Darkness of the St Charles Trails: The Disappearance of Scott Kleeschulte

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It was the last day of school, and nine year
old Scott from Saint Charles, Missouri was ready to dive
into summer. He started the season like so many other kids,
riding his bike and exploring a nearby wooded area popular
with local children, But in a single moment, Scott vanished.
That same afternoon, a powerful thunderstorm swept through the area,

(00:33):
triggering flash floods. At first, many believed he may have
been caught in the rising waters, prompting an urgent and
widespread search, but when no trace of him was found
in those early days, investigators began to suspect something far
more sinister. Over the years, Scott's case has taken many

(00:54):
turns through rumors, leads, and dead ends, but one thing
has never surfaced, the truth about what happened to him
on that day, and a new task force formed just
this year, is hoping to change that. I'm your host, Megan,
and each week on a Simpler Time True Crime, I
cover older unsolved cases and challenge the idea that a

(01:17):
simpler time means a safer time. This week, I'm bringing
to you the unsolved disappearance of Scott Allen CLAYSHALTI nestled

(01:47):
along the banks of the Missouri River. Just northwest of
Saint Louis sits the city of Saint Charles, Missouri, known
for its cobblestone streets and preserved colonial architecture. It was
the original capital of Missouri and a key stop on
the Lewis and Clark expedition. The area experienced a bit
of growth in the nineteen eighties, going from around thirty

(02:09):
seven thousand residents in nineteen eighty to around fifty five
thousand by nineteen ninety, and during that time, Saint Charles
firmly established itself as a safe, middle class suburb, drawing
in families from nearby Saint Louis. The city was home
to quiet neighborhoods, public schools, churches, parks in ideal setting

(02:30):
for raising children. One such family raising their children there
was the Cleichalti family. Richard and Peggy both worked at
First Capital Printing in Saint Charles, and together they had
five children, Tim aged nineteen and engaged to be married,
Stacy seventeen, Ritchie twelve, Scott nine, and Tammy age six.

(02:54):
The family lived in a working class subdivision on Leverance Drive,
just beyond the sprawling neighborhood, filled with mostly ranch style homes,
was a stretch of land that had been long a
playground for local kids. It was a wooded area dotted
with creek beds, hills, and makeshift caves, an untamed spot
right next to the Norfolk and Western railroad tracks. Children

(03:18):
spent countless hours there, riding their bikes over the hills,
building forts and carving out tunnels. Locals had a name
for it passed down over the years. They simply called
it the Trails, And just to give you an idea
of size, the general area was about thirty acres and
it consisted of woods, cliffs, and ravines, so you did
have to be careful. The Clay Schalties nine year old

(03:41):
son Scott spent most of his free time there. He
had many friends in the neighborhood and so they would
ride their bikes together, play games in the woods, and
explore the caves in the area. I had to read
up on this area quite a bit to really understand it.
So I looked at old newspaper photos and I really
tried to get a sense of the space because it's
so unique. Over two decades, kids in this neighborhood had

(04:02):
dug this labyrinth kind of style, tunnels along the dirt
hillside and it connected into the woods. The main cave
could fit as many as five adults in it, and
the depth of this labyrinth was as far as thirty
to forty feet deep into the hillside. So it'd have
these little paths off of it, and you could get lost. Apparently,

(04:23):
you could get very confusing to navigate, and so for
like little kids, it could get really scary, but.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Scott knew them well.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
On Wednesday, June eighth, nineteen eighty eight, Scott was watching
some cartoons before school.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
He said goodbye to.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
His parents, and they had been elated for Scott that
morning because he had some learning difficulties and he had
to repeat grades. But this was his last day of
first grade. He was so proud of himself. He had
passed everything, and they told him to have a great
day at school and that after they got home from
work that night, they'd get them some new shoes and
they'd all go out to dinner to celebrate. Scott got

(05:01):
home at around three thirty pm on that afternoon. He
grabbed a snack, got changed into his play clothes, and
headed out on his bike. Some accounts say he was
seen in his neighborhood with his friend Mike for a while,
but then he went off to plan his own. His
last confirmed sighting was by his sister Stacy, who reported

(05:21):
seeing her brother on a hillside area around Ken Drive
in West Adams Street. A couple of sources also talk
about him being seen around Elm Point Road in Elm Street.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Have no fear.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I have a million maps for you guys on my
Instagram this week at Simpler Time Crime Pod. But if
you want to have better contacts, just while listening. Ken
and West Adams is within his subdivision, whereas Elm Point
Road in Elm Street is just outside where the trails are.
Shortly after Stacy saw Scott, an unexpected thunderstorm ripped through

(05:54):
the area. Well maybe the storm wasn't completely unexpected, but
at least the severity of it was, and it actually
caused significant flash Flooding around this area was not only
major rivers, but multiple streams, creeks, and other smaller waterways,
so it became dangerous in inclement weather, and this was
a common problem. Scott was known to not la like

(06:15):
rainy weather, so his family was surprised when he wasn't
home when the storm really took off, But initially they
didn't freak out. They know that Scott knows people in
the neighborhood and thought that maybe he was caught in
the rain and he stopped in for shelter somewhere. This
wasn't unheard of. He had disappeared for a few hours before.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It's just that he would.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Usually phone home and say where he was and update
his folks. But he didn't call to check in, and
he didn't return home, and by eight thirty their dinner
plans had come and gone, and the family was getting
really worried. The family decided to go door to door
and around the common neighborhood outdoor areas he played in.

(06:57):
They did their own makeshift canvas to look for him,
and when they couldn't locate him, they quickly called police.
That first evening was kind of rough because it was
already getting dark out, so they could not find him whatsoever.
They couldn't find any clues, but by morning a full
search took place. Knowing the unique landscape, authorities knew they

(07:17):
were in for a difficult search, but they had no
idea how complex that cave system was. All day on Thursday,
In addition to twenty five on duty police officers, there
were forty civilian volunteers and off duty police officers searching
the wooded hillside for the boy, as well as current
police Academy members. They went along the railroad tracks, they

(07:40):
went into the caves, they went into the creek beds,
and also they went door to door, just as the
Clay Schalti family had done the evening before. Additional officers
searched on ATV and some of them went out on horseback,
but there were no signs of Scott, no footprints, no clothing,
no bike, no Scott. Officers looked into drainage areas and

(08:04):
large culverts. They were concerned that perhaps Scott had tried
to take shelter in one during the storm and that
water had swept him up and out into the Mississippi River.
And you might be saying, Maggan, do you mean the
Missouri River? But no. I looked into this and the
Saint Charles area lies within the Mississippi River watershed, which
is one of the largest in North America. And this

(08:26):
means that all the runoff from rain, creek stitches and
culverts in the area. It's designed to eventually flow into
the major rivers like the Mississippi or Missouri, but in
this particular area it flowed into the Mississippi. But police
couldn't bank on that, so they continued their comprehensive search,
and they even brought in some infrared equipment to search

(08:46):
the pipes and tunnels. They also brought in helicopters and bloodhounds.
The dogs traced Scott's scent from his home to the
nearby woods, but the problem is Scott went in there
all the time, so it was really hard to say
if it was from that particular day. This scent was
lost at Fox Hill Road, where the current Fox Hill

(09:09):
Apartments are located, and the apartments were under construction at
that time, so all day Thursday. This went on all
day Friday, but by eight thirty pm on Friday, the
official search was called off. This didn't mean that they
wouldn't search in any area based on a tip, but
they were calling off the formal search. They just couldn't
find Scott out there, and while they hadn't come right

(09:31):
out and said it, police were beginning to think there
was something more ominous going on. They did not believe
that Scott had gotten swept up in the rain or
injured in the woods. They felt something more sinister was
at play. Despite their heartache, the Cleichalti family was doing

(09:57):
their best to hang in there, and they were so
appreciative their local community. Even though the official search was off,
additional volunteers spent the weekend scouring the woods and the
hillside and the creek beds even further. The community continued
to believe that maybe Scott had been taken away in
the floodwaters. While tragic, it allowed the idea that a

(10:18):
monster hadn't infiltrated their close knit neighborhood and stolen a
child off the street in broad daylight. Conversely, the Clichalti
family was thinking and actually hoping the opposite. Forty two
year old Richard told the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, quote,
there's been no footprints, no clothing found. If he's abducted,

(10:39):
at least there's a chance that they might let him
go end quote. That's just heartbreaking to me to think
that this family had to lean into the idea that
abduction was a better option, because if he had been
swept away in the floodwaters and hadn't made any contact
with anybody at this point, they would have to assume
he is dead and he is drowned. They're thinking in

(11:00):
this one, yes he could be scared, Yes he could
be held captive. Yes, terrible things could be happening. But
at least he's still alive, and at least there's still
a chance, and that's just devastated to think about. The
neighborhood held a vigil for Scott's safe return. The Clachaltes
had lived in the neighborhood for around seventeen years and
everyone was used to seeing sweet Scott riding around on

(11:23):
his bike with his cute smile and missing teeth. Richard
went on to say that Scott was a very normal
and typical boy. He was easy going, He loved to
eat and watch TV. He was active, He loved sports,
and he liked to play around the creek areas and
he usually would go there with friends. He was also
big into football. As the one week mark approached with

(11:47):
no signs of Scott, the community once again rallied private
donors and companies pulled together a ten thousand dollars reward
for information on Scott's whereabouts. On that same day, police
contracted with locals to bring in bulldozers to tear down
the caves. Once they got in there, they couldn't believe it,
not only just how intricate they were, but how risky.

(12:09):
One man said, quote, I can't believe someone hasn't been
crushed in a cave in down there. The dirt is
so loose you can dig it with a spoon. They
don't realize how dangerous it is.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
End quote.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
One local mother told the paper that her boys used
to go in there, and that all the area boys
would go in and play Gi Joe, but that it
made her nervous and she knew it was dangerous.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
After this day, the.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Bulldozer effectively destroyed the tunnel system and ended an outdoor
generational hand me down playspace, which sounds like it was
for the best. As the weeks went on, the Clichaltes
continued to be embraced by their community. Two young girls
held a lemonade stand in the neighborhood and they hand
delivered a twenty six dollars and twenty six cents reward

(12:57):
over to the family to aid in the search, which
is just the sweetest. Meals were delivered along with cards
and of course prayers. Scott's football team was allowed to
have a twenty two person roster, and his coach, who
was very active in the search immediately and ongoing, said
that he would only field twenty one players, leaving Scott's

(13:19):
spot open for him for when he was found. The coach,
a man named Dallas Ferber, consulted with a psychic to
try to get leads, and he actually took out his
personal canoe into nearby waterways on at least four different occasions,
looking for any sign of Scott that other searchers may
have missed. But after this things quieted down for a bit.

(13:41):
Then at the end of July nineteen eighty eight, searchers
and investigators conducted another targeted dig. A lot happened in
those six weeks. Father's Day came and passed without Scott's return.
Scott's older brother turned twenty, Peggy's fortieth birthday was coming
up the next week. Scott's brother, Richie was set to

(14:02):
start football without him and was really struggling with that.
His little sister was eager for her brother's return, and
she said she couldn't practice for her part in her
older brother's upcoming wedding because she needed her brother there
with her. Police revealed that around July fourth, a woman
reported hearing a little boy saying helped me around the caves,

(14:23):
But investigators searched again and couldn't substani me any of this.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
They took leads from psychics, but John P.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Zumwalt, the chief of the Detective Bureau, said, quote, my
personal opinion of psychics is they aren't any good unless
they can win the lottery two weeks in a row
end quote. At that six week mark, most people felt
that Scott was not in those woods. However, they were
so overgrown that some searchers felt you could miss a body,

(14:51):
especially a small one of a nine year old, unless
it was right in front of you, So searchers went
back in and searched more location in more depths from
the direction of psychics. For the Claichalties, the worst case
scenario was that he was dead out there in a
place they had already searched, and that they had just
missed him. They held that hope that he had been

(15:13):
kidnapped and was kept alive, and that the abductor would
get scared and return.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Him or make some sort of mistake.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Peggy Claichalti talked about how her kids had adapted their
behavior and become more communicative. She said, quote, my kids
never leave now without telling me exactly where they're going.
I don't have to say anything end quote. In October
of eighty eight, a flyer with Scott's face was mailed
to fifty million households in America, sponsored by Advo System Inc.

(15:42):
The nation's largest direct mail company. This was in conjunction
with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Also
in that month, his face was featured on The Oprah
Winfrey Show in a segment about missing children. This generated
a call from Dallas, Texas. A woman called and said
Scott's picture strongly resembled a boy who had just moved

(16:04):
into her neighborhood. Police let the Clicheltes know about this
potential lead, and they were looking into it, and the
Clicheldi's got their hopes up, but just as quickly their
heart sank. The little boy was not Scott. Ever optimistic,
the Clichelti patriarch told the news that another lead would
turn up, that they'd find out something, and that they

(16:26):
hadn't given up hope as a family. In November of
eighty eight, Scott's oldest brother got married, and by Christmas
they found out they were expecting their first child. His
brother and new wife discussed naming the baby Scott if
it were a boy, which was bittersweet and emotional for
the family. The first Christmas, Peggy CLAICHALTI couldn't bear to

(16:49):
do anything the way it was when Scott was there.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
She said.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Christmas shopping was so difficult because she kept seeing toys
and gifts.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
That she knew he would love.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
They always had an artificial tree, but she just felt
moved to get a real tree this year and put
completely new decorations on it. She told the paper, quote,
we take each day as it comes.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's all you can do.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Sometimes the strangest thing, maybe something that happens at work,
will remind me of Scottie and set me off. Her
husband said that he kept busy coaching Richie's football team,
and that was three nights a week, so that kept
him busy along with work, but he said, quote, I
still wake up every night thinking about him, and I
haven't given up hope. One other thing I want to

(17:34):
add right here, because there's really no great place to
put it from a timeline perspective, because it's one of
those things that comes out later and not at this time,
but I don't want to bury the lead. It would
later come out by police that another neighbor actually saw
Scott jumping in rain puddles after the storm, so that
effectively pretty much eliminated the flash flood. And they seem

(17:56):
to really believe this neighbor and that this neighbor saw
him near Ken Drive. It just again it makes that
storm scenario improbable, but that still lingers to this day,
and so I share this here just to shift your perspective.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
If it does.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Nineteen eighty eight turned into nineteen eighty nine, and the
one year anniversary had very few new leads. A fisherman
actually found a human skull in a nearby lake, but
this was quickly ruled out as Scott as it was
an adult skull. It wouldn't be until nineteen ninety nine,
when history seemed to be repeating itself, that police would

(18:38):
get their next lead in Scott's case and the community
would be left in total panic. On the evening of
August fourteenth, nineteen ninety seven, year old Todd TJJ Pig

(19:00):
Junior and eight year old Benjamin see Her were riding
their bicycles in a wooded area near Briarcliff Drive in
Elm Street in Saint Charles. When the boys didn't arrive home,
their families grew worried just for a clear picture. The
boys lived in the same neighborhood and played in the
same hillside area as Scott Cleychalti. Even though the caves

(19:21):
and tunnels were mostly destroyed at this point, kids still
played in and out of the woods.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
And ride their bikes.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Concern grew when their bikes were found abandoned, but the
boys were nore to be found. Police and search parties
took over immediately thinking of Scott Cleaychalty and suddenly wondering
if there was more to his disappearance than the storm,
and that went into overdrive with a horrific discovery. At
around eleven pm that same evening, both little boys were

(19:51):
found dead. Just as a quick trigger warning, these next
couple of minutes, I'm going to share some graphic details,
including sexual abuse against a child. The boys had been
strangled with their own shoelaces.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
They were sexually assaulted.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
And left naked out in the woods and the area
where their body was found near Elm Street near the
railroad tracks, the exact area Scotty was last seen nearby.
The families in the neighborhood were at an all time panic.
It was clear to them that a sexual predator was
in their midst and that Scott Clayschalty was the victim

(20:28):
of the same perpetrator as Todd and Benjamin Todd, who,
as I mentioned, went by TJ.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
His stepfather said.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
He had just told the boys not tried their bikes
in the area. He said he just had this sense
that sexual predators knew where kids all hung out and
that it was like a hunting ground for them. Other
parents said they were no longer letting their kids play
unattended and that their children's innocence was shattered. But nothing
could prepare the community for what answers would come next.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
You see.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Just a little more than a week later, police announced
the arrest of two miners, a ten and thirteen year old,
the thirteen year old being the perpetrator of the crime
and the ten year old for hindering the investigation. Because
they were miners, their records were sealed, and Missouri law

(21:21):
stated that because they were under fourteen, they couldn't be
tried as adults. But the media was able to get
hold of the thirteen year old's name. I won't use
his name here. I'm just gonna call him.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Z, but I will tell you who he was.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
He was the older brother of Benjamin Hurt. Yes, you
heard that right, Benjamin's own brother sexually assaulted and murdered
him and his seven year old friend. Later, information would
come out that Z had engaged in bizarre sexual endeavors
that he don't really want to go too far into here,
but I've linked articles that do tell more detail.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
It's just not.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Necessary for the story here. Suddenly, the community didn't know
what to think. Not only were they all shocked, it
would be crazy to wrap your head around that no
matter what, but Z was known to be a favorite
of neighborhood moms. He was polite, he was a rule follower.
He delivered flowers for Mother's Day.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
It was honestly nuts.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
But also they felt there was no way, despite being
in the exact area as Scott's subduction, that it could
be related. Z would have been just ten years old
back in June of eighty eight, and it seemed unlikely
he'd be able to pull that crime off. Not only that,
but Scott's body was not found, something Z didn't try
to hide with his.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Brother and TJ.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
So as crazy as all that is, it seemed unconnected
to the authorities and so they had to move on
when it came to Scott's case. I just want to
take a quick moment to say thank you for tuning in,

(23:05):
thank you for your support, and thank you for adjusting.
Because if you've been listening to me all along, I
know this is your first week encountering ads. I've been
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need to be able to financially support the work I'm
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(23:28):
platforms and feel free to send case suggestions to Simpler
Timecrimepod at gmail dot com. The next potential case would
come in nineteen ninety one, and it was the disappearance
of eleven year old Arlen Henderson. Arlin lived in Moscow Mills, Missouri,

(23:53):
a little over thirty miles northwest of Saint Charles.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
It was July twenty fifth.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Nineteen ninety one, and when arln set out for a
bike ride near his home in Mascow Mills, Missouri. He
never came back. Days later, the FBI got involved, and
in October, Arland's bike was found abandoned in a nearby beanfield.
There were fingerprints on it, but no match and no
sign of Arlin. Rather than keep this in perfect chronological

(24:21):
order with Scott's case, I'm going to jump ahead and
just give you what we know about Arlan's case, high
level overview, because his is also still unsolved. Arlin was
last seen between five and five thirty PM riding his
white and yellow bicycle. For months, there was no sign
of him, and then, as I mentioned, three months after
he disappeared, Arland's bike was found in the bean field
off North Island Road, roughly five miles from his home.

(24:45):
They couldn't connect those fingerprints. They were hoping though, that
it might lead to a break in the case, but
it didn't. Ten years later, in two thousand and one,
a man named Joshua Spangler came forward and confessed to
Arland's murder. At the time of the alleged crime, Spangler
would have just been thirteen years old. So again you
have someone who is a miner, that's confessing to this

(25:05):
very serious crime. He claimed he had been involved in
the drug scene and he associated with a couple of.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Really dangerous men.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Their names were George and Charles or Chucky Gibson, and
he said they paid him ten thousand dollars to kill
Arlin as a warning over an unpaid drug debt related
to his family, not the little kid himself. Spangler told
Belice that he and George Gibson abducted Arlin, held him
for a few days in Davis, Missouri, and then claimed
to have shot him in a creek bed and buried

(25:36):
his body near the Mississippi River. Authorities actually took this
confession very seriously, and they even filed charges against the
Gibson brothers. Searches were conducted all over in that area
near Winfield, Missouri, but they couldn't find his remains, and
then the story unraveled. Investigators discovered major inconsistencies, and Spangler

(25:58):
ultimately admitted that he made the whole thing up. The
charges against the Gibsons were dropped and Spangler was sentenced
to seven years in prison for perjury. Authorities now believe
that he fabricated the story as a joke meant to
embarrass law enforcement. Even though this turned out to be
a false confession, Some investigators involved with his investigation consider

(26:21):
they wonder was Arlene's disappearance tied to drugs at all,
But his mother has always strongly denied that anyone in
their family was involved in that world, and she actually
still lives in the same trailer park at least that's
what I could find, just a different home.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Her husband.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Arlen's father had actually died a year before he went
missing from amphzema, and she actually kept his name in
the phone book just in case Arlen ever tried to
call home. One other lead that came with Arlen's case
was that his older sister, Joy Henderson Leonard and her
husband Bob Leonard might have had some information on the case.

(26:58):
They found that out tragically though. In two thousand and one,
just as investigators were ramping up their efforts, Joy was
actually murdered by Robert, who then took his own life.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
It wasn't until.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
After their deaths that police discovered that they had made
statements suggesting they knew more than they had ever shared.
So it does make you go, you know, I'm not
accusing them of anything to do with drug as bitch
just interesting. It sounds like there is something that they
potentially could have known, but we don't know for sure.
So Arlan's case is very complicated and convoluted. It's very difficult,

(27:33):
but I wanted to mention it just because of the
proximity and the similarities. Many people believe Arlan's case in
Scott's case, that they're connected, that the same perpetrator is responsible.
But I understand that you probably can't get a huge
takeaway about Arlan's case just from that little snapshot I
gave you, so I encourage you to go listen to
one of the podcasts that have covered it in depth

(27:53):
and decide for yourself. So Arlen's case was nineteen ninety
one and in nineteen ninety two, we'll pick back up
with Scott's timeline here.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
The Saint Louis Post.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Dispatch published an article with the chilling title Woods that
lured Saint Charles boys will be leveled and that means
exactly what you think. After Scott's disappearance and the brutal
murders of TJ. Pig Junior and Benjamin Hurt, the community
had pushed for the Woods to be cut down and
used for new developments, and that's just what happened. A

(28:35):
highway was extended for ease of traffic, and so the
area that held so many memories, wrapped in grief and
secrets and unanswered questions, was suddenly gone. The years went
on with no answers, and in nineteen ninety seven Nick
Mick issued an age progressed photo of Scott, which.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
All have on the Instagram.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
In two thousand and five, another child disappeared that some
believe could be neck did to Scott's case, thirty miles
north of Saint Charles Is, Fully, Missouri, and on March tenth,
two thousand and five, thirteen year old Bianca Piper disappeared there.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Bianca had been struggling.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
With her mental health and was receiving treatment for bipolar disorder.
That day, her mother drove her about a mile from
their house and led her out of the car to
walk thrust the way home, something she had done one
other time before as a calming exercise on the recommendation
of her therapist. On this day, they were arguing and

(29:33):
Bianca asked her mother to drive her away from the
house so she could do that walking exercise.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Again.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Bianca was last seen walking along McIntosh Hill Road and
she never made it home. She was reported missing that
evening and an immediate search was launched. Despite extensive efforts
including ground searches, helicopters, dive teams, canine units, no trace
of Bianca has ever been found. She had no history
of running away, and her case quickly raised red flags

(30:01):
for foul play. Her case is still cold and a
podcast I thought did a really nice job with the
full details of her case is One Called and Then
They Were Gone podcast, So check that out if you
want to know more about her full case. But perhaps
the biggest lead in Scott's case would come in two
thousand and seven when another little boy went missing, and

(30:21):
not only was he found, but so was another boy
who had been missing for years. On October sixth, two
thousand and two, eleven year old Sean Hornback left his

(30:42):
home in Richwood's, Missouri to ride his bike to a
friend's house. Somewhere along the way, he vanished. His bike
was later found in a wooded area, but there were
no signs of Sean. The small rural town was stunned
as time passed. Hope faded for many, but not for
Sean's parents, who never stopped searching. They appeared on national

(31:05):
talk shows, they launched a foundation in his name, and
they hung on to the possibility that Sean might.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Still be alive.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Fast forward to January eighth, two thousand and seven, more
than four years later, when thirteen year old Ben Omby
got off his school bus in the town of Beaufort,
Missouri and never made it home. A witness, another teen
who was absolutely a hero in this story, had seen
a white pickup truck speeding away from the area where

(31:34):
Ben had been seen, and he gave police a partial
description of what he remembered. That small lead was enough
to spark an intense investigation. Just four days later, authorities
traced the truck to an apartment complex in Kirkwood, a
suburb of Saint Louis. When they arrived, they were at
the apartment of forty one year old Michael J. Devlin,

(31:57):
and they found Ben Omby alive, and to everyone's shock,
they also found Sean Hornbeck. He had been missing for
one thousand, five hundred and sixty four days. Devlin had
abducted Sean at gunpoint and kept him in prison for years,
often posing as Shan's father or guardian. He allowed Shawn

(32:18):
limited freedoms like playing video games, walking around in the neighborhood,
and even using the Internet, but always under a cloud
of fear and control. Neighbors and acquaintances had no idea
the boy living with Devlin was actually a long missing child.
The rescue of both boys made national headlines and it
was hailed as a miracle, and for many families with

(32:40):
missing children, it renewed hope that their own loved ones
might still be out there, and in Missouri, it inevitably
raised questions. If Devlin could hide one child for four years,
could he have been responsible for others. Investigators looked into
potential links between Devlin and unsolved cases, including that of

(33:01):
Scott Clichalti. Scott had gone missing from Saint Charles in
nineteen eighty eight, not far from where Devlin lived and
operated at various times. In fact, Devlin had allegedly hunted
in the woods that all of those kids were known
to play in in Scott's neighborhood in nineteen eighty eight.
He would have been in his early twenties. In response

(33:22):
to all of this, the FBI, Missouri State Highway Patrol
and local law enforcement agencies formed what became known as
the Michael J. Devlin Task Force. Its purpose was to
re examine longstanding missing persons cases, especially unsolved child abductions,
across Missouri and the surrounding states, to determine whether or
not Devlin might be connected to any of them. The

(33:44):
task force reviewed dozens of cold cases, including some of
the data back to the eighties. Investigators looked at the
timeline of Devlin's movements, where he lived, where he worked,
whether he could have had access to children he went missing.
They also analyzed similarities in victim profiles, what the abduction
methods were, and geographic proximity. In some cases, they revisited

(34:07):
crime scenes, and they reinterviewed witnesses, and they also combed
through Devlin's digital devices, hoping for evidence or photos that
might link him to crimes. But to everyone's disappointment, they
couldn't find anything connecting Devlin to other disappearances, and that
was very much quickly disbanded. They never even told the

(34:28):
families that they were completely abandoning the task force. They
just shut it down after six months. Many people very
much still believed that Scott was the first or one
of the first Devlin victims. Much of what has happened

(34:52):
since then has been red herrings that give the family
a false sense of hope and then turn into nothing.
In twenty thirteen, a jailhouse informant came forward saying that
his cellmate was responsible for Scott's subduction and murder. But
this all turned out to be a giant waste of
time and false lead. And then in twenty sixteen, things
blew up on none other than Reddit. Huge shout out

(35:15):
to redditor top golf Ufo and podcast host of Compulsion
Podcast for helping me to summarize this next part with
his great write up. It all began with a Reddit
post from January of twenty sixteen. Someone had posed a
chilling question on the ask reddit forum and they said,
to those who accidentally killed someone.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
What went wrong?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
And one of the top voted replies was this one
that said the following.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
This still haunts me to this day.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
As kids, we had to hideout in this dirt cliff
slash cove. This is the best approximation I can find
at Google, only three times taller and probably ten times
as wide. There was a neighborhood kid who in hindsight
was probably mentally handicapped in some way, but to us
he was just a weird or creepy kid.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
This was the eighties and we.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Weren't exactly raised PC. The three of us headed out
to our base and found creepy kids sitting on top.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
In our guard chair.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
We yelled at him to get out, and he said
something like make me and started labbing dirt clods and six.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Down at us. We all ran around to the side
to make our way up.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
It gets pretty fuzzy here, but all I remember as
he fell. I still remember the sound. When we got
back down to checking him. He was in a very
awkward position with blood coming out of his mouth. We
all just freaked out and ran home. And if I
remember correctly, no one has spoken a word of this
to anyone or I'm sorry, I said, as far as
I know, not if I remember correctly, but you.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Get the idea.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
We didn't go back for over a month and never
said a word between any of us.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Again.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
This was in the eighties, so media wasn't like it
is today. Chances are it got a small article in
the newspaper B section missing disabled child found dead after
fall or something like that, and that was the end
of the Reddit post. Well, of course, the comment section
was filled with people saying all sorts of questions, and
the redditor the original poster, said, I didn't expect to

(37:00):
wake up to all this. I have no idea why
we didn't collectively tell our parents. We just booked it
for our respective homes.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
I was saying a word.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
It was mainly because he was the weird kid, and
we thought we'd get in trouble somehow. And then he
went on to say, I don't think we were directly responsible.
Indirect maybe again, it's fuzzy. I just remember throwing sticks
at each other. I've tried to find any record of
him to no avail. I remember the neighborhood kids from
those days' first names, but not last I have since
moved to a few hundred miles away and didn't keep

(37:28):
in touch. I don't even remember the kid's first name.
I've looked blindly for any record of the kid, and
I have spent hours on Facebook trying to find my
old friends, but I haven't found anything yet. The redditor
went on to say, I don't know if he actually
died that day. All I have to go on is
my mom mentioning him going missing and us not seeing
him after that. When we finally went back to our

(37:49):
base of months later, there was nothing out of the ordinary,
no police tape anything like that. I don't remember any
cops canvassing the area. So this was like as much
as that redditor said, and it of course fields By
there was all sorts of stuff on there. And I'm
trying to wrap this up because it really went crazy.
They essentially one of these redditors who had paid attention.

(38:12):
We don't know exactly how, but they decided to investigate.
I don't know if they used the poster's Reddit history
or traced an IP address, but they really sleuthed and
they were able to figure out who this redditor was
or allegedly in their approximate age, and they kind of
docked them. They didn't say their exact information, but they
really did give quite a bit of information out there,

(38:35):
and they said that the person had likely grown up
in Saint Louis, Missouri, and this was based in part
about because of a TV show that the poster referenced
that had only aired on Saint Louis Public Radio from
eighty five to ninety one. After this redditor determined who
this person was. Then they determined it must be Scott

(38:56):
Clachalty that they're talking about, and this investigator person I
shouldn't say investigator. This redditor turned sleuthor actually kind of
confronted the original poster and said, you would have been
ten or eleven at the time he was nine. You
were in this area. And so it gained a bunch
of traction across Reddit and beyond, and it kind of
went viral, spreading to other subreddits. YouTubers picked it up,

(39:20):
crime blogs picked it up, and the guy who made
the connection went on further to say, I'm the one
who made the comment regarding Scott Clichalty. I won't say
too much about who I've alerted about this. It's a
disturbing situation. The guy needs to speak with law enforcement
right now. I sent them much more info about this guy.
They should be able to id him. But a lot

(39:41):
of the information didn't match.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
For one, the.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Original poster on Reddit who talked about this traumatic situation,
they never mentioned the tarreential rainstorm that day that struck
Saint Charles, which that is a big detail in this case.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
We also know that Scott was.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Held back in school but there's nothing that says he
had actual support needs outside of that, just they had
a learning kind of learning support need, but nothing that
says he has a disability like this was describing, and
no media coverage actually referred to him that way. Still,
despite the details not adding up, Reddit really snowballed with this.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
They went in.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
There was posts everywhere, things like redditor confesses to killing
childhood Pale, other editors investigating confirm it's true, just these
really crazy headlines. And unfortunately, what was pointed out is
that now when people google Scott Cleichalti's name, many of
the top results are linked to that Reddit thread and
this whole thing that came out in twenty sixteen, and

(40:39):
it's an inaccurate theory because none of it really matches up. Really,
what's thought is that whoever this redditor was was just
sort of getting their little claim to fame and they
were making it up. Law enforcement hasn't publicly responded to
the Reddit claims. There's no confirmation that they investigated the
tip or if they ruled it out. They may have,

(41:00):
but unfortunately the story kind of took a life of
its own, and I don't think it really helped move
the case forward.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Since then, there haven't been many updates.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Scott's father died about ten years ago without any answers
to his son's fate. As of spring twenty twenty five,
a new cold case task force in Saint Charles was announced,
and one of the top cases mentioned was that of Scott.
I really hope his family is able to get some
answers soon, because for now they're left to wonder. Was

(41:39):
Scott a victim of another youth offender? Was Michael Devlin
the perpetrator? Is it someone we haven't even mentioned in
this episode. Whatever the answer is, it's not too late
to come forward. Maybe you have information you feel is insignificant,
report it to the proper authorities and let them decide.

(42:00):
It's been thirty seven years and the family has waited
long enough, so if you have any information on the
disappearance of Scott Cleischalti, please contact the Saint Charles, Missouri
Police Department at one six three six nine four nine
thirty three hundred.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
This has been another episode of a Simpler time true crime.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
If you appreciate the work I'm doing, please leave a
five star review and share the podcast on your social
media platforms. And with a friend. I'll be back next
week with a brand new episode, and as always, thank
you so much for listening.

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