Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - WHERE IS DENVER PD? WHERE IS WINTER PARK PD? 2 Women Missing, Cops Won't Help

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

Two women go missing within six miles of each other in Winter Park, Colorado.   Melissa Whitsitt moved from Tennessee to Colorado in May to start a job at Winter Park Resort, almost 70 miles outside Denver. Mom Cindy Whitsett says her daughter had two days off and was supposed to return to work on Tuesday, August 15th. Whitsitt didn’t show up for her shift the police are called and a welfare check is complete. Whitsitt is not at her home. Police have confirmed that she got on a bus to Denver on Saturday around 10 a.m. She was wearing blue bell-bottom jeans, a blue tank top and/or a white sweatshirt.   The Whitsitts say their daughter's phone pinged in Denver, but an unknown man was using it. Melissa Whitsitt's debit card has not been used since she went missing. Whitsitt doesn't have a car and hasn't contacted friends or family since the day she was last seen. Whisitt's parents say they have had to conduct their own investigation, as cops say they're outnumbered by missing people cases.  Svetlana Ustimenko is an avid hiker living in Broward County, Florida, according to the Idaho Statesman. Family members say Ustimenko had been drawn to the peaceful Colorado mountains. After finding her rental car had not been returned by the due date and learning that Ustimenko was reported as missing from Florida, authorities launched an immediate search around the area where her vehicle was located on August 11. According to a news release from the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, the Grand County Search and Rescue, Front Range Rescue Dogs, Rescue Dogs of the United States, Colorado Search and Rescue as well as drones and volunteers, began searching for Ustimenko.  Six cadaver dogs joined the search efforts to no avail. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Jerry Whitsitt - Melissa Whitsitt’s father  Cindy Whitsitt- Melissa Whitsitt’s mother  Wendy Patrick – California Prosecutor, Author of “Why Bad Looks Good” and “Red Flags,” and Host of “Today with Dr. Wendy” on KCBQ in San Diego; Twitter: @WendyPatrickPHD R. Lee Walters - President of EXCALIBUR Private Investigation, Fmr. FBI Special Agent; FB: Excalibur Private Investigations Dr. Carla Manly - Clinical Psychologist, Author of, “Date Smart: Transform Your Relationships & Love Fearlessly” Spencer McKee - Director of Content for OutThere Colorado; IG: @spence.outside; @outtherecolorado, Twitter/X: @spencemckee  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The mystery deepens as two women, Melissa and Svetlana, go missing about six miles apart from each other in the same time span. This all happening at Winter Park, Colorado. How do two women seemingly vanish into thin air just six miles apart, just days apart. Are they connected? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to our friends at KCNC. So we did what a mom and dad

would do and get in the car. And so flights didn't work, so we started driving. And so we just appreciate any help and all. We're just trying to keep her face alive. We're trying to keep her out there. If you think you know where Melissa is, you're asked to please get in touch with the Denver Police Department. Out of the two women, we're first addressing a beautiful young girl, Melissa Whitsitt, and joining me right now, her mom and dad calling from Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Whitsitt, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having us so much. We appreciate it. No, ma'am,

please. It's our honor to have you. We're doing all we can do to help find these two beautiful women. Tip line 970-722-7779. Repeat 970-722-7779. Miss Whitsitt, when did you realize that Melissa is missing? It was actually Tuesday morning, Monday. She was off work and we didn't reach her. And that was not unusual because we didn't know that was her day off. We thought she was working that day. Some days and weeks they switched it from Sunday, Monday to Monday, Tuesday.

So when she was working as a chef, she would not have her phone. And typically we wouldn't talk to her till the evening. So on the evening of Monday, the 14th, she didn't answer her phone and we couldn't reach her. And there was no, and we were very concerned Monday evening, but there was no one for me to reach out to until that I had contact with until the workers returned to work on Tuesday morning. I sent an email to her supervisors and her place of employment and they responded that Melissa had not shown up Tuesday morning and that they were sending out a wellness check and they had contacted the authorities. So they did send out a wellness check and what happened with that? They went to her apartment and things were intact and she

was not there. Guys Winter Park is what we call a home rural municipality Grand County Colorado. It's about 67 miles last sentence. But the town swells when it's, I guess, ski season. So you've got a very, very low population, which would narrow a pool of suspects that could be interested in kidnapping or harming this young woman. Beautiful. Tell me about her job as a chef. Where does she work? She works at the Winter Park Resort, and she actually was thrilled to get Sunspot Lodge, which is a restaurant. It's the highest peak in Winter Park. The lodge is on top of the mountain. So she got to ride the,

pardon me, I may not be pronouncing this right, the ski lift, the gondola, I think is how they say it there. And she would ride that up the side of the mountain to work every day. I think it's like 11 miles. But she was the assistant chef. She was not the main chef there. Hey, she's a main chef in the making. That's a really hard spot to get. I mean, I researched Winter Park Resort and it's amazing. It's a beautiful, I didn't realize it was the very highest peak because you look out straight into the clouds. That's what I'm looking at right now it's amazing and the thing about it is the Denver area Denver included not only attracts

thousands and thousands of tourists and visitors during snow season but off season people like to hike there especially for the aspens the aspen trees will be whole groves of aspens and their leaves turning green and silver as the wind goes through them. So there's a huge tourist population, even in the summertime when Melissa goes missing. Had she mentioned, let's go to Melissa's dad, Jerry Whitsitt, joining us. Jerry, also, thank you for being with us. Mr. Whitsitt, had she mentioned anything about any trouble with an ex-boyfriend, a customer, a co-worker that was giving her trouble, anything at all? No, ma'am, nothing.

There was no mention of any problems, any trouble, she mentioned a few people she had hung out with or she would tell us, you know, I went hiking with some friends or I went shopping or things like that. But never, we never heard anything that there was trouble. Would she have told you? I feel like she would have told us. I mean, we talked to her pretty frequently and, you know, we didn't pull any punches about her life or our lives and her living on her own. So I feel like she would have made us aware of any kind of trouble she was facing. So Melissa, last seen August 13, she fails to show up for work, and just a very short drive away, six miles away at the Dead Horse Trailhead area,

a search commences to find Svetlana Yudsevinko. Are the two disappearances connected? Take a listen now from our friends at KUSA. First responders in Grand County are searching for a woman. They found her car parked at a trailhead. The Grand County Sheriff's Office says they first noticed the car parked at the Dead Horse Trailhead near Frazier. The car was a rental, was due to be returned on Thursday, but then Thursday came and went and the car was still there. So investigators started looking into it and they found that car was connected to Svetlana Ustomenko. And more from our friends at Crime Online. On August 13th,

the same day that Melissa Witts was last seen, a press release came out regarding missing Svetlana Ustamenko, who hasn't been seen since after parking her rental vehicle at the Dead Horse Trailhead near the Grand County town of Fraser. Fraser is located just five miles northwest of Winter Park. Authorities have not indicated that the two missing and endangered cases are related, but authorities are asking if you know anything about the disappearance of Melissa Witsit or Svetlana Ustamenko to call the non-emergency number for Grand County Dispatch at 970-725-3311. Joining us right now, in addition to Mr. and Mrs. Witsit desperately asking for your help to find their daughter, Melissa. It's Spencer McKee, Director of Content for Out There Colorado.

Spencer, thank you for being with us. You can find them at OutThereColorado.com. Spencer, tell me about this area where the two of them go missing. Thanks for having me. So the Winter Park area is definitely a town that is popular among tourists year-round, like you were saying. Outside of the general town areas and where there's a lot of the population, it's very rugged terrain. There are a lot of maintained trails in the area, but once you step off of those trails, it gets really rugged really quickly. So I know that's something that authorities have been looking into in the case of Spetlana.

We're basically, they've been looking off trail and it's been very rugged, overgrown terrain. But isn't it true, Spencer McKee, joining us from out there, Colorado, that all possibilities have been exhausted? There have been drones, There have been drones. There have been foot searches. There have even been cadaver dogs looking for dead bodies, and it has yielded nothing in the search for Svetlana. Is that true? Yeah, so that's accurate,

and authorities have said that they believe that she is not located in their primary search area. So generally whenever they'll do a search like this, they use a grid approach where they basically look in a certain area and then move on to the next block and then the next block. And yeah, they believe that they've exhausted their efforts in the primary search area with dogs, drones, and boots on the ground, both on and off trail, too. And take a listen to our friend Dave Mack. During the week of July 31st,

a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer noticed a 2022 Nissan Sentra parked at the trailhead for the Dead Horse Creek Trail off County Road 73. According to a news release from the Grand County Sheriff's Office to the officer,

it appeared the vehicle had been parked in the same spot for an extended period of time without moving. Researching the Louisiana license plate on the car, it was determined the vehicle was a rental and not due to be returned to the rental car company until August 10th. That's right. At that point, and they've gone back and forth by this vehicle, they see that it's been there for days. And there are many ways you can tell that a car has been parked for a long time.

Joining me, R. Lee Walters out of Colorado Springs, Colorado, president of Excalibur Private Investigation, former special agent with the FBI. You can find him at ExcaliburLegalSupport.com. R. Lee Walters, thank you for being with us. Yeah, happy to be here. To any trained cop or investigator, you can very often tell if a car has been sitting there for a long time, the first time you see it, how? I mean, mainly tracks and, you know, just kind of where it's sitting. And as far as, you know, is there, you know, dirt on a vehicle? I mean, there's lots of ways that, you of ways that a vehicle is going to look like. It's been sitting there.

And they do regularly patrol these trailheads. They're going to notice that, hey, I saw that car a day ago, two days ago, three days ago, and it's going to stick out to you. But that car sat there, unmoved, for days on end.

When it wasn't returned, a search ensues on August 11. Listen to our friends, KUSA 9. Svetlana Ustamenko. She's from Florida. She's missing. So first responders searched the area around the car three days in a row. They used search and rescue crews. They used dogs, drones. Still no sign of Ustamenko. The sheriff's office is now hoping that some hikers and mountain bikers may have seen her on the trail or even maybe gave her a ride somewhere else. So anybody that has information about this case, they'd like you to please call Grand County Dispatch. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Both of these women who seemingly vanish off the face of the earth are from other places. Their families are not there.

Svetlana Yatsamenko is from Florida. Melissa is from, is she originally from Tennessee? Jerry? Yes, ma'am. She was actually born in Richmond, Virginia, but she's lived in Tennessee her whole life. Does she have any family living there in Colorado or did she go there chasing her dream? She went there to chase her dream, which was to do something that deals with outdoors. She just absolutely loved being outdoors. She loved to hike and she just wanted to be in touch with nature, as she called it. And so she really went to live where she always wanted to live. Drawn to Colorado because of the beauty, the natural beauty, and an awesome, almost unheard of chance to be a chef at a five-star dining facility at the top of the highest

peak in the area. Very, very well known, the Winter Park Resort. So she's living the dream. Svetlana comes all the way from Florida to Colorado for the natural beauty, and she's loving it. There are no trails like the Colorado hiking trails. Again, I've hiked them many, many times, and the thoughts of the winds blowing through those aspen leaves, I'll never forget it. And I imagine Svetlana going and parking that rented car at that trailhead and never being seen alive again. They brought out drones. They brought out searchers. They brought cadaver dogs. Not a sign. What more do we know? Take a listen to our Cut seven, our friend Dave Mack.

Svetlana Yustomenko is an avid hiker living in Broward County, Florida, according to the Idaho Statesman. She had been drawn to what she saw as beautiful and peaceful Colorado mountains. After finding her rental car had not been returned by the due date and learning that Yustomenko was reported as missing from Florida and considered endangered, authorities launched an immediate search around the area where her vehicle was located on August 11th. And more. According to a news release from the Grand County Sheriff's Office, with help from Grand County Search and Rescue, Range Rescue Dogs of the United States, Colorado Search and Rescue, as well as drones and volunteers. Searches for Svetlana Yustomenko continued on August 12th and August 13th. On August 18th,

a three-hour small reconnaissance search was conducted by Grand County Search and Rescue. On August 20th, more than 25 people and six cadaver dogs trained to smell human remains joined the search efforts to no avail. Back out to R. Lee Walters joining us, president of Excalibur Private Investigation. That is a lot of effort. And it tells me if she had been on that trail, one of those dogs would have picked it up. Yeah, you would think so. Or anywhere just right off of the trail. They definitely should have picked up a scent somewhere.

But if you think about it, Arlie, if you think about it, when we were speaking to Spencer McKee, who is still with us from out there, Colorado, he was talking about off the trail. To get off the trail, you had to be on the trail to get to that location and then go off the trail. But they're picking up nothing. It's almost Wendy Patrick joining me, California prosecutor and author of Why Bad Looks So Good and of Red Flags.

You can find her at WendyPatrickPhD.com. It's almost as if when she got out of that car, she never made it to the trail at all. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It's almost as if somebody kidnapped, snatched her right there. That would be the only logical explanation for there not being any clues. They're not catching a scent. There's no clothing. There's no hair fibers. There's none of the kinds of circumstantial types of evidence that we look for when somebody goes missing. So then you start thinking, well, if she didn't wander off, who else was there that may have snatched her?

Now, I'm very curious. Spencer McKee joining us from OutThereColorado.com. Spencer, are there any surveillance cameras at the trailhead or leading to the trailhead? So I can't speak specifically on this trailhead, but generally speaking, there would probably not be a camera there. Sometimes there'll be some game cameras in backcountry terrain from hunters and from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Service. But, yeah, generally speaking, once you get off the main roads, a lot of those cameras that are provided by Colorado Department of Transportation tend to drop off pretty quickly. It's a pretty remote area. Do we know, Spencer McKee, if there was an entry gate?

Here's a perfect example. We all know the name Scott Peterson. Well, he came up with one alibi at the time. His wife, Lacey, and his unborn son, Connor, went missing. First, he said he was playing his unborn son Connor went missing. First he said he was playing golf. It was on Christmas Eve. Then he suddenly remembered that he took his boat that he had told nobody he purchased out fishing on the icy cold waters of San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve in bad weather. Well, that alibi came up only after a marina worker saw him going through the gate arm.

Right. He had to go in and he got a receipt. Is there any such thing as that in this area, Spencer McKee? Do we know? So most gate entries in Colorado would be at state parks and national parks. This was not a state park or national park. Generally, in this type of situation where you're looking at a trailhead on a forest road, those would be monitored by government employees, local employees on a regular basis, where they're more so just driving through the area. But there would not have been a gate to pass through in this scenario for this specific trail.

Okay. I'm also wondering about other people that may have been hiking in the case we're that were also walking the same trail she was around the time she was killed on the trail. Do we know, Spencer McKee, if cops have made any attempt to find other hikers on the trail that day? Yeah, so that's always going to be one of the first steps in any sort of case of this nature. They always put out the call for anyone in the area to reach out to them. In this case specifically, I'm not sure if they've made contact. They keep a lot of that under wraps just as the investigation is in process, but that would have been one of the first steps that they would have made. Now, interesting, Dead Horse Trail is part of an eight-mile loop. I want to show you something that immediately grabbed my attention.

Look at these two women. How similar they look. Now Svetlana is a little older than Melissa. It looks, look at them, both blonde hair, both same length of hair, both even parted on the same side, both big, beautiful, perfect smile. So we've been talking about Svetlana's disappearance at Trailhead. No sign of her, not hiding her hair, no trace. But what about Melissa? Her parents joining us right now. Take a listen to our cut 14. Cindy Whitsitt, Melissa's mother, in an interview

with CBS Denver, says Melissa is, quote, a live wire. You would see her or hear her if she was anywhere out there, unquote. Melissa Witsit grew up in Tennessee, but was really excited to get her job in Winter Park, Colorado, and started at the resort in May. When Melissa Witsit didn't show up for work on August 13th, a welfare check was done. That's when they discovered she was gone. And more from Crime Online. Melissa Witsit moved from Tennessee to Colorado in May to start a job at Winter Park Resort, almost 70 miles outside of Denver. On August 13th, Witsit didn't show up for work. Police have confirmed, however, that she got on a bus to Denver that day around 10 a.m. She was wearing blue bell-bottom jeans, a blue tank top, and or a white sweatshirt.

The last person to see Whitsitt, according to Denver 7, was her roommate. I don't know that that means that the roommate interacted with her and she was later seen on a bus. Take a listen to our friends KCNC. Melissa Whitsitt, she was working as a chef in Winter Park and was last seen on Sunday the 13th. Her phone has since pinged in Denver, and reports say she made her way down to Denver that day. Her parents are now passing out flyers wherever they can. There's not been a lot of law enforcement availability to search. Apparently, you know, there's so many and they told us they're outnumbered. Outnumbered. That's what no victim's family

wants to hear. The tip line 970-722-7779. Repeat 970-722-7779. Back to Melissa's parents joining us. Now, just think about the likelihood that two women similar in appearance would go missing from the same small town, stable population of a little over 1,000, within days of each other, and just six miles of each other, Melissa Whitsitt and Svetlana Utsmenko. To Mr. and Mrs. Whitsitt joining us, Jerry and Cindy. Ms. Whitsitt, when you realized she's gone, what did you and your husband do? Well, first we started making all the phone calls because we live in West Tennessee and we started calling to her employment. We called law enforcement, which her employment had already done a wellness check when she didn't show up for work and they had reached out to law enforcement. So we

followed up and made all of those phone calls. When we realized that there was a lack of help, everyone was very kind and nice, but very cut to the chase and blunt that they were outnumbered and that 10 to 12 people were going missing in the Denver area and not necessarily Winter Park. Of course, like you said, it's very small. This is a very rare thing that happened there. But there basically was not a search party. There was not anyone actively looking for our daughter. In fact, we were shocked to learn and being not familiar with the Denver area, but the size of Denver in the missing persons department, there are two detectives, which, you know, someone has to sleep. So, and that no one, there was no one looking for her. So we tried to get a flight as soon as we could. Flights didn't work in the timing and we

wanted flexibility, didn't know how long we would stay. So we just got in the car and started driving cross country. We went there, we printed flyers. We, we walked to every corner, every street. We just marked it off and we covered the area. We went to every shelter, went to every clinic, anyone that would listen. We did meet with law enforcement. There is, you know, even on a side note, the mayor there now is doing a cleanup on homeless camps downtown Denver area. So lucky for us, there were a lot of officers on the ground in Denver as part of that active project that's taking place right now. So, we were able to connect with some of them, and they were of help to the best that they could in doing their job. There's just not enough of them. in the car and travel across country because the police officers tell you, the detectives,

they're, quote, outnumbered. Okay, to Jerry Whitsitt. This is Melissa's dad joining us who was in that car driving across country to try to help find his daughter. Mr. Whitsitt, what's going through your mind on that trip? That's a long trip, plenty of time to think. Yes, you're exactly right. So your mind goes through every possible scenario. And with each scenario that you think about, you try to, you know, come up with ways

to combat that scenario or ways that you can use that to your advantage to try to figure out what happened. And, you know, as individual citizens, you're somewhat limited. You know, for example, on the way out there, I'm thinking, man, if we could just get video camera footage of this area or this downtown area, it sure would help. But, you know, the reality is that, you know, the police just don't time, or at least they can bait us. They don't have the manpower to go through any video footage. So it would kind of be up to us to hit the streets and find our own, and that's been a tough going on as well. Wendy Patrick, I've never heard anything like it in my life. The mother and father drive all the way from Tennessee to try to find their daughter because the detectives say we're

over, we're outnumbered. Really? And now they're trying to figure out if they've got to go through all the surveillance video. And you know, it reminds me of Brian Koberger, that POC. Remember a clerk at a local, you know, like a quickie store gas station takes it upon herself to go through days and days and days of surveillance video. And she finds Koberger's car zooming past the night of the murders and the wee morning hours. That's how we ever found out about the white Elantra. That is not what victims' families want to hear. We don't have time for your case. Yeah, that's definitely not what they want to hear.

In fact, they're not supposed to be doing the investigation. Law enforcement is supposed to be doing the investigation. You know, it reminds me of, you know, defund the police and endanger the public. If they don't have enough people at a particular jurisdiction, they need to get more. And while it's true that citizens often are concerned and creative enough to come up with all sorts of old-fashioned evidence that helps detectives crack the case, we need enough detectives to work on the case. And I can't imagine how heartbreaking and frustrating it is to hear that an office, any detective's office is outnumbered. Dr. Carla Manley joining us, clinical psychologist and author.

You can find her at drcarlamanley.com. Dr. Manley, weigh in. It's so important when we're looking at incidents like this to notice that predators really target those who they see as vulnerable. And that's the piece that I see as the common thread. We have two single women, and they are, you know, apparently on their own, living alone, starting a fresh life. And they don't have a cohesive family or support structure that we know of.

And that makes them prime targets for skilled predators, because that's what predators are looking for, the person or people who are vulnerable in a crowd. To me, that's the most salient thread in the situation. Mysteries surrounding the disappearance of two beautiful young women who go missing from a small Colorado resort town and notably within days of each other and just six miles apart. Question to you, Wendy Patrick, what's your take on two young women going missing a few miles apart within days of each other? It makes it sound like there's a common denominator suspect-wise because it's not targeting so much some kinds of things that you might think,

well, it's acquaintance rape or it's a family scenario. It's two strangers tied by geography. And when you think about the timing being so close, it really makes it suspicious that the same person or persons were involved. And that's one of the clues that we can at least use at the beginning, especially when you have two women who don't know each other. And that was the very first thing that stuck out to me when I read this story was that they don't know each other and there's seemingly no connection. But then we find out more regarding Melissa's case, her disappearance.

Take a listen to our friend at Crime Online. In an interview with CBS Denver, her parents say an unknown man was speaking on her phone that day. Investigators looking into her disappearance found an unknown man had used her phone to speak to people in the Denver area on the day she vanished, but the phone has been off ever since. Her debit card has not been used since she went missing. Whitsitt doesn't have a car and hasn't contacted friends or family since the day she was last seen. Spencer McKee joining us out there, Colorado.com. So they've got an unknown man, a man not connected to Melissa using her phone in the Denver area.

And this is after she had taken a bus, we believe, to the Denver area. Is that right? Yes, that is. That is correct. Who is he? I think authorities haven't noted anything regarding his identity. So it's unknown as far as I know at this time. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Jerry and Cindy Whitsitt, who is using her phone?

We have no idea. You know, I'm going to circle back around, though, Nancy, to the cameras there. You were talking about Brian being picked up, an unrelated case, of course, but picked up by cameras found by other businesses. We did request, my husband found that Denver area has 300 plus, I think they're called halo cameras over the downtown area. And we begged, we pleaded for those, anything, any video footage, because if she was on that bus, she got off that bus at Union Station.

We went to that security system or department. They have like a city within the city at Union Station bus depot there. And we went to that security system or department. They have like a city within the city at Union Station Bus Depot there. And we went to them. They do not have any video. Theirs is real time. So they don't have any recordings that would go back that far at the station. But the city as a whole does have these. I understand not all of them are recorded.

I understand that some of them are not zoomed in, that they are for an aerial view, but there are a number, and I don't know what they're used for. I mean, my husband pleaded for them to even let him. We will go through the videotapes, anybody. Our next step, I guess, is to go through local businesses there. I mean, we're not going to stop. It's an endurance thing. We love our daughter, and you know, how do you sleep? How do you stop? But it is a shame as a city, as a whole. I don't know what the taxpayer dollars are put for there into cameras if they're not able to be used. And I understand she's, you know, not Donald Trump. I understand she's not an important person, but it's a shame. Well, she's important to you and she's important to us.

Did you offer to sit there in their offices and review the video? They told us that they don't even have the manpower to pull the video footage. What is wrong with these people? Spencer McKee, the cops are doing nothing even in Denver? I mean, we know. Correct me if I'm wrong to Mr. and Mrs. Whitson. She took a bus to Denver. Her phone pings in Denver.

Some unknown guy is calling people from your daughter's phone. And if you don't know who he is, go to the people he's calling and say, who's this guy that called you on this day? They have to remember who called them. He's calling multiple people. Can't they find out, Spencer McKee? Why aren't Denver cops helping?

I mean, Denver is a city that's seen a lot of population growth in recent years, and it was definitely up a bit in recent years i think um probably uh like we like we've been talking about just uh just under understaffing a bit could be an issue um yeah i mean your guess is good as good as mine there okay you know uh r lee walters joining us private investigator with excalibur PI in Colorado Springs. What is wrong? Why isn't Denver police helping? Yeah, I mean, your guess is as good as mine.

I mean, there's a lot of things they could be doing, especially with that phone. I mean, I don't understand, like you mentioned, why they haven't reached out to the people that were on the receiving end of the calls from the unknown mail. When I read that it was an unknown mail, I'm like, how have they not identified that guy already? Had they subpoenaed the telephone company to see where that phone, what cell towers it pinged off of in Denver? Yes, jump in. Yes. This is Cindy. We actually did that ourselves also. We called the number. We have Melissa's cell phone on our plan. We called the last known number and it was for a transport or a transit driver, not a known company.

But this gentleman drives and I guess has his number posted around downtown. I'm not sure how they get his number, but the unknown male called him. He said, looking for a ride. We gave his number and his name to the Winter Park Police Department, Denver Police Department. And when I said earlier, we couldn't get an interview.

When we drove cross country there, we went to meet with the missing persons detective. He didn't have time to meet with us. We never got in the Denver Police Department front doors. That whole office needs to be cleaned out, fumigated. You know, it reminds me of what Natalie Holloway's mother told me in Aruba. She went and waited and waited and waited. I'm talking five, seven, 12 hours for the Aruba police chief to come out and speak to her. All the time he was sitting back in his office eating takeout and having his hair cut. All that time. And her daughter had been killed.

That's in Aruba. You know, a whole different justice system. This is Denver, Colorado. The phone number 720-913-1000, repeat 720-913-1000 is the number for Denver PD. So they won't help you get the video. They won't meet with you after you drive cross country. They're not interviewing witnesses. What good are they? And I don't want to hear anymore.

Your guess is as good as mine. I want answers. I'm not sure, uh, Wendy Patrick, what to do at this juncture, other than go over their heads to the feds or the state AG and the cops won't do their job. Nancy, with your profile, you are doing exactly what's necessary is bringing a spotlight on this case because it needs to be investigated and it needs to be solved. And the parents need to know what happened to their daughter. You know, the news reports not only talk about the phone and the unknown man, but that the unknown man used the phone to speak

to people in Denver on the day she vanished. So there's more to work with than some of the news reports have really talked about. And I think you're really bringing the attention that's necessary to this case so that we are able to get the manpower dedicated to find out what happened and get some answers. The Denver Police Chief is Ron Thomas, T-H-O-M-A-S. And if you don't want to call, you can write the chief at rthomas at denvergov.org. R as in red. Thomas, T-H-O-M-A-S at DenverGov, G-O-V dot org or 720-913-1000. I'm concerned, Wendy Patrick, that they're not going to do their jobs. I'm concerned that the Witsits are not going to get answers to Jerry and Cindy. We've gotten conflicting reports that the roommate was the last one to see her or interact with her. Yet we also know her phone showed up in Denver. Do we know she made it to Denver?

We have been told that she did. Who told you that? Winter Park Police Department. How do they know that when they don't know anything else? How do they know that? They told us that she boarded the bus in Winter Park and that she did get off the bus in Denver. So my question is, how do they know that? I believe that the bus has video camera footage there of her boarding and unboarding. I wanted to mention that to you, and I'll tell you why.

In a case that we investigated, the case of a missing mom of five out of Connecticut, Jennifer Dulos, there was very critical bus video inside the bus that happened to catch who I believe was the perp go by in his car. And that tells me that the bus does have video inside of it. So Winter Park knows that. We know we're not looking for her in Winter Park. We're looking for your daughter in Denver, where they do have a lot of police resources. It seems to me at this juncture, Wendy Patrick, the Witsits need to reach out to the Colorado Attorney General. When the cops don't do their job, you have to jump over their head. And no, they don't like that, but there's really no choice. The Colorado Attorney General is Phil

Weiser, W-E-I-S-E-R. Repeat, W-E-I-S-E-R, Phil Weiser. The number is 720-508-6000. Repeat seven, two, zero, five, zero, eight, six thousand. You know, when you go to Weiser's website, they ask you, what is the reason of your contact? And you make a request. And then it says about what? And you simply add in investigation. And to email the Colorado Attorney General, the email is attorney.general at state.co.us. Repeat, attorney.general at state.co.us. To Mr. and Mrs. Whitsitt, what is the next step for you in trying to find Melissa? Well, we came home to regroup and I run a business here. My husband's trying to hold his job. We have other children. So we came home to regroup. But, you know, I don't know. We're just taking it day by day, hour by hour right now. And we're not opposed to going back. Yeah, I think the next step for us is, like she said, to regroup.

My thought was to comb the streets in a different kind of way this time and maybe look for businesses that would voluntarily provide video footage if they have it and try to create a trail that way. That's really all we know to do at this point. I urge you, Mr. and Ms. Whitsitt, to please contact the Attorney General. I mean, do you agree or disagree, Wendy Patrick? Absolutely. I think the more resources, the better.

And they are going to be delighted at all of the excellent investigations, though it wasn't their job, that the mother and father took upon themselves to do. So God bless you for doing all of that for your daughter. You're going to make law enforcement's job a lot easier. And all the hard work the Whitsitts have put into finding their daughter may just tangentially help find Svetlana. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.