Up and Vanished - S2E5: Catfish

Episode Date: September 24, 2018

Mama said, don’t go near that river. 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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play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone else close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. Some of us, we tried doing some readings and that

and we were getting messages because we all knew her, you know, and we were working with this. We were getting river and caves. One night after we'd met up, I went home. I have a TV because someone gave me one. I hardly ever watch it. That's not me. I don't come home and I have a TV because someone gave me one. I hardly ever watch it. That's not me. I don't come home and turn on the TV. I'm too busy, first of all.

I'm never home. That night I came home, and for some reason I flipped the TV on, and it was on Channel 12. And a concert was just starting, and it was one that had been recorded here in Denver, and it was Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Well Well you have to be old to know who they are first of all. And they just stepped up on the stage just as I turned the TV on they start their first song and it was a song that probably no one in the world unless

they were as old as me would have known. But come the morning I'd always be there Walking in his footsteps in the sweet Delta Dawn Mama said, don't go down to the river and stay away from Catfish John. And I'm like, don't go down to the river. I'm like, there's something going on here. The only other band that ever did that song was the Grateful Dead. Well, that was her favorite band.

There's something about this, about the river and everything. So then when I told, it was either Amy or Angela, I can't remember who it was about it, and they're like, that's his name. And I go, who? They said, the guy, John, you know, his name is Catfish John. That's what they call him. I'm like, what? Unbelievable. You tell me that she didn't tell me to turn that TV on and hear that song. Of course it happened. No one else would have

known that. And I'm like, okay, Crystal, what are you telling me here? And then when I got it confirmed that that was the guy's name, Catfish John, what the hell are the chances a billion to one. I knew it was something from her. Hey, thanksne Rodney, I need you to call me back when you get this, if you would, please. Would you go through the paperwork and see if Crystal had any dental work, anything to indicate any dental work? I just got a call from Wayne about an hour ago. They found a skull, and it's female, and it matches the age range. This skull had dental work done, so the question is, is it crystal? We need to find out if she had dental work done and where she had it done, if she did.

I called Wayne back and told him to check social services in Gunnison, Colorado. If you want to call Wayne, it might be better getting it from the source. They found a skull of a female that's about the same age. In Colorado, it could be one of 12 different ones that have been reported. What they'll do is, because their husband's dental work done, it's almost as good as fingerprints. So we should take the x-rays, we sit them up to the corner, and they'll have a forensic examiner take a look at them and compare them. And once they do that, then we're able to tell if it's actually her or not. If there's anything gentleman-related, give me a ring.

Yeah, I'll get it shipped off right away to the people that need it. Well, two people out for a hike end up finding a human skull, and that leads to the discovery of more human remains. He was walking with his dog when he found a human skull. Continuing our coverage of Colorado at 6, the skull was on Mud Lake Open Space property near Nederland, the man he immediately called authorities. Right now, they're working to identify that skull. There's a list of possibilities. So whenever they find a boy or a girl or a man or a female, anytime they find anybody or anything, it's unidentified, they'll call everybody else just to check. That wasn't her at all. It was someone up in Boulder. He didn't take Crystal.

It was the size, the shape, all kinds of different rocks. So it wasn't Crystal? It's not. You can hide a body here really easy. You could disappear here really easy. You could disappear here really easy. It's probably in many ways one of the last places in the country you could do that. If you want to lose a body, you could do it up here.

How? Throw it down a mine shaft. Some of those shafts crapped out on the bottom and it goes into water and we don't know how far down it goes or anything. It is vast wilderness. There are hundreds of mine shafts and crevices and rock formations with deep crevasses. Unless somebody gave law enforcement very specific intel about where to look. The chances that somebody would find her are very limited. We have every reason to believe that the Soich County Sheriff's Office has enough information to make a case if they find Crystal.

Back to the reward, if somebody is willing to take that money to share with authorities where they heard Crystal may be, then that's probably enough to get them the reward because that, I think, will lead to the arrest of specific suspects. It has to be someplace familiar for the suspect or suspects. I don't think that the suspects in this case are so brilliant that they can go to Google Maps, the terrain, and figure out a new place they've ever been

to just find the perfect place to hide a body. These are local people who know the area, and the places they need to get to, there's elevation involved, and you can't carry a body very far. Someplace that they know, that isn't that hard to get to. Someday, and it may be tomorrow, and it may be 30 years from now, someday somebody will come across the clue. the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for.

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to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to any operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Honestly, there's really no confirmation that the drum circle is even relevant. Kind of, in a sense, because it keeps coming up. But it might just be happenstance that this all transpired around the same time as the drum circle because i don't know of i couldn't tell you a single connection to the drum circle i mean drum circle just kept coming up from the beginning but really i don't know if it has any connection for us it started

out and last time she was seen on the 13th after the drum circle but if the drum circle is on the 18th so if it was July 18th and people are saying last time she was seen on the 13th you know there's a lot of stuff here to weed through it almost seems like a movie or something that happens to somebody else. As time goes on I'm losing the real image and this is real. This is a beautiful young lady, the evil piece of crap took her life. You have to try and move on in life. That's what's so hard is you can't move on because it's unsolved. I know, but until the person is found, not found, but convicted and all that stuff, there's this distancing myself kind of in a sense.

We've given pretty much everything that we think we know. know and you guys are going to be able to go out and talk to all the other people that we don't know or never had contact with or anything else. When I start thinking that I've done all I can do, that's my fear is I'm getting into that thinking but I don't know what else to do other than sit here and talk to you. Well that's why media is so huge right now, because there will literally be nowhere to hide. That's why I keep trying to get people to share it on Facebook and stuff, no matter where you're from.

I don't care if you're from New York or Colorado, no matter where you're from, the story, I meet people from all over the country right here. It is such a small, worldwide web. Eventually, there will be nowhere for them to hide, short of fleeing the country and changing their identity. Would a criminal profiler be of any assistance? I know a guy.

Hello? Maurice? Yes? How you doing? Oh, what a stranger. You already caught a lot of writing. Yeah, I'm in Denver right now. How far is Denver from the Crest Island?

It's about three and a half, almost four hours. It's a pretty big hike. I do not believe that it was a stranger. I gave Maurice a copy of the police report, and he went over it in detail. I had heard through social media that a man named John had been seen with Crystal shortly before she was last seen. John goes by the nickname Catfish. I spoke with John at his home. John stated that around his birthday, that Crystal had come over to his house. When I asked him how she got there, he said that he did not know,

and that she just knocked on the door. John said he did not see a car outside. He was not sure of the date or the time, except it was still light outside when Crystal showed up. You hear a catfish is trying to distance himself from Crystal. He stated that they drank wine, smoked marijuana, and watched movies. He said that he fell asleep and woke up when Crystal was leaving. He said that he did not get up to walk her out of the door and did not know what time it was when she left due to the wine and marijuana.

John said that he fell asleep as she was leaving. John offered to let me search his house and the grounds to prove that Crystal was not there. John said that he did not know Crystal that well. John said that he did not know Crystal that well. John stated that around his birthday, that Crystal had come over to his house. The last time Crystal was seen or heard from was likely July 13th, but Catfish's birthday is on July 21st. He has disjointed thinking. He can't reason this stuff out like you're doing with these dates and stuff, so he made a mistake.

He revealed himself when he made that statement. John offered to let me search his house and the grounds to prove that Crystal was not there. It's not unusual for a guilty person to allow police officers to search their home. Everything in that interview, he was deceptive, and he's trying to distance himself from Crystal. And I'm not saying he's guilty. I'm saying he's suspicious. He lied in that interview, and he showed deception and distanced himself from Crystal,

which are bad things when you're a person of interest. He's definitely a person of interest and should be until he's absolutely cleared. Have you ever interviewed Catfish? I tried to contact him on Facebook, but he ignored me. Yeah, that's a bad sign. Well, you've got the power of drugs, and you've got people who you buy from and who gets drugs from you,

there's sort of a tight bond there. And sometimes people owe debts and stuff to people, so is it possible that he could have had somebody to do a favor for him? Very possible, and not ever say anything about it. We saw that in the Tara case. They've never ratted out each other. I think that she's from 5 to ten miles from Creston. When you drive in that wide, open space out there,

sometimes you tend to think that you've gone farther than you have. There's a whole host of opportunities along that drive, a lot of places, to be able to get rid of the body. I just think that they drove, but they didn't drive as far as they thought they had driven, and then they said, this is a good place, we need to go ahead and get rid of it here. Got to get off your ass and go do some leg work.

And that's exactly what you're doing. You're doing a lot of leg work. You're not sitting back waiting for a miracle call out of the sky with some information to give it to you. You have to go create it. The police report mentioned Crystal's counselor in Crestone, so I tracked her down and gave her a call. I was living in Crestone.

I was teaching human development development and I went to the Bliss one night and I ordered a glass of wine and a salad and she comes walking up to me and she said, I'd never seen her before, she said, will you do a reading for me? And I said, be back in 15 minutes and don't be late. In 15 minutes, she walks back up to me and she said, do you have your cards? You know, I don't do tarot card readings. But I said to her, I said, I don't need cards to read you. And I said to her very sternly,

you are about ready to lose everything even your life if you don't turn things around and she started crying she had no life force and she was hanging out with a tall brian and there were some other guys and And they were sitting at another table there. And I said, those guys are sucking your life out of you. And when you don't have any energy, then they abuse you. And she said, exactly. And she said, will you help me? She was leaving town that day.

And she was coming back for, I think it was spring break. She was in school. I said, what day will you be back? She told me, I think it was like a month away. And I said, you stay with me for a week. I will take care of you and I will help you. And I said, in the meantime, I need for you to call me once a week. She lost her college. She lost her college.

She lost her job. So she called me. And she started building herself up. And the day she was supposed to see me, she drove into town. Instead of coming to the Bliss and seeing me, she went and saw Brian. She got there early and she saw Brian.

Brian showed up at the Bliss and he said to me, you need to call Crystal. And I said, why do I need to call her? And he goes, she's very upset. I totaled her car. He thought it was real funny that he totaled her car car he totaled her car out there in the baka kind of on a straight away i mean you had to work hard to do it so i said no i don't need to call crystal you tell crystal she calls me when she gets home

and i went home and i didn't see her that week she goes home and she calls me she says I know I fucked up she said well I I was feeling strong and I thought I could go see them and Brian asked to borrow my car and then he totaled it and I said how do you feel about that and he she says I think he did it on purpose really yeah he did it on purpose. Really? Yeah, he did it on purpose. These guys were the ones who had the drugs. I mean, these guys were... I mean, Crystal was so beautiful. She was shamanic.

She was beautiful, energetic. She was intelligent. She was Earth Mama. And then they would just take her energy. I said, what are you going to do about it? Stand up and fight for your life. what are you going to do about it? Stand up and fight for your life. When's he going to pay you?

He's going to pay me in two weeks. Two weeks went by and Brian just laughed at her. No, he didn't pay her. I told her, you know, it's your choice. If you're going to take authority here, you need to file a police report, and you need to get ready to take your own personal action. So she did. Filed in the Combined Court, Gunnison County, Colorado. May 22nd, 2014. Plaintiff Crystal Reisinger versus defendant Brian. The amount claimed from defendant Brian is $2,200. Such claim arises from the following event. On March 16, 2014, Bryant borrowed my vehicle and ended up totaling it.

Defendant Bryant hangs out at the Bliss Cafe in Crestone, Colorado. Address is 187 West Silver, Crestone, Colorado. Signed, Crystal Reisinger. She had filed suit against Brian back in 14 and that never came up until I saw it in her file folder and a box of pictures. And guess who served the papers on Brian? Certificate of Service, State of Colorado, County of Sewatch. Dan Warwick being first duly sworn states as follows. I hereby certify that I served a copy of Summons, Complaint, and Answer to to respondent Brian...

Date, May 30th, 2014. Time, 9.30 p.m. Address, Bliss Cafe. Signed, Lieutenant Dan Warwick. Sawatch County, Colorado. Dan Warwick, the sheriff. He wasn't the sheriff at that time in 2014. He was a lieutenant. You know, I don't know if it means anything, but the

sheriff never mentioned that he had had contact. He led me to believe that he didn't know and know of Crystal other than her there in Crestone, but that's not true if I'm understanding it, because he was the one that served the papers on Brian for Crystal. It may just have nothing to do with anything, but it's just another little thing there that, you know, I think, well... Brian also goes by dready brian i started asking around to see if anyone knew any more about crystal and brian's relationship angela who i spoke to earlier on the podcast told me an interesting story brian told me the backstory of their relationship and their story of their relationship is when Crystal was teaching at Western State College, she had Akasha.

And when she had Akasha with her, Brian was watching Akasha for her. And he lived with her. So he ended up crashing her car. And Crystal was very upset about that and they had a falling out they kind of started to become friends again um slowly and he's the one that ended up bringing her for the summer to Crestone so when she got to Crestone, she liked it. She fit in. She felt like it was a safe place to be.

So that may have been part of the catalyst. I asked Crystal's latest boyfriend, too, a.k.a. the Crestone boyfriend. brought up a few times but brian's the one who brought crystal to crest town in the first place they met each other and jonathan he stayed at her house for a while she came down here with him to like check out crest town and he totaled her car and like she took him to small clients court and so he never paid her back and she was, like, they were friends and stuff, but she really didn't like him for, like, a lot of reasons, but he definitely was, like,

kind of in love with her a little bit. I think he might, no, definitely, he might have been there, or he might have, he was staying at my house and shit, dude, like, after she went missing and stuff, and if he did have something to do with it, that's pretty fucked up. Back in Crestone, I met up with David again.

Back in Crestone, I met up with David again. So there's the path goes up here and there's caves up in there. And that's one of the things that we always thought. It's like, well, maybe she never really left from here, you know. But there's this story that keeps coming back that, oh, she went back to Catfish John's to confront him. David said that one of his friends in town might have some more information about Crystal. So he drove to her house. Hey, this is Gladio. Hey, how you doing?

That's a bad nickname, man. You go to the South or go to prison, that's not a good handle. That's how we all felt 20 years ago when he first showed up. We were like, catfish. And it's usually the guy that has already killed somebody. And drags him to the bottom of the river and hides him. I always knew him as not anywhere stable when he came.

He was kind of a couch surfer. He's at his dad's, and he has a few friends that he'll land at their place. I'm sure he'd rather do that than be at his dad's because at his dad's he's probably going to get harassed about being high. Though he would be looking for other druggies to land with when he'd get here. And I do know that every time I repost anything about Crystal, Catfish tries to come and friend me on Facebook. So he's watching. He is keeping an eye on every fucking post

that is related to her. Because we're not friends on Facebook. I've never been his friend on Facebook. But he has tried to friend me like three or four times in the last year every time I've posted. An article or a news story or something, he sends me a friend request and I just giggle.

I mean, I know I've never met Crystal, and I didn't have any interaction with her, but I know a lot of different people that know her, and they all have different stories. Um... One of my friends, her kids were hanging out with Crystal, and her stepdaughter and her son. Crystal had been coming and going from up there quite a bit, and then she came up one day really upset and crying and said that Catfish had locked her up in his house for

a couple days and raped her. She was really upset and couldn't decide what to do. And she laughed, upset, and Ziki finally asked him. She's like, what's going on? Why was she crying? What's going on? And it took her a couple days to get the info out of him, and they finally told her. And she's like, oh my gosh, she needs to call the police. Well, Crystal decided that she would go back over to Catfish's and confront him herself. And didn't want to call the police. Well, Crystal decided that she would go back over to Catfish's and confront him herself and didn't want to call the police. And nobody's seen her since. So, that's what I heard.

I've even seen posts like when they posted that news story, the Fox 5 news story, and people were making comments. Laura posted it, and underneath her post, someone, some guy got on there. I don't know, but he apparently was here, and he's like, I don't understand why we're still talking about this. I told Wayne Clark that that girl was murdered, and she was loaded in this vehicle by catfish and driven to this area and thrown in a mine shaft. And I don't understand why they haven't found her or why more information hasn't been resolved

because I told them, we've all told them what happened to her that day. And they haven't done shit. And I don't get what's wrong with Sewatch Police Department. Recently, an anonymous person shared a message with me. I vetted the information and I confirmed its authenticity. It's a message sent by a Crestone local to a deputy at the Sewatch County Sheriff's Department. And the story is pretty damning. I shared it with Maurice, too, to get his feedback. Yeah, I'm reading it.

Hi, Wayne. I know we haven't met, but I know you're the local cop in Crestone, which my girlfriend and I really appreciate. About an hour ago tonight, my roommates and I really appreciate. About an hour ago tonight, my roommates and I witnessed something we felt was suspicious enough to report to you. We lived down Enchanted Lane and passed our neighbor coming home from town tonight.

He is the second right coming down Enchanted from Camino del Rey. And I believe his name is Catfish. Though I have never personally met him, he was out in the middle of the pouring rain by his car and appeared to have a shovel leaning against a golden 1980s or early 90s minivan. He also had a bundle laying on the ground that appeared to be something human sized next to the open back door of his van. We don't know what this bundle was, but it was certainly suspicious. Again, we don't want to make false accusation about anything to anyone, but we were all concerned enough to decide to contact you.

This was at about 8.30 tonight, and we all witnessed this strange occurrence. This is troublesome. If you believe this, then he definitely goes outside of his house. This is incriminating. Up and Vanished I love you. and Donald Albright. Additional production by Resonate Recordings, as well as Mason Lindsay, Rob Ricotta, and Christina Dana. Our intern is Hallie Bidal.

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