Episode 295

When 23-year-old Ellie Weik vanished from her West Chester, Ohio home on July 29, 2018, her journal entries and messages revealed a dangerous presence in her life. Over the course of a month, detectives unraveled a web of deception, catfishing, and stalking, all leading to someone she already knew.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
It's crazy, I know, right, That's why I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
Man, It's just it's kind of spooky stuff.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
It is spooky stuff, isn't it. We like spooky stuff
around here, don't we? SaaS holes? Hello, Happy Thursday. Welcome
to your favorite podcast, Sword and Scale, Season twelve, Episode
two ninety five, The show that reveals what doors busses

(00:43):
are real. Well, if you haven't checked out Sort and Scales,
you know, I don't know what to tell you. We
got one out right now. That's pretty intense, and you

(01:08):
might want to take a look if you're interested in
the true crime genre, because these things are. It takes
a lot out of me to make one of these episodes,
It really does.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
I mean wow.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Imagine you're twenty three living in a small town in
god forsake in Ohio. Life here isn't exactly exciting, so
you chase excitement wherever you can. Parties, festivals, raves, do
they still do raves, New faces and old acquaintances. Some

(02:35):
days you barely know half the people you're with. You
smoke of course, you dance, you draw, and for a
few hours you let the music drown everything out. You're
a free spirit. But eventually the music fades, the lights
go off, and you're back in your bedroom, feeling that
ache of deep loneliness that you just can't shake. Your

(02:59):
room is is a mess, littered with sketches, collages, and
little scraps of ideas that don't quite come together. You
feel like an artist, but to live like a homeless person.
The faint scent of weed lingers in the air, mingling
with the smell of incense, probably a few hints of

(03:19):
petuli as well. Gail, your gecko is a sleep inner tank.
You're right, little reminders to love yourself and keep going.
I mean, somebody has to, even when you feel like
you don't matter, which is becoming a more frequent occurrence.
You scrawl big letters into a bullet journal, filling page

(03:41):
after page after page.

Speaker 6 (03:43):
Anyone that wants to date me wants to hurt themselves.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
This is just how things are. You try not to
think about it, but it's there, this feeling that you're
not worthy of happiness or love, that somehow everyone you
meet will leave you in the end. Weird I thought
I was the only one who felt that. It starts

(04:08):
in January. One cold night. You're mindlessly scrolling checking messages.
You're used to chatting with people you know, random party friends,
the guy from last week's smoke session, etc. But then
a message comes in from someone new, a guy named
cun Joe. Who the hell is cun Joe. You don't

(04:33):
know him, but you're curious, so you accept his Facebook
friend request and start chatting. At first, there's nothing out
of the ordinary. You're used to people hitting you up
out of nowhere like this, so you don't think much
of it. A few days later, after some casual banter
with this guy, he sends you another message. This one

(04:56):
makes your heart skip a beat.

Speaker 7 (04:58):
Just want to show you it's not that hard to
find someone unless they don't want to be found. I
worry about my privacy as well. My social and personal
info is on my license. That's why I don't share,
because you could show that to anyone, and if I'm
not sleeping with you, it's hard to trust you.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
After this message is a screenshot of your address. This
person knows exactly where you live.

Speaker 7 (05:30):
Just saying if anyone goes missing, it's not hard to find.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Lol, what does that mean? That's what you're thinking. At
least a few days go by and more messages come through.

Speaker 7 (05:45):
I can't stop. You seem like the type that likes
to be choked, force fed, and held down.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Your stomach turns. He's included a photo. It's a collage
of your own selfies overlaid with a sea of penises.
Does this person know that you like to do collages?
Is this there a twisted way of turning something you
enjoy into something disturbing? The next message isn't from kun Joe.

(06:18):
It's from a random text me number.

Speaker 7 (06:22):
I will never get you. Was it real?

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Who could be doing this? And why? Could it be
someone you knew at another time in your life? Could
it be someone you've never met? They're obviously dedicated to
the con because the creepy messages don't let up. It's
April now, and you're sitting at your dining room table
with a big poster board laid out in front of you.

(06:47):
As you meticulously glue and place each new image, you
get another message. It's the same text me number, but
this time they've said something new, something much scarier. You
don't want to look, but you can't help yourself, can you.
The video opens and your heart sinks. It's you, right there,

(07:11):
sitting at your dining room table. The camera is low,
like the voyeur was crouched just outside the patio furniture,
filming you through the window. You feel your heart pounding

(07:51):
in your throat. As you replay the video again and again,
you look at the angle and the way the camera
dips lightly, as if the person holding it was crouching.
They were there, right there, only feet away from you,
and you never even knew it. That's it. This isn't

(08:11):
someone just being weird. This is dangerous. This is someone
making unwanted contact. You close the tab and click the
phone icon, frantically punching in nine one one. You tell
them everything, the messages, the video, how it feels like
you're being hunted. They listen and you file a report.

(08:34):
But it doesn't make you feel much better, does it.
So you grab your journal and you start writing.

Speaker 6 (08:40):
Why can't I stop the thoughts in my head? I
don't want to look. I don't feel safe. I don't
feel safe. I don't feel safe. No one loves me.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
These are the words of twenty three year old Ellie Wyke.

Speaker 6 (08:54):
Don't ignore your gut or red flags. You can sense evil.
Stay in tune with your senses.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
She wrote it, but it wasn't enough. She still felt
the weight of the anonymous voyeur pressing down on her
every day.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
There is no comfort, There is no safety, only acid
in my reign. The world will go on without me.
I don't matter, but sadly I do exist.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
For Ellie, the fear wasn't just in the messages or
the video. It was in everything, the way she thought
about herself. She felt like no one could help. She
felt completely alone, and the truth was she was alone.
No one was taking her seriously. The cop who filed

(09:43):
the official statement was supposed to be in charge of
Ellie's case, but he failed a log important evidence, and
the whole thing was on a path to nowhere. Some
cops are better than others, I guess. In the middle
of this, Ellie was still looking for connection, something to
hold on in the chaos. She was talking to a
lot of people, some of them were guys she liked,

(10:05):
but nothing was panning out the way she'd hoped. That's
when Nate Peters texted her. Nate Peters wasn't a close
friend but they'd hung out before, they'd smoked together, They'd
gone to a few of the same parties. He was familiar,
and in this moment, familiar felt safe.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Hey stranger, who dis Nate? How's it going? New number?
My bad?

Speaker 6 (10:35):
Meet? Who?

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Peters? Do you know a lot of nate'sl.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
Yes, actually hoping it was you. Though.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
For Ellie, these conversations were a small escape. Over the
next few weeks, they kept in touch, and by late
July they were making plans to meet up and rekindle
their friendship.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
What you doing later? Like?

Speaker 6 (10:57):
What time later?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I have no clue? Probably wait, so I shouldn't even ask.

Speaker 6 (11:02):
Yeah, if my mom's home, I wouldn't want you to
come over.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
In the early morning of July twenty eighth, twenty eighteen,
when they both knew Ellie's mom wouldn't be around, Nate
suggested they hang out. Ellie agreed.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
I'm not bringing my phone. Is it cool if I
just knock?

Speaker 6 (11:21):
Bring the doorbell a few times, all at once, see
you soon.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Ellie left her house that night, unaware that everything was
about to change. The streets were dark and empty, just
like her life had felt for the last few months.
It was late and she was tired, tired of being scared,
and tired of feeling alone. There in the stillness of

(11:46):
the air, she convinced herself that this was just another hangout,
that Nate was just a friend. The alarm bells in
her head fell silent. She didn't know at the time
that sometimes the familiar can hide the greatest danger. Sometimes

(12:07):
trusting the wrong person can be a fatal mistake.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
M hmm.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
At just twenty three years old, Ellie Wyke was a
free spirited soul trying to navigate the loneliness and uncertainty
of young adulthood in west Chester, Ohio. You know, the
entertainment hub of the US. Just kidding, don't ever go
to Ohio. It sucks AnyWho. Ellie longed for connection, filling

(13:25):
her days with art, journaling and fleeting friendships, but beneath
her vibrant exterior was a growing sense of fear. For months,
Ellie had been targeted by an anonymous stalker. Unsettling messages
had escalated to invasive, voyeuristic videos. Her world, once chaotic
but manageable, was becoming dangerous. Despite making a report to

(13:51):
the police, Ellie's christ for help went unanswered. Her journal
entries revealed the depth of her fear and isolation. Still,
Ellie tried to move forward, clinging to hope that familiarity
could bring comfort. When an old friend, Nate Peters, reached out,
Ellie hoped she'd find that comfort. On July twenty eighth,

(14:14):
twenty eighteen, the two made plans to meet up. After
sending the text messages that arranged their meeting, Ellie was
never heard from again. At first, her absence didn't raise alarms.
It wasn't unusual for her to disappear for a day
or two. She was, after all, a so called free
spirit and had a tendency to drift between friend groups.

(14:36):
But when Ellie's mom returned home on August first, after
spending a few days with her boyfriend, she couldn't reach
her daughter. The house was eerily quiet, Ellie's car had
not moved, and she wasn't answering the phone. That's when
her mom made a call to the Westchester Police. The
investigation began slowly. Ellie's lifestyle made it hard to pinned

(15:00):
down where she might have gone, and at first the
police treated her disappearance like a young adulthood simply walked away.
Apparently None of the detectives working the case thought to
connect the stalking report to her disappearance, but Ellie's friends
reminded them, offering up text messages where Ellie had told

(15:22):
them each separately about her stalker. So one friend, she said.

Speaker 6 (15:27):
That person started sending me texts again, and.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
She sent this to someone else.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
Did I tell you someone's been stalking me? Like they've
been taking videos looking inside my house, watching me and
then sending them to me. I can't afford to move
right now, and I'm probably going to delete my Facebook.
I'm also buying a taser soon. My problem is the
person stalking me is anonymous, so IDK how much danger
I'm in.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Police began pouring through Ellie's phone records, and buried within
them was a name. And now we're going to play
a little game called am I smarter than the average sasshole?
Can you guess what name it was? I mean, we've
only mentioned one, and it wasn't Leroy Jenkins. It was
Nate Peters. Nate had been in contact with Ellie just

(16:13):
hours before she vanished. Naturally, he was the best place
to start.

Speaker 8 (16:18):
You go about Nate, by the way, Yeah, how'd you
meet her. Everybody seems to meet this girl like concerts, oh, camping, No,
so because she was friends with Zach.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
I was over hanging out with Zach, and I guess she.

Speaker 9 (16:30):
Had some mental breakdown at the time we hung out,
like a total of maybe three times and then like
outside of the Zach situation, but even then.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
It was only maybe for an hour or so. Okay.

Speaker 9 (16:44):
I knew she had like bipolar or other mental issues
and stuff, so she was prescribed to pills and things.
But that's that's about all I know. Like I said,
we weren't like, we weren't really close or anything.

Speaker 10 (16:56):
So what do you think about all this?

Speaker 4 (16:58):
I had no idea. Well, I hope she's okay.

Speaker 9 (17:02):
I haven't seen her in six seven.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
Months something like that.

Speaker 10 (17:06):
Okay, what's the last time you talked to her?

Speaker 9 (17:09):
Probably about last time.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
I saw her?

Speaker 9 (17:11):
Was the last time you had phone conversations?

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Probably longer than that.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
I sort call me, but I usually take texts.

Speaker 10 (17:19):
Okay, what's the last time you texted with it?

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (17:21):
I attempted to call her as soon as I.

Speaker 10 (17:26):
Past what day was at the second?

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Okay?

Speaker 9 (17:30):
I think yeah, Like as soon as I found out,
I was like, sure, my phone doesn't have anything to
task more account as. So it's been you know, minimum
six months since I've actually talked to her.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Though Nate was adamant about this, the text messages suggested otherwise,
so detectives pressed him. It made sense that he'd use
a texting app to make these final plans. If Nate
was the reason for Ellie's disappearance.

Speaker 8 (17:57):
Have you ever used texting app? Again, you're not in trouble. Yeah,
here's what you gotta remember. Okay, I'm looking for this girl. Okay,
everyone's looking for this grill, looking for this girl, this
grip as.

Speaker 11 (18:11):
I remember that we do investigations before we've been talking
to so some of these questions I'm asking you, I
kind of know the answers to you, and I'm kind
of trying to see if you're gonna be honest with
you now, Okay, Okay.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
So.

Speaker 12 (18:24):
Would it surprise you if I told you that that
you were using a text app at.

Speaker 10 (18:28):
Some point to communicate with her?

Speaker 12 (18:31):
Kick, I'll have maybe text now if you have two texts?

Speaker 10 (18:35):
Now me any of that.

Speaker 11 (18:38):
Okay, So you had no plans to meet up with
her over the weekend before she went missing.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Okay, what I'm dealing with.

Speaker 12 (18:46):
I'm dealing with a lot of social media and a
lot of set hide to who people are with me,
and I just I'm not quite sure that some of
the stuff you're telling me is completely accurate.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
At this point, I think you've had more.

Speaker 11 (18:59):
Contact with her text wise, but you know, I don't.

Speaker 10 (19:04):
I don't know that for a fact.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
As the interview went on, detectives noticed that Nate seemed
to be trying to steer the conversation. It seemed like
he wanted to shift the blame onto someone else.

Speaker 8 (19:16):
These text apps, if you will, Yeah, they give you
a number, so when we.

Speaker 10 (19:20):
See him, they start popping up his numbers.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
Okay with me?

Speaker 10 (19:23):
Yeah, what do you think happening to her?

Speaker 4 (19:26):
I mean, you know better than I do. Uh No, Honestly,
I tell you the truth. I had no idea.

Speaker 9 (19:31):
You know, I don't know if like she wanted to
just like pack up on the way, or if she
got to say anything like that to you. Like I said,
I hadn't talked to her since before Mark.

Speaker 8 (19:41):
You guys, ever, more than friends you have you never
slept with her?

Speaker 10 (19:45):
Because I mean, she's there's nothing wrong with her.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, no, no, there's a lot of.

Speaker 8 (19:49):
Indications that she was, you know, free with the film,
which is fine nuggets nuggets, that's what I've heard.

Speaker 9 (19:54):
But no, because she had also talk to me about
how she'd and like rage and stuff. Okay, So I wanted.

Speaker 8 (20:02):
To at least be that sort of guy that would
not press her.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Who Richard, if you will.

Speaker 9 (20:08):
The only person that I know was a guy named
Michael Strauss that was like years and years ago, and
you know, I haven't seen him and even longer than that.

Speaker 8 (20:18):
Okay, So did she have any concerns about him hang
around here recently?

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Nothing?

Speaker 9 (20:22):
I know, Okay, you know, it kind of concerns me
because she had told me that he had done that
to her, and then she had mentioned she had family
members that had done that to her, and then it
and then like one of her ex boyfriends she said
had done it to her. And it's one of those
it seems like, you know what point he says, this
person actually crying wool or as they insteady just like

(20:43):
an almost person that constantly just gets free.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
So this Michael Strauss guy was the next person to
be hunted down, but in the meantime, the police planned
to take Nate's phone in for evaluation. The next time
they saw him, they had a search warrant in hand.

Speaker 13 (21:01):
We get lied to all the time. We definitely know
quite a bit about the iOS system as well, and
we have resources to show us that if an AP's
been the leader or not. We have resources to show
us UH deleted information from a phone. But is there
any way we could we could arrange a time today

(21:21):
to download certain information off of your phone within a
within this time frame to verify that what you're telling
us is true?

Speaker 10 (21:30):
Is that something that you.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Would be that you would even consider? Be sure?

Speaker 13 (21:35):
No, I understand, understand, and that's that's that's well within
your right and I and I respect you for knowing
your rights. What I what I would have to tell you.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
Though, is.

Speaker 13 (21:46):
That I do I do have a warrant to take
your phone.

Speaker 10 (21:50):
But I've been totally upfront with you. I'm not lying
to you.

Speaker 13 (21:53):
The reason that I gave you is is totally honest.
Someone is trying to use what I believe someone is
trying to use and associated with you, or at least
linked to you, to show that you had contact with
ATLI much more recent than you're telling us.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Someone is trying to use a number associated with you.
Why is this cop trying to give away their game plan?
Why is he acting like the suspects defense attorney. I mean,
I'm all for citizens having rights, but do we really
need to handhold and spoon feed suspects they're only possible

(22:29):
defense strategy. It's almost like he's saying, hey, dummy, say
that you didn't have your phone on you say you
gave it to a buddy or something. Despite these detectives
seemingly really wanting to give the suspects some helpful legal
tips during the interrogation, their actual job now required them

(22:50):
to gather information on this new lead, Michael Strauss, to
better understand him. They reached out to someone who had
known Michael for you years, his neighbor.

Speaker 10 (23:02):
I'm a BCI estimation. I just wonder if I sit
down with you and ask us some question. Did you
with treason or Michael? I really can't stay not Tristan.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
So so.

Speaker 10 (23:15):
Do you know are you friends with anybody that lives
over there? Yeah?

Speaker 14 (23:18):
I'm they're like family to meet with all of them,
Christian and Noah, not Michael.

Speaker 10 (23:23):
Yeah, so I'm not really asking about them. Okay, okay,
I'll ask about Michael.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
This kid, also in his early twenties, had grown up
next to the Strauss family for over fifteen years and
was close friends with Michael's brother, but Michael not so
much those who are like.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
One of best friends, and I mean I know Michael.

Speaker 10 (23:44):
Has Michael been living there the whole time.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
Or pretty much?

Speaker 14 (23:48):
He lived in California I think for like three months
and that was recently, Okay, when did he come back
to you know.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
Like a month or doo ago? Within the Yeah, have.

Speaker 10 (24:00):
You ever seen who drives which car?

Speaker 4 (24:02):
Like?

Speaker 10 (24:02):
Which cars does Michael drives? Specifically?

Speaker 14 (24:05):
I don't think he has a car or he probably
he probably doesn't have.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
A valid license if I had to guess, I mean.

Speaker 10 (24:13):
What do you know about him?

Speaker 4 (24:14):
For me?

Speaker 10 (24:15):
Now you're smiling?

Speaker 4 (24:17):
He's an injuries and garagter h. There's a lot about him.

Speaker 14 (24:21):
This stuff in his room is kind of weird, Like
I guess he like doesn't like the government and stuff
like that. He used to have like in his basement,
like a flag that said Marines and then like he
wrote like lies on it, and then like one that
said like us army and it said like deception or
something stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
What the neighbor says next would become crucial information for
detectives once they had Michael Strauss in an interrogation room.

Speaker 14 (24:50):
Like in high school, he played football, but he seemed
a lot more I guess normal in high school.

Speaker 10 (24:56):
Yeah, I mean, yes, he's not that crazy.

Speaker 15 (25:01):
But what do you know?

Speaker 10 (25:03):
What about what most people think he is?

Speaker 4 (25:05):
What about him is crazy? Just stuff that he wears, the.

Speaker 10 (25:08):
Music that he listens zoo, stuff like that.

Speaker 14 (25:13):
I don't think he's had a job in a while,
but he always has some story that we know isn't
true about like some job that.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
He's doing or something.

Speaker 10 (25:23):
But he actually it's hard to tell.

Speaker 14 (25:25):
It's hard to tell the truth from the non truth
because he actually when he went to California, I know
he did something there.

Speaker 10 (25:32):
Like, man, you wouldn't believe any amount of stories this
guy said.

Speaker 14 (25:35):
It's like a one way He said he was going
there to roll blunch for Snoop Dogg.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
He said, like he said, he said he's gonna.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Be an actor. He said he's gonna be a film director.
Has who artists because.

Speaker 14 (25:51):
Like Tristan to Noah, they think it's funny and especially
Noah will like tell me everything.

Speaker 10 (25:55):
He said is just that they think it's.

Speaker 14 (25:56):
Funny, like tell me his stories and stuff, like famous people.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
That he meant that we know he hasn't met.

Speaker 10 (26:02):
All the time, because he seemed to believe it. He
travels like, yeah, he does.

Speaker 8 (26:06):
He seemed to believe his own line at the end.

Speaker 14 (26:09):
And he is really really defensive if, like somebody calls
him out for.

Speaker 10 (26:13):
Lying, like more so than most people would, I think.
But I mean they're just hard to believe.

Speaker 14 (26:20):
I mean you probably know about like the flashing incident
that he.

Speaker 10 (26:23):
Had a few years ago, right, well, how'd you find
out about it?

Speaker 14 (26:27):
Actually, there's a video of it on the internet. The
all you got to do is hype and the pops
right up.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
This flashing incident wasn't just a strange rumor. It was
a documented crime. Michael Strauss had been convicted of jerking
off in a grocery store parking lot, an act that
landed him a year of probation. To Michael's neighbor, it
was just another odd chapter in his long history of

(27:00):
strange behavior. But for detectives it was something they'd tuck
away in the back of their minds. And yet, despite
his oddities, Michael could come across as completely ordinary, at
least on the surface.

Speaker 16 (27:17):
Does he ever say anything weird about women or like
when you're talking to him?

Speaker 15 (27:24):
He did, he did.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
He seems pretty.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Normal when you're talking to him, other than just the
crazy stories.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
When the time came to bring Michael in for questioning,
they already knew what to expect, a man who couldn't
resist spinning stories. Pretty quickly, though, detectives realized that Michael's
neighbor had not been exaggerating.

Speaker 17 (27:45):
You said you're going some more, yeah, filmmaker, Okay, yeah,
I'm doing that.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Five years, six years I was producing and know I'm
kind of directing many of my own stuff and everything.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
I travel a lot. It's fun. I've been living a
Cali for a while and then I just moved back.
It was my family and all that kind of stuff.
And then I go back there in like a month.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
The plan was just to let Michael talk. Detectives wanted
to get to know this strange guy with long dreadlocks
piled on top of his head. They wanted to make
a false connection, making him feel like you could trust them.
You can't. You can't, by the way, you can't trust cops.

(28:28):
This was the same approach they took with everyone they interviewed.
In this case, if they scared anyone away, they could
lose a potential lead. And Ellie may never be found
at a cup.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
And I draw every day. I sure heard it, even
if it's the littlest thing. I always they don't have
no zero days.

Speaker 16 (28:44):
Always be doing something today. Clicky drawn guitar player, dimebag.
That's one of my favorite guitar play panter. But he
died in front of me when I was like fourteen
years old.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
He got that. I was there when he got shot
on stage.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
All Right, all right, do you guys believe that me?

Speaker 4 (29:02):
Neither? You think? Okay? Like, yeah, so we'll kind of
explain everything that's that's going on.

Speaker 17 (29:08):
You're about to talk to the littlest key people, Okay,
you talk to which is which is which is? We
both worked in a detective section, and we've got this
case of Elie White who's missing.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
And they came to my house already about it. Yeah,
Like I told the detectives that came to my house,
it's like, I haven't seen this girl. I've been talked
to her in about five years, four or five years.

Speaker 15 (29:31):
Right, What we do when we gather, we get names
and we start comparing those, we start looking into things
and a couple of things they wrote down, I don't
I don't really, I don't really understand.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
I don't really think it was a good of an
interview and not go with me or with in general.
So trust me, this is the first. This is the
first of many we're going to do.

Speaker 18 (29:49):
Okay, So so you got like your own you got.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
Your own place out there. Yeah, I'm staying with my girl.
I'm taking Oh cool, cool cool. So what what kind
of movies you into? I mean, will kinds.

Speaker 15 (30:00):
I like horror movies, but I like that's what I
don't know if that they have always makes people.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
I don't know that makes some judgmental or not, but
like a fan people like horror movie. And then I
did the documentary is.

Speaker 15 (30:10):
What I would do?

Speaker 4 (30:11):
That is that it's more so your thing, but like
what would you like it? But I don't want to
be like pigeonholers do that's what absolutely you know? So
like I'll have a few ideas and do that.

Speaker 15 (30:21):
And so it's like crazy like crazy horror stuff, like
like psychological stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
I don't like the excessive, like goofy, you know, slasher type, and.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
You're not a saw kind of guy. Saws cool, And
I said, I know a couple of burg Mark Berg
is the producer.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
So you started sel franchise and he even helped work
with me and all that kind of stuff, trying.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Out to the name drop or anything. That guy.

Speaker 15 (30:41):
So do you travel with I mean not always? How
do you like, do you does that call? Do you
fly out there?

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah? Usually? Okay? Yeah, So I mean then that that
was casted, What do you got a package that? Oh?
Do you just like you ship it out? I mean
pretty good money?

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Like lately, I've didn't actually made more money the last
year than I've made my entire life. Cool though, Yeah,
I like it's I'm finally getting reared from all the
hard work.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
B c I, or Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, sat
with Michael for hours. This was no junior varsity interrogation.
These guys knew what they were doing as they took
their time to build a rapport with them. This was
a psychological chess match, and the detectives were the only

(31:22):
ones who could see the board.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Well, paparazzi's annoying, That's one thing.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Like you just been iey in a celebrity just being
like trying to go to a restaurant or something.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Yeah, and then it's paparazzi saying that, like dude, can
we get by? You know, like and yeah, I guess
the legal but I don't know.

Speaker 12 (31:36):
You know, you've you've never been intrigued to do that
that type of no, because I don't want to glorify
and celebrities.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
I don't really think it's not important. And I think
it's harassment. Yeah, you know what I mean, Like they're
following people around. There's been car accidents.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Like you know, so according to Michael, following someone around
with a camera is harassment, got it. I wonder how
Scarlett Johanson feels about that.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Well, it's too.

Speaker 15 (32:01):
It's sometimes it's like, well, when you're behind the camera too, you're.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
Probably hinking it. You look at things, so I see
my mind works with like I just I look at
everything like a big canvas, you know. So yeah, I
don't look at it every little individual, right, So.

Speaker 15 (32:15):
I mean everything that and I don't even until you
get on topic.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
I just think is so interesting sometimes. But when you
look at things, it's almost like you're I don't know,
are you like mentally filming, Like it's a filter you have,
like a filter.

Speaker 15 (32:28):
You just like this would look good on camera, and
then you just start imagining that that's.

Speaker 10 (32:32):
What you're forgotten.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
I guess yeah, you get it.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Like it's like you're like, oh, this is interesting, like
if something happened to you and you're like, oh, that
would be interesting to got down or that's an interesting
visual or you know what I mean. Like so like
when those photography like you see things like Okay, that's
a good shot.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
You know, like that's really all come down to.

Speaker 19 (32:47):
So I'd love photography, and I have a camera, and
I can tell like you, like I said to your analyst.

Speaker 20 (32:52):
Like you can get I don't always but I don't
always carry my camera with I don't always have my camera.

Speaker 10 (32:55):
Do you wish you had it?

Speaker 4 (32:56):
You're like, I wish i'd Yeah, Well.

Speaker 15 (32:58):
Sometimes there's something I know I'm to take a picture of,
so you know, I'll snap.

Speaker 20 (33:02):
It with my phone and I might like geotag it
to know where see any first century.

Speaker 9 (33:08):
Gain out you are.

Speaker 15 (33:09):
But you can wind, but you can market and then
you can come back and maybe try to compose the
same sort to anywhere.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Well, that's why I really just do it.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
In the moment, like like you just taking the moment
to be like up there you go.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
Beah to do that, you you'd have tend your you'd
have to have your your stuff with it.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Sure, So I try to keep a camera on me
at all times. Oh really, sorry, yeah, something like I
keep it on my car.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
I wear a fanny pack sometimes I always carry a camera.
A seemingly innocent comment. But I'm sure by now you
can see exactly what these detectives were doing. They weren't
just making small talk. They were laying out the groundwork,
connecting Michael's words to pieces of Ellie's case that we
already know, the voyeuristic videos, the terrifying intimate knowledge her

(33:54):
stalker had of her life. But while suspicion mounted against Michael,
there was still another loose end to tie up. Nate Peters.
Detectives had taken his phone in for evaluation, and now
they were ready to return it having learned some surprising information.

Speaker 21 (34:16):
And then on let's see, on May eighth, she texts
you and says something or someone else is calling themselves
Nate Peters and is texting me it's confusing, lol, And then.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
You replied with surprise. I think you say WTF.

Speaker 13 (34:35):
And then she responds that the subject is sending you
her reviews of another female, asking if it's her, meaning
asking if it's Ellie. So my question is is that
we know that I don't know who Ellie. Ellie texts you,
but she also I think called you a few times.
Was there any ever? Was there a follow up conversation
or a follow up a phone call saying who that

(34:58):
might have been trying it recording to be you?

Speaker 10 (35:01):
No, And I'll tell you that I remember that conversation though.

Speaker 7 (35:04):
No, not at all.

Speaker 9 (35:05):
And I'll tell you, like I, you know, scouts on
or swear the last time I ever remember actually talking
to her? Yeah, you know, which is what surprised me
if that was on my phone in the first place,
because now I'm actually kind of blown away.

Speaker 13 (35:16):
Yeah, if you want to look at it, it's so
if you go to your text messages from her, you
have to scroll him obviously all the way back to
twenty seventeen, but you'll oh from Okay, yeah it's twenty seventeen.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
Are still kicking.

Speaker 13 (35:30):
That's probably why, and that's why it's kind of important,
because okay, if someone's trying to be you all the
way back to twenty seventeen.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
Oh no it is. We want to know who it is.

Speaker 13 (35:39):
Crazy, I know, right, That's why I'm saying. Man, it's
just it's kind of spooky stuff.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Ah, now I get it. He's tricking him. Wait, he
tricked me. I take it back. This guy's really good.
At this point, detectives were pretty certain Michael Strauss had
been the one not only stalking Ellie using anonymous phone numbers,
but also the one posing as Nate Peters. So they

(36:07):
start by explaining Ellie's story to Michael. They tell him
about the night she received the creepy video of herself
shot through the window.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
It was like a self therapy thing. She would make
collages like.

Speaker 15 (36:20):
Cut pictures out of magazine how she feels good, and
put them again.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
All of us, like a talking art, like a well,
I guess it is, okay art he put it to
probably has some sort of therapist.

Speaker 15 (36:30):
Dragantic and the video's over. So we started looking around.
We se we keep researching things, and I want you
to hear this whole I want to hear this whole
thing out. So we have these text messages that included
the video link and the number those came back to.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
But when we.

Speaker 15 (36:53):
Researched this number, we found that the most commonly called
number was your mom. Okay, so we have the link
from the video and your mom and there's some some
number that's in common.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
Okay, so she called.

Speaker 15 (37:11):
My mom somebody whoever contacted her.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
I'm not saying Ellie did, but whoever.

Speaker 15 (37:16):
Contacted her also contacted your mom.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Not looking good, Michael, not looking good.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
So I don't know if someone's like creeping you or what.
So we got to sound right the holdest thing out.
So I got this number and I've seen it.

Speaker 15 (37:33):
So see this connection and the number when they the number.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
Got researched and comes back to.

Speaker 15 (37:41):
Like Doom Studio or Doom Dread Guide.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
So now I'm wheer if someone's setting up a profile.
I don't know someone's setting up a profile with you
or say for dread.

Speaker 15 (37:52):
That sounds like my old email, right, that's what I'm
That sounds like you're starting to get why you're here.
I have someone's posing as you do them. Okay, here
this whole thing out. Yeah, so I got this and
I've got someone watching her backyard.

Speaker 22 (38:08):
So what am I looking at? I'm looking at maybe
a trespassing. I'm looking at maybe a maybe a voyeurism.
Stalking has to be a pattern, no paddle, no events.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
To do that.

Speaker 15 (38:19):
So you know that's like, Hey, I got robbed. Someone
broke into my car. That's not robbery. It's not really stalking.
They're they're misdemeanor charges. It's not a big deal. And
I need to rule out without a doubt before I
can really go any further, because I don't.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
I need to. I need to figure it out like someone.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
You need to figure what's going on is me or
like I had people make a Facebook with me one
time that had all my pictures and stuff in my
name and it wasn't my Facebook, and I reported the
Facebook and they got.

Speaker 10 (38:47):
It taken down.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Okay, So but that doesn't sound you need so you
need to be engaged with me on this, Okay, And
you need to.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
We need to. I know you keep looking at the
cock time. I can't worry. I can't worry about the
time right now because this is I got to. I'm
going to get through this.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
Either.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Someone extraordinarily dedicated to the ruse was creeping on Michael,
or you can live in reality and choose to believe
that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. Michael's
life had become a shadow of Ellie's. It's been watching,
waiting and anonymously weaving himself into her world. Michael Strauss

(39:29):
had stoctor. Michael Strauss had planned this whole thing, trying to.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
Clear stuff up. Yeah, I can tell you. I got
to tell you on May thirty first. If I had
a timeline, it said May thirty first, and that and
that number gets established.

Speaker 15 (39:45):
I know that a message got sent out to seven
seven ointment that says, hey stranger, and I know Ellie,
I fish, Ali took debate.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Okay, Elli took debate.

Speaker 23 (40:04):
The others it might have been like, hey, what up whatever,
I don't know, Elly took the baby.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
And yeah, I probably did do something like that, and
I probably you know, I probably did.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Like I said, I messed around. I probably did. I
did mess with people.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
And the thing is I don't have names to numbers,
and I messed with a bunch of numbers and I frank.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
Called before I do like I don't do refrigerator running
or whatever. But like that's kind of funny class a class.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
But that's not well, that's not I'm not trying to like,
that's not I'm not lying, but like, that's I would
never send a video.

Speaker 15 (40:36):
Okay, So tell me about tell me about the sending
out of the like the text blast, hey stranger, so
read I mean you you were casting.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
I'm like, well, it's when I'm in it's when I'm
out in Cali or whatever. I text people and I
just like, I'll be out you, especially if they're old.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
I have like a whole stuff of what old phone
numbers I used to have or whatever, and I don't
know there's from my old contact list.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
He has an excuse for everything, doesn't it, Dude, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yeah, I say, you're like a you're the serial and.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
It's only an issue because you're missing right now, and
that's the problem.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
It becomes it becomes an issue.

Speaker 15 (41:08):
So when when you did that, and she kind of
took the baits, so to speak, yeah, because I think
we're I think we're both understanding that that was you
doing that.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
So okay, yeah, but it was it's really really obviously
was you doing it? And I don't want to insult anybody's
intelligence or whatever. But it's not like you. But you
weren't talking to her as.

Speaker 16 (41:26):
You No, I O its nobody or somebody you were, you.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
Know what I mean, or like it. I would like
come the name and they'd be like, oh, yeah, that's her.
I'll be like, oh, it's Ben. Well the name became out.
The name he came up with was Nate Peters. I
don't remember that. I'm telling you.

Speaker 19 (41:43):
Okay, okay, okay, you have here's the one thing going
on in the room right now.

Speaker 15 (41:47):
You have absolutely one no reason to doubt what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Okay.

Speaker 20 (41:53):
Yeah, So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
I'm not the guy that I'm not. I don't bluff and.

Speaker 15 (41:58):
I don't bullshit because I don't want to tea you
can that guy. So so you were Nate Peters, and
I think you.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
I think you know Nate Peters. And when you said hey,
well he said hey stranger, she said who is this?
And you said Nate and she said Nate who?

Speaker 15 (42:17):
And you said L O L what do you know
a lot of Nate's Nate Peters And You're like, oh, hey,
what's up. Start a conversation, and then it's that conversation
progresses that initial conversation, you asked her, I hear you
being watched. Now we've established that this is you talking,

(42:41):
So I don't know if you've.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
Heard from someone. I don't know how looking happen. I
heard someone's watching you. And she says, you know, you
know what I'm talking about. She know what. I know
what you mean, and I know what she says, I
heard you. I heard someone's watching you. And she's like, hey,
I don't want to talk. Don't ruin this. That creeps
me out. And you're like, okay, because so now we've

(43:02):
established at you.

Speaker 15 (43:03):
So as those conversations are going on and there's nothing, there's.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
Nothing inappropriate about them. There's nothing. Let's let's take this
white elephant out of the room.

Speaker 15 (43:13):
Yeah, you weren't necessarily honest when we first started talking,
because you said you had contact her in five years,
But I know you contact her up all the way until.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
You're like twenty ninth. I guess, yeah, I have a
contactor as myself. And it was a joke. And it
looks bad. I get it, Okay, So it looks horrible.

Speaker 15 (43:28):
We know, we know a thing about it. We know
it looks bad. We know it looks horrible, but we
have to get by the optics of things. I've got
a text number that is being used for this app
and it's contacting her posing as somebody else.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
And I don't get like if you ever called me,
I mean, how Nate Peters? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
I guess it's someone I just the name that came
to mind because antomas she even knows, that's like freaking
the most random thing in the world.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
I mean, I mean, like, why not freaking Kareem abdul Jabbar.
I mean, how would you even know? Like here's what
I was wondering. Did you ever think that the real
name Peters would contact her? Like at the same time,
you probably would be funny. I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
That's weird, Like what like, I guess you don't want
it's probably it's hard to see the humor in this,
especially because this is a missing person's case.

Speaker 15 (44:23):
But like I can I know where you're it's like
that crank yanks or yeah, yeah, I get it, I
get it.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
I get it, Okay, I don't think to see I
don't think any we're out to get me.

Speaker 15 (44:32):
You think I might be a conspiracy other so no,
I don't want to come off like a big conspiracy thing,
and I'm not. So I'm not, you know, but I'm
also coincidences that are I don't Sometimes you really got
to eat me over the head of stuff to convince me.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
And in this line of work, coincidences and.

Speaker 15 (44:47):
Just that conspiracy thing is this is just it's just
rare if it happens once in a lifetime where someone
goes out of their way to totally do something along range.

Speaker 4 (44:58):
But I got this video that's that's of you on
my account, on your account. My email has been used,
my phone numbers are being used. All this stuff is
doing towards.

Speaker 15 (45:11):
Your your phone number that's attached to the IP address
that comes back to the Wi Fi in your house.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
And I'm trying to show you that I don't know
how this is being woven.

Speaker 15 (45:23):
Yeah, there's a commonality between all of those things.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
I said. There are the way things are on paper,
they're the way things really are.

Speaker 18 (45:31):
Dude.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
Look if you stood in her backyard, and if you
stood in.

Speaker 15 (45:36):
Her backyard jerked off and filmed it, what the fuckever?

Speaker 4 (45:39):
Okay, Okay, it's embarrassing. I get it. I can't say
I condone it. I'm not going to put it up
on a billboard. Whatever it happened, and it's just so
tightly linked to stuff.

Speaker 19 (45:53):
I don't want to run down that rabbit hole. I
don't think here's what I don't think happened. I don't
think some decided let's see, who am I gonna Mica stress.
I'll set up a number and I'll contact people. I'm
gonna get a video.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
I'm gonna somehow plant it in his Yeah. But when
you put that.

Speaker 15 (46:15):
When when you when you oi bate a cake and
you got to listen to ten ingredients and you got
eight of them, you don't get a cake.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
It comes out with some ship. You don't know what
it is. You're just gonna if I if I were
to take out one of these things and do things
all make sense. But with all of these things together,
man looks like a cake.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
As the hours dragged on, it became painfully clear coaxing
Michael Strauss into a single honest answer was like pulling teeth.
Every lie they unraveled seemed to take an eternity, and
they hadn't even approached the serious questions yet, the ones
that could take this from an interrogation to a real confession.

(47:42):
Detectives had spent hours dancing around Michael Strauss's lies, playing
a slow game of psychological chess. Every question, every comment,
every seemingly innocuous detail was meticulously designed to chip away
at his defense. Despite the mounting suspicion, Ellie was still

(48:03):
missing for her friends and family. The flock was ticking.
The groundwork had been laid in his interrogation, and now
it was time to confront the truth had on. Detectives
started to introduce more and more of the damning evidence
they had gathered. Ellie Wyke went missing on July twenty ninth,

(48:24):
twenty eighteen, but her phone turned on for a brief
moment on July thirty. First. It turned on just long
enough to ping off a cell phone tower.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
If this is a cell phone tower, and a cell
phone tower covers.

Speaker 19 (48:38):
An Mary, this big hand where this phone hit, I'm
able to isolate that that phone hit in the area.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
This big okay in your house is here. Yeah, that
doesn't doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 15 (48:48):
No, So, not being a believer in circum in coincidences,
with everything I'm looking at, I'm like, the phone's there.
It could be or like driving, So tell me how
it could tell me how it could be there.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
She was on the her car, her car is her car.
Has not moved her cars at the house.

Speaker 10 (49:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
And that's something that I see. That's why I don't
know why that's the accusation that I don't know. There's
not an accusation. It's total fact that I'm not accused.
I wouldn't have her phone.

Speaker 10 (49:16):
No, I want to have her phone.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
I want to turn it on. I want to yeah,
And I'm not Scooby Doo.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
But it's like I just don't know what middling kids,
you know, like wizards.

Speaker 4 (49:24):
I don't know who helped her get out.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
I don't know, you know what I mean, Like that's
the thing, the stuff that I did a year ago
or prior to that, and the message is, yeah, that's
one thing, but I don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
But that's the stuff we have to give answers to
clear up. And I have right, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah,
absolutely have it. So yeah, that's so freaking embarrassing, but
it's whatever. It's the truth, and I'm glad. Ever, I'm
glad you guys know, well, it's like I'm glad you guys.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Know and knowing it's like we was talking on the
phone is different than actually like, hey, let's go do this,
let's go run around together, right, you know what I mean?
Like I would never run away with someone like her.
I would never you know, even her. I would never
hurt anybody like her.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
You know what I mean. So it's just like right,
it's I don't know. I don't know what else to
tell you.

Speaker 15 (50:04):
Guys, But the fact of the matter, someone out there knows,
and what happens is a lot of times when you
have these conversations real similar like the video thing is
someone knows something and they think they think such worst
case scenario.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
Oh my, Like you probably thought if you said that
you made that video, that the next thing that was
going to happen was put your hands up on the
fucking wall. You're going to jail, You're going to be
on the news. No, not that the level.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
I just feel like you're making it seem like I
knew more than I do, and like I'm tell you right.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
Now, but you did.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
No, I knew, I was saying, But something happened in
the past, yeah, the past, yeah, well, but the current day.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
I don't like I said, I don't know what to tell.

Speaker 15 (50:45):
You, right, but but we're calling the past July twenty.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Yet, so it's not really like to me that I
feel like a long time ago because I've been getting
a lot of crack.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
I didn't know. But it's okay. But but it's.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Not like we're talking like, you know, it's sure and yeah,
it seems like, yeah, it's too close, the timeline is
to close or something like that for what I did
and for what does happened, So that that's that's concerning
to me.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
Okay, you know, I told it, I told understand it.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
At this point, the conversation cools down and the two
detectives leave for a minute to grab some water. Michael
is only alone for a short time, but as soon
as the door closes, he's talking to himself, stupid.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
Why am I so fucking stupid for that? Why that?

Speaker 1 (51:46):
When the detective comes back into the room, they propose
that Michael take a polygraph test. They're still very cautious
with their wording, and they reassure him that he's not
a suspect. They even tell him confidentially that they know
he'll pass the test, I reassuring him they just need
to clear them, get it out of the way.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
You know.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
Of course they want to push this investigation as far
as possible before he fully realizes he's in deep shit
and finally asks for a lawyer, like you should have
done to begin with, kind of shocking. He hasn't realized
it yet, right, But like I always say, criminals are dumb.
That's why they're criminals.

Speaker 18 (52:28):
I've got about three or fourth thing other things that
I want to talk to you about, and by law,
if I want to ask you, those things have to
feed you in their food coming.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
I need to know more about your.

Speaker 15 (52:44):
Where your room is in your house is do you
sleep in the basement.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
Or do you spen so you have a bedroom. So
I have some people that were over at your house.

Speaker 15 (52:58):
It's just being thorough and it wasn't clear where your
where your room.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
Is, so searching my house, I'm here, I don't know.
That's that's why I got like computer guys walking around.
I don't know what they're doing.

Speaker 15 (53:12):
But there was some confusions to it because I think
your stuff's there, and I don't want them to I
don't want to screw anything up or take.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
Some that belongs to somebody else. Or do whatever.

Speaker 15 (53:20):
So, yeah, we have some reason to believe that there's
a white car involved.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
And there's a white car. It's your residence, grant, it's
not registered to you or whatever. But I think you've
operated a white car before.

Speaker 15 (53:30):
And then when I looked at it even deeper, I think, well, yeah,
you've operated a white car before.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
And not all the time, as a matter of fact,
not even not even my parents as them right.

Speaker 15 (53:40):
Not even any not even a fraction of a percentage
of the time. You were in that car, and you
were a video and a video and women and this
is once again Swain on paper.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
You're a videotape in jars.

Speaker 15 (53:55):
And then when we looked at the search history, there's
a videotape in Joggers.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
There's a search where you mentioned.

Speaker 15 (54:02):
The woman's name in Mason because it's probably on the
police report, and he answers on the thing.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
But it was like that that was all research.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
How frustrating is this guy? These detectives are very very patient.
This is insanity, dude.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
I know that's what I'm saying. I can't quote that
on the warrant. I'm just telling you. I'm just trying
to spell to you. What it is, why we're doing
because you want to wire your.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Parents ask At this point, detectives think maybe he's got
something to do with the other case too. Back in
January of the same year, a woman in Mason, Ohio
reported to police that a guy wearing a hoodie grabbed
her from behind while she was jogging alone. She screamed
and he let her go. Why would Michael be researching

(54:47):
this specific case?

Speaker 4 (54:49):
So we got you in a white car.

Speaker 15 (54:50):
And I got you doing this thing, and then we
have the search history and the search history, and this
is where it all kind of circles back around.

Speaker 23 (54:56):
It's, you know, a Mason jogger, jar, jogger attack, raping,
jogger for score, rape, ambush, rape, porno video.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
I'm not saying the Hall related, but when it under
get this straight, I did not know a rape or anything.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
I'm not saying I do airosexual rasping or anything like that, Okay, but.

Speaker 18 (55:15):
It has her name, and then it's like jogger rape,
ambush rape, women joggers, where do women jog in Westchester?

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Something else? And then a clown think I ever.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
Searched where do women jog in Westchester? I'm sorry that's
not that can't be it searched. That is, I searched
maybe like where god jog in Westchester?

Speaker 4 (55:34):
Maybe dog I need did search where do women jog?
We did, and I would never do that. That would be
part of this.

Speaker 15 (55:39):
Maybe maybe you look maybe maybe I rate into.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
That's just seeing you I war That's something I know
I would never google.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
And that's the thing that's like when I did that
research for the script, it was after that because people said.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
She was lying about being attacked. Oh, and I.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Said, and I didn't know if it was a rape
or not, so I searched it it was a rape
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
Where this off goes background as I got we got.

Speaker 15 (56:00):
The videos in the in the white car and Mason
and women joggers, and I got the searches, and I
was saying, searches resequentially, and they end up with a
porn video.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
And I didn't look at the video. So I don't
know what the video was of, and I don't really
want to know right now. I watched a lot of
I watched a lot of different types of porn.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
If that's the look at what I watched different A
lot of types of different porn, like I'm sorry, that's
the conversation.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
Whatever. I watched different types of those different types of
genres of porn.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah, Michael, we already know your giant perf. The point
they're trying to make is that you search for information
on this local jogger attack and then you opened up
a new tab and started masturbating the porn immediately afterwards.

Speaker 15 (56:45):
You get it, the bondage, the f s and m
the full body, full body latex suits.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
Why ask me, because that's on your searches. Oh my god.
Really yeah, So that's why I'm wondering. If you click
on something and you're just like, oh, I know, clean
out the whole money, like two sex suit. It's for
the movie. It's a movie outfit for a script. It
sounds like American. Yeah, it's like that, but it's like.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Yeah, it's it's it's one of the costumes actually doing
a short film.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
These searches, I will do it against me because it's
like that's well, once again, they can be explained. Yet
I'm not using it against But when when the when
the theme of.

Speaker 15 (57:26):
Those is a there, whether it's for research or personal whatever,
and they're they're sexual in nature.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
That fits, right, back into the circle of Theresa.

Speaker 15 (57:34):
Well, that sounds like someone that would do this video,
that would do that. And then if I want to
say stock terrorize whatever to send.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
It to this person.

Speaker 15 (57:45):
Thank god you didn't send the part where you're doing
now take your business, because that would end that would
have centered off the over the edge, taking the video,
going clipping it out, send it to her asking no
matter what a reaction was to it, posing as somebody
else while you're talking talking to her in the first
part of that conversation is about hey, you heard your
being watched.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
So it's kind of bringing it back up and.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
It kind of seems really gonna stop the conversation there
when I was like whatever, it.

Speaker 15 (58:09):
Kind of stimulates that fear and it's that whole thing
that we have.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
We have this, So I had I had a piece
added to me and I don't. I don't. I don't
know where. I don't know where it fits in Once
of Peace. Well, they found her, I D in your room,
so Micah r I D. Yeah, her driver's license that

(58:34):
was issued in July. I would not know where that is.
That doesn't mean that it can't be true. You can't
say that's true. Yeah, I'm making that up.

Speaker 15 (58:43):
They found they found her id, they found a lock
prayer makes sense, it's in when you're our portfolio binders.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
And I got a team of guys looking at stuff
I know. So here's where, here's where I say this.
See that's that doesn't free like, it doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense, and I need to make sense
of it. Why would she have why would I have
her license on me? All right? And I can't even
begin to guess why.

Speaker 15 (59:12):
There's a book on Ted Bundy and there's all kinds
of stuff. And then I've taken I've taken a lot
of classes on it. I'm not a self proclaimed behavioral
analyst by any stretch, but I understand that.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
People do stuff, and people do stuff for dumb reasons.

Speaker 15 (59:31):
And I'm a trained interviewer, and I'm a trained interrogator.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
And tell me what you think I didn't I would
do something like that.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
You think I'm a serial killer or a kidnapper or
anything like that.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
I didn't. I didn't. I didn't start this yesterday.

Speaker 15 (59:44):
And there's there's a lot of things I hear, And
what I hear is you want me to explain why
that driver's licensed, and why that hair is in your house?

Speaker 4 (59:55):
I don't. You have no reason to it. You want
me to knowing full well, I can't. I can't explain
why it says. And when you say there's only one reason,
what's the one reason?

Speaker 15 (01:00:06):
Well, but I mean one reason is that someone put there,
someone not me, someone that access to the house.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Fucking mean, it's not yet.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
And I'm like I said, I say, but I'm always home,
so I don't know how that would get that, you
know what I mean, Well, we gotta we gotta get
to we gotta.

Speaker 15 (01:00:20):
Get to the bottom of this. We've got to get
to the bottom of this. You know, I don't want
to get to it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
There's no bottom. It just keeps going. Well, the next thing, you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Know, there's gonna be like fingernails and my paddache or
something like that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
And like it's just like it just doesn't sound fucking real. Well,
I don't think we'll look for that, but you know,
we're working. We got to exit, and you know we
have we have standards from our standards, so we have
like known samples from it. We have no samples of
the hair.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
It's it's like it's like like putting myself on the
chopping block, like, all, let me keep evidence of stuff
around my house.

Speaker 15 (01:00:57):
You ask me why it makes you ask me why
why keep it? And I guess if you're asking me hypothetically,
would why would a person keep something like that? It
would be a momento of what's happened, And there were One.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Of the reasons I went through all that book is
if there's some dudes.

Speaker 15 (01:01:17):
That do that, right, they keep any driver's license, they
keep an earring.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Some of you think getting gas lit by your partner
is a rough ride, imagine being gas lit by a
rapist murderer for twelve hours straight. Then tell me about
defund the police and all that nonsense.

Speaker 24 (01:01:35):
She's been off the grid for twenty three going on
twenty four days.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
I don't think once again, I don't think it's a
deciund good, But I don't think that's good at all.
I don't want to quantumly to think that she's not alive.

Speaker 20 (01:01:48):
I have never, never, have I ever heard of a
situation where someone would have gone to such great pains
to frame somebody other than TV ever.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
Or to the length of me doing something.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
That's what I'm asking, like, would you ever think that
I would, or anybody would just out of the blue
decide to be like, oh, I'm taking someone's license, taking.

Speaker 4 (01:02:15):
This, you know, But to be fair, I wouldn't.

Speaker 24 (01:02:24):
There are people that have gone to great lengths to
develop some sort of mental relationship with somebody that ends
up resulting in somebody's death, and they take.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
A momento, and they take a momento of it. Okay,
that's normal, livable.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Along with their driver's license and a lock of Ellie's hair,
detectives found a small pink stone. All this was inside
a little tin deep inside of a crate in Michael's
basement bedroom, a super secret stash where nobody will ever
or find it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
It was sandwiched between old art portfolios. Ooh, I guess
the cops will never find it there. Huh, Michael, what
an idiot. As they looked over the case evidence, they
noticed the same pink stone hanging around Ellie's neck in
an old selfie. But they couldn't get him to admit
to anything. Not wanting to scare him out of another interview,

(01:03:25):
they took his phone for analysis, took his DNA, and
told him that they talked to him again when he
came to pick it up. When the next day came,
a cruiser showed up to Michael's house and arrested him
for stalking.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Charges are being pressed against him, who said that it's
black shirt get caught arrested in density and I'm arrested
for stalking.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
He doesn't have juristics a wool capitalists. You can pick
and choose. If you're something you don't want to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Talk about, you're like, well, this is what it's a
lodge change to kind of thought about a lot since
we've talked in the last twelve hours, all right.

Speaker 15 (01:04:02):
And that's why it's like I spent this morning talking
with my family and kissing them.

Speaker 4 (01:04:08):
And John, I'm much I love them, and I found
my emotions. Sure, a man, you're okay, but just think.
I want you to think. I want you to think
about this.

Speaker 20 (01:04:18):
If you if we if we start going into something
you don't feel comfortable with it, Dude.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
I want your help. I don't want to make you upset.
A lot of things about me being Mtory now does
not matter.

Speaker 10 (01:04:31):
What matters.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
No, listen, well we're looking out for it, said, it
matters a great deal to us. And like I said,
I know actors, I know when people are putting on
an act. Do you see very upset? Man? What's up?
Like my mom? I love my family. We know you do.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Then Michael finally starts to open up. He explains that
get this, he makes porn movies in his free time,
and that Ali apparently wanted to star in one of
his porn films for pay. That's what he says, they
plan to do the night they met up, you know,
the night that she thought she'd be hanging out with

(01:05:08):
Nate Peters.

Speaker 4 (01:05:10):
That's why I said.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
That night when I was texting her to come over,
I did, what night are we talking about?

Speaker 16 (01:05:17):
Twenty Saday Saturday morning?

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
I left my house, I took my parents' car. I
go and leave and get her in the car, and
I get to go over there.

Speaker 15 (01:05:28):
Okay, she'd drive over to her house and there say, okay,
I didn't bring my phone or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:34):
I just brought my GoPro camera. Okay. We I knocked
on the door and were going to make the video?
Or are you gonna like, hey, do you want to
make a video? I never mentioned to her at that point. Okay,
and I knocked the door, she let me in. We went,
we went inside and we talked to stop. She's like, oh,
wait for my friends to get here. Wait for my
friends to get here.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
I'm like okay, and I'm like, hey, you want to.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
Shoot this, You're shoot I just like show her the
camera and she's like how much. How much?

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
I said one thirty and eighth a week, and she's like,
give me a quarter, give me eight and snoke a
joint with me.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
And I said I don't have a joint right now,
but I'll give you a quarter.

Speaker 25 (01:06:12):
And then she's like okay, this is so my stuff now,
like we and then she's like all right, so we
I like, aliciauld film it in your house, and I
took him and we had to go pro camera and
she like ran up the steps and I like the
camera's chasing up the steps and pob and all that
runs in her room.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
And dah da da and I jump.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
On her bed and like I'm like I had like
handcuffs and I'm like.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
Oh, I'm like, so's you know what? Sto da da da?
And I locked her. It was like playful because I
was like, you know, you know, I was like yelling
at her and stuff and we were all She's like no, don't, don't, don't,
And there was nobody there.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
There was nobody home, and so we do that and uh,
we have sack stuck for.

Speaker 4 (01:06:53):
What film it? And then yeah, she's like I said,
she's like strong. It was like it's the you know,
like it was strangle like all you know and bag
and all that kind of stuff. Do that. She sits
there for a little bit and she's like.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
And she's like crying, and I'm like, okay, She's.

Speaker 4 (01:07:10):
Like, hey, just have her bad day.

Speaker 26 (01:07:13):
I had a long day and I missed my mom
and all this kind of stuffs. She goes out of
town with her boyfriend all the time and talks about
that and everything, and and we've already talked about that,
so she's repeating it, and I guess she just goes
on and on.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
And then she we go outside the porch smoke again,
and she and their friends are sitting in the car.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
Then get out of.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
The car and then I come on, they're like porked
right three houses down from me, and then get her
and then she goes with them.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
And that's the last last picking down saw her.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
Even just as it felt like they'd get a confession
from him, it was just another dead end again. Michael
claimed that when the police first came to his house
to ask about Ellie, he had destroyed the SD card
holding their quote unquote consensual sex tape complete with handcuffs,
strangling and oh yeah, a bag over Ellie's head, according

(01:08:06):
to Michael himself, or it was like a side.

Speaker 3 (01:08:09):
Side position and we had sex on the side or whatever,
and that's why I might hang around her throat.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
So that's and then like that's when I.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Cut them and yeah, and they pretty much ends after that. Okay,
she acts like she just like she like falls asleep,
and I think she was falling asleep.

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Okay. Oh so is this is this.

Speaker 15 (01:08:26):
Like snuff torture porn kind of yeah, okay, so to
then with you choking her, yeah, and then that's Jesus
like and then and she's she's dead.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
Yeah, okay, and like that's what we always do.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
And I just like or like, yeah, cover her head
up and poke holes here he noses and acts like.

Speaker 4 (01:08:45):
She's alive anymore. It's really fucked up. Okay, So I'm
just trying to get it.

Speaker 15 (01:08:49):
So you put you put a bag over it again
at towards the end, Okay, she she.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
Dies from being choked.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
He gets so close to telling the truth, but then
it's almost like he's incapable, like he's unable to see
himself as what he really is. I wonder if that's contagious.
He describes this snuff torture porn video that he planned
to sell, and the details of what he admits he

(01:09:17):
did to Ellie add to the case another dark coincidence.
He says, after hours upon hours of painstaking interrogation, even
without a full confession, Michael had revealed enough cracks in
his story for detectives to piece together a detailed picture.
August twenty fourth, twenty eighteen, was the date of Michael's

(01:09:41):
last BCI interrogation, and on the same day, Ellie's body
was located in a ditch near the corner of a
farming field. She was found within a quarter of a
mile of Michael's house. Her shallow grave was concealed by shrubbery,
with a barbed wire fence dividing it from the rest

(01:10:02):
of the field. A square shovel was discovered nearby. Ellie's remains,
mostly skeletonized, told a story that was heartbreaking and horrifying.
Wrapped in a bed sheet, and a purple blanket. Her
arms and legs were bound with duct tape, and a

(01:10:25):
bag had been tied over her head. A cord was
also entangled with her body. The coroner determined her cause
of death to be exphyxiation, so it's possible this was
the murder weapon. Though Michael hadn't spelled it out, he'd
said enough enough to lead detectives to Ellie and charge

(01:10:49):
him with her murder. Meanwhile, as law enforcements swarmed the field,
gathering evidence and preparing for the removal of Ellie's body,
a bright rain stretched across the sky above the crime scene.
Everyone noticed it, people cried and took photos. Twenty nine

(01:11:10):
year old Michael Strauss eventually pleaded guilty to all his crimes.
His sensing brought to light the horrific reality of her
final moments, something that her family had not understood up
until that point. During his sentencing, Strauss appeared in court

(01:11:31):
with two black eyes, the work of his fellow inmates.
The judge handed down a maximum sentence fifteen years to
life for murder, plus an additional two and a half
years for stalking and abuse of a corpse, with no
possibility of parole. For at least seventeen and a half years,

(01:11:51):
Strauss will spend the better part of his life behind bars.
On the day Ellie's family laid her arrest, something remarkable happened.
As mourners gathered at the church to say their final goodbyes,
a bright neon rainbow stretched across the sky. It was
just like the one that appeared the day her body

(01:12:13):
was found. For Ellie's family and friends, these rainbows became
a symbol of light piercing through unimaginable darkness. Her mother
described them as a sign, a reminder of Ellie's endoring presence,
even in her absence. Ellie's story is one of loss,

(01:12:36):
but also of resilience. In her journal, she wrote about
her struggles, her fears, her dreams. Though her life was
cut tragically short, her words remain a testament to her spirit.
Don't ignore your gut or red flags, she wrote. You

(01:12:58):
can sense evil. Stay in tune with your senses. It's
a lesson for all of us to trust our instincts,
to protect one another, and to remember, even in the
shadows of the darkest storm, you may find a rainbow.

(01:13:39):
Well that's Ai Mike signing off. Can you believe some
idiots online think this is AI. They think I'm AI, Like,
how fucking dumb do you have to be? AI would
never be allowed to say all the shit I say.
But there's no shortage of stupid in the world, So
there's that. Speaking of stupid, go check out our stupid

(01:14:02):
merch at stored atsordinscale dot com. And if you haven't
signed up for Plus, well it's how we pay for
all this stuff. So if you like this stuff being
around in the universe, then you know, throw in a
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be here tomorrow. We could make money like every other podcast,
but we don't want to push shitty products on you

(01:14:24):
via advertising that you probably shouldn't be buying anyway, So
we have to do some filtering around here, and that,
you know, lowers our revenue and that makes it hard
for us to pay our employees and our bills. So
this is an extra long guilt trip to tell you
that if you've been enjoying Sword and Scale for the

(01:14:45):
last X number of years for free, maybe throwing ten
bucks this month, you know it's not a lot to ask.
Ten bucks is not a lot to ask for years
of Entertainment and then you can listen to all the
back catalog and can it's so at the end of
the month, like you always do anyway. All Right, I
guess that's my sales pitch. I'm not really good at sales.

(01:15:06):
I'm more a podcast guy. I'm moderately good at that.
So I guess I'm rambling at this point. So if
you want to support us, head on over to Swordscaille
dot com Join plus see you next week.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
Stay sick to