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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. 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. Well, Alyssa's trial is over. If you haven't heard the news, our father was acquitted and is now a free man.
Now that I'm able to speak more freely, I do plan to finish Alyssa's season and tell you how we got to this point, because there is still so much to say. But that'll take some time to put together. In the meantime, I and my brothers James and Mike wanted to release a short statement. You will hear from me, then from my brother James. Our brother Mike has reviewed these statements and asked that we speak on his behalf. First, thank you.
Thank you for everything you've done for me and Alyssa throughout the years. The support you've shown us was something I never expected, but needed so much more than I ever realized. I believe that most of these cases that we discuss and share that have some type of conclusion get there through a massive group effort, and Alyssa's case is no exception.
As many of you know, the unfortunate reality of Alyssa's case was that law enforcement was never going to search for her remains, despite my family's efforts to pursue that avenue. Then, I discovered the county attorney wanted to try the case. As our father is now in his 70s, it was clear that we were running out of time.
And without any search for Alyssa's remains, and no new evidence emerging, the county attorney's office made the decision to partner with the Phoenix Police Department to take Alyssa's case to a grand jury for indictment, and they succeeded. Unfortunately, they just weren't able to get it past the finish line.
While, of course, this is not the result any of us wanted, we are grateful for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for taking Alyssa's case to trial. I would like to take a moment to thank Detective Somershu and Detective Anderson from the Phoenix Police Department for their tireless work on Alyssa's case. I would like to extend another thank you to Detective Anderson for his passion and true empathy for Alyssa.
He worked for Alyssa like she was his own daughter, and showed me kindness throughout this entire process. Thank you for never giving up on us, Detective Anderson, and for being so kind when I couldn't see what was right in front of me all along.
I would also like to thank the non-profit organization Defenders of Children, and specifically my victim's rights attorney David Newstone. He meticulously guided me through this trial process. He was there for me every step of the way, from where to park, never letting me attend court alone, analyzing countless motions, standing up for me when my rights were violated, and so much more.
David, you were my hero throughout this all. He and Defenders of Children are the unsung heroes I and so many other victims need. I will forever be in their debt. As a small gesture of my gratitude, all ad revenue from this episode will be donated to Defenders of Children, along with all profits from my merch and Patreon for the rest of the year.
I owe another thank you to the true crime community, creators, and consumers alike. You became Alyssa's army and surrounded us both with love. I will never forget that. Thank you for going on this journey with me and never letting me or Alyssa walk alone. For my families out there still fighting for justice, please don't give up. One of my first thoughts when our father was acquitted was you, all of you out there fighting this same fight.
Please don't let this discourage you from continuing your fight. There is always hope. Finally, to Alyssa. I love you and I'm sorry. You moved mountains to protect me from the reality of our lives so I could have the best childhood possible. That is something I can never repay you for. I just hope you know that I tried and that you deserved so much better. You were never a bad kid.
Despite everything you went through, you had a heart of gold that shone through it all. You were the best sister and mother I could have ever asked for. Here is our brother James. First, I would like to start off with a request to the media and public. Please do not read into any of our other siblings' lack of a statement as any kind of sign that they did not love and care for our sister Alyssa.
I do not share my sister Sarah's eloquence in speech, so before I elaborate, I would ask in advance for your patience, and if I sound unclear, please review her discussions on ethics in the media for a more thorough and coherent breakdown of what I am going to attempt to say. There is no one on this earth who can understand how a victim or their family feels, or why they behave in a certain way. If you have not been raised in the exact same environment,
or received the same education at home and outside of it, or shared the same experiences and trauma, you can never truly grasp what they are thinking or why they are behaving as they do. You can, however, be kind.
Understand that silence does not imply someone does not care, and instead take all of your available energy and love to support those who have the ability and fortitude to stand and shout out for those who cannot. Like my sister Sarah, my brother and I want to extend our thanks to all of you who have contributed in the process of trying to find justice for our sister Alyssa. This would not have happened without your dedication and support.
For myself, I would like to thank all of those who helped, counseled, and supported me emotionally through the years. I am sorry for the burden I placed on you, but eternally grateful that you willingly shared it with me. Special thanks go out to my sister Sarah, whose determination and media genius got this case the attention it deserved and got it to trial. To my brother Michael for being able to understand with only a few spoken words what would have taken me an hour to explain to someone else.
To my husband for trying to understand why I could never let this go. To my daughter for her smile, which was my place of comfort when things felt too much. And to my mother-in-law who spent countless hours on walks, on the phone, and other random places where she created a safe space for me where I could carefully take out and confront the nightmares this traumatic event has caused for me.
We would like to specifically thank Detective Summershoe and Detective Anderson for doing an amazing job in an extremely difficult situation. When you consider that they had to start years after the time of our sister's disappearance and well after the time the initial investigation should have begun, it is astonishing what they accomplished. We truly believe they did all they could have done and that they truly cared about our sister, Alyssa. Unfortunately, that is where our praise for the system ends.
The system in place to provide justice for victims of child and domestic abuse has failed again. This is a systematic issue throughout the country, but this case is a perfect demonstration of this failure. The amount of evidence not provided to the jury was staggering. Most of it was judged by the court as being too prejudicial, even when it clearly revealed motive.
The defense, meanwhile, was allowed to present, distort, and embellish their prejudicial statements about Alyssa seemingly at will, as long as it was in the context of painting our sister as a belligerent, incorrigible, and sexually acting out teenager.
We watched on hopelessly as very few objections or redirects were voiced when context could have been given to help explain the observations of the witnesses instead of them being used as weapons to further victimize our sister's character and traumatize her living loved ones.
are pleased to be put back on the stand to provide this context and for expert witnesses, such as forensic psychologists who could have explained the pathological level of control which was asserted over Alyssa and how those under its traumatic oppression demonstrate the very behaviors for which she was blamed, were met with dismissive statements such as, "We just can't do that," or it will all come out in closing statements. Can't do that because it would prejudice the jury against him?
They were the truth, an approvable truth. The jury needed the full truth, not an edited and biased version of it rationalizing as being fair. It wasn't fair to Alyssa. Well, as you now know, there were no closing statements. The idea that the outcome of this case would not lead to justice was not a surprise to us. We were prepared before the trial started, and the belief that justice could not be obtained only grew in its intensity, given everything that happened during this trial. The fact that the judge did not allow it to go to the jury, though, was a shock.
My only hope is that he will be plagued for the rest of his life by the nightmares I have to this day, in which my sister Alyssa is pleading over and over for help, and then, as I try to reach out and grab her, she disappears into the blackness of nothing. On reflection, I now wonder if that nothing is the system that should have protected her, or at least provided her justice.
The fight for justice for our sister Alyssa and those in similar traumatic situations is not over. Please continue to support the individuals and organizations that fight for those who have been forgotten, abandoned, and rendered legally voiceless by the system. Finally, Michael and I wanted to thank all of you who have provided support to our sister Sarah during this time. We were and continue to be grateful that she was not alone during these difficult times.
Our family was raised in an environment of lies, alternate realities, and controlling behavioral mechanisms. This upbringing made us easier to be dominated, easier to be manipulated, and served to isolate us from everything but what we were raised to believe as the one source of truth, even if that truth separated us siblings from each other.
The resulting personalities from such an upbringing varied from sibling to sibling, but the one shared result is that we all are distrustful and believe that the words said aloud may not match the true intentions of the individual saying them. This upbringing shattered our family group. It is our hope that one of the positive things that can come from this travesty of justice is that we can pick up the pieces of our family and start the difficult process of rebuilding what we can.
Please allow us the space for this journey and help us by understanding that if we are not reaching out to you, the media, take the hint and leave us be when we need that privacy. Our family has a long walk ahead of us, but in my heart, I hope that Alyssa's spirit greets us at the end with that room-warming smile of hers, sarcastically asking, what took you idiots so long? More to come. Thank you for everything. I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.