Up and Vanished - The Vanishing Point: Episode 3, The Wild West

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

From the Up and Vanished team comes The Vanishing Point. Episode 3: The TFTV team looks into more cases of missing Indigenous people in Humboldt County and hears recurring themes… substance abuse, mental health and lawlessness. Is Humboldt County “The Wild West”? Follow on social @thevanishingpointpod 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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please check out The Vanishing Point, a new series from of Up and Vanish this January, please check out The Vanishing Point, a new series from the Up and Vanish team. This podcast is absolutely free. But if you want to listen to it ad-free, subscribe to Tinderfoot Plus at TinderfootPlus.com or on Apple Podcasts. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or

individuals participating in the podcast and do not represent those of Tenderfoot TV or their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. In every community, there are outliers. It doesn't matter where you are, a big city or a small town. And that's the case on reservations, too. As our team spoke to people in and around Hoopa,

the so-called end of the road seemed to have a reputation of being the place where outliers live. But it was time for our team to see this place for themselves. Okay. This looks sturdy enough to... Our team is currently standing at the end of the road. It's an area Emily Risling frequented and the spot her family believes she disappeared from. There isn't much here, except for a few trailers, an old building, and the river. Frank, a resident of the end of the road,

claims he actually saw Emily near the time of her disappearance and that she told him about plans to float downriver. Though the behavior wouldn't be unusual of Emily, some Hoopa residents are suspicious of Frank. I think it's okay. Hi. Hi, Frank. My name's Laura. I work with Allie Hostler. Huh?

I work with Allie Hostler for the paper. My name's Laura. Well, come on in. Laura and Jamie went to Frank's home to talk to him about what he remembers.

She wasn't on drugs. So she seemed in good spirits. Yeah. She wanted to clean up my house, and yeah, she was in way good spirits. Okay. And she walked around naked a few times, and that never did ever bother me. Tell us the last thing that you remember Emily saying to you or doing while she was here.

Me and my cousin, that's where we were sitting at, and he was the last to talk to her. And she carried on a normal conversation. But she was on a mission. She wanted to get to Appa. What is there? What is that place? Nothing. Just a bunch of spiritual praying grounds.

That's why she wanted to go in that direction. She could have said, hey, can you take me to Appa? And I would have found a way to get her there. But she didn't ask. But I believe she's still around here. Not in this form of life, but wondering why, you know, no one's come forward to say, hey, I've done something to him or, you know, I seen him last, or something.

No one's getting involved in things like this no more. I'd rather hide or not say nothing. Me, I don't care. I'm 65 years old. I don't care no more. Frank's trailer is small, worn by the glow of a wood-burning stove. There are clothes and other belongings scattered on every surface. Despite the rumors,

Frank himself seems unintimidating. He has a worn look about him, the type of eyes that seem like they've weathered a challenge or two. Limping a bit from an injured ankle, he wears a boot on his left leg. Emily, it still bothers me about her. And it bothers a lot of other people.

And I don't see how you can just come up and miss it. Frank seemed open to talking about Emily. And he wants to set the record straight about his cooperation with law enforcement. What message do you have to people that are spreading things about you?

I let them talk. They got nothing else better to do than to talk about me and things that's not even true. Then I heard everybody say, yeah, she's buried underneath here in his house. And he's got her somewhere, this and that. And how stupid is that? So I got a hold of the sergeant. So I told him, you have more of them come down to my house any time, look around, whatever. So yeah, you have more of them come down to my house any time, look around, whatever.

Yeah, I have nothing to hide. What people say about me, it's all bullshit. I'm Slic go get some food. You arrested him, but he probably deserved it, and you sound like you think you're a good guy. Hell yeah, I arrested him before, a couple times. Even, you know, if you arrest somebody, treat them with respect, treat them like a human being, and then when you see them again,

they're not motherfucking you, they're like, you know, I don't work. Jamie and Laura regroup with the rest of our team and Yurok Tribal Police Chief Greg O'Rourke. As O'Rourke mentioned, after a series of arrests, he's quite familiar with Frank. In fact, a few days prior to our visit, Frank had been released from Sempervirens, the primary mental health facility serving the area. Although rumors still swirl, Frank was never a suspect. In fact, he was interviewed three times by law enforcement and his account remained consistent.

And the fact is, Frank might have been the last person to see Emily, but without a time or date confirmation, Pequon Bridge remains her last verified location. As for our team, they perceive Frank as forthcoming, at least during their visit. He even spoke openly about his lifelong struggle with substance abuse. Still, the overarching mystery persists. What became of Emily Risling that fateful October day?

Allie Hosler from the Two Rivers Tribune suspects that the river holds clues. I know several people have gone missing in the river, and usually it's up to family members to recover them, to either launch a boat and go recover them themselves, or even people will wait at the mouth of the Klamath and wait there for their loved one to get washed out. My brother actually drowned in the river in 2013.

He was running from police. That's sort of a common thing where people will jump in the river to evade police in a pursuit. And he did that and he didn't make it out. I know of at least three other people around my age that did the same thing. A lot of them make it and some of them don't. And I think that's just the general fear of police. There's an overall fear of certain officers not treating people fairly.

You know, there's been cases where people from here have been beaten in jail by correctional officers. There's also a fear of, if I go to jail, I can't use my drugs. I don't have access to drugs like I did before. So when you're an addict and your addiction is taking over your life, avoid jail at all costs because you have to either find drugs in jail or you have to clean up. And not everyone wants to clean up. While there are still so many questions surrounding Emily's disappearance, we know that substance abuse may have played a role.

And if it did, she wouldn't be alone. According to the CDPH overdose dashboard, the area encompassing Hoopa Valley reports an opioid death rate eight times the state average. And Ali says it's not only the folks struggling with addiction whose lives are in peril. folks struggling with addiction whose lives are in peril. The spouses, the kids, the parents, the friends, the community, nothing and no one seems immune. To better understand where this crisis began, we spoke with Humboldt County Sheriff William Hansel. In Humboldt County, we had a pervasive drug culture. It started with marijuana and then it goes to you know psilocybin mushrooms and you know methamphetamine heroin was huge cocaine and alfentanil and a lot of people say well you have a lot of people that looks like are suffering from either

being addicted to drugs and becoming zombie-like you, is that because of the substance abuse or is that because of mental illness? I think it's obviously a little bit of both. We have people that have that dual diagnosis. If they are addicted to drugs, they oftentimes have, you know, some mental illness that's tied to it. Being in a rural jurisdiction in California does not make us immune to the fentanyl issues.

And we've seen a huge number of fentanyl overdoses here in our county. It has doubled every year for the last three years, which is way too much. We've outfitted all of our deputies with Narcan in hopes that if we come across someone who is overdosing, that we can save their life. And that has happened several times over the last couple of years. Narcan in hopes that if we come across someone who is overdosing that we can save their life.

And that has happened several times over the last couple of years. I believe that there are people that explicitly target people in tribes because sometimes they're stuck in the reservation or maybe these people are stuck in an addiction or two. You're looking at people that want to take advantage of the system in place. And there are cartels, there are gang members, there are people that are anti-government that hide out on tribal land. Because they believe that there's some kind of insulation by living in the tribal community. And the cartels see that they can take advantage of people by giving them money,

giving them drugs, giving them access, buys them time, buys them opportunities to live amongst members of the tribal community. And when law enforcement does come, it is a very difficult task, and oftentimes they're shunned. It can become very dangerous. friends. What if each time you made a purchase, you got a little something back? With Rakuten, you can. You can earn cash back on just about anything you buy from over 750 stores. If you've ever bought electronics, home decor, fashion and beauty, or booked a trip, well, you could have got cash back. But don't worry, it's not too late. It's free and easy to use, and you get cash back deposited into your PayPal account or sent to you as a check. Earn cash back at stores like Sephora, Old Navy, and Expedia.

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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. So clearly, drugs are a hot-button issue in California, and particularly in Humboldt County, where Hoopa is located. But health concerns and potential overdoses aren't the only risks. It really feels like it's still the Wild West, and they don't really have a handle on it in terms of policing that area. They never have. We called on Chief Judge Victoria Shaw, a tribal judge in California, to tell us more about some of the more hidden obstacles.

I mean, people blatantly growing illegal marijuana, it's created an outlaw culture. And so that goes hand in hand with outlaw justice. Or just, I already break these laws, I'll break a couple more. Once marijuana was legalized in 2016, the regulatory fees and environmental standards basically priced a lot of people out of the trade. And then the subsequent boom in marijuana farming

meant supply quickly outpaced demand. It destroyed sellers' economic advantage. With all of these changes, many struggled to maintain their way of life. In California, illegal marijuana cultivation continues, and unfortunately, it's gained a reputation for not treating workers fairly. illegal marijuana cultivation continues, and unfortunately, it's gained a reputation for not treating workers fairly. So many people relied on the marijuana industry to pay their bills,

to feed their children, to survive. They didn't really have a resume and a skill set to be able to support themselves in other ways. So many people who were already self-admitted outlaws turn to other areas of crime. So whether that's maybe selling fentanyl instead of marijuana, or that's stealing, burglarizing places, maybe they're just in such a desperate state, they don't really care anymore about other people. They're just out for themselves, and they're addicted now. So I think there's sort of a belief that if you are a criminal, you can get away with it easier, longer, and maybe forever in a place like Humboldt County.

I learned pretty early on growing up there that be careful what situations you put yourself in. Everyone's super territorial and aggressive about it. And that's to say, there's not really lovely, beautiful things and people. There's definitely that, but you could just break it down by statistics. Something's more likely to happen in some places

compared to others, and that's reality. Humboldt County is home to ancient redwood forests, environmentally sensitive creeks and streams, and pot. This scenic stretch is where 60% of marijuana is grown in the United States. Experts tell us it's not the climate or the soil that draws farmers here. It's the isolation. You have a range of farmers, those who do it right and follow the rules, and the illegal growth sometimes hidden on federal land. And there's another startling statistic.

Humboldt County also has the highest rate of missing person cases in the state. There's a lot of stories in connection with the illegal marijuana industry that was, for years, people would go missing, and that was almost an accepted fact. To be fair to the law enforcement, Native people aren't the only ones that go missing up there and aren't found and aren't looked for. Like a lot of people go missing up there and most of them are never found. Historically, criminals have sought Indian reservations to hide out on because they know they're even less likely to be found and arrested if they have warrants or they're suspected in other cases. So it almost attracts those types of people. When I was a kid growing up there, and this is just purely like school gossip,

but people would say, oh, Humboldt County is the serial killer capital of the world because people can hide out there. And there's a million places to hide bodies. It is a very beautiful place and it has a lot of healing energy. But yeah, there's people in the shadows that aren't there for that. Over and over again, as we delved into these missing persons cases,

the topic of drugs kept surfacing. It was a sign that this was a piece of the puzzle worth investigating further. But even after we did, so much was still unanswered. We were left with the same central question. What happened to Emily Riesling? Here again is Chief Greg O'Rourke. It's not that I think that. I can't confirm foul play. I can't confirm a drowning. But I have to be objective and have to be open-minded to that's a possibility. And without any indicator of foul play,

then, you know, the likelihood of that possibility becomes stronger. The Risling family hasn't found these answers satisfying. They hope for more searches of the area. They hope that Emily will one day be found. What can a community do? Well, acknowledge and accept that mental health is an issue and not get caught up in the stigma of it. Because when and if it gets to a point where law enforcement gets involved because of missing or because of a crime, we need to know who we're dealing with,

not who that person was. And I remember telling Emily's mom, it's still having an opportunity to be able to help her people by her message and her story coming out. And poor Judy, she cried on that. And I you know, poor Judy, you know, who cried on that and, you know, I felt bad, but it's, you know, also how I see it. And as for Judy Rizzling...

It's frustrating. I run into people every day that have no idea about this crisis that's going on in the Native communities. So I think bringing awareness and searching immediately, these are just like any other missing people. Emily would be out there advocating for this. would be out there advocating for this.

And so, in a way, it's kind of like her talking through me to keep this out there in the public. Chauncey was going to take me on a trip to the place he's from. To be continued... Ready or not. Just because you stop believing in them doesn't mean they're gone. Here he comes. And they're angry you left. Imaginary. Now playing only in theaters. Whoa, what are you listening to this for? Wait, who's talking?

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We good? We're good to go. Okay. Okay, so we can start by, you can introduce yourself, your connection to Simi, and just anything else you feel comfortable sharing. Okay, so I'm Aurelia Alatorre. I am 27. As we looked into Emily's case,

we learned about other cases in the area, and some of them shared similarities. One of these stories was Sumi Juan's. Like Emily, before she disappeared, Sumi struggled with mental illness. My connection to Sumi, she is my mother. And I haven't lived with her since I was five. I wouldn't live with my dad.

And there was just always like custody battles. So it's really hard for me when I'm asked about my mom, like it's really hard for me to say like who she was because I didn't really grow up with her. Aurelia hasn't seen her mom in 13 years. So we were living in Reading, and we had come over to Hoopa for a dentist appointment, which we did frequently at races.

I was coming out, and I was going to make a new appointment, and they have this board right when you walk out, and I had seen this poster of her. She was wearing a white t-shirt. Her hair was in a bun with flyaways, and that was the first time I'd seen it or heard anything about it. And it said she was missing, like, September or October. It was kind of just a shock. Aurelia learned about her mother's disappearance

from a missing poster at the dentist's office. Her family had been hopeful that Sumi might turn up, so they'd kept her disappearance a secret. It was best to not upset Aurelia, they'd reasoned, but their plans had the opposite effect. I didn't say anything until we got home because it was like, is that even real? And I talked to my dad about it, and he said, well, we were hoping she was going to come back.

So they didn't say anything. I don't know many details, but I know that she had a really hard life. Without many memories of her mother, Aurelia relies on family and friends to help fill in the gaps. memories of her mother, Aurelia relies on family and friends to help fill in the gaps. And I have recently been told that she had us go live with my dad because she wanted us to have a better life. She essentially just like gave us to my dad, but she was also dealing with like her mental health issues. So I get it. Laura wrote an article about Sumi for the Two Rivers Tribune. Juan was 32 years old when she was reported missing to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office

on October 29, 2010. According to the Sheriff's Office, Juan was last seen by family members in early October or September 2010 at Hoopa Elementary School. All current information about Juan's case is listed under the unsolved cases on the Humboldt County's website.

Juan is described as a missing person under suspicious circumstances. Can you talk a little bit about how your mom's disappearance has impacted you? I feel like I've just been surviving, to be honest. When my mom went missing, it felt like nobody was searching for her, like even her own tribe. Like it was very little effort, so it was just disappointing to see.

So it was mostly silence. I know that there were searches. It isn't like how it is now if someone goes missing. I mean, they put out rewards. They're everywhere, and that wasn't the case. Laura interviewed Sumi's mother, Aurelia's grandmother, Sylvia Carpenter. This is what she had to say.

Carpenter explained that the last time that she saw her daughter, Juan was on her way to see a Hoopa resident who Carpenter suspected was a drug dealer. I said, What are you doing? You know how they are. I've never seen her again after that. In the years that followed Juan's disappearance,

Carpenter said a family member of the alleged drug dealer implied to Carpenter that they knew Juan's whereabouts. They came to me and said, you want to know something about your daughter? You have to come and see me, but you have to come by yourself. Carpenter said, for real? And I didn't go. I never did go. Carpenter said that she was eventually told that Juan's remains are allegedly under a cement slab at the home of the alleged drug dealer in Hoopa. He would never let anybody go there, Carpenter said. He's been no good his whole life.

I've heard a lot of things about my mom's disappearance and everything has ended with murder. And those stories are hard to hear. And what's even more crazy is that person who ever did it is probably someone we know. We all know here. And they're just walking around. The alleged offender Aurelia is referring to hasn't been named a suspect. And it's unclear if he was investigated for Sumi's disappearance or

if the talk around town is just gossip. We don't have any further information on this person, but a press release published by Humboldt County Sheriff's Office in November of 2010 did indicate that there may have been potential leads. Humboldt County Sheriff's detectives are interested in speaking to two people they believe spent time with Juan near the time of her disappearance. Detectives are attempting to locate Robert Hodge Jr. and Deborah, jealous of him, both of Hoopa. Sheriff's detectives wish to emphasize that neither of the two are suspects in the disappearance. We attempted to locate Robert Hodge Jr. and Deborah Jealous of him.

And while we weren't able to locate Robert, we found through a public record search that he had been arrested in 2019 during a meth and heroin bust in Hoopa. We were able to locate information on Deborah Jealous of him. Sadly, a newspaper article from 2018 states that she passed away after being found unresponsive in an alleyway. Our team had an interview scheduled with Sumi's mom,

but when they arrived, she'd changed her mind. Other family members also declined our interview requests. Laura has her thoughts on why they may not want to talk. Based off of what I've been told, she was last seen heading towards a person who is living in Hoopa at the time, and he was a known drug dealer. And that seems to have been the last sort of concrete time that anyone saw her. And it's, you know, there seems to be a lot of rumors, like a lot of these cases, a lot of rumors from people who live in the community. Because as far as I'm aware, he was a drug dealer and he may still be. And I think he has some pretty unsavory connections.

So I don't judge anyone for not wanting to come forward with information, but there definitely seems to be fear surrounding this particular individual. In tight-knit, insular communities like Hoopa, it's hard to get away from a person of interest. When a case goes unsolved for so long, those fears, they fester. Aurelia is no stranger to this. I mean, I'm constantly concerned

something's going to happen to me and my kids. I just, as a mom, I became so paranoid. We were in Sacramento and I was going to take them to the park. And I drove around for like 30, 40 minutes because I was too scared to get out of the car. It's like, I'm so vulnerable. If something happens, like I can't save both of them. So it's different. Now anything can happen. Like, nothing's impossible. It's crazy because my mom went missing on the reservation, but this is where I feel the safest.

I don't know if I could really live anywhere else. Aurelia proudly displays a tattoo on her collarbone, a dandelion, half blown away in the wind, her mother's name above it. It's a memento, one that honors her mom and reminds her of her spirit. So it was my first tattoo, and it was funny because the tattoo artist,

he was like, oh, I I'm gonna need to add some white because you're a little dark my mom was very dark and my grandma she's she's pretty dark too so it's kind of funny I think that's great that you have that that's very special yeah I actually my grandma had gave me um like a couple journals of my mom's and one of them said who she was I'm Sumi Gale one and she said I have three beautiful daughters that I love dearly so I'll probably add that somewhere. The last 13 years have presented challenges for Aurelia. She's determined to use her experience to help others. Just recently in the last couple of years, I went through such an angry phase.

When someone would come up missing or anything, I'm like, well, why should I care? They didn't care. And then I'm like, and that's terrible now that I think about it, but I was just so angry. And now I'm like, okay, I wanna be a part of whatever they're doing. So I recently, I took this job,

I applied for MMIP Advocate. I want to be able to help individuals impacted by a family member or a friend who was murdered or missing. We can help them, assist them to go if they need a place to stay or just directing them to different resources. And I am a little nervous with the job because I still deal with it on a day-to-day basis. So I'm just a little nervous that I might,

it might be too much for me, but I'm going to do it as long as I can. Allie took us to the MMIP office, the same one where Aurelia works. It's an unassuming building right off a tree-lined road. Okay, this is the Hoopa Valley Tribe's MMIP and Domestic Violence Prevention Program office. The office provides a lot of support,

including a safe space for victims. It's a resource that caters to a wide range of needs. Whether it's escaping dangerous situations or simply finding a calm, secure spot to do laundry, it's a valuable asset to the community. There's a whole Indian Health Service Clinic campus here with several programs. There's a medically assisted treatment program office. There's a medical clinic. There's a diabetes prevention program office, and then also this

MMIP office is a couple years old but a fairly new addition. But the tribe recognized the need to address the MMIP epidemic here on the reservation and established this office as part of that. As the team walks down the hallway, a bulletin board in one of the rooms grabs their attention. It's covered with flyers. When they get close enough to read the board, they see it's cluttered with missing posters. It's been over a month now since... According to the FBI, 5,200...

A majority of the cases in our database were actually mothers and children. There was reported missing. A lot of people say it's difficult to actually mothers and children. There was reportiveness. A lot of people say it's difficult to get these involved. Native American women are ten times more likely. I think somebody did something to my dad. With MMIP cases overwhelming law enforcement, the Up and Vantage team dives into a new unsolved case from the Hoopa Valley area. That's next time on The Vanishing Point.

With Virgil? Oh, Virgil Bustle? Oh man, I've heard a lot of stories. I heard he was put inside of a chipper, spread out all over. Why would someone want to hurt Virgil? I don't know. Virgil was a pretty tough fella, so you'd have to catch him by surprise. So this person or this being or whatever that made him disappear is pretty strange. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Vanishing Point. This six-part series is released weekly, absolutely free. But if you want to listen to it ad-free,

subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. The Vanishing Point is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Celesia Stanton is our host. The show is written by Meredith Stedman,

Alex Vespestad, and Jamie Albright, with additional writing assistance by Cilicia Stanton. Executive producers are Donald Albright and myself, Payne Lindsey. Lead producer is Jamie Albright, along with Meredith Stedman. Editing by Alex Vespestad. Additional editing by Sydney Evans.

Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional production by Laura Frader and Allie Hosler. Research by Laura Frader and Taylor Floyd. Artwork by Byron McCoy. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Mix by Dayton Cole. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing,

and the Nord Group. And a special thanks to Greg O'Rourke, the KIDE 91.3 radio station in Hoopa, the Two Rivers Tribune, and all of the families and community members that spoke to us. For more podcasts like The Vanishing Point, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app,

or visit us on our website at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening.