Criminology - Rachael Runyan

Episode Date: February 15, 2020

In 1982, 3-year-old Rachael Runyan and her two young brothers were playing at the playground just beyond their backyard. Their mother Elaine was watching them through the window of the house as she prepared lunch. Elaine's whole world changed when one of her sons burst in and said that a man had taken Rachael, put her in his car, and sped off. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance and murder of Rachael Runyan. Elaine joined us for a conversation to talk about the day that Rachael was abducted and the events that followed. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 99 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how are you? I'm doing good. How about you?

Yeah. No, I'm doing very well. Ready to get into another episode of criminology. Morph, one thing that I've been trying to keep an eye on, are the updates in the Kristen Smart case? That's something that has really got my attention. You know, there was supposed to be a big bombshell from the FBI. Well, okay, turns out there was some miscommunication there, but not long after it came out that there were some search warrants served in several

different locations. They went out to Paul Flores' mom's house. house. And, you know, Flores has been a guy that police have looked at from the very beginning. He was the last person known to have seen Kristen Smart alive. So they took a bunch of stuff, evidence, whatever it was from his mother's house. They did some digging. But as far as I know, there haven't been, you know, that many details that have come out as it relates to exactly what they took or what. what they found. Yeah, that's a case that's been too long to have some kind of resolution, so I'm excited to see what's going to happen. One case I've been following a lot lately is the case of Lori Vallow. Lurie Vallow recently got married to a man that I believe is her third or fourth husband, don't hold me to that. But some of her previous husbands, at least one of them, have met with untimely deaths. So the man she married,

His wife just died under questionable circumstances six weeks ago or so. And now the two sort of came together. They have these spouses that are dead under questionable circumstances. And Lori's two children are missing. And she refuses to say where they are. The police tracked them down in Hawaii where they got married. And they want her to produce those children. and she refuses to.

She won't say where they are, what happened. And it comes to find out, this couple met through a podcast. They were involved in together, and it was an end-of-days type of podcast, and they believe that the world is going to end in July 2020. It's just a crazy backstory for the case. But with that podcast, you have these people meeting,

family members, siblings as well, of these people have been murdered or disappeared. So there's a lot going on, a lot unfolding. But it's just a really bizarre case. Yeah, no, it is very fascinating. And ultimately, I think Morph would make for an excellent episode once all of the facts come out. My thought is there are a number of tragedies surrounding these two individuals, but we're going to have to wait and see what police uncover. But it's another case to keep an eye on it.

for sure. All right, before we get into our episode, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had new Patreon supporters in the way of Keisha Smart, Amanda Morrill, Karen Hudson, and Emmanuel Sylvan. So that new support is very much appreciated. Every week you read those names and I'm just blown away by how many people are willing to support us on the podcast. And if anyone up they're listening would like to support criminology on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy. So we have a very interesting case for everyone in this episode. I will say up front, it's a very difficult case. We're talking about the abduction and brutal murder of a three-year-old, Rachel Runyon in 1982. We've handled some of these cases before.

you and I. But this is a case. And we wanted to say it right up front where the details are extremely disturbing. And how can they not be? Right. Anytime you're talking about the murder of a three year old child, it's these type of cases morph that make parents afraid to let their children out of their sight, even if it's just to play in their own yard. Rachel's case shocked the residents of Sunset, Utah to their core. And this case paved the way for better laws intended to help safeguard children in the state of Utah. Rachel's mother, Elaine, is fierce.

She's relentless in making sure that what happened to her daughter doesn't happen to others. And we talk to Elaine. You'll hear from her throughout this episode. Sunset Utah is about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. The small city was incorporated in 1935, but the first settlement dates back to the 1800s with the arrival of the James Hill family. The area was originally used by Mormon pioneers as a place to feed and graze their animals during the harsh winter. The town was first known as Sand Ridge and later the summit until 1896 when it was changed to Clinton.

Around 1916, a group of women were in awe of the beautiful, colorful sunset over the Great Salt Lake to the West and decided to call the town Sunset. A short while later, it became known as the community of Sunset. Its incorporation in 1935 resulted in a residential-type community during World War II. Homes were built as a result of the government development of Hill Air Force Base and Ogden Arsenal, directly east of Sunset. The town had a steady, 600 residents living there until the 1960s and 1970s, when more homes and subdivisions were built. This raised the population to about 6,000 people. Sunset seemed to be a great place to raise children.

It was this small, safe town atmosphere that drew Jeff and Elaine Runyon in when they moved their children to sunset in the late 1970s. Jeff and Elaine Runyon had a child named Justin, who was born in 1977. In early 1979, the couple decided to relocate from Tennessee to Sunset, Utah. At the time of the move, Elaine was pregnant with the couple's second child, Rachel. On June 23rd, 1979, Rachel Marie Runyon was born in Sunset, Utah. Two years later, the couple welcomed a second son named Nathan. The family resided at West 870, North. in sunset just south of Doxy Elementary School, which was part of the Davis School District.

The school's playground sat about 15 feet directly behind the Runyon's home. The Runyon kids over the years would come to enjoy playing at the school's playground. Rachel Runyon was a sweet, well-behaved, beautiful little girl with a severe thumb-sucking habit. She had pretty blue eyes and long blonde, naturally curly hair, and she looked just like her mother. During the summer of 1982, Jeff Runyon, who was 28, and Elaine, who was 25, had installed a gate in their backyard fence to give them easy access to the playground in school. Elaine took the children to the playground many times, and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. But on August 26, 1982, 5-year-old Justin, and little Rachel, who was 3 years old, the time, begged their mom to let them go to the playground alone. Elaine eventually gave in when she saw

the smiles on their faces, and she allowed them to go. The kids took 18-month-old Nathan with them. Elaine kept an eye on the kids through her kitchen window as she fixed sloppy Joe's for lunch. Remember, we're not talking about a playground down the street or around the corner. This playground was essentially in the Runyon's backyard. But as kids sometimes do, they wandered a bit further than they were supposed to. Elaine recounted that day for us and how ordinary it was and how safe it seemed. I've never forgotten a minute of that day. It was a very difficult day. I was just being mama, cooking lunch, making sloppy joes. The kids wanted to go outside my backyard fence and there's a big toy right there, literally like our toy, even though it belonged to the schools, it was 15.

feet from my backyard fence. So they had never got to go over there by themselves, only with me or daddy. And we hadn't lived there that long. And so it was a fun thing to do. But they just kept begging and seeing how happy it would make them. I gave in, you know, even though I was cooking their lunch. I said, yes, but you've got to come when I call. and they scampered off, just opened the little gate from our backyard, went over, and they were right there.

So I just kept cooking lunch, and I didn't feel good about it. My stomach was nervous because I never let them go over there by themselves. And so I called each child by name. I said, Justin, Rachel, Nathan, and each one answered. So I'm like, okay, they're okay. I'm just being too worried for nothing. And then I go stir the sloppy joes some more, and then I go over to the window again,

and they're at the other side of the park. And it was about a football field away, and I'm like, what are they doing over there? So I'm calling out, you know, Justin, bring everyone home. You know, kind of like, what are you doing over there? And he comes running. And he comes in and walks up the steps.

It was sometime between 12 and 1 p.m. When Elaine called her children in for lunch after she saw that they had gone over to the other side of the playground. Morph there was no way. She was prepared for what came next. Justin ran through the door and told Elaine that a man had taken Rachel. The man approached the group of kids at the sandpit. and tried to lure them into his car by offering to buy them ice cream and bubble gum at a nearby grocery store. This idea enticed little Rachel. But Justin warned his little sister not to go

with the strange man and she started to walk away from the man. Justin relayed how all of a sudden this man grabbed Rachel threw her into his car and sped off. Elaine was horrified at hearing this news She loaded the kids into the car and took them to the local ice cream shop to look for Rachel. But there was no sign of her. And he's like, Mommy, I have some real bad news. And I said, what? And he said, Rachel's in a car. I go, what car?

He says, a blue car. I said, who's car? And he said, a black man. And I'm like, I fell to my knees. And I said, Justin, he'll kill her. He'll kill her. it just sounded bad and that was my instant reaction and it was just absolutely horrifying and so he said he was going to take us to bobcose for ice cream and so I took the kids in the

vehicle and we ran over and I thought oh my gosh how do I ask did a black man come in with my little girl, a little blonde, blue-eyed, you know, three-year-old little girl, I just couldn't even hardly say those words because I knew what it sounded like. And even before I asked, I knew they'd say no, because you would remember that. You know, it's an odd combination in 1982. So then we got back in the land cruiser, ran back home, and I got on the phone, called my husband at work, and I just said, you know, it's Rachel's been kidnapped. And he says, you know, call the police. I'm coming home right now.

And the police pulled up five minutes later. When the authorities arrived, they quickly started the search for little Rachel, who was last seen wearing a white play suit with green and blue flowered print, brown leather shoes with bright yellow laces, a blue ribbon in her hair, and gold studs in her pierced ears. And on these bright yellow shoe laces were printed the word smile. And more, if you think about this situation, to have one of your children run into the house

and deliver this type of bombshell news. I can't really even imagine what would be going on in my head. I would be frantic. And I think any parent would. Now, my kids are older. We've talked about that. You have younger kids. I think it really hits home for me.

And I think anybody that has kids, even your kids, when they were younger, I'm sure you remember those times where they'd be right at your side. And then you look down and they're gone and you get that quick adrenaline rush and you look around and all of a sudden you see them a couple feet away. But I can only imagine the shock, that feeling that she got when. when she heard this news from her son. Well, and I often think of the Adam Walsh case, right? Being in a department store and your child is just an aisle or two away, let's say. And then all of a sudden they're gone. That's a certain type of frantic situation.

A lot of us have been through that. You know, a kid wanders off into the next aisle and you get that pit. in your stomach. To me, this is a little different. You're hearing from one of your children that a man has actually abducted your daughter. Yeah, and I think she must have known right away this isn't my daughter's wandered off. Somebody took her. So this is a whole different level of shock. Despite Justin's young age, he had a 10-year-old neighbor boy who was also at the park, were able to give police a pretty good description of the man that took Rachel. They described Rachel's abductor as being black or a dark-skinned male who was about 25 to 35 years of age.

He stood around six feet tall and had a slender to medium build with a mustache, which was possibly a handlebar type. He was wearing a blue pull-over shirt with a red stripe circling the chest and sleeves, blue jeans, and old blue sneakers with white stripes. The man was driving a blue four-door mid-sized car with brown wood-green stripes down the sides. The car had high-front seats, lights across the rear, and a rear windshield wiper. The rear bumper was chrome, and the rear license plate was below the bumper. The car may have been either a Ford Pino Squire or a Mercury Bobcat. I think that level of detail is amazing to come from these two kids that saw this happen, from the description of the man to the highly detailed account of

this car. You know, as you were talking, Morph, that's exactly what was going through my head. This is an amazing amount of detail about a car coming from, you know, to fairly young kids. I think there's a lot of adults that if pressed would not be able to remember that level of detail in, in that type of situation. It's very impressive. I think what can't be discounted is how valuable that type of information can be. You know, it's pretty rough when all you can really say about a car is that it was a blue four door, right? How many blue four door cars are there? But when you start to get into those type of details, the wood grain stripes, the placement of the rear license plate, you know, where it was in relation to the bumper, those are amazing details that oftentimes can help police narrow things down.

to a very specific type of vehicle, or at least a handful, like we mentioned. After speaking with the children, police learned that the man who took Rachel had actually spoken with other kids at the park for at least 15 minutes before the abduction occurred. Within 30 minutes of Rachel's abduction, police had set up a roadblock, but this did not result in them finding the man or Rachel, and their immediate search revealed no signs of Rachel. Remember, this is a pretty small town, somewhat rural. We're not talking about a very heavy, dense population.

So by the time this roadblock was set up, Rachel and her abductor had vanished. And police couldn't find any additional witnesses to help, them in their investigation. While police searched for their missing daughter, the Runyon's were understandably shaken. For me, I was horrified. My stomach was sick. And to carry it out, I mean, we'll get into that.

But I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I was just frightened for her and whatever her surroundings were. and if she was cold, if she needed food, it's so helpless and it just incapacitates you. It was horrible. I don't like to go back there in that thinking because it's really painful. The Runyans tried to stay positive and they were hopeful that since police had so much information about the abductor, he might be identified quickly.

that was hopeful but I wasn't going to be happy until I had her in my arms and it's not over till it's over and so they had road blocks up within 20 minutes and just the news was out there and I just thought okay they're going to find my little girl and the police will take care of it I didn't know that it was the beginning of a long long career of missing children and heartache and pain. The city of Sunset put up a $20,000 reward, and the Runions contributed another $20,000, from information leading to the return or recovery of Rachel. Residents of Sunset put up missing person flyers with Rachel's picture and the suspect composite sketch around the community. Truck drivers took some flyers and passed them out at truck stops.

Salesmen took them out of state, And so did Utah residents who were visiting family elsewhere. This was really a community search with everyone pitching in to help. As many of them were in fear for their own children. They were worried that another abduction could happen there. And Morph, this is something that I think we see in quite a few of these cases, right? We're in a small town. The community is very quick to rally around the family and to offer up their help and support.

I do think there's a number of reasons for it. Number one. 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.

you get your podcasts. People genuinely want to help. But like you said, they're also scared. They're trying to protect their own children as well. So you can look at it twofold. These are people that want to help a family in need. Who doesn't want to help find a missing three-year-old? But at the same time, you know, they want this monster caught because these are families.

They have kids of their own. They're scared. They're frightened. The Runyon spoke with countless media outlets, including Good Morning America, and they registered with Child Find, a nonprofit organization created in 1980 to help search for missing children. This was four years before the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was established. Rachel's parents had no idea what happened to their beautiful little girl. police thought maybe she was taken for ransom or possibly sold into an illegal adoption situation.

But all of these were just theories. They really had no concrete idea as to what happened. There really were very few clues that police had to go on. On Sunday, September 19th, 1982, a family was picnicking in a remote area in their trappers loop outside Mountain Green, Utah, in northern Morgan County. This is about 15 miles east of sunset. They stopped their vehicle to stretch and enjoy the scenery. The children ventured off the road and down to a stream where they found something floating

in the water. They thought it may be a doll. They called for their father, who ran down and probed it with a stick, and unfortunately he found that it wasn't a doll. The family had just discovered the badly decomposed body of a small child. Police received the call from the family at 6.42 p.m. And they arrived shortly after that. The scene was an unimaginable one.

The victim was between three and five years old, nude, and hogtied with a nylon parachute court. It was apparent to police that someone had haphazardly used brush to try to hide the body. authorities later said that the body being in some water may have aided in preserving it to some degree. The victim's hair length and general characteristics of the body were consistent with Rachel's description. Authorities weren't able to determine the victim's hair color, but since there weren't any other children missing in the area, investigators were pretty sure very early on that the body was that of Rachel Runyon. The child's body was taken to the state medical examiner's office at around 10, 15 p.m. There were a few problems with identification.

First, the decomposition in the hot summer heat had taken its toll on the body. There were no dental records of Rachel's available, but ultimately, the Runyon identified the remains as being Rachel's, through a chipped and protruding tooth, and the earrings in the little girl's pierced ears. The mayor of Sunset and the police originally advised the Runyon against viewing the body, but Elaine knew it was the only way an identification could be made. Other tests and fingerprint analysis also helped confirm the identity. Rachel had not been sexually assaulted, but that was a detail that wouldn't come out until 1997, in a statement made by Sunset Police Chief Phil Olmsted.

Unfortunately, the cause of death could not be determined due to decomposition and extreme weather conditions, but police were sure that Rachel had been murdered. After 24 days, the mayor and detective police showed up at my house one evening, and they came to break the news that a family out for a Sunday drive up Trapper's Loop had, you know, went down to a little spring, a little river, and they moved some shrubbery, and a doll came up, and they were running back to their family vehicle saying they had found a doll, and the parents went down,

and lo and behold, it was my doll. And so it was very sad. I, oddly and no. still had hope, you know. When they said body, does that mean they're dead? They kept saying they found a small child's body. So I'm naive enough at, what, 26, 27 years old to think there was still hope. I still had hope.

You know, it's hard to shut down the search once we had so many things going every day for 24 days, right? The news just kept getting bigger and bigger, and we went to New York to be on CNN and the Today Show and share all our stories to keep the word out. And now we had the answer that we had been hoping we wouldn't have, but at the same time, we were grateful because we know how hard we'd been searching every single day. and the fact that she was found in a mountain canyon stream is sheer miracle. Rachel's body was the third discovered in Morgan County over the previous three months, and Rachel was the fourth unsolved murder victim on the books in the county at that time. Morph, when you hear that, three bodies discovered in three months, and this was prior to Rachel being discovered,

you know, in what is a relatively small town, small county, that really jumps out at you. Yeah, in an area that is supposed to be pretty safe and has that reputation for being someplace you can raise your kids without worries, that number does seem high. Ultimately, those other bodies weren't related to Rachel's case, but it still grabbed your attention. Authorities search the area where Rachel Runyon's body was found. And they discovered a pair of underwear, later confirmed by the Runyans as Rachel's. A 10-member task force led by then-David County Sheriff Brant Johnson was set up to investigate Rachel Runyon's murder.

The members included deputies and police officers from Sunset, Davis County, nearby Hill Air Force Base, and Morgan and Weber counties. The FBI also joined in the investigation. Meanwhile, Rachel Marie Runyon was laid to rest on September 23rd, 1982, almost a month after her abduction. Over 400 people attended her funeral in the Latter-day Saints Steak Center in Sunset. Rachel's parents were thankful to have her remains so that they could give her a proper burial. I totally believe it was a blessing she was found, and I tell you the magnitude of the horrendous crime it is when you are thanking God that you have your baby back and she's dead. We were just so grateful, so grateful and so blessed that we were able to give her a proper farewell and

be able to give her a funeral and be able to put her body to rest and that we did not have to search the rest of our lives because if we kept searching and it didn't matter she was already dead she was already hidden in a mountain canyon stream we would have never found her if too much time went by we had flooding that fall and we just know how blessed we are that she was found As the town and Rachel's family mourn the little girl's death, police work leads in the case and develop persons of interest. But any hopes for a quick resolution would be dashed when no arrest were made, and the case went cold, leaving Rachel's family devastated.

But Jeff and Elaine Runyon never gave up seeking justice, and set out to make a positive out of a negative. They became strong advocates for missing children and other crimes against children. Not long after Rachel's body was found, tens of thousands of children in Utah were fingerprinted. Some reports saying it was as high as 30,000 children in all. Other sources morph have pegged the number even higher. The children's blood types were logged on file and the parents were given identification packets in case a child went missing. We see things like this a lot because unfortunately it seems to take

a tragedy like this to really spark an all-out effort to make meaningful changes to keep something like this from happening to more children. After Rachel's abduction and murder, there were reports of kidnap attempts and actual abductions. The murder of five young boys between 1979 and 1983 at the hands of serial killer Gary Bishop, a.k.a. Roger W. Downs, as well as Rachel's murder, angered numerous citizens, and Utah parents were fed up with crimes happening against their children. Thousands of parents attended meetings on missing children. A group of concerned mothers came together to lobby the Utah legislature for tougher child abduction laws. More than 2,000 other Utah mothers took turns standing on

street corners to make sure kids got to school safely. In October 1982, a federal law passed that gave parents of missing children access to a nationwide clearinghouse administered by the FBI, with the information sent to local law enforcement agencies all across the United States. In early 1983, Elaine Runyon, along with other parents of missing children, pleaded for the passing of a tough Utah child kidnapping law. House Bill 209, which was sponsored by then Representative Lyle Hilliard, required individuals convicted of kidnapping children to serve at least a minimum term imposed by a judge. In October

1989, the television show Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode on Rachel's case. Once again, bringing the attention it deserved. In the episode, some disturbing things were revealed by police to the audience, including a police theory that Rachel may have been kidnapped and murdered for purposes of a snuff film. They didn't go into a law. lot of detail about what led them to that theory. It was just six months before the Unsolved Mysteries episode aired in April 1989 that an unidentified woman told Salt Lake City police that her brother killed Rachel Runyon. This woman during subsequent interviews as a paid

informant told investigators that he sexually violated and tortured Rachel on videotape before murdering her in an Ogden, Utah home. However, the woman informant later admitted that she lied about her brother's involvement in the murder and police ultimately charged her with obstruction of justice and theft by deception. She served 40 days in the Weber County Jail in August and September. But despite this, police continued investigating this snuff film theory. But there really was never a whole lot of evidence to support it. The Unsolved Mysteries episode also revealed that Rachel's father, Jeff Runyon,

found mysterious black roses on Rachel's grave on two separate occasions. Another possible clue that was revealed in the episode was a message in black ink found by a security guard on the bathroom wall of an all-night laundry business, seven miles from sunset. The message read, Beware, I'm still at large. I killed the little Runyon girl. Remember, beware.

The sinister note was also accompanied by the drawing of an inverted cross and the number 666, leading some investigators to think that the murder of Rachel Runyon may have been related to satanic ritual or cold activity. But there was nothing solid to connect to. writing to Rachel's case, and it may have been nothing more than a cruel joke. A psychologist at the time told police that if the note was real, they needed to be prepared because the killer would kill again. Despite Rachel's case being broadcast nationwide on

Unsolved Mysteries and some tips coming in from it, no arrests were made. Elaine shared with us how difficult it was to hear some of the details on the Unsolved Mysteries episode. It was weird. I just to have a strong belief that she was with Heavenly Father and that I didn't put a lot of stock into that at all. I mean, if there was truth to it, I was willing to get to the bottom of it, but we had no facts. We just had that they cut out, well, excuse me,

they didn't cut out at this time. They put, you know, I know who murdered the Rachel Runyon girl, and did it upside down cross with a 666 on it. And the police cut that wall out, and, of course, re-dry-drywalled it and kept that as evidence. And they showed that, and they showed that there was black flowers on the grave. Well, was it roses that died? You know what I'm saying?

I'm just kind of practical that way. And we never did find a snuff film. and I didn't know what that was either. I had to have that explained to me, you know, that they make a film while having sex with a child and killing them. Never heard of such a thing. In April of 2002, the Rachel Alert was established in Rachel Runyon's honor. It was adapted from the Amber Alert, named for Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl abducted and brutal. murdered in Texas in 1996.

Utah was the ninth state to establish this type of program. There was four criteria for the alert. The child is assumed to have been kidnapped. The child is 15 or younger or has a proven mental or physical disability. The child is in imminent danger of serious injury or death. And then last but not least, there is information provided to aid police, such as a description of the kidnapper, his or her vehicle, or the child's last known location. If all criteria was met, police were to fax a form to broadcasters that included all available information, broadcasters then had the option to activate the emergency system to announce the Rachel Alert. And morph, we mentioned it earlier in the episode.

A lot of times it takes a tragedy for things to be put in place to help stop the same type of tragedy from occurring again. You hate that, but it's kind of a react type system. You'd love to be proactive in every situation, but it's sometimes not possible. These type of alerts have been very useful. over the years since they have been implemented. And it's great that those alerts have changed with technology evolved over the years. Now when an alert goes out, if you have a smartphone, you instantly get an alert message on your phone or on your TV.

It travels so quickly. And it's sort of putting the cart before the horse. But thinking back to a case like Rachel's, if we had the technology we have today, if the speed of those alerts could have gone out as quickly as they can today back then, it just makes you wonder if that might have saved her life. Yeah, I think it's a great point that you bring up. You know, you look at some of these cases from the 70s, 80s, even into the 90s. And you have to ask that question.

If the technology was available back then that we have today, how many of these types of cases would have been solved because the information was out to the public so fast. The Rachel Alert was first used on June 5, 2002, when 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from Salt Lake City. She was found nine months later in March 2003. The Rachel Alert helped in the recovery of three-month-old Nicholas Triplett, who was abducted from a shopping mall in 2003. A man named Jeff Salt was driving near the Jordan River. north of Salt Lake City on January 29, 2003, when he spotted three adults walking with an infant. Jeff worked near the Jordan River and had a feeling that something wasn't right.

He immediately called Salt Lake Police, who drove out and checked on the infant. And as it turned out, the infant had been kidnapped. And his abductors were arrested in charge with child kidnapping. But the cases against them were dismissed in May 2003 after Nicholas' mother failed to appear to testify. Nicholas was then put in protective custody in California. In June 2003, Elaine Runyon presented Jeff Salt and Utah Highway Patrol Lieutenant Randall Richie with Utah's first Rachel Runyon Awards. On May 7th, Lieutenant Richie heard an alert about the abduction of an 11-year-old girl in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in that her abductor had ties to Provo, Utah.

Richie knew that to reach Provo, the abductor would have to pass through Heber City, where Lieutenant Richie was stationed. And sure enough, Richie spotted the man's vehicle, pulled him over, and arrested him on the spot. The girl was safely returned to Minnesota. The racial alert in Utah was later changed to the Amber Alert after federal legislation was passed. In late August, 2007, 25 years after Rachel Runyon's abduction and murder, a team of cold case experts took a fresh look at the case, and they talked about the possibility of exhuming Rachel's remains, but they never did. They also had hoped to re-examine Rachel's clothing using new methods, but it's unclear if that was done. It wasn't until 2011 when police got what they thought might be a big break in the case.

A top suspect in the Runyon case was arrested in Pennsylvania, following an Amber alert. The suspect had taken his five-month-old son without permission after assaulting his girlfriend. Police were able to locate the man in his son who was unharmed. A quick check of this suspect revealed that he looked very similar to the description of Rachel's abductor. He was a truck driver and he had lived in the Sunset, Utah area, around the time of Rachel's abduction and murder. Police also found out that one of his... his relatives owned a car that closely matched the one the abductor was seen driving away in.

Police have stated there just is not enough evidence to charge this man with Rachel's murder and they've never publicly identified him. But for what it's worth, he's pretty easy to find if you do some digging and he does look remarkably close to the sketch of Rachel's abductor. In 2016, Mitchell Park in Sunset was renamed the Rachel Runyon Memorial Park. The park sits behind Doxy Elementary School, and it was this area where Rachel was kidnapped. A man named Alan Glynes, who resides nearby in Ogden, came up with the idea to rename it. Although he had never met the Runyon family, he had watched Rachel's story on Unsolved Mysteries.

He decided to research the case and discovered that it was still unsolved. Alan wanted to come up with a way to get people talking about the case again, thus the idea to rename the park. Located at 200 West 975 North in Sunset. Alan gained approval from Sunset City officials, the Davis School District, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because its parking lot borders the park. Elaine Runyon, along with a small committee and advocates such as Ed. Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, helped with the planning. At the park's ribbon cutting ceremony on August 26, 2016,

several safety education boosts were set up, and the Runyon's released 34 purple balloons, one for each year that Rachel had been gone. Her brothers, Justin, and Nathan, were present along with their own families. More if we know this case is very sad. But when you think about, you know, how many years have gone by, you really get a sense of it when talking about the fact that Rachel's brothers, Justin and Nathan, now have their own families. You know, that gives you a sense of how much time has gone by in this case. During Utah's 2017 general session, representative Steve Handy sponsored legislation that would make

August 26th, Rachel Runyon Missing and Exploited Children Day in Utah. It was created to remind people to always think of child safety and honor Rachel's memory. The first official Rachel Runyon Missing and Exploited Children's Day was held at the Rachel Runyon Memorial Park on August 26th, 2017, the 35th anniversary of her abduction. In 2019, a cold case unit once again began looking into Rachel's murder, authorities have not given up on finding her killer. A $50,000 reward is currently being offered through the Sunset Police Department for any information that leads to an arrest and conviction. If you have any information about this case, please contact the Sunset Utah Police Department at 801-825-1620. Unfortunately, as we see in May 7, Utah,

many cases in which a child is murdered. Rachel's parents, Jeff and Elaine, eventually divorced, and then went on to remarry other people. Elaine is a successful realtor and insurance rep. She married Daniel Simmons on April 12, 1997. Although they later divorced, two remain best friends until Daniel's death in 2014. And like you mentioned more, if you see this in a lot of these types of cases, right? Marriage is hard in and of itself, right? It takes a lot of work, a lot of marriages don't survive. But when you add in this type of tragedy, the murder of a child, I just think it makes it so much tougher. And I think the evidence is borne out in the cases like this that we cover. So much grief that people have to work through, it must make it very hard to also at the same

time keep the marriage alive. Yeah, that that's a lot of burden on a marriage, no matter how great that marriage might be when you lose a child under these kind of circumstances. The depression and pain and blame and everything else probably just adds a whole other set of issues. On December 22nd, 2010, Jeff Runyon was 55 years old and he found himself in some hot water. He was arrested in charged with assault after he allegedly drove his pickup truck into the side of a dairy office. This happened after Jeff became angry when a neighbor ran over his daughter's duck and killed it. Now, no one was injured, but around this same time, in an unrelated incident, Jeff was charged with two counts of violation of a protection order and one count of providing false information

to police. Both of these were misdemeanors. According to police, the charges stemmed from a packet of wanted posters and letters. Jeff had mailed out earlier that December to several media outlets. The documents accused his second ex-wife of child abuse and alienation of parental affection. On top of that, Jeff also faced two counts of child abuse. abuse, based on allegations that he physically abused his then 22-month-old son in March of 2010. Rachel's brother, Justin, is now in his early 40s. Nathan is now in his late 30s. As we mentioned earlier, they were both married with families of their own. Elaine and her son still reside in the sunset area.

It's been almost 38 years since Rachel Runyon's murder, far too long for her family to wait for justice. For Rachel's family, they were all affected by the same. the loss in different ways. It affects each one of us a different way, like each of our family members took a different scar, and mine was I was fighting to save the world and save all the children because where were the mothers about kidnapping when this happened? I didn't know anything about such horrible things. Not at all.

and so I turned into a crusader, and I don't know, my husband at the time, almost seemed like he tried to hide from the limelight, because you don't want to be in it, but we knew publicity was the only way to get our child back to get the word out, because we knew we couldn't be everywhere, and she could have been taken to cross borders, a rich family to adopt her out of the country. We didn't know. We had to try everything we could.

My sons had different issues. My youngest son, who was 18 months when she got taken, was like he became somewhat of a celebrity. everyone's oh my goodness you're Rachel's brother and so he kind of had that kind of status and my other son

the one that did the composite and you know went under hypnotism hypnotism and saw the guy and talked to the guy and tried to give us most

the information he had a lot of trouble and he took on saving people. Like, I know of eight lives he has saved, whether it was in a drowning or someone having a heart attack while he was on an eagle scout 50-mileer. So many stories, me, you know, in a snowmobiling mishap in the middle of nowhere. He got stuck, I got stuck, and he had to crawl half, a mile to find me.

You know, he was ready to build an igloo and keep us in there for the night until help could come. Like, he's just spent his whole life helping people like that. He just feels like he wishes he could have saved his sister. But he went to some landmark courses and learned that he was five years old. he did everything a five-year-old knew to do. He came and told his mother. And I was five.

I didn't do anything wrong, you know? Elaine Runyon knows that what happened to her daughter is very scary to anyone with children. She has advice for parents that wrestle with keeping their kids sheltered and letting them live their lives. And it's basically that you can't keep them in a bubble, but you still need to be vigilant. You have to have a balance and, I guess, age appropriate. type of thing and just they can't live in a bubble. I mean, do you think I wish for a minute that I hadn't let them go over there?

I wish I could change that, but I can't. So what am I supposed to do? I put every ounce of energy into trying to, you know, find my child and get her back. And it was the most horrible thing, but there was no way around it. I had to go through it. And those kids need to be able to play. But they can't play like I did. We would go play in the fields and out at the sewer drains.

And, you know, we just had to be home by dinner time, you know, when we heard the whistle blow. We would no more let our kids do that now as the man in the moon. Even at 15 feet from my backyard fence, I still was very careful. I'm very conscientious, and they knew that, and they cannot believe it even happened to our family. But the fact that it did made everyone more aware that if it could happen to me, it could happen to them. And so everyone became more conscientious

because they just knew how careful I was. And I'd go grocery shop, and then all three kids would be in the cart and trying to fit the food in between. I mean, John Walsh, their son was right shopping with the mom, and he just was off over at another section, and before he knew it, he was gone and found with his head amputated. Keeping Rachel's story out there that this does happen to good people

and to people that are careful, that have families, that have homes, that just good people. We just had a horrible thing happen because some bad person entered our territory and, you know, took a chance and I guess got away with it so far, but he won't get away with it forever. Elaine told us how proud she was to be part of protecting kids

while honoring her daughter's life. I just felt like fighting back. So I started with legislation. whether it was House Bill 209, the Comprehensive Child Kidnapping and Sexual Abuse Act, or the Missing Children's Act, which we passed nationally, and then we passed statewide,

and so they sync with each other, and you can put, you know, the kids in the database or the perpetrators and matched fingerprints, and we're always doing something, and we've had kids, safety fairs, and we've done fingerprinting, and I've been involved with people like Sam's Club that if I raise 1,000, they match 1,000.

I work with Representative Steve Handy, and we've got the Rachel Runyon and missing and exploited Children's Day passed, and it's August 26 every year, and it's for the state of Utah, and our goal was to not only honor Rachel, but to keep the word and the education out about missing children that this does happen and that we do need to be careful and we need to keep that awareness out there to the public so they don't become complacent. And so I have an event on Saturday the 25th of August

to bring in some keynote speakers and Ed Smart's joining us and the chief of police over my daughter's case, the legislator rep, handy, and I've got just the mayor and Paul Murphy,

the former Amber Alert coordinator for the state of Utah. So we've got some neat people coming and we're going to just get educated again and you've got to keep it in front of people. And so that's another way. I do it, but I've spoken at the colleges and done kids safety at the schools and been involved with rad kids and just all angles of child safety.

It's been a, I guess, 36-year journey. All right, Morf. So that is the case of Rachel Runyon. It's a very difficult case. And you know it's going to be anytime you. you're talking about the abduction and murder of a young three-year-old. You know, these cases for me are tough, and I think they're tough for the audience as well. A three-year-old has never done anything to anyone in their short lifespan, right?

They don't have a beef. They haven't created animosity with another person. They're so innocent. They're so helpless at that age. that, you know, it adds an element to an unsolved case, or to a solved case, for that matter. And Rachel's case is one that's always stuck with me personally. When I saw that Unsolved Mysteries episode, when it came out, I think I was only 17 or 18 at the time, and I didn't have children, obviously.

But for me, it instilled something into me that whenever I did have kids, I would, keep a very, very close eye on them. And I still do to this day. And it's in, it's in big part because of Rachel's case. Well, and it's also one of those cases where people start questioning their actions. And I think you heard some of this from Elaine. And I'm sure she has felt just a tremendous amount of guilt over the years. But it's a balancing act. You have young children that above all else, you want to keep safe. But at the same time, you can't put them in a bubble, right? You can't keep them safe that way.

They do have to experience parts of life. And it's that effort of experiencing life that sometimes puts us all in a situation where we could run into a monster. You know, my oldest daughter is 19 years old. And I still worry about the same thing. You know, doing something that she wants to do. Okay, there's a possibility that by doing it, by going to this place, she is somehow making herself a little more vulnerable to a very bad person.

but does that mean that she shouldn't be allowed to experience whatever that is? It's a question that all parents wrestle with. And you think about wrestling with it with young children. It never really ends. I don't care if my daughter's 40. I'm probably still going to wrestle with some of these questions. I just think it's natural. It's that protective nature in all of them.

us. But like I said, it's a bouncing act. And if there's any good news that we should point out, it's that stranger abductions and murders of children is very rare. It doesn't happen a lot, but we hear about it. We fear it. In most cases, children that are abducted are abducted by someone they know. But we do know that these people are out there, and every once in a while, it does happen. So I think it's what makes us stay vigilant with our kids. Yeah. And that's all you can do, right? You protect them as much as you can. And you heard Elaine talk about it. You know, you do have to be vigilant. You do have to keep your head on a swivel. That's something that I say a lot. Unfortunately, some of these crimes happen. And was there a way

to stop it, I don't know. Sometimes there are just horrendous tragedies. And you have to deal with those. Pick up the pieces, go on with your life the best way you can. More if this is a case like many that we covered where people haven't given up. They are still trying to figure out what happened to Rachel Runyon, even to this day. Cold case investigators keep reexeasing. examining evidence, looking for new evidence. The one thing that we didn't talk about because we really didn't find much information about it was DNA. You know, do they have any DNA?

Obviously, if they do and it's usable, they would have run it through all the various systems, meaning no match. But does that mean it wouldn't be helpful, you know, at some point in the future? no, because we know a perpetrator could end up being put into the system sometime in the future. We just don't know what they have. Yeah, the police have been very tight-lipped and kept things close to the vest in this case. But, you know, there are rumblings of continued work going on in the case and progress in the case. And it hasn't been forgotten.

It's not sitting on a shelf someplace. So, you know, fingers crossed that this is one of the cases. that we see solved. I think we're all so used to seeing all these cold cases being solved every week in the news. And I personally, I hope this is one that's going to be solved soon. Yeah, I'm right with you. Special thanks goes out to Elaine Runyon for joining us in this episode. Thanks also goes at the Dobie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants.

As always, if you love the show and you haven't done so yet, go out, take a few minutes. Give us a five-star rating. That helps the show, as does Word of Mavis. keep telling your friends about the podcast. 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 searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. All right. Morf, that is it for another episode of Criminology, but you and I will be back with everyone next Saturday night with an old new episode. And it's episode

100. It's a big one, Mike. Yeah, it's a big milestone, right? To get to a hundred episodes. It's kind of amazing. And we've got something special picked out that I think all the listeners will find interesting. Right. So everybody get ready for that episode next Saturday night. So for Mike, and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care of everyone.