March 12, 2025 • 40 mins
A New Jersey woman has been missing for nearly a year after taking a weekend camping trip. Danielle Lopez’s family should have celebrated her 38th birthday during that time. She was last seen walking near her blue two-door Hyundai Accent on a secluded dirt road deep in Penn State Forest around 6 p.m. on April 13, 2024.
Danielle went camping at the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest Campground with her boyfriend to watch an eclipse. On Friday night, she spoke with her mother from the campground and seemed in good spirits. On Saturday morning, she was seen grabbing coffee at a Wawa in nearby Vincentown.
That afternoon, Danielle was spotted driving down Lost Lane Road in Penn State Forest. Minutes later, she was seen walking. She asked a couple for help because her car was stuck in the mud, but they declined. After dark, a good Samaritan towed her car out, but she never returned to the vehicle and has not been seen since.
Danielle is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes. She usually wears glasses and was last seen wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and light-colored shoes. A limited-time $5,000 reward is available.
Anyone with information on Danielle Lopez is asked to call the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit at (609) 882-2000 ext. 2554 or the Community United Effort Center’s 24-hour hotline at (910) 232-1687.
Joining Nancy Grace:
-
Sue Quackenbush - Mother of Danielle Lopez
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Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), and Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States"
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Dr. John Delatorre - Licensed psychologist and mediator, specializing in forensic psychology, psychological consultant to Project Absentis, @drjohndelatorre (IG, X)
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Brian Fitzgibbons - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, [leads a team of investigators specializing in locating missing persons], Former Marine and Iraq War Veteran; Instagram:@uspa_nationwide_security
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Sydney Sumner - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. New video just emerging after
a missing Jersey woman's car is found disabled in Pine
barrens tonight. Where is Danielle? I mean to see Grace.
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
A New Jersey woman's baffling disappearance mild camping leaves her
mother searching for answers. What happened to Danielle?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How could this beautiful young woman just vanish off the
face of the earth just like that? I don't buy it, okay,
how did the whole thing start? Listen?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Saturday, Sue texts Danielle to check in, but doesn't get
a response. That's not completely unusual, But as Sue sends
several more texts and call multiple times with no response,
she begins to fear something is wrong. When it's been
a week with no contact with Danielle, Sue reports Danielle
missing to the New Jersey State Police officers begin and
(01:00):
intense investigation, trying to retrace Danielle's steps.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Joining me in All Star Pale, but straight out to
Danielle's mom suit Quack and Bush, Miss Qurack and Bush.
Thank you for being with us. I'm going to get
to the video in just one moment. But miss crack
and Bush, when is the last time you spoke with
your daughter?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Friday night, April twelfth, and what was your conversation? It
was a good conversation. She said she was camping. I
wondered why she was there. I guess there was, Well,
there was an eclipse.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Then we talked. We talked.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I prayed with her. She struggled since the loss of
her brothers and her father and grandfather. But she was
sounding okay.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
She it's just a regular conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
She was camping to look at the eclipse. That was
my understanding, okay, And she seemed in good spirits. She
was okay. When you state that you prayed with her,
that's because she had suffered loss, as had you.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
What had happened In two thousand and fifteen, I lost
my oldest son to suicide. Not ten months later I
lost my youngest son who was serving as a marine.
Twenty twenty, Danielle lost her grandfather that she was living
(02:34):
with to COVID, and a month later her father to
COVID as well.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Your family has been through so much and now this
Mss Quackenbush, how as a crime victim myself. I'm always curious,
how do you get to sleep at night? How do
you take your mind off Danielle missing even for five minutes.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's not easy. I have strong faith that this will
be made right, but it's it's not easy.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Miss Quackenbush spoke to her daughter that day. Everything was fine. Listen.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Danielle Lopez is in frequent contact with her mom and
calls her from the Brendan T. Burns State Forest Campground
Friday night. Sue tells her daughter it sounds like fun.
Danielle hasn't been camping since she was a little girl.
Danielle tells Sue to stop worrying. When Sue questions if
it's warm enough to be camping, Danielle ends their conversation
with the usual I love you and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Joining me is Danielle's mom, Sue Quackenbush. Miss Quackenbush, you
stated that everything seemed fine. You guys typically prayed together
over the phone. That was not unusual. So she goes
out camping to see the eclipse, and you are actually
worried that she might get cold. Yes, well, describe that
(04:06):
part of the conversation. I just said it's April's cold
at night. She assured me she had a heater, a campfire,
and but she was okay. She struggled a lot after
the losses. Danielle struggled a lot. So I what do
(04:26):
you mean by struggled.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
After the loss of her father. She had resources and
so she wasn't working. It didn't change anything, just I'm
a mom having lost two children.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I was.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Very much in touch with her, calling.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Her twice a day.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
We didn't always speak twice a day, but it called
her twice a day.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
So you guys were in very very close contact. Has
there ever been a time when it's been over a
month that you don't speak to her?
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Never?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Okay, to the moment that Danielle seemingly just vanished off
a very very popular hiking trail listen.
Speaker 7 (05:08):
At nine to eleven am Saturday morning, Danielle is spotted
on surveillance footage buying coffee from a wah wah in Vincentown,
about a ten minute drive from the campsite. Danielle does
not appear to be in distress. Danielle uses a wah
Wah rewards card she shares with her mother, Regarded by
both as emergency money to make her purchases that morning.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Okay, there is Danielle and this is nine to eleven
am on a Saturday morning, spotted in a wah wah
in Vincentown. That's only a few minutes away from the
campsite where she was. Now, she's obviously not in any
distress at all, and she uses the Wahwah rewards card
(05:47):
she shared with her mom. Now, Miss Kragenbush, why did
you regard that as quote emergency money? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Danielle, I had resources, but as a mom, if she
ever needed asked if she ever needed anything. We've had
it since she was probably eighteen that we've shared it.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But there were.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Times where she'd grab a coffee in a wah wah
sandwich and use it, but not very often. So when
I saw this, I wondered, But at least I knew
where she was.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
When did you realize, Miss Kragenbush, something was wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I talked with her on Friday night, and by Monday,
when I couldn't reach her, I was growing increasingly concerned
every day.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So you believe something happened between the Saturday morning at
nine to eleven when we see her at wah wahs
and by Monday morning something was horribly wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It's when I started becoming alarmed, and then there were
fires in the forest. I woke up that morning to
news on the news that there were fires in the forest.
And that's when I call called the missing persons.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Straight out to doctor John Delatory, joining US licensed psychologist,
and you can find him online at resolution FCS dot com.
Dotor Delatory. Thank you for being with us. And that
is what we call routine evidence, habit evidence, evidence of routine.
They talk to each other about twice a day. They
(07:24):
were texting back and forth all the time. We have
seen timeline start based on something as seemingly innocuous as
a dog barking. And that's the Oj Simpson case when
Nicole Brown's dog Akita began to moan and wail and
the neighbors heard it and they had never heard anything
like that before. Here, I would place the time the
(07:47):
timeline starting at about nine to twelve after she walked
out of that wah wah on a Saturday morning, probably
to Sunday night, because by Monday morning her mother realized
something was wrong.
Speaker 8 (08:00):
Yeah, not only that, is that by Monday morning, you
would think then that she would have responded back to
her mother, right. So it's in that time frame that
the behaviors of someone really kind of define what exactly
it is that's going on. If they're still around and
still able to communicate, you would think that they would
engage in a behavior that would suggest that everything is fine.
(08:24):
If they're not able to do that, then perhaps something
else got in the way of them being able to communicate.
Lost the phone, or the power goes out on the phone.
Something happens in that timeframe where she's not able to
say hey to other people, right, whether it's friends, whoever
it is that's in her life, is she's not able
to tell them everything's going okay. Right, I'm just out
(08:45):
here doing for myself now.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
With us Brian Vazgibbons Direct Operations USPA Nationwide Security. He
leads a team of expert investigators specializing in locating missing people. Brian,
the fact that she suddenly stopped, I know it's called
routine evidence evidence of habit, but I would start the
timeline right there because that was a huge departure from
(09:11):
her normal died in the wool routine of talking to mom,
praying with mom on the phone, texting back and forth.
That starts it for me that Saturday when she steps
out of that wah wah.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Certainly.
Speaker 9 (09:23):
And I'm a student of renowned cold case detective Jay
Warner Wallace, who talks about these investigations in three phases,
the fuse, the explosion, and the fallout. Okay, so when
we're talking about what's leading up to her disappearance, we
start that timeline where the departure from her routine behavior begins.
(09:46):
A lack of a response back to a text, lack
of communication.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
We know that her car broke down.
Speaker 9 (09:52):
These are all things that are that fuse of what
happened that described to us the lead up to this event.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Ms Kraich. I think, actually, now that I'm analyzing it,
the timeline starts later based on the new video evidence
you've seen of the go pro But let me ask
you this, So did you call and report missing?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Yes? I did.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
When was that and what happened when you called to
reporter missing?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I believe it was the twenty third that I called Again.
I woke up that morning seeing that there were forest fires,
significant forest fires in the Penn State forest area, and
without having been able to reach her, I didn't was.
I saw her calls, the texts weren't going through, the
(10:38):
calls weren't going through, and I gave it some time
and called. Wednesday, the twenty fourth is when I called
to reporter missing.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Immediately the search is on Listen, believing Danielle is still
in the area. State police launch massive searches for Danielle
throughout the state park. Detectives are also searching for her
blue Tudor two thousand and eight accent that hasn't been
seen since Danielle disappeared. The searches get whiter and whiter
until Danielle's car is found abandoned a week later, roughly
(11:09):
fifteen miles from the campsite. The car is parked in
the center of a large puddle on Los Lane Road,
a dirt path deep in the Penn State Forest.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Sydney Sunder joining me Crime online dot Com investigative reporter
explained to me about the car being found. What can
you tell me about that now? This is after wahwahs.
Speaker 10 (11:29):
Yes, ma'am so. A week into the search for Danielle,
her car is found about fifteen miles from the campsite
where she was staying. The car was parked on a
dirt road deep in the Penn State Forest. This is
a heavily wooded area. It's very rural, but it seems
to be a fairly popular trail. And her car is
parked in this giant mud puddle and it's just sitting there.
(11:52):
The battery is dead.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now, isn't it true? When they jumped it, the emergency
blinkers immediately started fling, and we believe that the flashing
blinkers is what ran out the battery.
Speaker 10 (12:05):
That's correct, Nancy, That's exactly what police believe happened.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Crime Stores with Nancy Grace. Okay, let's see a map
of what we're talking about. Tell me again, Sidney, where
is the car as it relates to the campsite and
as it relates to wah Wahs.
Speaker 10 (12:30):
So the campsite is kind of directly in between both
of these points we see on the map. So she
goes to this Wahwahs in one direction, where her car
is found is fifteen miles from the campsite in the
other direction. So her car is found disabled on this
lost lane road that goes straight through the Penn Forest.
It's a popular trail, but it's rural. It's a dirt path,
(12:52):
it's a heavily wooded area.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
A camping trip in New Jersey's behind barrens turns into
a missing person's. Danielle Lopez's car found abandoned and disabled.
Why did Danielle Lopez vanish?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why does she vanish? And where is she right now? Listen?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Three months after Danielle is reported missing, a couple comes
forward with the possible sighting of Danielle. They give cops
dash cam footage of an encounter with a woman on
Los Lane Road around six pm April thirteenth. The camera
catches Danielle's car seen passing on Lost Lane Road. Danielle
appears to be alone. A few minutes later, they passed
(13:33):
Danielle's car again, but this time it's stuck in the
mud a few feet up the road. The couple checks
on Danielle, who politely declines their offer of aid. Danielle
does not appear distressed, and the couple goes on their way,
leaving Danielle in the woods alone.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
That adds to our timeline, which is extremely significant. Straight
back out to Danielle's mom joining us tonight, begging for
your help in finding her daughter. This family has been
through so much COVID deaths, suicide, more and now this
the mom just wants her daughter back. Tell me what
(14:13):
you know, Miss crack and Bush. About this couple that
comes forward with the signing of Danielle.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
They passed her initially at four o'clock. That's in her car.
They again see her at five point fifty. That's the
last time they saw her. The car was moved out
of the puddle by some people. They I think I
(14:40):
sent you the video that they pulled her car from
the puddle.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Not much further than that. Hold on, let's see that video,
Miss crack and Bush. Hold on just one moment. Let's
pull that up for everyone to see. Okay, go ahead,
Miss crack and Bush.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So again, this is probably about eight o'clock at night,
with Danielle last being seen or spoke and with by
the go pro people at five fifty.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Okay, here is her vehicle getting pulled out of the
mud by some good Samaritans. Now a couple comes forward
with a possible sighting and they give this dash cam
footage of an encounter. It was a lost lane road.
(15:24):
The camera is capturing Daniel's car. Now, this is where
she was pulled out of the mud. Tell me what
the couple says, Miss Quackenbush.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
She asks, I mean when she's walking once they know
she stranded. Yes, yes, they do not offer help, and
she doesn't decline any help. She clearly says, what do
I do? And can you push me out of the puddle?
And when they say no, I mean, daniel appeared no threat.
(15:54):
She was coherent, speaking clearly to them, and they say no.
She said, well, I guess I got myself into this,
I got myself out And she just asked them the
direction towards Oswego Lake, that's the direction she was last
seen walking. That was at five point fifty. The people
(16:15):
that towed the car out did not report to the
police or to the park rangers or anyone that there
was a car out there. The GoPro people did not
render any help to Danielle, nor did they call the
park police or nine one one to say there was
a stranded female alone.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
As at night is approaching, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
To Matthew Mangino joining us, a high profile lawyer, former
district attorney and author of the Executioners Toll, Matthew Mangino,
miss Krackenbush is just trying to find her daughter and
bring her home, and she is laying out time after
time after time when people could have helped her but didn't.
(16:59):
Under our law, in our jurisprudence, there is no duty
to help anyone. So as much as we feel it's wrong,
it's not a crime. Well, certainly, Nancy, it's not a
crime not to render.
Speaker 11 (17:13):
Aid in a situation like this. I mean, it's unfortunate,
it's lost opportunities to help somebody and possibly prevent a
tragedy here, you know, would very easily, you know, just
call the park rangers, just call.
Speaker 12 (17:29):
The police, Just call nine to one one and say, hey,
you know, Knight is approaching and there's a woman by
herself stranded in the woods. You know, you don't necessarily
have to go try to pull the car out, but
at least do something, you know, like any person in
a similar situation might do.
Speaker 13 (17:50):
Just make a phone call, just call the authorities, and
a tragedy may be inverted, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
To Ms Krachenbos joining us, she's begging for your help
to try to find Danielle. So there were multiple times
people could have helped Danielle. Isn't it true she actually
asked them to help, and you said, you're so polite,
They declined.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
She said exactly what do I do, which indicates that
the person's in an unexpected situation and does not know
what to do, so that is asking for help. The
go pro people have changed their story several times based
on information as it comes out. I suppose to appease
their responsibility in this, but nonetheless it would have been
(18:38):
completely different investigation had they not under any obligation, but
had they, out of just being doing the right thing,
had called help for her.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
When you say the go pro people change your story, okay,
what was the first story and how has it changed.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
The first story, they reached out to me saying that
they regretted it. Danielle seemed kind and genuine. The later
indications are that the police have the times wrong. But
the police dumped that GoPro they have the information correct.
(19:18):
They said that Danielle said she had cell phone service
and could call someone. Indications are she did not have
any service in that forest. It's wooded so heavily that
a lot of people don't have service out there. They've
just changed up their story to fit how this story
(19:39):
is going. Again, they didn't come forward with information for
three months into the investigation, where the investigation initially led
me to believe Danielle would not be coming back based
on evidence in the car.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
That wasn't so that.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
That turned out to be different. And I refer to
Danielle in the past tense as a result of that,
I refer to her in the present tense now. But
I have no way of knowing what's happened to her.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
What was miss Crackenbush, What was found in the car?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
They say nothing. Now now they come back at me
and say there wasn't evidence in the car. They didn't,
they didn't follow the evidence.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
They are now.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Danielle Lopez is all smiles as she mis coffee at
a Wawas gas station, her last known sighting. Now does
new video offer a glimmer of hope to the missing
woman's family.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
This beautiful young woman goes camping to watch the eclipse,
She speaks to her mother, and then she's never seen again.
Where is Danielle? Her mother? Sue Quackenbush is with us
tonight asking for your help. The tip line is six
zero nine eight eight two two thousand, repeat six zero
(21:07):
nine eight eight two two thousand. Then hit Extension twenty
two fifty four six zero nine eight eight to two thousand.
There is a five thousand dollars reward in the search
for Danielle Lopez.
Speaker 7 (21:25):
Now I want you to hear what a tipster says.
Another tipster comes forward, claiming to have pulled Danielle's car
out of the mud after she was last seen walking
away on April twelfth. The tipster says the Hyundai's partially
blocking the road, so he peeks inside and decides to
toe it out of the mud. After spotting the keys
through the window, the good Samaritan turns the car back off,
but flips on the flashers, hoping the car's owner will
(21:47):
get the message the car has been rescued and be
pleased with the handiwork on their return.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, Sidney Sumner joining US Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, Sidney,
explain to me again how this tipster fits into the
timeline and now we've got that video.
Speaker 10 (22:03):
Yeah, Nancy, So people have come forward since the search
for Danielle began, so at first we knew she had
stuck this wah wah. We found her car a few
weeks later, but we didn't know what happened after that? Wohah,
the tipster is coming forward. The couple with the GoPro
placed Danielle on Lost Lane Road around four to six pm,
(22:24):
so that's where we see that sighting. And then afterwards
this other person comes forward claiming around eight o'clock they
see Danielle's car. It's kind of blocking the road. It's
stuck in this mud puddle. So they tow the car out,
and in this video we can see Danielle's headlights on,
so the car was obviously functional at this point. When
(22:45):
they tow the car out, the good Samaritan who decided
to do this, turns the flashers on, hoping the owner
will be able to more easily see the car in
the dark, will return, realize their car has been towed,
and be able to get the heck out of there.
Danielle never returns to the car. That's why the battery
was dead when cops find it two weeks later.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Okay, now a more clear timeline is emerging. Brief as Gibbons,
can you believe there were so many chances to help
her and no one did? First? As Miss Quackenbush is
relating on, people come along and she says, I'm stuck.
What do I do? And they decline to help her.
(23:26):
The next thing, you know is Sydney correct me if
I'm wrong. After that, another tipster comes forward and says
he finds the car sitting there in the middle of
the road, well not completely in the middle, but blocking it,
so he takes it ut himself to pull it over
and flip on the emergencies. But in that short space
(23:47):
of time she goes missing.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
Incredibly frustrating Nancy. Two opportunities that wasted precious time for Danielle.
Here right, we have the opportunity number one. The couple
sees her walking down the road. I understand maybe in
the first instance they didn't call for help, but almost
(24:10):
two hours later, to see a woman alone as darkness
is setting in in the woods, that call needed to
be made to authorities to help her.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Ms.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Krackenbush tell me everything you observed on this newly emerging video,
the go pro video, from beginning to end. What do
you see?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I see Danielle pretty carefree. She is just going along
down to this lake Oswego. The significance of Oswego. I
don't know why she was going to that lake. It's
the name of the college. Her uncle went to my thoughts,
so she might have called him from there. She's carefree,
(24:53):
she's just cautious, and they exchanged pleasant trees, and she's
on her way.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Then they come across.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Her stranded, and then they go on to see the
car stuck and stranded.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Okay, one more time, very slowly. From beginning to end.
Miss Krakabush has seen this video. LA Law Enforcement has
not released it yet. From beginning to end, what exactly
do you see in the video?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I see Danielle walking. I can tell she's confused as
to what to do. Why do you say she's confused?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
She didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I saw the apprehension like, uh oh, I've just got
myself into a situation here.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
That's what as a mother saw. She didn't know how
to get out of it.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
But evidently there were plenty of people around that day
and the fact that she just disappeared within that window
of time.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Were the go pro people men or women?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was a man and a woman according to the people.
But I don't hear another woman's voice in there, and
don't see either one of them.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
The GoPros.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Something mounted to the dashboard I only hear his voice.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And what is he saying to hermus Krackenbush can help
you crime stores with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
New Jersey State police have searched both the campground and
Lost Lane Road on foot, horseback, ATVs and with dogs, drones, helicopters,
and a marine unit, turning up no new leads in
Danielle's case. Officers say they've conducted dozens of interviews and
run down every tip they have received to no avail.
Cops say there is no evidence pointing to foul play,
(26:51):
but the investigation is still open and active.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Ms Qrackenbush, what is your response to law enforcement saying
there's no evidence of foul play?
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Initially they said there was under suspicious circumstances. Evan said
that to me, and they say it's active, ongoing and
there'll be more searches. But I could watch that go
pro VIDI about another three hundred more times. I just
know this investigation would be completely different if either of
(27:21):
those people that could have helped.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I've got to say, Matthew Mangino with me, veteran trial
lawyer in the Pennsylvania jurisdiction. Matthew, I find that very
odd when you see a lady alone, a young woman
alone in a disley wooded forest at night, and she
asked for help, and the words Miss Quackenbush said were,
(27:46):
I can't help you. I can't help you. I find
that very very unusual, to the point of being suspicious.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, it is certainly strange.
Speaker 12 (27:58):
I mean, at a minimum, you know you would say,
to a woman's stranded in the woods, if you feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 11 (28:04):
About putting her in your car, say hey, go.
Speaker 12 (28:07):
Back to your vehicle.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I'm going to leave and I'm going to call for help.
Speaker 12 (28:11):
They don't have to give her a ride out of
the woods necessarily, but at least give.
Speaker 14 (28:15):
Her some direction and provide her with an opportunity to
get some help. I mean, their.
Speaker 12 (28:21):
Failure to do anything in this situation not only is
improper in terms of trying to find Danielle.
Speaker 13 (28:28):
Immediately or help her, but also making it very difficult
to properly investigate this case because so much time passed
between when she was last seen and when she was
reported missing.
Speaker 10 (28:41):
And that's unfortunate.
Speaker 14 (28:43):
If they had done something earlier, at least you could
have had an immediate, meaningful investigation of her disappearance or
much better, they would have found her at her car
and helped her and got.
Speaker 11 (28:57):
Her out of the woods and back home.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
If it's given is I'm question the words I can't
help you, Not that I question was Krackenbush. I'm sure
she's telling us what she saw on that GoPro and
what she heard, But that level of disregard for this
young woman alone out in the woods at night, on
foot asking for help, I can't help you. To me,
(29:23):
that rises to a level of suspicion on whoever had
that GoPro.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
Certainly, and this is contrary to what we see in
most missing persons cases that take place in the backcountry.
Folks that are camping, hiking, exploring these backcountry areas typically
provide a genuine and tremendous amount of assistance to somebody
in need of help. So this is outside of the
norm of what we typically see with these types of cases.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You know, I'm just trying to make sense of it.
On Sidney Sumner joining us Crimeline dot com, Sydney, what
exactly are police saying? Are they saying they don't suspect
foul play?
Speaker 10 (30:02):
That's correct, Nancy. According to detectives with the New Jersey
State police, they have no evidence supporting foul play being
involved in her disappearance.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Delatory, do you ever get tired of hearing that a
young girl or woman goes missing? I remember when Stacy
Peterson went missing and her husband, a cop, says she's
just with her new boyfriend that would be Jerry Peterson,
and everybody just accepted it. I mean, over and over,
she's dead, over and over and over we hear no
(30:38):
foul play. Why does that keep happening? People just chalk
it off what she's slung up with another guy that
didn't happen.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
Yeah, the problem is is the decision making that goes
into when you're conducting an investigation, because when you don't
find something as an investigator, as just a human being,
when you don't find evidence of something, you can jump
to the conclusion that the thing that you would be
typically doing an investigation didn't happen. And that's a falsehood, right,
That's that's a complete falsehood because any number of things
(31:08):
could have contributed to an investigator not finding the evidence
of foul play. And currently we're seeing a lot of issues,
including with this so called couple with the GoPro that
needs to be investigated further. If you if you investigate
under the assumption that something happened, then you can start
looking for things that maybe support it or don't support it.
(31:28):
But you can't just outright say because then that's another
issue that's coming into play with not being able to find.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Daniel ms Krackenbush. Have you met with the go Pro couple?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
No, No, they won't. I asked no.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
No to say, they've asked what I've asked them if
they would release that go Pro video. To me, the
investigation is with the Major Crimes Unit. It is not
with missing persons. The investigtion is with the Major Crimes Unit.
(32:04):
So that indicates that a crime or something that they
know that a crime has occurred.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So them saying they don't suspect foul play, you don't
believe that because this has gone to Major crimes.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, they never said that they don't suspect foul play
to me, they have not said that.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
So the go Pro couple, you say you have not
met with them, though.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
The police asked them not to have any further communication
with me after asking them if I could have the video.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So you asked for the video? What did they say?
Speaker 4 (32:34):
The State Police asked them not to release it.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Why.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I don't suppose there is a why. I guess it's evidence.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I can't say they just I would watch that over
and over and over and over, and I've only been
given limited time to see it, in each time looking
for jewelry she had on, or looking at it differently,
but I've been allowed three times to see it.
Speaker 7 (33:02):
Danielle Lopez is five foot four inches tall, one hundred
and thirty five pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Danielle usually wears glasses and was last seen wearing a
black long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and light colored shoes.
Sue Quackenbush desperate to bring her daughter home and asking
the public for their health. There's a limited time five
thousand dollars reward for information leading directly to Danielle Lopez.
(33:23):
If you have any information on Danielle Lopez, please call
New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit six h nine
eight A two two thousand, extension twenty five fifty four,
or call the Community United Efforts Center twenty four hour
hotline at nine to one zero two three two one
six eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
There is a five thousand dollars reward in exchange for
information leading to Danielle Lopez is whereabouts now. Everyone that
seemingly passed her and did nothing is in farc is
in stark contrast to.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
This September first, five days after Gabby of Patito leaves
a restaurant in Wyoming crying while Brian Laundry is angry
with staff, Brian Laundry arrives in the Northport home he
and Gabby Patito share with Laundry's parents. Brian Laundry has
driven Gabby of Potito's van back to Florida, but Gabby
is not with him. When he arrives, he.
Speaker 15 (34:19):
Is apologizing, but I guess I said it in like
a mean tone, and he really frustrated with me, and
he bought a car and told me to let's take
a breathing, but I didn't want to see a breather
and I wanted to get going.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
We're out of water. More upsets, Yah, didn't help? More
upset Yeah, And.
Speaker 15 (34:38):
So our goal was to come here and come retil
our water.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Are you guys living the van right now? On travels?
Speaker 10 (34:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (34:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
An opportunity for law enforcement to have saved Gabby Potito's life. Instead,
they named her the aggressor and sent the couple on
their way. She was then murdered by Brian Lawlaundry, who
then drove her for a transit back across the country
and started scheming and plotting to hide what had happened.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Ms.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Krackenbush, you state that you look at that go pro
video when you had the limited access to it over
and over and over again of your daughter.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Why it's the last known I have of her.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I'm just stuck by the fact that they didn't offer help.
I hope to see something new each time, but again
I don't have it, so I can't look at it.
I've only seen it three times.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Again.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Danielle's boyfriend didn't report her missing for several weeks after
I did, so there's wonder about that as well.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
That's true, Sydney Soner. Her boyfriend did not report her missing.
Speaker 10 (36:04):
Correct, Nancy. The boyfriend who apparently she was camping with
that weekend did not report her missing.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Sidney, do we know why he did not report her missing?
I mean, obviously they had split up, but why did
he leave her to start with?
Speaker 10 (36:19):
Well, Nancy, we know that Danielle was not alone at
the wahahs, but police had not released who she was with.
She was traveling with someone Saturday morning, but correct by
four pm she was alone on Los Leanne Road. We
don't know why the boyfriend abandoned her, where he went,
if he truly abandoned her. We know that police have
(36:40):
spoken with him. He's given a statement, but police had
not released any details about what he told them.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Miss Quickenbush, you stated that go Pro is the last
known siding of Danielle. When you were watching it over
and over, what did you hope to learn again?
Speaker 4 (36:59):
I only three times, but I don't know what's to learn.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
But if I know the police have watched it hundreds
of times, I just hope if I saw anything something.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
I know that her tent was removed from.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
The campsite and she had been paid through some more time.
So I just would like to see the evidence or
the car. If there's no evidence, I'd like to see
her things that that might lead to something that maybe
only a mother knows and detectives don't.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
I search.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I do something every day for this and getting the
billboards and trying to.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Come up with answers.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Where did you put together the money for the reward?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That is the Q Center the Community United Effort for
Missing Persons out of Wilmington, North Carolina that offered and
put up the reward. The billboard time was donated. After
many phone calls to billboard companies, they did donate that time.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
The billboard will be up.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
For thirty days. Brian, do you ever just get exhausted
with hearing moms and family members seemingly doing it all
on their own, all alone, trying to find their daughter.
Speaker 9 (38:25):
It tears your heart out, Nancy, And that's one of
the reasons that we keep doing what we do at USPA,
is to provide a voice, in some shred of hope
to these families who have endured so much.
Speaker 10 (38:39):
Ms.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Quick and Bush, I have a little girl. I cannot
imagine life without her or my son. What is your
message to everyone listening tonight to.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Please please reach out. Someone knows something. This someone he
knows something. I reached out to the Gabby Potito Foundation,
I reached out to many foundations just.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Wondering how to get more attention for this.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
So, Nancy, I really appreciate you taking the time to
do this for Danielle. I just want people to know
that infectious smile, her kind and generous ways, how important
family is to her, that all matters. I love her deeply,
(39:35):
and I'll never stop doing whatever it is I can do.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Miss Rackenbush, We're not just airing this. We are praying
for answers and that somehow Danielle is brought back to
you again. The tip line is six zero nine eight
eight to two thousand, extension two five four repeat six
(40:03):
zero nine eight eight to two two thousand. There is
a five thousand dollars reward for information leading to Danielle Lopez.
We remember American hero Detective Terrence Green, Fulton County Sheriffs,
shot and killed in the line of duty, Survived by
(40:23):
wife turned widow, Chavelle, and sons Marquis, Isaiah, Willie and Samuel.
American hero Detective Terence Green, Nancy Grace signing off goodbye
for
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. New video just emerging after
a missing Jersey woman's car is found disabled in Pine
barrens tonight. Where is Danielle? I mean to see Grace.
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
A New Jersey woman's baffling disappearance mild camping leaves her
mother searching for answers. What happened to Danielle?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How could this beautiful young woman just vanish off the
face of the earth just like that? I don't buy it, okay,
how did the whole thing start? Listen?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Saturday, Sue texts Danielle to check in, but doesn't get
a response. That's not completely unusual, But as Sue sends
several more texts and call multiple times with no response,
she begins to fear something is wrong. When it's been
a week with no contact with Danielle, Sue reports Danielle
missing to the New Jersey State Police officers begin and
(01:00):
intense investigation, trying to retrace Danielle's steps.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Joining me in All Star Pale, but straight out to
Danielle's mom suit Quack and Bush, Miss Qurack and Bush.
Thank you for being with us. I'm going to get
to the video in just one moment. But miss crack
and Bush, when is the last time you spoke with
your daughter?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Friday night, April twelfth, and what was your conversation? It
was a good conversation. She said she was camping. I
wondered why she was there. I guess there was, Well,
there was an eclipse.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Then we talked. We talked.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I prayed with her. She struggled since the loss of
her brothers and her father and grandfather. But she was
sounding okay.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
She it's just a regular conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
She was camping to look at the eclipse. That was
my understanding, okay, And she seemed in good spirits. She
was okay. When you state that you prayed with her,
that's because she had suffered loss, as had you.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
What had happened In two thousand and fifteen, I lost
my oldest son to suicide. Not ten months later I
lost my youngest son who was serving as a marine.
Twenty twenty, Danielle lost her grandfather that she was living
(02:34):
with to COVID, and a month later her father to
COVID as well.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Your family has been through so much and now this
Mss Quackenbush, how as a crime victim myself. I'm always curious,
how do you get to sleep at night? How do
you take your mind off Danielle missing even for five minutes.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's not easy. I have strong faith that this will
be made right, but it's it's not easy.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Miss Quackenbush spoke to her daughter that day. Everything was fine. Listen.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Danielle Lopez is in frequent contact with her mom and
calls her from the Brendan T. Burns State Forest Campground
Friday night. Sue tells her daughter it sounds like fun.
Danielle hasn't been camping since she was a little girl.
Danielle tells Sue to stop worrying. When Sue questions if
it's warm enough to be camping, Danielle ends their conversation
with the usual I love you and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Joining me is Danielle's mom, Sue Quackenbush. Miss Quackenbush, you
stated that everything seemed fine. You guys typically prayed together
over the phone. That was not unusual. So she goes
out camping to see the eclipse, and you are actually
worried that she might get cold. Yes, well, describe that
(04:06):
part of the conversation. I just said it's April's cold
at night. She assured me she had a heater, a campfire,
and but she was okay. She struggled a lot after
the losses. Danielle struggled a lot. So I what do
(04:26):
you mean by struggled.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
After the loss of her father. She had resources and
so she wasn't working. It didn't change anything, just I'm
a mom having lost two children.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I was.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Very much in touch with her, calling.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Her twice a day.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
We didn't always speak twice a day, but it called
her twice a day.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
So you guys were in very very close contact. Has
there ever been a time when it's been over a
month that you don't speak to her?
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Never?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Okay, to the moment that Danielle seemingly just vanished off
a very very popular hiking trail listen.
Speaker 7 (05:08):
At nine to eleven am Saturday morning, Danielle is spotted
on surveillance footage buying coffee from a wah wah in Vincentown,
about a ten minute drive from the campsite. Danielle does
not appear to be in distress. Danielle uses a wah
Wah rewards card she shares with her mother, Regarded by
both as emergency money to make her purchases that morning.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Okay, there is Danielle and this is nine to eleven
am on a Saturday morning, spotted in a wah wah
in Vincentown. That's only a few minutes away from the
campsite where she was. Now, she's obviously not in any
distress at all, and she uses the Wahwah rewards card
(05:47):
she shared with her mom. Now, Miss Kragenbush, why did
you regard that as quote emergency money? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Danielle, I had resources, but as a mom, if she
ever needed asked if she ever needed anything. We've had
it since she was probably eighteen that we've shared it.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But there were.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Times where she'd grab a coffee in a wah wah
sandwich and use it, but not very often. So when
I saw this, I wondered, But at least I knew
where she was.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
When did you realize, Miss Kragenbush, something was wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I talked with her on Friday night, and by Monday,
when I couldn't reach her, I was growing increasingly concerned
every day.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So you believe something happened between the Saturday morning at
nine to eleven when we see her at wah wahs
and by Monday morning something was horribly wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It's when I started becoming alarmed, and then there were
fires in the forest. I woke up that morning to
news on the news that there were fires in the forest.
And that's when I call called the missing persons.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Straight out to doctor John Delatory, joining US licensed psychologist,
and you can find him online at resolution FCS dot com.
Dotor Delatory. Thank you for being with us. And that
is what we call routine evidence, habit evidence, evidence of routine.
They talk to each other about twice a day. They
(07:24):
were texting back and forth all the time. We have
seen timeline start based on something as seemingly innocuous as
a dog barking. And that's the Oj Simpson case when
Nicole Brown's dog Akita began to moan and wail and
the neighbors heard it and they had never heard anything
like that before. Here, I would place the time the
(07:47):
timeline starting at about nine to twelve after she walked
out of that wah wah on a Saturday morning, probably
to Sunday night, because by Monday morning her mother realized
something was wrong.
Speaker 8 (08:00):
Yeah, not only that, is that by Monday morning, you
would think then that she would have responded back to
her mother, right. So it's in that time frame that
the behaviors of someone really kind of define what exactly
it is that's going on. If they're still around and
still able to communicate, you would think that they would
engage in a behavior that would suggest that everything is fine.
(08:24):
If they're not able to do that, then perhaps something
else got in the way of them being able to communicate.
Lost the phone, or the power goes out on the phone.
Something happens in that timeframe where she's not able to
say hey to other people, right, whether it's friends, whoever
it is that's in her life, is she's not able
to tell them everything's going okay. Right, I'm just out
(08:45):
here doing for myself now.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
With us Brian Vazgibbons Direct Operations USPA Nationwide Security. He
leads a team of expert investigators specializing in locating missing people. Brian,
the fact that she suddenly stopped, I know it's called
routine evidence evidence of habit, but I would start the
timeline right there because that was a huge departure from
(09:11):
her normal died in the wool routine of talking to mom,
praying with mom on the phone, texting back and forth.
That starts it for me that Saturday when she steps
out of that wah wah.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Certainly.
Speaker 9 (09:23):
And I'm a student of renowned cold case detective Jay
Warner Wallace, who talks about these investigations in three phases,
the fuse, the explosion, and the fallout. Okay, so when
we're talking about what's leading up to her disappearance, we
start that timeline where the departure from her routine behavior begins.
(09:46):
A lack of a response back to a text, lack
of communication.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
We know that her car broke down.
Speaker 9 (09:52):
These are all things that are that fuse of what
happened that described to us the lead up to this event.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Ms Kraich. I think, actually, now that I'm analyzing it,
the timeline starts later based on the new video evidence
you've seen of the go pro But let me ask
you this, So did you call and report missing?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Yes? I did.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
When was that and what happened when you called to
reporter missing?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I believe it was the twenty third that I called Again.
I woke up that morning seeing that there were forest fires,
significant forest fires in the Penn State forest area, and
without having been able to reach her, I didn't was.
I saw her calls, the texts weren't going through, the
(10:38):
calls weren't going through, and I gave it some time
and called. Wednesday, the twenty fourth is when I called
to reporter missing.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Immediately the search is on Listen, believing Danielle is still
in the area. State police launch massive searches for Danielle
throughout the state park. Detectives are also searching for her
blue Tudor two thousand and eight accent that hasn't been
seen since Danielle disappeared. The searches get whiter and whiter
until Danielle's car is found abandoned a week later, roughly
(11:09):
fifteen miles from the campsite. The car is parked in
the center of a large puddle on Los Lane Road,
a dirt path deep in the Penn State Forest.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Sydney Sunder joining me Crime online dot Com investigative reporter
explained to me about the car being found. What can
you tell me about that now? This is after wahwahs.
Speaker 10 (11:29):
Yes, ma'am so. A week into the search for Danielle,
her car is found about fifteen miles from the campsite
where she was staying. The car was parked on a
dirt road deep in the Penn State Forest. This is
a heavily wooded area. It's very rural, but it seems
to be a fairly popular trail. And her car is
parked in this giant mud puddle and it's just sitting there.
(11:52):
The battery is dead.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now, isn't it true? When they jumped it, the emergency
blinkers immediately started fling, and we believe that the flashing
blinkers is what ran out the battery.
Speaker 10 (12:05):
That's correct, Nancy, That's exactly what police believe happened.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Crime Stores with Nancy Grace. Okay, let's see a map
of what we're talking about. Tell me again, Sidney, where
is the car as it relates to the campsite and
as it relates to wah Wahs.
Speaker 10 (12:30):
So the campsite is kind of directly in between both
of these points we see on the map. So she
goes to this Wahwahs in one direction, where her car
is found is fifteen miles from the campsite in the
other direction. So her car is found disabled on this
lost lane road that goes straight through the Penn Forest.
It's a popular trail, but it's rural. It's a dirt path,
(12:52):
it's a heavily wooded area.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
A camping trip in New Jersey's behind barrens turns into
a missing person's. Danielle Lopez's car found abandoned and disabled.
Why did Danielle Lopez vanish?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why does she vanish? And where is she right now? Listen?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Three months after Danielle is reported missing, a couple comes
forward with the possible sighting of Danielle. They give cops
dash cam footage of an encounter with a woman on
Los Lane Road around six pm April thirteenth. The camera
catches Danielle's car seen passing on Lost Lane Road. Danielle
appears to be alone. A few minutes later, they passed
(13:33):
Danielle's car again, but this time it's stuck in the
mud a few feet up the road. The couple checks
on Danielle, who politely declines their offer of aid. Danielle
does not appear distressed, and the couple goes on their way,
leaving Danielle in the woods alone.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
That adds to our timeline, which is extremely significant. Straight
back out to Danielle's mom joining us tonight, begging for
your help in finding her daughter. This family has been
through so much COVID deaths, suicide, more and now this
the mom just wants her daughter back. Tell me what
(14:13):
you know, Miss crack and Bush. About this couple that
comes forward with the signing of Danielle.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
They passed her initially at four o'clock. That's in her car.
They again see her at five point fifty. That's the
last time they saw her. The car was moved out
of the puddle by some people. They I think I
(14:40):
sent you the video that they pulled her car from
the puddle.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Not much further than that. Hold on, let's see that video,
Miss crack and Bush. Hold on just one moment. Let's
pull that up for everyone to see. Okay, go ahead,
Miss crack and Bush.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So again, this is probably about eight o'clock at night,
with Danielle last being seen or spoke and with by
the go pro people at five fifty.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Okay, here is her vehicle getting pulled out of the
mud by some good Samaritans. Now a couple comes forward
with a possible sighting and they give this dash cam
footage of an encounter. It was a lost lane road.
(15:24):
The camera is capturing Daniel's car. Now, this is where
she was pulled out of the mud. Tell me what
the couple says, Miss Quackenbush.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
She asks, I mean when she's walking once they know
she stranded. Yes, yes, they do not offer help, and
she doesn't decline any help. She clearly says, what do
I do? And can you push me out of the puddle?
And when they say no, I mean, daniel appeared no threat.
(15:54):
She was coherent, speaking clearly to them, and they say no.
She said, well, I guess I got myself into this,
I got myself out And she just asked them the
direction towards Oswego Lake, that's the direction she was last
seen walking. That was at five point fifty. The people
(16:15):
that towed the car out did not report to the
police or to the park rangers or anyone that there
was a car out there. The GoPro people did not
render any help to Danielle, nor did they call the
park police or nine one one to say there was
a stranded female alone.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
As at night is approaching, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
To Matthew Mangino joining us, a high profile lawyer, former
district attorney and author of the Executioners Toll, Matthew Mangino,
miss Krackenbush is just trying to find her daughter and
bring her home, and she is laying out time after
time after time when people could have helped her but didn't.
(16:59):
Under our law, in our jurisprudence, there is no duty
to help anyone. So as much as we feel it's wrong,
it's not a crime. Well, certainly, Nancy, it's not a
crime not to render.
Speaker 11 (17:13):
Aid in a situation like this. I mean, it's unfortunate,
it's lost opportunities to help somebody and possibly prevent a
tragedy here, you know, would very easily, you know, just
call the park rangers, just call.
Speaker 12 (17:29):
The police, Just call nine to one one and say, hey,
you know, Knight is approaching and there's a woman by
herself stranded in the woods. You know, you don't necessarily
have to go try to pull the car out, but
at least do something, you know, like any person in
a similar situation might do.
Speaker 13 (17:50):
Just make a phone call, just call the authorities, and
a tragedy may be inverted, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
To Ms Krachenbos joining us, she's begging for your help
to try to find Danielle. So there were multiple times
people could have helped Danielle. Isn't it true she actually
asked them to help, and you said, you're so polite,
They declined.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
She said exactly what do I do, which indicates that
the person's in an unexpected situation and does not know
what to do, so that is asking for help. The
go pro people have changed their story several times based
on information as it comes out. I suppose to appease
their responsibility in this, but nonetheless it would have been
(18:38):
completely different investigation had they not under any obligation, but
had they, out of just being doing the right thing,
had called help for her.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
When you say the go pro people change your story, okay,
what was the first story and how has it changed.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
The first story, they reached out to me saying that
they regretted it. Danielle seemed kind and genuine. The later
indications are that the police have the times wrong. But
the police dumped that GoPro they have the information correct.
(19:18):
They said that Danielle said she had cell phone service
and could call someone. Indications are she did not have
any service in that forest. It's wooded so heavily that
a lot of people don't have service out there. They've
just changed up their story to fit how this story
(19:39):
is going. Again, they didn't come forward with information for
three months into the investigation, where the investigation initially led
me to believe Danielle would not be coming back based
on evidence in the car.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
That wasn't so that.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
That turned out to be different. And I refer to
Danielle in the past tense as a result of that,
I refer to her in the present tense now. But
I have no way of knowing what's happened to her.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
What was miss Crackenbush, What was found in the car?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
They say nothing. Now now they come back at me
and say there wasn't evidence in the car. They didn't,
they didn't follow the evidence.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
They are now.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Danielle Lopez is all smiles as she mis coffee at
a Wawas gas station, her last known sighting. Now does
new video offer a glimmer of hope to the missing
woman's family.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
This beautiful young woman goes camping to watch the eclipse,
She speaks to her mother, and then she's never seen again.
Where is Danielle? Her mother? Sue Quackenbush is with us
tonight asking for your help. The tip line is six
zero nine eight eight two two thousand, repeat six zero
(21:07):
nine eight eight two two thousand. Then hit Extension twenty
two fifty four six zero nine eight eight to two thousand.
There is a five thousand dollars reward in the search
for Danielle Lopez.
Speaker 7 (21:25):
Now I want you to hear what a tipster says.
Another tipster comes forward, claiming to have pulled Danielle's car
out of the mud after she was last seen walking
away on April twelfth. The tipster says the Hyundai's partially
blocking the road, so he peeks inside and decides to
toe it out of the mud. After spotting the keys
through the window, the good Samaritan turns the car back off,
but flips on the flashers, hoping the car's owner will
(21:47):
get the message the car has been rescued and be
pleased with the handiwork on their return.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, Sidney Sumner joining US Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, Sidney,
explain to me again how this tipster fits into the
timeline and now we've got that video.
Speaker 10 (22:03):
Yeah, Nancy, So people have come forward since the search
for Danielle began, so at first we knew she had
stuck this wah wah. We found her car a few
weeks later, but we didn't know what happened after that? Wohah,
the tipster is coming forward. The couple with the GoPro
placed Danielle on Lost Lane Road around four to six pm,
(22:24):
so that's where we see that sighting. And then afterwards
this other person comes forward claiming around eight o'clock they
see Danielle's car. It's kind of blocking the road. It's
stuck in this mud puddle. So they tow the car out,
and in this video we can see Danielle's headlights on,
so the car was obviously functional at this point. When
(22:45):
they tow the car out, the good Samaritan who decided
to do this, turns the flashers on, hoping the owner
will be able to more easily see the car in
the dark, will return, realize their car has been towed,
and be able to get the heck out of there.
Danielle never returns to the car. That's why the battery
was dead when cops find it two weeks later.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Okay, now a more clear timeline is emerging. Brief as Gibbons,
can you believe there were so many chances to help
her and no one did? First? As Miss Quackenbush is
relating on, people come along and she says, I'm stuck.
What do I do? And they decline to help her.
(23:26):
The next thing, you know is Sydney correct me if
I'm wrong. After that, another tipster comes forward and says
he finds the car sitting there in the middle of
the road, well not completely in the middle, but blocking it,
so he takes it ut himself to pull it over
and flip on the emergencies. But in that short space
(23:47):
of time she goes missing.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
Incredibly frustrating Nancy. Two opportunities that wasted precious time for Danielle.
Here right, we have the opportunity number one. The couple
sees her walking down the road. I understand maybe in
the first instance they didn't call for help, but almost
(24:10):
two hours later, to see a woman alone as darkness
is setting in in the woods, that call needed to
be made to authorities to help her.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Ms.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Krackenbush tell me everything you observed on this newly emerging video,
the go pro video, from beginning to end. What do
you see?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I see Danielle pretty carefree. She is just going along
down to this lake Oswego. The significance of Oswego. I
don't know why she was going to that lake. It's
the name of the college. Her uncle went to my thoughts,
so she might have called him from there. She's carefree,
(24:53):
she's just cautious, and they exchanged pleasant trees, and she's
on her way.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Then they come across.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Her stranded, and then they go on to see the
car stuck and stranded.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Okay, one more time, very slowly. From beginning to end.
Miss Krakabush has seen this video. LA Law Enforcement has
not released it yet. From beginning to end, what exactly
do you see in the video?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I see Danielle walking. I can tell she's confused as
to what to do. Why do you say she's confused?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
She didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I saw the apprehension like, uh oh, I've just got
myself into a situation here.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
That's what as a mother saw. She didn't know how
to get out of it.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
But evidently there were plenty of people around that day
and the fact that she just disappeared within that window
of time.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Were the go pro people men or women?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was a man and a woman according to the people.
But I don't hear another woman's voice in there, and
don't see either one of them.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
The GoPros.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Something mounted to the dashboard I only hear his voice.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And what is he saying to hermus Krackenbush can help
you crime stores with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
New Jersey State police have searched both the campground and
Lost Lane Road on foot, horseback, ATVs and with dogs, drones, helicopters,
and a marine unit, turning up no new leads in
Danielle's case. Officers say they've conducted dozens of interviews and
run down every tip they have received to no avail.
Cops say there is no evidence pointing to foul play,
(26:51):
but the investigation is still open and active.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Ms Qrackenbush, what is your response to law enforcement saying
there's no evidence of foul play?
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Initially they said there was under suspicious circumstances. Evan said
that to me, and they say it's active, ongoing and
there'll be more searches. But I could watch that go
pro VIDI about another three hundred more times. I just
know this investigation would be completely different if either of
(27:21):
those people that could have helped.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I've got to say, Matthew Mangino with me, veteran trial
lawyer in the Pennsylvania jurisdiction. Matthew, I find that very
odd when you see a lady alone, a young woman
alone in a disley wooded forest at night, and she
asked for help, and the words Miss Quackenbush said were,
(27:46):
I can't help you. I can't help you. I find
that very very unusual, to the point of being suspicious.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, it is certainly strange.
Speaker 12 (27:58):
I mean, at a minimum, you know you would say,
to a woman's stranded in the woods, if you feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 11 (28:04):
About putting her in your car, say hey, go.
Speaker 12 (28:07):
Back to your vehicle.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I'm going to leave and I'm going to call for help.
Speaker 12 (28:11):
They don't have to give her a ride out of
the woods necessarily, but at least give.
Speaker 14 (28:15):
Her some direction and provide her with an opportunity to
get some help. I mean, their.
Speaker 12 (28:21):
Failure to do anything in this situation not only is
improper in terms of trying to find Danielle.
Speaker 13 (28:28):
Immediately or help her, but also making it very difficult
to properly investigate this case because so much time passed
between when she was last seen and when she was
reported missing.
Speaker 10 (28:41):
And that's unfortunate.
Speaker 14 (28:43):
If they had done something earlier, at least you could
have had an immediate, meaningful investigation of her disappearance or
much better, they would have found her at her car
and helped her and got.
Speaker 11 (28:57):
Her out of the woods and back home.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
If it's given is I'm question the words I can't
help you, Not that I question was Krackenbush. I'm sure
she's telling us what she saw on that GoPro and
what she heard, But that level of disregard for this
young woman alone out in the woods at night, on
foot asking for help, I can't help you. To me,
(29:23):
that rises to a level of suspicion on whoever had
that GoPro.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
Certainly, and this is contrary to what we see in
most missing persons cases that take place in the backcountry.
Folks that are camping, hiking, exploring these backcountry areas typically
provide a genuine and tremendous amount of assistance to somebody
in need of help. So this is outside of the
norm of what we typically see with these types of cases.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You know, I'm just trying to make sense of it.
On Sidney Sumner joining us Crimeline dot com, Sydney, what
exactly are police saying? Are they saying they don't suspect
foul play?
Speaker 10 (30:02):
That's correct, Nancy. According to detectives with the New Jersey
State police, they have no evidence supporting foul play being
involved in her disappearance.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Delatory, do you ever get tired of hearing that a
young girl or woman goes missing? I remember when Stacy
Peterson went missing and her husband, a cop, says she's
just with her new boyfriend that would be Jerry Peterson,
and everybody just accepted it. I mean, over and over,
she's dead, over and over and over we hear no
(30:38):
foul play. Why does that keep happening? People just chalk
it off what she's slung up with another guy that
didn't happen.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
Yeah, the problem is is the decision making that goes
into when you're conducting an investigation, because when you don't
find something as an investigator, as just a human being,
when you don't find evidence of something, you can jump
to the conclusion that the thing that you would be
typically doing an investigation didn't happen. And that's a falsehood, right,
That's that's a complete falsehood because any number of things
(31:08):
could have contributed to an investigator not finding the evidence
of foul play. And currently we're seeing a lot of issues,
including with this so called couple with the GoPro that
needs to be investigated further. If you if you investigate
under the assumption that something happened, then you can start
looking for things that maybe support it or don't support it.
(31:28):
But you can't just outright say because then that's another
issue that's coming into play with not being able to find.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Daniel ms Krackenbush. Have you met with the go Pro couple?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
No, No, they won't. I asked no.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
No to say, they've asked what I've asked them if
they would release that go Pro video. To me, the
investigation is with the Major Crimes Unit. It is not
with missing persons. The investigtion is with the Major Crimes Unit.
(32:04):
So that indicates that a crime or something that they
know that a crime has occurred.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So them saying they don't suspect foul play, you don't
believe that because this has gone to Major crimes.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, they never said that they don't suspect foul play
to me, they have not said that.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
So the go Pro couple, you say you have not
met with them, though.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
The police asked them not to have any further communication
with me after asking them if I could have the video.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So you asked for the video? What did they say?
Speaker 4 (32:34):
The State Police asked them not to release it.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Why.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I don't suppose there is a why. I guess it's evidence.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I can't say they just I would watch that over
and over and over and over, and I've only been
given limited time to see it, in each time looking
for jewelry she had on, or looking at it differently,
but I've been allowed three times to see it.
Speaker 7 (33:02):
Danielle Lopez is five foot four inches tall, one hundred
and thirty five pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Danielle usually wears glasses and was last seen wearing a
black long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and light colored shoes.
Sue Quackenbush desperate to bring her daughter home and asking
the public for their health. There's a limited time five
thousand dollars reward for information leading directly to Danielle Lopez.
(33:23):
If you have any information on Danielle Lopez, please call
New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit six h nine
eight A two two thousand, extension twenty five fifty four,
or call the Community United Efforts Center twenty four hour
hotline at nine to one zero two three two one
six eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
There is a five thousand dollars reward in exchange for
information leading to Danielle Lopez is whereabouts now. Everyone that
seemingly passed her and did nothing is in farc is
in stark contrast to.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
This September first, five days after Gabby of Patito leaves
a restaurant in Wyoming crying while Brian Laundry is angry
with staff, Brian Laundry arrives in the Northport home he
and Gabby Patito share with Laundry's parents. Brian Laundry has
driven Gabby of Potito's van back to Florida, but Gabby
is not with him. When he arrives, he.
Speaker 15 (34:19):
Is apologizing, but I guess I said it in like
a mean tone, and he really frustrated with me, and
he bought a car and told me to let's take
a breathing, but I didn't want to see a breather
and I wanted to get going.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
We're out of water. More upsets, Yah, didn't help? More
upset Yeah, And.
Speaker 15 (34:38):
So our goal was to come here and come retil
our water.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Are you guys living the van right now? On travels?
Speaker 10 (34:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (34:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
An opportunity for law enforcement to have saved Gabby Potito's life. Instead,
they named her the aggressor and sent the couple on
their way. She was then murdered by Brian Lawlaundry, who
then drove her for a transit back across the country
and started scheming and plotting to hide what had happened.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Ms.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Krackenbush, you state that you look at that go pro
video when you had the limited access to it over
and over and over again of your daughter.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Why it's the last known I have of her.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I'm just stuck by the fact that they didn't offer help.
I hope to see something new each time, but again
I don't have it, so I can't look at it.
I've only seen it three times.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Again.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Danielle's boyfriend didn't report her missing for several weeks after
I did, so there's wonder about that as well.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
That's true, Sydney Soner. Her boyfriend did not report her missing.
Speaker 10 (36:04):
Correct, Nancy. The boyfriend who apparently she was camping with
that weekend did not report her missing.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Sidney, do we know why he did not report her missing?
I mean, obviously they had split up, but why did
he leave her to start with?
Speaker 10 (36:19):
Well, Nancy, we know that Danielle was not alone at
the wahahs, but police had not released who she was with.
She was traveling with someone Saturday morning, but correct by
four pm she was alone on Los Leanne Road. We
don't know why the boyfriend abandoned her, where he went,
if he truly abandoned her. We know that police have
(36:40):
spoken with him. He's given a statement, but police had
not released any details about what he told them.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Miss Quickenbush, you stated that go Pro is the last
known siding of Danielle. When you were watching it over
and over, what did you hope to learn again?
Speaker 4 (36:59):
I only three times, but I don't know what's to learn.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
But if I know the police have watched it hundreds
of times, I just hope if I saw anything something.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
I know that her tent was removed from.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
The campsite and she had been paid through some more time.
So I just would like to see the evidence or
the car. If there's no evidence, I'd like to see
her things that that might lead to something that maybe
only a mother knows and detectives don't.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
I search.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I do something every day for this and getting the
billboards and trying to.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Come up with answers.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Where did you put together the money for the reward?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That is the Q Center the Community United Effort for
Missing Persons out of Wilmington, North Carolina that offered and
put up the reward. The billboard time was donated. After
many phone calls to billboard companies, they did donate that time.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
The billboard will be up.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
For thirty days. Brian, do you ever just get exhausted
with hearing moms and family members seemingly doing it all
on their own, all alone, trying to find their daughter.
Speaker 9 (38:25):
It tears your heart out, Nancy, And that's one of
the reasons that we keep doing what we do at USPA,
is to provide a voice, in some shred of hope
to these families who have endured so much.
Speaker 10 (38:39):
Ms.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Quick and Bush, I have a little girl. I cannot
imagine life without her or my son. What is your
message to everyone listening tonight to.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Please please reach out. Someone knows something. This someone he
knows something. I reached out to the Gabby Potito Foundation,
I reached out to many foundations just.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Wondering how to get more attention for this.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
So, Nancy, I really appreciate you taking the time to
do this for Danielle. I just want people to know
that infectious smile, her kind and generous ways, how important
family is to her, that all matters. I love her deeply,
(39:35):
and I'll never stop doing whatever it is I can do.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Miss Rackenbush, We're not just airing this. We are praying
for answers and that somehow Danielle is brought back to
you again. The tip line is six zero nine eight
eight to two thousand, extension two five four repeat six
(40:03):
zero nine eight eight to two two thousand. There is
a five thousand dollars reward for information leading to Danielle Lopez.
We remember American hero Detective Terrence Green, Fulton County Sheriffs,
shot and killed in the line of duty, Survived by
(40:23):
wife turned widow, Chavelle, and sons Marquis, Isaiah, Willie and Samuel.
American hero Detective Terence Green, Nancy Grace signing off goodbye
for
Host
Nancy Grace
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