Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Missing at the Holidays 2023

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

The holidays are a time for family, but for thousands of families, an empty seat at the table is a painful reminder of a missing loved one. In this episode, we highlight six missing person cases—Jason Landry, Vladek Hasel, Daniel Robinson, Ryan Shtuka, Kae Alana Turner, and Oakley Carlson. Their families are still searching for answers, and you can help by raising awareness. Listen now to learn their stories, how you can support their families, and what we can do to bring them home.Let us know what you think about the episodeHappy Holidays to all of our listenersShaun and the one and only John https://sinspod.co/episode9sources Domestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag!Apple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

Some things just take too long. A meeting that could have been an email, someone explaining crypto, or switching mobile providers. Except with Fizz. Switching to Fizz is quick and easy. Mobile plans start at $17 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. To listen ad-free, visit zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show! The following episode discusses topics related to domestic violence, including detailed accounts

and descriptions that some listeners might find distressing or triggering. Listener discretion is advised. As of 2023, there are approximately 23,576 open missing person cases in the United States. Each year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. While a large number of these cases are resolved relatively quickly, a significant number remain open. For instance, in 2021, out of 521,705 reported missing person cases, more than 485,000 were resolved within the year. However, more than 20,000 missing person cases remained open. These figures demonstrate the complexity and scale of missing person cases in the United States, with a notable portion remaining unsolved each year. Hi, and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on

cases that deal with domestic violence. I'm your host, Sean, and with me as always is the one and only John. I am the only John in the room. In this week's episode, we're going to change the normal format and talk about some cases that we've learned about in the past year. Many of us are gathering with family this time of year, but unfortunately, many families will have empty seats at their tables, which is obviously very, very difficult. All the cases we're going to talk about today are unsolved cases. Jason Landry, Vladicastle, Daniel Robinson, Ryan Stuka, Kay Alana Turner, and Oakley Carlson are all considered missing, and all of their families are desperately searching for answers on their loved one's whereabouts. We'll also share what you can do to help in the efforts to locate them or raise awareness of the cases. So the first case we're going to talk about is Jason Landry. Jason Landry

has been missing since December 15th, 2020, the three-year anniversary of his disappearance just passed in the past week. He was 21 years old when he disappeared, born on July 29th, 1999. Jason is the youngest child of Kent and Lisa Landry. Jason has an older brother and sister. Jason's been called a prankster, a fun-loving guy, someone who is outgoing, extroverted, and just loves being around people. I know his favorite candy is Swedish fish. When you visit his family's Facebook page about his disappearance, they've just done a beautiful job documenting little moments of Jason's history, including a photo from every one of his birthdays, from one year old all the way to 21 years old, with the cakes and the gifts that made him smile.

It's beautiful, and you really get a sense of the kind of guy he is. He was last seen on Salt Flat Road in Luling, Texas, which is between San Antonio and Houston. And the circumstances of what happened to him is that at the time, Jason was a student at Texas State University, and it was the holiday time. Winter break was coming up, and he was driving home to Houston to spend the holidays with his family. He drove a tan Nissan Altima. And as he was driving, he was using the Waze app to navigate. And he had left campus pretty late that night around 11 o'clock p.m. And according to police, about a half hour into his drive, Jason got to Luling, Texas.

And as he's driving, he stops using Waze and begins to use Snapchat. And the police say shortly after that, his digital footprint just ends. What the police think happened is that Jason made a wrong turn. He should have turned right onto Magnolia Boulevard, but instead he went straight through that intersection and ended up on Salt Flat Road, which is a very secluded road. So at 12.31 a.m., his car was discovered. The lights were on, the keys were in the ignition, and the investigation led them to make the conclusion that Jason overcorrected while he was driving on that gravel road.

He spun out, crashed into a tree and a barbed wire fence. His rear window of the car was broken because they believe he hit the tree. The investigators found items belonging to Jason placed in the road about 100 yards from the crash. It appeared as if Jason had stripped out of his clothing, including his watch that had been placed neatly on the ground, and he walked away from the car, leaving behind all his belongings, such as his backpack, laptop, toiletries, his cell phone. He had some kind of what's been described as gaming equipment with him. So I'm not sure if that was like a PlayStation or Xbox or Switch, but all of that was left in the car. They found a little bit of blood on the shorts that were in the street,

but not like a scary amount that you would think that he was massively injured. They think that maybe he scratched himself on the barbed wire fence when he was getting out of the car. There were nine days of searches in the area immediately after the accident, but Jason was not found. And in February 26, 2021, Texas Search and Rescue did a three-day search with more than 100 volunteers. They covered more than 31,000 acres. They used dogs, people on horseback, drones, sonar, helicopters, and even searched underwater. But Jason is still missing. And just this past October, they did another search and nothing has turned up. John and I got to hear directly from Jason's family at the True Crime and

Paranormal podcast festival this past August. You can learn more about Jason's story if you listen to podcasts such as Voices for Justice, Weird True Crime, and Navigating Advocacy. Jason, at the time he disappeared, six foot one, weighing about 170 pounds. He's a white male with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time of his disappearance, his hair was a little bit longer. It was a medium length and he had a goatee. And his family has said that he has a scar on his ankle. And his family is really asking for more leads. They need people to print and post up flyers of Jason wherever you can, wherever you get permission to post flyers. Or they recommend they have a QR link to their missing persons flyer. And they recommend you could print that

out and put it maybe in your car window and people could see it and then scan it with their phone. And then they get a digital version of the flyer so they can share it with other people. The family and the community that surrounds Jason's family, they want to find Jason. They just endured the three-year anniversary with no answers. So please, listeners, follow the Missing Person Jason Landry Facebook page and show this family some support. And if you know anything, the family is essentially begging you to leave a tip. You can leave an anonymous tip because they really want to find Jason. So next up, we'll talk about Brian Vladek Hassel. He never really went by Brian, so I'm just going to call him Vladek.

So he has been missing since November 6th, 2021, and he was missing from Orlando, Florida. First, I want to give a little background about Vladek. And we're covering these cases very quickly. There's a lot more detail to each of these cases, and we really recommend that you check out some of the podcasts that go into much more detail about the individual stories. This is just sort of the highlights that we're giving here to highlight that they're missing and then the calls to action about what you can do. So, Vladek and his older sister Irina were adopted from Russia in 2004. Vladek was five, and Irina was 11. they both experienced some pretty intense neglect in their home life and while living

in this orphanage in Russia and they were adopted into an American household and again the other podcasts will go into a lot more detail about their families and their family relationships and all that important stuff their adoptive parents divorced in 2011 which was extremely disruptive for him and his sister and all that important stuff. Their adoptive parents divorced in 2011, which was extremely disruptive for him and his sister. And his sister actually ended up moving out after the divorce at only about age 16.

And this was adding trauma onto what they had previously endured before they had been adopted. So he was last verifiably seen at a Foxtail Coffee, which is a chain coffee place in Georgia and Florida, the one on University Boulevard in Orlando, on November 6th, 2021. There are some alleged sightings of Vladek as late as the 15th of November with claims that people said that he was saying things like he was going off the grid. And one of the things that a couple of the podcasts that we listened to about Vladek mentioned that he often talked about walking off into the woods and he wanted to go live in the woods and especially, you know, in his in his later years, you know, getting closer and closer to 2021. He started talking about these things. He talked about living off the grid. He even talked at one point about walking, you know, walking away into the Appalachian Trail, which, of course, was, you know, very, very concerning to to his family. He started acting quite differently in 2021, according to his family

and from the interviews that I listened to. And he started doing things like giving away his possessions. At one point, he smashed his cell phone. And he also developed a fixation on heaven and had a bit of a focus on religion as well. So it seemed clear that he had some undiagnosed trauma from his background in Russia, absolutely, and also the divorce of over an hour long, and it goes into really an immense amount of detail, and they actually talked to a couple of his sisters about the case. Vladek was 5'8", between 210 and 230 pounds. He had dark blonde hair, blue eyes. The family is asking that you spread awareness by sharing his poster. And they

say, and we agree, it doesn't really matter where you live. Sharing his poster on whether you print it out and put it up or you share it on your Facebook feed to raise awareness of his disappearance, get his picture out there. They also have a link tree that we will share in our show notes with helpful links. And if you have any information about Fladek's disappearance, please call the Orange County Sheriff's Office at 407-836-4357. Next, I want to talk about Daniel Robinson. I first heard about Daniel Robinson at CrimeCon in 2022. I actually was able to hear Daniel's father speak about Daniel's case. And I think that it's really important that we keep sharing it and keeping Daniel's name out there because he still has not been found. He's been missing since June 23rd, 2021. So it's been about two

and a half years. David was 24 years old at the time of his disappearance. He disappeared from Buckeye, Arizona, which is just west of Phoenix. Daniel is a geologist. So the day he went missing, he was at work. He was out at a work site in the desert near Buckeye, Arizona. And a coworker reported that he left the work site about 15 minutes after arriving. He was driving in his 2017 blue gray Jeep Renegade and he was heading out into the desert when he was last seen. On Tuesday, July 19th, 2021, Daniel's vehicle was found about two and a half miles from the work site in a remote part of the desert. It was flipped over and in a ravine. His clothing was also found in the car. The airbags were deployed. His cell phone, his keys were also in the car. The Buckeye Police Department did a search by ground and drone, but no trace of Daniel was found. And this event happened very close to the Gabby Petito disappearance. Later, Gabby was tragically found murdered. when I first heard about it at CrimeCon, Daniel's case was obviously one where there was a

discrepancy in the resources and media attention. Daniel went missing just a month before Gabby did. He's 24. She's 22. But her disappearance was taking over. Everyone was talking about Gabby while Daniel was missing and folks were not focused on finding him. I got to hear, as I said, from Daniel's father. His father's name is David. Talk about his efforts to locate Daniel. He has poured his whole heart and soul into this. Other podcasts that have covered this in more detail so you can hear and learn more about Daniel, Voices for Justice, Gen Y, many others. His family describes him as having a real sense of adventure. He's 5'8". He's an African-American man.

He weighed 165 pounds at the time of his disappearance. He has black hair and brown eyes, and he was born missing part of his right forearm, including his hand. And Daniel's father is fiercely passionate about finding Daniel. He believes the police did not do enough when this first happened to help find him. And he has spent a lot of money funding searches. And at least twice, David's searches have turned up the remains of other individuals. So he's in the right area. He's searching wherever he can, spending a lot of money doing this, and he could really use the support. He relocated to Arizona from his home in South Carolina because as he says, he wants his boots on the ground looking for Daniel. He says, quote, I cannot stop searching for my son. I cannot stop

making sure he receives the justice he deserves and the respect he deserves. So when you visit the website, please help find daniel.com. Please help find daniel.com. You can donate to his GoFundMe that helps fund these private searches. You can sign up to search yourself or volunteer to help in other ways. And you can also print flyers. If you know anything about his disappearance, you can send in a tip on the website or call the tip line at 844-602-0660. And David has a YouTube channel where he shares information and updates on Daniel's case all the time. So I recommend you subscribe and take a look at that as well. So the next one is definitely a bit of a mystery. This is the story of Ryan Stuka.

So we really recommend listening to some of the great podcasts that have covered his disappearance, and I'll mention those in a minute. It's definitely a mystery, and it invites speculation. That's not really something that we engage in, but we recommend you go check those out for sure, and I'll list them in just a minute. So Ryan Stucco was born March 17th, 1997, and he went missing from Sun Peaks Ski Resort in British Columbia in 2018, February 17th, 2018. And again, it's hard to overstate how weird this one is and how much of a mystery this one is. Ryan was working and living at Sun Peaks. He decided to work and live there and pursue his passion of snowboarding for a season. So one night he was out with his friends and they were at what's called a silent disco where everyone is listening to the same music on their headphones. But if you were to walk into the room, there's no music playing because it's just playing on

everybody's headphones. Sounds like fun. I've never done it, but it sounds like it'd be a lot of fun. So he went with his friends. And around between 1.30 and 2 a.m., they got up to leave, and they thought he was coming with them. They've said that they thought he was getting up, that he would be right behind them. And they headed up between 1.30 and 2 a.m. from this party. And when they got outside and they started walking home, they looked behind them and he wasn't there. And he hasn't been seen since. There were people who showed up at the party at 2.30 or 2.30 or so in the morning, and they reported not seeing him there. There has never been any evidence of foul play.

Important to note that this happened at a ski resort, and the night this happened, there was, I believe, eight inches of snowfall that night. So, again, this whole thing invites a lot of speculation, but it's an interesting one to look at how the ski resort is laid out and the very few places that he, amazing researcher. And the two podcasts that I listened to that covered it were True North, True Crime, which I love. They focus on true crime in Canada, really great stuff and do a lot of coverage of indigenous people and disappearances and navigating advocacy, another great one. So Ryan was 20 years old at the time of his disappearance.

He was described as 6 feet tall, lean, athletic, about 180 pounds, which I guess you'd expect from a young guy that's living on a ski resort and snowboarding for a season. Totally get it. Blonde hair, brown eyes, and he was last seen wearing dark jeans, a blue coat, and a burgundy baseball cap. His parents are Heather and Scott, and he has two younger sisters. So the family is asking that, you know, you, again, share his story. You can join the Facebook group, which we will share the link for. And if you have any information, you can contact the Kamloops Royal Canadian Mounted Police or Crime Stoppers with information.

And another thing that we'll be participating in is his family really appreciates when Ryan liked dinosaurs. So they have this tradition where people travel with what they call a Stuchasaurus. It's a small green dinosaur and you leave him places to raise awareness of, of Ryan's disappearance and travel with him, takes photos with him. And it's just another way to spread the word. So we'll be doing that on our trip that's coming up soon. And then we will send him to a friend in British Columbia where she will hopefully do the same thing. And we'll provide links just like the other ones so you can help the family out.

All right. The next case I'm going to talk about is Kay Alana Turner. And as John said, when we came up with the idea for this episode, we asked our colleagues in the true crime community what cases they thought could use some more attention, that the families could use a little extra support. And there were so many names that were shared. But Kay Alana came from the team at Weird True Crime. They asked us to include Kay Alana's story. And we are happy to do so. Kay Alana is missing actually relatively recently compared to these other cases. She's only been missing since March 10th, 2023. So it hasn't even been a year. She went missing from a town called Tomball, Texas, which is outside of Houston.

When Kay Alana disappeared, it was about a month before her 28th birthday. Kay Alana is a musician from Beaumont, Texas, and her Instagram is still up. Her family did take it over to make some posts about her disappearance, but you can watch videos of her playing the theremin, which is a really cool instrument to watch somebody play, and acoustic guitar. I watched a couple videos of her covering No Doubt and The Bleachers. She's really talented, really charming. And I hope you check out her Instagram because I think she's got this great personality. So on the evening of March 9th, 2023, Kay Alana was staying at a friend's house. Her friend's name is Brittany, and she lives in

Sillsby, Texas. So for reference, this is about an hour and a half northeast of Houston and about 100 miles from Tomball, Texas, where Kay Alana was last seen. So on the morning of March 10th, Brittany, the friend, leaves for work, and she assumes that Kay Alana is just, you know, still in bed sleeping. But later that morning, Kay Alana is seen on the doorbell camera walking in front of Brittany's house and knocking on the door and looking very confused. And Brittany doesn't know why she didn't just go back in the house because Kay Alana knew the code to the door. It had been the same for years. So Kay Alana knocked on other doors in the neighborhood. She was seen on other ring cameras going door to door in the neighborhood, knocking on the door. And then Kay Alana got into

her car and drove off. And Brittany and Kay Alana's boyfriend both tried to contact her, but there was a lot of confusion and just kind of contradictory communication between the three of them. We don't need to go into all those details, but her family has mentioned that Kayalana had begun taking some new medication and it's possible that she hadn't slept in a few days, which may sort of explain how she was a little bit confused or disoriented. So that day, Kayalana contacted a friend that lives in Austin, Texas, and she asked for directions to his house. And it's assumed that she got lost or confused or perhaps thought she was in Austin because she stopped in a neighborhood in Hockley, Texas, which is about 35 miles northeast from the center of Houston. And she begins ringing doorbells and looking for her friend.

At this point, it's 3.30 in the morning. So she drives away again before the police could make contact with her. And around 6 a.m., a homeowner in Tomball, Texas finds her asleep in their driveway. And she was sleeping very heavily. Her family says she sleeps like a rock. And the homeowner couldn't wake her. And the whole event drew a crowd in the neighborhood. The homeowner notified his HOA. There was an officer from the Harris County Sheriff's Office who showed up and he finally woke her up. And she was startled. And she seemed kind of to be in like a sleepwalking state. And she tried to drive away across the lawn of the house, but she was blocked by another car that was parked out front. And so the officer used a two by four to break the window in attempt to get control of the car. So this obviously frightened Kayalana even more. She drove through a pasture and into the woods about a half a mile, and then her car got stuck in the mud and she just got out and went on foot.

She left behind her phone and her purse. She made it to a creek called Spring Creek. She left her shoes behind as she crossed the creek on a log. And it's been noted that her shoes were full of the glass from the broken window. She ran through another person's pasture and a yard and likely made it to Decker Prairie Rose Hill Road. So she ran across these pastures in the woods and into like another residential area. The police used a helicopter to try and locate her or her heat signature, but they couldn't. Her parents reported her missing, but the police initially canceled the missing persons report and listed her as a fugitive instead because she had

ran from the police, which delayed searches. She is listed as a missing person now, but her family and I believe that that shouldn't have ever happened. As of now, there are no leads, but it's possible that when she reached the road that she may have hitchhiked, gotten a ride from someone. You can hear more about this case on the Vanished podcast or Missing. Even Crawl Space did an episode on Kay Alana. She has brown hair. In the photos that I saw, her hair is very long and straight. And she has blue eyes. She's 5'4 and weighs about 115, 120. She's 28 years old, and when she was last seen, she was wearing a hot pink maxi dress, or what some described as a hot pink gown, and she had no shoes on. She has multiple tattoos, including the number 12 above a red bow on her right collarbone and the phrase, Jesus lived and died

for all your sins. Damn right, he'll rise again on her back. Again, she was last seen near Decker Prairie Rose Hill Road, which is near Highway 249, which crosses over into Montgomery County, Texas. So her family, they are facing their first holiday season without her. They have posted on Kay Alana's Facebook page that Kay loved Christmas. She kept it in her heart all year long and that she was always looking for ways to do something good for someone and help someone in need. They are having a very hard time keeping their traditions going this year. You can help them out by printing and distributing flyers, liking their Facebook page, and donating to their GoFundMe, and all the links will be in the show notes. The last one we're going to talk about is Oakley Carlson. We're doing a special feed drop

episode next week where we're going to have true crime cases with Laney's episode on Oakley Carlson in our feed. So Laney did an amazing job talking about Oakley's case. She goes into a great deal of detail about the case. So please come back for that next week and listen to that. Get all the details. So Oakley Carlson was born on December 6th, 2016 in Oakville, Washington, and she has been missing since February 10th, 2021. And again, we're going to keep it high level here. She was born to her biological parents, Jordan Bowers and Andrew Carlson, and her parents have a long history of substance abuse, and Andrew has a history of domestic violence. He was booked for assault and domestic violence in 2018 after Oakley had beened by Jamie Jo and Eric Hiles and lived with them for two years. The Hiles home, unlike Jordan and Andrew's home, was an extremely loving and supportive environment for Oakley, and the Hiles had set in motion actually adopting her. Unfortunately, though, she was returned to her biological parents despite an absolutely staggering array of red flags going on in the home. And by 2020, her biological parents

kept her from the Hiles entirely, and we really know nothing about what happened that year. There were several incidents as late as December 2020, where after Oakley had been returned to her parents' care, it was reported that she did not look well. She looked very pale. And February 10th, 2021 was the last credible sighting of Oakley. Six months later, Andrew reported a fire in their home on November 6, 2021. It was very weird. He called the fire department but said they didn't need a response. He just wanted it on the record for insurance, and he blamed Oakley for the fire.

So between then and now, several CPS reports were filed by the Hiles and ignored. Oakley's elementary school principal, Jessica, did some investigating and got the sense that something was very, very wrong. And she was very understandably concerned that she hadn't seen Oakley in a long time. Eventually, Jordan and Andrew were booked for obstruction of justice and on suspicion of manslaughter. There were blood spatters found in the home, and they were also charged with neglect for not giving their children vital medications. Various interviews with their other children led the police to believe that Oakley had been murdered. Andrew was given 12 months in prison, but was released early, and Andrew was given 12 months in prison, but was released early,

and Jordan was given 20 months in prison. And what the family's asking, and when I say the family, I mean her adoptive family, that you share Oakley's story and her flyers, and we will share the website where you can go and learn more and find the flyer, and join the Oakley Carlson Oakville Washington Facebook group and donate to the reward fund too. There's currently, I think, an $85,000 reward for information leading to information about what happened to Oakley. And you can also voice your opinion to the Washington DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter, and we will provide his email address for that.

These are just a few of the many stories that are out there. Navigating Advocacy dedicated their entire month of December to covering a different missing person each day. They asked us to cover the Caleb deal case, which I felt we couldn't do well in this short format we're doing for this episode, but we will add the link to the Bring Caleb Home Facebook page and to Navigating Advocacies episode on him as well. Our friends at P&W Haunts and Homicides covered the Highway of Tears story of missing and murdered indigenous women in that area. The reports of how many women have been murdered or went missing in this area is at least 40. And the Wikipedia article I looked at real quick lists well over 60 women ranging in age from infant to 89 years old going missing

along the highway from 1970 until today. And we're hoping to collaborate with PNW in the new year on a special episode on missing and murdered Indigenous women. families of the cases we've covered this year, Camille Dardane's Dotson, Tiffany Booth, Tabitha Tozzi, Fukayo Dej Odom and her children, and Mason Dominguez's family too. In just a few months, Maura Murray's family will mark the 20-year anniversary of her still unsolved disappearance. Sean and I will be taking a break next week, but we will be bringing you true crime stories with Lainey's episode on Oakley. We just started this podcast journey and we appreciate the connections we have made so far. And we want to say thank you to our podcast colleagues who are passionate about justice for families and keep these names out there and support these families in their darkest times. As we say, what happens here happens everywhere. Thanks as always for listening.

Visit sinspod.co slash subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad-free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections,

please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.