August 5, 2025 • 22 mins
Kristen Modafferi was literally leaping into her future, graduating high school a year early and going off on a big life adventure literally starting on her 18th birthday.. but she never came home.
If you have any information that could help bring answers to Kristen Modafferi's family, please contact the Oakland Police Department Missing Person’s Unit at 510-238-3641.
Do you have any comments, or a case you’d like to suggest? You’ll find a comment form and case submission link at LordanArts.com.
Thank you SFGate.com, ABC News, The SF Standard, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Charlotte Observer, WSOC TV 9, Help Find Kristen Modafferi, The CharleyProject, Unsolved Mysteries, America's Most Wanted, MSNBC, The Daily Mail, The Burlington Free Press Redditt, Namus, Websleuths and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s story.
This episode written by The Certified Roarikle and John Lordan, produced by LordanArts.
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
LordanArts 2025
If you have any information that could help bring answers to Kristen Modafferi's family, please contact the Oakland Police Department Missing Person’s Unit at 510-238-3641.
Do you have any comments, or a case you’d like to suggest? You’ll find a comment form and case submission link at LordanArts.com.
Thank you SFGate.com, ABC News, The SF Standard, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Charlotte Observer, WSOC TV 9, Help Find Kristen Modafferi, The CharleyProject, Unsolved Mysteries, America's Most Wanted, MSNBC, The Daily Mail, The Burlington Free Press Redditt, Namus, Websleuths and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s story.
This episode written by The Certified Roarikle and John Lordan, produced by LordanArts.
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
LordanArts 2025
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
In a bustling metropolitan city like San Francisco, it should
be nearly impossible for someone to simply vanish. The streets
are packed with people flowing in and out of cafes, shops,
and offices at nearly every hour. Even in the late
nineteen nineties, before smartphones were everywhere, it was a place
full of eyes, commuters, tourists, and locals moving shoulder to shoulder.
(00:45):
With that many witnesses, it feels like someone should always
see something, and yet disappearances still happen, even in the
city by the Bay. As of May twenty twenty four,
there were one thy four hundred and sixty three active
missing persons cases in San Francisco alone. The oldest of
those dates all the way back to nineteen seventy six.
(01:07):
A twenty eighteen San Francisco Gate article revealed that despite
the volume of cases, the city's Missing Persons unit only
had two investigators at the time. Many families have gone
on records saying that they've barely heard from detectives about
their missing loved ones, some believing that without wealth or fame,
their cases simply don't get the attention that they need.
(01:29):
That highlights an important aspect about missing persons cases. Not
all of these disappearances are alike. Some of these San
Francisco cases are presumed runaways and sadly with the history
of the Golden gate Bridge. Others are believed to be suicides.
But the case we're focusing on today doesn't fit neatly
into either of those two categories. This is a disappearance
(01:51):
that is haunted investigators and the public for over twenty
five years, a case that's sparked countless theories, years of searching,
an unending heartache for a family still holding on for answers.
What happened to Kristin moti Faery. Could modern technology finally
uncover the truth her loved ones had been waiting for,
(02:12):
and ken a community of carrying citizens from across the
country worked together to solve a mystery that has eluded
investigators for decades. Kristin Motafery was born in Danbury, Connecticut,
on June first, nineteen seventy nine. By the time she
turned ten, her family had moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The second of four daughters in a close knit household,
(02:34):
she was described by her parents, Bob and Debbie Motifairy
as intelligent, driven, and endlessly curious. She had a deep
passion for art and photography, and an uncanny ability to
make friends wherever she went. She graduated a year early
from Providence High School and was awarded a four year
scholarship to North Carolina State University. While most teens might
(02:56):
have coasted through their first year of college, Kristin thrived.
She completed her freshman year before even turning eighteen, maintaining
strong grades, holding down a job at Wolfman Pizza, and
remaining active in her church community. As the summer of
nineteen ninety seven approached, she had big plans. She wanted
to expand her creative horizons and spend her break on
(03:17):
the West Coast, specifically in San Francisco, a city that
she had fallen in love with during a family vacation
a few years prior. The idea was to stay for
several months, soaking in the city's culture and taking a
photography course at UC Berkeley, scheduled to start in early July.
Her parents were hesitant. Debbie recalled the conversation years later.
(03:40):
I remember saying, I don't know, Kristin, I'm not so
sure about this, and she said, oh, Mom, you're not
going to stop me from going, are you? I really
want to do this? I relented. I thought maybe she
could have used a couple more years of maturing. Her father, Bob,
supported the idea of letting their daughter spread her wings.
With his encouragement, Debbie agreed. They wanted her to experience independence,
(04:03):
even if it meant worrying from across the country. Kristin
was just days away from turning eighteen and excited to
prove that she was ready for this next adventure. On
her eighteenth birthday, she boarded a flight to Oakland, California.
San Francisco had been her dream, but the rent there
was steep. With public transportation readily available, staying in Oakland
(04:24):
and commuting into the city seemed like a manageable solution.
Before leaving North Carolina, Kristin had arranged to rent a
room for five hundred dollars a month in a shared
house on Jane Avenue in Oakland, using this new technology
called the Internet. It was a four bedroom home with
several other tenants. She didn't know them personally, but would
soon meet Rosie Levine, Griffin, Cherry, Justin nic Suitor, and
(04:48):
brothers Hans and Kurt Opsel with Rosie preparing to leave
for France. Kristin took over her room, becoming the only
woman sharing the home with four men. Though her family
wasn't thrilled about that arrangement, she seemed confident and excited
about her independence. She quickly found part time work at
a coffee shop in a local museum, but knew that
(05:08):
she'd need more income to make her summer plans sustainable.
She applied to another cafe, Spinelli's, located inside San Francisco's
Crocker Galleria in the Financial District. Even though the manager
initially had no openings, Kristin's warmth and determination left an impression.
The manager later admitted she simply couldn't say no to
her and asked Kristen to come back the following day,
(05:31):
promising to find hours for her to work. Kristin settled
into a routine morning shifts at the coffee shop, followed
by afternoons and evenings exploring the city. She loved. This
summer was meant to be a period of adventure and growth,
and she embraced it fully, visiting landmarks, writing home often,
and making journal entries about her discoveries and plans. She
(05:53):
went to a big concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater and
saw Blurr and Fiona Apple perform live. Everything seemed to
be falling into place until one day when everything changed.
It was Monday, June twenty third, nineteen ninety seven, just
three weeks after her arrival in California. That afternoon, she
had a shift at Spinelli's starting at seven am, and
(06:15):
she was scheduled to end her day at three pm.
By all accounts, it was a normal day at work.
After her shift, she lingered for a bit, chatting with
coworkers about how to spend her last evening of freedom
before starting her photography course at UC Berkeley. They gave
her several suggestions, but she had already visited many of
them during her explorations. One idea seemed to catch her attention, though,
(06:39):
a trip to Land's End Beach. She had been there
only a few days prior for a summer solstice party,
but this time a coworker recalled that she had mentioned
possibly going with someone she had just met. She left
the coffee shop, but it wasn't the last sighting of
her that day. Surveillance cameras captured her stopping at a
Wells Fargo atm to withdraw some cash. The footage would
(07:02):
later become one of the last known images of her.
There was also one more eyewitness account. Around three forty
five PM, another coworker claimed to have seen her on
the second floor of the Crocker Galleria walking shoulder to
shoulder with a younger blonde woman. The two weren't speaking,
but the blonde carried a green JanSport backpack similar to Christen's.
(07:23):
Coworkers later noted that it was unusual for her to
linger in the galleria after her shift. She typically left
quickly to explore the city. That night, she never returned
home to Jane Avenue. Kristin Mota Fairy had vanished without
a trace. June twenty fourth should have been Kristin Mota
(07:54):
Fairy's first day in the UC Berkeley photography class. She
had already paid the nine hundred and twenty five dollar
tuition and was eager to attend, but she never showed up.
She also failed to pick up her paycheck from Spinelli's,
which totaled over four hundred dollars, a significant amount of
money for an eighteen year old college student. Initially, her
(08:14):
absence didn't alarm her roommates. She had only lived there
for a few weeks and they weren't particularly close. But
after a couple of days without hearing from her, things shifted.
On Tuesday, a message came into the house land line.
It was her father, Bob, calling from North Carolina, asking
about his daughter. One of the roommates returned the call
and informed him that no one had seen her in
(08:36):
three days. Realizing something was very wrong, Bob and Debbie
immediately flew to California. From the start, the investigation faced
hurdles because she was eighteen and legally an adult, police
didn't really treat her disappearance as suspicious. Oakland p D
took the missing person's report, but at the time there
(08:56):
were roughly eight hundred active cases in the area. Have
recalled receiving twenty five missing persons reports the same morning
he was taking on Kristen's case. Some reports indicate that
officers assumed that she may have run away or decided
to leave on her own, but those who knew her
pushed back hard against that idea. She had no mental
(09:17):
health struggles, no history of running away, no signs of
trouble at school or work. She had just enrolled in
college courses and was living out a dream summer. As
her family would later say, someone had to have dragged
her away from the life that she'd built. Bob and
Debbie wasted no time. They hired a private investigator and
(09:37):
began canvassing the streets, posting flyers, and talking to anyone
who might have seen their daughter. Police involvement ramped up
only after that initial first weekend. Investigators searched her apartment
and found all her belongings, including clothes, toilet, trees, and
personal effects, untouched. Her bed appeared not to have been
slept in recently. There was no evidence that she had
(10:00):
planned to leave voluntarily. Detectives interviewed her roommates, coworkers, and acquaintances.
Everyone was eventually cleared except for one puzzling figure, the
unidentified blonde woman last seen walking beside her in the galleria.
As the search continued, a potential lead emerged. According to S. F. Gait,
(10:21):
While going through her belongings, someone found a copy of
the Bay Guardian newspaper stuffed in a trash can in
her room. Some reports say that it was her parents
who discovered it, while others attribute the fine to her roommates.
Regardless of who pulled it from the trash, the contents
were striking. Inside was a personal ad circled in pen.
(10:42):
It read friends Female seeking friends to share activities who
enjoy music, photography, working out, walks, coffee, or simply the beach,
exploring the Bay area interested call me. At first glance,
it seemed like an obvious lead. With call me written
at the end, you'd expect a phone number, but that's
(11:03):
not how the Bay Guardian's personal ads operated back in
nineteen ninety seven. For safety reasons, they typically didn't print
phone numbers. Instead, they used a code or box number
like a voicemail system, allowing readers to respond anonymously. In
this case, the code seven two eight four four appeared
in the ad. It was posted on June sixteenth, a
(11:25):
week before she vanished. Unfortunately, by the time police began
investigating this lead, the Bay Guardian had already purged its
submission records. Without those details, authorities had no way of
knowing who exactly had placed the ad. And there's another
possibility that still puzzles people to this day. She may
have written the ad herself. The description perfectly matches her interests,
(11:49):
but Even if she did, there's no confirmation that she
ever responded to anyone who replied, or that it had
anything to do with her disappearance directly. What could have
been a breakthrough quickly turned into yet another dead end.
Investigators tried other approaches. Tracker dogs were brought in and
picked up her scent, leading them from the Crocker Galleria
(12:10):
to the Geary Street number thirty eight bus line. That
particular bus route ends near Sutra Park Beach, right along
San Francisco's rugged land's end coast line. Sutro Heights Park,
sitting atop a steep bluff overlooking Ocean Beach, is part
of that coast line. While not sheer vertical drops, the
cliffs there rise sharply above the shore line, lined with
(12:33):
walking paths that hug the edge and provide sweeping ocean views.
Seal rocks and the historic cliff House can be seen below.
Despite there being no sheer vertical drops, the bluffs and
proximity to the water do pose a bit of a
safety risk because the dogs followed her trail in that direction.
Some have theorized that she went to this area and
(12:55):
suffered a terrible accident, perhaps a fall from the cliffs
into the ocean. Her parents never believed that theory, pointing
out that the park is busy with visitors. If something
like that happened, someone likely would have witnessed it, And
even with the dog tracking results, there's no certainty that
she rode that bus there on the day that she disappeared.
(13:16):
It could have been from the earlier visit to that area. Remember,
just days before she vanished, she attended the summer Solstice
party there. She likely enjoyed the sweeping views, the historic
feel of the place, and may have even been considering
it as a photography assignment location. Maybe she wanted to
take some pictures into her first day of photography class.
(13:37):
Soon the case caught the media's attention. A young, intelligent
woman vanishing in a major city sparked widespread concern. Her
parents appeared on national programs like America's Most Wanted and
The Oprah Winfrey Show, pleading for any information that could
bring her home. Despite the press, there wasn't much going
on with the investigation, and just when it felt like
(13:59):
the case was going to stall out, an unusual and
disturbing tip came in. The tip came in through KGOTV
San Francisco's ABC affiliate. An anonymous caller claimed he knew
the identities of two women who had abducted and murdered Christen,
allegedly over what he described as a lesbian love triangle.
(14:19):
The caller claimed that the women had dumped her remains
from a wooden bridge in the Point rey Is area.
Detective Patrick Mahoney, one of the investigators assigned to the case,
recalled feeling uneasy about the call. He gave us too
many details. When people do that, we know they're not
giving us a tip, they're telling us a story. Police
(14:40):
eventually track down the two women named in the call.
After questioning them, it became clear that they had no
involvement in the disappearance. The women told investigators they believed
they knew exactly who made that call, a man named
John Anuma. Anuma held a personal grudge against these two women.
At the time, they worked at the YMCA alongside his girlfriend,
(15:03):
Jill Lampo. They had workplace issues with Lampo that ultimately
led to her being fired, so they suspected Numa made
the call as an act of revenge. When police found
and questioned Anuma, he initially denied being the tipster. Eventually,
he admitted to it, agreeing that he had wanted to
retaliate against the women who had gotten Jill fired. Later,
(15:27):
he reflected on his actions, I put the attention on
me when I shouldn't have, and I screwed up. I
took the focus off the investigation. But there were more
troubling details about Numa that kept him on the radar.
In nineteen ninety nine, just two years after her disappearance,
America's Most Wanted featured Anuma in an episode about Kristen's disappearance,
(15:50):
and this episode featured three women who claimed that he
had held them against their will and tortured them. Investigators
also uncovered reports from several Bay Area women who said
Onuma allured them through classified ads, later coercing them into
sex or stealing their money. Many of these women never
reported the incidents out of fear of retaliation. One woman
(16:13):
recounted a chilling moment when Onuma allegedly threatened her, saying,
you know I'm going to have to kill you. I
can't let you go now. You know what happened to
Kristin Motaferi, adding two suspicions. Onuma lived about one mile
from Spinelli's coffee shop, the last confirmed place that she
was seen, though he denies ever meeting her. Police also
(16:37):
discovered that pages were missing from his girlfriend, Jill Lampo's journal,
specifically from the time frame when Kristin vanished. Despite all
of this, Oakland Police maintained that Auma was not a suspect,
but they do consider him a person of interest after
the initial investigation. Only a few years after her disappearance,
he moved back to Hawaii. Many people following the case
(17:01):
believe his connection to Christen's disappearance was more than just
a hoax call, including his now ex girlfriend Jill Lampo.
In a twenty seventeen interview with ABC News, Jill shared
her feelings, if you're going to call and draw attention
to yourself, that implies you want attention for some reason.
She added to me, that would imply guilt. Jill Lampo
(17:25):
herself has also remained a person of interest in the
case over the years. Detective Mahaney mentioned that seventeen search
warrants were executed at different locations throughout the investigation, yet
he still feels that some stones were left unturned and
because of that, this case remains unsolved to this day.
The FBI even opened a file on Kristen's disappearance, but
(17:47):
without concrete evidence of foul play, the bureau closed its
file in twenty ten. Even as the official investigation slowed,
her family refused to let her case fade. Over the years,
Bob and Debbie Motifairy invested their own resources into hiring
private investigators, maintaining websites, and pressing for legislative changes that
(18:07):
could help other families of missing adults. One of their
biggest accomplishments was the passage of the Christian Moti Fairy Law.
Modeled after Protections for Missing Children, This legislation aimed to
give law enforcement more tools to respond quickly when adults
go missing under suspicious circumstances. It allowed police to begin
investigating sooner, encouraged cross state information sharing, and provided support
(18:31):
to families caught in similar nightmares. As years passed, the
case remained cold. Her three sisters grew up, starting their
own careers and families, while Bob and Debbie continued to
carry the weight of not knowing what happened. In twenty fourteen,
they retired and moved to Florida, but they never stopped
searching for answers. Bob once said, there really isn't a
(18:53):
day that were not thinking about Kristin. Then in twenty fifteen,
a new development reignited hope. A cadaver dog handled by
expert Paul Dosty, was brought to the Jane Avenue house
where Kristen had been renting a room. The dog alerted
to the presence of human decomposition in the basement. Dosty's
dogs were trained to detect historical sense, meaning they could
(19:16):
pick up on remains that had been there for decades.
Other experts would use different methods trying to confirm those findings,
including ground penetrating radar. Oakland p d attempted to excavate
the spot, but after digging the lead was deemed inconsequential.
No remains or definitive evidence was recovered, and it was
noted that due to the heavy clay, it would have
(19:37):
been very difficult to bury a body in the area. Still,
the discovery left a haunting question. Could something have happened
to her in the very place she had been living.
Could she have returned home that night only for tragedy
to strike inside the house. The mystery around that basement
lingered over the following year's interest in the case continued
(19:58):
through podcasts, document menories, and online sleuthing communities, but in
twenty twenty two, tragedy would strike the family again. Bob
Moti Fairy passed away after battling an aggressive form of leukemia.
Before his death, Debbie told him to give hugs to
Kristin from all of them, holding on to the hope
that somewhere, somehow, the family might be reunited one day.
(20:24):
As of twenty twenty five, the disappearance of Kristin Mota
Fairy remains unsolved. Detective Patrick Mahoney has since retired, but
continues to assist whenever new investigators taken interest in the case.
He's often said he imagines Kristen watching from above, urging
everyone to look a little deeper, turn over one more rock.
(20:44):
When asked what he personally believes happened, Mahoney shared a
grim and familiar theory. I'd say she was dumped off
a bridge in Marin County. He has looked into every
bridge in the area that matched John and Numa's description.
Considering the number of those bridges and the environmental factors,
any remains could be far from where they once were originally.
(21:08):
Kristin Motaferry was last seen on June twenty third, nineteen
ninety seven, at the Crocker GALLEYA in San Francisco. She
was wearing a black Spinelli's T shirt, a dark blue
plaid flannel shirt, tan pants, and possibly Fly London sneakers
with distinctive fly imprints on each soul. She has dark
brown hair, brown eyes, facial dimples, stands at five feet
(21:29):
eight inches tall, and weighed around one hundred and forty
pounds at the time. If you have any information that
could help bring answers to her family, please contact the
Oakland Police Department Missing Persons Unit at five one zero
two three eight three six four one. Do you have
any comments or a case you'd like to suggest, You'll
find a comment form and case submission link at Lordenarts
(21:51):
dot com. Thank You, SFGate dot com, ABC News, the
SF Standard, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Charlotte Observer, WACTV nine.
Help find Kristen Motaferi, The Charlie Project, Unsolved Mysteries, America's
Most Wanted, MSNBC, The Daily Mail, The Burlington Free Press, Reddit, NamUs,
websolouths and Wikipedia. For information contributing to today's story. This
(22:16):
episode was written by The Roracle and John Lordon and
produced by Lord Arts. Thank you to our audience here
for the live recording session hosted on the YouTube channel
Lord and Art's studio Too Special. Thanks to seriously mysterious
financial supporters Susie B. Jones and Mike. Most of all,
thank you for listening. I'm John Lord. Please join me
(22:36):
again next week for another case I know you'll find
seriously mysterious
In a bustling metropolitan city like San Francisco, it should
be nearly impossible for someone to simply vanish. The streets
are packed with people flowing in and out of cafes, shops,
and offices at nearly every hour. Even in the late
nineteen nineties, before smartphones were everywhere, it was a place
full of eyes, commuters, tourists, and locals moving shoulder to shoulder.
(00:45):
With that many witnesses, it feels like someone should always
see something, and yet disappearances still happen, even in the
city by the Bay. As of May twenty twenty four,
there were one thy four hundred and sixty three active
missing persons cases in San Francisco alone. The oldest of
those dates all the way back to nineteen seventy six.
(01:07):
A twenty eighteen San Francisco Gate article revealed that despite
the volume of cases, the city's Missing Persons unit only
had two investigators at the time. Many families have gone
on records saying that they've barely heard from detectives about
their missing loved ones, some believing that without wealth or fame,
their cases simply don't get the attention that they need.
(01:29):
That highlights an important aspect about missing persons cases. Not
all of these disappearances are alike. Some of these San
Francisco cases are presumed runaways and sadly with the history
of the Golden gate Bridge. Others are believed to be suicides.
But the case we're focusing on today doesn't fit neatly
into either of those two categories. This is a disappearance
(01:51):
that is haunted investigators and the public for over twenty
five years, a case that's sparked countless theories, years of searching,
an unending heartache for a family still holding on for answers.
What happened to Kristin moti Faery. Could modern technology finally
uncover the truth her loved ones had been waiting for,
(02:12):
and ken a community of carrying citizens from across the
country worked together to solve a mystery that has eluded
investigators for decades. Kristin Motafery was born in Danbury, Connecticut,
on June first, nineteen seventy nine. By the time she
turned ten, her family had moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The second of four daughters in a close knit household,
(02:34):
she was described by her parents, Bob and Debbie Motifairy
as intelligent, driven, and endlessly curious. She had a deep
passion for art and photography, and an uncanny ability to
make friends wherever she went. She graduated a year early
from Providence High School and was awarded a four year
scholarship to North Carolina State University. While most teens might
(02:56):
have coasted through their first year of college, Kristin thrived.
She completed her freshman year before even turning eighteen, maintaining
strong grades, holding down a job at Wolfman Pizza, and
remaining active in her church community. As the summer of
nineteen ninety seven approached, she had big plans. She wanted
to expand her creative horizons and spend her break on
(03:17):
the West Coast, specifically in San Francisco, a city that
she had fallen in love with during a family vacation
a few years prior. The idea was to stay for
several months, soaking in the city's culture and taking a
photography course at UC Berkeley, scheduled to start in early July.
Her parents were hesitant. Debbie recalled the conversation years later.
(03:40):
I remember saying, I don't know, Kristin, I'm not so
sure about this, and she said, oh, Mom, you're not
going to stop me from going, are you? I really
want to do this? I relented. I thought maybe she
could have used a couple more years of maturing. Her father, Bob,
supported the idea of letting their daughter spread her wings.
With his encouragement, Debbie agreed. They wanted her to experience independence,
(04:03):
even if it meant worrying from across the country. Kristin
was just days away from turning eighteen and excited to
prove that she was ready for this next adventure. On
her eighteenth birthday, she boarded a flight to Oakland, California.
San Francisco had been her dream, but the rent there
was steep. With public transportation readily available, staying in Oakland
(04:24):
and commuting into the city seemed like a manageable solution.
Before leaving North Carolina, Kristin had arranged to rent a
room for five hundred dollars a month in a shared
house on Jane Avenue in Oakland, using this new technology
called the Internet. It was a four bedroom home with
several other tenants. She didn't know them personally, but would
soon meet Rosie Levine, Griffin, Cherry, Justin nic Suitor, and
(04:48):
brothers Hans and Kurt Opsel with Rosie preparing to leave
for France. Kristin took over her room, becoming the only
woman sharing the home with four men. Though her family
wasn't thrilled about that arrangement, she seemed confident and excited
about her independence. She quickly found part time work at
a coffee shop in a local museum, but knew that
(05:08):
she'd need more income to make her summer plans sustainable.
She applied to another cafe, Spinelli's, located inside San Francisco's
Crocker Galleria in the Financial District. Even though the manager
initially had no openings, Kristin's warmth and determination left an impression.
The manager later admitted she simply couldn't say no to
her and asked Kristen to come back the following day,
(05:31):
promising to find hours for her to work. Kristin settled
into a routine morning shifts at the coffee shop, followed
by afternoons and evenings exploring the city. She loved. This
summer was meant to be a period of adventure and growth,
and she embraced it fully, visiting landmarks, writing home often,
and making journal entries about her discoveries and plans. She
(05:53):
went to a big concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater and
saw Blurr and Fiona Apple perform live. Everything seemed to
be falling into place until one day when everything changed.
It was Monday, June twenty third, nineteen ninety seven, just
three weeks after her arrival in California. That afternoon, she
had a shift at Spinelli's starting at seven am, and
(06:15):
she was scheduled to end her day at three pm.
By all accounts, it was a normal day at work.
After her shift, she lingered for a bit, chatting with
coworkers about how to spend her last evening of freedom
before starting her photography course at UC Berkeley. They gave
her several suggestions, but she had already visited many of
them during her explorations. One idea seemed to catch her attention, though,
(06:39):
a trip to Land's End Beach. She had been there
only a few days prior for a summer solstice party,
but this time a coworker recalled that she had mentioned
possibly going with someone she had just met. She left
the coffee shop, but it wasn't the last sighting of
her that day. Surveillance cameras captured her stopping at a
Wells Fargo atm to withdraw some cash. The footage would
(07:02):
later become one of the last known images of her.
There was also one more eyewitness account. Around three forty
five PM, another coworker claimed to have seen her on
the second floor of the Crocker Galleria walking shoulder to
shoulder with a younger blonde woman. The two weren't speaking,
but the blonde carried a green JanSport backpack similar to Christen's.
(07:23):
Coworkers later noted that it was unusual for her to
linger in the galleria after her shift. She typically left
quickly to explore the city. That night, she never returned
home to Jane Avenue. Kristin Mota Fairy had vanished without
a trace. June twenty fourth should have been Kristin Mota
(07:54):
Fairy's first day in the UC Berkeley photography class. She
had already paid the nine hundred and twenty five dollar
tuition and was eager to attend, but she never showed up.
She also failed to pick up her paycheck from Spinelli's,
which totaled over four hundred dollars, a significant amount of
money for an eighteen year old college student. Initially, her
(08:14):
absence didn't alarm her roommates. She had only lived there
for a few weeks and they weren't particularly close. But
after a couple of days without hearing from her, things shifted.
On Tuesday, a message came into the house land line.
It was her father, Bob, calling from North Carolina, asking
about his daughter. One of the roommates returned the call
and informed him that no one had seen her in
(08:36):
three days. Realizing something was very wrong, Bob and Debbie
immediately flew to California. From the start, the investigation faced
hurdles because she was eighteen and legally an adult, police
didn't really treat her disappearance as suspicious. Oakland p D
took the missing person's report, but at the time there
(08:56):
were roughly eight hundred active cases in the area. Have
recalled receiving twenty five missing persons reports the same morning
he was taking on Kristen's case. Some reports indicate that
officers assumed that she may have run away or decided
to leave on her own, but those who knew her
pushed back hard against that idea. She had no mental
(09:17):
health struggles, no history of running away, no signs of
trouble at school or work. She had just enrolled in
college courses and was living out a dream summer. As
her family would later say, someone had to have dragged
her away from the life that she'd built. Bob and
Debbie wasted no time. They hired a private investigator and
(09:37):
began canvassing the streets, posting flyers, and talking to anyone
who might have seen their daughter. Police involvement ramped up
only after that initial first weekend. Investigators searched her apartment
and found all her belongings, including clothes, toilet, trees, and
personal effects, untouched. Her bed appeared not to have been
slept in recently. There was no evidence that she had
(10:00):
planned to leave voluntarily. Detectives interviewed her roommates, coworkers, and acquaintances.
Everyone was eventually cleared except for one puzzling figure, the
unidentified blonde woman last seen walking beside her in the galleria.
As the search continued, a potential lead emerged. According to S. F. Gait,
(10:21):
While going through her belongings, someone found a copy of
the Bay Guardian newspaper stuffed in a trash can in
her room. Some reports say that it was her parents
who discovered it, while others attribute the fine to her roommates.
Regardless of who pulled it from the trash, the contents
were striking. Inside was a personal ad circled in pen.
(10:42):
It read friends Female seeking friends to share activities who
enjoy music, photography, working out, walks, coffee, or simply the beach,
exploring the Bay area interested call me. At first glance,
it seemed like an obvious lead. With call me written
at the end, you'd expect a phone number, but that's
(11:03):
not how the Bay Guardian's personal ads operated back in
nineteen ninety seven. For safety reasons, they typically didn't print
phone numbers. Instead, they used a code or box number
like a voicemail system, allowing readers to respond anonymously. In
this case, the code seven two eight four four appeared
in the ad. It was posted on June sixteenth, a
(11:25):
week before she vanished. Unfortunately, by the time police began
investigating this lead, the Bay Guardian had already purged its
submission records. Without those details, authorities had no way of
knowing who exactly had placed the ad. And there's another
possibility that still puzzles people to this day. She may
have written the ad herself. The description perfectly matches her interests,
(11:49):
but Even if she did, there's no confirmation that she
ever responded to anyone who replied, or that it had
anything to do with her disappearance directly. What could have
been a breakthrough quickly turned into yet another dead end.
Investigators tried other approaches. Tracker dogs were brought in and
picked up her scent, leading them from the Crocker Galleria
(12:10):
to the Geary Street number thirty eight bus line. That
particular bus route ends near Sutra Park Beach, right along
San Francisco's rugged land's end coast line. Sutro Heights Park,
sitting atop a steep bluff overlooking Ocean Beach, is part
of that coast line. While not sheer vertical drops, the
cliffs there rise sharply above the shore line, lined with
(12:33):
walking paths that hug the edge and provide sweeping ocean views.
Seal rocks and the historic cliff House can be seen below.
Despite there being no sheer vertical drops, the bluffs and
proximity to the water do pose a bit of a
safety risk because the dogs followed her trail in that direction.
Some have theorized that she went to this area and
(12:55):
suffered a terrible accident, perhaps a fall from the cliffs
into the ocean. Her parents never believed that theory, pointing
out that the park is busy with visitors. If something
like that happened, someone likely would have witnessed it, And
even with the dog tracking results, there's no certainty that
she rode that bus there on the day that she disappeared.
(13:16):
It could have been from the earlier visit to that area. Remember,
just days before she vanished, she attended the summer Solstice
party there. She likely enjoyed the sweeping views, the historic
feel of the place, and may have even been considering
it as a photography assignment location. Maybe she wanted to
take some pictures into her first day of photography class.
(13:37):
Soon the case caught the media's attention. A young, intelligent
woman vanishing in a major city sparked widespread concern. Her
parents appeared on national programs like America's Most Wanted and
The Oprah Winfrey Show, pleading for any information that could
bring her home. Despite the press, there wasn't much going
on with the investigation, and just when it felt like
(13:59):
the case was going to stall out, an unusual and
disturbing tip came in. The tip came in through KGOTV
San Francisco's ABC affiliate. An anonymous caller claimed he knew
the identities of two women who had abducted and murdered Christen,
allegedly over what he described as a lesbian love triangle.
(14:19):
The caller claimed that the women had dumped her remains
from a wooden bridge in the Point rey Is area.
Detective Patrick Mahoney, one of the investigators assigned to the case,
recalled feeling uneasy about the call. He gave us too
many details. When people do that, we know they're not
giving us a tip, they're telling us a story. Police
(14:40):
eventually track down the two women named in the call.
After questioning them, it became clear that they had no
involvement in the disappearance. The women told investigators they believed
they knew exactly who made that call, a man named
John Anuma. Anuma held a personal grudge against these two women.
At the time, they worked at the YMCA alongside his girlfriend,
(15:03):
Jill Lampo. They had workplace issues with Lampo that ultimately
led to her being fired, so they suspected Numa made
the call as an act of revenge. When police found
and questioned Anuma, he initially denied being the tipster. Eventually,
he admitted to it, agreeing that he had wanted to
retaliate against the women who had gotten Jill fired. Later,
(15:27):
he reflected on his actions, I put the attention on
me when I shouldn't have, and I screwed up. I
took the focus off the investigation. But there were more
troubling details about Numa that kept him on the radar.
In nineteen ninety nine, just two years after her disappearance,
America's Most Wanted featured Anuma in an episode about Kristen's disappearance,
(15:50):
and this episode featured three women who claimed that he
had held them against their will and tortured them. Investigators
also uncovered reports from several Bay Area women who said
Onuma allured them through classified ads, later coercing them into
sex or stealing their money. Many of these women never
reported the incidents out of fear of retaliation. One woman
(16:13):
recounted a chilling moment when Onuma allegedly threatened her, saying,
you know I'm going to have to kill you. I
can't let you go now. You know what happened to
Kristin Motaferi, adding two suspicions. Onuma lived about one mile
from Spinelli's coffee shop, the last confirmed place that she
was seen, though he denies ever meeting her. Police also
(16:37):
discovered that pages were missing from his girlfriend, Jill Lampo's journal,
specifically from the time frame when Kristin vanished. Despite all
of this, Oakland Police maintained that Auma was not a suspect,
but they do consider him a person of interest after
the initial investigation. Only a few years after her disappearance,
he moved back to Hawaii. Many people following the case
(17:01):
believe his connection to Christen's disappearance was more than just
a hoax call, including his now ex girlfriend Jill Lampo.
In a twenty seventeen interview with ABC News, Jill shared
her feelings, if you're going to call and draw attention
to yourself, that implies you want attention for some reason.
She added to me, that would imply guilt. Jill Lampo
(17:25):
herself has also remained a person of interest in the
case over the years. Detective Mahaney mentioned that seventeen search
warrants were executed at different locations throughout the investigation, yet
he still feels that some stones were left unturned and
because of that, this case remains unsolved to this day.
The FBI even opened a file on Kristen's disappearance, but
(17:47):
without concrete evidence of foul play, the bureau closed its
file in twenty ten. Even as the official investigation slowed,
her family refused to let her case fade. Over the years,
Bob and Debbie Motifairy invested their own resources into hiring
private investigators, maintaining websites, and pressing for legislative changes that
(18:07):
could help other families of missing adults. One of their
biggest accomplishments was the passage of the Christian Moti Fairy Law.
Modeled after Protections for Missing Children, This legislation aimed to
give law enforcement more tools to respond quickly when adults
go missing under suspicious circumstances. It allowed police to begin
investigating sooner, encouraged cross state information sharing, and provided support
(18:31):
to families caught in similar nightmares. As years passed, the
case remained cold. Her three sisters grew up, starting their
own careers and families, while Bob and Debbie continued to
carry the weight of not knowing what happened. In twenty fourteen,
they retired and moved to Florida, but they never stopped
searching for answers. Bob once said, there really isn't a
(18:53):
day that were not thinking about Kristin. Then in twenty fifteen,
a new development reignited hope. A cadaver dog handled by
expert Paul Dosty, was brought to the Jane Avenue house
where Kristen had been renting a room. The dog alerted
to the presence of human decomposition in the basement. Dosty's
dogs were trained to detect historical sense, meaning they could
(19:16):
pick up on remains that had been there for decades.
Other experts would use different methods trying to confirm those findings,
including ground penetrating radar. Oakland p d attempted to excavate
the spot, but after digging the lead was deemed inconsequential.
No remains or definitive evidence was recovered, and it was
noted that due to the heavy clay, it would have
(19:37):
been very difficult to bury a body in the area. Still,
the discovery left a haunting question. Could something have happened
to her in the very place she had been living.
Could she have returned home that night only for tragedy
to strike inside the house. The mystery around that basement
lingered over the following year's interest in the case continued
(19:58):
through podcasts, document menories, and online sleuthing communities, but in
twenty twenty two, tragedy would strike the family again. Bob
Moti Fairy passed away after battling an aggressive form of leukemia.
Before his death, Debbie told him to give hugs to
Kristin from all of them, holding on to the hope
that somewhere, somehow, the family might be reunited one day.
(20:24):
As of twenty twenty five, the disappearance of Kristin Mota
Fairy remains unsolved. Detective Patrick Mahoney has since retired, but
continues to assist whenever new investigators taken interest in the case.
He's often said he imagines Kristen watching from above, urging
everyone to look a little deeper, turn over one more rock.
(20:44):
When asked what he personally believes happened, Mahoney shared a
grim and familiar theory. I'd say she was dumped off
a bridge in Marin County. He has looked into every
bridge in the area that matched John and Numa's description.
Considering the number of those bridges and the environmental factors,
any remains could be far from where they once were originally.
(21:08):
Kristin Motaferry was last seen on June twenty third, nineteen
ninety seven, at the Crocker GALLEYA in San Francisco. She
was wearing a black Spinelli's T shirt, a dark blue
plaid flannel shirt, tan pants, and possibly Fly London sneakers
with distinctive fly imprints on each soul. She has dark
brown hair, brown eyes, facial dimples, stands at five feet
(21:29):
eight inches tall, and weighed around one hundred and forty
pounds at the time. If you have any information that
could help bring answers to her family, please contact the
Oakland Police Department Missing Persons Unit at five one zero
two three eight three six four one. Do you have
any comments or a case you'd like to suggest, You'll
find a comment form and case submission link at Lordenarts
(21:51):
dot com. Thank You, SFGate dot com, ABC News, the
SF Standard, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Charlotte Observer, WACTV nine.
Help find Kristen Motaferi, The Charlie Project, Unsolved Mysteries, America's
Most Wanted, MSNBC, The Daily Mail, The Burlington Free Press, Reddit, NamUs,
websolouths and Wikipedia. For information contributing to today's story. This
(22:16):
episode was written by The Roracle and John Lordon and
produced by Lord Arts. Thank you to our audience here
for the live recording session hosted on the YouTube channel
Lord and Art's studio Too Special. Thanks to seriously mysterious
financial supporters Susie B. Jones and Mike. Most of all,
thank you for listening. I'm John Lord. Please join me
(22:36):
again next week for another case I know you'll find
seriously mysterious
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