S2E6: The Circle is Small
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Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. One of the names that keeps coming up has a criminal record. He's well known to police in different jurisdictions. And as you heard, everybody in town thinks he's the drug hookup. That's that. Does he have anything to do with this case? I have no idea. Right. That's the frustrating part.

Just because somebody in town is on everybody's radar, rumored to be some bad guy that might be involved with Crystal's disappearance, that doesn't make it true. In fact, if it was so obvious and true, that person would already be in custody. Because the Sheriff's Department knows the name, and I suspect that they've checked it out every which way and have some suspicions on their own whether he's the right guy. I think he knows what's going on.

And I think that some associates may even know more. We certainly know who Catfish is. And I know that Catfish and his friend have been spoken to by detectives. So they shouldn't be surprised that their name's coming up. The real balance, journalistically, is what are the liabilities of detectives?

reporting somebody's identity who may ultimately never be charged or directly be involved. I guess the one that comes to mind is the Richard Jewell case at Atlanta Olympics, the bombing, the security guard. He came to help. He had to be the guy. Everybody reported it. Can't take it back, right? Wasn't it? So we always balance here the need to do those kind of things.

If you watched our initial investigation, we have a blurred mugshot and he knows that's him. His mom probably knows that's him. His friends probably know that's him. So there's some, not public identity, but I think we let him know that we know. There he is. If they're just dealing moving product, they don't want to make any waves.

And violence creates waves. People call the police, they call 911, here comes the ambulance, they say who did this and what, and it can ruin a financial stream. So the players that we're talking about there, I don't think are dangerous every day, but I have no doubt if they're cornered that they know how to get out of trouble. From Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, this is Up and Vanished. I'm your host, Payne Lindsey. I talked to a new source about catfish.

My knowledge is limited. I need to go on and explore my friends. The ones that I guess were involved, if you want to say that, or not involved.

And really what it really comes down to is, I mean, Brian, I mean, you gotta start there. I mean, that's who it is. Jaffa had nothing to do with it on the end of, like, basically, I believe that she was killed. Okay. I didn't believe her. Brian got into an argument. Brian killed her. And they just posted the body.

I'm not sure who they are, but I'm pretty sure that he talked to Landon, Jack, and Brian. If you get those three, then you'll be able to figure it out. Do you know what happened, like what the situation was? I don't know. I know that what had happened is that Brian, the summer before, had wrecked her car, and then she had filed her civil suit. I think that what happened is that maybe Brandon...

had maybe Rachel, like maybe Drunkard and Rachel, and then she tried to come back on them. That's what I'm getting from the information that I have. And I mean, I honestly thought it was Catfish at first, but once I started talking to Catfish, I mean, got to basically know Catfish, it wasn't him at all. I mean, he may have, I mean, I hate to say this, but he may have helped him, like, helping him cover it up

But the only reason they did that is because he involved, or they involved him. And I don't even think that's the case, really. There's no really, what I saw is from a distance, because I'm a friend of everybody that was, I guess, probably involved, is I saw a complete psychological breakdown. Landon. And the paranoia of all three of them just went through the roof. Landon. Went from just being in standard meth psychosis.

being completely paranoid at all times whether he was sober, thinking that people were following him. I mean, you mentioned that they had found Crystal's body. He completely freaked out.

Jack. He ended up getting committed. I mean, and then you look at Black. And from what I've seen, you know, and I know his ex-wife, and I know all the other girlfriends that he's been with, there is a violence in behind him, like a dark light, you know. It doesn't come out right at first, but when they're alone, it happens. Also, I would, uh, I mean, just to help out, I mean, I talked to, uh,

They placed a value on a human life where it shouldn't have been placed. About two months later...

I mean, it's rumored that she was blackmailing him, blackmailing them, because they had raped her. They drugged her and raped her. Landon... He almost shot Capish's hand off. I talked to people that were there. They said that they were arguing over Crystal, about Crystal, about what had happened. And that's when he shot his hand.

Landon.

Well,

Which means that

His regret is probably due to some involvement in some way, whether it be ex post facto, like taking care of the body after it was all said and done, or whether it be that he had something to do as far as like planning it or paying for it or something of that nature. Katniss's house was completely destroyed all the time. I wasn't there and I didn't see it, but right after the girl disappeared, that house was completely spotless. I mean, you could eat off the floor.

And that's what I heard.

This is a small community, you know, and people talk. And it's funny because these guys go around talking about this. I guarantee it. Otherwise, why would you hear these things? They're basically dosing each other with LSD to basically drive each other insane. If you want to get dosed, that means you're going to drop some acid. But, I mean, if you're getting dosed, that means somebody's trying to either kill you, drive you insane, or, you know, basically put you to a point where your mental capabilities can't handle the amount of drugs that you're on.

There's several people that have been dosed around here through methamphetamine specifically. And I mean, they walk around fighting shadow people for the rest of their lives. You know, shit like that. It's not very nice. I mean, you gotta watch what you do around here. A lot of people are scared of catfish. I'm scared of catfish a little bit. His family has power. They have major, major power. I'm willing to work with, man, I'm willing to work with CBI. You know what? Screw these guys. I mean, I know that they all had something to do with it.

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You can do more without spending more. Learn how to save at Cox.com slash internet. Cox internet is connected to the premises via coaxial cable. Cox mobile runs on the network with unbeatable 5G reliability as measured by UCLA LLC in the U.S. to age 2023. Results may vary, not an endorsement of the restrictions apply. At this point, I'd heard a lot of insane and frankly scary stories, all revolving around this group of so-called friends.

Some of these things I'd heard before. That Catfish never cleaned his house. And then one day, he suddenly did a full sweep. And also that Catfish's family had a fairly prestigious background. I talked to Landon to get his perspective. Things didn't seem to look good for this group of friends, if that's even what they are. Yeah, I'd be happy to talk with you about anything you want to know about. I do know, you know, the engine house at Creston pretty much. I have some exciting stuff. Are you going to be in the area? I mean, it's not...

directly related to your story, was not present for anything that went down with the young lady, and I don't know enough people. I happened to meet the young lady probably a matter of two weeks before she went missing for five or ten minutes. To that extent of my relationship, I don't know her well. Like I said briefly before she left, you know, some of the characters are like, you know, it's just, it is factually, I don't know anything. I didn't see anything. I don't have any, you know, truth, I guess,

What do you think happened to Crystal?

Yeah.

...to, you know, some big strange... ...I don't know how that phrase is anymore because I... ...like, I have God, like, completely on my side and it's all... ...a complete illusion anyway. All those little references to the vibration are existing. Part of our illusions that we're transcending the planet or ascending the planet right now actually... ...this event sparks the consciousness of love in every present moment...

to make it look like Michael Schumacher was texting

You know, and like, mimic the numbers and go, you know, see my girlfriend and my number. I got a conversation. Like, things are good. How do you feel about your life these days?

So do you feel any, you know, recent changes or recent, like, energies that seem different or any kind of, like, vibrancy or, you know, synchronicities maybe in your life? They're like, ding, ding, you know, here and there, and numbers are coming at the right time. It's crazy, like, you know, small world shit, or no? I mean, I don't really know. It's hard to say. I haven't figured out life entirely yet, but, you know, I look at it as one big learning experience. Oh, you will soon, bro. My brother, you will soon.

Landon's thoughts were a little far out there, but as far as Crystal's story, he gave more convincing details than I'd gotten from anyone else so far. I mean, was I there for anything of that? No, no. I went over

You know, I didn't know this.

Yeah.

I had to steal for me, hire people to beat me up.

Jack. Yeah.

I don't know any of this for sure, bro. The rumor mill has generated so many rumors, I'm in three quarters of them. And I didn't have anything to do with it. Don't know what happened. Nobody told me because I'm not in that little clique or that club. They all just speak in Greek. I had depression that took me to some places where I was just like survival of the hibernation. You know, my reputation was getting stomped on. So people used to just wave by and it's

uh, friendlily, we started to get these looks of doubt. I just felt it creep in, and said, you know, 500 to 1,000 to 200 people in the PC, and, you know, like, if you did everything, if you even suddenly took a little bit of wind, some programming people, and it doesn't even matter, you know, hey, exactly what you're doing, as long as you're doing anything with any kind of, like, inkling or inference or, you know, a mere vague appearance of an infopriety, then true knowledge was mine. Do you understand, bro?

Because I'm the one good guy hanging around shit, right?

When I gave all that, I told the C-Guide they could have all that, but for me to figure out what they really get for me, you know, I told them I was leaving a little permission.

And they never got back to me. I don't know what the fuck happened with that. You know, there was one picture. I'm going to tell you, I really don't want to do all this stuff. The last thing I'm going to try to talk about is this. Because I'm going to try to speak to joy. And this is all better happened, brother, than the past. Not only that, but it was the illusion or the spirit. We're all reincarnating all the time, too. If you're in the love train, you're going to send with the red line. There's 144,000 of us on the planet.

While I was talking to Landon, someone else got on the phone. I still don't know who she was. Hey, how you doing? I'm doing good. Oh, yeah.

Shortly after Crystal went missing, an anonymous person had a phone call with Dreddy Bryant.

They recorded this call and shared it with me. And I'd like to share it with you now, because the story seems to get a little muddled. I know it's not like her for sure. The last time I actually saw her was, jeez, it was a little over a month ago. I think just like two and a half weeks ago or whatever, at the last drum circle, I think she was dead because it was water. And somebody else said that they thought, but the last time I talked to her, it was the day after the full moon.

the full moon before last. It was a day after that, and, um, and she said, and she came in, she called down the street, she was up in her apartment there, and she's like, hey, Brian, you know, um, I think Captain, Captain's, like, put some fucked up shit on Facebook about you. You know what I mean? Because, like, we, we, like, had an argument, and got, I did some work at Alice, and he didn't pay me for it, and then she said, like, we had, we had a beep, but she was like, you know, I was over there, and she told me, I, I, she said she didn't remember, but she said she thought that we might have, um,

Again, another person swearing they saw Crystal at the July drum circle.

Damn.

Meaning wrecking her car.

How did he know that Crystal went there? I talked to Catfish. When this shit happened, dude, I went over there. I was just over there a few days ago, you know, talking to him.

You know, I don't know. He's a pretty transparent guy. He's a canter, you know. He's not super good at hiding his emotions. And I didn't, like, he didn't really, he didn't seem nervous or lying or, you know. I mean, if he was, then, like, what's the word for that? I mean, he must be a true sociopath. But I really didn't get the vibe that, like, that's what it was. But obviously something happened, you know.

The same anonymous source received a message from Catfish. I was shared the messages and was able to validate their authenticity.

The anonymous source says this.

Up and Vanished is an investigative podcast told weekly, produced for Tenderfoot TV by Payne Lindsay, Mike Rooney, and me, Meredith Steadman, with new episodes every Monday. Executive Producers Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright.

Additional production by Resonate Recordings, as well as Mason Lindsay, Rob Ricotta, and Christina Dana. Our intern is Hallie Bidal. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set. Our theme song is Ophelia, performed by Ezra Rose. Our cover art is by Trevor Eiler. Special thanks to the team at Cadence 13. Visit us on social media via at Up and Vanished, or you can visit our website, upandvanished.com, where you can join in on our discussion board.

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