True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: Friday the 13th Double Homicide: Two College Students, A Bridge & A Magic 8 Ball

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

On this chilling Friday the 13th, a 20-year-old Cal Poly student vanishes after crossing the Jennifer Street Bridge and by morning, she’s gone. Weeks later, another young woman disappears, reigniting memories of Kristin Smart’s haunting case. In a community already scarred by fear, whispers of a serial predator emerge. What really happened that night, and could the two disappearances be connected? Dive into the mystery, the clues, and the chilling coincidences in this gripping episode of True Crime with Kimbyr where every detail brings us closer to uncovering the truth behind the terror at Cal Poly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you ever think about taking a shortcut and actually do it? Who hasn't? Your feet are tired, you're running late. You think, what's the big deal? It'll be quick. You're all alone, too. Breaking a sometimes unspoken rule. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars.

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aren't meant to be broken. They're created to protect us because even in a safe college town, monsters are waiting for that one moment that you slip up. Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel and if you've never been here before, I am Kimberlea. It's nice to finally meet you. Now today I've got an evil minds episode that it was the intro you just saw and these cases are a bit darker. We dive a little deeper into that darkness but you're still gonna get all the information, the thorough research that you're used to in my other videos. Now let me quickly say something to you friend to friend or maybe parent to parent. Do you ever notice when things starts small, they seem like

not a big deal could be a bill here, a fee there, but then it all adds up to credit card debt and it starts falling you around like a shadow that just won't leave. And when things finally calm down, it strikes again, higher interest rates and then bigger minimums that you can't and it seems like it never goes away. And you're getting that constant stressful feeling, and I've been there. When I left off, I was talking about shortcuts, walking alone, especially after dark,

college towns and monsters lurking in the shadows. And I truly wish that I could say it's surprising, but I think most of you are well aware that bad things happen everywhere, even in places that are deemed safe and should be safe, like a college campus. And after the Idaho case and the case, pure evil, that is Brian Koberger. I think, you know, that illusion of safe campuses has been

completely shattered. Maybe he got inspiration from the evil you're going to hear about in this case, because sadly, there has been many like it. And as a matter of fact, everything that happened here in 1998 was only two years following the disappearance and murder of Kristen Smart, a 19-year-old Cal Poly student who disappeared in May of 1996 after going to an off-campus frat party all alone. She didn't know anyone there. She attempted to walk back to her dorm room. She passed out in a nearby front lawn. And I'm going to be mentioning that case in this story, which you may be familiar with, since it happened in the very same city that this similar tragedy took place, San Luis Obispo, California, and at the same college, California Polytechnic State University,

but I'm getting way ahead of myself already. So let me start with the walk home alone. It was a regular Thursday night in a sleepy college town on the coast of California. Just before midnight, 20-year-old Cal Poly student Rachel Newhouse takes the Jennifer Street Bridge like she's done many times before. It's safe. There are street lights, a little coastal breeze. The kind of shortcut you take because your feet already know the way, it's like muscle memory. On the bridge, it's quiet enough to hear shoes on concrete. Nothing dramatic, just the College Town soundtrack that usually fades when the bar is empty at the end of last call. Rachel keeps moving. And all of this is familiar to her. It's what the bridge was made for. It's a pedestrian overpass providing a safe way to across the railroad tracks below.

It's narrow. It's barely wide enough for a car to fit on its path. It's high above the ground, and you take stairs to access it. It's got somewhat of a cage on top so that no one can jump or fall from it. And as I said, it's safe. This town itself was pretty isolated. There wasn't a lot of through traffic and most people who live there were students or recent graduates, and there certainly was not a lot of crime in this area. It was actually the safest college out of the 23 state universities in California when it came to violent crime at the time. The bridge connected Osso Street with Jennifer Street, or as students knew it, the bridge connected the downtown bars to the residential area where many students had off-campus apartment homes, including

Rachel and her roommates. She lived in a rental house off Garda Street, about a 40-minute walk from downtown, and about a 20-minute walk, once you get off that bridge. Rachel should have been home before 1 a.m., but when her roommates return in the early morning hours of Friday the 13th, she's nowhere to be found. We can't possibly know what her roommates were thinking at the time, but maybe they were tired.

Maybe they had been drinking. Those are reasonable things to assume, and then they just went to bed. By the next morning, Rachel was still not home. And she hadn't reached out to anyone to let them know what happened to her the night before, And I know I haven't told you what was going on before Rachel walked home alone that night.

That's going to be important. But for now, her roommates are checking with friends. They're trying to figure out if Rachel spent the night at someone's house. Maybe she got a ride home. She was casually seeing a coworker of hers. She was a hostess at St. Louis Abispo Brewing Company. She was seeing Adam Olson.

And she was expected to work that Friday evening. So they thought maybe she was with him and he would give her ride later after her close. classes. But that's the thing. Rachel didn't show up for any of her classes on Friday. And that was unusual. But again, maybe her friends and her roommates were thinking she had a long night. She slept in, so they still weren't worried. Maybe a little concerned, but they were probably thinking they would hear from her soon. But then Rachel didn't show up for work either. And that's when the alarm bells really started to go off. That meant she wasn't with Adam Olson. He hadn't seen her. And she wasn't

the type to skip out on her job, even though she'd only been working there for two months. She was a reliable employee. And now her roommates were more concerned than ever. They were convinced that something horrible had happened to their friend. So they called the police. Now usually an adult not coming home or not making it to work, someone with access to a car, even though Rachel's was still part at her friend's house, that wouldn't necessarily be too big of the deal for police. We know the drill. They'll say, she's an adult. She's a child. She's a She's allowed to disappear. But it hadn't been that long since another Cal Poly student didn't come home after a night out,

as I alluded to, 19-year-old student Kristen's smart. At this point, she is still missing from two years earlier. So to understand the fear that had enveloped this college town, I at the very least have to explain what happened to Kristen. Her case was unsolved at the time, and the mystery lingered. Parents had just started to trust that their teens would be safe at the school, And then Rachel goes missing. So let's back up just a bit.

To May of 1996. Now I'm going to summarize the agony that not only Kristen's family went through, but all throughout San Luis Obispo as well. On the evening of Friday, May 24th of 1996, the very start of Memorial Day weekend, Kristen Smart went off to an off-campus birthday party near the Cal Poly Campus. She headed to the party alone after her friends declined to join her,

which, by the way, that still bothers me. But I get it. Maybe they were busy. Maybe they had other plans or just no interest in going. Even though not of legal drinking age, Kristen had been consuming alcohol. And then later she attempted to leave the party and walk back to her dorm room, highly intoxicated. And she never made it. Instead, in the early morning hours of May 25th of 1996, around 2 a.m., other partygoers, a guy, Tim Davis, and a girl, Cheryl Anderson, found the freshman who was actually strikingly tall, she was six foot one and blonde. Quite a sight to see lying there passed out on the lawn next door to the house party. Kristen's presence usually attracted positive attention. She was captivating, but lying on the ground like that, all eyes were on her for a different reason.

Here was this girl. She was happy. She was always smiling, fairly reserved, though. Just seeing her so helpless was sad. And the pair helped Kristen to her feet, and they started guiding her on the short walk back to her door. As they set off, another student saw them and also assisted. His name was Paul Flores. He was a 19-year-old acquaintance of Kristen's, and he's like, you know what? I know where her dorm is. I can help you out, and I can take Kristen home the rest of the way.

Because his dorm was close by. One by one, the other students parted ways, leaving Paul with Kristen. The problem was she was never seen again after that walk. Kristen never made it back to her room in Cal Poly's red brick residence halls. in Mustang Circle. And by the next morning, she had truly vanished.

When Kristen failed to return home or contact anyone all weekend long, of course, everyone was concerned. Her roommates, her friends, they realized something was wrong and by that Monday, which was Memorial Day, they started pressuring authorities to take action.

However, the initial response by campus police was dangerously slow. The Cal Poly University Police did not immediately treat Kristen's absence as an emergency at all. Officers just assumed she may have gone away on an impromptu trip since it was a holiday weekend. Okay, I guess that would be safe to assume.

But wouldn't she have taken her ID and her wallet? Things that she actually left behind. And her roommate saw it sitting in her dorm room and thought, something's not right. However, the campus police waited nearly a week before formally reporting her as a missing person. Her parents didn't even know. she was gone. She wasn't back home, and she and her family were actually fairly new to California

and the United States. They were originally from Germany and only been living in California since Kristen was in high school. It was her very first year away at college. The delay in reporting her missing meant that critical clues were entirely lost. In fact, it took five days for proper investigation to even launch after Kristen disappeared. And by the time, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's got the detectives involved, Kristen's trail had gone completely cold. Why hadn't she made it back inside her room? No one knew. And everyone on campus was shocked. Friends were trying to help put together a timeline. And the three students that helped her after she'd been on that lawn were interviewed. Since Paul was the very last person, after Tim and Cheryl

saw Kristen, he was under immense scrutiny. But some thought he wasn't under enough scrutiny. And that's because it took 10 days after Kristen went missing for them to search his dorm room. Major fail on the investigator's part. But to be fair, Kristen's wasn't searched either, not that that's any better. Any evidence that might have been in those rooms was likely cleaned up or it could be contaminated. Waiting so long to secure the scenes hindered this investigation. Family friends, community members, they were outraged. Many believed that these early missteps destroyed.

any chances of finding Kristen or proving what happened to her. In the months and then the years that followed, significant blame was directed at the campus police and university officials for failing to promptly get help from the outside authorities and find Kristen. Now this criticism eventually prompted the community to pursue changes in a major way, the way that campus police coordinate with local law enforcement, when these kind of crimes occur,

or if a student goes missing. They wanted lawmakers to lawmakers to pass the Kristen Smart Campus Security Act, making it the law that campus police have to do more because they were made aware of Kristen not coming home and they delayed reporting it to the police. Even without a crime scene, investigators quickly zeroed in on Paul Flores. He was the last person with Kristen. He became their prime suspect. When Paul was first interviewed by campus police, they saw fresh injuries on him. He had a black eye and he had scratches on his knees. Paul said he got the black guy playing basketball with his friends over the weekend. But when detectives checked with those friends, the story could not be confirmed. They said,

Paul had not been injured in any game. So when confronted, Paul admitted the basketball story wasn't exactly true. But it was one of those things he said where, you know, you don't want to be suspected of anything guilty. So you just give them an explanation because he said he couldn't actually recall how he got the wounds. but they thought he was lying. Detectives thought that Paul, knowing that Kristen was in a vulnerable position, had taken this opportunity to violate her back in his dorm,

and then something violent happened. They just couldn't prove it. As the search for Kristen ramped up, officers deployed specially trained cadaver dogs around this campus, and what was eerie is that multiple dogs independently alerted strongly to Paul's dorm room, when they were brought into the Cal Poly dorms Every cadaver dog headed straight to Paul's mattress inside his room, indicating the scent of human

decomposition had been there. Now, in case you don't realize this, and I had to check because I was like, wow, I know they didn't check for 10 days, so clearly there could have been decomp fluids and things like that, but decomposition starts happening right after someone dies. That process starts occurring. so even within an hour or two hours, you're going to have some type of reactions in the body that these dogs can smell. And this was a disturbing sign to the police that Kristen's dead body had been in Paul's room, at least at some point. However, without physical remains or a confession, this case remained merely circumstantial. And over the next few months, of course, Paul lawyered up and became uncooperative. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,

and when called before a grand jury that same year, he refused to answer any more questions about Kristen's disappearance. So with Paul staying silent and nobody or DNA or any kind of evidence available, authorities could not arrest him. And I know how frustrating that could be, but also due process, right? Because you really do have to have evidence and probable cause to detain someone and charge them with a crime, and they had still not found Kristen dead or alive. Her parents, Stan, and Denise were devastated. Of course, they were.

They wanted answers. They trusted that their daughter was going to be safe at college. Kristen's disappearance didn't just affect her family and her friends. It shook the whole community. Cal Poly had never experienced a case like this before, and for months and then years, students lived in fear. They took cautionary, They did things they never had to think twice about before.

Knowing that a fellow student had vanished after a campus party, everyone was on edge. The case unfortunately became a cautionary tale. Don't go drinking and walk home alone. Yikes. I mean, it is good advice. Kristen is a person, though. She's not just a headline that turns into some kind of warning. But those warnings were warranted. There could be a killer out there.

In response, Cal Poly ramped up their safety program. up their safety programs, and all the female students were urged to travel in groups and remain vigilant. Local businesses kept Kristen's missing persons flyers in their windows long after 1996. Sales of pepper spray, extra door locks, and self-defense classes all spiked as women were taking precautions so that sadly they wouldn't end up going missing or worse. These students just wanted to get an education, to graduate without the fear that they were going to leave home and never come back for tragic reasons. One student made a comment that it was true

by national standards that this was a safe community, but that doesn't help when you were the family of a missing person or a victim. And this really showed the community's sense of security had been shaken. And as time passed, the lack of answers weighed heavily. The unsolved mystery also became a source of local lore. So many people had stories about what they thought

happened to Kristen. Some floated a theory that Kristen had never left campus at all. that her body was actually buried under the big cement pee that was up on the hillside. And this story seemed plausible since it overlooked at least the last route that she'd been seen that night. And cadaver dogs had alerted near that hillside. This story swirled around campus,

and there was a billboard with Kristen's photo and a tip line number that stood alongside U.S. Highway 101 for years. And that was a constant reminder that her case remained open. It was still open when Rachel knew house's roommates called San Abispo Police on Friday the 13th that November, two years later. When word got out that another student was missing, this community was instantly on edge again.

Kristen's case was still on students' minds. Now, their fears deepened. Had Kristen's killer been waiting all this time for another female to let her guard down? And now he struck again? I think you can understand why local police took Rachel's disappearance seriously from the beginning. They already had a blemish on their record, but it's not just because of Kristen's unsolved case, no. Something more recent happened. Something was called in. Just that early Friday the 13th morning,

before Rachel's roommates were even awake to realize she hadn't come home, several calls were made to 911 from pedestrians who had used that same Jennifer Street Bridge that morning. They were calling to report a large pool of blood on the overpass. Now, they assumed it came from a dead animal that had scampered off or been eaten by prey. Police considered it a biohazard, so they sent out the fire department and they went out there and hosed it down.

But now that Rachel is missing and her roommate said that that was a regular route she took, they wondered if this was a lead. The police did not want there to be mass hysteria, although I think it was a little late because students were already having deja vu. The circumstances were so similar to what happened to Kristen, just to walk home alone after having some drinks. Oh, but I have failed to mention that there was some victim blaming happening here, whispers about underage drinking being an issue. Both Kristen Smart 19 and Rachel Newhouse only 20 were both under the legal drinking age, and both had been seen consuming alcohol on the nights they vanished. It was as though it was being chalked up to don't drink and make bad decisions, but many students didn't see that as fair.

It could have been any of them. Blaming them for going missing seemed really callous. Drinking wasn't the problem. A serial predator seemed to be. Rachel's parents, Phil and Montel Newhouse were notified, and it wasn't the call they would have ever expected to get. But I haven't told you much about Rachel. So let me give you all the details about this beautiful, intelligent,

and now missing young woman. Rachel Lindsay Newhouse was born on June 16th of 1978 in Irvine, California, to her mother Montel and her father, Phil Newhouse. Rachel was the middle child. She had an older brother, Travis, two years older than her, and his sister, Ashley, two years younger than she was. They were all very close, but especially the girls. Growing up with a built-in best friend means there's always someone there to play with, to look up to, and to relate to. And little Ashley adored her older sister. She was her role model and she wanted to be just like Rachel.

Their mother even dressed them alike, matching pigtails with ribbons. Rachel's were yellow, Ashley's were pink. Their shirts matched too with little cabbage patch dolls on them. And even the cabbage patch kids looked like twins. They had matching pigtails as well. And it was the 80s, so I recognized that style right away. Rachel and Ashley were inseparable, the same clothes and backpacks for the first day of school. And they had each other for every milestone.

You can tell they loved each other so much and had such an unbreakable bond. They were true California girls, enjoying the beach, the sun, and everything the West Coast had to offer growing up. Rachel was very popular. She was naturally outgoing, happy, and active. She loved the outdoors, did well in school, and played many sports, including soccer, cross-country, and track, while attending Irvine High School. Rachel was called a perfectionist by her sister, and sometimes it would come to bite her in the butt. It could be a strength, but it could also be a weakness. She said that Rachel was someone who played it safe.

She was a good friend. She was very caring, funny, generous, and someone who would be there when you needed her. She also loved frogs, stuffed frogs. She collected them. And it reminded me of another case we did, Yoshaun Marie Ashbrook. She too collected all kinds of frog memorabilia, so that stuck out to me. Rachel would keep anything that had a frog on it. She was a student body officer and a member of the California Scholarship Foundation.

She was also a straight-A student and still found the time to make lasting friendships. One of Rachel's best friends since freshman year in high school were Katie McNutt and Andrea West. They knew she was a very dedicated student who knew exactly what she wanted to do in the future. Rachel was passionate about fitness and nutrition and wanted to become a nutritionist so she could help others stay healthy and live longer. Rachel herself spent a lot of time working out of the gym. She also loved children, and she would babysit for local kids for extra spending money. And none of the things Rachel loved to do stopped when she decided to move out to San Luis Obispo for college.

She graduated high school in 1996, and by the fall, she was attending California Polytechnic University. Rachel went off to college with her two best friends, Kathy and Andrea. They were both studying childhood development, but they talked every single day, at least once. It was nice going to a new place and already knowing someone. They were each other's support system. They were very close and hung out all the time. Andrea called Rachel the perfect friend, always there when you needed her,

a happy, cheery person that cared, and Rachel didn't stop babysitting either. She found a local family in SLO, St. Louis of Ispo, to help out whenever she wasn't working. Now, she worked part-time as a hostess at SLO Brewing Company. At Cal Poly, Rachel was just as popular as she was in high school, even though she was a much smaller fish in a bigger pond. Rachel's family was all.

also very proud of her. She had grown into a wonderful young woman. They were excited to see what she would become in the future, but the last thing on their list was missing. Rachel had been at Cal Poly for two and a half years. She was currently in the tail end of her junior year, and that October of 1998, her grandmother, Patricia Newhouse, came to campus for a visit, and she was so impressed with her granddaughter's work ethic. She was well-rounded, conscientious, and working hard. Patricia said she was It's all about taking care of business and getting stuff done, so it was a shock when just weeks later, Rachel was gone. Her parents, getting that call was unexpected to say the least. The police and her family did what is also expected when someone isn't in touch, and no one has heard from them.

They call around to friends and other family members, but no one had any information about Rachel. Everyone she normally kept in touch with hadn't seen or heard from her since Thursday night. Rachel's younger sister Ashley remembers getting a call from their mother. All she said was, Rachel's missing. You have to come home now. It was her mother's tone that made her realize right away that this was serious. Both Ashley and Travis, Rachel's older brother, were attending college in San Diego, and they met up with their parents in Irvine before making their way to Cal Poly to search for Rachel.

Everything was happening so fast. And Ashley literally said it was so unbelievable to their family. They were like, no. This doesn't happen to families like ours. I hear that so many times and it kind of freaks me out, but we're all capable of having something like this happen. But it made Ashley remember something from the night before. She had this really weird, excruciating stomach ache,

not like a normal stomach pain. It was different. She called it the most severe stomachache she ever had in her life. I thought maybe it was more of a gut feeling, like something wasn't right. Because now she's thinking that she could could be so connected with her sister that her body knew that Rachel was in trouble.

And I believe it. You can call me crazy. But I've experienced gut feelings and intuition that were totally spot on. Ashley and her family were scared. They were really hoping that it would just be a misunderstanding. But they just knew that Rachel would never leave without letting somebody know. And by the time the family drove the five hours to get to campus, Rachel's friends with the help of local police had already created a handwritten missing person sign

with Rachel's photo on them, and they were in black and white, but they had all of her information that she was 20 years old, 5 foot 6, 120 pounds, light brown hair, brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a black pair of leggings, a blue button-up blouse, and black platform shoes when she disappeared. They put these flyers up everywhere, and investigators started interviewing everyone who had been with Rachel the night before.

What they gathered is that she had been to a number of parties at night, and eventually made her work. with a group of her friends and her roommates to a restaurant called Tortilla Flats. There was a fraternity and sorority fundraiser happening there that night, and everyone remembers seeing Rachel getting ready to leave by herself. Now, of course, they're going to ask you if anything unusual happened while you were there, and something stood out. Rachel and another girl who was in their group got into an argument.

Both of them had been drinking. Things got heated, but her roommates insisted, That was not the reason that Rachel decided to leave. But then again, I don't think anyone wanted to feel responsible for her going off by herself. However, the investigators pull up the original 911 call from one of her roommates. And in that call, she specifically said that Rachel was drinking because she was upset after arguing with a friend. Now, nobody provided any context or the friend's name, but Rachel was seen leaving on foot at 11.30 p.m. Owners of the restaurant explained that anyone that provided a license, a driver's license showing that they were over 21,

were given a wristband to buy drinks. If they were under age, they could go upstairs to the dance floor and just hang out. But we all know there are ways to get drinks without having a valid ID. There's fake ones. Your friends can buy your drinks, or you could literally use a friend's ID if you look even a little bit alike. CCTV videos were pulled from nearby businesses along the street that Rachel might have taken to go back home.

but nothing significant materialized. Now I mapped it. And it showed me three different routes that you could take, and all of them were 47 minutes, even if she did take the so-called shortcuts over Jennifer Street Bridge. But that did look like an easier route from downtown. Authorities would not confirm which way Rachel went

because they weren't even sure she'd got further than the street where the restaurant was located until they connected that large pool of blood on the bridge full of blood on the bridge to possibly not being from an animal. The next day on Saturday the 14th of November, crews went out there to try to see if they could swab any of the remnants, but it had all been washed away by the fire department.

That was hopeless. However, as they were making their way back down the stairs, they noticed another area that looked like it had a blood stain on it. It was on one of the stairs. They figured it may have been connected, so they swab that smaller stain. It still looked fresh by the stairs. by the way. And then they did a preliminary test that can determine whether or not it's human

blood. They'd know by Monday. So now it was a waiting game. But the investigation hadn't stopped. They had rescue crews, tracking dogs, helicopters out there looking for any sign of Rachel. There were police right outside of Tortilla Flats interviewing people that were walking down the street just in case they could have seen or heard anything. They also went down every possible route that I showed you on Google Maps and probably other ones that I don't even know about about in just different streets looking for any of Rachel's belongings or clues that could lead them in the right direction. Of course, I don't even have to tell you this because I'm sure you can guess, the media was on the story right away, which actually is not a bad thing.

Getting the word out is so important because it means you're spreading the story wider, but it also means that the fear is spreading as well. And it seemed like the captain of the police department, Bart Topham, was trying to ease people's fears. He told reporters that people who are reported missing sometimes go off either by themselves or just to be with friends. It echoed kind of the victim-blaming concerns that I told you about that came after the underage drinking. Reporters were running with that part of the story as well, asking other students what they thought about both Kristen and now Rachel vanishing after getting drunk. A 20-year-old student, Malia McKay said that Rachel's case

made her remember Kristen's case and how foul play was a but then no one was arrested, and Kristen was never found dead or alive. It really scared her. But then she said, the effect kind of wore off. When something like this happens again, though, it's ridiculous, her words. She said many students are now afraid

to walk alone to their cars at night, and many of her friends had started to get pepper spray. They were no longer allowing each other to walk by themselves, and instead, they were arranging to be picked up from late classes, and they made sure that anyone that needed a ride got one. Malia also mentioned,

that her friends depend on one another to look out for each other, and now they have an even larger sense of responsibility when they go out partying and drinking. But she made it clear that even though it seems like Rachel may have been drunk when she left the restaurant on Thursday night, she's not responsible for her own disappearance no matter how much she had to drink. And you can give me your thoughts on that.

Another student that was interviewed by the local Tribune, 18-year-old freshman Amity Armstrong, agreed with that statement. She said students like Rachel, should be safe wherever and however they choose to drink. Other Cal Poly students mentioned how the campus really needed stronger police presence and way better lighting at night. One person said they work on campus really late and when they come home at 2 a.m. They feel like they're in a complete ghost town. So you know what they had to do? Bring an exact

own knife with them while they're walking home. Others mentioned that right after Kristen went missing, there was a service that used to provide someone walking with you or going to different buildings or your car late at night between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. But all of a sudden, that service stopped. It was like when the fear subsided, things kind of went back to normal. What was interesting is that on the same page in the newspaper where all the students were being interviewed about their thoughts regarding Rachel's disappearance,

there was another write-up. It was entitled Cal Poly Survey linked alcohol and violence. That survey was done just a month prior in October. 843 students were questioned, about whether they experienced threats of physical violence, actual physical violence, theft involving force, or the threat of force, including force intercourse or unwanted touching.

And they were asking whether this was something they experienced around campus. The survey found, according to this article, that 80% of students had reported they were victims of unwanted sexual intercourse and had consumed alcohol or other substances. And then the vice president of student affairs, Juan Gonzalez, even commented,

saying there's just a higher likelihood of being involved in an issue of violence when alcohol is involved. However, he did stress that the two students that disappeared after drinking should not be held responsible for their fates, saying no one should be a victim of violence just because they've been out partying. The article talked about services on campus that can help with responsible drinking so that they're not serious impacts on students' academic life, their social life, or their safety, which I think is good. but also ironic to me that this article was right next to the one about Rachel's disappearance. But to be fair, I think most of us know the reality is we're more vulnerable after consuming alcohol. It's science. Our inhibitions go down, even soon after you start drinking.

Many people can feel the effects after just one drink. I'm guilty. As a person's blood alcohol content rises, you get that feeling of reduced inhibitions and it becomes more noticeable. you're in the euphoria stage. That's the first stage of intoxication. And with just two beers, you can fall into the next stage where you feel even more relaxed, and you could even lose coordination. I think most of this is well known.

But I think it's important to reiterate sometimes because we forget that we could let our guard down very easily, maybe even being more inclined to go home with someone or ask them for a ride, when we would usually say no. And I think it's harder to tell that someone has weird vibes or something's off,

if you have consumed alcohol because your perception is skewed. And that was one of the theories that Rachel got into someone's car, that she didn't even walk home. But soon, they were leaning more towards the likelihood that she did take Jennifer Street Bridge. And that's because by Monday, it had been confirmed that blood they found was not from an animal. It was human.

I put this video of the blood that had already been washed off the pavement the pavement into my editing software and I traced the outline, then colored it red, just so you can get an idea of what it might have looked like before it was hosed down. Now investigators had crime scene analyst back at the bridge, and they were combing every inch of it. They also reached out to Rachel's parents, and they requested their DNA. This is when things got really serious because they were using it to see if it was a match for Rachel on the bridge. Of course, they were already in a state of but this just added another layer. Now it seemed like there was no hope

that Rachel was gonna be found alive. Not when they're thinking she's bleeding up on that bridge. At this point, Rachel's uncle, who happened to be a criminal defense attorney out in Riverside, California, became the family's spokesperson. He told the media that Rachel was not a distant family member. He knew her since the day she was born, and the case had now moved from a missing person's case

to a criminal investigation. And at the same time, Rachel's grandma was speaking out. Remember that she had just visited a few weeks before she went missing. Well, she wanted the public to know. Her granddaughter wasn't some kind of party person, as she put it. The public, of course, wanted to know why?

This was now a criminal investigation. News stations were capturing footage of crime scene personnel actually removing parts of the Jennifer Street Bridge, parts of the railing. And they were bagging them to bring them back to the crime lab. Now, that seemed like a pretty big deal. They had also closed down the entire bridge, and it had crime scene tape all around it.

However, at the same time, the captain of the police department was downplaying the blood that had already been found there. He was quoted saying there's no direct link, nor are we claiming a link. We're just doing everything to cover our bases. He also refused to provide any more information about the seizure of those handrails,

saying that it would jeopardize their investigation. Fair enough, but I'll let you know that behind the yellow tape and high up on that footpath, investigators had determined someone, a human, not an animal, had stood there long enough, or laid there long enough in one spot to create that large pool. I'm going to show it to you again. And looking down to where that other stain had been on the stairs,

they started to realize it was a trail of blood, that it had dripped and smeared from the pool above, down the stairs, and then there were smears on the handrail, on ground level and more blood on the pavement closer to the parking lot that's attached to the Osos roadside. The blood just stopped at the parking lot area, which two investigators meant that a bleeding human being went into a vehicle since the trail just ended. Now it looked like a struggle. The way those rails were smeared, it was like the victim was grabbing and holding on for their life as the

attacker tried to pull them away. It also made sense if there was a predator waiting for a woman to walk across that bridge alone, they would park on the Oso side because on the other side was a residential area. And if a car was parked there for too long, somebody might notice. If a car was parked in the parking lot, though, that would be completely normal. It was terrifying to think. Someone could have been on that bridge or had followed Rachel up that bridge, probably came up behind her, injured her enough to be able to grab her and force her off that bridge into their car. The police were asking the public to come forward with any tips. If they had seen anything unusual on that bridge after midnight on Friday the 13th of November, as days and days

went by, students, particularly female students, were starting to seek out help from the local women's center where they could buy things like pepper spray or self-defense items. And I do highly recommend that you buy these kind of things for yourself. I have a friend who I met at CrimeCon who sells items like this. And if you bought something a long time ago, I highly recommend you look into a new version because they have special details on them now where your attacker cannot use your weapon against you.

Let's say it's a taser or it's pepper spray. There is now a strap you put over your wrist and if they try to grab it, it disengages the item so they can't spray it on you or tase you with it, which I think is brilliant. I will link some below just in case I did get one for my teenage daughter recently, and that's highly recommended. More women on campus were so fearful at this time, especially people like Samina Khan.

She was Rachel's lab partner. Now, I've never been in a situation where you look over and there's an empty spot that was always filled with your friend or another classmate and they're just gone. Samira had said that she always thought about arming herself, but after this happened, she made the decision to go out and buy items. Parents were now calling the school. They were wanting to know what in the world is going on. You have another missing woman, another missing student, and of course, all kinds of rumors were swirling about this case. There was one parent who did talk to reporters and said,

they almost wouldn't allow their daughter back after what happened to Kristen. And now they're even more concerned. Not too long after this, the FBI was called in to assist with this investigation. And by November 20th, a new task force was set up to locate. Rachel. Her family put up a $10,000 reward for any information that would lead to her whereabouts. And still, the captain would not explain why this was a criminal investigation. He said police have

not developed a direct nexus between the blood found on Jennifer Street Bridge and the missing student. And they still needed to wait to confirm whether that blood was Rachel's at all. Now, over a week had passed. Her parents had left. They had gone back home to Irvine. They made a statement through Rachel's uncle that they were very grateful for all that the police department was doing to help find their daughter. And also how gracious residents had been. They offered them room and board and food and everything. They were beyond thankful for all of that. But there wasn't much they could do. And that must be so frustrating to know that it's in everybody else's hands. It's in investigators' hands and they're doing everything they can. And it seemed like they were.

Investigators began an extensive search at Cold Canyon landfill. They requested all waste material from a specific time frame when trash pickups would have been conducted after Friday the 13th. That would have been terrible news for Rachel's family. At that point, they're checking dumb sights. That meant that authorities no longer thought that their daughter was alive.

And I hate to keep reiterating this, but I was reading newspaper clippings, and each one echoed the same thing about Captain Bart Topham. He still maintained there was no evidence of foul play, and he refused to answer when asked if they had any suspects that they were looking into. They were still waiting DNA results from the bridge. The captain said that decision to search the landfill

was not a result of specific leads or information that was developed during this investigation. He just said that early on it was determined that landfill should be searched as a precautionary measure. And I'm only assuming here, but maybe they searched it in Kristen's case. And they figured, why not do it now just in case an item of clothing or worse, Rachel's body, was found.

And they probably just wanted to get a head start on it because they delayed so much when Kristen disappeared. You might be thinking this. People started asking it, are these cases connected? Well, the captain was reluctant to compare them. And he might be getting on your nerves because I know he kept getting on mine while I was researching. But maybe he was just trying to keep things unaraps. since it was an ongoing investigation. But I think there was a lot of covering their own butts

so that they did not feel what happened in Kristen's case would happen again. But the chief of police, Jim Gardner, told the press that everyone wanted answers, and they were all scared. At this point, investigator Larry Hobson, from the DA's office, joins the task force. Now, he had different thoughts right away. He believed the blood was so large

that it had to be foul play. So in that case, he thought, young woman, late at night, I'm going to put together a list of registered sex offenders in this area and go door to door. And that's what he did. He asked them, where were you? Between Thursday night and Friday morning. And one by one, they would get eliminated or looked into further. But there was still no leads.

And finally, it was December. The holiday season was just around the corner. And Cal Poly students were getting ready to go home for the holidays. But sadly, Rachel would not be coming home. This would be the first time that the Newhouse family would experience Christmas without her. Ashley said it was impossible to celebrate and be happy when your sister's missing. She felt helpless. She wanted so badly to be able to help her sister to get to her because she knew something bad happened.

And she just wanted to find her. She tried to describe this weird panic she felt inside that was forming and getting stronger in her. And it's probably impossible to describe that. For me, it's when I've lost somebody that I love, and you know there's nothing you can do. But you just feel this misalignment inside of you and you can't put it together and make it make sense. It's like kind of hurrying up only to sit around

because there's nothing you can do. Everyone was feeling this way in their own ways. Detective Hobson said, it was grueling. He did 12-hour shifts, and every single day he went in the office knowing that he would have to follow up on every single lead again, and they had already gone nowhere. But at the same time, he knew he had to, because if just one of them was missed, it could be the one that solves his case and brings Rachel home.

By now, the reward had gone to $60,000 because Anaheim Angels' center field baseball player Jim Edmonds offered 50 grand for information leading to Rachel's return. And around the same time, radio stations and media outlets were apparently putting out false information, and they needed to correct that later, because they kept saying that a body had been found. And this inundated the police station. They had calls up to 30 times a day, just asking, is the dead body Rachel's? People were calling and wanting information or even just to report that a body had been found.

This really upset the captain. So much so, he had to make a statement and he said, the rumors are unproductive. And if people really want to help law enforcement and the family, then stop gossiping. It's being blown way out of proportion. He went on to say that there was nothing significant to

report, and they're still waiting on that DNA analysis. But I'm going to cut to the chase. Because December 19th, just days before Christmas, that report came back, and you could have guessed it. That blood on the railing, the blood on the stairs,

and the upper portion of that bridge, that was Rachel Newhouse's blood. I looked on Google Maps as much as I could to try to figure out exactly where she was attacked. And what I could tell from not only where I saw the blood spot and was able to line that up with the bridge, but also where investigators were taking swabs, they were taking them from the Oso side. And the reason I say that is because that side near the parking lot has almost the salmon colored ground, whereas the other side doesn't have that. So it seems

like she was walking from the bar area, as we know, up the bridge. She was almost about to cross, and that's when she was attacked according to where the blood spot was. And then she was dragged back down, put into a car, and someone took off. It's terrifying. And I'm not trying to be unnecessarily rude or critical of this police department, but the only thing I could think of was, duh. He kept saying, we don't think there's a connection, there's no connection, we have to wait. And I was thinking, this happened in the same time frame that this girl went missing. What do you mean?

There was so much blood. I mean, my brain would have automatically been like she was abducted, she was attacked, she was probably hurt fatally, and it was just frustrating to me. And months went by with no answers. But then, another 20-year-old college student went to missing. Concern began to grow on March 11th when Gail Crawford couldn't get a hold of her daughter, Andrea. It was not like her not to answer her mother's calls. They were best friends.

They spoke every day, multiple times a day, and they lived about two hours. away so they were always talking. Andrea was a college student that was taking classes towards her interior design degree at Questa Junior College, and she had plans to transfer to Cal Poly. She lived alone in a one-bedroom apartment off Branch Street in San Luis Obispo for the last two months. Actually, Andrea's house was only eight minutes away

from Rachel's house and only four minutes away from Jennifer Street Bridge. It was just on the other side of the railroad tracks from where Rachel lived. And I thought that had to be some kind of connection. Gail had actually started paging her daughter on Tuesday, March 9th, and hadn't got an answer. The last time she heard from Andrea,

she needed to go out to buy some school supplies. So she expected to hear back from her about how that went because she shared everything with her. Wednesday went by, Andre never called back. And then Gail paged her over and over again, and she usually would call back at least within 30 minutes or so. Back then, if you remember this, if you lived her, during that time, you would put in a code.

And in Gail's case, she would page her with 411 when she just wanted her daughter to call back and talk about something. 411 is code for information. But over time, that night, Gail started punching in the code for 911. And that was to alert Andrea. She needed to call her back immediately. Like, it was an emergency. She needed to talk to her.

Gail waited all Thursday to hear back from her daughter, but she didn't. At this point, she began calling nonstop. She couldn't take it anymore. So by 1 a.m. she called the San Luis Obispo Police Department and asked them, please, please go over to my daughter's house and knock on the door and tell me if she's there. They send an officer over. He knocks on the door.

There is no answer. He leaves a note that told Andrea to please call her mother when she gets back. Gail was still so worried. I would be, but she finally made it to sleep that night, only to be jolted awake at 5 a.m. She said that she sat straight up in bed. There was just this overwhelming feeling of dread that came over her, and she said something is wrong.

She was in a panic. She called the police again telling them, please go over there, knock the doors down if you have to. I have to know where my daughter is. Cops get the keys from the landlord. They enter Andrea's apartment, and she's not inside. Now, this was very strange to her mother since her car was there. They began looking around and noticed what appeared to be blood stains on a rug in the entryway.

Furniture was pushed at a place, Andrea's pager and her eyeglasses were still inside. Gail rushed to get there as fast as she could. Now, this wasn't a significant amount of blood that they found, but the fact that there was blood there at all was concerning. They kept searching. Her front door had been locked. But they came up with a theory when they got into the bathroom. They saw dirt inside Andrea's bathtub. It appeared to be footprints from boots or sneakers,

and right above the shower was a very small sliding window. So they thought, could someone had crawled in through this window? Attacked this young woman, took her out of her own front door. That's what they thought. And they believed that that meant she could still be alive. So they immediately had to start a large-scale search. They started in the neighborhood. They were going door to door asking neighbors,

did you see or hear anything? And they were spreading out into other neighboring communities all the way to downtown. Remember how I said the door was locked? Well, they wonder how, because you need a key to physically lock her doors. When Gail gets there, she's searching around for Andrea's house keys.

She knows they're usually on an eight-ball keychain. She carried it with her all the time. And it was missing. Even though her purse, her driver's license, they were all still there inside of her car by the way, pillowcases were also missing from Andrea's bed, her VCR, several videotapes, and some CDs were gone. It was such a mystery as to what happened here. But one thing stood out. Both Andrea Crawford and Rachel Newhouse were 5'6, 120 pounds with light brown hair with blonde

highlights. And actually, when they're missing person's flyers were put up side by sides on poles and at different windows, they looked like the same person. They were both athletic, in great shape, both living in the same vicinity. Right away, Rachel's family thought their cases had to be connected. But wouldn't you know it? Guess who didn't think so? Captain Bart Topham. He was quoted saying, there is no indication, no evidence, that this disappearance is linked.

It didn't matter what he said because everyone thought it was. and students were even more terrified than ever. Let me tell you more about Andrea Lynn Crawford. First of all, you can tell her name's Andrea instead of Andrea because her mother chose to spell her name in a way that made that very clear. A-U-N-D-R-I-A. And she was born in Franklin County, Washington on July 10th of 1978 to her father James and her mother, Gail.

Her father was an electrician, and her mother worked. at Sears department stores. When she was just a baby, Gail and her left for Fresno, because the relationship with her father, unfortunately, didn't work out with her mother. But Andrea was spoiled by her loving grandparents and aunt and uncle on her mother's side, always giving her all the love and attention

that she could ever need. And eventually, she formed a very strong bond with her mom as she grew up. She actually dropped her father's last name and took her mother's maiden name, Crawford. From a very young age, Andrea was very active. She loved ballet and worked really, worked really hard at it, eventually making it into the Central California Ballet Company.

She performed for over nine years. Her real passion, though, was horses. That's how she got the family nickname Ballerina Tom Boy, because she split her time between periettes and shoving horse poo. Yes, it's true. She was dedicated. She loved her horse. She loved horse barrel races, and dreamed of one day living on a ranch with a bunch of horses of her own. She loved animals. When she was little, she used to get mad at her grandfather for crushing snails. I mean, I would too. I had snails as pets. Maybe I'm weird, but I love all kinds of creatures, and so did she.

She was also a huge fan of monster trucks, and she absolutely loved country music. Eventually at Bullard High School, she started to struggle, though. She couldn't get through her schoolwork, and she had the ambition, but sometimes it just doesn't translate to the classroom. She actually did not graduate with her class, but she pushed through and completed a home study program called Restart, knowing what she wanted to do, and that is go to Cal Poly University.

Even though she had to start out at a two-year junior college, she dreamed of owning her very own design company one day. She started her first two semesters at Fresno Community College close to home, and had just recently transferred to Questa College, which was affiliated with Cal Poly, and they would assist you in transferring there. When she was first enrolled, she decided to rent a bedroom and a house, and she was working as a cashier for an automotive company. Her coworker said she worked there for about five months

before she moved to her new apartment, but she was one of the brightest lights in the store, someone who always had a smile on her face and went out of her way to make new employees feel comfortable. That's what they said. She had just moved to San Luis Obispo less than a year before this and had recently moved into a duplex that she was living in.

She'd only been there since January of 1999, so only two months. She loved being close to friends, work, and schools. That's why she moved. She had recently started working as a receptionist for James Waldsmith, who was a veterinarian in the area. She deeply cared about her cats, and recently, she had to pay over $800 for a treatment. She was trying to get rid of an infection

that one of her cats was suffering with. Andrea had always been generous, loving, and helpful. Part of that may have come from her belief system. Her uncle said she was a Christian who wore a promise ring that was given to her by him and his wife as a symbol of chastity before marriage, which is something she believed in. She treated people the way that she would expect to be treated even when she started her first semester at Questa College. She was new there, and she saw a student on crutches trying to carry their books. Andrea helped that student, even after so many other

students walked right by her rushing to get to their own classes. And Andrea was late to her class, but she stopped to help this person that she didn't even know because that's the type of person that she was. She and her best friend Stephanie Nicolopoulos had mapped out an entire tour of art museums that they planned to visit that summer. And Andrea was loyal, strong-willed, and competitive, according to Stephanie.

She also said she had a really unique laugh and a wild side. For example, Andrea didn't just like to drive her Mustang. She liked to race her Mustang, and she would take on the challenge of racing other drivers. Do I think it's safe? Probably not the safest thing to do.

But she often won those races. And Stephanie said she was always up for a good time, down to do anything, and she had that little wild side, except she was still cautious and responsible. And quite a girly girl, despite her kind of competitive nature, according to Stephanie,

apparently her entire room was pink. I mean, pink is a nice color. I know guys who like pink and wear pink, but I get it. For somebody that was called ballerina tomboy by their family, I guess she lived up to that even as an adult. But now, Andrea is nowhere to be found.

Just like Rachel and Kristen, she's gone. Her house is now a crime scene. The yellow crime scene tape is draped all around outside. There are crime scene investigators. There are a missing person's task force members scouring every inch of this duplex. Her mother was absolutely distraught. Constantly in tears, even getting in her own car with her mother looking everywhere, down every street, even in wooded areas,

in the alleyways and places that were probably too dangerous to venture, but they didn't care. They needed to find Andrea.