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Re-Release: Richard Hoagland

Re-Release: Richard Hoagland

Released Saturday, 20th April 2024
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Re-Release: Richard Hoagland

Re-Release: Richard Hoagland

Re-Release: Richard Hoagland

Re-Release: Richard Hoagland

Saturday, 20th April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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for details. Hey,

1:02

everyone. It's Kona. I just wanted to hop

1:04

on real quick and apologize for there not

1:06

being a new episode this week. COVID got

1:09

me. I got got. If

1:12

you follow us on TikTok, I posted

1:14

a couple of videos from my basement

1:16

where I was quarantining. And

1:19

I really tried to get an episode

1:21

together, but I just, my brain and

1:24

my fingers and the rest of my

1:26

body were not cooperating with each other.

1:29

So nothing new this week. But what we

1:31

did have, you know, which is even

1:33

better this week, is the new

1:35

Taylor Swift album came out. The

1:38

Tortured Poets Department Anthology. It's 31 songs.

1:41

And while I had insomnia, I

1:44

was listening to it. And one

1:47

of the songs actually reminded

1:49

me of an episode that we've already done.

1:52

And it's one of my favorite episodes

1:55

because it is

1:58

a little bit lighter. than a

2:01

lot of the ones that we do. And it's

2:03

very unlike every other episode that

2:05

we've done in that we

2:08

had a resolution going into it. The

2:12

case I'm talking about is the case

2:15

of Richard Hoagland. And the

2:17

song that I'm referring to is the song

2:19

Florida. Now

2:21

I'm going to play you a little

2:23

bit of Miss Swift herself talking about

2:25

the inspiration behind the song. And

2:28

then we'll kind of reconvene about

2:30

what I'm talking about. And

2:33

you just want to escape from everything you've ever known.

2:36

Is there a place you could go? I'm

2:39

always watching like Dateline. People,

2:42

you know, have these crimes that

2:44

they commit. Where do they immediately skip town and

2:46

go to? That they go to Florida. You

2:48

know, they like try to reinvent themselves,

2:50

have a new identity, blend in. It's

2:55

almost as if she was

2:58

reading my script for this

3:00

episode. Richard Hoagland was a

3:02

family man from Indianapolis, Indiana.

3:04

And on February 10th, 1993, he

3:07

called his wife from work, told her he was

3:09

going to the ER, and

3:11

then never came back. And

3:14

while it may be a little bit of a

3:16

spoiler alert, you may have been able to guess

3:18

by this point that he went to

3:20

Florida to reinvent himself

3:23

and start a new life. Now,

3:25

of course, you know, this being the real

3:27

world, it didn't exactly turn out the way

3:29

that he planned. And

3:31

that's what this episode is about.

3:33

So please buckle up

3:36

and enjoy this re-release of the

3:38

episode that we did on Richard

3:41

Hoagland. And we will

3:43

be back here with a brand new episode

3:45

next week. Some

3:50

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4:02

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4:04

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website for details. Richard

5:22

Houghland was a successful family man who

5:24

lived with his wife in two sons

5:26

in a suburb outside of Indianapolis, Indiana.

5:29

On February 10th,

5:31

1993, he called his wife from work and told her

5:33

he was sick and heading to the emergency room. He

5:36

never came home again. For

5:39

over 23 years, his wife Linda and their

5:41

two sons wondered about his fate. But

5:44

in 2016, a bizarre story

5:46

emerged that proved Richard Houghland wasn't

5:48

who they or anyone else thought

5:50

he was. When

5:53

a person goes missing, there's a special kind of pain

5:55

in the not knowing. I want to

5:57

tell the stories of those who never came home. I

6:00

want to tell you the story of Richard Houghland.

6:03

I'm Kona Gallagher. And I'm Ethan Plick. And

6:05

this is, And Then They Were Gone. Welcome

6:47

back, everyone. Welcome back. This

6:50

case that I'm bringing you today is Richard

6:52

Houghland. And I know some of you listening

6:54

might be confused because you're like, but you

6:56

did this one already. Right, Houghie. Right.

6:59

But that is Robert

7:01

Houghland. There

7:04

was another married middle-aged father

7:06

who had gone missing and

7:08

was eventually found. But

7:10

this man was Richard Houghland. Weird.

7:14

Yeah. Not from the same

7:16

area, right? No. Indiana

7:18

and Connecticut. Okay. All

7:20

right. Yeah. That would be

7:22

really weird. I know, right? If they were like both from

7:24

Connecticut or whatever. Richard Houghland and

7:26

Linda Eisler married in 1982. It

7:30

was Richard's second marriage and Linda's

7:32

first. Children followed

7:34

soon after. Two boys named Matthew and

7:36

Doug. Richard Houghland

7:38

worked in insurance and was able to

7:40

afford his family an upper middle-class lifestyle.

7:43

They owned a large home outside of

7:45

Indianapolis and had a speedboat that they

7:47

would take out on the lake. They

7:51

went on lavish vacations and Richard

7:53

owned a closet full of expensive

7:56

suits. They were living the

7:58

American dream. that

8:00

all began to change in 1993.

8:03

Linda noticed that Richard was beginning to

8:06

act strangely. Her husband,

8:08

who was usually spontaneous and fun, was

8:10

now acting distant and withdrawn. She

8:13

feared that he was sinking into depression. Her

8:15

fears only grew when on February 10th,

8:20

1993, she received a bizarre phone call

8:22

from her husband. Richard, who

8:24

was at work, called her and told her that he

8:26

was sick. Sick enough

8:28

that he thought he had to go

8:30

to the emergency room. Oh no. Yeah.

8:32

So like, very bad. And Linda,

8:35

of course, you know, being a good wife, said

8:37

that she would go with him because, you know,

8:39

you don't want to just have your husband going

8:41

to the emergency room alone. But

8:44

he said that he couldn't wait and that he was going to

8:46

go now. About 40 minutes

8:48

after this phone call, Linda left to go pick up

8:50

their son Doug, who was six at the time from

8:52

daycare. When she got home,

8:54

their older son Matthew, who was

8:56

nine, was home alone.

8:59

Now this is in 1993 before

9:01

most people had cell phones and Linda

9:03

was worried about her husband. So like,

9:05

he was supposed to have been home

9:07

with their son Matthew. And so obviously

9:09

it sounds like he's at the hospital.

9:12

She's worried, you know. Well, sure. But

9:14

I mean, any emergency room visit is going to

9:16

be a lot longer than 45 minutes. Exactly.

9:18

Exactly. Even if there's like nothing wrong with you.

9:21

Do we know, did he say anything about what symptoms he

9:23

had or anything like that to his wife? Not

9:25

that I saw, just that he was very sick.

9:28

I'm sure he did because it would be really

9:30

insane if he didn't. But you know, I'm only

9:32

going to call you the next time I

9:34

feel sick and just say, I feel sick.

9:37

I feel sick. I'm going to the ER.

9:39

And not tell you anything. No further information

9:41

available. But yeah, it was not in the articles that

9:43

I read. I think, you know, by

9:45

the time a lot of this was written about, nobody

9:48

really cared. Fair

9:50

point. But of course,

9:52

at the time, she's worried because, you

9:54

know, she hadn't heard from him. He

9:56

wasn't home. Like, she didn't know what was

9:58

going on. six-year-old who,

10:01

I mean, I guess

10:03

you could leave the nine-year-old in charge of the

10:05

six-year-old, but that's kind of pushing it. Yeah,

10:07

it was the early 90s, so like maybe,

10:09

but you know. That's true. But yeah, you're

10:11

right. It is pushing it. So

10:14

she, of course, called the hospital, but

10:17

he wasn't there. So

10:19

that was like the closest hospital that she

10:21

called. So she called a different hospital, but

10:24

no, Richard, he hadn't checked

10:26

in at any hospital in the area.

10:30

Linda was growing more confused and more concerned

10:33

by the minute, but then

10:35

Richard called. Did he say where

10:37

he was? Well, not exactly.

10:41

When he called that evening, he said

10:43

the words that would change the course

10:46

of Linda's life. Quote, I

10:48

can't live this way anymore. I feel you

10:50

would be better off without me. End

10:52

quote. That's not good. No,

10:55

and that is all he said before

10:57

hanging out. So

11:00

no time for follow-up questions. No like, what

11:02

do you mean by that? No,

11:04

you know, we won't be

11:06

better without you. Like what are you planning? You

11:09

know, she must have been

11:11

absolutely terrified, you know? Well, yeah, I mean,

11:14

does that mean – I'm sure it's running through her

11:16

head. Does that mean is he

11:19

divorcing me? Is he suicidal?

11:21

Exactly. It could be

11:23

any number of things, none of which are good. Right,

11:26

yeah. So she was

11:28

frantic, you know, I'm sure running through every

11:30

single possibility on her head, you know, while

11:32

still trying to take care of their two

11:34

kids, who of course they're kids. So they're

11:36

like, okay, well, when's dinner, you know? Yeah.

11:40

But then he called back and

11:43

said something even more bizarre. Quote,

11:46

I don't want to go to jail. I'm

11:48

never coming back. End quote. All

11:53

right. Yeah. So again, he

11:55

hung up before when he was able

11:57

to ask any follow-up questions like jail.

12:00

Yeah, like

12:02

what are you talking about because to

12:04

her knowledge Richard like wasn't in any

12:06

trouble He wasn't a lawbreaker You

12:09

know there was no reason that she was aware of

12:11

that this would even be a concern for him and

12:14

you said he sold insurance Yeah Like

12:19

from all accounts he's like a standard family

12:21

man 9 to 5 type of dude like

12:23

no, you know Vices

12:26

that she's aware of like nothing, you know

12:28

She could not figure out what any of

12:30

this was about like all of it came

12:32

out of the blue You know, he left

12:34

for work that morning and she thought everything

12:36

was normal So after

12:39

he called, you know, she didn't know what to do

12:41

So she started looking around the house to see if

12:43

she could like find any answers to whatever the hell

12:45

was happening All of

12:47

Richard's things were still there his clothes

12:50

his passport his toothbrush You

12:53

know, he of course had his wallet with him obviously

12:56

But it was February in

12:59

Indianapolis, which is terrible

13:01

weather and His winter

13:03

coat was still there which honestly is weird because

13:06

it seems strange to me that he wouldn't have

13:08

just taken that to Work that morning, you

13:10

know, yeah Whether he was planning this

13:12

or not exactly. Yeah, regardless like you would think

13:14

that you would take your winter coat to work

13:16

with you So when

13:19

he didn't return home Linda reported him

13:21

missing I don't know a

13:24

lot about you know, how police immediately

13:26

reacted. I'm sure that they didn't like

13:29

Hop to it that night but

13:31

it does sound like they Started

13:34

an investigation relatively quickly like they

13:36

might have made her wait that

13:38

stereotypical 48 hours I'm

13:41

not exactly sure but a few

13:43

days later. They were actively looking

13:45

and They

13:47

found his car Richard's

13:49

car was found abandoned at

13:52

the Indianapolis International Airport. Oh

13:56

Yeah, so of course,

13:58

you know, they're thinking like, oh, he

14:01

like took off. But

14:03

his name wasn't listed on any flights that

14:05

had gone out. However,

14:09

keep in mind, this is pre-9-11. And

14:12

while you did still have to like show

14:15

ID to get on a plane, it was

14:17

a lot easier to get on

14:19

a flight. You know, there were

14:21

way fewer checks. Like I think that if,

14:23

you know, maybe if you had like a

14:25

fake ID or something along those lines, you

14:28

would have a much better chance of getting on a plane in 1993

14:30

than you would now. Sure.

14:34

But you also have to think that he

14:37

had to have used a credit card to purchase the

14:39

ticket. No, because you could do it in cash then. Well,

14:42

yeah, I mean, I understand that, but like,

14:46

seems kind of weird if he had like a couple hundred

14:48

bucks just in his wallet. I don't

14:50

know, I mean, he could have gone to the ATN. Or

14:53

if he was planning this, you know, he could have

14:55

been squirreling cash away. Yeah, that's true. Linda

14:59

doesn't know what to make of this though. You know,

15:01

like I said, they found his car at the

15:03

airport. They think maybe he took a flight,

15:05

but you know, without his name on any

15:08

passenger lists, they have no clue as to

15:11

one if he did, or two where he

15:13

could have gone. Right. But

15:15

then later that month, Linda

15:18

heard from Richard. He

15:20

called her collect a few times, but

15:23

offered a little in the way of explanation. Linda

15:27

was able to trace the calls and

15:29

they came from Aruba and

15:31

Venezuela. Oh, no extradition

15:33

in Venezuela. Oh, is that true? Yeah.

15:36

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. So

15:39

if he did commit some crime that

15:41

he thought he was going to get arrested for, they're

15:47

not gonna be able to extradite him from

15:49

Venezuela. Yeah, well, I find it amazing

15:51

that he made it to Aruba and he didn't

15:53

have his passport with him. Oh, right. He

15:56

must have like had some sort

15:58

of fake passport or something because. He would have

16:00

had to take a plane. You can't

16:02

drive down to Aruba, it's an island.

16:07

So I find it really interesting that

16:09

he was able to get there and

16:11

then from there, presumably

16:14

to Venezuela. I don't

16:16

know if he made stops in between, but either

16:18

way, that's impressive. Yeah, definitely. I

16:23

mean, even I don't think

16:25

Aruba was one of those countries that you

16:27

could get into with just

16:30

a birth certificate like Canada. Oh,

16:32

yeah, yeah, yeah. Back then, but...

16:34

But even if Aruba was, then

16:36

it's way lower. Venezuela, definitely. Yeah,

16:39

exactly. So I don't know. But

16:41

yeah, I mean, really, he ended

16:44

up a lot further away than I think anybody

16:46

expected. So Linda

16:48

still, even though he had been in touch

16:50

and she knew he was at least alive,

16:52

she had no idea what was actually going

16:54

on or what prompted any of this. But

16:57

her life was falling apart. Not

17:01

only did she lose the husband and

17:03

the father of her children, but Richard

17:05

was the breadwinner and he just split,

17:08

leaving her with no money or backup

17:10

plan, just a bunch of

17:12

maxed out credit cards. To

17:15

make matters worse, police were beginning to think that

17:17

there was more to the story. They

17:20

started suspecting Richard of being involved

17:22

in illegal business dealings. What's

17:25

more is they thought Linda was in on

17:27

it as well. I wonder

17:29

why they would think that. Well,

17:32

their theory was that Richard had a left

17:34

to set up a new life and that

17:36

Linda and the boys would be following him.

17:39

I mean, if that was the case, it would

17:41

be odd for her to report him

17:44

missing. Well, maybe, you know, it was

17:46

a situation where like she

17:49

was doing that to throw suspicion off

17:52

of herself, right? You know, she played

17:54

the role of this confused wife

17:57

who didn't know what had happened and nobody

17:59

would suspect. that she was involved

18:01

in these illegal business dealings. It

18:04

seems kind of elaborate though, you know?

18:06

Yeah. Especially considering, like up

18:09

to this point, it didn't

18:11

seem like any law enforcement was

18:13

investigating him. So like if he

18:15

was planning on picking up and starting a new life

18:18

somewhere and then bringing the wife and kids

18:20

over, like just go and

18:22

do it. Right, and don't talk about

18:24

it and just like quietly. Just disappear, yeah.

18:26

Yeah, yeah. Like the whole family.

18:28

Well, exactly, yeah. Linda

18:30

told ABC News, quote, they interrogated me

18:33

over and over. They alluded a lot

18:35

to the possibility that he was involved

18:37

in some type of drug trafficking, which

18:39

I had no clue, end quote. Though

18:42

Linda had nothing to do with her husband's

18:45

disappearance or any illegal dealings, whatever

18:47

they were, she did begin to think that

18:49

the police may have been onto something regarding

18:51

her husband because strange

18:54

things started happening. Linda

18:57

noticed that she was being followed around

18:59

town. When she received

19:01

her mail, much of it looked like it

19:03

had already been opened and resealed. And

19:06

her father even found a listening

19:09

device on her phone. Interesting.

19:12

Yeah. So

19:14

something was going on, but

19:17

she had no idea what. Eventually,

19:19

the financial mess that Richard left

19:21

became too much for Linda, and

19:23

she lost their house and

19:25

their car. She and

19:27

her boys moved in with her parents to save

19:30

money, but Linda still felt like she was being

19:32

watched. This feeling

19:34

didn't go away, and six months later,

19:36

she took her children and moved to

19:38

another town in Indiana and basically went

19:41

into hiding. She put

19:43

all of her bills in her parents' name and

19:45

would make her kids catch the school bus from

19:47

a friend's house so that nobody knew where they

19:49

lived. And

19:51

this paranoia lasted four years. And when

19:54

I say paranoia, I'm not saying that

19:56

it's unjustified because, again, her

19:59

dad found a listening device. on her

20:01

phone. I don't know

20:03

if whatever was going on continued for

20:05

all of those years or whatever, but

20:07

she definitely had a reason to be

20:10

paranoid. Yeah, it's worth the caution.

20:12

Yeah. So after

20:14

the collect calls in February of

20:16

1993, Linda didn't hear from

20:19

Richard again. The next

20:21

contact, though, came later that year

20:23

via birthday cards to

20:25

Matthew and Doug, each of

20:27

which had $50 inside. A

20:31

return address or stamps

20:34

from another country? No,

20:36

no. And yeah, I

20:39

don't remember and I don't have it

20:41

in here specifically

20:43

where it was postmarked from, but I know

20:46

that it was just kind of a dead

20:48

end, wherever it was. The card that

20:50

he sent to Doug for his seventh

20:52

birthday read, quote, have a

20:54

super birthday. You are a super boy.

20:57

I love you and miss seeing

20:59

you. Let your mom help spend this

21:01

money. You might want to put some away. Maybe

21:03

sometime soon we will get to see each other. I bet

21:06

I won't even know you. It has been

21:08

so long. Find your mother by dad,

21:11

end quote. Like

21:15

what a fucked up birthday

21:17

card to send your seven year old

21:19

son after you abandoned your family like,

21:21

you know, eight months prior or whatever. Sure,

21:24

it came up in therapy. Yeah,

21:27

yeah. But after those

21:29

cards, Richard never tried to

21:31

contact his family again. No more

21:34

cards, no more phone calls. Nothing.

21:37

As the years went on, Linda

21:39

started to rebuild her life. She

21:41

divorced Richard in absentia after

21:44

finding out that right before he left, he maxed

21:46

out a total of 26 credit cards. Whoa.

21:50

Yeah. And even forged

21:52

Linda's signature on a loan.

21:55

Wow. Now

21:58

the judge ordered Richard to pay the debt. but

22:00

you know, he obviously wasn't around to do so

22:02

but... It was meaningless but... Great,

22:04

well no, it's not meaningless because I

22:06

mean, because they were married, they were

22:09

herd deaths as well. Oh yeah, yeah.

22:11

So that was a really important judgment

22:13

in terms of like, Linda being able

22:15

to live a functional life. Yeah,

22:17

no, I just, I wasn't thinking about it like that but

22:19

you're right. Yeah.

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22:24

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22:26

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Colombo Law. Linda eventually

23:46

remarried and worked as a nurse. Matthew

23:49

grew up and started his own family. Doug,

23:52

the one who was younger, who got

23:54

that birthday card, had a much rougher

23:56

go of it. He

23:58

says now that his issues were related to

24:00

his father's disappearance but his mother

24:03

disagrees. I mean they might have been

24:05

related to the birthday card. Yeah,

24:07

like specifically just that fucking birthday

24:09

card. She believes

24:11

that the toll that you know

24:13

Richard's whole abandonment

24:16

took on her family was immense, which

24:18

of course it was like how could

24:20

it not be? Yeah. When

24:23

Doug was in high school he broke his

24:26

hand. The doctors prescribed him pay

24:28

medicine and like we

24:30

know... Then it went downhill from there.

24:32

It did, you know, like it

24:35

happens for so so many people.

24:37

So that led

24:39

to a drug problem that has plagued

24:41

him ever since. He

24:43

has spent most of his adult life

24:46

in jail in prison for various just

24:48

drug related offenses. For

24:50

23 years Linda and

24:53

her two sons lived without answers until

24:56

2016 when she received a call from a

24:59

detective in Pasco County, Florida.

25:02

Detective Anthony Cardillo asked Linda if she

25:05

knew a man named

25:07

Richard Hoagland. She

25:09

told him yes, that was her ex-husband. Who

25:13

was also dead. Yeah, also officially

25:15

legally dead. And

25:17

had been at this point for 13 years. But

25:20

this detective told Linda that they

25:22

had her husband in custody. Okay,

25:25

so let's talk about what a piece of shit this guy is.

25:29

Also a dumbass because he

25:31

came back to the States and got arrested

25:33

in Florida. Well, 23 years later,

25:36

so apparently he was kind of good

25:39

at it. And

25:41

you will not believe when you hear

25:43

what this guy's been up to for the past 23 years.

25:45

Alright, let's get into it. So

25:48

apparently Richard bounced around Aruba, Venezuela and who knows

25:50

where else in 1993. But by 1994 he landed

25:52

in Florida. He

26:00

was in Florida that whole

26:02

time that whole time Wow,

26:06

okay. I take it back. I guess he's not as much

26:08

of a dumbass as I thought. Yeah, I mean

26:11

a piece of shit Yeah for

26:13

sure But yeah, so

26:15

he got to Florida and

26:17

he rented a room from

26:19

a man named Edward Simanski

26:22

Edward was grieving the loss of his son Terry

26:24

who had recently died in a fishing accident Richard

26:28

found Harry's death certificate and was

26:30

able to use the information on

26:33

it to request a birth certificate

26:39

Yep now with that

26:41

he was able to receive an

26:43

Alabama driver's license through the mail

26:46

Through the mail through the mail, which is

26:48

why I assume he did Alabama instead of Florida.

26:51

Yeah Now

26:53

once he had that Alabama driver's

26:55

license, he was able to obtain

26:57

a Florida driver's license. Gotcha

27:01

After that Richard began living his

27:03

life as Terry Simanski He

27:06

even got married As

27:09

Terry Simanski as Terry Simanski

27:14

Yep, and within a few years

27:16

his new wife gave birth to his son

27:20

What the hell Yeah together

27:22

they built a lovely life for themselves They

27:27

bought a home and investment properties that

27:29

they rented out Is

27:32

that what he did for a living? Yeah, basically Richard

27:35

even received his pilot's license and had

27:37

his own plane What?

27:42

Like he was living the life While

27:46

he left his first family in financial ruin being like

27:48

followed around and listened to and spied on and just

27:50

you know living through hell for years Richard

27:53

was finally discovered by the real Terry Simanski's nephew

28:01

In 2013, he was looking up

28:04

his family on ancestry.com and

28:06

found Terry Szymanski's marriage

28:08

certificate and pilot's license,

28:11

both of which were issued after they had buried him

28:13

in 1991. According

28:18

to an article on Medium written by

28:20

Shabango Lakshmi, the Szymanski family

28:22

was hesitant to do anything with this

28:25

information. They didn't know who

28:27

had stolen Terry's identity and they didn't know

28:29

if this would put them in danger or

28:31

what, you know? They

28:34

didn't know what they were looking at,

28:36

what they were walking into, potentially nothing. But

28:41

in 2016, so like three years later, their

28:43

nephew said, you know what, screw it, and

28:45

decided to contact the police anyway. When

28:48

Detective Cardio confronted Richard, he swore

28:50

that he was Terry Szymanski. He

28:53

provided his Social Security number, driver's

28:55

license, and birth certificate. Which

28:58

all seemed legit. Well, yeah, because they

29:01

were really, you know? They had

29:03

been issued by the proper government

29:05

agencies, you know? They weren't forgeries

29:08

or anything like that. They

29:10

were just gotten under

29:12

false pretenses. But then

29:15

Cardio showed Richard Terry's death

29:17

certificate and then

29:19

Richard finally admitted who he really was.

29:23

Richard was arrested for identity theft and

29:26

Indiana authorities wanted to charge him with

29:28

a lot more. Yeah, I'm sure.

29:31

Unfortunately, any other crimes,

29:33

including theft for the

29:35

money he took from Linda in order to start his

29:37

new life, had statutes of

29:40

limitations that had already run out.

29:43

Wow. Yeah, so like the fraud, like all of that

29:45

stuff. It had been 23 years, you know? And

29:48

basically statute of limitations in the US,

29:50

I mean, granted, it varies from state

29:52

to state, but like pretty much beyond

29:54

like murder, like 23 years, you can

29:56

get Away with. When

30:00

a lot like most statutes of

30:02

Limitations, Are. Up by then we'll yeah

30:04

and especially white collar crime. Exactly exactly

30:07

a you're talking probably five to ten

30:09

years and most yeah. So.

30:11

Eventually he ended up being sentenced

30:13

to two years in federal prison

30:16

for the identity theft. After

30:19

his release and Twenty Teen Winter

30:21

sued Richard for back child support

30:23

and was awarded one point eight

30:26

three million dollars. Did

30:28

Richard have that Now for sauce?

30:31

That hearing that was the first

30:33

time that Richards abandoned wife and

30:35

children had seen him in person

30:37

since Nineteen Ninety Three. God,

30:40

I can't even imagine that. His.

30:42

Younger son died Told the Indianapolis Star quote

30:44

if you think you had two kids and

30:46

you wanted to see them so bad. You

30:49

think you'd be a little bit emotional? But.

30:51

This guy. Nothing. There.

30:53

Is nothing there? And. Quote.

30:58

Neither. Of the Hoagland children wants to have

31:01

a relationship with the father who abandon them. Marry.

31:04

The woman he married in Florida divorced him

31:06

after his arrest and was able to keep

31:08

most of their assets. Are Well

31:10

that's good. Yeah is. I. Mean

31:13

Sunedison Podium: Of yeah I mean from

31:15

all accounts like she had no idea. I

31:17

mean she thought she married terrorists Umansky had

31:19

no idea about you know anything that he

31:21

had done in Indianapolis. So. She was

31:23

from what I can tell, like another innocent

31:26

victim and all of us. It's.

31:28

Unclear what routers relationship is with his

31:30

youngest son who was nineteen at the

31:32

time of his arrest. but Richard miss

31:34

back to Indiana after he was released

31:36

from prison was like. That part shocks

31:38

me. it's like do nobody. Oh and

31:40

to their like to cycle is this

31:43

to pick another state? Yeah to Slate.

31:45

Maybe Florida has done for you to

31:47

about like we have. Forty eight more

31:49

states are just go back to fucking

31:51

Venezuela. Yeah I just get out. Nobody

31:53

wants you. But. that's

31:56

basically it richard lake apparently has some sort

31:58

of gym lot and he is to

32:00

pay Linda back, you know, but

32:02

you know, he's not going to

32:04

like he's not going to be able to

32:06

pay back 1.83 million dollars and he's probably

32:08

working like the lowest like menial job that

32:11

he can, you know,

32:13

so that he doesn't have to. Right.

32:16

But yeah, he's just a shitty

32:18

person who abandoned his family. We've

32:21

covered many cases in which police have

32:23

believed that a missing person just ran off

32:26

to start a new life. And

32:28

this is one where it actually happened. Yeah. Yeah.

32:30

And there's still, we still don't

32:32

know like who the people were that

32:34

were that was following. No, or like

32:38

never found on her phone, any

32:40

of that out or really what

32:42

crimes he even actually committed other

32:44

than like, you know, like I said, it

32:47

does sound like he did. He was scrolling

32:49

away cash or something. Yeah. Yeah.

32:51

You know, in order to make his escape.

32:54

But yeah, I don't know if it

32:57

was insurance fraud, or if he was

32:59

involved in like illegal business dealings, if

33:01

there was some sort of like crime

33:04

element, drugs, gambling, like we have no

33:06

idea what this guy was actually into.

33:08

Like nobody was really able to figure

33:10

it out. Crazy. Yeah. And

33:13

it is worth mentioning before, you know, you may

33:15

start to think like,

33:17

Oh, well, maybe more people do run

33:20

off and start new lives. Like, unlike

33:22

the other stories we've told where that's

33:25

been a theory, he did contact people

33:27

after his disappearance. You

33:29

know, right? Yeah. The

33:31

shitty birthday card, the phone calls, exactly.

33:33

Multiple phone calls, you know, whatever.

33:36

So while yes, some people do run

33:38

off with no belongings, you know, no winter

33:40

coat to start a

33:42

new life. Most of them are not

33:45

Richard Houghland, thankfully.

34:10

Thank you for joining us for

34:12

this very special Patreon bonus episode

34:14

on a solved missing

34:16

person's case. Thank

34:19

you again so much for subscribing to our

34:22

Patreon. If you could actually, if you haven't

34:25

left us a review, that would be

34:27

great on the podcast app of your

34:29

choice. Yeah, that would be fantastic. Good

34:31

pods. Yeah, Apple, Spotify.

34:33

Apple, Spotify, anything. Podbean,

34:36

interestingly, is like our third highest source

34:38

of listeners. So don't know what that's about.

34:40

Never heard of it. No, yes, there

34:42

is Hayas. So like, it's another, you know,

34:44

platform. But yeah, so Podbean. So iHeartRadio,

34:46

we're everywhere. And you know, tell

34:48

your friends if you like it. Obviously you do.

34:51

You're on our Patreon. So thank you for that. But

34:53

yeah, tell your friends. You

34:56

know, we are trying to grow the podcast.

34:58

We've got some exciting things coming up. Oh,

35:01

we just started a Facebook group.

35:04

Oh, right. Yeah. So

35:06

this is a Facebook group

35:08

where you come and discuss

35:10

the episodes, but also anything

35:12

having to do with missing

35:15

persons cases. So not exclusively cases

35:17

that we've covered. Exactly. You

35:19

know, we will be posting about our cases, but

35:21

you can post about anything that you want. It

35:23

is a public group called Unsolved

35:25

Missing Persons Cases. It is public. Like

35:27

I said, you could get to it

35:30

from our Facebook page or you can

35:32

just search for it on Facebook. But

35:34

please, you know, join us. We have

35:36

just gotten started like two days ago.

35:39

So, you know, we've got a few members,

35:41

but not most of our listeners. So we

35:43

would love to see you there. Again,

35:46

we will have a normal episode next week.

35:48

So stay tuned for that. And

35:50

in the meantime, we will see you here soon. See

35:53

you soon. When

36:01

someone is heard a truck accident

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the one question everyone has is

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36:25

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36:27

truck call Colombo. Law.

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