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 just like the last few weeks, I will be bringing you the podcast solo.
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You may remember from our last episodes, but Eli's mother passed away recently.
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So he's just taking a little time to himself to grieve and to be where he's at.
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He will be back soon and he will be welcomed back with open arms.
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I'm glad that he's taking care of himself, but I miss being creative with my husband
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and doing this podcast that we've built together.
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I did want to bring you a case, however, this week we are on missing.
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So I have an unresolved missing person case for you.
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So let's just get right into it, I think.
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So today we are talking about the missing person case of Phyllis Eleanor Berry.
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And this takes place on Halloween night and into November 1st of 1975 in Terlingua, Texas.
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But first a little bit about Phyllis.
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Phyllis is 21 years old in 1975.
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She was born September 16th, 1954, and she would be 69 years old today.
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Phyllis is a part of the Chickasaw Nation and was very independent at her age.
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She had lived abroad in Germany for about a year in her late teens and early 20s.
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In 1975, she was living with her roommate, Vangie Strait, who said that Phyllis was also
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kind and made an effort to get to know people.
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She was well liked by others.
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Phyllis and Vangie were living in Odessa, Texas, but at the end of October 1975, they
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decided to pack up what they could, sell the rest, and hit the road to camp out and explore
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for a while.
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The first place they were headed was the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas that sits on the
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Mexico border.
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This brings us into the timeline of events.
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On Saturday, October 31st, so Halloween of 1975, Phyllis, Vangie, their friend Terry
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Robert Bailey, and Phyllis' puppy, a little Irish setter, all head to the world championship
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Chili Cook-Off that's held in Terlingua, Texas.
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And just as a little aside, this Chili Cook-Off is serious business.
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It had started in the 60s, but by 1975, around 10,000 people were attending the event.
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This is something that still happens to this day.
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To even be able to sign up for the Chili Cook-Off, you have to win other, smaller Chili Cook-Offs.
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It's a huge deal for those who work the chili circuit.
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Essentially, 10,000 people descend on the ghost town of Terlingua, an old mining town
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with abandoned shafts all over the place, and the population goes from 75 to 10,000
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for a week.
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There is lodging in the area.
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Terlingua is located outside of Big Bend National Park, so those visiting the park
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will stay at the lodges in town that provide jobs for those who live there year-round.
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But when the Chili Cook-Off is in town, folks usually camp about a quarter mile from the
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Cook-Off site.
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This still holds true in 2023.
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So Phyllis, Vangie, Terry, and Phyllis' Irish-setter puppy all packed up their camping
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gear into Phyllis' car and head off to the Chili Cook-Off.
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On Saturday, October 31st, the event is in full swing, and when they arrive, the trio
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part ways.
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Terry goes off to visit with other friends at the festival.
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Vangie went to go take a nap in a friend's camper, and Phyllis was seen taking a motorcycle
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ride with a young man in his 20s with blonde hair.
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They were seen riding a Honda 350 that was dark in color.
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As the sun starts to set on the Chili Cook-Off, an impromptu dance party breaks out in the
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ghost town.
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At the dance party, Phyllis runs into two other friends from Odessa, Texas, her hometown,
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John Jackson and Dale Wade.
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Also with them is a hitchhiker that John had picked up on his way to Terlingua.
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His name was Jim, and he was from Austin, Texas.
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According to John Jackson, Phyllis was in good spirits when they ran into each other
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at the party.
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Phyllis is wearing blue jeans, a tan and black shirt, and a pair of knee-high granny boots
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that laced up the front.
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He says, quote, I saw her dancing with several fellas and she appeared to be having a good
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time, end quote.
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Lots of people saw Phyllis at the dance party enjoying herself, including Vangie, who says,
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quote, the last time I saw her was about 1030 or 11 o'clock Saturday night, end quote.
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Vangie also says that Phyllis was in good spirits and enjoying herself when she last
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saw her.
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Just before midnight on October 31st, 1975, Phyllis heads back to the campsite.
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She catches a ride with Dale Wade on his motorcycle while John and Jim follow behind on foot.
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The party site was just down a hill from where folks were camping.
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At the campsite, so now we are officially past midnight and into the early morning of
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November 1st.
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Phyllis and a group of others were sitting near a campfire.
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John Jackson says, quote, we just stood around for a few minutes eating Fritos and bean dip.
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The fire had just about burned down and she asked us to get more wood for the fire.
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I don't remember her exact words, but she said she was going to sit by the fire and
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wait for us to return.
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Jim sat with her on the cot for a minute or two and then joined us about 20 feet away
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where we were gathering the wood.
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We all walked back to the campfire a few minutes later and she was gone.
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She was there one minute and gone the next.
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She just kind of slipped away.
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At first I thought she must have gone down the hill to party some more or to use the
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bathroom.
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End quote.
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At the campfire, about five minutes after they realized that Phyllis is gone, Terry
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Bailey drives up to the campsite in Phyllis's car and with her dog looking for her.
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All of Phyllis's belongings are in the car, including her purse.
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People at the campfire begin to look for her.
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Dale Wade hops back on his motorcycle and drives around for about an hour looking for
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Phyllis.
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No one is able to find her, but nobody is panicked.
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John Jackson says, quote, we didn't think too much about it.
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We figured she just went down the hill.
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End quote.
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John Jackson, Dale Wade and Jim all go to bed.
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As the day breaks on Sunday, November 1st, this is the final day of the chili cookoff.
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Jim, the hitchhiker, heads out to catch a ride back to Austin and Dale Wade packed up
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his motorcycle and left.
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John Jackson hangs around the cookoff looking for Phyllis.
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He helps Terry Bailey look for her in the morning, but John Jackson returns to Odessa
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by Sunday night.
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Vanjie and Terry continue to look for Phyllis all over the cookoff and campground.
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They couldn't find anyone who had seen her or talked to her since the night before.
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As evening starts to set in, Vanjie calls folks back in Odessa to see if Phyllis caught
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a ride with someone and headed back.
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But nobody had heard from her.
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Finally, Vanjie and Terry call police and report Phyllis missing.
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Monday, November 2nd, the next day, Brewster County police begin to search for Phyllis
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as a mass exodus is happening at the same time.
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The police launch a plane to help them in their search, but they don't find any sign
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of Phyllis.
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It's determined that she disappeared somewhere between midnight and 8am on November 1st.
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All of her personal items, her car, her purse, her puppy, were all left behind.
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Police search all day and find no sign of her.
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Vanjie goes to another police department to ask them for help in their search.
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She is desperate to find her roommate and friend.
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The next day, Tuesday, November 3rd, Phyllis has been missing for two days, the Texas Ranger
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join the search and a massive ground search is launched in the ghost town.
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Still, nothing is found.
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Police continue to search into Wednesday, November 4th, when the search is suddenly
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called off.
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A report comes in that Phyllis had called police in Odessa to say that she was okay.
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This however will just turn out to be a rumor.
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When police try to validate the story, they can't find anyone who remembers taking the
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phone call and talking to her.
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But it's too late at that point.
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Everybody had left.
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Vanjie and Terry were back in Odessa.
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Phyllis was nowhere to be found.
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On November 30th, Phyllis has been missing a month.
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The Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation and they are not hopeful about Phyllis's
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fate.
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Texas Ranger LA says, quote, under the circumstances, I fear foul play, end quote.
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Over the past month, police have searched the area on horseback with helicopters and
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scent dogs, but not a single clue was found in the search.
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Ranger LA says, quote, we've just ran out of leads.
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We need help.
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Bad.
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End quote.
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It does appear the police are looking for a witness.
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A young man who was riding a motorcycle.
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It's unclear if this is Dale Wade, her friend from Odessa, who had a motorcycle, or the
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blonde hair youth that she was seen riding a motorcycle with when she first got there.
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Either way, police are looking for this motorcycle riding young man to talk to and they insist
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that they just want to talk to him and that they're not looking at him as a suspect.
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There are also two rumors that the police are dealing with.
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The first being that Phyllis called Odessa police, the one that I had just mentioned.
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Texas Ranger LA says, quote, maybe it was a prank call.
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Something to throw us off the track.
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End quote.
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The second rumor is that Phyllis was seen at a bar in Mexico just across the Rio Grande.
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Ranger LA says, quote, we just can't run them down.
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We've heard that a girl and a guy were spotted in the bar, but we can't say for sure it
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was Miss Barry.
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End quote.
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Another Texas Ranger working the case who wished to remain anonymous says, quote, we
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haven't been able to come up with anything concrete.
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The longer she is gone, the more apt we are to think that something has happened to her.
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We have no evidence that she went off by herself.
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On the other hand, we have nothing to indicate she was carried away by force.
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We need to find out when she was last seen and by whom.
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End quote.
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Phyllis's family believe firmly that foul play was involved.
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Her aunt Ruth Matheny says, quote, if she was okay, she'd get in touch with us.
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I just know she would.
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Her car was left behind and her dog was in it.
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So was her purse.
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I know she didn't go off alone and leave everything behind.
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Because of the false reports, a lot of people think she has been found.
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But we don't know anything more today than we did four weeks ago.
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God, I wish we could hear some good news.
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End quote.
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Over the next several months, Phyllis's family and friends will keep pressure on the police
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to continue to work the case.
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But by October of 1976, this is approaching one year of Phyllis being missing, the case
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is cold.
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While police have found no trace of what happened to Phyllis, Brewster County Sheriff James
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Skinner puts it down pretty sharply when he says, quote, I think she's dead.
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This is a very hilly area with a lot of mine shafts around.
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Some of them are open.
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She might be in one of them.
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You could stay down there for many years before your bones are found.
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They may never be found.
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This is a big country.
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It's as big as you want it to be.
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Others have disappeared too.
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End quote.
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Phyllis's roommate, Vanjie Strait, believes that she was taken by human traffickers because
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she can't fathom her friend being dead or leaving without telling anyone.
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Vanjie says, quote, if she was going to leave, she would have said so.
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She would have taken something.
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Sometimes I think if she was dead, they would have found her.
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I don't know.
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I don't think she's dead.
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If there was something I could do, I'd do it.
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But I feel so helpless.
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End quote.
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That is truly the last update on the case that I could find.
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Over the years, Phyllis's case has been compared to unidentified Jane Doe's for comparison
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purposes, but none of those turned out to be matches.
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And to date, there has never been any sign or clue as to what happened to Phyllis Berry
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during the 1975 World Championship Chili Cook-Off.
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So if you know anything about the disappearance of Phyllis Berry on Halloween night of 1975
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or her whereabouts today, please call the Texas Rangers at 432-249-0961.
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And the sources for the podcast today come from The Odessa American and The Charlie Project.
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So that is the case of Phyllis Eleanor Berry.
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And this is a case that when I ran across it, I was surprised that I hadn't heard about
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it before.
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You know, it has kind of all of the elements of a of a sensationalized missing person case.
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You know, it's this young woman who's going camping.
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It's the World Championship Chili Cook-Off happening in a ghost town on Halloween.
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Like all those elements are there for like the media to really pick this story up and
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run with it.
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But I was really surprised that that didn't happen in this case.
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The only coverage that I could really find from the time in 1975 came from The Odessa
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newspaper where Phyllis was from.
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So there hasn't really been any media updates on this case either since 1976, about a year
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after Phyllis went missing.
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So where the case stands today, what police have been able to rule out and what they haven't.
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Have there ever been any suspects?
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All those things we don't really know.
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I would venture to guess that police don't know them either.
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Otherwise we would have seen some updates over the years of, you know, police victories
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and bringing justice or closing a cold case or resolving a missing person case.
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So none of that has happened over the years.
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I do wish there was some more details or clarity around this witness that police were looking
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for at the end of November of 1975.
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So just as a quick reminder, Phyllis had been missing for about a month at that time and
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police wanted to find the person who was riding a motorcycle.
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And it's unclear if that's Dale Wade, who was her friend from Odessa who she rode a
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motorcycle with.
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We know he took her back up to camp kind of after the dance party, but before the bonfire.
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Or if it was this other mystery person, this blonde young man that she was seen riding
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the Honda 350 before the dance party even started, kind of in the middle of the day,
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they were seen riding a motorcycle together.
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So it's unclear if it's either one of those people or if it's just a third person entirely.
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There does seem to be some rumors that she was seen on a motorcycle, but we know that
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she did ride one that evening, you know, she got on the back of Dale Wade's motorcycle.
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So I'm not sure if that is what people are referring to whenever they talk about her
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being on a motorcycle, or if she was seen again later that night, kind of after the
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bonfire.
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It is a really short window of time.
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And we seem to get like a lot of details from John Jackson, her friend from Odessa.
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He tells us a lot about what was happening kind of her last moments before she vanished.
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Police mentioned that they really wanted to know where she was last seen and by whom.
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But from this account in the newspapers, it seems like she was last seen, you know, next
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to this campfire.
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I keep calling it a bonfire, but it was it was more of a campfire from all reports.
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So she was seen next to this campfire.
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And Jim, the hitchhiker from Austin, sat with her for a couple of minutes.
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And then Jim is said to have joined John Jackson, who was gathering wood for the bonfire campfire,
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excuse me for the campfire.
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So it seems like the last person that was with her is this hitchhiker, but police never
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really mentioned him again, or that they are looking to talk to him.
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So I'm not sure if they were able to track him down and interview him and eliminate him
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or what.
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But I have a lot of questions around the campfire.
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I would be really interested to know if there were any other witnesses outside of, you know,
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John Jackson, Dale Wade and Jim, like these three guys who are kind of giving each other
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the alibis for the evening.
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I would I would really want to know if anybody else saw her at the campfire that evening,
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saw her sitting by it, saw her sitting with these men.
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Maybe she was talking to somebody else.
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I would just wonder if that has ever been verified, because according to her roommate,
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Vangie, the last time she saw her was at the dance party, not at not at the campfire.
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It was around 1030 or 11.
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And then around midnight, they put Phyllis at the campfire.
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So I would be interested to know if anybody else saw her that evening to verify these
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reports that she was at a campfire.
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In the years that follow, police seem to be, you know, pretty convinced that foul play
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was involved.
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And I, you know, I don't think police are off there.
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You know, she's never popped up again in all of these years since.
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So she's just been missing for just under 50 years.
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You know, 2025 will be the 50th anniversary of her disappearance with no resolution in
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the case.
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And, you know, I think that police are correct in thinking that foul play was involved, but
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I can't believe that nothing has been done since then to help find her.
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You know, I couldn't find any details around big searches.
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It seems like they searched heavily for about a month.
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But there's no details around if they searched any of the mines.
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Terlingua is, you know, a ghost town.
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There's lots of abandoned mines in the area.
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Some of them are closed, some of them are not.
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So I would be curious if police did attempt to search any.
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I know it can be very dangerous and it kind of takes some specialized teams to do that.
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But I would be curious if that was even attempted or done over the years.
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In the future, I would be really excited to see a cold case detective assigned to Phyllis'
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case to see if there can be any resolution at all or any more information generated.
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Phyllis would be 69 years old today, so a lot of people who were around for that 1975
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chili cookoff could have either passed on already or maybe don't remember anymore.
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So every year that ticks by, you know, it's just more information that's getting lost
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forever that can never be recovered.
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So I do hope that sooner rather than later they assign somebody to look at it again and
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to review it and to really dig in and try to see what happened here before the case
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just gets closed because it's been so long, you know.
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But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Phyllis Berry on Halloween
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night of 1975, please call the Texas Rangers at 432-249-0961.
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And while I just have you for one more second, if you could please rate and review us in
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your podcast app, that would mean the absolute world to me and it helps others find these
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cases.
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So if you're passionate about true crime and cold cases being solved and missing people
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come home, by simply sharing this podcast with your friends and loved ones, rate and
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reviewing in Apple podcasts, it helps others find these cases, helps others hear about
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these cases.
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If this was maybe the first time you've heard about this case, share it with somebody else,
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share it with another true crime fan in your life.
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And let's get these stories out there and let's get them the coverage that they deserve.
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This week we'll be sharing pictures of Phyllis on our Instagram.
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So if you're not following us yet, please follow us at Cold and Missing.
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You can check out our website as well that'll have pictures and that's www.coldandmissing.com
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where you can review us there.
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You can learn more about Eli and I.
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You can donate as well if you support the mission of this podcast through our Buy Us
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a Coffee campaign and it's just money that goes directly back into the resources, the
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hosting, the funding of this podcast.
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But that's all I have.
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I'm Allie McLaughlin-Sylkowski.
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This is Cold and Missing.
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Have a great week and stay safe, y'all.
