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<v Speaker 1>Few things are more devastating than a loved one going missing.

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<v Speaker 1>On The Vanished podcast from Wondery Post, Marissa Jones tells

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<v Speaker 1>stories of missing persons that have gone overlooked by mainstream media.

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<v Speaker 1>She gets the story from friends and family of the

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<v Speaker 1>missing person and frequently talks with law enforcement and others

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<v Speaker 1>close to the case. Marissa wants to help families find

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<v Speaker 1>their vanished loved ones or a sense of peace. In

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<v Speaker 1>a recent episode of The Vanished, Marissa looks into the

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<v Speaker 1>disappearance of James Foster Chance. The forty eight year old

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<v Speaker 1>man from Texas went missing in March of twenty twenty one,

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<v Speaker 1>last seen by his neighbors cleaning up after a storm.

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<v Speaker 1>Devastated and without any leads, James family began searching for him,

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<v Speaker 1>but in their search, they began uncovering clues that James

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<v Speaker 1>was not the man they thought he was, and worse,

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<v Speaker 1>that he may have disappeared on purpose. You're about to

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<v Speaker 1>hear a preview of The Vanished while you're listening. Follow

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<v Speaker 1>The Vanished on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you

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<v Speaker 1>get your podcasts. Listen ad free by joining Wondery Plus

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<v Speaker 1>in the Wondery app.

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<v Speaker 2>Every neighborhood has its share of mysteries. We can live

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<v Speaker 2>our entire lives and barely know the people just one

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<v Speaker 2>door down. I have a summerhouse in Southampton, a couple

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<v Speaker 2>of hours outside of New York. This part of the

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<v Speaker 2>Hamptons is called the Bayside. It's quiet, peaceful, a place

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<v Speaker 2>to escape from the city in the hot summer months.

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<v Speaker 2>Sampson and Jackie Guillot have a house on the same

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<v Speaker 2>street as me.

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<v Speaker 3>My name is Jacqueline Guillot and we're married thirty five years.

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<v Speaker 4>We're married fifty two years.

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<v Speaker 2>Coming here since the eighties. Most of the houses on

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<v Speaker 2>our street are single story with wooden clappered fronts. But

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<v Speaker 2>there's one house on the street that stands out for starters.

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<v Speaker 2>It's just bigger than most of the other houses. It's

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<v Speaker 2>two stories instead of one, and it's the only one

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<v Speaker 2>on the street with a separate guesthouse out back. And

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<v Speaker 2>then there's the way it looks.

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<v Speaker 3>The house is spectacular, with windows and windows and windows.

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<v Speaker 2>Everything about it is over the top.

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<v Speaker 3>There's a pond with goldfish, lots of fish, and a

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<v Speaker 3>waterfall to the pond too.

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<v Speaker 2>It's bigger, bolder, brasher than anything else on the street.

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<v Speaker 2>In twenty ten, my wife Dawn and I bought the

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<v Speaker 2>house next door. It wasn't long before a man popped

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<v Speaker 2>over to our house to introduce himself. He was dressed

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<v Speaker 2>like a maintenance man, green khaki pants, a long sleeve

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<v Speaker 2>workshire and a faded baseball cap. He welcomed us to

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<v Speaker 2>the neighborhood, and then he handed us a folder of

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<v Speaker 2>press clippings.

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<v Speaker 5>I literally just took them and said thank you. But

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<v Speaker 5>he wanted us to have them, you know, he really

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<v Speaker 5>wanted Joe.

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<v Speaker 4>To have him.

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<v Speaker 2>There were articles that a psychiatrist, doctor Isaac Hirshkoff, had written,

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<v Speaker 2>and articles that had been written about him. In mid August,

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<v Speaker 2>an invitation arrived to a summer barbecue next door, hosted

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<v Speaker 2>by doctor Hirshkoff Ike. This would be the last of

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<v Speaker 2>three big summer parties he threw every year. It was

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<v Speaker 2>a warm afternoon. I chatted with a few people, sipped

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<v Speaker 2>on my glass of wine, and began to wander around.

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<v Speaker 2>At some point I found myself in the living room.

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<v Speaker 2>There was a fake giraft, bust, Venetian masks, plastic parrots

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<v Speaker 2>hanging from the ceiling, even a giant gong. But what

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<v Speaker 2>struck me most with the photographs, lots and lots of photographs,

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<v Speaker 2>and in nearly every one of them there was ice

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<v Speaker 2>Kershkoff with a different celebrity, ike with Henry Kissinger, ike

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<v Speaker 2>with Ellie Wizzell, ike with Brookshields, ike with Gwyneth Paltrow,

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<v Speaker 2>even ike with OJ Simpson. It was like one of

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<v Speaker 2>those diners where the walls are covered with pictures of

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<v Speaker 2>celebrity patrons. At that moment, the man himself appeared. He

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<v Speaker 2>greeted me like a long lost friend, and said that

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<v Speaker 2>my wife and I should come over soon for a drink,

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<v Speaker 2>and then he was gone. Sure enough, a few days

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<v Speaker 2>after the summer party, the same maintenance man we'd met

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<v Speaker 2>before showed up at our door again. This time he

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<v Speaker 2>brought an invitation for drinks. It was very formal, as

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<v Speaker 2>if he was reading from a script. I mean, like,

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<v Speaker 2>doctor Hirshkoff, want you to come over right at such

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<v Speaker 2>at such a time, on such and such a day.

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<v Speaker 5>The formality of it blew me away, and he was very,

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<v Speaker 5>very exacting.

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<v Speaker 4>About how it had to go.

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<v Speaker 2>So we went.

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<v Speaker 4>Rangeous evenings I've ever had in the Hamptons.

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<v Speaker 2>Or anywhere else for that matter, but definitely the Hamptons.

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<v Speaker 2>Ike and his wife Becky welcomed us in and ushered

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<v Speaker 2>us to a round kitchen table. There were snacks laid out,

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<v Speaker 2>carrots and celery. I served white wine.

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<v Speaker 6>So what I remember is him talking incessantly about being

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<v Speaker 6>a sex therapist and a celebrity therapist. And I can't

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<v Speaker 6>remember the details, but it just really sticks in my

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<v Speaker 6>mind that he kept going on and on about that.

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<v Speaker 6>It was more like a monologue than a dialogue. That's

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<v Speaker 6>what I remember. What do you remember?

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<v Speaker 4>I just remember thinking, these people are I felt suffocated.

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<v Speaker 2>I talked about his work.

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<v Speaker 4>I've never seen anything like it.

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<v Speaker 5>But I remember thinking he was very brazen about the

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<v Speaker 5>details of his life, considering we were strangers, and also

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<v Speaker 5>considering what he does. He did talk about an NBA

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<v Speaker 5>sports guys and yeah, a Yankees player.

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<v Speaker 4>I just thought he lacked a lot of discretion given.

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<v Speaker 2>His feel We listened politely as he went on and on.

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<v Speaker 4>I just remember looking towards the door.

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<v Speaker 2>Finally, after about an hour, I said we needed to

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<v Speaker 2>get home.

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<v Speaker 5>And we got up to leave, and it was very

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<v Speaker 5>clear that I wanted a photograph.

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<v Speaker 2>A photograph of me.

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<v Speaker 5>I think he came out instead, Well, we'd like to

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<v Speaker 5>get a picture of you, and it was just Joe.

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<v Speaker 5>It wasn't Joe and I.

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<v Speaker 2>So I let I take my picture, hit it to

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<v Speaker 2>his wall, and then we left as fast as we could.

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<v Speaker 5>I remember getting to her home, collapsing on a couch

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<v Speaker 5>or something.

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<v Speaker 2>Dawn told me she never wanted to go back. There

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<v Speaker 2>was no sign of the maintenance man the night Dawn

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<v Speaker 2>and I went over, but I knew he was still around.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes we'd be on our deck and we'd see him

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<v Speaker 2>outside working in the yard. When I returned to the

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<v Speaker 2>Hamptons the following summer, I noticed something strange at the

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<v Speaker 2>house next door. I would see the maintenance man out

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<v Speaker 2>on the property doing his usual work in the backyard,

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<v Speaker 2>but Ike Hershkoff was gone. I would never see him,

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<v Speaker 2>or his wife, Becky, and the Hamptons again. There were

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<v Speaker 2>no more summer parties. It was as if they had

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<v Speaker 2>simply disappeared. And that's when I learned that everything I

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<v Speaker 2>had thought i'd known about my neighbor was wrong.

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<v Speaker 4>It's a wild story.

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<v Speaker 2>That's the maintenance man, the guy who came to our

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<v Speaker 2>door with the press clippings, The guy we saw working

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<v Speaker 2>around the yard. That was Marty Markowitz, the same guy

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<v Speaker 2>who had first gone to see doctor Isaac Hirshkoff as

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<v Speaker 2>a patient nearly thirty years earlier