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 season three. If Somebody Knows something
Speaker 3: the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Podcast. My name is
Speaker 3: Detective Ander Howton.
Speaker 4: An Undetective Chris Hall.
Speaker 5: Last season, while we were actively working on several cold
Speaker 5: case homicides, we took our listeners along as we want
Speaker 5: talk to nineteen seventies of Elgin. In season two, Andrew
Speaker 5: and I discussed those five homicide cases, as well as
Speaker 5: a missing person's case that had links to season one,
Speaker 5: and we appealed to the public for information on those cases.
Speaker 4: We want to let our listeners know.
Speaker 5: That we have received numerous tips related to those nineteen
Speaker 5: seventies cases, and we are still actively working on several
Speaker 5: of them. We appreciate all the comments, questions, and most
Speaker 5: of all the tips that the public has provided as
Speaker 5: we continue to seek justice for our victims in the
Speaker 5: nineteen seventies.
Speaker 3: We started season two with the murder of Guadalupe Alanis
Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy one. We described that murder in detail
Speaker 3: and then walked our listeners through the nineteen seventy five
Speaker 3: murder of Maynard Chester Holly, the nineteen seventy six murder
Speaker 3: of Lori Jean Bulger, the nineteen seventy six disappearance of
Speaker 3: Barbara Glucert, the nineteen seventy seven murder of Casey Kyle's,
Speaker 3: and the nineteen seventy nine murder of Rene Tovar. For
Speaker 3: our third season, we are returning to our original format
Speaker 3: and diving into one case over the course of an
Speaker 3: entire season. And just like season one, where Is Karen,
Speaker 3: we chose another missing person case from the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: We are calling this season Whyteria Is Missing.
Speaker 5: Before we get into the case, I thought it might
Speaker 5: make sense to tell our listeners about our new website
Speaker 5: and about our missing Persons kiosk that we installed in
Speaker 5: our lobby just.
Speaker 4: A few months ago. Yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 5: While we do still have the Elgin Police Department's Transparency page,
Speaker 5: we wanted a one stop shop for all things cold
Speaker 5: case related. That way, the public can see pictures of
Speaker 5: our victims and missing persons, read about their cases, interact
Speaker 5: with their cases, and provide tips. So we recently launched
Speaker 5: a standalone website that offers just that. You can visit
Speaker 5: our site on any device and can contact us with
Speaker 5: those tips using the website, just like our dedicated email
Speaker 5: and phone line. The new website can be found at
Speaker 5: www dot Elgincoldcases dot com.
Speaker 3: Our kiosk in the lobby is similar and it's situated
Speaker 3: alongside a display about Karen Scheper's case from season one
Speaker 3: with some photographs of information. We dedicated that space in
Speaker 3: September of twenty twenty five. It was Liz's ninety first
Speaker 3: birthday and the day before Karen would have turned sixty six,
Speaker 3: so it was really special. It was great to see
Speaker 3: Liz and the other family members again and share that
Speaker 3: space with them. We encourage people to visit our lobby,
Speaker 3: Karen's display and the kiosk, which includes pictures of all
Speaker 3: of our victims and missing persons with brief stories about
Speaker 3: their cases. You can even provide us with tips. We
Speaker 3: really want people to have as many ways to get
Speaker 3: in touch with us as they can, and we want
Speaker 3: to memorialize our victims and missing persons in a respectful
Speaker 3: way that shows we have not forgotten about them.
Speaker 5: I agree, and having pictures of the victims and missing
Speaker 5: people really helps bring their cases to life, and the
Speaker 5: Kioska just another way we can connect with the community
Speaker 5: and attempt to get more tips. Speaking of providing tips
Speaker 5: and making reports, we also want to start the season
Speaker 5: by dispelling a few rumors about making missing person reports
Speaker 5: here Illinois. People often think that they have to wait
Speaker 5: twenty four hours to report someone missing, but that's just
Speaker 5: not true. You can report someone missing anytime. There is
Speaker 5: no waiting period.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's always helpful if when you do report
Speaker 3: someone missing, you provide us with a recent photograph that
Speaker 3: we can use on social media or other platforms. When
Speaker 3: someone goes missing here in Elgin, whether they're a child
Speaker 3: or an adult, we often ask for a consent from
Speaker 3: the family to put photographs on our social media platforms,
Speaker 3: So please prepare to provide a photo and consent to
Speaker 3: do things like that because our tips from the public
Speaker 3: really help us track people down on those types of cases.
Speaker 4: Yes, they certainly do.
Speaker 3: The last thing we wanted to get into before we
Speaker 3: start the season is that you can make a missing
Speaker 3: person report anywhere. If you live in Elgin, for example,
Speaker 3: but the person is missing from another town, we can
Speaker 3: take the initial report here and forward it to that agency.
Speaker 3: Because there's actually Illinois law that addresses missing persons reports.
Speaker 3: It's called the Missing Person's Identification Act, or MPIA.
Speaker 5: The MPIA specifically says law enforcement agencies shall accept without delay,
Speaker 5: any report of a missing person. It also goes on
Speaker 5: to specify that an agency must take a report in
Speaker 5: person in are encouraged to also take them over the phone.
Speaker 3: Well, Chris, now that we've gotten that out of the way,
Speaker 3: let's get into our new case for season three. If
Speaker 3: somebody knows something, Waityria is missing. Just like with Karen
Speaker 3: shechepers in season one, Chris and I want to introduce
Speaker 3: Waiteria Jones to our listeners before we dive into her case.
Speaker 3: Her family is aware of this podcast, and we have
Speaker 3: spoken with some members of the family, but at this
Speaker 3: point they have chosen not to take part in recording
Speaker 3: their voices on the podcast. As we've said in the past,
Speaker 3: these types of cases are very difficult for families and
Speaker 3: loved ones, so we want to respect that decision while
Speaker 3: also balancing our obligation to Waityia.
Speaker 5: Waiteriia was a black woman who was five feet eight
Speaker 5: inches tall, weighed one hundred and fifty pounds and had shorter,
Speaker 5: dark black hair and dark brown eyes when she disappeared
Speaker 5: in the fall of nineteen eighty two. Unfortunately, we don't
Speaker 5: have any additional clothing description to provide, but you can
Speaker 5: find photographs of her on our website and on places
Speaker 5: like Solvedthecase, dot org, uncovered dot com, and name us,
Speaker 5: and we encourage listeners to visit those sites in conjunction
Speaker 5: with this podcast. Waiteria Jones was born on Saturday May one,
Speaker 5: nineteen thirty seven, to John w Orr and Louise Miller
Speaker 5: in Maury County, Tennessee, which is just southwest of Nashville.
Speaker 5: When Watyia was born, the population of the county was
Speaker 5: around forty thousand people. From the records we've been able
Speaker 5: to gather, Waititia had multiple siblings. Based on ancestry records,
Speaker 5: newspaper articles, and obituaries, Waityia was one of at least
Speaker 5: nine children in her family. Unfortunately, one thing we came
Speaker 5: across a lot in these old records is misspellings, which
Speaker 5: is harder to track down specifics for her. Plus, we
Speaker 5: are talking about records for a black family in the
Speaker 5: South during the Jim Crow era.
Speaker 3: What we do know through various records, is that Wayteria
Speaker 3: came from a larger family whose roots traced back to
Speaker 3: at least the eighteen fifties in Tennessee. Because she is
Speaker 3: a black woman, records for her family prior to the
Speaker 3: Civil War become very difficult. What we do know for
Speaker 3: certain is that her grandfather, Isaac Orsr. Was born in
Speaker 3: Maury County, Tennessee, in eighteen fifty four, seven years before
Speaker 3: the American Civil War. His wife, Eliza Watkins, was born
Speaker 3: in Tennessee in eighteen sixty six, and records suggests that
Speaker 3: she had upwards of ten children, including John Walter Orr
Speaker 3: in eighteen eighty six. John later married Luise Miller, and
Speaker 3: they had at least nine children of their own, including
Speaker 3: Wateria in nineteen thirty seven.
Speaker 5: We also know that the family lived at least in
Speaker 5: some point in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, just to the southwest
Speaker 5: of the county seat Columbia, and we know that the
Speaker 5: area has a very checkered pass.
Speaker 4: When it comes to race relations.
Speaker 5: Even post slavery, the county was and still is majority white,
Speaker 5: with about seventy five percent of the population identified as white,
Speaker 5: and back in nineteen forty six, The county was the
Speaker 5: site of the first major racial confrontation in America after
Speaker 5: the Second World War.
Speaker 3: On February ry, twenty sixth and twenty seventh, the Columbia
Speaker 3: race riot rocked the county seat just miles from Mount Pleasant,
Speaker 3: where Whiteyria appears to have lived. Little Whitiria would have
Speaker 3: just been eight years old when Billy Fleming, the owner
Speaker 3: of an electronics store in Columbia, allegedly hit a black
Speaker 3: woman after she came to the store. She complained because
Speaker 3: he had sold a radio that he was supposed to
Speaker 3: repair and get back to her. The woman's son, a
Speaker 3: World War Two Navy veteran named James Stevenson, allegedly retaliated
Speaker 3: to protect his mother, and police arrested both the mother
Speaker 3: and the son, but not Billy Fleming, who was white.
Speaker 3: Soon after, a crowd gathered and planned to lynch James Stevenson.
Speaker 5: Members of the black community secured James Stephenson's release and
Speaker 5: drove him out of town to avoid a confrontation, but
Speaker 5: a large crowd of white men soon met with nearly
Speaker 5: one hundred black men near the courthouse square. The powder
Speaker 5: keg ignited when four police officers were shot after entering
Speaker 5: the African American business district called the Mink Slide, and
Speaker 5: state troopers were called in. After that, two black men
Speaker 5: were killed, one was wounded, and approximately twenty five were
Speaker 5: arrested in charge with rioting and attempted murder.
Speaker 3: The NAACP sent Thurgood Marshall, who later became America's first
Speaker 3: black Supreme Court justice, to Columbia to defend them in
Speaker 3: a trial. Even with an all white jury, Marshall secured
Speaker 3: acquittals for all but one defendant, and he got that
Speaker 3: defendant sentence reduced to bail.
Speaker 5: So that's where Waityia grew up in a still very
Speaker 5: segregated South in majority white county just outside Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 5: It was also the place that Waityia met her future husband,
Speaker 5: a black man named Wayman Jones, who was four years
Speaker 5: older than her and who was from Davidson County, Tennessee.
Speaker 5: Like Waitia, records for him are somewhat hard to find,
Speaker 5: but as we searched through old records, we came across
Speaker 5: the list of marriage licenses in November twenty sixth, nineteen
Speaker 5: sixty edition of the Tennessee and a Nashville area newspaper.
Speaker 5: The paper listed that Wayityia Orr had married Wayman Jones
Speaker 5: sometime that week, but it spelled Wyman as Waymn instead
Speaker 5: of the correct spelling of Waymo N.
Speaker 3: As you said before, Chris, these types of misspellings are
Speaker 3: something we came across in a lot of these old cases.
Speaker 3: We've even seen Wayman spelled with a D at the end,
Speaker 3: or spelled Raymond completely wrong. It's just another wrinkle in
Speaker 3: these old cases and old records. And like we also said,
Speaker 3: Wayitiia's name was often misspelled in records too. Oftentimes with
Speaker 3: our cold cases, our old records are handwritten as well,
Speaker 3: and when since this takers came around back then, many
Speaker 3: times they wrote down names as they sounded, rather than
Speaker 3: asking for the spellings on names or places, or they
Speaker 3: just misread recent handwritten versions. We have similar challenges in
Speaker 3: our old handwritten reports too.
Speaker 4: Yes, we certainly do.
Speaker 5: In addition to the newspaper article from November twenty sixth,
Speaker 5: we reached out to the Tennessee State Library and Archives
Speaker 5: to track down more records for Wateria in Wayman. They
Speaker 5: provided us with a copy of Wayteria In Wayman's actual
Speaker 5: marriage license, which was really helpful. Based on the records,
Speaker 5: the couple got married in Davidson County, Tennessee, on November
Speaker 5: twenty second, nineteen sixty, exactly three years before President John F.
Speaker 4: Kennedy was assassinated.
Speaker 5: We also want to thank Lindsay from the Tennessee State
Speaker 5: Library in Archives from helping us track down the records
Speaker 5: we were looking for.
Speaker 3: According to the marriage license, Waitiia was twenty three years
Speaker 3: old when she married Wayman, and she was working as
Speaker 3: a houseworker in a private home. Wyman, who was twenty
Speaker 3: seven years old, was working as an insurance salesman at
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 5: We also know from family and from records, that the
Speaker 5: couple's first child, a daughter, was born in nineteen fifty six,
Speaker 5: four years before they were officially married. It is likely
Speaker 5: that she was born in Tennessee, but at some point
Speaker 5: the couple left the segregated south and moved north, just
Speaker 5: like Casey Kyle's, to Illinois, settling in the West Garfield
Speaker 5: Park neighborhood of Chicago along the way. Waityia had four
Speaker 5: more children, another daughter in nineteen sixty one, a son
Speaker 5: in nineteen sixty two, a third daughter in nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 5: and then a fourth daughter in nineteen seventy two. However,
Speaker 5: there were eight years between their fourth and fifth child,
Speaker 5: and so with four children all ready to feed and clothe,
Speaker 5: Weyman and Waityia made the decision to put their youngest
Speaker 5: child up for adoption.
Speaker 3: The couple later left Chicago and moved to Aurora, Illinois,
Speaker 3: where several of their children attended high school.
Speaker 5: That spring, Wateryia left Aurora and traveled to Elgin to
Speaker 5: seek treatment at the Elgin Mental Health Center. When she
Speaker 5: arrived in Elgin, Wayteria moved into the Douglas Hotel all
Speaker 5: receiving treatment. Our listeners from season two should recognize that location.
Speaker 5: The Douglas Hotel is just across the parking lot from
Speaker 5: our police department, and we both visited the alley behind
Speaker 5: it last season because Casey Kyle's was stabbed to death
Speaker 5: there in nineteen seventy seven. As it turns out, Casey's
Speaker 5: case is not the only cold case that is linked
Speaker 5: to the hotel. When the Douglas Hotel closed in October
Speaker 5: of nineteen eighty two, Wateryia reffortedly moved out and then
Speaker 5: she simply disappeared.
Speaker 3: Based on the original reports, Watia was reportedly last seen
Speaker 3: in either late September or early October of nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 3: and the hotel closed on or about October first.
Speaker 4: But the first problem we.
Speaker 3: Have with this case is Waitiia's disappearance was not reported
Speaker 3: in Saideetember or October. She wasn't even reported missing in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two. Records show that Waityia's husband came to
Speaker 3: the Elgin Police Department on January twenty ninth, nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 3: nearly four months after she was last reportedly seen. Weyman
Speaker 3: reported that he'd received some of Waitia's mail back of
Speaker 3: their house in Aurora and that he had not seen
Speaker 3: her in months. Okay, Chris, So there's a pretty big
Speaker 3: delay in this case, and I'm sure our listeners are thinking, well,
Speaker 3: isn't it odd that her disappearance was delayed so long?
Speaker 3: But there was at least a fairly reasonable explanation at
Speaker 3: the time. Waityria had been receiving care at the Elgin
Speaker 3: Mental Health Center and through Fox Valley Mental Health here
Speaker 3: in Elgin in nineteen eighty two. As we said, while
Speaker 3: she was living in town, she was receiving her treatment
Speaker 3: and staying at the Douglas Hotel, which is located at
Speaker 3: one fifty six Division Street in downtown Elgin. Weyman, however,
Speaker 3: was still living in Aurora, and by all accounts, the
Speaker 3: couple seemed to be somewhat estrange at that time.
Speaker 5: He will talk more about the Douglas Hotel and visit
Speaker 5: the site in a future episode. That being said, the
Speaker 5: huge gap in time between the last reported sighting of
Speaker 5: Wayteria and the day she wasted missing definitely creates a
Speaker 5: ton of challenges for us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it certainly does.
Speaker 3: In Karen Sheeper's case from season one, for example, Matt
Speaker 3: and I had about forty eight hours of time to
Speaker 3: account for. That still came with a lot of challenges.
Speaker 3: For Whyteria. We're talking about approximately four months, so she
Speaker 3: theoretically could have traveled anywhere in the country over the
Speaker 3: course of that time.
Speaker 5: Yes, And in addition to the delay in reporting, we
Speaker 5: don't even know which day she actually went missing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. We can't say with any real certainty
Speaker 3: that she was seen at this specific location or this
Speaker 3: other specific location on a specific date or time. We
Speaker 3: kind of have more of a time range in this case,
Speaker 3: which makes it that much more challenging.
Speaker 5: We also have another new challenge for this case. The
Speaker 5: reports from nineteen eighty three for Wayitia's case are not
Speaker 5: like Karen Sheeper's case file. Karen's case was multiple boxes
Speaker 5: of case files that spanned from nineteen eighty three to
Speaker 5: the mid two thousands. Wayteria's is only a handful of pages,
Speaker 5: and they are pretty lacking in detail. For example, there
Speaker 5: is no formal written or record statement for Wyman in
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty three or any time after that, and we
Speaker 5: don't have any polygraphs or long written statements from witnesses
Speaker 5: like we had in Karen's case. We simply have the
Speaker 5: general case report from that day that Wyman Jones reported
Speaker 5: his wife missing, and just a few other related reports.
Speaker 5: The following is an excerpt from the actual original missing
Speaker 5: person's report dated January twenty ninth, nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 6: Mister Jones came to EPD to report that his wife,
Speaker 6: why Tiria, has been missing since about September or whenever
Speaker 6: the Douglas Hotel closed. Jones discovered this when his family's
Speaker 6: mail was returned to him. Mister Jones came to EPD
Speaker 6: in November or December to make a report at that time,
Speaker 6: but an EPD officer would not take his report.
Speaker 5: Andrew I noticed at least one similarity to Karen's case.
Speaker 5: Police didn't really seem to take the disappearance all that
Speaker 5: seriously at the time.
Speaker 4: Act Police allegedly.
Speaker 5: Didn't even take the report when Wyman reportedly came to
Speaker 5: the police department in November or December, at least according
Speaker 5: to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a different time. A missing person who
Speaker 3: had been seeking mental health treatment was not treated the
Speaker 3: same way it would be treated today. But it is
Speaker 3: interesting that Wyman couldn't actually pinpoint a date or even
Speaker 3: an exact month that he came in to report her
Speaker 3: missing prior to January twenty ninth. The report also doesn't
Speaker 3: note who he allegedly spoke with either. If he did
Speaker 3: come to the police station before January, which is possible,
Speaker 3: there's no record of that. In fact, there's no notes
Speaker 3: or other documents to show that he came here or
Speaker 3: to Aurora in November or December of nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 3: It's entirely possible that he did contact police and got
Speaker 3: brushed off, but it's also possible that January twenty ninth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty three, is the first day that police became
Speaker 3: aware that way Tira was missing. The problem we often
Speaker 3: run into in these old cases is there's just no
Speaker 3: record to tell us which one and Wyman died in
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen, so we can't ask him for any more details.
Speaker 4: This is true.
Speaker 5: I now at the end of the episode, we're going
Speaker 5: to talk about some of our theories going into the season,
Speaker 5: but similar Karen's case, I know that one theory certainly
Speaker 5: has to be that Wyman has some involvement in Myteria's disappearance.
Speaker 5: We are not saying he was involved, but we certainly
Speaker 5: can't just ignore that is one of the several different options.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, we have to leave every option on
Speaker 3: the table. Another thing that makes this case more difficult
Speaker 3: is we don't have a clothing description of Waitia either.
Speaker 3: In fact, we don't have specific jewelry or clothing, or
Speaker 3: even a description of the luggage or the bag she
Speaker 3: had when she left the hotel. We don't even know
Speaker 3: what room she was living in, if she had a roommate,
Speaker 3: or if she lived with anybody else. One big reason
Speaker 3: we're using this platform to discuss her case this season
Speaker 3: is because we need that information. We need people who
Speaker 3: knew Whyteria when she lived in Elgin, or people that
Speaker 3: lived at the hotel to come forward and provide us
Speaker 3: information about the background of Whyteria, the Douglas Hotel and
Speaker 3: other things from the nineteen eighties here in Elgin, because
Speaker 3: quite frankly, that information is not in the case file
Speaker 3: that we.
Speaker 5: Have, yes, and with these old cases we always need
Speaker 5: help from the public. We don't know if she had
Speaker 5: problems with any other tenants, if she was dating someone
Speaker 5: while she was living in town, or anything about her
Speaker 5: social life. Did she attend a church in town, did
Speaker 5: she have other friends she visited, did she socialized with
Speaker 5: other people in town. We just don't know, and victimology
Speaker 5: is a big piece of what we try to look
Speaker 5: at in these cases. Quite frankly, we have a lot
Speaker 5: of blanks that we need people to help us fill
Speaker 5: in before we can get a true picture about risk
Speaker 5: factors for Wateria.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris, well, I know we've spent time talking about
Speaker 3: the unknowns, so why don't we focus on a couple
Speaker 3: of things that we do know before we get into
Speaker 3: our theories for this season.
Speaker 5: For one, we know that Waitiia was entered into LEADS,
Speaker 5: which is a database that police use to notify people
Speaker 5: in other jurisdictions if a person is wanted or missing. Basically,
Speaker 5: if police run a person's name, date of birth, driver's license,
Speaker 5: or other identifying information with a dispatch center, they can
Speaker 5: check leads to see if that person is wanted or missing.
Speaker 5: The problem is Wateria was entered into that system on
Speaker 5: April fifth, nineteen eighty three, so again there is an
Speaker 5: enormous time delay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's also a notation in the case report
Speaker 3: that says that original leads validation in April had an issue,
Speaker 3: so it got deleted. Police had to re enter her
Speaker 3: on August twenty ninth of nineteen eighty three. So now
Speaker 3: we're looking at almost a year's worth of time where
Speaker 3: Waityia could have had contact with the police somewhere, but
Speaker 3: we would have never been notified about it, and there
Speaker 3: would be no record of any contact.
Speaker 5: Another thing that we do know is that the Douglas
Speaker 5: Hotel officially closed on October first, nineteen eighty two. We
Speaker 5: also know that the police did go back and search
Speaker 5: the hotel after whit Tyia was reported missing, because one
Speaker 5: of Whitityria's daughters called and demanded that police searched the
Speaker 5: building for her. Unfortunately, that search turned up nothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but again we have another problem. That search didn't
Speaker 3: happen in nineteen eighty two. It happened on March twenty eighth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty three, almost six months after the building closed
Speaker 3: and potentially six months after she disappeared. March twenty eighth
Speaker 3: was even two months after she was reported missing. I
Speaker 3: really get the feeling, Chris. These time delays are going
Speaker 3: to be something we deal with a lot in this case.
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, I think you're right.
Speaker 5: But on the positive side, at least we know that
Speaker 5: the property was searched at some point. Plus we know
Speaker 5: that the original owner reported to police that they searched
Speaker 5: the hotel on October first, nine eighty two, and they
Speaker 5: locked it up, which makes sense. The building owners certainly
Speaker 5: wouldn't want people squatting inside the property when they locked
Speaker 5: up the building.
Speaker 3: We also know a few other things about what happened
Speaker 3: to Waitia after she checked out, including where she potentially
Speaker 3: planned to go, but we don't know how she planned
Speaker 3: to get there or if she planned to go home first,
Speaker 3: and we can't completely confirm the information, at least not yet.
Speaker 3: Two witnesses provide information to police back in nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: three on Waeturia's potential plans, let's talk about them.
Speaker 5: The first person who provided information about Waitteria was a
Speaker 5: property manager at the hotel. He reported that he saw
Speaker 5: Wateria sometime on or about October first, nice eighty two,
Speaker 5: was some luggage. He wasn't certain on the date, but
Speaker 5: he believed it was right around that date because that
Speaker 5: was when the hotel closed and guests all had to
Speaker 5: be out, So it could have been in the days
Speaker 5: leading up to October first, or on the actual date,
Speaker 5: but again we don't have a solid date or time.
Speaker 5: The owner also told police that he actually saw Watereria
Speaker 5: outside with her luggage in bags, waiting for a bus,
Speaker 5: so she allegedly made it out of the hotel. While
Speaker 5: the property manager didn't know where she was going, he
Speaker 5: assumed that she was going back to Aurora, so we'll
Speaker 5: have to address that option at some point.
Speaker 3: The second person was an employee from Fox Valley Mental Health,
Speaker 3: where Waitiria had been receiving some middle health care. That
Speaker 3: woman told police that Waitiia had told her she planned
Speaker 3: to move to the Joliet Motor Lodge when she moved
Speaker 3: out of the Douglas Hotel. The councilor even went over
Speaker 3: the Douglas Hotel to check on Waiitiia sometime around October
Speaker 3: first and discovered that she was gone. So we have
Speaker 3: at least two witnesses who in one way or another
Speaker 3: say that Waiitiia was not at the Hotel Honor about
Speaker 3: October first, Plus one of those witnesses claimed that Waitiria
Speaker 3: had plans for her next destination. We should note that
Speaker 3: the woman from Fox Value Mental Health appears to be
Speaker 3: a person that Waiitiia trusted, and it seems unlikely she
Speaker 3: would lie to her about where she was moving. Waitya
Speaker 3: also potentially planned to stay in touch with this witness
Speaker 3: to continue receiving her care through Fox Value Mental Health.
Speaker 5: The Fox Value Mental Health employee also did one more
Speaker 5: thing that was really important in the case. In January,
Speaker 5: she checked to see if Waititia had cashed any checks
Speaker 5: for her government issued benefits, and she learned that Wayteria
Speaker 5: had not. She also reached out to the Joliet Motor
Speaker 5: Lodge and a representative. They reportedly said that Wateria never
Speaker 5: arrived there. I do have to say that this lack
Speaker 5: of activity is a really important piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 5: When we talk about nobody homicide cases, and missing persons cases.
Speaker 5: In law enforcement, one big factor that we look for
Speaker 5: is a pattern of life. Then we try to pinpoint
Speaker 5: a cessation of activity. Basically, we're looking to prove that
Speaker 5: normal day to day activity stopped at a specific point
Speaker 5: and never restarted. For example, the person stopped going to work,
Speaker 5: or stopped paying their bills, or in today's day and age,
Speaker 5: stopped using their cell phone or social media. In why
Speaker 5: Tyria's case, she not only stopped her treatment, but she
Speaker 5: also stopped cashing her government issued checks. And this is
Speaker 5: a big one. She never contacted her children again, which
Speaker 5: was very uncommon. So that is a big cessation of
Speaker 5: activity for her.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it certainly is.
Speaker 3: Wateria was not working and she was living basically on
Speaker 3: her own, so those checks were her sole source of income.
Speaker 3: If she had chosen to go to another hotel or
Speaker 3: some other state or somewhere else, it seems likely she
Speaker 3: would have made sure to contact the state and have
Speaker 3: those checks forwarded to her next address. Plus we would
Speaker 3: expect that once she got them, she would have been
Speaker 3: cashing them to buy things. But none of those things happened.
Speaker 3: Based on the police report, it was those checks that
Speaker 3: Wayman allegedly started getting in the mail and Aurora that
Speaker 3: prompted him to contact the police. So she apparently didn't
Speaker 3: have her mail forwarded to another hotel or anywhere else.
Speaker 3: Maybe she changed her address back to her home address
Speaker 3: and Aurora, or maybe mail began reverting back there once
Speaker 3: the hotel closed. Either way, tracking on information like that
Speaker 3: is something we are trying to do on this case because,
Speaker 3: as you said, Chris, those checks are a really important
Speaker 3: pattern of life for her.
Speaker 5: While we know why Tia was seeking some treatment for
Speaker 5: mental health, she was getting the help and likely had
Speaker 5: plans to continue with her care. She also allegedly had
Speaker 5: a new destination of mind according to our one witness,
Speaker 5: and reportedly left the Douglas hotel with her belongings according
Speaker 5: to another witness. Regardless of her plans, it seems like
Speaker 5: Wayteria was not just looking to disappear, and even if
Speaker 5: she was, those checks would be something that she would
Speaker 5: dearly need to pick up and start a new life
Speaker 5: somewhere else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and as you said, she never contacted her children
Speaker 3: again after late September of nineteen eighty two, which was
Speaker 3: very uncommon for her. Cessation of activity and pattern of
Speaker 3: life are really big things in these cases, and the
Speaker 3: fact that she stopped cashing those checks and never contacted
Speaker 3: her children is a really important piece of this case.
Speaker 3: She also stopped her mental health counseling, so there's another
Speaker 3: cessation of normal.
Speaker 4: Activity for her.
Speaker 3: I think we both agree that the fact that Waitia
Speaker 3: never received any more benefits or made contact with anyone
Speaker 3: after late September of nineteen eighty two potentially points to
Speaker 3: her being deceased, but the question still remains where issue.
Speaker 5: Similar to season one, Andrew and I want to lay
Speaker 5: out are working theories for Waytia's cases. We investigate her disappearance,
Speaker 5: and for this case, we have identified five theories that
Speaker 5: we want to investigate, and here are those theories.
Speaker 3: Theory number one, Whitia harmed herself or left voluntarily. Is
Speaker 3: it possible that she just wanted to get away from
Speaker 3: her husband or past life. Could Wayteria have taken off
Speaker 3: and started over somewhere else, or was she potentially suicidal?
Speaker 3: We ought to at least consider that she could have
Speaker 3: left the area voluntarily or harm herself in some way.
Speaker 5: Theory number two Waityia never checked out of the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 5: We know that the hotel was an extended stay hotel
Speaker 5: with a number of people who received care from the
Speaker 5: Elgin Mental Health Center living there. Plus, we know that
Speaker 5: there was a homicide just outside the hotel in nineteen
Speaker 5: seventy seven that we discussed.
Speaker 4: In season two.
Speaker 5: Was Waityia also the victim of another crime at or
Speaker 5: outside the hotel here in Elgin, maybe shortly before or
Speaker 5: at the hotel closed. Was the hotel closing at just
Speaker 5: the perfect time for a perfect crime? We have to
Speaker 5: consider that something could have happened at the hotel or
Speaker 5: here in Elgin around the time that she planned to
Speaker 5: move out.
Speaker 3: Theory number three, something happened en route to Whiteria's next destination,
Speaker 3: whether she was headed to Joliette or Aurora or somewhere else.
Speaker 3: Was Waityia a victim of a violent crime somewhere between
Speaker 3: Elgin and that next destination. We know it was the
Speaker 3: early nineteen eighties, So could she have taken a bus
Speaker 3: or a train to get to joliet or Aurora or
Speaker 3: somewhere else. Could she have hitchhike or found some other
Speaker 3: way to travel. Regardless of her method of travel, we
Speaker 3: need to consider that either a known or unknown if
Speaker 3: an er could have harmed room some way. So we
Speaker 3: need to look for any people that she knew or
Speaker 3: places that she knew or places she could have gone,
Speaker 3: including Joliette, Aurora, and other places to get an idea
Speaker 3: of what could have happened to her on her route
Speaker 3: to the next place.
Speaker 5: Theory number four, Waiteria made it to Juliet. We should
Speaker 5: consider the possibility that the witness from Fox Valley Mental
Speaker 5: Health was correct and that Wateria planned go to Juliet.
Speaker 5: If she did make it there, could something have happened
Speaker 5: when she arrived in the city or at the motor lodge.
Speaker 5: We need to identify the location of the motor lodge,
Speaker 5: visit Joliette, and we need to look for any similar
Speaker 5: disappearances in the joliet area that could be similar to
Speaker 5: why Tiriu's case.
Speaker 3: And finally, theory number five, Waitiria returned to Aurora and
Speaker 3: something happened there. Like we said before, Weyman didn't report
Speaker 3: Waitia missing for nearly four months, and there was reportedly
Speaker 3: some domestic violence in the home prior to her leaving
Speaker 3: for Elgin, plus a witness of the hotel claimed that
Speaker 3: he saw at a bus stop and thought she was
Speaker 3: going back to Aurora. Could Waitia have plan to go
Speaker 3: back home to stay, or maybe just to gather more
Speaker 3: belongings before moving somewhere else like Joliette. Could she have
Speaker 3: gone back to Aura and had something happen there with
Speaker 3: Wyman or with somebody else. We need to revisit the
Speaker 3: site of her family's home and dive into Whitia's past
Speaker 3: and her relationships in Aurora to consider this final theory.
Speaker 5: Over the course of the season, as we investigate this case.
Speaker 5: In these theories, we're going to work to update Whyityia's
Speaker 5: case with new interviews, new records, and we plan to
Speaker 5: utilize the most recent updates in DNA technology, genetic genealogy,
Speaker 5: and familial DNA.
Speaker 4: We also plan to ask for your help.
Speaker 5: As we use this platform to get Wyteria's story out
Speaker 5: to the public, because she, like every other missing person
Speaker 5: and homicide victim in our case files, deserves to be
Speaker 5: remembered and deserves a thorough investigation into her case. Next episode,
Speaker 5: we will begin our investigation into Whyteria Jones's disappearance from
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty two by visiting sites here in Elgin, including
Speaker 5: the Douglas Hotel, as we try to piece together Whyteria's
Speaker 5: brief time here in Elgin and seek for new information
Speaker 5: and answers in her case here on season three.
Speaker 4: If somebody knows something, If you or.
Speaker 2: Anyone you know has information about this case or any
Speaker 2: other cold case in Elgin, please contact the Elginpolice Department
Speaker 2: Coldcase email at Coldcase tips at elginil dot gov or
Speaker 2: the cold Case tipline at eight four seven two eight
Speaker 2: nine cold. You can also review cold case information on
Speaker 2: the Elgin Police Department's coldcase page at www dot elgincoldcases
Speaker 2: dot com, where every cold case, homicide, and missingperson's case
Speaker 2: is listed with photographs and information about each case.