Cold and Missing: Jeremy Toles

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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 and is intended for a mature

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audience.

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Listener discretion is advised.

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Welcome back everyone.

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Welcome back.

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This is Cold and Missing.

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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 it's Cold and Missing where we cover cold cases and unresolved missing person cases.

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All right Al, what do you have for us this week?

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So today we are talking about the cold case of Jeremy Toles.

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And this takes place in April of 2011 in Midwest City, Oklahoma.

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But first a little bit about Jeremy.

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Jeremy is 24 years old.

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He was born September 8th, 1986 and he would be 36 years old today.

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His family and friends describe him as gregarious.

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He lit up the room.

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A friend and co-worker, Charlotte Adams says, quote, you could be in a bad mood and then

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he'd crack a joke and that would change it.

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He'd give you 75 cents of his last dollar if you needed it, end quote.

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Jeremy played football throughout high school and received a scholarship to play at Langston

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University, an HBCU or historically black college or university.

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And it's the only HBCU in Oklahoma I learned.

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However in 2007 his football career was abruptly ended when a shooter opened fire in a pizzeria

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parking lot that Jeremy was leaving at the time with his friends.

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Jeremy was hit by a stray bullet, shattering the bone in his leg.

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Another woman was also hit but no one was killed in this incident.

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This experience, however, changed him.

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He became very skittish and started carrying a gun with him at all times.

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And unfortunately this did lead to him getting into some trouble with police.

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In 2009 he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.

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He received a five year deferred sentence.

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This basically meant that if he stayed out of trouble for five years the charge would

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be dropped from his record.

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Jeremy didn't squander the second chance he was given.

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He found a passion for cooking and would spend most of his nights trying out new recipes

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for his family.

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He also found out that he was going to be a father to a baby girl who was born two days

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before Christmas.

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The mother of his daughter, Kandice Derrick said quote, his life had completely changed

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and revolved around providing for his daughter and getting back into school, end quote.

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Jeremy had a job at a local telecommunications company where he quickly earned a reputation

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as a hard worker and a customer favorite.

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His work supervisor, Keia Marshall says quote, he was determined, he was ambitious.

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Customers would call back and ask for Jeremy by name.

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We were just blessed that he was a part of our lives, end quote.

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So now a little timeline of events here.

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On Friday, April 9th, 2011, at this time Jeremy is about two years into his deferred sentence

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just to give you an idea of where we are in his life.

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Jeremy calls his mother Gladys Toles and says he's coming over that evening to do

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some laundry.

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He also calls Kandice to check in on his daughter but at some point that evening his plans change.

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Instead of going to his mother's house to do laundry, Jeremy decides to go out with

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friends in Langston, about 45 minutes from his home in Midwest City, but where he went

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to college so he was familiar with the area.

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On Saturday, April 10th, 2011, Gladys called Jeremy's phone several times throughout

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the day but he never picked up.

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Jeremy also was supposed to pick up his daughter but failed to show up and there were no details

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if he communicated with Candace about this or not.

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The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the OSBI, say that Jeremy was last seen alive

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in the evening hours of Saturday, April 10th, 2011 but there are no details as to where

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he was seen, who he was seen with, if he was seen with anybody, or who he was seen by.

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So we really don't know where he is on Saturday, April 10th.

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On Sunday, April 11th, 2011, Gladys keeps trying Jeremy's phone but still no answer.

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She begins to really worry for her child now because she hasn't talked to him since April

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9th.

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That was the last time she heard from Jeremy.

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On Monday, April 12th, 2011, Gladys, still worried about Jeremy, calls work who inform

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her that he did not show up that day.

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This sends the family into a panic.

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That afternoon, a farmer in Logan County, Oklahoma, this is north of Oklahoma City,

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about 35 minutes from where Jeremy lived in Midwest City, the farmer finds a body in his

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field.

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Officers at the scene believed the body was dumped there, meaning there was another crime

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scene where the actual murder took place.

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Investigators also believe that he had been there for a couple of days at this point.

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The OSBI get involved immediately with this case and the state medical examiner is able

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to review the body that same day.

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As the news breaks that a body was found in a farmer's field, Jeremy's family is sent

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over the edge.

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Gladys said, quote, I knew it was Jeremy.

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I screamed and I cried and I said, that's my baby.

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That's my baby.

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And how could they dump him there like a dog like that?

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End quote.

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Jeremy is ultimately ID'd through his fingerprints and the family is informed that evening.

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On Tuesday, April 13th, 2011, police announced that foul play is suspected in Jeremy's

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death and ultimately the state medical examiner will rule his death a homicide.

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His autopsy revealed that his cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

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On Saturday, April 16th, 2011, Jeremy's funeral is held and over 900 people show up

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to pay their respect.

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There wasn't enough room in the chapel, so people were standing in the aisles and waited

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outside on the street.

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Jeremy's mother said, quote, I think the Lord saw that Jeremy corrected his wrongs

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and called him home.

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But to see how many lives he touched, how many people showed up for his funeral, that

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doesn't happen if you're not loved.

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End quote.

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And then this case really goes cold.

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On May 17th, 2019, this is eight years since Jeremy's body was found.

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His parents sit down with local news asking for the public's help and to keep his name

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in the media.

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But there doesn't seem to be any leads that come from this.

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And then truly, that is all we know about what happened to Jeremy Toles.

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There has never been a suspect announced in this case and there's never been any person

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or people of interest named.

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If you know anything about what happened to Jeremy Toles in April of 2011, you are encouraged

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to call the OSBI at 1-800-522-8017 or you can email them at tips at OSBI dot OK dot

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gov.

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Again, you can call them at 1-800-522-8017 or email them at tips that's T I P S at OSBI

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dot OK dot G O V.

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And the sources for today's podcast come from the Daily Oklahoman and they really are the

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only newspaper that I could find that covered this case.

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So shout out to the Daily Oklahoman, Uncovered dot com, News 9, Temple and Sons dot com and

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KOC05.

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OK, so do you have any questions?

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So the first question that I have for you is how did his body end up in a field?

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Honestly we don't really know.

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So the most that investigators have really been able to determine is that he was dumped

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there, that this is a second site and so the actual crime of the thing, what actually happened

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to Jeremy happened somewhere else outside of this field and then his body was left in

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the field.

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And according to reports, he had been there for a couple of days at that point, according

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to investigators.

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Which brings into question the last time that he was seen.

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It brings into question the last time he was seen because the OSBI, they say Saturday,

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April 10th is the last time that Jeremy is seen, but they don't say where he is or who

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he's with, if he's with anybody.

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However, all day Saturday, his mother calls him again and again and he doesn't pick up

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and he also fails to pick up his daughter, which his life was revolving around at this

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time.

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And if his body is found on a Monday and police are saying that it's there for several days,

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to me it makes more sense that on Friday he went missing when he went out to Langston

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to go out with friends.

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It would make more sense that that was the last time as that was the last time his family

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heard from him, but police are pretty firm in this.

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He was seen April 10th, but we don't know where.

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Yeah, so if a crime happens in one jurisdiction and then the body is dumped and like crosses,

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you know, county lines, town or city, I don't really understand how that stuff works.

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Does it change who pays attention to what?

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Or are they just operating on the assumption that the murder happened at a second location?

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Well, I think they have evidence or the lack of evidence at the field lets them know that

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the murder happened somewhere else.

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Gotcha.

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Okay.

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But as far as jurisdiction goes, so Logan County Sheriff is the first on the scene and

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they are involved in the recovery, but very quickly that same day the OSBI get involved.

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And I think it's because they're able to ID Jeremy very quickly through his fingerprints.

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So they know that, you know, the city that he lives in is different than the county that

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he was found in, which is different than the last place that he was seen potentially.

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Again, we don't know where OSBI is putting him on that Saturday.

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So I think that OSBI gets involved quickly just because he's kind of has ties in a lot

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of different places so they can kind of oversee the entire state.

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Do you think that that is beneficial to this case that they immediately step in?

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I think it is beneficial, but I don't really see a payout here for it.

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I mean, do you think that that's why perhaps there is like a lack of information known

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to us because of the OSBI?

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Yeah, I guess I didn't know if they had to be more protective of what they share with

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the public.

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I don't think they need to be any protective, any more protective than any other police

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agency.

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Okay.

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The OSBI, you know, they want this case solved.

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A number of years ago, they put out a deck of cards that had cold cases on them that

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they put into the prison system to try to get jailhouse informants essentially and to

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remind them of cases.

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Jeremy was on one of them.

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One of the cards had his picture and just a quick summary of his case, but that's it.

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I mean, Jeremy really is the farthest away from a missing white woman as you can get.

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So his case just didn't get a lot of coverage at all.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And that's unfortunate.

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And we've spoken about it before on the podcast that, you know, that's a trend in systemic

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racism that runs through systems like these that black folks are neglected.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And I think the fact that Jeremy had a bit of a police record on him, even though he

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was in a deferred sentence.

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So if he was able to complete that, he would not have a criminal record.

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Just want to make that clear.

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I think it stopped the media from covering it a lot or continuing to cover it, which

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is really unfortunate because this because he's a person.

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Yeah, because he's a person and somebody that was really loved.

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This is the first time in my research that I've seen anyone called gregarious, which

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came up again and again, like a couple of people called him that, which I thought was

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such a great word and like such a unique word for a person.

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But again, if you have any information about what happened to Jeremy in April of 2011,

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you are encouraged to call the OSBI at 1-800-522-8017 or you can send an email at tips.

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That's t i p s at osbi.ok.gov and you can remain anonymous.

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And if you are enjoying our podcasts, please follow us on Instagram.

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We'll have pictures of Jeremy up this week, giving synopsis of the case and just putting

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his picture out there again for people to see and hopefully jog some memories.

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This wasn't that long ago.

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It was 2011.

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So hopefully some information is able to be drummed up over the years.

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Yeah, I would love to just like learn more about this man, you know, and the family and

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everything.

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Mm hmm.

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While you're in your podcast app, if you want to go ahead and give us a five star review,

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if you're in Apple podcasts, if you want to write us a review, we got a really nice review

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last week.

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So you said you would be listening.

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So I hope you are.

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This is my little shout out to you.

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Thank you so much.

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And yeah, that's all I have.

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Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.

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Stay safe, y'all.