Elizabeth Salgado
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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.

Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today's case is one that seems to have truly stumped investigators. We'll explore how a very intelligent, outgoing, and successful young woman goes missing just three weeks after moving to one of the safest cities in the United States. This is the case of Elizabeth Salgado.

In 2015, 26-year-old Elizabeth Salgado was making preparations for a tough decision she made to further her career. She was going to move from Mexico to Provo, Utah for an eight-month program at the Nomen Global Language School to strengthen her English. After the program, she'd move to Mexico City to pursue a job in her field and begin her work on her master's degree in engineering.

Now, at this point, Elizabeth's already an extremely accomplished young woman. Three years prior, she got her undergraduate degree in industrial engineering. Really, she's following in her parents' footsteps. Her father, Julio, is a communications and electronics engineer, and her mom, Libertad, is a chemical engineer. Her family was excited for her and proud of her. But Elizabeth was a major part of their family structure.

She's one of seven kids and the oldest of her sisters. In Libertad's interview with the TV show Disappeared, she explains that Elizabeth was a role model to her siblings. She was that kid who always did her homework and was studying without having to be asked to. Elizabeth was driven and kind and knew what she wanted. She was also devout in her faith.

Elizabeth was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. In 2013, she spent about a year and a half on a mission in Mexico. She also taught Sunday school. All that to say her absence is felt in her community and her family. But Elizabeth was young, extremely intelligent, and wanted more. After taking a course on business leadership, she decided that learning English would help take her career to the next level and increase her earning potential.

So Elizabeth applied for her student visa and headed to Provo, Utah. Now, Elizabeth did have family in Utah, but she also chose Provo specifically because she thought it would be safe.

According to CityData.com, the violent crime rate in Provo in 2015 was less than half the national average. But there's layers to this. It's not just having family there, it's not just the low crime rate. Provo also has a large LDS community. And she thought being in a community of so many people that shared her faith would add to that safety and comfort. So while her family is obviously going to miss her, she gets their blessing to pursue this next step in her life.

When she finally gets to Provo, she's excited, she's happy. But she does have one issue. She does not like her roommates.

Elizabeth moves into the Bramberry apartments with three roommates, which is a lot. There's also a language barrier. They don't know Spanish, and Elizabeth is still learning English. But it wasn't just that. According to her family, they say that Elizabeth reported back that her roommates were just kind of cold to her. They also always had a lot of people over and were messy.

Elizabeth just isn't having a good time, it's not a good fit. So 10 days into her move, she requests to change apartments, and luckily she's able to do so. Her new roommates are from Korea, so she still has to deal with a language barrier. But this new arrangement appears to be a lot more agreeable to Elizabeth. She says it's quiet, and she can focus on her studies and her faith.

It doesn't take long for Elizabeth to find friends at her apartment complex that know a little bit of Spanish. That way, they can just kind of practice their language learning with each other. She even gets a part-time job as a server at a local restaurant in just a matter of a few weeks. Of course, Elizabeth does miss home, but she speaks to her family multiple times a day. They work hard to stay in pretty much constant contact so that that distance feels a little less daunting.

She also does find the community she was looking for in her church. She attends the Provo YSA, or Young Single Adults, 140th Ward. Now, if you're like me and didn't know what a ward was, it's basically just a group that members of the church are assigned to, typically based on where they live. So at this point, Elizabeth's only been in Provo for about three weeks, but has already developed a really solid support system and routine for herself.

Now, she doesn't have a car or a license, so most days she walks the two miles to her school and two miles back. She might head to work if she has a shift, and when she needs transportation for something like groceries, she can call her Uncle Rudy for a ride.

This is pretty much exactly what the day Elizabeth goes missing looks like. On Thursday, April 16th, 2015, Elizabeth walks to school, and by all accounts has a pretty normal day with her classmates, nothing out of the ordinary. Her school day ends at around 1.30pm, and Elizabeth starts to make the walk home. It's about 30 minutes.

She made arrangements earlier for Uncle Rudy to pick her up around 5 and take her to Walmart to buy some groceries, so she has plenty of time to get home and get ready for that. During her walk, Elizabeth's phone gets a text from her sister Sarah who asks what she's doing. Again, her family, and especially Sarah, stayed in pretty much constant contact with her. And Sarah gets back a short text that Elizabeth's already left school for the day.

In her interview with Disappeared, Sarah says this just wasn't like Elizabeth. She explains that she was usually really affectionate in her responses and just kind of kept their conversation going. This text is just odd. Sarah texts again, but this time there's no response, and her mother is getting very worried. When Rudy gets to Elizabeth's apartment at 5pm to take her to Walmart, there's no answer. And when he calls her cell phone, it goes right to voicemail.

Like I said, her walk home is only about 30 minutes. She should definitely be home by now. So Rudy drives to Walmart, thinking maybe Elizabeth's there. He goes aisle by aisle looking for his niece, but she's nowhere to be found. So he goes to Plan B. He drives to Elizabeth's work, thinking maybe she picked up a last-minute shift for extra cash and just forgot to tell him. But she's not there, and she's not scheduled to work at all that day.

It seems like Uncle Rudy is just kind of stumped at this point, and assumes that she has to be off somewhere with friends or something and just forgot about their plans to go to Walmart. So he just goes home thinking he'll hear from Elizabeth soon. But the next morning, back home in Mexico, Libertad is having none of it. She wakes up with anxiety after not hearing from Elizabeth all night. And when she checks her phone and sees no messages or calls from her, she fears the worst.

She calls her brother Rudy and asks him to go to Elizabeth's school to see if maybe she's there. And he complies. But when he gets there, he's told that there's no classes on Fridays. Elizabeth isn't here. And whoever he speaks with suggests that maybe Elizabeth went to Vegas for the weekend.

Now, I'm sure that this human was just trying to reassure Rudy that everything would be okay. But for those who knew Elizabeth, something like going to Vegas was just not a likely scenario for her, especially without telling her family. So Rudy goes back to Elizabeth's apartment to talk to her roommates, but they say they haven't seen her either.

At this point, Libertad calls in another brother, Elizabeth's uncle Rosenberg. He used to live in Provo, but he's now in California, so he's not far. He calls Elizabeth's work and finds out that she didn't show up to her shift or call in. This is when they report her missing to the Provo Police Department.

Really, like the school, the Provo PD aren't extremely concerned at first, but they do look into it. They go to her apartment and also ping her phone, which I thought was pretty impressive for day one of this investigation. But her phone was off and they weren't able to get a location. Pretty quickly, it becomes clear that no one has seen Elizabeth since school on Thursday.

And I have to give credit where credit is due to the Provo PD. I don't know how they do it. I don't really know why in some cases it'll take years to get something like cell phone information or bank records, and here they can get it in days. But that's exactly what they do. They check her bank account and see that there's been no activity. While there are these great efforts to find Elizabeth, everything is pointing in the worst direction. It's a tough situation.

Elizabeth's only been in Provo for three weeks. Outside of family, basically everyone she knows is someone new to her. So her family and investigators just try to collect any information or any leads that they can. And pretty quickly, her family expresses concern over a male classmate of hers that was apparently pretty aggressive in his advances towards her. And when Elizabeth rejected him, he was pretty upset.

So they do track this guy down, they talk to him, they search his car and his home, but they find out that he was at school when Elizabeth went missing. His alibi checks out, and they move on to the next lead. Elizabeth's family tells the provopd about a construction worker who came into her work and apparently not only hit on her, but was telling her to quit her job, he'll take care of her. Again, another pretty aggressive situation that she just wasn't comfortable with.

so they get to work on tracking him down. In the meantime, they interview her classmates and teachers, and ultimately, the provo PD just couldn't find any evidence to suggest that anyone in this group was involved with her disappearance. But they are able to nail down what she was last wearing when she went missing. Blue jeans, a red shirt, a jean jacket, and tall boots. She was also carrying a denim book bag with a red strap.

They're also able to confirm that it appears Elizabeth was taking her normal route home from school that day. So they focus on that route. And luckily, it's not like Elizabeth was in some rural area when she went missing. She's walking down some pretty major streets filled with people. So investigators go to local businesses to start pulling surveillance from the 16th. And a tale as old as time, there's nothing.

Either there were no cameras, the camera was facing the wrong way, whatever it was, there was no video of Elizabeth.

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As investigators try to piece together what happened to Elizabeth Salgado, the media starts picking up her case, and it garners the attention of Ed and Elizabeth Smart. As I'm sure most of you are aware, Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted from her home. But thanks in large part to her own efforts, she was recovered alive.

She's told her story so many times in so many formats that if you would like more information about her, I highly suggest hearing it directly from her.

But Elizabeth Smart's case garnered just an insane amount of media attention, which of course is incredibly helpful in recovering missing persons. So, eight days after Elizabeth Salgado was last seen, Elizabeth Smart and her father Ed joined the Salgado family for a press conference. And it does exactly what it was intended to do. It stirs up even more media. The next day, there's a massive search for Elizabeth. About 300 volunteers come out to help.

They walk Elizabeth's route and the surrounding area, but they don't find anything. Not a shoe, not her book bag. There's no trace of Elizabeth anywhere. Now, at that press conference the day before, the profopd also discusses trying to track down that construction worker I told you about earlier.

the one that was hitting on Elizabeth and said that he wanted to take care of her. While the press conference doesn't seem to crack this lead, after speaking with the manager of the restaurant, he starts to keep an eye out for the man in question. And he does eventually come back.

Her manager really does go above and beyond and really potentially risks their life to follow this man home. But that's how they find out who he is. And kind of like the guy from school, this man opens his home to police, they confirm his alibi, and they leave confident that he likely did not harm Elizabeth.

Now, while all this is happening, a lot of Elizabeth's family is stuck in Mexico. They are thousands of miles away with no way to get to Provo, Utah. They've applied for emergency humanitarian visas, but they aren't going through very quickly. Luckily, after some time, Salt Lake City's Mexican consulate steps in to expedite the process. And on April 29th, two weeks after Elizabeth was last seen, both of her parents and two of her brothers make it to Provo.

And it seems like they don't waste a minute of time. They're going on the news, organizing marches, going door-to-door asking about Elizabeth, and posting flyers not just in Provo, but all around the state. But these efforts, unfortunately, just don't amount to answers about Elizabeth. Detective Ringel with the Provo PD says that at this point, they really have nothing.

But while they have Elizabeth's parents in Utah, they decide to collect her DNA, and all of Elizabeth's information is put into NamUs for potential future identification. And while this next development does not come from NamUs, it doesn't take long for remains to be found that investigators think might potentially be Elizabeth. At the end of April and into May, her parents are notified that a woman matching Elizabeth's description has been found deceased in a suitcase in a neighboring county.

Now, this ultimately is not Elizabeth. But that doesn't detract from the pain that this kind of discovery causes. In fact, according to reporting by Pat Revy for Deseret News, paramedics had to be called to help Elizabeth's parents control their blood pressure after they got this news. But again, after days of agonizing over this information, they are told that it's not Elizabeth.

The woman who was found in the suitcase has been publicly named, but her case has since been closed, and I couldn't find any information as to whether or not her family would like her case to be shared in the media at this point, so I don't feel comfortable saying her name. But I will say that it appears that she was killed by someone close to her, and her case is not related to Elizabeth in any way.

But Elizabeth's family, the police, and the community are not giving up. They're posting flyers. Local businesses donate $50,000 towards a reward for information leading to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's case is garnering a lot of attention. But we know that media and true crime is a double-edged sword. With the good comes the bad, if not the absolutely deplorable.

Elizabeth's uncle Rosenberg gets a call essentially demanding a ransom for Elizabeth. In the Disappeared episode, this is like some huge, exciting moment, and for me, it's just devastating. Rosenberg doesn't hesitate. He jumps in his car and starts driving to the bank, and he calls detectives on the way. They trace the call back to an abandoned house in Texas and learn that it was just a big group of scammers. Just a devastating blow.

They are pretty much back at square one, and it seems like now investigators are really just trying to eliminate possibilities. Around June, they give Elizabeth's two nearby uncles voice analysis tests and the FBI administers polygraph tests, and they don't do well. Rudy's test comes back inconclusive and Rosenberg fails, so the provopedy digs deeper.

They analyze their phones, get some warrants, and they're both extremely cooperative and eventually essentially cleared by police.

But this didn't stop the public from pointing fingers. Now, people are free to believe whatever they want, but I think it's important to highlight here that this suspicion on her uncle's slowed down the momentum of her case. Donations slowed down. Less volunteers started showing up for searches and rallies. It really was an overall blow to the investigation as people began to walk away from the case.

By the one-year mark, Elizabeth's mother in Libertad is still in Utah trying to find her daughter. And the Smart family is still by her side to help. But in June, Libertad decides it's time to go back to Mexico to be with her other children. We again see the case slow down. But then, just after the third anniversary of Elizabeth going missing, her remains are found.

On May 11th, 2018, a hiker goes off trail at Hobble Creek Canyon to use the restroom, and they see a school along with some clothing and call police. By the 23rd, the remains are confirmed to be Elizabeth's, and her family is notified. They really don't say much, just that they believe this is a homicide. Obviously, this is not the news that anyone wanted in this case.

but her family is finally able to lay her to rest in June 2018. And this does mark a pretty major shift in her case. Because her remains were found in an unincorporated territory of Utah County, her case is transferred from the Provo PD to the Utah County Sheriff's Office.

This is when the active homicide investigation begins. But unlike the early days in her investigation where the Provo PD were always talking to the media, that's not what happens with Utah County.

If there are developments in this case, they're either not making it to the media or they're just not telling people in general. But Elizabeth's family hires private investigator Jason Jensen, who does speak to the media. Now, the timeline of this is pretty hard because sometimes Jensen finds things years before he announces them, sometimes he gives us a vague update, and years later we get more information.

So bear with me here, but in April 2020, Jensen finds a pretty promising lead. He says he finds out that Elizabeth attended a church activity just a few days before she went missing. And that just kind of sits for a minute. In March 2021, he announces that his team searched the area where Elizabeth's remains were found two years prior in 2019 with a metal detector, and they found a penny underneath some growth and leaves.

Jensen told KSL TV that they found this penny basically right in the middle of where Elizabeth's remains were found, where they presume her body was lying. This penny was tested at Intermountain Forensics and male DNA was found. Jensen says the next step was to create a full DNA profile to identify whoever could have touched it.

It seems that both Jensen and Elizabeth's family are pretty hopeful that this might lead to some type of answer. But as far as I could find, nothing comes of it. This penny is a hot topic in this case. The main argument is that something like a penny, something that passes through so many hands, even if you do identify whose DNA it is, how are you going to use that in court?

It's something that is extremely difficult to prove. But I just want to say that just because it can't be used in court doesn't mean that it won't bring answers to her family. And if that DNA matched to somebody, let's say at her apartment complex or from her church, it's at least a starting point. That's how I feel. But Utah County is not having any of this. They make a public statement.

They say they searched this area a year before Jensen did in 2018 with a metal detector and didn't find anything. They don't have confidence in this evidence. But then, just a few months after this is announced, something really strange and devastating happens to the Salgado family. Elizabeth's Aunt Miriam goes missing near Zion National Park.

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In my research, I didn't find a lot about Miriam Salgado in relation to Elizabeth. I can't tell you if she was a support system for her like her uncles were, if they were close. I mean, really, there's just not much. But here's what we know. According to reporting by KSL TV, Miriam was 45 when she went missing in September 2021 near Zion National Park. Her vehicle was found abandoned off Sheep Bridge Road the next day.

So this family is now dealing with not one, but two major tragedies involving their loved ones going missing. It's really just unthinkable. But of course, as they search for Miriam, Elizabeth's investigation continues. By March 2022, it's becoming clear that Elizabeth's family is not happy with the investigation by the Utah County Sheriff's Office. At this point, they request for them to transfer what they have left of Elizabeth's remains to a lab in Salt Lake City.

Now, they actually say that the lab reached out to them, saying that they might be able to gather more information through additional testing. But once again, Utah County just doesn't play ball. They flat out refuse to send the remains. And again, they go to the media. Sergeant Spencer Cannon tells ABC4 News that they don't plan on releasing evidence to any lab at this point.

I would really love to see more context about how this decision was made. I was able to find that really they only retained a small portion of Elizabeth's remains. And we do know that in some testing, once that evidence is tested, it's basically used up and can't be used again. But I also know that some agencies just flat out refuse to work with certain labs. So I'm just kind of curious about how this decision was made.

In April 2022, Elizabeth's two uncles are officially eliminated as suspects again, this time by the Utah County Sheriff's Office. They say that the case is still open and it's still getting leads, but they have zero suspects at this point.

But this is also around the same time that Elizabeth's family's PI starts discussing another possible lead. Jensen says he's discovered that there was a construction site on Elizabeth's route to school. Basically, she's passing by this site twice a day, once in the morning on the way to school and again when she was coming back. Now, this part's a little bit vague. Basically, what he says is that one of these construction workers comes forward and makes a report saying that one of his co-workers may have done something to Elizabeth.

That's really all we know. Jensen says that this information has not been verified and he wants more information. But as far as I could find, that information never comes. Or it might be with the Utah County Sheriff's Office who doesn't want to share it. Again, that tension between Jensen and Utah County feels pretty thick. But Jensen's just kind of digging into whatever he can at this point. I mean, that's what a PI does.

In January 2023, we get more information about this church event that Jensen says Elizabeth went to four days before she went missing. The event was held at Kelly Groves Park at the base of Hobble Creek Canyon, not far from where Elizabeth's remains were ultimately found. Which in itself just kind of feels odd, right? But then he announces that it's not just that. He has reason to believe that Elizabeth made plans to go back to that same spot with someone for a picnic at a later date.

Of course, the line of thinking here is that maybe Elizabeth went on this date and something happened leading to her death. But as far as I could find, where this lead stands is that Elizabeth's family and Jensen are still searching for whoever Elizabeth may have made these plans with. If something has happened here, it has not been released to the public. And this is really the last major update in Elizabeth's case.

In March 2023, Miriam Salgado's remains were found by a hiker about half a mile from where her vehicle was recovered. This is about three hours south of where Elizabeth was found. But investigators say that they don't have any evidence to suggest foul play in Miriam's case, or anything to say that the cases might be connected. And it seems that their family has the same sentiment. Both cases remain unsolved. So what happened to Elizabeth?

Her family has been pretty vocal about their suspicions about that last text sent from her phone. Sarah's last text to Elizabeth was never confirmed to be read either. The family's PI, Jason Jensen, believes Elizabeth likely knew her abductor, and as of a few years ago, was pushing for authorities to look more closely at her friends from church.

Elizabeth's mother, Libra Todd, has voiced her suspicions about one of the men that was in the same YSA ward as Elizabeth, who, according to an article I found from Brigham Young University, was kind of unofficially assigned to be her ministering brother, which from my research appears to be kind of like a friend or a mentor. But P.I. Jensen says that he has personally cleared this young man, and he's been extremely forthcoming and cooperative.

It seems like right now, there really is no major person of interest, there's no strong investigative lead that points to one person or one direction. Which brings me right to our call to action. While Elizabeth's case does get the periodical boost of media, she could really use some more. Please share her case. If you watched that episode of Disappeared, or if you've seen any of her family members' interviews, you can see the hole that Elizabeth's murder has left in their lives.

We can't mend that hole completely, but getting answers about some of these outstanding questions may help this family cope with such a devastating loss.

As a reminder, Elizabeth Salgado was 26 when she went missing from Provo, Utah on April 16th, 2015. Her remains were recovered in May 2018 from Hobble Creek Canyon, also in Utah. Elizabeth was Latino, between 5'4" and 5'5", and weighed approximately 120 to 130 pounds. She had long black hair and brown eyes.

If you have any information about Elizabeth, please call Utah County Sheriff's Office at 801-851-4000. 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. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, 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.

Welcome to the secret after show. The door is open, the emotional support puppies are in, my chair is squeaking, there's a car outside. It's officially the after show. Let's get into this case. I will say up front, and I think I've said this before...

I seriously lack religious education. It's just not something I grew up with. But I did really, really research this. I just wanted to understand, especially about ward assignments. I went in a deep rabbit hole in this case, chasing something that I think doesn't amount to much. But I will share it with you. Maybe you'll feel different. And if you do, if you know more about the LDS community...

and can provide more insight, let me know. Like I said, I did reach out to, I have a friend in Utah. He was a part of the church. He is no longer, but I just had questions.

Let me tell you what happened. So in that Brigham Young article, they discuss how Elizabeth, in her three weeks in Utah, she basically switches wards. And the ward, the 140th YSA, young single adult ward that she's in, is not actually the ward she was supposed to be in. But it's the same ward as the guy who was assigned to be like her buddy. So I'm over here like

what happened? Did she switch wards? Did she request to switch wards, I should say? Did he request to switch wards? Like, I thought there might be something there, but I learned that it's very likely that she switched wards because of that apartment switch, that that specific apartment complex likely has so many members of the LDS community that there are different wards based on apartment numbers.

I don't know. Again, there's probably nothing there, but I wanted to just kind of throw it out there. If anybody might have more insight to that, if you can find anything else, please let me know. Again, I just, I went deep down that hole and I don't think it goes anywhere, but I wanted to share it with you because that's what the after show is for.

I think one of my new favorite things is to talk about discrepancies I see between these major TV shows like Disappeared, whatever it might be, and what I'm seeing in the more traditional news media. And I will say, in terms of information, this appeared to be one of the better ones. But there was this one thing that I couldn't get over. So in the episode of Disappeared, they put a really heavy emphasis on...

Faith being the reason Elizabeth went to Utah, which lines up, right? We talked about this. Provo does have a huge LDS community. That part makes sense, but...

Not really in a lot of the media I found did they discuss this angle. They talked really about this being a business decision. Like I said, she took that business course and wanted to strengthen her English to become bilingual, to become more valuable in the workplace. And I don't know, there's something about not emphasizing language.

How amazing her career was and how career driven she was. That just kind of irked me. Like there's nothing wrong with religion. It just felt like she was put in a box a little bit in this disappeared episode versus what I saw on mainstream media. But I mean, that's TV, right? They have to do what they have to do. But I have to do what I have to do. And I'm going to point this stuff out. I'm not saying it's good. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying it's something that I saw.

Now, I also, this is like probably a rant that's not the most case specific, but I want to say at this point, I am losing faith in like all security cameras. I am losing faith in like, why do we have them? Are they really around as much as we think they are? I mean, granted, this was about 10 years ago now, but still, like I am so sick of covering cases where it's like,

Yeah, they come from New York City, and yet there was no video coverage of them, or the camera was turned off, the camera was faced the other way, which is what happened. There were cameras at the hospital she would walk by every day, and they were faced the wrong way because of the construction. Essentially, they weren't facing the street. But it's like, what's the point? I...

I like there are some cases, absolutely, that have great video surveillance, but like nine times out of 10, I feel I do not have stats on this. I feel like it's like they weren't on, they weren't working, they don't exist, or the footage looks like it's from, you know, like a Motorola Razr from 2005. I just wanted to rant about how often I have to talk about

detectives looking for surveillance that they never find. It's just frustrating because you think, you think, right? All these precautions are in place. These cameras are going to help solve cases. And I know that they do. I would just love to see more of it. Maybe I'll look for a case that has some really good video surveillance to mend how I feel.

I guess that really was talking about me, but on to what's going on with me. I will say that the floor saga is, like, happening, which is why this episode is coming out later on Thursday than it normally does. I'm recording this after show pretty late. I'm pretty tired right now, so please forgive me. But I have had a construction cruise in my house for, um...

a while now. If you guys have followed me for some time, you know that I have had a saga with my kitchen floor. I've had half a kitchen floor for like a few years now. Half of it was concrete, half of it was tile. My house is old. It needs some love. It needs some TLC and I'm working on it. So I finally got a crew in here and they, you know, they're ripping up the floor and we're just having problems and my house is a mess. It's been...

journey, but I am grateful that I am able to do things like home repairs. I just wanted to explain because I told you guys that I was picking the floor and I did. I picked the floor and I feel like I had to explain why it's not done yet, but I wanted to let you know it is in process. I'm still in my journey to fall back in love with life, which right now a lot of that looks like just making my house a peaceful place that doesn't have a lot of broken stuff and

So, um, I will keep you updated hopefully by the next after show. Um, it's not like this. Now I did watch something, um, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. Um, where did I watch that? Oh, Amazon Prime. It's a series, um, and it's, again, I don't want to like spoil it for you, but it, for

for me, it was like beautiful. It has Sigourney Weaver, who I just love. And it's about these women who own a flower farm, essentially, and have their own language through flowers, which is like so beautiful to me. But they essentially take in traumatized women. And it's a journey. It's a journey through that show. So if you're interested in a show about basically a

commune of women trying to heal from trauma. You know, it's heavy, but I do recommend it. So that is The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. I feel like we need our segment of hope right now. So let's move right on to that. This comes from NBC DFW in Dallas. And it's a vague one, but I wanted to talk about how that's okay. So essentially,

The Dallas Police Department has successfully located a two-year-old boy who was last seen on Thursday morning. This comes from today. Like I told you, I am late in my studio recording because I just got the construction crew out of here, and it was the only time I could make this after show in real time for you. So here we are. But literally this morning, this child was found, and...

Basically, what happened was they wandered to a nearby park and everything was fine. And the reason that makes my segment of hope is because, you know, I think a lot of people when there's an Amber Alert or they hear about a missing child, they think of the worst. And I get it. I think that there is value in considering the worst. But I think that this could implore you or encourage you

to hope for the best and plan for the worst because that's what happened or it appears so in this very vague article um of course they were out looking for this child but sometimes they just wander to a nearby park so that made the segment of hope because true crime can be mundane and i think we need to accept that that it's not all episodes of disappeared and frantic reenactments

I also want to say that I would love to get more segments of hope, stories of hope. I'm telling you, the way that I named this does not apply to all scenarios. But I would love for you guys to submit stories. I do get them. You guys do give them to me, which I love.

But if you would like to get a little shout out on the podcast and submit a segment of hope, you can email me directly. Or if you just like want to, I don't know, say nice things or even mean things. But if you say mean things, I probably won't respond. But my email is Sarah, S-A-R-A-H.

at voicesforjusticepodcast.com. And if you put like segment of hope or something to that effect in the subject line, I will be able to find it. So yeah, I just, I don't know. I think I'm getting a little tired of what I think is hopeful and true crime. I guess not tired. I shouldn't say that. I'm not tired of it. I'm curious to know what you find hopeful and true crime because I have, I think, a

different view of true crime sometimes, and I can admit that. I've gone through some unique experiences that shapes how I feel, and I would love to hear from you. What do you think is hopeful? Send me cases. I would love to feature them. I would love to give you a shout out, or just talk to me. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time, or over email.