0:00

Sarah

0:11

has really been a driving force in

0:13

all of this and without what she's

0:15

been doing, I don't think we would

0:18

have the exposure. Whenever we

0:20

hear they found a missing body, we are

0:22

like, do we want it to be Christopher

0:24

or not? It's kind of a scary

0:26

thing because we want to know what happened to him,

0:29

but then and again, one time she told me

0:31

someone said that he had been buried

0:34

out somewhere. And

0:36

I had the worst dreams for

0:38

months just imagining him being

0:40

thrown in a hole while he

0:42

was still alive and kind of

0:44

with dirt. It was one of

0:47

those things I was like, it's really hard when you're the

0:49

mother. In

0:51

late May of 2019, 41-year-old

0:53

Christopher Dietrich quietly disappeared from

0:56

Elkton, Maryland. About a

0:58

week later, his ex-wife received a phone

1:00

call from the University of Maryland Cancer

1:02

Center in Baltimore. Chris hadn't

1:04

made it to his appointment on June 5th. That's

1:07

when she got in contact with Chris's sister

1:09

and they began to compare notes and try

1:11

to find anyone who had seen or spoken

1:13

to Chris over the past week. But

1:15

there was no sign of Chris, so his

1:18

sister Sarah reported him missing. During

1:20

the course of the investigation, they uncovered

1:22

video surveillance footage of Chris at the

1:24

Cecil County Health Department in Elkton around

1:27

11 a.m. on May 30th. But

1:29

that's where his trail goes cold. Chris's

1:32

last outgoing call was made the same evening

1:34

at 5.05 p.m. and

1:36

his phone continued using data until 6.55

1:39

p.m. on May 31st and showed that

1:41

his phone pinged inside the town of

1:43

Elkton. Five years later, Chris's

1:46

case remains a mystery. I'm

1:48

Marissa, and from Wondery, this

1:50

is episode 446 of The

1:52

Vanished, Christopher Dietrich's story. Listening

2:07

on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether

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2:32

I'm listening to Lay Them to Rest

2:34

by Laura Norton. If you're interested in

2:37

true crime, you won't want to

2:39

miss it. New members can try

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audible.com/MIA or text MIA to 500-500.

2:45

That's audible.com/ MIA

2:49

or text MIA to 500-500. When

2:53

Chris disappeared, he was facing a challenging phase

2:55

in his life. At just 41 years old,

2:58

he was dealing with

3:00

multiple serious health conditions, including

3:02

late-stage melanoma on his leg, which

3:04

was both painful and limiting. But

3:07

life wasn't always this way for Chris. So

3:09

we're going to start at the beginning of

3:11

Chris's story. Chris grew up

3:13

in both Maryland and Delaware. Throughout

3:16

his entire life, he had an especially close

3:18

bond with his younger sister, Sarah, a

3:20

bond that was never broken. And that bond

3:23

is why you're hearing Chris's story today. Sarah

3:25

is a force, and she's been searching nonstop

3:27

since the day she learned that her brother

3:29

was missing. Chris's mom, Pat, explained

3:32

what Chris was like growing up and

3:34

how he and Sarah were very different,

3:36

but also so close. He

3:38

was, I want to say inquisitive

3:40

about things. He was always quiet.

3:43

You could see that he was looking at things

3:45

and figuring out what

3:47

they were. His mind was always

3:50

moving. And I remember there was

3:52

times when I go to pick him up from daycare

3:54

and they'd say, well, Christopher came out missing

3:56

and we found him in the other room and he

3:58

was doing blah, blah, blah. entertain

4:00

himself and he didn't have any

4:02

problem being by himself, which Sarah

4:05

was the complete opposite. She needed

4:07

to be around people. Sarah

4:10

is the driving force behind the search for

4:12

Chris today, and she shared with us

4:14

more about their lives growing up and the strong

4:17

bond that they always shared. We

4:19

grew up, we lived in Delaware

4:21

until I was 12, and

4:24

then we lived in Northeast Maryland, which

4:27

is right next to Elton. We all

4:29

graduated high school from that Cecil County

4:31

area. I've had numerous people say

4:33

to me that me and him have almost

4:36

what would appear to be a twin type

4:38

bond, even though we're not twins, but the

4:40

bond that me and him share together is

4:43

almost not as strong as twins would have.

4:45

We were always very, very close for all

4:48

each other ever had. I mean, not that

4:50

my mom wasn't around. We always

4:52

did a lot together. There was nothing

4:54

that we ever worried about

4:56

sharing with each other, that we would

4:58

worry about judgment from the other. And

5:01

even if the other did give judgment, it was more

5:03

to pick on each other, bust on each other kind

5:05

of thing. When Sarah

5:07

and Chris were kids, Sarah met

5:09

a friend, Lori, who had an

5:11

older brother close in age to

5:13

Chris. Together they became a tight

5:15

friend group. Here's Lori. Sarah and

5:18

I met at the end of

5:20

second grade, and then our brothers

5:22

became friends as well. We were

5:24

pretty close as kids. We

5:26

maintained our friendship through adulthood, but not

5:29

constant. Sarah and I are about six

5:31

months apart, and our brothers are between

5:33

two and three years older than us.

5:35

Growing up, he was quite the character.

5:37

He always had a little trick up

5:40

his sleeve. It was fun to be

5:42

around. He was just an

5:44

all around genuine person. He's been like that

5:46

ever since I've known him. Chris's

5:49

parents later divorced, and Pam said that

5:51

this was an exceptionally painful time for

5:53

Chris, and she believes it left a

5:55

lasting impact on her son for his

5:57

entire life. It was

5:59

a really good kid and I think

6:01

one of the worst parts for him

6:03

was when his father left, he felt

6:06

abandoned because his father did a lot

6:08

of things with him like baseball wise.

6:10

He was helped with his little baseball team that

6:12

he was on. I remember I

6:14

had to go pick him up quite a

6:17

few times during that time because he would

6:19

be so sick. He just was

6:21

so upset. It really had

6:23

a big negative effect in

6:25

his life and I think that kept

6:28

going forward and he started to

6:30

have an attitude where he didn't really

6:32

care about things as much. School, he

6:34

didn't really care about school, which a

6:36

lot of boys were that way, but

6:39

Chris Sherwood just felt ejected and it

6:41

didn't matter what he did because he

6:44

didn't have his father. His dad was

6:46

a good dad, so it was a

6:48

very strange thing to happen. He

6:50

liked being around his dad. Sarah didn't like to

6:52

go because she didn't like the wife. That's

6:55

why she didn't want to go

6:57

and she wasn't really hurt by

6:59

him leaving as Chris Sherwood was.

7:01

He lived with me through high

7:03

school. He never did well

7:06

in school. He was more of a

7:08

hands-on type of person. He was good

7:10

doing different mechanical type

7:12

things. He had that strong ability

7:14

of mechanics and he

7:16

was a very good painter. He had

7:19

a really good attention to detail and

7:21

he liked art. He drew a lot.

7:23

He was very creative. Sarah

7:26

and Chris's friend Lori said that in hindsight, she

7:28

can see how much of an impact the divorce

7:30

had on him. I'll say

7:32

ever since their parents divorced and

7:35

I kind of had a similar thing

7:38

because our parents were divorced also, but

7:40

I don't think he was ever really

7:42

truly able to get past that. It

7:44

affects people differently. No two people are

7:47

exactly the same. After

7:49

Chris's parents divorced and his father moved

7:51

on to a new relationship, he and

7:53

his new wife adopted a son, Brian.

7:56

Chris was significantly older than Brian, but

7:58

played a pivotal role in Brian's

8:00

early childhood. Brian told us that

8:02

he has many fond memories of his big brother. So

8:06

he was born in

8:08

77. I was born in 91. So

8:10

pretty significant difference. Sarah and Chris are

8:12

my adoptive brother and sister. I was

8:15

adopted by their biological father when I

8:17

was a baby. I spent a

8:19

lot of time growing up with Chris,

8:21

more so than Sarah, because by the

8:23

time I was in the picture, Sarah

8:25

was living with her mom and

8:28

Chris was kind of bebopping

8:30

between his mom and our

8:33

dad. He and I kind of grew

8:35

up together in a sense and there

8:37

was a lot more time, more often

8:39

than not. He was around me a

8:41

lot more and like my parents worked,

8:43

my dad worked as a truck driver. My

8:45

mom was going to school as a

8:47

nurse. They'd go on runs together, basically just

8:49

be me and my brother. One of the

8:52

earliest memories I have of him doing stuff

8:54

with me was like, we lived in Newark,

8:56

Delaware and he basically introduced me

8:58

to baseball and video games and stuff like

9:01

that. So with five or six, he was

9:03

just always there, always normal big brother stuff.

9:05

Russell with me fight with me, but also

9:07

like teaching stuff. He would take me to

9:09

the park. My dad would give him money

9:12

for pizza and stuff like that. Whenever they

9:14

had to go on a weekend trip, we'd

9:16

wake up Saturday morning. We'd walk

9:18

to this little library. He'd let

9:20

me go read whatever books I wanted to go

9:22

read. There was this little park

9:24

that was just outside of the library. We'd

9:27

just sit there and eat lunch or run

9:29

and play. And then every single time we

9:31

would leave that area, there was a little

9:33

porn store and you always go in there.

9:36

All right, cool. Grab whatever candy bar you

9:38

want. I'm going to grab a Mountain Dew.

9:40

A lot of good times with them. In

9:43

high school, Chris met a friend, Shiloh. Back

9:46

then they were strictly friends, but they

9:48

reconnected years later and there was a

9:51

spark. Here's Shiloh. We

9:53

actually were friends in school. If you look

9:55

in my yearbook underneath his picture, it says

9:57

my little brother. We were just friends. But

10:00

then outside of school, he worked

10:02

with a guy whose wife worked with me,

10:04

and we just kind of reconnected that way

10:06

because we were taking something to their work

10:09

for the guys to have and he was

10:11

there. We just kind of hung out a

10:13

few times and it just went from there.

10:16

He was very funny. He's a funny

10:18

guy. He had a good sense of

10:20

humor like the laugh and play pranks

10:22

and things of that nature. He was

10:24

just very humorous. Didn't like confrontation at

10:26

all. 2001

10:28

was a big year for Chris and Shiloh.

10:30

They got married and had twins, a boy

10:33

and a girl. Since Brian was significantly younger

10:35

than Chris, he was still a kid at

10:37

the time and spent a lot of time

10:39

with Chris's children growing up. I

10:42

was very close when Michael and Sarah were

10:44

born. I would go to their

10:46

house usually on the weekend when I had

10:48

off from school or whatever and just hang

10:50

out and just be around my niece and

10:52

nephew and him and Shiloh. They're

10:54

10 years younger than me. When

10:57

they were born, it was really exciting

10:59

for me because I was

11:01

just old enough to understand, but not

11:03

quite old enough to do the normal

11:06

uncle thing. So I could still

11:08

go out and play and do stuff with

11:10

them as they got older, kind of do

11:12

what he did for me when I was

11:14

growing up. This period

11:16

of Chris's life is a time that everyone looks

11:18

back on as a good time, a time when

11:20

Chris seemed to have things together for the most

11:22

part. We also spoke to one

11:25

of Chris's friends, Larry, who worked alongside

11:27

Chris for years. He told us more

11:29

about Chris from a friend's perspective. Yeah,

11:32

I've known Chris for a long time. Me

11:34

and Chris became work colleagues. We worked at IKEA

11:36

probably around the time I turned 18 to like

11:38

22 years ago. We

11:41

had a group of friends. We weren't really close

11:43

friends at that time, but a couple years later,

11:45

we worked for a company called

11:48

NBM. We did all the restaurant

11:50

food for Darden and Chick-fil-A and

11:52

whatnot. So picking and loading orders.

11:55

And at that point, we became real close

11:57

friends, drinking buddies. He was married to

11:59

Shiloh. Chris was just happy all

12:01

the time. Chris was... It was just

12:03

pleasant to be around, you know what

12:05

I mean? He was always cracking jokes.

12:08

A lot of his mannerisms and idiosyncrasies

12:10

I developed, he had this big Jim

12:12

Carrey impression he would always do. And

12:14

I still do that laugh to this day. And every time

12:16

I do it, I think of the guy. He

12:19

was just pleasant to be around. I mean, I love to do

12:21

to death. Chris and

12:23

Shiloh's relationship had its ups and downs,

12:25

and they ultimately decided to part ways.

12:28

They remain friends, though. And Shiloh was

12:30

a consistent presence in Chris's life, up

12:32

until the time he disappeared. We

12:35

were together for about

12:38

three years, and then

12:40

we separated for about two, got

12:43

back together for another four, and

12:45

then separated for good at that point. We

12:48

just realized we made better friends and spouses.

12:50

And it worked out, I mean, he

12:53

obviously had his own downfalls

12:55

and things that he was going through in his

12:57

life, but we would always chat and check in

12:59

with each other from time to time. One

13:02

thing I can definitely say is he definitely

13:04

loved his kids. When the kids were with

13:06

him, when we separated, and he would have

13:08

the kids on his own, they talk about

13:10

hunting frogs in the ponds, and they would

13:12

always have funny times and play games. When

13:14

he was with them, he was good with

13:16

them. We were still friends, and I would

13:18

do for him because he was Sarah Michael's

13:21

dad. To me, Chris, he had this thing

13:23

where he would self-destruct. Things would start to do

13:25

really good, and then for whatever reason, he would

13:27

just self-destruct. I don't know exactly if

13:29

it was in our demons that he needed to

13:31

get worked out, but he

13:34

just never let out. Hence, like I said,

13:36

we were separated for a while because it

13:38

just kind of imploded on him and we

13:41

separated, then we got back together, we're doing

13:43

good. So he just had a history of

13:45

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slash vanished. That's goodrx.com. After

16:13

Chris and Chilo broke up for good, he

16:16

moved in with Sarah and her boyfriend. Things

16:18

went well for a time. That was until

16:20

Chris went on a work trip to Ohio

16:22

and met someone new. Here's Sarah. Where

16:25

I was living with my boyfriend, we wanted to get her in

16:27

place. And I asked Chris, I said, hey, you want to go

16:29

in with us? And he was like,

16:31

yeah, sure. So we, three of us got a place

16:33

together. Things were awesome. He was doing

16:35

really good at his job. He was working at a

16:37

warehouse and they had sent him to Ohio to

16:40

open up a new location. He

16:43

was there for a month. Two days before he

16:45

left, he met this girl named Nicole at

16:48

a bar. Fell head over heels for

16:50

her, instantly. And he came home and then

16:52

she ended up coming to our

16:54

house from Ohio and I knew she

16:56

had kids and he was like, oh, it's a long

16:58

story. And I'm like, dude, I got time. There's nothing

17:00

that I don't have time to hear why a mother

17:03

would want to leave their kids and come somewhere.

17:05

Like that's just bizarre to me. I thought there

17:07

was bad news with her from the get go

17:09

that you'd leave your children that were

17:11

younger. I don't know. I didn't get a good

17:13

vibe from her. And then I found out that

17:15

she had actually had troubles with heroin

17:17

and that kind of stuff. I

17:19

had a talk with her the one day and I was

17:21

like, I don't know where you stand with that if

17:24

you're still struggling or sober or whatever.

17:26

But I beg if you don't take my

17:28

brother down this road because he is not

17:30

strong enough to come out of it. I

17:32

know he's not. I knew that if he got

17:34

hooked on that drug, that that would be the

17:36

end of him. So she said, oh, no, no,

17:38

no, I'm not. I'm not. Well,

17:41

next thing you know, they were. And I

17:43

was at work one day and my

17:45

daughter's father was at the house and

17:47

apparently they had some people over and

17:49

someone overdosed in the basement. I was

17:51

like, OK, I'm done. I can't have this around

17:53

my child. Like, I don't need the state coming

17:55

and trying to take my child from me because

17:58

I have this stuff happening in my home. It's

18:00

just, it's not okay. Chris's

18:02

friend Larry can recall this time period after

18:04

Chris and Shiloh had broken up. They

18:07

spent a lot of their free time together then. Everything

18:10

seemed business as usual for Chris until he

18:12

went on that fateful trip to Ohio. Him

18:15

and Shiloh already had a falling

18:17

out before then. So he

18:20

was living that kind of single life to

18:22

begin with. Him and I, we

18:24

were drinking buddies. So anytime that we got

18:26

a chance after work or anytime during the

18:28

weekends, we could hang out. We

18:31

did. I remember him going to Ohio and

18:33

meeting the one girl that he ended up

18:35

bringing back here. I don't

18:37

remember hanging out with her too much

18:39

because a lot of those friends back

18:41

in the day, they knew how I

18:43

stood whenever it came to drugs and

18:45

whatnot. I was their drinking buddy. That's

18:48

it. At first, I mean, he was

18:50

absolutely in love. I mean, it was

18:52

this beautiful blonde that he met out

18:54

of nowhere that wanted to upend her

18:56

life and come back here. I mean,

18:58

at that time he was doing OK,

19:01

at least from the outside look. He bought

19:03

his dream car. He had this little like

19:05

300Z. He was

19:07

riding around in a sports car with a few

19:09

blondes. So from the outside in, it looked like

19:12

he was doing OK. But

19:14

we were hanging out less and less. So

19:16

whatever he was into or what he was

19:18

doing, I wasn't sure. It

19:21

wasn't until I

19:23

heard about some crazy things happening.

19:26

At this point in time, Chris's brother Brian

19:28

had grown up and enlisted in the military.

19:31

So he wasn't around to see what was going on.

19:33

But he had heard that something was up with Chris.

19:36

I was getting information from Sarah and a

19:39

couple other parties that we had grown up

19:41

around. And I was hearing all

19:43

this. And it was very

19:45

upsetting because the person that I grew

19:47

up with, I could never see that.

19:49

In a sense, destroying his life didn't

19:52

sit well with me. During that

19:54

time, I was actually, I believe

19:56

I was deployed. So I was

19:58

getting all this information while I was overseas. And

20:00

then by the time I got back, I had

20:03

conversations with him about it. We were trying to

20:05

figure out what was going on. Was there anything

20:07

that we could do to kind of help? He

20:10

was kind of drifting. He didn't really have a place

20:12

that he hung his hat. So I mean, by definition,

20:14

I guess you would call it homeless. He

20:17

would like bounce around

20:19

the Elton, Bel Air area. I

20:22

could tell he was not what

20:24

he was from the crystal I remembered and

20:26

what I grew up with. But I could

20:28

tell he was struggling and dealing with some

20:30

stuff. Pam couldn't

20:33

believe how quickly Chris went from doing well

20:35

to struggling. She tried to talk

20:37

some sense into him, but she was helpless

20:39

to control the situation or prevent her son

20:41

from spiraling further. I

20:44

thought he was doing so, so well.

20:46

He met the girl that would

20:48

end up getting him on drugs

20:51

and he'd lose his job

20:53

and become homeless. It was

20:55

really fast. And he was in

20:58

with Sarah at the time that it all

21:00

went down. And so Sarah kind of, she

21:02

saw what was going on. I

21:04

had called him to talk to him, but I

21:06

just wanted to say, you know, look where

21:08

you are. You don't want to lose

21:11

all this. He lost any

21:13

care about what he should

21:15

be doing or what was the right thing. He

21:18

didn't know when to stop. Sarah

21:20

said that Chris and this woman decided to

21:22

go back to Ohio together. But things didn't

21:25

improve there either. In fact,

21:27

Chris seemed to plunge deeper into addiction

21:29

and ended up returning home to Maryland.

21:32

So those two ended up actually going

21:34

back to Ohio, to her grandmother's house.

21:36

They were both very heavily addicted. Her

21:40

grandparents were like, you know, you guys got

21:42

to separate. You guys aren't going to survive

21:44

this being together. So anyway to contact him

21:46

and he knew that he could always

21:48

talk to me, but I'm sure with the drugs

21:51

and everything that he had going on, he

21:53

was probably humiliated a little bit. Chris

21:55

was using and a lot of the people that we

21:57

used to hang out with went down that road. to.

22:00

I have family that went down that road.

22:02

I have some really good friends that I

22:04

consider family that have gone down that road.

22:06

I've always been here to help, but it's,

22:08

you know, it's your choice, right? And

22:11

in this area, it's, it's really, really

22:13

bad. I'm really surprised that

22:15

Chris and his personality allowed that to

22:17

take control of him because he was

22:19

a very strong person. He

22:22

stood on on his morals and

22:24

what was right and what was wrong. I

22:26

guarantee even through his doing the things that

22:28

he was probably doing in order to get

22:30

his, his fix or his next set, he

22:32

probably didn't do anything bad to anybody. He

22:34

didn't have it in him to do that.

22:37

It was after this time that Chris began

22:39

drifting around. He stayed on the streets of

22:41

Elton, Maryland, where he met a friend named

22:43

Wes. He was kind of living

22:46

in a place called Meadow Park for a while. He

22:48

had a tent by himself, sleeping wherever

22:50

he could start out in the park. And

22:52

then he met some people and then

22:55

he ended up living in Tent City with this

22:57

guy that he met. And his parents didn't

22:59

really like their son being in there

23:01

and then he begged him, please, please, you guys come back

23:03

here. Both of you can. So they went to,

23:06

Wes would actually sleep in the house, but

23:08

Chris, they allowed him to put a tent

23:10

in their backyard and they ran electric cord

23:12

to it and everything. So he could plug

23:14

in a heater. He could come inside and

23:17

shower, use the bathroom. Wes's mom fed him

23:19

with laundry. I believe Wes died in 2017.

23:21

It was very awful. And Chris's mother was

23:25

very upset about that. After

23:27

Chris's friend passed away, Wes's parents continued

23:29

to allow Chris to stay on their

23:31

property in his tent. Chris's life seemed

23:33

to have bottomed out and he was

23:35

never able to pull himself out of

23:38

it. But Sarah said she still kept

23:40

in contact with his children and she

23:42

credits Shiloh for fostering that relationship instead

23:44

of shutting Chris out. I mean,

23:47

she still made sure when he

23:49

was living on the streets and stuff that he

23:51

got to see the kids regularly to take them

23:53

all out to dinner just so they could see

23:55

him and spend time with him or meet him

23:58

at the park. great

24:00

about that always was, which is awesome

24:02

because you don't always see that, especially

24:04

the lifestyle he ended up going towards.

24:06

She still remained a better person there.

24:08

Between her and I, we always made sure

24:11

that Chris kept in contact and we knew where

24:13

he was. As Chris

24:15

got older, he developed a number of serious

24:17

medical problems. Sarah said that many

24:19

years ago, it was Shiloh who had spotted a

24:21

mole on Chris's leg that looked kind of funky.

24:24

Shiloh voiced concern over it at the

24:26

time, but Chris didn't take it seriously.

24:29

A decision that came back to haunt him many

24:31

years later. Before

24:33

him and Shiloh split up, she had noticed that

24:35

that mole was changing and said, man, you should

24:37

get that looked at. The kids were very young

24:39

when that was first changing colors and

24:41

he was like, yeah, it's fine. It's

24:43

fine. I mean, it wasn't, he couldn't

24:45

finally until, oh my God. I

24:47

mean, he was homeless when he got that looked into.

24:50

But the thing was totally gnarly like to look

24:52

at it, you would have never known it

24:54

was a mole. It had been probably since

24:56

2003 that it started doing different things, but

24:58

it probably wasn't until I'm going to say,

25:00

Wes was still alive when he first got

25:02

that worked on. So probably 2015 or

25:05

2016 before he actually went through with a surgery

25:07

and stuff on it, which he was doing better

25:09

with the drugs and all that. And then he

25:11

had that surgery. And then of course, you know,

25:14

the pain medicine just kind of put him right

25:16

back into it. They said it was really deep

25:18

and that he probably should have been there many

25:20

years prior. He had said that it was considered

25:22

a stage three C, which when I looked up

25:24

was pretty much as bad as you

25:26

can get on it. The prognosis was five, 10

25:28

years max with that. So they were

25:31

doing what's called immunotherapy. He said it was

25:33

so painful getting that and he had a pain in his

25:35

leg and you know, they told him, you know, you're

25:37

going to have it the rest of your life. And he said, my God,

25:39

I would have rather just died from it

25:41

than dealing with this pain. If he walked

25:43

too much, he would get almost, it almost

25:45

looked kind of like elephant tight as like,

25:47

I mean, his leg and foot would swell

25:49

so bad. And it wasn't even that much

25:52

of a distance. He had to walk for

25:54

that to happen. So that really hindered him

25:56

big time. And then of course, his lifestyle

25:58

didn't help. want

48:00

any bad things to happen because of it but

48:02

she said that Wayne had told her husband that

48:04

he really missed Chris but he was glad he

48:07

had his phone. And I'm like okay so you

48:09

know I told the police about it and they're

48:11

like well you know it's Wayne you know we'll

48:13

just watch him you know there's not much we

48:15

can do it's just hearsay again. They'd say nothing

48:18

ever came of it but again multiple fingers are

48:20

pointing towards Wayne and they say that Wayne brought

48:22

up to them that he's like yeah people were

48:24

saying that I buried Chris in Fair Hill and

48:27

they're like well digit he's like oh why would

48:29

I do that. The morning before he went missing

48:31

this guy named which

48:33

was friends with Wayne he had told me because I

48:36

reached out to him and he said

48:38

he didn't blame me for calling him he said heck

48:40

I'd be turned in every rock. He said that he

48:42

had fed him breakfast the morning before and that Chris

48:44

had talked about selling his pills. I

48:46

don't know what pills those would have

48:48

been that was the last thing he

48:50

knew kind of strange there and then

48:52

Wayne he's literally the only place and

48:55

person I have never gone to. I

48:57

mean through Chris's disappearance I have searched

48:59

multiple wooded areas I went kayaking to

49:01

search along the stream. I even

49:03

took a guy that lived next door

49:05

to Bill and Sue. I actually took him somewhere

49:07

to get drugs because he said he would give

49:09

me information if I did that. So I did

49:11

that but Wayne I would not go to because

49:14

I know the the violent magnitude and no I

49:16

don't feel safe going there and questioning him myself

49:19

even though Wayne knew who I was he met me before.

49:22

Earlier Brian mentioned a time that Chris

49:24

was hospitalized years before he disappeared and

49:26

he almost died. It was during that

49:29

hospitalization that Sarah met Wayne. When

49:32

Chris had almost died he was in Union Hospital I

49:34

had gone in to see him and I'm like who

49:36

the heck is this? I think he was in there

49:38

when I got there because I remember him leaving and

49:40

I said to Chris who in the world is that

49:42

and why are you hooked up with this old guy?

49:45

I mean he was much older than Chris and I

49:47

was like oh my god I'm like Chris he's always

49:49

just a friend of mine. I'm like okay weird. He

49:51

ended up being flown to University of Maryland because he

49:53

was sepsis. We thought we were going to lose him.

49:56

I mean they had him intubated for quite some time.

49:58

They just said you know it's a matter of

50:00

time. see if he comes out of it and

50:02

I just kept being with him every day and

50:05

the one day I just I was looking at

50:07

his phone and I saw that he had music

50:09

downloaded on there. I was like, what song should

50:11

I play? I'm like, oh, this is his favorite

50:13

Pearl Jam song. I'm going to play it. It

50:15

was the song Black, which my mom's like, why

50:17

in the world would you play that to him

50:19

when he's dying or fighting for his life because

50:21

it's about death. It was his favorite song, Mom.

50:24

Why wouldn't I? So I played that and he

50:26

started to mouth the lyrics and from that point

50:28

forward, he came out of it. I mean, he

50:30

had to learn to walk all over again from

50:32

being in bed that long. When he

50:34

came out of the hospital from all that, he went

50:36

and stayed with Wayne because they said he couldn't be

50:38

on the streets and I couldn't have him where I

50:41

was. Wayne said he could stay with him while he

50:43

recovered. But after all that, Wayne was violent with him

50:45

during that. He kind of estranged himself from him more

50:47

because I actually picked him up. He called me very

50:49

upset and I said, well, we need to call the

50:52

police. He's like, no, no, no reporting and they're reporting

50:54

it. And so that was the thing on the police

50:56

when I said that they had a violent past. He

50:58

said, well, since there's no police reports, we go on

51:00

that. Again, it's hearsay. And then I guess was slowly

51:03

talking to him towards the end and stayed with him

51:05

a few times. That's when was

51:07

with them. Bill and Sue said that he had

51:09

to be out by the 30th and he wasn't

51:11

sure what he was going to do. Never seen

51:14

again. Never heard from nothing. Sue was the only

51:16

one that said that she knew he had contacted

51:18

Wayne, which I thought was bizarre. While

51:20

researching Chris's disappearance, we

51:23

submitted a record request to the Elgden

51:25

police department and also contacted both the

51:27

current and former investigators on Chris's case

51:29

to request an interview. Our record request

51:31

was granted. And we also heard back

51:33

from the former investigator, detective Shannon calmly,

51:35

who said, thank you for taking the

51:37

time to look into this case. Chris

51:39

Dietrich and his family have been on

51:41

my heart since I was first assigned

51:43

this case. I would be willing to

51:45

speak with you about the case. However,

51:48

she wasn't able to get permission for

51:50

me to use her voice on the

51:52

podcast. So I'll go over some of

51:54

what we discussed during our conversation. She

51:56

explained that cases like Chris's are exceptionally

51:58

difficult to work with. on because Chris

52:00

was homeless and really had nothing to

52:02

trace besides his phone. He didn't use

52:05

a bank account, he didn't have a vehicle,

52:07

or even a regular schedule to check places

52:09

for surveillance footage. She said it's

52:11

like you're starting from nowhere. Detective Comley

52:13

said she tried to speak with as many

52:16

people as she could, and the records reflect

52:18

that she did speak to tons of people.

52:20

But the fact that Chris's loved ones didn't

52:22

know who he interacted with on the streets

52:24

made things even more complicated. When

52:27

Detective Comley did find people who knew

52:29

and interacted with Chris on a regular

52:31

basis, many of them were heavy drug

52:33

users, and they couldn't even recall what

52:35

day it was or when they had

52:38

last seen Chris, which made tracking down

52:40

dates and times nearly impossible. Some of

52:42

the people also had significant intellectual disabilities.

52:45

In the records we received, we found

52:47

that one woman, whom we've chosen not

52:49

to identify, seemed to come under suspicion

52:51

at one point in the investigation. She

52:54

said that she sometimes let Chris stay with her at

52:56

her home in Elkton. She had allegedly

52:58

made various statements to others about seeing Chris

53:00

in Philadelphia after he went missing, and she

53:02

was in possession of some of his medical

53:05

records. When officers visited her home,

53:07

she would speak to them, but quickly shut

53:09

the door behind her, almost as if she

53:11

had something to hide. Her name

53:14

kept coming up from various sources,

53:16

and in November of 2019, investigators

53:18

obtained a search warrant for her

53:20

home. During the search, she

53:22

was temporarily detained and interviewed by

53:24

Detective Comley. It became clear

53:27

during that interview that she had

53:29

significant intellectual disabilities. She was

53:31

being taken advantage of by a group of locals.

53:33

Chris wasn't one of these people. He seemed to

53:35

look after her as much as he could, and

53:37

she considered him to be like a brother to

53:39

her. Other people were using her to

53:42

sell drugs out of her home and threatened her

53:44

to keep her quiet and allow this to continue.

53:46

For her safety, Detective Comley told her to

53:48

inform these people that the police were

53:50

watching her house and had installed a

53:52

camera. While speaking to Detective

53:55

Comley, she said that Chris's case actually

53:57

helped this woman. They were unaware that this

53:59

was going to be a on prior to investigating

54:01

Chris's disappearance, and this gave them an

54:03

opportunity to contact her family and connect

54:06

her with resources so they could remove

54:08

her from that situation to someplace safer.

54:11

While some of the statements this woman had

54:13

made seemed suspicious, after speaking with

54:15

her it was clear that she had nothing to

54:18

do with Chris's disappearance. One thing

54:20

that stood out to Detective Comley throughout the

54:22

course of the investigation was that no

54:24

one ever had a bad thing to say about Chris. Late

54:27

living homeless and addicted to drugs, she couldn't

54:29

find anyone who had significant issues with him

54:31

or a motive to harm Chris. Everyone

54:34

said that he was friendly to them, helped

54:36

them out when and where he could, and

54:39

he wasn't involved in any violent crime or

54:41

high-level drug trafficking. Going back

54:43

to the very beginning, the main piece of

54:45

evidence they have is that video of Chris at the

54:47

health department on May 30th. He

54:49

walked up to the entrance with two people. The

54:51

others sat on a bench while Chris went inside.

54:54

After several minutes, Chris emerged from the doors and

54:56

the three walked out of view together. Those

54:59

two people, who described themselves as friends of

55:01

Chris, were interviewed and they said that Chris

55:03

was going to buy drugs, but he didn't

55:05

mention where or from whom. They

55:08

said they continued walking together for a short

55:10

period of time, then parted ways. Earlier

55:13

you heard Sarah mention that there was a call on

55:15

Chris's phone that was strange. When

55:17

an investigator called the number, the person said

55:19

they had spoken to Chris about a barbecue.

55:22

That seemed weird. We asked Detective

55:24

Conley about this and if she thought it was

55:26

significant, she said she believes it was someone who

55:28

didn't want to talk with the police and

55:31

made something up to distance themselves from the

55:33

situation, likely due to their own involvement in

55:35

the drug world. In a

55:37

follow-up call with Sarah, she explained that initially,

55:39

the police called the number and it was

55:41

a man who told them the barbecue story.

55:44

Sarah tried the number herself and she

55:46

too said a man answered, but during

55:48

the conversation, a woman in the background

55:50

spoke up and said she remembered Chris

55:52

from school. Fast forward to

55:54

2024, Sarah spoke to this woman

55:56

again and she's since gone to

55:58

treatment. that she knew Chris

56:01

for years and spoke with him often in

56:03

the lead-up to his disappearance. She

56:05

claimed that the last time she saw

56:07

Chris, he had mentioned that he had

56:09

ripped off the Pagans, which is an

56:12

outlaw motorcycle gang. According to the Department

56:14

of Justice, outlaw motorcycle gangs are highly

56:16

structured criminal organizations whose members engage in

56:19

criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons

56:21

trafficking, and drug trafficking. There are more

56:23

than 300 active outlaw

56:25

motorcycle gangs within the United States, ranging

56:28

in size from single chapters with five

56:30

or six members to hundreds of chapters

56:32

with thousands of members worldwide. Throughout the

56:34

records we received, there were several mentions

56:36

of the Pagans Motorcycle Club. Witnesses reported

56:38

hearing that Chris had ripped off the

56:40

Pagans and his disappearance was an act

56:43

of revenge. There was a story about

56:45

a man who wanted to purchase a

56:47

large amount of crystal meth. Allegedly, Chris

56:49

said he knew someone. So they went

56:51

together to meet this individual but got

56:53

held up at gunpoint. The witness said

56:56

that they took his gun and money.

56:58

They got the $100 from his pocket

57:00

but they didn't know he had $5,000

57:03

strapped to his chest. When this

57:05

witness was asked about the Pagan connection, he

57:07

claimed he was buying drugs for a Pagan

57:10

that day. However, since he didn't lose the

57:12

$5,000, he and Chris weren't

57:15

in trouble. He was able to

57:17

name one of the individuals involved in

57:19

this incident and identify their photo, though

57:21

the person he identified has since passed

57:23

away. He believed that they were held

57:25

up in the spring of 2019, which

57:28

would have been in the lead up to Chris'

57:30

disappearance. Some people described this

57:32

eyewitness as having significant mental health issues

57:34

and that he said he had connections

57:36

with the Pagans in Pennsylvania but they

57:38

thought he was boasting because he wanted

57:40

attention, respect, and to be feared by

57:43

others. We asked Detective Comley

57:45

about this and if she believed that

57:47

this incident actually happened. She said that

57:49

while the story is difficult to believe,

57:51

this witness was able to identify one

57:53

of the people whom he claimed held

57:55

him up. And generally, people are more

57:57

vague with their descriptions when fabricating a

58:00

st- story, and these kinds of incidents

58:02

do happen often in Elkhden. Though it

58:04

sounded like this happened months earlier, and

58:06

the witness couldn't even recall the address,

58:08

making it very difficult to prove that

58:10

it had happened. While Detective

58:12

Conley was investigating Chris's disappearance, she said

58:14

she never uncovered a direct link between

58:16

Chris and the Pagans motorcycle club. While

58:18

Chris may have bought and sold small

58:21

amounts of drugs in Elkhden to support

58:23

his own habit, he wasn't a big

58:25

dealer and someone who would have come

58:27

up on the Pagans' radar, and

58:29

that this lead ended up serving as more of

58:31

a distraction than anything else. And

58:34

that brings us back to someone Sarah mentioned

58:36

several minutes ago, Wayne. Early

58:38

on in the investigation, they tracked Wayne down, and

58:40

he stated that he hadn't seen Chris in days,

58:42

but he recalled that Chris didn't look well the

58:44

last time he had seen him. Wayne

58:47

said that he would contact the police department if he

58:49

heard anything. Fast forward to

58:51

April of 2020, nearly a year

58:54

after Chris disappeared. A woman contacted

58:56

the Elkhden police department because she

58:58

said her daughter had found Chris's

59:00

Maryland identification card. She said

59:02

that Wayne had stopped by her home to bring her a

59:04

beer. Later, her daughter noticed a

59:07

wallet on the steps that must have fallen

59:09

out of Wayne's pocket. They

59:11

looked inside and found Chris's ID card. They

59:13

returned the wallet but kept the card after

59:15

doing a search online and finding out that

59:17

Chris was a missing person. This

59:20

certainly was strange. Why would Wayne

59:22

have Chris's ID? After several

59:24

attempts to speak to Wayne, they finally caught up

59:26

with him in June of They

59:29

asked Wayne about having Chris's ID in his wallet,

59:31

and he went to retrieve his wallet to show

59:33

them. He hadn't realized that it was

59:35

no longer inside. Wayne explained that Chris

59:37

had left the ID there a long time ago and

59:40

asked him to hang on to it so he didn't

59:42

lose it. He put it in his wallet

59:44

and never thought about it again. They

59:46

asked Wayne if he knew anything about what happened to

59:48

Chris. He said that he only

59:50

heard rumors on the streets about Chris's body being

59:52

in a dam because he stole guns from the

59:54

pagans. The report goes on to say,

1:00:00

he had hurt Chris. Wayne didn't

1:00:02

have any reaction to what I asked, except

1:00:04

to say he had no reason to hurt

1:00:06

Chris. Wayne said he heard people

1:00:08

say that Wayne had buried Chris up behind

1:00:10

a church in Fair Hill, but Wayne

1:00:12

denied this. I asked Wayne

1:00:14

if he buried Chris anywhere and he said no.

1:00:16

I asked Wayne if he would tell me if

1:00:18

he did bury Chris somewhere and he said he

1:00:21

would. Wayne seemed to laugh

1:00:23

the questions off and didn't seem nervous

1:00:25

or bothered by the questions whatsoever. Wayne

1:00:28

went on to say that he had let Chris stay

1:00:30

with him for a week or two in May of

1:00:32

2019. He caught him using drugs

1:00:34

at his residence and Wayne said he couldn't

1:00:36

have that stuff at his house because he

1:00:38

feared he would lose his funding for his

1:00:40

federal housing. He caught Chris a second

1:00:42

time and asked him to leave. To

1:00:45

the best of his recollection, it was about a

1:00:47

week later that Chris was reported missing. He

1:00:49

said that Chris was his friend and he missed

1:00:52

him dearly. He wouldn't have killed Chris because he

1:00:54

cared for him. Sarah finds it

1:00:56

strange that Wayne had Chris's ID. Chris

1:00:58

didn't have a bank account and needed

1:01:01

his identification to cash his disability checks

1:01:03

and also possibly needed that ID for

1:01:05

his doctor appointments as well. What

1:01:07

we learned about Wayne is that he has some

1:01:09

disabilities and drinks quite a bit. Detective

1:01:12

Connelly said that she doesn't believe that Wayne

1:01:14

would have been capable of successfully covering up

1:01:16

a murder. It appears that Chris

1:01:18

did leave things with some people, like the

1:01:20

other woman who had his medical records. And

1:01:23

it is possible that Wayne having his ID was

1:01:25

as innocent as he claimed during his interview. Throughout

1:01:28

the investigation, they received many tips from people

1:01:30

saying they had seen Chris in Philadelphia or

1:01:33

at a Wawa or a shelter, but none

1:01:35

of them ever panned out. Detective

1:01:37

Connelly said that she searched every possible

1:01:39

place she could think of. She went

1:01:41

out on an all terrain vehicle every

1:01:43

chance she had looking through all areas

1:01:45

of town. She's gone out with teams

1:01:47

even, but she's never found a trace

1:01:50

of Chris. She also hasn't

1:01:52

uncovered any evidence pointing to foul play

1:01:54

in this case. And it's important

1:01:56

to note here that no one has ever been

1:01:58

officially named a person of interest. Looking

1:02:00

back at everything now, Shiloh believes that Chris

1:02:03

was at a really low point in his

1:02:05

life shortly before he went missing. At

1:02:07

first, she thought Chris may have ended his own

1:02:09

life. Though had that been the

1:02:11

case, she thought that Chris would have been

1:02:14

found in the weeks and months following his

1:02:16

disappearance. I would

1:02:18

say this time around, right before he went

1:02:20

missing, he was very down. I

1:02:23

don't think he liked the fact that he wasn't around the kids as

1:02:25

much as he could. I would take them

1:02:27

and we would meet him for lunch at different

1:02:29

places and stuff like that. So they did still

1:02:31

see their dad. I always made sure they had

1:02:33

a way to see him. But I just think

1:02:35

he felt like a failure when it came to

1:02:38

them. So he was very depressed about that. Originally,

1:02:40

I thought if anything happened that maybe he

1:02:42

did something to himself because he was just

1:02:44

getting tired of the cancer, I think, and

1:02:47

very down. So I was worried that he had done something

1:02:49

to himself. Maybe it was a

1:02:51

balance spiral that went too far. I

1:02:53

know when he was in the hospital, he had said

1:02:55

that they found spots on his lungs,

1:02:57

but they couldn't biopsy because they were afraid he

1:03:00

was too fragile, that they didn't want anything to

1:03:02

happen to his lungs, so they couldn't biopsy. And

1:03:04

I was just thinking to myself, maybe it was

1:03:06

more than that. Maybe they really did find something

1:03:08

and they were able to see what it was.

1:03:11

Like I said, he has his ups and downs.

1:03:13

So he has made comments in the past where

1:03:16

he was really down or whatnot, but never

1:03:18

anything to where I really thought he would do it. I

1:03:20

think he would self-destruct, but not a purposeful,

1:03:23

let's do this and end it. He wasn't

1:03:25

working. He was sick. He was

1:03:27

going to treatment. When he worked, he seemed

1:03:29

to have a purpose. Things

1:03:31

were okay because he was working at the

1:03:33

food line and the meat department and he

1:03:36

was doing really good. And then he had

1:03:38

hurt his arm and he couldn't work for

1:03:40

a while. And then it seemed like kind

1:03:42

of went downhill again. My initial

1:03:44

thought was he did something to himself. But

1:03:46

it was actually his daughter who made the

1:03:48

comment to me that if you do what

1:03:50

we find him, that makes perfect sense. You

1:03:52

know, if he did do something, you would

1:03:54

think he would find everything after

1:03:56

her comment about that made me think a little

1:03:59

bit harder. at the fact that somebody had to

1:04:01

do something because where is he? I do think

1:04:03

he would have made some type

1:04:05

of goodbye gesture if he would have, but

1:04:07

I don't think he did. So

1:04:10

many years have gone by with no trace

1:04:12

of Chris turning up. That has pushed Shiloh

1:04:14

to think about other theories and the rumors

1:04:16

that she's heard going around town. One

1:04:19

of my theories is that he was a

1:04:21

place and they were doing stuff and

1:04:23

something happened. And instead of

1:04:25

getting in trouble, they just kind of hit

1:04:28

it. That's my landing theory is what I

1:04:30

think happened. But I don't know. I can't

1:04:32

say for sure, but that's the only thing

1:04:34

that makes sense to me. I mean, because

1:04:36

I can't imagine anyone wanting to harm them,

1:04:38

just to harm them. Most people loved Chris.

1:04:41

There's more at play, whether it was an accident

1:04:44

and then people covered up or whether

1:04:46

it was foul play. There's quite a

1:04:48

few rumors out there. I heard once

1:04:50

that it was the biker

1:04:52

group and I'm like, okay, I can't see

1:04:54

Chris ever dealing with them, but okay. That

1:04:56

it was some people who he was hanging

1:04:59

out with that they did it over drugs.

1:05:01

Could it have happened? Maybe, but his personality,

1:05:03

I just don't see it. I don't. That's

1:05:05

not to say it didn't happen, but if

1:05:08

he had just walked away, we would have found

1:05:10

something because he would have had to go get

1:05:12

help somewhere else for the cancer treatment and he

1:05:14

didn't. So even if he did just walk

1:05:16

away, he would have passed away by now anyway from not

1:05:18

getting his help. Chris's

1:05:20

friend Larry said that he's realistic about all

1:05:23

of the possibilities and ultimately just wants his

1:05:25

friend to be found. What's

1:05:27

crazy is Chris would never harm a fly

1:05:30

for him to be murdered or something like

1:05:32

that. I don't ever see happening. If anything,

1:05:36

what I think is those tent cities that are

1:05:38

out in the middle of the creeks and stuff

1:05:40

down in Alton, I think he might have OD'd

1:05:42

and they might have pushed his body into the

1:05:45

creek or something like that. You never know. He

1:05:48

could have got a ride back down in the

1:05:50

Eastern shore and something happened. I don't know. I

1:05:52

think it's crazy that he's just vanished without a

1:05:54

trace. I don't see Chris harming himself. He would

1:05:57

always want to be around for his kids and

1:05:59

even Chyla. I mean, he loved Shiloh

1:06:01

to death. They just weren't meant for each other,

1:06:03

you know. And the way that he loved his

1:06:05

sister was second to none. A

1:06:08

lot of us that worked with him still work together or

1:06:10

keep in contact. There

1:06:12

was a good group of us. We worked at

1:06:14

the same places, the same warehouses around here, so

1:06:17

we still keep in contact. So it's like the,

1:06:19

what the hell, what, you know, did you

1:06:21

hear about Chris? It's like, yeah, I can't

1:06:24

believe that they haven't found anything about it.

1:06:26

But Chris was a great guy and his

1:06:28

family loves and misses him. To have closure

1:06:31

is important. I mean, this is any town

1:06:33

USA. Elkton, Cecil County, it's

1:06:35

any town USA. Like the Oopoid

1:06:38

and Fentanyl amathemic across this country is

1:06:40

in any, in every town. But it's

1:06:42

beautiful country out here. Like we have

1:06:44

creeks, we have rivers, we have woods

1:06:46

that are, that are miles and miles

1:06:48

deep. So where he was

1:06:50

whenever he went missing or something went

1:06:53

wrong, who knows? That's

1:06:55

my thought of it. I think he

1:06:57

might OD somebody knew about it. And

1:06:59

instead of ruining their spot, they might've

1:07:02

pushed him off to the side. Chris

1:07:04

was a very impactful

1:07:06

person on my life and my children's

1:07:08

lives. Not only one of my best

1:07:10

friends for the longest time, but he was

1:07:13

family. And I still remember

1:07:15

his laugh and his smile. I miss

1:07:17

my friend. And if anybody

1:07:20

does know anything, I think they should come forward.

1:07:23

There are so few clues to go on.

1:07:25

Chris walked away from the health department and

1:07:27

there isn't much more than that besides town

1:07:29

rumors. This has been a frustration for

1:07:31

Pam. She doesn't know what may have happened to

1:07:33

her son. I thought

1:07:36

that it was foul play. But then

1:07:38

it's really hard to say because

1:07:40

when, when you think of the

1:07:42

people that he spent time with,

1:07:44

I heard all kinds of different

1:07:47

theories, but he spent time with

1:07:49

people that if something happened to

1:07:51

him, and let's say overdosed, they

1:07:53

probably wouldn't have taken him

1:07:55

off and done anything with him. But

1:07:57

I still think it's just so hard

1:07:59

to