Up and Vanished - 27 | Prepare for Landing: Part 1

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Ten years after Joseph disappeared from Nome, Alaska, new evidence rewrites the story of his final weekend.Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/upandvanished

Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is released every Thursday and brought to you absolutely free. But for ad-free listening and exclusive bonuses, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is intended for mature audiences and may include topics that can be upsetting, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, rape and murder. The names of survivors have been changed for anonymity purposes. testimony shared by guests of the show is their own and does not reflect the views of Tenderfoot TV or Odyssey. Thank you so much for listening. Welcome to Alaska.

This is it. This is my little piece of home here. That's open ocean out there. You can certainly feel the magnitude of the ocean when you're on this. You don't really want to fuck around out there. It gives me the hebi-jee-jee just being there here. Everybody was pretty consistent about what they said about Joseph. Charismatic, smart guy who loved Alaska and had a lot of plans for the future.

Met this woman in Juneau, Megan Ryder. They were planning to get married. There was nothing negative that I found in researching Joseph, nothing that raised red flags for me. And he and Megan were going to get married. Marron. He was very in love with her. He would text her right away. She sent us all the messages. If she messaged him, he messaged her right back. Good morning, Meg. I hope you have a good Friday. In fact, I know you will. I'm sure Cafe International is going to be hopping today.

And I'm sure you're going to have a good lunch. And I'm sure you're going to have good walks and a good hike. but I just wanted to say also that I love you and have a great day, babe, bye. It became a very big deal in Nome quickly. They had done a lot in terms of searching. Helicopters and airplanes, I think they had the Coast Guard helping. The state's conclusion,

he had been attacked by a bear or had some kind of accident and they just didn't find the body. In June of 2016, Joseph Baldaris is in Nome, Alaska for work. Back in Juneau is his fiance, a wedding planned, and a life waiting. Friday, June 24th, 2016 is the last time Joseph is reliably seen. No one disputes this. That Friday night is the anchor. Christine Pascoya is someone who Joseph had been spending time with, talking as friends. And according to

Christine, plans were made with Joseph for that Friday night. Friday night, they were at the bar is unknown. The Saturday morning of June 25th, 2016 is when this whole story turns. Joseph stops responding. Calls go unanswered. Messages go unread, then eventually undelivered. This is the exact point in time, his fiancé Megan Ryder, starts to become concerned. There actually were text messages from Joseph that morning sent to his fiancé, well, at least from his phone. but according to her, they didn't sound like him. You're listening to Part 1 of the season finale for Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun. I'm your host Payne Lindsay.

Let's just get right to it. There's too much power in all the right places. Too many coincidental connections. Which makes me think they're not coincidences. My family knew a lot of the Alaska State Troopers in Nome. Kirk and Bonnie had multiple friends who were state troopers. I didn't know Sergeant Cross personally, but he was a friend of the family. Sergeant Cross was an Alaska state trooper in Nome,

and led the investigation into Joseph's disappearance from day one. Sergeant Cross was friends with the Piscoya and Reynolds families. He knew Kirk and Bonnie very well. I went to school with his kids for years, and this is a huge conflict of interest. What an absolute mess. These red flags should have triggered the FBI. They need to see this, all of it. Too many people in the right places did things the wrong way when they knew better.

Sergeant Cross literally gives two different days for the exact same sighting of Joseph struck. I don't understand how this was overlooked. This should be a huge red flag to anyone reading this report. All of this was purposeful. It's all a cover-up, every bit of it. The police were corrupt from the beginning. An FBI detective would have solved this case on the first day. The public needs this information, and so does the FBI. And then, Then, there need to be consequences for all of these unanswered questions. At this point, they should be considered nothing but suspects in Joseph's disappearance. ...can keep a secret.

If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips. Betrayal oozes out of him at every... ...comes out only in the darkness. And it's time to turn the fucking lights off. Let's get to it. Let's talk about a witness who should be the easiest person in this entire case to trust. Not somebody trying to remember a random truck they saw 10 years ago. I'm talking about an Alaska state trooper.

Sergeant Charles Cross. Sergeant Cross wasn't just a witness to Joseph's truck. He was also part of the investigation. And his sighting is essentially ground zero for the entire Mile 44 narrative. Monday morning, June 27, 2016. At 9.30 a.m., Joseph is officially reported missing after not showing up for work. Monday, when he went missing, I knew Joseph was friends with Piscoe's, and I knew he was living with Jake at Piscoya's parents' old house.

So I called Bonnie, Jake's mom. This is Tracy. She worked with Joseph at the Courts in Nome. She called Bonnie that morning to see if Joseph was at the court. at the house. Here's Bonnie. I got a call from the courthouse. They knew that Jake and Joseph lived in my mom's house.

They had asked me, hey, you know, can you call Jake and see maybe when the last time you saw Joseph? After this, apparently Bonnie has some sort of communication with the state troopers, gives them a description of Joseph's truck. Trooper Smith sends out the description of the Blue Dodge Dakota.

Sergeant Cross immediately tells him that he saw that truck parked at mile 44 just the day before. Twice actually. The official police report says that Cross saw the truck earlier in the afternoon, and then again at approximately 8 p.m. on Sunday, June 26. Within minutes of Joseph being officially missing, this valuable information came to light. And it's not some complicated timeline calculation.

Cross City saw Joseph's truck on Sunday. It's Monday morning, which would be yesterday. An Alaska State Trooper is describing something he had supposedly seen less than 24 hours earlier. This by far should be the cleanest truck sighting in the entire case. Fresh memory, specific location, two separate sightings, and it comes from a state trooper. By 9.56 a.m., just 26 minutes after Joseph has officially reported missing, Jake, Joseph's roommate, is texting Bonnie that his friend Alex also saw Joseph's truck in the same area at 8 p.m. night before. Here's Jake.

My friend and coworker this summer, Alex Gray, said he was camping with his girlfriend. Right around the same place where he went missing. He said he saw that truck parked on the side where it was. Jake then text this information to Bonnie. Bonnie replies immediately that a trooper has already been sent down the road. So within 26 minutes, the entire response is already moving towards mile 44. The police were already treating Mile 44 as the place where Joseph vanished, and in this case, that matters a lot.

Sergeant Cross saw a truck, but almost instantly the truck became Joseph, and Mile 44 became the story. Then the bear theory arrives. On Monday, approximately 5.30 p.m., Cross reports finding a torn plaid jacket on a ridge west of Joseph's truck. The official report says the jacket looked at as though a bear or another animal had shredded it. Cross and Trooper Strobel bring shotguns onto the Coast Guard helicopter in anticipation of shooting

a bear. Then the report literally says this. We believe that Joseph has been killed by a bear. This is on Monday, the very first day. The bear conclusion was already being written into the official record. Except there was a big problem. This jacket had no blood on it. Almost immediately, Joseph's family and his fiance confirmed that this jacket isn't his.

And then the report itself concludes that it may have fallen off a snow machine in the winter. In the exact same paragraph, where the troopers say they believe Joseph was killed by a bear, they eliminate the only supposed evidence supporting it. The clue died before the first day was even over, but the theory did not. And now the location and the explanation are both taking shape. disappeared at mile 44. A bear probably killed him. Case pointed east. Start searching the wilderness. Except for the sighting that created that entire narrative, the clean, fresh law enforcement siding doesn't stay clean. It starts changing. The official account says Sunday, two sightings,

early afternoon and 8 p.m. The embedded AST timeline says Sunday again, 2 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. Okay, so far close enough. But then state, investigators from the ABI arrive in Noam on July 6. One investigator writes that Cross told him he saw Joseph's truck at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Saturday. One siding. No second siding at 8 p.m. or 8.30 p.m. whatever it was. Then nine minutes later, the other ABI investigator writes down a completely different version

of the same briefing. He says Cross told him he saw the truck on June 26, Sunday. It's already so confusing, but it's already literally wrong too. The same official case file, nine minutes apart, one says Saturday, one siding, the other says Sunday, two sightings. This is not a small typo. A typo can change a six to a five. A typo does not erase an entire second siding. The day changes, the time changes, and then the 8 p.m. siding completely disappears. Two days later, the ABI timeline goes back to Sunday again. This time it's 1.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.

The official police file gives us five separate versions of one man's sighting, and that man is a state trooper investigating the disappearance. There's really only two rational possibilities here, either cross-changed his account, or multiple law enforcement officers failed to accurately record the most important sighting in this entire. case. Pick your poison. Then months later, the private investigator hired by the family, Andy Clamser, gives Sergeant Cross another chance to clear it up. He asked Cross if investigators

believe Joseph returned to Noam after driving to Mile 44 on Saturday. And Cross doesn't correct him. He doesn't say, no, that was Sunday. He says, I'd have to go through the whole report again. What? The actual witness, who created the Mile 44 timeline to begin with, now needs the report to tell him what day he saw the truck, and he is the police. Now, watch what happens to everybody else. Monday morning, Jake's friend Alex has a very simple story. According to Jake's text, which we have, Alex tells him that he saw Joseph's truck at 8 p.m. on Sunday night. But then, just 11 days later, investigators call Alex, and he's got a completely different story.

I'd love to say I found this in the police report, but I didn't. That's because it doesn't exist in here. I only know this from a small piece of field audio during Jake's interview with the investigators. Listen closely. My coworker Alex, he was actually camping. He said he saw the truck Saturday night late because he's out camping. That's Alex.

Investigators were trying to get Jake's story straight. And once again, Jake's friend Alex is brought into the picture. And is Alex? Does he work anywhere? Would he be in town this morning? I work with him. Would he be here today this morning? You said he saw that truck camping?

When was that? Saturday night. Saturday, okay. What I'm going to do real quick, I'm going to give him a quick call and see where he's at, maybe touch base with him real quick. So I'm going to step out real quick, and I'm going to give Alex a quick call.

He steps outside, stops recording the audio, and calls Alex personally. Okay? He comes back in. Okay, Saturday, 10 a.m., 11 p.m., and again, 2 p.m. on Sunday. The one Sunday siding has become three sightings across two different days. Saturday, around 10 a.m., Saturday around 11 p.m.

And then Sunday, around 2 p.m. What is going on here? Saturday, is there, today. Saturday, 10 a.m., 11 p.m., and again, 2 p.m. on Sunday. Why is none of this in the police report? A few years ago, this whole truck narrative was pissing me off. What's true? What isn't? Why is it so damn confusing? So I called Jake's friend Alex myself.

And this is what he told me. Jake was my coworker at the time. I remember, like, we talked about it and, like, where do you think he went and, like, stuff like that? I was with my girlfriend at the time. We were coming back to town from out the councilway. We saw his truck. it was kind of like backed into that little that pull-off where it was like a mission or found

I remember seeing it then what day would that have been that you saw it it was Saturday night okay three sightings collapsed back into one one Sunday siding became three sightings then three became one Saturday siding and somewhere along the way

a giant bear gets added That's convenient. We did see a big bear. Probably one of like the biggest bears I've ever seen in my life. That area where that vehicle was found, there is like a crazy amount of bears. If you think about like if someone did go missing, you got to like think bear, you know. To this day, that's like still one of the biggest bears I've ever seen in my life. Well, damn, anyone would remember that.

And there was another witness, his girlfriend at the time. Do you think your girlfriend would also remember this? I believe so. So I called her. What does she remember? Yeah, so we were out camping that weekend. We came back Sunday. We were driving back to town and we did see his truck out there.

I didn't know whose it was at the time. But yeah, it was out there. What day would that have been? Sunday. Did you see a bear? out there? No. Okay.

Not at all? I don't even think we saw really any animals that we could, other than a dog. Alex says that you guys saw a bear out there. I don't remember seeing a bear. That is odd. He said it was the biggest bear he's ever seen. Okay, yeah. Well, no, this is, no.

We didn't see a bear. And if we did see a bear, I would have remembered, especially, if it was the biggest bear he's ever seen. No. We didn't see any bear. I just think it's really odd that he said we saw a bear. It's kind of just like playing into a narrative that like he was attacked by a bear, but I know we didn't see a bear.

That is odd for sure. She remembers seeing Joseph's truck in the early evening on Sunday. Pretty much the same version Alex said originally. The only person Alex says witness this giant bear says it never happened. Here's Jake again. And then he said that night they saw a pretty huge bear. They packed up their stuff and came back to town. A bear might have gotten to him.

Okay, now zoom out. The whole Saturday versus Sunday problem doesn't stop with Cross and Alex. It runs straight through the Pascoya family information chain. The original Sunday timeline says Drosov's truck is outside the house on Sunday morning in Nome. How do we know that? Because Jake, his roommate, claims he saw Joseph inside the house. So did Jake mention to you seeing Joseph at the house Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon? He said it had to be around one, and it was just in passing.

Then Bonnie places Joseph at the beach from roughly 1.30 to 3. Then Kirk and Bonnie say the truck passes their camp around 3 or 4. Then Cross says the truck is parked at mile 44. It creates a perfect relay. House, beach, camp, mile 44. Makes sense, right? Except the problem with that is, Christine's first-hand beach account says Saturday, not Sunday.

Bonnie stated that he was with Christine from 1.30 to 3 Sunday on the beach. Sunday or Saturday? I'm listening to this and I'm trying to figure it out. And I asked her, point blank. Was it Sunday? And she says, yes. So Bonnie states that she saw him on the beach Sunday. She's very abrasive about that.

I mean, so I'm sitting there scratching my head again. That's okay. Now this is after all the law enforcement is gone. And then about that time the family came in, and then she quieted up. So we get, getting conflicting information right from the get-go. Bonnie wasn't even at the beach. Christine was, apparently.

But Bonnie moves that event to Sunday, directly into the time slot needed to carry Joseph from the house toward mile 44. And years later, Kirk says, I don't know if it was Saturday or Sunday. Okay? I didn't lie to the investigator. On Sunday, and you confirmed with me over the phone already

that he drove by on a Saturday. You know, we were working on camp on Sunday. Yeah, that was the day he drove by on Saturday, the 25th. Okay. We saw a blue car go by down there. I don't know if it was Saturday or Sunday. It was Saturday. It was Saturday the 25th. That's what you told me last time we talked. And then I'm going through this and I'm listening to your interview and you told the investigator it was a completely different day. Well, I know there were two blue cars, I remember, of the same kind of No. There were two of those exact vehicles in Nome.

And I know when Kevin and I were working on the building, we saw that one car go by, and we waved and we think I thought it was him. And I don't know if there's another one that went by on Sunday. The vehicle becomes just a blue car. The driver becomes somebody they only thought was Joseph. And the person standing beside Kirk changes from Bonnie to Kevin. I have questions because this is two different things that you've said now. They all become unstable around the exact same fault line. Saturday or Sunday.

The most important 24 hours in this case. And yet everybody still somehow arrives at the same conclusion. Joseph drove himself to mile 44 and he disappeared in the wilderness. And it was probably a bear. Here's Christine talking to the PI in 2016. Have you heard any rumors about what might have happened to him? And again, I only talked to my grandma, and Bonnie and Kirk about it, because they were out there looking, but they were saying maybe you could have been eaten by a bear. All the records that exist repeatedly prove where Joseph's truck was, but they never proved Joseph was inside it.

And the people who built the timeline around that truck can't even agree on the day they saw it. Could all of this just be normal human error? Sure. But then the entire case is built on normal human error. Could the Saturday entry by Sergeant Cross be a typo? Maybe. But then why does the second sighting vanish with it? Could all these people simply be confused 10 years later?

Of course. But Sergeant Cross's first account was not 10 years later. It was Monday morning. It should be the most reliable one. Unless it was wrong from the beginning. And if the original account was wrong, then the search was pointed to mile 44 by bad information, then minutes of Joseph being reported missing. If you like your true crime, like you like your coffee, Red Handed is the podcast for you.

It's dark, intense, and might just keep you up all night. I'm Hannah. I'm Saruti. And every week on Red Handed, we break down a different, fascinating case. From the most recent US trials everyone is obsessing over, like Brendan Banfield, Karen Reid and Ellen Greenberg, to the most unbelievable stories from around the world, Like Erin Patterson, the Australian woman who poisoned her in-laws with mushrooms. Or the controversial case of Lucy Letby, the UK's now most prolific child killer.

Or is she? We have our doubts. There's nothing we love more than digging into every detail of the cases we cover, getting beyond a basic analysis and cutting to the heart of the story. Red Handed has over 400 episodes ready to binge right now. Plus, be sure to check out our weekly sister show, shorthand, where we unpack everything, from the Black Death to End. Area 51. If you're looking for smart, detailed true crime with personality, check out red-handed wherever you get your podcasts. Joseph's truck is where this case has always gotten ridiculous.

Obviously, I don't believe every sighting. I don't need to. As a matter of fact, let's forget every siding for a second. Throw all of them away and go back to one basic fact. The truck didn't drive itself. Somebody, whoever it was, drove it to mile 44. And based on everything I've learned, believe it was Joseph. So if somebody else drove his truck 44 miles outside Nome and left it there, they would need a ride back. Nobody's walking 44 miles home. So just practically speaking, this would have to involve at least two people. But that doesn't necessarily mean that both people understood the entire plan. One of them could have thought they were just giving someone a ride but somebody else had to be involved somewhere and if so who was it for more

than three years now I kept hearing the same name and this information wasn't new versions of it date all the way back to 2016 he knew Kevin Poscoya very well he knew the entire Poskoia family very well his own sister believes he knows more than he's saying that still isn't proof but it wasn't just some random person repeating town gossip. Uh, other than what's been out in the news, that's all I know.

Just whenever it was reported. I don't know. I should recall. It's been on one can't. I don't need to talk about anything with you at this point. We're done talking. We're done talking. Thank you.

At first, he knows nothing. Only what's in the news. Well, there's nothing in the news. This guy is really, just block them. Just block them. Block them. No. Like, if there's no, I have nothing to hide next.

I don't want to talk about the guy. I don't. I don't want to talk about. The truck, I like, just being your sister. I'm concerned. Do I have anything to be concerned about? Do I, do I can't defend my brother in any? No. There's nothing to be concerned about with me. I'm saying that the safe is good. Okay. I'm more than safe. I'm beyond safe. I've been doing this for over 10 years now, and I've talked to a lot of weird people about a lot of weird shit. And I mean this when I'm telling you, this is one of the strangest calls I've ever been a part of.

Oh, is this at a, uh, what's the game? Doing a, uh... The podcast? The podcast. You asked me. Well, how, where do I start? Um... She thinks that you moved his truck.

I didn't touch his truck, no. Why would I? I don't know. I didn't move his truck. I don't even know the guy. I wouldn't even feel comfortable touching it. Why would she say something like that, you think? You would have to ask her.

I don't know. Well, is there anything that you could tell me that could help me? I've been very vocal from the beginning. Before he disappeared, being my current wife, at the time she was my girlfriend. We were driving on the council road. heading back to Nome, and I noticed Joseph Bulgerst's truck. I seen Joseph Bulgerus in the car. I couldn't recall who is with him.

I don't recall. And they were heading towards counsel. What's that? What day would that have been? Well, man, it's been so long, I don't even know. But it was that weekend he went missing. It was before he went missing, though. Okay.

I thought that. And then that Saturday or Sunday, we took a ride towards council, and I'm off to the, as we're driving towards council, right where his truck was perked, I noticed it right there. We ended up stopping at East Fork because they were in a herd and muskots. And I noticed the Longotillian twins, as I was because there was people around at Eastford Bridge, I noticed that the Longotillian twins, one of the Longotillian twins was at the Brits, under the underneath the bridge in the river.

I don't know if they were doing. I don't know if they were fishing or whatnot and then they won't about our way. The bridge is a little bit further past. Right where Joseph versus truck was parked. The bridge is, I don't know, about half a mile up, half a mile from where his truck was parked, I'd say. Do you have your own theory?

My theory does not matter. I don't know too much about it. I tried to stay out of it. You said that you saw someone in Joseph's truck with him. Yes, yes. Male or female? Yes. Oh, definitely no.

I just don't know who. I can't remember who. I, even my wife, even my current wife, I don't remember me talking about it. I just can't picture the face. I don't know who it was. Did anyone ever ask you to do anything with this truck? I didn't even touch that truck.

Nobody asked me to do anything to the truck. I stayed away from the truck. Do you think the Pascoyas had anything to do with it? I went to the state troopers. Yeah, but what do you say? I don't know. I know the family well, but I don't want to elaborate too much about my past feelings with the family. And why is my name being brought up?

I know Kevin very well. I know the entire Pascora family very well. But at the time, no joke is disappeared. If any of them at the time, if any of them came to me and asked me to do something, I wouldn't even... I wouldn't even... I'd have no need. If you saw someone else in the truck with him that day,

that could very well be the person who killed him. See, yeah, I got that. For some odd reason, that part of my brain doesn't remember who it was. I don't know why, but that part of my brain, for some other reason, I blinked it out. Is that because you may have known that person? Well, I just can't remember the name. I can't remember the face. The reason why I spoke of it with my current wife at the time is because I recognize the face. but here we are how many years later

my some odd reason my brains do not pull up the face I can't recall like I said I can't recall the face some reason Joseph's face sticks out like a sort of time but I don't remember some reason I can't

Who was driving? I want to say Joseph was and just real quick But there was two people in the car. How certain are you that you saw somebody, you think? Very certain. Like one just saying? Can we call or even, Ted.

Blanked out of my mind. I can't explain it. If your sister comes out and says she thinks that you moved Joseph's truck for Kevin, then what are you going to say? I'll talk to the sea troopers when they come knock on my door. And what are you going to tell them? Tell them it truly. There's one witness that weekend that should have been impossible to confuse.

Christine Pascoya's cell phone. Phones don't forget what day something happened. They don't switch Saturday to Sunday. And they don't suddenly remember a bear 10 years later. They just simply keep the receipts. But not Christine's phone. By the time investigators examined Christine's phone, the entire history from the weekend Joseph vanished was gone.

All the calls, texts, everything. Apparently there was this whole issue with your cell phone getting having to reset it because yeah brother did something can you tell me about that we were at the A&B picnic and I had just changed my password and it was fresh so I I had just changed it like that morning and I don't remember what I changed it to and then we were at the picnic my brother had picked up my phone because I was in one of the races he was wanting to record it so he flipped up and took a picture or recorded it or something and then my brother's a gentleman backass who likes to fuck with things.

And so he punched in my password and disabled my phone. And so I had been trying my passwords that I thought I changed it to. And by the time I got to trying to get it, it would lock me out in an hour. And then it finally said connect to iTunes. And so did you do that connect to iTunes? No, after the picnic was done, before the, as a picnic was started, I called Kirk because he was, excuse me, They were going down to camp. And so I called Kirk.

He didn't answer the first time, and he ended up calling me back. And so after the A&B picnic, I went and got stuff for dinner, went home and got the kids ready, and then we all went down to camp. And so I had used Max's phone, or I had used one of the kids' phone. Oh, no, I used Beth's phone, I think, when I called Kim and told Kim I was going to camp. Beth is my cousin, and she went to camp with me, and she went to the A&B picnic with me. me. And because my phone was still disabled. It was making me wait an hour, wait 60 minutes,

or, you know, wait this long because you put an incorrect password. So I didn't really worry about my phone because we were getting ready for camp and then went out to camp and there's no cell service out there. So I don't worry about my phone out there. And then when I came back into town, I had gotten on the computer, but the computer I had at Kim's needed to have iTunes on so I had to download iTunes. And then I think finally late that night, I couldn't figure out how to just unlock it from the computer. It wanted me to restore it as a new phone.

And so I was really mad because, I mean, I didn't know if all the pictures had saved my cloud, you know, all that stuff. And so I just reset it to a new phone. And then when I tried to look how to back up, you know, from a previous, it wouldn't give me that option. and so I had to restore it as a new phone. Could that happen? Sure.

But when your friend goes missing, and according to you, you're basically the last person to see him alive, and your cell phone records can prove your story, if you're telling the truth, how could you even let this happen? Again, just one more thing you have to try and explain. Where is the rationale in this?

But a little iPhone reset was not going to stop Joseph Bauder's family. And after jumping through a lot of, of hoops, they eventually got their hands on the real phone logs. And at first glance, something jumped out immediately. Beginning Friday evening, Christine repeatedly communicates with the same phone number. Once on Friday night. Then six more times throughout Saturday, the day that Joseph stopped responding for good. So who did this phantom phone number belong to?

It belonged to a man named Tom Vaden. Who the hell is Tom Vaden? The original private investigator Link Fanon called this pattern definitely odd and planned on interviewing Tom Vaden. But then the paper trail basically dies. Years later, private investigator Andy Clamzer interviewed one of Joseph's friends named Julia Ferris. Do you have any idea how we contact a guy named Tom Vaden? Yeah. Now, interesting you say Tom Vaden though, because I don't know why they would even have a link.

have a link. How do you know him? Oh, through rotary. Any idea why Christine would be texting him on that Saturday that Joseph went busy? Christine Pascoya? We'd be texting Tom? Right. Right. For what? Well, that's what I'm wondering. I mean, do we have verification that happened? Yeah. Huh. Um, I don't know that they have any linkage. What, so? I didn't even know that they spoke.

That doesn't... I don't like it. I don't like it at all. It doesn't make sense. Why? Why was she texting him? Because he's insanely trained on all kinds of medical shit. What kind of medical stuff? Everything.

He trains the health aids for the villages. I don't like that at all. No, I don't like that at all. Because there was a fucking massive party on Friday night at Joseph's house that I know he wouldn't have been comfortable with. his last one to see him on Saturday. They're all family members. I don't like it one bit.

Now you're telling me this. What did you say about a party? The party that was at Joseph's house on that Friday night. That we don't know if there really was a party. No. People have talked about it. There was a party. Why are you so sure?

I know for a certain. On my life, there was a party there. I know it. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Part two of the season finale for Up and Vantage, In The Midnight Sun, premieres Monday, September 7th. See you then.

Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Your host is Payne Lindsay. The show is written by Payne Lindsay with additional assistance from Mike Rooney. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay. Lead producer is Mike Rooney, along with producers Dylan Harrington and Cooper Skinner. Editing by Mike Rooney and Cooper Skinner with additional editing by Dylan Harrington. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional production by Victoria McKenzie, Alice Kniek Glenn, and Eric Kintana.

Artwork by Rob Sheridan, original music by makeup and vanity set. Mix and mastered by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to Orrin Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group. Special thanks to all of the families and community members that spoke to the team. Additional information and resources can be found in our show notes. For more podcasts like Up and Vanished, search Tenderfoot TV, on your favorite podcast app, or visit us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening.