0:00

It's hard to imagine losing a loved

0:02

one. A wife, a husband,

0:04

a child. For many, it's

0:06

their biggest fear. From wondering,

0:09

the vanished is a podcast that

0:11

tells stories of often overlooked

0:14

and unsolved missing persons cases.

0:16

Each episode, host Marissa Jones

0:19

dives deep into a new case,

0:21

sharing the details of their mysterious

0:24

disappearance from interviews with

0:26

family, friends, law enforcement,

0:29

and even suspects in an effort

0:31

to reveal the truth. the vanished

0:33

has even aided in getting long overdue

0:36

arrests through their in-depth interviews.

0:39

In a special two part series,

0:41

the vanished dives into the mysterious

0:43

case of Melissa High Smith.

0:46

When Melissa was an infant, desperate

0:48

for childcare, her mother put

0:51

out an advertisement for a babysitter.

0:53

Someone who called themselves Ruth Johnson

0:56

answered the ad and picked Melissa

0:59

up from their apartment the next day.

1:02

Melissa was never to be seen again.

1:05

What happened to Melissa? Was

1:07

Ruth Johnson a malicious kidnapper?

1:10

Or was she just a cover story

1:13

for a much more sinister plot.

1:15

I'm about to play you a clip

1:17

of Melissa's story on the vanished.

1:20

while you're listening, follow the

1:22

vanished wherever you get your podcasts.

1:24

And hey, Prime members, you

1:27

can listen ad free on Amazon

1:29

Music. download the Amazon

1:31

Music app today.

1:35

If this was your sister, what

1:38

would you do? Would you ever give

1:40

up? Would you want people

1:42

to get involved in the story? To

1:44

share it? I've taken on

1:46

a different outlook on when

1:49

I see things that people ask to share.

1:51

I've started sharing them because they

1:54

are searching for something or someone

1:56

or whatever. And this is what we're

1:58

doing. We're asking people

1:59

to just share this story

2:02

because

2:02

we believe that if

2:05

people just share, it's gonna get

2:07

to the right person. Someone who

2:09

knows Melissa or Melissa

2:12

herself. On

2:13

August eighteenth nineteen seventy

2:16

one, a classified ad was

2:18

published for a single day in

2:19

the Fort Worth Texas newspaper, the

2:22

Fort Worth star telegram that

2:24

read as follows. Babiesitter

2:27

wanted from eight to three thirty

2:29

days. Spanish gate apartments

2:31

call after three PM. On

2:34

August twenty third nineteen seventy

2:36

one, a woman who said her name was

2:38

Ruth Johnson came to the door of Alta

2:40

High Smith. who would place the

2:42

ad and said she was there to pick up

2:44

Alta's twenty one month old daughter, Melissa

2:46

High Smith. Alta's roommate gave

2:48

the baby to the woman named Ruth. who

2:51

promised to return her at the upon

2:53

time.

2:54

Melissa Haysmith has never been seen

2:56

again, and the story of her

2:58

abduction That's a tale we're going

3:01

to unfold for you with exclusive interviews,

3:03

new information, and questions

3:05

that seem as though they should be easy to answer.

3:08

I'm Marissa. And from wondering, this

3:10

is episode three hundred and seventy

3:12

one of the vanished, Melissa

3:14

Hi Smith's story. part

3:16

one, the woman with the white gloves.

3:22

By the summer of nineteen seventy one,

3:24

Alta was a single mom back in

3:27

Fort Worth with her one year old daughter

3:29

struggling to make ends meet and

3:31

still growing up herself while raising

3:33

a young child. We knew

3:35

she had to have been struggling given what

3:37

Jeff told us about Alta's early life

3:39

and lack of a solid family foundation.

3:42

which we will explore further in the second

3:44

part of this story. We

3:45

actually spoke to Melissa's

3:47

mother, Alta, in the first interview

3:49

she has agreed to in many years. We

3:51

asked her to tell us in her words what

3:53

happened in her marriage, and how

3:55

she and Melissa ended up in Fort Worth

3:58

at this apartment with a roommate.

3:59

I

4:01

was happy to have a a girl and, you

4:03

know, I I was real happy with Melissa.

4:06

And her dad and

4:08

I, we We're

4:09

living in Texas when she was born,

4:12

and we moved to Illinois. He

4:14

was a musician. He was out playing

4:16

a lot. almost

4:17

every night. And

4:18

we

4:20

were happy for, I

4:21

guess, you know, I didn't see any

4:23

red flags about him

4:26

having in a bear with someone. And

4:29

I found out I I don't

4:31

remember how I found out, but I went

4:33

to the club where he was playing. someone

4:35

had said that he would be with this girl

4:37

and and he was. And

4:38

I looked at him and I just walked out, you

4:41

know. and

4:41

he didn't come home and he didn't come

4:44

home for a couple days or so. I

4:46

figured, well,

4:47

that's probably it. saw

4:49

I called my brother Perry in Texas,

4:51

and he came all the way to Illinois

4:53

and he got me. And he

4:55

moved me back to Texas. and

4:57

me and Melissa, and we stayed with

4:59

my brother Eddie and his wife

5:02

for a little while until

5:03

I could get a job I found

5:06

a job and I was

5:08

able to find a babysitter. Oh,

5:10

I'm

5:10

not sure exactly about the babysitter. I'm

5:12

I'm not, you know, there's a lot of things that I

5:14

don't remember. but I

5:15

must've got somebody to watch it while I was

5:17

working. I

5:18

don't know if it was the same way. 0II don't

5:21

know. But,

5:21

anyway, I

5:23

was struggling

5:25

by a husband. He

5:26

never called to ask about Melissa to see

5:28

how she was doing. I

5:30

was there for lack four

5:31

or five months before she got to bed and

5:34

never called,

5:35

never spent any money to help me. That's

5:38

According to what the younger children have

5:40

been told, Carol was out the

5:42

night before Melissa disappeared. Sharon

5:45

told us more about Carol. including the

5:47

fact that she had never been discussed in the media

5:49

or named at all in relation to Melissa's

5:52

disappearance, but she clearly is an

5:54

important person in the story

5:55

if she was the last person to see

5:58

Melissa alive.

6:00

Something that's never come to light in all

6:02

of these interviews we've ever done in Every

6:04

article I've ever seen in my whole life,

6:06

we've never talked about

6:08

Carol Key. Who is Carol Key?

6:10

Carol Key is the woman who gave

6:12

my sister away.

6:14

Carroll Key is my mom's was

6:16

my mom's roommate.

6:18

Carroll Key is the last

6:21

person who saw Ruth

6:24

Johnson. Let's put her name in

6:26

quotes. Right?

6:26

Because her name wasn't Ruth Johnson.

6:29

But this

6:29

is something that's a speculation

6:32

in a lot of the articles online

6:34

is that was

6:36

Ruth Johnson a woman or

6:38

was this a person disguised? Part

6:41

of me also thinks that

6:43

this

6:44

person that was possibly

6:46

possibly

6:49

a man dressed as a woman

6:50

with a wig because wigs were very,

6:53

very, very

6:54

trendy back in the nineteen

6:57

sixty seventies, let's say, and

7:00

this woman, let's say, in quotes,

7:02

was wearing white gloves. to

7:04

disguise, in my opinion, to disguise

7:06

her hands, his her hands. If

7:09

you've ever been to Texas, You

7:11

know that anyone wearing gloves in the heat

7:13

of an August summer would stand out,

7:15

and that certainly makes us wonder why she

7:17

would have been wearing them.