True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: Nursing Student's Last Moments Recorded On Video - The Murder of Michelle Le | DEEP DIVE

Episode Date: April 12, 2026

In this gripping episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, we follow the mysterious disappearance of Michelle Le, a nursing student at Samuel Merritt College who vanished from a hospital parking structure during her clinical rotation. With only CCTV footage and fragmented clues, detectives must reconstruct her final moments. What really happened that day—and who is responsible? True Crime with Kimbyr delivers a compassionate yet analytical deep dive into the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine you get into the nursing program of your dreams. You're doing one of your final clinical rotations. At a prestigious hospital, you hope to work out someday after graduation. This was what was going on in Michelle Lay's life before a camera in a parking garage catches the last glimpse of her that anyone would ever see. This is her story. All. Pay off your home.

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Hi everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlea. If you've never been here before, Nice to finally meet you. Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to the beautiful, intelligent, hardworking Vietnamese American nursing student Michelle Lay. She was born in San Diego, California on October 3rd, 1984, and about three years later, her brother Michael, was born. Michelle's mom and her father, son, Lay, were immigrants from Vietnam, and their families migrated to California in the 70s when they were forced to flee Vietnam after the war, and their

journey was not an easy one to get to this country. They traveled in an open boat on the South China Sea and spent months in refugee camps until they finally arrived in San Diego, a place that they would learn to call home but were completely unfamiliar with. They didn't speak the language or know anyone, but they persevered and after time they truly embraced the American culture. There were doctors, lawyers, and other business professionals in Michelle's extended family. And by the time her mother and father got together, they had fully accepted the American culture, but that didn't mean they divorced themselves from their roots. Not at all. Though they celebrated American holidays and called the United States home, they still held on to their Vietnamese traditions. Family was the most

important. And as a matter of fact, it was common for many of the relatives to share one household, which meant at any time there could be 15 children under one roof. And that felt right to the lays. They loved being surrounded by those who loved them. Michelle's mother, was an extraordinary woman. She was a true role model. She worked as a nurse practitioner and she would be gone all day long taking care of other people and she still had time to devote to her two children. One of Michelle and Michael's favorite pastimes was when their mom would read to them at night. They had a favorite story. It was called the woman on the moon. And Michelle's mom used to have the children look up at the moon at night and she would say if you look closely, the shadows covering

the moon's surface resembled a woman with long, dark hair. And the story of the story of the woman on the moon was a Vietnamese love story. It was about a woman trapped on the moon looking down on earth for the man that she loved. Folklore and fairy tales are a part of many of our childhoods, and a lot of time they're used to make sense of things that we don't understand. Some teach us lessons and others provide comfort in times of sorrow. The lay children had a real-life superhero living in their home, though, their super mom. And she did it all with a smile on her face. She was kind, generous, and hardworking, and she and her husband made sure that their children never had to go without anything the way that they had sometimes growing up.

Michelle was the oldest of 15 cousins, and she followed in her mom's footsteps. She was always taking care of her younger relatives, especially her brother. She was like a second mom to him. Michelle grew up in the Rancho Pinoskido's neighborhood in San Diego. It's called PQ to those who live there. And this is the suburbs, lots of parks. families with children, coffee shops, young professionals, highly rated public schools. Here it is on the map. The homes are very cookie cutter. It's highly populated and considered a very safe place to live.

They had a comfortable life. The Lays would take vacations with their extended family and have weekly get-togethers for dinner and other events. They were a very large, close-knit Vietnamese family. They would do anything for one another. And Sun Lays' side of the family was about to stop. up in a major way. Back in 1994, Michelle's mom was keeping a secret. Michelle and Michael were about 10 and 7 years old when their mom found out that she had breast cancer. She didn't want her battle to be her children's battle. She knew if they found out it would cause them fear

and anxiety and sadness. So instead, she kept her diagnosis to herself and she suffered in silence. She wanted her children to grow up strong and she believed that it would affect them way too much to care for a dying mother. So she never let the truth be known. Just five years later in 1999, the family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner and everyone was in attendance. They had a wonderful time, and Michelle's mom acted as usual, but that would be the last time they saw her alive. Just days after, on December 1st, 1999, Michelle and Michael received a devastating news that their mother had succumbed to her cancer. a disease that they never knew she was battling, and it came as a huge shock to everyone in their family. To think that she fought that battle all alone, and she selflessly sacrificed her own emotions to safeguard her children.

This made it even more difficult for them to cope with her death. They had not been given a chance to prepare for it. It was tough on everyone, especially Michelle, who was only 14. She had to step up even more as a mother figure to her 11-year-old brother. Sun Lay moved his family in with his sister and her house was about 15 minutes away in Miramesa, which is very similar to PQ. Michelle's aunt had kids of her own around Michelle and Michael's age, and one of them was Christine Dynne. She was just three years younger than Michelle. It was as though they inherited a new set of brothers and sisters after losing their mother. That did help with the

grief, but did not take it away. At least they could share their sorrow with someone else and become stronger for it. Michael wasn't taking their mother's death well. Michelle found him holding onto something of their mothers and crying alone. This was his way of finding comfort and a connection after she passed. He was clinging to a piece of her

and the memories that they had shared. And at that moment, Michelle knew that she needed to step up and overcome her sense of loss and be there for her brother. And soon, Michelle became more of a mother than a sister to Michael. This helped Michelle cope. She wanted to be brave and to honor her mother. And over time, Michelle and her cousin Christine also formed a special bond. They grew closer and closer throughout their

teens. Michelle was especially grateful to Christine because that was the friendship she needed and one of the hardest times she was going through after her mother's death. And Michelle was there to be a big sister to Christine. She was there to guide her in all things related to being a young woman, especially when it came to boys. Michelle actually helped Christine write her first love letter. She went with her to the mall to purchase her first bra. She taught her how to tweez her eyebrows, put on makeup, and straighten her hair. I honestly wish I had someone like Michelle in my life, because I'm the oldest of my siblings. So I remember having to learn everything so that I could pass it down to everyone else. Growing up, Michelle's cousins looked up to her and Christine wanted

to be just like her. They even looked alike and people would call Christine a mini Michelle. she was in high school. Michelle attended Mount Carmel High School, which was about 10 minutes away from where they lived. Her motherly instincts extended beyond caring for her own family because Michelle took children under her wing all the time. She was popular at Mount Carmel. She used to hang out with the cool kids, and she always had boys chasing her. They were just always trying to get her attention, but she was humble. It's like she didn't really know how beautiful she really was. An example of this was one afternoon. Michelle saw a little girl.

Her name was Giselle Esteban. She was sitting all alone at the lunchroom table. Michelle went over there. She introduced herself and she asked the girl if she wouldn't have lunch with her. They hid it off. And over time, they became best friends. That's just how Michelle was. Jazeel was quiet and reserved.

But Michelle was very outgoing and that helped her come out of her shell. She was generous and kind. She would spend time with Jazeel doing normal teenage stuff, like going to the movies, going out to eat, and many times they would have each other over at their homes for family dinners. Michelle treated everyone like family, and she welcomed Giselle with open arms. You actually never know who you may connect with if you don't give someone a chance, and Michelle was all about opening herself up to people.

She had a lot of friends, but her and Giselle had so much in common that they became so close. Giselle was from a Filipino-American family of immigrants. She also grew up in San Diego, and just like Michelle, She was born in 1984 to a very close-knit family who worked really hard to make ends meet. She also had many professionals in her extended family and she was brought up with the same work ethic as Michelle. Both of these young women had so much ambition. Michelle wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and honor her memory by becoming a nurse. And soon, Giselle decided she wanted to go down the very same path.

So after they graduated high school in 2002, they both applied to college to get their prerequisites out of the way before they could apply to nursing schools. The pair decided that they should move to San Francisco to study because it would be so much fun. It would be a change of scenery. They could be very independent, and there were a lot more opportunities in a big city. You know, I like to tell you all the details

about how these people introduce you to go through the different stages in their lives that led them to where they ended up. And the next chapter for Michelle was college. Initially, she got into San Jose State University and Giselle landed a spot at San Francisco State University. Michelle planned to transfer to San Francisco State to be closer to Giselle, but for now, they were about an hour apart, but school came first. So they focused on their studies while they kept in touch until they reunited, and that came

the very next semester, spring of 2003. Michelle transferred into San Fran State. So now the two best friends were spending time together once again and making new friends. One of those friends was a guy named Scott Marisigin. He was a fellow student who was already part of Giselle's friend. friend group and was introduced to Michelle when she started attending Sanford State. Well, Michelle and Scott hit it off right away, but it turned out they didn't quite match when it came to anything romantic in nature and they decided they were better as friends.

They did kind of see each other for a month, but Michelle had a eye set on someone else at the time, so nothing ever came out of it. But they got along great. So they still remained in the same social group with Giselle and their other friends. Eventually by the fall of that year, 2003, Giselle and Scott were spending a lot more time together. And unlike Scott and Michelle that fizzled out, Jiselle and Scott were hot and heavy. So of course, Michelle being mutual friend of Scott and Giselle, she definitely approved of the romance, even though she had, of course, briefly considered Scott for a partner herself.

They never were physical with each other, and they got along great. So Michelle was super happy for her bestie. But the three of them spent a lot of time together. Michelle always had guys around so she could go on double dates with a couple and they just had so much fun. But as most of us know, when we have big changes in our lives and dating someone exclusively can be one of those changes, our paths can go in different directions than our friends no matter how close we are. And that's what happened to Michelle and Giselle. It's completely normal.

Giselle had found the one. She was spending way more time with Scott and less time with Michelle. And that was okay with Michelle because she was working hard to get her pre-zero. prerequisites in order to apply to nursing school. So the years went on, and by the spring of 2005, Giselle had some big news. She was pregnant. She and Scott were going to have a daughter together, and Michelle was so happy for Giselle. But their lives really were going in two totally different directions. Giselle had decided to put a pause on college in order to focus on her family, and Michelle was putting in hours at both work and school to reach her goals. And by late October of that

year, Giselle gave birth to her daughter, Isabel, and she decided to work at a daycare center to provide for her growing family. At this point, Michelle had just landed a job at Turner Construction as an accounting clerk, and she, too, was in a serious relationship with her boyfriend, Tommy. Life was progressing. Friends were becoming more distant, and I know this all too well. But at least there's social media, where we can look in on the lives of our loved ones and the people we care about the most. We can check in from time to time and catch up on their lives. And that's what Michelle and Giselle were left doing because their lives changed so fast and frequently. Let me know if you can relate to this because I know when I got pregnant, a lot of my friends didn't really want to

hang out anymore. I was the girl who, I don't know, like couldn't drink, couldn't go out as much, and I get it. But it can be really lonely. And I've also been on the other side because I was the first to have kids in my group of friends. So while they were building their families, I was kind of back to living it up and having fun and the tables will just keep turning. Years went on and by August of 2010 Michelle had gotten accepted into Samuel Merritt University's accelerated nursing program and this was a grueling, intensive short-term program where students earn a Bachelor of Science and Nursing in just 12 months instead of two years and getting into the school is not easy. First, you have to have a bachelor's degree with a good GPA, score high on the entrance exams, have great recommendations,

and they only accept about 300 students every year, even though hundreds apply. Michelle was very proud of her accomplishment. So one of the first people that she told the news to was her high school bestie, Giselle. And as they were catching up, Giselle had news of her own. By then, she and Scott had gone their separate ways. And they were trying their best to co-parent little five-year-old Isabelle. Jizel told Michelle that now that she was sharing custody of Isabel,

She was finally ready to get serious about studying and also about hanging out with Michelle more, kind of rekindle their friendship. Michelle was always there for her friends, so of course she told Giselle if she needed anything to let her know. But that year was going to be a lot for Michelle. And even though she had good intentions, any spare time she had, she had to use for work or to study. Her new school was in Oakland and it was across the bay from San Francisco.

Michelle was living about 40 minutes away. in San Mateo and it was an exciting time for her. She was living her dream. And her brother was not too far behind because he decided that he also wanted to work in the medical field. So at the time he was an EMT and he was studying for a psychology degree

at University of California, Berkeley. And that was only about 20 minutes away from where Michelle was going to school. So finally someone in her family was close by because everyone else was still eight hours away in San Diego. But Michelle had always kept in touch, especially with Christine, who was actually said to move in with Michelle by the summer of 2011.

At that point, Michelle would be graduated from Samuel Merritt and be working as a nurse at a nearby hospital. That was the plan anyway. Over the years, Michelle still made it a point to spend as much time with her family and close friends as she could, as they all grew up and went in their separate directions. She would do holidays, special events, and that would always bring them together. But for the next year, Michelle had to get really serious.

This program that she was in was very fast-paced. After she completed her workload on campus, she had to complete rotations at a hospital nearby called Kaiser Permanente, where they offered a work study program. So you get paid as you learn and you go through all these different clinical departments. One could be mental health, another could be emergency surgery, until you were to complete all departments in your program. Kaiser is a very well-respected hospital.

It's a dream for many nursing students to work there one day. And by May of 2011, Michelle was 26 years old, and she was working in the labor and delivery rotation in the maternity ward at Kaiser. Memorial Day was coming up from Saturday, May 28th through Monday, May 30th. And the last day of those rotations was Friday the 27th. So she planned to drive to Reno and meet up with some friends after she completed her final shift at around 10 p.m. She was under a lot of pressure in the weeks leading up to this day. She had her final evaluation that night. and her last one with her instructor Lori Rosa hadn't gone perfectly.

She was informed that there were a few things that Michelle needed to work on to pass with an A, which is what she strived for. Michelle was a straight A student. She took this program very seriously and she was anxious about the end of the session. She wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly. Instructor Rosa paired each student with a hospital nurse who worked in either the labor and delivery or the maternity unit. and then they monitored the progress of the students throughout their shift. It was an all-day shift, which is a couple breaks throughout the day.

And on one of those breaks, it was right before 7 p.m. Michelle told one of the Kaiser nurses who worked in the maternity unit that she was going to quickly step out and go to her car, which was in an attached parking garage, and she needed to grab some medication that she had to take. Michelle made her way to the parking garage. To do so, she had to walk through a pedestrian bridge that connected the hospital to the parking structure.

Shortly after 7 p.m., a hospital security guard notified instructor Rosa. The Michelle did not sign out at the end of her shift in the maternity ward. So Rosa searched the wart. She sent Michelle a text, and she also left a voicemail, but she wasn't able to contact her. A couple hours later, just before 9 p.m., the handful of nursing students were wrapping up their final shift. and instructor Rosa was calling them together for their evaluations. That's when she noticed Michelle still wasn't in attendance. And that was not like her.

She asked the students if they knew where she was and after a few minutes, they determined the last time anyone saw Michelle was at that 7 p.m. break when she said she needed to go get her medication in her car. This concerned instructor Rosa. Was Michelle okay? Did she have some kind of medical emergency? What was going on? The students all parked on the third floor of the parking garage, so instructor Rosa thought it would be a good idea to go check to see if Michelle's car was parked in the spot they had last seen it in earlier that day.

She did call a security guard to go with her just in case that they were to find Michelle in need of assistance. When someone says that they're taking medication, a red flag definitely goes up, especially for a nursing instructor, and she didn't know what to expect. She wanted to be prepared. However, as they make their way to Michelle's parking spot, her brand new white 2010 Honda CRV isn't there. The instructor and the security guard decide they're going to walk up and down the rows of cars just to make sure that Michelle hadn't moved her car. And all of a sudden, instructor Rosa sees it, the white CRV, and it's making its way back up the ramp towards the spot that Michelle had been parked in. What is going on? Why would Michelle leave without telling her instructor or telling anyone?

Instructor Rosa begins to flag her down, but just as she's able to catch a glimpse of the front of the vehicle, it literally stops and begins backing down the ramp. The instructor runs down this ramp on foot trying to catch up with her and she saw Michelle's car almost hit another student's vehicle. And then it's basically zigzagging across the parking garage and speeding away. And that is really odd. It didn't make sense. Where was Michelle going? And was she trying to deliberately avoid her instructor? She wasn't in trouble.

It was okay if she needed to leave, but it just wasn't like her not to be transparent about her plans. The instructor didn't know what to think at this point. Could Michelle be experiencing a medical condition? Was she not thinking correctly? Did she need help? She called Michelle's phone several times. She left a few voice messages,

but Michelle never responded. So after talking to the students, they all agreed that this was a very out of character for Michelle. They were all calling her now. They were all texting her, including a guy that she was supposedly seeing that was in the program with her and no one heard back. Instructor Rosa was so concerned with this behavior. She called the Hayward Police Department. And by 10 p.m., she reported Michelle missing or in distress. She wasn't sure.

She just felt like something was wrong. However, this isn't the highest priority because after all, Michelle is an adult. She could come and go as she pleased, and although it was maybe against the rules for her to skip out on her rotation, it wasn't illegal for her to decide to leave class, and no one saw anything that would suggest Michelle was hurt. But the police department still sent out an officer

to speak with instructor Rosa. All the students provided information about Michelle to the officer. They said that she was punctual, responsible, and that she didn't mention anything about leaving early. However, some did say that she must mentioned going on a trip following that night's session. So they gave the officer the name of the friend that she was supposed to be meeting with. They didn't have much to go on at this point.

Yeah, it's concerning. Michelle had worked really hard to get where she was. She had invested a lot of time, energy, and money into her nursing education. So it did shock her classmates to think that she would just leave, especially when she was at the finish line. She needed this rotation to graduate, But maybe she was under so much stress. But even then, she would let her instructor know that. They believed something had to have happened because just leaving in the middle of a clinical essential for graduation was highly unlikely.

There just had to be a reason. The officer asked instructor Rosa what Michelle looked like when she was racing away in the garage. Did she appear scared in distress? But the instructor said, I didn't actually see her. I just knew it was her car because I was familiar with it. The officer was escorted to the parking garage,

which is about a 10-minute walk from the hospital. They went through the footbridge and to the third floor. He took note of the parking spot as well as the times that the instructor and the classmates said that they saw Michelle last, including the time her car was seen speeding away. Now, Michelle's purse and her keys were left behind in a break room. All she took with her was her cell phone. So this truly did look as though she intended to come right back.

So what happened? Could she have gotten a call? Maybe there was a family emergency and she left right away not caring about leaving her things behind, thinking, you know what, they're safe. And I'll just explain later. Or did something happen to her? Did she get sick? Because she was on medication.

So perhaps she drove home. She came back only to realize, you know what, I can't stay in class. I'm too ill. There were so many questions, but not much the officer could do. They did take down all the information about Michelle, her vehicle make, and the model, as well as contact information for all of her classmates and friends. They planned to wait and see if she would show up the next day. The next day came. It was Saturday. And all night, Michelle's friends had been texting her and they were trying to piece together her whereabouts.

They were texting each other. And by the morning, her ex-boyfriend Tommy texted Michelle's closest cousin, Christine. He said, we cannot find Michelle. Well, Christine did know Michelle very well. They grew up together and Michelle was known to be someone who worked hard, but she also played hard. And it was a holiday weekend. So Christine knew Michelle had been under a lot of stress and she just figured, you know what? She went out really late the night before and maybe she spent the night out with friends.

She didn't think much of it. She just looked at the text and she kind of thought, okay, what did Michelle get herself into now? And then she turned over and she went back to sleep. However, a few hours later, after texting and calling Michelle several times without getting an answer, Christine began to get worried. Meanwhile, Michelle's brother Michael had gotten the same text from Tommy. Then no one could find Michelle. Michael knew Michelle and Tommy had recently broken up.

He really wasn't sure what his sister's intentions were with Tommy at that point, and he didn't want to get involved in any drama. So he simply ignored the message. However, something was nagging at the back of Michael's mind. So we logged on to Facebook to see what Michelle had been doing. When he scrolled through his sister's feed, he saw that Michelle had some friends in town who planned on visiting Reno that day. Michael texted one of Michelle's friends who was joining her on that trip to find out where his sister was.

After sending the message, Michael left his house for work and started his day. It wasn't until later that day when Michelle's nursing instructor called him that it really hit him that Michelle could be in danger. Unbeknownst to Christine and Michael, Michelle's closest friends had gathered earlier that day at the Hayward Police Department as soon as it opened, before Inspector Frazier Ritchie

even had a chance to get there because he had just been assigned this case. Once he got there, he ushered them into a conference room to gather information about what they knew. He was also briefed by the officer from the night before who went out to Kaiser. It had been at least 12 hours since anyone had seen Michelle.

And because of how concerned her loved ones were, with some actually beginning to drive the eight hours from San Diego, Inspector Ritchie really wanted to figure out what was going on. He interviewed the friends who had come to the station to offer up any information that they had, and they all said the same thing. The Michelle was so organized. She had a plan A, B, C, D, and the list goes on.

But what they did say is it was possible that she could have been under a lot of stress and that she could have taken off and just left to get away from it all. Though possible, it just didn't see. seemed to be her style. Inspector Riggi left to follow up on some of that information, and her family was just in this conference room

for hours wondering what happened. Did they find her? Were there any leads? But the police wouldn't give them any information. However, they would ask a bunch of questions, like what kind of car did you have, but why? And then it was just silence. It's tough because in order to do a thorough investigation,

the police have to withhold information. That's just part of the process. And with the information provided by Michelle's friends and family, inspector Richie was able to determine that Michelle's new CRV had low jack on it. It's an anti-theft device that's installed on newer vehicles in order to track their location. It didn't take long for them to get a hit. A townhouse community on Ponderosa Court about a half a mile away from Kaiser, a mere two-minute drive.

Here's what it looks like in that area. Her car was parked in a guest spot in front of one of these townhouses down a parking lot like this. And when they got close to it, to inspect it, They noticed it was locked and there was nothing really wrong with it. It wasn't parked weird. It didn't have any external damage and they could kind of look inside. The windows were very tinted. But from what they could see, there was just ordinary items on the backseat.

There was a shopping bag. Some opened Amazon packages, garbage Victoria's Secret catalog, pair of shoes. And they saw a prescription bag. You know the kind that you get from like CVS or Rite Aid that was laying on the backseat. so that must have been what Michelle went out to her car to retrieve. In the front, they could see a can of soda in the cup holder. But for the most part, the car was pretty clean. I mean, it was new.

It didn't even have metal license plate on it yet. It still had the paper ones from the dealership. They had her car, but not a warrant to search it. So all they could do is gather info from what was on the outside. And after looking underneath, they do see some fresh brush or grass hanging from the tailgate area. So this could mean that the car was taken off from. road. And though the car did have that dark tint on it, they thought they could see something on the front passenger seat that looked like it could be a stain of some kind, but they couldn't be

sure. But why was Michelle's car parked here? None of her friends lived in this complex. Did she drive there to talk to someone? Why? Well, when they interviewed one of the residents, they did say they saw some headlights shine through their window around 4 a.m. and they heard people having a conversation. It seemed like it was coming from the direction where Michelle's vehicle was, but they admitted they never looked outside, so they didn't know for sure, but it was 4 a.m. Michelle's vehicle was last seen at 9 p.m. It was all too confusing. A tow truck came. They moved Michelle's vehicle so a forensics team could analyze the car and secure any evidence found inside. Inspector Ritchie searched this entire area where Michelle's vehicle was parked,

but he did not find anything suspicious. No blood or evidence of a struggle. However, he was concerned about Michelle's belongings being left behind, her purse, her wallet. They were at the medical center's break room. People don't just leave their belongings behind, so that was a red flag. If Michelle did leave to go meet someone here, why wouldn't she bring her things, especially if she wasn't planning on coming back? So Richie needed to go back to the hospital and gather more evidence. He noticed there was a lot of cameras in the parking garage. So we asked the security department to pull all the footage from May 27th. But there was an issue.

Only the live feed could be viewed on site. The hospital had a contract with a third party, and the recorded footage was stored at an off-site location. So it was going to take hours to retrieve it, so now they had to wait. By now, Michael had heard back from Michelle's friends who were supposed to travel with her the night before. They had planned to meet up at a coffee shop on Friday,

night after her shift, but she never showed up and she never made it out to Reno. So Michael decided it was time to take a trip over to the hospital where many of Michelle's friends had gathered and were already handing out missing persons flyers. They had Michelle's face on them and all of her information. She was 26, 5'6, black hair, brown eyes, and she had a tattoo of her mother's name on her chest. She was wearing white scrubs and she was last seen at 7 o'clock on Friday, May 27th at Kaiser Hospital. Then something unexpected happened. Around 12.45 p.m., all of her friends started getting text from her.

All their messages were being responded to. They were able to breathe a sigh of relief. But what did the messages say? Well, one of the first ones said, I'm not missing. And many of the other texts were explaining that Michelle's phone had been acting crazy. It had sleeted everything. There was other messages that said,

you know what, all your texts just killed my battery. And additional responses let her friends know that she was fine. She was just taking it easy. Or it's okay, I'm okay, I just needed a break. She messaged one person that she just needed some time without anyone. And one of her loved ones got a message that said Michelle had a really bad night the night before. And she didn't want to talk to anyone. Even Inspector Ritchie had called and texted Michelle.

He made it clear that this was not a joke. and she needed to call him back immediately. She responded by text, and she said that she was looking for a charger right now, and then her phone kept dropping calls. Her friends and family sent over 100 texts and phone calls in the 15 hours that she had been missing, and now all of them were being responded to,

but then by 2 p.m., the text just stopped again. That was odd, but what was even more concerning was that Michelle didn't make the effort to call her loved ones back. It was clear they were worried. By now, she was fully aware or should have been that they had called the police, driven eight hours, and passed out

missing persons flyers, and found her car abandoned, yet she failed to pick up the phone and talk to any of them? It made no sense. Inspector Ritchie heard all the concerns, and he had them too. The fact that she didn't call the police back after informing her that they were doing an investigation, that

didn't add up. And not only that, her ex, Tommy, who she dated for years, told Ritchie that he got a very unusual response from Michelle's number. She knew his number by heart. Yet when she texted him back, she said, who is this? I don't have your number in my phone. Even if she had deleted his contact, she would know his number. So that didn't make sense. And at this point, all Michelle's friends and family members believe someone else is using Michelle's phone to contact them. And it frightened her brother. He felt like he was living in a nightmare. Like this could not be happening.

It was unreal. They truly believe. someone took her from that hospital parking lot that night. That was the only thing that made sense now. But Richie wasn't so sure. He realized that all of this seemed out of character for Michelle, but what if she really just didn't want to talk to anyone? So what if she told her ex that she didn't know who he was? Perhaps it was to give him a hint that she wasn't interested in speaking with him. True, it was odd that she didn't call back the police station. But again, if you were really trying to get away, leave town, and you weren't missing? Would you really have a reason to call? It's not a crime to leave on your own volition. The security footage from the parking garage had just come back,

though, and there were over 100 hours of video, and 330 different camera angles. It was going to take a long time to comb through. So Ritchie decided to start the last known sighting of Michelle, and that was right before 7 p.m. Sure enough, as he's scrubbing through the footage, he spots Michelle briskly walking through that footbridge from the hospital to the parking garage. And nothing seems out of the ordinary. She's not being followed or chased. She just looks as though she's trying to be quick because she's got to be back within 15 minutes. Here she is on camera. This is the actual recording at 6.55 p.m. And then the next camera captures her walking in the direction of her vehicle, which would have been parked on the right side. It's out of frame. Since her car is near a camera, there was one right

on top of where she was parked. Richie wants to see that vantage point, but unfortunately, I swear this happens in every one of these cases. It was a newly installed camera. It wasn't set to record footage. So though it would have captured everything, it wasn't working and isn't it always that way? Who's in charge of these kind of things? Because I swear, it's always that one vital camera that's not working. But what they do capture is this. At 7.17 p.m., Michelle's car is leaving the parking garage. But why? The next thing Richie looks for is the instructor and the security guard. They arrive in the location around 8.56 p.m. and just like Lori Rosa said, you can kind of see a white Honda CRV come up that ramp at around 906 p.m. Now what you can't see is Rosa waving it down

because she's out of frame here. However, you can see, see this, how the car just stops and then backs up. And in the following viewpoint, it's almost clipping that pole. when it's racing out of the garage. Richie just had to see this for himself. But it leaves even more questions. What made Michelle leave class? Was it really her medication? Or did she get a text from someone?

Was she lured out to the parking lot? Was she kidnapped? He just didn't know. He wasn't any closer to understanding what happened between 7 and 9 p.m. And the video was too grainy for him to tell if it was Michelle behind the wheel of the SUV. But they were about to get a break in this case.

the biggest one yet. The forensic team that was analyzing Michelle's vehicle, they found something in the front passenger seat. It was kind of halfway shoved under the seat. It's an ID, not a license, but a clip-on badge from Samuel Merritt Nursing School. And it wasn't Michelle's. It had a picture and a name of another woman, Elaine San Augustine, VSN-R-N-adjunct assistant instructor. Who was this woman? And why was her badge in Michelle's car? Richie calls up instructor Rosa to ask for information about this person, but that name was not familiar to her. So it was time to call around to figure out who this person was because maybe they knew

where Michelle had gone. Or worse, maybe it was her that was involved in her disappearance. But there was more. It wasn't looking like Michelle had merely gone missing. There was evidence that led investigators to believe that Michelle was probably dead. It would come as a shock to her family. especially since the investigators had to keep all of the evidence close to their vest and under seal. But there were suspected blood stains all around inside of Michelle's car as well as between the doorframe and the floor runner.

First, there's a kind of lighter stain on the front passenger side on the seat. But then look at the passenger side door. There is blood in the door frame area and not a little bit either. It's in the back seat. It's in the back passenger side floor mat. And it was very obvious that blood had to be actively dripping from a wound onto the backseat passenger side floorboard. Investigators believe this is where Michelle had been placed after she was attacked. And the amount of blood it would take to leave these stains behind meant that Michelle was most likely unable to survive this attack.

If this was indeed Michelle's blood, it still needed to be tested for DNA. But it wasn't looking good. They also pulled fingerprints from around inside of the vehicle. They gathered hairs. They tested various surfaces for DNA. And all along, Michelle's family was holding out hope that she was still alive, missing, but alive. And there were nights Christine would shiver and think to herself, I really hope Michelle's wearing a jacket and that she's worn because she didn't want to think about her cousin,

that she loved like a sister being out there alone in the cold. That was sad. Samuel Marriott got back to Inspector Ritchie about the woman whose ID they had found in Michelle's car. She was a brand new instructor. She hadn't even started working at the school yet. And she was supposed to be out of state in Hawaii on vacation. But was she? Or was there more to that story as well?

Richie knew that he needed to find out where this woman was and talked to her. But in the meanwhile, he also compiled a list of Michelle's closest friends and family members and had been interviewing each of them to gather as much information. as he could. Everyone had positive things to say about Michelle, about how responsible she was, how you could always count on her. She was kind, caring, and she had her friends' backs, except one friend, an old friend who knew Michelle better than most. Remember Giselle? Well, she was one of the people on the list that Ritchie needed to speak with. He had been told that Giselle was one of Michelle's closest and oldest friends, but they weren't close as of lately. As he had done,

with the previous friends, he paid Giselle a visit at her apartment in Union City, which was about a 25-minute drive from where Michelle lived and only a 10-minute drive from Kaiser. Inspector Ritchie knocked, and when Giselle came to the door, he introduced himself and explained that they were there about a concern regarding Michelle Lay. And when Giselle heard the name, she's kind of like, who? And she seemed a little annoyed, kind of like, ugh, what is it this time? That kind of response. And Ritchie explained that Michelle had gone missing. Giselle's attitude was sort of dry.

There just didn't seem to be a lot of worry in her voice. She was just very matter of fact like, okay, well, have you tried calling her, texting her, reaching out to her friends? And Ritchie was like, well, yeah, that's why we're here. We heard that the two of you had known each other a long time, but that you had somewhat of a falling out a few years back. This was information that they had gathered from a few of the meetings with other recent friends of Michelle's. Michelle's. One person actually described Giselle in her relationship as tumultuous, which was the word

that Inspector Ritchie used asking Giselle if it was true. She laughed. She was like almost questioning why he used that word as though it was kind of above and beyond a little bit more drama than what the status of their relationship really was. However, remember I said, all of Michelle's friends except Giselle had positive things to say about her. Well, maybe people who know us the law, have seen us through many different life experiences, and maybe they have a different point of view than acquaintances and classmates. Because as Giselle explained, Michelle wasn't the perfect person that everyone claimed she was. Richie was all years. He needed to know every point of view, even less favorable ones. It's part of victimology, understanding the victim's personality,

mentality, and position in life that could have gotten them hurt or in danger. So Giselle explained they were very close until Michelle's true colors shined through. She was a liar and she betrayed her. She said that they were best friends, but her then BFF slept with her then fiancé. Well, there was a lot to dig into. So Richie asked Giselle to come down to the station to make a formal report so they could have all of this information on the record. Giselle agreed. Once in the interview room, she explained that Michelle had dated Scott before he and Giselle became a thing. Once she got serious with Scott, she wasn't as comfortable with Michelle hanging around him, especially since they seemed to be flirting with one another, and they had a past. Even though it had only been a month that they were kind of together casually,

it didn't matter because the time came when Giselle found out Michelle had been keeping a secret from her, and as her best friend, that seemed really messed up. It heard Giselle, and it involved the man she loved. Apparently, according to Giselle, back in the fall of 2003, when the three of them used to hang out regularly, and Giselle had just gotten into this serious relationship with Scott, Michelle confided in him, and only him, that she was pregnant, but planned to have an abortion. Michelle insisted that Scott keep this information to himself and not tell Giselle. Well, a few weeks later, Giselle finds out about Michelle's secret and that Scott had already known.

Giselle didn't just feel betrayed because two of the people she trusted the most had been lying to her. She honestly felt like there was more to their secret keeping. She believed they had gotten too close and they slept together behind her back and that Scott had cheated on her with her best friend. Why else in her mind would Michelle reach out to him to tell him that she's pregnant and getting an abortion? That's the only thing that made sense to Giselle. But both Scott and Michelle denied ever having been in a sexual relationship. before Giselle and Scott were dating or at any other time ever. It didn't matter how much they denied it.

Giselle was furious. She just would not accept any other reason why they would have kept this a secret from her. So things became rocky with her and Michelle. She still wanted Bally to be close to her, but she just had a hard time trusting her friend after that. However, by 2005, she and Scott had broken up anyway, so she did keep in touch with Michelle here and there. there. She wasn't completely out of her life and Michelle tried hard to make things right. She would

reassure Giselle that nothing ever happened. Michelle still hung out in Giselle and Scott's friend group and despite Giselle's wishes, Scott was still nice to Michelle and considered her a friend. A few months after they split up, Scott and Giselle ended up getting back together. That was the summer of 2005 when Giselle found out she was pregnant. So she and Scott tried to do the right thing and make things work between them for the baby. Isabel was born October 31st of that year, and things seemed to be okay for a while until about a year after the baby was born. All of a sudden, Giselle sensed that Michelle and Scott were talking again. He reassured her they were merely platonic, but at this point, Giselle had had enough. She told Scott it was either her or Michelle,

so Scott agreed to stop talking to Michelle or being friends with her to keep things positive between him and the mother of his child. They dated and lived together for three years, but things ended up falling apart, and they broke up in the summer of 2008. I told you that it was at this point when Giselle kind of tried to reconcile with Michelle. She talked about getting her life back in order,

and she didn't have full custody of Isabel anymore, and she was trying to co-parent with Scott. Well, there was a little more to that story. Their co-parenting turned into high-conflict parenting, and by August of 2010, they were at a therapy appointment. And the topic of Michelle came up. Giselle explained that she just still had this hostility and trust issues with Scott because of her belief that he and Michelle had been more than friends and had slept together.

Not only that, ever since they had broken up, Giselle said that Scott was hanging out with Michelle and even going on dates with her recently. The therapist asked Giselle what would make her feel better. And they came to the conclusion that Michelle should come into one of these sessions with Scott and Giselle so they could talk it out. Michelle being who she was and trying to be there for her friends agreed. It wasn't easy. They hashed it out together. There were a lot of tears, a lot of anger.

But in the end, it seemed like everyone was in a good headspace. Giselle explained this to the investigator, but her words were a little harsh. She said that Scott made a mistake. And Michelle made a mistake. They made a mistake together, and her best friend slept with her fiancé. So she still believed it, regardless of how things seemed to have worked out in that therapy session just about a year ago. So what does this all mean? One thing, Michelle may not be perfect, but nobody said she was.

It also showed that Giselle definitely held a grudge. But what did any of this have to do with Michelle's disappearance? Ritchie wasn't sure. But Giselle expressed that she was very tired, and it was hard for her to concentrate because she had fatigue from being pregnant. Yes, Giselle was three months pregnant, and investigators had had her there for hours, and they felt like she had given them enough information, and now she could go home. But what Ritchie really wanted to know was more about this Scott person. Although a lot of this did sound like high school drama, or as they say, baby mama drama, he still had to look into everything, and they had to look into everything. already preliminarily interviewed Scott when they were going down Michelle's list of friends.

He mentioned some of the same things. The brief connection with Michelle, the relationship with Giselle, the friendship between him and Michelle bothering his ex, that he considered Michelle a dear friend and he seemed genuinely concerned by Michelle's sudden disappearance. He explained that the last time he heard for Michelle was on the morning of May 28th, the day after she went missing. During the time that everyone was texting her asking where she was, Scott had sent a text asking what she was doing that day. He didn't know she was missing. He was just having normal conversation with her.

Scott received a reply that Michelle was on her way to Reno and she was, quote, putting out fires, unquote, because people thought she was missing. Scott texted back because he wanted clarification, but he never received a response. Richie thought they had to take a deeper look. By now, many of Michelle's family members had come from out of town,

so they pitched in for hotel rooms and they were going place to place, putting up flyers, and hopping from hotel to hotel as they waited for answers. Since the Hayward Police Department hadn't told Michelle's family anything about the investigation, they were unaware of the developments. The details investigators uncovered concerning Michelle's disappearance were completely unknown to her family. But there were developments indeed.

For one, the DNA taken from the swabs collected from Michelle's car came back positive as Michelle lays blood. And though her body had not been found, the police had found blood, not only in Michelle's car, but from day one in the parking spot where Michelle's car had been before she went missing. That's right. A fact that none of you knew about until now. On the floor of that parking garage, where the passenger side door would have been, there was a smear of blood. It looked as though someone had tried to actually wipe it up, and it was confirmed to be Michelle. else. Yet the family had no idea and they felt detached from the entire investigation. They weren't even informed that the investigation had gone from a missing person to a homicide.

They had to find that out from watching the news and it really upset them. They felt like they were in the dark about everything. This was their loved one. Yet the police couldn't give them the reasons why they felt that she was no longer alive. Yet both Michael and Christine believed that they could still. feel Michelle's presence and unless the police could give them concrete proof that she was dead, they were going to continue to fight to find their lost sister and cousin no matter what. They weren't giving up hope because that's what they knew Michelle would do for them. When the police had the DNA confirmation, they did call Michelle's family to come down to the station for a meeting.

It was then that they were officially informed that Michelle's case was now a homicide. Yet they still did not reveal the reasons why. As I said, Michelle's family did not take this well. They didn't like the way they were being treated. They just wanted to know why. Why do you believe Michelle is dead? But all they got was silence. One officer even had the audacity to say to Michelle's brother, you have to get comfortable with the fact that your sister is probably dead, but they couldn't let themselves believe it. It didn't seem real. On June 9th, a candlelight visual was held at the parking lot where Michelle's car had been found. That was the last place that had a connection to Michelle.

So a large number of Michelle's friends and family, even ones that came all the way from Vietnam, they were there as well as strangers who had never met Michelle. They were from the community. They heard about her story, and they wanted to come out to support the family. News stations were there because Michelle's friends were diligent

in keeping her name in the media. They were constantly making sure that no one forgot about me. Michelle. They made t-shirts from her missing person's flyers. Her face and all of information were on it. They even put up a website, Michelle Laymissing.com, and that website became a hub. All the information was there and a place to support the Lay family because they needed it. It provided a central platform to share updates, organize volunteer search parties, and accept donations to support the case. They also set up a Facebook page that gave information about

everything, daily tips that come in, where they could pass out flyers, and what events were coming up to support their search efforts. I went on there and I found this very extensive map. You've got to see this. I've never seen anything like this before. Someone put this together. It showed all of the places that flyers had already been distributed and it helped to organize where to go next. They wanted to make sure they were covering all areas so that they could get flyers into the hands of as many people as possible. And because they had Facebook and this group of people from all over the world, they were putting up flyers everywhere, from Brazil to Iceland. Just look. This location says Claremont, and then it shows where the flyers were. Ranch 99, Yogurt World, Morning Glory, things like that.

They were so organized. I was very impressed by this. So back to the visual, so many people spoke, including Christine and Michael and Michelle's father. He criticized the Hayward Police Department. He stated, that they were withholding information and until they had actual proof that Michelle was dead, until they saw a body. They wouldn't believe it for a minute. In order to locate Michelle, her family offered a reward. It was up to $65,000. $45,000 of that was donated by Michelle's place of employment, Turner Construction. She worked there for five years. And the rest came from various places, most of it from Michelle's family. They put up a huge billboard on the side of the highway. Her family hoped she was alive. They missed her. They wanted her to come home. They pleaded

for help in front of the news cameras. And Christine, she started to think that maybe this had to do with human trafficking. It was at that time, they knew they had to go even further in their search for Michelle. Investigators scanned the crowd at the visual for anyone that seems suspicious or out of place. They do this a lot in these investigations just to see if they could follow a new lead and sure enough, they spot someone that they had just looked up a few days before, Scott, Giselle's ex. This definitely wasn't the time to take him away and bring him in to the station, but they waited and they watched his demeanor. But like many other people, he seemed distraught, upset and sad over Michelle being missing. But was he? Or could he have a reason to want her to be

gone. He was still on their list as someone that they needed to speak to. At this point, though, the family hired a private investigator to work on the case. And after looking over all the facts, this private investigator informed the family that they believed that there had to be two people involved in Michelle's disappearance. And at least one of them must have known her pretty well. Reason being, whoever took Michelle's vehicle after she disappeared knew where she was parked, her schedule and where she would be. And his belief about why there were two people was because they had to have gotten Michelle

into her car easily and quickly. So this private investigator asked the public to come forward with tips, and he would make sure that those would get to the right people and tips did come in. One seemed promising. It was from an inmate, and he said that Michelle was being held captive

in a house in Hayward, and this sent them on a wild goose chase because it turned out not to be connected to this case at all. And that must be frustrating because you feel this sense of relief, but it snuffed out right away. There was another detective looking into Michelle's case. He was from a different city in northern California where he was investigating the disappearance and murder

of another similar victim named Fong Lay. They even had the same last name. And get this, they were around the same age. Fong was just days away from turning 25 before she went missing. and she had recently graduated from a nursing program. She vanished outside a Barnes and Novel bookstore in a strip mall in Fairfield, California on April 25, 2010.

One year before Michelle, but just two weeks after she was reported missing, Vong Lai's remains were found by a woman walking her dog on a rural road in Napa County. Although there were no suspects, investigators did classify Fong Lai's death as a homicide. Fong's case was still open and unsolved. So it was hard for the detectives on her case not to think Michelle's was connected.

It seemed like this could be another big break. There were just too many similarities where these types of women from Asian descent being targeted. Was this a hate crime of some kind? They weren't sure, but they wanted to look into it. And this was bittersweet news to Michelle's family because on one hand, this could be the break that they needed to find Michelle, but Fong had been found dead. And they didn't want Michelle's story to end that way. Nevertheless, they brought this information to the Hayward Police,

but the investigator said that they did not believe that these two cases were connected. They were just sad coincidences. Well, it felt like a slap in the face. Michelle's family believed that the Hayward Police Department didn't care about her because she was an adult. If Michelle had been a missing child, they believed her case would have been given way more priority.

They refused to give them. up. They really needed to keep Michelle's name out there. So when the public interest in Michelle's disappearance began to go down, her uncle contacted a woman named Carrie Cave, formerly Carrie McGonigal. They needed her assistance, and I'd heard this name before, but I wasn't sure where. Well, Carrie McGonigal founded Team Amber Rescue to help find missing people in honor of her daughter Amber Dubois. And you may have heard that name before. Sadly, little Amber disappeared on her way to purchase a lamb as a part of a farming program at Escondido High School back on February 23rd, 2009. She was only 14. That's another story I had on my list to dive into. It's a very sad story.

But in summary, it did not end well. Amber was murdered. However, nobody knew that at the time. And just like in this case, her family held out hope that they would find her. Then almost exactly a year later on February 25th, 2010, another young girl named Chelsea King, who was only 17, went missing from a local hiking trail in Rancho Bernardo Park. And it wasn't long before her friends and family, just like Amber's, were searching all over for her. And sadly, they made a horrifying discovery. A pair of bloodied underwear and a sock were found only two miles from where Chelsea had parked her car. Then a shoe was found a mile from the clothes. It was a grim trail toward the ultimate discovery.

After five days of searching, a dive team recovered Chelsea's body. And eventually, the man responsible for murdering Chelsea admitted that he did the same thing to poor Amber, and he led them to her body. These poor parents, it's senseless. These girls were just starting their lives. And after Amber's remains where located, her mother, Carrie founded Team Amber Rescue. It helps her find peace because she provides other families with resources and expertise to help them find their loved ones, including her best tool, a dog Amber, also named after her daughter. So when Michelle's uncle contacted Carrie, she agreed to come out to the search, but she also put them in touch with another search organization in Northern California run by her friend, Mark Klass. His foundation is called Class Kids Foundation and you could have guessed that he formed it for similar reasons.

Because on October 1st, 1993, Mark Class's 12-year-old daughter, Polly class, was kidnapped while having a sleepover at her own home. And that is terrifying. Mark and his family, like so many others, used every resource they could to find Polly. But just two months later, their worst nightmare became a reality. Her murderer was pulled over for a traffic violation, and it's at that point he was arrested.

And after that, he led the police to the police. to Polly Class' body. Of course, you know that I wish I could go into detail about all three of those cases. And if you are interested, let me know. I can do a deep dive, just put it in the comments. But Mark Klass founded the Class Kids Foundation after the murder of his daughter, Polly,

so that he could help families find their loved ones by providing a proven method. His techniques are tested, tried, and true. He runs a very organized search operation with a lot of rules and regulations that he's perfected over time, for success. So both Mark and Carrie met with Michelle's family. They were in a hotel at the time, and it was a very sad moment. When Mark walked into that room, it was dark. You could just feel the

sadness in the room. Everyone was just sitting there. They were just in their pajamas. Looked like they hadn't even looked in the mirror in days. They were disheveled. They didn't know what to do. They were losing hope. However, what he knew he had to do was he had to attach to to mend the relationship between Michelle's family and the Hayward Police. He knew all too well that they needed to cooperate if they wanted to get anywhere. They can't know where to search without some type of lead. And even though Michelle's loved ones had tried to cooperate, they were most likely too emotional and not asking the right questions.

It's really hard. You don't think like an investigator because you are a loved one. But Mark explained to Michelle's relatives they needed the assistance, of the authorities to find Michelle. There was obviously a lot that the police knew that the family did not. And the first thing Mark did was give everyone in Michelle's family a list of things to do. They needed to form a search party, to find volunteers.

And he also taught them some key things about how searches work and how they can be the most successful. One of those things was to start from the center and work their way out. Because in most cases, people that go missing are found within one to four, five miles of where they were last seen. And Mark, being well-versed in working with the police,

went to the Hayward Police Department to speak with the investigators. And it wasn't long before he built up a rapport. And finally, Inspector Ritchie, he was open to providing the family with much-needed information. Of course, it couldn't hurt. The detectives needed any help they could get when it came to searching, especially if it meant additional resources. So he provided them with Michelle's cell phone. ping locations. Michelle's phone had left a digital footprint after leaving the

medical center's parking crunch. The pings were traced throughout busy streets, then onto a very small two-lane road and after that it was tracked to a major freeway and then kind of out into the middle of nowhere and then back to the medical center taking the same roads between 717 and 906 p.m. following the roads and then making a five-mile radius meant that they would be going into some very rural areas. Rugged terrain. This included canyons, rocky areas, streams, rivers, muddy banks. And it was already day 49 when this search started. They were searching a steep canyon area east of San Francisco Bay. It's called Niles Canyon and Sonol. This area is about a 25-minute drive from

Kaiser Hospital. But as you can see, it is a much different terrain from this city. And I know we hear this a lot, but it truly is like trying to look for a needle in a haystack. To make sure that this search was organized and they used their time wisely, there was a system in place. As an area was thoroughly searched, they would tie a pink ribbon to a tree and that would signify that the next searcher could go forward and not stop there to maximize their efforts. They also marked areas that were concerning that they wanted the police to investigate to look into, something that looked like it was evidence, but that was also hard. Because there was a lot of people living in this area that did not have homes. So they would come to this area

to sleep and live and there was a lot of debris, old food, garbage. And it was hard to differentiate between evidence and trash. And there were also areas where they would find things like a sleeping bag. It was scary. They didn't know what they were going to find inside. But it turned out to be empty. When they went further into that area, though, they found a bone. big bone and it looked like it could be human. But then they found remains that indicated it was actually a large animal, so they moved on. However, there was more. When searchers were crossing a creek, they saw yet another very large bone. It looked like it could have been a thigh bone and it also looked human. So they decided to fan out and look in this area for belongings that could be

associated to a person. They found shorts and other articles clothing, but nothing that looked like Michelle's clothing. It didn't match anything that they knew that she would have been wearing. However, they did send this bone in to be analyzed and it did come back human. But it belonged to someone that was about six feet tall. And they had been there a long time, but it was sad to know that another person had ended up dead in this area. And it is the perfect place to put something that you don't want found. That's for sure.