Cold and Missing: Stephanie Crane

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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 your host, Ali, and it will just be me coming to you this week.

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My darling husband, Eli, is a little bit under the weather, so he's taking the week off to

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rest and sleep.

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So I am very thankful for that.

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And I still wanted to bring you a new episode of the podcast.

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I wanted to take a moment just here at the top to say thank you again to everyone who

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has rated and reviewed us.

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But I wanted to get into this week's episode.

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We are on episode 104, and it is a missing person case.

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So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person,

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and there is a brief mention of death by suicide.

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Today we are talking about the missing person case of Stephanie Crane.

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And this takes place on October 11, 1993, in Challis, Idaho.

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But first, a little bit about Stephanie.

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Stephanie is nine years old in October of 1993.

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She had just celebrated her birthday a few weeks before.

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Stephanie lives in the small mountain town of Challis, Idaho.

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She lives there with her sisters and both parents, and Stephanie's family has lived

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in Challis for generations.

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Stephanie was a rough and tumble kind of kid.

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She loved to explore the rugged terrain around her community, and she was often her dad's

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shadow during hunting season.

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Her dad, Ben, says, quote, she was very much tomboy, very outdoorsy, end quote.

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She was energetic and outgoing, full of life.

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She loved playing in the dirt and outside and with trucks, and could get along with

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anybody.

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She was very popular at school because of her outgoing and funny personality.

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And now, a timeline of events.

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On Monday, October 11, 1993, Stephanie attends school and everything is reported as normal

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during the day.

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Stephanie is wearing maroon sweatpants and a maroon and white sweatshirt with the words

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GIMME written boldly across the front in white, and maroon and white striped tennis shoes.

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After school, she was part of a bowling league, so she headed to Challis Lanes to play.

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The bowling alley was very close to her house, only about a quarter of a mile away.

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Reports say that she could see her house from the bowling alley.

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A bowling alley worker said this about Stephanie, quote, she's a good kid.

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I saw her five minutes before she left.

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I put away her shoes, end quote.

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Jean Morph, a family friend, saw Stephanie at the bowling alley and offers her a ride

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home.

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Jean declines the offer and says she'll walk.

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It's only a few minutes away.

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A few minutes later, and this would be around 4.45 p.m., after bowling has wrapped up, a

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friend of Stephanie's and that friend's mom also sees Stephanie in the bowling alley

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parking lot.

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But this time, she is headed back towards the school and not towards her home.

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When the friend and mom stop to ask Stephanie where she's going, Stephanie says that she

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forgot her backpack at the soccer field and was going to grab it and then head home.

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As the minutes tick by and it gets later and later, Stephanie is usually home by now.

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At around 5.30, her mom Sandy begins to wonder where she is.

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Sandy calls her mother-in-law, Stephanie's grandmother, and asks if she's over there

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and she's not.

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Then Stephanie's mom, Sandy, calls the bowling alley to see if Stephanie's still there.

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The owner of the bowling alley, Peggy, says that she's not there and that she left some

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time ago.

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From here, Sandy and Ben start calling around and looking for Stephanie.

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They're calling her friends, her grandmother is driving around looking for her.

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When no one has seen or heard from her since the bowling alley, they go to the sheriff's

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office at around 8.16 to report her missing.

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Everyone that knows Stephanie knows that she wouldn't be outside in the dark.

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She was deeply scared of the dark, even sleeping with the lights on.

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Before we get too much into the rest of the timeline, I just want to point out a couple

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of things about this section of time that kind of contradict each other.

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The FBI poster for Stephanie's case mentions that Stephanie's mother, Sandy, was actually

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the last person to see her.

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There are also reports that Stephanie's mother went to the bowling alley that afternoon to

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pay for the game and give her a dollar to buy snacks before leaving.

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Some additional reports say that Stephanie was seen around 6 p.m. at the school.

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So jumping back into the timeline, when police are notified that Stephanie is missing, they

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and Stephanie's family and friends begin searching for her.

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To get home from the bowling alley, Stephanie would have needed to cross Garden Creek, so

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this is where the search starts.

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When police are searching the creek, they don't see anything, however it's dark and

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they're nervous that they could miss something.

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Police continue to search and call friends, and family and police hope that Stephanie

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is simply at a slumber party and that she'll arrive at school the next morning.

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At around midnight, police call the search off for the evening and everyone waits to

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see if Stephanie will show up to school in the morning.

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The next day, Tuesday, October 12, when Stephanie doesn't show up at school, police start searching

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again full tilt.

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Hundreds of people show up to help search.

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Worcester County Sheriff's Spokesperson says, quote, we're a small town and the community has turned

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out in full force.

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A lot of people have closed their businesses and are out looking, end quote.

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Police call in a search and rescue team, tracking dogs and horseback riders help cover rougher

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terrain.

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Police also launch an aerial search to cover more ground in the search for Stephanie.

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Again the first place police focus is on Garden Creek.

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They focus here as they worry that she drowned and was swept into the Salmon River.

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They don't find any sign of her in the creek and a member of the fire department who was

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helping search says, quote, my personal opinion is that Garden Creek isn't deep enough or

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strong enough, end quote.

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As police find no sign of Stephanie at the creek or anywhere else around town, they start

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to worry that this is an abduction.

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Her parents Ben and Sandy make a plea on local news saying, quote, please don't hurt her,

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please bring her home, end quote.

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On Wednesday, October 13th, so Stephanie has been missing since Monday, police announced

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that the FBI will join the search as they consider more and more heavily that she was

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abducted.

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Police also announced that they're looking for a yellow truck with red pinstripes.

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Police say that the car was seen in the area around the time that Stephanie disappeared

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and since it was such a small community, they knew that this car didn't belong to anybody

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in town.

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However, this time of year, there's a lot of traffic in Challis due to the hunting season.

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So people come from all over and drive through Challis to do deer and elk hunting.

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The community is outraged that Stephanie could be a victim of a stranger abduction.

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Nothing like this has ever happened in the small town before.

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A community member says, quote, people here consider this utopia.

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Things like this don't happen in Challis.

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If something happens to one of your kids, you usually know before they get home.

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That's why we're so outraged, end quote.

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Another searcher quipped, quote, somebody wasn't looking out the window at the right

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time, end quote.

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Older students are excused from classes to help aid in the search.

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These businesses either close down or work on a skeleton crew so that way more people

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can be out searching.

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The hunters that were in the area cancel their plans and descend on Challis and offer their

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help to cover the more rugged terrain.

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So many high schoolers volunteer to babysit kids so parents can search that at one point

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they have more babysitters than kids.

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The next day, Thursday, October 14th, the search continues throughout the day.

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But as the hours tick by and there aren't any signs of Stephanie, police start telling

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people to go home and they start winding down the search efforts.

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The search team is cut down to 20 people.

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Fire chief Doyle Lamb says, quote, we're not giving up.

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We're just scaling back.

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If something comes to you, even in a dream, let us know.

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We're grasping at straws now, end quote.

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The search had covered thousands of square miles between land and air searches.

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The family is shocked by the lack of progress the search made.

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They refuse to talk to media as they deal with their anger and grief.

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They really thought that she would be home by now.

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On Friday, October 15th, Stephanie has been missing since Monday, Custer County Sheriff

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Al Finley makes a plea to the public during a news conference.

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He asked that anyone who was in central Idaho mountain area on Monday to call him if they

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saw anything unusual.

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The sheriff is hopeful that with deer and elk season going on, more people were in the

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area and may have noticed something.

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He says to call no matter how small, quote, let us check it out.

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Anyone who is in the area Monday, give us a call, end quote.

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The smaller group of searchers are still looking in remote areas and double checking other

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spots to make sure nothing was missed.

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And that Friday evening is the homecoming game and dance for the high school.

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The high schoolers paint everything in purple, Stephanie's favorite color.

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They paint banners that say bring Stephanie home and the football team dedicate their

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game to her.

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All of the high school football players have a purple S on their helmets.

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And over the past week, the community was able to raise $25,000 for reward fund, which

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is quickly doubled to $50,000 by an anonymous donor.

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Over the weekend in the next few days, family and friends cover Idaho in missing persons

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flyers.

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They leave stacks at truck stops asking truckers to take them out of state and they do.

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They get pizza places to tape her missing person poster on the pizza boxes.

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Family and friends start focusing on getting the flyers all across the United States.

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A volunteer says, quote, this is a huge country and the rest of the country doesn't know

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who she is, end quote.

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On Saturday, October 23rd, Stephanie has been missing for 12 days.

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Police have created a sketch of a person of interest who was at the bowling alley when

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Stephanie was there and her other friends who were playing in the league.

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According to Stephanie's friends, this man had been watching them pretty intently from

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inside the bowling alley.

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And as no one had recognized him, they assumed that he was not from Challis.

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A few days later, police start mentioning here that Stephanie was last seen by the school.

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So this would have been in the opposite direction of her home as I previously mentioned.

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Police also say that they're still looking for the yellow truck and that the truck had

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been parked at the school the day that Stephanie went missing.

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The next day, October 29th, Stephanie has been missing for 18 days now.

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Police announced that they are looking for Stephanie's great uncle.

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He's wanted for a probation violation.

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He had been serving probation for a DUI and the violation was from 1989.

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Police want him for the violation and also to question him about the disappearance of

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Stephanie.

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Police also mention that her great uncle had a yellow truck as well.

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It takes a few weeks, but police are finally able to track him down in Colorado.

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Police ultimately are able to eliminate him as a suspect as he had a strong alibi.

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By the end of October, there seems to be a shift in the community.

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They close their doors to the media.

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Police call the media a pain in their ass and no one wants to go on record to talk about

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anything anymore.

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In February of 1994, it's approaching four months since Stephanie vanished and her mom

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goes on Jerry Springer with other mothers of missing children to raise awareness about

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them.

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This is before Jerry Springer kind of turns into what we think of Jerry Springer.

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It was a more tame talk show in the beginning.

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Police at this point don't have any new leads in the case and hope that the national attention

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from the Jerry Springer show helps bring in more leads.

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They do conduct a search of a cistern in town that had been abandoned for years.

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They want to make sure that she hadn't fallen in there or her body placed in there.

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Police say that they didn't have any specific tip leading them to this cistern, but they

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want to check every avenue and make sure that they are looking at everything for Stephanie.

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On Tuesday, September 27th, 1994, the town gets together to celebrate what should have

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been Stephanie's 10th birthday.

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It's just a few weeks before the one year anniversary of her disappearance and Stephanie's

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family is trying to manage.

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Stephanie's mom Sandy says, quote, We take it one day at a time.

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That's all we can take right now.

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I have a feeling she is alive.

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She is alive until I find out different, end quote.

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The case goes cold over the next year and by the end of 1995.

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So it's been over two years now since Stephanie disappeared and her parents have gotten a

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divorce.

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Ben tells the media that the stress of Stephanie's disappearance was a driving force, but there

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were other things too.

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Ben says that the police continue to question Sandy again and again.

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He says, quote, I still wonder about that.

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It pretty much bothers me that they want to look at her again, end quote.

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Sandy has been asked to undergo a polygraph test, but she maintains that she has no idea

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what happened to her daughter.

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Sandy says, quote, They have just about accused me of killing my own daughter.

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I can't see any mother doing it.

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I just can't believe that a mother can kill her own kids, end quote.

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Ben admits that he has no other reason to suspect his ex wife, except that the police

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kept wanting to talk to her.

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Sandy will pass away just a few years later in 1997, four years after the disappearance

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of her daughter and without having any answers.

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In December of 1999, so it's been over six years now, police secure an underwater camera

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to search an old silver mine shaft.

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They had gotten a tip that the girl's body could be found there.

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However, nothing is recovered from the shaft.

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As we enter the 2000s, two suspects come to light to the police.

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So in 2000, it's been about seven years since Stephanie disappeared, and a man comes

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to police attention.

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He was a convicted sex offender and drifted between Idaho and Oregon.

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A woman who rented a room from the man is told by neighbors that they could hear screaming

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and a girl crying in the man's basement.

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The man wouldn't let anyone go into the basement at all.

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Eventually, police will get a warrant to search the basement and they'll recover several items,

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but it's all inconclusive and it can't be directly tied back to Stephanie.

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Police will also interview the man and he'll undergo a polygraph test about Stephanie's

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disappearance, which he fails according to police.

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Police will interview him again years later in 2018, but they are very tight lipped about

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who this man is.

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They never publicly name him and they never give any details about the interviews, citing

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that it's an ongoing investigation.

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So I think that this person is a big suspect to police.

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And then in 2002, so at that point, it had been nine years since Stephanie vanished,

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police announced that they have a strong lead in the case.

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A man named Keith Glenn Hescock, but he also went by Mark, may be involved in Stephanie's

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disappearance.

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Police are able to confirm that Hescock was in the Challis area on October 11th of 1993

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hunting and during this time, he also owned a yellow pickup truck.

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The way he comes to police attention is in 2002, he abducted another young girl when

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she and her sister were outside sleeping on a trampoline.

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He had handcuffed the young girl and left for work.

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While he was away at work, the young girl grabs a fire extinguisher and bashes on these

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handcuffs until they release and she's able to escape and call police.

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When Hescock comes back to his house, police are waiting for him and they engage in a chase.

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At the end of the chase, Hescock ends up taking his own life.

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So police are never able to question him directly about Stephanie's disappearance.

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Police do obtain a search warrant for his home and take truckloads of evidence hoping

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to be able to tie him to other unsolved crimes.

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The girl who had escaped, she said that Hescock had told her that he had done this before

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and he had killed the girl.

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However, police are never able to tie him to Stephanie directly, but they say he is

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still considered a suspect in the case.

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This is where the case stands as of 2024.

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Stephanie's case pops up in the media again and again over the years, but really there's

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no new information or details released about the case.

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She's also featured in a 2018 episode of ID Investigates Disappeared, but again, no new

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details really emerge from this show.

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So if you know anything about the disappearance of Stephanie Crane in October of 1993 or her

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whereabouts today, please call the Custer County Sheriff Department at 208-879-2232.

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So that is the case of Stephanie Crane.

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This is a case that might be a little bit more well known to some of our listeners,

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but for me, this was a case that I hadn't really ever heard about or looked into myself.

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So when I came across Stephanie's case, it was something that I really wanted to look

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into.

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Some of my first reactions of this is how scary this case really is, like her being

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seen in this parking lot after bowling by several people and then minutes later just

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kind of vanishes.

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Whenever there's those really tight timelines, it's always really scary to me.

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It's just a reminder of how quickly these things can happen and really how in an instant

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so many lives can change and be impacted.

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It's always just a scary reminder of that.

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But I was also quite moved at how the community came out for Stephanie, hearing that these

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businesses closed and everyone was there to search or help support in the effort.

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There's so many news stories about food being dropped off, volunteers with the babysitters,

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having more babysitters than kids to watch.

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Everyone really, it was all hands on deck for this community.

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Everyone jumped in and everyone kind of had a role to play to try to support Stephanie

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and her family and the police in trying to get some answers.

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One of the first things that I wanted to do just to kind of understand the area is I looked

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up Challice on Google Maps and it is a very small town.

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Like a lot of the residential roads are still dirt roads.

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And whenever I looked at Garden Creek, this creek that she had to cross in order to get

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home from the bowling alley, it is a very small creek.

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I know sometimes the word creek, it can kind of mean like a little bit of a strong body

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of water.

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There's a lot of variations of what it is, but this is really just like a small creek.

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I don't know how to explain it other than that, but when that fire department worker

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who was quoted was saying like in his opinion, it wasn't deep enough or strong enough, I

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would think that this is pretty accurate.

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I know that you can drown in a very little amount of water, but if something like that

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had happened, if she slipped, fell, hit her head and tragically drowned, I do not think

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that the creek would have been strong enough to push her body out to the river.

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There just wasn't that much flow happening there.

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So the fact that no sign was found of her in the creek, and I know they also searched

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the Salmon River as well, it makes, it really does lean more towards the abduction, just

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the way that she vanished without a trace completely.

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Some of the questions that I have in this case, if I could sit down, read the case file

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and ask investigators anything I wanted, I would really want to drill down into that

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timeline between the bowling alley and her parents starting to call and notice that she's

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missing.

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So really like between 4pm and 530.

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It does seem like she was at the bowling alley till about 430, 445 right in there.

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But then from there, there's a lot of questions.

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So I would just want to really clear that up for myself.

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Like did her mom come before the start of all the games to pay for her bowling and shoes

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and give her money for a snack?

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Because the FBI does say that her mother was the last person to see her, but by these other

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accounts that people say, her friend remembers talking to her as she was walking towards

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the school, like she was waiting to cross the street to go towards the school.

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So to me, it seems like that might have been one of the last people to see her outside

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of the abductor.

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So I would just really want to clear up like that timeline between 4 and 530.

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Just really understand who saw Stephanie, where did they see her, what were the circumstances

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around it.

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My next questions in this case really surround the suspects that have kind of cropped up

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in the 2000s.

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So there's the drifter, the guy who kind of goes between Oregon and Idaho, and then there's

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Hesscock.

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So the drifter really interests me because, you know, police who interviewed this guy

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and worked on Stephanie's case really like him as a suspect and they all felt that they

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were close to maybe even getting a confession out of him about Stephanie, but they never

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did obviously.

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But the fact that they haven't released his name and haven't given a ton of details around

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him makes me think that they're really kind of trying to build a case around this guy.

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And then again with the drifter, the story of the neighbors saying that they heard screams

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and cries coming from the basement.

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You know, like the true crime person in me and even beyond that, just the person in me

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is like, how can you walk by a house and hear that?

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And it does seem like they heard it more than once and not call police, not try to report

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it, not try to get a welfare check done, especially when you hear that it's a kid.

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Why was nobody trying to get help or trying to see what was going on here?

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I know police did find some evidence in the basement.

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There was blood, but testing came back inconclusive.

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They couldn't even tell if it was human or animal blood.

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And then there was also some fibers and hair found on a rope, but they weren't able to

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do any DNA sequencing because the follicle wasn't on the hair.

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So there are these things that are there for this suspect, this guy, but it's just like

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it's missing that piece to really be able to pin this and hopefully get some answers.

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But it does sound like this drifter is still alive.

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So hopefully there's possibility that police can go and question him again or more information

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can come out about him.

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And then the second person, Hescock, who died by suicide in the police chase, I have so

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many questions about, I don't necessarily believe suspects all the time, but there is

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deeply a part of me that thinks that if he told the girl that he kidnapped, who ultimately

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was able to escape, that he had done this before and killed the girl, I'm inclined to

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believe him there.

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You know, it's a pretty bold crime to kidnap anybody that's very bold, but also she was

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sleeping outside next to her sister on a trampoline, which I'm assuming was, you know, right outside

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their home.

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So like this was a very bold crime.

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So it seems like for someone to pull off that bold crime, they maybe would have done this

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before.

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Obviously there are outliners, people sometimes just do things that they've never done before.

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But this is just one of those times where I'm inclined to believe him.

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And so I have to believe that if it's not Stephanie, he's definitely tied to some other

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missing person case, specifically of a young girl, it sounds like.

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So I would be interested in learning more about him from investigators, what they know,

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who they suspect could be involved.

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But ultimately, for Stephanie and her sisters who are still alive, both of her parents have

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passed now, but her sisters are all still alive and they want answers.

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And I can't imagine what her sisters have gone through all these years and the impact

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that Stephanie going missing has had on that family.

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But Stephanie sisters and the rest of her family and the rest of Challis deserve answers.

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So many of her friends still live in that area and still remember her, still think about

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that day and are still affected by it.

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So the community really needs answers.

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This changed a town where people didn't lock their doors typically at night.

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Basically overnight, everything changed and people locked the doors, walked their kids

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everywhere, didn't let them ride their bikes.

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They also need to answer for all of that.

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And Stephanie deserves to come home.

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And if she's still alive out there, again, we've seen it happen from time to time.

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So there's always hope that this can happen for any missing person.

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If she is alive out there, she deserves to come home and get to know her family and have

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that relationship in her life again.

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And if she's no longer with us, she deserves to come home so that way she can be placed

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to rest and her family knows where she is and knows where she's resting.

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There needs to be answers.

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And over the years, again and again, that's all the family has asked for is we just want

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to know what has happened to her.

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So that question needs to be answered.

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Again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Stephanie Crane in October of 1993 or her

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whereabouts today, please call the Custer County Sheriff Department at 208-879-2232.

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We'll have pictures of Stephanie up on our Instagram.

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And the picture that we have and that is on the cover of this podcast is actually the

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sweatshirt that she was last seen in that gimme sweatshirt.

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So take a look at that.

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Please share around sharing your communities.

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This is such a great way to advocate for the missing and murdered.

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So be sure to check us out on Instagram at cold and missing will pop right up.

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Again, if you have time this week or this weekend to leave us a review, I would appreciate

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00:29:25,500 --> 00:29:26,680
it so much.

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And if it motivates you just a little bit that it's my birthday this weekend, I would

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appreciate it all the more you can do that on Apple podcast in your podcast player that

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you're listening to right now, or you can go to our website www.coldenmissing.com.

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We also have transcripts there if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, you can follow

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00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,400
along with the podcast there.

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But that is all I have.

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Thank you so much for listening to cold and missing.

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I'm your host Ali.

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Have a good week and stay safe y'all.