Wojciech Fudali (3 of Spades, Rhode Island)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Deck – Episode: Wojciech Fudali (3 of Spades, Rhode Island)
Host: Kylie Louis
Release Date: December 4, 2024

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Deck, host Kylie Louis delves into the mysterious disappearance of Wojciech "Wojtek" Fudali, a promising young man from Rhode Island. Through meticulous investigation and heartfelt interviews, the episode aims to shed light on one of the coldest cases in the region, seeking justice and closure for Wojtek’s family.

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Background of Wojciech Fudali

Wojtek Fudali was a 22-year-old recent graduate from the University of Rhode Island, holding a degree in international business with a stellar 4.0 GPA. Highly intelligent and multilingual, Wojtek was known among his peers as a genial and driven individual. Despite the challenges posed by the 2008 recession, Wojtek was actively seeking full-time employment and was supported by his parents, Anna and Richie, who were willing to let him stay with them during his job hunt.

Quote:
“If anyone was gonna find a job, it was Wojtek. He was a genius.”
— Kylie Louis (02:00)

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The Night of Disappearance

On December 6, 2008, Wojtek spent the evening with his roommate Zachary, their friend Shawn, Sean, and Caroline at Burton’s house on East Shore Road in Narragansett. The night began with casual socializing and partying, but took a dark turn in the early hours of the morning. Around 5 AM, Wojtek exhibited extreme distress, reportedly hitting himself with a disassembled bed frame while naked and suicidal.

Quote:
“He was upstairs, highly emotional, crying, he was nude. He was reportedly hitting himself with a piece of bed frame.”
— Detective Ryan Prest (05:43)

Despite their efforts to calm him, Wojtek vanished by noon the next day, leaving behind his clothes and personal belongings.

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Investigation and Initial Leads

Detective Ryan Prest led the investigation, which initially focused on the possibility of a mental health crisis rather than foul play. Friends and roommates described Wojtek as acting out of character, but there was no evidence of intoxication or drug use that night.

Quote:
“He was just eating only bread and drinking water recently. He was talking about being one with nature.”
— Detective Ryan Prest (08:09)

The investigation uncovered that Wojtek had been displaying signs of depression and possessed an unusual interest in living off the grid. However, no immediate suspects emerged, and the community remained puzzled by his disappearance.

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Suspicious Evidence and Cryptic Clues

Months after Wojtek went missing, his mother received two mysterious post-it notes suggesting someone was trying to communicate or mislead the family. Additionally, a perplexing phone call from Puerto Rico raised suspicions about possible connections to Wojtek’s past travels.

Quote:
“A young child talking to her on the phone. They asked, is Wojtek home?”
— Detective Ryan Prest (31:42)

Despite extensive searches, including K9 units and aerial surveys, no definitive evidence of Wojtek’s whereabouts was found. Theories ranged from accidental death to potential foul play, but without concrete proof, the case remained unresolved.

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Family’s Perspective and Ongoing Appeal

Wojtek’s family, devastated by his disappearance, continues to seek answers. His cousin Beata and childhood friends express unwavering hope that Wojtek is still alive and urge anyone with information to come forward.

Quote:
“We just want to know, is he dead, is he alive, and is he okay?”
— Beata Fudali (38:46)

Detective Prest maintains that there is no evidence implicating Wojtek’s friends in his disappearance but emphasizes the importance of remaining open to all possibilities.

Quote:
“There's no indication that they were involved in his disappearance. That being said, we keep an open mind here.”
— Detective Ryan Prest (36:27)

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Current Status and Call to Action

As years pass without resolution, Wojtek’s family remains hopeful for closure. The episode concludes with an appeal for listeners who might hold crucial information to contact the Narragansett Police Department, offering a final opportunity to uncover the truth behind Wojtek Fudali’s mysterious disappearance.

Quote:
“If you know anything about the mysterious disappearance of Wojtek Fudali... take this as your sign to come forward now.”
— Kylie Louis (40:10)

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Conclusion

This episode of The Deck masterfully intertwines investigative journalism with personal narratives, painting a poignant picture of Wojtek Fudali’s life and the enigmatic circumstances surrounding his disappearance. It serves as a compelling call to action for the community and listeners alike to aid in resolving this haunting cold case.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• “He was just eating only bread and drinking water recently. He was talking about being one with nature.”
  — Detective Ryan Prest (08:09)

• “A young child talking to her on the phone. They asked, is Wojtek home?”
  — Detective Ryan Prest (31:42)

• “We just want to know, is he dead, is he alive, and is he okay?”
  — Beata Fudali (38:46)

• “If you know anything about the mysterious disappearance of Wojtek Fudali... take this as your sign to come forward now.”
  — Kylie Louis (40:10)

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For more detailed information and to support the investigation, listeners are encouraged to visit The Deck podcast website and reach out through the provided channels.

Transcript

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[Kylie Louis]

Our card this week is Wojtek Fudali, the Three of Spades from Rhode island and hi the Deck listeners. I'm Kylie Louis, host of another weekly Audio Chuck true crime show Dark down east, and I'm so grateful Ashley passed me the mic today. But on Dark down east, we cover cold cases in the New England area, just like the one you're going to hear about today. And who knows, maybe next week you'll hear from another member of the Audio Chuck family to tell you about a case in their backyard. Now, this missing person's case, on its face, might appear to be a tragic tale of a young man experiencing some sort of mental break. But there are a lot of loose ends and strange occurrences that can't fully be explained away by a young college grad simply taking off on his own. And since we're in my neck of the woods, Ashley asked me to take over for this episode. I'm Kylie Lo, and this is the deck it. During a cold 30something degree afternoon on December 6, 2008, a patrolman was dispatched to a house on East Shore Road in Narragansett to take a report about a missing man. Pulling up to the quaint New England style home in a nice neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon. I can only imagine why the first response wouldn't have been 5 alarm. It was likely that whatever was going on here wasn't the result of some criminal act. When the officer arrived around 1pm he was greeted by the callers. Two young men who we know to be Burton, the guy living at the home, and another friend, Sean. Here's Narragansett detective Ryan Prest.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

They were concerned because Wojtek had been at their house overnight and when they went to go check on him in the morning, he was gone. He was not there. And the last time they saw him they reported he was acting what they said was strange.

[Kylie Louis]

While the more than 50 pages of police documents related to this case redacted all the names, audiotrux reporter Madison was able to identify the key players through her own sources. And reporting from Terry Weber, mangoes for the Providence Journal. From what we were able to put together, officers learned that the night before, 22 year old Wojtek had been at his place about 45 minutes away in Newport with his roommate Zachary and their buddy Shawn. Wojtek was sleeping, but his friends woke him up for a night out in Narragansett. Shawn's girlfriend at the time, Caroline, was there too and the group took off in her car. They went to a party, then hopped over to Charlie o's Tavern around 10pm before rounding out the night at another party. Zachary parted ways with the group shortly after arriving at that second party, leaving with his girlfriend to go back to her place. And when the others eventually left themselves all piled into Caroline's car. They went to pick up their friend Burton, who was walking home from a party of his own. The crew all made it back to Burton's place, the house on east shore Road, between 1 and 1:30 or so in the morning. Burton and Shawn said they went to sleep while Wojtek and Caroline stayed up chatting before eventually heading to bed themselves. But before the crack of dawn, people at the house were apparently woken up and they claimed things with Wojtek took a drastic turn.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

Around 5am One of the people at East Shore Road reported they were woken up because he was downstairs, highly emotional, crying, he was nude. He was reportedly hitting himself with a piece of bed frame that he had disassembled. From the bed. The roommates were able to calm him down and then went back to bed. And all the roommates went back to bed, but they were concerned about his behavior. But nobody called the police or fire department at that time. And then the next day around noontime, that's when they realized he was gone and all his clothes and stuff were still on the floor. So that's when they got concerned and called us.

[Kylie Louis]

Burton told police there'd been a short period of tug of war between the two as he attempted to take the piece of bed frame away from Wojtek. It seems like Shawn eventually went in to assist, too. As Detective Press mentioned, the friend said Wojtek eventually calmed down, even put his clothes back on at some point. According to statements in the case files, at least one of the friends checked on him throughout the night, and every time they said he was either lying down or putting the bed frame back together. Now, I know what you might be thinking with all of this happening after a night of partying, but let me just stop you right there, because it appears Wojtek's abnormal behavior couldn't be blamed on inebriation.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

We never had any evidence that he was highly intoxicated or under the influence of narcotics. Nobody ever stated he did illicit drugs. He did drink, but not heavily. They stated he had a glass of wine at Charlie O's bar.

[Kylie Louis]

Although it seems like Wojtek was being social. There was a report from a friend saying he seemed a bit off that night, like maybe more quiet, standoffish than usual, but nothing alarming. Despite reporting that Wojtek was hitting himself with the bed frame hard enough that there were visible marks on his body. It's specifically documented in the police reports that all subjects said that Wojtek had never made threats to harm himself. I'm guessing that means they were saying he hadn't actually threatened to take his own life or anything. If these accounts from the group of friends were in fact true, then clearly Wojtek was suffering from something. But since he seemed sober, what was happening here? Well, his friends did say the odd behavior hadn't just started suddenly, overnight. According to some of them, it had been going on for a few weeks or so.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

Some of his friends were concerned. They reported in their statements that he was somewhat depressed about not being able to get a job. He was talking a lot about how he could live, survive out in wilderness. One of his friends said that he was just eating only bread and drinking water recently. He was talking about being one with nature. He was walking around in cold temperatures, wearing light clothing, walking around barefoot. He had a encounter with Newport police a week or so prior where he was out in the freezing cold temperatures, barefoot, wearing, I believe, jeans and a T shirt and wasn't really making sense. When the officers talked to him, they were a little concerned about some of the things he'd been saying and the way he'd been acting lately.

[Kylie Louis]

Wojtek graduated from the University of Rhode island that May. That's how this group knew each other. They had either graduated from URI or were current students there. Remember, this was 2008, a recession, it was hard to find work, but if anyone was gonna find a job, it was Void Tech. The guy was a genius, spoke multiple languages, had a degree in international business with a 4.0. Understandably, not being able to find full time work would have been stressful. And a friend stated Wojtek may have also been worried about student loan debt and paying his rent, but it seems like he had a solid backup plan. His parents were supportive and more than willing to allow him to stay with them while he was on the job hunt. In fact, his mom, Anna told us he was actually planning on moving back in with them in Massachusetts when this all went down. Likely the greatest source of his sadness though, the loss of his big brother. He died tragically a few years prior. From what we learned, Wojtek had been on some type of antidepressant medications around the time he went missing. But even with these stressors, this extreme outburst his friends had described to police still didn't add up for many of his loved ones. His parents were aware of his struggles and knew he'd been prescribed medications to help cope, but they hadn't personally experienced any of this out of character behavior. Wojtek's cousin Beata had recently seen him about a month before he came to Western Massachusetts to visit her for her 21st birthday. She described her cousin as being laid back, calm, peaceful, with a heart of gold and a good head on his shoulders. Here's Beata recalling this.

[Beata Fudali]

I didn't see any red flag. There was nothing, nothing that stood out to me. Like nothing felt off. And you know, I'm an empathetic person. Like, I can pick up on vibes and I don't remember feeling any negative or bad or weird vibes at all from spending time with him.

[Kylie Louis]

Now, with more context for the time leading up to the night he went missing back in Narragansett, something they found at the house made a lot more sense.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

They observed a book that was turned to A page about being one with the ocean, I believe. He didn't have his keys, his house keys or his car keys with him at the time cause he left those back in Newport. But just his clothing and a book is what they located on the floor.

[Kylie Louis]

Strangely, his clothes were found neatly folded and they appeared to have been recently laundered, something his mom said didn't make much sense. He'd wear the same pair of jeans for weeks and wasn't known to be neat and tidy. Concerned for his safety, the search was on for this around 5 foot 11, 200 or so pound young man with brown hair and blue eyes who had a large tattoo inspired by the Polish coat of arms under his left ribcage of a black eagle with a yellow and green background, which should be pretty visible since he'd apparently left the house naked. Even his speech would have been distinct if anyone were to interact with him. He had a Polish accent that would have stuck out to any potential witnesses. The initial responding officer talked with a neighbor who said he hadn't seen any unusual activity, definitely no one walking around naked on that cold winter day. He did add that he'd noticed the lights were on at the house across the street around 5am Though he took note because he thought it was a bit abnormal for the spry young adults to be up so early on a Saturday morning. But it does fit with their version of events. The officer went on to check with a local hospital, but no one there matched Wojtek's description. So with that, a be on the lookout was sent out to surrounding departments. That evening, Wojtek's parents, Anna and Richie, made the drive to Rhode island from their home in Massachusetts. They'd gotten word about the situation from Wojtek's roommate Zachary, who'd been the one to call them, concerned when he first heard his friend who had slept over at the East Shore house, had seemingly vanished. According to our law enforcement sources, the others at the house that night, Burton, Sean and Caroline, were acting as you'd expect Wojtek's friends to act. They seemed genuinely concerned, but obviously something we often talk about. It's not fair to judge innocence or guilt based solely on someone's reaction. However, when Madison tracked down Wojtek's parents in Poland and spoke to his mom through a family friend who could translate, she remembers it differently. Anna explained that when they arrived at the house in Narragansett, Burton and Shawn were there. She said that while in her opinion, Shawn seemed concerned, she described Burton as having a stone face, not appearing concerned with the issue at hand, and instead of giving them all the details about what had happened the previous night, they directed them to the police. Since they didn't seem to want to participate in this podcast, we don't know why they may have acted like this. It's possible they were simply nervous, or maybe something just got lost in translation. From what we can tell, although they were all spoken to, it doesn't seem like Burton and Shawn were separated and really probed about their shared account of the previous night. Neither of them nor Caroline appeared to be treated like persons of interest. We were told there was nothing out of place or suspicious at the house. No blood, no signs of a struggle. So maybe that's why the people there that night or the home itself didn't seem to be put under a microscope, at least at the start of all of this. I get the feeling that law enforcement probably thought this had to be a mental health crisis, but there's something I haven't told you yet, something that makes me wonder if maybe something more was going down at the house overnight that Wojtek's friends should have been pressed on. 1pm wasn't actually the first time police responded to that house. Another officer had been called out there around 3:00 that morning, mere hours before Wojtek seemingly disappeared. The call was for a wellness check, but it wasn't for Wojtek. It was for someone else.

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[Kylie Louis]

Through the records we got access to and confirmation from Detective Prest, we've discovered that an ex girlfriend of Burton called police and asked them to do a welfare check on him at his house. From what we gathered, it seems like she was worried because she hadn't heard from him. Apparently he had a history with substance use and for some reason that night she was afraid he might hurt himself. The responding officer found, quote, all people at the house lucid. There was also a note about both subjects being sober at the time of the police visit, but again, names are redacted. There's nothing else of note in the documents we have. We asked Detective Prest if he knew anything more about it and he said, although it's not clear in the files, he spoke to the responding officer who took Wojtek's missing persons report and when he showed up he remembers being aware that police had already been to that same house in the wee hours of the morning for the wellness check. But there's no documentation in the report about him confronting Burton with this information or if it even came up in their conversation at all. Although it feels like a super important detail to disclose about that night, it doesn't seem like Burton brought it up when the officer was taking his statement. However, it does appear Shawn mentioned it when he spoke to an officer during the early days of the investigation. Either way, whatever happened, the focus then was on fundamental finding Wojtek and hopefully finding him alive and well. Starting the very next day on December 7th, more intense searches were organized.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

We had a K9 team with several dogs come in to Search the area. We had officers on the ground. There's a campground nearby which is pretty vacant in the winter, so we had to search that. This is an old military base, so there's these old tunnels and all kinds of old gun turrets and stuff back there. We had to search that area. There was a report of a ladder on a nearby dock that was broken, so they found that suspicious. We sent divers down, but it turned out we learned that that was just damaged by a fishing boat striking the fence there.

[Kylie Louis]

Per the case files, there's a witness who saw Burton and a few of his friends loading up his truck to go surfing the morning of the civilian search for Wojtek, which we believe took place on December 13th. There isn't much context, but it seems like this person felt like instead of heading to the beach, Burton should have been participating in looking for his friend, especially since Wojtek went missing from his house. Anna also told us that the same morning of the big community search, a neighbor told her that they saw Burton's ex girlfriend come by with two friends to move some of her stuff out of his house. While the timing might seem sudden, blurbs in the case file indicate that apparently her reasoning was they'd broken up the month before. But she waited until that day to pick up the rest of her belongings to avoid contact with Burton, figuring he'd be out on the search. As word about Wojtek being missing spread throughout the tight knit community, two promising leads popped up pretty quickly. First, a neighbor claimed claimed he saw a man on the dock at the back of the house on East Shore Road where Wojtek had been sleeping over at around 9:30 Saturday morning. He observed the man, a clothed man with a blue hooded sweatshirt pulled up over his head and long pants, sitting slouched over on the dock for a long time, not really moving, before eventually getting up and walking back towards the rear of the house. I don't think this necessarily screams Wojtek unless he somehow got a hold of some clothes, but this second one feels a bit closer. Maybe.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

One male party claimed that he saw a naked man around 11 o'clock on the 6th walking through the marsh, which is right in the area where East Shore Road is. That house borders this marshy salt marsh area. And after people talking about this Wojtek going missing, he claims he saw a naked man walking through the MARSH Southbound around 11am in the morning. For some reason, he never decided to call the police. It was December, it was cold, there's a naked man walking through the marsh, but he Says he saw him as he was driving by. And he claimed that the man walking through the marsh kind of matched up with the description provided of Wojtek.

[Kylie Louis]

According to the files, this guy was jogging, not walking, by the way. And when you look up this case, the vibe I get is that this tip is often taken as fact proof that Wojtek definitely wandered off from the home on his own free will. But one of our sources pointed out something that I think is crucial to note. It's not that this witness isn't reliable. It's just that even he can't be sure of what exactly he saw. He was in a car going, like, 40 miles per hour. According to an article published by the Providence Journal, this witness was a University of Rhode island student. Madison wasn't able to find him, but I'd be curious if he was friends with anyone in the group at the house that night. After leaving the house barefoot, it's hard to imagine how even a strong and athletic Wojtek would have made it to that area of the marsh where he was supposedly seen in the first place. It sounds like you'd maybe have to swim from an inlet near the house on East Shore Road. And even though it's only a short swim in right around freezing December temperatures, I don't know if it would even be possible to survive. It's possible your body would just shut. Shut down. Did the dogs pick up a scent at the house or leaving the house?

[Detective Ryan Prest]

No.

[Kylie Louis]

Which is kind of odd. Not even leaving?

[Detective Ryan Prest]

Yeah, it's odd, but I'm not a canine officer. The area was contaminated because so many people were walking around searching. There's so many scents down there. The scent dissipates as time goes by. If he did go in the water, the dog wouldn't sense a living person going in the water. Dogs over the next few weeks did pick up some scents, but they found deer carcasses, deer bones, other animals and whatnot. So they never picked up a definite scent from Wojtek to be able to track that.

[Kylie Louis]

This was the only real lead investigators had at that moment, so I get why they ran with it. This witness took officers out to the area and showed them exactly where he'd spotted the man. Detectives blocked off the location with crime scene tape. Since that specific area of the marsh was very shallow and you could see to the bottom in most parts. Helicopters did an aerial search overhead while divers and boats saturated the surrounding deeper waters. But no sign of Wojtek was found. The next search police needed to conduct was of properties that were often vacant during the winter off season in Narragansett. Apparently Wojtek had made comments in the past that he could could squat in one of them all winter. With his alleged recent reckoning of wanting to live an off the grid lifestyle, maybe he was hiding out in one of them. But officers found no signs of him anywhere. Of course, police also considered the possibility that Wojtek didn't leave on his own, that something happened to him that night. But it was hard for that theory to grow legs. In all their interviews with Wojtek's family, friends and equipment acquaintances, no one could think of a single person who'd have a motive to make him disappear. He wasn't dating anyone. He seemed to be a well liked guy with zero drama in any of his personal relationships. His cell phone was eventually checked, but since it had been back at his place in Newport the night this happened, there wasn't anything helpful. Calls and texts from earlier that week seemed pretty standard too. Basic convos checking in with friends and asking what's up? The official searches eventually came to a halt with no luck. It sounds like investigators were leaning towards a theory that did not involve foul play. Whether he died by suicide or had an accident and was swept out to sea, never to be found. I think many people in the community assumed Wojtek was no longer alive. But more than seven months later, in July of 2009, someone left Wojtek's mom a message that suggested otherwise.

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[Detective Ryan Prest]

We were notified by The Wilbraham Police Department that Ms. Anna Frodale had reported to them there was a suspicious note left on a refrigerator when she was out. She reported that she arrived home at 10pm on the 15th and there was two yellow post it notes affixed to the outside of her refrigerator door. The notes mentioned Wojtek's name, although it was spelled wrong. The police investigated in Wilbraham, Mass. There was no signs of anybody broken to the residence. They did secure these two yellow post it notes as evidence. One just said I mice U m I S e love and it looks like it's W o I t e possibly K which she felt was Wojtek spelled wrong. And then the second post it note appeared to have said and I am at the bet.

[Kylie Louis]

The handwriting was sloppy, almost childlike. You can take a look for yourself. We have pictures of the notes on the blog post for this episode. The writing was compared to known samples from Wojtek, but Detective Prest told us they didn't match up. According to the case files, only a day before finding the notes, Anna also reported their car had been broken into, the car that used to belong to Wojtek. It's possible some change may have been taken from it, but besides that, there wasn't really anything else to steal. She said the seat had been moved back as if someone had been inside in the case files. It seems like there may have been an attempt to compare Wojtek's fingerprints to those found in the car after it was broken into, but I can't tell whatever came of it. Plus I would expect Wojtek's prince to be there anyway, since he used to drive the car.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

It's difficult to make sense of it. It's definitely suspicious if indeed somebody entered her house while she was gone and put these on the refrigerator. The local police department was never able to confirm that the house was broken into when they were put there. But Ms. Fudalli swears that she was out when she got back there on the refrigerator. She feels like it may have been a sign from him or somebody else.

[Kylie Louis]

And Wojtek's cousin Beata also agrees it's suspicious.

[Beata Fudali]

My hunch is that I think she thought someone was trying to cover something up, like trying to make them think Wojciech was still alive or something. I don't think she, you know, obviously just didn't think it was actually him that did it.

[Kylie Louis]

Months passed, then another year, and the Fudali family was left waiting for something else to come about that would help them hold onto hope, even if it couldn't be proven that the notes were actually from their son or not. I'm sure there was a longing for things to just get shaken up again, anything to propel the stagnant case forward. And that movement would come one day In August of 2010, when Anna Fudali did something she probably so often did after Wojtek went missing. Picked up her ringing phone. Even though it was a number she didn't recognize, she said it sounded like.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

A young child talking to her on the phone. They asked, is Wojtek home? She said, how do you know Wojtek? He said, well, the voice said, he is my brother. She said, he's not your brother. And then the voice said, yes, he is. Is he home? And then she asked if she could speak with the child's mother or somebody else. And then another woman took the phone and said something in Spanish and then hung up. She got the number from the caller id, and I'm not sure if she looked it up on her own or the local police department did, but they found out that area code was from Puerto Rico.

[Kylie Louis]

The fact that the call came from Puerto Rico was interesting because Wojtek had traveled there with some buddies on a surfing trip in early 2008. A source told us that it's possible Wojtek and his friends had rented a place while they were there. So maybe this was a little boy connected to that somehow. We may never know.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

We tried following up with that number. We didn't get anywhere. There was never a response. Our detectives at the time contacted Authorities in Puerto Rico, and they were unable to ever locate where this call came from.

[Kylie Louis]

Investigators didn't know what to think about this puzzling phone call or those cryptic notes. Was someone trying to steer them away from the truth of what actually happened that night. Were these sick pranks, or did it mean Wojtek could still be alive? Maybe this was his way of checking in and letting his family know he was okay. Sadly, that seems unlikely though, because in speaking with Detective Prest, it appears as if Wojtek's Social Security and debit and credit cards have never been used since. And there have been no reliable sightings of him to this day. And Wojtek's family still feels the frustration from all of this.

[Beata Fudali]

I don't think there's anything in this story or situation that could make us lean one way or the other.

[Kylie Louis]

Here's Wojtek's childhood buddy, Adam. He remembers friends from their hometown thinking Wojtek must be alive after hearing bits and pieces about the mysterious notes and phone call, only to be crushed to discover he was actually still missing.

[Wojtek's Childhood Buddy]

What didn't make sense to me is if someone kills himself, it's really hard for them to do that in a way where they are never found again. Especially when it's single degree weather. Right? If he's just disappearing, where is he going naked in 8 or 9 degree weather? He's not going to get very far and therefore his body's going to be found. You know what I mean? Unless you can, you know, kind of walk the path. And I've never personally done that and just trace, you know, okay, he left this house and this is where people say they saw him. You know, kind of do the math. Like in this temperature, with this little clothing on, this is how long you could remain moving. And here's the radius. Like what's the explanation for where you go to just never be found again?

[Kylie Louis]

We checked the weather history for around the time Wojtek went missing. And although it wasn't single digits, it was below freezing at some points. It didn't reach past 32 degrees until closer to 10am on Dec. 6. But in 2017, detectives collected a DNA sample from Wojtek's mom, Anna, for namus.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

Every once in a while, remains will be found. Recently there were skeletal remains found up in Coventry, Rhode Island. Wojtek's entered into a database of missing persons, which is checked whenever there are remains found locally. And I was in contact with the Coventry pd. They ruled him out. Wojtek, they actually identified that body over the years. People have found bones on our beaches quite frequently actually, and we always take the bones to the medical examiner's office and have them checked. All the bones that have been located have been identified as animal bones, which a lot of them look similar to human skeletal remains. But every time this human remains located within the general area, we're in contact with the medical examiner's office to see if they could be Vojtex.

[Kylie Louis]

The hard part for me is knowing Wojtek's poor parents came to this country hoping to give their two boys a better life. But instead. Instead they lost both of their sons in the matter of only several years. The family can't make sense of what they've been told about the night he went missing. Somebody knows something and the family believes that starts with asking the friends who were there with him that night some more questions. Detective Prest had this to say when our reporter Madison asked if there's any reason to believe that they could be involved in Wojtek's disappearance.

[Detective Ryan Prest]

There's no indication that they were involved in his disappearance. That being said, we keep an open mind here and there's a possibility that we could have future interviews with them.

[Kylie Louis]

To be fair, judging by the case files, it does seem like the group fully cooperated with law enforcement at the time. And they were all re interviewed later on in the investigation too. We only found a few things in the case files that could indicate police were looking at the friends present that night as at least a little suspicious. One of the friends, safe to assume either Burton or Shawn, was asked to come into the PD back in early 2009 because the detective needed to clarify a couple of inconsistencies in his statement. The report mentions that he expressed that during his initial statement he did not believe the police were interested in his actions the whole night, but rather his interactions with Wojtek. It seemed like most of the inconsistencies revolved around him leaving out some details about the entire night, like what exactly he was doing before meeting up with Wojtek, etc. There was also a note that he expressed shock and display belief that Wojtek's parents would think his closest friends would do something to him. Also in the case files there were a few mentions about some people believing that maybe someone had given drugs to Wojtek without his knowledge. Madison tried reaching out to Burton, Sean and Caroline, and no one but Burton got back to her. It was just a simple text he sent saying, hey, Madison. Very sad, confusing and tough story, which has never been easy to talk About? I am not interested in speaking on the podcast, but hope it goes well. All the best. Maybe it's not easy to talk about, but Wojtek's family is still interested in hearing the details of that night from those who lived it. So if you have nothing to hide, I would encourage Burton and everyone else who was there that night to reach out to them. Even with the family's lingering skepticism, Beate likes to imagine the best case scenario. Her super cool surfer boy cousin still out there on a beach somewhere.

[Beata Fudali]

Well, I still think about him all the time. I still love and care about him. And I wish I could see him, wish I could talk to him. Like, I miss him so much. I don't know if he knows this, but when I got married, Matt and I wanted him to be a groomsman because he was just so close and near and dear to us. And when my son, who's now 13, was born, I wanted. And Matt wanted him to be his godfather. Like, that's how much we love and care about him. This situation just really broke our hearts. But we hope, we hope we still hold on to the hope that he is out there somewhere and that he's doing well. We just want closure. We just want our souls, you know, and brains and hearts to be at peace. We don't care about what happened or pointing fingers. We just want to know, is he dead, is he alive, and is he okay? So even an anonymous tip in any form would mean so much to us. It would mean the world to us. I mean, what else can you do to help a family that's been through so much heartache?

[Kylie Louis]

If you know anything about the mysterious disappearance of Wojtek Fudali on December 6, 2008 in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Take this as your sign to come forward now. No detail is too small or insignificant. Even a small piece of the puzzle could help detectives see the bigger picture. Here. You can call Narragansett PD's anonymous tip line at 401-789-8967. If you don't mind speaking to Detective Ryan Prestige directly, we have all the ways you can contact him in the show notes. The Deck is an audio Chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit the Deck Dec podcast dot com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

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