Investigator Teresa Williams (3:44)

So he looks out his window, he sees his neighbor and he describes her as wearing pink. And when he sees her, she's engaged in some type of verbal altercation with what he thinks is a male. And he says that he sees her car, he sees the man kind of engaging in a physical altercation, pulling her back. She gets in the driver's seat of the car. Then he sees that male on top of her and then there's some type of struggle and he actually sees this male subject pick her up and put her in the backseat of the car. And just the way, you know, when you think about somebody, the way they phrase things and the way they say, you know, he was dragging her and then he said, and I don't remember if these are exact words, but then he says he picked up the body. Somebody saying that to you, you're like, something really bad happened to this lady.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (4:47)

We reached out to the neighbor to ask him about what he saw, but he didn't respond to our reporter's text messages or phone calls.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (4:55)

Whether she was dead or not, we still to this day don't know.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (5:00)

That's Master Corporal Joshua Smith. He's currently working with Investigator Williams on Nephi's case. And, and we interviewed them together.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (5:08)

But at that time, obviously there's, you know, when we're getting this information, there's concern for her safety at this point. This is more at this point than just a typical missing person. We have people go missing every day with the information that we're getting. At this point, this is going beyond.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (5:25)

After the neighbor saw someone being dragged, picked up and driven off, he didn't call 911. For the next 19 hours, police were unaware of the precious time they were losing. It wasn't until Nephi's mom called to report her missing around 11pm and they came out to canvass that they finally heard this neighbor's concerning story. So why didn't he call 911?

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (5:52)

I asked him that exact question and it was, I just didn't want to get involved with other people's business.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (5:57)

That was Sergeant Matthew d', Sabatino, one of the original investigators.

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (6:02)

The neighborhood itself of Saddlebrook again is a Blue collar, low income, salt of the earth people. Very normal, nice people. It's a one way in, one way out neighborhood. It's not uncommon for people to argue over parking spots or loud music coming from the neighbor's house. That's typical. So for him to say he didn't want to get involved in one of those aspects would have been completely normal. Why he chose not to get involved with this when he saw somebody getting physically assaulted and kidnapped, it's beyond my comprehension.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (6:32)

You know, I don't know his background. I don't know his story. But has his own reasons, whatever they are, for not telling the police.

Investigator Teresa Williams (6:40)

I think if we had been. If the police had been called sooner, I think this may have had a different result. Maybe it didn't, but we would have had a better chance to locate Nuffy had we been notified so sooner.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (6:52)

Investigators talked with the neighbor several times, and even after multiple conversations, they didn't believe that he was a suspect. There was no evidence that he'd been in contact with Neffy that morning. No sign that they'd had a long running dispute or argument. They were just two people who happened to live on the same street. But the neighbor's firsthand account of Nefi's kidnapping was important because along with giving them confirmation of foul play, it also confirmed that it was Nefi's own car, that she was driven off in. A silver 2000 Acura. So the first thing that police did was push out a BOLO for the vehicle.

Investigator Teresa Williams (7:31)

The best thing we know at that point in time is the sooner we get a description of the car out, the sooner we get the picture out to the media, that's the sooner we can ask the public for help. So that was something real important that we did right away.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (7:46)

Nevi's family didn't need the neighbor sighting to know that something was very wrong. To them. There were signs. She lived at home with her mom and her three kids. And even though she'd been out at a club the night before, they expected her home by morning. In fact, what made this so concerning to them is that there had been evidence she had made it home. They found a collection of items left on the front stoop. A loaf of bread, two cups of coffee, and an unused condom still in the wrapper. Investigator d' Sabatino was there that day, and he remembers one of those pieces of evidence very well.

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (8:24)

On the front porch stoop of her townhome was the loaf of bread that we found. And it looked like it had been stepped on. We believe it Was one of the things she was buying for the children for that day. The loaf of bread is just a typical grocery store loaf of bread, Nondescript, and it looked like a shoe impression had been made into it. It wasn't enough for anything that we could actually form a cast off of and then utilize that. But it was enough to say this wasn't somebody who was just holding a loaf of bread and it got squished. It was flattened out. But that was just one more indicator that, okay, something is amiss.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (9:01)

Investigators would learn that neffy had purchased the bread and the other items at a nearby 7:11, roughly 10 to 15 minutes, and before she was kidnapped.

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (9:11)

So this is a photograph of Nephi trader at the 711 making her purchases. And it's timestamped 4:03am so this is right prior to her abduction, prior to her arriving home that morning and after her night at the club. So in the photograph, you can see the two cups of coffee. You can see the loaf of bread. The condom's kind of obscured in this picture, but this is her in the pink outfit making those purchases at the 7 11.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (9:37)

The items Nephi purchased seemed to tell a story. Two cups of coffee, one condom. It seemed like Neffy was planning to meet someone or perhaps she was already with someone that night.

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (9:52)

This is pure speculation, but she was at the club the night before. It's not impossible to believe she had met an individual at the club and she was driving home, and that's the individual who drove her from the 711 to the residence. It's possible, but I can't prove that. We know from some of the items that were purchased at that 7:11 that it is a possibility, But I can't say definitively that's what occurred.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (10:17)

Unfortunately, the 711 footage doesn't clear this up. Nefi appears to be alone inside, and the outside camera fails to show how she arrived or with whom. When police tried talking to some of the friends that they found out Neffy had been with at the club that night, they shared nothing. I'm told the club that they'd been at was an underground, off the books sort of thing. So it's possible they just didn't want to get in trouble, or maybe they simply knew nothing. But no one could tell police who Nefi was hanging out with there, who she might have left with if she was alone, her plans, or who, if anyone, had given her a ride. But people did have a lot to say about another night at a different club that might be at the center of a Motive in this case. Investigators told us that in the early days, there was one man who kept coming up in their interviews, a man who allegedly wanted revenge on Nephi. According to Corporal Smith, that was Roddy Prince.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (11:33)

So he is kind of well known to law enforcement in this general area due to an incident that happened several years ago where he did, I guess you considered a mass shooting in Maryland.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (11:47)

The mass shooting took place in 2017 years, years after Nefi went missing. But it gives you insight nonetheless into who this guy is. Roddey shot and killed three of his co workers at a granite company in Maryland and injured two others. But the reason Roddy came up in Nefi's case is because of an incident that happened roughly four months before she went missing in February 2014.

Investigator Teresa Williams (12:13)

Roddy's connection was back in the city of Wilmington. There was a club that's no longer open anymore, but he was at this club with his sister. Nephi was there celebrating her birthday.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (12:28)

Nephi and Radi's sister knew each other from childhood. So at some point, Nephi joined up with them, and they all decided to get into a car and smoke weed together.

Investigator Teresa Williams (12:39)

Next thing you know, the car door opens. Roddy's grabbed. He's assaulted and assaulted pretty badly and actually left a permanent scar on his forehead.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (12:50)

According to investigators, Roddey became convinced that Neffy had set him up for the attack. Now, this made no sense to investigators because Roddy and Neffy weren't in a relationship. They weren't close. They'd just been smoking weed together that night. The timing, investigators say, was pure chance. And there is no evidence that Neffy did set him up. But Roddey became completely paranoid after he was assaulted. He was certain that everyone, including Nephi, was out to get him at the time.

Investigator Teresa Williams (13:22)

Information that we were getting later on was that he was asking people, you know, who Nephi traitor was and where she lived, because he believed that she set him up for that robbery and that assault.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (13:36)

Investigators tried on several occasions to talk to Roddy. The closest they got was talking to the woman Roddey lived with at the time. According to investigators, she said Radi was with her when Nefi was kidnapped. But even when Roddey was in prison for the mass shooting in Maryland, he still refused to answer any questions about Nefi. Investigators looked closer at other people in Nefi's life, like the father of her children, who was questioned but not considered a suspect. They also talked to her current boyfriend, who. Who had the rock solid alibi of being in jail at the time. Of her abduction. Investigator Di Sabatino remembers that conversation very well.

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (14:21)

I have never seen somebody break down emotionally the way he did. He was one of the most emotionally distraught individuals I had ever seen. We can't say we ruled him out 100%. You never do. But he was definitely not high up on the list of suspects.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (14:38)

Hitting roadblock after roadblock, investigators figured forensic testing might be the answer, specifically testing those items that Nephi bought at the 7:11. Maybe the suspect's DNA was on them. But even this, they knew, was going to present its own challenges. Corporal Smith explained those challenges to our

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (14:57)

team when we first made contact with the family and made. They made us aware that they had actually brought some of these items inside the house. So they had already touched some of these items.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (15:09)

They still attempted testing on the bread, coffee cups and condom, but ultimately there was nothing of evidentiary value found. If DNA is going to crack Nefi's case open, it's likely going to come from something else, something investigators said still can't locate.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (15:30)

The biggest piece of evidence that we could potentially have to do comparisons with or put in something into CODIS would be her vehicle, which to date has never been found. Potentially that crime, the initial crime that occurred and subsequent crimes that happened afterwards happened in that car.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (15:49)

What happened to that car is a huge part of this mystery. Making a person disappear is one thing. A person and a car, that's harder. Our reporter Laura Frater asked about it.

ZipRecruiter Announcer / Laura Frater (Reporter) (16:04)

Are you surprised that the car just disappeared?

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (16:06)

Is it hard to do that?

Investigator Teresa Williams (16:07)

I am.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (16:08)

I am, yeah.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (16:09)

Unless Nephi's body and the car are together, maybe in a body of water. But over the years, police tried and

Investigator Teresa Williams (16:19)

failed to locate wasn't for a lack of divers, both from the FBI, Delaware State Police. We have significant amount of water in Delaware and a lot of deeper bodies of water, a lot of marshland. There's a lot of places to look for vehicles. And obviously it remains like if you run her vehicle through the system nationally today, it will come up alerted and flagged. For Newcastle county police in Delaware, investigators

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (16:53)

hope Nefi's phone could shed some light on her movements or communications. But it's never been found. And when they analyzed data from a cell phone tower that they believe Neffy's phone interacted with, they couldn't find any new leads. In a case like Nephi's, which has been cold for so long, the other way it could be solved is if someone decides to come forward. Maybe someone who is no longer afraid to speak out, or maybe someone with a Conscience who needs to get the truth off their chest. Investigator Williams believes that person is not necessarily the guy who abducted Nephi, but someone else, because she believes that there had to be another person who helped cover up the crime.

Investigator Teresa Williams (17:40)

Somebody besides just the really bad guy that hurt her. Somebody else knows what that person did.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (17:46)

And the big thing we think about, too, and we know this from doing this for so long, is that people go through different stages of their life. A lot of times, especially if it was a second person involved in this or a third person at the time, maybe they were scared, maybe they were in duress, whatever it may be. And then their life changes, their circumstances change. And then, you know, 10 years pass and they're in a different part in their life where they can feel a little bit more comfortable talking about something that happened in the past.

Investigator Teresa Williams (18:15)

The other thing I really look at, too, is, you know, to take her and her car, you had to get there. Delaware is not a place like a city like Philadelphia or New York City or something where you walk everywhere you go. You drive in Delaware. And we do have public transportation, but not affordable. 4:00 clock in the morning, somebody knows what happened to this woman, obviously the person that harmed her and took her. But there's somebody else that knows, too. You had to get rid of her car. And even if you got rid of her car somehow in a body of water somewhere, how are you getting back to your house?

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (18:55)

Nephi's family didn't want to participate in this episode, which we understand. But all the investigators on Nephi's case still think about her loved ones, especially Nephi's mom, Denise.

Sergeant Matthew d' Sabatino (19:07)

We're dealing with a mother, Denise Trader, who has no idea where her daughter is or if she's ever coming home. The lack of closure, the lack of figuring out, where is my loved one? Why are they not home? Is it something I did? Is it something the family did? The lack of answers. Denise has said this multiple times where, I just want to know what happened to my daughter. I just want to know what happened to my daughter. Nephi was a young single mom. She had life in front of her. For her to disappear in the way she did that sits with me.

Investigator Teresa Williams (19:41)

I think it's a horrible thing when somebody in your family's a victim of violent crime and they're murdered. But it's another thing to not know, not be able to bury your loved one. I always think about her mom, and I think about her children.

Master Corporal Joshua Smith (19:58)

And her mom has to go through the holidays, and she's always still to this day thinking maybe one day she'll walk through that door.

Ashley Flowers (Host/Narrator) (20:05)

If you have any information about the disappearance of Nefertieri traitor, you can contact the New Castle County Police Department at their non emergency number, which is 302-573-2800. Or you can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333. 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.