0:00

Hey Prime members, you can listen to The Vanished

0:02

ad-free on Amazon Music. Download

0:05

the app today.

0:13

There

0:19

is something fishy going on because

0:22

it's not lining up. There's nothing about

0:24

this missing case that's textbook anything.

0:27

There's something that happened that we're not privy

0:29

to. Just the whole thing

0:31

just doesn't sound right. Something's not sitting

0:33

right with me, never has and probably never

0:36

will.

0:36

The grief doesn't get easier but

0:38

you grow around it and you learn how to deal with

0:41

it. And it's always like looking over your

0:43

shoulder like expecting them to be there or dreams

0:46

are the worst.

0:47

I've had dreams like he's

0:49

just suddenly back. We hope he is

0:51

out there somewhere and we're not going to stop looking.

0:54

We don't care what has happened since we just

0:56

hope that he comes home. That he

0:59

knows how much we love him and how much we

1:01

miss

1:01

him.

1:04

By May of 2022, 33-year-old

1:07

Christopher Hoy was living in Dixon, Missouri,

1:09

along with his wife and their blended

1:12

family. They had relocated from

1:14

Illinois to try to live a more simple life,

1:16

homesteading. On

1:19

May 19, 2022, things seemed to be going

1:21

like any usual day on the farm. There

1:24

were animals to tend to and the kids were

1:26

running around. Chris and his wife,

1:28

Alicia, were divvying up their chores. Alicia

1:31

says that she went outside to milk their goats

1:34

and

1:34

while she was gone, Chris disappeared.

1:37

She said that she could hear his truck start up but

1:39

she wasn't close enough to see anything. When

1:42

she finished up with the goats and returned to the

1:44

house, something didn't seem right. Chris'

1:47

truck was gone, the gate was left open

1:49

and Chris' wallet and phone were left at the house.

1:52

Hoping that Chris had just left for a quick errand.

1:55

Alicia waited but Chris never came

1:57

back. A couple of hours later.

1:59

Alicia decided to go out looking for him and

2:02

found his truck abandoned not far from

2:04

their home. Despite extensive

2:06

searches of that area, no trace

2:09

of Chris Hoy has ever been found. I'm

2:11

Marisa, and from Wondery, this is episode 397

2:14

of The Vanished, Christopher

2:17

Hoy's story.

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Chris was born to Dan and Tina Hoy

3:32

on March 16th, 1989.

3:34

They later had a daughter, Ashley. Chris

3:37

and his sister Ashley grew up in Illinois

3:40

and seemed to have an average childhood.

3:43

Chris's mother passed away several years ago

3:45

after a battle with cancer, but

3:47

we were able to speak with Chris's father, Dan,

3:50

about his son's early years. He's

3:53

the oldest. He was two years older

3:55

than Ashley, so he kind of looked out for her when they

3:57

were going through school, so it was a good thing.

3:59

pretty bright kid. Well he was into sports

4:02

quite a bit. He liked baseball so

4:04

we started him off fairly early playing

4:06

tee ball and then little league

4:10

and then he got to be a pitcher, a pretty good

4:12

pitcher when he was in high school. They went to

4:14

the championship and

4:16

he was the starting pitcher so he

4:18

liked sports. I took him to quite

4:20

a few Cubs games. We put him through Christian

4:22

schools until he was eighth grade.

4:25

Then he wanted to go to a regular high school which

4:27

we ended up sending both

4:29

Chris and Ashley when they got freshman year. We

4:31

sent him to Peking High School and

4:34

that's where he really got into playing baseball

4:36

and got to be like I said a pretty good pitcher.

4:39

Dan explained that as Chris got older his

4:41

interest shifted and he had a real talent

4:44

for working on vehicles and machining.

4:46

He seemed to really enjoy hands-on work.

4:49

He also was a pretty good mechanic too.

4:52

He'd get cars and trucks and

4:54

repair them and he did all his own

4:56

truck repairs. He liked that. He went to

4:59

school for Caterpillar Diesel so

5:02

he enjoyed working on cars and trucks.

5:04

I got him in. I worked at Illinois

5:07

Machine and Tool for a long time

5:09

as a machinist. I got him in there and

5:11

he continued being a machinist for years.

5:13

He always had a job and he liked

5:16

woodworking too because I was doing a

5:18

lot of woodworking. He enjoyed doing that. He'd be

5:20

down at my shop and he'd be out there with me so

5:22

a lot of hands-on stuff he liked

5:24

and he was pretty smart at math too. Yeah

5:26

you got to know trigonometry and geometry to

5:29

be a good machinist and he was a good machinist.

5:32

Speaking with Chris's aunt Teresa

5:34

she gave us a similar picture of Chris.

5:37

They had a close relationship over the years

5:40

and Chris confided in her about his dreams

5:42

and struggles.

5:44

As a child he was goofy.

5:47

He was happy and as he was growing

5:49

up of course he was in a teenage

5:51

years where he was raised

5:54

in a Christian family. So as

5:56

teenage years he was kind of rebelling

5:58

a little bit. Then when he

6:00

got older, like graduated

6:02

and stuff, he did leave home

6:05

and live in his truck

6:06

for a while. And then he lived

6:08

with me for a couple months. And

6:11

then he went back home with his mom and dad.

6:13

He's always been a worker,

6:15

always had dreams of having a homestead

6:18

in the country with animals and

6:20

lots of children. And his skills

6:23

are just like his father's,

6:25

my brother Dan. They can operate

6:27

machines. And besides

6:29

that with all kinds of different machines,

6:31

they have the skill

6:33

of carpentry, building

6:35

things. He remodeled some

6:38

of his houses. He did all of his houses

6:40

by himself, remodeling him.

6:42

Chris is very smart. I mean, very smart.

6:45

And he did good. I mean, when he remodeled, he did

6:47

an excellent job. When he ran the machines,

6:50

because I actually worked with him at

6:52

Caterpillar, he was on one side of the wall

6:54

and I was on the other side of the wall. He

6:56

was a good machinist. He knew what he was doing.

6:59

So he's kind of like the rest of us on

7:02

the hoist side. He was happy.

7:04

Sometimes if he didn't get his way, he wasn't.

7:07

And if you let it get to him, then

7:10

he would kind of, I don't know, he'd be

7:12

grouchy or he'd be

7:14

sad. He would never say he was sad.

7:16

Years

7:18

ago, Chris was in a long-term relationship

7:20

with a woman named Cynthia. The two

7:23

had a son and daughter together.

7:25

Dan told us that this relationship was volatile.

7:28

And didn't last or end well. Nobody

7:31

in the family likes Cynthia on my

7:33

side. She was a jealous,

7:35

overprotective woman.

7:37

My first wife had cancer. And

7:39

we were sitting at home one time

7:41

when they came over. They had

7:43

just gotten there. I'd say probably about 15 minutes. And

7:46

Cynthia kept hitting Chris and looking

7:49

at the watch and showing him stuff on

7:51

Facebook. And it was some kind of barbecue

7:53

she wanted to go to. Well, Chris was there talking

7:55

to his mom and she just kept pestering

7:58

for about a half an hour. And he finally ended up just getting there. up

8:00

and walking out. I mean, she was just like that. It was

8:02

pretty much all about her.

8:04

Yeah, and she would constantly hit him. I mean,

8:06

my wife's sister,

8:08

they came down to visit her, and she

8:11

said she about jumped up one time and grabbed

8:13

all the Cynthia because she swung and hit Chris

8:15

in the shoulder real hard because she got mad. She

8:18

was just that kind of person. What

8:20

he saw in her, I have no idea.

8:23

After they split, we were told that Chris had

8:25

primary custody of the children. Although,

8:28

we'd like to acknowledge that we weren't able to establish

8:31

contact with Chris's ex, so

8:33

we don't have her side of the story on

8:35

how this relationship ended or how

8:37

Chris came to have primary custody of

8:39

the kids.

8:40

In 2017, Chris met his current wife, Alicia.

8:44

Dan felt that Alicia was a much

8:46

better match for his son. He

8:49

got together with her. I

8:51

believe it was in Washburn.

8:53

I had seen her a couple times and

8:55

then I lived in Peking and he worked at Caterpillar

8:57

and he was working second shifts. So

9:00

he would bring the kids over

9:03

for me to watch during the day.

9:05

He brought her over a couple times and

9:08

she seemed like a really nice girl. I mean, I

9:10

really like Alicia.

9:12

We went out to dinner a few times. I

9:14

mean, just we saw each other.

9:17

I thought she was just 100 times

9:19

better than Cynthia was. I

9:22

didn't know her that well.

9:24

She came over to my house a few times and

9:27

I met her a few times over in Washburn and she

9:29

seemed like a good girl. I didn't see anything

9:31

volatile at all.

9:33

Chris and Alicia's family seemed to mesh

9:35

well. Alicia had an older daughter,

9:37

Zoe, from a previous relationship

9:40

and Chris had the two younger kids. We're

9:42

bleeping out the names of Chris's children from

9:44

the previous relationship in this episode

9:47

due to privacy concerns and also

9:49

because there's an active custody dispute

9:51

over Chris's two older children, which

9:53

we will get to later on.

9:55

Dan told us that Chris, Alicia, and all

9:58

of the children seemed like one big Happy

10:00

Family.

10:24

We also spoke to Alicia, and she

10:26

recalled how she and Chris bumped into each

10:28

other one day. Alicia wasn't looking

10:31

to meet anyone at that time, but

10:33

she found Chris to be charming.

10:36

We met in November of 2017 at Sue's place. It's

10:39

a bar. I was meeting

10:42

a friend of mine there to play pool, and I got

10:44

there early, and he was there, and he tried

10:46

chatting me up and all that, and I was just there to meet my friend

10:48

to play pool, so I didn't really care

10:50

to engage. And so I kind

10:53

of gave him the cold shoulder, and he would

10:55

laugh at me to this day about that.

10:58

But then he started talking about his kids, and I started

11:01

becoming interested to them, especially the teachers. He

11:03

was talking about how his three-year-old needed extra

11:05

help. We talked, and when my friend

11:07

got there, we played pool, and he kind of came

11:10

over and bought me drinks. It was a

11:12

great night. Every day since then,

11:14

I was with him. He's the biggest extrovert

11:17

ever. He's the complete opposite of

11:19

me. He made friends easily. He

11:21

was always there to help. He was the best dad

11:23

I could ever imagine.

11:25

He was smart, very intelligent. He

11:28

loved to build things, fix things. He

11:31

had his own business. He was notary. He

11:34

became a realtor. So that kind of personality,

11:36

you know, where he was outgoing, and everyone

11:39

loved him.

11:40

When Chris and Alicia met, she had her older

11:42

daughter, Zoe, from a previous relationship,

11:45

and Chris had his two younger children. Chris

11:47

and Alicia later had another daughter together.

11:50

We spoke to Chris's stepdaughter, Zoe, and

11:53

she told us that Chris quickly jumped into the

11:55

father role in her life and had a

11:57

meaningful impact on her during her

11:59

teen year.

11:59

I call him my

12:02

dad. When I first met him, he

12:04

was very, he was just very easygoing.

12:06

I was 15. When me and my mom

12:09

had lived with my grandma before she met him, we

12:11

weren't in the greatest situation.

12:14

He was just very open and accepting. From

12:16

the get go, I feel like he knew I just

12:18

wouldn't trust people right off

12:20

the bat. He just was loving. He

12:23

didn't have to do anything that he did, but he

12:25

opened his arms, he opened his home. His

12:27

kids are my siblings. I love them.

12:29

And

12:30

I love him like he was my own father. I'm like, he

12:33

is to me. The

12:34

longer that they were together, they

12:36

always knew what the other was thinking. They always knew

12:38

what the other was going to do. They were so

12:40

close.

12:41

He's a very outdoorsy person. He and

12:43

my mom always had a lot of projects going like

12:45

they were either fixing the house, they were

12:48

doing stuff for their business,

12:50

doing stuff with us kids, like we were always

12:52

on the move. We were always doing stuff.

12:54

He is surely the best person I could

12:56

have asked for, for a dad. He tried

12:59

so hard to make sure like we

13:01

had everything we needed.

13:03

There would be mornings where because I was

13:05

home schooled before I went to public school with

13:07

a mom and Chris, they put me in public school

13:09

because they gave me an option. You can either keep home schooling

13:12

and you can stay here and do all your work and we'll help you.

13:14

Or you can go to public school and public school

13:16

is always something I always wanted to do because

13:18

I was sick of staying at home with no one.

13:20

I was in public school and

13:23

there were days where I would wake up and

13:25

I was in the worst mood. I just wasn't feeling it. I'd

13:28

be honest with Chris. I'm like, hey, can I stay

13:30

home from school today? It is a bad day. He's

13:32

like, yeah, sure. I'll call the school and let them know.

13:34

Then we would hang out for the day. We would go

13:36

do stuff. I would help him with what he needed help

13:39

with. He would help me.

13:40

Prior to his marriage to Alicia, Teresa

13:43

had witnessed Chris and her relationships with

13:45

people who just weren't good for him, but

13:47

she really felt that Chris had a bright future ahead

13:50

of him with Alicia.

13:52

Before he got married to Alicia,

13:55

I think Alicia is the best thing for him.

13:57

He just seemed to pick the wrong people.

14:00

to be with

14:01

and that, you know, sometimes wrong

14:03

people can gravitate towards you.

14:06

Chris had worked as a realtor. He

14:09

purchased some homes, fixed them up, and

14:11

rented them out as a source of income.

14:13

He was doing well, their family was happy

14:16

together, he had everything that he had ever

14:18

wanted and more. His goal was

14:20

to have enough properties that he could retire

14:22

and live off of the passive income from his

14:25

rentals by the time that he was 40.

14:27

But in 2020, the COVID-19

14:29

pandemic hit. Chris was losing

14:32

money and they were finding it nearly impossible

14:34

to keep up with the bills that were piling up.

14:36

He had a couple of

14:38

rentals, bought some houses, helped me buy

14:41

my first house.

14:42

He was making pretty

14:43

good money. He also became a realtor

14:46

at that time in Peoria, sold I think five

14:48

houses and netted over a million

14:50

for the company. But yeah, he was making

14:53

really good money. He was

14:54

doing things, you know, and then COVID hit.

14:56

Since COVID happened, businesses

14:59

were shut down. We had to make a hard decision. We had

15:01

to either, you know, let everything

15:03

go and

15:04

find a place we could afford and build what we

15:07

could, or we could stay where we were at

15:10

and lose everything. Because we lost 10

15:12

grand a month during the pandemic.

15:15

So we took what we had and we moved here to Missouri.

15:18

Unable to keep up with the mortgages on his rental

15:20

properties, they eventually went into

15:23

foreclosure. This was a real blow

15:25

to Chris. He had planned on building

15:27

his wealth to care for his family and have

15:29

something to pass on to them. But it all

15:31

seemed to slip away so quickly. They

15:34

made the decision to pick up a move from Illinois

15:36

to Missouri. They purchased a farm

15:38

and decided to try homesteading.

15:40

By this time, Zoe was an adult

15:43

and stayed back in Illinois with her fiancé,

15:45

Blake. Zoe and Blake would often

15:47

make trips to the farm in Missouri. And

15:49

Zoe says that Chris seemed happy with the more

15:51

simple life they were building there.

15:54

They bought this house in 2020 and they fixed

15:56

it up so much from

15:58

what it had looked like when they bought it.

15:59

Obviously they had all their farm animals,

16:02

the cows, the goats, chickens, all of

16:04

the birds. He had like odd jobs every

16:06

once in a while, but he was mostly a stay-at-home dad. Me

16:09

and Blake came here to visit. Mom

16:11

would take off days and we would just

16:13

try to all spend time together. Like we'd play Monopoly.

16:16

Every time we came down, Chris was so proud

16:19

of this farm. Like he would show us around. He

16:21

would show us the animals, what they've been doing,

16:23

their garden, how the kids

16:26

are doing now, like how much they've grown since we've

16:28

seen them last.

16:30

While this wasn't the path that Chris had envisioned

16:32

for himself and his family, it was

16:34

a fresh start for them and he seemed to enjoy

16:37

it. But

16:39

on May 19, 2022, Chris mysteriously

16:41

vanished from his home in Dixon, Missouri.

16:44

Chris and Alicia spent their days working on the farm

16:46

together and homeschooling their children.

16:49

Their days were full of chores that needed

16:51

to be done. Alicia told us about

16:54

that day.

16:55

He left the house without a word at 6.30

16:57

on Thursday, May 19. He

17:00

never does that. He always tells me he loves me

17:02

to give the kids a kiss. He always tells me

17:04

where he's going. And he didn't do that this time.

17:07

I went down to milk our goats and then I

17:09

heard the truck start up and he left. And he left

17:11

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maybe

22:00

we ought to get you checked out because you've had this rash

22:02

for two years." And he was just not the person

22:04

to go to the doctor. So he

22:07

said, no. I said, all right, well, okay.

22:09

I said, I'm gonna go get stuff ready to milk. And he

22:11

said, okay, baby. He went and he got out of the shower

22:13

and got dressed. I was in the kitchen. He came

22:15

up to me and I said, hey, I'm gonna go milk. He's

22:17

like, all right, baby. I'm gonna go downstairs. And

22:20

it was at that point that he left. He

22:22

didn't tell me he was leaving. He didn't tell me where

22:24

he's going.

22:25

The way that Chris left that day didn't sit

22:28

right with Alicia. She said there wasn't

22:30

an argument. Things seemed normal.

22:32

She had just left the house to go milk their goats

22:35

when she heard his truck start up and drive off.

22:37

Chris had left his phone and wallet behind

22:39

in the house. She had no way to reach

22:42

him.

22:42

She instantly got a bad feeling about this

22:45

and called Zoe back in Illinois.

22:48

I said, hey, you know, I said, Chris just left.

22:50

She was like, okay, what did he take? And

22:52

I looked down, his

22:54

phone was left. His wallet was left. She

22:56

goes, go check the guns. And I said, I checked the guns.

22:59

I couldn't find anything that was missing. She's

23:01

like, well, just call me out. He'll be back. Chris always

23:03

comes back. But then he always told us where

23:05

he was going to. And he never went anything

23:07

anywhere without a purpose.

23:10

So we remember getting that call from her mom

23:12

like it was just yesterday, but she

23:14

tried to reassure her mother that everything

23:16

was fine. There had to be a reasonable

23:19

explanation for this. And Chris

23:21

would be back.

23:22

I was in Illinois at the time with Blake, my fiance

23:25

and my son. It was 630 and mom

23:27

had texted me and she's like, Chris just left.

23:29

I'm like, what do you mean? And she goes, he

23:32

just left. He left the gate open. He didn't say

23:34

a word. I don't know what happened. I'm

23:36

like, okay, that's weird. Maybe he just went to the store

23:39

or something. Like I just kind of wrote it off at first. You

23:40

know, it's probably something little. He

23:43

went to go grab something. He went to go help our neighbor.

23:45

He'll probably just be back in a few minutes. That's all it

23:48

is. And I think I'd put my phone down

23:50

for a little while because we had a friend over and we

23:52

were trying to cook out. I wasn't super concerned.

23:54

I didn't expect him to just leave. So I thought it would be a small

23:57

errand or something. And at 830, mom,

23:59

called me and she's like Chris isn't back I'm

24:02

scared he's not back he left his

24:04

phone his wallet nobody's heard from

24:06

him I'm scared I don't know what to do

24:08

at which point I had gone out in the garage

24:10

to talk to her it's quiet and I'm like okay

24:13

there's no friends that he could have went to she's

24:15

like no at that point I had started panicking

24:17

because he would have taken his phone if

24:20

something was wrong or anytime

24:22

he would have gone somewhere he would have taken a phone he would have

24:24

let someone know and that two hours have

24:26

passed and no one heard from him so I'm like

24:29

did he stop at any stores or anything and she

24:31

goes no his wallet's here and I'm like mom

24:33

you need to check his gun check his guns and

24:36

see if everything is there and she did and

24:38

she's like no everything looks like it's here our handguns

24:40

are here all the rifles are here

24:42

we're both crying at this point

24:45

Alicia was kind of stuck she had

24:48

three young kids there at the house and

24:50

she couldn't just leave them there alone but

24:52

she felt the need to go out and look for Chris

24:55

she was very worried so she called

24:57

a friend to come to the house and care for the children

25:00

while she went out to see if she could spot Chris

25:02

or his truck anywhere nearby about 830

25:05

I called up one of

25:08

my friends to come watch the kids because he had still

25:10

not come to home and ended up driving

25:12

down the road I just thought I had to go check the river

25:14

sure if I found his truck parked

25:16

on the access road to the river it was at least a

25:19

football field length away from the river

25:21

and it's approaching dusk so I go out

25:23

to the woods as much as I can with the phone flashlight

25:25

I holler his name you know I look in the truck

25:28

there's nothing to miss and so I texted my

25:30

friend I said I found his truck but he's not here and she

25:32

goes I need you to call 911 so I went home and

25:34

I called 911 I

25:35

reported him missing

25:37

it had been two and a half hours like I said my

25:39

husband doesn't do anything without a purpose

25:41

he doesn't just leave everything

25:43

so I knew he was gone and I don't know what

25:45

gone means at this point if he had pitched

25:48

a ride left or if he had gone

25:50

and killed himself like I don't know at this point

25:52

I don't feel like he's dead in my heart my

25:55

gut whatever you want to call it

25:57

Alicia had a bad feeling about all of this

26:00

And the police seemed to take it seriously.

26:02

Chris's truck was found close to a river.

26:05

It was an immediate concern that perhaps Chris

26:07

could have jumped or slipped in. So

26:09

they began searching the water almost immediately.

26:13

They sent someone out to the river and he looked

26:16

as much as he could, again with it being dark. Then

26:18

he came out here, took out a report, gave me the missing

26:20

person's paperwork. I filled that out. He went

26:23

back to the river and grabbed the truck key and

26:25

brought it back to me, took the paperwork and

26:27

then the next morning at 10am, they

26:30

had a search team of like 50 people searching

26:32

the woods and the river. They took it seriously.

26:35

I had a damn good detective at first. At

26:37

the end of June, he moved. I never once believed

26:39

he went in the river. I thought maybe he'd be walking

26:42

the woods, but I wasn't sure.

26:43

My other thought was, got to ride out. The

26:46

first time they searched, which was by 10 o'clock

26:48

that next morning, they did tell me they

26:50

didn't catch the scent. They did not at all.

26:53

Then 10 days later, they said they got a scent

26:55

up to the road. Nothing came

26:57

of that.

26:58

They went to the road and that was it.

27:00

I would really like to know exactly

27:01

where they've looked. They

27:04

tell me they looked from Highway 28 all

27:06

the way down to Boylan Spring Campgrounds

27:09

in the woods, but like how far up the

27:11

woods did you go? I can

27:13

see the woods from here and I know

27:16

no one came up to this road and

27:17

this is the first road past that point.

27:20

Highway patrol told me that the way that

27:22

river twists and turns so much, they have

27:24

never found a body in that river

27:26

more than five miles out.

27:29

And they have searched, they have used sonar, there's

27:31

no clothing found, there was

27:34

nothing. The river was not

27:36

far from Chris and Alicia's farm. It

27:38

was a place the family was familiar with. They

27:41

would even go down to the river in the summer to

27:43

cool off and let the kids swim.

27:45

Zoe was hours away in Illinois

27:47

and hated being away from her mom and siblings

27:50

during this uncertain time.

27:52

But she and her fiancé had recently had

27:54

a baby together. They were young parents

27:56

and money was tight. Zoe was able

27:59

to pull together enough to help her.

27:59

money to make the trip out to Dixon, but

28:02

she would have to cross that river to get there.

28:05

As she was going over the bridge that was near where

28:07

Chris's truck was found, she was overcome

28:09

with emotion and had to stop driving.

29:00

I remember a big thing for me.

29:02

I had just gotten farther away

29:04

from St. Louis, like out of the busy part, and

29:06

mom had called me and she goes, hey, when you have

29:09

a chance, call me, it's important. And I immediately

29:11

start bawling my eyes out. His

29:13

truck was down by the river. That made me panic

29:15

because, like, why was his truck down by the

29:18

river? I immediately felt all the worst

29:20

things, and I pull over to gas station like

29:22

I'm bawling my eyes out, and she's like, hey, everything

29:24

is okay. I just wanted to let you know, like,

29:27

I know you're getting closer. When you

29:29

drive by the river, don't look at it.

29:31

Just keep going. And she told me some

29:33

other facts about, like, what the detective had said and everything.

29:36

So she's like, just drive by the river. Don't stop

29:38

and look at it. Just come home. Like,

29:40

okay, you know, like, thank you for calling me.

29:43

I'm panicking, though. She's like, I'm sorry,

29:45

I didn't mean to make you panic, but everything is

29:47

okay. Of course, I didn't listen to her, and I

29:49

stopped to look at the river. Well, I pulled over

29:51

by the side of the river. I got Jackson out of the car with

29:53

me, and I had gone to the bridge, and

29:56

I'm looking over at it, and automatically

29:58

everything just gets worse because The river

30:00

is so high. I'm bawling.

30:03

I get jacked and back in the car. I drive home. And

30:05

then of course when I get here, mom's like, I told you not to

30:07

look at the river.

30:08

And I'm like, I know mom. It was

30:10

knowing what it could mean. Cause just cause

30:12

it was so high, if he did jump

30:15

or if anything had happened, the river was

30:17

so fast and so high, it would have just swept away.

30:20

That's what was happening in my mind.

30:22

Chris's father, Dan, wasn't immediately

30:24

aware that his son was missing. They

30:27

hadn't talked much in the years before Chris

30:29

disappeared. There seemed to be some

30:31

level of estrangement there. And Chris

30:33

wasn't reaching out to family much or

30:35

letting them know what was going on in his life.

30:38

So Dan was shocked when he heard from Alicia a

30:40

couple of weeks after the fact, letting

30:43

him know that Chris had vanished.

30:45

They lived down in Missouri. They lived down there for a while.

30:48

And so the communication

30:50

between me and him wasn't that good. I'll

30:52

admit that we had our issues,

30:55

but we still talked.

30:57

What he did down in Missouri, I have no idea.

31:00

Matter of fact, I really didn't know he had moved down to Missouri

31:03

until Alicia texted

31:05

me, said he was missing. I didn't even know

31:07

he's down there. And the last time me and Chris

31:09

had really spoken was when I was

31:11

getting remarried to my wife that

31:13

I have now, like I said, my first wife passed away from

31:15

breast cancer. And

31:17

I got married December 4th, almost

31:19

a year and a half ago. And I had

31:21

told him I was getting married and told Ashley,

31:24

and they both seemed pretty happy about

31:26

it. And really after that, there wasn't

31:29

much talking. Alicia told

31:31

me about two weeks after,

31:32

texted me and told me he's been missing. My

31:35

wife just said it was June 5th when I found out.

31:37

So he went missing middle of May.

31:40

I wasn't told about it until June 5th. My

31:42

first thought was might've committed suicide.

31:44

That was my first thought because they

31:46

found his truck, I think down by the river. And

31:50

he didn't take his wallet with him. He didn't take his

31:52

phone with him. He's in the vehicle sitting

31:54

there by the river. So that was

31:56

my first gut instinct.

31:59

Like Dan. Teresa didn't realize

32:01

that Chris was missing right away. It

32:03

was Dan who called her to tell her the news

32:05

a couple of weeks after the fact, after

32:07

he was contacted by Alicia.

32:10

But Teresa thought he would turn up.

32:12

She had seen him run from his problems in the

32:14

past and thought that was what was happening

32:16

this time too.

32:18

My brother called. She didn't tell Dan

32:21

until two weeks. I think it was two weeks

32:22

if I'm remembering right on

32:25

that part of it. I've seen him run away

32:27

before. I've seen him do stuff before.

32:29

And I'm thinking he'll be back. He'll be back. He

32:32

just told me that he's been missing for two

32:34

weeks. And I said, two weeks.

32:36

And he said, and before

32:37

you say, why are we, am I calling

32:39

you two weeks after the fact, she just

32:41

called me. But Teresa

32:44

also told us that it had been a while since she

32:46

had heard from Chris too. And she wasn't

32:48

really aware of what was going on in his day

32:50

to day life at that time.

32:53

Until he went missing. I think I

32:55

had, I had a call from him.

32:57

And then when I called, called him, I

32:59

got his voicemail and I haven't

33:02

talked to him since, and I

33:04

guess that's when they were getting ready

33:06

to move down there to the farm.

33:09

Teresa had helped Chris out when he had fallen

33:11

on hard times. When he was younger, she

33:13

had found him living in his truck and brought him

33:15

to stay with her. She held out hope

33:17

that he had just cracked under the pressure and

33:19

taken off back to his familiar places

33:22

in Illinois.

33:23

So she went looking for him there.

33:26

Something had to happen

33:27

for him, not to show back up here at my

33:30

house and me not be able to

33:31

find him. I mean, I had been

33:34

all over down here in Illinois, looking

33:36

wherever his spots were around

33:38

here, just like I said, I went over to Worsford and

33:40

to the house

33:41

and it was in foreclosure. There

33:43

was nobody around and you could

33:44

tell nobody had been there.

33:46

I went back over again

33:48

later on and new locks were

33:51

put on like padlocks that it

33:53

was an auction, but the ones in

33:55

Peoria were getting sold and in

33:57

the same

33:58

timeline like

33:59

the foreclosure and then auction

34:02

and some of them been sold and

34:04

I went over to Peking to stomping

34:06

ground, could not find him.

34:08

Went back over to Market Heights where

34:11

my brother lived at, his house was there,

34:13

did not see any sign of that, that house

34:15

has been sold. And then the last

34:17

house, the last two houses in Peking

34:20

that Chris was at, the one was

34:22

on 3rd Street, that house

34:25

has been sold to somebody else. I

34:27

haven't seen him walking around or anything

34:29

and I've even been looking like parking lots. That's

34:31

how I found him before he had his truck

34:34

tucked way back behind a building

34:36

in a parking lot

34:38

and I just went driving down it and

34:39

I recognized his truck and he was

34:42

living in his truck.

34:44

Alicia told us about one clue that investigators

34:46

found in Chris's truck that they thought

34:48

would bring them answers but it hasn't,

34:51

at least not yet.

34:53

They had found a cigarette butt in Chris's

34:55

truck and Kaufman was 100%

34:57

sure that this was only the answers

34:59

we need. We can't find them in a river, we can't find

35:01

them in the woods,

35:02

so this is going to tell us the last person

35:05

to see them, right? Well, they can't match

35:07

it to anybody.

35:08

With no one to match the cigarette butt to

35:11

for now, it remains a lead that could

35:13

go somewhere in the future. Alicia

35:15

doesn't know what happened to her husband

35:17

and she has tried every avenue she can think

35:19

of to look for clues. She looked

35:21

in Chris's phone that he had left behind and

35:24

Chris was fairly isolated at the time

35:26

so it wasn't like there were friends nearby

35:28

that he would have been confiding in or that he

35:30

may have gone to visit that day. I

35:33

went through his phone, there's nothing in his phone

35:35

that indicate anything that he even

35:37

talked to anyone the week before he left or even

35:39

two weeks before he left. We didn't really talk to our friends,

35:42

we had each other and we just we had our lives.

35:44

He would help our neighbor with projects around

35:46

the house and wash up his muscle car

35:48

for car shows but other than that,

35:51

he really hadn't made friends.

35:59

and Chris that night. Alicia

36:02

shared

36:02

that there have been a couple

36:04

of sightings of Chris in nearby

36:06

towns, but

36:19

no

36:23

one has been able to confirm that it was actually

36:26

Chris. The sightings could simply be

36:28

people who looked like him.

36:30

There were a few sightings, two in

36:32

Lebanon and one in

36:34

Sestes.

36:35

When I spoke to the detective,

36:38

it's about a month and a half ago now, he told

36:40

me that he couldn't really follow through with that

36:42

because there's no really description

36:44

of what he was wearing, what he looked like, did he have a

36:46

beard, was he clean shaven. So

36:49

without all that identifying information,

36:52

it was really hard to look into those leaks. But

36:54

I did contact the police departments

36:56

in each of those towns and made

36:58

them aware that, you know, hey, there was a sighting,

37:00

here's what he looks like, he's missing, can

37:03

you keep an eye out? But I haven't heard anything back.

37:05

The fact that there was two in Lebanon from two

37:07

different people, it was about a month apart,

37:10

one in January and one in February, that seemed

37:12

like maybe it could be something.

37:15

We did ask Alicia if there was anyone

37:17

in Chris's circle that could have had a motive to

37:19

harm him, anyone that he could have had a

37:21

falling out with. Alicia told us

37:23

about something that happened about a year prior

37:25

to Chris's disappearance.

37:28

We did have trouble with meth heads when we

37:30

first moved in. So I don't know. And

37:32

they

37:32

live down three miles from

37:35

us. I don't have any specific name. I

37:37

can't even tell you what they look like. But I know Chris

37:39

has had trouble with them.

37:40

We hadn't had problems with them for

37:43

a year. There's been no problem since

37:45

he's left either.

37:46

We had someone try to break in,

37:48

or at least with honor property,

37:50

about 4am. And we

37:52

woke up to the dog's market and Chris

37:55

watched this girl leave and

37:57

then not even a quarter mile down, she gets in a car

38:00

car and there's guy driving. He chased him

38:02

down and basically told him, you know,

38:04

stay off the property and all that. We ended

38:06

up calling the cops. And if I remember

38:08

right, it was actually Morton, Detective Morton,

38:10

who was not a detective then, who came out

38:13

and he's like, what do you want me to do about it? He gave

38:15

him a license plate. They were on her property or they were

38:17

trespassing at least, at the very least, but

38:19

nothing was done about that either. So I'm

38:21

sure there's an incident report somewhere

38:24

about that. The guy that was driving

38:26

that car, like he would come by and harass

38:29

us like, punk it all hours of the night

38:31

every time he drove by and flip my husband

38:33

off. And then this guy's dad stopped

38:35

by and they got into a yelling

38:37

match. But like I said, there was nothing for

38:40

a year before he left. It

38:42

seemed like pretty much an isolated incident.

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40:54

Chris's disappearance has caused yet another

40:56

trauma for the family, beyond the lack

40:59

of answers and not knowing. Shortly

41:01

after Chris vanished, his ex came

41:03

and took the older two children back to Illinois.

41:06

Alicia has been fighting in family court so

41:08

that Chris's older two children and the youngest

41:11

child that they have together can maintain

41:13

a relationship.

41:15

He had two kids from a previous

41:17

relationship. And they have lived with us since.

41:20

They were 18 months and three years.

41:22

And they're now six and eight. Two weeks after he

41:24

left, went missing, however you want to say

41:26

it,

41:27

the biological mom came out of the blue and

41:29

took the kids back. She told the cops

41:31

that she saw my oldest daughter's post

41:34

on Facebook, which isn't true, because

41:36

my daughter's Facebook is completely

41:38

private. But then she told him

41:40

again, it was just

41:41

she saw it on Facebook. We don't

41:43

know exactly how she found out, but

41:46

she found out.

41:47

My three-year-old that I had with my

41:49

husband asked a field questions on where's daddy

41:51

and where's her siblings and why can't I see

41:54

any of them.

41:55

At first,

41:55

the biological mom, when she picked

41:58

them up, said we could see or talk to them anytime we wanted. That

42:00

lasted a whole two days. So she got

42:02

an emergency restraining order against me saying

42:04

that I said I was going to come back and take the kids, which

42:07

on that last video call that I

42:09

had with those two kids, the youngest

42:12

asked if he could come home. And I said,

42:14

I don't know, buddy, I have to find

42:16

daddy. And then my

42:18

oldest

42:19

said, well, will you come see us? I said,

42:21

maybe next weekend, I'll come see you. And

42:23

then she got the emergency restraining order.

42:26

So I went through court with that. Drove to Illinois.

42:28

I said, in court, told the judge what happened.

42:31

He goes, you understand that they have to reside

42:33

with their biological mom. I said, absolutely. I

42:35

said, my whole goal here is to make sure that these

42:37

kids know their siblings. And he said, okay.

42:40

And he dropped the restraining order. There was no, and

42:42

she couldn't provide burden proof. And then

42:44

I hired a lawyer. I'm fighting for

42:47

visitation. Since December, I've

42:49

been able to see the kids three times and

42:51

I've been able to talk to them more on the phone.

42:54

Because right now it's a verbal agreement that we're going

42:56

to follow the guardian's recommendations and the guardian's

42:59

recommendation is one in person visit

43:01

a month and two video chats a month.

43:03

And the only thing that the biological

43:06

mom has actually done for us

43:09

is to let us see them for one hour

43:11

a month.

43:12

We drive five hours there and we drive five

43:14

hours back and they only get to see

43:16

their little sister for one hour.

43:19

The guardian said that it

43:21

was not right for Chris to cut Cynthia

43:24

out of their lives. I get

43:26

it. I had no part in that. But

43:28

then it is equally wrong that

43:30

Cynthia is trying to cut out me

43:33

and my child. So the judge

43:35

left it. They have to be put in counseling

43:38

because I'm stepmom. She's bio mom. She

43:41

does not want me in their lives, period.

43:43

It's the kids that are hurting the worst. That's

43:45

not fair to them. It is not.

43:48

It's never fair. And that's what

43:50

hurts so bad is that one

43:52

event my husband leaving has

43:55

wrecked

43:55

everything.

43:56

I lost my better half and

43:59

the fact that I don't.

43:59

I don't know what happened. I don't

44:02

know where he went. I don't know why he left.

44:04

I can't tell him that he's dead because

44:06

I don't know if he is. I can't tell him that he's alive.

44:09

So I can tell them daddy left

44:11

and no one knows where he's at and he's

44:13

missing and everyone is looking for him.

44:16

Like, can I come home? And I said, Oh, honey, I got to find dad first.

44:19

Because I wasn't going to tell him, no, you're

44:21

never going to see this house again and any of your stuff,

44:23

your pets and all that. I wasn't going to say that. I said,

44:25

I have to find dad first.

44:27

Teresa expressed confusion about this

44:29

situation regarding the children and

44:31

she couldn't understand how Chris's ex would

44:34

have even been aware that he was missing so quickly.

44:37

With the kids, when Cynthia came

44:39

down and got him, I think she forgot

44:42

that she was friends with me.

44:43

I sent her a message and asked her how

44:46

the kids were doing and she immediately blocked me. And

44:48

nobody knows how

44:50

Cynthia even found out about it. According

44:53

to the dates that we were given by Dan and Alicia,

44:56

Cynthia took the kids back to Illinois before

44:59

Dan was even aware that his son had vanished. Dan

45:02

says that he hasn't been able to make sense of it all.

45:05

That's a funny thing, too. I don't think

45:07

it was more than two weeks after Chris went missing.

45:10

Our only question is so quickly and I don't even

45:12

know if it was a couple of weeks. So quickly, how did

45:14

she get all that worked out and was able

45:16

to come get the kids? I don't understand

45:19

how she was able to find out that Chris was missing

45:22

and get all the court paperwork, come down

45:24

to Missouri and was able to get all that done

45:26

in just a matter of a few days.

45:29

We felt like we didn't have a firm grasp

45:31

on the situation with the children.

45:33

We knew that Chris had moved out of state with the

45:35

kids in August of 2020. But

45:38

we didn't know if the custody agreement with

45:40

his ex had been amended to allow for

45:42

that move or if he had just left the

45:44

state.

45:45

Alicia mentioned that the judge didn't think it was

45:47

right that Chris had cut Cynthia out before.

45:50

When did that happen? We attempted

45:52

to contact Cynthia to get her side of

45:55

the story, but she didn't respond

45:57

to our messages. So we went back to Alicia to

45:59

see if she had been in the state.

45:59

see if we could get more background information.

46:03

When they split up, she took the kids and

46:05

he fought for custody. In

46:06

May of 2017, he

46:08

won full custody.

46:09

So he has had full custody since then. She

46:12

could get them every other weekend and

46:15

then she would have them every other holiday.

46:17

In the time that I've been around,

46:20

she was never consistent on getting

46:22

the kids. Then when Chris tried to talk

46:25

to her about, she was supposed to pay like half

46:27

the financial

46:27

bills and all that. When he tried

46:29

to discuss his concerns with her being

46:32

inconsistent on visiting and not paying

46:34

her half, she basically

46:36

told him that she was not going to pay

46:38

her half. She's going to see her kids, which she wants to

46:41

see her kids. It was not

46:42

an agreeable conversation. And

46:44

around that same time, she had moved in with

46:46

her living boyfriend and Chris had requested

46:49

his last name so he could make sure the kids

46:51

were with someone that was going to treat him

46:53

right and she refused to give him the last

46:55

name. So he said, well, you're not

46:57

going to see the kids until

46:58

you can provide me with this information, I want to make

47:00

sure the kids are going to be taken care of.

47:03

And so she hadn't seen him for like five

47:06

months. Then she finally gave Chris

47:08

her living boyfriend's last name. And he said,

47:11

you've been gone for five months, go ahead and just take me to

47:13

court if you want to see the kids. And she didn't,

47:15

but then she found out Chris was missing and

47:17

she called

47:18

the detective at the time it was Kaufman

47:21

and said she wanted her kids back. The

47:23

last time they talked was 2019.

47:27

And December 3rd of 2018 was the

47:29

last time she actually saw the kids. And yeah,

47:32

until June 3rd of 2022.

47:34

June 2nd is when she called the detective. June

47:37

3rd is when she picked them up.

47:39

We don't know the other side of this story.

47:42

And we don't have any way to verify this in

47:44

court records. Because family court records

47:46

regarding child custody are generally

47:48

sealed to protect the privacy of minors. We

47:51

couldn't help but wonder if there was more to this aspect

47:54

of the story. Had Cynthia been looking

47:56

for the children since they moved out of state?

47:59

a line of contact with Chris,

48:02

and he worried that they would be taken. Was

48:04

this another stressor in his life? That

48:07

brings us to the next topic that we want to look

48:09

into. One thing that stuck out to us

48:11

as we conducted interviews on this case

48:14

was Chris's mental health. It

48:16

sounded like he was struggling after losing

48:18

his rental properties in Illinois, struggling

48:21

with his self-worth and feelings of failure,

48:23

not being able to provide for his family in

48:25

the ways that he wanted to or felt that he should.

48:28

The move to Missouri was supposed to be a fresh

48:31

start, but it also may have been isolating.

48:34

Alicia worked outside of the home, but

48:36

Chris was home most of the time working

48:38

on the farm and homeschooling the kids.

48:41

Zoe explained that on her last visit to

48:43

the farm in Missouri, she noticed

48:46

a shift in Chris, but she

48:48

didn't realize at the time how potentially

48:50

serious it may have been. It didn't

48:52

click until Chris vanished.

48:55

The last time I had come down was

48:57

a couple months prior to when he had left. So

48:59

he left on a Thursday. The weekend

49:01

after that, me and Blake were supposed to come down,

49:04

but money was tight and we

49:06

couldn't make it down. And I felt really bad

49:08

about that. And him just leaving,

49:10

him being gone for those two hours. It

49:13

was weird. And I knew

49:15

he was depressed last time I came down, but I didn't

49:17

know how bad it was. I just thought, you know, everyone

49:19

has a moment where they're just down. And I

49:22

thought it was just a moment of weakness. Like he

49:24

was, he was going to come back in full force.

49:26

He was going to be him.

49:28

And him just being gone so long made me panic. He

49:31

never does that. He didn't go into

49:33

too much detail with me about it at

49:35

the time. Again, looking back,

49:38

it makes me worry. But one

49:40

of his bigger things was like they moved

49:42

down here after COVID and it was

49:44

hard on him to have such a big transition.

49:46

I

49:47

don't know if he just didn't ever

49:49

come back from that, or there

49:51

was some other factor. I don't

49:53

know. Anytime I came down to visit

49:55

them, he seemed like he was doing all right, except for

49:58

that last time, which I think was in January. a

50:00

new area of last year.

50:01

On one hand, Zoe recognizes

50:04

that Chris did seem depressed in the months

50:06

before he disappeared. But there's one

50:08

memory that she has of Chris that makes

50:10

the idea of suicide difficult to reconcile.

50:13

Zoe shared that during her teen years, she

50:15

too struggled with her mental health and self-harm.

50:19

And it was Chris who had a long meaningful

50:21

discussion with her about it, a discussion

50:23

that she will never forget.

50:25

One of the big things that sticks with me about that is

50:28

I used to self-harm when I met him. And

50:30

I never told him when at first. I came

50:33

to him and I told him one night, like I think he picked

50:35

me up from work or something. And like he

50:37

pulled over to gas station and we had a long talk

50:40

and one of the things that it has always stuck

50:42

with me that he said is I don't

50:44

wanna have to explain why their

50:46

big sister is here anymore. Like that

50:48

is not fair to him, that is not fair to us, but

50:50

it's not fair to you. And hanging

50:53

onto the hot part of me doesn't think

50:55

you would commit suicide. It hurt him.

50:57

I don't think he would ever wanna put us through that,

51:00

but I don't know because I know depression

51:03

will just have fucked up things to a person.

51:05

Throughout several conversations with Alicia,

51:08

she opened up more about how Chris was behaving

51:10

in the lead up to his disappearance and

51:12

some of the things he was saying to her that are alarming

51:15

in hindsight.

51:16

It seemed as though he just couldn't move beyond

51:18

the financial losses.

51:21

I know that weighed on him a lot the week

51:23

before he left because he was devastated.

51:25

He didn't have anything to leave for his kids. But

51:27

look what we're doing here because we were building

51:30

a homestead, we had a farm, we had so many

51:32

gardens. We were growing

51:34

out a cow so we could have our own beef and we

51:36

knew what was in it. We're doing so

51:39

many great things and then he

51:41

just he couldn't move past all the

51:43

loss. Felt like to me it came

51:45

out of left field. Where is this

51:47

coming from and why is this bothering you so bad

51:50

right now in this moment? And I could not figure

51:52

it out. And I still can't to this day.

51:54

That week before he left, he even asked

51:57

me if I was going to leave him because of the man he's become.

51:59

I'm like, I love you. You may not be the same

52:01

man I met, but I love

52:03

you just the same. I don't know

52:05

if he went off to go kill himself. Like I don't

52:07

know two days before he left. I

52:10

called him on my break and

52:12

he was distant and it

52:15

was off and I got

52:17

off the phone. I'm like, why do I feel like we're breaking up?

52:19

Honestly, I think he was more honest with himself

52:22

that week before he left than he had ever been.

52:24

I mean, I know he was more honest with me that

52:26

week. He told me he didn't want to do this anymore.

52:28

I'm like, do what?

52:30

And he goes, any of them. I'm like, do

52:32

what? Do you not want the animals? Do you

52:34

not want us? What do you not want?

52:36

And he goes, I don't want to feel this way anymore. I'm

52:38

like, okay, let's fix that. How do we help?

52:41

How can I help you? Or, you know, what can we

52:43

do to make you feel better? And

52:45

he said he didn't know. And I told him, I'm like,

52:48

I am here and I will support you in anything

52:50

in any way, but you have

52:53

to like, give me some kind of indication of what

52:55

you need from me.

52:56

He did seem depressed, but he

52:59

was also trying to get out of

53:01

that, if that makes sense.

53:02

He was making plans. We were going to do a whole lot

53:05

of work. We had talked about going to the St. Louis

53:07

Zoo. In 2018, we had a caricature

53:09

made of our family. And now

53:11

that our littlest one was here, you know,

53:13

we were going to go and get it redone. Like

53:16

we were making plans. I don't know that

53:18

he was suicidal, but I can't rule it out. The

53:20

most he would talk about was how

53:22

he felt like he wasn't a good husband, which I, of

53:25

course, you know, I try to tell him he was because he

53:27

was the best husband for me. He

53:30

was upset that before COVID,

53:32

you know, he had thriving businesses. We were pulling

53:34

in 10 grand a month and all that. And then

53:37

with COVID, that shut everything down. We ended up moving

53:39

here. Just a general sense

53:41

of unease on how

53:43

things were going in his life, I guess. It's

53:46

not where he thought he was going to be. He

53:48

loved the goats. He loved the animals. He especially

53:51

loved the cow. He was

53:53

extremely happy here up until

53:56

I'd say about two weeks before, about two

53:58

weeks before he left is when he showed up. me he was not.

54:01

Love in life.

54:02

One detail that we heard from a few people

54:05

in interviews was that maybe there

54:07

was a gun missing from the home.

54:09

This could be an important clue if Chris

54:11

was down and possibly suicidal.

54:14

So we went back to Alicia and asked her about

54:16

this gun in question that we

54:18

were told may have been a sawed off shotgun.

54:21

Alicia explained that she doesn't know if Chris

54:23

took the gun with him or if he had gotten rid

54:25

of it previously. He took

54:28

his truck and his truck key. He left the spare key,

54:30

the house key, the wallet, the phones. He

54:32

left everything.

54:33

Our shotgun is missing. I don't know how

54:36

long. I don't know if he took it with him or

54:38

if he got rid of it beforehand because

54:40

I don't go in and mess with the guns too much.

54:43

And originally, I thought they had taken a tent,

54:45

but I found the tent later. So there's that,

54:48

but I still haven't found the shotgun and

54:50

it was an 18 inch. I'm not sure it was sawed off, but

54:52

it was an 18 inch shot double barrel shotgun

54:54

that we had.

54:55

Teresa believes that Chris had the skills

54:57

to live off the grid, but she finds

55:00

it difficult to believe that he would choose to do

55:02

that and leave his children behind. He's

55:05

definitely a survivalist.

55:08

I mean, he can get around. We

55:10

used to start all kinds of things

55:12

and go camping and

55:14

fishing and we'd make fires

55:16

and all that stuff, just practicing

55:19

for being out in the woods and

55:21

stuff. So he knows what he's doing. That's

55:23

one thing that

55:24

Chris is excellent. Chris is a

55:26

good guy. He's loving. I mean,

55:29

he just loves his kids to death. He

55:31

fought

55:31

so hard for to keep

55:34

them safe. That's why I was

55:36

shocked when he just disappeared.

55:38

I don't understand it.

55:40

There's a lot of things I don't understand

55:42

about

55:43

what happened and stuff.

55:45

It just shocked me because I know that

55:48

I now call him a boy because I know

55:50

he's a man, but he's still my nephew.

55:52

I've known him so well through

55:54

all these years with his kids. I

55:57

just know that he would not have

55:59

left those

55:59

three babies in that house with

56:02

Alicia

56:02

outside taking care of

56:04

the goats and chickens. As much as he

56:07

fought for them, there's something else here

56:09

that's not being told.

56:11

There's something else I know, Chris.

56:13

I mean, when I heard he was missing, I said, no,

56:15

he would not have left those kids.

56:17

But then at the same sense,

56:19

after all she found was his

56:21

billfold and his cell phone, and

56:24

he wouldn't have left that. There's a couple

56:26

of things, Strain. Before I weigh what

56:28

I'm thinking, I think of

56:30

all the bad stuff. I think of all the

56:32

good stuff. And I weigh it to see what's

56:34

more feasible. I don't think he

56:37

would do that to Alicia.

56:39

I just don't think he would do that to her.

56:42

There's something else there. I guess

56:44

the big major thing with me is

56:46

there is something fishy going on, because

56:49

it's not lining up. There's nothing

56:51

about this missing case that's textbook

56:53

anything. And

56:55

there's something that happened that we're not we're

56:58

not privy to. It had

57:00

been quite some time since Dan had seen

57:02

his son face to face, or even

57:04

really spoken to him over the phone.

57:07

But Dan was alarmed when he saw the photos

57:09

that law enforcement had posted of Chris.

57:11

He noticed a distinct difference

57:13

in his appearance and can't help but wonder

57:16

what was really going on with him. The

57:18

two pictures that the sheriff's department

57:21

posted when Chris went missing, you

57:23

take a look at that one when he's in the ball cap.

57:26

That's Chris. Just a few years later.

57:28

Look

57:28

at that last picture is teeth. We

57:31

spent thousands of dollars on Steve and he was

57:33

so proud of those. Look at his teeth. Look at his

57:35

glasses. Look at his hair. He just he

57:37

just looks to me disheveled just from

57:39

one person to another. Something's going on there.

57:42

Too much of a difference. He was a good looking

57:44

kid. Second picture of him in Missouri

57:46

just he just looked like he was not

57:49

Chris. He had contact and

57:51

he was always wearing contacts. And in this

57:53

picture here he had a pair of glasses I believe

57:55

that were broken. I don't know. Like I said,

57:58

it just it just looks like he went from

58:00

One end of the spectrum to another in just a couple

58:02

years.

58:03

Dan doesn't know what to make of everything that's transpired

58:06

since his son disappeared. All

58:08

they have to go on for now are theories.

58:11

There are no hard facts or clues.

58:14

The whole thing is just

58:16

baffling to me. Sometimes

58:18

I think that he just got up and left. Sometimes

58:20

I don't know if he's even around anymore.

58:22

I mean, you know, just some of the circumstances was just,

58:25

I don't know. I know Chris. I know how much

58:27

he loved those kids. And I just don't

58:29

think he would just get up and just walk away. I

58:31

just don't believe that. I don't, you know, like

58:33

I said, there's just so many things that you think

58:36

one way and then something, you hear something

58:38

out and you think another way.

58:40

Supposedly, they took the truck in and

58:43

went over it for fingerprints. The

58:45

detective did say that they took the truck in

58:48

and they did whatever they could

58:50

to find something and just never could find anything.

58:52

There was a cigarette, but Alicia said that's

58:54

not the kind of Chris smoke.

58:56

The whole thing just doesn't sound right. Something's

58:58

not sitting right with me. Never has and

59:00

probably never will. Like I said, you know, you go

59:02

back and forth, you play the different scenarios

59:05

and the police did say they had the dogs

59:07

out there. They drug the river. And

59:09

so if he did commit suicide,

59:12

you think the dogs would have found something.

59:15

Alicia struggles to understand what happened

59:17

that day in May of 2022 and where Chris may have

59:19

gone and why. She

59:23

thought that their fresh start was working for them

59:25

on the farm up until just a couple

59:27

of weeks before he disappeared.

59:29

She saw that Chris was struggling, but

59:32

it didn't seem like something they couldn't work through.

59:35

It doesn't make sense because he

59:37

would align things up. He cared for

59:39

his family that much. He would have made sure we were

59:41

taken care of.

59:41

I am 80 percent certain

59:44

he did drive it out of this driveway. But

59:46

where he went

59:47

in the two hours before I found his truck, I don't

59:49

know. I know Chris can hide

59:51

stuff. I would believe anything other

59:53

than he went off to myself because I just

59:56

I cannot believe that. I do not believe that. And

59:58

I never felt that.

59:59

and he was homeschooling his kids. Like who puts

1:00:02

that much effort into it? Why would he put so

1:00:04

much time and energy into everything?

1:00:06

Much of the focus of the search efforts has been

1:00:09

on the river, and that makes sense.

1:00:11

His truck was parked nearby.

1:00:14

It seemed like Chris was really struggling with

1:00:16

his financial failures, but

1:00:18

nothing has turned up there despite extensive

1:00:20

search efforts.

1:00:22

I talked to highway patrol, actually went out to the campground

1:00:24

where they went in, because I asked them, like, can

1:00:26

I hang out here?

1:00:29

They were getting ready to put the boat in, and I

1:00:31

drove down there, and I said, hey,

1:00:34

can I just hang out here? He goes, you may

1:00:36

not want to, because if we find him, it's

1:00:38

not gonna be pretty. You don't want that to be the last thing

1:00:40

you see. And I'm like, and I straight up told him, I'm

1:00:43

like, it's not any worse than him leaving

1:00:45

without saying goodbye. But

1:00:47

I'm like, okay, what's the science of this? Like

1:00:49

if he went in,

1:00:50

what do we expect? And he told me that

1:00:53

within three to five days, his body

1:00:55

would float because of the gases, but they

1:00:57

would find clothing, pieces

1:00:59

of clothing

1:01:00

first. There's no body found yet,

1:01:02

and they found one shirt. It was late June,

1:01:05

highway patrol sent me a text and sent me a

1:01:07

picture,

1:01:07

like, hey, we found a shirt. We need you to confirm

1:01:10

if it's your husband's

1:01:10

or not. So they sent me a picture, and I'm like, he's

1:01:12

got a shirt that color, but I need to know what kind

1:01:14

of material it is, because that would

1:01:17

say a lot. So I went down to their base here

1:01:19

in St.

1:01:19

Robert's. He showed me the shirt,

1:01:21

and it's not his. I'm the one that does

1:01:23

the laundry. I put the laundry away, like,

1:01:26

he doesn't touch it. I know for certain

1:01:28

that's not his shirt, because it was a large,

1:01:30

and he wears extra large. I don't believe he's

1:01:32

in the river.

1:01:33

The Gasconet did just recently

1:01:35

flood

1:01:36

into the woods about

1:01:38

three football fields, and I only thought

1:01:40

as well, if he's in there, maybe he'll wash up,

1:01:43

but I don't

1:01:44

believe he's in there.

1:01:46

Alicia is still at the farm, trying

1:01:48

to hold everything together. It isn't

1:01:51

easy doing it on her own.

1:01:53

Zoe and her fiancee help out as much

1:01:55

as they can, but Alicia says it

1:01:57

has really taken a toll on all of the

1:01:59

kids.

1:01:59

the most.

1:02:01

Alexa has had a bit of

1:02:03

a setback. She asks her daddy every day. She

1:02:06

cries. We have to watch videos.

1:02:08

My oldest is functioning better

1:02:10

as

1:02:10

well, but you know, she has her moments.

1:02:12

And then the middle two, his two,

1:02:14

every time we see him, they ask if

1:02:17

we found him. The eight-year-old said

1:02:19

that she's worried that he's DEAD.

1:02:21

And I just remind them that I'm getting

1:02:24

more and more people to look for him and I'm doing

1:02:26

everything I can and hopefully we can bring him home.

1:02:28

He's out there somewhere. No one knows where

1:02:30

he is. We're looking. And

1:02:32

she'll even, we'll be in the car. She'll be

1:02:34

like,

1:02:35

where's daddy? I said, I don't know, baby. And

1:02:37

she'll go, maybe

1:02:38

he's that way. And maybe he's, you know, and she's pointing

1:02:40

like left and right, forward and back. And he's

1:02:42

there. Maybe he's there.

1:02:44

If she's really insistent, I just tell her, I don't know. But

1:02:46

mommy's looking.

1:02:48

It'll never get easier, but you get better at dealing

1:02:50

with it. I hope he's found too.

1:02:52

I hope he's alive. So

1:02:54

what happened to Chris Hoy on May 19th, 2022? One

1:02:56

thought that we kept coming back to

1:03:01

while working on this case was that

1:03:03

Chris seemed isolated in the lead up to

1:03:05

his disappearance. He wasn't speaking

1:03:07

to family much, if at all. He

1:03:09

hadn't really made any new friends in Missouri,

1:03:12

though tending to the farm and homeschooling probably

1:03:14

kept his schedule full.

1:03:16

We couldn't find an outside perspective

1:03:18

here. And often those outside perspectives

1:03:21

provide us with a lot of context. So

1:03:23

we had to rely upon Alicia for most

1:03:26

of the information about Chris's life and disappearance,

1:03:29

because the only other people who were around

1:03:31

were young children. We couldn't

1:03:33

help but think about an interview we did back

1:03:36

in 2018 for another episode

1:03:38

with Dr. Julie Serrell, a

1:03:40

licensed clinical psychologist and professor

1:03:43

at the University of Kentucky. At

1:03:45

the time this interview was conducted,

1:03:46

she was the president of the American

1:03:48

Association of Suicidology and has

1:03:51

spent much of her career focusing her research

1:03:54

on survivors of suicide and suicide

1:03:56

prevention. One

1:03:58

of the leading theories of

1:03:59

suicide right now is the Interpersonal Theory

1:04:02

of Suicide, which was developed by

1:04:04

Thomas Joyner and colleagues. And

1:04:06

essentially what it says is that

1:04:08

kind of the ideal conditions

1:04:11

for someone to end their life involve this

1:04:13

sense of boarded belongingness. They

1:04:16

feel like they're alone. They don't belong anymore.

1:04:19

That other people wouldn't

1:04:21

understand or care for them. The

1:04:23

next is the feeling of being a burden.

1:04:26

So not only are they alone, but

1:04:28

other people's lives are worse because

1:04:30

of them. People that are suicidal often

1:04:32

think that people would be better off without them. And

1:04:35

it's distorted thinking.

1:04:36

It's not reality. But

1:04:38

they genuinely believe that their death

1:04:40

will bring about some relief or even happiness

1:04:43

to those left behind. Evolutionarily,

1:04:45

we're really designed to keep ourselves

1:04:48

alive. And so when someone

1:04:50

is feeling suicidal, there's something

1:04:52

that's not right. And

1:04:55

it's really despite the fact

1:04:57

that when people are suicidal, they really

1:04:59

feel like they don't deserve help from others.

1:05:01

They don't belong. That people would even be better

1:05:03

off without them. That it's important

1:05:06

to realize that you can get

1:05:08

help.

1:05:08

And there's lots of places to get

1:05:10

help. We thought about

1:05:12

the things that Alicia told us that Chris was saying

1:05:14

and wondered if these were the types of thoughts that

1:05:17

were going through his mind on the day that he disappeared.

1:05:20

And he simply hasn't been found. We

1:05:22

have no way to know for sure. And there

1:05:24

doesn't seem to be enough evidence to point to

1:05:26

any specific outcome. Chris's loved ones hope

1:05:29

that he just needed a break and that he'll turn up alive and well

1:05:31

one day. For the

1:05:33

sake of everyone who loved Chris, especially his children,

1:05:35

he's been a very good friend of

1:05:40

Chris. Chris is a very good friend of Chris. He's been

1:05:42

a very good friend of Chris. He's been

1:05:47

a very good friend of Chris. He's been a very

1:05:49

good friend of Chris. He's been a very good

1:05:53

friend of Chris. Especially his children. We hope the

1:05:56

answers come soon. If you

1:05:58

have

1:05:59

appearance of Chris Foy. Please contact

1:06:02

the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department at 573-774-6196. They

1:06:04

also have a tip line at 573-774-7948. If

1:06:14

you or someone you love is struggling with mental

1:06:16

health, please contact the Suicide and

1:06:18

Crisis Hotline by calling or texting 988.

1:06:23

The world's not gonna stop turning because he's gone, but

1:06:25

I'm not gone, you know? I can't let it keep

1:06:27

turning without me. This new detective

1:06:29

is

1:06:29

just letting it be. He don't just

1:06:32

let it be. He says he doesn't

1:06:34

have any reason to believe he's not alive

1:06:36

and that he will show up eventually and

1:06:38

then he goes on to say he will show up soon. Like

1:06:41

how can you say that? What do you know that no one

1:06:43

else knows?

1:06:44

I hope for the best that he is out

1:06:47

there somewhere. He's gonna come back home,

1:06:49

but I don't know because this Saturday

1:06:52

it will open a year and how do you stay

1:06:54

away from your family that long without something

1:06:56

bad happening? He always talked about

1:06:58

like wanting to do the best. He was always there

1:07:01

to help. Like he always wanted

1:07:03

to be involved with every

1:07:05

little thing. Like even with my son Jackson, like

1:07:07

he wanted to know. He wanted to help.

1:07:23

That brings us to the

1:07:25

end of episode 397. We want

1:07:28

to thank everyone

1:07:32

who spoke

1:07:41

with

1:07:49

us for this story. If you have a missing

1:07:51

loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's

1:07:54

a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com. If

1:07:57

you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page

1:07:59

and

1:07:59

discussion group on Facebook. You can

1:08:02

find us on Twitter at the vanished pod and

1:08:04

also on Instagram. If you enjoy

1:08:06

our show, please give us a five star rating and review.

1:08:09

You can also support the show by contributing

1:08:11

on Patreon. Be sure to tune in next

1:08:13

week we'll be covering a case from Wisconsin.

1:08:16

Thanks for listening.

1:08:55

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