July 11, 2024 • 54 mins
On August 11th, 2021, 48 year-old Shannon Collins from Pottsville Arkansas arrived home from work to his wife, his son, and his step-daughter. The next day, Shannon’s family claims he simply walked away from home, never to be seen or heard from again. Eighth months later, Shannon is reported missing by his brother after receiving multiple conflicting stories and uncovering a web of deceit from Shannon’s family. If you have any information about the disappearance of Shannon Collins, please contact the Pope County Sheriff’s Office at (479) 968-2558.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Mysteries and Mimosa's, I'm Max and here with me is your co-host Aria.
(00:15):
Hi everyone.
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(00:40):
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Last week we talked about the strange disappearance of Shannon Collins.
If you haven't listened to part 1, please stop right here and listen to the first part
where we talk about the strange circumstances surrounding Shannon Collins.
(01:05):
In part 2 we're going to play the interview we did with Shannon's brother Blake, but before
we play that interview for you, I just want to give you a quick recap.
On March 11th of 2021, Shannon Collins returned home to his address in Pottsville, Arkansas
at about 10.30pm from an out of town work trip.
The next day, Shannon was scheduled to pick up a delivery for work, but he never showed
(01:28):
up.
Over the next 8 months, Shannon's parents and siblings grew more and more worried since
Shannon stopped communicating with them altogether.
Not only that, Shannon's wife, his son, and stepdaughter began telling conflicting stories
about his disappearance, further raising suspicions that maybe they know something more than what
they've been telling.
(01:49):
And Shannon has never been seen or heard from again.
Well thank you Blake for joining us.
We really appreciate you taking the time out of your day and really bringing attention
to Shannon's case by doing an interview with us.
So first and foremost, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to help share my brother's story.
So thank you very much.
(02:10):
Yeah.
So before we get started, can you kind of paint us a picture to help us understand your
family dynamics specifically as it relates to Shannon, both as, you know, kids and growing
up and how, you know, you interacted with him as an adult?
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
I feel like from my perspective of Shannon and our family as a whole, we grew up as,
(02:35):
I guess you could say, any typical American family.
We had our ups and downs, but we felt like that we had a really great childhood.
And you know, as you get older, you get into your teenage years and you have a little bit
of a rebellious streak.
So I think my brother and I both went through some of that.
But overall, we were a pretty close family, still are today.
(02:59):
As we grew up and got into adulthood, my brother, I felt like we both have had pretty good lives
so far and where we are in these stages when this occurred in 2021.
My brother, obviously a veteran who had gotten out of the military and was ready to enjoy
(03:19):
the rest of his life.
And we felt like that we were both on good trajectories, all of us as a family and close
dynamic growing up.
Like I said, we felt like that we life was pretty good.
And I think Shannon in particular, as he was going into this phase of his life of being
(03:41):
out of the military and being in, I guess you could say a retirement phase in that sense,
that he was honorably discharged and was getting this disability from the VA.
I think he was ready to enjoy the rest of his life.
And unfortunately, this occurred and here's we're talking about it today.
(04:03):
But I think overall as a family unit, I think we had a really great family and still do
today.
And so I understand it's your parents had you and Shannon and your sister.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
My we have a younger sister and she's actually helping with this endeavor as well.
(04:24):
So it was I'm the quote unquote middle child.
So we had my Shannon is our older brother.
So he's around five years, five to six years older than me.
And he's about close to 10 years or so older than my sister.
Can you tell us what Shannon's relationship was like with his wife and kids?
Looking with his relationship with his kids, in particular, his son, our perspective is
(04:49):
that they were very close and his daughter, which is his stepdaughter from our viewpoint,
we seem like it seemed that they were very close as well.
I mean, Shannon had essentially raised her and I don't know the exact age, but when he
met his wife, I believe his daughter, stepdaughter was very young.
(05:11):
I want to say she might not have been older than two or three when when they were married.
And I could be wrong on that, but I know she was very young.
So he essentially raised her.
So from all of our interactions, the dynamic of that relationship with his kids were fun
and actually better than fun.
And with his wife, from what we saw, it always seemed to be a good relationship.
(05:37):
There were times where we had been told by Shannon that she had had some jealousy tendencies,
I guess you could say.
And we had heard stories of that in the relationship.
But outside of that, I mean, we always felt they had a good relationship and he had a
good relationship with all three of them.
(05:58):
When was the last time you spoke with Shannon and what was that conversation like?
Well, that's somewhat of a difficult question to answer.
It was during covid when the last time I physically spoke with him, it's hard to remember.
We had a text interaction in February of twenty twenty one.
(06:22):
And at that time, I live in Austin, Texas, and he was driving for a company when he disappeared,
a local company like he would make deliveries out of state and to other areas.
And he did that as a side job.
And he was coming through the Austin area and he asked me if I wanted to get together
(06:44):
when he came through town.
And unfortunately, when he sent me those texts, I wasn't in town at the time.
So I didn't get a chance to actually see him.
And that's unfortunate for me because I always feel like I have to live with that because
that was the last time I ever had any interaction with him in a text message or any other communications
(07:05):
was at that time.
So unfortunately, I feel like I have to live with the fact that I didn't get to see him
that last time when he came through town.
But that was in February of twenty twenty one, the last time I had any type of communication
with him.
Wow.
That must be really difficult to to deal with.
When was the last time you realized something was wrong and walk us through that decision
(07:27):
that you made to report Shannon missing?
Yes, sir.
It is.
I'd like to say that we knew immediately that something was wrong.
But the problem with that is I'm six hundred miles away and I am hearing different stories,
bits and pieces of things that are being said to my mom and dad, my sister.
(07:51):
We're hearing things such as Shannon's left the family.
She's left the family.
He needed some time away.
We're talking with him regularly.
He's calling us.
He's texting us.
Then I believe it was this is my sister has a lot of these interactions.
(08:13):
This isn't me myself.
This is my sister having these interactions with the family.
And then they're saying things such as, oh, he this needs not only does he need time away,
but now they're saying he's out on the road and we're in touch with him.
So everything's OK.
That's what we're hearing.
My sister has them come over to the house.
(08:37):
I believe the first one wasn't long after he goes missing in March of twenty twenty
one.
And remember, we don't know that he's missing.
So he comes home.
I'm sorry.
He the family comes to my sister's house and during that time, my sister says in my family,
I mean his wife, his stepdaughter and his son, they come to the house, her house, and
(09:03):
she asked them what's going on.
Shannon, where is he?
We're calling or texting.
And by the way, we were all calling and texting him and he never answered, never responded.
And they tell him at that point that he's left the family.
He's left the family and he needs time.
And at this point, she hears this and she doesn't know what to think.
(09:25):
I hear this a little bit later, a few weeks later, and I'm thinking, well, that doesn't
sound right.
But I mean, it's possible.
And the reason we thought it was possible was because Shannon had already told us as
family that they had as they had gotten into their marriage over all these years that they
had decided or he had decided that for sure that he was going to leave his wife.
(09:50):
And she was well aware of that.
And he had told her that he wasn't going to do that until his son graduated college, but
that he was planning to leave her.
And that was a known fact for quite some time.
And he had told us that for quite some time before he ever disappeared.
So when she's telling this story to my sister, his wife, he's walked away from the family.
(10:12):
At first, my thought was, well, maybe that is possible.
I don't know.
So we're calling and texting.
He's not answering.
But they're telling her, oh, he continues to call and text us.
Fast forward a few months later, they're at her house again.
And now they're saying that he's calling and texting from a new number.
(10:36):
And I'm thinking a new number.
He's had the same phone number for 20 years.
Even if he got a new phone, he wouldn't have a new number.
So what's going on here?
And so during that interaction, they tell my sister that not only is he calling and
texting from a new phone, but she says, well, let me get this straight.
Are you saying that he is literally calling and texting you from the same number that
(11:02):
he's always had?
Or is he calling from a new number?
And my brother's stepdaughter tells my sister, oh, no, no, no.
He's calling us from his original phone number, his phone number.
She then texts her later and asks the same question and asks to reiterate the same question.
(11:28):
Is it his original phone or is it this new phone that he's calling and texting you from?
He says again, oh, no, he's calling and texting from his original phone number.
So now I'm thinking this is, I believe, July of 2021.
And I'm thinking something's not right here.
I don't know what it is.
But I'm still on the fence because I'm so far away and I feel like I'm hearing all these
(11:52):
different stories and I can't pin down exactly what is being said and what isn't.
But when I finally hear these words, this is when I felt like I knew something was wrong.
And they told me, my family said, they go back to the phone conversations and they say
calling, texting, what's going on?
And they are now telling my sister, his wife and children are now telling my sister that
(12:17):
he's only texting them.
And when they said that, I thought something is wrong.
I don't know what's going on, but something is not right here because that is not my brother.
That is not a pattern that would fit him to just text someone.
My brother loved people.
He loved to talk, would talk to anyone.
And so when I heard that, that is when I knew something was wrong.
(12:38):
So this is July around the August timeframe.
Again, I'm still thinking what is going on here?
I'm not still to the stage of accusatory because you're talking about people we've known for
20 years.
We've watched these kids grow up.
But I'm still leery of the situation.
And so now I think, let me see.
(13:00):
I know they're very close to the church.
Let me see if I can see what's going to happen if I do the following.
And so what I do is I go to their church website and I put in an anonymous prayer request.
And in that prayer request, I can't tell you 100% what I said, but I know I'm paraphrasing
(13:21):
my own words, but it was something to the effect of we're very concerned about our brother
Shannon, our family member Shannon.
We haven't seen him in many months.
And so we're asking for you to help us and pray for our brother.
Something to that effect.
And so I knew being anonymous, I would never get any response, which was fine because I
(13:42):
did it for the purpose to see if I could stir something up in the church to see if there
was somebody who may have known something because I knew that it might be helpful down
there.
Well, I find out later that that's exactly what happened.
But I didn't know it was going to happen, but I thought it probably would.
So that was my plan in August.
So I continue to talk with my family.
(14:03):
We don't know what's going on.
There's still no more contact at all.
So I tell my family, again, I live in Austin, Texas.
I tell them when I come home for the holidays, I am going to report him missing because something
is not right here.
And at this point, I still am not thinking anything nefarious or anything dire, I guess
(14:24):
you could say.
But I knew that something had to be done.
So I come home in November, and that's when I report my brother missing to the Polk County
Sheriff's Office in Russellville, Arkansas.
Wow.
So a lot really transpired in those months leading up to that report.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
And like I said, there's a lot of other interactions with my sister, because again, I'm so far
(14:49):
away.
She's continuing to try to interact with them on a regular basis.
One thing I did want to add is when I made the prayer request in August of 2021, my sister
continues to reach out and she never hears from my brother's stepdaughter again.
And our thoughts on that was most likely they assumed that she was the one who made the
(15:13):
anonymous prayer request to the church, but it was me who did that.
But after that point, my sister has never had any other interaction with her again,
and there were only a few small interactions over text outside of that with anyone in the
family since this time after November 2021.
And all along, there seems to be a large number of inconsistency and statements surrounding
(15:39):
Shannon's disappearance, particularly with his close family, meaning his wife, his son,
and his stepdaughter.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
The biggest concern is because again, I mean, I hate to think the worst of anybody, but
by the time I reported missing, I'm thinking, well, they have to have been the last one
(16:02):
to have seen him, but I don't know that.
I don't know anything at first.
That's what I'm thinking.
And so this investigation begins when they were, when I went after I reported missing.
That's when we start learning about all of the inconsistencies.
And it doesn't take a genius to see that when you continue to see inconsistencies over and
(16:25):
over in someone's conversation, something is just not right.
So when they talk to the police, they talk with them only one time.
And when they have that interview, they tell them that my brother's wife says that he simply
just walked away, walked away from the house.
A house that they had lived in for almost 20 years.
(16:47):
And her story is that not only does he walk away, but he takes nothing with him.
He takes absolutely no possessions.
He has no money.
He takes, I think she says that he takes a bag, but that I've later learned from police
that they're not even sure how accurate that was because they felt like that they had led
(17:09):
her in a sense into saying a bag because they, the questioning they asked, right?
Because when they go and meet her, they're thinking, hey, this is a routine welfare check.
We're just going to check on this guy and that's going to be the end of this.
They get these calls all the time.
But when she says he walks away, he doesn't really take any possessions with him.
(17:30):
He doesn't take his car, which is sitting in the driveway.
He just walks away.
And then she tells police that, and by the way, he must have lost his cell phone because
he started calling and texting us from a new phone number.
That's what she tells police.
So during that interview, my brother's son is there.
(17:54):
Now, I don't know exactly what all he says in the interview, if he says anything at all,
but I do know that they see text messages he received from his phone.
I believe it was his phone as well as his wife's phone, my brother's wife's phone and
my brother's son's cell phone, these text messages that my brother's sending from this
(18:16):
new number.
All of that is said.
The daughter is not, stepdaughter is not there at the time, but they only have one interaction
with her.
Police has one interaction where they have a phone call with her.
And during that phone call, she tells police that she saw my brother get into a car with
someone she did not know.
I believe it was either a friend or someone she didn't know, but the point is, she says
(18:40):
he gets in a car and drive away.
But when they ask her about the car, the description, the person, their description, she can't give
any answers at all.
So immediately when I hear this, I think, well, I mean, that's unfortunately very suspicious
behavior for the fact that they're telling two completely different stories on how my
brother died.
(19:00):
And so not only do we hear that, but then I hear the cell phone and I think, well, that's
just absolutely ridiculous.
My brother loves his cell phone like most people do these days.
And he's not going to leave his cell phone, lose his cell phone.
But again, I don't know, things happen.
But as the investigation continues and they continue to give us information, that's when
(19:22):
they tell us that not only did she not tell the truth about the phone, but they know that
she goes and purchases a new phone.
And not only does she purchase a new phone, before she does that, they have evidence that
she calls the service provider, the cell phone service provider, her and her son, my brother's
(19:44):
son, and tries to break into the phone about break in.
I mean, they try to get a password reset so they can get into the phone, the original
cell phone number, cell phone.
And when they are getting these pass codes, what they don't realize is that number, that
new passcode they're getting is going to an email address that they don't know.
(20:05):
So they can't access the new passcode to break into the phone because they don't have the
email address.
So once that occurs, it's not much longer after that, that they go and buy the cell
phone.
And they know for a fact that she purchases the cell phone.
And they know that she is sending text messages from that cell phone.
And these text messages, I haven't seen all of them, but I've seen some.
(20:29):
And some of these text messages are my brother stating that, oh, I'm in a hospital and I'm
getting help because I'm having mental issues and I just need time.
And oh, by the way, I want you to have all the money that I have for my pension.
I want you to have that.
And all of these different types of things are coming in in these text messages.
(20:51):
And the police know that she's the one sending these messages from that brand new phone that
she purchased.
So there's definitely inconsistencies in this story for sure.
Wow.
That's interesting that she would go to that length just to conceal something.
Yes, sir.
And expect to not be caught because she's crazy to think.
(21:12):
I mean, if she doesn't think that police are going to start looking into where did this
phone originate, start looking into the text messages, looking at the call detail records.
You know, this is probably a pretty big mistake on her part in the long run.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
So eventually police get a search warrant, correct, for Shannon's residence and they
(21:33):
go out and they execute that search warrant.
When did that happen?
Yes, ma'am.
That is correct.
I don't have a lot of specifics around the search warrant, but to my understanding, it
wasn't long after I reported it missing in November 30th or November 2021.
I believe, I want to say it couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks.
(21:54):
It may have been shorter than that.
It may have been a little longer.
I'm not 100% sure, but I know it wasn't long after I reported it missing.
And the interesting fact about that is when they go to the house the second time, I'm
told by investigators that they literally only were going to ask a few follow up questions.
But, in order to cover their bases, with my understanding, they went ahead and had the
(22:18):
search warrant because of the interaction that they had previously.
At the end of the day, they knock on the door and they start talking to my brother's wife.
She immediately says, I don't want to talk to you.
I want a lawyer.
And at that point, they hand her the search warrant and they begin the search.
So in the search itself, I don't have a lot of detail about things that happened.
(22:41):
I know that they took some electronic devices and some other things.
I don't have a lot of detail, unfortunately, on what they took.
But I know that the story that I've been told by individuals who, on my brother's side of
the family, that were upset over this, their story was they literally ruined the house
(23:03):
and turned it upside down.
They made the house unlivable.
And from my understanding, none of that is true whatsoever.
But that was the perception they tried to paint, was that they came in and tore the
house up, which is the furthest thing from the truth, from what I can see.
But unfortunately, like I said, I don't have a lot of detail on what came out of that search.
(23:28):
But I do believe it was not long after he was reported missing that first search, or
that search.
I'm not even sure how many searches they'd done.
But I know that initial search was not long after he was reported missing.
Yeah.
So just an assumption here.
I'd venture to guess if they were removing electronic devices, that's probably pretty
specific to what the search warrant was for.
(23:51):
And just from an investigative standpoint, I would think that if that's what they collected
and they know of this fake phone that was purchased and these text messages that they
could prove that she was sending to herself posing as Shannon, I would imagine they were
looking for any kind of device to hopefully find anything, any type of communication from
(24:15):
her to somebody else between the family.
And also geolocation data is probably what they're looking for.
Do you know anything more about the data that the police looked at on his phone?
Did they have any geolocation data for him or any power events or anything that you're
aware of?
Yes, sir.
Well, I don't have a lot of data.
(24:35):
But what I do know is they have the location data of that phone.
And the entire time all these text messages that are being sent from this new phone that
she's alleging are coming from my brother, that cell phone, his original cell phone is
in the same location in Potsville, Arkansas.
(24:57):
And it's not moving the entire time all of these messages are going back and forth.
I think the phone moves maybe once or twice, but it's confirmed from their locations, the
family, that they were, from my understanding, that if it did move once or twice, that their
phones were moving in conjunction with that original phone.
(25:20):
So they know that it wasn't my brother.
I think it might have been once or twice.
And I could be wrong on that as well, but I'm almost positive once or twice from the
Potsville area, but it moves in conjunction with their devices, which means they had the
phone.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And that's probably exactly how they were able to get a judge to sign off on their warrant
(25:43):
to search the house for those electronic devices.
Did the police ever follow up to find out if your brother was ever in some kind of hospital?
Did she ever provide any information where they could either confirm or deny that?
Oh, she never provided anything to my understanding, but they checked every hospital, every VA
facility, everything you could ever imagine.
(26:06):
They checked all of them.
And there is not a single trace, a trace of my brother existing when he goes into the
house for the last time on March 11, 2021.
There's nothing.
There's no bank records.
There's no credit cards.
There's no any kind of financial transactions whatsoever.
(26:26):
There is no driver's license.
There's no cameras, nothing.
And the most important aspect of that is my brother, if I'm not mistaken, his pension
was around $4,000 a month for his VA disability pension.
Now you're talking it's been more than three years.
He can walk into any VA facility in the country and tell them who he is and that money will
(26:51):
immediately be turned back on.
So now you're talking about over $100,000 in arrears of all of that money, not to mention
that it would be turned on immediately going forward.
And he's never once done that.
And I think we know why he hasn't done that.
Speaking of money, how did you learn about the money that they hid at the church?
(27:12):
Sure.
That was part of the, we had been told that during the investigation that that had occurred
and we were absolutely floored.
I don't even know how else to describe it.
I mean, for an individual to walk into the church like she did as Shannon's wife and
(27:34):
take $16,000 is beyond comprehension to me.
I don't know how that could ever happen to anyone anytime.
And just to give you a quick background on that, to my understanding, the person who
did that, I don't know exactly what her role in the church is, but I believe that she is
an administrative assistant that works in the church's front office.
(27:56):
But again, I don't 100% know that, but I believe that's her role.
And she still works to the church to this day, if I'm not mistaken as well.
So my brother's wife goes to the church with that money, $16,000, and ask her to put it
into the church safe, which she does.
(28:18):
And when that happens, we find out later in the investigation that the preacher, the pastor,
is interviewed by the police after my brother goes missing or is reported missing in November
2021.
And when he talks with the police, he never tells them about the $16,000 that was put
(28:39):
into the safe.
And so from the outside looking in, you hear that and you think, well, maybe he didn't
know about the $16,000.
I don't know how he wouldn't know, being the leader of the church, but it's possible.
But then police come back and talk to him a second time.
Now I am not a detective, but I am at a loss for words on why the police go back a second
(29:06):
time and speak to the pastor.
And when they do, they tell him about the $16,000 and that they're aware of it.
I'm on the outside looking in, as again, I'm not a detective, but I feel like me, I would
have gone into the church and I would have tried to see what I could have ascertained
from the pastor about what he may have known about that money.
(29:29):
But they didn't do that.
They tell him about the money.
And when they do, at that point, he tells them that he was aware that the money had
been put into the church safe.
So I'll be honest with you, that's very, very difficult for me to understand.
And the reason it's so difficult, police also tell us that when I make that prayer request
(29:56):
in August of 2021, that anonymous prayer request, it definitely did stir something up in the
church and people started talking about it.
I don't know to what extent, but I know they were aware of it.
I've been told that by investigators.
My brother was a member of that church for a long time.
I'm not going to tell you how long, because I'm not sure, but I know it was at least a
decade, if I'm not mistaken, and maybe much longer.
(30:18):
I know it was quite some time.
And everyone in that church seemed to know my brother.
He was in the plays that they put on each year for, I believe, Easter and Christmas
and things of that age.
So he was a known person there.
And this is a pretty good sized church, but he was a known person there.
And so when I do the anonymous prayer request, he tells police, the pastor tells police that
(30:42):
he goes and speaks with my brother's stepdaughter.
And when he does, he asks about the prayer request and asks about Shannon.
I don't know what all said, but to my understanding, the detectives have told me that he said,
well, the daughter tells the pastor that, oh, Shannon is just going through some things
(31:07):
and he just needs some time away.
And so that's what that prayer request was about, something to that effect.
And so that's it.
He never talks to my brother's wife.
He never talks to the son.
He just, that's it.
Now at that point, you think, okay, that's fine.
(31:28):
I have a problem with the fact that he didn't at least talk to my brother's wife.
I would have done that if that were me, but he didn't.
And so now we know that in August, he knows something is not right in the sense that Hannah
is not around.
Now to be fair, he becomes the full-time pastor in June of 2021.
(31:50):
This is in August, but he had been involved with that church and worked for the church
for at least a few years before he ever became pastor.
So he knew the congregation.
So now we know in August, he hears this.
So now he knows Shannon's reported missing in November.
At that point, he doesn't call police and say, hey, I talked to the daughter in August
(32:17):
of 2021.
And so then they come and talk to him and he never says a word about the $16,000 when
they come and talk first time.
And then when they come and talk to him a second time, he never says a word about the
$16,000 until they bring it up.
And then he says that he's aware of it.
(32:37):
And the thing that floors me more than anything, and this is straight from an investigator,
that when they ask him why he didn't report that the money had been put into the safe,
his response is, it must have slipped my mind.
$16,000 doesn't slip your mind.
(32:57):
It's very, very difficult to comprehend how it just slipped his mind that $16,000 comes
in from a church member and is asked to be put into the church safe.
So that's what I've been told by investigators and I just I'll never understand it.
Yeah.
And so the follow up question probably was, are your members of the church storing money
(33:24):
in your safe that often you can't remember that it slips your mind?
That's the key right there.
I mean, again, to be fair and to try to be as objective as possible.
I don't know a bunch about the church of that size and the money they get for tithing and
things.
Maybe after certain services or maybe money accumulates and maybe there is that much money
(33:45):
in the safe.
How has Shannon's disappearance affected your relationship with Shannon's family, and you
know, specifically your nephew?
That's a very easy question to answer.
And I say that because the minute I report him missing, they have never spoken to any
(34:06):
of us since.
They weren't speaking to us before except for lie to us.
But they have never, ever, ever talked to us since no text messages, no phone calls,
nothing.
The last interaction any of us have ever had was my sister reached out about Thanksgiving
in November 2021 shortly before I reported missing.
(34:31):
And when she does that, she gets a late response to the question of having Thanksgiving.
And she, my brother's wife says something in effect if they're having Thanksgiving
somewhere else or whatever the case might be.
But that's been the last interaction.
But just a side note on that, we went to their house for Thanksgiving for many, many, many
years and that was a tradition.
(34:53):
So my family, my mom and dad, my sister, her family, myself, we all went to my brother's
house and his wife and all of their family.
That's what we did for Thanksgiving.
But that Thanksgiving, that in 2021 that didn't occur and the last contact we've ever had.
So in regard to my nephew, it's really, really sad.
(35:17):
I don't know how else to say it.
It's really sad to see what has happened with not only this, all of the aspects of this
investigation and the way they've acted, but also specifically my nephew.
I sent a long heartfelt text message to him asking him to help us when we find out that
they're not willing to help police and they've hired a lawyer.
(35:41):
And I asked him to please tell us what happened and to help us with Shannon.
And it was completely ignored.
He never responded to that text message.
And I was told later by my brother's son-in-law, married to his stepdaughter.
He told me that my brother's son received that text message and he knew he read it and
(36:05):
he never responded.
And I've never talked with him since.
And so Shannon's sister-in-law works at the police department responsible for Shannon's
case.
Do you think she has any impact on the investigation or do you think detectives are doing their
due diligence?
Well, that's a great question.
Just to clarify, she no longer works at the police station or at the Hope County Sheriff's
(36:30):
Office and to be completely transparent of her, she did when my brother was reported
missing.
But she did work there for multiple years before that.
And I don't know how long, but I know that from my understanding, she had a very good
relationship with a lot of the officers there, including the investigators that were involved.
(36:53):
And one thing that truly hurts me and it's really, really hard to understand is something
and I won't say their name, but one of the investigators said about the sister-in-law
and he says, they tell the police, my brother's brother-in-law, his wife's brother, and his
(37:16):
wife who knew my brother for many years, many years, they both tell police that they believe
that he just walked away, just walked away with no possessions, no car, no money, nothing,
just walked away.
They tell police that.
And when they tell them that, and I hear that from the police, I say, there's no way they
(37:42):
believe that.
They knew my brother.
They knew that he just wouldn't walk away.
They know that.
And one of the investigators looks me directly in the eye and he says, well, I don't believe
she would have any reason to lie.
And I thought, I don't know what's going on with these people, but I'm highly concerned.
(38:03):
To me, that was a red flag when I heard that because nobody in their right mind thinks
a man who has three cars sitting in his possession with his name on the title is going to a
walk away from his home with no possessions, no money, no car, nothing.
And that is what that investigator looked me in the eye and said about my brother's
(38:24):
sister-in-law that, well, I don't believe she would have any reason to lie.
And so I want to preface, I'm not saying, I'm not going to sit here and say on this
podcast that she's lying, but I'll tell you, it's very, very hard to believe, very hard
to believe that she believes that he just walked away after knowing him for 20 years.
(38:46):
But I did want to add in the story, I mentioned that the brother-in-law, my brother's wife's
brother, who also knew her, knew my brother for 20 years, he makes a comment, which to
me was definitely out of the ordinary.
And to me, it didn't make a lot of sense.
And that's when he says something to the effect of, well, he's former military.
(39:11):
If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be found, something to that effect.
And I just thought that was, to be quite honest, absolutely ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.
My brother, if he's a trained special forces operator, maybe, right?
But to just say that because he's in the military that he doesn't want to be found, he's not
(39:33):
going to be found, it's just, I mean, it's dasinine.
I don't know how else to describe it.
I mean, to say that, I don't know how he could possibly believe that.
But that's what he told police as well.
So to me, both of those statements that they both believe he just walked away and then
saying that, oh, well, he's military, he doesn't want to be found, to me, none of that made
(39:54):
any sense whatsoever.
It seemed out of the ordinary to me.
Yeah, it does seem a little bit out of the ordinary for sure.
Because people can't just survive without source of income, right?
I mean, not when they're accustomed to a lifestyle that Shannon was used to living in the house
for 20 years, being with his family, but he has no major withdrawals to sustain life.
(40:19):
He completely abandoned all social media.
His whole pattern of life changed.
And so to put more weight on his military experience as saying that he could disappear
than putting it on his pattern of life, I agree with you, I think it's absurd.
Do you know, are there any ongoing search efforts for Shannon right now?
(40:43):
As of now, that is something that I have spoken to investigators about.
And I unfortunately, due to the legal aspect, I'm not sure what all is entailed in that.
I have been told that they are trying to do, they're working behind the scenes trying to
get some imagery of certain areas to see if any changes have occurred.
(41:06):
I don't know all the details about that.
And I don't know the locations.
But I have been told that they are looking into it.
But I appreciate that question.
Because I know that with our group, our Share Shannon Story Facebook page, we have a lot
of folks who are very interested in helping.
And one of the things people have mentioned are search parties.
(41:27):
And so that is something that we definitely are looking into doing.
I just know a lot of the search parties and search teams that are willing to help, a lot
of times they won't be able to get into the mix of something like that unless law enforcement
requests their help.
At least that's what I've been told by some individuals who work in that field and research.
(41:50):
So I'm hoping that that is something we can get to.
The only other question involved with that outside of the legal aspect and warrants is
will family members on my brother's side of his family allow that to happen?
That's another question.
Right.
Yeah, that's a great question.
Yeah, because if they're going to search properties, they're going to obviously need to do it with
(42:14):
a warrant if they've already hired a lawyer or claim to not want to cooperate without
a lawyer being present.
Yes, sir.
And just to add to that, it's one thing to hire an attorney.
I understand that's your right to do that.
But people don't need to forget that you can also come in with your attorney and have a
(42:36):
conversation as well.
And they refuse to do that.
So I just wanted to throw that into our conversation as well, because I find that a little difficult
to understand.
You want to protect yourself and your rights, more power to you.
That's what everyone is allowed to do.
But come in and talk with your attorney.
Why not do that?
Why not help out with the case and see what you can do?
(42:59):
But they refuse to do that as well.
At least they have to this point.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And it's not uncommon actually for people to give statements with attorneys present.
So no, that's a really good point.
So how has Shannon's disappearance affected your family?
And specifically, how are your parents holding up?
(43:19):
Well, I told we had a meeting with the prosecuting attorney in his office in Pope County, Arkansas.
And I told him that this has not only affected our family and the fact that we feel like
we've lost our brother, our son and our brother, but I feel like we've lost our mom.
(43:41):
Because the mental state of my mom and having to deal with this over the last three plus
years, I hate to say it, but I feel like it's killing her.
It's literally mentally, physically, emotionally, it's killing her.
And this family is doing nothing to help us and to help my mom.
(44:03):
Because at this point, all we're trying to do is bring Shannon home.
And I hate to say this, we have looked at all the scenarios.
I won't speak for anybody else in my family, but I feel that my brother is never coming
home alive.
And I've felt that in my heart for quite some time.
But if that's the case, I'd love to be wrong.
(44:24):
But if I'm not, I want to be able to bring Shannon home so we can have some closure for
my mom.
Because I don't know, it's affected her so gravely.
I just, I feel like we've lost her too.
And that's, to me, that's one of the worst parts of this tragedy is not only have I lost
my brother, but I feel like I've lost my mom.
So it's had a huge impact on obviously my mom, my dad, my sister, all of us, but in
(44:49):
particular my mom.
And it's her firstborn son and to have her have this anguish and know like my nephew
is not willing to even have a conversation.
It's unfathomable, but that's where we're at, unfortunately.
So it's been hard.
Yeah.
And losing somebody unexpectedly is difficult enough.
(45:11):
Losing somebody and not knowing what happened to them when they're missing is an entirely
different story.
And it must be extremely difficult.
I mean, how do you get through each day?
Well, it's really the cliche of one day at a time.
I mean, we just try to wake up and do the best we can to try to bring him home.
(45:35):
And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing now.
I wanted to say, we talked to the police before I released this story and they told us, feel
free to do what you need to do.
You've been patient, feel free to do what you need to do and maybe it can help us with
our case.
(45:55):
And so that's what we've done.
But I did it because I wanted people to know the truth about what happened to my brother,
number one.
And I wanted people to understand why it took nine months to report him missing because
on the outside looking in, you may hear this and go, wait a minute, his own family, his
mom, dad, brother, sister, they didn't report him missing.
(46:15):
Well, you don't expect your brother's wife and kids, a wife of 20 years to consistently
lie to your face about your brother and where he's at.
And that's what happened.
And as I mentioned, I wasn't here locally.
So I'm not hearing all these things and seeing them firsthand.
And I wanted people to understand why it took so long.
(46:37):
And I wanted them to know the truth about this.
And so, but that's why we're fighting now.
And that's what I'm trying to do day by day is try to honor him and do everything in my
power to bring him home.
And I want to say, I want to say thank you to every single person in our Facebook community,
in our social media presence.
(46:59):
I cannot tell you how grateful I am to every single one of them.
They continue to do everything they can to offer ideas, suggestions, ways to get the
story out, things like search parties and how can I help and what can we do and how
can we organize things that are currently working on trying to put together.
(47:19):
And I'm so grateful.
I'm absolutely just astounded and grateful for them because I feel like what we're seeing
now is this community we're building.
It's not just my brother that we're trying to bring home.
It's our brother that we're trying to bring home.
And it's been unbelievable and I'm so grateful.
But we're just trying to take it one day at a time and get justice for Shannon no matter
(47:43):
what, because we're not going to give up.
We are not going to give up.
Yeah, no.
And Blake, you mentioned all the support that you've received online.
I just want to add to that, that it is the work that you've done and that your sister
have done to continue to keep Shannon's story moving forward and getting the exposure that
it gets.
In fact, we didn't even know anything about this until we received an episode suggestion
(48:08):
from a listener to reach out and do this story.
Well, we are grateful.
And I just wanted to add that not only is my sister and I and other folks, I want to
say there are other folks behind the scenes that are doing everything in their power to
help us with this social media presence.
(48:30):
It is a full-time job.
So they have lives.
We're trying to live our lives and work and do all the things we do.
And now we feel like it's a full-time job on top of it and it's fine.
We're more than happy to do it.
But I just want to thank the people behind the scenes because there are multiple folks
(48:50):
that are doing everything in their power to help me help Shannon as well as the community.
So I'm again, I'm so thankful and grateful to all of them.
And I'm grateful to both of you for the time today.
Absolutely.
You know, we're happy to do this, to be able to help get the word, to get Shannon's story
out there.
You know, our goal when we started this podcast and every day since has just been to get these
(49:16):
stories out there in the hopes that someone will know something and come forward because
you deserve answers.
You know, Shannon does deserve justice and your family deserves to know what happened.
What advice do you have for someone who might find themselves in a similar situation?
That is a difficult question to answer because I try to wake up every day and live my life
(49:42):
just taking the day as it is and one day at a time, and that's not always easy to do.
But the reason I started with that is that's what we've done with this process.
I have somebody that a good friend of mine very close to that is helping me, as I mentioned,
behind the scenes to try to plan and figure out the best way to approach this.
(50:06):
And we honestly just sat down and said, let's make it a do list and figure out what do we
want to do?
How can we work efficiently and how can we spread the message?
So I think the advice I would give is to sit down and stop and think about what is it that
you're trying to accomplish with this?
Who are you trying to get the message out to?
(50:27):
Who are you trying to affect?
Who in that audience can give you help to continue spreading that message?
I think to me and the folks that are helping me behind the scenes, I think that's been
our most important starting point is let's let everyone know what's going on.
(50:48):
Let's let them know the truth and let's get this story out as far and wide as we possibly
can.
So I think that would be the first piece of advice is to say sit down and think about
where do you want the story to go and who do you want to target and how do you want
them to see that story?
So that would be the first bit of advice.
And I think the second would be is to just have the tenacity to just say that I am not
(51:11):
going to give up.
I am not going to be deterred by people telling me that I don't need to ask questions and
I don't need to go down this avenue to try to find answers.
I think that there's no stone unturned.
I mean, I get all kinds of messages and things from people trying to give me tips, trying
(51:32):
to help Shannon.
But I will listen to every one of them.
And I'm willing to do that because you never know what one small piece of information may
turn up something that can be powerful in the end.
So I guess to just a recap, I would say number one, you need to figure out how you want to
get that message out.
And number two, continue going forward and do not be deterred and continue to have as
(51:58):
much endurance as you can to just continue fighting.
Because as I mentioned, I am not going to give up this fight.
I'm going to continue until we bring him home.
And I don't care how long that takes, but that's what we're going to do.
Well, thank you so much for sharing that advice.
And thank you again, too, for just being willing to come on this podcast and open up and share
(52:23):
this is your personal life and you're putting it out there with the effort and the hopes
to bring justice to your brother and to give your family some answers.
So again, we just really appreciate that.
And I just have one last question for you.
If Shannon did, in fact, walk away from his life, like his family suggests, and he were
(52:44):
to hear this podcast, what would you like to say to him?
Well, that is probably the most difficult question that you've asked.
And I'll tell you why, because unfortunately, all the evidence points to the fact that that
is not the case.
But in the event that I'm wrong, and I would love to be wrong, I would tell him that I
(53:10):
absolutely love him.
I miss him.
I want to hear him laugh again and tell some of the stories that I've heard more times
than he probably remembers and be more than grateful to hear him again.
Well Blake, we really appreciate you coming on.
Thank you so much for sharing.
(53:30):
Thank you.
Thank you for the time, the opportunity.
Like I said, we're just grateful for being able to get this story out to as many folks
as we can.
And just really grateful for the opportunity.
So thank you very much.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Shannon Collins, please contact the Pope
County Sheriff's Office at 479-968-2558.
(53:55):
And thank you for listening.
We'll be back Monday with a new Mystery Monday episode.
And don't forget to submit your pet pictures.
In the meantime, please join us as we raise our glasses to Shannon, Blake, and everyone
who's been affected by the disappearance of Shannon Collins.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Welcome to Mysteries and Mimosa's, I'm Max and here with me is your co-host Aria.
(00:15):
Hi everyone.
I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who takes the time to listen to our podcast.
If you want to help us out, please give us a 5 star rating, leave a quick review, subscribe,
and tell your friends about us.
And if you follow us on social media, we started highlighting a pet of the week.
If you have any pet pics, doesn't matter what kind of pet it is, email them to us at mysteriesandmimosas.gmail.com.
(00:40):
And starting next Monday when we pick things back up, we will highlight a new pet and we'll
share that pet pic on Facebook and Instagram at Mysteries and Mimosa's podcast.
Last week we talked about the strange disappearance of Shannon Collins.
If you haven't listened to part 1, please stop right here and listen to the first part
where we talk about the strange circumstances surrounding Shannon Collins.
(01:05):
In part 2 we're going to play the interview we did with Shannon's brother Blake, but before
we play that interview for you, I just want to give you a quick recap.
On March 11th of 2021, Shannon Collins returned home to his address in Pottsville, Arkansas
at about 10.30pm from an out of town work trip.
The next day, Shannon was scheduled to pick up a delivery for work, but he never showed
(01:28):
up.
Over the next 8 months, Shannon's parents and siblings grew more and more worried since
Shannon stopped communicating with them altogether.
Not only that, Shannon's wife, his son, and stepdaughter began telling conflicting stories
about his disappearance, further raising suspicions that maybe they know something more than what
they've been telling.
(01:49):
And Shannon has never been seen or heard from again.
Well thank you Blake for joining us.
We really appreciate you taking the time out of your day and really bringing attention
to Shannon's case by doing an interview with us.
So first and foremost, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to help share my brother's story.
So thank you very much.
(02:10):
Yeah.
So before we get started, can you kind of paint us a picture to help us understand your
family dynamics specifically as it relates to Shannon, both as, you know, kids and growing
up and how, you know, you interacted with him as an adult?
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
I feel like from my perspective of Shannon and our family as a whole, we grew up as,
(02:35):
I guess you could say, any typical American family.
We had our ups and downs, but we felt like that we had a really great childhood.
And you know, as you get older, you get into your teenage years and you have a little bit
of a rebellious streak.
So I think my brother and I both went through some of that.
But overall, we were a pretty close family, still are today.
(02:59):
As we grew up and got into adulthood, my brother, I felt like we both have had pretty good lives
so far and where we are in these stages when this occurred in 2021.
My brother, obviously a veteran who had gotten out of the military and was ready to enjoy
(03:19):
the rest of his life.
And we felt like that we were both on good trajectories, all of us as a family and close
dynamic growing up.
Like I said, we felt like that we life was pretty good.
And I think Shannon in particular, as he was going into this phase of his life of being
(03:41):
out of the military and being in, I guess you could say a retirement phase in that sense,
that he was honorably discharged and was getting this disability from the VA.
I think he was ready to enjoy the rest of his life.
And unfortunately, this occurred and here's we're talking about it today.
(04:03):
But I think overall as a family unit, I think we had a really great family and still do
today.
And so I understand it's your parents had you and Shannon and your sister.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
My we have a younger sister and she's actually helping with this endeavor as well.
(04:24):
So it was I'm the quote unquote middle child.
So we had my Shannon is our older brother.
So he's around five years, five to six years older than me.
And he's about close to 10 years or so older than my sister.
Can you tell us what Shannon's relationship was like with his wife and kids?
Looking with his relationship with his kids, in particular, his son, our perspective is
(04:49):
that they were very close and his daughter, which is his stepdaughter from our viewpoint,
we seem like it seemed that they were very close as well.
I mean, Shannon had essentially raised her and I don't know the exact age, but when he
met his wife, I believe his daughter, stepdaughter was very young.
(05:11):
I want to say she might not have been older than two or three when when they were married.
And I could be wrong on that, but I know she was very young.
So he essentially raised her.
So from all of our interactions, the dynamic of that relationship with his kids were fun
and actually better than fun.
And with his wife, from what we saw, it always seemed to be a good relationship.
(05:37):
There were times where we had been told by Shannon that she had had some jealousy tendencies,
I guess you could say.
And we had heard stories of that in the relationship.
But outside of that, I mean, we always felt they had a good relationship and he had a
good relationship with all three of them.
(05:58):
When was the last time you spoke with Shannon and what was that conversation like?
Well, that's somewhat of a difficult question to answer.
It was during covid when the last time I physically spoke with him, it's hard to remember.
We had a text interaction in February of twenty twenty one.
(06:22):
And at that time, I live in Austin, Texas, and he was driving for a company when he disappeared,
a local company like he would make deliveries out of state and to other areas.
And he did that as a side job.
And he was coming through the Austin area and he asked me if I wanted to get together
(06:44):
when he came through town.
And unfortunately, when he sent me those texts, I wasn't in town at the time.
So I didn't get a chance to actually see him.
And that's unfortunate for me because I always feel like I have to live with that because
that was the last time I ever had any interaction with him in a text message or any other communications
(07:05):
was at that time.
So unfortunately, I feel like I have to live with the fact that I didn't get to see him
that last time when he came through town.
But that was in February of twenty twenty one, the last time I had any type of communication
with him.
Wow.
That must be really difficult to to deal with.
When was the last time you realized something was wrong and walk us through that decision
(07:27):
that you made to report Shannon missing?
Yes, sir.
It is.
I'd like to say that we knew immediately that something was wrong.
But the problem with that is I'm six hundred miles away and I am hearing different stories,
bits and pieces of things that are being said to my mom and dad, my sister.
(07:51):
We're hearing things such as Shannon's left the family.
She's left the family.
He needed some time away.
We're talking with him regularly.
He's calling us.
He's texting us.
Then I believe it was this is my sister has a lot of these interactions.
(08:13):
This isn't me myself.
This is my sister having these interactions with the family.
And then they're saying things such as, oh, he this needs not only does he need time away,
but now they're saying he's out on the road and we're in touch with him.
So everything's OK.
That's what we're hearing.
My sister has them come over to the house.
(08:37):
I believe the first one wasn't long after he goes missing in March of twenty twenty
one.
And remember, we don't know that he's missing.
So he comes home.
I'm sorry.
He the family comes to my sister's house and during that time, my sister says in my family,
I mean his wife, his stepdaughter and his son, they come to the house, her house, and
(09:03):
she asked them what's going on.
Shannon, where is he?
We're calling or texting.
And by the way, we were all calling and texting him and he never answered, never responded.
And they tell him at that point that he's left the family.
He's left the family and he needs time.
And at this point, she hears this and she doesn't know what to think.
(09:25):
I hear this a little bit later, a few weeks later, and I'm thinking, well, that doesn't
sound right.
But I mean, it's possible.
And the reason we thought it was possible was because Shannon had already told us as
family that they had as they had gotten into their marriage over all these years that they
had decided or he had decided that for sure that he was going to leave his wife.
(09:50):
And she was well aware of that.
And he had told her that he wasn't going to do that until his son graduated college, but
that he was planning to leave her.
And that was a known fact for quite some time.
And he had told us that for quite some time before he ever disappeared.
So when she's telling this story to my sister, his wife, he's walked away from the family.
(10:12):
At first, my thought was, well, maybe that is possible.
I don't know.
So we're calling and texting.
He's not answering.
But they're telling her, oh, he continues to call and text us.
Fast forward a few months later, they're at her house again.
And now they're saying that he's calling and texting from a new number.
(10:36):
And I'm thinking a new number.
He's had the same phone number for 20 years.
Even if he got a new phone, he wouldn't have a new number.
So what's going on here?
And so during that interaction, they tell my sister that not only is he calling and
texting from a new phone, but she says, well, let me get this straight.
Are you saying that he is literally calling and texting you from the same number that
(11:02):
he's always had?
Or is he calling from a new number?
And my brother's stepdaughter tells my sister, oh, no, no, no.
He's calling us from his original phone number, his phone number.
She then texts her later and asks the same question and asks to reiterate the same question.
(11:28):
Is it his original phone or is it this new phone that he's calling and texting you from?
He says again, oh, no, he's calling and texting from his original phone number.
So now I'm thinking this is, I believe, July of 2021.
And I'm thinking something's not right here.
I don't know what it is.
But I'm still on the fence because I'm so far away and I feel like I'm hearing all these
(11:52):
different stories and I can't pin down exactly what is being said and what isn't.
But when I finally hear these words, this is when I felt like I knew something was wrong.
And they told me, my family said, they go back to the phone conversations and they say
calling, texting, what's going on?
And they are now telling my sister, his wife and children are now telling my sister that
(12:17):
he's only texting them.
And when they said that, I thought something is wrong.
I don't know what's going on, but something is not right here because that is not my brother.
That is not a pattern that would fit him to just text someone.
My brother loved people.
He loved to talk, would talk to anyone.
And so when I heard that, that is when I knew something was wrong.
(12:38):
So this is July around the August timeframe.
Again, I'm still thinking what is going on here?
I'm not still to the stage of accusatory because you're talking about people we've known for
20 years.
We've watched these kids grow up.
But I'm still leery of the situation.
And so now I think, let me see.
(13:00):
I know they're very close to the church.
Let me see if I can see what's going to happen if I do the following.
And so what I do is I go to their church website and I put in an anonymous prayer request.
And in that prayer request, I can't tell you 100% what I said, but I know I'm paraphrasing
(13:21):
my own words, but it was something to the effect of we're very concerned about our brother
Shannon, our family member Shannon.
We haven't seen him in many months.
And so we're asking for you to help us and pray for our brother.
Something to that effect.
And so I knew being anonymous, I would never get any response, which was fine because I
(13:42):
did it for the purpose to see if I could stir something up in the church to see if there
was somebody who may have known something because I knew that it might be helpful down
there.
Well, I find out later that that's exactly what happened.
But I didn't know it was going to happen, but I thought it probably would.
So that was my plan in August.
So I continue to talk with my family.
(14:03):
We don't know what's going on.
There's still no more contact at all.
So I tell my family, again, I live in Austin, Texas.
I tell them when I come home for the holidays, I am going to report him missing because something
is not right here.
And at this point, I still am not thinking anything nefarious or anything dire, I guess
(14:24):
you could say.
But I knew that something had to be done.
So I come home in November, and that's when I report my brother missing to the Polk County
Sheriff's Office in Russellville, Arkansas.
Wow.
So a lot really transpired in those months leading up to that report.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
And like I said, there's a lot of other interactions with my sister, because again, I'm so far
(14:49):
away.
She's continuing to try to interact with them on a regular basis.
One thing I did want to add is when I made the prayer request in August of 2021, my sister
continues to reach out and she never hears from my brother's stepdaughter again.
And our thoughts on that was most likely they assumed that she was the one who made the
(15:13):
anonymous prayer request to the church, but it was me who did that.
But after that point, my sister has never had any other interaction with her again,
and there were only a few small interactions over text outside of that with anyone in the
family since this time after November 2021.
And all along, there seems to be a large number of inconsistency and statements surrounding
(15:39):
Shannon's disappearance, particularly with his close family, meaning his wife, his son,
and his stepdaughter.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
The biggest concern is because again, I mean, I hate to think the worst of anybody, but
by the time I reported missing, I'm thinking, well, they have to have been the last one
(16:02):
to have seen him, but I don't know that.
I don't know anything at first.
That's what I'm thinking.
And so this investigation begins when they were, when I went after I reported missing.
That's when we start learning about all of the inconsistencies.
And it doesn't take a genius to see that when you continue to see inconsistencies over and
(16:25):
over in someone's conversation, something is just not right.
So when they talk to the police, they talk with them only one time.
And when they have that interview, they tell them that my brother's wife says that he simply
just walked away, walked away from the house.
A house that they had lived in for almost 20 years.
(16:47):
And her story is that not only does he walk away, but he takes nothing with him.
He takes absolutely no possessions.
He has no money.
He takes, I think she says that he takes a bag, but that I've later learned from police
that they're not even sure how accurate that was because they felt like that they had led
(17:09):
her in a sense into saying a bag because they, the questioning they asked, right?
Because when they go and meet her, they're thinking, hey, this is a routine welfare check.
We're just going to check on this guy and that's going to be the end of this.
They get these calls all the time.
But when she says he walks away, he doesn't really take any possessions with him.
(17:30):
He doesn't take his car, which is sitting in the driveway.
He just walks away.
And then she tells police that, and by the way, he must have lost his cell phone because
he started calling and texting us from a new phone number.
That's what she tells police.
So during that interview, my brother's son is there.
(17:54):
Now, I don't know exactly what all he says in the interview, if he says anything at all,
but I do know that they see text messages he received from his phone.
I believe it was his phone as well as his wife's phone, my brother's wife's phone and
my brother's son's cell phone, these text messages that my brother's sending from this
(18:16):
new number.
All of that is said.
The daughter is not, stepdaughter is not there at the time, but they only have one interaction
with her.
Police has one interaction where they have a phone call with her.
And during that phone call, she tells police that she saw my brother get into a car with
someone she did not know.
I believe it was either a friend or someone she didn't know, but the point is, she says
(18:40):
he gets in a car and drive away.
But when they ask her about the car, the description, the person, their description, she can't give
any answers at all.
So immediately when I hear this, I think, well, I mean, that's unfortunately very suspicious
behavior for the fact that they're telling two completely different stories on how my
brother died.
(19:00):
And so not only do we hear that, but then I hear the cell phone and I think, well, that's
just absolutely ridiculous.
My brother loves his cell phone like most people do these days.
And he's not going to leave his cell phone, lose his cell phone.
But again, I don't know, things happen.
But as the investigation continues and they continue to give us information, that's when
(19:22):
they tell us that not only did she not tell the truth about the phone, but they know that
she goes and purchases a new phone.
And not only does she purchase a new phone, before she does that, they have evidence that
she calls the service provider, the cell phone service provider, her and her son, my brother's
(19:44):
son, and tries to break into the phone about break in.
I mean, they try to get a password reset so they can get into the phone, the original
cell phone number, cell phone.
And when they are getting these pass codes, what they don't realize is that number, that
new passcode they're getting is going to an email address that they don't know.
(20:05):
So they can't access the new passcode to break into the phone because they don't have the
email address.
So once that occurs, it's not much longer after that, that they go and buy the cell
phone.
And they know for a fact that she purchases the cell phone.
And they know that she is sending text messages from that cell phone.
And these text messages, I haven't seen all of them, but I've seen some.
(20:29):
And some of these text messages are my brother stating that, oh, I'm in a hospital and I'm
getting help because I'm having mental issues and I just need time.
And oh, by the way, I want you to have all the money that I have for my pension.
I want you to have that.
And all of these different types of things are coming in in these text messages.
(20:51):
And the police know that she's the one sending these messages from that brand new phone that
she purchased.
So there's definitely inconsistencies in this story for sure.
Wow.
That's interesting that she would go to that length just to conceal something.
Yes, sir.
And expect to not be caught because she's crazy to think.
(21:12):
I mean, if she doesn't think that police are going to start looking into where did this
phone originate, start looking into the text messages, looking at the call detail records.
You know, this is probably a pretty big mistake on her part in the long run.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
So eventually police get a search warrant, correct, for Shannon's residence and they
(21:33):
go out and they execute that search warrant.
When did that happen?
Yes, ma'am.
That is correct.
I don't have a lot of specifics around the search warrant, but to my understanding, it
wasn't long after I reported it missing in November 30th or November 2021.
I believe, I want to say it couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks.
(21:54):
It may have been shorter than that.
It may have been a little longer.
I'm not 100% sure, but I know it wasn't long after I reported it missing.
And the interesting fact about that is when they go to the house the second time, I'm
told by investigators that they literally only were going to ask a few follow up questions.
But, in order to cover their bases, with my understanding, they went ahead and had the
(22:18):
search warrant because of the interaction that they had previously.
At the end of the day, they knock on the door and they start talking to my brother's wife.
She immediately says, I don't want to talk to you.
I want a lawyer.
And at that point, they hand her the search warrant and they begin the search.
So in the search itself, I don't have a lot of detail about things that happened.
(22:41):
I know that they took some electronic devices and some other things.
I don't have a lot of detail, unfortunately, on what they took.
But I know that the story that I've been told by individuals who, on my brother's side of
the family, that were upset over this, their story was they literally ruined the house
(23:03):
and turned it upside down.
They made the house unlivable.
And from my understanding, none of that is true whatsoever.
But that was the perception they tried to paint, was that they came in and tore the
house up, which is the furthest thing from the truth, from what I can see.
But unfortunately, like I said, I don't have a lot of detail on what came out of that search.
(23:28):
But I do believe it was not long after he was reported missing that first search, or
that search.
I'm not even sure how many searches they'd done.
But I know that initial search was not long after he was reported missing.
Yeah.
So just an assumption here.
I'd venture to guess if they were removing electronic devices, that's probably pretty
specific to what the search warrant was for.
(23:51):
And just from an investigative standpoint, I would think that if that's what they collected
and they know of this fake phone that was purchased and these text messages that they
could prove that she was sending to herself posing as Shannon, I would imagine they were
looking for any kind of device to hopefully find anything, any type of communication from
(24:15):
her to somebody else between the family.
And also geolocation data is probably what they're looking for.
Do you know anything more about the data that the police looked at on his phone?
Did they have any geolocation data for him or any power events or anything that you're
aware of?
Yes, sir.
Well, I don't have a lot of data.
(24:35):
But what I do know is they have the location data of that phone.
And the entire time all these text messages that are being sent from this new phone that
she's alleging are coming from my brother, that cell phone, his original cell phone is
in the same location in Potsville, Arkansas.
(24:57):
And it's not moving the entire time all of these messages are going back and forth.
I think the phone moves maybe once or twice, but it's confirmed from their locations, the
family, that they were, from my understanding, that if it did move once or twice, that their
phones were moving in conjunction with that original phone.
(25:20):
So they know that it wasn't my brother.
I think it might have been once or twice.
And I could be wrong on that as well, but I'm almost positive once or twice from the
Potsville area, but it moves in conjunction with their devices, which means they had the
phone.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And that's probably exactly how they were able to get a judge to sign off on their warrant
(25:43):
to search the house for those electronic devices.
Did the police ever follow up to find out if your brother was ever in some kind of hospital?
Did she ever provide any information where they could either confirm or deny that?
Oh, she never provided anything to my understanding, but they checked every hospital, every VA
facility, everything you could ever imagine.
(26:06):
They checked all of them.
And there is not a single trace, a trace of my brother existing when he goes into the
house for the last time on March 11, 2021.
There's nothing.
There's no bank records.
There's no credit cards.
There's no any kind of financial transactions whatsoever.
(26:26):
There is no driver's license.
There's no cameras, nothing.
And the most important aspect of that is my brother, if I'm not mistaken, his pension
was around $4,000 a month for his VA disability pension.
Now you're talking it's been more than three years.
He can walk into any VA facility in the country and tell them who he is and that money will
(26:51):
immediately be turned back on.
So now you're talking about over $100,000 in arrears of all of that money, not to mention
that it would be turned on immediately going forward.
And he's never once done that.
And I think we know why he hasn't done that.
Speaking of money, how did you learn about the money that they hid at the church?
(27:12):
Sure.
That was part of the, we had been told that during the investigation that that had occurred
and we were absolutely floored.
I don't even know how else to describe it.
I mean, for an individual to walk into the church like she did as Shannon's wife and
(27:34):
take $16,000 is beyond comprehension to me.
I don't know how that could ever happen to anyone anytime.
And just to give you a quick background on that, to my understanding, the person who
did that, I don't know exactly what her role in the church is, but I believe that she is
an administrative assistant that works in the church's front office.
(27:56):
But again, I don't 100% know that, but I believe that's her role.
And she still works to the church to this day, if I'm not mistaken as well.
So my brother's wife goes to the church with that money, $16,000, and ask her to put it
into the church safe, which she does.
(28:18):
And when that happens, we find out later in the investigation that the preacher, the pastor,
is interviewed by the police after my brother goes missing or is reported missing in November
2021.
And when he talks with the police, he never tells them about the $16,000 that was put
(28:39):
into the safe.
And so from the outside looking in, you hear that and you think, well, maybe he didn't
know about the $16,000.
I don't know how he wouldn't know, being the leader of the church, but it's possible.
But then police come back and talk to him a second time.
Now I am not a detective, but I am at a loss for words on why the police go back a second
(29:06):
time and speak to the pastor.
And when they do, they tell him about the $16,000 and that they're aware of it.
I'm on the outside looking in, as again, I'm not a detective, but I feel like me, I would
have gone into the church and I would have tried to see what I could have ascertained
from the pastor about what he may have known about that money.
(29:29):
But they didn't do that.
They tell him about the money.
And when they do, at that point, he tells them that he was aware that the money had
been put into the church safe.
So I'll be honest with you, that's very, very difficult for me to understand.
And the reason it's so difficult, police also tell us that when I make that prayer request
(29:56):
in August of 2021, that anonymous prayer request, it definitely did stir something up in the
church and people started talking about it.
I don't know to what extent, but I know they were aware of it.
I've been told that by investigators.
My brother was a member of that church for a long time.
I'm not going to tell you how long, because I'm not sure, but I know it was at least a
decade, if I'm not mistaken, and maybe much longer.
(30:18):
I know it was quite some time.
And everyone in that church seemed to know my brother.
He was in the plays that they put on each year for, I believe, Easter and Christmas
and things of that age.
So he was a known person there.
And this is a pretty good sized church, but he was a known person there.
And so when I do the anonymous prayer request, he tells police, the pastor tells police that
(30:42):
he goes and speaks with my brother's stepdaughter.
And when he does, he asks about the prayer request and asks about Shannon.
I don't know what all said, but to my understanding, the detectives have told me that he said,
well, the daughter tells the pastor that, oh, Shannon is just going through some things
(31:07):
and he just needs some time away.
And so that's what that prayer request was about, something to that effect.
And so that's it.
He never talks to my brother's wife.
He never talks to the son.
He just, that's it.
Now at that point, you think, okay, that's fine.
(31:28):
I have a problem with the fact that he didn't at least talk to my brother's wife.
I would have done that if that were me, but he didn't.
And so now we know that in August, he knows something is not right in the sense that Hannah
is not around.
Now to be fair, he becomes the full-time pastor in June of 2021.
(31:50):
This is in August, but he had been involved with that church and worked for the church
for at least a few years before he ever became pastor.
So he knew the congregation.
So now we know in August, he hears this.
So now he knows Shannon's reported missing in November.
At that point, he doesn't call police and say, hey, I talked to the daughter in August
(32:17):
of 2021.
And so then they come and talk to him and he never says a word about the $16,000 when
they come and talk first time.
And then when they come and talk to him a second time, he never says a word about the
$16,000 until they bring it up.
And then he says that he's aware of it.
(32:37):
And the thing that floors me more than anything, and this is straight from an investigator,
that when they ask him why he didn't report that the money had been put into the safe,
his response is, it must have slipped my mind.
$16,000 doesn't slip your mind.
(32:57):
It's very, very difficult to comprehend how it just slipped his mind that $16,000 comes
in from a church member and is asked to be put into the church safe.
So that's what I've been told by investigators and I just I'll never understand it.
Yeah.
And so the follow up question probably was, are your members of the church storing money
(33:24):
in your safe that often you can't remember that it slips your mind?
That's the key right there.
I mean, again, to be fair and to try to be as objective as possible.
I don't know a bunch about the church of that size and the money they get for tithing and
things.
Maybe after certain services or maybe money accumulates and maybe there is that much money
(33:45):
in the safe.
How has Shannon's disappearance affected your relationship with Shannon's family, and you
know, specifically your nephew?
That's a very easy question to answer.
And I say that because the minute I report him missing, they have never spoken to any
(34:06):
of us since.
They weren't speaking to us before except for lie to us.
But they have never, ever, ever talked to us since no text messages, no phone calls,
nothing.
The last interaction any of us have ever had was my sister reached out about Thanksgiving
in November 2021 shortly before I reported missing.
(34:31):
And when she does that, she gets a late response to the question of having Thanksgiving.
And she, my brother's wife says something in effect if they're having Thanksgiving
somewhere else or whatever the case might be.
But that's been the last interaction.
But just a side note on that, we went to their house for Thanksgiving for many, many, many
years and that was a tradition.
(34:53):
So my family, my mom and dad, my sister, her family, myself, we all went to my brother's
house and his wife and all of their family.
That's what we did for Thanksgiving.
But that Thanksgiving, that in 2021 that didn't occur and the last contact we've ever had.
So in regard to my nephew, it's really, really sad.
(35:17):
I don't know how else to say it.
It's really sad to see what has happened with not only this, all of the aspects of this
investigation and the way they've acted, but also specifically my nephew.
I sent a long heartfelt text message to him asking him to help us when we find out that
they're not willing to help police and they've hired a lawyer.
(35:41):
And I asked him to please tell us what happened and to help us with Shannon.
And it was completely ignored.
He never responded to that text message.
And I was told later by my brother's son-in-law, married to his stepdaughter.
He told me that my brother's son received that text message and he knew he read it and
(36:05):
he never responded.
And I've never talked with him since.
And so Shannon's sister-in-law works at the police department responsible for Shannon's
case.
Do you think she has any impact on the investigation or do you think detectives are doing their
due diligence?
Well, that's a great question.
Just to clarify, she no longer works at the police station or at the Hope County Sheriff's
(36:30):
Office and to be completely transparent of her, she did when my brother was reported
missing.
But she did work there for multiple years before that.
And I don't know how long, but I know that from my understanding, she had a very good
relationship with a lot of the officers there, including the investigators that were involved.
(36:53):
And one thing that truly hurts me and it's really, really hard to understand is something
and I won't say their name, but one of the investigators said about the sister-in-law
and he says, they tell the police, my brother's brother-in-law, his wife's brother, and his
(37:16):
wife who knew my brother for many years, many years, they both tell police that they believe
that he just walked away, just walked away with no possessions, no car, no money, nothing,
just walked away.
They tell police that.
And when they tell them that, and I hear that from the police, I say, there's no way they
(37:42):
believe that.
They knew my brother.
They knew that he just wouldn't walk away.
They know that.
And one of the investigators looks me directly in the eye and he says, well, I don't believe
she would have any reason to lie.
And I thought, I don't know what's going on with these people, but I'm highly concerned.
(38:03):
To me, that was a red flag when I heard that because nobody in their right mind thinks
a man who has three cars sitting in his possession with his name on the title is going to a
walk away from his home with no possessions, no money, no car, nothing.
And that is what that investigator looked me in the eye and said about my brother's
(38:24):
sister-in-law that, well, I don't believe she would have any reason to lie.
And so I want to preface, I'm not saying, I'm not going to sit here and say on this
podcast that she's lying, but I'll tell you, it's very, very hard to believe, very hard
to believe that she believes that he just walked away after knowing him for 20 years.
(38:46):
But I did want to add in the story, I mentioned that the brother-in-law, my brother's wife's
brother, who also knew her, knew my brother for 20 years, he makes a comment, which to
me was definitely out of the ordinary.
And to me, it didn't make a lot of sense.
And that's when he says something to the effect of, well, he's former military.
(39:11):
If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be found, something to that effect.
And I just thought that was, to be quite honest, absolutely ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.
My brother, if he's a trained special forces operator, maybe, right?
But to just say that because he's in the military that he doesn't want to be found, he's not
(39:33):
going to be found, it's just, I mean, it's dasinine.
I don't know how else to describe it.
I mean, to say that, I don't know how he could possibly believe that.
But that's what he told police as well.
So to me, both of those statements that they both believe he just walked away and then
saying that, oh, well, he's military, he doesn't want to be found, to me, none of that made
(39:54):
any sense whatsoever.
It seemed out of the ordinary to me.
Yeah, it does seem a little bit out of the ordinary for sure.
Because people can't just survive without source of income, right?
I mean, not when they're accustomed to a lifestyle that Shannon was used to living in the house
for 20 years, being with his family, but he has no major withdrawals to sustain life.
(40:19):
He completely abandoned all social media.
His whole pattern of life changed.
And so to put more weight on his military experience as saying that he could disappear
than putting it on his pattern of life, I agree with you, I think it's absurd.
Do you know, are there any ongoing search efforts for Shannon right now?
(40:43):
As of now, that is something that I have spoken to investigators about.
And I unfortunately, due to the legal aspect, I'm not sure what all is entailed in that.
I have been told that they are trying to do, they're working behind the scenes trying to
get some imagery of certain areas to see if any changes have occurred.
(41:06):
I don't know all the details about that.
And I don't know the locations.
But I have been told that they are looking into it.
But I appreciate that question.
Because I know that with our group, our Share Shannon Story Facebook page, we have a lot
of folks who are very interested in helping.
And one of the things people have mentioned are search parties.
(41:27):
And so that is something that we definitely are looking into doing.
I just know a lot of the search parties and search teams that are willing to help, a lot
of times they won't be able to get into the mix of something like that unless law enforcement
requests their help.
At least that's what I've been told by some individuals who work in that field and research.
(41:50):
So I'm hoping that that is something we can get to.
The only other question involved with that outside of the legal aspect and warrants is
will family members on my brother's side of his family allow that to happen?
That's another question.
Right.
Yeah, that's a great question.
Yeah, because if they're going to search properties, they're going to obviously need to do it with
(42:14):
a warrant if they've already hired a lawyer or claim to not want to cooperate without
a lawyer being present.
Yes, sir.
And just to add to that, it's one thing to hire an attorney.
I understand that's your right to do that.
But people don't need to forget that you can also come in with your attorney and have a
(42:36):
conversation as well.
And they refuse to do that.
So I just wanted to throw that into our conversation as well, because I find that a little difficult
to understand.
You want to protect yourself and your rights, more power to you.
That's what everyone is allowed to do.
But come in and talk with your attorney.
Why not do that?
Why not help out with the case and see what you can do?
(42:59):
But they refuse to do that as well.
At least they have to this point.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And it's not uncommon actually for people to give statements with attorneys present.
So no, that's a really good point.
So how has Shannon's disappearance affected your family?
And specifically, how are your parents holding up?
(43:19):
Well, I told we had a meeting with the prosecuting attorney in his office in Pope County, Arkansas.
And I told him that this has not only affected our family and the fact that we feel like
we've lost our brother, our son and our brother, but I feel like we've lost our mom.
(43:41):
Because the mental state of my mom and having to deal with this over the last three plus
years, I hate to say it, but I feel like it's killing her.
It's literally mentally, physically, emotionally, it's killing her.
And this family is doing nothing to help us and to help my mom.
(44:03):
Because at this point, all we're trying to do is bring Shannon home.
And I hate to say this, we have looked at all the scenarios.
I won't speak for anybody else in my family, but I feel that my brother is never coming
home alive.
And I've felt that in my heart for quite some time.
But if that's the case, I'd love to be wrong.
(44:24):
But if I'm not, I want to be able to bring Shannon home so we can have some closure for
my mom.
Because I don't know, it's affected her so gravely.
I just, I feel like we've lost her too.
And that's, to me, that's one of the worst parts of this tragedy is not only have I lost
my brother, but I feel like I've lost my mom.
So it's had a huge impact on obviously my mom, my dad, my sister, all of us, but in
(44:49):
particular my mom.
And it's her firstborn son and to have her have this anguish and know like my nephew
is not willing to even have a conversation.
It's unfathomable, but that's where we're at, unfortunately.
So it's been hard.
Yeah.
And losing somebody unexpectedly is difficult enough.
(45:11):
Losing somebody and not knowing what happened to them when they're missing is an entirely
different story.
And it must be extremely difficult.
I mean, how do you get through each day?
Well, it's really the cliche of one day at a time.
I mean, we just try to wake up and do the best we can to try to bring him home.
(45:35):
And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing now.
I wanted to say, we talked to the police before I released this story and they told us, feel
free to do what you need to do.
You've been patient, feel free to do what you need to do and maybe it can help us with
our case.
(45:55):
And so that's what we've done.
But I did it because I wanted people to know the truth about what happened to my brother,
number one.
And I wanted people to understand why it took nine months to report him missing because
on the outside looking in, you may hear this and go, wait a minute, his own family, his
mom, dad, brother, sister, they didn't report him missing.
(46:15):
Well, you don't expect your brother's wife and kids, a wife of 20 years to consistently
lie to your face about your brother and where he's at.
And that's what happened.
And as I mentioned, I wasn't here locally.
So I'm not hearing all these things and seeing them firsthand.
And I wanted people to understand why it took so long.
(46:37):
And I wanted them to know the truth about this.
And so, but that's why we're fighting now.
And that's what I'm trying to do day by day is try to honor him and do everything in my
power to bring him home.
And I want to say, I want to say thank you to every single person in our Facebook community,
in our social media presence.
(46:59):
I cannot tell you how grateful I am to every single one of them.
They continue to do everything they can to offer ideas, suggestions, ways to get the
story out, things like search parties and how can I help and what can we do and how
can we organize things that are currently working on trying to put together.
(47:19):
And I'm so grateful.
I'm absolutely just astounded and grateful for them because I feel like what we're seeing
now is this community we're building.
It's not just my brother that we're trying to bring home.
It's our brother that we're trying to bring home.
And it's been unbelievable and I'm so grateful.
But we're just trying to take it one day at a time and get justice for Shannon no matter
(47:43):
what, because we're not going to give up.
We are not going to give up.
Yeah, no.
And Blake, you mentioned all the support that you've received online.
I just want to add to that, that it is the work that you've done and that your sister
have done to continue to keep Shannon's story moving forward and getting the exposure that
it gets.
In fact, we didn't even know anything about this until we received an episode suggestion
(48:08):
from a listener to reach out and do this story.
Well, we are grateful.
And I just wanted to add that not only is my sister and I and other folks, I want to
say there are other folks behind the scenes that are doing everything in their power to
help us with this social media presence.
(48:30):
It is a full-time job.
So they have lives.
We're trying to live our lives and work and do all the things we do.
And now we feel like it's a full-time job on top of it and it's fine.
We're more than happy to do it.
But I just want to thank the people behind the scenes because there are multiple folks
(48:50):
that are doing everything in their power to help me help Shannon as well as the community.
So I'm again, I'm so thankful and grateful to all of them.
And I'm grateful to both of you for the time today.
Absolutely.
You know, we're happy to do this, to be able to help get the word, to get Shannon's story
out there.
You know, our goal when we started this podcast and every day since has just been to get these
(49:16):
stories out there in the hopes that someone will know something and come forward because
you deserve answers.
You know, Shannon does deserve justice and your family deserves to know what happened.
What advice do you have for someone who might find themselves in a similar situation?
That is a difficult question to answer because I try to wake up every day and live my life
(49:42):
just taking the day as it is and one day at a time, and that's not always easy to do.
But the reason I started with that is that's what we've done with this process.
I have somebody that a good friend of mine very close to that is helping me, as I mentioned,
behind the scenes to try to plan and figure out the best way to approach this.
(50:06):
And we honestly just sat down and said, let's make it a do list and figure out what do we
want to do?
How can we work efficiently and how can we spread the message?
So I think the advice I would give is to sit down and stop and think about what is it that
you're trying to accomplish with this?
Who are you trying to get the message out to?
(50:27):
Who are you trying to affect?
Who in that audience can give you help to continue spreading that message?
I think to me and the folks that are helping me behind the scenes, I think that's been
our most important starting point is let's let everyone know what's going on.
(50:48):
Let's let them know the truth and let's get this story out as far and wide as we possibly
can.
So I think that would be the first piece of advice is to say sit down and think about
where do you want the story to go and who do you want to target and how do you want
them to see that story?
So that would be the first bit of advice.
And I think the second would be is to just have the tenacity to just say that I am not
(51:11):
going to give up.
I am not going to be deterred by people telling me that I don't need to ask questions and
I don't need to go down this avenue to try to find answers.
I think that there's no stone unturned.
I mean, I get all kinds of messages and things from people trying to give me tips, trying
(51:32):
to help Shannon.
But I will listen to every one of them.
And I'm willing to do that because you never know what one small piece of information may
turn up something that can be powerful in the end.
So I guess to just a recap, I would say number one, you need to figure out how you want to
get that message out.
And number two, continue going forward and do not be deterred and continue to have as
(51:58):
much endurance as you can to just continue fighting.
Because as I mentioned, I am not going to give up this fight.
I'm going to continue until we bring him home.
And I don't care how long that takes, but that's what we're going to do.
Well, thank you so much for sharing that advice.
And thank you again, too, for just being willing to come on this podcast and open up and share
(52:23):
this is your personal life and you're putting it out there with the effort and the hopes
to bring justice to your brother and to give your family some answers.
So again, we just really appreciate that.
And I just have one last question for you.
If Shannon did, in fact, walk away from his life, like his family suggests, and he were
(52:44):
to hear this podcast, what would you like to say to him?
Well, that is probably the most difficult question that you've asked.
And I'll tell you why, because unfortunately, all the evidence points to the fact that that
is not the case.
But in the event that I'm wrong, and I would love to be wrong, I would tell him that I
(53:10):
absolutely love him.
I miss him.
I want to hear him laugh again and tell some of the stories that I've heard more times
than he probably remembers and be more than grateful to hear him again.
Well Blake, we really appreciate you coming on.
Thank you so much for sharing.
(53:30):
Thank you.
Thank you for the time, the opportunity.
Like I said, we're just grateful for being able to get this story out to as many folks
as we can.
And just really grateful for the opportunity.
So thank you very much.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Shannon Collins, please contact the Pope
County Sheriff's Office at 479-968-2558.
(53:55):
And thank you for listening.
We'll be back Monday with a new Mystery Monday episode.
And don't forget to submit your pet pictures.
In the meantime, please join us as we raise our glasses to Shannon, Blake, and everyone
who's been affected by the disappearance of Shannon Collins.
Cheers.
Cheers.
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