True Crime with Kendall Rae - Where Is Baby Lisa Irwin? Disappeared From Her Crib in the Middle of the Night

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

On October 4th, 2011, in the early hours of the morning, Jeremy Irwin came home from work to find his house unlocked, a window open, all the lights on, and the phones missing. After checking in on his family and looking around the house, he realized that their almost 11-month old baby, Lisa, had disappeared from her crib after she was put to bed. 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/  This episode is sponsored by: PrettyLitter - promo code: kendallrae 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

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So today we have another case of a missing infant. I have covered two stories about missing infants in the past, Carolina White, who was taken from the hospital really young, and years later when she was an adult, she found out that she was taken. And then there's also Sabrina Eisenberg, which I get messages about Sabrina all the time. You guys have asked me so many times

for an update on that case, and I sadly do not have one. Trust me, it drives me just as crazy. Sabrina was taken right out of her crib out of her house and it was really weird and the parents were accused for a long time. It's really similar to the story we're going to be talking about today.

And in this Sabrina video, I talked about this girl who thought that she might be Sabrina and how they were gonna do her DNA. We were supposed to find out. I never heard anything, so I'm guessing no news is not good news. Like I'm guessing no news is not good news. Like I'm guessing it wasn't her. But anyway, today we are talking about Lisa Irwin, who is another missing infant and another just strange case that is going to leave you with so many questions,

way more than answers. All right now let's go ahead and get into the case of baby Lisa Irwin. Lisa Renee Irwin was born on November 11th, 2010 in Independence, Missouri, and her parents are named Deborah or Debbie Bradley and Jeremy Irwin. Debbie and Jeremy had both been married before and they both had a child with their previous partner, so Lisa also had two half brothers. And the Irwin family was just your average American family. When Debbie found out that she was pregnant, she was absolutely thrilled that she was having another baby and they could not wait to meet their daughter.

She was really excited to be having a little girl. And when she was born, they ended up naming her Lisa. They named her Lisa after Debbie's mom. Lisa was super sweet and the whole family just absolutely loved her. Debbie describes this time in their lives to just be absolutely picture perfect. So Fast Gourd a little bit to October 3rd, 2011. That day, Lisa's father got home at 2.30 pm and he got home from his job as an electrician at random times.

Sometimes he worked late at night or even overnight and sometimes he worked in the middle of the day. So it really just varied and so he was home That day at 2.30 and he had lunch with his kids a few hours later Debbie and her brother Philip went to the grocery store around 4.30 pm. They're seen on surveillance video in fact purchasing baby food Baby wipes and a box of wine and Jeremy stayed home with the kids while they were out Debbie's brother came back to her house with her, they brought the groceries in and he left around 5.30. So then Debbie prepared dinner like normal for herself and the kids because Jeremy was actually going back out to work the night shift at his job, which like

I said was common. And this time he was going to be working on the electricity at a Starbucks. And this was actually one of the first night shifts that he had done in quite a while. He normally didn't do them. And so Debbie was kind of nervous about being home alone, which I totally understand. I hate being home alone. But it was kind of nice because he was going to be earning like overtime money for this. So she figured, you know, it's kind of worth it.

And he decided to do it. So Jeremy took off for his night shift and he told Debbie that he would be home around 10 pm, so not even that late. But Debbie thought she would be a lot more comfortable and enjoyed her night a little more if she invited one of the neighbor friends to come over. So right as Jeremy left, Debbie put Lisa in her pajamas, did her night routine, and put her in her crib tucked in, and sent her off to bed. Now, when you put your baby in your crib, you are thinking that they're going to be fine,

that they're gonna be safe in there. So they put on a movie for the kids, and the two of them were drinking a few glasses of wine. They sat outside on the porch while they were hanging out, while the kids were inside, but Debbie said that she checked on the kids several different times. So the boys ended up saying that they were getting tired

around 10 p.m., so she decided to call it a night with her neighbor friend She went home and then Debbie went inside and put the older kids to bed around 10.30 After that she checked on Lisa one more time before going to bed and then went to bed herself Now Jeremy ended up having way more to do at the Starbucks than he realized So he got home at 4 a.m, which is way later than what he originally thought. So the first thing that Jeremy noticed when he got in the house was that the door was unlocked. He thought this was unusual and a little worrisome, but didn't freak out or anything, so he went inside the house. Another thing that he thought was weird was a lot of the lights were

on in the house, which was weird because it was the middle of the night. It never seemed like the house was shut down properly. So he first went and checked on his wife in their room and Debbie was passed out on the bed along with her son. One of the sons had crawled in bed with her. And this is so weird, but there was a random stray cat at the bottom of the bed just chilling as well.

So he walked down the hall, checked on his other son and he was asleep in the bottom bunk. So all good there. After this, he went, checked on his other son, and he was asleep in the bottom bunk, so all good there. After this, he went and checked on Lisa, and that is when he noticed that she was not in her crib. Now, can you imagine the freak out moment? So he runs out of Lisa's room, goes to tell Debbie what's happening. He frantically wakes her up and starts asking, you know, where's Lisa? She's not in her crib, and she says she has no idea where she is. know, where's Lisa? She's not on her crib and she says she has no idea where she is.

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order. That's pretty litter.com slash kennel ray, use code kennel ray to save 20% on your first order. Pretty litter.com slash kennel ray, code kennel ray. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details. So then they all get up and start frantically looking through the house, ripping the house apart, trying to find Lisa.

They figured maybe she wasn't put in her crib or something and crawled away or she was somewhere hiding in the house. That was their first thought. Jeremy ran outside the house. He ran to the neighbor's house, thinking that maybe it was possible that Debbie was confused and left Lisa over at the neighbor's house, even maybe it was possible that Debbie was confused and like left Lisa over at the neighbor's house even though they weren't even there. But I mean that was his thinking at that point. I mean it's four in the morning. He has no idea what was happening that night. But Debbie said the last time that she saw her she was in her crib asleep. So they were looking

all through the house and when they were looking they noticed that a screen was messed up in one of their offices and they normally left their screen windows open to get air into the house, but this was unusual because the screen looked like it was tampered with, they're kind of broken. So they started to think that maybe someone broke into their house through the screen. And this is when they started to think maybe someone

actually broke into the house and took Lisa. So Jeremy ran to call 911, but when he got to to their phones where they normally had them all plugged in, his phone and Debbie's phone were gone. Luckily he had his work phone on him so he was able to use that to call 911. So police got there very quick. They immediately started searching for Lisa and they found absolutely no trace of her. So they started looking outside of the house in the rest of the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods, doing interviews with people, trying to see if anyone has seen a baby.

Soon, the local news media was reporting that she was missing and people started to freak out. I mean, anytime a baby goes missing, it's just, I mean, really freaky, especially when it seems like someone could have broken into the parent's house. The National Guard was also brought in to look for Lisa, so they really were not missing around. Literally thousands of people showed up to help in the search for Lisa.

The family lived kind of close to the Missouri River, so they searched that, but didn't find anything. And obviously, you know, the clock is really taking in a situation like this. The longer you don't find something, especially a child. The less likely they are to return home. So they did not find her within the first 24 hours. And that was, you know, obviously a major upset to the police and to her parents and everyone involved. So the next day, they held a press conference and they allowed Debbie and Jeremy to make a public statement.

Anybody that might have her, uh, can drop her off at any place safe, fire station, her hospital or church. No questions asked. I just want to have her back. Just want her baby back. Please, bring her home.

Are two other boys are waiting for, please. I was completely beside myself. My daughter's missing. I don't know where she is. I don't know who took her. I don't know who took her. I don't know if she saved. Debbie and Jeremy were actually really cooperative with law enforcement at first, and they had no problem

providing them with access to their home, computers. They were like, you know, anything to help the situation. Door's open. There is no limit. Police requested to meet with their two sons in private, and they agreed. Being the last one who saw her and the one that was home alone with her makes Debbie you know automatically a suspect.

So police ended up interrogating her for almost 12 hours and this is when Debbie said they started accusing her of doing something to Lisa and Debbie was really upset not because she was being accused but because according to her she knew that she was not the one to take Lisa, and she felt like they were wasting their time by focusing on her. Jeremy, however, was cleared because he was able to provide an alibi for where he was. That night, he was at work, and there's film footage of him at work, so he was in the clear, but Debbie, obviously, there's no footage of her, and she was not in the clear.

Debbie was also being looked at because she was drinking that night and Debbie changed her story quite a bit actually. At first she said she only had one or two glasses and then it turned into a couple and then it turned into maybe almost 10. So her story was being altered a little bit which definitely raises red flags but I think she was initially scared that if she told them how much she was drinking she would automatically be blamed and you know no one wants to be blamed for something like this. So the police ended up taking a look at that window that had the messed up screen and they tried to re-enact someone coming through the window to see if there was a way that you know this was actually a possible scenario but police ultimately came to the conclusion that no one could have

come through the window because the window was just too high and it was impossible for them to do it. But it's kind of weird because it was a one-story house, so I don't really understand their logic with that. And there was also untouched dust on the window sill so that it came to the conclusion that no one would have been able to break in without leaving a mark on that dust. So because of this, police really started to believe that no one broke into the house and that Debbie was guilty. Now this seems so ridiculous to me because let's all not forget, when Jeremy came home, the door was unlocked.

So someone could have just walked in the house that way. They didn't even have to go through a window. So it really didn't prove anything. We don't know if that door was somehow unlocked by someone or they broke it and then went out through the front door or if Debbie just straight up forgot to lock the door because she was drinking that night. And maybe someone just decided to try to open it

and it worked. Maybe someone noticed that the truck wasn't in the driveway and knew that she was home alone and just came in. She was also drinking outside on the porch. So someone could have easily known what was going on that night that she was home alone and that she was home alone and just came in. She was also drinking outside on the porch, so someone could have easily known what was going on that night that she was home alone and that she was drinking with three kids at home. So another thing that was weird was Debbie

also changed her story about when she last saw Lisa. At first, she said that she saw her around 10.30 pm right before she went to bed herself, but then she admitted that she actually saw her at 6.30, which is pretty much when Jeremy left for work. So because of this police started to look more into Debbie, and honestly, fair enough, it does look pretty weird. I don't get those types of vibes from Debbie, she doesn't seem like the type of person that would do something like that, but you'd be surprised with killers, so you never

really know, and the police definitely had every right to be concerned. They offered Debbie a polygraph test, and she decided to go ahead and take it, and she was confident that she was going to pass it, but she ended up not passing the polygraph test, which is kind of understandable because it is pretty stressful to go through that type of situation. Like, I think I'd probably be pretty nervous during a polygraph test, even if I had nothing to hide,

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Only a DQ. Happy taste good. So after the test, the FBI agent really started shaming Debbie and telling her she was guilty and that she was a bad mom. Now obviously this was really upsetting to Debbie and this is when they completely decided to stop working with the police. But earlier the mother and father decided to quit cooperating with the police, but our door is always open.

New developments tonight in the search for missing baby Lisa Irwin. Her parents are no longer cooperating with police. For three days, police flooded this Northland neighborhood. Officers combing out in search of 10 month old Lisa Irwin and neighbors praying for her safe return. All along, police said Lisa's parents

Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley cooperated with police until Thursday night. They've always been free. They've been cooperated up to this point, but early this evening they decided to stop cooperating with the techers. Just an hour before this press conference, Channel 9 was there

as Jeremy Irwin left KCPD headquarters with a family member. I don't get it because as a parent myself, if my child was missing, I would give anything I have. I mean, the police are the ones that are your friends.

They're going to help find your child. So at this point, I don't know what to think. I mean, the police are the ones that are your friends. They're gonna help find your child. So at this point, I don't know what to think. I don't know if you guys knew this, but it is actually legal for the FBI to lie to someone and tell them that they didn't pass a polygraph test when they actually did. So we really don't know if she passed it or not.

Since Debbie and Jeremy decided to stop working with the police, the police started to assume that Lisa was no longer alive. On October 19th, they decided to bring in a cadaver dog to search their house. So during the search, the cadaver dog found a spot next to the parents bed where they picked up a scent. When it comes to the cadaver dogs,

it really depends on how you talk to you. Different people have different opinions on just how much you should rely on them and whether or not the evidence should be taken seriously. So the problem with cadaver dogs is they have such a good sense of smell that they're often not wrong, but they can get false positives very easily. So it could have been even a diaper spell from Lisa

or something else that they were detecting on the floor. So once the public found out about the cadaver dogs and the police starting to have distrust of them and saying things, you know, like they're not working with us, you know, people are naturally starting to think maybe the parents are not so innocent here. Maybe Debbie really did something. And maybe she did.

Who really knows? At this point, it had been almost a month since Lisa first went missing and there were still no answers as to where she went. So they put up a $100,000 reward for anyone that could help bring Lisa home and on October 23rd they held a vigil for Lisa. People were just devastated. I mean this beautiful baby girl just gone, just completely gone. So eventually police did find another possible suspect which is good. So this is crazy. But the night that Lisa went missing there were several different sightings of a man holding a

baby. The first sighting was actually up the street that night. And there was a man who was leaving his house the middle of the night to go to work. He had like a night shift or something and he noticed a man carrying a baby and that the baby was underdressed, which could have been Lisa because obviously a baby if they're in their crib is not dressed as they should be for being outside. And it's October, so it's a strange time to have an underdressed baby just outside with a man in the middle of the night. He thought this was weird but you, didn't think too much of it until he realized that there was a baby that went missing, and that's when he decided to report this. And another super strange thing is the night

that Lisa went missing, there was a dumpster fire down the street, and it was reported and when police got there to this dumpster fire, they actually found baby clothes inside of the dumpster. And they also saw a man on this gas station footage. The gas station cameras were filming like across the street and this man there's like a you know a forest really dense forest and this dude just like comes walking out of it

the middle of the night. So that seemed sketched to police so they noted that. Then there was also a second sighting of a man holding a baby. A motorcyclist was just getting off of work a night shift in the middle of the night and was headed home When he saw a man just walking down the street with a baby now. It's weird is this man has the exact same description as the other Person described seeing the man with the baby near the Irwin's house He said that baby was underdressed and he claims that he pulled over and told the man that he needed to put the baby in a blanket Offered to help but the guy refused. He even offered to give him a ride but the guy said no and so the motorcycle list hopped

on his motorcycle and headed away and then shortly after that he found out that a baby had gone missing and that's when he also decided to call the police. So the police continued their investigation with this new information and that is when they came across this homeless man named Jersey Jersey is actually someone who is known for hanging around the similar areas of town that the Erwins lived in and this man's real name is actually John Tango He's pretty well known to law enforcement. It has had a history of committing crimes One of the main crimes that he committed was breaking into people's

Second vacation homes and living in them for periods of time or stealing from them. And this one guy who had his house broken into by Jersey said that he went through the window and that's how he breaks into houses is by going into windows. This is 42 year old John Tango, better known as Jersey, a handyman who worked around the Northland neighborhood near the Irwin home. Tango was in court today on charges not related to the baby Lisa case. But early on in the investigation, we know police were anxious to find Tango and question him about the night Lisa disappeared.

Teacos Lala problem. There, acaezrea lives just a block up on North Lister from the Irwin home. Do you want to go to my big girl? He says he called the cops on Tango two or three times claiming he was breaking into his neighbor's house across the street. All the while the homeowner was living

out of state and we chase him one time over here. And but he never live here. There said Tango would break into the house through a window, which could be what had investigators looking to find him. We know a window in the Irwin home had investigators looking to find him. We know a window in the Irwin home was open. The screen pushed in the

night. Lisa vanished, according to court documents, Tango even went as far as to list this home as his home address on court papers. It was also discovered that the night that Lisa went missing. Jersey was only eight few minutes down from their house.

So the theory started forming that maybe Jersey was watching the house from afar for a while. He waited until Jeremy's work truck was gone and then went ahead and made his move. Maybe he figured that would be a good time to break into the house and that she was probably alone. It's possible that he walked into the house and he was planning on just robbing them but decided to take Lisa instead. And this seems kind of likely because Debbie was pretty drunk and sleeping, you know, when you're drunk and sleeping, you're pretty passed out. So the chances of her having actually heard someone break into her house or even just open the door since it was unlocked is really slim. But even more damning, they found that one of the missing cell phones was used to call this girl

the Megan, who was actually one of Jersey's girlfriends. So Megan was brought in for questioning and she told police that she had actually told Jersey that she really wanted a baby and she thought maybe Jersey could have taken Lisa as some type of baby for her as like a gift to win her over again, because they've been like kind of on and off

in their relationship. The people that described seeing a man with a baby all described a skinny tall white hand which definitely matches Jersey. In addition, he was also known for having an obsession with fire, which kind of makes sense. Maybe he burned her clothes. So because of this, place arrested him and brought him in for questioning. So Jersey denies any involvement and so they ended up bringing him in and putting him like with a group of people and having witnesses come in and try to identify him and some of them said that he looked like the guy that they saw but some of them said that he didn't and so because of this inconsistency they ended up having no choice but to let Jersey

go. Which seems really crazy to me because I feel like there's a good chance it really could have been him. So then there was kind of a break in the case in October of 2013. There was a little girl who was discovered in Greece whose background was unknown. The people who are claiming to be this little girl's parents weren't actually her parents and her DNA didn't show any results in the missing children's database in Greece. Developments in that mystery child found in Greece. We're just happy that um

there's a little girl. It's going to be returned to her family. And their nightmare will end. And it gives us even more hope than we already have. I had a mint's hope that my daughter's not only OK, but she's going to come home. We started doing comparison pictures side by side on the computer.

And we went ahead and just focused on Lisa's face instead of her hair color. And that's when we started to notice the resemblance. Look at the child found in Greece called Maria. Compare her photo to the age progression photo of what a nearly three-year-old baby Lisa would look like. The couple she was with is now behind bars. I don't know for sure, but just the fact that we don't know for sure is enough, no

matter what. Once Debbie and Jeremy heard about this little girl, they contacted the great authorities because they believed that this could be Lisa. Because the girl did look really similar to the age progression photos of Lisa. However, the girl's age was estimated to be between four and six. And Lisa would have only been three at this time. So unfortunately, after doing multiple rounds of DNA testing, they determined that this baby was not Lisa.

They have never given up on her since they believe that she is still out there. They actually believe that she's alive. They just hope that she isn't suffering or being hurt in any way. You know, they think that it could have been some type of illegal adoption. What you know we've talked about for Timothy Pitson,

we talked about for Sabrina Eisenberg. Throughout the years, Lisa's family has continued to hold vigils for her. It's just incredibly sad seeing their pain. They still wrap her presence for her birthday and Christmas, as if she's still there and they've never really gotten over this. To me, Debbie doesn't really seem like someone

who would kill her own baby and I feel like it would have been pretty hard for her to do considering she did have an alibi. She was with someone that night. She was drinking like how well can she pull off the murder of her own baby? Like there would be some evidence. She's not like this crazy mastermind criminal that could get away with something like this. I just think the chances of it being her are really slim. I don't know.

I like to think I have a good judge of character and she just doesn't strike me as someone who killed their baby. Over the years, several different age progression photos have come out and the most recent one came out a little over a year ago. Lisa's parents think that this picture is actually the most important so far because of the fact that Lisa's now at the age where she would be attending school, which means the likelihood of someone seeing her is a lot greater. This is the same way that the Eisenbergs felt that, you know, maybe eventually a subrita would just show up because she's getting older and would be in school and stuff, but these people could be being homeschooled, it could be in some kind of strange community

or cult. It's hard, but it does make you think that if it is some type of illegal adoption, that maybe they'll eventually show up. There have been cases of babies being taken and then reunited way later on. Carolina White is one of those babies who's taken right out of the hospital and then she discovered that she was actually adopted

later on on her own. That is gonna 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 Podcast. 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. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm app if I need help. Sorry, you're in my wife's seat, though. Oh, yeah, I gotta go anyway. Tell Grace, she nailed her Shosse. Yet they help you need from progressive with her mobile app online chatter over the phone.

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