The Deck Investigates - Episode 8: The Calls

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

As the anniversary of Ada Haradine’s disappearance passes, her husband Ed receives a chilling call at his office from a man who claims to know what happened to her. But while investigators scramble to trace the call – while keeping an eye on Terry – they’re left at a standstill when they don’t hear back from the mystery man.If you have any information about Ada Haradine, please contact Michiana Crime Stoppers at 574-288-STOP or 800-342-STOP or submit tips online at michianacrimestoppers.com. Tips can be made anonymously.You can also reach out directly to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office by calling their main line, 269-445-1560, their tip line at 800-462-9328, or online at www.ccso.info. View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/the-calls Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org. The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Police hadn't just focused on Terry around the anniversary of Ada's disappearance. You see, during an interview they did with Ed Herodine in April 1986, they asked him if he had gotten any more of those strange calls, like the ones that had prompted the failed phone trace soon after Ada went missing. And he told them, why yes. In fact, the family had gotten a handful of them at the house. Greg answered most of the calls, the family had gotten a handful of them at the house. Greg answered most of the calls, but he'd gotten some too, where they'd picked up the phone,

but it would just be silence on the other end. After hearing this, for what appears to be the first time ever, investigators sat down with Greg for an interview. Now, Greg doesn't remember any odd calls now. In fact, most of the people we spoke to seem to have forgotten that they happened altogether. But at the time, he told detectives that after a long stretch of nothing, they had gotten a recent spat of like five to ten calls over the past couple of months. And these calls mostly came in the evening at around 7 p.m. And what's so interesting is that he mentioned that the creepy calls didn't start after his mom

disappeared. They actually got several before she went missing. Maybe they didn't think much of it at the time, but all things considered, state police thought that this could be significant now. And they told Elkhart PD that monitoring the Herodines line was critical leading up to the anniversary. So on May 8th, as the family mourned a year without Ada, Ed signed off on a phone trace. And sure enough, the very next day, Friday, May 9th, Ed got a startling call.

And this time, the person on the other end actually spoke to him. Except there was a problem. The call didn't come into the Herodines' home line like all of the others had before. Almost as if the person knew that the line wasn't safe, they placed this call directly to Ed's office. Once again, there's no indication that investigators found that detail odd or that they even noticed. At the time, they were more focused on what the caller said.

This is episode eight, The Calls. This is episode eight, The Calls. Ed was at Carlton Manufacturing that Friday morning when the phone rang at around 9 a.m. An employee answered and the caller on the other end said his name was George and he was trying to reach Ed, who was a friend of his. She put the caller right through, figuring it was a George that he knew from his bank. But when Ed picked up, the line was dead. A couple of minutes later, the same person called back, same deal, transferred to Ed, and this time they connected. But it wasn't George from the bank

or anyone whose voice he recognized. It was a man who told Ed that he knew who had taken Ada. And as soon as the man calling himself George hung up, Ed called his brother-in-law Larry Sarhat. Here's an actor reading what Larry wrote in his report of this incident. Ed then asked the caller, who is this? He just replied, let's just say a friend who is trying to help. He believed the caller stated he had a picture of the person and the picture of the description

of the person's car who took Ada. The caller then stated to Ed Herodine that he would give him this information but he did not want the police involved because certain ones talk too much. He then stated he was fearful for his life and the life of his family. The caller then asked if he could receive half the reward money before the trial ended, and Mr. Heredine said that the reward is still good and if what he knew was good information and led us to Ada, he would have all the money before the trial ended. Mr. Heredine asked how he knew this information and he replied, I have known for a long time.

And about a month ago he wanted to call, but didn't. The caller said he would like to meet Mr. Heredine and give him this information. Mr. Heredine then asked the caller if he would let him bring his brother-in-law with him. The caller paused and said he felt this would be fine, but then asked, is he with the police? Mr. Heredine stated, no. He then asked if Ada was okay and he stated that she was fine. Mr. Heredine then asked if Ada was taken against her will and he replied, yes. Mr. Heredine then said, when can they get together?

The caller stated, this morning. Ed stated, I would like to bring my brother-in-law, and he stated he may just leave a package with the description and the picture somewhere. Mr. Heredine also stated that somewhere during the conversation he asked the caller whether he, Heredine, knew the person who did this, and the caller replied, yes. Mr. Heredine did recall that after he stated he would not come alone, but preferred to have his brother-in-law with him, this seemed to throw the caller back a little bit and possibly may have been the reason why he decided not to meet him, but maybe just leave the

package. What's interesting is, at no point during the call did Ed ask the caller exactly who the culprit was that took his wife. And he didn't press for details on who the caller was either. Maybe he was afraid to scare him off? Now, Ed didn't think that they knew each other. And he had no clue if the man, this George character, had ever contacted him before. All Ed could really say was that George sounded like an educated white guy, maybe between 45 and 50 years old, with a medium-pitched voice.

He said this guy had been calm and organized on the phone. And even though George brought up the reward, Ed didn't think that the call was motivated by money, although there's nothing in Larry's report showing why Ed thought that. Oh, but he does mention that he hadn't heard any background noise or static, the telltale signs of 1980s long distance, which led him to believe that the call was local. After Ed called Larry, Larry informed Elkhart police captain James Comer, who in turn sent out words to the officers 20 minutes away, staking out Terry's place for the fifth day

in a row. He said, stop what you're doing. There is a new plan. He wanted everyone to go to the Carleton Manufacturing plant instead. So despite the fact that they had gotten to Terry's that morning at around six to find his gate unlocked and open for the first time, they had to go.

Orders are orders. While they set up shop outside the plant, hoping this George guy would show up, investigators inside man the phones, recording each incoming call, anxiously waiting for George to call back. My name is Lawrence Sarhat, and I am at Carlton Manufacturing Plant

on Bullard Road in Elkhart, Indiana. And it is 1029 a.m., Elkhart, Indiana time, May 9th, 1986." As they waited for something to happen, Larry interviewed Beth, the woman who transferred George's call earlier. She told Larry that this call wasn't the only recent unusual phone activity at Carlton. The day before, on May 8, she had answered four other cryptic calls. The person on the other end didn't say anything, although she heard noise in the background. And once, when she jokingly warned that she'd get angry if she had to repeat her greeting

again, the only response she got was a male laugh. But he still didn't speak. And come to find out, another employee had answered two similar calls. Now they had fielded unusual calls before. But all of those had been isolated incidents. They'd never gotten so many in one day. And they didn't get any more of them that Friday either. George, whoever he was, never called back. This is Larry Sarhat. It is now 1643 hours and the surveillance and prompt manufacturing is being discontinued.

In the end, police concluded that the phone call to Ed's work was a hoax. Ed might have believed that George wasn't just after his money, but law enforcement labeled it an extortion attempt. Someone just trying to cash in. We do not believe the attempted extortion would be committed by the perpetrator of the abduction, but rather by some other person seeking to obtain money from an opportunity which presented itself to the individual. The attempted extortion should be treated as a separate crime

apart from the abduction. They never did get to the bottom of that mystery. So, George, if you're out there, I'd love to talk to you. Now, even though that call didn't propel the case forward like they'd hoped, Ed did come up with a new name for their suspect list that same day, a guy named Jack. And it wasn't actually the call that jogged Ed's memory of him.

He told Larry that he'd been flipping through photos the other day and came across one of his boat, which reminded him that he'd let Jack borrow a small sailing dinghy called a snipe and it never got returned to him. He also loaned Jack a few thousand dollars, which he never repaid either. But those weren't the things that seemed to be the cause of his concern. Ed was suspicious of Jack now because of his similarities to Terry.

Ed thought the two men were a lot alike and that they might even know each other through an old job. He said Jack was very strange and a loner. He'd been to the Herodines a few times when they lived in Goshen, but not since they'd moved. In fact, he hadn't talked to him at all in seven or eight years. And probably because there was really nothing suggesting Jack might be involved, it doesn't look like police followed up on him. After all, weirdness isn't a crime. And as former Elkhart detective Lieutenant Turn Chief Tom Cutler puts it,

This case is full of weird stuff. It looks like the surveillance detail on Terry ended that same day the call came in to Carlton Manufacturing. And despite all the excitement around the first anniversary, police were no closer to an arrest. Or even a search warrant of any kind, as far as we can tell. But they still thought Terry was a good suspect. Although, according to a memo sent to Chief Cutler by Michigan State Police, investigators did have a change of heart about one thing. At this point in time, we believe the logical place for the body

would be the river. The river is of primary consideration as a location for the body because of the ease in body disposal. A possible secondary location would be the suspect's property. As the months rolled by, Ed kept police in the loop whenever Terry contacted him,

which he did a couple of times. Detectives had advised Ed to always try and steer the conversations to Ada. So when Terry called Ed in August, hoping to borrow some tractor trailers to move equipment for his shop, Ed made a point to ask him, what do you think happened to her?

And Terry took the bait. He said he thought Ada was still alive because that's what he wanted to believe. Actually, he thought she might have been unhappy due to Ed's workaholic ways. Maybe she took off with another guy, someone she met at the local YMCA, a place that he claimed had a reputation for hanky-panky.

He said he couldn't imagine her leaving by herself since she'd need help starting a new life. Maybe in Texas or Florida, which were locations he would consider if he were in her shoes. Both states had lax alimony laws, and it would be easy to get a new social security number, he said.

When Ed posed the question to him about how someone could take Ada from their neighborhood without anyone noticing, Terry agreed it would have been difficult, especially around 3 or 3.30 in the afternoon. He also seemed caught off guard when Ed suggested that if Ada wanted to leave him, it would make more financial sense for her to just divorce him. But he quickly countered that her mystery man was probably wealthy, a single or divorced businessman with nothing tying him down. He didn't change his mind when Ed told him police hadn't found

any proof that Ada left of her own free will. According to Terry, that was the reason he didn't want to talk to law enforcement even though they already had. He said he didn't like that they were treating it like a murder rather than a missing persons case. In fact, he said, Elkhart PD straight up suggested to him that Ada had been killed. But a detective noted in a later report that investigators never even mentioned the possibility of homicide in their conversations with Terry.

Not necessarily a fact Ed knew to correct him on in the moment, though. Either way, Terry didn't think that police were doing a good job. He further said to Mr. Heredine that the police probably did not have any evidence of foul play, and probably they have it on the back burner now. He stated, quote, the police don't have anything,

not even a first clue, end quote. Terry also told Ed, completely out of the blue, that he wasn't sure what he'd been doing the day Ada went missing. But he could figure it out if he had to. Now, in my mind, we are way past the point of has to. Terry had never given any real alibi. He just told detectives he assumed he was at work. But based on the reports we have, it doesn't look like anyone pushed him further for proof. Not even after his interaction

with Ed in August. Now a couple of months later in October, Terry called Ed again, this time to expand upon why he thought Ada might have chosen Florida or Texas. Now he said it was because of this guy who used to go to the YMCA. Terry had seen him there in the year leading up to Ada's disappearance, but never again after that. He said the guy was in his late 50s or early 60s and often wore a felt hat. And he drove a white Chevy campervan with Arizona plates. Now, if you're wondering, what the hell does that have to do with Florida or Texas? Well, so was Ed. But Terry told him he didn't have a clear reason.

He just thought that the man was from somewhere out west because of the Arizona plates. And you're right again, Florida is not out west, which I would assume Terry knew since later in life he'd have a second residence there. Still, Ed requested that Terry pass this information on to police. And he did. He told them he'd read newspaper articles about Ada that described a possible suspect wearing a hat similar to Mr. Arizona's. Of course, he didn't have a name to give them, but he thought that there were a couple

of Y employees who might know it. And he promised he'd make himself available to ID the guy if investigators found a photo of him. Oakheart detective Art Kern did follow up on this lead, but no one he spoke to remembered the man that Terry described. So after that, police were kind of at a standstill

with Terry, and the case in general. But as the second anniversary of Ada's disappearance approached with still no answers for her grieving family, Larry decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. He was going to interview Terry himself. And what started as a pursuit for answers

just raised a lot more questions. That's next in episode nine. pursuit for answers just raised a lot more questions. That's next in episode nine. He said what? Which you can listen to next week.