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<v Speaker 1>Imagine twenty thousand liters of flesh melting acid spilling across

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<v Speaker 1>a Spanish mountain highway.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's a completely apocalyptic scene, right.

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<v Speaker 1>We were talking helicopters in the air, heavy machinery frantically

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<v Speaker 1>digging up the earth, emergency workers suffering chemical burns, just

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<v Speaker 1>trying to contain the devastation.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, it is without a doubt, the loudest, most chaotic,

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<v Speaker 1>most heavily scrutinized physical scene you could possibly imagine.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, hundreds of eyes on it.

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<v Speaker 1>And now I want you to imagine a ten year

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<v Speaker 1>old boy sitting in the dead center of that exact chaos, right,

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<v Speaker 1>a boy who simply blinks out of existence without leaving

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<v Speaker 1>a single microscopic trace.

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<v Speaker 2>It is really the ultimate paradox of modern investigation. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>because when a person vanishes, we kind of expect a

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<v Speaker 2>clean break, or we expect a trail of debris. We

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<v Speaker 2>do not expect a massive physical catastrophe to yield absolutely.

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<v Speaker 1>Nothing exactly, And that is exactly what we are exploring

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<v Speaker 1>today in this deep dive. We are opening up the

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<v Speaker 1>cold case detective files to look at two of the

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<v Speaker 1>most baffling disappearances ever recorded. And our goal today for

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<v Speaker 1>you listening isn't just to recite a timeline of spooky.

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<v Speaker 2>Facts, right, there are plenty of places for that.

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<v Speaker 1>Exactly. We're going to really look under the hood of

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<v Speaker 1>how authorities investigate the impossible, because these two files, they

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<v Speaker 1>represent the polar opposites of how a human being can

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<v Speaker 1>be erased.

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<v Speaker 2>They really do.

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<v Speaker 1>The first is that fiery, chaotic mountain pass in Spain

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen eighty six, and the second is the slow, quiet,

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<v Speaker 1>methodical dismantling of a fifty one year old woman's identity

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<v Speaker 1>in Australia in nineteen ninety seven.

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<v Speaker 2>And while the methods are completely different, the underlying terrifying

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<v Speaker 2>reality is the same. Yeah, both of these investigations show

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<v Speaker 2>us what happens when the physical evidence on the ground

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<v Speaker 2>collides with the hidden and honestly often sinister realities of

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<v Speaker 2>human motivation. Definitely, the systems we rely on to find

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<v Speaker 2>missing people, they're really only as good as the initial

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<v Speaker 2>assumptions investigators make, and when those assumptions are wrong, the

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<v Speaker 2>system doesn't just fail to find the person, it actually

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<v Speaker 2>actively buries them.

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<v Speaker 1>It's chilling. So let's start with the physical chaos. I

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<v Speaker 1>want to take you to the summer of nineteen eighty six. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>the setting is Spain. We have a truck driver named

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<v Speaker 1>Andrea Martinez. He's hauling a massive commercial tanker filled with

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<v Speaker 1>twenty thousand liters of sulfuric acid.

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<v Speaker 2>That's a huge payload.

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<v Speaker 1>Massive, and he's traveling from Las Canovs to Bilbao. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>Andre sometimes brings his wife Carmen on these long hauls,

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<v Speaker 1>but on this specific trip they bring their ten year

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<v Speaker 1>old son, Juan Pedro, and the case files note that

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<v Speaker 1>bringing the boy was supposedly a reward for getting good

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<v Speaker 1>grades in school.

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<v Speaker 2>Which is a detail that immediately anchors this story in

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<v Speaker 2>a very specific time and place.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, no kidding.

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<v Speaker 2>Across country trucking route as an academic reward tells us

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<v Speaker 2>a bit about the working class dynamic of a Martinez family.

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<v Speaker 1>And I have to stop right there because my brain

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<v Speaker 1>immediately rejects that premison. Times Well, I mean, if you

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<v Speaker 1>tell a ten year old they're getting a reward for

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<v Speaker 1>acing a math test, you take them to an amusement park, right,

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<v Speaker 1>You don't strap them into a two seater commercial cab

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<v Speaker 1>right next to twenty thousand liters of one of the

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<v Speaker 1>most reactive hazardous chemicals on the planet just to drive

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<v Speaker 1>over a winding mountain pass.

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<v Speaker 2>It definitely sounds strange.

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<v Speaker 1>Today, it makes no logical sense.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, it certainly violates modern safety protocols. But in the

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<v Speaker 2>context of nineteen eighties, commercial trucking, family ride alongs weren't

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<v Speaker 2>entirely uncommon.

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<v Speaker 1>Really, even with hazardous material.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, even then, the regulatory oversight was just significantly looser

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<v Speaker 2>back then. However, your skepticism is totally warranted, and that

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<v Speaker 2>whole reward narrative becomes a pivotal piece of the puzzle

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<v Speaker 2>later on.

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<v Speaker 1>Good because I'm not buying it anyway. The danger of

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<v Speaker 1>that hall becomes terrifyingly real. On the morning of June

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<v Speaker 1>twenty fifth, right, the truck is navigating the Semier mountain

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<v Speaker 1>Pass in Madrid, and for anyone who hasn't driven a

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<v Speaker 1>road like this, it is unforgiving, very dangerous. It's steep,

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<v Speaker 1>it's winding, thro are these sheer drops, And at around

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<v Speaker 1>six in the morning, eyewitnesses spot Andre's truck and it

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<v Speaker 1>is completely out of control. It is barreling down this

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<v Speaker 1>mountain pass at eighty six miles per hour, and we

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<v Speaker 1>really have.

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<v Speaker 2>To understand the physics of what eighty six miles per

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<v Speaker 2>hour means for that specific vehicle.

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<v Speaker 1>Right, it's not a Honda Civic exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>This isn't a sports car. This is a tanker hauling

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<v Speaker 2>twenty thousand liters of liquid. Fluid. Dynamics in a moving

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<v Speaker 2>tanker are incredibly dangerous.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh, because of the shifting exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>It's called the slash effect. When liquid weight shifts inside

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<v Speaker 2>a tank on a curve, it exerts massive lateral force

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<v Speaker 2>against the walls of the truck.

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<v Speaker 1>Wow.

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<v Speaker 2>At eighty six miles per hour, the momentum of that

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<v Speaker 2>shifting acid makes the vehicle practically unsteerable.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's basically an unguided missile at that point. Pretty much,

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<v Speaker 1>eyewitnesses are watching in horror as this truck forces one

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<v Speaker 1>car completely off the road and it doesn't even stop.

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<v Speaker 1>It side swipes another vehicle, hitting it so hard it

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<v Speaker 1>tears the wing mirror clean off. That's terrifying, and the

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<v Speaker 1>truck just keeps accelerating. Everyone watching just naturally assumes the

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<v Speaker 1>brakes have melted or completely failed.

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<v Speaker 2>Which makes sense based on what they're seeing.

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<v Speaker 1>Right. And finally, the physics you just mentioned. They take

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<v Speaker 1>over the truck hits a sharp curve, goes into a

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<v Speaker 1>massive skid and violently crashes, overturning completely.

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<v Speaker 2>And that's when the tank ruptures exactly. See this is

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<v Speaker 2>where the situation upgrades from a fatal traffic accident to

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<v Speaker 2>a major ecological crisis. Right the acid, sulfuric acid is

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<v Speaker 2>severely corrosive and toxic, and this specific crash site happen

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<v Speaker 2>to be located right next to a river. M But

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<v Speaker 2>when the Civil Guard arrives, their primary overwriting objective isn't

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<v Speaker 2>even the victims in the cab yet, it's the water exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>It is stopping twenty thousand liters of poison from reaching

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<v Speaker 2>the water supply because that would devastate the local ecosystem

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<v Speaker 2>and cut off drink water to multiple towns.

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<v Speaker 1>And the logistics of that response were insane. They bring

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<v Speaker 1>in thousands upon thousands of pounds of lime and sand.

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<v Speaker 1>They are frantically dumping it all over the highway and

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<v Speaker 1>the embankments.

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<v Speaker 2>Because lime, which is calcium hydroxide or calcium carbonate, is

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<v Speaker 2>an alkaline substance. Okay, when you introduce it to a

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<v Speaker 2>strong acid like sulfuric acid, it triggers a violent exothermic neutralization.

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<v Speaker 1>Reaction exothermic meaning heat right right.

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<v Speaker 2>It generates massive amounts of heat and steam, but it

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<v Speaker 2>neutralizes the corusivity.

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<v Speaker 1>And it was completely chaotic. I mean, emergency workers are

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<v Speaker 1>getting severe chemical burns just trying to shovel this lime.

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<v Speaker 1>Three nearby villages completely lost their water supply because the

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<v Speaker 1>authorities had to temporarily shut the system down in a

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<v Speaker 1>total panic.

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<v Speaker 2>This is nightmare scenario.

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<v Speaker 1>It takes hours of this desperate, steaming, toxic containment effort

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<v Speaker 1>before they can even safely approach the crushed cab of

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<v Speaker 1>the truck. Yeah, and when they finally do, they find

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<v Speaker 1>the remains of Andrea and Carmen. The crash killed them,

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<v Speaker 1>and the acid had already begun to severely affect their bodies.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a grim reality for those responders. They process the scene,

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<v Speaker 2>they secure the two victims, and they begin the terrible

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<v Speaker 2>bureaucratic process of notifying next of kin. And at this

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<v Speaker 2>point they have absolutely zero indication that anyone else was

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<v Speaker 2>in that vehicle exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>The police call Carmen's mother to deliver the horrific news.

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<v Speaker 1>And it's only during this phone call that the grandmother

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<v Speaker 1>asks a question that completely up ends the entire investigation.

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<v Speaker 1>She says, what about the child? Where is one pedro?

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<v Speaker 2>You can just imagine the sheer panic that must have

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<v Speaker 2>set in at that command post.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh, total panic.

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<v Speaker 2>They had just spent hours neutralizing a toxic spill, assuming

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<v Speaker 2>they had accounted for all the victims, only to realize

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<v Speaker 2>a ten year old boy was missing from the wreckage.

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<v Speaker 1>So they immediately mobilized. We were talking a massive eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>mile radius search.

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<v Speaker 2>Wow.

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<v Speaker 1>They have sent dogs on the ground, helicopters doing aerial grids.

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<v Speaker 1>They bring in heavy excavation machinery to delicately sift through

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<v Speaker 1>all the thousands of pounds of lime and sand they

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<v Speaker 1>had just stumped, right, because they're terrified that the boy

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<v Speaker 1>might be buried underneath their own containment.

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<v Speaker 2>Efforts, which is a horrifying thought.

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<v Speaker 1>But wait, I mean, if they sifted through all of

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<v Speaker 1>that earth and chemical sand, they had to have found something, right,

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<v Speaker 1>A shoe, a piece of the seat, anything.

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<v Speaker 2>Almost nothing, really, Yeah, The exhaustive search yielded only a

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<v Speaker 2>few pieces of children's clothing and some cassette tapes belonging

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<v Speaker 2>to one pedro inside the cab, just inside the cab,

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<v Speaker 2>exactly no physical trace of the boy himself was found

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<v Speaker 2>in the wreckage, under the sand, or anywhere in the

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<v Speaker 2>surrounding wilderness.

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<v Speaker 1>So how does an investigation even proceed when faced with

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<v Speaker 1>a literal ghost.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, they fall back on the process of elimination. The

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<v Speaker 2>most logical initial hypothesis was ejecta.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, thrown from the truck.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, the cab only had two seats. Wan Pedro was

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<v Speaker 2>likely sitting between his parents or maybe behind them, unbuckled,

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<v Speaker 2>so investigators assumed the violent a eighty six mile per

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<v Speaker 2>hour rollover must have launched him through the windshield or

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<v Speaker 2>a shattered window.

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<v Speaker 1>But if a human body is ejected from a vehicle

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<v Speaker 1>at nearly ninety miles an hour, it doesn't just float

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<v Speaker 1>away on the breeze. There is physical trauma to the environment. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, broken branches, disturbed earth a trajectory precisely, and

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<v Speaker 1>the investigators searched for exactly that. They mapped the projected

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<v Speaker 1>trajectories based on the crash dynamics, but they found zero

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<v Speaker 1>impact zones, no blood trails, no disturbed brush.

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<v Speaker 2>Nothing, So the ejection theory is out right.

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<v Speaker 1>So they moved to hypothesis too. He survived the crash,

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<v Speaker 1>managed to crawl out of the wreckage in a state

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<v Speaker 1>of deep shock and just wandered off into the wilderness,

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<v Speaker 1>possibly toward the river.

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<v Speaker 2>But again, there were no footprints in the mud by

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<v Speaker 2>the river. None. The send dogs picked up absolutely nothing

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<v Speaker 2>leading away from the highway.

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<v Speaker 1>Which brings us to the most infamous, pervasive theory of

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<v Speaker 1>this entire case.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, people looked at the lack of a body, and

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<v Speaker 2>they looked at the twenty thousand liters of flesh melting

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<v Speaker 2>out acid, and they put two and two together. The

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<v Speaker 2>theory that totally dominated the public imagination was that one

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<v Speaker 2>pedro had fallen into the spill and been completely dissolved

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<v Speaker 2>by the sulfuric acid, literally eras down to the molecular level.

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<v Speaker 2>And you know, it is a theory that makes intuitive

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<v Speaker 2>sense to a lay person, sure, especially given the Hollywood

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<v Speaker 2>depiction of acids. But this is where forensic chemistry has

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<v Speaker 2>to step in and forcefully debunk the myth. The authorities

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<v Speaker 2>brought in chemical experts who stated unequivocally that this was impossible.

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<v Speaker 1>I really need you to explain the mechanics of that,

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<v Speaker 1>because if sulfuric acid is corrosive enough to burn the

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<v Speaker 1>emergency workers through their thick rubber boots. Why couldn't it

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<v Speaker 1>dissolve a ten year old.

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<v Speaker 2>It comes down to the required parameters for complete dissolution

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<v Speaker 2>of organic matter, specifically bone. To completely break down human

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<v Speaker 2>bone into a liquid state using sulfulic acid, you need

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<v Speaker 2>two things that were entirely absent on that mountain, pass

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<v Speaker 2>total submersion and a significant duration of time. You essentially

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<v Speaker 2>need a vat.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's not like the movies where a drop hits

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<v Speaker 1>the floor and burns a hole straight through the concrete

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<v Speaker 1>in five seconds.

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<v Speaker 2>No, not at all. Even at high concentrations, bone is

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<v Speaker 2>remarkably resilient. If a body falls into a spill on

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<v Speaker 2>a roadway, it is experiencing surface exposure, not submersion.

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<v Speaker 1>Ah, that makes sense.

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<v Speaker 2>Furthermore, the acid was actively spreading out, which dilutes its

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<v Speaker 2>localized pooling, and the emergency workers were rapidly dumping alkaline

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<v Speaker 2>lime on top of it, which neutralizes the acid's corrosive properties.

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<v Speaker 1>Right the exothermic reaction exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>Even if Juan Pedro had been tragically caught in the

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<v Speaker 2>thickest part of the spill, the process of complete bodily

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<v Speaker 2>destruction would take days, not hours.

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<v Speaker 1>Days.

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<v Speaker 2>Wow, his remains would have been horrifically damaged. Yes, but

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<v Speaker 2>a skeleton does not just vaporize into thin air. There

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<v Speaker 2>would have been a physical mass for the excavators to find.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, So science kills the acid theory kills the ejection theory,

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<v Speaker 1>the tracking dogs kill the wandering off theory. He didn't melt,

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<v Speaker 1>he didn't fly out, and he didn't walk away. No,

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<v Speaker 1>we are completely out of environmental explanations, which forces the

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<v Speaker 1>police to look back at the only tangible piece of

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<v Speaker 1>evidence they have left, the truck itself.

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<v Speaker 2>And this mechanical investigation reveals that the narrative of the

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<v Speaker 2>runaway truck was entirely false.

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<v Speaker 1>This part is so crazy to me, it really is.

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<v Speaker 2>When forensics stripped down the wreckage, they examined the braking system. Remember,

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<v Speaker 2>eyewitnesses assumed the brakes had failed because the truck was

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<v Speaker 2>accelerating wildly down a steep grade right, but the investigators

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<v Speaker 2>found the brakes were in pristine working order.

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<v Speaker 1>Raw.

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<v Speaker 2>Furthermore, the truck had recently undergone a comprehensive safety inspection

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<v Speaker 2>and a tune up specifically for this long haul. Mechanically,

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<v Speaker 2>the vehicle was flawless, so.

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<v Speaker 1>This is a terrifying pivot. It wasn't a mechanical failure.

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<v Speaker 1>Now Andrea was choosing to drive eighty six miles per hour,

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<v Speaker 1>he was choosing to risk his family's life. Why.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, to answer that, investigators look to the nineteen eighty

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<v Speaker 2>six equivalent of an airplane's black box, the truck's tachograph.

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<v Speaker 1>Wait, okay, I understand modern trucks have digital computers that

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<v Speaker 1>track everything. But how did attach a graph work in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty six? How does it actually record what a

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<v Speaker 1>driver is doing?

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<v Speaker 2>Think of it like reading the rings of a tree

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<v Speaker 2>to find out exactly what years a forest experienced a drought.

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<v Speaker 2>But mechanized. An analog tachigraph uses a paper disc covered

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<v Speaker 2>in a thin layer of wax. It's connected directly to

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<v Speaker 2>the vehicle's transmission.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh, fascinating.

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<v Speaker 2>As the truck moves, a clockwork mechanism rotates the disc

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<v Speaker 2>and three separate styluses scratch.

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<v Speaker 1>The wax like a record player.

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<v Speaker 2>Exactly like a record player. One stylus records the speed,

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<v Speaker 2>one records the distance traveled, and one records the driver's activity,

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00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:54.200
<v Speaker 2>meaning when the engine is running versus turned off.

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<v Speaker 1>Wow.

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<v Speaker 2>By analyzing the distance between the scratches, investigators can map

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<v Speaker 2>exactly how how fast a truck was going at any

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<v Speaker 2>specific minute.

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<v Speaker 1>Of the day, so it leaves a physical scar of

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<v Speaker 1>every time the truck stressed, accelerated, or stopped. Yes, and

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<v Speaker 1>when they pull this wax disc from Andre's wreckage, what

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00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:12.120
<v Speaker 1>is the timeline show?

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00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:15.080
<v Speaker 2>The beginning of the trip is entirely unremarkable. They depart

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<v Speaker 2>at seven pm the night before.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay.

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<v Speaker 2>The disc shows normal sustained driving with standardress stops nine pm,

292
00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:25.840
<v Speaker 2>twelve twelve am, three am, four thirteen am, and five am.

293
00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:28.360
<v Speaker 2>It's just the standard rhythm of a long haul trucker.

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<v Speaker 1>Then we hit five twenty am. This is the crucial

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00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:36.039
<v Speaker 1>anchor point of the entire mystery. The tatograph shows a

296
00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:39.240
<v Speaker 1>stop for breakfast at a diner near the N one motorway.

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00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:42.320
<v Speaker 1>And this isn't just data on a wax disc. This

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00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:44.519
<v Speaker 1>is corroborated by actual humans.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, the weight staff.

300
00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:49.440
<v Speaker 1>Right weight staff at the diner distinctly remember serving the

301
00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:53.960
<v Speaker 1>Martinez family and most importantly, they specifically remember seeing ten

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00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:58.080
<v Speaker 1>year old Wan Pedro alive well and wearing a bright

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00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:59.200
<v Speaker 1>red sweatshirt.

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00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:03.399
<v Speaker 2>This creates an incredibly tight window. We have independent confirmation

305
00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:06.240
<v Speaker 2>of the boy's life at five twenty am. Right, the

306
00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:09.759
<v Speaker 2>fatal crash occurs around six am. We're looking at a

307
00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.120
<v Speaker 2>maximum window of roughly forty to forty five minutes where

308
00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:15.679
<v Speaker 2>a child vanishes from the face of the year. Unbelievable,

309
00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:18.200
<v Speaker 2>but the tatrigraph reveals that those final forty minutes were

310
00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:19.440
<v Speaker 2>anything but a normal drive.

311
00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:22.639
<v Speaker 1>Right, the data shows that after breakfast heading up into

312
00:15:22.679 --> 00:15:25.039
<v Speaker 1>the mountain pass, the truck stopped twelve.

313
00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:26.840
<v Speaker 2>Times twelve times, twelve.

314
00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:31.399
<v Speaker 1>Distinct complete stocks. But these weren't bathroom breaks. The stylusts

315
00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:33.559
<v Speaker 1>show that the truck would come to a complete halt

316
00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.480
<v Speaker 1>for just a few seconds, sometimes as little as five seconds,

317
00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:40.000
<v Speaker 1>maxing out around twenty seconds, and then aggressively accelerate again.

318
00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:43.639
<v Speaker 2>And I cannot overstate the physical difficulty of doing this.

319
00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:44.759
<v Speaker 1>I can't even imagine.

320
00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:48.120
<v Speaker 2>To bring an eighteen wheeler hauling twenty thousand liters of

321
00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:52.840
<v Speaker 2>slashing liquid to a dead stop requires massive down shifting

322
00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:53.639
<v Speaker 2>and heavy.

323
00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:56.279
<v Speaker 1>Breaking, fighting all that momentum exactly.

324
00:15:56.120 --> 00:15:59.399
<v Speaker 2>To do it, accelerate and do it again twelve times

325
00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:03.679
<v Speaker 2>in rapids session is an exhausting, highly deliberate act.

326
00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:06.320
<v Speaker 1>Well, wait, could there be an environmental reason, like a

327
00:16:06.440 --> 00:16:09.000
<v Speaker 1>herd of sheep on the road or a construction.

328
00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.080
<v Speaker 2>Convoy investigator's map. The exact coordinates of those stops against

329
00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:15.360
<v Speaker 2>traffic reports and construction logs for that morning, the road

330
00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.679
<v Speaker 2>was entirely clear. There were no traffic jams, no accidents,

331
00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:24.080
<v Speaker 2>no roadwork. There was absolutely zero external environmental reason for

332
00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.399
<v Speaker 2>Andre to be stutter stepping a massive tanker down the highway.

333
00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:32.080
<v Speaker 1>It paints a picture of absolute sheer terror happening inside

334
00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:34.919
<v Speaker 1>that cab. But this is where I get hung up. Okay,

335
00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:37.840
<v Speaker 1>if you are a driver under threat, say someone is

336
00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:41.000
<v Speaker 1>chasing you, you flee, You hit the gas, right. The

337
00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:43.679
<v Speaker 1>fact that the truck eventually ended up doing eighty six

338
00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:47.240
<v Speaker 1>miles an hour proves Andrea was capable of fleeing. So

339
00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:49.960
<v Speaker 1>why stopped twelve times for five seconds?

340
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:50.799
<v Speaker 2>That's a great question.

341
00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.440
<v Speaker 1>If you are running for your life, hitting the brakes

342
00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:54.559
<v Speaker 1>is the last thing you do.

343
00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:59.600
<v Speaker 2>That behavioral contradiction baffled investigators for an entire year. The

344
00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:04.079
<v Speaker 2>case went completely cold, I'm sure, until twelve months later,

345
00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.880
<v Speaker 2>as part of a final exhaustive review of the physical evidence,

346
00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:12.240
<v Speaker 2>that tanker was completely disassembled, okay, and tucked away hidden

347
00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:15.680
<v Speaker 2>inside a concealed compartment within the tanker itself, police found

348
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:16.759
<v Speaker 2>trace amounts of.

349
00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:20.920
<v Speaker 1>Heroin heroin, and suddenly the entire context of this family.

350
00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:23.000
<v Speaker 2>Trip just shatters completely.

351
00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:26.079
<v Speaker 1>Because neither Andre nor Carmen had criminal records. But when

352
00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:29.400
<v Speaker 1>the police confronted the extended family with the drug evidence,

353
00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:33.720
<v Speaker 1>the wall of silence finally broke. Relatives admitted that Andre

354
00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.759
<v Speaker 1>was being violently coerced a local drug smuggling syndicate was

355
00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:41.000
<v Speaker 1>forcing him to use his commercial route to traffic heroin

356
00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:42.119
<v Speaker 1>into northern Spain.

357
00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:44.640
<v Speaker 2>And this wasn't the first time either. He had been

358
00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.680
<v Speaker 2>trapped in this arrangement for a while. Oh wow, this

359
00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:53.440
<v Speaker 2>revelation fundamentally rewrites the psychology of that morning. Remember the reward.

360
00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:55.359
<v Speaker 1>Narrative, Yeah, the whole good grades thing.

361
00:17:55.319 --> 00:17:58.240
<v Speaker 2>The idea that Juan Pedro was brought along for good grades.

362
00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:02.480
<v Speaker 2>Investigators immediately scarted that I knew it. The grim reality

363
00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:05.720
<v Speaker 2>is that Andre, knowing the immense danger of the cartel

364
00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.880
<v Speaker 2>he was working for, likely brought his wife and child

365
00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:10.160
<v Speaker 2>along as a human shield.

366
00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:11.599
<v Speaker 1>Oh that is so dark.

367
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.519
<v Speaker 2>He believed the cartel wouldn't attack or hijack the truck

368
00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:16.759
<v Speaker 2>if a ten year old boy was sitting in the cab.

369
00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:20.559
<v Speaker 1>That is deeply tragic. But let's apply this cartel context

370
00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:24.039
<v Speaker 1>to those twelve rapid fire stops on the tashigraph. Okay

371
00:18:24.279 --> 00:18:27.920
<v Speaker 1>I asked earlier, why hit the brakes if you were fleeing? Well,

372
00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:30.680
<v Speaker 1>what if he wasn't fleeing right? What if a rival

373
00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:33.240
<v Speaker 1>cartel or even the people he was working for, had

374
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.359
<v Speaker 1>set up a rolling roadblock. What if multiple cars were

375
00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:39.359
<v Speaker 1>swarming the truck, repeatedly cutting him off, forcing him to

376
00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:41.279
<v Speaker 1>slam on the brakes to avoid a collision.

377
00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:46.319
<v Speaker 2>It's a highly plausible tactical maneuver used by hijackers. But

378
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.160
<v Speaker 2>we must also consider the most chilling application of this theory,

379
00:18:50.279 --> 00:18:53.160
<v Speaker 2>which is what if one of those twenty second stops

380
00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:55.799
<v Speaker 2>wasn't just a brake check. What if that was the

381
00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:59.680
<v Speaker 2>exact moment the assailants breached the cab and took one.

382
00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:02.039
<v Speaker 1>Pedro Okay, I have to push back on that go ahead.

383
00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:06.160
<v Speaker 1>If heavily armed cartel members force a massive truck to

384
00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:10.200
<v Speaker 1>a halt, climb up into the cab, bypass two desperate parents,

385
00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:13.759
<v Speaker 1>and violently extract a screaming ten year old boy, all

386
00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:16.440
<v Speaker 1>in the span of twenty seconds, there is going to

387
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:18.839
<v Speaker 1>be evidence of a struggle, you would think, so. Was

388
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:22.000
<v Speaker 1>there broken glass? Was there blood on the seats where

389
00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:24.039
<v Speaker 1>Andre or Carmen's clothes torn?

390
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:26.640
<v Speaker 2>That is the gaping hole in the abduction theory and

391
00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:29.960
<v Speaker 2>why the case remains unsolved. There was no forensic evidence

392
00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:33.519
<v Speaker 2>of a struggle inside the cab, nothing, nothing, No defensive

393
00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:35.599
<v Speaker 2>wounds were noted on the parents during the autopsy that

394
00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:39.279
<v Speaker 2>could be distinguished from the crash straum itself. However, coercion

395
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:43.039
<v Speaker 2>doesn't always require a broken window. A gun pointed at

396
00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:45.960
<v Speaker 2>a child's head from the running board, a demand made

397
00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:49.920
<v Speaker 2>and compliance through sheer terror could result in an extraction

398
00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:52.440
<v Speaker 2>without a massive physical struggle.

399
00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:55.119
<v Speaker 1>God, that's horrifying. And if they took the boy, then

400
00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:59.400
<v Speaker 1>the final fatal plunge down the mountain pass makes terrifying sense.

401
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:02.759
<v Speaker 1>It does the eighty six miles per hour. Wasn't Andre

402
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:05.960
<v Speaker 1>fleeing from danger. It was a father chasing the people

403
00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.799
<v Speaker 1>who just kidnapped his son, exactly. He doesn't care about

404
00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:11.480
<v Speaker 1>the curves, he doesn't care about the acid slashing in

405
00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:14.599
<v Speaker 1>the tank, he doesn't care about sideswiping other cars. His

406
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:17.799
<v Speaker 1>only focus is catching the tail lights of the vehicle ahead.

407
00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.079
<v Speaker 2>Of him and This hypothesis is heavily supported by eyewitness

408
00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:24.599
<v Speaker 2>testimony that began pouring in once the public learned about

409
00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:27.519
<v Speaker 2>the drug connection. Oh really yeah, other drivers on the

410
00:20:27.559 --> 00:20:32.160
<v Speaker 2>road that morning came forward. Crucially, multiple witnesses reported seeing

411
00:20:32.200 --> 00:20:35.359
<v Speaker 2>a white Nissan Venette driving erratically.

412
00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:36.680
<v Speaker 1>Near the Mountain Pass, a white van.

413
00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:40.319
<v Speaker 2>More specifically, they reported seeing a young boy being hastily

414
00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:43.839
<v Speaker 2>pulled or climbing into this white van, alongside a middle

415
00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:46.079
<v Speaker 2>aged man and an elderly woman a.

416
00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:49.079
<v Speaker 1>White van on the route. It lines up perfectly with

417
00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:50.400
<v Speaker 1>the rolling roadblock theory.

418
00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:51.480
<v Speaker 2>It really does.

419
00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:54.480
<v Speaker 1>It explains why Wan Paedro wasn't in the wreckage. He

420
00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.079
<v Speaker 1>was extracted miles before the crash occurred.

421
00:20:57.160 --> 00:21:00.799
<v Speaker 2>But as with all missing persons cases, eyewitness his testimony

422
00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:05.039
<v Speaker 2>is fragile. The police launched a massive manhunt for this

423
00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:09.720
<v Speaker 2>white Nissan Venette. They checked registrations, interviewed local owners. They

424
00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:12.200
<v Speaker 2>never found the vehicle, of course, they never identified the

425
00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:15.119
<v Speaker 2>man or the elderly woman. But the sightings of these

426
00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:18.039
<v Speaker 2>specific phantom figures didn't end on the Mountain Pass.

427
00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:21.240
<v Speaker 1>No, they didn't. And this next sighting is what elevates

428
00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:24.559
<v Speaker 1>this from a tragedy to a full born mystery. Months

429
00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:27.920
<v Speaker 1>after the crash, a man walks into a police station,

430
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:30.359
<v Speaker 1>and he's not a random driver catching a glimpse on

431
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:33.160
<v Speaker 1>a highway. He is the owner of a local driving school.

432
00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:37.440
<v Speaker 1>He tells police that a boy matching Wanpaider's exact physical

433
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:39.599
<v Speaker 1>description walked into his business.

434
00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:43.079
<v Speaker 2>And the driving school owner noted a specific detail about

435
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:48.599
<v Speaker 2>the boy's demeanor. He appeared visibly disoriented, sluggish, almost as

436
00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:51.359
<v Speaker 2>if he were in a daze or heavily medicated.

437
00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:54.480
<v Speaker 1>And the boy wasn't alone. He was accompanied by an

438
00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:58.039
<v Speaker 1>elderly woman, right, but not just any woman. The witness

439
00:21:58.039 --> 00:22:00.279
<v Speaker 1>specifically described her as being blind.

440
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.680
<v Speaker 2>Which is such a striking detail.

441
00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.799
<v Speaker 1>And this blind woman asks the driving school owner for

442
00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:07.759
<v Speaker 1>a very specific set of directions. She wants to know

443
00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:10.240
<v Speaker 1>how to get to the United States Embassy.

444
00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:13.319
<v Speaker 2>Which is an incredibly specific and bizarre request. Why a

445
00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:15.799
<v Speaker 2>driving school, Why the US Embassy?

446
00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:16.640
<v Speaker 1>It makes no sense.

447
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.079
<v Speaker 2>Investigator's cross reference to this witness's description of the woman

448
00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:23.559
<v Speaker 2>with the earlier highway sightings, they believe this blind woman

449
00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:26.400
<v Speaker 2>matched the description of the elderly woman seen near the

450
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:28.359
<v Speaker 2>white van on the morning of the crash.

451
00:22:28.519 --> 00:22:31.720
<v Speaker 1>You have a physical location, a face to face interaction,

452
00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.640
<v Speaker 1>a highly specific request for the US embassy, and yet

453
00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:38.519
<v Speaker 1>nothing comes of it. Nothing, The police investigate, and the

454
00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:40.839
<v Speaker 1>blind woman and the boy vanish into thin air, just

455
00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:44.079
<v Speaker 1>like the White Band did. It is utterly maddening.

456
00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:45.359
<v Speaker 2>It is incredibly frustrating.

457
00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:50.000
<v Speaker 1>We have a twenty thousand liters toxic spill, forensic mechanical

458
00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:54.279
<v Speaker 1>data from a wax disc, drug cartels, multiple independent witnesses,

459
00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:58.319
<v Speaker 1>and yet the physical universe just swallowed Juan Pedro Martinez

460
00:22:58.359 --> 00:22:59.119
<v Speaker 1>Gomez whole.

461
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.839
<v Speaker 2>The Patro's case shows us how physical chaos can swallow

462
00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:06.920
<v Speaker 2>a person. Yeah, the sheer noise of the environment, the speed,

463
00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:10.559
<v Speaker 2>the destruction. It creates a smoke screen so thick that

464
00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:12.920
<v Speaker 2>a child can be abducted right out of it, and

465
00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.119
<v Speaker 2>the authorities spend their crucial first hours fighting an environmental

466
00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:18.680
<v Speaker 2>disaster instead of a kidnapping.

467
00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:21.319
<v Speaker 1>But, as our sources reveal, you don't need a fiery

468
00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.599
<v Speaker 1>crash or an organized crime syndicate to erase a human being.

469
00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:25.839
<v Speaker 2>No, you really don't.

470
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:29.440
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes the most effective tool for disappearing someone isn't a

471
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:32.400
<v Speaker 1>cartel at all. It's a stack of paperwork exactly.

472
00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:35.160
<v Speaker 2>We are transitioning now from the visceral horror of a

473
00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:38.720
<v Speaker 2>mountain crash to the quiet, almost invisible terror of a

474
00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:42.079
<v Speaker 2>bureaucratic erasure. We're looking at how a predator can weaponize

475
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:44.359
<v Speaker 2>the very systems designed to document our lives.

476
00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:46.920
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so the year is nineteen ninety seven. We are

477
00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:50.200
<v Speaker 1>moving to Queensland, Australia. We are looking at the case

478
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:53.799
<v Speaker 1>of Marion Barter. Marion is fifty one years old. She

479
00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:57.319
<v Speaker 1>is a successful teacher, and she has two adult children,

480
00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:01.279
<v Speaker 1>a daughter named Sally and a son. By all outward appearances,

481
00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:04.920
<v Speaker 1>her life is stable, established and totally normal. Right. But

482
00:24:05.079 --> 00:24:08.160
<v Speaker 1>in April of nineteen ninety seven, Marian begins acting in

483
00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:11.359
<v Speaker 1>ways that are deeply uncharacteristically erratic.

484
00:24:11.720 --> 00:24:14.920
<v Speaker 2>To understand the erasure of Marian Barter, we really have

485
00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:18.519
<v Speaker 2>to look closely at the timeline of her administrative decisions. Okay,

486
00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:22.480
<v Speaker 2>It starts with her real estate. In April nineteen ninety seven,

487
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:26.440
<v Speaker 2>Marian decides to sell her home in Southport. She had

488
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:29.440
<v Speaker 2>purchased this house only three years prior for one hundred

489
00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:32.720
<v Speaker 2>and eighty thousand dollars, but she executes what the real

490
00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:36.680
<v Speaker 2>estate agent's described as a quick sale, offloading the property

491
00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:39.240
<v Speaker 2>for just one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars.

492
00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:43.119
<v Speaker 1>She willingly takes a fifteen thousand dollars loss just to

493
00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:46.240
<v Speaker 1>liquidate the asset as fast as humanly possible.

494
00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:46.920
<v Speaker 2>Exactly.

495
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:49.240
<v Speaker 1>I want to pause on the psychology of that. You

496
00:24:49.319 --> 00:24:52.480
<v Speaker 1>don't take a massive financial hit on real estate unless

497
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.359
<v Speaker 1>you are in desperate immediate need of cash, or you

498
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.720
<v Speaker 1>are deeply compelled to sever your physical ties to a location.

499
00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:00.640
<v Speaker 2>It's highly unusual.

500
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:04.039
<v Speaker 1>It is a glaring red flag of distress or coercion.

501
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:06.759
<v Speaker 2>It is the first step in the dismantling process, and

502
00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:08.559
<v Speaker 2>the second step is even more drastic.

503
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:09.119
<v Speaker 1>Oh boy.

504
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:13.319
<v Speaker 2>A month later, in May of nineteen ninety seven, Marion

505
00:25:13.559 --> 00:25:17.559
<v Speaker 2>legally changes her name. She entirely abandons the identity of

506
00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:22.000
<v Speaker 2>Marian Barter and legally becomes Florabella Metalia Marion.

507
00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:25.480
<v Speaker 1>Recal Florabella and Italia Marion. Recall, that is not a

508
00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:28.119
<v Speaker 1>casual alias you used to book a hotel. That is

509
00:25:28.160 --> 00:25:32.960
<v Speaker 1>an incredibly elaborate, highly specific persona very distinctive. But what

510
00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:35.720
<v Speaker 1>blows my mind is the mechanics of how she achieved this.

511
00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:38.160
<v Speaker 1>How does a fifty one year old woman in nineteen

512
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.279
<v Speaker 1>ninety seven legally change her name to Floribella Recle and

513
00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:44.319
<v Speaker 1>obtain a brand new passport without triggering a single alert

514
00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:46.799
<v Speaker 1>with her employer, her bank, or her family.

515
00:25:46.960 --> 00:25:50.720
<v Speaker 2>Well pre nine to eleven, identity security protocols were fundamentally different,

516
00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:53.759
<v Speaker 2>especially in Australia. How So, a legal name change could

517
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.599
<v Speaker 2>be executed via a deed poll or through the Registry

518
00:25:56.599 --> 00:26:01.200
<v Speaker 2>of Births, deaths and marriages with minimal cross referencing, just paperwork,

519
00:26:01.319 --> 00:26:04.200
<v Speaker 2>right as long as she had her original birth certificate

520
00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:07.359
<v Speaker 2>and paid the fee that government would issue the certificate.

521
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:11.440
<v Speaker 2>She then used that new legal certificate to apply for

522
00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:15.559
<v Speaker 2>a new passport. Wow, there were no digital algorithms automatically

523
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.440
<v Speaker 2>pinging her employer or her next of kin. She could

524
00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:21.559
<v Speaker 2>literally compartmentalize her legal existence.

525
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:25.440
<v Speaker 1>And compartmentalize she did. She tells absolutely no one about Floribella,

526
00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:28.000
<v Speaker 1>not a soul. She continues going to work as Marion.

527
00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:31.079
<v Speaker 1>She talks to her kids as Marian, but her secret

528
00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:35.359
<v Speaker 1>actions start bleeding into her public life in deeply contradictory ways. Yes,

529
00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:39.160
<v Speaker 1>on June twentieth, she officially resigns from her teaching job.

530
00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:41.960
<v Speaker 1>She announces to a family and colleagues that she is

531
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:44.640
<v Speaker 1>leaving the country to travel the UK and Europe and

532
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:48.079
<v Speaker 1>she plans to eventually teach in England, but two days

533
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:51.880
<v Speaker 1>later she files the paperwork to renew her Australian teaching certification.

534
00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:54.480
<v Speaker 2>It is a profound behavioral contradiction.

535
00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:59.119
<v Speaker 1>It's worse than a contradiction. It's active misdirection. Why on

536
00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:01.559
<v Speaker 1>earth would you spend and the time, the money, and

537
00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:05.480
<v Speaker 1>the bureaucratic effort to renew a teaching certificate in Australia

538
00:27:05.559 --> 00:27:09.599
<v Speaker 1>if your secret legal plan is to abandon your identity

539
00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:12.440
<v Speaker 1>and become Florabella in your exactly, it's like waving a

540
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:14.720
<v Speaker 1>red flag in your right hand saying look at me,

541
00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:18.960
<v Speaker 1>I'm renewing my Australian license while your left hand is

542
00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:20.720
<v Speaker 1>quietly shredding your passport.

543
00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:24.640
<v Speaker 2>From a behavioral analysis standpoint, this kind of contradictory action

544
00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:28.359
<v Speaker 2>usually points to a victim operating under coercive control.

545
00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:30.160
<v Speaker 1>Coercive control, okay.

546
00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:32.119
<v Speaker 2>The victim is told to prepare for a new life,

547
00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:35.920
<v Speaker 2>like the secret name change, the liquidation of assets by

548
00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:39.839
<v Speaker 2>a controller, But the victims still inherently crazed their safety net,

549
00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:43.519
<v Speaker 2>so they secretly renew their professional certification just in case.

550
00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:44.759
<v Speaker 1>That's heartbreaking.

551
00:27:44.839 --> 00:27:49.039
<v Speaker 2>Alternatively, the controller explicitly instructed her to renew the certificate

552
00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:52.039
<v Speaker 2>to lay down a false paper trail, confusing anyone who

553
00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:53.279
<v Speaker 2>might try to track her later.

554
00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:56.519
<v Speaker 1>The idea of a controller lurking in the background is terrifying,

555
00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:00.839
<v Speaker 1>but initially her family has no idea. Executes her plan.

556
00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:04.480
<v Speaker 1>She boards a plane and travels to England, and for

557
00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:08.440
<v Speaker 1>a while the illusion holds. She does standard tourist activities.

558
00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:13.279
<v Speaker 1>She sends postcards back to Australia postmarked from Kent, Sussex

559
00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:14.240
<v Speaker 1>and London.

560
00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:18.039
<v Speaker 2>Until August first, nineteen ninety seven. This date is the

561
00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:21.839
<v Speaker 2>pivot point of the entire investigation. On August first, Marian

562
00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:24.559
<v Speaker 2>calls her daughter, Sally Leadin.

563
00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:28.160
<v Speaker 1>And the conversation is completely mundane, totally normal. Marian tells

564
00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:31.200
<v Speaker 1>Sally she is having an amazing time. She says she

565
00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:33.759
<v Speaker 1>loves Kent so much that she is going to extend

566
00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:36.720
<v Speaker 1>her stay. She even mentions that she has a ticket

567
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:39.720
<v Speaker 1>to ride the Orient Express, but she plans to reschedule

568
00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:42.440
<v Speaker 1>it so she can stay in England longer. It's a happy,

569
00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:44.359
<v Speaker 1>normal mother daughter chat.

570
00:28:44.440 --> 00:28:47.720
<v Speaker 2>But that phone call is the absolute last time Sally

571
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.960
<v Speaker 2>or anyone else in her family ever hears Marian's voice

572
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:55.039
<v Speaker 2>ever again. After August first, the physical woman disappears and

573
00:28:55.079 --> 00:28:57.359
<v Speaker 2>a digital financial ghost takes her place.

574
00:28:57.519 --> 00:28:59.599
<v Speaker 1>So for a couple of months, the family doesn't panic.

575
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:02.240
<v Speaker 1>It's night teen ninety seven. You can't track someone's GPS

576
00:29:02.279 --> 00:29:02.599
<v Speaker 1>on an.

577
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.039
<v Speaker 2>iPhone, right, there's no fine by.

578
00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:07.480
<v Speaker 1>Friends exactly if they are backpacking through Europe. You just

579
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:11.880
<v Speaker 1>wait for the next postcard. But by October, Marian misses

580
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.319
<v Speaker 1>her son's birthday.

581
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:14.720
<v Speaker 2>Which is a huge red flag.

582
00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:18.279
<v Speaker 1>Right. This breaks her established pattern of behavior. Sally knows

583
00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:21.519
<v Speaker 1>something is wrong. She manages to contact her mother's bank,

584
00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:25.000
<v Speaker 1>just trying to verify if Marian is still using her funds.

585
00:29:24.759 --> 00:29:28.759
<v Speaker 2>Abroad, and what the bank records reveal completely shatters the

586
00:29:28.839 --> 00:29:32.279
<v Speaker 2>narrative of the European vacation. Oh yeah, Sally discovers that,

587
00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:36.920
<v Speaker 2>beginning in early August, almost immediately after that final phone call,

588
00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:41.440
<v Speaker 2>Marian's bank account began hamorrhaging money. Over the course of

589
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:44.720
<v Speaker 2>a few weeks, eighty thousand dollars is systematically drained from

590
00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:45.319
<v Speaker 2>the account.

591
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:47.920
<v Speaker 1>But the crucial detail is how the money was taken.

592
00:29:48.200 --> 00:29:50.640
<v Speaker 1>They didn't just wire eighty thousand dollars to a Swiss

593
00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.160
<v Speaker 1>bank account. The sources explicitly state the money was withdrawn

594
00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:57.440
<v Speaker 1>in daily increments of exactly five thousand dollars.

595
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:01.400
<v Speaker 2>This is a deliberate, highly calculated financeial maneuver, known in

596
00:30:01.480 --> 00:30:04.200
<v Speaker 2>forensic accounting as structuring or smurfing.

597
00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:08.079
<v Speaker 1>Wait, hold on, if someone is draining eighty grand, why

598
00:30:08.119 --> 00:30:11.160
<v Speaker 1>do it in five thousand dollars chunks? That takes sixteen

599
00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:14.319
<v Speaker 1>days of going into a bank branch or hitting ATMs right,

600
00:30:14.599 --> 00:30:16.480
<v Speaker 1>if you're on the run, or if someone else has

601
00:30:16.519 --> 00:30:19.000
<v Speaker 1>your card and is stealing your money, every time you

602
00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:21.440
<v Speaker 1>step up to a teller you risk being seen by

603
00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:25.279
<v Speaker 1>a camera or a person. It's a massive exposure. Why

604
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:26.799
<v Speaker 1>not just transfer it all at once?

605
00:30:27.160 --> 00:30:31.359
<v Speaker 2>Because of the banking infrastructure of the nineteen nineties, in Australia,

606
00:30:31.599 --> 00:30:35.720
<v Speaker 2>the Financial Transaction Reports Act mandated that any cash transaction

607
00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:39.200
<v Speaker 2>of ten thousand dollars or more automatically trigger to cash

608
00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:43.720
<v Speaker 2>transaction report to ostrak Awstra, the government's financial intelligence agency.

609
00:30:44.119 --> 00:30:48.119
<v Speaker 2>Large sudden wired transfers also trigger internal bank fraud alerts.

610
00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:51.640
<v Speaker 2>I see so by strictly withdrawing five thousand dollars at

611
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:54.880
<v Speaker 2>a time, the person draining the account states perfectly beneath

612
00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:58.480
<v Speaker 2>the radar of federal monitoring requires patience and physical exposure,

613
00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:00.400
<v Speaker 2>but it guarantees the money gets out without freezing the

614
00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:02.079
<v Speaker 2>account sneaky.

615
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:04.960
<v Speaker 1>But the locations of those five thousand dollars withdrawals are

616
00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:07.839
<v Speaker 1>what truly blew the case wide open for Sally. The

617
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:11.440
<v Speaker 1>money wasn't being withdrawn from ATMs in Kent or Sussex.

618
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:16.319
<v Speaker 1>That withdrawals were happening in Australia. Specifically, they were localized

619
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.480
<v Speaker 1>to Byron Bay in New South Wales and Burley Heads

620
00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:20.920
<v Speaker 1>and Ashmore in Queensland.

621
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:24.759
<v Speaker 2>This data completely destroys the reality of the August first

622
00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:28.240
<v Speaker 2>phone call completely. Marion told Sally she was extending her

623
00:31:28.279 --> 00:31:31.799
<v Speaker 2>stay in England, yet her money was being physically extracted

624
00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:33.759
<v Speaker 2>from seaside towns in Australia.

625
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:37.240
<v Speaker 1>Sally is terrified. She starts digging. She uses a personal

626
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:40.000
<v Speaker 1>contact she has within Australian customs to look up her

627
00:31:40.039 --> 00:31:43.319
<v Speaker 1>mother's travel records, and she uncovers a piece of data

628
00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:47.319
<v Speaker 1>that is just chilling. On the morning of August second,

629
00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:51.359
<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety seven, literally hours after Marion called Sally from

630
00:31:51.400 --> 00:31:54.960
<v Speaker 1>England to say she was staying longer, Marian's passport was

631
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.839
<v Speaker 1>scanned re entering Australia via the Brisbane Airport.

632
00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:00.440
<v Speaker 2>She lied to her daughter. She made a play kaing

633
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:03.599
<v Speaker 2>phone call to establish a false narrative and then immediately

634
00:32:03.640 --> 00:32:06.759
<v Speaker 2>bordered a flight back home. Yeah, and the customs arrival

635
00:32:06.759 --> 00:32:09.680
<v Speaker 2>card she filled out upon landing is a masterclass in

636
00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:10.759
<v Speaker 2>bureaucratic deception.

637
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:15.200
<v Speaker 1>Right, because she didn't re enter as Marian Barter, Australian citizen.

638
00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:18.799
<v Speaker 1>She used her secret new passport. She re entered the

639
00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:22.640
<v Speaker 1>country as Florabella Recle right, and on her incoming passenger

640
00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:25.440
<v Speaker 1>card she claimed she was a married housewife living in

641
00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:28.400
<v Speaker 1>Luxembourg and stated she only planned to visit Australia for

642
00:32:28.519 --> 00:32:29.119
<v Speaker 1>three days.

643
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:33.119
<v Speaker 2>She is weaponizing her new legal identity to sever her past.

644
00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:34.480
<v Speaker 1>It's wild.

645
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:38.839
<v Speaker 2>She creates a completely fabricated life the Luxembourg housewife to

646
00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:42.200
<v Speaker 2>explain her presence to customs officials while ensuring her re

647
00:32:42.359 --> 00:32:45.119
<v Speaker 2>entry doesn't ping any systems looking for Marian Barter.

648
00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:48.279
<v Speaker 1>But she doesn't stay for three days. Eleven days later,

649
00:32:48.319 --> 00:32:52.079
<v Speaker 1>on August thirteenth, there is one final glitch in her matrix.

650
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:55.240
<v Speaker 1>Her old Medicare card, the one issued under the name

651
00:32:55.279 --> 00:32:58.359
<v Speaker 1>Marian Martyr, is physically used as an optometrist in the

652
00:32:58.400 --> 00:32:59.200
<v Speaker 1>city of Grafton.

653
00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:03.039
<v Speaker 2>That August thirteenth, Medicare swipe is the last gasp of

654
00:33:03.079 --> 00:33:06.960
<v Speaker 2>her original identity. After that moment, the Marian Barter identity

655
00:33:07.079 --> 00:33:10.279
<v Speaker 2>ceases to exist in the physical or digital world, and

656
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:14.519
<v Speaker 2>travel records confirmed that the Floribella passport never left Australia. Again,

657
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:17.160
<v Speaker 2>she is a ghost trapped on the continent.

658
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:20.680
<v Speaker 1>So let's look at what Sally has gathered. She has

659
00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:25.000
<v Speaker 1>proof of a secret identity, she has proof of a

660
00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:29.200
<v Speaker 1>fake Luxembourg residency, she has proof her mother snuck back

661
00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:31.960
<v Speaker 1>into the country and lied about it. And she has

662
00:33:32.039 --> 00:33:35.960
<v Speaker 1>proof that eighty thousand dollars was systematically structured out of

663
00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:40.240
<v Speaker 1>her mother's account to avoid federal detection. She takes this

664
00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:46.119
<v Speaker 1>absolute mountain of deeply suspicious forensic evidence straight to the police.

665
00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:48.440
<v Speaker 1>You would think the police would look at this and

666
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.519
<v Speaker 1>immediately launch a homicide or kidnapping investigation.

667
00:33:51.920 --> 00:33:55.960
<v Speaker 2>Instead, Sally collies with a wall of institutional apathy that

668
00:33:56.119 --> 00:33:58.960
<v Speaker 2>is staggering in its negligence. It makes my blood boil.

669
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:02.160
<v Speaker 2>Which press since this evidence to the local police, they

670
00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:05.079
<v Speaker 2>refuse to launch a physical search. They don't pull the

671
00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:08.199
<v Speaker 2>bank CCTV footage to see who was making the five

672
00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:12.119
<v Speaker 2>thousand dollars withdrawal. Unbelievable they don't contact the optometrist in Grafton.

673
00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:15.679
<v Speaker 2>In fact, according to Sally, without ever physically citing Marian

674
00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:18.480
<v Speaker 2>or even managing to reach her on a telephone, the

675
00:34:18.519 --> 00:34:21.239
<v Speaker 2>police formally declare that Marian is alive and well and

676
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:23.480
<v Speaker 2>simply didn't want to be contacted.

677
00:34:23.079 --> 00:34:26.159
<v Speaker 1>Based on what How do you declare someone alive and

678
00:34:26.199 --> 00:34:27.800
<v Speaker 1>well when you haven't spoken to them.

679
00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:31.800
<v Speaker 2>It comes down to systemic confirmation bias and the operating

680
00:34:31.800 --> 00:34:35.400
<v Speaker 2>procedures for missing adults in the nineteen nineties explain that

681
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:37.960
<v Speaker 2>the police looked at the deliberate act of a legal

682
00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:41.960
<v Speaker 2>name change in their manuals. An adult have the legal

683
00:34:42.039 --> 00:34:44.719
<v Speaker 2>right to disappear and cut ties with their family.

684
00:34:45.079 --> 00:34:46.840
<v Speaker 1>Okay, sure, but the rest of the evidence.

685
00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:49.760
<v Speaker 2>Once the police adopted the narrative of the runaway mother,

686
00:34:50.239 --> 00:34:53.639
<v Speaker 2>every piece of contradictory evidence was filtered out to protect

687
00:34:53.639 --> 00:34:57.039
<v Speaker 2>that narrative. The secret return flight just part of her

688
00:34:57.119 --> 00:35:00.719
<v Speaker 2>running away, the drained bank account she he needed cash

689
00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:01.599
<v Speaker 2>for her new life.

690
00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:05.719
<v Speaker 1>They literally refuse to even file a missing person's report.

691
00:35:05.960 --> 00:35:09.840
<v Speaker 1>They log this entire terrifying ordeal merely as an occurrence

692
00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:10.559
<v Speaker 1>in their system.

693
00:35:10.719 --> 00:35:11.880
<v Speaker 2>It's a massive failure.

694
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:14.760
<v Speaker 1>At what point does starting a new life stop being

695
00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:18.519
<v Speaker 1>a valid excuse for law enforcement to completely ignore blatant

696
00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:22.440
<v Speaker 1>warning signs of financial exploitation and potential murder. If a

697
00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:24.840
<v Speaker 1>fifty one year old mother decides to move on, she

698
00:35:24.920 --> 00:35:27.920
<v Speaker 1>doesn't usually sneak back into the country, drain her life

699
00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:32.079
<v Speaker 1>savings in highly suspicious increments to avoid federal tracking, and

700
00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:34.920
<v Speaker 1>then leave her children to assume she is dead for decades.

701
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:35.880
<v Speaker 2>No, she doesn't.

702
00:35:35.920 --> 00:35:38.280
<v Speaker 1>That is not a fresh start. That is a person

703
00:35:38.360 --> 00:35:39.800
<v Speaker 1>being dismantled for parts.

704
00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:45.039
<v Speaker 2>Your frustration mirrors Sally's exact fight for over two decades,

705
00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:48.679
<v Speaker 2>and the systemic bungling wasn't just limited to the police force.

706
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.400
<v Speaker 2>The family, desperate for any help, turned to the Salvation

707
00:35:52.559 --> 00:35:53.920
<v Speaker 2>Army's Missing Persons Bureau.

708
00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:57.920
<v Speaker 1>Right in nineteen ninety nine, two years after Marion vanished,

709
00:35:58.280 --> 00:36:02.119
<v Speaker 1>her father Jack received letter from the Salvation Army, and

710
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:05.119
<v Speaker 1>the letter basically says, hey, great news. Jack, a police

711
00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:07.719
<v Speaker 1>officer spoke to a bank security officer who spoke to

712
00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:10.639
<v Speaker 1>Marian and she confirmed she is starting a new life.

713
00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:14.000
<v Speaker 2>It sounds like closure. But when Jack scrutinized the letter,

714
00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:18.800
<v Speaker 2>he realized the foundational details were completely fabricated. Fabricated how

715
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:22.639
<v Speaker 2>the Salvation Army cited a specific bank withdrawal in Ashmore

716
00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:25.880
<v Speaker 2>as proof of her recent activity, But the withdrawal they

717
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:29.880
<v Speaker 2>referenced happened in nineteen ninety seven, years before Marion even

718
00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:30.440
<v Speaker 2>went missing.

719
00:36:30.519 --> 00:36:35.920
<v Speaker 1>It's pure, unadulterated incompetence. They fed a grieving father completely

720
00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:40.239
<v Speaker 1>false information based on a hairless clerical error, seemingly just

721
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:42.360
<v Speaker 1>to close the file and get them off their backs.

722
00:36:42.639 --> 00:36:43.039
<v Speaker 2>Awful.

723
00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:47.199
<v Speaker 1>The Salvation Army did eventually apologize years later, admitting they

724
00:36:47.239 --> 00:36:49.719
<v Speaker 1>never actually located her and had no idea if she

725
00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:52.840
<v Speaker 1>ever actually spoke to a bank officer, but the damage

726
00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:57.559
<v Speaker 1>was done. That letter reinforced the police narrative, she is alive,

727
00:36:57.800 --> 00:36:58.719
<v Speaker 1>leave her alone.

728
00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:03.679
<v Speaker 2>This narrative solidified a literal bureaucratic roadblock. The silence stretched

729
00:37:03.719 --> 00:37:05.000
<v Speaker 2>on for an entire decade.

730
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:05.719
<v Speaker 1>Ten years.

731
00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:09.239
<v Speaker 2>In two thousand and three, Marian's son tragically passed away.

732
00:37:09.639 --> 00:37:12.880
<v Speaker 2>Her father passed away. Through all of this crief, Marian

733
00:37:12.960 --> 00:37:15.920
<v Speaker 2>never surfaced. By two thousand and seven, Sally is still

734
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:19.559
<v Speaker 2>relentlessly fighting. She reaches out to the Australian Federal Police

735
00:37:19.559 --> 00:37:22.480
<v Speaker 2>the AFP, begging them to feature her mother in their

736
00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:26.440
<v Speaker 2>annual missing person's weak media campaign. Okay, the AFP reviews

737
00:37:26.440 --> 00:37:29.800
<v Speaker 2>the file and agrees they think publicizing the Floribella alias

738
00:37:29.800 --> 00:37:30.840
<v Speaker 2>could generate leads.

739
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:33.280
<v Speaker 1>But then the local cop step in and actively cabotage it.

740
00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:33.880
<v Speaker 2>Yes they do.

741
00:37:34.280 --> 00:37:38.000
<v Speaker 1>The new South Wales Police Force literally bars the federal

742
00:37:38.039 --> 00:37:41.400
<v Speaker 1>police from using Marian's case in the media campaign. And

743
00:37:41.480 --> 00:37:44.639
<v Speaker 1>their excuse they officially claimed that they needed to protect

744
00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:46.639
<v Speaker 1>the active investigation.

745
00:37:46.559 --> 00:37:49.920
<v Speaker 2>Which Sally knew was a blatant falsehood. She had spoken

746
00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:53.679
<v Speaker 2>to NSW officers right before this and they had confirmed

747
00:37:53.679 --> 00:37:58.119
<v Speaker 2>to her that there was absolutely zero active investigation. Happened unbelievable.

748
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:01.800
<v Speaker 2>The file was collecting dust. They blocked the national media

749
00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:05.960
<v Speaker 2>appeal simply to avoid the embarrassment of publicizing a case

750
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:08.840
<v Speaker 2>they had actively ignored and mishandled for ten years.

751
00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:13.039
<v Speaker 1>It is institutional cover up biomission, and it gets even worse.

752
00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:17.159
<v Speaker 1>In twenty eleven, the Byron Bay Missing Person's Unit officially

753
00:38:17.199 --> 00:38:20.519
<v Speaker 1>removes Mariyan from the state register entirely. The officer in

754
00:38:20.639 --> 00:38:24.360
<v Speaker 1>charge recommended her removal simply because, in his words, Marian

755
00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:27.119
<v Speaker 1>went to great lengths to change her identity and estrange herself.

756
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:29.840
<v Speaker 1>They just washed their hands of her existence.

757
00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:31.679
<v Speaker 2>Which brings us to the modern era of the investigation,

758
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:34.679
<v Speaker 2>where the cracks in that police narrative finally break wide

759
00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:36.559
<v Speaker 2>open thanks to digital.

760
00:38:36.239 --> 00:38:38.000
<v Speaker 1>Forensics, Thank goodness.

761
00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:42.360
<v Speaker 2>In twenty thirteen, Sally receives a deeply unsettling message on Facebook.

762
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.760
<v Speaker 2>The account is under the name Clark Hunter and the

763
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:49.440
<v Speaker 2>message reads Natalia is alive, but you never see her again.

764
00:38:50.519 --> 00:38:52.440
<v Speaker 2>It was not her intention to disappear.

765
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:57.440
<v Speaker 1>She was forced Natalia. Yes, the sender specifically used the

766
00:38:57.440 --> 00:39:00.719
<v Speaker 1>middle name of the secret Flora Bella identity. This isn't

767
00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:03.400
<v Speaker 1>a random troll. The sender knew the secret name that

768
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:06.360
<v Speaker 1>was buried in the police files exactly. Sally takes the

769
00:39:06.440 --> 00:39:09.960
<v Speaker 1>screenshot straight to the authorities. It is the ultimate proof

770
00:39:10.280 --> 00:39:13.519
<v Speaker 1>that this wasn't a peaceful estrangement. It was a coersion.

771
00:39:13.800 --> 00:39:14.920
<v Speaker 1>And what do the police do?

772
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:18.079
<v Speaker 2>They ignore it. Curiously, they failed to subpoena Facebook for

773
00:39:18.119 --> 00:39:20.920
<v Speaker 2>the IP address of the Clark Hunter account. The lead

774
00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:24.039
<v Speaker 2>dies on the vine. It takes another six years of relentless,

775
00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:28.360
<v Speaker 2>agonizing pressure from Sally before the institutional walls finally crumble.

776
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:31.960
<v Speaker 2>Six more years in twenty nineteen, the local NSW Missing

777
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:35.400
<v Speaker 2>Persons unit is disbanded and overhauled the case is kicked

778
00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:38.320
<v Speaker 2>up to the Australian Federal Police Homicide Review Unit.

779
00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:41.199
<v Speaker 1>And when fresh eyes look at the file, the reaction

780
00:39:41.480 --> 00:39:45.199
<v Speaker 1>is instantaneous. They see the name change, the structured five

781
00:39:45.239 --> 00:39:49.119
<v Speaker 1>thousand dollars withdrawals, the Luxembourg lie, and they immediately reopen

782
00:39:49.199 --> 00:39:52.079
<v Speaker 1>the case. Right, they put Marion back on the national register,

783
00:39:52.320 --> 00:39:55.280
<v Speaker 1>and suddenly there is a two hundred and fifty thousand

784
00:39:55.280 --> 00:39:59.159
<v Speaker 1>dollars reward, which is quickly doubled to a massive five

785
00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:01.280
<v Speaker 1>hundred thousand dollar reward for information.

786
00:40:01.599 --> 00:40:05.039
<v Speaker 2>A half million dollar reward is a profound admission by

787
00:40:05.079 --> 00:40:05.480
<v Speaker 2>the state.

788
00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:06.519
<v Speaker 1>It really is.

789
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:09.679
<v Speaker 2>It is the government finally admitting that Marian didn't run away,

790
00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:14.199
<v Speaker 2>she met with foul play. This sudden injection of resources

791
00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:18.159
<v Speaker 2>and public attention leads directly to a formal coronial inquest

792
00:40:18.440 --> 00:40:21.320
<v Speaker 2>in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. Okay, and

793
00:40:21.360 --> 00:40:23.800
<v Speaker 2>it is during this inquest that a figure finally steps

794
00:40:23.800 --> 00:40:26.599
<v Speaker 2>out of the shadows, a man who completely shatters the

795
00:40:26.639 --> 00:40:30.480
<v Speaker 2>runaway mother theory. We're introduced to Rick Blum.

796
00:40:30.559 --> 00:40:32.920
<v Speaker 1>Rick Blum, the inquist reveals that this man had a

797
00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:35.840
<v Speaker 1>romantic affair with Marian in nineteen ninety seven. Right, in

798
00:40:35.880 --> 00:40:38.800
<v Speaker 1>the crucial window before she vanished. He is one of

799
00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:41.599
<v Speaker 1>the last people on earth known to have interacted with her,

800
00:40:42.119 --> 00:40:45.679
<v Speaker 1>but left talk about Rick Bloom's resume because it is stigaggering.

801
00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:49.119
<v Speaker 2>At the time of the inquest, Bloom is eighty four

802
00:40:49.199 --> 00:40:53.239
<v Speaker 2>years old. He is a Belgian national, but his historical

803
00:40:53.280 --> 00:40:56.480
<v Speaker 2>footprint is a masterclass in deception and fraud.

804
00:40:56.639 --> 00:40:57.360
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah.

805
00:40:57.599 --> 00:40:59.760
<v Speaker 2>In nineteen seventy one he was jailed in France for

806
00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:04.000
<v Speaker 2>fur four years, specifically for fraud. He somehow manages to

807
00:41:04.079 --> 00:41:09.800
<v Speaker 2>obtain Australian citizenship in nineteen seventy six under entirely fraudulent pretenses. Wow,

808
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.599
<v Speaker 2>and the inquest noted chilling pattern. Multiple women over the

809
00:41:13.639 --> 00:41:17.079
<v Speaker 2>decades had come forward accusing Bloom of defrauding them, manipulating them,

810
00:41:17.079 --> 00:41:18.360
<v Speaker 2>and deceiving them financially.

811
00:41:18.519 --> 00:41:21.519
<v Speaker 1>He is a career predator, but the circumstantial evidence connecting

812
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:25.280
<v Speaker 1>him directly to Marion's disappearance is where things get genuinely terrifying.

813
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:28.800
<v Speaker 1>Let's look back at the secret name Marion chose Flora

814
00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:33.199
<v Speaker 1>Bella Natalia Marian Reckle. Investigators discovered that in his long

815
00:41:33.320 --> 00:41:36.599
<v Speaker 1>history of scams, Rick Bloom had previously operated under the

816
00:41:36.599 --> 00:41:39.960
<v Speaker 1>surname remukl r emacl.

817
00:41:39.400 --> 00:41:43.400
<v Speaker 2>Phonetically and structurally, remical is strikingly similar to ReCl It's

818
00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:43.639
<v Speaker 2>like a.

819
00:41:43.639 --> 00:41:48.440
<v Speaker 1>Twisted inside joke, or worse, a brand. He brands her

820
00:41:48.480 --> 00:41:51.639
<v Speaker 1>new legal identity with a variation of his own alias.

821
00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:53.880
<v Speaker 2>It's a dark way to look at it, but very plausible.

822
00:41:54.039 --> 00:41:57.280
<v Speaker 1>But the connections are physical too. Remember those happy postcards

823
00:41:57.320 --> 00:41:59.800
<v Speaker 1>and letters Marion sent to her family from England before

824
00:41:59.800 --> 00:42:05.320
<v Speaker 1>she vanish. She wrote a letter to Sally on hotel stationary. Specifically,

825
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:07.880
<v Speaker 1>the logo was for the Hotel Nico.

826
00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:11.920
<v Speaker 2>Narta, and travel and immigration records proved that the Hotel

827
00:42:12.039 --> 00:42:16.079
<v Speaker 2>Nico Narita is the exact hotel Rick Bloom stayed at

828
00:42:16.159 --> 00:42:19.480
<v Speaker 2>during his layover en route to Europe at the exact

829
00:42:19.519 --> 00:42:23.920
<v Speaker 2>same time. Wow, the implication is undeniable. They were traveling together,

830
00:42:24.280 --> 00:42:26.159
<v Speaker 2>or at the very least he rendezvous with her in

831
00:42:26.199 --> 00:42:28.079
<v Speaker 2>England and handed her that stationary.

832
00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:31.280
<v Speaker 1>The inquest pulls no punches. When they analyze the timeline,

833
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:33.639
<v Speaker 1>they find that Bloom was likely the one who persuaded

834
00:42:33.800 --> 00:42:36.920
<v Speaker 1>or psychologically coerced Marian into selling her house at a

835
00:42:36.960 --> 00:42:40.760
<v Speaker 1>massive loss. He orchestrated the rapid liquidation of her assets

836
00:42:41.079 --> 00:42:44.920
<v Speaker 1>and that eighty thousand dollars that was slowly meticulously structured

837
00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:48.079
<v Speaker 1>out of her account in five thousand dollars increments upon

838
00:42:48.119 --> 00:42:49.679
<v Speaker 1>her secret return to Australia.

839
00:42:50.039 --> 00:42:53.719
<v Speaker 2>The inquest determined that Bloom encouraged those withdrawals and the

840
00:42:53.760 --> 00:42:57.440
<v Speaker 2>money was ultimately transferred into an unknown account, presumably under

841
00:42:57.480 --> 00:42:58.119
<v Speaker 2>his control.

842
00:42:58.199 --> 00:43:01.119
<v Speaker 1>It is the anatomy of a textbook final grooming process.

843
00:43:01.239 --> 00:43:05.480
<v Speaker 1>Totally he identified a vulnerable target. He isolated her from

844
00:43:05.480 --> 00:43:09.199
<v Speaker 1>her family, He convinced her to liquidate her physical life.

845
00:43:09.760 --> 00:43:12.760
<v Speaker 1>He manipulated her into changing her legal identity so she

846
00:43:12.800 --> 00:43:16.519
<v Speaker 1>couldn't be easily tracked by authorities, and then once she

847
00:43:16.639 --> 00:43:20.119
<v Speaker 1>was completely isolated and untethered from her old life, he

848
00:43:20.159 --> 00:43:22.440
<v Speaker 1>systematically drained her resources.

849
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:25.440
<v Speaker 2>So Bloom is forced to take the stand at this inquest.

850
00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:28.800
<v Speaker 2>The coroner is pressing him on the timeline, and his

851
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:31.440
<v Speaker 2>defense is alibi for the very last time he ever

852
00:43:31.480 --> 00:43:35.239
<v Speaker 2>saw Mary, and barter is almost comical in its absurdity.

853
00:43:35.280 --> 00:43:35.920
<v Speaker 1>What does he say?

854
00:43:36.119 --> 00:43:38.000
<v Speaker 2>He claims that the last time he saw Mary, and

855
00:43:38.039 --> 00:43:40.280
<v Speaker 2>she came to his house in Australia to pick up

856
00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:41.159
<v Speaker 2>some tea chests.

857
00:43:41.199 --> 00:43:42.440
<v Speaker 1>She had bought tea chests.

858
00:43:42.599 --> 00:43:45.920
<v Speaker 2>Okay, and According to Bloom, she wasn't alone. He claimed

859
00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:49.199
<v Speaker 2>she was accompanied by a mysterious man. And who was

860
00:43:49.239 --> 00:43:51.920
<v Speaker 2>this man? Bloom says he assumed it was a Navy

861
00:43:51.960 --> 00:43:54.079
<v Speaker 2>officer or a pilot because the guy was wearing a

862
00:43:54.079 --> 00:43:55.079
<v Speaker 2>fancy uniform.

863
00:43:55.199 --> 00:44:00.000
<v Speaker 1>The coroner explicitly deemed this claim entirely implausible and fabricated.

864
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:01.039
<v Speaker 2>Oh, without a doubt.

865
00:44:01.119 --> 00:44:04.840
<v Speaker 1>It's like watching a bad improvisational comedy routine. He is

866
00:44:04.920 --> 00:44:07.800
<v Speaker 1>backed into a corner by forensic financial data, so he

867
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:11.360
<v Speaker 1>just invents a character out of thin air. Yeah, she

868
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:15.079
<v Speaker 1>left with a sailor, a Navy pilot. He had shiny buttons.

869
00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:17.440
<v Speaker 1>That's the ticket. Okay, it is a phantom design to

870
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:20.960
<v Speaker 1>deflect blame exactly. My question is, how does a man

871
00:44:21.039 --> 00:44:24.480
<v Speaker 1>with a documented international history of fraud, who used an

872
00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:29.599
<v Speaker 1>alias identical to the victim's secret identity, who demonstrably traveled

873
00:44:29.599 --> 00:44:32.400
<v Speaker 1>with her, and who admits to being involved in her

874
00:44:32.400 --> 00:44:35.840
<v Speaker 1>financial affairs right before she vanishes, just walk out of

875
00:44:35.880 --> 00:44:37.079
<v Speaker 1>that inquest a freeman.

876
00:44:37.480 --> 00:44:39.920
<v Speaker 2>Well, it comes down to the frustrating reality of the

877
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:42.000
<v Speaker 2>legal burden of proof in the justice system.

878
00:44:42.119 --> 00:44:42.360
<v Speaker 1>Right.

879
00:44:42.440 --> 00:44:45.400
<v Speaker 2>The corner's findings were officially handed down very recently on

880
00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:49.440
<v Speaker 2>February twenty ninth, twenty twenty four, the Corner officially declared

881
00:44:49.480 --> 00:44:53.920
<v Speaker 2>Marian Barter legally deceased, concluding that she perished sometime after

882
00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:57.800
<v Speaker 2>October fifteenth, nineteen ninety seven. The Corner was unequivocal in

883
00:44:57.840 --> 00:45:01.000
<v Speaker 2>her assessment of Bloom. She stayed on the record that

884
00:45:01.079 --> 00:45:03.480
<v Speaker 2>Rick Blum knows far more than he is letting on

885
00:45:04.079 --> 00:45:07.639
<v Speaker 2>and explicitly warned that nothing he says should be taken

886
00:45:07.679 --> 00:45:11.519
<v Speaker 2>at face value. But because there is no physical body,

887
00:45:11.639 --> 00:45:14.639
<v Speaker 2>no physical crime scene, and a twenty five year gap

888
00:45:14.920 --> 00:45:19.280
<v Speaker 2>where vital physical evidence like CCTV footage of the bank

889
00:45:19.320 --> 00:45:23.440
<v Speaker 2>withdrawals or the Facebook IP address was permanently lost due

890
00:45:23.480 --> 00:45:26.920
<v Speaker 2>to the police's initial negligence, the coroners stated he could

891
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:28.519
<v Speaker 2>not be formally charged with murder.

892
00:45:28.679 --> 00:45:30.000
<v Speaker 1>That is so maddening.

893
00:45:30.239 --> 00:45:33.559
<v Speaker 2>The evidentiary threshold for a homicide charge without a body

894
00:45:33.599 --> 00:45:38.320
<v Speaker 2>requires an ironclad chain of circumstantial evidence. The police's failure

895
00:45:38.360 --> 00:45:41.639
<v Speaker 2>to investigate in nineteen ninety seven shattered that chain. The

896
00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:45.320
<v Speaker 2>investigation remains officially open, but charging him requires corroboration that

897
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:46.400
<v Speaker 2>may have been lost in time.

898
00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:49.159
<v Speaker 1>It is a bitter pill to swallow, but we have

899
00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:52.079
<v Speaker 1>to acknowledge. The only reason we even got to this inquest.

900
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:55.639
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't the police suddenly realizing their horrible mistake, It

901
00:45:55.679 --> 00:45:59.960
<v Speaker 1>was the media. Sally Lenden participated heavily in an investigative

902
00:46:00.119 --> 00:46:03.840
<v Speaker 1>podcast called The Lady Vanishes, Yes, very popular, that deep

903
00:46:03.920 --> 00:46:08.119
<v Speaker 1>dive into her mother's case went completely viral. It forced

904
00:46:08.159 --> 00:46:12.159
<v Speaker 1>the institutional apathy out into the glaring light of public scrutiny.

905
00:46:12.760 --> 00:46:15.880
<v Speaker 2>The dynamic between the victim's family, the media, and law

906
00:46:15.960 --> 00:46:21.199
<v Speaker 2>enforcement is a recurring, often highly contentious theme in cold cases. Oh,

907
00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:25.400
<v Speaker 2>for sure, the police actively tried to suppress the media attention.

908
00:46:25.960 --> 00:46:30.519
<v Speaker 2>Sally reported that officers repeatedly told her they hated the podcast,

909
00:46:30.880 --> 00:46:33.639
<v Speaker 2>claiming it was interfering with their investigation.

910
00:46:33.320 --> 00:46:36.840
<v Speaker 1>Their very belated investigation. Right, They ignored the case for

911
00:46:36.880 --> 00:46:40.679
<v Speaker 1>over two decades, actively blocked other agencies from looking at it,

912
00:46:40.719 --> 00:46:44.039
<v Speaker 1>and then got territorial when a podcast actually did the

913
00:46:44.039 --> 00:46:47.440
<v Speaker 1>basic footwork they refused to do. The podcast didn't interfere

914
00:46:47.440 --> 00:46:51.119
<v Speaker 1>with the investigation. The podcast was the investigation. It shined

915
00:46:51.159 --> 00:46:55.039
<v Speaker 1>a massive spotlight on the dark, apathetic corners the authorities

916
00:46:55.039 --> 00:46:57.159
<v Speaker 1>were perfectly happy to leave undisturbed.

917
00:46:57.559 --> 00:46:59.920
<v Speaker 2>If we synthesize these two source files were left the

918
00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:03.280
<v Speaker 2>profound lesson about the mechanics of disappearance. The cases of

919
00:47:03.320 --> 00:47:06.880
<v Speaker 2>WAM Pedro Martinez Gomez and Marian Barter are polar opposites

920
00:47:06.920 --> 00:47:12.199
<v Speaker 2>in their execution. One is a loud, tragic, physical catastrophe

921
00:47:12.519 --> 00:47:16.199
<v Speaker 2>on a remote Spanish mountain, deeply entangled with the violent

922
00:47:16.280 --> 00:47:21.320
<v Speaker 2>realities of the criminal underworld. The other is a quiet, bloodless,

923
00:47:21.559 --> 00:47:26.679
<v Speaker 2>bureaucratic nightmare in Australia where a predator leverage a vulnerable

924
00:47:26.719 --> 00:47:29.400
<v Speaker 2>woman's desire for a fresh start into a weapon of

925
00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:30.199
<v Speaker 2>total erasure.

926
00:47:30.440 --> 00:47:32.639
<v Speaker 1>But the through line is exactly what we established the

927
00:47:32.679 --> 00:47:35.880
<v Speaker 1>beginning of this deep dive. It is the terrifying reality

928
00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:38.440
<v Speaker 1>of how easily a human being can slip through the

929
00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:41.320
<v Speaker 1>cracks of the systems we trust to protect us. Exactly,

930
00:47:41.360 --> 00:47:44.760
<v Speaker 1>if you disappear, you are relying entirely on the authorities

931
00:47:44.760 --> 00:47:47.480
<v Speaker 1>to piece together your narrative from the physical and digital

932
00:47:47.519 --> 00:47:50.880
<v Speaker 1>debris you leave behind. Right, But if those authorities adopt

933
00:47:50.920 --> 00:47:53.639
<v Speaker 1>the wrong narrative early on, if they assume a boy

934
00:47:53.800 --> 00:47:56.519
<v Speaker 1>was dissolved in acid instead of abducted, or if they

935
00:47:56.559 --> 00:47:58.679
<v Speaker 1>assume a mother just happily ran away to start a

936
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:01.800
<v Speaker 1>new life, the truth tr isn't just lost, it is

937
00:48:01.960 --> 00:48:04.440
<v Speaker 1>actively buried by the very people who are supposed to

938
00:48:04.480 --> 00:48:05.199
<v Speaker 1>be digging it up.

939
00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:07.840
<v Speaker 2>It really demands a critical awareness from all of us

940
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:11.280
<v Speaker 2>about the assumptions we make and the assumption's institutions make

941
00:48:11.519 --> 00:48:13.400
<v Speaker 2>when faced with incomplete information.

942
00:48:13.800 --> 00:48:15.960
<v Speaker 1>It really does. I want to address you listening to

943
00:48:15.960 --> 00:48:20.199
<v Speaker 1>this right now, think about the footprints you're leaving behind today.

944
00:48:20.760 --> 00:48:24.199
<v Speaker 1>We live in an incredibly documented age. We have this

945
00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:27.440
<v Speaker 1>deep seated comfort in the idea that our digital footprint,

946
00:48:27.519 --> 00:48:30.960
<v Speaker 1>our paper trails, our bank statements, our passports, our social

947
00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:35.159
<v Speaker 1>media make us permanent. We think it's impossible to vanish

948
00:48:35.239 --> 00:48:37.280
<v Speaker 1>because the grid is always watching.

949
00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:41.519
<v Speaker 2>But Marion's case proves that those systems are not inherently protective.

950
00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:44.480
<v Speaker 2>They are just recording mechanisms exactly.

951
00:48:44.760 --> 00:48:47.480
<v Speaker 1>The systems don't care about the truth, They only care

952
00:48:47.559 --> 00:48:51.800
<v Speaker 1>about the inputs. Marion's case proves that those exact same trails.

953
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:55.119
<v Speaker 1>The legal name changes, the medicare cards, the structured bank

954
00:48:55.159 --> 00:48:58.920
<v Speaker 1>withdrawals can be meticulously manipulated by a bad actor to

955
00:48:59.000 --> 00:48:59.760
<v Speaker 1>create a ghost.

956
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:00.599
<v Speaker 2>That's very true.

957
00:49:00.639 --> 00:49:03.679
<v Speaker 1>The bureaucracy can be weaponized to hide a crime. I

958
00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:05.599
<v Speaker 1>want to leave you with this, Tom All over tonight.

959
00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:09.119
<v Speaker 1>We spend so much time being protective of our physical safety,

960
00:49:09.159 --> 00:49:12.239
<v Speaker 1>locking our doors and checking our alarms, but we rarely

961
00:49:12.280 --> 00:49:15.719
<v Speaker 1>think about the extreme vulnerability of our documented existence.

962
00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:16.760
<v Speaker 2>It's a scary thought.

963
00:49:17.159 --> 00:49:19.960
<v Speaker 1>If someone else with malicious intent managed to get their

964
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:22.679
<v Speaker 1>hands on the levers of your paper self, your accounts,

965
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:26.199
<v Speaker 1>your legal name, your digital voice. How long would it

966
00:49:26.239 --> 00:49:29.000
<v Speaker 1>take for the real you to vanish completely before anyone

967
00:49:29.039 --> 00:49:30.559
<v Speaker 1>even noticed you were actually gone.