Ilene Misheloff (Ace of Hearts, California)

Summary

The Deck – “Ilene Misheloff (Ace of Hearts, California)”

Podcast: The Deck
Host: Ashley Flowers (Audiochuck)
Date: August 5, 2026
Case: Ilene Misheloff, Missing, Dublin, CA, 1989

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the 1989 disappearance of 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff from Dublin, California. Using intimate interviews with her loved ones and law enforcement, host Ashley Flowers reconstructs Ilene's last known day, explores the investigation’s twists, and highlights the emotional toll on her family and friends. The episode also places Ilene's case in the chilling context of a wave of Bay Area child abductions, urging listeners to reconsider which long-cold clue might finally bring justice.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ilene's Background and the Day She Disappeared

• Setting the Scene (01:00–07:23)

  • Dublin, CA in late 1980s: “Suburbia was synonymous with safety.” Kids and teens roamed freely.
  • Ilene, a “tall girl in the group,” was known for her kindness, good grades, and tight-knit family.
  • Devoted competitive skater, practicing up to 30 hours a week.
  • On Jan 30, 1989, Ilene left school as normal, stopping at an AMPM for a snack (08:01). Carried her “blue backpack, her flute case, and a Spuds Mackenzie keychain attached to the key that she used to let herself into her house.” (07:01)
  • Last seen near San Ramon and Amador Valley Blvd between 2:50–3:10pm, a bit more than a mile from home.

• Memorable Moment – On Childhood Innocence

  • Liz Allen (Ilene’s friend):
    “We just got to play and we got to have a great time together… we were just kids and, you know, living the kid life and having a good time with each other.” (03:44)

2. Immediate Response and Community Impact

• Discovery of Ilene Missing (09:14–11:07)

  • Ilene’s absence first noted after her coach, Michael Tamris, forgot to pick her up (09:14).
  • Massive police response despite lack of modern tools like Amber Alerts. Parents and police combed the route, Eileen’s brother said he stopped searching “when his batteries died.” (09:54)
  • Brian Mishaloff (her twin):
    “You know, I think I slept some that night. It was the last night for quite a while that I really slept at all.” (10:37)

• School's Reaction

  • Locker and binders searched; nothing hinted at a runaway plan. Her English assignment broke detectives’ hearts:
    “Hers was disappointing her mom. Something so innocent… so pure.” (11:50, Det. Kilgore)

3. Investigation Tactics and the Evidence Trail

• Search Efforts Intensify (13:15–15:03)

  • FBI brought in by Thursday, four days after disappearance.
  • Massive flyer effort (13:40), strategic distribution to dental offices due to Ilene’s braces.

• Tracking Dogs and Physical Evidence (14:11–16:00)

  • Dogs deployed from several route points; they stopped at critical locations but results were inconclusive. One stopped at an apartment complex’s dumpster; search turned up nothing.

  • Discovery of Keychain (18:23)

    • Found four days later at Mape Memorial Park, along Ilene’s route. The Spuds Mackenzie keychain and key opened her family’s front door.
    • This is the only confirmed evidence tied to Ilene.

  • Memorable Moment – The Only Clue

    • “We have a keychain. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of evidence to go off of…” – Lt. Chris Hendle (31:54)

4. Pattern of Child Abductions in the Bay Area

• Contextualizing Ilene’s Disappearance (19:22–23:06)
  • A string of similar unsolved Bay Area child abductions: Amber Schwartz Garcia (June 1988) and Michaela Garrett (Nov 1988).
  • Noted: “One grisly fact... is the extent to which child napping has changed from a crime of money to a crime of perversion.” (21:09, examiner quote)
  • Later breakthroughs solved the other two cases (deathbed confession for Amber, fingerprint match and charges for Michaela), but Ilene’s remains unresolved.

5. Family & Friends: Grief, Hope, Rituals

• The Aftermath for the Mishaloff Family (24:27–26:44)

  • The family celebrated Ilene's birthday each year, left her presents out, and never vacationed all together—always preparing for her possible return.
  • They maintained a phone number only Ilene knew “in case she called home,” decades after her disappearance.

• Lingering Hope

  • Liz Allen:
    “When J.C. Dugard was found, that's what brought hope back again, you know, that she possibly could be alive.” (25:34)
  • Liz describes staying at the Mishaloff house during the family’s trip in 2009, recounting:
    “That phone keeps going off and keeps going off, and it was freaking me out. I had to leave the house because it was so scary to me. It was so sad to me that all these years, they wouldn't leave the house together, they wouldn't leave town together, and this is the first time they did, and she's found.” (27:43)

• Law Enforcement's Investment

  • Both detectives continue to be deeply affected:
    “Sometimes I spin my wheels at night looking at the ceiling, thinking about the what ifs in this case and the next steps.” – Lt. Hendle (41:46)

6. Controversies and Theories

• Coaches’ Stories and Community Suspicion (34:29–40:01)

  • Detailed examination of why and how coaches Michael and Peggy Tamris picked up Ilene; rare for Michael to forget. After their eventual contact, police found the Tamrises cooperative and ruled them out as suspects.
  • Peggy discussed the difficulty of being blamed:
    “We were quiet. We made our like, I'm really sorry. Is there anything we can do? And we left. ... I was hoping to basically commiserate with everybody and say how sorry I was... And they wouldn't talk to you? Nope.” (38:21)

• Other Suspects and Serial Offenders

  • Police explored possible connections to serial predators like the “Speed Freak Killers” and Timothy Binder, but found no viable ties to Ilene’s disappearance.

7. Unanswered Questions and Appeal for Public Help

• Remaining Mysteries (32:12–33:30, 41:20 onward)

  • Could the keychain have been planted after the fact? “There’s also those sadistic people out there who commit these crimes and then revisit these… locations and set a piece of evidence to deter the path of detectives.” – Lt. Hendle (33:13)
  • No new physical evidence has surfaced despite technological advances and renewed efforts, including a promising tip in 2025 involving ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs—ultimately another dead end.

• Call for Tips

  • Det. Kilgore:
    “We need the public’s help... If there’s something that they’ve been holding on for years that they want to just get off their chest, now’s the time.” (41:20)

8. The Enduring Toll—and Ilene’s Memory

• Annual Walks, Family Loss (42:08–44:06)

  • For decades, the community retraced Ilene’s steps every January, culminating at the Mishaloff home. These stopped after both parents passed away (Maddy in 2020, Michael in 2024).
  • Brian Mishaloff (Ilene’s twin):
    “People always assume that the worst thing is not knowing. ... the worst thing, at least for me, was that whatever she went through is far worse than what I've gone through. ... I think about her every day.” (42:53)
  • Liz Allen now walks the route with her own child, checking creeks along the way, “still looking for her” (43:45).

• A Friend’s Hope and Grief

  • Liz Allen:
    “If it’s her and she’s alive, then that means she’s been hurting for almost 40 years. … if somebody took her away from us then, and if she’s still alive, what were they doing to her all these years? And if she’s not alive, ... I want her to be alive, but I also want her to be alive 37 years ago. ... if I could stop time, I could go back and I could grab her out of the evil clutches of whoever took her.” (44:15–45:46)

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “We just got to play and we got to have a great time together.” — Liz Allen (03:44)
• “You know, I think I slept some that night. It was the last night for quite a while that I really slept at all.” — Brian Mishaloff (10:37)
• “Hers was disappointing her mom. Something so innocent. I literally cried reading it.” — Det. Kilgore (11:50)
• “We have a keychain. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of evidence to go off of other than a keychain.” — Lt. Hendle (31:54)
• “When J.C. Dugard was found, that's what brought hope back again.” — Liz Allen (25:34)
• “Sometimes I spin my wheels at night... thinking about the what ifs in this case and the next steps.” — Lt. Hendle (41:46)
• “If it’s her and she’s alive, then that means she’s been hurting for almost 40 years… if I could stop time, I could go back and I could grab her out of the evil clutches of whoever took her.” — Liz Allen (44:23–45:46)

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Important Segments (Timestamps)

• Ilene’s background and the day she vanished: 01:00–07:23
• The disappearance and first 24 hours: 07:23–11:07
• Community/family impact & investigation intensifies: 11:07–15:03
• Tracking dogs, discovery of the keychain: 14:11–18:59
• Serial abductions context: 19:22–23:06
• Family rituals, aftermath, hope: 24:27–27:43
• Law enforcement’s reflections and ongoing tips: 28:09–41:46
• Annual walks, Ilene’s enduring memory: 42:08–45:46

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Conclusion

This episode paints both a timeline and a portrait of loss that lingers almost 40 years after Ilene Misheloff vanished. The determination of investigators, the raw emotion of those who loved her, and the haunting lack of resolution come through powerfully. The lone piece of physical evidence—a simple keychain—remains a potent symbol of hope, heartbreak, and the enduring need for answers. The hosts urge: If you know anything, now is the time to step forward.

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Tip Line:
Dublin Police Services: 925-833-6638

Learn More: thedeckpodcast.com

Transcript

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[Ashley Flowers]

One thing I've learned from covering cases on the deck is that fresh eyes can change everything. A missed detail, a familiar name, a timeline that suddenly clicks with new information. That same idea is at the heart of my other weekly show, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, my best friend Britt and I cover cases that deserve attention. From missing persons and unsolved murders to stories still unfolding in real time. So stories where one detail, one memory, or one listener could make a difference. Listen to Crime Junkie every Monday. Wherever you get your podcasts, Our card this week is Eileen Mishaloff, the ace of hearts from California. Thirteen year old Eileen Mishaloff normally walked the same path home from school most days, and on January 30, 1989, all signs indicated that she took that same route and almost made it home. But something or someone intervened and somehow, with all of the traffic and houses that lined her out, no one saw the moment that Eileen Mishloff disappeared. In a case with so many leads and tips, investigators all these years later are left with one physical piece of evidence and a million questions, some of which they're hoping you might be able to answer. I'm Ashley Flowers and this is the deck. It's hard to overstate just how perfectly average Dublin, California is. In the late 1980s, this was a place where suburbia was synonymous with safety. Elementary school kids walked home from school, knew their neighbors and played outside. High schoolers gabbed on the phone for hours, deciding what to wear to the dance, where they would inevitably jump around to Paula Abdul or slow dance to Phil Collins. And 13 year old Eileen Mishloff fell right in that in between stage of becoming a young adult and still enjoying her childhood alongside her friend Liz Allen.

[Liz Allen]

We just got to play and we Got to have a great time together. And I remember during lunch recess and we would all hang out and talk about, about life. A couple weeks earlier it had been raining and we had gone. We got into a water fight and we were, you know, stepping in the puddles and making each other soaking wet and had to go call the office so that we can get some new clothes and stuff like that. So we were just kids and, and you know, having, living the kid life and having a good time with each other.

[Ashley Flowers]

Liz met Eileen during their eighth grade year when they ended up in the same friend group. Eileen was the tall girl in the group. She had a close knit family. A mom, Maddie, dad, Michael, a twin brother Brian and an older brother Robert. And she was kind and a good student, all A's and B's. Liz and Eileen were in the same last period science exploration class where they did the most 1980s junior dissect frogs. Though Liz had a different partner.

[Liz Allen]

I chose this partner for dissection and she would take the, whatever we were dissecting and make it alive and jump onto my desk. The frog jumped onto my desk, the heart was beating on my desk and I was very squeamish. And so Eileen would tell me next time we'll be partners next time and I won't do that to you.

[Ashley Flowers]

For as much time as Eileen gave her schoolwork, she gave her hobby even more. She spent nearly all of her free time up to 30 hours a week at Dublin, Iceland, where she was a competitive skater. These were the years of young Olympic hopefuls. And for as small as Dublin was at the time, just 24,000 residents, this was a good place to be for hopeful skaters. Brian Boitano and Christy Yamaguchi both actually skated at the same rink.

[Liz Allen]

For a while she was probably good enough to go to the Olympics, but we don't know because she was taken too soon.

[Ashley Flowers]

Eileen's normal schedule was a little different than her classmates. She would go to all her academic classes like everyone else, attend the same science class with Liz toward the end of the day. But instead of going to her final class in the last period of her day, which would have been P.E. she got to complete her physical education credit in another way. She was allowed to leave at 2:30 so that she could go to ice skating practice at 4 o' clock some days Eileen's mom would take her. But on Mondays and Thursdays she would walk home or bus home from school. And then her skating coaches, Michael and Peggy Tamris would pick her up and take her to practice. At Dublin ICELAND for a 30 minute lesson. Then Eileen would free skate till her mom picked her up on the way home from work. January 30, 1989 was a Monday, the whole day. Friends who saw Eileen at Wells Middle School say that she was happy, normal. She wore a charcoal gray pullover Esprit brand sweater, a pink and gray horizontally striped skirt and slip on Keds. And like every other day, she carried her blue backpack, her flute case and a Spuds Mackenzie keychain attached to the key that she used to let herself into her house.

[Liz Allen]

I remember leaving science class and saying bye, I'll see you tomorrow and her walking away.

[Ashley Flowers]

Eileen took her normal route home that day. Detective Angelique Kilgore of Dublin Police Services has memorized that route backwards and forwards.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

So her route would be to walk down Penn Drive onto Amador Valley Boulevard, cross the street past the 680 overpass to then get to San Ramon Road, go through the May park entrance and pass through the school back there to then her house at Allegra Drive.

[Ashley Flowers]

There was an AM PM convenience store just before the 680 overpass that Eileen would sometimes stop at on her way home like she did that day.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

A friend of hers stated that she had seen her come out of the AM PM store which is right off of AVB and Village Parkway, and she even recalled her having the money to buy like a snack from there because she had owed her money. So she had given her like $5 that she had owed her. So she was able to use that $5 to go then buy herself a snack and saw her walking out the AM pm.

[Ashley Flowers]

Another person said she saw Eileen at Amador Valley near Village Parkway, just next to a.m. p.m. Also around 2:30pm and then there was one final sighting of her at the center median strip of San Ramon and Amador Valley Boulevard, less than a mile from the AMPM and a little over a mile from her house. That was sometime between 2:50 and 3:10. When Eileen's older brother Robert got home from school that afternoon, Eileen wasn't home. Now, he didn't think much of it. Maybe she'd already been picked up by Michael or Peggy. But unbeknownst to him, that wasn't the case that day. It was supposed to be Michael that got Eileen, but the normally reliable coach hadn't been to the house at all. Police and family later say that was unlike him.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

So around 4:30 precisely, he notified Peggy, his wife, like hey, I forgot to pick her up. So Peggy offers to go to Eileen's house to go pick her up. It's around 4:30 at this time. She goes to the house. Robert answers the door, tells her she's not here. I haven't seen her. She hasn't come in at all.

[Ashley Flowers]

According to police, Peggy didn't think much of it. She just went back to the rink. But when Maddie, Eileen's mom, showed up to the rink at around 6:10pm to pick up her daughter and she wasn't there, she knew that there was a problem.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

That's when she notified the police and they came over.

[Ashley Flowers]

As night fell, the Dublin police dispatched nearly every single one of their 27 officers to search for the missing teenager. This was still years before Amber alerts. So in an effort to get the word out, all points bulletins were dispatched across the state and they sent out a press release to local news stations. Eileen's face and details of her disappearance were running on local channels. By the time the 11 o' clock news was on that night, Eileen's parents took to the streets with their flashlights, screaming her name, sometimes running into police officers doing the same thing. Mike Mishaloff told reporters that he finally stopped when his batteries died. Here's Brian Mishaloff, Eileen's twin brother.

[Brian Mishaloff]

You know, I think I slept some that night. It was the last night for quite a while that I really slept at all.

[Ashley Flowers]

The next morning, Eileen's friend Liz spotted a story in the paper reporting her friend's disappearance.

[Liz Allen]

And so I went and told my mom and that was the first time I had ever heard her swear. So just because, you know, it was something, it's every parent's worst nightmare, right? And here it was coming true.

[Ashley Flowers]

There's a reason everyone was so gripped by panic so quickly. It wasn't just the fact that Eileen had no reason to take off, no boyfriend, no history of running away. It was because prior to this, there had been two other seemingly random San Francisco Bay Area kidnappings.

[Liz Allen]

And so it was really scary because that's where kids get kidnapped. You know, in my mind I knew the gravity of it because, oh my gosh, this is my worst fear for myself.

[Ashley Flowers]

Liz took the newspaper article with her on the bus and into school. Word was spreading fast and only picked up steam when police showed up to talk to students and search Eileen's locker.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

We've been through some of her binders. They pretty much gave her an assignment in English class where they asked her, well, did you. Can you tell us about a time where it was not traumatic but like you had a hard time dealing with Something. And they wrote it as, like, a thing of the most difficult situation that you've been in. And hers was disappointing her mom. Something so innocent. I literally cried reading it. I was like, oh, my God, this is so sad. Like, she's just so innocent. Like, in what she wrote, like, it was just so pure.

[Ashley Flowers]

The binders and the random items in her locker didn't reveal anything helpful that might suggest where Eileen could be, which only reinforced the idea that she had not left on her own. Every hour that passed brought with it more urgency, more people to help, not just with the search for Eileen, but to offer support to her family in any way that they could. Here's Eileen's twin, Brian, again.

[Brian Mishaloff]

There was, you know, newspaper people, TV people. God knows how many people came to the house every day bringing food. A lot of them people we didn't know. I remember barely having slept, going to go downstairs, and all these eyes on me and just feeling like I wanted to crawl in a hole. And that was like, every day.

[Ashley Flowers]

With a major highway just feet from Eileen's route home, every hour that went by meant that Eileen could be getting farther and farther away, possibly even taken over state lines. Which is why by Thursday, the FBI was brought in to assist in the investigation. And friends of friends got strategic about where they were sending some of these 70,000 printed flyers they'd made.

[Liz Allen]

We would send out mass amounts of flyers and stuff. And they started off. I remember one time they did orthodontists. And so they just did all orthodontists because she had braces. And so if they wanted to get the braces off, you know, that sort of thing.

[Ashley Flowers]

And on Friday, the department utilized another tool in their arsenal. Chris Hendle was a detective sergeant with Dublin police when he started looking at this case. Now he's a lieutenant.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

What better tool to use than something that can track a human scent?

[Ashley Flowers]

Police took three tracking dogs to three different starting points along Eileen's path.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

They always make sure they can't see each other, and they work on their own scents. So independent of each other because they don't want. If they see the other dog's doing quote, unquote good or gets praised, then they'll copy that because they'll be like, oh, I'll get a treat that way, right?

[Ashley Flowers]

One dog followed Eileen's route until it strayed and came to a complete stop. One made it to AM PM and the third stopped 50 yards west of the 680 overpass on what would have been Eileen's path home. And that last one is extra interesting to me because where the dog stopped was at an apartment complex.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

They looked in the dumpster, didn't find anything.

[Ashley Flowers]

Lt. Chris Hendle, who works this case with Detective Kilgore, said it's hard to tell if the dogs were working off an old or new scent since this was such a well trodden path by Eileen.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

That's really hard to tell. But I'm gonna say that those dogs don't know Eileen like they know the scent, so they're gonna stay on the scent. And I think that they just followed their nose to where that scent took them.

[Ashley Flowers]

Lieutenant Hendle and Detective Kilgore confirmed there were search warrants executed that first week, but they won't name names or say if any of them were for the apartment complex that the dogs led them to. Here's the thing though. I love me a working dog, don't get me wrong. But there is a chance none of the dogs picked up her trail from that day. Cause the same day that those dogs were utilized, an important clue was found on Eileen's path home that the dogs missed. Picture a home where the furniture actually stands up to real life. Whether upgrading a chaotic living room or hunting for that perfect durable couch, finding the right fit can feel like a gamble. But not with Wayfair. Especially when you're shopping with Wayfair Verified, meaning that product specialists use a 10 point quality inspection test for things like materials, functionality, even build time. If you're ever on the fence, just read through their 20 million verified 5 star reviews and check out real customer photos to shop with confidence. Also, I always just think of Wayfair as like big furniture pieces which is like yes, great for that. But I've also been loving the home decor. I just got the most beautiful green and white ceramic vase for this big butcher block that I have in my house. It makes me happy every time I walk by it. That is how your home and all the pieces in it should make you feel. Any taste, any style. It's Wayfair baby. They got what you need. So join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home Upgrade. Head to Wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y-F A I R.com Wayfair Every style every Home Wayfair Every

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Style Every Home Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them. Plus time management tools. And Instagram will continue adding built in safety features to help Create age appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens [e-mail] teenaccounts. In a small town, unsolved stories don't fade away.

[Ashley Flowers]

They remain in the places people know

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by heart and in the lives of those who never stopped looking for answers. I'm Kylie Lowe and on my podcast Dark Down East, I cover true crime cases from my home state of Maine and New England with care, context and

[Ashley Flowers]

the people impacted at the center of the story.

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These cases shaped communities even when the

[Liz Allen]

rest of the world moved on.

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Listen to Dark down east wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ashley Flowers]

Four days after Eileen went missing, a deputy on patrol was out near Eileen's route off San Ramon Road in a parking lot behind what is now Mape Memorial Park.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

He just went to go do some follow up at Mape park and parked his patrol car over there and came upon a keychain and was like, I think I remember hearing about this keychain. So he ends up calling the detective on it and they confirmed like yeah, it's a Spuds Mackenzie keychain with a single key on it. So he left it there, waited for an evidence tech to come out.

[Ashley Flowers]

Now if you don't remember Spuds, he is distinctive. The popular black and white bull terrier mascot was seen in ads for Bud Light back then. And if there was any wonder whether this was Eileen's keychain or someone else's who also liked the popular pooch, it didn't take much to put an end to that question. The key that hung from the chain opened the Mishaloff's front door.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

Obviously we know the day prior she used those keys to get in her house. So those keys were within her possession. You know, at some point throughout the

[Ashley Flowers]

day, the park was the one area along Eileen's route home that provided the most privacy. It's not huge, but it's blocked on two sides by trees. Perhaps someone was lying in wait for Eileen. A predator. But the question was, was it the same predator who was responsible for the other girls who had gone missing in the months prior? In June of 1988, seven months before Eileen's disappearance in Pinnell, California, seven year old Amber Schwartz Garcia was jumping rope in her front yard when she disappeared. The next morning, Amber's pink socks were discovered in a park near her home. According to DOE Network, these socks were a dropped piece of evidence just like Eileen's keys. Then In November of 88, a nine year old named Michaela Garrett disappeared too In Hayward, in front of a grocery store.

[Liz Allen]

They were riding on scooters. People saw it happen. It was in daylight. People saw it happen. They knew and somebody had followed them. There was an older woman who followed the car at the time and memorized the license plate, but was too scared to get involved. And so by the time she did call it in, she had forgotten everything.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

I know the biggest one that everyone alluded to was the Michaela Garrett case. Everyone compared it to that one because it was just a year prior and it was so close. It was within a 15, 20 minute drive of Dublin. So I think people automatically went back to that case specifically.

[Ashley Flowers]

These kidnappings were so pervasive. There was an A1 story in the San Francisco examiner in November 1988, before Eileen Ever went missing, about the spate of missing kids. The article said, quote, one grisly fact illustrated by many recent Bay Area cases is the extent to which child napping has changed from a crime of money to a crime of perversion. There was even a sidebar called how to Help Keep youp Children Safe. It told parents to fingerprint their kids and implement a buddy system.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

I think everyone was just like, that's not gonna happen here. We're not gonna let that happen. Is I think, their mindset.

[Ashley Flowers]

But it did. And the producers of America's Most Wanted seemed to agree. This was a big issue when they ran a piece on the three Bay Area missing girls, Amber McKayla and Eileen.

[Liz Allen]

It was just so strange. But it was all right in the same time period, within a few months. And Eileen was the last one of those three girls, I believe. And, you know, there's always that old adage of things happen in threes. Right?

[Ashley Flowers]

Even if the kidnappings weren't at all related, detectives across departments could at least compare notes.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

Hey, you had this abduction. Tell me about that. And then, you know, sending somebody out to see if there's any similarities, you know, inquiring assistance from, you know, the FBI with trying to match personalities to certain crimes that they're investigating. You know, who could be our person of interest here. And then working those leads. This is like an all hands on deck, you know? And not only you have tips coming in from the public, you have different tips coming in from different agencies. Hey, check out this guy. Hey, check out this guy. Hey, check out this guy.

[Ashley Flowers]

All those guys they checked out resulted in nothing. At least not for Eileen's case. But both Ambers and Mikayla's would see resolution Ambers In 2007, when a man named Curtis Dean Anderson gave a deathbed confession. He'd already been serving time for the abduction and sexual assault of an 8 year old and the kidnapping, molestation and murder of a seven year old named Ziana Fairchild. Anderson confessed in prison that he kidnapped Amber, drove to Arizona, killed her and left her in the desert. Then in 2020, prosecutors finally charged a man named David Mish with the murder of Michaela Garrett. Fingerprints pulled from the handlebars of Michaela's scooter matched his. We actually did an episode of that on Crime Junkie called captured Bay area predator. By 2020, Mech was already in prison serving a life sentence for murder for killing a 36 year old woman back in 1989. And then in 2025, he was sentenced to 50 years for two more killings that he was linked to. Mish is still incarcerated at a jail in Dublin, California, no less. But he has not yet been convicted for Mikayla's abduction and murder. That only leaves Eileen.

[Brian Mishaloff]

When I slept, I'd have nightmares every night until I just stopped remembering my dreams. And I don't know how long that took. I felt like I had nothing. She was the person I was closest to. You know, there's a bond between twins.

[Ashley Flowers]

The family celebrated Eileen's March 12 birthday two and a half months later by putting a cake in the freezer for the day that they hoped she would come back home. They bought gifts for her, wrapped on the dining room table. The Mishalov family never took a vacation together again after January 1989, because if Eileen happened to come home, they wanted someone there to greet her just in case.

[Brian Mishaloff]

The police had put in a tape recorder and had my parents get a second line.

[Ashley Flowers]

But Leeds grew thin and the case grew cold. In 2009, when the public first got wind of Amber's case being closed with that 2007 deathbed confession, another huge event took over the headlines that gave those who loved Eileen Hope.

[Liz Allen]

When J.C. dugard was found, that's what, that's what brought Hope back again, you know, that she possibly could be alive. And maybe, you know, though it was a house of horrors that she was kept in, it's at least she was able to come home and be returned to her family.

[Ashley Flowers]

In 2009, Eileen's grandfather, Maddie's dad, was dying. The whole family went out to be with him on the east coast. And Liz offered to watch the house.

[Liz Allen]

One of the first things that the Mishloffs did when Eileen went missing was they kept the phone number that she knew and they got a new line for people to use. And so we would call them on this new line. And the old line was specifically for Eileen to use because that's the phone number that she knew. And so, I mean, this was, you know, almost 20 years later.

[Ashley Flowers]

Liz was alone in the house at night when that phone started ringing and ringing. And she had been in the house before, hanging out with Eileen's twin brother, Brian, but she had never heard that phone ring.

[Liz Allen]

And so now here I am by myself in this house, and that phone is ringing. And so I thought that it was that they found her because they were digging up the yard where J.C. dugard was kept and everything. And so I thought that they found her or maybe her clothing or something.

[Ashley Flowers]

Jaycee Dugart, who'd been kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe in 1991, two years after Eileen went missing, had been found alive. She had been living in captivity for 18 years. For the briefest moment, Liz couldn't help but have a small bit of hope that maybe Eileen was there too.

[Liz Allen]

This phone keeps going off and keeps going off, and it was freaking me out. I had to leave the house because it was so scary to me. It was so sad to me that all these years, they wouldn't leave the house together, they wouldn't leave town together, and this is the first time they did, and she's found. That was what kept running through my head.

[Ashley Flowers]

It wasn't the police or the FBI calling with news. It was news reporters looking for comment. Every time one of these mysteries gets solved, Detectives Kilgore and Hendle can't help but feel something. Then they rein themselves in, careful not to get too low or too high.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

Like, obviously, we're human. We get excited about new leads, and especially me, Lieutenant here, we dork out on it and we'll be like, maybe it's this guy, maybe it's this guy. But then we have to take that out of it because we're fact finders, right?

[Ashley Flowers]

Ultimately, Eileen wasn't with J.C. but Lt. Hendel said that doesn't mean that she's not alive somewhere.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

You have other cases where they were, you know, transported in a van or a car for a great length of time and, You know, held captive somewhere else or, you know, unfortunately, sexually assaulted and murdered, you know, within, you know, an hour of being abducted. You just don't know. We don't have anything to tie in what exactly happened. Or for all we know, she could still be alive today, but we have no proof to say otherwise.

[Ashley Flowers]

For years, investigators have run down every. Every single lead that's come their way. Some as recently as 2025, when they got a tip from an East Bay woman who said that she remembered something weird in her neighborhood from back in 1989. It was the sound of chains rattling and a young girl's voice yelling something that sounded like. I don't know what jogged the tipster's memory or why she came forward to Dublin police in 2025, but that memory she had of hearing chains and a girl yelling made her think that it could have been Eileen. So Detective Kilgore and Lieutenant Hendel took their measured approach and worked the lead.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

It's a lot more than just saying, I think there was a body in that backyard. Okay, let's go get some shovels and start digging.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

Like, there's so many more steps that you have to take. So we got the FBI to help us out, and we were able to get human remains detection dogs out onto the property. And that's where I am, just infatuated by these dogs. They're amazing what they can do.

[Ashley Flowers]

They brought two dogs out, one alerted to ascent.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

But then again, it's an old property. It's been 30 something years. So it could have been human remains from, like, a very long time ago, from a different location that over time, it's moved down to where we were looking at. So going based on that, that gave us a little more probable cause to believe that there's something there. So we ended up writing search warrants, and the property owner had nothing to do with it. They had bought the house over time. But a lot of the statements that were given, plus the dog, we ended up doing a GPR ground penetrating radar,

[Ashley Flowers]

but that didn't indicate any abnormalities. The promising tip became a dead end. In all of these years, they've only ever collected a single piece of physical evidence that they know conclusively can be linked to eileen. That's Spud's McKenzie keychain.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

There's conflicting information out there that there was a backpack located. We have never found a backpack. We have a keychain. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of evidence to go off of other than a keychain.

[Ashley Flowers]

They, of course, tried doing some testing on the keychain back in 89, tried lifting prints, but it didn't yield anything. But I keep wondering, what if the keychain is the unlock? Maybe not in terms of physical evidence, but in the story that it tells, because there's something about where it was found and when. That really bothers me. What if Eileen wasn't the one who dropped her keychain in the park.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

Do I believe the keys were a red herring? It's hard to say.

[Ashley Flowers]

Think about all the people who took and retook Eileen's path from school to home, home to school and back, looking for her or any sign of her. Over the four days that preceded this find, Eileen's older brother, Robert, led police on the path himself. They checked everything along the way, drainage systems, creeks included. It seems impossible that they would have missed this, unless, of course, it hadn't been there the whole time.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

There's also those sadistic people out there who commit these crimes and then revisit these, you know, locations where they were abducted and set a piece of evidence to deter the path of detectives.

[Ashley Flowers]

Detour them away from what, where, who. If this was a plant, it really changes the way I think about the perpetrator in this case. Because a random abductor wouldn't know Eileen's normal route home. It also means this isn't someone who grabbed her and then got the hell out of Dodge. It would be someone who was still around Dublin days after Eileen went missing. Police wouldn't tell us exactly who in the family circle they spoke to, to and when, but they said that they looked closely at everyone who would have been in Eileen's orbit, even her family.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

In cases like these where whodunit, you have to suspect everybody almost, in a way, and it was hard, like reading some of them, because you have to talk to mom, dad, who are super loving parents, and you have to ask them, like, very uncomfortable questions, right? And it was the same for the coaches.

[Ashley Flowers]

Eileen's family said it was super unlike her coaches to forget to pick her up. How is it that on this one day they forget she goes missing? Also, why did they pick her up at all? Like any day, her walk home took her right by the ice rink. Why not just go straight there? I mean, even if she didn't want to wait around till her 4 o' clock lesson, why not go home and then walk back herself? I had so many questions I thought were going to go unanswered because Michael Tamrise passed away in 2018. And we were having trouble reaching Peggy, who divorced from Michael in the early 2000s. But after a month of reporting, and at the 11th hour, Peggy called us and she had some pretty simple answers to our questions, starting with, why didn't Eileen just go to the ring from school? Well, she said Eileen probably needed to go home first to grab her skating gear.

[Peggy Tamris]

Now, if she had to drag her skates with her Then she wouldn't be walking. And if she had a skating dress on, I wouldn't want to be walking.

[Ashley Flowers]

When asked about the timeline that day, Peggy told our reporter what she told police. She and Michael were at home earlier that day. They had plans to go out of town that night. First to Berkeley, California, about 30 minutes away for a dance thing related to skating, and then on a ski trip near Lake Tahoe for three or four days. So they packed bags and left for the ice rink together in one car. According to Peggy, they were both coaching, but they taught separate kids that day. And she remembered how Michael asked her to go retrieve Eileen at home.

[Peggy Tamris]

He was supposed to go pick her up and he got involved in something and said, will you go pick her up? Okay, fine. Because I didn't have another lesson until four or whatever the session was.

[Ashley Flowers]

Our reporter Kate Mishkin asked Peggy if she went to look for Eileen at all once she realized she was missing. And she said no, she stayed at her lesson, but Michael went for a little bit. And then they decided to stick with their plans and head out of town.

[Peggy Tamris]

Well, I had kind of a unique situation because we went on the ski trip right after we got home. I was starting my third and final attempt at in vitro fertilization. That was like back in the day when the success rate wasn't all that good and I was advanced age. So we continued with that trip for that reason and I have a 36 year old daughter because of it.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

The detectives followed up with them, I believe, the following day, gave them a call and gave them a statement over the phone. They were like, oh yeah, when we get back, we're more than happy to meet with you guys. So they did several follow up interviews with them after in person at the skating rink, at their house, confirmed all that stuff. And they were very forthcoming, very helpful.

[Ashley Flowers]

Peggy told our reporter that the FBI shows up every 10 years or so to ask about Eileen, same questions, just in case it unlocks something new. But based on some tense moments with our reporter Kate, I think she's tired of answering the same questions.

[Peggy Tamris]

Can you tell me what you remember about that day itself that might help me kind of lead up? Oh my God, we already went through this.

[Ashley Flowers]

Peggy said she doesn't know if the FBI followed up with her husband, but she doesn't think so. As far as she knows, they weren't suspects. And she even offered to take a polygraph, but she said that she was told it wasn't necessary. But even if they weren't suspects, people in town did assign blame to them over the years, including the Mishaloff family.

[Peggy Tamris]

Did they ever talk to you about that? Did they ever bring it up with you directly? Who? The Mishloff family. Well, if we didn't see them, I went over to the house once with a girlfriend to see if there's anything we could do. And there was really no communication. What do you mean? We were quiet. We made our like, I'm really sorry. Is there anything we can do? And we left. And that was the only time. Was it Maddie that was coming from or her husband? What was coming from? They didn't talk to us. Oh, okay. But you saw everyone and no one talked to you? Basically, yeah. Wow. What were you hoping to do that day? I was hoping to basically commiserate with everybody and say how sorry I was that they were going through it and hopeful that they would have some news and find her. And they wouldn't talk to you? Nope. Wow. Did they talk to your ex husband? I don't know. I never went over there with him. Okay. Did he go by himself? I don't know.

[Ashley Flowers]

It would be odd to me if authorities honed in on Peggy alone and not Michael. Peggy didn't want to talk much about him. She wanted to keep the questions to Eileen. And there isn't much about Michael online to fill in the gaps. There are a few articles about him. As a skating coach, Michael seemed to work a lot with young kids. In one 1997 article, he spoke of a 10 year old boy and girl that he was coaching, saying they were 10 going on 20. And of the girl, Ashley, he said she, quote, has looks, poise and sells well. Usually at 10, girls are awkward. But she has the ability to present herself and her team, and that is the lady's job. Our reporter Kate talked to a few people who knew Michael in Colorado, where he later moved. All they would say is that Michael was really well liked and was involved in the local skating community. But they didn't want to be interviewed, though. The other thing that they added was that they didn't recall Michael ever talking specifically about Eileen or whether the tragedy influenced his coaching philosophy. But Peggy said that losing Eileen impacted her psyche. Detectives Kilgore and Hendel do not consider anyone in the Tamris family a suspect. They don't have any suspects right now, though there were some that cropped up over the years. Like the speed freak killers. Two California men linked to a spate of killings while they were on meth. And James d' Avegio and Michelle Michaud, who kidnapped and killed young women in Northern California or Timothy Binder. He was actually considered a suspect in some of the other missing persons cases that I hit on earlier in this episode. But according to Kilgore and Hendel, it's unlikely that any of them had anything to do with Eileen's disappearance.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

We need the public's help to assist us with this case because we don't have a lot in it. We've been talking about it. We have like a keychain and maybe a handful of other things that. And hopefully technology. But the public is a huge one. I am an advocate for people giving in tips. And if there's something that they've been holding on for years that they want to just get off their chest, now's the time.

[Lieutenant Chris Hendle]

Angie and I can both say that we talk multiple times a day about it. You know, sometimes I spin my wheels at night looking at the ceiling, thinking about the what ifs in this case and the next steps. And so it is personal a little bit, you know, we both want to solve this case, or both. Highly motivated.

[Ashley Flowers]

Every single year, the Mishaloff family kept a ritual. On January 30, they walk Eileen's path from Wells Middle School down Amador Valley boulevard, past the AMPM, over the 680 overpass, through Mape Memorial park, back to Eileen's home. Everyone would crowd into the Mishaloff's house to watch the 10 o' clock news, to see coverage of the walk. They would stay so that the Micheloffs didn't have to be alone. In April 2020, Eileen's mom, Maddy Mishaloff, passed away. Eileen's dad, Michael Mishaloff, followed. In 2024, Ryan Mishaloff told us that he and his brother barely saved anything when they sold the family house.

[Brian Mishaloff]

People always assume that the worst thing is not knowing. And no, and that wasn't it. It's that, you know, the worst thing, at least for me, was that whatever she went through is far worse than what I've gone through. You know, of course I want to know, but it's not something I think about on a day to day basis. And I think about her every day, but I think about her.

[Ashley Flowers]

Liz still thinks about her friend regularly as well. Still talks to her, too.

[Liz Allen]

I would always talk to her parents and say, I'm not her best friend, I'm a great friend. Because our other best friend, they had those best friend necklaces, and so they were best friends. But I'm a great friend and I will always be here.

[Ashley Flowers]

The Mishaloff family doesn't do those walks anymore. But this year Liz took her son.

[Liz Allen]

And so we walked, we walked her route home. And I got, you know, there are creeks along the way and I look in those creeks for Eileen every time. Even though it's been almost 40 years, I still am looking for her.

[Detective Angelique Kilgore]

What are you hoping to find?

[Liz Allen]

That's a really, really hard question to answer.

[Peggy Tamris]

Because

[Liz Allen]

if it's her and she's alive, then that means that she's been hurting for almost 40 years. Because if it was, if she ran away, then there's a big reason that she ran away and that that hurt for all these years to be gone. And so we definitely don't think that. And so if somebody took her away from us then, and if she's still alive, then what were they doing to her all of these years? And if she's not alive, I mean, we want her to be alive for her family, right? And so it's such a hard question to answer because I want her to be alive, but I also want her to be alive 37 years ago. I mean, that's what I've spent so many years wondering is if I had a time machine, what I could do, or if I could stop time, I could go back and I could grab her out of the evil clutches of whoever took her.

[Peggy Tamris]

Or

[Liz Allen]

I've spent a lot of time in my life wishing for things to be different so that that didn't happen to my friend and that didn't happen to her.

[Ashley Flowers]

Anyone with information on the 1989 disappearance of Eileen Mishalaw can call the Dublin Police Service's tip line at 925-833-6638. The Deck is an Audio Chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com I think Chuck would approve.

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[LifeLock Advertiser / Josh Dean]

Every story has layers, and sometimes the truth hides in plain sight. I'm Josh Dean, host of Chameleon, the podcast about people who transform, deceive and survive. From con artists to unbelievable yet true occurrences, we dive into stories where nothing is ever quite as it seems. Because to understand the world, you sometimes have to change the way you see it. Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.