Criminology - Katelin Akens

Episode Date: August 13, 2023

In the winter of 2015, 19-year-old Katelin Akens flew from Arizona back home to Virginia to visit family. She was excited because her sister Gabi had given birth to a baby boy named Landon. Katelin also caught up with some friends, and one encounter turned intimate even though Kateline had a fiancé waiting for her back in Arizona.  Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Kateline Akens. Katelin never made it on her flight back to Arizona. Her stepfather has come under scrutiny by some because he was supposed to drop her off at the airport but didn't. Some of his stories don't seem to line up but to date, the authorities have not put the puzzle pieces together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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For treatment of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or trauma. Call 888-8-18-78-7762, or visit Advanced Mental Health. today. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. For everyone and welcome to episode 269 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.

And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford. What's going on with you, buddy? Not a whole lot. Just jumping in here to this episode, excited to talk a little crime con that we're almost at. And today got the kids on the bus for the first time in a while. So summer vacation's over here.

What's new with you? Yeah, I'm getting ready to take my youngest to college this weekend. So things are starting back up, you know. For you, it's like your morning routine, right, changes. You get back into the swing of things. For me, it's just going to be me and my wife. And we are really struggling, man, I'm going to tell you. Yeah, my wife teared up a little bit today.

sending the kids off. So it's nice on one hand to have that a little bit of quiet here, but at the same time, without the kids here, it's going to be a little different. Yeah, it definitely is. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. Jess Jelonen jumped out at our highest level. We had Sidney Davies, Jennifer Thompson, and Daniel Schumer. So that's a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much to everyone that supports the show. It means a lot to us. and if you're out there and would like to support the show, you can go to patreon.com slash criminology to sign up.

You know, it's hard to believe, but we're just a little over a month from CrimeCon in Orlando, Florida. That's happening September 22nd through the 24th at the World Center Marriott. If you've put off getting a ticket to go, time is running out, and that means time is running out to save 10% on your standard crime con badge using our promo code criminology. when you check out at crimecon.com.

And we're very excited to tell everyone that we'll have a joint criminology T-Cat meetup with listeners. That'll be at the lobby lounge Saturday night, September 23rd at 9 p.m. That's right in the world center, Marriott, where CrimeCon is being held. So there's no need to trek outside the facility or worry about catching an Uber. I hope everyone will come by and say hi to us and hang out with us for a little while. We had to meet up last year in Las Vegas with listeners, and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Crime con is a lot of fun.

It's a great way to hang out with your criminology and TCAT friends, and we really hope to see you there. So now that we have all of that out of the way, it's time to jump into this episode. And we're talking about a very perplexing missing person's case in which a 19-year-old woman vanished over seven years ago in Virginia and hasn't been seen since. The clues that were found in the case only served to deepen the mystery.

We're talking about the case, of Caitlin Aiken's. In the winter of 2015, 19-year-old Caitlin Aikins was excited. Her little sister, Gabby, had just given birth to a healthy baby boy named Landon. Caitlin, who loved kids, was overjoyed to become an aunt. At the time, Caitlin was living with her fiancé, Amber Rios, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. So on December 1, Caitlin flew back to visit her family, including Gabby and Landon back in Virginia. She had been invested during Gabby's entire pregnancy, eagerly awaiting new ultra-year.

sound photos and helping her sister figure out how to build a pack-and-play over the phone. But now Caitlin was excited to see her sister and meet her nephew in person. It was going to be a short visit. Caitlin had a return ticket out of Reagan National Airport on Arlington for the evening of December 5th. It would still be plenty of time to shower her new nephew with love, catch up with her sister and her mom, Lisa, and pick up her high school diploma which she needed in Arizona. Caitlin had decided to attend cosmetology school, which started on December 7th. and she needed to pick up that diploma while she was home visiting in Virginia.

Caitlin loved to dye her own hair and often did makeup, hair, and nails for her friends and family. It seemed like a natural choice for career path for her, one that Caitlin was very excited about. Caitlin was born on September 2nd, 1996, to parents Lisa Sullivan and Jason Aiken's. Lisa and Jason had a second child together, Caitlin's younger sister, Gabby, but the relationship between Lisa and Jason didn't last. And when Caitlin was just a toddler and Gabby was very young, Jason left Lisa to raise the girls on her own in Caroline County, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. But Lisa found love again and married James Brinton, an insurance agent. Although James was a stepfather to the girls, he was the closest thing that they had to a father.

Caitlin's mom, Lisa, told the TV show disappeared, that he was the only father figure the girls ever had. The marriage between Lisa and James lasted six years. But following the breakup, James remained close with Caitlin and Gabby, celebrating holidays and birthdays together with them. Caitlin was a bright student and worked hard doubling up her courses. She graduated at the age of 16. Just 10 days after Caitlin turned 18. She left Virginia to go to Arizona to be with Amber.

While living in Arizona, Caitlin stayed in touch with both her mom and sister, sometimes talking multiple times with them each day. So it was clear that on this trip home to meet her nephew for the first time, she was excited about catching up with her mom and her sister too. When she got to Virginia, Caitlin spent time getting to know her nephew and hanging out with her sister Gabby and mom, Lisa. On the night of December 3rd, she also met up with some old friends.

They had drinks, they played cards, they caught up. Caitlin wound up spending the night with a couple she knew and things turned intimate between the three of them. The next day on Friday, December 4th, Caitlin came home and her mom and sister didn't notice that she was acting any differently. And Caitlin didn't mention that she had been unfaithful to Amber. If it was weighing on her at all, her mom and sister didn't notice it. So obviously, Amber and Caitlin got together.

they formed a relationship and they got to the point where they were engaged. Amber moved to Arizona and eventually Caitlin moved out there to be with her. But you know, it's this coming home. And I've kind of experienced this when I was younger, especially after I went off to college, where you come home, yeah, you want to see friends and family. And in this case, Caitlin was anxious to see her newborn. nephew, but there's also friends to catch up with and, you know, maybe parties to go to. I think that's very natural. So, you know, Caitlin was catching up with friends, but it's this part where

essentially it turned intimate with two other people that kind of jumped out of me. And I'm sure we'll talk about it more as the episode progresses on just what exactly that could mean. And the one thing we know from all the reports is that Amber and Caitlin had gone the school together in Virginia, and they were lifelong friends even before they got into a romantic relationship. On December 5th, Caitlin's mom, Lisa, unexpectedly had to work. She wouldn't be able to take Caitlin to the airport, which was about 80 miles away like she had planned. So she contacted her ex-husband, James Branton. He still lived in the area, and since he was still close with the girls, he agreed to take Caitlin to the airport. But he also had to work that day. so he'd have to drop Caitlin off for her flight a few hours early, and Caitlin would then have to hang out at the airport waiting for her flight to take off. That day, at 9.20 a.m., Lisa dropped Caitlin off at James' house. Lisa had to be at work in just 40 minutes.

They visited for a bit catching up. Lisa heard Caitlin telling James about cosmetology school. Caitlin should have hung out at James' house for a few more hours until they headed out to the airport, but something seems to have happened that day, and the details of it are still. a mystery. At 11.56 a.m., Caitlin sent a text to Amber, who was back home in Arizona, claiming there was an issue with her flight and she would be delayed. The text read, something came up, I'm not coming back today. I'll let you know when I get a new flight. I won't be able to text for a bit. This text was sent before she and James would have even left his house for the airport. And as far as anyone can tell, her ticket was still valid. Despite Caitlin telling Amber that she wouldn't be flying home that day, it seems that James

didn't know that. And according to him, he took Caitlin and headed to the airport as scheduled. At 152 p.m., James texted Lisa. I dropped Caitlin off. Lisa thanked him and asked him how the traffic was since it can be pretty rough around the airport. He replied not too bad. And he added, I dropped her at the Springfield Metro station, a rapid rail station. She was going to take the metro to the airport since there is a stop at Reagan. So he actually hadn't taken her to the airport as originally planned. But in his mind, he did think Caitlin was going to board a plane that day. Lisa wasn't happy about this because Caitlin had never even ridden the metro before.

And she wasn't sure that she would even know how to get a pass. But James claimed that Caitlin wanted to go to the Springfield Mall to kill some time before her flight. It was only about a half mile walk from the mall to the station. But Lisa didn't have long to be angry because at 2 p.m. Just eight minutes after James confirmed he had dropped her off, Caitlin texted Lisa saying, I'm at the airport, battery dying, so won't be able to text for a bit. Lisa responded and asked her to tell her,

when she was on the plane. So we have details of the day. And, you know, one of these here, for me more that jumps out is kind of the deviation from the plan. So the plan was for James to take Lisa to the airport. And that seems very normal. But it doesn't go down that way. According to him, she wanted to go the mall. She didn't want to maybe sit at the airport for hours. she'd rather walk around the mall she'll catch the metro which has a stop at the airport but Lisa wasn't happy about this

because she wasn't even sure that her daughter knew how the metro worked how to get a pass and I could understand that how there might be a little bit of animosity over this deviation in the plan but it seems as though

Lisa should have felt better after getting the text from Caitlin that she was at the airport. Yeah, I think it just goes to show that even with social media and cell phones, things like that, as a parent, you still worry about your child, whether they know what they're doing, whether they know how to find a place they're going to. And it was clear that Lisa was worried about that stuff and not knowing would Caitlin be able to get from the metro? to into the airport into her plane, but the only thing she could do was text back and forth with her. And there's some things, you know, here that kind of I draw from in my personal life, you know, my oldest daughter is about ready to turn 23. And I still worry that she knows how to do certain things if she's never, you know, experienced it before. So I could understand it from Lisa's point of view.

And the other thing that I get quite a bit is my battery is dying on my phone. I get that from my girls all the time. Number one, they use them like they're going to expire. But I'm always mystified that sometimes they wake up in the morning with less than a full battery. It's like they forget to charge it overnight. And they use them so much, they're on the go. Their batteries die all the time.

And that bothers me because I am the type of person who if I want to get a hold of you, you better answer the phone because who knows what's going on. Yeah, I think that's a pet pee for a lot of parents because, as I mentioned, that you can't be there with your kids to hold their hand, so you have to rely on social media, cell phone. Those are the only ways to communicate with them sometimes. So if they're out there going to an airport or wherever they're at, hanging with friends, whatever they might be doing,

if their battery's dead on their phone, that's alarming because you have no way to talk to them. I get alerts on my phone all the time that my daughter's battery is at 2%. And I'm like, why don't you charge your phone? If you're sitting there using it, just plug it into the charger. So, you know, I definitely get what Lisa was feeling there. Back in Arizona, Amber was getting worried. She texted Lisa to ask her what was going.

on with Caitlin's flight. But this confused Lisa, because as far as she knew, Caitlin had been at the airport waiting for the flight and everything was fine. Just two hours after Caitlin's flight left, Caitlin texted Lisa two final times. I'm staying with the friend, she said in the first text. And before Lisa could reply, she sent a second text. I need some time alone. Soon after this, Caitlin sent Amber a message on Facebook, saying, I can't come back. I cheated on you. This was very out of character for Caitlin. Everything had been fine between them before Caitlin left on her short trip, and it seemed that they had a strong relationship and could get through something difficult. But Caitlin seemed like she didn't think she could face Amber, according to this message.

At this point, everyone was starting to worry about Caitlin. No one knew where she was or where she might be headed. Her grandfather and biological father lived in Goshen, Indiana, but it wasn't likely she would try and go there, and they hadn't heard from her either. She didn't respond to any text, didn't answer any calls, and eventually all calls to Caitlin's phone began going straight to voicemail. All anyone could do is wait and worry. By Monday morning, December 7th, with no further word from Caitlin, her mom reported her missing with the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office. And more if we do episodes that cover, you know, a large range in time. And we often talk back about older episodes before there were cell phones about how hard it was to actually get in touch

with someone. If you didn't know where they were exactly, where were you calling? But when you think about this situation where someone does have a cell phone and you keep calling and calling and texting, but you're not getting answers to either one and then eventually calls just start going straight to voicemail. That would be extremely alarming. Yeah, that had to be frustrating and a real helpless feeling for Lisa to not be able to get a hold of Caitlin all that time. And if I was in her shoes, I don't know what I'd be doing. I'd probably be rounding up as many people as I could get just driving around looking for.

But where do you begin looking for her? Where do you start? It came to light that on December 6th, the night before Caitlin was reported missing, missing, 21-year-old Heather Chaconi was found dead in her car at the end of a long driveway in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Her headlights were still on, and her foot was on the gas pedal. She had been shot once in the head, fatally. Like Caitlin, she had blonde hair and blue eyes. Locals who heard that Caitlin was missing were quick to wonder whether the cases were related. One resident told the Huffington Post, it sounds as if there may be yet another

serial killer in Spassylvania County, referring to Richard Mark Yvonitz, who we briefly discussed in our episode about the arrest of Jennifer Odom's killer, Yvonitz abducted and killed three girls, including two sisters who got off of separate school buses in Spasylvania County in 1996 and 1997. These murders were unsolved until 2002 when he abducted yet another girl, this time in Columbia, South Carolina. He held her captive in his apartment, but she was able to escape when he fell asleep. She led authorities back to the apartment, but he had already fled. Evidence there, fibers from handcuffs and bath mats, matched fibers found in these Spotsylvania cases. He was found in Florida after he called his sister, begging her to meet him, but she immediately called the

police and told them where he was. Rather than surrender after a pursuit, he took his own life. with his gun. There was a handprint from one of the girls killed in Spotsylvania County on the inside of the trunk of the car. He was founded. For locals, history seemed to be repeating itself. One girl was missing and another had been murdered. Authorities worked to link the cases, but they couldn't. They quickly ruled out the possibility of a serial killer and were working Heather Chaconi's case separately from the investigation in the Caitlin's disappearance. Eventually, it became clear that Heather's murder involved the drug deal, a gang initiation, and a jealous ex-partner of someone she was intimate with.

It was clear to authorities that this was a targeted murder, fueled by personal reasons, and that her murder wasn't connected to Caitlin's disappearance. Of course, this didn't help Caitlin's worried family much. While the cases weren't connected, it didn't rule out the possibility that Caitlin had met with foul play. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which 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. On December 7th, the same day Caitlin was reported missing, her suitcase was found on the side of the road. A wheel was missing and it was scraped like it had been thrown from a moving car, hit the ground hard, and ended up in the drainage ditch on the side of the road near Fredericksburg, over 40 miles south of Springfield Metro Station. Her wallet, which had her debit cards and some cash inside, her toothbrush, and the plurface. plane ticket were all still inside the suitcase. Even her glasses were safely packed away. However, Caitlin's clothes, cell phone, and high school diploma were not in the suitcase. There seemed to be two different issues here. First, the location the suitcase was found in and then secondly,

the contents of the suitcase. Did Caitlin double back south and get rid of her own luggage? Did someone else heading south tossed a suitcase out of the car or did something happen to her before she ever headed toward the mall or metro if she is the one who tossed her suitcase why didn't she keep her cards and cash and what about her glasses if she didn't why would someone have her diploma in clothes so i mean i think you look at all these clues you try to figure out what they mean but they're definitely puzzling. This is a little reminiscent to me of a case we covered a long time ago, the murder of Joan Webster.

She had disappeared after a trip to the airport and later her suitcase, her belongings were found before her body was ultimately found. So there's some things in this case that sort of are like that one. And also in that case, it presents a problem to investigators because you have an area where Caitlin's supposed to be going, then you have the area where this stuff is found. So where's the spot that they need to start looking for Caitlin at?

Yeah, because it does get very confusing. You know, according to some of the communication Caitlin had with her mom, it seemed as though she was at the airport. But was that the truth? Was she really at the airport? Did she ever really make it there? I think that's one of the questions that I have. because of the location of where the suitcase is found.

Naturally, the last person to see Caitlin, her former stepfather, James, came under suspicion. He was the last known person to see her, whether it was at his home after Lisa dropped her off there, or somewhere near the Springfield Mall where he claimed to have dropped off Caitlin. Police check Caitlin's cell data, and her phone didn't ping near the airport or near the mall. The ping from the text, when she said she needed to be alone, was on a tower in Stafford. just 15 miles away from where her suitcase was found. The earlier text, claiming to be at the airport, utilized a tower over 30 miles away from the Springfield Metro stop.

She was supposed to have walked to. Detective Sharon Williams of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office told WUSA TV, we've pulled video from Springfield Mall from the metro station and from the airport, and Caitlin's not on any of them. The detective didn't say who of interest, if anyone, was captured by surveillance. So now we have more information. We have the cell phone data, which tells us a lot. And we have video surveillance.

And I think this is all important data that, you know, you wouldn't have had 30, 40 years ago, probably. Obviously, you wouldn't have had cell phone data. And it's interesting to analyze it. I think the cell phone data kind of points to. Caitlin's statements not being correct. She wasn't at the mall. She wasn't at the airport. Like she told her mom she was.

That's kind of proven out by the cell phone data. And then they don't find her on any of the surveillance either. So I think you take all of that and it kind of helps fill in the gaps of where she wasn't. And to me, it's very interesting to, you know, kind of find out where these pings were coming from when she sent certain texts. But what does it mean? Yeah, I think it's very frustrating when you don't find any clues in some of that stuff or any clues at least that lead you to Caitlin because you touched on her earlier. This crime happened 34 years ago before there were even cell phones and

people couldn't get a hold of anyone. I think a lot of times we think now with all the cell phone data and stuff like that, surveillance cameras, we're just going to automatically get answers since we have that stuff at her disposal. But we see in this case, it didn't provide answers, at least of anything that captured Caitlin herself. And I think we have to remember that just because her cell phone is pinging someplace doesn't mean she's with her cell phone.

Well, and I guess that's kind of where I was getting. at we're getting data, but what does the data mean? It kind of rules out certain things like, you know, maybe she wasn't at the airport and things like that, but it doesn't necessarily mean she was there, just like you just said. I think it's a big job for detectives. It's great information, but you still have to make sense of it. So according to the footage, James didn't take Caitlin to the airport like he was supposed to. to and didn't seem to take her where he said he did. And most suspicious of all probably is that

police learned that he called off work that day, despite telling Lisa, he had to be at work by three. So he would have to take Caitlin to the airport early. He skipped work. He didn't tell Lisa that day that he called off work. In fact, in one of his interactions with Lisa, James told her he was on break, as if he was on the clock. Looking back on the text from Caitlin's phone, Lisa didn't think it was Caitlin that texted her that day. She later told Fox 5 DC, it was two text messages in a row. Caitlin doesn't do that. Caitlin's friend, Kevin Eastridge, who she had also briefly dated in the past, agreed and didn't think the text looked like they were from Caitlin, who he was very close to. He told True Crime Daily.

We talked every day. She is the one person that I could tell everything to. Kevin thinks James is hiding something. He told True Crime Daily, she flat out didn't trust him. And she felt very nervous around him because he was kind of abusive to an extent. Caitlin had only ever mentioned verbal abuse, but Kevin still wondered if it had ever been physical. He added, I can't confirm physical. because she never outright told me, but definitely verbally.

So, you know, it sounds to me like Kevin is suspicious of James. I think Lisa probably was as well, you know, when it comes out that the things you've said to someone weren't true in the context of a person that you were, you know, supposed to be taking to the airport going missing. I think a lot of people are going to look at you. with that kind of suspicious eye. And what happened next seemed to make people more suspicious of James. Authority searched James' vehicle but found no evidence of any crime.

But Lisa told True Crime Daily in 2017, he won't give up his password for his phone for them to get into it, so he won't give them the unlock code. So that's still waiting to get looked at. James initially agreed to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence. But the day the test was scheduled, he called it off. Lisa said, he said, it's not going to help me, so there's no point in me doing it. Around 2017, Lisa wrote James a letter and left it at his house.

The letter read in part, I trusted you, James. Why didn't you just drop Caitlin off at the airport? Lisa asking James why he didn't just drop Caitlin off at the airport isn't the same thing as her accusing him of hurting Caitlin. It seemed her letter was more about him deviating from the plans they agreed on. Well, and that makes sense to me. I think from Lisa's perspective, that would be, you know, one of the big questions. You said, according to the plan, you were going to drop Caitlin off at the airport.

Why didn't that happen? And then I think after it comes out that he didn't even go to work, as he said he had to do, which was the whole reason why he had to drop her off early. I think that adds another element to it as well. But it doesn't surprise me that she's wording the letter that way. I don't know that at that point she can come out and say, what did you do to my daughter? I don't think she can accuse him.

I don't know what evidence she would have to base it on. Now, his actions that day do seem a little strange. There's no doubt about that. But do they point definitively to the fact that he, He did something to Kalin. I would say no. So I guess that comes down to the individual because if somebody was not helping me find my kids in every way they could, like not letting their cell phone be searched and not taking a polygraph, I'd be suspicious of them. And I would think the worst.

So maybe it comes down to just the individual and what they're thinking. Yeah, no, I agree with you. And again, very suspicious. I know we keep using that word. but I would be, you know, that way as well. You were their stepfather. You, you know, you loved them for years and years and years. Are you telling me that you won't even let the police look in your phone?

That would be a question I have. The polygraph, that doesn't bother me. I really wouldn't want to take a polygraph knowing what we have learned about them over the years. I don't trust them. So someone saying that they don't want to take one or deciding ultimately they don't want to take one, I'm a little less suspicious of that than maybe others are because I don't think I would agree to take a polygraph because I just don't like the science all that much. I agree with you on that point. You know, we've talked about before attorneys recommend you not take a polygraph.

But however, if the shoe is on the other foot and my foot. my child was missing, I think I'd flip the switch completely and be suspicious for someone that didn't. I think it would just be my nature as a parent to not question why aren't they doing everything that might help, even though on, you know, and every day we talk about it on the show that the why polygraph tests are often not taken by people. As we mentioned, James came under heavy suspicion from both the police and people that knew Caitlin. But there is still, you know, the nagging question of why James would abduct or harm Caitlin in the first place. Lisa called James sort of last minute. And so he didn't have a lot of time or wouldn't have

had a lot of time to plan the perfect murder. If something happened in the heat of the moment, it had to have happened between 920 and 1150.15. 56 a.m. The most popular theory online, despite there being zero proof of this scenario, seems to be that perhaps for some reason, Caitlin confided in James about what had happened with the couple from the night before and her infidelity and that James used that opportunity to make a sexual advance on his former stepdaughter and she rejected him. So he snapped and killed her. But again, that's just a theory. that a lot of people have discussed online.

The next leading theory is that James was angry with Caitlin when he found out about her engagement to a woman, and perhaps James didn't approve of a same-sex relationship. And then there's others that think Caitlin may have left willingly on her own, and that perhaps she met with foul play after taking off. Though it seems she was excited about the upcoming cosmetology school and ecstatic about becoming an aunt,

Caitlin was pretty distraught on December 5th. That day, she texted Kevin her friend. The text read, I just really need someone to talk to. The night of December 4th, Caitlin had hung out with a friend of hers from high school, and according to Kevin, she told him the friend and her boyfriend,

quote, kind of forced themselves on her. Caitlin told him, her boyfriend got me really, really drunk, and then she kissed me, and then he kissed me. They did everything to me and each other. Caitlin texted much of these details to Kevin. Some people theorized that if Caitlin felt

she was taking advantage of, she might be depressed. Then again, she may have felt depressed if she was a willing participant with this couple, realizing she had been unfaithful to her fiance. It's not clear if police ever spoke with this couple about this encounter with Keelan, and if they did, if the couple was cooperative. Kevin told True Crime Daily, he thought she felt guilty. She felt like she had cheated on Amber. She felt like a bad person for what happened and said to Kevin, I've been depressed and crying all day. people have asked the question, could this have all been enough for Caitlin to decide to end her life? Was the thought of coming clean to Amber just too much for her to bear, nervous that the relationship would implode?

Kevin doesn't think so, telling True Crime Daily, she was never a person to me that gave up on life. But something else he said makes some people wonder if Caitlin was prone to depression or possibly thoughts of taking her own life. Kevin said, she always tried to fight whatever she was feeling. She would come to me because she was trying to fight that. The use of the word always makes it seem like this may have happened before. While Caitlin has no known history of any diagnosed mental illness or depression, many people struggle with it in silence. Lisa and other members of her family say that they would have known if Caitlin was acting differently,

or if something was bothering her before she was dropped off at James's house, but perhaps the text to Kevin about the night before proved that isn't quite true. Maybe they would know most times that Caitlin was upset, but Caitlin had either been sexually assaulted while intoxicated, or had cheated on her fiancé, had been depressed and crying, and only Kevin knew about it. Caitlin chose not to tell her mom and sister. But even if Caitlin chose to end her own life, it still doesn't explain why her body has never been found. She couldn't have taken her own life and then hidden her own body. For this reason, some people think that she may be alive out there someplace with a new identity.

Caitlin never had a driver's license, but her diploma wasn't found in her belongings. But that hardly seems like enough in the way of credentials to try and forge a new identity. So we've had a number of theories here, and I think we have to kind of touch on them a little bit before we move forward. But first I want to start with the leaving voluntarily and forging a new identity. I'm sure it happens. It can happen. But it comes up in almost every disappearance case. And for me, it's just very low on the list of viable theories.

For me, I just don't believe that in the majority of these disappearances that we talk about, where people are never found, that they're really out there. there with a new identity, living a new life. I just find that very hard to believe. Yeah, and you would think that if somehow Caitlin was going to go start a new life with a new identity, she would have kept everything that was in her suitcase. We mentioned there was her eyeglasses in there, her money, credit cards, things that she could use to get started were left. So that seems to go away from that. So let's next touch on the theory that Katelyn harmed herself. And, you know, in those situations, and you said it, Morf, you can't harm yourself and then also hide your body.

So you would expect that her body would have been found in most cases if that's what happened. And then you have a couple of theories that center around James. Because there is a lot of suspicion on him. There's, there's no doubt about that. You know, could he have been so enraised? that Caitlin was in a same-sex relationship, that he killed her. I'm not saying anything is out of the realm of possibility. It would surprise me if it turned out to be that.

Yeah, and then other people have theorized that maybe he made some kind of move on Caitlin and she rejected him and he got mad. And that could very well have happened. but just with every other theory in this case, there's no solid evidence that points to anyone thing. I think we should point out he hasn't been charged at all in connection to Caitlin's disappearance. But I think most people would agree

the fact he was the last person to see her and the details he gave police don't line up with what they've been able to uncover about Caitlin's disappearance and movements. That has just led more people. to be suspicious of James. But I do see this one maybe being a little bit higher on the plausibility meter. You know, let's say that he was attracted to her.

And now they're no longer connected in that way, right? He's no longer a part of her life. And he does decide to make an advance. Well, she rejects it. And then what's going to happen? She's going to tell her mom. It's going to get out. And you could see a scenario where that happened and then he wasn't prepared to let the

ramifications come about of that getting out. Not saying that happened. I'm just saying it is plausible, a little bit more plausible than to me than some of the others. We have to remember that missing person's cases. can turn on a die without warning, which is why we shouldn't rush to any conclusions in Caitlin's case. Just recently, Alicia Navarro, who disappeared from the Phoenix, Arizona area in September of 2019 at the age of 14 and was thought by many to have met with foul play turned up alive in Montana. Also recently, we saw an unexpected result in the missing person

case of Alyssa Turney. She vanished in 2001 when she was 17 years old from Phoenix, Arizona, like in Alicia Navarro's case. She was also thought to be dead, murdered at the hands of her stepfather, Michael Turney. Finally, in July, 2023, Michael Turney went to trial in connection with Alyssa's case. And after five days of testimony from the state's witnesses, judge, Sam Myers ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction by a reasonable jury. The trial ended there.

The jurors were dismissed and Michael Turney was basically acquitted. So again, sometimes things seem clear or somewhat clear or maybe, you know, strongly presumed in missing persons cases. but then a curveball throws the case on its head, as we just mentioned in Alicia and Alyssa's cases. So it is possible that police strongly suspect Caitlin's former stepfather in her disappearance. But if a case against him is rushed and it winds up in court without strong evidence, is there a risk of the case getting tossed the way it was in the trial of Michael Turney? It seems that the authorities have to be very careful how to proceed in Caitlin's case and any prosecution that might come.

It can really only be proven that James never dropped Caitlin off when and where he said he did. But as far as we know publicly, there's no physical proof that he played a role in harming her. While the last place Caitlin was absolutely known to be, was James's house on Oak Crest Drive in Partlow, Virginia, the texts she sent, and particularly the Facebook message to Amber, which lined up with things she also told Kevin, make it hard to prove that she was not alive after James claimed to have last seen her. The pings from both phones placed Caitlin and James too far apart for the phones to be together or for James to have been able to get from one phone to the other and back. Now, we know pings aren't perfectly 100% accurate.

And James is reportedly tech savvy, but you have to be able to prove that he scheduled the text. somehow to go out or found a way for the phones to appear farther apart than they actually were or that he had an accomplice using Caitlin's phone in one location while he used his and another. There are some articles that reference Caitlin's phone also having an encrypted text app, maybe something like Signal or WhatsApp, but we're not sure how they know that if they haven't found her phone unless somehow they could see that from a cloud account. We also don't know what physical evidence, if any, ties James to Caitlin's suitcase.

If police tested Caitlin's suitcase for DNA or prince and found James' DNA or prince there, it doesn't prove he harmed Caitlin. We know that she and her suitcase were at James's, and he could have loaded them into his car to take her to the airport. It seems like it will take some pretty strong evidence linked to James to make a good case against him, perhaps evidence that may be found with Caitlin if she's indeed dead and her remains are found. then again, if that ever happens, police may find evidence pointing to a totally different suspect altogether. In 2021, the FBI joined the investigation into Caitlin's disappearance.

There have been no updates or any new leads released publicly since then. Many people wonder why authorities can't just arrest James for lying or for refusing to give up the password to his phone. But it really doesn't work that way here in the United States. the clock starts ticking as soon as someone is arrested. Your case has to be strong before you get that clock going or you may lose your opportunity to get the evidence you're looking for without the suspect being able to get rid of, destroy or hide it. There may be something on the encrypted phone that authorities can't get into and James refuses

to provide the password, but he could also just be exercising his rights, which he can absolutely do. Unless police can get a warrant or court order to get into that phone. It may be a waiting game. But the fact that he won't cooperate and allow police to access his phone only makes James look more guilty to many people. I know a lot of people make a big deal about this phone and, you know, why he won't give up the password.

I could look at it much in the same way that I, I would look at a polygraph. And we mentioned it, right? Just exercising your rights. Some people are very adamant about that. My other thought is that if there really was something incriminating on this phone, doesn't it seem logical that he would have gotten rid of it by now? Either gotten a new phone, destroyed the old one.

I don't know. That just seems to make sense to me. He has something so incriminating on there, but yet he's just going to hold on to it and refuse to give up the password. Yeah. Well, he could be just exercising his right of, hey, you're not searching my phone without a warrant. The flip side of that argument is that some people will ask is, well, if you don't have anything to hide, what's the harm in letting them look at it? So, and perhaps he's got something else on there that he doesn't want them to see not related to Caitlin's case. Who knows?

but it's only led to people being more suspicious of him. A lot of people wonder if James is lying about dropping Caitlin off because he helped her run away and start a new life at her request and that they somehow have an arrangement that if he were ever to be charged with her murder, she would come forward. Or maybe there's something on that encrypted phone for the day that happens that he doesn't want authorities to see because it would help locate Caitlin. At the end of the day, these are just theories that have been thrown out there.

Caitlin was an adult when she vanished, and she has the right to leave her old life if that's what she chose to do. If she was out there someplace, she could contact the police anonymously to prove she's okay and simply asking them to stop looking for her. But to most people, this is an unlikely scenario. The majority of people seem to think that Caitlin met with foul play. It seems clear that whoever sent those texts that day from Caitlin's phone was trying to buy time. The question is, was it someone pretending to be Caitlin buying time while they planned to be. their next move, or was it Caitlin sending the text as she figured out how to deal with something she was going through? And to me, it's these questions that, you know, are very perplexing in these types of cases. We have evidence. We have data. But it's what you make of that data or evidence or, you know,

whatever it is. Because you can have five people look at these tests. And then, you know, and say, well, they mean five different things. Who's right? We don't know. Yeah, to me, it's frustrating. Whenever there's any case with digital clues, phone, text, things like that, when a case isn't able to see a break and the case be solved, you know, comparing it to the cases again from 30, 40 years ago before cell phones, when somebody

just vanished, a lot of times there was just nothing to go on, no trace of them. But now we have so much surveillance videos, cell phone data, social media. And when police have some clues to work with there, but the case is still not resolved, it just makes it all the more frustrating. Caitlin's disappearance was featured on a season eight episode of Disappeared, titled Flight Risk. Caitlin Michelle Akins is described as a white female with blue eyes. And at the time she was last seen, she was 5'4, 122 pounds with blonde hair. She has a tattoo of five butterflies on her arm and three stars on her right foot.

And at the time of her disappearance, she had piercings in her belly button, nose, and lip. She also wears glasses. If you have any information about the disappearance of Caitlin Aiken or where her current whereabouts may be, you can call the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office at 540-507-7102. You can also contact the FBI's VICAP division by calling 800 634-4097. And you can leave an anonymous tip with Spotsylvania County, Virginia crime solvers, by calling 800-928-5822. So as we wrap up this case more of, I mean, no doubt, there are a lot of mysteries here. You know, like we mentioned before, we have information, but what does that information mean?

You know, the way I look at it, James was the last one known to have seen Caitlin. There is no doubt that there is a cloud of suspicion that hangs over him. I think you can clearly see that from what friends have said, family members have said, and what people online say. And for some good reason, right, some of the things that he has said, have turned out not to be true. He had to be at work. Well, he called off that day.

What does that mean? But then you look at some of the cell phone data and it doesn't appear as though Caitlin and James were near each other after he's last known to have seen her. So what does that mean? And I think that's the question we're asking about, you know, all the information that is known. just exactly what does it mean? And obviously we don't know that. If we did, this case would probably be solved.

I think what it's going to take to get answers in this case is more evidence being found, maybe belongings of Caitlin's or, you know, or if she did meet with foul play, maybe her remains being found and that might lead to more clues for police to work with. or possibly somebody that knows something that heard something coming forward. Maybe they have information that they've been keeping to themselves. So I feel at this point it's going to take something else besides what we have so far to figure out what happened to Kael. Yeah, I agree with you. I think if what is currently known, and as we always say, police probably have more that they just haven't released.

but even with that, it obviously has not been enough to charge anyone and they're probably wanting to make a very strong case, which is always important. You mentioned, you know, finding a body. If Caitlin is no longer a lot, I do think that, you know, finding her body could provide some answers or some clues at least with which to work with, you know, just a establishing a cause of death, things like that may lead the police in the right direction. But like with, you know, all of the unsolved cases that we do, we'll have to wait and see, you know, what police are able to uncover.

If somebody decides to come forward, maybe their conscience gets the better of them and they just can't live with what they've done, we mentioned it earlier, right? these types of cases can turn very quickly on a dime. And that's why we have to follow them. We have to keep up with them. But that's it for our episode on the disappearance of Caitlin Aiken's. If you love the show and haven't done so yet, make sure you go out, give us a five-star rating, leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends.

That word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast, discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph 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.

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