Up and Vanished - The Vanishing Point: Episode 5, Covelo

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

From the Up and Vanished team comes The Vanishing Point. Episode 5: Located approximately 200 miles south of Hoopa is Covelo, California; home of the Round Valley Tribe. This quaint town with a population of less than 1500 has a violent crime rate higher than the average U.S. city. Our team travels to Covelo to look into the case of Khadijah Britton, a 25 year old woman who was last seen being forced into a car at gunpoint in 2018. 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 the four cases we've covered so far, we've encountered a lot of hearsay and speculation, but not nearly close enough yet to a definitive conclusion. When we learned that there was a named person of interest, as well as multiple witnesses, in this next case, we were going to make the four-hour drive to interview as many people as possible.

With this many leads, what could possibly be obstructing justice? I'm having a little hard time. I got hearing aid things and they don't work half the time. You can holler at me because my wife does. Okay, alright. How long have you been married? We got together in 1966, one summer night. I fell in love, but she said, you did? So.

Meet Ronnie Hosler. The team met Ronnie at his house in Covolo, a small town on tribal land, four hours south of Hoopa Valley. Ronnie is a husband, a father, and a grandfather. But lately, he's taken on a new role, the role of an advocate, an unwavering voice for his people. I'm always hoping that people would listen to what I'm talking about, because it's happening not only here, but all over these reservations. So many unsolved cases. I want somebody to finally step up and start holding these sheriff departments accountable. Ronnie Hosler and his family have been appealing to different sheriff's departments and government officials ever since February 8, 2018, the day his granddaughter, Khadijah Britton, went missing.

Khadijah was the light of Ronnie's life. And though Khadijah was his granddaughter, she lived with him for a time. And he and his wife tried to nurture her many talents to give her a life filled with opportunities. Khadijah stayed with us for maybe a year or two years. We really tried to do everything we could, you know.

Keep her, you know, concentrate on her academics, you know. She was a really good basketball player, you know. We supported her on that. We traveled with her. It just hurts.

Khadijah's family feels that her case has been downplayed by authorities, especially because they believe that the evidence in her case clearly points to the person responsible for her disappearance. I was really sorry the way they handled that. They treated it like it was just another

girlfriend-boyfriend thing, which, you know, it wasn't. You knew who took her. You knew what he was capable of. He's got a rap sheet, everything. Endangerment, child abuse, child endangerment. How long is he in jail for right now? He's out.

He's out? Yeah, they let him go. He's right here in the valley with us. I'm Slicia Stanton, from the Nomo Aki tribe. Khadija is Nomo Ake Wailake. We were both raised here. Growing up, she was a very happy child. Connie Hosler is the mother of Khadija Britton.

She's a petite woman with dark hair and eyes. You can see the heaviness in her expression. Connie and her family had high hopes for Khadijah after she graduated high school with a 3.2 GPA. It was a big deal, especially given the low high school graduation rate of the area. Khadijah and her mom talked about plans for a community college in Mendocino and about ways that she could pursue a career

in something she was passionate about. Growing up, she always wanted to play basketball in that WNBA, and she was good enough to do it. She just got, you know, with the wrong people. Connie says she can't help but wonder if Khadija, or Dej as she calls her, would have pursued those paths. Maybe she'd still be here today. Khadija was kind Deej as she calls her, would have pursued those paths, maybe she'd still be here today. Khadija was kind of in a bad way.

She hung out with the wrong people, obviously. She stayed with this person, Nichi Fallis, who had three children. And she was a good person that she took care of them. She cooked for them, did what she needed to. She just, she cares about people. When you say she was kind of in a bad way, what do you mean by that? She was into drugs.

She hung out with this guy who sold drugs. She would come to my house quite often just to bathe, shower, because where they stayed, they didn't have a shower. Her and I talked a lot. She didn't like the stuff that I said. If I said anything negative about Nietzsche, she didn't like it. I would try to tell her I could help her get away, which I could have. I could have sent her to like a rehab or just someplace where she would be safe. She didn't want to hear it. If she didn't like it, she would just step in and leave.

Connie told us she recognized that her daughter was struggling with addiction. So it had to be a couple, like maybe two or three years that she was on drugs. And I used to be an addict also. So I was just like, I'm done. I moved to a different spot. I started working at the school. And I said, Deesh, you can do it. You can get out. You can do something. You can go to college. She said, I thought I was better than her or better than anybody. And I go, it's not even like that, Deesh.

Just straighten your life out. It'll be a lot better. But she didn't want to hear that. She wasn't ready. As Connie mentioned, Khadija started seeing a man named Niji Fallis. He was nearly 20 years her senior, and he had three children of his own. I would have never hung out with somebody like Niji Fallis, but that was her choice. And she was only 18 when she kind of started hanging out with him.

What was he like? I didn't see the bad side of him. He was respectful to me. I didn't see anything negative. But I had people that told me that he was being rough with her. And so I stepped in, and then she kind of got mad at me. And she goes, oh, no, Mommy, I'm okay. We're, it's okay. So then I kind of left her alone.

Tell me about the last time that you saw Khadijah. She happened to show up at my house, and that's when I sat down and I go, sis, we can get you help. We can get you out of here. That was, like, two weeks before she went missing. Because she would tell people I was mad at her so she couldn't come see me, which wasn't true. She just didn't want to come see me because she didn't like the things that I would say to her or about Niju.

She didn't want to hear it. So I was never mad at her. She just chose to tell people that I didn't want her around, which wasn't true. So 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 until lay low. So right there, I was like,

Deej, what's going on? And she hung up. 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 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. Connie tried to reach Khadijah multiple times

after those calls on February 7th of 2018. When she still couldn't reach her the next day, she notified tribal police. Not long after, her family began circulating missing persons posters, offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Khadijah's whereabouts. Khadijah was kidnapped at gunpoint in Covolo, California

and has not been seen or heard from since. Police were able to gather this account from two witnesses who claimed to be at the scene. Two witnesses, they said the same thing. The one girl claimed that it was an accident. Again, this is Khadijah's grandfather, Ronnie Hostler.

According to his recollection, the witnesses said they were all at the house of a mutual friend of Khadijah and Niji's. This is what he heard through the grapevine. Khadijah was with him, two boys and a girl. They went in there, they wanted to party with these two guys there, but they said, we don't want to party.

So they were getting ready to leave while Khadijah went into the bathroom. She wouldn't come out. That's when the witness explained things escalated. Having lost his temper, Niji stormed back inside the house. He described a pistol that this boy had. So they stood on the porch and watched him beat her by the car and throw her in the back seat. And they took off. When this story began to spread throughout the community, Niji was nowhere to be found. 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.

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please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Khadijah Rose Britton was last seen at a residence in Covalo, California, on Friday, February 8th, 2018, while being forced into a car at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend, Niji Fallis. No one has seen or heard from Britton since that night. The witness testimonies were a huge break for investigators in identifying Niji Follis as a person of interest. But it was information that would only get them so far, because at the time, Niji was nowhere to be found. And more than that, these claims,

they were a start, but could they really be substantiated? What would have triggered a violent outburst like this? Was it all part of a larger pattern? My mom was killed during domestic violence. Khadijah knew about that, but I didn't really, like, drill it into her. Again, this is Khadijah's mom, Connie. I don't know. In this valley, it's like a lot. We see a lot. But nobody ever gets away. I mean, I was part of domestic violence. I finally got away.

So I took me and Khadijah and, well, my son. And I moved to Lake County into a shelter and we stayed there for like a year just to get away from it because their father was coming into my house and fighting with me. So when Khadijah was in high school, she told us she didn't want to go to school and leave me because she was afraid what he would do. So that's when the tribe had a lady that helped us and she's like, come on, we'll just pack you up and move you. So they did.

So I was fortunate. You know, not a lot of people get away. Not a lot of people stay away. And that's the sad part. Domestic violence is somewhat of an epidemic in the Covalo area and on reservation land in general. In fact, according to a 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice, 83% of American and Alaskan Native women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime.

and Alaskan Native women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime. The person we talk to next is no stranger to navigating these complex issues. Right. Yeah, no, I can share everything. I'm not prohibited from talking about any of it. You know, I don't work for that agency anymore. This is Trent James, a private investigator based out of Houston and former deputy sheriff at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. He was stationed in Covolo at the time of Khadijah's disappearance. We asked him about his experience in Covalo. So very small community, very, very rural.

The valley itself is composed of various areas that are reservation land and some that are not. Basically, I like to relate it to, you know, the resident deputy position as being, you know, back in the 1800s where it's one sheriff for an entire town. That's pretty much how it was. It's a gnarly place to work. It is. It's pretty hardcore. A lot of homicides, a lot of kidnappings, robberies, you know, I've seen and dealt with pretty much everything you can imagine. And as a cop, especially in that capacity as a resident deputy, it's better to get to know people on a personal level. They learn that you're a human. They can trust you.

And so Khadijah and her family just happened to be in that group of people that I got to know. Trent James tells us that the violence that Khadijah experienced at the hands of Niji escalated in January of 2018 after he brutally assaulted her. From what she said, that she was trying to leave him. The relationship was toxic, which it was for sure. And she was trying to break up with him and he wasn't having it. So she left that night.

She walked away from him. She went to one of his relatives' houses. And Niji found out she was over there. And he went over there, walked in the house, grabbed her by her hair, pulled her outside, and then started just beating the shit out of her. And forced her into his vehicle and drove away. And at some point, I think that she was able to get out of the car and kind of ran away. And then she went to, I think it was her stepmom's house. And they called 911. And she was super beat up.

I saw the photographs. And she had a visible injury to her face. And according to her, he kicked her, punched her a bunch of times, hit her with a hammer at one point. And so she reported it. And they looked for Niji that night, but he was nowhere to be found. So the deputies did a warrant for his arrest. Tribal police took a report too. And the next day when I was on duty, it was like, okay, let's find this guy. And I already knew who he was. I had a lot of interactions with that guy. He was a known meth dealer, always had guns, been to prison multiple times already at this point. And he was not pleasant to interact with by any means at all. And in that area, it's very

challenging to find people on the reservation like that that do not want to be found. They have a lot of family members, a lot of friends, and it's very easy to go into hiding. And, you know, and a lot of people don't want to quote unquote snitch. And he was one of those guys that did have a lot of resources in that regard. I think it was like a week had gone by at this point. We still hadn't found him. Following her report of the January assault to law enforcement, a restraining order was issued against Niji. At the time, he was a convicted felon out on bail, so this report

led to an immediate warrant for his arrest. According to the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, women in abusive relationships are about 500 times more at risk when they decide to leave a relationship. So maybe that's why, a few days later, and unbeknownst to her family, Khadija's story changed. Khadija showed up to the tribal police station in Kovolo with Niji's sister. Her name is Casey

Fallis. And Khadija told the tribal police, hey, you know that night that I reported Niji beat me up? Well, I lied. I made the whole thing up. It was actually his sister, Casey, that I got in a fight with. She's standing right here next to me, and I need to drop the charges against Niji. And Casey, standing there, corroborated her statement and said, yep, that's right, I beat her up. That was a very common thing, not just on the res, but in domestic violence situations in general, where the victim of a crime will come back and change their statement because they no longer wished to testify. In this case, more than likely it was due to the fact that he threatened to kill her or, you know, more bodily harm. She was obviously afraid of him.

And that's more than likely what made her want to go and try to drop the charges. But Khadija's request to drop the charges couldn't be fulfilled. She'd made the request to the tribal police department, and they didn't have the authority to do so. After Khadija went missing, felony warrants were issued for Niji for a slew of charges, including burglary, possession of a firearm by a felon, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, and corporal injury to a spouse, cohabitant, or dating relationship,

meaning Khadija. The warrants were out, but Niji Falas was nowhere to be found still. Trent James remembers being more determined than ever to track him down. This was like a month. A long fucking time since a warrant was originally issued. And it was some random ass house that none of us ever fucking expected ever in a million fucking years. After asking around town, one of Trent's friends, a sergeant on the tribal police force, got a tip on where Niji was staying.

So Trent and tribal police headed there and surrounded the home. So you pull up to a reasonable distance and you get on your PA on your patrol car and say, hey, fuck face, get out of the house. We know you're in there. Come out with your hands up. If we see anything else in your hands, you're going to get shot, right? That's why I cuss so much too. These aren't the guys that you're going to be like, sir, can you please put your hands

behind your back? Like, no, fuck no. You will get eaten alive, eaten alive in two seconds. So yeah, you say, get the fuck no. You will get eaten alive. Eaten alive. In two seconds. So yeah, you say, get the fuck out of the house. He gave up immediately. Six days after pointing a gun at Khadija and forcing her into a car, Niji Follis was arrested

and booked in the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. I was there for his first interrogation with the detectives. They called me in because I had known him more than anybody. He got taken down to Ukiah, and I was sitting there with the lead investigator at the time, and Nietzsche,

it was just us three in a room. And Nietzsche, he just kept saying, I don't know, I don't know where she's at. I don't know, beats me. Yeah, you do, you know, like, but he just kept saying, it's so fucking irritating. I still remember this shit. He's just like, oh, it's not my business. It's not my business. I was like, bro, you were fucking dating her for six months. She was at your house every fucking day. What the hell are you

talking about? Plus, I know you're a controlling piece of shit and you beat your chick. So yeah, everything she does is your business. Don't give me that bullshit. No, it's not my business. Okay. What other friend could she be hanging out with then that we don't know about? That's not my business either. You know, so it was just like that. And Niji is very familiar with the justice system. So it was completely fucking nowhere.

We had nothing to hold over his head and he knew it, right? So he knows, he knew. He knew what he did was going to be sufficient and he wasn't going to get caught up for it eventually need you went before a judge to face the charges so we went to court maybe four or five times every week we would go down there and then they would postpone it then they would do this they They would do that. They read that statement on the stand. She explained everything that he'd done to her. I knew then what was going to happen was that Khadijah wasn't there to witness.

So they had to let him go. He was never charged with her kidnapping or her being missing. He was never charged. Nearly all the charges against Niji Fallis were dismissed by the district attorney's office. And all that remained was a single charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. We're not entirely sure why.

Niji served 15 months of a four-year sentence before he was back in Mendocino County in February of 2020. Four months later, he was arrested again, this time for possession of drug paraphernalia and a stolen firearm. The violation led to a 27-month sentence, but he was released from federal prison in half that time. Since then, he's gone on to face multiple charges in state and federal court related to drugs and firearm possession. He has yet to be charged in connection with the abuse or disappearance of Khadija.

Currently, Niji Fallis resides somewhere in the local community. It's a fact that causes some Kovolo residents, like Khadija's family, to worry. Do you see him out? I do see his family. And I go to the store the other day, and it's his sister. And it affected my son at that time.

He's like, man, mom, I could just hurt her. I could just hit her. It's like, you know, let's just go. But it affects me every single day. I don't go to no more events here in this valley. I kind of stay away. Of course, I don't know what I'll do, how I'll respond if I run into him.

We tried to locate Niji Follis, but were unable to do so. Ronnie continues to advocate for Khadija. At a recent press conference, he expressed his frustration with the police and the lack of action against Niji. That case was all dropped because she wasn't there to witness against him. Why? That's one of the biggest questions I have is why? Why is my granddaughter still missing? This whole investigation comes back to the moment

that Khadija was forced into that car. What happened after they drove off? What is Niji not saying? And are there others that could come forward to provide the full story? According to Trent James, both witnesses who gave testimony of that day have unfortunately passed away.

But one of them, on their deathbed, expanded on their original story. She claimed that when Khadija and Niji got into that car, they weren't alone. In fact, she'd been their driver. And the way she says that the car ride unfolded is very concerning. Do you guys all believe what I'm telling you guys? We want to know why.

Why is she still missing? Why this guy had to kill my granddaughter? Next time, on the season finale of The Vanishing Point. Next time, on the season finale of The Vanishing Point. She said that Niji called her on her cell phone, and he sounded, like, upset. Like, he was crying, and he was like, I fucked up, I fucked up, I didn't mean to,

and she's like, what the fuck are you talking about? 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. 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, Thank you. 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.