The Mysterious Disappearance of Charlotte Heimann // Case Uncovered

True Crime Feed Takeover

Welcome back to True Crime and Headlines! As you all may know Jules is currently in the UK & Jen is working hard behind the scenes running our FEM podcast network.

While they're away, we have a very special feed takeover with some of our favorite podcasts, so you'll still get weekly episodes with cases you'll want to hear.



Today we're sharing Jen's newest episode from her nonprofit podcast, Case Uncovered. She tells the haunting story of the mysterious disappearance of Charlotte Heimann.

In 1981, Charlotte Heimann vanished from Rochester, New York just weeks before completing her Ph.D. She’d overcome incredible odds, survived a serious accident, and worked tirelessly toward a better life for herself and her daughter. But just days after telling hospital staff she feared for her safety — Charlotte walked out of the Rochester Psychiatric Center and was never seen again...

A special thank you to Charlotte's granddaughter Shyla for partnering with Jen for today's episode.

THIS EPISODE DISCUSSES THE TOPIC OF SUICIDE. LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

If you have any information about Charlotte's case, click the link below to connect with Shyla via the Charlotte Heimann Facebook group:

https://linktr.ee/justice4charlotteheimann

Connect with me on social:
Instagram: @jenriverainvestigaties
Facebook: Jen Rivera Investigates
YouTube: @jenriverainvestigates

Visit Jen's website: jenriverainvestigates.com  

Case Uncovered is a part of the non-profit Shores of Strength. It is a podcast dedicated to families of the missing and murdered who are still looking for answers about these cases. To learn more about SOS and our mission visit shoresofstrength.org  

Case Uncovered is a Reignited Media and Fire Eyes Media Production hosted by Jen Rivera.

Sources:
The Charley Project
Missing Persons Wiki
GENi
Uncovered
Crime Solvers Central
GINA
Project Cold Case

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Case Uncovered, where we
lift up the voices of the missing, the murdered, and
the ones left behind. I'm Jen Rivera, and today I'm
sharing the story of Charlotte Hyman, a brilliant young woman
with a sharp mind, a fiery spirit, and a future
that was abruptly cut short. In nineteen eighty one, Charlotte

(00:24):
vanished from Rochester, New York, just weeks before completing her PhD.
She'd overcome incredible odds, survived a serious accident, and worked
tirelessly toward a better life for herself and her daughter.
But just days after telling hospital staff she feared for
her safety, Charlotte walked out of the Rochester Psychiatric Center

(00:45):
and was never seen again. What happened to Charlotte is
still a mystery, but what's not a mystery is how
hard she tried to stay safe. She warned people, she
asked for help, and still no one protected her. This
case hits especially hard because Charlotte isn't just a missing person.

(01:07):
She was a fighter, a mother, a sister, a daughter,
and today her granddaughter, Shilah, who she never got to meet,
is continuing the fight for answers Shilah worked with me
directly on this episode, helping bring together the facts, the timeline,
and the family's perspective. Throughout this episode, I'll be sharing
clips from our conversation. Case Uncovered is part of Shores

(01:30):
of Strength, the nonprofit I founded to support families like Charlotte's.
We work to amplify these stories and stand beside those
still waiting for justice, because no family should ever have
to fight alone. If you believe in that mission, I
invite you to join us. Visit Shores of Strength dot
org to get involved, make a donation, or help share

(01:50):
these stories. Your voice matters, and together we can be
the strength that keeps these stories alive. Charlotte's story isn't
just heartbreaking, it's a call to action, one that's long overdue.
So let's dive write in. Charlotte Elaine Hyman was born

(02:44):
on July twenty third, nineteen fifty four, in Cameron, Texas.
Charlotte stood out not just for her striking green eyes
and long auburn hair, but for her drive and intellect.
She was in the final stretch of earning her doctorate, which,
as many of us know, is such a remark achievement.
Charlotte Hyman's story, as told by her younger brother, Richard,

(03:05):
haints a picture of someone who was gentle yet full
of depth. He describes her as the kind of sister
who made the world better just by being in it.
When Richard was young and ill in Kentucky, Charlotte became
his teacher and caretaker, reading to him, helping him learn
to spell, even quizzing him with math questions and rewarding

(03:26):
him with candy when he got them right. Charlotte's upbringing
was inconsistent. Richard doesn't recall much about her elementary school years,
but she went to junior high in Indiana before they
moved to Kentucky, where she dropped out around age sixteen.
Charlotte's early life was shaped by frequent moves, military ties,
and a fractured family dynamic. When Charlotte was born, her

(03:49):
family was stationed at a military base. By nineteen fifty nine,
they had moved to Hampton, Virginia. One of her siblings, Jeanne,
was born there but sadly died shortly after birth. The
next few years are unclear, but by nineteen sixty two
the family had relocated to Rochester, New York, where Richard
was born. Between nineteen sixty two and nineteen sixty nine,

(04:10):
Richard is Ensure, where Charlotte lived, but in nineteen sixty nine,
at Alice, who played the biggest role in raising the children,
divorced Ralph and married Richard Senior in East Chicago, Indiana.
By nineteen seventy they were living in Kentucky, and around
nineteen seventy one, Charlotte moved to Cincinnati, where she later
suffered a serious motorcycle accident, an event that changed the.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Course of her life. Richard believed she.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Was about nineteen when it happened, likely in nineteen seventy three.
After the accident, Charlotte returned to New York, though the
timeline is a little blurry. From nineteen seventy seven to
nineteen eighty one, Charlotte was living in Rochester, New York.
In nineteen seventy nine, she moved from a house on
North Street to an apartment on Alexander Street. There was

(04:56):
a restlessness about Charlotte, Richard said, though he wasn't sure
what it stemmed from. She was tough, a little guarded,
and had this fascination with war and combat. She'd watch
old combat shows and even sketch war scenes. Charlotte Hyman
was many things, protective, determined, complicated, but above all, deeply

(05:18):
loved by the people who knew her best. Alice once
told The Democrat and Chronicle in a nineteen eighty two interview,
She's just a tiny little squirt. Somebody could have picked
her up and put her wherever they want. She could
not defend herself against anyone, but those closest to Charlotte
knew that underneath her small frame was a fiery spirit. Millie,

(05:38):
a family member who looked up to Charlotte, remembered her
as tough in the outside, but warm and loving at heart.
Charlotte baby sat Milly when she was young, taught her
self defense, and spoiled her. Milli described Charlotte as a
tomboy who loved riding her motorcycle, someone who could be blunt,
a total asshole, she joked, but always had her back.

(05:58):
If she loved you, she said, Charlotte would give her
life for the people she cared about. Milly recalls that
Charlotte wasn't easily pushed around. She was stubborn, fiercely determined,
and had clear goals. One of them was finishing college
in Rochester to create a better life for her daughter Elisa.
Leaving Elsa behind in Ohio with Alice was incredibly hard

(06:19):
on Charlotte, but she called home often to check on her,
and she never stopped trying to balance motherhood and ambition.
According to Milly, the motorcycle accident Charlotte suffered in her
late teens was a major turning point. It humbled her
and changed her in ways that lingered before that. Charlotte
seemed invincible after she became more guarded with her emotions,

(06:40):
but still loved just as deeply. The bond between Charlotte
and her brother Joey was especially strong. Milly said, if
joe was somewhere, Charlotte was right there with him. That's
why she's certain if Charlotte had been alive, she would
have shown up to Joey's funeral even a year after
she disappeared. Milly shared that Charlotte enjoyed spending time with
her brother's Joey and Neil. She had a fierce personality,

(07:02):
a rebellious streak, and she wasn't afraid to hide it.
She was a raging bull, Millie said, but also the
kind of person who could light up a room and
fiercely protect though she cared about, which, as you can tell,
is clearly the running theme about Charlotte. Milly also mentioned
that when Charlotte was reported missing, the police response was
callous and dismissive. Alice was allegedly told, we don't have

(07:25):
time for this. Your daughter is probably in the bottom
of the Hudson River. That indifference still haunts the family.
Despite the passage of time. Charlotte hasn't been forgotten. Milly
said she would research and investigate when she could, but
she believes Shilah, Charlotte's granddaughter, has gone above and beyond.
She said Charlotte would be so proud of her, and

(07:47):
Aunt Alice would be too. Charlotte was loved dearly. This
is not just a name. In the final days of
October nineteen eighty one, Charlotte Hyman experienced what was officially
described as a drug overdose. Whether it was accidental, intentional,
or something more sinister remains unclear. What followed was in panic.

(08:09):
It was a plan the only ones she thought might
keep her safe. Charlotte voluntarily admitted herself to the Rochester
Psychiatric Center, not for treatment, but for protection. She made
it clear to hospital staff she wasn't there for psychiatric help.
She told staff she was terrified of a specific man,
someone she believed posed a serious threat to her safety,

(08:31):
and that she was hiding out. She had done everything
she could to stay safe. Then came Friday, October thirtieth,
nineteen eighty one, the day Charlotte Hyman walked out of
that hospital and was never seen again. That afternoon, Charlotte
was granted a four hour pass to leave the hospital
and pay her rent, but before she walked out, she

(08:52):
voiced her fear again. She told a nurse that the
man she was hiding from might be waiting for her
at her apartment. Then Charlotte stepped through the hospital's front
doors and into a world she didn't feel safe in.
Later that same day, a man reportedly showed up at
the psychiatric center asking for Charlotte. His identity, though was

(09:13):
never released. Was it the same man she feared, or
was it someone else Entirely to this day, we don't
know if the hospital staff or police investigated the lead.
That information has never been made public. What could have
been a pivotal clue became just another shadow in the case.
Charlotte never returned from her outing, she missed her check in,

(09:36):
she didn't go back to the hospital, and she never
returned to her apartment. She didn't call her family, her
bank account remained untouched, and her disability checks went uncollected.
These weren't the actions of someone running away. These were
the signs of someone who never had the chance to
come back. She simply vanished, and in the days and

(09:57):
weeks that followed, the silence surrounding her apples since only
grew louder. Perhaps one of the most haunting details of
all is that Charlotte's mother tried to report her missing
almost immediately, but the police refused to take the report.
It wasn't until November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty one, twenty
six days after Charlotte disappeared, that law enforcement finally opened

(10:20):
a case. By then, any hope of preserving a crime scene,
collecting evidence, or chasing viable leads had already been lost.
The trail had gone cold. Despite her mother's efforts, investigators
found no useful leads. Interviews with hospital staff, friends, her landlord,
and even local bar owners turned up absolutely nothing. Charlotte's

(10:43):
last known contact with her mother had been a phone
call on October twenty second, she said she planned to
come home for the holidays and might even move back permanently. Instead,
she vanished without a trace, without a word. The implications
of her statements before her disappearance, her fear of a
specific man, her plea for safety, her reluctance to return home,

(11:07):
points strongly to foul play. But there are no known suspects,
no surveillance footage from the time, no recovered vehicle, no
phone records, no body. Charlotte simply vanished into thin air.
Her purse and personal belongings were left at her apartment
at three twenty five Alexander Street, and there were no

(11:27):
signs of a struggle. However, a few personal checks were missing,
though none were ever cashed. Her bank account remained untouched,
and she had very limited financial resources, receiving only two
hundred and fifty dollars a month in disability payments. Whether
she was abducted from her apartment, met with foul play
on her route to pay her rents, or lured into

(11:50):
a trap by someone she knew, her disappearance was not random.
She predicted her own danger, according to multiple accounts. The
Rochester Police Department declined to take action sighting outdated and
harmful assumptions often made at the time, which were namely,
that adults had the right to disappear even when the
circumstances were clearly alarming. Now there were reported sightings of

(12:12):
Charlotte at Midtown Plaza on November thirtieth and December first,
nineteen eighty one, but those reports were never verified. The
location no longer exists, and no surveillance footage was ever recovered,
although there probably wasn't any considering the time frame in
nineteen eighty one. Despite the urgency, the investigation lacked basic

(12:34):
follow through. Charlotte's apartment was never fingerprinted, no cadaver dogs
were brought in, no nearby bodies of water were searched,
no sketch artist was used, despite it being a common
investigative tool even in nineteen eighty one. Charlotte was sometimes
described as paranoid or suicidal, but those closest to her
firmly believed she was not mentally ill. They knew her,

(12:57):
and they believed her. Charlotte talks about her experience advocating
for her grandmother and the challenges that she's faced throughout
her investigation of this case.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Take a listen.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
I started my journey on trying to locate my grandma
about ten years ago when I was eighteen.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I was in college, and I thought, you know, now.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
That I'm eighteen an adult, maybe I can look into
her case.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
So I decided. This was about twenty fourteen.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
I decided to call Rochester Police Department and you know,
asked about my grandmother's case.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
And when I did, whoever.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Answered the phone asked me if I had spoken to
Sydney Girande, which is a family member of mine, And
it didn't make sense to me at the time, but
I said, yeah, of course I spoke to Sydney, but
there's nothing to offer. So they sent me on my
way to talk to my family member Sydney, which at

(13:55):
the time, again I was eighteen, so I just looked
it at that I didn't feel that I should keep
going and look into her case at that point, so
then I decided to leave it alone. So I started
looking to her case this time. March ninth of twenty

(14:15):
twenty five. I decided to start this time around by
requesting records using a foiler request to try to get
some case details. I still don't have anything from the
boiler requests. Yet it has been about ninety days now
since I've done in the boiler requests started also by

(14:36):
reaching out to Profit Cold Case.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Early March, Crystal for Graphic.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Cold Case had emailed me and they ended up making
a face of posts and a couple other social media
posts on Charlotte and her story based on what I
had given them. They also discussed with me some questions
I could give to the police officers and to reach
out to the Dootchester Police Department to see what the

(15:05):
next steps are in her case.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
The first time I reached out to them was mid March.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
I had left a voicemail with Laurie, the head of
Missing Person's Department, and asked about my grandmother's case. Laurien
called me back on March twenty sixth and she had
told me that somebody was assigned to look over the case.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
So I was happy about that. And at that point I.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Thought, you know, Okay, somebody's assigned to the case. Something's
going to happen. We're going to move forward. So I
was excited. And then from March twenty sixth, I waited.
I made a couple of phone calls between then and
April third, when I officially talked to Investigator car from

(15:54):
the Rochester Police Department. My first phone call with him
on April third was forty minutes. I did record and
typed that whole conversation because I felt it was important
and to not miss any details and to see where
the police were in the investigation. And then after after that,

(16:14):
I typed it all up and I learned not much,
I would say. I questioned him about your investigation itself,
what led up to her going missing, the days before
she went missing, and what was going on in her
life around then. I asked about a officer that I

(16:35):
was told about by my family, and Officer Beck that
supposedly was really good friends with Charlotte at the time.
I was told that when she went missing, Officer Beck
and my great grandma Alice, as well as my great
aunt Janet went to Charlotte's apartment right after she went missing.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
I don't have the exact date, but it was shortly
after she.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Went missing, and they went to her heart to see
if it figure anything out, and at that time they
didn't see anything out of place. The only thing they
found was a white baggy of substance that was in
her closet, and that was where it was reported by
my great grandmother and my great aunt Janet that the
officer took that white substance and bagged it up and

(17:19):
then put it in his car and said he was
taking it to evidence. However, that never made it to evidence.
According to Rochester Police Department, I don't have exactly what
is in evidence of my grandmother's which is really disheartening
to not know exactly what the police are still holding
onto as it's the last memories or physical items of

(17:40):
Charlotte's that happened in the evidence locker for forty four
years now, I still today.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Don't know what evidence they still have.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
I was able to figure out from my conversations with
Detective Car that around October twenty second, Charlotte had overdosed
on substances. When asked about what substances she overdosed on,
Detective Car could not tell me what substances they weren't,
just that she had voice of the hospital on or

(18:10):
around the twenty second. He then told me that from
then she was in the hospital, and then from the
twenty second until if she went missing on October thirtieth.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Between those sevent days is when she was transferred.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
From the regular hospital to Rochester Psyde Hospital due to
the algened fact.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
That she was fearful of a man.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
I did request her psychiatric records from Rochester Pside Hospital,
and him at the Pside Hospital was more than happy
to give them to me as long as my doctor
would write a letter on my behalf that it would
be beneficial to my own mental health and physical health.
And my doctor did end up writing that letter, and

(18:57):
Rochester psych Hospital did end up sending all of the
records to my doctor's office. However, after my doctor's office
received those records, film En lawyer between then and now,
my doctor specifically, I guess spoke with the compliance officer
in my doctor's office and they feel that giving me

(19:17):
the records is a violation of the HIPPA, even though
Rochester already verified that it was not a violation. So
if they felt like it was going to be a violation,
they would have I feel they wouldn't have sent the records.
So I feel if they did all of their HIPPA
rules and policies and that will checked out, that is

(19:38):
why they said the records. So right now I do
not have any of Charlotte's mental health records or divisible
health records or anything like that. I do not have
the police records either, as I'm still waiting on the
foil requests. So back to my conversation with Detective Car,
I asked them about my grandmother because I don't really

(20:00):
know anything other than what my family has told me
about my grandmother. Investigator Car said that looking through her
file that she had a history of alcoholism as well
as struggle with her mental health. According to Investigator Car,
she said that when they interviewed people about her case,

(20:22):
a lot of her friends in close years reported that
she was paranoid a lot and frequently talked about ending
her life. However, I don't have any record of that.
This is just what Investigator Car had told me. On
top of that, during an investigation, Rochester Police Department went

(20:43):
around November thirtieth and interviewed two security officers at Midtown Plaza.
It's a plaza in Rochester that doesn't exist anymore, but
the security had reported seeing Charlotte at the Midtown Plaza
or November thirtieth, and just so her first how everyone's
speaking with Investigator Car.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
He had told me.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
That she doesn't feel personally that it would make sense
that that person was Charlotte, as that was a whole
month after she had disappeared, and nobody had any reported
sightings from the day she had disappeared until that reported sighting.
It was only a couple of blocks away from her house,
so it wouldn't make sense why she was at a

(21:26):
midtown plaza and not going home. So Investigator car went
back to the fact that the last no location of
her was the Rochester Psyde Hospital, so that was where
they were giving her last known alive location. He still
could not confirm with me if she had made it
back to her apartment or she went missing straight from

(21:49):
the nite hospital. They were never able to figure that
out or is not in the case file. I have
a lot of frustrations I feel with Rochester Police Department
because while I understand that my mother's case is forty
four years old, I feel that they should be actively
working on a new lead because we're in to them

(22:10):
twenty five now, and there's so much available technology and
resources available that they didn't have in nineteen eighty one,
and I feel a state would just sit down and
look at our case with a new set of eyes
and a new perspective and took a different avenue.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
I feel that we would make progress. I feel that.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
If it was possible to reinterview people, even though it
was forty four years ago, I feel if there was
any work being actually done on the case, that we
would have maybe some answers or have found for by now,
I personally have went on the journey to try to
find unidentified people that masked the description of my grandmother.

(22:54):
I found the unidentified person up eleven eight to oh
eight that was found in Sanoma County, California. So I
went down the rabbit hole on that and when I
contacted Investigator car as well as Sanoma County, California, I
was able to get in touch with Detective great Station

(23:15):
in Tanama County and she informed me that unidentified Jane
Jo was not my grandmother, which is sad. However, she
was being identified currently, which is happy for another family.
And I'm very happy that you know, somebody's identity will
be found after forty four years. Because that thing doo

(23:35):
was found in nineteen eighty three, it was reported or
there was some thoughts some people had talked about Charlotte
possibly being pregnant when she went missing. However, there was
no proof or documentation from an investigator car that shows
that she was pregnant, so I have no proof that

(23:56):
she did ever have another child. I've been on ants
here DNA for a while now and have not found
any lengths to any ancestors of Charlotte that would show that.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
She is still living somewhere.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
From what I've gathered, she's about five foot one inch tall.
She was about one hundred and ten one hundred and
thirty pounds when she went missing. She lives in Cameron,
Texas because my great grandmother, Alice, was married to Ralph Hinnan,
who we thought was Charlotte's father all of these years,
and she was in the military. He was in the

(24:34):
Army and he was stationed in Cameron, Texas. So that
is why Charlotte was born in Cameron, Texas. But throughout
the years, she only through her twenty seven years before
she went missing, she moved to on a few states,
Ohio being one of them, here in Cincinnati where some
of us live, Kentucky where some of our other relatives live,

(24:58):
in Guiana, where Millie lives, who is Charlotte's cousin, and
Millie is the one I interviewed to talk about Charlotte
and to gain some information about Charlotte. Charlotte also lived
in New York as well as Texas. Knowing that she
moved around so many states in so many places in
our short twenty seven years plays a role and maybe

(25:21):
her story, you know, in her life and never having
maybe a sense of.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Home or belonging.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
I remember it was really hard for my family to
talk about Charlotte growing up. The only thing I knew
when I was a child about my grandma Charlotte was
in our living room. We had a photo frame. It
was a four x six photo of Charlotte and her
brother Joey, my uncle, my great uncle Joey, who passed
away in a car accident a year after Charlotte disappeared,

(25:52):
and that was in my living room and anywhere we
moved as a kid, that photo was always in our
living room. So that's the memory I had of Charlotte.
It's a picture that has been shared all over. There's
also a baby picture of Charlotte that was in our
living room that my mom always kept up as well.
So those are the two memories I have of Charlotte.

(26:14):
But other than that, I really don't know her. Growing up,
I actually created my own story of how Charlotte went.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Missing because I didn't know we would talk about it.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
I just knew that my grandmother went missing, so you know,
I just I pictured somebody snatching her up, like in
the movies or something like that.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
So it's kind of crazy to think that this is real.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Life, it's not the movies, and that this is our
personal life. Alice talked about how fraggle and little she was,
but then when interviewing Milly Millie would talk about how
fierce Charlotte was and how you know she she knew
self defense, and that she had a top exterior but
a loving heart, so she was she was a very kind,

(26:58):
loving person, but also so it could be tough. Miliary
referred to her as an asshole sometimes, and that Charlotte
thought it was funny to be an asshole to people,
which I think is funny because I relate I am
the same way. So it makes me happy to know
that there are some traits that I have from my
grandmother even though I've never met her. And then I

(27:21):
talked to my great uncle Richard, who is the only
living sibling of Charlotte, and I asked him if there
was something he wanted to tell me about Charlotte, and
you know who she was as a sister, and he
said that she was a wonderful sister and that if
anyone had a sister.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Like her, the world would be a better place.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
He remembers, you know, when he was young, he was
born very very premature and had a lot of medical issues,
and Charlotte was eight years older than him, so he
remembers Charlotte being, you know, like a motherly figure to him,
but of course she was his big sister and for him,
and he remembers Charlotte teaching him how to read, and

(28:05):
teaching him math problems, and teaching how to spell, and
that Charlotte would give him candy every time he got
a question. Rate he talked about how she loved her
siblings and loved Joey the most. Joey's the one that
passed away in a car accident a year after Charlotte
went missing. And everybody in our family truly believes that

(28:27):
if Charlotte was still alive and living a year after
her disappearance, that she would have some way communicated with
somebody in the family or would have been present at
Joey's funeral because of how strong their relationship was. So
it was really disheartening, and a lot of the family
members automatically thought that Charlotte was dead after that, because

(28:51):
they truly believed that Charlotte would have never missed Joey's funeral.
So that really hit me in the gut because if
that was true.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Role for her brother was kind of like.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Closure for some people in the family, while others like
me will not stop the look for Charlotte until she's
actually found.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Now, there were more leads that were never fully explored
by the Rochester Police Department. Joe Nasso a name that
surfaced more than once in the shadows of Charlotte's story.
A convicted serial killer from California. Nasa was found guilty
in twenty thirteen of murdering four women between the nineteen
seventies and nineteen nineties. His victims, all women, were strangled

(29:36):
and discarded near remote roadsides. But long before his arrest,
Nassau led a life that often slipped beneath the radar,
one that included frequent travel between California and Rochester between
nineteen seventy seven and nineteen eighty three, the very window
during which Charlotte Hyman vanished. Nassau moved back and forth
between the two states. Records show that he once lived

(29:59):
at two twenty Oxford Street and later at five sixteen
Short Street, both Rochester addresses located just blocks from Charlotte's
last known location. The overlap is chilling. Meanwhile, Naso's own writings,
discovered decades later during a probation search, revealed a handwritten
list of ten ten women initials, cities lose. He kept

(30:25):
photos of unconscious women, journals filled with violent fantasies. It
was a private archive of horror hidden in plain sight.
Was Charlotte supposed to be one of them? The connection
has never been formally made, but the timelines due align,
the geography overlaps and the man she feared he may

(30:45):
have been closer than anyone realized. Joe Nasso wasn't just
passing through Rochester. He lived there, right in the heart
of the city where Charlotte vanished without a trace. It's
a lead that demands more than passing attention. And then
there's the Shannon family, a name quietly woven into Charlotte's
past but never publicly examined. Charlotte's daughter never knew her

(31:07):
biological father. His identity remained unclear for decades, but recent
genealogical research and DNA tracing had brought new details to light.
A confirmed match links Charlotte's granddaughter to Kenneth Shannon, a
man with direct Rochester ties. Kenneth had three brothers, Charles, James,
and Raymond Shannon, and together they formed a family with

(31:30):
a long tangled history in the area. Their mother, Dorothy Featherlely,
owned forty eight acres of land off Long Pond Road
in Rochester. For years, that stretch of property sat untouched, dense, wooded,
and isolated. It was the kind of place where you
could scream and no one would hear, the kind of
place where someone could vanish and never be found. That

(31:54):
land was only sold recently, decades after Charlotte disappeared. What
makes it us more than coincidence is the silence surrounding
the family. Little is known about the Shannon brothers during
the early nineteen eighties, where they were living, what they
were doing, or if they knew Charlotte directly, But the
connection through blood uncovered only through modern DNA testing. Inside

(32:16):
a relationship Charlotte may have kept hidden or once she
was afraid of. Did Charlotte know something she wasn't ready
to share? Could one of the Shannon men have played
a role in her disappearance? Or was the proximity of
that forty eight acre tract just another chilling coincidence in
a case full of them. We may never know what
secrets the land on Long Pond Road once held, but

(32:39):
the fact that Charlotte's family tree leads directly there, that
her granddaughter's DNA ties her to a family with remote
property and deep ruts in Rochester, well that can't be ignored.
We are left with so many more questions rather than answers.
What if the man Charlotte feared was one of them?
What if she told someone the truth and was dismissed
as paranoid. What if one of those men were interviewed

(33:01):
by police and simply labeled her troubled so no deeper
questions were asked? And what if buried in those interviews
is the truth about what really happened to Charlotte Hyman?
What she abducted from her apartment before she could even
step inside, Did she make it home and encounter that
man that she feared. Was she intercepted along the way

(33:23):
on a bus route she likely used. Was she lured
by someone she trusted or forced into silence by someone
she couldn't escape. What happened to her? Each possibility points
toward the same conclusion. This was not random.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Nobody, of course knows what happens.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
But from theories that have come about for Charlotte's disappearance
have emerged from both family members and from people around
the world on websites, I've found that some of them
seem logical.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Some of them are based.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
More on feelings of, you know, being part of the
family or gut feeling.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
So one of the theories was as the she just
left theory.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Rochester Police Department really settled on that theory.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
I feel I was being guided to that theory.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
That Rochester thinks that she was just a young mother
under a lot of pressure and just wanted to walk
away from her life. They reported that she could have
had personal barriers and due to the fear of the
man and the struggles with alcoholism and mental health, they
feel that she could have just up and left and
started a new life and nobody would have ever known. However,

(34:31):
our family feels that with her being so close to
the family and her brother Joey, when having a four
year old daughter at the time, my mother Lisa that
Charlotte wan no matter how down she was or in
a tough spot, she wouldn't have abruptly left all of
the family and the support that she had. So the

(34:53):
theory of she just left is not a theory that
I completely agree with.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
It's not good enough for me.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
I don't feel that people that plan to up and
leave are planning their future like Charlotte was.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Charlotte was in college, she had.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Goals and dreams, and you know, she didn't pack up
her belongings, and you'd.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Think that if somebody was gonna up.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
And leave, you'd at least take your belongings with you,
like your clothing. None of that was taken with her,
not her identification, her purse, nothing, So that theory doesn't
sit well with me. The next theory that is talked
about is of course felt.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Way by a stranger.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
Is so she was pretty little, she did have that
injury to her leg, and so the question is could
she really defend herself from somebody, whether or not she
knew self, ifness or or not. She was a very
little person and technically disabled with her leg So the
question is if she crossed paths with somebody who thought

(35:56):
she was an easy target due to her limp or
because they saw her leave being Rochester psych Hospital and
thought that she was an easy target because she was
mentally ill. That theory, obviously isn't ruled out. The next
theory that I just talked about a lot is somebody
that she knew. Obviously, statistics show that it is often
most likely and explained that somebody the victim of doos

(36:20):
is usually harmed by somebody close to them, like spouses
or friends or neighbors.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
So what it did with somebody she knew? Who was
the man.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
That he reported that she feared? How did this man
know that Charlotte was at the Life Center? Why did
that man come to see her at the Slafe Center?
While was it that man that came to speak with
the nurse at the Site Center? Wasn't appear from college?
Was it her ex boyfriend? It could be somebody that
she knew that harmed her. It could be that the

(36:52):
father of my mother didn't want her to have my mother,
or he wanted involvement with my mother and was angry
about that could have been retaliation. These are, of course,
just theories. They also have a theory, which this one
was not very logical whatsoever, a theory that Charlotte was

(37:15):
taking some sort of forensic science classes and participated in
some autopsy and revealed something that she wasn't supposed to see.
They feel that something put her in danger and that
maybe she learned something she shouldn't have. So some people
think the theory of it's a corrupt law enforcement case. Again,

(37:38):
I don't feel that that's a real logical theory whatsoever.
Another theory is mental health and addiction. Of course, Charlotte
is reported that she struggled, maybe Cherlete more than people
weren't aware of. I was told by Milly that the
motorcycle accident that she had when she was about nineteen
years old changed her not only physically but mentally. She

(38:01):
did struggle a little bit with the pain pills that
were prescribed after all her surgeries, and it could have
been much more than just a short term fix. We're
unaware if she was still using substences or what kind
of substances she was using as October twenty second, or
around that time. She did have that overdose, so there's

(38:22):
another theory of you know, did she decide to take
her own life?

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Then I look into that theory.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
If she were to take her own life, wouldn't she
have been found by Now, people that tend to take
their lives don't typically hide me themselves when they're going
to take their lives. I just don't believe in that theory.
I've had quite a few family members in my life,
including my dad and my mother in law, who have
committed suicide, So I with the experience that I have

(38:52):
in suicide, I truly believe that Charlotte would have been found.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
But actually wrong. It's another theory of a serial killer.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
So when doing some digging, there are a few serial
killers that I had found when doing my research, and
one of them was Arthur's Shawcross and he was from
the Rochester area. He had murdered many people. But when

(39:22):
talking with investor investigator car he didn't feel that that
theory fits. I also looked into Arthur Shawcross because of
the time frame, and I learned that he was actually
incarcerating at the time that Charlotte had went missing. But

(39:43):
there was another serial killer around that time.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
That was active in that area.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
So, Joe Nasso is a serial killer that's known for
killing women from New York to California, and he is
now incarcerated.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
They tried to get.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Him for the eighty c murders in Rochester, which were
the murders of three that I know of, three young
girls in the area. Their cases are still unsolved, and
they thought that she could have had something to do
with it. He also was charged with killing women in California.

(40:30):
He moved from Rochester to California, but also trans was
transit from California to Rochester because he was born in
Rochester and his address. He had two addresses, and both
of his addresses that he had were close to my

(40:51):
grandmother's addresses in New York. So she lived on North
three at one point before she moved into Alixander Street
and from Alexander Street, Jo Naso only lived two blocks
from her at the time of her disappearance. So I

(41:11):
connected those two together because I felt that there was
a lead to Joe Naho. I still feel that there
could be a lead to Jo Naso. It's not ruled out, However,
I'm not an investigator. I wish that the Rochester Police
Department would look more into that and to see if

(41:33):
Joe Naso was around that area around that time, he
could have been killed by Yum Naso. I know that's
an out there type of faery, however, with his extensive history,
I just feel there's too much of a coincidence. So
when looking at that, up that I'm a gentified person.

(41:54):
Eleven eight eight then tried to also link j Naso
to her as well when there's looking into that. But
that's also why I felt that I should look into
Dymnaso on my grandmother because of the connections.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Charlotte's disappearance wasn't the result of carelessness, confusion, or a
desire to run. It was the result of something calculated, targeted,
and likely premeditated. Her own words, actions, and mounting fear
make that clear. She anticipated danger, she tried to avoid it,
she asked for help, and still no one protected her.

(42:33):
The truth is, someone out there knows someone crossed her
path that day October thirtieth, nineteen eighty one, and changed
the course of her life and her family's lives forever,
whether out of malice, obsession, or a desire to silence her.
That person has never been held accountable. The man she

(42:53):
feared still nameless, and whether he was ever seriously investigated,
remains a mystery. So that leads us to another haunting question,
which has been quietly whispered but never confirmed. Some believed
that Charlotte may have been pregnant when she vanished, just
a few weeks, a long maybe enough to raise questions

(43:13):
about who the father was and whether that pregnancy had
anything to do with the man she was so afraid of.
There are no medical records to confirm it, nor is
there any definitive proof, But in a case already marked
by fear, silence, and missed opportunities, the possibility of pregnancy
only stirs up more unanswered questions about what really happened
that day Charlotte left to pay her rent. Charlotte Hymen's

(43:36):
disappearance has gained national attention through organizations like Project Cold
Case and the Charlie Project, both of which worked bring
visibility to long term missing persons cases. Project Cold Case
has featured Charlotte's story as part of their mission to
support families of the missing and keep unresolved cases in
the public eye, hoping that new information may still come forward.

(43:57):
The Charlie Project a well known missing person. Since database
provides a detailed account of Charlotte's case. It highlights her
voluntary psychiatric admission as a protective measure not a result
of mental illness, and documents her fear that someone might
be waiting for her at her apartment the day she vanished.
The site also points to systemic failures, including the month

(44:19):
long delay before police accepted a missing persons report, which
critically impacted the investigation.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
I again started the journey around March ninth, and I
have tried to reach out to.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Anyone that would listen to this story. So I have
reached out to Rochester Police Department. I've reached out to
many podcasts.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
I've reached out to Facebook groups, including over fifty Facebook
groups for missing persons.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
I have made my.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Own Facebook group called Charlotte Hinman Missing nineteen eighty one,
and through that I've been trying to gather any information
I can on Charlotte's case and actually gave information to
as many people on Charlotte's case because I'm trying to
spread awareness. The Cold Case project they did It's special

(45:16):
on Charlotte for me, which I felt was great advocacy.
I'm trying to reach out to as many public forums
that I can to get her word out and to
get her story out. I've reached out to news articles,
including the Democrat and Chronicle, who did write an article
on her in nineteen eighty two. They responded to me

(45:38):
and stated that they were going to have a reporter
get in contact with me in late spring their early
summer to do a story on Charlotte. I also reached
out to WXI. I believe it is in Rochester's a
news outlet, and I talked to one of the writers
there and he had told me that if at all possible,

(46:02):
if I could set myself up with a trick to Rochester,
you know, make some noise on her case in front
of the police department or somewhere, that he would be
willing to write a story to get her word out there,
because those are the types of stories that he does.
I believe Charlotte is one of the ones that have
been forgotten to in forty four years now, and through

(46:24):
my research, I don't see enough advocacy for her. When
I'm talking about the aspect of law enforcement, Rochester Police
Department has a complete website dedicated to unsolved homicide cases. However,
they have not a single resource or website dedicated to
the missing persons in Rochester. It makes me feel and

(46:46):
families feel that missing persons in Rochester aren't taken seriously
and that they're brushed off. I feel that there's not
enough work being done towards DNA and identification of unidentified
bodies and bones. I think that's a worldwide issue for
identifying bones and bodies. But I truly believe that Charlotte

(47:11):
is potentially on the shelf somewhere her body and her
bones have been found, and that they have not tested.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I do not know how it is.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Possible, after forty four years for somebody's body to just
still not be found.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
I just can't comprehend. It.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
Emailed a lot of people, including the author m DNA,
people that I've been solving a lot of cold cases,
anybody that will listen, I've been.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Trying to advocate for Charlotte.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
On top of that, and on top of my busy
life as a mom and a social worker. I am
trying to write a book about Charlotte and about my
journey and what is going on Charlotte growing up and
how her life looked before she went in a saying,
and what is going on now?

Speaker 2 (48:05):
For four years later, still with no answers.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
It has now been four decades since anyone saw Charlotte Hyman.
Four decades of silence, four decades without answers, and still
no arrests, no confessions, no closure. Despite this, though, Shila
continues to fight to find answers about what happened to
her grandmother. Although the case remains unsolved, the fight to

(48:33):
uncover what really happened to bring Charlotte home continues not
by detectives or officials, but by family, by Shilah, and
that means the story isn't over yet. If you have
any information, no matter how small it may seem, please
contact Shila via the Charlotte Hyman Facebook page. I'll have

(48:55):
the links available in the show notes below. Your tip
could be the one that finally brings answers to her family.
I want to personally thank Shilah for partnering with me
to bring you this episode. Thank you so much for
joining me today for this episode of Case Uncovered and
for listening to Charlotte's story. Make sure to connect with
me on Facebook and Instagram at Jen Rivera Investigates And

(49:20):
until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and stay safe
out there. Fire Eyes, media,