July 15, 2025 • 20 mins
A young woman takes a trip across the world, but doesn't tell her family. Is she looking to start a new life, or for a place to leave her current one?
Help support our work. Visit https://www.LordanArts.com today.
Thank you to The Doe Network, NAMUS, CT Insider, WFSB, The Perspective Magazine, True Crime Society, The Last Trip Podcast, The Voices for Justice Podcast, Wikipedia, and most of all: The Surviving Skye Podcast and information from Skye’s sister Megan LeBron for information contributing to today’s case. You can listen to her podcast Surviving Skye on all major podcast platforms.
This episode was written by Kira McQueen, was edited by John Lordan and produced by LordanArts.
You can follow Kira McQueen's Missing Person's Advocacy at https://www.instagram.com/missinginwa/
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation or potential charges associated to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Please do not contact people you are suspicious of or attempt to harass, threaten or intimidate them in any way. Do not release information that can be used to do the same, or join in attacks being conducted by others. Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Help support our work. Visit https://www.LordanArts.com today.
Thank you to The Doe Network, NAMUS, CT Insider, WFSB, The Perspective Magazine, True Crime Society, The Last Trip Podcast, The Voices for Justice Podcast, Wikipedia, and most of all: The Surviving Skye Podcast and information from Skye’s sister Megan LeBron for information contributing to today’s case. You can listen to her podcast Surviving Skye on all major podcast platforms.
This episode was written by Kira McQueen, was edited by John Lordan and produced by LordanArts.
You can follow Kira McQueen's Missing Person's Advocacy at https://www.instagram.com/missinginwa/
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation or potential charges associated to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Please do not contact people you are suspicious of or attempt to harass, threaten or intimidate them in any way. Do not release information that can be used to do the same, or join in attacks being conducted by others. Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of Seriously Mysterious contains discussions of suicide and
mental health issues, which may be distressing to some listeners.
Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know
is struggling, please know that help is available. In the
United States, you can contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
at nine to eight eight, and it's available twenty four
(00:20):
hours a day, seven days a week. No botary bet
(00:45):
Sue isn't the sort of place you just stumble upon.
Tucked into the lush forests and low mountains of Japan's
northernmost island of Hokkaido, it's a destination for those seeking
restoration at natural hot springs and traditional bathhouses. Well maintained
paths and wooden boardwalks snake through dense forests shrouded in
(01:05):
a seriously mysterious silent haze and lingering sulfur odour. Signs
only in Japanese point the way to places like Hell Valley,
a barren scar of earth where steam hisses from cracked ground.
Early visitors thought it resembled the Buddhist vision of Hell.
Red and blue horned statues of one ogre like creatures
(01:28):
in Japanese mythology loom large over Nobodibetsu's trailheads. They are
said to act as supernatural custodians of the hot springs,
but featuring massive clubs and baring their teeth, it's hard
to decide if they're protecting the land for you or
from you. Nobodibetsu is ominous, beautiful, and deeply still, and
(01:50):
it now hides the answer to a mystery. In two
thousand and eight, a twenty one year old woman from
Connecticut traveled there without telling anyone, and she vanished into
the mist. I'm John Lord, and today we're looking into
the disappearance of Sky Budnick. Sky Lynn Budnick was born
on February twenty second, nineteen eighty seven, the youngest in
(02:12):
a typical family living in Southington, Connecticut. Her parents, Susan
and Robert, raised Sky alongside her brother Matthew and her
sister Megan. It's because of Meghan that we know so
much about Sky's life. During the early lockdowns of the
COVID pandemic, Meghan's husband suggested that she try using social
media to help process her feelings about her sister's mysterious
(02:34):
disappearance that eventually led to the creation of her podcast,
Surviving Sky, a raw and detailed chronicle of her sister's disappearance.
In that podcast, Meghan describes their family as loving, but
all deeply introverted. After school and work, each person retreated
to their own space or together alone, as Meghan called it,
(02:57):
in the solitude of her room. A then twelve years old,
Sky developed a passion for learning about all things Japanese.
She watched anime, read manga, listened to jpop, cause played,
studied Japanese, and tried every Japanese food she could find.
Sky was inquisitive, smart, and good hearted, but she also
struggled with low self esteem, depression, and social anxiety. In hindsight,
(03:22):
both Megan and their mom wondered if Sky might have
been on the autism spectrum. In college, Sky found friends
who shared her interests in an anime club. During that time,
Sky lived at home while majoring in International business with
a focus on Japanese studies at Central Connecticut State University,
but by her third year, she began failing some of
(03:44):
her classes, including Japanese. It wasn't from a lack of
intelligence or even desire, but from severe depression that made
it hard for her to get out of bed and
the accompanying anxiety that made aspects of school simply unbearable.
In a private Facebook message to a friend, Sky confessed
that during Japanese oral presentations she'd either cry through the
(04:07):
entire exam or just skip them entirely. Failing Japanese crushed
Sky because it meant she couldn't go on the study
abroad trip to Japan, at least not through school anyway.
On April first, two thousand and eight, Sky boarded a
plane using a one way ticket to Japan. She told
no one about her intended destination. Instead, she told her
(04:29):
mother that she was going to stay at a college
friend's dorm for a few days. Her mom was excited
that Sky was getting out to go have some fun.
That same day, Sky's older sister, Megan, ended up in
an emergency room with her first atypical migraine. The following day,
April second, the family was still concerned about Meghan's health
and assumed that Sky was still with her friends. On
(04:51):
the evening of April third, Sky's mother started asking if
anyone had heard from her, and she learned that no
one had. They couldn't just call Sky, though, because She
didn't have a cell phone, unlike many people her age
in two thousand and eight. She relied on her laptop
and the family landline to stay in touch. She could
have afforded a phone, she worked part time at a
(05:13):
grocery store and lived at home rent free, but it
wasn't something that Sky felt was worth the cost. On
April fourth, Sky's mom started calling around to her friends
to check on her. Each friend passed her along to
someone else, but no one had seen Sky or had
any idea where she was. She had taken her laptop
with her, and her brother, Matthew, discovered that her email
(05:34):
password was still auto saved on his computer since it
used to be shared by the whole family. What he
found in her email was shocking. A flight confirmation for
a one way trip to Supporo, Japan, dated April first.
The family reached out to law enforcement, but they weren't
particularly helpful. Sky was legally an adult, but they did
(05:56):
take a report and suggest that the family checked the
airport for her car. As far as her family could tell,
Sky had taken her car, her keys, passport, laptop, Nintendo DS,
and a wallet with a debit card, and then whatever
cash she had on hand. Figuring out what clothes and
toiletries were missing was nearly impossible, but they could tell
it wasn't much. The family also didn't own any luggage,
(06:20):
so unless she'd secretly bought and hid in a suitcase,
she probably only had her school backpack. More than anything,
this solo trip abroad was incredibly uncharacteristic of Sky, even
knowing how much she wanted to see Japan, she wasn't
someone who would just hop on a plane to a
foreign country for the first time alone. Before the weight
(06:41):
of the situation hit Meghan recalls thinking it was kind
of awesome that her sister did something so wildly rebellious
and out of character. However, as time would pass, those
feelings would change drastically. There was one big detail that
(07:08):
made Sky Budnick's disappearance especially alarming. She had talked about
suicide in the past, and once she even said that
she wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Japan before
she died. Of course, that comment was later re picked
up by the media and turned into headlines suggesting that
she must have gone to Japan to end her life.
(07:28):
Her family acknowledges that it is certainly a possibility, but
the rush to conclusions felt dismissive of the complexities of
mental health and Sky as a person. Her family also
found an unsent email in her drafts, Addressed to a friend.
It read something like I'm sorry, but I'm starting over.
Don't be mad at me. It's possible that this could
(07:51):
have been some form of a suicide note, but it
could have just as easily have meant that she was
planning to leave Connecticut or the US and start fresh
somewhere else. By all accounts, the night before she left,
she seemed happy. She even asked her mom to make
her favorite cupcakes, but in that request she used strange
phrasing caught by her sister one last time. Megan now
(08:15):
wonders if it was indicative of plans to harm herself
or just of excitement knowing that she was going to
Japan to start anew Sky's family did find her two
thousand and five Chevrolet of Veil in the Bradley International
Airport parking lot. It looked normal, locked with no sign
of the keys inside. The only thing that stood out
(08:36):
was a jacket that might have been useful for a
trip to Japan. I'm sure what else to do. They
used the spare key and drove it home. The car
was never examined, but the Southington Police confirmed with Japanese
authorities that Sky had indeed made it to Japan. While
they were told that the airport's security footage was too
poor to be useful, it's likely that Japanese customs visually
(08:58):
confirmed her identity with her port upon entry. Police told
Sky's family that the only way to file a missing
person report in Japan was to do it in person. Meghan,
twenty four years old at the time, was the only
one with an active passport, but her mom was able
to rush one under the circumstances. Sky's dad and brothers
(09:18):
stayed behind due to health reasons, and the two women
set off on a whirlwind international rescue mission. At least
that's how it felt at first. Meghan said worst case
scenarios didn't exist yet. She figured they'd find Sky, bring
her home and laugh about it years later. However, years
later is now here, but Sky isn't. Meghan and her
(09:42):
mom first landed in Tokyo, then transferred to a domestic
flight bound for Sapporo, the largest city on the northern
island of Hokkaido. They touched down on April tenth, just
nine days after Sky had arrived on April first. There
they met with the US ambassador and Japanese authorities to
form a declare Sky a missing person. Once they made
(10:02):
it to their hotel, the realities of an unplanned international
trip hit hard. They hadn't had any time to prepare
or learn about the culture, and as white foreigners in Japan,
you can feel the stairs coming from every direction. It's
not from a bad place. The people are kind, polite
and welcoming. But how could Sky disappear in a place
(10:23):
where she stood out so clearly. On April thirteenth, Megan
and her mom held a press conference in Tokyo that
was broadcast across Japan, and four credible sightings of Sky followed.
One came from an Australian man who said he helped
her buy a train ticket after finding her crying and frustrated.
Another came from a taxi driver who were called seeing
(10:45):
her alone but in good spirits. Most importantly, two separate
innkeepers reported seeing her in Nobodoribetsu, the same secluded hot
spring town we described earlier, About an hour's train ride
from Sapporo. The first in was closer to the city center,
but the second was tucked deeper into the forest. Some
(11:06):
reports say Sky was last seen on April seventh, but
her sister, Megan, says it was actually April tenth. Either way,
Sky's final confirmed sighting was at Suzuki Rioka, an inn
in the Karuasu Onsen area, where she checked out and
told the innkeeper she was heading to Sapporo. She was alone,
she did not seem distressed, and her name was the
(11:28):
only one on the reservation. But this travel touches on
one of the most baffling and critical questions In this case,
why did Sky go to nobo Ribetsu. It's a far
cry from the colorful electric sprawl of Tokyo, and it's
far less beginner friendly. Nobo Ribetsu is a city of
about fifty thousand people, known mainly as the largest hot
(11:51):
spring resort area in Hokkaido. By two thousand and eight,
a handful of English language blogs and early travel forums
mentioned the area's hot spring in mythology, but it wasn't
really a major tourist destination for foreigners. If her goal
had been comfort or familiarity, Tokyo or one of the
more accessible hot spring towns near it would have made
(12:12):
more sense, so why there. Although her family believed someone
may have helped Sky at some point, there's no evidence
in her bank records that anyone else paid for the trip.
Some recovered messages show that she had been selling collectibles
for extra cash, and told friends she needed money for tuition,
even though her tuition was already covered by student loans.
(12:34):
Her family later found bank records that showed she purchased
her plane ticket on March twenty fourth. The last activity
on her debit card was a currency exchange and cash
withdrawal of about eight hundred dollars during her layover in Washington,
d C. On April first. She had four hundred and
eighty two dollars and ninety three cents left in her
bank account. According to her sister, Meghan, Sky's debit card
(12:57):
likely would not have worked in Japan in two thousand
and eight, though it's unclear if Sky knew that. While
the family had confirmation of Sky buying the ticket on
March twenty fourth, there's a strange moment earlier that year
that suggests Sky may have been planning this trip for
quite a bit longer. The previous January, Sky's mom answered
a call on the house phone. The caller said Sky
(13:18):
had missed a flight to Japan. When she asked Sky
about it, Sky claimed she and a friend had just
been researching flights for the school's Study Abroad program. Airlines
don't typically call when someone misses a flight, so Megan
now wishes that they had checked their phone records to
try to determine who made that call. It might have
(13:39):
been a third party travel site that Sky used to
book her ticket, but they're now out of business. Sky's
family has always believed she didn't do this entirely on
her own. They suspect she may have met a friend online,
or possibly even a romantic interest. While Sky never had
any known relationships, she once made an offhand comment that
(13:59):
if she ever married, she'd want a Japanese husband. There's
no evidence of any unknown friends in her email or
Facebook messenger, but Sky took her laptop and Nintendo DS
with her, devices that could have been used to access
forums or chat rooms. Megan remembers some of the usernames
Sky often used, but searching them turned up nothing meaningful.
(14:21):
If Sky believed she was going to meet someone, she trusted.
It could explain her motivation and her path of travel.
It's hard to imagine someone with clinical depression and anxiety
going on such a bold and complex adventure, But mental
health challenges don't always follow predictable rhythms. So if she
did go to meet someone, what happened. Did she connect
(14:44):
with them in Sapporo during the first few days before
she was spotted in nobod Ribetsu and something went wrong
causing her to seek out somewhere quiet and isolated, or
was she planning to meet them after she left nobod Ribetsu.
Could there have been a crime of opportunity? Statistically unlikely
but not impossible. Will Sky allure to Japan and then trafficked?
(15:08):
The harsh truth is that human trafficking exists everywhere. Statistically,
Japan has a relatively low crime rate and reports about
half as many missing people per capita as the US
each year. Still, we can't rule out that Sky could
have been some kind of victim. She was, no doubt intelligent,
but an inexperienced traveler. All the same, did someone see
(15:31):
her as an easy target because she was young, foreign,
and alone. The forests around Nobotorybetsu are dense enough to
hide almost anything. Police conducted helicopter searches and they did
find a body, but it wasn't Sky. There's also the
theory that Sky went to Japan intending to stay hidden,
(15:51):
with or without help. Johatsu is a Japanese term meaning
evaporated people, used to describe those who deliberate disappear, sometimes
with the aid of underground networks that specialize in helping
people vanish. While johatsu is real, it's rarely, if ever,
linked to foreigners, making it an unlikely fit for Sky.
(16:14):
It's possible she disappeared on her own or with help
from a single person, but it's hard to imagine her
staying hidden this long. Her family has said that if
she simply wanted to leave her old life behind, they
would respect that. They just want to know. Sky's sister, Megan,
gets asked often if Sky knew about the Aoki Gahada Forest,
(16:35):
because it's a place where many people go to intentionally
never return. The thick, infamous forest at the base of
Mount Fuji is often called the suicide Forest by American media.
Even in two thousand and eight, Sky might have heard
the stories of people who walk off the path with
ribids in hand, just in case they change their minds.
(16:55):
The strongest evidence we have against this theory is that
the Aoki Gahada Forest is nearly eight hundred miles from Sapporo.
Sky expressed her internal struggles on social media, quote, I
hate me. I hate how easy it is to get
my hopes up, and how it's even easier to send
them crashing down into the abyss. Is it strange? One
(17:16):
moment I can be fine or even extremely happy, and
then some little bad thing happens and all of joy
shatters and I want to die or rip myself to shreds.
When asked if Sky would run away from home, her
sister Meghan says, if anything, she was running away from
the version of herself she didn't like. In twenty twenty four,
(17:39):
Meghan and her mother returned to Japan to provide new
DNA samples, hoping to match them with unidentified remains across
the country. No Japanese Jane does currently in the system
were a match for Sky. Reflecting on the uncertainty surrounding
her sister's case, Meghan has said, I try to keep
each appendage in a different realm, like my feet are
(18:00):
on the ground, my head is in hope. My arms
are reaching out to all those weird conspiracy theories that
I shouldn't, but I can't help but think about every scenario.
As Meghan walked the hazy trails of Nobodibetsu in twenty
twenty four, she wondered not only why Sky had come,
but if she was still there. Sky Budneck went missing
(18:24):
at the age of twenty one on April tenth, two
thousand and eight, in Nobodoribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan. She is a
white female, around five foot six inches tall to five
feet eight inches tall, weighing one hundred and eighty pounds,
with brown hair and blue eyes. Two would be thirty
eight years old as of this recording. If you have
any information, please contact the Southington Police Department at eight
(18:46):
six zero three seven eight one six nine eight and
reference case number zero eight dash four nine one one.
If you have any friends or family in Japan, please
share Sky's story with them. Do you have any insights
or a case you'd like to suggest, feel free to
send it to me. You'll find a comment form and
case submission link at lordenarts dot com. Thank you to
(19:09):
the Dough Network NamUs CT Insider, WFSB, the Perspective magazine,
True Crime Society, the Last Trip podcast, the Voices for
Justice podcast, Wikipedia, and most of all, the Surviving Sky podcast,
as well as information from Sky's sister Megan Lebron for
contributing to today's story. You can listen to her podcast,
(19:30):
Surviving Sky on all major podcast platforms. This episode was
written by Kira McQueen, edited by John Lordon, and produced
by lord Arts. Thank you to our audience here for
the live recording session hosted on the YouTube channel Lorden
Art's Studio two. Special thanks to Seriously Mysterious financial supporters
Robert Martin, Mel Stephen B. Jones and Kevin. Most of all,
(19:54):
thank you for listening. I'm John Lordon. Please join us
again next week for another case I know you'll find
seriously mysterious
This episode of Seriously Mysterious contains discussions of suicide and
mental health issues, which may be distressing to some listeners.
Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know
is struggling, please know that help is available. In the
United States, you can contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
at nine to eight eight, and it's available twenty four
(00:20):
hours a day, seven days a week. No botary bet
(00:45):
Sue isn't the sort of place you just stumble upon.
Tucked into the lush forests and low mountains of Japan's
northernmost island of Hokkaido, it's a destination for those seeking
restoration at natural hot springs and traditional bathhouses. Well maintained
paths and wooden boardwalks snake through dense forests shrouded in
(01:05):
a seriously mysterious silent haze and lingering sulfur odour. Signs
only in Japanese point the way to places like Hell Valley,
a barren scar of earth where steam hisses from cracked ground.
Early visitors thought it resembled the Buddhist vision of Hell.
Red and blue horned statues of one ogre like creatures
(01:28):
in Japanese mythology loom large over Nobodibetsu's trailheads. They are
said to act as supernatural custodians of the hot springs,
but featuring massive clubs and baring their teeth, it's hard
to decide if they're protecting the land for you or
from you. Nobodibetsu is ominous, beautiful, and deeply still, and
(01:50):
it now hides the answer to a mystery. In two
thousand and eight, a twenty one year old woman from
Connecticut traveled there without telling anyone, and she vanished into
the mist. I'm John Lord, and today we're looking into
the disappearance of Sky Budnick. Sky Lynn Budnick was born
on February twenty second, nineteen eighty seven, the youngest in
(02:12):
a typical family living in Southington, Connecticut. Her parents, Susan
and Robert, raised Sky alongside her brother Matthew and her
sister Megan. It's because of Meghan that we know so
much about Sky's life. During the early lockdowns of the
COVID pandemic, Meghan's husband suggested that she try using social
media to help process her feelings about her sister's mysterious
(02:34):
disappearance that eventually led to the creation of her podcast,
Surviving Sky, a raw and detailed chronicle of her sister's disappearance.
In that podcast, Meghan describes their family as loving, but
all deeply introverted. After school and work, each person retreated
to their own space or together alone, as Meghan called it,
(02:57):
in the solitude of her room. A then twelve years old,
Sky developed a passion for learning about all things Japanese.
She watched anime, read manga, listened to jpop, cause played,
studied Japanese, and tried every Japanese food she could find.
Sky was inquisitive, smart, and good hearted, but she also
struggled with low self esteem, depression, and social anxiety. In hindsight,
(03:22):
both Megan and their mom wondered if Sky might have
been on the autism spectrum. In college, Sky found friends
who shared her interests in an anime club. During that time,
Sky lived at home while majoring in International business with
a focus on Japanese studies at Central Connecticut State University,
but by her third year, she began failing some of
(03:44):
her classes, including Japanese. It wasn't from a lack of
intelligence or even desire, but from severe depression that made
it hard for her to get out of bed and
the accompanying anxiety that made aspects of school simply unbearable.
In a private Facebook message to a friend, Sky confessed
that during Japanese oral presentations she'd either cry through the
(04:07):
entire exam or just skip them entirely. Failing Japanese crushed
Sky because it meant she couldn't go on the study
abroad trip to Japan, at least not through school anyway.
On April first, two thousand and eight, Sky boarded a
plane using a one way ticket to Japan. She told
no one about her intended destination. Instead, she told her
(04:29):
mother that she was going to stay at a college
friend's dorm for a few days. Her mom was excited
that Sky was getting out to go have some fun.
That same day, Sky's older sister, Megan, ended up in
an emergency room with her first atypical migraine. The following day,
April second, the family was still concerned about Meghan's health
and assumed that Sky was still with her friends. On
(04:51):
the evening of April third, Sky's mother started asking if
anyone had heard from her, and she learned that no
one had. They couldn't just call Sky, though, because She
didn't have a cell phone, unlike many people her age
in two thousand and eight. She relied on her laptop
and the family landline to stay in touch. She could
have afforded a phone, she worked part time at a
(05:13):
grocery store and lived at home rent free, but it
wasn't something that Sky felt was worth the cost. On
April fourth, Sky's mom started calling around to her friends
to check on her. Each friend passed her along to
someone else, but no one had seen Sky or had
any idea where she was. She had taken her laptop
with her, and her brother, Matthew, discovered that her email
(05:34):
password was still auto saved on his computer since it
used to be shared by the whole family. What he
found in her email was shocking. A flight confirmation for
a one way trip to Supporo, Japan, dated April first.
The family reached out to law enforcement, but they weren't
particularly helpful. Sky was legally an adult, but they did
(05:56):
take a report and suggest that the family checked the
airport for her car. As far as her family could tell,
Sky had taken her car, her keys, passport, laptop, Nintendo DS,
and a wallet with a debit card, and then whatever
cash she had on hand. Figuring out what clothes and
toiletries were missing was nearly impossible, but they could tell
it wasn't much. The family also didn't own any luggage,
(06:20):
so unless she'd secretly bought and hid in a suitcase,
she probably only had her school backpack. More than anything,
this solo trip abroad was incredibly uncharacteristic of Sky, even
knowing how much she wanted to see Japan, she wasn't
someone who would just hop on a plane to a
foreign country for the first time alone. Before the weight
(06:41):
of the situation hit Meghan recalls thinking it was kind
of awesome that her sister did something so wildly rebellious
and out of character. However, as time would pass, those
feelings would change drastically. There was one big detail that
(07:08):
made Sky Budnick's disappearance especially alarming. She had talked about
suicide in the past, and once she even said that
she wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Japan before
she died. Of course, that comment was later re picked
up by the media and turned into headlines suggesting that
she must have gone to Japan to end her life.
(07:28):
Her family acknowledges that it is certainly a possibility, but
the rush to conclusions felt dismissive of the complexities of
mental health and Sky as a person. Her family also
found an unsent email in her drafts, Addressed to a friend.
It read something like I'm sorry, but I'm starting over.
Don't be mad at me. It's possible that this could
(07:51):
have been some form of a suicide note, but it
could have just as easily have meant that she was
planning to leave Connecticut or the US and start fresh
somewhere else. By all accounts, the night before she left,
she seemed happy. She even asked her mom to make
her favorite cupcakes, but in that request she used strange
phrasing caught by her sister one last time. Megan now
(08:15):
wonders if it was indicative of plans to harm herself
or just of excitement knowing that she was going to
Japan to start anew Sky's family did find her two
thousand and five Chevrolet of Veil in the Bradley International
Airport parking lot. It looked normal, locked with no sign
of the keys inside. The only thing that stood out
(08:36):
was a jacket that might have been useful for a
trip to Japan. I'm sure what else to do. They
used the spare key and drove it home. The car
was never examined, but the Southington Police confirmed with Japanese
authorities that Sky had indeed made it to Japan. While
they were told that the airport's security footage was too
poor to be useful, it's likely that Japanese customs visually
(08:58):
confirmed her identity with her port upon entry. Police told
Sky's family that the only way to file a missing
person report in Japan was to do it in person. Meghan,
twenty four years old at the time, was the only
one with an active passport, but her mom was able
to rush one under the circumstances. Sky's dad and brothers
(09:18):
stayed behind due to health reasons, and the two women
set off on a whirlwind international rescue mission. At least
that's how it felt at first. Meghan said worst case
scenarios didn't exist yet. She figured they'd find Sky, bring
her home and laugh about it years later. However, years
later is now here, but Sky isn't. Meghan and her
(09:42):
mom first landed in Tokyo, then transferred to a domestic
flight bound for Sapporo, the largest city on the northern
island of Hokkaido. They touched down on April tenth, just
nine days after Sky had arrived on April first. There
they met with the US ambassador and Japanese authorities to
form a declare Sky a missing person. Once they made
(10:02):
it to their hotel, the realities of an unplanned international
trip hit hard. They hadn't had any time to prepare
or learn about the culture, and as white foreigners in Japan,
you can feel the stairs coming from every direction. It's
not from a bad place. The people are kind, polite
and welcoming. But how could Sky disappear in a place
(10:23):
where she stood out so clearly. On April thirteenth, Megan
and her mom held a press conference in Tokyo that
was broadcast across Japan, and four credible sightings of Sky followed.
One came from an Australian man who said he helped
her buy a train ticket after finding her crying and frustrated.
Another came from a taxi driver who were called seeing
(10:45):
her alone but in good spirits. Most importantly, two separate
innkeepers reported seeing her in Nobodoribetsu, the same secluded hot
spring town we described earlier, About an hour's train ride
from Sapporo. The first in was closer to the city center,
but the second was tucked deeper into the forest. Some
(11:06):
reports say Sky was last seen on April seventh, but
her sister, Megan, says it was actually April tenth. Either way,
Sky's final confirmed sighting was at Suzuki Rioka, an inn
in the Karuasu Onsen area, where she checked out and
told the innkeeper she was heading to Sapporo. She was alone,
she did not seem distressed, and her name was the
(11:28):
only one on the reservation. But this travel touches on
one of the most baffling and critical questions In this case,
why did Sky go to nobo Ribetsu. It's a far
cry from the colorful electric sprawl of Tokyo, and it's
far less beginner friendly. Nobo Ribetsu is a city of
about fifty thousand people, known mainly as the largest hot
(11:51):
spring resort area in Hokkaido. By two thousand and eight,
a handful of English language blogs and early travel forums
mentioned the area's hot spring in mythology, but it wasn't
really a major tourist destination for foreigners. If her goal
had been comfort or familiarity, Tokyo or one of the
more accessible hot spring towns near it would have made
(12:12):
more sense, so why there. Although her family believed someone
may have helped Sky at some point, there's no evidence
in her bank records that anyone else paid for the trip.
Some recovered messages show that she had been selling collectibles
for extra cash, and told friends she needed money for tuition,
even though her tuition was already covered by student loans.
(12:34):
Her family later found bank records that showed she purchased
her plane ticket on March twenty fourth. The last activity
on her debit card was a currency exchange and cash
withdrawal of about eight hundred dollars during her layover in Washington,
d C. On April first. She had four hundred and
eighty two dollars and ninety three cents left in her
bank account. According to her sister, Meghan, Sky's debit card
(12:57):
likely would not have worked in Japan in two thousand
and eight, though it's unclear if Sky knew that. While
the family had confirmation of Sky buying the ticket on
March twenty fourth, there's a strange moment earlier that year
that suggests Sky may have been planning this trip for
quite a bit longer. The previous January, Sky's mom answered
a call on the house phone. The caller said Sky
(13:18):
had missed a flight to Japan. When she asked Sky
about it, Sky claimed she and a friend had just
been researching flights for the school's Study Abroad program. Airlines
don't typically call when someone misses a flight, so Megan
now wishes that they had checked their phone records to
try to determine who made that call. It might have
(13:39):
been a third party travel site that Sky used to
book her ticket, but they're now out of business. Sky's
family has always believed she didn't do this entirely on
her own. They suspect she may have met a friend online,
or possibly even a romantic interest. While Sky never had
any known relationships, she once made an offhand comment that
(13:59):
if she ever married, she'd want a Japanese husband. There's
no evidence of any unknown friends in her email or
Facebook messenger, but Sky took her laptop and Nintendo DS
with her, devices that could have been used to access
forums or chat rooms. Megan remembers some of the usernames
Sky often used, but searching them turned up nothing meaningful.
(14:21):
If Sky believed she was going to meet someone, she trusted.
It could explain her motivation and her path of travel.
It's hard to imagine someone with clinical depression and anxiety
going on such a bold and complex adventure, But mental
health challenges don't always follow predictable rhythms. So if she
did go to meet someone, what happened. Did she connect
(14:44):
with them in Sapporo during the first few days before
she was spotted in nobod Ribetsu and something went wrong
causing her to seek out somewhere quiet and isolated, or
was she planning to meet them after she left nobod Ribetsu.
Could there have been a crime of opportunity? Statistically unlikely
but not impossible. Will Sky allure to Japan and then trafficked?
(15:08):
The harsh truth is that human trafficking exists everywhere. Statistically,
Japan has a relatively low crime rate and reports about
half as many missing people per capita as the US
each year. Still, we can't rule out that Sky could
have been some kind of victim. She was, no doubt intelligent,
but an inexperienced traveler. All the same, did someone see
(15:31):
her as an easy target because she was young, foreign,
and alone. The forests around Nobotorybetsu are dense enough to
hide almost anything. Police conducted helicopter searches and they did
find a body, but it wasn't Sky. There's also the
theory that Sky went to Japan intending to stay hidden,
(15:51):
with or without help. Johatsu is a Japanese term meaning
evaporated people, used to describe those who deliberate disappear, sometimes
with the aid of underground networks that specialize in helping
people vanish. While johatsu is real, it's rarely, if ever,
linked to foreigners, making it an unlikely fit for Sky.
(16:14):
It's possible she disappeared on her own or with help
from a single person, but it's hard to imagine her
staying hidden this long. Her family has said that if
she simply wanted to leave her old life behind, they
would respect that. They just want to know. Sky's sister, Megan,
gets asked often if Sky knew about the Aoki Gahada Forest,
(16:35):
because it's a place where many people go to intentionally
never return. The thick, infamous forest at the base of
Mount Fuji is often called the suicide Forest by American media.
Even in two thousand and eight, Sky might have heard
the stories of people who walk off the path with
ribids in hand, just in case they change their minds.
(16:55):
The strongest evidence we have against this theory is that
the Aoki Gahada Forest is nearly eight hundred miles from Sapporo.
Sky expressed her internal struggles on social media, quote, I
hate me. I hate how easy it is to get
my hopes up, and how it's even easier to send
them crashing down into the abyss. Is it strange? One
(17:16):
moment I can be fine or even extremely happy, and
then some little bad thing happens and all of joy
shatters and I want to die or rip myself to shreds.
When asked if Sky would run away from home, her
sister Meghan says, if anything, she was running away from
the version of herself she didn't like. In twenty twenty four,
(17:39):
Meghan and her mother returned to Japan to provide new
DNA samples, hoping to match them with unidentified remains across
the country. No Japanese Jane does currently in the system
were a match for Sky. Reflecting on the uncertainty surrounding
her sister's case, Meghan has said, I try to keep
each appendage in a different realm, like my feet are
(18:00):
on the ground, my head is in hope. My arms
are reaching out to all those weird conspiracy theories that
I shouldn't, but I can't help but think about every scenario.
As Meghan walked the hazy trails of Nobodibetsu in twenty
twenty four, she wondered not only why Sky had come,
but if she was still there. Sky Budneck went missing
(18:24):
at the age of twenty one on April tenth, two
thousand and eight, in Nobodoribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan. She is a
white female, around five foot six inches tall to five
feet eight inches tall, weighing one hundred and eighty pounds,
with brown hair and blue eyes. Two would be thirty
eight years old as of this recording. If you have
any information, please contact the Southington Police Department at eight
(18:46):
six zero three seven eight one six nine eight and
reference case number zero eight dash four nine one one.
If you have any friends or family in Japan, please
share Sky's story with them. Do you have any insights
or a case you'd like to suggest, feel free to
send it to me. You'll find a comment form and
case submission link at lordenarts dot com. Thank you to
(19:09):
the Dough Network NamUs CT Insider, WFSB, the Perspective magazine,
True Crime Society, the Last Trip podcast, the Voices for
Justice podcast, Wikipedia, and most of all, the Surviving Sky podcast,
as well as information from Sky's sister Megan Lebron for
contributing to today's story. You can listen to her podcast,
(19:30):
Surviving Sky on all major podcast platforms. This episode was
written by Kira McQueen, edited by John Lordon, and produced
by lord Arts. Thank you to our audience here for
the live recording session hosted on the YouTube channel Lorden
Art's Studio two. Special thanks to Seriously Mysterious financial supporters
Robert Martin, Mel Stephen B. Jones and Kevin. Most of all,
(19:54):
thank you for listening. I'm John Lordon. Please join us
again next week for another case I know you'll find
seriously mysterious
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