True Crime with Kendall Rae - Stepped off the School Bus and Never Seen Again – The Disappearance of Ali Lowitzer Ft. Her Mom

Episode Date: March 16, 2023

In 2010, Ali Lowitzer stepped off the school bus to go to work, and was never seen again. After police mishandled this case every step of the way, and didn’t take the Lowitzers seriously, the family decided to take the search into their own hands. Big thank you to Jo Ann for working with my team to tell Ali's story. She is an incredible woman who continues to do so much for the missing persons community.  Hope for Ali Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/HopeForAli  For Harris County Sheriff's Office: [phone] [e-mail] Sample Email Template: Hello,  My name is ___ and I am reaching out to ask about the status of Ali Lowitzer’s case. She went missing on April 26, 2010, after stepping off the school bus and has never been heard from again. This case has been grossly mishandled and I hope that you can tell me more about what’s being done to solve this. I ask that you please prioritize this case and get in touch with Ali's mom, Jo Ann, and offer her insight into how you are handling this case.  You can also tweet @HCSOTexas and ask that they look into Ali’s case. Donate to NCMEC through my campaign!  https://give.missingkids.org/campaign/kendall-rae/c438796 Shop my charity merch! https://milehighermerch.com/  All profits from this charity merch will be donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: https://www.missingkids.org/  Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms in APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral. First Franklin financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, and MLSN-141414, not available in North Carolina.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back. So happy to have you here joining me today to discuss yet another case, and if you are new, then welcome. Be sure to hit subscribe. So today we have a case out of Texas and it's a disappearance and it's very upsetting. I will give you that warning ahead of time. Also today we have Joanne Lawitzer, Allie Lawitzer's mom joining us to do some interviews, which I think is always really helpful to hear right from the family in the content. With that being said, I wanna see you guys on your best behavior

as always in the comments. God, I really sound like I'm on these days. But seriously, family members read comments. I mean, not just in videos where I have a family member featured, but across the board. And so I just wanna put that reminder out there to be kind because unhelpful comments are unhelpful. I am very thankful to Joanne for joining us today.

It's not easy to get on camera and get up and talk on a big platform like this where potentially a million or so people can see it. And I think that's very brave of her. And just everything that she has done for her daughter's case and other people is see it. And I think that's very brave of her. And just everything that she has done for her daughter's case and other people is really impressive. So I'm honored to have her joining us here today. Also, I wanted to remind you that my neckmack merch has restocked.

This is our last restock on this collection. And I loved this collection. I know you guys did too. And this is your last time to get your hands on it. Again, 100% of the proceeds from the collection is donated directly to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So it's a great cause. In fact, I think we are just under $180,000 raised so far and I'm very grateful to all of

you who have participated in our campaign. But anyway, let's go ahead and get into today's case. We're going to be talking about the disappearance of Ali Louitzer, who has been missing since 2010. So Alexandria, or Ali Louitzer, was born February 3rd, 1994 to her parents, Joanne and John, and was raised just outside of Houston in Spring, Texas. Ali was actually a younger sister to her half-brother Mason, who Joanne had while in a prior

relationship. And growing up, she was an absolutely adorable little girl who was raised by a family who loved her and adored her from the very beginning of her life. As she got older, Allie began developing a big passion for reading and for art, and it saved to say that she was a very creative person. In fact, Joanne says that after high school, Ali was hoping to pursue art in the next chapter of her life. Ali also was athletic, she loved playing softball, she loved hanging out with her core group of friends, and she liked singing as well. And Ali really was a very talented singer, she actually

performed at a rodeo at a very young age which takes a lot of guts to do. For so proudly we hail, and the twilight's last gleaming. Through the twilight's sky and bright stars, through the perilous fight, over the rock that we wash, for so young to be streaming. But we watched the song of the way she's trained me. Ali's parents did end up getting a divorce, and this was very hard on her as it is for, you know,

anyone at any age to deal with their parents going through divorce. And while both of her parents did love her so much, she did go through a period where she felt sort of distant from her father. Especially being a teenager, you know, when you're struggling with a million other things in life, like friendships, relationships, hormones, and school, it's definitely not unusual to have a more strained relationship with one or both of your parents.

And even though Ali was going through a sort of strained phase with her father, John, the two of them were actually working through it at the time of her disappearance, which I can only imagine has made this that much harder for him. As you will hear, Allie's mother say she was an extremely kind, loving, generous, wonderful person who had a lifetime of opportunities to look forward to before she went missing.

Allie has always been artistic from the time she knew what crayon and paper, well it didn't even really have to be paper. Recently she learned how to hold anything in her hand really, whether it be markers or a paintbrush, she was drawing and creating things since she was, I don't know, two years old. I have lots of her artwork, I have some watercolors and pastel drawings and even some paintings, some sketches. That was the thing that really... that I really miss about her. She... I didn't know until I pushed you with missing,

but she wrote some poems. And she drew some anime,'s that a pencil and from the time she was in I think in either the third or the fourth grade her teacher had had her students start journaling. So ever since then even though I'm sure that she didn't have to, Ali has kept journals. You know, given her privacy of the journals, I never read them. I would always see her write in them, but for me, that would be something I feel that should be kept private. But after she went missing, I did read some of her journals, and there were poems and sketches and even little short stories that she would make up about, you know, me or um her dogs or you know some of the family or whatever. She was in Girl Scouts, which I think I liked

a little bit more than she did. In junior high school she was in band and she learned to play the flute. But when she started ninth grade she didn't want to have to do the marching band, so she switched from band over to choir. And from, you know, from a mom's point of view, she just excelled. She had, has a beautiful voice, but, you know, she loves her animals and her friends and art and fashion and, and you know and family. You know she was always willing to to go to all of the family functions and but just her passion for her friends is for me the most missed about her is just her loves and her passions because if if she

liked something she was all in that was just the way she was. So in February of 2010 Ali was 16 years old she was a sophomore at spring high school and things were going pretty well at school she had a great group of friends and even had her first boyfriend. And like any teenager, Ali of course was glued to her cell phone and was always texting back and forth with their friends, but keep in mind it was 2010 so she didn't have a smartphone that we're all used to now. So during the second semester of Ali's sophomore year, she got her very first job and she was pumped about it.

She was working at the burger barn. I'm sure many of us can remember our first jobs and how monumental that felt at the time. I mean, having new responsibility, having some money to be able to spend on things that you want or save. It all just adds a layer of independence that you haven't experienced before and this was definitely the case for Ali. She was finally gaining some of that independence that all teenagers want, but sadly, all of this was taken from her on April 26th, 2010.

That day was a Monday, and it started off like any other typical day for Ali. She didn't wanna wake up for school because who does? So she slept in it a little bit and then eventually put on her makeup and got on the bus by 7.30 AM. At this point, Aliie had only been working at the burger barn for a couple of weeks

and she was very excited to be getting her paycheck. And so that day, she texted her mom and asked her if she could stop by the restaurant after school to get her paycheck and possibly pick up an extra shift. And at first, Joanne actually told her no because up until this point, All Ali had never walked to work. She was always driven there after school, and even though it was only a quarter of a mile and

just 10 minutes from her house, her mom was nervous about it. But she just kept asking until her mom finally gave in and said she could go on her own. However, Joanne did tell her that she needed to text her as soon as she got to work and also let her know if she was going to stay for a shift. Allie agreed, so that was the plan. DQ presents Picture this! You're getting together with all your best friends. Now picture all your best friends are actually the delicious ingredients of the new cake batter

cookie dough blizzard! That's DQ Soft Serve, cake batter flavor, confetti cookie dough pieces, and DQ signature sprinkles. Oh, hey, it sounds like you got some pretty sweet friends. And that's worth queuing the confetti. Cookie dough! The flavor party isn't gonna last forever. So hurry in and get your cake batter fixed today.

Only a DQ. Happy taste good. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, Wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier,

or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. She went about her school day. It was a normal day. Around 2.25 pm, she left the school and got on the bus. Like she always did. And sometime while taking the bus, she called her mom and let her know that she had forgotten her house keys. Now Joanne was at work, so she called her son Mason who was still at home and asked that before he left to go hang out with friends that he Keep the door open so that Ali can get inside. And unfortunately, this was the last

conversation that Joanne had with Ali. But at 244 pm, Ali can be seen on the bus's surveillance camera, exiting the bus. And then we know that instead of walking in the direction of her house, she goes towards the direction of the burger barn, which was the plan. There's also confirmation that Ali started walking in the direction of the restaurant

because two other boys who got off at the same stop as her confirmed that they saw her walking in that direction. But sadly, there are no more confirmed sightings of Ali after this point. So Joanne got home from work around 5.30 that day, and when she got there, Ali wasn't there, but she wasn't too concerned at first because even though she didn't get a text

from her confirming that she stayed to work a shift She just assumed that that was the case and that you know She started working right away. She was busy and maybe she put her phone in her locker or something So Joanne tries texting her around seven o'clock and didn't get a reply And so she became more and more concerned around 838 45 is she just decided to go ahead and jump in her car, head over to the restaurant, and just make sure that Allie was there. So she drives to the burger barn, knowing that if she was working, her shift was likely over or ending soon, but when she arrived, she saw that the restaurant was closed, and all the lights were off, and it finally hit her that something was

clearly wrong. Allie was a very responsible girl, and if she had picked up an extra shift and then gotten a ride home with someone or had gone to a friend's house or something, she definitely would have told her mom. Plus, Allie was a bit of a home body, so chances are she made plans to hang out with someone. She would have invited them over to her house.

So obviously now, Joanne is completely panicked. She has no idea where Ali is. She hasn't heard from her. She knows that that is very unusual for her. So she calls John Ali's father and he tells her that she's likely okay, but she just can't shake the feeling that something is not right.

So together they start calling all of Ali's friends seeing if she was with any of them or if any of them have heard from her, Joanne even drives over to Ali's boyfriend's house to see if maybe she's over there and her phone just died or something like that, but no one has seen Ali and it becomes very clear that they need to call police. So realizing Ali was not at work, I called John and you know he was you know trying to suggest things that you know maybe Allie was at a friend's house or

you know maybe she was just with friends I mean we couldn't think of any other reason or explanation why she couldn't be at work. And so after I had my meltdown, basically, you know, sitting in front of the restaurant in my truck, you know, I told John, you know, I said, I'll go by, you know, her boyfriend's house, maybe she's over there. And, you know, I went over there and him and his mom, you know, were kind of shocked to see me. But, you know, his name is DJ. So he had also been trying to text and call her and hadn't heard anything from her. And I felt so helpless. I felt alone. Not really knowing what to do, you know, what do you do when you can't find your child?

So, um, you know, I went home and my son Mason got some of his friends together and they drove around a couple of the subdivisions we live that were close and after a couple hours, John got off work and he came over and we were trying to think, you know, where could she be? So we got out and we drove around ourselves, you know, just just to see if we see her walking with any friends or anything. And, you know, we got home, I think it was close to midnight. And we decided to call a precinct for, which is our local sheriff's office. So a deputy from Harris County Sheriff's Department responds to their call and it pains me and really frustrates me, but doesn't surprise me to find out that they did not take the loitzers seriously at all. And unfortunately, that's

going to be a common theme here as we discuss Allie's case. The police have been horrible from the beginning to today. The way the Harris County Sheriff's Office has ignored the blatant signs of foul play and ignored the loitzers concerned for their daughter is not only disrespectful and disgusting, but also should scare all of us as citizens. If you are a consumer of true crime content, you have probably heard so many times of cases where families are just blown off and treated like dirt by the police. And quite frankly, I'm sick of it because it feels like it's pretty much every other case that I cover at this point, and especially in cases of the missing.

Obviously not limited to that, but I just see it over and over again with missing cases. So that first night on April 26th, when a deputy arrived at their home, Joanne and John, were both told that Allie probably ran away. They tell them to just call the sheriff's office back tomorrow if she's still gone, which is wasting so much valuable time and every time I hear this, it frustrates me more and more. I mean, even if she was a runaway, which she wasn't, she's still a minor, and she is potentially in danger, and they should have immediately began patrolling the streets looking for her.

So John and Joanne are forced to just wait and see if she shows up and hope that they eventually help. It was a little while later, one of the deputies showed up at the house and she came in, she came in Allie's room, kind of looked around and, you know, basically said, oh, we all, you all probably had a fight. And, you know, she was cooling off with some friends, you know, and she'll probably be home tonight or tomorrow. And didn't make a report. And, you know, I, you know, I'm like, well, what do we do? You know, as this, this deputy is walking out the door, and she's like, well, what do we do? You know, as this, this deputy is walking out the door.

She's like, well, cost tomorrow when she comes home. And I'm thinking to myself, what the hell? You know, my child is missing and you're not going to do anything, but tell me to call tomorrow. And that was just the beginning of the issues that we had with law enforcement. So the next morning or on 9 a.m. they, they let the police know that Ali is still not home, but their concern doesn't seem to grow at all. They still considered her a runaway, even though there was no sign that she ran away and she left all of her belongings at home.

She left her money, her makeup, her phone charger, all of her clothing in her room. A runaway teenager is not going to leave all of those items behind, so that should have been a red flag to them, but it wasn't. Allie especially, love to express herself through her makeup and her parents are absolutely positive that she wouldn't have left it all behind. The Sheriff's office pretty much refused to believe that this was anything more than a runaway teenager. And so they wouldn't even open a missing person's case for her. So from that very first night, we had issues with enforcement.

I grew up being taught that when you need help, you call the police. And having that experience of them coming into my house, expecting them to help me find Ali and then just saying, call us tomorrow, it was devastating. And it just seems like from there, it just went downhill. We,

gosh, there's just so much to talk about with law enforcement. So over time, Alice case would change hands because we don't live in the city, we live in Harris County. And the part of the county that we live in, there's a precinct for, which is, you know, who we call. So if we were to call like 911, you know, it's going to go to precinct for. And then within the priests, within Harris County, I don't know how many precincts, there's there's several precincts. And after a couple of days of us begging for help, a couple of the deputies did try to investigate, even though they're not missing person investigators, and I'm so grateful for the two that did try to help.

And so of course, this leaves John and Joanne to do all the early investigation work that the police should be doing, which no family member should ever have to do. And I hear of this all the time. Of course, as a parent, even though you're extremely worried, you're scared, you don't know what the first step should be, you're gonna try your best and do everything that you can to find your child. And that's exactly what they did.

John first tracked down the school bus company and was able to retrieve that footage of Ali getting off the bus that day. And it was on this footage that they saw the two boys exiting at the same time as Ali. But like I said, all they could really offer was confirmation that Ali started walking in the direction away from her home. John went to the burger barn himself to find out if Ali had actually gone in that day to get her paycheck and maybe see if she was with someone or if there was any information that they could give him. But unfortunately, he found out that Ali never even made it to the burger barn that day. John even went to the gas station across the street from the restaurant to see if maybe they could pick her up anywhere in that area around 3pm, but even that showed that she didn't make it that far. So this obviously leaves a very small window of time that something must have happened to her.

If it was only a quarter mile of a walk from the bus stop to the burger barn, whatever happened to Ali happened in that time frame. But in those first few days of her disappearance, Joanne did remember something that she hoped would be helpful. Even though Ali's phone didn't have the GPS tracking data like we see in phones today, their family did have a cell phone plan through AT&T, which included something called a family map that allowed them to get location data somewhat easily. But unfortunately, the only information they were able to get from that is that Ali's phone pinged off of a tower at the end of their sub-division,

and then it was completely shut off after that. So the last text that Ali sent was at 257 pm, and it was to another student named Jay, who was a little older than her, and they had been friends for a little over a year at that point. They later found out that Ali had texted Jay asking if he wanted to hang out that day, but he had other plans, so the two of them never met up. So with all of this, they're left feeling extremely hopeless and not sure what to do next. And of course, they're getting no help really from the police at all. So on Monday, May 3rd, it had been a week since Ali had first gone missing and they hadn't heard anything from her. They had no more clues, but they gathered up all

the information that they did have so far and brought it to the police station, hoping that they would start to take her case more seriously at this point. And they finally got a handful of deputies to go back to their house and look at Ali's room, but all they did was look for more evidence to support their theory that she ran away. And while looking through Ali's journal, a deputy notice an entry about possibly running away. And from this one entry, the Harris County Sheriff's Office decided to ignore the fact that Ali left all her belongings behind, including money, which someone would need when running away, and stuck by their notion that she left of her own free will.

They did question the boys who got off the bus at the same stop as Ali. They also went and talked to some of her co-workers at the burger barn, but they just came to the conclusion that there was no foul play. And this is truly unbelievable, but even at this point, they wouldn't classify her as a missing teen. All they did was change her status from runaway to endangered runaway. So once again, her family is stuck having to take things into their own hands. And at the advice of the Girl Scout Council, which Allie was a member of, Joanne reached out to a group called the Laura Recovery Center.

And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Laura Recovery Center, they are a nonprofit organization that was created in 1998 by Bob and Gay Smyther. When their daughter, Laura Smyther, was abducted and then later murdered near her home. The Laura Recovery Center helps educate people about kidnapping and abduction prevention,

as well as organizing searches for those who have been taken. They are an incredible organization, and they were extremely helpful and supportive to the Loitzer family in the early days, weeks, and months following Allie's disappearance. And during the first week of her being missing while the police were sitting on their ass, doing nothing, members of the Recovery Center immediately established a command center and began coordinating search efforts. Hundreds of volunteers came together to search the wooded areas and creeks surrounding the Louiser home, the executed awareness alerts, and took part in making and distributing

flyers. Also a $25,000 reward for information was even offered, however, nothing has yet come of this, unfortunately. And knowing how useless and unhelpful law enforcement had been, the Laura Recovery Center kind of acted as a liaison between the family and the police, hoping to create more of a conversation. DQ presents, picture this. You're getting together with all your best friends.

Now picture all your best friends are actually the delicious ingredients of the new cake batter cookie dough blizzard! That's DQ Soft Serve, cake batter flavor, confetti cookie dough pieces, and DQ signature sprinkles. Oh hey, it sounds like you got some pretty sweet friends. And that's worth queuing the confetti. Cookie dough! The flavor party isn't gonna last forever, so hurry in and get your cake better fixed today. Only a DQ. Happy taste good!

From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All in terms of APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral. First Franklin Financial Corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS and the 141654, not available

in North Carolina. So two days after Ali had already been missing somebody from our local Girl Scout Council told me about the Laura Recovery Center. I'd never heard of them. So I, you know, I called them. I think it was like at 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening. And somebody answered the phone and Dawn with the Laura Recovery Center, she showed up at my house the very next morning. I still get emotional about it because it felt like there were the only ones that were going to help us.

And it was such a relief when they came to help because they were truly listening to what we were telling them. And, you know, law enforcement, they just wanted to call Allie a runaway. And the law recovery center, I mean, they believed us when we said that Allie would never run away. So they, they got us organized and we set up a command center in the parking lot of the local church and they called in all of their volunteers and they started ground searching really quickly. Because you hear that the first 48 hours of someone going missing is the most important and we had already passed the first 48 hours and I understood what they were looking for. I tried not to concentrate on why they were searching around in the woods because I knew

with that mint if they found something but not only did they organize ground searches, they also did door-to- door canvassing to ask, you know, anyone in the surrounding neighborhoods if they saw anybody or if they've heard anything, they helped us get in touch with the local news stations to help get Alice face out there. They gave us advice on what we could be doing as parents, And you know, they got us in touch with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and you know, had somebody from Team Adam come out and they were just wonderful people and and truly cared and and that's what the feelings and the emotions that I remember most, because when you're having a traumatizing experience, you know, your brain to protect yourself,

it's just kind of not shut down, but I can't remember tiny details, you know, at the beginning of when Allie went missing. And I remember emotions and the big details, but the law recover center, I mean, they just, they, they felt like at the time they were a lifesaver to me. And I'm sure many of you are wondering if maybe there were any known predators in the area. And of course, Ali's family was wondering the same. And even after looking into this possibility, nothing came out of it. But one thing that Joanne had shared is there were only 11 officers for 10,000 cases in the area. And because Allie's case had yet to be considered anything other than an endangered runaway, she took very low priority. With the very

little time that they actually spent looking into Allie's case, they essentially just classified her as an emotional 16-year-old who ran away and completely dismissed the idea that someone did something to her or that someone took her. And it took three whole weeks for anyone at the Harris County Sheriff's Department to really care about Ali's case. At that time, Ali's case started gaining more traction in the media. And of course, it was only once they felt the pressure that her case was transferred to the homicide department. And at first, Joanne was really hopeful that maybe now the police would start to take things more seriously that the homicide department would

really take things up a notch for them, but unfortunately, this just became more problematic. As we know, when someone goes missing, that person's family is looked at first. And this is the case because statistically, homicide is far more likely to occur by someone the victim knows. But that's not always the case and that's really important to remember.

Non-family abductions do happen and you'll hear me get into this here in a bit, but human trafficking is an epidemic and absolutely could have possibly been the cause of Alley's abduction. The case was handed over to Harris County Runaway Division, which would be a little bit of a step up from the precinct for. And they had the case for a week or two, but, you know, and they they did a lot of work on the case. While we were doing ground searches

with the Laura Recovery Center, the Reneway Division, they were talking to the school and allie's friends and just, you know, trying to put pieces of this puzzle together, but come to find out that they lost the one video surveillance that we had. It was from the gas station at the corner. They lost it, which,

you know, was, again, it was devastating. You know, we didn't think that we needed to make copies of that video, but we should have before we handed it over to them. And, you know, again, they failed us there. And then the case was handed over to Harris County homicide. And that's when they decided to investigate us as the family first. And that was, that was a

horrible experience. Yeah, that was horrible. But with that being said, the loitzers then spent the next several weeks under extreme scrutiny as they were being investigated and Ali's brother Mason was interrogated for hours, and it was a very

traumatic experience for him to say the least. They seriously considered the possibility that maybe he had something to do with Ali's disappearance, even though he was with friends that afternoon and had an alibi. But sadly, weeks turned into months, and then months turned into years, with no answers as to what happened to Ali's loitzer. This is heartbreaking, but her mom has kept her room exactly the way that she left it,

hoping that one day she'll come back. Two years, the Lwitzer's were left to handle things on their own. Of course, with the exception of support from the Laura Recovery Center. So eventually, to better increase the chance of finding Ali, Joanne decides to hire a private investigator. Unfortunately, this paid PI was unable to find anything concrete in Ali's case. However, two PIs ended up volunteering to help for free, and I want to talk about both of their work. One of the PIs was a man named Max Hanford. Max did some extensive digging, and he believed that he could link Allie's disappearance to a man named

Brandon LeVern, who actually pled guilty to killing a college student named Mickey Schunik, 250 miles away from spring, Texas. In the early days after Ali disappeared, a tip came in that said that they saw a younger girl talking to a man in a white truck, and it was along the road that Ali would have walked to get to the burger barn. Mickey Schunik was abducted and then later killed while she was riding her bike along the street where a man in a white truck sideswiped her and then offered her a ride.

Although Mickey was taken and killed in Louisiana, the private investigator looking into Allie's story thought maybe the cases could be related. And as it turns out, this Brandon LeVernguy had connections to spring Texas. Not only did Brandon have family in the area, but his white truck was found abandoned and burned, 50 miles away from where Allie disappeared. An investigator in the Houston area claims he has evidence connecting

Schunix killer to a missing girl in spring. And that private investigator spoke only to local two investigator, Joel Eisenbaum. There's so much time to Allie here. It's so difficult to just overlook. the school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school The school

is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a

school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school is a school. The school vanished in 2010. We have him within a mile of Allie's house the day she went missing. Sanford says he's presented a mountain of evidence to investigators from Houston to Louisiana, trying to convince them, brand in Laverne. A man already in prison serving a life sentence

for two murders was in the area the same day, Loathe's are vanished. What's more is, he may have been spotted. His vehicle that he was driving matched the description of a vehicle seen on our tip line. But Sanford admits that lead on the tip line does have its flaws. The guy who wrote down the plate number accidentally discarded the clue a week later. So they put him under hypnosis and that's where we got a partial. Max Sanford's put a lot of work into this case, but the Harris County Sheriff's Office

says he's off track. They've checked and rechecked and can find no connection between Brandon LeVern and Ali Loitzer. Louisiana authorities are of the same mind. Now Brandon was in jail by the time that the private investigator was hired, but they felt like it could be a possibility that he could know something about what happened to Ali. All this information and connections were related to the homicide department in Harris County.

And surprisingly, they actually looked at this as a possibility. However, they found out that Brandon had a rock solid alibi for the time that Ali went missing and this just left the loads her family even more confused. On one hand, it would have been very traumatizing and upsetting if the family found out Brandon had something to do with it, but at the same time, it would have given them some answers, so they were somewhat hopeful. But there was some relief in the idea that if it wasn't Brandon, maybe Ali is still out there somewhere alive. We've had a couple of private investigators. We've had most of them did their work pro bono.

We did have one that we sought out. He was retired law enforcement and we did have to pay him. But he didn't turn up any information at all, as a matter of fact, I couldn't even tell you exactly what he did for the money that we paid him. But I think his name, I think it was Frank anyway, our first private investigator, his name was Mack. And he was recommended to John from one of his friends.

And we basically, we gave him everything that we had everything that we thought would do any good and you know he investigated the Mickey Mickey Schoenick theory you know with the Brandon LeVern and he says he went to Mexico. I don't know if he actually did or not. I've never really saw any reports from him. Now the second private investigator that I mentioned was the first person to look at Ali's case with the idea that she was still alive. It had been years since she was last seen and there weren't any strong leads, but this PI was somehow able to take Ali's case in a whole new direction.

Now this PI is named Amber, and I'm not going to mention her last name or share any photos of her because she has been through a lot to say the least, and she has since stepped away from this line of work, but I do want to say how impressive it is that she was so committed to Allie's case. Joanne and the PI actually purchased a cell phone and then activated Allie's number on it and used some sort of password recovery method to recover her emails and social media. But just like we've talked about how different things were when it comes to phones back then, things were also very different when it comes to social media. Alli didn't have a social media presence, like we would see most 16-year-olds have today. All she had was a Myspace account and an email account.

And after looking through that, they didn't really find anything substantial. There was no indication that Alli was getting herself into trouble or talking to someone strange. There was no indication that she wanted to run away. So, nothing really came out of that, but like I said, Amber was the first person to investigate Ali's case with the assumption that she was still alive. And the Department of Justice has named Houston as a major hub for human trafficking. And with Spring, Texas only being about 30 minutes away from Houston,

it wouldn't be impossible to think that she was targeted. Houston is also a gateway for international travel, which sadly means that victims can be taken far away in a very short period of time. And knowing that Ali's phone was shut off almost immediately after she stepped off the bus, led Amber to believe that the person who took her knew what they were doing. Shutting off her phone stopped it from being traced in any way, and with how quickly she was taken and without being seen, Amber believed that this could be the work of a professional. It's possible that someone had been watching Ali as she got off the bus, learned her routine,

but it's also possible that Ali was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her Myspace and email data didn't lead them to believe that she was talking to someone that she shouldn't have been or talking to someone posing as someone else. However, when they got Allie's cell phone data, the only thing they were able to retrieve were the numbers that she texted and called and what time that those occurred. What's frustrating is they weren't able to retrieve the text messages themselves. So even though the human trafficking theory seemed possible, it did take some time before they had any leads.

The most work that I did was with Amber. Amber was the only investigator that was looking for an alive alley. From all of the cases that I've followed and kept up with these almost 13 years. You know, when, when someone is taken and killed, you're gonna have a body. And it's been almost 13 years and there's been no body. So, you know, I choose to look for an alive Ali as well. And so if Ali was alive, if she is alive, then that would mean somebody took her and is holding her against her will and what for.

So one of the theories is that, you know, would be human trafficking because, you know, we live near greater Houston and international travel. And Amber had discovered that a long time friend of Ali's that she went to school with. He was grooming girls and his brother was involved with I think it was drug trafficking, I believe, and Ohio. And that was one of the things that we were kind of working on and had to step back from because Amber's life was threatened. And yeah, there's so much involved in what Amber did, but she did everything above and beyond any of the other investigators that we've ever worked with.

Then she never asked for a dime, not even for a travel expenses. And for me, she became part of the family because she was with us every day and she was working the case and she would actually listen to what we were saying and basically starting from ground zero, you know, on the investigation and going forward

and for me, she was a blessing. I'll never forget the work that she's put into this case and I think we were able to move forward she's put into this case. And I think we were able to move forward a little bit in the case. DQ presents, picture this, you're getting together with all your best friends. Now picture all your best friends are actually

the delicious ingredients of the new cake batter cookie dough blizzard. That's DQ Soft Serve, cake batter flavor, conf Confetti Cookie Dough Pieces, and DQ Signature Sprinkles. Oh, hey, it sounds like you got some pretty sweet friends. And that's worth queuing the confetti. Cookie dough! The flavor party isn't gonna last forever, so hurry in and get your cake Today, only a DQ. Happy taste good! From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin Financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more.

All loan terms in APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral. First Franklin Financial Corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission But in October of 2012, Joanne got a call from someone in Columbus, Ohio, who said that they thought they saw a girl matching Allie's description at a church function for the homeless. They said that this girl didn't make contact with anyone at the church, and that this person generally seemed like they were forced to be there. Obviously, this sparked some new hope for them, and Amber immediately reached out to the Columbus Police Department to initiate her search efforts. What made this especially interesting to Amber and the police department in Columbus is Columbus, Ohio, is actually one of the top 10 worst cities

for human trafficking in the United States. So this possible sighting helped confirm Amber's belief that maybe Ali was still alive and gave the Louisers hope that maybe one day they would be reunited with her. And when I say that Amber did her absolute best to try and locate Ali, she truly did. In October, November of 2012, Amber literally went undercover, looking for Ali in Columbus and went around talking to people, hoping that someone would know where she was. And while she was undercover, she ends up speaking to this man and she shows him a picture of Ali hoping that maybe he would recognize her and he did. She was very surprised to hear him say, yeah,

that's Ali cat, which just happens to be Ali's nickname growing up. And not only that, he also tells Amber that he knew Ali was from Texas, but didn't know that she was a missing person. Unfortunately, even though he did recognize her, he didn't know where she was, but he wasn't the only person to recognize her. A few other women who worked in a brothel actually recognized her as well, and also referred to her as Allie Cat, and they actually took Amber to the brothel where she was known to stay. And when she got there, she actually saw the girl believe to be Allie Cat, and she recognized a distinct scar on her forehead, which Allie had the same scar from when she had chickenpox as a child. And I know this is gonna be very frustrating

and upsetting to a lot of you, but because she was undercover, she couldn't do anything drastic that would put her life at risk, or the person believed to be Ali's life at risk. So instead, Amber reached out to Columbus PD, and together they began taking steps to get a search warrant for that property

where illegal sex work and possibly human trafficking was occurring. And after that, she flew home to spring, Texas to tell John and Joanne what she had found. And it just breaks my heart thinking of how high their hopes got after hearing this news. Amber believes Ali was trafficked to Ohio. Here's video of her looking for the girl in Columbus. Just thoughtful. Let me ask you a question. In January, she

convinced police to raid a suspected brothel there, but no sign of Ali. We know this girl exists. Okay. That resembles Ali, but she we cannot say that that is our Ali until we get her handball. At this time, everyone believed they would be able to go and recover this person that

they believed was Ali and bring her home to safety. But obviously it takes time to get a search warrant. So in the meantime, in December of 2012, John, Joanne, and Amber all flew out to Columbus trying to find Ali themselves. And only about a month later, the Columbus PD had all their search warrants and were ready to act on their sting operation. While police raid an alleged prostitution house in Ohio, a mother in spring waits impatiently. Oh, it's sickening. It's a sick, nervous feeling because police and a private investigator are raiding the house in Columbus looking for Joanne

Loitzer's daughter, Ali. There's a part of you that almost wishes that it's not your daughter, you know, that's put in a situation that's being held against her will and and drugged and prostituted. being held against her will and and drugged and prostituted. So with Amber looking for an alive alley, you know, she, she would follow up on leads when they would come in. I mean, the leads that would come in were, were crazy. Like at the same time, somebody would report seeing Ali at a Walmart in Alaska and somewhere in the Florida, you know, in the same week. And Amber would call in and talk to every single person that thought that they had information. You know, the the psychics that would call us or not call us, but they have called. But the psychics that would contact us, she would talk to them.

The tips that would come across with Ali potentially being sold online, she would follow those through. She would make reports on everything that she was doing and she would send them over to Harris County Homicide Detective and she would never hear anything back from them. They didn't want to work with any private investigators and could really care less about the information that we would up on is we all went to Ohio and you know there was a lady that had called and said that she thought that she had saw Allie at one of their church functions and was very adamant that it was Allie but a long story short it was not Ali. It was a look

alike. We ended up going to Ohio. Well I'd been there twice. Amber had been back maybe three or maybe four times. We were even contacted by a show called Last Scene Alive and they were interested in helping us to follow those tips to see if it was Ali and they went to Ohio with me and Amber and John and I think we were there for either two or three days and they filmed everything and that's where Ali thought that she had saw Ali and they filmed everything and that's where Allie thought that she had saw Allie and they called it a brothel. And so Amber went to the brothel with one of the other a girl that she met and she came back.

And if you ever, you've ever watched a show, it's a little confusing because you have to remember that TV shows, even though there's like almost an hour of a TV show, we filmed for days and they have to, you know, chop it up and put it all together to make the show. So there's this one part where Amber gets in the van with this and she's like, I just saw Allie. And I'm like, you mean Ohio Allie? And she says, yes, but they cut that part out. And I'm like, you mean Ohio Alley?

She says yes, but they cut that part out. She says yes, I think I saw Ohio Alley. So, and that's what we were calling the girl in Ohio that everybody was saying was Alley. We would call her Ohio Alley just to keep it straight. And after the filming and after Amber helped with the raid and everything, they actually arrested a girl that everyone was calling Ohio Allie and they sent me a picture of her and she didn't look anything like Allie. That part was devastating because of the time that we had spent in Ohio. But we did finally, you know, see the person that they were

calling Ali, and we were able to rule out that lead. However, despite all of this, Harris County law enforcement has stated that they don't believe Ali was a victim of human trafficking. They say they believe that if Ali was still alive, her fingerprints would have shown up in some criminal database by now, which is not necessarily true. It's not uncommon for people who are forced into sex work to be arrested for crimes such as theft. And because Ali's fingerprints haven't come up anywhere, they say there's little to no chance that she's still alive. However, her family, of course, continues to hold out hope that she is.

And like I said in the start of this, Joanne has just been so impressive. Joanne has dedicated her life to helping other victims and their families. Not only has she not stopped advocating for her own daughter, but she has really rallied the Houston community and beyond to honor other missing persons. After she attended the National Day of Remembrance in Houston, which is an event that honors

victims of homicide, Joanne thought there needs to be something like this, but for people who are considered missing. And while all this started as a way to bring attention to Allie's case, it has grown in too much more than that. On February 3, 2015, which would have been Alice 21st birthday, Mayor Anise Parker declared the day as Houston Missing Persons Day. And Joanne's continuous efforts have helped raise awareness for countless missing persons cases, and each year on her daughter's birthday, she holds an event where families can come speak out about their missing loved ones.

And if you want to learn more about this day, or maybe you live in Houston and want to attend, or even if you don't, you can watch this years of then. You can actually do so on the hope for Allie Facebook page, which I will have linked below. This page is a great resource for information on Allie's case. And I encourage you to not only leave kind words of encouragement and support for Allie's family on this video, but also go to the Facebook page and take that extra step to let them know That you're thinking of them. Joanne has been so proactive in her community And the least we can do is show her support in that way

And of course, this is one of those cases where you can be an active true crime consumer and take the extra steps To hopefully get some more movement going in Aliceie's case. The acting sheriff in Harris County is Ed Gonzalez. And even though he was not the sheriff at the time of Allie's disappearance, I think we can still reach out to him and ask that he provide the Louitzer family with more support and with information regarding Allie's case. I've asked you guys to do this in the past

and we've seen some really amazing results. So why not try? I mean, the very least Harris County can do is providing answers about what they're doing to locate Ali and her family deserves to have an open line of communication with those in charge. So his email is sheriff dot gonzalez at sheriff dot hctx.net. Now we have found that we have the best luck getting a response when people reach out in a firm, but not aggressive way, that we keep it professional and respectful, but we demand the help that this family needs.

So in the description of this video, I will include a short example of what you can write to encourage him to reach out to the looitzers. I've made it really easy. You could just copy paste it. And the more of you that reach out, the better chances we have of getting a response. And you can also tweet them if you want. Their Twitter is H-C-S-O-Texas, and you can ask that they look into Allie-Lewitzer's case. And you can, you know, compose your own tweet, or you can just ask what they are doing to look into Allie-Lewitzer's case.

Also, of course, if you want, you can give them a call and let them know that you want to see Allie-Louitzers case be solved. You can call the Harris County Sheriff's Office at 713-274-9100. The more people that do it, the better results we see. What I would like everyone to do is to share on social media. I know it becomes redundant when you look at, when you really, really look at the amount

of missing persons, there's a lot out there. You know what, it just takes that one person to see a face and recognize it or remember that they saw something or they heard something and report it so I want to ask everybody you know First of all if they will just hit the share button when you see something across your social media like it and share it and any tips can be reported to

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Ally has an active case with them. You can just simply call it's 1-800-D-Lost THE-L-O-S-T and you can report tips there because I know that they will follow up on those tips. Harris County homicide, we can call them, but I can't guarantee that they're gonna know

what you're talking about or even call you back. If you have to leave a message because they don't call me back, they don't email me back. You can also report any information to me directly. I run Ally's website as AlexandriaLowitzer.com and I answer the messages on the Facebook page. It's Hope for Ali. But I mean maybe if we if everybody emails some way Harris County Sheriff, maybe he will do something. I know he knows who I am and then I have a missing child but I've never been able able to catch him and sit down with him and speak to him about Alice case. Anytime that we've done a campaign like that, one of the detectives will usually reach out to me and just say, well, it's open investigation, we're working on it.

But I think if we just rattle some cages and put a fire under their butts maybe. Maybe they'll start doing something again. If it is an open case and an active investigation, they're not going to share any details with me, but it would just be nice to know that they are still looking for Ally. So it has now been 13 years since Ali first disappeared and her family deserves answers. When I first talked to Joanne on the phone, I told her that it feels useless to say, I'm sorry, it's hard to find the words to express to someone how horrible you feel for their situation when their child is missing. I can't even fathom being in their shoes and

they're so incredibly strong. I really can't even put it into words. Someone out there knows something and it only takes one person to speak up for Ali and her family so that they can get those answers that they've been looking for. If you have any information about the disappearance of Ali, Lou Lawitzer, please call the Harris County Sheriff's Office at 713-274-9100. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the

friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms and APRs depend on meeting are underwriting an income criteria and may require collateral. First-ranked financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS-NV-141654, not available in North Carolina.