece setting, table setting, and on her dining room table.

It doesn't make sense. Joining me is a veteran PI, 26 years on the police force as a detective. Now, with Barry and Associates Investigative Services, did you hear that, Barry, talking about Jennifer Kessie? And, oh, that was me speaking to her father, Drew Kessie. We've been working that cold case for so long. But that heartbreaking detail of her keeping her little condo so perfect and in order that she even had the four-piece table setting still sitting on her dining room table when mom and dad got there when she didn't show up to work. That's a heartbreaking detail that has always stuck with me, Barry. It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't. It doesn't make sense at all. You know, people, when they set patterns like that and you see it disrupted, it's a good

indicator that something is just not right. And, you know, you know that right from the get go and it throws up a red flag and they hope you direct your investigation. But sadly, hunches and just a gut feeling something is, quote, not right. That's nothing I can bring in as evidence in front of a jury. We need more. As a matter of fact, listen to Jennifer Kessie's mother. Miss Kessie, what more can you tell me about what time, if you know, that she would contact her boyfriend in the morning? Well, Jen typically left for work between 7.30 and 8 in the morning. And it was her habit to call Rob when she got in her car.

So as she got in her car and was driving to work is when she would make that good morning call. And as we know, Rob never received that call. To Dr. Angela Arnold joining us, renowned psychiatrist in the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find her at Angela Arnold, MD. Dr. Angie, just thinking about what Jennifer Kessie's parents have told me then and have told me over the years since Jennifer went missing, they went in her condo and everything was as normal. all of her outfits she might wear that day on the bed and look at them as she was getting ready in the morning. The shower was damp. The towel was damp. The clothes were all laid out with matching shoes that she was picking from, but no Jennifer. And when she missed that morning call, she called her boyfriend every morning on the way to work. OK, I had a routine like that all the way through law school, even up until, oh, oh, my stars.

When I was pregnant with the twins, when my mom and dad came to stay with us, my mom called me every morning, every morning at 630. That was the routine. Now, she said it was to make sure I was awake. But now being a mom, I know it was just, you know, to get a chance to talk before all hell breaks loose in the middle of the day. So that was Jennifer's routine. Right. And when that routine breaks, in my mind, that's the beginning of a criminal timeline. Dr. Angie. I completely agree with you, Nancy. And you know, Nancy, our typical routines that we go through comforting to people, we all have those. They comfort us as human beings.

So why would somebody, the big question is, why would somebody break from their routine in a particular morning? So, of course, that is indicative of when a crime line should start. Why would you break in your routine? Joining me right now, an investigative reporter who knows the Echo Lloyd case backwards and forwards, Sheree Honeycutt is joining us. Emmy-winning journalist. Sheree, thank you for being with us. Tell me about what happened when Echo's daughter came over to the house looking for mom. So she brought a gift home to her mom for Mother's Day. She had a plant and a card and she couldn't find her mom at the house.

She was knocking on the door and wasn't responsive. And she actually broke into the house to get inside and see if she was there. And it's interesting, you mentioned, you know, everything in the other cases home, there were, you know, things all laid out. Well, in Echo's case, things were a little strewn about and things were missing, but some things were there. And it's just interesting how this case played out that way. She couldn't find her mom. She couldn't get a hold of her. And then we just never heard what happened to her. There was nothing from that. There was her car was there. There was no way to know where she went. And as you mentioned, you know, she was last seen at a drugstore and then hadn't seen her since. Guys, the daughter visits mom for Mother's Day, bringing a present with her. Mom doesn't respond. She leaves, but the daughter comes back. Curious, where's mom? Listen. Kelsey Smith walks around the home front door to back, but no one answers. Echo's car is in the driveway. Walking around the property, Kelsey yells her mom's name.

Still no reply. Kelsey notices a back window is cracked and is able to slide it open enough to climb through. That's pretty bold, breaking into mom's home because she is so convinced something is off kilter. You just heard investigative reporter Sharae Honeycutt describing a somewhat chaotic scene inside. Listen. Inside the home, Kelsey finds things in disarray, which is unusual. Echo, who had OCD, kept items in their place. Kelsey found an open can of molded food on the kitchen island,

a mattress on the floor in front of the couch, and trash piles scattered around. The air conditioning is on full blast. In the bedroom, there was a pack of cigarettes on top of the nightstand. None of that is consistent with Echo Lloyd's personality. To Dr. Angela Arnold, a veteran psychiatrist in the Atlanta jurisdiction who specializes in the treatment of women. Hold on.

She's OCD. All right. And I'm going to let you explain that or kindly ask you to explain that. And then compare that to the way the daughter finds her mom's home. Wait for it. She always kept everything in its place. A lot of people function better if everything is in its place because out of place distracts them. Daughter Kelsey finds an open can of food in the kitchen, a mattress on the floor in front of the couch, trash piles scattered around the home, air conditioner on full blast and cigs on the nightstand.

None of that is consistent with ECHO. Nancy, I mean, first of all, if you have a compulsive disorder, that is something that does not come and go. That is an anxiety disorder that you have all the time. And people with OCD find it comforting to have everything in its place. Okay. And there are variations of that. Some people are more OCD than others, but never would an OCD person have moldy food, a mattress on the floor, cigarettes on the bedside table. That sounds like somebody came in and that sounds like somebody came in and took over her home to me. But that is not an OCD person would never allow that to happen in their home. OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. It is so much more than just being a neat nick a lot of

people are neat nicks that does not mean they're ocd explain the difference in a neat nick and someone with ocd there's a vast difference someone with first of all like i said nancy ocd is an it's a type of anxiety. Okay. So for someone with OCD, if something is out of order, it actually causes them a lot of anxiety. If there's a break in their routine, if something in their home is misplaced a little bit, that actually causes that person anxiety. A neatnik, on the other hand, you like your home to be neat, but

that's not going to cause you a tremendous amount of possibly crippling anxiety if your home isn't in perfect condition, okay? But someone with OCD must, for example, Nancy, sometimes people with OCD have different routines and rituals that they have to do, for example, before they go to bed at night or before they get out of their car. They have very specific rituals. Neat necks do not have rituals. Someone that will remain nameless. I watched them get in the car. I'm like, crank up, leave. But they sit there

and I can see them fidgeting around. And it wasn't just once. It's every time that person gets in the car. And there's like a one minute delay where apparently they're just sitting there and maybe fidgeting with something, but I can't make it out. So you're saying people have rituals even before they crank up and take off? I'm like, go, please, tick tock. Right. For example, I've had situations where patients have told me that when they get in the car or out of the car, they have to turn the radio dial three times forward and three times back before they put it on the station that they want to listen to. I've had people have to touch their handbag a certain amount of times

before they can start the car. All different kinds of rituals that they're actually called. Okay, wait a minute. I need to be able to speak this in understandable language. Are you talking about like Monk? You remember Monk? I love him. But remember, Monk would have to likeO-N-K, the investigator. And that was triggered by the murder of his wife in the story. This woman, Echo Lloyd, has that. So it would be a cold day in H-E-L-L that she's going to have molded food on the counter, the mattress put in front of the TV, trash piles in the floor. She wouldn't be able to go to sleep at night with her house looking like that. There is no way that if you have OCD that you can tolerate that in your home. Knocks go unanswered. Mother's Day gifts untouched.

Echo Lloyd's eldest daughter finds the home a complete mess. But the mom of four is nowhere in sight. Where is Echo? Joining me in All-Star panel, but straight back to investigative reporter, Emmy Award-winning journalist, Sheree Honeycutt. Sheree, thanks for being with us. That's quite the dichotomy that her home is in complete disarray. She couldn't function that way if she's truly OCD, which she is, but yet certain, she's gone, but certain very critical items were there. Explain what they were and where they were.

As you mentioned, you know, they found the purse under the nightstand and the ID. And when you think about, you know, if somebody is just going to up and leave their life, that's something that they need. And they need that to function to go anywhere. They're going to need that when they're making purchases or to, especially if you're leaving your life, you need that ID to start something new. So the idea that she would leave her purse, she would not have her medications and things like that, they just don't make sense. So the idea that she would leave her purse, she would not have her medications and things like that, they just don't make sense. And the way that you described or your colleague described the home, it doesn't feel like she was using her own home, right? We're talking about

someone who is very OCD and has a way and a routine of doing things. Well, if you see trash piles on the floor, that's not what she would be doing. So it not only feels like her things were tampered with, but her home was used. Well, she probably wasn't there. And so one thing I wanted to mention about this conversation is where she lives. So she lives in Edwards, Missouri,

which is an extremely rural part of Missouri. It's out by the Lake of the Ozarks. And where she actually, where her home was is extremely in the middle of nowhere. So the idea that someone is coming to your house and is in your house, it's not like someone is just walking off the street and going into your home. Someone would need to know you live there and there would need to be a connection for that person to be there. I can't imagine someone just coming upon her home and a stranger being in there because the driveway is so long and so far to the house, you wouldn't even know the house was there. You know, Sheree Honeycutt, you have an incredible track record. You're an Emmy winner. You're highly regarded.

But FYI, word to the wise, us country hicks don't like it when somebody suggests we're country hicks like out in the middle of nowhere. That's somewhere to somebody. OK, that said, joining me, Tim Miller, a longtime friend and colleague. He is the founder of Texas EquiSearch. He's on a search in a cold case for a young woman right now, and he's actually pulled off the search to join us tonight in the search for Echo Lloyd. Tim Miller, I was just pulling Sheree Honeycutt's leg on behalf of all us country hicks, but Tim, her point is very well taken. There's a big difference when you go missing from a place like this with the population of 2,500 in all versus, you know,

disappearing in the heart of LA or in Manhattan where anybody could have grabbed you, but the likelihood that a stranger showed up and took Echo, that's a very low probability, Tim Miller. Well, I think you're right. And I actually met with two detectives with Missouri State Police, and we spent several hours together. They gave me a lot of maps, a lot of information, and they've got an area of real interest in the case. And we're going to go up there and look this area over. And

then right when vegetation starts growing, we're going to go up there and do the search. But I think we've got some pretty good information. You know, it's been a while since she's been missing, and we always say when we go into this, no matter what resource we bring, there's a small chance that we're going to get them located. But if we don't do anything, there's no chance. But, you know, Nancy, I'm pretty optimistic that she is findable with the information that we've got. Tim Miller, who was just in this jurisdiction in Missouri, Edwards, Missouri, or Warsaw, to be more specific.

Tim Miller, when you say an area of interest and you're headed back to continue the search in depth, can you share with us the area of interest which you will be searching? Well, you know, this area does have, it's about 1,200 acres. I think we've got it maybe narrowed down to maybe 200 acres. And, you know, I don't want to put too much stuff out there to make a possible person of interest know what's going to be happening. So you have an area of interest. I wasn't expecting you to say it was 200 square acres. That's a very vast area of interest. How will you search that? I assume with drones, with dogs, with horses, with ATVs. How

would you go about searching a 200 acre area of interest? Well, you know what, everything that you just mentioned, but you know what, our drone pilot, which he actually is, he's a big educator in it and stuff and developed so much software that it's unbelievable. And literally, Nancy, we found a person that was murdered and buried eight years later because when we flew the drone, right when vegetation started growing, there was a different area, different little color of different vegetation and everything. And literally dug that body up. We feel as though Echoloi very possibly is buried in a shallow grave. And so, you know what? Yes, we're going to bring in the ATVs, the horses, the ground searchers,

the dogs, the drone, and everything that we can possibly bring in on this. And, again, meeting with the two detectives from the Missouri State Police and we spent several hours with them the maps they gave us the information they gave us you know of course it's going to be a joint venture between us and Missouri State Police and and again I've said this a hundred times no matter what we bring in there's a small chance that we're going to get them located. But if we don't do anything, there's no chance. So, you know, we're going to leave in Texas, go to Missouri and take that small chance.

And, you know what, Nancy, we did one seven, eight months ago on Kimberly Langwell in Beaumont. And I remember the first time I searched for her in 2001, and we got called 25 years later in four minutes. We found her with ground penetration units. So you know what? We bring in every resource that we can bring in, and I always say we leave the results up to God. And you know what? God has certainly put us in the right place at the right time many times. So we're just going to ask Him again. You know, Tim Miller, what you said about your drone operator being so great, you're right. Because if your drone operator could see, I'm guessing, a more vibrant and intense shade of green in the vegetation in one area, which would signify newer growth, which would

signify disturbed earth and then new growth. He spotted that. And sure enough, that is where the victim was. That's amazing. And Tim Miller will never, ever brag on himself. Tim Miller is a crime victim. His daughter was murdered. She went missing and was murdered. He made it his life's mission to help find missing people. That's who Tim Miller of EquiSearch is. Now, the reason we keep talking about Echo Lloyd's home and the last time she was seen at this discount store.

Why? Why do we care so much? Because we're trying to establish a timeline, which is critical. In another high profile case, the disappearance of a young mom, Heidi Plank, it was easy to establish her timeline. She's never been found, I might add, but we've got a legitimate timeline because she's caught on video walking her dog. Listen. Heidi Plank's ex-husband says the mom left their son's football game at halftime, seemingly distracted. Security footage from October 17th shows her leaving her West Los Angeles home with her dog. In a bizarre turn three hours later in downtown Los Angeles, her dog was found on the 28th floor of an apartment building.

Plank, her Silver Range Rover, her purse, her personal phone and computer all gone. Her friend and ex-husband say when she didn't show up to pick up her son, they knew that something was wrong. Cigarettes, purse and wallet left behind, but her phone, medications and car keys are missing. Will these suspicious clues lead authorities to the missing mom of four? Where is this gorgeous young mom of four, Echo Lloyd? Now, we get a timeline of sorts. That's where the investigation starts. Listen.

During the search for Echo, police begin a timeline. On May 9th, Kelsey talked to her mother. On the 10th, Kelsey talked to her mother. On the 10th, Kelsey decides to surprise her mother, but her car is not at the home. A few witnesses came forward saying they believe they had seen Echo at a Walmart in Warsaw, Missouri. Authorities find a receipt with the same May 10th date in her shower. The police investigation revealed that on May 14th, Echo was possibly spotted at a nearby gas station trying to buy a cell phone. According to reports, she tried to pay for it with a check, but that was declined. There has been no other activity on her account or credit card. Don't these convenience

stores have surveillance video for Pete's sake? Sheree Honeycutt joining me, Emmy Award winning journalist. Tell me about those sightings because the May 14 sighting is credible to me because we know she didn't have her cell phone. So the fact that someone states she was at a nearby gas station trying to buy a cell phone makes sense to me. That places my timeline starting at May 14. She's alive on that day, Sheree? I think it's odd she wanted to buy a cell phone as well. I just think the purchase is a little odd. And then when you go back to talking about, you know, how she was, how things were found in her home, the idea that there was a receipt in her bathtub is very odd to me too. And so I think that the report is credible. I think that sometimes stores are

difficult about giving over that video or retaining it. So I'm not sure if that was part of the issue as to why we don't know more about it. But I think it does show that there is a possibility that she was there and shows that she was alive for that time period. And then, unfortunately, being in such a rural area, it's unclear as to, you know, where she was and what was going on at the time of her actual disappearance. Yeah, there is no way with someone with OCD that there would be a receipt in her shower. All right. But when you don't know where to go, you backtrack and you look at your victim. Who is in the circle of people around her? Who is Echo Lloyd? Listen. Echo Lloyd is going through a divorce. She moves 16 miles from her current home to rural Edward, Missouri, a town with a population of less than 2,500.

Lloyd's 10-acre property is a bit secluded. Population of 2,500, that greatly reduces our suspect pool. Listen. As Echo Lloyd looks for a place to start the next chapter of her life, she makes her way to the Lake of the Ozarks. The property in Edwards, Missouri is remote. There's a gas station and a post office and little else. But Kelsey Smith says her mom loves the quiet of the property and begins making plans for renovations, cleaning up the landscaping, creating ideas for how she wants to paint the house. And right there, that rules out in my mind, any potential suicide. We have no evidence of that whatsoever. Agree, disagree. Dr. Angie, if she is renovating her home and she's out in the front yard landscaping and coming up,

bringing home paint chips, she's planning on a future in this home. She's not going to drop the paintbrush and go, you know what? I'm going to kill myself. And no evidence of where I am is that that did not happen to Sheree Honeycutt joining us. Sheree, tell me about the ex. Do I suspect the ex? No, not at this juncture. That's contrary to everything I ever think as a knee jerk reaction based on statistics, because statistically a woman is kidnapped or harmed or even killed by an ex-husband, a husband, a boyfriend, just some man in her life. But that doesn't seem to be the case here, Sheree. No, from what I understood with the relationships in the family, she actually had a really good relationship with

her ex-husband and they had separated amicably and she had moved to this new place to start a new life and they were still on very good terms. I spoke a lot with her daughter who says she was in very good terms with her mom as well and that they just had a good relationship. Sheree Honeycutt, correct me if I'm wrong, please, but even with the home in disarray, no sign of Echo Lloyd, investigators still tell the family they do not believe there was any foul play. That's what they originally said. Part of that has to do with no evidence of maybe a body or any blood or any real weapon or struggle. I think the way the house is described, it sounds like it's messy. The police don't necessarily know her behaviors at that time when they first start on the case. And so I think at the beginning, maybe they felt like there was

no foul play. But I think the circumstances of the home definitely lead to a different pathway for this case. Wendy Patrick, explain to me, why is it when a woman goes missing, there's no foul play? Oh, she's just probably off with her boyfriend. Remember Stacey Peterson, the fourth wife of then cop Drew Peterson? He was later convicted in the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. She was found drowned in a bone dry bathtub. It was ruled accident. She's covered in bruises. Wow. I hate when you slip in the tub and your whole body's covered in bruises and the tub is completely dry. I hate when that happens. So it was determined then based

on the husband's word that she had made off with a boyfriend. It happens over and over and over. Or mommy just wants some me time. That's total BS. Why is that always the knee jerk reaction? Yeah, it's a shame. Sometimes many people might think it's an easy reaction, but there is no way it fits this fact pattern, Nancy. That house was a crime scene in every sense of the word because it was so contrary to the OCD that Echo had. There is no way she would be sharing space with somebody that would leave the house in disarray like that, not to mention the amount of DNA that was likely left behind. But that excuse, even though it's unfairly used in other cases,

does not fit in any way, shape, or form in this case. And that is one of the ways in which this case is distinct and many might think more solvable given the amount of evidence that was left at that. What sounds like, as you mentioned, the beginning of a crime timeline. Take a listen to the then- eric knox we're not even sure what happened to him because there's no witnesses we don't even know where to look for him we have nothing wait you don't know where to look ask tim miller that's from our friends at paramount

crime stories with nancy grace at Paramount. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Where is a gorgeous young mom, Echo Lloyd? Straight out to Tim Miller joining us, founder and director of EquiSearch on a mission to find missing people. What about it, Tim Miller? The fact that at the get-go, LA law enforcement said, ah, nothing suggests foul play. In my mind, everything suggests foul play. Yeah, you know, Nancy, I experienced that when I reported Laura Bisson.

And they said, you know what, go home, wait by her for her. Followed Laura Laura ran away I knew she did I could get no help zero none 17 months later her body is found along with three other girls of all of them murdered still unsolved so you know what would we worked with some very very great law enforcement agencies in the past and we've worked with some that are very, very incompetent. And again, even today's world, some of the cases that we get on in the very beginning, they said, oh, you know what, this person had a problem. They was doing drugs. They

was doing this. And, you know, it makes my blood boil when I hear that. You know, Tim Miller is speaking about his daughter who disappeared at age 16. He was told, oh, she's a runaway. She wasn't. She had been kidnapped and murdered along with other girls found at the same burial site. To Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Angie, I don't want to get on a soapbox about this because it's neither here nor there in finding echo, but I do believe that it's misogynistic women haters that say, Oh, either she's quote a bitch or a quote hoe. She had so many enemies. She didn't get along with anybody. She's hysterical,

blah, blah, blah. Okay. Or she's a big hoe. She's out with her new boyfriend. You know, there's nothing wrong. Both are so inaccurate. Both are so demeaning. And I hear it over and over. She's hysterical translation. She ran off and committed suicide in a fit of some sort. Oh, let's blame it on PMS. Let's just throw it all in. Or she's out with a new boyfriend and leaving her children. That's never true, Dr. Angie. Have you noticed? Maybe they should teach that at police academy. Oh my God, Nancy, it makes me so mad. And, you know, it also reminds me of what happened to Abby Petito right before she was killed. So why doesn't this change? Nancy, how can we inform the police officers that are out there doing these jobs?

And I know they've worked very hard, but then time, precious time is lost. Tick tock, tick tock, Dr. Angie. Right. You hit the nail on the head. And P.S., no O.M.G. on crime stories. Okay. No, we don't say that on crime stories. But that said, then a major development.

What, if anything, does it mean? Listen. The next-door neighbor and close friend of Echo Lloyd, who did not help search for his friend, lives with his grandfather. Two weeks after Echo Lloyd disappears, the grandfather is found in the basement of his home, suffering from a broken back. He's taken to a hospital where he succumbs to his injuries days later. According to Kelsey Smith, while removing the grandfather from the basement, Echo Lloyd's missing prescription medication and keys are found in the basement of her neighbor's home. According to Smith, police did not get a search warrant for the house. Before turning the investigation over to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Missing Persons Clearinghouse,

Bend County Sheriff Eric Knox said of the Echoloyd case, she is absolutely missing without a trace. Investigators report there's been no use of her cell phone or bank card since she was reported missing, and the pharmacy has confirmed none of Echoloy Lloyd's necessary medications have been filled since she disappeared. Sheree Honeycutt joining us. Who is this neighbor, and why are Echo Lloyd's items, including her missing prescription meds and her keys, found in his place? That is an incredible question, Nancy, and one that I don't have a clear answer to.

But what I can tell you is in talking with Kelsey, she had confided, her mother had confided in her that she had met this neighbor, they had become friends, and that he had started to develop a crush on her, that she did not reciprocate. You know, we were talking about her coming out of a marriage and wanting to start a crush on her that she did not reciprocate. You know, we were talking about her coming out of a marriage and wanting to start a new life. And a boyfriend, especially one that may be younger than her, wasn't really what she was looking for at the time is what Kelsey told me.

And so this relationship was a little odd. But at some point, I know that she didn't really want to continue that relationship and had expressed that to him at some point. And in my mind, there's more disturbing evidence to Barry Hutchinson joining us. Twenty six years in law enforcement now owner and operator of Barry Associates Investigative Services located in this jurisdiction. Very, in my mind, and possibly even more disturbing is that he, Smith, would walk over to Echo's property and sometimes he would come into her home without knocking. I mean, if I turned around in my kitchen, there's some guy standing there, I'd shoot him. Oops, don't have a gun. But if I had a gun, I would shoot him.

You know, one of the things that hasn't been touched on with this that I know in this case is I find it strange that the next door neighbor would have a key to the house, but the daughter didn't. And that she would have to make entry into the house. I find that very odd, too. Very odd indeed. Now, this guy is not a suspect. Just because some people think his behavior is odd does not make him a suspect. But Tim Miller, I cannot get away from the fact

that her meds and her car keys were in his place. Why are they there? I think by the time they determined that possibly foul play was involved instead of her just leaving on her own, well, it was literally a cold case before it was a missing person case. So, you know, they had to start from scratch. And, you know, I think they got their egg in their face, but bottom line is I think if they would have looked just a little bit different in the very beginning, maybe we

wouldn't be here today. To Tim Miller joining me from Texas EquiSearch, Tim Miller, let's take a look at those three working theories. Number one, the second theory that she saw something in the woods she shouldn't have seen. No, that didn't happen. There's not some nefarious killer out there that happened to be in the middle of the woods, population 2,500. That didn't happen.

That leaves me two choices of the working theories. Now, you've got the daughter who admits she had a drug addiction and it's claimed she had not paid all her debts. So am I supposed to believe that because the daughter had a past drug addiction that somebody came and took or killed Echo as some revenge? No, that's way too far fetched. But what about this neighbor who is not a suspect? Sheree Honeycutt, what about the neighbor? That is the number one question. Everyone wants to know, you know, did he do it? What was going on at that time? I think a big piece of that that is impeding the case is what we talked about earlier, the inability to really investigate at the time this happened. A lot of the evidence had sat there for a long time.

And what I will say when I got involved in this case is that no one was covering it. And the public really wanted to understand what happened. And I got an overwhelming amount of messages just knowing the work that I do, asking me to drive hours out of my area to cover this case because it wasn't getting the attention it needed. And it still hasn't in my opinion. Sheree, what can you tell me about the neighbor buying nine bags of cement just before, we think just before, because we don't have a clear timeline, just before Echo goes missing. And when the home was searched, they only found one bag out of nine.

I would want to know what happened to eight bags of cement. And if you look around that area, I mean, it's an expansive area. In my experience, covering cases that have turned into death investigations or homicides, typically the people are found very close to home or where they were last seen. And so I think Tim's work is going to be very important this coming spring, looking around that home, because we know that people don't go very far from where they were last seen. If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of this young mom, Echo Lloyd, please dial toll free 800-877-3452.

Repeat, 800-877-3452. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.