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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, I'm discussing the case of Tabitha Tudors from Nashville, Tennessee.
In April 2003, Deborah and Beau Tudors couldn't be more proud of their 13-year-old daughter, Tabitha. She just won an award at their church for memorizing the Ten Commandments, and her newest report card just made it home, Stray Days. Tabitha is the youngest in the family and sticks to her mother like glue. Each night, Tabitha tries to sleep in her room by herself, but always ends up grabbing her blanket and making her way to her parents' bedroom, where they'd find her asleep at the foot of their bed each morning.
When Bo and Debra asked Tabitha why she didn't want to sleep in her room, she said she just wanted to be close to them. And her parents really soak it in. Tabitha is their third and last child. Now that Tabitha was a teenager, I imagine they know her days of wanting to be by their sides at all times was limited. But no one could have predicted just how limited that time really was.
Without realizing it, on the morning of April 29th, Deborah and Beau see Tabitha sleeping at the foot of their bed for the last time. In just a 10-minute window, walking the distance of fewer than two blocks to her bus stop, Tabitha disappeared. Over the years, countless theories about what happened to Tabitha have developed. Did she run away? Was she talking to a predator online?
Was it someone in the area? Did she get into a red car? Or was it green? This is the case of Tabitha Tudors. The morning of April 29th, 2003 was a typical school day in Tabitha's house. At 5am, her mom Debra gets up for her job in the cafeteria at Tom Joy Elementary School. She leaves her husband Beau, daughter Jamie, grandchildren, and Tabitha still sleeping as she quietly slips off to work.
Beau wakes up next. At about 7am before he leaves, he wakes up 13-year-old Tabitha, who's asleep at the foot of his bed, so she can get ready for school. Tabitha knew the routine. She was in charge of getting herself ready for school and out the door by 7.50 so she could walk to the bus stop before it picked up at 8. It was only a block away, so 10 minutes was more than enough time to catch the bus.
This was actually a really exciting time for Tabitha. She'd won a prize at church for finally memorizing the Ten Commandments, and she got straight A's on her last report card. Rightfully, Tabitha was very proud of herself. Beau says she was in good spirits that morning. So, Tabitha gets up, she gets dressed, and gets ready for school. Then, around 7.50, she too slips out of the house, leaving her sister Jamie and her children still asleep.
Deborah arrives home from work at the same time she normally does, about 1.30. Tabitha isn't expected home until about 4. But when 4 o'clock rolls around, Tabitha still isn't home. Now, Deborah does think this is odd, but she gives it about another 10 minutes, assuming the bus was probably just delayed. These things happen. But as 4.10 approaches, Deborah decides to walk to the bus stop to wait for Tabitha there. But as she approaches, it's obvious the bus had already come.
There are a bunch of kids around, but not Tabitha. So, Debra asks if anyone has seen her, and they all say no. Now, Debra is getting nervous. She immediately goes to Bailey Middle School to see where her daughter is. When she gets there, the doors are locked, so she pounds on them until she's finally let in by a custodian. From there, Debra finds a teacher and learns that Tabitha wasn't in school all day.
Now, why the school didn't call home to inform them that Tabitha never showed up, I don't know. But Debra runs back home and starts calling Tabitha's friends' houses to see if they've seen her. And nothing. It seems that no one has seen Tabitha all day. Debra's heart just drops. Tabitha has never skipped school in her life.
While Tabitha was 13, she still wandered from her bed to her parents' room every night and slept at the foot of their bed. She also clung to Debra like her little shadow. Her newly decorated bedroom was filled with stuffed animals and trinkets like ceramic bears. Tabitha wasn't a rebellious teenager seeking independence who would have just left on her own. It was crystal clear to Debra that something was very, very wrong.
She reports Tabitha missing at about 6 p.m., nearly 10 hours after she was last seen. At this point, Tabitha could be almost anywhere.
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When investigators get the report of 13-year-old Tabitha Tudor's being missing, they know that they've already lost crucial hours due to her school not reporting her absent. But they begin the search for her that night, canvassing a five-mile radius. While no one could confirm what Tabitha was wearing that morning, her family was able to go through her clothes and identify an outfit that appeared to be missing. A blue top, blue jeans, and her white sneakers. So they have to assume that that's what she was wearing that morning.
because nothing else besides her backpack and schoolwork is missing. Her $20, her door key, makeup, and the rest of her clothing were still in her room. That night, the police take fingerprints from the home along with Tabitha's hairbrush and toothbrush for DNA.
But it doesn't seem like investigators with the Metro Nashville Police Department believe Tabitha is in any danger. In fact, they don't issue an Amber Alert basically saying exactly that. They don't have any reason to believe she was in danger and didn't leave on her own accord. They tell the family the same thing. The same thing we see in so many of these cases. Your child probably ran away because that's just what kids do.
But Tabitha's family pushes back. There's no way they think she just up and left on her own. And again, she didn't take anything with her. Not even her $20 in cash for a ride or some food. While law enforcement, friends, family, and strangers searched for Tabitha that night, Debra stayed home as Tabitha appeared on the 10pm news, hysterical, but sure Tabitha would call or come back.
In the days after Tabitha is reported missing, investigators were still leaning into their theory that she ran away. After searching the neighborhood, a local park, a lake, and conducting interviews, they go back to Tabitha's room to take another look.
If Tabitha did run away, there must be something there to point them in some direction. And they think they find something. In her room, they find a small handwritten note with just initials on it. TDT, the letter N and the initials MTL. TDT is obviously Tabitha Danielle Tudors, but what they couldn't figure out is who MTL could be.
Tabitha's parents, her friends, and siblings have no idea who it could be. So they file this away, hoping it's a piece of this puzzle that will make sense later. Then a major tip comes in. One of Tabitha's classmates reports seeing her that morning. He saw Tabitha get into a red car. He doesn't know who was driving, though. The best description he can give is that it was a man with dark skin.
So let's talk about the logistics of the bus stop. Like I mentioned, Tabitha's bus stop was literally just one block from her house. It was at the corner of Bosco Bell Road and 14th Street. Basically, Tabitha walked up a hill and she was there. But Debra told Tabitha that if she ever got to her bus stop and there were no kids there, she had to walk to the next bus stop on 15th Street, again, just another block away.
That way, Tabitha was never just sitting alone at her bus stop. Debra wanted to make sure she was always around at least some other kids. And from this report, it seems that that's what Tabitha was doing. Her classmate says he saw this car between 14th and 15th street. Now, he's not sure if Tabitha got in willingly, was forced to get in, or coerced to get in.
But he says Tabitha gets in the car on her way to the second bus stop. The car turns around and goes back the way it came.
While this seems to further strengthen law enforcement's theory that Tabitha ran away, it does the opposite for her loved ones. For them, this is a clear indication that she was taken against her will. Deborah says there's no way Tabitha would have gotten in a car with a stranger. In fact, she cites a story about how one of her friends saw Tabitha walking one day, tried to give her a ride, and Tabitha refused. She said, "'My mom says I'm not allowed to take rides from people she doesn't pre-approve.'"
That's just the kind of kid Tabitha was. Either way, investigators take this lead very seriously. And while no other witnesses come forward at this point to corroborate the sighting, when law enforcement brought in scent dogs, they tracked Tabitha's scent out her front door, up the hill, and they lost her between 14th and 15th Street, just like her classmate reported. But Tabitha's loved ones don't know anyone with a red car.
Like the note with Tabitha's initials and the unidentified initials, this lead about the red car just sits too.
But this is a case with no shortage of leads, so they just keep going down the line. Next, they investigate a tip coming from a concerned mother of two young daughters. She says, in 1996, a man in his 20s named Paul Davis took a very concerning interest in her 10-year-old. Then, in 1997, her 13-year-old ran away. When they searched her room for clues, they found several letters written by the 13-year-old to Paul Davis.
Luckily, her daughter came back home two days later. But her mother was sure Davis had something to do with it. And when police speak with him, they learn that he does have a history of grooming girls Tabitha's age. In 1997, he was convicted of statutory rape.
So they ask Paul Davis what he was doing on the day Tabitha went missing. Now, Davis lived three hours away in Kentucky at this point, but he does admit that he made a trip to Nashville in the weeks before Tabitha went missing, and he was seen at a store just half a block from Tabitha's home. But without anything directly tying him to Tabitha, this lead again sits until they can gather more information.
Soon, one of Tabitha's friends speaks with investigators and tells them she and Tabitha went to a public library and joined some chat rooms. Maybe Tabitha met someone online. So the Metro Police go to the library with this friend so they can point out the exact computer they used. Once they do, the computer is taken for analysis. But this takes time. So again, the lead just sits as they wait for results.
With so many leads up in the air at this point, Tabitha's family is just beside themselves, especially her parents. Jamie says she remembers them just crying all the time. And Debra can't help but continue to look for Tabitha herself. She spends most of her time driving around, walking the riverbanks, and trying to get media attention.
The family also makes their own buttons and t-shirts before outsourcing them to a professional company. They also pass out awareness bracelets to anyone who will wear one. But no matter how hard they fight for Tabitha, her parents can't find peace without answers. Beau says he would often find Debra sitting at the end of their bed where Tabitha would sleep. Sometimes he could get her back to bed and fall asleep, but many nights they just stayed up drinking coffee and talking about Tabitha and her case.
Bo would tell the Tennessean, quote, I just want my baby back. I hurt so bad I can't breathe, end quote. But they persist. Despite Debra being terrified to leave her home in case Tabitha calls or comes back, they fly to New York to film for the John Walsh show. While this does generate some leads, none really pan out.
By July, Metro Police Chief Deborah Faulkner is still hesitant to say this was anything but a runaway, and releases a statement, "...the police department has no evidence that Tabitha is dead or abducted, but those are possibilities we've been unable to rule out."
The day after this statement was released, the Metro Police searches for Tabitha again. It would be the largest and most strategic search for Tabitha in the history of her case. Just after dawn, 25 Metro Police officers, 12 Davidson County Sheriff's deputies, and K-9 units assemble for the search. Lt. Floyd Hyde would be honest with the media, stating, quote, "...we don't have a clue what happened to her." End quote.
For this search, the group was separated into four teams. They went door to door, yard to yard, asking residents to search any fenced-off areas as well. They searched the nearby woods, Shelby Park, and its pond. They look at sex offenders in the area.
But again, no sign of Tabitha. In the newspaper articles I found discussing this search, many residents expressed concern, saying they didn't understand why this wasn't done much sooner. And Tabitha's mother Deborah says outright that if they would have done this earlier, Tabitha might have been found by now. Even Tabitha's cousin who lived just a few houses down from her didn't understand why the police hadn't searched her backyard prior to this.
Tabitha's family and community were more than willing to open their homes, yards, and their minds to bring Tabitha home. While this effort was great, it felt extremely tardy. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost?
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The summer of 2003 comes and goes with no answers about the disappearance of 13-year-old Tabitha Tudors. While investigators have kind of crumbs of these clues, the note with Tabitha's initials and the other set of initials, reports of suspicious people in the area, Tabitha talking to strangers in an online chat room, and of course the report of Tabitha getting into a red car, not much progress was being made on those tips.
Investigators couldn't figure out who had the initials MTL. They weren't able to connect Paul Davis to Tabitha, and his sister backs up his story that he was in Kentucky when Tabitha went missing.
They haven't located the red car. And when results of the analysis of the library computer come back, it's too late. While they found Tabitha's username, so much time had passed and so many other people had used the computer, their technicians weren't able to find who she was talking to or the content of any of those conversations.
In September, they get another promising but confusing lead when a man named Millard Earl Smith is arrested in Nashville for the rape of a 17-year-old girl. Smith was riding his motorcycle when he came across a couple who needed a ride. He offers to help, but he's on a motorcycle, so he says he'll take the boyfriend first and then come back for the girlfriend. Smith drives the boyfriend to his intended destination and goes back for the 17-year-old girl who he then takes to his home and rapes her.
It's just a terrible story. But he was arrested for this. And Smith has a record.
He'd been convicted of kidnapping and solicitation of a minor previously. So this guy gets on the radar of the police quickly, and they discover that he lived about four miles from Tabitha. Smith doesn't match the description of the man driving the red car, but when they look into his possible involvement, they discover that Smith has a brother-in-law who works on cars, so he likely would have had access to a red car.
But kind of like Paul Davis, investigators back off after Smith presents his alibi. He says he was camping with family. And according to the news reports I found, his alibi was never actually confirmed. But he does pass a polygraph test. And basically with no evidence to link him to Tabitha's disappearance, they just stop pursuing this lead. But he does remain a person of interest.
I feel like I'm getting whiplash just talking about all these different leads and the lack of progress with each of them. I can't even imagine how Tabitha's family must have felt, but Jamie has described this as an emotional rollercoaster. While some of the tips seemed completely off-base to them, many of them gave the family hope that Tabitha could be home very soon, only to be repeatedly let down.
As they go through their first holiday season without Tabitha, the family persists, and the community continues to show support. In November, students at Bailey Middle School present Tabitha's family with a CD they made. It contains an original song written and performed by her classmates called Come Home. The CDs were sold for a minimum donation of $5 to help raise money for Tabitha's reward fund.
In December, the family goes back to New York to appear on the Montel Williams show. While they're there, they ask a street vendor to create a sign with Tabitha's name on it to put in her room for when she comes back. But Christmas comes and goes without Tabitha there. And by the first anniversary of her disappearance, local paper The Tennessean publishes an article titled, quote, End quote.
It discusses how Tabitha's flyers are no longer plastered everywhere around town, how her neighbors stopped wearing their awareness buttons for her, and how tips were drying up. The Team Tabitha phone line went from getting 40-60 calls a day to just 4-6 a month now.
Volunteer searcher Johnny White told the paper, "...we're frustrated. We don't have any direction, not any way to go. We have no hope. We need someone to give us hope." As much as I wish I could transition here and say something like, "...and then hope came," it just didn't.
By 2008, the five-year anniversary of Tabitha's disappearance, law enforcement had to go to the media to ask them to please run stories about her and get her back in the press. And now this actually seemed to work. Many outlets did run with Tabitha's story. And by June, a major tip comes in that contradicts their biggest lead to date. A witness says Tabitha didn't get into a red car that morning.
She got into a green car. 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. Five years after Tabitha Tudors goes missing on her way to the bus stop, a tip comes in that shakes up the entire case. Back in 2003, when Tabitha first went missing, one of her classmates reported seeing her get into a red car before making it to the bus stop. For
For five years, the Metro Police have been searching for a red car with a male driver with dark skin. But Debra's niece contacts police in 2008. She says one of her employees was riding his bike the morning Tabitha went missing. And he saw a green car parked at the bus stop at 15th Street in Bosque Bowl. Possibly a green Mustang with a scorpion sticker on the back.
Now, there's no description of the driver, and I have no idea why it took five years for this lead to surface, but the Metro Police run with this, and for the first time, they utilize social media to help crowdsource tips about the green car.
And I hate to say it, but again, you guys, the tip just sits. They can't find anything or anyone connected to this sighting. The case basically just sits for another 8 years until 2016. 13 years after Tabitha went missing, a woman comes forward about the green car. She
She says, I know someone who matches the driver description and drove a green car at the time. His name is Juan. He's a Hispanic male that lived in a duplex just a few blocks from Tabitha. Not only that, he knew Tabitha.
When Tabitha went missing, Juan was 19, and allegedly, Tabitha would sneak out while Beau was sleeping to smoke cigarettes with Juan. Not only that, it was also reported that Juan would allegedly get emotional and nervous when speaking about Tabitha, expressing concern about the police looking into him. It was also reported that when speaking about Tabitha's case, Juan said something to the effect of, "'It wasn't supposed to happen that way.'"
So obviously, again, alarm bells are going off for investigators. This is probably the biggest lead they've gotten yet. And they're able to confirm that when Tabitha went missing, Juan did drive a green car.
But it was owned by a friend, and it's long gone now. The police are never able to recover it for any type of testing. So they test Juan, and he passes a polygraph. Now, it's hard to say exactly what happened here, but in the end, for some reason, it's decided that this woman was likely just embellishing, and Juan is eliminated as a suspect.
Like I said earlier, the whiplash in this case is intense. But as always, Tabitha's family persists. In 2018, they film an episode of the TV show Disappeared about Tabitha's case. It's a heart-wrenching episode. You can tell how fresh this still is for her family. They say they still talk about her every day. They still live in the same house just in case she comes back.
They still have her banner from the original command center with her face and contact information hanging on the front of their home. And her room is exactly how she left it. Tabitha's nieces and nephews that she's never met know who she is. They sit in her room watching movies, knowing they can't touch her things. They all live with Tabitha's disappearance every single day. So what happened to Tabitha?
Well, there are a lot of theories to explore. As always, let's look at the possibility that Tabitha ran away, the theory that the Metro Police held for so many years. Well, Tabitha had never run away before. Her cousin would also confirm that she was afraid of the dark and walking home alone. There was nothing found in the home to indicate that Tabitha would want to run away. No domestic violence calls, no history of abuse or neglect.
and her family was extensively investigated. Tabitha's name and social security number were also never used. There's just no evidence to point to Tabitha leaving willingly or starting a new life. Next, let's talk about the MTL connection, the initials found in Tabitha's room. Well, they did actually find an 18-year-old that was the son of a couple the family knew, but he was in school when Tabitha went missing, so he was eliminated as a suspect.
Next, let's discuss the computer and possible online predator connection. I have to say that from what I found, this was never really put to rest. They basically couldn't pull the information. So I will say I think it's possible Tabitha was talking to someone online who could have possibly groomed her. But there was no connection to like odd phone numbers showing up on the phone bill or anything like her friends coming forward to say that Tabitha was talking to someone online. This
This feels like one of those theories where it's just possible, without any real evidence to back it up. Now, I feel like we can lump Paul Davis and Millard Earl Smith into the same bucket. Both of these guys were nearby, had troubling arrest records, and in my opinion, didn't have the best alibis. Paul Davis was eliminated because his sister vouched that he was in Kentucky. And like I mentioned earlier, Millard Earl Smith's alibi of being on a family camping trip was never even confirmed.
Let's talk about Juan, the guy with access to a green car who supposedly smoked cigarettes with Tabitha and got nervous talking about her case. Police say they did eliminate him completely. We don't have all the details on that, but without any prior record or more than just speculation, I don't think we can develop this out any further.
It's such a frustrating case. But I think the most likely scenario is that Tabitha was taken by someone. At least four witnesses saw Tabitha walking to the bus stop that morning, and at least two witnesses saw her getting into a car. Whether it was red or green, well, it's basically he said, she said. And investigators were never able to track down any vehicle matching either description.
The last update in Tabitha's case comes from 2020, and it's just as mysterious as the rest. After receiving a lead that Tabitha may have been in Hickman County in 2003, they conduct a search. This is about 60 miles southwest of Nashville, and they bring out all the teams. They have police, cold case homicide detectives, search and rescue, the FBI. Everyone is helping with this search.
Sergeant Charles Rutske told the media, quote, our presence here is based on both old and new information. We're always looking for any presence of Tabitha, end quote.
Tabitha's family released a statement through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. End quote.
I don't know exactly what caused this search or where it led, but we know Tabitha was not recovered. Through it all, her family continues to persist and live with Tabitha's memory every single day. In April 2022, Debra confirmed that Tabitha's sign, the one from the command center in 2003, is still hanging from her porch.
It's faded now, but Tabitha's memory isn't. Deborah told WKRN News, "...I'll be driving by myself and I can hear her, and then when I look in the passenger seat, I can see her sitting there, just singing."
That brings me right to our call to action. Please share Tabitha's case far and wide, you guys. There are so many small tidbits of information, and I know it sounds cliche, but literally tiny pieces to this puzzle, and it feels like investigators just need a few more of those pieces to show the full picture of what happened to Tabitha that day. That picture feels so within reach.
This year, this April, the month this episode comes out, marks 20 years that Tabitha has been missing. 20 years of torment for her family. Please take 20 seconds to share this episode. To go to the Voices for Justice podcast social media pages and click share.
I know that with your help, we can make this an anniversary that leads to more media coverage and more tips. And if we're lucky, maybe even more pieces to Tabitha's puzzle.
As a reminder, 13-year-old Tabitha Tudors went missing near her home in Nashville, Tennessee on April 29th, 2003. Tabitha has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a birthmark on her stomach and a scar on her finger. Both of her ears are pierced. When she went missing, she was 5'1 and weighed approximately 100 pounds.
The FBI is offering a reward up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of Tabitha and the prosecution of those responsible for her disappearance. If you have any information about Tabitha Tudors, contact your local FBI office, or you can submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov. 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. And for even more content, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify. Welcome to the Secret After Show.
This case, oh my goodness, all these different leads, and I know it's not... I mean, I don't know. I guess I never aim to make these episodes feel satisfactory, but...
You know, because it's about the case. It's not about making you feel warm and fuzzy inside with these episodes. It's about justice. It's about the calls to action. But I have to say this was one of the more frustrating cases I've covered. And I do want to say that I'm sure, you know, there are so many reasons that these tips didn't go what looks like anywhere, right? You know, from the media coverage and going back through newspaper articles and old videos and all that, right?
You know, I can only find what I can find. And if the police don't release it, it's just not there. So that being said, I have to hope that a lot of these unresolved clues are resolved, you know, behind closed doors and that we just don't need to know about it. But yeah, I mean, the directions we went in this case, it was just...
And I'm left at the end of the day really not knowing what happened to Tabitha. I mean, and how do you how do you figure out, right, if a witness comes forward five years later and says, no, it wasn't a red car. It was a green car. You know, who do you believe? Do you believe the kid? I believe he was 11. He was there that day. Do you believe him who, you know, told the police right after it happened? Or do you believe this other person who was older or whatever? Yeah.
riding their bike and they come forward five years later. You know, whose memory is more reliable? I really don't know. The other thing I wanted to talk about that really
really enraged me in this episode. I mean, just straight off pissed me off was the fact that the school didn't call. Like, how many cases do I need to cover where the school does not call these parents, you guys, or these caregivers, whoever is caring for these children, right? Why are schools not calling home? Like, why?
And I will say this used to happen to me all the time because I missed so much school that my dad didn't even have to call me in. It got to the point where they knew that if I missed school, it was excused because I never – okay. Truth be told, I skipped school one single time and they actually – they didn't call home. They didn't call home because I was picked up so much that they just assumed that was normal. Anytime I missed school, the school was just like, oh, yeah, legit. She's gone. She never comes to school again.
Now, so I wonder if maybe – and I'm not saying this because it's not a justification. These schools should be calling, right? But I wonder if Tabitha's school didn't call because they didn't think she'd ditch and they just figured her parents forgot. You know, Tabitha was a straight-A student. She seemed like a really good kid. I'm sure that she was a very normal 13-year-old and wasn't perfect. Right.
But I have to wonder if the school, you know, just saw that Tabitha wasn't there and didn't call, assuming the parents just forgot to call her an absent. Again, I'm not saying it's an excuse because it's not. I just want to say that if anybody's out there that works in a school or has the power to
has the power to do something in their everyday life to make this different, please look at these episodes, look at these cases, and just call home when these kids aren't at school. Like, worst case scenario, these parents get annoyed by you or whatever. But I have to say, in cases like Tabitha's, it feels like life and death. I mean, they were starting, what, 10 hours after she went missing? Yeah.
all those crucial hours lost because the school didn't make a phone call home. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. And I know it's not easy to work at a school. I know it's not easy to be in administration. And I'm sure that there are a million things going on that cause these
these phone calls not to happen, but my God, just make the phone call. Just call home, you guys. And if I'm way off base and you're like, no, we don't call home because A, B, and C, please let me know. Let's talk on social media about it. But from where I'm sitting, I don't understand why these calls aren't made or like the auto calls, right? Because that's a thing too. Like it's
It's not always just a person having to call. It's a system. So maybe there's a glitch there. I don't know. You guys tell me, is there a reason why these schools are not calling home when these kids aren't showing up? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm just ignorant to the issue. I would love to learn about it and see if I can educate more people on what I learn and just kind of figure out what the hell is going on with all these cases, you guys, because I don't get it.
Okay, I had to open the door and let the dogs in for this next part because I needed a little bit of emotional support because I kept crying when I started to tell you guys this. I got a Google alert for Alyssa not too long ago. And, you know, it's just I have Google Alerts set up so I know if there's an article or if somebody's talking about her just so I know what's going on. I don't have to search. Okay.
But this was actually, I was like, what is going on? Because she was mentioned in an article about missing woman Madeline Kingsbury from Winona, Minnesota. Now, Madeline went missing or was reported missing on March 31st, 2023. It looks like she died.
just disappeared after dropping her kids off at daycare. And I do want to bring this story to you in a longer format that's more informative than the way I'm telling it right now. But in this article, they mention her history online and kind of what she was posting. And one of the mentions was she posted about Alyssa when the arrest was made in 2020. Let me pull up exactly what it was.
So this is from an article from heavy.com, and it says, quote... I'm sorry, again, this is talking about Madeline's post before she went missing online. So it says, quote... If anyone else is a true crime nut, look. I'm so happy she's finally getting justice. Kingsbury wrote in 2020, sharing a story about a missing woman named Alyssa Turney. Sorry, I knew I'd lose it. I just...
I just wanted to share Madeline's story like she shared Alyssa's. And I know I say it all the time and I probably sound like a broken record and you may not believe me, but every share counts. And I have to imagine that if she was sharing, you know, the story about Alyssa getting justice, she probably shared her story before then. So I just want to pay it forward. I want to talk about Madeline's story. Again, she went missing yesterday.
Let me see here. I'm sorry. This is a brand new case to me. She went missing on March 31st, 2023 after dropping her kids off at daycare in Winona, Minnesota. So please share if you see her case online. If you see social media posts about her, please share it. She did it for Alyssa and I would love if we can come together and do that for her.
If you do have information, please call the Winona Police Department at 507-457-6302. You can also remain anonymous by going to crimestoppersmn.org or calling 800-222-8477. Again, it's just...
It's not about me, it's about Madeline, but that was hard to see. I obviously am extremely emotional over it. It's just when the community comes together, we can do so much and...
Again, she shared for Alyssa and I would really, really love it if you shared for her too. I know I ask you to share so many things, you guys, but I promise to her family, to the people who love and know her, it means a lot more than you know. But as always, thank you for tolerating me here, especially with the tears today. I love you and I'll talk to you next time.