Going West: True Crime - Dia Abrams // 416

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

In June of 2020, a 65-year-old woman disappeared from her idyllic California ranch, leaving behind all her essential belongings. Those closest to her agreed that she wouldn’t have left of her own accord, and all staunchly denied involvement, while pointing the finger at someone else. But each of them had something to gain from her going missing. So which of them is telling the truth? This is the disappearance of Dia Abrams. 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. Big thank you to Melanie and Alex for recommending today's case. This one takes place in 2020 and there are many suspicious characters within it. Yeah absolutely there's a lot of finger pointing in this one and it's a recent case so please pay attention. Listen up for the details because it is a wild ride. Yes a wild ride with much to discuss, so let's do it. All right, guys, this is episode 416 of Going West, so let's get into it. So In June of 2020, a 65-year-old woman disappeared from her idyllic California ranch, leaving

behind all of her essential belongings. Those closest to her agreed that she wouldn't have left of her own accord and all staunchly denied involvement while pointing the finger at someone else. But each of them had something to gain from her going missing. So which of them is telling the truth? This is the story of Diya Abrams. Lydia Kinchelow, who went by Dia, that's what we're going to call her today, was born on July 6, 1954 to parents Winnagene and John, and she was the middle of three children, joining older brother James and later joined by a younger sister named Peggy. She and her siblings grew up in beautiful La Jolla, which is on the coast of Southern California, just north of San Diego.

Dia is remembered as an adventurous spirit who loved the outdoors, loved to travel, and loved national parks. Her neighbor and friend Diana, who would later lead the investigation into her disappearance, described her as a firecracker and said quote, she's awesome, a very strong personality, you know a little spitfire. But the one thing that everyone who knew her still remembers about Dia is her kindness and generosity. After completing high school, she enrolled at San Diego State University. And Dia then embarked upon a career in real estate

and met charming, wealthy, San Diego property development magnate, Clem Abrams, who was 14 years her senior. They got married in 1984 when Dia was 30, and then they went on to have two children, Chrysara and then Clinton. And Clinton lovingly referred to his mom as quote, a perfect parent.

He added that they had been best friends in his childhood and that he grew up in awe of his parents devoted and healthy marriage. He described Dia as a kind, caring and sweet person with a huge heart. Now, Clem maintained his job in real estate development and did very well for himself, while Dia happily stayed home with the kids.

Chrisara and Clinton love their upbringing in San Diego, and the family also purchased a number of properties outside the city to serve as like weekend escapes. These are gonna come up later, so important to remember that. But also, Dia lost her dad, John, in 2000, and then her mom in 2005. And after this, she had a bit of a falling out

with her siblings. She actually hadn't seen her siblings since her mom's funeral in 2005, when she went missing. That was the last time she had seen them. But Peggy recalls that they were very close up until they lost their parents. And bear with us a little bit. This story has kind of a good deal of setup

and like background information, but it is all relevant to the story. But it's basically just a whole lot of drama surrounding Dia's circle and the source of all the finger pointing once Dia disappears. It gets really suspicious. Yes it definitely does. So eventually Dia and her husband Clem separated and Dia moved into one of their other properties,

which was a sprawling ranch on 116 acres in scenic Mountain Center, California. Now Mountain Center is situated northeast of La Jolla, about two hours away, perched in the mountains above Palm Springs. Complete with a big house, stables, lush meadows, cabins for guests, a pool, and a large pond for water sports, this property was called Bonita Vista Ranch, and it's where our story takes place today. And it sounds absolutely amazing. I mean, yeah, it's a massive property.

Now, Clem passed away in December of 2018 after a lengthy health battle, and although he and Dia were separated by the time of his death, their 34-year marriage is remembered as joyful and very loving. So after Clem passed away, Diaia was left with three properties to manage in the trust that Clem established for his finances and homes. And in addition to her beloved ranch and mountain center where she lived full-time, she inherited five acres in Garner Valley and another 20 on a property called Sky High Ranch. So she owned a ton of land and she was now responsible for keeping up with all

of it. And in addition to caring for the properties, Dia's pride and joy were her animals. She owned donkeys, horses, and most importantly of all, her beloved little dog, Ruby. After her separation from her husband, Dia met a man named Keith Harper. And this guy, Keith Harper, is going to be a key focal point of today's story. And Keith Harper was also a fellow outdoor enthusiast and also a rancher. Keith, who actually goes by his surname Harper, so that's what we're going to call him today,

grew up in an LDS household in Idaho, practicing Mormonism, and he received his master's degree from BYU. He later relocated to Utah and worked in law enforcement before establishing a company for outdoor enthusiasts, which included giving snowmobile tours in Colorado. And on top of this, he owned and operated properties and businesses in both Arizona and New Mexico, so he was basically all over the place doing a lot of different things that interested him. Dia and Harper met on the dating website Farmers Only, I'm sure some of you guys have probably heard of that site, and claims that they fell for each other very quickly.

Harper remembers, quote, we hit it off from the moment that we met. Probably within the next 60 days, I moved in with her." He described her as quote, the brightest, most energetic individual. So Harper came out to California to visit Dia on her ranch and remembers being charmed when he plucked a piece of hay out of her hair on the ride home from the airport. They spent their four day date hiking and just kind of strolling the property, you know, taking the horses out and just getting to know each other. Harper was a self-proclaimed romantic who was thrice divorced and looking for companionship. That is why he was on FarmersOnly.com.

So Dia went out to Colorado to visit Harper next and the two then decided to move in together on Dia's ranch in Mountain Center. Like they just really hit it off. They were ready to kind of move on to the next step. And also Harper claims that he offered to help her tend to the property and to the animals, saying that Dia was kind of in over her head with all of the responsibilities of maintaining these very large properties.

So it wasn't just, hey, we're in a serious relationship, let's move in. It's kind of like, hey, we like each other, we work well together, why don't you come move on my property and help me out? Yeah, and I've got this large ranch, and so I could definitely use a hand. And obviously, like we've said, he's an outdoor enthusiast,

he knows about this kind of stuff, so it seemed like it was going to be whether friendly or, you know, intimate and romantic, it was going to be a good companionship. And like Harper, Dia had been pretty lonely after her separation from Clem. And again, Harper just seemed like this perfect companion and kind of compliment to her and her lifestyle. Thus, they began dating and her friends confirm that Dia described him as more than a friend and an employee.

But they also say that they were never particularly romantic or physical with each other, at least in front of other people. Like the relationship seemed more for companionship and help on the ranch than anything else. So it's a little, the dynamic of their relationship is a little bit foggy. Put an asterisk there. Yeah. But Harper says that he absolutely fell in love with Dia, but he also acknowledges that they did have their problems. When asked about their relationship in an interview later, he admitted

quote, Obviously, there was times I remember we fought. I'm an alpha male and God, no, I just feel like anybody who says they're an alpha male is usually not an alpha male. But whatever, I don't know. He goes on to say, it gets worse, kind of. He says, I'm an alpha male and like charge and control. That was the only woman I ever bowed to. Very confident. Interesting. Okay. Now, Harper also had a criminal record, which Dia was apparently made aware of eventually.

But according to her friends, she didn't concern herself with his past at all. Though disturbingly in 2000, Harper's wife at the time accused him of sexual assault and kidnapping. Ooh, that's a that's a big red flag there. Yeah, I mean he now says that it was expunged from his record, but he did plead guilty to misdemeanor assault after his estranged wife refused to testify against him. But it doesn't stop there because in 2011, in a highly publicized incident at his snowmobiling company, remember the one he owned in Colorado, he was accused of groping as many as three

women. To hear Harper tell it, there was no other way to avoid what he was accused of he claims that He was behind one of his accusers on the snowmobile at the time and says that she quote floored it Accelerating at a dangerous pace He claims that he needed to reach from behind her to stop the snowmobile And that the physical contact only lasted a few seconds and was only to help stop the vehicle and not to actually touch her. But obviously this wasn't the only claim. There was two other women who accused him of inappropriate physical contact. So he didn't explain those away, he just explained this one particular situation away.

But it was a lot more serious than Harper led on because he was charged with three counts of sexual contact with no consent against two different women and was forced to register as a sex offender. He also served close to nine months in jail for these crimes. But he later referred to this whole ordeal as a death sentence and then explained, quote, I did a year in jail. Misdemeanors are not meant to be a life sentence. Obviously he doesn't mean literal life sentence. He's saying kind of don't hold it against me forever,

I guess. Right, yeah. But also he assured many interviewers who kind of asked if Dia was aware of these incidents. And he said that she knew that it was a simple misunderstanding, which I'm sure he painted it that way. Of course he did. Dia was aware of these incidents and he said that she knew that it was a simple misunderstanding. Which I'm sure he painted it that way. Of course he did, but the reality is he spent nine months in jail, or almost nine months

in jail, because he committed these crimes. Exactly. Well, jumping back to their relationship, by Harper's recollection, the couple apparently became engaged in June of 2019 while they were on a hike. Harper fondly remembers proposing at a rock formation called the Butterfly while on one of their many favorite hiking routes in the area. He claims that they planned to tie the knot on July 24th, 2020 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And he even said that he purchased a ring though Dia's sister Peggy later relayed that He couldn't remember where he had gotten the ring and he probably had gotten it fairly recently

This wedding was just coming up like almost two months later. So to say you don't know where you got it It's like did you buy it? Is this real? Yeah, is that a lie? So news of the engagement which strangely didn't break until after Dia had disappeared, came as a surprise to all who knew her. Both Peggy and Clinton maintained that Dia didn't want to get married again. Clinton later said matter-of-factly, quote, "...it was definitely not the case. I know my mother, she was not engaged.

She would not remarry." And like I said oddly, she also hadn't told anybody about her alleged engagement. Her own son Clinton hadn't even known that they were together, let alone engaged. And by the way, Clinton recalls a mostly loving, amicable relationship between himself and his mom, and that any conflicts between them were typical ones between a mother and her child. But Harper tells a very different story here, and describes his partner as estranged from both of her children. And here's what happened. So, when her ex-husband, Clem, died,

there were some pretty severe arguments over his sizable estate, which amounted to as much as $ million dollars in addition to multiple homes and properties Clem assumed the bills for the ranch, but when he died dia received no liquid assets So in 2019 after his death she filed a petition to gain control of his estate Though her prenuptial agreement with her husband technically advised that it be left to their children and not dia with her husband technically advised that it be left to their children and not Dia. Dia wanted only a small monthly payout to maintain her lifestyle and take care of the ranch because, you know, this was her life. This is all she really wanted was just her animals in this ranch, but in response her kids retained a lawyer. So they claim that hiring a legal team to, you know, counter this petition was nothing against their mother, but simply a way to ensure that the outcome was ideal for all of them while maintaining

Clem's final wishes for his assets. So they weren't trying to do anything malicious here, they just wanted to make sure that it was fair for everybody. Both the Abrams children and their lawyer said that this was a standard family practice, with no malicious intent, as I intent, and that Chrisara and Clinton wanted them all to be cared for, including Dia. But Dia felt very differently about their legal proceedings and made the difficult decision to remove them from her will.

And remember this is all happening within a couple years or less from when she disappeared so this is all still very much going on when she went missing, which we're going to get into in a minute. So on December 12th, 2018, Dia added a handwritten clause to her will that read quote, trust her leaves nothing but love and affection to her son, Clinton Abrams and daughter, Chris Sarah Abrams. Yeah. So obviously, you know, this is probably very frustrating to her children because they know she has a lot of money and all these properties and she's just leaving her love.

Obviously, she can do that. It's her will. She can do whatever she wants, but. But it does kind of it's very telling to what's going on with their relationship. Sure. So later she actually named her friend Diana Federer as well as her boyfriend slash fiance slash ranch hand Keith Harper as the executors of her estate. So at this point with just how tenuous things had been, Harper claims that the kids

weren't even welcome on the grounds of the ranch anymore. This particular decision was made just 15 days before her disappearance, though her children had not been made aware of this update apparently. Dia's friends recall her lamenting often about how her children only contacted her when they needed or wanted something and that, though they lived only a couple hours away, they rarely saw each other or even spoke. Her friend Julia says that in the 10 years of knowing Dia, she had never met her son

Clinton and remembers Dia frequently feeling disappointed by their limited contact. And when they did speak, it was always initiated by Dia. So again, this is just more backstory on her relationship with her kids since they are going to come up in the discussion of her disappearance. Yes, it is very relevant here. So on Saturday, June 6th, 2020, Dia and Harper were preparing for a trip to Colorado together planning to leave the very next day. So they're trying to leave on Sunday, June 7th. That morning, again, Saturday, June 6th, around 9 a.m., Dia dropped off homemade cinnamon rolls at the house of a friend who was ill, and that was the last time that she was seen publicly.

And by publicly, I mean on the video doorbell, kindly dropping off these baked goods to her neighbor. She then returned to her house to prepare for the trip and care for her animals. And by his own admission, Harper was out in the meadow mowing the grass during this time that Dia was back at the property, you know, taking care of all the stuff she needed to

before leaving. Around 2 p.m. that afternoon, he took a break and returned to the house to enjoy some lunch with Dia. According to Harper, Dia mentioned that there was something she wanted to speak with him about, but Harper wanted to wait until he was finished mowing the property by the time night fell and asked that they talk about it later. So Dia agreed and he headed back out around 2 30 p.m. to continue mowing that grass.

Around 4 20 p.m. that afternoon she texted him quote, Harper you can't save me from all things. You believe you can. You cannot. So puzzled Harper returned to the house around 7 p.m. to ask about the intention of her text message and what she wanted to speak about. But he arrived to an empty home. Her car, which was a Ford F-350 pickup truck, was still parked out front. Her purse containing her keys, credit cards, and debit cards, and a large amount of cash was left inside. And her phone was charging in the bedroom. So kind of weird, you know, she sends him this not, I mean, it's not super final feeling,

but it definitely feels like this is like a statement from her right Harper. You cannot save me from all things. You believe you can, but you cannot. And that was at 420. Like you said, he's not coming to talk about it until seven, and then she's just gone and all of her stuff is there. So that's really weird. Yeah, it's very weird and gives you kind of suspicious vibes

from the get-go. So he initially assumed that she had taken the horses out for a walk, but as time ticked by, he grew increasingly concerned. He claims that he set out on the property, scouring the grounds for any sign of her, but he found none. So at 1230 AM, remember this is, you know, almost the middle of the night, he phoned the highway patrol.

Now initially they didn't seem very concerned and just kind of asked him to check back in the morning. So when Harper awoke after a restless night of sleep, he called the highway patrol again, telling them that she had yet to show up. So they advised him to call the Riverside County Sheriff's Office to report her missing. Now after submitting the missing persons report, Harper called a few of Dia's friends and neighbors to see if you know maybe she had spent the night with any of them. But nobody had heard from her or seen her.

The community really rallied around him and Dia, and by Sunday morning, he says, quote, We spent three days with an intense search of 26 people, friends of hers, looking for her. We were using her dogs as they would recognize her scent. we were using her dogs as they would recognize her scent. The local sheriff's department employed ATVs to comb the property, and the ranch was also searched from above with helicopters. And also, on top of this, they also had a dive team scouring that pond, because remember, there's this very large pond on that property. Yeah, big enough to enjoy water sports on.

Exactly. So one of Dia's neighbors, having heard the news from Harper, relayed the information to Clinton, who drove up from La Jolla immediately. That Sunday evening, June 7, 2020, was the first time that Clinton and Harper had actually met. Yeah, remember, he doesn't know that his mom is apparently dating or engaged to somebody else. Right. So of their introduction, Clinton remembered quote, He was very shifty, reluctantly speaking, kept stating he had meetings and couldn't be there.

He left the following morning. And Clinton was right because at 8.30am on Monday, June 8th, 2020, about 36 hours since his alleged fiance had vanished, Harper took off in his RV heading out of state. Now two versions of his story explain his actions during this critical time. In one, he had a meeting with his probation officer, which was a consequence of his sex offender status in Colorado So he had to go to Colorado to deal with that which could make sense because remember the day before he left

He and Dia were supposed to travel to Colorado, but they were gonna take a trip So it was possible that he had you know He was gonna take care of some business and then enjoy time there with Dia separately, but he didn't just go to Colorado. Yeah, yeah, very true, because in addition, Harper claims that he was having a tax issue in Arizona for which he needed to pay cash or a cashier's check in an effort to avoid having a lien put on his ranch property in Arizona. But regardless of the true reason why, Harper took off, departing California and heading to Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, leaving her friends, neighbors and local law enforcement to

commence the search without him. Which again, it's we question this so much because he left so quickly and it's we don't know if on the way to Colorado, which it's not really on the way to go. I mean, I guess you could go through Arizona and New Mexico and then up to Colorado. Yeah, absolutely you can. Yeah. So was that their plan to go through those states? He's dealing with something in Arizona, dealing with this thing in New Mexico, sorry, then going up to Colorado, dealing with something there.

Or are these excuses? It's hard to know what their exact trip entailed. Yeah because nobody really knows the true reason why they were taking this trip. They didn't really explain you know the reasoning behind it at all. Yeah or the real nature of their relationship. Well Julia recalled again Julia is one of Dia's friends uh she recalled, quote, we were kind of like flabbergasted about that. And I remember him standing behind the camper sobbing and saying, quote, I'll never see her again. And I had thought at that moment, why would you say that?

Why would you say never? By By Harper's own account, the police were shutting down the ranch for investigations at the time that he left, so he didn't need to be there. So that is another part of his reasoning and kind of his explanation for leaving is that he almost couldn't be there because they're searching the premises and of course he had to be in these other states for all these other reasons. Now Clinton later criticized this saying quote, it's unsettling to me that on the morning that the search and rescue team arrived and the homicide unit arrived, Harper was not there.

He had fled. Dia's friends also note that Clinton was not helpful in the search and seemed to be present just to oversee the investigative efforts. So again, lots of finger pointing here. On the morning of Monday, June 8th, 2020, shortly after Harper left, homicide investigators and a dive team arrived at the property to perform a search, which continued for two days until Wednesday. From the home, they removed a bandaid, a tan bedsheet, and toilet paper, all of which were

believed to have blood on them, and these were entered into evidence. According to Harper, conveniently, he says this was his blood and the result of the medication that he takes that makes his skin very susceptible to cuts. However, two handwritten letters and the Netgear brand Wi-Fi router were also removed, and authorities discovered two spent bullet casings near the front door of the property. Another strange detail was the appearance of their bedroom door itself, which looked as if it had been kicked in, leaving cracked wood behind. So this paints kind of a violent scene. You know, there's no real reason that somebody would kick down a door normally. Yeah, you know, just that wood being on the ground there indicates to me that

somebody was trying to bash through it. Yeah and that of course makes us think that there could have been an argument and possibly Dia was inside her room and maybe Harper or somebody else kicked in the door to get to her right? That? That's just what's coming to mind. Yeah, yeah. So on Wednesday, June 10th, 2020, four days after Dia disappeared, police wrapped up the search at her house, but found no trace of her at all.

There was no evidence pointing to her leaving, anything particularly violent happening. Like there's no crime scene here. When Harper returned a week later, authorities impounded the RV that he had taken on his trip, and even removed a portion of the driver's seat as evidence. Yeah, I mean, because when you think about it, him taking off in this RV could have been a ruse to get rid of evidence in different states,

like it would be easy to kind of like just dump things along the way, which is part of why it's so suspicious that he left, you know, in that short period of time after she disappeared. That's where my mind goes as well. Well, a search was also conducted in a storage business that Harper owns in Aztec, New Mexico, which is, you know, one of the states that he visited right after Dia went missing. And of course, Dia's two additional properties were also served with search warrants. When Harper returned from his week away, life resumed as he knew it.

Like he continued to live on and take care of the ranch and the animals as if it was his own, which many in Dia's community had a lot of reservations about, which is fair. I mean, I get it if that's what he had been told by Dia to do, and they had this agreement with their apparent relationship, but it's so weird that she goes missing, he hits the road and then comes back like nothing happened. But apparently you love this woman, she's your fiance, she's your life partner, and you're just kind of like,

well, back to normal, back to the ranch. Yeah, I just don't see that as a normal thought. Like, your loved one goes missing and the first thing you think about is, oh, I've got these other things I need to take care of in other states, like, my life would be a mess. I would be leaving all of my responsibilities to the wayside and searching for you You know what I mean? Yeah, obviously everybody's different, but I totally agree with you and I guess in a way It's kind of like well. He has to return back to normal. What else is he gonna? Do there's no trace of dia There's there's no evidence of her going anywhere or being taken or necessarily being killed.

So it's kind of like, what else is he going to do? Right? But I don't know. It's, it just rubs us the wrong way. So when asked his guesses as to where Dia was, Harper could only hypothesize that perhaps she took her own life or had embarked on a hike and wound up getting lost or injured. Which is so freaking weird to me. Like this is such a bizarre theory. If we know anything about Dia, it's that, and we don't even know her, Harper knew her, he should know this, is that she fought to get this property and she loved her animals and her friends and her neighbors and her kids. And it's always so suspicious to me when someone close doesn't suspect that it goes further because why not? Why are you ruling anything out, right?

Yeah, you're almost kind of just putting two theories out there that you wanna believe happened. You know what I mean? Like there could be a million different possibilities. Well, to push this envelope even further, he also claimed that the children should be investigated and said that Clinton had every reason to threaten or harm his mother even though he stood to gain nothing from her trust.

Harper claims that Dia was actually fearful of Clinton and that she believed he has ties to organized crime. She apparently once said that he wouldn't hurt her, but knew people who would. So he doesn't think that anything nefarious happened to her, but her kids should be investigated? Like, pick a side. Yeah, from from all the things that we've gathered thus far, the fact that he left so soon after she disappeared, the fact that he's now pointing fingers at her children, I mean, it's just such a bad look. But let's talk a little bit more about Clinton and this idea of Diya being afraid of her,

because actually Harper was not the only person to say this. Yeah, so Clinton's lawyer, who was hired to mitigate the conflicts over Clem's trust, claims that this is a preposterous and slanderous accusation, and that his client has no connections to any criminal organization. But Diana, who remember is Dia's neighbor and good friend and the beneficiary of her will, agreed that Dia was afraid of Clinton, saying that Dia told her quote, if anything ever happens to me, it was my son. She also apparently described him as quote, too smart for his own good. Well, Clinton however argues that this whole ordeal was blown out of proportion saying quote, my mother and I always loved each other deeply and expressed that love often.

and I always loved each other deeply and expressed that love often. Statements that she was afraid of me in some way are attempts by those who are gaslighting Dia to cast blame on her family in an attempt to avoid responsibility for her disappearance. And though they hadn't met until after she disappeared, Harper believed Clinton to be condescending and disrespectful and remembers that he preferred to call her by her first name instead of mom After Dia's disappearance the men were at odds over her truck Clinton had apparently threatened to take Dia's truck away from her as it was technically included in Clem's trust After she vanished Clinton arrived to reclaim the truck with his lawyer in tow So a lot of people felt like this was a bad and kind of suspicious look,

but his lawyer defended this as simply tying up loose ends, and the truck technically belonged to the kids because it was included in the estate left to them by their father. But Diana, who was there holding down the fort when Dia couldn't, was shocked at the greed and misconduct that she was seeing from all involved parties in the wake of her friend disappearing without a trace. And Diana was still hoping that D.A. was alive and would come back, and she would now have no vehicle when she did.

But Clinton's lawyer countered this by saying that D.A. had plenty of money and could replace her truck with something more suited for her needs. Diana believes that Clinton did not want or need the truck and was just being vindictive. So rumors swirled that maybe the financial issues and conflict with her children had been weighing her down and that she decided to disappear herself. But there was no evidence to support that happening and friends claim that she never would have left her life behind.

Julia said, quote, she would never leave her animals, never leave her precious little dog Ruby. She would never do that. So the community began to turn on Harper, the last person to see Dia, and arguably the person who had the most to gain from her disappearance because remember she had sent this kind of eerie text or she had allegedly sent this kind of eerie text. She allegedly told Harper that there was something serious she had to talk to him about but he didn't give her the time of day and then conveniently he goes out and does loud yard work you know

something as loud as mowing a very large field of grass. And then he comes home and she's nowhere to be found. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know about that. Yeah. Everybody is kind of looking at that and saying, Hmm, that doesn't seem right. So Harper has addressed the accusations head on in the media saying in an interview with his local CBS station quote There is a lot of attention about me. I am the primary suspect because I'm the boyfriend What about the ranch? Did you kill her because you wanted the ranch? God? No, you know, I've worked on a ranch

Ranching does not make money. I know how to make money I'm here because I loved a girl. When somebody asked me, did you kill her? I've had that question asked and I've said, honestly, you don't kill people that you love. You kill people that you don't love. Jared Sautner Or you just don't kill people at all. Bekkah Lundquist That's a weird thing to say. Jared Sautner That was a strange comment. Bekkah Lundquist Yeah. So Harper continued to direct all attention

back to Dia's children, finger pointing in the other direction, saying that they had a long standing dispute with her, but he loved her and would never have hurt her. Muns passed with no sign of nor word from Dia. But then on March 16 16, 2021, so 9 months after she vanished, her children filed a petition to gain control of her estate, removing Diana Federer and Keith Harper as trustees, citing misuse of her property and funds as reasoning. Because basically, Harper had been renting out structures on the property and hosting events and even weddings there and then pocketing that money into his personal bank account

instead of putting it into the trustee bank account. And after the children filed this petition, Diana relinquished her portion of the estate because she didn't wanna pay to, you know, have to retain a lawyer and deal with all the, the legal proceedings of it all. But Harper pushed back against this petition. Which again is so weird. He's the new guy here.

He's the one telling the media, Oh, I don't care about the property. Having a ranch is hard work and it doesn't make you any money. I was only there because I loved her. Yet, as soon as she goes missing, you take over the whole property. You start hosting weddings there. You do all this stuff.

That doesn't line up. Now you're also pushing back against the children, you know, for this petition, because you want to maintain this ranch. Yeah, so in March of 2023, the three involved parties finally reached a settlement after two years of litigation and agreed to divide Dia's assets and

properties even between Harper and her two kids. Out of her trust, they would set aside enough for a hefty financial reward for information leading to an arrest in Dia's case, which now sits at $300,000. And this is divvied up with $150,000 for information leading to her whereabouts and $150,000 for information leading to an arrest of the guilty party that is believed to be involved in her disappearance Since nobody's believing that she went off on her own But if by 2025 her remains are not found

50% of her estate will go to Harper, and 50% will go to her two kids. Yeah, so, you know, this is a very short window, a short period of time in which they're saying, hey, if we don't find her, if this isn't solved, then... We're giving up. Yeah, we're giving up, and you get this, and you get this. But, Harper continued to search for Dia and months after her disappearance even sought the help of an agency called Find Me, which combines forensics, investigators, and psychics to close missing persons cases.

Kind of surprising. Yeah, it's a little bit surprising here from Harper. So according to Harper, the group is only accurate about a third of the time, although according to Find Me's website, it's more like 44%. After months of investigating, FindMe surmised that Dia's body had been left in Lake Hemet, only 4 miles, or 6.4 kilometers, from Mountain Center. So FindMe dispatched cadaver dogs to the ranch, and they did not find anything. According to the group's founder, Kelly Snyder, she said, quote,

So the first dog showed interest, then we went and got the second dog, and then the third dog, and all three showed interest in the exact same area. Indicating that they believed down somewhere towards the lake was human remains. We released our dogs one at a time, and within about 20 minutes, they alerted on a specific area. Both dogs actually laid down, and that was their message to the handler that they're saying that there's human remains there. The Riverside Sheriff's Office dive team also searched Lake Hemet and discovered no

remains nor any trace of Dia. Riverside Sheriff's Office dive team also searched Lake Hemet and discovered no remains, nor any trace of Dia. Though her body has not been recovered, everybody who knew and loved her is resigned to the probability that she is now deceased. They just don't know how. Well, it is interesting that these dogs alerted to this. So if the lake was searched and they didn't find anything, I mean, were they her remains? Were they somebody else's?

Were the remains put there originally and then they were moved? Like, what does this mean? Yeah, exactly. And to be fair, again, you know, they're successful about 44% of the time, so it's not definitive that they're going to find Dia's remains there, right? But it's definitely interesting. Well, another theory is that Dia was caught in the crosshairs of a drug operation. Because helicopter searches revealed greenhouses from marijuana at Sky High Ranch,

which is one of Dia's other properties, located about a mile and a half or 2.4 kilometers west of Bonita Vista, where she was last seen. The Sheriff's Office actually seized more than 350 pounds of processed marijuana and over 2,300 marijuana plants, but no link was ever found between her disappearance and this marijuana. And by the way, in the state of California at the time to grow this much weed, you needed, I mean, this is still the case, you would need to have a cultivation license, which can

apparently be kind of a pain because you have to follow state regulations very closely. So especially if you're not planning to legally sell that weed, illegal grows still very much happen. But we're not sure what the case was for Dia. I don't know what she was doing with all this weed. Yeah. So although Harper said he refused to stop looking for Dia and obviously got find me involved in the search for her, the months just ticked by and he remained on the ranch overseeing Benita Vista's day-to-day needs.

Isidro Garcia, who is a ranch hand who had been employed by Dia at Benita Vista's day-to-day needs. Isidro Garcia, who is a ranch hand who had been employed by Dia at Benita Vista for 14 years, said that he finally left after Harper took over operations. Hugh remembers really enjoying his job when Dia was there. They got on really well and sometimes they would take the horses out together. But when Harper was in charge, Isidro said, quote, he cut my hours. I only worked like 28 hours a week. He treated me like a slave. He's a mean guy. He's not a nice person. I'll tell you that I don't trust him anymore. I never trusted him. He's not a nice person.

Though Harper may have mourned the loss of the woman he called his fiance, it didn't take long for him to move on because in August of 2021, so just over a year later, another woman moved on to the ranch to help keep it running. This is going to get very suspicious here. year old Jody Newkirk met Keith Harper, who is now in his mid 70s at this point, it seemed like a kiss-met situation. She was a single mother who had been intermittently battling drug addiction since the age of 15 and she had kind of struggled to hold down a job. But here is Harper offering to let her stay in one of the rental properties on the ranch and help out with the hosting duties, the horse handling, and tending to the daily needs of Bonita Vista. In a journal entry later recovered from Jodi's bedroom, Jodi had written a letter addressed to Dia herself,

even though they had never met. Dated September 22, 2021, Jodie wrote, quote, dear Dia, so even though we never met, I really feel a bond with you. I know it's very possible you may not feel the same. You may just hate my guts, but I hope from the bottom of all my heart that you realize that I truly have you and yours,

all your animals, friends and home, possessions, and even Harper's best interests at heart. Right now, I am totally and completely screwing up my life as far as my legal, my social security, my personal relationships, though it was already. And I know so far it has been a challenge to get the right people and get moving in the direction of getting out of the red.

And maybe Harper can take better care of himself so he can be around here for you when you come home. And I do honestly think you will be coming home. I hope you like me. P.S. I just want to say thank you so much to you and to Harper both, because this has been a lifesaver to me. It's given me a purpose again. I believe again.

Well, at some point in the months that Jodie lived there, the relationship with Harper turned romantic. Later entries in Jodie's journal included passages that hinted at what was going on between them, like quote, "...anyhow, you really do sleep with as many females as you can and tell all girls what they want to hear and you tell them all basically the same thing. But at some point their connection turned sour. Jodie ended one passage by writing quote, I may not be perfect, but I am true honest loyal and sincere. I would have killed died given my right arm for you, even if you don't deserve it.

P.S. I'm heartbroken completely. I'm so lost and sad. Worse than that, I thought of you as my closest friend and my only close friend lately. The only person in my life I truly want to be with and enjoy being around. Very very sad. I love you." So it seems like this is kind of like a letter to Harper, but kept in the privacy of her journal. Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with that.

And it's extra disturbing that this was actually found because on December 23rd, 2021, Bonita Vista Ranch claimed its second victim. Yeah, and this is just four months after Jodie arrived to this ranch. Exactly. So at 5pm that evening, Harper called 911 to report what he explained was an ATV accident. On the phone with the operator, he said, quote, she wanted to go get a Christmas tree and she took the ATV up on the hill. And I don't know if she turned the wheel wrong or what happened

But the machine flips and when I find her she's been under that machine probably a half hour. I would suspect When authorities arrived Harper was attempting to perform CPR on Jodie who was partially trapped beneath this ATV Jodie was declared dead, but there were multiple Jodie was declared dead, but there were multiple inconsistencies at the scene of the so-called accident. Really weird also that he, she's pronounced dead when they get there, but when they're getting there, he is in the middle of performing CPR on her while she's upside down in an ATV. Instead of like trying to push it over and pull her out of it. Like he's keeping her in that position.

Yeah absolutely and he probably knows by this point that she is already dead. So the responding deputies noted that the tire tracks had stopped abruptly before the ATV had flipped, which made it look as if the vehicle had turned over manually after coming to a complete stop. Now how the fuck would that happen? I mean that just doesn't make any sense. Now observing the oddities of the circumstances and of Harper's story, homicide detectives were called to the scene. Meanwhile after Jodie's body was collected, an autopsy was performed and

get this, she actually hadn't died from her injuries at all in Fact she didn't have any injuries There were no wounds or trauma consistent with an ATV accident on Jody's body and her actual cause of death was acute methamphetamine toxicity though the medical examiner left the manner of death as Undetermined because it was impossible to know whether or not she had administered the drugs to herself or If somebody else had done it for her Yeah, the medical examiner also noted that the amount of methamphetamine in Jodi system was unusually high

even for a lifelong user The average amount for a fatal overdose is about 1 milligram per liter, while Jody's toxicology report revealed a level of 3.5 milligrams per liter, so over three times the fatal dose. The Riverside County Sheriff's Office investigated Jody's suspicious death, but were never able to determine the circumstances that caused it. So even if Jodie had died after personally administering a fatal dose, if she even did, the whole scene is very suspicious anyway, because of the fact that the ATV accident didn't happen.

Like, this is very much believed to have been staged. So what does that tell us about the person who found her? You know, just a year and a half after the other woman from that property up and vanished, this now happens. And it's clear from her journal entries that Jodie was upset about something, though she doesn't state exactly, she doesn't even state that this letter that we talked about was addressed to Harper,

but it does seem like she has this disappointment in her life. Jared Sussman I think it's kind of implied that it probably was to Harper, you know? Lauren Henry Yeah, I agree. But she also discusses her feelings of hope being on that property regardless. So, it's just a very, very strange thing to happen, and I am not of the belief that this was Jodie's doing. Yeah, I mean, just thinking about the fact that, and some people would say, well, you know, she was a drug user before. But this is three times the fatal dose.

I don't think that she would be in the position to give herself three times the fatal dose and kill herself, especially thinking about the fact that she was on this ATV, you know, riding around the property apparently, and then it's completely looks staged. I mean, come on. Yeah, something is super fishy here. But to this day, despite her journal entries, Harper denies that there was anything romantic going on between he and Jodie and that their relationship was anything but cordial and professional. But obviously it wouldn't serve him

at all to tell people that he did have a relationship, a romantic relationship with Jodie, considering her death is being looked at suspiciously. Yeah, definitely. So he has no motive to say that he was romantic with her. Now on January 19th, 2022, Jodie's friends and family held her memorial in Mountain Center and to the surprise of all those in attendance, Harper arrived, though he was asked explicitly not to attend. Jody's sister Kelly said quote, my reaction to seeing Keith Harper was a panic attack. I kind of lost my mind there for a minute. I just couldn't believe it.

I was stunned. On October 15th, 2023, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office executed yet another search warrant on the Benita Vista Ranch, though they have not announced what, if anything, was found. On November 16, 2023, Harper was officially removed as co-trustee of Diaz Estate after attempting to sell it.

On December 4, Harper was served with an eviction notice giving him 60 days to vacate the property. And on January 31st of this year, so 2024, he finally did. However, he won't go so easily and is still attempting to drain money from the estate. Which again, says a lot about the guy and what he's interested in. Yeah, money. Harper is requesting nearly $500,000 from Diaz Trust, which he claims breaks down to $197,000 for reimbursement of the money that he poured

into maintenance for the ranch, as well as $50,000 to cover legal fees, and $75,000 for compensation as the rightful trustee for Diaz's estate. He also says that he worked 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for years to maintain the ranch and should be paid for his efforts. Eventually as well, Diaz's three properties went up for sale, two of which have already sold.

Peggy, who again is Diaz's sister, urges investigators to quote, follow the money, and says that Harper's relationship with her sister was purely transactional for him. She also feels that Dia was brainwashed by Harper, who isolated her from her family. In terms of Dia's son being involved in her disappearance, Peggy says quote, Clinton has done so much to try and find his mother. Clinton has maintained that neither he nor his sister had anything to do with Dia's disappearance, and are eagerly seeking answers before next year when he will be forced to

split their mother's trust with the man that he believes killed her. Though he acknowledges that they had their differences, Clinton says quote, I want people to know that she was the kindest, gentlest, most soft-hearted person that you could possibly imagine. A $300,000 reward is still being offered by her family for information regarding the disappearance of Dia Abrams. At the time of her disappearance, Dia was 65 years old. She stood at 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighed 130 pounds, and had blue eyes and blonde hair.

On the day she disappeared, she was believed to have been wearing a yellow shirt, jeans, and a black and turquoise jacket. If you have any information about the disappearance of Dia Abrams, please call 1-833-DIA-TIPS or 1-833-342-8477. Seven seven. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening. Please make sure that you share this case so that Dia can finally get some justice. Yes. I mean, this didn't happen that long ago. This only happened four years ago,

or just over four years ago from when we are recording and releasing this one. So please, if you know anything, call that tip line, especially if you live in California or even Colorado, New Mexico, or Arizona. This could possibly get to somebody who knows Keith Harper or knows any kind of has heard a rumor or a tip about this case and that could change everything so please make sure

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