WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:05.440 Previously on season four of Frozen Truth, a young mother and her son disappear 2 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:10.960 seemingly into the raging Missouri River at Bismarck, North Dakota on a Saturday night 3 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:16.679 in November nineteen ninety six. Sandra Jacobson had taken her youngest son to her 4 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:20.440 parents' house for the evening, but it had taken them much longer than the 5 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.199 forty five minutes from their home in Center, North Dakota to arrive at the 6 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:28.559 child's grandparents in Bismarck, and along the way. We've learned from the lead 7 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:33.560 detective on her case at the time that Sandra Jacobson called the Bismarck Police Department. 8 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:40.039 According to the detective, Sandra was reporting some kind of occult activity in 9 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:45.000 Center. When Sandra and five year old John finally did arrive at her parents, 10 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:49.600 Sandra seemed to be in somewhat of a frantic state, according to accounts 11 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:54.640 from her parents, who are now both deceased. Sandra insisted that before the 12 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:59.200 visit continued, she needed to go get gas for her vehicle. Her parents 13 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:03.479 reluctantly allowed her to go, but only if Sandra agreed that they could take 14 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:08.319 her to a doctor immediately. Afterwards. Sandra's car was found the next morning 15 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:12.200 on the banks of the Missouri, and there has not been a confirmed sighting 16 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:19.079 of either mother or young son since they remain missing and their case is still 17 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:23.519 unresolved. This is Frozen Truth, Season four, Episode four. I'm Scott 18 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:57.040 Fuller. We've introduced some aspects of Sandra that will be hard for many of 19 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:01.319 us to relate to. One of my jobs in this season is to mitigate 20 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:06.519 some of that by bringing you as complete an understanding of Sandra Jacobson as is 21 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:12.759 possible now. Following episode three, I received emails from numerous mental health experts 22 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:15.759 and people who otherwise work in the field who are very intrigued by Sandra's medical 23 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:21.520 history. As am I, some of that information may be impossible for us 24 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:24.479 to acquire, especially now, but at the very least, my job is 25 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:30.360 to give the tools that we need for empathy for perhaps a troubled person in 26 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:37.439 Sandra that we may not otherwise have. Crazy being the pejorative word here, 27 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:45.319 The problem the majority of the population seems to have with crazy is threefold. 28 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:51.680 A many of us, myself included here, don't understand mental illness and may 29 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.240 not have personal experience with it, even those who have some experience with it 30 00:02:54.319 --> 00:03:00.080 in their lives. In fact, nobody understands the human minds completely, and 31 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:05.919 that makes it difficult to associate with or empathize with people who are mentally ill. 32 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:12.039 B When a person suffering from mental illness commits a crime, let's say 33 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:16.080 it provides for the rest of us an easy explanation. How often have we 34 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:24.080 heard that person just snapped? None of us cope with avoid in explanation very 35 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:30.840 well. That much about our brains is known. Humans require explanation. It's 36 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:36.479 a biological imperative that's been handed down to us from eons. Our brain constantly 37 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:40.400 is trying to determine in an instant what just happened, in order for it 38 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:45.520 to determine for us whether or not something is a danger to our own selves. 39 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:50.479 Perhaps every single serial killer is mentally ill to some degree, but our 40 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:58.319 explanation society's rationale is simple, they're just crazy. For many of us, 41 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:02.599 mental illness may as well be deep outer space. Maybe we don't want to 42 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:09.680 understand it completely because that knowledge, the perspective that would be gained from that 43 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:15.879 knowledge, would bring fear and a sense of helplessness, and humans avoid both 44 00:04:15.959 --> 00:04:21.800 of those things at all opportunities. And see Finally, there are those who 45 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:26.920 suffer from mental illness or love someone who do, and while they may have 46 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:31.279 personal experience and thus perhaps a better understanding than most, the subject is of 47 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:35.839 such a personal pain and significance for that person that even for them sometimes it's 48 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:44.399 avoided out of emotional protection. Detective Tim Turnbull, the lead on the Sandra 49 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:47.720 and John Jacobson disappearance for the Bismarck Police Department, now retired, who we 50 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:53.519 spoke to in episodes two and three of this season, believes that Sandra led 51 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:57.279 or forced her five year old son into the water that night and the two 52 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:00.279 of them drowned. And he may be right at the moment there is no 53 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:03.959 evidence to the contrary. But in taking on this case, I'm taking on 54 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:11.040 the responsibility of becoming essentially the first reporter to cover this case in any depth. 55 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.839 So my obligations beyond those I have to you as a listener, which 56 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:17.519 I take seriously, but there are, you might say, greater obligations of 57 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.759 mine in taking on this case. They are to Sandra and her baby boy, 58 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:25.319 John in equal parts, and as the parent of now seven and four 59 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:29.199 year old children, of my own. I can understand that finding out what 60 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:33.560 happened to Sandra and John and their missing person's case may not be enough. 61 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:41.199 Wouldn't be enough if indeed, Detective Turnbull has been right all along, there 62 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:46.279 is an essential nuance that we must do our best to uncover and explain over 63 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:49.920 the next six months of this season, because if indeed a mother drowned her 64 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:56.519 child and herself in that way on that night, it could not have been 65 00:05:56.600 --> 00:06:00.800 out of lack of love for him. It should not be explained away so 66 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:06.600 simply as she snapped, how could a mother do that to a child she 67 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:12.600 loved? I understand it's counterintuitive, but I'm certain it's the truth. I 68 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:17.360 am certain that Sandra Jacobson loved her boy John, and so we have two 69 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:23.360 mysteries running parallel paths in this story. Now, what happened to Sandra and 70 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:29.199 John maybe just the water's surface in this case, Why it happened, maybe 71 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:46.439 the silence undercurrents Below in a rough outline of twenty episodes that were planned for 72 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.360 season four, to be released over ten months of this year. I won't 73 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:55.720 say I was necessarily planning this one, although I was somewhat anticipating it. 74 00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:00.519 I've received many emails about this case already, which is good. So far, 75 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:02.360 nobody who has reached out to me has heard of this case before, 76 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:08.319 which is even better. One email so far, just one, asked the 77 00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:14.759 question, basically, what about the cult? What if Sandra actually saw something? 78 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:19.279 Obviously a thought I'd had before two, even if it goes against my 79 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:29.480 better instincts. I've been thinking about something lately that's been bothering me, the 80 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.560 prioritization of victims in our society, through the media and even through law enforcement 81 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:39.319 and the judicial system. Sometimes that's a fact that might be unavoidable, and 82 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:43.680 I'm not on a crusade along those lines, but it's tragically depressing. Nonetheless, 83 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:47.920 maybe especially from my perspective. I've worked in media for all sized companies 84 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:54.480 for my entire career. If I've ever been naive about anything in this business, 85 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:59.000 cynical though I might be by nature like most reporters, which by the 86 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.279 way, is not a virtue I'm entirely proud of. But if ever I've 87 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:05.120 been naive about something, it's when I came to understand that facts don't get 88 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:15.079 ratings or listeners or sell newspapers. Fear is what works as an example, 89 00:08:15.079 --> 00:08:18.519 if Sandra and John Jacobson had been abducted from a ten thousand square foot home 90 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:24.680 in bel Air, California, you'd all know their names, but they didn't. 91 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:28.079 They disappeared in a river in North Dakota. On top of that, 92 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:31.879 Sandra may have been suffering from mental illness, so you haven't heard their names. 93 00:08:31.960 --> 00:08:41.120 I'm sad to say that's just the way that works. Empathy for Sandra 94 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:46.519 Jacobsen and her son demands that we take her seriously. She may or may 95 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:50.720 not have been able to provide useful information to us about her eventual disappearance if 96 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:56.519 she was in an altered state of mind before she disappeared, But we shouldn't 97 00:08:56.519 --> 00:09:01.559 assume that what she believed to be real wasn't real to her. And whatever 98 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:05.799 is real to Sandra Jacobson, whether it's real or not, has to be 99 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:11.960 a part of our full understanding of her disappearance. So it's not that I 100 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:16.720 watch a lot of TV, and I don't watch all the true crime shows 101 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:20.879 or the documentaries, but I do enjoy specific subgenre. Some people unwind with 102 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:28.720 sitcoms or reality shows. I like investigative true crime with an element of mystery. 103 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:33.320 That's my thing. And recently I was watching the new Netflix stock that 104 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:37.000 was just released, Sons of Sam. I already know enough about the case 105 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:43.200 and the murders and David Berkowitz, but this documentary sucked me in because it 106 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:46.960 only starts there. The rest of it is about a reporter who spent his 107 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:50.240 life pursuing a theory that David Berkowitz did not act alone in the Son of 108 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:54.000 Sam killings, and so it was compelling enough. I got through a couple 109 00:09:54.080 --> 00:10:00.440 episodes. In episode three, the nineteen seventy four murder of Arliss Perry is 110 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:03.639 brought up. Arlis was a nineteen year old woman who was murdered inside a 111 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:09.120 church in California in what might be called a ritualistic fashion. Her death was 112 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:13.639 originally determined to be a suicide. But if it was, it's the only 113 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:18.159 suicide by pickaxe to the back of the head I've ever heard of. And 114 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:20.559 oh, by the way, the handle of the axe was broken and missing. 115 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:26.919 Yeah, suicide anyway. I was just passively watching this while doing other 116 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:31.039 things. I wasn't even really watching, I wasn't even looking at the screen, 117 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:35.120 And as the show was discussing Arliss Perry's murder in more detail from across 118 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:39.120 the room, I thought I heard this. There had been a rumor in 119 00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:48.440 Bismarck shortly after Arles had died. There was allegedly occult there, and she 120 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:54.679 had gone with a friend to try to convert these people to Christianity. Wait 121 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:58.320 a minute. When you cover cases like I do for Frozen Truth, you 122 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:01.840 live with every moment of the day. That's not to say I think about 123 00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:07.320 them every second, but they're always there, and so I'm doing the math. 124 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:11.720 This documentary talks about the son of Sam murders. That's in the early 125 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:18.039 eighties. Arles Perry was killed in seventy four. The Jacobsen's disappeared twenty years 126 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:22.240 after that. So it's not related to my case, right, but it 127 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:28.080 might lead to one thing. So I rewound. There were a lot of 128 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:33.879 mysterious things happening in North Dakota. Christally are on my Not Air Force Base. 129 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:43.559 There had been a rumor in Bismarck shortly after Arles had died. There 130 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:48.120 was an allegedly the original occult there, and she had gone with a friend 131 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:52.639 to try to convert these people to Christianity. There was speculation that she was 132 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.759 somehow with their church was meeting with these people to try to bring them along, 133 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:01.440 and maybe she saw something that they didn't want her to know, a 134 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:07.279 box. But without any specific information, where were we to go with it? 135 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:13.679 You know? Arles Perry was from Linton, North Dakota, south of 136 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:20.080 Bismarck, and apparently had recently returned to Bismarck in mid seventies to confront and 137 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:26.279 convert cult members. This doesn't necessarily mean that a cult existed in Bismarck then, 138 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:31.440 let alone twenty years later, when Sandra Jacobson called the police to report 139 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:35.399 a cult the night she disappeared. It's a coincidence. And I know a 140 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:39.960 rabbit hole when I see one, But I'm going in anyway. That's coming 141 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:50.159 up next. In nineteen eighty a man named Lawrence Pastor wrote a book called 142 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:56.200 Michelle Remembers. Pastor was a psychologist in Canada who eventually married one of his 143 00:12:56.279 --> 00:13:01.080 patients, and his book was one of the most influential and unfortunate in modern 144 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:07.080 American culture. Michelle Remembers as about one of his patients, a girl he 145 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:09.519 was treating in nineteen seventy six, Michelle Smith, as she's called in the 146 00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:15.080 book, who had suffered a miscarriage, which left her extremely depressed. She 147 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.080 told Pastor that she felt she had something important to divulge to him, but 148 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:26.679 couldn't remember what it was. Eventually, through hypnosis and let's say controversial regressive 149 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:33.320 memory methods, Michelle Smith recounted a story the detailed satanic ritual abuse that allegedly 150 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:37.159 occurred in the nineteen fifties when Smith was five years old, at the hands 151 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:41.240 of her mother. It was the first book on the topic of what we 152 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:46.600 now call satanic ritual abuse. In fact, the book coined the term, 153 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:52.039 and Pastor was instantly considered an expert on the subject. The public reacted to 154 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:58.840 Pastor's book with fascination and horror. But more importantly, the public believed every 155 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:05.200 word of the book and eventually extrapolated those few therapy sessions from one troubled patient 156 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:11.159 into every unresolved act of evil in society, a phenomenon that since has been 157 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:15.960 referred to as the satanic panic. But if Laurence Pastor lit the match, 158 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:22.080 the US media fanned the flames. The public couldn't get enough. The most 159 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:28.240 disturbing an increase in teenage homicides and suicides with ritualistic or Satanic overtones, animal 160 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:35.480 sacrifices, birds, dogs, church desecrations and burglaries, chalicis stolen. They 161 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:39.320 use them to drink the blood of their sacrifices. Do you still believe in 162 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:45.200 Satan? Yeah? Agan come into you and make you do wicked stuff and 163 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.840 weird things like that, like, for instance, hurt people, hurt your 164 00:14:50.919 --> 00:15:01.039 family. Television specials covering Satanism the eighties would pull unbelievable ratings. One nineteen 165 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:07.000 eighty eight, Geraldo rivera hour long show called Devil Worship, exposing Satan's underground, 166 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:11.440 pulled a thirty share. That means of all the TVs turned on in 167 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:16.159 America on that night, almost a third of them were tuned to Satanic panic. 168 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:24.440 That's a ratings number that would rival broadcasts of the Super Bowl today. 169 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:30.519 Maybe the culminating effect of Satanic panic came in nineteen eighty three, the mother 170 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.960 of a young child who attended a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, reported 171 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.120 that her child had suffered ritual abuse at the hands of her strange husband and 172 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:45.279 a teacher at the preschool. Questioning of that students and other students revealed other 173 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:50.399 sordid details which were as disparate and different as they were outrageous. There were 174 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:56.639 claims of orgies at car washes and airports, and of children being flushed down 175 00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:02.000 toilets into secret rooms where they would be abused and then cleaned up and presented 176 00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:07.759 back to their parents, and the public drank it in horrified. After all, 177 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.639 the details were so specific. Surely nobody could make something like that up, 178 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:18.000 right, except maybe a child. The children in the McMartin preschool case, 179 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:22.120 we're not lying about their experiences out of any nefarious reason. The information 180 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:26.759 that they given had been in response to leading questions by counselors and investigators, 181 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:32.720 and some of those children became afflicted with what's now termed false memory syndrome. 182 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:37.120 It's a belief in something that did not happen that's as strong and real as 183 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:41.279 a memory of something that did happen. The McMartin preschool case led to several 184 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:47.240 trials that eventually led to acquittals and dismissals, but the damage had been done 185 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:52.240 Inevitably. Parents from across the country reported similar instance of abuse at the hands 186 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:56.440 of daycare providers to their local authorities, and this is important to remember to 187 00:16:56.639 --> 00:17:03.400 police seeking to solve bazaar are crimes in their communities believed in the Satanic panic. 188 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:07.720 Many of them. The media, too, apart from the ratings that 189 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:11.839 these kind of stories would get, also believed in this phenomena. In large 190 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:17.599 part, journalists won Pulitzer Prizes for this work in the eighties. The New 191 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:22.000 York Times in nineteen eighty eight speculated quote hundreds of children might have been molested 192 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:29.279 and subjected to Satanic rituals in the McMartin preschool case alone. There has always 193 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:37.559 been a discontented counterculture in American society. It's manifested itself in anti war movements, 194 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:41.920 free love, even the gay rights movement, and astrology. The occult, 195 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:47.039 in a similar but different way in the nineteen eighties and nineties was a 196 00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:51.119 home for those who didn't fit in well anywhere else. It appealed to people 197 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:56.400 who were seeking a place to belong in a time in America when mainstream Christianity 198 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:02.480 was still much more mainstream in society, Satan was the culture to mainstream Christianity, 199 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.279 just as in the fifties and sixties, drugs free love were counterculture to 200 00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:12.880 a Rockwellian Americana of the nineteen forties and fifties, to understand how the entire 201 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:19.599 society lost its mind for ten years and saw blood drinking, animal sacrificing sons 202 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:25.880 and daughters of Lucifer behind every nefarious act in their neighborhood. Understand what we 203 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:30.559 did not understand about the key aspects involved criminology. At the start of the 204 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:36.359 Satanic Panic. The FBI barely knew what a serial killer was law enforcement, 205 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:40.480 God help you for a local sheriff's deputy searched your bedroom and found a pentagram 206 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:44.960 on the wall. Case closed. For more on that, see the case 207 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.240 of the West Memphis three. Also mental illness and the treatment of it. 208 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:55.160 Not to mention how the religious backlash to alleged widespread Satanism of the moment treated 209 00:18:55.160 --> 00:19:00.720 the issue. Church leaders everywhere were let's just say not, disincentivized from preaching 210 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:07.440 a fear and a wariness to their congregations in the heartland. You need Jesus 211 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.759 now more than ever. Those are all factors in the facts of what we 212 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:17.200 now call this Satanic panic. But as I said, facts don't sell papers. 213 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:21.640 Fear does. And in one sense, you can't blame the public. 214 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:25.799 You're getting it from your law enforcement. You're getting it from your city officials, 215 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:30.119 you're getting it from the television, you're getting it from your pastor how 216 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:37.960 can't it be true? But it is a little darker than that. Child 217 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:44.680 abuse has always happened. Deranged killers have always existed, probably even more so 218 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:48.839 then than now, as we've since gained understanding of how to identify these few 219 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:55.039 dangerous people earlier on before they spend a whole adult lifetime ruining lives. The 220 00:19:55.079 --> 00:20:00.440 evolution of our understanding behind these crimes within the human mind has progressed along side 221 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:07.119 of it, and the counterculture that attracts disaffected teenagers mostly also appeals to very 222 00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:11.839 adult and very bad people. So the Satanic panic was just that, a 223 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:17.559 panic, But like every scary story, there was an element of truth to 224 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:22.240 it. Hiding inside that fever of American society in the nineteen eighties were surely 225 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:29.880 more than a few legitimate monsters along those lines. Rumors are mostly false, 226 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:37.440 which means they're somewhat true. It seems that rumors of the occultant of all 227 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:41.200 places in America, Bismarck, North Dakota, had persisted for decades at the 228 00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:47.839 time of Sandra and John Jacobson's disappearance. These rumors like every rumor were mostly 229 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:52.000 baseless, it would seem, but as you heard the man say, there 230 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.119 were some strange things going on in North Dakota at the time. These are 231 00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:02.480 the local rumors, as paneled by the Bismarck Tribune. In nineteen eighty nine, 232 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:07.799 a feature appeared quoting the perspective of random men and women, from waitresses 233 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:11.839 to dairy farmers. Here's what the locals we're saying. Quote. I have 234 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:15.160 heard it is a problem, especially in the southeast part of the States. 235 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:19.799 The Satanists have a house there that's all painted up weird. I've heard a 236 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:23.359 lot of rumors. Satanism is bad, and it is a problem. The 237 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:26.599 burden for making sure that kids don't get mixed up in it is on the 238 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:30.559 parents. If they do a good job in directing their kids in religion, 239 00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:37.200 then there shouldn't be a problem. One sixteen year old put it like this, 240 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.000 Yes, it is a problem. People and animals are getting killed because 241 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:42.519 of it. I don't believe in it, but I know it's out there. 242 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:45.960 Satanism is a bunch of garbage, that's what it is. I've heard 243 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:51.279 about it being around here. It's not something to play around with. And 244 00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:55.039 from a fifty year old female accountant. I believe it exists, and I'm 245 00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:57.440 sure it's here. I personally haven't had any contact with it, but what 246 00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:00.920 I hear from the rumors on the street, I believe it is here. 247 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:29.960 I'm not sure if Satanism is a problem or not. Dickinson, North Dakota. 248 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.480 In nineteen eighty eight, a local pastor lobbies state lawmakers to investigate Satanism 249 00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:40.400 after rumors of a so called blood city scene circulate from a rural town. 250 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:45.359 Telephone poles are said to be somehow turned upside down, and a quote very 251 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:55.799 dead dog is supposedly found nearby. Bismarck, North Dakota. Nineteen eighty nine, 252 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:00.400 a local group organized to stop Satanism holds its first regular public meeting at 253 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:10.559 the Ramada Inn, Bismarck, North Dakota. Nineteen ninety, A thirty year 254 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:14.799 old man is arrested for rape following an alleged attackable woman outside of town. 255 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:21.160 The female victim tells police through a priest that persons or demons unknown entered her 256 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:23.480 home, attacked her, and then punched holes in the wall of her home 257 00:23:23.799 --> 00:23:33.039 and drew upside down crosses and pentagrams all over the house. Devil's Lake, 258 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:37.359 North Dakota, nineteen ninety one, the school board of Devil's Lake High School 259 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:41.200 moves to change the nickname of their sports teams. They will no longer be 260 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:52.440 called the Devil's Lake Satan's Bismarck, North Dakota, nineteen ninety three. Parents 261 00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:57.079 of students in the Bismarck School district calls school officials in mass demanding they address 262 00:23:57.160 --> 00:24:02.880 issues of Satanism in the classroom after one student questions a passage of the Crucible 263 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:06.759 in class. The same year, a teacher at the high school is accused 264 00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:11.319 of and eventually fired, four inappropriate conduct with the students. The public blames 265 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:22.559 Satanism, among other things. Wappat in North Dakota nineteen ninety four, a 266 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:26.200 fifteen year old girl is found in her room dead by hanging. The girl's 267 00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:32.079 dolls had similarly been hung next to her. One of the girl's friends tells 268 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:41.880 police quote all witches die by hanging. Bismarck, North Dakota. In nineteen 269 00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:45.599 ninety eight, two years after the disappearance of Sandra and John Jacobson, a 270 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:52.319 support group called Parents Rock is formed. Rock is an acronym for reclaiming our 271 00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:59.519 community's kids. The group supports bettering children through quote everything from sexuality to satanism, 272 00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:06.039 to gain activity to tough love. I could go on, but this 273 00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:11.279 timeline shows that Satanism or rumors of Satanism, was very much an undercurrent in 274 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.400 Bismarck, not just in the nineteen eighties, but also in the nineteen nineties, 275 00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:19.519 in the years leading up to Sandra and John Jacobson's disappearance, and even 276 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:25.960 after. Bismarck, North Dakota in the nineties was the sort of community whose 277 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:32.200 local paper featured its own pull out faith section. On Halloween nineteen ninety six, 278 00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:36.200 just a few weeks before Sandra and John disappeared, a story appeared on 279 00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:40.240 the front page of the Faith section of the Bismarck Tribune. The story was 280 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:42.839 about a safe and family friendly Halloween party being offered by a local church. 281 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:48.559 One of the organizers is quoted in the article, we have to be careful 282 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.720 as believers not to lump all Halloween participants together. The bulk of people aren't 283 00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:59.200 aware that Satanism exists and that Halloween nights inevitably end with the reports of both 284 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:03.839 human and animal sacrifices around the country. That was the tenor of the community 285 00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:07.160 in Bismarck, North Dakota, at least to a degree at the very time 286 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:14.079 that Sandra Jacobson called the police to report satanic activity and Center and then disappeared. 287 00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:41.920 It has been reported that violent Satanic cults existed in Bismarck as early as 288 00:26:41.960 --> 00:26:45.200 the mid seventies, but if they did, none of their exploits appeared in 289 00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:49.960 the local news at that time. We may have not yet and may never 290 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:55.759 be able to get to the bottom of specifically why Sandra Jacobson called the police 291 00:26:55.799 --> 00:27:00.160 to report that ongoing occult activity in Center, North Dakota a few hours before 292 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.960 she disappeared. But we have determined this much. Whereas in the rest of 293 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:08.799 the country the Satanic panic mostly came and went in the nineties, in Bismarck, 294 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:17.440 North Dakota, it arrived early and it stayed. The Bismarck Catholic Diocese 295 00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:41.920 reportedly began employing an exorcist in twenty eleven. Thank you for listening to this 296 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:45.599 episode of the Frozen Truth podcast. To steal a line from one of my 297 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:51.000 favorite podcasters of the moment, Tyler Mayhan Co is his name. The only 298 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.720 thing I'll ask you to do to help out our season is to share it 299 00:27:53.799 --> 00:27:59.000 with one person individually, email them about it, private message them about it, 300 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:00.440 show them how to down mode it. That will go a lot further 301 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:04.240 in raising awareness for the case we're covering in season four than even posting it 302 00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:07.559 to hundreds of people would be. I think. If you're looking for more, 303 00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:11.960 please consider supporting Frozen Truth on Patreon as well. You'll get access to 304 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:15.480 all sorts of behind the scenes info and commentary from me. For example, 305 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:19.400 this case, the Sandra and John Jacobson case, was not the original case 306 00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:23.440 I had chosen for season four. I'd actually started work on a different case, 307 00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:27.920 and our Patreon supporters sort of walked with me through that journey. Eventually, 308 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:30.599 I did choose this case, obviously, and that was the right choice. 309 00:28:30.759 --> 00:28:33.680 But it so happens that this week there was an arrest in that other 310 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:37.640 case that I eventually chose not to cover. So if you want to catch 311 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:41.359 up on that backstory and receive all sorts of other exclusive content from all of 312 00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:45.359 our cases, you can support us monetarily at patreon dot com slash frozen truth, 313 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:49.200 or you can just google Patreon frozen truth and you'll find it and to 314 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:53.680 those who can't or don't want to support monetarily. That's perfectly fine with me 315 00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:57.480 too. I'm just glad you're here. This case hasn't been covered like it 316 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:02.240 should have been, and it's not simple easy to break grounds on something that 317 00:29:02.279 --> 00:29:04.319 nobody else has covered, but that's what we're doing, and just by listening 318 00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.920 or supporting that effort. Thank you for your patience with the episode releases as 319 00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:12.079 our investigation continues, and for telling friend about this season. If you have 320 00:29:12.119 --> 00:29:17.359 any information about the disappearance of Sandra and John Jacobson from Bismarck, North Dakota 321 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:22.559 in November nineteen ninety six, please contact the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation or 322 00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:26.119 the Bismarck Police Department. Frozen Truth is written, edited, and otherwise produced 323 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:29.359 by Scott Fuller. Thank you for listening.