Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mom disappears on country road, 2-year old tot girl found strapped in car seat left behind

Episode Date: March 6, 2018

Traci Pittman Kegley mysteriously vanished in 20 years ago, leaving her 2-year-old daughter alone in her car on a rural Alabama road. Her disappearance has been a cold case for years, but not investigators believe they could be close to finding the mother's remains. They reportedly have suspects on their radar. Nancy Grace explores the Kegley case with forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, psychologist Dr. Tiffany Sanders, and WSFA 12 News reporter Jennifer Horton. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. I sat on the porch all night, looking, you know, wanting her to come down the driveway. And she never did come. A young mom, absolutely gorgeous, goes missing, and here's the crazy part. Her two-year-old daughter found inside her vehicle unharmed? How does that happen? I'm talking, of course, about Tracy Pittman Kegley.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Where is Tracy? Joining me, Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert and professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, Chicago psychologist, Dr. Tiffany Sanders, and special guest joining us, Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 news reporter who's been on the case. You know what, Jennifer? I'm looking at a photo of Tracy right now. She's stunning.

Her teeth look like a white picket fence. She's a frosty blonde. She looks petite and a big, big smile on her face in every photo I see of her. That's what really stands out. And Jennifer, another fact that her little girl, a two-year-old, a top girl, is found alive in mommy's car. There is no way she would have left her daughter that way. Jennifer, let's start at the beginning. With me, Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 News. Jennifer, what happened? Tracy Kegley was last seen at a gas station.

We understand there was some kind of dispute. She left and her car was found the next day with her two-year-old child in the back seat unharmed. Okay, hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. Jennifer, hold on. Let's take one fact at a time. You know so much information. You got to put it in slow-mo for the rest of us. So she was seen at a gas station. Was her daughter in the vehicle with her? Yes. Okay, so the daughter's in the vehicle, which is going to lead me to my later avenue of inquiry. When the daughter was found, was she still strapped in?

Were her diapers soiled? Was she wearing the same clothes she had on the day before, which would lead me to think she had been there since the day before. That's what I want to investigate that in a moment. But she's at a gas station. Did the gas station have surveillance video? Not that we understand. So many of those things were not in play. But the case hinges on, according to investigators, the reason that the child was in the backseat is why they believe the people that did this to Tracy Kegley are locals. And they knew her because they could have easily hurt her child, but they didn't. Interesting.

Hold on. Let me start at the beginning. I'll make a note of what you just said, that it could be people that knew her because of the baby. Hold on. Let me get that down. I'm trying to go chronologically. So she's at this gas station. There's no video surveillance. That hurts. That hurts a lot. We'll keep going forward, but hopefully at a gas station, there'll be witnesses. So if it is a community where everybody knows each other, people would likely have spotted her there or will have a receipt from a credit card or an ATM. The gas station, were there eyewitnesses there? That's what we understand.

And this is a very small, tight-knit community. So she was seen there. Good, good. So we know she was there. Eyewitnesses placed her there. When you say there was some sort of a dispute, what do you mean by that? I think it was a verbal dispute. People could easily see that they weren't happy.

No one's ever indicated to me what the dispute was about. But that's the last discussion. Who was it with? Some friends of hers. Okay. Were they in the car with her? No. As I understand, they all left in their own vehicles.

And that's the last time she was ever seen. Was it morning, noon, or night? I believe it was midday. Midday. That's good because you'll get a better eyewitness account midday versus night, or even really early in the morning. So midday, she's there, and you're saying the baby was in the car, right? Correct.

I assume backseat, correct? Correct. Strapped into a baby seat? Yes. Okay. And I'm asking all these details for reasons, but I don't want to slow you down with an explanation. Now, let me understand something. Jennifer Horton with me, WFSA 12 news reporter.

Midday, was it a weekday or a weekend? April 26th. That was a Sunday. You know, Jennifer Horton, the reason I'm asking what day of the week it was is because if it were midday, you know, anywhere between 12 and 5, I'm wondering why wasn't everybody at work? But it was actually a Sunday, a Sunday afternoon. You're saying the dispute was with some of her friends. Were they female or male? We've never been given the names, at least in this stage of the investigation. Interesting. Okay, so this is what we know. Let's start with that. Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert,

and Dr. Tiffany Sanders, Chicago psychologist, joining in on the mystery of missing mom, Tracy Pittman Kegley. Last seen at a local gas station. She had a little spat with some of her friends. She goes off in her car with her two-year-old tot. They go off in their car. She's never seen alive again. Joe Scott, what do you make of what we know so far?

This is a markedly bizarre case, Nancy, in the sense that I know the back roads in the South pretty well, lived on them my entire life. People don't just simply vanish like this, particularly leaving a two-year-old in the car. Wait, wait, wait, wait, Joe Scott, you know, I respect you, but people vanish all the time in the South as across the rest of the country. People just, quote, vanish all the time. So refine your thought. What do you mean they don't just vanish because they do? Well, this strikes me as particularly curious because you've got a young mother who essentially just leaves a car on the side of the road with a small child in it, completely defenseless like this.

What that tells me is that it's a vacant, large, open area, isolated. You're going to tell me that someone just randomly just picks her out of thin air. To me, this sounds as though that someone was specifically looking for her that facilitated a vanishing. I want to go back to my original question, Joseph Scott Morgan. When I asked you what you meant by people don't just vanish, well, they do. Please refine your thought. Are you saying they don't just vanish without a trace? No, I'm not saying that they don't just vanish without a trace, Nancy. And I think that there is evidence that is probably left behind that the police are not releasing at this point in time.

What is curious is that she would leave this child behind, abandoned in a car. One of two things is at play. Either someone facilitated this or she just simply walked away from the car. And if that's the case, how did she make it out on foot? How did she wander away from this car unless she's affected by some kind of physical malady, mental malady that would have just caused her? Well, if she had a physical or mental malady, she would have been easily found because she wouldn't have made it very far if she had a physical malady.

Well, not if she wandered off into the woods. But there's been exhaustive searches. And I'm going to ask you one last time, hopefully getting an answer. When you say people don't just vanish, what do you mean by that, Joe Scott? Well, what I'm saying, Nancy, is that if people don't just vanish, what do you mean by that, Joe Scott? Well, what I'm saying, Nancy, is that if people don't just simply vanish, they just don't just out of blue, they just don't, you know.

Okay, let me just throw out the name Tara Grinstead. Okay, go ahead. Her body's never been found. She just vanished. It took over a decade to figure out what happened. Right. So people do just vanish. So when you keep saying over and over, figure out what happened right so people do just vanish so when you keep saying over and over people don't just vanish they do they do just vanish go go

look at national center for missing exploited children website there are lots of people that just quote vanish so let's see if we can figure out what happened here let me go to what the district attorney rh houston and elmoreigator, Joe Herman, have to say. And this is at the search site after one day of searching. I think we have searched this property as well as it could ever be searched based on the technology we we have today. So I don't know that there's anything else that we're going to find on the property once we complete this section of our search. I'm very, it's very promising. So if the people that you believe are still in Elkhart County that are involved in this, what would be the thing they need to do today? They need to be looked for visitors.

Do they need to come see you? No, they need to look for visitors from him. You know, if somebody helped them, somebody saw something, and they don't report it, they may have some criminal liability also. At this point, what is the likelihood that you're going to hand him a case to prosecute? I'm very, it's very promising. But do you have an idea who you're looking for now?

Yes. Yes. So it's likely only a matter of time? I would say so. If they don't come see us, we're going to come see them. You know, Dr. Tiffany Sanders, let me just pause a moment. Chicago psychologist joining me. Why is it so hard to get a yes, no out of a man? I mean, you know what? They just talk in circles. Is it just me or is it Joe Scott? It's him. It's him, right? Okay. Yeah. You heard that Joe Scott. It's him, right? In this case, it's him. Okay. Yeah, you heard that, Joe Scott. She's the expert.

And Jennifer Horton Wisely is just keeping out of this. Okay, here we go, guys. We're talking about the case of a gorgeous-year-old mother, Tracy Pittman Kegley. As Jennifer Horton is telling us from WFSA 12 News, Kegley was last seen at a gas station there in Elmore County on April 26. Her car was found the next day with her two-year-old baby girl inside. The baby was left unattended. Jennifer Horton. The sentence I get from when she went missing is that there was an idea that possibly she just left. So I'm not sure that this was a situation that was a high alert at the time for at least some law enforcement. Now, one thing I just don't get,

Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12, is how they could possibly have thought the mom would just leave the baby in the car and just walk off into a densely wooded area or what hitchhike or ride i don't get it how could they not name it a crime scene immediately because we hear the sheriff being questioned hey what's going on and goes well it's close to being a crime scene you darn straight it's a crime scene what was the holdup jennifer i'm not certain that there was a holdup but here's a fact that could have thrown a wrench in some things she had been divorced for 16 days at the time she went missing her divorce was cleared 16 days before she went missing so i think in that way some people felt that she may have may have just blown the coop

but at the same rate her parents said and leave her baby strapped in the back of a car overnight is she was she that bad of a mother people who knew and loved her said she would not do that she was a loving mother she would never leave her child and so that was there i wouldn't even leave the children joe scott morgan i won't even leave the children briefly and when they think i've left them i'm spying in fact the other day Joe Scott and you know the children very well Lucy says mom was that you driving through the parking lot of the school at recess I'm like yes it was and she said why are you driving through the parking lot? I said, to make sure you haven't been kidnapped, Lucy. It's very simple. Okay, there. Bam. So unless this mother was derelict and just a horrible mom, I don't understand, Joe Scott, why cops would not call it, name it out loud, what it is in the first

moments and get the ball rolling in the right direction instead of losing 24 hours pretending she left willingly i don't i don't understand that either i you know still i think i think that you have to entertain the possibility that she was uh maybe suffering from some kind of uh mental break remember just just as a young lady, the reporter mentioned just a moment ago, this lady's just gone through a very traumatic event. She's just been divorced. Maybe she's, you know, distraught to the point where she pulls over on the side of the road, opens the door and just simply walks away and just wanders off into the woods. Joe Scott, what movies have you been watching? Because that does, I mean, has your wife ever just left one of your children's tots in the car, strapped in, and just walked off and left?

No. Okay. No. So this sounds like a fictional movie you're writing. I know very few cases where that has happened. Let's go to the shrink, Dr. Tiffany Sanders, Chicago psychologist. Dr. Tiffany, when a person has a history of being a loving mom, that's really a euphemism. A loving mom is somebody that gets up early, early in the morning and makes breakfast or changes diabetes and doesn't look the other way.

And no matter how they feel, take the children to the doctor and to this and to that. And you put your child first because you want to, and you really don't even think twice about it. Right, right. Just when you have a track record of being a great mom and no history of mental illness whatsoever, and you're spotted at a gas station getting gas, and the next thing you know, 24 hours pass, and your child's found strapped in a car seat in the middle of nowhere, and you're gone with the car door open.

That's way in, Tiffany. Please help me out with those that would argue that she left on her own. It's not even plausible to think that she would leave on her own. Do we even have any history of any problems with Department of Children and Family Welfare? Usually when you see someone abandoning or not taking care of their child or some form of neglect, you would have history of that. There will be some sort of precedent. It wouldn't be this new occurrence. So for a loving mother who is attentive to her child to leave her child on her own willingly does not seem to make sense. It would seem to me that, you know, an intimate partner because oftentimes when things happen to us weren't the investigators looking at her intimate partner or a family member? Those would be plausible reasons, which is one reason why they may not

have harmed the child because they didn't want to harm their own flesh and blood. So there's other things to suggest there were other people to possibly look at in this missing person. Finally, the voice of reason. I'm not alone screaming in the wilderness. Dr. Tiffany Sanders, Chicago psychologist with me. You know, here's another possibility. Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 news reporter. You know what? I bet you the police thought at the very beginning. I mean, it's a small town, as you pointed out. They all know her. They know she's a good mom. They know she is steady Eddie. They probably thought at the very beginning, you know what, this isn't right.

There's some stinks. But they weren't willing to go out on a limb and say it yet and alert the potential suspects. Take a listen to what the D.A.R.H. Houston at the search site says about the effort. Listen, we are putting together the pieces for a very large search that we're fixing to conduct on about 300, 350 acres of land. We're bringing in assets from all over the country. It's probably going to be one of the largest searches conducted in the southeast. We had Mr. and Ms. Pittman here with us today. I think Ms. Pittman was getting a little stir crazy, you know, sitting around the house and working at the office and not being able to be here and contribute to help locate her daughter. So she came up here to visit

with us and we took the opportunity to show her some of the technology that we've been showing y'all this week, but actually have her actually look at it and see it and have it explained to her. She met some of the technicians, she met some of the volunteers from a group called Ezra, which is a private company that volunteered their time and their mapping and technology skills to come down here. And she got the opportunity to thank some people and I think they appreciated it and I think that she realizes, I think the family realizes that this is really, this is a really big effort that's being put forward. I truly believe that the people who

are responsible for her disappearance are here they're in Elmore County and they're still here in Elmore County and as soon as we find her then that will help us get a little bit closer to putting them where they belong. For those of you just joining us, clues are just now surfacing in the case of a missing mom who disappeared one hot, sunny Sunday afternoon in Alabama. Police divers have just discovered potential evidence that could lead to a breakthrough in the disappearance of a 30-year-old Alabama mom, Tracy Pittman Kegley. Now, according to Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12, she had only been divorced for 16 days.

Okay? She finally got free in a divorce. Does that have anything to do with the disappearance? Tracy last seen at a gas station in Elmore County. Her car found the very next day with her two-year-old talk girl still strapped inside unattended. Authorities searched a 300-acre property in Elmore County for her body pursuant to search warrant, including cadaver dogs. Right now, authorities not saying what evidence divers found in a pond on the property. Hmm. It's been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science lab for testing.

Okay, Joe Scott, this is your neck of the woods. Here's another thing. And, you know, we saw this in the recent Delphi murders of the two precious little girls. Immediately, the owner of the property was given a search warrant where their bodies were found. The entire property was searched, homes, outbuildings, garages, sheds, you name it.

That is not to cast dispersion or doubt on the owner of the property. When you've got a big area like this, 300 acres, you don't know what's happening at the outskirts of those acres. You drive in and out every day on your driveway, and you're not roaming the land looking for evidence. So the fact that the owner is served with a search warrant does not suggest guilt on their part, but it's a place to start, right, Joe Scott? Yeah, it absolutely is, Nancy. And, you know, you have to have that from the beginning just to make sure that all the T's are crossed and all the I's are dotted. What's really fascinating about this particular case, Nancy, is that this is really on the cutting edge of forensic science. And let me tell you why.

For the first time, one of the first times in recent memory, they are employing what's referred to as GIS, which is geographic information systems. And what happens is that they're utilizing satellite technology, drone technology, and then human intelligence on the ground where you have these teams. And there's teams from all over the state of Alabama that are searching this property. A vast number of officers are out there along with canine units. So every bit of this information has been kind of coalesced through GIS and they're processing this. And they have covered this. And Nancy, as you know, in the South and rural South, these areas are absolutely vast. There's a lot of vegetation. There's things that we can't see with the unaided eye and so it opens up an entirely different types of entirely different

type of world what I'm gonna be fascinated to try to try to see is what has been recovered from this lake they haven't given us a lot of information but whatever has been recovered is going to be taken back to the state crime lab I'm sure that it's already there and it's being analyzed at this particular time. And when the DA and the police decide to release whatever it is, this bit of information, because I'm sure that people are just sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to find out. This was a very impactful case in this small community all those years ago. Nancy, all of that technology is under the eye of Joe Mosley,

director of the Alabama Fusion Center. He says the advanced technologies giving investigators advantages they didn't have 20 years ago. There are certain areas there that you just can't get to. There's swampy areas, marshy areas, things that just aren't safe to go to. So we needed something that we could get high-resolution imagery and have analysts look at it and determine is there a need to go over there or not. So the drones have given us that capability.

Using this technology, we're ensuring that we hit every square inch of the property. We're knowing real-time exactly where we've been and where we haven't been. Guys, take a listen to what Tracy's parents have to say. Steve and Linda Pittman, absolutely devastated, who have shown up at the command center and adding $10,000 to the reward. Now it's climbed to $25,000 in the search for this beautiful young mom. Take a listen to her parents now. I have been more nervous and more, I guess, just not knowing.

I just could not stay at my office today, and I just had to be out here close. So that sort of boils it down to I'm really nervous. And I'm in such hope that we will find her, everyone that's here. There's been, certainly been, a lot of volunteers. There's been a lot of technology. Millions of dollars of technology is out here. And everybody has volunteered their time. So we're very proud of what the effort everybody's put into.

It's gotta make you feel good. It does, it does. It makes me feel, I had no idea until I got out here today. Just how intense the search was in the area. And like I said, the technology, you could see AT&T, they donated telephones and had everybody's name on it. And it showed them the spots where they were walking. And of course, the dogs, the volunteers, they volunteered all their time. So there was a lot of people.

That was Jennifer Horton speaking with the victim's parents. Jennifer from WFSA 12. The break that police have been looking for in a coal case may have just occurred during a massive search. Friendship, Elmore County, Alabama. As the search effort for Tracy Pittman Kegley goes on, the district attorney says potential evidence has been found, but will require forensic review. It was found in a body of water on the sprawling property. Let me go back to Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 news reporter who's been on the

story from the very beginning. Jennifer, I keep thinking about that two-year-old little tot girl left behind with no mom. Tell me about the terrain that they searched. 300 acres and they have used incredible resources 32 miles were flown by drone 2200 that's 2200 drone photos were taken 137 points of interest found that's from a dog about 131 human miles walked. 169 cell phones issued to search teams. This has been an exhaustive search. Jennifer Horton, tell me about the terrain, the 300 miles, and specifically this body of water? And what is the speculation as to the item that has been found? The body of water is simply a pond in this land. It has some marshy points. They were very concerned about letting it go too far into the spring and summer.

That's why they felt they had to do the search immediately. Some of that land is in trust, and some people have hunting camps or they hunt on it, which is another reason why they had to wait until this point in the winter to go ahead and get that search warrant because they didn't know who they would encounter in the woods that were there for whatever reason. So this is a difficult terrain, which was another reason why they felt they really needed those trackers. Not only did they want to know they covered every square inch of the 300 acres, they wanted to make sure that everyone returned back to the command center

and that they left no stone unturned. And interestingly enough, he touched on this great technology. The phones that they used had various apps. If they saw something they thought was interesting, they could take a picture, and it would catalog it back at the command center, 132 points of interest. They wouldn't elaborate on what that was. But day four of the search, it was the very final day. They sent home the canine units.

They sent home the ground searchers. It was strictly with the state divers. It was before 11 o'clock that morning when they knew they had found something. And of course, you and I, I think we all know exactly what they found, but they're still waiting to get that, you know, the check by the State Department of Forensics to confirm either whether they go back or whether they've got enough to make their case. You know, Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 News, I'm looking right now at a photo of Lisa and Steve Pittman,

they're Tracy's parents. They're at the command center of the search for their daughter. They remind me so much of my own parents. They must be in so much pain, Jennifer. Guys, take a listen to Tracy's parents, Linda and Steve. Is it an internal battle to not allow yourself to get too emotionally involved? But then on the other hand, you can't help but get emotionally involved. You don't want to get too hopeful in case it doesn't work. But at the same time, you're a mother, it's hard to hold that back.

We've been back and forth with this. Like I told D8, Randall Houston, that we've been up and down so many times in 20 years. That I thought I could keep my emotions under control because it's been so long, but it eventually gets to you. Because of the people that care, the show they care, they're here. And I just wish the people could see, like I said, the technology they have in there. Yeah, I'm talking to people who do this for a living and they say, some of them have a

scientific answer and some people say, well, I just have a feeling. I said, how do you think it's going? Some people say, well, I just have a feeling. Do either of you have a feeling? Because you've been through this so many times, unfortunately, in the past. Do you have a feeling as to how this is going? Well I was excited. I was very excited about this. My feeling today was I thought maybe they could find her today because of the dom dogs hitting certain areas.

And so I was very excited about just the surge in general. So as the week winds down, is it gonna be tougher to manage your emotions? If we don't find her, it will be really tough. I've been disappointed so many times, you know. But they're doing their best. I know. I know.

This time they are really doing their best because, you know, I keep on saying technology and people, but they have amazing stuff and people out here. You know, another thing I'm curious about to Jennifer Horton. Jennifer, was this search predicated by a tip of some sort? It was. It was predicated by a search of some sort? It was. It was predicated by a search from a Crime Stoppers action line we had at the station where we profiled cases where they need to either find the suspects that they know of

or they just need information. And it was in 2016. It took them that long to get all the resources corralled, walk down the information, and see that it was possibly viable. Do you know what the tip was, Jennifer? They've not released anything. They're calling it, quote, confidential information because they want to protect the person who tipped them off.

They say it's the best tip they've ever had in this 20-year-long search. Wow. I can't even imagine going 20 years and not knowing where my daughter was, if she's dead or alive, what happened to her. Guys, Tracy, a 30-year-old young mom, was reported missing on a Sunday afternoon, April 26. She has not been seen or heard from since. The case has gone cold.

The search has just gone down that has brought several hundred law enforcement and volunteers to a huge, a vast search area just west of Tallahassee. Her car, a Geostorm, was abandoned on Old Georgia Road, a few miles north of Wetumpka. Her two-year-old little daughter was inside unharmed. That right there, to me, is the clue, Dr. Tiffany Sanders. Dr. Tiffany, joining us, Chicago psychologist. What does it say to you, Tiffany? Yes, this is surprising that you will leave a two-year-old who can possibly, depending on their language skills, maybe say something or some sort of identification.

It might be a little bit difficult to understand, but you might get something. So why would they leave that two-year-old alive and well? And that suggests that there may have been a loved one or someone that was close to that two-year-old who didn't want to see that two-year-old harmed. So, you know, to walk away from your car, again, not plausible to leave your child. Some potential harm was done to that mother, and maybe we're seeing that now that the search crew is finding something 20 years later. But to leave the two-year-old unharmed suggests that person may have encountered their loved one and didn't want to do any harm to that child. Thinking about that geo storm and the potential evidence that may have been found on it, Jennifer Horton, do we know if at the time Tracy went missing, it was processed for prints, DNA, anything?

I think in the most formative way that they could do, and all those boxes were checked at some point. But, you know, nothing that I've ever seen has ever come from that. And as far as clearing anyone, the only people that have ever been cleared in this investigation are the Pittmans, her mom and dad. The mom and dad. The mom and dad. The largest portion of the search, which included 20 law enforcement agencies, 17 cadaver dogs, half a dozen companies, has just wrapped up. Dive teams still on the property working in a pond. That pond seems to be a real area of interest. How far away was the pond from where she lived, Jennifer? of peace, it's a sizable distance. And I think maybe that's why early on investigators had not linked the property with that evidence that they found on the side of the road and so forth. Let me understand this. You're saying the property is about 40 to 50 miles from her home

and about 20 miles from where her Geostorm car was found abandoned with her little girl in it. Next question. Did the owners of the property have any connection to her? We are still unclear exactly where this property was. The command center is where it was the repository where everyone came and met. They were actually being shoveled over to this property. And as you can imagine with your history, they didn't want us to know exactly where they were. From what we could gather, some of this land was a generational property and some of it was in trust. And we've attempted to work with investigators to see if they would confirm or deny who owned that land

based on public property records. We've not been successful in that. But on day one, they affirmed that the person who owns the property is not a suspect, at least at this time. They did not give way to the idea that that had changed on Thursday when this evidence was found in that water body on the property. Well, that leads me to another issue. For instance, in the Tara Grinstead case, Joe Scott Morgan, the owner of the property, you know, it belonged to a family, and the owner is not a suspect in the disappearance of Tara Grinstead,

but a relative of the owner may be a suspect. So it's not necessarily the owner of the property, but somebody connected to the property, somebody that knows that pond, that's fished that pond, that's familiar with that pond. I mean, for Jennifer, who's there on the scene to be kept in the dark about the exact location that means to me not everybody knows about this pond or this area but it's someone that's familiar with it could it be a hunter could it be somebody connected to it could it be somebody that's done work in that area or on that property before not necessarily the owner but someone connected to the property. Joe Scott.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. What if someone was given access to go in and fish the pond? We have this, you know, there's a lot of hunting leases where people wander that property looking for a place to set up to hunt. Or maybe it's just, you know, a group of people that have gone out to take hay off the field, you know, in the fall, for instance, when they bush hog it and roll the hay, that sort of thing. So any number of people could have come across this pond and knew that it was in a particularly isolated area. Nancy, this goes to just as we were speaking about how small the world has become now relative to technology. And, you know, we're kind of fighting the past here relative to the fact that this happened all those years ago. And now we're moving forward and moving on to an era where we have access to electronic technology

and this sort of thing that hopefully is going to narrow the field so that we can determine if this is in fact her final resting place or at least give us more information to follow up on. We're talking about the mysterious disappearance of a young mom, a 30-year-old mom, absolutely gorgeous. There's no way this woman walked off on her own, leaving her taut girl strapped in a car seat, the car abandoned in the middle of nowhere. That did not happen. According to Jennifer Horton with WFSA 12 News, this was a loving mom, no history of defects or child services ever being called, loving grandparents. The works.

She would never have left that child strapped in a car seat alone for 24 hours. That simply did not happen. Listen to her parents. It's been a pretty horrible experience. I don't know what my experience is while we're here. And I know there's a lot of people that I know. My last question, do you feel better once you got here? Did it kind of calm your nerves? Yes. Walking in, getting to talk to people,

and see what you needed to see. I wanted to be here. I just wanted to. I feel like I'm closer to everything. Not that I'm nosy or anything, but I just felt a lot better once I got here. It's hard to sit in the office and think about what's going on. There's nothing that can take the place of a child that you've lost. But I think that it's a relief for them to know that even after 20 years, we're still looking. And I think that's how you have to be in law enforcement. I

think if you're going to be in law enforcement, you have to understand that you've got to be patient. And if it takes 20 years, it takes 20 years. If it takes 20 more years and I'm still here, it'll be another 20 years. For those of you just joining us, we were talking about a cold case of a 30-year-old mom who goes missing in the middle of nowhere, leaving her two-year-old talk girl strapped in the car for 24 hours at least. Uh-uh. No. A massive search has just gone down and authorities say they have found evidence of interest in a pond, but are not saying what the evidence is. What can you tell me, Jennifer Horton?

I understand police are now saying they have three potential suspects. That's been our big question all week. And, you know, as law enforcement so often does, they have a feeling about things. They get a little bit of information. But my biggest question to them was, 20 years have passed. How have three people potentially, in a very high-profile case, been able to keep this under wraps all those years in a very, very small town? That's one of the most perplexing things to me. But law enforcement feels they know exactly who they're looking for. All

these years, all they've needed is that probable cause to make the arrest warrant. And they went as far to say, if this turns out to be what we want it to be or think it will be, as far as the evidence is concerned, the arrest will happen instantly. And they know who they're looking for. And they even made a plea last week to say, if you don't come see us, we'll come to you. You know, on one hand, you say they know exactly who they're looking for, and they're speaking to them directly. But on the other hand, are they bluffing? It really felt like to me that they know exactly who they're looking for. So it will be very interesting to see what exactly it was outside this potential evidence that really bolstered their confidence in the case they've always felt they had but simply couldn't make. I want to reiterate and

confirm what Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 News, has said. According to police, the sheriff, the owner of the property is not, repeat, is not a suspect, quote, that's why we've been very vague about saying just where the property is. We don't want people out there making the difficult job of the search teams even more difficult. It is in the friendship community. Our investigation shows that the owner of the property is in no way involved in this case. Now, the sheriff goes on to say he is confident the search is looking for remains. That means Tracy is dead. He says, the day Tracy just disappeared off the face of the earth and has never been seen or heard from again,

we felt foul play was involved from day one. That's what I suspected, Jennifer. I feel confident that whoever did this to Tracy, listen to this, are in Elmore County. Are, not is. Are in Elmore County. That means more than one defendant. Still in Elmore County. And when they, they, look over their shoulders, they see us coming. We had very good intelligence.

If she is on this property, we will find her. I think that's very, very telling, Jennifer, extremely telling. What do you make of it? I believe they know who they're looking for. I think they just needed to thread that needle to be able to make their case, to get the warrants that they need. And I believe that on Thursday, as quiet as they've kept everything, and I mean they have really kept everything close to the vest, for them to go as far as to say that we have potential evidence in many ways, because we work around these people so often. That is a green light for me, because if they

had any question in their mind, they wouldn't have said that to us. That's usually something we have to really sort of dredge out in the details. But on the other hand, we're dealing with time, and that has really been the most difficult part. I think if they had this technology 20 years ago, this case would be closed. But the fact that this case has never been closed, no arrest has ever been made, virtually everyone is still a suspect. You know, I feel like they believe, at least at this juncture, that the ball is back in their court.

And I also, just as a reporter on the ground, I wonder how quickly all this will happen as soon as forensics gives its final report. Who was speaking just then that I was quoting was District Attorney Randall Houston. You know, I'm curious, Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12 News. Jennifer, tell me again, what kick-started this case again? I mean, it's been a cold case two decades. And for whatever reason, this law enforcement agency said, let's go with the Kegley case. They pulled it out.

It's a cold case. We need information. They received a tip on that day in 2016. And after walking it down, because now this is with state police. And the state police have kind of taken over this cold case. They have a cold case unit. And after they walked it down and got the resources and got the warrant they said it just simply took that long i'm not sure all this what all it took to get that far but for some reason

it took them a couple of years but you know when they came they really brought everything they had with it guys we are talking about a so-called cold case that isn't cold anymore it's about tracy pitman kegley a massive search has just gone down and law enforcement says they have found items of interest in a pond that sits on over 300 acres of densely wooded area straight to jennifer horton jennifer what can you tell me about her divorce? And I'm not pointing the finger at the husband or the ex, but we all know statistics that when somebody goes missing or is found dead, you look first at those closest to the victim. What do we know about him?

We know very little about him. We know that he had a role in their child's life after this disappearance. From all intents and purposes, it seems like a pretty standard divorce, looking back and just talking to some folks around the community that remembered it. I believe that everyone is still around. As they mentioned, as far as the suspects and the people at play and even her family none of that has changed since her disappearance um it's it's really puzzling but for them to continue to reiterate no one has been ruled out except her parents brings a lot to the imagination about who they're looking for but as far as her ex-husband's concerned, we've heard very, very little. Hmm. At the time, did he enter any pleas to the public to help find her?

Was he cooperating with police? What do we know? Based on our station's records, I went back and looked at every show where we featured a story about this, which was a vast number of shows. We only spoke to her parents. Her parents were always at the helm of pleading for help and pleading for information. And as I understand, they were part and parcel. There was a $60,000 reward on the table when she went missing for any information about her disappearance. And, you know,

I believe that they were really at the helm for pulling that money together, which in 1998 was a sizable amount of cash. Yeah, still is. Authorities have spent days combing over 300 acres in Elmore County for evidence in the disappearance of Tracy Pittman Kegley. She disappeared April 98. This is what we know. The 30-year-old young mom was last seen on a sunday april 26

when she left her residence and eclectic to the manis bp convenience store now that's at the corner of us 231 north and redland road with tump cup her 1993 geoorm was found abandoned in the car. Were her personal belongings, her pocketbook, her ID, and most importantly, her two-year-old tot girl. Her family insists she's a crime victim, that she would never have left her child alone. Interesting, she had separated from her husband earlier and her divorce was final 16 days, just 16 days before she disappears. At the time, she had been living with her mom and was just starting a new job at a dental office in Montgomery the day after she went missing. From the get-go, police have been tight-lipped and they're remaining that way as to why this property is seeing a huge concentration of people and equipment, volunteers.

It all came, according to Jennifer Horton from a Crime Stoppers segment on the case. Why? What was in that tip? Take a listen to Tracy's parents. Really surprised, as long as it's been, that they have come up with something that might lead us to her. What do we know about her little girl left behind? To Jennifer Horton, WFSA 12, what do we know? We know that she is a 22-year-old adult. She is enrolled in college.

As far as we understand from her family, I think she's a nursing student. But her grandparents have kept her very shielded from this process. We have never seen her. You know, they've been very protective of her for all the right reasons. And, you know, if we ask them a question, sometimes they'll appeal to us and give us an answer. But you can tell that's something that they really, they really still want to continue to shield her from what's going on. We never saw her at the command center. We know, like I said, she's in school. She's got a lot going on. But

it's, you can tell that they've spent a lot of years trying to remove her from this process. According to authorities, they believe the people responsible for Tracy's death and disappearance are still in Elmore County. Interesting, law enforcement says when they look over their shoulder, they're going to see us coming. Well, you know, it's been just as delayed. This is absolutely a cold case, and this girl has grown up having been abandoned in mom's GeoStorm car on a secluded road where anything could have happened to her all this time ago as now a young lady in college but when people trash law enforcement listen to this

the southwest panhandle search and rescue canines sheriff's offices from lee elmore otaga blunt chilton talapusa police departments from opelika pratble wetumpka auburn Sheriff's offices from Lee, Elmore, Otaga, Blount, Chilton, Tallapoosa, police departments from Opelika, Prattville, Wetumpka, Auburn, the SBI, the AEMA, you name it. All of them pulling together to try to get a resolution in the disappearance of this young mother. What do we do now, Joe Scott Morgan? Continue to work together in this particular case because it's going to require all of these resources. Nancy, this is such a very old case.

They have to be very, very careful going forward. I would anticipate that the powers that be are still going to play this very, very close to the vest relative to the information they're going to let out because the key to this is this piece of evidence or piece of information, however you want to frame it, that they have come across on this property. And they've already got a seed planted here with this tip that initially came in. And they're going to be very, very careful in the processing of this. I would think that they're not just watching the posture of this DA throughout this thing, the interviews that I've seen with him. He seems like he is very, very careful,

meticulous, and he is going to leave no stone unturned before he moves forward with anything, including release of further information. You know, I also noticed, Jennifer Horton, WFSA, that she has never been declared dead. Now, in Alabama, you have to wait a period of time. I think it's five years before someone can be declared legally dead if their body has not been found. Those steps were never taken here. Is that correct? That is correct. I wonder what that means to Dr. Tiffany Sanders, Chicago psychologist.

It says to me, I'm just an armchair shrink, it says to me that her family, either the parents or the daughter, don't want to declare her dead. And that makes sense, Nancy. I mean, you want to have hope that your loved one can come home alive. So to believe that she's dead or she's been dead for at least 20 years is a very frightening thought. And it's okay, because that's typical of our signs of grief, or one of the stages of grief is denial. You know, bargaining, maybe they're bargaining with the Lord asking them, please, we don't hope it's any another person's kid, but please let it not be our child or our mother. So it's understandable that they may not want to

acknowledge at this point, they haven't gotten to the stage of acceptance, and we've got to give them time to process this information. There is a reward, a $25,000 reward. If you have information, please call toll-free 800-392-8011. Repeat, 800-392-8011 or 334-215-7867. Repeat. 334-215-7867. Or a secret witness hotline. Secret witness hotline. [phone]-5227.

Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.