Going West: True Crime - Michael Chambers // 105

Episode Date: January 27, 2021

In 2017, a retired firefighter went missing from his Texas home during a seemingly normal day. After searching his vast property, a strange trail of blood was discovered in his workshop, and it seemed to stop abruptly. While checking his cell phone records, some veeeeery unnerving information came forward that made this case even more bizarre - and it lead police to look at his inner circle even more closely. This is the story of Michael Chambers. *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmwicGo_C5I&feature=share ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=QmwicGo_C5I ) https://crimeola.com/michael-chambers-wiki-disappearance-retired-dallas-firefighter/ https://storiesoftheunsolved.com/2018/09/17/the-disappearance-of-michael-chambers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ffpe6u/michael_chambers_missing_since_march_10_2017/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/cyrefi/the_disappearance_of_michael_chambers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/7cqymp/michael_chambers_missing_since_march_from_quinlan/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/8kgp4z/update_possible_update_pi_in_michael_chambers/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host Yafni, and you're listening to Going West. Thank you everybody for tuning in today. A couple cool things. So our friend Robin Warder over at the trail went cold, actually just covered my aunt Carol Wolsoncroft's case. And he does such amazing research and he's a really great podcast so everybody go listen to his new episode of the trail went cold on Carol Wolsoncroft.

It just came out today. Also for those of you who don't know about our other podcasts, the Dark Parts, we just released a new episode on the Elevator Game, which is this really creepy, creepy story and game that's been floating around the internet for some years now. It's very, very scary. So, if you're interested in urban legends and scary stories, go check out that episode. Yeah, that episode, honestly, made me tear up in fear at a point. And so if you guys are interested in that, go check it out. The elevator game is essentially you a press a sequence of buttons in an

elevator, and it's supposed to take you to another realm, and we go into a lot of crazy stories about it. It's really insane, so check out the dark parts. Really excited to dive into today's episode. It's another more recent case, and I've kind of been liking doing more recent cases since they're obviously very relevant, so super excited to talk about this one today and see what you guys think.

Yeah, so let's not waste any more time. Without further ado, guys, this is episode 105 of Going West, so let's get into it. In 2017, a retired firefighter went missing from his Texas home during a seemingly normal day. After searching his vast property, a strange trail of blood was discovered in his workshop, and it seemed to stop abruptly.

While checking his cell phone records, some very unnerving information came forward that made this case even more bizarre, and it led police to look at his inner circle even more closely. Micheal Glenn Chambers was born on November 27, 1946 in Italy, Texas, which is a very small town of less than 2,000 people, just about a 45-minute drive south of Dallas, to parents Fanny Bell Meadows, and Alton Clayton Chambers. Those are some names. I know, I love those names. He also had a brother named Marshall.

At the age of 25 in 1972, Michael achieved his dream by becoming a firefighter with the Dallas Fire Department. Michael absolutely loved his job because he had a real passion for helping people. And he eventually became what's called a driver and jeanier, also known as a DE. And in this role, he was responsible for driving the fire truck as well as maintaining and operating the fire pump, as well as the aerial ladder, which is that big technical ladder, which looks more like a staircase that's attached to the truck. So it's a very important role that's also very technical and it pays

about over $50,000 a year. Meanwhile, Michael was also raising two daughters with his wife Vicki and the two girls' names were Susie and Sherry. But he and his wife Vicki divorced just a few years into their marriage, and in 1980, when Michael was 33 years old, he married a 23 year old woman named Rebecca Erickson, who goes by Becca. With Becca, Michael went on to have more children, but they chose the adoption route. And with that, they adopted two sons. First was John, and then four years later, they adopted Justin. Michael was known to be an incredibly loving husband

who treated his wife like a queen. And as the years passed on, Michael eventually got grandkids and then great grandkids. He was the grandfather and great-grandfather who seemed to do it all, from cooking a holiday meal to entertaining all the young kids at the same time. He was known to be the epitome of a good

grandfather, and they all called him Papa. In 2008, after a very successful and fulfilling career, and when Michael was nearing his 62nd birthday, he retired from the Dallas Fire Department and started the next chapter of his life. At this point, they were living in Quinlan, Texas, which is a very rural and small town of just about 1500 people that's around a 45 minute drive east of Dallas. They lived in a quaint bungalow on a 10 acre property just a couple miles from Lake Tawakone, so you could definitely say that they had a pretty peaceful life. Everything seemed perfect for them, and the kids and family thought that they had an ideal marriage because they joked around a lot and really loved each other.

And Michael had a great retirement because he had a lot of hobbies and also loved spending time with his family, and by 2017 he had 9 grandchildren and 6 great-grandkids, so big family. He was the guy that you could call for just about anything, and he would drop what he was doing to come help you out with a big smile on his face. The kind of sounds like my dad. It really does, yeah. And since he was such a fixer, his biggest hobby was restoring classic cars, also kind Wanted Car Club. He would buy cars and completely fix them from the ground up. And he also often had his son-in-law David, who is his daughter Suzie's husband, helped them out and they just had a blast together all the time. And Michael actually had a multi-car workshop on his property, so he spent a lot of time in there doing what he loved most.

As a faithful man, he was once the deacon of their local church and became very well-known and well-loved in their small community. Before his retirement, he joined a gospel group called the Joint Heirs Quartet because he absolutely loved to sing, and they would perform at various nursing homes and churches. And Michael was with this group for over 13 years up until he disappeared, and we did post a video of him singing in this group on our socials. Everything would change on Friday, March 10, 2017. Becca worked as a home health nurse and would see patients for homebound care. So that morning, which was a nice, partially cloudy day and about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, Michael said goodbye to his wife and she went off to work.

According to his wife, Beca, Michael was going to be home most of the day to work on a car and cut some firewood on their property. At 8 a.m., Michael and Becca spoke briefly on the phone and Becca requested that he pick her up some mascara. So after 11 a.m., Michael was seen on the security cameras in their local Walmart in their town of Quinlan, buying the makeup and a couple other items and then returning to his truck in the parking lot.

He was alone and acting completely normal and his truck did not appear to be followed by anyone. At the Chamber's home, the Walmart receipt was in the bathroom trash and the Walmart items were in the bedroom and the bathroom, so we can confirm that he came home and put the new items away. A few hours later at 3pm, the Chamber's neighbor returned home and spent the afternoon outside working in the yard. They can see the Chamber's house from their property and didn't notice anything strange

up until that point like from 3 o'clock on. Hours later, at or around 6.30 pm, Becca returned home from work. About 45 minutes earlier at 5.50 pm, she had texted Michael that she was leaving work and coming home, but he didn't answer. Usually, Michael greets Becca outside when she comes home and he helps her bring her stuff into the house. But that night, he didn't. His truck was in the driveway

and the house was dark. Becca went up to their house and the door was locked, so she unlocked it and went inside. Michael wasn't anywhere in the house, so Becca called his cell phone which went straight to voicemail. At this point, Becca called around to other family members and asked if anyone had heard from Michael or knew where he was, but no one did. With that Becca went to her neighbors and asked them to help her look for Michael. Becca and the neighbors went up the property which was pretty heavily wooded and looked to see if Michael was chopping firewood, but they didn't find him. So that's when they went to Michael's workshop where he would work on cars, and the door

was locked. Becca grabbed her keys and unlocked it hoping to find Michael inside working on a car, but the fact that it would be locked with him inside really didn't make any sense. When Becca and her neighbors went inside, they noticed his wallet, his Dallas Fire Department ball cap that he always wore, and his keys were all sitting on the counter, meaning he had been there. As Becca walked around the garage and alongside one of Michael's classic cars, she pointed out drops of blood on the concrete floor. One of the neighbors that was with her was actually a retired police

chief in a neighboring town, so when he saw the blood, he immediately called 911 at around 6.50 pm. So let me describe the blood to you. It's essentially a trail of perfectly round dots of blood that lead to a pool of blood, but when I say pool of blood, what I really mean is a cluster of perfectly round drops of blood, about 100 drops in one circular area. I highly recommend that you guys look at the photos to get a better idea, which we posted on our social media accounts, because it's very unusual to me looking at it. Because often times when blood is drawn and hits the floor, it's in a splatter pattern.

But these are perfectly circular dots. They almost look like stickers. And just to be clear, there are little tiny little dots around the bigger dots that would be the spatter and the splatter from each drop of blood. But the actual drops themselves are circular. So like, almost like splashing, like the drop hitting and then it kind of splashed out these little tiny drops. Exactly, but the actual drops themselves are perfectly circular.

They're not like, you should just co-look. And the blood was bright red, so it was fresh. It had just recently happened. So when police arrived to the scene and saw this, they were very confused. More on the blood in a bit, there was also a bloodied dowel rod, which is basically a cylindrical wooden stick, standing up against

the nearby wall, as if to insinuate that Michael, or someone else, had been hit with the wooden rod. Police first started looking to see if this had been a robbery situation since there was kind of known to be in this area, some of the patrons used methane fenamine. Michael's wallet didn't have any cash in it, but that wasn't super unusual, and it was also missing his Texas driver's license. His iPhone was also nowhere to be found. But considering all of his cars were still there, along with his keys,

and a bunch of expensive tools, this didn't seem like it would be a robbery gone wrong. Also, police checked the inside of his truck that was parked out front, and there was $1,000 in cash sitting in the center console. So that kind of robbery theory is probably out the window then. About the blood, too, the direction in which the blood drops lead was not going towards or near the sink that was in the shop. Also, none of the stacks of rags in the workshop were disturbed, meaning that if Michael had gotten hurt while working, he didn't attempt to clean himself up. But considering the wooden dowel had blood on it, we can pretty much just surmise that this was not blood from any kind of working accident.

Let's talk more for a moment about the scene again. Regarding the house being locked, this would be normal if Michael was working in the shop, but again, he always knew when to expect Becca, and would greet her in the driveway. And regarding the workshop being locked, this is only normal when he wasn't inside. It's not normal for him to lock up while he's inside the workshop. Yeah, and in fact, usually when he's working, he has the garage door open so that it's just fully open. It's not like he's shut away in there. Right, because a lot of times when you're working on stuff in a garage or a workshop,

you want to have a door open so that any fumes that may be gathered inside don't harm you in any way. Right. Since his keys were inside the workshop, it's probably no surprise that you can lock the workshop door from inside by just turning the lock and then closing the door behind you. So you don't need a key to do this, meaning someone else definitely could have locked the door. But this could point to Michael having been working in the workshop during the early afternoon, which would explain why the house is dark with all the lights off and why his wallet

and keys were in the workshop and then something happened to him while he was working. When police checked the scene for prints, on the door handles, cars, counters, etc. they only found Michael's prints. While evidence was being collected, all the other officers were sent to search the rest of the property. Since it was a whole 10 acres, Becca and the neighbors had not been able to search it all themselves. The Hunt County Sheriff's Department even had a helicopter searching the area and they were using a flurry unit, which is like a thermal detection, to see if they could find Michael that way, but none of this led to any clues or answers.

Since the Chambers' home was pretty close to Lake Tawakani, as Heath mentioned earlier, they shifted their search efforts to that area, and brought along the helicopter with the thermal detection unit. But still, he was nowhere to be found. Because the neighbor came home at 3pm and worked out in the yard all day and didn't see or hear anything at all, law enforcement believed that whatever happened to Michael happened between noon the time he would have likely returned from Walmart and before 3pm.

Police started questioning family to see if Michael had any known enemies at all. But it appeared that Michael was just the guy that everyone loved. I mean, he was a firefighter, so he helped out in the community and he was always friendly, so there didn't appear to be anyone who would want to hurt him. Even the sheriff, who is Sheriff Randy Meeks, New Michael very well, and could confirm that everyone adored him. The following day is when police discovered the Walmart surveillance footage, and again, everything appeared to be completely normal. Police weren't sure if he had gone to any other businesses after this, so they checked with other local cameras, but they didn't find anything.

But they knew that Michael had returned home after this outing because of the fact that the Walmart items were in the house and as wallet and keys were in the workshop. So police gathered multiple bloodhounds to search the Chamber's property, again, and try to pick up on Michael's scent, and the dogs kept leading them to the edge of the property that led to a pond area. Michael's family started wondering if maybe someone had stopped by while they saw Michael working on his cars and something happened that way, because apparently Michael always worked with his garage door open,

just like Daphne said, and cars would drive by and sometimes stop to talk shop with Michael. And him being an incredibly friendly guy, he would chat them up. Once again, the thermal detection unit was brought to the area of this pond, but no sign of anyone was found. So although his scent went that way, he wasn't there. anyone was found. So although his scent went that way, he wasn't there. At this point, everyone in the Greater Dallas area is looking for 70-year-old Michael Chambers, a 6-foot-3-225-pound man with blue eyes and baldened gray hair. The sheriff called Michael's cell phone, which again appeared to be either off or dead because it went to voicemail. And he had also called the previous evening and went to voicemail then too,

which Michael's granddaughter says is strange because he always kept his iPhone charged and in his pocket. So Sheriff Meeks checked to see where and when it last pinged. And that was at 5.50pm when Becca texted him saying that she was on her way home. His phone pinging near Lake Tawakani, which was an area they had searched already. But they decided to have divers go out and search the waters to see if they could find any clues that way.

So the day after he disappeared, two diving teams searched the lake and nothing was found. They weren't able to do a full dive search of the lake because it wasn't safe, but they had come to the conclusion that Michael was not in that lake. Five days later, on March 16, 2017, the Chambers family started a Facebook page to gather tips and they announced that they had a $25,000 reward that they would give to anyone that had any information leading to Michael's whereabouts. But soon enough, the family started looking at someone very close to Michael started wondering if there was any way that his youngest adopted

son Justin, who was 31 at the time, had anything to do with what happened to him. Justin had been in and out of foster care as a baby and was adopted at the age of 4 by Michael and Becca, but he didn't have the best relationship with Michael and some of the other members of the family. And Justin would frequently call Michael and try to guilt trip him into giving him money when he was low on cash, and Michael would always do it. But a few months before he disappeared, Michael officially cut Justin off, and after this, Justin would call Michael and make threatening comments out of anger.

But after police looked into this, they wondered if that's all it was, just in just speaking out of anger. Since there was no evidence of where Michael was, and police couldn't get speaking out of anger. Since there was no evidence of where Michael was and police couldn't get anything out of Justin, they had to just put this idea to rest for the time being. Justin had said in the interview that he would never hurt his dad, and police didn't find any evidence that he ever had or that he would hurt his dad. But what they did discover regarding the crime scene was that the blood on the wooden dowel, as well as on the floor in the workshop, did indeed belong to Michael.

But once a blood spatter expert viewed the scene, they were dumbfounded at how perfect the blood drops were. Like I said earlier, there were perfect circles not messy spatters. And there was no sign of a struggle whatsoever. There was just a random trail of dots leading to a more concentrated area of dots and then nothing. The blood just stopped. And there was no blood anywhere outside either.

So the blood spatter expert immediately believed that the scene was staged. And not only did they believe this because of the way the blood drops looked, but the color also indicated something. The blood was bright red, which possibly indicated that the blood included an anti-coagulant. Anti-coagulant or a blood thinner is a chemical substance used when people get their blood drawn so the blood doesn't clot. So this told the blood spatter expert that someone may have drawn Michael's blood or he drew it himself and stored it in a vial and then placed the drops in that way, which would also cause them to look so perfect to stage a crime. And again, make sure to go look

at the photos because it's really an interesting site. Our Instagram is at Going West Podcast, Twitter at Going West Pod, and our Facebook is going West True Crime. Please thought that this was really strange, because if Michael was met with foul play, why would someone want to stage a crime scene? If anything, Killers try to cover up the crime scene. But still, Michael staging his crime scene didn't make sense to police. Later, a private investigator became involved and he actually has a different theory about the blood drops.

He states that he and his team found evidence that supports Michael being carried and the blood dripping that way, and by carried I mean one person holding his legs and one person holding him underneath of his arms. This would cause a zigzag walking pattern which could apparently cause the blood to drop into those perfect circles like that. About the blood being bright red, it doesn't have to mean that there's presence of anti-coagulant. This color can also indicate that it's arterial blood, whereas venous blood is dark red

in color. Arterial blood is oxygenated blood in the circulatory system that comes from a pulmonary vein, and the PI and his team believed that the blood could have come from his ear or out of his mouth if he had in fact been hit in the head. The weird thing though is that there's no blood spatter at all, yet the wooden dowel had blood on it, so if he was hit in the head, and it was hard enough to get blood on the dowel, you would assume that blood would spatter. But again, there wasn't any. Yeah, that's really weird to me, because you would assume if he was hitting ahead, either there

would be blood spray on the counters or on the walls or on the floor, and the only spatter comes from those drops of blood. So to me, that's just really, really weird. Like, I don't know how it would get on the dowel and not everywhere else, because blood spatter is like very specific. Yeah, and the only thing that I could possibly think in my mind is that he was hidden the head outside, and then someone carried him, or two people carried his body to a car, maybe put him in the trunk of the car, and the blood drops happen that way, and then they just put the wooden dowel up against the wall.

But obviously, I have no idea if that's the case. Well, the only thing is that there wasn't any blood found outside at all. So it's like it's so weird that it's just in this one area, and it's frustrating because there obviously is an explanation to how this blood got there in that specific way, which just don't know. Yeah, I mean, that totally makes sense. If there wasn't any blood found outside, then it probably wouldn't be possible. I mean, you would assume that the blood drops would be dripping all the way up to the shop door and then leading inside. Exactly, but like you'll see in the photo, it's just

this random strip of blood and no blood anywhere else. So again regarding Michael staging his disappearance, he loved his family and everyone believed him to be like just this happy go lucky guy who was so proud of his accomplishments so they can't see him doing this. But one thing that wasn't so perfect was he and Becca's marriage. Police were tipped off regarding 60-year-old Becca Chambers having numerous affairs during her marriage to Michael. On top of this, Becca suspended Michael's phone service just 10 days after he disappeared.

And she took Justin's phone off the plan completely because his phone was linked to their account since they paid his phone bill. Again, this was only 10 days after he went missing, so it's a week and a half. So a very short amount of time later, when police are still gathering all the evidence, and really just starting to investigate this whole thing. And this raised a lot of red flags when she suspended Michael's service because the way everyone else thought of it was, if his service is suspended, we won't know if he turns his phone back on or if someone else does and it pings somewhere else. Like a phone is a big piece of evidence in any modern case, and

suspending it takes all of those future possibilities away. Yeah, honestly, that seems extremely suspicious. I would never do that if one of my family members was missing and there was some chance that we could ping their cell phone or there's some chance that we could find that cell phone and maybe there's evidence on it that shows how and when and why they went missing. You're gonna leave that phone on. But Becca explained to police that she didn't want to keep paying for Michael's phone since she wasn't going to be getting his retirement

money if he was gone, and she didn't want to pay for his phone with her own money from nursing because she was worried about her finances. But one month later, Becca did something else that seemed a bit questionable. Five weeks after Michael went missing, Becca obtained a temporary death certificate for Michael so she could sell his truck. Apparently she was now responsible for his truck payments, which she didn't wanna make from her own money, but since the truck was in Michael's name,

she had to get a temporary death certificate so she could rightfully sell it. And this really upset Michael's children as well as his grown grandkids because they were only five weeks into the investigation and very much hoping that Michael was out there somewhere alive. And here Becca is wanting to get a death certificate for him. Meanwhile there's no proof that he's dead. So this was very suspicious to investigators.

On one hand, they understood if she needed to do this for financial purposes, but on another, it seemed a bit odd and a little bit cold. In May, so about two months after Michael went missing, a polygraph expert as well as the FBI came into the picture to help on the investigation. They started first by giving Justin a polygraph test, which he apparently very willingly agreed to. They gave him two separate tests, and they say that he passed both of them. So with that, they weren't looking into him any further. A few weeks later, they brought Becca in for a polygraph test.

And this is when they dove a little deeper into her extra marital affairs, but she was very hesitant while discussing that, like she did not want to talk about it. She only talked about one, though, stating it was the only affair she had, and that it ended almost one year prior, so nearly five months before Michael disappeared. During the polygraph test, she mentioned that she believed that Michael knew about the affair, but they never openly discussed it. Michael's family was extremely shocked and hurt to learn about Becca's infidelity, because everyone thought that their relationship was perfect and that they were kind of like a leading example, especially since Michael really doated on Becca.

According to the sheriff, Becca passed her polygraph test. They did also bring in the man that Becca was seeing the previous year, and police found that he had an airtight alibi the day Michael went missing. So that's when they really shut the door on Becca being involved. So, that's when they really shut the door on Becca being involved. But, a little bit later on, a private investigator was able to discover that Becca had more affairs than she was leading on. It wasn't just that one, there were multiple, and on top of that, phone records show that she spoke with one of her lovers, the day that Michael disappeared, twice in the morning ish, and then once at around 2 p.m.

As well as the very next morning at 5.30 a.m. and continuing on well after Michael's disappearance. And when P.I. Philip Klein asked this lover guy about this, he denied it. But when Klein showed him proof, he fessed up and said yes, they did speak that day, but he didn't have anything to do with Michael's disappearance. So this is looking really suspicious though, because he had just lied to the PI and his team, and they spoke the morning after Michael's disappearance as well as the day he went missing. Also,

there's no evidence of where Becca was after 2pm on the day of the disappearance, because that's when she left work. That's the same time she had a call with her boyfriend, yet she texted Michael at 5.50pm saying she was leaving work and coming home. Also, Becca's phone went dead right after she got off the phone with her boyfriend,

and there wasn't activity on it again until an hour and a half later. This means that Becca's whereabouts from around 2pm to just after 6pm when she arrived home are totally unknown to us, and she won't talk to the PI about it at all. And does this mean she had anything to do with Michael's disappearance? Not necessarily, I mean she definitely could have just met up with her boyfriend and spent the afternoon with him, and kind of just was trying to lie about it saying she'd left work later, because she wanted to spend the afternoon with her boyfriend. But it's awfully strange timing all of it.

The fact that she got the death certificate to sell Michael's truck, and the fact that she turned off service to his cell phone is really sketchy. And then on top of that, she's had like multiple affairs with all these different boyfriends. Some really big red flags are being raised for me right now. Especially the fact that her phone went dark. So it's not just, you know, if they had pinged her phone

at the boyfriend's house, that would be different. Because it would be like, okay, well, maybe she really was just there hanging out with him. But the fact that her phone went dark for an hour and a half, and then she was caught lying like, it just proves that she can lie and it proves that she's shady. Yeah, it's just really shady shit going on here. Also regarding Becca, saying that the workshop was locked, the neighbor who was with her, the

retired police chief, said that the door didn't appear to be locked and it almost looked like Becca pretended to unlock it with her key. Why she would do this, we don't know, but it's worth mentioning, I thought that was kind of weird. Becca also refused to speak to P.I. Philip Klein about anything when he came to her a few months later, which struck him as extremely odd because this is the wife of a missing man and she won't even sit with him to go over anything. Three months after Michael went missing, Michael's daughter Susie received a tip on a Facebook page that she had created to help find her dad, and the man said that he knew where Michael

was. He then proceeded to call Susie and explain to her that Becca and another man murdered Michael and put his body on a property, an address in which he also gave Susie. Considering there was a $25,000 reward, police believed this man, who was a convicted felon, was just lying to get the reward. But they did do a search of said property and didn't find any evidence. But to me, I think this is weird because Becca was not a public person of interest. She nobody was, there wasn't discussion about her having done something to him. So the fact that we're here speculating if she's involved or not, and then this guy says

Becca and another man murdered Michael, like where did he get that? He couldn't have just made that up. I mean, could he? I mean, it's possible if he had gotten information or details about the case somehow, but yeah, I mean, it still seems pretty suspicious and definitely makes me question things. That same summer, Justin went over to Becca and Michael's home and got into an argument with Becca, and this caused Becca to call the police and ask for a protective order against him. When the police asked what the argument was about, she said it was about her cutting off

his phone bill. Mind you, this is months after the fact, so police thought that this was unlikely. Justin then later told his sister Susie that their argument wasn't about the phone at all, but that he had gone over there to ask her if she was involved in whatever happened to his dad, because he had heard about the tip that came into Susie, and he threatened Becca, but just with words. And remember, Becca is his adoptive mom, so for her to file a protective order against him is odd, but she did it. And the police thought this was odd too, they're like, okay, that's a little extreme, like

this is literally your son who's asking you about his father your husband's disappearance And you're gonna file a protective order against him like it was just weird. He didn't do anything like he didn't hurt her or you know What I mean like it was just weird. Yeah, I totally agree and even Susie thought this was strange because she Didn't think there was any reason why Becca should be afraid of him Because he wasn't like known to be a violent guy, it was just weird. So then two days later in July, four months after Michael went missing, the family is informed of something that happened weeks prior. Becca officially declared Michael dead on May 26th, 2017, just over two months after he went missing.

And this is not a usual or typical thing that happens with families who have- This is like years later. Yeah, it's usually after like 10 or 20 years of searching and all this pain, but two months later, come on, this is weird. And the family was speechless, especially because declaring Michael dead gave Becca monthly

payments from his $750,000 pension. The only way those payments would stop coming in would be if he turned up alive within three years. But again, local police just believed that she was doing whatever was necessary so that she could stay afloat. But come on, I mean, $750,000 pension, she knows that she's getting paid now. I just, ugh, I just... It's, to me, it's all just too weird.

It's like too many things that I just don't feel good about. Yeah, it's just rubbing me the wrong way. So since, by the way, really quick, since we're speculating about Becca being involved, I also think it's interesting that she recruited her neighbors to help her look for him before she even checked the workshop on her own because Michael was always working on cars. So why not check the workshop first and then go check the property before asking your neighbors for help and making it a big deal? Because no one actually expects their person to be missing. You're just like, okay, well, they're somewhere.

So why didn't you check the garage first and walk around the property before recruiting the neighbors and ruining their night by, you know, not ruining their night, but taking them away from whatever they're doing to help you when it's just a little weird to me. Yeah, it seemed like she was a little quick to get help looking for Michael, which is sometimes a sign that this was pre-planned. And also the fact that she may have known that her neighbor was a police chief from another town.

Well, they were very, very close, so she definitely did. Right, so that fact, the fact that she, you know, kind of recruited him to help her search also might make it look like she's being legit because oh, I went to my My neighbor who's a police chief and he helped me look so and if he saw it didn't see anything weird Right, but this is right after she got home So it's like you're already grabbing the police chief. I mean yes, it was getting dark the property is huge But to me, I'm, just check the workshop first. And even more so, the fact that she peeked around the garage and found the blood and pointed it out, you know,

I don't know, it just seems suspicious and maybe like you wanted other people to be there with you when you discovered the blood to kind of give you like an alibi, like we found this together. Right. Right. Right. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Right, because that does happen. came upon the crime scene together. Right. That's exactly what I'm saying. Right. Because that does happen. We have seen that happen before. And I just point this out because the private investigator and the police pointed it out as potentially suspicious. Like, everyone thought this was weird. And regarding her not talking to the private investigator, it's also weird to me.

Because in his words, P.I. Philip Klein says, if you're so worried about your husband and what happened to me, because in his words, PI Philip Klein says, If you're so worried about your husband and what happened to him, why wouldn't you want to talk to us? And also apparently Becca's best friend also will not talk to police of the PI as if they're like protecting her, so just weird. Yeah, like maybe she had told her friend like, hey, if this PI comes round, don't say anything. Please seem to believe that Michael staged his own abduction and potential murder based

on the fact that they believe the crime scene was staged and that there was no struggle. And then either Michael went out and started a new life or committed suicide. Michael's son-in-law, David David mentioned something to police that could give this theory weight, and it was a comment that Michael made months prior while he and David were watching an investigative show on TV. Apparently Michael said, a person could easily disappear and make it look like an accident, and no one would ever find them, and it would be easy to do. But David even says that when he said it, it didn't even give David pause. It was just a comment.

And he does not believe that this is what Michael did. And a lot of the family doesn't either. Some wonder, and police also wonder, and have this as a big theory for them, but majority just don't seem doing this. If he was staging his own kidnapping so that he could go away and start a new life, why would he bring his cell phone? Knowing that it could be pinged, and we know it was turned off for dead by 6pm and that it never pinged again, so why bring it?

And why bring just your driver's license and leave a thousand dollars cash in your car? So he has no money, no form of transportation, a cell phone he can't use, and a driver's license. It's also just hard for me to believe this anyway because of, you know, how much of a family man he was. He's really gonna have a normal day hitting up Walmart to get mascara for his wife, go home and stage his own murder or abduction

and then leave forever, and stage his own murder or abduction and then leave forever, and leave his four children, nine grandchildren and six great grandkids to wonder forever? Like that's some cynical shit and he wasn't a cynical man. In October 2017, the Hunt County police brought in a cell phone expert to analyze Michael's phone pings and use a new technology to help track his route that day. Earlier that day, Michael had used the lake to walk in a bridge to go into town and stopped at a pull-off where he could kind of go look at the lake and just take in the scenery.

We also posted photos of that area. Because of his phone pings, the cell phone expert determined he was there for about 10 minutes. At about 2.30 p.m., Michael went back to that location. But the weird thing is that it took him three hours to get there this time. And with this information,

the expert determined that Michael had to have been traveling between 2 to 4.5 miles per hour. And once he got to this location, his phone went dead. And just as a reminder, Becca's phone went dark just after 2pm after she spoke with her boyfriend on the phone. And I also will point out that the PI had another phone expert analyze the same data, and they came to about the same speed conclusion, so he was traveling between 2-4 point miles per hour, or at least his phone was. The sheriff's office got it into their heads that Michael had to have been traveling by bike, but looking this up, the average person

rides a bike between 10 and 14 miles per hour, so that doesn't make any sense. A leisurely bike ride is typically 5.5 miles per hour. Meanwhile, a walk is typically 3-4 miles per hour, which seems to fit a little bit better. But they went to Michael's house and determined that a bike was missing, and therefore Michael must have ridden this bike to the bridge where he committed suicide. But, when the private investigator looked into this, he didn't find any proof that a bike was missing, nor that a bike even existed. There was one bike that was hung up in the garage on a bike rack, and it was completely

unusable and it was broken. There was no second bike rack and no one in the family even knew if a second bike existed. Not to mention, the neighbor said that they never saw Michael ride a bike, ever. And PI Philip Klein also discovered that 70-year-old Michael had bad knees because of his terrible arthritis, so biking wasn't something that he would do at all. Although some research suggests that biking is actually good for the knees. But he would have had to ride nearly 20 miles or around 30 kilometers from his house to

get to the bridge and bloody at that. Yeah, like if he had gotten injured in his garage and then he gets on a bike and rides 20 miles when he's a 7 year old dude who never rides a bike and he is bad knees. This was their legit theory and the PI really breaks it down and it's like this doesn't make any sense how is this your theory. But also why the fuck would he get on a bike bleeding and ride to a fucking bridge instead of a hospital? Well, right, and I think the sheriff and the other police at the Hunt County Sheriff's Office believe that he staged the crime scene so he wasn't bloody to them.

He staged the crime scene, so he had his own blood in a vial. Placed it in this very particular weird way, locked everything up, took his license and his phone, got on a bike that we don't know existed, and rode 20 miles and then jumped off a bridge that is only 9 feet away from the water that they searched where no bike nor person was found. Like it just doesn't add up to me. Yeah, and going along with the theory that he wanted to maybe start a new life, you're not gonna write a bike to a bridge.

Like, what are you gonna do from there? Where are you gonna go from there? Exactly. It just doesn't make sense. And kind of going into that more between equisurge, diver teams, sonar, and more, there was no evidence that a bike was dumped into the water. So the PI really, just like me, doesn't understand why the sheriff's office is screaming suicide to the rooftops when there's no evidence of a second bike existing, nor a bike even being found in the water that they claim it must

have been dumped in. Let alone the fact that Michael's body wasn't found in that lake. And after this phone expert came into the picture, they did another search of that area, and nothing. The drop off from the bridge to the water, like I said, was just 9 feet, so this was not enough to be a lethal fall whatsoever, and the PI tested it. So this committed suicide in the Lake theory that police are holding on to really just doesn't seem to hold any weight. And nearly one year after Michael disappeared in February of 2018, they searched the entire property that he used to live on that was across the bridge, thinking that maybe he

biked there to commit suicide, like they went there and they were like he's going to be here, but they didn't find him. So it seems like the private investigator and the sheriff disagree on a lot, but they didn't find him. So it seems like the private investigator and the sheriff disagree on a lot, but I'm really glad to have both investigations and both perspectives. Yeah, it would just be kind of nice if they were able to work better together

to come to the same conclusion. PI, Philip Klein really thinks that this was a homicide, and he doesn't think it was a hit because he knows how well loved Michael was. He thinks that, and he's not even really saying that it's Becca. He's saying, it could be Becca because she won't talk to me so how can I rule her out? But he does not think this is a suicide at all because there's no signs leading to suicide and staging to start a new life.

So to him, he just, he respects the investigation that the Sheriff's Department is doing, but he doesn't agree with their thoughts. Also, PI Philip Klein points out that the Bloodhound's trail stopped at the driveway, which is a big indicator that Michael either got into a vehicle or was put into a vehicle. If he had walked down the street or ridden a bike, the sent trail would have gone on.

So personally, I believe he was met with foul play. And I can't explain why he was traveling at such a low speed because I really don't think he rode a bike and I also don't think he would have walked 20 freaking miles. So how could he have gone so slow and where was he going? If he were in a car, it would never travel this slow. And I saw online that someone speculated he was maybe in a garbage truck. But I still don't think that it would have traveled that slow.

So I just can't explain this part. The only way that I can explain it is if he wasn't with his phone. Like we don't know he was attached to the phone as it went that way, so maybe he wasn't. Because nobody reported seeing a man that looked like him walking or biking on the bridge that day. And going back to Justin, it's really hard for me to really speculate on Justin since we don't know anything about his character, but I really doubt that he would kill his dad over him not helping him with his bills. Because Michael didn't have a ton of money either, so it's not like he was a millionaire

holding out on his son who was in trouble. And I really don't think that polygraphs are all too much to go off of, but he did pass twice. But I just can't really get over the fact that multiple family members wanted police to look into Justin because those are the people that do know his character. And if they think he could be capable of doing something to Michael, at least at first, I think that that holds some weight. And that could have just been a formality because he had some drug and alcohol issues. And I don't think he was involved in this, and actually about a year after Becca put a protective order against him, in 2018, he fell off some scaffolding while working and got very

badly injured, and he was in intensive care. And I couldn't find any information if he came out okay, but hopefully he did. Yeah, I agree. I just don't think there's enough there for Justin, and the fact that he went to Becca and got really upset into an argument with her thinking that she could have done something to his dad I just I don't I don't think he was behind this But I do really think that Becca is suspicious here and I don't know why she won't talk to police anymore or the PI And she wouldn't even speak to them within a year of this incident

It's as if she just wanted it to go away. And she lied about having an affair at all, and then lied about the number of affairs. Maybe so it wouldn't put suspicions on her because she's innocent and didn't want to look guilty, but I don't know. I just don't trust her. If you're innocent, talk. And the PI Philip Klein also discovered that Michael had a conversation with one of Becca's boyfriend, a year before he went missing, and asked them to stop seeing each other. So he knew, and she kept seeing him and the others anyway. And this may be a stretch, but Becca worked in healthcare, so she could have taken his

blood and staged the crime scene. But again, the PI points out that he really doesn't think that it was staged, because it looks like two or more people picked him up and then maybe put him in a sheet or a tarp and then loaded him into a car, which is why the blood stopped abruptly, but we really just don't know. Yeah, in my opinion, I see Becca as the main suspect as well, and it's mainly because of all the affairs that she was having. And you know, the whole shutting off a cellphone thing, and getting the death certificate for

him, I just, I have to keep going back to those things because they really just, they really just rub me the wrong way and make me feel weird about that. I know, I totally agree. It's just, it's just too strange. Today, Michael would be 74 years old. When he went missing, he was 6'3", 225 pounds with blue eyes and balding gray hair. He had a small scar on his upper lip from an old auto accident, as well as a surgical scar on his right knee, and also both of his shoulders.

Michael wasn't known to have any health or medical issues whatsoever, except for his arthritis, and it's very important to his family and his community that either he's found or their questions are answered. If you know anything about what happened to Michael Chambers, please call the Hunt County Sheriff's Department at 903-457-2929. And you can also contact the PI at 409-729-8798 or email him at PhilipCline with a K at gt.twcbc.com. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I got some of the information for this episode

from an interview actually with PI Philip Klein. And the interview is done by Brain Scratch, and on YouTube you can find it under Lord and Arts. He's this really awesome guy who did this great interview with the PI, and I linked it below with the rest of the case sources of anybody wants to watch it. It's really interesting to hear from the actual PI

on this case, and he has a lot to say. It's an hour long video, so we did include all the highlights here, but if anyone's interested in learning more, go check it out. And we'd also love to know what you think of this case and what you think happened. So let us know what you think on Instagram or Twitter, but we also have a Facebook discussion group called Going West Discussion Group on Facebook. Click to join, we'll accept you and let's get talking.

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