Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing Chase Massner: New info & taking your calls

Episode Date: February 9, 2017

The mystery of Iraq war veteran Chase Massner is the hottest topic on CrimeOnline’s podcast call-in line. Listeners of “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” have been raising good questions about the investigation. Massner was 26 when he disappeared after spending the night at a friend’s home in Kennesaw, Georgia on March 27, 2014. Grace and Leigh Egan, our prime reporter covering the story, answer caller questions in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Time has not healed the pain of the family and friends of Chase Masner, a 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. I personally serve in the United States Army with Chase Master. Went missing from Kennesaw, Georgia. We want him located, and we want the truth to come out. Three years this veteran has been missing. Please, please do a follow-up on that and dig deeper and see if we can't bring him home. You know, they're saying no soldier left behind. Well, this soldier has been left behind. I'm a stupid mom, and my question is very simple and to the point. What happened to my son, and where is my son the days have turned into weeks the weeks have turned into months tick tock as a mother stands by with no news about her son

can you imagine that if you were in her place? God forbid. As Cobb County police now tell her they don't even have any evidence. Foul plays involved. How can that be? He disappears into thin air, leaving behind a cell phone, credit cards, ATM, and what just disappears with the shoes on his feet? Doesn't make sense to me. Nobody saw anything. I'm calling foul on that whole theory

because I believe there's more to the story of Chase Masner than has been uncovered. Welcome to Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Of course, with me, Alan and special guest Lee Egan. But first, let's take a call. Go to the call, please, Alan. Hi, my name is Jennifer Sullivan, and I was in the Army with Chase. I was stationed with him

at Fort Riley, Kansas. We were brainstorming on the Facebook group and had a few questions. Can somebody with a machine that sees through walls and concrete, you know, go to Brad's house and check in the yard? Because my understanding is he poured concrete the next day to make a new patio, and he did that himself, from my understanding. What was the reason that Amanda and Corbin, what does Amanda and Corbin say, the reason they say that Chase cannot be found in Georgia? Mind you, both of them have said Chase will not be found in Georgia. Corbin has even said that all the search efforts in Georgia are in vain,

that to be warned that we've been told. Did Chase take a cell phone charger to Brad? Just kind of one of those questions, whereas could there be more evidence somewhere? Or perhaps a wedding ring? Things that might be found with metal detector? If we could look perhaps what time Chase went to sleep at Brad's? Because that's not been mentioned. As well as there was a story

about Chase getting upset and throwing his clothes all over a parking lot and then them getting back into Amanda's truck or car I mean and being mildewy I'm not sure the whole story on that but that's another story that's exploded since the beginning of this. Wow, that's a lot. Let's try to take those one by one if we can. First of all, there are many techniques by which if someone were buried, say, or hidden, for instance, in a wall that they could be found by, scent dogs would pick that up. But as far as someone being buried under cement, that would require a warrant for police to go and start digging to try to locate their body.

And you've got to have PC probable cause for that. That does not lay the blame at the friend's house. Remember, there was an entire roofing crew there at the home when the friend leaves to go on his errand and comes back and allegedly with Chase Masner's phone. So they'd have to get a warrant to go digging and looking. But I don't think that's entirely out of the question, since apparently nothing has been found. It's like a needle in a haystack as far as the police are concerned. But again, joining me is investigative reporter Alan Duke

and Crime Online reporter and editor Lee Egan's joining us. Lee, first to you, I think that police should go forward with a dig. That's the last place that Chase was really known to have been. Nobody ever saw him leave the home. It reminds me of a case we just covered on Crime Online, and that is of the Six Flags employee. The dad talks to the wife on the phone and says, hey, I'm going to go cook dinner. The wife gets home. The chicken is done.

Everything's right there except him. He's gone. And the surveillance cameras show nobody ever left the home. So we have no evidence Chase Masner ever left the home do we why not do a dig the thing i'm getting is um the police officers need as you said probable cause which they're saying they don't have yet they don't have enough evidence and now there's speculation um that he may not have even went to brad's house that he didn't get that far that they went somewhere else and something happened to Chase before Brad got home. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back it up, back it up.

For those of you just joining us, I've got Alan and Lee with me, and we're picking apart piece by piece the disappearance of a handsome young man with the world in front of him, Chase Masner. He comes home from serving his country in Iraq, comes home to his wife and his two little girls, and suspiciously just disappears out of the blue. The one carrying the torch is his mother, Stephanie Kadena. And she has visited with us and is desperate for answers to find her son.

She's not giving up. And you know what? Neither am I. Now, when you say they, we're talking about Chase Masner, had a spat with his wife, Amanda, and he was going over to stay at his friend's home. He had had a hard time reentering civilian life and had looked and looked and looked for an appropriate job. Finally, just takes a job working at a quick trip to make money for his family until he can land his, quote, dream job. So he goes to stay with a friend, friend Brad, as I call him.

The friend Brad says he came over, Egan that's what he says um but then again he could have he couldn't have nobody really knows it's just like he vanished um the thing is the roofers were there the entire day nobody left I mean you know back and forth but there was always someone there working on the roof, and no one saw him. No one saw him even once. I wonder if the roofers came in the home, like to use the bathroom or to get some cold water, because nobody seemed to see him at all in or out. Okay, so that leaves us with a question, Lee and Alan.

Can police, based on the fact that his last known location, according to the friend Brad, was there. Nobody ever saw him leave. So how do I know he didn't fall victim to foul play right there in the home? How do I know that? And again, this is not about the friend Brad. The friend Brad left the home, according to him. And there was a construction crew there. I don't know who these people are. I don't know who else may have come to that home.

So this, you know, this is wide open as to who may or may not have been in the home. Now, what about the question from the caller as to why he was at, was it she wanted to know why he was at Amanda's home? I think the question was, why was Trey at Amanda's? Why was Amanda's mother, why was she at Amanda's house? That was the question. Lee, what do you know? From what I know, and I don't want to throw accusations out, supposedly there was a text

from Trey's mother to one of the ladies on Teen Chase, that's the... Who is Trey's mother to one of the ladies on Teen Chase. Who is Trey? Trey is Amanda's mother and Amanda is Chase's wife. And shortly after, like within a day after Chase disappeared, Amanda allegedly called her mother to come over and completely clean the house up, change all the sheets, wash all the clothes, etc. And for what reason reason we're not sure well wait a minute lee don't you change your sheets routinely

yes but i don't okay don't you wash your clothes yes do it yourself well i mean she's raising two she's raising two little girls you you know, in her defense. I think she's working and raising kids. You know, if I could call in my mom, which I plead guilty to, okay, have called her in to help me, I would. So I'm not reading a lot into that unless this was the first and only time she called her over to do house cleaning. Exactly.

That's exactly right. First and only time she called her over to do house cleaning. But is it true that at some point either the friend Brad or the Amanda wife said, oh, you won't find him in Georgia? Did that happen? Yes, it did. And according to text messages that I saw, it was his own father said that. His own father said, you're looking at the wrong place. You will not find him here. And then Amanda said that as well. I don't remember her exact words on text, but it was something to the same effect.

So Chase's own dad said that? Yes. Well, again, not to play devil's advocate, because this shoe doesn't really fit for me that I'm taking the defense position, but I've got to analyze the evidence truthfully and honestly in order to use it. I mean, if they believed he took a powder and left, they could very well be saying, oh, he's long gone. You're not going to find him around here.

Was it like that? Or was it in a more nefarious tone or what? I don't really know. It was all in text messaging. The dad's text was really jumbled. He kept skipping back and forth, quoting Bible verses and saying other things. But the main thing was, and he was talking to Stephanie, or texting Stephanie at the time, the mother, and basically saying that she's pretty much out of control and she's never going to find him,

and if she continues to get on social media, he'll never tell her where he is. Who will never tell who where who is? Corbin, the father, texted Stephanie and told her that if she doesn't stop posting on social media about finding Chase, he will never tell her where Chase is. He who? The father will never tell her where Chase is? Correct. Whoa.

Okay, so he intimates he knows. he yeah he kind of insinuates it well can i ask what police are doing with that information if anything no from what i hear not much um they kind of marked him off as um mentally unstable um and then the last I heard, they're still working on it. They have new information that they're not going to disclose, but the case is still active. Right. I heard about the new information, the new secret information that they won't tell anybody about that they're working on and they want to keep it secret. Okay. Okay. All right. Let's move on from there. Let's hear the next next can you hook me up to the next call please i don't know him or his family but i've been following his case since a few days since he after he went missing um a few other questions i have and this

was all this has all been put on various missing pages of Facebook for him throughout the time. But shortly after, some people talked with Brad, the guy that Chase was last known to be with. And Brad said that he was holding a barbecue for the roofing contractors that was working on his house. The afternoon Chase went missing. He was holding the barbecue for the roofing contractors and for Chase, and he took Chase's phone with him when he went to Atlanta,

so Chase wouldn't leave. I mean, how many people host a barbecue for roofing contractors that are just working on the roof? And how many people host a barbecue for a friend who's in the midst of a separation from his wife and children? Why would Brad take Chase's phone so he didn't leave? Why would Brad care if Chase left? He was just providing a place for him to crash for a night. Why did Brad ask to put rolled carpet in the roof of his own site dumpster that would be moved in a day or so.

When Brad had a dumpster of his own on the property where he was putting renovated materials at the dump. I mean, this has all been put out there and very evident from the beginning, so I don't understand why there's just been one detective working on this all along. For those of you just joining us, the tip line is 770-499-3931. That's the Cobb County Crimes Against People Unit. Lee Detective Chris Twiggs, 770-499-3931. I think she's got a lot of good points. And I want to go back to Lee Egan joining me. Lee, did you say earlier, before we answered those questions,

that there is a lot of speculation that he never was even at the friend Brad's house? Yes. It's known that he was with Brad, but it's not known if they actually made it back to his house. Some people are speculating that Brad's saying that to cover whatever happened in between the time he picked him up and Chase went missing, that something could have happened. Well, wait a minute. I thought, where did the wife, Amanda, drop him? From what I remember, she dropped him off at his job, QT, and then Brad picked him up shortly after. Well, was that not on surveillance video at Quick Trip? The drop off?

I don't know. I'm not sure. Man. It seems like she may have dropped him off at the side of the building. I think. I'm not really sure on that, though. Oh, just out of view of the surveillance cameras. A $5,000 reward is being offered for the whereabouts of Chase Masner.

770-499-3931. And before we answer those questions from our second caller, I want to thank our sponsor, SimpliSafe, for being with us today and making our quest possible. People every day think they cannot afford a home security system. I've got news for you. You can. SimpliSafe is $14.99 a month for peace of mind if it's never even used you buy peace of mind i have a security system my mom has a security system for a reason i have prosecuted

violent felonies including burglaries that turn bad i have prosecuted kidna felonies, including burglaries that turn bad. I have prosecuted kidnappings, break-ins, home invasions, you name it. And, of course, I've covered them. And I've got to tell you, I even keep my alarm system on when I am home with the children and we are in the house. That system is on. If you go to simplysafe.com slash Nancy Grace, 10% off. Thank you, Simply Safe, not just for being with us and sponsoring us today, but what you are offering people that think they cannot afford home security. Back to Chase Masner.

Let's tackle her questions one by one okay alan duke investigative reporter jump in oh she wanted to know why would brad throw a barbecue for roofers who does that and why would you throw a barbecue for someone who was having a little bit of marital trouble that's a good question i mean what was the barbecue all about and I think Lee might be in the best position of saying, was there actually evidence of that barbecue being thrown? And the other thing I'd like to get deeper into is about where Brad was that morning. I understand he was delivering a computer to somebody, and what do we know about that? But could I defer to Lee on that? Because she's been talking with a lot of sources you know i swear you sound like a lawyer in court the grandstanding the compound sentences just say lee what do you know hit me lee please please hit me with this so the computer delivery

this is what i've heard going on with that the police uh detective twigs or whoever was covering it still cannot find this mystery guy that brad delivered the computer to they went to the address he said i think um they just can't find him they called the phone number can't reach him um as far as the roofers i spoke to brandon duck who's the head roofer and okay right there that is wait a minute. That's total BS. What you just said, not you saying it, but if this person exists and that's the phone number, what they didn't answer. So you go, Oh, couldn't reach him. Give up. No, that's not how that works. I mean, even I can find a witness for Pete's sake. If I've got the cell phone on a cell phone, you have to give all sorts of information to get the cell phone. And what are they saying?

He didn't live there. He wasn't home. No such address. What I mean, just saying they couldn't get him. I don't know what that means. That could mean anything. To me, it means they didn't. They're not pursuing the cases they should, in my opinion.

Do they only have one detective working on this, as this lady asked? As far as I know, it's Detective Twiggs. And I believe they're still treating it as a missing person case. Did you see the posting by the guy who did the roof work? That's Brandon. Duck roofing? Yeah did the roof work. That's Brandon. Duck roofing. Yeah, duck roofing. Everyone, also, not only did we give you the number

for the Cobb County Police, but there's also our number, 909-49-CRIME. 909-49-CRIME. 909-49-C-R-I-M-E. Go ahead, Lee. Brandon Duck, he even thought it was odd that he said Brad was acting kind of erratic, kind of going from place to place, and was kind of almost pressuring them to stay for the barbecue and come inside and look at his house.

And, you know, even the Rupert thought that was very strange because they didn't know each other. I mean, they had only met a couple of times before. I think Brad may have found him online and got his services from there. But yeah, he thought it was quite odd that he was, you know, cooking for them and wanting to stay over. He said he had a lot of food that would go to waste. And yeah, I don't know what's going on there. Okay. We got a lot of, I don't knows, but that's normal in a case like this. That is entirely normal. What's not normal is for cops not to be, let me just say, open and forthcoming about what they're doing. Um, if they're not doing anything, just tell us, because sometimes you hit a wall,

it goes cold, and there's nothing you can do about it. Could I ask this question? Because when we interviewed Chase's mom, when Nancy interviewed her, we were talking about polygraph tests. And the question was, who's taken a poly? And Lee, do you know who has taken polygraph test and the question was who's taken a poly and Lee do you know who has taken polygraph examinations absolutely no one and from a source that spoke to Brad not too long ago I believe was like last week Brad openly admitted that you know they asked him to take a polygraph but he decided no he didn't want to do it Alan let's take the next call.

My question is, his father had made a post on Facebook prior to a huge search that was done by Missing America that his son Chase would not be found in Georgia, that the efforts of the Chase were useless, basically. And I'm wondering what LA law enforcement has done or have they looked into that post that his father has made. Like his father knows something, and I'm curious to see if his father has been interviewed by the police or what has gone on as far as that post that his father's made. I believe it is on the page, Justice for Chase Massner, if you would look into it.

Okay, that's what we were talking about earlier, Lee and Alan. The alleged post by his father, Chase's father, stating you won't find him in Georgia as if he knows where he was. And also telling the mom, Stephanie Kadena, if you don't stop posting, I'll never tell you where he is. Okay, we address that. Alan, can you play the next call? So why was Trey at Amanda's? And when was the last time she had visited? Since she's got this nice criminal history, I'm curious.

And did Chase see her before he went to his mom's for three days? last time she had visited since she's got this nice criminal history i'm curious and did chase see her before he went to his mom's for three days um is there any record of maybe corbin or being in the area or having contact with chase or amanda in the short time before chase went missing um just all questions that i've had and i really feel like you know, Brad really needs to be, you know, checked out. The timeline, everything doesn't work. I knew Chase. Chase was funny, happy, lighthearted, go lucky. He wasn't, even in his depressed times,

he'd be the guy that gave you his shirt off his back. He's just that kind of guy. He's a good guy, good hearted. He would never, ever, ever walk away from his family. I think if he was to have left his family, he would have done that a long time ago during other struggles. But it never happened. And I don't think it would ever happen because it's just not in him. Lee, who is she talking about that has a criminal record? She said she has a criminal record. Who has a criminal record? Amanda's mother, Trey.

Going back to the part about her cleaning Amanda's house, from what I hear, she was not allowed. Chase did not like Trey. She was not allowed in that house ever because she has a past record of methamphetamine use, forged checks, theft, just a long list. So she wasn't allowed in the house. Are you sure?

Yes. Are you sure about her record? Absolutely. Wow. Absolutely. Okay. This is what we know as of right now. More questions than answers. I know that's not a good conclusion. I know that,

but that's what we're working with. What it's boiling down to in my mind, Alan Duke, is whatever happened, happened in or around that home. And again, that does not implicate the friend Brad. There was a fleet of roofers there. There could have been other people in and out of the home when Brad left. We don't know. But nobody that was around the home saw Chase Masner leave. Now, did he leave before? Was he ever there? Do they have their days wrong or their dates wrong? That could be. But what I know is that his credit card ATM never used again.

Cell phone, no explanation for leaving it behind. I think at this point, polygraphs are in order as well as bringing around canines. That that's what I think, because if that body is there somewhere, a dog could still hit on it. That's what I think, Lee.

The dogs did come out before, um, early on, I guess maybe a month, maybe a couple months after he went missing, maybe a little longer. But they didn't, and from what I hear, they could sense it out no matter where it is in the area. But from what the ladies in the group were saying was the dogs sniffed outside, sniffed in the yard area, but didn't go inside,

and they didn't get a hit outside the home. Okay, good to know. I had forgotten the part about the canines. So if they didn't hit outside the home. Okay. Good to know. I had forgotten the part about the canines. So if they didn't hit outside the home that day, that's not going to change. I'd like to find out if they were ever taken in the home and if they were not, if they could be allowed in the home now, I don't know. Does it have a basement?

Does it have an attic? I don't know any of that. It does. And the funny thing is like a month or so after Chase disappeared, Brad just moved out of his house. He had bought the house, from what I hear, cash. He was getting the roof done and then just leave. So the house has new owners now, and I don't even know if they're sure about what's going on or, you know, what happened there or what could have happened there. Again, thank you, SimpliSafe, for being with us and sponsoring us today.

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$14.99 a month is what SimpliSafe charges for home security. Easy to install. They even put a video online for people like me that my head blows up if I have to read instructions. $14.99 a month for surveillance for your home. Police are immediately called in to the scene. And not only that, at simplisafe.com slash Nancy Grace, another 10% off. SimpliSafe, thank you for being with us today. We are looking in every direction, exploring every avenue to find this missing war veteran. It may very well be that Chase just left, gave up on his family, gave up on his children, gave up on his mom, gave up on a life near his home, and just left. There are thousands of people living anonymously off the grid right now. Is he one of them?

It could be. His mother says no way would he leave his children. No way would he leave her and not let her know he was alive. What's the answer? Our search for Chase Masner goes on. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.