WEBVTT
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Hello, Hello, This is Christina from the feature. Because we
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recorded this in the past. As I said last week,
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this was supposed to be together with last week's episode,
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but we split it up in order to give ourselves
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time to get back into researching and recording after we
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went to Guadalajara to go see our Agilita and celebrate
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her birthday with our entire family. So that is why
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we split last week's episode. Also, at some point in
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the episode, you hear me say American Pie by Tom
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Petty instead of American Girl by Tom Petty, and I
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met American girl, not American Pie. I know that's not
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a song. All right, enjoy the episode and we'll be
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back next week. Hi, this is Christina and Carmen and
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this is another episode of Speaky Tales podcast for all
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things Espoogye, Andre, Grime, and America. Before I start the case,
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just trigger warning for rape that is part of this
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and also involves a minor And with that, feel free
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to skip to speak your recommendations so we don't want
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to hear that. But today I'm sharing the case of
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Abby at Nandez. So in twenty thirteen, just before turning
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fifteen high school freshman, Abby was walking home from school
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when she vanished, and like, no one knew what happened
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to her. So she grew up with her mom and
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sister in north Conway, New Hampshire. She grew up with
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her mom and sister in north Conway, New Hampshire. It's
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a small toursy town, considered super safe. In fact, the
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whole state is in the list as one of the
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safest states in the US. Wow, back then it was true.
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Today it's still up there in those like statistics. So yeah,
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people moved there because it's considered safe. That's probably one
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of the reasons why Senya at Nandez Abby's mom moved
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there after her divorce, because now she's a single working parent.
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She's got two daughters to raise, right Yeah, and she
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worked long hours as a nurse, so this seemed like
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the perfect place to raise Abbi and Sarah. And Abby
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was considered a very nice teen, always positive, always very
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friendly with everyone. She talked to everyone as if they
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were friends with her already. She studied German and robotics
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as a freshman, which is crazy to me. Robotics, that's wild. Yeah.
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She was super athletic, into sports and she had a
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boyfriend Jimmy. They loved each other as much as high
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school sweethearts, can you know. Yeah, And things were great
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for her and her family until October nine, twenty thirteen.
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Abby had not arrived home from school yet, and Senya,
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her mom, started getting worried. But she was like, you
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know what, maybe she's with friends at school still, So
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she drove up there to look for her. But when
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she got there, the librarian told her that she had
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already left. She saw Abby leaving, so now she's even
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more worried. She gets back home, i'd be still not there.
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She then calls the hospital, the local hospital, to see
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if she checked in there, and maybe she got her
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on the way home, and she's just there. She hasn't
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checked in, but no, she's not there either. Finally, at
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seven pm that night, it was too long for her,
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and Senya went to file a missing person's report. And
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she did not for one second think that Abby ran away.
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It wasn't like her. Plus, they were getting ready to
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celebrate her fifteenth birthday in like four days, so it
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just didn't seem like she would run away at all.
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And luckily, the search did happen very quickly. Local police
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and FBI got involved fast. They went door to door
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looking for her, and again she disappeared three days before
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before her fifteenth birthday party. So instead of holding a
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party for her, the party that they were already planning,
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they ended up doing a vigil for her. A lot
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of people attended in the community. Oh my god, that's
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so sad it is. Can you imagine? It's terrible? And
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just within weeks there were over five hundred tips called
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into the hotline that investigators had set up, but there
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were no concrete leads at all, and all they had
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is the following information. Abby left school at two twenty
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nine pm. She walked through the field hockey Field, down
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Eagle's Way and into a power line trail near the school.
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She was seen on that power trail power line trail
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between two thirty and two thirty five pm. She sent Jimmy,
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her boyfriend, a heart emoji at two fifty three pm
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as she walked, and he was on the bus. Fifteen
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ish minutes later, at three oh seven, her phone signal
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disappears a lost signal at the cell tower on the
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west side of Cranmore Mountain. And that's all they had
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to go on, like nothing else but they believe that
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that window of time between two fifty three and three
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oh seven is where something went wrong, something happened to her.
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They didn't treat this like, oh no, she just went missing. Immediately,
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they were like, she was probably taken. So, you know,
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they did their jobs, because there's so many of these
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cases where they're like, ah, she ran away, and they
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don't do their jobs. But here they led into action,
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which Sily is like rare. Yeah. So they started questioning
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family and friends, which didn't give them leads. It just
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showed them how close she was to everyone. And one
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month went by, still nothing the media on her. The
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reporting started dying down. Meanwhile, her mom and sister fell
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into despair, still looking for her, putting up signs everywhere.
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They're still going door to door and all this chaos
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of trying to find her, Senya ignore daily tasks and
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things were piling up in the house, including the mail,
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because that's just like one of the last things you open,
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I feel, yeah, even like on a regular name, you know, imagine, Yeah,
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on top of that, dealing with your daughter being missing,
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like exactly the last function amount. Yeah. Yeah, So she
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went for she went weeks without checking her mail, and
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her pile grew larger, and in that pile there was
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a letter from Abby. What Yeah. The letter read the following,
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Dear Mom, I miss you and I love you so
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much more than you could imagine. I'm sorry I did this.
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I've seen the newspapers and TV news, and to answer
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your questions, yes, I'm alive, I'm safe, and I'm healthy.
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I really miss you, mom, but I won't tell you
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where I am. I love you so much. Please stay
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strong for me. I'm staying strong for you. I've come
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to realize that, along with love and courage, hope can
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speak louder than fear. Please don't lose hope. Hang in
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there for me. Mom. I had a dream where I
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came home and I gave you the biggest hug ever.
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I don't know if it matters, but I like to
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think that it does. Please don't forget that I love you.
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Please give Sarah a big hug for me, and tell
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her that I love and miss her so much. I
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pray that all your hopes and dreams come true. Love Abby,
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Oh my god? And what this really her? That was
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the question of the hour? Really. The letter was postmarked
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October twelfth, twenty thirteen, and again she wasn't missing October ninth, okay,
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but Senya Hernandez her mom didn't see it until November
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six wow, because again her mail was piling up. Yeah.
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When she first saw the letter and it said dear mom,
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she was excited because she's like, oh, it'll lead us
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to her or something, you know. But after she read it,
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it felt wrong. She's like, yeah, this is her handwriting,
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but doesn't feel like anything she would ever say. She's
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been forced to say something maybe mm hmmm. Yeah, and
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she didn't think first. She was like, yes, it's her handwriting,
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but I don't think these are her words, Like it
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sounds like someone else is saying this. And Sanya handed
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this over to investigators who confirmed by DNA on left
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on the paper that it did belong to Abby, So
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she did write the letter, and they held on to
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the letter, having possession of the letter for a month
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before giving this to the media, like telling them, yeah,
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we received the letter, because you know, big cases like this,
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I have to like keep people updated. So they held
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onto the information for one month because they were worried
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that if this was a letter by her and she
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sent it a secret from whoever was keeping her. If
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they gave out the information that they received the letter
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for her from her, it could put her in danger.
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So they didn't say anything for one month. Then they
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finally did report this and I when I read this,
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so the media then reporters they all were like, well
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news ankers and like all those places, They're like, well,
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this is is this even a missing person's case? Was
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she even taken? Or is this a runaway And despite
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investigators confirming there belief that they are treating this as
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someone who was abducted, not a runaway case, media and
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local residents started turning their turning on the family. Oh wow,
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they were angry and they believed that the letter was
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a confession from a runaway teen girl. Okay, but also
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like why get angry about that? If this isn't a
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runaway girl, then clearly like something is going on in
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the home that she's running away from. So if that
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was the case, like I would still feel concerned for
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this team, you know what I mean, even if it's like,
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oh I don't want to follow the rules or okay, well,
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how can we work with this family to for them
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to live with each other? Because anytime, even if it's
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a teen running away. Like that's sad still, you know,
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like that's still concerned, right, But people don't. People They
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think like teenagers are adults, you know. Yeah, No, they're little.
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They're babies in them in the scheme of a lifetime
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of a person, Yeah, you're a baby, Like, yeah, you're
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a baby until you're thirty, you know. I'm so you're
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a baby. You're still baby. We're babies. Yeah. So yeah,
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people were angry and they were like, she's wasting time
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and resources because this was treated like a kidnap victim
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when she's clearly a runaway. Yeah, and people were calling
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for the family to pay back the money that the
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Conway Police Department and the FBI spent, Like this kid
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who fucking hooh bitch. I hate when they do that shit.
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That reminds me of that other case where people were
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accusing I don't remember names as always, but they were
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accusing the They were accusing the victim who was kidnapped.
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Basically it was a woman. It was an adult woman,
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but she was kidnapped with her husband. Well, they somebody
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broke into their apartment. They held them a hostage or whatever,
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they taped them up, couldn'tain anything, and then they left
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him tied up, and then they took her and then
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they blamed him for it. Yeah, so they first they
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thought it was him, even though he had nothing to
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do with it. And then when she came back, they
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accused her of faking the whole thing, like gone Girl,
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because Gone Girl had just come out. Yeah, and I'm like,
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these people have been traumatized and you're over here, and
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even and the police, the law enforcement came out and
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they're like, she owes us money this and that. I'm like,
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who fucking cares? Like, I don't care how much money
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is to waste it on them anyway. Yeah, if anything, like,
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you should be doing this for free, if anything, you
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should come out directly out of your patrick because it
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doesn't exactly. So, Yeah, people were calling for that, for
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that money to be give back, and that is so
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much of books for real. I can't believe that. No,
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And even in the midst of all this hatred, they
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were suddenly getting online. They did not waiver in their
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belief that she was being health captive and she needed
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to be rescued. And they were right. This was supposed
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to be their community, and they were online saying shit
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like sounds like a runaway punk this. Okay, this has
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been fishy from the beginning. Oh I can't stand people. Yeah,
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even rumors in her former school started to spread. Kids
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were saying that she ran away because she was pregnant,
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and her sister and bff her Bessie went to the
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school and they were appalled at the rumors. Oh my god,
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I would started throwing hands at the school and yeah,
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I'm gott in so much trouble because every day it
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would have been fisty cuffs. I would fighting like growing
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up because no, you're not going to say this ship
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while my sister is literally finding for her life somewhere,
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you know. Yeah, but that just goes to show like
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people love to gossip, and it's like this is why,
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like when something is announced that's something like this is happening,
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Like I don't go online saying oh this probably happened,
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Oh this probably happened, like it's it's messed up. Yeah.
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They people engage with these kind of extremely sensitive and
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difficult topics. They engage with them like they're like they're
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like a circus show. I'm nicking of the when the
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emberor heard and not to bring everything back to emberhard.
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But we always talking about But yeah, I think of
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the how people were acting during the Ember Herd and
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johny Depp trial, and I remember when it is over
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and Billy Saria and caught a lot of flak rightfully
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so about her saying like, oh what what am I
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going to watch now? Like and uh, somebody I remember
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at work they were talking about this too, like it
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was like entertainment. And I'm like, these are people's lives
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where toxicity, dysfunction, and abuse took place. Yeah, when they don't,
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it sounds like we're reaching a little bit because at
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the end of the day, we do talk about your crime.
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But I feel like we're sharing either cases where there's
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like injustices, like you know when we talked about the
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activist in Mexico or here. I think by the end
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of it, you'll see why this case is like so
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important to learn about. Yeah, and not everyone is doing that.