Cold and Missing: The Thompson Family

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,780 The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. 2 00:00:13,780 --> 00:00:18,400 All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 3 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,160 Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. 4 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:24,560 Listener discretion is advised. 5 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:27,280 I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. 6 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:29,680 And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:34,240 And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. 8 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:36,960 Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing. 9 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:41,240 I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski, and it will just be me this week. 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,460 My darling husband, Eli, is out running Christmas errands right now. 11 00:00:45,460 --> 00:00:49,720 So while he's doing that, I thought I would take advantage of the quiet house and bring 12 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:53,120 you a new episode of Cold and Missing. 13 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:58,340 So just to get right into things, this week we are covering a missing person case. 14 00:00:58,340 --> 00:01:02,000 And just as a bit of a content warning, this case does involve young people. 15 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,840 There are mentions of sexual assault and death by suicide. 16 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:12,120 So this week on Cold and Missing, we are going to review the Thompson family disappearance. 17 00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:16,920 And this happens in July of 1996 in Chicago, Illinois. 18 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,680 So first, a little bit about the Thompson family. 19 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,020 Everett Thompson is 40 years old in 1996. 20 00:01:23,020 --> 00:01:26,040 His wife, Lydia, is 43 years old. 21 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:32,000 And their two sons, Everett Jr., is 11 years old, and Andrew is 8 years old. 22 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,600 The Thompson family live in the Chatham neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, which is on the south 23 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:37,600 side. 24 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:41,560 They have two young sons, as I mentioned, Everett Jr. and Andrew. 25 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:47,080 Everett Sr. and Lydia were married in 1982 after Everett moved to the area to work at 26 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:48,760 the nearby steel mills. 27 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:53,080 Originally, Everett is from Philadelphia, but he still talked with his parents all the 28 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:55,160 time who were back home in Philly. 29 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:59,720 Everett and Lydia had taken a chance and started a restaurant called EAT & Co. 30 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,960 The word EAT is Everett's initials, Everett Andrew Thompson. 31 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,840 He was the head cook there, and cooking was a passion of his. 32 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:12,440 Lydia had inherited the Chatham home from her parents after they passed away. 33 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:16,880 She owned one-third of it with her two other siblings, Kenneth and Phyllis. 34 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:21,880 In February of 1996, so just a few months before the family goes missing, Lydia's 35 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:26,600 brother Kenneth was released from prison and he came to stay with the family at the home. 36 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,240 This quickly causes tension in the household. 37 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:34,680 Kenneth felt annoyed that he had to share a house that he believed was his and his alone 38 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:41,220 with his sister and her family, and Everett's family believed that Kenneth was a freeloading 39 00:02:41,220 --> 00:02:43,440 house guest, quote unquote. 40 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,980 Arguments would break out in the home frequently. 41 00:02:46,980 --> 00:02:49,780 And now a timeline of events. 42 00:02:49,780 --> 00:02:55,640 On July 3rd, 1996, Lydia calls the police because Kenneth is out of hand. 43 00:02:55,640 --> 00:03:00,040 She tells the police that her brother is chasing her around with an axe threatening to kill 44 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:01,040 her. 45 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,560 Police arrive at the home, but no arrests are made since things appear to have calmed 46 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:05,560 down. 47 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,960 The police do enter the home to have a look around, but everything is in its place and 48 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:14,120 nothing seems out of the ordinary, so they go ahead and leave the family alone for the 49 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:17,120 night since things do seem to have cooled down. 50 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:23,440 But two days later, July 5th, 1996, Everett is working at EAT & Co. 51 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:26,160 While at work, he was talking with his father on the phone. 52 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:30,500 His father, Herman Thompson, wants to know when he's bringing the family to Philadelphia 53 00:03:30,500 --> 00:03:32,920 so he can see his grandbabies. 54 00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:36,320 Everett promises that as soon as he can get away from work, he'll bring the family out 55 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:37,320 for a visit. 56 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:41,440 While talking on the phone, Everett gets a phone call from his wife on the other line. 57 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,240 When he answers the phone, Lydia is frantic. 58 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:49,520 She is home with her boys and Kenneth is, once again, chasing her around with an axe. 59 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,960 According to Herman, Everett jumps back on the line and says, quote, I gotta go home 60 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:54,960 right away, Dad. 61 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:57,740 Lydia's brother is chasing her around the house with an axe. 62 00:03:57,740 --> 00:04:00,560 She locked herself in the bedroom and called me to come home. 63 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:01,560 End quote. 64 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,160 Everett quickly hangs up with his dad and then tells the manager on duty that he's 65 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:06,640 leaving to go home. 66 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:10,380 Employees of the restaurant see Everett leave in a hurry in the family van. 67 00:04:10,380 --> 00:04:13,800 This is the last time that anyone sees or talks to Everett. 68 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:20,000 However, about two hours after Everett leaves, Kenneth arrives at the restaurant driving 69 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,400 the family van. 70 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:26,400 He tells the manager on duty that Everett was arrested after a car accident. 71 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:30,840 The manager notices that Kenneth is wearing white shoes and there's blood on them. 72 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:34,760 Over the next several days, Herman tries to get in contact with his son but is unable 73 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:35,760 to reach him. 74 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:37,080 He calls the family home. 75 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:38,080 He calls the restaurant. 76 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:42,280 But nobody has heard from Everett, Lydia, Everett Jr., or Andrew. 77 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:48,600 Finally, on July 17th, 1996, 12 days since Everett hurried off the phone with his father, 78 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,880 Herman calls the Chicago police and asks that they do a welfare check on the family. 79 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:57,720 Police stop by the Thompson home and Kenneth tells police that the family went on vacation 80 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,320 to either Pennsylvania or Minnesota, but they drove the family van there. 81 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:06,120 Since the family van is also missing from the home at this time, police believe the 82 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,360 story and go ahead and leave. 83 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,280 Kenneth's story keeps changing, however. 84 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:15,140 He tells folks that the family drove to Philly, and then he tells some people that they caught 85 00:05:15,140 --> 00:05:19,400 a bus to Minnesota, and then he tells others that they flew to Hawaii. 86 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:24,800 At some point, it's unclear exactly when this happens, but Kenneth is pulled over while 87 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:26,560 driving the family van. 88 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:31,080 Chicago police do not put two and two together and realize that by Kenneth driving the van, 89 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:36,200 he is contradicting his own story that he told the police that the Thompson family had 90 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,440 driven to Philadelphia or maybe Minnesota. 91 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:44,080 Herman and Erling Thompson, that's Everett's parents, continue to worry about their son 92 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:47,700 and his family and decide to take matters into their own hands. 93 00:05:47,700 --> 00:05:53,860 In late July of 1996, the two drive from Philly to Chicago to search for the family themselves. 94 00:05:53,860 --> 00:05:57,920 They stop by the EAT & Co. restaurant and talk with employees and learn that Everett 95 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,720 has not come back since he left after the frantic phone call from Lydia. 96 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:05,880 They also hear the manager's story of Kenneth showing up in the family van with blood on 97 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:07,860 his shoes and they call the police. 98 00:06:07,860 --> 00:06:11,880 The family begs the police to investigate the Thompson's disappearance further. 99 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:16,640 As police check out the story that Kenneth told the EAT & Co. manager, they find no record 100 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,960 of an automobile accident or an arrest record for Everett. 101 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:25,640 Again, it's unclear when police discover these facts or when exactly they took place, 102 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:30,360 but police do figure out that Kenneth has sold the family van to a scrap yard where 103 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:35,080 it was immediately crushed so police are unable to examine the car. 104 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:39,680 And additionally, Kenneth forged his sister's signatures to sell the home that they all 105 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,040 had inherited, the house where the Thompson's were living. 106 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:47,960 By the time police catch up to the illegal sale of the home, the new owners have taken 107 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:51,160 ownership of the home and gutted the interior. 108 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:55,480 Lieutenant Robert Hargishmeyer says, quote, any evidence of foul play that might have 109 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:58,280 been in the house was now lost, end quote. 110 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:02,440 They do find the inspector's notes that happened before the sale went through. 111 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:07,400 The inspector noted that the kitchen floor had been ripped out and a bathtub and toilet 112 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:09,000 had been painted red. 113 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,960 When police visited the home on July 3rd, after Lydia called the police the first time 114 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:18,880 for Kenneth chasing her with an axe, the responding officers had walked through the home and said 115 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:23,520 that the kitchen floor was intact and that there were no red bathroom fixtures. 116 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:29,080 So this all happened after July 3rd and presumably after the Thompson's went missing. 117 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:34,000 Kenneth White, Lydia's brother, is the prime suspect in the disappearance of the Thompson's. 118 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:39,080 But despite the illegal sale of the home and the family van, police do not arrest him. 119 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:46,040 On July 14th, 1997, a year after the Thompson family was last seen, police and FBI searched 120 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,880 the trailer that he was living in in Gary, Indiana, which is about an hour and 15 minutes 121 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:52,400 outside of Chicago. 122 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:56,960 Cadaver dogs are brought in to search the property and investigators find men's gym 123 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,400 shorts and a boy's sock. 124 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:01,080 Both are soaked in blood. 125 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:08,020 Still, no arrest is made until November 1997 when they arrest Kenneth for a probation violation 126 00:08:08,020 --> 00:08:10,760 for failure to register as a sex offender. 127 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:16,120 In December of 1997, the FBI arrests Kenneth for forging Lydia's signature on a check 128 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,600 for $13,272. 129 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:24,400 While being held in the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago, Kenneth 130 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:26,440 dies by suicide. 131 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,240 No note was left, but the cause of death was self-inflicted. 132 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:35,760 Lieutenant Robert Hargishmeyer says, quote, We believe he had a lot to do with their disappearance. 133 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:40,840 Now that he is dead, it is our hope that people who knew him in prison as well on the outside 134 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:43,440 will come forward with answers. 135 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,640 Lieutenant Hargishmeyer continues to say, quote, If there was foul play, and we think 136 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:53,040 there was, it happened on July 4th, 5th, or 6th, 1996. 137 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:57,040 No one saw the Thompson family after that time, and Kenneth was seen driving the Thompson 138 00:08:57,040 --> 00:08:59,240 van soon after that weekend. 139 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:05,200 The enormity of an entire family of four people missing, under dread circumstances, demands 140 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:07,920 a continued police presence and review. 141 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:08,920 End quote. 142 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:13,560 However, after Kenneth's death, I could not find any updates that the Chicago police or 143 00:09:13,560 --> 00:09:18,680 the FBI have done any additional searching to recover the bodies of the Thompson family. 144 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:22,960 We do know that none of their social security numbers have been used, and Everett and Lydia's 145 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:27,960 credit cards and bank cards were not used except when Kenneth attempted to forge checks 146 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:29,560 in Lydia's name. 147 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:34,480 So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of the Thompson family, Everett, 148 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:41,760 Lydia, Everett Jr., and Andrew, or their whereabouts today, please call the Area South Chicago Police 149 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:47,640 Department at 312-747-5789. 150 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:51,840 And the sources for today's timeline come from the Chicago Tribune, the Tribune, the 151 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:56,680 Northwest Indiana Times, the Charlie Project, and the NamUs database. 152 00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:00,600 So that is the disappearance of the Thompson family. 153 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:07,120 And I personally was just floored by how little information is out there. 154 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:11,240 I thought that there would be a lot of newspaper articles that I would have to go through that 155 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:18,040 this would make national news, but it didn't really, nothing really showed up about this 156 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:22,080 family until after Kenneth's death. 157 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:26,960 That's when I was able to find newspaper articles when they were looking back over a year later 158 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,520 at the disappearance of this family. 159 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:32,360 But that's four people missing. 160 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:34,760 Four people missing. 161 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,280 And there was no wide search for them. 162 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:39,440 There was no immediate police presence. 163 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:49,960 There was no big convoy of investigators searching near the home, around the home, nothing, nothing 164 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:51,720 that I could find. 165 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:53,660 And that's just shocking to me. 166 00:10:53,660 --> 00:10:54,920 Four people are missing. 167 00:10:54,920 --> 00:11:00,280 You think, you know, on a scale of resources, one case that involves four people, two of 168 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:07,960 which are very young boys, Everett Jr. and Andrew are only 11 and 8, you think that that 169 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:13,260 would climb up on the police priority list, but it just didn't here. 170 00:11:13,260 --> 00:11:19,240 And it really seems as if Kenneth got away with four murders. 171 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:28,200 I don't know how Kenneth White was able to not be arrested after illegally selling the 172 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:29,200 home. 173 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:34,400 He owned one third of it, but the other two thirds were owned by his sisters. 174 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:38,320 And he forged both of their signatures to make the sale go through. 175 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:43,720 From my understanding, the sale was pretty quick and the new owners immediately gutted 176 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:44,960 the interior. 177 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:51,240 And I have to wonder, to me it seems like an obvious thing that you would talk to the 178 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:54,600 new owners to say, hey, can we search? 179 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:56,660 Was there anything there when you gutted? 180 00:11:56,660 --> 00:12:00,420 Or you know, the construction crew who I'm sure were hired out, it probably just wasn't 181 00:12:00,420 --> 00:12:02,120 these two people, but you never know. 182 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:09,200 Like, did they notice anything strange in the house besides, you know, a red bathtub 183 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:10,400 and a red toilet? 184 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,040 That is very strange to me. 185 00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:18,940 That's not really a color one sees and nobody paints their toilet and bathtub. 186 00:12:18,940 --> 00:12:24,400 It sounds as if it was just, you know, like household paint used and you don't use that. 187 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,520 So to me, that seems like it's trying to cover up. 188 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:32,440 And my first thought is that it's trying to cover up a presence of blood. 189 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:37,720 And if the kitchen floor was tore up, again, I would think that you are trying to hide 190 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,840 something or you couldn't clean something, you couldn't get rid of something. 191 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:43,560 So you have to just get rid of the floor altogether. 192 00:12:43,560 --> 00:12:48,680 So my question would just be to those folks who worked on, you know, the gutting of the 193 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:52,240 interior, did they notice anything else odd? 194 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:54,880 Anything strange at all when they redid the plumbing? 195 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:59,560 I'm sure they did not keep the red toilet seat and the red tub. 196 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:01,400 Did they notice anything strange there? 197 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:07,400 Was there any kind of, you know, like DNA blood type substance found in the pipes? 198 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:13,760 Like there's so many questions and it seems so glaringly obvious what happened here. 199 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:19,080 And I don't know, again, for the life of me why he was not arrested after an illegal sale 200 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,880 of the home and forging these signatures. 201 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,320 I'm, you know, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's a crime. 202 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:29,880 I'm pretty sure it's against the law to forge homeowner signatures to sell a home. 203 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:32,280 I think that's illegal in my book. 204 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:39,220 Another question that I just have is why has there been no additional searching? 205 00:13:39,220 --> 00:13:44,560 Is it just because they really don't have anywhere to go? 206 00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:50,480 I mean, they have no clues as to where these four people could be? 207 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:52,200 That's the thing. 208 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:59,600 Like there's four bodies that in theory Kenneth had to get rid of. 209 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:00,600 That's a lot. 210 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:01,600 That's a lot. 211 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:07,840 I would think that the reason he got rid of the car, sold it to a scrapyard and had it 212 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:17,160 immediately crushed was because that car was used to transport the family, you know, after 213 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:18,760 they were dead or before. 214 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:21,520 But somehow the family was in that van. 215 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:26,160 Obviously they had driven the van around, but I think it was used in their disappearance 216 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:27,720 somehow for sure. 217 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:29,840 Because why else would you get rid of the car? 218 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:36,840 It just, it just really frustrates me that a family of four, of four go missing in the 219 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:40,760 90s and there's just no major search done for them. 220 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:46,440 Everett's parents, Herman and Erlene, they try to raise the alarm pretty quickly. 221 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:51,400 They ask for a welfare check and police just take, you know, Kenneth's word at face value, 222 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,260 which like, okay, sure, sure. 223 00:14:54,260 --> 00:15:00,440 But then after they come to Chicago, Herman and Erlene and, you know, talk with the workers 224 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:04,920 of the restaurant that Everett and Lydia owned and hear the story of him showing up with 225 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,160 this car accident and he was arrested. 226 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:13,560 And then 12 days later, he's telling the police that, oh, they actually drove to maybe Philadelphia, 227 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:19,440 which is where Herman and Erlene are and they obviously didn't see their son or his family. 228 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:23,280 Or maybe Minneapolis or maybe they flew to Hawaii, like all these different stories. 229 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:27,480 It just feels like if maybe the police had taken their disappearance a little bit more 230 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:31,600 seriously in the beginning, that maybe we could have answers today. 231 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:35,640 Maybe Kenneth wouldn't have been able to get rid of so much evidence like the car and the 232 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:38,660 home as quickly as he did. 233 00:15:38,660 --> 00:15:40,920 Maybe we would have answers. 234 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:47,040 Obviously the police, they don't have any hope of finding the Thompsons alive. 235 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,240 And unfortunately, I agree there. 236 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:53,560 I don't think that the Thompsons ran away to get away from Kenneth. 237 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:54,840 I don't think that happened. 238 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:59,760 I don't think that there's a world where Everett would have just ran without telling 239 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:02,880 his parents who he had a really great relationship with. 240 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,960 And Lydia was close with her other sister, Phyllis. 241 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,040 And you know, the boys were obviously in school and had friends. 242 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:15,320 Like I don't see them completely disappearing, going off the grid or anything like that to 243 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:16,320 get away from Kenneth. 244 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:17,760 I don't see that. 245 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,800 I think something happened to them, to all of them. 246 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:26,800 And it's insane that Kenneth was not taken into custody for selling the house, for selling 247 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:28,080 the car. 248 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:32,880 And then when they search his trailer and Gary and they find men's gym shorts and a 249 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:38,000 boy's sock that are soaked in blood, whose blood is that? 250 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,760 There's no answer to that. 251 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:44,120 And I would have to think with technology today if that, if those items are still in 252 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:46,760 evidence, that that is something that can be tested. 253 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:54,360 I don't know if we have the family's DNA on file, but I would almost wonder, did Kenneth 254 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:57,280 hurt other people in Gary, Indiana? 255 00:16:57,280 --> 00:16:58,760 Was he hurting people in Gary? 256 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:03,840 And that's why he had these blood soaked shorts and socks. 257 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:09,440 Maybe they're not related at all to the Thompson's disappearance, but it's related to something. 258 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:11,400 Whose blood is it? 259 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:17,240 And that's a question that's never been answered that I think needs to be answered because 260 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:22,360 Kenneth seems to be responsible for the disappearance of four people, but are there more people 261 00:17:22,360 --> 00:17:25,680 in his wake that he's also responsible for? 262 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,000 That's something that I would be curious about. 263 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:35,060 I just hope that in the future we can find the Thompson family and just bring them to 264 00:17:35,060 --> 00:17:40,240 rest in a beautiful spot, not wherever they are. 265 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:46,660 And while, you know, it seems pretty clear that Kenneth was involved in their disappearance 266 00:17:46,660 --> 00:17:51,440 and the cause of their disappearance, and since he did die by suicide, you know, he's 267 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:57,080 not going to stay on trial, which is why I think this is not a priority for the police 268 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:01,200 because the person that they would want to charge is, has already died. 269 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:07,360 So I think that's why police resources are not being used, but that just, that doesn't 270 00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:08,360 seem fair to me. 271 00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:15,620 That doesn't seem fair that because he dies by suicide, he doesn't get, even in death, 272 00:18:15,620 --> 00:18:18,480 he should still be like held responsible. 273 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:23,080 I don't know if that makes sense, but it's like, people should know that he did this 274 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:27,720 100% with certainty and not just all of us thinking. 275 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:29,560 It seems pretty obvious. 276 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:35,160 He's chasing around his sister with an axe threatening to kill her. 277 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:36,260 It's just sad. 278 00:18:36,260 --> 00:18:37,680 It's just really sad. 279 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:45,200 And I can't get over the fact that it's a whole family, a whole family just gone. 280 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,040 You know, right now, I'm, as I'm recording this, it's, you know, it's right around the 281 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:52,840 Christmas season, the new year, Thanksgiving just passed. 282 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:58,720 So you spend all this time with family and it's just so hard to imagine a family of four 283 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:06,880 going missing and no alarm being raised, no major searches, no national coverage. 284 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:07,880 It's really sad. 285 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:08,880 It's sad to me. 286 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:15,720 And I really hope that we find out what happened to the Thompson family because they, they 287 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,500 deserve answers still. 288 00:19:18,500 --> 00:19:24,720 Their families, their loved ones, their cousins, their classmates, anybody who knew them, they 289 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:27,200 deserve answers. 290 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:30,760 Well I just have you for a few more minutes here. 291 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:36,880 If you want to give us a holiday present, a new year's present, just a present in general, 292 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:42,320 something that would be so helpful is if you leave a written review in Apple podcast, if 293 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:46,280 that's where you're listening, or give us five stars, thumbs up, whatever the metric 294 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:48,720 is in your favorite podcast player. 295 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:55,240 It is so helpful for others to find our podcast and for others to give us a chance and a listen. 296 00:19:55,240 --> 00:20:00,080 So that would be such a fantastic gift if you don't mind doing that. 297 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,960 And it also helps get these stories out to other people, which is the ultimate goal of 298 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:08,400 cold and missing is to cover stories that don't really get told that often. 299 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:13,360 We will be posting on our Instagram pictures of the Thompson family. 300 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:17,840 So if you want to follow us there, if you're not already, we'll have pictures of them up 301 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:18,840 this week. 302 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:24,360 And we also post active missing person cases in our stories and just try to keep a lot 303 00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:27,240 of true crime information going in our story. 304 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:31,080 So it's a really good follow if that's something that you are interested in. 305 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:38,800 You can also head over to our website www.coldandmissing.com where we have all of our transcripts, all 306 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:42,760 of our episodes, everything, everything is over there. 307 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:47,680 So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, our transcripts are available to follow along 308 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:50,600 with over on our website. 309 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,080 And that is all I have. 310 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:57,500 If you're listening to this in real time, I hope you are having a wonderful holiday 311 00:20:57,500 --> 00:21:01,660 and I hope you have a happy new year as well. 312 00:21:01,660 --> 00:21:05,360 If you're not listening to this in real time, I just hope you're having a great day. 313 00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:07,760 Thank you again so much for listening to cold and missing. 314 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:09,140 I'm your host Allie. 315 00:21:09,140 --> 00:21:23,680 Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.