Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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what your claim is worth. Anefarious nightmare contains themes that may be explicit
or triggering for some specific warnings anddisclaimers will be mentioned in the show notes,
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and a faarious nightmare assumes all partiesthat are mentioned in these cases to
be innocent unless proven guilty in acourt of law. A listener discretion is
strongly advised. You can help usgrow the show by leaving us a five
star written review on Apple Podcast orSpotify, or you can join our Patreon
for light hearted bonus content. Withthis Welcome to season six. Prisma Reyes
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vanished into thin air on April seventeenth, twenty nineteen. Prisma was last seen
in downtown Dallas walking into Olympus atRoss apartment complex now named mccollin at Ross
around six pm for white jeep sceneabandoned nearby. She was witnessed on CCTV
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footage pacing back and forth on hercell phone and making phone calls close by
her ex boyfriend Ryan's apartment near theelevator, just over three hours after having
lunch with him. She was reportedmiss after she failed to pick up her
son from her babysitter that evening.Something Prisma would never do is abandon her
only child. The chilling thing aboutthis is that it appears there was nothing
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off about the day that she wentmissing at least that's what we thought until
we dove in. Is there ared herring within this episode? Any clues
that point to what happened to Prismaor where she is or what happened.
We will explore it all, aswell as statistics on missing persons and why
this case is an example of whywe need to pay way more attention and
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diligence to missing minorities with this.I'm Courtney Fenner and I'm Amanda Cronin and
a Nefarious Nightmare presents Dark Side ofthe Moon. Find Prisma Rhyes. So
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at this point you're probably all wonderingwhy we chose to title this a Pink
Floyd reference, and I promise we'regonna get to it. But also I
just thought about something. Ever sinceI was a little girl, I thought
this way about the Dallas skyline,And when you look at the Dallas Skyline,
you'll notice the big ball, whichis the Reunion Tower, and to
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me, it's always kind of lookedlike a moon, just a decorative moon.
I just thought that was something prettycool. Considering that we also see
in Prisma's names something related to saidPink Floyd reference, you know, dark
Side of the Moon. But Anyway, I wanted to start by saying that
and also saying that this case haspersonally bothered me since spring of twenty nineteen.
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I remember I was off of workthat day and my daughter had just
turned one just a few months prior. I just started working at Ministry Safe
that January. My first day wasactually my birthday. And oh that reminds
me. By the way, ify'all are looking to give gifts for my
forty first, you know, utilitybills are always a fun gift. And
(04:13):
I'm only halfway kidding, But anyway, I remember the day I had watched
the news about it. Here inDFW. It's WFAA, but a lot
of us locals know it is Channeleight, you know, Channel Light news.
And it was fairly bright and sunnythat afternoon. My daughter was doing
this really adorable thing where she thoughtit was fun to try to snack on
the little metal siding on our coffeetable at the time, and she looked
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at me with these little, bright, happy eyes like she was just so
proud of herself. And I mighthave chuckled or took a video. And
then I look at the TV andsee Prisma's face. I thought to myself.
She looks super familiar. As theday went on to talk about the
details, they mentioned a city I'mfamiliar with, Mesquite, where I used
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to hang out with friends back whenI was doing music. I want to
say, I remember them talking aboutthe Lake Highlands area, which also struck
a chord with me, being thatI went to Lake Highlands and I thought
of her all day, just thatday, trying to place how I might
have known her, and I stillthink of her today. I'm still in
shock how it's been four years andbarely any answers. We've been wanting to
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cover Prisma's case for quite some time, but back in I believe twenty twenty
two, we covered the case ofRobert Durst in its place, and the
reason being is that another person hadbeen wanting to cover Prisma, and we
just didn't want to intervene, andwe were still very new. But now
we know that the family definitely wantsmore people covering the case, and like
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everyone else wants answers. Today,we're going to finish our little accidental Texas
tour by heading all the way backto downtown Dallas from Abilene, which is
where we saw Paris Lee Bennett lastweek. Dallas sits two and a half
hours east of Abilene and is likemuch of Texas history. We have talked
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about Dallas plenty of times in thepast, and you'd have to live under
a rock not to know anything aboutDallas anyways, But what we will tell
you is that Dallas in general isrich both with old money and well history.
The case we cover today is locatedin downtown Dallas, which is a
major tourist attraction at least in ourheads, but also a magnet for violent
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crime, sex work. You nameit, think tiny New York City.
We talked about deep Ellum previously,and today's case is located in the center
between deep Ellam and Oaklawn, whichthe latter is known for its welcoming community
of our LGBTQ plus friends and alsohosts pride parades. Originally, we did
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have a short blurb about prisoner's caseback in May twenty twenty two. This
was back when we did missing personsegments for our episodes, and the episode
is in season two, episode seven, titled It Was Her or Me the
Infamous Robert Durst. It wasn't oneof our best episodes, as it's all
occurred before minding the Beehive series,but still worth checking out. But we
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will dive deeper on prisma and somevery important statistics. In this episode.
You'll hear several case similarities and eventhough each case is unique, it's still
odd to us. Eliza Lamb,Gabby Patito, Vanessa Gillen, and Tamala
Horsford to name a few. Yeah, we did a ton of research on
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this case and came across so manyarticles and according to one of the articles,
which was posted in September of twentytwenty one by Business Insider, there's
been a silent epidemic of missing Blackand Latina women since the beginning of the
COVID pandemic. The exact number isn'tknown because data is incomplete and media coverage
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is very sparse. From Business Insider, co founder and chief operating officer of
BAMFEE or Black and Missing Foundation Incorporated, states that the numbers are spiking,
with thirty percent at the start ofthe foundation growing to forty percent a year
later. It was also stated thatthe number of missing Latina women and girls
are more difficult to come by becausethere doesn't seem to be any organization that's
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focused on missing LATINX people that Latinasthey're counted alongside white women and girls,
which researchers claim is a problem withinthe scope of the pandemic and how it
affected and still affects these communities eventoday, and it goes into it a
little further saying quote that same dataset found forty six thousand and fifty six
white women and one hundred and twelveeight hundred and seventy nine white children,
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including Latinas, went missing in twentytwenty, the most recent year for which
data is available end quote. Whythis is a problem is because we have
all heard the term quote unquote missingwhite woman syndrome or are at least familiar
with it due to a rise inthat term since the case of Gabby Patito.
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The best definition we can give youis basically stated by author and academic
Charlton Maclowin, who said that missingwhite woman syndrome is basically white women occupying
a privileged role as of violent crimesvictims in media reporting. In short,
and in case of some of youthat aren't aware or don't remember, Gaby
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Petito went missing in September of twentytwenty one, and due to heightened media
coverage. Her remains were found andevidence pointed to Brian Laundry, her on
and off again boyfriend, as herkiller. Fortunately for her family they get
some closure knowing who their daughter's killerwas. But even if they have agreed
that, there is a massive lackof coverage on cases regarding POC and missing
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and murdered Indigenous women and girls.Now, when you do a Google search
of missing persons, it's a littlebit more promising in the eyes of investigating
those that are in the LATINX community. But even still in twenty twenty three,
which it's almost twenty twenty four,the very first photo is that of
a white person. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it,
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you do see others in there.But my question is why is it
that the very first photo is almostalways a white person. They deserve coverage,
don't get me wrong, but sodoes everybody else. Why isn't more
attention being paid to all missing persons? Why does it take a full page
to see a missing Latina. Whenthe case of Gabby Patito occurred, it
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started out as a typical missing person'sreport, the same exact kind of missing
person's report given by families across theworld, no matter what race they are
or privilege that they carry. Sowhile cases like Chrisma Raeis is gaining a
little traction, why is it thatit's taken this long, being that she
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went missing in twoenty nineteen, forthe media to recognize and bring the light
to her case, But with thoselike Gabby Patito only took a few months.
And the thing is, Prismas isn'ta case where the criminal justice system
is failing her, but the mediaand the general public are. In what
seems to be a response to theBusiness Insider article we read about a few
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minutes ago, the Epidemic of MissingLATINX women and girls in October of twenty
twenty one, the headline from theGreyhound News plainly stated, quote, there
is an epidemic of missing Hispanic andLATINX women end quote. Confirming this thought,
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and within the article shows a photoof Vanessa Gilhunt, a twenty year
old US Army soldier who went missingaround one pm on April twenty second,
twenty twenty. What caught our eyeparticularly was that when when we saw the
photo, we first thought that itmight have been Prisma, because she too
has a military background. And isindeed Latina. In fact, when Courtney
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spoke to Dan Fuchs, Prisma's stepdad, he even said the same thing and
noted plenty more missing persons with thesame or similar demographics just in Texas.
Vanessa was stationed in what was knownthen as Fort Hood, which is located
just twelve minutes north of Colleen,Texas. There are many coincidences regarding Vanessa
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and Prisma, both located in Texas, both with military backgrounds, both Latina,
and both went missing around the sametime of year. The issue is
that even though Prisma went missing aboutexactly a year prior to Vanessa, all
of this only highlights the epidemic thatwe are speaking about, as it is
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all just too coincidental. Unfortunately,the case for Vanessa was that hers ended
up in murder, where she wasmissing for about two months before her remains
were found buried along the Leon River. She had been bludgeoned to death with
a hammer by another soldier, who, once he was discovered, fled and
unlived himself. That's the case wewill certainly have to cover at some point
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in the future when searching through highlyreported missing persons cases and noticing that fortunately
there is indeed growing traction with themissing and murdered Indigenous women and Girls community,
as well as more Latinas. Butwe came across a section that said
Things to Know. It went onto say that twenty five percent of missing
persons are never found. This couldbe that the person simply does not want
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to be found and wanted to starta new life, as stated earlier in
our episode about Samantha tap and someIn possibly many cases, missing persons can
be victims of sex trafficking, whichdoes involve a change in complete identity.
In some cases, or in adarker twist, the person who is missing
was murdered and their body well disposedof. With every missing person's case that
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we cover, we always assume thatthe person in question is still alive and
treat them as such unless and untilsomething comes to light that the latter is
true. We also want to recognizethe fact that we have indeed noticed people
complain about media covering these cases becauseand we absolutely let me just put that
out there. We do not agreewith these kinds of comments, but the
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comments are something like, quote,this kind of thing is mooring. Let's
remind you that this is far fromboring to the families. Further, true
crime consumers really should just work onthe language they use in general, just
as those of us doing any kindof true crime content should. Instead of
the word boring, how about usethings like These cases are a challenge in
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my head, and I prefer listeningto solve cases for that reason. But
I digress. This kind of caseis traumatizing, infuriating, frustrating, heartbreaking
and scary to those families and friends. We need to wake up, put
an open mind and heart into thesecases because quite frankly, what if,
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like what if you know some ofthese missing people? Or even worse,
what would you think of those kindsof comments? If you are found in
the position where a loved one hadgone missing, how would you feel?
Would you want to read those kindsof comments or would you want people to
try to help you? Newsflash,we aren't here to entertain. We are
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here to advocate, support and offerinsight and information. So with this prisma.
Denise per Alta Reyes entered this worldon March twentieth, nineteen ninety three,
in Vera Cruz, Mexico, toher mother Lilia, shortly after Prismo
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was born. Her birth father passedaway and there is unfortunately not much information
out there on him. But accordingto Dan Fuchs, who we were fortunate
enough to speak with, the storybehind the death of Prisma's father is alleged
to be tragic. He worked fora panadarea and one day during a bread
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delivery, he had been driving ona narrow road when another vehicle had sideswiped
him, throwing him over a cliff. Prisma lived with her grandmother in Mexico
at first, while her siblings andher mother lived in a separate location.
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All had started out in extreme poverty. Her mother worked different jobs to support
her family, which included Prisma,her brother's Rudy, Angel and Alex,
and Prisma's sister as Maralda. Onthe time Prisma was three or four,
her mother was having lunch with afriend in Juarez, Mexico. She and
her friend came across Dan Fuchs,who you will hear a lot from,
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and the three of them had engagedin conversation. Dan ended up buying their
lunch for them, and Lilia andDan hit it off. From there they
began dating, but neither of themknew the other's spoken language, so how
they got to know each other andhow they were dating was they spent time
using a translation dictionary to communicate witheach other. Soon Dan and Lilia got
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married, and Dan worked to helpget Lilia, Prisma, and the rest
of their family to the US.According to Dan, he didn't know Prisma
at all. He only knew ofher until between the ages of ten or
eleven, as he recalled, whenshe moved to the US. He recalls
at the school trying to hold Prismaback a year on the argument that Mexico's
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education is far different from the US, and he talks about how he fought
them on this. He had wonthat argument, and Prisma actually ended up
getting invited to attend a Magnet schoolfor talented kids. This school was for
the gifted and would be versed inthe arts, math, science, and
medical sciences, very challenging subjects likethat. This further drives on the fact
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that Prismo was intelligent and, aswe find out, a total spitfire.
Dan Fuchs filled that emptiness left byher late father and became Prisma's stepfather,
and the two ended up being veryclose. As of today, Dan remains
one of her biggest advocates, andbecause her birth father passed when she was
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so young. He stepped in andfilled that role. Dan is pretty much
the only dad Prisma has ever known, and even though he and Prisma's family
barely talk these days, he's workedalongside a retired private investigator and spent all
of his free time trying to findhis missing daughter, even dipping into his
own pocket to secure billboards and evencome up with reward money. After a
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few years of Lilia and Dan beingmarried, the family moved to Mesquite,
Texas, a suburban city just outsideof North Dallas near Garland, which fun
fact, some parts of the twothousand and nine horror comedy Zombie Land was
filmed in Garland. And then afterthat the family moved to Mesquite. Prisma
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then became a US citizen. Let'shave a sidebar and talk a little bit
about the name Prisma. When welooked up the translation for prisma, what
we noted is the immediate one givenprism, which when you think about it,
is beautiful and please remember that verythought. When Prisma was born,
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she very obviously refracted love and lightto her family much in the same way
as a prism would. After all, if you look at the word prism,
It is considered as a way oflooking at or thinking about something that
causes you to see or understand itin a different way, which is what
we're trying to do with this episode. Imagine you're holding a crystal or glass
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pyramid, or even the cover ofPink Floy's Dark Side of the Moon.
Remember we mentioned that earlier. Here'sthe explanation behind our title. When white
light is passed through that of apyramid, it creates a prism as it
splits into its spectrum of colors,and this process of white light splitting into
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its constituent colors is dispersion. Whatwe aim to do, much like her
namesake, is aimed to look atall of this in a different way and
hope that this episode can work muchlike a prism would, and shine some
literal light onto the truth. Whenwe spoke to Dan about this thought,
he closed this out with a soliloquy. Prisma's name literally translates to beautiful,
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as a friend of his had asister named Prisma. He said it's a
fairly rare name and spoke of theinterpretation of its literal meaning of beautiful.
According to Dan, Prisma did notknow a lack of English at first,
but after just one summer she becamefluent. Everything we have read and heard
about Prisma suggests that she was andis bright and intelligent, and even ahead
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of her time and her age.In fact, growing up, Prisma was
described as outgoing, straightforward, anddetermined. According to Dan Fuchs when speaking
with Unsolved Mysteries, quote, Prismawas a very, very independent young lady.
She didn't like taking flack from reallyanybody. She was outspoken. If
she had it on her mind,she'd tell you what she thought. End
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quote. It's also been noted thatshe excelled in her grades at school,
and she graduated from Kemp High Schoola year early. She then went on
to Kaplan College to be a paralegal. At one point she joined the National
Guard and achieved a private first classrank. When she was in college,
she fell pregnant by Arturo Garza Junior, who was her boyfriend at the time.
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When Prisma was around six months pregnant, she and Arturo engaged in an
argument which resulted in her and herunborn child being kicked out of the apartment.
There have been claims against Arturo,which he disputes, of him disappearing
completely after that. According to Dan, there were issues at first with Arturo,
but that he's grown into a responsibleman as far as he's concerned.
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She gave birth to a baby boynamed Dominic in twenty thirteen, and y'all,
Dominic was Prismo's absolute world. There'ssimply no feeling in the world like
that of becoming a parent, especiallya mother. The love and joy felt
is unmatched and also difficult to comprehend. I mean, if you're a parent
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of any sort, whether it's tochildren or pets, or even if you
are someone with hopes to be oneday, you'd understand this. Dominic was
Prismo's pure joy, her light,her everything. She always made sure Dominic
was fed, bathed, clothed,happy, and well cared for. She
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was the epitome of perfection As amum. She would dote on her son
and just be the best mom tohim. There was rarely, if ever,
a time that she would be latepicking her only child up from anywhere.
He never went without. In twentysixteen, when Dominic was around three
years old, Prisma met Ryan ata place called e bar Tex mex which
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is located in downtown Dallas. Prettymuch smack dab in the middle of Oaklawn
and Deep Elam on North Haskell Avenue. Ryan was much older than she was,
around nine or ten years older,according to Dan, and we have
to throw that in there to somewhatunderstand the relationship dynamics. So when she
was twenty five, he was aroundthirty four or thirty five. Throughout Prisma
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and Ryan's on and off again relationship, there had been a few domestic violence
calls placed to the police, notingone in particular the same year, just
shortly after they first met. Duringone of the incidents, Ryan was charged
with assault after she had been seenwith bruises all over her, but he
ended up receiving a lesser charge,and then he and Prisma separated and went
their own way. Prisma and Ryanwere seeing other people, but then began
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talking again in February of twenty nineteen. It's been noted that they wanted to
work things out and try again,and then they started dating. While she
had goals and dreams of being ina pairalegal, she ended up quitting her
job and opted into taking a jobat a car dealership called Texas one two
three Auto as a receptionist. Onepoint, according to Dan, Prisma had
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a breast augmentation because she took ona secondary job as an exotic dancer.
This is important to note because whenshe worked as a pair ofalegal, it
was under an attorney that believed tohave an attraction to her. But there
were claims that the attorneys she workedfor made several of the women who worked
for him uncomfortable and would engage inappropriatecomments from time to time. Some claimed
(25:03):
that the attorney had a specific typeand that Prisma, as well as all
of his employees were definitely his type. Now that attorney did offer to do
a pro bono case for Prisma regardinga custody hearing for her son Dominic.
To fast forward a little bit,the claims that Prisma's family made were that
Arturo left and never returned and nevergave any of his time and attention to
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Dominic. Arturo disagreed, as heclaims he paid almost sixty thousand in child
support over the years. Dan recalledthe judge in the pro bono custody hearing,
thinking it was really odd, wonderingwhy the attorney was even offering a
pro bono case to Prisma in particular. A month after that, in March
was when Prisma landed the new jobat Texas one two three Auto in Mesquite.
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Prisma then purchased a handgun and mentionedto loved ones that she was concerned
someone was following or stalking her,as attires on her two thousand and eight
seventeen white jeep Wrangler very recently hadbeen slashed. Just over two months prior
to this incident. New Year's Eveof twenty eighteen, a domestic violence call
was made and Ryan had been chargedwith either assault or domestic battery. Prisma
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had been seen with bruises all overher body. When talking to Dan about
the assault case with Ryan, heclaims that Ryan had gotten upset at Prisma
because she evidently caused him to losesome kind of either business or mortgage license,
and that resulted in an assault.Ryan had been charged for assault,
but Prisma dropped the case. Danand myself believed that it was because there
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may have been an underlying threat toPrisma. It's believed that Ryan might have
gotten jealous that may have had somethingto do with the fact that she quit
that job. So it's April seventeenth, twenty nineteen, a month after the
tire slashing incident, Prisma arrived earlyat her job at Texas one two three
Auto, found an empty spot andparked there. During her shift, she
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and another coworker had gotten into averbal altercation, with the coworker accusing Prisma
of stealing her parking spot. Prismatalked to her managers about this incident and
then just went on about her day. At around noon, she left and
went to E Bar, Tex mexto meet with Ryan for lunch. She
and Ryan got into a fight andhe left, leaving Prisma at the restaurant,
who continued to order her drinks.She ended up staying until about three
(27:27):
point thirty in the afternoon, whenthe bartender had cut her off from ordering
more drinks and asked her to leave. This had reportedly made Prisma very upset.
Detective Dustin Barrett, who y'all willhear a lot more about, he
worked for the Mesquite Police Department atthe time. He was interviewed by WFAA
three years after the incident, andwhen talking about the initial altercation, he
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says, quote, we have themon camera. During that he leaves and
she goes back inside the e barend quote. Prisma got into her jeep
and according to phone records that weretracked, she first started heading back to
her job in Mesquite, but thenturned around to head back to Dallas after
a road rage incident which resulted inher pulling her gun out on the opposing
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driver. The phone records noted thatshe either received or made a call on
her phone and then headed back toDallas towards Ryan's apartment, which is the
Olympus at Ross, located three minutessouth of Ebar. She parked on the
street ran inside the parking garage,where she hung around the elevator for several
minutes, looking irritated and upset.Some note that she had looked drunk,
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but remembered what Dan had said.She could handle her liquor. There's no
way she was drunk. So beforewe continue, I want to make a
notice something. We watched the footageof Prisma at the elevator and the vibe
is definitely a spooky one. Whilethe two are different scenarios and situations,
the video was reminiscent of the oneof Elisa Lamb, who if y'all don't
(28:57):
know, as a Canadian tourist whowas the subject of the infamous Cecil Hotel
incident. And was found to seizeFebruary first of twenty thirteen. Of course,
we seriously hope that the case withPrisma doesn't end up in the same
tone, but our gut feeling wasnot right watching that video. If you
decide a deep dive on your ownafter this episode, we'll include links in
(29:18):
our episode notes, of course,but the footage of Prisma will be located
there too, and we strongly encourageyou to view it. You will then
see why so many people are interestedin that video alone, and you just
might get that same feeling that wedid too. One video shows Prisma arriving
at the Olympus on Ross Apartments nowcalled mccollin on Ross. During an interview
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with WFAA, Detective Barrett goes onto say, quote, so she runs
through the gate and then goes tostand by the elevator. We spoke to
everyone on her phone records list thatshe called leading up to her disappearance,
and all of them told us thatshe sounds upset end quote. Throughout the
video, Prisma can be seen pacingin front of an elevator talking on her
(30:03):
phone for several minutes. One phonecall made seen in the video was to
a friend named Chris, a friendof her family who was out of town
on business at the time. Hehad said that she kept calling him Ryan,
sounding very upset, and kept demandinghis apartment number. Alternatively, she
seemed to be disoriented and in needof help. This is one of the
(30:27):
things that Dan told us was justreally not like her. Detective Barrett had
told WFAA that witnesses said that sheappeared to be drunk and crying. She
called several people, friends and family, expressing that she was upset about something.
While he didn't go into specifics,he did say that they were aware
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of what that something was and thatwas about all there was to that.
When speaking with Dan about this,he said to us, quote, I
remember it was a silver or grays a Dan that she was seen by
resident. The trunk was open andPrisma was hunched over it and crying.
The residents saw her there. Thepolice said nothing about this, and the
lady asked her if she was okayor if that was her car. I've
(31:11):
seen Prisma drink and she can handleher liquor, but she did get cut
off at the bar. The brandishmentof the firearm. She brought it for
personal protection and she felt that shewas being followed. Bits and pieces are
just coming back. It's filed theway in the back of my head,
but it's all there. Her gunwas under the front seat end quote.
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According to Detective Barrett, some witnessestold police that she was seen walking on
both floors of the building's parking garage. They also say they saw Prisma exit
the elevator on either the fourth orfifth floor. However, there's no physical
evidence of Prisma actually being inside thebuilding, with neither her purse nor her
cell phone ever found. The onlyphysical evidence is what was seen on the
(32:07):
video where she is outside of anelevator door. In the last bit of
surveillance footage, Prisma is seen infront of the elevator stumbling out a view
of the camera. Dan told usquote, she was crying behind an open
trunk of a car, and allof a sudden, she disappears. I've
always had this hope that she gotput in witness protection and that's why she
(32:27):
had been crying. Maybe she wasworried about losing Dominic, who is her
entire life. End quote. Whatwe need you to all understand is that
while the last two paragraphs seemed likea mixed pot of information. It's relevant
because we were talking about witnesses sawwhat cameras saw before Prisma disappears. Prisma
hired a babysitter to watch over Dominicwhile she was at work. The normal
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time that Prisma would come pick herson up would be seven thirty PM on
the dot each evening. The babysittersaid that she received a call from Prisma
on her lunch break and the twotalked for about an hour about how Prisma's
day was going, and nothing seemedoff that day. But according to some
sources, the babysitter had reported Prismamissing at nine point thirty that evening when
(33:13):
she never arrived to pick up Dominic. It's been noted that this was just
not like Prisma, because once again, she would just never up and leave
her son and was always on timepicking him up. Now, alternatively,
Dan does mention that the entire situationwith the babysitter seemed odd to him,
saying that everyone in that scenario usedburner phones and that it was actually the
(33:37):
next day when she was reported missing, because he went to school the next
day in the same clothes as theday before. So we're hearing one thing
being reported, but then we're beingtold that nobody was in a hurry to
report her missing at all. Strange. Indeed, police wasted no time trying
to find Prisma. This is actuallya hopeful thing because what we have talked
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about in the beginning, this provesthat people do care. They spoke with
everyone they could think of, friends, families, coworkers, everyone. They
left no stone unturned. They obtainedstatements from witnesses, CCTV footage from the
e bar and the apartment buildings parkinggarage and found that very unfortunately, there
(34:20):
were many areas of the apartments thatwere not covered with cameras, which made
her disappearance that much more difficult topinpoint. There have been a lot of
potential suspects named in Prisma's disappearance,most notably Arturo and Ryan. Both suspects
had been cleared, however, Arturocontinuing to fight for rights to his son
(34:43):
Dominic and Ryan well the police claimedthat he had a solid alibi the day
that he went missing. In fact, the police in the FBI searched Ryan's
home and vehicle, but they foundnothing substantial. Ryan said that on the
last day he saw Prisma, hehad a date that night, and after
he left Prisma at the e Bar, he went out of town. He
(35:04):
did, but it was only tenmiles from his apartment. Cell Phone records
show that his phone pinged in anothertown nearby while Prisma was still in Dallas.
As far as Arturo, he wasinterrogated and ruled out as a suspect.
Police also noted that Arturo has consistentlycooperated with investigators and has been trying
to actively help locate Prisma. Dantold us a similar sentiment, essentially saying
(35:30):
that he didn't have good things tosay about Arturo initially, but that he
has grown to be a responsible manand father. Just a month after Prisma
was last seen, he filed foremergency custody of Dominic, but the court
ruled in favor of Prisma's grandparents.Arturo has grown a lot, according to
Dan, and is now in hisson's life and trying to build a strong
(35:52):
relationship with him and the family.When the police found Prismas jeep, her
handgun was still inside, located underneaththe seat. They also noticed that the
jeep itself was not registered in Prisma'sname, but to an unknown male who
had been married for ten years andwas one of the last people that phone
records showed Prisma called within twenty fourhours before her disappearance. We don't know
(36:16):
much at all about who this manwas or is in Whether or not he
was a friend or lover of Prismais a mystery. With all of this,
Mesquiite police ruled out everyone she hadtalked to that day as of suspects,
including Ryan Dan told us that theysaid he had a rock salad alibi.
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Prisma also never used her phone orher debit cards after that day.
It's been noted that she just vanishedinto thin air. Detective Barrett did say
that they're not rolling out any situation, but they do suspect foul play was
involved. He told Channel eight orthose of you not local to DALLASA during
(37:00):
an interview quote, it's hard tosay if she could still be found alive.
Sex trafficking and human trafficking were aconcern, as was homicide. Evidence
wise, I can't rule anything outyet, but based on what we have,
I believe it's gonna be a nefariousreason. It would have been substantially
out of the normal character to justdisappear. We have a good read on
(37:24):
her typical pattern of behavior and behaviorchanges later that evening, which leads us
to believe something happened to her.As our family has said before, she
would never just leave her son.He was her world end quote. The
fact that Detective Barrett mentioned trafficking leadsus to some common theories, one being
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Prismo was drugged at the bar andtaken by either a gang member or someone
in human trafficking. Two other womenwho favored Prisma have also disappeared in this
area of Dallas after she did.While this seems like a wild theory,
if you know Dallas, you'd knowthat this part of Dallas, this bar
(38:07):
in particular, have had problems withthis before, it is entirely possible that
she's still alive out there somewhere,And according to Dan even he thinks that
there's a high likelihood her drink mighthave been spiked, but nobody caught it.
Once again, he did say shecould handle her drink. Another theory
(38:27):
is that Ryan was somehow involved.Despite the quote unquote solid alibi. According
to Detective Barrett, Ryan wasn't evenhome for several hours at the time she
was at the garage, and wasgone until about midnight. Several sleuths who've
been diving into this have considered ifthe day that Prisma and Ryan met to
reconnect went wrong, as noted earlier, when he left her at the bar,
(38:49):
which caused him to get angry,resulting in a physical altercation not seen,
and that it had occurred either inthe parking garage or in the apartment
itself. Another thing. Many people, including Dan, find it odd that
just a few days after the policesearched the apartment, Ryan relocated without telling
anyone, and while police say they'veevidence to support this alibi, some say
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he could have just as easily lefthis cell phone in another location to throw
them off. Another theory assumes thatwhile Prisma had no history of mental illness
or depression, she could have unlivedherself or ran away from her life and
changed her identity as far as depression. The day she was last seen at
the elevator, she was acting strangein a way that was unlike her,
(39:35):
both angry and disoriented, even thoughmany claimed that she was just highly intoxicated.
Once again, we remember that Dansaid that she can handle her liquor,
and we are remembering that there isa small likelihood she could have been
roofed. We're also considering the factthat, no matter how much anyone can
handle their liquor, she was stilldrinking quite a bit for three hours until
the bartender cut her off and madeher leave. So you are all now
(40:00):
seeing why this case is so frustratingand confusing, so many different factors to
be considered here personally to me,anyway, that is also reminiscent of Tamala
Horsford case, where in short,people assumed she was drunk and did all
of this to herself, but Tamala'shusband said she can handle her drink too.
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Prisma's family and friends continue to saythat her son was her entire world,
her heart beat, and she wouldnever end her life and leave him
behind, and she would never justup and run away without taking him with
her. There's just no way.However, Dan did mention something to us
earlier regarding this theory of the veryslight possibility that she could have gone into
(40:45):
witness protection and had no choice butto leave her family, including dominant behind.
He did tell one of our sourcesthis quote, I just don't see
how someone could just disappear like smokein the wind. She walked out vaporized
and disappeared. We don't have anyclues. End quote. As of the
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day of writing this, it's Decemberninth of twoenty and twenty three, or
if you all prefer the day thatthis episode drops, which will be around
December twelfth, it will be justfour months shy of the fifth anniversary of
Prisma's disappearance. She's been missing sinceApril seventeenth, twenty nineteen, and the
entire case has been nothing short ofpuzzling. Police say that this case continues
(41:30):
to haunt them, with Detective Barretttelling one of our listed sources quote,
Typically with a missing person's case,we're able to get it answered quickly by
tracing phones or bank activity and watchingsurveillance footage. But in this particular case,
all of that activity stops. There'sno way to electronically track her past
(41:50):
a certain point. In this dayand age, you'd expect at least something,
but she literally vanished without a traceend quote. Earlier this year,
in April, one source, onceagain WFAA requested some status updates and were
told by Mesquite Police Department that whilethere's no pending or active leads currently,
they will continue to follow up onany possible information received and ask that if
(42:15):
anyone has any information about this caseto please contact the Mesquite Police Department.
When talking to Dan, he putit like this, it's an active case,
but it's dormant. Mesquite Police Departmentare keeping their cards close to their
chests, and Dan is quoted assaying, quote, it can't be hot
or cold. It's got to beone or the other end quote. Dan
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also went on to tell us thatthe following quote, there's more to this
case than what it seems higher profilestuff. I've believed that for three years
now. It's something larger because itgarnered immediate response from higher profile law enforcement
like Texas Rangers and the FBI.One investigator said that they had a small
piece to a larger puzzle. It'sjust odd and they don't want to release
(43:00):
too much information because they don't wantto blow something big up. The information
might blow the whole case wide open. That's my personal belief. Anyway,
I can't say for sure that's whatthey're doing, but that's my own personal
belief end quote. Dan also toldus that he hasn't talked to the main
detective we believe to be Detective Barrettin a few years because he got promoted,
(43:23):
but that he still will do interviews. He also said that another detective
was really helpful and had a tonof information, but before Dan could get
the information, the detective sadly passedaway. He then went on to mention
that the photo for the original missingperson's flyer was one of Prisma in a
red polo, because that was whichthe last photo of Prisma was taken the
(43:47):
very day before she disappeared, buta PI had advised him to use a
different one to garner more attention.For the sake of accuracy, he wants
everyone to know that the photo ofher and the red polo is the most
current photo that they have as oftoday. Prisma, assuming she's still alive,
(44:07):
which the family feels they have noreason to believe that she's not,
would be thirty years old. Asthe case stands today, Prisma's family are
still searching for her, and Danis never going to give up until he
gets answers. When we spoke toDan, he was driving for his job
and was so determined to talk tome about this that he even multitask while
(44:28):
trying to pump gas at a gasstation. We mentioned this before but he
told us that he spent money outof his own pocket to secure missing persons
flyers and billboards. He did alsosay that there's a reward for any information
leading to a break in the case. The reward money came directly out of
his pocket around twenty five hundred tothree thousand dollars. Prisma Denise per Alta
(44:52):
Reyes, then twenty six, waslast seen alive in Old East Dallas on
April seventeenth, twenty nineteen, onfive forty seven pm. She was last
seen wearing a red polo shirt andblue jeans. Her height is estimated to
be five foot two inches and sheweighs approximately one hundred and thirty five pounds.
Mosquite Police Department or just anyone withinformation to call Mesquite Police Department at
(45:15):
nine seven two two eight five sixthree three six. Both Dan and Police
PD say they do not care howyou come forward with information, saying that
you can report anonymously through Crimestoppers,but please come forward as we approach the
fifth year of her being missing.You can also send messages to the Find
(45:37):
Prisma Facebook page will be be linkedin the episode notes. In a final
note from Dan Fuchs, who bythe Way was such a lovely man.
He wants everyone to know that he'sreceived a ton of comments about him being
an older white man married to aHispanic woman, and that doesn't matter.
(45:57):
While he and Lilia are no longermarried, he did want everyone making such
comments to know that whether he's seenin this light or another, he doesn't
care what anyone thinks about him.He still appreciates it because that means you're
looking for prisma. Also, hiswords, quote, I don't care if
people look at me. That meansthey're looking for prisma. End quote.
We want to close this out withthat, and hopefully Dan, if you're
(46:21):
listening, we want you to knowthat you are definitely awesome, and that
Alison from Coffee and Cases and Ravenfrom the Simens they were all right about
you. Thank you so much forspeaking with us, and we are right
by your side in this effort tofind prisma. We genuinely wish you the
absolute best in prisma. If youare listening, please reach out to Dan
(46:43):
in some way, just let somebodyknow that you're okay. You're very important
to a lot of people, andyou are so loved. Before we close
out, real brief mention that wewill be taking a short Christmas break until
possibly December twenty sixth, we don'tquite know yet, but in the meantime
we will be dropping two episodes inour place, one from Kristin of Murder.
(47:07):
She told about a very important case. We wanted to honor Kristin because
her birthday was just a few daysago, so Happy Birthday. Kristin.
Will also be dropping an episode fromour friend Jason of Santa, maybe a
criminal podcast, because why wouldn't wedrop an episode from Santa may be a
criminal right before Christmas just wouldn't makeany sense anyway else. Prisma, Denise,
(47:30):
Parata, Reyes and in many ways, Dan Fuchs all of her family
are all bees. Bees are strong, resilient yet vulnerable. Without bees,
we as a human race cannot surviveand thrive in life. We also,
as bees, need to work togetherto find the missing bees who strayed from
(47:52):
the hive. Bees like Samantha,Tap and Prisma, to name a few.
So with that, be vigilant,for when you mess with the bees,
you get the hive. Thank youfor listening to a nefarious nightmare.
(48:15):
Music used in the theme was originallyby ghost Stories Incorporated, remixed by Ryan
RCX Murphy. Additional background music isprovided by Epidemic Sound. A Nefarious Nightmare
is scripted, researched, and producedby Courtney Fenner and Amanda Cronin. I'm
Lanie Hobbs and as always, bevigilant for when you mess with the bees,
(48:37):
you get the hive