July 12, 2024 • 24 mins
The case of Molly Miller and Colt Haynes is a gripping mystery that remains unsolved since their disappearance on July 7, 2013, following a high-speed police chase in Wilson, Oklahoma. The chase, involving their friend James Conn Nipp, ended in a remote, wooded area where the two were last seen. Despite various efforts, including family-hired private investigators and public awareness campaigns, there have been no concrete answers about their fate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'd like to preface this story with some understanding about why I brought this story to the channel.
(00:06):
It's the story of two young people who are more than likely dead, and while most of my
stories are the unsolved, who done it type, this one will probably not fit neatly into
that category.
You may have very strong thoughts about who, but the why may be a little hard to comprehend.
What I'd like you to try and focus upon in this story is that there are suffering people
(00:27):
left behind who just want closure.
To bury their loved ones and at a stretch maybe even witness a judgment day, no matter
how unlikely that may be in this part of the country.
Join me for a ride through the odd and mysterious story of Molly Miller and Colt Haynes.
(00:48):
Small towns often hold their secrets close.
Heroes, victims, and villains are often tied together by intricate webs of family ties
that encourage questionable loyalties and expected silence.
Sometimes, the violence and chaos that sweeps across these communities could put any big
city to shame.
(01:10):
As school let out in the summer of 2013, a 17-year-old girl went to a party with one
of her friends.
By the time the party was over, there had been a car chase, a series of mysterious phone
calls, a panicked search, and ultimately a pair of disappearances that remain unsolved
to this day.
Attempts to unravel this case and learn the truth of that night have become complicated
(01:35):
by a tight network of corruption, lies, and allegations.
For some perspective, about the area, the town of Wilson, Oklahoma in 2013 had a population
of just over 1,700 people, with 90% being white, 7% being Native American.
The entire town is nearly 6 miles square.
(01:58):
So yes, everyone knows everyone else in this small town in South Central Oklahoma.
Now the county just south of Wilson, which is where most of this story takes place,
is Love County.
Love County is roughly 530 square miles, with a population of nearly 9,000 in 2013.
(02:18):
So that means that there are just about 17 people per square mile in this county.
For comparison, Oklahoma City has a population of around 682,000 people in just 620 miles.
That means there are nearly 1,100 people occupying each mile of the city.
(02:40):
So yes, we are talking about a truly rural part of the country.
At what point does a fun-loving kid turn into a rebellious teen?
When Molly Miller began her high school years, she played softball, laughed often, and had
a great relationship with her family.
(03:02):
She was working part-time, attending a local vocational high school, and had big dreams
of pursuing her nursing degree after graduation.
Records indicate that Molly was a full-blooded Chickasaw Native American.
Yet by the time she reached her junior year, she had started hanging out with the wrong
(03:23):
crowd.
In some towns, the wrong crowd just means the poorer kids who like to smoke cigarettes
beneath the bleachers.
In Wilson, Oklahoma, home to a major methamphetamine scene, it meant stepping directly into the
crosshairs of danger.
Molly met Colt Haynes about a week before they disappeared, and the two became fast
(03:45):
friends.
Their relationship seemed to be platonic.
Colt already had a girlfriend.
But that didn't prevent Molly from having a crush on him.
The people who knew Colt described him as a good man who nevertheless struggled with
addiction.
He was 21 and had a new baby.
But that didn't prevent him from accepting an invitation to a party, or a group hangout
(04:08):
that he and Molly ultimately attended together.
One of the party attendees was James, also known as Conn Nip.
At 21 years old, Conn was already bad news.
He had a bad habit of taunting local police.
Nobody knows why Molly and Colt got into Conn's car that evening, but they did leave the party
(04:30):
together on July 7, 2013.
The trio headed to a convenience store in the town of Wilson.
Around 10 p.m., Conn left the convenience store, and with Molly and Colt in the car
with him, began doing donuts in front of Wilson PD police cruisers, which was apparently
(04:51):
a habit of his.
When his donuts threw rocks or gravel at the police cars, a car chase began.
The chase swiftly reached speeds of 120 miles per hour.
Conn would occasionally turn off his headlights because he knew the road so well.
He led the police south on Highway 76.
(05:12):
Wilson PD was hot on Conn's heels until he crossed the border into Love County.
Love County is the jurisdiction of the Love County Sheriff's Department.
When the moment Conn's car crossed the line, dispatchers waved Wilson PD off the chase.
(05:33):
Love County Sheriff's took over the chase.
But we believe they already knew who was driving and where he was headed.
Meanwhile, Conn turned down a dirt path heading directly to his family's property.
When Conn turned the car onto Long Hollow Road, a long dirt road, Love County Sheriff
(05:54):
Joe Russell called off the chase entirely, saying he didn't want to tear up his cruisers.
Further, he claimed to know where the car was going, making the first in a long line
of odd comments and decisions he came to make about this case over the years.
The decision to avoid pursuit may have had other motives besides avoiding wear and tear
(06:18):
on cruisers, though Sheriff Russell you should know was Conn's uncle.
There were plenty of skeletons in Sheriff Russell's closet too, many of which tie directly into
this case.
You're going to be shocked by the level of corruption sweeping through this little county
on the Texas border.
(06:38):
At this point, nobody sure exactly what happened next.
Conn showed up back at his house.
Apparently, he either had no clue where the car ended up or just wasn't saying.
Fifteen days later, on July 22, they found the car, the little 2012 Honda Accord, which
didn't even belong to Conn, but to his girlfriend had sustained $18,000 worth of damage after
(07:04):
plowing through barbed wire, blasting through ditches, and ultimately running headlong into
a tree.
While the car was found, the two other occupants, Molly Miller and Colt Haynes, were never
found.
The property, off Long Hollow Road, offers about 1,000 acres of scrublin, trees, thick
(07:28):
bamboo, and a wide, shallow pond almost big enough to be called a lake.
In other words, it provided plenty of opportunities for getting lost.
Colt and Molly definitely spent some time wandering through the area.
They'd gotten disoriented and were alone.
One of them would become badly hurt, and each would make calls for help.
(07:53):
Molly tried 911 first.
At 12.57 a.m., she made a five-second call, said nothing, and hung up.
Dispatch tried to call her back, but there was no answer.
Nobody dispatched law enforcement officers to her location.
It's not clear whether Molly was actively in danger at that point, or if she was just
(08:15):
lost.
Perhaps she started to make a call only to get spooked and hide, or perhaps she feared
arrest.
It's widely believed that both she and Colt may have been doing drugs that night.
So law enforcement may not have been a welcomed rescuer.
Frantically, Molly called several friends instead.
(08:37):
She told them she was lost, stranded in a field, and that she needed a ride.
She couldn't reach many others according to her phone records.
At 6.00 a.m., she was still alive because she was arguing with a friend who wouldn't
come get her because he had to drive to work.
By 10.00 a.m., her call stopped.
Her phone was completely dead, and nobody would find her.
(09:00):
Colt's friends were a little more active.
He told his friends that he and Molly had gotten lost between Long Hollow and Pike Road.
At one point, he mentioned being at the base of a tree, which is perhaps where he landed
after Conn crashed the Honda.
There are some reports that he may have climbed the tree to get a better vantage point to
(09:25):
determine where they were.
It seems like he may have fallen out of the tree because on a later call, he told them
his ankle was broken, that he could see the bone sticking out, and that he was lying in
a creek bed because he couldn't walk anymore.
He told his friends he'd lost Molly too.
(09:46):
She may have tried to go get help, knowing Colt was severely injured.
This part is somewhat unclear.
His friends took to their four-wheelers to try to scour the property for Colt.
They stayed on the phone with him as long as they could.
They fired gunshots to try to zero in on his location, though he never heard them.
(10:08):
Allegedly, three of his friends showed up at Conn's house to find that Conn was already
there.
Conn apparently told them that he had no idea what happened to Colt and Molly, claiming
they had taken off into the woods.
To this day, Conn has always refused to say any more than those words.
(10:29):
He has no idea what happened, and they took off into the woods.
By 10 a.m. on July 8, both Molly and Colt's phones were dead.
Nobody saw or heard from them again after that.
After learning their daughter was missing, Molly's family took the next logical step.
(10:52):
They went to the Love County Sheriff's Department to report Molly missing.
At first, Sheriff Russell tried to redirect them to the town of Wilson Police Department,
stating that Molly and Colt were not his problem.
When pressed, he offered different answers.
Sheriff Russell told them they had nothing to worry about.
He said she wasn't missing, that she was just out with friends, or that she'd just
(11:16):
run away again as she'd already done once before.
As for Colt, the Sheriff said, he'd likely just taken off too.
Perhaps he was trying to escape some of his legal troubles.
Maybe he wanted to get out of paying child support.
None of Colt's friends believed that excuse.
(11:37):
Why would we?
Later, allegedly, the Sheriff made some reference to some other money problem Colt might have
had.
So I could not substantiate it, there's a rumor that Colt may have stolen $5,000 worth
of methamphetamine from the ring that Conn was involved with.
If so, Conn had a motive, and so did everyone involved with the local meth ring.
(12:00):
The Sheriff also made strange choices in the case.
For example, he allowed Conn to meet with family members in a deputy's office where
evidence was left unsupervised.
When the Honda was finally found, there was no physical evidence to indicate where the
pair might be.
To this day, Sheriff Russell insists that both he and God know where Molly is.
(12:22):
If he knows, then why hasn't he revealed that knowledge to her grieving parents and
other family?
In 2014, a strange 911 call changed the case from a missing person's case to a probable
double homicide.
The dial seemed to be accidental, and it came from Colby Barrick, Conn's uncle.
(12:47):
The operator heard him discussing a murder and mentioning Molly Miller and Colt Haynes
by name.
He said, you know, you're beeping mad, you know, you're beeping tired, beeping Moxley
Lake, a buck knife, Molly Miller, they shot him in the mouth.
Right there, I can put my finger all the way through it.
(13:08):
The operator then heard water splashing and two gunshots.
Colby Barrick lived on Long Hollow Road at the time of the chase.
When the line cut off, she contacted Sheriff Russell, telling him she heard someone talking
about Molly and Colt.
And I mean, the girl that was killed and dope and stuff like that.
(13:29):
They didn't realize they were on 911.
And it comes from a pond just north of Long Hollow Road on Oswald, she confirmed, noting
that the phone pinged near Moxley Lake.
In 2018, Barrick was arrested on unrelated firearm charges and sentenced to 46 months
in prison, according to the United States Department of Justice.
(13:51):
While incarcerated, he allegedly informed law enforcement that the bodies of Molly and Colt
were in the pond.
What would you expect to happen after such a call?
Do you expect that dispatch would send law enforcement to Barrick's location immediately?
Do you expect someone to have some hard questions for Colby Barrick?
(14:11):
If you did, then I'm sorry to disappoint you because what happened was nothing at all.
Nobody responded to the call.
And from what I could find, nobody followed up on it.
Of note is the following information.
Molly is a native Chickasaw.
So under the McGirt ruling, the FBI is required to pick up the case.
(14:35):
In January of 2014, officers of the law finally arrested Conn and charged him with endangering
the lives of the others with a high-speed chase.
It was the only charge the district attorney could prove.
Other arrests and recriminations flew, even as certain key players continued to follow
the pattern of keeping their secrets close.
(14:57):
Dark truths began to emerge.
According to official investigations, Sheriff Joe Russell was heavily involved in the meth
trade.
The sheriff was using his home to manufacture meth.
His son, Willie, was dealing it.
His nephew, Conn, was heavily involved in the trade as well.
(15:19):
Russell even used Sheriff's Department resources to run drugs throughout Love County on a number
of occasions.
He let his son use his patrol pickup to both deal and sell drugs.
Investigators found cocaine residue in the truck.
He even allowed his son to keep a woman named Sarah Bamberg, a virtual prisoner, in their
(15:39):
home.
Sarah was wanted in Carter County for probation violations and in Love County for knowingly
concealing stolen property.
Willie used the warrants to coerce sexual favors from her, telling her she was safe
if she stayed at their house and gave him what he wanted.
The moment she left, Russell had her arrested.
(16:02):
Bamberg became a key witness in the investigation against Russell.
Russell faced charges.
Two counts of corruption in office, two counts of habitual or willful neglect of duty, and
one count of willful maladministration.
He was also charged with maintaining a drug house and harboring a fugitive.
An FBI agent even testified that on two occasions, the sheriff arrested bikini-clad women who
(16:26):
were drunk or high and partying on the Red River.
Instead of taking them to jail, he transported them to his home, where he blackmailed them
into stripping and dancing for him.
Russell didn't face as much justice as one might imagine he would.
He was suspended with pay on August 1, 2016.
(16:47):
He officially resigned on October 31, 2016 to avoid going to court over his job.
He struck a plea deal in March of 2017, in which he pled no contest to the charge of
willful omission to perform a duty.
He was sentenced to just one year of unsupervised probation and fined just $300.
(17:12):
Victims continued to fly about molly and cold.
For example, the rumor arose that Russell knew where possible murder weapons might be
stored.
A machete and a pistol, and that he'd opted to avoid going after those weapons for reasons
of his own.
Willie Russell, his son, eventually faced federal charges for methamphetamine distribution.
(17:36):
The FBI arrested him after he sold an 8-ball, which is 2.8 grams of crystal meth, to an
FBI informant at the Carter County corner store for $200.
The FBI mentioned it took them a long time to arrange the deal because Willie kept wanting
to stay in Love County, a place where his dad could protect him.
(18:01):
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has taken over the case.
In addition, molly's family has hired a private investigator named Philip Klein, and new allies
have emerged from unexpected quarters.
One of those allies is Toby Thomas, the owner of Battle Springs Ranch.
Toby bought the property on Long Hollow Road, set up a tactical training facility called
(18:27):
Battle Springs Ranch, and became interested in the case.
When he first bought the property, he found footprints and four-wheeler tracks going straight
into the water.
Toby has allowed everything from cadaver dogs to walking searches of his property and continues
to search himself.
Nobody's been able to find anything in Moxley Lake since he took over, but he uncovered
(18:50):
rumors that the bodies might have been stuck into a freezer and pushed into the pond.
The pond is wide yet shallow.
Nevertheless, it is four to six feet deep all the way across, and if the bodies are
concealed in an object like that, it would be difficult to find without a full, focused,
(19:10):
forensic dive.
But Toby hasn't needed a dive to find at least a little bit of evidence in the case.
While walking around the property, the new owners found a torn and tattered white woman's
shirt tangled up in some tree branches, not where you'd expect to find a shirt that came
off by mistake, at body level, but at eye level.
(19:33):
Moly was last seen wearing a white shirt.
The shirt might have provided some answers, but it seems law enforcement misplaced the
evidence nearly as quickly as they received it.
Do these facts make you wonder who else is guarding secrets in Love County and what it
will take for someone to come forward with the truth at last?
(19:59):
Maybe someday soon, someone will.
Moly's cousin Paula, Fielding, once revealed that she was speaking to an unnamed female
suspect on Facebook.
Could it have been Khan's ex-girlfriend, or is it some as yet unnamed individual who
was closer to the action than anyone in the public yet realizes?
(20:20):
Either way, Paula claims this woman knows exactly what happens, that she could help
close the case for good if she'd just come forward.
I couldn't identify the woman of Paula's claims.
However, in a very recent Facebook post on the missing Colt Haines page, someone named
Monique Haines Stewart, who I believe may be Colt's sister, posted a very strong and
(20:46):
stern message to clarify who that group believes is behind Colt's disappearance.
I absolutely wanted to include this detail as I understand that with over 4,000 followers,
there are more followers there.
Which is nearly four times the entire population of the town of Wilson.
(21:06):
Let me be clear, based on direct specific evidence.
I won't name a suspect solely on circumstantial evidence in the case of these two missing
people presumed dead.
If Ms. Stewart has direct specific evidence and not just hearsay, only then can the information
be considered usable.
I also recognize that she is disappointed at the results of other social media outlets
(21:32):
reporting of this story along with the private investigator hired by Paula.
I want to emphasize that this story was created to help bring closure to this case for the
surviving family and friends of these two young people.
Without a doubt, this is an odd, intriguing and mysterious story.
(21:52):
My regular audience often shows great insight and empathy for the people involved.
With that, I ask, do you have insights into this case?
Please let me know in the comments below.
I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story.
If you did, please leave me a review, download and share this podcast with your friends.
(22:18):
Can you believe the level of secrecy around these two missing young people?
I know that inside the culture of drugs, it's hard to understand how life would be for most
people.
But what about the legal people involved in this story and how compromised they are?
It's very obvious that the people that live in these counties are so afraid of something
(22:40):
that they will never share what they know.
Knowledge that might help find the bodies of these two young people.
It's hard to believe that some people wield so much power over others that their silence
is their security.
Now if you found this story intriguing, this next story will be an absolute confusing story.
(23:03):
It's the story of Brandon Swanson.
He's a young guy on the way home from spending time with friends when his car accidentally
goes off the road into a ditch.
He is fine and calls his parents to come get him.
Sadly where he thinks he's located and where he actually is located is different by many
(23:24):
miles.
While on the phone with his dad, he encounters something that causes him to say, oh shit,
then the phone goes dead and he is never seen or found to this day.
Listen to what happened to Brandon Swanson.
Find that story next on our podcast channel.
Can I ask a favor of you?
I'm trying to grow my podcast so if you enjoyed this story, please consider following my podcast.
(23:48):
One more thing, here at Odd Mysteries Stories we now have merch.
If you go to the details of this podcast, you'll find a link to my tea public store.
I sure would appreciate your support by purchasing some unique Odd Mysteries merchandise from
my store.
If you really enjoyed my podcast, I hope you'll consider buying me a cup of coffee at my Patreon
(24:10):
site.
While I enjoy what I do, a good cup of Joe sure does keep me motivated to bring you more
true unsolved crime stories.
Thank you.
I'd like to preface this story with some understanding about why I brought this story to the channel.
(00:06):
It's the story of two young people who are more than likely dead, and while most of my
stories are the unsolved, who done it type, this one will probably not fit neatly into
that category.
You may have very strong thoughts about who, but the why may be a little hard to comprehend.
What I'd like you to try and focus upon in this story is that there are suffering people
(00:27):
left behind who just want closure.
To bury their loved ones and at a stretch maybe even witness a judgment day, no matter
how unlikely that may be in this part of the country.
Join me for a ride through the odd and mysterious story of Molly Miller and Colt Haynes.
(00:48):
Small towns often hold their secrets close.
Heroes, victims, and villains are often tied together by intricate webs of family ties
that encourage questionable loyalties and expected silence.
Sometimes, the violence and chaos that sweeps across these communities could put any big
city to shame.
(01:10):
As school let out in the summer of 2013, a 17-year-old girl went to a party with one
of her friends.
By the time the party was over, there had been a car chase, a series of mysterious phone
calls, a panicked search, and ultimately a pair of disappearances that remain unsolved
to this day.
Attempts to unravel this case and learn the truth of that night have become complicated
(01:35):
by a tight network of corruption, lies, and allegations.
For some perspective, about the area, the town of Wilson, Oklahoma in 2013 had a population
of just over 1,700 people, with 90% being white, 7% being Native American.
The entire town is nearly 6 miles square.
(01:58):
So yes, everyone knows everyone else in this small town in South Central Oklahoma.
Now the county just south of Wilson, which is where most of this story takes place,
is Love County.
Love County is roughly 530 square miles, with a population of nearly 9,000 in 2013.
(02:18):
So that means that there are just about 17 people per square mile in this county.
For comparison, Oklahoma City has a population of around 682,000 people in just 620 miles.
That means there are nearly 1,100 people occupying each mile of the city.
(02:40):
So yes, we are talking about a truly rural part of the country.
At what point does a fun-loving kid turn into a rebellious teen?
When Molly Miller began her high school years, she played softball, laughed often, and had
a great relationship with her family.
(03:02):
She was working part-time, attending a local vocational high school, and had big dreams
of pursuing her nursing degree after graduation.
Records indicate that Molly was a full-blooded Chickasaw Native American.
Yet by the time she reached her junior year, she had started hanging out with the wrong
(03:23):
crowd.
In some towns, the wrong crowd just means the poorer kids who like to smoke cigarettes
beneath the bleachers.
In Wilson, Oklahoma, home to a major methamphetamine scene, it meant stepping directly into the
crosshairs of danger.
Molly met Colt Haynes about a week before they disappeared, and the two became fast
(03:45):
friends.
Their relationship seemed to be platonic.
Colt already had a girlfriend.
But that didn't prevent Molly from having a crush on him.
The people who knew Colt described him as a good man who nevertheless struggled with
addiction.
He was 21 and had a new baby.
But that didn't prevent him from accepting an invitation to a party, or a group hangout
(04:08):
that he and Molly ultimately attended together.
One of the party attendees was James, also known as Conn Nip.
At 21 years old, Conn was already bad news.
He had a bad habit of taunting local police.
Nobody knows why Molly and Colt got into Conn's car that evening, but they did leave the party
(04:30):
together on July 7, 2013.
The trio headed to a convenience store in the town of Wilson.
Around 10 p.m., Conn left the convenience store, and with Molly and Colt in the car
with him, began doing donuts in front of Wilson PD police cruisers, which was apparently
(04:51):
a habit of his.
When his donuts threw rocks or gravel at the police cars, a car chase began.
The chase swiftly reached speeds of 120 miles per hour.
Conn would occasionally turn off his headlights because he knew the road so well.
He led the police south on Highway 76.
(05:12):
Wilson PD was hot on Conn's heels until he crossed the border into Love County.
Love County is the jurisdiction of the Love County Sheriff's Department.
When the moment Conn's car crossed the line, dispatchers waved Wilson PD off the chase.
(05:33):
Love County Sheriff's took over the chase.
But we believe they already knew who was driving and where he was headed.
Meanwhile, Conn turned down a dirt path heading directly to his family's property.
When Conn turned the car onto Long Hollow Road, a long dirt road, Love County Sheriff
(05:54):
Joe Russell called off the chase entirely, saying he didn't want to tear up his cruisers.
Further, he claimed to know where the car was going, making the first in a long line
of odd comments and decisions he came to make about this case over the years.
The decision to avoid pursuit may have had other motives besides avoiding wear and tear
(06:18):
on cruisers, though Sheriff Russell you should know was Conn's uncle.
There were plenty of skeletons in Sheriff Russell's closet too, many of which tie directly into
this case.
You're going to be shocked by the level of corruption sweeping through this little county
on the Texas border.
(06:38):
At this point, nobody sure exactly what happened next.
Conn showed up back at his house.
Apparently, he either had no clue where the car ended up or just wasn't saying.
Fifteen days later, on July 22, they found the car, the little 2012 Honda Accord, which
didn't even belong to Conn, but to his girlfriend had sustained $18,000 worth of damage after
(07:04):
plowing through barbed wire, blasting through ditches, and ultimately running headlong into
a tree.
While the car was found, the two other occupants, Molly Miller and Colt Haynes, were never
found.
The property, off Long Hollow Road, offers about 1,000 acres of scrublin, trees, thick
(07:28):
bamboo, and a wide, shallow pond almost big enough to be called a lake.
In other words, it provided plenty of opportunities for getting lost.
Colt and Molly definitely spent some time wandering through the area.
They'd gotten disoriented and were alone.
One of them would become badly hurt, and each would make calls for help.
(07:53):
Molly tried 911 first.
At 12.57 a.m., she made a five-second call, said nothing, and hung up.
Dispatch tried to call her back, but there was no answer.
Nobody dispatched law enforcement officers to her location.
It's not clear whether Molly was actively in danger at that point, or if she was just
(08:15):
lost.
Perhaps she started to make a call only to get spooked and hide, or perhaps she feared
arrest.
It's widely believed that both she and Colt may have been doing drugs that night.
So law enforcement may not have been a welcomed rescuer.
Frantically, Molly called several friends instead.
(08:37):
She told them she was lost, stranded in a field, and that she needed a ride.
She couldn't reach many others according to her phone records.
At 6.00 a.m., she was still alive because she was arguing with a friend who wouldn't
come get her because he had to drive to work.
By 10.00 a.m., her call stopped.
Her phone was completely dead, and nobody would find her.
(09:00):
Colt's friends were a little more active.
He told his friends that he and Molly had gotten lost between Long Hollow and Pike Road.
At one point, he mentioned being at the base of a tree, which is perhaps where he landed
after Conn crashed the Honda.
There are some reports that he may have climbed the tree to get a better vantage point to
(09:25):
determine where they were.
It seems like he may have fallen out of the tree because on a later call, he told them
his ankle was broken, that he could see the bone sticking out, and that he was lying in
a creek bed because he couldn't walk anymore.
He told his friends he'd lost Molly too.
(09:46):
She may have tried to go get help, knowing Colt was severely injured.
This part is somewhat unclear.
His friends took to their four-wheelers to try to scour the property for Colt.
They stayed on the phone with him as long as they could.
They fired gunshots to try to zero in on his location, though he never heard them.
(10:08):
Allegedly, three of his friends showed up at Conn's house to find that Conn was already
there.
Conn apparently told them that he had no idea what happened to Colt and Molly, claiming
they had taken off into the woods.
To this day, Conn has always refused to say any more than those words.
(10:29):
He has no idea what happened, and they took off into the woods.
By 10 a.m. on July 8, both Molly and Colt's phones were dead.
Nobody saw or heard from them again after that.
After learning their daughter was missing, Molly's family took the next logical step.
(10:52):
They went to the Love County Sheriff's Department to report Molly missing.
At first, Sheriff Russell tried to redirect them to the town of Wilson Police Department,
stating that Molly and Colt were not his problem.
When pressed, he offered different answers.
Sheriff Russell told them they had nothing to worry about.
He said she wasn't missing, that she was just out with friends, or that she'd just
(11:16):
run away again as she'd already done once before.
As for Colt, the Sheriff said, he'd likely just taken off too.
Perhaps he was trying to escape some of his legal troubles.
Maybe he wanted to get out of paying child support.
None of Colt's friends believed that excuse.
(11:37):
Why would we?
Later, allegedly, the Sheriff made some reference to some other money problem Colt might have
had.
So I could not substantiate it, there's a rumor that Colt may have stolen $5,000 worth
of methamphetamine from the ring that Conn was involved with.
If so, Conn had a motive, and so did everyone involved with the local meth ring.
(12:00):
The Sheriff also made strange choices in the case.
For example, he allowed Conn to meet with family members in a deputy's office where
evidence was left unsupervised.
When the Honda was finally found, there was no physical evidence to indicate where the
pair might be.
To this day, Sheriff Russell insists that both he and God know where Molly is.
(12:22):
If he knows, then why hasn't he revealed that knowledge to her grieving parents and
other family?
In 2014, a strange 911 call changed the case from a missing person's case to a probable
double homicide.
The dial seemed to be accidental, and it came from Colby Barrick, Conn's uncle.
(12:47):
The operator heard him discussing a murder and mentioning Molly Miller and Colt Haynes
by name.
He said, you know, you're beeping mad, you know, you're beeping tired, beeping Moxley
Lake, a buck knife, Molly Miller, they shot him in the mouth.
Right there, I can put my finger all the way through it.
(13:08):
The operator then heard water splashing and two gunshots.
Colby Barrick lived on Long Hollow Road at the time of the chase.
When the line cut off, she contacted Sheriff Russell, telling him she heard someone talking
about Molly and Colt.
And I mean, the girl that was killed and dope and stuff like that.
(13:29):
They didn't realize they were on 911.
And it comes from a pond just north of Long Hollow Road on Oswald, she confirmed, noting
that the phone pinged near Moxley Lake.
In 2018, Barrick was arrested on unrelated firearm charges and sentenced to 46 months
in prison, according to the United States Department of Justice.
(13:51):
While incarcerated, he allegedly informed law enforcement that the bodies of Molly and Colt
were in the pond.
What would you expect to happen after such a call?
Do you expect that dispatch would send law enforcement to Barrick's location immediately?
Do you expect someone to have some hard questions for Colby Barrick?
(14:11):
If you did, then I'm sorry to disappoint you because what happened was nothing at all.
Nobody responded to the call.
And from what I could find, nobody followed up on it.
Of note is the following information.
Molly is a native Chickasaw.
So under the McGirt ruling, the FBI is required to pick up the case.
(14:35):
In January of 2014, officers of the law finally arrested Conn and charged him with endangering
the lives of the others with a high-speed chase.
It was the only charge the district attorney could prove.
Other arrests and recriminations flew, even as certain key players continued to follow
the pattern of keeping their secrets close.
(14:57):
Dark truths began to emerge.
According to official investigations, Sheriff Joe Russell was heavily involved in the meth
trade.
The sheriff was using his home to manufacture meth.
His son, Willie, was dealing it.
His nephew, Conn, was heavily involved in the trade as well.
(15:19):
Russell even used Sheriff's Department resources to run drugs throughout Love County on a number
of occasions.
He let his son use his patrol pickup to both deal and sell drugs.
Investigators found cocaine residue in the truck.
He even allowed his son to keep a woman named Sarah Bamberg, a virtual prisoner, in their
(15:39):
home.
Sarah was wanted in Carter County for probation violations and in Love County for knowingly
concealing stolen property.
Willie used the warrants to coerce sexual favors from her, telling her she was safe
if she stayed at their house and gave him what he wanted.
The moment she left, Russell had her arrested.
(16:02):
Bamberg became a key witness in the investigation against Russell.
Russell faced charges.
Two counts of corruption in office, two counts of habitual or willful neglect of duty, and
one count of willful maladministration.
He was also charged with maintaining a drug house and harboring a fugitive.
An FBI agent even testified that on two occasions, the sheriff arrested bikini-clad women who
(16:26):
were drunk or high and partying on the Red River.
Instead of taking them to jail, he transported them to his home, where he blackmailed them
into stripping and dancing for him.
Russell didn't face as much justice as one might imagine he would.
He was suspended with pay on August 1, 2016.
(16:47):
He officially resigned on October 31, 2016 to avoid going to court over his job.
He struck a plea deal in March of 2017, in which he pled no contest to the charge of
willful omission to perform a duty.
He was sentenced to just one year of unsupervised probation and fined just $300.
(17:12):
Victims continued to fly about molly and cold.
For example, the rumor arose that Russell knew where possible murder weapons might be
stored.
A machete and a pistol, and that he'd opted to avoid going after those weapons for reasons
of his own.
Willie Russell, his son, eventually faced federal charges for methamphetamine distribution.
(17:36):
The FBI arrested him after he sold an 8-ball, which is 2.8 grams of crystal meth, to an
FBI informant at the Carter County corner store for $200.
The FBI mentioned it took them a long time to arrange the deal because Willie kept wanting
to stay in Love County, a place where his dad could protect him.
(18:01):
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has taken over the case.
In addition, molly's family has hired a private investigator named Philip Klein, and new allies
have emerged from unexpected quarters.
One of those allies is Toby Thomas, the owner of Battle Springs Ranch.
Toby bought the property on Long Hollow Road, set up a tactical training facility called
(18:27):
Battle Springs Ranch, and became interested in the case.
When he first bought the property, he found footprints and four-wheeler tracks going straight
into the water.
Toby has allowed everything from cadaver dogs to walking searches of his property and continues
to search himself.
Nobody's been able to find anything in Moxley Lake since he took over, but he uncovered
(18:50):
rumors that the bodies might have been stuck into a freezer and pushed into the pond.
The pond is wide yet shallow.
Nevertheless, it is four to six feet deep all the way across, and if the bodies are
concealed in an object like that, it would be difficult to find without a full, focused,
(19:10):
forensic dive.
But Toby hasn't needed a dive to find at least a little bit of evidence in the case.
While walking around the property, the new owners found a torn and tattered white woman's
shirt tangled up in some tree branches, not where you'd expect to find a shirt that came
off by mistake, at body level, but at eye level.
(19:33):
Moly was last seen wearing a white shirt.
The shirt might have provided some answers, but it seems law enforcement misplaced the
evidence nearly as quickly as they received it.
Do these facts make you wonder who else is guarding secrets in Love County and what it
will take for someone to come forward with the truth at last?
(19:59):
Maybe someday soon, someone will.
Moly's cousin Paula, Fielding, once revealed that she was speaking to an unnamed female
suspect on Facebook.
Could it have been Khan's ex-girlfriend, or is it some as yet unnamed individual who
was closer to the action than anyone in the public yet realizes?
(20:20):
Either way, Paula claims this woman knows exactly what happens, that she could help
close the case for good if she'd just come forward.
I couldn't identify the woman of Paula's claims.
However, in a very recent Facebook post on the missing Colt Haines page, someone named
Monique Haines Stewart, who I believe may be Colt's sister, posted a very strong and
(20:46):
stern message to clarify who that group believes is behind Colt's disappearance.
I absolutely wanted to include this detail as I understand that with over 4,000 followers,
there are more followers there.
Which is nearly four times the entire population of the town of Wilson.
(21:06):
Let me be clear, based on direct specific evidence.
I won't name a suspect solely on circumstantial evidence in the case of these two missing
people presumed dead.
If Ms. Stewart has direct specific evidence and not just hearsay, only then can the information
be considered usable.
I also recognize that she is disappointed at the results of other social media outlets
(21:32):
reporting of this story along with the private investigator hired by Paula.
I want to emphasize that this story was created to help bring closure to this case for the
surviving family and friends of these two young people.
Without a doubt, this is an odd, intriguing and mysterious story.
(21:52):
My regular audience often shows great insight and empathy for the people involved.
With that, I ask, do you have insights into this case?
Please let me know in the comments below.
I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story.
If you did, please leave me a review, download and share this podcast with your friends.
(22:18):
Can you believe the level of secrecy around these two missing young people?
I know that inside the culture of drugs, it's hard to understand how life would be for most
people.
But what about the legal people involved in this story and how compromised they are?
It's very obvious that the people that live in these counties are so afraid of something
(22:40):
that they will never share what they know.
Knowledge that might help find the bodies of these two young people.
It's hard to believe that some people wield so much power over others that their silence
is their security.
Now if you found this story intriguing, this next story will be an absolute confusing story.
(23:03):
It's the story of Brandon Swanson.
He's a young guy on the way home from spending time with friends when his car accidentally
goes off the road into a ditch.
He is fine and calls his parents to come get him.
Sadly where he thinks he's located and where he actually is located is different by many
(23:24):
miles.
While on the phone with his dad, he encounters something that causes him to say, oh shit,
then the phone goes dead and he is never seen or found to this day.
Listen to what happened to Brandon Swanson.
Find that story next on our podcast channel.
Can I ask a favor of you?
I'm trying to grow my podcast so if you enjoyed this story, please consider following my podcast.
(23:48):
One more thing, here at Odd Mysteries Stories we now have merch.
If you go to the details of this podcast, you'll find a link to my tea public store.
I sure would appreciate your support by purchasing some unique Odd Mysteries merchandise from
my store.
If you really enjoyed my podcast, I hope you'll consider buying me a cup of coffee at my Patreon
(24:10):
site.
While I enjoy what I do, a good cup of Joe sure does keep me motivated to bring you more
true unsolved crime stories.
Thank you.
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