Episode Transcript
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0:00
On a winter night in a small community
0:02
near Denver, Colorado, Jim Matthews
0:04
arrived home late. He expected to
0:07
find his twelve year old daughter who'd been dropped
0:09
off after Christmas concert. But when he
0:11
called out, hey Janelle, the house
0:13
was eerily quiet. His daughter's shoes
0:15
were on the floor, but she was gone,
0:17
and it would be thirty five years before
0:19
she would be found dead. After
0:22
the discovery of Janelle Matthew's body
0:24
in two thousand nineteen, the police turned
0:26
their attention to a man who had told law enforcement
0:28
years ago that he knew something. But they
0:31
dismissed him. The man did seem
0:33
obsessed with the case, but is that all
0:35
he was a true crime fanatic, or
0:37
was he a killer? Wondery and
0:39
campsite media shocking crime
0:41
podcast suspect is back for
0:43
a second season. This time with a story
0:45
that attempts to separate fact from fiction,
0:48
compulsion from guilt, and one man's
0:50
true crime obsession from a motive for
0:52
murder. You're about to hear a clip from
0:54
suspect vanished in the snow. While
0:57
you're listening. Follow suspect wherever you
0:59
get your podcasts. And hey, Prime members.
1:01
You can binge all six episodes ad
1:03
free on Amazon Music. Download the
1:05
Amazon Music app today.
1:12
Weld County is a desert. Feels
1:15
relatively warm outside for Colorado
1:17
in December. And
1:20
this the sky is just this
1:22
Kibbi and blue. It's
1:25
winter, but it's hot out, dry,
1:27
and dusty. The snow capped
1:29
rocky mountains are all behind us.
1:32
Ahead, it's flat. The
1:34
horizon goes on forever. I
1:37
feel like we're in the Wikipedia Temple.
1:39
We It's don't you feel rich and sound rich
1:41
and something else? Yeah. Boom. Shit.
1:44
People tear ass down this road.
1:46
A few of the trucks passing us or souped
1:48
up, brand new, tires, jacked
1:50
high, oil and gas workers
1:52
apparently un bothered by speed
1:55
limits. If there is a speed
1:57
limit out here. We're
1:59
relieved to turn into a dirt driveway
2:01
of a lone rambling house. Hi,
2:04
guys. Hello
2:06
again. I'm
2:11
Jody. You can try Vance and
2:13
Jody Gilliland lives so far from
2:16
most of their neighbors that it's easier
2:18
to drive to see them. Across
2:20
from their house is a field that stretches
2:22
about a thou and acres. It's
2:24
full of brush and weeds. The
2:27
kind of place where people often will
2:29
abandon things. Old mattresses,
2:32
wash and dryers, even boats.
2:35
It's like, wow. Almost
2:37
tended to hook that up and take it home, see what I can
2:39
do. But No.
2:42
I mean, people still still do dump
2:44
things out here, but it's
2:46
usually quick and quick and round. I mean, what
2:48
they can show up the back, what trucking two seconds?
2:51
In the summer of twenty nineteen, Vance
2:54
and Jody were in their kitchen when they saw
2:56
blue and red lights flashing across
2:59
the perimeter their property. All
3:01
of a sudden, there was cop cars
3:03
going by, and I was like, uh-oh, up
3:05
until it was dark actually. They were out there.
3:09
They were out there forever. Fans
3:12
and Jody soon learned those oil and
3:14
gas workers and their fancy pickups
3:16
they'd unearth a small
3:18
human skull with a
3:20
single bullet hole in it. And
3:23
authorities knew it exactly
3:25
who the remains belong to. It
3:27
is the cold case that has baffled the
3:29
Greeley for nearly thirty five
3:31
years, but tonight, Police may be closer
3:33
to figuring out what happened to Janelle
3:35
Matthews. The twelve year old disappeared from
3:38
her home in late nineteen eighty
3:40
four. Her remains were discovered this
3:42
week. By a construction crew in rural
3:44
Weld County. Gone for thirty
3:46
five years today, human remains founded
3:49
in oil and gas fighting Greeley give investigators
3:51
new leads on a decades old
3:53
cold case. Like
3:56
a lot of Colorado residents who
3:58
had been following Janelle's case since
4:00
the nineteen eighties. Vance
4:02
and Jody watched the news reports with
4:04
fascination. They waited
4:06
to hear what would happen next, hoping
4:09
that the remains in the field would finally
4:11
lead investigators to the killer. As
4:14
it turned out, it wouldn't be
4:16
nearly so simple. This
4:20
is a story about obsession, my
4:23
own. Sure. So
4:25
I am working on podcast
4:28
about the Janelle Matthews case.
4:30
I know you know about that case.
4:32
Right? I assume you're probably well
4:34
versed. I thought I'd try you one
4:36
last time, but also
4:38
the obsession of a community that
4:40
kept pushing to find Janelle,
4:43
to get her name into the national spotlight.
4:46
And all the way to the White
4:48
House. For example, I learned about
4:50
Jonelle Matthews of Greeley Colorado.
4:53
Who would have celebrated a happy thirteenth
4:55
birthday with her family just
4:57
last month. And it's about the
4:59
obsessions of a self described true
5:02
crime junky. A man who
5:04
had started talking about the Janelle
5:06
Matthews case just a
5:08
few days after police responded
5:10
to a distress call from
5:12
her home. And over the next
5:14
thirty five years, he
5:16
kept talking and
5:18
talking. He was just me
5:20
trying to be
5:22
a big man in the case. He's a
5:24
busy body. He gets himself in the middle
5:26
of murder cases, but that doesn't
5:28
necessarily mean Actually, he was
5:30
involved in them. People are like, oh, he's
5:32
just crazy and he's just he's he's
5:34
just being bad or or whatever
5:37
else and he's he's harmless. He
5:39
wouldn't hurt anybody. He's such a good
5:41
liar that he could convince the juror
5:43
that he wasn't involved. So
5:46
You know? He's a liar. He is. He
5:48
was a good one. I turned around and
5:50
I said, you're gonna be arrested for obstructing.
5:53
If don't get back in your car. And
5:55
he says, don't fuck
5:57
with me, officer Edgerton. I
5:59
bury more people than you'll know. When
6:01
he was shot, you know Matthews in the forehead?
6:03
Was she begging for her life? Never
6:05
have her name.
6:11
Hey, Prime members. You can binge all
6:13
six episodes of suspect Vanish
6:15
in the snow, ad free on Amazon
6:17
Music. Download the Amazon Music app
6:19
today.
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