1. Just Do It

Summary

The Unforgotten – Season 4, Episode 1: "Just Do It"

Date: December 8, 2025
Host: Wes Ferguson
Producer: Free Range Productions in association with The Dallas Morning News

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Overview

Season 4 of The Unforgotten, titled "Kill Site", investigates the mysterious and controversial 2020 death of Christopher Whiteley in rural Texas. While authorities officially ruled his death a mountain lion attack, inconsistencies and unanswered questions have left his family, friends, and community searching for the truth. In this first episode, host Wes Ferguson and journalist Charlie Scudder introduce Christopher's life and last days, recount witness testimony, and begin unraveling the knot of doubt and suspicion surrounding the case.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing the Case & Family Perspectives

• Chris Whiteley’s Death: Five years earlier, Whiteley, 28, was found dead near Lipan, Texas. Authorities’ attribution to a mountain lion was met with skepticism (02:26–02:40).
• Impact on the Community: The bizarre death triggered local and international attention, conspiracy theories, and fear—until the story abruptly faded away (02:40–03:12).
• Family’s Pain & Need for Answers:
  • Kimberly Spruill (Christopher’s mother) continues to seek justice and closure for her son:
    “It’s not solved. I don’t know that we can find out the truth, but it would be nice to know what happened.” (03:15)
  • Kimberly describes a mother’s intuition she had of impending tragedy before her son’s death (04:02–04:16).
  • Chris had confided in his mother:
    “Mama, I would die for her [Tyler]." (11:55)

2. Christopher Whiteley: A Life of Contrasts

• Personality & Past:
  • Described as quirky, funny, and loving, though also troubled (04:26–05:04).
  • Reporter Charlie Scudder remarks:
    “That is not somebody who should just be ignored right after death.” (09:17)
• Tattoos and Humor:
  • The “Just Do It” Nike tattoo, a recurring motif and the episode's namesake, highlighted his irreverent sense of humor (05:27–05:55).
  • “That sounds like someone who gets a ‘Just do it’ tattoo above the crotch.” — Scudder (07:30)
• YouTube Videos & Home Life:
  • Videos reveal his creative side and joyful if chaotic life with on-and-off girlfriend Tyler Messina (06:00–09:01).

3. Struggles & Legal Troubles

• Criminal Record and Redemption Attempts:
  • Christopher served five years in prison after assaulting Tyler (09:45–09:55).
  • While incarcerated, he reportedly became clean and healthier (09:55–10:32).
  • After his release in 2020, he sought honest work and attempted to rebuild ties with Tyler and their children (10:32–11:21).
• Cycle of Relapse:
  • After reuniting, Chris and Tyler begin using drugs again (11:26–11:34).

4. The Final Days and Disappearance

• Preceding Events:
  • In late November 2020, Chris and Tyler lived in a trailer on her great uncle’s rural property outside Lipan (14:37–15:10).
  • They partied late into the night before Thanksgiving, with Chris making a concerning call to his father, Robert, just after 7:40am:
    “It’s an emergency... I need a ride... people in that house or somebody’s out there leaving and he needs a ride.” — recounted by Robert (15:47–16:13).
• Suspicious Circumstances:
  • Kimberly missed a call from Chris that morning; Tyler sent conflicting messages about their whereabouts:
    “Chris is asleep… we’re napping.” — Tyler (17:56–18:16)
  • Friends and family grew worried due to lack of contact, Tyler’s evasive responses, and a history of threats from her relatives (19:17–20:14).
• 911 Call & Law Enforcement Involvement:
  • Friend Paulie Huggins called 911, expressing her doubts about Tyler’s story and concern for Chris:
    “She’s not showing any [excuse] in my eyes.” — Paulie (20:31)
  • The sheriff’s office responds, interviews Tyler, her uncle, and searches the property (21:10–22:42).

5. Law Enforcement Investigation

• Interviews and Inconsistencies:
  • Tyler claims she and Chris weren’t fighting and that she was unaware of his departure for work (22:20–24:10).
  • Deputies note contradictions between Tyler’s and her uncle’s accounts (27:45–28:08).
  • Christopher’s father shares the urgency of Chris’s calls, and his worry that Chris might actually be in danger (26:31–27:29).
• Physical Search:
  • Cell phone data locates Chris’s phone 0.3 miles from the trailer but it’s dark and search conditions are challenging.
  • First responders ultimately find a blue bag with Chris’s paperwork, blood, and finally Chris’s body concealed under brush (29:32–30:05).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Kimberly Spruill, on unresolved loss:
  “It’s not solved. I don’t know that we can find out the truth, but it would be nice to know what happened… they might heal the wound.” (03:15)
• Charlie Scudder, on the dignity of the victim:
  “That’s a person… a fully formed person… that is not somebody who should just be ignored right after death.” (09:17)
• Kimberly’s “premonition”:
  “A week before Christopher died, I predicted it, okay? On November 27, my chest started hurting really bad... I told Patrick, I said, Christopher's fixing to die.” (04:02–04:16)
• Discovery of the body:
  “They find a bunch of brushes and sticks and underneath it’s Christopher… He’s curled up in the fetal position, lifeless… when they roll him over, that’s when they see Christopher’s neck and they realize there’s a killer on the loose.” (29:32–30:05)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:15 – Kimberly Spruill laments the unfinished nature of the investigation.
• 05:34 – The “Just Do It” tattoo anecdote, underscoring Chris’s personality.
• 07:27 – Discussion of Chris’s old YouTube stunts, painting a vivid portrait of his youth.
• 09:45–10:32 – Outline of Chris’s prison sentence and efforts to reform.
• 14:37–15:06 – Set-up of the physical scene and timeline before Chris’s disappearance.
• 15:47–16:36 – Chris’s final phone call with his father, relayed by Robert Whiteley.
• 17:56–18:16 – The odd Facebook exchange between Kimberly and Tyler.
• 20:14–21:10 – Paulie Huggins explains worries about Tyler’s indifference and possible threats against Chris.
• 22:06–24:10 – Law enforcement interviews Tyler and her uncle, probing inconsistencies and concern.
• 29:32–30:05 – The discovery of Chris’s body, which sets up the ongoing investigation.

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Tone and Character

The episode maintains a deeply empathetic, inquisitive, and at times frustrated tone—reflecting the pain of a family denied closure and the urgency of questioning an official narrative that feels incomplete. The frank, sometimes darkly humorous, banter between Ferguson and Scudder humanizes Chris while underscoring the tragedy of his loss.

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Next Steps

The episode closes with a chilling reveal: when Chris’s body is finally found, the nature of the injuries is so concerning that deputies realize a killer may be at large, not a mountain lion. The host teases a deeper dive in upcoming episodes.

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For further case details, photos, and updates, listeners are encouraged to visit unforgottenpod.com.

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Transcript

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[Charlie Scudder]

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[Kimberly Spruill]

I've always heard that when somebody dies a horrible death, their body is stuck there where they're at. Do you believe that?

[Wes Ferguson]

No, I never heard that before.

[Kimberly Spruill]

You've never heard of that?

[Narrator / Reporter]

Not long ago, I got a call from a woman named Kimberly Spruill.

[Kimberly Spruill]

Can you hear me?

[Wes Ferguson]

Yeah, can you hear me now?

[Kimberly Spruill]

I have bad phone service.

[Paulie Huggins]

Sorry.

[Wes Ferguson]

Oh, that's okay. I hear you fine.

[Narrator / Reporter]

I'd never met Kimberly before and I was surprised she even had my phone number. It turns out she got it from the sheriff's office in Hood County, Texas. They told her I was asking questions about her son, Christopher Whiteley. I'd always wanted to know what happened to Christopher. I mean, what really happened. Because the official story never made any sense to me.

[Wes Ferguson]

Now to a death investigation in Texas where authorities are at odds over whether.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

A 28 year old man died in an attack.

[Wes Ferguson]

Local sheriff's deputies say they found Christopher Whiteley's body in a Wooded area of hood county, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

[Narrator / Reporter]

A highly unusual death has a lot of people understandably worried. Christopher's killing just five years ago made news around the world. It exposed all these conflicts, triggered wild conspiracy theories, and made people afraid to let their kids play outside. For a while, it was the biggest true crime mystery in Texas. But then all the controversy and hysteria just kind of stopped.

[Kimberly Spruill]

That story quit. He just died?

[Wes Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Spruill]

I mean, there was no more said, no more calls. Everybody just dropped it. I just thought everybody didn't care.

[Narrator / Reporter]

It was just so unresolved.

[Kimberly Spruill]

It's not solved. I don't know that we can find out the truth, but it would be nice to know what happened. I would like somebody tell him justice. It's not gonna bring him back, but they might heal the wound.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Who or what killed Christopher Allen Whiteley? Why was the case closed and his killer never found? From Free Range Productions with the Dallas Morning News, this is season four of the Unforgotten Kills. Right. I'm your host, Wes Ferguson, and this is episode one. Just do it.

[Wes Ferguson]

Back in 2020, on the day after Thanksgiving, Kimberly Sproul got a horrible feeling about her son Christopher.

[Kimberly Spruill]

See, this is going to sound crazy to you, but I can predict when things are going to happen. It's like a week before Christopher died. I predicted it, okay? On November 27, my chest started hurting really bad. I got anxiety really bad.

[Wes Ferguson]

Kimberly was with her boyfriend Patrick.

[Kimberly Spruill]

And I told Patrick, I said, christopher, six in the die. He's like, what? I said, I gotta go merch room. So fix having to Christopher bad.

[Wes Ferguson]

Christopher was 28 years old, 5 foot 8, and slender, with thick glasses and dark brown hair. He grew up in Dublin, Texas, a small town about an hour and a half southwest of Fort Worth. Christopher's loved ones say he had a lot of problems. He also had a goofy side.

[Charlie Scudder]

You know, I remember Kimberly talking about his sense of humor and how funny he was.

[Narrator / Reporter]

This is my friend Charlie Scudder.

[Charlie Scudder]

And she used some examples. That wasn't my kind of humor necessarily, but, you know, they brought her so much joy and these kinds of family and jokes and teasing each other and making inappropriate comments to each other and that kind of thing. I could see that being a really joyful person.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Charlie was a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. When Christopher was killed, he spent weeks, if not months, digging into the case. To this day, Charlie knows almost too much about Christopher Whiteley.

[Charlie Scudder]

He did have a few tattoos, one kind of vulgar one near his crotch.

[Wes Ferguson]

What was that?

[Charlie Scudder]

It was a Nike swish. That said just do it.

I think. Let me, let me double check.

I think that's what it was. Yeah. Here we go. Okay. Yes. Yep. Just above the pubic area is a Nike symbol in the words just do it.

[Wes Ferguson]

I mean, that's just funny.

[Charlie Scudder]

I know. It's like, come on, man.

[Wes Ferguson]

Did you come across his YouTube page?

[Charlie Scudder]

I did not, no.

[Wes Ferguson]

So, yeah, it's from a long time. It's from 2011 or so. Okay, so this would have been probably like what, late teens? I think maybe before he became a dad. Yeah, there's just a few, but they're really funny. There's one called Ghetto Jackass.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Following video features stunts performed either by dumbasses or.

[Robert Whiteley]

Or on the supervision of dumbasses.

[Wes Ferguson]

And it's. It's like him. You could tell which one is him. It's really obvious. Cuz he's kind of small. He's got this like thin mustache and thick glasses and they're in a junkyard or something. And his buddy crawls up on top of this shed and gets inside a barrel.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

This is ghetto jackass.

[Wes Ferguson]

And then Chris is like holding up the barrel with some boards. And then he pulls the boards away.

[Robert Whiteley]

Are you ready?

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[Wes Ferguson]

Barrel rolls down the shed and like just smacks on the ground.

Dude lands like head first. It comes just like spilling out of this barrel like.

This head all jacked up. And it's one of those don't do this at home. But they're just cracking up like a couple of dumb kids having the time of their life. So.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah, Ghetto jackass.

[Wes Ferguson]

Yeah, that sounds.

[Charlie Scudder]

That sounds like someone who gets a Just do it tattoo above the crotch.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Yeah.

[Charlie Scudder]

And I mean that. I mean that with love, right?

[Narrator / Reporter]

Oh, sure.

[Wes Ferguson]

I mean, I think we all had friends that would, you know, you're 18 and you're GNA. Just do it tattoos.

[Charlie Scudder]

Hey, you know.

[Wes Ferguson]

But you know, he had stuff about his, like how to feed his baby iguana. But then he also has. It's called My Life and it's a video montage set to the Titanic theme.

[Charlie Scudder]

Like My heart will go on.

[Wes Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Charlie Scudder]

Celine Dion.

[Robert Whiteley]

Oh my gosh.

[Wes Ferguson]

He had a couple videos of Tyler.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Tyler is a name you'll want to remember. Her full name is Samantha Tyler Arlene Messina. She was Christopher's teenage sweetheart, his on and off girlfriend, and the mother of his two children. In Christopher's videos, Tyler has big blue eyes and long wet hair all wrapped up in a towel, fresh from the shower.

[Wes Ferguson]

He's like just kind of teasing her and she flips off the camera, and it's like, what are you doing?

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

This is my girl, Part two. Being a weirdo.

[Paulie Huggins]

A weirdo.

[Narrator / Reporter]

A weirdo.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

She's probably looking at new guys right now.

[Paulie Huggins]

You're right, baby. All the years. You better stop saggy nuts.

[Tyler Messina]

They look like an old man. We call him.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Oh, she's talking about me, motherfucker.

[Wes Ferguson]

Just kind of usual young couple kind of stuff.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah. I hadn't seen those. That. That makes me smile.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Yeah.

[Wes Ferguson]

But it also shows his creativity, and it shows why, you know, the people who loved him would have loved him.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah. And that's the thing that is. Is so frustrating because it's like.

That'S a person, Right. That is a fully formed person. Again, warts and all. There's a little dirt. It's reality. But that is not somebody who should just be ignored right after death. Right. That's. I'm shaking my head over here.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Yeah.

[Wes Ferguson]

It's sad.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah.

[Narrator / Reporter]

The videos show mostly good times, but there were some awful times, too. In 2016, Christopher admitted to cutting Tyler's wrist with an X acto knife.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah. So he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison. In prison, Christopher's family says he got clean and he was doing well and he was looking good. He looked healthy for the first time in a long time. You know, I've seen some pictures of him during this time. He's, you know, looks rounder and fuller. He gets out in 2020, and then what? He was looking for a job. He was trying to make an honest living for those first few months.

[Wes Ferguson]

And was supposedly working in the oil field, right?

[Charlie Scudder]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And going out to West Texas to work in that oil field, where, again, according to his family, he was staying clean and doing well.

[Wes Ferguson]

And while he was in prison, Tyler got married to another guy, right?

[Charlie Scudder]

Yes. Yeah.

[Wes Ferguson]

But then, not long after Christopher's out of prison, they reunite.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yes. We don't know the circumstances of how they got together or when they got together, but we know that he was seeing her. And I think I remember Kimberly talking about them trying to get the kids back. So maybe that's how they got back into contact, was to talk about the custody issues.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Oh, yeah.

[Charlie Scudder]

They ended up getting back into contact.

[Wes Ferguson]

They move into a trailer on Tyler's uncle's property.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yes. He starts spending more and more time out in that trailer.

[Wes Ferguson]

And that's where they start using drugs again.

[Charlie Scudder]

Yep.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Christopher had been out of prison for less than six months when Thanksgiving rolled around. In 2020, and Kimberly got that horrible feeling about her son, that Christopher was about to die. Kimberly had just spoken to Christopher a couple days earlier and she talked to him about Tyler. Apparently things were not going well for the couple.

[Kimberly Spruill]

And I was sitting in the car with him and he said, mama, I would die for her. I said, christopher, do you really mean that? And he said, yes, Mama, I do. I would die for her. I went and told the doctor, I said, my son is fixing to die. And he gave me anxiety pills and sent me home.

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[Narrator / Reporter]

Christopher Whiteley, before he died, was staying with his longtime on and off girlfriend Tyler Messina at her great uncle's place. It was right outside the Texas town of Lypan.

[Wes Ferguson]

That's pronounced Ly Pan, right? Yes, kind of.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Lipan.

[Charlie Scudder]

Lipan.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Lipan is tiny, about 500 people.

[Charlie Scudder]

Laipan isn't even a one stop light town. It's a highway. It's a gas station and a library and a post office and that's about it.

[Narrator / Reporter]

The town's about 40 miles up the road from Dublin, the little town where Christopher grew up. It's in a part of Texas called the Western Cross Timbers where right in the middle of the prairie there's randomly all these trees and hills. Just one week after Christopher told Kimberly he was willing to die for Tyler, the couple stayed up late partying. Tuesday night spilled into Wednesday morning. So they've been up drinking all night.

[Kimberly Spruill]

They've been having a party till 3:30 in the morning. Christopher did try to call me that morning. Okay, I missed the call because I turned the phone off.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Kimberly missed his call. But Christopher got a hold of his dad Robert at 7:41am Christopher said he was having some kind of emergency.

[Robert Whiteley]

It's an emergency. He needed to arrive from there because supposing the people in that house or somebody's out there leaving and he needs a ride.

[Narrator / Reporter]

You're hearing Robert in a recording made by the local sheriff's office.

[Robert Whiteley]

He was talking to me. There was a two or three people in the background.

[Narrator / Reporter]

One point he said hang on a minute. He said I gotta walk away. But Christopher didn't give any names. He didn't say who he had to walk away from.

[Robert Whiteley]

He had to walk away from him, talk to me. And he talked to me for a while and all of a sudden he started hung up and I went ahead and circus dressed all this. That called me back again and talked to me a little bit more and I said might be on my way. I told him, I said, I said, I told never to go out there. His son went off again like young enough for someone made him hang his phone up.

[Narrator / Reporter]

I know that was hard to follow. Robert said he could hear two or.

[Wes Ferguson]

Three People in the background. He told Christopher that he told him to never go over there to Tyler's place. And the phone call ended abruptly.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Robert wasn't sure if Christopher hung up or if someone made him hang up, whatever was going on. Robert hit the road for Li Pan.

[Robert Whiteley]

I got there and I called his phone.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Somebody answered the call, but no one said anything. Robert stayed on the line for about two minutes, nothing.

[Robert Whiteley]

And then I just hung up. There's nobody would answer it. I parked on the side of the road over. I already called him, said I was there, messaging him. I was there. And he never would have told him. I called the phone 21 times. Sitting there 15, 20 minutes I was there. I never could give him answer his phone after I called him.

[Narrator / Reporter]

So something's obviously going on. Christopher's having an emergency. Robert drives all the way over to Laypan. He calls his son a bunch, waits there for a while. But when Christopher never shows, he eventually leaves and drives back to Dublin. Kimberly woke up later in the day and also tried to call Christopher, but he didn't answer her. No one could get a hold of him. Not his parents, not his friends. Kimberly was also trying to get in touch with Tyler. Finally, Tyler responded to a direct message on Facebook.

[Kimberly Spruill]

I said, did you find Christopher? She said, we're napping.

[Wes Ferguson]

I've seen a screenshot of this exchange. First, Tyler says, chris is asleep.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Is he with you?

[Wes Ferguson]

Kimberly asks. And Tyler responds, yeah, we're napping. The screenshot isn't timestamped, so I can't be exactly sure when Tyler and Kimberly were sending these messages.

[Narrator / Reporter]

But it's weird for Tyler to say she and Christopher were napping when in truth, she hadn't seen him all day. Whatever was going on, it wasn't until the following afternoon, more than 30 hours since Christopher was last seen, that anybody bothered to call the law.

[Paulie Huggins]

Hood County, 91 1. What's the address of your emergency?

[Narrator / Reporter]

Foreign.

[Wes Ferguson]

Christopher had this friend named Polly Huggins. Paulie is the one who finally dialed 91 1. She wasn't reporting an emergency, not exactly. Paulie just wasn't sure what else to do.

[Paulie Huggins]

I don't know how to do this because I've never had to, but I had a friend call saying that her boyfriend, ex boyfriend, came up missing, which is one of my really good friends. And she's claiming that he up and just left in the middle of night or something like that. And I'm trying to get her to go walking looking for him, and she's like, oh, well, you know, giving me all Kinds of stories.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Paulie wanted someone from the sheriff's office to go check on her friend.

[Paulie Huggins]

That sounds pretty sketchy. Like, to me and his entire family. I just want to know if he's okay. Okay. What's his name? Christopher Allen Whiteley. Is there a history of violence or drug or alcohol use?

Well, actually, I'm going to tell you the truth. She's on probation. He just got out of prison for trying to kill her.

[Narrator / Reporter]

At one time, according to Paulie, Tyler's kinfolk were threatening Christopher and telling him to stay away. Christopher had done pretty much the opposite of that.

[Paulie Huggins]

And I heard her uncle talk to him the way her family talks to him on the phone. They're like, if y' all ever get back together, we promise we'll do something to you. Like I said, he hasn't been out of prison long. We tried to keep him around us and keep her away, but he swears up and down they're in love, blah, blah, blah. And we told him it's a bad deal to fall back into.

[Narrator / Reporter]

It was also hard to understand who was over at the house that night.

[Paulie Huggins]

She kept saying it was like two people. And she's like, I never heard them get out of bed. And he was like, this is them. I was like, why didn't you call the cops? Like, you could be anywhere. So that's why I called Joel, cuz she's not showing any exc. In my eyes.

[Wes Ferguson]

If you didn't follow that. Paulie said Tyler also told her there were two people with them that night, and she never heard them get out of bed. Paulie wanted Tyler to call the cops, but she wouldn't do it. In Paulie's eyes, Tyler wasn't making any effort to find Christopher.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Shortly after Paulie's 911 call, two deputies from the Hood County Sheriff's office arrive at the property. It's tucked behind some trees on Howell Road, this narrow road that winds through the country about a mile outside of Laipan. On their body cam videos, Deputy Daniel Martin and Deputy Tyler Looper are seen knocking on the door.

[Robert Whiteley]

Morning, sir.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Morning.

[Wes Ferguson]

An older man comes to the door. His name is Kenneth Impey, and he's technically Tyler's great uncle, but he often refers to Tyler as his granddaughter. He owns the property where Tyler and Christopher had been staying, and he lives there, too. He's mostly bald on top, with scraggly long gray hair on the sides and a long gray beard.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Is Christopher here?

[Robert Whiteley]

No, sir, he isn't.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Is his girlfriend my granddaughter?

[Robert Whiteley]

Yeah.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Can we speak with her, huh? We're here to check on Christopher.

[Robert Whiteley]

He was here and then yesterday morning when I got up, my front door was open, he was gone. We have no idea where he's at.

[Wes Ferguson]

Tyler comes out of another room pulling on a hoodie.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

We're looking for Chris.

[Narrator / Reporter]

When Tyler hears Christopher's name, she kind of flinches or shrugs and goes bug eyed for a second. I don't really know how to interpret her reaction.

[Tyler Messina]

Yeah, I've been looking for him too. He left yesterday morning. Didn't even wake me up or anything.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Why would he leave to go to work?

[Narrator / Reporter]

Christopher technically had a job, but he hadn't been showing up. His friends had called his work, but he wasn't there.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

So he left for work and never came back. And you didn't think that was weird?

[Tyler Messina]

I did think it was weird. That's when I started calling his friends and his parents. I was like, did y' all come pick him up? Because he didn't tell me. Bye.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

So between four and seven he left.

[Tyler Messina]

I was passed out on the bed. I remember hearing him faintly talk on the phone to somebody about coming to get him, but I didn't think it was going to be right then and there. And next thing I know, I wake up, it's already 8 and he's not there.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Were y' all fighting?

[Tyler Messina]

Oh, no, we're just cleaning and drinking.

[Wes Ferguson]

Deputy Daniel Martin asks to see Tyler's phone and he scrolls through all of her texts with Christopher. The messages are hard to read on the body cam video, but there are a lot. All of them from Tyler.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Is there any reason that you would feel like he's in danger?

[Tyler Messina]

I. I don't. I don't think so. I mean, I just. I don't know.

[Charlie Scudder]

So it's not abnormal for him to just kind of.

[Tyler Messina]

This is very weird. Like I was trying to say earlier, he calls me like every five or 10 minutes. I haven't had a phone call in two days.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Does he have any enemies? Anybody that's been calling, harassing y', all, anything like that?

[Tyler Messina]

Nobody's harassed us, but he always has had enemies. I mean, everywhere. But this just. This doesn't make sense, you know, that's kind of interesting.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Tyler says Christopher has enemies everywhere. The deputy again asks Tyler if she and Christopher had been fighting.

[Tyler Messina]

We argue off and on like a normal couple. So I figured whenever he had went to go to work, he was just not going to text me. Like I usually don't text him whenever I'm mad at him. So, you know, was he Mad at you about something? No. And that's the thing. We didn't even go to sleep matter anything. We weren't even fighting. And that's when I started to realize. I was like, we weren't even fighting. So what is really going on?

[Wes Ferguson]

Deputy Martin looks at Tyler's text messages with Christopher's dad.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Robert this is dad Robert Yes. Why does he think somebody dumped him in a ditch?

[Tyler Messina]

I know that's what I said. I was like, wow. He told me that on the phone. I was like, how can you just talk about your kids?

[Narrator / Reporter]

So using Tyler's phone, Deputy Martin steps outside to call Christopher's dad.

[Paulie Huggins]

Hello? What did you say?

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Robert yeah, this is Deputy Martin with the Hood County Sheriff's Office.

[Robert Whiteley]

Yes sir.

[Narrator / Reporter]

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Christopher's dad Robert answers the call from Tyler's phone. It's the sheriff's deputy.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

We were out here. We were called to check on your son Chris cuz nobody's heard from him.

[Robert Whiteley]

That's right again. I've got people texting me and all this looking for him. I don't know where he's at.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Is this weird that he would have took off and he's not answering his phone or texting or anybody.

[Narrator / Reporter]

It takes a while for Robert to answer.

[Robert Whiteley]

Well, kind of.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Robert goes on to tell the deputy about the weird phone calls he had with Christopher the previous morning. How Christopher said he was dealing with an emergency and needed his dad to come get him.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Did he say what the emergency was?

[Robert Whiteley]

Nope. Well, the only thing he told me, people out there or somebody was out there fixing to leave and they were going somewhere and he couldn't stay there, so he had to leave and he had to ride.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Do you think he could be in danger?

[Robert Whiteley]

Possibly, yes.

[Wes Ferguson]

The deputy calls the Hood County Jail to see if Chris has been arrested. But he's not in jail. He's not at the local hospital either. Back inside the house, Tyler is pressed on who was actually at the house that night that Chris disappeared.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Who else was out here when? When he called his dad. His dad said he could hear people in the background, and he said, hey, I need a ride. People out here. Leaving.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Tyler raises another possibility. She tells the deputies that Christopher had been complaining of chest pain. She also said his blood pressure was low. But her great uncle Kenneth contradicts her.

[Robert Whiteley]

It was 146 over 76.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

146 over 76. That's not terrible.

[Narrator / Reporter]

He asks Uncle Kenneth one of the same questions he just asked Tyler.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

Does anybody else here with y'?

[Narrator / Reporter]

All?

[Robert Whiteley]

No.

[Tyler Messina]

Okay.

[Robert Whiteley]

Just us. Like, he said that he just walked out.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

We're gonna ping his cell phone. If it's in the area. We're gonna obviously look for him right now. We don't know if he's on it, if he went to walk to meet his dad and passed out in a ditch.

[Wes Ferguson]

We did.

[Deputy Daniel Martin]

We don't know.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Deputy Martin radios his dispatcher. Within 10 minutes, they get a ping on Christopher's phone is showing that his phone is just 3/10 of a mile southwest of the trailer home. Deputy Martin and Deputy Looper make their way through the woods to that ping location. The ping was supposed to be accurate to within 4 meters or about 13ft. But it's getting dark and cold, and the deputies can't really see anything. They widen their search. Other first responders from the volunteer fire department and the sheriff's office begin to arrive, but they still can't really find anything. They're getting ready to leave the woods when one of the men finds this blue bag next to a tree. It's sitting in a pool of blood. He opens the bag, and inside he finds paperwork with Christopher's name on it.

Then he notices the small trail of blood. It's leading away from the bag. More little drops of blood every few feet, going deeper into the woods. About 20 yards from the bag, in that pool of blood, they find a bunch of brushes and sticks and underneath it's Christopher. He's curled up in the fetal position, lifeless.

When they roll him over, that's when they see Christopher's neck and they realize there's a killer on the loose.

Next time on the Unforgotten. Our top story tonight, he could have been surprised.

[Robert Whiteley]

We don't really know. It doesn't make sense at all.

[Narrator / Reporter]

Thank you for listening to the Unforgotten. To dig deeper into the story and see photos, case files and more, check out our [e-mail] the Unforgotten is a free range production. Season 4 kill site was produced here at Free Range in association with the Dallas Warning News. Editing by Aislin Gaddis Sound design and audio engineering from Austin Sisler with Eastside Studios. Charlie Scudder and I are executive producers. Special thanks to Morgan O'. Hanlon. Don't forget on forgottenpod.com see you soon.

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[Wes Ferguson]

Hey, I'm Wes Ferguson, executive producer of the Unforgotten. Every season of the Unforgotten is a deep dive into an unresolved case like a murder or a lot of murders or some miscarriage of justice. These are stories that matter to us. And with your support, we shine a light on them. Here's a sneak peek at season two, unnatural causes. Just in case you missed it.

[Charlie Scudder]

Think about a loved one you've lost, maybe a grandmother or your father or a beloved aunt. You believe the end was peaceful and painless. You've planned the funeral, made sure the estate was settled. You've moved belongings into storage or sold them or said final goodbyes on the curb. Now imagine you get a call. As much as two years later, police want you to come to the station. They say what you were told about the death was wrong. They want to add your loved one's name to a list of murders victims. That's the terrible reality that at least two dozen families are facing today. My name is Charlie Scudder. I'm a journalist who's been covering this case for five years. Together, we'll do what the police, medical examiners, senior living facilities, and more either failed or refused to do. String together evidence that points to systemic flaws in how we care for our older loved ones. You'll hear about a man who used the cracks in that system to become the worst serial killer in Dallas history. This is Unnatural Causes, season two of the Unforgotten. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.