WEBVTT 1 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:36.039 Welcome back to the path when CHILEI for part two of our series about the 2 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:40.679 disappearance of Tony Lee Sharpless, Robin, do you want to catch everyone up 3 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:44.520 on what we talked about in our previous episode? Well. Tony Lee Sharpless 4 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:48.679 was a twenty nine year old single mother living with her mother and stepfather and 5 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:53.960 daughter in West Brandy Wayne Township, Pennsylvania. She had gotten pregnant at age 6 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.679 seventeen, but raised her child while putting herself through school, and she is 7 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:00.000 now working as a registered nurse. But she has also had a long time 8 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.519 struggle with bipolar disorder, and a couple of months before this, she had 9 00:01:03.519 --> 00:01:07.439 done a stint in rehab because of issues with alcohol addiction. She had been 10 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:11.159 doing quite well, but on this particular night, after working an overnight shift, 11 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.760 she decided to go out with her friend Crystal partying at a club, 12 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:19.760 which her mother and stepfather did not like because she was not supposed to be 13 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:23.680 drinking alcohol because of the medication she was taking, but she decided to do 14 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:27.280 it anyway, even though she had been awake for around thirty six consecutive hours 15 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.239 at that point. So Tony and Crystal went to the club together met up 16 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:37.319 with a famous NBA basketball player named Willie Green who played for the Philadelphia seventy 17 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:40.439 six ers, who invited them back to a party at his house, but 18 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:46.319 Tony became intoxicated started behaving erratically, so Willie Green asked them to leave, 19 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:49.120 and while they were driving away, Tony and Crystal got into a major fight 20 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:53.239 where she kicked Crystal out of the car and never came back, and this 21 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:57.519 is the last time she was confirmed to be alive, as neither Tony nor 22 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:00.640 her vehicle have ever been seen since. They searched a bunch of bodies of 23 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:04.680 water just to see if she had driven her car to a river, but 24 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:08.360 came up empty. But there would be some very intriguing leads because a license 25 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:14.400 plate reader apparently picked up Tony's license in Camden, New Jersey, which was 26 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:16.879 a short drive away from where she disappeared, but they could not actually find 27 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:21.680 the car, and a couple of years later, a private investigator got an 28 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.719 anonymous letter from someone who claimed that they had been paid to dispose of Tony's 29 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:30.639 car and give it to a chop shock because she apparently had been killed after 30 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:34.080 an altercation with a police officer, and they needed to get rid of the 31 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:38.800 evidence, and what made this letter credible is that the writer was able to 32 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:44.560 provide five digits from Tony's vehicle identification number, which had never been released publicly. 33 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:47.159 But for whatever reason, the police were inclined to believe that the letter 34 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:51.759 was a hoax. And whatever the case, they've never been able to substantiate 35 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:57.039 this story, and Tony and her car are still missing to this day now. 36 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.039 To be quite honest, when they disappeared episode first aired back in twenty 37 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:05.159 eleven, a lot of viewers who saw it seemed to lean towards the whole 38 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:08.680 thing being a tragic accident where Tony drove her car into a body of water. 39 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:14.919 Whenever a person goes missing with their vehicle, I generally leaned towards that 40 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:19.199 being the solution. Yes, the search was performed of the Schykill River, 41 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:23.120 but it was mostly centralized around an area which they figured was the most likely 42 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:28.919 spot for Tony to have accidentally driven into the water. But the entire river 43 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:31.719 is one hundred and thirty five miles long, and given the state of mind 44 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:36.319 that she was in that night, Tony could have gotten lost and wound up 45 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:38.199 at a spot in the water where she has yet to be found by any 46 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:44.719 search teams. Over the past several years, we've seen numerous cases in which 47 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:49.120 missing persons have been found submerged in a body of water inside their vehicle, 48 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:54.719 decades after they originally vanished. This particular story is reminiscent of another unsolved missing 49 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:00.879 person's case from the Philadelphia area, which was covered on Disappeared, where a 50 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:05.080 couple named Richard Patrone and Danielle Imbo vanished without a trace while driving home from 51 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:10.159 a night out in their pickup truck in two thousand and five. To this 52 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.599 day, opinions are still sharply divided about whether they were victims of foul play 53 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:17.480 or if they simply drove into the Delaware River and have yet to be found 54 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:23.600 well. Many people's initial impression was that Tony was the victim of an accidental 55 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.680 drowning. The appearance of the anonymous letter stating that Tony was killed after an 56 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:32.920 altercation with a police officer has opened up the possibility that something a lot more 57 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:39.199 sinister took place. I mean, I certainly think there are some credibility issues 58 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:44.040 with the scenario outlined in the letter, but I don't think it's entirely implausible 59 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:48.360 either. And I can't overlook the fact that the writer provided details which they 60 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:55.199 should not have known unless they were personally involved in this case. There's no 61 00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:58.800 way, guys, that when we look at this case and that letter says 62 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:01.839 that there were these that I remember the last five of the VIN number of 63 00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:05.519 this car I was asked to move a cop friend of mine says he killed 64 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:11.000 a girl and needed this car moved. Here's the last five VIN numbered digits. 65 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:14.560 That could be so many things, the twenty six letters of the alphabet, 66 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:17.759 it could be all of your numbers, Like, what in the world 67 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:21.279 chance would you nail that? And then Copps literally read this letter and say, 68 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:25.519 unfortunately, miss Law, this is a hoax. We can't help you 69 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:30.160 with this. It seems way more probable to me that that letter had some 70 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:34.399 sense of accuracy and some truth to it that was worth following up on, 71 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:41.480 way more than just driving your car off into a But let's start from the 72 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:46.279 beginning and discount the one theory which I'm reasonably certain did not happen. I 73 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:48.879 don't think there's much chance that Tony was killed at the party at Willie Green's 74 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:53.360 house. If you go back and look at the original media coverage of this 75 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:58.160 case. There were some people, including Tony's family, who doubted Crystal John's 76 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.959 version of events, and people start spreading speculation online that something might have happened 77 00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:05.959 to Tony at that party, which prompted everyone to orchestrate a cover up and 78 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.839 dispose of her body and her car. I'm sure a lot of this gossip 79 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.879 stemmed from the fact that Willie Green was a fairly famous figure in Philadelphia at 80 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:17.600 that time, as he played for the seventy six ers basketball team for seven 81 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.800 years, and a lot of people were tempted to paint this as a story 82 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:26.199 of a pro athlete who used his fame and influence to cover up some criminal 83 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.480 behavior. Well, the truth is that it was probably nothing more than an 84 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:33.279 unfortunate coincidence that a woman went missing after leaving Willie Green's house, and the 85 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:39.040 police always stated that Green was nothing but cooperative with the investigation and have made 86 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:43.519 it clear that neither him nor anyone else who attended his party were considered suspects. 87 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.120 And besides, if something did happen to Tony while she was there, 88 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:49.720 I seriously doubt all those people could have kept quiet about it for this long. 89 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:55.399 No, I don't think so at all. And Willie Green's having this 90 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:58.800 party where everyone's having time of their life. Remember, he's saying like, 91 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:02.560 hey, get her out of here. She's pouring champagne on the kitchen floor, 92 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:05.240 She's yelling at people, She's very angry. Can you get your friend 93 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:11.279 out of here? And Crystal leaves with her friend. Crystal passes that lie 94 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:14.399 detector tests later. So I definitely am with you, Robin. This is 95 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.920 just there's no way that this has any weight to it because he was throwing 96 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:21.439 a party, they were there, it's five in the morning. Crystal gets 97 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:26.399 approached to please get Tony out of the scene, and Crystal says, Tony 98 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.600 drives off with her in the car, shortly dropping her off on the side 99 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:34.319 of the road. And so I can't imagine the party itself and the being 100 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:39.120 any kind of incident where it happened. I could see someone from the party 101 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:45.720 knowing that Tony was vulnerable and perhaps leaving shortly after and hurting her. But 102 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:50.160 I don't think Willie Green or anybody at the party, in that home or 103 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:56.639 in this VIP lounge was actually responsible at that party. Yeah, I guess 104 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:01.399 it is a potential alternate possibility that someone saw it Tony in her vulnerable state 105 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:03.720 and then just decided to follow her and leave the party, But we don't 106 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:07.120 really have any accounts from that from Crystal, like she didn't see any other 107 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:13.319 vehicles following Tony after she was kicked out, so that's probably not what happened. 108 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:16.000 And it sounds like police cover their bases pretty well and interviewed everyone and 109 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:22.040 did not find any of the partygoers to be suspicious. It's also important to 110 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:26.800 point out that Crystal John's was never considered a suspect either, though she was 111 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:33.320 certainly the subject of a lot of wild rumors in speculation herself. Tony's family 112 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:37.240 seemed to feel a lot of resentment towards her, and it's clear that Crystal 113 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:41.440 was no saying herself, as years earlier, she had once pled guilty to 114 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.480 two counts of harassment. Crystal got a lot of heat over the fact that 115 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:50.360 she allowed Tony to consume so much alcohol, but she has always maintained that 116 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:54.440 she was unaware that Tony was not supposed to be drinking because of the medication 117 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:58.080 she was on. And I can believe she's being truthful because this was the 118 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:03.480 first time christ had seen Tony since her most recent stint and rehab, Even 119 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:07.720 though police had told her she was not a suspect, Cristel personally volunteered to 120 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:13.519 take a polygraph, something which I'm sure most attorneys would advise you not to 121 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:18.720 do. But even though polygraphs are unreliable, I think Cristel just wanted it 122 00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:24.000 on the record that she passed. What's indisputable is that Tony had some sort 123 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:28.000 of meltdown before she went missing and was not acting like herself. For this 124 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:33.919 reason, you really cannot apply some logic to her actions or discount any possible 125 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:39.519 scenario, because Tony could have conceivably driven anywhere. So now we'll explore the 126 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:43.519 other theories which don't involve Tony driving into the river. According to Cristel, 127 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:48.000 Tony had less than a quarter tank of gas left in her car when she 128 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.600 drove away from the party, and it sounds like this wouldn't have been enough 129 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:54.240 fuel for her to make it all the way back home to West Brandywine Township 130 00:09:54.360 --> 00:10:00.759 without stopping. It's very easy to imagine a scenario where Tony at a gas 131 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:03.399 and was harmed by someone who pulled over to help her. But if that's 132 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:07.879 the case, then what happened to her car? Okay, so I don't 133 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:11.240 think it's someone who pulled over because she ran out of gas. I'm thinking 134 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.879 let's say let's say she does realize like your car does, ding low gas. 135 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.159 Right. Let's say that she realizes she's on low fuel and she pulls 136 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:22.200 over on her own to fill up, and someone gets her there. Or 137 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.039 let's say she pulls over because she is having a manic episode she realizes she's 138 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:33.399 too intoxicated or something along those lines, and she's having a panic attack outside 139 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:37.759 the car, or she's sitting on the hood of the car trying to get 140 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.240 her wear with all, and then someone sees her and takes her because remember, 141 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:43.519 if she's completely out of gas to the point where her car has stalled 142 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.559 out, someone had to come to hurt her. But then also go, 143 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:50.120 oh, yeah, I need to take a gas too, and find a 144 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.759 way to put gas in her car and move it. So that seems like 145 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:56.879 a lot of involved effort, whereas her already being stopped either at a gas 146 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:01.200 station or on the side of the road for some reason would make more sense 147 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.639 to me definitely, like it could be a thing where she pulled over before 148 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.360 she ran out of gas, and there was just enough fuel in the car 149 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:11.000 that whoever got rid of it had enough was able to drive it somewhere, 150 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:15.399 Whereas like it would be very difficult to do something like buy a separate tank 151 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:16.919 of gas or even hire a tow truck to get it out of there, 152 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.559 because that sort of thing would show up on the payment records, so there 153 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:24.360 would be a record of it somewhere. So that's what's kind of weird to 154 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:26.960 me, is that whoever got rid of her just had the wherewithal in order 155 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:31.399 to dispose of her vehicle as well. Well. The one piece of evidence 156 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:35.360 which has made people believe that Tony did not simply drive into the Skykoll River 157 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:39.320 was the fact that her license number was picked up by an automated license plate 158 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:43.559 reader in Camden, New Jersey, two weeks after she went missing. I 159 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:48.759 think it's important to look at the geography of this situation. Tony lived about 160 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:52.360 thirty five miles west of Gladwin, and Camden is located around fifteen to sixteen 161 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:56.799 miles southeast in the opposite direction. So even if she didn't have enough gas 162 00:11:56.919 --> 00:12:01.399 to make it back to West Brandywine, township. She probably would have had 163 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:05.759 enough to make it to Camden, and he's found exit for Interstate seventy six 164 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.120 is located in close proximity to where Tony was last seen, so she easily 165 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:13.360 could have turned in that direction and wound up in Camden by mistake. Perhaps 166 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:18.360 the reason her license number was picked up in that particular neighborhood because this is 167 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:22.720 where Tony ran out of gas easily could have been. And now that you're 168 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:26.919 sitting in Camden in a neighborhood and you have a place that's high with crime, 169 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:30.960 right it's riddled with you were saying, sex work and drugs in that 170 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:33.639 area, it is possible someone could have then moved the vehicle to, let's 171 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:37.639 say, at shop shop or something like that. I still am inclined to 172 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:41.960 think she pulled over for something, whether she was so stressed she couldn't drive, 173 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:46.039 whether she just simply couldn't focus on the road anymore, or whether she 174 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:52.559 had some kind of paranoid episode. But I very much think she could have 175 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:56.159 been the one to be driving to Camden. Having that license plate captured on 176 00:12:56.200 --> 00:13:01.360 that license reader. How awful, Like it's so eerie to be a family 177 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:03.720 member or a parent or something like that saying like, oh my god, 178 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:07.120 my baby was alive, my baby was at least here, or her car 179 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:09.159 was at least taken here, because again, in this case, you have 180 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:13.279 her just evaporated out of thin air with her car. It's gone. So 181 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:18.960 it's this kind of promising but also kind of devastating revelation as well, if 182 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:22.559 that makes any sense of where I'm going with that, Like it would break 183 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:24.200 your heart as well to say, oh my god, what if we had 184 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:31.440 found out sooner that her license had been caught on that reader, could we 185 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:33.120 have gotten to her right, like, oh my god, what took her 186 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:37.720 to this place? You would have at least known where to be looking. 187 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:41.480 And at that time, I mean, if it was sex trafficking or something 188 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:46.840 like that, then you know, they could have moved her somewhere else. 189 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:50.919 So in that amount of time a luck can happen. Oh yeah. There 190 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.679 was a six day gap between when the license plate reader caught the plate and 191 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:58.759 when the West and when the Candid police and notified the West Brandywine Township Police 192 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:01.519 that the car was there, and of course by the time they made it 193 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:05.559 Camden, the car was gone and they could not find it. So I 194 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:07.559 have to think that if the car had been parked in that neighborhood, someone 195 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:11.279 got rid of it or someone stole it during that six day window of time. 196 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.519 So there were apparently a lot of reported sightings of Tony and Camden around 197 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:24.000 the time period. Her license plate was flagged, leading to speculation she might 198 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:28.000 have become involved in drugs or sex trafficking. I know that Tony's family said 199 00:14:28.039 --> 00:14:33.039 she had a good life going on and never would have willingly abandoned her daughter. 200 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:39.159 But that's the thing about bipolar disorder, It's completely unpredictable. Tony was 201 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:41.159 in in a rational state of mind at the time she was last seen, 202 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:46.399 so if she somehow got lost and wound up in Camden while she was off 203 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:50.080 her medication, who knows what could have happened. It seems like the major 204 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:56.440 proponent of this sex trafficking theory was Eileen Law, the private investigator hired by 205 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:01.360 Tony's family. I think that largely stems from the act that in the year 206 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:05.440 prior to Tony's disappearance, a pimp named Alan E. Brown aka Prince, 207 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:11.399 was arrested for running a sex trafficking ring in New Jersey. Brown had been 208 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:15.639 doing this for twenty years up until that point, using violence and drugs to 209 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:20.279 control a number of young women and forced them into sex work. Of course, 210 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.600 Brown was already behind bars by the time Tony went missing, but perhaps 211 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:28.720 she crossed paths with someone else who did the same thing to her. But 212 00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:31.879 overall, even though there have been a number of sightings of Tony and Camden, 213 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:37.720 Philadelphia and Lancaster, here we are fourteen years later and no one has 214 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:43.279 ever uncovered any conclusive proof that Tony was still alive after the morning of August 215 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:48.000 twenty third, two thousand and nine. As we've seen in countless missing persons 216 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:52.399 cases, eyewitnesses can be mistaken. So these sightings may have been from people 217 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:58.759 who saw another woman that resembled Tony. Absolutely, I mean there easily could 218 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:02.480 have been people who saw Tony's picture on the news or on a you know, 219 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:04.759 missing person's poster, and they said, oh, I saw a girl 220 00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:07.120 that look like her, Oh my god, and they want to be helpful 221 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:11.879 and they want to say, I think I saw her. Doesn't guarantee that 222 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:14.799 that was actually Tony. It could have been someone who looked very familiar. 223 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:18.200 What's also really difficult is Tony might not have been in her normal state or 224 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:22.480 been acting her normal way, might not have, you know, had her 225 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:26.120 hair kept in a clean way or anything like that. So it would be 226 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:30.879 very difficult to be confident you saw Tony if you weren't a friend of hers 227 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:33.679 or very close to her. It's also very interesting because, you know, 228 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:37.960 we talk about the fact that Alan E. Brown had been arrested for sex 229 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:41.720 trafficking in New Jersey, but people even today in twenty twenty three, I 230 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:45.879 remember being at lunch the other day and I heard these people talking about, 231 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:48.600 like, oh my god, did you know that they'll like grab normal kids, 232 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.559 Like there's actually a lot of people who will take normal kids and sex 233 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:56.679 trafficked them. And it's like, still this bizarre idea to people that it's 234 00:16:56.759 --> 00:17:02.519 not just these you know, foreign individuals who come over and because they can't 235 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:06.599 speak a language they get manipulated. It is runaways, it's the kid they 236 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:14.599 call quote throwaways, it's sex workers, it's quote normal people. It's everyone 237 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:18.000 is vulnerable to sex trafficking if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time 238 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:23.519 with the wrong people. It's not this kind of rare thing that happens, 239 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:29.279 right, it happens in every city and every state, and especially around interstate 240 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.599 commerce areas, And so I kind of had to chuckle when they're like there 241 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:34.480 was a pimp in that area at the time, Like, come on, 242 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:37.920 guys, there were several pimps in the area at that time, right, 243 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:45.119 And so I think it's very possible that Tony Bean in that distressful state and 244 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:51.400 in this kind of heightened mental health crisis state, that easily someone could say 245 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:53.000 I'm gonna grab her, and when I grab her, I'm going to keep 246 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.480 her on some kind of substance that doesn't ever allow her to get out of 247 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.240 this lifestyle. I don't think that would be very difficult to do. I 248 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.880 just don't think they're looking into pimps all that often, especially when they aren't 249 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.319 abducting people off the street. So I agree with you. I think there 250 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:14.440 is probably many pimps operating in that area, But it's sort of like when 251 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.359 you have missing sex workers and law enforcement doesn't look into it. The way 252 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:22.440 that they would be pimping then would be different than they would be now because 253 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:25.839 a lot of times now it's behind a computer screen. But if they have, 254 00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:27.599 you know, girls that are out there on the street and they're saying 255 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:32.319 they're being terrorized. Different story. But I just don't think that they're going 256 00:18:32.359 --> 00:18:36.960 to be privy to all of the details and who's operating in that area. 257 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:41.359 I think there's probably so many different hidden variables with regards to people who would 258 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:47.680 potentially traffic, women or men or anybody. And I'd be curious to know 259 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:51.160 about when a lot of these sightings of Tony and Camden took place, because 260 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:55.079 if they took that they occurred before the news came out that our car license 261 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:57.720 plate had been picked up in Camden, then that lends more credence to them, 262 00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:02.079 because there are people who've seen a photo in the newspaper and they think, 263 00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:03.920 I llegitimate looks like her. But if a none of these sightings took 264 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:07.680 place until after the story about the license plates hit the news, then a 265 00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:11.000 lot of these sightings may have just been confirmation biased where they hear, oh, 266 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:14.640 she was last seen in Camden, and then they see a young woman 267 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:17.839 who kind of looks like Tony and then they just automatically assume it's her, 268 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.599 even though she might be mistaken. All that being said, the flagging of 269 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:26.799 Tony's license number in Camden on September the eighth has been seen by some people 270 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:30.160 as conclusive proof that she was still alive for some period of time after she 271 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:36.000 went missing. However, there's a potential alternate explanation for this, and one 272 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:40.039 article I saw about this case is specifically mentioned that while the camera from the 273 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:42.759 license plate reader was able to read the license number, it was unable to 274 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:48.079 pick up the actual state listed on the plate. And that's a very important 275 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:52.880 detail because in America, two different states can issue different license plates but the 276 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:56.559 exact same number. This actually leads us to a rather funny story, which 277 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:03.400 appropriately enough involves another pro athlete who played in Philadelphia, former National Hockey League 278 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:07.039 star Jeremy Roenick. At one point during his career, Roenick left the Phoenix 279 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:11.000 Coyotes in order to sign as a free agent with the Philadelphia Flyers, and 280 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:15.599 after moving to Pennsylvania, he had a tendency to run through toll lanes without 281 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:19.559 using an easy pass to pay the toll, causing him to rack up thousands 282 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:25.039 of dollars in fines. Well, it wasn't long before some elderly gentleman living 283 00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:27.640 in the state was shocked to receive a bill for all of Roenick's fines. 284 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:32.440 It turned out that when Roenick moved to the area from Phoenix, he was 285 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.000 still driving a car with his original Arizona license plates, which got tagged when 286 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:41.039 he ran through all those toll lanes. The problem is that this poor elderly 287 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:45.000 man had the exact same license number as Ronick, only he had Pennsylvania plates. 288 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:49.000 So when Ronick's number got tagged, the automated system sent the bill with 289 00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:53.759 all the toll fines to this other guy. So theoretically, the vehicle which 290 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:59.039 was flagged by the license plate reader in Camden could have had Tony's license number, 291 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:03.519 but plates from a different state besides Pennsylvania. Of course, I'm not 292 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:07.279 saying that's what happened. Given Campden's close proximity to the location where Tony went 293 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:11.240 missing, it would be quite a coincidence of her license number showed up there 294 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:17.480 on an entirely different vehicle. But the Jeremy Roenick story does demonstrate that the 295 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:22.759 license plate reading is not infallible proof that Tony's Pontiac ran Prix was in New 296 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:26.559 Jersey. Okay, I have two other explanations. Someone else was driving the 297 00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:29.599 car. I don't think it proves that she was alive at all, but 298 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.319 the car was definitely driven, in my opinion, through that spot. It 299 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:37.680 could have been something like Jeremy, but I think it's more likely that it 300 00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:41.720 was her car. Or remember, you're driving into a high crime area. 301 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.680 So if I want to commit a crime and I see an abandoned car somewhere 302 00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:48.799 that I just took to a chop shop or I just helped strip or things 303 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:52.400 like that, I could take the license plate off your car. I could 304 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:57.559 put it in my car and or on my car and drive through that card 305 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:00.880 reader as well, and that way my car's not registered with my license plate. 306 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:04.400 Yeah, that's true. That happens all the time when people steal cars. 307 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:08.119 They'll just take license plates off random vehicles and put them on their own. 308 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:11.400 So, for all we know, it could have been attached to a 309 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:15.880 completely different vehicle besides the Grand Prix. And well, this has nothing to 310 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:18.359 do with the main story. I just wanted to mention that I hate Jeremy 311 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:22.039 Roenick because he scored an overtime goal to eliminate the Toronto Maple Leaves from the 312 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:26.359 Stanley Cup playoffs in two thousand and four, So not surprised at all that 313 00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:30.400 he racked up all these fines. I'm sorry. Robin's in a support group, 314 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:33.880 guys. Yeah, yeah, I'm a Leaf fan. I'm always in 315 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:38.799 need of a support group. So do we know Jeremy Roenick ever paid the 316 00:22:38.839 --> 00:22:44.119 fine so this poor elderly gentleman could get off the hook. I haven't found 317 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:47.079 that out, but I hope he did because this got a lot of publicity 318 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:48.880 in Pennsylvania. So I hope he did the decent thing and paid them off. 319 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.640 Here's what I think the main issue is. The two biggest pieces of 320 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:00.920 evidence supporting the idea that Tony traveled to Camden are the l since plate reading 321 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.559 and the anonymous letter claiming that she was killed by a police officer. But 322 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:08.880 the problem is that both of these pieces of evidence seemed to contradict each other. 323 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:12.880 As you'll recall, the writer of the letter claimed that he was paid 324 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:18.759 five thousand dollars to dispose of Tony's Pontiac Grand Prix by driving it to a 325 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:22.400 body shop near Boston. But if Tony was the victim of a police cover 326 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:26.559 up and they needed to destroy the evidence, why would her vehicle have been 327 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:30.920 parked outside in a public neighborhood in Camden to be picked up by the license 328 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:36.160 plate reader. Well, there's one possible explanation which might account for this. 329 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.880 I find it interesting that the writer of the letter claimed he was approached about 330 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:45.319 disposing of the car during the last few days of September two thousand and nine, 331 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:49.359 one month after Tony went missing. Let's just say Tony was pulled over 332 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:55.319 by a Camden police officer which led to some sort of altercation where she was 333 00:23:55.400 --> 00:23:59.759 killed. The perpetrator may have thought their best course of action would be to 334 00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:03.839 abandoned her car in a high crime section of Camden in hopes that it would 335 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.799 eventually be vandalized or stolen and ceased to be their problem. But the license 336 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:12.440 number is picked up by a license plate reader on September eighth and flagged is 337 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:18.119 being connected to a missing woman. If someone from the Camden Police Department was 338 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:22.480 involved in Tony's disappearance, they may have learned this information was going to be 339 00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:26.119 passed along to the West Brandywine Police Department, so they realized they had to 340 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.440 move the Grand Prix out of the neighborhood and get rid of it. The 341 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:34.240 letter writer specifically said they were asked to move the vehicle from Brooklawn, which 342 00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:38.680 is only about five miles south of Camden, so perhaps it was temporarily hidden 343 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:44.039 there while they figured out what to do. According to the writer, they 344 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:47.640 were asked to drive the vehicle to Boston by a friend, but they did 345 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:51.839 not actually learn that it belonged to a missing woman until after they returned. 346 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:55.440 This is when they found out that their friend happened to be the friend of 347 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:59.839 a police officer who killed Tony. So if the writer is telling the truth, 348 00:25:00.359 --> 00:25:03.839 it seems like they never interacted with the officer personally and that they only 349 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:07.319 heard the story third hand. It also could have had nothing to do with 350 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:10.839 the police officer. The person who killed her could have said, oh, 351 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:12.960 yeah, by the way, my friend, a police officer killed her, 352 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:17.079 right, and that would take you down a whole another rabbit hole of conspiracy 353 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:19.799 theories and government cover ups and things like that. So if they didn't have 354 00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:25.960 that one on one connection with that police officer who specifically asked them personally to 355 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.759 move the car, maybe that part of the story is incorrect. But the 356 00:25:29.799 --> 00:25:33.200 rest of it, again, because that Vin numbers included, it seems like 357 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:37.759 what would be the motivation to lie and you wouldn't have had that kind of 358 00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:41.640 information. So I do think there could be truth to it, maybe just 359 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:45.480 not the police officer part. And if your focus is on misdirection, the 360 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:51.559 best lies are founded in truth, right, So there is some kernel of 361 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:55.200 truth there. So if you're giving a correct VIN number, if you really 362 00:25:55.240 --> 00:25:57.920 want to lead people on a wild goose chase, you give that correct VIN 363 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:02.680 number, and then you that a police officer is responsible, when that is 364 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:07.359 so far removed from the actual truth. But because you've given that then number, 365 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:11.079 it's something that we all are clinging to because it's like, well, 366 00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:15.240 what is the probability that they would ever have that information? You could never 367 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.200 just come up with it. You would have to be connected to it somehow. 368 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:21.680 But we can't then assume that the rest of their story that they're telling 369 00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:26.640 is true because their objective may have been misdirection. Yeah. I was just 370 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:29.960 about to address that whole police cover up angle. I mean, overall, 371 00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:32.960 it's hard to know what to make of the letter. On one hand, 372 00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:36.680 in most cases where there are allegations of a police cover up, you usually 373 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:41.440 notice some suspicious behavior on their part to make you suspect they're hindering the investigation, 374 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.400 but until that letter showed up, I saw no indication that the camd 375 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:49.400 In PD did anything suspicious. I know that the West BRANDYWINEPD looked into the 376 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:53.720 writer's allegations, but it doesn't sound like they found anything to raise any red 377 00:26:53.720 --> 00:26:59.319 flags. With the Camdon PD. It seems like investigators now lean towards the 378 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:02.920 letter being a home oakes, though Eileen Law has stated that even if the 379 00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:07.359 scenario described in the letter is not entirely true, the writer might still know 380 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:11.799 something. Quite frankly, the idea of Tony getting into an altercation with a 381 00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:15.480 police officer and winding up dead is not all that far fetched given her erratic 382 00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:19.200 behavior. At the time she was last seen. She was driving well heavily 383 00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:23.759 intoxicated, So if Tony was pulled over and went through a manic episode in 384 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:27.720 which she tried to be confrontational with the police, you can definitely see how 385 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:32.680 things might have escalated out of control. If she was stopped by the Candon 386 00:27:32.759 --> 00:27:36.079 police, then this would have meant that Tony had taken a wrong turn somewhere 387 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:38.799 when driving away from Gladwin, which probably would have put her in an even 388 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:44.880 worse frame of mind. Absolutely, I mean, I do think that it's 389 00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:48.720 possible. I think the letter had to be from someone who knew something. 390 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:53.160 But I do agree Eileen Law said, listen, is everything accurate? No, 391 00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:57.359 But there's again no way this person doesn't know something of what is going 392 00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:02.720 on. It's really frustrating because I feel like you'd be holding a letter in 393 00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:08.480 your hands saying this person knows the ven number, this person knows some details 394 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.640 and probably is adding in some distractions into this letter too. But if there's 395 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:17.400 a single nugget of truth, that's more than we know that. We don't 396 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:19.880 know anything right now. So if there's anything and this is true, how 397 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:25.000 do you isolate what's true and what's not? If? Oh, man, 398 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:29.720 the letter made it worse. Someone knows something and they're almost like taunting by 399 00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:33.039 sitting this letter and not necessarily including enough information for us to know what happened. 400 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:37.400 I mean, there are many documented cases of people being stopped by the 401 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:41.400 police who have mental health issues and they wind up dying in custody, and 402 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:45.839 it also wins and it winds up causing a lot of controversy or the whole 403 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:49.279 situation about how much complicity the police had in their death. But once again, 404 00:28:49.400 --> 00:28:53.400 I have never heard anything suspicious from the Camden PD to suggest they're recovering 405 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:56.759 anything up, which is why I think this letter might just have a mixture 406 00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:00.920 of truth, where the writer does know what happened, but they decided to 407 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.599 fabricate this entire police angle in order to create misdirection and take the heat off 408 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:11.519 themselves. It's also worth mentioning that the letter never specifically says that Tony was 409 00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:15.279 pulled over, only that she was killed in a fight with a police officer. 410 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:18.319 For all we know, maybe she did travel the Camden and was alive 411 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:22.720 for a while, but was killed at a later time in an entirely different 412 00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:27.920 situation. The most convincing detail about the letter is the fact that the letter 413 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:33.440 writer provided the last five digits of the Grand Prix's vehicle identification number, which 414 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:37.440 they claimed they wrote down while getting rid of the car. While the description 415 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:42.319 of the Grand Prix and its license number were constantly mentioned during the media coverage 416 00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:48.039 of this case, I don't believe the VIN was ever disclosed publicly. It's 417 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:52.079 also interesting how the writer provided Tony's cell phone number as well, though it's 418 00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:56.079 not entirely clear how they would have obtained this information. To begin with, 419 00:29:56.359 --> 00:30:02.160 since they never made mention of handling her phone. Remember, phone records showed 420 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:06.400 that Tony's cell was turned off shortly before she went missing, and it still 421 00:30:06.440 --> 00:30:11.119 hasn't been found to this day. The part of the letter which stretches credibility 422 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:15.039 for me is the writer's claim that they kept the license plates and Tony's Social 423 00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:21.079 Security card inside a box for three years and completely forgot about them until their 424 00:30:21.160 --> 00:30:26.039 daughter found them. That apparently bothered this writer enough to send an anonymous letter. 425 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.599 But why they did not feel this way three years earlier when they first 426 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:33.759 learned about what happened. Also, you'd think that if they wanted to provide 427 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.720 definitive proof their story was true, they might have included Tony's Social Security card 428 00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:42.240 with the letter. I had forgotten about this cell phone number. I mean, 429 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:47.799 this is crazy because it wasn't the last call or kind of message on 430 00:30:47.839 --> 00:30:51.000 there. At three am and she was Crystal was pulled out of the pool 431 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.519 at five by some partygoers name please get Tony out of here. Yeah. 432 00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:57.480 Her last communication is when she texted her daughter because her daughter couldn't sleep, 433 00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:02.519 so she said, I'll be home soon and I know that after Tony took 434 00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:04.359 off. Crystal did try to collar phone a few times, but it was 435 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:08.359 turned off so she never answered. But yeah, there's no communication after five 436 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:12.000 am on the morning she went missing from the phone. Oh that's so sad. 437 00:31:12.039 --> 00:31:15.759 And yeah, I mean, like, I don't know if I don't 438 00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:18.960 know how easy it is to find cell phone numbers. I mean I don't 439 00:31:18.359 --> 00:31:22.519 I know that we used to have phone books you could have but that didn't 440 00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:25.400 have cell phone numbers in it. And when you put in a cell phone, 441 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.240 I think it just tells you, like where it's located on the internet. 442 00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:30.680 So I don't know. That's a very interesting tidbit there too. And 443 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.319 you know, Jules, you said why now, like why three years later? 444 00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:37.640 I think a lot could go into that. Like I think at the 445 00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:41.279 time, if your focus is okay, I gotta protect myself, I kind 446 00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:44.960 of got caught up in this and you get a little bit of distance. 447 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.359 I don't think you would have quote forgotten about what happened, but I could 448 00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:52.279 see wanting that distance and trying to ignore what happened. I also could see 449 00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:57.680 relationships changing, or you know, finding faith, or all kinds of things. 450 00:31:57.720 --> 00:32:00.079 Maybe even just the daughter looking up at you and saying like what is 451 00:32:00.119 --> 00:32:02.720 this you know, and going, my god, my kids are going to 452 00:32:02.759 --> 00:32:06.559 know I'm associate with some murder, Like I need to get this off my 453 00:32:06.599 --> 00:32:09.920 conscience. So I think there's a lot of factors of why now, But 454 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:13.559 like you said, why not actually like go a step further and either give 455 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:16.599 us something definite or something like the social Security card. Again, you gave 456 00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:22.559 us just enough to cause almost like heartache and not enough to do any good. 457 00:32:22.599 --> 00:32:24.960 In the case. It might have something to do with the fact that 458 00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:30.079 the case was featured on Disappeared the previous year, in twenty eleven, so 459 00:32:30.119 --> 00:32:31.359 it may have been a thing. Well, the person is thinking, well 460 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:35.839 this no one is going to miss this woman and we'll never hear from her 461 00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:37.799 again. But then they find out that the case has been featured on national 462 00:32:37.880 --> 00:32:42.799 television and is getting all this media exposure. They finally realize, oh my 463 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.079 god, this is the same woman. I feel like I should come forward 464 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:49.799 and share information, but I don't want to actually identify myself just because I 465 00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:53.319 could get into serious trouble. I really don't like the part where they say 466 00:32:53.359 --> 00:33:00.160 that they forgot like you so unsettled that you took these items like the license 467 00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:05.559 plate and the social insurance card, and you put it in a box with 468 00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:08.960 maybe the intention of late at a later date going to law enforcement. That 469 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:14.359 we're supposed to believe that you then forgot about it till your kid found it. 470 00:33:14.359 --> 00:33:16.640 It just doesn't really add up. I think you could want to forget 471 00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:22.799 about it. Yeah, Ver, sure you really forgot about it. So 472 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:24.960 part of me wonders if the letter is some sort of half truth, and 473 00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:29.640 that Eileen Law is correct in her assumption that the writer is trying to tell 474 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:32.920 them something. They might have legitimately been involved in Tony's disappearance or have some 475 00:33:34.079 --> 00:33:37.960 knowledge of what happened, which is how they were able to provide specific details 476 00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:42.480 like the last five digits of the vehicle identification number. However, their story 477 00:33:42.480 --> 00:33:45.480 about Tony being killed by a police officer is a complete fabrication, and the 478 00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:50.279 real truth is a whole lot different. The writer may have wanted to clear 479 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:53.799 the conscience, but also downplay their own complicity, so they minimize their involvement 480 00:33:53.799 --> 00:33:58.720 by claiming that the perpetrator was the friend of a friend and all they personally 481 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:01.880 did was disposed of evidence without finding out until after the fact that it was 482 00:34:01.880 --> 00:34:06.839 connected to a missing person's case. If Tony was pulled over by the police 483 00:34:06.839 --> 00:34:09.639 at some point, then you'd assume the officer would have called in or recorded 484 00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:15.519 her license number before they approached her. Unless the Candon PD managed to completely 485 00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:19.039 bury the incident, there should have been some sort of record of this traffic 486 00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:22.719 stop to be uncovered by investigators. And I think that if the Candon PD 487 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:28.159 was that thorough about destroying evidence, Tony's car never would have been left out 488 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.400 in the open to be picked up by a license plate reader to begin with, 489 00:34:31.719 --> 00:34:37.119 I agree, I mean, I think that the police officer angle unless 490 00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:42.960 that letter writer had given us a badge number or some kind of information knowing 491 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:47.079 who this officer was. I think either their friends who asked them to discard 492 00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:52.519 of the car quote for a police officer were lying, or the letter writer's 493 00:34:52.639 --> 00:34:55.480 lying to distance himself some. If you bring the police into it, it 494 00:34:55.519 --> 00:35:00.599 really does take you down an entirely different path of CONSPI. You see and 495 00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:06.519 cover up and the whole department turning against this family, And I don't necessarily 496 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:09.119 see that in this case. I think that that's a stretch. Again, 497 00:35:09.159 --> 00:35:12.760 like you guys said, if it was the police and they were really going 498 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:15.360 to go to all these links. I don't think that car license plate would 499 00:35:15.360 --> 00:35:19.519 have ever left the possession of whoever was trying to cover it up in the 500 00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:22.840 first place, so I'm thinking the police part might be a throw off that's 501 00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:29.280 just something to distract from the real perpetrator. There are times when I'm inclined 502 00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:32.239 to go with Ockham's razor and believe that Tony and her vehicle are still in 503 00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:37.920 the Skykill River somewhere, but something tells me that her car did wind up 504 00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:40.800 in Camden at some point. It's possible that Tony was in such a bad 505 00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:45.400 place mentally that she drove there and parked in that neighborhood, but something happened 506 00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:50.639 to her after she left her vehicle. Perhaps some of the alleged sightings of 507 00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:54.119 Tony and Camden were legitimate, but she soon became the victim of foul play 508 00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:59.280 and was no longer alive by the time the investigation put their focus there. 509 00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:04.159 There was just so little evidence to work with that the only way this case 510 00:36:04.280 --> 00:36:08.599 might be solved is if the letter writer was legitimate and decides to come forward 511 00:36:08.679 --> 00:36:14.400 and share everything they know. If they're being truthful, they might not actually 512 00:36:14.480 --> 00:36:17.480 know what happened to Tony's body, but at the very least they might be 513 00:36:17.559 --> 00:36:22.760 able to disclose the identities of the people who would know. That's exactly what 514 00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:25.800 I think, Jules. I think this letter writer has to know something. 515 00:36:27.079 --> 00:36:30.599 But again, they didn't give us anything to work with. You said, 516 00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:35.400 hey, I know that there was a car. Here's proof, And I 517 00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:38.599 had some of the evidence, that's all. I felt bad. But we 518 00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:44.559 don't have any kind of leads that the detectives or any kind of analysts could 519 00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:46.639 go on. So it would take this person who wrote the letter. It 520 00:36:46.679 --> 00:36:51.320 would take someone who's associated with the case to say, you know what, 521 00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:55.639 enough times passed. I don't owe anybody anything. I owe this family information 522 00:36:57.400 --> 00:37:00.000 more than I owe loyalty to someone i'm protecting that may not have protected me 523 00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:05.000 from something. Right, And here's what I know. It's going to take 524 00:37:05.320 --> 00:37:08.960 one person to give one little clue that could really bust this whole case wide 525 00:37:08.960 --> 00:37:15.000 open. She's somewhere, her body somewhere, her car went somewhere, and 526 00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:19.000 so if this letter's true, we could figure out where this car went with 527 00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:21.679 a little bit more information. And if we can find out where the car 528 00:37:21.719 --> 00:37:23.480 went, we can trace it back to who has her or who took her 529 00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:29.320 and what happened. The family deserves those kinds of answers. The community deserves 530 00:37:29.320 --> 00:37:32.920 those kinds of answers to know what happened to this young lady who just said 531 00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:36.960 I want to go out for the night and she lost her life over that. 532 00:37:37.639 --> 00:37:42.239 One of the things about missing persons cases was just hits me is when 533 00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:45.599 the victim had a child at the time they went missing, and you realize 534 00:37:45.599 --> 00:37:49.840 that so much time has passed that this child is now an adult. Tony's 535 00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:52.480 thought it would be in her mid twenties right now, but she has had 536 00:37:52.519 --> 00:37:55.920 to spend the past fourteen years growing up without her mother. Hopefully she can 537 00:37:55.960 --> 00:38:00.960 receive some answers about what happened someday. So if you happen have any information 538 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:06.559 about the unsolved disappearance of Tony Lee Sharpless, please contact the West Brandywine Police 539 00:38:06.599 --> 00:38:10.519 Department at six one zero three eight zero eight two zero one. That's six 540 00:38:10.559 --> 00:38:15.920 one zero three eight zero eight two zero one, Jules Ashley. Any final 541 00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:22.280 thoughts on this case. This one is pitiful because you have somebody who it's 542 00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:25.159 easy to sit back and talk about her mental health struggles. But she's so 543 00:38:25.239 --> 00:38:30.320 similar to so many people that we know, right, She's a normal human 544 00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:36.679 being who is working really hard to kind of overcome her own demons. She's 545 00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:38.840 saying, listen, I'm not perfect, but gosh, Jarnett, I'm going 546 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:42.360 to try to be the best mom I can be. I'm trying to be 547 00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:45.719 a good daughter, I'm trying to be a good nurse. I'm trying to 548 00:38:45.760 --> 00:38:49.760 be a good student. And by all accounts, Tony was checking all of 549 00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:53.280 those boxes. Right. Did she stumble? Absolutely to have any of us 550 00:38:53.320 --> 00:39:00.039 not stumbled, Heck no, Right. She was living a normal life really 551 00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:05.440 well by all accounts, and she went to rehab. She got healthy, 552 00:39:05.480 --> 00:39:08.639 she got more stable, and she had been working, she hadn't been sleeping, 553 00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:13.199 and she probably, like many of us, Mama said I just need 554 00:39:13.239 --> 00:39:15.440 a break. I need a break. And a childhood friend says, come 555 00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:17.360 out with me. You should come out with me. We should go hang 556 00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:21.639 out. It's gonna be really fun. And mom and dad say yeah, 557 00:39:21.679 --> 00:39:27.480 we'll keep the baby. She leaves and she goes to have fun. Unfortunately, 558 00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:32.000 I think she had already started to experience some of that bipolar mania and 559 00:39:32.079 --> 00:39:36.960 kind of distress that she would experience later in the evening before she ever started 560 00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:39.360 drinking. Then she started drinking, and I think it got to one of 561 00:39:39.400 --> 00:39:44.679 those scenarios like Jewels so bravely described, where you just don't know what's happening 562 00:39:44.679 --> 00:39:46.960 around you. If I had to make a judgment right now, I would 563 00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:52.639 say someone witnessed her in that kind of vulnerable state and said, what an 564 00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:55.440 easy person to pray on, and they took advantage of the situation. They 565 00:39:55.480 --> 00:40:00.159 were an opportunist who found Tony at the wrong place at the wrong time. 566 00:40:00.679 --> 00:40:02.800 It's literally, when you read the text, you said, the last thing 567 00:40:02.840 --> 00:40:07.000 she texted her daughter was I'll be home soon. It gave me chills from 568 00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:10.440 top to bottom because that's exactly what should have happened. Tony should have been 569 00:40:10.440 --> 00:40:14.159 able to go out, she should have been able to come home to her 570 00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:17.440 safe space, and her parents could have helped her with the distress that she 571 00:40:17.559 --> 00:40:21.199 was in, and her little girl should have been able to snuggle her mom 572 00:40:21.239 --> 00:40:24.000 the next morning, and unfortunately we don't have that. So it's tragic, 573 00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:29.079 But like we know, it takes one lead, and I'm praying that Tony's 574 00:40:29.119 --> 00:40:32.320 case isn't too old, that it's not too obscure that somebody will have the 575 00:40:32.360 --> 00:40:38.079 bravery to say Tony's family deserves answers and she just deserves justice. Well, 576 00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:44.000 said Ash, And this case reminds me a lot of I mean, there's 577 00:40:44.239 --> 00:40:49.679 multiple cases on Disappeared where the person who I'm missing had bipolar disorder. But 578 00:40:49.719 --> 00:40:52.679 another one that I can think of off the top of my head is April 579 00:40:52.719 --> 00:40:55.360 Pitzer. Do you remember that one, Robin, Yeah, I watched that 580 00:40:55.400 --> 00:41:00.400 episode. I don't remember too many of the details. She also was married 581 00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:04.679 and had a daughter, I believe it was a daughter, and she was 582 00:41:04.719 --> 00:41:07.239 a really good mom. But then, you know, started experiencing all of 583 00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:12.360 the issues that can come along with bipolar disorder at any point in time, 584 00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:15.480 even when you're medicated. It's just it can be a bit of a roller 585 00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:19.400 coaster for some people. And it was for April. And everyone said though, 586 00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:22.679 she wasn't the type of person that would you leave her daughter, and 587 00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:27.280 she ended up doing so, and ended up she was using drugs at that 588 00:41:27.320 --> 00:41:30.840 point and living in a very strange area I think in the desert in California, 589 00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:36.599 in like a low income community with a lot of people who were criminals 590 00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:40.280 or hiding out from something, and it looked like she was killed there and 591 00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:45.519 maybe put into a mine or something like that. So you see somebody who 592 00:41:45.559 --> 00:41:49.760 walks away from their life. I don't think that that is what happened here. 593 00:41:50.119 --> 00:41:53.280 I don't think that Tony did walk away from her daughter willingly. But 594 00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:57.960 I do think that you don't know what you may do when you're in a 595 00:41:57.960 --> 00:42:01.679 manic episode, especially when you coupled with thirty six hours of no sleep, 596 00:42:02.039 --> 00:42:07.199 or you're adding alcohol to the mix and there's a potential for illegal drugs. 597 00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:09.360 It just seems like she was not in a good place. So it is 598 00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:15.840 possible that, like a scenario that actually outlined earlier, could have happened where 599 00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:20.400 she came across somebody who decided to sex trafficker and she was very pliable, 600 00:42:20.880 --> 00:42:24.079 easy to manipulate, and they kept her under their control, or she could 601 00:42:24.119 --> 00:42:28.119 have met with foul play. I'm just more inclined to believe that that letter 602 00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:31.360 is a red herring put forth by somebody who was involved. But I just 603 00:42:31.360 --> 00:42:36.760 don't believe the police officer angle. I just my heart really breaks for her 604 00:42:36.840 --> 00:42:42.000 daughter because I can't imagine what it would feel like for her. I know, 605 00:42:42.119 --> 00:42:45.519 as a kid, my mother had by polar has by polar disorder, 606 00:42:45.559 --> 00:42:49.119 and she was diagnosed when I was a kid, like a little baby, 607 00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:52.360 and having her taken away when my parents were divorcing because she was in a 608 00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:57.599 very unstable place mentally. Well, this is a lot different your mom's taken 609 00:42:57.639 --> 00:43:04.920 away in there's this permanent to it and this open ended question mark where you 610 00:43:04.920 --> 00:43:08.559 you don't know what happened, and to have that lack of resolution is something 611 00:43:08.559 --> 00:43:15.119 that I'm sure weighs heavily on the entire family and everybody involved in this case, 612 00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:20.440 people like Crystal who were blamed and vilified when she clearly had nothing to 613 00:43:20.480 --> 00:43:23.559 do with this. It's this is just such a heartbreaking story that really hits 614 00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:28.880 close to home for me. Yeah, I still remember watching this on Disappeared 615 00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:31.840 back in twenty eleven, and this was before the anonymous letter had been sent, 616 00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:36.239 so they didn't mention it at all on the episode. And my initial 617 00:43:36.239 --> 00:43:39.079 impression was that this just sounds like a horrible tragedy to me, where we 618 00:43:39.159 --> 00:43:43.679 have a woman struggling with mental health issues, she had a rough night and 619 00:43:43.719 --> 00:43:46.280 that she probably drove into a body of water somewhere and the search just has 620 00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:50.760 failed to turn up her body or her car. But I have to admit 621 00:43:50.840 --> 00:43:53.280 that my perception of this case changed about a year later when I heard the 622 00:43:53.280 --> 00:43:57.920 news about the anonymous letter being sent. And while even though the police have 623 00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:00.639 tended to write this off as a hope, the fact that the writer provided 624 00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:07.000 the vehicle identification number is way too much of a coincidence. So I do 625 00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:10.079 agree. I don't think that this killed by a police officer scenario is true. 626 00:44:10.119 --> 00:44:14.719 I think it's intentional misdirection. But I do know that the writer had 627 00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:17.320 to have handled the car at some point in order to guess the VIN number 628 00:44:17.360 --> 00:44:22.320 correctly, So they probably do have knowledge of what happened to Tony, but 629 00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:24.679 it's just unwilling to share the full truth about it. I mean, I 630 00:44:24.679 --> 00:44:29.599 can't imagine how Tony wound up in that situation. Perhaps she just took a 631 00:44:29.599 --> 00:44:32.239 wrong turn and wound up in Camden, New Jersey and something bad happened to 632 00:44:32.280 --> 00:44:37.199 her. But until the writer letter writer comes forward, or they're able to 633 00:44:37.320 --> 00:44:42.159 find her body or uncover additional information that corroborates the information on this letter, 634 00:44:42.880 --> 00:44:45.880 she's probably still going to remain a missing person. But even if you discount 635 00:44:45.880 --> 00:44:50.920 all that, it's just a very sad story because Tony was someone who who 636 00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:53.440 had a lot of mental health challenges but still did the best she could, 637 00:44:53.480 --> 00:44:58.599 Like she raised her child as a single mother since age seventeen, but still 638 00:44:58.639 --> 00:45:02.719 managed to put herself through school and graduate with honors and become a registered nurse 639 00:45:04.119 --> 00:45:07.000 and did what she could to try to handle her addiction issues and our mental 640 00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:10.239 health issues. But unfortunately, this one night, she just happened to go 641 00:45:10.280 --> 00:45:15.360 out drinking and would up driving away. But if she did become the victim 642 00:45:15.400 --> 00:45:17.639 of foul play, then it's definitely not her fault what happened. It's only 643 00:45:17.679 --> 00:45:22.320 the fault of the person who killed her or harmed her. And I do 644 00:45:22.360 --> 00:45:25.599 hope someday we finally have conclusive answers about what happened. Robin, do you 645 00:45:25.639 --> 00:45:30.079 want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon? Yes, 646 00:45:30.159 --> 00:45:32.159 the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we 647 00:45:32.239 --> 00:45:37.519 offer these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send 648 00:45:37.559 --> 00:45:42.800 out stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on 649 00:45:42.880 --> 00:45:47.000 Patreon if you join our five dollar tier Tier two. We also offer monthly 650 00:45:47.039 --> 00:45:52.800 bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on The Trail 651 00:45:52.800 --> 00:45:55.840 Went Cold's original feed, So they're exclusive to Patreon and if you join our 652 00:45:55.960 --> 00:46:00.639 highest tier, Tier three, the ten dollar Tier. One of the features 653 00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:06.239 we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsaw Mysteries, where 654 00:46:06.239 --> 00:46:10.079 you can download an audio file and then brood up the original Unsaw Mysteries episode 655 00:46:10.119 --> 00:46:15.800 on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the 656 00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.119 background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this 657 00:46:20.239 --> 00:46:23.599 episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track 658 00:46:23.679 --> 00:46:28.559 over was the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a 659 00:46:28.599 --> 00:46:32.360 commentary track in which I make more smartass remarks about Juel Kaylor than be sure 660 00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:36.320 to join Tier three. So I want to let you know a little bit 661 00:46:36.320 --> 00:46:39.400 about the Jewels and Ashley Patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of The 662 00:46:39.400 --> 00:46:44.480 Path Went Chili. We've got our Path Went Chili minis, which are always 663 00:46:44.480 --> 00:46:46.239 over an hour, so they're not very many, but they're just too short 664 00:46:46.280 --> 00:46:50.920 to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those, so we 665 00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:53.800 hope you'll check out those patreons will link them in the show notes. So 666 00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:57.599 I want to thank you all for listening, and any chance you have to 667 00:46:57.599 --> 00:47:00.880 share us on social media with a friend to rate and review is greatly appreciate 668 00:47:00.920 --> 00:47:05.400 it. You can email us at the Pathwin Chili at gmail dot com. 669 00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:07.920 You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwin. So until next time, 670 00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:13.320 be sure to bundle up because cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing. 671 00:47:13.519 --> 00:47:15.679 Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy