Q&A 9.16.18
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From Tinderfoot TV in Atlanta, this is Up and Advantage Q&A. I'm from Milwaukee. Just wanted to know what the motivation was of anything into investigating Crystal's case. Just wanted to know what the motivation or if anything sparked any kind of intrigue about Crystal's case. Thanks and keep up the good work. Initially, what intrigued me the most about Crystal's case was that she was a person who

that mainstream media likely would not cover very heavily for a couple of reasons. One, because Crestone is a very tiny place and it's not close to any big cities, so there's few news outlets out there at all.

And then also, she was different as a person. She looked different. She had tattoos. She had earrings. She was part of a crowd that was not mainstream. So what I found is that the media usually covers stories about victims that are quote-unquote extremely relatable. And so because of those two reasons, I thought that we could make a difference here and spotlight a case that would otherwise not get this much attention.

Hey, Up and Vanished crew. This is Sharon from California. And I just got done listening to season two, episode four, and I was shocked that there already seemed to be evidence. And I was just wondering how many episodes this season might be compared to the last. I just feel like last season we were not this far along, if you even know yet. And I hope you have a great day. Bye.

Hey Sharon, that's a great question. Things seem to be picking up pretty quickly in Crystal's case. It took a long time for people to start talking to me and opening up in Tara Grinstead's case. I also think I've learned a lot since then as far as how to approach people and how to kind of unite people. As far as the episode count, we have planned 12 episodes for this story, but we've also included some extra episodes that will cover different people in the town.

a couple different side stories that we find very interesting, and some episodes that go deeper into Crystal's life and her family. Hi, this is Gay Porter Danilian from Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and I'm fascinated by your story, having been to Crestone several times and familiar with that area. Had never heard of this case, though. I'm just curious, as you are out-of-town reporters, and that's a very small town, so I'm wondering what

The general reaction was to you as you came in and started investigating this case and its history from people within the community, particularly the more official people like the police and business owners, because we know the story from what you're telling us. I think it's great. Thank you. Well, the reaction from the locals initially before the podcast was announced was way different than it is now. I think at first,

people in Crestone were like, what is a podcast? Most people didn't really even know. And you see a few people walking around with this microphone, and no one seems to really think too much about it, to be honest. I would like to say that the local law enforcement, especially the sheriff's department, pretty much welcomed us from the very beginning. And they've been, I think, as open as they can be. And, you know, the sheriff told me on and off record that

He wants this solved and he doesn't care how it happens. And I believe him when he says that. I think that he does not have some sort of pride issue where he doesn't want some outsider coming in and stirring things up that leads to a new piece of information that could solve this. I think that they were very welcoming of us and they're down to try new things.

So I think for the most part, the Crestone community has been pretty accepting. Yeah, I think that people in Crestone are really nice, but it's important to remember that it's also a place that people move to because they value privacy. So occasionally, of course, there's people that don't really want to talk or they don't really want to talk about something like Crystal's case that kind of reflects negatively on their town. So I think we've gotten both reactions.

I was just calling to ask, with a case like this, there's going to be a lot of people with information that they're getting from the spirit world?

or just say this case is very heavily influenced by religion or spirituality. So with so much influence from the spirit world and so many people that have information they're getting from the spirit world, how do you think that will affect the solvability of this case? Do you think it's going to be more difficult to solve than, say, the Tara Grinstead case, even though it was more recent because so many people have...

information coming from this unreliable source that is their spirituality? I like that question. There definitely are a lot of spiritual people in this story, Crystal included. I think that spiritual people tap into their feelings more and pick up on things that certain people don't. We're not going around

talking to psychics to try to find out what happened to Crystal, just because there are spiritual people in this story. I think that just like any case anywhere, you just have to follow the facts. As far as the solvability of this case, is it harder or easier than Tara Grinstead's? That's really hard to say. Unlike Tara Grinstead's case, where it went a decade cold and over 10 years to find any information that would lead to an arrest,

Crystal's case happened just two years ago. She went missing two years ago, July 2016. So...

Any player who may know something or was involved in this is still around, and they might be listening to this right now. And I think that's very interesting. So if you compare the two cases in that way, I think that there could potentially be a greater chance for Crystal's case to be solved. Regardless of the spirituality in this case, I think that even though you might hear some crazy stories every now and then, the passion of the people in Crystals

Crystal's life to find her is extremely intense and I think that counts for something and I think at the end of the day that's going to matter when it comes to finding the truth about what happened to her.

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Hi, my name is Alana. I'm calling from New York. Love the podcast. Thank you all for what you do. So there are a couple of things that I was curious about. One was that, you know, a few people were saying that Crystal was known for having these like really loud, wild parties. But then her like next door neighbor that I think was interviewed in maybe episode two or three said that he never heard any of that. So I was just really curious about what that was about, if maybe he's lying or other people are lying about it.

And the other thing was that there were a few people that said that Crystal was into drugs a lot and that they were really worried and that she was worried about herself and kind of wanted to stop. But then a lot of other people in her life were like, no way, that's like impossible. So just a lot of conflicting stories. I'm just really curious if...

anything was kind of uncovered more about whether she actually was or wasn't and what was happening with those supposedly loud parties. All right. Thanks so much. Yeah. So the landlord told me that she had noise complaints when she was out of town for a few weeks, that some of the neighbors were complaining that Crystal was having loud parties. I talked to Jeremy Sharp is who you're talking about her next door neighbor. He said that he heard no parties and no loud sounds. And he was basically the closest person to Crystal's apartment. Um,

I think what it was was some of the older neighbors heard some noises at late hours. Whether they were extreme or not, I don't know. But some of the neighbors said that there was parties. I talked to some of those people and others said they heard nothing. So just like any apartment complex in the world, I think that this happens a lot where people are up late and...

They'll say, hey, I heard a party, but someone says, hey, that wasn't a party. It was just two or three people there. Either way, I think the idea of Crystal having parties to me is irrelevant to this case and isn't going to help us solve this.

Hey team, I'm just trying to kind of understand what the real relationship between Eli and Crystal was at the time of her disappearance. What was their status? What were kind of some of the things that were going on personally in their relationship at the time? And where was Crystal at the time of all of this kind of fallout with Eli personally? Thanks. As far as we've been told, Crystal wanted to make some life changes and

She decided to move down to southern Colorado

And Eli was supportive of it. As far as we can tell, even from Crystal's old cell phone, like they were in pretty constant communication. They talked about Kasha and saw each other semi-regularly, especially when Crystal was in Gunnison. I hope that answers your question. Hi, this is Kate from Ohio. As a mother, I'm having a hard time relating to Crystal because she left her daughter, Akasha. And...

I'm just wondering if there was ever any explanation given why she decided to move to Crestone without her daughter or why she left her daughter with her ex-boyfriend. And as someone who grew up without a parent and had to be adopted, I

I don't understand why she would have done that. And I'm wondering if there's any type of explanation for her doing that. I want to know why she would have done such a thing. Thanks. Bye. So your question is a really popular question and something that we've noticed is being asked a lot, you know, on Twitter and iTunes comments. I think it's important to note that Kasha wasn't with Crystal's ex-boyfriend, but Kasha was with her father, um,

Eli is a wonderful father and they have a great relationship. The reason for Crystal's move, as far as we know, is not because of some terrible falling out between Crystal and Eli. Crystal needed to make some important life changes. And as far as her family's told us, she's had a really difficult life. She herself grew up without really any parental presence. And I think she really did want to be a great mother. And she did bring Kasha with her when she moved to Gunnison.

And she was teaching and she was taking classes. And at that time, she was having some sort of, you know, difficulties. And she wanted to make another move to someplace where she felt she really connected. And that was Crestone. And as far as we know, she brought Kasia to live with Eli for a while. And she went to Crestone. And Eli was supportive of that. And they still talked all the time. I just think it was, you know, something personal she was dealing with. But it wasn't out of neglect to Kasia.

As I understand it, Crystal was trying to make the right parental decision by bringing Kasia to live with Eli for a while. I think she was struggling to figure things out. One of her close friends said that Crystal was searching for quote-unquote alignment. It seems she hadn't found a place where she completely felt she fit in yet.

And while she worked to figure out a balanced lifestyle, Kasha lived with Eli. And they both felt that was best. I think including the rest of the family.

Hi, I'd like to know a follow-up on Crystal's friend who reported that on Facebook, Crystal had sent her a friend request, and then her friend reported that she messaged her but never heard back. I'd like to know a follow-up on that and why the police didn't look into that or why you didn't look into that further and what the date was.

of all of that correspondence because that seems to be like a lot of missing information with that social media interaction. Thanks. Love your show. Bye-bye.

The whole Facebook friend request story is definitely strange and I think it's extremely important in finding out what happened to Crystal. If anyone had access to her Facebook and was messaging or accepting friend requests or reading messages, that's weird because to our knowledge, law enforcement had zero access to her Facebook whatsoever.

We have informed some people about this. As far as investigating this any further, there's not really much I can do. I don't have Crystal's login information. I don't have anything else. I have found other stories that are very similar and I think are possibly connected in some way. So I think in the future, later in the season, we'll find some more connections and hopefully that will lead us to what happened to Crystal. So to clarify, I think it's possible that someone who's not in law enforcement has been in Crystal's Facebook.

Hi, my name is Marcus Muirter. I am from Cary, Ohio.

And I was curious, did you guys have to prepare for the elevation change? It was like hard hiking around up there for you guys to like breathe and stuff. Really enjoy your guys' podcast and thanks a lot. My name is Matt. I write all the music for the podcast and they asked me to talk a little bit about the elevation adjustment. When I first went to Crestone, it was basically wake up every day with a headache and

and realize that you have to drink a lot of water constantly because the elevation does get to you and it does affect you. It makes you tired. It makes you groggy. And so while we were in Crestone, I thought, well, I'll just go to the local grocery store and get some Advil or something, you know, just to counteract the headache. And it turns out they really didn't have anything like that because everything in Crestone is very earthy and dry.

It's all about an abundance of healthiness. And so they gave me something called cell food, which is something that oxidizes your blood. Then they gave me something that was in a little dropper bottle that was homemade. He told me to drop under my tongue periodically throughout the day. And I was absolutely terrified of it. But believe it or not, it actually did help. So yeah, elevation sickness is a real thing.

My name's Colleen from Minneapolis, and thank you for producing such an amazing podcast. I have more questions about the tarot card. First of all, since it's from her deck, I virtually have zero tarot card knowledge. Could she have just put it somewhere, picked it out specifically? And I also want to know if anybody from your crew had their tarot cards read. Thank you.

Hi, Colleen. Yeah, in regards to the Tarot card, depending on what you believe in, sure. It likely got lost in this box of pictures and letters a long time ago. As far as anyone getting their cards read, I did get my cards read. So it's just kind of exactly what Phoebe said. It's an intuitive tool. She would pull different cards and then ask me questions and I would kind of

you know, know what I needed to say and it would sort of get me to think about things maybe I didn't want to think about or were difficult challenges in my life. And so in that way, it's kind of like alternative therapy. It's not like what people think of where it's like dark magic or it told me when I was going to die or something like that. It didn't tell me anything I didn't know. It was just she asked me questions about my life and it helps you think of solutions.

Hey, I actually have two questions. The first question is regarding the police report that was read in the last part of episode four. It says that the police officer said Catfish allowed them to search the premises or gave permission. Did they actually search the premises or, you know, did he just say that they could thinking that they wouldn't if he had nothing to hide?

My second question is regarding the discussion board. In the season one case, people started talking towards the end of the season on the discussion board, even though I think which led to finding a lot out.

In this season, though, after the very first episode, people were already saying that they were Crestone locals and they know what happened and making all these claims. How are you going about that? Are you going to try and get in contact with those people? Are you trying to weed out, you know, the people who say that they're from there and the people who actually are? Thanks so much. You're doing great.

Well, I certainly hope that the officer who wrote the police report about Catfish, when given the opportunity to search his house, I really do hope he did.

I have not spoke to him about this in person, so I do not know for sure. But I would think that when given that opportunity, you have sort of a person of interest that people have singled out for you. I would hope that you would take advantage of that opportunity to search the house. In regards to the discussion board, I think that the popularity of season one created increased awareness. So when episode one of season two came out,

there was a lot of people on it immediately. So the word got out much faster to the Crestone locals that there was this podcast out here about Crystal's disappearance. We do monitor the discussion boards. We don't use it as some sort of main source of information for ourselves. But if there's something strange, suspicious, or something that rings true, we always do look into it. And we encourage people who do know something to talk about it and to come forward.

Hey guys, this is Nathan calling from Nashville, Tennessee. Great work on the podcast. I'm very intrigued in this season. You guys have done a fantastic job. Very interesting case. I have a theory. I don't know, obviously, a lot of facts. And last week's episode kind of started to...

take away from this theory, but I don't understand why she couldn't have just gone out this drum circle, probably high, maybe drunk, probably both, maybe even, goes out into the woods, you know, maybe to go to the bathroom, maybe she's not like a natural person, maybe she just wasn't in her right mind, goes out in the woods, falls, just hits her head on a rock, and an animal gets to her, and no one ever finds her. Is that not a plausible scenario? I don't, obviously there could be foul play involved. I'm just leaning on

It seems like it could be a very natural occurrence of she was not in her eye mind. She went out into the woods. Something bad happened to her. And that's the end of it. Once again, thank you so much for this podcast. It's been very interesting. I definitely think you're getting a lot of years. And if it isn't the murder aspect of things, I really hope we find justice for Crystal. Thanks, guys.

I mean, to answer your question, is that a possibility? Absolutely. Do I think that happened? I don't. If Crystal did just walk away from the drum circle and fall and hit her head...

and an animal got to her, then why did no one find her remains or some of her remains just weeks after she went missing when they did an initial search up there? The fact that law enforcement did an initial search just weeks after she went missing and found nothing in that area, to me, is kind of strange. Even if some sort of animal got to her or something like that, there would be something left.

So the idea that she just walked away from the drum circle nearby and fell and hit her head and died naturally to me is not possible. Yeah, I think even if you say, okay, so she did go out into the mountains and hit her head and maybe there was some sort of like animal interference with her body. I still think the part that's most indicative of

to that not happening is all the other stuff going on in her life at the time. All the other accounts of like tension with people and, you know, the fact that people say she was upset and having like a difficult time with her relationships during 2016. So I think that it seems unlikely given all the other accounts we've heard.

Hi, this is Jacqueline calling from Houston, Texas. My question is, if Crystal stayed in touch with her daughter and her daughter's father, if they spoke very frequently, my question is, did she not sound different the last time that they heard from her? Did she sound distant? And

And also, I don't know, I guess I just want to know what were her last words or the last time that they spoke to her. What did she say? Thank you. From pretty much everyone I talked to who knew Crystal and spoke to Crystal shortly before she went missing, pretty much everyone said that she was acting strange. There's also accounts of an alleged sexual assault that occurred a few weeks before she went missing.

and to my knowledge, she was extremely upset about that. Crystal was not acting her normal self. Just about everyone who knew Crystal, who was in communication with her, will tell you the same thing. In my opinion, it's certainly related to her disappearance. By the way, charge your phone.

Hi there. I just had a quick question about the timeline of Crystal's disappearance. I know that that's been an issue, but I was wondering if you guys have the date of when did she miss a call to Kasha? Because it seems that she called every day when she wasn't with her. And...

I know that other dates have been mentioned, the 13th or 18th of the date of the drum circle. But I don't remember anything being said about when was the first day that she missed a call to Kasia, because I think that that would also be a significant date. And where does that fall in the timeline of her possible disappearance? Thank you.

The last time Eli and Kasia spoke to Crystal was July 13th, 2016. And from that point forward, no one that we know has seen or talked to her. So whatever happened to Crystal happened on July 13th or 14th because she made a Facebook post on July 14th. So anything beyond the 14th, if someone's seen her there, that would be extremely important to know. The cell phone that we have given to us by Rodney...

is not the phone that she was using at the time of her disappearance. It's the phone she had before that. So the messages stop a few months before July. But to my knowledge, the last time Eli and Kasia spoke to Crystal was July 13th.

Hi, my name is Jamie and I'm from Denver. Well, first I just want to say your show, both seasons are amazing. Yeah, wow. I just have chills every time I listen to an episode. I just have a lot of questions, I guess, about, we keep calling him the ex-boyfriend, but the father of her baby. I just think there's so much...

more to know about her as a person. I'm a mom and I know not all moms are the same, but I think about her and I think about people saying like, oh, she called and checked on her daughter all the time. She talked about her daughter all the time.

But then I don't hear anybody who knows her. Like, I want to know if her boyfriend in the town, did he know about her daughter? Did he know about anything? And like, did she ever talk about her? I know in my experience, people that have used pretty hard drugs in the past, they get really like reminiscent of their kids and I got to check on them. I got to make sure they're okay at times that they're high or whatever, even recovering through the emotional ups and downs. Anyways, I just...

I guess as a mom, I just want to know more about what people think of her when she talks about her daughter, if she talks about her daughter. Yeah. So that's about it. I'm so excited for the next episode. Thank you so much. Bye. Hi, Jamie. So to answer your question, I think...

Everybody knew about Kasha. It sounds like Crystal talked about Kasha constantly, was like really proud to be a mother. So when Crystal left Denver, she did leave with Kasha. Kasha and Crystal lived together in Gunnison for a while. And Kasha lived with her father after that when Crystal went to Crestone. As far as everything we've been told, Crystal was trying to get to a point where she could have Kasha move in with her in Crestone too.

Hi, my name is Julie and I'm calling from Indianapolis with my question. After this week's episode, I'm a little bit confused about Crystal's love life. So I know she was with Akasha's father, but I guess I was under the impression they were still together when she went down there. And then when you spoke with her Tarot teacher, she mentioned that she had met someone and then moved down to Crestone. So the boyfriend from Crestone that you spoke to in today's episode is

When Crystal left Denver to go to Southern Colorado, she spent a period of time in a nearby town called Gunnison, which is close to Crestone. And in Gunnison, she met a few different guys. And one of those, I believe, became her boyfriend.

her boyfriend in Crestone when she eventually moved there. When she left Denver, Crystal and Eli were no longer really romantically involved. And she met someone new in Gunnison. And this is the Crestone boyfriend that's being referred to in episode four.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Newman and I live in Colorado. I've been listening to the show season two and I am curious if you guys had looked into the disappearance of Mike Russ. He disappeared maybe a decade ago in Sewatch County and it was definitely foul play. And I know that there was talk of miscarriage.

meth heads involved in his disappearance and later murder they found. But it's that same county and it's a really similar sounding situation. So I'm curious if you looked into if there's any connection between Crystal's case and Mike Rett's case. Thanks so much. I love the show. Appreciate it. Bye-bye.

I have heard of the Mike Russ case. I believe even the sheriff of Swatch County brought it up to me. It's a question that other locals and other people from Colorado have asked me because it's a

pretty popular, well-known story. I know very little about the Mike Rust case. I do know that there was foul play involved. As far as any similarities to Crystal's case, I think the main one is that there was foul play. I think that there was certainly foul play in Crystal's disappearance, just like Mike Rust. And the people involved in the murder had some serious drug involvement. But are the cases connected? I don't think so.

Hi, my name is Destiny, and I have a few questions about Crystal's timeline. Eli says that after his violent incident, she came home and took care of him. And then two days later, after she returned to Crestone, that's when she got missing. The quote-unquote boyfriends that we heard about in episode three leads us to think that she had been home for several weeks. He talks about the

picking her up from Catfish's house on June 28th. And I'm just really curious as to what is the actual timeline here from when she returned to Crestone into when she went missing. Can anybody place when this so-called rape happened? Thank you. Bye.

This is a great question and great attention to detail there. The timeline is definitely off from when Eli said that Crystal was in Denver with him after he had gotten beaten up by a stranger and Crystal left and then two days later she vanished. That timeline is definitely not accurate. I've since spoke to Eli about this and he's cleared things up.

It was just a misunderstanding on his part or just a misremembering. But the timeline as far as the June 28th story where Crystal was allegedly at this guy Catfish's house and calls her Crestone boyfriend to come pick her up because she was being held against her will. This timeline from that point forward is extremely important and we will go into it in detail in episode five.

Hi. My question for season two is, Crystal's being made out to be a good person, very likable, but is she? I'm struggling with this because, you know, a lot of signs don't point that way. She left her husband and her daughter, who she claims to love, across the state to

find herself, you know, is that the way we can describe it? Or is she just, did she leave to immerse herself in the, in the drug culture of Crestone or, you know, she, you know, she's taking drugs, she's drinking, she's hanging out with the wrong people. But again, I keep going back to, she left her family. This is just, you know, there's so many things and reasons that she didn't make the right decision. And I'm just struggling with her as, as, as a good person, because I just don't think that she is. Yeah.

In this case, I mean, I understand it's a missing person and that's not great, but, you know, she made a lot of wrong decisions and that really could have led to her downfall. And I'm struggling with that. Want some thoughts? Thanks. That's a really interesting question. Firstly, I'd like to remind you that

Eli and Crystal were never married. Eli wasn't her husband. They were both loving parents to Kasia and Eli continues to be. But they were never married. Everyone we've talked to has said Crystal was a good person, said Crystal was a loving person, a boisterous person, uplifting, great to be around. So by every count, I would say yes.

As far as her moving away from Eli, she did take Kasha with her at first, and I think that's important to note. Crystal did have a history with mental health issues, and I think that's also important to note, but not something that in any way affected her disappearance. I think that it can be easy to see someone who moved away from

loved ones and think that maybe they were cold or callous or, you know, self-absorbed. But I think that she was moving away in order to improve herself, in order to find some place that she connected to. And as far as we know, she didn't really connect to urban city lifestyle. And that's how she found herself in Crestone. I think with these kinds of cases, it's tempting for people to put somebody's life on trial and pass judgment.

on their past. But I think if you look this hard into almost anybody's life, you'll find something there that's questionable. At the end of the day, a human life is a human life.

Hey guys, this is Jack in Minneapolis. I noticed that this guy Catfish has talked about a lot of the discussion boards and now he's been mentioned in the episode. It's looking like he's the key suspect at this point. Is that where you're going to gear in on? And is this going to be less of a mystery than say a season one where now we pretty much know who did it. It's a matter of going after him and figure out what he did or what he knows. Just curious about that, where it's going to go next. All right. Thanks guys. Love the show. Take care.

Great question. Is Catfish suspicious? Yes. Is the story close to being over? No way. Hi, calling in regarding the Q&A. I was just wondering when Dr. Maurice Godwin was going to make an appearance. Thanks. Thank you for the question about when I may appear on season two of the podcast. Well, it may be sooner than you think. Hey guys, thanks for listening. Stay tuned this Friday for a special bonus episode.

Be sure to come back Monday the 24th for episode 5.