Dateline Originals - Dateline: Missing in America - Ep. 2: Heidi Planck

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

38-year-old California mother Heidi Planck was last seen leaving her 10-year-old son’s football game in Downey, California on October 17, 2021. Her ex-husband, Jim Wayne, reported her missing three days later when she failed to pick their son up from school. Hours after Heidi was last seen, her dog was found on the 28th floor of an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles. Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz speaks with Jim Wayne and one of Heidi’s close friends. Heidi is 5’3” and 120 lbs., with blonde hair and blue eyes. If you have information on Heidi’s case, please contact the Los Angeles Police Department at [phone] or the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at 1-800-222-TIPS.This episode was originally published on July 26, 2022. 

It's the do-si-do of divorced parents everywhere. Dropping off your child at your ex's for the weekend. Picking them up from sports practice or ballet class a few days later. It's all part of the well-choreographed dance that keeps a family humming and children secure in knowing exactly when they'll next see mom or dad. On the cool, clear afternoon of Wednesday, October 20th, 2021, it was Heidi Plank's turn for pickup. The 38-year-old mom who worked in finance was scheduled to collect her 10-year-old son,

Bond, from his private school in Los Angeles. Except that as the time for pickup approached, Heidi's ex-husband, Jim Wayne, felt something was off. I talked to him on Tuesday night, and I said, did you not talk to your mom last night? And he goes, no, I didn't. I texted her, but she didn't text me back. I said, well, did you not talk to your mom last night? And he goes, no, I didn't. I text her, but she didn't text me back. I said, well, did you text her tonight? He goes, yeah, I text her tonight

and she didn't respond to me. And I said, hmm, okay. I text her that night and she didn't respond to me. And I would always get some type of response. So I'm on alert, but I'm not on high alert yet. Soon, though, he would be. Everyone would. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Dateline. We're taking a deep dive into stories you brought us on social media

as part of our Missing in America digital series. Stories of people who have simply vanished. What we're hoping to do is shake free some information. So listen closely, because you might be able to help find Heidi and ease the excruciating burden of those left behind. This is the story of a mystery unfolding in the middle of what seemed an ordinary day. It happened right in LA, right between the places she was usually expected to be. A story of family and friends banding together to find a loving mom. Some thought she was in witness protection or some thought she just left. But I know Heidi, she would not leave her son like that. It's a tale that touches on what might be a major fraud scheme. The business is the target of an

ongoing federal financial inquiry. And it definitely involves a luxury high-rise and a party that might have turned dangerous. There was weed parties a lot. You're like, oh my god, what's what's going on? On that Wednesday afternoon in October 2021, Jim Wayne was concerned because for two days his ex-wife Heidi, who shared custody of their son Bond, hadn't been returning texts from either of them. Jim called Bond's school and asked that if Heidi came to pick him up, as she was scheduled to do, that they not release Bond until Jim got there so she could tell them both what had been going on. I think it would be

a good idea if she explained herself why she hasn't spoken to Bond since Sunday. And I'll be there at pickup time, which Wednesday afternoon is 2.45. So I'm there. Jim was there.

Jim was there. Heidi never showed. Heidi's friend, Natalie John, who's godmother to Bond, says there is no way Heidi would ever miss pickup for the child who was everything to her. Her whole life changed when she had her son. Yes, he was the only unconditional love she had. Natalie says she and Heidi met in 2008 when Heidi worked in real estate and showed her some homes. Natalie calls the blonde, blue-eyed Heidi a bright light and a powerful inspiration. From the instant I met her, she had an intoxicating smile. We were two girls in Los Angeles at that time with just a few friends,

and so we really connected. She was a hard worker. She would get up in the morning, go work out, and get to work. That's one of the things I really admire about her and motivated me within myself to get up and work out and go to work. It doesn't matter what her day was, she was working. In contrast to her work ethic, Natalie says that when it came to parenting, Heidi was on the relaxed side, but was devoted to her only child. That was her boy. That was his best friend. I'm sorry. Her ex, Jim, agrees Heidi was a loving mother, but he says the birth of Bond in

2011 had brought with it an emotional upheaval so intense, it still lingered 10 years later. I think the postpartum has either taken over or is kind of like full blossoming. I don't think she ever recovered. I think she was still in that space. Tell me how that manifested itself. It was like I'd hear something at 2 o'clock in the morning I'd go out and she'd be like scrubbing the floor.

We had a full-time nanny. Took care of the cleaning of the house. She would get a little crazy with making sure everything was, you know, done. Like, really way overboard, I thought. Natalie John knew all about Heidi's pain. Heidi didn't take the time to heal.

She had postpartum. She didn't realize she had it. And I don't think Heidi took even time off to take care of her body. It was like she went right back to work. She believes Heidi did eventually recover from depression. But now, years later, after Heidi missed pickup for Bond, both she and Jim had no reason to worry. Because that just wasn't like Heidi. Now I'm on high alert. Now I know something's wrong. Immediately, he filed a missing persons report with the LAPD.

And he thought back to the last time he'd seen her. It was the previous Sunday at Bond's football game. Heidi had come in her gray Range Rover, along with her dog, Seven. By the way, if you're thinking that a child named Bond and a dog named Seven, as in 007, indicates Mom might have had a slight fixation on a certain British spy with a license to kill, you're right. Nine years post-divorce, Jim says his relationship with Heidi was mostly amicable. He could still read her. And on that day, he says, she seemed antsy. She was a little frenetic. I see her on the opposite side of the field. Then I saw her walking up in the stands. And then I see her back down in the field.

This didn't coincide with where they were playing the football game on the field. And then all of a sudden, it was halftime. And then she said, I gotta go. And I thought to myself, where the hell are you going on a Sunday? What do you have to do? And she left. Where was Heidi rushing off to in the middle of her son's game? Her friend Natalie says Heidi often ran errands for her boss on a moment's notice.

All kinds of errands. We'll get back to that later. Okay, so what if this wasn't errands for her boss on a moment's notice. All kinds of errands. We'll get back to that later. Okay, so what if this wasn't errands? Could she have been heading out of town, taking a trip? She did have three days before it was her turn to take Bond again. Jim says that when they were married, Heidi stuck close to home and to regular routines. After their split,

he describes her as being constantly in motion. She was always doing something. She was in Hawaii. She was in Cabo. She was doing this. She was doing that. She was going to San Diego.

She was going down to Orange County. Now that Heidi was missing, Jim realized her car might be a way to find her. We knew she had a Range Rover. And I said, well, Range Rover's going to have GPS. He checked with the LAPD and says he heard this. The detective said that feature was never turned on.

And I said, does that mean somebody disabled it? It's like, we can't tell you that. We can just tell you it wasn't turned on. Maybe it was never turned on. Maybe it was never turned on. Right. So I said, there's an Apple phone. There's an Apple watch.

There's all this Apple stuff. And that's the part that I had given to the detectives and said, you know, that could be another avenue. Unfortunately, none of those was set to reveal its location either. To Jim, all of it was a sign that something was seriously wrong. The car? Disabled. The watch? Disabled. The laptop? Dis disabled. The iPhone, disabled. I'm sorry, this is a little weird to me. You think that's all not a coincidence? I don't think it's a coincidence at all.

Somebody's trying to keep anyone from finding her. Somebody's trying to cover their tracks. Natalie found that disturbing as well. It was really strange that her GPS did not work. Her Apple watch, she had an Apple watch on. Really strange that the location wasn't working. Really, really strange and really worrisome. Jim reached out to Heidi's friends to see if anyone might know anything. It was during one of those conversations that he had an epiphany about Heidi's dog, Seven, who'd been with Heidi at Bond's football game. I said, wait a minute.

Maybe the dog's chipped. And she goes, yeah, all you'd have to do is find out who your vet is. I was like, that's easy. He guessed Heidi would use the same vet he did, and he was right. And I asked if our dog was chipped, and she goes, yeah, what's the dog's name? And I said, Seven. And she goes, oh yeah, Heidi, yeah, your dog's chipped. Jim called the chip company to add his phone number to Seven's contact information.

They said, okay, normally you could just add another number onto this, but not in this case. And I said, why not? And the girl said, well, the dog's already been lost and found by somebody. Jim Wayne had just learned that not only was his ex-wife's dog named Seven chipped, he'd also been found. That was pretty big news. That was huge news. They told me, yes, this person had brought the dog in. I was like, great.

So where was Seven? Not near Heidi's home. Nowhere near her son's football game. No. Heidi's home, nowhere near her son's football game, no. Seven had been found wandering the 28th floor hallway of a luxury high-rise in downtown Los Angeles, some 12 miles away from where Heidi had been last seen. Had Heidi ever mentioned that building to you? No.

That building have any significance that you're aware of? Nope, and not to bond either. Nope. Assuming it was Heidi who brought Seven to the high rise, what could have drawn her downtown on a Sunday? Could it have been a work errand? Since 2016, she'd been working at a small investment advisory firm called Camden Capital Partners. Her employment was relevant because, according to Natalie, the company kept Heidi very busy. It sounds like she did all kinds of things for her boss. She went above and beyond. Her phone was ringing 24-7. We would be at lunch. She said, Natalie, I have to take this call. I have to go. She was his right hand. She was doing everything for him.

Although Natalie says Heidi did everything from pick up her boss's kids to collect money for him, she also makes it clear that Heidi wasn't just some girl Friday at Camden. Over time, she took on more and more responsibility. She was basically the controller. She handled all his taxes, all the LLCs, everything financially that came in. Except Heidi's ex-husband Jim Wayne says she didn't have anything close to the training required for that big title.

Heidi was named by the media being a controller of a company. And not to be disparaging to Heidi, but she wasn't a controller. There's no possible way that she could be a controller of a company. That's a big job. That is a big job, and you're saying that's too big for her. She was never trained to do that. She didn't have a degree in accounting. She didn't have any kind of postgraduate degree.

No, sir. She wasn't a CPA? No. No, she was not. Because you're right. The title controller suggests somebody with some significant financial knowledge and training. Correct. You'd have to have significant schooling for that and experience. Jim says Heidi expressed one very particular concern before she disappeared.

She was extremely worried and I think, quite frankly, scared that she had so much on her plate at work. And when I say that, I'll be a little bit more specific. She was extremely worried about her name on the dotted line for the person for service of process with internal revenue. Was Heidi concerned about representing Camden Capital Partners on documents sent to the government? If so, it might be because Camden was potentially implicated in an SEC civil case, alleging a fraud scheme amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Shortly after her disappearance, Heidi's home was searched by police and federal agents,

and at least one company laptop was recovered. Is it possible Heidi had something incriminating about the company in her possession? No one's telling, yet. Jim Wayne says her boss very badly wanted back whatever company property might have been in Heidi's home. You know, he wants all of his computers and all of his files. I would too if I were under federal investigation. Right. been in Heidi's home. You know, he wants all of his computers and all of his files. I would too if I were under federal investigation. Right. In fact, the laptop has become an issue in the SEC investigation, with Heidi's boss claiming that the government needed a warrant to obtain it.

Eric Leonard is an investigative reporter for NBC's Los Angeles station KNBC, and he's been reporting this case deeply since its early days. She's the controller of a company that's facing a significant federal inquiry. And it does make you think. It seems like it's an area that would have to be looked at if you were trying to figure out exactly why this person in the middle of an ordinary day would vanish from the face of the earth. There may be more to the story

than any of us knows. That is, of course, possible. But as of now, we've found zero evidence to suggest that anyone at Heidi's company was involved in her disappearance. Police have not named any suspects or persons of interest. There is also nothing to suggest Heidi was ever called as a witness by the FBI or SEC. And the government's case was going on and continues to go on without her.

Which brings us to another piece of this story, one we know much more about, one that provides some critical clues about what might have happened to Heidi Plank. It has to do with that high-rise where her dog was found, a building with high-tech security, including visitor logs, key cards, and cameras. What story would they tell? A dog may be an unusual clue in the world of missing persons, but when Heidi Plank's pup Seven was discovered in downtown L.A.,

it broke open her case. So right away I called the detectives and told them, and that's what got this whole thing into full swing. Finding Seven. Seven had been found wandering an upper floor of Hope and Flower, a luxury high-rise complex named for the Los Angeles intersection where it's located. It is within blocks of some of the most high-profile entertainment and sports venues that make up part of L.A.'s newly revitalized downtown. The complex boasts a pair of skyscrapers with sweeping views, swimming pools, and what it calls unrivaled amenities. Here's KNBC's Eric Leonard.

This is, you know, within a few blocks of the Ritz-Carlton. This building we're talking about, this is not some seedy place. This is by any definition ritzy. It is. This is a place that you wouldn't live unless you had quite a bit of money to spend. Heidi's ex-husband Jim Wayne headed to Hope and Flower to retrieve Seven from the couple who'd found him and called the chip company.

That couple mentioned something interesting. The building was outfitted with multiple layers of security. It seemed no one would be walking the hallways of Hope and Flower without their movements being tracked very closely. The husband said, just so you know, you have to have a key card to get in this door. Then you have to get by that guy, and you have to go through those double doors with a key card.

Then when you get onto an elevator, then you have to use your key card again to get to your specific floor. Reporter Eric Leonard says the building's high-tech security became central to the investigation of Heidi's disappearance. The issues about access became really critical for the investigators. Who could have allowed her into that building, who could have brought her to a particular place, and using that timeline, figuring out who could have had access to those floors where the dog was found. Detectives weren't the only ones descending on Hope and Flower. A group of Heidi's friends soon arrived downtown, knocking on doors and handing out flyers.

They reached out to the media, too. And those efforts cut through some of the bureaucratic fog that often surrounds the beginning of a missing persons case. Because it was one of dozens, if not hundreds, of missing persons reports that come into the police department every week. It really wasn't until some of her friends began shaking the trees a little bit and cold calling newsrooms that got us interested in finding out what had happened in her particular case. That's how the Heidi Plank story became big news in LA, where it's played out on KNBC. They're looking for any sign of Heidi Plank, who was last seen October 17th after leaving her son's football game in Downey. One thing Natalie did was ask local businesses if she could review their security video from the day Seven was found.

And suddenly, on camera, there was Heidi. They found this video clip that I believe was recorded from a drugstore or convenience store that shows her walking down this particular alley that is right next to the apartment building where the dog was found. In the video, you see her and you see the dog, and there's a timestamp. That timestamp. That timestamp said 6.22 p.m. In the video, the petite Heidi is wearing the same jeans and t-shirt she had on at her son's football game. And she's clearly healthy and seems unperturbed.

Yeah, she's not running away from anything. It looks casual, like it could be any one of us just going from point A to point B. Eric Leonard says police learned about other security videos from cameras inside Hope and Flower, videos that also showed Heidi. They showed other people too, of course. And that digital footage, combined with other security data, was about to provide critical information about who, out of hundreds and hundreds of residents there, might have been in contact with Heidi Plank. And by combining the videos that captured who goes in and out, the access controls that record date, time, doorways of who goes in and out, the access controls that record date, time,

doorways of who goes in and who goes out, they were able to narrow down who could have been involved and began to focus the investigation on them. Involved in what? Eric says investigators started to believe Heidi had gone there to attend some sort of gathering. Tell me about how we got to the idea of some sort of party there.

Leveraging the information they got from the building, which includes profiles of the people who live there, visitor logs, all those kinds of things. It was very clear where Heidi had gone. And pretty early on, there was a recognition that there were lots of people there. There were a number of people to question. Heidi at a party? Maybe. But her friend Natalie says,

not dressed like that. That's not the Heidi I know. If Heidi was going to something, a gathering, if she was invited to some social event, Heidi would go home and change and leave the dog at home. That's what I question a lot. Why would you take a dog to a party? Eric Leonard says LAPD homicide detectives were starting to believe that not only was there a party at Hope and Flower, but that it may have involved drugs. According to one former resident, that's not exactly a shock. Jennifer, who asked

us not to use her last name, had been living at Hope and Flower for almost a year, when Heidi's believed to have entered the building in mid-October of 2021. Jennifer never saw Heidi, but she definitely saw many other tenants and says they were of a type. The people there were hip and trendy and driving their fancy cars. You know, just a younger, hipper, Instagram-worthy crowd.

Jennifer says there was indeed a big party scene at Hope and Flower, which she says smelled less like flowers and more like weed. Constantly. Oh, yeah. All the time. Oh, I smelled it. I had to, like, put towels covered up. There was weed parties a lot. You're like, oh, my God, what's going on? Did not feel safe. Other than marijuana, which is legal in California,

you get any sense that drugs are being used anywhere? I wouldn't be surprised. After talking with a number of people, investigators are now working off the theory that dangerous illegal drugs could have played a central role in what happened to Heidi Plank. Well, one of the things police started hearing from people who had been at that gathering was that she was there and something terrible happened to her. Yes. There was a pretty clear understanding amongst the investigators that she had attended this party or get-together and went into distress.

Had some kind of medical episode. This is where the police theory turns truly horrifying. And for one reason or another, nobody called 911 for help, and she died. For Heidi, it would be an unthinkably tragic fate. One Eric Leonard says quite possibly could have been avoided. And the thinking is maybe illegal drugs were being used, and people thought, I will bring down a world of hurt if I call 911 for this woman who maybe took too much of the wrong thing or overdosed in some way. Yeah, that's a real distinct possibility and an awful scenario.

What could the wrong thing have been? Eric says investigators think that Heidi may have taken what she thought was one particular drug, but in fact ingested something laced with a lethal amount of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that drug dealers sometimes mix with other drugs because it's a cheap high, and they don't always announce that switch to their customers. Again, this is only a theory based on conversations police have had with people believed to be at the party. Knowing for sure would require an autopsy, but that would require finding Heidi. Police were able to confirm that she, after she died, was likely put into an upper floor trash chute and her body fell into a giant industrial-sized dumpster and trash compactor in the ground floor of the building. And while the police were on scene looking for clues and evidence,

they found something that confirmed their belief that this is what happened. Eric Leonard surmises that what they found was some kind of DNA evidence. That theory would explain the most obvious fact in this case, the one revealed by all those cameras. Heidi is seen arriving, but not leaving. I mean, from the beginning, that was the entire focus of the investigation there. She's going in, never goes out. There had to be an explanation. We wanted to know what management at Hope and Flower had to say about all of this, but they did not respond to our request for comment. By the time LAPD homicide detectives heard the story of what might have happened to Heidi's body,

the building's dumpsters, filled with trash, had been collected several times and taken to a landfill outside of L.A. Police thought they had a pretty significant break there because each of these dumpsters is tracked by GPS, by the company that owns them. Not only that, the places that they are taken to be emptied are plotted and marked by the company that runs the landfill. There was no question about when the trash container left the building and exactly where it was dumped in a landfill near Castaic, which is 50 miles north of downtown L.A. The LAPD sent dozens and dozens of detectives up to the landfill they closed off the whole area where this happened they spent weeks and weeks and weeks unearthing it layer by layer by layer they looked they dug they could not find Heidi

maybe she was there somewhere but maybe they were wrong. And then it rained quite a lot for Los Angeles. And then the search was suspended. Jim, the father of Heidi's son, Bond, was about to get the devastating news. The detectives had me come downtown. They sat me down with four detectives and the chief of the homicide division and said, we just want to let you know, we do not think that Heidi is any longer alive. That was a blow.

Difficult to hear. Yeah. Did the nexus of Heidi and drugs explain her disappearance? Did that even make sense for this incredibly hardworking and deeply devoted mom? Jim says, it's not impossible to believe. Far as you know, was she a recreational drug user? I do know for sure she was an Adderall user. In fact, Jim says Heidi had multiple prescriptions for the drug

obtained through a practice known as doctor shopping. You get one prescription through your insurance and then the rest of them you have to pay for in cash for the drug, obtained through a practice known as doctor shopping. You get one prescription through your insurance, and then the rest of them you have to pay for in cash because they can't go through that central database. Natalie sees her friend differently. I never saw her use drugs. The only thing I saw, and this was prescribed by her doctor, and she never abused it whenever I was with her, was Adderall doctor and she never abused it whenever I was with her was Adderall. And she's been using that for ages.

But she's never abused it within the time we were friends. And recreational drugs, never? Never. So what happened to Heidi? Where is she? If she's no longer alive, where are her remains? And if she is still alive, then what exactly is going on here? What we do know is that Heidi Plank, the loving mom and the big James Bond fan, seems to have found some kind of real-life danger on what seemed an ordinary afternoon.

For her loved ones, the wait for answers is agony. Every minute, every second that pass, you wonder if there's still hope. And I hope there's hope, but for me, I'm afraid that hope is just going away a bit. For now, this is the story, as missing persons cases always are, about the pain of those left behind. Of a friend haunted by her dreams. I literally can hear her voice in the middle of the night and and I'll get up and just chills running down my body, and I can't go back to sleep. Of a young son who misses his mother.

There's a little boy that's waiting. He just wants to know what's going on with his mom. And of course, a father struggling to help his boy through a situation no family should ever have to face. What are you telling him? Exactly the truth. We don't know. And when we do, I'll make sure you're the first one to know. It's a very difficult conversation. And if you're an 11-year-old boy, it's even got to be worse to hear. But I thought honesty was the best way to be. And this way I don't get caught with my pants down like I was lying.

I've told the truth. I think you're 100% doing the right thing here. I'm trying. This is where you can help. If you know something about Heidi's disappearance, call the LAPD at 213-486-6840. There's also an anonymous tip line, Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers, at 1-800-222-TIPS.

That's 1-800-222-8477. Or you can go online to www.lacrimestoppers.org. Thanks for listening. To learn more about other people we've covered in our Missing in America series, go to datelinemissinginamerica.com. There, you'll be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future. Missing in America is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Lorna Graham is the producer of this episode. Jonathan Moser is the audio editor. Logan Johnson is associate producer. Matthew Moser is the audio editor. Logan Johnson is associate producer.

Matthew Winter is the assistant audio editor. Susan Nall is senior producer. Adam Gorfain is co-executive producer. Liz Cole is executive producer. And David Corvo is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, Bryson Barnes is technical director. Sound mixing by Bob Mallory. Nina Bisbano is associate producer. you