Replay - Missing: Jared McColloch - Method & Madness

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm re releasing this episode about the disappearance of
Jared McCulloch. I'm still in touch with Jared's mom pretty
regularly and she's still searching for answers. So please listen
and let's bring Jared home. This episode contains details that
may be disturbing to some listener. Discretion is advised.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I don't want to think, so I'm playd that that's
what everything. I don't want to accuse anybody of anything.
My first goal is to find Jared first and then
find out exactly how it happened and if anybody's responsible.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Welcome to Method and Madness. This is Missing Jared McCulloch.
I'm your host, Dawn. It was the morning of Monday,
November sixth, twenty twenty three. An abandoned truck was found

(01:12):
in Knox County, Indiana. The doors were left wide open
and inside two dogs with their collars and leashes on.
The owner of the vehicle, an adult male, had up
and vanished while on his way to visit his son. Today,
we'll discuss the circumstances around a missing thirty three year

(01:34):
old man, Jared McCulloch. Joining me is Jared's mom, Tammy
repond Let's dive in one hundred and two thousand, three
hundred and sixty eight. That was the number of missing
men in the United States in twenty twenty two. The
good news most of these cases were resolved within the

(01:55):
same year. The alarming news is the no news the
media tends to shy away from reporting on adult men
that vanish Jared McCulloch is actively missing. He's an animal lover,
someone fiercely protective of his mother, Tammy, who says she's
been blessed.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
To be his mom.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
She's shared stories with me about how Jared was sick
as a young child and faced health challenges but overcame them,
and how at the age of ten, he took in
a straight dog, a pet that became a loved member
of the family. As an adult, he grew to love
construction and was the first person to call when something
needed fixing. His last known whereabouts were in Illinois on

(02:40):
November fifth, twenty twenty three. If you're in the Illinois
or Indiana areas, please share this episode with a friend
and let's help get the word out. Jared is a
thirty three year old white male five foot nine, one
hundred and seventy nine pounds with dirty blonde hair and
blue eyes. He has several tattoos and is likely wearing

(03:05):
a tan Carhart jacket, a light blue shirt, and a
dog tag necklace. On November sixth, twenty twenty three, Tammy Reppond,
Jared's mother, received a phone call from Detective car of
the Knox County Sheriff's Department in Indiana. He told her
that her son's truck, a twenty twenty white GMC Sierra,

(03:27):
was found abandoned in Vincennes's, Indiana. Jared hasn't been heard
from since. Tammy has had no choice but to use
her prowess and research to put together a timeline of
Jared's movement in the days leading up to his disappearance.
She's accessed all of Jared's accounts as much as was possible,

(03:48):
and she's been working with local law enforcement. But due
to it being an active investigation, she's just not privy
to a lot of the information out there. As you
can imagine, Tammy has faced more more than a handful
of challenges. Here are just some of them. Jared went
missing in an area his mother isn't familiar with. In fact,

(04:09):
it's nearly six hundred miles from her home. As far
as we know, Jared's cell phone a motorola has not
been found in or around the area where his truck
was abandoned. His mother, Tammy, does have access to some
of the data on his phone, but it's limited. Since
Jared is on her Verizon plan. She can see the

(04:31):
calls and text records, but a cell phone bill or
statement only tells one part of a story. You can
see the times and phone numbers for all outgoing and
incoming calls and texts, but it doesn't show the content
of the texts, only that they happened. In order to
get that information about the content of the messages between

(04:54):
two parties, you'd have to subpoena that information from the
cell phone provider, which is difficult mostly only occurs in
court cases. The phone is still being kept active by
Jared's family, despite that it's still remaining missing. To top
off an already difficult and stressful situation for Jared's family

(05:15):
is the following. The night into the early morning that
Jared was last seen was the end of daylight savings,
with a time falling back an hour. In addition to
a time zone difference. It gets complicated to put exact
times on all of Jared's activities. What Tammy found out
after receiving the news that Jared was missing was he

(05:38):
allegedly was driving from his home in Marion, Louisiana, to Sandoval, Illinois.
There he was to meet up with the mother of
his fourteen year old son. According to the child's mother,
Jared never made it to her home. We're going to
walk through the timeline of events. What will be presented

(05:59):
is where Jared was at what time, stops on his
journey which were verified by credit card activity, video footage,
and cell phone pings. Tammy has also provided me with
the receipts that Jared received from various purchases made on
his stops. For the purposes of anonymity, some names have

(06:20):
been changed. Jared's fourteen year old son will be referred
to as Ryan. The mother of Ryan will be referred
to as Liz. Jared and Liz are no longer a couple,
but allegedly they were meeting up to go visit their son, Ryan,
who was staying at a juvenile detention center in Benton, Illinois.

(06:42):
Jared was also trying to get custody of Ryan. We
begin on the evening of Saturday, November fourth, twenty twenty three,

(07:14):
around six or six thirty pm Central time, Jared left
his home in Mary and Louisiana. He brought his beloved dogs,
Rusty and roxy May with him in his truck. His
direction headed north over five hundred miles, an eight hour
drive to the prairie state. At seven forty eight pm,

(07:36):
Jared texted his mother Tammy, I love you, which was
the tradition they had in the morning after phone calls
and at night. Tammy responded in typical mom fashion with
I love you more. At nine oh four pm, Jared
pulled into Southern Edge truck stop in Pine Bluff, Arkansas,

(07:57):
and purchased forty dollars of gas. At eleven twenty three pm,
he made a stop at Jordan's, a convenience store in Pocahontas, Arkansas,
where he got more gas and some food. The two
Arkansas stops were confirmed by receipts that Jared left in
his truck and that's Tammy held onto. As mentioned earlier.

(08:18):
During Jared's drive, daylight savings ended and he arrived in Salem,
Illinois early Sunday morning. The time was two thirty eight
am or one thirty eight am with the clocks falling back.
Jared stops while at Illinois were difficult for me to visualize,
so I took to Google Maps to outline the possible

(08:41):
route he took all day Sunday, including where his truck
ended up. If you think this will be helpful, you
can click the link in the show notes to get
that visual Once in Salem, Jared stopped at Hawk's, a
chain convenience store on Main Street. His visit there is
confirmed by video footage, and according to a clerk, Jared

(09:03):
seemed fine while there. Jared sent a text to his
ex Liz, telling her that he'd quote be there in
a minute, the assumption being that he'd be at her
home in Sandoval, Illinois shortly. Sandoval is a tiny village
near Salem, and it should have only taken Jared ten
or so minutes to drive there. Also, this is a

(09:25):
rural area, just a couple of county roads between destinations
and lots of farmland to look at. But after Jared
went missing, Liz told Tammy that Jared never made it
to her home and that he just kept telling her
he was lost. I asked Tammy if she knew that
Jared was meeting up with Liz to go visit Ryan.

(09:48):
Here is Tammy reppond.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
I really don't know for one hundred percent fact that
that was his reasoning for going.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
All I know is that's the story that she has told.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I talked to Jared about an hour before he left
left Louisiana, and he didn't say as far as going
there or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
He didn't ever mention the trip.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
I was unaware until I got the phone call as
far as the truck being found.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
All we know as far as is.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Exact reasoning is just through some vague text messages and
her word that that's the reason why. I don't I
can't say one hundred percent that that's I mean, that
would be her story to tell, and.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
It's a story that Tammy says has changed several times.
If Jared didn't make it to Liz's home, then it's
unknown what he was doing for the next few hours
that Sunday morning, because the next known activity that Jared

(10:51):
had was at five twenty six am. So what happened
between one thirty eight and five twenty six that's a
significant time gap where Jared is supposed to be at
Lizz's house, yet she says he wasn't so. At five
twenty six, about a seventeen minute drive from at Hucks
and Salem, Jared was seen on camera getting fifteen dollars

(11:15):
worth of gas at Phillips in Central City, Illinois. On
that video, he seemed fine and there was nobody with him,
just his dogs. The gas station is about an eight
minute drive south from Lizz's home in Sandoval, and it
didn't appear that anyone was following him, at least as
far as can be seen on surveillance video. Another three

(11:39):
hours go by before Jared is seen again, this time
on video, at a different Hucks convenience store in Carmi, Illinois.
It was eight twenty seven am on Sunday, and Jared
was now more than an hour southeast of Lizz's in Sandoval. Again,
he didn't appear to be in distress and only his
dogs were with him. It seems that his credit was

(12:00):
declined here and that he paid cash for more gasoline.
An hour later, there's an incoming call from Liz to Jared.
His location is estimated to be in the Greyville, Illinois area,
as that's where his phone pinged. At nine to fifty
nine Eastern time, Tammy received a text from her son

(12:21):
that said where is that thinking? Jared had texted her
in error, which he did often. She didn't respond, but
Tammy tells me that this is a decision she's regretted
and wishes more than anything that she had called her
son back. When she reviewed the cell records later, the

(12:42):
text was sent from Jared's cell phone at seven fifty nine,
a time difference that should have only been an hour,
but was somehow coming up as two. Tammy has confirmed
that the only other person Jared was texting during his
travels was Liz, and Liz is adamant that she and
Jared only spoke once during his road trip. The Verizon

(13:04):
records say otherwise. That brings us to ten twenty four.
On that Sunday morning, Between ten twenty four and ten
forty one, Jared's phone pinged the Mount Carmel, Illinois tower
three times, all calls with Liz, according to cell records.
At ten fifty seven, Liz again called Jared, and his

(13:26):
phone pinged the Allendale tower. The final phone call that
Jared received was from Liz, the cell phone ping putting
them road to Rolla's location in Saint Francisville, Illinois, at
eleven oh eight am, that's about an hour northeast of
Jared's previous ping. That call lasted for six minutes. No

(13:51):
video proof or credit card activity confirms Jared was in
Saint Francisville at this time. The only information we have
was rather true cell phone records and from eyewitness accounts.
After that, there is no known activity and there has
been no bank activity since. On the evening of Sunday,

(14:20):
November fifth, at six point thirty two pm, a GMC
app alert went out saying that Jared's truck battery was
critically low. A notification that Tammy received the battery died
shortly after that. The following day, Monday, at approximately eight am,
a local citizen called the police and reported a suspicious

(14:43):
truck abandoned near the Wabash River in Decker, Indiana, just
across the Illinois state line that puts it in the
Eastern time zone. The river is five hundred and three
miles long and flows into the Ohio River at the
south an end of the Indiana Illinois state line. The

(15:04):
truck was Jared's and both the driver's side doors were
left open, with his dogs, Rusty and roxy May still inside.
Their leash is on. Jared was nowhere to be found,
but the sneakers he'd been wearing were found in the
woods nearby, about ten feet apart. This brings us to
a point in Jared's story where the question of possible foul.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Play is being raised.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Let's take a break. According to his family, Jared would never,
under any circumstances abandon his dogs. Any pet owner can relate.
Our animals are our family. The dogs being left is

(15:52):
a huge red flag. If you're going to take your
dogs with you while you travel, you aren't leaving them
alone in a vehicle with the doors wide open. Also,
if Jared was stopping somewhere for a few minutes, his
mother said he would absolutely have locked up his truck.
Let's talk about what else was found in Jared's truck
and what wasn't. His suitcase, tools, and several pairs of shoes,

(16:17):
along with other traveling items were still there. But his
cell phone, wallet, and the white sunglasses he's seen wearing
in some of the gas station footage that was all missing.
Here's what we know about the truck itself. It was
in park but had been left running until it eventually
ran out of gas. It's estimated that this would have

(16:37):
happened around three pm on Sunday, and that the truck
had possibly been idling for about three hours. Jared's cell
phone shows the last sink was later at six thirty
nine pm, which means that although Jared was missing, his
phone was still active. In just a note, the local

(16:58):
temperature was about sixty three degrees as the high. Here,
Tammy talks about the day she heard her son was
missing and how she began putting the pieces together, which
included reaching out to Liz.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
I was at the hospital getting blood work done, and
so I really didn't talk to him. I didn't answer
at first because I didn't recognize the phone number, and
my husband texted me and.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Told me that I needed to answer that call.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
So I walked outside and I did, but I only
talked to him for a brief minute because I had
to go back in. And I was still confused because
all he said was Indiana. I'm trying to think of
why in the heck would he be in Indiana, And
I didn't know where the place was that he was
referring to.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
I kind of figured out as that's not too far
away from Salem and put two and two together and.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Reached out to her. But I talked to him and
Detective Car for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
He just explained to me how this truck was found
and where it was found. Of course I had of
Google map that to figure that area out, and he
told me, as far as the dogs being left in
the truck and everything I've been this is coming going
their direction. But I've been sitting here thinking about the
dogs being left in the truck, I'll say, and I

(18:11):
kind of wonder if the doors were maybe actually closed
when the truck originally was there, because the truck had
to be there for you know, at least twelve plus
hours that we know of, before somebody came upon it
and found it. I mean, what if because it's such
a thin one lane road, what if somebody did open
the door seeing the dogs inside, maybe they're getting warm.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
It just seems out of character for him to ever
leave the doors open.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
And if he was there at the you know, the
one who left the truck or whatever happened, and he was,
he would never leave his doors open.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
I mean, and somebody maybe a good Samaritan.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
May have passed by and you know, and just seeing
the dogs, maybe they were hot inside.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
The truck and just decided to open the doors.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Then that's why the dogs still had their leashes on
when they were found too, because he always kept their
leashes on whenever he traveled that way. If he stops somewhere,
quickly get out and you know, walk her, Mamma leak.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
She always kept them leashed if they weren't inside. Their
pain at home.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Life has become a nightmare for Tammy since receiving that call.
There's the unknown, not knowing if your child is safe alive,
and the red tape, trying to get answers from law enforcement,
trying to put together a timeline, and also spreading awareness
so that no matter what, Jared can come home. But
a big key in all of this has been the

(19:39):
cell phone.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
It's my knowledge that's not been recovered. If it has,
they've not told me.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
But I know in the very beginning they did say
that it was missing, along with his vate and his
wallet and his sunglasses. I mean, I don't think they
realized the sunglasses just missing. I just I always call
it Jared's got that long haired, blue eyed syndrome that
the sun really hit hurts his eyes, so if it's
sunning out, he's always got them sunglasses on, and to

(20:05):
my knowledge, those are the only thing. There was a
disposable vape in there, which he didn't like, But then
he always kept a backup pack of cigarettes in his
glove box in case he ran out of his vape
stuff because he's been working on trying to.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Quit for a good long time.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
But the backup pack of cigarettes was still in his
glove box, and there was a disposable vape been there.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Tammy has spoken with Liz a couple of times since
Jared went missing. Here she tells me what Liz has
said about Jared's trip.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well, it depends on much time we talked, because in
the beginning she told me that it was he was
going to go there and stay all night there, well
not all night, but sleep for a few hours and
then go the sun who was down in Benton, Illinois together,
And I know her car was broke down at the time. Also,
I don't know if that's the reasoning that they were
going together or to you know, do a United fronter

(20:53):
or anything like that. But and at first, she told
me that they were supposed to be there at ten am.
But then the last time I talked to her, she
said that Jared was coming there just because that he
needed to get away for a few days and asked
if he can come and stay there, and that they
were supposed to.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Meet the sun at one pm.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
But he didn't go because she couldn't get a hold
of him, but she went.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Tammy has been unable to confirm that Liz did in
fact go to Benton to visit Ryan at the Juvenile
Detention Center. On December thirty first, twenty twenty three, the
center was closed a staffing shortage had made it difficult
to meet state standards for the treatment of youth and custody.
According to an article by Molly Parker for Capital News Illinois,

(21:42):
on November twenty second, Tammy's husband got a notification from
Verizon that a request to activate a new SIM card
or new device for Jared's line had been made, so.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
They had a sign of suspicious activity.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
And then as soon as I seen it on our
email sentence, a detective car and he said, well, he
didn't know what that meant. He'd had to send it
to his tech guy, and then I asked him again
a couple times ago, two or three times ago that
we talked, and he said he didn't know what that was.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
He's never heard anything back about what that was.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Another hurdle that pops up in any open investigation, whether
it be a missing person or an unsolved homicide, is
the theories that tend to pop up online. People are
well intentioned and want to help, but sometimes sleuthing or
posting assumptions can actually cause harm. Tammy doesn't shy away
from the realities that Jared had been in legal trouble

(22:45):
in the past, but that he always reached out to
her and communicated about it. To just go silent, is
that a character for him?

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Do I think that he's on this earth? I'd like
to believe it was everything inside of me, but I can't.
I mean, I struggle with that because I know Jared
and I mean Jared. I mean, it's been put out
there that Jared's been in trouble before, and I know
every time Jared's been in trouble, he doesn't ever hesitate to,
you know, not call me. I mean, he would he
would never not call me and to leave his dog.

(23:15):
So the only two things are either number one, you know,
an accident, a fall, slipped something that you would have
to say hit his head or been knocked out to
because he knows how to swim and he's very river smart.
I mean we live in Louisiana and he loved the
rivers down there. He's very smart where the river is concerned.

(23:37):
So him doing something unsafe in the river does not
make any sense to me, and especially without any shoes,
because his shoes were found that is so a fall
kind of counts that out because if they were in
the same location, to be ten feet apart in the
woods there doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Because Jared never goes without shoes.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's why he's got three pair actually four, because he
had two bears of sliders, one in a suitcase and
one in the truck. But I mean, he never goes
without shoes, and he definitely never in the river. So
I don't want to think so I'll play that that's
what everything. I don't want to accuse anybody of anything.
My first goal is to find Jared first and then

(24:21):
find out exactly how it happened and if anybody's responsible.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Tammy spends every day running through all of the events
in her head, searching Google Maps, checking and rechecking phone records,
and with the help of family members, puts together flyers
and gathers volunteers for searches.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
The hardest part is that I'm so far away.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
I'm not there, and you know, if I even if
I stayed up there, stay in the hotel and live
there every day, I'm still not going to get any
further than when I can here. I'm better off on
the computer, I think, and meiling out flyers because as
far as that area, so it's so remote. If I
had any better leads as far as to know where

(25:01):
to look, I would, But that's what I'm looking for,
you know, if I had something solid to go on
and be there in a heartbeat. But thankfully I've got
the community there that that do know the area and
that have been a huge help. I know, Brothers Underwater
Recovery has been down there twice. Billy Darnell, the chief
of police in Saint Francisville, he allowed and helped and

(25:21):
helped along with a search. I think it's been about
close about a month ago in his city or town.
And you know, they've all just been really, really helpful
and been together Canine. They've done at least three four
that I know of, and anytime I gotta I gotta

(25:42):
give them a big thanks too, because they're patient with me.
And anytime I'm sitting here on the computer and I get
something in my head of well, you know, oh this
this place looks like something, this looks familiar, they're they're
pretty quick. They're they're a distance but not too far
away from the area that they'll they've picked up and they'll.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Go out there and check for me.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Every time I think I see something on Google Maps
or something.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
It may seem an obvious yes would be the answer
to the following question, but I had to make sure
since it's not always so cut and dry in the
cases of adult men who go missing. I asked Tammy
if Jared's disappearance was being investigated by any law enforcement agencies.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
It is my understanding yes, because I did ask as
far as the case record. In my opinion, from what
I understood, if it wasn't active, then I was allowed
those case files by law and they said it is
an active investigation. I'm sure they do know a lot
more than I know, and they can't tell me not
Scounty's in charge of the case, not Scounty Indiana. Then

(26:46):
the detective car is the lead investigator. He's really the
I've only talked to the sheriff once. The detective Car
I've talked to quite a few times. But I do
know he is listed in Missing Persons which I work
getting that done along with you right over in Illinois.
So he does have a missing person's number. He's in namous,
so he is officially listed in CIC.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
It's been a nightmare that Tammy can't wake up from.
A few years ago, Jared's younger brother, Austin, passed away.
Still mourning that loss, a mother is now faced with
more tragedy. You guys have heard me say it dozens
of times. Family members have no choice but to become
advocates for their loved ones, and Tammy has been an

(27:30):
incredible advocate for her missing son. The Facebook group that
she and her family created to raise awareness has over
eight thousand followers, with so many good Samaritans offering to
volunteer to sert or to distribute flyers. It just warms
the heart. Most of these helpers don't know Jared, but
they see a mom in agony trying to find her

(27:52):
son and they want to help in any way they can.
Here is today's call to action. If you have any
information about the disappearance of Jared McCullough, please call six
one eight three six seven one eight two eight. You
can remain anonymous. You can also reach out to the

(28:13):
Knox County Sheriff's Office at eight one two eight eight
two seven six six zero. To follow Jared's case and
to see how you can help, Please join the Facebook
group Finding Jared McCollough. The link is in the show notes.
Thank you to my very special guest, Tammy Reppond for

(28:34):
sharing Jared's story. Thank you for listening to this episode
of Method and Madness. If you haven't already, please leave
a rating, order review, and don't forget to hit the
follow button to connect. I'm on x at method Pod,
on Instagram at Method and Madness Pod, and you can

(28:55):
find me on TikTok and Facebook as well. To chat
sogesticase or discuss the episode. Reach out to me at
Methodidmadness Pod at gmail dot com. Method and Madness is researched,
written and hosted by me. That's it for this week.
Until next time, take care of yourself you matter. For

(29:16):
crisis support, text Hello to seven four one seven four
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