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Views and opinions expressed in cold and missing are those of the hosts.
Casper, Wyoming. Wyoming, wow. And Sharon in 1984, she is 12 years old, but today
she would be 50. No! This is about a kid? Yeah. And just as a trigger warning off
the top, there is sexual assault mentioned in this case, and I'll give
another warning whenever I get closer to the moments where it's discussed, but I
just want to give you a heads up now in case maybe you're not in the space to
listen to that today, which is fine. Thank you for that, Allie. We love
boundaries and keeping ourselves comfortable and safe. Yeah, like it's a
podcast. You don't need to upset yourself with a podcast. It puts the podcast down.
So Sharon Bald Eagle, she is 12 years old in 1984, and she's 5'3", 110 pounds,
and she has black hair and dark brown eyes. And she is described as being
bright, talented, musical, independent, and tough for her age. It's reported that she
routinely beat up boys that were in her grade. She loved to break dance, and her
family lives on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation near Eagle Butte in
South Dakota. Tuesday, September 18th, 1984, Sharon is attending the Brainerd
Indian School and plans to run away with a friend from the nearby Hot Springs
High School in South Dakota. Sharon is running away to Idaho where her brother
is and where she had lived previously with a family as part of the Indian
placement program through the Mormon Church. So what this is, if our listeners
are not familiar, the Indian placement program, when it was reported, it was
talked about like a foster family. What would happen is the Church of Latter-day
Saints Mormons, they offered a program where if they baptized Native American
children, they would be allowed to stay with a Mormon family during the school
year, and instead of attending what was called Indian schools, Indian boarding
schools, they could attend a public school with their Mormon family and then
return to their, you know, their true family in the summertime. Sharon had
previously participated in this program the year before, and she thought that she
was going to continue on into the school year and go back to Idaho to be with her
Mormon family out there. They're called the Dexter's, but Sharon is kicked out of
the program super unexpectedly and on very short notice. So four days before
she was set to return to Idaho, she's kicked out of this program, and this
comes as a shock to her foster family, the Dexter's as well. They were
anticipating her coming and were surprised when she didn't show up with
everybody else. And the reasoning for this is they said that Sharon had been
kicked out because of her attitude. Oh, you would have been kicked out in two
seconds? Two seconds. Missy Sue. Yeah, it was reported that she fought with her
foster siblings, but her foster family was like, that was all ironed out pretty
quickly. It was just at the beginning, and we wanted her back. We loved her. We were
expecting her. So that happens really unexpectedly. So then Sharon has to go to
the Brainerd Indian School, which is near Hot Springs, South Dakota. So if our
listeners aren't familiar with Indian schools, they were part of the US and
Canada's colonization and forced assimilation of indigenous families
through their children. So they would force children to go to these schools
where they were not allowed to speak their native language. They were not
allowed to participate in ceremonies or practice their religions that they would
have on their reservations or with their tribes. That's not right. No, it's
horrible. And a lot of- Yeah, it's like fucking colonizers. Yeah, and a lot of
culture was lost. A lot of language was lost. You know, like indigenous
speakers, there's generational gaps where nobody knows the language, and
they're trying to re-educate and reintroduce the language so that way
it's not lost whenever older folks die. So that's the Indian placement program
and Indian schools very quickly in a nutshell. That Tuesday, September 18th,
Sharon boards a bus for a basketball game in Hot Springs where she'll meet up
with her friend who is 15 years old. And her friend is not named because she's a
minor, so I will be referring to her throughout this as the 15-year-old or
the companion. And Sharon is carrying a red bag with her, and it should be noted
that Sharon has never run away before, but it just seems like she genuinely
wants to get out of here and go be with her brother in Idaho with this family
and go to public school. So Sharon and her 15-year-old friend run away from the
basketball game and they start hitchhiking out of South Dakota. So on
Wednesday, September 19th, 1984, the girls are hitchhiking through Wyoming, so they've
made it into Wyoming at this point, and they are picked up by Royal Russell Long,
a 49-year-old trucker who also owned a go-kart track in nearby Casper, Wyoming.
Again, this is just a trigger warning that I'm going to talk about some
upsetting things, including sexual assault, for the next couple minutes. Press
pause if you want to or skip on through. So the girls are picked up by Long, and
he takes the girls to his home in Evansville, Wyoming, and he feeds them.
Long offers the girls $100 for sex, but they refuse. He then beats them up and
ties them up at gunpoint, and the 15-year-old is sexually assaulted. When
Long is not paying attention, is distracted by something, there's
different reports of what happens at this time, the 15-year-old manages to
escape and gets out of his house and runs to a neighbor and gets help. So the
15-year-old, she calls the police, but when she returns with the police, Long
and Sharon are nowhere to be found, so they're gone. Damn, he took his moment
like to move. To get out, yeah. It was fast, you know. Yeah, and I couldn't find exactly how long
between this 15-year-old raising the flag and, you know, calling police and to when
they arrived there. I don't know exactly how long it was. I don't know if it was
minutes or longer, because this is Wyoming, so there's a lot of land between
places, you know. End of the trigger warning, just so everyone's aware, but it'll
pop back up again, so I'll warn you again. So no reports exactly on what happens
that next day, Thursday. I assume a search is taking place, because they know
that Sharon, a 12-year-old, is missing and with somebody who had them tied up in
his home. So I assume a search is happening, but I couldn't find reports of
that. On Friday, September 21st, the police search is concentrated on southeast
Wyoming, and this, they'll stay there through Saturday, and they focus here
because of a tip that Long's vehicle was seen, which is a 1980 or a 1981 brown
Chevy pickup. He was seen near Pine Bluffs, but police searched this area.
There's no trace. Nothing. On Saturday, so that weekend, September 22nd, Taylor
Bald Eagle, that's Sharon's father, travels from Eagle Butte to Casper in
order to appear in front of the media, and he says, quote, I want to know where
my daughter is. She is my life, my reason for living. No. Why? Why do you put these
things in here? I know you have to, and I'm just hearing it for the first time.
Please continue, and thank you for all the hard work you do. Taylor also has a
message for Long. He says, quote, from father to father, from man to man, I want you
to know I hope you think about this and call me or contact me soon. And then
Taylor goes on to say, quote, he's 49 years old. You don't experience that much
living without having some feelings, something inside, end quote. All of his
media attention works, though. A tip comes in, and the tip, allegedly, is from Long
himself. And... Why allegedly? Well, originally, it said that he called, but
then later it does seem like it's confirmed that he is calling the
police at this time and giving them this tip. And he says that it's him when he
calls, so he's not pretending to be somebody else. But a tip comes in saying,
from Long, that he had put Sharon on a truck that was headed to Fort Worth, Texas.
And the caller continued to say that he would turn himself in when authorities
confirmed Sharon was safe. And it was noted that Sharon has an uncle in Fort
Worth, and that's Taylor's brother. So that tip comes in, and then on Sunday,
September 23rd, Taylor meets with the 15-year-old who is at a hospital in
Casper, Wyoming. And she tells him that Sharon has not been assaulted. Okay. While
she was there. Sure. Yeah. Monday, September 24th, late at night, Taylor gets a call
from an assistant district attorney that they got a reliable source and believed
Sharon to be alive and well, and that she was spotted in Casper, Wyoming. The next
day, September 28th, this is Tuesday, we're coming up on a week that Sharon ran
away. Police in Fort Worth have found no trace of Sharon, and Taylor, her father,
keeps vigil by his phone saying, quote, that's the only thing I'm living and
breathing for now. I'm spending all my time by this phone. I like can't think
about this man. I know. Taylor Baldiegel is still alive and is pretty active in
bringing awareness to her case. That's amazing that he's still here. He's got to
be like in his 70s now. Maybe even 80s. Yeah. That sentence of like, this is what
I'm like living and breathing for, like not even like I'm living and breathing
for this person, but like I'm living and breathing in like hope that they're okay
and that I will find them and like that sits in me very deeply. Yeah. So I like,
so yeah, it's really heartbreaking. Yeah. So one week after Sharon has been
abducted at this point, so this is Wednesday, September 26th, at 940 p.m.
FBI agents arrest Long in Albuquerque, New Mexico as he was leaving a telephone
booth outside of a convenience store. He did not resist arrest, but did have a
nine-millimeter pistol on him and he was arrested for a warrant for unlawful
flight to avoid prosecution. So that was what the FBI was arresting him on and
why they got involved because he was crossing state lines. Sharon is not with
him at this point and there's no sign of her. The search for Sharon continues
quote everywhere. The assistant agent in charge said, Evansville, Wyoming
investigator Stephen Myrum said nothing in Long's criminal history would suggest
homicide, but evidence found in Long's home indicated that Sharon might have
been injured and in need of medical attention and later it comes out that
Sharon had had a nosebleed at his house. So there was some blood found in his
home and it is believed that this is what Stephen Myrum is referring to. Okay.
Yeah, of course she had a nosebleed. She was attacked. Yeah. Like the day after
he's caught there's no news on Sharon and Long pleads the fifth every time
he's asked about it. He continues to plead the fifth which is his right to
remain silent and the Natrona County DA said quote we have no information where
she might be and then Taylor her father says quote Long hasn't said anything.
That makes a person apprehensive, but you have to have faith. I hope she's alive
somewhere. That's all I have to hang on to end quote. The next day this is a
direct quote from the FBI here quote obviously we're looking hard but so far
zilch end quote. I would hate for that man to be like I don't know like if we
had a baby you know I would hate for this man to be in charge of my McDonald's
order. You know what I mean like we went to get we went to get your we went to
get your happy meal zilch obviously we're looking but so far zilch. My god. I
was gonna say like oh we went to grab your baby from the nursery zilch. I think
I don't know it seems like it should be illegal for the word zilch to be used in
a criminal investigation like you should be arrested if you use that word while
you investigate it straight to jail. Jail. You? Jail. Jail. Still no news in Texas and
this is a quote from Taylor again quote the bad part of it is he must have got
her to talk because he found out I have a brother at Fort Worth. I want to think
he might have her somewhere in custody with other people maybe tied up or
something because in order for him to have that information from her he must
have had some communication with her end quote. So Taylor's really holding on to
the idea that Long said he put her on a truck going to Fort Worth and this quote
makes me believe that maybe there was something about like sending her to a
relative down there because Taylor seems very convinced that like that
information Fort Worth came from Sharon and like that's why she was being sent
there based off of this quote. So then we roll into October this is October 1st
Taylor hears from a well-respected medicine woman in New York that Sharon
is in the company of another girl he said quote she said Sharon is in a
10-story building but doesn't know where she said she's not a captive and is
planning to continue to run and run here being like Sharon is trying to escape
okay and on October 1st Long is returned from New Mexico to Wyoming and charged
with first-degree sexual assaults in Wyoming. Okay fuck her. Yes and then the
next day he appears in court where he has six new charges so three counts of
kidnapping two counts aggravated kidnapping for the purpose of committing
sexual assaults one count for the purpose of holding a hostage so to count
for both Sharon and the 15 year old girl but then also account for Sharon being
held hostage kind of at this point. Triple them up. Triple them up. One count of
attempted sexual assaults one count of assault with a deadly weapon and then
one count of delivery of marijuana and then this is also he also did a delivery
of marijuana while he was assaulting people and holding them hostage. Well
apparently delivery of marijuana he just had it in his home when police searched
it. It's not mine. That's all that's my brother's. Okay and this I wasn't gonna
include this because it was so like but it's a long worked as a police
informant at one time where he was told to buy drugs like work as like a drug
dealer like that thing you know what I'm talking about like an informant sure
undercover yeah street whatever. Isn't it crazy that like police forces will be
like this civilian can be an informant. Yes here's government money to go buy
drugs. That's bananas. Which is what they did they gave him money to go buy drugs.
But they also do it for other stuff too. They'll like send like young people to be
like yeah just like see how much you can get well why are you yeah like what I'm
not a professional sir. So these additional charges come from the 15
year olds testimony and cooperating evidence long corroborating yeah I
can't say that word oh it's okay honey wait say it for me
corroborating co-op oh my speech impediment that I had as a kid was ours
no it also sounds like cooperating so you're saying cora but you're you're
saying you're like starting to say cooperating because I can't say
corroborating yeah so I have to say like another word that's close by but I can't
do it that's okay you have hot girl brain you don't need to know how to say
it but you said corroborating evidence it's fine long continues to plead the
fifth so the judge is like asking him questions in court because he also has
two prior convictions for escaping while in jail so the judges like asking him
questions and he just continues to plead the fact plead the fact plead the fact
plead the fact he is not talking and his lawyer maintains that Sharon was put on
a truck and Taylor says quote his story of putting her on a truck really does
seem more likely than anything I'm positive she's going to be home and
quote so October 18 so this is one month since Sharon has been missing again this
is her father quote I am willing not to press charges if the whereabouts of my
daughter is revealed I believe long knows where she is at he's playing his
waiting game he's being pampered by his rights and quote and Taylor really has
an issue and I think a lot of people will that he can continue to plead the
fifth and then that means investigators can't ask him any more questions about
where Sharon is the next day October 19th Albert Johnson from Glendale Wyoming
wrote a letter to a newspaper claiming he saw Sharon on September 20th so this
would have been the day after she was abducted he saw her around 8 p.m. at a
Glendale truck stop sitting in a truck and a man matching longs description was
seen walking into the truck stop and this is kind of the first clue that we
get for Sharon of her whereabouts after she goes missing besides this clue that
long gives of he put her on a truck to go to Fort Worth Texas and then October
21st the search comes to a halt for the winter it's pretty rugged terrain and
there's a lot of snow already by October 21st so they really stopped searching in
the wilderness for Sharon at this point on November 8th long pleads not guilty to
all charges I didn't assault this girl even though even though she escaped from
my home he says not guilty November 16th the police say that they are completely
out of leads and that Texas is a dead end there was no sign that Sharon was
ever there and then we roll into the new year 1985 on January 3rd long defense
attorney request a change of venue but this is ultimately denied but the judge
will drop the marijuana charge so that's no longer he puffed past it he puffed
past the marijuana charge
fuck I know and then January 23rd 1985 long changes his plea to guilty to avoid
the death penalty and a sentence to two life sentences plus six to eight years
which I love when they give somebody to life sentences and then they're like
plus 10 years I'm like okay like here's three big scoops here's a couple jimmies
on top yeah just to make sure yeah it's like just in case your ghost wants to be
back your ghost is still in jail sorry
ghost jail
so long pleads the fifth while being questioned by the judge again ultimately
he pleads guilty to two counts of kidnapping for the purpose of taking
indecent liberties with a minor and one count of aggravated assaults and then the
police said quote we have no leads at all
obviously the next step is to wait and see they really love obviously
obviously obviously the next step is to wait and see we are checking out any and
every lead we can we all hope she is still alive somewhere if she is why
hasn't she called you can speculate a hundred reasons on that
and quote and I'm like do your fucking job
speculate obviously the next step is wait and see I think there's some other
things you could do and they say that new charges can still be added to him
in regards to Sharon if and when they find out things
ok so on February 4th 1985 long breaks his silence and has an interview with a
newspaper so again here's a trigger warning I'm going to talk about sexual
assault here so this is what long claims happen this is his side of the story and
this is going to piss you off I'm just warning you now so he claims that he
picks the girls up and they said they were 18 and 19 and quote they looked the
part and quote no you can tell when someone is 12 yeah you can tell when
someone is 12 and also you're 49 so 18 and 19 is still a little young a little
young the girls accepted his offer for a ride to his home to eat bathe and wash
their clothes he then claims he offered the older girl $25 for sex and she
agreed after she demanded $200 and threatened him since she was underage
and he thought the accusations would hurt his go-kart business quote oh so
sad I know his go-kart business
oh fuck owning a go-kart business would be dope like we should open one come to
A&E's go-karts yeah go-karts drive to thrive this guy get fucked get fucked
he says quote I talked with them I tried to reason with them I told them this is
not how you do business I should have given them the money unquote so he was
I hate him then long quote scuffles he calls it a scuffle with them and ties
the girls up but claims no one was seriously hurt just like casually tying
up two teenagers in your home but nobody was seriously hurt like he's really
trying to like downplay it as much as he can he's like we got in a scuffle and
then I tied them up no big deal nobody was hurt he then says he took a nap and
when he woke up he found the 15 year old had escaped he took a nap in the middle
of his hostage situation yeah I'm like I am a man of rest I'm tired from my
thievery of people yeah he's like and what I'm just like so you have two
people tied up in your house and you're like I'm gonna go take a nap what what
no you didn't you're a liar no you don't so after he realizes that the 15 year
old girl is gone he says quote I carried the other one to my truck I stopped once
for gas and drove to Cheyenne over the back roads she was a hot potato I just
wanted her out of my hands end quote he finds a trucker headed for Dallas he
says it's Dallas not Fort Worth so this is the first time that that detail has
changed and he hands Sharon off long then drives to Denver to think for a
couple of days and when he drives back to Wyoming he learns about the manhunt
against him so once he finds out about the manhunt he heads to Amarillo Texas
to look for Sharon at truck stops quote my thinking was that I needed to remain
free until she showed up and the whole thing calmed down end quote so that is
what he says happened so that's the end of the trigger warning for our listeners
out there on May 30th the district attorney Scott Evans believes that
Sharon is dead and is looking to file murder charges without a body this guy
royal Russell long he sucks and just to give a little tangent about this guy so
after he's arrested he becomes the lead suspect in another investigation in
Oklahoma into the disappearance of two 13 year olds from the Oklahoma State Fair
in 1981 their names are Charlotte Kinsey and Cinda pallet and charges are
ultimately brought against him in this case in Oklahoma these girls they go
missing at the state fair I just read briefly about their story they called
their parents and said that a man offered them a job to unload stuffed
animals from a semi truck so he drives the two girls and two boys to a truck
stop kicks the boys out and then drives off with the two girls and charges are
brought against him but ultimately they're dropped for not enough evidence
but he is the main suspect in this case and it's believed that he had started
attacking people 30 years prior in 1955 and he's also suspected for the
disappearance of Deborah Meyer and Carlene Brown so this guy sucks so on
the heels of like this Oklahoma case and I think if he had been indicted on those
charges they would have gone forward with the murder charges of Sharon but
since ultimately the charges in Oklahoma was dropped they never bring the murder
charges against him for Sharon in Wyoming in June of 1985 the search resumes in
rugged terrain along the county lines and the search lasts for about one week
and this is based off of all of the leads that they've had but ultimately
nothing turns up no clues are found on June 12th the police say quote every bit
of evidence we've obtained at this point indicates she's dead end quote but her
father Taylor believes that she is alive and in 2020 he believes that she's
alive November 3rd 1993 long dies of a heart attack behind bars in prison
farewell good riddance and then there's really no leads for Sharon after this
because the person who most likely knows has died June of 2019 and into 2020 a
skull is found near a power plant and a podcast actually begins to say that this
is possibly Sharon and I believe they say that somebody within the police
department tells them this or confirms that there's a good likelihood that
it's Sharon but the police are like this person is a volunteer and they would
know nothing about that I don't know why but so the media picks up the story that
this is possibly Sharon but it is a prehistoric skeletons that had just been
very well preserved so not Sharon in the media Taylor says that you know the skull
couldn't be Sharon because she's still alive somewhere and he's believes that
and really advocates for her return but that this whole experience was painful
like having her name be brought up in the media and people saying that they
were so sorry like giving him condolences and assuming that he would be
mourning once these were remains were found and he said like that was really
painful like that misplaced morning and like people just stopping him and like
that constant reminder of what he is missing but that's ultimately it's for
Sharon bald eagle that's all we know like I said long died behind bars so he
really knew what happened to her and I don't I don't know if she was put on a
truck somewhere else or if he killed her before that she was she would have this
girl was very very smart I think she would have like been able to contact her
family I yeah I would agree with you I think that royal Russell long ultimately
caused her death I really just want Taylor bald eagle to have closure in
this like he deserves it so much if you know anything about Sharon's
disappearance or her whereabouts today again she'd be 50 years old please call
the Fall River County police and their number is 605-745-4444
and the sources for today's podcast come from the West River Eagle the Charlie
Projects oil City News Rapid City Journal the Bismarck Tribune the Jackson Hole
guide Argus leader the billing Gazette the daily Oklahoma in Casper Star
Tribune and the Lincoln Journal Star that's the story of Sharon bald eagle is
her case like actively spoken about currently well the last updates really
were 2020-2021 when those remains were found and there have been bulk stories
over the years because there's a lot of missing indigenous women specifically in
Wyoming there's a lot of missing indigenous women that whole highway
that's called the highway of tears right it runs a big span of where there's a
lot of indigenous land where like it's like hundreds of women do you know what
I'm talking about I do yes okay yeah but yeah so Sharon's story is brought up
kind of with those reports of like trying to bring light to this big problem
but otherwise there's really been no leads and nothing on her case truly damn
and it's so frustrating that they like caught the guy the guy died in jail but
it's like where Sharon like how it's like that he escaped justice in that you
know like he escaped responsibility in a lot of ways yeah for sure even though
you know based off of my research and you know he suspected in these four
other disappearances like guys dirtbag like I'm glad he was off the streets and
that they did ultimately put him in jail for the rest of his life when they did
but where Sharon and like he never had to answer for that but that's it if you
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being here and have a good week and stay safe y'all have a great week y'all