Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Louisiana’s Caitlyn Rose DISAPPEARS, Nav System Goes Dead With Dad on Phone

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

33-year-old Caitlyn Rose Case is a Louisiana native who recently moved to Colorado to live with her brother.   Caitlyn made arrangements to buy a 2006 black GMC Envoy, so she takes a flight to Houma Louisiana, buys the vehicle, She's in constant contact with her parents throughout her travels. Early on, she tells family members the navigation system is giving her trouble and cell phone service is sporadic. As Case travels through Texas, she calls her father around 5:00 pm. She is lost and Gordon Case trys to talk his daughter back on course.  She is traveling northbound on Highway 271, about 5 miles southwest of Bogata, Texas. Just after 5pm,  Case's phone cuts out.  Unable to reach Caitlyn,  the family files a missing person's report with the Houma,  Louisiana Police Department. Cell tower tracking indicates that Caitlyn Case continues north toward Paris, Texas.  Shortly after 7:00 pm, her cell phone pings to cell towers in Pattonville, Texas, and south of Paris. At 9:17 pm, a license plate reader captures her car leaving Paris on the south loop of Highway 286 and traveling northwest to FM 79. Her cell phone last pings to cell towers in Choctaw County, Oklahoma. Her vehicle is believed to have been travelling on Highway 271.  A cell phone tower ping is recorded in Hugo, Oklahoma.  Case’s vehicle is found along the banks of the Kiamichi River,  near Fort Towson,   August 12, but where is Caitlyn?  No one has been named a suspect or person of interest in this case.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Gordon Case- Father of Caitlyn- https://findcaitlyn.com/ Peggy Case- Mother of Caitlyn  https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-find-caitlyn Joshua Ritter - Criminal defense attorney, former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, partner at El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, , Twitter @joshuaritteresq, joshuaritter.com  Dr. Angela Arnold-Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA, AngelaArnoldMD.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital, Voted My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2023 Brian Fitzgibbons- VP Operation,s USPA Nationwide Security, uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security, Kingsman Philanthropic's 2022 rescue missions of women and children in Ukraine, Iraq War Veteran Toney Wade- Commander, Cajun Coast Search and Rescue Team, Facebook.com/CajunCoastSAR, cajuncoastk9sar.com Nic Huber- Staff Reporter for The Paris News, theparisnews.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young woman sets out cross-country, taking her vehicle from home all the way to Colorado at her new place with her brother. She speaks to her mom and dad all along it or not, up in a tree. The windows up, both her cell phones and all of her belongings in the car. But no Caitlin. Authorities convinced she was not in that vehicle when someone eased down a river embankment. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111.

Evidence shows she was never in that car when it was eased down a river bank. And now her mom and dad joining us right now fear their girl has been sex trafficked. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. You know, when I actually investigated and prosecuted my first sex trafficking case, we called it at that time statutory rape because that particular victim was 13. And the notion of sex trafficking, stealing a human and turning them into a sex slave far away from their home was unheard of. But it was happening right under our noses. And it's happening right now.

But first of all, let's not put the cart before the horse. Where is Caitlin? Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. Caitlin Rose Case is a Louisiana native, but recently she moved to Colorado where family members live. Caitlin works as a technical mechanic. Caitlin made arrangements to buy a 2006 black GMC Envoy. So she takes a flight to Houma, Louisiana, buys the vehicle, and then begins to drive the vehicle back home to Colorado. As she is going to be on the road alone, the family is in constant contact with her throughout her travels. According to Kaitlyn Case's mother on the find Kaitlyn.com website, she tells family members the navigation system is giving her trouble

and cell phone service is sporadic. Going across country but staying in touch with her family every leg of the trip and more. Kaitlyn Case travels through Texas and stopping at convenience stores in the cities of Mount Pleasant, Louisville and Paris, Texas. Kaitlyn Case calls her father around 5 p.m. According to Kaitlyn Case's mother, she's gotten lost in the rural areas of Texas, and he is trying to talk to her through a way back to the main road. She's traveling northbound on Highway 271, about five miles southwest of Bogota, Texas, when just after 5 p.m., Caitlin Case's phone cuts out. With me and all of our panel to make sense of what we know about

Caitlin's disappearance. But first, I want to go to two very special guests joining us right now, Peggy and Gordon Case, Caitlin's mother and father. First to you, Mr. Case, do you remember that phone call around 5 p.m. when Caitlin's phone cut out? I do. What were you guys talking about? Well, I was asking her what her location was and she was telling me that she was passing some dairy farm or some type of farm, which is that area is a lot of cattle in that area. And she was telling me that she was, you know, that she was just going by and she didn't sound, you know, too worried. She sounded very quiet, which I kind of felt, you know, I don't know. She was very quiet. But anyway, we did speak. She was telling me that she was on some road with, you know,

passing up some cattle. And we're on the phone for about seven minutes. And I could barely hear her because she was on a gravel road. Apparently, her windows were down because she didn't have any air conditioning in that vehicle. And anyways, we talked and that's basically all we were saying. And I could barely hear through all that, the noise from the gravel road. And then our phone was disconnected and I tried calling her back and I never was able to reach her again. In addition to Caitlin's dad, Gordon Case, Peggy Case, her mother is with us. Ms. Case, thank you for being with us. I've got a question. So she was driving from where to where? She left from our home in Houma, Louisiana, and she was going to Blackhawk, Colorado.

She had moved to Blackhawk, Colorado and moved in with her brothers and had a job. And when she had enough money, she got a plane and came down to get the car. And she's very accustomed to traveling by herself. And she's very, very good at navigation. Let me ask you, was she stopping along the way or was she trying to drive straight through? What was her plan? What I do know is she was going to drive, you know, but she got too tired. She was going to because it's about a 20 something hour drive.

If she got too tired, she was going to, you know, get in a bit of room. But the last time we spoke to her, which as Gordon mentioned, was around five or six in the afternoon. And that was the last time we were able to get in touch with her. But that wasn't unusual in that area. The phone, you know, when we were texting, when we were calling, the phone would just ring and ring and ring and then she'd pick up. So the service, cell service is very spotty in that area. Mr. Case, how long had she been driving? How many days, how many hours?

Your best guess, that day at 5 p.m. Probably seven, eight hours, seven hours. Had she stopped anywhere along the way? Had she stayed overnight at any hotel or motel? Had she stopped for gas? Had she gone to a convenience store, to your knowledge? She did stop for gas at a couple places. When I was finally in contact with her early in the afternoon, about one o'clock or so. Um, she was in Gilmer, Texas. And that's when I was started to navigate her up to two 71 to get her up through, you know, to get her on the route, to get her out of that area. Um, but we were on the phone and Gilmer, and then we were also on

the phone a couple hours later when she got to Mount Pleasant. And then when she got to Mount Pleasant, she, she, you know, she ended up, we got her back on the road again. And then, you know, of course, in Bogota, we were on the phone again when she was in those solar field areas where we lost connection. To Brian Fitzgibbons joining us, VP of Operations at USPA Nationwide Security. You can find Brian at USPASecurity.com. I want to point out also, he was part of the Kingsman Philanthropic Rescue Missions of

Women and Children in Ukraine. He is an Iraqi war veteran. This guy has seen it all. Brian Fitzgibbons, I'm sure you've already figured out why I'm asking. If she was stopping along the way at gas stations, at hotels, where a predator would have seen her driving, see the tags on the car, see she was heading somewhere, see she's from out of state, and she's alone. Absolutely, Nancy. And that's something that, you know, Gordon and Peggy have done a tremendous job of piecing together her credit card transactions, as well as from OSPI, the cell phone data of where she stopped, when she stopped, and we have a decent timeline to say for how long. Now, the timeline doesn't help us exclude that those interactions could happen. And to your point, that's got to be our greatest fear that somewhere

along the way, someone realized that she's going to be in these areas of very limited cell coverage and is alone. And I want to add one piece to that cell coverage in that those hours that Gordon was just describing to paint this picture a little bit more, you have to imagine she's using maps on her phone that as she loses data connection, she may have no maps for hours at a time where Gordon was communicating with her to send screenshots of where to go. So it's a particularly harrowing scenario for a woman, a beautiful young woman alone in that remote of an area. And I've been there. I've been there where your nav system goes down. And I called my husband and asked him to pull it up on his phone to tell me where was I, especially in a rural area where you don't see landmarks. There's not a gas station on the corner, there's not street crossings that you can say, hey, I'm at the corner of First Street and Elm. That's impossible.

And you're stuck and you can't just sit there. You got to go forward. That's the position in which Kaitlyn Rose Case finds herself on a long, long trip across country. No one has been named a suspect or person of interest in the disappearance of Caitlin Rose Case. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We have pieced together some of her route. Will it help us? Listen to our friends at Crime Online.

After the call with her father, Caitlin Case continues driving. Cell tower tracking indicates that Caitlin Case continues north toward Paris, Texas. Shortly after 7 p.m., her cell phone pings to cell towers in Pattonville, Texas, and south of Paris. At 9.17 p.m., a license plate reader captures her car leaving Paris on the south loop of Highway 286 and traveling northwest FM 79. Her cell phone last pings to cell towers in Choctaw County, Oklahoma. Her vehicle is believed to have been traveling on Highway 271. According to Kaitlyn Case's mother on the findkaitlyn.com website, a cell phone tower ping is recorded in Hugo, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Missing Persons Department immediately deploys a search team to that area. Joining me right now is Nick Huber, investigative reporter for the Paris News. Nick, thank you for being with us.

I'm not that familiar with Hugo, Oklahoma. What, if anything, do we know about it? It's a small town in Choctaw County, which is part of the Choctaw Nation. Fairly small, fairly remote. Okay, this is what I know. Following up on Nick Huber's comments with the Paris News. I know that Hugo is in Choctaw County, as Nick just told us, southeastern Oklahoma, nine miles north of the Texas state line. So she had just crossed from Texas into Oklahoma and the entire population of Hugo is about 5,000 people.

And that has spread out over Choctaw County. Now, why is that important to me? It's important to me because that tells me I'm not going to have a lot of witnesses that saw her. I'm not going to have a witness that can place somebody following her someone that she was speaking to asking for directions I'm not going to find a witness that I've got to accept that but let's take a look at what we know about her movements back to mr. and Mrs. Case, Gordon and Peggy Case. So the cell phone last ping is in Hugo, Oklahoma. And she's made it out of Texas. Has she ever been in Choctaw County or in that area before, Peggy, that we know of?

To my knowledge, no. What about it, Gordon? No, she's never been in that area, ever. And I might want to add, there's no proof my daughter ever made it out of Paris, Texas. She never was in control of that vehicle. There's no way, the way that the traveling that we have on record, my daughter was not in control of that vehicle going into paris texas whatever happened to my daughter happened in the in the in the bogota between the bogota and jennings area this we we're this we're guaranteed this i can guarantee you wow okay you are just giving me a whole nother viewpoint yes ma'am because i was thinking she was in the car until somebody eased down

the bank of that river. No, I found her vehicle. Both her phones were in the vehicle. The vehicle never made it into the river. It got caught between two trees. Her phones were in the vehicle. Her vehicle was locked up. The windows were locked up. It was in neutral. The key was on. She was not in the vehicle. We know nobody was in that vehicle because the airbags didn't employ with the airbags. And you could tell the vehicle had been manually pushed down that hill to go into that river on that property. There's a lot of information that I don't know what you found what i found was as i i my my oldest son got in night and peggy got the um her mom got the uh the cell phone app from samsung to find my phone caitlin had set that up we got a ping on the location where her vehicle was and it was on george harrington's property up there at fort toast in oklahoma behind a locked gate and uh I was told by the local Hugo department that we were going to get in, that he was going there immediately. I was still in Paris, Texas. I asked him, I said,

well, can I meet you up there? He goes, well, why don't you just sit still and we'll let you know if you need to come up here, if we find anything. Well, I didn't sit still. I drove up there. He said he was on his way. He was a mile away. I was 30 miles away. I got there before him by 10 minutes. We finally got onto the property and during our search in that afternoon, I was able to locate her vehicle, just walked right into it. It was on its side and it't know if she was in it or not. We finally got the door open. We realized she wasn't in it. And anyways, all her stuff, every one of her, everything she owned was in it, including the shoes she was wearing, the pants she was wearing were inside out across the center console. The people that live there are Will Harrington and his wife, Haley Harrington. They're the son and daughter-in-law of George and Will Harrington and his wife, Haley Harrington. They are the son and daughter-in-law of George and Elizabeth Harrington that own the property.

The wife told us repeatedly that at 11 o'clock that night on the 5th, that two vehicles entered her property at a high rate of speed. And then she heard the dogs bark, and she looked out the window and saw these cars come onto her property dust flying whatever and then the dick and then she said a little while later the dogs barked again only one car was exiting her via their property at a high rate of speed the detective asked her directly are you sure of the time she said absolutely it was 11 o'clock told us how she went to dinner, her and her husband. They left the gate wide open. They came home and, oh, they forgot to leave the gate.

They forgot to shut the gate. It was left wide open. So anyways, the vehicle left out of there at a high rate of speed. He asked her, did you get a license plate? She said, no, it was moving so fast and the dust was flying off. It was the taillights. That was the event of that evening. It went on to about 11 o'clock at night before we excavated the vehicle from where it was

lodged between the trees. And there was a lot of forensic people there, the crash guy, the pathologist, and they were going through the entire vehicle and I took pictures as well. And anyway, the next day we were supposed to show up there with the, with the owner's consent, with a set of dogs that Peggy had found. Caitlin's mom had set up a dog search team. When we got there, the gate was locked. It was, we were not going to be able to get in. The wife said that she, that he never got up to look to see who came onto that property that night.

Or did he investigate the next day to see why only one car left? And that's when, that's when, that's when OSBI, Oklahoma Bureau of Investigations detective got involved. And then he, he took that story from, from Will's wife, Haley Harrington, and say, he talked to the husband. The husband got up and he said he only saw one car enter. Well, then when I said, well, why wouldn't you get up to see who was entering your property at 11 o'clock? Then he said, I'm not going to argue with you, Gordon. There was only one car that came in there. And then it went from the one car to there was no car. No, he didn't see any car. It was real quiet that night. There was nothing going on, no car no he didn't see any car it was real quiet that night there was nothing going

on no car no nothing he didn't see anything in his story and he already got done telling peggy that um you know he was kind enough to take him back there and show him the set of second set of vehicle tires that had left the property right so it went from all that to absolutely seeing nothing and that's when i knew things were not going to go right. So, I mean, I could go on and on and on for a long time about what's going on up there. I want to hear every single thing. But the first thing I want to do is get back to you are in Texas. You are using Find My iPhone app and you realize where she is and you call

police. Is that right? Is that how that started? That's right. You ask them to meet you and they tell you to stay put, but you don't stay put. You go 30 miles and you get there first. Tell me about how you found her car. And it's the car and the phone in the car two phones

all of her belongings and interestingly she's only been gone you know when she was calling you anyway seven or eight hours the clothes she had on when you last saw her the pants are inside out lying across the console of the car. Even her shoes are left behind. Is that right? Yes. Yes, ma'am. And the car is locked.

And the car, the car was, well, we actually got into the back door, but the windows were completely rolled up tight. And there was no air conditioning in that vehicle. So it was 80-something degrees in Texas that evening all that day. She did not drive around in Texas with her windows rolled up in the middle of that heat with no air conditioning. And if she crashed the car, which she did not, she was not in that vehicle, she would have never rolled the vehicle, the windows up when she left. She wasn't parking at Walmart. She just crashed her car. She would not be concerned about that.

But they never found any fingerprints, not only like two fingerprints of hers in the entire vehicle. So the vehicle was wiped down and it's your theory. She was not the one that drove the car. Absolutely. Now, how is a car in a tree? Well, what happened was it went down the only hill on their property. The only place that you could launch a vehicle on its own that would go down that far was that right where the vehicle was. And that vehicle, what happened was it was put in neutral, and so when neutral and the key was on, so the steering wasn't locked. It went down the hill, and it went over a little knoll, and it hit a tree root. And it spun that front tire sideways, and it spun the whole vehicle sideways and it caught between two little two little tiny trees um no more than eight inches or something or you know and diana real small sapling trees and these uh

that it caught her back bumper her back uh tail hitch and the front of the vehicle and it kept it from going over into the river that they wanted it to go in the river but the thing is is that it there was no water at the bottom of that embankment for another 20 feet. It was a fallen tree. So it probably never would have made it into the river to begin with. But somebody had to know that layout of that land, if that was the only hill down which you could push the car.

This is reminding me of Susan Smith. Do you remember when she locked her sons in the car in the seatbelts and then pushed the car into the water? So Brian Fitzgibbons joining us from USPA Security. She never was in the car because when you first hear about the case, her vehicle has gone down into a river. Her cell phone is in there. She crashed. That's what you think. But it's nothing of the sort. Absolutely, Nancy.

To your point, the media can create a big misconception here with some of these news articles that have come out about the case. I mean, as Gordon mentioned, this is the only hill on that private property. You would have to know about that. This is a very remote land out there, a lot of farmland off of a private road. It's not like she just drove off of the interstate into a river, okay? This vehicle went to a spot to be disposed of. And Caitlin was not in that vehicle when that took place. So whoever disposed of it knew that this was a spot that they could launch the vehicle into the into the river from. OK, nobody's been named a person of interest or suspect.

Take a listen. Our cut 10, our friend Dave Mack. According to Caitlin Case's mother on the findcaitlin.com website, Caitlin's vehicle was discovered behind a private gated property at approximately 3 to 4 p.m. on August 12th. It appears that someone was attempting to dispose of the vehicle in the Kiamichi River. However, the attempt to get rid of the vehicle failed. In the course of traveling toward the path of the river embankment, the vehicle became cradled in between two small trees overhanging a 75-foot cliff. No one has been named a suspect or person of interest in the disappearance of Caitlin Rose Case. crime stories with nancy grace a 75 foot cliff to you mr case is that the way it really was yeah well it wasn't like a straight down cliff but it was a lot of an embankment from about the

point where the vehicle was on it side, caught in those trees. It would have been about 70 feet, actually, to the river. Yeah, that's how I found it. And I guess at that time of the night, whoever eased the car down there had no idea it didn't go all the way down to the bottom. Well, it's my theory that they probably did, and that's why they got out of there fast. They came in, they absolutely knew the property. There's no way they would have found that hill behind that barn if they didn't. And also when you travel onto that property, there's a lot of machinery that was there,

the farm equipment that was in tall grass. And if it was somebody who didn't know their way around that property, they would have probably crashed in that if they were coming in at a high rate of speed. They knew exactly where to turn behind the hay barn to find that hill to launch that vehicle. And when Ms. Haley Harrington said that that vehicle, she said it was there a little while, a little while later, I heard the dogs bark. We don't know because nobody's ever asked this woman how long that vehicle was there. Matter of fact, the Bureau of Investigations detective has tried to make that out like it never happened. The Bureau of Investigations detective theory was that, well, we think she got out of the vehicle and she got eaten by wild hogs. And the tracking dogs would not be able to get her scent if she was torn to pieces.

That's what he told my daughter's mother. And then the second theory was that she made it out of there and she walked down to the main road, which is two miles in the pitch black by a bunch of wild dogs in the street, and got down there and hitchhiked out of there. What, with no shoes, no pants, no clothes? That never happens. And I tell you what, Paris Police Department, detective over there, he absolutely will do nothing to help us. He was originally contacted by the attorney general's office in Louisiana.

At first, he was super nice, and all of a sudden, he quit texting. No contact with him at all. Another one, Lamar Sheriff's Department, absolutely nothing. Would not return my calls. I finally told him I'm going national with this. He called me within two days to find out what was going on. Said he was going to call the FBI. He knew somebody.

He never did nothing. He just wanted to see what I knew and how mad I was. And believe me, I'm furious. I've contacted the governor's office in both states, the Texas and Oklahoma. I've contacted the attorney generals in both those states. I have gotten no response from anybody. And Hugo's police department, the detective that was there the night that we found the vehicle, blocked my phone and told me to call Lamar Sheriff's Department. Why would I call Lamar Sheriff's Department if her car is found in Tortosa, Oklahoma? So this is what I'm dealing with over there.

And also I wanted footage from Bogota where she was. We actually got a witness that talked to my daughter in Bogota, Texas, the day she went missing. Police never investigated, told that police department she didn't spend any money in your town. So there's no need to look for her. And when I because I spoke to a police officer there, that's exactly what he told me. This sounds like a horrible cover up. Tell me about the witness that saw her in Bogota, Texas. She works. It's a it's a female.

She works at the she works at the dollar general, I guess. Um, this is all we know at this point, they're still trying to locate her. Um, cause they talked to another girl that, you know, said that that's what, you know, she spoke to my daughter that day. And she actually said she was coming back to the store and she left and never came back. But, um, but I, uh, I, I asked him day one, I said, you know, will you go back and check the footage in those stores? And at Bogota, there's only a couple of stores there. He got furious with me, said, no way am I going back there. We got her in Paris, Texas. There's no need to go do that. Well, guess what? She was in that town. And if they looked at the footage, they would have seen

her there and maybe somebody with her or followed her out or something but he did not want to do that and that's the dollar general in pagoda texas right in pagoda and when was she in pagoda she was at in pagoda right there right before she talked to me at 5 30 she would have came out of pagoda right around that time just before that joining me is is Josh Ritter, high-profile criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor in L.A. at JoshuaRitter.com. Josh, what do you do when police, and it pains me to say this,

as a veteran prosecutor, when police won't do their job? Something stinks. Yeah, absolutely. First of all, I want to applaud you, Mr. Case. It's only through your kind of dogged determination. I think that this case is continuing to get the attention that it is. And I think that I agree with you, Nancy.

I, you know, as a former prosecutor, I consider myself former law enforcement. I have a lot of respect for people who are involved in that field, but there is something wrong here, especially when you're hearing that the family members are the ones who are doing the lion's share of the work here. All of this information that we're finding out today certainly hasn't been accurately reported in the media as of the reports that I've been able to read. So we're getting a lot of information that seems like there is more to go on than at first one might think. I mean, we have, it sounds like the thing that stands out most to me is probably something that's very simple, but I think could be hugely impactful is the idea that there were two people out there at that location. If we can believe the witness who said that there were two vehicles and only one returning the way that it's been

described, that the car was in neutral and intentionally pushed off of that hill, it sounds like there's a couple of people involved, which to me means there's a couple of people out there with information and they're going to have a hard time keeping their mouth shut. If the family members and Gordon, again, I salute you, continue to press upon this case and press upon law enforcement, I am very hopeful that some sort of break is going to be coming shortly in this case. Well, I appreciate that. Yeah, we appreciate it. Thank you. A disappearance like this is hard enough to solve as it is, much less without proper police work. Take a listen to our Cut 12.

According to Caitlin's mother, Caitlin Rose Case's vehicle landed at the final destination, according to GPS hit Gmail, at 11.46 p.m. August 5th. Once the vehicle was found, according to Caitlin's mother, the Hugo Police Department detectives and the OSBI failed to secure the property or treat the area as a crime scene when that vehicle was located on August 12th. Officially, Caitlin Case's vehicle, a 2006 black GMC Envoy with a Louisiana license plate, was found abandoned behind a private gated property along a steep embankment on the Kiamichi River near Frogville, Oklahoma. But where is Caitlin Rose Case? Why do many people believe Caitlin has been sex trafficked? Take a listen to our cut 25, Crime Online.

As police search for Caitlin Rose, two eyewitnesses come forward. They tell police they believe they saw Case on August 17th. This is five days after Case's car was found. She was crying in the backseat of a disabled white SUV. It had been pushed from the road by two women into a gas station in Paris, Texas. The witnesses said there was a dark-colored SUV that came to assist the disabled SUV. To Peggy Case, this is Caitlin's mom. What do you make of that report um what do I make of it well

we we have worked on this Gordon and has done the yeoman's share of the work on this but we've pulled pulled together all this information I mean I've tried to contact every police department, FBI. I mean, we spoke to FBI, you know, missing persons on and on. The list goes on and on. And none of the local police departments wanted to cooperate with us at all. We provided them with the bank statements, like critical. You know, I went into the bank. We filed a missing persons report on Saturday, the August the 6th, Gordon and I, um, we got the first cell tower ping on August the 7 Oklahoma. They immediately contacted missing persons in Oklahoma.

And Jim Parrish is the person that manned that search around the cell towers. Like it was a six mile perimeter on the, on the Western side. I think they did first in the Eastern side. They did later six miles in the opposite direction. And that was a joint effort. Whoever, whatever, with whatever agencies work with Oklahoma missing persons. There was supposedly dogs and drones and foot traffic, and they found nothing. Right.

Gordon Case, let me ask you a question regarding this most recent report that two witnesses come forward and state they saw your daughter, August 17. That would be five days after her car was found crying in the backseat of a white SUV pushed from the road by two women into a gas station in Paris. And that there was a dark colored SUV that came to assist the disabled white SUV. What do you make of that? Yeah, well, actually, I was the one that found that report from that person. I was up there in that area putting out flyers. And it just so happened just before I was leaving, something kept saying to go back to this little restaurant and put a flyer there and I did. And I spoke to a couple of girls there and left the flyer.

I left the I left that area and went back to Louisiana, which is about seven, eight hours away. Got back home. It was a Friday. And on the very next day, Saturday evening, I got a call from this witness that had went to that restaurant. His wife works there and they were having a birthday party. And he looked down and he saw that fire and he said, holy crap, that's that girl we saw that night at the gas station. He called me immediately off that fire because we decided to put our own phone numbers on there because we knew the OSBI was not getting any, was not taking information because we had other witnesses come forward. They never even checked into. They contacted us to see if OSBI ever contacted us because they never contacted them.

And we have reports that they say they did and they didn't and they were incredible and whatever excuse they could make. But they never did. But I did talk to the guy and his name is Johnny Hall and his wife. And they were very nice people. And I talked to him in length and he let me record the conversation. And yes, he did. He said he saw my daughter 100 percent on his mother's ashes. Now, could he be wrong? Maybe so. I don't know. But he he swears that it was in his wife as well. And she was in a vehicle in the Sesco gas station across from Walmart on the Paris circle. And, um, and, uh, he said, he went up, the two girls were pushing the broken down vehicle and she was in the vehicle. She was crying. He went up to her and he said, whatever's

wrong. He said, God's going to fix whatever your problem is. And one girl came up behind him and said, Oh, she's crying because she's just far away from home. And that was his story. And so I have that story. And when we told, I called up the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigations, had a person over there with that information. And she never would call me, never would talk to me. And she gave that, she put that call back to Oklahoma Bureau Investigations detective who in return said he wasn't credible because of course, again,

it was way too long after the fact that that wasn't credible. And we'd have a lot of witnesses and a lot of information that insists that they're just not credible. Why are you convinced as to the location where everything went wrong for Caitlin? Well, because, first of all, my daughter would, as soon as she got anywhere, she would have called me back once our phone dropped. If she had car trouble, if she had any trouble at all, she would have been on the phone with me. I texted her and told her it was getting late because it was. It was getting towards evening. She would have needed to get a room up in Paris, Texas. I had looked on the map and looked at the town and I found a place

for her. Never heard from her ever again. She would have never not called me back. And there are a couple of witnesses that Slame saw her in Cunningham where she was on the phone with me on that street, said she turned around in his driveway. And then another one up in Jennings. Well, it seems real odd that in between Cunningham and Jennings is property owned by the same people where her vehicle was found. Really? Personally, I think these are smoke and mirror witnesses to put her out of that area. And he says that she went into Paris. Well, everybody agrees and other investigators agree that there's no way she was in control of that vehicle and went through all

that area. She didn't know the area. She started out at the Civic Center, went all around Paris, ended back at the Civic Center. She would have never done that. It would have never happened. We have a lot of information. So where do you pinpoint where you believe your daughter ran into trouble? Well, I can't pinpoint it. It could have been anywhere from Mount Pleasant on up. She might have maybe picked someone up or someone was following her at that point. She might have met somebody in Bogota. You know, maybe they talked with her.

Maybe she trusted them. I don't know. I don't really know exactly. All I know where I was told where I was on they talked with her. Maybe she trusted them. I don't know. I don't really know exactly. All I know where I was told where I was on the phone with her. And after everything that the OSBI has given us so far, which has been BS, I do not. I don't even trust the Wi-Fi hits or any of the information off of that. That was a typed out sheet sent my family and sent everybody out. They're not the original records, phone records from the phone company. They are a typed out sheet sent my family and sent everybody out. They're not the

original records, phone records from the phone company. They are typed out version of his version. I don't trust anything that man has to say. And I want to add, first of all, that Peggy has been a huge part of this. We would not be anywhere without her. She's the rock to this family, period. So I want to put that in there. And I also want to add that from day one, I asked him, I said, well, should we put up some flyers, some bulletins around Paris, Texas? We have people that want to fund that. Oh, no, I wouldn't do that. We don't know anything right now. And I said, well, how about if we put out a reward? Oh, no, we've never had anybody come for a reward. I said, well, I'm going for three, right?

I said, well, how about a private investigator? Well, you know, we're working on a case right now. It's been over a year, and we kind of classed with them. You know, they want to solve it before us and blah, blah. We haven't solved that case at all. So let me understand. They don't want missing people flyers. They don't want a reward, and they don't want you to hire a PI.

Did I get that right? Absolutely, you're right. And who is this telling you that? The detective of Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation. And I talked to his supervisor. No word from him. I told him about my concerns from the beginning. I've got nothing but silence from him, from the head director over there, OSBI.

They will tell us nothing. You know, Dr. Angie Arnold joining me, we're now psychiatrists out of Atlanta. When you're looking for your child and even authorities are not helping you, that's got to be the most disillusioning thing. And you feel totally defeated. But they're not. Oh my God. I'll tell you something. First of all, I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this, but kudos to you for not letting the people that are in charge hold you back from trying to find your daughter. This is the most amazing story I've

ever heard. Isn't it for you, Nancy? I tell you, I'm just having a hard time accepting that they're getting no help from anyone, especially in light of these two civilians where her car is caught up in a tree on their property, changing their stories. their stories change from two vehicles coming in to one vehicle to didn't they go to no vehicles coming in at 11 o'clock the night before mr. case yeah didn't see didn't see anything in the end yet not nothing okay and the fact that her clothing was in the car her cell phones were in the car her purse everything is in the car with the windows rolled up in a car that doesn't have air condition and that Texas heat. Everything is all wrong.

I want to give you phone numbers and emails. If you want your voice to be heard, Paris, Texas PD 903-784-6688. Vagada, Texas Police 903-632-0772. That's not all. Lamar County Sheriff 903-737-2400. The Oklahoma AG. 402-521-3921. The governor. 405-521-2342. What is happening? Why is this case been handled the way it has or mishandled? Have you ever heard to you,

Tony Wade, of a law officer saying, you don't need any missing person flyers. You don't need to put out a reward. You don't need to hire a PI. I've never heard of that in my life. It's actually ludicrous. You know, and Nancy, this reminds me of a case that you and I actually done together several years ago in Texas. No law enforcement wouldn't help us. They even come to my hotel in Maximilian town. It makes absolutely no sense to me. There should be a search warrant on that property. And it happens more times than not. I can tell you 30 years of doing this now, there's a lot of police departments who just don't want to get involved in missing persons cases because they don't know how to handle it to begin with. But why try and stop what the family is trying to do, putting out flyers or stop search teams from coming in?

Those things that it's never made any sense to me. Man, I smell a rat. I smell a dead rat. Nick Heber joining us from the Paris News. What is law enforcement telling you? They haven't told me anything. I've attempted to contact everyone multiple times, the Lamar County Sheriff's Office, the Paris Police Department. I've gotten confirmation there's an open investigation, but that's about it as far as what anyone wants to say. You can't request government records from OSBI. So it just, it seems like it's a dead end. A dead end. Well, it's not a dead end right now,

even though it may seem that way. Guys, if you want to help Gordon and Peggy Case find their to find Caitlin comm see a it ly in Caitlin with a C or they're running out of money to search for their daughter themselves they're basically having to take on the government to try and find what happened to their girl there is a GoFundMe at GoFundMe.com slash HelpUsFindKaitlyn. Repeat, GoFundMe.com slash HelpUsFindKaitlyn. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace reached out to the OSBI. We were told this is an open case. Agents are not at liberty to discuss the case. Park Police and Bogota Police Departments did not return our call. Hugo and Huma Police Departments said no one was available to speak

with us. No one has been named a suspect or person of interest in the disappearance of Caitlin Rose Case. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.