Going West: True Crime - Chelsea Grimm // 428

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

In September of 2023, a 32-year-old woman left California to embark on a solo cross-country road trip, headed for a wedding in Connecticut. When the journey proved too troublesome, she called her parents to tell them she was heading back. But after racking up a few strange encounters with locals in Arizona, and two slashed tires, she was never heard from again. This is the story of Chelsea Grimm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going West. Hello everybody. Hope you're doing well. Big thank you to Paige, Kelly and David for recommending today's case. This one happened only last year. It's been on our radar for a long time. Our first email about this, I think was from Paige as it was happening last October. So we are finally covering it and just keep in mind that this is a very new

story. So make sure that you share and tell a friend. Yes, please make sure that you share today's story because Chelsea's family are still searching for answers. Yeah, this one has a lot of elements to it. So I'm excited to see what you guys think after we, you know, lay it all out and be able to talk to you guys about it over on our socials. So don't forget to go over there after this episode is over so we can chat about it. Alright guys this is episode 428 of Going West so let's get into it. Your teen requested a ride, but this time, not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account.

It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your team to your Uber account today. This episode is brought to you by LEGO Fortnight. LEGO Fortnight is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of LEGO Play and Fortnite, created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in.

Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android, and play LEGO Fortnite for free, rated ESRB E10+. Plus. In September of 2023, a 32-year-old woman left California to embark on a solo cross-country trip, headed for a wedding in Connecticut. When the journey proved too troublesome, she called her parents to tell them she was heading back. But after racking up a few strange encounters with locals in Arizona and two slash tires, she was never heard from again. Chelsea Kirkman Grimm was born on March 22, 1991 in Stamford, Connecticut, joining parents Janet and Stephen and an older sister named Sarah. Chelsea is remembered by friends as gentle, creative, and kind, but according to one source,

she did exhibit some behavioral issues in her adolescence that led her parents apparently to send her to a wilderness camp. I feel like there should be a different name for that because this is not what you're thinking if you don't already know what a wilderness camp is, uh, because these are residential camps for children whose parents believe they require regimented and borderline militaristic care due to misbehavior, mental illness, or substance abuse. But these camps are unregulated and have been highly scrutinized by former

attendees. Many who suffered abuse or even witnessed death at the hands of camp counselors. Yeah, actually what's really interesting is that I watched this, you probably watched it with me, that Netflix documentary called Hell Camp Teen Nightmare. Okay, no, I never ended up watching that, but it came out very end of 2023. Yeah, it's really, really interesting. It's actually about these unregulated camps and just how like dangerous they can be. And yeah, it's pretty terrifying to be honest with you guys. Yeah, that was when it came out, it was super popular.

There was a lot of buzz around it. So I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen it and know like how horrific this type of camp, if you can even call it, that can be. And I know Paris Hilton has spoken out a lot against these camps because of her own deeply traumatic experience with a Utah program as a teenager like it is just unbelievable and I mean some attendees have also taken their own lives after attending these programs I don't want to keep saying camps it's not a camp like yeah that's why I mean a

wilderness camp is such a weird title when you think about that you think about like oh this is like a pleasant wilderness camp where I get to learn how to tie knots and climb a fucking tree. But build a fire. Yeah, it's nothing like that. Yeah, they are horrific. So if you haven't seen that and you want to again, it's on Netflix. It's a documentary. Is it a series? No, it's it's actually a documentary. OK, cool. So it's called Hell Camp Teen Nightmare if you guys want to check it out. Teen nightmare if you guys want to check it out But I do want to add that it's important to note that this detail about Chelsea allegedly attending this

Camp has not been confirmed by her family, but it could be relevant if true So we wanted to include it because there are some sources that say that she allegedly attended wilderness camps in both Arizona and Montana and then she also attended boarding schools in both Arizona and Montana, and then she also attended boarding schools in both France and South Africa. But after graduating high school, Chelsea moved to New York City to pursue a degree in psychology at Pace University and went on to attend graduate school at New York University, graduating with a master's degree in social work. Because Chelsea really led her life with empathy and was eager to give back to people, University graduating with a master's degree in social work because Chelsea really led her life with empathy and was eager to give back to people, especially

teens who were struggling. So staying in the city after college, Chelsea landed a job working for the New York City Department of Education as a 12th grade social worker and in addition to her job and her, you know, philanthropic efforts, Chelsea was an artist and a spiritual person with a keen eye for art. I mean, she loved to paint, take photographs, and write poetry. Yeah, and a lot of that artistic side of her is going to come out in this episode, so you guys will see. Yes, indeed.

Well, in 2020, Chelsea wanted a change of scenery, so she moved to the west coast with her boyfriend at the time, settling in Ocean Beach, which is a seaside neighborhood of northwest San Diego. She was working as a licensed clinical social worker, spending her free time going to the beach, cooking, and honing her artistic skills. But in the midst of the pandemic and navigating a breakup from the man that she had just moved there with, Chelsea found herself kind of struggling. Her friends and family both admit that Chelsea suffered bouts of depression and anxiety, but after her breakup she started seeing a new guy named Philip, or PJ Brenner, who basically

calls himself a musician. Well PJ was constantly struggling financially, and Chelsea noticed that this guy was really starting to take advantage of her. And according to their neighbor, PJ was actually selling crystal meth from her apartment. So at first he seems like this, I like by the way that you said, calls himself a musician. You know, he's coming across as this loose artistic guy, and then he just kind of turns out to be a total shithead. Yeah, he's basically just turning into a freeloader, and she's kind of starting to feel like, you know what,

maybe this guy isn't really trying to be a musician. Maybe he just needs a place to stay. And sadly, it gets even worse. Yeah, exactly, because his erratic and drug-induced behavior quickly turned abusive. And soon, Chelsea had enough, so she called it quits, even taking out a restraining order against PJ. I mean, obviously, rightfully so.

But according to Chelsea, he continued to call and text her incessantly. And she even told her parents before her disappearance that basically she thought that he was stalking her. However, despite their tumultuous relationship, it did have one positive outcome. His pet bearded dragon, Rozzy, who ended up in Chelsea's care. Media outlets have frequently reported

that the bearded dragon's name is Rossy, Roxy, or Rox, but Chelsea herself told a police officer that her name is Rossy, so that's what we're going to call bearded dragon Rossy today. So with that, Chelsea wound up with a bearded dragon in the midst of this breakup, and she absolutely loved Rossy, and Rossy would often perch herself on Chelsea's shoulder. While tensions were reaching a boiling point with PJ, Chelsea had a family matter to tend to back on the East Coast, a wedding that was back in Connecticut. And remember, that's where she's from.

And so, obviously, she was planning on seeing her family there as well. Yeah, she was kind of alone in California. Even her parents lived in Connecticut and still live in Connecticut. So she had so many people to go back to. And basically Chelsea told a friend that she was planning on being back in New York City, remember, where she's also lived, from September 24th to September 26th of 2023. So just a couple of days. And then she was going to head to Connecticut for a wedding in the final days of September and then come back into the city again in New York City on October 1st. So from San Diego to New York to Connecticut to New York again and then back to San Diego.

Now she was originally planning on flying there, obviously that is definitely the easiest route, but if she flew she wasn't going to be able to take Rossie with her So ultimately Chelsea came to the conclusion that she needed to drive her car across the country in Order to make it to the wedding which you know is a great feat But also you get to drive through so many different landscapes and see a lot so it was an exciting idea as well Yeah, I mean it is a lot of work to go from one and or one side of the country to the other especially when you're driving but... And when you're alone you don't get any relief from somebody else taking over the wheel.

That's very true so obviously this was gonna take a long time to do and it was gonna be a tough, tough you know adventure but like you said she gets to see all these beautiful states and it's pretty fun. And then she can bring Rozzy, and just to give you guys an idea how long this journey is for those who don't know, Ocean Beach, California to Greenwich, Connecticut,

which is where Chelsea's parents resided at the time and currently reside, is 2,800 miles or 4,500 kilometers away totaling 41 hours without stops, reside is 2,800 miles or 4,500 kilometers away, totaling 41 hours without stops, meaning it would end up taking multiple days to make the journey because again, she doesn't have anybody to trade off driving with. So if she can only drive eight hours comfortably, she'll have to stop, get some rest, wake up, keep driving.

This is gonna take multiple days. And maybe, you know, while you're driving across country already, you wanna stop and see some sights. I mean, you might as well. Sure, could take weeks, honestly. Could take weeks, and many, many do it over the course of weeks to really enjoy everything that it has to offer.

So even though in a way this would have been a little bit daunting, Chelsea packed up her white Ford Escape and headed east. Her mom Janet explained, quote, she was originally going to fly, but she recently acquired a bearded dragon as a pet, and the airlines wouldn't let her take that animal on the plane. So the day that she was supposed to fly east for the wedding, she called and said, I'm going to drive across the country. And she said, I packed my car. I have my tent.

I have my sleeping bag. I might spend a couple nights in a hotel. I might camp. We're sort of going to see how that goes. And again, the wedding is at the end of the month. So even, even though she is leaving on September 24th, she can still make it if she does stop to sleep and stay in a hotel or camp. She's still going to make it to the wedding, but of course, I'm sure her parents got that

call and they were like, wait, you're supposed to arrive today and now you're going to leave today on a multi-day journey. But she was determined. So her parents didn't see anything particularly concerning with her plan. And her dad, Steven, later told a reporter quote. She was spontaneous. She changed plans a lot, but he admitted quote the magnitude of this adventure of driving across the country was a lot even for Chelsea.

But either way, Chelsea left San Diego on Sunday, September 24th, 2023 and arrived in Phoenix, Arizona on September 27th. So that is three days later. So her journey was off to a bit of a peculiar start because the drive from San Diego to Phoenix should have only taken about five and a half hours, but somehow like something went awry. We don't know where she was

or what she was doing during this time, but it took three days. Yeah. So something was definitely off there. I have driven from or to Phoenix from LA multiple times. So it's a really barren drive. There's a lot of desert. It's not a bad drive. It's actually pretty easy. Like there's no reason that this should take more than six hours Especially if she's in a hurry now, you're you're only in Arizona and it's the 27th. The wedding is just a few days away We kind of got to pick up the pace here a little bit, you know There is a long drive ahead of her So so we're not sure why it took this long

But somehow took three days and when she made it to Phoenix, she met up with a longtime friend for lunch and planned to meet this friend again the following day before she left town for her next destination. One source claimed that this friend later described Chelsea's behavior as paranoid, that she was worried that PJ was tracking her location through her phone.

Chelsea apparently even wondered if her beloved bearded dragon was a dead loved one reincarnated and that they were trying to communicate with her. Her friend initially believed that these were just symptoms of stress and that's why she was saying this, but now she fears that Chelsea may have been experiencing a manic episode, but it's impossible to know. Well, later that day, Wednesday, September 27, 2023, Chelsea called her parents with some news that she wouldn't be attending the wedding after all. Janet remembered, quote, she said, I'm only as far as Arizona. I don't think I can do this by myself, which we tried to explain, but she said, I think I'm just going to skip the wedding, stay here for a couple of days, do a little camping,

and then she made it sound like she was going to head back to San Diego. Well the drive seemed to prove too overwhelming and exhausting for Chelsea to complete. And she also apparently told her mom that she was feeling paranoid that PJ had followed her there. And this probably made her so much more anxious to be alone. Like if her abusive ex, whose pet is in her possession again, was following her and here she is on those desolate long stretches of road alone. Like that would be enough to scare anybody.

Yeah, and she kind of brings this up throughout the next couple days, which we are going to talk about here. But burned out from the stress of the trip and the breakup, she asked her mom to fund her stay at Canyon Ranch Resort in Tucson, which is this really nice all-inclusive wellness resort, health spa and retreat whose nightly rates start at $1,000. Yeah, so an interesting thing to ask, but this place looks incredible. Yeah, I looked it up, it looks gorgeous.

But her mom declined Chelsea's request, and the two of them apparently had a bit of an argument and didn't end up on the best terms. Her parents did, however, offer her help in order to get herself home safely. Her father later said, quote, But Chelsea decided that she was going to camp in the area for a while, taking the opportunity to photograph some of Arizona's natural beauty and then return to San Diego in a few days. Chelsea told her parents that she likely wouldn't have service in the coming days, and since she planned to be camping in nature, she also canceled her lunch plans for the next day. Which isn't too weird, she already caught up with this friend at lunch before, so she

doesn't necessarily need to do it again, and now she has this new plan and new idea of what she's going to do. But after this, calls from her family started going to voicemail. Her family claims that Chelsea would sometimes block them or stop answering her phone when she needed space. So this wasn't inherently alarming, but obviously they're not happy about this because she's in Arizona, she doesn't live there.

She's by herself. Yeah, and she was already, she already changed her plan. So they just wanna make sure that she's safe since she's alone traveling in her car with her pet. Now on the afternoon of September 27th, again, that is the day that she arrived to Arizona and had lunch with that friend, Chelsea made the three and a half hour drive north from Phoenix to Seligman, which is a census

designated place with fewer than a thousand residents, but it's a quaint town that's known as a historic stop along Route 66, so it's a fun stop for tourists for sure. Yeah, it's not like just some dead town with, you know, nobody's there. It looks quirky. Yeah, it looks quirky but cute. Yeah, absolutely. So it was there that she made an infamous stop at a motel that has been the source of much speculation. Chelsea approached the front desk of the Stagecoach 66 motel to inquire

about renting a room, but she asked nonchalantly if they could take euros. By some descriptions, this was the start of her potentially erratic behavior, but others claim that she was just asking an innocent clarifying question. She had euros left over from a backpacking trip and wondered if they could accept them in lieu of US cash or if they couldn't if the motel employee knew of a nearby currency exchange. You know, normal question. She's in America now again. She's got these euros.

She wants to exchange them for US dollars. Totally normal thing to desire. But Chelsea quickly added that she wanted to stay off grid and even admitted that she was afraid that she was being trailed by her abusive ex-boyfriend, which is likely why she didn't want to use a credit or a debit card. So she's telling all of this to the employee. I'm sure it didn't come out in like a word vomit way, but probably just more of a casual conversation. They're talking, maybe the employee said, oh, like where are you coming from

and what are your plans, you know? Sure. So they're just having a friendly conversation and Chelsea is offering up this information, which is very helpful that the employee was able to learn all of this so that we know what Chelsea was thinking and what her plans kind of were.

So Chelsea apparently also told them that she had been having trouble sleeping and that she hadn't slept in days because of the fear and paranoia of PJ following her. She even added casually that she had thrown away her phone's SIM card and after talking to the employee, Chelsea left the motel without booking a room for the night. It's unknown where she stayed that evening, but on the following day, Thursday, September 28th, 2023, she headed 40 miles or 64 kilometers east to a war memorial and cemetery in Williams, Arizona. Now, shortly after the sunset that day, a police officer was dispatched to the cemetery after receiving a report of a suspicious vehicle.

The officer, who was a man named Blake, greeted her kindly and came upon Chelsea crying in the front seat of her car. Their interaction lasted just under 10 minutes and Chelsea was pretty friendly, chatting with him while taking drags on a cigarette. When Blake asked Chelsea if she was okay, Chelsea responded, quote, She explained that she was working on a photo series to capture the, quote, She explained that she was working on a photo series to capture the quote, lost and forgotten people in this country. She explained that she wanted to wait until she had calmed down to start driving, saying

quote, with my eyesight and crying, it's not the best combination at night. When asked if she had taken any substances that evening, she admitted that she had smoked a little bit of marijuana, but that it had been hours before. Yeah and just so everybody knows, marijuana has been legal recreationally in Arizona since 2020 but obviously not for driving but the officer didn't seem concerned by her admitting this since she claimed it was earlier. Right. So Blake asked her where she was planning on staying for the night and she said that she was thinking of camping but that she wasn't sure where she was planning on staying for the night, and she said that she was thinking of camping

But that she wasn't sure where she was going to camp So he informed her that camping was not allowed inside the city limits But that there was a loves travel stop five minutes down the road where she could safely sleep in the parking lot for the night Chelsea noted that it would be a beautiful place to catch the sunrise and Blake agreed Chelsea noted that it would be a beautiful place to catch the sunrise and Blake agreed, adding that the Soldier Memorial would be a stunning perspective for sunrise pictures if she wanted to come back in the morning. Chelsea concluded that she was going to camp out at Love's and planned to come back to take some more pictures in the morning, though it's not clear if she actually did this. So we know at least one night she did sleep in her car.

Exactly, apparently at this love's travel stop. So she thanked Blake for his compassion and he reminded her to update her registration because it was expired. And joked that if a county police officer had stopped her, quote, They're not gonna be as nice as me. They're dicks. And he probably didn't think anybody was gonna review this. I know. He's like, shit, damn it, they quoted me on that, fuck! Well, anyway, Chelsea's parents actually were able to watch this footage from the officer's body camera, which is great that he had one on, and they concluded that the interaction

and her responses seemed in character for her, and that she definitely seemed normal. Steven said, quote, one thing that seemed very ordinary, or very in character for her and that she definitely seemed normal. Stephen said quote, one thing that seemed very ordinary or very in character was how she said I appreciate your compassion or something like that. That sounded 110% like Chelsea. Yeah so it's great that they are able to watch this and confirm that her behavior was typical for her and of course that this officer was able to conclude that she seemed normal enough for him to be comfortable with her leaving his presence. Right, yeah he wasn't concerned enough to keep her around he basically just sent her on her way. Well here's the

thing, later that night Chelsea pulled into someone's private property and drove her car into a drainage ditch. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt and when the property owners helped her get her car out of the ditch, she claimed to them that she was headed for Humphrey's Peak, which is an hour and a half northeast of Williams. After this incident, Chelsea is believed to have stayed at the Love's Travel Stop for two nights, which sounds about right because this is the night she told Blake that she was going to do that, and it's believed she did it the following day as well, but her

movements during that time are unclear. A few witnesses later came forward to claim that they believe they saw her talking to a man in the parking lot of the Love's Travel Stop, but this could not be confirmed by security footage because the cameras were allegedly not facing the parking lot. This is why we don't know if she for sure stayed there, it's just believed that she did. The next sighting of Chelsea was on Saturday, September 30th, 20 minutes west of Williams in Ash Fork, Arizona. On Saturday, September 30th, 2023, as Chelsea camped in her car along a rural dirt road in Ash Fork, she took an odd picture.

And this is believed to be one of her last photos. It was taken during the day. It's a blurry photo that features her left hand, like picture this. It's a horizontal photo. On the left side of it, her arm is sticking out. You know, think of it like from her perspective, her hand is holding a bouquet of wildflowers that she, you know, certainly picked herself. And her bare right foot is stuck out in the bottom

of the frame. And then her car is parked in front of her a little ways ahead with three of the four doors open and some of her clothes and belongings appear to be strewn in the grass in front of her. So she's sticking out her left hand and her left arm holding this bouquet of flowers. Her right foot is kind of stuck out. I'm sure you guys can picture this out in front of her. Like she's holding both of these things out. And then it's just weird when you see her car ahead, her white car, some of that most of the doors are open.

And then there's just a bunch of shit strewn out to the left of it behind where the flowers are in her hand. And it's just like clothes out in the grass just scattered around. So many people have found this very odd in general that she would be out in this terrain on the side of the road because the landscape of the area is rough and uneven. It's layered with scrub, pinion and juniper trees and coarse grass. So it's just an odd photo. We're going to post it so you guys can see. But yeah, just looking at that terrain and the fact that she's barefoot,

that would surely hurt your feet. Yeah. And I think this picture, it is kind of strange when you first look at it, but kind of understanding who Chelsea is really makes a big difference here because she was a very spiritual person. I would say consider her kind of somewhat of a hippie, you know, in some ways. Right. Like she kind of loved to be a free spirit. So yeah, it doesn't initially kind of make me feel strange about it. Good point. I mean, I think just looking at the photo and knowing that she went missing were automatically trying to pick it apart and it could just be totally normal. Like, yeah, maybe And I think just looking at the photo and knowing that she went missing, we're automatically

trying to pick it apart and it could just be totally normal. Like, yeah, maybe her doors are open because she was going through her luggage or because she was laying down or whatever. And you know, her things are on the ground because she was looking for something like, maybe it's not weird at all. Yeah. And of course, you know, investigators are going to be looking at these last photos and trying to find a connection or trying to connect some dots as to how or why she disappeared, you know, so it's understandable but maybe it's just

there's just really nothing there. Well there was somebody who saw when she was pulled over and she took this photo in this area there were a couple of witnesses who were who thought it was a little bit strange too, because basically Chelsea had spoken to this man once they stopped. It was this guy, George Robertson, who was a woodcutter and his friend who was a retired Phoenix police officer, because they pulled over to the side of the road to make sure that she was okay when they saw her. So what happened at first is they drove by once and when they passed a second time and saw that her car was still there, you know,

she's out in this kind of remote rural area by herself, they checked to make sure that she was okay and to see if she needed any help. By that time it had started raining and so they remained in their cars, but he claimed that Chelsea seemed to be in good spirits and that she didn't seem upset or disoriented. Like George laughed as he described her as quote, California weird. And she told them just like she told Blake that she had been camping out there and taking photographs,

but then she was never seen again. This Friday, you ready? Okay, let's go. The hunt for the wildest movie of the summer. Everybody, run! Ends here. This is your super friendly and not aggressive reminder to buy tickets immediately. Borderlands Friday. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you.

Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late check out? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash ymx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. DQ presents Picture This. Picture the Reese's Extreme Blizzard back for a limited time.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Pieces? Blended together with world famous soft serve in one Blizzard treat? It's a dream treat for Choco Peanut Butter lovers. Wait, are you dreaming? We'll check. Are there any dinosaurs around? Are you riding a unicorn? Are you back in high school? No? Then oh, yeah, this Reese's Extreme Blizzard is real. Hurry in to DQ today. DQ, happy tastes good.

Listen closely. As a master painter carefully brushes Benjamin Moore Regal Select down the seam of the wall. It's like poetry in motion. Benjamin Moore. See the love. On Wednesday, October 4th, 2023, Chelsea's parents reported her missing after not having heard from her in a week. And we know that others had, of course course as we've been explaining, witnessed her more recently than her parents had and spoken to her more recently than her parents

had with that most recent sighting being four days earlier by those couple men. Well, the following day, which was Thursday October 5th, hunters finally came across Chelsea's abandoned car. Chelsea had moved yet again and was parked on a Forest Service Road in the Kaibab National Forest, south of the Grand Canyon National Park. Her wallet, phone, license, and a sleeping bag were missing from the vehicle and she and Rozzie were nowhere to be found. But everything else, including her camera and equipment, remained inside her locked car, indicating that she planned on coming back. But the most disturbing detail of all was that

Chelsea's Ford Escape had suffered not one, but two flat tires, both on the right side of the vehicle, because the terrain there was rough and unpaved, like there was a lot of sharp volcanic rock that was dotted with ruts. So the tire slashes are not believed to have been purposeful, and it was likely just a stroke of bad luck due to the pressure of her tires. Two witnesses who happened to pass by her, believed to be the last two people to have seen her, claimed that in addition to pass by her, believed to be the last two people to have seen her, claimed that in addition to the flat tires, she had also run out of gas. Obviously, this was all very alarming, so when her family received news of the discovery,

they, along with some of their friends, raced to Arizona to aid in this investigation. Her family basically wondered if maybe she had hitchhiked her way back to the main roads to seek help and that she would maybe her car is no longer working for her. She's going to figure out how to get out of here and get some help. Right. Yeah. Nothing nefarious in that immediate area in which her car was found. But also hitchhiking does make a lot of sense because she's in this, you know, national park area on a Forest Service Road

So it would make sense that she would need to hitch a ride into the nearest available town so that she could Get to a phone and call for help as well as figure out where she's gonna sleep and how she's gonna get out of there Now exactly well her father Steven said quote There's a chance that she got a ride out of there She seemed to leave that car in an organized way of her own volition and take in her wallet and we think her phone and her sleeping bag, among other things, along with the bearded dragon. In the days after her car was found, they held out hope, especially because Rozzy was

with her. Because Chelsea was an avid animal lover and wouldn't have put her pet in danger for any reason. Janet explained, quote, Chelsea has always had a special spot in her heart for children, elderly people, and animals, and she would never leave an animal in a car. She just wouldn't do it. So I think that that is a hopeful sign. I also think that the chances of people recognizing Chelsea are sort of connecting the dots. If they see somebody

with a bearded dragon, they're going to take an extra look at that person because it's unusual to be carrying around the bearded dragon usually on her shoulder. Yeah, I mean, obviously bearded dragons are not native to America. They are native to Australia. So unless you're like a kid going to the zoo, you're probably not going to see one here in the US or unless somebody very rarely has one as a pet. So if somebody saw her, they absolutely would take an extra look at her because of this animal. Now, Chelsea's parents did admit that she was in a bit

of a precarious situation the past few weeks. She was posting multiple daily updates on Facebook, sharing inspirational quotes and anecdotes about spirituality, such as, quote, "'The older I get, the more I realize it's okay "'to live a life that others do not understand. And quote, it gets tough right before a big level up.

Stay focused. And I think these can definitely relate to what she was going through, obviously, or else she wouldn't have been posting about them. But particularly that it gets tough right before a big level up. Stay focused. It kind of shows us that she is looking ahead. She just got out of this difficult breakup. She is still afraid of her ex

and she's looking to the future to do the next big thing that's gonna be good for her. She actually also apparently even wanted to get baptized on her trip. So it seems like as well, she was simply going across country just to go to a wedding and visit her family and see her friends. And now she's taking this opportunity to maybe almost have this spiritual awakening and kind of renew and, you know, refresh. And this is something that her dad said as well. Again, her dad, Steven, he said, quote,

she seemed pretty uneven that last day or two. She was upset with a boy she was dating. She was scared of him. We feel like she was running away from him. And I think overall that was affecting a lot of her mindset. And speaking of PJ, he also, unfortunately, came to Arizona to look for his estranged girlfriend. But he was barely able to conceal his ulterior motive, because on October 13, 2023, PJ started a GoFundMe campaign.

And not one to actually help her, it was only to help him. Because he described Chelsea as his fiance, which was not true, in a clearly shallow attempt at a grift. And this is what the GoFundMe page says, quote, I am Philip, Chelsea Grimm's fiance. We have lived together for eight months and known each other for years. I am extremely close and she is my other half. She is the most amazing woman I've ever met and she's the love of my life and I'm so scared.

I am here with people with ATVs and drones and I came in our truck from Ocean Beach last night and some friends looking for her spreading flyers around and finding clues to her abrupt disappearance. I have spent several thousand getting people here and for gas and things like binoculars and would like to push efforts and do the most and donation is what is driving this. Please help find my baby girl. I miss her so much. I want to know what happened. It is expensive to search and I am putting 100% of what I have into finding her. Our goal is $30,000 because this may be ongoing and we need to be prepared to spend this amount of money. It needs to escalate quickly."

And then at the end he added, quote, I am very emotional right now. This is me right now. I'm sorry if I say too much or not enough I am doing the most for her as she would for me or any of you She is an angel Okay, what is this guy like is this guy inspector gadget like he's spending thousands of dollars on binoculars What is he a Russian spy come on, bro? Like you're not spending thousands of dollars on binoculars and gas to go to Arizona To search for Chelsea. This is clearly a grift and you know you're also not together. You're not you're not engaged

She's not your fiance right she might be the love of your life But you're a lot and you're not hers and that I am doing the most for her It's like me me me me me me, me, me, me, me. Yeah, exactly. And frustrated by this, her family actually quickly spoke out against this ploy for money and sympathy and asked people to refrain from donating. So if you see that GoFundMe,

please do not donate to that one. Yeah, I'm on the page right now. And yeah, it says Philip Brenner is organizing this fundraiser. And it's weird because usually Go fund me's will say blank of blank goal reached this says $30,000 goal, but it doesn't say it's reached anything But there is a donate now button and it like I could donate to it

So it looks like the page is still up, but I don't know if it's raised any money Yeah, it doesn't look like it has. Well, after this, PJ moved to Nashville where his Facebook claims that he's from. He was arrested there a short while later on an unrelated charge, and he refused to talk to the Coco Nino County Sheriff's Department who were handling the case. However, PJ was excluded from suspicion

in the matter of Chelsea's disappearance because he was confirmed to be in the matter of Chelsea's disappearance because he was confirmed to be in San Diego at the time that she went missing. Chelsea's parents have consulted multiple private investigators about their daughter's case, but unfortunately the investigators have found that AT&T has particularly proprietary rules surrounding their release of cell tower records and that they have continually refused to release Chelsea's cell phone pings, citing that there is no probable cause in this case. So police don't know where or when her cell phone was last used or if it was even in service at the time that she went missing given that

she mentioned the removal of you know her SIM card. So that makes it so much more difficult for her disappearance because she said she threw her SIM card. So that makes it so much more difficult for her disappearance because she said she threw her SIM card away. So if you don't have a SIM card, you can't use it to make phone calls or text messages. So when her car ran out of gas and when the tires became destroyed from the road or from the volcanic rock, she was not able to call for help, which shows us even more that she would have had to go seek help from somebody in person if she even made it to a person. Right.

So at this point, the leads were completely drying up, and the search and rescue efforts were called off after just two weeks. Her bank account activity ceased before she even went missing, and her car was impounded with her camping equipment, camera equipment, and luggage inside. Police did conduct a search of her belongings and car to see if there was anything of significance, and when they were done, they offered to release those items to her family, but they apparently opted to have them discarded. So her Ford Escape was released back to them and they actually sold it.

And that might look weird, but I also think that if the police did what they if they say they did what they could and now they're giving the items back and her parents don't think that these items will be of any use and they're just going to sit at their own house forever. I could see why they don't feel the need to keep these things but it's super disappointing that that everything was just kind of destroyed and gotten rid of because we still don't have answers. Well we have to remember of course that her car was locked all of her stuff was inside it didn't seem like anything happened in or

near or around her car. Right, or that her car or her belongings that were in her car have anything to do with her actual disappearance. Right, it would be a different story if there was like blood on the side of the car or scuff marks outside of the car, then maybe police would take a closer look to look for fingerprints or DNA, but this didn't seem to be the case. Very good point, because yeah, it just seemed like she ran out of gas, her tires were destroyed, she was aware of this, she gathered her belongings and walked away.

And I mean, I think we can kind of surmise that there's really one of two things happened. She got lost out in the wilderness and something happened to her and her bearded dragon that way, or that she was picked up by a stranger because she was trying to hitch a ride into town and something happened from there. Well, a couple months later in December of 2023, Chelsea's landlord vacated her apartment in order to get another tenant in. Her belongings there were also given away because her family opted not to take these items either, saying that they did not have, quote, the mental capacity to do so.

PJ was apparently squatting in her apartment at the time. Of course he was. Yeah, and he had to be kicked out. So it seems he either came back from Nashville or hadn't gone yet. This is kind of confusing because we know that two months earlier, he was in Arizona looking for Chelsea.

And I did look him up for any arrests. I wanted to see what happened in Nashville with him in 2023. And I found three previous charges, one from 2016 and two from 2018. Two of them are for criminal trespassing and one of them is obstruction of passageway. So it means that you're kind of not letting cars drive down a road. You're blocking traffic. Exactly. So one happened, one criminal trespassing happened in 2016 and he was found guilty. And then, um, there was a case of criminal trespassing and the obstruction

of passageway, both which happened in 2018 and were dismissed and closed. So I don't know what that other Nashville charge was about, but yeah, but he, this point, two months after she went missing, he is squatting in her apartment, still trying to take advantage of her even after she's gone. Yep. Her family has still been holding on to hope that the private investigators would find something that police had overlooked. And Stephen explained, quote, I feel like we've got real professionals who are really trying the very best to find her and we're grateful for that.

And yet there are not that many new clues, so understandably, it goes to a slightly different level of immediacy for them and it just seemed like it couldn't hurt. It's a nightmare and it's one that you never could have imagined yourself in and wouldn't wish on anybody. But having said that, we're hanging in there. We're holding on to hope. Multiple tips and sightings have come in, including sightings of Chelsea riding in another car with a man and eating at a vegan restaurant in downtown Phoenix.

Both tips claim that Chelsea had her beard a dragon with her and the latter, you know The person seeing her at the vegan restaurant Claims that she told them that the name of her bearded dragon was Roxy Obviously Rozzy and Roxy sound very similar. So that's an easy mess up or an easy thing to miss here And again, you know her bearded dragon being with her is such a specific sighting. It really is. Yeah. Because in a lot of missing persons cases we'll know that the person was deceased, but after the time that they were deceased, people saw them.

And you know, obviously then those aren't credible, but I feel like in these instances, people seeing her around the time of her disappearance with the bearded dragon in Phoenix feels very credible. So this also makes us wonder then if she was at this vegan restaurant and she was in a car with a man, did somebody with ill intentions have something to do with her disappearance? Because to me, if these are true, this would kind of rule out her getting lost in the wilderness looking for help this proves that she likely made it into Phoenix and that something happened to her after that well it's definitely possible but also you know we have to check the credibility of

sources like this like witnesses like this because you never know I mean it could be it could be anybody like really I mean, it could be anybody. Like, really. You mean like they could be lying? Well, they could be lying or maybe they were, you know, misremembering something. So I hope that police did do their due diligence to look into these witnesses further and try and kind of piece together a bit of a timeline. Well, as you guys can imagine,

this case is obviously rife with assumptions and misunderstandings and speculation, with the most prevailing theories being that she was suffering a mental health crisis and took her own life, that she succumbed to the elements after leaving her car behind, and that she was met with foul play

while attempting to make her way back to civilization after leaving her car behind. There are also some accounts who claim that she may have joined a cult as they are plentiful in the deserts of Arizona. I feel like because of the whole spirituality angle, people are assuming this, there is absolutely no evidence of that happening, nor is there any evidence of anything happening. So none of these theories can be confirmed and her family just are forced to wait for answers. However, police have announced that they do not believe at this time that foul play was

involved just because, you know, there's no evidence to back this claim up or any other claim. Well, private investigator Steve Fisher, who's one of the private investigators working her case, personally pored over the belongings that were left behind in her car, including over 400 pictures that he found on her Canon camera and hundreds of texts that she sent before she stopped using her phone. The last photo that she took was a selfie at 5 51 p.m. on September 30th, 2023, still inside her

vehicle as the sun began to set. On November 1st, 2023, Steve Fisher posted an update that read, "...the single biggest piece of evidence, in my opinion, is a handwritten note from September 28th that is rather cryptic, but after interviewing an employee at a business and a few other of Chelsea's friends, I was able to figure out the meaning and significance. It's not a suicide note. This was all passed along to the lead investigators and I hope that they will follow up on it." He further elaborated that the note was related to her bearded dragon, Rozzy, and a person

in her life who died, which confirms what her friend in Phoenix said about her feelings that Rozzy was trying to communicate with her. For now, the investigation is mostly inactive. Chelsea's sister, Sarah, who's also an artist, created a collection of artwork inspired by the trauma of navigating her only sibling going missing. Chelsea has strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. She's 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds. Chelsea has multiple tattoos, including a black vine on her left forearm.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Chelsea Grimm, please call the Coconino County Sheriff's Office at 928-774-4523. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Make sure that you share Chelsea's story because this case is less than a year old at this point when we're releasing this episode. Yeah, and it's just so unclear what happened to her. So it's so hard to speculate on because it could go either way, you know, and it's also of course possible that she did want to start a new life and she doesn't want to contact

any of her loved ones. But I find it a little bit harder that she would do that from her sister and her friends, especially after a year. I just, I mean, I don't know her, but I, I'd find it kind of harder to believe that she would let everybody worry about her, let her multiple podcasts talk about her and shows and news and the internet. Like, I don't, I don't think that somebody as thoughtful as Chelsea would kind of let that happen. And also, as far as we know, she hasn't used her phone. She hasn't used her bank account either. So we have to think about it from that perspective as well. If she was just like starting anew and just didn't want to call her parents,

like she could, how, how would she be having access to money right now or resources without using those things? So, you know, right now we can just assume that something happened to her in some capacity and her family and loved ones deserve to know what that is, especially if it was against Chelsea's will. So please make sure that you share this. Let us know your thoughts. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and we will see you on Friday. All right guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger Thanks for watching!