May 23, 2023 • 43 mins
Tiffany Whitton was born on January 30,1987 in Kennesaw, Georgia. As Tiffany got older, her life began to spiral out of control. She stole from her family and friends and became a habitual liar. Tiffany’s teenage years were a struggle. She became rebellious and quit high school during her sophomore year of high school.
Tiffany began heavily using drugs like OxyContin and worked at different waitress jobs. She also began shoplifting at Walmart regularly. In March of 2011, while living in Dalton, Georgia, Tiffany, was arrested and charged for a home invasion. Tiffany received a prison sentence in 2012. By this time, tension had grown so intense between Tiffany and her mother that Lisa had to practice tough love. She told Tiffany she was done with her daughter until she gave up drugs and her criminal activities. Lisa had hoped this would be the wakeup call Tiffany needed to overcome her troubles and become a responsible mother.
After Tiffany’s release, she would meet and begin dating a single father named Ashley “Red” Caudle. The couple began using crystal meth and other drugs. Friends of the couple described the relationship as toxic and troubled. The two fought regularly.
On September 12, 2013, the couple went to a friend’s home to do drugs. After leaving the friend’s home around midnight, the two arrived at a Marietta, Georgia Walmart at 1 a.m. After an hour, loss prevention employees became suspicious of Tiffany and watched her closely on security cameras.
The couple went to pay for some items at 2 a.m. Although Caudle paid for his items, Tiffany had attempted to steal $20 worth of merchandise.
Loss prevention employees approached and attempted to apprehend Tiffany. One of the employees grabbed Tiffany’s bag. She slid her arm out of the bag, kicked off her flip flops and ran away.
The loss prevention employees didn’t attempt to pursue her. Security cameras captured Tiffany running away from the store. She has never been seen again. The entire incident was capture on video and can be seen online. Tiffany has never been seen again.
If know anything about this case, please contact the Marietta Police Anonymous Tip Line at 770-794-6990. And if you would like to know more about this case, you can also visit the Find Tiffany Whitton Facebook page.
Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by purchasing a cup of $5 coffee every month. To help support the podcast, please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/catchmykiller. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please visit my websites www.catchmykiller.com or www.themarcabe.com where you can submit a case.
Tiffany began heavily using drugs like OxyContin and worked at different waitress jobs. She also began shoplifting at Walmart regularly. In March of 2011, while living in Dalton, Georgia, Tiffany, was arrested and charged for a home invasion. Tiffany received a prison sentence in 2012. By this time, tension had grown so intense between Tiffany and her mother that Lisa had to practice tough love. She told Tiffany she was done with her daughter until she gave up drugs and her criminal activities. Lisa had hoped this would be the wakeup call Tiffany needed to overcome her troubles and become a responsible mother.
After Tiffany’s release, she would meet and begin dating a single father named Ashley “Red” Caudle. The couple began using crystal meth and other drugs. Friends of the couple described the relationship as toxic and troubled. The two fought regularly.
On September 12, 2013, the couple went to a friend’s home to do drugs. After leaving the friend’s home around midnight, the two arrived at a Marietta, Georgia Walmart at 1 a.m. After an hour, loss prevention employees became suspicious of Tiffany and watched her closely on security cameras.
The couple went to pay for some items at 2 a.m. Although Caudle paid for his items, Tiffany had attempted to steal $20 worth of merchandise.
Loss prevention employees approached and attempted to apprehend Tiffany. One of the employees grabbed Tiffany’s bag. She slid her arm out of the bag, kicked off her flip flops and ran away.
The loss prevention employees didn’t attempt to pursue her. Security cameras captured Tiffany running away from the store. She has never been seen again. The entire incident was capture on video and can be seen online. Tiffany has never been seen again.
If know anything about this case, please contact the Marietta Police Anonymous Tip Line at 770-794-6990. And if you would like to know more about this case, you can also visit the Find Tiffany Whitton Facebook page.
Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by purchasing a cup of $5 coffee every month. To help support the podcast, please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/catchmykiller. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please visit my websites www.catchmykiller.com or www.themarcabe.com where you can submit a case.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hello, and welcome to the CatchMy Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly
newspaper column about true crimes and missingpeople for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With the column and podcast, myobjective has always been to try to
(00:35):
bring attention to the cases that haven'treceived much media attention, if any at
all. This week's story involves atroubled young Georgia woman named Tiffany Witten.
She had many interpersonal demons that shewas battling, and to make matters even
worse, Tiffany had become involved ina volatile relationship with a man with an
(00:59):
extensive criminal record. His name isAshley Red Caudle. During the early morning
hours of September thirteenth, twenty thirteen, the couple went shopping at a Walmart
and Marietta, Georgia. Tiffany hadshoplifted some merchandise and was apprehended by Walmart
loss prevention staff as she was leaving. Tiffany managed to get away and ran
(01:23):
out of the front door and intothe parking lot. She has never been
seen again. Tiffany Witten was bornon January thirtieth nineteen eighty seven and Kennesaw,
(01:56):
Georgia. Her mother, Lisa Daniels, had described Tiffany as a happy
baby, but Lisa would become troubledby Tiffany's bad behavior that started at an
early age. Lisa Daniels has saidthat at an early age, Tiffany began
taking toys and other items that didnot belong to her. She also began
(02:22):
to lie often. As Tiffany gotolder, her life would spiral out of
control. She continued stealing from herfamily and friends and became a habitual liar.
Tiffany's teenage years were a struggle.She couldn't adapt to school work and
had no interest in school. Shebecame rebellious in quit high school during her
(02:44):
sophomore year. As a child,she had expressed interest in becoming a veterinarian,
but she would abandon that dream.Tiffany became pregnant and then gave that
child up for adoption. She wouldthen give birth to a second child,
but she would keep the second child, who would ultimately be raised by Tiffany's
(03:05):
mother, Lisa. Tiffany began heavilyusing drugs like oxycotton and worked at different
waitress jobs. She also began toshoplift at Walmart regularly. She would eventually
get caught shoplifting more than once.In March of twenty and eleven, while
living in Dalton, Georgia, Tiffanywas arrested and charged for home invasion.
(03:29):
She received a prison sentence in twotwelve. By this time, tension had
grown so intense between Tiffany and hermother that Lisa had to practice tough love
with her daughter. She told Tiffanythat she was done communicating with her until
she gave up drugs and her criminalactivities. Lisa had hoped this would be
(03:49):
the wake up call Tiffany needed toovercome her troubles and become a more responsible
mother. After Tiffany's release, shewent into drug rehab. According to Lisa,
she appeared to be making some changes, but this would only last for
about six weeks. Tiffany would thenmeet and begin dating a single father named
(04:12):
Ashley Caudle, also known as Red. The couple began using crystal meth and
other drugs. Friends of the coupledescribed the relationship as toxic and trouble.
They fought regularly, and due toTiffany's drug addictions, she couldn't hold a
job. She would show up highand be unable to work. She was
(04:33):
eventually able to find a job ata local iyhop, but then she would
be fired for theft. On Septembertwelfth, twenty thirteen, the couple went
to a friend's house to do drugs. After leaving the friend's home around midnight,
the two arrived at a Marietta,Georgia walmart at one am. After
(04:55):
an hour, lost prevention staff becamesuspicious of Tiffany washed her closely on security
cameras. The couple went to payfor their items at two am. Although
Coddle paid for his items, Tiffanyhad attempted to steal twenty dollars worth of
merchandise. Lost prevention staff approached andattempted to apprehend Tiffany. One of the
(05:19):
staff members grabbed Tiffany's bag. Sheslid her arm out of the bag,
kicked off her flip flops, andran away. While mart's lost prevention staff
did not attempt to pursue Tiffany aftershe ran away, security cameras have captured
her running away into the parking lot, and she has never been seen again.
(05:43):
The entire incident was captured on videoand can be seen online. For
Tiffany's story, I spoke to hermother, Lisa Daniels. This is the
first part of a two part story. Be sure to listen to the conclusion
next week and now on with thestory of Tiffany Witton is told by her
(06:06):
mother, Lisa Daniels. Tiffany wasborn and Marriedetta in January of nineteen eighty
seven, and she was an absolutelybeautiful baby and normal baby, normal toddler.
She did have some issues with takingthings early on. That was when
(06:30):
I noticed that there was something notquite right and that thing could be an
issue really throughout her life that shewas burnie. She had a great personality.
She was wicked smart and a lotof fun to be around. She
made friends very easily. She canreally talk to anyone and it was really
(06:50):
just a free child that she didstart going off the rails in middle school.
Didn't do well in middle school.Thank god there wasn't social media then,
because I think things could have beena lot worse at that point.
But she did really tend to notmake the best choices and friends. She
had some friends that were just trueblue, really good friends, people that
(07:15):
really did love her and care abouther, But then others that were just
those friends that she don't really wantto be associated with, the no matter
I mean kinds. I said toher, Hey, guilt by association.
If you're hanging out with these peopleand they're doing things they shouldn't be doing,
you're going to be right in therewith them. But she just getting
(07:35):
really heed my warning, and thingsgot worse than high school. She actually
ended up getting pregnant in high school. She gave a child up for adoption,
and when she was the high schooland then she made the decision to
drop out of high school, andI think that's where things just really completely
off the rails with her, andshe continued to the friend people that she
(08:00):
shouldn't and at some point the drugscame into the picture, and once she
got hooked on drugs, that wasjust the beginning of the end, unfortunately.
So when would you say that shereally got heavily into drugs. Was
it before high school or do youthink it was after she left. I'm
(08:22):
not aware of any kind of drugyouth, or at least hard drug,
But did she most weed or anythinglike that in high school? More than
likely yet, but I'm not awareof any major drug youth until she was
in her twenty and when I becameaware of it, I hadn't really seen
(08:43):
the time, but once I becameaware of it, I did start seeing
a lot of red flag and atthat point started trying to gear her back
in the right direction to cut meof her daughter. And she basically asked
me to take care of her becauseshe just was not in a position to
(09:03):
do that. And thank god we'vegot a daughter. When she was about
two years old, I've had herthink when she just turned sixteen, I
had her for aboutteen years. Isaw the pictures of your granddaughter on Facebook,
and I have to say, it'sreally uncanny how much she looks just
(09:26):
like her mother. I mean,when I first saw the photos, I
thought it was your daughter and raclelike her. Yeah she does, Yeah,
I believe it or not. Shelooks so much like her that even
my granddaughter has actually made the mistakeof thinking that pictures of Tiffany were actually
(09:46):
her. And she really had tolook at and say, way, man,
I don't remember wherever wearing a shirtlike that or whatever. And I've
done the same thing. I'm surewhat the pictures and said which one is
this to really think about it.So, yeah, they do look extremely
alike for sure. So does thatlikeness bring you any type of comfort?
(10:11):
I mean, you have a granddaughterthat looks exactly like her mother. In
some way, it does. Inanother way, it makes me move her
more, if that's possible. Imean, just to look at her and
I just can picture sitting and havinga conversation with kiffing me. It to
(10:33):
reel in a lot of way.But yeah, it does in some way
to bring me comfort. I've reallythought about it that way, but it
does. It's what being with heragain almost. I think I can understand
that because my nine year old grandsonspends a lot of time over here with
me, and it's kind of funnythat he looks just like his dad when
(10:54):
his dad was about his age now. And whenever he sees pictures of his
dad when his dad was a littlekid, my grandson will sometimes think it's
him and I'll tell him, no, that's not you, that's your dad,
and he goes, no, no, no, I know that's me,
and I'm like, no, man, you look just like your dad
(11:15):
when your dad was about your age, So those are pictures of your dad.
When he was younger, he didn'tbelieve me. But now that he's
older, he's understanding that he hastaken a likeness to his father. Sure,
I'll look at Addie sometimes and Ijust think, Wow, I know
what you're gonna look like when you'reyears old. That part of it's weird.
(11:37):
And it's always interesting how your relationshipwith a grandchild is really much different
than the one you have with yourown children. I mean, for me,
it's completely different. And I canremember when my own parents told me
years ago, they said, youdon't understand that relationship and how it's just
(12:03):
completely different, And I thought,well, how different could it be.
I mean, they're kids, butmy parents were always a lot nicer to
the grandkids than they were to theirown kids. But that's pretty common,
and I guess I didn't realize ituntil I became a grandparent myself. So
it's funny how we become our parents, right right. Lisa Daniels would find
(12:28):
herself in a situation that it hasoccurred in many households throughout the country.
Instead of becoming just a grandmother toTiffany's daughter, she would also have to
assume a motherly role. We willtake a short break in return with Lisa's
thoughts on how she became the caretakerof her beloved granddaughter. Well, of
(13:05):
course, being a grandparent is somethingreally special, but there is definitely a
difference between me and that grandparents thatgets to do the fun things with their
grandchild. You get to take themout to eat, and you get to
do all those fun activities. Butthen at the end of the night they
go home to their parents. Andthat's my situation, but your situation is
(13:30):
different because your grandchild doesn't go hometo their parents at the end of the
day. You're basically the parents andthe grandparent at the same time. So
you have to focus more on makingsure that your granddaughter has the things that
(13:50):
she needs and all the love andsupport that she would need, and you
have to be the disciplinarian. Also, that part is no fun at all.
So the grandparent role is much differentfor you than it is for me,
but it's still a great role.But nonetheless it's still a great role.
(14:15):
Definitely, I can understand that feelingthat now I've been raising her for
the lasteen years, it's different becauseI'm a parent to her. I grandparents,
you have no idea. How muchI wish that it could be a
grandparent to her, but I can't. She needs a parent when she's lost
both her parents, so she hadto have parents. So my mom and
(14:37):
dad and my husband's mom and dadwere grandparents to her, not great grandparents.
Unfortunately, both of our mom's thepath, but she still has to
grandpas. But we raised her likeour own because obviously, Defining wasn't around
for most of that time, evenin the beginning. She was early on
(15:00):
when the drug situation got worse,we just could not allow her to be
around because we felt like a safetyissue at that point, and so she
really wasn't around her much. Sowe've been mom and dad for the last
fourteen years. And you know what'sinteresting is I saw a story on Facebook
(15:20):
of a young woman that reminded meof your daughter. I mean, she
had a hard time, she struggled, she was on drugs, and then
there were pictures of her of whatshe looked like when she was younger and
on drugs. Of course she lookedabsolutely horrible. And then the picture next
or was of her graduating from collegeafter she quit doing drugs and got herself
(15:46):
cleaned up. And I enjoy seeingstories like that because I think it's commendable
when someone decides to make a changeand then they go through with it and
stick to it, because that's notan easy thing for a lot of people
to do. That could be oneof the stories that I posted because I
(16:07):
see stories like that and I liketo post them because they're great stories.
And the thing is, the percentageof people who are able to kick that
drug, especially any kind of opiate, if they're able to kick it and
stay queen and get their lives togetherand be successful, they're a very small
percentage those people are, and theyshould be celebrated it because it's hard,
(16:32):
very hard. Unfortunately, one ofthe cruelties that go with drug use is
that I think the way that drugsare manufactured today, it's almost impossible for
people to kick these habits. Forinstance, I've heard that it's nearly impossible
(16:53):
to kick a meth habit because thedrug is so powerful. And the thing
is, the people who made itknow this, and they intentionally do this
because they don't want anyone to kickthe habit, so they basically make slaves
of people. And I really can'tthink of anything more evil than to make
(17:18):
someone a slave that takes them awayfrom their family, friends, and other
loved ones. Right, well,you're right to a point. A Heroine
has always been a physically addictive drug, so that if you do at one
time, you're physically addicted to that. But now the danger is fentinal.
(17:41):
But I've actually heard a lot ofstories and actually know people who have children
who have unfortunately succumb to that doinga drug that they thought was heroin or
oxycotton or something like that that theyhad gotten illegally, and while heroine obviously
illegally and it was waced with senteland killed them. So it's much more
(18:07):
dangerous now than what it was.Even when Tiffany started, I steel felt
like, if we could just gether on the right path, that she
had a shot because she had alot of family support, she had a
lot of people who loved her.She had a close friends who would have
done anything for her, and Ifelt like she would have a shot.
(18:27):
But that's what that's the one thingthat one of the things other than just
not knowing where she is and what'shappened to her, is that now she
doesn't have a shot. You know, it's possible that if she will still
hear. We may still be goingthrough those same struggles, or she might
be in prison right now, orshe might be in rehabit at least she
(18:48):
would have a shot. So atdifferent times before she disappeared, you were
able to actually get her in torehab. Is that correct? He did?
Ye? How many times did shetry to go to rehab and get
her life together? Well, wegot her into one rehab and she got
(19:10):
herself kicked out about six weeks in. She was doing great in the first
part of the program when they're morerestricted so that all they're doing is go
into meetings. And there was animpatient rehab, not like a hospital.
She lived in a home with threeor four other young women. They count
floors. They went to NA meetings. She was not allowed to lead the
(19:34):
facility at that point. She wasallowed to leave the facility and get a
job offsite. That was when shemet somebody who was also an addict,
and that was it. That wasit was right at to the same old
thing. Damn, that's terrible.Six weeks of hard work just down the
(19:56):
drain exactly, and had been doingso well, so just heartbreaking and maddening.
You know, at the same time, it's like, I don't know
whether to be sad or mad oryou know, the fields are just all
over the board. Because I wasn'tmad. I was angry with her at
the same time, I'm bad becauseI'm like, I don't know what you'd
(20:18):
help her. And as it turnsout, the things that I've learned since,
rehab or an opioid addiction does notlook the same as rehab for alcohol
addiction or cocaine addiction. It's acompletely different type of addiction, and therefore
it's a completely different type of rehab. So what we were doing to try
to help her was probably never goingto help her. Unfortunately, So when
(20:42):
she wasn't able to kick her badhabits, did it ever come to a
point where you had to have thatk with her, like, look,
I can't take this anymore. Youcan't live with me. You're going to
go on your own. You can'tstay with me until you get your shit
(21:03):
together. Did you ever have thatkind of a talk? Yes, that
did happen. So the fact thatI had her young daughter living with me,
she cannot also live with me,not as long as she was using.
She couldn't. My husband was travelinga lot at the time, so
he was gone mostly during the week. I didn't feel safe because when she
(21:23):
was using, she's very unpredictable andshe would steal anything. So I did
not feel comfortable having her in myhome. I didn't know if I was
going to wake up and Addie wouldbe gone, or she would have cleaned
me out, or she would bringsomebody over there to clean me out,
and who knows what's going to happen. I'm sorry that people who are on
(21:44):
these drugs are not in their rightmind, and I know she would never
do that when she was clean.She would never do anything like that to
me, But I didn't know whatshe would do when she was using.
She was just too unpredictable. Andso she did stay with my parents for
a while, but my dad onlysaid no, she can't. He didn't
feel safe. My mom didn't feelsafe, and mostly that was because of
(22:10):
the kinds of people that she wasassociating with more than it was because of
her. Lisa had desperately tried tohelp Tiffany get her life straightened out.
She loved her daughter, but shecouldn't trust her. She didn't want Tiffany
conducting her toxic behavior around her owndaughter. As a grandmother, Lisa felt
(22:30):
the need to protect her granddaughter fromany toxicity. She would be forced to
give Tiffany some tough love. Shewould eventually give Tiffany an ultimatum. Either
get yourself together or don't come aroundhere anymore. Does have to be the
most difficult words that any parents canutter to their child. We will take
(22:52):
a final break and listen to Lesashare her thoughts about her inability to convince
her daughter to change your life forthe better. So after leaving your household,
(23:17):
she would go on and stay withyour parents, is that correct?
She didn't. She stayed with himfor a short period of time and it
just didn't work out. When shefirst connected with Ashley Caudle and my mom
had the opportunity to meet him,my mom begged her to leave him and
come home with her, and shewould not. She would not. She
(23:41):
said she could not. It's whatshe told my mother that she could not
leave him. I've seen pictures ofthat guy. He doesn't exactly look like
the type of guy that you wantto see your daughter bring home. No.
No, When I say she didn'tmake the friends, she made even
worse choice than boyfriend. She probablyreally only dated two young men that I
(24:07):
actually approved up. One of thosewas when she was in high school.
He was amazing, would have beenso good for her. And then the
other one was when Addie was maybeeighteen months old or so, somewhere between
eighteen and two years old, andshe was dating a guy that I thought
(24:27):
was a really quality person. Butit did not laugh unfortunately, and she
was right back to the bad choices, and the bad choices just led to
worst choices. And I think thatthe only reason that she was with Ashley
Caudle was busy kept her supplied withher drugs. I can't imagine any other
(24:51):
reason. Yeah, well, itsounds reasonable to assume that the toxic relationship
lasted because of your daughter's needed fordrugs, and if she had an ability
to get them through her boyfriend,then that could explain why she stayed.
(25:11):
Now, can you recall when wasthe last time that you actually spoke to
Tiffany? August thirty feet of twentythirteen. That was the last We were
at a Quinsy, Georgia football gameand with one someome fans. She had
called me several times that day.We had texted back and forth. We
(25:33):
were all excited about the game,and so I had some good conversations with
her that day and then that wasthe last time that I ever talked to
her. I had tried texting her, I had messaged her on Facebook,
couldn't get in touch with her.So at that point that was typical behavior
(25:55):
for her. If she was usingwe didn't hear from her. If she
was doing well and was Queen fora short period of time, we would
talk a lot. And that waswhen she went missing, obviously, was
in September of that same year.My mom had seen her about a week
before that, and that was whenshe met Ashley. That was when she
(26:15):
was begging Tiffany to leave him andcome home with her, and she said
she couldn't do that. And thatwas the last time that my mom had
a conversation with her. Was abouta week before she went missing, and
we continually tried to get in touchwith her of both my phone and on
Facebook Messenger. She never would respondto us, but there was just there
(26:37):
was no way for us to knowthat the situation was as dire as it
was because she had done before.It wasn't like she'd always around every day.
It went in spurts, so shewould be good for a few weeks
or a few months, and wewould hear from her. We'd talked to
her with there occasionally, and thenshe'd just go off to grid for two
or three months at a time.So there was nothing for us to be
(27:00):
alarmed about at that point. Butthen later that year, my mom got
the mail that was addressed to Tiffanythat was from a law firm. And
what I want to help people,I call it the Walmart extortion letters,
because if you ever get caught shopliftingat Walmart, you will get a letter
(27:22):
in the mail from Walmart attorney lettingyou know that if you will pay them
whatever the amount is. I thinkin this case in the one hundred and
fifty dollars, they will not filecivil charges against you. There's nothing about
the criminal charges. That pay usmoney and we won't file any civil charges
against you. So these letters cameto my parents because that was Tiffany's The
(27:47):
last address that she had listed wastheir house, and my mother immediately called
me about it and I said,Okay, something's wrong, because that means
you might be in jail because shegot caught shop listed at Walmart is the
only reason why she would have gotteneat letters. So my mom picked up
the phone and called Ashley Cordall andthat was when we found out the story
(28:08):
about them being at Walmart. AndI'm sure you read all this and the
Squire article that they were at Walmartand she was shoplifting, and the reason
why they knew who she was isbecause when she ran out, she had
them flipped whip. She ran rightout of her shoes and she dumped her
purse because they had hold of her. One of the security people had hold
(28:30):
of about her purse, so sheslipped her arm out of it, and
that's how he was able to getaway. So they had her purse with
her idea, and that's how theyknew who she was and the reason why
the letters pay. But she neverwas arrested for that. Yeah. So,
after watching the video of when Tiffanygot into the altercation with Walmart's staff
(28:55):
in front of the entrance, Ihad wondered why did she get caught shoplifting
when her boyfriend had so much cashon him. I don't think I understood
that. Why did he not payfor her items? I don't know.
I've wondered about that a lot,and I've talked with some law enforcement boats
about you know, is it possibleshe wanted to get caught. There were
(29:19):
some indicators on some of her Facebookmessages that she was trying to get away
from him. But then if shewanted to get caught, why did she
not just let herself get arrested insteadof running away? Right? But then
you think, Okay, well,he's probably going to wait on her,
or he's probably going to go bellor out, and then she's right back
(29:41):
in the same boat. So Idon't really know. I can't answer that
often only guess at where her headwas that. But she did have a
problem with feeling. She had thatissue said she was a small child.
The first time that she got caughtshoplifting at Walmart. I think she's all
three dollars para flip pops that shehad more than enough money to pay for.
(30:03):
So I don't know why people dothat. It was definitely an impulse
control issue with her, that shewould do something, she would take it.
She lost a lot of friends thatway, stealing from friends. She
stole from me for my parents,and she definitely had an issue with that.
Oh and I wanted to mention thatI read about the Walmart incident with
(30:30):
Tiffany in a Squire and I justwanted to comment that I thought the article
was well written and it was definitelyan excellent story. The writer did a
pretty good job of telling her story, or at least I think he did.
I mean, it wasn't an articlewhere the author just bashed your daughter
(30:52):
throughout the story. He did showsome compassion when he wrote it. He's
a great story. Go So,after she runs out of Walmart, she's
never been seen or heard from again. Can you tell me a little bit
more about that. No, onejust disappears, and I just find it
(31:14):
hard to believe that she would justrun away and leave her life behind.
Tell me more about what you thinkhappened to her that night. Well that's
the mystery. If i'body could answerthat, then we would know. But
she ran out of Walmart, Iasked Astley myself ran out? Which direction
did she go? Did she seewhich direction she went? Oh? Yeah,
(31:36):
she ran straight towards the vialway forHalloway forty one cough carfway. Well
that is not true. Security saidthat she ran straight across the parking lot,
which I don't know how familiar youare with that location, but if
you run straight up the doors ofWalmart and just go straight, there's a
Sam's claud right there, and securitysaid that was the direction that she ram
(32:00):
was toward the Sam's Club. Sopolice did search behind that fan club because
I thought, hey, what ifshe fell or did her head or something,
she could be back there all along. But they did search that area.
There was no sign. What aboutcameras. I mean, we know
Walmart had a camera, but whatabout Sam's Club. Didn't Sam's Club have
(32:22):
a camera? Or any of theother businesses that were in the area did
they have cameras? Also, obviouslyno one just disappears in the thin air.
So the issue with the cameras,the outside cameras, they recycled those
do they only keep them for acertain period of time. And unfortunately,
by the time we realized where shewas la seeing and what had happened,
(32:43):
that footage was gone. So theydid check all the businesses around there,
nobody had it. The only reasonwhy they have the footage inside the Walmart
is because she was off with thing. If not for that, they wouldn't
even have that footage. And howlong did it take before you and family
members became truly concerned that's something badhad possibly happened to Tiffany. So when
(33:07):
the Walmart letters came and my momcalled me about that, I became concerned,
but not concerned that something had happenedto her. I felt like that
kind of solidified in my mind own. Okay, that makes sense. While
we haven't heard thrumber because she knowsshe's in trouble, she's on parole,
(33:28):
and if parole gets told of thisand finds out, she's going to jail
because she tied out. That washer thought. She's got to be lay
in love and eventually she's going tocome out. Somebody's going to hear from
her, and we knew who itwould be. But she has a cousin
that she was really close to.The girlfriends that she was really close to
(33:50):
you. There were the writer dietype. Its like they won't write me
out, they'll help me. Mymother would have been one that she would
have called. I would write herout, she wouldn't call me. I'm
law abiding and I want her toget through her parole. It's like,
if you grew up, you gotto paid consequence. And okay, that's
(34:12):
just how it worked, and I'mnot going to cover for you. I'm
not going to get myself in troublecovering for you. And she knew that,
so I knew I would be thelast person she would call. But
I knew that there were a fewpeople that she would call. And I
stayed in touch with all of thosepeople, and she never got in touch
with any of them. And Ieven thought would they even tell me if
(34:34):
she had got to touch with them, But all of them knew how worried
I was, and I do believethat they would have told me if she
had contacted them. By Thanksgiving,when we didn't hear from her, that
was when we really got worried becausekin City was really big on holiday and
my birthday was in September. Shenever called me. We had Thanksgiving,
(34:55):
she never called Christmas, she nevercalled it. This whole time, I
was actually getting in touch with peoplevia Facebook, her friends, people I
didn't know, and can in theInternet, looking for any sign that maybe
something had happened to her. Iknow it sounds morbid, and I still
do it to this day. Youknow, human remains, found, body
(35:19):
found, anything. And I cameacross the cliff from Pauling County, which
is where I was living at thetime. Remains found just to be mads
from my house, and so Ithought, oh, my god, was
she trying to get home and somethinghappened, And so I didn't want to
tell my mother about it. Iwanted to get through the holidays. And
then because as we got through theholidays, I did reach out to the
(35:44):
detective on that case. Think wehad not followed the missing person by this
time, because we had talked aboutit, and my feeling on it at
that time was, first of all, she's an adult. She has the
right to be missing. I don'tknow that any law enforcement officers even gonna
be interested in following a missing personbecause she's an adult and she's got a
(36:05):
record, and she's gonna at it. This is what I'm going to hear.
And more on that in a second. But I did reach out to
the detective on that Paulding County caveand he asked me some questions about Tiffany.
You know, when was the lasttime you talked to her? How
long has she been gone? Andsaid then he said, well, I
can assure you that the remains wefound are not her because these remains are
(36:29):
at least a year old, it'snot more. So I said, okay.
So that was a little bit ofa relief, and then I said,
look, I need some direction here. I don't know what to do.
I don't even know where I wouldgo to. I follow missing person
with Paulding County, you know,Cobb County, city in Marietta, I
don't know. And so when heasked me, where was the last time
(36:51):
that somebody saw her? And Ifollowed him that Walmart and Marietta. He
had told me Cobb County. SoI went to Cobb County and they said,
no, that is City of Marietta. So my mother and I went
to the City of Marietta to followmissing person's report and it was a very
nice officer that we dealt with.He took the report and he said exactly
(37:12):
what I thought he would. Look, you know, I looked her up
and he said, you know,she's got a record, she's an addict.
I'm sure she's just waying low untilheat is off or whatever, or
she'll be back. And so Isaid, look, I get it.
I'm not coming in here trying tohide anything. To say that she's this
innocence. But I said, Ido believe that the boyfriend could know more
(37:37):
than what he's told us. Hisstory is just really hinky. And it
was just real interesting in the conversationsthat both my mother and I had with
him, And why didn't he reporther missing or call us to say,
hey, something's wrong, she's missing. This was what happened. And so
I said, at a minimum,can you please just bring him in and
(37:59):
talk to him. I mean,he's on parole too, though that shouldn't
be too difficult, and all indicationsfor that. They were willing to do
that, but then they did nothing. And long story short, when the
case was assigned to a detective andthe detective finally took the time to call
me, he said, yeah,we're closing this case. She's an addict
(38:19):
with a record, he's on parole. She would cast shoplifting. I'm sure
she tied. Now she'll turn upeventually, And I just knew that was
not his cage by this time upand Ena, No, I absolutely do
not believe that. And so ittook a lot of weakiness on my part.
I was lucky enough to have peoplein my corner who did some digging
(38:44):
for me got me information that Icouldn't have otherwise gotten on my own.
I was able to get a holdof a cell phone number for a person
who at that time was a Idon't know exactly what his title was,
that he with pardons and paroles andcob County and his name was Patrick Price.
Unfortunately he passed away at a veryyoung age, but he was very
(39:07):
helpful to me in the beginning.And he was the one who said,
look, be a squeaky will.You are really going to have to rape
them hell to get people to listento you. And he was right about
that, because nobody wanted to payattention, nobody wanted to do anything until
I just said I'm not going away. I will not go away, and
(39:30):
I just went up the chain ofa managel. I finally got somebody who
would listen, and that was whenthey had signed the case to Detective Johnny
Mueller. And she was amazing.I talked to her the first time when
she called me. We might havebeen on the phone for two hours just
going over everything, and she hadto ask me some tough questions. Is
(39:51):
it possible that she was prostituting herselffor drug Deep impossible. Is it possible
that she committed suicide? Deep possible? But if that were the case,
why hasn't she been found. She'snot going to do that in a place
where she's not going to be found. And she's just not that kind of
person. She's a people person.He looked at her Facebook. She was
(40:13):
always on Facebook. That's how shecommunicated most of the time. She messaged
back and forth on Facebook. Shewas even doing drug bills for her boyfriend
on Facebook. So for her tobe just completely off her Facebook, no
messages. When I finally was ableto break into her Facebook, there were
so many unread messages and unread notificationthat I knew at the point that the
(40:39):
likelihood I was ever going to seeher again one to none. I pretty
much knew at that point that somethingreally bad had happened. And that concludes
the first half of Tiffany's story.Tiffany has been missing for nearly a decade.
What happened to her after she waslast seen fleeing from Almyata George Walmart.
(41:00):
She has never been seen again.Her mother doesn't think that law enforcement
has taken her case seriously because ofher addictions and past issues with the law.
Regardless of Tiffany's issues with drugs andthe law, she still deserves a
chance at life, a chance toreconcile her differences with her family. Someone
(41:22):
out there knows what happened to her. Her boyfriend, Ashley Coddle, has
said that he never saw Tiffany againafter she fled from Walmart loss prevention employees,
but he has told different people differentstories. According to Lisa Daniels,
he is currently incarcerated and denies harmingTiffany. Do you know what happened to
(41:45):
Tiffany Witten on the night that shevanished into the darkness? If you know
anything about this case, please contactthe Marietta, Georgia Police anonymous tipline at
seven seven zero nine four six ninenine zero. And if you would like
to know more about this case,you can also visit the Fine Tiffany Witten
(42:08):
Facebook page. I will be sureto provide this information in the case story
notes and be sure to listen tothe conclusion of Tiffany's story next week.
And if you are a parent,law enforcement official, friend, or relative
seeking justice for an unsolved Thomas sidecase, please visit my website and complete
(42:29):
the contact form. You can alsocontact me through your Facebook. Thank you
for listening.
Hello, and welcome to the CatchMy Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly
newspaper column about true crimes and missingpeople for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With the column and podcast, myobjective has always been to try to
(00:35):
bring attention to the cases that haven'treceived much media attention, if any at
all. This week's story involves atroubled young Georgia woman named Tiffany Witten.
She had many interpersonal demons that shewas battling, and to make matters even
worse, Tiffany had become involved ina volatile relationship with a man with an
(00:59):
extensive criminal record. His name isAshley Red Caudle. During the early morning
hours of September thirteenth, twenty thirteen, the couple went shopping at a Walmart
and Marietta, Georgia. Tiffany hadshoplifted some merchandise and was apprehended by Walmart
loss prevention staff as she was leaving. Tiffany managed to get away and ran
(01:23):
out of the front door and intothe parking lot. She has never been
seen again. Tiffany Witten was bornon January thirtieth nineteen eighty seven and Kennesaw,
(01:56):
Georgia. Her mother, Lisa Daniels, had described Tiffany as a happy
baby, but Lisa would become troubledby Tiffany's bad behavior that started at an
early age. Lisa Daniels has saidthat at an early age, Tiffany began
taking toys and other items that didnot belong to her. She also began
(02:22):
to lie often. As Tiffany gotolder, her life would spiral out of
control. She continued stealing from herfamily and friends and became a habitual liar.
Tiffany's teenage years were a struggle.She couldn't adapt to school work and
had no interest in school. Shebecame rebellious in quit high school during her
(02:44):
sophomore year. As a child,she had expressed interest in becoming a veterinarian,
but she would abandon that dream.Tiffany became pregnant and then gave that
child up for adoption. She wouldthen give birth to a second child,
but she would keep the second child, who would ultimately be raised by Tiffany's
(03:05):
mother, Lisa. Tiffany began heavilyusing drugs like oxycotton and worked at different
waitress jobs. She also began toshoplift at Walmart regularly. She would eventually
get caught shoplifting more than once.In March of twenty and eleven, while
living in Dalton, Georgia, Tiffanywas arrested and charged for home invasion.
(03:29):
She received a prison sentence in twotwelve. By this time, tension had
grown so intense between Tiffany and hermother that Lisa had to practice tough love
with her daughter. She told Tiffanythat she was done communicating with her until
she gave up drugs and her criminalactivities. Lisa had hoped this would be
(03:49):
the wake up call Tiffany needed toovercome her troubles and become a more responsible
mother. After Tiffany's release, shewent into drug rehab. According to Lisa,
she appeared to be making some changes, but this would only last for
about six weeks. Tiffany would thenmeet and begin dating a single father named
(04:12):
Ashley Caudle, also known as Red. The couple began using crystal meth and
other drugs. Friends of the coupledescribed the relationship as toxic and trouble.
They fought regularly, and due toTiffany's drug addictions, she couldn't hold a
job. She would show up highand be unable to work. She was
(04:33):
eventually able to find a job ata local iyhop, but then she would
be fired for theft. On Septembertwelfth, twenty thirteen, the couple went
to a friend's house to do drugs. After leaving the friend's home around midnight,
the two arrived at a Marietta,Georgia walmart at one am. After
(04:55):
an hour, lost prevention staff becamesuspicious of Tiffany washed her closely on security
cameras. The couple went to payfor their items at two am. Although
Coddle paid for his items, Tiffanyhad attempted to steal twenty dollars worth of
merchandise. Lost prevention staff approached andattempted to apprehend Tiffany. One of the
(05:19):
staff members grabbed Tiffany's bag. Sheslid her arm out of the bag,
kicked off her flip flops, andran away. While mart's lost prevention staff
did not attempt to pursue Tiffany aftershe ran away, security cameras have captured
her running away into the parking lot, and she has never been seen again.
(05:43):
The entire incident was captured on videoand can be seen online. For
Tiffany's story, I spoke to hermother, Lisa Daniels. This is the
first part of a two part story. Be sure to listen to the conclusion
next week and now on with thestory of Tiffany Witton is told by her
(06:06):
mother, Lisa Daniels. Tiffany wasborn and Marriedetta in January of nineteen eighty
seven, and she was an absolutelybeautiful baby and normal baby, normal toddler.
She did have some issues with takingthings early on. That was when
(06:30):
I noticed that there was something notquite right and that thing could be an
issue really throughout her life that shewas burnie. She had a great personality.
She was wicked smart and a lotof fun to be around. She
made friends very easily. She canreally talk to anyone and it was really
(06:50):
just a free child that she didstart going off the rails in middle school.
Didn't do well in middle school.Thank god there wasn't social media then,
because I think things could have beena lot worse at that point.
But she did really tend to notmake the best choices and friends. She
had some friends that were just trueblue, really good friends, people that
(07:15):
really did love her and care abouther, But then others that were just
those friends that she don't really wantto be associated with, the no matter
I mean kinds. I said toher, Hey, guilt by association.
If you're hanging out with these peopleand they're doing things they shouldn't be doing,
you're going to be right in therewith them. But she just getting
(07:35):
really heed my warning, and thingsgot worse than high school. She actually
ended up getting pregnant in high school. She gave a child up for adoption,
and when she was the high schooland then she made the decision to
drop out of high school, andI think that's where things just really completely
off the rails with her, andshe continued to the friend people that she
(08:00):
shouldn't and at some point the drugscame into the picture, and once she
got hooked on drugs, that wasjust the beginning of the end, unfortunately.
So when would you say that shereally got heavily into drugs. Was
it before high school or do youthink it was after she left. I'm
(08:22):
not aware of any kind of drugyouth, or at least hard drug,
But did she most weed or anythinglike that in high school? More than
likely yet, but I'm not awareof any major drug youth until she was
in her twenty and when I becameaware of it, I hadn't really seen
(08:43):
the time, but once I becameaware of it, I did start seeing
a lot of red flag and atthat point started trying to gear her back
in the right direction to cut meof her daughter. And she basically asked
me to take care of her becauseshe just was not in a position to
(09:03):
do that. And thank god we'vegot a daughter. When she was about
two years old, I've had herthink when she just turned sixteen, I
had her for aboutteen years. Isaw the pictures of your granddaughter on Facebook,
and I have to say, it'sreally uncanny how much she looks just
(09:26):
like her mother. I mean,when I first saw the photos, I
thought it was your daughter and raclelike her. Yeah she does, Yeah,
I believe it or not. Shelooks so much like her that even
my granddaughter has actually made the mistakeof thinking that pictures of Tiffany were actually
(09:46):
her. And she really had tolook at and say, way, man,
I don't remember wherever wearing a shirtlike that or whatever. And I've
done the same thing. I'm surewhat the pictures and said which one is
this to really think about it.So, yeah, they do look extremely
alike for sure. So does thatlikeness bring you any type of comfort?
(10:11):
I mean, you have a granddaughterthat looks exactly like her mother. In
some way, it does. Inanother way, it makes me move her
more, if that's possible. Imean, just to look at her and
I just can picture sitting and havinga conversation with kiffing me. It to
(10:33):
reel in a lot of way.But yeah, it does in some way
to bring me comfort. I've reallythought about it that way, but it
does. It's what being with heragain almost. I think I can understand
that because my nine year old grandsonspends a lot of time over here with
me, and it's kind of funnythat he looks just like his dad when
(10:54):
his dad was about his age now. And whenever he sees pictures of his
dad when his dad was a littlekid, my grandson will sometimes think it's
him and I'll tell him, no, that's not you, that's your dad,
and he goes, no, no, no, I know that's me,
and I'm like, no, man, you look just like your dad
(11:15):
when your dad was about your age, So those are pictures of your dad.
When he was younger, he didn'tbelieve me. But now that he's
older, he's understanding that he hastaken a likeness to his father. Sure,
I'll look at Addie sometimes and Ijust think, Wow, I know
what you're gonna look like when you'reyears old. That part of it's weird.
(11:37):
And it's always interesting how your relationshipwith a grandchild is really much different
than the one you have with yourown children. I mean, for me,
it's completely different. And I canremember when my own parents told me
years ago, they said, youdon't understand that relationship and how it's just
(12:03):
completely different, And I thought,well, how different could it be.
I mean, they're kids, butmy parents were always a lot nicer to
the grandkids than they were to theirown kids. But that's pretty common,
and I guess I didn't realize ituntil I became a grandparent myself. So
it's funny how we become our parents, right right. Lisa Daniels would find
(12:28):
herself in a situation that it hasoccurred in many households throughout the country.
Instead of becoming just a grandmother toTiffany's daughter, she would also have to
assume a motherly role. We willtake a short break in return with Lisa's
thoughts on how she became the caretakerof her beloved granddaughter. Well, of
(13:05):
course, being a grandparent is somethingreally special, but there is definitely a
difference between me and that grandparents thatgets to do the fun things with their
grandchild. You get to take themout to eat, and you get to
do all those fun activities. Butthen at the end of the night they
go home to their parents. Andthat's my situation, but your situation is
(13:30):
different because your grandchild doesn't go hometo their parents at the end of the
day. You're basically the parents andthe grandparent at the same time. So
you have to focus more on makingsure that your granddaughter has the things that
(13:50):
she needs and all the love andsupport that she would need, and you
have to be the disciplinarian. Also, that part is no fun at all.
So the grandparent role is much differentfor you than it is for me,
but it's still a great role.But nonetheless it's still a great role.
(14:15):
Definitely, I can understand that feelingthat now I've been raising her for
the lasteen years, it's different becauseI'm a parent to her. I grandparents,
you have no idea. How muchI wish that it could be a
grandparent to her, but I can't. She needs a parent when she's lost
both her parents, so she hadto have parents. So my mom and
(14:37):
dad and my husband's mom and dadwere grandparents to her, not great grandparents.
Unfortunately, both of our mom's thepath, but she still has to
grandpas. But we raised her likeour own because obviously, Defining wasn't around
for most of that time, evenin the beginning. She was early on
(15:00):
when the drug situation got worse,we just could not allow her to be
around because we felt like a safetyissue at that point, and so she
really wasn't around her much. Sowe've been mom and dad for the last
fourteen years. And you know what'sinteresting is I saw a story on Facebook
(15:20):
of a young woman that reminded meof your daughter. I mean, she
had a hard time, she struggled, she was on drugs, and then
there were pictures of her of whatshe looked like when she was younger and
on drugs. Of course she lookedabsolutely horrible. And then the picture next
or was of her graduating from collegeafter she quit doing drugs and got herself
(15:46):
cleaned up. And I enjoy seeingstories like that because I think it's commendable
when someone decides to make a changeand then they go through with it and
stick to it, because that's notan easy thing for a lot of people
to do. That could be oneof the stories that I posted because I
(16:07):
see stories like that and I liketo post them because they're great stories.
And the thing is, the percentageof people who are able to kick that
drug, especially any kind of opiate, if they're able to kick it and
stay queen and get their lives togetherand be successful, they're a very small
percentage those people are, and theyshould be celebrated it because it's hard,
(16:32):
very hard. Unfortunately, one ofthe cruelties that go with drug use is
that I think the way that drugsare manufactured today, it's almost impossible for
people to kick these habits. Forinstance, I've heard that it's nearly impossible
(16:53):
to kick a meth habit because thedrug is so powerful. And the thing
is, the people who made itknow this, and they intentionally do this
because they don't want anyone to kickthe habit, so they basically make slaves
of people. And I really can'tthink of anything more evil than to make
(17:18):
someone a slave that takes them awayfrom their family, friends, and other
loved ones. Right, well,you're right to a point. A Heroine
has always been a physically addictive drug, so that if you do at one
time, you're physically addicted to that. But now the danger is fentinal.
(17:41):
But I've actually heard a lot ofstories and actually know people who have children
who have unfortunately succumb to that doinga drug that they thought was heroin or
oxycotton or something like that that theyhad gotten illegally, and while heroine obviously
illegally and it was waced with senteland killed them. So it's much more
(18:07):
dangerous now than what it was.Even when Tiffany started, I steel felt
like, if we could just gether on the right path, that she
had a shot because she had alot of family support, she had a
lot of people who loved her.She had a close friends who would have
done anything for her, and Ifelt like she would have a shot.
(18:27):
But that's what that's the one thingthat one of the things other than just
not knowing where she is and what'shappened to her, is that now she
doesn't have a shot. You know, it's possible that if she will still
hear. We may still be goingthrough those same struggles, or she might
be in prison right now, orshe might be in rehabit at least she
(18:48):
would have a shot. So atdifferent times before she disappeared, you were
able to actually get her in torehab. Is that correct? He did?
Ye? How many times did shetry to go to rehab and get
her life together? Well, wegot her into one rehab and she got
(19:10):
herself kicked out about six weeks in. She was doing great in the first
part of the program when they're morerestricted so that all they're doing is go
into meetings. And there was animpatient rehab, not like a hospital.
She lived in a home with threeor four other young women. They count
floors. They went to NA meetings. She was not allowed to lead the
(19:34):
facility at that point. She wasallowed to leave the facility and get a
job offsite. That was when shemet somebody who was also an addict,
and that was it. That wasit was right at to the same old
thing. Damn, that's terrible.Six weeks of hard work just down the
(19:56):
drain exactly, and had been doingso well, so just heartbreaking and maddening.
You know, at the same time, it's like, I don't know
whether to be sad or mad oryou know, the fields are just all
over the board. Because I wasn'tmad. I was angry with her at
the same time, I'm bad becauseI'm like, I don't know what you'd
(20:18):
help her. And as it turnsout, the things that I've learned since,
rehab or an opioid addiction does notlook the same as rehab for alcohol
addiction or cocaine addiction. It's acompletely different type of addiction, and therefore
it's a completely different type of rehab. So what we were doing to try
to help her was probably never goingto help her. Unfortunately, So when
(20:42):
she wasn't able to kick her badhabits, did it ever come to a
point where you had to have thatk with her, like, look,
I can't take this anymore. Youcan't live with me. You're going to
go on your own. You can'tstay with me until you get your shit
(21:03):
together. Did you ever have thatkind of a talk? Yes, that
did happen. So the fact thatI had her young daughter living with me,
she cannot also live with me,not as long as she was using.
She couldn't. My husband was travelinga lot at the time, so
he was gone mostly during the week. I didn't feel safe because when she
(21:23):
was using, she's very unpredictable andshe would steal anything. So I did
not feel comfortable having her in myhome. I didn't know if I was
going to wake up and Addie wouldbe gone, or she would have cleaned
me out, or she would bringsomebody over there to clean me out,
and who knows what's going to happen. I'm sorry that people who are on
(21:44):
these drugs are not in their rightmind, and I know she would never
do that when she was clean.She would never do anything like that to
me, But I didn't know whatshe would do when she was using.
She was just too unpredictable. Andso she did stay with my parents for
a while, but my dad onlysaid no, she can't. He didn't
feel safe. My mom didn't feelsafe, and mostly that was because of
(22:10):
the kinds of people that she wasassociating with more than it was because of
her. Lisa had desperately tried tohelp Tiffany get her life straightened out.
She loved her daughter, but shecouldn't trust her. She didn't want Tiffany
conducting her toxic behavior around her owndaughter. As a grandmother, Lisa felt
(22:30):
the need to protect her granddaughter fromany toxicity. She would be forced to
give Tiffany some tough love. Shewould eventually give Tiffany an ultimatum. Either
get yourself together or don't come aroundhere anymore. Does have to be the
most difficult words that any parents canutter to their child. We will take
(22:52):
a final break and listen to Lesashare her thoughts about her inability to convince
her daughter to change your life forthe better. So after leaving your household,
(23:17):
she would go on and stay withyour parents, is that correct?
She didn't. She stayed with himfor a short period of time and it
just didn't work out. When shefirst connected with Ashley Caudle and my mom
had the opportunity to meet him,my mom begged her to leave him and
come home with her, and shewould not. She would not. She
(23:41):
said she could not. It's whatshe told my mother that she could not
leave him. I've seen pictures ofthat guy. He doesn't exactly look like
the type of guy that you wantto see your daughter bring home. No.
No, When I say she didn'tmake the friends, she made even
worse choice than boyfriend. She probablyreally only dated two young men that I
(24:07):
actually approved up. One of thosewas when she was in high school.
He was amazing, would have beenso good for her. And then the
other one was when Addie was maybeeighteen months old or so, somewhere between
eighteen and two years old, andshe was dating a guy that I thought
(24:27):
was a really quality person. Butit did not laugh unfortunately, and she
was right back to the bad choices, and the bad choices just led to
worst choices. And I think thatthe only reason that she was with Ashley
Caudle was busy kept her supplied withher drugs. I can't imagine any other
(24:51):
reason. Yeah, well, itsounds reasonable to assume that the toxic relationship
lasted because of your daughter's needed fordrugs, and if she had an ability
to get them through her boyfriend,then that could explain why she stayed.
(25:11):
Now, can you recall when wasthe last time that you actually spoke to
Tiffany? August thirty feet of twentythirteen. That was the last We were
at a Quinsy, Georgia football gameand with one someome fans. She had
called me several times that day.We had texted back and forth. We
(25:33):
were all excited about the game,and so I had some good conversations with
her that day and then that wasthe last time that I ever talked to
her. I had tried texting her, I had messaged her on Facebook,
couldn't get in touch with her.So at that point that was typical behavior
(25:55):
for her. If she was usingwe didn't hear from her. If she
was doing well and was Queen fora short period of time, we would
talk a lot. And that waswhen she went missing, obviously, was
in September of that same year.My mom had seen her about a week
before that, and that was whenshe met Ashley. That was when she
(26:15):
was begging Tiffany to leave him andcome home with her, and she said
she couldn't do that. And thatwas the last time that my mom had
a conversation with her. Was abouta week before she went missing, and
we continually tried to get in touchwith her of both my phone and on
Facebook Messenger. She never would respondto us, but there was just there
(26:37):
was no way for us to knowthat the situation was as dire as it
was because she had done before.It wasn't like she'd always around every day.
It went in spurts, so shewould be good for a few weeks
or a few months, and wewould hear from her. We'd talked to
her with there occasionally, and thenshe'd just go off to grid for two
or three months at a time.So there was nothing for us to be
(27:00):
alarmed about at that point. Butthen later that year, my mom got
the mail that was addressed to Tiffanythat was from a law firm. And
what I want to help people,I call it the Walmart extortion letters,
because if you ever get caught shopliftingat Walmart, you will get a letter
(27:22):
in the mail from Walmart attorney lettingyou know that if you will pay them
whatever the amount is. I thinkin this case in the one hundred and
fifty dollars, they will not filecivil charges against you. There's nothing about
the criminal charges. That pay usmoney and we won't file any civil charges
against you. So these letters cameto my parents because that was Tiffany's The
(27:47):
last address that she had listed wastheir house, and my mother immediately called
me about it and I said,Okay, something's wrong, because that means
you might be in jail because shegot caught shop listed at Walmart is the
only reason why she would have gotteneat letters. So my mom picked up
the phone and called Ashley Cordall andthat was when we found out the story
(28:08):
about them being at Walmart. AndI'm sure you read all this and the
Squire article that they were at Walmartand she was shoplifting, and the reason
why they knew who she was isbecause when she ran out, she had
them flipped whip. She ran rightout of her shoes and she dumped her
purse because they had hold of her. One of the security people had hold
(28:30):
of about her purse, so sheslipped her arm out of it, and
that's how he was able to getaway. So they had her purse with
her idea, and that's how theyknew who she was and the reason why
the letters pay. But she neverwas arrested for that. Yeah. So,
after watching the video of when Tiffanygot into the altercation with Walmart's staff
(28:55):
in front of the entrance, Ihad wondered why did she get caught shoplifting
when her boyfriend had so much cashon him. I don't think I understood
that. Why did he not payfor her items? I don't know.
I've wondered about that a lot,and I've talked with some law enforcement boats
about you know, is it possibleshe wanted to get caught. There were
(29:19):
some indicators on some of her Facebookmessages that she was trying to get away
from him. But then if shewanted to get caught, why did she
not just let herself get arrested insteadof running away? Right? But then
you think, Okay, well,he's probably going to wait on her,
or he's probably going to go bellor out, and then she's right back
(29:41):
in the same boat. So Idon't really know. I can't answer that
often only guess at where her headwas that. But she did have a
problem with feeling. She had thatissue said she was a small child.
The first time that she got caughtshoplifting at Walmart. I think she's all
three dollars para flip pops that shehad more than enough money to pay for.
(30:03):
So I don't know why people dothat. It was definitely an impulse
control issue with her, that shewould do something, she would take it.
She lost a lot of friends thatway, stealing from friends. She
stole from me for my parents,and she definitely had an issue with that.
Oh and I wanted to mention thatI read about the Walmart incident with
(30:30):
Tiffany in a Squire and I justwanted to comment that I thought the article
was well written and it was definitelyan excellent story. The writer did a
pretty good job of telling her story, or at least I think he did.
I mean, it wasn't an articlewhere the author just bashed your daughter
(30:52):
throughout the story. He did showsome compassion when he wrote it. He's
a great story. Go So,after she runs out of Walmart, she's
never been seen or heard from again. Can you tell me a little bit
more about that. No, onejust disappears, and I just find it
(31:14):
hard to believe that she would justrun away and leave her life behind.
Tell me more about what you thinkhappened to her that night. Well that's
the mystery. If i'body could answerthat, then we would know. But
she ran out of Walmart, Iasked Astley myself ran out? Which direction
did she go? Did she seewhich direction she went? Oh? Yeah,
(31:36):
she ran straight towards the vialway forHalloway forty one cough carfway. Well
that is not true. Security saidthat she ran straight across the parking lot,
which I don't know how familiar youare with that location, but if
you run straight up the doors ofWalmart and just go straight, there's a
Sam's claud right there, and securitysaid that was the direction that she ram
(32:00):
was toward the Sam's Club. Sopolice did search behind that fan club because
I thought, hey, what ifshe fell or did her head or something,
she could be back there all along. But they did search that area.
There was no sign. What aboutcameras. I mean, we know
Walmart had a camera, but whatabout Sam's Club. Didn't Sam's Club have
(32:22):
a camera? Or any of theother businesses that were in the area did
they have cameras? Also, obviouslyno one just disappears in the thin air.
So the issue with the cameras,the outside cameras, they recycled those
do they only keep them for acertain period of time. And unfortunately,
by the time we realized where shewas la seeing and what had happened,
(32:43):
that footage was gone. So theydid check all the businesses around there,
nobody had it. The only reasonwhy they have the footage inside the Walmart
is because she was off with thing. If not for that, they wouldn't
even have that footage. And howlong did it take before you and family
members became truly concerned that's something badhad possibly happened to Tiffany. So when
(33:07):
the Walmart letters came and my momcalled me about that, I became concerned,
but not concerned that something had happenedto her. I felt like that
kind of solidified in my mind own. Okay, that makes sense. While
we haven't heard thrumber because she knowsshe's in trouble, she's on parole,
(33:28):
and if parole gets told of thisand finds out, she's going to jail
because she tied out. That washer thought. She's got to be lay
in love and eventually she's going tocome out. Somebody's going to hear from
her, and we knew who itwould be. But she has a cousin
that she was really close to.The girlfriends that she was really close to
(33:50):
you. There were the writer dietype. Its like they won't write me
out, they'll help me. Mymother would have been one that she would
have called. I would write herout, she wouldn't call me. I'm
law abiding and I want her toget through her parole. It's like,
if you grew up, you gotto paid consequence. And okay, that's
(34:12):
just how it worked, and I'mnot going to cover for you. I'm
not going to get myself in troublecovering for you. And she knew that,
so I knew I would be thelast person she would call. But
I knew that there were a fewpeople that she would call. And I
stayed in touch with all of thosepeople, and she never got in touch
with any of them. And Ieven thought would they even tell me if
(34:34):
she had got to touch with them, But all of them knew how worried
I was, and I do believethat they would have told me if she
had contacted them. By Thanksgiving,when we didn't hear from her, that
was when we really got worried becausekin City was really big on holiday and
my birthday was in September. Shenever called me. We had Thanksgiving,
(34:55):
she never called Christmas, she nevercalled it. This whole time, I
was actually getting in touch with peoplevia Facebook, her friends, people I
didn't know, and can in theInternet, looking for any sign that maybe
something had happened to her. Iknow it sounds morbid, and I still
do it to this day. Youknow, human remains, found, body
(35:19):
found, anything. And I cameacross the cliff from Pauling County, which
is where I was living at thetime. Remains found just to be mads
from my house, and so Ithought, oh, my god, was
she trying to get home and somethinghappened, And so I didn't want to
tell my mother about it. Iwanted to get through the holidays. And
then because as we got through theholidays, I did reach out to the
(35:44):
detective on that case. Think wehad not followed the missing person by this
time, because we had talked aboutit, and my feeling on it at
that time was, first of all, she's an adult. She has the
right to be missing. I don'tknow that any law enforcement officers even gonna
be interested in following a missing personbecause she's an adult and she's got a
(36:05):
record, and she's gonna at it. This is what I'm going to hear.
And more on that in a second. But I did reach out to
the detective on that Paulding County caveand he asked me some questions about Tiffany.
You know, when was the lasttime you talked to her? How
long has she been gone? Andsaid then he said, well, I
can assure you that the remains wefound are not her because these remains are
(36:29):
at least a year old, it'snot more. So I said, okay.
So that was a little bit ofa relief, and then I said,
look, I need some direction here. I don't know what to do.
I don't even know where I wouldgo to. I follow missing person
with Paulding County, you know,Cobb County, city in Marietta, I
don't know. And so when heasked me, where was the last time
(36:51):
that somebody saw her? And Ifollowed him that Walmart and Marietta. He
had told me Cobb County. SoI went to Cobb County and they said,
no, that is City of Marietta. So my mother and I went
to the City of Marietta to followmissing person's report and it was a very
nice officer that we dealt with.He took the report and he said exactly
(37:12):
what I thought he would. Look, you know, I looked her up
and he said, you know,she's got a record, she's an addict.
I'm sure she's just waying low untilheat is off or whatever, or
she'll be back. And so Isaid, look, I get it.
I'm not coming in here trying tohide anything. To say that she's this
innocence. But I said, Ido believe that the boyfriend could know more
(37:37):
than what he's told us. Hisstory is just really hinky. And it
was just real interesting in the conversationsthat both my mother and I had with
him, And why didn't he reporther missing or call us to say,
hey, something's wrong, she's missing. This was what happened. And so
I said, at a minimum,can you please just bring him in and
(37:59):
talk to him. I mean,he's on parole too, though that shouldn't
be too difficult, and all indicationsfor that. They were willing to do
that, but then they did nothing. And long story short, when the
case was assigned to a detective andthe detective finally took the time to call
me, he said, yeah,we're closing this case. She's an addict
(38:19):
with a record, he's on parole. She would cast shoplifting. I'm sure
she tied. Now she'll turn upeventually, And I just knew that was
not his cage by this time upand Ena, No, I absolutely do
not believe that. And so ittook a lot of weakiness on my part.
I was lucky enough to have peoplein my corner who did some digging
(38:44):
for me got me information that Icouldn't have otherwise gotten on my own.
I was able to get a holdof a cell phone number for a person
who at that time was a Idon't know exactly what his title was,
that he with pardons and paroles andcob County and his name was Patrick Price.
Unfortunately he passed away at a veryyoung age, but he was very
(39:07):
helpful to me in the beginning.And he was the one who said,
look, be a squeaky will.You are really going to have to rape
them hell to get people to listento you. And he was right about
that, because nobody wanted to payattention, nobody wanted to do anything until
I just said I'm not going away. I will not go away, and
(39:30):
I just went up the chain ofa managel. I finally got somebody who
would listen, and that was whenthey had signed the case to Detective Johnny
Mueller. And she was amazing.I talked to her the first time when
she called me. We might havebeen on the phone for two hours just
going over everything, and she hadto ask me some tough questions. Is
(39:51):
it possible that she was prostituting herselffor drug Deep impossible. Is it possible
that she committed suicide? Deep possible? But if that were the case,
why hasn't she been found. She'snot going to do that in a place
where she's not going to be found. And she's just not that kind of
person. She's a people person.He looked at her Facebook. She was
(40:13):
always on Facebook. That's how shecommunicated most of the time. She messaged
back and forth on Facebook. Shewas even doing drug bills for her boyfriend
on Facebook. So for her tobe just completely off her Facebook, no
messages. When I finally was ableto break into her Facebook, there were
so many unread messages and unread notificationthat I knew at the point that the
(40:39):
likelihood I was ever going to seeher again one to none. I pretty
much knew at that point that somethingreally bad had happened. And that concludes
the first half of Tiffany's story.Tiffany has been missing for nearly a decade.
What happened to her after she waslast seen fleeing from Almyata George Walmart.
(41:00):
She has never been seen again.Her mother doesn't think that law enforcement
has taken her case seriously because ofher addictions and past issues with the law.
Regardless of Tiffany's issues with drugs andthe law, she still deserves a
chance at life, a chance toreconcile her differences with her family. Someone
(41:22):
out there knows what happened to her. Her boyfriend, Ashley Coddle, has
said that he never saw Tiffany againafter she fled from Walmart loss prevention employees,
but he has told different people differentstories. According to Lisa Daniels,
he is currently incarcerated and denies harmingTiffany. Do you know what happened to
(41:45):
Tiffany Witten on the night that shevanished into the darkness? If you know
anything about this case, please contactthe Marietta, Georgia Police anonymous tipline at
seven seven zero nine four six ninenine zero. And if you would like
to know more about this case,you can also visit the Fine Tiffany Witten
(42:08):
Facebook page. I will be sureto provide this information in the case story
notes and be sure to listen tothe conclusion of Tiffany's story next week.
And if you are a parent,law enforcement official, friend, or relative
seeking justice for an unsolved Thomas sidecase, please visit my website and complete
(42:29):
the contact form. You can alsocontact me through your Facebook. Thank you
for listening.
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