Transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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Listener discretion is advised.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
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I'm Ali.
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And I'm Eli.
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Welcome back everyone.
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We are on episode 97 this week.
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Yes, this is episode 97.
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I hope everyone's having a great summer.
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We're cruising right into August, so I think we should just go ahead and get into this
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case.
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Could you remind myself and the listeners?
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Is this a cold case or missing person case this week?
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We're on a cold case this week.
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All right, well let's get into it.
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Today we are talking about the cold case of Connie Hiner.
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And this takes place in January of 1996 in Ruston, Virginia, which is just outside of
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Washington, D.C.
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But first, a little bit about Connie.
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Connie's full name was Constance, but she went by Connie and that's how everyone knew
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her, and she had recently just celebrated her 48th birthday a few weeks prior to the
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new year of 1996.
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Connie had built herself from the ground up.
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She had had several failed marriages by the time that she met her current husband, Bob
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Hiner.
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When Connie was in her early 20s, she found herself with a baby girl, her only daughter,
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Brittany, and needing to start her life over.
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With only a high school diploma, she got a job working as a secretary and would occasionally
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bartend on the evenings for extra cash.
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She put herself through real estate school and got her real estate license.
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From there, she went on to college and got an accounting degree and eventually a master's
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in business.
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She married again and got a job working for low income housing and was eventually a vice
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president of the company.
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It's here that she met Bob Hiner.
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The two were discreet, but eventually Connie left her marriage to marry Bob.
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Folks at work were shocked when the two turned up married because they had hid their feelings
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so well.
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Connie, around this time, also finds herself involved in Landmark.
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Landmark is a self-help program that some folks claim really works and transform their
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lives.
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Others have called Landmark, at best, a pyramid scheme and at worst, a cult.
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There is a French documentary about Landmark called Voyage au Père au Nouveau Gros, which,
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pardon my French if that is incorrect, but it translates roughly to The Journey to the
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Land of the New Gurus.
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The documentary is from 2004 and Landmark attempted to get it scrubbed off of the internet,
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but eventually they dropped the case and it can still be found if you look for it.
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For Connie, Landmark had really worked.
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She took most of 1995 off on a sabbatical so she could focus on her training courses
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and bettering herself.
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As the new year approached, Connie landed her dream job.
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She was hired as the Vice President of Finance for a real estate trust in Columbus, Ohio.
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The job would require her to fly to Ohio every week.
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She had rented a two-bedroom apartment there, but on weekends she would come home to be
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with Bob.
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The commute was a lot, but this was her dream job.
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She was going to get the chance to run a company and would be on her way to becoming a millionaire.
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And now a timeline of events.
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On Sunday, January 1, 1996, Connie and Bob attended New Year's Dinner Party.
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According to friends, the couple were happy and content with each other.
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Connie was her usual bright and bubbly self.
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She was excited and telling their friends about her new job.
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She said that she had about a month of clothes currently packed.
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Her dream was to be able to fly without suitcases in the future.
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She was just planning on having everything she needed at the apartment.
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Her friends joked with Bob, quote, well, she's coming back, isn't she?
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End quote.
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To which Bob responded, quote, oh, yes, of course.
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End quote.
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On Monday, January 2, 1996, Bob gets up to get ready for work.
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As Bob gets ready to leave, Connie is still asleep despite her needing to leave for the
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airport in an hour.
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According to Bob, she wanted just a few more minutes of sleep.
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Neighbors saw Bob leave around 710 that morning.
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He got into his Mercedes Benz and drove off.
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He had a work meeting that morning.
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The person that he met with said that she didn't notice anything off or different about
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him.
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Connie had ordered a taxi to take her to the airport that morning.
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The taxi driver arrived just a few minutes after eight.
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He idled for a minute outside.
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And when no one came out, he went up to the door to knock.
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When he didn't get a response, he knocks again.
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Still no answer.
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The taxi driver makes one last attempt by trying to call the house number from his car
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phone.
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No one picks up.
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Slightly annoyed, the taxi driver heads off, assuming that she had arranged another ride
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and forgot to cancel.
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Around noon that day, Bob returns home from lunch.
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He walks into a massacre.
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He finds Connie face down on their bedroom floor next to the bed.
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She was in a pool of her own blood and nude.
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Bob immediately calls the police, who swarm the upscale neighborhood.
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Neighbors are shocked as nothing like this had ever happened there before.
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Police begin to process the scene.
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There are no signs of forced entry and nothing of value appeared to be missing.
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Her purse was still there, her car was parked in the garage, and her suitcase still packed.
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Police are able to tell immediately that this was a violent crime.
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Later they'll refer to it as a crime of passion.
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Police are able to tell that she was bludgeoned with something and stabbed.
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Police do say that they're able to locate what they believe is the murder weapon.
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Investigators will never officially say what it is that they took from the home.
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Police believe that she was attacked while she was asleep.
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As police collect evidence from around the house, they collect a lot.
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They collect ashes from the fireplace, computers, date books.
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There's a lot taken from the home.
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One thing that they do notice is that despite the heavy rain that day, police didn't find
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any evidence that someone had tracked something in.
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No wet leaves, no mud, no shoe prints.
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While police are gathering evidence at the Hiner home, investigators have taken Bob
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to the station for an interview.
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According to police, he was very calm and businesslike.
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He was unable to provide any leads to police.
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When they asked him why would someone want to kill your wife, reports say that he responded
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with quote, it's a Washington thing, just crime in general, end quote.
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When asked outright if he had anything to do with the death of his wife, Bob said no.
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The next day, Tuesday, January 3rd, Connie's autopsy is conducted.
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It confirms that she was stabbed and bludgeoned with something.
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Most of the trauma was to her upper body.
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Despite being found in the nude, she had not been sexually assaulted.
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Police tell the media that they do have a strong lead, but again, decline to go into
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detail about what that strong lead is.
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Detective Dick Klein says quote, this was a crime of passion.
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It was not your random burglary or execution or robbery.
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This appeared to be personal.
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Whoever did this was very, very angry.
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No doubt about that, end quote.
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I personally believe that one of the strong leads that police were pursuing at this time
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is one of Connie's ex-husbands.
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He'll later tell the Washington Post quote, I was being looked at as a candidate for suspect
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hood.
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I was a good suspect.
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The ex-husband, I lived alone.
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I had no alibi.
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I was alone in my truck driving to work that morning.
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No one would remember seeing me, end quote.
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Four days after Connie's murder, on January 5th, Connie's wake is held.
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This is where Connie's mother and sisters find out that she had been cremated and they're
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upset.
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Connie had grown up as a strong Catholic and they do not believe that Connie would have
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wanted that.
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However, in more recent years, Connie had drifted away from the Catholic faith and she
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was more into New Age religion in the last years of her life.
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She would regularly connect with psychics as well for guidance.
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Brittany, Connie's daughter, will later tell the media that her mother did want to be cremated.
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Connie's mother and sisters become suspicious of Bob, but Brittany insists that Bob could
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not have done it.
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It is noted that around 25 people from the Landmark organization come to the funeral
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to pay their respects.
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Some of the family are suspicious of them as well.
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The next day, January 6th, Connie's funeral was supposed to be held, but a snowstorm forces
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Bob to cancel it.
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It's never rescheduled.
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Years later, Brittany will say, quote, Bob and I asked the crematorium to dispose of
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the ashes.
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Then we lied and told everyone I was going to keep them.
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Bob had the right to make that decision.
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We didn't want to carry them around.
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I didn't want to be 60 years old and carrying them around.
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I didn't want them buried.
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I didn't want a stone.
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I didn't want to go to Kentucky to visit a grave.
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I didn't want to have to take my kids there to visit a stone.
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End quote.
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Eventually, Connie's mother will convince Brittany to send her the ashes and she does
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bury them in Kentucky.
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In August of 1996, so it's been about eight months since the murder of Connie, police
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make a plea to the public for any information in the murder.
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Police say that Connie had no enemies and she was well liked by everyone in her life,
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but investigators say they also haven't been able to rule anyone out as a suspect.
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A thousand dollar reward is offered for information.
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Connie's case will fall out of the media until 1998.
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At this point, it's been two and a half years since her murder.
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Police say that Bob is still a person of interest.
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He has never been named a suspect officially in the case.
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According to police, he hasn't done anything to help clear himself.
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Detective Dick Klein says, quote, when a survivor doesn't call you ever to ask what I can do
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to help, that is out of the norm.
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That is a big red flag.
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End quote.
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However, Bob and his lawyer refute this.
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They point out that Bob handed over everything to the police that they asked for and let
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them search the home without a court order.
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Brittany remains close to Bob and has cut people out of her life that questioned him,
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including her grandmother and aunts.
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She does reveal that shortly after the murder, when her and Bob were still living in the
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home, one morning Bob was looking for a knife that they used to cut bagels with.
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He couldn't find it.
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And when they both searched for it, neither one of them could find it.
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They think that this was the murder weapon that police took with them.
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She also says that police recovered a hammer as well.
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Brittany at this point is trying to move on with her life.
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She's a mother now and her focus is on her child.
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She tells the Washington Post, quote, I often talk to Bob about not caring to know what
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happened because to me, it was not about what happened.
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It was about her being gone.
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The desire to put the pieces together, to find out, was never important to me.
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It was not going to bring me closure to know who did it.
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If they caught him, I couldn't sit through a trial and hear described what happened.
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It would be too incredibly painful.
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I'd have a face.
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How scary would that be?
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They'd have a face.
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For me, it's much easier this way.
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I don't have to be afraid to turn around and see that face.
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End quote.
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And after this, the case truly falls out of the media.
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There doesn't seem to be any updates until the next time that her case is mentioned is
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2020, when Fairfax police launch a new cold case website and Connie's case is one of
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the first ones they feature.
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Connie's case is the only unsolved murder from 1996 for Fairfax County.
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So with that, if you know anything about the murder of Connie Hiner in January of 1996,
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please call the Fairfax County police at 703-246-7511.
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So that is the case of Connie Hiner.
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I found myself writing down multiple times.
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I somewhat understand Connie's daughter's reaction, having now lost my mother myself.
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Granted it was in a very different way.
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I just really understood where she was coming from in terms of the ashes and just the after
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parts of what happens after you lose someone.
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And again, the tragic ending to her mother's death was very different from my own mother's,
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but there I think probably when you go through this and maybe some of our listeners feel
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the same or agree in some way.
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Yeah, I just, I was glad that she said something and felt firm in it and was like even vocalized
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afterwards about she didn't want to put a face to this person, you know, in full belief
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that it was not Connie's husband.
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Yeah, I don't know.
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It's really sad.
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It was difficult to listen to because you could just really sense that the trajectory
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of all of the lives affected by this, that they were changed forever.
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And that's always really heartbreaking because it's at the core of cases like these is the
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heartbreak of the people who are left behind.
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Absolutely.
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And I just wanted to take a moment to kind of address why I chose to cover this case
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since you know that quote I kind of read at the end and you even referenced it of Brittany
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not wanting to know like it wouldn't help bring her closure.
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I really wrestled with if I should cover this case since that's kind of Brittany's thought
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and I always try to keep the family at the front of everything I do and always trying
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to be respectful to the family.
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And with Connie's case, I feel that Brittany clearly has very strong boundaries, personal
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boundaries in her life.
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And I imagine she still has those today.
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But there are still people in Connie's life like her mother and sisters who do want to
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know what happened to her.
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And ultimately, somebody should have to answer for what happened to Connie.
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They shouldn't just be able to get away with it.
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So that is why I ultimately chose to cover Connie's case because I really couldn't find
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that many like podcasts or recent media about her.
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So I wanted to get her name out there again.
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Totally.
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And I know you obviously and know that you treat every case with the utmost respect and
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honestly tenderness always of how you approach it, how you investigate.
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So I know that about you.
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But just a second voice to echo what Ali said.
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There's always a delicate line to walk when we choose to engage with any case.
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And I also know that you weren't saying anything in a disparaging way towards her daughter
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not wanting to put a face to the person who committed this crime, to the person who ended
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her mother's life.
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Yeah, it's very, it's heartbreakingly complicated.
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But yes, at the end of the day, a crime was committed.
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That person should be held responsible and the people who want answers deserve to have
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them.
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Exactly.
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My question for you is to kind of circle back right to the beginning to January 2.
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How tight is that timeline from when Bob leaves for work until he comes home for lunch?
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So neighbors saw Bob leave around 710 a.m. that morning.
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And we know he gets to work.
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He has work meetings that morning.
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People see him.
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The taxi arrives just a few minutes after 8 and Connie doesn't come out.
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There's no answer.
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He doesn't see any movement in the house.
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And then Bob returns home for lunch right around noon.
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Okay, so that's about five hours.
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My initial thought with that timeline was, oh, it does give time to, at least to me,
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it does give time to make it look like no one ever came in or came out.
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If you localize the crime to one room, had the ability as someone who's committing this
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type of crime, like a breaking and entering, if you have the ability to make it look like
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nothing was broken to get in, you know, take your shoes off, I guess what I'm trying to
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say is I thought it was plausible that it would still be someone who did not live in
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the home, I guess is what I want to say, to take the eyes off of her husband.
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And I guess I wanted to know what your thoughts were.
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Yeah, the timeline is very critical here.
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Police have mentioned that they think the crime took place after Bob left and before
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the taxi driver arrived.
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So that would make the timeline around 50 minutes.
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I don't know exactly what supports them in that.
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Like if they have the evidence, if it's coming from the medical examiner, as far as like
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a time of death, if they were able to kind of put that within a few hours, or if it's
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just the simplest and she didn't get in the taxi, they assumed she was already dead by
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that point.
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For me, it is a very complicated case.
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According to you know, Bob and his lawyer, they have been very forthcoming with information
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anything that was asked, Bob turned it over, he turned over the house, he didn't ask for
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warrants or anything, and immediately went down to the police station to answer questions.
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Police appear to have been suspicious of him from the beginning.
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Again, police always have to look at the spouse and kind of rule them out first.
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And it doesn't seem like they've ever really been able to rule Bob out.
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So, that's complicated for sure.
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I will say as far as like, could a stranger have committed this crime?
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According to investigators, they do believe that this was like a crime of passion and
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that this was personal.
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That's some language that they used right at the beginning of the investigation.
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But Bob's lawyer also pointed out that there was construction crews down the street that
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were already working that morning when Bob had left and there was a utility worker next
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door who was also around throughout the morning who didn't hear anything or see anything.
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So, there is a lot of opportunity for just a random act of violence to have happened.
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But with all that being said, I think that just it all boils down to like, we don't know.
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We don't really know who did this.
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We don't know what the motivation was.
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Nothing was stolen.
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There was no sexual assault.
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It just was a murder.
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I would be curious to know what the police know and what came out through interviews.
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And if there was anybody, if they did interview the construction workers and the utility worker,
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what did they see?
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What did they hear?
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I would be curious to know all that to see if it points anywhere.
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Yeah, I think first and foremost, just you bringing it to our podcast and getting her
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name back out there again.
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This didn't happen that long ago.
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And as we know with cases that, especially cases that have happened within the last 30
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years, there is the possibility that if someone knows something, they are still alive.
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And I think that that's completely possible in this case as well, given the dates that
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this crime fall within.
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So I think really, you know, just you doing the investigative work of an unknown case
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and bringing it here will hopefully shake some information out.
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And I don't mean directly, I just mean with more people listening, hopefully more people
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talking about it, people talking about it on Reddit, maybe more podcasts cover Connie's
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case.
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And, you know, that's always the goal here.
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Yeah.
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Because ultimately, this was just a very horrific crime.
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And whoever did this doesn't need to be out amongst other people until there's been a
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chance for rehabilitation and some correction there.
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Because if this crime lacked any motive, it was just a random act of violence, like that's
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scary.
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And that person needs to answer for what they did to Connie.
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They don't just get to live their life without having to admit to what they did.
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I think that the true, like best case scenario here is a true balance of both peace and justice.
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Like what the justice system is supposed to do in cases like this is to bring peace to
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the people who so desperately deserve it.
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And justice do where justices do, you know?
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Absolutely.
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So again, if you know anything about the murder of Connie Hiner in January of 1996, please
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call the Fairfax County Police at 703-246-7511.
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Until you are listening to this episode as you reach the end, please, please, please,
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if you haven't yet already, leave us a review, especially if you are in Apple podcasts.
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And a rating right along with that at five stars would be great as well.
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We love reading the reviews every week.
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Oftentimes I will be brushing my teeth or shaving or usually doing something in the
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bathroom and Allie will run in and tell me something lovely that one of you has written
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for us in your review, which we always appreciate.
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We also have our Instagram, which I make all the graphics for.
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You can find us on Instagram at Cold and Missing.
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We'll have photos of Connie up there this week and we also post other active missing
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person cases or other podcasts that are covering cold cases or missing people.
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00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:12,120
So if you're not following us, please check us out.
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It's a great resource for what's happening in the true crime community as well as what's
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happening in the podcast.
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And if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we have transcripts on our website,
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www.coldandmissing.com.
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I do know Apple just came out with their new transcript feature.
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I don't have any control over that right now.
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It's just like an AI generated thing.
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So it's not always correct.
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Sometimes it doesn't spell the names correctly or it doesn't quite pick up what I'm saying
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correctly.
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So if you want the corrected transcripts, you can find those at www.coldandmissing.com.
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You can also review us there.
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You can donate to us.
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There's a lot of resources over there.
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So check us out.
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But that is all I have.
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Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
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I'm your host Allie.
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And I'm your cohost Eli.
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Have a great week and stay safe, y'all.
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Stay safe, y'all.
