March 3, 2022 • 31 mins
Cape Coral, FL, on June 19, 2020. Her disappearance has baffled her family, friends, and even the police investigating her case. When Lauren's belongings mysteriously begin appearing in a nearby park, the investigation is escalated, and the community rallies to search for this beautiful missing woman. But certain people close to Lauren are keeping their distance...the question is: why? Someone knows something; someone is COMPLICIT.
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(00:02):
Lauren Demolo vanished without a trace onJune nineteenth. Police called Demolo's disappearance suspicious.
Lauren de Molo was last seen morethan a week ago at her Cape
Coral apartment, and police believe she'sin danger. Where is Lauren Demolo?
I'm Hilary Wadsworth and I'm Caitlin Bodyand you're listening to Complicit. This is
(00:30):
the story of Lauren de Moolo.She's been missing since June nineteenth, twenty
twenty. Well, it could havebeen June eighteenth, but we'll get to
that. The circumstances around Lauren's disappearancehave baffled her family, her friends,
even the detectives who've been investigating hercase. What's even more baffling are the
clues we have and how they've cometo light. In this podcast, we'll
(00:54):
walk you through the case as welearned about it, through her family,
through her friends, and through otherswho have firsthand knowledge. As the story
evolves and details, sometimes uncomfortable ones, unfold, we will do our best
to present you with a full picturesurrounding Lauren's disappearance and the notable events leading
up to that fateful day. Chapterone, The Heart of our mystery.
(01:23):
Meet Lauren. She's a stunning fivefoot one hundred pound blonde with bright brown
eyes and a big smile, livingin Cape Coral, Florida. She was
twenty nine at the time of herdisappearance. She turned thirty about a month
after she disappeared, but wasn't aroundto celebrate with family and friends. Lauren
was close with her family, specificallyher dad Paul, her aunt Sue,
(01:44):
and her two sisters, Cassie andLindsay. My name is Paul, and
Lauren was my oldest daughter. Iam Lauren's aunt Sue, so I am
Susanne, but everybody knows me asAunt Sue. I am Cassie. I
am mourn de Molo's sister. Mourenis my old her sister by thirteen months.
We have the same mother and father. My name is Lindsay. I
(02:05):
am Lauren's half sister, so weboth have the same mother and we have
different fathers. But I've known herobviously my whole life. Lauren is by
all accounts, a bubbly outgoing thereto help a friend in need kind of
girl. She's a hard working singlemother who, despite having fallen on some
hard times. We'll get to thosetwo. She always manages to pick herself
(02:29):
up, smile and carry on.Always had a smile on her face.
She was always very outgoing, veryhappy. She would probably give you a
shirt off a back, you know, without a doubt, she give you
a last dollar in a pocket.Lauren always had a smile on her faith.
She just looked very approachable. Shewas happy, and she was always
smiling. Lauren. She was vibrantand brought the laughter. That laugh,
(02:53):
I just keep re hearing that laughover and over again. She had the
best laugh. You always felt herpresence. She's always so happy. She's
the sunshine. She was just oneof those type of people that always brightening
somebody else's day and you know,never really judged anybody in was very outgoing,
(03:14):
but then sometimes naive at the sametime, she trusted too much.
If you watch the news and youhear anything about her and they say she's
all about Namas day and relaxing lifeand keys, like that's what she was
all about. Like she wanted nothingmore than to feel energy, bring in
(03:36):
energy like she's really really sweet.Lauren really was into finding positive energy in
everything, so much so that shecemented her dedication to this lifestyle by tattooing
the word Namas Day in large printdown the entire side of her torso.
In addition to her family, Lauren'sclose friend Erica shows us another side of
(03:59):
her personality. Lauren is a veryvery dear friend of mine. She's very
forgetful. Paused to drive me nuts. She would like if I came to
pick her up, she'd get inmy car and she'd like, wait,
where's my sunglasses. I'm like,Lauren, they're on your head. She's
from New York, so she hasthis New York accent. She can speak
(04:19):
completely normally if she gets excited orshe's like telling a story. She's very
animated when she like talks, andshe uses her hands a lot. You
know, her accent comes out soheavily and it's just so funny. She
even writes in her accent in herFacebook posts like I'm quote out to dinner
(04:43):
spelled d I N n A.She's just the most loving, caring woman
you know, and selfless is agood word. I consider her family,
I consider her sister to me.In her early twenties, Lauren was living
in Staten Island, New York,when she decided she was ready for a
change. She moved to Florida,where two of her sisters, two of
(05:06):
her brothers, and her mother wereliving. They wanted her to join them.
New York had been good to Lauren, it would always be in her
blood, but it was time fora new start. We all convinced her
to move down to Florida because shedidn't have a lot of family. I'm
north. Her and Cassie we bothconvinced to move down to Florida, and
(05:27):
they were both willing and eager.We were all younger, and we didn't
have any kids at the time,and we just went out and partied a
little bit, and yeah, wehad our fun in our twenties. Felt
like I got my sister back.They really wanted to get to know their
mother again, our mother. Ieven want to say, anywhere between five
and seven years that they hadn't reconnected, and they were all excited about reconnecting
(05:55):
with the whole family. It hadactually been eleven years since Lauren had connected
with her mother. Cassie too.For that matter. A divorce and custody
agreement awarded Paul full custody of thegirls. Their mother moved down to Florida,
started Anew and Paul stayed up north. That was it. And now
she never once contacted them for likeeleven or years or twelve years. Nothing.
(06:18):
There was nothing, no communication,no contact, nothing. And then
when my daughters, you know,Lauren and Cassie were like eighteen seventeen or
eighteen and nineteen, you know,they asked if they could talk to you,
contact their mother. I was like, yeah, go ahead. Lindsay
and their other siblings did keep intouch, but living so far away,
it was harder for them to havea close relationship. Once her move to
(06:40):
Florida was official, Lauren toggled betweenWest Palm Beach, where two of her
sisters, one being Lindsay lived atthe time, and Cape Coral, where
two of her brothers and her motherlived. Lindsay eventually made her way across
the state to live in Cape Coral, and Lauren too, ultimately chose to
call Cape Coral home. Cape Coralis a vibrant, family friendly Southwest Florida
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town located near Fort Myers and borderedby the warm waters of the Gulf of
Mexico. It has beautiful white sandbeaches, lush golf courses, and the
ever popular sun splashed family water parkall within its borders. The Cape,
as the locals call it, hasmore than four hundred miles of navigable canals,
(07:27):
some leading right out into Gulf waters. Basically it's its own little island,
and there's even a lot of signsthat say keep it in the Cape.
They want you to dine there,shop there, eat there, stay
there. There is a lot goingon. I mean, like, really,
there's no reason to leave. Therehave been months and months and I
would be like, man, Ihaven't even left Cape Coral and there's just
(07:47):
so much out there. So thenthere's also like the beauty of it.
There are really really really beautiful houses, a million dollar houses on the water.
There's of course a few other badair I want to say. It's
mostly middle class though, And yeah, there's a bunch of canals. They
even say that there is so muchwaterway and canal, so many people get
(08:11):
lost because there'll be like a Southwestfifteenth Street and then Southwest sixteenth Street will
be on the other side of thecanal, so you don't even know how
to get over and back around.It's very confusing. As lovely as Cape
Coral sounds, it also has adark side. And really a lot of
places do if you start peeling backthe layers for a start, it's no
(08:35):
stranger to missing persons, specifically missingwomen. You have your reports of trafficking
drugs and women or worse, there'san undercurrent of the nationwide drug epidemic,
the opioid crisis. Is there heroin, fentinel, cocaine, marijuana, It's
all in a day's work for theLee County Sheriff's office. There are arrest
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records, republic just take a looksometime. There's a theme. Lindsay went
on to tell us about a coworkerof hers who was murdered the previous October
after a night out a random guywho she met out that night. He
killed her and stole her car.He was caught and put behind bars.
And that incident happened just four blocksfrom More Lindsay and Lauren lived at the
(09:16):
time. We found out that nightthat she was murdered in her house.
I swear it's like, you don'treally hear these stories. In such a
beautiful town, you feel like yourwhole world is safe. However, as
far as missing persons cases go,they actually do have a decent track record
of locating people. In fact,the detective who was assigned to Lauren's case
(09:41):
has never failed to solve a missingperson's case. It had never even taken
him this long to find a missingperson until now, until Lauren. Before
we talk about the day Lauren disappeared, let's touch on a few more background
d tales. She most recently movedback to the Cape in twenty sixteen,
(10:03):
and she moved in with her sisterLindsay and her brother Jeffrey. She eventually
moved in with her mom and hermom's boyfriend, Victor. We are going
to refer to her mom as Anne, though that is not her real name.
Anne and Victor had been together forover fifteen years, so as Lauren
reconnected with her mom, she gainedwhat was more like a stepdad who played
(10:24):
an active role in her life.Anne in Victor's two bedrooms, second story
apartment is in a small four unitcomplex and boasts an open floor plan and
private screened in Lenaie. That's sucha Florida word, Lenai. It's on
a quiet, tree lined street calledTarpon Court and is directly across from four
Freedom's Park with a view of theBimini Basin. Waterway. When Lauren moved
(10:48):
in, there was actually another personalready staying there, a man named Gabriel
who goes by Gabby. Gabby andVictor are very good friends and work partners
at a local flooring and interior designcompany. But Lauren already knew Gabby.
She met him a few years backthrough her mother during one of Lauren's previous
moves to Cape Coral, and theywere actually already dating. Unbeknownst to some.
(11:13):
Even her father Paul, didn't knowabout their relationship until two years after
they had been together. It wasn'ttoo long after Lauren moved in with her
mother and Victor that she and Gabbydecided to get their own place together,
and Lauren's brother, Jeffrey, whoalso works for the same company as Victor
and Gabby, moved into that extrabedroom. Lauren and Gabby found a one
(11:35):
bedroom place just a quarter mile downthe road on Coronado Parkway. Lauren took
the apartment in her name. Chaptertwo, The Last Kiss Goodbye. So
let's get back to June nineteenth,the alleged day of Lauren's disappearance. That
morning, Lauren's boyfriend, Gabby sayshe left for work around six thirty am
(11:58):
from their apartment. By Gabby's ownaccount, both to Lauren's family members and
the Cape Coral Police Department, Laurenwas still asleep in their bed when he
was gearing up to leave for work. He kissed her goodbye, left for
work, and that was the lasttime he ever saw her. Lauren usually
started her day around eight am orso with a leisurely walk down the block
(12:20):
to Four Freedoms Park, where shepracticed meditation. Lauren was known for her
meditation ritual. It was truly apart of her being. She meditated so
much that she found like a differentsense. A lot of people will probace
it. It's a little crazy.At this point, there was no reason
to believe her morning on June nineteenthbegan any differently. Four Freedom's Park,
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remember, is the nearby public park, just a block down the road from
her apartment and directly across the streetfrom the front of her mother and Victor's
apartment where she used to live.At first glance, it could be described
as the quintessential Florida park, onthree acres of grassy flat land, bordered
on one side by water overlooking ViminiBasin, complete with boat docks and a
(13:07):
sunbathing beach. Several picnic table areasare scattered throughout the park, and a
large shaded, fenced in playground forchildren of all ages sits in the center.
Its serene and peaceful ambiance provides ampleoptions for meditating locations, like under
a big tree on the sunbathing beach, next to the water, in the
(13:28):
grass, under the warmth of thesun, and so on. The park
isn't totally perfect, though, It'snot without its drug related activities and people
under the influence lurking around, butall in all, it's lovely and was
within walking distance from her home,which was important for Lauren because she didn't
have a car nor a driver's license. She didn't drive. She never even
(13:52):
had a driver's license because she wasafraid to drive after a car accident,
she never got a permit. Themorning of Friday, June nineteenth, a
man who to remain anonymous said hesaw Lauren that morning around eight thirty am.
She appeared to be walking toward herapartment from the direction of four Freedom's
Park. This all seemed to bea perfectly ordinary morning until she wasn't seen
(14:16):
again. Now we'll get into moreabout what happened with Lauren's disappearance. Here's
what we know. On Friday,June nineteenth, Paul, Lauren's dad,
received a phone call from Gabby atten o'clock PM Eastern Standard time, that's
seven PM for Paul in California.Gabby was calling to tell Paul that Lauren
(14:37):
wasn't home and that he was concerned. He thought Paul should know since Paul
was three thousand miles away. Hesuggested trying to get in touch with Anne,
Lauren's mom, to see if shehad heard from her. Remember,
Anne and Victor lived nearby, justdown the road. Lauren's aunt Sue,
who was Anne's sister, found itodd that Abby's conversation with Paul happened prior
(15:01):
to any contact with local family members. And he never even called my sister
to say is Lauren there. Hejust walked in the house and called Paul
right away and said she's missing.Next day I called him back, which
is Saturday morning, and he said, no, she never came home.
I'm at work. I'll call youwant to get home. So my daughter
(15:22):
Cassi called the police department and dida wellness check on Lare on Saturday,
and a policewoman went down there,and then she called me while she was
at the appartment out in front andsaid, listen, I just knocked on
the door. I saw somebody peekingthrough the blinds. I couldn't tell who
it was, but they won't openthe door. So I said, really,
I said, kicked the door.They're like, can't do that,
(15:43):
don't have probable cause. Paul calledGabby Saturday evening around five o'clock PM Eastern
time, and still no one hadheard from Lauren. Gabby told Paul he
had looked for her a couple ofplaces around town after work, but was
unsuccessful. I said, when shegets home tonight, as soon as she
gets today, I'm getting really worried. I expect the phone call immediately from
(16:04):
her. If not for me,it will both of you. He goes,
I'm not gonna be and I'm spendingthe night in my friend's house.
I was like, hold on asecond, I said, the girl you're
supposedly in love with and engaged too, is not I've not been home and
he's missing, and you're not goingto be there or go looking for her
and seeing if she comes home,or look, you're doing anything. You're
going out and hang out with yourfriend. I said, I got a
(16:25):
big problem with all of this.Then Sunday rolled around and still no word
from Lauren. It was Sunday thetwenty first, which is Father's Day,
and my dad called Gabby again andwas like, hey, like did Lauren
come home? Have you heard fromher? And he was like no,
And my dad kind of knew somethinggoes wrong because Lauren didn't call him for
Father's Day and like, Lauren's nota person to miss a holiday, especially
(16:48):
that Father's Day. Like, mysister and my dad have a really good
relationship and they always check in.So at that point, like I had
actually reached out to Victor and Gabbyand asked them, like, can you
please just go file a missing personreport? Like it'll take fifteen minutes.
I'm like, you don't even haveto go there. We can send the
cops to your house and you canjust do it there. So Victor had
like made a big stink about itand was like, yeah, I'm heading
(17:11):
over there now. You know.I can't just jump when everyone asked me
to. And I'm like, Idon't think I'm asking for much like my
sister's missing. I'm just asking youto go, you know, check.
I also didn't know at this pointhow close and proximity they lived, like
two blocks from each other. Iactually got into a really big argument that
day with my mother and with Victorbecause they pretty much made a joke about
(17:36):
her being missing. Victor got tothe house and I was like, okay,
like, was Lareen there? Andhe was like no, And I
was like okay, well, likedid you check thoroughly? Did you check
under the bed, did you checkin the closet, like, did you
check in the bathroom, like,you know, just making sure that they
actually like walked through, they didn'tjust like poke their head and go hey
you here. And then like atthat point, Victor made a joke and
he was like, yeah, Ieven looked in the refrigerator and under the
(17:57):
sink, and I'm like okay,like it's not joves, Like it's not
funny. While Cassie was becoming frustratedwith her mom and Victor, Paul was
becoming equally as frustrated with Gabby.Also that day, Gabby lied to my
father and said that when he gotto Lauren's apartment, he called the police
and they just didn't come and thenmy dad called the police station. They
(18:19):
were like, they never called us, And then we found out is because
Victor said, don't call the police. I don't want to get them involved.
After many words, shall we saywith Paul Gabby did end up filing
a missing person's report in person atthe police station that day. I say,
you're a lion sack shit. Isaid, you have an hour to
(18:40):
get down to do police departm Idon't care if you take a skateboard.
You know you gotta crawl whatever yougot to do. I said, with
an hour, I better have acasier board and I better have a missing
person's report. I want a pictureof it. I want to text it
to me, and I helped thephone and I bound. An hour and
helf later, I got the casenumber and a missing person reported. Here's
Cassie reading the missing person's report asfiled by Gabby that Sunday, June twenty
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first, twenty twenty. This isexactly what he's written. I spend the
night of Thursday with my girlfriend Laurende Molo at Pornato Parkway, Apartment one,
Cape Quarrel. I left to workin the morning. When I returned
around ten pm, she was notthere. I called the police and was
told I have to wait forty eighthours. I received a phone call from
Lauren's dad who wanted me to filea written report because he does not live
(19:27):
in Florida. He wants a casenumber chapter three. They can't unlock the
door without the key. On Tuesday, June twenty third, three days after
she was last seen and before adetective had been assigned to her case,
Lauren's sisters, Cassie and Lindsay,and Lindsay's fiance Matt, traveled to Cape
(19:51):
Coral to see what was going onfor themselves. The two sisters didn't feel
like enough was being done to helpfind Lauren. On Monday, my dad
called Cape Coral Police department and theyhad no update, and they were like,
oh, and the girl that likefiled it isn't here until Wednesday,
so like there's nothing we can dountil then. And then so then I
went down on Tuesday because I gotjust tired of waiting. Like at this
(20:15):
point, like we had not heardfrom more and in like five days,
and a lot of people say likeJune nineteenth, but like I say,
June eighteenth, that's the last timeI had any kind of communication with her.
So then Tuesday comes around and finally, like, I'm sick of waiting
and worrying, So I drove downto Cape Coral and at that time,
Lindsay was still living down there,and I told Lindsey I was coming.
(20:37):
But before I went to like CapeCoral Police department thing, I stopped the
Sheriff's office to see if we couldelevate this to like what we can do
to get people out searching and looking. And at that point they told me,
you know, it's out of theirjurisdiction, and they pretty much told
me like there's nothing that they coulddo at that point. So at that
point I called Lindsay and I waslike, Okay, I'm heading over to
Lauren's house. Can you get thekey from our mother and Victor. As
(21:00):
soon as she arrived in Cape Coral, about an hour drive from Matt's home,
Lindsay and Matt got the spare keysto Lauren's apartment from Anne, who
remember was just down the block.Lindsay and Matt met Cassie, who had
just traveled three hours across the state. We went and got the key from
my mother. My mom was veryadamant about I need that key back.
(21:22):
That's not my key, so Ipicked up the key from my mom.
We searched her apartment. We gotto Lauren's apartment, and then we called
the police to do a well basedcheck. But with all of their nerves
and the anticipation of finding their sister, Lindsay and Cassie could not wait,
and the three of them Cassie,Lindsay, and Matt entered before the police
(21:44):
arrived. There was nothing fascinating inthe apartment. It was uneventful. All
of her work clothes were there,all of her work aprons or work hats
or name tags. It was unremarkable. But then they found something kind of
remarkable. They found a cell phonein the apartment next to the bed,
but it was turned off and wouldn'tpower on. They had no way of
(22:06):
knowing if it was Lauren's, sothey held onto it, intending to give
it to the police later. WhileCassie, Lindsay, and Matt were inside
Lauren's apartment trying to search for cluesand awaiting the Cape Coral police officer Gabby
showed up to the apartment unexpected,unannounced to retrieve his television. One interesting
(22:26):
thing to make note of is thatGabby no longer had his own key to
the apartment. The key that Lindseygot from Anne was Gabby's. According to
Cassie, on one of the occasionsshe spoke with Victor, he told her
that Gabby on Sunday, after leavingLauren's apartment, after his words with Paul
(22:47):
and after Lauren had been missing fortwo days, gave his key to Victor
and said I'm done with this.And then a few days later he showed
up to the apartment when people werethere and it was unlocked. Gabriel pulls
in. We're like, hey,what are you doing here? And that's
when he goes, oh, I'mjust gonna grab my TV because obviously she's
(23:10):
not coming back. But since Gabbybrought up the topic of electronics, they
wanted to know whose cell phone theyfound. Remember it wouldn't turn on.
Matt was like, hey, whosephone is this? And so Gabriel took
it, walked into the apartment,and then walked out with a different phone
which was working, which was Lawrence'sphone. Gabriel handed it to me and
I'm like, this is Lauren's phone, which I knew it was her phone
(23:33):
because when I was at her houseon the thirteenth. We had video called
with her daughter, so like,I know it was her phone. It
was also logged into her Facebook.It was lauded into her Facebook Messenger.
It was lauded into her emails.It was lauded into Gabriel's emails that were
all deleted. It was also laudedto his Facebook, but apparently he doesn't
really use it. So then whenGabriel walked back in again his TV,
Matt was like, that's not eventhe right phone. That's not the same
(23:55):
phone. It just had that one'son. The other one wasn't on.
So while Gabriel walked in and Iwalked him behind him and took the other
phone as well, so it tooktwo phones, and then the police arrived.
What Cassie seems to be saying isthat it seems like Gabby either showed
up with Lauren's phone or he knewexactly where it was in the apartment and
(24:15):
Cassie, Lindsay, and Matt hadoverlooked it at the same time Gabby was
there. The police showed up forthe official wellness check. There was no
sign of fourth entry, nothing suspiciousor out of place except for that cell
phone and the other cell phone,both of which Cassie held onto for safe
keeping. She wasn't about to letthem go until a dedicated detective was assigned
(24:40):
to the case and there was somethingelse Cassie wanted to hold on too.
I told him not to give thatkey back because I want I was going
to be there in the next day. I wanted onto that apartment so electively
key back to the mother. Shesaid, yeah. Mom called me,
wanted it back, and I calledher, no, I'm keeping it.
She said I couldn't because it wasGabby's key. Let's go back to the
(25:00):
phones for a moment. Cassie nowhad both cell phones, the one they
found plugged in next to the bedthat wouldn't turn on, and the one
Gabby handed them that was definitely Lauren'sthat was turned on. The one Cassie
knew for sure was Lauren's worked onlyon WiFi, but Lauren took it with
her everywhere. Lauren would never leaveher house without her phone because anywhere you
(25:23):
go now like there's always Wi Fi. Like you can go to McDonald's,
you can go to like a grocerystore and you can connect to their WiFi.
And there are other uses for aphone, like taking pictures posting on
social media. Lauren posted on Facebookalmost daily. She had posted a picture
of herself in a bathing suit froma couple of years ago, and then
(25:47):
poof, she went off social media. I almost feel like she went off
the grid. Lindsay is referring toLauren's last Facebook post she ever made on
Thursday, June eighteenth. Cassie reallywanted to know if there were any clues
on Lauren's working phone, but unfortunatelyit wasn't the treasure trove she wanted.
This phone she had only been usingsince June eighth I was able to look
(26:11):
in her conversations on like Facebook,Messenger, old text messages, like old
ones, because this is an oldphone, so like anything that was saved
previously. She didn't have a lotin this phone, like maybe ten fifteen
photos. There really wasn't a lotto look into. From what Cassie was
able to see, the cell phonehistory did indicate a Facebook message to Gabby
(26:34):
and a video call from Lauren toGabby at ten am on June nineteenth.
There was no activity on her phoneafter that ten am unanswered Facebook call and
Gabby he insisted that he never receivedthat call. On Wednesday, June twenty
fourth, three days since she wasreported missing by Gabby, five days since
(26:56):
she was last seen, and sixdays since she had communicated with her family
and posted on social media, adetective was finally assigned to Lauren's case.
It seems that in addition to Gabby'sdelay, there was a clerical error at
the police station that had also delayedthe paperwork. The unfortunate thing about it
is that it was now seventy twohours after Lauren's disappearance was reported, one
(27:22):
hundred twenty hours since she was reportedlylast seen, and one hundred forty four
hours since her last contact with familyand friends. With missing persons cases,
the first forty eight hours are themost critical. There was a lot of
ground to make up. Detective NickJones took on Lauren's case and was and
still is, the main man incharge of the investigation. He told a
(27:45):
local news station that he's quote nevernot found a missing person. Cassie met
up with Detective Jones at the CapeCoral police station and brought him up to
speed on what had happened since theday Lauren and went missing. She then
handed over both cell phones. Atthat point, Detective Jones bumped up Lauren's
(28:07):
case from missing to missing and endangered. The and endangered is added when someone
leaves without their worldly possessions, asif intending to return home the fact that
Lauren's cell phone was left behind wasalarming. This is not Lauren, This
is not her m She would neverever just disappear and go months without speaking
(28:33):
to her family, without reaching outto her friends, without contact with her
daughter. Absolutely not never. Itwould never happen. That evening Paul Demolo
arrived from California. He needed answers, and he wanted them now. I'm
not going to stop until I findout what happened to my daughter. On
(28:56):
the next complicit, the search forLauren is on. There was a sheriff
boat in the water with a diveron it. There were like two other
cop boats in the water with diverson it. There was a big van
that said Cape arl Police Department diveTeam. There was a sheriff's truck.
He said. I went to acouple of stores on the way home and
stopped to see if she was inthere. I even looked under the bridge.
(29:19):
I was like, what does thatmean? Dude, clues begin to
mysteriously appear. What was so bizarreto me? It's like, how did
we miss this? Before? There'sa shirt Clear's day. The case hits
the local media and the community rallies. She was a local girl in Cape
Quarrel and I just felt compelled togo to the search. But where is
(29:40):
Lauren Demolo? Thanks for listening toComplicit, a true mystery podcast about the
disappearance of Lauren Demola. If youhave any information about the disappearance of Lauren
Demol, please call one eight hundredseven eight zero tips that's one eight hundred
(30:04):
seven eight zero eight four seven seven, or go to www dot capcops dot
com slash tips, or you cantext a tip to crimes that's two seven
four six three seven. Tips canbe left anonymously and there is a reward
currently being offered for information leading toan arrest. Be sure to subscribe for
(30:29):
future episodes and continued developments in Lauren'scase. For additional information you won't hear
and can't see on the podcast,visit our website at Complicit dash podcast dot
com. Also, be sure tofollow us on social media on Facebook at
Complicit Podcast, on Twitter at ComplicitUnderscore Pod and on Instagram at Complicit Underscore
(30:52):
Podcast. Complicit is a production ofSeventh Guest Productions and produced by Resonate RECORDINGSSSS.
Lauren Demolo vanished without a trace onJune nineteenth. Police called Demolo's disappearance suspicious.
Lauren de Molo was last seen morethan a week ago at her Cape
Coral apartment, and police believe she'sin danger. Where is Lauren Demolo?
I'm Hilary Wadsworth and I'm Caitlin Bodyand you're listening to Complicit. This is
(00:30):
the story of Lauren de Moolo.She's been missing since June nineteenth, twenty
twenty. Well, it could havebeen June eighteenth, but we'll get to
that. The circumstances around Lauren's disappearancehave baffled her family, her friends,
even the detectives who've been investigating hercase. What's even more baffling are the
clues we have and how they've cometo light. In this podcast, we'll
(00:54):
walk you through the case as welearned about it, through her family,
through her friends, and through otherswho have firsthand knowledge. As the story
evolves and details, sometimes uncomfortable ones, unfold, we will do our best
to present you with a full picturesurrounding Lauren's disappearance and the notable events leading
up to that fateful day. Chapterone, The Heart of our mystery.
(01:23):
Meet Lauren. She's a stunning fivefoot one hundred pound blonde with bright brown
eyes and a big smile, livingin Cape Coral, Florida. She was
twenty nine at the time of herdisappearance. She turned thirty about a month
after she disappeared, but wasn't aroundto celebrate with family and friends. Lauren
was close with her family, specificallyher dad Paul, her aunt Sue,
(01:44):
and her two sisters, Cassie andLindsay. My name is Paul, and
Lauren was my oldest daughter. Iam Lauren's aunt Sue, so I am
Susanne, but everybody knows me asAunt Sue. I am Cassie. I
am mourn de Molo's sister. Mourenis my old her sister by thirteen months.
We have the same mother and father. My name is Lindsay. I
(02:05):
am Lauren's half sister, so weboth have the same mother and we have
different fathers. But I've known herobviously my whole life. Lauren is by
all accounts, a bubbly outgoing thereto help a friend in need kind of
girl. She's a hard working singlemother who, despite having fallen on some
hard times. We'll get to thosetwo. She always manages to pick herself
(02:29):
up, smile and carry on.Always had a smile on her face.
She was always very outgoing, veryhappy. She would probably give you a
shirt off a back, you know, without a doubt, she give you
a last dollar in a pocket.Lauren always had a smile on her faith.
She just looked very approachable. Shewas happy, and she was always
smiling. Lauren. She was vibrantand brought the laughter. That laugh,
(02:53):
I just keep re hearing that laughover and over again. She had the
best laugh. You always felt herpresence. She's always so happy. She's
the sunshine. She was just oneof those type of people that always brightening
somebody else's day and you know,never really judged anybody in was very outgoing,
(03:14):
but then sometimes naive at the sametime, she trusted too much.
If you watch the news and youhear anything about her and they say she's
all about Namas day and relaxing lifeand keys, like that's what she was
all about. Like she wanted nothingmore than to feel energy, bring in
(03:36):
energy like she's really really sweet.Lauren really was into finding positive energy in
everything, so much so that shecemented her dedication to this lifestyle by tattooing
the word Namas Day in large printdown the entire side of her torso.
In addition to her family, Lauren'sclose friend Erica shows us another side of
(03:59):
her personality. Lauren is a veryvery dear friend of mine. She's very
forgetful. Paused to drive me nuts. She would like if I came to
pick her up, she'd get inmy car and she'd like, wait,
where's my sunglasses. I'm like,Lauren, they're on your head. She's
from New York, so she hasthis New York accent. She can speak
(04:19):
completely normally if she gets excited orshe's like telling a story. She's very
animated when she like talks, andshe uses her hands a lot. You
know, her accent comes out soheavily and it's just so funny. She
even writes in her accent in herFacebook posts like I'm quote out to dinner
(04:43):
spelled d I N n A.She's just the most loving, caring woman
you know, and selfless is agood word. I consider her family,
I consider her sister to me.In her early twenties, Lauren was living
in Staten Island, New York,when she decided she was ready for a
change. She moved to Florida,where two of her sisters, two of
(05:06):
her brothers, and her mother wereliving. They wanted her to join them.
New York had been good to Lauren, it would always be in her
blood, but it was time fora new start. We all convinced her
to move down to Florida because shedidn't have a lot of family. I'm
north. Her and Cassie we bothconvinced to move down to Florida, and
(05:27):
they were both willing and eager.We were all younger, and we didn't
have any kids at the time,and we just went out and partied a
little bit, and yeah, wehad our fun in our twenties. Felt
like I got my sister back.They really wanted to get to know their
mother again, our mother. Ieven want to say, anywhere between five
and seven years that they hadn't reconnected, and they were all excited about reconnecting
(05:55):
with the whole family. It hadactually been eleven years since Lauren had connected
with her mother. Cassie too.For that matter. A divorce and custody
agreement awarded Paul full custody of thegirls. Their mother moved down to Florida,
started Anew and Paul stayed up north. That was it. And now
she never once contacted them for likeeleven or years or twelve years. Nothing.
(06:18):
There was nothing, no communication,no contact, nothing. And then
when my daughters, you know,Lauren and Cassie were like eighteen seventeen or
eighteen and nineteen, you know,they asked if they could talk to you,
contact their mother. I was like, yeah, go ahead. Lindsay
and their other siblings did keep intouch, but living so far away,
it was harder for them to havea close relationship. Once her move to
(06:40):
Florida was official, Lauren toggled betweenWest Palm Beach, where two of her
sisters, one being Lindsay lived atthe time, and Cape Coral, where
two of her brothers and her motherlived. Lindsay eventually made her way across
the state to live in Cape Coral, and Lauren too, ultimately chose to
call Cape Coral home. Cape Coralis a vibrant, family friendly Southwest Florida
(07:05):
town located near Fort Myers and borderedby the warm waters of the Gulf of
Mexico. It has beautiful white sandbeaches, lush golf courses, and the
ever popular sun splashed family water parkall within its borders. The Cape,
as the locals call it, hasmore than four hundred miles of navigable canals,
(07:27):
some leading right out into Gulf waters. Basically it's its own little island,
and there's even a lot of signsthat say keep it in the Cape.
They want you to dine there,shop there, eat there, stay
there. There is a lot goingon. I mean, like, really,
there's no reason to leave. Therehave been months and months and I
would be like, man, Ihaven't even left Cape Coral and there's just
(07:47):
so much out there. So thenthere's also like the beauty of it.
There are really really really beautiful houses, a million dollar houses on the water.
There's of course a few other badair I want to say. It's
mostly middle class though, And yeah, there's a bunch of canals. They
even say that there is so muchwaterway and canal, so many people get
(08:11):
lost because there'll be like a Southwestfifteenth Street and then Southwest sixteenth Street will
be on the other side of thecanal, so you don't even know how
to get over and back around.It's very confusing. As lovely as Cape
Coral sounds, it also has adark side. And really a lot of
places do if you start peeling backthe layers for a start, it's no
(08:35):
stranger to missing persons, specifically missingwomen. You have your reports of trafficking
drugs and women or worse, there'san undercurrent of the nationwide drug epidemic,
the opioid crisis. Is there heroin, fentinel, cocaine, marijuana, It's
all in a day's work for theLee County Sheriff's office. There are arrest
(08:56):
records, republic just take a looksometime. There's a theme. Lindsay went
on to tell us about a coworkerof hers who was murdered the previous October
after a night out a random guywho she met out that night. He
killed her and stole her car.He was caught and put behind bars.
And that incident happened just four blocksfrom More Lindsay and Lauren lived at the
(09:16):
time. We found out that nightthat she was murdered in her house.
I swear it's like, you don'treally hear these stories. In such a
beautiful town, you feel like yourwhole world is safe. However, as
far as missing persons cases go,they actually do have a decent track record
of locating people. In fact,the detective who was assigned to Lauren's case
(09:41):
has never failed to solve a missingperson's case. It had never even taken
him this long to find a missingperson until now, until Lauren. Before
we talk about the day Lauren disappeared, let's touch on a few more background
d tales. She most recently movedback to the Cape in twenty sixteen,
(10:03):
and she moved in with her sisterLindsay and her brother Jeffrey. She eventually
moved in with her mom and hermom's boyfriend, Victor. We are going
to refer to her mom as Anne, though that is not her real name.
Anne and Victor had been together forover fifteen years, so as Lauren
reconnected with her mom, she gainedwhat was more like a stepdad who played
(10:24):
an active role in her life.Anne in Victor's two bedrooms, second story
apartment is in a small four unitcomplex and boasts an open floor plan and
private screened in Lenaie. That's sucha Florida word, Lenai. It's on
a quiet, tree lined street calledTarpon Court and is directly across from four
Freedom's Park with a view of theBimini Basin. Waterway. When Lauren moved
(10:48):
in, there was actually another personalready staying there, a man named Gabriel
who goes by Gabby. Gabby andVictor are very good friends and work partners
at a local flooring and interior designcompany. But Lauren already knew Gabby.
She met him a few years backthrough her mother during one of Lauren's previous
moves to Cape Coral, and theywere actually already dating. Unbeknownst to some.
(11:13):
Even her father Paul, didn't knowabout their relationship until two years after
they had been together. It wasn'ttoo long after Lauren moved in with her
mother and Victor that she and Gabbydecided to get their own place together,
and Lauren's brother, Jeffrey, whoalso works for the same company as Victor
and Gabby, moved into that extrabedroom. Lauren and Gabby found a one
(11:35):
bedroom place just a quarter mile downthe road on Coronado Parkway. Lauren took
the apartment in her name. Chaptertwo, The Last Kiss Goodbye. So
let's get back to June nineteenth,the alleged day of Lauren's disappearance. That
morning, Lauren's boyfriend, Gabby sayshe left for work around six thirty am
(11:58):
from their apartment. By Gabby's ownaccount, both to Lauren's family members and
the Cape Coral Police Department, Laurenwas still asleep in their bed when he
was gearing up to leave for work. He kissed her goodbye, left for
work, and that was the lasttime he ever saw her. Lauren usually
started her day around eight am orso with a leisurely walk down the block
(12:20):
to Four Freedoms Park, where shepracticed meditation. Lauren was known for her
meditation ritual. It was truly apart of her being. She meditated so
much that she found like a differentsense. A lot of people will probace
it. It's a little crazy.At this point, there was no reason
to believe her morning on June nineteenthbegan any differently. Four Freedom's Park,
(12:43):
remember, is the nearby public park, just a block down the road from
her apartment and directly across the streetfrom the front of her mother and Victor's
apartment where she used to live.At first glance, it could be described
as the quintessential Florida park, onthree acres of grassy flat land, bordered
on one side by water overlooking ViminiBasin, complete with boat docks and a
(13:07):
sunbathing beach. Several picnic table areasare scattered throughout the park, and a
large shaded, fenced in playground forchildren of all ages sits in the center.
Its serene and peaceful ambiance provides ampleoptions for meditating locations, like under
a big tree on the sunbathing beach, next to the water, in the
(13:28):
grass, under the warmth of thesun, and so on. The park
isn't totally perfect, though, It'snot without its drug related activities and people
under the influence lurking around, butall in all, it's lovely and was
within walking distance from her home,which was important for Lauren because she didn't
have a car nor a driver's license. She didn't drive. She never even
(13:52):
had a driver's license because she wasafraid to drive after a car accident,
she never got a permit. Themorning of Friday, June nineteenth, a
man who to remain anonymous said hesaw Lauren that morning around eight thirty am.
She appeared to be walking toward herapartment from the direction of four Freedom's
Park. This all seemed to bea perfectly ordinary morning until she wasn't seen
(14:16):
again. Now we'll get into moreabout what happened with Lauren's disappearance. Here's
what we know. On Friday,June nineteenth, Paul, Lauren's dad,
received a phone call from Gabby atten o'clock PM Eastern Standard time, that's
seven PM for Paul in California.Gabby was calling to tell Paul that Lauren
(14:37):
wasn't home and that he was concerned. He thought Paul should know since Paul
was three thousand miles away. Hesuggested trying to get in touch with Anne,
Lauren's mom, to see if shehad heard from her. Remember,
Anne and Victor lived nearby, justdown the road. Lauren's aunt Sue,
who was Anne's sister, found itodd that Abby's conversation with Paul happened prior
(15:01):
to any contact with local family members. And he never even called my sister
to say is Lauren there. Hejust walked in the house and called Paul
right away and said she's missing.Next day I called him back, which
is Saturday morning, and he said, no, she never came home.
I'm at work. I'll call youwant to get home. So my daughter
(15:22):
Cassi called the police department and dida wellness check on Lare on Saturday,
and a policewoman went down there,and then she called me while she was
at the appartment out in front andsaid, listen, I just knocked on
the door. I saw somebody peekingthrough the blinds. I couldn't tell who
it was, but they won't openthe door. So I said, really,
I said, kicked the door.They're like, can't do that,
(15:43):
don't have probable cause. Paul calledGabby Saturday evening around five o'clock PM Eastern
time, and still no one hadheard from Lauren. Gabby told Paul he
had looked for her a couple ofplaces around town after work, but was
unsuccessful. I said, when shegets home tonight, as soon as she
gets today, I'm getting really worried. I expect the phone call immediately from
(16:04):
her. If not for me,it will both of you. He goes,
I'm not gonna be and I'm spendingthe night in my friend's house.
I was like, hold on asecond, I said, the girl you're
supposedly in love with and engaged too, is not I've not been home and
he's missing, and you're not goingto be there or go looking for her
and seeing if she comes home,or look, you're doing anything. You're
going out and hang out with yourfriend. I said, I got a
(16:25):
big problem with all of this.Then Sunday rolled around and still no word
from Lauren. It was Sunday thetwenty first, which is Father's Day,
and my dad called Gabby again andwas like, hey, like did Lauren
come home? Have you heard fromher? And he was like no,
And my dad kind of knew somethinggoes wrong because Lauren didn't call him for
Father's Day and like, Lauren's nota person to miss a holiday, especially
(16:48):
that Father's Day. Like, mysister and my dad have a really good
relationship and they always check in.So at that point, like I had
actually reached out to Victor and Gabbyand asked them, like, can you
please just go file a missing personreport? Like it'll take fifteen minutes.
I'm like, you don't even haveto go there. We can send the
cops to your house and you canjust do it there. So Victor had
like made a big stink about itand was like, yeah, I'm heading
(17:11):
over there now. You know.I can't just jump when everyone asked me
to. And I'm like, Idon't think I'm asking for much like my
sister's missing. I'm just asking youto go, you know, check.
I also didn't know at this pointhow close and proximity they lived, like
two blocks from each other. Iactually got into a really big argument that
day with my mother and with Victorbecause they pretty much made a joke about
(17:36):
her being missing. Victor got tothe house and I was like, okay,
like, was Lareen there? Andhe was like no, And I
was like okay, well, likedid you check thoroughly? Did you check
under the bed, did you checkin the closet, like, did you
check in the bathroom, like,you know, just making sure that they
actually like walked through, they didn'tjust like poke their head and go hey
you here. And then like atthat point, Victor made a joke and
he was like, yeah, Ieven looked in the refrigerator and under the
(17:57):
sink, and I'm like okay,like it's not joves, Like it's not
funny. While Cassie was becoming frustratedwith her mom and Victor, Paul was
becoming equally as frustrated with Gabby.Also that day, Gabby lied to my
father and said that when he gotto Lauren's apartment, he called the police
and they just didn't come and thenmy dad called the police station. They
(18:19):
were like, they never called us, And then we found out is because
Victor said, don't call the police. I don't want to get them involved.
After many words, shall we saywith Paul Gabby did end up filing
a missing person's report in person atthe police station that day. I say,
you're a lion sack shit. Isaid, you have an hour to
(18:40):
get down to do police departm Idon't care if you take a skateboard.
You know you gotta crawl whatever yougot to do. I said, with
an hour, I better have acasier board and I better have a missing
person's report. I want a pictureof it. I want to text it
to me, and I helped thephone and I bound. An hour and
helf later, I got the casenumber and a missing person reported. Here's
Cassie reading the missing person's report asfiled by Gabby that Sunday, June twenty
(19:03):
first, twenty twenty. This isexactly what he's written. I spend the
night of Thursday with my girlfriend Laurende Molo at Pornato Parkway, Apartment one,
Cape Quarrel. I left to workin the morning. When I returned
around ten pm, she was notthere. I called the police and was
told I have to wait forty eighthours. I received a phone call from
Lauren's dad who wanted me to filea written report because he does not live
(19:27):
in Florida. He wants a casenumber chapter three. They can't unlock the
door without the key. On Tuesday, June twenty third, three days after
she was last seen and before adetective had been assigned to her case,
Lauren's sisters, Cassie and Lindsay,and Lindsay's fiance Matt, traveled to Cape
(19:51):
Coral to see what was going onfor themselves. The two sisters didn't feel
like enough was being done to helpfind Lauren. On Monday, my dad
called Cape Coral Police department and theyhad no update, and they were like,
oh, and the girl that likefiled it isn't here until Wednesday,
so like there's nothing we can dountil then. And then so then I
went down on Tuesday because I gotjust tired of waiting. Like at this
(20:15):
point, like we had not heardfrom more and in like five days,
and a lot of people say likeJune nineteenth, but like I say,
June eighteenth, that's the last timeI had any kind of communication with her.
So then Tuesday comes around and finally, like, I'm sick of waiting
and worrying, So I drove downto Cape Coral and at that time,
Lindsay was still living down there,and I told Lindsey I was coming.
(20:37):
But before I went to like CapeCoral Police department thing, I stopped the
Sheriff's office to see if we couldelevate this to like what we can do
to get people out searching and looking. And at that point they told me,
you know, it's out of theirjurisdiction, and they pretty much told
me like there's nothing that they coulddo at that point. So at that
point I called Lindsay and I waslike, Okay, I'm heading over to
Lauren's house. Can you get thekey from our mother and Victor. As
(21:00):
soon as she arrived in Cape Coral, about an hour drive from Matt's home,
Lindsay and Matt got the spare keysto Lauren's apartment from Anne, who
remember was just down the block.Lindsay and Matt met Cassie, who had
just traveled three hours across the state. We went and got the key from
my mother. My mom was veryadamant about I need that key back.
(21:22):
That's not my key, so Ipicked up the key from my mom.
We searched her apartment. We gotto Lauren's apartment, and then we called
the police to do a well basedcheck. But with all of their nerves
and the anticipation of finding their sister, Lindsay and Cassie could not wait,
and the three of them Cassie,Lindsay, and Matt entered before the police
(21:44):
arrived. There was nothing fascinating inthe apartment. It was uneventful. All
of her work clothes were there,all of her work aprons or work hats
or name tags. It was unremarkable. But then they found something kind of
remarkable. They found a cell phonein the apartment next to the bed,
but it was turned off and wouldn'tpower on. They had no way of
(22:06):
knowing if it was Lauren's, sothey held onto it, intending to give
it to the police later. WhileCassie, Lindsay, and Matt were inside
Lauren's apartment trying to search for cluesand awaiting the Cape Coral police officer Gabby
showed up to the apartment unexpected,unannounced to retrieve his television. One interesting
(22:26):
thing to make note of is thatGabby no longer had his own key to
the apartment. The key that Lindseygot from Anne was Gabby's. According to
Cassie, on one of the occasionsshe spoke with Victor, he told her
that Gabby on Sunday, after leavingLauren's apartment, after his words with Paul
(22:47):
and after Lauren had been missing fortwo days, gave his key to Victor
and said I'm done with this.And then a few days later he showed
up to the apartment when people werethere and it was unlocked. Gabriel pulls
in. We're like, hey,what are you doing here? And that's
when he goes, oh, I'mjust gonna grab my TV because obviously she's
(23:10):
not coming back. But since Gabbybrought up the topic of electronics, they
wanted to know whose cell phone theyfound. Remember it wouldn't turn on.
Matt was like, hey, whosephone is this? And so Gabriel took
it, walked into the apartment,and then walked out with a different phone
which was working, which was Lawrence'sphone. Gabriel handed it to me and
I'm like, this is Lauren's phone, which I knew it was her phone
(23:33):
because when I was at her houseon the thirteenth. We had video called
with her daughter, so like,I know it was her phone. It
was also logged into her Facebook.It was lauded into her Facebook Messenger.
It was lauded into her emails.It was lauded into Gabriel's emails that were
all deleted. It was also laudedto his Facebook, but apparently he doesn't
really use it. So then whenGabriel walked back in again his TV,
Matt was like, that's not eventhe right phone. That's not the same
(23:55):
phone. It just had that one'son. The other one wasn't on.
So while Gabriel walked in and Iwalked him behind him and took the other
phone as well, so it tooktwo phones, and then the police arrived.
What Cassie seems to be saying isthat it seems like Gabby either showed
up with Lauren's phone or he knewexactly where it was in the apartment and
(24:15):
Cassie, Lindsay, and Matt hadoverlooked it at the same time Gabby was
there. The police showed up forthe official wellness check. There was no
sign of fourth entry, nothing suspiciousor out of place except for that cell
phone and the other cell phone,both of which Cassie held onto for safe
keeping. She wasn't about to letthem go until a dedicated detective was assigned
(24:40):
to the case and there was somethingelse Cassie wanted to hold on too.
I told him not to give thatkey back because I want I was going
to be there in the next day. I wanted onto that apartment so electively
key back to the mother. Shesaid, yeah. Mom called me,
wanted it back, and I calledher, no, I'm keeping it.
She said I couldn't because it wasGabby's key. Let's go back to the
(25:00):
phones for a moment. Cassie nowhad both cell phones, the one they
found plugged in next to the bedthat wouldn't turn on, and the one
Gabby handed them that was definitely Lauren'sthat was turned on. The one Cassie
knew for sure was Lauren's worked onlyon WiFi, but Lauren took it with
her everywhere. Lauren would never leaveher house without her phone because anywhere you
(25:23):
go now like there's always Wi Fi. Like you can go to McDonald's,
you can go to like a grocerystore and you can connect to their WiFi.
And there are other uses for aphone, like taking pictures posting on
social media. Lauren posted on Facebookalmost daily. She had posted a picture
of herself in a bathing suit froma couple of years ago, and then
(25:47):
poof, she went off social media. I almost feel like she went off
the grid. Lindsay is referring toLauren's last Facebook post she ever made on
Thursday, June eighteenth. Cassie reallywanted to know if there were any clues
on Lauren's working phone, but unfortunatelyit wasn't the treasure trove she wanted.
This phone she had only been usingsince June eighth I was able to look
(26:11):
in her conversations on like Facebook,Messenger, old text messages, like old
ones, because this is an oldphone, so like anything that was saved
previously. She didn't have a lotin this phone, like maybe ten fifteen
photos. There really wasn't a lotto look into. From what Cassie was
able to see, the cell phonehistory did indicate a Facebook message to Gabby
(26:34):
and a video call from Lauren toGabby at ten am on June nineteenth.
There was no activity on her phoneafter that ten am unanswered Facebook call and
Gabby he insisted that he never receivedthat call. On Wednesday, June twenty
fourth, three days since she wasreported missing by Gabby, five days since
(26:56):
she was last seen, and sixdays since she had communicated with her family
and posted on social media, adetective was finally assigned to Lauren's case.
It seems that in addition to Gabby'sdelay, there was a clerical error at
the police station that had also delayedthe paperwork. The unfortunate thing about it
is that it was now seventy twohours after Lauren's disappearance was reported, one
(27:22):
hundred twenty hours since she was reportedlylast seen, and one hundred forty four
hours since her last contact with familyand friends. With missing persons cases,
the first forty eight hours are themost critical. There was a lot of
ground to make up. Detective NickJones took on Lauren's case and was and
still is, the main man incharge of the investigation. He told a
(27:45):
local news station that he's quote nevernot found a missing person. Cassie met
up with Detective Jones at the CapeCoral police station and brought him up to
speed on what had happened since theday Lauren and went missing. She then
handed over both cell phones. Atthat point, Detective Jones bumped up Lauren's
(28:07):
case from missing to missing and endangered. The and endangered is added when someone
leaves without their worldly possessions, asif intending to return home the fact that
Lauren's cell phone was left behind wasalarming. This is not Lauren, This
is not her m She would neverever just disappear and go months without speaking
(28:33):
to her family, without reaching outto her friends, without contact with her
daughter. Absolutely not never. Itwould never happen. That evening Paul Demolo
arrived from California. He needed answers, and he wanted them now. I'm
not going to stop until I findout what happened to my daughter. On
(28:56):
the next complicit, the search forLauren is on. There was a sheriff
boat in the water with a diveron it. There were like two other
cop boats in the water with diverson it. There was a big van
that said Cape arl Police Department diveTeam. There was a sheriff's truck.
He said. I went to acouple of stores on the way home and
stopped to see if she was inthere. I even looked under the bridge.
(29:19):
I was like, what does thatmean? Dude, clues begin to
mysteriously appear. What was so bizarreto me? It's like, how did
we miss this? Before? There'sa shirt Clear's day. The case hits
the local media and the community rallies. She was a local girl in Cape
Quarrel and I just felt compelled togo to the search. But where is
(29:40):
Lauren Demolo? Thanks for listening toComplicit, a true mystery podcast about the
disappearance of Lauren Demola. If youhave any information about the disappearance of Lauren
Demol, please call one eight hundredseven eight zero tips that's one eight hundred
(30:04):
seven eight zero eight four seven seven, or go to www dot capcops dot
com slash tips, or you cantext a tip to crimes that's two seven
four six three seven. Tips canbe left anonymously and there is a reward
currently being offered for information leading toan arrest. Be sure to subscribe for
(30:29):
future episodes and continued developments in Lauren'scase. For additional information you won't hear
and can't see on the podcast,visit our website at Complicit dash podcast dot
com. Also, be sure tofollow us on social media on Facebook at
Complicit Podcast, on Twitter at ComplicitUnderscore Pod and on Instagram at Complicit Underscore
(30:52):
Podcast. Complicit is a production ofSeventh Guest Productions and produced by Resonate RECORDINGSSSS.
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