October 25, 2023 • 19 mins
Today is a bonus episode and I will soon be back from hiatus with new episodes. But for now listen to Myself and Navigating Advocacy for some updates as well as a look back at our Honk and Wave in Albuquerque, New Mexico in August.
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Support Angels Voices Silenced No More
Check out AdvocacyCon(ference)
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-consequences-true-crime--4347262/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Navigating Advocacy, the truecrime podcast that goes beyond storytelling to ignite
change and seek justice. I'm Melissaand I'm Whitney. It's true crime enthusiast
turn passionate advocate. We've seen thepower of storytelling raise awareness about unsolved crime
and bring hope to victims and theirfamilies. We hope to inspire action and
(00:22):
promote positive change within the true crimecommunity. Our definition of action oriented advocacy
is doing something more than just talkingabout the issues. It's taking concrete steps
to address them. We're here toempower you to also become advocates for change,
no matter where or who you are. We are Navigating Advocacy. We
(00:46):
discuss topics that may be sensitive tolisteners. Discretion is advised. So August
eighteenth, I fly from Tampa intoAustin, Texas to meet up with Whitney,
so then we can just turn aroundand drive twelve ish hours to Albuquerque.
It was good times. We saidwe were going to work. We
(01:08):
did not work. We did notwork. It was a long day for
Melissa, and I felt really badbecause she did. She traveled literally across
the United States in multiple forms oftransportation, So we get to Eric's house
pretty late that evening. Eric wasour gracious host. That was like literally
better than a full service B andB. It was better than any hotel
(01:34):
we've ever stayed at. Yeah,that's nice. We had Like in New
Mexico. You don't get mints onyour pillow, you green chili's on your
pillow, amazed, which I actuallyused mine and Melissa's because Mossa couldn't fly
with hers. You didn't fly thisweek? Awesome, What did you do?
What did you do? I madechicken tacos with it my enstapot.
(01:56):
It was super good. Had tofight my husband off for the leftovers tonight
for dinner. That's amazing. That'sso good. I'm glad. Yeah.
I believe in giving green chili.I believe in feeding people. It's my
love language, and green chili isyou know, New Mexican. New Mexico
cuisine is really close to my heart, So I believe in exposing people to
it and bragging about it NonStop andconstantly eating it. That's my story.
(02:23):
I also took you to a restaurant, did a very important restaurant special restaurant.
I guess it's not necessarily important,but it's special. Yeah, it's
an old place, it's a holein the wall, but the food is
it's like my grandma made it.So I'm glad we had to have that,
got to have that. I'm prettysure someone's grandma is in that kitchen
(02:45):
making it. Lots of love inthat food. Yeah, the soap uppias
alone so good. Yeah, lifechanging. You gotta ask. You gotta
ask. A New Mexican will teachyou how to do it. But that's
not why you came to New Mexico. It wasn't just for the food.
No, it was not just forthe food. We decided a long time
ago that we were going to doour an action oriented advocacy case in Albuquerque,
(03:07):
one because Eric was there, andtwo because there is no shortage of
cases that need to be covered inNew Mexico by any means, specifically Albuquerque.
We put it off for what threeor four quarters. We just ended
up going other places and finally decidedit was time and why not cram everything
(03:27):
into one week. That's how welike to do things, and we chose
Albuquerque, got out there and decidedto host an event. Yeah, we
decided like the week before to hostan event, so we weren't really super
prepared. I think we planned theentire trip like three weeks before, so
it's not like we had been planningthis for extended periods of time. We
(03:51):
just didn't know specifically what we weregoing to do with our particular case.
Tyra's case, it was a littlebit difficult because it was an old case,
her family wasn't around, a lotof the people that were involved were
in no longer with us. Sowe wanted an event that was going to
make an impact, not just forTyro's case, but for a lot of
(04:13):
the issues that Albuquerque in New Mexicois facing. So that's when we decided
on this Honkin Wave. Whitney andI had done one before up in Washington,
and so we knew the gist ofwhat to do and how to bring
it together. And the three ofus just started pushing it out about what
maybe five six seven days before theevent and had quite a bit of traction.
(04:39):
We made signs to go out,contact a few local groups, contacted
media, anyone that really wanted tocome out, and it was an overwhelmingly
but amazing event. I think goinginto it, I really thought if we
had ten people ten it would bea successful. Man, So I have
(04:59):
one person I would consider its successful, but I estimated about ten people would
make the time on that short ofnotice to come out. As we were
sitting there, we decided to meetat Civic Plaza, which is this place
downtown in Albuquerque, not far fromthe courthouse, not far from the local
police department, and it's just nearthe convention Center. It's a good meet
up place. There's parking nearby.It's a great hub. Book City halls
(05:24):
right there too, so right onthe other side of Civic Plaza. So
it's like all of the government forAlbuquerque is basically in that two block area.
And if you're going to be loud, why not be loud where someone
who can make a change can hear. That's the whole purpose. I want
to shout out the New Mexico Crusadersfor Justice. They are an amazing support
(05:47):
group that has chapters all over thestate. They're a group of grieving family
members that are just helping each otherand listening to each other, and they
do crafts and paint knights and thingslike that together and it's just a really
lovely community. And I think ifit wasn't for them, we wouldn't have
had the turnout that we had.So I'm grateful for them. So check
(06:11):
them out on Facebook if you areinterested in learning more about them. Yes,
I agree. I think Whitney andI arrived, then you and your
mom came to Eric and Chrsaders werethe founders. The co founders were there
around that time. And then justmore and more families started showing up.
They were bringing wagons and their postersand they were wearing shirts, and every
(06:33):
time a new family would come up, we would I would just start tearing
up all over again. I wasshocked at the number of people that made
the time to come to this eventand that had families that were literally killed
within the last couple of weeks orthe last couple of years. Ah,
it was just we had one familymember there that was days after her daughter
(06:56):
was murdered. Days I just toprocess grief and how and know that this
is what your future looks like untilchange is made, that you're just gonna
have to get out there, continueto make noid over and over until legislation
happens or relay start to give ashit. There's just so many things that
need to happen. It's it's definitelya testament to why my show exists,
(07:21):
and there's such a huge need foradvocacy in New Mexico. There's such a
huge need for voices to be liftedup and to be brought to the forefront,
and for legislators to listen to thesefamilies because there are so many of
them. There's just it's endless.When we were there at Civic Plaza waiting
(07:44):
to leave, like there was acouple of waves and the first wave,
I was like, okay, thisis probably like let's maybe we should start
walking, and then before you knowit, like more people are coming and
more people and they were just comingin like waves. And that's really how
I see what's happening in this state. Just waves and waves of grief and
loss and man, it's heartbreaking,but it's also inspiring. And the good
(08:09):
thing that I've seen is like alot of those families have continued. You
know, they had another march onSeptember fourth, there's another one coming up
on September thirtieth, so they're stilldoing it and I'm going to try to
get to as many of those asI can as well. But it's incredible
to see that momentum continue, that'samazing. It's so amazing because like it
(08:31):
just takes one time of starting somethingbefore this trickle effect where they're like,
hey, we can do this.It's not that difficult and it's going to
get the word out. And I'mjust so proud of Albuquerque me too.
There was so many families that cameup to us that said thank you for
putting this together. And we reallydidn't do anything. We made a Facebook
(08:54):
event and said hey, meet ushere, and everyone else did all like,
everyone did equal amount of work.All we did was picked a time.
So knowing that something so small wasso impactful is powerful. Yeah,
And the coolest thing was on theCrusaders group. I think it was Sally
that tagged like one of the reportersat the local news station and said,
(09:16):
hey, FYI, this is happening. Can you have someone there? And
they did. That's amazing to havethat kind of platform where you could just
be like, Hi, we're doingsomething, can you guys show up?
And then they do. That's incredible. I'm so amazed by those women we
do and shout out to that TVstation for actually following through saying yeah,
we will be there and then actuallyshowing up actually doing a story over it.
(09:37):
And it wasn't just one story.They did a digital story. It
was on the actual news. Therewas several Yeah. Yeah, and Melissa,
I think you were on there.I was on there. I was
on there ferminent. I'm glad Iwas in the print version and not the
TV version. Yeah, there's areason why we do podcasting. There's a
few reasons. Very good events.Awesome. Yeah, we have what Eric
(10:03):
has been working on in the backgroundfor quite a while. It was announced
that weekend or was it right afterthat? So I think I got my
certification like that weekend or like thatThursday, And I think I told you
guys if I remember correctly. Yeah. So, yeah, we've been working
(10:24):
hard at Angel's Voices Silence No More, which is a new nonprofit, not
new, but new. I've beenworking on this for probably two years now,
and through a sad tale of misplacedtrust, I waited for over a
year or almost a year to getmy nonprofit status from the IRS. But
(10:48):
we moved past that and I wentahead and took care of it and got
it done in four weeks, whichis pretty cool and mildly infuriating at the
same time. But yeah, Angel'sVoices started off as a dream that my
mom and I had as we weretalking about Jacob's case and talking about how
(11:09):
we didn't want anybody to anybody elseto ever feel like we felt when Jacob
was murdered. We didn't want themto feel alone. We wanted them to
know that there was hope and thatthere were people who would listen to them.
My mom actually named the organization.We went back and forth and that's
(11:33):
where we ended up with Angel's VoicesSilenced No More. I think it's she
now is like second guessing the name, but I think it's really perfect because
there are moments when you do feellike your loved one's voice has been silenced.
You feel like their voice has beentaken from them, and it has
literally but also in a figurative manner, right like especially with Jacob's case,
(11:58):
because there was no coverage until thirtyplus years after he had already been murdered.
The mission of Angels Voices Silence NoMore is to empower families by providing
them with the necessary resources and referralsto advocate for their missing or murdered loved
ones. We believe in taking acomprehensive approach to support, encompassing a wide
(12:20):
range of services including paying for billboards, DNA testing, private investigations, funeral
expenses, therapy, and pretty muchanything that a family might need in their
quests for justice and answers related totheir loved ones. Our vision is starts
off with a very simple sentence,there's always We envision New Mexico as a
(12:43):
place where justice is not just aconcept, but a reality for every victim
and their families. I'm getting emotionalbecause it's really amazing to have this all
starting to happen in real life becauseit started as a dream. Our organization
is committed to creating a victim focusedsupport network that serves as a beacon of
hope and resilience. In this vision, families fighting for justice find themselves surrounded
(13:07):
by a compassionate community that understands theirpain and stands by their side. It's
just perfect, and I'm so gladthat it's finally off the ground. I
know it's been weighing heavily on youand the very short but feels like forever
time that I've known you. Thatwas like just yesterday, like ninety three
years ago. At the same timeagreed, Yeah, it really was a
(13:28):
long time ago. I don't knowwhy it feels like it was so long.
Yeah, it's amazing to be hereat this point where we're actively raising
money, we getting out there onsocial media talking about it like I am
now with you're going to We're adirect to vendor granting organization. We try
(13:48):
to make sure that there's no challengeswith honesty or people taking advantage of the
situation to say that anybody would,but we want to make sure that those
buffers are in place so that wecan ensure the donors that their money is
going where we say it's going.Sure, so we're gonna be very strict
(14:09):
about that. We're going to requirean invoice, and we'll be paying directly
to vendors funeral homes, therapy providers, never resources. We'll be leveraging the
money likely in that manner. SoI'm excited. I think that we have
the ability to do a lot ofgood in this community, and I think
(14:31):
that it's going to be really coolto see what happens over the next like
five years with us. Mistlie,I believe in what you're doing. I
think that there's a lot of goodthat can come from this. I know
that there's a need because you neededit, your family needed it. There's
millions of others out there that needit. So my willingness to help is
(14:56):
just that the next thing that wewe have been working on. It was
originally Eric's dream that he again,so he's moved from this nonprofit organization that
he's wanted to build. He's buildingit. Now. What's the next thing
that we can build and that's creatinga conference that takes what his nonprofit is
(15:22):
doing, what his podcast is doing, what our podcast is doing, and
amplifies it to the what one hundredthdegree, and it's going to be cuge,
amazing. It's definitely something that wasneeded. Whitney and I have had
many conversations when a loved one good'smissing, or it's murdered, what happens
(15:43):
next? What does the family needto know? What did they do?
What resources are out there? Andevery state it's different. Obviously, Let's
just take a young single mom thather husband died, what next? And
so many people don't know what todo. Obviously, before you're in this
true crime space, I had noclue what was needed that type of thing
(16:04):
and I think that this conference isgoing to shed a light on all of
these things. This is going toopen up so many people's eyes and open
up doors, and so that peoplelike you, Eric don't feel alone like
your mom, having no idea whichway to turn, who to turn too,
who to trust, because there areso many people out there that might
(16:29):
be spreading misinformation and doing things fortheir own profit versus helping out these families.
It's something none of us prepare for. You don't know if someone you
love will go missing or happen tobe a victim. And when we sat
down to build this, where doyou start with that? Obviously got to
(16:51):
figure out what your mission is.You got to figure out what your vision
is, what do we want,what do we expect from this conference?
What sort of information are we goingto be sharing. And we kept coming
back to building this community because,as the saying goes, it takes a
village. One person cannot do thison their own. So we created the
(17:12):
vision that we want to build acommunity where families of the missing and murdered
find unwavering support and strength within aunited and compassionate environment. So we want
people to feel safe, We wantthem to be able to share their stories.
We want people to listen to theirstories and come up with creative ways
(17:33):
to keep their loved ones in theforefront of investigators' minds, in front of
the media, because we all knowthat media roles in this industry of whether
or not something's going to actually bedone. When you have that pressure of
the media on law enforcement, they'remore willing to do something could definitely make
or break a case, that's forsure. So where it started, we
(17:57):
are still very much in the planningstages. We know that it will not
be an active conference until twenty twentyfive. We don't have this set date
yet, but look for at springtwenty twenty five. We are actively fundraising.
We will be doing a lot ofincentive based ticket sells. So if
(18:19):
this is something you're interested in doingor donating to and you want to show
up and you're ready to put iton your calendar for twenty twenty five,
you have the opportunity to buy yourticket now and be prepared to go in
twenty twenty five. And being onthe ground level, you're going to get
some extra things which aren't all setin stone yet, but we'll be there
(18:40):
soon. There's also space for ifyou have a specific skill, if you
are a private investigator, if youare an expert, I don't know,
a facial reconstructive artist, if you'rean anthropologist, if you are a scientist,
or if you have a skill thatyou think could be utilized in the
true crime industry that maybe isn't somethingcommonly thought of. Let us know,
(19:04):
all right, so please visit BWdot avcon dot com for further details.
We'll also have some links to donationsand ticket sales on that site as well.
You can also send us an emailif you have questions about the event.
Welcome to Navigating Advocacy, the truecrime podcast that goes beyond storytelling to ignite
change and seek justice. I'm Melissaand I'm Whitney. It's true crime enthusiast
turn passionate advocate. We've seen thepower of storytelling raise awareness about unsolved crime
and bring hope to victims and theirfamilies. We hope to inspire action and
(00:22):
promote positive change within the true crimecommunity. Our definition of action oriented advocacy
is doing something more than just talkingabout the issues. It's taking concrete steps
to address them. We're here toempower you to also become advocates for change,
no matter where or who you are. We are Navigating Advocacy. We
(00:46):
discuss topics that may be sensitive tolisteners. Discretion is advised. So August
eighteenth, I fly from Tampa intoAustin, Texas to meet up with Whitney,
so then we can just turn aroundand drive twelve ish hours to Albuquerque.
It was good times. We saidwe were going to work. We
(01:08):
did not work. We did notwork. It was a long day for
Melissa, and I felt really badbecause she did. She traveled literally across
the United States in multiple forms oftransportation, So we get to Eric's house
pretty late that evening. Eric wasour gracious host. That was like literally
better than a full service B andB. It was better than any hotel
(01:34):
we've ever stayed at. Yeah,that's nice. We had Like in New
Mexico. You don't get mints onyour pillow, you green chili's on your
pillow, amazed, which I actuallyused mine and Melissa's because Mossa couldn't fly
with hers. You didn't fly thisweek? Awesome, What did you do?
What did you do? I madechicken tacos with it my enstapot.
(01:56):
It was super good. Had tofight my husband off for the leftovers tonight
for dinner. That's amazing. That'sso good. I'm glad. Yeah.
I believe in giving green chili.I believe in feeding people. It's my
love language, and green chili isyou know, New Mexican. New Mexico
cuisine is really close to my heart, So I believe in exposing people to
it and bragging about it NonStop andconstantly eating it. That's my story.
(02:23):
I also took you to a restaurant, did a very important restaurant special restaurant.
I guess it's not necessarily important,but it's special. Yeah, it's
an old place, it's a holein the wall, but the food is
it's like my grandma made it.So I'm glad we had to have that,
got to have that. I'm prettysure someone's grandma is in that kitchen
(02:45):
making it. Lots of love inthat food. Yeah, the soap uppias
alone so good. Yeah, lifechanging. You gotta ask. You gotta
ask. A New Mexican will teachyou how to do it. But that's
not why you came to New Mexico. It wasn't just for the food.
No, it was not just forthe food. We decided a long time
ago that we were going to doour an action oriented advocacy case in Albuquerque,
(03:07):
one because Eric was there, andtwo because there is no shortage of
cases that need to be covered inNew Mexico by any means, specifically Albuquerque.
We put it off for what threeor four quarters. We just ended
up going other places and finally decidedit was time and why not cram everything
(03:27):
into one week. That's how welike to do things, and we chose
Albuquerque, got out there and decidedto host an event. Yeah, we
decided like the week before to hostan event, so we weren't really super
prepared. I think we planned theentire trip like three weeks before, so
it's not like we had been planningthis for extended periods of time. We
(03:51):
just didn't know specifically what we weregoing to do with our particular case.
Tyra's case, it was a littlebit difficult because it was an old case,
her family wasn't around, a lotof the people that were involved were
in no longer with us. Sowe wanted an event that was going to
make an impact, not just forTyro's case, but for a lot of
(04:13):
the issues that Albuquerque in New Mexicois facing. So that's when we decided
on this Honkin Wave. Whitney andI had done one before up in Washington,
and so we knew the gist ofwhat to do and how to bring
it together. And the three ofus just started pushing it out about what
maybe five six seven days before theevent and had quite a bit of traction.
(04:39):
We made signs to go out,contact a few local groups, contacted
media, anyone that really wanted tocome out, and it was an overwhelmingly
but amazing event. I think goinginto it, I really thought if we
had ten people ten it would bea successful. Man, So I have
(04:59):
one person I would consider its successful, but I estimated about ten people would
make the time on that short ofnotice to come out. As we were
sitting there, we decided to meetat Civic Plaza, which is this place
downtown in Albuquerque, not far fromthe courthouse, not far from the local
police department, and it's just nearthe convention Center. It's a good meet
up place. There's parking nearby.It's a great hub. Book City halls
(05:24):
right there too, so right onthe other side of Civic Plaza. So
it's like all of the government forAlbuquerque is basically in that two block area.
And if you're going to be loud, why not be loud where someone
who can make a change can hear. That's the whole purpose. I want
to shout out the New Mexico Crusadersfor Justice. They are an amazing support
(05:47):
group that has chapters all over thestate. They're a group of grieving family
members that are just helping each otherand listening to each other, and they
do crafts and paint knights and thingslike that together and it's just a really
lovely community. And I think ifit wasn't for them, we wouldn't have
had the turnout that we had.So I'm grateful for them. So check
(06:11):
them out on Facebook if you areinterested in learning more about them. Yes,
I agree. I think Whitney andI arrived, then you and your
mom came to Eric and Chrsaders werethe founders. The co founders were there
around that time. And then justmore and more families started showing up.
They were bringing wagons and their postersand they were wearing shirts, and every
(06:33):
time a new family would come up, we would I would just start tearing
up all over again. I wasshocked at the number of people that made
the time to come to this eventand that had families that were literally killed
within the last couple of weeks orthe last couple of years. Ah,
it was just we had one familymember there that was days after her daughter
(06:56):
was murdered. Days I just toprocess grief and how and know that this
is what your future looks like untilchange is made, that you're just gonna
have to get out there, continueto make noid over and over until legislation
happens or relay start to give ashit. There's just so many things that
need to happen. It's it's definitelya testament to why my show exists,
(07:21):
and there's such a huge need foradvocacy in New Mexico. There's such a
huge need for voices to be liftedup and to be brought to the forefront,
and for legislators to listen to thesefamilies because there are so many of
them. There's just it's endless.When we were there at Civic Plaza waiting
(07:44):
to leave, like there was acouple of waves and the first wave,
I was like, okay, thisis probably like let's maybe we should start
walking, and then before you knowit, like more people are coming and
more people and they were just comingin like waves. And that's really how
I see what's happening in this state. Just waves and waves of grief and
loss and man, it's heartbreaking,but it's also inspiring. And the good
(08:09):
thing that I've seen is like alot of those families have continued. You
know, they had another march onSeptember fourth, there's another one coming up
on September thirtieth, so they're stilldoing it and I'm going to try to
get to as many of those asI can as well. But it's incredible
to see that momentum continue, that'samazing. It's so amazing because like it
(08:31):
just takes one time of starting somethingbefore this trickle effect where they're like,
hey, we can do this.It's not that difficult and it's going to
get the word out. And I'mjust so proud of Albuquerque me too.
There was so many families that cameup to us that said thank you for
putting this together. And we reallydidn't do anything. We made a Facebook
(08:54):
event and said hey, meet ushere, and everyone else did all like,
everyone did equal amount of work.All we did was picked a time.
So knowing that something so small wasso impactful is powerful. Yeah,
And the coolest thing was on theCrusaders group. I think it was Sally
that tagged like one of the reportersat the local news station and said,
(09:16):
hey, FYI, this is happening. Can you have someone there? And
they did. That's amazing to havethat kind of platform where you could just
be like, Hi, we're doingsomething, can you guys show up?
And then they do. That's incredible. I'm so amazed by those women we
do and shout out to that TVstation for actually following through saying yeah,
we will be there and then actuallyshowing up actually doing a story over it.
(09:37):
And it wasn't just one story.They did a digital story. It
was on the actual news. Therewas several Yeah. Yeah, and Melissa,
I think you were on there.I was on there. I was
on there ferminent. I'm glad Iwas in the print version and not the
TV version. Yeah, there's areason why we do podcasting. There's a
few reasons. Very good events.Awesome. Yeah, we have what Eric
(10:03):
has been working on in the backgroundfor quite a while. It was announced
that weekend or was it right afterthat? So I think I got my
certification like that weekend or like thatThursday, And I think I told you
guys if I remember correctly. Yeah. So, yeah, we've been working
(10:24):
hard at Angel's Voices Silence No More, which is a new nonprofit, not
new, but new. I've beenworking on this for probably two years now,
and through a sad tale of misplacedtrust, I waited for over a
year or almost a year to getmy nonprofit status from the IRS. But
(10:48):
we moved past that and I wentahead and took care of it and got
it done in four weeks, whichis pretty cool and mildly infuriating at the
same time. But yeah, Angel'sVoices started off as a dream that my
mom and I had as we weretalking about Jacob's case and talking about how
(11:09):
we didn't want anybody to anybody elseto ever feel like we felt when Jacob
was murdered. We didn't want themto feel alone. We wanted them to
know that there was hope and thatthere were people who would listen to them.
My mom actually named the organization.We went back and forth and that's
(11:33):
where we ended up with Angel's VoicesSilenced No More. I think it's she
now is like second guessing the name, but I think it's really perfect because
there are moments when you do feellike your loved one's voice has been silenced.
You feel like their voice has beentaken from them, and it has
literally but also in a figurative manner, right like especially with Jacob's case,
(11:58):
because there was no coverage until thirtyplus years after he had already been murdered.
The mission of Angels Voices Silence NoMore is to empower families by providing
them with the necessary resources and referralsto advocate for their missing or murdered loved
ones. We believe in taking acomprehensive approach to support, encompassing a wide
(12:20):
range of services including paying for billboards, DNA testing, private investigations, funeral
expenses, therapy, and pretty muchanything that a family might need in their
quests for justice and answers related totheir loved ones. Our vision is starts
off with a very simple sentence,there's always We envision New Mexico as a
(12:43):
place where justice is not just aconcept, but a reality for every victim
and their families. I'm getting emotionalbecause it's really amazing to have this all
starting to happen in real life becauseit started as a dream. Our organization
is committed to creating a victim focusedsupport network that serves as a beacon of
hope and resilience. In this vision, families fighting for justice find themselves surrounded
(13:07):
by a compassionate community that understands theirpain and stands by their side. It's
just perfect, and I'm so gladthat it's finally off the ground. I
know it's been weighing heavily on youand the very short but feels like forever
time that I've known you. Thatwas like just yesterday, like ninety three
years ago. At the same timeagreed, Yeah, it really was a
(13:28):
long time ago. I don't knowwhy it feels like it was so long.
Yeah, it's amazing to be hereat this point where we're actively raising
money, we getting out there onsocial media talking about it like I am
now with you're going to We're adirect to vendor granting organization. We try
(13:48):
to make sure that there's no challengeswith honesty or people taking advantage of the
situation to say that anybody would,but we want to make sure that those
buffers are in place so that wecan ensure the donors that their money is
going where we say it's going.Sure, so we're gonna be very strict
(14:09):
about that. We're going to requirean invoice, and we'll be paying directly
to vendors funeral homes, therapy providers, never resources. We'll be leveraging the
money likely in that manner. SoI'm excited. I think that we have
the ability to do a lot ofgood in this community, and I think
(14:31):
that it's going to be really coolto see what happens over the next like
five years with us. Mistlie,I believe in what you're doing. I
think that there's a lot of goodthat can come from this. I know
that there's a need because you neededit, your family needed it. There's
millions of others out there that needit. So my willingness to help is
(14:56):
just that the next thing that wewe have been working on. It was
originally Eric's dream that he again,so he's moved from this nonprofit organization that
he's wanted to build. He's buildingit. Now. What's the next thing
that we can build and that's creatinga conference that takes what his nonprofit is
(15:22):
doing, what his podcast is doing, what our podcast is doing, and
amplifies it to the what one hundredthdegree, and it's going to be cuge,
amazing. It's definitely something that wasneeded. Whitney and I have had
many conversations when a loved one good'smissing, or it's murdered, what happens
(15:43):
next? What does the family needto know? What did they do?
What resources are out there? Andevery state it's different. Obviously, Let's
just take a young single mom thather husband died, what next? And
so many people don't know what todo. Obviously, before you're in this
true crime space, I had noclue what was needed that type of thing
(16:04):
and I think that this conference isgoing to shed a light on all of
these things. This is going toopen up so many people's eyes and open
up doors, and so that peoplelike you, Eric don't feel alone like
your mom, having no idea whichway to turn, who to turn too,
who to trust, because there areso many people out there that might
(16:29):
be spreading misinformation and doing things fortheir own profit versus helping out these families.
It's something none of us prepare for. You don't know if someone you
love will go missing or happen tobe a victim. And when we sat
down to build this, where doyou start with that? Obviously got to
(16:51):
figure out what your mission is.You got to figure out what your vision
is, what do we want,what do we expect from this conference?
What sort of information are we goingto be sharing. And we kept coming
back to building this community because,as the saying goes, it takes a
village. One person cannot do thison their own. So we created the
(17:12):
vision that we want to build acommunity where families of the missing and murdered
find unwavering support and strength within aunited and compassionate environment. So we want
people to feel safe, We wantthem to be able to share their stories.
We want people to listen to theirstories and come up with creative ways
(17:33):
to keep their loved ones in theforefront of investigators' minds, in front of
the media, because we all knowthat media roles in this industry of whether
or not something's going to actually bedone. When you have that pressure of
the media on law enforcement, they'remore willing to do something could definitely make
or break a case, that's forsure. So where it started, we
(17:57):
are still very much in the planningstages. We know that it will not
be an active conference until twenty twentyfive. We don't have this set date
yet, but look for at springtwenty twenty five. We are actively fundraising.
We will be doing a lot ofincentive based ticket sells. So if
(18:19):
this is something you're interested in doingor donating to and you want to show
up and you're ready to put iton your calendar for twenty twenty five,
you have the opportunity to buy yourticket now and be prepared to go in
twenty twenty five. And being onthe ground level, you're going to get
some extra things which aren't all setin stone yet, but we'll be there
(18:40):
soon. There's also space for ifyou have a specific skill, if you
are a private investigator, if youare an expert, I don't know,
a facial reconstructive artist, if you'rean anthropologist, if you are a scientist,
or if you have a skill thatyou think could be utilized in the
true crime industry that maybe isn't somethingcommonly thought of. Let us know,
(19:04):
all right, so please visit BWdot avcon dot com for further details.
We'll also have some links to donationsand ticket sales on that site as well.
You can also send us an emailif you have questions about the event.
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