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Peyton Moreland
You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everyone, and welcome back to into the Dark Podcast. I'm your host, Peyton Moreland. I'm so glad you are here listening. If you don't know what the into the Dark Podcast is, we are a true crime podcast that ventures into all things dark. Spooky, creepy, tinfoil tales, ghost stories, UFOs. Honestly, all of the mysteries of the world and then including true crime. Why do people do the horrific things they do? I'm so glad you are here listening or watching. Please subscribe, turn on notifications, leave a review. All of the things now before we get into today's episode, I always start every single case off with my 10 seconds, which is basically just a lighter note before we actually go into the dark together. So my 10 seconds is it is finally warming up where we are. Daisy and I sat outside this morning on our front step and we just basked in the sun while we drink our coffee every all the studies say that just like 10 minutes of sunlight in the morning is so good for your nervous system, your mental health. And so I trust it. That's what I've been doing. Let me know if you too, partake in the 10 minutes of sunshine in the morning. But that being said, let's get into today's episode. And before I get started, I want you to think about the last time you went on a quick walk. Maybe you've spent your lunch break strolling to a local restaurant to grab a good meal or dropped by the post office or the bank to take care of errands. Perhaps you didn't even have a specific goal in mind, but you just wanted to get fresh air and a little exercise going along with my 10 seconds the point is, short 15 minute walks outside are good for you, but usually unremarkable. You don't expect them to change your life. But today's case revolves around one of those seemingly unimportant short walks that one man took in Omaha, Nebraska. It's a small midwestern city that sits right on the border with Iowa. And Omaha is considered very safe. Okay. It has one of the lowest crime rates in the region, so lots of young people and families choose to live there. Omaha offers professional opportunities and a strong feeling of community. And most importantly, when you live there, you usually can feel pretty safe. And this is the town where a 19 year old man named Jason Ji lived back in 2001. Now, Jason had lived in Omaha for his entire life, and it had been a very good life so far. He was close to his family, especially his younger brother Michael. Now, in the summers, Jason would find creative ways to keep himself and his siblings entertained. One time, him and his brother Michael set out different colored popsicles in the sun and tried to predict which one would melt the fastest. You know, just wholesome, creative fun. Now, as he got older, Jason was well liked because he was very high energy and friendly. He could be a little bit shy, which made it hard for him to meet new people. But once Jason got to know someone and opened up with them, he was incredibly warm and genuine. People couldn't help but want to be his friend. Now, Jason's closest friends gave him a nickname. They called him jj. And overall, JJ was just one of those people who had a lot of charisma. Everyone liked talking to him, being around him. People couldn't help but pay attention. He was pretty magnetic. He almost seemed destined to be a celebrity. And in fact, his dream when he got older was to become a radio dj. Those who knew him thought he actually kind of had a shot at making it big, even though he had to work especially hard to get there. See, school had always been extra challenging for Jason. He was very smart, but he also had a learning disability that made it difficult for him to communicate. So when other people tried to explain certain concepts to him out loud and couldn't always follow or understand them. And it was also difficult for Jason to kind of express himself. But other than that, he was intelligent, he was a hard worker. So Jason fully expected to be able to make his dreams come true, even if it just took a little bit of extra effort from him. Now, in the year 2000, he was attending a local community college, taking classes for a radio studies major. Jason was only enrolled part time and living at home still. But right away, Jason's talent was clear. Even though he was only a freshman in college and only taking a handful of classes, he landed a gig hosting a show through the college radio station. It was a great way to get his name out there and to get experience behind the mic. But he only finished a year of classes. And before his family realized that they just couldn't afford to keep paying his tuition, even his part time schedule was too expensive. Now, Jason had no choice but to drop out. But he still had big dreams and goals, and he planned to go back to school just as soon as he could come up with the money. And sure enough, he found an answer to all of his problems. In early 2001, it all started when he got a job at a restaurant called Fazoli's, which serves Italian food. The Fazoli's wasn't super close to Jason's home. In fact, it was in the town next over, meaning he had to drive to work every day. He couldn't walk or take public transit. But Jason was committed and focused. He took as many shifts as he could so he could make as much money as possible. And when he was on the clock, he did his work quickly, thoroughly and well. But still, Italian fast food doesn't tend to pay well. It was going to take a long time before he could afford to send himself back to school again. But a few months later, another opportunity appeared to Jason. He learned that a local radio station had an opening not for a host position, but for an entry level sales gig. It wasn't a dream job by any means, but it would get his foot in the door. And it paid better than his fast food job. And the radio station even had a tuition reimbursement program, meaning Jason could work there during the day and then take classes on the nights and weekends. And his company would actually help pay for it. So he obviously applies, he gets an interview, and he nails it. The radio station offers him the gig, and of course, Jason accepted it. This was basically a dream come true for him. He was going to chase his professional goals while making lots of money and getting a degree. So Jason set a start date for late June. He had a few days to enjoy his summer and work his final few shifts at Fazoli's. And he continued doing his work well. He also picked up as many extra shifts as he could because every additional paycheck would get him one step closer to going back to school. So if any of his co workers needed a day off or wanted someone to cover for them, Jason would volunteer. And that's exactly what happened on June 13. This is about one week before he was supposed to start his radio job. Jason wasn't planning to work at the Italian fast food that day, but his manager called him around mid morning and said, hey, we're short staffed. Would you like to come in and work? And Jason agreed right away. He said he would be there sometime after 11am now, there were just a few problems with this. The first one is that Jason didn't have a way to get to work that day. His car had been having some issues and it was at the mechanic's shop for some repairs. So before he could even go to work, Jason had to call a friend of his and say, hey, can you give me a ride? That friend's name hasn't been made public, but for simplicity and for the case, I'm just gonna call her Sandra. And while I don't know much about Sandra, my sources say that she lived close to Jason and she also worked at the same Fazoli's. It also sounds like she may have been scheduled to work that day too. So when he explained what was going on, Sandra agreed to pick him up at 11am and take him to the restaurant with her. Except she'd never actually been to Jason's house before and she didn't know where it was. And Jason tries giving her directions, but he's kind of bad at it. He just couldn't figure out, like, how to tell her. Again, this is 2001. He doesn't know how to tell her from her house, how to get to his house. And this is the same time before cell phones with navigation apps. So it's not like she could easily look it up. I mean, you have to explain the map to them. So instead, Jason is like, okay, listen, just pick me up at the local high school. He and Sandra had both graduated from there, so he knew she would definitely know how to get there. She wouldn't need directions. And he lived about eight blocks from that high school. So he's like, I'll just walk there. Sandra could pick him up and then they would go to work together. Seems like a pretty easy, simple plan. And he had done this a ton of times before when he had carpooled with other friends. This was kind of common for him to just have people pick him up at the high school. So that solved the first problem Jason was facing that day. He now had a ride. But there was one other issue he had to take care of before he could walk to the high school and then go to his shift. Before he had agreed to come into work, he had been planning to help his 13 year old brother Michael with some chores around the house. This included helping him haul the family's garbage cans off the curb, putting them in the garage. And Jason didn't want to leave the work unfinished. So at 10:45am he spent a few minutes bringing the bins in with Michael's help. And it only took a few minutes before the chores were finished. And then he left his house, headed toward the high school. So let's now fast forward 30 minutes. 30 minutes have passed since he left his house for that walk. And at about 11:15, the phone rang at Jason's house and Jason's brother Michael answered. It was Sandra, the friend, and she was calling because Jason wasn't at the school for her to pick him up, which was weird because it didn't take that long to walk there from his house. Jason definitely should have made it to the high school by now, but he wasn't there. And since Sandra didn't have a cell phone, she'd driven to a nearby gas station to call his home phone and ask what was going on. Except Michael didn't have an answer. He's like, I don't know. He already left and neither did his mother. They couldn't imagine why Jason wouldn't have made it to the school. He wasn't still at home. It was hard to imagine he would get lost. And he was pretty responsible. They don't think he would have just like wandered off and blew off the shift. So by this point, Jason's family's a little worried, but they're not sure what to do do. Going to the police didn't seem like an option yet. I mean, there is a common misconception that says you can't report someone missing until they've been gone for 24 hours. Now, to be clear, this isn't true. The police can and often do begin investigating a disappearance right away. And many experts say you should report missing persons immediately because those first few hours are crucial. But sometimes movies or TV shows can make it sound like you have to wait a full day. And Jason's family weren't true crime fans. They didn't know that, you know, they could report him missing. They only knew what they saw on tv. So even though they were sick with worry, they believed they weren't allowed to report him missing to the police. So instead they had to wait. Now, all through the rest of the day, they sat by the phone. They kept looking out the window, hoping maybe they'd hear from Jason or maybe he'd show up and explain where he had went. But the sun set with no word. A long, sleepless night passed. And finally, the next morning, the family decided, okay, it's probably time. We are able to notify local law enforcement. Now, obviously, this delay wasn't great, but it was actually about to get even worse, because when the police heard about Jason's case, they kind of decided it wasn't worth investigating. Basically, they told his family that Jason was an adult. He'd probably left for his own reasons. They didn't think this was a real problem. Now, of course, Jason's relatives do not buy this. They insisted. No, Jason would never just disappear without saying anything. He's way too responsible. Plus, he's really excited about his new job, which is supposed to start in just a week. He didn't have any reason to run away. But the police don't want to hear it. They sat on this missing person's report for 10 entire days. And then about a week and a half after the disappearance, they finally looked at the evidence. And as soon as they actually reviewed the facts, they realized they'd made a mistake. Because it was pretty obvious at this point that Jason had not willingly run away. He hadn't accessed his bank account at any point since he went missing, and he had $650 saved up. Jason hadn't touched a cent of it. If he had run away, he would need to buy food, pay for a place to stay, you know, ways to get around. But he hadn't withdrawn anything or even attempted to access an atm. Jason also had a paycheck from Fazoli's that he hadn't deposited or cashed in yet. And his cell phone that he did have hadn't been used since the day he went missing. He hadn't even been to the mechanic shop to pick up his car or ask about when it would be ready. So clearly, he hadn't run away. There's no way he could have vanished with no money, no vehicle, no cell phone activity. Which meant the police had to admit that their initial assumption that he had just left willingly was wrong. And they had wasted almost two weeks of valuable investigation time. And to make matters worse, by this point, there simply wasn't much evidence for them to collect and review. Maybe if they'd begun searching for Jason earlier, they would have found something. But it was too late now.
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Peyton Moreland
That's why you rack when the officers questioned his neighbors and the people who lived by the school, they were like, I don't know. That was so long ago. In fact, the last time Jason was seen, it was while he was bringing in the trash cans with his brother, before his walk to the school even began. So this meant the police didn't know how far he had gotten before he disappeared. And there were also no signs that Jason had been in any kind of accident or gotten hurt or lost. There were also no signs of foul play. All the police knew for sure was that Jason had probably left his home that day at around 10.45am but even that is just a guess. Nobody had actually spotted him leaving for his walk, not even his own family members. And this was a time before ring cameras, so there wasn't any video footage of him. But the good news was is that the high school campus did have security cameras. So the police are like, if he made it, let's go, let's pull the footage and review it. Which is how they end up determining that he had never made it to the school. But beyond that, they didn't know where he had made it, he had gotten hurt, abducted, or killed close to his house, or if he had made it close to the school, or if he had taken a wrong turn, wandered into another neighborhood. It's all impossible to say. Investigators did question Jason's friends, and from them, they learned he didn't really have any enemies. He also had never used drugs or been in any kind of legal trouble. No one really seemed to have any motive to hurt him. And Jason didn't have any major problems that might make him want to skip town or disappear. And I also think it is worth mentioning that Jason was a pretty big guy. He was 6ft tall. He weighed 160 pounds. So it's hard to imagine that someone managed to wrestle him into a car, kidnapping him. Jason was strong enough to defend himself in most situations. All of this to say it was just hard to guess what could have happened to him, which is why his case pretty much immediately goes cold. Weeks and then months and then years go by without the police uncovering a single lead in Jason's case. As one officer with 30 years of experience said, this was, quote, the most baffling case he had ever investigated. Now, of course, since the detectives didn't have a good theory about what had even happened to Jason or where to even start, the rumors started flying. People in his community and online began speculating about what might have become of him. I mean, this was just literally someone disappeared into thin air. I mean, it's human nature to try to figure it out. We don't like mysteries that don't have solutions. It's normal to want to figure out what happened, even if you have to make assumptions to support your theory, which in this case, you would, because there's nothing we know. And this becomes a big issue in Jason's case because a lot of people made accusations that just were also out of thin air. They were not supported by evidence. And I'm going to share some of them just to give you a sense of what was kind of being thrown around locally in Jason's case. But again, I want to be clear. This is all just local speculation and gossip, and some of it is not even really grounded in reality. For example, some people thought, okay, maybe it was Jason's friend Sandra who hurt him. Now, as a reminder, that's the person who was supposed to meet him at the school and give him a ride to work. They weren't very close. She had never even picked him up at his house before the rumors went that maybe she kidnapped him on the way and did Something to him, like found him before he made it to the school. Now, it's unclear what exactly she would have done or even why. It's also worth noting that there was absolutely no evidence whatsoever to implicate Sandra. Not to mention that it's hard to imagine how she could pull something off like this. Remember, the school's surveillance showed Jason never made it, so. And apparently she didn't know where he lived. So in order to abduct him, she would have needed to figure out what direction he was coming from, like what street he was on to get to the school, because she doesn't know his pathway. And then she would have had to track him down and somehow get him into the car. And she'd have to pull all of that off during the brief window between the time when he left his house and when she called from the gas station. All of this without anyone seeing it and just no motive. Why? And why not wait for him to get to the school if your motive was to hurt him? I mean, the authorities don't take this theory very seriously. It just happened to be that she was the last person he was supposed to be with. They do pull Sandra in for questioning, obviously, but they clear her after the interrogation. Now, other people have suggested that Jason's own family might have done something to him. Now, again, there's no evidence to support this theory, nor is there a clear motive. This is just basically based on the fact that none of the neighbors came forward to say he left the house. Some people are like, well, maybe he never left for the walk at all. Maybe his last. His family, who was the last people who saw him are who hurt him. But it seems just as possible that the neighbors just aren't paying attention. They were asked way too late. They probably didn't see him because they were not specifically looking for him. And then a different rumor started flying a few months after Jason's disappearance. In mid September, just 60 days after he went missing, Jason's next door neighbors sold their house. They didn't make much money in this cell. In fact, they accepted an offer that was only about half of what the house was probably worth. And then they just packed their bags and got out of town. It seemed rushed. It seemed like they were in a hurry. And so a lot of people were like, he goes missing after walking through his neighborhood, and now these neighbors suddenly just pack up and leave and don't even get money for their house that they deserve. But again, there's just no evidence to support this theory. It's just wild Speculation. For all we know, they moved in a rush because they got an amazing job offer that would pay enough to make up for for their low ball sell. Or they may have been dealing with a financial crisis or a family emergency where it was more important to get out than to wait for a better buyer. There's just no concrete reason to connect this random neighbor's move to Jason's case. Of course, another theory said that maybe he was hit by a car while he was walking to the school, Maeve died, and then the driver panicked, disposed of his body. Meaning he wasn't murdered, but his disappearance was still a crime. Except again, there's just no hard evidence to support this idea. The car accident. I mean, car accidents do tend to leave clues. Skid marks on the road, a crash sound people may have overheard dents, scratches, maybe even blood on the street. But nobody on Jason's quiet residential block or anywhere along his route had seen or heard anything. So again, this is just a theory, but the last one I want to cover involved something that allegedly happened roughly two years after Jason went missing. I need to be clear though. These details come from an anonymous poster on Reddit that's kind of gone viral. Meaning they're impossible to verify. Like this is basically an anonymous online tip.
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Peyton Moreland
The anonymous person who I'll call Isaac supposedly lived in Jason's neighborhood. And according to Isaac's post, at the time, he was also a young adult with a similar build. In other words, he looked like Jason. And one day he was walking around about a mile from the area where they think Jason went missing. And suddenly a car pulled up at the side of the road. Isaac didn't recognize the man in the driver's seat, but the driver asked if he needed a ride. Isaac declined, saying he preferred to keep walking. Except the driver wasn't willing to accept the no as an answer. He argued with Isaac, saying, no, it'll just be more convenient for everyone if you just get in the car. This is weird. Isaac hadn't told the man where he was headed. The driver had no idea of knowing how much further he had to walk or what direction he was going. So he had no way of actually knowing if carpooling or dropping him off would be convenient. The entire interaction gave Isaac a bad vibe. And he got the impression that if he did agree to get in the car, something terrible might have happened to him. Instead, he just kept insisting that he was going to keep walking, he wasn't going to get in the car, and eventually the driver gave up and pulled away. Now, this is the last time Isaac ever saw or heard from that strange man. But you can understand why he ended up posting about this if it is true. Same area, similar to Jason, and he's like, if this happened to me, why couldn't it have happened to him? If this is true, it could mean a predator was prowling Jason's neighborhood, trying to abduct young men who fit Jason's description. And for a moment, let's just assume this is true. If there was a deadly criminal looking for a potential victim, he may have seen Jason and assumed he was especially vulnerable. Now, again, Jason's learning ability, which made it difficult for him to communicate, sometimes made him come across as not being very smart. Like I said, he was intelligent. But strangers would just make assumptions based on their first impressions. So they kind of thought that Jason was developmentally disabled and a possible predator might have assumed the same thing and figured Jason was an easy target. So when he saw Jason walking down the street, he may have chosen to kidnap him, kill him, and dispose of the body. I don't know for sure if any of those things actually happened. You can probably tell. There is a lot of speculation behind this theory, little to no evidence. It was always a possibility, right, that someone killed him. We have no way of knowing if this Isaac's encounter had anything to do with Jason going missing on the same route. Could have been an unrelated weird incident, or it could be completely made up. Like every Other theory I've covered in this case, there is just no proof and no hard evidence to support it. And sadly, in light of that lack of evidence, more than a decade went by without any new leads in this case. Jason's body was never found, meaning his loved ones didn't even know if he was alive or dead. I mean, it seemed unlikely that he had run away, but the, the police couldn't completely rule it out either. They also had to consider that he may have been held hostage somewhere. Maybe he was dealing with some kind of mental health problem. We do see boys around his age disappear a lot with what people might tie to a mental health crisis. So in 2018, which was 17 years after the disappearance, the national center for Missing and Endangered Children released a new age progression photo. And it showed what Jason might look like if he was still alive. And he would now be 36 years old. The thinking was that if he was still out there, maybe someone would recognize him. But this new photo didn't generate any usable tips or leads. And then June 13, 2021, brought the 20th anniversary of Jason's disappearance. And his mother gave an absolutely heart wrenching statement to the press that day. She said, quote, unfortunately with this mark, I will have not had him more years than I had him in my life since he disappeared at the age 19. He was almost 20, but he was 19. That's just hard to fathom. 20 years, that's two decades. And sadly, even this anniversary didn't bring a break in the case. Instead, his family honored him with a memorial in a local park. People painted rocks with the words find Jason. I'll also note that there's a tree in that same park that was planted in his memory. It wasn't much, but it was all his loved ones could do. Without more information to go off of, I mean, how does someone just leave for a short walk and then disappear in 20 years later? There's no answers. As of this recording, it's been 25 years since he disappeared, and the case is still sitting unsolved. We don't know if he fell victim to foul play, an accident. Did he run away? There's no evidence and no leads to point at any specific explanation. He just up and vanished, which is so discouraging, especially for Jason's family, who don't have any kind of answer about what happened to him. But I am pleased to say that they haven't lost hope. In fact, in 2003, they founded an organization called Project Jason. The idea was that this group could help other families who were also dealing with unsolved missing persons cases. They could get together and support one another. But project Jason also provided those families with resources and information that wasn't always easy to find, especially when the police were uncooperative, like the Omaha department had been when Jason's family had tried to report his disappearance. It's not always intuitive to know what to do or how to advocate for a missing loved one. Some people find it's hard to tell what's normal and what's not or to know when to push back against what law enforcement says. So the idea was that project Jason would give people everything they needed to fight for justice for their loved ones and raise awareness. Honestly, it's a brilliant organization, and the organization did good work. In 2010, the U.S. department of justice even publicly honored Jason's mother for her work with the group. Except if you try to visit the project Jason website today, your computer will just display an error code. And I'm not sure if the organization is still active or if it's just a technical issue, but it seems like all of their information and advocacy has disappeared from the Internet. It's disappointing, but I hope whatever's going on, it has nothing to do with Jason's family's peace, because it must be heartbreaking to have it all. A happy family, a house in a good neighborhood, lots of opportunities, a bright future, and then just to lose everything in 15 minutes and to be left with nothing but questions that have absolutely zero answers. It's the sort of situation that it's impossible to forget. Literally, a mysterious disappearance, but also one that still might be resolved. So if you know anything about what may have happened to Jason, the Omaha police department is still collecting tips. They have two phone numbers set up. One is 402-444-5818, and the other is 402-444-5690. You can also share information about Jason with the national center for missing and exploited children. Their number is 1-800-THE-LOST or 1-800-843-5678. And please, if you know anything, come forward, because Jason's family deserves to know the truth. And they're still waiting. Thank you guys so much for going into another mysterious disappearance that just genuinely has nothing. No one has any idea. And I this happens so much more often. Just what seems to be a normal day. No red flags, no nothing. And then someone just disappears mysteriously. I don't know. Cases like this will always boggle my mind, but I hope that one day Jason's family get a sense of closure. Thank you so much for diving into the dark with me today and I will see you next time. Goodbye.
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Title: The Disappearance of Jason Jolkowski
Host: Payton Moreland
Release Date: March 25, 2026
Podcast Theme: True crime, horror, and mystery, focusing on unusual disappearances and the question: “Why do people do what they do?”
This episode explores the mysterious disappearance of Jason Jolkowski, a 19-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, in 2001. Host Payton Moreland recounts Jason’s life, the circumstances leading up to his vanishing, and the many theories and rumors surrounding the case. The episode also delves into the impact Jason’s disappearance had on his family and the broader community—focusing on the lack of answers 25 years later and the creation of Project Jason by his family.
"Jason definitely should have made it to the high school by now, but he wasn’t there… [The family] couldn’t imagine why Jason wouldn’t have made it to the school." – Payton Moreland (08:56)
“This was… the most baffling case he had ever investigated.” – Omaha PD Detective (18:40, paraphrased by Payton)
“If this happened to me, why couldn't it have happened to him?” – Paraphrased from “Isaac” (26:15)
However, this is unverified and possibly a fabrication.
“Unfortunately, with this mark, I will have not had him more years than I had him in my life since he disappeared at the age 19... That’s just hard to fathom. 20 years, that’s two decades.” – Jason’s mother (28:58)
Payton sums up the tragedy and mystery, highlighting how Jason's disappearance remains unsolved with neither evidence nor leads, which is particularly devastating for his loved ones. She spotlights the ongoing need for information and urges anyone with tips to contact Omaha PD (402-444-5818 or 402-444-5690) or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (1-800-THE-LOST).
“Thank you so much for diving into the dark with me today and I will see you next time. Goodbye.” – Payton Moreland (33:45)
For listeners: This case is stark—no evidence, no sightings, no closure for the family after 25 years. It serves as a sobering reminder of both the fragility of everyday life and the importance of advocacy, awareness, and persistent hope.