The Vanishing of Janis Rose | 4. Bombshell

Summary

The Binge Crimes: The Vanishing of Janis Rose

Episode 4: Bombshell
Host: Larison Campbell
Date: September 23, 2025

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Overview

In this explosive fourth episode, host Larison Campbell follows the extraordinary unraveling of Janis Rose’s decades-long disappearance. The narrative shifts between the perspectives of those affected by her web of lies, chiefly her daughter-in-law Carolyn and her son David. As a determined investigator from Mississippi closes in on Janis’s true identity in Texas, years of deception give way to seismic revelations. The result is a portrait of a woman who invented herself many times over—until the cracks became impossible to hide.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Janis/Willie Jo’s Life in Texas (02:12–06:04)

• Carolyn's Account: Carolyn, in her 20s at the time, meets Janis, known as "Willie Jo," while working as waitresses at Denny’s in Gonzales, Texas. Carolyn is struck by Willie Jo's energetic and youthful appearance despite her claimed age of 60.
• Willie Jo’s Charisma: "She made everybody laugh, you know, she made them comfortable," recalls Carolyn (03:07).
• Work History: Janis moves between jobs—waitress, nursing home activities director, welder—never settling anywhere for long.
• Suspicious Requests: Janis requests to use Carolyn’s Social Security number for employment, citing a “stolen” number, raising immediate red flags (04:11).

2. Inconsistencies & Impossible Stories (05:01–09:14)

• Contradictory Histories: Carolyn notes Janis consistently supplies two different birthdays, explaining it away as an orphanage mistake.
• Janis shares stories of tragedy: triplets and a husband dying in a fire. Yet, these claims unravel under scrutiny.
• Researching the Truth: Carolyn attempts to verify these stories via newspapers.com but finds “not a damn thing”—no record of the supposed deadly fire (08:45).
• Confrontation with Reality: Carolyn observes, “Like, here you are, you've been telling this story for as long as I've known you. I was like, things aren't adding up” (09:14).

3. False Narratives and Their Emotional Toll (09:46–11:35)

• Host’s Reflection: Larison Campbell highlights the cruelty and self-serving nature of Janis inventing dead children, suggesting Janis might have needed to believe her own lie to avoid facing the truth of the daughters she left behind.

4. The Investigation Breakthrough — 2019–2022 (12:00–23:53)

• Contact from Mississippi Investigator: Carolyn receives a surprise call at work; a Mississippi sheriff's department is investigating a 40-year-old missing persons case. The investigator, Major Mark Ogden, is searching for Janis Bullock.
• Shocking Connection: Carolyn's husband, David (aka Trey), is identified as Janis’s son—Janis left Mississippi as his mother, and he's grown up as her son under the “Willie Jo” identity (13:20).
• Realization: “What if this person is your mom? Like, how weird would that be?” Carolyn (16:24).
• Family History Under Question: David and Carolyn pore over family albums, trying to reconcile the familiar "Willie Jo" with the missing Janis Rose.

5. Family Memories and Contrasts (21:18–27:51)

• David’s Childhood: David’s upbringing appears idyllic—big Texas ranch, doting “Willie Jo,” and a surrogate mom to many local kids.
  • "She always invited them over and they pretty much called her mom or her nickname, Mama Jo," says David (23:26).
• Oddities in Upbringing: Despite the warmth, incidents (like being left at a truck stop) demonstrate Janis’s forgetfulness and unpredictability, suggesting deeper undercurrents to her need for reinvention.
• Chaotic Family Structure: David notes his mom brought various men home and maintained relationships that defied conventional explanations.

6. Revelation of True Identity (30:09–39:17)

• Detective’s Visit: Major Ogden visits David and Carolyn in Texas, bringing evidence and seeking more information.
• The discovery that Janis has two birthdays, two sets of documents, and a stolen identity further confirms Carolyn’s suspicions.
• The Dementia Factor: As Janis’s dementia worsens, the boundaries between her invented and real lives blur; in one lucid moment, she mentions her true mother’s name, “Minnie Lou Swayze” (33:39).
  • Carolyn notes, “With the dementia came out the truth” (33:56).
• The Bombshell: David learns for the first time that Janis had four daughters she abandoned and never contacted again. “Wait, what? Like, how do you leave four daughters behind?” (35:55).

7. The Confrontation (37:01–39:17)

• Finding Janis: Ogden tracks Janis down in a Fort Worth nursing home.
  • The encounter: “I said, me and you both know your name’s Janice. She put her head down and... looked back up at me and smiled. Yeah, I’m Janice” (38:14).
• Painful Reconnection: Janis confirms she remembers her daughters, names them, and expresses a wish to “go home,” but soon her dementia overtakes the conversation.

8. Aftermath and Identity Crisis (40:01–41:36)

• David's Emotional Fallout: For David, the revelation shatters his sense of identity. “That it was all a lie. Pretty much how I thought that my whole life was a lie” (40:33).
• Practical Uncertainty: Even David's birth certificate may be forged, and his true origins are uncertain.
• Investigator’s Closure: Major Ogden’s investigation is, by procedure, complete, but the emotional work for Janis’s family is only just beginning.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Janis/Willie Jo’s Dual Life

• "She always had two birthdays. Like I don't understand how you have two birthdays." — Carolyn, 05:01

Searching for the Truth

• "I went to newspapers.com... and I could never find anything about three children and a husband dying in a house fire." — Carolyn, 08:45

Encounter with Investigator

• "He called and introduced myself and he's like, who you're looking for? And I said, well, her name is Janice Bullock." — Major Ogden, 13:10

• "He calls me back and says, that's my mom. I'm like, I need to talk to you, man." — Ogden, recalling David’s reaction, 15:08

The Bombshell

• "Wait, what? Like, how do you leave four daughters behind? We weren't. We were in shock." — Carolyn, 35:55

Janis’s Confession

• "I said, me and you both know your name's Janice. She put her head down... and looked back up at me and smiled. Yeah, I'm Janice." — Ogden recounting Janis's admission, 38:14

The Emotional Fallout

• "That it was all a lie. Pretty much how I thought that my whole life was a lie." — David, 40:33

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Important Timestamps

| Segment/Topic | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------------------|:-------------:| | Carolyn meets Willie Jo, notes her energy and oddities | 02:12–04:17 | | Carolyn asked for Social Security number | 04:11–05:01 | | Researching Janis’s tragic fire story | 08:39–09:11 | | Investigator contacts Carolyn about missing persons case | 12:00–13:20 | | David learns his mother may be the missing Janis Rose | 14:16–16:24 | | David & Carolyn compare Willie Jo/Janis photos | 16:43–17:07 | | Ogden visits David & Carolyn; two birthdates discovered | 30:09–34:02 | | Confirmation of Janis's other children revealed | 35:07–35:55 | | Ogden and Janis (Willie Jo) meet in the nursing home | 37:01–38:42 | | Janis remembers her daughters in lucidity | 38:50–39:17 | | David’s sense of life as a lie | 40:33–41:36 |

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Tone & Language

The episode blends Larison Campbell’s empathetic narration with candid, sometimes shocked, and often darkly humorous remarks from Carolyn and David. There’s a current of mounting tension, as decades of secrets lead to confrontations that are both gutting and surreal. The hosts and interviewees speak plainly, often in raw, direct language that underscores the confusion and heartache of grappling with Janis’s deceptions.

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Conclusion

“Bombshell” finally detonates the core secret at the heart of the Vanishing of Janis Rose: her elaborate life as Willie Jo in Texas is unmasked, changing the lives of her son, her daughters, and her friends forever. As one reality collapses and another takes shape, listeners are left pondering not just what happened to Janis, but why—a question that may remain unanswered, even now that the woman at the center has at last been found.

Transcript

[A]

The new Popeyes and Hot Ones menu is fire flavor. Trust me, because I'm about to eat it. That hits right away. Attempt the Popeyes Hot Ones menu in stores. Love that chicken from Popeyes. Limited time in participating U.S. restaurants. Listen to all episodes of the Vanishing of Janice Rose ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge. Visit the Binge channel on Apple podcast and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access. Wherever you listen the Binge feed your true crime obsession the Binge at some point, we've all played with being someone we're not. As a kid, you probably had a giant box of costumes in your bedroom or you just raided your parents closet for heels and evening gowns. Maybe later in life you gave a fake name to a guy in a bar. And of course there's always Halloween. It's fun, exciting even to imagine yourself in a different life. But for most of us, it's also temporary because to keep the lie going, it has to get bigger. At a certain point, your made up story becomes your friends stories, your family's. Which means when your lies unravel, so do their lives. We left off with Janice in the early 1980s. At that point she was keeping a lot of balls in the air. A new identity, Willie Jo and all her conflicting stories about how she wound up the mother of a baby boy until she vanished again. That brings me to the early 2000s, nearly three decades after Janice left her family in South Mississippi. And it's here that her story begins to crumble. In a chain diner in Gonzales, Texas.

[B]

We were waitresses at a Denny's.

[A]

Carolyn's in her 20s. When she starts working here with Janice, or as her name tag reads, Willie Jo. She comes in high energy, working that short sleeved uniform like it was made for her. Carolyn could not believe Willie Jo was so much older. When she mentioned her age, she did not look 60.

[B]

My parents are 60 and they don't look like they're 40. So I was like, maybe she got good genes.

[A]

Carolyn also notices she and Willie Jo seem to approach the job differently. When customers tell Carolyn they're torn between ordering Moons over My Hammy or the All American Slam. And by the way, would adding silver dollar pancakes be too much food?

[B]

I'm like, I don't know what you want.

[A]

But Willie Jo, it was like the woman could read minds.

[B]

She'd be like, oh, you want this or you want that? People would just be like, that's the person I want to serve me because she was just so outgoing. She made everybody laugh, you know, she made him comfortable.

[A]

At this point, she's been calling herself Willie Jo almost as long as she was Janice. This lie is almost bigger than the truth. Maybe that's what makes her so confident, so unafraid to get attention.

[B]

We did a couple waitressing jobs together.

[A]

But Janice never stays anywhere too long.

[B]

She was an activities director for a nursing home. She was a waitress.

[A]

She was a welder during those years. Janice moves a lot, but Carolyn's always in her life. Janice nicknames her sis. And one day she calls Carolyn up. She has a kinda awkward favor to ask. See, she's got this new gig, she got a job.

[B]

And she's like, I need to use your Social Security. And I'm like, why?

[A]

Because you know, it's that number you're never supposed to give anybody.

[B]

She's like, I just, I need to get this job, but I can't use my Social Security because it's stolen.

[A]

Yeah, that really sucks, Carolyn thinks. But why are you calling me and not like the police? And is this something she's just now figuring out? And as Carolyn turns this weird, pretty illegal request over, other wild bits from her friend's past begin popping up like a 2000s Internet ad in her brain. For starters, her age. Is she even 60?

[B]

She always had two birthdays. Like I don't understand how you have two birthdays.

[A]

Janice had explained that one as a mix up at the orphanage.

[B]

She was born in an orphanage, you.

[A]

Know, cause both of her parents were dead. And that was far from the only life changing tragedy in her past.

[B]

She had a set of triplets that died in a fire and her husband died in a fire.

[A]

It was just one terrible event after another. This is the problem with big lies. The longer they go on, the more people they involve. And by 2019, she'd involved a lot of people who didn't even know they were involved. And with each of the lives that Jan or Willie Joan now has inserted herself into, she's turned more from the victim to the perpetrator, swooping in, creating havoc and then disappearing. So what is her end goal? And will she ever get there? Or is it all going to blow up? 40 years of a lie. That's a pretty good run. From Sony Music Entertainment and Wild Night Media, you're listening to the vanishing of Janice Rose. This is episode four Bombshell. I'm Larison Campbell. Carolyn from Denny's is an observer. She's the kind of person who'll agree last minute to be a bridesmaid for a messy former friend, just to end up having a front row seat to the inevitable wedding fireworks. But she's careful to keep herself out of the drama. So when her intuition tells her to take a second look at something, she does it quietly. The more she learned about Janice, who Carolyn only knew as Willie Jo, the more she started to catch inconsistencies. Like, for instance, Willie Jo's story about her triplets and husband she lost in a fire. She had confided in Carolyn about it.

[B]

My dad grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, and where she said she lived, they were like right down the road from each other.

[A]

Carolyn spent summers there. So one day she asks her dad and hey, what do you remember about this really tragic story in town? Because it actually happened to my coworker back when you were living there.

[B]

And he's like, that sounds weird.

[A]

Weird because he's pretty sure he never heard this story before.

[B]

You can't really hear about one thing and not hear about another. You know, it's how small towns were.

[A]

Editor's note. As someone who also grew up in a small Mississippi town, I can and will recite vivid details about every untimely death that occurred in a 30 mile radius when I lived there. Though small town gossip does carry a degree of human error.

[B]

So I just decided to look it up one day. I was like, I'm going to check this out.

[A]

She goes to the Internet.

[B]

I went to newspapers.com.

[A]

She searches Willie Jo Streety, the name Janice is using. She expands her search to more of the state and looks up different phrases like house fire or children died. And not a damn thing is coming up.

[B]

And I could never find anything about three children and a husband dying in a house fire.

[A]

And she knows she didn't get the details wrong.

[B]

This is odd. Like, here you are, you've been telling this story for as long as I've known you. I was like, things aren't adding up.

[A]

Then she starts thinking about those details, like how after the fire, the whole family was buried together in the yard at the top of a hill.

[B]

Now, Maybe in the 1800s you did, but not in the 1960s.

[A]

Of all Janice's lies, the one I can't let go of is the one about her children dying. Why even say you had kids at all? It's not just that the boldness of the story makes it easy to disprove. It's the casual cruelty of it, of using every parent's nightmare for what, attention? Or was it that every time she told this story, she was really telling it to herself rather than letting her mind wander to those four little girls and think about how they were growing up. If they played in her same swimming hole and had boyfriends of their own, she told herself they were dead so she could grieve like they were. Of course, Carolyn didn't know this at all. Annoying as it is that Willie Jo seems to play fast and loose with the truth. Carolyn doesn't call her out. Remember, she's more of an observer. Carolyn figures it's not her business what kind of stories Willie Jo is making up about her past. Until that is, one day in 2022 when it very much becomes Carolyn's business. On this day, Carolyn's at work. She's a manager at the Dairy Queen in Goldthwaite, Texas. It's a fun job, faster paced than Denny's had been. It's also got a major perk. She occasionally gets to hang out with her husband, David. He's a mechanic and has helped out doing maintenance on the store's equipment lately. Or as David put it, I was.

[C]

In the back pestering her.

[A]

It's hitting noon. The lunch rush is reaching its peak. That hour when this fast paced job goes four loco. Carolyn's in the kitchen making orders as the second cook. That means burgers, sandwiches, anything that's out of the fry cook's hands. And at this hour it's a lot. She's got her stuff laid out in front of her on the counter.

[B]

I had my phone like sitting right.

[A]

There so I could see lights up a number she's never seen.

[B]

It was a Mississippi number.

[A]

She still has family in Mississippi.

[B]

So I answered it.

[A]

A guy introduces himself as an investigator with a sheriff's department. Says he's looking for her husband.

[B]

He said something like it was a 40 year old missing woman case.

[A]

A woman who disappeared from Mississippi. Intriguing. Carolyn's not hanging up, but she's also not buying that it has anything to do with her husband.

[B]

And I'm like, what? My husband's like 38 at the time. I don't understand how he can help with a 40 year old missing case.

[A]

Hard to find a tighter alibi than not being born yet. Carolyn calls her husband over.

[B]

You're going to have to call this person because he's been trying to reach you.

[A]

Oh yeah. He has been ignoring back to back calls from a random number. This time, David takes the call. The investigator introduces himself as Major Mark Ogden with the Pearl River County Sheriff's Department.

[D]

Called and introduced myself and he's like, who you're looking for? And I said, well, her name is Janice Bullock.

[C]

I don't know of any Janice.

[D]

I said, well, if I send you a picture of her, you may recognize her. Would you mind looking at it?

[C]

Sure.

[A]

Because of course, Carolyn isn't just Willie Jo's former co worker. She's also her daughter in law. And her husband, who Ogden has been calling over and over, is David Streety iii, nicknamed Trey, that once little boy Janice had raised. When Ogden had interviewed Peggy at the station in Mississippi, she provided some key leads. She told him Janice had this son and tells him the son's name. And that's when all the pieces came together.

[D]

We was able to narrow it down to one that was in Texas. One of my investigators looked him up on Facebook and he had a picture in there of him with his mom and dad. And guess who the mom was standing beside him? Janice.

[A]

After three years of investigating, Ogden can barely believe it. He sends David the photo. In the meantime, David's got the call on speaker, and everyone's trying to find excuses to work near him.

[B]

We're all trying to make food and we're all trying to listen because now we're all like, what's going on?

[A]

David gets a text. As soon as he looks at the picture, he knows exactly who it is.

[D]

He calls me back and says, that's my mom. I'm like, I need to talk to you, man.

[C]

My heart dropped out of my chest. I didn't know what was going on.

[A]

Ogden has been light on the details. All David knows is that a woman named Janice went missing in the 1970s, and she bears a striking resemblance to the woman who raised him, his mom, Willie Jo. Ogden asks David to send over more photos of his mother. Carolyn turns to her husband.

[B]

I tell him to go home, you know, calm down, relax, and then I'll be home.

[A]

But relaxing is easier said than done. Back at his house, David drags out of family albums and framed pictures and documents.

[B]

When I get home, we start going through those photos.

[A]

As they look back and forth from Janice's missing bulletin to the yellowed photos of Willie Jo behind those albums, plastic sleeves, one thought is beating at the front of their minds.

[B]

What if this person is your mom? Like, how weird would that be?

[A]

On the one hand, Carolyn and David have been together nearly 20 years at this point. She's known Willie Jo since she was a few years out of high school. On the other, it would explain a few things.

[B]

The more I'm looking at these photos, the more I'm looking at the photo that he sent. I'm like, man, these look so alike.

[C]

I said, there's no possible way she'd been missing for this long. Wouldn't somebody find out a long time ago?

[A]

Except there's a good chance David's mom is Janice, and she's done everything possible to not be found. Which means that the real question here isn't what became of Janice, but why she did all of this. Why would this mom of four give up her stable, safe life for one where she spent years on the move, cut off from everyone she'd loved? Why wouldn't she try to come back home to connect with her children, her siblings, her mom? Did she want to return but felt like she couldn't? Or was this new life the one she wanted, like Janice was just a rough draft and Willie Jo, the final version of who she was meant to be? This new life sounds so exhausting. Constantly moving, trying to stay on top of the lies about her past and one step ahead of the truth. And at the end of the day, this network of people around her, did any one of them even know her? Or was that the point? David and Carolyn pick out a few photos and send them over to the investigator.

[C]

He said it looks like the person they were looking for. And then he goes, would I mind him coming down to Texas?

[D]

Is tomorrow good for you? I'll come to you. So, absolutely. Next morning, we got up and drove to Texas.

[E]

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[A]

When did making plans get this complicated. It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail] that night, David gets into bed with the knowledge that an investigator in Mississippi will be driving 10 hours to tell him in person that his life could be a lie.

[C]

My thoughts were all over the place and I did not sleep.

[A]

He watches the ceiling fan, studies the shadows on their bedroom walls. He turns to his wife, Carolyn, asleep next to him. She stayed up talking as long as she could. The 11pm train rumbles past on the tracks nearby.

[C]

Feels like I was on tv. One of them TV shows, Unsolved Mysteries. Like okay, it's now happening to me.

[A]

Except David's telling himself he's the last person this should be happening to. Yes, Carolyn called out his mom's stories as strange, but those were stories. Things she said. His actual life that was completely normal.

[C]

It was pretty much average family. I would never suspect anything like that.

[A]

If anything, he always felt luckier than his friends. He remembers Christmas as a kid. He wakes up and before he's even out of bed, he can smell the huge breakfast his mom's got cooking. She never held back when she cooked, especially in the morning.

[C]

Eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and red eyed gravy.

[A]

And always some sweet notes wafting in the background. Oatmeal and coffee, Folger's dark roast and a tray of oatmeal raisin cookies baking one of his dad's favorites. Out in the living room, the tree is heavy with mismatched ornaments and bright lights. Willie Jo wasn't one to edit, so any combination of macaroni and glue that David brings home from school goes right up there. Being an only child has its perks. He usually gets everything he asks for. Looking back, there isn't a thing David would change about his childhood. It was idyllic. He grew up in central Texas on a big ranch with his parents so far out in the country their driveway was two miles. If David walked, it took 40 minutes just to get to the school bus. But being a country kid had perks. Cows, horses and all the deer, rabbits and snakes. It smelled like fresh cut onions.

[C]

All my friends come over and we all do campfires. And back of our ranch there was a big creek that runs through it and so we set up tents and stuff, hang out in the back.

[A]

His dad, David Streety Jr. Worked with machinery. He didn't just teach little David, aka Trey, how to drive a tractor, but to fix them. Streety was older and he worked a lot. In the evenings he logged hours at the local bar. A happy drunk, but drunk nonetheless. So his mom was the guiding force in David's life and a lot of his friends. The ranch became sort of a home base for all the other kids who didn't have stable homes.

[C]

That's why she always invited them over and they pretty much called her mom or her nickname, Mama Joe.

[A]

This woman who'd walked away from her children in this universe is now some kind of surrogate, ultimate, laid back, cool mom.

[C]

I came home one day so I would like me and my friends to go to Disney World and next thing you know we're loading up back of our little SUV and went to Disney World.

[A]

Seriously, David says. Not 48 hours later, they hit the road. But what David maybe treasures the most are his solo road trips with his mom and her Cadillac.

[C]

Anything we did, we did together. We just had the windows down, just sit there and just go talk, laugh.

[A]

With all the talking, they never had much need for the radio, but if they did listen to music, it was.

[C]

Always old country, Hank Williams Jr. All that.

[A]

These road trips took them all over the country, from Texas to dc, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, the beach. If they made a movie, Janice Willie Jo would be the manic Pixie dream mom played by Kate Hudson or Zooey deschanel telling an 11 year old David it was his turn to drive. Which by the way, did happen, according to David.

[C]

She got tired, she said, here, drive.

[A]

For every one of David's sweet memories with Willie Joe are scenarios where it becomes clear that normalcy, as demonstrated for David by Willie Joe, isn't normalcy for everyone else.

[C]

We were at a truck stop and she left me.

[D]

What?

[C]

She didn't mean to, she just forgot and came back.

[A]

We've all had those moments where you tell a funny story from childhood and the other person goes, oh God, I'm so sorry.

[C]

They were coming in and it was breakfast time. Go there and go eat. I went to the restroom, I came back and she was gone. And I guess she was in one of her little exciting moves to get back on the road and she forgot.

[A]

David isn't stressed. He goes back to the table and sits back down. The server notices, yes, everything okay?

[C]

I said, no, my mom left and wait. She goes, oh my God. And I was saying no, no. This happens when all the time.

[A]

Okay, but not to any of the waitresses in this truck stop. They're not sure what to do. They bring David one of those brain teaser games with the wooden pegs to keep him occupied. And sure enough, he says, a couple hours later, the Cadillac pulls back in.

[C]

She was like, oh my God, I forgot my boy.

[A]

But did she? David says she was forgetful. But knowing what we know now about her habit of vanishing, it seems just as likely she could have meant to leave him and then changed her mind. But this truck stop incident, it's not the kind of thing David dwells on. That's how it goes with her. Ever since David's a kid, he knows his mom is only going to tell him what she decides he needs to know. Maybe it's because of how she raised him or it's just in his nature, but David doesn't push it. Even when his parents marriage, well, stops looking a whole lot like a marriage. We know she left his dad streety when David was a toddler and told this guy Cliff he was the dad. Then they split up and she went back to streety. But when David is a teenager, his mom starts bringing other men around. Several of them as the years go by.

[C]

Came home from school and everything and mom said, hey, surprise, you got a guy that's going to help out and everything. There's a guy from prison and he.

[A]

Wasn'T just there to help with the chores. He was her boyfriend. So was the nice young guy who everybody called Wes. His dad didn't even move out. And since his dad wasn't asking questions, David didn't either.

[C]

They've been divorced, but they lived together. I don't know how explain that one. I think they had some type of agreement or something like that.

[A]

Well, to be precise, David assumes they divorced at some point. But he's not sure because again, he never asked. David's dad died in 2002. She sang amazing Grace at his funeral. His mom had always been the dominant force in David's life. But now, as he lies there in the dark staring at the ceiling, he misses his dad in a way he hasn't in 20 years. He wants to call him up to get reassurance. No, no. Your mom is quirky, but she's not a con artist. Unless she is. The low rumble of the 5am train comes through. David hasn't slept at all. He pulls himself out of bed, hoping this is just some bizarre misunderstanding, something he can easily clear up. The investigator will be here in just.

[C]

A few hours, I knock at the door and two detectives came in.

[E]

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[A]

Be good for one second.

[C]

You're the devil.

[E]

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[A]

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[E]

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[A]

Major Mark Ogden knocks on the door. It swings wide open to reveal David in glasses, eyes bloodshot. Ogden drove 10 hours to get here. So he can relate. David and his wife, Carolyn, invite Ogden and his colleague inside. They offer them a cold drink and then motion them over to the couch.

[D]

Come on in and take a seat. He had all these boxes pulled out with family pictures and he had albums and, I mean, letters and newspaper articles, all kind of stuff pulled out. He said, I'll help you any way I can.

[A]

And as they flip through the albums, David's running through the cliffsnotes of his life with his mom, Willie Jo, whom the detective believes is Janice.

[D]

This is me at my birthday party, and that's Mom. Blah. And that's dad. And, you know, just we were, we lived at this location here and this location there.

[A]

It's emotional for David because the woman in his memories, well, she's not his mom in more ways than one. Over the last few years, she had developed dementia. It came on fast and severe. David would be working on the road out of town for weeks at a time and then come to see her.

[C]

And there was time that she didn't know who I was. And I asked her, David. And she goes, no. David's still a little kid.

[A]

Heartbreaking. Making this moment with Ogden all the more confusing. In his living room, Ogden tells them about Janice and the life she left, the big family she'd grown up in with her mom and her sisters. And that's when David and Carolyn realizes that his mom's dementia didn't just delete memories. It eroded the wall that separated The Willie Joe identity from Janice. Some of what they had assumed were just dementia fantasies were actually bits and pieces of the truth finally making it to the surface. Carolyn tells Ogden about one particular time.

[B]

She had moved the entire inside of the house outside.

[A]

When Carolyn asks her why she emptied.

[B]

The house, she was moving to Mississippi. Her sisters and her mother were coming to get her.

[A]

Wow, sounds an awful lot like her actual life.

[B]

When she started really showing signs of dementia, she started talking about a family that she's never had before.

[A]

After all, Willie Jo had always told them she was raised in an orphanage with no family.

[B]

Times where she would say that she is somebody else or was somebody else.

[A]

It started coming up more and more, this make believe world where she had a mom and sisters and then go.

[B]

Back to, I have no family, I'm an orphan. There was always those two stories.

[A]

And now that her dementia means she's telling these kinds of stories more and more. Carolyn had really started to put things together that David's mom wasn't just confused. Something else was going on. The investigator tells Carolyn and David the full name of his missing person. Janice Rose Swayze, her maiden name, Bullock, her married name.

[B]

When he said Swayze, I was like, that clicks. Because when she would have her not so lucid moments with David's mom, she was like, my mama's name is Minnie Lou Swayze.

[A]

For Carolyn, this seals it with the.

[B]

Dementia came out the truth.

[A]

It's all finally falling into place. Carolyn looks over at David. He's never been an expressive guy. And as Ogden talks, David mostly stays quiet, just taking in everything that this last 24 hours has dropped on him. David shows Ogden all the documents they have for his mom.

[D]

She had a birth certificate and a Social Security card that she got, a driver's license and Willie Jo's name.

[A]

And as the three of them sit there looking through these documents, the last pieces of the giant puzzle that is Willie Jo click into place. Like her two birthdays, she'd explain them as a clerical error at the orphanage. Now Carolyn's like, nope, she probably stole some other woman's identity. Though she was never actually charged with any crime related to identity theft.

[B]

One is the one that she stole the identity, and one is her original birthday. I mean, I guess after 40 years, you just can't remember which is which.

[A]

Which explains something else. How to Carolyn, David's mom has always managed to look at least a full decade younger than she is, because she is. Janice was born in 1950, but these Willie Joe documents say she was born nine years earlier, making Janice maybe the first Southern woman in history to add years to her age. As they talk, Ogden tells them that there's one more bit of information he hasn't shared. David isn't Janice's only child. In fact, she has four daughters. And when she left, she never saw or spoke to them again.

[B]

Wait, what? Like, how do you leave four daughters behind? We weren't. We were in shock.

[A]

As Ogden looks over at David, he's not sure he's even there.

[D]

He just, you know, just kind of blanks, staring, you know, she took care.

[C]

Of me and raised me up, being the way I am now. This didn't make no sense to me that she would leave her daughter's behind.

[A]

Before these questions could be probed, Ogden needed to make really, really sure Willie Jo was his missing woman.

[D]

I said, well, is your mom still alive? He said, yes, she's in a home in Fort Worth.

[A]

Janice Rose Bullock is alive, the woman whom Ogden has spent years looking for, whose family has been wondering about for more than 40 years. He hasn't just found out what happened to her. He's going to meet her. David tells him her nursing home is just a couple hours up the road.

[D]

I said, well, I need to talk with her. He said, she's got dementia. Really bad.

[A]

Ogden and his colleague take their chances and drive over. He walks inside and asks for a.

[D]

Willie Joe lady come walking out of the kitchen into the living room, smiling from ear to ear. And it was her.

[A]

He takes in all of her features, her light eyes and her cheekbones.

[D]

The middle of her face was. That was Janice. I said, janice. She stopped just like veil, you know, her eyes cleared up, you know. She said, no, I'm Willie Jo. I said, can I sit down and talk with you? She said, yeah. We sit down at the table.

[A]

For three years, investigator Mark Ogden has been following a trail of husbands, truck drivers, murderous boyfriends, and even America's most prolific serial killer, all to uncover what has happened to the elusive Janice Rose Bullock. And now, In February of 2022, he's sitting in the break room of a Texas nursing home. Across the table is a thin, bird like woman with silver hair.

[D]

I said, me and you both know your name's Janice. She put her head down and kind of sighed a little bit and looked back up at me and smiled. Yeah, I'm Janice. I said, I've been looking everywhere for you. So why are you looking for me? I said, well, your daughters wondered what happened to you, and they asked me to try to find you. And now you're way over here in Texas.

[A]

Janice's four daughters, who are now in their 50s, moms themselves to grandchildren Janice has never met.

[D]

She said, how are they doing? How are my daughters doing? And I said, they're doing good. I said, can you name your daughters? You remember their names? She named them off. Boom, boom, boom. Janice told me. She said, I want to go home. I said, well, I'm going to tell your daughters where you're at and give them the phone number, and y' all gonna have to work that out. And then she just went off into.

[A]

Oblivion talking about something because of her dementia. The investigator may not have been able to answer the whys, but he found Janice, and that's what he came here for. Ogden steps outside and calls one of Janice's daughters. She's here. She's alive. She remembers your name.

[C]

A lot of silence.

[D]

She couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe we found her. Hell, I couldn't either.

[A]

Then Ogden makes a very different call to Janice's son David. Ogden says, it's true. Your mom isn't who you thought she was.

[C]

He explained that she was in the right mind and told him the truth. What happened?

[A]

For David, the mystery has just begun. The scenario David had been playing over and over in his head that whole sleepless night was one thing. That Willie Joe was Janice, that his mom's life had been a lie. But now David's questioning what this means for him. His childhood, even his adoption.

[C]

That it was all a lie. Pretty much how I thought that my whole life was a lie.

[A]

Ogden listens on the other end.

[D]

He's like, well, who am I? Where did I come from? I said, buddy, I don't know. I said, you need to get a hold of that sheriff's office and get a report done. And I suggest doing a 23andMe or something like that. You know.

[A]

As much as Ogden might feel for David, he can't offer more than advice. Technically, his job is done. Now it's up to David to start asking questions. Because the lies she told weren't just about herself.

[C]

I don't even know if it's my original birth certificate. The detectives say it was forged.

[A]

Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to unlock all episodes of the Vanishing of Janice Rose ad free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Search for the binge on Apple podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the 1st of every month. Check out the Binge Channel page on Apple Podcast or getthebinge.com, to learn more. The Vanishing of Janice Rose is produced by Wild Night Media for Sony Music Entertainment's the Binge. The show was written, hosted and executive produced by ME Larison Campbell. The executive producers for the Binge are Jonathan Hirsch and Catherine St. Louis. The show's senior producers and story editor is Lindsay Kilbride. Sheba Joseph provided production support, and Aaliyah Papes is the Story's fact checker. Mixing and sound design for this series by Scott Somerville with music from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. The show's theme song is Shake Me by Lydia Ramsey Legal Review by Davis Wright Paul Remain.

[E]

These days, we can all use a little more safety and security. One easy way to get that is by buckling up every time we get in the car, no matter how short the trip. It's not about the law. It's about staying alive and well and protecting the ones we love. Just a simple click can be the difference between un okay and sorry, there's nothing we could do. It's also about setting an example for your kids, creating a good habit that will last a lifetime. Because, after all, they don't call it a safety belt for nothing.

[A]

Buckle up.

[E]

It's the way to go. A reminder from ODOT.