Up and Vanished - The Vanishing Point: Episode 4, Off the Highway

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

From the Up and Vanished team comes The Vanishing Point. Episode 4: The rural roads and highways leading in and out of the reservation provide the perfect backdrop for someone to vanish. We explore the cases of 52 year old Virgil Bussell Jr. and 22 year old Andrea “Chick” White. White’s case dates back 30 years. 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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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. As we prepare for a new season 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. The vanishing point. the last known location. It's an investigative priority in any missing persons case.

But sometimes, logistically getting there is easier said than done. The terrain of the Hoopa Reservation and the surrounding area is remote and sometimes treacherous. And as we learned in the last episode, in the case of Sumi Wan, sometimes there can be challenges in pinning down someone's exact location, especially when so much time's passed. But when the location is clear, it oftentimes holds the answers to what really happened. In March of 2020, a woodcutter went to work just off Deerhorn Road in Hoopa. After a few days without word from him, his family became concerned.

Soon after the announcement of his disappearance, his daughter received a text message from an anonymous number. The sender demanded a cash ransom in exchange for her father. We have a screenshot of those messages. The first was sent in all caps. Texted you more than 10 hours and you're just responding now? Are you not even taking this seriously? Do you think I'm here for all this rubbish?

I swear on my life, if you ever provoke me, I will him and drop his lifeless body off the road. These texts were then followed by this message, in all lowercase. Sending you a proof is as easy as anything. You also need to know he is a bit sick right now. He has also refused to eat. You have to do this real fast so I can have him dropped off at the nearest gas station for you.

We've talked a lot about the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, but it's not just women who go missing here. These texts were regarding Virgil Bussell Jr., a member of the Hoopa Valley tribe. And that's our next case. I'm Cilicia Stanton, and this is Up and Vanished presents The Vanishing Point. Thank you. Do you guys want to go ahead and go into the other room right there with the table and stuff next time? Right.

Okay. So, I didn't really... Our team is in the MMIP office in Hoopa, where they're set to meet their next interviewee. I've always felt his pain if he got hurt or something one time and he got in a car wreck and he broke his leg and the next morning I couldn't walk on my leg. This is Verna, the twin sister of 52-year-old Virgil Bussell Jr. Virgil went missing in March of 2020.

Growing up with him, we were inseparable. Now it's, like, way different because he's not here. When talking about her twin brother, you can sense that Verna still very much feels a profound connection to him. It's clear that his absence has left a huge void in her life.

Recalling their final communication, she said that her worries first started when she hadn't heard from him in over two weeks. I knew that something had happened because he usually stops by, and so I made a post on Facebook. Has anybody seen or heard from my brother? It's been two and a half weeks since I've seen him.

Shortly thereafter, Virgil's truck was discovered in the woods. But Virgil himself was nowhere to be found. And then my niece, she replied to my host and said that she was cutting wood with her dad. And they seen his truck up at Deerhorn. There was a load of wood in the back of his truck that it was just being tossed around. And my brother doesn't load his truck like that. He loaded his truck with wood that was cut and stacked from the front to the back. And that's how I know that it wasn't him who loaded the truck.

Virgil ran his own woodcutting business, and he used his flatbed truck regularly for work. It was something that, Verna tells us, her brother usually did on his own. Beyond the discovery of the truck and the piles of wood tossed in the bed, there were a few other suspicious discoveries. Virgil's keys and jacket were found inside the vehicle. The windows were left rolled down, and his chainsaw was nowhere to be found. The windows were left rolled down, and his chainsaw was nowhere to be found. It was nighttime when we located the truck, and I used someone's phone to call tribal security for search and rescue.

Humboldt County Sheriff, the department, went down, but there wasn't really no investigation as far as I know. If they really investigated everything, they would have found something. On April 9, 2020, Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, in partnership with the Special Services Unit, Search and Rescue Team, and Volunteer Fire Department, conducted a two-day ground search in the area that the truck was discovered. They also conducted a canine search. Neither would yield results.

While the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office has not ruled out foul play in Virgil's disappearance, locals are confident that evidence near Virgil's truck confirms it. They said that one of the places where my brother was cutting wood, you could tell that there was a struggle and that they drug a body.

There's a trail that led right down to this person's house. I know that there had to have been more than one person. My brother was pretty strong and he was pretty smart. And they either got him when he was asleep or they might have caught him with his chainsaw running. An independent news outlet, Redheaded Black Belt, which focuses on stories in and around Humboldt County, also corroborated speculation that a body was dragged into a wooded area. They reported that the family is collaborating

with an MMIP activist, Jesse Armstrong. Quote, Armstrong recruited Kavern Hodgin, a Northern California tracker who has helped families find loved ones to analyze the site where the truck disappeared. According to Armstrong, Hodgin saw signs of a physical struggle

near the grove where Bustle was believed to have been felling trees and parallel drag marks from there indicating a body was dragged. The tracker reports being able to track the drag marks from there indicating a body was dragged. The tracker reports being able to track the drag marks to the home of a person the family considers a suspect. Based on these findings, Bustle's family is fearing the worst. It's been three years now since he's been gone.

What do you think happened to him? I believe that he got his head shot off. What do you think happened to him? What Verna says is that she heard the incident happened over a girl and that he was cut up and put in a wood chipper. This is not the first time the teams heard this. That's Frank Subert, the man that we spoke to at the end of the road

regarding Emily Riesling's disappearance. Why would someone want to hurt Virgil? 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 the person or this being or whatever that made him disappear is pretty strange. Aside from just small-town talk, Virgil's family started receiving real tips.

There was an anonymous phone call here. The anonymous caller claimed that Virgil's body could be located between a set of mile markers off the highway. The police looked into it, and they did find a body, but it wasn't Virgil's. Do you feel like you were in danger at all, or if family members are in danger? Yes, I do believe in the beginning it was really, really so unsafe, and I kind of still do,

because the one that supposedly cleaned up the mess and did something with my brother's body, she still stops by this place where I stay. Verna says she believes that the group of people responsible for Virgil's disappearance live close by.

It's unclear whether police have looked into these folks. With the case still being active, the details of the investigation are closed to the public. However, Verna believes that someone from that group took issue with Virgil. And she claims, on more than one occasion, that a member of this group has tried to intimidate her

and keep her from speaking out. heard there were maybe ransom texts and threats made after the missing person report. Somebody had texted my niece, which is Virgil's daughter, saying that they had him and they wanted ransom. Verna's referring to the same text messages you heard at the beginning of the episode. Texted you more than 10 hours and you're just responding. I swear on my life, if you ever provoke me and drop his lifeless body off the road. No leads ever came of these messages. Law enforcement declined to provide us with a comment on the text messages,

but a 2020 article from ABC7 News published a response from the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office. This unfortunately is a common scam that has occurred for several missing persons cases. Scammers typically access the missing person's information from shared posts on social media and use it to scam missing persons' families. Eventually, Virgil's daughter texted the anonymous number back.

You're sick. You don't have my dad. You're pulling the sick fucking game to get money. Fuck you. So the people that you believe are responsible for Virgil's disappearance, tell me who those people are. Gone. Most of them are gone. Dead. Disappearances like Virgil's create rumors that often muddy investigations and strain

law enforcement's already limited resources. And unless someone comes forward, his family may never find answers. Now it's like way different because he's not here. But I know

that he still is me. If you could share a message with Virgil right now, what would you say? Tell him that I'm sorry and that I love him with all my heart. Until we see again. Each new disappearance in Hoopa pushes the previous one deeper into obscurity. Each new disappearance in Hoopa pushes the previous one deeper into obscurity. Over time, these unsolved cases grow colder and colder,

and the MMIP's office bulletin board is a haunting testament to this tragic cycle. As the team packs up to leave, they take one final glance at the board. And there, hidden amongst the many cases, they stumble upon a post that has clung to the board for far too long. Think of the last time you bought something to wear, something to decorate your house, something for your family or 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

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19 plus to wager. ON only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to any operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. According to the FBI, 5,295 Indigenous women were reported missing nationwide. A majority of the cases in our database were actually mothers of children.

A majority of the cases in our database were actually mothers of children. And so the loss of Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than any other ethnicity. Humboldt County Sheriff's Department Information Bulletin, August 13th, 1991. Detective D. Walker. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department is currently investigating a missing persons report on Andrea Chick White. Andrea was last seen on Highway 299 at Blue Lake, California on July 31st, 1991. Carrying with her was a black leather jacket and a Spalding white and black duffel bag. jacket and a Spalding white and black duffel bag. In the bag was a purple skirt, black sweater, black spandex tights with lace at the ankle, and black satin pumps. If found,

please notify the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department. August 16, 1991, Detective D. Walker. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department is continuing to investigate the disappearance of Andrea White. Additional information has been developed that White was hitchhiking eastbound just east of the Blue Lake exit. White was known to be at that location about 1.30 p.m. White had told several people she met that day that she was returning home. As of this time, no family members, friends, or acquaintances have seen Andrea White since the July 31st sighting on Highway 299. September 4th, 1991, Detective Walker.

Andrea White has now been missing 35 days with no confirmed contact with any family member. The Sheriff's Department now believes that foul play is strongly indicated in White's disappearance. So my first memory, well, I guess I was probably seven or eight years old. This is Hupa tribal member Allie Hosler of the Two Rivers Tribune. I remember my uncle came to the house. I remember it was in the evening time and he was worried because his wife Chick White hadn't come home and in the days that followed and she still didn't come home we didn't hear from her it was really unlike her to leave her children and I just I was a child at the time and I remember nobody knew what to do And that was my first memory of hearing about a woman that I knew being missing.

As we know from the Sheriff Department's bulletin, Andrea Trick-White was last seen over 30 years ago after hitchhiking to Eureka. When she was, I think, nine months old, she was walking and talking. And I remember one of our cousins, she would just laugh all the time and say, oh, she looks like a little chickie. So chickie is her nickname, but everybody calls her Chick. This is Anna White, Andrea's older sister. Chick was a beautiful young lady.

She was a great mother. When I think of her, all I can think of is Chick and her kids. That was the most important thing in her life. Prior to Chick's disappearance, her partner passed away. And unfortunately, she'd end up losing guardianship of her children due to substance abuse. She was fighting hard to get clean and regain custody of them. In fact, when she was last seen, she was actually hitchhiking back from a court appearance. It's worth noting that with this area being so remote, hitchhiking is fairly common.

Hoopa is situated an hour away from the nearest major city. And moreover, as we've previously mentioned, this county grapples with the highest rates of poverty in the nation. And I think a lot of that and just the different hardships on the reservation for everyone is dysfunctional family systems, alcohol and drugs. And TIP issues were very compounded with our family situation and those issues on the grass. And I know she was in an auto accident. She had been drinking. That's what she was hitchhiking back and forth to Eureka to go to court.

Anna later learned that a woman approached police with a tip about the day Andrea went missing. That local woman said she gave Andrea a ride and let her out by an off-ramp on the way to Hoopa. And when I found out about that lady, I called the Humboldt County investigator and I wanted to talk to that lady. The Two Rivers Tribune wrote, The woman who dropped her off on Highway 299 provided her name and information to the police. According to White's sister Anna, the woman asked the police to keep her identity anonymous. And that's the saddest part of everything. It seems like she just vanished.

We don't have a clue of where she could be. Everything's open-ended. Three years old when it first happened. I do have memories of family in the house, like staying over, and I'm pretty sure that's when it happened. We spoke with Andrea's youngest son, Arnold. He doesn't remember much about his mother. Most of his memories come from the stories that his friends and family have shared.

She was a free bird, an energetic spirit. And I remember I woke up in the middle of the night and I would go into the living room and I see my family sleeping on the couches, you know, because they're there for support. And I remember looking in all the doors, probably looking for my mom, you know. And my dad, he was in one of our corner rooms

and I remember looking into there even and I didn't see her so I just kept going, trying to find her. But that's probably one of the only memories that I can recall of being that young. The whole topic subject alone was like the elephant in the room that nobody talked about ever. It's pretty tough.

I just hate not having answers to questions. For the longest time, I felt like the shortfalls and stuff like that, always like, well, maybe it's because, you know, she wasn't there. Maybe there's something I missed out on in my childhood or something, but I used to have a lot of talks with myself like that because of it. But trying to just come over it, you know, and look at it from a different angle, pretty much just accept it for what it is. It's all I can do.

I could let it stress me out every day, but I just try to take one day at a time and be positive as I can. Since his mother's disappearance, Arnold has heard many rumors and stories about what may have happened to her. There's only so many things that could happen with somebody who's hitchhiking. They either got picked up and murdered or she's being kept alive against her own will. There was a guy who stayed in Arcata. His last name is Ford. It was a pretty big story here in Humboldt

because he lived in Humboldt and he would do long-haul truckings, and he used to pick women up along the highway, and he finally confessed in 97 to women that he murdered. And when he turned himself in, he had, like, a woman's breast cut off inside of his coat. We were kind of curious if they ever did investigate that. November 3, 1998.

36-year-old Wayne Ford walks into the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office in Northern California. He has a severed woman's breast in his jacket pocket. Ford tells police it's just the tip of the iceberg. He is charged with raping, torturing, and murdering four women. But there may have been more. While one of Ford's victims was a local from Eureka, it's not clear if law enforcement suspected that Andrea's disappearance may be tied to Ford. There was, however, another person in the community who many folks are suspicious of. Someone who should have been a protector.

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between your mom and... My grandma, before she passed away, she mentioned this, that he had raped my mother, him and one of his co-workers. Anna White also heard this story years ago. Andrea told her that she was picked up by two Humboldt County Sheriff's deputies, taken over the hill on Highway 299, and raped. After, she allegedly reported the assault to H.C. S.O. We're censoring the name of this individual because,

despite a slew of allegations and legal charges made against him, we couldn't find any record of White's case. Chick was picked up by him and sexually assaulted, but nothing was ever done. They questioned ****, but he was a suspect, I guess, or enough to question about the whole situation. And I don't know if that was the family wanted him questioned or not, but apparently he had an alibi and he was cleared.

I know you could search his name up on Google and it pops up his case that he had here. And the pretty much allegations were that he was either molesting or raping two younger girls. We found those articles and records online. In 2020, a Sovereign Body Institute study revealed this individual faced multiple accusations of child abuse and sexual assault. Despite the numerous reports, he remained in his role as sheriff's deputy. He'd eventually be brought to trial, and while the first would end in a mistrial, on August 25, 1990, he was found guilty of child molestation. Four months later, the judge overturned the conviction. The case was slated for retrial, but the young survivor, quote, could not withstand the mental health impacts of testifying a third time.

Lohr's article also mentions this deputy. One of the police officers that allegedly raped White was accused of sexual abuse on multiple occasions. There are other girls that he had raped too, Davis said, but I think my mom was the only one that was trying to come forward and press charges. According to Anna, the police officer came from a well-to-do family. There were rumors of people that he would follow around. He was a predator. This is not an isolated event.

While the team was in Hoopa, we heard a lot about police misconduct and distrust of law enforcement. Here's what Allie told us. Our people have a lack of confidence in our police and that ride you took to get here from town, you got to take that ride to go to jail. And there's historical stories of women being sexually assaulted by officers on that drive,

of people being beat on that drive. I think Laura has heard some of those stories too. Laura actually wrote about this issue for the paper. A report compiled by the York Tribal Court and the Sovereign Bodies Institute on MMIW in California found that out of 165 cases studied, around one in five were victims of police brutality or lethal neglect.

A law enforcement officer in Humboldt County who spoke on the condition of anonymity vehemently agreed that Native people have long been abused by the police system. Humboldt County Sheriff's Office would not directly comment on these allegations. During our interview with Sheriff Hansel, he acknowledged that he is aware of prior concerns, but stressed that he's working hard to rebuild trust

and foster positive relationships with the community. Still, when it comes to Andrea, we continue to ask ourselves, what made her a target? What factors make her and individuals like her more vulnerable to victimization? I think a lot of the focus is on women because they're more vulnerable when it comes to defending themselves or being put in situations where they feel disempowered. I was reading a story last night about a woman who she said she had consensual sex with a truck

driver who gave her a ride. But when I actually finished reading the story, I was like, that wasn't consensual at all. She was hitchhiking. He picked her up and he made her feel like she had to provide either drugs or sex, or she was either going to get beat up and left alongside the road. I'm like, that's not consensual. But in her mind, as a native woman, she felt like it was consensual because she agreed to it at that time. But really, when you read the story, it was like, no, that wasn't consensual. I mean, yeah, she wasn't forcibly raped, but she was put in a situation where she was vulnerable, highly vulnerable. It's been over 30 years since Andrea Chick White went missing. It's been over 30 years since Andrea Chick White went missing.

But still, as much as it pains them, her sister, her son, and the rest of her family, they've come to believe in the importance of sharing Andrea's story. With missing and murdered women in general, or people, I think it's always just not enough information being spread around, you know? If you have information about somebody who has family that's missing or murdered, come forward with your information because even if it sounds crazy, anything could lead to something, you know? One of them could be that crazy thing that you're hearing that's actually true. I just hope that we're coming to a space of healing and we're still in the beginning phases of just establishing what MMIW is. I think the more that we do this, the more comfortable we'll get at it and the more awareness we'll bring.

We miss her. We want to bring her home. And we're never going to give up. Our team embarks on a 300-mile drive to Covalo. They plan to look into yet another missing persons case. While leaving Hoopa, they pull over on the side of the busy highway where Andrea Chick White was last seen. A National Geographic photograph published in 2022 shows Arnold, Andrea's son, standing at this very location. He's at a grassy median, backlit by the sun, and surrounded by little wildflowers.

In his hands, he holds a photo in remembrance of his mom. Behind him, the traffic whips by. No one stops. Time moves on. It's the same today. But there's still time for change. Not all cases feel as cold as Andrea's. Like this next case in Covillo, California.

There's a lead suspect. And this time, he's named. Next time, on The Vanishing Point. I hadn't seen her for two weeks before she went missing. She called me on the 7th and said, Mommy, whatever you do, do not open the door for anybody and to lay low. So right there, I was like, Deej, what's going on?

And she had that. I called her phone right back. It just went straight to voicemail. And I kept calling it. It kept doing the same thing. So I never got a hold of her again after that. 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. Cilicia 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. Thank you. 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.