Up and Vanished - 28 | Prepare for Landing: Part 2 (Season Finale)

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Ten years after Joseph Balderas disappeared, the details still don’t add up. In the Season 4 finale, Payne examines shifting accounts, missing evidence, and critical gaps in the original investigation. A trail of old receipts leads to a new name and an unexpected connection. As this chapter of Up and Vanished comes to a close, the fight for answers for Joseph and Florence continues.

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. Where do you look for someone's car keys? The ignition? The seat? Under the floor mat? There's only a few logical places, right? On Monday, June 27th,

the day Joseph was reported missing, Alaska State Trooper Smith reaches Joseph's truck at mile 44. The doors are unlocked. He searches inside, opens a backpack, and he documents everything, from fishing lores to bug spray. Then he writes in the report, I observed the vehicle to be unlocked, and the keys are missing. Then Trooper Smith leaves.

Six ground searchers on ATVs reached the area before Sergeant Cross and Trooper Strobel arrived by helicopter that evening. The investigative report does not name these six people. It does not explain who approached the truck, who looked inside, or who controlled access after Smith left. But later that afternoon, Trooper Strobel and Sergeant Cross talked with the ground team,

and together they searched the truck. But this time, the keys are under the floor mat. The report says the keys were located. By who? Apparently, that part didn't make the cut. Maybe Trooper Smith missed them. He's a state trooper, and he was sent out there because there's a missing person.

He's actively searching the truck interior, closely enough to write down that he can't find the keys. It's a pretty big mess. After Smith leaves, and before Strobel and Sergeant Cross arrive, who was there and inside that truck between those searches? Three months later, Andy Clamser interviews Kirk Reynolds. So we just, you know, we went right to the search over here and we ended up becoming a part of it and learning what was going on

and looking at the maps. Andy asked him a simple question. People have expressed skepticism that he would have left his keys under the map because the keys to the court were on there, the keys to the youth court and the community center. And he just wasn't that kind of person. I didn't notice what was on the key. I know when we were there, I don't feel it was Cross. I think Cross was with us is when he found the keys and started it up and it ran just fine.

But I didn't pay attention to how many keys were on the ring. Kirk answers a different question. Kirk is describing being present. He says Cross found the keys, started the truck, and it ran just fine. Are you telling me that hours earlier, another state trooper could not find the car keys? And then later, when Sergeant Cross arrives, and Kirk Reynolds is at the scene with him, these car keys magically appear. What the hell?

There is no formal AST interview with Kirk in any investigative file I've received. The record also doesn't answer, who had access to the truck. Did Smith search under the mat first? Were they not there and then just there? I wanted something that could put Joseph himself anywhere that Saturday, a person who recognized him,

a purchase we could verify. And in all the paperwork, there was a pizza box, a personal-sized pizza box, found in the truck near the front seat. To many people, this detail is new. There's very little. if anything, publicly out there about this at all.

Trooper Smith's inventory does not mention a pizza. Neither does the account of Strobel or Sergeant Cross. But they listed a whole bunch of other things in the truck. A backpack, bug spray, fishing lures, a fish stringer, a pair of waiters, waiter boots, other hiking boots, and of course, the keys under the mat, eventually. Ten days after the truck was found, investigators Jorgensen and Kevin, from the state police, examine it at the known police department. A later entry in the report says a pizza box was found near the front seat

and quote, appeared to be recent. On the pizza box, there's a dated sticker. It's from the Safeway gas station in town, and the label says June 25, 2016. That would be Saturday. The day Joseph went missing. The day we've all been trying to piece together. So the police go to Safeway, talk to the manager. There's no recorded surveillance footage.

There's also no matching transaction in Joseph's bank records. So how did this pizza become a part of Joseph's Saturday timeline? Supposedly, there was a receipt. Joseph's sister, Selena, says that officers told her family they found a receipt for this pizza in Joseph's bedroom, a Safeway purchase made at exactly 215 Saturday afternoon. This receipt for a single slice of pizza with an exact 215 timestamp attached to a missing person was a pretty big deal.

Obviously, the family asked to see the receipt. And that's where things get weird again. In the official AST report, the room searches documented small things, but I can't seem to find this Safeway receipt. There's no photograph, no property number, no officer identified as the person who actually found it. And according to Selena and the private investigator Link Fanon, the AST kept saying they had it.

The private investigator writes that Trooper Smith told him he had it in a folder. But he'd have to find it. Okay, we'll find it. The family waited. Then they asked again. No receipt. Years passed.

Still no receipt. Then when private investigator Andy Clamser asked Sergeant Cross about it, Cross says he hasn't seen it. He says he heard about it from the family. Then goes on to say, it should have been photographed, and placed into property.

Other receipts belonging to Joseph were photographed and logged, normal police stuff. And this receipt supposedly placed Joseph alive at a precise time on Saturday. Where the hell is it? Are you saying that Joseph left the beach on Saturday, drove to get a slice of pizza, then drove back to his house just to put this little pizza receipt on his desk, then drive off to mile 44 to never be seen again? Why on earth would he do that? And this wasn't just a pizza box,

pizza box, there was a partially eaten piece of pizza inside it. Somebody ate it. So was it tested? No. It wasn't. Ten years later, there is no receipt for this pizza. The crust that may have DNA or saliva on it was never tested. There's no security footage. There's no bank record that supports Joseph actually buying it. It's just one more thing, one more unclosed loop, that slowly but surely becomes part of a narrative. The I Found a Pizza Box becomes Joseph bought lunch at 2.15. These are not the same things.

Maybe Joseph bought it. Maybe he ate it. I would love to have that answer. But like a majority of the evidence in this case, it remains unverified. Nothing was followed up on. In the years that my team and I have looked into this case, I've always wondered, who sent everyone looking for a fisherman in the first place? Let's get this straight. Joseph did fish. People knew that about him, and he was pretty damn good at it.

But where did the story come from? That Joseph went fishing on the weekend he disappeared. The clearest and earliest indication was on Saturday morning, and it came from his cell phone. his fiance Megan received a text from his cell phone that said probably going to head back out later to another river where the kings might be this message leaves Joseph's phone at 10.19 a.m. on Saturday morning but from the moment his fiance and Megan received it she felt that it sounded wrong the way he says he loves her things you'd probably never notice in somebody else's relationship but she did six minutes later Megan replies

her message is received and read. Then the conversation goes quiet. Joseph, or Joseph's phone, would never respond again. But the text message itself gives us a fishing plan. It doesn't tell us which river, and it can't tell us by itself when he was coming back, whether it was by himself. But fishing becomes an explanation.

And if Joseph is injured somewhere out there, of course you follow it. You want to find him while there's still time. But when the searchers got to his truck, and his friends and family looked around, they start asking obvious questions like, why would Joseph fish here? My memory is pretty clear.

I felt sick because it felt hopeless. People were looking at each other like, what are we doing? He's not here. No one parks a truck like that. I remember thinking that was ridiculous. It seems crazy. No.

His friends knew his habits, the kinds of places he'd go. Those details were. would stick with them and made them question whether they were searching the right place at all. On July 4th, during the full-on search for Joseph Baldaris, a fishing pole turns up on the Shovel Creek Trail, five miles back towards town from the truck. If it belonged to Joseph, it would give searchers another place to work from. A fishing pole, a message about fishing. You can see how these things start to look like an answer. But do they actually hold up?

because the experienced searchers out there were suspicious. They said they'd already searched that trail, and the fishing pole had a bright bobbler on it. It wasn't exactly trying to blend in. How did this get here? It wasn't hiding in the brush. It was right off the trail, a trail they had already searched. What is this doing here?

The state troopers collected, and they searched the nearby area with dogs to determine whether it carried Joseph's scent. The result was inconclusive. So we have a fishing pole. We have a fishing story, but we still don't know if it's Joseph's. Around that same time, the family was becoming increasingly uneasy about Kevin Pascoya. His general presence, Selena describes it as feeling watched.

Every team meeting in private discussion, all of a sudden, Kevin was there, to the point where it became noticeable by everyone, because it was making them feel uncomfortable. Kevin Pascoya, he is Christine's uncle. 20-year veteran of the Air Force Base, he retired from it after 20 years, came back to Nome. He worked at the Nome Police Department for a very short period of time, about three months. For whatever reason, did not work there anymore. Kevin Vesquoia went around and his side-by-side and ran over all the tracks. They screamed, they yelled, what are you doing?

Why did you do that? Footprints, and you just ran over him. that's bizarre behavior for somebody that has law enforcement training. You don't even have to have law enforcement training. Just a normal person knows that if you're falling a foot track, you don't go run over it. A normal person knows that. But for a cop that has been trained in the collection, preservation of evidence, that's really abnormal. He is Christine's uncle, which Christine is important because she's the last person that we know saw Joseph.

alive. A fishing pole wasn't there. Then all of a sudden it is there. Kind of just like the rifle found in Joseph's house. A week prior, the state troopers did a thorough search of Joseph's house. Then just days later, when they came back again, there's a rifle in Joseph's storage area, a rifle that wasn't there before. Then after asking a few questions, Kevin Pascoya comes out and says he'd moved it there, but weeks earlier. Okay? Those details made people feel suspicious. Another thing that wasn't there, and now it's there. How it got there becomes gray.

Confusing, doesn't make sense. Now, this rifle story doesn't prove that Kevin planted this fishing pole out there. But what it does prove is that he was actively moving evidence, allegedly belonging to Joseph during the time of an active investigation. Why is someone doing this in the first place? Not to mention, he himself is an act. ex-cop. This is a pretty big no-no, right? Not in Nome, Alaska. Eventually, this fishing pole lead falls apart, and after just a normal observation of where his truck was found, Joseph

going fishing out here at all made no sense. But don't worry, the backup explanation was already there and ready to go. He was hiking. Okay, let's pause for a second. Before we get to that, listen to Christine in July 2016. This is merely weeks after Joseph went missing, and she's talking to the family's private investigator about leaving the beach that day with Joseph. Here's what she says. So I got all the kids ready, went down to the beach,

and then we were at the beach for a couple hours, and I told Joseph, I said, if you want to go to camp, you're welcome to go, you know where it's at. He's been to camp before, but he said, no, I'm going to go look for fish. And I kind of laughed and said, where are you going to find fish? There's no fish yet.

It's too early. And he's like, get the mouse. People said they're catching fish. I said, okay. He's like, you can go. I said, I'm not looking for fish. I'm going to camp. So at the end of June, there weren't any strong salmon runs?

I don't think so. I mean, there could have been trout, but... Do you think that Joseph went out to mile 44 to fish? Seems like a long way to go for a marginal river. You can find trout and graling up there. But I don't know. He didn't tell me. about the only place he said he was going fishing was at the mouth,

the Gnome River, right here, you know. Not anything out there. He didn't say anything. The mouth of the Gnome River. That's oddly specific. She remembers asking where. She remembers thinking about it because apparently she thought it was silly. This is Christine's first-hand account of what Joseph apparently told her.

She says Joseph told her that he was going to go fishing. Now let's fast forward. Less than a year later, Joseph's family is in court, seeking a presumptive death declaration, a painful legal step. But for the family, another way to keep searching for answers. And it also gave them the chance to have witnesses answer questions under oath. So here's Christine again, describing where she thinks Joseph went.

Did you give me an indication that he would just kind of pick up the need or just kind of, I don't even stop around the situation. I don't think so because that weekend he was going for a hike. So he's hiking now. Why did that change? What just struck me and I haven't, maybe there's something there, maybe not. You know, I remember saying that it was a Saturday, Saturday when the last time he was seen.

So my stepdad John, he's from Nome. I mean, that's how he went to Nome in the first place. I convinced him to go to Nome because of the two clerk positions were open. Because I love Nome. Numb's a great spot. I mean, a little painted now. But the end of that trip when we were leaving, John told me something is not right here.

He said that where that came from was that he ran to some old friends. They had told him they saw him Sunday. He's like, you know, that's not what everyone's saying. Everyone's troopers or whatever. It was Saturday. But they were saying that they definitely saw him Sunday. He said that this guy's a pilot. It's a pilot in his wife, and it always kind of stuck with me, you know.

They said that they saw him at a grocery store getting a pizza or something on that Sunday. It didn't make any sense, you know. When else said they saw him a different day. It didn't make any sense, you know. It's just something that always kind of stuck with me as this pilot and his wife. that had this different story, you know. He said, are you sure it was Joseph? And that they said,

we just had dinner with him on Wednesday or something, but we had dinner with him. We know this guy. He's a good friend of ours or whatever. So we wouldn't mistake him. And, you know, I didn't ever think about it, really, that when I was listening to out of a podcast, and he was also started talking about this Alaska Airlines pilot,

startled me. Yeah, I've thought about it over the years is Alaska Air One pilot. Something's wrong. Something's not right. At this point, I'm past asking how these stories keep changing. I want to know why they keep changing.

We're past the point of bad memory. Oh, I said that, but I really meant this. That's bullshit. And you know it. 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 Lettby, 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 Area 51. If you're looking for smart, detailed true crime with personality, check out Red Handed wherever you get your podcasts. 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 he could contact a guy named Tom Vaden? Yeah.

Now, the interesting you could say Tom Vaden, though, because I don't know why they would even 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 to see? Christine Pascoya? We'd be texting Tom? Right. For what?

Well, that's what I'm wondering. I mean, do we have verification that happened? Yeah. Huh. I don't know that they have any linkage whatsoever. 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 aides 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. Christina's 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. Why was Christine talking to Tom Vaden? Tom Vaden wasn't just some random guy in Nome. He had extensive emergency medical training. He trained other health aides in town.

and was certified as an EMT. So why were all these calls made? Even in the middle of the night? What were they talking about? And it only gets weirder. This wasn't Tom's cell phone. It was actually a landline. And we traced the exact house it belongs to.

Talking to one of my local sources, even Tom Vaden confirms that himself. He says that during the summer of 2016, he had already moved out of that house, but there were other people staying there. including his ex-wife, and then Tom himself, describes the people that were staying in his house as pretty shifty people. Well, that's not good. And here's the other thing. This is not the first time I've heard about this house in Nome. From what I've gathered over the years, this was basically the party house. Transient people coming and going.

Drugs, being sold, being used. Random people crashing there. Now, none of that proves anything. but it makes the next thing we found in Christine's phone records way harder to ignore. According to Christine's phone records provided by the cell company, the last call made on Saturday was at 10.55 p.m. to a cell phone belonging to a man named Thomas Sampson. Okay, a lot of names already, I know, but bear with me. Thomas Sampson is Tom Vaden's stepson, who was also living in that house during the summer that Joseph went missing. So here's the pattern. Christine repeatedly calls one house during the day and through the night that Joseph disappears. Then late the following night, a man who actually lived in

that house, calls Christine directly from his own cell phone. What were these calls about? Ten years ago, the Balderas family was concerned about this. And ten years later, I'm very concerned about it. So what's the deal here? And as if this couldn't feel any more ominous than it does, Tom Vaden makes one of the most bizarre statements you could ever possibly make here. And according to my local source and Gnome, just a few years ago, she brought this all up again. Tom Vaden's own statement to her was that he believes Joseph is buried somewhere.

Then he takes it one step further and says, you should check under the house on 6th Avenue. His house. I don't care if you were living there at the time or not. The landline belongs to you. I also checked the Alaska property records. This house is under your name, Tom Vaden. Why would anyone make a comment like that about their own property?

Maybe Tom was just talking shit about his ex-wife. Maybe he was just throwing out some wild theory. Maybe, just maybe. He had no idea how insane this sounded. But you don't just casually tell someone to look for a missing man's body underneath a house that received repeated calls from one of the last people connected to him on the day he vanished. Especially when another person from that same house calls her later that night.

And most certainly, not when you own the damn property. Tom Vaden just telling my source, I didn't live there anymore. Does not make this go away. I promise you that. It actually creates more questions for me. His wife was there. His stepson was there.

Christine was calling it over and over. And years later, Tom himself points to underneath it. Seriously, however you slice it, none of this is a good look. And none of it makes these phone calls, this time period, this house, the stuff that was happening at this house, who owned it, who lived there,

In the time period in which these calls were made, any less suspicious. There is some sort of connection here. But what exactly is it? And what does it all mean? Could the truck ever have come back to Nome? Based on all the conflicting accounts, maybe. Behind Joseph's house, a security camera was recording the road. It belonged to Bonanza Express, a convenience store directly behind the property.

Its cameras face the gas pumps and cover the surrounding streets. Up until this point, we've been trying to sort out people's memories. Who saw what? Which day did they really mean? But here's a chance to check one of those memories against something that was actually recorded while was happening. Security footage with real timestamps. According to a friend of Joseph's named Julia, on the Saturday night of June 25th, Joseph's truck was parked at the house in Nome.

The private investigator challenged this. So using a 1 to 10 scale where 10 is absolutely certain, how sure are you that you saw the truck at the house Saturday night between 8.9 p.m.? Like so certain that I actually remember looking at his house, seeing the truck, and saying, oh, I should invite Joseph to Michael's birthday party. I was literally going to stop there. Something told me to stop there, and I didn't. You know how hard that is, like on like a personal level?

I had like four different times that my gut had said, text Joseph, and I didn't do it. That's very hard for me, extremely hard for me. But see, the messed up part is, it's like, I know that truck was there. But then people are saying it was out there, so that's what made me second guess myself. That's what's so hard.

If you're going to use a one to ten scale in terms of how certain you are about your memory, because this is a key issue. I know. Everyone says that it wasn't there, but I swear it was. But then it's making me second as myself. You know what I mean?

The truck was there. Julia seems pretty adamant about this. And there's a clean way to rule it out, a pretty straightforward assignment, actually. Get the footage before it disappears. On July 7th, 2016, investigators Jorgensen and Kevin go to Bonanza. A store manager confirms in fact this video does exist

and agrees to download it. Then the local case officer, Trooper Smith, is supposed to be contacted when it's ready. Four days go by. Then Bonanza calls. The high-resolution files are too big for their local storage. They need a shorter time window, something more specific,

or maybe just someone to come out and watch the footage themselves. Annoying, sure. A reason to lose the footage altogether? No. The official report states that instead of just getting a bigger hard drive or taking a five-minute drive to Bonanza in person and bringing your own camera or your cell phone for that matter and snapping pictures or videos, anything. They passed this job off to Joseph's family. They ask his sister and his mom to go through it, while they were already out searching in person. By July 15th, Julia, gives investigators something that should have made this a whole lot easier. She claims to have seen the truck outside Joseph's house between 8.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday night.

That's an exact 30-minute window. 30 minutes, one vehicle, a road the cameras facing. If she's right, the truck was back and known that evening. When other sightings place it down at Council Road, this conflict needed checking. And so did Jake's whereabouts, Joseph's roommate. Jake's attempted Saturday night alibi didn't hold up, and the police knew that. But yet the case file still doesn't give us a clear replacement. Okay, he was lying. They caught him.

Well, what was he really doing? Because during the same exact time, Jake was trying to fabricate an alibi is the exact same time one of Joseph's friends, Julia, claims to have seen the truck at the house. Seriously, guys, you can't mess this one up, right? Wrong. Investigators never went back to Bonanza. Never even tried to get the footage. They pawned off on the family.

The security system retained roughly 30 days of footage, but by late July, the window was gone. And so was the footage. To make matters even worse, while this major investigative lead was being botched by police, something else was happening inside Bonanza. On July 8th, Joseph's missing credit card is used at Bonanza. Then again on the 9th,

the 11th, the 13th, then the 14th, five different transactions, weeks after Joseph was missing. But the security footage that did exist was lost forever, all because no one went back to check on it, all because of a file size, and also just not going back to check on it. Any visual evidence that could prove whether or not Joseph's truck was actually there in Nome at the house that night, or who may have been using his card weeks after he was missing was in the trash. Major fail here. But 10 years later, all hope is not lost. What we do have are the receipts.

Joseph's family worked long and hard with the credit card companies and the bank to get the exact itemized receipts from the purchases made with his card inside Bonanza Express. And it just so happens that by law, for age-restricted sales, like alcohol or cigarettes, the clerk enters the customer's date of birth at the register. And on these receipts, we have a birthday, an exact birthday, one that does not belong to Joseph.

So who does it belong to? When Joseph's family first showed me these receipts, I began a long, grueling process of trying to figure out who the hell made these purchases. All I had was their birth date. But this birth date aside, one thing throughout all these receipts was consistent. Cool, menthol cigarettes. That might sound like a throwaway detail, but in this case, it gave us another way to look for the person standing at the register.

To sell someone's cigarettes, the register needs an age check. During a purchase, somebody enters a date of birth that is not Joseph's. Maybe it belongs to the customer. Maybe the clerk just enters it as a shortcut. Maybe somebody gives a false date. We don't know. But we can look for a real person whose birth date matches it. Two years ago, I reached out to Andy Clamzer and started searching Alaska Records.

A long list of names came back. Over 200, actually. Now the work gets less exciting and a lot more useful. Check the birth date against official records. Then check the connection to Noam. Then check to see whether it fits in 2016. A birthday alone could send us towards somebody who's never even been to Knome before, someone who's never been anywhere near this case.

Every promising name needed to survive a closer look before anyone was contacted. So the process began. 200 names. There was one birthday. January 26, 1971. We have 200 names, not exactly a breakthrough, but a start. And this wasn't a list of suspects. Right now they're just random people.

We had to start cutting it down. First, let's confirm it's their actual birthday. Not one day off, not one year off, not through one random people search website. We need court files, government records, all saying the same thing. Second, can we actually place this person in Nome during the summer of 2016? Not just somewhere in Alaska, Nome, Alaska. That knocked out most of the list pretty quickly.

No connection to Nome, gone. Lived in Nome, but nowhere close to 2016, gone. And this is where the process got annoying, because these databases are wrong all the time. They'll mix two people together, attach the wrong birthday to the wrong name, put somebody in a city they never actually lived in, and then present it all to you like it's a fact.

So every time we thought we had somebody, we had to start all over and rebuild that person's identity from scratch. We weren't trying to prove the lead. We were trying to kill it. Every name had to survive us actively trying to prove it wrong. And most of them didn't. A man named Scott initially looked promising. But when we found his official date of birth, it didn't match.

Next. Then there was a guy named Zachary. His profile looked promising too. But the deeper we dug, the more it looked like the database was blending multiple people together. cross them off, and this kept happening over and over. A name would survive the first test, then fail the second. Another name would survive both tests, then completely fall apart when we checked the original records. 200 names became just a few dozen, and a few dozen became a handful.

That handful became two, and then there was one. His name is Sean, and for the time being, I'm going to censor his last name. I'm calling him Sean North. Sean is his real first name. North is an alias. I'm withholding his last name for now. To protect an investigative lead, I think is very important here.

I want answers. And I want law enforcement somewhere or some way to eventually examine this properly. I don't need the internet contacting him for me. Sean North. His birthday matches the receipt. Court records confirm it repeatedly. He has documented ties to Noam. A commercial address record associates him with Noam during the exact period we're interested in.

And its end date is June 26, 2016. Wait a minute. What? I'm looking at the screen right now, and I have double triple-checked it. His address records for Nome, Alaska, run through exactly June 26, 2016. That's the day after Joseph went missing. Let's pause for a second. These records don't tell me the exact day someone boarded a plane.

These databases aren't departure logs. But the irony here, I mean, this connection is enough for me to keep looking. Old addresses, relatives, phone numbers. Eventually, a Facebook, my favorite. I find a Facebook. profile that appears to be his. And we have a mutual friend. How the hell is that possible?

But then I remembered what I've actually done to my Facebook account over the last few years. It's basically a very strange gnome phone book at this point. And he's also connected to another person on Facebook. A name I haven't seen connected anywhere else, except for Christine Pascoya. Thomas Sampson. Remember that name? Thomas Sampson is the man who made that phantom phone call from his own cell phone to Christine on the Saturday night Joseph went missing. He's also the guy that lived in the same house where other phantom phone calls were made into the early morning hours leading right up to when Joseph went missing.

Okay, it's not nothing. So what do I do? Before I contact Sean, the guy with the matching birth date, The only one in the country with a matching birthday, who was also provably a gnome during the exact window in question, that Sean. I need to find out more about him. Let's look at that mutual friend of ours. I messaged them. They got back.

My message was simple. I said, would you be willing to talk to me about this case? Didn't say what case it was. I was hoping they'd know what I was talking about. They answered. Yes. So I gave them my phone number. Then they texted me.

Everything was normal. Going well. Almost too well, actually. Until I asked one question, how do you know Sean North and Thomas Sampson? They read it. Nothing. Minutes go by, hours go by,

then a full day. They completely ghost the conversation. This person had agreed to talk. They took my phone number. They texted me first. Then the second I ask about Sean, the whole conversation stops. Maybe they got busy. Maybe they changed their mind.

But the timing was not subtle. I waited one more day. Then I pushed again. Probably too hard. Eventually they responded on Facebook, but this time they were very guarded. They wanted to know how I found them. Then they said, Everything you do is on record.

It's a small town. Then they said this. I want to talk to my pastor first. What? Your pastor? I asked how they knew two people, but apparently we're already at the pastor stage. At this point, I knew I came in too hot.

If I kept pushing, this conversation was over. So I backed up. I explained, I protect my sources. Most people I speak to never even. even appear on the podcast, which is true. I wasn't trying to drag them into anything. I just wanted them to understand that I had a real reason for asking. So I showed them part of my hand, in confidence, and in a very risky move,

I told them that Joseph's credit card had been used at Bonanza Express after Joseph went missing. And I told them that a birth date entered in those transactions was an exact match for an individual he knew. Geez, I didn't want to have to say that. But now they were listening, and they opened up immediately. They told me that Sean North, the man whose birthday matches the receipt, had married into their adopted family, known Sean since he was a kid. These were real childhood memories, not town gossip, and they were offering this to me on their own.

So I asked where Sean was living during the summer of 2016. Noam. Then they volunteered something I wasn't expecting. They said later that year, Sean left Nome abruptly, out of nowhere. And according to them, Sean had a good job, was making good money, but then suddenly quit and left Nome for good. The explanation going around was some kind of family emergency, but they said as time passed, that explanation stopped making sense. Their exact words were, there was no explanation for why Sean left. more questions than answers. They said Sean had a lot going for him,

then suddenly threw it all away. This was going in a very different direction now, but I still had one way to test it. I still had one question I had deliberately held back. I typed it out. Do you remember what kind of cigarettes Sean smoked? I waited. The typing bubble appeared,

then disappeared. Then came back. Oh my God. Finally, they answered, Cools. Cool, menthol cigarettes. I remember seeing those in his ashtray when I was growing up. My aunt would get pissed when he smoked them in the bathroom.

Holy shit. At mile 44, every clue asked us to trust a story. At Bonanza, the evidence finally gave us something we could test. a transaction, a product, a birthday, a place, and now a name. Either Sean North had just been struck by the unluckiest lightning bolt in Nome, Alaska. Or we may have just found the man using Joseph's credit card after he was missing. A man that's connected to the very last phone calls Christine Fesquio was making on the very night in question. Is this enough to make an arrest?

I don't know. Is this enough to go back, interview these people, and resolve the contradictions in the AST's own reports? Absolutely. On January 15, 2004, my producer Mike sent an email to Alaska's missing and murdered Indigenous persons investigator. His official job included outreach to families and communities and helping the Alaska Bureau of Investigation with active and cold cases. We wanted to interview him about Florence Ocpioch in the broader MMI crisis. The email went like this. Hi, Lonnie, we've seen several talks you've given and your work with MMI while a state trooper.

It's really strong and admirable. I was wondering if you'd be interested in being interviewed for a new season of our podcast coming out this year. In our new season of Up and Van vanished, we're covering Florence Ockpioch. We've already made four trips up to Alaska, and your name came up a lot as someone we should reach out to. Thanks for all the good work you've done. Let me know if you're ever available for a brief chat. Thanks. That was on January 15th, 2024.

We never got a response to that request. It asked about Florence, and missing indigenous people, the literal subject of this man's job. Why wouldn't you answer that? But then a few months went by, and I started learning more about Joseph's case. Something jumped out immediately. What was that guy's name again? Lonnie something? I went back to check.

The official appointed investigator for Alaska's missing and murdered indigenous people is Lonnie Pascoya. Fast forward a few years later, that name comes up again. I'm a friend, and he's like, you got to hear this. You got to listen to this podcast, and my job was on the floor. This was all completely new information to us. Towards the end of August, they were up and known. Meeting as a family about this. Once the podcast has started, they're having these meetings and things up and known.

Lonnie specifically advised them at these meetings to not say anything this whole time. They all gathered right after the podcast started. Lonnie's advice. them to stay quiet. When I listened to the interviews, I could tell exactly where he was making stuff up, where he was nervous and trying to lead the investigator down this road with the bear thing. It was very clear to me. He was trying to lead the investigator a different direction.

I think they're covering up for something that Jake, Kevin, or Christine, was involved in. Why aren't you talking? Why are you guys not defending your stuff? or helping, there is not one shred of empathy for Joseph's family. Not one. A direct family member who asked to remain anonymous. Here's the deal. I'm tired of watching the families of Florence Ocpialik and Joseph Baldaris have to beg for answers

they should have been given years ago. I will not stand for this shit anymore. As of this week, the Up and Vanish team has been in close contact with the FBI. We've prepared a packet of investigative material, unreleased recordings and communications, firsthand witness testimony, signed affidavits. There are things in here we are not releasing publicly because I want investigators at the highest level to have the strongest chance to test them. This is active and ongoing, but the investigation itself is far from over.

For now, our podcast chapter on Joseph, and Florence are coming to a close. Our work on their cases is not. This has always been true for Up and Vanished. Every case I've ever covered remains part of the work I do behind the scenes, even when there's not a new episode to show you. And I want to be clear. If this approach stops moving us toward answers,

you'll hear from me, and I'll be back on this microphone telling you exactly where things stand. I care about getting the reporting right. and I also know you make time for this show. In 10 years into Up and Vanished, wow, that sounds crazy. My team and I have been actively working on the next chapter of Up and Vanished.

The same investigations, the same kind of storytelling, me taking you through what we're finding as we find it, all in one place right here. That is what we've been building. And I'll have a lot more to share on that soon. Thank you for staying. with Joseph and Florence, for listening closely, for caring about people you may have never

met, and to their families, thank you for trusting us. I know that trust comes with the responsibility. It doesn't end here. So it's goodbye for now, but not for good. Later this year, I'll be back. And this time, I'll be staying with you for good. 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 Kineke. 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. You know,