The Case Of Nancy Lynn Blankenship (2024)

Behind The Scenes On Cayce's Season

Tomorrow will be 26 years that Cayce Lynn McDaniel has been missing. You can now watch her story on YouTube!

Check out never before heard details about Episode 3

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In the mid-1980s, law enforcement was scrambling to figure out if a series of murders of red-haired women from Texas to Pennsylvania was the act of a serial killer. The state of Tennessee, specifically, seemed to be a hotbed for the murders. Law enforcement was even questioning Henry Lee Lucas, the convicted serial killer, but stopped when an article was released claiming that Lucas fabricated more than 200 confessions to murders he claimed to partake in. There is little doubt that if the article had not been released, Lucas would have confessed to the red head killings as well.

This sets the stage for the climate that was West Tennessee in the 1980s when Nancy Lynn Blankenship, a woman with red hair, disappeared.

A very special thanks to WBIR Channel 10, Knoxville, Tn, for their reporting over the years on the Red Head Murders.

WBIR-Jerry Johns

WBIR-Tina Farmer Identified

A special thank you to LOLFIELDANDLOVE for the Henry Lee Lucas clip.

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A very special thank you to

https://twitter.com/ameangelofsin for the woman screaming sound effect.

Thank you to Voice Actor Julia Hamra for voicing The Jackson Sun article.

Thank you to Voice Actor Zack Taylor for his reading of the AP article on Lucas.

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Just a week before Christmas in 1993, a couple of fishermen who were undoubtedly on the hunt for striped bass in the cold December waters of the Tennessee River got more than they bargained for when they discovered human remains near a boat dock in Decatur County.

They didn’t know it at the time, but those fishermen just closed one chapter and opened another in a ten year old mystery. They had found Nancy Lynn Blankenship.

Ten years earlier and fifty miles away in Lavinia, Tennessee, John and Rachel Sanders didn’t think too much of it when Nancy didn’t come to the door to catch a ride to Wednesday night church service. The Sanders’ just thought that the twenty-year old newlywed who suffered from epilepsy and couldn’t drive, had gotten a ride with someone else.

But when Nancy never showed up to church that night, people started to worry. The Blankenship home was found with freshly made brownies, Nancy’s pocketbook, coat and her recently filled epilepsy medicine all in the kitchen area. Further inspection revealed Nancy’s curling iron in the bathroom—still plugged in and hot to the touch.

Oh and it should be noted: Nancy found out that she was two months pregnant the day before she went missing.

Theories have come and gone about what happened to Nancy over the course of 38 years, including her being one of the Red Head Murders—which is an unconfirmed theory of serial killer that hunted down women with ginger hair…many of them in Tennessee.

I’m Brandon Barnett, and this is Searching For Ghosts: Season Three—The Case of Nancy Lynn Blankenship

Be a part of the team and support Season 3 by becoming a member of The Searching For Ghosts Patreon page where you will get early access to episodes, case discussions from all three seasons, as well as exclusive interviews and episodes. Come get in on the action at patreon.com/searchingforghosts

Please head over to patreon.com/searchingforghosts for exclusive bonus material because Season 3 is a coming!

A reading of the indictment against Pete Hill, plus a timeline of events leading up to the charge.

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New developments in the Cayce McDaniel case. And why we've been quiet.

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Please sign and share this petition to request that District Attorney General Jody Pickens re-examine the Bethany Markowski case and call a grand jury.

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Bethany's Petition

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The vehicle Bethany was last seen in was purchased just six days before she went missing, and was sold just two months later. It stayed off the grid until 2 1/2 years later and popped up...in Puerto Rico.

A shovel purchased the day of Bethany's disappearance was found in the cemetery next to the overflow parking lot at the Old Hickory Mall.

Surveillance video shows the man purchased the shovel, along with rope and two five gallon gas cans.

This is the end of the weekly episodes on Bethany Markowski. But this is just Phase One. We will be back after further investigation.

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

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Four different sightings in three days in one town.

A composite sketch from a failed school enrollment.

A woman who TBI questioned because of the sketch.

Jonnie learns new information about the case.

Montel Williams jogs Jonnie's memory.

Mugshot/Sketch Side By Side

If you have any information on Bethany Markowski, no matter how small it is, call 1-800-THE LOST

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I want to lay out everything we have found out so far in a single episode. Having this compiled together will give us a better understanding of just how much circ*mstantial evidence there is that points in one direction.

The second thing I want to drive home is the fact that all of this happened in roughly a two month time frame.

And the last thing I want to shine some light on is this: There was a reason why Jonnie and Lori were so perceptive about the exact times that certain things happened in 2001. Apparently everyone, including Bethany herself, had an uneasy feeling about this second visitation with Larry.

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE LOST

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

Tennessee Missing Children's Day Vigil

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Is Jonnie Carter a suspect in Bethany's disappearance? If you look at media reports, one might think so.

A look into when the TBI became involved, who took polygraph tests, and what they found in Larry's van.

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

March 4 is Tennessee Missing Children's Day. Join Team SFG, #justiceforcayce and #teambethany in Lebanon Tennessee.

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When and where the Jenny call originated. Larry still seemed to be focused on Jonnie that weekend. And a witness that contradicts the mall timeline.

If you have any information on Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST.

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

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A kink in the Forrest City claim?

A rare look into that Friday before Larry picked up Bethany, and we hear from possibly the last person outside of Larry to see Bethany.

And the last known phone conversation with Bethany that wasn't what it seems.

Did Bethany have her own cell phone that day?

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

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An exclusive glimpse into the trip to Little Rock, AR the weekend Bethany disappeared.

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST.

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Jonnie works to get Bethany enrolled in school, while Larry works on plans of his own.

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

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The backstory on how Bethany and Jonnie ended up in Nashville. A look into the home life that led to the events of March 4, 2001.

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Larry claims that there was someone with Bethany at the mall on Sunday, March, 4th. This would change everything.

But was there someone with Bethany?

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

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In 2014, the FBI released the top ten most dangerous small cities in America. Jackson, Tennessee was number three on the list.

In 2004, a second kidnapping in three years was reported at the Old Hickory Mall. Bethany was the first.

But did Bethany even make it to the mall on March 4, 2001?

If you have any information about Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

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Meet Jonnie Carter. Her daughter, Bethany Markowski, allegedly went missing from the Old Hickory Mall in Jackson, Tn on March 4th, 2001.

Jonnie has decided to tell her daughter's story in full for the first time in sixteen years.

Here is a glimpse of what her life has been like since 2001.

If you have any information on Bethany Markowski, no matter how small you think it is, call 1-800-THE-LOST

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Season One Update:Coverage by WREG-TV Channel 3 out of Memphis, and talks with the largest podcast network around.

Teaser for the second season: Where Is Bethany Markowski?

WREG-TV segment on Cayce

We’re seventeen episodes in. I’ve been looking into this case long enough now to gain some perspective. There is information that I’ve received over the course of about eight months that I have made note of but never aired. Because some of this information by itself didn’t mean anything. But if you wait long enough and talk to enough people, it starts to come together.

In the beginning, I didn’t know anything. So one bit of information was just as important as another. That’s how you end up traipsing all over creation to hunt down briefcases and the like.

There are more Mr. X stories than anything else in this case. So, in the beginning, that’s where I spent the majority of my time. But after so many differing stories, it became apparent that that dog don’t hunt. There’s no there, there. And my gut always told me that this grand conspiracy with ten or more people was just wrong. I've always thought it was much simpler than that.

The Holly Bobo murder trial is going on, but I can’t follow it out of fear of confusing things in my head with Cayce’s case. But so many have made comments to me about the stark contrast with the mother’s in each of these cases. From what I’ve been told, Karen Bobo has been relentless in her search to find answers.

When I first started this, I had no idea that I would be shut out like I’ve been by Cindy. I think I’ve been fair in giving her the benefit of the doubt. But the story of how the house was found that night, coupled with how it was assumed that Cayce just spent the night with a friend, doesn’t add up. And with the information I’ve received over the last few months, it stinks even more.

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts

According to Wikipedia, the seven deadly sins is a grouping and classification of Christian origin, of vices. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Number six on that list is Wrath.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines wrath as 1:Strong Vengeful Anger or Indignation and 2: retributory (re treeb u tory) punishment for an offense or a crime.

I said in last week’s special announcement that we have received some things that indicate that some have been less than truthful to us. One of these people was briefly mentioned in Episode 11: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? where we attempted to close in on the timeline from the night in question.

For the purposes of this podcast, we will call this man Tom. Tom was the man that Cindy had told some had stopped by the house that night…not once, but twice.

I’ve had an Open Records Request document for months. But I haven’t filed it yet. In the Tara Grinstead case in Oscilla, GA, podcaster Payne Lindsey from Up And Vanished talked at great length about trying to get official records. He even talked about some blowback that anyone who files one of these might receive. But he eventually filed one, only to learn that Georgia law is very much on the side of keeping police records sealed. He got nothing.

But every state is different, and this is Tennessee. So I wanted to see what we were facing here in the Volunteer State before I filed one. I reached out to my music attorney friend, Sarah Ruth Schuberth in Nashville, to see if she could make sense of this. Sarah was featured in an episode of my music podcast Left Of Nashville, where she explained last year’s DOJ ruling concerning songwriters.

Vigil held for Cayce McDaniel on the 21st anniversary of her disappearance. Music was not included for legal reasons.

Check out the video that Lucas Smith put together that was shown at the vigil.

Cayce (21 Years)

Candles For Cayce

Candles For Cayce

A conversation with the Holly Bobo family representative where we talk about the aftermath of an abduction/murder, dealing with law enforcement, what the public needs to do, similarities between the two cases and the importance of podcasts in helping solve cold cases.

Support SFG by purchasing the Left Of Nashville EP on Amazon and iTunes!

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Support SFG by purchasing the Left Of Nashville EP.

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Happy Birthday Cayce!

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With the number of rumors that circulate this case, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Seemingly credible leads soon turn into conspiracy theories. When one follows these leads out, they soon have numerous people involved either in the abduction or the cover up, and the people supposedly involved include the family and law enforcement. If you believe some of these theories, half of the city of Milan is involved.

I’m not saying that it is only one person responsible, but my gut is telling me that it is fewer people, not more, who are involved in this.

To me, nailing down the timeline of the night in question is the key to this. If we take into account the way Cindy and Steve have said they found the house that night, that leaves a two, two and a half hour window for this to have happened.

Unless this was a random abduction, then someone knew she would be at that house alone. But no one believes this was a random abduction. That is the only thing that everyone can agree on. And here’s the thing: It has been stated that Cayce stayed at the church longer than others because she was helping clean up. So it wasn’t like it was set in stone as to exactly what time she would be home. That’s why the alleged phone call from the church is so wildly important in my mind.

Also, if Cindy and Steve were out that night, it’s not as if there would be a concrete time that they would have gotten home either. So it was either random good luck for her abductor to strike when she was home alone, or it was someone who was around that night.

That should narrow down the list of people, instead of expanding it like these conspiracy theories do.

So the details of the night of August 16th into the early morning of the 17th are of the utmost importance. And the people who know these details aren’t willing to talk to me.

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

Last episode, Cayce’s aunt Pam mentioned this:

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this alleged truck in the driveway.

Cindy McDaniel in the August 15, 1997 edition of The Jackson Sun:

QUOTE: “And I told them about an anonymous phone call about a truck seen in the driveway that night around 12:30 a.m. I guess they’re investigating this, I don’t know.” UNQUOTE

If there is one person who is more frustrated with the amount of conspiracies floating around and the lack of people coming forward with legitimate information in this case, it is Lucas, Cayce’s cousin.

Lucas has already been helping me behind the scenes throughout this podcast. He was the one trying to connect me with Cindy.

We’ve tried floating different trial balloons with this podcast to get people to come forward. We’ve shied away from talking about certain things in order to give people an opportunity to speak first.

But now, we’re going to take it up a notch.

When Pam mentioned the eyewitness account of the truck in Cayce’s driveway that night, that, in my mind, set us on the path of another possible scenario with someone other than Mr. X. This is a path that Lucas and I have hesitated to go down…until now. According to my sources, this is the path that Cindy was trying to get law enforcement to look into from day one.

The alleged truck in the driveway possibly leads to another house, which leads to a couple of different people, neither of whom is Mr. X. It leads to a lesser mentioned name…Mr. Y

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Trying to figure out what to air in this podcast is a constant tightrope walk. I have to sift through the myriad of rumors to find the truth. I don’t want this to be the audio equivalent of a Topix discussion board. But sometimes you have to put unsubstantiated stories out there to get people to come out with the truth.

I am constantly having to keep law enforcement’s best interest in mind. Which is a guessing game because I am not in communication with them. The last thing I want to do is be a hinderance to the investigation of the disappearance of Cayce McDaniel.

And then there is the family. These are real people, and here I am putting things out in a public forum that sometimes, are not the most flattering. I gain no pleasure whatsoever in talking about people’s private lives. But in order to find answers, this is a necessary evil.

And after the Mr. X episode, I thought it was time to give the family a chance to talk. Cindy has had an open invitation to speak her mind, unedited. I’ve gotten word to her that I will just hit record and she can say whatever she wants. But I also wanted to give others in the family the opportunity to have a say.

And Cayce’s aunt and cousin took me up on this offer. Pam and her son Lucas met with me in Jackson, Tennessee. I had no questions prepared. I just came in, set up my recording equipment and told them that they had the floor. If something came up that spawned a question, I would ask. But otherwise, this was their time.

And they came prepared. Pam brought in a file folder overflowing with twenty-one years of paperwork documenting all the starts and stops.

I’m Brandon Barnett. This is Cayce’s family. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

I’ve almost dropped this project countless times for a number of different reasons. Lucas helped remind me as to why I started this thing to begin with.

Pam talked about how close Cindy was with Billy Hale, from The National Missing Children’s Locate Center. I also saw firsthand the documents where Cindy was asking for help, with one letter addressed to then Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist. And our interview momentarily turned into a research session.

Then, we got back on track.

And then Pam wanted to address the Mr. X theory.

There is some hope as far as Pam is concerned with the people on the case currently.

It is critical that people come forward who have valid information concerning Cayce’s disappearance. Eliminating questions is just as important as finding answers. We have to cut through the fog.

And you know never know what kind of valuable information will come up when you least expect it.

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They say that hindsight is 20/20. In 2017, it’s tempting to look back at how this case was handled (or mishandled according to many), and start hurling rocks. But context is everything.

I try to put myself in law enforcement’s shoes in 1996. There were no email logs to check. No cell phone towers to triangulate. Hell, Cindy didn’t even have a working phone at the house. This leaves eyewitness accounts as the crux of the evidence available in this case.

And while many cases have been solved because of eyewitness testimony, it is the lease favorite means of law enforcement and prosecutors to bring about justice.

And in listening to this podcast, you can see why. From the way the house was found to the legion of possible motives, every theory from witnesses spawns new questions, not answers.

Many people I have talked to have stated that police dropped the ball. And with the case remaining unsolved for almost 21 years, that statement gets very little criticism. If law enforcement didn't mess this thing up, it would’ve been solved long ago, right?

In the ten year period between 2001 and 2011, Milan had a total of five homicides. From 1976 to 1995, it had twelve. Milan, Tn is a far cry from the ground zero of violent crime. I don’t think the television show, The First 48, is going to set up camp there anytime soon. Unfortunately, the way to get better at solving abductions and homicides is to have a lot of practice. So on one hand, the residents of Milan can be thankful that they live in a relatively safe area. On the other, when something like the disappearance of Cayce McDaniel happens, the local police can easily find themselves in uncharted territory.

This episode is going to try to piece together the timeline of those early days after Cayce’s disappearance. It’s time to look at the information that we have on this case, and see at how it was handled by law enforcement: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts

It is apparent from the news articles in those early days of Cayce’s disappearance that there was much confusion about how to classify this case. Remember this from last episode? Sound Clip “Hybrid abduction/runaway."

An August 21, 1996 article of The Jackson Sun had a sub-title that read : QUOTE “Authorities are beginning to suspect the Milan teenager was kidnapped.” UNQUOTE

The article goes on to say that the department was seeking assistance from the TBI and the television show “America’s Most Wanted”, as well as contacting local media outlets to circulate Cayce’s photo and description.

The article also states that QUOTE: “After searching the McDaniel home and finding none of Cayce’s personal belongings missing, investigators started treating the case as an abduction. They searched the residence for fingerprints Tuesday.” UNQUOTE

This is what receives so much criticism from the people that I talk to about this case. Sound clip: “Cathy/Dawn"

One month later, in the Sept. 15, 1996 edition of The Jackson Sun, Cindy’s boyfriend Steve was quoted with a similar complaint. QUOTE

“Police did not come to the house until a week after Cayce disappeared,” Steve says. Then, the police wanted to know why the scene wasn’t just the way it was a week earlier—why stuff had been moved. I asked where they’d been when they were needed.”UNQUOTE"

While it wasn’t a week later, his point is noted.

But it should also be noted that Cayce wasn’t reported missing until around 2pm on Saturday, August 17th, some twelve hours later after Cindy came home and found the house with the door open. So, the possible crime scene theoretically could’ve been tainted in that twelve hour period. But twelve hours is still much better than 3 1/2 to 4 days. It appears that the time lag in treating the house as a crime scene goes back to initially looking at the case as a runaway situation.

This same article has Cindy being critical of law enforcement. QUOTE”

Cindy, too, is bitter about the police not helping any faster. She believes the wait to get the TBI and the FBI involved lost valuable time.”UNQUOTE

According to reports in the media, It was announced four days in that the TBI had been contacted, and the FBI on day five.

Ten days after Cayce was reported missing, the composite sketch mentioned in Ep.2 was released to the media. Also, the FBI pulled out of the investigation because there was no evidence that she had been transported across state lines.

After the America’s Most Wanted airing, a tip of a reported sighting came in reporting that Cayce was seen hitchhiking with an older man in Hayti, MO. Hayti is just across the Mississippi River from Dyersburg, TN, where Cayce had reportedly been seen at a local Walmart. There are no reports that the FBI re-entered the case after these sightings, which should’ve met the crossing state lines burden if the tips were deemed credible.

In the next couple of months, investigators released to the media that they had questioned a Carroll County teen, and were looking into a rape suspect in Nashville that matched the composite sketch. Both of these leads were fruitless.

In the September 15, 1996 edition of the Jackson Sun, the term runaway is again the term used for what happened to Cayce, not abduction.

QUOTE: "

Lieutenant Jerry Hartsfield of the Milan PD says there have been runaways in Milan before, but Cayce is the first one who hasn’t been located quickly. “It really bothers me that all the people at the church said she seemed just fine the night of the party. I think she ran. Maybe she left with somebody she knew, somebody she felt comfortable with and then couldn’t get back.”UNQUOTE

Just from looking atavailablenews reports, it appears that once the abduction word was being floated around, that’s when real movement started to happen. But it appears that the runaway theory was still there as well.

It was four days in before terms like“foul play”and“abduction”were being used in the media. It is also important to note that local media was not as quick to report on this case. The first news report about Cayce in The Jackson Sun that I can find is August 19th, 1996—two days after she was reported missing. It could be that theyweren’tcontacted by law enforcement, but there is another possibility. President Clinton was in West Tennessee at this time, campaigning for his second term in office. One thing that hasn’t changed in two decades is how politics can make us lose sight of everyday life.

When looking at the timeline, it’s unfair to say that law enforcement were completely incompetent, especially after those first few days. But when dealing with an abduction and possible murder, those first few days are the most crucial.

And if initially classifying this as a runaway is what has thrown this case off from the beginning, you would think that law enforcement would have spent a lot of their time going through Cayce’s belongings for some sort of indication that she was planning on running away.

Remember the interview I did with Dawn who helped bring Valorie the search and rescue dog to town? She also had this to say:

Soundclip: Dawn: Cleaning out Cayce’s school locker

In my opinion, going through a fourteen year old’s school locker is the 1996 equivalent of searching email or web site history. In 1996, If you want to know what a teenage girl is thinking, check the notes she writes and receives to classmates. Look at the doodles on her notebook covers. To be fair, I know that police do have possession of Cayce’s diary.

For me personally, my biggest complaint is how police have decided to not cooperate in any way with this podcast. The message I received from the mayor’s office that they didn’t want any media involvement was heard LOUD AND CLEAR. And I get it…to some extent.

But this is the 21st Century. The role that podcasts have recently played in bringing justice is undeniable. Whether it’s the wrongfully accused in Adnan Sayed to a cold missing persons case in Tara Grinstead, law enforcement in this country and others are using the podcast as an investigative tool.

One of my favorite podcasts is from The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and David Ridgen. It’s called Someone Knows Something. Here’s a clip from Season 2.

Law Enforcement agrees to sit down with David, and even though they remain relatively tight lipped, David still comes away with more info than he had when he walked in.

Soundclip: SKS

Naively, this is how I thought it was going to be with Searching For Ghosts. And to be frank: it’s the way it should be.

So I wanted this episode to be an objective look at how police have handled this case. There is no need in just pointing fingers and assigning blame. That isn’t the purpose of this. But law enforcement does need to be held under the microscope to see if there is anything that they missed that help in solving this case.

I’m sure you remember reference of a possible telephone call made from Cayce that night at the church. I couldn’t get that out of my head once I heard that. But what are you going to do? You need a court order to get those records. I’ve heard that police never looked into this but that this podcast had caused them to investigate this now. I wish that I could say that hearing that made me rest easier. But it didn’t.

But in investigating this case and talking to various people, the phone call was brought up almost in passing from a friend of Cayce’s at the time. She agreed to talk to me on the record, but requested her name not be used.

Soundclip: Phone call/friend

This is why it is so important to go through this thing slowly, and try to look at everything, especially from the night in question. This might’ve not been a pick-up call from Cayce, this could’ve simply been a call to get permission to stay the night with a friend. But if this were never investigated, how do we know? Since Cindy didn’t have a working phone at the house, who did Cayce call? How many calls did she make? If law enforcement never looked into this, what else was missed?

When I first started digging into this story in November of last year,I had no idea about any of the theories that have been floating around Milan for twenty years. But I immediately received some startling information from some classmates of Cayce.

I knew nothing about Cindy being the focus of this investigation either officially, unofficially or in the court of public opinion. And I definitely didn’t know about some of the things that people were saying that Cayce herself was involved in.

My fear of finding any truth in what Cayce’s peers were saying, caused me to drop this project at least three times. But aren’t we after the truth? I always thought that being an outsider looking at this case was a benefit: I could be objective because I had limited dealings with the people of Milan. I don’t play favorites. I didn’t run around with anyone involved so I have no misplaced loyalties.

But once I started getting more and more information, I realized that if we were going to get to the truth, certain narratives that have been perpetuated for years were going to be destroyed by some carpetbagger musician. I was not going to be a very popular dude.

I even asked people involved in the media game what I should do about what I was hearing concerning both Cindy and Cayce. And what I was told disturbed me. Basically, I was advised that Cindy was fair game. Her name was already sullied. But these things about Cayce, well, now, that was a bridge too far.

But my fear was that the narrative that has been repeated over again was causing people to look at only one possible motive. The drug debt angle with Cindy and one man in particular is the prevailing theory in town. This is the story that I have been told so often that Quote “Everyone knows.” UnQuote

Well, I DON’T know that. I do know that some of the things that I have heard concerning people associated with Cayce (possibly without Cindy’s knowledge) are just as plausible as the drug debt theory.

And if we really want answers…if we REALLY want the truth, that might mean that we uncover some things that we don't want to hear. And these things might not fit perfectly into our preconceived notions. We can’t have it both ways. The truth is no respecter of persons. The truth just IS.

I have been slammed because I haven’t mentioned the one guy that “everyone knows” did it. For purposes of this podcast, we will call this man Mr. X.

Well, for one, I’m going down the timeline with this. And we're not there yet. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to go there prematurely when there are just as many plausible possibilities that are jumping out at me from the beginning.

For example, The Letter. If my sources are correct, this has nothing at all to do with Mr. X. That letter was so alarming, that Cindy and others reportedly confronted the author on two separate occasions to get him to back off.

It’s been twenty-one years. Do people really think that Mr. X wasn't on law enforcements’ radar? I know for a fact that he was. And what do we have to show for it two decades later? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

I’m not saying that Mr. X is innocent. I’m saying I don’t know.

I’ve been warned on numerous occasions to beware of people intentionally trying to send me down the wrong path in this case. Not a warning that people might give me faulty information because of fading memories, or unsubstantiated rumors that they honestly believe, but actual disinformation. Well, this implies a conspiracy. And while I’m no conspiracy theorist, I took this to heart. That was an eerie warning to receive when you first come into this, knowing nothing. It causes you to trust no one.

Just four days after Cayce was reported missing, The Jackson Sun newspaper reported that after finding none of her belongings missing at the house that police were treating this as an abduction.

Cayce had reportedly been seen at the Gibson County Fair and at a Dyersburg, Tn Wal-Mart. This is what led to the composite sketch mentioned in Episode 2. Valorie. In the August 28, 1996 edition of the Jackson Sun, Milan Police Lt. Jerry Hartsfield said that QUOTE “Cayce left with someone she knew and felt comfortable with. Now, we need to find out who that is.” UNQUOTE

Then, on September 15, 1996, The Jackson Sun did an interview with Cayce’s mother Cindy. The article begins QUOTE “Police believe that Cayce ran away. It’s possible an unknown male is involved. Reports have been phoned in from across the U.S. describing Cayce with an older man.” UNQUOTE

The article included a picture of Cayce with a caption asking if she was a runaway or a kidnap victim.

So one month after she went missing, Cayce’s disappearance was being looked at as this hybrid of a runaway and an abduction-- That maybe she was lured away by someone she knew, or willingly left with someone initially, and that it turned into an abduction.

Remember the headline mentioned in Ep.2 Valorie from the October 1st, 1996 edition of The Milan Mirror Exchange? “Left On Her Own Free Will Smartdog Says?"

The theories floating around concerning Cindy are disturbing. I’ve heard everything from this being retribution for a drug debt to there being a prostitution ring. These theories all have one thing in common: That it was Cindy who got in too deep with drugs and this was a way for her to pay her debts.

But as I stated in Ep.4 The Letter, so many of these theories have taken on urban legend status. People repeat these stories as fact. But the problem is that with each person you talk to, you get a different version of a similar story. Many of them don’t seem to connect. If there are similar stories with different perpetrators at different locations, they all can't be true.

Until Cindy decides to speak to me, I only have what she has said in the past. And until recently, this has been next to nothing. But now I have the Jackson Sun articles from the time shortly after Cayce’s disappearance, when she WOULD talk to the press.

Cindy in The Jackson Sun just one month after Cayce went missing.

QUOTE “ I am so guilty of not communicating with her. My dad was an alcoholic and he always said, ‘Just do it.’ My mom had a hard time and I was smacked around plenty. I can’t remember spanking Cayce but twice because I said my kids wouldn’t live like that. But I don’t know how to talk about things.” UNQUOTE

After being asked if she had seen any signs of rebellion in Cayce, Cindy said this:

QUOTE: “I found out she smoked cigarettes. It just floored me.” UNQUOTE

This was the same article where Cindy had discovered that Cayce was talking to the eighteen year-old that was facing federal charges in a McNairy County jail, mentioned in the last episode.

Fast forward to the one year anniversary of Cayce’s disappearance and the things that I was initially told by her peers were verified in the news report.

From Cayce’s grandmother Margaret Smith:

QUOTE: “I just can’t believe she ran away. But then, I didn’t know she was sexually active either. The FBI asked me if I knew that. But she wasn’t as close to me as she had been. I guess that goes with being a teenager. They said she was mingling with the wrong crowd and had gotten an older boyfriend. He got put in jail for something."

Later in the article, Cindy cites receiving this information from law enforcement officials.

Talking about Cindy QUOTE: “She, too, found out from the law officers that Cayce had a boyfriend who admitted he’d had sex with her for the first time two weeks before she vanished."

Cindy was also told by police that this boyfriend was not involved in her disappearance.

And one year in, the rumors about Cindy’s possible involvement were already circulating.

From Cindy QUOTE: “It’s hard to swallow that some people think you killed your child and hid the body. I can relate to that guy accused in the Olympic bombing.” UNQUOTE

The Jackson Sun reports from the FBI confirm what I had been hearing from Cayce’s peers from day one. Without this confirmation, I don’t know that I would have ever mentioned it. That’s why I decided to use the audio of the reports I had received about a change in Cayce around the time she went missing instead.

That was a way to point to the fact that there were different "on the record” accounts being told from people who knew Cayce. In the beginning, this was the only way I knew to get the audience to at least consider that there might be another person or group of people who could be responsible for this that might not have any connection to Cindy.

Because let’s face it. Cindy is an easy target…and maybe deservedly so, but everyone involved is doing a disservice to Cayce by not telling the entire truth. It looks like that it was someone who knew Cayce who is responsible for this. So you have to look at EVERYONE who knew her, not just the ones associated with Cindy.

But let me be clear. This information in no way lessens Cayce’s innocence. The only reason this is relevant is that it possibly opens the door for more persons of interest. Nothing else.

Our culture and legal system have deemed that fourteen year olds do not possess the emotional maturity to make rational decisions regarding sex. But grown men do. And they go to jail for it.

The purpose of this episode is to do one thing: To force us to consider other possible motives and perpetrators responsible for this.

Because for me, at this point, it is just as plausible that Cindy was so distracted by her partying that she didn’t realize the type of people pursuing her daughter. With the evidence currently available, that is as possible as any drug or prostitution ring theory. We must stay objective until hard evidence leads us in a certain direction. And it very well could be that law enforcement officials already have such evidence. But until we know that for sure, we have to consider all possibilities.

For those of you who follow The Searching For Ghosts Facebook page, you might have seen a post where I said you wouldn’t believe your ears in the next episode.

This case is fluid. While we are investigating and reporting on the past, trying to get a handle on the actual facts in this case, new leads are constantly coming in.

Last week, the person helping me behind the scenes received a tip from a source about a possible “dump” site. They went out to investigate this and found skeletal remains. When I made that post, I was sure that they were human. The authorities were contacted and they took the remains for analysis. We later received word (after I had posted on Facebook) that these were indeed animal remains.

I apologize for any unnecessary hype. I got excited. It happens. We have a pic of the remains at sfgpodcast.com so you can see what was found. Tell us what you think.

There is this game called Chinese Whispers. In the United States, it is known as The Telephone Game.

In this game, one person whispers a message in the ear of the next person in line. The second person does the same thing to the person next to them and so on. The last player announces the message to the entire group. The objective is for the first person and the last person to have the same message. But errors happen in the retelling, and depending on how many people are playing the game, many times, the last message in no way resembles the original one.

While this makes for wonderful child’s play, it can cause high blood pressure and hair loss when it comes to investigating a twenty-one year old missing persons case.

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

This case is the Chinese Whispers game on steroids. After twenty-one years, the stories didn't just morph, they attained urban legend status. And these stories are the ones that always include the disclaimer of “I know what happened” from the people who tell them.

The stories that are repeated most, seem to have the least amount of hard evidence behind them. Obviously, they can’t be ignored—they might be true…or at least have a kernel of truth in them.

Then you have the one off stories. The ones where a name comes up that you’ve never heard before…and you never hear again. Once again, you don’t want to ignore this information, but these stories hardly ever lead anywhere. So you file them away in your notes and move on.

Then you have the stories that are not as prevalent. But you have two or more sources who give similar accounts with similar details. And sometimes these correlate with news reports. Those are the ones that interest me the most.

The idea is to walk this thing slowly, and look at the reports carefully and objectively. Obviously something was missed in this case. And I see no point in blazing through everything and making the same mistakes some two decades later.

That passage struck me as odd when I first read it. That kind of information would either take a little digging or it came from a tip. It’s in the article for a reason.

Then, the day after releasing the bonus episode, I received those back articles of Cayce’s disappearance from the Jackson Sun newspaper in Jackson, TN. And there is some gold in there.

From the September 15, 1996 edition of The Jackson Sun.

QUOTE

Once, a year ago, Cindy heard Cayce talking on the phone to a young man named Charlie she’d met at church.

I said something about him to a friend and she was horrified. Cindy, she said,He’s 18.

And I jumped Cayce about it. She told me I just didn’t know him.

And I said, I don’t care if he’s the pope, he’s too old for you and you’re not to call him. She thought she was going to turn his life around. He was the first one I checked on, but he’s in the McNairy County jail.

UNQUOTE

And this information verified what Kathy had said a few weeks prior:

Hartsfield

There is also nothing in the news reports we have recently obtained about any phone call being made from the church. Is this just an urban legend or an oversight by police? Because without there being a working phone at Cindy’s house, any call made by Cayce would be a game changer as to her whereabouts after she left the church.

I had a source ask a member of the church who was there in 1996, about the phone situation from back then. The church member indicated that it would’ve been a church phone and not a pay phone that Cayce would’ve used.

Then I received word from a source that there was a letter written to Cayce some months before she went missing. So I set up an interview to see what this was all about. This source stated that Cindy had possession of this letter at the time, and that she let my source read it. It was from an adult authority figure who stated that God was telling him that Cayce was to be his virgin. That was the only detail given to me, but my source said that it was Quote “Creepy” Unquote.

I was also told that Cindy, Cindy’s boyfriend Steve and Joe, her brother, took matters into their own hands. This was also confirmed in the interview I did with Kathy.

There is nothing in news reports to substantiate this, so I again contacted former lead investigator Jerry Hartsfield to see if law enforcement knew about the letter at the time.

There seemed to be a pattern of adult men showing an interest in the underage Cayce. This is unsettling at best. This type of thing sets up a scenario that could easily lead to a motive to do harm to Cayce. Do these things have anything to do with Cayce’s disappearance? Is the letter real? Was this the doing of a delusional older man who felt that God was speaking to him in this manner?

There is one person who can either confirm or deny the existence of this letter. One person who might even still possess it and knows who the author is. That person is Cindy McDaniel, Cayce’s mother.

An update on Cindy: I’ve heard from family members that she has been released from jail. I’ve sent word that I still want to speak with her. There are so many questions that only she can answer. And she can remove the cloud of suspicion hanging over her by coming on this podcast.

Cindy,when you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here. Waiting.

Episode 4: The Letter was going to be released yesterday. We recorded the interview for this episode, simply because I record everything as a means of taking notes. My source never wanted this aired. But they also told me that this story needed to be told.

So that puts me in a precarious situation. I have a firsthand account from a witness of a story that needs to be told, but I can’t go on record with the information. So I took a risk and tried to thread the needle with this story. I put together an episode and sent it to my source to see if I could sway them. But they felt that the blowback would just be too much. And I agree.

Think of a podcast as a newspaper or magazine article in audio form. The writer acts as a guide to help tell the story along with quotes from witnesses. I need people to go on the record. The audio from a source in a podcast is the equivalent of a quote in a newspaper article. Without audio from sources, there is no podcast.

Without police reports, witness accounts and previously published news articles, the podcast is nothing more than a 21st Century version of water cooler talk. I wasn’t there in 1996, I don’t know what happened.

So in order for this podcast to continue, I need cooperation from people. On the record cooperation. The amount of tips that I receive from people who Quote “Know what happened”UnQuote but won’t go on the record is astonishing, not to mention that these tips, for the most part, have very little to do with one another. You end up going in several different directions to verify these tips, and still end up with nothing more than hearsay.

I have been told that I have made enemies in Milan because of the way I have painted the town. Personally, I think I’ve been pretty objective. And to be honest, the only “enemy” the people of Milan should have is the person or persons responsible for whatever happened to Cayce. Hurt egos and misplaced anger will do nothing find answers.

I went to Milan PD for any reports that were available on this case, so that I could have a fact based foundation on which to build this podcast. I went to them before anyone else. I wanted to have an open dialogue with them, that way we could reduce the amount of toes getting stepped on.

So I would like to make this offer once again to law enforcement officials. I want to work in conjunction with you. I’m after answers just like you are. I need your cooperation, no matter how limited it might be, because I know that in an open investigation, things have to be guarded.

I would also like to extend this invitation to Cindy McDaniel, Cayce’s mother.

Cindy, you’ve reached out to me once before. I would still like for you to come on the podcast and have your voice heard. I have no preconceived notions about anything. I only want the truth.

And lastly, I would like to extend this offer to anyone who has information and wants to be on the record. I need audio from people. Without it, this podcast will not continue.

I’m worn out from the rumor mill. It’s time for some cold hard facts.

When I put together an episode of the podcast, I have to try to put myself in the listeners’ shoes. I have to keep up with the information I’ve released versus the information that I know. And with every episode, I have to ask myself, “What is the question that listeners are asking after hearing this?"

I know what I would be asking if I were on the other end of this deal. “What about the mother? Where is Cindy?

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

I’m glad that I’m not from Milan. I had no knowledge of anything about this case when I started Searching For Ghosts. I just remembered seeing the billboards when she went missing twenty years ago and some news reports here and there.

As I started investigating this, I soon learned something. Everyone in Milan has a theory of what happened to Cayce. And the town is split on who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

One person will recommend that you talk to someone, while another person will claim that that someone cannot be trusted. Milan is a small town, and everyone seems to know everyone else's business.

And with this case, it’s not as if you can just look at someone’s criminal history to determine if they are credible or a possible suspect. It seems that everyone I look into has had some sort of run-in with the law. It’s staggering, actually.

And any disclaimer I receive on a certain person is given so casually, “He’s been in prison three times, but he’s a good guy.” Wait. What?

So I came into this thing with a blank slate, and to be honest, I’m skeptical of everyone, and at the same time, not pre-judging anyone. I haven’t had forty years of hearing about so and so, and how they used to beat their dog or whatever. I wasn’t raised in the Gibson County bubble, so hopefully, I can be objective.

But you also cannot ignore when certain names or theories keep popping up over and over again. And in one form or another, Cindy McDaniel, Cayce’s mother, always comes up.

You don’t have to have been raised in Milan to hear the story, you know, THE STORY, and question the reaction time of Cindy before she called looking for Cayce.

This is from a WMCTV News Report out of Memphis on the 14th anniversary of Cayce’s disappearance

Other parents who were close to Cayce at church questioned why Cayce's mother Cindy waited so long to check on her daughter.

"Momma came in, doors were open, lights were on, and clothes were there...and they just went to bed," said church member Polly Fitzgerald. "I'd be frantic. It'd scare me to death... I would have found out something that night. I wouldn't have waited to the next day. Something's not right," she adds.

But the more people I talk to in Milan, the more I realize that a lot of kids in that area were raised in a manner where they might just stay over at a friend’s house with no notice. I only have my childhood to compare, and if my Mom would’ve had access to GPS at the time, she would’ve tracked me constantly. But as I stated earlier, evidently, this wasn’t the case with a lot of parents, including Cindy McDaniel.

But the way the house was found still sends up a red flag.

The next thing that people point to with Cindy is that she doesn’t come to the vigils for Cayce anymore and that she has been off the radar for years. This stood out to me when I first started my research. In fact, Cindy has basically been off the GRID for close to ten years.

From reports that I can find, Cindy still attended the vigils as late as the tenth anniversary in 2006.

From an article in The Jackson Sun in 06:

"They're in college, getting married, having babies ..." she said through sobs Monday. "And we still don't know."

But by 2010, WMCTV reported in a one off statement that

“Investigators say they can't locate Cayce's mom Cindy."

And just like with the story of how the house was found in 1996, it’s the lack of information in these reports that screams the loudest.

Then there are the stories of Cindy’s history with drug and alcohol abuse. The talk is that Cindy and Steve, her boyfriend at the time, were at a bar in Jackson the night Cayce went missing.

Steve is currently in prison, and many of Steve and Cindy’s known associates at the time have long criminal histories…violent criminal histories.

So this has fueled theories over the years that Cayce’s abduction and possible murder were retribution for a drug debt. There is even talk in some circles of a prostitution ring.

And apparently, the motive of a drug debt is not just small town gossip. This appears to be the theory held by law enforcement. After months of reaching out, I finally spoke with the former lead investigator on the case, Jerry Hartsfield, who now lives in Canada. He wasn’t bashful in expressing his thoughts about a possible motive.

(Sound clip of Hartsfield being assigned the case, his theory)

According to Hartsfield, Cindy was questioned numerous times, including by the FBI, but there was never enough evidence to prove that Cindy was either directly or indirectly responsible for her daughter’s disappearance.

(Sound clip Hartsfield: Failing lie detector test)

But according to the interview I conducted with Dawn and Kathy a few weeks ago, Billy Hale, fromThe National Missing Children’s Locate Center, told Cindy to expect to fail the lie detector test.

(Sound clip of Dawn-Lie Detector)

Although never officially declared a suspect (at least in the media), I’ve heard from numerous people around at the time that law enforcement zeroed in on Cindy from the beginning. It appears that they felt she was connected to Cayce’s disappearance in one way or another.

The fact that Cindy has all but disappeared herself, doesn’t help her case in the court of public opinion. So many that I have talked to, all point to the fact that she isn’t currently publicly trying to find answers in her daughter’s disappearance as an indication of guilt.

But in those early Mirror-Exchange articles from 1996 and 1997, it appears that Cindy WAS involved.

The October 1st edition states that Cindy was one of the people who helped secure funds to bring in Valorie, the search and rescue dog from Episode 2.

Cindy also spoke to the press one year later on the first anniversary of Cayce’s disappearance, asking the public not to forget about her daughter.

Cindy was the one who contacted a psychic to help in the case. She and Billy Hale were even on the Leeza Gibbons show, looking for answers.

(Sound clip from Leeza)

In the interview from a few weeks ago, Dawn and Kathy talk about their firsthand knowledge of Cindy’s involvement in those first six months.

(Sound clips from helicopter, binoculars and cleaning out her locker)

So is Cindy’s silence in recent years, the actions of someone complicit in their daughter’s disappearance, or are these the actions of someone prone to substance abuse, just worn out for being under suspicion for over 20 years?

The best person to answer that question is Cindy herself.

I’ve been trying to locate Cindy since late last year. And Ive heard everything regarding her location, from being in prison to moving out of the area.

I had a source who told me that they had located her, that she was still in the area. This source says they gave her my contact info, but two months went by and I heard nothing.

But after the launch of the podcast, I started getting some traction. I had family members contacting me, saying that they were working to connect us.

Then on April 14, I received a post on my Facebook timeline that read: "Hello Brandon. I’m Cindy McDaniel, Cayce’s mama. Would like to speak to you. Get back with me if you’re interested."

I immediately contacted one of Cayce’s cousins to see if this was legit. And it was.

Since this was on my timeline and not in a private message, a lot of people saw it. One person contacted me stating that they took a screenshot of this and sent it to authorities. I’m still unsure why.

A few days later, a source of mine and I were supposed to meet with the mayor of Milan to discuss releasing some of the police reports pertaining to the case. I had an emergency come up and my source went without me.

My source was told that a special investigator was being put on the Cayce McDaniel case. I finally felt like we were making progress. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a special investigator on this case in over ten years.

So I reached out to my friends in the media in Jackson to verify this, before I made the announcement. Not only would law enforcement not confirm this, my source received a phone call from the mayor’s office scolding them for releasing this information. Law enforcement does not want the media involved.

I understand that there are certain things about an open case that have to be guarded. But I wouldn’t think that this would be one of them. Was law enforcement just telling my source what they thought he wanted to hear? Is the reason for not wanting this released to the media that they want to protect the integrity of the investigation, or is it because there is no new special investigator?

Meanwhile, I had been working all week to set up a time to meet with Cindy. We had a tentative date of this past Saturday, April 22nd.

That Saturday, I received a message from a relative of Cindy. This person stated that Cindy had been arrested that morning over some unpaid fines, and was being held without bond.

Considering the events of the past couple of weeks, the timing of this arrest seems off to me. Arrested on a Saturday for unpaid fines? On the Saturday we were supposed to meet?

And I found the mugshot. Her arrest has been confirmed. Is law enforcement sending a message? Are the old fines the real reason Cindy was taken into custody on a Saturday after publicly stating that she wanted to talk to me? Has the investigation moved up in the priority ladder within the Milan Police Department. Just two months ago, the police chief told me himself that it would take awhile for them to find the files on the McDaniel case?

Will Cindy be more or less likely to talk to me when she gets out of jail? Is there anyone I can trust?

I’m headed to Milan and it’s a perfect day for a road trip. It’s sunny and warm, and everything is starting to turn green. As I get older, the winters get harder to take. Everything is just so drab. But if it weren’t for the winter that I have come to despise, I probably wouldn’t appreciate the spring and summer.

In doing my research on this case, I’m amazed at the amount of criminal activity that seems to permeate West Tennessee. And it’s not just here. This is everywhere. I begin to realize that maybe I was somewhat sheltered growing up. And I start to appreciate even more, my childhood years. Not everyone had it so good.

My destination is a house in the somewhere between Milan and Jackson, Tn, the town where I grew up. As I travel the winding back roads of West Tennessee, I can’t help but think about all the secrets held in this area for over twenty years. And just by looking at it, with rolling pastures and well kept homes, you’d never know that there are some really bad people in this world. And some of them are our neighbors.

A couple of days after Episode One came out, I received a message from a woman named Dawn who wanted to meet with me. She said she knew Cayce and the family, and was very involved in the search efforts when Cayce went missing.

She also wanted Cathy, a long-time friend of the family, to join us to help fill in any blanks. Dawn told me to carve out two days for interviews because there was just so much information. We didn’t need two days, but we did talk for over six hours.

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

Cayce was at an age when a lot of kids start to rebel. It happens. For many, it’s a rite of passage. Everything that has been made public about Cayce from friends and family over the years, might lead one to believe that she was immune to any teenage rebellion. As far as I’m concerned, there are three possible explanations for this:

1) People might be concerned about soiling her reputation, which might affect people’s opinion of her and their interest in the case. Don’t think for one moment that the image of the innocent beauty queen that was Jon Benet Ramsey didn’t fuel the public’s fascination with that case.

2) Cayce showed a certain side of herself around some, and then a totally different side to others. That’s what teenagers are best at.

3) She wasn’t going through a rebellious stage. It has happened. My parents were my best friends throughout my teenage years. I never really went through that phase. I was either fishing, playing basketball or holed up in my room with a guitar in my hands. I was pretty much a straight arrow.

But the summer Cayce disappeared, both Dawn and Cathy noticed a drastic change.

And while in 2017, the Goth look seems pretty tame, in 1996 in rural West Tennessee, this was a pretty big deal. If nothing else, it was a definite departure from the Cayce of just a few months before.

It’s been about two months since I stopped by the Milan Police Department to ask for any reports about Cayce that are open to the public. I was told that the initial report should be available for me to read. I’ve had friends and family of Cayce ask for those reports as well. But it appears that we’re being stonewalled.

And the daily paper out of Jackson, Tn, The Jackson Sun, is going through their archives to find articles about the case. But this will take some time.

So the Milan Mirror Exchange has been my main source at this point to try to piece this thing together. It is a weekly paper, so I have to do a little estimating on the exact timing of certain findings.

While looking through these reports, it appears that by September 2, 1996, police had a sketch of a possible suspect. After a little digging around, I discovered that the sketch came from a witness who alleges that Cayce was seen with this man at The Gibson County Fairgrounds in Trenton, Tn, a town about fourteen miles away from Milan.

This sketch is floating around the internet, but like so many things about this case, it is never mentioned again. So I started asking around, and the word is that the source was deemed not credible. Not one person that I talked to said that they believed she was ever at the fair in Trenton. And given that all the descriptions of Cayce by law enforcement had her in her bed clothes with no shoes, I felt that it wouldn’t make sense for her to be walking around the fair a couple of days later. So I made note of this, but pretty much dismissed the sketch myself.

But then I found an article just one month later in the October 1st edition of The Mirror-Exchange about a world-famous search and rescue dog named Valorie who came to Milan to search for Cayce. The headline read: “Cayce Left On Her Own Free Will, Smart Dog Says."

Her own free will? Again, why would Cayce leave on her own free will in boxers, a tee shirt and no shoes. The no shoes story is one of the few things in this case that keeps being repeated year after year.

I needed to know more about this smart dog and her findings.

It just so happened that I was sitting at the kitchen table of one of the people responsible for bringing Valorie to town. Dawn and her husband had even video taped the search.

Valorie had found ten people in the Oklahoma City bombing the year before. At the time, she had flown 40 times to find missing persons, had been involved in 600 cases

So I desperately wanted to read the official report of Valorie’s findings. That would definitely be something that would’ve been given to law enforcement at the time, seeing how there was at least one report in the media about it.

But I wasn’t going to get it from the Milan Police Department. I finally received word from Milan PD that they were not going to release any reports whatsoever pertaining to the Cayce McDaniel case. Damn.

So I decided to look up Valorie’s handler at the time, Harry Oakes. Valorie has passed on, but Oakes is still doing search and rescue with his organization International K-9 Search and Rescue Services. In 1996, he was working under the name Mountain Wilderness Search-Rescue-Recovery-International Response Team.

In 1996, Oakes and Valorie were brought in to Milan by Dawn and others with private funds. So I hoped that Oakes would be able to help me seeing as how this mission was not sanctioned by local law enforcement.

According to a 1998 article in The Tennessean, Billy Hale was with The National Missing Children’s Locate Center. At this time, I am having trouble finding any footprint on the internet of Billy and his organization. I only pray that the organization didn’t die with Mr. Hale. If you have any information on this please contact me on our website, sfgpodcast.com

When Dawn first reached out to me, she told me a story that I had never heard before. And to be honest, it blew my hair back. And this story, in my mind, might piece together the things we’ve discussed in this episode.

There are rumors that Cayce made a phone call from the church rec center pay phone the night she went missing. Who would she have called? Her mother didn’t have a phone at the house. The grandmother reportedly never received a phone call. Her best friend was at the church social with Cayce.

Did Cayce call someone to arrange for them to pick her up after the church party?

Was Cayce going through the teenage rebellion stage that so many have denied?

Did the police investigate this alleged phone call?

Is there any way to get the phone records today from a pay phone in 1996?

began working on Searching For Ghosts in the fall of last year. I started by scouring the internet, trying to find anything I could on this case. As far as official reports, the information on the web was pretty much that initial story of how Cindy , , Cayce’s mother, found the house that night. There were a few stories done by WMCTV Channel 5 out of Memphis covering vigils that were held on the anniversary of Cayce’s disappearance, but that was pretty much it. Some of the sites that I found looked like they hadn’t been updated since 1996. Remember how the internet used to look? With the awful graphics and cheesy font? Yeah, this was my main source in the beginning in which to make a podcast.

Then I decided to reach out to The Milan-Mirror Exchange, Milan’s local newspaper. Back in 2005, I was a reporter for one of the papers owned by the same guy who owns the Mirror Exchange . So I had an in.

The editor of the paper, Victor Parkins, was very helpful. He gave me two names of people to contact that he felt sure would talk to me. He even let me use audio from a video interview done a few years back of Cayce’s best friend, Amber, who has been the main person to keep Cayce’s memory alive over the years. It’s her voice that you hear in the Searching For Ghosts teaser. She was one of the two names that he gave me.

I knew that I had a hard row to hoe ahead of me. I’m not from Milan. Strike One. I’m not an investigative journalist. Strike Two. I’m a musician. Strike Three.

So I tried reaching out to Amber through social media. And I waited. I think she even deleted my friend request. So I contacted a friend of mine who had gone to high school with her. I asked him to reach out to Amber and grease the skids for me. And that’s what he did. He vouched for me and explained that the past two years of my life had been documented in Left Of Nashville, so if she wanted to know what I was about, there was basically an audio diary of mine online. I got Nothing.

This among other things caused me to shelve the project. I felt that if I couldn’t get Cayce’s best friend to talk, a friend who was with her the night she disappeared, then I had no shot of getting anyone in the family to talk. And with hardly any information about the case available to the public, I knew I didn’t have a podcast without friends and family.

But this case kept gnawing at me. I couldn’t let it go entirely. Especially after stumbling on a podcast by Payne Lindsey called ‘Up And Vanished.’ Lindsey is a filmmaker in Atlanta and his podcast is about the eleven year-old missing persons case of Tara Grinstead in Ocilla, Ga.

Like me, Lindsey wasn’t an investigative reporter. He wasn’t even a podcaster. And Ocilla, Ga is about half the size of Milan, Tn, so he was having even more trouble getting people to talk. But he went ahead with the podcast anyway. And just a few weeks ago, the GBI made two arrests in the cold case, no doubt, in large part due to Up and Vanished. I had no excuse at this point.

So i decided to go ahead and launch this thing. I put together the introductory episode and wrote a press release. I sent it out. And within two hours, the daily paper in Jackson Tn, The Jackson Sun, had it up on their website and the following day, it was on the front page of the paper, above the fold.

And THAT’S when Amber contacted me. She apologized for not responding earlier and explained to me why she had reservations. She then followed up with an offer to help in any way possible.

So this is Cayce Lynn McDaniel’s best friend and her first hand recollections of August 16th and 17th of 1996.

I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

According to Amber, she remembers that it was initially handled as a runaway case, which is understandable, especially since it involved a teenager. But Amber never believed that Cayce was a runaway.

The story of how Cayce’s mother found the house that night is attached to every news report that can be found about this case. It is THE STORY.

And the thing that jumps out to almost everyone who hears it and the question that I have been asked the most since airing the teaser last fall is “Who waits ten hours to call someone?

I thought that there might be an explanation after Amber described the dynamics of their friendship. We’ll discuss this in more detail at the end of this episode.

So if Cayce did tell her mother she was spending the night at Amber’s, wouldn’t this more in line with a runaway situation than an abduction? Amber still doesn’t buy it.

I asked Amber if she could remember Cindy’s demeanor as they were riding around looking for Cayce.

Which leads us back to the story. You know, THE STORY.

While Cayce spending the night at Amber’s might explain Cindy’s calm demeanor the following day and possibly why she waited ten hours to call anyone, it still doesn’t mesh with the story of how the scene looked at the house.

There is even one news report where a relative states that Cayce’s favorite brand new pair of shoes were found in her room. There is no evidence that she left that house dressed to go out.

In 1996, the internet was still in its infancy with an estimated 10 million users. The first flip phone was introduced with a price tag of a whopping $1,000.

To give a little more perspective, this was three years before the Columbine Massacre and five years before 9/11. In the summer of 1996, we didn’t even know the name Jon Benet Ramsey. Her murder was still four month away. One could argue that we hadn’t yet lost our innocence.

I was twenty two years old at the the time. I remember seeing one of those huge “Have You Seen Me?” billboards on the by-pass in my hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. Jackson sits on Interstate 40 about halfway between Memphis and Nashville. The billboard was for a missing fourteen year old girl from Milan, Tennessee, a small town of 8,000 people that is located some twenty five miles north of Jackson.

In 1996, we weren’t as connected as we are today. There was no texting or social media. Sure, most residents of Milan would drive to Jackson to work, but most of my friends at the time had never even been to Milan…there was just no reason to go there. So, when the news broke of Cayce Lynn McDaniel’s disappearance, many of us in the largest city in West Tennessee outside of Memphis were left scratching our heads. What the hell was going on in this neighboring town that we had always heard mention of but knew very little about.

In the twenty years since, I’ve been to Milan countless times when i ran a delivery route. I’ve made friends there and have learned a lot about the town during this time.

Milan is unique in West Tennessee in the fact that it is romanticized by its residents, especially when it comes to its high school football team. It reminds me of something you would see in rural Texas. Think Friday Night Lights.

When fall rolls around, the town becomes a sea of purple and white (the colors of the Milan Bulldogs. It is also a pastime for residents to bash every surrounding town (including Jackson) as inferior. Especially, other towns in Gibson County. Humboldt, Tn is referred to as Scumboldt by residents of Milan.

Back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon to hear Milan residents who worked in Jackson brag about how they wouldn’t be caught dead living in Jackson…the crime was just too bad there. It became a running joke with a lot of my friends about how we had been oblivious for so long that God’s utopian garden spot on Planet Earth was just twenty-five miles north of Jackson, Tn. Who knew?

While this hometown pride always rubbed many of us the wrong way back then, there is something endearing about it. There is a sense of community there that is lacking in a lot of the country. There is no need to convince people to shop local there. If a shop in Milan has what residents need, that’s where they'll get it.

So last December, seemingly every television network was airing specials on the 20th anniversary of the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey. Then I saw a small blurb about the case of Cayce Lynn McDaniel.

I understand why the Ramsey case captivated the world, but I couldn’t help but feel anger over the lack of coverage of Cayce’s case. If it weren’t for a local news report, I wouldn’t have known that it has been twenty years. It just isn’t on the radar anymore.

I remember thinking, if Cayce was a blonde haired, blue eyed beauty pageant contestant from a well to do family, maybe she would be getting more attention on the 20th anniversary. I actually thought to myself, “Someone should do a podcast on this.” Well, sometimes if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.

That’s where I come in. I’m a singer-songwriter who left my career in 2013 to pursue music full-time. And two years ago, I started a documentary podcast called Left Of Nashville to chronicle all the struggles that come along with this.

I have written for some local papers over the years, but I don’t consider myself a journalist. But I am a storyteller. And after two years of podcasting, I fell in love with the medium.

So I decided to be the change I want to see.

in the next episode, we will begin at the beginning. August 16, 1996. This is the story of the disappearance of Cayce Lynn McDaniel. I’m Brandon Barnett. And this is Searching For Ghosts.

Featured Music:

Milan, Tennessee is a town of about 8,000 people. It is located in the Western part of the state, about halfway between Memphis and Nashville. And It’s 25 miles north of where I grew up. In 1996, West Tennessee was shaken to its core, when fourteen year-old Cayce Lynn McDaniel disappeared from her home. She hasn’t been heard from since.

According to reports, Cayce’s mother came home to find the clothes her daughter had worn to a church social earlier in the night, laid out on the bed. There was a bowl of cookies and milk on the floor, illuminated by the glow of Cayce's television, as the back door of the house stood wide open.

The first call by Cayce’s mother to find her daughter was made some ten hours later.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of her mysterious disappearance, and while network television is airing special after special about another case from that year in Colorado, the disappearance of Cayce Lynn McDaniel, seems all but forgotten.

So this is a podcast about the disappearance of Cayce Lynn McDaniel. This is Searching For Ghosts.