Cold and Missing: Leona Kinsey

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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.

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And missing person cases.

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Hello everyone and welcome back.

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Welcome back everyone.

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I'm your host, Ali.

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And I am your co-host, Eli.

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And I am so sorry for the unexpected hiatus we took last week.

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Yeah, I've been a little spotty in attendance as well.

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But COVID hit our household last week.

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If you follow us on Instagram, at Cold and Missing, quick plug in at the beginning of

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the show, but please follow us there so that way, heaven forbid this happened in the future,

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but we put updates on there for our new episodes every week.

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And when COVID hits your household and knocks you on your butt, as it did with me, wow,

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this was my first time with COVID, y'all.

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And here's just a friendly reminder to wash your hands, keep up on those good COVID practices,

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because y'all don't want this new variant or whatever I got.

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It sucked.

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As you might hear, I am actually still recovering from COVID.

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I caught it from my beautiful wife.

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And yeah, I mean, it's rough.

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The body is a resilient thing, but man, have we been resilient.

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But happy to be back, grateful to be back.

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I think update me, Al, what episode number will this be?

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So this is episode 47, and we have a missing person case.

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Missing person.

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All right, would you like to just dive in?

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Yeah, we've kept everyone waiting long enough.

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Great, let's do it.

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So today I have for you the missing person case of Leona Kinsey.

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And this case actually comes to us from a listener.

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So quick shout out to Mel, who is a victim's advocate for Leona.

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So Mel was kind enough to introduce me to Leona's daughter, Carolyn, who I was able

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to connect with and work with both Carolyn and Mel to gather information on the story.

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So thank you so much to Carolyn and Mel right off the top.

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So Leona Kinsey, this takes place in La Grande, Oregon in October of 1999.

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But first, a little bit about Leona.

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Leona is 45 years old in 1999.

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She was born December 15, 1953, and she would be 69 years old today.

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In 1999, Leona was 5'5", 110 pounds, and had brown eyes and shoulder length brown hair.

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She is a member of the Puyallup and Yakima tribe in Washington state and has a tattoo

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of a tomahawk and a peace pipe crossed on her bicep.

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Leona is described as having a huge heart and being very compassionate, but also a fire

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cracker.

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She was fiercely independent and knew how to live off of the land.

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Leona ran her own lawn care business and had a fully booked week of jobs at the time of

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her disappearance.

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Leona has one daughter, Carolyn DeFord, who also does incredible work.

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Carolyn works for the Puyallup tribe as an anti-trafficking program manager.

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This is from a biography I found online for Carolyn when she spoke to the city of Kent,

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and I'm sure Leona would also want me to brag on her daughter in this way, so I'm

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going to take a moment and read it because Carolyn is an amazing woman.

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Carolyn DeFord's personal experience as a survivor and being the daughter of a long-term

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missing person inspired her to create Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a grassroots

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volunteer advocacy organization focused on finding the missing women and helping the

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families of murdered women cope with their grief.

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She is a board member of the Inter-Tribal Coalition Against Violence, Washington Against

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Sex Trafficking, and the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and

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Person Task Force.

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She works tirelessly to address domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and missing

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and murdered Indigenous women and people with her work.

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Now a timeline of events.

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So Monday, October 25, 1999.

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Leona is doing some grocery shopping at Walmart when she runs into her best friend Nancy.

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Leona tells Nancy that she's going to stop by her place after she heads over to Albertson's

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grocery store.

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Leona tells Nancy that she is meeting a man named John there.

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Leona had struggled with addiction in the past, and it is believed that she might have

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relapsed at this time and John was a drug dealer.

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When Leona fails to turn up to Nancy's home, Nancy begins to worry.

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She jumps in her car and starts driving around to Leona's favorite haunts to see if she's

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there, but she can't find her.

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Nancy is unable to locate Leona or Leona's vehicle, which was a 1980s light brown GMC

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Jimmie.

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On Tuesday, October 26, this is the next day, Carolyn, Leona's daughter, wakes up in Washington

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State and is crying over everything.

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She says, quote, something wasn't right, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

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Everything was making me cry.

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I cried because I had to go to work.

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I cried because it was raining.

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I just cried.

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The sobbing was coming from somewhere inside of me, somewhere I've never felt.

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End quote.

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When Carolyn gets into work, there's a message waiting for her from Nancy.

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Nancy told her that her mom was supposed to stop by last night, but never showed up and

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Nancy was beginning to worry.

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Carolyn begins calling her mom and calling her pager, but Leona never picks up or calls

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back.

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Finally, Carolyn pages her mother that it's an emergency, hoping that this will prompt

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a response from her mother.

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But this too goes unanswered.

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On Wednesday, October 27, Nancy and Lonnie, Leona's ex-boyfriend, go to Leona's home

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to find that her animals have not been cared for.

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Leona loved her dogs and her pets and took them everywhere, so it was not like her to

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leave them at home alone and uncared for.

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Nancy and Lonnie call the police who show up and they find a window that they're able

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to crawl through.

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The police find no signs of foul play inside of the home.

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On Friday, October 29, Carolyn files a missing persons report.

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Carolyn has held off filing a missing persons report because her mother did have a habit

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of disappearing for days at a time and Carolyn didn't want to get the police involved unnecessarily

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with her mother if it could be avoided, especially if her mother had relapsed into her addiction.

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Carolyn thought that once she called the police, they would jump into action, but this was

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not the case.

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Carolyn says, quote, I had this great hope that I would call and make the missing persons

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report and the police would just find her.

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That's what they do, right?

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They find people, end quote.

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On Saturday, October 30th, Leona's car, the light brown 1980s GMC Jimmie, is found abandoned

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at the Albertsons parking lot.

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Nancy found the car when she was out looking for Leona.

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The car was found in the morning and the manager for Albertsons believed that the car had not

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been there the night before when the store had closed.

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There were no signs of foul play outside or inside the car, but it was noted that the

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outside of the car was caked in mud as if it had been driven off of a road.

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Ultimately, no clues were pulled from the car that would help find Leona.

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On Wednesday, November 3rd, 1999, Carolyn arrives at her mother's home in Oregon.

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Since Leona was renting her home on Hall Street in La Grande, Oregon, the landlord needed

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the November rent paid or Leona's stuff packed up.

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Since Carolyn couldn't afford her mother's rent along with her own, she arrived and began

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packing up her mother's things.

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When she arrived at her mother's home, she found coffee still in the pot, groceries left

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out on the counter, and a full carton of cigarettes in the freezer.

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Carolyn was nervous that as she packed her mother's things, at any moment Leona would

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come through the door and be pissed that everyone was in her home boxing up her stuff.

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When Carolyn went into her mother's room, she laid down on the bed and breathed in her

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mother's scent.

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It was in this moment that Carolyn noticed her mother's purse.

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Inside was her pager, her glasses, her keys, and her cigarettes.

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Carolyn knew her mother would not leave home without these items.

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While packing her home, Carolyn also finds notes all over the place that Leona had written

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begging her ex-boyfriend to leave her alone.

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And then the case goes cold.

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It really feels as if the police don't immediately jump at this and don't take it seriously.

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We know from October 27th when the police initially go to her home and shimmy in through

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the window that there's no foul play suspected per the police report.

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And the police report is very thin as far as descriptions and what was going on in the

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home and the state of the home.

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According to Mel, the victim's advocate.

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The next bit of information really comes because of the work the family has done in their own

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investigation of the case.

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So the man the family believed to be John, the man that Leona was meeting at the Albertsons

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parking lot, he was deported back to Mexico.

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John has a list of aliases a mile long.

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He is also known to go by John Pina Lamas, Juan Pina, Juan Pina Lamas, Juan F. Alejandro,

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Juan F. Pina Badanda, and Juan Alejandri.

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The family is still seeking information related to John.

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They don't know his whereabouts today, if he's alive or dead.

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So any information related to John is helpful and we're going to be posting pictures of

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him on our Instagram as well.

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In October of 2008, Leona's family gathered to remember her and to hopefully jog the memories

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of those in the community.

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Carolyn says, quote, I'm willing to bet there are people in La Grande who have information

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that could help bring closure.

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We're ready for closure.

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It's been nine years and that's too long to constantly wonder what's happening.

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End quote.

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Carolyn has said several times that as a child, if she snuck out in La Grande, there was going

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to be at least five people calling her mother in the morning to tell her about it.

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She wonders how a community that knows everything about everyone all of a sudden has not a single

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scrap of information about Leona.

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Police at this time say they are still working on the case.

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Sergeant John Scholl says, quote, we've done a large number of interviews and it's still

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an open case.

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We'd be happy to get more information.

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End quote.

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And then Carolyn holds memorials over the years that happen again and again.

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And these eventually grow into big rallies for missing and murdered indigenous women.

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But in December of 2008, Carolyn says, quote, I'm ready to find answers.

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She deserves to be brought home.

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She deserves to rest in peace.

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I would like someone to be held accountable, but I'll just start with finding her.

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End quote.

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And then in 2021, Lani, Leona's ex-boyfriend, took a polygraph test and passed.

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Lani is not a person of interest at this time, but nobody has been ruled out in this case,

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according to police.

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Anything and everything is still a possibility.

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Over the years, rumors have reached the family that Leona was murdered and placed in a hole

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on a mountainside, either on Mount Emily, the Minam Mountain, or the High Valley region,

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which are all surrounding La Grande, Oregon.

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So if you know anything about Leona's disappearance in 1999 or her whereabouts today, please call

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the La Grande police at 541-963-1017.

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And the sources for today come from NPR, The Doe Project, Leona's family's GoFundMe pages,

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Seattle Met, the Facebook page, Finding Leona Kinsey, The Observer, and Mel, the victim's

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advocate who works closely with Carolyn and her family, and of course, Carolyn DeFord.

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So that is the case of Leona Kinsey.

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Thank you for sharing this case.

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It's one that I have heard of before, and it's one that I couldn't forget about because

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of the circumstances always, you know, but specifically how little was done.

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That was something that I remembered significantly.

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Yeah, this case has really been kept alive by Carolyn.

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She's done the work to get it out in the media.

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I had a really hard time finding newspaper stories from the time that this event occurred

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just because there really wasn't any coverage done.

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There seemed to be a little bit done in The Observer, but I couldn't access their archives

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that far back.

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Yeah.

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Again, it's like shocking and heartbreaking because it was 1999, right?

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Like that's not that long ago.

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And I think chances are if you are a listener, you have an awareness around missing and murdered

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indigenous women.

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It's known that way, unfortunately, for a reason.

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Because these cases, just because of marginalization and racism and institutionalized, so many

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things, these people, these women are failed over and over again.

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And it feels tricky.

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I'm like, what do I say besides just say her name more and talk more about the case?

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And I feel like she was a struggling addict too, which I know it's such a stigma.

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Me being a recovering addict myself, I've watched people's minds change about me within

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a moment after I say it.

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And addiction is unfairly present in the lives of a lot of indigenous women.

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It's like a byproduct of the environment that they're living in.

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And I can understand some of that.

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So it's one word, to describe someone that way and to know that that's in part why her

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case was discarded is sad.

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Or I guess that's my opinion.

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You know?

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I don't know.

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Do you agree with me?

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Like, do you think that that was a focal point or a descriptor?

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Yeah, I think it's the fact that Leona had struggled with addiction and might have possibly

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been active in her addiction during this time or during the time of her disappearance.

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I think gave the police permission to not care.

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And with her behavior in the past of possibly falling off the grid for a few days, not answering

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the phone, not calling people back, I think that further gave police comfort and like,

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well, this is normal.

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She does this, she disappears, she's an addict, she'll be back.

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But she never was back.

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And from the beginning, like her best friend, Nancy, raised the alarm immediately and started

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contacting people because she knew something was wrong.

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She knew that even in addiction, she should be able to find Leona.

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And she couldn't.

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She should be able to get a hold of her.

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Carolyn knew that like her mother would call her back if she said, it's an emergency 911

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on her pager.

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And she didn't.

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So clues from the very beginning that this was not just addiction, that this was something

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else, that she was truly missing.

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And even if it was, I know this strays a moment away from exactly on topic, but like the fact

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that that's the response because, you know, as I know, and you thank you for being there

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for me in my recovery, addicts when they're relapsing are at their like most, most vulnerable.

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Like the response, like culturally, communally should be like all hands on deck.

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Like this person needs support.

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Yeah, I mean, this one, like I feel like I know I say it every episode.

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Like I know that I become emotional and like talking about these cases.

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And of course I do, you know, I'm a person.

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It reminds me of like pieces of paper like ripped up and just like flowing through the

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wind, you know, and that it's like a privilege for me to like realize like I'm like lost

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and like hopeless bump bumping into like trying to talk to you about this and that like, from

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what I can like maybe understand just like culturally and communally, like feeling that

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all the time.

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You know, it feels palpable and it's like just heartbreaking.

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Yeah, there is an epidemic in this country of missing and murdered indigenous women and

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children and people because of the jurisdictions of tribal police, but then county and state

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and federal, they, it all gets like convoluted and swept under the rug, essentially.

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Yeah, and nationally, indigenous people are just, it's not that they're reported missing

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less, but it's just their numbers aren't getting reported nationally.

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So like the NamUs database that has like all the missing people, you know, in the United

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States, the active missing person cases in the United States.

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After like, I believe in 2016, they did like an investigation and found that they like

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indigenous people weren't getting uploaded into that database at the rate that they were

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going missing.

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So it's just a failing on the government to indigenous people, which has always been the

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history of that relationship, for lack of a better word.

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And Leona is one of these women who has been long term missing with no resolution.

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And because of her experience as her daughter, Carolyn has taken this and has really changed

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the conversation nationally about missing and murdered indigenous women and is being

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truly a beacon of change in Washington state.

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There's been a lot of changes, including having an alert for when an indigenous person goes

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missing in the state, similar to like an amber alert.

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Like, I feel like you could trace all of those origins like back to Carolyn, ultimately.

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And I know Leona would be so proud of her daughter for using her voice and speaking

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up and fighting on this.

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There's a story that I found that Carolyn tells a lot about her mom of when Carolyn

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was in school and a girl wanted to fight her, but Carolyn wouldn't get out of the car to

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fight her.

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And when her mom found out, she was like, you didn't get out of the car.

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So it was like, that was like very much their personalities where Leona was like bold and

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brash and Carolyn like seemed to sit back more in her youth.

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But I would argue now that like, Carolyn is bold and brass, just like her mother and like

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is a force to be reckoned with, just like her mother.

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Oh, yeah.

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I'm glad that we are talking about her today.

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It's a case that can't be mentioned enough.

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She is a human being that like cannot be mentioned, thought of, spoken about enough.

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And Leona's case really has been put out because of Carolyn like, and because of Mel advocating

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for Leona's story to be put out there.

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And if you search in your podcast app for Leona Kinsey, you'll find other really great

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podcasts and interviews with Carolyn that are all really great listening.

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So if you want to know more about this case, that information is out there because the

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family has put it out there and has made it available.

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So thank you again to Carolyn DeFord for allowing us to share the story on our podcast and for

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providing us with information.

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And Mel, Leona's victim's advocate, who brought this case to us through our email and who

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I've had a really great opportunity to get to know.

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And there are some other cases that Mel has also brought us that we're going to be covering

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down the line.

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So thank you for your trust in this.

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And it's an honor to put Leona's name out there and to put the story out there and to

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put it back in people's minds.

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If you want to stay up to date with Leona's case specifically, I encourage you to go over

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to Facebook and you can search Finding Leona Kinsey and you can follow that page there.

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It's ran by Carolyn and Mel, who post the latest updates and pictures, stories, interviews,

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all of that.

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So if you want to keep up with Leona's case specifically, I recommend you go there.

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And again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Leona Kinsey in 1999, you

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are encouraged to call the La Grande police at 541-963-1017.

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And again, if you don't already, please follow us at Instagram at cold and missing.

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You can find us on there and we'll have updates.

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We don't plan on being sick and missing episodes on short notice like that again, but life

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happens so you never know.

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But you can stay up to date.

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We always inform the Instagram of what's going on.

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So please follow us there or you can head over to our website www.coldandmissing.com

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where we have transcripts of every episode.

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So if you know someone who is hard of hearing or deaf, they can read the episodes.

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All the information is out there to also join in and get the information.

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So that's on our website.

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While you're in your podcast app, if you wouldn't mind leaving us a review of five stars, a

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thumbs up, a written review if you're an Apple podcast and have the time.

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But that's all I have.

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So have a good week and stay safe, y'all.

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Stay safe, y'all.