Going West: True Crime - Susan Swedell // 177

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

In 1988, a 19-year-old woman went missing while a Minnesota blizzard hit her small lakeside city. Between her talking to stranger boys on party lines, a helpful gas station attendant’s account of his sightings, and a potential break-in a week after her disappearance, this case is full of bizarre clues. This is the story of Susan Swedell. This episode is sponsored by: Eaze Click the following link and use our PROMO code for 30% off your order. https://fanlink.to/eazegw PROMO code GOINGWEST BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca/bca-divisions/administrative/Documents/SwedellSusan.pdf https://www.fox9.com/news/susan-swedell-disappearance-34-years-later-family-and-deputies-havent-given-up https://charleyproject.org/case/susan-anne-swedell https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/06/lake-elmo-teenager-vanished-susan-swedell-cold-case-1998-30-years-ago/ https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/mn-susan-swedell-19-lake-elmo-19-jan-1988.58697/page-4 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 host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in today for another episode of going west. Just wanted to remind everybody that we are going to be at CrimeCon this April, I think it's April 29th to May 1st, in Vegas, that's Las Vegas, Nevada, and we're really excited about it, and we're offering a discount code for any of our listeners who want to come, meet Heath and I, meet a ton of other true crime listeners and podcasters and people, and it's going to be really fun. So if you go over to crimecon.com and use promo code going west, no spaces, you can get

10% off of your standard badge. Yes, super excited to see you guys at crimecons. Make sure you make it happen. Yes, absolutely. And also we're about to release a new episode on Patreon is a crazy Canadian case. So if you're looking for almost 60 new episodes, 60 new episodes, yeah, 60. They're full length, ad free episodes. We have not covered on going west head on over to patreon.com slash Going West podcast. All right guys, this is episode 177 of Going West.

So let's get into it. In 1988, a 19-year-old woman went missing while a Minnesota blizzard hit her small lakeside city. Between her talking to stranger boys on party lines, a helpful gas station attendance account on his sightings and a potential break-in a week after her disappearance, this case is full of bizarre clues. This is the story of Susan Swadell. Susan Ann Swadell, who often went by Sue, was born on February 13, 1968 in Minnesota, alongside her younger sister Christine. And she was very close to Christine growing up, as well as her mother Kathy, after her

parents divorced when Susan was six, and Christine was three. And both Susan and Christine were living with their father and stepmother for nearly ten years before their mother Kathy finally received full custody. And although we don't know the full details behind, you know, life with their father, Christine later said that it was a dream for she and Susan to live with their mother Kathy, who they were so close with. Together, the three of them lived in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, which is a small lakeside city on the far right side of the state Almost bordering the state of Wisconsin and Lake Elmo is also just outside of Minneapolis, so very close to a big city

Susan was always a big fan of singing and she even was a part of the choir as well as playing the handbells at her church Which was the Christ Lutheran church, right there in Lake Elmo. Her favorite band to listen to was Simon and Garfunkel, the her favorite song ever was Rock Me Amadeus by Falco when it came out when she was about 17. She loved acting and her favorite movies were the sound of music and chariots of fire. Susan attended Stillwater Area High School and was incredibly smart. She spoke Spanish and she was interested in pursuing a career in psychology. And not only this, but Susan was also described as being incredibly funny, friendly, fun to be around, and quite bubbly. In 1986, 18-year-old Susan graduated from high school and headed off to study psychology at the University of Wisconsin

River Falls in you guessed it River Falls, Wisconsin, which was actually very close to her mom's house in Lake Elmell It being just a 25 minute drive southeast from her hometown But even so Susan attended the University of Wisconsin for just two semesters before deciding to move back into her mom's house. And this was because she really missed living at home and she just really wasn't quite ready to move out. I think that's cool that she did that because I feel like a lot of people when they're 18, they're like, I'm ready to be an adult, I'm off.

And it's like, it's a huge shock. You know, culture shock to suddenly have to do everything on your own And I like that she was just like, you know what? I'm not ready for this exactly. Yeah, she knew she knew her limits as far as being a teen And she just wasn't ready for that quite yet. So when she moved back home in 1987 Susan landed a job at the St. Croix mall's Kmart in Oak Park Heights Which is a neighboring town right there next to Lake Elmo. And then her second job was also at the St. Croix Mall, but at a shop called Body and Soul. So she was really enjoying being back home and just spending a lot of time

with family while saving up money. And for those who don't know, winters in the Minneapolis area can get pretty brutal with their sometimes below freezing temperatures, snow, ice, freezing rain, and regular old rain. But this is something about living in Minnesota that Susan did not enjoy. Her sister Christine later explained that she was petrified of storms, and that whenever there was one, she would always call her mom to learn the safest way home from work, and she absolutely hated driving in a storm. But of course, if she was working, she had to do it, but she just couldn't wait to get home where it was safe. So we can only guess that Susan was not happy about the blizzard that passed through town in

January of 1988 when she was just weeks away from her 20th birthday. On Tuesday, January 19, 1988, Susan worked at Kmart at the mall until about 9pm, and she was excited to get off work, head home, and eat popcorn while watching a movie with her mom and sister. And in fact, before leaving work, she called her mom expressing her concerns about the weather, but that she was coming home. But before she left, her manager noticed something a bit odd.

So as I mentioned, there was a fricking blizzard outside, but when Susan hung up with her mom and took off her uniform, which was described as a red pants outfit, she changed into a short skirt and a sweater. And this sweater has also been described as a black jacket of sorts, but it seemed like maybe it was more of a fashion item than a weather-appropriate item, if that makes sense.

Right. So her manager thought that it was kind of strange that she wasn't wearing boots or a coat, like one would typically wear on a day like that, even a night like that, especially. And he even made a comment about it to her as she walked out the door. But Susan just kind of waved him off and headed out for the evening. A couple hours later, at around 11pm, Susan still wasn't home. Her house was about 10-15 minutes drive from her work, so she should have definitely been home by 9.30 pm or so at the latest, but she wasn't.

And especially since there was a blizzard, her mom and sister were worried that maybe something had happened to her. Because it's dangerous driving conditions, they don't know if she crashed or swerved off the road or what happened. She should have been home at least an hour and a half ago. Right. So they decided to call the sheriff's office and see if someone could go searching for her car and they did.

Susan drove a Maroon 1975 Oldsmobile cutlass and a deputy looked for it in the area between downtown Lake Elmo, where the Swadell's house was, and the neighboring town of Oak Park Heights where Susan worked. Kathy and Christine had originally wondered if Susan had crashed or swirved into a ditch of sorts due to the seven inches of snow that had poured down that day. But a deputy eventually found her car that night at a gas station on Manning Avenue and

Minnesota 5, located just minutes from her home. But the eerie thing was that Susan wasn't inside or outside of the gas station. She wasn't there at all. So the deputy drove to the Swedells home to see if Susan would have walked home from there if she was potentially having car troubles. But he didn't see her along the way. So after informing her mother Kathy and 16-year-old sister Christine that they had found her car, they both just felt sick to their stomachs.

Because at this point, they were thinking that she had potentially tried to walk home, though they knew that she despised being out there in the cold and had frozen out there. Right, and they were having these conflicting thoughts, because like you're saying they knew she hated being out in the cold, but where else would she be? Exactly. Where is she? Yeah. And if her car is sitting at the gas station, what does that mean?

Is there something wrong with it? You know, there's so many questions running through their heads. So when police arrived back at the gas station, they questioned the attendant to see if they had any information. And they did. The attendant told police that he had seen Susan pull in to the gas station at about 9.30 pm and this timing totally makes sense with when she got off work. Because this gas station by the way is about a mile from her house. But when she pulled in,

there was an older, dirty, light-colored car with sports wheels that appeared in fine shape following in behind Susan's car. And this was also described as a muscle car that could have been a Ford LTD or maybe even a Thunderbird. The man in the car looked to be a young, slim, yet kind of muscular man who stood around six foot two and had long That kind of muscular man who stood around six foot two and had long sandy brown hair and a three to four day beard. So, you know, a little... A little bit of scruff. Yeah.

He was wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and a knit beanie. Susan and his young man spoke for a few minutes outside of the K station, which is this gas station, and then Susan went inside alone to tell the attendant that she was having car trouble and she asked if she could leave her car there. The attendant told her that she couldn't because they would be coming to plow at some point, so she at least need to move it to a different spot, which she did. And then, she got into the young man's car and the attendant saw them head west bound

on the Minnesota State Highway 5. And it was the attendants assumption that Susan knew this man. Of course, he doesn't know, but just from... I'm not friendly, they were with each other. I guess, and just the fact that she got into his car, he probably was like, oh, she knows that dude. But it's also kind of interesting to me

how much this attendant recognized and paid attention to you and then hours later. He's like, oh yeah, I saw that girl and this is exactly what happened. I feel like typically when we talk about someone's account of things, they're like, oh, I think this happened or maybe he looked like this. But it seems like this attendant was really paying attention to this situation, which weirdly makes me feel suspicious, but also grateful if this guy is telling the truth. And props to them if they were just being overly aware. Right, exactly.

And also a side note, I originally had trouble putting this part together because I couldn't find a highway five in this area. But then I found an article from 2015 that explained how highway five was being changed to county road 14, also known as stillwater boulevard north in Washington County, which is where like Elmo is. So I'm just telling you this in case anybody looks at the map and is like, there's no, you know, highway five here. That doesn't exist. Right. Because it doesn't, but it does. It's now stillwater boulevard north slash County Road 14. And also just a few minutes south west of this gas station, which is now the holiday gas station on Manning Avenue and still

water Boulevard North is where the Swadelles lived. So if the car was headed westbound, as the attendant said, that would have been towards her house or at least just in the direction of her house. So at least we know that they weren't headed. It's not like, oh, they were going in the complete opposite direction of where she lived. We know that they were at least headed towards the area of her house. And obviously there are a lot of cities and towns west of this area, including St. Paul and Minneapolis, if you go 20 more minutes. But at this point, they were technically headed towards her house, which was just one mile away.

So sorry for that long winter explanation, but I like to give you guys a visual so you know, since I'm sure most people listening to this do not know this area. Exactly. Well, thank you for that. Oh, sure. We appreciate it. But here's some very concerning information. So when police actually searched Susan's car the following day, which was Wednesday, January 20, 1988, they found her purse, her driver's license, and her glasses inside the car. So off the bat, it's very bizarre that she would leave her purse behind.

But according to her mother, Kathy, Susan was very near sighted. So she needed her glasses to see, and she would have never left them behind. And for those who don't know when you're near sighted, you have trouble seeing things that are at a distance. But this could mean that potentially most of her vision, you know, past something that's very close to her is super blurry. So I know that she was so near-sighted that she could not drive without our glasses. So very, very important thing to note that she did not have those with her. Exactly. So the glasses being left in the purse, being left, really actually boggled Kathy's mind,

who again is Susan's mother. And the only thing that could even make the smallest bit of sense to her is that Susan thought that she would be gone for a short amount of time, and then the young man would bring her back. But still, why not just bring those items with you? Well, let's kind of talk about that for a second, and it's, I know her mom is trying to think of every possible scenario, but where would Susan be going to where she would be right back?

It's not like this guy's like, oh, let me go grab a mechanic to come to the gas station, you know, like, why would she be leaving her car and all of her things to come right back? Like, where would, you know what I mean? Where would she be going? And you could think of probably a million different scenarios. Possibly the guy was like, Hey, I've got this part for your car at my house. Do you want to just ride with me so you don't have to stand out here in the cold? I mean, that's obviously just speculation, but like, but it could be a scenario like that. Absolutely. It wasn't immediately diagnosed what was wrong with Susan's car, but Kathy had it brought over to the house where it sat for about five days as she and her other

daughter Christine just worried immensely about Susan. Then Kathy decided to drive it about 10 minutes away to a grocery store, but while she was driving that short distance, it started smoking. So it was clear that there was definitely something wrong with the car after all, and to figure out exactly what Kathy arranged for the old mobile to be towed over to a local mechanic shop. And they found something that was potentially a bit suspicious. So her car's pet cock, which is a small valve at the bottom of a car's radiator, so the pet cock was loose, which caused fluids to leak out, messing up her car big time. Now, according to Heath's dad and Google, it can be super difficult to actually turn a pet

cock and loosen it, let alone find it oftentimes in older vehicles. And a pet cock can loosen on its own, but it is possible that someone could have loosened her pet cock in order to mess with her car. And then, you know, maybe follow her in order to offer help, but not actually to offer help just as a way to do something to her. Yeah. And we've heard this before, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this actually, if this is true, it makes me think of the Julia Ash case, whose case we covered in episode 158 just a couple months ago. It just makes you wonder if this young man had done something to Susan's car in her work parking lot and then followed her just waiting for it to break down. And then when she got to the gas station, he followed her there, offered to help and then did something horrible to her.

But you would think that if someone did do this intentionally, they definitely knew cars because any other person would have picked something simpler, you would think, than like going in and finding the radiator and then going and finding the pet cock and loosening that, that just seems like, if you do that, you know cars, you know what I mean? And it seems like you're saying there's probably an easier alternative to that, maybe just like popping a hole in the tire. Popping a hole in the tire? Exactly, something like that, you know?

But maybe the purpose of this is to get the car further away from the Kmart parking lot where there's less people around. So if the car breaks down, I mean, I don't, I don't really know. Yeah, it's, it's really impossible to say because, you know, I was talking to your dad about this last night saying, is this, because I don't know cars, you know, ads, is this possible that somebody would have loosened it? And he's like, I mean, yeah, it's possible, but so anything's possible. It's just really hard to say. Right. And it really seems like getting into this man's car

would have been a way for her to get home, not because she wanted to hang out with him. Yeah, like, it seems like maybe he would have offered her a ride and she's getting into his car to just to go home. Right. Potentially. Yeah, exactly. Like, hey, can you just drop me off at my mom's house?

But still, why wouldn't you bring your purse? Because also, we have to remember that she had asked the attendant at the gas station, hey, can I, my cars, not working or my cars broken down? Can I leave it here? Right. So it doesn't seem like she was, she was going to leave it there for 20 minutes. It seemed like she wanted to leave it there until she could get it towed away and fixed potentially the next day. So the whole leaving the glasses and the driver's license and her purse behind really just confuses me, just like her mom says.

Yeah, absolutely. And her mom stated this later. her mom says. Yeah, absolutely. And her mom stated this later. Quote, she was telling us that she was going to come home because it was an all-out Minnesota blizzard. When I looked out our window, I could barely see across the street, and here she was driving home. We didn't know if she had stopped someplace or tried to walk.

It was terrible. No sign of Susan. No call. Nothing. And this quote along with many others from this episode is information that came from It was terrible. No sign of Susan. No call, nothing. And this quote along with many others from this episode is information that came from Mary Divine's article for the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. So big shout out to them for this information.

But our other sources, you know, as always, are listed in our case notes. So anyway, something that definitely makes you wonder is why she was wearing the outfit that she was. Was this an accident? Did she just randomly put that outfit on knowing that she would be working inside all day? Or was she dressing up a bit because she planned to see someone after work after all? Well, let's dig into what was found over the next week. Susan's mom Kathy later described her as a country girl who was very naive. And although she always had great intentions, she didn't really realize that some other people and a lot of other people didn't.

Kathy stated, quote, she was a very pretty girl. She liked boys. She had a lot of friends. She liked talking to guys and going out and dancing and stuff. She was a typical 19 year old. But in a way, I don't know if she had any street smarts to say, hey, I can't get in this car. That just blows my mind that she got into a car

and that nobody knows who that guy was. Susan's sister added, if she had a plan to meet someone, that would not have been the night to go. She would have wanted to get home. That's what really throws me. While speaking of boys, it was discovered that leading up to Susan's disappearance, she had clocked up over $300 worth of phone bills,

which would be around $700 today, talking to young men on telephone chat lines, which were popular back in the 80s and even before then as well, and would allow anyone to be connected with various people in their area via the phone. But I guess you could describe it as like audio or telephone tinder? Yeah, yeah, and I remember, like,

that was very popular back in the day. And I think even into the 90s somewhat somewhat maybe the early 90s that there were these like chat lines where you can chat to random people. Well, it's funny because when my dad always lived in big cities, but he said that he never used them. And so I think it kind of makes sense, maybe in a more rural area. She's just trying to meet more people. You know, I don't know.

I don't mean to say that there's nothing else to do, but I know that they were popular in areas more so like this, even though she was outside of a large city. Yeah, no, I totally get that. And not to say that people in big cities didn't use this, but it's definitely interesting to know that Susan, you know, she loved talking to boys, and she used this as a resource to, you know, meet people. Or, and I don't know if she wanted to meet them, maybe she just talking to boys and she used this as a resource to meet people.

Or, and I don't know if she wanted to meet them, maybe she just wanted to talk. Yeah, I mean, it's possible. And she really liked using this service. And even some of her co-workers had later reported that she would get different calls from men at K-Mart, so they knew where she worked. And co-workers did report that one man in particular she spoke with stated that his name was Dail. So police looked into this the best that they could, but found it incredibly difficult

to find everyone. And those they did speak to, or they could speak to, they did. But nothing was uncovered, because this case really was tough. She had allegedly gone off willingly with a young man and was never seen again. But without any way to track her and without any surveillance footage to view, they only had the gas station attendant's memory. With his memory, they were able to create a composite sketch, which you can see on our social media accounts head on over to our Instagram, at Going West Podcast and our Twitter at Going West Pod, but that's

all they could go off of. Police also questioned Susan's ex-boyfriend, whom she had been speaking with in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, and they even had a plan to hang out the night that she went missing. But he had ended up calling and cancelling due to the weather, so she made plans to watch a movie at home with her mom and sister instead. And based on how much she hated being out in storms, it seems like she probably would have canceled on him too. Yeah, I totally agree.

But either way, police questioned her ex, and he was cleared as a potential suspect. Well just about a week after Susan's disappearance, her 16-year-old sister Christine noticed something peculiar back at their lake Elmo home. So due to feeling safe in the area, the Swedele family kept their one house key outside by the front door on a shelf under something. I don't know what the item was, they just said under something. Yeah.

But when Christine arrived home from school that day, she went to grab the key and didn't see it there. And this was bizarre on its own because the three gals had this rule that, you know, it always stayed in that spot that was where the key lived. But even weirder, as she looked around for it, she ended up finding it under a box in the back corner of the shelf. And when she went inside her house, she got overcome with the feeling that someone had been inside her family's home. Someone who wasn't supposed to be there. Her mom was at work at the time, and Kathy was a secretary for a local university, so she knew it hadn't been her.

And of course, the only other person who would go into the house was Susan, who was still very much missing. In the kitchen sink, Christine found dirty dishes that hadn't been there that morning. And some kind of sweet, smoke smell that made her think of drugs, though she had never done them. And when she later described this smell to others, they pondered if it was maybe marijuana, but she didn't know. But back to when she entered the house and discovered all this, she was completely terrified

like the whole situation was just off. And she was so scared that she didn't even venture throughout the rest of the house because she didn't know if someone was still there. So she just called her mother Kathy and told her to come home. And even creepier when Kathy and Christine walked throughout the house that day, guess what they found? The red pant outfit that Susan had worn to work the day she went missing. It was rolled up in a ball and it was stuffed under Susan's bed.

That detail legit brought like a tear of fear to my eye when I read about it, because this has to mean that whoever had something to do with Susan's disappearance was inside their house. And why put the uniform under the bed like that? Like, that's so freaky, because it really doesn't seem to me like Susan went off willingly and then return to her house, dirtied some dishes, possibly did drugs or smoked something, put her uniform under her bed and left.

Yeah, there's definitely no way. Also, it didn't appear that Susan herself had been in the house because none of her personal items had been taken. And the problem in Susan's case is because there was no real evidence that Susan had been abducted, police didn't take her case all that seriously after finding her car and talking to the gas station attendant. They did talk to various potential persons of interest, as we mentioned, but according to the Swadal family, they definitely didn't go above and beyond. Susan's sister Christine told the Twin Cities Pioneer press, quote, she'll just come back home. That's what we were told. Well, she hasn't. It's not her character.

She's extremely sentimental. Anytime she thought of us, she was always in tears. She was always happy when we were together. It doesn't equate. They were also frustrated that even though it really seemed that someone had legit been in their house, police didn't come in and take fingerprints or anything of the sort. They just felt that everything tallied up to her going off with some boy, but her family knew that this couldn't be true.

So they, Catheryn Christine, went out there and printed posters and passed them out around town. But no real clues or leads came in at all. And it's so sad because it doesn't seem like there was really any news coverage surrounding her case, like many, and there is very little information about her case online. I didn't see a single newspaper post on newspapers.com about her. Like, for some reason, it seemed like the narrative was that she had gone off, but to me, all the details of this case don't lead to that.

Yeah, nothing of the sort leads to this at all. Months earlier, she had left college because she didn't want to be away from her mom and her sister. Like that is how much she wanted to be home. And she had called her mom 30 minutes before she disappeared, saying, you know, what's the safest way for me to get home and confirm that she was coming home? Yeah, she was gonna go home and watch a movie with her mom and sister.

Yeah, so how does that equal? Oh, she just went off with some guy and she's been missing for freaking 30 plus years. Yeah, no bags packed, no personal items taken from the home. Yeah, and as we'll get into, it seems that police took it more seriously as time went on because they're like, okay, yeah, she wouldn't have been gone this long, but it's like, come on.

None of this led to that conclusion in the beginning. But this is one of those quintessential cases where where we get frustrated because we're like, police, please, like listen to the family. Right. She did not go off with some boy. Yeah, did she like talking to boys, of course. What teenage girl does not like talking to boys? Also, just the fact that they had explained, you know, there's dirty dishes in the sink. None of her personal items are gone. Her uniform is balled up under her bed. Like, these are such eerie notes.

And the fact that police didn't come in and say, okay, we gotta figure out who's been in this house. It just frustrates me. The other weird thing is that if potentially, you know, there was the scenario that she was gonna go off with some boy and they did go to the house, don't you think Susan would have grabbed some of her personal items like her clothes,

maybe packed a bag if she was gonna leave? But the fact that somebody was in the house, none of those items were taken, you're like, okay, so what was the purpose of whoever was in that house being in that house? Well, right, that's what I'm saying. Like, it doesn't seem like what Susan comes in makes herself a sandwich or something,

puts her uniform under her bed, and just leaves the house forever. Yeah, like, it doesn't make sense. It's just like how Christine said, it doesn't equ sense. It's just like how Christine said it doesn't equate. So nearly a year and a half came before a potential break arrived in the case when a Jane Doe was found in Minnesota. But after Susan's dental records were sent to confirm or deny a match, it was found that the remains did not belong to her. So the search continued. It was found that the remains did not belong to her, so the search continued. Then the following year, only three tips came in regarding her case.

One person stating that they believe they spotted her at a burger king in nearby Minneapolis. Another allegedly spotting a Susan lookalike at a hearty's fast food joint in Ashland City, Tennessee, which is like a whole 12-hour drive away. And then another, in centerville,, Minnesota at the waterworks bar, which is just about 25 minutes from Lake Elmo. And that was it. So years and years passed with no word on her disappearance, no trace of her whatsoever. That is until 2006 when Susan's social security number was used. But sadly, this was just a case of identity theft. And here's what one of the investigators had to say about it.

Quote. She found Susan's name on the internet and found a picture and thought it was what she looked like when she was younger. She had no connection to Susan. She just used Google to try to find someone she could use. And allegedly, she stole Susan's identity to get into the military.

Very interesting thing to do. Yeah, I mean, and so sad because they get this, oh my God, her social security number was used. Is she off living somewhere like we had potentially thought? No. And that's one of the hardest things in this case is that at that point you're thinking, oh, there's hope, like there's, you know, this could be the ticket.

Yeah, and then it's just not. And it's just not. Yeah, so devastating. And you might be asking if any DNA was ever taken from Susan's came art uniform, but sadly her sister, Christine, eventually washed them and worn them from time to time over the years. But in all fairness, investigators should have taken them originally when the

Swedelles explained their concerns regarding the break-in. Completely agree. And they didn't take them until many years later, when the investigators finally decided that they might hold something of value. Though by then, it was just too late. And that's so annoying because because like we've been saying, Christine and Kathy were very, very confident that someone had been in their house and something was not right. And that something had happened to Susan. And they're like, the

uniform was under the bed. But after time goes on, they're not taking the uniform. Her sister's like, I'm just going to wash this and wear it and have Susan with me, you know what I mean? Yeah, me and I know. And as we usually say, hindsight's 2020, I mean, you don't really know or have the forethought to think about these type of things.

Well, yeah, what's Christine gonna do? Put them in a bag and hope the investigators one day, years and years later are gonna take it. I mean, come on. Exactly. So they still took them for evidence and even collected samples of both Kathy and Christine's blood to help with any future matches. Around the 30th anniversary of Susan's disappearance in 2018, her case received some renewed attention, and the Sheriff's Office received over 80 tips, so more than they ever got, but still, they didn't lead to any concrete answers.

Sheriff Dan Starrie stated then, quote, �For us, it's still an active case. We're leaving no stone unturned. We want to make sure that we look at everything.� So the theories on this case are really lacking since there is essentially no evidence of anything. But some speculate that the guy named Dale, who would often called her work, was the one behind her murder. But as we know, she was supposed to go home right after work, as she had discussed with

her mom again right before she had got off for the evening. So it doesn't make a lot of sense that she would go off for a, you know, with a guy or maybe some kind of date But it does make you think that if this Dale guy or one of these other guys that she talked to knew where she worked Maybe they wanted to finally meet her in person and creeped out in the parking lot and decided that they would mess with her car Yeah, and I also have one other thought that I'm'm just curious about the boyfriend, and here's why. The reason why I say that is because if, you know, he had said that he canceled their date for that night, he's the only one that can confirm that,

you know, like they can't confirm that with anyone else because Susan's not here. That's true, yeah, absolutely. Well, obviously they looked into him, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's not involved, but because of that, his information is nowhere online, and it wouldn't be anywhere else that we would have access to, especially since this case is unsolved. I'm sure it's in the files that we would not have access to. So definitely an interesting point. You know, we

don't know what their relationship was like if he was a volatile person, if he was a violent person, if she broke up with him and he wasn't happy about that. Like, that's what I mean, is there so many things in this case that are not clear and it's frustrating? Those are the details that we need.

Yeah, but police just say, oh yeah, we questioned everyone we could and we got nothing. So it's like, what does that really mean? But, you know, clearly, Susan didn't have car troubles on her way to work. So, or, you know, or else she would have told her mom about it when they spoke on the phone before she left work, because imagine how freaked out Susan would have been knowing she had to drive home in a snowstorm while her car was not

working properly. Right. So did this young man who pulled in behind her at the gas station caused this? Super hard to say. You know, maybe she knew this guy or maybe she didn't. Maybe he was some random creepy dude. It's truly impossible to say because that's another thing is the only this composite sketch is based off of that gas station attendance memory. Nobody else came forward and said, yeah, that is what he looked like. So we really just are going off of one person's word. Yeah, exactly. That makes it incredibly tough.

And if this guy was a stranger, did he pull in behind her and offer to help? And, you know, I, this is kind of a weird thing to say, but from the composite sketch, he looks like he could be an attractive young man. So maybe she saw him and thought he was cute and he offered her help and she was like, yeah, why not? Why not? He's driving a cool car. He's got like a leather jacket on,

a long, arabini, you know? Like who knows? Right, and as her mom said, she was pretty naive and she maybe wouldn't know, hey, I can't just trust everybody, especially if it's a potentially attractive young man. So after nearly two years, in 1990, Christine and Kathy felt like they needed to move out

of their lake Elmo home. And although it was painful to leave the house that Susan once resided in, it was more painful to them having her rooms sent empty as they waited by the phone for so long just hoping for some good news. They relocated to Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, just north of Minneapolis, and still fought to find answers. Kathy and Christine have endured an incredibly distressing 34 years, just waiting for answers regarding what happened to their beloved Susan. In 2017, Christine wrote this letter to her sister.

I have cried so many tears. I still don't know how to really be happy without you. I need you here with mom and I, and we can go back to living life the way we wanted to. The life we dreamt about. You deserved so much happiness. I am still that 16 year old girl looking out that window waiting for you to come home. I dream about you every night. Please, please, we need you back with so much love, Christine. And then Christine wrote this in 2019. January 19th, 2019, marks 31 years that our dear Sue has been missing. 31 years of not having enough information to find her. 31 years of life being turned upside down. 31 years of living in a nightmare. To those around us, 31 years looks like she couldn't possibly still be around.

But when you're living through this, then not knowing? You don't think that way. You still have and long onto the hope, because yes, they're still hope. Please keep searching for Sue. Please keep the hope. Mom and I are lost without her. We love you dearly, Sue. Many of Susan's loved ones, aunts, uncles, grandparents have passed without knowing what

happened to her, though that was their one wish. When Susan was last seen in January of 1988, she was 19 years old, just weeks away from being 20. She was 5'4 and 100 pounds. She's a white woman with sandy brown hair and hazel eyes. As of this month, Susan would have been 54 years old. If you have any information regarding what happened to Susan, please contact the Washington County Sheriff's Office tip line at 651-430-7850. And there's currently up to a $25,000 reward 1, 430, 780, 5.0. And there's currently up to a $25,000 reward

being offered in Susan Swadell's case. [♪ music playing in background, music playing in background, 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. And make sure that you share Susan's story, I mean as you can tell from Christine's

letters just after all this time, Susan's disappearance is severely affecting this family and they have no idea what happened to her. And nobody is talking about her freaking case, so please, please, please, share her story. Thank you guys so much for listening. It means a lot that you do because, you know, we're the people who need to hear it. We need to get it out into the public. More people need to know about Susan Swedell.

Also, if you guys would like to leave us a nice review, we love those. We would really appreciate that. You can do that on Apple Podcasts. Yes, and when you leave us a nice review, it helps the show get more noticed, and with our show getting more notice, it just helps these cases get more noticed as well,

get to more ears. That's why Heath and I love covering so many unsolved cases, just because it's really important that we help get the stories out there. So thank you guys so much for listening to the show. Thank you for being amazing and wonderful and we love you. And don't forget about CrimeCon if you guys want to come hang out with us. Use our code going west for 10% off of your standard badge.

Yes, remember April 29th to May 1st in Las Vegas. This will be my first time in Vegas. Can you believe it? It'll be my first time too. What? I've never been to Vegas before. No way. Wow.

Wow, neither of us been. I feel like, I mean, we grew up on the West Coast, so I don't know how that happened. It's just never really appealed to me honestly. Yeah. But if you live there, no offense at all, just the whole Vegas vibe. But anyway, I'm really excited for CrimeCon. It's going to be a ton of fun. So remember, CrimeCon.com use promo code GoingWest.

No spaces for 10% off your standard badge, and we'll see you there. All right, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you