Speaker 1: This podcast is based on information sourced primarily from police
Speaker 1: and media reports, but certain names and other identifying details
Speaker 1: may have been changed or altered for privacy and security reasons.
Speaker 1: While the events in cases discussed are based on real investigations,
Speaker 1: some aspects may be simplified for time and for narrative purposes.
Speaker 1: Voice actors have been used to read from statements or documents.
Speaker 1: All information presented is intended solely to inform and raise awareness.
Speaker 1: Hosts may discuss theories regarding the cases examined in this podcast,
Speaker 1: but such discussions are not intended to and should not
Speaker 1: be considered by the listener to be legal conclusions. All
Speaker 1: persons discussed are considered innocent until proven guilty in a
Speaker 1: court of law. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: This is Chief Anna Lally. Welcome to Somebody Knows Something,
Speaker 2: a podcast from the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Unit.
Speaker 2: In this podcast, we will shed new light on cold
Speaker 2: cases in the city of Elgin by sharing untold details
Speaker 2: and by encouraging anyone with information to come forward. You
Speaker 2: will come along with real cold case detectives as they
Speaker 2: investigate active cold cases in real time and seek justice
Speaker 2: for the victims and closure for their families. We believe
Speaker 2: that the Elgin Police Department and our community can work
Speaker 2: together to bring closure to cold cases because we know
Speaker 2: that in these cases, somebody knows something.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to Somebody Knows Something. The Elgin Police
Speaker 3: Department Cold Case Podcast. My name is Detective Andrew Howten,
Speaker 3: I'm Detective Chris Hall.
Speaker 4: And I'm Detective Beth's dericker.
Speaker 3: Last episode, Beth, Chris and I traveled to Tennessee to
Speaker 3: meet with some extended family that we identified through our
Speaker 3: family tree research. While we were there, we interviewed members
Speaker 3: of Waiteria's extended family, and most importantly of all, we
Speaker 3: finally collected not one, but two samples of familial DNA
Speaker 3: for this case, and that is a huge step for us.
Speaker 4: We've notified Name us of our updated information, and we
Speaker 4: were waiting additional steps to be in our search for
Speaker 4: potential matches for Riteria's case, but that process could take
Speaker 4: a significant amount of time. So we were wrapping up
Speaker 4: season three in this episode by discussing all of our
Speaker 4: theories and steps taken up to this point. Then we
Speaker 4: will be waiting for new updates and hopefully some resolution
Speaker 4: in this case.
Speaker 5: Listeners will recall that we began this journey back in
Speaker 5: March with our bonus episode titled Still Missing. In that episode,
Speaker 5: we discussed the five long term missing people on our
Speaker 5: caseload at that time. Those people again our Francisco Loyo,
Speaker 5: Darren Wood Manor, Escalante Martinez, Chad Smith, and of course
Speaker 5: Waeteria Jones. Since March, that number has dropped to four
Speaker 5: because Chad Smith was located living in Chicago shortly after
Speaker 5: our episode aired and I was able to meet with
Speaker 5: his mother and reunite her with Chad.
Speaker 4: We encourage listeners to visit our website at Elgincolcases dot
Speaker 4: com to review our missing persons cases, and we were
Speaker 4: asking that anyone with information about the whereabouts of Francisco Loya,
Speaker 4: Darren Wood Maynor, Escalante Martinez or Waititiia Jones please contact
Speaker 4: us because all four of them are still missing.
Speaker 3: Once we dove into our full season with episode one,
Speaker 3: Whiteitia is Missing, we laid out the backstory for her case.
Speaker 3: Whiteria was living in Elgin in September of nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: two at the Douglas Hotel, so when that hotel closed
Speaker 3: honor about October first, she disappeared. Chris and I laid
Speaker 3: out all the theories and options we had for Waitia's
Speaker 3: case in our first episode, so let's revisit them here
Speaker 3: as we wrap up this season for now in our
Speaker 3: final episode that we are calling Still Waiting.
Speaker 4: Our first theory for Whetia's case was that something could
Speaker 4: have happened to Waitia at the Douglas Hotel, perhaps she
Speaker 4: never even moved out. So we reviewed records for the hotel,
Speaker 4: including information about renovations at that location, and we visited
Speaker 4: it to see it for ourselves.
Speaker 5: The hotel is just across the street from our current
Speaker 5: police department, and the city of Belgium actually purchased it
Speaker 5: and converted it into apartments. We also disclosed to the
Speaker 5: public that the police did search the hotel in nineteen
Speaker 5: eighty three after Waitia was reported missing, but that searched
Speaker 5: was several months after her disappearance. Nevertheless, at this point,
Speaker 5: we have no evidence to support that Waitia was a
Speaker 5: victim of a crime at the hotel. While it is
Speaker 5: possible that she never left the actual property, it does
Speaker 5: seem like one of our more unlikely theories at this point,
Speaker 5: given the fact that the property has been heavily.
Speaker 3: Renovated, similar to theory one that something happened at the hotel,
Speaker 3: We also had to consider the possibility that Waitia never
Speaker 3: left the city of Elgin. The problem is we had
Speaker 3: very little information about her social life and her social
Speaker 3: circles when we started this investigation. Unfortunately, that hasn't changed much.
Speaker 3: We still don't have a lot of credible information about
Speaker 3: who she socialized with or what she was doing in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two leading up to her disappearance. We did, however,
Speaker 3: visit the Elgin Middal Health Center and the cemetery there,
Speaker 3: and we confirmed that she did not re enter the
Speaker 3: facility or any other mental health facility in Illinois as
Speaker 3: a patient. We also confirmed that she's not buried at
Speaker 3: the cemetery on the HC grounds.
Speaker 5: Also, thanks to Beth, we have learned a lot of
Speaker 5: new information about Waiteria's time prior to her disappearance in
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty two. Originally, we thought that Waitia had moved
Speaker 5: to Elgin in that spring of nineteen eighty two, but
Speaker 5: we found out that she had actually been living in
Speaker 5: Elgin since nineteen seventy five. That was a huge piece
Speaker 5: of information. We also learned a lot more about her
Speaker 5: work history, her medical and mental health history, and her
Speaker 5: family background, some of which we shared in this podcast
Speaker 5: and some of which we did not do to privacy concerns.
Speaker 4: The State of Illinois records that we got were really impactful.
Speaker 4: They gave us a lot more information about places she lived,
Speaker 4: places she worked in, family members that she knew. As
Speaker 4: we mentioned in our third episode, we now know the
Speaker 4: way Terriy worked and lived at Hillcrest Nursing Home in Elgin,
Speaker 4: Fox Valley Nursing Home in South Elgin, and the Oaks
Speaker 4: Nursing Home in Aurora, and we discovered that for a
Speaker 4: brief period in nineteen seventy six, she also lived back
Speaker 4: in Tennessee.
Speaker 3: At this point in the investigation, the three of us
Speaker 3: agree that we can't write off any of our theories
Speaker 3: involving Elgin. As Chris said, the likelihood that she is
Speaker 3: somehow concealed that the Douglas Hotel property seems like our
Speaker 3: least likely scenario, but we still can't rule out the
Speaker 3: possibility that she stayed in Elgin or had something happened
Speaker 3: to her here in town. In fact, statistically speaking, we
Speaker 3: reached only learned from a training course that we attended
Speaker 3: that if a person who was reported missing and was murdered,
Speaker 3: their body, on average is located within six miles of
Speaker 3: where they were last seen. In Waiitiia's case, that would
Speaker 3: mean Elgin or the very nearest surrounding area would be
Speaker 3: within that range if she was the victim of a
Speaker 3: violent crime. But Waiteria also had plans, or at least
Speaker 3: reported plans, to go somewhere else, so we have to
Speaker 3: consider that she might have gone somewhere else too.
Speaker 4: Yes, again, though, we had a bit of a problem
Speaker 4: in this case because two different witnesses both told versions
Speaker 4: of wateria A's possible plans. One witness, an employee at
Speaker 4: the hotel, told police in nineteen eighty three the Waiteria
Speaker 4: was at a bus stop and he assumed she was
Speaker 4: going to Aurora, where she had previously lived. However, another witness,
Speaker 4: who was one of her counselors, also told police the
Speaker 4: Wayteria said she was planning to go to the Joliette
Speaker 4: Motor Lodge. So for her case, we had to include
Speaker 4: theories for each of those locations.
Speaker 3: The logistics of travel to those locations opened up a
Speaker 3: lot of doors to us as well, regarding the methods
Speaker 3: of travel. Again, we gathered extensive maps and records for
Speaker 3: regional buses, suburban buses, and trains for this area, and
Speaker 3: we considered each option as it related to both Joliet
Speaker 3: and Aurora. In the end, Aurora is the easiest option
Speaker 3: regarding buses, but because of the delay in this case,
Speaker 3: and because we learned that she also took cabs and
Speaker 3: other transportation as far as Tennessee, she certainly could have
Speaker 3: traveled to Chicago, Joliette, or Aurora, or any combination of
Speaker 3: those cities.
Speaker 5: That's correct, and as we reviewed her options for Joliette,
Speaker 5: we discovered that a hotel called the Joliet Motor Lodge
Speaker 5: never existed, so we had to get created and work
Speaker 5: with the Joliet Area Historical Museum define the correct hotel,
Speaker 5: and we did. With help from that museum, we identified
Speaker 5: that the Joliet Motor Hotel and visited that location. We
Speaker 5: even spoke with a resident who had been living there
Speaker 5: since before way TIA's disappearance. Unfortunately, he did not remember
Speaker 5: her or any other tenants from Elgin, but he also
Speaker 5: gave us another new potential theory to add to our list.
Speaker 4: Yes he did, he told us that the family who
Speaker 4: owned the Juliet Motor Hotel also owned a hotel in Raymondville, Texas,
Speaker 4: and they even arranged for travel for him and some
Speaker 4: other Juliet residents to move there. So we had to
Speaker 4: track down the hotel too, and we are now considering
Speaker 4: that she could have potentially traveled there.
Speaker 3: It's worth noting that Waiterira even had paternal relatives in Texas,
Speaker 3: and so while we are still looking at that as
Speaker 3: an option, we haven't been able to track down any
Speaker 3: records or in the state, and none of the extended
Speaker 3: family there have had any information about her up to
Speaker 3: this point. However, Texas is another option in the mix
Speaker 3: for this case. At this point, Juliette and now Texas
Speaker 3: still remain potential options in Waiteria's investigation.
Speaker 5: Yes, but as we looked into the logistics of travel,
Speaker 5: going to Juliet was much more cumbersome than going to Aurora.
Speaker 5: Whyteria could have simply taken a bus from near the
Speaker 5: Douglas Hotel directly to Lake Street in Aurora, just a
Speaker 5: few blocks from her home, and that would track well
Speaker 5: with the employee's statement that she was at an area
Speaker 5: bus stop. However, Tiria also hadn't lived in Aurora since
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy five, so maybe that isn't exactly likely as
Speaker 5: we originally thought.
Speaker 4: We still traveled there to see her former home, and
Speaker 4: we dove into her relationship with her husband, Wayman Jones,
Speaker 4: who originally reported her missing in nineteen eighty three. We
Speaker 4: also discovered that there was a ledge violence in the
Speaker 4: home when way Tiria did live there, and we uncovered
Speaker 4: some brand new information about Wayman as well. He was
Speaker 4: arrested several times in his life, including for a murder
Speaker 4: in Chicago in nineteen sixty seven. That he was arrested
Speaker 4: several times in his life, including for a murder in
Speaker 4: Chicago in nineteen sixty seven, So Andrew and Chris traveled
Speaker 4: to Chicago to consider that location as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, Beth, Chris and I visited the site
Speaker 3: of Otis Johnson's murder in nineteen sixty seven, a murder
Speaker 3: for which Wayman Jones was charged, but we should add,
Speaker 3: as we did in a previous episode, his case was
Speaker 3: later dismissed. We also visited Waitia's old neighborhood and Union Station,
Speaker 3: where she could have traveled if she took a bus
Speaker 3: or trained from Elgin, and Chris and I considered the
Speaker 3: fact that she could have been harmed or had something
Speaker 3: happened to her en route to that next destination, regardless
Speaker 3: of where she actually planned to go. We then explained
Speaker 3: further that in order to get to Juliet Wayteria more
Speaker 3: than likely would have had to go to Chicago. Plus,
Speaker 3: if she wanted to go to Tennessee, Chicago again would
Speaker 3: be the most likely candidate for that type of travel.
Speaker 5: In the end, we still don't know to this day,
Speaker 5: we don't know where she planned to go or if
Speaker 5: she actually made it to her final destination Elgin, Aurora, Joliette, Chicago, Tennessee, Texas.
Speaker 5: All these places could be potential locations for her, and
Speaker 5: because her report was delayed by nearly four months, she
Speaker 5: could literally have traveled anywhere if she had the money.
Speaker 3: And we were still looking at all these locations and
Speaker 3: considering them as we continue to work in her case.
Speaker 3: But at this point our final theory is that Waititia
Speaker 3: has died and simply never been identified or potentially never
Speaker 3: been covered. I have to say we also have some
Speaker 3: more statistics we want to share that make that final
Speaker 3: theory possibly be the most plausible. We recently attended Crime
Speaker 3: con in Las Vegas and one of the speakers that
Speaker 3: we met was Tad Dibiassi, who is a former federal
Speaker 3: prosecutor from Washington, DC. In his recent book Nobody Homicide Cases,
Speaker 3: A Practical Guide to Investigating, prosecuting, and winning cases when
Speaker 3: the victim is missing, Tad lays out a ton of
Speaker 3: different statistics and information about nobody homicide cases.
Speaker 4: Tad discusses that in twenty twenty four, for example, of
Speaker 4: the over six hundred thousand missing people in the United States,
Speaker 4: less than one percent of them were never found. In fact,
Speaker 4: ninety nine point eight seven percent of all people who
Speaker 4: went missing were either recovered or returned. So when we
Speaker 4: look at Waiteria's case and consider that she has been
Speaker 4: missing for over forty years, that is a statistical anomaly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly is. And records also documented that only
Speaker 3: twelve percent of all missing people in twenty fourteen were
Speaker 3: adult females. So again, Waitiria is forty five five year
Speaker 3: old adult female is the statistical nominaly. Again, when we
Speaker 3: consider the fact that she disappeared in nineteen eighty two
Speaker 3: has never been seen since and has never returned. We
Speaker 3: have to at least consider, probably strongly, that she may
Speaker 3: have died.
Speaker 5: That does seem like a plausible explanation, Andrew. While we
Speaker 5: can't say how or when she died or if she
Speaker 5: is in fact dead, it does seem like a higher
Speaker 5: probability at this point. Plus, once we consider that one
Speaker 5: of the options, we also have to consider that maybe
Speaker 5: she's been found but simply not identified.
Speaker 3: And so that's where Namis joined this story. We explain
Speaker 3: that there are literally thousands of unidentified remains around the
Speaker 3: United States and a sense Whyteria had ties or potential
Speaker 3: plans to go to a number of various places. A
Speaker 3: regional approach is the most appropriate way for us to
Speaker 3: work on this case. Probably we had going to that though,
Speaker 3: was that we had no way to compare unidentified people
Speaker 3: to her.
Speaker 4: Then, after months of building a family tree and searching
Speaker 4: around the country, we located relatives who shared mitochondrial DNA
Speaker 4: with Wayteria last episode. We traveled to Tennessee to collect
Speaker 4: that DNA, and now we are prepared to take the
Speaker 4: next steps on this case by working to upload familial
Speaker 4: DNA into databases like CODIS to begin a new search
Speaker 4: for Wateria, but the testing we need to do can
Speaker 4: take a significant amount of time and name US has
Speaker 4: an extensive backlog, so for now we have to wait
Speaker 4: and see where this new technology and new information will
Speaker 4: take us.
Speaker 3: Well as we conclude season three. At least for now,
Speaker 3: we unfortunately are not ending it like we did season one.
Speaker 3: We don't have a big reveal, and as many of
Speaker 3: our cold cases, we still don't have a final answer
Speaker 3: in this case. Spending months on a case without a
Speaker 3: final answer or a solution is something that can be
Speaker 3: very frustrating, not only for the family but also to
Speaker 3: us as investigators on these cases. However, even though we
Speaker 3: haven't found Wateria, we have gathered new records about her.
Speaker 3: We've interviewed new people, we've identified new sites and visited them,
Speaker 3: and we now have DNA that we can review for
Speaker 3: her case in the future. We've also remembered Whiteria Jones
Speaker 3: and told her story to the public to honor her
Speaker 3: memory and hopefully continue to move our case forward. There
Speaker 3: are so many cases like Waiteria's that just don't get
Speaker 3: the media attention that they deserve, and we are working
Speaker 3: to try to change that.
Speaker 5: We've also brought Wateria's case up to current twenty twenty
Speaker 5: six standards, and that really is the goal in all
Speaker 5: of our cold cases, even if we don't solve the
Speaker 5: case when we work it, want to leave it as
Speaker 5: up to date as possible for the next group of
Speaker 5: protectives that come along. That way, they can start with
Speaker 5: more solid footing. Witnesses who might be dead and gone
Speaker 5: in years to come will have been interviewed and recorded
Speaker 5: and memorialized. Records that could be lost will have been
Speaker 5: collected and reviewed organized as well. In physical evidence like
Speaker 5: DNA will have been collected before it's too late to
Speaker 5: get a standard. Our ultimate goal is that an officer
Speaker 5: are here in Elginen twy thirty six or two forty
Speaker 5: six won't be looking at a case file from nineteen
Speaker 5: seventy six or nineteen eighty three and they have to
Speaker 5: start from scratch there. No, they'll be looking at a
Speaker 5: forty or fifty year old case that has been updated
Speaker 5: to twenty twenty six and beyond, and maybe, just maybe
Speaker 5: they can push the ball a few more yards forward
Speaker 5: the goal line in some of these cases.
Speaker 4: Exactly, we have nearly fifty total homicide and missing person
Speaker 4: cases still in our caseload, and as we sit here
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty six, it is very likely that we
Speaker 4: will not solve every single case that we touch. But
Speaker 4: the whole point of this podcast, in this cold case unit,
Speaker 4: is to make that attempt and document it for future
Speaker 4: investigators and for the families, because the victims and the
Speaker 4: families in every single one of these cases truly deserve
Speaker 4: that and they are still waiting.
Speaker 5: We want to thank WRMN fourteen ten for another successful
Speaker 5: season of this podcast. Dennis and Matt, thank you for
Speaker 5: all your technical help and for meeting us within moment's
Speaker 5: notice to record make edits as we went through this season.
Speaker 5: We truly appreciate all your hard work and help on
Speaker 5: this project. Our partnership with you guys has been something
Speaker 5: truly great.
Speaker 3: We also want to thank the staff from the Joliet
Speaker 3: Motor Hotel, the Gailboard and Library, the Eltin History Museum,
Speaker 3: the Joliette Area History Museum, the Fox Valley Trolley Museum,
Speaker 3: the Pullman Library, the Illinois Railway Museum and Pace for
Speaker 3: all the help they provide on this case. When it
Speaker 3: comes to cold cases, historical societies, museums and libraries are
Speaker 3: critical partners, so thank you for the emails, the calls,
Speaker 3: and the records you helped us gather. They helped give
Speaker 3: us a glimpse into the past for Wateria's case, and
Speaker 3: we plan to continue using those types of resources to
Speaker 3: gather more records about her case as we wait for
Speaker 3: DNA results. My curious case is still not over.
Speaker 4: We also want to thank our administration, Chief Lally and
Speaker 4: all of our coworkers who helped us in this investigation.
Speaker 4: With this project, I also want to thank Chief Lelly
Speaker 4: for having confidence in me as she moves me into
Speaker 4: the cold case unit. I'm truly honored to be a
Speaker 4: part of this unit and the work that we were
Speaker 4: doing every day. Andrew, Chris and I recently attended the
Speaker 4: International Homicide Investigators Cold Case Conference. We learned that according
Speaker 4: to National Institute of Justice, only seven percent of policed
Speaker 4: agencies nationwide have a dedicated cold case unit. Seven But
Speaker 4: with Chief Lally's foresight, we are one of those agencies
Speaker 4: who are working to lead the charge on the issue.
Speaker 4: We firmly believe that a full time dedicated cold case
Speaker 4: unit is the best way to review, investigate, and solve
Speaker 4: these cases, and we plan to continue our work doing
Speaker 4: just that. In fact, we're hosting a cold case symposium
Speaker 4: for area law enforcement professionals this fall well, with the
Speaker 4: goal of building even better cooperation in our area on
Speaker 4: cases like Wateria.
Speaker 5: We would also like to thank all the people we
Speaker 5: spoke with, the people that met with us, and those
Speaker 5: who provided tips this season. We truly appreciate the emails, calls,
Speaker 5: and conversations that this podcast has helped generate, and a
Speaker 5: very special thank you goes out to the extended family
Speaker 5: or Wateria that we met with during this season. We
Speaker 5: are forever grateful to those family members who didn't know
Speaker 5: us and didn't know Whyteria, but they still met with
Speaker 5: U anyways to provide the DNA that we truly needed
Speaker 5: for this case. Their involvement in this season and in
Speaker 5: this investigation has been the biggest step we've taken in
Speaker 5: this case in over forty years. Truly thank you.
Speaker 3: Lastly, we want to thank everyone who listens to and
Speaker 3: shares this podcast. You help us tell these stories and
Speaker 3: provide us with new information that could one day bring
Speaker 3: closure to this case or another case. So thank you
Speaker 3: for taking your time out of your day to listen
Speaker 3: to and share it. The more people who listen and share.
Speaker 3: The more people we can reach with these stories, and
Speaker 3: the more tips we can generate in all of our cases.
Speaker 4: When we have updates over the summer on any of
Speaker 4: our cases, including why Tiria Is, we will certainly let
Speaker 4: our listeners know, and just because this season is over
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that why Tiria's investigation is. Hopefully we will
Speaker 4: have more information in the coming months on her case,
Speaker 4: and we are still working several other cases with hopes
Speaker 4: of new leads and potentially resolutions in those cases as.
Speaker 3: Well as for season four, Beth, Chris and I will
Speaker 3: be combing our case files to select the case or
Speaker 3: maybe a few cases to bring into the limelight either
Speaker 3: later this year or in early twenty twenty seven. We
Speaker 3: will keep our dedicated listeners up to date on our
Speaker 3: upcoming season and on any updates we have on any
Speaker 3: of our active cases. We continue to believe that this
Speaker 3: venue provides us with new and innovative ways to tell
Speaker 3: victim stories, and we know that our listeners will provide
Speaker 3: us with new tips and information that will help solve
Speaker 3: another case. Because we know that in all of our
Speaker 3: cold cases, somebody knows something.
Speaker 2: If you or anyone you know has information about this
Speaker 2: case or any other cold case in Elgin, Please contact
Speaker 2: the Elgin Police Department Cold Case email at cold Case
Speaker 2: tips at elginil dot gov or the cold case tip
Speaker 2: line at eight four seven two eight nine cold. You
Speaker 2: can also review cold case information on the Elgin Police
Speaker 2: Department's cold case page at www dot elgincoldcases dot com,
Speaker 2: where every cold case, homicide, and missingperson's case is listed
Speaker 2: with photographs and information about each case.