Speaker 1: This podcast is based on information sourced primarily from police
Speaker 1: and media reports, but certain names and other identifying details
Speaker 1: may have been changed or altered for privacy and security reasons.
Speaker 1: While the events in cases discussed are based on real investigations,
Speaker 1: some aspects may be simplified for time and for narrative purposes.
Speaker 1: Voice actors have been used to read from statements or documents.
Speaker 1: All information presented is intended solely to inform and raise awareness.
Speaker 1: Hosts may discuss theories regarding the cases examined in this podcast,
Speaker 1: but such discussions are not intended to and should not
Speaker 1: be considered by the listener to be legal conclusions. All
Speaker 1: persons discussed are considered innocent until proven guilty in a
Speaker 1: court of law. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: This is Chief Anna Lally. Welcome to Somebody Knows Something,
Speaker 2: a podcast from the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Unit.
Speaker 2: In this podcast, we will shed new light on cold
Speaker 2: cases in the city of Elgin by sharing untold details
Speaker 2: and by encouraging anyone with information to come forward. You
Speaker 2: will come along with real cold case detectives as they
Speaker 2: investigate active cold cases in real time and seek justice
Speaker 2: for the victims and closure for their families. We believe
Speaker 2: that the Elgin Police Department and our community can work
Speaker 2: together to bring closure to cold cases because we know
Speaker 2: that in these cases, somebody knows something.
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to Somebody Knows Something. The Elgin Police
Speaker 3: Department Cold Case Podcast. My name is Detective Andrew Houghton,
Speaker 3: I'm Detective.
Speaker 4: Chris Hall, and I'm Detective BETHS Derek Err.
Speaker 5: On our last episode, we walked our listeners through our
Speaker 5: family tree project and we discussed that we needed specific
Speaker 5: DNA for Wayteria's family, called mt DNA. We also appealed
Speaker 5: to our listeners to consider providing DNA to law enforcement
Speaker 5: to help with the enormous backlog of unidentified people and
Speaker 5: name us and to help solve cold cases.
Speaker 3: We ended our last episode by telling our listeners we
Speaker 3: had finally located some extended family for Wayteria who agreed
Speaker 3: to assist us with this case and agreed to provide
Speaker 3: to the DNA that we need for Wyteria's investigation. For
Speaker 3: this episode, Beth is joining us as we work further
Speaker 3: on the case and travel to Tennessee to collect that DNA.
Speaker 3: But before we hit the road, let's talk a little
Speaker 3: bit about the last time Elgin Police worked on this
Speaker 3: case back in twenty fourteen, and how that connects back
Speaker 3: to the Wayteria's home state of Tennessee.
Speaker 5: As our listeners know, Wyteria had a lot of ties
Speaker 5: to Tennessee. She was born and raised there, had her
Speaker 5: first child there, and as we recently learned, actually lived
Speaker 5: there briefly in nineteen seventy six. With the nearly four
Speaker 5: month time window we have, she could be in Illinois
Speaker 5: or Tennessee or other neighboring states. So when we do
Speaker 5: our name as search for her, we plan to include
Speaker 5: Tennessee and neighboring states in our search. Plus, after visiting
Speaker 5: the Joliet Motor Hotel, we know that some of the
Speaker 5: tenants at that property also went to another hotel that
Speaker 5: the Zema family owned in Texas, So we now need
Speaker 5: to consider Texas and other states between Illinois and Texas
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 4: Yes, we do, and coincidentally, when we were doing our
Speaker 4: family tree research, we learned that Whitteria did have some
Speaker 4: extended family in Texas. We even spoke to some of them,
Speaker 4: but they were on her paternal side, so they didn't
Speaker 4: meet the mt DNA requirements that we have, but because
Speaker 4: we know that she had family connections in Texas, that
Speaker 4: area might be another viable option for her.
Speaker 3: That's true, so we obviously are going to consider Texas
Speaker 3: now for a few reasons. When we filtered name US
Speaker 3: in search to include Illinois and the states that border
Speaker 3: US plus Texas and Tennessee, we discovered nearly three hundred
Speaker 3: potential sets of unidentified remains could be an option for
Speaker 3: our case. And thanks to Beth, as Chris said, we
Speaker 3: recently learned that Whitteria also was living in Tennessee in
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy six, but as we read the case file,
Speaker 3: we also learned that the police did some additional digging
Speaker 3: there back in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 4: Back in twenty fourteen, the Elgin Police Department was validating
Speaker 4: Whititia's entry into leeds to assure that she was still
Speaker 4: listed as missing. Leads validations are something that we conduct
Speaker 4: annually to ensure that people in the system are updated
Speaker 4: with new information, were removed when needed, and so that
Speaker 4: we make sure that the entry still exists. As you
Speaker 4: said earlier in the season, Whiteityria's original leads entry had
Speaker 4: an error which wasn't discovered for months, so she actually
Speaker 4: wasn't listed in the system for nearly a year.
Speaker 3: When Elgin conducted our annual review for her case in
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen, officers came across some activity related to a
Speaker 3: small estate affidavit that was filed in nineteen ninety seven
Speaker 3: with her name on it. Police learned that the affidavit
Speaker 3: involved her house on Hammond Avenue in Aurora, and so
Speaker 3: an officer began to look into that paperwork to determine
Speaker 3: if she had simply come home and just never been
Speaker 3: taken out of leads. Quite frankly, that's something that does happen.
Speaker 3: When we started this unit, we had several cases that
Speaker 3: Matt and I reviewed from the early two thousands that
Speaker 3: were listed as cold cases, but we were able to
Speaker 3: close several of them fairly quickly. We discovered that a
Speaker 3: simple typo in a name or an alias for a
Speaker 3: person meant that. In one case, for example, our missing
Speaker 3: person was actually arrested in Chicago a few days after
Speaker 3: that she was reported missing, so we were able to
Speaker 3: track her down and determined that she was no longer
Speaker 3: a missing person. She was simply never taken out of
Speaker 3: leads because her name was misspelled and she didn't have
Speaker 3: contact with the police again after that, it can really
Speaker 3: be something that trivial or simple. That's why annual validations
Speaker 3: and follow up is so important.
Speaker 5: Yes, and you guys also had another case involving the
Speaker 5: juvenile who had been listed as missing runaway as well,
Speaker 5: but that juvenile had returned home and the family just
Speaker 5: never notified the police. In that case, the missing juvenile
Speaker 5: stayed in leads for a number of years because he
Speaker 5: never had contact with law enforcement until you guys actually
Speaker 5: started looking into him again. So because in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 5: police were hoping that maybe why Teria had simply shown
Speaker 5: back up in the months or years after her disappearance
Speaker 5: as well, and that no one even bothered to notify
Speaker 5: the police. However, in order to investigate that possibility, they
Speaker 5: had to do some digging.
Speaker 4: The Elgin Police reached out to the King County Clerk's office,
Speaker 4: but they didn't have a record of who filed the
Speaker 4: court paperwork related to the nineteen ninety seven Affidavid, so
Speaker 4: police turned to the attorney on record for the case. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: that paperwork was another debt on police learning that the
Speaker 4: court proceedings related to the Affidavid were from twenty thirteen,
Speaker 4: and that the activity was simply Wriitteria's name being removed
Speaker 4: from the deed on the family home in Aurora after
Speaker 4: her husband Wayman passed away on August fifteenth of that year.
Speaker 5: We should also add that the twenty fourteen Elgin Police
Speaker 5: Department report also revealed that Weyman moved back to Tennessee
Speaker 5: later in life, so both he and Waityia still had
Speaker 5: pretty strong ties to that area and there still is
Speaker 5: some extended family in Tennessee for them both to this day.
Speaker 3: During that validation process back in twenty fourteen, police also
Speaker 3: called and spoke with a family member about the deed
Speaker 3: and about Whitteria. The family member confirmed the police that
Speaker 3: Wayteria was in fact still missing, but this family member
Speaker 3: also told Pally something new. According to that family member,
Speaker 3: in the years after Whitia's disappearance, Weyman reportedly told his
Speaker 3: children that Whiteria had simply gone back to Tennessee. When
Speaker 3: we learned that, it made us question why Wyman would
Speaker 3: say that.
Speaker 4: We came to four potential conclusions for that statement. One,
Speaker 4: Weyman was simply protecting his children and concocting a story
Speaker 4: for them and the rest of the family, so that
Speaker 4: they thought Whiteeria was okay, even though he actually had
Speaker 4: no idea where she was. Two Wyman knew that Whititiia
Speaker 4: went back to Tennessee in nineteen seventy six, and that
Speaker 4: was what he was referencing. Three Whititia actually went back
Speaker 4: to Tennessee or four Wayman knew she didn't go back
Speaker 4: to Tennessee, but told people that anyway for some other reason.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we have to say that it certainly is
Speaker 3: possible that he was correct. Maybe she did move back
Speaker 3: to Tennessee in nineteen eighty two or nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 3: But regardless, for the reason of his alleged statement to family,
Speaker 3: Tennessee becomes that much more in play when it comes
Speaker 3: to unidentified remains, and we feel that any state between
Speaker 3: Illinois and Tennessee is also an option. So again, that's
Speaker 3: why we want to take a regional approach to this
Speaker 3: case rather than a local or statewide approach when it
Speaker 3: comes to unidentified human remains. For Whyteria's investigation, we.
Speaker 5: Should add that in twenty fourteen, police didn't quit once
Speaker 5: they talked to family and reviewed information about the affidavit
Speaker 5: with Wayteria's name on it. Elgiin Police also contacted the
Speaker 5: chief medical Examiner for the state of Tennessee and determined
Speaker 5: that no death certificate was issued in Witeria's name in
Speaker 5: that state, and we know that there isn't one here
Speaker 5: in Illinois. Police also reached out to the FBI in
Speaker 5: Tennessee to search for any records involving Wlyteria, but came
Speaker 5: up empty handed. Again, there were no contacts in Tennessee
Speaker 5: at all, and the FBI was unable to locate any
Speaker 5: information about Waitteria.
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, that's where the twenty fourteen version of this investigation
Speaker 4: grinded to a halt. Yet again, name us did exist,
Speaker 4: but the problem was police needed something to compare to
Speaker 4: the hundreds and potentially thousands of unidentified and unclaimed remains,
Speaker 4: but in Wateria's case, they didn't have anything. Plus, police
Speaker 4: didn't know about or start using genetic genial to identify
Speaker 4: people for a few more years. However, we are now
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty six and we have access to newer technology,
Speaker 4: so we're hoping that familial dana might just be the
Speaker 4: key to finding Wateria Jones.
Speaker 5: As we alluded to the last episode, we finally have
Speaker 5: family members who are alive, meet the criteria we need
Speaker 5: and are available to meet with us for this case.
Speaker 5: So that is a huge development. Andrew, why don't you
Speaker 5: tell our listeners how we track down an extended family
Speaker 5: member and what actually happened recently in our investigation that
Speaker 5: is leading us to travel all the way to Tennessee.
Speaker 3: Sure. So, over the course of several months, I messaged
Speaker 3: numerous people through ancestry dot com, and the three of
Speaker 3: us basically started cold calling numbers for different people who
Speaker 3: we thought were potentially family members for Whyteria. At first,
Speaker 3: we made contact with a few promising family members, but
Speaker 3: as we spoke to them, we learned that they were
Speaker 3: either paternal relatives or researchers doing independent research on behalf
Speaker 3: of various families online. Then we got lucky. An extended
Speaker 3: paternal relative for Waitia returned to message that I left
Speaker 3: and spoke with me about our request. As you can imagine,
Speaker 3: this family member, who asked that we not use their name,
Speaker 3: initially thought our message might be a scam, but they
Speaker 3: checked us out, reviewed our website and confirm that we
Speaker 3: actually were who we said we were.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that again, having our website and
Speaker 4: information publicly available is a huge help. People can review
Speaker 4: our cases, see pictures and short bios of us, and
Speaker 4: confirm that we are legitimately who we say we are
Speaker 4: when we call our message them. I know that in
Speaker 4: many cases we've even sent text messages or online messages
Speaker 4: to try to track people down. A lot of times
Speaker 4: we will include our tip line, our email, and our
Speaker 4: website so they can review those before deciding to call
Speaker 4: back or text us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the website helps in another way too. When
Speaker 3: this family member called, I was off duty, but I
Speaker 3: recognized the Tennessee area code that popped up on my
Speaker 3: cell phone. I immediately answered and spoke with this caller
Speaker 3: from Tennessee who believed that they were potentially related to Whyteria.
Speaker 3: After going over their background, we were able to confirm
Speaker 3: that they were a maternal relative of her, so that
Speaker 3: was a huge step. This family member also told me
Speaker 3: that they had visited our website and looked at a
Speaker 3: picture that we have listed for White Tia. When they
Speaker 3: saw her, they said, oh my goodness, because a close
Speaker 3: relative of theirs looked so similar to Materia. It literally
Speaker 3: took their breath away.
Speaker 5: That's the power of pictures that is why we want
Speaker 5: to have these pictures of the victims and missing people
Speaker 5: we have listed in our case docket, and people actually
Speaker 5: see them, it makes an enormous difference. They become a
Speaker 5: real life person and not just statistic or a name
Speaker 5: on a page. Having that picture might have been what
Speaker 5: got this relative to call us back and ultimately agree
Speaker 5: to help us in the case for sure.
Speaker 4: And that relative told Andrew that they absolutely wanted to
Speaker 4: help in this case. They literally didn't even know why
Speaker 4: Tyri existed, they had never heard of her, but they
Speaker 4: wanted to help. And so we recently took a trip
Speaker 4: to Tennessee to meet that person who we found after
Speaker 4: months of research into Hyteria's extended family tree.
Speaker 6: All Right, we've just crossed into Tennessee over the Kentuctive
Speaker 6: Order here.
Speaker 7: In the car about eight hours and met this year
Speaker 7: with us as well.
Speaker 8: Yep, And we were heading down to meet with one
Speaker 8: of the extended family members that we were able to
Speaker 8: locate through our family tree. So we're hoping that this
Speaker 8: person will be able to give us at least one
Speaker 8: sample of the DNA that we need.
Speaker 5: They're about twenty minutes or so, just north of Nashville.
Speaker 4: Just outside the city limits.
Speaker 8: So.
Speaker 7: Will be there momentarily.
Speaker 6: Just finished up with the family members of Criteria, should
Speaker 6: say the extended family members of myeteria.
Speaker 7: They were extremely gracious and very helpful.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it did not want to record for the podcast, which,
Speaker 8: as we've said the past, is somewhat common sometimes.
Speaker 7: In these cases. We thought we were meeting with just
Speaker 7: one person because that's what.
Speaker 8: We've been coordinating with, but they were able to reach
Speaker 8: out to another family member from the air here and
Speaker 8: that person also came to meet with us. So we
Speaker 8: now have two options of our DNA.
Speaker 7: So that's really helpful.
Speaker 8: That's what we were needing in the end, So we
Speaker 8: thought we were getting one today and we got two,
Speaker 8: so that's really great.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say that this current step for this
Speaker 6: case is essential. So this is a major file marker
Speaker 6: for Criteria's case. So happy with the results.
Speaker 4: We're very grateful to them for being able to help
Speaker 4: us out. And as we talked to them, they said
Speaker 4: obviously they didn't know her, but they said in the end,
Speaker 4: it's family and they want to do whatever they tend
Speaker 4: to help out. I'm sorry to help give some closure
Speaker 4: possibly to this case.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we sat and talked for fairly extended time just
Speaker 7: about the case.
Speaker 8: They wanted to know a little bit more about her
Speaker 8: and the investigation and kind of what happened, and you know,
Speaker 8: kind of gives you a little bit of faith in
Speaker 8: humanity again when you have somebody that says, I never
Speaker 8: knew this person even exists, but because they're family, I
Speaker 8: want to do what's right for them, and so we're
Speaker 8: gonna we are going to meet with you. We are
Speaker 8: going to give you this DNA because we want her
Speaker 8: to be at rest. Is kind of what they said,
Speaker 8: you know, she deserves to be at peace if this
Speaker 8: can help, and we're obviously hoping it will. But it's
Speaker 8: just really nice to have, you know, people that come
Speaker 8: out that have never even met her or knew she existed,
Speaker 8: and they want to know about her and they want
Speaker 8: to want to help her and her family.
Speaker 4: She can't trust us, right, we don't know that, they
Speaker 4: don't know y, So it was nice.
Speaker 7: For them to be able to meet with us and lesson.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so we will take our DNA back today and
Speaker 8: start working on getting it uploaded in the name us.
Speaker 7: I can see if this moves forward for us. We're
Speaker 7: really hopeful that.
Speaker 8: This is going to be kind of the biggest step
Speaker 8: this case has had in the last forty plus years. YEP.
Speaker 5: I just have to say again that the fact that
Speaker 5: these family members helped us, even though they had never
Speaker 5: met or even knew Whyteria existed, is very moving. They
Speaker 5: wanted to help because they believed that it was the
Speaker 5: right thing to do for Wateria, and as Beth hat said,
Speaker 5: they were open enough to trust us as well. I
Speaker 5: think that one big part of us doing this podcast
Speaker 5: is to try to continue to build that trust with
Speaker 5: the community and to signal to people that we are
Speaker 5: here to help. We want to solve these cases, not
Speaker 5: just for stats or numbers to clear out a case,
Speaker 5: but because it's the right thing to do, and because
Speaker 5: Wateryia deserves that. She deserves a thorough look at her case,
Speaker 5: and she deserves to have someone take the time to
Speaker 5: really search and do the work to try to bring
Speaker 5: her home.
Speaker 4: We also hope that as we've gone through Wayteria's story,
Speaker 4: that this case inspires other people to consider working with
Speaker 4: law enforcement by sharing cases like Wateria's and by joining
Speaker 4: forces with groups like Jedmatch, who Andrew and Chris mentioned
Speaker 4: in our last episode when more people who get involved
Speaker 4: in highlight cases like these on social media, the better,
Speaker 4: because there are so many cases of missing people, especially
Speaker 4: women and children, who neither voice is heard. Putting cases
Speaker 4: like Wateria's in the limelight can help our case, but
Speaker 4: it can also potentially help other cases by generating community
Speaker 4: interest and by educating people on steps that they can
Speaker 4: take to help us solve cold cases.
Speaker 3: With our DNA finally collected, we are now waiting for
Speaker 3: the next steps in this case, but we feel that
Speaker 3: we are much further along than when we started this investigation.
Speaker 3: We can now confidently say we were updating Waiitia's case
Speaker 3: from nineteen eighty two all the way to twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: We will continue to review potential leads in this case,
Speaker 4: and we again ask that anyone in the public with
Speaker 4: information contact us. I think that we all feel that
Speaker 4: we have made some big strikes in this case, but
Speaker 4: Waitia's story still isn't over.
Speaker 5: Next episode, we will wrap up season three by revisiting
Speaker 5: all of our theories and by recapping the entire season
Speaker 5: of this investigation. We will also be uploading the familial
Speaker 5: DNA as we collected again the next chapter of this case.
Speaker 5: We are hopeful that the updates we have made, especially
Speaker 5: when it comes to DNA, will help us bring Maiteria home,
Speaker 5: but we still need your help, so please, as we've
Speaker 5: stated before, contact us with any information that you have
Speaker 5: about Wateria or her case. You could have the missing
Speaker 5: piece of information that we need to solve this case,
Speaker 5: because we know that in this case, just like all
Speaker 5: of our other cases, somebody knows something.
Speaker 2: If you or anyone you know has information about this
Speaker 2: case or any other cold case in Elgin, please contact
Speaker 2: the Elgin Police Department Cold Case email at cold Case
Speaker 2: tips at elginil dot gov or the cold case tip
Speaker 2: line at eight four seven two eight nine cold. You
Speaker 2: can also review cold case information on the Elgin Police
Speaker 2: Department's cold case page at www dot elgincoldcases dot com,
Speaker 2: where every cold case, homicide, and missing person's case is
Speaker 2: listed with photographs and information about each case