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True Crime Garage
Kierra Coles /// Part 1
00:56:21
Kierra Coles is a United States Postal Service employee who went missing in October of 2018. This year marks five years since her disappearance and unfortunately her case is getting cold. Where is she? Did Kierra really call off from the job she loved on the same day that she seems to have vanished? Some say something happened to the young woman in the middle of the night and then someone else with working knowledge of Postal Service Employee business called off for her to cover their tracks and buy some time. Join Nic & the Captain for this almost “unbelievable” Missing Endangered - Foul Play case out of Chicago, Illinois. There is a reward for information in Kierra’s case, $68,000 last time it was reported. If you have any information regarding Kierra Coles and persons that knew her please call the United States Postal Inspection Service 877-876-2455. For more information go to Missingpersoncenter.org and search Kierra Coles.
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- [00:01]
Nick
Sometimes winds of change can wreak havoc on your home. Imagine that tall tree in your yard getting blown over during a storm and yikes, landing right on your roof. That's why it's wise to have homeowners insurance that'll be there for you when such curve balls strike. Your local State Farm agent can help you file a claim by phone, in person, online, or through our mobile app, Reach out. However, best works for you, they're ready to help. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Hey, I'm Steffi. You may know me from your social feed. I go big for the holidays, so I'm going to Famous Footwear because the best gifts are giving. Famous. My friends and family are gonna love all these styles from Nike, Adidas, Crocs, New Balance, Skechers and more. With over 800 stores, you're never far from the perfect gift. So make your list and make it famous. Come in today for buy one pair. Get one half off at your local Famous Footwear or famous dot com. Some exclusions apply. Welcome to True Crime Garage, wherever you are, whatever you were doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me I have my partner in crime. And together we would like to welcome you to the husband friendly True Crime podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the captain. Yeah.
- [01:56]
Captain
Hide your kids, hide your wife. Hide your husbands too. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
- [02:10]
Nick
This week we are very excited to be featuring 14 carat by the bright folks over at Sun King Brewery. 14 Karat is an IPA loaded with a blend of 14 hops for a happy and hoppy character. ABV 6.3% garage grade, 4 out of 5 bottle caps. And let's give some cheers to those listeners who made today a bright spot on the garage calendar. First up, a big cheers to Jana listening in from Chicago, Illinois.
- [02:38]
Captain
And a big we like your jib goes out to Macy in Conway, Arkansas.
- [02:43]
Nick
And last but certainly not least, we have Melissa in Sanger, California. Everyone we mentioned, they went to our website, truecrimegarage.com clicked on the pint glass that helped us out with this week's beer fund. And for that, we thank you.
- [02:56]
Captain
Yeah, that's right, BWR.
- [02:58]
Nick
You win.
- [02:58]
Captain
Beer run. Go to truecrimegarage.com Sign up on the mailing list, go to our store page, Pick up something, pick up some swag. And if you need more True Crime Garage for your earballs, make sure you subscribe to us through the Apple podcast. Apple or through Patreon and Colonel. That's enough of the business.
- [03:18]
Nick
All right everybody gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer, let's talk some true crime. Months ago we received the following letter. Hi Nick and Cap. I've been listening for years. Love the work you do. I was recently listening and you guys suggested if a first responder had a local case that we'd like you to look at, to email in. Well, here I am. I live in Chicago, Illinois and there is a case that is near and dear to my heart that needs your help. Kiera coles is a USPS worker who has been missing for five years. She was three months pregnant when she went missing in October of 2018. At the age of 26 years old, she up and vanished. Her vehicle with her purse inside were found parked on her block. She was due to work that day but called in sick. When you call in sick for usps, it is not as simple as a quick phone call. I know someone who works for USPS and have heard them call in sick before. It's about a five minute long process typing in special codes and employee numbers. Rumor here is we know who is responsible. She is still missing and I feel like this case resurfacing could help. Thank you, a loyal listener. So as promised, we looked into this missing young woman's case and we certainly did not like what we found. Sure, Chicago, like many of our country's larger cities can be a dangerous place. We've all heard the stories of gang style shootings, drugs and murders of sex workers plaguing the city. But Chicago also has millions of law abiding, upstanding residents. Everyday folks who are just working hard to achieve the life they want for themselves and for their families. One of them was 26 year old Kiera Coles. Kiera had it all going for her. She was gorgeous, she had a successful job she loved, she had a new apartment and a car and she was having a baby. But then suddenly someone took all of that away. Kiera Coles vanished from the face of the earth in October of 2018. Where is Kiera Kohl's? This is true Crime Garage. Kiera Michelle coles was a 26 year old woman whose life was all coming together. Kiera was the fourth of five children born to mom Karen Phillips. Her father was Joseph Kohl's. All of Karen's kids names begin with the letter K. It was a very close family and Kiera had a lot of people who cared about her. Kiera was a go getter and her family says she was Very outgoing and driven. Her mom said one word to describe her would be ambitious. Her dad Joseph said her family nickname was Boss Lady Kohl's because she was very bossy and told everyone in the family what to do. Now even as a child Kiera was loud and in charge. Her mom Karen said Kiera was always a chatterbox, that someone who was very outgoing. From an early age she wanted to be in the media, TV or radio. She just enjoyed being out there. Kiera was a super girly person as well and would do professional level makeup jobs for her friends and family members, whether it be for a prom, weddings or so on. She was also known for her appearance. She was a hair done, nails done and dressed very nicely kind of person. Her only issue was that she had asthma, but she had an inhaler and was able to keep her symptoms in check with that. In her 20s, Kiera lived in the Chicago area. Like the rest of her family. She worked two part time jobs to pay her bills. She lived on the 8100 block of South Vernon Avenue in the middle class Chatham neighborhood. This is a tree lined street with rows of red brick 3 story apartment buildings with small lawns and curated hedges. Kiera also bought a car and drove for Lyft. But it was her job as a seasonal mail sorter for the U.S. postal Service that she loved. She did that job on a part time basis for three years. She was determined to get the USPS to hire her on full time as a letter carrier and she did. She got the job that she wanted and it was the job that she loved. She loved putting on the uniform and using her cart to tote the mail through residential Chicago neighborhoods. She started that position in 2015 and everything for Kiera was going great. She also had a long term boyfriend, Josh Simmons. Karen, her mother said that Josh treated Kierra well. Josh worked for the Postal Service as well. As far as Kiera's family knew, all was good between Josh and Kiera.
- [09:43]
Captain
In October of 2018, Kyra was 26 years old and three months pregnant.
- [09:50]
Nick
Josh Simmons, her long term boyfriend, was the father. Kiera was thrilled and her whole family was thrilled. Kiera was the last one of Karen's kids to bear a child and her family was. They were over the moon about the situation. Now it's unclear if Josh was over the moon as well. But Kiera's family hadn't noticed anything amiss with the young couple. Now let's move to Tuesday, October 2, 2018. Kiera went to an appointment with her aunt And a friend. The nature of this appointment has never been released, but it's believed to have been some kind of prenatal appointment. It's unclear why, but Kiera had taken off Monday 1st October and Tuesday 2nd October from her job. Apparently letter carriers are expected to work long hours and it's possible that Kiara was tired and not feeling great. We know she's pregnant at the time, but she seemed like she was in a great mood when her mom talked to her that night. So this October 2nd appointment, this is. And we need to all make special mental note of this right here. This is very important to our timeline. This October 2nd appointment was the last known in person sighting of Kiera by her family. Kiera talked to her mom every day. And so Tuesday October 2nd was no different. They spoke on the phone around 7pm that night Kiera was at a local WIC grocery store and talked to her mom about the healthy foods that she should be eating during her pregnancy and about the baby things that she wanted to buy. All seemed, well, all seemed normal. Karen later said, quote, she was already excited about becoming a mother. That's all my child ever wanted to be, a mom. And to accomplish all the things she's set out to accomplish. To have a nice paying job, which she had, to get a new car which she bought, to move into her own apartment, which she did and to become a mother, which she was about to do. The next day, Wednesday, mom calls Kiera again. It's 88 degrees that day and she wanted to remind her daughter to drink plenty of fluids for the sake of the baby. The call however, goes to voicemail. Well, Karen, the mom, very diligent, keeps trying, keeps trying to get a hold of Kiera, calling several more times, but all getting the same result. This was odd and concerning. She called Kim, this is Kiera's sister, but Kim hadn't heard from Kiera either, so they went to Snapchat. And I guess Kiera Captain was a chronic snapper. She had not posted a story that day. So this was very unusual by all considered. Mom and sister family members are saying, look, this is our loved one who always answers our calls. Sure, maybe the phone's dead, maybe she's charging her phone, maybe she forgot her phone and she's out. But she always answers the phone and she's always snap chatting and none of this is happening at this time.
- [13:14]
Captain
Well, just to be clear, she didn't call off October 2nd and 3rd in advance there. She called off in the morning of the second and Then again on the third.
- [13:26]
Nick
Correct. And the call off is very important to our timeline as well. Right. We know that she called off on the first, we know she called off on the second and then we're going to learn that she called off on the third as well. Again, we understand she has this appointment, so that makes sense. Right? You can't be at work and at your appointment all at the same time. But she's also pregnant and so maybe she woke up not feeling great, decided to take the day off. That's one of the benefits of a great job, like being a letter carrier or working for usps.
- [13:59]
Captain
Right.
- [13:59]
Nick
They, it takes a while to get hired on, but once you get hired on they have great benefits and so this is a great job. And again, we don't know the exact details of why the call offs took place. But now this is going to lead us to Thursday, October 4th. So now we still have no response from Kiera Karen, her mother decided, you know what, I'm going to go over to her apartment. Enough is enough. She gets there, she's alarmed because her daughter's car is parked outside, but it's parked down the block.
- [14:33]
Captain
Right?
- [14:35]
Nick
So the apartment was locked and there's no answer. Karen could hear that the TV was on inside of the apartment. So now she's, she's worried enough to go over there, Captain. She sees the car in a strange spot which makes her even more worried. And doors locked, no answer, TV on inside. She is very worried at this point. So she calls the boyfriend, Josh Simmons, and ask him if he could come over because he has a key to the apartment. He says in this phone call that he does not have a key to the apartment. And this is going to be very problematic to our story here, Captain, because Karen says and has said many times, very distinctly recalling that Kiera said that she gave Josh a key to her apartment.
- [15:26]
Captain
Yeah, well, this is liar, liar, pants on fire.
- [15:29]
Nick
She's not lived there. This is not a situation where she's lived there for two years or three years or five years and she gave somebody a key and maybe she's mistaken or he lost the key. She had only been there a few months. So if she tells mom, I gave my boyfriend a key, there's no reason to doubt that. So she's a little suspicious now that Josh suddenly doesn't have a key.
- [15:57]
Captain
Remember they've been dating for six years.
- [15:59]
Nick
And he tells Karen that he hadn't seen or talked to Kiera all day. Remember this is the fourth and he.
- [16:06]
Captain
Doesn'T seem Too worried.
- [16:08]
Nick
Correct. So what we have now is mom is going to jump into action. She calls Chicago PD and says, I have a pregnant daughter, I can't get a hold of her. I'm worried that she's like passed out on the floor in her apartment. Shortly after the call to the police, we now have the boyfriend, Josh Simmons, on scene. He's there with mom.
- [16:32]
Captain
Yeah, law enforcement's going to do a welfare check.
- [16:35]
Nick
We have Karen's husband who is there as well. His name is Dan Perkins. So both of them have arrived on the scene shortly before the cops show up. Now, after the cops show up and getting no answer to pounding on the door and announcing a police presence, they took the hinges off of the door and entered the apartment. Karen says that she was so terrified that there would be something in the apartment that she didn't want to see. So she stayed outside taking deep breaths, trying to remain calm. Josh and Kiera's stepdad, Dan, they went along with the officers into the apartment. Then they come back outside a short time later announcing that the coast was clear. They found nothing inside. The TV was on, the place was neat and tidy as usual. The groceries. Remember she was on the phone with mom when she was at the store. So the groceries that Kiera had bought the evening before were all put away where they belonged as far as mom, stepdad and boyfriend were all concerned. They're telling police, look, yeah, there's no one here. That's strange. But also there's nothing out of order and there's no sign of a struggle. Everything is as we would expect it to be. Minus that, we don't have Kiara here.
- [17:59]
Captain
Yeah, no sign of a struggle, no sign of robbery. Kira's car is there, but it's not in her normal parking spot. But that happens sometimes in these apartment complexes where you get back home and somebody has a couple people over so you have to park down the street a little bit. But what they do find in her house is her keys and her wallet. So where is she at? Did she take off on foot somewhere?
- [18:31]
Nick
Yeah. So let's stay on this vehicle situation for a minute here. So as we said, Karen finds her daughter's car there and this is alarming to her because usually Kiera would park the vehicle directly in front of the apartment on the street. They find the vehicle parked on the street, but it's down the block and mom is saying, look, this is not somewhere that Kiera would have parked, especially knowing that she spoke to her on the phone at the grocery store and she would Be hauling in groceries from the vehicle. And we found those groceries put away inside the apartment. So I'm guessing here, Captain, that mom and stepdad are probably thinking, well she, she must have moved her vehicle or went some another place at some point for the vehicle to be parked on the street at this location. So mom calls a locksmith because they want to get into the locked vehicle. And once they were able to access this vehicle, she found Kiera's lunch bag all packed for her day at work. The contents I have listed here are an apple and orange water, her prenatal vitamins. In the trunk of the vehicle they found Kiera's mail cart that she used daily at work and her work coat. But also inside the car were Kierra's purse and her cell phone which was sitting on a seat underneath of a jacket, one of Kiara's jackets. So they're wondering where the hell is Kiera? Karen starts calling Kiera's friends. No luck. She called all the local hospitals. Her daughter's not there either. Kara had never been to jail so that didn't seem likely. We're reaching out to everybody. We cannot find this individual.
- [20:28]
Captain
But what we do have is the cell phone. But what I couldn't find anywhere was it, was there any suspicious activity on the cell phone?
- [20:35]
Nick
The family was not able to access the cell phone due to password protection. Mom files an official missing persons report with the Chicago Police Department on that very day. October 4th. CPD and the US Postal Inspection Service begin a joint investigation into Kiera's disappearance. Her father, Joseph Coles, her biological father, he comes into town from Racine, Wisconsin where he lived and he's now actively helping in on the search for his daughter. Right, Joseph, in his search he goes door to door in the neighborhood, asking people questions, handing out flyers. He even was stopping passing cars to talk to the drivers, the passengers and to hand them a missing person's flyer. Karen began plastering flyers about Kiera all around the city, praying that Kiera had just been maybe having some kind of mood swing from pregnancy hormones and would turn up? That didn't seem likely. But you can you really get the feeling here, Captain, that they are just grasping onto any inch of hope that, you know, this is all just a misunderstanding and she's going to turn up sooner rather than later?
- [21:54]
Captain
It seems at this point between the interactions between the family and the boyfriend, Josh seem to be where Josh is trying to help, but it also seems like he's not. Like his stories aren't straight.
- [22:08]
Nick
Correct. That's exactly Right. And the thing here, though, that's going to make it difficult for the family to keep grasping to any ounce of hope is that they're seeing one thing. Right. When they review her vehicle and the items found in her vehicle, they're seeing one thing. When they look at her apartment, everything is as it should be. But then they learn when talking to her place of work that she called in sick on that Wednesday, October 3rd. USPS would not go into any details, citing privacy interest.
- [22:49]
Captain
Right.
- [22:49]
Nick
But stated that Kiera had not vanished while on duty. So they wanted to be. They wanted to be clear. Like she called in sick, she didn't show up for work, and then she went missing from here. Whatever happened to Kiera happened before she ever got to work that day. And again, it's weird. Yeah.
- [23:06]
Captain
Or happened the night before.
- [23:08]
Nick
Yeah. Because here the situation appears that she packed a lunch, packed up her vehicle to go to work like any other day, but then called in sick. Now, it's not out of the realm of possibility that maybe she packed up her lunch, took her purse and her cell phone, puts it in the vehicle and then suddenly gets ill and decides to go back into her apartment. That's. Even though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense what they're seeing. That's not out of the realm of possibility here. But again, if she's, if she's sick and at home, she should be sick and at home and we're not finding her at all. And like you said, that we're trying to figure out the cell phone. Can the cell phone tell us any information about her whereabouts or who she spoke to or her movements after we talked to her at the grocery store and they're not able to get into the cell phone because of the password protection.
- [24:05]
Captain
And did she call off work through her cell phone? Because the thing that the Postal service can't tell us, can't confirm, is what we. What they can say is, yes, somebody called off, but they can't confirm that it was her.
- [24:22]
Nick
See, it gets very difficult because they're going to say, the Postal service is going to say, we believe it was her, and here's why. Right. And it goes back to the method and the, the protocol for calling off in that situation. And it sounds to me, from everything I've been told, is that you got to punch in, like, employee numbers and codes and all kinds of things. Like, it's a. It's a lengthy process. And so USPS is saying, look, somebody provided us all the information that would tell us that this Is Kiera that actually calling in and phoning off from work. Right, but, but as you said, if, if somebody knows that information and knows that protocol and use is used to that, then one could perform that task. And it doesn't have to be Kiera.
- [25:14]
Captain
No. And the person that is being a little suspicious is her boyfriend of six years, her baby daddy.
- [25:25]
Nick
Right.
- [25:25]
Captain
And he would know those protocols and he would probably know the information on how to have her call off with her not actually being present. This show is sponsored by Better Help.
- [25:49]
Nick
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- [27:21]
Captain
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- [28:49]
Nick
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- [31:52]
Captain
All right, we are back. Onwards and upwards. Cheers to you, Colonel.
- [31:57]
Nick
Cheers to you, Captain. Often we say tall cans and the air. And this week, very fittingly so, because the 14 karat comes in the pint can, so it is tall cans in the air. And oh, little special announcement here too. We did put some signed books, the Delphi Murders back up on the website. This will be the last batch going out before Christmas. So if you want to gift the best book ever written to somebody, feel free to pick one up@TrueCrimeGarage.com or if you want to gift one to yourself, that's a great idea too. So, last batch before Christmas, tell your friends.
- [32:36]
Captain
Also want to welcome the Colonel to the Instagram. So if you're not following him, cgnic, do so so you can be part of the cool kids. Now let's get back to this case.
- [32:50]
Nick
One thing that is very different about the more recent cases that we cover compared to the older and colder cases is the technology. And one thing that we're seeing time and time again with these more recent cases, the way that we're solving these crimes and solving these mysteries is with things like cell phones and surveillance cameras. You know, in the old days, every business had a surveillance camera that they never replaced the tape for or actually didn't work or the timestamp was completely wrong. But today, many people have the doorbell cameras, whether it be from the great folks over at Simply Safe for any number of outfits. But these surveillance cameras in these neighborhoods coming from residential places are really helping police. And now we, we know how important the timeline is. Police are going to go around this neighborhood. They're looking for surveillance video footage to help them fill in the timeline of their missing person. So they collect all this video footage and they start reviewing it. But then a reporter brought them some footage that she had uncovered, right? This was from a couple living two buildings down from Kiera who reviewed their camera footage and found footage of the missing young woman. They rushed out and they brought the footage to the attention of an NBC Chicago reporter, one who had went door to door trying to drum up leads in the case. The video was timestamped Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018 at 11:54am so this is daytime. And on this video they believe that it showed Kiera. She's dressed in USPS uniform, carrying a backpack and walking down the block. But the thing is, she walked past her own car and kept going, walking away from her apartment. She walked down the block and then changed direction. Karen's husband, Dan Perkins, told WGN9 Chicago that she seen something that made her turn around that fast and cross the street and her car was on the other side of the street, end quote. She then walked out of the frame so they could not see where she went from there. The last image of her was captured at 82nd street and Coles Avenue. So Kiera, our missing person, who had not answered her mom's calls all morning on October 3rd, from what the video is showing them, she's dressed and she's heading to work that morning. And she had put all of her stuff in her car. We know that from reviewing her vehicle. But also she called in sick and then vanished. So none of this is really making any sense to everyone who's looking for Kiera.
- [35:48]
Captain
But there's some problems initially. I mean, you'd think that we'd see this video footage and go, oh, well, there she is. But not everybody's convinced that that is Kiera.
- [36:00]
Nick
Right? We have mom who mom knows best, watch the footage over and over and over again once it was released to the public. And she's watching it over and over again. One, looking for clues, anything to help her find her daughter. But then she's also watching it repeatedly, thinking something's off about what she's seeing.
- [36:20]
Captain
And this makes me go back to the idea of we can't confirm that she's the one that called off on the third. Now we have this image of her in uniform walking to her car like she's going to go to work, but we can't even confirm that that's her.
- [36:39]
Nick
Well, what happens is she goes to police and she says, look, she's talking to the detectives and says, I've been watching this video footage. And the video footage that you have of a young black woman in a USPS uniform walking down Kiera's block the day after she was last heard from I'm mom and I'm here to tell you that's not my daughter Kiera in that video. And she says, quote, it's a mother thing. You just know your child. That's not her walk. She was a little bit smaller and a little bit shorter than the person that she was seeing in the video. So police, they get this information and you think that they would be floored, but actually they're not surprised at all. In fact, they tell Karen that they knew that the video was not that of Kiera. This was prior knowledge to them. They said that, look, it's another female postal worker who happens to live on the same block. And we've identified who the person is in the video, we've just not updated the public. Right. And they're saying the person in the video that's seen, while it does look a lot like Kira, given the uniform and all, the actual person abruptly turned around because she had forgotten something from her residence. She went back to get it and then she walked to the bus stop. And so that's why she's walking past Kiera's car. It's not her car, it's not Kiera. The cops tell Karen though, even though we know this information. Don't say anything, Keep this to yourself.
- [38:19]
Captain
Because this video footage is probably drawing up some leads.
- [38:24]
Nick
Drawing up leads and it's also leading people to police. Right, right. Because people are viewing this video, they're sharing this video, they're watching it, they're, they're looking for clues too. Some of these people are reaching out to police. And so when you have this tool, this is a very important tool for law enforcement because you are looking at Kiera's circle, her family and her friends, why is she missing? And now you don't always know everybody that she knew. You may not know everybody that she talked to or had interactions with during the time in question, which it seems like is about a two and a half, three day period. And so you have now have this tool that you've put out to the people that is snaring individuals coming into you and saying, oh, I knew this young woman, right, and here's how I know her.
- [39:17]
Captain
So, but also when you first hear that they released this video footage and then you find out that the mother isn't convinced it's her daughter, what was the first thing that popped into your head? Because mine was not mistaken identity and actually a postal worker, My thought was, is it possible this is some kind of decoy?
- [39:41]
Nick
Yeah, no, I was thinking the exact same thing. Because it goes back to the question of who actually called in sick on the third.
- [39:48]
Captain
Exactly.
- [39:49]
Nick
And if, if you can make that leap already, that maybe that wasn't Kiera, then you start going, okay, well then maybe it's not her in the video. And somebody, somebody manipulated the system calling in, calling off sick for her to make it look like everything is as it should be. And oh, by the way, here's somebody dressed up like Kiera walking down the side of the street. Now if you really want to try to throw police off and really want to stage a scene. The best thing to do would have been to get in that vehicle and drive it away and park it in some random neighborhood somewhere.
- [40:27]
Captain
Exactly. But and the other thing here too though, with this case that I think is so frustrating, frustrating for the family and for the parents and is you have this boyfriend of six years, his girlfriend is three months pregnant, she's super excited. And this guy's stories just don't make a lot of sense. I mean even just, hey, come over. You have a key. Let's check the apartment. No, I'm sorry, I don't have a key. What? I know you have a key.
- [41:00]
Nick
Well, and it gets difficult too because you have extenuating circumstances, right? You have situation where, where women in general are more likely to be prey than, than a male victim would be. And then on top of that you. We've reviewed a case, at least one case, if not a couple, here in the garage where a pregnant woman is taken because she's pregnant. Right now our person of interest or the person that we're talking about here today is pretty early in the pregnancy, so that doesn't seem incredibly likely. But you're trying to factor all this in. And you go back to the video real quick. My belief is that police probably release this to the public. Again, it was given to a reporter, so maybe the reporter released it to the public. I don't know exactly who was in charge of releasing it. We know that they, the police were in charge of telling Karen to be hush hush about it not being your daughter in the video. Right, but my belief is that when it was released to the public, and whoever released it to the public at that time believed that it was Kiera and then later police were able to confirm, no, it's not Kiera and it's also not somebody posing, attempting to make anybody believe that it is Kier. It's just a happenstance that another woman works for the post office and lives on her same street and was captured on video that same day.
- [42:35]
Captain
Yeah, I was reading something and tell me if this is, if this is true. I mean it sounds unbelievable, but I believe it's true. The number one cause of death towards a pregnant woman is homicide.
- [42:55]
Nick
I think that that depends on where you are getting your information because I've seen that reported as well. But I've also seen homicide as the third.
- [43:04]
Captain
Yeah, but even if it's in the top 10, we live in a pretty messed up society.
- [43:10]
Nick
Well, I mean, look at it. If we lived in a perfect society, we would have no show. So.
- [43:17]
Captain
Well, I'd rather live in a perfect society and not have a show.
- [43:20]
Nick
No, I'm not saying that we, that thank you world for being cruel to other. I'm not saying that one bit. But if we want to go down that road, that's, that's the truth of the matter. Right? So this situation, we're going to go, we're going to leap forward in time and then we're going to go back in time as well here. So bear with me for a second here, Captain. So remember, Karen is told to be hush hush about this information. She holds on to this information, keeping it to herself for two years, two full years after that she said, look, I'm done keeping this to myself. It hadn't done any good to keep it quiet. The case is cold by this point. So she tells everybody, look, that's not my daughter in the video. Police told me to be quiet about it. And she's, she's not blaming police. It was a strategy that they attempted to use to hopefully find her daughter.
- [44:13]
Captain
Do you know who I love in this case? Who? Karen. That's who I love.
- [44:19]
Nick
Of course.
- [44:20]
Captain
Every interview. I like the fact that when she is telling you and she's telling the media, I'm not going to give up. There's no doubt that she's not going to give up. And I'm glad that this case is getting a little more attention.
- [44:39]
Nick
So keep in mind, Karen is saying that I last spoke to my daughter. She's at the grocery store. This is at 7pm approximately on Tuesday, October 2nd. And so now with this information going public, Karen is telling the public, I really believe that something happened to my daughter between the hours of 7pm when I last spoke to her on Tuesday, October 2 and 8am, Wednesday morning, October 3. This is when Karen is calling her daughter and it's going to voicemail. So the first time that she is aware that something could be wrong. So we're dealing with about a 13 hour window here that Karen is saying, this is the time that I'm concerned with. This is when whatever went wrong, went wrong.
- [45:28]
Captain
But also, isn't law enforcement also stating that they believe she went missing on the second?
- [45:35]
Nick
Well, so that's part of the problem with this case. So what's crazy? Look, it's incredibly crazy that the video footage is not Kiera. The video that was out there for two years and then we the public find out that's not Kiera.
- [45:52]
Captain
And I don't agree with that call I agree with. Hey, we put out the video, we started getting some calls, we got some leads. Don't wait two years.
- [46:04]
Nick
See, the problem with that becomes this, like, first off, that's the only video footage that was public until 2022. Right. We're going to get more video footage that's going to be more important to this case than that of the video not featuring our victim that was out there for two years. So that, that video that's out there for two years, it's deceptive, but the strategy is it's resulting in tips and leads for detectives, which is great. But here's the problem with that. You got to figure that, that a high percentage, if not all of the tips and leads that it's providing to you are just doomed to lead to nowhere. Because it's not. You know what I mean? Help me to help you. I'm giving you false information.
- [46:49]
Captain
Yeah.
- [46:50]
Nick
And saying that this, this is, this is going to lead to good leads. No, it might lead to leads. Like I said, the powerful thing, the important thing for police, it's going to lead you to people that you may have not considered or were unaware of to talk to. So that's a positive. The negative is my belief that most of the leads you're going to get will result in a dead end because they're not. They're not going to go anywhere. Right.
- [47:15]
Captain
Because you're also saying, hey, have you seen this person? Well, if somebody saw that person, they didn't see the right person that you're looking for.
- [47:23]
Nick
Well, and the thing, too, that you have to wonder about if the person responsible for making our victim disappear is also the same person that called in sick for her.
- [47:35]
Captain
Right.
- [47:37]
Nick
We have listeners telling us that only someone who works for USPS could call in sick. That's not something that I could do. I couldn't call in. Let's give a shout out to our friend Williams, who's probably delivering mail or running from a nasty dog in a neighborhood right now, listening to this show.
- [47:58]
Captain
Well, let's just make this clear. Hello, Williams.
- [48:02]
Nick
Shout out to Williams.
- [48:03]
Captain
Buddies. It's your buddies, Captain and Colonel. Hello.
- [48:07]
Nick
He's. We. We've learned that. That I could not call in sick for Williams and pull it off. Right. Because you have to have codes and all kinds of stuff. And like we said, it's not a short process. It takes several minutes. I've had more than one person tell me that it takes about four or five minutes. And you got to jump through some hoops to. To get that Day off. So that's really interesting because that tells me that if you have a suspect pool that likely your person, you can limit that pool of suspects to somebody that would have knowledge of that system. Meaning either they're a postal worker themselves or they had witnessed a postal worker do this multiple times to the point where they were comfortable and able to pull it off.
- [48:57]
Captain
Well, like we, you know, like I said earlier, Josh, Old Red Flag Josh, that's what I'm going to start calling him. Old Red Flag Josh works for the postal service. He would know the ins and outs. He'd probably also know her employee number or it might be on a badge or something that she has to wear.
- [49:21]
Nick
Yeah. And again, we have the situation where the family and police are the only ones that know for about two years that Kira was not in that video and that they're. That opens up their timeline considerably. So all things on that front are looking bad. What we do know is that she left everything behind. Her car, her purse, her inhaler, which most people that have asthma, they are, they usually don't forget their inhaler if they're without their inhaler. It's, it's simply because it slipped their mind. The captain and I have different information here. That is, you know, we, we go to different sources and there's a lot of different source material on this case. One bit of information that I have that varies from the captain's is my information says her car keys were missing. And so if that is in fact true, then really the only things missing in action at this point for the police's investigation is Kiera, who's with child and possibly her keys as well. Everything else is where it should be. The car just parked a little bit further away from the apartment than one would expect.
- [50:34]
Captain
Yeah, but I'd also say her purse. Most people would not park their car on the street and leave their purse in the car. Most people wouldn't leave their cell phone in their car.
- [50:46]
Nick
Exactly, exactly. But it's also, you know, but, but it's there. It's the situ. It is the situation. Now this is not our first time talking about the Chicago Police Department and it won't be our first time talking about their unwillingness to release information about active cases. We saw the same thing in the case that we covered in our episodes about missing children. This is missing kids, Tionda and Diamond Bradley. Now here in Kiera's case, the police have never disclosed much about their investigation. We do know that Kiera's case was very quickly treated as an endangered missing person's case. So police acknowledging quickly that something bad had happened to Kiera. Right, but it's unclear what evidence they have of this, if any at all. They did interview her family, friends and co workers. They looked at all of her social media as well. Her sister Kimberly remarked that it was extremely odd and unsettling to see Kiera's Snapchat dormant. Normally she snapped and posted on Instagram daily.
- [51:50]
Captain
Yeah, but also if you're law enforcement, you know that women that are pregnant have a higher percentage chance to be met with foul play. So I think you can go. Well, she left her car here, left her purse here. It doesn't look like she ran away, so I think it's makes sense why they would come to that conclusion, that it's more likely she was met with foul play.
- [52:18]
Nick
Well, and we do know that they retrieved her phone and they went through her phone, they went through the computer analyzing them. They used chemicals to search for forensic evidence in her apartment and basically dismantled her car looking for evidence. What they found is unknown. As said, they've not released much in this case. They also reviewed thousands of hours of video surveillance footage and didn't reveal what they found in that regard until 2022. Now, in the meantime, rumors were flying about this case. The public thought maybe Kiera had been abducted while on her postal route. There were even rumors that her stepfather, Dan Perkins, was somehow involved. I don't understand why. It's a little unclear to me why that was even a rumor. Karen denied had to publicly deny that her husband wasn't involved in any way.
- [53:13]
Captain
Well, see, I wondered because he was going door to door and he was stopping people and maybe that ruffled some people's feathers.
- [53:20]
Nick
That was her biological father.
- [53:22]
Captain
Oh, well, that makes sense. I'm what they call sometimes stupid.
- [53:25]
Nick
So what we do know is that mom, who we all love here, she's the angel, she's the fighting angel for her daughter. She's worked this last five years to keep this case alive.
- [53:42]
Captain
And just so I'm clear, I mean, you're not throwing Chicago police under the bus. I mean, yes, this case has been going on for five years, but it's not like it's or in year 10 or year 15. And they're still not releasing more information to try to drum up leads.
- [53:59]
Nick
I'm not happy with their handling of this case and I won't really dance around that. And we can get into more of that in part two.
- [54:09]
Captain
I just think it's difficult for law enforcement if you're in that position of what do you release to the public and what do you hold back because you're eventually going to have to build a case against somebody.
- [54:21]
Nick
Well, here's one thing that we do know and talking about building cases. So let's talk a little bit about suspects. Right, Captain? So of course police interviewed Josh Simmons, Kiera's boyfriend, old red flag. And some interesting things came out about Josh. He and Kiera had been together for six years at this point and now they are having a baby together. Everybody knew that Kiera seemed very happy with Josh. Everybody knew that. And Josh was happy too, or at least they thought because later everyone will find out that he had a whole other long term relationship with another woman that he was involved with. I get conflicting reports here. Some reports say that they were married, some reports say that they are boyfriend and girlfriend for a long term. But what we do know that's not conflicting is that they did have kids together. So they're living a life together. And so what police learn is that Kiera, our missing person, was his girlfriend on the side.
- [55:25]
Captain
Yeah, it's very tough here because you hear that they dated for six years and then you go, oh, Josh is a cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater. But was he cheating on Kiera or was he cheating with Kiera?
- [55:44]
Nick
The cheating part is weird because. And normally it's pretty, pretty obvious what's going on here. Not so much. So the other woman's name, get this, is Kiara.
- [55:57]
Captain
So Kiara and Kiara, Yeah.
- [55:59]
Nick
Now to be clear, what we learn is this Kiara, long term girlfriend, six years, Kiara, who he may have even been married to or is married to.
- [56:11]
Captain
Right?
- [56:12]
Nick
They know about each other, so they both know that Josh is in a long term relationship with the other. So I mean we could, you could call it cheating for a lack of a better term, but it's not really.
- [56:26]
Captain
Cheating if everybody knows what's going on.
- [56:28]
Nick
Everybody knows what's going on. So now we. What we don't know is whether this was something that one or both were just simply putting up with or if one or both were totally cool with it. We could also have a situation with, with one being cool with it and the other not. We don't know.
- [56:46]
Captain
But this guy is a complete moron. This guy is a complete. You're right. When you meet, when you're with Kiara or Kiara, whichever one you're with first, once you meet the other girl and you go, oh, I fancy you too, what's your name? Oh, those names are too similar. I'm sorry, I'VE got a hard pass on this one. Can you imagine trying to get that right? Wait, which one did I wake up next to? Kiara or Kiara?
- [57:16]
Nick
Well, and we also see reports that Kiara, the other girl that we just introduced, also worked at usps. So this is a really unique situation. All three of these persons working for the United States Postal Service service and all in this weird, messy triangle, difficult to understand postal Service love triangle.
- [57:42]
Captain
He was, he was, he was known at work as Josh. Red flag, Dirty dick.
- [57:51]
Nick
Police, of course, they're very interested in talking to Josh once they learn this new information. Now they want to talk to him again and again and again. They've never named him as a suspect, but all the investigators have said about Josh is that when they have interviewed him in the past, he's given, quote, varying accounts, end quote, of the last time he saw Kiera. Chicago PD detectives said, quote, he gave us some conflicting accounts, wasn't consistent on some of the statements and then didn't want to talk to us. So after his initial interview, Josh at some point lawyers up and reportedly has never talked to police since he gained counsel. Karen turned against Josh pretty quickly, rightfully so, after he told her right away, she says when he said he didn't have a key to the apartment, she was suspicious of him right then and there.
- [58:50]
Captain
This lady is brilliant. But also, is this information correct? Not only has he not really been cooperative, not only has his stories kind of varied, not made sense, but he has moved out of state.
- [59:07]
Nick
Well, and so this is the other problem too with Josh and adds to the level of concern here coming from Karen. Let's pretend for a minute that he doesn't have a key and he's telling the truth. Okay, let's pretend that that's real. I don't believe it. I believe he had a key and now he conveniently doesn't have one. But let's pretend that that's, that he's telling the truth there. What we also know, another statement coming from Karen here, is that when she had her last conversation on the phone with her daughter Kiera, Kiera not only said she's at the grocery store and this, that and the other thing, but she also says that night on October 2nd, that Josh was coming over that.
- [59:49]
Captain
Night and if I was Karen, when he got there to check the apartment and he says, yeah, I don't have a key. Well, I'm pretty for sure that you have a key. No, I don't have a key. I would have said, can we check your pockets?
- [60:02]
Nick
Well, but the other problem too. So let's continue on this road for a moment. He says when he meets up with Karen and others, he says, I didn't see her the night of the second, which is weird because daughter tells mom he's coming over.
- [60:18]
Captain
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
- [60:20]
Nick
He also says, look, I didn't see her, I've not seen her at all. But I've been talking to her. Which seems to be highly unlikely, probably untrue as well because remember, Kiera's cell phone was found in her car. So when did it get to her car? And once it was there, he clearly wasn't talking to her after that time period.
- [60:43]
Captain
Well again, how are you communicating with her? And why is she communicating with you and not her mother? It doesn't make any sense.
- [60:51]
Nick
Mom also says that Josh did not help to disseminate flyers about the missing young woman. He didn't participate in searches for her as well.
- [61:03]
Captain
Well, you don't have to search for somebody that you know is dead.
- [61:06]
Nick
And Karen says, quote, I can't understand. You dated my daughter for six years. I took you to be a decent guy. You work and go to church and now my daughter is pregnant and missing and you do nothing. End quote. Friends of Kiara's. Like her friend Kiara Johnson, this is another, this is a whole different person. I don't know why everybody has practically the same name in this case, but this is a third person. Now a friend of Kiara's post on social media begging everyone to help out in a search for Kiara. So as you heard, we're. We're talking about Chiara's father Joseph, biological father Joseph, pulling out all the stops looking for his daughter. This man lives in another state, lives in Wisconsin, travels to Chicago and stays there permanently looking for his daughter, knocking on doors, stopping cars, passing out flyers, and yet postal employee, boyfriend and baby daddy Josh Simmons did none of the above. Foreign. If you are a member of law enforcement or a first responder and you have a case from your jurisdiction that you would like for us to take a look at here in the garage, please go to our website truecrimegarage.com and find our contact information.
- [62:31]
Captain
And until tomorrow, be good, be kind and don't litter. Sa. This message is brought to you by Apple Card.
- [63:15]
Nick
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- [63:20]
Captain
This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a.
- [63:24]
Nick
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