Home
cover of episode Andrea Knabel

Andrea Knabel

2022/8/11
logo of podcast Voices for Justice

Voices for Justice

Chapters

Andrea Knabel, a 37-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, goes missing after a heated argument with her family during a difficult period in her life.

Shownotes Transcript

What's something that works so well that it's basically magic? It's summertime, so how about air conditioning? Noise-canceling headphones? Meeting-free Fridays? Well, what about selling with Shopify?

Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the "launch your online shop" stage, to the first "real life store" stage, all the way to the "did we just hit a million orders" stage, Shopify is there to help you grow. Whether you're selling trained detective t-shirts or advocacy gear, Shopify helps you sell everywhere.

From their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system, wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered.

What I love about Shopify is no matter how big you grow, Shopify grows with you. And they give you everything you need to take your business to the next level. Sign up for a $1 per month trial at shopify.com slash justice, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash justice now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash justice.

This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.

My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today, I'm discussing the case of 37-year-old Andrea Knievel from Louisville, Kentucky. In 2019, Andrea was going through a bit of a rough patch. She'd recently lost her job, crashed her car, and lost her apartment. So she was staying at her mother's home in Audubon Park, a very affluent area about five miles from downtown Louisville.

At this time, Andrea's sister Sarah and her partner Ethan were also staying at the home to finish some repairs. On the night of August 12th, Andrea gets into a fight with her mother, Sarah, and Ethan about her life choices, and things get pretty heated. After a very long night of going to the hospital, being locked out of her home, Andrea goes missing from what's considered to be one of the safest areas in the city.

Although local police don't seem to take the case as seriously as Andrea's loved ones had hoped, her case sparks a lot of media attention. Andrea dedicated a lot of her time to an organization called Missing in America, where she would actively help search for the missing. So not only were the police and Andrea's family looking for her, so was this organization. And everyone had a lot of questions. Did Andrea get mixed up with the wrong crowd?

Did she go undercover for missing in America and get herself into a dangerous situation? Why was Andrea locked out of her home? And of course, where is Andrea? This is the case of Andrea Knabel.

This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by CB Distillery. If you're anything like me, my medicine cabinet was filled with things that just didn't help me. I still couldn't sleep, I was still in pain, and I was still stressed out. So I gave CB Distillery a try, and it has been a real change. And in two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm.

and 90% said that they slept better with CBD, and I'm a part of that 90%. I've had trouble sleeping for most of my life, and after trying every tea, every pill that I could get my hands on, CBD distilleries' deep sleep gummies have actually worked for me. It not only helps me fall asleep, but it helps me stay asleep, which has been my big problem in the past.

So if you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CB Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money-back guarantee, CB Distillery is the source to trust. I have a 20% discount to get you started. Visit cbdistillery.com and use code JUSTICE for 20% off. That's cbdistillery.com, code JUSTICE. cbdistillery.com

Andrea Knabel is the oldest of three children. Her parents, Mike and Cheryl, had two daughters after Andrea, Erin and then Sarah, the youngest. Andrea grew up in Audubon Park, basically a suburb of Louisville, about five miles outside downtown.

Audubon Park has a reputation for being a very safe and affluent area. They even have their own police force. Andrea's sister Erin says it wasn't abnormal for residents to call the police about every little thing, like someone walking on someone else's grass. When you go to the Audubon Park Police Department's website, you can find monthly reports from the chief about crime in the area.

Most reports talk about things like parking violations, strange people in the area, and stolen packages. It's just one of those areas without a lot of serious crime. Or at least it doesn't make this report. Because as we'll find out, despite growing up in this neighborhood, when Andrea goes missing from Audubon Park, her disappearance will not make it into the monthly report.

I think we all know that there is no real normal, but it seems like Andrea's childhood wasn't abnormal by any means. She grew up in a nice area, went to Catholic school down the street, and she excelled. For this episode, I was able to speak with Andrea's father Mike and her sister Erin.

Here they are to tell us more about what Andrea is like. Andrea was, of course, the first baby between Cheryl and I, and she was just a delightful child in every way possible. She came out smiling. She was very happy, very precocious, pictorial.

picked up everything very, very quickly. Was one of these kids at 18 months, new colors and numbers and things like that. Very, very unusual child. Very, very precocious. Very sweet. When the second child came along and that you Aaron, of course,

And then finally, Sarah, she was, she was the second mother to every, you know, to both her sisters. And she was very, very helpful and really took an interest in their life and was fairly selfless. And she was, she reached out to help them whenever she could. And I think, yeah,

And she developed that type of sense of wanting to help other people at a very, very young age and very, very, very smart kids. I know all parents say that, but she truly was a gifted child. Growing up, well, first of all, one of Andrea's nicknames was always Mother Andrea. And

It's because she was always the one usually leading like the fun activities that we did as kids. Sarah and I would kind of follow in her footsteps. And if we were ever doing anything we weren't supposed to, she was quick to let us know, like, you might get hurt. These different things can happen. So I feel like she really protected us and looked out for us. And as we became teenagers, I feel like she taught me how to grow up and, you know, like from fixing your hair and makeup and dancing and just

just all the fun things that you do as a teenager. We would go on double dates together and just, we were friends pretty much. So we were more than sisters and I have so many great childhood memories because of Andrea. Andrea graduated from the University of Louisville with a marketing degree, eventually accepting a job as a Medicare analyst at Humana. She also had two sons. Things seemed to be going just fine for Andrea.

Her friends described her as extremely energetic, and always someone that could cheer you up. Like we heard from Mike and Erin, they too say Andrea was that person that would go out of her way to help people. In 2017, she did exactly that when her friend Heather went missing.

She filed a police report and began advocating for her immediately. She did what so many loved ones of the missing do. She began posting online and asked for help. Soon, she connected with an organization called Missing in America, who joined her in her efforts. Luckily, Heather was eventually found alive, thanks in part to Andrea and the team at Missing in America.

Andrea was so inspired by this entire experience that she continued volunteering for Missing in America on other cases. Andrea was good at what she did, and the group as a whole successfully found many people. This eventually caught the attention of a filmmaker, who wanted to create a project about their mission. But that project never aired.

Unfortunately, while all of this was happening before Andrea went missing, she was going through some rough life changes. You guys know how it is. It seems like when it rains, it pours. And that's exactly what happened to Andrea.

So, around the same time, Andrea joined Missing in America in 2017. She also met a new romantic interest, a man named Brian. Now, Brian has a pretty rough past. Basically, Andrea's friends and family were not thrilled about this relationship, but they tried to support Andrea because they knew he made her happy, at least for a while. Things would get rocky and the relationship would become volatile.

But then, at the beginning of 2018, Brian proposed, and Andrea said yes. This excitement for a new life together didn't last long.

On July 6, 2018, Brian is pulled over by the Louisville Metro Police Department, and they find meth in his vehicle, enough to slap him with a drug trafficking charge. Of course, Andrea is devastated. Then, after this, the hits just kept coming. Andrea crashed her car, she was laid off from her job, and she lost her apartment.

Now, exactly what Andrea is doing during this time isn't entirely clear, and has been the subject of a lot of debate. But it seems most likely that Andrea was dealing with substance abuse disorder. Many people that were interviewed for the series from Discovery Plus called Finding Andrea have speculated that she was using meth.

while others speculate she was abusing prescription drugs. Either way, like a lot of families do, the Knable family struggled with how to help Andrea. Erin has discussed incidents of Andrea asking to borrow her car for a short trip to the store, and being gone for most of the day. Andrea acted erratically. She would have these large sores on her face. It just wasn't a good situation.

Now, if anyone out there has a loved one who suffers from substance abuse disorder, you know this struggle. I know this struggle. The struggle of trying to figure out how to help someone you love that has been basically taken over by this disease. Someone you don't recognize anymore. While at the same time not enabling destructive behavior.

So, at a certain point, the Knievels get some advice that maybe it's time to try some tough love, and set some boundaries with Andrea. But obviously, Andrea's family still loved her and wanted to help. They didn't just let her fall. Having nowhere else to really go, no job, no real way to get back on her feet just yet, Andrea moves into her mother's home in Audubon Park with her sister Sarah and Sarah's partner Ethan.

At this time, their mother Cheryl didn't live at the home full-time because it needed some major renovations. Ethan owns a construction company, so he and Sarah agreed to move in temporarily to get the repairs done. Cheryl would stop by during the day and then sleep at a friend's house each night, so she was around, just not all the time. Basically, it was Andrea, Sarah, and Ethan living in the home.

Now, unfortunately, this was not the best living situation for any of them, because they just didn't get along. In the Finding Andrea series, a neighbor reported hearing screaming coming from the home pretty often. They said at first they thought it was Sarah and Ethan arguing, but they now believe Andrea was involved as well. So, on Monday, August 12th, the night before Andrea went missing, it wasn't a huge surprise to anyone that they all got into a fight.

According to Aaron, Cheryl was also there at this time, and basically the fight centered around how Andrea needed to get her life together. According to Aaron, Andrea did mention that Sarah hit her during this argument. We don't really have any specifics here.

We just know that after everyone calms down a bit, Ethan agrees to take Andrea to the hospital to get something on her face checked out. Some say it was eczema. Others say it was a sore that developed on Andrea's face from picking at her skin. On this night, Andrea's two sons were with their fathers as they shared custody of their kids, so they are completely out of the picture. Andrea gets dropped off at the hospital and is there by herself.

The plan was for her to use a Lyft gift card to get back home. For those who may not be familiar, Lyft is a rideshare service, like Uber, basically another form of a taxi service. But the gift card wasn't working, and Andrea had to use her own money. This was pretty frustrating to her, because money was already really tight.

So, Andrea orders a lift back to her mother's house and arrives home around midnight. But when she tries to go in, the door's locked. Andrea doesn't have a key. So she either bangs on the door or rings the doorbell for Sarah and Ethan to let her in. But nobody answers the door, and nobody lets her in. At this point, Andrea is very upset and begins walking to her sister Erin's house about a mile or 15 minutes away.

Erin is sitting on the porch, drinking a glass of wine with her friend Michelle, when Andrea walks up. Erin says when Andrea saw her, she just burst into tears, like she'd been holding it back.

She told her about how she got into an argument with Sarah, her mom, and Ethan about her life choices. She was upset that Sarah was taking her mom's side. She tells Aaron about how Sarah hit her. She really just felt like everyone was ganging up on her. Obviously, Andrea is very upset.

And according to Erin, at this point around 1am, she's getting pretty loud. Erin just moved into this very nice neighborhood, so she's concerned about the noise levels and possibly getting a complaint. On top of that, Erin was also renovating the upstairs of her home, so she and her kids were sleeping downstairs in the living room. And now it's Erin, her friend Michelle, the kids, and a very upset Andrea all in one area.

So Aaron is like, "Listen, how about I drive you back to mom's house while my friend Michelle stays here with the kids?" Aaron also calls their mother to try to facilitate Sarah and Ethan letting Andrea in the house. So Aaron drives Andrea back to their mom's, goes home, says goodbye to Michelle, and settles in for the night. But while Aaron is settling in, trying to get some sleep for work in the morning, Andrea is again not let into her home and walks back to Aaron's house.

At this point, it's around 1:30 in the morning on now Tuesday, August 13th. Andrea asks Erin if she can just stay with her that night, but Erin puts her foot down. The kids are sleeping, she has to work in a few hours, so she tells her no. Andrea starts crying and leaves.

Erin isn't made of stone. She feels horrible. But she felt like this was a part of setting boundaries for Andrea's own good. So Erin says she goes to the window and watches Andrea walk back towards their mother's house. This is the last time she would ever see her sister. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost? With

With Ibotta, you get cash back on all your purchases, so you can spend more time making memories and less time dreaming about them. Ibotta is a free app that lets you earn cash back every time you shop. You can earn on hundreds of items you buy every day, from groceries to beauty supplies and even toys. The average Ibotta user earns $256 per year.

That's a plane ticket, a shopping trip, or even a fancy dinner. And they have so many brands, over 2,400. Lowe's, Macy's, Sephora, Best Buy, and more. I've been using Ibotta for a really long time. It's one way that I make every penny stretch. And right now, Ibotta is offering our listeners $5 just for trying Ibotta by using the code CRIME when you register.

Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CRIME. That's I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play Store or App Store and use code CRIME.

This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by June's Journey. June's Journey is a hidden object mystery game, and you step into the role of June Parker and search for hidden clues to uncover the mystery of her sister's murder. Basically, you engage your observation skills to quickly uncover key pieces of information that lead to chapters of mystery, danger, and romance.

Throughout your investigation, you also customize your very own luxurious estate island. You collect scraps of information to fill your photo album and learn more about each character. But my favorite part is chatting and playing with or against other players by joining a detective club and putting my skills to the test in a detective league.

So, there's kind of two times that I find myself playing June's Journey. One is kind of throughout the day when I just need like a little decompression break, I play a few scenes and get back to work. Or more often than not, when I'm laying down for the night, I tend to play then too. For me, it's a nice way to unwind, decompress, and get lost in a mystery. Discover your inner detective when you download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android.

Eventually, Cheryl sends a group text to the family, asking if anyone had seen Andrea. They all say no. Now, no one is panicking at this point. Andrea's kids are with their fathers. She just got into a fight with her mom, Sarah, and Ethan. She was likely feeling a bit upset about Aaron not letting her stay the night. They figured she was just taking some time, most likely with her best friend Amber.

About a day goes by, and Andrea still isn't responding to her family's messages. So they reach out to Amber, but they don't get an answer. Another day goes by, then they finally get a hold of Amber and some of Andrea's other friends. No one has seen her. So Erin says enough is enough. Obviously, if no one has heard from or seen Andrea for a few days now, she isn't just upset and staying away. So she reports Andrea missing.

According to private investigator Tracy Leonard, a man who actually used to work with Andrea with Missing in America, he says at first there was some hustle in the case. There were some searches. They used dogs. The police were looking for Andrea. But then, once they suspected Andrea might have been using meth, their interest in searching for Andrea waned.

And like I mentioned earlier in this episode, Andrea's disappearance wasn't even featured in the Audubon Park Monthly Report about crime in the area. There's no mention of her.

In fact, Chief of Police Mike Minier writes, "...crime was low in Audubon Park during August. This follows low crime during July. June had a higher-than-usual crime rate, and the police department is proud to be back in the low-crime category." There are mentions of a suspect being arrested for mail theft, how they have no leads about a package being stolen from someone's porch. He discusses how they issued 13 parking violations.

and how successful their cookout was. He says they plan to make this an annual event due to the success. But there's not a single mention of Andrea being missing. Someone who grew up in that community. I check the next few months of reports too, and nothing.

I know an adult going missing may not technically be a crime, but if you can talk about a community cookout, I would think they could mention Andrea Knabel, one of their own, going missing. Although there were some searches of the surrounding area, it became clear to Andrea's friends, family, and missing in America that Andrea was not and likely wouldn't be getting the attention they thought she deserved. So, they began their own investigations.

PI Tracy Leonard begins conducting interviews. When he speaks with Aaron, he asks if Andrea had any electronics he could look at, like another cell phone or a laptop. A few days later, Aaron calls him back and says she has Andrea's laptop. Now, according to the Finding Andrea series, the members of Missing in America were required to turn on their Google location tracking, probably for this exact reason.

Obviously, this location was activated across Andrea's devices, because we know she didn't have her laptop with her when she went missing, but she did have her phone. So this is where we get some very important extra pieces of the timeline. Here's what we know. Andrea leaves Aaron's house for the second time at 1.38am. From here, she walks back to her mom's house and arrives there at 1.54am.

But here's where we lose track of Andrea's movements. We do know that when she got to her mother's house, she did try to get in contact with some friends, asking them to pick her up. But no one has come forward to say they picked her up that night. And there have been no verified sightings of her either. Lots of unverified sightings, but no verified to definitively be Andrea.

We also have reason to believe that Andrea likely tried to get into the house that night after walking back from errands the second time. But according to Ethan and Sarah, Andrea did not enter the home.

Now, Ethan and Sarah have been interviewed by police. They were home at the time, but their story has deviated over time. At first, they said that they didn't hear Andrea trying to get into the house that night, but in another interview, they said that they did hear Andrea trying to get in, and chose not to let her in. So, take that for what you will.

That's all we really know about the time after Andrea got back to her mom's house. Sarah and Ethan don't give interviews. They don't speak to the media. They basically shut down. There's just no way around the fact that we are missing some pieces to this puzzle that many believe they could help fill in.

But Andrea's phone location stays active at her mom's house until 3.53 a.m. Then the phone registers again at 6.31 a.m. Whether or not the location of the 6.31 activity can be pinpointed is debated. Some say that Andrea's phone was at her mom's house at this time. Others say the location can't be confirmed. After this, there's just nothing, and Andrea's cell phone has never been recovered.

Aside from the theories, rumors, and speculation, after all the interviews, after scouring Andrea's social media and laptop, after all the searches of the surrounding area, this is really where the hard trail of Andrea's whereabouts ends.

There's also no getting around the fact that the family has been through the ringer with the media and online. I'm going to talk about that later. But essentially, Mike has been accused of not caring about Andrea. Erin has been accused of being to blame, lying and covering up for Sarah and Ethan. That's just the truth of this situation.

Andrea's case got a lot of attention early on, and there are a lot of players involved talking to the media outside of the family, so things got really messy really fast. Now, I can't speak for Cheryl, Sarah, or Ethan. I've never spoken to them. They haven't been named suspects. They don't appear to be super involved in these efforts, so what's left is speculation.

What I can do is speak to Mike and Erin's efforts to help find Andrea. Because even those who seem to not care very much for Mike and Erin don't deny how hard they've looked for her. Mike basically chased down every single lead that came his way. Hunted down the smallest information in the sketchiest areas of town. This was his new normal. Wake up, chase leads, repeat.

As you well know, Sarah, there is no playbook. You just respond. And what came natural is if your daughter's missing, I mean, everything else becomes secondary. Your job, everything, your sleep, your personal well-being, everything. You put it aside and you look and you look and you look. And in really the first six months,

That's pretty much what it was like for me. And Aaron and I had some slightly different roles in the search, but I was out to all hours of the night and halfway through the morning. A typical day and night would be

Oh, I don't know. I'd get home somewhere between 1.30 and 3.30 in the morning and be up again at 6 or 7. And it was just, it was too much. I can speak to where it de-intensified a little bit when it got very dangerous. Driving home one morning, I was two blocks away from home and my brain was so tired that

It didn't recognize the road two blocks away from home. I didn't recognize where it was and what road I was on. So we applied ourselves in every way possible. We were out in the field. We had an outside PI that we did a lot of things with, a lot of very –

Hands-on things, dangerous things, I have to say it. A couple of things that are really, really interesting is the first sighting was in a area that was pretty rough and sketchy. We, you know, at one point we were knocking on project doors after midnight with a flashlight and a flyer, not knowing what's going to come out of there and things like that. Another time,

We, Aaron went with a friend of hers to a trap house where Andrea may have been. And we were, uh,

Erin was actually almost used as bait going in there, and it really – that just absolutely freaked me out. And all my warning signals came up, and I said, Erin, that's never happening again. We're not going to allow you to be in any danger. You're a mother, and you're way, way too important to be out here doing some of these things. But I couldn't keep her from doing a lot of things, Sarah. She's been really busy both outside –

Looking for Andrea Ann inside in just a Herculean effort on social media. And I can't say enough. She has been the true hero of this ugly, dark story of the strength she's shown and the growth she's made actually in this horror show that we've been experiencing.

This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Quince. I can't believe that we are rolling into fall, but we are, which means it's time to refresh your wardrobe. And luckily, Quince offers timeless and high-quality pieces that will not blow your budget.

Like cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, and more. All Quince items are priced 50-80% less than similar brands. And they do that by partnering directly with top factories. That way they cut out the cost of the middleman and pass those savings on to us. At this point, I've tried a little bit of everything from Quince.

and I'm still in love with their ten-cell jersey fit and flare dresses. Especially in Arizona, it's really easy to dress them up or dress them down and add some layers if it gets colder.

Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high-quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash justice for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash justice to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash justice

In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.

Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Despite their efforts, obviously Andrea is still missing. Now, according to the Finding Andrea series, the police told Mike that they were looking specifically at Ethan in this case. In the series and online, this was followed by a lot of questions about why it's so hard for the family to accept this possibility. To which I obviously understand. There are so many things I relate to with Mike and Erin's experience in the media and in this case.

I feel like it's just really dishonest if I don't acknowledge that. Near the end of the series, there's these final moments about how Mike doesn't really want to consider or talk about if Ethan and Sarah could be involved. One of the PIs has this moment where he talks about how dedicated Mike is.

How he follows every single lead he gets about Andrea. And about how he won't quit. He asks, is it guilt? And basically ends by saying Mike just doesn't want to accept that his family had anything to do with this. I mean, this is basically how they end the four-part series. There's maybe a minute or so left after this. They just end with this utter disbelief that Mike and Aaron won't discuss the possibility of Ethan or Sarah being involved.

As if that's reasonable. Mike and Erin have been absolutely picked apart online for their appearance in this series. Now, I don't know what happened to Andrea Knable, but I know that by all accounts, Mike really did and does put in all those insane hours looking for her, chasing down every lead he can, often putting himself in danger to do so.

I also know that Aaron is actively scouting podcasts and productions to discuss Andrea's case. By no means are either of these people hiding from the public. They have no obligation to tell us their personal thoughts on whether or not Sarah and Ethan may have been involved. As long as investigators know everything they know, that's all that should be expected of them."

Again, the police have never named Sarah or Ethan as suspects in Andrea's case. But I can't deny how much I've felt for this part of Aaron and Mike's struggle. I have also been put on TV and essentially mocked for not believing my loved one could have been involved in any way with my other loved one's disappearance or possible murder.

Like I said, in the Finding Andrea series, Mike tells us that the police told him they were looking into Ethan being involved. And Mike discussed the idea that Sarah may be the weak link, the person with the information to crack Andrea's case. I can understand why people would see this and think it's right there in front of them. This is what the entire series led up to.

But in my experience, that's just not how it works. These families aren't seeing these cases the way you or I see them in these shows. It's not packaged in a nice little bow. And even when it is, even when you watch these things, what the police tell you doesn't always fit right in your mind. Because that's not the person you know. The person you spent birthdays and Father's Days and Christmases with for decades.

It's just that it doesn't make any sense that a person you love could potentially do something as horrible as murder, or even covering up a murder in some fashion. For me, I couldn't comprehend it. I'm not saying Sarah or Ethan did anything to Andrea. What I'm saying is that asking Aaron and Mike to accept or really even consider that idea at this point just a few years into the investigation is pretty unfair.

You can't force these kinds of things. And I think it would be slightly insane for them to not hold out hope that Sarah wasn't involved. So please give Aaron and Mike a little grace. Like I said, they are fighting hard for Andrea. They could easily hide from the media and they don't.

But I couldn't simply omit this from the episode. As the last people believed to have been near Andrea that night, as people who had a fight with Andrea before she went missing, of course we have to talk through their piece to this puzzle. It wouldn't be fair to Andrea if we didn't. Now, before I get to other theories in this case, I did want to discuss some things related to the family, and hopefully clear up some misinformation.

Many people have asked why Andrea didn't have a key to her own home. Now, her father Mike says he doesn't know why she didn't have a key that night, or if she ever had one at all. It doesn't seem like anyone has come forward to answer this question.

But I do think Andrea's lifestyle and the entire idea of setting boundaries with her may be something to consider here. Now, if Andrea was under the influence, if she was doing things like possibly counterfeiting money, which is something they allege in the Finding Andrea series, I could see her family being nervous about her having access to their things, especially likely high-priced tools or building materials being used to repair the house.

Tools like that can be easily pawned for some good money. Again, we don't know. That's just my speculation.

But I think the idea of Andrea not having a key, meaning that she was somehow completely unloved by her family, is pretty extreme. Obviously, they loved her enough to give her and her children a free place to stay while she got back on her feet. We may never know the exact reason why Andrea didn't have a key, but Andrea was and is loved. That is apparent.

Next, many people want to know how or why Sarah and Ethan didn't answer the door when Andrea was trying to get in. We know what they've said. At first, they didn't hear her, then they did, and they chose not to let her in. But I think it's important to note here that Michael admits that he believes it's likely they or anyone in the house would have heard Andrea knocking at the door.

Now, one huge thing people have pointed out in terms of Ethan or Sarah being involved is that they did move shortly after Andrea went missing. According to Mike and Erin, they didn't just up and leave town. They finished up the renovations at the house, and then moved back to their home, a place where they had lived for quite some time. Personally, there's just not enough there for me to consider that move to be super strange. The house was searched, it was checked, nothing was found as far as we know.

Now, let's talk about some other theories. I would argue that the second largest theory is that Andrea called someone she did drugs with, someone who maybe wasn't a great person. This person picked Andrea up and did something to her or still has her.

Another theory is that perhaps Andrea was attacked for being involved in some scary cases while working for Missing in America. In the Finding Andrea series, they present the idea that Andrea may have been secretly going undercover on a large case.

But this would have been almost two years before she went missing. So although it sounds like it could be a solid theory, there's just not much there. No one can even confirm that Andrea actually went undercover. We just have video of her saying that she planned to go undercover. When the Missing in America group saw this footage, they were stunned, because they didn't know she made these statements or had any plans to do this.

Some have speculated that perhaps Andrea going missing was a big stunt put on by Missing in America so they could find her and prove this 98% success rate that they boast. But there are issues with this for obvious reasons. Andrea is still missing. Also, Missing in America basically dissolved after Andrea went missing. People have speculated that perhaps the Lyft driver was involved.

People have speculated that Andrea's exes may have been involved, but they have solid alibis and have all been cleared by police. And of course, like with most missing persons cases, we have the theories that Andrea might have left on her own, or that she might have taken her own life. These are harder. There is an argument to be made for Andrea being in a bad place at this time.

But Erin also told me that she and Andrea were making plans to do a day trip with their kids in the upcoming weeks. By all accounts, no one thinks Andrea would leave her children. The month this episode comes out marks three years that Andrea went missing. She would be 40 years old now. There's been no activity on her bank accounts, social security number, or cell phone. Nothing.

The bottom line is, no matter what happened to Andrea, no matter how you feel about her family's actions in the media, no matter how you feel about Sarah or Ethan or Mike or Erin or Cheryl, there are two kids out there without their mom. Two kids that deserve to know what happened to their mom. Because in my experience, a lifetime of wondering is so much more painful than just knowing the truth. Which brings me right to our call to action.

I would say that Andrea is such a loving person that, like, no one would believe it. Like, she would do anything for a stranger. She was a very special person that would use all of her gifts and talents to help everyone around her. And I would say, please help us just because everybody deserves to be found and because she would do it for you if you were gone. And also, when she went missing, she was in a very dark place. She was...

She was struggling in every way possible, physically, fiscally, every way possible. But she still took the time out to help other people. And I think that says a lot about her. And I had no idea how much she was struggling until we met.

really dug into everything. And, um, uh, a 37 year old woman doesn't really tell her father everything that's for sure. And, um, it's, it's all very sad, but there is a good message. And I've said this before and, and, um, she was the kind of person that would help others even when she was in trouble herself. And she really couldn't help herself. She was in such bad shape. And I think that says a lot to what kind of person she was. Um,

If everyone could please follow any of my pages on, I'm on every social media now, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and just share as much as you can so that we can get the word out there and get Andrea found. If you're wanting to be a little bit more involved, you can also join Andrea's Angels. That's a group chat where I give everyone updates on what's happening with Andrea. And I also send everyone missing posters that they can, so they can help me spread the word.

If you have any ideas, we also brainstorm and get ideas on how to find Andrea, whether that's new podcasters to write or organizations that might be able to help us, anything at all. Sometimes it's maybe graphic designers. They'll help us make missing posters. Former police have helped us on this. Anyone at all or just a normal person like me that cares and wants to help, you're welcome to join Andrea's Angels. Okay.

I love that. Are you still raising money through the GoFundMe? Yeah, we use that mostly right now for missing posters. I've got a new lamination sheets. Those are the most recent things I've used.

the GoFundMe for. If we raise enough money, we're wanting to step up the search more and get more experts involved. There's a lot of different devices. There's also underwater drones. So if we raise enough, I'm wanting to use more, use it more towards the search so that we can

hopefully get her back but obviously that would take more more funds we oh we also have missing andrea can able missing t-shirts if you go to bonfire.com you go there and type in andrea can able you can order a t-shirt for about 25 and that's a very effective way to raise awareness i'm wearing mine right now and anytime i go like to the movies or to the grocery anything at all someone always stops and asks me about it so that's been very helpful in raising awareness

Andrea Knabel was last seen on August 13th, 2019 in the area of Audubon Park in Louisville, Kentucky. She was 37 years old when she went missing. As of recording this episode, she would now be 40 years old. She is white, with hazel or green eyes, and brown hair, though she often got blonde highlights. She's 5'7", and at the time she went missing, she weighed approximately 180 pounds. Andrea Knabel was last seen on August 13th, 2019 in the area of Audubon Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

If you see Andrea, please take a photo and call 911. Law enforcement does think it's possible Andrea could be outside of the state of Kentucky. If you have less urgent information, you can call LMPD's anonymous tip line at 502-572-5673. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains research assistance by Lena Gugelhoek. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to rate and review the show in your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. And

And if you do want to go above and beyond to support the show, check out my Patreon page at patreon.com slash voices for justice.