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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.

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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.

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Listener discretion is advised.

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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.

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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.

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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.

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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.

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And it will just be me this week.

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I wanted to just give a little note here at the top.

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So this week's episode and next week's episode are going to be related to each other.

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They take place in the same area.

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So I just wanted to throw that out there that it's not quite a two-parter, but there is

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a connected episode that we will be airing next week.

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So next week won't be a cold case.

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It'll still be another missing person case.

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But I really wanted to bring these cases together.

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So let's just get into it.

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I just wanted to give a bit of a content warning at the top that there are mentions of suicide

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in today's podcast.

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If you or someone you love is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can dial 988 if you're

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in the United States.

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Or you can visit 988lifeline.org to speak with somebody.

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Today we're going to be talking about the missing person case of Holly White.

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This takes place in May of 2016 in Taos, New Mexico.

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But first, a little bit about Holly.

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Holly is 49 years old in 2016.

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Those close to Holly say that she was meticulously organized.

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She paid attention to the details.

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But above all, she was an extremely warm person.

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You gravitated towards her and you couldn't help but feel comfortable with her.

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She was always welcoming.

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She had a dog named Rosie, who she loved.

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Holly was well known in the Taos community.

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For over 20 years, she worked as the general manager for the Taos Center for the Arts.

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But she had recently put in her two weeks notice.

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Holly's husband, Jeff White, had moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is about two

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and a half hours away, to pursue a new job.

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He had rented a house there and had been fixing it up, and now Holly was due to join him.

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Holly was excited to move and to start this new chapter of her life.

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She already had an interview set up to be an office manager for a dentist there in Albuquerque.

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But mostly she was excited to be with her husband again and to live as a couple again.

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And now a timeline of events.

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Thursday, May 5, 2016.

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Holly works one of her final days at the Taos Center for the Arts.

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Her official last day would be next Friday, May 13.

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Holly spent the day training her replacement as the general manager in the office.

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That evening, Holly texted with a friend around 9.20 p.m. and also texted with her best friend

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Cynthia to meet up the next morning for their daily morning walk.

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Holly stays up playing words with friends and chatting using the in-game communication

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until about 10.30 p.m.

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The next day, Friday, May 6, 2016, Holly had made plans to meet with her friend Cynthia

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to go on their morning walk together in the Kit Carson Park area.

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This is something they had done together almost daily for nearly eight years.

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They had a plan to take their morning walk and then meet up again later that day for

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Holly's going away party due to her upcoming move to Albuquerque.

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When Holly didn't show up to their meeting spot and after not answering phone calls or

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text messages, Cynthia decides to head over to her bus front's house.

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When Cynthia arrived at the house, she noticed that Holly's car was gone, but no one was

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answering the front door and phone calls continued to go unanswered.

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So Cynthia let herself in using the spare key that she had been given.

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When Cynthia entered the home, Holly's dog Rosie greeted her at the door.

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Cynthia noticed that Holly's purse was near the front door.

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Holly took her purse everywhere with her.

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Even when they would meet up for their early morning walks, Holly would have her purse.

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Cynthia also found Holly's phone still charging next to the bed.

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The phone had a missed alarm on it.

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As if Holly had planned to get up for the morning walk, Cynthia makes her way over to

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the next door neighbor, who was also the realtor that was helping Holly and Jeff sell their

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towels home since they were making the official move to Albuquerque.

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Cynthia asked the neighbor if they have any idea where Holly might be.

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They did not.

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Neither Cynthia or the next door neighbor had a phone number for Jeff, so they each

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called around to some folks who worked at the Taos Art Center to get his number and

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call him.

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When Holly's husband is reached in Albuquerque, he has no idea where Holly is at either and

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asks that Cynthia call the police.

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He immediately leaves and makes the two and a half hour drive to Taos to help look for

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his wife.

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He had already planned to come back to Taos that day to join Holly at her going away party.

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As Cynthia is waiting in the driveway for police to come, a member of the Taos Art Center

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calls Cynthia to let her know that Holly's car had been found.

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It was parked at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

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The keys were still in the vehicle, inside the cup holder.

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Cynthia immediately heads there and talks with a roadside vendor that said the car was

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already there when she arrived at 6.15 a.m.

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On the police side of things, the case is immediately handed off to the state police

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and they launch a search of the gorge.

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Police also make note that there is some dried grass on the floor in front of the passenger

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seat of Holly's vehicle.

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Holly was known to keep her vehicle very tidy, so the presence of the grass was odd to those

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that knew her.

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So just a little bit of background around the gorge bridge.

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This is a beautiful space.

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If you just type this place into Google Maps and just take in the street view, it's really

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a breathtaking sight.

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It's a gorgeous area.

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Over the years, people have used this bridge to die by suicide.

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So as soon as Holly's car is found here, police begin to believe that this is what happened.

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But her family and friends are adamant that she would not do that and that if she did,

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she would have left a note.

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Even more, Cynthia tells police that May 6th, this is that day that Holly goes missing,

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is Cynthia's birthday.

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There is no way that her bus run would ruin the day like that.

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That evening, instead of having the goodbye party Holly's friends, family, and co-workers

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organize a search party and pass out flyers for Holly, they search the area around the

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bridge and neither Holly's friends or the state police are able to find any evidence

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of her.

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That weekend, Saturday, May 7th and Sunday, May 8th, police spend the weekend searching

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along the Gorge Bridge area for Holly.

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They bring out the ground search and rescue team, cadaver dogs, and a helicopter to assist

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in their search.

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Police also bring in a scent dog who's only able to track the scent of Holly near her

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vehicle nowhere else on the bridge or in the parking lot.

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After the weekend search, no sign of Holly is found and police suspended the search indefinitely.

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Police say that typically when someone jumps from the bridge, that they are usually found

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by area rafters and usually later in the summer when the water levels have gone down.

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Holly's friends and family spend the weekend putting flyers around Tows to bring awareness

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about Holly's missing person status.

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On Wednesday, May 11th, Holly has been missing for five days now.

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Police hold a press conference and tell the public that at this time there is no evidence

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of foul play.

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A state police spokesperson says, quote, it is possible that she jumped and just didn't

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tell anyone how she was feeling, end quote.

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But those closest to Holly do not believe that she was thinking of taking her own life.

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Cynthia points out that she would have never left her dog alone and without a plan to be

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cared for and she had not mentioned any thoughts of hurting herself.

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A group of kayakers who had already had a trip planned for this day also aid in their

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efforts to help find Holly.

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One of the rafters' mothers was friends with Holly and she asked him to keep an eye

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out.

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The rafters tell police that they had found a woman's shoe floating among debris in

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the river, a black mesh sketcher's shoe.

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Police say that the size of the shoe was a match for Holly, but her family and friends

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are unsure if the shoe was hers.

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She owned another set of the sketcher's shoes, but they were in a different color.

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Her family and friends believe that the shoe could be hers, but her husband thinks that

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if it is her, then whoever took her had parked the car at the gorge as a decoy and then threw

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the shoe over to throw police off.

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The next day, Thursday, May 12th, police conduct another search of the Rio Grande, covering

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16 miles and with a dive team.

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No trace of Holly is found during this search.

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On Wednesday, May 18th, Holly has been missing for 12 days.

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Her husband, Jeff, sits down with local media.

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She tells them that he had last talked on the phone with her Thursday night, the night

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before she went missing.

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He says, quote, We were making plans to go to the party.

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We were just laughing and joking, just like always.

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My take on this, really, is she got taken.

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Somebody came to the door probably early Friday morning, woke her up, she knew him, and she

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kind of answered the door.

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I don't know any other scenario because she isn't the type of person to leave without

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a note.

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Everything was here, her belongings, her cell phone, her charge cards, her license.

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End quote.

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Jeff confirms to the local paper that he was a suspect at first, but remains firm that

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he was in their new house in Albuquerque when Holly went missing.

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Jeff was renting the new home from his new boss, who lived next door, and confirms that

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Jeff was at work the next morning.

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The whole experience has been upending for Jeff.

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He says, quote, I couldn't even think on Friday.

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I didn't even really eat until Sunday when a buddy came over.

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I was just shocked.

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Now I'm confused.

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I don't know what really went on.

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I know damn well she didn't jump.

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She didn't leave me.

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There would have been a note.

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She's not a cold person.

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She wouldn't leave her dog.

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I don't know why she would just leave on her own.

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She just wouldn't.

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End quote.

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Her family and friends remain steadfast in their belief that she wouldn't jump off of

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the bridge.

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And if she would, she would have left a note.

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They all believe, along with Jeff, that someone took Holly against her will Thursday night

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or Friday morning and parked the car at the gorge as a decoy.

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However, police say at this time that most likely she jumped off the bridge and they

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do not suspect foul play.

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Jeff is also critical of the police.

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He says, quote, they are just so slow.

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We are just moving at a snail's pace.

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He also tells the local media that he had to consider every scenario since the police

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won't, such as if Holly had been having an affair.

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Jeff doesn't think she was, but wanted police to test the bedsheets to make sure there was

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no unknown DNA.

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Jeff said, quote, a neighbor came and said how sorry he was.

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And he told me there was a black Toyota Solera with Colorado plates.

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End quote.

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The car was seen at Holly and Jeff's home the day before she vanished.

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Jeff also learned that on the day that Holly disappeared, there were two men seen leaving

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the gorge that police have yet to talk to.

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Jeff says, quote, if she is down in the gorge, she didn't go by herself.

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She was pushed or something.

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End quote.

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In July of 2016, so it's been two months since Holly went missing, and there is still

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no sign of what happened to her.

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Around the community of Taos, however, tragic death by suicide continues to happen both

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on and off the bridge.

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The community implores that more be done at the bridge to stop people from jumping, and

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mental health professionals in Taos urge those in powers to put more money towards mental

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health before someone even has to think of driving to the bridge.

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As of 2024, they have installed crisis hotline phones, but no other preventative measures

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such as netting have been put in place.

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In August of 2016, police send Holly's computer and cell phone off to be forensically analyzed.

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Police are pretty tight lipped about what was found on her devices, but do say, quote,

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she had many friends she spoke with online.

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End quote.

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Police also confirm that it was both in-state and out-of-state people that Holly had been

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talking with.

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Police also tell the media that they had checked and confirmed that she did not fly out on

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any international flights the day she went missing and are following up with domestic

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flights for any potential clues.

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It's unclear exactly why, but on August 26th of 2016, so it's been over three months

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since Holly disappeared, Holly's case is moved from the Uniform Bureau to the State's

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Police Criminal Investigation Bureau.

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But police remain firm that she is still considered missing at this time and no foul play has

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been uncovered in her case.

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On September 5th, 2016, a private investigator, Elaine Graves, is hired by Holly's father

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to help solve the case.

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She hires two kayakers to search the Rio Grande in an area known as the Taos Box.

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Nothing is found during the search.

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On September 8th, it's now been four months since Holly vanished, State Police Lieutenant

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Edwards Martinez tells local media that police have ruled out the possibility that she jumped

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from the bridge.

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They also have ruled out that she simply got up and walked away from her life.

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Lieutenant Martinez says, quote, We met with the criminal investigations lieutenant and

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sergeant and we went over the whole case and discussed it.

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Suicide seemed unlikely for a couple of reasons.

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We found in her computer that she had plans for her future.

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She was looking for a job in Albuquerque and she was trying to sell her house and planning

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to move out of Taos.

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Also she didn't take any identification.

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She didn't take any money, her bank accounts have no activity on them, or her credit cards.

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We ran her social security card through the system to see if the numbers were used to

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find employment elsewhere and none of that panned out.

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End quote.

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Police are confident to rule out death by suicide since other people have jumped from

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the bridge since Holly went missing and all of their bodies have been able to be recovered

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from the river.

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In fact, police are confident that Holly did not jump.

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In January of 2017, Holly has been missing for eight months and there are simply no leads

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in her case.

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Jeff is asked by the private investigator to take a polygraph test.

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He passes the test and hopes that police and the private investigator will at least believe

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him now when he says that he wasn't involved and move on to other theories.

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Also in Jeff's defense, he did ask to be polygraphed to be cleared.

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He wanted to be officially ruled out so everyone could focus on other things in the case.

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Jeff maintains that he believes that Holly answered the door to someone she thought she

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knew or since she was such a kind person to help someone in need.

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On May 5th, 2017, at the one year mark of Holly being missing, her family and the PI

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run a full page ad in the Taos newspaper asking for more information and offering a $5,000

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reward.

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The ad lists out some new details in the case and also outlines the great lengths that they

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have gone to try to uncover leads.

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The private investigator has called psychics and also has had an animal communicator come

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in to work with Holly's dog to help the dog process any trauma that she may have had the

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night that Holly disappeared.

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They also say that a vehicle matching the description of the car seen the morning before

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Holly vanished was found abandoned near the New Mexico Colorado state line shortly after

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Holly disappeared.

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They asked if anybody knows anything more about this car or more about Holly to please

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call them.

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And then the case really drops out of the media.

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There was a story ran in May of 2023 to mark the seven years of Holly's disappearance.

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The private investigator that was hired by the family back in 2016 is still working the

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case and she says that the case is not cold, that she still occasionally gets a lead in

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the case that she follows up on, just none of them have led to Holly.

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She is interested in interviewing multiple people of interest in the case, mainly from

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people that Holly talked to online.

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The PI says, quote, there are always hopeful leads where a hunter or rafter will find something

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suspicious like maybe bones.

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So we'll have the bones tested to see if they're animal or human.

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We have actually found both, but unfortunately, none have led to Holly.

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We found clothes in different areas we've checked on, no Holly.

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We've had lots of sightings that we've looked into, local and also in other states, and

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they've all ended up not being Holly, end quote.

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The PI still doesn't believe that Holly jumped from the bridge and police have dismissed

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this as a theory.

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But she says, quote, there have been three to four jumpers a year on that bridge since

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Holly disappeared in 2016.

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For each of those persons, you've had the sheriff's department, sometimes the state police,

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divers, rafters, drones, helicopters, people on foot recovering those bodies three to four

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years since 2016.

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So that's how many times people have been down there.

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A lot of times in the same area to recover these bodies.

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It just seems like Holly's body or something would have been seen, end quote.

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But that is really the last update that I could find on Holly White.

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So if you know anything about the disappearance of Holly White in May of 2016, please call

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private investigator Elaine Graves at 575-613-3415.

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And the sources for the timeline today come from the Taos News and the Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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So that is the missing person case of Holly White.

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Like I mentioned at the top of the show, this is a two parter.

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So just to lay a little bit of groundwork for next week.

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Next week's case will also take place near this bridge, the Taos River Gorge Bridge.

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I actually found this case researching next week's case.

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And I knew that I needed to start here for both of these stories to make sense with each

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other.

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So I needed to start with Holly's missing person case.

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And I was really shocked by this.

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I think it's really important to remember when you maul this case over, is that both

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police and Holly's friends and families have said she didn't jump.

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She didn't jump off of that bridge.

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She didn't die by suicide.

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So that makes me think that, you know, her car was parked there as a decoy.

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This bridge, as I kind of mentioned in the timeline, is unfortunately a little bit notorious

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for people jumping off of it.

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Not unlike the Golden Gate Bridge also has that same kind of history.

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So someone kind of using that to their advantage to park a car there to throw police off of

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their trail, that part does kind of make sense.

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And you know, there are just like a couple of things about the car that stood out to

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her family and friends and also investigators.

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The mention of the grass on the floorboards in front of the passenger seat, people thought

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was really interesting, especially because we kind of know Holly's movement the day before

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she disappeared.

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So that Thursday, Fridays when she was reported missing.

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So we kind of know her movements and nowhere in there does anybody talk about getting in

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her car and sitting in the passenger seat where maybe they would track grass in.

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I would be curious to know if anybody had sat in her car that week at all.

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And if they had, you know, was there grass there?

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Usually if a car is very neat, like you'll kind of notice if there's dirt on one floorboard.

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So that was something that stood out to family and friends.

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And then also, I just thought the detail of the keys being in the cup holder, not necessarily

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in the ignition was interesting.

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I don't really have any like big speculative things on what that might mean.

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But to me, it's just like, you know, when you drive a car, you park it, you go to get

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out of it, you kind of naturally turn it off and pull the keys out of the ignition.

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So it almost seems like you know, an afterthought that somebody said, oh, and then put them

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in the cup holder.

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You could argue that maybe Holly would do that if she didn't plan on coming back to

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the car at all.

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But as her family and friends have said from the beginning, and as police later also said,

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they do not believe she jumped off of that bridge.

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I was reading in all of these articles, and it mentions that the Taos search and rescue

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team that work in these instances where somebody does die by suicide from jumping off of the

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bridge, when they know for certain that that is what has happened, they have recovered

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the body almost 100% of the time.

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So they really know what they're doing.

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And they know the terrain really well.

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And the rafters in the area, they talk about knowing the river really well, like you know,

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where you kind of get hung up on things where somebody could get stuck.

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And so they also volunteer their time and search the river.

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And nothing is found of Holly's.

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There is that shoe, which I have a lot of questions about.

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It's never really answered if it is Holly's or not.

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We know that she did have that shoe in a different color in her closet.

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Some people when they really like something, they'll buy it in multiple colors if that's

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available to them.

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I don't know if Holly was that kind of person.

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Nobody mentions that as like a support to this.

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And nobody seems to pull out a photograph of her wearing the color shoe that they found,

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the black mesh Skechers shoe that they found in the river.

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A detail I did find interesting that was reported by the rafters who found the shoe is that

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they said the shoe wasn't sun bleached at all.

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They mentioned that, you know, they're out on the river a lot.

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We've seen a lot of shoes and ones that have been out there for a while.

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Like you can usually tell like there's sun bleach to them.

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But this one didn't have any, which led them to think that it hadn't been there for that

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long.

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So that is interesting.

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But again, it's not ever really confirmed if that is Holly's shoe.

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You know, in the future for this case, I really hope that there are some big resources put

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towards searching for Holly.

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Her family has obviously been doing so much of that like work, you know, and also via

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her private investigator has been doing a lot of that work over the years of searching

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for signs of Holly searching for clues.

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But I just hope that at some point those like police resources and specialties and you know,

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all those things they have at their fingertips of, you know, helicopters and drones and dogs

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and all of that.

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I hope those resources are given to the family to help search for Holly and to find out what

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happened to her because something is off here.

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Again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Holly White, please call private investigator

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Elaine Graves at 575-613-3415.

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We'll be sharing pictures of course of Holly on our Instagram.

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If you're not following us, you can find us at Cold and Missing.

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Our profile picture on Instagram is the same as our podcast cover.

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So you should be able to spot us if you just search our name.

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And I want to say thank you.

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We had a couple of really wonderful reviews come in this week in Apple Podcast.

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So if you have a second if you're in Apple Podcast, if you can go ahead and give us a

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00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,880
five star rating, write us a review.

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00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:12,760
It is so helpful and other people finding this podcast finding us finding these cases

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getting to know these cases that maybe they didn't know about and it's just one more person,

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00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:24,000
you know, thinking about Holly, looking for Holly knows about Holly like all of our cases

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deserve that.

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So your reviews, your recommendations to family and friends go so far and getting these stories

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00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:31,920
out there.

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So thank you, thank you, thank you.

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And if you want to find more episodes, transcripts of all our podcast episodes, our YouTube,

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any of that if you want to donate if you want to write us a review, but you don't have Apple

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00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:52,240
Podcasts, you can go to www.coldandmissing.com and do all of that over there.

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00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,400
Thank you again so much for listening to cold and missing.

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Such an honor to share these stories and to be a part of your week.

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So thanks for joining me.

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Thanks for listening to cold and missing.

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I'm your host Allie.

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Have a good week and stay safe.