150. Brenda Heist - The Unexplainable Explainable Disappearance
44:33 Share

It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax, and think about work. You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow wherever you are. Tap the banner to go to Monday.com.

- All right, probably not expecting me to start this ad, but I'm gonna start this ad. The Skims ad. And let me tell you about something that Peyton's been wearing. The Skims Soft Loungewear is amazing. It feels great.

- Payne wears it, she looks great, she feels great. - Okay, it has completely transformed my lounge wear game. I love everything I own from Skims, you guys know this, so does my husband, especially my new pieces from the Soft Lounge Collection. And I kid you not, you guys, it is soft. It is the softest fabric.

It makes me feel both confident and comfortable. And it's not just loungewear. It's actually the first thing I reach for no matter what my plans are for the day. And my favorite piece is the soft lounge tank paired with the fold over pant. You guys, I have tried every ribbed tank on the market. Nothing beats this one. And it looks so adorable.

with the pants set. It is like just the most comfortable go-to outfit and the soft lounge sleep set. I have two of them and it is like sleeping on a cloud. It feels good. You feel put together at the end of the night. You guys, it is lightweight, comfortable, and stylish. I live in it. Also, if you're thinking about getting it for your significant other, just do it. They'll love it.

Shop the Skims Soft Lounge Collection at Skims.com. Now available in sizes extra, extra small to 4X. And if you haven't yet, guys, be sure to let them know that we sent you. So when you go to checkout, please don't skip this step. After you place your order, select Murder With My Husband in the survey and select our show. The drop-down menu that follows, it's a great way to support the show. It lets them know we sent you. Again, you guys, go get murdered.

soft lounge from Skims. The entire collection is so good. And then let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Okay, we love you. Bye. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. We are currently trying to record with a little puppy. She has a name now. Her name is Daisy. Daisy is Murder With My Husband's mascot. Everyone give a big cheer for Daisy. Hi Daisy. Woo!

So we officially have a dog, we have a puppy, and she's actually really good. Well, she's not acting like it right now, but that's because she just woke up from a two-hour nap, so she's just a little... A little hyper. A little hyper, but we're so excited to be back and ready for another story. All right, Garrett, do you have your 10 seconds? Well, for my 10 seconds this week, I will explain... I mean, if you're listening to audio, you can't see, but I wrapped a paper towel in some blue tape around my ankle. Oh.

We've been doing some remodels and stuff on our house. Long story short, I ran into something that I should have seen. It was just a big drill bit and it cut my shin open and it wouldn't stop bleeding for like an hour. Yeah. And we didn't have a bandage. We didn't have a bandage and I had to keep talking to people and I was doing stuff. So I just grabbed a paper towel, some blue tape. And if you're wondering why I have that, that's why I have that. And other than that,

I don't know. I feel like I just get up every night at 3 o'clock and take Daisy to the bathroom, and that's kind of been my routine lately. She does not wake me up to go potty. She goes over. She's really good. She doesn't bark or anything. She just wakes up and then starts swatting Garrett's face really softly with her paw until he wakes up and takes her. But she has had no accidents in the bed, and she's been great. Yeah.

She's doing really well at potty. I'm sure we could talk for hours about our puppy because now we're a dog person, but...

We'll skip that and we'll get right into the episode. All right. Our episode sources are WFMZ.com, CNN.com, LancasterOnline.com, and Newspapers.com. All right. So losing a parent is one of the most painful things in life. And those who are lucky will enjoy relationships with their parents well into adulthood. Relationships that become multi-generational as your parents become grandparents.

But losing a parent when you're a child leaves a hole in you, a void in your life where maybe you have the surviving parent filling the role of both parents or the surviving parent remarries and then there's the uneasy acceptance of a step parent or lack of acceptance or whatever. I mean, every situation is different. But one thing I just can't imagine is having a parent disappear.

A disappearance is the worst kind of loss because there's never any closure, at least not until a body is found. And if the body is never found, then it's a question mark that hangs over you for life.

It's the question of where, and also the question of what, what happened. And typically in our stories, we never really get a full answer. But what if there are cases out there with answers? Ones that then make you question every disappearance you've ever heard of. This is the kind of story that we're talking about in today's episode. The story of a mother who disappeared without a trace.

But answers came along that maybe only confused everyone even more. So when Brenda Heist was growing up, she was an Air Force brat, which means that her family, like many Air Force families, moved around a lot.

And whenever she'd begin settling into a new school and making friends, her family would pull up the roots and relocate yet again. And over time, as one would imagine, this made it difficult for Brenda to form bonds with people. So when Brenda got married and had a family of her own as an adult, she wanted to make sure that her children's lives were grounded, that they had the stability that she didn't get when she was their age. And she actually succeeded at doing just that.

When they first married in 1993, Brenda and Lee Heist themselves had moved around a lot living in both Hawaii and Alaska, working in the restaurant industry. But as their children reached school age, the couple moved to Pennsylvania and settled there, buying a two-story house in the town of Lidditz in 1988.

Now, Lee worked as the district administration manager for a copy machine company, and Brenda waited tables before taking a bookkeeper job at a car dealership.

But the marriage began falling apart. And although Lee was 13 years older than her, Brenda saw her husband as immature and irresponsible. He had problems managing his money and it was creating a burden for the entire family, leaving them saddled with debt and financial difficulties. And on top of that, the communication between them ranged from poor to non-existent.

So by the fall of 2001, Brenda decided it was time to end her marriage to Lee. She approached him and asked him for a divorce. And even though her parents were still married, Brenda nonetheless understood how hard divorce can be on children.

And so through this, Brenda's children were her number one priority. She wanted to make sure that even though she and Lee were splitting up, there would be minimal changes to her kids' lives and routines. She remembered how it felt to be torn away from her friends again and again growing up. So she wanted to make sure that her kids continued attending the same schools and that their family still felt like a family.

So her separation from Lee was amicable as it could be. It wasn't bitter or acrimonious like many divorces are. In fact, it was the kind of divorce that as far as divorces go was the envy of their friends. If we have to get divorced, one friend told them, we want to do it the way you guys are doing it.

The Heists even agreed to continue living together as a family. Interesting. And they would continue to spend holidays together and even attend events together. I actually had a friend whose parents were like this. They were divorced, but they did everything together as a family. But that's hard. That's hard to do. And as it turns out, this arrangement...

wasn't working either. They tried to do it and it was hard. And as the couple's mounting debt was pushing the home closer and closer to foreclosure, they realized they would need to sell the house and go their separate ways. Splendid.

splitting the household into two separate households. So was one of them not working? Like, could they just not afford it with their jobs? Do you know what was going on there? They were both working, but according to Brenda, Lee had some spending habits and was irresponsible with their money. And according to her, he was the sole reason that they were in so much debt. I assume this is part of the reason why they're getting divorced? Yes.

Yes, that and just lack of communication. Yeah. But it was decided that Brenda would get full custody and Lee would still have open visitation rights so he could see the kids whenever he wanted.

In early 2002, they started getting the house ready to sell so they could put it on the market by springtime. They agreed to move into homes nearby in the same school district so Morgan and Lee Jr., these are the kids, could continue attending the same schools. Because remember, this was important for Brenda, who in February of 2002 began setting out and looking for a new place to live, all while adjusting to her new life.

So the date was February 8th, 2002. It was a Friday. Brenda had taken that day off of work as well as the day before it to go looking for housing. And after a long Friday at school, 8-year-old Morgan and 12-year-old Lee Jr. returned home from school that afternoon, but they found the house empty and their mother wasn't there.

But that wasn't unexpected because before they'd gone off to school that morning, Brenda had sat her kids down and told them that she might be at the store when they get home that afternoon. In fact, she mentioned it a few times. So that's just where they assumed she was. It was about two o'clock when they got home. They turned on the TV and waited for their mom to get back.

They watched TV. About half an hour passed, and they were still home alone. So surely, mom should have come home by now, they thought. This wasn't typical. Mom was always home. But she's an adult, so they decided to wait some more. And then, a little after 3 o'clock, 8-year-old Morgan started crying. She was worried about her mom, and somehow she just felt like something was wrong. This wasn't typical.

The kids called their dad, Lee, at his office in Valley Force where he was working, which was over an hour away. They said, hey, mom never came home. And he said, well, let's just wait a little longer. Maybe she got tied up.

If she doesn't come home soon, he said, call me back. Another hour passed. Lee Jr. then called his father again. Lee Sr. was like, okay, let's just wait a little bit longer. Your mother's an adult. Like, maybe she just got caught up at the store. You kids are going to be okay. Just keep watching TV. I'll be home soon. And then another hour passed. The sky was growing orange as evening drew near. Morgan once again phoned their dad in a tearful panic.

He said, okay, 20 more minutes. Let's wait. And if she doesn't show up, we'll do something. Do you think that's weird? I mean, hindsight, yes, because we know this type of story. But also, I feel like as a dad, you're probably like, okay, she probably just got caught up running errands. The kids are safe. Like, I know they're safe. They're calling me. Everything's all right. Also, they're divorced. Yeah.

Yeah. And I know that they were still active in each other's lives, but I'm sure that there was still changes being made in their relationship at this point. He just, let's wait an hour. Let's wait an hour. Let's wait 20 minutes. He also probably didn't want to come home from work early. Yeah, for sure. So they wait the 20 minutes and Brenda still didn't show up.

So shortly before his workday ended, Lee got into his car and raced home. And when he got there, there was no trace of Brenda. He immediately picked up the phone and called the Lidditz police and they issued a BOLO. That's a be on the lookout bulletin. She must've taken off. Lee immediately told police when filing the report.

She had a lot on her mind with the impending divorce and the sale of the house. Brenda's brother, Bill Coppenhaver, also thought at first that maybe that's what had happened. Maybe she just took a time out for the weekend, a little breather. The last time Bill talked to his sister was 10 days earlier, and she sounded stressed.

But it also sounded like she still had everything under control, like she was managing it. And how many moms just leave their kids? Like how often does that really happen? Right. No way. And Brenda's mother, Jean, talked to her only two days earlier and nothing sounded out of the ordinary. Sure, stressed because she's going through a divorce and putting the house up for sale and trying to find new living. But Brenda was still Brenda.

So recalling the conversation, Jean said that Brenda sounded excited about her kids' activities, about the basketball team, about how proud she was that Morgan had dribbled the ball down the court and made a shot showing off to the boys on the team. Brenda, being the only girl among five brothers, had been very proud of Morgan for holding her own on a team of both boys and girls.

But the consensus among her family and friends was this. Brenda absolutely would not have just walked out on her children. Everyone was in agreement about this. 100%.

And police investigators examined Brenda's computer. They found nothing on it, nothing in any of her correspondences that offered the faintest clue as to what happened to her. They were looking for an affair, a sign of a double life, nothing. Also, her telephone records seemed normal. So everyone was confounded. How does a mom who was so adamant about her children's well-being just leave them home alone and disappear? Good old ex-husband.

Well, fear, worry, and panic consumed those who cared about Brenda as the hours she was missing turned into days. And then five days after she was last seen, Brenda's white Mercury was found parked on a street in the city of York, which was about 30 miles away, four blocks away from the bus station.

So police are like, oh, finally a lead. Maybe she did actually run away. But when investigators checked the bus station's fares, they couldn't find any evidence that Brenda had purchased a ticket. And it would have shown up because by this time, bus tickets, just like train and plane tickets, required anyone purchasing a ticket to show I.D.,

Speaking of which, they checked airline and train registers as well, but they found no trace of Brenda there either. So there's no trace that she got on any public transportation to leave, but then her car was also found only 30 miles away.

the police at this point decided to impound her car to process it for potential clues and aside from the fact that her keys were missing they found nothing out of the ordinary there was no sign of any struggle of any violence or foul play no blood anywhere inside the vehicle nor were there any signs of a struggle or a break-in inside the heist home because remember she could have went home so they're looking for anything

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. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.

and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.

Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...

I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way. And that is with Babbel. See.

Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that gets you talking. Wasting hundreds of dollars on private tutors is the old school way of learning a new language. Babbel's 10-minute lessons are quick and handcrafted by over 200 language experts, ready to get you talking your new language in three weeks because talking is the key to really knowing any language.

Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.

Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply. There was nothing found interesting

To suggest Brenda might have been talking to another man. None of the local businesses had seen her. She hadn't checked into any hotels in the area. And Brenda's picture on the TV and in the newspapers as the local media covered her disappearance generated buzzwords.

no leads at all. So it was truly a mystery. This mom had vanished without a trace. The only thing that police had to go on was shortly before her disappearance, Brenda had withdrawn about $2,000 from the family bank accounts and she didn't deposit her paychecks. She also had taken about $200 from a petty cash account at her workplace. So she had taken some money out. That's a little weird. But none of this

none of this was enough money for Brenda to have skipped town and begun a new life somewhere else. And again, no one who knew her believed she would just up and leave her two children. Have they not investigated the ex-husband yet? Well, of course they're suspicious, but they're just saying innocent until proven guilty. Let's look at every single angle. And they first have to knock out that she ran away. But again,

Everyone is like, no, no, no. Brenda was like one of those 1950s mothers like June Cleaver, heavily involved in all aspects of her kids' lives. She coached her daughter's basketball team. She was a room mother at school. She was the kind of mother who kept a watchful eye on her children and always knew where they were at all times.

In fact, for some, her relationship with her kids was even a bit intense, like very much a helicopter parent. But no one would argue that she wasn't absolutely devoted to them. So this just didn't add up. And as the days wore on, the family waited. They waited for some sign of Brenda, waited for her to walk through the door. They prayed every single night, but their prayers remained unanswered. Nobody heard a peep from her. What? I mean...

I'm just still on the ex-husband. I know that seems obvious, but I just don't know. I don't know where else she would go. Well, what would have happened? It's not just you. This led the investigation, which was led by Detective John Schofield at the Littitz Police Department to turning their focus to one person and one person only. And it's the same person that Garrett is talking about. Lee Heist, the husband slash ex-husband. So

So Lee sat down with a detective and went through his activities on the day that Brenda vanished. He said he got to work that morning in Valley Forge, which is a commute over an hour away. Brenda, he said, had gone out that morning to look for housing. And just before lunch, he said that he'd called home from work and talked to her for a little while, which was something he did every day. She was going to expect a call from him even after they split. They had continued this tradition.

They talked for a bit about laundry that needed to be done and dinner that night, which was pork chops, which were defrosting in the refrigerator. He told her that he might be late coming home from work that night, and she told him, be sure to call before you leave so that we know when to expect you home.

And that was the conversation. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him. And that was all he could offer to investigators, who later verified his alibi and it seemed to check out. They confirmed that he had been at work all day from early morning until the time he left, well after his kids called him to report Brenda missing. So Lee openly wondered in an interview with the Lancaster New Era if maybe something didn't just snap.

and Brenda felt she needed to get away. This was his explanation. He claimed that if she decided to return, her family would welcome her with open arms. There would be no hard feelings. All I'm concerned about is her safe return, he said. It's her call. I want to let her know I'm here to help in any way I can. So he is not suspecting foul play.

But based on everything they'd heard from friends and family, police just weren't buying this. She'd never leave her kids. There was also no evidence that she'd taken anything with her. All of her clothes were still in her closet. Her makeup was left behind. Her toothbrush. The laundry had been neatly piled on the laundry room floor before she went missing. Breakfast dishes were in the sink. And the pork chops really were defrosting in the fridge. And the longer that Brenda remained missing, the more her friends and family began to suspect foul play.

And even though the husband's alibi checked out, Detective Schofield remained suspicious of him because we know that people murder for hire. But of course, Lee insisted he had nothing to do with it from the very beginning. And the husbands always do. They always say they have nothing to do with it. So police called Lee back into the station for a polygraph test. Lee took the test and he passed with flying colors. But the police continued to question him and probe him, releasing him, but knowing that he was their only suspect so far. I mean, with...

With nothing else to go on, who else do you turn to? Meanwhile, as the weeks passed, Brenda's brother Bill, who lived in Texas, kept an ear out for the phone and his eyes leapt to the caller ID box every time the phone rang, hoping that it would be Brenda. As the months wore on, Brenda's family members began to fear that she was dead. How could you not?

They would talk with each other about possible explanations for why she went missing, like maybe it was an emotional breakdown or she had amnesia or there was a carjacking or an abduction. But foul play really did seem like the most likely scenario.

The uncertainty of all of this tortured them. No one took it harder than Brenda's dad, who had been battling an illness and slid downhill rapidly after Brenda's disappearance. In fact, he didn't even make it to the end of the year. In December 2002, Brenda's dad passed away, never knowing what happened to his daughter. Gosh, and again, it's 2002, so it's just so much easier to disappear. I mean, I could be wrong, but then it is now. Right. Right.

And when Brenda hadn't shown up to the hospital where he was dying and didn't attend his funeral, that's when everyone's worst fears were more or less confirmed. Something terrible had happened to her. They knew it. She was either being held captive somewhere or she had been kidnapped and murdered. If there was anywhere that Brenda's father was able to find comfort in his dying days, it was in his faith and in his belief that if Brenda was dead, at least she was now in a better place. And Brenda's mother shared this perspective. That's the only way she could cope with all of this.

Meanwhile, Lee and the children received support from their church. The pastor kind of acted as a trustee on behalf of Brenda when the house was finally sold, which was sold in order to avoid a foreclosure. So they didn't get a lot of money out of it. Also, Lee had quit his job after Brenda's disappearance to look after the kids. But when he tried to return to work, he struggled to find a job, which only led them to slip deeper and deeper into debt.

The fellow members of the church were praying for him to eventually land a job, but perhaps he couldn't get one because of the shadow of his disappeared wife, the cloud of suspicion it had cast over him. I mean, in the local area, everyone was talking about him behind his back, saying for sure he did something to her. And it doesn't seem, at least to me right now, there doesn't seem like there's any motive. Like, what does he get out of

killing his wife if he did it doesn't sound like there's any insurance money there is an insurance policy but you have to have a body yeah true okay so yeah so that's out of the question right um now he just can't work and has to take care of the kids well and on top of that a lot of his children's lives were changing because a lot of other parents in the area would no longer let their kids go over to the heist house it just doesn't seem like there's any

Good motive. Right. And all of this really did put a heavy strain on Lee and his frustration with the local police grew and grew because they are still telling people that he's their only suspect, which is making it hard for him to have a functioning life. And he eventually got to a breaking point. So he sat down one day and wrote a five page letter to the Littitz police department demanding answers and transparency. He wanted the police to tell him officially that he was no longer a suspect and

He had an airtight alibi. He passed the polygraph. So why were they still only looking at him? He wanted to know why they didn't involve any outside agencies. No one had contacted the FBI and why the case had not gotten national attention. It had only been local. But part of his motivation in writing the letter was to signal to police that he was still invested in finding out what happened to Brenda. He was like, I still care about her.

And in response to the letter, Detective Schofield sat down with him to give him at least some of the transparency that he wanted. Schofield explained that over two dozen people had been interviewed and Brenda's information was entered into the National Crime Information Computer as a missing person and her DNA was added to the national database. He says that they followed multiple leads, but they wouldn't give him what he was really after to declare him cleared as a suspect.

Everyone was still a suspect, according to Schofield, especially considering they still had no idea what had even happened to Brenda.

By the end of 2003, the second year of Brenda's absence, Lee and the children were living in a split-level townhouse where the only remaining trace of Brenda was now a dated picture hanging on the wall of the living room. Lee had to finally give away Brenda's clothing. Morgan and Lee Jr. were in counseling and wouldn't talk about their mother's disappearance with anyone but their father. I mean, imagine how this affects children. Yeah.

Brenda's mother, Jean, stopped expecting to hear from her daughter. And instead, each time she'd hear about a woman's body being discovered, she just wait around for confirmation that it was Brenda's. But it never was. Over the next several years, hope dimmed completely. Seven years.

Two of Brenda's five brothers died during that time. Brenda's mother moved to Texas. Brenda's son and daughter grew up. Lee Jr. moved through high school. The daughter's 19 now. Right. He played on the high school football team. And...

Honestly, Detective Schofield actually became really close with the kids. He went to their football games. He had pizza with them. He actually never gave up on trying to solve Brenda's disappearance. It was one of those cases that kind of haunted him and he kept her file on his desk all these years.

Brenda's social security number was actively monitored, but there was never any activity on it. I thought you were going to say her social security number for a second. Oh yeah. I'm going to say it out to everyone. Um, and no credit cards were ever opened in her name. So Schofield kind of unofficially considered the case a homicide case. He really believed that Brenda had been kidnapped and murdered and that was it. And he also started to doubt that it would ever be solved because

Lee Jr. eventually graduated from high school and enrolled at Westchester University to study criminal justice. Morgan moved through high school, excelled in sports, graduated with excellent grades and began attending Westchester University just like her brother and

And Lee eventually did find work again as a trainer for a convenience store chain. He actually ended up meeting another woman in 2009. They flew to Hawaii together and got married. Then in the summer of 2009, Lee began petitioning to have Brenda declared legally dead.

Okay. So this brought the Brenda Heist disappearance back into the news cycle where it was pointed out that there was a $100,000 life insurance policy hanging in the balance, though Lee insisted this wasn't his motivation. Which is, oh, that's hard because that's the first thing that I would think of, but also- But it's been years. It's been years. And look, $100,000 is a lot of money, but-

Is it that much money to risk killing someone for? And then waiting eight years to collect. Like that's a long time. No way. He just tells the public, listen, I just want to put the past behind me. I want to move on. This is my last step. It's over. He told the judge we've begun new lives. The kids have graduated. They're,

making their own lives, it's time that we close out on this chapter. And the judge agreed with him. So Brenda Heist was declared legally dead on June 4th, 2009. And the $100,000 life insurance policy was paid out to Lee. Okay.

By April 2013, it had been more than 11 years since Brenda had gone missing. Lee Jr., like I said, graduated from college. He was training to become a police officer. Actually, the mystery of his mother's disappearance is what influenced his career path. He actually hoped to be able to work on his mother's cold case one day. It was early on a Friday evening at the end of the month when a call came in to the Littitz Police Department.

It was a phone call that would break the case wide open. All right, let's hear it. A phone call that the detective never thought would come. The mystery of Brenda Heist's disappearance was about to be a mystery no longer. If it's her, there's no way. It was a call that triggered waves of shock and awe through the department.

And that call came in from another police department over a thousand miles away near the southernmost tip of the United States in Key Largo, Florida. A woman who appeared to be homeless walked into the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, approached a deputy and explained to him that she was on probation and had recently been arrested under an assumed name. But more importantly, she said...

She was a missing person. And her real name was Brenda Heist. Don't believe it. I do not believe this. So they then call the Littitz Police Department. And as soon as Detective Schofield learned about this development, he asked the agency in Florida to email him a picture of the woman. Brenda's picture had been sitting on his desk all these years. Yeah.

And when he saw the picture of the homeless woman, he instantly recognized her as Brenda Heist. There's no way. There is no way. So before calling Lee, before talking to anybody, he boards a plane and he flies to Florida.

When he arrives, he found himself face to face with the missing woman that he had long presumed dead and had haunted him for all of these years. For whom the only kind of phone call he had expected for years was going to be one that was reporting that her remains had been discovered. But now in 2013, it seems like Brenda Heist was alive again.

right in front of him and honestly looked worse for wear she very clearly appeared to have been living on the streets not taking care of herself her skin was weathered her hair was stringy and dyed blonde she had heavy bags under her eyes and her teeth were in very poor condition there's a lot of people who've been looking for you for a long time detective scofield told her i mean he's like

Where the freak have you been? Brenda then hung her head in shame and her eyes filled with tears. She began telling Schofield the whole story, starting from the day that she went missing back in February 2002.

Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's how it was for me, so I cleared out my cabinet and reset my health with CBD from CB Distillery. CBD Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality clean ingredients, no fluff, no fillers, just pure effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health.

In two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm, 80% said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90% actually said they slept better with CBD. I have personally used CBD before to help me sleep. I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping and I couldn't figure out what to do to help. And honestly, CBD did help. And if that's something you're struggling with, yeah.

Give it a try. Check it out. If you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CBD Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money back guarantee, CBD Distillery is the source to trust. You guys, we have a 20% discount to get you started. So if you've ever wanted to do CBD, now is the time. Visit CBDistillery.com and use code husband for 20% off. That's CBDistillery.com.

He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.

Because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the serial killer and the savior. An ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR.

It was on a Thursday and a Friday of that week. She said that she really had taken two days off from work to go look for housing. And it was after realizing that she would be unable to support her children and live independently on the salary she was earning. She set out Friday morning to apply for government housing assistance. So that's what she was doing Friday, but she was turned down and this was a devastating blow for her. It left her feeling hopeless.

Not knowing what to do, she says she went to a neighborhood park, she sat down on a bench, and she cried. And that's when, according to her, she was approached by three homeless people, two men, and a woman.

They asked her what was wrong. They struck up a conversation with her and they befriended her. The homeless people told her that they were leaving that day to escape the cold and they were going to travel to South Florida where the weather was sunny and warm. They were going to hitchhike there, they said, and Brenda was more than welcome to join them if she wanted to. And so Brenda tells Detective Schofield she made an impulsive decision totally on a whim. None of it was planned and she left with those three homeless people. What?

She said she first drove her car to where it was found in the city of York, and then she and the trio hitchhiked their way down to Key West, which... That doesn't make sense. Why not just drive the car? Yeah. I don't understand. The whole journey down south took them about a month, she said.

Along the way, she claims they slept in tents hidden among the trees. And over the 10 years that she lived in South Florida, she said she slept under bridges, scavenged for food from fast food dumpsters, and panhandled. And she sometimes did day labor jobs, cleaning houses and boats. The types of jobs where she was paid in cash and she didn't have to present an ID because she didn't have hers. She'd also worked as a housekeeper. It was learned for much of her time in Florida, she had actually lived in a camper with a man named Jim.

But that relationship went bad, and when she moved out, she began living in a tent community that was subsidized by the city of Key West. During her time in Florida, Brenda hadn't told a soul that she had children or was married. She was generally quiet and talked little about herself. When people asked her about herself, she'd say she was a widow, that her husband Lee had died years earlier, she never had any children. The name she went by was Kelsey Smith.

And under that name, she now had a criminal record. She had some minor infractions, marijuana charges, traffic violations, but then she was charged with forgery for stealing the driver's license of a woman whose house she cleaned and presenting it as her own. In the end, and after a recent arrest for a probation violation, she said she was now tired of running and tired of lying. It had been 13 years, and she wanted to go back to being Brenda Heist.

I don't know, man. I am so confused. I don't know what to say. Like, how can this be real? Right? So Detective Schofield confirms that it's her. He confirms that it's her. So how does he confirm it's her? Do they do like fingerprint DNA? Yes, they had it all. Oh, so it's her. It's her. What? So Detective Schofield, while talking to Brenda in Florida, is like...

You had a whole life. He shows her pictures of her children who are now grown. He's like, I went to their football games. I came over for dinner. She barely recognized them. She broke down crying in front of him. She told Schofield that she thought about them every single day, but she just couldn't bring herself to reach out to them. She kept just telling herself that they were better off without her once she'd done what she'd done. So now Detective Schofield has to get back.

And contact her children. And tell them that the mother that they believe had been murdered was actually alive. And he has to tell Lee, hey, I'm sorry you've been under suspicion for 13 years. And couldn't get a job. And this really, really affected your life. But your ex-wife is actually alive. And as you can imagine, her ex-husband and now grown children did not die.

warmly received the news of her resurrection from the dead. 100%. Once they moved past the shock of it all, they were really angry. Lee was angry because of the effect that Brenda's disappearance had had on their children. Okay, now I'm going to say I'm kind of glad he got the money.

Right? - Yeah, that's what I'm saying. - And her children are like, we were abandoned. Like you completely abandoned us. Neither Morgan nor Lee Jr. wished to see their mother. When Detective Schofield told them that she had been found, they were like, we want nothing to do with her. And Morgan made her feelings to her mother known on Twitter. She actually tweeted, you deserve to rot in hell for what you have done to me.

Brenda was not going to have an easy time transitioning back into being Brenda Heiss like she wished, especially with pending charges against her down in Florida for the probation violation, which was because she had failed to check in with authorities in Tampa, which had been a condition of her probation. Also, it later came out that Brenda's account of her time in Florida wasn't entirely truthful. And you have to understand that when this news broke, headlines were like,

Mother missing for 13 years found living...

perfectly fine in Florida. And so all these people start coming forward and going, no, she wasn't all her time in Florida wasn't necessarily that bad. According to some friends, there were periods of time where she lived happily. She lived with roommates. She was dating, drinking, swimming, tanning, had a job. So you can really understand the hurt and anger her children must have been feeling when she resurfaced.

And though she didn't face any charges in Pennsylvania related to her disappearance, because you legally can disappear, she was arrested and taken to jail in Santa Rosa County on the charges of failing to report to her parole officer. So while she's awaiting sentencing, Dr. Phil interviews her on his show. Because you can just imagine, as shocked as you are hearing this, these cases...

never turn out like this this never happens and she was in an orange jumpsuit sitting in jail as his production surprised her by bringing her mother onto the show during the interview she was sentenced to a year in jail but only served six months and after she got out she went to live with family not lee and her children in texas she did reach out to her children by sending them a short note but she didn't pressure them into seeing her and certainly they weren't ready

And I can't blame them. You know, I would feel hurt, abandoned and betrayed if my mother did this to me. It's really a tragic story all around. Is there not more to this? Like that is what happened. That is what happened. But I want to touch on the fact that I think Brenda probably had some serious mental health issues and an inability to cope and problem solve because

And they were things that were well hidden under life circumstances that suddenly just became really challenging for her. And so she escaped. She fled all of her problems. She ran away.

But if she was glossing over parts of her decade in Florida, like she wasn't telling the truth to police when friends came forward and said, no, she had a full life in Florida, maybe misrepresenting stuff about that time. Who's to say it really was an impulsive decision. I mean, what if it was more planned than she claimed? Why dump the car? She had mentioned to her kids multiple times she was going to be at the store. So don't worry if I'm not home when you get home. That's true. Everything feels a bit off and that's the issue.

But I find this story important to focus on because every time we talk about a disappearance that the body's never found, someone literally just ups and disappears, right?

Everyone goes down these rabbit holes of, oh my gosh, there was alien abduction or someone probably kidnapped them. The government took her and she was used for brain, and she was used for testing and blah, blah, blah. Or a serial killer definitely got them. What was the strange behavior? They had to have been on drugs. We all go down these true crime rabbit holes when there's disappearances like this.

But what if people truly just disappear? What if these missing people really could just be out there? Like it's a possibility. Brenda's story took over the internet when everyone realized that she really did just up and leave that day. She made a selfish decision. One, I'm sure she deeply regrets.

But I'm sure it was more coming out of a place of hurt and fear. And sometimes people truly do just vanish. I don't know. I thought there was definitely more to this. I thought you were going to like twist around and be like, Lee did this. But dude didn't do anything. No. She literally just took off. And that's, I don't know. I'm not.

I want to say I don't judge someone for that, but at the same time you had kids. So I, I do judge you for that. Right. Which is why I touched on the mental health aspect of it. Cause it's just like, it affected so many other people and it's, I don't know. It's hard, but probably a whole nother topic. That's just crazy. That's,

That's crazy. Right. And it wasn't like it was like, oh, a year or two. That's the thing too. You know what I'm saying? It's like a year or two. A weekend getaway. Okay, like this. I need to go back to my life. 13 years. Like there's something else going on after 13 years. And just...

The whole story of the hitchhikers and her dropping her car and just hitchhiking and not taking any, something about it feels a little off. And again, we do not know her mental state of when this all happened. And I know that this can happen, which is just why I want to give you this perspective of this story. That's like, it was a vanishing for, for 13 years. People thought Brenda Heiss was dead, just like many of our cases. But then she turned up.

So that was the mysterious disappearance and discovery of Brenda Heist. Crazy. Okay, you guys. Well, that was our fun little twist of a case for this week's episode. A reminder that we do a watch party in our Murder With My Husband world on Mondays, every single Monday. So if you haven't checked it out, come hang out with us tonight. And we'll see you next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.