0:01

On November 10th in Atlanta, Georgia, I'll

0:03

be hosting an Up and Vanished live

0:05

event. I'll be sharing exclusive video interviews

0:07

from the season, tape that has not

0:10

yet been released and give you a

0:12

complete behind the scenes look of our

0:14

investigation. If you're in Atlanta or you

0:16

want to make the drive or flight

0:19

there, come see me on November 10th

0:21

at Terminal West. You can get tickets

0:23

now by going to upandvanished.com/tickets. All

0:25

proceeds from the show are being donated back

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to the family's reward fund. November

0:30

10th at Terminal West. Just

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go to upandvanished.com/tickets. Up

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and Vanished in the Midnight Sun

0:38

is released every Thursday and brought

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0:53

and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is

0:56

intended for mature audiences and may include

0:58

topics that can be upsetting such as

1:00

emotional, physical and sexual violence, rape and

1:02

murder. The names of survivors have

1:05

been changed for anonymity purposes. Testimony

1:07

shared by guests of the show is their own

1:09

and does not reflect the views of Tenderfoot TV

1:11

or Odyssey. Thank you so much

1:13

for listening. Jake

1:17

lied to the state troopers on

1:19

multiple occasions about his

1:21

whereabouts on the weekend Joseph went missing.

1:24

And so did Tyler, his friend. Jake

1:27

told the police he stayed in

1:29

his house playing video games all night

1:32

when in fact he was at a party at

1:34

a bonfire until at least 4 or 5am. We

1:38

have video proof of that. But

1:40

why would Jake lie about that? The

1:43

I don't remember excuse gets a

1:45

lot flimsier when he's being asked

1:47

to recall the night he first

1:49

met his summer girlfriend Leah, the

1:52

first time he kissed her and exchanged numbers.

1:55

Somehow that's either all a blur to

1:57

him or he's withholding information for a

1:59

reason. reason. I talked

2:01

to his 2016 summer girlfriend,

2:03

Leah, for several hours, and

2:06

she recalled to the best of her memory what

2:08

happened that summer. She left Nome

2:10

in August 2016 and went back

2:13

home to Florida. This is when

2:15

the very first episode of Up and

2:17

Vanish came out about Tara Grinstead. And

2:20

I kid you not, she started listening to

2:22

the podcast, and she has been ever

2:24

since. When Joseph's case merged

2:26

into the picture this season, she

2:29

reached out to me, a little freaked out.

2:32

Were you already listening to Up

2:35

and Vanish? Hane, yes. I was

2:37

obsessed with Tara Grinstead season. I

2:41

went to Alaska in 2016, so then when

2:43

you put out this Nome season, I was like,

2:45

you've got to be kidding me. Worlds

2:48

collide. I've

2:50

got this great message with four other girls

2:52

I spent the summer with. We were just

2:54

outsiders in Nome. There's a lot

2:56

more that you're putting out now that we

2:59

had no idea when we were there. Sometimes

3:03

it hits a little close to home, and I'm like, take

3:05

a step back and kind of process. We

3:08

met June 25th at that party,

3:10

and then Jake and I coupled

3:12

off pretty quickly. We

3:14

had just like a little summer

3:16

fling. It was nothing serious. We

3:18

didn't talk after I left that

3:20

summer, but him and I were

3:22

involved. Saturday

3:28

morning, the 25th, what

3:30

did you do that day, and then when were you

3:32

with Jake, for how long, and what did y'all do?

3:35

I'm so thankful. I wrote what I did every single

3:37

day that summer in a journal. Otherwise, I would have

3:39

no idea. We were at

3:41

a party the night before, so I think we

3:43

went to a house party. There's

3:45

a bulldog that I pet, and then everyone went to the

3:48

bars, and I went home. Saturday

3:50

morning, we were all kind of hung

3:52

over. We went bridge jumping earlier

3:54

that day. I have pictures from that on June

3:56

25th, but we did not go with Jake, because

3:59

I met him. him that night at the party. So

4:03

I meet Jake at this party. Everyone's

4:06

drunk. All the girls,

4:08

the interns I've lived with, we all left

4:10

together and all six of us were there.

4:13

We went to the party. The picture I sent you

4:15

was from 1am and I know

4:18

there was at least 30 more minutes after that that

4:20

I would have talked to Jake. So

4:23

Leah meets Jake at this party on

4:25

Saturday night. They kiss and exchange numbers.

4:28

She took several pictures and videos from the party,

4:30

which you can clearly see Jake himself in the

4:32

background. Around 2am or so,

4:35

she leaves the party and goes back home

4:37

with her girlfriends. She goes

4:39

to sleep and when she wakes up the next

4:41

morning, she sees a text message from Jake that

4:43

he sent to her while she was sleeping. And

4:46

he texted me and was asking if he'd

4:48

come over. He

4:51

didn't come over because I was drunk. I literally was

4:53

completely asleep and it was like the next morning I

4:55

saw that he had texted me and tried to come

4:57

over. It

5:00

had to have been like 3, 4, 5am. A

5:04

friend named Cam remembers dropping Jake

5:06

off at Leah's house around 5am.

5:10

Did he just knock on her door, then turn around

5:12

and walk home? So many people

5:14

saw you at this party. Why are you

5:16

not coming out and saying that you were there and that's what

5:18

you did? I really have a

5:21

hard time believing that he did anything leading up to

5:23

the point when he met me and kissed me because

5:25

it was just so normal. It's like

5:27

why would you do that and then go to this big open

5:29

party? But then on the other hand, even

5:32

if you were blackout drunk and don't remember being at

5:34

that party and people are asking

5:36

you your alibi, why not just say you're

5:38

there? Okay,

5:42

so per my journal, I'm so thankful I wrote

5:44

what I did every single day that summer in

5:46

a journal. Otherwise, I would have no idea. So

5:53

we met the Saturday party, June

5:56

25th. June

5:58

25th. We met June 25th. He

26:00

was re-investigated, audited. There

26:02

would be enough financial fraud to put him

26:05

behind bars for a long time. There's

26:09

something wrong. I'm suspicious, and other people

26:11

I've talked to are that he

26:13

knows what's going on in that town. I

26:17

personally would not be surprised

26:19

if he knows what happened to Florence and

26:21

what happened to Boulders. There's

26:24

a good old boy network up there. They rub

26:27

each other's back and do all kinds of stuff.

26:30

And the corruption is at the very top, exploits

26:33

vulnerable people. You

26:39

get into power up there and you just realize

26:41

it. You can get away with so much. Because

26:44

the people that you can control, people that

26:47

grew up there, they lived there and know

26:49

them, their families are there, their job is

26:51

there, their kids are there, they can't go

26:53

anywhere. They

26:56

can't speak up against these power structures,

26:58

and that's why the hospital there is

27:00

so corrupt. I

27:03

was the radiologist at the hospital in

27:05

Nome, basically the only medical specialist in

27:07

town. The CEO

27:09

at the time was a sexual predator. First

27:13

person I found out he groped was my radiology

27:15

director, reaching under the blouse,

27:17

grabbing the breasts, and then two other

27:19

women in radiology were also groped, breasts

27:21

and crutches. I

27:24

brought all three of these women to need

27:26

to go to the police and make a

27:28

statement, this is sexual assault, it's crime. I

27:30

have their names, I've talked with them, and

27:32

I went with them to the police. The

27:35

police chief at the time, the police chief in

27:37

Nome, and an investigation

27:39

was started. I

27:41

called the medical director in to my office.

27:45

The hospital immediately went into cover-up mode.

27:49

The CEO lasted three days. It was

27:51

reported that he had tendered his resignation.

27:54

That's a euphemism for being fired, but

27:57

it was a tendered resignation. assaults

38:00

that were not being investigated. What

38:03

they were all saying is that they needed

38:05

data to prove what was going on. They

38:07

had asked for this data from the state, and

38:09

it wasn't forthcoming. People wanted

38:12

data on native victimization, data that

38:14

tracks cases from first report through

38:16

the prosecution outcome, if there's any.

38:19

They'd been working for three years

38:21

behind the scenes to

38:23

improve police response to sexual assaults.

38:26

Police interviews were really victim-blaming.

38:30

In 2018, you didn't only have this

38:32

one group of women, but

38:34

other community members were really upset

38:36

about specific incidents with police. Police

38:39

officer was convicted of punching an

38:41

Alaska native woman in his custody.

38:44

He continued to work in the department afterwards.

38:48

There were concerns about another

38:50

officer giving unauthorized ride-alongs to

38:52

underage girls, and that really

38:54

echoed back to what happened with Owens. Back

38:58

in 2003, known police

39:00

officer Matthew Owens was

39:02

convicted for the murder of 19-year-old

39:04

Sonia Ivanov. His

39:06

inappropriate behavior towards native women had

39:08

been reported for a long time

39:10

before them, but the

39:12

known police department did absolutely nothing

39:15

about it. They

39:18

knew he was riding around, patrolling

39:20

in his police cruiser, picking up

39:22

young women. And

39:25

at the same time, you had a 911 operator. An

39:29

Alaska native woman who was sexually assaulted reported

39:32

her own assault, and nothing happened. She

39:35

came out in the news saying

39:37

that she reported her own rape to her

39:39

lieutenant, her colleague and friend, Lieutenant

39:42

Nick Harvey, and he did

39:44

nothing for a year. He'd been the ranking

39:46

officer for a long time in charge of investigations. He

39:50

didn't create a call for service or a police

39:52

report. And meanwhile, he told her he

39:54

was working on the case. John

39:58

Papasadora, who had been with the police,

40:00

known police department since 2007. You did

40:02

see him in the news talking about

40:05

the lack of financial resources for policing

40:07

and the high turnover rates. Obviously

40:09

they were turning people away if he's saying

40:12

you know we don't have enough resources. But

40:14

was that the whole story? I

40:17

spoke with people who had worked under

40:20

him in the department. One was a

40:22

sergeant, a sergeant Stotz. He had conducted

40:24

his own investigations he said of Lieutenant

40:26

Harvey. He felt that Harvey

40:29

had been promoted without any reason

40:31

to do so and that he

40:33

Stotz had experienced retaliation every time

40:35

he tried to report

40:37

nonsense. What he called shoddy

40:39

police work not going out on serious

40:42

sexual assaults, serious felony assaults, and also

40:44

what he called like good old boy

40:46

network. What he eventually

40:48

did was quit, file a complaint,

40:50

and that's before the 911 operator

40:52

was assaulted. She had reported

40:55

her rape to Lieutenant McHarvey and he did

40:57

nothing about it for a year and then

40:59

the chief knew about it too. The

41:01

ACLU filed this equal protection suit on behalf

41:03

of the 911 operator. Known

41:06

police eventually settled the lawsuit for

41:09

$750,000. I

41:12

can't say why there was never a report made

41:14

or a call for service made. You'd have to

41:16

ask them. They didn't really

41:19

respond either. So the

41:21

complaint was on behalf of this

41:23

one 911 operator who's Alaska

41:25

native being part of a

41:27

pattern and practice of discrimination against Alaska

41:29

natives and against women in Nome. She

41:34

was looking for vindication of her own

41:36

rights to equal protection but also all

41:38

of the other women in Nome. Didn't

41:42

feel safe anymore for

41:44

valid reasons. It

41:47

stalled for a long time because the city wouldn't turn over

41:49

discovery. They had to get a court order to turn over

41:51

discovery and still after the court order they didn't give it.

41:57

I've heard from the police officer who was hired to replace the police. Matthew

42:00

Clay Owens. She had been

42:03

ordered several times to drop cases

42:05

of sexual assaults for

42:08

reasons like the victim had

42:10

been drinking, the victim a

42:12

14 year old girl was not a virgin, or oh

42:14

I know the suspect he's a good guy he

42:17

doesn't have sex with minors he

42:19

only takes you know he gets adults drunk and

42:21

takes him out to the tundra and has sex

42:23

with him. She

42:26

was the lone female officer at the time. She

42:29

was trying to investigate sexual assaults sexual

42:31

assaults against minors sexual assaults against adults

42:34

and you know was having this experience over

42:36

and over again. She

42:38

had written a lengthy document to every

42:40

single city council member when she left.

42:43

Turned over documentation on falsified

42:46

reports everything she had seen

42:48

going on there. The

42:51

city knew what was going on there's just no

42:53

way to deny that. It was

42:56

overwhelming and I was really aware

42:58

of how traumatizing it

43:00

was for people to talk to me. There

43:02

were people who you know withdrew from the

43:04

whole story process. I had sources who had

43:07

a mental health crisis and didn't want to

43:09

continue and we have the numbers to show

43:11

what was happening. We have the police reports

43:13

and the lack of police reports to show

43:16

what's happening. We have the medical reports to

43:18

show what's happening. It's lazy to

43:20

just go up to somebody and have them

43:22

cry into a microphone. I

43:27

spoke to the former 911 operator on

43:29

the phone. I

43:52

was still a dispatcher at that

43:54

time. The

43:56

chief of police he was

43:58

very adamant that It doesn't take

44:00

a rocket scientist to

44:03

realize that policing in Alaska has

44:05

never changed. Despite

44:29

new money, new investigators,

44:31

lawsuits, initiatives, the good

44:33

old boys have remained in place. Florence

44:37

Oakpialik? Oh, interesting. Yeah,

44:39

I talked to you about that one too.

44:45

Florence Oakpialik, a native gal, disappeared from

44:47

the West Beach there. You

44:50

know, her last words were? They

44:52

picked it up off her cell phone. Her last words were,

44:55

there's four of them in the bushes. And

44:58

it doesn't look good. I

45:03

told the troopers up there, you need to get a hold of

45:06

her phone and do a forensic thing. She

45:08

was hanging out with some guy named Oregon John,

45:10

a meth

45:12

guy, I guess, and supplying her with meth,

45:14

and she was into drugs. I

45:17

called to talk to the investigator up there

45:19

at NPD. We talked to

45:21

Oregon John, and he thought that

45:23

Oregon John was the main suspect. How

45:27

would the lead MMIW investigator for

45:30

the entire state of Alaska completely

45:33

disregard Florence Oakpialik's disappearance?

45:46

It's time to revisit the disappearance of

45:49

Florence Oakpialik. There

45:52

is a recognition amongst the native community

45:54

that they have not been always treated

45:56

very well and known. Nome

46:00

has this very different history. And

46:03

yet, Native people have been here and been

46:05

part of Nome's history from the very beginning.

46:09

Flo hadn't come home one night. She'd

46:13

been taken down to some of

46:15

these tent camps. Blair

46:18

went down the beach to try to find her

46:20

sister. This guy gives

46:22

her some of Flo's clothes, but

46:25

she's not there. I

46:29

just know he was a cab driver in town and a

46:31

lot of people didn't like him. Well,

46:35

we know who this guy is. He

46:38

goes by Oregon John. Whether it

46:40

was intentional or an effort to shut her

46:42

up, she's clearly been murdered. The

46:45

cat's coming out of the bag. There are

46:47

other names in this case. I don't

46:50

know these people, but we

46:52

don't hear anything good about a fellow named

46:54

Mike McGowan or Paul Benshoft Jr.

46:58

Alongside Oregon John, two other men

47:00

have been named. Rumors

47:02

are they're into meth. There's

47:07

different stories that there's other

47:10

people involved with John Gerten.

47:13

Michael McGowan is one of them. He was a

47:15

druggie. I

47:19

had previously censored their names, but

47:21

no longer. They're Paul Benshoft

47:24

and Michael McGowan. If somebody

47:26

abducts us, scratch him, pull her

47:28

hair out, leave as much evidence as you can behind

47:31

him, rely on the public to find him. Not

47:33

the police department, because they're not capable or

47:35

willing to. I've got

47:37

a couple friends who were beaten up by them,

47:40

but they were too scared to go forward. Blair,

47:43

Flo's sister. Do you know who she

47:45

is with? John

47:49

Gerten. And who are the other

47:51

guys? Paul

47:53

Benshoft. Yeah. Michael

47:56

McGowan.