Up and Vanished - Florence Okpealuk and Joseph Balderas: Still Missing

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Two names. Two disappearances. In this episode, Payne returns to Nome to retrace the final steps of Florence Okpealuk and Joseph Balderas; two cases separated by years, but connected by silence. What ...happened under the midnight sun? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to a Tenderfoot TV podcast. From early morning workouts that need a boost, to late night drives that need vibes, a good playlist can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite Mastercard to help you earn the most PC optimum points everywhere you shop. With the best playlists, you never miss a good song. Hey, it's Payne. I want to thank everyone for being a listener of this show. And I know a lot of you have been here since the very beginning And for a very long time we've had no merch or anything for you to show off that this might be your favorite podcast If it is but now we do if you go to shop dot tinderfoot TV
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Starting point is 00:01:44 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 back to Up and Vanished Season 4, In the Midnight Sun. It's time to finish what I started.
Starting point is 00:02:16 This is the first time I've ever covered two cases in the same season. Florence Okpialik and Joseph Balderas. Two names, two mysteries, and one central place. No Malaska. I know it's been a while, and I want to be honest with you. The break we took wasn't because this story faded. It's because new stories came roaring back to life. Cases from earlier seasons that couldn't wait any longer. Real updates. Real consequences. And people connected to these stories who passed away. Gone. Before we got the full truth. I've learned that you don't just walk away from these cases.
Starting point is 00:02:57 As Mark Smerling once told me, you don't get to clock out of this work like you're bagging groceries. These people stay with you forever. And even now, while recording this very episode, someone from Gnome reached out to me with new information about Florence. This isn't a story I'm telling from a distance. I'm still very much in the center.
Starting point is 00:03:20 In this episode, we're going to catch you back up and we're going to listen closely to some of the tape we've been sitting on. Tape that, no matter how many times we play it, something keeps pulling us back in. From Tinderfoot TV in Atlanta, I'm your host, Payne Lindsay, and this is Up and vanished in the midnight sun. Nome, Alaska, a town where stories freeze and then disappear. For some, it's the last stop on the edge of the earth. She had reportedly last been seen on West Beach.
Starting point is 00:04:25 From that point on, we were doing updates on a daily basis as to what was happening with the search efforts. This season on Up and Vanished, Payne Lindsay arrived in Nome to investigate not one, but two missing persons cases, both unsolved, both haunting. Her name was Florence Okpialik, a 33-year-old native Inupiaq woman. After becoming pregnant,
Starting point is 00:04:52 she moved from the small village she grew up in to Nome in search of better care for her daughter. Allegedly, she was last seen near a bar on Front Street headed towards West Beach, never to return. She left behind her shoes, jacket, and a family who was never stopped looking. I feel like someone is responsible for getting rid of her. Whether it was an accident and they didn't want to get in trouble for how it looked or It was an intentional incident
Starting point is 00:05:29 She was harmed somebody knows something and Covered it up But when she disappeared no one searched the way they should have not at first Not seriously not like they would have for someone else Not seriously. Not like they would have for someone else. My reporter and I were covering this nonstop because we've seen enough instances leading up to this to know that if there's not action taken within a certain time frame, if there's not some sort of accountability with the police department,
Starting point is 00:05:59 this could easily get swept under the rug. Another Alaska Native person is missing and that is what it is and then nothing happens. And when pain arrived in Nome, Florence's name was barely being whispered. Then there was Joseph Balderas, 36 years old, drawn to Nome by both work and passion for the outdoors. Welcome to Alaska. This is it. This is my little piece of home here. That's open ocean out there.
Starting point is 00:06:35 You can certainly feel the magnitude of the ocean when you're on this. You don't really wanna fuck around out there. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just being out here. In June 2020, Joseph disappeared after a night out. His car was found on an isolated stretch of Nome Council Highway near mile marker 44. There was some fishing gear, and a pair of waders in his truck, but not much else. No signs of struggle, no Joseph.
Starting point is 00:07:08 Everybody was pretty consistent about what they said about Joseph. They described him as a very charismatic, smart guy who loved Alaska and had a lot of plans for the future, and met this woman in Juneau, Megan Ryder. They were planning to get married. He had spent several years working as a law clerk to judges,
Starting point is 00:07:37 and he was ready to transition from that kind of work into a law practice. So he was going to open a practice in Juneau, and he and Megan were going to get married. There was nothing negative that I found in researching Joseph, nothing that raised red flags for me. He just seemed like a super nice guy that everybody liked. A guy with a lot of plans and, you know, a lot of stuff going on.
Starting point is 00:08:07 There have been suggestions from law enforcement that he was eaten by a bear or fell into a portal. But Payne didn't buy that. And neither did the people who knew him. He's talked to me about her. He was very in love with her. He would text her right away. She sent us all the messages.
Starting point is 00:08:27 I mean, they're like, there is no wait time. 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 Internationale is gonna be hopping today and I'm sure you're gonna have a good lunch and I'm sure you're gonna to have a good lunch and I'm sure you're going to have good walks and a good hike.
Starting point is 00:08:47 But I just wanted to say also that I love you and have a great day, babe. Bye. Two people, gone, in a sparsely populated town. One, an Alaska native mother whose case was almost invisible. The other, a man working in the court system, hoping to soon start his own law firm. Both disappeared without a trace. And the one thing they shared? No.
Starting point is 00:09:19 Had she just simply walked off and died, we would have found her. That scenario that he was attacked by a bear, somehow the body was hidden, that just seemed unlikely. And so it was worth looking into. The more you look into it, the more unanswered questions and red flags there were. Gnome has seen dozens of people vanish, most of them native, most of them women, and most of them ignored. When Payne started asking questions, he hit a wall of silence.
Starting point is 00:10:00 Officials didn't want to talk, locals were hesitant, and a history of distrust between Indigenous communities and law enforcement loomed over everything. Please turn those videos into the department. Okay. Okay. We're scared. We're scared everywhere we go because somebody's usually following me. I understand that.
Starting point is 00:10:23 We do. We're recording everything because we don't trust anybody. The police department, they neglected her. They neglected Joe in every way, shape, and form. And I'm really mad about it. They judge Natives. I think that there could be human trafficking, that there could be human trafficking, sex trafficking, and somebody is holding a secret, and they're not telling. They're not gonna tell anything. I think they killed her, and they got away with it.
Starting point is 00:11:02 If you know the history of Nome, there have been a lot of people missing. We all believe these people are going to do it again. But then, slowly, people started talking. And Payne realized these two disappearances weren't just parallel mysteries, they were pressure points, and something was starting to crack. Two disappearances, one town, and with each episode of Up and Vanished, a question echoed louder.
Starting point is 00:11:42 Is this just coincidence, or is Gnome hiding something deeper? Florence's story was the quieter one, until you really listened. She was last seen on West Beach, just outside of town, the place where her shoes were found, where the tide pulls things away. The search started late, too late. I don't wanna bash anyone, but it feels like the police department priority of cases is not based on the protection of the actual people that live there.
Starting point is 00:12:18 The FBI stepped in, but even then, answers didn't come. The Alaska native community had seen this before. A woman goes missing. The family begs for help. And the silence settles in again. I started looking into Nome and long history of public complaints about mistreatment of Alaska Native people by police.
Starting point is 00:12:43 Women and girls in Alaska faced four times the national average of homicides. I felt it was really under-reported. Florence became part of a pattern, a painful historical one. And Payne knew if this case was going to move, it wouldn't be through official channels. It would be through
Starting point is 00:13:05 whispers, through courage, through the people willing to talk. Joseph's story spiraled in a different direction. The more pain looked into his disappearance, the more confusing it became. He was last seen allegedly near mile 44, but the details didn't add up. His car was there, but some said he returned to town afterward. Others said they saw him Sunday, after he was already considered missing. And then came Jake, Joseph's roommate, the last person who claims to have seen him. Jake's account changed. At first he said he didn't see Joseph after Sunday.
Starting point is 00:13:51 Then he said he saw him Sunday. Then he said nothing at all. I know that the timeline doesn't make sense to you and we know that his roommate says he saw him. People are mistaken. It could be that. It could be that he came back in, forgot his phone, or there's all these theories.
Starting point is 00:14:06 But I don't have the answers and nobody does. The roommate's Sunday. Do you know what he said about that? Like, yes, I saw him. I spoke to him. I saw him driving away. Like, what level of commitment do you think? They passed each other in the home. Inside the house on Sunday.
Starting point is 00:14:21 Guys, I'll be happy to go talk to Jake again. Jake wasn't just a roommate. He was also Christine's cousin, Joseph's co-worker and occasional drinking buddy. Christine is important because she's the last person that we know saw Joseph alive. So she's a really important figure. Everyone has that friend who seems kind of perfect. For Patty,, that friend was Desiree. Until one day… I texted her and she was not getting the text. So I went to Instagram and she has no Instagram anymore. And Facebook, no Facebook anymore. Desiree was gone. And there was one person
Starting point is 00:15:18 who knew the answer. I am a spiritual person, a magical person, a witch. A gorgeous Brazilian influencer called Cat Taurus, but who was hiding a secret. From Wandery, based on my smash hit podcast from Brazil, comes a new series, Don't Cross Cat, about a search that led me to a mystery in a Texas suburb. I'm calling to check on the two missing Brazilian girls. Maybe get some undercover crew there. The family are freaking out. They are lost. I'm Chico Felitti. You can listen to Don't Cross Cat on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Lair went down the beach to try to find her sister. This guy gives her some of Flo's clothes, but she's not there. I just know he was a cab driver in town and a lot of people didn't like him.
Starting point is 00:16:23 That's when Oregon John entered the picture. Mysterious man who lived on West Beach, a transient gold miner. There is no mining for gold in the winters of Nome. But during the warmer months, miners flocked to West Beach and set up camps. This was the last place Florence was seen, leaving the tent belonging to Organ John.
Starting point is 00:16:46 Rumors began to spread, and eventually he had to leave town. But Payne and his team eventually got a meeting with John, disguised as someone looking for a job opportunity. They talked in a bar, and Lindsay did his best to get as much information about John's time in Nome as possible. Florence and Joseph. Two names, two stories. Two families still waiting.
Starting point is 00:17:15 While Joseph's case grew darker, Florence's family stepped forward, stronger. They didn't want revenge. They wanted to be heard. He took a mother away from her child, sister, an aunt away from her family, a daughter. He took a daughter away from her parents. The FBI investigation had stalled. No updates, no suspects. But the community was waking up. People began to remember.
Starting point is 00:17:50 The women who had gone missing before. The cases that were closed without ever being solved. Florence's name was no longer a whisper. It was a rallying cry. If somebody abducts us, scratch him, pull our hair out, leave as much evidence as you can behind and rely on the public to find him. Not the police department,
Starting point is 00:18:10 because they're not capable or willing to. I've got a couple friends who were beaten up by them, but they were too scared to go forward. Then something else happened. Payne was scheduled to fly back to Nome, but five days before the flight, his name was leaked. A private flight manifest. Confidential.
Starting point is 00:18:34 Somehow, people in Nome knew he was coming. They started talking. 23 hours ago, I started hearing rumors about you. Payne never boarded that plane, and suddenly the story wasn't just about Florence or Joseph. It was about him too. The message was clear. Don't come back. So where does that leave us? Florence Okpialik, that leave us? Florence Okpialik, Joseph Balderes, two lives lost to mystery, two families without answers and one town that is learned to forget. But up in Vanish didn't come here to forget, and the people of Nome? Some of them aren't staying quiet anymore, because someone knows what happened. To Florence, to Joseph, and they're still out there. This is up and vanished in the midnight sun.
Starting point is 00:19:35 Two disappearances, two truths, still buried for now. for now. Did you hear about the Sonia Ivanov case? I did. So you kind of know the background between the community and law enforcement right now and how it's been in recovery but not recovering. In Gnome, grief doesn't fade. It settles. And the silence that Florence left behind but not recovering. In Nome, grief doesn't fade. It settles.
Starting point is 00:20:06 And the silence that Florence left behind is still very loud. D'Isla was the very first person to reach out to me about Florence. She's been the voice keeping this case alive. Nome, Alaska, if you can envision, it's the hub community for all of these smaller, remote, like people fly on really small charter planes. They go to Nome all the time for medical.
Starting point is 00:20:31 They go to go grocery shopping. They go for meetings and conferences and stuff. But Nome is like the Vegas of all these smaller communities surrounding Nome. So Nome is where the heavy traffic of indigenous people go. So Nome is where the heavy traffic of Indigenous people go. And then they either go home as planned or they don't. That's just how it is there. Doing all of this research and trying to understand where are the issues?
Starting point is 00:20:57 And where are we lacking? Where are we needing to improve? And what I've noticed is that if we are not honest and if we're not speaking the truth as an indigenous woman, as a single mom, growing up in that culture in a small community, living outside of the small community in what they say is like the real world and seeing racism firsthand, experiencing it, you know, like how everything kind of ties into really what the MMIWG statistics are today, and like how can we really approach it?
Starting point is 00:21:37 Well, one thing is like, you're not gonna be honest and call the truths out, then there won't, no one is gonna address it. No one is going to understand it fully if you can't speak the truth. And we have to speak the truth. And like, if anyone's willing to hear it, then that is them seeing us and our concerns.
Starting point is 00:21:57 She had been drinking and she went to West Beach and continued to, I guess, party a little bit. And there was a witness that had watched her go in and out of this one mining tent on West Beach. That seemed very clear as a fact. And that is what the local law enforcement was also putting out there and asking for anyone to come forward with any more information. If it can happen to Flo, which everyone knew, she worked at the hospital and records, it can easily happen to one of us.
Starting point is 00:22:34 So I think that is a clear example of why most do not feel safe. And so it's hard not to think of Flo, for various reasons. There's no justice. Why don't we have justice in a Native community? Why don't we have that? Now, back to the case of Joseph Balderas. We've talked to a lot of people in this case, but this next voice you've never heard before. Her name is Hannah, and she may have been the last person to ever see Joseph Balderas alive.
Starting point is 00:23:23 She wasn't someone telling a secondhand story. She was there. She walked with him, through the quiet streets of Nome that night. This is a new lead, a new piece to the puzzle, that only seems to make things more confusing. I saw Joseph the night before he went missing. It was around 3am. My daughter wouldn't sleep, so I took her for a walk through town. He was leaving Soap & Suds alone. He told me he had plans to go ridge running and fishing
Starting point is 00:23:54 the next morning. Said he was heading about 40-45 miles down Council Road, right around where they found his truck. We stood outside the bar for a while, talking. He crouched down, played with my daughter and her stroller. Then we started walking toward our houses. He leaned on me for a bit, just to steady himself. We split off near the gas station. I stopped to talk to some friends outside. Joseph didn't know them, so he kept walking alone toward home.
Starting point is 00:24:24 We were only a few blocks from his place. And knowing him, he probably made it home. The next morning, I told my mom I'd seen him. Then Monday came, and we heard he was missing. That's when we joined the search. My grandparents had driven back from their cabin that Sunday morning. They saw Joseph's truck parked out on Council Road before 1 p.m. Before anyone claims they saw him that afternoon.
Starting point is 00:24:52 So when people say they saw him Saturday at the beach or Sunday at home, I don't know. And my papa, he worked dispatch for Gnome PD, he told us the last outgoing message from Joseph's phone was around 9am, Saturday. If he'd really been meeting up with someone, you'd think there'd be a text, right? He was our friend. He came to our house. Our cabin. He took pictures for my daughter's first birthday.
Starting point is 00:25:20 And then one day, he was just gone. No sign of him. No belongings, nothing. People disappear from Nome. It's not new. Some say it's the Ishigeks. Some say it's something worse. Me? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:25:39 Maybe he fell. Maybe someone hurt him. But with everything we put into the search, someone should have found something, anything. It's haunted me ever since. Joseph wasn't some fleeting figure. He was right next to her, laughing, talking about the wilderness, making plans to leave town the next morning,
Starting point is 00:26:04 plans he never got to finish. Joseph said he was headed 40 miles out on Council Road. That's where his truck was found. Almost too conveniently. But the problem is, his roommate Jake said he saw him at home the next day. So which version of events here is actually true? They can't both be. And then there's Hannah's grandfather.
Starting point is 00:26:27 He worked dispatch for Nome PD. He told Hannah the last text message from Joseph's phone went out around 9am on Saturday. Then no more messages. No sign of life whatsoever. And yet his truck was spotted early Sunday. And then there's Tom Moran. Back when Andy Clamzer, the private investigator, first came to Nome, Tom was the city manager.
Starting point is 00:27:12 It is the 4th of October 2016, the time now is 3.27 PM. You're the city manager, correct? Correct. And you know Joseph, or you knew Joseph, correct? I did, yeah. Do you recall if you were with Joseph on Friday evening, that would have been the 24th of June 2016, it would have been just before the weekend he went missing? When Joseph moved to Nome, there's kind of a small group of like a lawyers guild, I guess I'd call it.
Starting point is 00:27:43 A friend of mine named Andrew Dunmire, who is a public defender for the state of Alaska, and now he is stationed out of Anchorage, introduced me to Joseph. So just by a long-winded way of saying that Joseph and I, when he first moved up here a couple years ago, hung out a few times, and then it kind of, you know, for whatever reason,
Starting point is 00:28:02 he found a different group to kind of roll around with, and he stopped hanging out with the, for whatever reason, he found a different group to kind of roll around with and he stopped hanging out with the, for whatever reason, like I said, found kind of a different social circle. So we did not hang out socially, but I would see him around and we'd, you know, exchange pleasantries. I think he was a big college football fan.
Starting point is 00:28:18 So if there was something happening in the world of college football, we'd talk. So I did see him that night. I mean, it's so long ago that I can remember where it was and I can remember about what time it was but it was he was with a couple of girls, Christine and Kim Pascoya I think they're, I think Kim's last name is Pascoya, I know Christine's is at Breaker's Bar and I had been there, I went for happy hour with some friends when I got out of work at 5.30 or 6. I mean this is so long ago that I can't remember exactly when it
Starting point is 00:28:48 was and I'd say when I was leaving at 9 o'clock to go home for the night or thereabouts he was coming out for the night so just we exchanged pleasantries as I was kind of going out and he was coming in. So how certain are you of the times because we we had been under the impression that Joseph didn't go out with Christine and Kim until after midnight? I would be happy to like check an ATM receipt or something, but I can tell you that often You know, I know when I was out that night and it would be Not not impossible, but pretty rare for it to be a six-hour shift for me So if I said nine and it was really ten there's a possibility but I my belief would be that it was earlier than that that's a
Starting point is 00:29:46 relatively strong belief I know, you know when we first started discussing this when we are on the search and You know months or weeks or whatever that followed I've always said that it was about that time. So even when it was kind of fresh in my recollection I was pretty sure that it was a little a little in advance at midnight Do you happen to know of anyone who saw? Joseph or his truck that weekend Let me think So I
Starting point is 00:30:15 imagine that that like I said the group of people that I was with Would have seen him in the same context that I had which was would have seen him in the same context that I had, which was sitting in a middle stool in Breaker's Bar as we were kinda heading home for the night. I think, you know, I heard that, again, one of the rumors about the Pascoya girls was that Christine was interested in him, but he went and got this girlfriend in Juneau
Starting point is 00:30:42 and she was mad about that. I know her well enough to think that she's not a psychopath, and got this girlfriend in Juneau and she was mad about that. I know her well enough to think that she's not a psychopath, but I, boy, I just don't know. Thinking in my head, and I'm trying to think of justifications for why I think it was nine o'clock, is that I wasn't partying like an animal that weekend and I had a triathlon to do on Sunday morning. But I'll try to think about that and sort of vet that with these this group of people that I go out for
Starting point is 00:31:08 cocktails with. Great, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Alright Andy, no problem. Thanks for the call. I'll let you know if I think of anything. We're not done with Florence's case either, not by a long shot. Her family is still fighting for answers. I want to revisit someone who's come up more than once. In this season, we've referred to her as Kelly. Now, I've heard a lot of stories, most of them rumors, and I still don't know what's true.
Starting point is 00:31:42 But there's one thing I do know. It's time to talk about it Blair Florence's sister told us about Kelly and since I'm now pulling the cat out of the bag here Kelly's real name that she goes by is Danny girl remember that She apparently sent this text to a friend who then sent it to Blair and they shared it with me to a friend who then sent it to Blair and they shared it with me. This one says Danny girl from Teller said Paul admitted to her that him Michael and Paul admitted they cut her up after getting her high. They said she was screaming too
Starting point is 00:32:16 much and freaking out so they did that to her. Don't know if it's true. Fuckin freak me out. Now everything revolving around Danny Girl is a little clouded. There may be drug abuse. There may be some truth. And there may be both. Do you know someone who goes by the name Danny Girl? Well, I met with her. You did?
Starting point is 00:32:41 I was at work and she kept calling me. And I was getting irritated and she kept calling me. I was getting irritated because she does drugs. And I couldn't be a part of that and then she said I have to talk to you about something about flow. Then she said no. Then she said finally she said yes. So I told my boss I have to go. So I met up with her and I recorded it. You did? I did. When I first met with her, she was on the phone with the Bing, Bing distant. Then she started talking to me about Flo,
Starting point is 00:33:19 where she's at, what she did, what they did. Did you believe her? Yes and no. Why yes and why no? Because she got hired to shovel. That's what she told me. She did what? She got hired to shovel. For meth. Do you still have those recordings and stuff?
Starting point is 00:33:45 I brought it to the police department. You don't have it anymore? I don't. That phone broke. It's okay. But I brought it to the police department. And they brought the cadaver docs and never told us that they brought them until they left.
Starting point is 00:34:03 Where'd they take them? To a house by a roar in where Danny girl sat down. She was under there and there was something wrapped in there but she didn't know what was. Something wrapped in the corner. Who do you think is responsible for her disappearance? John Curtin. The FBI said the last conversation was through a friend.
Starting point is 00:34:38 And, uh, she lives in a village. She told her that there were four people in the bushes and they were passing something around. And she asked if she was okay and she said she didn't know. Was it a phone call? Yeah, it was a phone call. It was her last phone call. But on her phone, that was her last conversation.
Starting point is 00:35:04 It was the last call? Yeah. And then her phone died, every night. Do you know who she was with? John Curtin. I knew it was the other guys. Michael McCown. On June 26, 2016, 36-year-old Joseph Balderas dropped off the grid entirely, and he's ever been seen since then.
Starting point is 00:35:43 In most missing persons cases, there's almost nothing left behind. No clues, no crime scene, just questions. It's why these stories drag on for years. Because we're grasping at shadows. But in the case of Joseph Balderas, there is one undeniable piece of physical evidence. Joseph's truck. It sat in Nome for years, a ghost on the side of the road, frozen in time. And when I realized the only way to truly understand what happened was to get my hands on that truck, it's like a miracle
Starting point is 00:36:17 happened. I found it listed on Facebook Marketplace. Joseph's truck. The truck. And so, I bought it. But here's the catch. Right after I made the transaction, and sent the money via Venmo, I realized I had less than a couple of hours to move it off that island. Or risk it being stuck in Nome for another year. We need it off that fucking island. Foolishly, I didn't think it would be this hard. I have someone holding the vehicle for us now.
Starting point is 00:36:51 In Gnome. Why is this so hard? I thought Facebook marketplace, money sent, done deal. Shipping Gnome, Alaska, premium auto transport. Gnome is a city in western Alaska's unorganized borough. We know. The winter in G Nome doesn't wait for you. Neither does the last boat out. Nome's causeway serves as a docking port. Get to it. As it turns out, shipping a vehicle out of the Arctic tundra requires about six miracles,
Starting point is 00:37:18 a port manifest, and a goddamn time machine. Thanks for calling way past the cutoff. Every minute that passed, I was picturing Joseph's truck, frozen in place, buried under snow, untouched for yet another year. This can't happen. When we put out an email, I'd almost say they're gonna tell me we're way too late in the season for this. They stopped doing that when the winter comes. You know what, what's your first name? Final destination of this truck is Tacoma, Washington.
Starting point is 00:38:05 Please take a picture before you leave it. Hello, it's Tracy. Hey, it's Payne. Can you do me a huge, huge favor? Maybe. That's when I called one of my local friends and know him, Tracy. Not a shipping company, a person. Someone who could actually do something.
Starting point is 00:38:24 We had one shot, one hour. The keys were in the truck. Tracy had the address. Can you right now go get the truck so it can make the last shipment out before winter? I think so. Where's the key? The keys are in the truck. Okay.
Starting point is 00:38:44 At this address. I'm texting it to you now. Okay. At this address. I'm texting it to you now. I can go get it. Now all we needed was time. Is it possible for you to drive the vehicle to the port within the next hour? It's the cutoff. Dylan, did you already pay and run the card? It's the cutoff. Dylan, did you already pay and run the card? Cutting it close. LOL.
Starting point is 00:39:11 It won't be fucking LOL if that truck doesn't get on that ship. I'm gonna put you on with Dylan. God, send it. It's on its way to Anchorage. Somehow, it made it. And right now, Joseph's truck is sitting in Tacoma, Washington. And next week, we take it all apart. We forensically examine it on this podcast.
Starting point is 00:39:53 And what we find inside might finally tell us something that no one in Gnome ever would. Stay tuned next week for another episode of Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun. Hey guys, real quick. I'm on the road right now. We just wrapped shooting for a new show I'm hosting, America's Most Wanted, Missing Persons. It premieres this Monday, April 28th, 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox. And it also streams the next day on Hulu. So no excuse to not watch it. Please, please check it out. I promise you don't want to miss it.
Starting point is 00:40:35 America's Most Wanted, Missing Persons premiering this Monday, April 28th, 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox. And you can also watch it on Hulu. All right, shameless plug is over. Talk soon. Gonna get some sleep. I'll see you next week. ["The Midnight Sun"] Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun
Starting point is 00:40:59 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.
Starting point is 00:41:16 Editing by Mike Rooney and Cooper Skinner with additional editing by Dylan Harrington. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional production by Victoria McKenzie, Alice Konick Glenn, and Eric Quintana. Artwork by Rob Sheridan. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Seth. Mix and mastered by Cooper Skinner.
Starting point is 00:41:33 Thank you to Orin 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
Starting point is 00:41:51 or visit us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening. Well, I just found out that my dad lived a secret life as a hitman for the Chicago Mafia for all these years. It doesn't make any sense. He was a firefighter paramedic. How the hell can he be a hitman? I need answers. So I am currently on a plane back to Chicago to interview everybody.
Starting point is 00:42:27 Anybody that knows anything about this. I'm in shock. This is absolutely insane. I just don't understand. I need to figure this out. The shocking new true crime series, Kirk County, from Tenderfoot TV and iHeart podcasts is available now. Binge the entire series for free on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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