404: Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney

Summary

Podcast Summary: True Crime Obsessed – Episode 405: "Family Secrets: The Disappearance of Alissa Turney"

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Introduction

In Episode 405 of "True Crime Obsessed," hosts Patrick Hines and Julia Bezzavalis delve deep into the mysterious and tragic disappearance of Alissa Turney. This episode unravels the complex family dynamics, systemic oversights, and enduring quest for justice that has spanned over two decades.

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Background: The Final Day

The story begins on May 17, 2001, in Phoenix, Arizona. Alissa Turney, a 16-year-old high school junior, vanished on what was supposed to be a memorable end-of-year celebration.

• Sarah Turney recounts Alissa's last day:

  "Alyssa, do not leave the building whatsoever." ([03:19])

Alissa had spent the day at a water park with friends, a tradition that schools in Phoenix occasionally adopt to celebrate the end of the school year.

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The Disappearance: A Heartbreaking Note

Upon returning home, Sarah and her father discovered alarming signs in Alissa's room.

• Characterizing the scene:

  "Everything in her backpack was dumped all over the floor. There's a note and her cell phone is next to the note." ([05:27])

• Alissa's poignant farewell:

  "Dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off at school today, I decided that I really am going to California. Sarah, you didn't want me around. Look, you got it. I'm gone, dad. That's why I saved my money. I took $300 from you, Alyssa." ([05:43])

This note suggested Alissa's intent to start anew in California, leaving behind unresolved tensions within her family.

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Family Dynamics: Isolation and Control

Central to Alissa's disappearance is the abusive behavior of her father, Mike Turney. The household was rife with tension, manipulation, and overbearing control.

• Mike's obsession:

  "He was planting seeds. Alyssa's bad. Alyssa's crazy. Alyssa's unreliable. You can't trust a word she says." ([16:57])

• Parental neglect and overcontrol:

  • The family was a blended unit with six children, leading to strained relationships.
  • Sarah often felt overshadowed and burdened by the need to maintain household order in the absence of their mother.
  • Home video footage revealed Mike's intrusive nature, constantly monitoring and documenting the children's lives.

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Systemic Failures: Labeling and Neglect

Despite Alissa being a minor, law enforcement's categorization of her as a "runaway" led to minimal intervention.

• Lack of police engagement:

  "They mark her as a runaway. But they do not come visit the house, they do not come speak to my father." ([06:44])

This oversight highlighted systemic flaws in handling such cases, especially concerning minors.

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Inheritance of the Case: Reopening Old Wounds

Years later, in 2008, Detective William Anderson took over Alissa's case. His investigation shed new light on suspicious activities surrounding Mike Turney.

• Suspicious phone call:

  "There's this phone call at 5 in the morning. It's red flaggy." ([19:46])

• Mike's behavior questioned:

  "He introduced himself as former law enforcement. He's so happy that we're paying attention to this." ([41:26])

Detective Anderson noted inconsistencies in Mike's narrative and his reluctance to provide crucial evidence.

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Arrest and Acquittal: A Twist of Fate

In August 2020, Mike Turney was arrested for possessing multiple pipe bombs and his disturbing manifesto.

• Courtroom developments:

  "Rule 20, Motion for Judgment acquittal. He will be released." ([86:36])

Due to the absence of Alissa's body and other critical evidence, the court acquitted Mike on charges related to her disappearance, leaving many questions unanswered.

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Sarah Turney's Journey: From Defender to Seeker of Truth

Initially a staunch supporter of her father, Sarah Turney underwent a profound transformation upon confronting the grim realities of her family life.

• Realization of abuse:

  "I had to take the power back. It all stops here." ([93:12])

• Launching "Voices for Justice":
  Sarah began a podcast to amplify the voices of families affected by similar tragedies, striving to prevent generational abuse and systemic neglect.

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Conclusion: Unanswered Questions and Ongoing Pursuit

The episode underscores the enduring impact of familial abuse and systemic deficiencies in addressing such deeply rooted issues. Sarah's relentless pursuit of truth and justice serves as a beacon for other families grappling with similar heartbreaks.

Notable Quotes:

• Sarah Turney on forgiveness:

  "Sarah forgives her younger self. None of this is her fault." ([06:09])

• Detective Anderson on procedural flaws:

  "I've never seen a single other case where a teenager had a cell phone and would do that." ([40:00])

• Sarah's affirmation:

  "This was the first moment she considered that her father wasn't telling the truth." ([77:08])

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Final Thoughts

Episode 405 of "True Crime Obsessed" masterfully combines personal narratives, investigative insights, and emotional depth to present a compelling case study on the complexities of familial relationships and the quest for justice. Through Sarah Turney's unwavering determination, listeners are reminded of the profound effects of truth-seeking and the importance of systemic accountability.

Transcript

[Patrick Hines]

Hey, fam. Patrick here. Before we get to the show, just two quick announcements. First, tickets for my brand new tour are now on sale. It's a storytelling evening that turns into a party in February and March. I'm coming to Seattle, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Denver, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Kansas City. All the information and tickets are available right [e-mail] so please come and see me. Also, fam, the TCO merch store is closing today, so this is your last chance to grow. Grab that beautiful don't be garbage blanket, that Jillian's Law long sleeve T shirt, the candles, the mugs, the hats, all your winter must haves. Just head on over to truecrimeobsessed.com and click on the merch link to see what's there and grab it while you still can. All right, fam, that's all. And now to the show. Girl, this one is so sad.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's just. It's all shitty all around. So welcome to True Crime Upstairs. I hope you're ready to have fun. You know, just drive myself off a cliff while I'm at it.

[Patrick Hines]

Perfect. Hi, Julia Bezzavalis.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Hi, Patrick Hines.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, oh, fam. Listen, if you are on the Patreon or if you want to join the Patreon, we wanted to let you know our next monthly drag Bingo is going to be Wednesday, December 11th at 7:00pm OK, great. So it's a week from this upcoming Wednesday. OK, I'm very excited. We all got all dressed up for the Halloween one. I might come as Santa. I might come as an elf. I might come as Mrs. Klaus. I don't know what's going to happen.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

OK, great.

[Patrick Hines]

What about you?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I don't know. I have no idea.

[Sarah Turney]

We'll see.

[Patrick Hines]

Just come as you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Maybe I'll just come as me.

[Patrick Hines]

Just come as you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I'm kind of December themed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Can I just be?

[Patrick Hines]

You are. You are very December themed. You know, I'm not going to tell them when your birthday is, but it's.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Around then they know it's the winter solstice. We've discussed it.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, that's right. I forget. You got a little twinkle in your eye when you say the winter solstice.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's. If I could pick my birthday, I would pick that. Do you want to know why?

[Patrick Hines]

Why?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's your least favorite thing. It's the longest night of the year.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, God. It's dark at 2 in the afternoon.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

The sun doesn't come up until 4:00. In the afternoon.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I just love it. It's like the ultimate. It's like winter is finally here. Really, if I had to pick. And it's not about me. We're doing.

[Patrick Hines]

I know we're doing bingo, but I also wanted to say, if you do join the Patreon to come to the bingo, you also get, like, over 400 full ad free bonus episodes. Oh, and. Oh, and that, too, even more importantly, our interview with Sarah Turney.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh, yes.

[Patrick Hines]

So Sarah Turney is the executive producer of this documentary. She's also, of course, the main player in this documentary.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

We would not be here if not for Sara Turnney.

[Patrick Hines]

We would not be here.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She's changed the game.

[Patrick Hines]

She's changed the game. The interview that we did with Sarah is so wonderful. She is such a wonderful person and has done so much in the true crime space. We're very lucky to know her. There's so much that goes on. We had a lot of questions, like, there's just things we wanted more of. We're gonna all of that from Sarah. And that is live right now over on the Patreon feed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, there's just a lot happening. And it's all like. Yeah, it's just. There's just a lot.

[Patrick Hines]

It's a lot. Shall we get to it?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Let's get to it.

[Patrick Hines]

Let's do it.

[Sarah Turney]

On the last day of her junior year, Alyssa went missing. And that changed everything. My dad told me that Alyssa had run away. I was in shock. I felt so much guilt. I blamed myself. But because I was so young, it's hard to rely on my own memory. So I had to go back and try to piece together the truth.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Alyssa, do not leave the building whatsoever.

[Sarah Turney]

Searching for the truth. I was frustrated. I wanted to tell Alyssa's story in this episode. And that's when I found podcasting and TikTok and I start to put together the pieces.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You got me in trouble, dad.

[Patrick Hines]

Nobody's heard from Alyssa.

[Sarah Turney]

I'm trying to meet you in the middle here, dad.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You've destroyed your own family.

[Sarah Turney]

When I start to uncover more facts about my own life that I never knew, it starts to make me question everything.

[Patrick Hines]

So we start on May 17, 2001. We're in Phoenix, Arizona. This is the day that Alyssa Turney goes missing. Alyssa is Sarah Turney's older sister.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, It's Alyssa's last day of junior year. It's Sarah's last day of seventh grade.

[Patrick Hines]

Sarah remembers it being a great day. She says she got on the bus, went to the waterpark, Had a great day with her friends. And then after that her dad picked her up at school. My question is, did Sarah Turney's school take them to the water park for the last day of school? If they did, I'm going back to school and I'm going to that school.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's how they do it in Phoenix, huh?

[Patrick Hines]

It's hot there.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. And the last day of school too.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I don't want to hear that it's a dry heat. I know it's a dry heat. I still hot heat.

[Patrick Hines]

A tea. I did my book party show there once. There. Like I don't remember when, but it was meant to be. It was cold here, it was hot there.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I know, the humidity, really, it's like it's. I'd much rather a dry heat.

[Patrick Hines]

For sure. I also love Phoenix, just for the record.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Great.

[Patrick Hines]

I love it there.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I don't know if they took them to the water park. That's what it sounds like though.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, that's what it sounds like. So after school, Sarah's dad picks her up and he's kind of frantic cuz he's saying, your sister Alyssa isn't answering her cell phone. Can you call her and see if she'll answer?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Sarah calls her a few times and there's no answer. And so Sarah and her dad get home.

[Sarah Turney]

We get home and I go right to Alyssa's bedroom. I was sure that she'd be there, but she wasn't. I saw the contents of her backpack dumped all over the ground. And then there was a note in her cell phone.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Everything in her backpack was like dumped all over the floor. There's a note and her cell phone is next to the note.

[Patrick Hines]

This note is heartbreaking. It says, dad and Sarah, when you dropped me off at school today, I decided that I really am going to California. Sarah, you didn't want me around. Look, you got it. I'm gone, dad. That's why I saved my money. I took $300 from you, Alyssa.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it looks like a teen girl's handwriting. It definitely looks like she wrote it.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That call out to Sarah. Sarah will tell us we'll stick with her forever.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Which is like, we know Sarah, it's not your fault. You didn't do anything. Whatever. But like reading that is like, oh my God.

[Patrick Hines]

One of the things that I just want to say this now that I loved about this documentary so much was that Sarah forgives her younger self. Or even more than that, knows that her younger self does not need any Forgiveness, Right?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

For not knowing what was happening with Alyssa, for just being the person who she was. Like, none of this is her fault.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Sarah was allowed to have all of the feelings too, as a young girl going through this. And yes, the acknowledgement of her younger self and that it was all okay to feel those things and what she was feeling.

[Patrick Hines]

So, like, I don't know if Sarah's in therapy or not, but if therapy works, you know what I mean? It's like, work on yourself and knowing that, like, you're not responsible for the bad shit that other people do and.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Talking to that younger version of yourself. Oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

I live with 15 year old me, by the way.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Same.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, my God. So dad pants.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Calling everyone, friends, family, like, trying to track down Alyssa.

[Sarah Turney]

Later in the night, he calls the police and says, my teenage daughter ran away. So they mark her as a runaway. But they do not come visit the house, they do not come speak to my father.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

What is it about the word runaway that somehow makes it so that we don't have to give a shit? Because I'm trying to understand that, like, what makes it okay that a 16 year old girl is missing? Like, if the vibe is very, oh, she's just a runaway. Like, why? Like, she's still in danger and she's still a minor. She's still a young girl who ran away. So, like, I really care if she stole the 300 bucks and went, like, on her own accord. She's still in danger.

[Patrick Hines]

I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. And I also got to say, like, when the dad calls and says my problem child is 16 and she's run away, I think she was 17, she was 16.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Still. Still.

[Patrick Hines]

Same thing. Like, I think we got to look, we got to look into that. You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

There are many, many things that should have been looked into that were not. We will get infuriated at all of them.

[Patrick Hines]

Yes. And now Sarah says Alyssa running away made sense to sa because Sarah says that she knew that when Alyssa turned 18, which would have been the following year, she had dreams of moving out of the house, getting away, just sort of going out on her own. And so Sarah says, I slept in her room that night because I truly thought she'd be back.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And I'm like. And this is the first time Sarah, like, starts to cry. And it's like, it's just fucking heartbreaking. And, like, one of the questions I have for Sarah is, what else would you have done with your life if you didn't have to spend all this time focusing on this.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

If this fucking person in your life hadn't made it. And by that, I mean the dad, the person who did this, who didn't make it so that this had to become your life's purpose. You know, I always wonder. I always wonder about that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's. I don't know. I don't know. But I wonder if Sarah would still become a champion and an advocate because she's so fucking good at it.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, you know, just some of you might not know this, but remember that podcast media pressure that Julie. That Julie Murray made? Julie and Sarah made it together. Sarah went to Julie to say, like, we got to tell Mora's story. Let's do it on your terms. And that Sarah's whole mission is for families of victims of true crime, survivors of true crime, the missing, for the families to tell the stories on their own terms. It's such a noble mission. And it happened because of her experience, like, I mean, you know, advocating for her own sister.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Travel down the road. Back again, girl.

[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Bezzavalis]

Okay. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. I'm telling you, everyone has at least a handful of subscriptions that they either didn't know they had or it's impossible to unsubscribe.

[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. And it's kind of a bigger problem than we all think, because most of us think we spend like, 60, 62 bucks a month on subscriptions. The real number is much closer to $300. That's a lot of money.

[Patrick Hines]

But the thing with Rocket Money, you can see all your subscriptions in one place. You know exactly where your money is going. And for any you don't want anymore, Rocket Money will help you cancel them with just a few taps. But more than that, they'll also, like, work to negotiate to lower your existing bills.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So you can create your own and then say, like, that's the thing. Because I used to be like, I'll try something and then set 10 alarms to cancel it. So with this dashboard you can do that and say like, oh, I'll check in. At this time a Rocket Money will be like, don't like this unusual spending activity. Like are you using this or not? What's going on? So they kind of have your back all around.

[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Bezzavalis]

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[Patrick Hines]

That's RocketMoney.com obsessed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

RocketMoney.com obsessed.

[Patrick Hines]

Do it. You know you want to.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I mean you almost have to for.

[Patrick Hines]

All because we said so.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So we have a lot of footage, a ton of home movies. So we go back to 1990 and it's this like super cute footage of Sarah and Alyssa, this video.

[Patrick Hines]

Because we don't know that Sarah's in this video right away. Cause it's Alyssa claiming that she's six when she's really five. Which like Daisy does that all the.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Time, she little kid thing.

[Patrick Hines]

But then it like it cuts to the playpen and we see 16 month old Sarah in a little rocker outfit.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She's wearing like a leather jacket and a sideways baseball hat, but like with.

[Patrick Hines]

A bottle at the same time. Cause she's just a baby. I was like scream laughing.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's so great.

[Sarah Turney]

And Sarah says, Alyssa wasn't just my sister, she was the only mom I really ever can remember because I never really got to know my mother Barbara.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She was the only mom I can ever really remember. And I'm like, whoa.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So Barbara is their mother. Sarah explains the whole situation. Sarah never really got to know her. Barbara was a mortgage loan officer and Sarah's father was trying to get a loan. And that's how they met and fell in love.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Then we learned that her dad was a deputy sheriff for a few years, then became a union electrician.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Remember that? We will get back to it with a vengeance.

[Patrick Hines]

And now this is a crazy big blended family. So the dad came into the marri with the three oldest boys, Rhett, James and Mike. And the mom had John and Alyssa. And together the mom and the dad have Sarah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So there's six kids in the house altogether and eight people.

[Patrick Hines]

That is just an insane amount of children.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's a lot. But Sarah says something here that I love and that we talk about all the time. She said we weren't allowed to use half or step or anything. We were all brothers and sisters. And we actually hear her father saying it on the video and it's kind of casually said, like it doesn't sound performative or like it's for show. But he's behind the camera and he's correcting a look and he's like, no, no, no, not half. Like, we're all brothers and sisters. We're all a family here. So if you don't know how the story ends, you're like, oh my God, how lovely.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

I want to point out this is one of those documentaries that has so much home video footage, like you were just saying now. At first it seems sweet and Sarah's gonna say to us over and over again. We just thought our dad was trying to like capture like memories and, you know, like, video cameras were kind of new ish back then or whatever. It is so fucked up why we have all this footage.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's very nefarious.

[Patrick Hines]

It's very nefarious. Like the dad is completely obsessive, especially over Alyssa. So, like, we have great footage, but, like, I wish we didn't, you know?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So Teresa is Sarah's aunt. She's Sarah's mother's sister.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Sarah was probably three when my sister first was diagnosed with the lung cancer. And we were told from the get.

[Patrick Hines]

Go that her diagnosis was terminal.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it was terminal. It was very, very serious and very, very aggressive.

[Patrick Hines]

We see this footage of Sarah at the funeral, like, baby Sarah, three year old Sarah. And the dad is saying, like, where's mama? And she said, mama went to heaven. And I. And like she' she's not crying. She's not even really all that sad in that moment because, like, she doesn't really know it or what's going on yet. This is the first time I started to cry. You know, I'm a parent. The idea that, like, if I had died when Daisy was three, she probably wouldn't remember me. It's, you know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. It's also, though, the first time in the documentary that we see the father baiting them on camera.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's a very inappropriate thing to ask.

[Patrick Hines]

A little girl 100% with a camera.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

In her face on the steps of the church. Like, it's very. But this is who he was on camera. This shows a little bit of his motivation. He's baiting her in a really shitty way. Like, would you want her to start crying?

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Would you want like footage of your daughter crying?

[Patrick Hines]

And that's like, right, like watching this.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

What would you say of her little.

[Patrick Hines]

Life to date with, like watching it like the second time, knowing what the purpose of the videos actually is? Yeah, it's just, it's very sick and.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Sad and like I'm, you know, I again am very fortunate. I have no experience with being that young and having a loss like that or I'm not a parent, so I don't know how I would handle it. But there's something about it that feels very inappropriate to ask your 3 year old in kind of a casual, everything's hunky dory kind of way on camera.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It feels very real because it's not sitting down, having a conversation with a three year old about her new world.

[Patrick Hines]

Now or trying to explain to her what's going on. Because all I can imagine is like that night they're going to go home and she's going to be confused. Like, when is mommy coming home from heaven to put me to sleep?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. There's no warmth there. He's like several feet away from her on the camera. It's just like once you clock it, you're kind of like, just like, remember that motivation.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Behind the camera, you know, and like.

[Patrick Hines]

It gets so sad because, you know, Sarah says when mom died, things really changed around the house. Like the dad was left with six kids all by himself. Now the dad is a piece of shit. He's a monster from hell. But even still, I cannot imagine what that must have been like.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right on top of everything that changes.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

With the loss of a mother like that. And then, yeah. Six kids all by himself. And like Aunt Teresa says that Alyssa and Sarah were quote, rambunctious. And we see footage of them like fighting and hitting each other. But to me I'm like, that's like typical little girl sister stuff. Yes, that's like.

[Patrick Hines]

But also when you lose a parent that age, like you are going to start acting out and that does need to be addressed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

We have a father like that.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly. And like one of the things that really stood out to me was like Sarah saying our house was dirtier.

[Sarah Turney]

It really felt like living in a bachelor pad.

[Patrick Hines]

I got a call one day from John. John was angry and he said, you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Know, dad doesn't get up and take.

[Patrick Hines]

Care of the girls. He doesn't make sure they're going to school. There's no food in the house.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The kids were calling Aunt Teresa saying there's no food in the house.

[Patrick Hines]

They're not taking care of Sarah and Alyssa. Like, they doesn't care if the kids are going to school or not. No one's cooking, no one's cleaning.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And eventually, like, that's what Sarah meant when she says Alyssa's kind of the only mom she knew is because Alyssa was, like, trying to fit that role. And it's. And Sarah says it's totally unfair to put that pressure on Alyssa that she just realizes a little girl in her grief, like, oh, I kind of have to step up here.

[Patrick Hines]

And also, Aunt Teresa says, we were calling all the time. We did whatever we could. But within less than a year, everybody outside of that immediate family living in the house was completely cut off.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And specifically the mom side of the family.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Major red flag.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it's just so cruel. Why would you cut off any connection that those kids have to the mother and that family and that. And it's not fair to Aunt Teresa either. Like, they're all. If we're not going to do half brother, half. If we're all one big, loving, happy family. Right. Then why are we cutting?

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But again, knowing what we know, major red flag. It's part of the isolation.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly. Because immediately all of the brothers move out. They're all much older, and they move out. And it leaves just Sarah and Alyssa home with the dad.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she says just because Alyssa was the oldest, but she did become the mom. Cooking, cleaning, and, like, making sure Sarah brushed her hair. And Sarah's getting emotional because she's, like, looking back and she's like, one summer, it's like someone had to come over and detangle Sarah's hair because she wasn't brushing it. And what do they know? They're kids.

[Patrick Hines]

They said. She said there was a whole entire summer that no one brushed my hair. That broke me.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

You know, look, I think about Daisy. Daisy's got, like, this thick hair that I have to brush it three times a day. If Daisy went an entire summer without somebody, like, she.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You're swimming, you're getting your hair wet.

[Patrick Hines]

All I can think of is, like, kids are making fun of you. You probably smell. Your hair looks awful. It's like. It's just like, on top of the loss of the mother and the brothers moving out and the family being cut off, Like, I think the point was to make these kids as emotionally broken as possible.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. And also, again, the isolation and very reliant on this little family. Un.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because Sarah and Alyssa's relationship, like, you know, Sarah says she didn't really talk about Alyssa much after she was gone. And Sarah was mentioned in the note, and that haunted her. But Sarah explains, like, we loved hard and we fought hard. And, like, we'd be, like, screaming and pulling each other's hair and then two seconds later, dancing in the kitchen. Like, to me, I'm like, that's sister. Like, that's little.

[Patrick Hines]

You know, 100%. And, like, Sarah's saying, like, it started out that we fought a lot.

[Sarah Turney]

But as Alyssa got older and entered high school, I thought that she was the cool. And she was experimenting with drinking and smoking marijuana. You know, normal teenage stuff. And I was an annoying little sister, and I would tattle on her.

[Patrick Hines]

And Sarah found herself in the role of, like, the annoying younger sister.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, Alyssa was the cool older sister. And this is, like, a very common dynamic.

[Patrick Hines]

And what Sarah's about to tell us is that the dad would always plant in Sarah's mind, Alyssa's bad. She's a bad kid. You gotta keep an eye on her. You gotta tell me if she's doing bad shit. And Sarah says I would tattle.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She told on her, like, a lot. So, like, Alyssa would be drinking or smoking, and Sarah would rat on her. And so the day Alyssa goes missing, she's 17 years old, and Mike, the dad, says, I picked her up from school, took her out to lunch on the last day. I'm like, aren't there, like, activities on the last day?

[Patrick Hines]

Are you taking her out? Sarah's been at the water park all day.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, okay. They had a big fight. Alyssa was talking about how she wanted more freedom. The dad, again, according to the dad, drops Alyssa off at home. His last memory is Alyssa angrily walking down the hallway, quote, with her hair flying behind her. And. And then I guess he just left and went back to work. That's his story.

[Patrick Hines]

And then, like, they come home and find the note.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right? Now, a week after Alyssa runs away, according to Mike the dad, there's this 5:00am phone call.

[Patrick Hines]

And this is corroborated by call records.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, I still have more questions about this.

[Patrick Hines]

Same.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I have a million questions, which we'll get to later.

[Patrick Hines]

And we'll talk to Sarah more about this too.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, but there's this phone call at 5 in the morning. And the dad says, alyssa calls at 5am she's screaming at him, cursing at him, demanding that everyone leave her alone. And then she hangs up. And what I'm thinking is, but Alyssa is left alone.

[Patrick Hines]

Right?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She ran away.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, why would she be calling and Acting like she's being harassed. Nobody knows where she is. She's been missing for a week. You. That's the. You've been left alone.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So this phone call immediately is very.

[Patrick Hines]

Strange, very red flaggy.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, but they talked to the phone company, apparently, and the call was made from a pay phone in Riverside, California. Now, they didn't make this clear at first in the documentary, but Alyssa went missing in Arizona.

[Patrick Hines]

And Sarah says, like, she always had plans of moving to California when she was 18 anyway. So this makes sense that, like, she's out there, she went to California, she's alive and does not want be found.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she hasn't. She left her cell phone at home, so no one's been contacting her. And instead of calling Sarah, her sister, or any of her friends, she calls and screams at her father, who she hasn't spoken to, demanding she be left alone, which is like, what?

[Patrick Hines]

And Sarah says, like, right after this, she and her dad made a trip to California. They're able to trace the call to a specific pay phone in Riverside.

[Sarah Turney]

Soon after, I go on a trip with him to California. We go to the convenience store, but there's no surveillance. There's no trace of who made a call. Essentially, there's nothing. But I remember my dad saying the phone call from Riverside was proof Alyssa was out there still alive.

[Patrick Hines]

This is proof that Alyssa is out there and alive. And we have to find her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right? Travel down the road. Back again, girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Quince is back. You know what makes a great gift?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

What?

[Patrick Hines]

Really well priced, affordable, but beautiful freaking sweaters.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, it's like super luxury, but also super affordable, which I always thought was impossible, but then Quince came along and was like, here. And I'm like, great.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, something everybody needs. Their closet, by the way, in my opinion, one of Quint iconic Mongolian cashmere sweaters, which start at 50 bucks.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. And quint items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands.

[Patrick Hines]

Can I tell you, they were like, go to the website and pick one for free. I went to the website, got the free one, then I ordered two more. Oh, yeah, because they're those beautiful, like, fall winter sweaters. Not only are they cozy and warm, they're like day to night. You can wear them, like, while you're working in the office, but you can also wear them to a fancy cocktail party.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. You know, I'm obsessed with my jogger set because it makes me feel cute around the house, but also running errands. I'm like, oh, I'm one of those girls. I look cute outside. Oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

Also, can I tell you about this? For the ultimate year round gifts fam. Check out their 14 karat gold jewelry, Italian leather handbags and European linen sheet sets.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You know how I feel about nice bedding. Like, come on, they have everything.

[Patrick Hines]

Also, how do they do this? How do they make it beautiful and affordable? They partner directly with top factories, which cuts out the cost of the middlemen and they pass the savings on to you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, because they only work with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing pract. You know, we love that.

[Patrick Hines]

And also, of course, they use premium fabrics and finishes for that luxury feel in every piece.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

There you go.

[Patrick Hines]

So vamp gift luxury this holiday season without the luxury price tag.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Go to quince.com tco for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order.

[Patrick Hines]

That's Q u I n c e.com TCO to get free shipping and 365 day returns.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Quince.com TCO365.

[Patrick Hines]

They're talking Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I sold that to one whole year.

[Patrick Hines]

I know. One whole run around the sun. You.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So it's April 3, 2002. It's Alyssa's 18th birthday. And this is so heartbreaking because Sarah's like, all Alyssa wanted was to be free of my dad and that would happen when she's 18. So now that she's 18, like, oh my God, this broke my heart. Like, she's gonna come home now, right? Or like she'll talk to me again, right?

[Patrick Hines]

And like this is the day that Sarah's been waiting for.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so Alyssa's been gone a year now, right? And she's. And Sarah's kind of like doing all the cool things that Alyss used to do.

[Patrick Hines]

She's wearing Alyssa's clothes and like kind.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Of experimenting the way Alyssa was and listening to the same music and stuff. So that like Sarah's hope is that, well, when my sister comes back when she's 18.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She'll think I'm like the coolest kid around, like I thought she was.

[Patrick Hines]

And it's like, it's so heartbreaking.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But also she's. Sarah's saying that she's self medicating because of the grief and the trauma. And honestly, who can blame her?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Well, also the dad is further traumatizing Sarah by saying, look, any number of horrible things could have happened to her. She could have been sex trafficked.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Don't do that, parents.

[Patrick Hines]

She could have been killed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Don't say that to your kids.

[Patrick Hines]

No, like no good parent would ever do that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right.

[Patrick Hines]

He's just trying to plant any seeds in her mind so she's not thinking my dad killed her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But here's another major red flag, because, you know, remember how her dad was telling. And we'll get into it. Telling everyone on earth that Alyssa's so bad, she's doing this now when Sarah starts experimenting with substances or self medicating. Mike. The dad who talks shit about Alyssa left, right, and center, is helping Sarah self medicate. So she goes, I'm anxious. He gave me a blue pill. I'm sad. I got an orange pill.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So the dad, not only were they not actually talking about the problems, he was helping Sarah not be sober in any way or coherent. And.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. Because the more sober she is, the more questions she might ask.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But also, like. But I thought Alyssa was bad for doing this. So it's like, was he what. Like, what was his role and what Alyssa was doing? Was Alyssa even doing any of this at all? Was this all in her head, like.

[Patrick Hines]

Or, like, anything beyond what any normal teenager does?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, my guess is no. You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So we start to meet Alyssa's friends, Charity and Sarah and Renee. But Charity says Michael was very protective of Alyssa. So when she ran away, her father.

[Patrick Hines]

Had called my house looking for her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's how I found out that she had gone missing.

[Patrick Hines]

For the most part, we hung out.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

At my house because she wanted to get away from her home as. As much as she could. We were always hanging out at my house because Alyssa never wanted to be at her house.

[Patrick Hines]

And this is when everyone starts saying that the dad was really protective of Alyssa. This is not the right word. I know the friends are doing the right thing. I'm not blaming the friends. But everyone is saying he was really, really protective of her, when really he was like, he was abusing her and isolating her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I mean, Jessica says, like, the father calls Jessica, like, yelling at her.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She's like, you have. You must know where Alyssa is, blah, blah, blah. And Jessica's like, hon, between us here, if it's just me, you, and the camera. There was a part of her and all of Alyssa's friends that were kind of psyched that Alyssa finally got away from this nightmare of a father. Because, like, we're seeing again, the camera was in their faces 24 hours a day.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I know a lot of people film prom, the prom night, like the parents want, but this is, like, next level. But there's footage of Alyssa's father. All the kids Are there. Everyone's dressed up.

[Patrick Hines]

They're in Alyssa's house. They're all, like, waiting for the limo. They're about to go.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She's in her prom dress, her hair's done. Done. And from behind the camera, he's like.

[Patrick Hines]

Melissa, I changed my mind. You can't go anything. Why? Because I just changed my mind.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Why?

[Patrick Hines]

Cuz I sent you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

What are you talking about?

[Patrick Hines]

I said you can't go. But you look nice.

[Sarah Turney]

You're right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I ain't going all through this just to not be able to go.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh, my gosh.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Are you kidding me?

[Patrick Hines]

No.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he lets her go.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But the point is that it's very possible for him to actually make good on that threat in front of all.

[Patrick Hines]

Of her friends as she's walking out the door in her full, like, hair, makeup, outfit.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But, like, this is fun for him.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes. Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And you know how I always say that I hate dads? Because this is the shit that, like, shitty dads do.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

You don't. You never know if they're kidding. You can't talk back to them. She can't flip out on him. Like, she probably wants to, because then he's going to lose his temper and make good on it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But then there's footage of it, and then she's the crazy one.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly. Can we take a quick second to talk about how Jessica and Alyssa met?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

They met because Alyssa came to high school wearing a Care Bear T shirt. And Jessica was really pissed because she's the one that wears Were her thing. Care Bears were her thing. And she kind of, like, went up to Eliza to, like, give her shit about it. And within seconds, they were best friends.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And then she was like, oh, it's our thing.

[Patrick Hines]

It's our thing.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Then they became best friends.

[Patrick Hines]

I was like, care Pair T shirts were definitely a thing at one point.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. But the dad was also calling everyone's parents and, like, yelling at the parents about what Alyssa can and can't do. Like, very intense and weird.

[Patrick Hines]

And my note here is like, I dares one of Daisy's friends to pull that shit with me. We're going to hear at some point later that, like, there was a party at charities, and the dad made charity's parents sign a contract that boys wouldn't be there. Not only would I tell the parents to fuck off, I would get that kid alone and be like, what is going on at your house? Tell me everything, because this is not. This is not normal. This is not okay. And once again, I am not Blaming anybody for anything. The killer is the killer. But let us be a small voice in the world of learning not to normalize crazy behavior. Because so many people normalize his truly crazy, red flaggy behavior.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

A lot of people.

[Patrick Hines]

A lot of. I'm talking about the adults. I'm talking about the parents who are seeing this shit. I'm talking about the cops that we're going to talk to in a little bit.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The teachers, the kids are.

[Patrick Hines]

I'm not holding any of the children accountable, but the parents who are getting accomplished for what my daughter's allowed to do at a party.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's crazy.

[Patrick Hines]

Ask some fucking questions.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's crazy.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, even Renee, one of the friends, says that Mike was a totally different person when Barbara was still alive. And after Barbara died, he sort of became more and more obsessive. Mike always talked about how bad Alyssa was. She was always being grounded. It was so, like, toxic. This is where Renee uses the word toxic. And I'm like, yeah, but in addition to that, like we were saying before, Alyssa was always treated like a problem. She was always. Sarah describes it as. She was like a fire that couldn't be contained. She was out of control. She was doing bad shit. And I have to be this way because she's so bad. But like, big battle as well.

[Patrick Hines]

People only ever hear about the behavior. They never actually see it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Other men getting some wine coolers on prom night or whatever.

[Patrick Hines]

And one other thing I want to say about the friends. Charity is here to tell us that at the end of the school year, the dad forbid Alyssa from ever seeing charity ever again. For no reason other than the fact that, like Sarah's gonna say later, dad did not want her to have any friends. He didn't want her to have anybody to go to.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Cause she can trust Charity.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Charity was a safe space.

[Patrick Hines]

And it's hard. At some point, Charity pulls out like a box of letters that Alyssa was writing to her in the mail. Even though Charity lived across town. Right. You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And also for the record, I don't give a shit if Alyssa was experimenting with things more than weed. And I don't really give a shit.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. It's called being a parent. You deal with it like your. Could it be that your kid has a problem? Cause her fucking mother just died and you never addressed it with her. You got her any mental health services.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Doing is shoving a camera in her face 24 hours a day.

[Patrick Hines]

I don't believe it. I really don't believe it. I think she was a Normal teenager. She had good days, she had bad days. But like this problem that he's like over the top problem that he's telling.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Everybody she's doing drugs to self medicate. I wonder why.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly the end. Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But here's the thing, Mike. The dad was fucking obsessed. He filmed everything. And I hate this so much because Alyssa would wake up and he'd shove a camera in her face and she's angrily telling him to turn the camera off and he's laughing at her.

[Patrick Hines]

In some of these videos, you can tell that she's going along with it because it's easier to just not have the fight. But as the documentary progresses, and they did such a good job with this, the more we see these home videos of Alyssa, the sadder and sadder she looks. Like at some points she doesn't even know she's being filmed. He's just filming her and she looks despondent.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She looks despondent. And he. The more despondent she is, the more of a kick he gets out of it. And that makes me.

[Patrick Hines]

And we're gonna know, like, in her. Oh, I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna sob talking about this. We know as the viewer. In her mind, she's being sexually abused, she's being verbally abused, she's being physically abused. And she sees no way out. She's like 15, 16 in these videos. And in her head, she's trapped in a prison. She cannot ever leave.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it's also. He's telling everyone and her that she's a fucking crazy nightmare.

[Patrick Hines]

Stupid. He's calling her stupid.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Reaction she has on camera is evidence that he can show somebody. So think about that. The Walking on Eggshells. When you're in an abusive relationship of any kind, the walking on Eggshells is just ubiquitous.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But add to that this extra, extra feeling of being watched and recorded and documented, that if you react in a very real way to what you're feeling, it's like, oh, gotcha.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, see, there it is.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And we learned now that in addition to all of the videos that he's taking, he's now also recording every incoming and outgoing phone call in the house.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

For, quote, protection.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But it doesn't stop there.

[Sarah Turney]

Dear listener, the day that my told me about the video camera in the vent, he said, I got a new camera. This is to watch your sister to make sure she doesn't get in trouble. Don't tell her he was just watching every move she made.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He's putting up cameras in the House and outside the house. And Sarah's like, at the time, she goes, I thought that made us fancy.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because she's like, remember I'm a kid. Like, that's what rich people have. Right? Like, how cool is that? We have a security system.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, and it would be one thing to have like a camera on the outside. Outside of your house. He then shows Sarah that he's hiding a camera in the vent pointed at the living room so he can, quote, keep an eye on Alyssa. And like now he's like playing Sarah against Alyssa because he's like, she's a problem. You can't tell her about this camera. But you know, you know that it's there, but you can't ever tell her about it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And that makes Sarah feel like, oh, I'm on the good side.

[Patrick Hines]

My dad are on a team.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's it.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So Alyssa, this Alyssa gets a job at the local Jack in the Box.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Her father would literally stalk her. So he'd sit outside her job and we have all of this fun. She'd, like, from the car, film her and like zoom in on her as she's like, cooking the french fries.

[Patrick Hines]

Another example of people making excuses for this. The manager gets mad at the dad because he thinks it's weird and creepy, but does nothing about it. If you are the manager of a restaurant and you have a 16 year old girl working for you and there's any person, I don't care if it's her parent or anybody sitting in a car in the parking lot filming her, that person is unsafe.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And maybe he did. We don't know if he did or didn't. Yeah, but we see Alyssa on camera.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like at the window of the car. Like, she goes into the parking lot and she's like, you got me in trouble, dad. How'd I do that? Cause that freaking asshole Mike, he looks and he goes, that's illegal. He can't do that.

[Patrick Hines]

And I was like, that's my dad. Which one's Mike? The one I'm shocking to you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Everyone in there is mad. And he's like, who's mad? And she's like, but the bigger thing here is that he's just causing problems for her with every dynamic and every relationship she has.

[Patrick Hines]

Because a job is a step out the door. A job is her making her own money and not needing him for that. Or job is like a pathway to freedom for her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. Or hearing like, wait, you don't have cameras in your. Or wait, your father doesn't record. Oh, wait, like, being out in the real world is a very dangerous thing.

[Patrick Hines]

100%.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So this is what he was doing. And he wasn't hiding any of it. Like making the parents sign contracts and filming her everywhere. Like, everyone was aware. So when she finally is gone, when people heard she, quote, ran away, they were like, you know what?

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Good for her.

[Patrick Hines]

And you know, Sarah's gonna say towards the end of the documentary, everyone in every institution failed her. Every. Every adult who signed a contract about a party or every boss who didn't call the fucking cops on the creepy dad filming the kid. Everyone failed her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Everybody.

[Patrick Hines]

And again, I'm only speaking to the adults. I'm not talking about the kids in her life.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. Travel down the road. Back again, girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Tis the season to get talky. Which is why talk space is back. Look, the holidays are upon us. Sometimes you can get down at this time of year.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. It's always good to talk, no matter the seas. But now in this seas, we're really into talking.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, makes getting the help you need easy, accessible and affordable.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And you're right, because this is an extra busy time of year. The fact that it's online makes it so much more convenient. You don't have to sort of face the crowd. It's not your whole day anymore. You know, we all got a lot going on.

[Patrick Hines]

And also fam talks based therapy and psychiatry are covered by many insurance plans and employers. Most insured members have a zero dollar copay.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So you can easily sign up online and get paired with the licensed provider. That's the right fit for your needs, typically within about 48 hours.

[Patrick Hines]

Savannah, as a listener of TCO, you'll get 80 bucks off your first month with Talkspace when you go to talkspace.com TCO and enter promo code space80 to.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Match with a licensed therapist today, go to talkspace.com Tco and enter promo code space80 to get 80 bucks off your first month and show your support for the show.

[Patrick Hines]

That's talkspace.com TCO promo code space80.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Just talk it out, talk it out.

[Patrick Hines]

Talk it on your own terms. Talk it in your living room, on the couch, in your bed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's all virtual. You can send messages too. We didn't say, but that's true.

[Patrick Hines]

But you can, girl. Masterclass is back. You know, Masterclass, it's like it's the online website where you can go and learn from the best of the best in just about any sort of thing you want to study.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Over 200 of the world's best.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You're taking classes with them virtually.

[Patrick Hines]

I'm telling you to learn writing. I took classes with Aaron Sorkin and David Sedaris. Yes, Professor Sedaris.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So this is a perfect gift for, like, the person who has everything or the person who's not big into clutter. It's like a good experience gift because you can learn from any masterclass instructor anywhere. On a smartphone, on your computer, on your smart tv, even in audio mode. If you're into the podcast thing.

[Patrick Hines]

Think about the person in your life who has everything. What a surprise, fun gift this would be to give them.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

You know, and by the way, fam, the classes really make a difference. 88% of members feel that masterclass has made a positive impact on their lives. I'm one of those people.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. And I really love this gift because it shows that you know the person, because it shows that, like, oh, you want to learn something. I just think it is really personal at the same time.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, who knows? You go to masterclass and what you will discover. You didn't even know you wanted to learn about fashion from Anna Wintour.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. You know, hanging out with RuPaul. Come on.

[Patrick Hines]

Totally. She can do the movie, the cerulean monologue.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

When the pass.

[Patrick Hines]

Of course, fam. Masterclass always has great offers during the holidays. Sometimes up to as much as 50% off.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Head over to masterclass.com TCO for the current offer.

[Patrick Hines]

That's up to 50% [e-mail] TCO masterclass.com.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

TCO do you think I could give.

[Patrick Hines]

Fashion if I took that classroom and I wouldn't wear. Could I learn to not wear the same sweater every week?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, probably something like that. So while everyone's like, hooray, she's away from that creep. Everything comes to a screeching halt when they think for two more seconds and they're like, wait a second.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She never would have left Sarah alone. No way.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

No way. And she wouldn't have left her phone, and she wouldn't be, like, calling charity to hang out, like.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She's not doing the things that she would have been doing if she really just got out from under his thumb.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So now we meet Detective Willian Anderson. He inherited alyssa's case in 2008. By this point, she's been gone for seven years.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He confirms that the cops don't give a shit about runaways.

[Patrick Hines]

They've been literally doing absolutely nothing on.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The case, especially if they leave a Note like Alyssa did in the 5am phone call. This just confirms that she's in the wind and we shouldn't care about it.

[Patrick Hines]

But Anderson is here to say I'm taking another look at this because she's.

[Cousin David]

Never contacted any of her family members, never contacted any of her friends. Honestly, I'm having trouble with this teenage girl cutting all ties with everybody she's ever known. That just doesn't happen.

[Patrick Hines]

Teenage girls don't do that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And also, that phone call would have been recorded. That 5:00am phone call.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Dad records everything because Sarah says you pick up the phone, it's an audible. However, he rigged it.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Is that the phone records everything. And I'm like, can't wait to hear that 5am phone call.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly. And so in 2008, Detective Anderson calls Sarah, and out of the blue, she's like, oh, my God, it's been seven years since I've heard from anybody. He asked her to come down to the station for her first and only ever formal interview on the case.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Sarah is 19 years old at this point.

[Patrick Hines]

And we see this interview, and, you know, Sarah in this interview is basically just regurgitating all of the things that she's been told all of her life that she learned as a kid. And she just absolutely believed that Alyssa was a bad kid. She was bad to the dad. She did stupid stuff, like she'd get in cars with boys and just, like, take off with strange boys. And not knowing. Sarah never saw this behavior.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

No. But Sarah was told this when she's 12. And now recounting it seven years later.

[Patrick Hines]

And it's like Sarah's sort of air in this interview is like, I miss my sister, and I love her, and I want her to come home. But, like, it makes sense. She was living a dangerous lifestyle, so it kind of makes sense that she's gone.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Also, remember the seven years of brainwashing?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

From her father. The two of them against the world.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And also Anderson, the cop says it's the leaving of the cell phone that is like, the biggest red flag to him, because he's like, I have never seen a single other case where a teenager had a cell phone and would do that. I wanted to point out it was the very, very, very early 2000s when she went missing. I. I didn't get my first cell phone until 2001. And even then, I didn't always have my phone on me. You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh. I mean, we've talked about it before. I think it was Laci Peterson. Like, her phone was in the car. And we had to be like, dear listener.

[Patrick Hines]

Right?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It wasn't the same thing because people had, like, landlines.

[Patrick Hines]

And all I'm saying is that the dad was just too dumb to throw the phone away. You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Or like, maybe he thought, like, if she had her phone, we could track the phone. So we've got to leave it here because, you know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, I guess.

[Patrick Hines]

The cell phone, you know, I'm very grateful for the cell phone because it's the big red flag that makes the cops take a second.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. Because the stories are not aligning. Because the whole, like, you know, fuck you, dad. I'm leaving for California, whatever. But, like, she. It's not Fuck you, everyone I've ever met.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's a Mike the dad specific grievance. So why would she just, like, cut off everyone? That makes zero sense.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And, you know, Anderson is asking Sarah about the relationship between Alyssa and her dad. And Sarah's like, he was definitely overprotective, you know, But. But he was overprotective because she was making poor choices.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now it's 2008, right? Alyssa's been missing for seven years now. Detective Anderson is on the case. He wants to talk to the father.

[Cousin David]

Mike declines to do a formal interview. And that's fine. I still have him on the phone. He's still relatively cooperative. Mike was all about the cop talk. He introduced himself as former law enforcement. He's so happy that we're paying attention to this.

[Patrick Hines]

He's very happy that they're looking into this. But I'm not gonna sit down with you for it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

As John Oliver would say, cool. Like, fuck off.

[Patrick Hines]

Well. And quickly, the dad wants to point to a suspect.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh, well, okay. So Mike the dad, tells the cops to look at Alyssa' abusive ex boyfriend, John.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I'm like, what? We're just now learning about John?

[Patrick Hines]

We're just learning about John?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Egg on my face. This is a nothing burger. Mike the dad, of course, has video from the day before Alyssa, quote, left.

[Patrick Hines]

Taken at the house on surveillance.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

His, like, homemade surveillance.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. Detective Anderson is initially very excited about this.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right? But, like, in two seconds, you realize that Mike the dad has edited this together because he hands the cops a tape, and it's switching rooms and points of view, right? Mike the dad edited this together. God knows what he left out. But here's what the edited video shows. We start in the garage. Alyssa and John, the boyfriend, leave the house through the garage and walk off camera. Then only Alyssa comes back into Frame. And she, with all of her might, like, throws this cordless phone against the wall and it breaks.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Which my immediate thought was, like, you're going to be in so much trouble. Like, you just broke the phone. Like, oh, my God. When you have, like, a terrifying, scary dad. Like, I would walk around the house on eggshells.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. So then, though, it jumps. This is the editing.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It jumps to the camera inside the vent. And Alyssa is crying on the couch. It's obvious that she just got in a fight with John.

[Patrick Hines]

You can hear John in his car screeching away outside.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now, my thing is, like, hey, Detective, you're going to ask about the vent camera. No.

[Patrick Hines]

So that's my note, because Detective Anderson is thrilled about this video. He thinks this shows that obviously it's got to be the boyfriend. I'm like, you're the vent camera is.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Not a red flag because, dear listener, it's literally through the vent.

[Patrick Hines]

You see the slats in the vent.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, it's a hidden camera in his home.

[Patrick Hines]

It's not a security camera inside the house. It is a hidden camera.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's not like you called some company and they. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Patrick Hines]

This is not simply a safe.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Just got a bunch of camcorders.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Do you see what I'm saying?

[Patrick Hines]

Yes.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, the battery expense alone on that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I mean, my God. But no one asks about this. I mean, at least we're not told that anyone asks.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And Detective Anderson does not take a minute here to say, that was weird.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But what a major fucking glaring red flag that there's a camera in a vent.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Why. And why are you editing? Just give us all the footage you have.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Why are you giving us a fully formed, edited video that you yourself edited?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And you won't talk to us, but you have this for seven years ago. Like, what?

[Patrick Hines]

Well, so they tracked down John, the boyfriend, because right now he's looking pretty good for this disappearance. Right. So they bring him in. Remember, it's been seven years since Alyssa disappeared. And Detective Anderson is saying this guy was very cooperative. He's telling them he met Alyssa at school. They were together for the entire year. There was never any violence between them ever. Like, the look on his face when he's asked about, like, was there ever, like, flinches?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He was like, also, she just bailed.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, he's like, I'm the hurt one. She's, like, left me. I feel like I was broken up with and then never heard from her again.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I'm like, oh, yet another person she would have called.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he's. He's, like, honest. He's open. Open. They say no signs of deception. Which I'm like, kind of means nothing to me. But I believe John.

[Patrick Hines]

But I believe John, importantly, does not know about the video.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because I'm like, yeah, John. Yeah. Nice story. Why are you fighting on the video? Why. Why am I staring at a broken phone and a crying Alyssa and you peeling off, like, what happened? John's like, jillian, if you shut up for two seconds, I'll explain.

[Patrick Hines]

He would never talk to you like that. No violence. Okay.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

If he did. Because this is all. We're all very heated. We're all at 100. We need cooler heads to start prevailing. But not now. So here's what happened. John goes over to Alyssa's house, and before he can get to Alyssa, I don't know, they were hanging out. I don't know what they were going to do. Mike, the dad, goes, hey, chief.

[Patrick Hines]

Hey, hey, hey.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Confronts him and says.

[Cousin David]

And Mike told him she's cheating on you with a guy from work. John obviously reacted poorly to that. He confronted a list, and then he stormed out of the house. He's describing that event.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Alyssa's cheating on you. It's some guy from work. I know this because I have cameras everywhere.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I have footage of them making out. And I'm thinking, this is another relationship. He's trying to ruin Alyssa's life, of course. Like, she's just trying to blow. Like, why would you do this?

[Patrick Hines]

He's just trying to completely isolate her. And do you know what I keep thinking about, honestly? Is Alyssa's poor mother in heaven.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Like, you married this guy. You think, like, her final days must have been fucking torture for her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

But at least I've got this great guy who's going to take care of my.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And, like, this big, happy family. Like, Sarah calls him the Brady Bunch at one point, you know?

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, what made him turn so crazy? Because he wasn't like this. At least that we know of, when his wife was alive.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh. Anyway. Sorry.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's fine. So the cops have the same question of, like, what is going on?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And that's when everyone kind of realizes, like, oh, this entire fight was incited by Michael Turner.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, he started this fight, and John. And I'm like, why? And John is like, I wait. Like, that's kind of. Hold on a second.

[Patrick Hines]

Right?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because after John hears all of that he goes, well, her stupid stepdad did something ridiculously terrible. That's the quote, that's the on screen text.

[Patrick Hines]

And just remember, fam, that the stepdad is the dad. It's the same.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's Mike turn. It's the bad guy, the killer. So John, the boyfriend says Michael Turney took Alyssa for a drive, pulled over.

[Patrick Hines]

Somewhere and, you know, an unoccupied occupied.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Area, something like the desert area, and tried fooling around with her.

[Patrick Hines]

And she got, you know, aggressive, fighting about it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He is basically telling the cops that this guy tried to assault or assaulted Alyssa. Sexually assaulted Alyssa in a car.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly the same guy who then, look, orchestrated the breakup with the boyfriend.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

With the edited video and the vent camera and all this crazy shit, this is major news.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, like, basically, this is evidence of sexual assault. So then Detective Anderson then reaches out to every single person Alyssa Attorney has ever met. Teachers, friends, cousins, every single former babysitters, coworkers. And everybody is telling him the exact same. Alyssa was telling everybody that this happened.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

This specific story of her being assaulted by her father in the car.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And at one point, like Jessica. Rhett. Rhett, who's Alyssa's brother, by the way, and Charity, the friend has the same story, only her version is much more violent.

[Patrick Hines]

Or it's another instance of the abuse.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Where Michael Turney is strangling Alyssa and is suffocating her and is on top of her.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So I think these are two separate incidents. I think there's the truck incident where he sexually assaults her in the car. And then there's another incident where he's on top of her, choking her, gagging her and sexually assaulting her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Charity says he told Alyssa, like, don't tell anyone because no one's gonna believe you anyway.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Charity also says that Alyssa begged Charity not to say anything for Sarah.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Alyssa didn't want something to happen where Alyssa's taken away from the family or Sarah's at risk or they are separated in some way. So Alyssa stayed quiet to protect Sarah.

[Patrick Hines]

Which I gotta tell you, would probably have happened as a foster parent. An underage Alyssa reporting the father. They would have taken the kids away. Hopefully, Alyssa and Sarah would have stayed together. But like, we don't know. And all Alyssa can think, I mean, probably what would have happened is they would have gone to Aunt Teresa. But of course, Alyssa has no way of knowing that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right? And she would think, is Sarah alone her father?

[Patrick Hines]

You know, the dad is saying, we're going to learn. Later, the dad made her sign documents saying that These things never happen. No one's going to believe you. She believes. No one's going to believe her. She's completely isolated. She's got to be there to save Sarah 100%.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So now like the cops are like, okay, the dad, we need all your footage. We need all of it. The vent, camera, the this, especially. Especially from the days leading up to and including when Alyssa went missing.

[Cousin David]

Yeah, I asked Mike if he can provide me with that tape. Mike kind of hems and haws. He's not sure if he still has that one. He'll have to look around for it. I consider that odd because it's the last day your child was seen alive. That's something that you keep.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh, I probably don't have it. And I'm like, really? You're not watching them on a loop every single day to see if you missed something or if any shred of evidence as to why she's gone?

[Patrick Hines]

And thank God, like, Anderson is saying the same thing. He knows him not having it like readily available to bring to the cops is a major red flag.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

A bigger red flag is that the cops also want that 5am phone call.

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And unfortunately, we don't have it.

[Patrick Hines]

And guess who's suddenly being less cooperative with his best friend, Anderson?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Guess.

[Patrick Hines]

Mike. The dad.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Of course.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Travel down the road.

[Patrick Hines]

Back again, girl. Hydro is back. Listen, fam, if you want to give the gift of an immersive full body workout out from the comfort of your home, you need the hydro rower. Now let me tell you, they sent us a hydro rower. I have one in my home.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You do?

[Patrick Hines]

I did my 2000 meter row this morning. I broke my time. I did it in under nine minutes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Wow.

[Patrick Hines]

It was really amazing. I love it. It is like the best full body workout I've ever done.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Okay. And when you say full body, I just want to like focus on that because it works 86% of your muscles. We're talking arms, legs, core, and it only takes 20 minutes. You would think, oh, I'm stuck on the for an hour. No, 20 minutes. 86% of your muscles.

[Patrick Hines]

And let me tell you, no matter where your goals are, fam, hydro meets you where you are. Hydro is low impact. So I like, I was running for a really long time, but my back was really hurting me. So. Hydro is low impact, which means minimal risk of injury. Hydro also combines strength and cardio to give you an amazing workout.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And all hydro workouts are led by Olympians and world class athletes.

[Patrick Hines]

Let me tell you, you're not going to Hate looking at them.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You're not going to hate it, coaches.

[Patrick Hines]

They absolutely are.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And hydro workouts are filmed all over the world outside, so it really makes you feel like you're there. You're not, like, stuck in some studio.

[Patrick Hines]

No, I told you. I do my rows on the Charles river because both my sisters did crew and they did their stuff on the Charles river, so I feel like I'm them. I love it. The hydro is the best. I'm totally obsessed with that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So give the gift of a full body workout all from the comfort of home with hydro.

[Patrick Hines]

Head over to hydro.com and use code TCO to save up to 800. 800 bucks off your hydro pro rower. Oh, my.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Eight, zero, zero.

[Patrick Hines]

Whoa.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's H Y D R O W dot com. And the code is TCO to save up to $800.

[Patrick Hines]

Hydro.com code TCO. Do it, fam. I never thought I'd be a rower, but now I do it, like, almost every other day.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You love 86% of your muscles. That's crazy.

[Patrick Hines]

I can feel every single one of.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Them right now in 20 minutes. My God, the math is math. So it's December 11, 2008. Alyssa's been missing for over seven years. And the cops call Sarah down to the station.

[Patrick Hines]

Girl, we've got breaking news in the case.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And they're like, this is going to come as a major shock.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, they don't have breaking news in the case. They got to get her out of the house.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

They say, so we have warrants to search your house. It's actually happening right now. And also, ps, we're taking your father into custody because we need evidence from him. So we're not arresting him yet. But just an FYI.

[Patrick Hines]

And he's also, like, the main suspect in the case.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And the cops say to her, they, like, spell it out. They're like, we wanted you out of the house because we didn't want you there when this happened. But, like, here's what's happening.

[Patrick Hines]

But now Sarah's sobbing because, Remember, back in 2008, Sarah is her dad's biggest defender. Absolutely no way he could have two.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Of them against the world. Yep.

[Patrick Hines]

She. She didn't even know they were ever even looking at him. Like, this is. They've got something. All she.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Why would they.

[Patrick Hines]

Right? Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

All her father wanted to do was protect Alyssa. Alyssa was in trouble.

[Patrick Hines]

And finding Alyssa has been his life's work since she went missing.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So.

[Patrick Hines]

And Sarah is sobbing. She just wants to get out of there, to get back to the house to be with her dad.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Meanwhile, Dr. Erin Nelson is here. And I love her. She's a forensic psychologist. And the cops are waiting for the dad to leave the house.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now, this guy, it's a normal day.

[Patrick Hines]

And the reason they're waiting for him to leave is because this guy's got fucking gun. Guns forever.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Well, here's the thing. It's just a normal. It's a Tuesday morning at 9:30, right?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He goes to check his mail. The SWAT team descends upon him.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Here's what he's carrying while he's walking to the mailbox. Again, he has no idea this is happening, Sarah. Like, he's just going to the mailbox. I'm stressing that because here's what he has on his person to get the fucking junk mail. And the circular.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, right. He was equipped with multiple firearms, knives.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And a recording device that he had donned, all just to make that walk.

[Patrick Hines]

From the front door to the mailbox.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And a recording device. And I'm sitting, I'm like, walking to the mailbox. And Dr. Allen's like, yeah, girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, girl. I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Walking to the. This is who we're dealing with here.

[Patrick Hines]

This is just unbelievable. They say they're looking for the security tapes that would have Alyssa on them. Either the audio or the video. They say, but what we found was so much more.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I'm like, like what?

[Patrick Hines]

This is insane. There are guns everywhere. Shotguns, you say.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Massive, quote, massive amount of weapons.

[Patrick Hines]

Shotguns, rifles, pistols. They say the place is an epic mess. The man does not know how to clean. He's basically a hoarder. Thousands of video and audio recordings, a.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Wealth of ammunition for, quote, everything possible.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

One of the videos they find. It's a video of him having sex with a woman who's bound and gagged. Which just furthers, like, the charity story about, like, he was doing that to Alyssa, too.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I'm like, is this a. But who is she? Is this consensual? Is he assaulting her? Because there are Polaroids, there are thousands, and I mean thousands of VHS tapes and cassettes. He recorded absolutely everything. But, like, weird that, like, the day Alyssa goes missing, gone the five, I.

[Patrick Hines]

Find that one gone. Only I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Wouldn't you like, oh, my God, do I even have that? I mean, you're asking me now, right?

[Patrick Hines]

It's. You're.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The last time. Weren't you begging and pleading your daughter.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, she called it 2008. You'd have it digitized. You'd have it, like, on A thumbnail, you'd have it readily available.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You'd be the crazy person who's just playing it on a loop, trying to find a clue that you probably missed. Like.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Give me a break. 100%.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So when you add all of this to what Alyssa's friends were saying, like assaulted, threatened, choked, strangled, you're like, who is this woman? Has he been doing this before? But we're not done.

[Patrick Hines]

No. Because then they find the fucking pipe bombs.

[Cousin David]

And then we look towards an old van that's in the backyard. The van appears to be full of trash upon first inspection. But then you take a closer look, it becomes very apparent that the van itself is a bomb.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

They think it's just full of trash?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And no. The van itself is a bomb. And I'm like, Sarah was living here.

[Patrick Hines]

I know, I know, I know. Within the van there's propane, bleach and nails in the wheel well.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And everyone. In case you're wondering, there's a plan for this. Yes.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, they get into a safe and they find thumb drives in envelopes being mailed to NBC, abc, cnn, all the major news networks with his manifesto.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

His manifesto. The diary of a madman. His fucking manifesto. So remember how he was an electrician?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

This is all about all the bombs. The manifesto is all about how he was treated poorly by the union and everyone was trying to kill him. It's a cult like environment. In fact, the union kidnapped Alyssa and they took her to California and they.

[Patrick Hines]

Killed her and they killed her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so the plan is to drive the van, the van that is a bomb, a bomb into the Intern Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union hall and kill everyone. And I'm like, does he even believe this shit or is this like a.

[Patrick Hines]

Weird cover up when you're just like, when did he become this? Because he raised those boys, then met Sarah's mom.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The boys that want nothing to do with him.

[Patrick Hines]

Right? I mean, it's like, when did he crack? When did this happen?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I mean, it's been seven years since he killed Alyssa. Yeah. I think this is a very slow burn. And he's. When, you know, isolating your victims is one thing, but that means you're also isolating yourself and in your own echo chamber of crazy. And like, I think you know what I mean, 100%. I think it's a mutual fucked up situation here where, like, he's not in reality either. The way he's shielding Sarah from the real world means he's shielding himself even more.

[Patrick Hines]

The idea I'm making this Number up. But the idea that he was going to go kill all of those people. If that had happened, I'm a guessing in 2008, it would have been like the greatest example of domestic terror since 9 11.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I mean, it would have been. I can't believe Sarah was living in a house with an actual ticking bomb in the driveway. And many other ones.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, my God. It's terrifying. They find 29 pipe bombs in total.

[Cousin David]

He is arrested for the possession of the explosives. But we're never able to find the security video from May 17th of 2001 or the early morning phone call from that pay phone.

[Patrick Hines]

They're never able to find the security video from the day that she went missing or the phone call from that. That call from California.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

No shit, right?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But that means that Michael Turney was the last person to see Alyssa because he picked her up from school.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yep.

[Patrick Hines]

And in his own telling, he dropped her off at home and like, went on his way for the day. But that still makes him. And Anderson, the detective was like, we don't believe any of the rest of the story. We believe he killed. Like, we believe that he was the last person to see her. We don't believe this phone call ever happened.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Of course.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. I mean, or like the phone call happened, but it wasn't her. We see the phone record for the phone call. So we, we believe. And we can get more on this from Sarah, but we believe there actually was a phone call from Riverside. Was it like a prank call that worked in his favor? Did he hire somebody to do it?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's my question. Was it just like the stars aligned for him where there was some, like a wrong number.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Or missed call for. At 5am from a pay phone in Riverside, California, and he somehow. Yeah, but with who?

[Patrick Hines]

Wait, who knows? We're going to, we're going to Sarah. We're going to get to the bottom of that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. I have so many questions about the call. I even wrote my. I have like. I'm such a nerd. I have my little, like, handwritten notebook, like, next to my computer.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because I'll like. I have. So I have. And I have alarm. I have so many things going on. But for Sarah's interview, I want like, things I can totally. So as I was watching, I'm doing my notes that I'm using here, but also my, like handwritten. Crazy. I know.

[Patrick Hines]

I have mine too.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it was. It's like so many questions about the 5am phone call. I'm like, scratch it, like scribbling it. I'm like Kermit at the typewriter. That gif. I'm just like, ah. So. But back to Sarah. She's shocked. Her father's been arrested. And she says, look, I. Like, I know the house looks crazy and whatever, but she goes.

[Patrick Hines]

The only reality she's ever known. It doesn't look that crazy to her.

[Sarah Turney]

And she says, like, growing up, there were always guns in my house. That was my normal. And when I heard about his plan to hurt all these people, I really thought that it was some fantasy writing of his. And my dad told me that the Phoenix Police Department planted those pipe bombs.

[Patrick Hines]

And her dad tells her that the cops planted the pipe bombs. She believes it. She believes it because she has to believe it. This is what I always think about people in these situations.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I'm sure he was like, sarah, one day they're going to come. And when they do, yes, like, here's what happened and his manifesto. He told her it's just a. He's just getting his emotions out. He's like a journal.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, thank God he's sentenced to 10 years. He Go to. He goes to prison for the pipe.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Bombs and all that crazy.

[Patrick Hines]

So Sarah says, you know, she was just starting college when this happened, and this turns her life upside down. Suddenly she's got to take over the responsibility of the house and the three dogs. But at the same time, she's, like, his biggest supporter and most vocal. Yes, she makes a website for him. She's going on tv. She circulates a petition. She fully believes he was wrongfully convicted.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She. We see footage. Sarah is on the news talking about how her father is being framed and he's wrongfully committed and had nothing to.

[Patrick Hines]

Do with Alyssa's murder or disappearance.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it's because this. I'm sure she was prepped for this for the last seven or eight years, of course. And she. This is her father. He would never do anything like this. You know, Alyssa had a very dangerous lifestyle. So she is here trying to keep together the only family she knows.

[Patrick Hines]

Meanwhile, cut to all the other friends and relatives that are in the documentary. They're like, oh, thank fucking God. They finally got the guy who obviously did that right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Meanwhile, Sarah has become what she calls his legal secretary. She's given his power of attorney. I mean, real official shit. It's the two of them against the world. Just like he always told her it was gonna be.

[Patrick Hines]

He's on the inside telling her, nobody loves you like how I love you. I'm the only person who can take care of you. That's it. It's us.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's it. And like this is. What did I say? I told you they were gonna come for me. And I told you this was gonna happen. And look at us now. And no one. I mean, it's me and you, right? It's Sarah's like, of course, of course. Oh my God.

[Patrick Hines]

And this goes on for years.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Sarah says she eventually gives the house back to the bank. Sarah graduates college, she buys her own home. And then eventually Sarah kind of like something. Because this always happens, because they're.

[Patrick Hines]

Because she's not isolated by him anymore.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. And like something kind of starts to shake loose for Sarah.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she realizes like his mask starts to fall. But she's asking some questions and she's.

[Sarah Turney]

Like, my dad just wasn't interested in anything but himself, you know, he let me go bankrupt paying for things like him to have a TV in prison, to constantly send him hundreds and hundreds of dollars in commissary money. It didn't matter how many hours I put into working for him, how much of my money I gave to him. It was very clear that he didn't care about my well being.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Prison is fucking expensive.

[Patrick Hines]

Is it really?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yes. And Sarah is paying for all of it. And her father is totally fine because he needs to watch his stories.

[Patrick Hines]

He does not care.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

His daughter. Right. It's them against the world. The only one he loves and trusts and vice versa. And she has nowhere to live because she needs a television.

[Patrick Hines]

Right, Exactly. And she says like it became clear to her that the only person he cared about was himself.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Nothing was enough. The work, the money, the petitions going on the news. And I'm like. Cuz it never is. And she's starting to get that.

[Patrick Hines]

Then she runs into Jessica Lange at a record store. The best friend of Alyssa, the Care Bear friend from high school. Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Who's right next to me combing through. Does he have any Fiona Apple?

[Patrick Hines]

You guys gotta win the pond.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I mean I was in a record store not that long ago. I was in upstate New York with Mike and our friends Damian and Lori. And I went right, right to the Fiona Apple section. Empty.

[Patrick Hines]

It was 20 years ago this week. I believe that that when the pond came out. Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But I went right to the paper.

[Patrick Hines]

Bag him on the radio the other day and I thought of you. It's my favorite Fiona Apple.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So good. Yeah, it's so good. So anyway, Jessica and Sarah meet. It's been years. And Sarah is like, oh my God, Jessica. Like how are You. Sarah is super excited to see Jessica. And Jessica is just like, skip a beat. You know your father killed your sister, right?

[Patrick Hines]

I mean, just like, think. And thank God for the brutal honesty. Somebody had to.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Sarah goes, no, he didn't.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But, like, it sticks with her. And Sarah's home with her boyfriend. And she's like, boyfriend, Nameless. We don't know. Nameless.

[Patrick Hines]

Boyfriend.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Sarah Turney]

I turned to my boyfriend and I said to him, do you think my dad could have killed my sister? And he says, sarah, everyone thinks your dad killed your sister.

[Patrick Hines]

Everyone thinks your dad killed your sister.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And something in that moment shifts in Sarah. Like, the spell is broken. She starts kind of. She's like, oh.

[Patrick Hines]

Because the thing that I think works in Sarah's favor here is that she didn't have these people banging down the door, screaming this at her for the last five years. She's had her shitty dad in prison who starts treating her like shit. Like, you've said, the masks come off for him. So she's open. She's available to this kind of thinking.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. And people that she trusts are kind of like, girl. Like, yeah. Because what. What is the motivation, right, to lie about it? It's been all these years, and it's like the writings on the wall. Like, were you there when there was a van that was a bomb? At the very least, he's not well, Sarah.

[Patrick Hines]

And she says this was the first moment she considered that her father wasn't telling the truth. And she was able to do it because for the first time in her life, she wasn't under his manipulation. Imagine she's at the record store, sees Jessica Lange. Not that Jessica Lange. Jessica Lange says that to her. She goes home. She's like, dad, I ran into Jessica at the record store today. And, like, she's trying to convince me that you killed my sister. And. But because he's not there and he's been such a dick to her, she's in that headspace where she can hear it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's like, well, I thought it was the two of us against the world, and now you're letting me go bankrupt. And now you're doing this. And now you're, like, being rude and, like, I'm doing all this work for you, and it's never enough. What the fuck?

[Patrick Hines]

All of that awful shit is true about you. Could this also be true about you?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Well, and that's where we are. Because then Sarah starts using her powers for good.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And all of the hard work and determination and the research and the organization and the passion that she was putting towards her father's case, now it's her sister's case.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So she pulls out this enormous stack of papers.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, she pulls it out today to show the camera. This is Alyssa's file and it is two feet thick.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She, like, calls Phoenix PD and she's like, I'm over on the good side now. I'm using my powers for good. And so documents, reports, transcripts of interviews, transcripts of the video, all the shit that Sarah documents, reports, receipts, fucking receipts, everything.

[Patrick Hines]

Fucking everything.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So. But all this stuff that Sarah didn't know because her father was keeping it from her, right?

[Patrick Hines]

So there's transcripts of interviews with people she didn't even know were interviewed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

John, the boyfriend.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes, yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

All this stuff. And she's like, wait a second, because.

[Patrick Hines]

This is where she learns about the sexual assault. She didn't know about that before.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Everything we've been screaming about for an hour, Sarah learns in real time. And you have to imagine, like, the out of body, dry mouth, adrenaline, insanity of. And then all of the things that she had experienced as a kid, now she's seeing in a different light. And she's like, oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

And the other big thing that the friend. In the transcripts that she's reading, she's seeing that Alyssa only stayed to take care of her, Which.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And then the guilt of that, that Sarah has amazingly worked on.

[Patrick Hines]

She knows better now, of course. You know what I mean? Of course.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

How much can one person take? The hits just keep on coming. Every time she turns the page, it's worse than the one before it.

[Patrick Hines]

And then we got to talk about the third grade teacher.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I fucking hate this woman. So after her mother, Barbara died.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Her father started dating Alyssa's third grade teacher.

[Patrick Hines]

Which conflict of interest, I don't like it on its face.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So. But Sarah's like, I loved her, Alyssa, and I love this girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Right? You know what? These people needed like, a sane adult in their life. Fine.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She like the woman. The teacher should have known better. But Sarah's like, I loved her. I loved her kids. She. Sarah says she was the closest thing to a stepmother we ever had.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now, in a 2009 interview with A. Alyssa's third grade teacher.

[Patrick Hines]

With the cops.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

With the cops, we learn. She said to me, I'm having sex with my dad. And I talked to her and I said, alyssa, why are you saying. Now are you truly telling me this? Because if she told me, I would have called CPS or whatever. And she said, no, I'm not Alyssa told her, and I quote, I'm having sex with my dad.

[Patrick Hines]

Do we know how old Alyssa was at this point? Because she sounds like she was young.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Third grade.

[Patrick Hines]

Third grade. Okay.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's our third grade teacher.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So the teacher does the worst thing, which is why. Why would you say that? What do you mean?

[Patrick Hines]

Yes, and the teacher is telling us that she said that to her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. Because Dr. Aaron is like, you don't say that. Because that. That is a thing that would make a kid go, I don't know. It puts the kid on the defense. So there's no training from the teacher, which is a whole other set of problems that, you know, whatever. Yeah, but the teacher says. Teacher slash girlfriend says, oh.

[Patrick Hines]

Also, mandatory reporter, I should add, which.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She fucking failed at. Goes, why would you say that? And Alyssa goes, never mind. So the teacher decides to do nothing.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She doesn't make a phone call. Instead, she's dating the man Alyssa said was abusing her. The teacher, fucking pick me of the year assumes that Alyssa said this because she's jealous of the teacher for attention. This woman is a fucking idiot and honestly has blood on her hands.

[Patrick Hines]

I couldn't agree more. I truly could not agree more. Because I'm sorry, if. If you're a mandatory reporter, you have to. Whether you think it's true or not, if a kid reports that to you, you have to report it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Why on earth.

[Patrick Hines]

This woman needs to lose her fucking license.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Why would a child say that?

[Patrick Hines]

I know. And also, like somebody says, I can't.

[Sarah Turney]

Imagine what it was like for Alyssa to build up all that courage to tell someone what was going on. To just be dismissed.

[Patrick Hines]

The bravery it took for Alyssa to tell.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Like how hard it would have been. It was drilled into Alyssa's head. You never tell. You never tell. You don't tell anybody that. No one's gonna believe you. They love. She told her because she felt safe with her. And this woman betrayed her in the Word. And I hope she's fucking listening.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And I hope she is, too. And actually, fuck you, I don't want your listen.

[Patrick Hines]

But I just wanted to listen to this one episode to hear this.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I'll send it right to her. Just this part. How many other things did you not report?

[Patrick Hines]

Honest.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You fucking idiot. You stupid, heartless idiot to do that to. How can you hear a little girl say that to you?

[Patrick Hines]

Why are you a teacher and then.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You'Re going on dates?

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

With the guy she said it about. And her reasoning is, oh, she's jealous of me.

[Patrick Hines]

She's jealous of me.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh, my God. Blood on your hands, lady, and I'll say it to your fucking face.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So looking back, though, because Sarah's reading this transcript, she didn't know anything about that, of course. So she's looking back, and now she's seeing everything in a different light, because.

[Patrick Hines]

As you were saying, like, Sarah has watched all of the home videos a million times, but she one night puts one in that she's seen a million times. And she's watching it again. It's a camping video in which Sarah is 8 and Alyssa is 12. And it's this thing where Sarah's got the recorder and the dad is telling her to turn it off. Now, like, once again, Daisy's just like this. I don't want to turn it off. I want to keep recording. No, Daisy, turn it off.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it looks like a movie.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I can't believe I'm watching it. And Sarah, like, her little face is so close to it because, like, she turns the camera on herself, and it's, like, clumsy and clunky, like a little kid. And it's like. I know it's real, but it looks like. Like. Like if you. If you filmed that, you'd be like. That's exactly. You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

I do.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And.

[Patrick Hines]

And I think she's trying to make the dad think she turned it off when she didn't.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Huh.

[Patrick Hines]

Because in the background. Because the dad finally, like, like, lets it go for a second second. And in the background, unrecord, hit the red button.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Dad's a pervert.

[Patrick Hines]

You hear Alyssa say, sarah, dad is a pervert.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because Alyssa is, like, several yards away. And we start hearing her go, Sarah.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it's not like any urgency. Sarah.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And we hear her in the descent, like a total normal.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's why I want to, like, slow down on this for a minute. Because she, like. Sarah doesn't answer. She's fighting with her dad. But you hear Alyssa trying to get her attention.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And then she says it again, Sarah. But again, it's not like, Sarah. Sarah. It's just like Sarah. And Sarah turns the camera around on Alyssa, and she's several yards away, and Alyssa just says, clear as day. Dad's a pervert.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But again, not like, oh, my God, we need to run.

[Patrick Hines]

Save me. Wait. But it's, hey, Sarah, right?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Dad's a pervert.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, and because Sarah has just read all of the transcripts, she just learned about the sexual abuse in the file, Right. And so now she's Hearing Alyssa say that, and she's just like, oh, my God.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because we don't hear what Sarah says back. We don't hear if Alyssa says anything else because she says it pretty casually. We just see the dad grabbing the camera from Sarah and, like, turning off any record of this.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

This is where we start to see a little bit more of the videos. And this is where you start to see how sad and dejected Alyssa looks like it is, knowing what we know. It is so hard to look at her in these videos.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he really, like, runs the gamut. Like, sometimes it's mean, where he's like, oh, hey, look, proof Alyssa can read.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Or sometimes he's, you know, threatening to pull the car over and spank her.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Or, you know, he's. Yeah, do not leave that building whatsoever on prom night. And Alyssa saying, like, turn off that stupid camera.

[Patrick Hines]

And he's filming her when she doesn't know he's filming her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And, like, she's in the pool.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Asking him to stop filming. And he's like, what? Stop what? It's so annoying. I mean, it's many things, but that whole, like, what?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And then we also see that he's, like, in public, like, filming women without them knowing it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Or, like, he'll. He'll make it sound like he's filming, like, the landscape, but he's really being a creep towards women.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Or, like, filming her friends at the beach.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like. And again, like, we get more of, like, how he's just filling Sarah's head with lies about Alyssa, that she's going around telling everybody the family secrets. Sarah says the term I heard all the time in my childhood, the family secrets.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he's telling everyone, like, all of her siblings. We hear recorded phone calls with the brothers. Like, Alyssa's stupid. She has a bad memory.

[Patrick Hines]

She has a learning disorder.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She can't remember all of the rules of the house, so he has to write them on big poster boards and, like, leave them out when her friend. Her, like, teenage friends come over just to embarrass her. He's torturing her, but he's planting seeds. Alyssa's bad. Alyssa's crazy. Alyssa's unreliable. You can't trust a word she says. Yes.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so Sarah, though, now. So Sarah's like, oh, my God. The light bulb goes off. The fucking chandelier goes off. And now Sarah starts telling people, like, Jessica and all, like, I changed my mind.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, I believe.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Like, I'm here now. I'm here. Now, like, what are we gonna do?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And the friends are so relieved. And then they're like, ok, I'll tell you some stuff that's not in the report.

[Patrick Hines]

And this is where we learned he.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Would have her sign contracts which he requires her to state that there was no sexual abuse.

[Cousin David]

This is a legal document in which a lis attorney is made to initial every bullet point saying she had not been physically or sexually abused. But she had to do that in front of a notary public.

[Patrick Hines]

Legally binding contracts saying that there was no sexual abuse.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

No.

[Patrick Hines]

And then they're taking that to like, for her to sign in front of a fucking notary.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now what he's doing is. I'm sorry, I just.

[Patrick Hines]

I know, I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I really just got like, dizzy. I'm sorry.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like.

[Patrick Hines]

No, because you think about the fact that the notary is looking at this like 8, 10, 12 year old girl signing a contract saying there's no sexual abuse. How is that not the first sign that there's sexual abuse?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, it just. It also doesn't make any sense. It's like a parental custodian and childhood agreement. This is an agreement entered to in between Michael R. Tierney and the current legal guardian, Melissa, blah, blah. And it's just like, I agree that Alyssa M. Turney is incorrigible.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's all written in this, like fake legalese. It doesn't make any sense. It's all a word salad. And it's also about how he never sexually abused her. He makes her like, initial. I mean, it's a laundry, it's so long.

[Patrick Hines]

And then he also calls Child Protective Services and tells them, if Alyssa ever calls and accuses me of molesting her, you should not believe her. She's trying to extort me. To which I say, how do you not have people out there interviewing that child?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Five seconds later you say, sure, Jan. Click.

[Patrick Hines]

Absolutely. Go, go, go.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

We got a code red.

[Patrick Hines]

Fucking child just called us. We gotta get out there.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Our CPS listeners and our notary listeners. Yeah, please explain to me what's going on and how this happens, because I'm having a hard time.

[Patrick Hines]

I worked extensively with CPS as a foster parent. I know how hard they work and I know how overworked they are. I know how many cases they have. They cannot even get to all the kids that they are, like, charged with overseeing. I get that they are doing God's work on earth, but when someone comes to you and says, I'm definitely not molesting my kid out of the Clear. Don't listen to her and don't listen to. Or when she tells you that I am. I need to know how that didn't result in an investigation happening immediately.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I agree. And I looked up the notary thing.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because I was like, what? Apparently. And again, notary people, please educate me on this. Because it was confusing when I looked it up. But apparently they're like, not really supposed to read what they're notarizing. It's like a privacy thing.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, interesting.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But it's also like, but there's a child and there's a. But it's also like, maybe we should have some oversight on what the notary is.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. Like, because I'm with you. That she's a child. Somebody like a legal guardian should. Oh, wait, the legal guardian is right there with her. You know what I mean? So, okay. I can get past the notary thing if that's the law. The CPS thing, I need to investigate.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I really don't understand how that isn't the biggest red flag.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, it's me holding a gun to a bank teller and saying, I'm not robbing this bank. Give me all your money. You know what I mean? What was that a good analogy?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Do you think it's make. I'm like, I know. Feeling insane.

[Patrick Hines]

I know. I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So. Oh, God. So this is. But he's doing this. And we just get more and more recordings.

[Patrick Hines]

We're getting more record. Because what's happening now is that like right before Alyssa went missing, there's a recording of Mike calling one of his sons.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I made a fully stupid mistake and tried to talk to Alyssa, which was.

[Patrick Hines]

Totally absolute fucking waste.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Probably going to lose the house. Everything else is going to be fucked over because of some stupid ass fucking bitch. He kind of sees the writing on the wall that she isn't going to stay quiet anymore.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so he's kind of like trying to cover all his bases by making her sign this and calling cpf. But it's like, how are those not red flags?

[Patrick Hines]

Well, and Sarah is saying now in hindsight, like, he was so rageful towards her. Because what happened happened was the sexual abuse happened in the truck. Maybe separately. The instance that Charity described.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I think there were several regular incidents.

[Patrick Hines]

And she's fighting back and she's about to turn 18. So he. He's got to do something.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He's got to do something. So just to like bring everyone up to speed.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Michael Turney is evil. He's. He was abusing Alyssa. He's abusing Sarah in a lot of ways as well. So he's abusing Alyssa and he's furious at her for it.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Let that sink in. He's covering his bases, calling her. He's also homicidal.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because he has all. He had all these weapons.

[Patrick Hines]

He was going to kill all the electricians in town.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He had a manifesto. And so, like, Sarah remembers him also, like, talking about how easy it would be to kill somebody and hide a body.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So now that Sarah has all of this hindsight and all of this information, Sarah Turney has a theory.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So she thinks what happened is, Mike, the dad picked Alyssa up from school on that day in May, took her to the desert. He tried to sexually assault her again. She fought back. And he decides that that day is the day he's going to kill.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right.

[Patrick Hines]

And he picked the last day of school because no one would be looking for her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. And also, we just briefly get back to the note real quick because Sarah's like, you know what? My sister did write that note, but that was from another fight they had.

[Sarah Turney]

I believe that note was from a previous time period. And then my father found it and planted it in her room.

[Patrick Hines]

And it also says, dad, I took $300 from you. Sarah's like, that was from an incident long before this. And that money was repaid. This is an old note that he found and saved to use on the day that he actually killed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. And, like, what about this mysterious 5am phone call? We're going to ask Sarah about this because it's on the records, but, like, I need to get to the bottom of this phone call.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Sarah is making the realization that he did this while he's still in prison. And she's saying that, like, he would call her and she just wouldn't take the call, wouldn't call him back. And she, like, basically lets that relationship die.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yes. So Sarah's going to the cops, and she's like, yeah, hi, I'm.

[Patrick Hines]

I believe you know, we did it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, he did it. So, like, what are we going to do about this? And the cops are like, totally hear you. Where is the physical evidence?

[Patrick Hines]

Unfortunately, it's too late.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

We don't have Alyssa's body. There's no crime scene. There's no blood, there's no DNA. And Sarah's like, I don't give a shit. I want him charged.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right now. So it's 2017, 16 years missing. This piece of shit gets out of prison. Because remember, he served nine years for the fucking bombs.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And at this point, it's been years since he's spoken to Sarah.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so they meet up at a.

[Patrick Hines]

Coffee shop because Sarah wants to confront him and say to him, to his face, I know you did this. Give him an opportunity to confess to her. She also says he's never been formally questioned. He's never been formally confronted. I needed to fucking do that.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she doesn't.

[Patrick Hines]

And she records it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, she records it kind of secretly, but kind of not really.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she basically says to his face, I think you killed my sister, and I think you were sexually assaulting her. Like, what do you have to say for it?

[Patrick Hines]

Exactly.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he denies it. And they kind of go back and forth, and we'll get much more of that later, but he kind of go back and forth, and then he says.

[Patrick Hines]

Be there at the deathbed, Sarah, And.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I'll give you all honest answer. If you want to hear.

[Sarah Turney]

That is the closest thing to a confession that I believe we'll ever get from my father.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Be there at my deathbed, and I'll give you all the honest answers you want to hear.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now, Sarah hears this as a confession, and she's like, this is the.

[Patrick Hines]

I remember when Sarah told me that in person.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And I was like, what?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Whoa.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And at that moment, Sarah sort of comes to terms with the fact that her sister is.

[Patrick Hines]

Is gone.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Gone.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now we go to the cops, like, to sitting to camera, Right. And they're like, right, right, right. But keep playing that audio. So. So the full sentence is, come to my deathbed, Sarah, and I'll give you all the honest answers you want to hear. And it's the same thing I'm telling you now.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so they're like, it's shitty, it's controlling, it's cruel, but it's kind of not enough.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Sarah's like, all right, well, now what then, motherfucker? Like, we gotta get this guy.

[Patrick Hines]

We gotta get him. And so Sarah. The cops say to Sarah, you gotta go to the media.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she goes, all right, bet. So she starts a podcast called Voices for Justice.

[Patrick Hines]

She says she tries to get, like, major media to care. They don't care. She's like, I learned about podcasting. And she's like, she did what we all did. She used her shitty laptop with her shitty microphone, sat down closet and made a podcast.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And she talks to every. Like, specifically about this case and her sister Alyssa. So she starts talking to everyone she can think of, everyone she knows, everyone Alyssa knows, everyone her father knows.

[Patrick Hines]

She's Getting the full context of the police report. So all the friends that are here with us now were interviewed by the cops.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And she's, like, getting the backstory to, like, the. Everything that she read in the. In the file.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She talks to everyone except her four brothers, who were not interested, which we're.

[Patrick Hines]

Gonna have questions about that, too, of course.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Now she's doing the podcast, and again, like most of us, no real plan, no episode layout. She just wants to get the story told. But she's talking to all of these people, and she talks to Cousin David.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Cousin David lived with Sarah and Alyssa and their father in the late 90s.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he has this story, like, another person who just made 0/all the wrong decisions.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

One day, he has two stories, actually. One day, he picked up Alyssa from school or whatever. And when, again, once Alyssa is alone with someone she deems safe, starts talking about how, quote, crazy her dad was, to which Cousin David goes, I don't want to get involved. Looking back, I kind of. I probably should have shut up and let her, you know, tell me what was going on. But I didn't. But I didn't imagine being Alyssa. This is maybe the second time you're trying to tell someone what's going on, and they're just telling you to be quiet.

[Patrick Hines]

But then, even worse, he's, like, home alone one day, he finds a videotape labeled Dr. Dolittle.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he's like, ooh, let me watch this. And I'm like, okay.

[Patrick Hines]

He puts it in the VCR again.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But it's labeled by, like, pen. It's not like.

[Patrick Hines]

Not like a. It's not like a blockbuster, right?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

With, like, Eddie Murphy on the COVID kind.

[Patrick Hines]

Rewind.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

No, no, no. It's like a homemade video that's labeled Dr. Doolittle, to which he's like, I'll try. I'll put that in.

[Patrick Hines]

Let me put it in.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I put it on. The next thing I see, there was a. A girl. She was nude.

[Patrick Hines]

You know, she had no shirt on.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Her arms around the side, but she had a newspaper that was covering her eyes. And I already knew it was obviously Alyssa. You could tell by the profile that was her. There was a newspaper covering her eyes.

[Patrick Hines]

And she's tied up. The video was clearly made by Mike, the dad.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And what does he do? He moves out in the middle of the night and leaves two young girls in the house with the piece of shit father.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, all the credit to Sarah for not just. I don't.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Jumping through the microphone and strangling this guy.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because he goes, I didn't want to get CPS involved and ruin the tourney name. Excuse me.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The only person making good on the tourney name is Sarah.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes. Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

No one gave a shit before. What are you talking about, though? You knew it was so fucked that you left in the middle of the night. Yeah, but you left two little girl. Young girls.

[Patrick Hines]

I mean, it's so one of them.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You just saw on camera.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, the other, this turning name thing, that's also why the brothers didn't want to participate in the podcast. I know, it's wild, so.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But making this podcast got Sarah cut off from her brother. She's not invited to any of the family functions. Like, she.

[Patrick Hines]

She's done and we're gonna see later. She says she still talks to them. I have a lot of questions about this because she's so clearly telling the truth. I mean, Sarah has found out is. Is clearly what happened.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. And if you don't want to face the truth or whatever, like, I guess that's your prerogative, but, like, to cut her is just like, all right, bro.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So Sarah's, like, making the podcast, but it's not getting enough attention. It's, like, not making the moves that she wants to be made. And so she discovers TikTok, and when I tell you, yeah, Sarah Turney went crazy viral overnight. That is not. I'm not being hyperbolic. It was like, one day she wasn't viral, and the next day she fucking.

[Patrick Hines]

It's so. I just remember meeting Sarah, like, so many years ago, and she was just like, sweet, nice, quiet woman, talking about.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, I'm gonna start. I have this podcast. I'm making this podcast about my sister.

[Patrick Hines]

And it was like, you know, we were trying to help her. We're trying to, you know, whatever. And then all of a sudden, you're like, do you know that Sarah turn. He has a million followers on TikTok.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Sitting on the floor with her and Mike, and she was telling us all about this. I know, but I'm gonna. Over overnight.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And she says, like, she's making videos about her missing sister. Her videos are getting, like, 20 million views.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Millions. But it's mobilizing people. People are taking action. They're demanding. They're making phone calls. They're doing everything.

[Patrick Hines]

They demand that the dad be arrested, and he is, because they demanded it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But, like, this is what she. Like, this is what she wanted. And then she went out and did it, and now it's Happening.

[Patrick Hines]

It is the most positive use of social media I have ever seen.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Ever. Yeah, ever. And so August 20, 2020, the father's arrested. It all happened because Sarah went to TikTok and said, maybe I'll try this platform. And if TikTok didn't work, she would have found another thing to make.

[Patrick Hines]

She would have invented, like, we were.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Going to be here no matter what, 100%. Because, like, that's what Sarah does, right? So TikTok happened to strike for her. But if it wasn't that, I promise you, she would have invented a fucking app to go viral.

[Patrick Hines]

We're bringing back MySpace.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She. Or she would have been like, the Sarah Turney app or the Alyssa Attorney app. She would have invented something to make herself viral. I have no doubt.

[Patrick Hines]

No question.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So August 20th, 2020, the father, piece of shit is arrested. July 2023. He's on trial for the murder of Alyssa Turney.

[Patrick Hines]

And they're saying that, like the state, a heavy burden because there's no body.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

There'S no murder scene, there's no murder weapon. There were no witnesses to Alyssa's murder. Beyond that, a whole bunch of the evidence that friends of Alyssa and Sarah wanted to bring in was excluded from the start.

[Patrick Hines]

All of the evidence about the sexual.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Abuse was excluded because they're allegations.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's. That's what the court is saying.

[Patrick Hines]

What is so insane is that we are told they couldn't have that brought in because Mike has a right to face his accuser. But Alyssa isn't here.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

That's the constraint.

[Patrick Hines]

She's not here because he killed her.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Exactly. We've been down this road before, but.

[Patrick Hines]

My whole thing is like, I don't understand how in all of the years of this republic, they hadn't been like, oh, right, people are going to kill their accusers so that they can't testify against them, and then we can't bring that evidence in. That seems like a loophole we should fix.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, no, we're not going to.

[Patrick Hines]

That is.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But it's infuriating.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It's like that constitute. It was written when.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. It's also like, if you're on. If you're Robert Durst and you're on trial for a murder that you definitely did, but you definitely. Mid trial, the charges are dropped, like, instantly. Makes no sense.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Makes zero sense at all. So the accusations aren't allowed in. It's July 17, 2023, and we learn about this thing that Arizona has. It's called a Rule 20. It's a super rare thing, but basically, the defense has every right to go to the judge and say, hey, judge, what do you think?

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Is there enough evidence to convict here? Should this go to a jury, yes or no?

[Patrick Hines]

Like, the jury that's been sitting for the trials probably shouldn't get this case because the prosecution's case wasn't strong enough. Now they say Rule 20, Motion for.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Judgment are almost never granted. It's incredibly rare for judges to not allow jurors to decide. I have considered the issues raised by the defense. It is ordered granting defendant's motion for a Rule 20 judgment of acquittal. I will order the defendant released.

[Patrick Hines]

The jury that's heard the whole trial now doesn't get to, like, consider the evidence. It's insane to me.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Well, guess what? In this case, the judge does exactly that. Which means that this piece of shit is acquitted.

[Patrick Hines]

He's just instantly acquitted by.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So this is when Sarah's like, wow, my sister was failed by everyone. Absolutely everyone.

[Patrick Hines]

Every person in every institution.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Cousin David, everybody.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, and he can't be charged again. Right. Unless there's, like, amazing new evidence. They would have to charge him to, like. It was second degree murder that he was charged, so it would have to be first degree. Like the cops are saying he's. He's going to be a free man for the rest.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Sarah's on options right now are very, very limited.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And so it's 20, 24 now. It's seven months after the trial. Sarah hasn't spoken to her father in five years. And she's like, wait a second. No one's like, actually questioned him. Yeah, I'm gonna do it.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, she just wants that closure, I guess, like, for lack of a better term. So she calls him to set this up.

[Patrick Hines]

Now, I wanna give her so much credit for this because this must have been so hard for her to.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because you have to play to his ego and his attitude.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And, like, you just have to kind of give a little and also give a lot to get a little.

[Patrick Hines]

The other thing, too, that I couldn't stop thinking about was, like, he is not behaving like a man who lost his daughter. And he doesn't know where she is. You know what I mean?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He's not mourning, he's not grieving, and he's not.

[Patrick Hines]

Has no thought for how this would be for, like, if this were Daisy. And Daisy thought I killed her sister and I didn't do it. And she hated me because she believed it. I would be sobbing every day. I would be only thinking of her and how this affects her. And, like, there's just. It's just so obvious that he did it. And there's none of that. No.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He's such a. An asshole. Because on the phone, he's like, sarah.

[Patrick Hines]

But of course he's going to go to the interview. Of course, they've always got to talk on camera.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Of course. But on the phone, he's like, okay, I know we have our differences.

[Sarah Turney]

What I'm asking from you is honesty. So if you want a hug from me, if you want me to shake your hand, then let's sit down and have a real talk. You already got acquitted, dad. There's nothing left for you to lose.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She's like, listen, asshole, I want honesty from you. Let's cross the hug bridge when we get there, which will be never. Are we meeting or not? And he's like, fine. So they sit down and, like, he is the smuggest asshole. And he pulls his phone out. He's like, I'm filming, too. And I'm like, cool story, bro.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, he's in this fucking cheap suit, and he's sitting there, and he's, like, so smug.

[Patrick Hines]

And Sarah's just trying to, like. She's just trying to ask him the questions he was never asked. You know, he's like, instantly bickering with her, asking about the sexual assault. He's just. It never happened. Was Alyssa afraid of you? She was never afraid of me.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Just, you know, the word salad. He's so infuriating. Why are you doing this? You're destroying our family.

[Patrick Hines]

And so your brothers don't want to talk to you. And then. And then. And then he says to her, if you're going to continue with this attitude, I'll leave. And then he tells her to calm down.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But in that moment, it's so important to say that Sarah. He's like, she's handling it flawlessly.

[Patrick Hines]

Trying to do.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But she's handling it flawlessly. And he's like, why are you doing this? And she's just sitting there, and she isn't saying anything. And he's going on and on. And as Sarah is silent, he goes, you really need to calm down.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And, like, seeing that visual is like. Well, is. They're all the same.

[Patrick Hines]

The look on her face was. You said that because you think it's going to infuriate me, and I'm not giving you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

But she was sitting there silent and perfectly calm. And he's telling her to calm down.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

So Sarah's not Taking the bait. Not even a little bit. And at this point he's like, I don't know why I'm talking to my daughter with so much hatred. And she goes, I'm going to stop you right there.

[Sarah Turney]

I feel nothing for you. I will leave this conversation and never think of you again. My children will not know who you are.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Are you.

[Sarah Turney]

I will not speak your name. Oh, now for the audience, I wish you the best.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

My kids aren't going to know your fucking name. Yeah, I'm not here. I don't hate you. And I, like, I love.

[Patrick Hines]

I forgot that you existed.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I forgot that you existed. Like, and I just love that because how many times have I said this on the show where it's like hatred. I don't even. You don't even exist to me. Like, I don't even. Like, when you get to the point, dear listener, it's so freeing to feel nothing towards people in your life who've harmed you. And so the way Sarah goes like. Because that was another way to bait her too. How did my daughter hate me this way? And she goes, hate you?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I don't even think about you. Like, my kids aren't even going to know that you're on this fucking God forsaken earth.

[Patrick Hines]

I mean, I, Sarah, I want to say to you, God bless you because I. You are, you've done the work and you are in that place. And I just, I don't know, I don't know if I'd be able to do it.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

He wanted to rattle her and he didn't. And at one point she goes, okay, like, this isn't going anywhere. You know, this conversation is over.

[Patrick Hines]

She's basically, I got what I needed for my documentary. Idiot. Now I'm out of here.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Like, I'm like, everyone sees you for who you really are. Like, whatever. So she gets up to leave and he goes, why are you doing this, Sarah? To make money off your dead sister? I mean, if she is dead. And I'm like, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. You know what? I'm sure people could argue, anyone would say that Alyssa's dead. It's been X amount of years. Yeah, but wow.

[Patrick Hines]

I know. I mean, of course.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Wow.

[Patrick Hines]

Of course. And the infuriating part is that like he's been acquitted. Like, he can't, he could say whatever he could admit and they couldn't retry him.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Right. And it's just, you know, it ends with like, this guy is throwing a tantrum.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And Sarah. And it leaves with Sarah leaving him there Like a fucking loser.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And he got nothing he wanted.

[Patrick Hines]

He's a cheap, ugly suit.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

She got everything he wanted. He got none of it. And he sits there, like, left alone in a room.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And, like, the best part is that it ends with what we know of Sarah.

[Sarah Turney]

After spending so many years talking about my sister Alyssa's case, I've decided that I want to help other families, too. This is 17 year old Asia Cowell. She went missing on September 7th.

[Patrick Hines]

She wants every family to get justice. And, like, that's how it ends. Like, she's so inspired to go out and find these other families and help these other families tell their own stories and look for justice in their own way. And with Voices for Justice and with media pressure, you know, and if you haven't listened to both of those podcasts, you need to be doing that right away. I mean, I just. I can't say enough about it. But this is her mission now. Her mission is to help these families. And that is because it's part of her healing journey.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. And she says, this is how you stop generational abuse. She goes, I had to take the power back. It all, like, it stops. She says, it stops here. And I'm like, but so much also started here.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yeah.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Because she's giving people a platform. And she like, you look at what she did and you're like, oh, yeah. Oh, we can fucking. We can do that.

[Patrick Hines]

Right, right, right.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

I'm like, I didn't know we could do. I didn't know we could do that.

[Patrick Hines]

Because it's her whole journey. Like, she was her father's biggest supporter for up into her 20s. Like, for years and years and years. And then she just saw the TR.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And like, after everything she's been through, for her to sit there and kind of, like, laugh at him and be like, oh, I'm leaving. Like, I came prepared. Yeah, I know exactly who you are. I'm at peace. She can do that because she's at peace.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

And it took Helen back to get there, but, like, to have this sort of beacon for people who are going through it, for Sarah to also do it so publicly.

[Detective Willian Anderson]

Yes.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Is invaluable to this insane world that we live in right now.

[Patrick Hines]

Girl. We did Family Secrets. The Disappearance of Alyssa Turney, fam. This is one of the ones you gotta go watch. It's really, really, really well made. The story is incredible. Sarah's incredible. Listen to Voices for Justice. Listen to Media Pressure.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Follow her on TikTok and we'll. Our interview with her is dropping Imminently right now.

[Patrick Hines]

So our interview with Sarah Journey is live right now on our Patreon. Go check it out. She's a force of nature, girl. What are we doing next?

[Julia Bezzavalis]

The girl on the milk carton on Peacock. This is like two 40ish minute episodes, so we're gonna do it in one.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, yay. All right, great. So this is not one where we're doing two separate episodes. We're doing one episode combining the two.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah. Cause it could have just been a 90 minute doc. They split it up into two eps. And I'm like, peacock, girl, what are you doing? So we're just gonna do it in one story. Cause we got a lot of requests for this one too.

[Patrick Hines]

All right, great. So, fam. Stay tuned for the trailer for that. And we love yours. We love.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Love you, Sarah.

[Patrick Hines]

We love you.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Yeah, we love. Yeah. Stay safe out there, everyone. And you can do it.

[Patrick Hines]

And you can do it like, you can do this and you can do anything.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

You can do it.

[Patrick Hines]

All right, Goodbye. Bye.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

We love you.

[Patrick Hines]

Dairy has begun printing the pictures of missing children on its milk cartons in the hope that that will help authorities find them. Janelle Matthews, 12 years old, alone in the house, was kidnapped.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It affected people for decades. It. It still does. Really was a sleepy little town. There's a deep fear now in us. Something like this had never happened before. I'm scared. I wouldn't want to attack me.

[Patrick Hines]

As the search for Janelle Matthews intensifies.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

It will be a Christmas Eve devoid of joy.

[Sarah Turney]

The longer you go without knowing, the.

[Julia Bezzavalis]

Less hope there is that she's alive. We would do anything to get her back. She remains one of a growing number of abducted children. December 20th was always a date you remembered. Kids come and go with no concern. The boogeyman is outside.