Transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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Listener discretion is advised.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
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And it will just be me this week.
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I wanted to just give a little note here at the top.
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So this week's episode and next week's episode are going to be related to each other.
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They take place in the same area.
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So I just wanted to throw that out there that it's not quite a two-parter, but there is
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a connected episode that we will be airing next week.
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So next week won't be a cold case.
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It'll still be another missing person case.
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But I really wanted to bring these cases together.
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So let's just get into it.
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I just wanted to give a bit of a content warning at the top that there are mentions of suicide
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in today's podcast.
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If you or someone you love is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can dial 988 if you're
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in the United States.
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Or you can visit 988lifeline.org to speak with somebody.
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Today we're going to be talking about the missing person case of Holly White.
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This takes place in May of 2016 in Taos, New Mexico.
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But first, a little bit about Holly.
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Holly is 49 years old in 2016.
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Those close to Holly say that she was meticulously organized.
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She paid attention to the details.
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But above all, she was an extremely warm person.
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You gravitated towards her and you couldn't help but feel comfortable with her.
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She was always welcoming.
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She had a dog named Rosie, who she loved.
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Holly was well known in the Taos community.
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For over 20 years, she worked as the general manager for the Taos Center for the Arts.
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But she had recently put in her two weeks notice.
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Holly's husband, Jeff White, had moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is about two
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and a half hours away, to pursue a new job.
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He had rented a house there and had been fixing it up, and now Holly was due to join him.
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Holly was excited to move and to start this new chapter of her life.
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She already had an interview set up to be an office manager for a dentist there in Albuquerque.
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But mostly she was excited to be with her husband again and to live as a couple again.
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And now a timeline of events.
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Thursday, May 5, 2016.
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Holly works one of her final days at the Taos Center for the Arts.
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Her official last day would be next Friday, May 13.
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Holly spent the day training her replacement as the general manager in the office.
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That evening, Holly texted with a friend around 9.20 p.m. and also texted with her best friend
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Cynthia to meet up the next morning for their daily morning walk.
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Holly stays up playing words with friends and chatting using the in-game communication
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until about 10.30 p.m.
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The next day, Friday, May 6, 2016, Holly had made plans to meet with her friend Cynthia
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to go on their morning walk together in the Kit Carson Park area.
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This is something they had done together almost daily for nearly eight years.
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They had a plan to take their morning walk and then meet up again later that day for
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Holly's going away party due to her upcoming move to Albuquerque.
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When Holly didn't show up to their meeting spot and after not answering phone calls or
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text messages, Cynthia decides to head over to her bus front's house.
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When Cynthia arrived at the house, she noticed that Holly's car was gone, but no one was
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answering the front door and phone calls continued to go unanswered.
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So Cynthia let herself in using the spare key that she had been given.
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When Cynthia entered the home, Holly's dog Rosie greeted her at the door.
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Cynthia noticed that Holly's purse was near the front door.
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Holly took her purse everywhere with her.
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Even when they would meet up for their early morning walks, Holly would have her purse.
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Cynthia also found Holly's phone still charging next to the bed.
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The phone had a missed alarm on it.
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As if Holly had planned to get up for the morning walk, Cynthia makes her way over to
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the next door neighbor, who was also the realtor that was helping Holly and Jeff sell their
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towels home since they were making the official move to Albuquerque.
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Cynthia asked the neighbor if they have any idea where Holly might be.
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They did not.
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Neither Cynthia or the next door neighbor had a phone number for Jeff, so they each
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called around to some folks who worked at the Taos Art Center to get his number and
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call him.
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When Holly's husband is reached in Albuquerque, he has no idea where Holly is at either and
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asks that Cynthia call the police.
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He immediately leaves and makes the two and a half hour drive to Taos to help look for
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his wife.
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He had already planned to come back to Taos that day to join Holly at her going away party.
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As Cynthia is waiting in the driveway for police to come, a member of the Taos Art Center
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calls Cynthia to let her know that Holly's car had been found.
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It was parked at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.
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The keys were still in the vehicle, inside the cup holder.
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Cynthia immediately heads there and talks with a roadside vendor that said the car was
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already there when she arrived at 6.15 a.m.
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On the police side of things, the case is immediately handed off to the state police
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and they launch a search of the gorge.
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Police also make note that there is some dried grass on the floor in front of the passenger
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seat of Holly's vehicle.
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Holly was known to keep her vehicle very tidy, so the presence of the grass was odd to those
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that knew her.
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So just a little bit of background around the gorge bridge.
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This is a beautiful space.
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If you just type this place into Google Maps and just take in the street view, it's really
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a breathtaking sight.
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It's a gorgeous area.
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Over the years, people have used this bridge to die by suicide.
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So as soon as Holly's car is found here, police begin to believe that this is what happened.
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But her family and friends are adamant that she would not do that and that if she did,
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she would have left a note.
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Even more, Cynthia tells police that May 6th, this is that day that Holly goes missing,
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is Cynthia's birthday.
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There is no way that her bus run would ruin the day like that.
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That evening, instead of having the goodbye party Holly's friends, family, and co-workers
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organize a search party and pass out flyers for Holly, they search the area around the
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bridge and neither Holly's friends or the state police are able to find any evidence
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of her.
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That weekend, Saturday, May 7th and Sunday, May 8th, police spend the weekend searching
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along the Gorge Bridge area for Holly.
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They bring out the ground search and rescue team, cadaver dogs, and a helicopter to assist
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in their search.
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Police also bring in a scent dog who's only able to track the scent of Holly near her
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vehicle nowhere else on the bridge or in the parking lot.
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After the weekend search, no sign of Holly is found and police suspended the search indefinitely.
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Police say that typically when someone jumps from the bridge, that they are usually found
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by area rafters and usually later in the summer when the water levels have gone down.
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Holly's friends and family spend the weekend putting flyers around Tows to bring awareness
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about Holly's missing person status.
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On Wednesday, May 11th, Holly has been missing for five days now.
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Police hold a press conference and tell the public that at this time there is no evidence
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of foul play.
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A state police spokesperson says, quote, it is possible that she jumped and just didn't
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tell anyone how she was feeling, end quote.
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But those closest to Holly do not believe that she was thinking of taking her own life.
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Cynthia points out that she would have never left her dog alone and without a plan to be
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cared for and she had not mentioned any thoughts of hurting herself.
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A group of kayakers who had already had a trip planned for this day also aid in their
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efforts to help find Holly.
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One of the rafters' mothers was friends with Holly and she asked him to keep an eye
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out.
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The rafters tell police that they had found a woman's shoe floating among debris in
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the river, a black mesh sketcher's shoe.
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Police say that the size of the shoe was a match for Holly, but her family and friends
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are unsure if the shoe was hers.
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She owned another set of the sketcher's shoes, but they were in a different color.
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Her family and friends believe that the shoe could be hers, but her husband thinks that
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if it is her, then whoever took her had parked the car at the gorge as a decoy and then threw
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the shoe over to throw police off.
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The next day, Thursday, May 12th, police conduct another search of the Rio Grande, covering
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16 miles and with a dive team.
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No trace of Holly is found during this search.
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On Wednesday, May 18th, Holly has been missing for 12 days.
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Her husband, Jeff, sits down with local media.
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She tells them that he had last talked on the phone with her Thursday night, the night
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before she went missing.
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He says, quote, We were making plans to go to the party.
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We were just laughing and joking, just like always.
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My take on this, really, is she got taken.
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Somebody came to the door probably early Friday morning, woke her up, she knew him, and she
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kind of answered the door.
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I don't know any other scenario because she isn't the type of person to leave without
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a note.
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Everything was here, her belongings, her cell phone, her charge cards, her license.
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End quote.
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Jeff confirms to the local paper that he was a suspect at first, but remains firm that
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he was in their new house in Albuquerque when Holly went missing.
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Jeff was renting the new home from his new boss, who lived next door, and confirms that
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Jeff was at work the next morning.
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The whole experience has been upending for Jeff.
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He says, quote, I couldn't even think on Friday.
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I didn't even really eat until Sunday when a buddy came over.
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I was just shocked.
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Now I'm confused.
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I don't know what really went on.
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I know damn well she didn't jump.
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She didn't leave me.
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There would have been a note.
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She's not a cold person.
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She wouldn't leave her dog.
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I don't know why she would just leave on her own.
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She just wouldn't.
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End quote.
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Her family and friends remain steadfast in their belief that she wouldn't jump off of
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the bridge.
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And if she would, she would have left a note.
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They all believe, along with Jeff, that someone took Holly against her will Thursday night
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or Friday morning and parked the car at the gorge as a decoy.
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However, police say at this time that most likely she jumped off the bridge and they
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do not suspect foul play.
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Jeff is also critical of the police.
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He says, quote, they are just so slow.
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We are just moving at a snail's pace.
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He also tells the local media that he had to consider every scenario since the police
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won't, such as if Holly had been having an affair.
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Jeff doesn't think she was, but wanted police to test the bedsheets to make sure there was
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no unknown DNA.
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Jeff said, quote, a neighbor came and said how sorry he was.
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And he told me there was a black Toyota Solera with Colorado plates.
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End quote.
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The car was seen at Holly and Jeff's home the day before she vanished.
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Jeff also learned that on the day that Holly disappeared, there were two men seen leaving
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the gorge that police have yet to talk to.
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Jeff says, quote, if she is down in the gorge, she didn't go by herself.
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She was pushed or something.
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End quote.
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In July of 2016, so it's been two months since Holly went missing, and there is still
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no sign of what happened to her.
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Around the community of Taos, however, tragic death by suicide continues to happen both
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on and off the bridge.
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The community implores that more be done at the bridge to stop people from jumping, and
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mental health professionals in Taos urge those in powers to put more money towards mental
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health before someone even has to think of driving to the bridge.
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As of 2024, they have installed crisis hotline phones, but no other preventative measures
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such as netting have been put in place.
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In August of 2016, police send Holly's computer and cell phone off to be forensically analyzed.
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Police are pretty tight lipped about what was found on her devices, but do say, quote,
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she had many friends she spoke with online.
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End quote.
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Police also confirm that it was both in-state and out-of-state people that Holly had been
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talking with.
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Police also tell the media that they had checked and confirmed that she did not fly out on
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any international flights the day she went missing and are following up with domestic
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flights for any potential clues.
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It's unclear exactly why, but on August 26th of 2016, so it's been over three months
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since Holly disappeared, Holly's case is moved from the Uniform Bureau to the State's
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Police Criminal Investigation Bureau.
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But police remain firm that she is still considered missing at this time and no foul play has
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been uncovered in her case.
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On September 5th, 2016, a private investigator, Elaine Graves, is hired by Holly's father
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to help solve the case.
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She hires two kayakers to search the Rio Grande in an area known as the Taos Box.
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Nothing is found during the search.
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On September 8th, it's now been four months since Holly vanished, State Police Lieutenant
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Edwards Martinez tells local media that police have ruled out the possibility that she jumped
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from the bridge.
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They also have ruled out that she simply got up and walked away from her life.
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Lieutenant Martinez says, quote, We met with the criminal investigations lieutenant and
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sergeant and we went over the whole case and discussed it.
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Suicide seemed unlikely for a couple of reasons.
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We found in her computer that she had plans for her future.
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She was looking for a job in Albuquerque and she was trying to sell her house and planning
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to move out of Taos.
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Also she didn't take any identification.
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She didn't take any money, her bank accounts have no activity on them, or her credit cards.
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We ran her social security card through the system to see if the numbers were used to
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find employment elsewhere and none of that panned out.
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End quote.
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Police are confident to rule out death by suicide since other people have jumped from
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the bridge since Holly went missing and all of their bodies have been able to be recovered
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from the river.
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In fact, police are confident that Holly did not jump.
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In January of 2017, Holly has been missing for eight months and there are simply no leads
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in her case.
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Jeff is asked by the private investigator to take a polygraph test.
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He passes the test and hopes that police and the private investigator will at least believe
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him now when he says that he wasn't involved and move on to other theories.
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Also in Jeff's defense, he did ask to be polygraphed to be cleared.
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He wanted to be officially ruled out so everyone could focus on other things in the case.
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Jeff maintains that he believes that Holly answered the door to someone she thought she
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knew or since she was such a kind person to help someone in need.
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On May 5th, 2017, at the one year mark of Holly being missing, her family and the PI
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run a full page ad in the Taos newspaper asking for more information and offering a $5,000
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reward.
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The ad lists out some new details in the case and also outlines the great lengths that they
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have gone to try to uncover leads.
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The private investigator has called psychics and also has had an animal communicator come
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in to work with Holly's dog to help the dog process any trauma that she may have had the
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night that Holly disappeared.
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They also say that a vehicle matching the description of the car seen the morning before
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Holly vanished was found abandoned near the New Mexico Colorado state line shortly after
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Holly disappeared.
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They asked if anybody knows anything more about this car or more about Holly to please
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call them.
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And then the case really drops out of the media.
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There was a story ran in May of 2023 to mark the seven years of Holly's disappearance.
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The private investigator that was hired by the family back in 2016 is still working the
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case and she says that the case is not cold, that she still occasionally gets a lead in
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the case that she follows up on, just none of them have led to Holly.
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She is interested in interviewing multiple people of interest in the case, mainly from
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people that Holly talked to online.
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The PI says, quote, there are always hopeful leads where a hunter or rafter will find something
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suspicious like maybe bones.
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So we'll have the bones tested to see if they're animal or human.
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We have actually found both, but unfortunately, none have led to Holly.
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We found clothes in different areas we've checked on, no Holly.
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We've had lots of sightings that we've looked into, local and also in other states, and
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they've all ended up not being Holly, end quote.
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The PI still doesn't believe that Holly jumped from the bridge and police have dismissed
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this as a theory.
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But she says, quote, there have been three to four jumpers a year on that bridge since
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Holly disappeared in 2016.
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For each of those persons, you've had the sheriff's department, sometimes the state police,
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divers, rafters, drones, helicopters, people on foot recovering those bodies three to four
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years since 2016.
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So that's how many times people have been down there.
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A lot of times in the same area to recover these bodies.
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It just seems like Holly's body or something would have been seen, end quote.
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But that is really the last update that I could find on Holly White.
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So if you know anything about the disappearance of Holly White in May of 2016, please call
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private investigator Elaine Graves at 575-613-3415.
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And the sources for the timeline today come from the Taos News and the Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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So that is the missing person case of Holly White.
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Like I mentioned at the top of the show, this is a two parter.
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So just to lay a little bit of groundwork for next week.
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Next week's case will also take place near this bridge, the Taos River Gorge Bridge.
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I actually found this case researching next week's case.
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And I knew that I needed to start here for both of these stories to make sense with each
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other.
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So I needed to start with Holly's missing person case.
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And I was really shocked by this.
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I think it's really important to remember when you maul this case over, is that both
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police and Holly's friends and families have said she didn't jump.
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She didn't jump off of that bridge.
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She didn't die by suicide.
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So that makes me think that, you know, her car was parked there as a decoy.
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This bridge, as I kind of mentioned in the timeline, is unfortunately a little bit notorious
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for people jumping off of it.
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Not unlike the Golden Gate Bridge also has that same kind of history.
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So someone kind of using that to their advantage to park a car there to throw police off of
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their trail, that part does kind of make sense.
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And you know, there are just like a couple of things about the car that stood out to
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her family and friends and also investigators.
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The mention of the grass on the floorboards in front of the passenger seat, people thought
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was really interesting, especially because we kind of know Holly's movement the day before
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she disappeared.
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So that Thursday, Fridays when she was reported missing.
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So we kind of know her movements and nowhere in there does anybody talk about getting in
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her car and sitting in the passenger seat where maybe they would track grass in.
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I would be curious to know if anybody had sat in her car that week at all.
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And if they had, you know, was there grass there?
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Usually if a car is very neat, like you'll kind of notice if there's dirt on one floorboard.
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So that was something that stood out to family and friends.
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And then also, I just thought the detail of the keys being in the cup holder, not necessarily
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in the ignition was interesting.
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I don't really have any like big speculative things on what that might mean.
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But to me, it's just like, you know, when you drive a car, you park it, you go to get
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out of it, you kind of naturally turn it off and pull the keys out of the ignition.
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So it almost seems like you know, an afterthought that somebody said, oh, and then put them
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in the cup holder.
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You could argue that maybe Holly would do that if she didn't plan on coming back to
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the car at all.
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But as her family and friends have said from the beginning, and as police later also said,
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they do not believe she jumped off of that bridge.
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I was reading in all of these articles, and it mentions that the Taos search and rescue
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team that work in these instances where somebody does die by suicide from jumping off of the
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bridge, when they know for certain that that is what has happened, they have recovered
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the body almost 100% of the time.
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So they really know what they're doing.
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And they know the terrain really well.
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And the rafters in the area, they talk about knowing the river really well, like you know,
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where you kind of get hung up on things where somebody could get stuck.
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And so they also volunteer their time and search the river.
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And nothing is found of Holly's.
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There is that shoe, which I have a lot of questions about.
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It's never really answered if it is Holly's or not.
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We know that she did have that shoe in a different color in her closet.
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Some people when they really like something, they'll buy it in multiple colors if that's
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available to them.
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I don't know if Holly was that kind of person.
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Nobody mentions that as like a support to this.
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And nobody seems to pull out a photograph of her wearing the color shoe that they found,
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the black mesh Skechers shoe that they found in the river.
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A detail I did find interesting that was reported by the rafters who found the shoe is that
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they said the shoe wasn't sun bleached at all.
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They mentioned that, you know, they're out on the river a lot.
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We've seen a lot of shoes and ones that have been out there for a while.
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Like you can usually tell like there's sun bleach to them.
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But this one didn't have any, which led them to think that it hadn't been there for that
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long.
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So that is interesting.
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But again, it's not ever really confirmed if that is Holly's shoe.
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You know, in the future for this case, I really hope that there are some big resources put
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towards searching for Holly.
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Her family has obviously been doing so much of that like work, you know, and also via
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her private investigator has been doing a lot of that work over the years of searching
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for signs of Holly searching for clues.
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But I just hope that at some point those like police resources and specialties and you know,
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all those things they have at their fingertips of, you know, helicopters and drones and dogs
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and all of that.
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I hope those resources are given to the family to help search for Holly and to find out what
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happened to her because something is off here.
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Again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Holly White, please call private investigator
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Elaine Graves at 575-613-3415.
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We'll be sharing pictures of course of Holly on our Instagram.
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If you're not following us, you can find us at Cold and Missing.
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Our profile picture on Instagram is the same as our podcast cover.
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So you should be able to spot us if you just search our name.
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And I want to say thank you.
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We had a couple of really wonderful reviews come in this week in Apple Podcast.
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So if you have a second if you're in Apple Podcast, if you can go ahead and give us a
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five star rating, write us a review.
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It is so helpful and other people finding this podcast finding us finding these cases
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getting to know these cases that maybe they didn't know about and it's just one more person,
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you know, thinking about Holly, looking for Holly knows about Holly like all of our cases
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deserve that.
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So your reviews, your recommendations to family and friends go so far and getting these stories
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out there.
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So thank you, thank you, thank you.
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And if you want to find more episodes, transcripts of all our podcast episodes, our YouTube,
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any of that if you want to donate if you want to write us a review, but you don't have Apple
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Podcasts, you can go to www.coldandmissing.com and do all of that over there.
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Thank you again so much for listening to cold and missing.
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Such an honor to share these stories and to be a part of your week.
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So thanks for joining me.
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Thanks for listening to cold and missing.
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I'm your host Allie.
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Have a good week and stay safe.
