June 7, 2024 • 36 mins
Summary
Haley, a private investigator specializing in missing persons cases, discusses her work and the challenges she faces. She handles a variety of cases, including cold cases and finding birth parents. Haley emphasizes the importance of time in missing persons cases and the difficulties of finding evidence and witnesses after a long period of time. She also highlights the limitations and dramatization of TV shows about investigations. Haley believes in the integration of intuitive insight and tangible evidence in her work as a medium. She expresses concern about the increasing number of missing children and the lack of awareness and action in addressing child human trafficking.
Keywords
private investigator, missing persons cases, cold cases, birth parents, time factor, evidence, witnesses, TV shows, intuitive insight, tangible evidence, child human trafficking
Takeaways
- Private investigators handle a range of cases, including cold cases and finding birth parents.
- Time is a crucial factor in missing persons cases, and it becomes more difficult to find evidence and witnesses as time passes.
- TV shows about investigations often dramatize the process and leave out the hours of investigative work involved.
- Intuitive insight and tangible evidence can be integrated in investigations, but there is skepticism and stigma around mediums.
- There is a concerning increase in the number of missing children, and more awareness and action are needed to address child human trafficking.
Titles
- Uncovering the Truth: Inside the World of a Private Investigator
- The Time Factor in Missing Persons Cases: Challenges and Solutions
Sound Bites
- "I enjoy being able to bring people closure after so long."
- "TV shows leave out the hours of investigative work that goes into cases."
- "Eyewitness testimony is not always 100% valid, tangible evidence is crucial."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So I'm Haley.
I privately investigate missing personscases, especially.
I'm a medium.
And so I'm kind of changing the narrativeof how private investigations work for
missing persons cases.
I'm taking a huge initiative towards howwe can work better within our justice
system to fix issues within that and otherthings.
(00:22):
And so that's what I do.
OK, so.
I think the audience needs a moment toadjust from everything else they've heard
from this show, but let's take it a stepby step.
And I apologize.
I've got a little bit of a respiratorything.
So I've got a lozenger to help me notcough, but let's take this one bite at a
time.
(00:42):
I agree.
Private investigator.
What kind of jobs do you take?
Who would traditionally come to you?
Of course, you know, maintain privacy, buttry tell us a story to the level that you
can without giving any kind of privateinformation.
So I do everything kind of across theboard from custody battle investigations,
divorce investigations, cheating spouses.
(01:04):
But my specialty is your cold case,missing persons cases.
Those cases where you run into the complexones, typically there's police corruption
or the police don't have the trainingneeded to be able to investigate at the
time and just haven't had the resources.
I actually just got contacted yesterday tofind somebody's birth parents.
(01:28):
They were adopted when they were born andthey want to find their parents.
And so everything across the board is whatI do.
OK, let me drill into this.
So cold case.
What does that mean?
So a cold case is a missing persons casethat's older than five years old.
(01:50):
Prior to a prior to that five year mark,somebody goes missing and for the FBI to
get involved or things like that whereit's just your typical adult goes missing
and the police don't have the resources,they have to ask for those people to come
in.
Once you hit that five year market opensthe doorway for a whole lot more options
(02:11):
within being able to have like FBI chooseto come in and investigate.
There's also the factors of time being afactor and finding people and being a
little bit harder.
But that's what I like about it.
It's what I enjoy about what I do is beingable to bring people closure after so
(02:34):
long.
So, okay, so this is terrible, but fromTV, I know that finding missing people
after a certain amount of time is moredifficult.
Tell us the truth.
What's the reality behind this and whatlies have TV told us?
I guess it depends on what you base it offof.
When you look at shows like Dateline andstuff like that, you run into this simple
(03:00):
issue of how dramatized a lot of it is andthey leave out the
hours of investigative work that goes intoit.
When I first started my first case, Ispent three months, day in, day out, I
mean, countless hours through the night,investigating just to get a basis.
(03:21):
With social media, especially nowadays,things get kind of crazy.
There's conspiracy theories per se forcases even, and they can get a little out
of hand.
when you run into like a rural town in theMidwest, it's a small town and everybody
knows small towns talk and gossip.
(03:41):
And so trying to find any factualinformation is going to be hard.
So you have to seek out those people thatreally do know and we're really there.
I've had a lot of luck, thankfully, injust looking in places people wouldn't
think to look and finding that.
But TV, unless you're watching somethingthat's not a documentary, they're all
(04:01):
pretty...
on point with what they're giving outthere.
I think that there's the nitty gritty ofit that is never going to get shown on
shows like Dateline, but I think it shouldbe shown for those that would like to see
it.
Right.
That's amazing.
I mean, you know, you know, I watch a lotof shows and since I have a science
background, I'm like, you know, that'sbullshit.
(04:22):
So I'm very skeptical about, you know,what people show on TV.
And yet many of these shows have advisorsthat have consultants.
to make sure that the science and the factand the operations behind what are on
these shows to a certain degree arecorrect.
So it looks like, at least in these cases,these consultants are doing a somewhat
good job and they're being listened to.
(04:43):
So that's good news.
So what's the cutoff?
We said that it takes five years beforethese additional options come into play.
But when does it become incredibly hard topursue a missing persons case as opposed
to when's the right time and easy time,quote unquote, if there even is a thing to
do it?
Right.
Well, I mean, the right time would be toprevent these situations, but that's not
(05:07):
going to happen overnight.
I don't think that the world will ever berid of that.
There's people who go missing because theywant to disappear.
I've had a case where he simply just tookoff and everybody was freaking out for
weeks and then they found him.
And he was like, no, I just I wanted to gotake off and do my thing.
I.
(05:29):
As soon as somebody goes missing, I thinkthat it's important to get the word out
there and get in touch with the people whohave that resource available.
For me, it's a little bit different.
I would say after probably that 10 -yearmark is going to be where you're running
into the issues of now you're a decadelater and...
(05:52):
Even a year later, it's hard to be able togo to somebody that maybe would have saw
something and say, Hey, do you rememberthis and have them remember it?
but let alone a decade that's next toimpossible unless somebody has a very,
very good memory.
And we're running into the issues nowadayswhere people aren't remembering things
because everything is so automated.
So there's an aspect of human memory here.
(06:14):
Is there an aspect of physical evidencethat kind of disappears?
Talk to us about the physical evidence,but then also.
You know, on the other hand with socialmedia and videos and everything, is it a
little easier nowadays?
Yes, I think so.
I would say, honestly, when you look atthe social media aspect, you never know
(06:36):
per se somebody went to, so since I'm outin the Midwest, somebody went to a rodeo
and that night disappeared.
There's going to be 300 plus people atthat rodeo who are going to have photos
who are going to have videos.
You might be able to see something in oneof those videos.
and it really just takes diving into itall and looking into it all.
Social media can connect you with peoplethat you would have never guessed would
(07:00):
maybe have some valuable information.
And so that's where that lies with socialmedia.
As for the forensics of things, I'm not aforensic tech.
I'm not super delved into forensics.
I'm currently going to school for mybachelor's of criminal justice on the way
to law school.
And I haven't taken my forensics classyet.
And so I haven't had to worry too muchabout the timeframes for when things are
(07:26):
gonna happen, for when physical evidenceis gonna work anymore.
I do know from years of studying, thedifference is within certain things that
like DNA evidence will always be there ifit's there.
There's a 30 year old frame.
case where there's a man that's beensitting in prison for 30 years for murders
(07:48):
he didn't commit and there's DNA evidencethat they just recently uncovered never
got brought into trial and it still hasthe DNA on it.
And so that's one of those where I don'tunderstand it to its complete
complexities.
I was a math kid, not a science kid.
So.
I mean, but that's amazing, right?
(08:08):
I mean, this whole concept and again, keepme honest here because my knowledge comes
off TV.
But the progress of technology is allowingus to do more and sometimes even open up
these cold cases.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
And you know, it's just like within likewhen you look at eyewitnesses, eyewitness
testimony, pulling somebody from a lineuplike with a rape case, those are not going
(08:34):
to.
be 100 % valid all the time.
So you have to have the tangible physicalDNA evidence.
There's dozens and dozens and dozens ofpeople every single year in the United
States that get exonerated after spendingdecades in prison because somebody thought
that they were this person or somebodydidn't do a good job investigating.
And I think that comes with a lack offunding and a lack of resources for
(08:57):
training and a lack of standard that wehold for our investigators.
As...
And I'm not saying that all investigatorsare bad and aren't doing their jobs by any
means.
But I think that there should be astandard that we need to uphold and not
just do a training once every few years.
This is so true in so many industries.
(09:19):
I mean, you know, everybody obviously doestheir best and they get trained by, you
know, the best person they had availableto them.
And, you know, but not everybody is equal.
And
I think you're right.
There's something about standardizationand bringing the best knowledge, the best
practices, the best tools anddemocratizing that.
(09:40):
So it's, you know, I don't, I wouldn'tblame anyone.
I have a huge respect to everybody ofservice, but not everybody of service is
empowered with the best tools and bestknowledge.
And I think it's really about giving themmore empowerment and also the public,
right?
So this, this isn't only about you alludedto this at the beginning.
It's not only about the people of service.
(10:01):
It's also about the public.
Tell us what the public can do.
We have Amber Alerts, but what can wereally do to make a difference?
So the public, it's funny.
That's actually how I got started onworking missing persons cases.
So Chance Engelbert went missing July 6th,2019 from Gary, Nebraska.
That was my first case that I startedworking and I'm currently working on.
(10:24):
Because of the public, there's a couple ofdifferent pages on Facebook that are
private pages.
where people can talk about their theoriesand talk about these things.
Now this is rural Nebraska.
You don't have a huge population.
I mean, what one city out in Californiahas for their whole city, you have in the
whole state.
(10:44):
These are people that talk to theirneighbors.
You can catch everybody on Sunday afterchurch at the local diner having a cup of
coffee, talking.
And so having that public aspect to it ishuge.
Now, then you run into the problem of anunderstaffed for something of that
magnitude.
(11:07):
Like police force that you can, they'llget a hundred tips in a day right out the
gate.
And you don't know what you need tofollow, what you need to not follow.
And I think that's something where policeforces should be able to, you know,
outsource within like privateinvestigators and have a group of people
throughout the country where.
They're able to look at those tips andthey're able to dig into that.
(11:29):
And I feel like it's so stigmatized wherethe police force, you know, is the police
force and they're not going to do that.
Yeah.
Search and rush search and rescue willcome out.
Emergency services will come out.
These big corporations and big foundationsthat they have, they'll come out.
But even like, gosh, what are they?
(11:49):
I can't think of the name of them rightnow.
And that's adventures with a purpose.
That's who I was thinking of.
They go out and they'll find, you know,they'll find vehicles that went missing
with these people decades and decades anddecades ago, perfectly preserved in the
water except for the rest and be able tofind these missing people.
And it's beautiful to see that I am soinspired by what those guys do.
(12:13):
And it's just something where I think thatthere needs to be almost like a network of
where everybody can talk about thesethings because you don't have that.
option.
And now with social media, you can maybefind these people.
But getting in contact as a privateinvestigator isn't the easiest getting in
contact as a civilian isn't even theeasiest.
(12:35):
What is contributing to that difficulty ofyour work when it comes to talking to
people and asking questions?
I mean, I can imagine that give us thefirst hand scoop.
I mean, so cost of travel is insane.
cost of gas, cost of plane tickets.
That's insane.
And for me, I don't charge my families.
(12:56):
I don't charge my loved ones.
So that funding has to come fromsomewhere.
Now, if they want to contribute to it, byall means, please do.
But any traveling that I've done for anyof my cases, I brand GoFundMe is for.
To be able to afford the travel, and I'mstill contributing a few hundred dollars
out of pocket.
I think that one of the biggest issueswhen you get there is...
(13:21):
you have it kind of set how you want to goabout it, but you're going to run into the
issue where people aren't expecting you toshow up and ask questions.
And in cases where somebody has beenmissing for 10 years from a tiny little
rural town, you start asking questions andme, like I'm a female and going into a
situation like that, you know, on my ownis never a safe situation because of the
(13:45):
world that we live in today.
And that's...
hardest part because you can't call thepolice force and say hey you know can we
work together on this it's very rare thatyou're able to find that and it's so
disheartening as a private investigator iwould love more than anything to be able
to work with these police forces and sayhey this is what i do like i i don't care
(14:06):
why it is that you're not being able tofind these people on your own i want to
help and let's work together on this and ireally hope that that's able to change one
day honestly
And when you come and you're talking tobasically the community and you're asking
questions, they always just jump on andthey're always helpful.
Or is there any barriers?
(14:29):
I think that people have a lot ofspeculation.
Like I said, I deal with a lot of thecomplex cases, the cases where you have
dozens of different things and dozens ofstories going on and people who aren't
talking.
I'm fortunate enough that with
being a medium and having that otheraspect to it and kind of integrating the
(14:53):
two things that nobody's really integratedbefore.
Some people have, but a lot of the peoplewho have tried are not proving that
they're able to do this.
And so people are skeptical and that's theissue I run into.
I don't know about other privateinvestigators out there, but for me being
a medium and basing myself on my intuitiveinsight, my guidance, my channels, the
(15:16):
things that I'm getting,
from the other side as well as thetangible evidence in front of me and being
able to follow along with my tangibleevidence with what I'm getting channel
wise and put those two together and linethem up and say, okay, I know this, I know
this, this is irrefutable.
And putting that all together can be alittle difficult.
It's worked to my advantage though too.
(15:37):
I've been able to interview a few peoplethat nobody else had gotten to interview
in years of somebody being missing becauseI was like, you know.
I get it, you don't want to talk to justwhoever, you don't want stuff to go out on
social media.
What if we did a terror ring?
What if we sat down and you could see foryourself that I'm not here to create an
issue for you, like total privacy for you.
(16:00):
I will give you an insight into what I do.
So you can see that I'm really just tryingto help find these people.
And it's worked out wonders for me.
It's brought wonders for cases for me.
That's amazing.
You know, I, I'm a big believer that magicis just science we don't understand.
And I don't know if it's offensive to callmediums magic or not, but this concept of
(16:22):
that there's a lot of stuff we don't know.
I am a true skeptic.
I'm a very hardcore science math person,but I acknowledge that there are limits to
my own knowledge and there are limits tothe knowledge of science.
And in fact, I teach my children thatscience is the art of figuring out what is
wrong and what we don't know.
It's not the art of saying, this is whatwe know and it's correct.
(16:51):
Sorry, the gift from this respiratoryvirus, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
If I'm not sucking these lozenges and withtea, I just can't talk.
Are you doing herbal tea?
I am.
I've got an herbal tea and this is likethe Coca -Cola thing.
It's all very helpful.
And I don't have the virus anymore, butthis is just the lung damage that I've
(17:15):
sustained.
Yeah, I know a bunch of people that havejust some respiratory infection going on.
And so no, it could be a gift from COVIDor the vaccine or who knows, right?
The doctors, the science is out, right?
They're figuring it out right now.
We no longer call it the flu or a simplecold is basically where we're at.
Right.
Right.
Right.
It's it's yeah, it is what it is.
(17:37):
Right.
So, I mean, this is this is just amazing.
And I didn't want to a lot of times I'llstop my my, you know, like, wait, hold on.
But.
I wanted to let you get through that, butI was on the edge of my seat to stop you
and say, well, hold on.
What do you mean you don't ask for money?
Let's let's do that now.
Yeah, I know.
(17:58):
I asked myself that constantly.
But when I first started this, I mean, Ihad no investigative background.
I was just somebody that felt compelledthat I needed to do a terror reading for a
case that I followed since the daysomebody I've known in life went missing.
And it just happened overnight.
And that's this magic that you talk about.
(18:21):
It's I mean, that's it.
It's kind of how that thing happens.
I mean, with how we got connected throughalliances, alliances happened to me and I
don't even understand how, you know, Iblame it on the higher power for sure.
But I guess for me, it didn't feel rightto charge.
It still doesn't.
(18:42):
It's something that.
I think growing up in South Dakota,waving, I drive.
And every time I drive past somebody, nowgranted in Sioux Falls I don't, in bigger
cities I don't, but when I'm driving onthe highway and I see somebody, it's a
wave and a smile.
When I walk up my stairs and a neighbor'soutside, it's a wave and a smile.
That's the beautiful thing about SouthDakota and why so many people love it out
(19:04):
here is because of our hospitality andjust neighborly ways of being, I guess you
could say.
And so for me, it just didn't feel right.
You know, I'm...
want to be able to provide that closurefor somebody and provide that relief for
somebody.
And if my gifts are going to be the onesdoing that, that's amazing.
Now, getting the funding to do that at thetime, mind you, I just turned 21 when I
(19:30):
started this.
Yeah, I just turned 21.
And so so last year, basically.
Yeah, but it'll be two years thisDecember.
And so.
I was I was giving you a compliment.
You have 23 now.
I'll be 23 in December.
You are young to be in this type ofbusiness.
my God.
Yeah, I am there and I found my lifepassion doing it.
(19:51):
I have no doubt.
Okay, hold on.
Let me stop you this one.
Okay.
So, so look, you've got to make a livingsomehow.
Is there, is there like when you find likewhat's the, is it just the go fund me's or
once you find the person, the families,are they very generous?
Like, I mean, you can't just do this forfree forever.
(20:11):
I agree.
And so that's why I offer like mymediumship services.
I do tarot readings.
I do astrological chart readings.
I do chakra cleansing, openingactivations.
I do distance energy healings.
I do, you know, I do all of that.
And then on top of that, any otherinvestigations that aren't for missing
persons or for an Amber alert, those arecharged.
(20:34):
There are charges for those.
I'm not gonna jump into just anyinvestigation for free.
missing persons is a little bit differentfor me and I don't know why is I don't
know exactly why it was yet.
I think it's just no I I get it I get it.
I have been very lucky to not have youknow that kind of issue impacting
(20:55):
personally but without getting toopolitical a lot of my friends are in that
situation right now but that's all I'llsay on the topic.
So as I said, I'm a skeptic, but when youtell me that you're using quote unquote
unexplained science in conjunction with avery, very serious activity, and you're
(21:19):
not taking money in order to do that, itlowers my barriers.
I wouldn't say it makes me a believer, butit makes me very curious is what I would
say.
So go ahead.
Go ahead.
I was going to say, like, if you reallywant to ever explore into
just kind of where like how energy works.
(21:40):
When you're talking in a spiritual magicalessence, like I'm more than happy to it's
as simple as we ground ourselves.
I ask if I can come in and I can just giveyou a little push of my energy and you'll
be able to feel that energy come in andit's unexplainable by science.
You can't explain how you're where you'reat and I'm across, you know, the country
(22:04):
or the world or wherever I am.
and you're getting this energy fromsomebody and it's able to do what it's
able to do.
That's why I do the distance energyhealings.
It's honestly something I don't think thatwhere our cognitive line sits to where we
just can't go any higher for a cognitiveunderstanding unless you are somebody
(22:24):
that's just got the blood of that whereyou've grown up with that.
It's really hard to understand.
I would agree that it's genetic.
I would agree that people who have specialabilities that they themselves maybe can't
explain.
I think it is genetic and I think it isspecial abilities.
I think it's just magic that'sunexplained.
And I think there are some explanationsthat we can give such as superhuman
(22:49):
intuitiveness, right?
The ability to catch on to...
you know, maybe a facial expression ormaybe a thing or maybe combine information
on somebody's background or words orcombination or just things that we can't
really understand as a science yet.
And that gives you maybe tips.
So that's the way as a, you know, as a, asa non, you know, as a non -believer,
right, as a skeptic, that's the way Iexplain these phenomenal abilities that,
(23:14):
you know, no, this person is gifted,gifted in a way.
And, you know, I see this, I see this onmy daughter.
How, how do you explain my, like my son?
He is incredibly intelligent, math,sciences.
Everybody loves my daughter.
Every day she gets three to four calls tocome and do a play date, to come over.
(23:35):
And she's 10.
Like how does a 10 year old become superextraordinarily social?
There's some gift that she has that allowsher to execute flawlessly what hordes of
salespeople wish they could do, right?
And she's 10 and she's like the best.
She doesn't use it to sell, but I mean, Ilook at her and she's the best salesperson
(23:56):
I've ever seen in the world.
And she didn't get that from me or mywife.
So, no, I joke.
My wife is amazing.
People love her.
But I think it is.
It's something in the, I think it issomething in the blood.
I truly do believe that.
Let me, let me go ahead.
Go ahead.
I was just going to say like, and inmatters of that, there's, and this is just
(24:18):
a little like off topic.
And so I just want it like,
throw this in there because I just had aconversation about this yesterday.
You see a lot of addicts and alcoholics,especially in the United States, who have
these spiritual capabilities.
And because it's so profound and there'ssuch a negative stigma, when I say the
word medium, you immediately think thatI'm going to sit in front of a crowd and
(24:42):
throw out a letter until somebody makes afacial expression.
And there's such a negative stigma aroundit that there's not a whole
you know, now with social media, now that,you know, it's 2024, in the last three
years, there's been this huge, like,opening up to understanding, and more
people kind of talking about it andwanting to know about it, wanting to talk
(25:02):
about it, be like, hey, me too.
But before that, you'd run into the issuesof you wouldn't have anybody where you
could really talk to about that, andpeople would tell you you're crazy.
I don't want to know the amount of peoplethat have gone to like,
a hospital or a psychiatrist to say whatis wrong with me because I don't
understand this.
I don't have the resources to understandthis.
(25:22):
And they've said, you're having psychosisepisodes.
You need to go to a loony bin.
And they really weren't loony or theydidn't need to get put on medication.
They just needed somebody to walk themthrough what it was.
Because when you get a channel, it's itcould be registered as a schizophrenic
thing because you're audibly hearingsomething when you get premonitions and
things like that.
(25:43):
Or like the vivid dreams, lucid dreaming,they would.
classify that as schizophrenic.
And, and we know, we know that people thathave had different impacts to their brains
can suddenly develop incrediblemiraculous.
So putting that line in the sand andsaying you're ill, you're not ill.
I mean, that's borderline, you know, Idon't want to get religious, but I think
(26:06):
that's not the work of men and yet doctorsneed to do that.
Right.
That's their so commonly the, the
place where you put the line in the sandis you say, well, are you hurting yourself
or others?
Exactly.
Right.
That's where, but it's such a fine line,isn't it?
It's kind of, I don't want to use the wordcrazy in this topic, but it is crazy.
(26:26):
It's crazy that as human beings, we needto make decisions that are, and it's not
just doctors, right?
It's social caseworkers.
It's just across the board.
It's bankers.
Like everybody's making these decisions,impacting the people around them based on
all kinds of stuff, right?
Yeah.
But yeah, I just wanted to throw that inthere.
No, I think it's fine.
So look, there's going to be a time wherewe understand more and it's happening all
(26:50):
the time.
And, you know, in a hundred years time or50 or whatever, we're going to be like,
yeah, we thought those people were crazy,but actually they had, you know, whatever.
And, you know, they were gifted in a waythat we did not understand.
And then, yeah, some of them were crazyand some of them were charlatans, but
there was a significant percent or maybe,you know, non -
(27:10):
you know, non -small percent that had aninnate ability to see the patterns that we
didn't think were possible to see.
So I think that is a possibility.
But so I'll be a skeptic because anybodywho says, I can do magic, give me your
money, I'm going to be like, show me yourmagic, then I'll give you your money,
right?
But, you know, so let me change the topic.
(27:31):
And I promise that we'll get to the hardquestions.
So.
Child Human Trafficking.
Tell me a little bit about, let's not diveinto the hard stuff just yet, but tell me
a little bit about what's happening fromyour perspective.
We talked a little bit about Amber Alerts.
(27:53):
We talked about the families.
We talked about the community around.
Yeah.
No, I'm glad.
What do we need to know as a community andwhat have you experienced through your
environment?
So out here in South Dakota, in theseventies, we have two active juvenile
missing persons cases.
Eighty is one.
(28:14):
In the 2000 to 2010, one.
We didn't get anything from 2010.
And I think it might have been before2010.
I think it was 2009.
But it wasn't until 2016 that we hadanother kid that's still actively missing.
And those were only two.
2019, two.
2020, three.
(28:36):
2021, three.
Now this is where I'm horrified.
what I'm about to show you.
I have just this little tiny piece ofpaper, right?
11 kids from 2022.
And then you go to 2023.
(28:57):
So like, my little paper, here's my 2022.
2023 -16.
Fills up the rest of my page.
We are halfway through 2024.
We aren't even done with 2024.
And there is 72 active missing personscases for only juveniles.
(29:19):
I'm not talking just missing persons ingeneral.
This is ridiculous.
I mean, if we did the math and I know youwere a math kid, that's exponential
growth.
Yeah.
And it's terrifying to see that.
And that's just in South Dakota.
If you look at like the National Centerfor Missing and Exploited Children's
Statistics from 2023, overall, there was70 kids that went missing.
(29:46):
All but those, what did I say, 16?
16 kids in 2023 had been either found orhad come home.
And what I noticed in...
the like in the times and the dates andthings in this year that things are
happening.
You've got multiple people on the same daygoing missing, typically of the same
(30:11):
gender from the same area.
But a lot of them are in their teens.
And so a lot of the time, and as much as Ilike hate saying this, but a lot of the
time I think people feel like these kidsare just running away or are.
you know, staying with friends becausethat's something you run into in South
(30:32):
Dakota.
I mean, I moved out at 13.
Yeah, I mean, but it's not all of them,right?
So even if even if that accounts for some,yeah, there's a percentage and I'm sure we
can calculate that percentage and predictthat that percentage might apply forward.
It's not all of them.
No.
And there's nobody talking about it.
I have seen, I think, three things overthe last six months about kids that had
(30:54):
like went missing.
And one of them, he ended up his kid.
left a party and had driven into a littlelake.
One of them had fallen into the river justyesterday and he was part of the colony
outside of Huron.
So it was just a tiny little Amishcommunity basically and one of the kids
(31:14):
fell in the river while playing and all ofthese other kids and we're not even
including anybody from the tribe.
I mean there's a few kids on there thatare from the tribe but like how many of
these kids are going missing that aren'tgetting reported because
There's no way for anybody on the tribesto really report it unless it gets
reported from the BIA.
(31:34):
And so it's terrifying to me.
It's sickening to me, not knowing what isgoing on.
And now we're not even talking about it.
This is something I just did, not even, Idid it not last night, but the night
before and sat down and I was like, whatis going on here?
Like, this isn't okay.
(31:57):
So let's break this down.
What can the parents do?
What can the government do?
What can the community do?
Parents, seriously, I wish that there wasa way for apps like Snapchat, apps like
Facebook, things like that, to not, tolike have to have a verification through
(32:19):
an ID, like a physical ID, if you areunder 18, to get any of those apps.
But you have apps like Kik, you have appslike WhatsApp, Instagram, where all of
these kids are posting all these things.
And when everything that we're seeing outin the world is all of these half naked
(32:39):
women.
I mean, if you go into the kids section,95 % of the kids clothes, especially for
little girls, is crop tops.
And it's what?
What?
I just put my foot down on that yesterdaywith my wife and she didn't necessarily
agree with me.
I mean, she bought it and I was like, no,this is not happening.
Yeah, I couldn't imagine like, and that'ssomething where I don't think that, you
(33:03):
know, parents who haven't experienced anysort of traumatic event like that and
didn't experience a whole lot of trauma intheir life ever, I'm finding are usually
the parents that don't.
Well, she grew up with bombs explodingaround her, so she said she should.
(33:24):
I'm more or less mean in the domesticviolence, sexual abuse situations.
Those kinds of situations, then I see alot more of the awareness for it, but
we're not talking about it enough.
We're not putting enough of it.
We might talk about it here and there, butwe're not putting an initiative to change
it.
We're not doing anything to change it.
(33:45):
Is that part of the community issue?
Yes.
The awareness and the taboo, which isactually leading to our own ignorance?
Yeah.
I have keyed the term.
Anybody can start a revolution if you'rewilling to be the one they burn at the
stake.
Anybody can start a revolution if you'rewilling to be the one that's going to
stand up and say, we need to talk aboutthis.
(34:06):
We need to do something about this.
This isn't right.
And that goes anywhere from the laws totalking about what we're doing with these
apps.
You know, they're talking about this bigTikTok ban.
And it's all because TikTok shop isexploding and they don't like that.
Why aren't we talking about putting an agerestriction on things?
(34:26):
Why aren't we talking about putting thingsin place to where we're focusing on these
child abductions that are going oneverywhere?
Sex trafficking isn't at an all time highright now.
That's crazy.
I think we both know the answer to that isbecause money talks, shit walks.
And this is all about money.
It's not about communities.
(34:48):
Yeah.
But I think you're right.
I think there's something incrediblyimportant in what you're saying.
And keep me honest here.
You're saying that communities have theability to make a change.
Yeah.
If they just understand that taboo is achallenge, yes.
But if we don't talk about this, if wedon't bring awareness, if we don't think
about what's going to need to change,nothing's going to change and money is
(35:11):
going to keep moving things as opposed tocommunity.
Exactly.
You know,
To get the injustice out of criminaljustice, we have to stand for justice.
There's a lot of people that don'tunderstand how laws work.
I was one of those people for a long time.
And then I needed to file a protectionorder against my abusive ex and wasn't in
(35:34):
the county I reside in because I had fledmy home in fear.
And I found out you can't file in thestate of South Dakota in a different
county.
So what did I do?
I went and looked at the laws and Istudied them for a minute and I said,
okay, this is where this crosses withthis.
This isn't right.
Why would I not be able to, if this is anational standard where pretty much every
(35:55):
other state you can.
And so I contacted a legislator.
I literally just looked at my list oflegislators on the South Dakota Code of
Laws website and I picked one that livesin my general area and I called him and I
said, hi, this is my name.
This is the situation I just ran into andyou're the first step in getting this
(36:16):
changed because God forbid a mother andher child can't get a protection order
against some psycho X and he kills them.
Or his or her daughter.
Yeah.
Or she goes crazy on him one night andstabs him and a kid sees that and then
grows up to be a serial killer, you know?
So I'm Haley.
I privately investigate missing personscases, especially.
I'm a medium.
And so I'm kind of changing the narrativeof how private investigations work for
missing persons cases.
I'm taking a huge initiative towards howwe can work better within our justice
system to fix issues within that and otherthings.
(00:22):
And so that's what I do.
OK, so.
I think the audience needs a moment toadjust from everything else they've heard
from this show, but let's take it a stepby step.
And I apologize.
I've got a little bit of a respiratorything.
So I've got a lozenger to help me notcough, but let's take this one bite at a
time.
(00:42):
I agree.
Private investigator.
What kind of jobs do you take?
Who would traditionally come to you?
Of course, you know, maintain privacy, buttry tell us a story to the level that you
can without giving any kind of privateinformation.
So I do everything kind of across theboard from custody battle investigations,
divorce investigations, cheating spouses.
(01:04):
But my specialty is your cold case,missing persons cases.
Those cases where you run into the complexones, typically there's police corruption
or the police don't have the trainingneeded to be able to investigate at the
time and just haven't had the resources.
I actually just got contacted yesterday tofind somebody's birth parents.
(01:28):
They were adopted when they were born andthey want to find their parents.
And so everything across the board is whatI do.
OK, let me drill into this.
So cold case.
What does that mean?
So a cold case is a missing persons casethat's older than five years old.
(01:50):
Prior to a prior to that five year mark,somebody goes missing and for the FBI to
get involved or things like that whereit's just your typical adult goes missing
and the police don't have the resources,they have to ask for those people to come
in.
Once you hit that five year market opensthe doorway for a whole lot more options
(02:11):
within being able to have like FBI chooseto come in and investigate.
There's also the factors of time being afactor and finding people and being a
little bit harder.
But that's what I like about it.
It's what I enjoy about what I do is beingable to bring people closure after so
(02:34):
long.
So, okay, so this is terrible, but fromTV, I know that finding missing people
after a certain amount of time is moredifficult.
Tell us the truth.
What's the reality behind this and whatlies have TV told us?
I guess it depends on what you base it offof.
When you look at shows like Dateline andstuff like that, you run into this simple
(03:00):
issue of how dramatized a lot of it is andthey leave out the
hours of investigative work that goes intoit.
When I first started my first case, Ispent three months, day in, day out, I
mean, countless hours through the night,investigating just to get a basis.
(03:21):
With social media, especially nowadays,things get kind of crazy.
There's conspiracy theories per se forcases even, and they can get a little out
of hand.
when you run into like a rural town in theMidwest, it's a small town and everybody
knows small towns talk and gossip.
(03:41):
And so trying to find any factualinformation is going to be hard.
So you have to seek out those people thatreally do know and we're really there.
I've had a lot of luck, thankfully, injust looking in places people wouldn't
think to look and finding that.
But TV, unless you're watching somethingthat's not a documentary, they're all
(04:01):
pretty...
on point with what they're giving outthere.
I think that there's the nitty gritty ofit that is never going to get shown on
shows like Dateline, but I think it shouldbe shown for those that would like to see
it.
Right.
That's amazing.
I mean, you know, you know, I watch a lotof shows and since I have a science
background, I'm like, you know, that'sbullshit.
(04:22):
So I'm very skeptical about, you know,what people show on TV.
And yet many of these shows have advisorsthat have consultants.
to make sure that the science and the factand the operations behind what are on
these shows to a certain degree arecorrect.
So it looks like, at least in these cases,these consultants are doing a somewhat
good job and they're being listened to.
(04:43):
So that's good news.
So what's the cutoff?
We said that it takes five years beforethese additional options come into play.
But when does it become incredibly hard topursue a missing persons case as opposed
to when's the right time and easy time,quote unquote, if there even is a thing to
do it?
Right.
Well, I mean, the right time would be toprevent these situations, but that's not
(05:07):
going to happen overnight.
I don't think that the world will ever berid of that.
There's people who go missing because theywant to disappear.
I've had a case where he simply just tookoff and everybody was freaking out for
weeks and then they found him.
And he was like, no, I just I wanted to gotake off and do my thing.
I.
(05:29):
As soon as somebody goes missing, I thinkthat it's important to get the word out
there and get in touch with the people whohave that resource available.
For me, it's a little bit different.
I would say after probably that 10 -yearmark is going to be where you're running
into the issues of now you're a decadelater and...
(05:52):
Even a year later, it's hard to be able togo to somebody that maybe would have saw
something and say, Hey, do you rememberthis and have them remember it?
but let alone a decade that's next toimpossible unless somebody has a very,
very good memory.
And we're running into the issues nowadayswhere people aren't remembering things
because everything is so automated.
So there's an aspect of human memory here.
(06:14):
Is there an aspect of physical evidencethat kind of disappears?
Talk to us about the physical evidence,but then also.
You know, on the other hand with socialmedia and videos and everything, is it a
little easier nowadays?
Yes, I think so.
I would say, honestly, when you look atthe social media aspect, you never know
(06:36):
per se somebody went to, so since I'm outin the Midwest, somebody went to a rodeo
and that night disappeared.
There's going to be 300 plus people atthat rodeo who are going to have photos
who are going to have videos.
You might be able to see something in oneof those videos.
and it really just takes diving into itall and looking into it all.
Social media can connect you with peoplethat you would have never guessed would
(07:00):
maybe have some valuable information.
And so that's where that lies with socialmedia.
As for the forensics of things, I'm not aforensic tech.
I'm not super delved into forensics.
I'm currently going to school for mybachelor's of criminal justice on the way
to law school.
And I haven't taken my forensics classyet.
And so I haven't had to worry too muchabout the timeframes for when things are
(07:26):
gonna happen, for when physical evidenceis gonna work anymore.
I do know from years of studying, thedifference is within certain things that
like DNA evidence will always be there ifit's there.
There's a 30 year old frame.
case where there's a man that's beensitting in prison for 30 years for murders
(07:48):
he didn't commit and there's DNA evidencethat they just recently uncovered never
got brought into trial and it still hasthe DNA on it.
And so that's one of those where I don'tunderstand it to its complete
complexities.
I was a math kid, not a science kid.
So.
I mean, but that's amazing, right?
(08:08):
I mean, this whole concept and again, keepme honest here because my knowledge comes
off TV.
But the progress of technology is allowingus to do more and sometimes even open up
these cold cases.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
And you know, it's just like within likewhen you look at eyewitnesses, eyewitness
testimony, pulling somebody from a lineuplike with a rape case, those are not going
(08:34):
to.
be 100 % valid all the time.
So you have to have the tangible physicalDNA evidence.
There's dozens and dozens and dozens ofpeople every single year in the United
States that get exonerated after spendingdecades in prison because somebody thought
that they were this person or somebodydidn't do a good job investigating.
And I think that comes with a lack offunding and a lack of resources for
(08:57):
training and a lack of standard that wehold for our investigators.
As...
And I'm not saying that all investigatorsare bad and aren't doing their jobs by any
means.
But I think that there should be astandard that we need to uphold and not
just do a training once every few years.
This is so true in so many industries.
(09:19):
I mean, you know, everybody obviously doestheir best and they get trained by, you
know, the best person they had availableto them.
And, you know, but not everybody is equal.
And
I think you're right.
There's something about standardizationand bringing the best knowledge, the best
practices, the best tools anddemocratizing that.
(09:40):
So it's, you know, I don't, I wouldn'tblame anyone.
I have a huge respect to everybody ofservice, but not everybody of service is
empowered with the best tools and bestknowledge.
And I think it's really about giving themmore empowerment and also the public,
right?
So this, this isn't only about you alludedto this at the beginning.
It's not only about the people of service.
(10:01):
It's also about the public.
Tell us what the public can do.
We have Amber Alerts, but what can wereally do to make a difference?
So the public, it's funny.
That's actually how I got started onworking missing persons cases.
So Chance Engelbert went missing July 6th,2019 from Gary, Nebraska.
That was my first case that I startedworking and I'm currently working on.
(10:24):
Because of the public, there's a couple ofdifferent pages on Facebook that are
private pages.
where people can talk about their theoriesand talk about these things.
Now this is rural Nebraska.
You don't have a huge population.
I mean, what one city out in Californiahas for their whole city, you have in the
whole state.
(10:44):
These are people that talk to theirneighbors.
You can catch everybody on Sunday afterchurch at the local diner having a cup of
coffee, talking.
And so having that public aspect to it ishuge.
Now, then you run into the problem of anunderstaffed for something of that
magnitude.
(11:07):
Like police force that you can, they'llget a hundred tips in a day right out the
gate.
And you don't know what you need tofollow, what you need to not follow.
And I think that's something where policeforces should be able to, you know,
outsource within like privateinvestigators and have a group of people
throughout the country where.
They're able to look at those tips andthey're able to dig into that.
(11:29):
And I feel like it's so stigmatized wherethe police force, you know, is the police
force and they're not going to do that.
Yeah.
Search and rush search and rescue willcome out.
Emergency services will come out.
These big corporations and big foundationsthat they have, they'll come out.
But even like, gosh, what are they?
(11:49):
I can't think of the name of them rightnow.
And that's adventures with a purpose.
That's who I was thinking of.
They go out and they'll find, you know,they'll find vehicles that went missing
with these people decades and decades anddecades ago, perfectly preserved in the
water except for the rest and be able tofind these missing people.
And it's beautiful to see that I am soinspired by what those guys do.
(12:13):
And it's just something where I think thatthere needs to be almost like a network of
where everybody can talk about thesethings because you don't have that.
option.
And now with social media, you can maybefind these people.
But getting in contact as a privateinvestigator isn't the easiest getting in
contact as a civilian isn't even theeasiest.
(12:35):
What is contributing to that difficulty ofyour work when it comes to talking to
people and asking questions?
I mean, I can imagine that give us thefirst hand scoop.
I mean, so cost of travel is insane.
cost of gas, cost of plane tickets.
That's insane.
And for me, I don't charge my families.
(12:56):
I don't charge my loved ones.
So that funding has to come fromsomewhere.
Now, if they want to contribute to it, byall means, please do.
But any traveling that I've done for anyof my cases, I brand GoFundMe is for.
To be able to afford the travel, and I'mstill contributing a few hundred dollars
out of pocket.
I think that one of the biggest issueswhen you get there is...
(13:21):
you have it kind of set how you want to goabout it, but you're going to run into the
issue where people aren't expecting you toshow up and ask questions.
And in cases where somebody has beenmissing for 10 years from a tiny little
rural town, you start asking questions andme, like I'm a female and going into a
situation like that, you know, on my ownis never a safe situation because of the
(13:45):
world that we live in today.
And that's...
hardest part because you can't call thepolice force and say hey you know can we
work together on this it's very rare thatyou're able to find that and it's so
disheartening as a private investigator iwould love more than anything to be able
to work with these police forces and sayhey this is what i do like i i don't care
(14:06):
why it is that you're not being able tofind these people on your own i want to
help and let's work together on this and ireally hope that that's able to change one
day honestly
And when you come and you're talking tobasically the community and you're asking
questions, they always just jump on andthey're always helpful.
Or is there any barriers?
(14:29):
I think that people have a lot ofspeculation.
Like I said, I deal with a lot of thecomplex cases, the cases where you have
dozens of different things and dozens ofstories going on and people who aren't
talking.
I'm fortunate enough that with
being a medium and having that otheraspect to it and kind of integrating the
(14:53):
two things that nobody's really integratedbefore.
Some people have, but a lot of the peoplewho have tried are not proving that
they're able to do this.
And so people are skeptical and that's theissue I run into.
I don't know about other privateinvestigators out there, but for me being
a medium and basing myself on my intuitiveinsight, my guidance, my channels, the
(15:16):
things that I'm getting,
from the other side as well as thetangible evidence in front of me and being
able to follow along with my tangibleevidence with what I'm getting channel
wise and put those two together and linethem up and say, okay, I know this, I know
this, this is irrefutable.
And putting that all together can be alittle difficult.
It's worked to my advantage though too.
(15:37):
I've been able to interview a few peoplethat nobody else had gotten to interview
in years of somebody being missing becauseI was like, you know.
I get it, you don't want to talk to justwhoever, you don't want stuff to go out on
social media.
What if we did a terror ring?
What if we sat down and you could see foryourself that I'm not here to create an
issue for you, like total privacy for you.
(16:00):
I will give you an insight into what I do.
So you can see that I'm really just tryingto help find these people.
And it's worked out wonders for me.
It's brought wonders for cases for me.
That's amazing.
You know, I, I'm a big believer that magicis just science we don't understand.
And I don't know if it's offensive to callmediums magic or not, but this concept of
(16:22):
that there's a lot of stuff we don't know.
I am a true skeptic.
I'm a very hardcore science math person,but I acknowledge that there are limits to
my own knowledge and there are limits tothe knowledge of science.
And in fact, I teach my children thatscience is the art of figuring out what is
wrong and what we don't know.
It's not the art of saying, this is whatwe know and it's correct.
(16:51):
Sorry, the gift from this respiratoryvirus, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
If I'm not sucking these lozenges and withtea, I just can't talk.
Are you doing herbal tea?
I am.
I've got an herbal tea and this is likethe Coca -Cola thing.
It's all very helpful.
And I don't have the virus anymore, butthis is just the lung damage that I've
(17:15):
sustained.
Yeah, I know a bunch of people that havejust some respiratory infection going on.
And so no, it could be a gift from COVIDor the vaccine or who knows, right?
The doctors, the science is out, right?
They're figuring it out right now.
We no longer call it the flu or a simplecold is basically where we're at.
Right.
Right.
Right.
It's it's yeah, it is what it is.
(17:37):
Right.
So, I mean, this is this is just amazing.
And I didn't want to a lot of times I'llstop my my, you know, like, wait, hold on.
But.
I wanted to let you get through that, butI was on the edge of my seat to stop you
and say, well, hold on.
What do you mean you don't ask for money?
Let's let's do that now.
Yeah, I know.
(17:58):
I asked myself that constantly.
But when I first started this, I mean, Ihad no investigative background.
I was just somebody that felt compelledthat I needed to do a terror reading for a
case that I followed since the daysomebody I've known in life went missing.
And it just happened overnight.
And that's this magic that you talk about.
(18:21):
It's I mean, that's it.
It's kind of how that thing happens.
I mean, with how we got connected throughalliances, alliances happened to me and I
don't even understand how, you know, Iblame it on the higher power for sure.
But I guess for me, it didn't feel rightto charge.
It still doesn't.
(18:42):
It's something that.
I think growing up in South Dakota,waving, I drive.
And every time I drive past somebody, nowgranted in Sioux Falls I don't, in bigger
cities I don't, but when I'm driving onthe highway and I see somebody, it's a
wave and a smile.
When I walk up my stairs and a neighbor'soutside, it's a wave and a smile.
That's the beautiful thing about SouthDakota and why so many people love it out
(19:04):
here is because of our hospitality andjust neighborly ways of being, I guess you
could say.
And so for me, it just didn't feel right.
You know, I'm...
want to be able to provide that closurefor somebody and provide that relief for
somebody.
And if my gifts are going to be the onesdoing that, that's amazing.
Now, getting the funding to do that at thetime, mind you, I just turned 21 when I
(19:30):
started this.
Yeah, I just turned 21.
And so so last year, basically.
Yeah, but it'll be two years thisDecember.
And so.
I was I was giving you a compliment.
You have 23 now.
I'll be 23 in December.
You are young to be in this type ofbusiness.
my God.
Yeah, I am there and I found my lifepassion doing it.
(19:51):
I have no doubt.
Okay, hold on.
Let me stop you this one.
Okay.
So, so look, you've got to make a livingsomehow.
Is there, is there like when you find likewhat's the, is it just the go fund me's or
once you find the person, the families,are they very generous?
Like, I mean, you can't just do this forfree forever.
(20:11):
I agree.
And so that's why I offer like mymediumship services.
I do tarot readings.
I do astrological chart readings.
I do chakra cleansing, openingactivations.
I do distance energy healings.
I do, you know, I do all of that.
And then on top of that, any otherinvestigations that aren't for missing
persons or for an Amber alert, those arecharged.
(20:34):
There are charges for those.
I'm not gonna jump into just anyinvestigation for free.
missing persons is a little bit differentfor me and I don't know why is I don't
know exactly why it was yet.
I think it's just no I I get it I get it.
I have been very lucky to not have youknow that kind of issue impacting
(20:55):
personally but without getting toopolitical a lot of my friends are in that
situation right now but that's all I'llsay on the topic.
So as I said, I'm a skeptic, but when youtell me that you're using quote unquote
unexplained science in conjunction with avery, very serious activity, and you're
(21:19):
not taking money in order to do that, itlowers my barriers.
I wouldn't say it makes me a believer, butit makes me very curious is what I would
say.
So go ahead.
Go ahead.
I was going to say, like, if you reallywant to ever explore into
just kind of where like how energy works.
(21:40):
When you're talking in a spiritual magicalessence, like I'm more than happy to it's
as simple as we ground ourselves.
I ask if I can come in and I can just giveyou a little push of my energy and you'll
be able to feel that energy come in andit's unexplainable by science.
You can't explain how you're where you'reat and I'm across, you know, the country
(22:04):
or the world or wherever I am.
and you're getting this energy fromsomebody and it's able to do what it's
able to do.
That's why I do the distance energyhealings.
It's honestly something I don't think thatwhere our cognitive line sits to where we
just can't go any higher for a cognitiveunderstanding unless you are somebody
(22:24):
that's just got the blood of that whereyou've grown up with that.
It's really hard to understand.
I would agree that it's genetic.
I would agree that people who have specialabilities that they themselves maybe can't
explain.
I think it is genetic and I think it isspecial abilities.
I think it's just magic that'sunexplained.
And I think there are some explanationsthat we can give such as superhuman
(22:49):
intuitiveness, right?
The ability to catch on to...
you know, maybe a facial expression ormaybe a thing or maybe combine information
on somebody's background or words orcombination or just things that we can't
really understand as a science yet.
And that gives you maybe tips.
So that's the way as a, you know, as a, asa non, you know, as a non -believer,
right, as a skeptic, that's the way Iexplain these phenomenal abilities that,
(23:14):
you know, no, this person is gifted,gifted in a way.
And, you know, I see this, I see this onmy daughter.
How, how do you explain my, like my son?
He is incredibly intelligent, math,sciences.
Everybody loves my daughter.
Every day she gets three to four calls tocome and do a play date, to come over.
(23:35):
And she's 10.
Like how does a 10 year old become superextraordinarily social?
There's some gift that she has that allowsher to execute flawlessly what hordes of
salespeople wish they could do, right?
And she's 10 and she's like the best.
She doesn't use it to sell, but I mean, Ilook at her and she's the best salesperson
(23:56):
I've ever seen in the world.
And she didn't get that from me or mywife.
So, no, I joke.
My wife is amazing.
People love her.
But I think it is.
It's something in the, I think it issomething in the blood.
I truly do believe that.
Let me, let me go ahead.
Go ahead.
I was just going to say like, and inmatters of that, there's, and this is just
(24:18):
a little like off topic.
And so I just want it like,
throw this in there because I just had aconversation about this yesterday.
You see a lot of addicts and alcoholics,especially in the United States, who have
these spiritual capabilities.
And because it's so profound and there'ssuch a negative stigma, when I say the
word medium, you immediately think thatI'm going to sit in front of a crowd and
(24:42):
throw out a letter until somebody makes afacial expression.
And there's such a negative stigma aroundit that there's not a whole
you know, now with social media, now that,you know, it's 2024, in the last three
years, there's been this huge, like,opening up to understanding, and more
people kind of talking about it andwanting to know about it, wanting to talk
(25:02):
about it, be like, hey, me too.
But before that, you'd run into the issuesof you wouldn't have anybody where you
could really talk to about that, andpeople would tell you you're crazy.
I don't want to know the amount of peoplethat have gone to like,
a hospital or a psychiatrist to say whatis wrong with me because I don't
understand this.
I don't have the resources to understandthis.
(25:22):
And they've said, you're having psychosisepisodes.
You need to go to a loony bin.
And they really weren't loony or theydidn't need to get put on medication.
They just needed somebody to walk themthrough what it was.
Because when you get a channel, it's itcould be registered as a schizophrenic
thing because you're audibly hearingsomething when you get premonitions and
things like that.
(25:43):
Or like the vivid dreams, lucid dreaming,they would.
classify that as schizophrenic.
And, and we know, we know that people thathave had different impacts to their brains
can suddenly develop incrediblemiraculous.
So putting that line in the sand andsaying you're ill, you're not ill.
I mean, that's borderline, you know, Idon't want to get religious, but I think
(26:06):
that's not the work of men and yet doctorsneed to do that.
Right.
That's their so commonly the, the
place where you put the line in the sandis you say, well, are you hurting yourself
or others?
Exactly.
Right.
That's where, but it's such a fine line,isn't it?
It's kind of, I don't want to use the wordcrazy in this topic, but it is crazy.
(26:26):
It's crazy that as human beings, we needto make decisions that are, and it's not
just doctors, right?
It's social caseworkers.
It's just across the board.
It's bankers.
Like everybody's making these decisions,impacting the people around them based on
all kinds of stuff, right?
Yeah.
But yeah, I just wanted to throw that inthere.
No, I think it's fine.
So look, there's going to be a time wherewe understand more and it's happening all
(26:50):
the time.
And, you know, in a hundred years time or50 or whatever, we're going to be like,
yeah, we thought those people were crazy,but actually they had, you know, whatever.
And, you know, they were gifted in a waythat we did not understand.
And then, yeah, some of them were crazyand some of them were charlatans, but
there was a significant percent or maybe,you know, non -
(27:10):
you know, non -small percent that had aninnate ability to see the patterns that we
didn't think were possible to see.
So I think that is a possibility.
But so I'll be a skeptic because anybodywho says, I can do magic, give me your
money, I'm going to be like, show me yourmagic, then I'll give you your money,
right?
But, you know, so let me change the topic.
(27:31):
And I promise that we'll get to the hardquestions.
So.
Child Human Trafficking.
Tell me a little bit about, let's not diveinto the hard stuff just yet, but tell me
a little bit about what's happening fromyour perspective.
We talked a little bit about Amber Alerts.
(27:53):
We talked about the families.
We talked about the community around.
Yeah.
No, I'm glad.
What do we need to know as a community andwhat have you experienced through your
environment?
So out here in South Dakota, in theseventies, we have two active juvenile
missing persons cases.
Eighty is one.
(28:14):
In the 2000 to 2010, one.
We didn't get anything from 2010.
And I think it might have been before2010.
I think it was 2009.
But it wasn't until 2016 that we hadanother kid that's still actively missing.
And those were only two.
2019, two.
2020, three.
(28:36):
2021, three.
Now this is where I'm horrified.
what I'm about to show you.
I have just this little tiny piece ofpaper, right?
11 kids from 2022.
And then you go to 2023.
(28:57):
So like, my little paper, here's my 2022.
2023 -16.
Fills up the rest of my page.
We are halfway through 2024.
We aren't even done with 2024.
And there is 72 active missing personscases for only juveniles.
(29:19):
I'm not talking just missing persons ingeneral.
This is ridiculous.
I mean, if we did the math and I know youwere a math kid, that's exponential
growth.
Yeah.
And it's terrifying to see that.
And that's just in South Dakota.
If you look at like the National Centerfor Missing and Exploited Children's
Statistics from 2023, overall, there was70 kids that went missing.
(29:46):
All but those, what did I say, 16?
16 kids in 2023 had been either found orhad come home.
And what I noticed in...
the like in the times and the dates andthings in this year that things are
happening.
You've got multiple people on the same daygoing missing, typically of the same
(30:11):
gender from the same area.
But a lot of them are in their teens.
And so a lot of the time, and as much as Ilike hate saying this, but a lot of the
time I think people feel like these kidsare just running away or are.
you know, staying with friends becausethat's something you run into in South
(30:32):
Dakota.
I mean, I moved out at 13.
Yeah, I mean, but it's not all of them,right?
So even if even if that accounts for some,yeah, there's a percentage and I'm sure we
can calculate that percentage and predictthat that percentage might apply forward.
It's not all of them.
No.
And there's nobody talking about it.
I have seen, I think, three things overthe last six months about kids that had
(30:54):
like went missing.
And one of them, he ended up his kid.
left a party and had driven into a littlelake.
One of them had fallen into the river justyesterday and he was part of the colony
outside of Huron.
So it was just a tiny little Amishcommunity basically and one of the kids
(31:14):
fell in the river while playing and all ofthese other kids and we're not even
including anybody from the tribe.
I mean there's a few kids on there thatare from the tribe but like how many of
these kids are going missing that aren'tgetting reported because
There's no way for anybody on the tribesto really report it unless it gets
reported from the BIA.
(31:34):
And so it's terrifying to me.
It's sickening to me, not knowing what isgoing on.
And now we're not even talking about it.
This is something I just did, not even, Idid it not last night, but the night
before and sat down and I was like, whatis going on here?
Like, this isn't okay.
(31:57):
So let's break this down.
What can the parents do?
What can the government do?
What can the community do?
Parents, seriously, I wish that there wasa way for apps like Snapchat, apps like
Facebook, things like that, to not, tolike have to have a verification through
(32:19):
an ID, like a physical ID, if you areunder 18, to get any of those apps.
But you have apps like Kik, you have appslike WhatsApp, Instagram, where all of
these kids are posting all these things.
And when everything that we're seeing outin the world is all of these half naked
(32:39):
women.
I mean, if you go into the kids section,95 % of the kids clothes, especially for
little girls, is crop tops.
And it's what?
What?
I just put my foot down on that yesterdaywith my wife and she didn't necessarily
agree with me.
I mean, she bought it and I was like, no,this is not happening.
Yeah, I couldn't imagine like, and that'ssomething where I don't think that, you
(33:03):
know, parents who haven't experienced anysort of traumatic event like that and
didn't experience a whole lot of trauma intheir life ever, I'm finding are usually
the parents that don't.
Well, she grew up with bombs explodingaround her, so she said she should.
(33:24):
I'm more or less mean in the domesticviolence, sexual abuse situations.
Those kinds of situations, then I see alot more of the awareness for it, but
we're not talking about it enough.
We're not putting enough of it.
We might talk about it here and there, butwe're not putting an initiative to change
it.
We're not doing anything to change it.
(33:45):
Is that part of the community issue?
Yes.
The awareness and the taboo, which isactually leading to our own ignorance?
Yeah.
I have keyed the term.
Anybody can start a revolution if you'rewilling to be the one they burn at the
stake.
Anybody can start a revolution if you'rewilling to be the one that's going to
stand up and say, we need to talk aboutthis.
(34:06):
We need to do something about this.
This isn't right.
And that goes anywhere from the laws totalking about what we're doing with these
apps.
You know, they're talking about this bigTikTok ban.
And it's all because TikTok shop isexploding and they don't like that.
Why aren't we talking about putting an agerestriction on things?
(34:26):
Why aren't we talking about putting thingsin place to where we're focusing on these
child abductions that are going oneverywhere?
Sex trafficking isn't at an all time highright now.
That's crazy.
I think we both know the answer to that isbecause money talks, shit walks.
And this is all about money.
It's not about communities.
(34:48):
Yeah.
But I think you're right.
I think there's something incrediblyimportant in what you're saying.
And keep me honest here.
You're saying that communities have theability to make a change.
Yeah.
If they just understand that taboo is achallenge, yes.
But if we don't talk about this, if wedon't bring awareness, if we don't think
about what's going to need to change,nothing's going to change and money is
(35:11):
going to keep moving things as opposed tocommunity.
Exactly.
You know,
To get the injustice out of criminaljustice, we have to stand for justice.
There's a lot of people that don'tunderstand how laws work.
I was one of those people for a long time.
And then I needed to file a protectionorder against my abusive ex and wasn't in
(35:34):
the county I reside in because I had fledmy home in fear.
And I found out you can't file in thestate of South Dakota in a different
county.
So what did I do?
I went and looked at the laws and Istudied them for a minute and I said,
okay, this is where this crosses withthis.
This isn't right.
Why would I not be able to, if this is anational standard where pretty much every
(35:55):
other state you can.
And so I contacted a legislator.
I literally just looked at my list oflegislators on the South Dakota Code of
Laws website and I picked one that livesin my general area and I called him and I
said, hi, this is my name.
This is the situation I just ran into andyou're the first step in getting this
(36:16):
changed because God forbid a mother andher child can't get a protection order
against some psycho X and he kills them.
Or his or her daughter.
Yeah.
Or she goes crazy on him one night andstabs him and a kid sees that and then
grows up to be a serial killer, you know?
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