Sunflower | Chapter 2
33:56 Share

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener direction is advised.

My name is bob poor. no. And I was a private investigation .

and now retired .

that day that with the Wilsons was november of the eleven. Justin had been made since of the night of november one. So I was eleven days into this incident before, never anything about IT.

And they told me that Justin was not a tight child of there, one of seven children. They had to go without making contact, without frequently by telephone or in person, that Wilsons were not financially well off. And I thought I could find trust without a week.

He, he seemed to be very, very popular from what they ever telling me. Had a lot of, quote, friends, and I have found Young people like that particular teenagers who have run away from home. I would find an other teenagers own, had my help, or whatever you, for whatever reason, this could have well been another one of those. So but in the case, probably bpo decided .

to take on Justin gaining his case sixteen years ago. He thought that Justin would turn up with in a week, and he moved on to the next case, as IT happened many times before, with teenagers running away from home. But that was before above knew how twisted this case would become, how deep you would have to go to find answers, or how dangerous this investigation could be. The case of Justin gains would tormentor for nearly two decades. To this day, he's never charged eric or Stephen Wilson a penny, all because he made a promise to them to never give up.

From wavelan, i'm Shawn code and this is drowning creek.

I grew up in ohio outside the clip on area, met my current husband in one thousand nine hundred ninety four. We had three boys. So when we get married, our boys for one, one to three, foreign six, who was definitely an experience. But in big family that makes Christmas fun, holidays fun, vacation fun, we decided to pack up our children from there and moved to georgia for Better schools and nice weather and to get away from. Husband eric q lesson .

had left her first husband and the biological father to her three sons, Justin, Joseph and Jordan.

just in botheration, who was rarely abuse of a drinker. Just leave in left behind and you know, not having to worry about that stress and focus on the kids. Their education actually moved in. George was poly a blast.

Justin was five years old when Erica and Stephen Wilson married. And the large blended family soon left the cold ohio winters behind and relocated to georgia. But there's six boys and a daughter soon to follow. I didn't have a lot of money left to over, but they always made IT work and made the best .

of IT campaign great with the big family. And we usually would go out to a mural beach that have these like resort campgrounds. So when the kids got older, IT is nice to go there, because was a huge thing that can be other people.

Erica encouraged just in the meet new people, because when he was Younger, he was a bit introverted.

He was a really good kid. I mean, he was a boy, but I mean, he was good. He was honest.

He was, you know, helpful. He did make a mistake. You would own up to IT when he was Young.

He was a totally different kids. I mean, kids made fun of them. Up until six grade, he was very heavy, sad. Every year i'd got to play football that this one kid I would be like, hey, just gains more pounds and I mean, he's to come home, maybe cry and to be like, mom, no one wanted to be my partner again.

Her husband, Steven, gave advice that seemed to be life changing for Young Justin.

My husson said, you, what does you got ta love you if you want people you got love yourself first. When you love yourself, you know, it's going to all click and out if he took IT to heart, because by seven grade he was totally different. Most outgoing person, never shy.

IT was just a total change. He never worried about people, you know, making fun of them. He started truly loving herself fully.

He also started working out like crazy. Lifting weights was the beginning of phase two of Justin's life, the good phase.

So he lost all this weight. He went from being the kid that was poor me. No, I wants to be my partner or two. Everybody must be my partner. Lifting weights, eating tuna, they can, and eating on my peanut button off spoon and leave in the spoons all over to get as just involved.

up to nearly two hundred thirty pounds of muscle by the timi turn eighteen. His friends used to joke with him that he looked like vd with this new physiologist haircut. The ones potently introverted kid, they get pushed around in middle school always was now good looking, popular and certainly able to defend himself if needed, as close friend Kitty, who tells me he was well liked and always fun to be around.

he was always the character at the party. And like he was the guy putting on a shower or just been the life of the party.

kt was very close to Justin and hung out all the time. Justin friends initially thought he must be with her when they couldn't region on the .

phone after he went missing, I got ta call a three way call. Ask, have I seen Justin? And I was like, no, what do you mean they're like no to know a seriously and there's a well, we've called around to everybody who you might be with and nobody .

has seen him. This wasn't like him and Katie being so close to Justin and his family, offered to make the dreadful call to his mother expressing their concern.

And I said, well, I will call era. I didn't want to put that on them. I said, i'll call her.

So I called america. And that was an extremely tough phone call to make. I'd say I probably blacked out. I don't remember the actual conversation, but the emotions were so strong, so much crying, so much realization that SHE asked to follow missing person's report for her son. I SAT there on the stairs at my grandmother's house, which is where I was at the time, just bowing my eyes out. I couldn't believe that we were having to start this process of having a friend who was missing.

Volunteers pulled and pope road to breed during day two of searching for eighteen year old Justin games after talking with his family and friends, they learn gains had a drinking problem. That's why they believe he may have died of alcohol poisoning.

The first day of searching for Justin was, as one would expect, extremely difficult for all involved. Most of the searchers were just at a high school and had never experienced anything like this before. Everyone was filled with a wide range of emotions.

We start trying to piece everything together, like it's a puzzle talking to all of our friends, whether he, what was he doing, who was he with, was a foul play where we looking for a person that was still alive, where we looking for a and that wasn't alive. Uh, I was a terrible day. That feeling of having to walk through the woods in a line of people looking for what could possibly be your deceased friend is a feeling I never want anybody to feel.

I've heard similar statements like those that kd coon shared from pretty much everyone i've talked to so far regarding how Justin was just a good guy who was liked by everyone, a life of the party. They chose to focus only on the good qualities he posted, because that's how they wanted to remember him.

But if that's true, and who would want to hurt Justin? And why could this have been a completely random act of violence? And if so, why was Justin, of all people targeted? There just has to be more of the story.

As my investigation unfolds, i'm digin deeper in a Justin gains as background, trying to find any reason someone would have to hurt or kill him. I already knew that he was arrested for underage drinking, but it's not connected to his disappearance. That's what investigators told me. I did find something interesting while talking to a close group of high school friends. Here's kd again.

He was definitely a little bit of the trouble maker, but not, I would say, not getting in trouble. He just kind of push the boundaries a little bit on sneathy. Now in parking and stuff like that.

he pushed the boundaries this wrong of bell as soon as kd, said IT, because i've heard IT before. Mike and Patrick both told me on separate occasions that Justin always seem to want to push things a step further. And IT, usually alcohol, was involved somewhere along the way between graduating high school and starting college.

IT has gone from fun times. Just hanging out. Parting do not fun at all.

You know, he was always the whenever where being refund tious, yeah, he was always the one that wanted to take IT to whatever the next level was. And the drinking progressively got like more and more extreme just in work that quick, quick has like these big forty four thousand cups, and, you know, basically fill IT up with straight vodka and drink straight from that just straight vodka. I was like, I don't think you need to get that drunk like that to another level.

He wasn't the same person that I knew who was his very baLanced, focused man. But I hadn't seen him like that before. In that to that level, he just didn't feel like Justin.

I think he was losing that because he was he was at a point where he was so independent because he's living out on a stone, he's got nobody telling them what to do, what not to do. This student, whatever one in some .

of justice friends, had started pulling away from him, not because they didn't like him anymore, but because around the time he started college, he began to change and was hanging out with new people, some of whom they didn't really care for.

I remember just like the feeling, my god, couldn't tell you what any of them looks like, great names or anything like that. But I do remember the feeling of there. Some people that he was taking out with that were unsafe characters that didn't have his best interest at hard, and was putting him in situations that maybe we didn't care for. And I do remember us like telling him, like he a big Sandy people, but he was just like, I mean, he saw also, he saw everybody is just a good person and like, if they are fun, hang out with, then they must be fine, right? And he was all about the fun, whether I was good or bad.

but will know, heard the same thing from several of justice friends early in his investigation.

They said he had really changed recently. His personality has changed, that he had befriended some people that they didn't like a, they were into groups. They remember that crowd so they won't stop associating with and hadn't stop associating with Justin over then just calling on the phone. How you doing? Justin gan.

engaging in vandal's ism and petty theft too, as my hazer tells me. Car hopping. Yeah.

yeah, I was there's legitimacy in that story.

Car hopping, of course, walking from car, checking the door handle. See it's unlocked. If it's locked to you, move on to the next. If it's not, you see what's worth taking inside and sell IT.

Later I saw a bunch of the stuff that he gained um I heard stories. There was one in particular where gone into a unlocked police car .

that .

was in the same neighbor D I lived in and within the police car there was a bullet proof vest and a pistol and harshly, you know, the story that I heard, I never valued at, or anything like that, but the story that I heard as he took the piece, so when he went and throw her down a sewer drain, like that's get a little crazy man, should probably took down a bit.

Justin was never caught, arrested for IT, and this didn't come out until after he went missing. Patrik ser tells me IT even went further than car shopping.

though I know of things that they did that I would never do in a million years. I know the things that, you know, Justin got into like, Brown rocks through people's windows to two clock in the morning, like jump in cars.

Like, you know, those things, the more you get to know IT chizzle away at your moral foundation, car hopping suddenly makes that jump where there's a reality behind that would like, okay, what already broken the law was, nothing's en and IT was fun, and I need money. That's a huge driver. Like that makes a lot of sense to me.

If he really did want to live up to the life that he was, that he wanted to live, he really wanted to live up to the like, okay, I have this prestige that I have at school. I have this prestige of how I look me funny to go on with this. A lot of the .

information I just shared about Justin was collected over the first couple of month or so after his disappearance. Initially, eric Wilson said that police seem to not really take this case very seriously and would share very little information they had learned with her or bob the when .

I coni police department would not give me, I mean, they won't give me anything for a longer time, and they didn't even work with our private investigator. They were just very guarded and that they don't want to tell you anything. I mean, I found out that just in the original file that the first detector they put IT with was a pregnant woman who just have a baby.

So SHE went, I had a baby and his whole files missing. Will they finally find IT in a desk? And so things aren't getting worked on.

There's no national protocol for a long enforcement to search for missing adults. And bottom line, and I understand that there are so many people missing every year, many of them are found a long enforcement can attain their resources on all of these missing adult cases, and they would just be overwhelmed with IT. Now they searched from missing children actively and for obvious reasons, but but not adult and justice and adult at eight eighteen. So when I Candy police who this missing person report was found, we initially did not actively at leased at that point. So it's detective was a sign to IT but have not acknowledge worked IT Justin was .

seemingly just eight months too old to be considered important enough to search for initially by police. And while I do understand high case loads, limited resources and other obstacles they face in cases like these, try telling that to his parents.

So I had Wilsons asking me questions, which when a police obviously knew the answer to, but they wouldn't or couldn't communicate what they had to the, well, even the generalization of the cases. So I began receiving phone calls by the scores. What's is bob suddenly found .

himself at the center of the investigation. He quickly became the go to, if you add information about Justin gains, not the police department. And many of the people he was speaking to had one discouraging trade in common. No one was listening to them .

started to get these calls that they had called ten days, two weeks, three weeks, what before, and to the police, important and and nobody would call him back. And they had information about the case. And so I began working those leads I want to call in the detective, and he would not communicate any of this to me, because now I know he wasn't working the cakes.

I'm not a officer well, so they can reveal company of information, and I understand that. But same time, we're working the same issue I think is important to give them information. And at times, I need to feedback in order to give more information that i'm learning that parallels what they are doing. And that wasn't happening. Bob makes a good point.

Typically, police aren't going to share information on an open, active case with a private citizen, even a private detective, as just common sense. But I can't help feeling that mistakes were made early in the investigation, and no one at county share of button vey eventually did convince all entities work together.

I want to know why this case wasn't investigated more seriously from the start, why the owner of every number just been called and tested that night wasn't questioned, and why these phone numbers weren't appear to see if any of those people are in the vicinity of wild bills around the time he went missing, and why bob polo, a private citizen working for free, was able to find witnesses and get what is potentially the most important lead in this entire case. Justin, seen with the blonde woman in the black car. One piece of information investigators did obtain from justice phone, however, was its location data.

The last location paying from his phone was approximately twenty four miles away from mild bills in the opposite direction of Justin's house. After this pink, the phone went dark, and all calls to his phone from that point went straight to voice smell. Using eyewitness accounts of Justin at the club and his phone data, bob hoo and the Green county police, who were eventually working together and sharing information, try to reconstruct justice movements.

That night, up to the point at which evanished eric could told me that Justin spent about an hour and a half at home before his friend and college remate Chris and his girlfriend AManda picked him up to make their way while he grabs some cash, one of his fake ideas, but left his Violet behind in his old bedroom. They left sometime between six thirty and seven P. M.

Then the three had A A quick trip to get chasers for the VOA. At least that's what was initially heard from Chris when he was interviewed. But bob dog deeper into this statement himself and found that IT .

wasn't the case at all. Video tape from the management quit, rip, don't show him go in there.

And employee .

that worked there during that time tells me with, they never came .

out and he would have known because Justin .

work there previous, he didn't come in that day.

Justin used to work at that quick trip near his parents house and visited frequently. He knew pretty much everyone that work there, including the person on the register the night of november first. The fact that no one saw Justin, Chris or AManda that night and that they won't seen on surveilLance footage appears to punch a hole in that part of the story. So why would Chris say that they went there, or they somehow just not seen by any winner is someone line.

Then Chris tells me that they went from there to the poor room, which is walking distance from wall bills and they don't have a surveilLance camera outside all I know you're still there, but they sent outside in AMandas sister's car, uh, with cries and just in backseat and drunk a friend that just met them over there his name is clean and drag a little while before they all went to the club.

And this is the group pre gaming, as I talked about previously. But when eric, he told me this SHE didn't mention or didn't know about Justin meeting up of a person name, clint, or anyone else for that matter. IT feels like something is missing here.

Now we know that just didn't get in that club until twenty minutes. So many 来。 The security camera video shows, uh, earlier time. But IT was one hour off, eleven thirty at nine, eleven forty one. Here s what happened between six thirty will say seven o'clock, okay, and three, four hours later, what that there.

What really transpired in the four plus hours between the time Justin left his parents house and the time he arrived at wild bills, did they really drink in the pool hall parking lot for that long? If so, it's unlikely they would have even made IT to the club, or could they have left the pool hall and gone somewhere else before going to war bills? Investigators learned Justin had an altercation with someone on the dance floor.

I also knew he was drinking and exited the club around one A M and started calling for a ride after asking several people inside if they could take him home. Then he's seen around two A M by eyewitness James irving. Ervin said Justin was getting into a car with a black woman in a black dress.

Irvin said he spoke to just in briefly, but didn't actually see them leave. Irving did, however, give a pretty detailed description of his encounter of Justin. He was decidedly credible because he was also able to give a description of several other occupants in the car, and he knew just n.

Irving also stated he had recognized the blonde woman from inside the club earlier that night. Unfortunately, i'm unable to speak with him because he passed away some time ago, but fortunately he wasn't the only one who saw a woman in the black dress. To me, one of the most important aspects of this investigation so far is the identity of the blonde woman in the black dress. She's been mentioned a lot, and that's because she's one of the last people to have been witnessed with just and shortly before he disappeared, Justin was seen inside the club and getting into a car later that night with her and two other people who've yet to be identified. This woman, whoever he is, may hold the key to knowing what .

happened to Justin gains. I knew I had a good witness because he can place Justin gains, and the cloud can place Justin gains at the time. Now, James, all the same bond girl see at the time is the same bond girl, but got into the core.

I'd have another outwits that did not know Justin gains, but had seen him on television after the disappearances, of course, and g identified, this bond girl is the same one seated at the table with him. And then SHE got a table next to him. And this black girl was there.

Bob met a woman who claimed he was seated at a table next to Justin, having no knowledge of James serving statements. The woman gave bob information about what he remembered seeing, including the woman in black .

SHE saw just in that night seated at the table next to heart table with this bond girl, a black a, which I think James told me was a black a there at one point, and that they were with another group of people seated behind their tables, they would interact with another group of people back. And fourth, sometimes other people coming up and seeing themselves at the table with was just.

I managed to track down this woman named Susan and see if they have been remembered .

making these statements at all. The only reason how we started really talking to each other is because he played football at brook at high school with my little surprisingly.

Susan remembred, quite a bit about her shorting counter with just .

in that night you have in a good time, why aren't you out there dancing and he said, no, he was out for the night and he knew he was gonna out for the night. And I think he said, um he off this wallet at home or can't find this wallet IT or something and asked me if if we could buy a dress, buy a beer and I said, how old are you?

Susan recounted everything he could remember about who was sitting at the table with Justin.

I do remember a boy, a Young boy where in a White like a White hoody I don't really know um I just note when he when he came over to our table and he addressed um Justin that he just that was quick and then they walked out to the bat um I guess there's smoking places back there so I know they went to the back and he was with another guy and I think I think he may have been asian and then another guy was a black guy and he was with a Young a White girl and I know he had long hair IT was blond.

Bob t actually mentioned an asian guide to me as well. When we spoke, he told me the man escorted the mystery blonde woman into the club, but seem to not know much more about him.

N the bond girl and grab, don't know how he fits into this, other than the girl paid for him, and there's no appears, no personal relationship. He may have been someone, I guess, just to look after her, but he was, he was not with her, apparently there to party. He followed her into the club and he went with her.

I asked Susan.

if anything seem to be off with Justin that night, other than him being under the influence of alcohol.

Everything seemed fine. They were going over to Barnes IT. Was I me right across the street almost? And he was, and I know he was drinking, and he was under age, not tolling.

My said, you shouldn't be drinking and being under age, who are you with? He goes, i'm going to be with some friends. I said, well, you need to be safe.

And he goes, well, my mom brought me up here. At least I think that's what he said. He said, my mom brought me up here and i'll be getting a ride home. I say we'll be safe. That's the last time I outdoing bobin.

Another critical piece of information, thanks to the surveilLance video from the club.

I was able to find a video of this black girl, but watching the entire video many times, leading in mama and the Brown females who were present in the globe, that didn't match the description. And I do know that the blond girl has now been identified by a witness whose known her all her life is either i'll keep her a last name .

confidential until I speak with her, that is, if you all talk. But now the woman in the black press has a name either. He has a fairly defining trade.

I'm told that on both shoulders, he has a tattoo of what appears to be a single sunflower. Could either know what happened to Justin gains that night? When I started out in this case, bob polo, who probably knows more information about Justin's disappearance than anyone else, was initially hesitant to speak with me.

I can't say I blame him yet. No idea who I was, but at the urging of the lead investigator on the case and walton county share of joe chapman, he did, of course, begin to share information with me. As you've heard, as he got more comfortable with me and we began to develop a sense of trust with each other, he began to tell me more things.

I couldn't learn any other way because they were kept out of the media until now. I knew that an anonymous collar gave a tip shortly after justice disappearance, but I had no idea what the information given was or its relevance. Police have desperately tried to find out who the collar was for years, even going to the media to ask the persons reach back out.

A long enforcement bno share this lead with me. And if true, IT changes everything. In the search for Justin.

this anonymous phone call came in to texas. excuses. They had set up an anonymous take line, publish Simon billboards around atlantic, and is all over the news. This color, I believe IT, was very important.

I tried my best to identify this lady, even allowed to her all in what ways that I could, and were permissible bug when police at the to release to the news, when at daily post newspaper. Protege, please come forward. You know, we, anna, talk with you again and never to go.

What you're about to hear has never been shared publicly before now.

Get eterne taxi ec with search this issue. I'm hi. yes.

Is this the anonymous one? I can give you information? Yes, 没有。 Okay, this is just all I know. I'm let somebody know, because this could be one of end of this boy. Justin old organic cano, a lot of money he owed of a good bit of different people, the money about drugs.

Drowning creek is an original production of wavelan I rot created a series, and the original score executive producer is Jason hook, associate producers little cope, sound engineering by shame freeman, special thanks to a Wilson and her family. If you have any leads on this case, please contact me at info at shaan cope dot com, and if you love the series, please leave a of you and tell your friends follow wavelan on instagram at wavelan media for more on this series and upcoming new shows, and you can also find me on social media at scape official or at scope that com as always. Thanks for listen.