0:00

On a winter night in a small

0:02

community near Denver, Colorado, Jim

0:04

Matthews arrived home late. He expected

0:06

to find his twelve year old daughter who'd been dropped

0:09

off after a Christmas concert. But when

0:11

he called out, hey Janelle, the

0:13

house was eerily quiet. His

0:15

daughter's shoes were on the floor, but

0:17

she was gone. And it would be

0:19

thirty five years before she would be found

0:21

dead. After the discovery of

0:23

Janelle Matthew's body in two thousand nineteen,

0:26

the police turned their attention to a man

0:28

who had told law enforcement years ago

0:30

that he knew something. But they

0:32

dismissed him. The man did seem

0:34

obsessed with the case. But is that

0:36

all he was? A true crime fanatic

0:39

or a killer? Wondery

0:41

and campsite media's shocking True

0:43

Crime Podcast suspect is back

0:45

for a second season with a story that

0:48

attempts to separate fact from fiction.

0:50

Compulsion from guilt, and one

0:52

man's true crime obsession from a motive

0:54

for murder. I'm about to play a clip

0:56

from suspect vanished in the snow.

0:58

While you're listening, follow suspect wherever

1:01

you get your podcast. Hey, Prime members.

1:03

You can binge all six episodes, ad free

1:05

on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon

1:07

Music app today.

1:13

Well County is a desert. Phil's

1:17

relatively warm outside for Colorado

1:19

in December,

1:21

and this the sky is just

1:23

this Caribbean blue. It's

1:26

winter, but it's hot out, dry,

1:28

and dusty. The snow capped

1:30

rocky mountains are all behind

1:32

us. Ahead, it's

1:35

flat. The horizon goes

1:37

on forever.

1:38

I feel like we're in the Wikipedia of tumbleweeds.

1:41

Don't you feel rich in Tombridge? It's shit.

1:45

People tear ass down this road.

1:47

A few of the trucks passing us are

1:49

super up, brand new tires,

1:52

jacked high, oil and gas workers

1:54

apparently un bothered by speed

1:56

limits. If there is speed

1:58

limit out here. We're

2:00

relieved to turn into dirt driveway

2:03

of a lone rambling house. Hi,

2:05

guys. Hello

2:08

again. I'm

2:13

Jodie. You can try it. Vance and

2:15

Jody Gilliland live so far from

2:17

most of their neighbors that it's easier to

2:19

drive to see them. Across

2:21

from their house is a field that

2:23

stretches about a thousand acres. It's

2:26

full of brush and weeds. The

2:28

kind of place where people often, well,

2:31

a ban and things.

2:32

Old mattresses, washers, and dryers,

2:35

even boats. It's like, wow.

2:38

Almost tender to hook that up and take it home. See

2:40

what I can do. But

2:43

no. I mean, people still still do

2:45

dump things out here, but it's

2:47

usually quick and

2:48

run. Quick and run. I mean, what they can show up the

2:50

back when trucking two seconds. In

2:53

the summer of twenty nineteen, Vance

2:56

and Jody were in their kitchen when they saw

2:58

blue and red lights across

3:00

the perimeter of their property. All

3:02

of a sudden, there was cop cars

3:04

going by, and I was like, uh-oh, up

3:06

until it was dark actually. They were out there.

3:08

And they

3:11

were out there forever. Fans

3:13

and Jody soon learned those oil and

3:15

gas workers and their fancy pickups

3:18

they'd unearth a small

3:20

human skull with a

3:22

single bullet hole in it. And

3:24

authorities knew exactly

3:26

who the remains belong to. It

3:28

is the cold case that has baffled the

3:30

Greeley community for nearly thirty five

3:33

years, but

3:33

tonight, police may be closer to

3:35

figuring out what how into Janelle Matthews.

3:37

The twelve year old disappeared from her home in

3:40

late nineteen eighty four.

3:42

Her remains were discovered this

3:43

week. By a construction crew in rural

3:46

Weld County. Gone for thirty

3:48

five years, today, human remains founded

3:50

in oil and gas site in Greeley give investigators

3:52

new leads on a decades old

3:54

cold case. Like

3:57

a lot of Colorado residents who

3:59

had been following Janelle's case since

4:01

the nineteen eighties. Vance

4:03

and Jody watched the news reports

4:05

with fascination. They

4:07

waited to hear what would happen next,

4:10

hoping that the remains in the

4:12

field would finally lead investigators to

4:14

the killer. As it turned

4:16

out, it wouldn't be nearly

4:19

so simple. This

4:22

is a story about obsession, my

4:25

own. Sure. So

4:27

I am working on a

4:29

podcast about the Janelle Matthews

4:31

case. I know you know about that

4:33

case. Right?

4:34

I assume you're probably well versed.

4:36

I thought I'd try you one last time,

4:39

but also the obsession of a community

4:41

that kept pushing to find Janelle,

4:44

to get her name into the national

4:46

spa light and all

4:48

the way to the White

4:49

House. For example, I learned about

4:51

Jonelle Matthews of Greeley, Colorado.

4:54

Who would have celebrated a happy thirteenth

4:56

birthday with her family

4:58

just last month. And it's about

5:00

the obsessions of a self described

5:03

true I'm junky. A man

5:05

who had started talking about the

5:07

Janelle Matthews case just

5:09

a few days after police responded

5:11

to a distress

5:12

call. From her home.

5:14

And over the next thirty five years,

5:17

he kept talking and

5:19

talking It was just me

5:22

trying to be

5:24

a big man in the

5:25

case. He's a busy body. He gets

5:27

himself in the middle of murder cases. But

5:29

that doesn't necessarily mean he

5:31

actually was involved in them. People are

5:33

like, oh, he's just crazy and he's just

5:36

he's he's just being bad or or

5:38

whatever else. And he's he's

5:40

harmless. He wouldn't hurt anybody. He's

5:42

such a good liar that he can convince

5:44

the juror that he wasn't involved.

5:46

So, you know, he's a

5:48

liar. He is. He was a good one.

5:50

I turned around and I said, you're gonna

5:52

be arrested for obstructing. If you

5:54

don't get back in your car. And

5:56

he says, don't fuck with

5:58

me, officer Edgerton. I

6:00

bury more people than you'll know. When

6:03

he was shot, you know, Matthew's in the forehead? Was

6:05

she begging for her life? Never

6:07

had her name. Hey,

6:12

Prime members. You can binge all six

6:14

episodes of suspect vanished in the

6:16

snow. Add free on Amazon Music.

6:18

Download the Amazon Music app today.