Going West: True Crime - Heidi Allen // 301

Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Big thank you to Tom for recommending today's case. Thank you Tom. This case is out of upstate New York and it has a ton of twists and turns, but by the time you're finished with it, if you're all caught up on going last year looking for more episodes,

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Starting point is 00:01:14 to you still want to help the show, leave us a nice review over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify that really helps us out. And we appreciate it, thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode, let's dive into the details. Alright guys, this is episode 301 of Going West, so let's get into it. In April of 1994, an 18-year-old woman was abducted from her job in upstate New York. After rumors spread that she had been buried in the woods and the potential wrongful imprisonment of the prime suspect, police revealed that the young woman was hiding pertinent information from her inner circle that they have led to her death. of Heidi Allen. Heidi Marie Allen was born on September 14, 1975 in New Haven, New York to sue and can

Starting point is 00:03:02 Allen and she had an older sister named Lisa. New Haven is a small city in Oswego County in upstate New York, nestled on the shores of Lake Ontario and not far at all from the border of Canada. Heidi's sister Lisa explained that violent crime was unheard of in this small community of less than 3,000 people. Saying quote, It's New Haven, New York. The keys are in the car out in the driveway.

Starting point is 00:03:27 The house is unlocked. Heidi was known to be warm and giving from a young age, always putting the needs of others ahead of her own. And actually Lisa remembered, Heidi sometimes coming home hungry from elementary school, because she had given her lunch away to kids who didn't have anything to eat. That's so sweet. I know, that's just who she was, like, even as a kid. A loyal friend and a selfless girl, Lisa said, quote, she was a happy person.

Starting point is 00:03:52 Any of her friends would tell you that she had a contagious smile. She was always smiling. Even if she was miserable, she still smiled. In high school, Heidi played on the soccer and volleyball teams and was dubbed the Tower of Power in volleyball because she was just really good at sports like athleticism came naturally to her. She and Lisa remained incredibly close throughout their teen years and Lisa called them more like best friends than sisters and remembered fondly that they would set aside every Thursday

Starting point is 00:04:22 for sister days just to make sure that they had adequate quality time together. Heidi also interned as a school counselor and volunteered with a local program for elementary school kids whose parents were divorced, and this was called the Banana Splits. Lisa recalls her as a gifted caretaker and that nurturing children came naturally to Heidi, saying, quote, she just knew she wanted to keep working with kids. She wanted kids to know they mattered and that somebody cared about them. At 15 years old, Heidi started dating a new boyfriend named Brett Law, and he remembered

Starting point is 00:04:57 a totally different side of Heidi. Recalling that before they started dating, she had fallen in with the wrong crowd. So when they began seeing each other, Brett had even told her that if they were going to get serious about the relationship, she would need to take some space away from these people that she was surrounding herself with, and she agreed. But the reason why she became affiliated with these bad crowd types was because Melissa, who was Heidi's cousin, was a young mother and she needed help with her baby, and Heidi loved kids and she just obviously wanted to help her cousin out.

Starting point is 00:05:28 So she babysat for her a lot. But this often turned into Melissa drinking and partying while Heidi watched the baby late into the evening. So at just 15 years old, Heidi was surrounded by drinking and drugs with Melissa's friends and acquaintances. Now this arrangement seemed to reach its low point when Heidi went to a lake party with Melissa and the girls left Melissa's sleeping baby in the car. And when the party had been broken up by police, Heidi's aunt was called to come and get

Starting point is 00:05:56 Heidi and the baby. Ken's sister, who's Heidi's aunt Martha, remembers quote, she got called because Heidi was only 15 and had the baby that she was watching in the car asleep. You know, so my sister went and got it. And that's how my husband got involved. She was at these parties. So Heidi's uncle, who was a town justice, really wanted to help Heidi get back on track and away from this new group of friends that she was getting sucked into. So Heidi was then legally classified as a pins, or a person in need of supervision, and in exchange for helping out local law enforcement, she would avoid trouble for her involvement

Starting point is 00:06:32 in the party. Martha said, quote, he contacted somebody and talked about her doing a pins, and if she gave them information, they wouldn't charge her. And thus, at just 15 years old, Heidi became a confidential informant for the police, and she was given the codename Julia Roberts. Like what? This is so weird to me though, because it's like, this isn't 21 Jump Street. Like, she's a 15 year old girl and you're making her a police informant to bus drug dealers.

Starting point is 00:07:02 It feels like really irresponsible. Yeah, absolutely. And actually, Martha recalls that some members of their family weren't even aware that Heidi was doing this until after she disappeared, saying, quote, we kind of kept all that hidden because it was connected to Melissa and the drug stuff she was into and got Heidi involved in and Heidi got in all this trouble.

Starting point is 00:07:23 And sadly, it seems like all of this is what may have led to her disappearance. Martha said quote, to be all honest, I mean, all of this happened because of Melissa and how she got Heidi into trouble because of how she used to babysit. And so we kind of kept that under wraps during the whole Heidi thing for my brother's sake and, you know, my mothers to find out that they were into drugs. So tensions had really been rising in Heidi's family home because of her involvement in this local partying scene, so she actually moved out of the house and moved in with her

Starting point is 00:07:55 grandmother for this fresh start. And after that, Heidi really stayed out of trouble. She got a job working at the local convenience store, which was the DNW, because the two families who owned it, who are the duels and the wills, were very good friends with the Allen family. She and her boyfriend Brett started to become serious, although one of the owners at the store where she worked, so DNW, really was bothered by this because he felt that Brett was too controlling. So about a year and a half after Heidi started informing, the police asked Heidi to attend a party with the same people that she and Melissa had been partying with in the past,

Starting point is 00:08:34 in order to bring them some new information about the local drug trade. God, and she's like 17 years old. Yeah, this is just not a good look. So they wanted her to bring a new person in, potentially this undercover cop, and introduce him to people at the party. But Brett said that he was really scared for her and told her not to do this. He felt that Heidi was too young to be putting herself in potentially life-threatening situations with potentially dangerous people.

Starting point is 00:09:01 But despite the risk, Heidi was viewed as headstrong, honest, and determined by those that she was helping. After graduating high school in 1993, Heidi was looking to the future excitedly. She enrolled at On and Dog a Community College, studying human services, and hoped to get a job counseling or teaching, because again, she really loved helping children. So the following year in the spring of 1994, 18- 18 year old Heidi was about to finish up her associate degree and according to Brett, she had sent over 150 resumes to potential future employers including one to the Oswego County District Attorney. Heidi was diligent, she was very hard working and during this time Brett remembered that she would spend all day at school, work a night shift at the DNW, do homework late into the evening,

Starting point is 00:09:50 and then get up in the morning to do it all over again. Easter Sunday, April 3, 1994 was a cold and raining one in New Haven, and Heidi was working a morning shift so that she could spend the rest of the holiday with her family. She headed to the DNW, which was located on the corner of state routes 104 and 104B, around 5.30am that morning. Her boyfriend Brett went into the shop with her, which was something that he did often as a safety measure and waited until it was getting busy before he headed out. Shortly after he did, Heidi vanished and was never seen again.

Starting point is 00:10:30 At 7.45 am that morning, so a couple hours into a shift. A customer came in and found the store empty, unlocked, and with all the lights on. But the cash register had been left unattended. Heidi's keys were still on the counter, and her red Pontiac sunbird station wagon was still in the parking lot. The customer thought this whole situation was really weird, so they flagged down a nearby squad card to let them know of the very suspicious circumstances

Starting point is 00:10:59 in the store, and police began alerting her family that something seemed to have gone wrong. Then two hours after Heidi disappeared, a local man named Richard Tibido called the police and claimed that he had likely been the last person in the shop before she disappeared. He explained that he had gone in that morning to purchase two packs of cigarettes. The two were alone in the store and he had checked out, told her to have a nice day, and left. And this was at 7.42am, leaving just a three-minute window for Heidi to be abducted. So, multiple people who had been in the vicinity of the gas station

Starting point is 00:11:39 that morning reported seeing a van, either whites or blue in color, parked in the parking lot. Another noticed a van, quote, driving very erratically, wrestling or struggling with somebody. One passerby claimed that he believed to have been driving by at the time that Heidi was being escorted out of the store. This man claimed that he saw Heidi being walked out of the store by two large men and into a blue van. One was about 5 feet 11 inches tall, older than the other, and walking alongside Heidi and the other man. The man who appeared to be walking Heidi out of the store was a little over 6 feet tall, but the witness said that he couldn't really tell

Starting point is 00:12:20 their builds because they were wearing coats. When asked who he thought abducted his girlfriend, Brett said quote, I honestly do think that it's someone she knew and trusted. Got her around the counter somehow with a conversation. She was real friendly to everyone she knew. I just wonder why this is his immediate assumption? Because there's no evidence to point to her knowing this person, and if there was nobody else in the store when it happened, somebody easily could have, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:48 accosted her from behind the counter. Especially if there were two men. Yeah, it would have been easier, you know, pretty easy to pull her out of there and take power over her. So I wonder why that's his assumption just because she's friendly. It means that she, I mean, this is a very small town,

Starting point is 00:13:03 as I said. Yeah, I was about to say that. This is a town of 3,000 people, so. And of course, with what she was doing, being an informant, and Brett knew about all that stuff, and he didn't like it, so it does kind of make sense, but I don't know, it just feels like, like an interesting thing to say right off the bat.

Starting point is 00:13:19 Well, the FBI did quickly put together a criminal profile for the offender, suggesting that it would be someone with a history of violence, who had a fixation on the case. Two weeks passed with no sign of Heidi, so at this point the New York State Governor approved the use of the National Guard in addition to the local search effort. Ground search has come to the thawing Spring woodlands surrounding town, but there was still no sign of Heidi. Investigators worked alongside hundreds of volunteers, and it seemed that the whole town came together in the search, including the last person to see her before she was abducted,

Starting point is 00:13:54 who again was Richard Tibido, the guy who bought those cigarettes that morning. So Richard, alongside his girlfriend Teresa, his brother Gary, and Gary's girlfriend Sharon, all came along to aid in the search efforts. But here's the thing, the Tibido brothers were already on the radar of local police. Richard owned a boxy white Chevy van similar to the one that a few witnesses claimed to have seen at the DNW that morning, so the same day that they came out to volunteer to search for Heidi, they were actually brought

Starting point is 00:14:25 into the police station to be questioned about her abduction. Gary basically said that he had been at home sleeping with his girlfriend, which is a story that his girlfriend Sharon corroborated. And Richard maintained the same story that he had told police that that day that Heidi disappeared, he had purchased cigarettes from her that morning and left at 7.42am. But Richard and Gary remained very helpful and super cooperative in the investigation and they genuinely seemed like they wanted to help. Richard said in an interview with the police, quote, the bottom line is, there's a young

Starting point is 00:14:58 lady missing and I'm not going to have anything to do with it other than maybe to help find her. And remember, Richard wheelingly came forward to police, they didn't find him like he called them that day and said, oh I actually think I was maybe the last person to see her because I was in there that morning. But Richard was questioned for eight hour straight and declined to have a lawyer present. He filled out the FBI's behavioral questionnaire which did not seem to indicate that he had anything to do with the kidnapping.

Starting point is 00:15:28 But Richard also took a polygraph, and a few questions seemed to indicate that he might be lying. And we've said it before, we'll say it again. Polygraph tests are like notoriously faulty, but this kind of gave police renewed suspicion that Richard may be involved after all. So they asked him for a hair and blood sample to compare with samples found at the scene of Heidi's kidnapping and across reference with another murder in Massachusetts, the murder of 24-year-old Lisa Zegert, who had disappeared from similar circumstances

Starting point is 00:16:02 almost exactly two years prior to Heidi's disappearance. On April 15, 1992, Lisa was working in a gift shop in Agawal, Massachusetts and seemed to vanish without a trace. Her body was recovered four days later on Easter, but was so far unsolved. So when Heidi went missing, also from a store and also on Easter, investigators kind of began to draw a connection between Lisa and the Tibido brothers because they were also from Massachusetts and the two crimes were just like eerily similar. And strangely, Gary and Sharon happened to have driven their car to Agawom the day after

Starting point is 00:16:43 Heidi vanished because they were having a part replaced on the undercarriage of their vehicle. So police jumped on this right away believing that the old car part may have evidence on it that would connect them to Heidi's abduction like maybe her blood. So police scoured their car in addition to Richard's van and the Tibidos brothers' property as well. But there was no evidence that pointed to either Lisa or Heidi ever having been in or around either of the vehicles or on their property. However, convinced that they had their murderers, police would not give this up.

Starting point is 00:17:22 would not give this up. And a quick update on Lisa's case, so her case was unsolved for 25 years, but in 2017, a man named Gary Shahra confessed to the murder via a handwritten letter to his girlfriend. How strange is that that they're both named Gary? I know, it is pretty weird. He also did write a separate apology letter

Starting point is 00:17:43 to Lisa's family, and he's currently serving a life sentence. So her case did not appear to connect to Heidi's after all. But let's skip back to Heidi's case here. So on May 25th, 1995, despite their massive lack of proof, Richard and Gary Tibido were arrested for the abduction of Heidi Allen. Of course, you know, there was no evidence tying them to the crime, so police announced publicly that their arrest was for a prior drug charge, for which they had never served time for, but privately, Richard and Gary knew that they were on the hook for Heidi's

Starting point is 00:18:18 abduction, and the police were just basically buying time at this point. So the men were extradited back to their home state of Massachusetts after their arrest, where they were held without bail. But it wasn't just them who were going down for this, because police also arrested Sharon Raposa, who was again Gary's girlfriend, and charged her as an accomplice. So shocked at this, Sharon called her dad and said, quote, Gary's got nothing to do with any of that. Then, a tip came forward that would change the course

Starting point is 00:18:48 of one of their lives permanently. Two men who were incarcerated with Gary in the Massachusetts State Prison claimed that Gary had admitted to them that he had abducted and killed Heidi Allen before burning her remains. According to prosecutors, the men were not offered reduced sentences for coming forward with this information.

Starting point is 00:19:09 So, you know, there didn't really seem to be a reason why they would lie about this. Unless they had, unless they didn't know that they wouldn't get reduced sentences. Sure. And then they said it, and then they just wanted to stick with it so that they weren't, you know, seen as lying about something so important.

Starting point is 00:19:24 Yeah, exactly. But, I don't know. But again, also, you know, seen as lying about something so important. Yeah, exactly. But, I don't know. But again, also, you know, this is just their word. So neither Gary nor Richard ever changed their stories. And Gary called the accounts of the fellow inmates completely fabricated. But it was convincing enough for the court. So in the words of one of the inmates, quote, the day he left jail, Gary told me to keep my mouth shut about everything, Gary told me to keep my mouth shut

Starting point is 00:19:45 about everything he had told me, not to say anything to anybody. He said her head was bashed with a shovel, and she was mutilated. On Monday, June 19, 1995, a jury returned a verdict of guilty to Gary Tibbado, and the testimonies from the two prison informants was the deciding factor in the case. Gary's jaw dropped when the sentence was read in front of the courtroom, and Sharon, his friends, and his family let out sobs. Police also attempted to charge Sharon with perjury, first stating that she had been

Starting point is 00:20:42 home with Gary on Easter Sunday that year when they believe the men had really been at the DNW. They even offered her witness protection in exchange for turning him in, but she's stuck by him and, like the brothers, her story never changed. In fact, even after he was put in prison to serve a 25-year-to- life sentence. The two remained married. However, on September 29th, 1995, Richard Tibido was acquitted of what his brother was charged with, which really doesn't make any sense, because-

Starting point is 00:21:14 Because Richard was the one that was actually in the store that morning. Well, and multiple people called and said they were driving by and they saw a van. Somebody had called saying that they saw Heidi being carried away by two men. So it's like if you're gonna charge Gary, then who's the other accomplice

Starting point is 00:21:32 when Richard was the one who went to the store? Like, I feel like you can't charge Gary and not Richard? Yeah, and you've been spotlighting the both of them this entire time. Yeah, so then it just feels like, it almost feels like they didn't because the informants had specifically said that Gary confessed this to them, which really is not even enough evidence anyway. They were like, oh well, we can get away with this.

Starting point is 00:21:54 Well, at least move forward with it, even though it felt like such a, such a weak case. But it happened. So obviously, Richard was very relieved that he was not gonna be charged and he told a reporter, quote, I was very relieved that he was not going to be charged and he told a reporter, quote, I was expecting the worst, you know, and the best came out of it. When you're honest, it works out.

Starting point is 00:22:13 So after this, he really turned his focus on getting his brother's conviction overturned, saying, quote, Gary is just as innocent as I am. Gary's attorney called his conviction a stunning miscarriage of justice, claiming that the police had quickly thrown together a case against an easy target simply because Heidi was an informant. But obviously this doesn't look good for the police anyway, considering Heidi was an informant and she was so young and had likely got into trouble because she was put in these very dangerous situations.

Starting point is 00:22:47 So they didn't really want it to look like they had willingly kind of sent a teenage girl to slaughter for their own needs. So it just seemed like it would be better for the crime to have absolutely no connection to the work that Heidi was doing for police, and this would be if Gary was the one behind it. Exactly, it just seemed like it was better optics for that.

Starting point is 00:23:08 Right, and kind of convenient for the police, that Heidi's kidnapping was maybe a random act of senseless violence from just a very evil individual, but regardless of whether or not that was true, there was no movement made in the case for nearly 20 years after they put Gary in prison. So after this, Gary's team filed an appeal and later for a retrial, but they were denied

Starting point is 00:23:33 on both counts. But Heidi's body was still unaccounted for, and her family was still waiting for answers. But then, in 2013, a witness came forward with new information. A woman named Tanya Priest came to the police and claimed that she had heard a confession years prior, but she had been so scared for the lives of her children that she didn't report this until years later. So apparently, Tanya and her husband were over at the home of her husband's friend who was James Steen, and James' girlfriend, Vicki. Now James was bragging that he, along with two of his friends, Michael Borer and Roger

Starting point is 00:24:12 Breckenridge, had gotten away with the abduction and murder of Heidi Allen. And remember, a tip came into police that two men had taken Heidi in their van. So according to Tanya's recollection of that day, James explained that the three of them, who were involved in the local drug operations, had discovered that Heidi was an informant for the police and planned to get even. And Tanya's words quote, she was killed because she was going to rat on some big guys in the area. So after taking her into their van, the men drove Heidi to Roger Breckenridge's house and beat her in the garage before dismembering her and discarding her remains in the woods next to the town of Mexico, New York, which is about a 10 minute drive from New Haven.

Starting point is 00:24:56 When Tanya refused to believe him, she claimed that he got so angry with her about it and offered to show her. But Tanya kept quiet about this because she was afraid that something was going to happen to her too if she told police. So obviously, you know, this is just Tanya's word, and it feels difficult to know whether to trust it or not, but get this. Years later, James actually strangled his wife Vicki unconscious, and then in 2010, he killed her and her new boyfriend

Starting point is 00:25:26 in a fit of rage. Afterwards, he called the father of Vicki's boyfriend to brag about what he had done. So now, with James in prison, Tanya finally felt safe enough to come forward with the information that she had, and then three other people came forward to corroborate her account, telling police that James had also told them what he had done to Heidi. So, Tanya attempted to aid the investigation and offered to call an acquaintance of hers who was Jennifer Westcott, and this is Roger Breckenridge's girlfriend. So, Jennifer and Heidi had been the same age when Heidi disappeared, so 18 years old. And Jennifer used to babysit for Roger, his wife, and their 5 children, and remembers getting paid in cocaine.

Starting point is 00:26:13 On the day that Heidi disappeared, which again was Easter Sunday, 1994, Jennifer had gone over to Roger's house, and the two had slept together for the first time. And after he separated from his wife, they actually started dating. So a Facebook message to a friend, which was written much later, of course, revealed that Jennifer had said to a friend that she was sometimes afraid of Roger, saying, quote, I don't want to be the next one dead in a box in the woods. However, when asked about this by a lawyer, Jennifer claimed that someone else

Starting point is 00:26:47 must have written that on her account. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, she said she did not do this. But basically, everything that Jennifer says is super up in the air, which I'll tell you about in a second. But so later, Tanya called Jennifer West caught on a recorded line to kind of try to obtain new information about the abduction and murder, and this is a conversation which Tanya handed over to the

Starting point is 00:27:09 police. Now according to Jennifer's account of that Sunday again, Easter 1994, the three men showed up to one of their houses and made Heidi wait in the car while they figured out what to do with her. When Tanya asked her who actually killed Heidi, Jennifer said that she didn't know. But when questioned about the motive behind the kidnapping and murder, Jennifer responded simply, cocaine. All I know was that it was for cocaine. So based on this conversation, Jennifer was obviously brought in for questioning because she was willingly telling Tanya this information,

Starting point is 00:27:46 but and it seemed like she knew a lot about what happened to Heidi and what happened in this case. So when police were asking her about it, she recanted everything she said and claimed that Tanya had edited the conversation together to look like Jennifer was making accusations that she had not made. don't think that was insane thing to say yeah again this this isn't like like you are recorded in a conversation and your excuse is oh well Tonya must have edited that yeah I don't even think I don't think Tonya has the ability to edit a phone conversation yeah like that's insanity. So she also then claimed that she had been humoring Tanya by telling her what she thought Tanya wanted to hear,

Starting point is 00:28:33 telling them, quote, I lied to her. I always gave her the attention. She wanted attention. I was following what she was saying. She always wanted to be the center of attention. So again, just a really weird excuse to try to get out of it. And honestly, I mean, Jennifer could feel like she would be in danger by saying this, just like Tanya had felt for so many years.

Starting point is 00:28:54 So I understand why Jennifer wouldn't want this to get out, but it's like the police already know they have you on a recorded line, help Heidi's family, and just tell them what you fucking know. Yeah, exactly. So Jennifer also failed a polygraph test that was administered to her during this line of questioning, but obviously as we said, those can be very faulty. She was actually a key witness in Gary's appeal hearing, but she went back on everything she said in the phone call with Tanya. When Gary's defense attorney asked Jennifer about her comment that the reason for Heidi's murder was cocaine, Jennifer said flatly, quote, I said a lot of lies.

Starting point is 00:29:31 I don't understand this question. But the district attorney at the time called her a pathological liar and claimed that it was likely that she didn't know what she was talking about. Around this same time, another former partner of Rogers also came forward with information. Rogers' former wife Tracy, who he had separated with shortly after Heidi's disappearance, remembered that Roger and James had driven a van out to a scrapyard to get rid of it. And this was a van that matched the description of the one believed to have been at the DNW on the morning of Heidi's disappearance. And Tracy remembered that her husband said that there was blood in the back seat.

Starting point is 00:30:09 But, and this is so insane, the men have yet to be convicted due to witness credibility concerns and the lack of evidence. And Michael Borer is now believed to be living in Ohio, while James Steen is serving a life sentence in a New York state prison for the murders of his estranged wife and her boyfriend, and Roger Breckenridge served time in prison on an unrelated case after being caught stealing two tractors, and then failing to pay court-ordered restitution to the victim. All three men have continued to proclaim their innocence.

Starting point is 00:30:45 Yeah, and it's kind of funny because I was doing a little bit of digging on Facebook, and I actually found some profiles. If you dig hard enough, you can find them, and actually somebody mentioned in one of the comments something about Heidi Allen. Wait on what? On whose Facebook? On Roger Breckenridge Senior's Facebook. So if you're interested, you can go find it. If you want to go into that that rabbit hole well this this portion of the case is so frustrating because it's like somebody's in prison Gary went to prison for this case and these other guys seem like they totally did it and

Starting point is 00:31:18 they're not being put in prison for it when there seems to be more evidence and actually more credible witness statements i.e. Jennifer, but then of course Jennifer made herself look so bad by lying and making her statement so confusing and confusing enough that she was then called a pathological liar. So now they're not going to believe anything. She says even though she seemed to be speaking honestly on this recorded phone call, so it's just so frustrating. Yeah, and obviously I don't know the character of Gary and Richard Tibido, but it does feel really heartbreaking the fact that there was just really no evidence tying them to

Starting point is 00:31:57 this crime. Well, especially because I totally agree with you, especially because, on August 12, 2018, after spending 23 years in prison, Gary Tibido died after a battle of COPD, which has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and he died in prison, 23 years into ascentencing. And before he died, he said, quote, they know I didn't do it. Just three weeks before his death, he was asked in an interview if he still had hope of being freed, and he said, quote, hope. That's a funny word. I have so many medical problems with me. It don't matter if they let me free or not. This ain't no life existence." He claimed that he was optimistic after the information began to come out about James, Michael, and Roger, but five years after Tanya came forward, Gary was still locked up.

Starting point is 00:32:54 So he said, sadly, quote, "...I've been innocent since day one. I just figured, well, there ain't no chance now. No sense in giving them the 25 years. I'll let my body go to hell and hope I can die a lot sooner. I ain't gonna kill myself, but if it happens naturally, that's fine with me. I've been driving this vehicle for 62 years. I know it's just about done.

Starting point is 00:33:18 I don't wanna die, but I can feel it. I don't have a whole lot of time left, but I'm not wishing and wanting and begging like I was before. Sharon passed away in 1997, so just shortly after Gary was incarcerated. And Richard said sadly about all of this, quote, he lost everything he owns. He lost his home, he lost everything, including his wife. Of course, Heidi's abduction had an indelible effect on the Allen family. Just a year after she disappeared, Heidi's father Ken suffered a heart attack. And while he did survive, it slowed him down significantly and he was no longer able

Starting point is 00:33:58 to work. In the year after Heidi was taken, her mom, who was a teacher, was only able to get through one day of school. Lisa, Heidi was taken, her mom, who was a teacher, was only able to get through one day of school. Lisa, Heidi's sister, remembered, quote, she went back in September and made it through opening day with the teachers. And I think she made it through half of the day with the kids. And she never went back to work again. She barely left the house until my daughter was born.

Starting point is 00:34:22 Lisa has kept both Heidi's memory and the search for her very much alive but says that every year that passes gets a little harder. Lisa still thinks of her as perpetually 18 but remembers quote, you know, those are the little things you don't realize when I see her friends and their married and their kids are now in high school. Heidi and Lisa's mom Sue passed away on September 14th, 2015, which is actually Heidi's birthday. But Lisa continues to plead for those involved to come forward saying, quote,

Starting point is 00:34:54 there's something somebody saw or heard that will help us find Heidi. You know, my mom had to pass away without knowing, I don't want my dad to. But Lisa also says that she's prepared to pass the responsibility down to her own children and her children's children, if necessary, saying, quote, hiding needs a voice. And if I don't talk to the media, nobody is going to. I want people to know she was a good kid.

Starting point is 00:35:20 She was one of the most joyful and selfless people, and I can only imagine she would have been an even more beautiful adult. She just wasn't given that opportunity. Heidi stood at about 5 feet 11 inches tall. She had blue eyes and long curly light brown hair. She wore either glasses or contact lenses and her ears were pierced. If you have any information about the disappearance of Heidi Allen, please call the Oswego County Sheriff's Office

Starting point is 00:35:50 at 315-349-3302. 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 Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. What a crazy story. It just irks me so much when somebody goes to prison and there doesn't seem to be nearly enough evidence to put them there. I know that Gary and his brother Richard had been involved in some minor crimes before,

Starting point is 00:36:28 but to go away for a murder when we really just don't have enough evidence to prove that he did, and then for all these years later, for it to come out that these three other guys may be involved and they're just getting away with it if they did do it, like man, it's so horrible. Yeah, it's extremely frustrating. And that's why I feel like it's very important

Starting point is 00:36:46 to share this episode as it is with every episode that we cover, but if you can share this episode, it may help push this into the spotlight. It may get these three guys convicted if they are involved. Yeah, they're still out there. So thank you guys so much for tuning in, and we will see you on Friday.

Starting point is 00:37:03 All right, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ� you

Going West: True Crime - Heidi Allen // 301

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