0:08

School of Humans.

0:13

On September fourteenth, twenty eighteen,

0:16

in Galesburg, Illinois, which is

0:18

on the eastern border of the state, right across

0:20

the line from Kentucky, a twenty

0:22

three year old graduate of Western Illinois

0:24

University named Tyler Smith headed

0:27

out to party with some friends. Tyler

0:30

had dreams of becoming a police officer. He

0:32

was always super athletic. He played

0:35

football in high school, and after graduating

0:37

from Western Illinois University, he

0:40

applied to and was accepted into

0:42

the Police Academy in San Jose, California.

0:45

According to his family, he was one

0:47

of only fifty candidates out of five thousand

0:50

who were selected for that program. Tyler's

0:53

mom, Sandra, said that Tyler

0:55

loved California. He loved everything

0:57

about it, especially surfing in outdoor sports.

1:00

He was super excited about his upcoming move

1:04

once he entered law enforce. Tyler

1:06

hoped to eventually possibly become a dea

1:08

agent or a work with a canine unit. He

1:11

was starting his life and chasing his dream,

1:14

and he was actually making it happen. Tyler

1:17

had also been in the Army National Guard

1:19

since twenty thirteen, and he had

1:21

come back to Illinois to fulfill his commitment

1:24

because the next day, September fifteenth,

1:27

Tyler was due to report for drills.

1:32

Tyler and his friends, a guy named

1:34

Evan and Evan's cousin Robbie,

1:37

were out drinking that night. They were

1:39

blowing off some steam and taking advantage

1:41

of their last night of freedom. According

1:44

to Tyler's mother, Sandra Halsney,

1:46

who has been working on a timeline, they

1:48

went to several bars in the area. He

1:51

and his friends left a bar at ten thirty

1:54

and were seen at a nearby atm

1:56

at around ten forty two. Then

1:59

at some point Tyler got separated

2:01

from his friends, and what happened

2:04

next is kind of a mystery because later

2:06

his friends told his mother that they

2:08

were all pretty intoxicated that night and

2:11

they can't remember exactly how they separated.

2:14

I will say I think that one of the things

2:16

that first got to me about this case

2:19

was the fact that, in my opinion, we've

2:22

all been there. We've all gotten separated from

2:24

our friends, maybe had a little bit too much to drink,

2:26

and not known where we are. There

2:28

are all times in our lives when we've been a little

2:30

bit vulnerable and in a strange place. I know

2:32

it's definitely happened to me. But

2:35

Tyler was five foot eleven and weighed

2:37

just over two hundred pounds. He was very

2:39

muscular and fit, so it's

2:41

not surprising he probably.

2:43

Felt like he could take care of himself.

2:46

Tyler started walking around lost

2:48

and made several phone calls starting

2:50

at eleven oh five pm. Then

2:53

at some point he stopped answering the phone,

2:56

and the next morning he never showed up

2:59

at the National Guard Armory to report.

3:01

At seven thirty am, around

3:03

twelve hours later, his body

3:06

was found in the Cedar Fort Creek area,

3:08

just two blocks away from where he was last seen

3:10

the night before. Since

3:15

then, Sandra Tyler's

3:17

father, Keith Smith, and the rest of his family

3:19

have been desperately trying to find out what

3:22

happened to him. How did Tyler

3:24

end up in that drainage ditch, did

3:26

he fall, did he drown? Or

3:30

could he have been murdered? I'm

3:32

Catherine Townsend. Over the past

3:34

five years of making my true crime podcast,

3:36

Helen Gone, I've learned there's

3:38

no such thing as a small town where

3:40

murder never happens. I have received

3:43

hundreds of messages from people all around

3:45

the country asking for help with an unsolved

3:47

murder that's affected them, their families,

3:49

and their communities. If you

3:52

have a case you'd like me and my team to look into,

3:54

you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder

3:56

Line at six seven eight seven

3:59

four four six one four five.

4:01

That's six seven eight seven, four four

4:04

six or five. This

4:07

is Helen Gone Murder Line.

4:40

Sandra and her son Tyler have always

4:43

been close. In fact, Sandra said

4:45

she was going to drive with him to start his new

4:47

life in California. They were supposed

4:49

to leave in just a couple of weeks, but

4:52

before he left town, Tyler made those

4:54

plans for a night out with some of his old friends.

4:57

Sandra said that Tyler told her and

4:59

his father, Keith, that he was planning on staying

5:02

at a friend's house.

5:03

Here's Sandra and they out

5:06

and they were drinking and

5:09

I'm assuming he was celebrating leaving.

5:11

You know, it was his last drill, so that

5:13

was a big thing for him.

5:16

And he went out with his friends and

5:19

you know, he's just turned twenty three. I mean,

5:21

that's what they do. They go out, they drink, they have

5:23

fun. They went to light maybe four or

5:25

five bars. There's just one block

5:28

of bars, they walked everywhere, and

5:30

so he had went missing and he didn't

5:32

show up for drill. And I didn't even know this until

5:35

about Saturday, about four point thirty, I got

5:37

a messenger. I got a phone call from Evan,

5:40

who was this guy that he was supposed to stay with.

5:43

Sandra said she was not familiar with the area

5:45

where Tyler and his friends were, but

5:48

they weren't worried because Tyler was

5:50

obviously a very physically fit guy

5:52

who could take care of himself. Also,

5:55

Tyler was gregarious and kind

5:57

and had no issues with talking to strangers.

6:01

The next day, Sandra could

6:03

not reach her son. Then she got a

6:05

call from Evan, one of the guys who

6:07

was out with Tyler the night before, saying

6:10

that Tyler never showed up for the National Guard

6:12

drill. This was an immediate red

6:14

flag because Tyler always showed

6:16

up on time. Sandra

6:18

and Keith made the drive to Gailsburg. They

6:21

found Tyler's car in the driveway of

6:23

the house where he had been staying, but there

6:25

was no sign of their son. They

6:27

talked to his friends, Evan and Robbie about the night

6:29

before. Basically, the guys

6:32

said they had all been pretty drunk, and that after

6:34

they left the last bar, they got separated

6:36

from Tyler and they said they hadn't seen him since.

6:40

At some point Tyler ended up

6:42

with Evan's car keys. They

6:44

were found in Tyler's Jean's pockets.

6:47

Sandra claims that Evan told her at

6:49

some point, I guess they must have decided

6:51

that of the three of them, Tyler

6:53

was the most sober, and so he apparently

6:56

was going to drive at one point.

6:57

Obviously this is not a great.

6:59

Choice, which I guess they must have realized,

7:01

because in the end none of them drove home. Evan

7:05

said he woke up at five thirty am

7:07

the next morning. He realized that Tyler

7:09

wasn't there, but his stuff was there and his car

7:11

was parked in the driveway, and he

7:14

knew Tyler still had his car keys.

7:17

Evan started trying to call Tyler.

7:19

He called him at five thirty eight am five

7:21

forty five am, but Tyler never picked

7:23

up and never responded. Evan texted

7:26

again a little while later, but that text

7:28

s dayed unread. Evan

7:30

immediately reported Tyler missing

7:33

to the police that morning and also called

7:35

Sandra. Sandra said

7:37

that she has no reason to doubt any

7:39

of the story that Evan and

7:42

Robbie told her, and that they seemed

7:44

very cooperative and helpful, but she

7:46

did wonder, just being human, if there could

7:48

be more to that story. Maybe they got in

7:50

some kind of argument, maybe even just a

7:52

minor dumb, drunken argument that can we

7:55

sometimes get into after a long night out. And

7:57

then she wondered if some reason Tyler

8:00

decided to leave suddenly, and maybe he was going to

8:03

stay somewhere else. That was

8:05

just a possibility. It's also possible

8:07

that after they split up, he went on into another

8:09

bar by himself. Because it seemed

8:11

so weird that he had just randomly disappeared

8:14

into the darkness.

8:15

We don't have clear why he

8:18

was looking for another place to stay. I

8:20

don't know, you know, I just it's I'm

8:23

not saying Tyler was innocent. He could drink,

8:25

he could party with the best of them, you know, he just

8:27

did four years of the university the kitchen

8:29

party, you know. But he also

8:32

had a good head on her shoulders. It wasn't

8:34

stupid.

8:37

Sandra told Dateline that after

8:41

she and Keith talked to Tyler's friends,

8:43

they went to the police station. Then

8:45

what happened next was horrifying. She

8:48

said a pizza delivery guy randomly

8:50

walked in and said something about

8:52

a body being founded a nearby creek.

8:56

She said she sensed immediately that the body

8:58

they found was Tyler. According

9:01

to the Gailsburg Police Department, someone

9:04

was passing by the Cedar four area.

9:06

They found Tyler's body at around seven

9:09

pm on September fifteenth.

9:12

Forensic testing would reveal that

9:15

Tyler's body had been lying

9:17

there since early that morning

9:19

or the night before. He was

9:21

lying face down in about two inches

9:24

of water. Sandras said

9:26

that from the beginning she thought

9:28

the case should have been investigated as a homicide

9:30

until proven otherwise, but

9:33

the police very quickly concluded,

9:36

She said that this.

9:36

Had been an accident.

9:38

She said the autopsy was done in just thirty

9:40

one minutes, which she was later able

9:43

to figure out. And I'll get into this in much more

9:45

depth a little bit later and next

9:47

week through her own investigation.

9:49

It's so unfortunate that there's so much information

9:52

I have uncovered so much, and like

9:56

nothing's been done about it.

9:59

In fact, Sandra's advocacy for her son

10:01

and her determination she has done an incredible

10:03

amount of work really is an

10:05

another one of the main things that made me want to look

10:07

further into this case. As you all

10:09

know, I like to take cases not just to talk

10:12

about what was done and to bring the case public

10:14

attention.

10:15

But also I want to help people.

10:17

I want people out there who may be dealing

10:20

with these situations and their homes and their

10:22

towns and their families to be able

10:24

to advocate for themselves. I

10:26

want to learn what we can from this case,

10:28

and in my opinion, Sandra has done an amazing

10:31

job of getting information when she got frustrated

10:33

with the police. Because we always

10:35

struggle with that balance. I talk a lot about

10:38

this. We're always trying to ask ourselves, how

10:40

do we find information and do our own

10:42

detective work and support the police investigation,

10:45

but not interfere with it. We're always

10:47

trying to get that balance right. Tyler's

10:55

phone was found pretty intact.

10:58

The screen wasn't even cracked. According

11:01

to Sandra. There was no password protect on

11:03

that phone, so initially this would see

11:06

like a really good piece of evidence. It

11:08

seems like you'd be able to trace where he

11:10

was the night before using GPS, but

11:13

there were some complications with that, and

11:15

this is where the difference between what we see

11:17

on shows like CSI and Reality

11:20

really coming to start contrast because, first

11:22

of all, at some point in the evening, Tyler's

11:24

battery died, but that wasn't the problem.

11:27

The data was still there.

11:28

Really, the bigger problem was that apparently

11:30

Tyler, when he was walking around in that neighborhood,

11:33

that area was kind of a dead zone, so

11:36

GPS tracking apparently didn't

11:38

really work there. Sandra said

11:41

she was prepared to assist with the police investigation,

11:44

but she said she was very surprised.

11:46

When police ruled so quickly that

11:48

this had.

11:48

Been what they described as an accidental drowning,

11:52

even though Sandra said she

11:54

later learned that Tyler had several

11:57

wounds on his body that made her

11:59

believe that he had been viciously assaulted.

12:04

Sandra told me about the reaction she

12:06

had from police when she came to their

12:09

office and asked to see her son's body.

12:11

Police came in and gave Sandra Tyler's

12:14

belongings, including his wallet. They

12:17

told her that Tyler smelled of alcohol

12:19

and that he had been found in a creek bed. Now

12:22

at the time, according to Sandra, police

12:25

said there was no way that Tyler had fallen

12:27

from the distance to where he was found. They

12:30

told her, bodies don't just end up

12:32

there side Note

12:35

this would change later because

12:37

police later told Sandra that they did

12:39

believe that Tyler had fallen from above

12:41

the railing. Initially,

12:43

though, they said he must

12:45

have gotten down in there somehow fallen

12:47

and knocked himself out from the train tracks

12:49

above. Just for clarification,

12:53

there are train tracks in the area where Tyler's

12:55

body was found.

12:56

The ground there is very rocky and uneven.

12:59

Police told Sandra and Keith they

13:01

believed Tyler had possibly fallen

13:03

over the railing and then drowned, but

13:07

Sander questioned that because Tyler's

13:09

body was found face down, his

13:12

arms were stretched behind him and his palms

13:14

were facing up, So she

13:16

wondered, how could he have gotten himself

13:18

into that position? Why would

13:20

he not try to reach his arms out and somehow

13:23

break his fall if this was an accident,

13:25

And she had other questions about the scene.

13:28

There were marks in the muddy water

13:31

near one of Tyler's hands that

13:33

to her looked like drag marks

13:36

looked like the hand impossibly the

13:38

whole body had been pulled a few inches.

13:42

She also saw marx on Tyler's

13:44

wrists. Police later told

13:46

her they believed those were from the zip

13:48

ties when they had zipped Tyler into the body

13:50

bag. But

13:53

Sander wondered about that post

13:55

mortem lebidity would normally have settled

13:57

in by the time Tyler's body was found, so

14:00

could those marks, she wondered, have been from something

14:02

else, perhaps handcuffs. There

14:05

was all a beer can next to Tyler's body.

14:08

Sandra said that it was never tested

14:10

for fingerprints. She

14:12

began to suspect that Tyler did

14:14

not fall into that position she believed

14:17

he was placed there. Police

14:22

did not let her identify Tyler's body.

14:24

I literally begged to see him, and

14:26

they refused for me to see him or i TM

14:29

I said, but I'm his mother, like, don't you need

14:31

a family member in a dam And they're like, no, one of the police

14:33

officers used to drill with your son and she knew

14:35

him and she

14:37

ided him. Plus he has tattoos that match

14:40

or a tattoo, and I'm like, well,

14:45

i'd like I won't touch him. I'll just look at him

14:47

and promise I won't screw anything up because they're like, no,

14:49

his body in a body bag and sip

14:52

tight and everything's evident. And

14:54

then Steeve and I had to drive back home to

14:57

two two and a half hours, you

14:59

know, after finding

15:02

on our son's dead in this concrete

15:04

canal and with no answers

15:06

and refusal to even see him.

15:10

So, you know, it's just it's

15:13

just been a nightmare.

15:15

Now, this is not uncommon.

15:17

A lot of people do ask about that.

15:18

In fact, police departments are moving more

15:21

away from having family members identify the

15:23

body and doing it through DNA or other methods.

15:26

But Sandra said this was traumatic for her.

15:28

She said they told her the body was already

15:31

in a body bag and that due to chain of custody

15:33

rules, they could not allow her to

15:35

see her son's face. They

15:37

said they were taking Tyler to Peoria for

15:39

an autopsy. After

15:42

that, Sandra said she did have a

15:44

conversation with the coroner, Mark

15:46

Thomas. She said that she

15:48

got a call from Mark Thomas on Sunday,

15:50

September sixteenth, twenty eighteen, and

15:52

at that time, she said, Mark told her that

15:54

Tyler's autopsy would be performed the next

15:56

day by forensic pathologist from Peoria

15:59

who was going to do a thorough exam.

16:02

I said, well, you're going to make sure that you know, she

16:04

didn't have a brainleap, right, You're going to make sure

16:06

you can do X rays right in the street and you have me broken

16:08

balls or anything like that. And the

16:11

corner told me, oh, yeah, for sure.

16:13

He's like, you know, they know what they're doing and that'll

16:15

all be done. And then I found out later that, you

16:18

know, once I got the report back, I'm like, did they

16:20

extray Tyler? And he's like, well, I'm sure.

16:21

They did it.

16:22

Let me look at so I guess they did it. In

16:24

the corner, you didn't even know you're

16:27

putting this stuff on a death certificate. You don't even know if

16:29

he got X ray, Like I just

16:31

it blows my mind.

16:34

Sandra is no stranger to the

16:36

medical field. She's worked in nursing for decades,

16:39

so she believed that the coroner and

16:41

the medical examiner would do a thorough job,

16:44

so she was shocked when she got the call. After

16:46

the autopsy was complete, the emmy

16:49

said Tyler's death was caused by drowning,

16:52

and when that conversation happened,

16:55

Sandra said they made it sound like Tyler

16:57

only had minor injuries. To

17:01

Sandra, the investigation seemed rushed.

17:04

She said she was also sh when she

17:06

discovered the extent of the injuries on her

17:08

son, injuries she said that were much

17:10

worse than what she had been led to believe.

17:13

She said she was.

17:13

Told that Tyler had a small scratch on his

17:15

face, most likely from falling

17:18

and knocking himself out. The

17:20

funeral home director told her Tyler

17:23

had much more than just a scratch. She

17:28

finally saw her son for the first time on

17:30

Tuesday, September eighteenth. She

17:33

had his visitation scheduled for the following

17:35

Friday.

17:36

That's when I knew something's wrong. My cheek was ten

17:38

times the size it should be and

17:41

I didn't even get to see the one side, you

17:43

know. And I telled this by looking at knuscles

17:45

were all scratched up. That I mean

17:48

you could he had a huge like he had like

17:51

a wound in his frontal area,

17:53

like temporal frontal area, like

17:56

what happened to him.

17:57

I thought he had no I was told he

17:59

had a bump on his head.

18:02

It's heart wrenching for me to

18:04

imagine the scene of this mother who

18:06

was having to have a conversation with

18:09

a funeral director about her son's

18:11

injuries and how much makeup they would need to use. I

18:13

cannot imagine the pain this must have caused

18:15

her, she said. In the end,

18:17

the funeral director did his best and was able

18:20

to cover up some of the injuries with makeup. While

18:26

Sandrew prepared to bury her son, she

18:29

kept calling the detective to find out what was

18:31

going on with the investigation. She

18:33

learned they were going to list the cause of death as drowning,

18:36

manner of death undetermined, but

18:39

police told.

18:40

Her they did not suspect foul play.

18:42

According to reports by the Knox County Corner

18:44

in the Galesburg Police Department, they

18:47

believed this was an accident. One

18:49

of the factors that led them to believe that was

18:52

the fact that Tyler's blood alcohol level

18:54

was zero point two four to six percent. Now

18:56

this is very high. In fact, it's

18:58

almost three times the legal limit. He

19:01

was clearly intoxicated, and he was

19:03

wandering around in an area he was unfamiliar with. So

19:06

we do have to consider the possibility

19:09

that he did have some sort of accident and no one

19:11

else was involved. Sandra doesn't

19:13

discount that, but she believes that

19:15

police closed the case much too quickly.

19:19

When I went to go see Tyler, Tyler was found

19:21

to see that even said to the police officer,

19:23

Hey, this person over here at camera. You

19:26

know, did you guys check these cameras? Yeah, yeah, you

19:28

know. Well He's like just kind of blew me off. And

19:30

then when we got back to the station, I said, well, can

19:32

you call a guy and see if you know you

19:34

can he still has footage, and

19:36

he's just like, oh, well, yeah,

19:38

I'll call him, you know, I know him, blah blah blahah. Like

19:41

the officer in Tyler's case

19:43

was horrible. Every time I gave him an information,

19:45

He's like, what's that going to tell me? How's that going

19:47

to tell me? I said, it's going to give

19:50

us something, you know, like, did you look at video to

19:52

see if you could find Evan walking? Did you look

19:54

at street video, did you look at the bar video,

19:56

did you look at surveillance video around you know?

19:58

Did you even do like a

20:01

you know, you go and knock on people's doors. Did

20:03

you hear anything, see anything? You know, there's a whole

20:05

list of stuff they were supposed to do, and

20:07

they were supposed to call in the state police to

20:09

help them with the investigation, and they didn't

20:12

do that, and so they didn't follow

20:14

any protocol at all. Not one single

20:17

bit of it.

20:19

She was also frustrated that at

20:21

every single turn it seemed like she had to gather

20:23

evidence herself, and the costs were mounting.

20:26

She did for a requests. She said

20:28

she had to pay seventy five dollars for an

20:30

autopsy report, plus an additional

20:32

one hundred and thirty dollars for

20:35

the pictures of her son's body. She

20:37

got them on December sixth, almost

20:39

three months after his death. Sandra

20:44

decided to do more of her own investigation.

20:47

She started following her son's digital

20:49

trail. She started going through his bank account.

20:53

Sandra went through Tyler's email. She

20:55

found a receipt that showed that

20:58

Tyler had used an ATM at ten forty

21:00

two pm on Friday, September fourteenth

21:03

at a Wells Fargo bank in Galesburg.

21:05

He withdrew one hundred dollars. She

21:08

asked the police to get video surveillance from

21:10

Wells Fargo, but says she was

21:12

told that it could take up to six weeks and that Wells

21:14

Fargo were very hard to deal with.

21:17

Again, Sandra said she was made

21:19

to feel that Tyler's case was not a

21:21

priority.

21:24

Sandra said where Tyler's

21:26

body was found was in a pretty dangerous

21:28

area with a high crime rate. There are

21:31

people out on the streets late at night, so

21:33

it seemed to her that it was very possible

21:35

that he encountered someone who assaulted

21:38

him.

21:38

I even went and found the guy that called nine

21:41

one one. I got the police report

21:43

and got his name and then googled him

21:45

and showed up at his house asking him questions,

21:47

and he's like, how do you know where was that? At?

21:49

Like?

21:50

Who told you about me? And I'm

21:52

just like, well, the police report, I got your name from Fieseport

21:54

and I googled and he's like, did they tell you where I lived? I'm

21:56

like no, I'm like, I found you on my own.

21:58

And he's just like, oh, because Keith and I showed

22:00

up at the house, and then that's when he shared

22:03

his wife took a video of

22:05

what she saw down there, and then

22:08

I have the name on one call and so

22:11

but I've never really spoke to him since I went

22:13

to his house, and I know the police never

22:15

even followed up with them.

22:17

Since she had not gotten any word from the police

22:19

about the ATM video, Sandra

22:21

started to look for other potential surveillance

22:24

footage. Law enforcement gave

22:26

her the rest of her son's belongings. This

22:28

included some change, Tyler's

22:31

watch, a vaping device, a snuff

22:33

box with some pills in it that she was told were ibuprofen,

22:36

and seventy two dollars

22:38

in cash that was in his pocket. Now,

22:41

Sandra thought this was very strange because

22:44

he had gone to the atm at

22:46

around ten forty two and withdrawn

22:48

one hundred dollars. She had the receipt

22:50

for that, and she said he used his

22:52

debit card at the bars he was at that night,

22:55

So where was this missing twenty eight dollars.

22:58

Then there was the beer can.

23:00

She wondered why they would just assume

23:02

that it was unconnected to Tyler, Why they wouldn't

23:04

test for fingerprints. And Sandra

23:06

also found herself wondering if the case

23:09

was so quickly dismissed because.

23:10

Of her son's race.

23:12

Tyler is biracial, half black,

23:15

half white. She wondered if that

23:17

could have factored into the police's decision

23:19

to, in her mind, dismiss this case so quickly.

23:24

The last place where Tyler was seen having

23:27

drinks was the Corner Connection bar, just

23:29

a few blocks from where his body was found after

23:32

he left the last bar, Tyler

23:35

started trying to call his friends. The

23:38

calls started at around eleven oh five,

23:40

so the phone records lead Tyler's

23:43

friends, who remember are also trying to remember

23:45

exactly what happened, his mother and everyone

23:47

else to think that they probably separated just

23:49

after that. And again, Sandra

23:52

was frustrated by the fact that police

23:54

waited two months to talk to Tyler's friends,

23:56

because even though, as we said

23:58

before, and I want to make this clear, there's absolutely

24:01

no reason to believe they were in

24:03

any way involved in his disappearance, that they

24:05

were his friends.

24:06

They did the right thing. They immediately reported it

24:08

to police.

24:09

But as an investigator I would have wanted

24:11

to talk to them anyway, because they

24:13

may remember tiny details

24:15

about the night before that could end up being crucial.

24:18

We're all human, and to me

24:21

it seemed like potentially these

24:23

young men might have given more

24:26

evidence to police at that time when their memories

24:28

were fresh, simply because it

24:30

must have been hard, much as they wanted to be helpful,

24:33

it's hard to talk to someone's mom sometimes

24:36

about a night of heavy drinking and what they

24:38

might have talked about.

24:39

In my opinion, police.

24:40

Detective should have questioned these guys immediately

24:43

for several different reasons. After

24:46

getting separated from his friends, Tyler

24:48

walked the streets for the next forty minutes or

24:50

so. During this time, he was

24:53

making phone calls and sending snapchat messages.

24:56

At eleven forty six pm, Tyler

24:58

sent a Snapchat message to another friend.

25:00

It read quote I don't know where

25:03

I am end quote

25:05

Donald. Call was to a friend at eleven

25:07

fifty After that, the friend

25:09

called him back, but Tyler didn't answer. He

25:12

never made another call.

25:15

Something happened at around eleven

25:17

fifty pm. When

25:22

Sandra came back in to talk to police,

25:24

she started to get the feeling that the detectives

25:26

were kind of blowing her off and that something wasn't

25:29

right. Sandra said

25:31

they told her to quote move on

25:33

from this end quote. She said

25:35

she felt as though she'd done something wrong by investigating,

25:38

like the detectives were angry with her, and unfortunately,

25:41

this is a reaction that we have all seen

25:43

far too often in these kind of cases. She

25:47

came back to the Gilsburg Police department and

25:49

had another meeting with the sergeant. Sandra

25:52

said that she was following up

25:54

on some ATM footage. Remember, she

25:56

had found the receipt saying Tyler

25:58

had withdrawn some money from Wells Fargo

26:01

on the night he went missing. She

26:03

wanted to know if the detective had looked for it

26:05

yet, and if they had, if Tyler had

26:07

shown up on that footage.

26:10

So Sandra was sitting there when

26:13

the detective played this video and

26:16

even though he said that he had watched

26:18

it and that Tyler was not on the video,

26:21

Sandra said she was shocked when about

26:23

twelve minutes in, Tyler showed

26:26

up on that video. Sandra

26:37

was shocked when she saw that video, the

26:39

one that the police detective insisted that he

26:41

had seen and also that Tyler was not in

26:44

the.

26:44

Sergeant before he even showed up on the video was like what

26:47

this is literally what he said to me, What the fuck do you want

26:49

from me? Or sound old and my kid?

26:51

You not? Seconds later, Tyler shows up on

26:53

the video where he's supposed to be is that time

26:55

location? I gave him everything.

26:58

Tyler was captured on the Wells

27:01

Fargo ATM camera at ten forty

27:03

two pm. According to

27:05

the receipt Sandra had, he withdrew

27:07

one hundred dollars. Again,

27:10

this is a mystery. He had been using his debit

27:12

card at bars all night. And you can see

27:14

if you look at the video footage which

27:17

Sandra has, Tyler has one of

27:19

those wallets that has a money clip on the outside.

27:21

You can see on the money clip he has

27:24

cash there.

27:25

So again, why at this point in the night

27:27

is he going to get money? Could they have

27:29

been planning to call a cab or were they going

27:31

to go on to another bar or buy something else.

27:35

Now at this point, I'm trying to put

27:37

myself inside Sandra's mind.

27:39

She's done her own detective work.

27:41

She's fought to get this video after

27:43

finding the receipt of her son going

27:45

to an ATM. They assure

27:47

her they've got the video, that they've looked

27:50

at it and that her son is not on

27:52

it, And then right there in front of her eyes

27:54

after the detective she claims, got a little

27:56

bit of an attitude with her. She's

27:58

finally sitting there and sees her

28:00

son on that video. I cannot

28:03

imagine how it would feel at that point. Of

28:05

course, you're going to wonder if they insisted

28:07

they had looked at it and he wasn't on it, and you

28:10

find out that's.

28:10

Not true, what else did

28:12

they miss?

28:13

Did they look at the video and just missed

28:15

Tyler on it, or did they never really look

28:17

at it at all. Not

28:20

surprisingly, at this point, Sandra

28:22

explained that her relationship with the police

28:24

department pretty much completely

28:27

deteriorated. Detectives

28:29

told Sandra their theory that Tyler

28:31

had been blackout drunk and that he drowned.

28:34

Case closed, Sandra went through

28:36

the process of filing a formal complaint.

28:39

Sandra, along with her family, opened their

28:41

own tip line. They offered a five thousand

28:43

dollars reward, which was eventually raised to ten

28:46

thousand dollars for any information

28:48

that would help lead to an arrest and conviction.

28:51

She started a Facebook page Justice.

28:52

For Tyler Smith, which led to over

28:55

twelve thousand followers and hundreds of comments

28:57

and tips. Sandra

28:59

said that she and her family asked about

29:02

other surveillance videos from other businesses in

29:04

the area. They were heartbroken

29:06

to learn that a lot of the videos

29:08

had been overridden after around two weeks

29:11

after Tyler's death, so she

29:13

says police waited too long. Again,

29:17

this is devastating and happens in so many

29:19

cases, and this, in my opinion, is something that should

29:21

never happen. That surveillance footage should

29:23

have been requested the next day. Sandra

29:26

said she and her family did not give up.

29:28

They tried to retrace Tyler's steps.

29:31

They knew he had been seen at several establishments

29:34

around town, including the Cherry

29:36

Street Bar. They talked to the

29:38

manager, and the manager of Cherry Street Bar

29:40

told law enforcement that Tyler

29:43

was seen leaving there with his friend Evan

29:45

at around ten thirty. Sandra

29:48

was also trying to figure out under what circumstances

29:51

Tyler got separated from his friends. She

29:53

said that she asked police if

29:55

they looked for Tyler's friends or

29:57

their cars separately from Tyler

30:00

in that surveillance footage. She

30:02

said she was shocked when they asked her, why

30:04

would we do that? She said

30:07

she was further discouraged when she learned

30:09

that police had not contacted many

30:11

nearby businesses. She

30:13

found another bar called Casey's on Northwest

30:16

Main Street. Now Casey's

30:18

was very close to where Tyler's body was found,

30:21

and the manager there was willing to give

30:23

Sandra six hours of footage between

30:25

ten pm on the night of the fourteenth

30:27

and four am the next day, September fifteenth.

30:30

This was the crucial time period when

30:32

Tyler went missing. Sandra

30:35

said she also saw her son on

30:37

that tape. This was

30:39

the last video surveillance footage

30:42

of her son alive that we know of.

30:44

We're going to get more into the health app in a minute,

30:47

because, as it turned out, Tyler's

30:49

phone had a wealth of information on it

30:51

that was not pulled by the police and

30:54

not related to anything involving as GPS.

30:56

In fact, I think this is pretty genius and could have

30:59

impacts in a lot of cases. So I'm

31:02

going to talk about that in a second. Was

31:05

getting closer. She still didn't

31:07

know what happened to her son, but the window of

31:10

time when it happened was getting smaller

31:12

and smaller. She reached

31:14

out to other members of the community for help. This

31:17

included Gee Wright with a Missing Person's

31:19

Awareness Network. That organization

31:21

made a Facebook live along with the Gayalsburg

31:24

Police Department.

31:26

In that Facebook live.

31:27

They followed the steps that Tyler took on September

31:30

fourteenth, when he was last seen alive. They

31:32

released the surveillance video from Casey's General

31:34

Store on Maine and West Streets. That

31:37

footage showed Tyler walking past

31:39

there toward the direction of the canal, where

31:41

his body was found. Sandra

31:43

said she saw something else on that

31:46

final video of Tyler. She

31:49

saw several cars following her

31:51

son at around eleven fifty, including

31:54

a police car. Sandra

31:57

and her family went for a meeting on January

31:59

third, twenty nineteen, with the city manager,

32:01

the city attorney, and the chief of police.

32:04

She said, quote They told us

32:06

that they failed us and communication could have been

32:08

better and our treatment could have been

32:10

better. They said this had been a

32:12

learning experience and that the investigation

32:15

was still open and active.

32:16

End quote.

32:19

So Sandra found herself in the limbo

32:21

in my opinion that so many families go through

32:23

because police are saying the investigations

32:25

open and active. But they've

32:28

told her they believe it's an accident. So you

32:30

have to question how much active investigation

32:32

they're actually doing a

32:35

few months later, Sandra met

32:37

with an investigator. She was put in

32:39

touch with a retired homicide officer,

32:41

Mitchell Drake, through a mutual friend, a.

32:44

Friend of mine. He contacted

32:47

me and he said, listen, you know his

32:49

wife was an attorney had been contacted

32:52

by a friend of Sandy. And

32:54

he goes, you know, I don't have the expertise

32:57

to look into this, but from

32:59

what I've looked at it

33:02

seems him thinking that it is a really

33:04

bad job done.

33:06

And I said, yeah, well, you know,

33:09

my whole thing was was bad things

33:11

happened to good people all the time, and I

33:13

was just just retired and I wasn't

33:16

really too interested in taking

33:18

on a project. He

33:20

told me a little bit more about it, and we met with Sandy

33:23

and Keith and gush.

33:25

Within a half hour looking

33:27

over the stuff that she had, I

33:30

realized that it was a really, really bad

33:32

investigation. I can't even describe

33:35

how bad the investigation was. I mean, it

33:37

was really really bad.

33:39

And what amazed me about it is,

33:41

you know that these were the parents of a kid, and

33:44

she had everything. She had the

33:46

autopsy photos, she had, the police report,

33:48

she had everything. And I

33:51

told her, I said, well, give me the information

33:53

and I'll get back to you. And

33:57

I spent a few days, a couple of weeks

33:59

maybe going over the information she

34:01

gave me, and the more I got

34:03

into it, the more I realized that,

34:05

you know, they really hadn't got any

34:08

investigation to speak of into

34:10

there, and there was a lot of unanswered questions.

34:13

So I went back and I told him I

34:15

would look into it.

34:21

Mitchell did something that I think was so creative

34:24

and clever and in my opinion, potentially

34:27

led to a huge break in the case. He

34:29

got Tyler's phone, the one that apparently

34:32

the GPS didn't show a tremendous amount

34:34

of data, and he went into

34:36

Tyler's health app. That's

34:39

the app that measures how many steps

34:41

we take per day, and also

34:44

the length of steps, the length of the stride,

34:46

which can tell you a lot about how

34:48

symmetrically a person's walking, what their

34:50

pace is, and lots of other things. So

34:53

Mitchell Drake was literally able

34:56

to trace how Tyler

34:58

took his last steps. Sandra

35:00

said Mitchell Drake talked to Robbie and Evan,

35:02

Tyler's friends. He was a fresh

35:05

set of eyes with a balanced approach, and she

35:07

felt that's what the case needed. Mitchell

35:09

analyzed the health app data. He

35:12

also walked the area where Tyler's body

35:14

was found many times. According

35:16

to Mitchell Drake's report, Tyler's

35:19

body was found about nineteen hours after

35:21

he stopped moving. Tyler

35:23

Smith was last seen at the Corner Connection

35:25

Tavern. This was about eleven thirty. He

35:28

was walking northbound along that road,

35:31

right by Casey's General Store. That's

35:33

at two twenty three West Main Street in

35:35

Galesburg. He was walking along

35:37

Northwest Street, then that

35:39

street dead ended at an iron fence.

35:42

This is about two blocks away from the place where

35:44

he was last seen. So what

35:47

Mitchell Drake did was basically break down

35:49

Tyler's average step length. He figured

35:51

out from eleven twenty to eleven fifty two,

35:54

Tyler was walking at basically an

35:56

average walking speed. He stopped a couple

35:58

times for around one minute and forty five seconds

36:00

each. This is when he was walking around lost,

36:03

calling his friends and sending snapchats.

36:06

In the time period from eleven twenty to

36:08

eleven fifty, so thirty minutes, Tyler

36:11

walked two thousand, nine hundred

36:13

and three feet. But then just

36:15

before eleven fifty one, in what

36:17

we now know were the last couple of minutes

36:20

of his life, something changed.

36:22

Something happened.

36:24

At that point, Tyler started taking

36:26

much larger step links, which

36:28

means, according to Mitchell Drake, Tyler

36:31

started running. For the last

36:33

four hundred and seventy nine feet. Tyler was running

36:35

at full speed, So why

36:37

was he running? Did he get scared for

36:40

some reason? Did he see someone or

36:42

something that scared him, Tyler's

36:45

mom had seen a police car pass

36:47

at eleven fifty. Now, there's no

36:49

suggestion that Tyler had any kind of

36:51

encounter with the officer, but maybe just seeing

36:53

a police car frightened him for some reason.

36:57

That does seem a little bit logical, because

36:59

remember, he was literally about to become a police

37:01

officer. But who knows,

37:03

maybe in his mind somewhere he didn't want to get

37:05

picked up for being intoxicated.

37:07

This is all pure speculation.

37:10

Mitchell Drake pointed out that there was a railroad

37:13

bed and railroad tracks out there, very

37:15

rocky, uneven terrain. Did

37:18

someone grab Tyler out in the darkness?

37:22

She and Mitchell Drake asked the Illinois

37:24

State Police to do some more investigation, and

37:27

they were successful because in September of twenty

37:30

twenty, the Illinois State Police Department

37:32

of Criminal Investigations said they become

37:35

involved and they

37:37

were able to request and get a

37:39

second autopsy. Sandra

37:43

said she's not totally sure what the state of

37:45

the investigation is right now, but she

37:47

does believe that police are still

37:49

following up on Leith. We're going to get a lot

37:51

more into it next week. There's a lot more to this case,

37:54

including leeds about a potential

37:57

white supremacist and his friend who

37:59

were allegedly bragging about

38:01

beating Tyler up. They're

38:03

also working to decrypt tyler phone,

38:06

and more work is apparently being done

38:08

at a cold case institute in South Carolina,

38:11

and Sandra says despite her difficulties

38:13

with the police in the past, she is continuing

38:15

to pass along all relevant information to

38:17

them. Mitchell Drake

38:20

has said that in his opinion, the

38:22

investigation by the police

38:24

was mismanaged from the very beginning. He

38:27

said police did not follow the proper

38:29

investigated protocol. He said

38:31

no crime scene technician was sent to the scene,

38:34

and after they pulled the

38:36

metadata from the photos that were sent of

38:38

the autopsy, Mitchell

38:41

and Sandra say they figured out that autopsy

38:43

had been done in just thirty one minutes

38:45

for a potential homicide, for the unexplained

38:48

death of a twenty three year old young man with absolutely

38:51

no health problems. Then

38:53

there were the marks on Tyler's wrist

38:55

and the other injuries on Tyler's face, the

38:58

fact that Tyler's feet were very

39:00

close to the wall of the canal. Mitchell

39:03

and Sandra both feel that he

39:05

couldn't have landed that way. Naturally, and we've already

39:07

talked about the fact that his palms were facing upward,

39:11

Mitchell said. In addition to that the

39:13

authorities did not look for DNA underneath

39:15

Tyler's fingernails, which he considers

39:18

a huge oversight. He said

39:20

that there are marks on Tyler's head,

39:23

around his wrist, and on the back of his hand

39:25

and on his back many injuries

39:27

that he said just are not explained.

39:30

He also criticized the first autopsy.

39:33

He said no X rays were taken and

39:36

that Tyler's neck had not been

39:38

dissected to see if there were injuries

39:41

there.

39:41

That could have contributed to his death.

39:43

According to Mitchell Drake's report, his

39:46

conclusion is that the most likely

39:48

explanation is that Tyler Smith

39:50

was beaten by persons not

39:52

yet known, and that that beating had

39:54

directly led to his death. And

39:58

Mitchell wrote, quote he was

40:00

likely unconscious prior to his final

40:02

placement in Cedar Fort Creek end quote.

40:07

In July of twenty twenty, Tyler

40:10

Smith's body was exhumed and his second

40:12

autopsy was performed, and

40:14

this time the results were

40:16

completely different because

40:19

the second autopsy found that Tyler

40:21

had not drowned, but that

40:23

he had died directly as

40:25

a result of catastrophic injuries sustained

40:28

in the fall.

40:30

It's the worst thing in the world. It's

40:32

literally the worst pain you could ever imagine.

40:35

I mean, he

40:37

was just he was a best friend. He just was

40:39

such a good kid, you know, and

40:42

he was all I had and we just were

40:45

very close. And

40:47

I just know that, you know,

40:49

I have this gut instinct that something was wrong

40:52

and

40:55

there's just too many wrongs and not enough rates

40:57

with it, and I just I'll

41:00

never give up.

41:01

So now Sander believed

41:03

her son did not accidentally drown. The

41:06

question was did he fall

41:08

to his death by accident or

41:11

did someone chase him there? Or

41:13

was he as Sandra and Mitchell

41:16

Drake believe plays there, did

41:18

he fall or did someone push him?

41:21

And what was he running from? I'm

41:24

Catherine Townsend. This is Helen

41:26

Gone Murder Line.

41:29

Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School

41:31

of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's

41:33

written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend

41:36

and produced by Gabby Watts. Special

41:38

thanks for the research assistance provided

41:40

by Amy Tubbs.

41:42

Music contributed by Ben.

41:43

Sale, Executive producers of Virginia

41:45

Prescott Brandon Barr and LC Crow League.

41:48

If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look

41:50

into, you can reach out to us at our Helen

41:52

Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven

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