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 your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski, and it will just be me this week.
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My darling husband, Eli, is out running Christmas errands right now.
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So while he's doing that, I thought I would take advantage of the quiet house and bring
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you a new episode of Cold and Missing.
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So just to get right into things, this week we are covering a missing person case.
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And just as a bit of a content warning, this case does involve young people.
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There are mentions of sexual assault and death by suicide.
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So this week on Cold and Missing, we are going to review the Thompson family disappearance.
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And this happens in July of 1996 in Chicago, Illinois.
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So first, a little bit about the Thompson family.
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Everett Thompson is 40 years old in 1996.
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His wife, Lydia, is 43 years old.
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And their two sons, Everett Jr., is 11 years old, and Andrew is 8 years old.
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The Thompson family live in the Chatham neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, which is on the south
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side.
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They have two young sons, as I mentioned, Everett Jr. and Andrew.
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Everett Sr. and Lydia were married in 1982 after Everett moved to the area to work at
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the nearby steel mills.
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Originally, Everett is from Philadelphia, but he still talked with his parents all the
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time who were back home in Philly.
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Everett and Lydia had taken a chance and started a restaurant called EAT & Co.
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The word EAT is Everett's initials, Everett Andrew Thompson.
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He was the head cook there, and cooking was a passion of his.
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Lydia had inherited the Chatham home from her parents after they passed away.
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She owned one-third of it with her two other siblings, Kenneth and Phyllis.
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In February of 1996, so just a few months before the family goes missing, Lydia's
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brother Kenneth was released from prison and he came to stay with the family at the home.
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This quickly causes tension in the household.
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Kenneth felt annoyed that he had to share a house that he believed was his and his alone
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with his sister and her family, and Everett's family believed that Kenneth was a freeloading
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house guest, quote unquote.
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Arguments would break out in the home frequently.
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And now a timeline of events.
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On July 3rd, 1996, Lydia calls the police because Kenneth is out of hand.
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She tells the police that her brother is chasing her around with an axe threatening to kill
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her.
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Police arrive at the home, but no arrests are made since things appear to have calmed
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down.
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The police do enter the home to have a look around, but everything is in its place and
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nothing seems out of the ordinary, so they go ahead and leave the family alone for the
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night since things do seem to have cooled down.
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But two days later, July 5th, 1996, Everett is working at EAT & Co.
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While at work, he was talking with his father on the phone.
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His father, Herman Thompson, wants to know when he's bringing the family to Philadelphia
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so he can see his grandbabies.
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Everett promises that as soon as he can get away from work, he'll bring the family out
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for a visit.
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While talking on the phone, Everett gets a phone call from his wife on the other line.
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When he answers the phone, Lydia is frantic.
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She is home with her boys and Kenneth is, once again, chasing her around with an axe.
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According to Herman, Everett jumps back on the line and says, quote, I gotta go home
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right away, Dad.
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Lydia's brother is chasing her around the house with an axe.
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She locked herself in the bedroom and called me to come home.
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End quote.
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Everett quickly hangs up with his dad and then tells the manager on duty that he's
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leaving to go home.
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Employees of the restaurant see Everett leave in a hurry in the family van.
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This is the last time that anyone sees or talks to Everett.
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However, about two hours after Everett leaves, Kenneth arrives at the restaurant driving
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the family van.
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He tells the manager on duty that Everett was arrested after a car accident.
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The manager notices that Kenneth is wearing white shoes and there's blood on them.
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Over the next several days, Herman tries to get in contact with his son but is unable
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to reach him.
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He calls the family home.
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He calls the restaurant.
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But nobody has heard from Everett, Lydia, Everett Jr., or Andrew.
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Finally, on July 17th, 1996, 12 days since Everett hurried off the phone with his father,
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Herman calls the Chicago police and asks that they do a welfare check on the family.
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Police stop by the Thompson home and Kenneth tells police that the family went on vacation
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to either Pennsylvania or Minnesota, but they drove the family van there.
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Since the family van is also missing from the home at this time, police believe the
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story and go ahead and leave.
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Kenneth's story keeps changing, however.
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He tells folks that the family drove to Philly, and then he tells some people that they caught
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a bus to Minnesota, and then he tells others that they flew to Hawaii.
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At some point, it's unclear exactly when this happens, but Kenneth is pulled over while
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driving the family van.
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Chicago police do not put two and two together and realize that by Kenneth driving the van,
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he is contradicting his own story that he told the police that the Thompson family had
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driven to Philadelphia or maybe Minnesota.
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Herman and Erling Thompson, that's Everett's parents, continue to worry about their son
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and his family and decide to take matters into their own hands.
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In late July of 1996, the two drive from Philly to Chicago to search for the family themselves.
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They stop by the EAT & Co. restaurant and talk with employees and learn that Everett
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has not come back since he left after the frantic phone call from Lydia.
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They also hear the manager's story of Kenneth showing up in the family van with blood on
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his shoes and they call the police.
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The family begs the police to investigate the Thompson's disappearance further.
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As police check out the story that Kenneth told the EAT & Co. manager, they find no record
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of an automobile accident or an arrest record for Everett.
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Again, it's unclear when police discover these facts or when exactly they took place,
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but police do figure out that Kenneth has sold the family van to a scrap yard where
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it was immediately crushed so police are unable to examine the car.
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And additionally, Kenneth forged his sister's signatures to sell the home that they all
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had inherited, the house where the Thompson's were living.
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By the time police catch up to the illegal sale of the home, the new owners have taken
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ownership of the home and gutted the interior.
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Lieutenant Robert Hargishmeyer says, quote, any evidence of foul play that might have
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been in the house was now lost, end quote.
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They do find the inspector's notes that happened before the sale went through.
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The inspector noted that the kitchen floor had been ripped out and a bathtub and toilet
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had been painted red.
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When police visited the home on July 3rd, after Lydia called the police the first time
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for Kenneth chasing her with an axe, the responding officers had walked through the home and said
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that the kitchen floor was intact and that there were no red bathroom fixtures.
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So this all happened after July 3rd and presumably after the Thompson's went missing.
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Kenneth White, Lydia's brother, is the prime suspect in the disappearance of the Thompson's.
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But despite the illegal sale of the home and the family van, police do not arrest him.
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On July 14th, 1997, a year after the Thompson family was last seen, police and FBI searched
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the trailer that he was living in in Gary, Indiana, which is about an hour and 15 minutes
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outside of Chicago.
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Cadaver dogs are brought in to search the property and investigators find men's gym
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shorts and a boy's sock.
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Both are soaked in blood.
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Still, no arrest is made until November 1997 when they arrest Kenneth for a probation violation
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for failure to register as a sex offender.
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In December of 1997, the FBI arrests Kenneth for forging Lydia's signature on a check
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for $13,272.
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While being held in the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago, Kenneth
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dies by suicide.
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No note was left, but the cause of death was self-inflicted.
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Lieutenant Robert Hargishmeyer says, quote, We believe he had a lot to do with their disappearance.
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Now that he is dead, it is our hope that people who knew him in prison as well on the outside
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will come forward with answers.
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Lieutenant Hargishmeyer continues to say, quote, If there was foul play, and we think
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there was, it happened on July 4th, 5th, or 6th, 1996.
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No one saw the Thompson family after that time, and Kenneth was seen driving the Thompson
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van soon after that weekend.
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The enormity of an entire family of four people missing, under dread circumstances, demands
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a continued police presence and review.
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End quote.
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However, after Kenneth's death, I could not find any updates that the Chicago police or
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the FBI have done any additional searching to recover the bodies of the Thompson family.
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We do know that none of their social security numbers have been used, and Everett and Lydia's
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credit cards and bank cards were not used except when Kenneth attempted to forge checks
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in Lydia's name.
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So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of the Thompson family, Everett,
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Lydia, Everett Jr., and Andrew, or their whereabouts today, please call the Area South Chicago Police
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Department at 312-747-5789.
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And the sources for today's timeline come from the Chicago Tribune, the Tribune, the
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Northwest Indiana Times, the Charlie Project, and the NamUs database.
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So that is the disappearance of the Thompson family.
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And I personally was just floored by how little information is out there.
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I thought that there would be a lot of newspaper articles that I would have to go through that
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this would make national news, but it didn't really, nothing really showed up about this
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family until after Kenneth's death.
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That's when I was able to find newspaper articles when they were looking back over a year later
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at the disappearance of this family.
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But that's four people missing.
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Four people missing.
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And there was no wide search for them.
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There was no immediate police presence.
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There was no big convoy of investigators searching near the home, around the home, nothing, nothing
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that I could find.
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And that's just shocking to me.
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Four people are missing.
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You think, you know, on a scale of resources, one case that involves four people, two of
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which are very young boys, Everett Jr. and Andrew are only 11 and 8, you think that that
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would climb up on the police priority list, but it just didn't here.
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And it really seems as if Kenneth got away with four murders.
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I don't know how Kenneth White was able to not be arrested after illegally selling the
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home.
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He owned one third of it, but the other two thirds were owned by his sisters.
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And he forged both of their signatures to make the sale go through.
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From my understanding, the sale was pretty quick and the new owners immediately gutted
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the interior.
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And I have to wonder, to me it seems like an obvious thing that you would talk to the
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new owners to say, hey, can we search?
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Was there anything there when you gutted?
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Or you know, the construction crew who I'm sure were hired out, it probably just wasn't
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these two people, but you never know.
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Like, did they notice anything strange in the house besides, you know, a red bathtub
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and a red toilet?
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That is very strange to me.
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That's not really a color one sees and nobody paints their toilet and bathtub.
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It sounds as if it was just, you know, like household paint used and you don't use that.
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So to me, that seems like it's trying to cover up.
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And my first thought is that it's trying to cover up a presence of blood.
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And if the kitchen floor was tore up, again, I would think that you are trying to hide
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something or you couldn't clean something, you couldn't get rid of something.
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So you have to just get rid of the floor altogether.
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So my question would just be to those folks who worked on, you know, the gutting of the
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interior, did they notice anything else odd?
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Anything strange at all when they redid the plumbing?
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I'm sure they did not keep the red toilet seat and the red tub.
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Did they notice anything strange there?
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Was there any kind of, you know, like DNA blood type substance found in the pipes?
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Like there's so many questions and it seems so glaringly obvious what happened here.
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And I don't know, again, for the life of me why he was not arrested after an illegal sale
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of the home and forging these signatures.
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I'm, you know, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's a crime.
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I'm pretty sure it's against the law to forge homeowner signatures to sell a home.
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I think that's illegal in my book.
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Another question that I just have is why has there been no additional searching?
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Is it just because they really don't have anywhere to go?
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I mean, they have no clues as to where these four people could be?
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That's the thing.
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Like there's four bodies that in theory Kenneth had to get rid of.
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That's a lot.
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That's a lot.
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I would think that the reason he got rid of the car, sold it to a scrapyard and had it
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immediately crushed was because that car was used to transport the family, you know, after
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they were dead or before.
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But somehow the family was in that van.
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Obviously they had driven the van around, but I think it was used in their disappearance
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somehow for sure.
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Because why else would you get rid of the car?
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It just, it just really frustrates me that a family of four, of four go missing in the
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90s and there's just no major search done for them.
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Everett's parents, Herman and Erlene, they try to raise the alarm pretty quickly.
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They ask for a welfare check and police just take, you know, Kenneth's word at face value,
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which like, okay, sure, sure.
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But then after they come to Chicago, Herman and Erlene and, you know, talk with the workers
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of the restaurant that Everett and Lydia owned and hear the story of him showing up with
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this car accident and he was arrested.
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And then 12 days later, he's telling the police that, oh, they actually drove to maybe Philadelphia,
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which is where Herman and Erlene are and they obviously didn't see their son or his family.
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Or maybe Minneapolis or maybe they flew to Hawaii, like all these different stories.
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It just feels like if maybe the police had taken their disappearance a little bit more
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seriously in the beginning, that maybe we could have answers today.
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Maybe Kenneth wouldn't have been able to get rid of so much evidence like the car and the
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home as quickly as he did.
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Maybe we would have answers.
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Obviously the police, they don't have any hope of finding the Thompsons alive.
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And unfortunately, I agree there.
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I don't think that the Thompsons ran away to get away from Kenneth.
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I don't think that happened.
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I don't think that there's a world where Everett would have just ran without telling
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his parents who he had a really great relationship with.
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And Lydia was close with her other sister, Phyllis.
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And you know, the boys were obviously in school and had friends.
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Like I don't see them completely disappearing, going off the grid or anything like that to
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get away from Kenneth.
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I don't see that.
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I think something happened to them, to all of them.
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And it's insane that Kenneth was not taken into custody for selling the house, for selling
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the car.
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And then when they search his trailer and Gary and they find men's gym shorts and a
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boy's sock that are soaked in blood, whose blood is that?
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There's no answer to that.
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And I would have to think with technology today if that, if those items are still in
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evidence, that that is something that can be tested.
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I don't know if we have the family's DNA on file, but I would almost wonder, did Kenneth
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hurt other people in Gary, Indiana?
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Was he hurting people in Gary?
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And that's why he had these blood soaked shorts and socks.
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Maybe they're not related at all to the Thompson's disappearance, but it's related to something.
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Whose blood is it?
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And that's a question that's never been answered that I think needs to be answered because
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Kenneth seems to be responsible for the disappearance of four people, but are there more people
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in his wake that he's also responsible for?
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That's something that I would be curious about.
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I just hope that in the future we can find the Thompson family and just bring them to
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rest in a beautiful spot, not wherever they are.
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And while, you know, it seems pretty clear that Kenneth was involved in their disappearance
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and the cause of their disappearance, and since he did die by suicide, you know, he's
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not going to stay on trial, which is why I think this is not a priority for the police
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because the person that they would want to charge is, has already died.
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So I think that's why police resources are not being used, but that just, that doesn't
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seem fair to me.
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That doesn't seem fair that because he dies by suicide, he doesn't get, even in death,
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he should still be like held responsible.
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I don't know if that makes sense, but it's like, people should know that he did this
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100% with certainty and not just all of us thinking.
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It seems pretty obvious.
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He's chasing around his sister with an axe threatening to kill her.
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It's just sad.
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It's just really sad.
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And I can't get over the fact that it's a whole family, a whole family just gone.
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You know, right now, I'm, as I'm recording this, it's, you know, it's right around the
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Christmas season, the new year, Thanksgiving just passed.
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So you spend all this time with family and it's just so hard to imagine a family of four
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going missing and no alarm being raised, no major searches, no national coverage.
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It's really sad.
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It's sad to me.
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And I really hope that we find out what happened to the Thompson family because they, they
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deserve answers still.
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Their families, their loved ones, their cousins, their classmates, anybody who knew them, they
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deserve answers.
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Well I just have you for a few more minutes here.
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If you want to give us a holiday present, a new year's present, just a present in general,
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something that would be so helpful is if you leave a written review in Apple podcast, if
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that's where you're listening, or give us five stars, thumbs up, whatever the metric
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is in your favorite podcast player.
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It is so helpful for others to find our podcast and for others to give us a chance and a listen.
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So that would be such a fantastic gift if you don't mind doing that.
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And it also helps get these stories out to other people, which is the ultimate goal of
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cold and missing is to cover stories that don't really get told that often.
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We will be posting on our Instagram pictures of the Thompson family.
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So if you want to follow us there, if you're not already, we'll have pictures of them up
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this week.
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And we also post active missing person cases in our stories and just try to keep a lot
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of true crime information going in our story.
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So it's a really good follow if that's something that you are interested in.
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You can also head over to our website www.coldandmissing.com where we have all of our transcripts, all
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of our episodes, everything, everything is over there.
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So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, our transcripts are available to follow along
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with over on our website.
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And that is all I have.
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If you're listening to this in real time, I hope you are having a wonderful holiday
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and I hope you have a happy new year as well.
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If you're not listening to this in real time, I just hope you're having a great day.
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Thank you again so much for listening to cold and missing.
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I'm your host Allie.
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Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
