Going West: True Crime - Cynthia Anderson // 222

Episode Date: July 30, 2022

In August of 1981, a 20-year-old woman in Ohio disappeared in broad daylight from her office. When her boss arrived to find her car still in the parking lot, and signs that she had been there that day, but no trace of her, she was reported missing. Weeks before her disappearance, she had been receiving threatening phone calls, had numerous dreams about being abducted and murdered, and was concerned about a stalker at work. To this day, she has never been found. This is the disappearance of Cynthia Anderson. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Unsolved Mysteries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X11R90OOiEc&t=469s 2. Michael's Obituary: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74405918/michael-winger-anderson 3. The News-Messenger: https://www.newspapers.com/image/304106254/?terms=cynthia%20anderson&match=1 4. The News-Messenger: https://www.newspapers.com/image/304809711/?terms=cynthia%20anderson&match=1 5. The Newark Advocate: https://www.newspapers.com/image/289536995/?terms=cynthia%20anderson%20disappeared&match=1 6. Justia Law: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/50/717/2332708/ 7. Buzzfeed Unsolved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLIUkk6Esr0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to Crime fans? I'm your host T. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Thank you everybody for tuning in today for yet another episode of Going West. Good to have you here. Hope you're having a good day. If not, hope we can make it better. Today's case reminds me in a few ways of Dorothy Jane Scott's story. Oh yeah. Scott's story. I don't know why that just stumped me up. We covered that actually originally in what episode three of Going West? I think it was either three or four. Yeah, but we redid it when we lost our first seven episodes. We just covered it again in episode 179. So if you guys are familiar with just how bizarre and scary Dorothy's case was, today's episode is somewhat similar. Mostly because both of

these have stalkers and both cases occurred in the early 1980s. So yeah, I definitely see the connection and they are both equally terrifying. Agreed. This case is so spooky. So please share it. Please, you know, post this on your socials. If you want, really help spread the word about these cases. And it really helps. Also, leave us a review if you guys want to as well. That's always nice. All right, guys, this is episode 222 of Going West, so let's get into it. In August of 1981, a 20-year-old woman in Ohio disappeared in broad daylight from her office. Weeks before her disappearance, she had been receiving threatening phone calls, had numerous dreams about being abducted and murdered, and she was concerned about a stalker at work. To this day, she has never been found.

This is the story of Cynthia Anderson. Cynthia Jane Anderson was born on February 4, 1961 to parents Margaret and Michael Anderson, and she had siblings Mark, James, and Christine. The family of six lived in Lambertville, Michigan, which is just over the border from Toledo, Ohio, where the story takes place, it's just about a 15-minute drive. Michael and Margaret married at Christmas time in 1955, while Michael was serving in the Navy, and they settled back in Ohio where they were both originally from, and then they crossed the pond over to Michigan. They were members of the Christian fundamentalist faith and very active in their church.

They attended services multiple times per week, the kids went to Sunday school, and the family attended every activity the church hosted. And Cynthia's long-term boyfriend and his family also attended the church, so their families knew each other in that way. The Anderson's were a very close-knit family, known for their generosity of spirit, and their work with local charitable organizations, and Michael and Margaret maintained quite a sheltered and supervised home. Cynthia, sometimes known as Cindy, was described by her father as obedient and quiet. She was known at school for being well-behaved and having lots of friends, and one article

called her sweet and naive. After she graduated high school in 1979, 18-year-old Cynthia took some time off from her studies and decided she was going to work and save money for a while before potentially diving into college life. After looking around for a position that suited her, she landed a job as a secretary for a pretty prominent Toledo law firm, which at the time seemed like a major win for her, but might have ended up contributing to her disappearance. Cynthia worked for the Neller and Rabbit Law Center on East Manhattan Boulevard just north

of downtown Toledo, And this is a pretty prominent position for a recent high school grad with no formal schooling, but Cynthia embraced it fully and she took it very seriously. She decided that she would eventually attend Bible College where her boyfriend was already a student, but until then planned to live at home, work her nine to five, and again save some money. But within her first year of graduating and landing this job, in 1980, strange things started happening to Cynthia.

On a large blank wall adjacent to the law office, an in full view of the front desk where she sat and worked on a daily basis, an unknown admirer had painted, I love you Cindy, by GW. Meaning, if she was sitting at her desk and looking out the window, she could see this message clear as day like how creepy because the admirer would have known where her desk was assuming this message is to her. Yeah. And according to Cynthia's friend Terry, Cynthia was the only person in the strip mall complex where this law office was located who was nicknamed Cindy. So it appeared that this message was addressed to her specifically.

It seemed strategically placed so that she, in particular, would see it. Cynthia racked her brain trying to remember if she knew anybody by those initials, which again were GW, but nobody came to mind. Naturally, Terry claimed that it quote gave Cynthia the heebie-jeebies, meaning that this was not a flattering message, as the admire may have hoped for, but instead actually really disturbed her. as the admirer may have hoped for, but instead actually really disturbed her. The spray painted love note was left up in Cynthia's full view every day for six months until it was finally painted over by maintenance workers. And Cynthia was relieved at them doing this, but by that time, she was already dealing with another eerie occurrence.

She was being plagued by dark and disturbing dreams. So, her sister Christine reported on the Unsolved Mysteries episode about her sister's case that she overheard Cynthia describing one of these nightmares to their mom one morning, and she remembered being dragged out of her office and killed by a man she didn't know. These dreams tormented her for over a year before she disappeared. Cynthia claimed these dreams were alarmingly realistic and she worried that they may not be dreams, but premonitions. And then, to Cynthia's dismay, the wall message to her reappeared.

So she arrived to work one day, just two months after the mural had been painted over to find it painted again in the same spot, only bigger this time. Again, saying, I love you Cindy, by GW. So let's take a second to kind of unpack this. So not only is she seeing this terrifying love message every single day, but then she starts having these, you know, premonitions about her own life, and then the love message

gets taken away. They paint it over. And then all of a sudden, there it is again. And why did it come back? Yeah, and I can't even imagine how Cynthia was feeling dealing with all of this. And feeling like that message was for her because her friend said there was nobody else in the complex with that name. Like sure, it could have been for anybody in the whole city of Toledo, right? But what are the chances that this note is directly across from her desk or window?

It's in her line of sight. Yes, so that's just so irren then these dreams like these very realistic dreams of her being murdered Jesus like that is so scary. So Cynthia's anxiety of course was through the roof and she just couldn't shake the sense of impending dread that she felt. Her friends, family, and co-workers described her during this time as agitated and constantly looking over her shoulder. A client of the law office, Larry Mullins, reported later that as he checked out with Cynthia one day, remember she was a secretary so all the clients pretty much came through her, she had received a call at work and quickly hung up.

The phone then rang again and she ignored it, and he claimed that she seemed frightened by whomever was on the other end. He asked her what was wrong, and she responded by saying that the office had been receiving frequent hang-up calls, or what seemed to be creepy prank calls, but she didn't detail to Larry what she had heard. And this makes sense because this is a client. It's not like her coworker who she could be like, oh my god, these calls are coming in. This is what they're saying.

So she's not going to be, you know, that's kind of inappropriate. Yeah, she's probably not going to give all the details of those phone calls. Right, but how weird the message, the dreams, and now phone calls? Yeah, and it's just gonna get worse. So, the partners at the firm James Jim Rabbit and Richard Neller, along with another lawyer who practiced their Jay Feldstein, were so concerned for her that they put security measures in place to make her feel safer and more comfortable. They began keeping every door to the firm locked at all times, even during business hours, meaning that anybody who needed to gain access to the office would need to be allowed in by Cynthia herself.

Now, they also installed a panic button under her desk that would alert the surrounding businesses if she pressed it, indicating something was wrong and that she needed immediate help. And these are such wonderful measures for them to take. I mean, for these guys to take her concerns, this seriously is fantastic, but this just emphasizes how scared she was and how terrifying these calls were if only we knew what they said. I totally agree and we're definitely going to speculate on that later.

Around this time, Cynthia's family also noticed a change in her behavior outside of the paranoia. As her dad described it, she was becoming, quote, a bit of a debutante. Although she had been seeing her serious boyfriend for years now, Cynthia had taken a new interest in grooming and dressing herself up. Nothing wrong with that? Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

She's also 20 years old so I would kind of expect that. Likely due to her strict and religious upbringing, Cynthia had never been one to doll herself up and usually dressed in muted conservative outfits with light makeup. But as the summer of 1981 wore on, 20-year-old Cynthia spent more and more time on her makeup and hair, and it started dolling herself up much more than usual for work and social outings. And her dad also noted that she had been trying to lose weight. At 5'4 and 115 pounds, she was already a petite woman, but her father Michael noticed that she spent more time doing her makeup than she did eating

And that she had started skipping breakfast as she said to quote Stay thin and this could definitely have nothing to do with the mysterious things that were happening because she was also getting older And it makes sense like you said for a 20 year old to want to look nice and take their appearance seriously and try new things. So, you know, she's a young woman. Yeah, I don't find that detail of this story to be out there or strange in any way. Yeah, I just think it's funny that this is mentioned in the case as if, I mean, I do understand it in a way of who is she getting dolled up for somebody in particular. I do see it in that way potentially,

but who the hell knows? Or if maybe they're trying to insinuate that the fact that she was getting more dolled up more recently, that that might have attracted some sort of creep her way or something. Right, yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's relevant, but probably not.

Yeah, so anyway, on August 4th, 1981, Cynthia was just two weeks away from the end of her tenure at the law office and was planning on continuing her studies by joining her boyfriend at the Bible College that he attended. So she was two weeks away from leaving this job and moving on to a different thing in her life. Yes. So this day, again, August 4th, 1981, began like any other day for Cynthia.

She skipped breakfast and drove her white 1980 Chevy citation to the office and parked in the surrounding parking lot. She was last seen entering the law office by another employee who worked at the shopping center around 9.45 a.m. that morning. So we know she made it to the office, which I'm going to explain more so of why we know that, but somebody saw her going into the office for sure. Which is important.

Yes. When Jim Rabbit and J. Feldstein, again, the main men at the office, arrived at the office around noon, so hours late, over two hours later. The doors were locked from the inside as usual, but Cynthia wasn't there to greet them or let them in as she always did. Even stranger, the lights, radio, and air conditioning were on, indicating that she had been inside and started the work day as usual.

Their initial assumption was that she had stepped out for a minute to grab lunch or a cup of coffee, because remember it's about noon, or perhaps she went to retrieve something from her car, she was planning on coming right back. But Cynthia would always put the phones on hold when she would do this, and they were left unattended. So that means she did not put the phones on hold this time as she normally would do when she would step out. Right, so that's like the first main odd thing because everything, everything's on at the office, the doors are locked, that's usual, but she's not there and the phones were left unattended and not put on hold.

Right, and sorry to reiterate, I just wanted to be clear about it. It's good to be clear about these kind of things, especially right now when we're going through all these very specific details. So when the two, again, we're talking about J Feldman and Jim Rabbits. J Feldstein. I'm sorry. J Feldstein. Sorry. J Feldstein and Jim Rabbits. So when the two of them inspected her desk, they found that her keys and purse were missing, although her car remained in the lot outside. They also described a strange smell hanging in the air, like an aroma of either nail polish or nail polish remover.

And then, the strangest clue of all. The romance novel that Cynthia had been reading, but it was turned to a page where their protagonist was abducted at knife point. This is so weird to me. So whether this was like a creepy coincidence or done by design is still unknown, but that was enough for the men to contact the police. Clients reported their calls having gone unanswered, starting at 10 o'clock that morning. So just about 15 minutes after 20-year-old Cynthia had last been seen going into work, which means something probably happened right after she got into the office and turned on. Yeah, a little 15-minute window.

Yeah, like right after she turned on the lights and turned on. Yeah, a little 15 minute window. Yeah, like right after she turned on the lights and turned on everything and got seated at her desk, something probably happened. And again, I want to go back to the book because this is so freaky to me. Like the fact that she was more than likely abducted from inside her office, this is quite a detail to leave behind.

Like what do you think about this? I just think, I don't know how much relevance the book has. I think it's very creepy. It's just weird. Yeah, sure. Like, what are the odds? Sure, and maybe she just happened to be at that part of the book, you know, at that point in her life. Um, but it would be very creepy if this was purposefully left by the killer. Yeah, I mean, they- they would have had to have read the book and known what page to go to.

And if you're in a hurry trying to abduct somebody, you wouldn't be thinking about leaving a very, you know, agatha-christi detail like that. Cryptic message. Yeah. So, I don't know, just very, very bizarre. But the other point is that the door was locked, which is the other strange thing.

So somebody locked that door after taking Cynthia. I know, that's a really weird detail to me as well. And of course, we will speculate on that too. So as they often do when adults disappear without a trace, please speculate that she may have run away. Maybe her strict home life, pressure from her devoutly religious parents, impending departure for Bible college, and likely an upcoming proposal from her serious boyfriend, may have collected and made her want to run away.

But her family argued that she had been able to save a substantial amount of money in the two years that she had been working full-time at this law office and living at home home and that the money in her account was never touched. She also never used her social security number ever again, so if she had disappeared herself, it would have been with a new identity. Right, but why? But why? Of course you always have to throw that in as a possibility, but I don't know. I usually don't believe that route.

Yeah, and I guess I kind of understand it because you only have so much to work with, and you're trying to gather theories and speculate. But this one I feel like more often than not is, you know, doesn't come to fruition is not true. I feel like with this, with her case in particular, just all the weird things that have been happening to her, the fact that she left her car in the lot,

but it's weird that her keys in her purse were missing. Yeah, very strange. So it was also considered that Cynthia may have been one of many victims in a string of serial killings, thought to be committed by the same person. In the month before Cynthia went missing, four people were found murdered, and three of them worked in the same shopping center that Cynthia disappeared from. I, that's like a hard to believe.

When I read that detail, I was like, how in the fuck did three people from the same small strip mall get murdered? And then another, and then there's another one and it's Cynthia so four. Like what, that is uncanny. Yeah, that is, same small strip mall get murdered and then another and then there's another one and it's Cynthia so for yeah like what that is uncanny yeah it's that is very scary situation yeah scary detail so Cynthia's father Michael was suspicious of this whole connection as well telling a local newspaper quote there are a lot of spooky people around

that shopping center they drive by real slowly and Cynthia sits just behind a glass window on the main floor. Because there were no visible signs of foul play, it seemed as if Cynthia had just walked away from her desk that morning and never returned. Or that, just like in her dream, someone had walked in that day and she was taken quickly by force, leaving no trace behind. Three leads emerged early on. One was either an uncanny coincidence or an organized stalker, kidnapper, and potential murderer. He was one of the maintenance workers at the Law Office. His initials, G.W. Before that quick break, we left you on quite a cliffhanger. Our new suspect was one of the custodians at the law office of Neller and Rabbit. And his initials just happened to match the creepy message written twice on the wall across from her window.

But the custodian insisted that he had not written this message nor did he have anything to do with Cynthia's disappearance. I feel like GW isn't a very common, and the only GW I know is going west. Or you could do it like Gary Walter or something, you know? Do you know what Gary Walter? I don't, but I'm just saying that's what that's just. Somebody listening is named Gary Walter for sure. I mean, it's not like JT, you know? Do you know what Gary Walter? I don't, but I'm just saying that's what she does. Somebody listening is named Gary Walter for sure.

I mean, it's not like JT, you know what I mean? Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Yeah, but just the fact that someone at her work had these initials is so odd because we know that again, if this message is for her, that she had this likely admirer and they knew where she worked, or at least we know that she was getting these weird phone calls so we can probably connect that whoever abducted her or took her knew where she worked and probably knew who she was. Yeah, I would assume that these phone calls were connected to her disappearance.

But and then I would think that, since she was thinking, oh, who is GW, she must not have really known the janitor very well, because he didn't come to her mind when she was thinking of GW's, very true. And maybe she just didn't know his last name. But, I don't know, I just wonder how deeply police looked into him.

Yeah, that's one of the biggest questions in this case I think I have. So the next lead emerged when the man who actually had painted the mural came forward. However, much to the dismay of the investigators, he also insisted that he had nothing to do with Cynthia's possible abduction and murder, and in fact, his message was actually for a different Cindy, not Cynthia Anderson. It turned out that Cynthia's friend Terry had been wrong all along, and there had been another Cindy working in the complex after all.

The mural turned out to just be this creepy occurrence leading up to Cynthia's vanishing that they could no longer attribute to the possible foul play that had encountered. I don't know. I just feel like, why was it put back up after it was taken down? It feels very strange to me that somebody would write it again, but if this is true and there's a different Cindy in this complex, you have to think about it. It's a strip mall. There's probably a lot of employees.

Yeah, no, and I totally understand that and it this is you know, it's not like I want this to be for Cynthia Anderson It's I think just because it's a part of this case and all this other weird shit was going down But to me too like to to say I love you Cindy and to put your just your initials and then put it back up But bigger after it gets taken down again This could really just have a total easy explanation of, oh yeah, that's my boyfriend. Like he's just, you know, loves me and too.

Really in love with me, yeah. But the other thing I had, the other thing that I was thinking about is that I wonder how well this message could be seen from like other stores and businesses within the strip mall. Because according to this story, it was right in front of Cynthia Anderson's window.

It occurred to her desk right there. So I'm thinking, well, why did they put it in that particular place? If it was meant for a different person in a business, further down the road and the strip mall. Right. And I just wish we knew how much this was investigated because of course, if this was for Cynthia Anderson, he's not going to say, yeah, that was me. I did that for her because then you're going to be looked at as a suspect. And it's just like the janitor said, no, I didn't

have anything to do with her disappearance. Just because you're claiming innocence doesn't mean you're innocent. But what can police do? Right. Yeah, exactly. It's like, like, hey, did you murder this person? No, I didn't do that. Oh, okay. Sure.

Moving on now. Yeah, if there's no evidence that you did do that thing, then you can just deny it. Absolutely. Kering on. Sorry about that, guys. So in September of 1981, with no sign of Cynthia and no leads or answers as to what fate she had met, a tip came in to the Toledo Police Department.

In keeping with the mysterious nature of this case and everything that had prefaced it, the call was equally eerie. A young woman's voice can be heard on the other line, but she was speaking hurriedly and in a hushed tone as if she was being watched or listened to. That gives me the creeps. I know. She told the officer that she knew where Cynthia Anderson was and that she was being held in the basement of a white house.

She said that the house in which Cynthia was being held was next door to another white house, and that the son of the family who resided there was the one holding her there against her will. Supposedly, the family owned both homes and were out of town at the time of the call, but when the detective asked who the young woman was and where she was calling from, she declined to answer and hung up. If this has nothing to do with Cynthia Anderson, I wonder what was going down in that White House.

Right. Or is this like one of those assholes who makes stuff up just because they think it's fun? Yeah. And we know that those people exist. Right, but this, this, it just makes you wonder, is this woman telling the truth? Is she in danger? And that's why she can't tell you who,

or tell the police who she is. Well, we're going to talk about the fact that she called back later that day as well. Let's do that right now. So like Heath just said, this young woman called back again later that same day, but would not offer her name or location or indicate how she knew this information and she hung up on the police without ever calling again.

Detectives thoroughly investigated this lead, but found nothing. So the whereabouts and identity of the caller are still unknown to this day, and Cynthia's family even hired a private investigator to try to figure this out, but still found no answers. 1981 was a particularly bloody year in Toledo, a city of nearly 500,000 residents at the time of Cynthia's disappearance. Police had their hands full of violent crimes including multiple missing persons and murder investigations, but two brothers in particular had the city of Toledo gripped in fear in the

early 1980s. There was a string of unsolved rapes and murders, and it was thought that Cynthia may have been one of the victims. Anthony and Nathaniel Cook began their crimes in May of 1980, when an 18-year-old girl and her 24-year-old boyfriend were held at gunpoint and driven to the woods, before they raped and stabbed the young girl and shot and killed her boyfriend. Then in January of the following year, the brothers picked up a young woman named Connie Sue Thompson, who had been hitchhiking, and drove her out to the same wooded area

before raping and killing her, and discarding her body over the side of a bridge, where she was found just two weeks later. The very next month, the brothers raped, tortured, and killed a 12-year-old girl named Don René Bax. These guys are such monsters. Pieces of shit. We've actually been suggested to cover their case before, so I guess we're kind of doing that now, but I just remembered that.

But if you guys would like us to cover it in detail, let us know. So a month after that, Anthony, apparently more eager for prey than his brother, broke off on his own and attacked a 21 year old couple before raping the young lady, Denise, and then shooting her and her boyfriend Scott. Then, in August, less than three weeks after Cynthia disappeared, Anthony, again acting alone, attacked yet another 21 year old couple, raping Stacey Lynn Bolognick and then beating her and her boyfriend Darryl Colt to death with a baseball bat.

The following month, Anthony attacked 20-year-old Leslie Sawicki and her boyfriend 21-year-old Todd Sabo. But Leslie actually escaped. She was able to run to safety and call police and then contacted her father, Peter Sawicki, a prominent businessman in the area. Both police and Leslie's father, Peter, raised to the scene to help.

But when Peter arrived first, Anthony shot and killed him before fling. So this is like awful. He's off this man is going to try and save his daughter and he gets shot and killed him before fling. So this is like awful. He's this man is going to try and save his daughter, and he gets shot and killed. So sad. So a fingerprint found at the scene of this attack on Leslie and Todd matched Anthony Cooks,

and after an extensive search on October 14, 1981, his reign of terror finally ended. At his trial, he was also convicted of the 1973 slaying of Vicki Small, bringing his total-known victim toll up to 9. But Nathaniel was still free. The apprehension of his brother was apparently a wake-up call, and he committed only minor crimes from then on. However, that ended in 1998 when further DNA testing on evidence left behind at the scenes of those crimes tied to

Nathaniel as well. Anthony is still imprisoned in Ohio, but as a four years ago, Nathaniel is free. Well, it seemed possible that the cook brothers could have been involved in, you know, Cynthia's case, given the nature and timeline of their crimes. They both deny involvement in Cynthia's disappearance. There are definitely some similarities, but as we said before, the doors were locked from the inside as well, which meant that it was more probable that Cynthia knew her of Doctor. And to me, I think the possibility of this being a client at the law office or somebody who worked there is most probable. Yeah, I can see that for sure.

Either somebody that worked there or like you said, yeah, a client. Yeah, because she was the secretary. So she saw every single client that came in. Yeah, probably a lot of people per day. Yeah. In February of 1983, less than two years after her daughter disappeared without a trace. Cindy's mother Margaret passed away at just 50 years old after battling cancer, and without ever knowing what happened to her daughter.

But her father kept up the fight. On January 3, 1990, an unsolved mysteries episode was dedicated to Cynthia's case, and both he and his other daughter, Christine, were interviewed. He continued to fight for the truth to come out, speaking to local news publications as often as he could, and kept a case file with missing posters and police sketches including those of what Cynthia may look like as the years passed. He also refused to change his phone number at his home in case his daughter were to call. He said he held out hope all this time that it was just a big misunderstanding that she'd had

Amnesia and that she would call him as if no time had passed. He later stated, quote, they tell me I'm crazy, maybe I am, but what am I supposed to do? Give up? Seems like everyone else has. In 1995, police revealed that they were close to solving the crime and were just awaiting sufficient evidence in order to convict. But who was the culprit believed to be? A massive drug trafficking ring was revealed to be centered in Toledo.

Tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin were being moved from Mexico to Texas to Northwest Ohio, and 28 people were indicted, and more were believed to be involved. And one man that was involved was Jose Caterino Rodriguez Jr. Jose was working with Richard Neller, remember one of the two partners at Neller and Rabet Law Center where Cynthia worked? In the indictment, it's noted that the prosecution also believes that Jose and Richard abducted and killed Cynthia that day for overhearing too much about the trafficking. In the end, Richard Neller was disbarred for his involvement in the drug ring.

In November of 1995, an informant testified that Jose had even confessed to killing Cynthia, but because it was purely speculation, the testimony was ultimately found to be unreliable and the charges were thrown out. Such an insane turn of events here. Yeah, and that's why I said earlier when we were talking about the panic button and all that stuff.

Well, and the fact that the door was locked from the inside? Well, yeah, so you had a, you said something of earlier to me personally about the phones, the hang-ups? Yeah, well, this is my thought. I was thinking that maybe Jose was calling the office in hopes that Richard would pick up. Right. But then it was Cynthia who picked up

so he would just hang up the phone. Right, because they're doing illegal biz. Exactly, and so then maybe he would call again to see if he could somehow catch Richard. and i wonder it does make me wonder though if that is indeed what happened because she also said there were prank calls and the calls seem to disturb her well i think that she said that they were likely prank calls because she couldn't explain them it doesn't mean that they were prank calls well i i guess what i mean is just like

it gets to me it seems like they were probably prank calls because she was fearful when she got off these phone calls and then she would ignore the calls altogether. So I feel like if it was just a hang up, that wouldn't be a scary. You know, like you wouldn't be like, shaken after somebody just hung up the phone.

Well, maybe if they called and they were like, breathing into the phone and then they hung up, maybe that'd, maybe if they called and they were breathing into the phone and then they hung up, maybe that'd be a different story. That's true, who knows? And we know at that point, she was already kind of paranoid about the message that was written outside.

Right, but I just feel like for her bosses to go to the extremes of installing a panic button and having them lock the doors. But wouldn't that be an incredible cover up? Like, hey, we cared. We cared, we cared, we are the ones who installed the panic button and having them lock the doors, but wouldn't that be an incredible cover up like hey? We cared we cared we are the ones who installed the panic button But just the fact that Richard Neller was known To be in this drug trafficking business. There's some shady shit going on behind the scenes there

I don't know. Yeah, I do see it being a good cover up and then Also, we have to remember with the panic button that she didn't press it that day if it even worked. True. So, I don't know, I just feel like she was totally, totally caught off guard with whoever took her. So according to this informant, Jose had killed Cynthia to teach Richard, his friend and conspirator, a lesson, because Jose felt he hadn't been adequately represented

by Richard when he served as Jose's lawyer, so I guess that's how they knew each other. These claims were never substantiated, but police agreed that they assumed the men conspired to kill her on the basis that she had overheard something that she wasn't supposed to hear, which is definitely possible. Michael, again Cynthia's dad, said of Cynthia, quote, If she knew something about Nellers drug dealing, she would have gone to the police. That's just the way she was. Honest, caring.

Authorities told him that they believe his daughter is buried near a pond in Perrie's Burg, which is a suburb just a few minutes southwest of downtown Toledo. Jose C. Rodriguez, Jr. and his family were from Perry's Burg. So that's probably why they are speculating such a burial site. They made that connection. Her father also stated, quote, I don't want to think about them coming across the remains of my daughter, but they probably will.

I'm just shocked and devastated. But sadly, Cynthia's remains were never found and Jose and Richard continue to deny involvement in her disappearance. Because Cynthia Anderson has never been found, her case is still technically a missing person's case and now the oldest one in Toledo. A large case file with all the documentation and evidence still sits at the Toledo Police

Department waiting for closure. Cynthia Jane Anderson was 5'4", tall, weighed 115 lbs and had brown hair and brown eyes. On the day she disappeared, she was wearing a white V-neck dress with pink pinstripes, cinnamon brown legs brand pantyhose, and beige open-toed ankle strap sandals. She sometimes goes by the nickname Cindy as we mentioned, and she has a chicken pox scar on her forehead and a fish hook shaped scar on the inside of her right knee. After Michael lost his wife Margaret and Cynthia's mother, he remarried a woman named Elizabeth who died in 2003. So tragic. He just did not get a break.

He was known at his church and around his community for his kindness in the face of all the adversity he'd gone through, and for enduring his faith. In January of 2008, so five years after his wife Elizabeth passed, Michael passed away at the age of 78. His obituary claimed that he was preceded in death by his beloved daughter Cynthia. But a few years before his death, when asked if he would have her declared legally dead, he refused, even though doing so would release her college fund which contained thousands of dollars. I haven't come to that point yet, Michael said.

I expect that phone to ring at any time. Maybe this afternoon. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. What a bizarre story, huh? So bizarre. And I still truly believe that this Richard Neller thing is just too weird of a coincidence. Like just the fact that the door was locked from the inside. I mean, who would have access to do that? Richard Neller. Right. Who was in a drug trafficking ring? Richard Neller. Yep. So I don't know. I keep coming back to that in my mind, but yeah, such a tragic and strange story. And I can't get over the fact that she was having these dreams.

Like, and she felt like they were potentially premonitions and then she goes missing. Yeah, and we still don't particularly know if that message that was written on the wall was for her or for somebody else. Yeah, who knows? People lie all the time. So I would love to know what you guys think.

So please comment on our socials and let us know your theories. Instagram is at Going West Podcast, Twitter at Going West Pod, and then we're on Facebook. We have this Facebook discussion group that you can join, it's a private group, and that's where Heath and I really jump in

to the conversation with you guys. Also, super, super excited to announce, yes, bitch. Our sister show is coming back. The dark part is coming back. We're gonna let you guys know when that's gonna be released very soon, but I can't wait. Right now, we have 17 episodes that you guys can binge and kind of get used to the show

if you're interested in scary stories urban legends and mysteries The Dark Bar. That's Dark Bar. It's a really fun show. It's, you know, to me, it's a nice break from true crime because true crime can be very overwhelming. Of course, these are true stories that are very devastating and hurt a lot of people. There's so much pain in every story that we tell on the show, but with the dark part, it is kind of like almost a breath of fresh air, I guess, because even though we're talking about scary, potentially real stories,

we make a lot of jokes and it's super lighthearted. I don't, yeah, I don't know how it's so lighthearted, even though we're talking about witches and- I think we just love spooky shit. So to us, we're like so excited and it's a silly show it really is So yeah again, that's the dark parts. It's coming back soon Thanks so much everybody for listening and for everybody out there in the world. Don't be a stranger 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

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