Criminology - Ilene Misheloff

Episode Date: July 6, 2025

On January 30th, 1989, the soon to be fourteen-year-old Ilene Misheloff vanished from Dublin, California. She left school early to head home and then attend ice skating lessons, but she never made it. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Ilene Misheloff. Ilene's case has been linked through the years with other girls who have disappeared. Some of those were later solved and proved to not be linked. Still, there has been no shortage of persons of interest in Ilene's case. Some have been ruled out, but others have not. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok  Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford. 

In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

Everyone and welcome to episode 366 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how you doing this week? I'm doing pretty good. How you doing? I'm doing really well. I just got done with another birthday.

You know, it was low-key, but nice. had a nice steak dinner with the family, came back, had some bun cakes, you know, that's all I need. Nice. It's the little things that make you happy on your birthday. Yeah, absolutely. And we're recording early, but by the time this episode comes out, we'll have celebrated the 4th of July. So happy 4th to everybody who celebrates it. Yeah, happy Independence Day, everyone. We had some great new Patreon support from Mike Miles. So we really appreciate it. appreciate that. Yeah, thank you, Mike. And thank you to everyone else that helps support the show. If you want to help you, head over to patreon.com so as criminology to get started.

All right. We're jumping right in. And this week, we're talking about a missing person's case, that of Eileen, Beth, Michaloff. It's a puzzling one that has often been connected or intertwined with other cases that we've covered in the past. But most of those cases have been solved. And when they were solved, it seemed unlikely that Eileen's case was actually connected to any of those. While it's great to see some of those cases solved, Eileen's loved ones are still sad that there are no answers in her case. Eileen Beth Mishelof was born on March 12, 1975, to parents Mike and Maddie Mishelov. She had a twin brother, Brian, and an older brother Robert, who was born about two years earlier. From the time she was about one, she and her family lived in Dublin, a city in the Bay Area of California.

It's near San Francisco, but it's a much smaller area with just over 20,000 residents. It was a perfect place to raise a family, safe and close-knit, but near enough to commute to larger cities for work opportunities and top-notch education. In January 1989, the soon-to-be 14-year-old Eileen was an eighth-grade student at Wells Intermediate School. On January 30th, Eileen's father, Mike, dropped her off at school. She had a normal day there, and she left school early, which was her regular routine. Eileen was dismissed directly from her gym class that afternoon since she was enrolled in a program that allowed her to fulfill her gym requirement by skating. She had time to go home and get her equipment for evening ice skating lessons. She lived about two miles away from the school and set off on foot,

around 2.30 p.m. About a half an hour later, several classmates recalled seeing her walking near the Shamrock Village Shopping Center on Amador Valley Boulevard. She didn't have much farther to go. But her mother, Maddie, who was at work in Pleasanton, never received a call from Eileen, letting her know that she made it home safe. She did this every day as soon as she walked in the door, except for that day, January 30th. Maddie didn't worry much because Eileen had ice skating practice at afternoon, at Dublin, Iceland, the local rink. Sometimes Eileen walked straight to the rink from school, and her father would drop her practice bag and skates off. So Maddie figured that this must have been one of those times and that there was just a miscommunication.

At 5 p.m., Maddie arrived at the rink, expecting to pick Eileen up. But she wasn't there, and after asking around, Maddie learned that Eileen hadn't made it to that day's practice. then, after talking to her coaches, it didn't seem like she had even made at home from school. At around 3.30 p.m., her coaches arrived to pick her up at the Mishelof home and take her to practice, but she didn't come out to the car. When they knocked on the door, Eileen's twin brother Brian told them that she wasn't home from school. This was now very concerning to Maddie. She thought to herself that maybe Eileen didn't have time to call home before leaving for practice,

or maybe she forgot to call in her rush to get ready to go, but she would never miss ice skating practice altogether when she could help it, or at least as she would later tell the San Francisco Chronicle, not by choice. Maddie called home hoping that Eileen had just fallen asleep after school. Maybe the ringing of the phone would wake her up, but there was no answer. Maddie called her husband Mike, who was still at work, at a semiconductor company in San Jose.

He drove straight to the ice rink on his way home. Police were already there when he arrived. So more if we have a situation here that is really nightmarish. For a parent, you know that your child is supposed to be somewhere. And then you find out that she didn't make it there and you can't get a hold of her. And remember, it's 1989. No way is Eileen going to have a cell phone. And there certainly were no apps to track people.

Back then, it was a much different time. I mean, you were left trying to make phone calls to different people to try to figure out where someone was. I'm trying to put myself in Maddie's shoes. And it's a very, very scary thought. Yeah, I think the whole leaving early to go skating and get some credit for it, get out of school early is a pretty cool thing. I've never heard of that, but certainly interesting, but it adds maybe to the confusion of the situation because you don't know, is she walking? Was she supposed to get a ride?

She forgot. Sort of don't really know what's going on. Adding to the confusion a little bit more was that her brother was home when the coaches came to pick her up and he said she was at. not home from school yet. But then later on, when Maddie called home, he didn't answer, which led to her concerns a little bit more. Now, maybe he went out with friends. We don't know all those details.

But at that time, I don't think her brother even knew that there was anything really wrong. And he probably just went on with whatever he had planned. Yeah. Back to your point about getting Jim credit for doing something that you really like to do, that's an amazing idea. I had never heard of that either. You know, I was into all kinds of different sports back in the day. If I could get out of gym and go play basketball or, you know, go to baseball practice, but still get my credit, that would have been awesome. Yeah, the closest thing I had to that was my senior year leaving school early to go to work. And you'd have to, you know,

I'd leave five days a week early, but I didn't work every day. so it was kind of like a bonus day off, just going home and hanging out, but this was something she was actually doing some activity here, something she really liked. Eileen had been reported missing by 6 p.m. Her parents searched the local area for her for hours that night, but there was no sign of her. Eventually, Eileen's keychain was discovered near the entrance to John May Memorial Park. It's believed that she walked in this area on her way home that day, taking a shortcut and going off of the major roads. She was, would have cut through the park and followed the creek for some way. This was her regular route,

especially when she was in a rush to skate practice. This cut out nearly two blocks saving precious time. When she was seen around 3 p.m. walking, her classmates said she was walking alone. If she ran into some kind of trouble, it would have happened between their sighting and the entrance of the park, where she apparently dropped her keychain. This was less than a half mile away from her home. She was nearly there when something happened. Investigators searched the park multiple, times but found no sign of her. There are some reports that Eileen's backpack

turned up in the bed of Martin Canyon Creek sometime later, but there is some doubt about how accurate these reports are. Many sources state that her keychain was the only item belonging to her that has ever been found. The backpack

would be a great lead as to her whereabouts, except that none of the authorities and neither of Eileen's parents, who searched the area had spotted it. It's always possible that because they were looking for Eileen and not her belongings, everyone missed it. But it doesn't seem extremely likely. Mike Mischeloff searched the creek area that night until the batteries in his flashlight died. If there is any validity to the backpack being found, some people believe that someone deliberately placed the backpack there

sometime after the initial searches. So there's two things. that jump out to me here. One is Eileen's dad, Mike, right? Searching this creek area so long that the batteries in his flashlight died. And, you know, that's heartbreaking to me. I mean, I think that is the epitome of a worried parent not wanting to give up. searching until basically he can't search any longer because he doesn't have light. And then there's this backpack and the thought by some that, you know, maybe it was deliberately

placed in that area sometime later. And it made me think of the show True Detective. And especially Season 3, there's a very similar situation that occurs in. in that season where a little girl's backpack is found underneath the home of a suspect, but it's found out that it was planted there sometime later. Yeah, it's definitely an odd clue if it was indeed found. And if it was placed there, maybe by somebody that had kidnapped her and it had been searched previously.

And then to throw it back in that area, is that like a slap in the face to police, some kind of game they're playing. And it seems like, you know, if you've gotten away with abducting this girl, why would you want to leave any more clues for police to possibly link to you? Maybe there's a witness that saw you dumping that bag there. It just seems,

you know, very risky to throw that backpack out there to be found. Yeah, the only thought that I had was that somehow they, someone thought, it was going to misdirect the police. Other than that, I'm with you. There seems to be more reasons not to do it than to do it, right?

You could ultimately get spotted, get caught. But again, we're theorizing on a number of things. And it's also frustrating because some of the reports say that there was nothing found besides her keychain. Some say this backpack was found. And in older cases, especially like, this, the details are just not always there, not always clear. But if that bag does exist and it was put out there, maybe one day that could reveal some clues, some DNA, something like that from the

person that dumped it there. To the credit of the Dublin Police Department, they took Eileen's case serious from the beginning. Like Eileen's family, they don't believe that she willingly ran away. She was a dedicated student who was planning to become a pediatrician one day and took ice skating very seriously as well. Eileen had won multiple awards and had reportedly competed against big and talented names like Christy Amaguchi. She wanted to become a coach one day. Skating was a lifelong passion. She also wore braces at the time of her disappearance, which would need special maintenance and care. This pretty much left the worst case scenario that Eileen met with foul play and was likely abducted.

and was either being held against her will or had even possibly been killed. Maddie would later tell the San Francisco Chronicle, Eileen was not street smart. She wouldn't question authority. If somebody jumped out of a vehicle or van, pointed a gun at her and said, either you or your parents are dead unless you get in this vehicle, she would have gone. She would not have questioned that.

Eileen's disappearance was also alarming because she was the third Bay Area girl to disappear in two years. years. Seven-year-old Amber Swartz was abducted in Pinol, California on June 3, 1988. She was snatched out of her front yard in broad daylight. Her abductor also managed to take the jumper she was playing with at the time. It has never been found. The morning after her disappearance, a pair of pink children's socks were found on the baseball diamond at the park near Amber's house. They hadn't been there during pre-year. previous searches. If Eileen's backpack was found after multiple searches, this could link their cases

and perhaps be a sign that their abductor was toying with the families and authorities by dropping items of theirs and spots that had already been searched. In Amber's case, it clearly seems like this was somebody trying to mess with the police, leaving those socks right in the middle of a baseball diamond. And you know they're going to be found. And when they're looking for this little girl, it's most likely going to be theorized that they're hers. So, you know, that's pretty scary that her abductor might have dropped those there just to mess with police.

Yeah, this is also very scary because, you know, she wasn't walking alone to some destination. She was snatched right out of her front yard in broad daylight. All these are scary more. I mean, there's no doubt about it. Anytime that, you know, a child is abducted. But to think that, you know, your daughter is out front of your house skipping rope. And then someone brazenly snatches her right now from under you. That's a very scary thought.

Yeah, I didn't want brazen enough to do that. Is there anything that they won't try? That's what's really frightening. Just five months after. Amber Swartz disappeared. Nine-year-old Michaela Garrick was abducted outside of the Rainbow Market in Hayward, California, on November 19, 1988. She and her friend had ridden her scooters to the nearby convenience store that day to buy some candy. They left their scooters by the entrance of the store and went inside. Sometime later, Michaela noticed that one of their scooters

had been moved. It was now in the parking lot. She went to get it and was pulled into a car. Her friend watched helplessly as Michaela's captor, described as a white male, sped away with her in the vehicle. She's still missing to this day. It was just over a month after Michaela's abduction that Eileen would disappear. People in the area were certainly on edge. Parents began to carpool their children so they didn't have to walk to or from school alone. Local newspapers published a list of precautions for children, advising them to avoid shortcuts and not to wear any clothing with their name on it, as well as suggesting walking in groups and warning against getting into a car with a stranger.

I feel as though more if we are freaking a lot of parents out with this episode. Because it's hitting me. You know, this is scary, scary stuff. Now, we've talked about it many times before, you know, in the 80s. You remember, I remember, some people listening will remember. It seems as though we were most of us given a lot of. lot more freedom back then. I know I was riding my bicycle all over town, either by myself or with my friends. I never let my kids do that growing up. I'm not sure if it was the fact that

that everyone was a little more naive back then about some of the dangers that existed, because it's not like some of these crimes are new. You know, crimes against children have been happening for a long, long time. And I think maybe more of it now is that with social media and the news and so much stuff coming right on your phone immediately, there's an ultra awareness of this stuff happening and that it can happen and does happen. So I think nowadays it's just more on your face. and people are aware of it and probably take precautions. But I'm with you when I was a kid, my mom, my grandma would tell me go out,

have fun, and be home by suppertime. And I always came home, thankfully. There was nothing that ever happened to me. But, you know, I think a lot of kids were the same way. And, you know, it's just, it's frightening when you hear this. And I think because of what we do and the stuff we cover, you and I are probably hypervigilant over what our kids do, especially yours are adults now, so they probably know all this stuff and know what to look for and how to be aware of their situations.

But, you know, I have still younger kids. And for me, I'm always telling them, don't do this, make sure you do this. I'm always giving them warnings because I'm always hyper aware of this kind of stuff happening. Well, researching true crime day in and day out will do that to you. There's no doubt about it. But also listening to it. You know, for the audience, they're hearing it quite a bit. So I'm sure a lot of listeners are in that same boat.

In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audub. in 2020. Blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Amber Schwartz's father and Michaela Garrett's mother rushed to Dublin to be with Eileen's family

to lend their support. The families ended up joining forces, pulling their resources to send flyers of all three girls to businesses up and down the state of California. Hundreds of missing posters were plastered around the city and more than 500,000 flyers were printed in the first week after Eileen's disappearance. On the afternoon of February 16th, police conducted a traffic stop on Amador Valley Boulevard at the intersection of San Ramon Road. Investigators believe that Eileen was spotted between 250 and 320 p.m. on the median there shortly before she was, you know, she disappeared. And we're hoping that other motorists who routinely drove in that area around that time would have seen something. Officers were there for half an hour handing out flyers to drivers

and questioning them. They were also hoping to gain information about a potential suspect vehicle due to a phone tip about a van in the area that day. Unfortunately, none of the motorists had any important information. Within the first year of Eileen's disappearance, investigators received more than 3,000 tips, but there was never one that seemed to be a solid lead, and families with children in that area stayed on edge. Two years after Eileen vanished, four-year-old Nikki Campbell disappeared on her way to her friend's home in Fairfield, California. She was last seen on December 27, 1991, riding her bike just eight houses down the street from her own house. It was the middle of the afternoon, two days after Christmas. She should have been able to quickly ride her bike to her friend's

house around the corner, but she never made it there. Her bike was found that evening just blocked from her home. Tracking dogs followed her scent down the street, through a McDonald's drive-thru, and finally to the westbound on-ramp of Interstate 80. Her scent trail paints a chilling picture of the scenario. She was snatched from her bicycle, not far from her own home, pulled into a vehicle, and was still inside while the driver ordered and waited for food at McDonald's. Whether she had been killed, incapacitated, hidden, or was just so scared she was quiet. Going through a drive-thru takes time. And her abductor must have felt sure that they hadn't been spotted and that the stop wouldn't matter in the end.

And they were right. But my thought is, you know, when you're talking about a four-year-old and you're telling them, hey, we're going to McDonald's. I'll get you a happy meal. There's a, there's a toy in the happy meal. You know, if four years old, I'm not even sure that, that she would have had an inkling

about what was going on. I don't know. But what is amazing to me, Morf, is what these scent tracking dogs were able to do. You know, a lot of times you hear where the dogs lose the scent once someone gets inside of a vehicle.

But in this instance, they were able to track it through the McDonald's drive-through all the way to the interstate. That is quite remarkable. Yeah, it really is. And, you know, this particular instance of this McDonald's drive-thru, it seems like another case of brazenness. Here's somebody that abducts a child and then seems to drive-thru. arrive right through this McDonald's drive-thru, like it's no big deal. And I think your point's a good one

that maybe she wasn't panicking. She was excited and she might have looked just like any other little girl going through the drive-thru with their family. So it might not have stood out to McDonald's employees that were serving her, were serving that vehicle. And I don't know what the status of CCTV back was at that time at a McDonald's drive-thru, but it seems likely that there wouldn't have been any video. And if there had been, maybe they'd have a suspect vehicle to have looked into. Yeah, I'm not sure how much there would have been back in 1991.

In March of 1991, a segment aired on America's Most Want, featuring the digital reconstruction of a Jane Doe found near Madison, Wisconsin. The woman or girl was obviously the victim of a homicide. She had been sexually assaulted, badly beaten, and stabbed. There was also evidence that she had carried a pregnancy to turn in the past. Multiple people, reportedly almost 200 of them called in, thinking that it looked a lot like Eileen Michelang. However, her family were doubtful that Eileen was the Jane Doe from Wisconsin

who seemed older than her and who was listed as about four inches tall. Dental records confirmed their suspicions. It was not Eileen, despite the resemblance. And we've talked many times about the incredible reach of America's Most Wanted back then. A lot of people watched that show. And the amount of tips that flooded in on certain cases, I'm sure was staggering. The thought that goes through my mind is, okay, you're getting exposure from these different cases that are profiled. In this instance, you have a lot of people calling in thinking

that this could be Eileen. What a roller coaster of emotions. That must have been for, you know, her family and many other families who had missing people who were. either profiled on the show or had tips called in thinking that the missing person was them. Yeah, this body that was recovered, it must have looked a lot like Eileen for that many people to have called in. So that is really interesting and you can't blame them for wanting to help and calling it in. But I think of today with sites like Reddit and WebSloos and those kinds of sites, people spend hours and hours every day looking at missing persons, trying to fit them with, you know, unidentified remains.

It's really fascinating. And sometimes they hit paid art and there have been cases where, you know, they're solved because of the public helping out like that and providing tips about suspicion. they have about some of these remains. Eventually, a man named James DeVeggio became a suspect in Eileen's disappearance. He was arrested in December 1997 for the murder of 22-year-old Vanessa Lee Sampson. Her body was dumped down an embankment off of Highway 88 in Alpine County. The cases don't seem to have much in common,

but authorities were looking at everyone who was in the area with a record of kidnapping or murdering women and girls. It seems that nothing ever came of this potential suspect. and Eileen's family's search continued. Eileen's family was still hopeful a decade after her disappearance. In 1999, her mother, Maddie, explained to the San Francisco gate. Some days, it's hard to get out of bed. But we just put our feet on the floor every day and say,

this is the day she's coming home. Eileen's father, Mike, added, I will never give up hope. Despite Eileen's parents hoping for answers, in 2002, on the 13th anniversary of Eileen's disappearance, authorities admitted they had no new leads, but they kept the case open. There is another man who seems to have been suspected in a number of child abductions in that area for many years, simply because some of his odd behavior has led to coincidences that seemed too strange and too specific not to mean something more. Timothy Benner, a sewage treatment worker local to the Bay Area.

seemed to insert himself in each of the investigations. Before he started working for the East Bay Sewer District, Bender worked for the Social Security Administration. As a claims authorizer, he used the databases there to pick out orphaned girls to send $50 to on their birthdays. He was caught sending letters to at least 39 different young girls and spent at least $1,950.

in this way, according to UPI.com. He said, I've always wanted to give away money to people who needed it. And I finally got the chance to do it. He insisted that he didn't leave a return address on any of the envelopes, not because he was up to no good, but because he didn't want to hear from the girls. He just wanted to help them a little bit. He was fired for improper use of the social security databases and information. It turns out that Nikki Campbell lived just two blocks from a 12-year-old girl that Bidner sent a card and money to in 1991.

Bidner also briefly worked at a crematorium. This job and a sewage job could potentially give him avenues to dispose of bodies. Three days after Amber Swartz was abducted from her front yard, Bindner went to her home and told her mom Kim that he had been searching the woods for her. According to ABC News, he told her mom, I wanted to be the one to save her. I wanted to be the one to bring her home to you. Investors asked Kim to befriend Binder so that they could keep closer tabs on him.

Binder was also given a polygraph test regarding Amber's disappearance, but the results were inconclusive. Shortly after Michaela Garrett was abducted, Bender showed up at her house and talked to her mother, Sharon. Sharon told ABC News, he said that he wanted to go out and look for Michaela. explaining that he brought a map and showed us where he wanted to go. Benner sent a Christmas card to an FBI profiler in 1991 that many linked to the disappearance

of Nikki Campbell. On the card was a picture of a little girl holding up four fingers. Then two days after Christmas, four-year-old Nikki was abducted. This happened in Michaela Garrett's case too. Bender sent to police a letter shortly before her abduction, claiming that the next young girl that would go missing would be nine years old, Michaela's age. Bender reportedly visited the grave of a young girl he wasn't related to, named Angela Bighay,

and he went there often, possibly at least 80 or 90 separate times in just one year. He had even agreed to sit for an interview as long as it took place at 4.30 in the morning at this particular grave at Oak Mount Memorial Park. Five-year-old Angela Begay vanished from her apartment in Antioch, California in 1983. Unlike Michaela, Eileen, and Amber, Angela's body was found a week after she disappeared. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled to death, and left nude in a shallow grave about three miles from her apartment complex. Her gravestone at the cemetery had her picture on it, and Bidner admitted that he liked to look at it.

Apparently, he didn't just sit solemnly at Angela's grave. According to the SFGate, an FBI surveillance unit saw him kissing the headstone and simulating a sex act. We have got to talk about this Benner guy. First and foremost, it's well known, right, that a lot of perpetrators try to insert themselves into the investigations, whether that's the searches. But this guy went way beyond that. So for one, he's showing up at family's houses, talking about wanting to search for their lost loved ones. And then you have, you know, him sending cards and different things to the families,

an FBI profiler. There is just a lot going on with this guy. Yeah, initially, when I was hearing, what he was doing. I was like, okay, maybe this is a guy that's just over the top committed to try and help in some of these cases and it's coming across as weird. And there's been cases before we've talked about where weird guys insert themselves, but they don't turn out to be involved. So I was kind of approaching him with an open view until we got to this part where he's kissing the headstone of this little girl and simulating.

a sex act. Now we're, you know, that's really disturbing. And I think that, you know, for him on police radar, that probably was very alarming to them too. So I can understand why they would look at this guy with a very cautious eye. Yeah. I mean, how can he not be at the very least, a person of interest? My assumption is they had their antennas up. And this guy was very, very high on the list. And you think about it being reported that he visited this young girl's great at least 80 or 90 separate times in just the span of one year. And then as you said, kissing the headstone, simulating a sex act.

I mean, this is some extremely morbid stuff. And even going back to where he used the Social Security database. breaking the law, doing that, using it for improper reasons, and going to this grave 80, 90 times, it just, it seems to point to some kind of compulsion, some kind of unhealthy activity. I'll put it that way. Despite the odd behavior surrounding Angela's grave, Benner was never a suspect in her case. Authorities pretty immediately had their suspect. her mother's ex-boyfriend, or casual boyfriend at the time, Larry Grant.

He was a resident of the same apartment complex and met Angela's mother, Susan, at the community pool. Larry had a criminal history that included molesting young girls and exposing himself to them. Two weeks before Angela was killed, Larry asked Susan to marry him, but she said no. Eventually, Graham's ex-wife. who he had been divorced from for just four days when Angela disappeared, told authorities that he didn't have an alibi for the time of the murder, had Angela's photo in his apartment, and that he had a master key to all of the apartments.

Angela's case also differs from the others because hers has been solved with solid DNA evidence. Larry Graham was convicted of Angela's murder in August 2002 and sentenced to death. He took his own life in prison just under five. years later. As for the delay in Graham's arrest, Deputy District Attorney Barry Grove explained at San Francisco Gate. We had to wait until the science was solved and the court had accepted the science, and then, and only then, we were able to go forward. So there was never a real question about whether Tim Binder had abducted and killed Angela Begay. But the question remained. Why was he so obsessed with her grave in particular? This is one of those points where on paper this guy

certainly seems like he could have been responsible, but then we find out another guy is and he has nothing to do with the murder, even though his behavior is strange and disturbing. So I think it's a reminder not to jump to conclusions when somebody looks good on paper. It doesn't always mean that they're responsible. No, but you'd have to admit that his actions were extremely odd. And, you know, I had a thought that, okay, let's say he wasn't involved in the death of Angela Begay. Does that necessarily eliminate him as being a suspect in some of the other murders? I don't think it does. You know, maybe he did commit some of these other crimes or at least one other crime,

but was fascinated with Angela, knowing what had happened to her, and maybe he was living out some type of sick fantasy, even though he hadn't been the one who killed her. There are reports that four days after Nikki Campbell disappeared from Fairfield, tracking dogs followed her scent to Angela Begay's grave. Now, obviously, this is very creepy. It makes you think of a killer abducting girls and taking them to the cemetery or visiting a grave after each of his crime. The only information we have is that they found the scent, but not where it started.

Were the dogs released and started their search at or near the cemetery or did the dogs make their way for miles and wind up there? With four days between the disappearance and the reported scent tracks, in the cemetery, there was plenty of time for Tim Benner to visit Nikki's family and end up getting her scent on him or being a familiar sin at her home that the dogs could then also detect at one of his favorite hangouts. Angela's great. This may be the more likely scenario, even though the whole thing is strange. A week after Nikki disappeared, Benner was apparently found in a ditch near her home, claiming to be searching for her. A dog, maybe the same dog or a different dog, we're not sure, appeared to detect

Nikki Sint in Bindner's Toyota station wagon. According to Amber's mom Kim, Bender also had a van and dogs indicated that her scent was inside of it too. Despite the possible alternate explanation, Bender was publicly named the primary suspect. in Nikki's disappearance, the only suspect, actually, during a search of his home, officers found items indicating he was obsessed with the missing girls, like dog tags with their names on them, but nothing to actually link him to any crime or particular case. In June 1993, 44-year-old Timothy Binder filed a defamation lawsuit against the Fairfield Police Department,

seeking $25 million. The police hadn't just publicly named him as their only suspect and searched his residence. They let the media film the search. According to the Fresno B, Binder said at a press conference, I didn't have anything to do with the abduction. His lawyer, John Burris, explained the lasting impact on his client, saying, as a consequence of the publicity, his name will be forever linked to the kidnapping. In this case, the presumption of innocence was cast aside.

It wasn't just the public scrutiny getting to Binder either. There were incidents as a result of the media attention on his potential involvement. After Mother called the police because he was at Oakmont Memorial Park at the same time as her young daughter, he was pulled over and charged with driving under the influence. This charge was dropped after a judge ruled that there was no legitimate reason to pull him over after he left the cemetery. He had been called a murderer and kicked out of establishments when he was recognized in public, despite not being arrested or charged with any serious crimes. The defamation lawsuit never made it to trial.

Instead, the police department settled for $90,000. Benner apparently continued to insert himself into cases somewhat recently. Erhahn Kayak, a man convicted of killing his 16-year-old son, filed a motion for a new trial. After finding out that Benner was one of the jurors in his case, case. According to the East Bay Times, a judge found that Benner did give false or incomplete answers twice during the jury selection process, but also found no evidence of any bias on his part during deliberations. The request for a new trial was denied in 2009. Benner had previously

been removed as a prospective juror in another case involving a teenager. So with Timothy Binder repeatedly inserting himself in the cases and turning up time and time again, the authorities clearly knew who Timothy Binder was. After all, they even searched his home. If he was responsible for any of these disappearances, would they have really found nothing? Not one tiny shred of actual evidence to link him to anything? Maybe at the end of the day, Timothy Binder is just a weird guy with an unhealthy focus on these cases, but it doesn't prove he's a murderer or involved in any of these cases.

As strange as it seems to discount Bender as a suspect, it might be more likely that the person or people actually responsible for these disappearances was never on police radar. But I don't blame the authorities more for, you know, focusing in on this guy. I mean, look at all of the strange things that he was doing. Now, should they have come out and, you know, publicly said some of the things They said about him. I don't know.

But I will say this, it had to have been pretty tough for them to hand this guy $90,000. I get it. Settling was probably in their best interest, but not an easy thing to do with someone who, I'm sure they believed could potentially be a kidnapper, a murderer, a murderer. Hey, here you go. We're giving you $90,000. Yeah, if I had been in his shoes, hopefully it wouldn't be because it was just weird stuff he was doing. And I don't think I'd ever do that kind of stuff.

But if I really believe my reputation had been damaged, I don't think I would have settled for $90,000. If I was seeking $25 million, that sounds kind of weird. But maybe he just wanted to put it behind him and move on. Maybe this attorney wanted a quick settlement. I don't know the situation. But at the end of the day, I think at the very least, Bender is somebody that, you know, I'd never leave my kids alone in the care of.

And I think a lot of people probably feel the same way. Because he's so weird and has all the strange stuff going on. But to be fair, there was never any physical evidence tying into any crimes. And, you know, being strange, being weird and being creepy, doesn't make you a murder. And we've seen that time and time again. again in a lot of cases.

No, you're absolutely right. It doesn't. But it will put you on police radar. I mean, that's just, uh, that's just a fact. You know, when you look at all of the strange things that he did, there's no way that police are not going to keep tabs on you. Yeah, it was really Binder who put himself on police radar. It wasn't like they got a tip about him.

He sort of inserted. himself and reached out to police, the FBI, these families. And, you know, I think he elevated himself in the in the eyes of law enforcement. Yeah, my thought is he was never going to win $25 million. But this happens in a lot of situations, not even not just with the police, but in business, right? A decision is made that giving the person a certain amount of money. is actually more cost effective than going through with the trial and paying these high-priced defense attorneys probably more money than what you would to settle.

That's just a fact of business. It happens all the time. Every year, Eileen's family, other loved ones in the community, held a vigil on the anniversary of her disappearance. Talking with the San Francisco Chronicle, her mom, Maddie, said of these events, it's heartwarming to see these people come year after year. Eileen's family continued hoping for answers in 2007,

a man named Curtis Anderson confessed to the 1988 murder of 7-year-old Amber Swartz, who was the first in the string of disappearances in the area. He claimed that he saw her in her front yard and decided he wanted company on a road trip. So he pulled her into his van and used her. Drew Beer Schnops to keep her from fighting back or trying to escape. He claimed that he took her all the way to a hotel room in Tucson, Arizona, where he killed her before dumping her body somewhere in the desert off of Highway 10, near the town of Benson. Anderson died one month after his confession, so investigators were not able to thoroughly investigate or interrogate him.

Despite this, the case was closed. Penel Police Chief Paul Clancy told ABC7 Los Angeles were closing it because we believe Curtis Dean Anderson is the killer of Amber Swartz. It didn't seem like a stretch for him to be responsible at the time of his confession. He was already serving a 300-year sentence for other crimes, including the abduction of two young girls, one of which he murdered, aside from the crimes he was convicted of, Anderson said he kidnapped 11 more girls. Authorities believe that Anderson was truthful and none of the information he gave contradicts the known facts of the case.

Still, it's hard not to wonder. No evidence was found linking him to any of the missing girls. Amber's mother, Kim Swartz, told ABC 7 Los Angeles, we don't have anything of hers. her jump rope, shoes, clothing, a bone out of finger. We have nothing. So for me and the rest of Amber's family, it's sort of the same for us. Amber's case was reopened in 2013. There's still a chance of her abduction and Eileen's disappearance are related, but there's really no evidence one way of the other that they are or aren't linked. After J.C. Dugard was found alive in 2009 after 18 years of captivity, authorities worked to investigate Philip and Nancy Garito, who had abducted her in 1991 when she was 11 years old. Their actions were brazen. They used a taser in broad

daylight to incapacitate J.C. and kidnap her with her stepfather chasing them. Could they have had other victims? The Fairfield Police Department was unable to find any evidence linking them the Nikki's abduction. A new suspect in Eileen's disappearance emerged in late 2020. David Emery Mish was arrested in December of 2020 for the abduction and murder, though nobody was found, of 9-year-old Michaela Garrett in 1988. His fingerprint was finally matched to the print left on her scooter at the time of her abduction. We couldn't find any update on Mish regarding Michaela's case.

We do know that he could not have kidnapped Nikki because he was in prison at the time of her disappearance. He's been in prison since sometime in 1989. So we mentioned it up front, more, you know, some of the cases have been solved. And that's a great thing. But it's also scary to think that, you know, so many young girls went missing and that there were at least thought to be, you know, multiple people responsible for. these abductions, this is the type of stuff that just, you know, it scares me badly. The thought that you have people out, whether it's walking, driving in a car, constantly scanning, looking for prey.

I don't know how else to say it, but it's a very frightening thought. And it makes me think about what we say all the time. what's more frightening one monster doing all this, attacking all these girls, or several out there. And, you know, there's still a possibility.

Some of these cases could be linked together or connected to each other, but there's just no evidence so far. In some of the cases, we know that certain cases can be excluded as not being connected, but there's still a possibility some may be. And maybe if one of these unsolved, cases is solved eventually. Maybe it will present hope for some of the other cases.

And I want to go back to this Curtis Dean Anderson. Obviously, this was not a good person. You know, he confessed to murdering seven-year-old Amber Swartz. And at the time of his confession, he was serving a 300-year sentence. You're a bad guy if you've received a 300-year sentence. And those crimes included the abduction of young girls. One of the girls he murdered. So, you know, I think police are pretty certain that he did it. But they closed it pretty quickly. Number one, they weren't really able to talk to him. He died fairly quickly after his confession. So he's an interesting, you know, person. in that if he was able to do that, murder seven-year-old Amber,

we already know that he was convicted of abducting two other girls, murdering one of them. Could he be responsible for some of these other cases that we've talked about? Yeah, so it makes me wonder if there's some kind of doubt in the minds of investigators or something else that we're not aware of that they're considering, for them to have reopened the case because it seemed early on they were they were pretty set that he was the guy that was responsible for Amber's murder but to reopen the case along after that seems to make me think that there's there's something else that they might be aware of

Maddie Michaloff passed away without ever finding out what happened to Eileen she was 71 years old when she died on April 11th, 2020 due to bladder cancer after her death, her husband Michael Mishlov could not hold the annual vigil for Eileen. It was just too painful. Maddie's death was a painful tragedy on top of what they had already gone through since Eileen's disappearance. Because COVID-19 restrictions were in full force at the time, Maddie's health began to quickly decline.

Michael had to drop her off at the emergency room at Stanford Healthcare. He was not allowed in with her, and he never saw her again. They were only able to speak on the phone a few times. because Maddie was so sick before she passed away. Also due to COVID-19 restrictions, Michael couldn't hold a funeral for Maddie, so he decided to have her body cremated. Her ashes are at home with him. She died wondering what happened to her little girl.

Eileen's room remained untouched at the time of Maddie's death. She always kept it exactly how Eileen left it. Two aged progress photos of Eileen at ages 30 and 43 were released in 2020. just in case she is still a lot. Before she passed, Maddie never lost hope. In 2019, she was still concerned with the state of Eileen's room, telling the San Francisco Chronicle, when she comes home, we're going to find somewhere for her to sleep

until we can get a hazmat team in there and get rid of about 10 feet of dust. Her parents didn't allow for memorial plaques or anything of that sort, refusing to grieve for Eileen, calling it premature. Instead, they maintain their hope that she was out there somewhere. The Mishelovs never moved. They never changed their phone number, hoping that one day Eileen would walk through the door or be the voice on the other end of the phone.

In fact, they turned their home phone line into a tip line for Eileen's case. Maddie told the Chronicle, This house has to be here. when she comes home. And I think you see this morph in quite a few cases, but it can go both ways. You know, oftentimes I think parents or the family of a missing loved one doesn't want to move, doesn't want to change their phone number. They are expecting at some point in time for their loved one to either walk through the door or to call. And then you have the other end of the spectrum, which is some people just find it too

incredibly painful to live in that house, just a constant reminder of what happened to their loved one. Obviously, that is an individual choice, but we know what Maddie and Michael chose. They weren't leaving. They weren't changing a thing. After Maddie's death, though, it seems like Mike had a hard time being optimistic. He told the independent news, I just recognized what's the odds of her being found after 32 years, adding,

It's possible, but it's not very likely. He also got rid of the landline, ending his connection to the phone number Eileen would have known from when she was a teen. Eileen's twin brother, Brian, stopped celebrating his birthday after her disappearance because it was too painful of a reminder. Eileen's case still weighs on the Dublin Police Department as well. In 2021, Dublin Police Captain Nate Schmidt told the independent news. This is one of the ones I take personally.

And we really didn't talk about, you know, Brian all that much. But being a twin, I can only imagine how Eileen's disappearance affected him. I mean, the disappearance of a sibling is going to be tough. doubt about it. But I think there's that added element of being a twin, which is going to hit even harder. Yeah, a lot of twins have that extra special bond that, you know, a lot of siblings are close, but twins sometimes are just very, very close. So to not have his twin sister in his life growing up that had to be tough on him. If you have any information about the whereabouts of Eileen, Beth, Mischeloff, or who is responsible for?

her disappearance. You can call the Dublin Police Department at 925-833-6670. There is still a $95,000 reward in this case. If you have any information about the abduction of Nikki Campbell, you can call the Fairfield Police Department at 707-428-7300. And finally, if you have any information about the disappearance of Amber Swords, you can call the Pannol Police Department. You can call the Pinal Police Department. at 510724, 89.50. So Morph, as we wrap this episode up, you know, obviously a lot of tragedy that we've talked about.

A number of young girls who have gone missing, some who have been found to have been murdered. And then you have a number of individuals who have either confessed to one of the crimes been linked to one or more of the crimes through some of their own actions.

There's just a lot going on and that's on top of trying to figure out which if any of these cases might be connected. But I think specifically in talking about Eileen Mischeloff in the authorities know what time

she left. They know what her ultimate destination was. What they don't know is exactly what happened to her and where and who was responsible clouding that a little bit is this backpack being found, if it was found, later on after searches had already been done, you know, if it really was found, what does that mean? Is this a person who was trying to throw the police off? Or maybe there was no backpack found at all. I just can't help going back to Timothy Benderner. The stuff that this guy did to me was so strange.

The mere fact of inserting yourself into multiple investigations of missing young girls, seems like a really bad sign to me or a sign that that this guy had some other stuff going on. I think the police in these cases we've talked about have so much to consider. You know, you've got these weird guys like Timothy Binder connected to multiple cases by inserting himself into the case, mailing letters to the FBI to police, going to family's homes. you have these other guys that are confirmed hardcore criminals that are have histories of of crimes and you don't know at the end of the day if any of these crimes are connected if one or more

these people is responsible for more than one of these crimes so the police really had a lot on their plate trying to sort through this I think and again going back to 1989 and that time frame when these things happened back in the 80s, they didn't have the technology that we have today of cell phones, ping in areas, tracking apps, surveillance cameras, all over the place, things that might make a string of disappearances like this harder now for criminals to get away with. They didn't have, the police didn't have that stuff to help catch these guys back then. I tend to think that a string of disappearances like this, it would be harder to have. happen nowadays without being solved.

The one thing I will say, though, is I don't think there's any doubt. The police worked this pretty hard, and they jumped on it quickly. And they continued to work it. Yeah, it's refreshing because we talk about so many cases where they automatically say, nope, she's a runaway. She's hanging out with her friends, partying. She'll be home in a couple days. They didn't do that here.

They took Eileen's disappearance seriously from day one. But even with that, they still, you know, weren't able to solve it, haven't been able to solve it. I think it just shows you how tough some of these cases really are. You know, how much do police have to go on? You know, they're getting tips. They're checking into people, the cases leading them in all types of different directions. but very little of that or maybe none of it is paying dividends. And sadly,

death happens in many cases that go unsolved. It'll be interesting to see if Eileen's remains are one day found and identified as hers because maybe that will lead to new clues, new evidence that's found with her remains. And, you know, one interesting thing we talked about was people on, websites like web slews or Reddit that spend time trying to connect these unsolved remains. In Eileen's case, she had braces, which maybe, unless they were removed after she vanished,

maybe that would make identifying her remains easier. So if anyone out there listening is someone that likes trying to connect these dots and identify these Jane and John Doe's out there, maybe you can remember that she had braces and that'll help you think of a case that who knows that those remains in that case might be Eileen's. Yeah, that's a good point. That is something that could help in possibly identifying her if remains are found. But that's it for our episode on Eileen Mishelof.

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So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morf and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.