Sabrina Kahler // 510
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hope you're having a good day today. Big shout out to Shannon for recommending today's story. This case definitely needs a ton more attention because it is a very suspicious story.

Yeah, and we're going to talk about an amazing young woman today who needs justice. So please do not forget to share today's story because this is a call to action today. Yeah, let's get this story out there. That is what this show is about, you know? So without further ado, let's dive right in. All right, guys, this is episode 510 of Going West. So let's get into it. ♪♪♪

June 24th, 2002. It's one day members of the Erie Police Department's cold case unit thinks about nearly every day. It was the day 20-year-old Sabrina Mae Kaler was last seen. It's a family that wants closures and investigators that want some answers. It's been 22 years and I'm still looking for my daughter Sabrina Kaler.

Please help me find her. In June of 2002, a 20-year-old woman vanished after swimming by Lake Erie. Last seen with her boyfriend's friend, she was reportedly dropped off safely at a movie theater. But no one saw whether she actually made it there or not.

As investigators probe deeper, they uncovered conflicting stories, dubious alibis, and a suspect with a troubling past. So what happened to her? And is someone still hiding a sinister truth? This is The Disappearance of Sabrina Kaler. ♪

Sabrina Kaler, nicknamed Bree by her friends and family, was born on June 20th, 1982 to Susan Berg and Richard Kaler in Erie, which is a city in northwest Pennsylvania. I'm sure you guys have heard of it. It is situated on the shores of Lake Erie. But after having five kids together with Sabrina being the youngest, her parents did split up.

Now, from birth, Sabrina actually suffered from respiratory issues, and due to a lack of oxygen in her first few hours, she was diagnosed with a mild mental disability. So she always functioned a few years younger than her age. Like, for example, when she reached the age of 20, which is how old she was when this story takes place, she kind of had the capacity more so of somebody who was about 15 or 16 years old.

And likely because of this, her mom Susan described Sabrina as exceedingly trusting and even a little bit naive, which sadly was sometimes taken advantage of.

Her dad, Richard, said, quote, when she was a child and I took her to the store, I had to keep an eye on her because she would wander off and talk to people. She's the type of person who's easy to take advantage of. But like this was also in part because in general, Sabrina was such a warm and happy person. She really was so wonderful. And Susan also spoke very proudly of her daughter's character, saying, quote, she's just a really caring, loving kid.

Really kind of almost empathetic in a way. She might not have been a genius, but Sabrina was special in her own way. One of her brothers, Scott, remembers Sabrina as kind, big-hearted, and very honest. He said, quote,

Between her parents' divorce in 1996 when Sabrina was 14 and the summer of 2000 when Sabrina was heading into her senior year of high school, she did primarily live with her dad and eventually her dad's new wife, Sarah. Sabrina loved kids. She actually worked in the nursery at the Wayne Park Baptist Temple, which is where her family went to church. But on top of this, she also worked at McDonald's.

During the summer before her senior year of high school, she moved in with her mom near the very charming suburban cross streets of East 3rd Street and Lighthouse Street, which is only about a block away from the beach and the lighthouse in Erie. So it's such a great spot to call home. And then the following year in 2001, she graduated from East High School and was excited for what was to come in life.

Now, at the time of her disappearance a year later, she was living with her 22-year-old boyfriend, Christopher, or Chris Lee, at her mom's house. The two had met on Valentine's Day of that year and had been practically inseparable ever since. And by May of 2002, he had moved in with Sabrina and her mom.

Sabrina turned 20 on June 20th, 2002, and her father Richard said that he was hoping to take his daughter out to celebrate when he learned that she had disappeared just four days after her birthday. He later said regretfully, quote, Now, on the day that she disappeared, which was Monday, June 24th, 2002, her mom Susan headed to work as usual, while Sabrina's boyfriend Chris stepped out for an appointment.

When he returned home that day, just after noon, he found a handwritten note from Sabrina saying that she was going swimming with 26-year-old David Sherman Lee Heck, who was actually one of Chris's friends. A neighbor of hers saw the car arrive and Sabrina climb in with him, leaving for the park right afterwards, so someone actually can confirm that this indeed did happen.

Now, shortly before that, around 11 a.m., Susan had called home to check in with Sabrina, and she remembered, quote,

But why David had asked Sabrina to go on their own instead of waiting for Chris to come home is one of the many mysteries that remains in this case. Yeah, because for Sabrina, that wouldn't have been too weird. She was so friendly and he'd invited her and she liked to swim. So, of course, she would want to say yes. But to anybody else, it was just kind of odd because like they never hung out alone.

Yeah, and by the way, David had his own girlfriend. And actually, to give you guys a little bit more perspective, Chris and Sabrina had made plans with David and David's girlfriend, Ashley Peters, many times. But rarely, if ever, was it just Sabrina and David or even just Chris and Ashley alone, you know? Like...

It didn't really make sense. And this isn't very typical for relationships. Like you don't, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's also like, oh, it's just two people hanging out. But I think because of what's to come is why we're questioning this so much. But at the time, Chris even said, quotes, I didn't think anything of it. My assumption was that David and Ashley showed up to ask me and Sabrina if we wanted to go swimming. I wasn't home at the time. She was probably a little upset about that. And they went without me.

Now, supposedly, Chris was out donating plasma in order to be able to afford to take Sabrina to the movies because she had really been wanting to go see Lilo and Stitch, which premiered about a week prior. And by the way, this is obviously the original Lilo and Stitch that came out back in the early 2000s. Weird timing that the new one is out right now in theaters. Yeah. But that's so, like, heartbreakingly wholesome. Like, he's going to donate plasma so he can take his girlfriend to the movies. Yeah.

And we will be looping back to Lilo and Stitch soon, by the way. But first, let's get into David's account of events.

He said that he was simply craving a swim and stopped by Sabrina's house to see if she wanted to join him, not even mentioning an interest in swimming with Chris, you know, his friend and her boyfriend. And Sabrina agreed. So David drove them to Eagley Park, which is located in nearby Springfield Township, and it's situated alongside Lake Erie, boasting a creek and a playground.

And it doesn't really seem like it has accessible water access. Accessible water access? Yeah, I mean, it doesn't seem like there's access to the water. Yeah, to Lake Erie. Or at least not as much as the nearby park, Raccoon Park, has access.

But there are very few photos of Eagley Park online. We do know that it's right on the water just below the, like Lake Erie is just below a small cliffside where there is a small public access beach. But that's not even where they were swimming. All reports state that they were at a, quote, swimming hole at Eagley Park, though there aren't photos of this spot anywhere online, sadly. So I don't know what the hell it looks like. But anyway.

Sabrina and David swam in this mysterious, nondescript swimming hole, just the two of them, on that Monday afternoon for about a half an hour until trouble arose. According to reports of the incident, Ashley Peters, who was by then David's ex-girlfriend, arrived, allegedly with between 10 to 15 people with her, seemingly ready for a fight. But if this happened,

supposed fight directly involved Sabrina's presence at the park that day is unknown. And it does seem like she and David had just recently broken up because even, you know, you just read that quote from Chris. Yeah. And he's saying, oh yeah, I assume that he and Ashley stopped by to see if me and Sabrina wanted to go swimming. He doesn't even yet know that they're broken up. Right. So this is a very, very fresh breakup. Yes. And,

We're going to get into something that happened the day before this because there was an altercation between them on Sunday. This is happening today on Monday when they're swimming together. But despite at least a dozen people being present, including Sabrina and David, of course, at the park, at the swimming hole, no one in the group that day has been named or has publicly spoken out about the circumstances of this really weird, large confrontation.

or how Sabrina's subsequent disappearance may have been related. But according to David's version of events, quote, they came down there and started a whole bunch of stuff. So I went and called the police. Way to be descriptive, David. What the hell does that mean? What does that even mean? I feel like it means that they were just kind of trying to like,

maybe like intimidate him like Ashley was there with a big group because because of what we're going to talk about the incident the day prior they were there to kind of like hey like we're going to threaten David because he's a dick 10 to 15 people is so many that's a lot of people yeah and then especially because nothing really ended up happening but let's give that backstory now um

David had recently put an end to his relationship with Ashley, which had been the precursor to an altercation the day prior to the incident at Eagley Park. So according to witnesses on Sunday, June 23rd, 2002, so the day before, during a fight at a home on Route 6 located in Conneaut Township,

David had attempted to physically force Ashley to vacate the premises, though it's unclear whose home this was. We know it wasn't David's because he resided in nearby Lake City at the time, so it seems like she showed up to wherever he was, maybe looking for trouble or just trying to get justice for herself, maybe after their breakup or whatever, which she did again, of course, the following day when he and Sabrina were swimming at the park.

Now, on Sunday, after attempting to oust her, David got into his car, which was apparently a red and black Ford Bronco, and attempted to mow Ashley down along with four other people. And he actually later faced charges related to this incident, which we will detail later. So that's the little backstory of what happened the day before. But back to Monday now.

So after Ashley and her crew arrived at Eagley Park, seemingly eager to finish what they had started the day prior, Sabrina and David left the park and headed to an ice cream stand called Tasty Twist on Old Lake Road in North Springfield. So this ice cream place is just up the street. It's in a very rural, like,

Less green trees, lots of woods, very beautiful spot. But yeah, so after this, they're like, we're going to bounce and go get some ice cream. Yeah, I'm just kind of assuming that they wanted to kind of cool off the temperatures of this argument with Ashley and her crew. They just needed to get away from the situation for a second. Yeah, like turn it around. And actually, when they got ice cream, David called the state police and an officer met up with them to take their statements regarding this confrontation with Ashley and her crew.

The officer then accompanied them back to Eagley Park in order to tell Ashley Peters to leave her ex-boyfriend alone, because I guess she was still at the park with her pals, and also...

The officer helped like broker the return of a pair of pants of hers, which David still had in his vehicle. Yeah. So basically, I don't know. That's probably not why Ashley is mad. Obviously, like it's not over a pair of pants. But maybe it's in general, like you still have my stuff and we're broken up and you're an asshole, whatever. Giving my shit back. So the police officer is just trying to

Make sure that everything ends amicably. Yeah, but this is a really interesting details that there was an officer there who

shortly before Sabrina disappeared to see this incident through. That's a very interesting aspect of this case for sure. Well, after this was handled, at least according to the state trooper's account, Sabrina and David got safely back into his car and left the park. And that was the last time that anybody aside from David could ever claim to have seen 20-year-old Sabrina Kaler.

I know that was kind of a bunch of bullshit, but that is genuinely all that has been released on the matter. So again, we can just guess that Ashley was probably upset with David about what happened the day before and about their breakup in general.

And, you know, it doesn't seem... I can't imagine that Ashley or anybody in the group was trying to take anything out on Sabrina. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that was the intention of coming to Eagley Park that day. Yeah, and I also wonder how Ashley and her friends knew that he was even there. I wonder if Ashley was upset to see Sabrina with David or if that didn't bother her. Well, just kind of thinking about this for a moment, it would be a different story if David...

Sabrina and Chris were all at this swimming hole together, or maybe there was other people there. But the fact that this breakup was so fresh, and that it's just David and Sabrina, I'm sure that Ashley had some thoughts going through her mind at the time. Yeah, it makes you wonder. Well, before Sabrina left her house earlier that afternoon...

She had written in a note to her boyfriend Chris that she was planning to be home by 4 p.m., so a couple hours after leaving. But she never arrived, and never called to let Chris or Susan know her whereabouts. But since she was 20, she could go off and do whatever she wanted in the eyes of the law. So it wasn't until two days later that her family was able to report her missing.

The last person to have seen her, again, David, who was already on parole for an unrelated crime, was questioned immediately. And suspiciously, he refused to speak with detectives in person and would only consent to an interview over the phone. It's not like this guy hates cops necessarily or is afraid of police. In fact, he requested their presence at the park to help with Ashley, so...

you know, as we know. So this is super weird to me because somebody who has been in trouble with the law, maybe you would imagine, oh, I don't want anything to do with the law, with police, but it just doesn't really feel like that's the case. So why? Why are you doing this? Well, of course, naturally detectives for the Erie Police Department were immediately suspicious that this refusal was just to avoid being looked at as the culprit and maybe even for possible physical reasons like

They couldn't help but wonder if he had done something to Sabrina and if during a physical confrontation with her, she hurt him while defending herself and maybe he just like didn't want to show police this. So fair that police are wondering this because it's like, okay, well, if you're not going to, if you're going to be sus and you're not going to come talk to us, then we're going to, we're going to start thinking that you're more suspicious than we already think you are. Right. Did you have scratches on your body from like defensive kind of wounds or whatever the fuck? Like,

Like, is there something on your body that indicates that you had a confrontation with Sabrina, and that's why you don't want to come in physically to the police station? Exactly. And it just sucks because it's not like...

They can detain him. They have no idea where she went, so they cannot force him to speak with them in person. Yeah, there's really nothing they can do at that point. Now, David's home, again, which is in Lake City, was only about 10 minutes down the road from Springfield Township, where he and Sabrina were last spotted. So some believe that that's where he may have taken her after they left the park. I mean, she is at his mercy. She's in his car. Right. Right.

But by David's account, after getting ice cream and meeting the state trooper at Eagley Park, he and Sabrina drove to West Erie Plaza, where there was a movie theater. And David claimed to have dropped Sabrina off with $10 cash so that she could get herself a ticket to go see Lilo and Stitch, and then he drove her home, which is like one of the weirdest...

I think in this case, it's like he's saying they didn't even see the movie. She didn't see it just that he bought her a ticket. Yeah. But also the fact that he is saying he bought her a ticket is interesting as well. Uh,

Because why would you be buying your friend's girlfriend a movie ticket? Like it maybe shows some intention on his part. Especially, you know, considering the fact that we know that Chris was going to donate plasma so that he himself could buy movie tickets for he and his girlfriend. But despite David's explanation, no one who worked at that movie theater was ever able to confirm that Sabrina had ever arrived there or bought a ticket.

Though following Sabrina's alleged drop-off, two unconfirmed sightings of Sabrina and David were reported. One was on Old Albion Road in Springfield Township, which is about 10 minutes south of where Tasty Twist Ice Cream is located. And then the other is a witness who claims to have seen Sabrina alone at the Elk Creek Access Area along Lake Erie, which is a local favorite spot for like fishing and boating.

It also happens to be just five minutes away from the center of Lake City. Again, this is where David lives.

Now, it's unclear how Sabrina would have gotten there or why she would have been there in the first place. And David's whereabouts were also unaccounted for during that time. But like we always say, you know, you can't always like trust these witness sightings because a lot of the time they're they're not true. They're not true. They could be very faulty. So obviously take that with a grain of salt.

Now, additionally, there were multiple reports of David's car circling the vicinity of the movie theater after he claims to have dropped Sabrina off. But none of these sightings mention anyone having seen Sabrina in the car with him.

So this definitely could have been like an attempt to maybe establish an alibi, like by driving around hoping that somebody would see him in that vicinity of the movie theater. Yeah, and I'm sure that Sabrina talked about Lilo and Stitch that day to him since she really wanted to see it. So it could have been like a fresh excuse on his mind. Well, Captain James Skindle of the Erie Police Department maintains, quote,

So they're saying he's lying. Yep. Well, although they were hitting somewhat of a dead end with David, who remained their most viable person of interest, obviously, police wasted no time speaking to anybody else who may have seen or spoken to her that day.

Extensive searches were conducted in the woods along the shores of Lake Erie and Western Erie County, as well as the many dozens of creeks and bodies of water in the county in general, because this is such a rural area. Like I said, lots of lush greenery, lots of bodies of water, lots of woodland. Searches were conducted both on foot and by plane, and Erie Chief of Police Charles Bowers recorded

requested that anyone in Erie County or neighboring Ashtabula County take extra care to stroll their property in case Sabrina's remains or any sign of her turned up because that's what they were thinking off the bat, that something awful had happened to her.

But there wasn't any sign of her at all. And David was not offering up any more help in the case at all either. Which is really frustrating because if you didn't do anything to her, then explain what you did. But the fact that police are essentially saying...

What he said wasn't true. There was no evidence or there's no sign at all that she was at the movie theater. And we do not believe that she was at the movie theater means that David is not being truthful. And so, you know, obviously he's not going to give us more information, but it's like, he's like keeping it locked in his brain and,

And everybody is trying so hard to find the answers. And he's just like, no. Well, what really pisses me off about this case is the fact that he claims that he dropped her off at home. There was no witness sightings of this. There's no account of her ever walking through her front door. And I will say that this is kind of teetering in that area in the early 2000s where we're starting to get a lot more like CCTV footage and things like that at local businesses.

But unfortunately, and I'm sure police did their due diligence to check this movie theater to see if there were cameras. But as far as we know, they did not see Sabrina on any cameras. And we don't even know if there were cameras. No, exactly. And that's why I think it's interesting that her neighbor had seen Sabrina being picked up by David. Because, yeah, like you're saying, nobody saw them being dropped off and maybe nobody was looking outside at that moment. But.

I don't believe at all that she was dropped off. And I will post a street view so you guys can see, like I said, it's a suburban area. There's tons of houses. So there, there are a lot of people. It's a block from the beach. It's a populous area. So I think he's very suspicious here. I mean, that's like a very alarming part of this story to me is the fact that people did see them leave together, but didn't see them coming back together. And,

And because nobody had seen anything, the months passed and when the weather turned colder again as summer left, Chief Bowers asked deer hunters to look out for evidence as well, but no one ever reported seeing her or any sign of her. By October, the FBI had joined the search and alongside the Erie Police Department and Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers, offered a $5,000 reward for any information.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission joined the search efforts as well, checking the shores of Lake Erie and beyond. Like I said, lots of bodies of water here. And the FBI sent a profiler from Washington, D.C., to attempt to hone in on a suspect, despite having no evidence to go off of whatsoever.

Captain James Skindle insisted to the public that the investigation had not slowed, saying, quote, nothing's closed. As far as not hearing something one way or another or finding something, it's fairly unusual. But we're still talking to people. It may be quiet on the street, but it's not quiet in here.

But despite the best efforts of local police forces and Sabrina's community, no strides were being made in solving her bizarre and sudden disappearance.

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So obviously we know that there's not really any strides being made in Sabrina's case. And meanwhile, adding to David's ever-increasing rap sheet were charges that he faced from his altercation with his ex-girlfriend Ashley the day before Sabrina's disappearance.

Now, Ashley alleged that he had tried to drag her into his truck and also just yelled a bunch of insults at her, including calling her a slut. Which just makes the fact that he refused to see detectives in person all the more suspicious because he's a violent guy and he's also a sick son of a bitch, as we will get into. Yeah, he's definitely a piece of shit. And he didn't even hide that side of him in the shadows because...

In addition to Ashley Peters, the witnesses included Karen Chase, James Wilson, James Chase, and Tim Ross, who all alleged that they had been present while David tried to mow them down with his truck. And the state trooper who reported to the scene spotted tire tracks in the grass of the front yard to prove this story.

Also, David maintained a steady stream of criminal charges. His infractions stretching back before Sabrina disappeared, as well as continuing after.

On March 8th of 2001, so over a year before she went missing, David, who was 25 at the time, was arrested on six charges of indecent exposure to minors, though they later were dismissed. So this guy is not only like a violent asshole, he's also a pedophile. Because his charges included two counts of indecent assault of a person under 16 years of age,

two counts of indecent exposure, and two counts of corruption of a minor. On December 21st, 2001, so six months before Sabrina vanished, he was arrested on multiple counts of burglary as well.

Then, in May of 2002, he was arrested on two counts of theft by deception and two additional counts of writing bad checks. Just all sorts of crimes. Yeah, he's just all over the place. And here's a few more for you guys. So, on June 3rd of 2002, three weeks before Sabrina disappeared, he was arrested on charges of theft by deception and giving a false impression.

For his confrontation with his ex-girlfriend Ashley and her crew on the day of Sabrina's disappearance, he was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment, and he did plead guilty to both of these charges.

During his court proceedings, 26 year old David through his defense lawyer complained that he would not see impartial ruling from the jury due to this preconceived notion in the community that he obviously had something to do with Sabrina's disappearance. So this defense lawyer is essentially saying, well,

Well, it's not going to be fair for David because everybody already is pointing fingers at him. They already think that he's the guy responsible for the disappearance of a 20-year-old girl. Then give us reason to think you're not involved. But I mean, come on. This guy has, you know, like we said, his rap sheet is long.

So it's not like he's a saint and like people are unnecessarily pointing fingers at David. No, he's a bad guy and he did all these other things. Yeah, this is actually what his attorney, Anthony Logue, said. Obviously,

Obviously, the concern is that he will receive a fair trial so that when it comes time to hear the evidence, he has the opportunity any other person coming before the court system would to be looked at individually with no speculation about any other matter.

In a statement, Anthony also wrote, quote,

due to the extensive publicity. There has been extensive, inflammatory, sensational, and highly inculpatory publicity about this missing woman and her connection to the defendant. The news reports have stressed the defendant's alleged connections to the woman and has cited his prior criminal record. But ultimately, David was found guilty of conspiracy, burglary, and receiving stolen property.

For the charges he faced from the confrontation with Ashley, David was arrested and held in the Erie County Jail starting on June 30, 2002, six days after Sabrina vanished, with police really just trying to scramble to prove that he had likely murdered Sabrina, but having no luck.

And though he could not yet be connected to Sabrina's disappearance, he could be arrested for violating the terms of his parole for his burglary charges, for which he also served jail time. Welp, in 2008, his legal woes continued, and David was charged with insurance fraud after getting into a car accident without having insurance. This is what's kind of funny, is that he's like, well, I mean, obviously he deserves a fair trial, everybody does,

But to say all this stuff like, oh, just because you think I did this doesn't mean I did other things. And years later, you're still doing shit. Like you're still just ripping everybody off. Yeah, absolutely. So basically how this whole like interaction went is that he called his former insurance company to reinstate his policy and about an hour later called in to report that he had conveniently just gotten into an accident. So he's obviously a bit of a scammer as well.

David has since left Pennsylvania and spent time in Arizona, Indiana, and finally settled in Ohio, where it's believed that he resides today. But I will say that I did see some stuff about how he may possibly be living in Indiana right now in 2025. But sadly, Sabrina's case slowed to a standstill, especially without the cooperation of the only person of interest.

Police even announced that they feared the worst in the case of her disappearance, with Captain Skindle admitting, quote, "We think, and everyone has led us to believe, that if she was just missing, she would have called home or made some attempt to get in touch with her family." Erie County District Attorney Brad Folk echoed this by saying, quote, "It's very frustrating. I can empathize with the missing girl's family. She's never been out of contact with family members for more than a half a day."

He maintained that officers followed up on each and every tip that they received, but that most, if not all, sightings that were reported of her were likely not Sabrina. However, he did admit that at one point during the course of the investigation, a car that was believed to hold relevant information pertaining to the case was searched for about eight hours, though the identity of the owner of the vehicle was not announced.

Brad assured the public, quote, we have the best of the best working on this case. Well, supposedly Sabrina's boyfriend, Chris Lee, has also been convicted of assault, although we don't know the details on that. And locals have pointed fingers at him for being unconcerned about Sabrina's sudden disappearance. But this might just be people thinking.

you know, honestly, sometimes people are overly aggressive when they want justice and they do things wrong, you know, like they point at the wrong people and they get upset at somebody who's actually involved in this, who's actually a part of her life and may not be involved. Yeah. And also, you know, with cases like this where there's not a lot of information, obviously speculation is going to run rampant. So that, that obviously happens. And it seemed like the town really did care about figuring out what happened to Sabrina and,

But I will say, you know, like David, Chris has served time for criminal charges.

But both Ashley and Chris were questioned by police very early on and don't seem to be suspected of involvement, though police have declined to speak officially about this as the case is still in motion. And even with the case being in motion, it just didn't feel like nearly enough was being done. So in December of 2002, six months after Sabrina was last seen, her family was just growing desperate

understandably impatient at the lack of information. And Susan glumly told a reporter that she planned to work on Christmas to keep her mind off of spending her first ever Christmas away from her daughter. Ahead of the holidays, Susan told a reporter sadly, quote, "'It's rough, rough, really rough not knowing. "'It will be six months Christmas Eve, "'and that's really heavy.'"

Richard agreed, saying, quote, we're waiting for her to walk through that door. And they were just remaining as hopeful as they could that she would be found alive like any parent would. But it was hard to imagine that she was. I mean, she loved her family. Heath, you just read that quote about how it, you know, she never went a day without

or even half a day without talking to her family. And obviously she still lived with her mom. She was very embedded in her mother and her family's lives. So her willingly leaving was totally off the table. And then in 2005, so three years after her disappearance, law enforcement received a tip about a possible location of Sabrina's remains.

Detectives teamed up with the students from the forensic department of local Mercyhurst University to search a parcel of undeveloped land in Mill Creek Township, which is in Erie County. It's right next to where she disappeared. But like all the other areas of focus, the land was scoured to no avail. So why this tip came in, why somebody thought or knew her remains were there has not been released.

Though police ensured to enter her DNA in the national database in case her remains are found. And then on top of this, multiple age-progressed images were released online in the off chance that she's still out there alive. Erie Police Detective Sergeant Barry Snyder said with frustration, quote, We followed up on everything we received, but nothing panned out.

Every time we had followed up on things, everything came back to a dead end and back to that afternoon. Resignedly, Sabrina's brother Stephen admitted, quote, Not knowing exactly what happened is worse than actually finding that she, it would be easier to know that she's dead and we could put it to rest and we could really grieve.

Though Sabrina's family seemed to make their peace with the fact that Sabrina was most likely not coming home, the not knowing remained the hardest part.

Two years after she vanished, her family held a memorial service in her honor, and by 2009, Susan decided that she wanted to put an official end to the unknown and petitioned to have her daughter legally declared dead. Believing that to be the case, that someone, possibly David, did something horrific to her and concealed it.

Susan explained, quote, But that really didn't settle her desperate need for answers, of course. At the 10-year mark since having seen her daughter, she said, quote,

Stephen agreed with this sentiment, saying, quote, That same year, 10 years since Sabrina disappeared, her sister Samantha wrote a passage about her for 18 Wheel Angels, which is a volunteer-based missing persons organization. Still pleading for answers and hoping to raise awareness, Samantha wrote, quote,

My sister Sabrina, Bree as we called her, was special from the time she was born. She has some difficulty breathing and stopped on several occasions needing to be resuscitated, which caused a lack of oxygen to the brain, which in turn caused some mental delays in development. So Bree, who disappeared four days after her 20th birthday, was mentally only about 14 to 16 years of age.

Sabrina was very trusting and naive, even with people she barely knew. It's been just over seven years since she's been gone. On the day that she disappeared, she left to go swimming with her boyfriend's friend. He picked her up in his Ford Bronco, and that was the last that anyone saw of her. We have no further evidence in the case, which is cold. We have no body and no closure. Brie was wearing a bathing suit, shorts, and gym shoes.

Her dark blonde hair had been cut short just a few months before she disappeared, but before was long and to her waist. She had pierced ears and also had braces. Her blue eyes were so bright and full of life, and I'm afraid that this man has taken that away from her, but we have no proof. Sabrina would have called by now. She would have certainly contacted my mother or brother Scott. Please help us find her in any way that you can."

In 2023, the cold case investigator for the Erie Police Department, Detective Sergeant Craig Stoker, presented the case to the famed VDoc Society.

Based in Sabrina's native Pennsylvania, the VDOC Society is an organization made up of forensic experts and former investigators in hopes of shedding light on her case. But sadly, the consensus is that it is highly likely that Sabrina did not survive the day she disappeared and is still concealed among the woods in Eagley Park, somehow unable to be found.

June 24th of this year will mark 23 years since Sabrina has been seen, and she would be 43 this year. There is still a $5,000 reward for information being offered, and her family remains desperate to know what she endured and where she is. David remains the only person of interest in her sudden disappearance as far as the public is concerned.

Sabrina Kaler was 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed around 130 pounds. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a two-piece bathing suit, including either a pink or a red top, along with blue shorts and blue and white sneakers. She had dark blonde hair and blue eyes. She had braces on her teeth at the time, and one of her ears was pierced.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Sabrina Kaler, please call the Erie Police Department at 814-870-1125 or text ERIEPD to 847-411.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. As I alluded to in the beginning of this episode, this is a call to action. So please make sure that you share this story, share this episode. I know it has been a long time since I've done this.

since Sabrina disappeared, but her family is desperate for answers. Also, we made a missing persons flyer. So please share that on your socials. You can find us on Instagram at Going West Podcast. And we're also on Facebook. A share can make a huge difference, especially if you live in the Midwest or if you live in Pennsylvania. So please do so. Thank you guys so much for listening to this case. And also another big shout out to Shannon for recommending it.

Yes, thank you so much, Shannon. Also, stay tuned. We have a major announcement coming up in a couple weeks, and we really are trying to just hype it up because I think you guys are going to be really excited. It's something that we've never done before, so stay tuned for that. We can't wait. Thank you guys so much, and we'll see you on Friday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪

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