Kaylene Oehling

Episode 91 Mary Jane Croft Van Gilder Update Part 1 of 2

Mary Jane Croft VanGilder went missing in 1945. We originally covered her case in episode 8 of Missing Persons. She had left her family in WV to escape an abusive relationship. She traveled to OH where she took a warehouse job, and routinely sent letters and war bonds home to her children. In February, 1945, she filed for divorce. The following month, she quit her job and vanished. Her family had searched for her ever since. Decades after she went missing, Detective Adam Turner was tasked with trying to do what seemed impossible- figure out what happened to Mary Jane decades before when she vanished. It was an uphill battle, but against the odds, through hard work and refusal to give up, Detective Turner solved the mystery. He found out that Mary Jane Croft Van Gilder had started her life over as Mary Jane Sebren. She possibly re-married, and then had additional children. She lived the rest of her life without either of her 2 families knowing about the other before she passed away in 1990.

In this episode, the first of two parts, we recap what happened, and what we know, and we re-play our original interview with Mary Jane's daughter, Anna. In our next episode of Missing Persons, we will have an all new interview with Detective Adam Turner who breaks down just how he was able to solve this case, and what else he knows about Mary Jane's disappearance, and new life.

To listen to our full original episode on Mary Jane's case, visit our website.

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Episode 90 Missing Persons Alert: Avery Doherty 

Avery Lydia Doherty is a child missing out of Ames, Iowa and is presumed to be the victim of a familial abduction at the hands of her mother, Esther Bender. She's been missing since October, 2023. Her mother Esther, had an 'unofficial' shared custody agreement with Avery's father, Brandon Doherty who is the guest in this episode. The relationship between Esther and Brandon officially ended when Avery was much younger, but the pair remains on good terms for Avery's benefit. When Brandon moved 3 hours away to Kansas City, MO, he continued to stay in touch, and alternated between having Avery stay with him, and him going to visit her in Ames. While their shared custody agreement wasn't organized by the court, it was working for them for a while. Then, Brandon noticed that Esther seemed to be trying to phase him out of his daughter's life. She would miss pre-arranged meetups and drop offs. She then began to explore changing her daughter's last name. Brandon sensed something was 'off' and decided to hire an attorney and get the courts involved so that the shared custody was in an official capacity recognized by the court. Instead of showing up to court, Esther and Avery vanished. Esther un-enrolled Avery from her school without notifying Brandon. When Brandon was not able to contact Esther, he feared something was wrong, and went to Esther's residence only to find it had been haphazardly cleaned out, and was left in a mess. Esther's minivan was left behind, and there has been no contact with her or Avery since. In light of the parental abduction, the court stepped in and issued a ruling that if and when Avery is found, she is to be returned to Brandon to have full custody. 

There is evidence that Esther pre-planned this abduction, and purchased a burner phone, and minutes to keep off of investigator's radar.They fear that she left the state, and may have had assistance by one or more people to help pull off this abduction.

Avery Doherty is described as weighing 45 pounds and standing 4 feet, 5 inches tall. She is white and has blonde hair and blue eyes. Esther Bender, who may be using her maiden name, Yoder. Although no clear description of Esther was given, she is described as White with dark Brown hair.

Anyone with information on the case should call Ames police at 515-239-5133.

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Episode 89 Elena Roy 

83 year old Mother and Grandmother, Elena Roy, vanished from her home in Fallbrook, California in November, 2021. Elena who had been experiencing various health issues, which possibly included dementia, reportedly left her home which she shared with her partner Chris, on November 3rd following an argument, and never returned. Reported searches of the areas nearby did not lead to Elena's recovery, nor did they reveal any clues to what happened to her. It came to light that Elena had wandered off from her home before and been returned safely after being aided by a passerby. Since Elena has gone missing, her family does not fully trust Chris's accounts of what happened. According to her family, Chris tried to sell off many of Elena's belongings, and used money from her bank account that he was not entitled to. They also are concerned because Chris had spent time in prison prior to meeting Elena. 

In this episode, Elena's daughter Tami discusses her mom's case, and the frustration of not finding out what happened to Elena despite searches, and the help of a private investigator.

There is currently a $10,000 reward being offered in this case.

Elena Roy was described when she vanished as being 5ft4, 120lbs, with Brown eyes and dark Graying hair. She was last seen wearing Blue loafers and an Ivory Beannie. If you have any information, please call the SD sheriff's Homicide Unit at 858-285-6286 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at 888-580-8477. Information on how to send anonymous web and mobile app tips is available at www.sdcrimestoppers.org.

Elena's case detail has been entered into Namus.

To learn more about Elena's case, be sure to visit this Facebook group.

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Episode 88 Charles Robert 'Bobby' Steele 

43 Year Old Charles Robert 'Bobby' Steele has been missing since April 11,2023 when he walked out of his sister Kelly's home in Delaware, and was never seen again. Prior to that, Bobby had been down on his luck. A childhood injury left him dependent on pain killers, and his addition led to him being arrested and incarcerated, and later, homeless in Maryland. Bobby struggled to stay sober and was looking forward to moving into a new home. He had qualified for a voucher that would get him off the streets, and into his own home permanently, and he was very excited. However, around the same time, he seemed worried and in a panic over something or someone. He expressed his uneasiness to his sister Kelly, and went as far as to ask her to routinely call him or do a video call with him to make sure he was okay. Bobby seemed relieved when Kelly picked him up and brought him home to her house, and things were looking up. That's when Bobby vanished and wasn't seen again. Kelly has been anxiously searching for her brother ever since, and is getting bounced around from one police jurisdiction to another. It's also been a challenge to find and talk to people on the street that knew Bobby, or might have information; including his girlfriend Leah Vari. It seems she too has gone off the radar.  Kelly has taken to TikTok to spread awareness and ask for the public's help. Kelly discusses her efforts to find Bobby in this episode.

Bobby is described as a White male, 5ft11, 180 pounds, and having Brown hair and Hazel eyes. 

If you have any information, please call the Elkton, MD police dept at 410-398-4200

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To contact the podcast or learn more about the cases we discuss visit:
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Episode 87 David Schultz

In the first episode of 2024, we explore the bizarre case of David Schultz, a 53 year old married trucker and father, who vanished without a trace in the early morning hours of November 21st, 2023. David was transporting a load of pigs  in Sac County, Iowa. He didn't show up for his delivery, which was unlike him. Phone calls to his cell phone went unanswered. Later that day, David's tractor trailer was found parked and turned off in the middle of  rural two lane U.S. Highway 71. The load of pigs David was transporting remained undisturbed and accounted for on his trailer.  David's wallet containing a good amount of cash, and his cell phone were found inside the cab. In a ditch nearby, his jacket was found, but there was no sign of David himself. It was noted that David's truck was found facing North, but the spot he needed to deliver to in Sac City was to the South. When police reviewed surveillance footage of a stop David made at the Mile Marker 126 truck stop just after 11pm on the night of the 20th, there seemed to be nothing unusual captured; David had stopped there for about 16 minutes, and didn't appear to talk to anyone. He had a drink and checked his cell phone before driving off. Cellphone data shows David's phone arrived at Hwy 20 & 71 at about 12:18 a.m. The data shows the phone traveling north to where the truck was found. Data suggests the truck may have been there since about 12:40 a.m.

Searches of the area were done, and while no sign of David was found, on a search done on December 2nd, 2023, a team found the remains of a missing Rockwell City man, 54-year-old Mark Edward Riesberg, on a wooded property southwest of Jolley. Riesberg was found in his PT Cruiser, the apparent victim of a self inflicted gunshot. He had been missing since late October. His cause of death is apparently suicide, and not connected to David's case. 

David's wife Sarah is dumbounded by her husband's disappearance. She can think of no reason why he would willingly vanish, and feels that his disappearance is a case of foul play. She discusses this baffling case with us in this episode.

David Schultz is described as a White male, 5ft11, 190 lbs, with Brown hair and Brown eyes. He was last known to be wearing wrangler blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a Peterbilt hat. The truck he was driving when he vanished is a Red & White Peterbilt. 

Anyone with information about David Schultz’s disappearance is asked to call the Sac County Sheriff’s Office at 712-662-7127 or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 712-262-1873.

There is a reward of $2,000 being offered in this case. 

David's family has been financially impacted by his disapperance, and a Gofundme has been set up to help get them through this difficult time. Please contribute if you can. 

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To contact the podcast or learn more about the cases we discuss visit:
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Episode 86 Blanca Elisa Roberson Part 2

This episode is an addendum to our last episode about Blanca Elisa Roberson who went missing in Aransas Pass, TX in 1989.

Elisa’s sister Ruby wanted to clarify a few things, and address a couple of points. It’s very important to her and her family that we have the most complete and accurate details about Elisa’s case out there for the public.

If you did not listen to our last episode, please stop now and go back and listen to that episode before listening to this one, and once again, if you have any information about Elisa’s disappearance, please call the Aransas Pass Police Department 512-758-5224 and to learn more about and discuss Elisa’s case, be sure to visit the facebook group Missing Elisa Roberson set up by Elisa's sister, Ruby.

When she vanished, 13 year old Elisa was described at being Hispanic, 5'0, 120 pounds with Black hair and Brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a light blue Mickey Mouse t-shirt, dark blue culotte shorts and sneakers.

If you have any information about this case, please call the Aransas Pass Police Department 512-758-5224

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To contact the podcast or learn more about the cases we discuss visit:
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Episode 85 Blanca Elisa Roberson

13 year-old Blanca Elisa Roberson, who went by Elisa, vanished on Sunday August 6,1989 in Aransas Pass, TX as she walked a short distance from her home to the Kieberger Elementary School to meet a friend. Her friend waited for her at the school, but Elisa never showed up. Later investigation would lead to multiple witnesses who saw Elisa on her walk that day, and despite one of them saying that they saw her get into a Maroon car, police have never been later to find her. Later, despite eyewitnesses seeing Elisa walking just before she vanished, police seemed to turn their suspicion to Elisa's own family. Eventually a search of the home they lived in when Elisa went missing was searched for clues, but despite law enforcement threatening that an arrest was imminent, one never came. Elisa's family is angered by police suspicion of them, and they have a favorite suspect of their own, one who police said had an alibi, but the family remains suspicious of him. Decades later, it seems like this case is at a standstill. In this episode, Elisa's sister Ruby discusses this mysterious and heartbreaking disappearance.

When she vanished, 13 year old Elisa was described at being Hispanic, 5'0, 120 pounds with Black hair and Brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a light blue Mickey Mouse t-shirt, dark blue culotte shorts and sneakers.

If you have any information about this case, please call the Aransas Pass Police Department 512-758-5224

To learn more about and discuss Elisa’s case, be sure to visit the facebook group Missing Elisa Roberson set up by Elisa's sister, Ruby.

To listen to this episode ad-free and get access to other podcast benefits, consider an AbJack Insider subscription. 

To contact the podcast or learn more about the cases we discuss visit:
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Episode 84 Jennifer Kesse

24 year old Jennifer Kesse vanished in Orlando, Florida on January 24th ,2006. People that knew Jennifer best, right away were concerned, because Jennifer was an organized professional who would never go off on a whim. Her car, a black 2004 Chevrolet Malibu was missing from it's parking spot in front of her condo  in the up and coming Mosaic at Millenia condo complex. On January 26th, after seeing the news of Jennifer's disappearance on the news, someone called in a tip that her car could be found at the Huntington on the Green Condominiums, about a mile from her home. Police went to the scene and verified that her car was indeed parked at the seedy Huntington on the Green Condominiums, about a mile from her home, but there was no sign of Jennifer. Police caught a break when they reviewed grainy surveillance photos of the car being parked there, and they were shocked to see that Jennifer was not the person who exited the vehicle. Instead, they could see that a slim person, possibly a male standing between 5ft3 and 5ft5 had parked the card and left on foot. Unfortuately, a fence in the surveillance photos obstructed the view of the driver's face. Dogs tracked the scent from Jennifer's car right back to her condo development leading to suspisions that the person who likely abducted her had walked back to Jennifer's condo complex, and perhaps had reason to be there. It came to light that Jennifer had been wary of some men who were working at her condo complex in the days before she vanished. Police tried to investigate some of those men, but ran into hurdles when they found that the company that employed them did not keep proper records, sometimes paid under the table, and often hired people that were in the country illegally. One tip led to a man named Chino who had worked at the apartment complex. While he may have had information about what happened to Jennifer, he reportedly cooperated with investigators.

Jennifer's case eventually went cold but became a popular one in the media and on online discussion forums. Jennifer's family, feeling that things were at a standstill and feeling underwhelmed by the investigation, sued the Orlando PD in order to obtain case files and have the case re-investigated by another agency. It's unclear exactly what clues there are to go in, but reportedly, there was evidence that there may have been a struggle on the hood of Jennifer's car, and DNA may have been recovered. As of today, it's unclear how much progress is being made if any in Jennifer's case, and no sign of Jennifer herself has ever been found. 

In this episode, Jennifer's uncle Bill Gilmour, who wrote a book about the case and aftermath, is the guest in this episode, and shares his and the rest of Jennifer's family's insights.

When she vanished, Jennifer was described as being 5ft8, 135 lbs, and having Green eyes and sandy blonder hair. She had a shamrock tattoo on her left hip. If you have information about Jennifer's case, please call the Jennifer Kesse tipline at 941-201-4009. To learn more about the case, and the work her family is doing to try and find answers, visit their website.

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To contact the podcast or learn more about the cases we discuss visit:
Missingpersonspodcast.com

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Rusty Meye was a man who was down on his luck. Living alone in a rented Vero Beach, Florida mobile home, he had battled depression, drinking and overuse of medication brought on by a terrible foot injury he suffered that left him disabled. Rusty had made the decision to stop drinking and not rely on his medications anymore, and was making progress in his life. However, one thing he still faced was financial issues, and an ongoing butting of heads with his landlord who wanted Rusty to find a new place to live. Rusty recounted to people close to him that his landlord constantly verbally abused him, and even threatened to burn the trailer to the ground with Rusty inside it. According to Rusty, the landlord would come into the trailer when he wasn't home. Things were clearly not good for Rusty. Then, on October 17, 2020, 59 year old Rusty Meye was reported missing by his landlord of all people. All of belongings were left behind in his trailer, including his phone, keys, and a wallet with cash inside. Outside of the trailer, Rusty's cars were there. The only thing missing was Rusty himself. 

When Rusty's sister Roxanne traveled to Florida to go through Rusty's things, she was surprised to learn that Rusty's trailer had not been sealed up as a possible crime scene. Inside the trailer, she found blood that had previously been missed by police. Due to the fact that the trailer was no treated as a crime scene, and because of the missed blood, Roxanne quickly came to believe that the investigation into Rusty's case had been bothced, and that her brother was the victim of foul play. Incredibly, the trailer was removed, and according to Rusty's landlord, it was sold.

 Roxanne has actively been trying to keep Rusty's case in the spotlight, and figure out what happened to him. She recently attended Crimecon in an effort to network with people that may be able to help in Rusty's case. Just recently, she found out that Rusty's case has moved from a missing persons investigation to a homicide investgation. In this episode that is a crossover episode with Missing Persons Podcast, Roxanne discusses her brother's case. 

When Rusty vanished he was described as being 5ft9 and 180 lbs. He wore glasses, and had Brown Hair and Brown eyes. He has a tattoo of a lion on his upper right arm, and one of an American flag on his upper back. He walks with a limp.

If you have any information about Rusty Meye, please call the Indian River County Sheriff's office at 772-569-6700. There is a reward in this case.

To learn more about the case, visit his Facebook group.

21 year-old Jennifer Wix, and her 2 year old daughter, Adrianna Wix, vanished without a trace in Cross Plains, Tennessee in March, 2004. Jennifer and Adrianna were living with Jennifer's boyfriend William Benton and his parents on their property at the time the pair vanished. According to Benton, he dropped Jennifer and Adrianna off at a gas station and watched them drive off with someone in a White car. He said he later saw Jennifer in the same White car without Adrianna, however, police have not been able to verify his story, and he along with his family have not cooperated with police, or allowed them to search their property. By most accounts, the relationship between Jennifer, her boyfriend, and his family was rocky, and rumors have swirled about what really happened to Jennifer and Adrianna. As of now, there have been no arrests in the case, and Jennifer and Adrianna's family has been fighting to keep the case front and center. Along the way, there has been friction within the family putting some of them at odds with each other.

In this episode, Jennifer's sister Casey discusses the case, and her efforts to find out exactly what happened to her sister and niece, and to see justice done after nearly two decades. 

When she vanished, Jennifer was described as being White, 5ft4-5ft6, and weighing 125-135 pounds. She had Brown hair and Brown eyes. Adrianna was described as having Brown hair and Blue/Green eyes with a birthmark on the front of her upper right thigh.

If you have information about the disapperance of Jennifer and Adrianna Wix, please call the Robertson County Sheriff's Office 615-384-7971.

To learn more about this case, visit the Facebook page or Instagram page set up by Jennifer and Adrianna's family.

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To contact the podcast or learn more about the cases we discuss visit:
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