June 8, 2025 • 27 mins
On September 19th, 2008, an email was sent from one executive of Plus SMS to another, relaying the message, “put a bullet in…Chris,” referring to the company’s then-CEO, Christopher Robert Tiensch. The company was under investigation and was in trouble due to the deception of shareholders and self-inflation of stocks, and Christopher Tiensch had blown the whistle on the entire thing. On Thursday, September 15th, 2011, Christopher was found floating in the Gulf of Mexico, shot to death.
If you have any information about the homicide of Christopher Tiensch, please contact the Port Aransas police department at 361-749-6241 or Texas Crime stoppers at 713-222-TIPS, that’s 713-222-8477, where you can remain completely anonymous.
You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast
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The Port Aransas South Jetty, The Austin America-Statesmen, The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, The New Zealand Herald, and Stuff.co.nz were used as sources for this episode.
#JusticeForChrisTiensch #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #Abduction #Kidnapping #1984 #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #HateCrime #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast #TrueCrimeObsessed #CrimeDocs #InvestigationDiscovery #PodcastAddict #TrueCrimeFan #CriminalJustice #ForensicFiles
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If you have any information about the homicide of Christopher Tiensch, please contact the Port Aransas police department at 361-749-6241 or Texas Crime stoppers at 713-222-TIPS, that’s 713-222-8477, where you can remain completely anonymous.
You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast
Find us at https://www.gonecold.com
For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com
Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast
The Port Aransas South Jetty, The Austin America-Statesmen, The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, The New Zealand Herald, and Stuff.co.nz were used as sources for this episode.
#JusticeForChrisTiensch #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #Abduction #Kidnapping #1984 #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #HateCrime #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast #TrueCrimeObsessed #CrimeDocs #InvestigationDiscovery #PodcastAddict #TrueCrimeFan #CriminalJustice #ForensicFiles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. In September of two thousand five,
New Zealand based mobile phone service provider Plus SMS held
its first annual meeting of shareholders and promised a strong
future for the company. Plus SMS had a big idea
(00:24):
to revolutionized the way globally branded products advertised. The details
are quite mundane to the layperson, but to advertising execs
and shareholders, the text messaging based promotional tool was exciting
a way for these brands to reach potential consumers worldwide.
With the simplicity of a text securing specific numbers that
(00:47):
coincided with a company's name on a phone's keypad. It
might not have seemed like a huge deal to most.
The practice of assigning a word to a phone number
had been around since the nineteen sixties, after all, But
to secure specific numbers on a provider's network was a
big idea To guide them to Plus SMS, the company figured,
(01:10):
and it would provide global product giants with the ability
to use those digits, essentially their name in number form
for promotional texting. Those ads you see telling you to
text something to five to five five five. Plus SMS,
of course, would be paid for each of these texts.
The company was started only a year before by a
(01:33):
man named Gary Donahue, and by the November following the
shareholders meeting a month later, the market value of Plus
SMS had risen to over two hundred and fifty million
dollars after Donahue's announcement that he had secured hundreds upon
hundreds of these numbers for use by global brands. A
(01:53):
year later, it turned out that he had not secured
nearly the amount of numbers he had claimed, and the
company began spiraling downward. Donahue stepped down from the board
and relinquished his shares in the company. He seems to
have seen the event coming, because months earlier, in June
of two thousand and six, Chris Tensch was brought in
(02:15):
as chief executive of Plus SMS. Donahue had known Chris
for a few years, and if anyone could mend the
company's self inflicted wounds, he was the guy. Years later,
when he was in a contentious legal battle with the company,
Chris Tench was found murdered. Christopher Robert Tench was born
(03:02):
on January nineteenth, nineteen sixty eight, the youngest child and
only son of Rita and Richard Tench, German emigrants who
moved to Texas in the early sixties. Chris grew up
a normal boy, his knees and elbows in a perpetual
state of being scabbed over, and his ingenuity was apparent
(03:22):
at an early age when he'd build forts using branches
and limbs in the family's backyard. Chris grew up in
a nice neighborhood just west of Houston, where he received
some of his private schooling, but he attended the Florida
Air Academy, where his athletic abilities were well recorded in
the local paper. He was a district tennis champ and
(03:45):
was on the varsity soccer team. Chris graduated from Florida
Air Academy in nineteen eighty six and went on to
attend Stephen F. Austin University in Nacadochius, Texas. He studied
business and marketing and became the student body president. He
also met a young woman there who he fell head
(04:06):
over heels for the president of the sophomore class, Dane,
at an on campus student government office. Dane was crazy
about Chris all but immediately too. She said of him,
he had such a presence, He's such a strong leader.
I remember he would walk into a room and everybody
would go, there's Chris. It's not an arrogance. He just
(04:30):
knows who he is. Chris graduated in nineteen ninety one
and moved to Austin, where he worked on a Senate campaign.
Chris was a staffer at the state capitol there during
the nineteen ninety three legislative session, working for Karl Rove
and Associates, performing public relations tasks and managing political campaigns.
(04:52):
He and his college flame, Dane, were married on November
sixth of that year. Chris Tensch's degree in business and marketing,
and though it could be argued that would serve him
quite well in a career in politics and government, the
work became more tedious than challenging, and he decided to
call it quits at Rove and Associates after being one
(05:14):
of the few selected for a young executive program at
SBC Communications, a multinational telecommunications company that was previously known
as Southwestern Bell. SBC took Chris and Dane to Dallas
and then Saint Louis, Missouri, before finally landing them along
with their young children in Europe in nineteen ninety eight.
(05:38):
It wasn't long before Chris was ready for something new,
and in two thousand and one he joined the Swiss
owned company BMD Wireless as a text message infrastructure specialist.
He was a major asset to the company. In the
stone age of cell phones, text messages could only be
sent within the same carrier. Chris, while he was employed
(06:01):
at the company, is said to have basically invented the
technology that allowed texts to be sent from one carrier
to another. Chris was the chief executive officer at BMD
by two thousand and four, and though the company was
bought out that year, he continued operating the business until
two thousand and six. The tench family moved back to
(06:24):
the United States in six settling in Boulder, Colorado. Chris
had done well financially, very well, in fact, and he
chose to concentrate on his children for a while, leaving
the corporate world behind for a stent of fatherhood. Though
raising children can indeed be challenging, the ever restless, Chris
(06:45):
told his wife Dane, I've built a company and I
need a new challenge. He took up mountain climbing. A
few months past, Chris was having the time of his
life with his family and practicing his new fani, but
he was pulled back into the world of business when
he received an offer from Gary Donahue of New Zealand's
(07:08):
Plus Sms, a former client of his, to serve as
their chief executive officer. They practically begged him, Dane Tench
would later tell a reporter the potential massive income and
the possibility to once again live abroad were enticing, sure,
but that's not why Chris agreed to come on board.
(07:30):
It was the challenge. The company was under investigation. Shares
had slipped forty percent. Chris was brought in to do
damage control and bring the company back to its former glory,
without a doubt, a monumental challenge that he would have
been excited to take on. The responsibility of this task, however,
(07:52):
would prove to be challenging in a way that he
could never have predicted. Chris Tench was pressured by board
members to fabricate Plus Sms's performance, he'd later claim, to
make the company appear to shareholders and potential shareholders that
they'd brought themselves back up from the brink of extinction,
(08:12):
a move that Gary Donahue had made prior to Chris
coming on board, and that had perpetuated the mess that
Plus Sms was already in. It wasn't long after being
named CEO of Plus SMS that Chris came public with
the fact that Donahue had been misleading shareholders. Chris trudged on,
(08:34):
still believing he could turn things around for the company.
He moved his family from New Zealand to an upscale
community near Austin, Texas called Westlake Hills in two thousand
and seven. There he got a US branch of Plus
SMS going. Despite the fact that Chris was successfully expanding
(08:54):
the company into the Americas, his unwillingness to deceive shareholders
elevate and liquidate chunks of Plus sms's stock, his inclination
to do the right thing, as Dane later put it
to the press, ultimately cost him his job. The company
hired a new chairman, with whom Chris all but immediately
(09:16):
became bitter enemies. It was the beginning of a long,
arduous battle between him and Plus SMS. In September of
two thousand and eight, a disillusioned Chris Tench turned in
(09:38):
his six months notice. Plus SMS execs flew out to
Austin the following month, shut down the company's operations there,
and fired Chris. The very month he was let go,
Chris filed a lawsuit against Plus SMS, alleging wrongful termination,
breach of contract, and defamation. A bitter and contentious court
(10:03):
battle began, with Chris Tennch suing SMS at home in Austin, Texas,
and Plus SMS suing him in New Zealand, where the
company was based. Chris testified in court, telling US District
Judge Lee Yeagle in Austin that prior to his employment
with Plus SMS he had constantly been offered positions in
(10:27):
other companies and that those have absolutely disappeared when all
was said and done. At least in the US lawsuit,
Chris Tench was awarded four hundred and thirty thousand dollars
for his wrongful termination and company assets to which he
was owed, and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
legal fees and interest. A further hearing was set to
(10:50):
take place on September fifteenth, twenty eleven. The hearing would
determine how and when the money would be released to Chris,
but the court was also set to hear arguments for
his request for a temporary restraining order and anti suit injunction.
Chris had also filed this type of request in a
New Zealand court, which would prevent plus SMS from seeking
(11:13):
further court action against him. Among the evidence that Chris's
attorneys produced was a series of emails that provided proof
that plus SMS executives plotted to terminate both Chris and
the company's chief financial officer, Less Coats, and that the
company had purposely timed legal actions to interrupt a mountain
(11:35):
climbing vacation that Chris had planned. The most alarming email produced, though,
was dated eight days after Chris Tench turned in his resignation.
The content of the email, despite later claims that the
phrase used was a common euphemism for employment termination, was horrifyingly,
(11:55):
though maybe innocently prophetic, It read put a bullet in
Less and Chris next week. Chris Tench had dealt with
court battles for months upon months now, and before the
upcoming hearing, he desperately needed a break. His wife, Dane,
reported that it wasn't at all unlike Chris to go
(12:17):
solo on short getaways, and that's what he did on
September eleventh, two thousand and one, heading to the coast Portoransas,
Texas to do some fishing. He made the two hundred
mile trip and arrived at the Holiday Inn Express and
Suites on Eleventh Street there at about three pm, checked in,
(12:38):
threw his bags in the room, and headed out to
a jetty to throw his line in the water. At
eight pm, Chris phoned Dane to brag about the fish
he caught, told her that he'd call the next day
to check the final score of his son's first football
game of the season, and said he was heading off
on foot to grab a burger somewhere. Dane sent a
(12:59):
text message to her husband at around eleven thirty pm
that night, but got no response and figured he had
called it an evening. The following morning, Monday, September twelfth,
twenty eleven, Dane began to worry Chris hadn't texted her back.
She called him, but there was no answer. Dane made
(13:20):
a series of calls to her husband every two hours
from that point on, but still nothing. She contacted the
hotel that evening after never having received a response or
an answer to her calls, His range rovers still sat
in the Holiday in Express's parking lot. Hotel staff entered
(13:40):
Chris's room, where they found his keys, watch, cell phone,
and wallet. Blood was everywhere, on lampshades, the walls, the curtains,
the ceilings, and on the floors. The blood trailed from
the room to the bathroom, and there was no sign
of Chris Tench. Port Ransis had a population of around
(14:04):
thirty five hundred in twenty eleven. Needless to say, the
resources available to the police department there are limited, but
a search began right away, and flyers were quickly printed
up and distributed around the island. The efforts to locate
Chris Tench remained futile until ten twenty am on Thursday,
(14:26):
September fifteenth, when a low flying Texas Department of Public
Safety chopper discovered his body floating near the shore of
the Gulf of Mexico just outside of San Jose Island,
about ten miles northeast of Port Orransis. Chris had been shot.
Because of the immediate evidence they had, suicide was ruled out.
(14:50):
The missing person investigation became a homicide investigation. Detectives had
feared for the outcome upon the inspection of Chris's room
at the Holiday Inn a few days prior, where they'd
found an obvious crime scene. We have our two crime scenes.
There's stuff that is in that hotel that makes it
strange for that body to be on that island. Police
(15:13):
later said they were withholding the fact that blood was
found in the hotel room. Police told the press that
Chris's wounds were not self inflicted, but they remained tight
lipped on about every other detail of their findings to
preserve the integrity of the investigation. They said the location
of the injuries, type of weapon, ammunition, and number of
(15:37):
shots will not be released. Since law enforcement released that
he'd been shot, and considering the fact that their statement
said injuries plural, it is presumable that Chris suffered multiple
gunshot wounds. Investigators suspected that Chris's body was dumped in
much deeper water than where he was found, far away
(15:59):
from the concentration of peers that surrounded where his body floated.
The beach in the direct vicinity to where Chris was
discovered by helicopters was combed and scoured. If police found
anything there, they haven't slipped up on what tips poured
in after word of the homicide. Several individuals had come
(16:21):
forward with reports of Chris tench sightings. However, evidence supporting
the claims eluded investigators. Since it is likely that Chris
was murdered on the very night he arrived in Port Oransas,
law enforcements, attempts at inquiry in bars and restaurants there
with photo in tow provided few witnesses who had seen
(16:43):
the forty three year old husband and father of two.
They spoke with visitors who were fishing on the pier
where Chris had been so successful on the day he'd arrived,
but no clues were gathered. Detectives scrambled to find a
fisherman who'd been on the pier fishing near Chris that
Sunday evening. They had no description at all to work
(17:05):
off of, though, so it is likely that this individual
was casually mentioned by Chris to his wife the last
time they spoke. The press hounded police for details, but
they remained mostly silent. They didn't have any persons of
interest that fit the bill. Presumably, even if they did,
(17:25):
A detective later told a reporter they didn't have enough
evidence to charge anyone. It seems the police were baffled
as to a motive in Chris's slang, though they also
believed that there was only about a ten percent chance
the killing was random. Police released a written statement to
(17:45):
the press on Monday, October third, twenty eleven, where they
explained that they had spent hundreds of hours investigating the case,
utilizing all of the varying law enforcement agencies tools and resources.
They wouldn't comment on specifics, but relayed to the press
that the nature of those resources could not be disclosed.
(18:08):
The statement did not mention that physical evidence was being tested.
A further glimpse into police activity came on Monday, November seventh,
twenty eleven, when port Ranza's police Chief, Scott Burroughs told
reporters that the investigation was moving slow, but that the
pace was normal in such investigations where cases in which
(18:31):
no immediate suspects or motives are concerned. He said the
investigations required ample legwork due diligence and patience. Chief Burrows
was optimistic that an arrest would be made, though asserting
that highly skilled investigators were assigned, but also indicating that
sometimes homicide investigations such as Chris Tenches are solved by
(18:55):
good old fashioned luck. Burrows also said that results of
forensic testing would be available in the near future, and
to explain to the press the importance of such Burroughs said,
DNA is like fingerprints, unique markers, and sometimes recovering fingerprints
or DNA evidence can lead to or exclude individuals as
(19:18):
suspects or witnesses. While the Port Ransis Police Department had
two detectives on Chris Tensch's case, the Texas Rangers and
(19:38):
the FBI became involved. Not long after. Court documents regarding
Chris's legal battles with Plus SMS made their way into
the police file, joining the witness statements, photos, forensic and
medical examiner reports, and phone records that already made up
the investigative material. The Travis count Sheriff's office aided the
(20:01):
other agencies in obtaining many of the documents. In Austin,
where Chris and his family lived, investigators began looking deeply
into the court documents. Most striking to them or emails
exchanged between Plus SMS executives, the ones that referred to
putting a bullet in Chris Tench. It became known to
(20:24):
detectives that Chris's bad blood with Plus SMS had been
well documented in the press, particularly overseas in New Zealand,
where the company became known as the New Zealand Enron.
A US company that was taken down for large scale
conspiracy and fraud, to put it simply, and whose story
dominated the press for quite some time. Portranzis homicide sergeant
(20:49):
Mike Hannon told a reporter there was some good information
on the news about how he blew the whistle in
the company and some dirty dealings. Chris Tench reported to
New Zealand's equivalent of the US Securities and Exchange Commission
the company's unethical practices and deceptions to shareholders, making many
(21:10):
enemies who sat on the board of Plus SMS. The
bitter legal battle and the e mails that were obtained
as a result weren't only investigation fodder and court evidence
after Chris's murder, They also had a major impact on
the Tench family, causing fear and paranoia in the months
(21:30):
leading up to Chris's death. Dinah Welsh, a spokesperson for
the family, told the New Zealand Mourning Report that Dane
and Chris were startled by the e mails and that
Chris was worried for his family's safety, believing he was
being followed. Dane Tench told the Austin American Statesman that
Chris had been receiving anonymous threats in the months leading
(21:53):
up to his death, too, though she would not go
into specifics on them. She told the press that she
had expressed concerns to her husband about his trip to
the coast, but he attempted to lessen his wife's worry,
telling her, no one's going to follow me to Porter Ransas.
I really feel like I'm in a nightmare, Dane told
(22:14):
the reporter. The law firm representing Plus SMS released a
statement and provided that the lawsuits between Chris Tench and
his client had nothing to do with Chris's homicide. Investigators
met with Plus SMS executives in Dallas, where it was
noted that they spoke freely to detectives, and they ultimately
(22:37):
decided that there was little to no evidence pointing to
their involvement. Sergeant Hannon blew off the company's role in
Chris's murder, telling a reporter countries have different ways and sayings,
where we will say give the acts to someone to
fire him, and maybe another country will say, my god,
they're going to take an axe and kill somebody. We
(22:59):
know what that means. In America. Tench family spokesperson Dinah
Welsh's thoughts on the term were strikingly opposed to law enforcements. However,
she said, I don't know about you, but I've heard
people in anger say I'm going to kill him or whatever.
But I've never heard of somebody, especially an executive, putting
(23:20):
something like that in an email and actually hitting send.
And then the fact that Chris turns up dead, apparently
because of a gunshot wound. You can't help but question
and be concerned about the fact that something that was
stated has become some kind of prophecy. We were unable
to find tailtale proof that the euphemism put a bullet
(23:43):
in him is indeed a common one used when discussing
the termination of an employee. In New Zealand, Plus SMS
dropped their lawsuit against Chris Tench after his murder and
offered their condolences to his family, adding that they would
pay the courts the money they owed Chris from the
(24:03):
US lawsuit to satisfy the judgment there I pray that
the answer will one day be revealed to us, Dane
Tench said of her husband's slang at his funeral. The
somber event, well attended by friends and family, featured music
that Chris's son wrote for his father that played over
a screen featuring photos of Chris Tench throughout his life.
(24:28):
Port Ransis homicide sergeant Mike Hannon told the port Ransis
newspaper The South Jetty in September of twenty fifteen that
he and fellow homicide detective Matt Johnson would be looking
back over Chris's file, which is said to contain hundreds
of pages in its entirety. The truth, however, seems elusive
(24:50):
to investigators, and Chris Tench's homicide remains unresolved. Sergeant Hannon
suggested in the interview that he was interested in handing
the case over to the Sheriff's Association of Texas Cold
Case Review Team, but it is unclear if it actually
ever was. He told a South Jedy reporter, it's a
(25:11):
very strange and unusual homicide case, whether it's by some
lead we get and makes the police department look like
a great agency, or someone literally walks in and have
enough guilt and lays it out. I don't care how
it happens. Referring to the case being solved, he added,
frustration with the case apparent that Chris got the VIP
(25:35):
treatment and we are still here where we are. The
case is said to be Portoransis's only unsolved murder. In
September twenty twenty, Detective Amy Jamison told The South Jetty
that no new leads have come up in the case
since twenty sixteen and all have been exhausted. Sergeant Joey
(25:58):
Reeves called the case suspended pending new leads. If you
have any information about the homicide of Christopher Tench, please
contact the Portoransis Police Department at three six one seven
four nine six two four one, or Texas Crime Stoppers
(26:19):
by calling seven to one three two two two tips
that's seven one three two two two eight four seven seven,
where you can remain completely anonymous. If you'd like to
join Gon Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved
homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at free
(26:41):
and have access to bonus content. You can at Patreon
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you choose to support Gone Cold, Were sheiate you? Thanks
(27:01):
for listening, y'all,
Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. In September of two thousand five,
New Zealand based mobile phone service provider Plus SMS held
its first annual meeting of shareholders and promised a strong
future for the company. Plus SMS had a big idea
(00:24):
to revolutionized the way globally branded products advertised. The details
are quite mundane to the layperson, but to advertising execs
and shareholders, the text messaging based promotional tool was exciting
a way for these brands to reach potential consumers worldwide.
With the simplicity of a text securing specific numbers that
(00:47):
coincided with a company's name on a phone's keypad. It
might not have seemed like a huge deal to most.
The practice of assigning a word to a phone number
had been around since the nineteen sixties, after all, But
to secure specific numbers on a provider's network was a
big idea To guide them to Plus SMS, the company figured,
(01:10):
and it would provide global product giants with the ability
to use those digits, essentially their name in number form
for promotional texting. Those ads you see telling you to
text something to five to five five five. Plus SMS,
of course, would be paid for each of these texts.
The company was started only a year before by a
(01:33):
man named Gary Donahue, and by the November following the
shareholders meeting a month later, the market value of Plus
SMS had risen to over two hundred and fifty million
dollars after Donahue's announcement that he had secured hundreds upon
hundreds of these numbers for use by global brands. A
(01:53):
year later, it turned out that he had not secured
nearly the amount of numbers he had claimed, and the
company began spiraling downward. Donahue stepped down from the board
and relinquished his shares in the company. He seems to
have seen the event coming, because months earlier, in June
of two thousand and six, Chris Tensch was brought in
(02:15):
as chief executive of Plus SMS. Donahue had known Chris
for a few years, and if anyone could mend the
company's self inflicted wounds, he was the guy. Years later,
when he was in a contentious legal battle with the company,
Chris Tench was found murdered. Christopher Robert Tench was born
(03:02):
on January nineteenth, nineteen sixty eight, the youngest child and
only son of Rita and Richard Tench, German emigrants who
moved to Texas in the early sixties. Chris grew up
a normal boy, his knees and elbows in a perpetual
state of being scabbed over, and his ingenuity was apparent
(03:22):
at an early age when he'd build forts using branches
and limbs in the family's backyard. Chris grew up in
a nice neighborhood just west of Houston, where he received
some of his private schooling, but he attended the Florida
Air Academy, where his athletic abilities were well recorded in
the local paper. He was a district tennis champ and
(03:45):
was on the varsity soccer team. Chris graduated from Florida
Air Academy in nineteen eighty six and went on to
attend Stephen F. Austin University in Nacadochius, Texas. He studied
business and marketing and became the student body president. He
also met a young woman there who he fell head
(04:06):
over heels for the president of the sophomore class, Dane,
at an on campus student government office. Dane was crazy
about Chris all but immediately too. She said of him,
he had such a presence, He's such a strong leader.
I remember he would walk into a room and everybody
would go, there's Chris. It's not an arrogance. He just
(04:30):
knows who he is. Chris graduated in nineteen ninety one
and moved to Austin, where he worked on a Senate campaign.
Chris was a staffer at the state capitol there during
the nineteen ninety three legislative session, working for Karl Rove
and Associates, performing public relations tasks and managing political campaigns.
(04:52):
He and his college flame, Dane, were married on November
sixth of that year. Chris Tensch's degree in business and marketing,
and though it could be argued that would serve him
quite well in a career in politics and government, the
work became more tedious than challenging, and he decided to
call it quits at Rove and Associates after being one
(05:14):
of the few selected for a young executive program at
SBC Communications, a multinational telecommunications company that was previously known
as Southwestern Bell. SBC took Chris and Dane to Dallas
and then Saint Louis, Missouri, before finally landing them along
with their young children in Europe in nineteen ninety eight.
(05:38):
It wasn't long before Chris was ready for something new,
and in two thousand and one he joined the Swiss
owned company BMD Wireless as a text message infrastructure specialist.
He was a major asset to the company. In the
stone age of cell phones, text messages could only be
sent within the same carrier. Chris, while he was employed
(06:01):
at the company, is said to have basically invented the
technology that allowed texts to be sent from one carrier
to another. Chris was the chief executive officer at BMD
by two thousand and four, and though the company was
bought out that year, he continued operating the business until
two thousand and six. The tench family moved back to
(06:24):
the United States in six settling in Boulder, Colorado. Chris
had done well financially, very well, in fact, and he
chose to concentrate on his children for a while, leaving
the corporate world behind for a stent of fatherhood. Though
raising children can indeed be challenging, the ever restless, Chris
(06:45):
told his wife Dane, I've built a company and I
need a new challenge. He took up mountain climbing. A
few months past, Chris was having the time of his
life with his family and practicing his new fani, but
he was pulled back into the world of business when
he received an offer from Gary Donahue of New Zealand's
(07:08):
Plus Sms, a former client of his, to serve as
their chief executive officer. They practically begged him, Dane Tench
would later tell a reporter the potential massive income and
the possibility to once again live abroad were enticing, sure,
but that's not why Chris agreed to come on board.
(07:30):
It was the challenge. The company was under investigation. Shares
had slipped forty percent. Chris was brought in to do
damage control and bring the company back to its former glory,
without a doubt, a monumental challenge that he would have
been excited to take on. The responsibility of this task, however,
(07:52):
would prove to be challenging in a way that he
could never have predicted. Chris Tench was pressured by board
members to fabricate Plus Sms's performance, he'd later claim, to
make the company appear to shareholders and potential shareholders that
they'd brought themselves back up from the brink of extinction,
(08:12):
a move that Gary Donahue had made prior to Chris
coming on board, and that had perpetuated the mess that
Plus Sms was already in. It wasn't long after being
named CEO of Plus SMS that Chris came public with
the fact that Donahue had been misleading shareholders. Chris trudged on,
(08:34):
still believing he could turn things around for the company.
He moved his family from New Zealand to an upscale
community near Austin, Texas called Westlake Hills in two thousand
and seven. There he got a US branch of Plus
SMS going. Despite the fact that Chris was successfully expanding
(08:54):
the company into the Americas, his unwillingness to deceive shareholders
elevate and liquidate chunks of Plus sms's stock, his inclination
to do the right thing, as Dane later put it
to the press, ultimately cost him his job. The company
hired a new chairman, with whom Chris all but immediately
(09:16):
became bitter enemies. It was the beginning of a long,
arduous battle between him and Plus SMS. In September of
two thousand and eight, a disillusioned Chris Tench turned in
(09:38):
his six months notice. Plus SMS execs flew out to
Austin the following month, shut down the company's operations there,
and fired Chris. The very month he was let go,
Chris filed a lawsuit against Plus SMS, alleging wrongful termination,
breach of contract, and defamation. A bitter and contentious court
(10:03):
battle began, with Chris Tennch suing SMS at home in Austin, Texas,
and Plus SMS suing him in New Zealand, where the
company was based. Chris testified in court, telling US District
Judge Lee Yeagle in Austin that prior to his employment
with Plus SMS he had constantly been offered positions in
(10:27):
other companies and that those have absolutely disappeared when all
was said and done. At least in the US lawsuit,
Chris Tench was awarded four hundred and thirty thousand dollars
for his wrongful termination and company assets to which he
was owed, and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
legal fees and interest. A further hearing was set to
(10:50):
take place on September fifteenth, twenty eleven. The hearing would
determine how and when the money would be released to Chris,
but the court was also set to hear arguments for
his request for a temporary restraining order and anti suit injunction.
Chris had also filed this type of request in a
New Zealand court, which would prevent plus SMS from seeking
(11:13):
further court action against him. Among the evidence that Chris's
attorneys produced was a series of emails that provided proof
that plus SMS executives plotted to terminate both Chris and
the company's chief financial officer, Less Coats, and that the
company had purposely timed legal actions to interrupt a mountain
(11:35):
climbing vacation that Chris had planned. The most alarming email produced, though,
was dated eight days after Chris Tench turned in his resignation.
The content of the email, despite later claims that the
phrase used was a common euphemism for employment termination, was horrifyingly,
(11:55):
though maybe innocently prophetic, It read put a bullet in
Less and Chris next week. Chris Tench had dealt with
court battles for months upon months now, and before the
upcoming hearing, he desperately needed a break. His wife, Dane,
reported that it wasn't at all unlike Chris to go
(12:17):
solo on short getaways, and that's what he did on
September eleventh, two thousand and one, heading to the coast Portoransas,
Texas to do some fishing. He made the two hundred
mile trip and arrived at the Holiday Inn Express and
Suites on Eleventh Street there at about three pm, checked in,
(12:38):
threw his bags in the room, and headed out to
a jetty to throw his line in the water. At
eight pm, Chris phoned Dane to brag about the fish
he caught, told her that he'd call the next day
to check the final score of his son's first football
game of the season, and said he was heading off
on foot to grab a burger somewhere. Dane sent a
(12:59):
text message to her husband at around eleven thirty pm
that night, but got no response and figured he had
called it an evening. The following morning, Monday, September twelfth,
twenty eleven, Dane began to worry Chris hadn't texted her back.
She called him, but there was no answer. Dane made
(13:20):
a series of calls to her husband every two hours
from that point on, but still nothing. She contacted the
hotel that evening after never having received a response or
an answer to her calls, His range rovers still sat
in the Holiday in Express's parking lot. Hotel staff entered
(13:40):
Chris's room, where they found his keys, watch, cell phone,
and wallet. Blood was everywhere, on lampshades, the walls, the curtains,
the ceilings, and on the floors. The blood trailed from
the room to the bathroom, and there was no sign
of Chris Tench. Port Ransis had a population of around
(14:04):
thirty five hundred in twenty eleven. Needless to say, the
resources available to the police department there are limited, but
a search began right away, and flyers were quickly printed
up and distributed around the island. The efforts to locate
Chris Tench remained futile until ten twenty am on Thursday,
(14:26):
September fifteenth, when a low flying Texas Department of Public
Safety chopper discovered his body floating near the shore of
the Gulf of Mexico just outside of San Jose Island,
about ten miles northeast of Port Orransis. Chris had been shot.
Because of the immediate evidence they had, suicide was ruled out.
(14:50):
The missing person investigation became a homicide investigation. Detectives had
feared for the outcome upon the inspection of Chris's room
at the Holiday Inn a few days prior, where they'd
found an obvious crime scene. We have our two crime scenes.
There's stuff that is in that hotel that makes it
strange for that body to be on that island. Police
(15:13):
later said they were withholding the fact that blood was
found in the hotel room. Police told the press that
Chris's wounds were not self inflicted, but they remained tight
lipped on about every other detail of their findings to
preserve the integrity of the investigation. They said the location
of the injuries, type of weapon, ammunition, and number of
(15:37):
shots will not be released. Since law enforcement released that
he'd been shot, and considering the fact that their statement
said injuries plural, it is presumable that Chris suffered multiple
gunshot wounds. Investigators suspected that Chris's body was dumped in
much deeper water than where he was found, far away
(15:59):
from the concentration of peers that surrounded where his body floated.
The beach in the direct vicinity to where Chris was
discovered by helicopters was combed and scoured. If police found
anything there, they haven't slipped up on what tips poured
in after word of the homicide. Several individuals had come
(16:21):
forward with reports of Chris tench sightings. However, evidence supporting
the claims eluded investigators. Since it is likely that Chris
was murdered on the very night he arrived in Port Oransas,
law enforcements, attempts at inquiry in bars and restaurants there
with photo in tow provided few witnesses who had seen
(16:43):
the forty three year old husband and father of two.
They spoke with visitors who were fishing on the pier
where Chris had been so successful on the day he'd arrived,
but no clues were gathered. Detectives scrambled to find a
fisherman who'd been on the pier fishing near Chris that
Sunday evening. They had no description at all to work
(17:05):
off of, though, so it is likely that this individual
was casually mentioned by Chris to his wife the last
time they spoke. The press hounded police for details, but
they remained mostly silent. They didn't have any persons of
interest that fit the bill. Presumably, even if they did,
(17:25):
A detective later told a reporter they didn't have enough
evidence to charge anyone. It seems the police were baffled
as to a motive in Chris's slang, though they also
believed that there was only about a ten percent chance
the killing was random. Police released a written statement to
(17:45):
the press on Monday, October third, twenty eleven, where they
explained that they had spent hundreds of hours investigating the case,
utilizing all of the varying law enforcement agencies tools and resources.
They wouldn't comment on specifics, but relayed to the press
that the nature of those resources could not be disclosed.
(18:08):
The statement did not mention that physical evidence was being tested.
A further glimpse into police activity came on Monday, November seventh,
twenty eleven, when port Ranza's police Chief, Scott Burroughs told
reporters that the investigation was moving slow, but that the
pace was normal in such investigations where cases in which
(18:31):
no immediate suspects or motives are concerned. He said the
investigations required ample legwork due diligence and patience. Chief Burrows
was optimistic that an arrest would be made, though asserting
that highly skilled investigators were assigned, but also indicating that
sometimes homicide investigations such as Chris Tenches are solved by
(18:55):
good old fashioned luck. Burrows also said that results of
forensic testing would be available in the near future, and
to explain to the press the importance of such Burroughs said,
DNA is like fingerprints, unique markers, and sometimes recovering fingerprints
or DNA evidence can lead to or exclude individuals as
(19:18):
suspects or witnesses. While the Port Ransis Police Department had
two detectives on Chris Tensch's case, the Texas Rangers and
(19:38):
the FBI became involved. Not long after. Court documents regarding
Chris's legal battles with Plus SMS made their way into
the police file, joining the witness statements, photos, forensic and
medical examiner reports, and phone records that already made up
the investigative material. The Travis count Sheriff's office aided the
(20:01):
other agencies in obtaining many of the documents. In Austin,
where Chris and his family lived, investigators began looking deeply
into the court documents. Most striking to them or emails
exchanged between Plus SMS executives, the ones that referred to
putting a bullet in Chris Tench. It became known to
(20:24):
detectives that Chris's bad blood with Plus SMS had been
well documented in the press, particularly overseas in New Zealand,
where the company became known as the New Zealand Enron.
A US company that was taken down for large scale
conspiracy and fraud, to put it simply, and whose story
dominated the press for quite some time. Portranzis homicide sergeant
(20:49):
Mike Hannon told a reporter there was some good information
on the news about how he blew the whistle in
the company and some dirty dealings. Chris Tench reported to
New Zealand's equivalent of the US Securities and Exchange Commission
the company's unethical practices and deceptions to shareholders, making many
(21:10):
enemies who sat on the board of Plus SMS. The
bitter legal battle and the e mails that were obtained
as a result weren't only investigation fodder and court evidence
after Chris's murder, They also had a major impact on
the Tench family, causing fear and paranoia in the months
(21:30):
leading up to Chris's death. Dinah Welsh, a spokesperson for
the family, told the New Zealand Mourning Report that Dane
and Chris were startled by the e mails and that
Chris was worried for his family's safety, believing he was
being followed. Dane Tench told the Austin American Statesman that
Chris had been receiving anonymous threats in the months leading
(21:53):
up to his death, too, though she would not go
into specifics on them. She told the press that she
had expressed concerns to her husband about his trip to
the coast, but he attempted to lessen his wife's worry,
telling her, no one's going to follow me to Porter Ransas.
I really feel like I'm in a nightmare, Dane told
(22:14):
the reporter. The law firm representing Plus SMS released a
statement and provided that the lawsuits between Chris Tench and
his client had nothing to do with Chris's homicide. Investigators
met with Plus SMS executives in Dallas, where it was
noted that they spoke freely to detectives, and they ultimately
(22:37):
decided that there was little to no evidence pointing to
their involvement. Sergeant Hannon blew off the company's role in
Chris's murder, telling a reporter countries have different ways and sayings,
where we will say give the acts to someone to
fire him, and maybe another country will say, my god,
they're going to take an axe and kill somebody. We
(22:59):
know what that means. In America. Tench family spokesperson Dinah
Welsh's thoughts on the term were strikingly opposed to law enforcements. However,
she said, I don't know about you, but I've heard
people in anger say I'm going to kill him or whatever.
But I've never heard of somebody, especially an executive, putting
(23:20):
something like that in an email and actually hitting send.
And then the fact that Chris turns up dead, apparently
because of a gunshot wound. You can't help but question
and be concerned about the fact that something that was
stated has become some kind of prophecy. We were unable
to find tailtale proof that the euphemism put a bullet
(23:43):
in him is indeed a common one used when discussing
the termination of an employee. In New Zealand, Plus SMS
dropped their lawsuit against Chris Tench after his murder and
offered their condolences to his family, adding that they would
pay the courts the money they owed Chris from the
(24:03):
US lawsuit to satisfy the judgment there I pray that
the answer will one day be revealed to us, Dane
Tench said of her husband's slang at his funeral. The
somber event, well attended by friends and family, featured music
that Chris's son wrote for his father that played over
a screen featuring photos of Chris Tench throughout his life.
(24:28):
Port Ransis homicide sergeant Mike Hannon told the port Ransis
newspaper The South Jetty in September of twenty fifteen that
he and fellow homicide detective Matt Johnson would be looking
back over Chris's file, which is said to contain hundreds
of pages in its entirety. The truth, however, seems elusive
(24:50):
to investigators, and Chris Tench's homicide remains unresolved. Sergeant Hannon
suggested in the interview that he was interested in handing
the case over to the Sheriff's Association of Texas Cold
Case Review Team, but it is unclear if it actually
ever was. He told a South Jedy reporter, it's a
(25:11):
very strange and unusual homicide case, whether it's by some
lead we get and makes the police department look like
a great agency, or someone literally walks in and have
enough guilt and lays it out. I don't care how
it happens. Referring to the case being solved, he added,
frustration with the case apparent that Chris got the VIP
(25:35):
treatment and we are still here where we are. The
case is said to be Portoransis's only unsolved murder. In
September twenty twenty, Detective Amy Jamison told The South Jetty
that no new leads have come up in the case
since twenty sixteen and all have been exhausted. Sergeant Joey
(25:58):
Reeves called the case suspended pending new leads. If you
have any information about the homicide of Christopher Tench, please
contact the Portoransis Police Department at three six one seven
four nine six two four one, or Texas Crime Stoppers
(26:19):
by calling seven to one three two two two tips
that's seven one three two two two eight four seven seven,
where you can remain completely anonymous. If you'd like to
join Gon Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved
homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at free
(26:41):
and have access to bonus content. You can at Patreon
dot com Slash Gone Cold podcast. You can also support
the show by leaving a five star rating and written
review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen. However
you choose to support Gone Cold, Were sheiate you? Thanks
(27:01):
for listening, y'all,
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