Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
People always want to know whatit's like to be me. How does it
feel to see a dead body, tell afamily their loved one has been
murdered, talk to a rape victim,catch a killer, and get them to
confess, hold on tight, myfriends, get ready for the
journey. And welcome to murderwith mannina. Hello, everyone,
(00:24):
and welcome to another editionof murder with mannina. Again,
we appreciate all the listeningand rates and reviews, please
continue to do that, pleasecontinue to tell your friends
about us. And we're really kindof trying to deep dive into
talking about cold cases acrossthe country for a couple of days
(00:44):
in the hopes to get it out thereget a little bit more, you know,
traction and trying to solve it.
And then you never knowlisteners have a great amount of
information that they may noteven know about until we talk
about these cases. So we'regoing to be talking about one
today that happened in Florida.
(01:05):
So if you have any friends inFlorida, let them hear this
episode in the interest neverknow, right? Like we're seeing
that over and over kind of rightis researching and listening to
podcasts that people are solvingthis stuff.
It's true. It's true. We'regonna be talking to Detective
Seaman from Ohio. And he didjust that he he put in a really
(01:27):
old Cold Case out in the mediahoping to get some leads and
boom, yeah, we're, well luckilynow the case is heated up. So
yes, peopleare intrigued by crime. And we
know that with all the differentcrime shows, but people I think
the end of the day, want to bedetectives to some degree or at
least intrigued enough of thesecases. And really, you know,
(01:48):
want to help. So that's what ourgoal is here on this podcast,
throw in a lot of myexperiences, but also talk about
these cold cases, there are somany of them across the country.
Do you Do you even have anumber? Like of how many cold
cases are in the United States?
Like I thought I heardlast time I Yeah. Last time I
checked. Last time I checked, itwas 200,000. Who knows now, but
(02:11):
it seems like more. They'restarting to be solved. Even
though they're 2030 years old.
They're getting they're beingsolved either because the
podcasts will focus on it, andthen do what you do, which is
just cast a wide net andinterview a bunch of people I
know it leads to a conviction itdid three times last year on
(02:35):
podcast, or DNA genealogy. Andwe'll be talking to Detective
Seaman about how he solved acase doing that. So there's
genealogy and there's so much somany advancements there. So it
can't just seems like it reallyis. It really is gaining a lot
of traction, you know that thatcases are actually not only just
(02:58):
out there in multitudes, butactually being soft now, right?
In this case that we're going totalk about today was actually on
Investigation Discovery, theydid a did a show called
disappearance. So she washighlighted on that. So we'll
get going with this. Butlisteners, I really want you to
pay attention and see if youknow you can add to the
(03:20):
conversation, maybe somethingwe're even missing and other
ideas because I think cold casesare just a good opportunity to
get everyone's kind of input.
They hear things differently.
They see things differently and,and things that we miss, so
please pay attention to this andlet us know what you think. And
we'd love to have you on thepodcast to chat about it or at
(03:42):
least talk about what your ideasare. So again, her name was
Tiffany Daniels. She was bornMarch 11 in 1988 in Dallas,
Texas. She disappeared thoughshe was 25 years old when she
disappeared in August of 2013from Pensacola, Florida. My
favorite places Florida my 50thor no was it? Were we in
(04:05):
Pensacola for my 50th Now we'rein Panama City. I
don't know where the hell yes,it was Pensacola. That's exactly
where we were my 50th Beautiful.
Yeah,so she was five foot seven. She
had blond hair and blue eyes.
And she had tattoos on the topof her feet of seeds growing
(04:25):
into vines that bloom at thetop. So just you know some
really good things to look atwhen you're looking for people
with these tattoos. So here wego. This is the deal with her
now guys pay attention and tryto follow along. We're trying to
do this as slowly as we can. Butat 443 on August 12 of 2013. She
(04:47):
left her job is a theatertechnician at Pensacola State
College in Pensacola, Florida.
She told her supervisor that shewould not be returning for a few
days, but did not say why Shedid return home briefly after
that conversation with her boss.
And she had a roommate, but, buthe was busy on telephone
(05:09):
conversation and did not seeher. She has literally not been
seen since, like literally notbeen seen since. Because she had
told her supervisor she'd betaking time off. She was not
recorded missing until the endof the week, which just breaks
my heart. I hate to hearthat. Buzz wasted just so many
ways today, so, but she wasn'treported till the end of the
(05:33):
week after she failed to returnto work. Her friend, friends and
family were unaware of any plansthat she might have made. That
would explain her absence, whichjust makes me a little bit like,
I don't know, I guess I'm 52 aregoing to be 52. I talked to my
mom, at least a couple times aweek, two or three times a week
and I don't know if I don'tanswer the phone, my mom will
(05:56):
just incessantly keep callinguntil I do. So. I mean, you
know, I don't know what kind offamily dynamics it appears that
she had a pretty good family butyou know, for them not to be
aware that she was going onvacation or going somewhere
seems a little bit odd. Andthat's maybe why you know, it's
it's not a big deal that a weekwent by I guess with not hearing
(06:20):
from her but okay, a securitycamera on the Pensacola Beach
bridge connecting Gulf Breezeand Santa Rosa islands recorded
her car crossing the bridgealmost three hours after she had
left work. Eight days after herdisappearance, the vehicle is
found in a parking lot inPensacola Beach, along with her
bicycle, purse and cell phone.
That a waste just screams anabduction does it not? I mean it
(06:45):
just does. But could she havebeen going hiking maybe but I
think she would still take hercell phone. I can I can by the
bicycle being left I can almostby her purse being left but not
or so our cell phones like apart of our body. I feel like
right. So residents most peopleto most people, right so
(07:06):
residents in the area. So thecar had only been there a few
days and reported seeing anUnidentified Male around it to
identify and unidentifiedfingerprints were found in the
car. But he searched thesurrounding beach area found no
trace of Daniels. Alright, sothere we have to at least two
people that were hanging aroundthe vehicle, several theories.
(07:31):
And of course, that's good. I'malright with theories, even when
they're kind of off the wallbecause it just kind of still
gets traction and it gets theconversation going even with
crazy theories, it gets peopletalking about it. But a few
theories that have come out,ranging from foul play to an
accidental drowning, based on ananonymous tip and several
(07:52):
reporting sightings further westalong Interstate 10. Her family
believes she was a victim ofhuman trafficking in in may
still be alive. So that's aninteresting, right. So a victim
of human trafficking when youkind of look she doesn't to me
from kind of the research thatwe've done doesn't fit the
(08:12):
profile rightof what is the profile of
someone who gets captured forhim is somebody who's
vulnerable, reallyvulnerable. You're looking at
runaways, you're looking atpeople that are desperate for
drug addicts, drug addicts arelooking at people that are
desperate for money. Maybethey're getting out of an
abusive relationship. So theyran I mean, just really
(08:32):
vulnerable. And so they getpropositioned fairly easy by
being promised a better lifebeing promised money for them
and maybe further family justdon't have a lot, right? Just
don't and don't have any supportsystem, those types of things.
So really vulnerable. And I getI guess, Chris Oh, that makes
(08:52):
sense. Now that I think aboutit, because I was always under
the assumption that a perfectlyconfident, capable girl like a
Tiffany heaven Daniel's thatthat was her full name, right.
Tiffany heaven Daniels. So, Imean, she was, you know, she
really had a very full life.
(09:14):
Yeah, a lot of friends. She wasinto swing dancing, and she'd
have gatherings and have peopleover and swing dance. You know,
I do that. And I love that. So Irelate to that. So she was very
well connected. So it does sortof make sense that a human
trafficking person if they didkidnap a person like her, she's
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not vulnerable enough to stayput really like she would be
hard to keep. Yeah, keep as a asa slave, right? Because she's
got so many so much going on.
And also she's just got theconfidence in the life
experience, to not fall to be inthat victim position. I never
thought about that. I justassumed like people like her
(09:57):
words. completely kidnapped andput into jail. I mean, I mean,
you say it like that it doesmake sense that yet probably
not. Yeah,well, yeah, you can't close any
door. Right. You know, as adetective investigating, even
though it had been a week, youknow, one of the first things
that we want to do is get thebackground, you know, just like
(10:19):
in a lot of the cases that we'retalking about, you know,
detectives learn background ofdrug use or background of, you
know, lifestyles that can be,you know, dangerous. And so,
when you look at her background,like I mentioned before, she's a
native of the Dallas, Texasarea. But she was distinguished
herself in high school andthrough interest in art and had
(10:42):
a really outgoing personality.
Her family described her as freespirited, said she could often
lift the mood of those aroundher simply with her presence.
Daniel's enjoy, she enjoyedpainting and in virtually took a
job at Pensacola State Collegetheater in Florida, where she
painted sets. So she'sinterested, like you said, and
(11:04):
she was talented.
Did you see her at some of herwork? I saw some pictures. Yeah,
she was very talented. It seemedlike she was good at what she
enjoyed. So she went to a job oryou know, it didn't seem like it
was a job. It was just somethingthat she could do that she
really enjoyed. When she wasn'tat work, she took advantage of
Pensacola as culture on naturalattractions. In the city
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downtown near her job, she oftenorganized and attended blues and
swing dance parties. So justvery much into the community.
From her house, a short distancefrom the Bob Sykes bridge to
Santa Rosa Island in the Gulf ofMexico, she often went hiking or
biking in the dunes. So that canbe something that that you know,
(11:45):
we got to remember that right isas far as an abduction, right?
Of course, she could have gonehiking right, like her purse was
left.
But she wouldn't have left herfound
us the problem that I have withit. But when they're cold cases
like this, and you haven't beenable to get a body.
I mean, unless she accidentallyforgot it. I mean, I just did
(12:09):
that. I just went on a walkyesterday with the dogs and I
thought I had my phone. Yeah, myhead accidentally left it back
on the island. So I mean at homeso it that could have happened
but it's a long,long shot. But like I said, you
get you gotta keep every optionopen. So she despite her
apparent satisfaction with herlife, she did have some
(12:30):
financial problems. Her parentssaid that by the summer of 2013,
they had noticed that she had apattern of paying the rent for a
series of housemates, who wereeither disinclined or unable to
pay their share. In July of thatyear, after another one had
moved out, she advertised onCraigslist for a new roommate.
Okay, so she was 25. She gets anew roommate by the name of Gary
(12:55):
Nichols. He's 54 year old fatherof one of her friends, who was
separated from his wife andwanted to live closer to his
job. He answered her ad andmoved in. Daniel's parents were
uneasy about her sharing andliving quarters with a man twice
her age, which is, you know,that seems, you know, obvious,
(13:16):
but he was able to pay his shareof the bills and the two had
similar interest, Nicholas tolike bicycling and follow the
similar diet. Interesting,right? You know, age difference.
I think my parents would be alittle funky about that as well.
But again, it goes back that shedoesn't fit the profile of a
human trafficking victim becauseshe has support she has people
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that were concerned.
You know, I can't look afterher. Right, exactly.
Okay, so here we go to the datethat she that's just background.
So that just kind of paints alittle picture. And I think it's
really, really important topaint these pictures of these
people. So August 11. Shestarted her day with a farewell
(14:01):
breakfast for her boyfriend whohad been accepted into graduate
robotics program at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.
Another thing that doesn't fitthe profile, dealing in being
around people that are reallyreally educated. He had wanted
her to move there with them. Butshe, you know, she didn't go.
(14:22):
And Daniel's friends said thatwhile she still loved him and
wanted to continue therelationship to the point and
making plans to visit him laterin Austin. She was not ready to
move from Pensacola yet. So eventhough her boyfriend was going
away, she was still planning ontrying to keep the relationship
going and had something to lookforward to. It's another thing
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like she didn't run away fromher life. You know, we have to
look at that angle. But it'spretty obvious that her life was
okay other than some financialproblem. So after breakfast
breakfast he left. Nicholsrecalls that she was slightly
depressed for the rest of theday. A but that was tempered
with enthusiasm for a latervisit to Austin, a town her
(15:05):
friends believed she couldeasily adapt to. Okay, so
Daniels in the theater in thetheater department were
scheduled to start preparingsets for production of spam a
lot that fall. That night, chinNichols decided to watch Monty
Python in the holy grail. Thefilm on what in which that
musical is based for inspirationand relaxation after which the
(15:30):
to retire to the bedroom as theyboth had to work the next
morning, at around 5am Nicolas,recall that he heard the door to
the house open enclosed severaltimes. He looked outside from
his room thinking it might beDaniels but did not see her.
(15:54):
And a big deal, but justsomething to remember. So a 1999
Toyota four runner similar toTiffany Daniels was spotted when
Nichols got up later and leftfor work around seven. Her car a
gray Toyota four Runner wasgone. He assumed she too had
gone to work. Her parentsthough, say it was unusual heart
(16:17):
unusual for her to get up earlyin situations where she had to
she would usually leave onlyright before the time she had to
be wherever it was. This againtells me that the family is
really really vested right?
They're looking at the timeline.
They're telling investigatorsthat doesn't seem right. That's
not our behavior. She's notwanting to get up early. She
gets up at the last minute andgets to where she has to go. All
(16:39):
of those kinds of things kind ofhelped me paint a picture of
her.
Something was unusual, but herboyfriend had just left that day
and he moved to Austin. So hersleep may have been disrupted
because of that she had the playcoming at me about that on her
mind. You know thosethings play? Absolutely. So she
did arrive at work on schedulefrom the beginning of her shift
(17:01):
painting sets. She asked hersupervisor she could leave a
little early that day. And alsolet him know that she would be
taking some time off possiblythe whole week but did not
explain why other why other thanthings she had to take care of.
He assented and she punched out
at 4 (17:21):
43pm. As she left the
theater, no one has reported
seeing her since I would want togo back and ask Daniels if he
knew about her wanting to takesome time off because that was a
roommate. You know, obviouslyher family didn't didn't know
about it. But he would think hewould write because they lived
(17:41):
together and then he shewouldn't be there. Right? Right.
So that night Nichols grewconcern when she had not
returned home by 10. Soobviously there wasn't a
conversation about her leavingfor a few days. She did not
return his calls. He called hisdaughter Noelle who were
friends. They were friends whotold them not to worry, as
Daniels was an adult and mightwant to hang out with friends
(18:03):
closer to her age. He agree withher and went to bed. So all
those things make sense, right?
Again, she's 2425 she's anadult, right? She doesn't have
to tell anybody anything whereshe is. But again, she's got
people that give a shit. Becausenow people are starting to grip
and serve. Her roommate at leastcalled his daughter and started
to get the ball rolling a littlebit with this doesn't feel
(18:24):
right, it doesn't seem right. Hethen again attempts to call her
again, which he had not returnedby the next morning but again
couldn't reach her. Thatevening, he returned and found
that the electricity to thehouse had been turned off. He
assumed that his housemate hadfailed to pay her share again
(18:45):
and called his daughter andformer that she had still not
returned home. This time, hesuggested that she get in touch
with her parents, which she didvia private Facebook message.
All right, so Noel and Daniel'smother, Cindy soon began working
through the extensive list ofher friends that they knew of
none had seen her all weekeither. So she's going away, she
(19:07):
tells her supervisor she needsto go away. And she's not going
with any of her friends. Theyall assume that if she was
anywhere, she was visiting otherpeople she knew all of whom
Cindy and Noah had alreadycalled. Meanwhile, Daniels had
not turned up by the end of theweek, they realized it was time
to call the police and reporther missing the question again.
And we can answer it both ways.
(19:30):
Why did you wait? You know, whydid you wait? And then you could
kind of understand why they didwait. Right? Like it's think
about your son. I mean, if youdidn't talk to your son, and how
many days? How quick, how manytimes do you talk to your son's
away at college? Do you think?
Well, he's so busy. I mean,sometimes it is only sometimes
(19:50):
it's once a week, you know,right? So that's what
I'm saying. It's like you don'twant to criticize or anything.
It's just questions of, youknow, why did you wait just to
get the answer And that's fine.
So mom initially went to theEscambia County Sheriff's Office
was seem to her to be dismissiveof the case. They took the
information she gave them butseemed to believe that her
(20:11):
daughter had gone out partyingand would turn up soon of her
own accord. However, becauseDaniels had been living in the
city of Pensacola, and was lastseen there, he referred to the
case to the city's policedepartment who mom regarded as
showing a little bit moreinterest in the case. So
detective Daniel har net metCindy mom at Tiffany's house and
(20:32):
searched it, that's fantastic.
The first thing you shouldabsolutely do on a missing
persons case is go to where theylive and see if you any foul
play anything like that. See ifshe's packed the bag anything.
He found no signs of foul playand Tiffany's tent was still in
her room. So the detectiverealized that she had decided to
(20:54):
leave town she was not goingcamping. Right? So when you go
into people's houses and youstart searching things, you
know, you really got to keep anopen mind of what's missing
what's not and then talk to mom.
It's great that mom was thereand to answer those questions.
So when the detective learn thatTiffany's boyfriend had left
Pensacola the day before hebegan exploring that angle
(21:14):
smart, right, you always go forthe boyfriend, always, always
always. He had called theAndrews upon his arrival in
Austin on the 11th, but not atall 12. He was cooperative and
provided fingerprints and DNAsamples. And his cell phone
records showed he had indeedbeen in the Austin area all
weekend suggesting he had notsecurely returned to Pensacola.
Really good detective work, gofor the person, the main person
(21:38):
and get them eliminated. So whathe's doing is just a process of
elimination. Right? So theydon't have to go down the path
anymore. And he was in he did itreally quickly. When they're
really cooperative, likeabsolutely give you DNA. I'll
give you fingerprints. And Iremember they found fingerprints
in the car that wereunidentified, but when people
are that cooperative, and thenyou can couple it with the cell
phone, that's a pretty solidsuggestion that you can go down
(22:03):
another road. The detective alsoconsider that perhaps Tiffany
had been depressed over hisdeparture. Her sister later
told. I think investigationdiscovered that she had seemed a
little less vivacious than usualearlier in 2013, but she had
plans for the immediate future.
(22:25):
Besides the trip to Austin, shehad planned a dance in two weeks
time did not seem like she hadtaken her own life, or started a
new one elsewhere. Right.
There's nothing that indicatesany of that. The investigation
though, however, at some pointafter early departure from work,
Daniel's returned to her housebriefly. Nicholas was present at
the time. So the roommate waspresent at a time and talking on
(22:47):
the phone with his owngirlfriend out of state, but
does not recall her presence.
Mom is skeptical that he couldhave missed that she was there,
both due to an open spacebetween the top of her closet
wall and Nicholas statement thathe had heard the front door
opening and closing in themorning. So he's hearing things
(23:07):
right. And then all of a suddenyou didn't hear or come home.
Um, that is a little bitsuspicious. But police, but
please believe his account thatI consider him to have engaged
in any wrongdoing noting that hewas the first to raise concern
about Tiffany's whereabouts. Youcan't completely exclude them,
butWell, right. Plus, what's his
background? I don't think he hasanything in his background that
(23:27):
would that would throw you know,any suspicion. That's
another thing that I would do,right? You get the boyfriend
eliminated. You're looking atthe roommate, you run the
roommates, criminal history,that's going to that's going to
paint your story too as well.
All right, so the first week andafter her disappearance, the
(23:49):
case was publicized. The newsmedia reported on it and in our
friends and family distributedflyers on the street and posted
them. Early the next week. Itproduced the first evidence
related to a disappearance. Ajogger, who was also a friend of
Tiffany's family, recognizedDaniels four runner in a parking
lot. West and Pensacola Beachnear Fort Pickens at the western
(24:12):
end of Santa Rosa Island onAugust 20, eight days after she
had last been seen. She hadoften gone hiking in the nearby
dunes of Gulf Islands NationalSeashore seashore despite her
mother's warnings not to go tothe beach alone. Mom says that
the car is discovery theresuggested her something terrible
(24:32):
had happened to her daughter.
within it. Were Daniels bicyclecell phone purse with wallets
and clothes paintings a jug ofwater and a jar of peanut
butter. So based on that stuff,what does that tell you? To me?
Water and peanut butter says shewas going to go hiking Exactly.
(24:53):
Just gonna go hiking and had alittle snack. So right now the
picture that I have in my headis a Um, somebody may have been
waiting for her. It was a crimeof opportunity, right? Didn't
even let her. Maybe when sheexited her car quickly. They
snatched her something to thataccord that to me makes the most
(25:13):
sense, doesn't it? Well, soI think about if she did leave
at five in the morning, maybemaybe she just had one of those
nights where she didn't sleepwell. And she thought, you know,
I'm going to go take a run, whynot? I'm gonna go take a run at
sunrise at the beach. I mean,that's the normal thing,
especially if it fits herpersonality profile to do
something like that. And maybeshe did. And then there was just
(25:34):
the wrong person there. I know.
You always say those. Thosestranger abductions are random
are exceedingly rare, rare, butI mean, that's, that's, that's
one possibility. Right if sheleft it, to look at it, right.
And people who were and people,somebody who might be out at
(25:54):
five in the morning if it's noteven light out yet? I mean,
right. Yeah, the Yeah, I mean,it happens so again, you can't
close the door on anything. Soafter they located the car it
was towed for for forensicexamination, and investigators
found two fingerprints, one onthe door handle and the other on
(26:16):
the steering. Well, that makessense to me. If she were to pull
up, perpetrator grab thathandles, a fight could have kind
of entailed, right, we were hewas maybe grabbing her and
grabbed the steering wheel. Orthere's two people you know, two
people possibility because oftwo identified but I mean,
you're kind of trying to justpaint what happened. A resident
(26:38):
of a nearby condominium said thecar had definitely not been
there until two days earlier.
Two other residents said thatthey'd seen a man getting out of
the car earlier that day. Um, soto establish when the car had
been driven to the island, thedetective examined security
cameras footage from the tollbooths at the Bob sights bridge,
the only road connection betweenPensacola and the island. They
(27:00):
showed that her vehicle hadpassed through the holes at
7:51pm. On the evening, Danielshad disappeared. It could not be
determined from the footage ifshe was driving the car which
remains in the police impoundlot. Its contacts intact in case
new information comes to lifefor which it might be relevant.
(27:20):
So it's literally at the at thetoe law lot or the police
impound lot in it has not beentouched, nor will probably be
touched again until they getmore information. The questions
still remain as to whetheranyone had seen anything or
anyone who might have left thecar in the parking lot where it
was found. Two large residentialcomplexes certainly islands
(27:40):
summer vacations population areadjacent to it. It was possible
someone there might have seensomething. Friends and family
again circulated flyers in thearea and Canvas residents but
found no additional leads. Atthe police garage. Investigators
found sand this is aninteresting method. The
investigators found Santa on thebicycle tires, but none on the
(28:01):
cars for bores, which is oh mygod, there's just you can't
touch sand in a docket in yourcar. You can't like I just went.
I was just like Michigan acouple of weeks ago and we went
on you know we were in the sand.
But we were there for a shorttime we're brushing off our
(28:21):
shoes our skin before we got inand I still have sand in my car.
This suggests to the detectivethe possibility that if Daniels
had gone for a bike ride on thebeach that evening, she might
have decided to go for a swimafterwards. A friend of hers
noted that there was a meteorshower that was happening at
that time, which he said was thesort of thing that she might
(28:43):
have decided to watch on thebeach. If she had it was
possible that she had drowned.
However, no bodies are found onthe shore. And the detective
says it's usually come for themto wash up after drowning, which
it is.
How long does it take usually?
You know, it's hard to tellbecause it just depends on the
temperature depends on the bodyweight of the body, the current
(29:05):
how the water is running, andthere's so much that takes
place. There'sso many sharps barely the cola
would it does that factor? Wellthat's true. I mean, well,
yeah. Because remember when wewere there, so it caused.
So yeah, yeah. Okay, so it'salso possible that she had met
with an accident or foul playsomewhere on land. However there
(29:28):
was there was then no way to besure. Santa Rosa Island is 50
miles long and the police didnot have enough manpower to
search it even its beaches mustless the dunes thickly vegetated
in some areas. The weekend afterthe car was foul, volunteer
organization. In the wake of thepoly class case, in coordination
(29:50):
with local police in the USNational Park Service, which has
jurisdiction over the NationalSeashore, searched much of the
island with humans and searcheddogs, a few fragments of
clothing pieces of jewelry arefound but they do not belong to
her. So really kudos to thedetector that's really kind of,
you know, doing everything itsounds like you possibly can.
And then we get to loseLouisiana and there's a possible
(30:12):
sighting. With all the searchesand investigation procedures and
Pensacola exhausted no furtherphysical evidence was likely.
Daniel's friends and family setup a Facebook page to further
the search and found themselvesbusy sorting through many tips
and initially foreign in onefrom a convenience store clerk
who claimed to have seen herseveral days after she had last
(30:33):
been seen, seemed crediblefirst, as he recalled her foot
tattoos however, the storesecurity camera footage for that
day failed to cooperate theaccount several months after her
disappearance in January of2014. The Facebook page yielded
what her parents considered amore credible report of a later
citing a woman who worked as awaitress at a restaurant in
(30:55):
Louisiana outside New Orleansreported that shortly after the
disappearance, she had seen awoman matching Daniels
description come in with twoother women, one roughly the
same age and the and the otherolder, possibly Latina and more
nicely dressed. The youngerwoman behave strangely, both
wearing long sleeve shirtsdespite the warm weather with
(31:17):
cuffs pulled over their pantsand never looking a waitress in
the eye.
Mostly, they seem to let theolder woman do the talking for
the crew. So there are somesigns of human trafficking
victims when there's not a lotof eye contact made. And there's
(31:42):
usually a person that's with thevictim or victims that does the
majority of the talking. Whenthe waitress told one of the
younger women she looked likethat woman who had been reported
missing in Florida, the groupgot up and left. Unfortunately,
the restaurant security camerashad been taped over since the
date of the encounter. And itwas impossible to find any
documentary confirmation of thewaitresses story. That's pretty
(32:05):
good. That's pretty goodevidence, I think, even though
they don't have camera footageof it. So parents strongly
believe.
Does it seem like Tiffany'spersonality if she was out in
public that she just avert hereyes?
It doesn't Yeah, it doesn't. Itdoesn't match your personality.
That'sthe thing about her. She's a
strong personality. And to me,it seems like because I read
(32:28):
about the case and it she justdoesn't seem like the type of
person if she had it. If she hadan opportunity to escape and she
was out in public with hercaptor.
She escape. Yeah, but here we'retalking about several months
like brainwashing brainwashinggoing on. There's a lot of
different that Yeah, absolutely.
So her parents strongly believethis was her for two reasons
(32:51):
first that was putting in hersleeves over her hands was
something she frequently didwhen she was cold. Second, the
waitress recall that the woman'swho resembled Tiffany had when
looking over the soups on themenu, asked whether one of them
used a fish or chicken broth.
Cindy recall a similar incidentwhen she had been eating out
(33:12):
with her daughter and therestaurant had substituted
chicken broth. And Tiffany soupsince it had run out of fish
broth a difference Tiffany couldtaste as she was pescatarian and
normally avoided any chickenbased foods. I don't know how
common that is that people askabout different types of bras.
Well, you live in Indiana, so itdoesn't happen as often. I live
(33:33):
in California, and it is anormal course of conversation.
Okay, because when knowing thatI mean when I when I kind of
read that I was like holy shit,that's something that's not a
coincidence. And maybe it didn'tNo, no, that's very common for
someone who is you know,pescatarian or vegetarian or
vegan.
That's why people it's so it'sso good for people to you know,
(33:55):
join in the conversation rightto kind of teach people live in
in badass Indiana, aboutchickens
back. This is just I think youguys aren't as nutrition
conscious as a culture, notindividually but as a culture as
maybe we are in California andthe coastal. The coastal cities
like Pensacola. Everybody'sbeautiful, right? All right, so
(34:15):
the family began to fear thatTiffany and up and found because
she had somehow left Pensacoladuring that week between the
last side in the beginning ofsearch and not voluntarily, they
began researching humantrafficking as a possible
explanation. They saw possiblesimilarities between Daniels
unsolved case and that ofanother woman who had recently
been drugged and abducted fromnearby Panama City and taken to
(34:36):
New Orleans by two men who toldher she was to work as a
prostitute. Again, a little bitof history on traffickers they
do prefer to target women intheir late teens. According to
experts, they will occasionallyattempt to abduct women closer
to Daniel's age and her parentsbelieve she would have been
trusting enough to fall forwhatever pretext they use to pro
(34:57):
third daughter, which isinteresting is is worldly as she
was and as outgoing as she wastheir family believed that she
may have been able to bepersuaded. I don't think that
she went willingly based on theto identify unidentified finger
prints in her car. And the factthat she left her cell phone and
(35:18):
personal belongings behind thattells me like abduction. But
it's kind of interesting thatfamily thinks that she may have
been able to be, you know,fooled by whoever's trying to
traffickeri That doesn't that doesn't
resonate at all with me is fromwhat I read about her
personality. I just cannotimagine. She had too much going
(35:39):
on in her own life. She wasgoing to Austin, she was sincere
boyfriend, she loved her job.
She had close familyconnections. She belonged to a
dance community, to artcommunity. She was active
hiking, she loves nature, it'sjust there's no way that a
woman, a young woman like that,that has that much going on and
(36:01):
is that bright, would fall preyto some buddy some traffic or
seduction and promises for moneyand I don't believe it. And I
believe it.
All the detective doesn'tbelieve he doesn't. He doesn't
love the trafficking theory. Buthe says he can't rule out
anything at this point. So thesecond anniversary of her
(36:23):
disappearance in 2015 led to twodevelopments in the case.
Investigation Discovery decidedto revive the series disappeared
in which profiled missingpersons cases and Daniels case
was one of those chosen a crewwent to Pensacola film locations
associated with the case andreenactments and interviewed her
net, Tiffany's parents sisterand some of her friends who
(36:47):
helped with the investigation.
For the episode air the firstnew evidence in the case since
the original investigationsurface and December 2015. The
Daniels family in the policedisclosed that in the wake of
coverage of the case a secondaryUniversity four months earlier
citizen had come forward andtold the police that on the day
Daniels car was discovered theyhad seen a man in his 30s
(37:10):
Wearing red shorts and no shirtopening up the cars tailgate
that report consistent with thetwo witnesses who said they saw
a man leave the car after it wasparked there. The witness
remember this because a car hadbeen parked unusually facing
oncoming traffic and an errandreserved for wildlife. She could
have been killed right there ifshe could have been abducted and
(37:33):
killed right there. And I mean,I don't know if this is I mean,
man, if you're listening tothis, and you have some ideas,
send it send it our way, becauseI would love to hear what people
think of it because oh, man,that's just to stop. I feel like
that. You know, the policedepartment did a good job. The
detective did a good job and thefamily still kind of working,
(37:57):
working it but man this is thisis what we call a stumper kind
of is right? Not a lot of allher background is showing, you
know, positive life doesn't putherself into scary situations.
So that is the story of Tiffany.
Tiffany Daniels man if you haveany information on this, again,
(38:17):
you guys can always contact usor call 85043696308504369630 We
appreciate you listening. Weappreciate you Sharon. Let us
know if you have any informationthat can help us whereas Tiffany
Daniels and we will see youagain on next time on murder
with mannina.
(38:40):
If you have a cold case you'dlike Chris to review submitted
through our website at murderwith manina.com and follow us on
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