Podcast Summary: Who Took Misty Copsey?

Episode 6: "A Person of Interest"

Host: Sarah Kaelin
Date: August 20, 2025

Overview

This episode intensifies the focus on the reinvestigation into the 1992 disappearance of 14-year-old Misty Copsey. Host Sarah Kaelin explores the complicated history of the police investigation, the lingering suspicions around Reuben Schmidt—a young man Misty tried to call for a ride home the night she vanished—and scrutinizes the failings and frustrating gaps in the casework by local law enforcement. Through interviews with investigators, family, and journalist Sean Robinson, the episode probes whether Misty was the victim of an opportunistic serial predator, or someone she knew, raising fresh questions about Schmidt and his tangled family connections.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Re-examining Persons of Interest: The Case Against and Around Reuben Schmidt

(Timestamps: throughout, especially 02:06-21:13, 23:20-41:10)

• Original Suspicions & Alibis:

  • Misty’s friend Trina confirms that calling Reuben for a ride home was always the girls’ plan; Reuben said he didn't have gas to help (02:06).
  • After Misty disappeared, her mother Diana immediately suspected Reuben:

    “Diana... was like Ruben, Ruben, Ruben, you need to look at Reuben.” – Sean Robinson (30:46)

• Red Flags:

  • Reuben made strange comments after Misty’s disappearance, e.g., telling a coworker,

    “Yeah, I know about it. I know exactly where she is buried... They found the clothes, but she is buried six miles from there. They’re off by six or six and a half miles.” – Reported by Reuben’s boss (34:07)

  • He sometimes claimed blackouts and admitted to driving out toward his grandmother’s farm (near where Misty's jeans were found) the day after she disappeared (34:49, 37:24).

• Unreliability & Missing Evidence:

  • The original police investigation failed to interview key witnesses until months later and did not thoroughly search Reuben’s car, which was eventually scrapped, losing possible physical evidence (11:12, 47:57).
  • Reuben’s polygraph results were inconclusive, with evidence he may have manipulated the outcome (38:55), yet police appeared to accept these results over his suspicious actions and inconsistent stories.

2. Police Errors & Cold Case Frustrations

(06:41-13:17, 15:56-20:38)

• Case Mishandling:

  • Police initially treated Misty as a runaway, prejudiced by perceptions of her home life (09:39).
  • Major witnesses, including Misty’s best friend, were not interviewed until months after her disappearance—a “biggest concern” in the original investigation (11:12).

• Retrospective Clean-Up:

  • In response to bad publicity in 2009, Puyallup PD gave Detective Jason Visnaw exclusive focus on the case ("unheard of in law enforcement") and organized a war room to reconstruct the messy, incomplete case files (08:05, 08:47).
  • Detective Visnaw:

    "We spoke with every single person who might have had anything to do with the case... it's just frustrating to come back and try to do things that you wish had been done in the first place because memories have faded..." (11:35)

• Forensic Ambivalence:

  • Forensic testing has not been able to confirm if the jeans found were Misty’s; DNA on the jeans is a partial sample, useless for national databases and usable only for direct comparison (13:17, 19:01).
  • Unnamed car fibers were found on the garments, and hairs from an unidentified third party, but were not linked to Misty, Diana, or known offenders (13:43).

3. Schmidt Family Dynamics and Strange Behaviors

(25:11-30:53, 56:41-59:36)

• Family Complications:

  • Schmidt family is large and troubled, with multiple half-brothers and uncles, some with histories of serious crimes (25:11-27:00).
  • Rumors circulated about Reuben’s “uncle” (possibly a half-brother or actual uncle) being involved in transporting him or Misty the night she vanished.

• Personal Accounts:

  • Diana Copsey recalls seeing Reuben flee a convenience store, then talking to an older man in an orange pickup truck, who drove away with him (29:38).
  • Later, online forum posts by a claimed relative suggest family members “know more than they'd like to tell the police,” referencing covering for Reuben after Misty’s disappearance (58:24-59:36).

4. Current Status: Leads, Suspects, and Lingering Doubt

(17:08-20:53, 41:10-52:46, 53:42-59:36)

• No One Ruled Out:

  • Detective Visnaw states:

    “There’s nothing out of the realm of possibilities... there’s no one who... we could absolutely rule out.” (17:08)

  • Even Reuben Schmidt is not "absolutely not" a suspect (18:18).

• Alternative Suspects:

  • Other predators are considered:
    • The man in the yellow Chrysler Cordoba (a convicted sex offender, identity withheld).
    • Robert Leslie Hickey, a known kidnapper/rapist active months after Misty vanished.
    • The possibility of the Green River Killer, who dumped bodies in the area.
  • Sean Robinson:

    “I believe she would not have gotten into a car with a stranger... I think she saw someone she knew...” (51:57)

• Farm Search & Follow-up:

  • In 2010-2011, Schmidt's grandmother's farm (near site where evidence was found) was thoroughly searched, including with cadaver dogs, but nothing surfaced (53:45).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Law Enforcement’s Failings:

  “The police work on this case was truly abysmal.”
  — Sarah Kaelin (07:47)

• On Mistaken Early Theories:

  "By all accounts, she was kind of a latchkey kid... I think the investigators...just decided that her home life must have sucked and she just took off. They didn’t do a lot of legwork to say one way or the other."
  — Jason Visnaw (09:39)

• On Investigative Frustration:

  "We can do a lot to try to make up for past mistakes, but we can't ever really erase the big ones."
  — Sarah Kaelin (12:02)

• On Evidence Lost:

  "By the time they got onto this, the car had been sold and scrapped and there was no way to search it for DNA. So they never got the chance. They can’t prove she was in the car."
  — Sean Robinson (47:57)

• On Persistent Suspicions:

  “Somebody out there knows something that they’re not telling us and hopefully at some point somebody tells us something that we need to know.”
  — Jason Visnaw (20:43)

• On Misty’s Likely Fate:

  “I believe she would not have gotten into a car with a Stranger... I think she saw someone she knew. And that's... my best guess.”
  — Sean Robinson (51:57)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Recap of prior investigations & context: 01:20–06:41
• Reuben Schmidt as person of interest: 02:06–21:13, 23:20–41:10
• Police reinvestigation and failures: 06:41–13:17, 15:56–20:53
• Family background & rumors: 25:11–30:53, 56:41–59:36
• Strange statements and timeline gaps: 33:36–40:32
• Grandeur’s farm search & investigation dead ends: 53:42–55:35
• Online witness/relative post revelations: 58:23–59:36

Conclusion & Takeaways

Episode 6 lays bare a host of errors by the original investigators, leading to vital lost evidence and a case that remains directionless decades later. The focus circles back to Reuben Schmidt, whose connection to the crime is muddled by contradictory statements, family secrecy, and missed opportunities—yet he remains neither cleared nor indicted. The episode also reflects broader truths about cold cases: the irrevocable loss caused by initial missteps, the enduring pain of families left behind, and the uneasy coexistence of hope and frustration for those pursuing justice. The host foreshadows further deep dives into the Schmidt family as the search for answers continues.