April Geyer and Roseanna Forcum
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It would be nice to have answers. At this point, they've been living life for 26 years after having potentially murdered someone. They've been living free this whole time. We find them. I imagine we're going to know how they got there.

I know I've met with the police before and they had three big three ring binders just full of case files. They have been investigating. I imagine they have some idea, but sometimes without evidence.

This case has not at all gotten the attention it deserves. I'm really glad that more recently more is being brought to it, but I do feel a ball was dropped. For two girls, two people in general, to be able to disappear that long, and there's absolutely nothing. They've quite literally vanished. That would be pretty difficult to pull off with them being as young. And at this point, I think foul play is suspected.

It was a couple of years before there was really any tiny bit of lead as far as what could have happened to the girls. Throughout the last 26 years, very, very little effort was really put into trying to find them or trying to find out what happened. I think more has been done in just the last year than the whole 26 years.

The summer of 1998 was coming to a close when two young women disappeared from the St. Cloud area of Minnesota. April Geyer was 21 years old at the time, and Rosanna Forkham was just 15. The two young women had run in the same crowd and had known one another for only a period of months, but it wasn't immediately apparent that the girls had disappeared together.

In 1998, we were nearing the very end of that era when most people didn't yet have cell phones. You had to wait until you got to your destination or found a payphone to call home and let your parents know what you were up to and when you would be home. As April and Rosanna's families were independently searching for them, they eventually came to realize that they weren't alone.

Two years later, an informant came forward with information that placed April and Rose together when they disappeared. He even identified a suspect that he claimed was their killer and said that he helped this man bury their bodies. Despite extensive searches, the girls have never been found. Now, 26 years later, their families are determined to bring their stories back into the light, hoping to finally uncover the truth. I'm Marissa, and from Wondery, this is episode 464 of The Vanished.

April Geyer and Rosanna Forkham's stories.

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Earlier this year, a local resident named Sydney reached out to us. She asked if we would cover April and Rose. Sydney had taken an interest in their case and felt that bringing attention to their stories might be what could finally crack this decades-old cold case.

Here's some of what Sydney said when she sent over a case submission form. I'm reaching out to request that you cover the case of Rosanna Forkham and April Geyer, two girls that went missing together in Minnesota back in 1998. Their case has been tragically undercovered, and I'm in regular contact with both of the girls' family members, both who have never stopped desperately searching for answers. April was 21, and Rosanna was 15 years old.

Local law enforcement never took the case seriously until an informant came forward with some information in 2000. They reported the girls as runaways and made sure to mention their flaws, such as running into trouble with school delinquency. These girls were so much more than that, and both experienced such tragedy in the year prior to their disappearance. Thankfully, an investigator with our state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has been assigned to review a number of cold cases, this one included.

I actually met him early last month and went through all the information I had, including conversations with the girls' friends from that time period. We are both cautiously optimistic because we know the answers are out there, but we're pretty much reliant upon someone coming forward to confirm details. Some reports say they were last seen in St. Paul, Minnesota, and others say St. Cloud. There are no confirmed sightings of the girls just prior to their disappearance in St. Paul. However,

However, this is likely the place that they were prior to their disappearance and presumed death. April Geyer is indigenous, and I think this played into the lack of coverage and concern by local authorities at the time. When we spoke to Sydney, she told us more about how she became interested in Rose and April's unsolved case.

First of all, I'm a local, so I was familiar with the case and kind of missing person cases. It's just stuff I really enjoy kind of looking into in my free time. And so when I was first learning about Rosanna and April's case, one of the things that really frustrated me was that, number one, of course, the lack of information out there. But then secondly, the lack of information out there.

there weren't two articles that had the same date they were last seen or from where they disappeared from. And so it kind of started where I joined the Facebook group that Rosanna's father had created. Once in a while, I would ask him a question. Since then, it's just we've spoken more regularly. Then April's family fairly recently had discovered the Facebook group that Rosanna's dad started.

from there, I've been able to connect with a bunch of those family members. And when John shared some of these documents with me, you know, in his emails, he also had his writings, and they're just heartbreaking. This situation really just completely shattered him. I can feel the helplessness and hopelessness that he felt. I do believe this is a case that can receive closure. I think we

We really need people to come forward with what they know. Both families have been really grieving and struggling since this affected the whole course of all of their lives.

As promised, Sydney got us in touch with family members and friends, and we started digging into this cold case. When April and Rose vanished during the summer of 1998, they were quickly labeled as troubled young women who had likely run away from their lives. Their faces weren't plastered across billboards, and their names didn't dominate local headlines. While it's true that they enjoyed attending parties during the carefree summer months, they always returned home and kept in contact with family and friends.

That narrative that they simply skipped town took on a life of its own, and their families have been frustrated by that for more than two decades. A quick search of their names reveals troubling claims, such as suggestions that Rose intended to flee to California, though no one we spoke to even has a clue where that story originated.

It's been stated that the girls frequently disappeared together for long periods, a notion both families strongly deny. Those online portrayals shape the public perception of Rose and April, influencing assumptions about what may have happened to them. In order for us to get closer to the truth, we're going to start at the beginning and delve into the lives of Rose and April. In the summer of 1998, 15-year-old Rose was living in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where

with her father John and younger sister Jamie. Here's Jamie.

We grew up in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She was funny and outgoing and nice and helpful and just anything a big sister, you think a big sister would be. Growing up, we definitely hung out and did things together, ride bikes, play at the park. I was 12 years old when she went missing and I'm now 38. Life has changed and memories fade.

We also spoke to Rose's best friend, Angela. Angela actually knew both Rose and April, but she knew Rose much longer, and she said that she and Rose had a very tight bond. Rose was my best friend. We went to school together, but we actually lived in the same neighborhood. We met through a mutual friend. Rose is a year younger than I am. I think I was 14 then. She's really quiet and laid back.

Definitely not how they portrayed her in the newspaper articles. That's for sure. They made her sound like she was a delinquent, but she really wasn't. She's a real go with the flow type of person. She didn't cause any drama or any conflict. She didn't have any enemies. She was fun to hang out with, funny. And she kept to herself unless she was with her friends. Somebody who didn't know her would think she was a really quiet person. But once you were friends with her and we had so much fun hanging out, she wasn't obnoxious or loud or anything like that.

Before all of this, the relationship between Rose's parents had ended, and Rose's mother moved away from Minnesota, which was likely something that Rose struggled with to an extent. But Angela said Rose didn't let that show, and Angela believes that may have been partially due to the fact that Rose was especially close with her father, John.

I never met her mom. Her mom had already left before Rose and I became friends, but it wasn't such a huge, devastating ordeal, I would say. Her dad is a single dad. Her dad is a great dad. He loves his kids more than anything. Her relationship with her dad was really, really good. I mean, all teenagers argue with their parents, but Rose and John had a really good relationship.

He worked. He was a single dad. And he did what he had to do to support his daughters and put food on the table and pay the bills. But it's not like he was not at home with them. He worked during the day, and then he was with them during the evenings and nights. If he wasn't at work, he was at home. Now we're going to shift a little and learn about April's life. We spoke to April's mom, Gloria, who told us about her daughter's strengths and also about the challenges she faced throughout her life.

She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and we moved to the area now where I live and have been living for the past 20-some years. We moved to this area when she was nine years old. She had two older sisters. She started and went to school here. She was an outgoing, strong-willed young lady.

She made friends easily. When she got a little older, she battled depression. She was determined to overcome those obstacles that prevented her from obtaining her goals in life.

She had a great interest in becoming a lawyer, and I know she could achieve that goal because she was smart and intelligent. Her interest also included being a storm chaser because she was so fearless and loved to be outdoors during the horrendous storms, even to a point where I had to go bring her in and tell her to get out of the weather and come into the house.

When we first moved here,

I remember her as a little girl, and when we would drive through town, her eyes would just light up when she saw the school, and she'd say, that's my school. Later on, when she started going to school, that light went out of her eyes because she is Native American. She dealt with some prejudice in the school with the children. I think it just kind of crushed her soul.

As she got into her teens, it became even worse. She had friends, people who didn't think that way.

And as you know, when kids get into their teens, it's a whole different story. She had a child when she was 15. She did attend school after that. I took over raising the little boy, and then she got into a crowd that was not so great.

When April had her son, she wasn't ready to become a parent, so Gloria took over caring for him. She hoped that April would mature and eventually become a stable parent for her son, but she disappeared before that ever came to fruition. We also spoke to April's niece, Elena, who was just a child when her aunt went missing, but told us what she can recall of her aunt April.

The last time I saw her was in 1998, but it was a few months prior to her disappearance, early spring. Her son, Brett, was six and I was 10. We didn't really see her all that often. I mean, come hang out with my mom and they would do the things that young girls do, like party. And it's hard to describe from a child's point of view. She's always been very tough.

Anybody that knows her, that's what they're going to say about her. She was a tough girl and she wasn't scared of nobody. A year prior to April and Rose disappearing, tragedy struck April's world and her family said that she was never the same after that.

She was living with a significant other in 1997, and unfortunately, he ended up drowning in a horrific accident. After that, I think his death really took a toll on her. She really loved him. And after that, I think she just kind of was going wherever life took her. So she was staying with friends here. She was staying with friends there.

I mean, she had an apartment. Her son was going to visit her and she was doing good. And then that happened and it changed everything. After that, she just wasn't the same. Even my mom, when she was alive, she said the same thing.

There was a significant age gap between April, who was 21, and Rose, who was just 15. There's usually a big jump in maturity between the ages of 15 and 21. So we wondered how the two met and became friends. Elena said that she had always questioned that as well.

I wondered about that too for a long time. And then it kind of came out how they became friends. They met because April was dating this guy. One of Rose's friends was dating his roommate.

This friend who had connected April and Rose is Angela. Angela has carried guilt and regret over this for the past 26 years. She often wonders if she had never introduced Rose and April, if either of them would be missing today. It's one of those lingering what-if questions that haunts Angela.

So I'm actually the person that introduced the two of them, unfortunately, which is, I hate to say that, but true. So I ended up starting to date this guy named Norman. He ended up moving into an apartment with this guy, Richard and Richard and April were kind of dating. That's how I met April. And then Rose being my best friend, she would come around and that's how they ended up meeting.

A significant event in Angela's life altered the dynamics of her friendship with Rose. Angela learned that she was pregnant. As she prepared to become a young mother, Angela found herself spending less time with friends, which in turn brought Rose closer to April. While Angela struggles to pinpoint the exact moment she introduced Rose to April, her pregnancy serves as a key milestone, helping to frame the timeline of their friendship.

I ended up pregnant. I got pregnant in February, but I didn't find out until April of 1998. She was born in November of 98. And when I found out that I was pregnant, I actually went and had my pregnancy test. All three of us were together and went and got my test. And that's when I found out I was pregnant. And that was April, I believe, somewhere around there. But I cannot remember exactly because it was 26 years ago.

Sidney believes that since the girls both had major life events in the year prior, that perhaps they bonded over their struggles.

The year before they both disappeared was actually super traumatic for both of them. Rose's mother left the family. April, she had a kind of long-term boyfriend who ended up tragically drowning. And so that was what her family members have described as the start of her downfall. So I think part of what brought them together was kind of that shared struggle.

Angela was candid about her feelings toward April in 1998, expressing that she wasn't particularly fond of her and didn't view her as a positive influence on Rose's life. However, with time and maturity, Angela has come to understand April's struggles, recognizing that the challenges April faced likely contributed to the behaviors that Angela once found off-putting.

I didn't like April. April was cocky and loud-mouthed, and she would just look for trouble. If something looked like a bad idea, April was all over it. I do know that not long before I met her, she did have a boyfriend or a fiancé or something die, and I remember she was upset about it. I do remember her telling me about him once or twice back then. That could probably be a big reason why she was the way she was. I feel a little bad about it.

I feel like I bad-mouthed April, not that I'm trying to bad-mouth her. I don't know what April was going through at the time. April was not in a very good mindset. I did not know April for very long, and I did not know her very well. So I know already damaged April, who was upset because her boyfriend passed away. That probably played a part in what happened with the girls.

But Rose and April, the two of them together is just, you wouldn't think that two people like that would really be friends. But she said she was into witchcraft type stuff, reading tarot cards, and that fascinated Rose. And so that's ultimately what got them talking to each other and spending time together is because April was going to teach Rose how to read tarot cards. Rose and I were almost inseparable. But when I got pregnant, I mean, I couldn't go and hang out all the time and do whatever I wanted. We still talked to each other and we still hung out quite a bit.

But then when I started getting farther along, we started hanging out less and less, but we would still talk to each other. I still talked to her almost every day up until August when they disappeared. At just 12 years old, Jamie viewed Rose as a typical teenager. Given their age difference, Rose likely didn't confide in Jamie about everything she was up to and may not have wanted her younger sister tagging along. As a result, Jamie has no memories of ever meeting April or hearing Rose mention her.

Summer was coming to a close, so getting ready to have to go back to school and stuff. Anything a normal 15-year-old would do, hanging out with friends, going to the park, going places with friends, just hanging out, chilling, being a 15-year-old, enjoying summer. I guess personally, I don't remember meeting April at all, and I'm not sure how long they knew each other. I don't think that they were friends for very long.

I mean, again, I'm 12, she's 15. I become the annoying little sister at that point. So I'm really not hanging with her and her friends. She had a lot of friends. She was very social. So for me not to know one of her friends, it wouldn't be completely out of the question.

During this period in April's life, she would often come and go from her mom's home in Malacca, Minnesota, located roughly 30 miles northeast of St. Cloud. If April didn't visit, she would at least call. When it had been a while since Gloria had heard from April, her concerns grew, prompting her to reach out to April's friends to see if they had seen her recently.

I think she was going from friend to friend. She was not living at home at the time. She was staying with friends in St. Cloud. She did call and come out and visit. And when she had not contacted me, I think for like a week and a half, two weeks, then I became concerned and I started looking for her. In

Jamie recalls that Rose left home sometime around mid-August, and she simply assumed that her sister would return, as she always had in the past.

She left, I remember, in the middle of August, somewhere around August 12th. Just any other day, going out to hang out with friends. Oh, see you later. Yep. Okay. Bye. Have a good day. And that was the last, you know, we had saw or heard from her. If she was going to spend the night somewhere, she would call my dad and let him know this is where I'll be. But we hadn't heard from her after that.

Although Angela wasn't spending as much time with Rose due to her pregnancy, they still saw each other and spoke frequently. When Angela noticed a sudden silence from Rose, she sensed that something was wrong.

When Rosa hadn't heard from her for one week, I knew something was up because she would call me every couple of days just to say hi and kind of check in. I started thinking that something was up that first week, but I knew something was up about two weeks after when I still hadn't heard from her and her dad hadn't heard from her. And I was probably the first person that he called to see if I had talked to her.

Given Jamie's young age, her dad kept her in the dark about many details as the events unfolded. While he focused on searching for Rose, he also worked to maintain a sense of stability for Jamie. As a result, she only has fragmented memories from that time.

Being 12 myself, I was shielded from the reality of it more so and also hopes that we would find her. I remember my dad taking me out of school just so we could be together. And I think he needed some support too. And we were just trying to kind of figure out what we could do because we

without any hard evidence. It's hard to know how to feel. You don't know what happened. You're just kind of stuck there in limbo. Gloria knew that April and Rose were friends, but she was unaware that Rose was also missing or that the two might have disappeared together. As she went down the list of April's friends to reach out to, she made her way to Rose's phone number and discovered that Rose was missing as well.

Eventually, I did call there, not knowing that she was missing also. When I called, I was looking for April, and that's when I was told that Rose was missing also, which was probably about the same time I started looking, about two weeks after I didn't hear from her.

When Angela found out that no one could locate April, she assumed that the two girls had disappeared together. However, the police never approached her with questions at the time, and she wasn't given many details about the situation as things were unfolding. I guess when nobody had heard from April, I didn't know how to get a hold of April. Her and I weren't that friends, friends. Her and I didn't see eye to eye. But I guess I just kind of assumed that nobody had heard from Rose that Rose was with April. Nobody had heard from April either.

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Angela has always felt that Rose was unjustly labeled as a troubled teen when she first went missing. While it's true that Rose faced some issues with truancy due to the fact that she frequently arrived late to school, she wasn't involved in serious trouble. Angela believes this negative portrayal hindered the investigation from the beginning and shaped the community's perception, leading to a lack of care and concern for the girl's disappearance.

I've been asked if Rose wasn't hanging out with me or out with April, where else would she be? And I would tell everybody she would be at home. Rose liked to be at home. Sometimes she didn't even really like hanging out because she just wanted to be at home. We would just go and sit in her room and watch TV or listen to music. She's a homebody. Not to say that we didn't go out and, you know, and have fun because we did, but we

But ultimately, we like to be at home. So it's not like she would have just taken off because I think that at first they were thinking that maybe she just had run away. But I knew that that was not the case. The one news article that came out about it back then

They were just talking about basically how much of a delinquent Rose was. We were teenagers. Teenagers don't like to wake up in the morning. You don't get up early in the morning to catch their bus to go to school. You don't go to school. You get truancy. They send you to St. Croix camp or Chisholm Hall for your punishment. It's not like she was in and out of juvenile facilities, did not have any criminal charges or anything like that. I was in the same situation.

I didn't have to go to St. Croix camp. I went up to Chisholm Hall, St. Duluth. She didn't get in trouble in school. A 15-year-old girl from St. Claude in 1998, you know, with a single dad who they portray as a juvenile delinquent in the papers. I mean, she's a child. Something has happened. I think that that just puts a lot of people off. As much as you hate to admit it, people hear of some delinquent that went missing. It doesn't spark as much concern and

That could be part of why so little was done. Everything that they wrote in that article about Rose was completely unnecessary except for the fact that she went missing approximately the last time that she was seen, where she may have been seen last, everything else they could have done without. Nobody needed to know that she had truancy or that her dad is a single dad who works as a janitor. That is all irrelevant. I think they might have even said that she had run away or something in the article. And I don't remember Rose ever having run away.

or even why she would have run away. Looking back, Jamie feels a sense of frustration when she thinks about this aspect of how the case was handled. She believes her sister had no reason to run away.

originally it was stated, oh, she's a runaway. So then just people just look at you differently. And it's like, no, she is a missing person. There was nothing for her to run away from. She had a home, had a room. She had just got a brand new guitar. She was learning how to play that. She had no reason to not want to come home. So it's not a scenario where she had run away because she was mad or something like that. It wasn't like that at all. But

But even still, if it is, those people still deserve to be found. But that was just kind of the attitude taken then. They're a child still. They had a life too, you know, and they had families and their families deserve to know what happened to them. Gloria thought that the disappearance of two young women together would be a significant news story. So she was baffled when it didn't receive the attention she expected.

At the time, too, I put out flyers, put them here and there and everywhere. Being that there was two girls missing and there was two other girls that went missing years back, so I thought, they're really going to take an interest in this. At the time that they went missing, I was at my wit's end. I didn't know what to do. And when the BCA got involved, they

They never said, well, we should have a news story with one of the newspapers and get their picture out there. No, they never said that. Elena noted that from the very start, there were scattered reports of sightings of the girls at various parties, but the accounts were inconsistent and varied widely.

There are several people that have said that they have seen them, they had partied with them. Apparently, they had gone to several different parties. They had gone to one in St. Cloud around the time that they supposedly disappeared. In this information I got from the Malacca Police Department, where they said that they were seen in St. Paul.

One challenge in this case was that Rose and April were reported missing in two different jurisdictions. Consequently, two separate law enforcement agencies were handling these cases independently, unaware of the connection between them. Eventually, they did discover the link, and Jamie recalls investigators informing her father about it.

We really didn't know where she had gone. Hadn't heard much of anything that I'm aware of. So it was over a whole year plus later, because it wasn't until 2000 that the police had brought my dad into the station to kind of inform him what they thought might have happened or just the facts that they had at the time and advised him that they

They had reason to believe they had gone missing together. That's when we were told she had disappeared with April. They attended some party in St. Paul, and from there, the trail just kind of goes dead, for lack of better words.

Little was known about where April and Rose may have gone, or who they were with at the time they went missing. It felt as though the trail had gone cold. However, two years later, an informant emerged with new information. Gloria vividly recalls receiving that phone call in 2000 while she was at work, telling her to come down to the station. They had news to share with her.

We also got the DCA involved in St. Paul. I was at work, and I had been talking to this investigator, and he had called my work. My supervisor came and told me police was on the line and wanted to talk to me. So I went into one of the offices and talked to him, and he told me,

They wanted to have a meeting with Rose's father and me, that he had something to tell us. And at the time I asked him, is it bad? And he said, yes. So the next day we met in the same crowd. They did say they had an informant.

We were told then that the informant had told them that the girls were murdered, strangled, and were buried in a certain location. When we spoke to Sidney, she explained that while many suspected that April and Rose had likely disappeared together, there was a lack of solid evidence to confirm this until the informant came forward.

One of the kind of unique aspects about this case, initially when the two girls disappeared and they were both reported missing at different times. So there's some confusion with that, but it was really disregarded, which I think is just how that era was. But also law enforcement was like, OK, they're runaways. They'll be fine. They'll be back. So nothing was done on

on the case at all until an informant did end up coming forward. So for those two years, I don't think there was much communication with anyone. Unofficially, when they believe they disappeared together, I honestly do not think that it was even considered or looked into at all until the informant came forward and specifically brought forward information on both of them.

Because they were both reported missing, last seen different dates in both two different jurisdictions, there was no consideration of foul play or anything like that. It was really just two different runaways from different cities. A September 20, 2000 article in the St. Cloud Times titled Two Area Friends Feared Dead reported on the search efforts for April and Rose following the informant's admission. It said the informant knew when and where the women were killed.

and that he had helped the killer bury their bodies in Wadena, Minnesota. He claimed they were murdered in an apartment in St. Paul. Then their bodies were transported roughly 170 miles away to farmland in Wadena. An alleged burial site was excavated, but they didn't find April and Rose during their searches.

Elena said she's always been perplexed by this aspect of the case. Everyone had hoped that the informant's tip would provide answers and allow them to bring April and Rose home and seek justice. But instead, they were left with more questions than before.

And

And there's some people that were like, oh, they partied in Medina at one time. And then there's what the informant said that it happened in an apartment. So they could have drove all the way there. Nobody knows. When he took them out there, he told them everything. He showed them exactly where they did do a lot of searches. They had actually dug out so much that they supposedly altered the course of the river.

But they had still found nothing. But they did many searches. I've been told that he was very cooperative. He had given them every bit of information that they needed. But nothing has come up.

What initially seemed like a promising lead eventually fizzled out. By this point, two years had passed, and progress on the case appeared stagnant. Jamie, Elena, and Angela were still teenagers, and none of them were in the position to actively investigate this mystery. However, they all grew up longing for answers, and now, years later, they're revisiting their memories and comparing notes. When searching for information about Rose and April's disappearance, you'll encounter various dates mentioned—

Some sources cite August 10th, 12th, or the 14th as the day that they went missing. This has made it challenging to create a firm timeline. Elena explained that at just 10 years old, she wasn't fully aware of everything as it was happening in real time. But as she grew older, she began to ask questions about her missing aunt.

When I was a kid, they didn't really talk about this at all with us. We did know she had disappeared and we had a memorial for her. And that's about all we knew. Once I became an adult, that's when they actually finally told me everything. At the time of her disappearance, she was living in St. Cloud and she was kind of going back and forth. And I think that was mostly the area that she stayed in. But according to one

What I've been told, she was leaving where she was staying in August of 1998. So she was going somewhere else. They had this habit of just kind of doing what they wanted, but they would always call after and be like, hey, I'm okay. That never happened. She ended up reporting her missing, and then they found out that her and Rose were both together. And this is where that August 14th comes in. Somebody on August 14th had...

Had seen them. That's where that date comes from. Somebody saw them at Irvin's in St. Cloud. And then after that, nobody in that area knows much of anything. So I think that's where that they disappeared absolutely on that day came from.

For years, these earlier dates were widely believed to be accurate. However, Elena later discovered that April had been picked up and held in jail in mid-August. The whereabouts of Rose during this period remain unclear, leaving a crucial piece of the puzzle still missing today.

Back then, they had no idea of the fact that April had been in jail. People are saying on the 14th that they saw them, but by jail record, it's from the 13th to the 17th. And I'm not entirely sure that that date is even correct. So she had gotten picked up at some point. The thing is, I have no idea who picked her up.

As far as we know, she disappeared August 17th. That's the last time anybody had any contact. Just as we do with every case, we filed record requests. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the St. Cloud Police Department both rejected our requests, citing an active criminal investigation. The St. Paul Police Department released a single page to us. It listed an address and date in January 2000, which we believe is when the informant had come forward.

Without any records to go on, we continued piecing together this story, with the breadcrumbs of information that each person we spoke to carried with them. Siddhi had reached out to everyone she could and collected documents that family members had gathered over the years. She has reports indicating when April and Rose were officially reported missing, but there's a notable gap in the timeline. We know that families are often met with pushback,

when trying to report teens or young adults missing, especially decades ago, but it still happens even today. They're often told that their loved one is probably out with friends and will likely return, so it remains unclear whether the families attempted to report them missing sooner, and these records may only reflect the dates when law enforcement was willing to take action.

I have not been able to receive any FOIA documents or anything specifically from law enforcement. The documents that I have are

mostly stuff that Rosanna's father, John, had. And he has this big box and I drove up to their house and kind of scanned some of the documents. And he had copies of emails that divulged some information, but I don't have any copies of interviews or transcripts. They're mostly emails with law enforcement. Rose was reportedly last seen on August 12th.

She wasn't formally reported missing to the St. Cloud police until August 31st. So she was last seen by her father August 12th. And then April, we know that April was actually in the Stern County Jail in St. Cloud from August 13th to the 17th. And then it was shortly after that she was last seen, but there's not a confirmed death.

certain date on exactly when she was last seen, but then she wasn't reported missing until September 22nd. And that was to Milaca police. But it was a little bit more normal for her to go more extended periods of time, I think, without touching base with her mom and that sort of thing than it was for Rose. And so I think that's why the gap was shorter between when Rose was last seen and reported missing.

I'm not sure if they tried, you know, reporting them missing before then, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised by that. And if they were told, oh, they needed to wait, it's definitely possible.

At this point, it's believed that April and Rose disappeared sometime on the 17th or shortly thereafter. This raises yet another crucial question. Where did they go? The informant claimed they were killed in an apartment in St. Paul, nearly 80 miles away from St. Cloud. How and why were they in St. Paul? This is where Angela provides some important context. Just over a month before their August 1998 disappearances, April and Rose were

Angela had attended the Taste of Minnesota Festival in St. Paul with April and Rose.

Rose and I did still hang out through the summer in July, actually, when we went to the Taste of Minnesota. Rose and I went down to St. Paul because that's where April was with some guy, Walter, that she was dating at the time. And we went down to Walter's apartment and went and saw her. And then we met up later at the Taste of Minnesota. So we decided to go down there because my boyfriend at the time actually was working at one of the stands at the Taste of Minnesota. I know that

They were willing to go pretty much anywhere. I learned that firsthand that day. While at the festival, Angela recalls April meeting three men and introducing them to both Rose and herself. At the time, Angela was pregnant and just months away from her due date. She mentioned feeling a bad vibe from these men, describing the entire encounter as strange and unsettling.

So Rose and I were sitting on the Capitol steps. I'm not sure where April had went. And April comes walking up and she's got three guys with her. Just looking at them, you could just tell they were just no good. Like, I don't even know how else to describe it. And then April brought them up and introduced them to Rose and I and

As far as I know, she didn't know them before. She just found them at the Taste of Minnesota. I mean, I told you if something looks like a bad idea, April was all over it at that time. I think it's just she liked the excitement maybe. But we met the three guys, John, Ted, and Kip were their names. And they

they asked if we wanted to go to a party and I'm very pregnant at this time. Rose is like my little sister and I was very, very protective of her. And I did not think it was a good idea to go or be with these guys whatsoever. They just did not put off anything but bad vibes. Plus they're in their mid thirties, at least in their thirties. And so why they would want to be hanging out with, I mean, April is a little bit more understandable because she is 21, but we were a kid. We didn't look

old for our age or mature for age. We looked like teenage girls. April wanted to go to this party and Rose just kind of tagged along with April. That's basically kind of how things went. April would want to do something and Rose would just go along. Like I said, she was go with the flow. She was laid back. I was not going to let them go by herself. Well, Rose, I shouldn't say them. So I went with them and we ended up walking a couple of blocks. And then we went to this house and there was really no party. There was nobody there.

We sat outside in this gazebo type thing in the front yard for probably 10 or 15 minutes or so. And then we left and went back to the Taste of Minnesota. So I'm not sure whose house it was. We did not go in the house. We walked a couple blocks and I think we walked to one of them had a van and we walked and rode their van just for a few minutes. We didn't go very far from the Capitol. And then that's when we went to that house and then came back. It was no party, that's for sure. It was kind of a relief that there was no party, but

I know they say you shouldn't judge somebody by their appearance, but you just get a vibe from somebody when you meet them, how they portray themselves and how they carry themselves. Nothing about them seemed anything that anybody should be wanting to spend time with, let alone a 15-year-old, even a 21-year-old. When we were walking to the van to go to this alleged party that there was supposed to be,

Ted, he was walking right next to me. And like I said, you know, I'm very, very pregnant. And he kept trying to rub my stomach and asked me when I was having his baby and gross comments that he was making. Only a skis would do something like that. Only a creep. Everything about them, literally just screamed bad idea. Stay away. They have a like a white van with no windows somewhere. Actually, I think it was red. I don't remember for sure.

It was a work van. I'll never forget John or Ted's face, but Kip's face, I can't remember anymore. I just remember their names. Somebody that age wanting to hang out with a teenage girl, they're a creep. There is something going on and there's something wrong with them. It's not good. It's disgusting. Just inappropriate. Rose told me that she was still talking to him. John, I don't remember whether or not she'd actually physically seen him face to face, but I do know for a fact that she kept in contact

at least had conversations with him on the phone. She probably didn't tell me everything. I was kind of like a mother when she told me she was in contact with John. You know, I preached to her about how I, you know, it was a bad idea and that she shouldn't be talking to him. And she probably didn't want to hear that. I think it was actually the last time I saw her. We were at her dad's apartment and she was telling me about that she had kept in contact with John and that her and April had plans to go down to St. Paul and go and see him or see them. I mean, I think

April might have had something going on with Kip. I'm not 100% sure on that. That's kind of what I picked up. So it was kind of like a doubles thing. But still, like, John was not the type of guy I could have ever seen Rose with or had ever seen Rose with. So I mean, it was just really weird. And being 15 years old, if somebody in their mid 30s is ancient to you at that time, for her to keep in contact with him, and the only thing that she could really say was,

Oh, but he's really nice. And I remember telling her, of course, he's really nice. He's a pervert who wants to hang out with a 15-year-old girl. Of course, he's going to be nice to you. He's going to be nice to you until he gets what he wants from you. There's no way she could not have seen it because, I mean, anybody could have seen it. But I don't know what Rose and April were doing at that time, but Rose's state of mind and her whole thought process and everything was completely different than how it used to be.

Almost like she just threw out all common sense. That conversation I had with her is right before, within days. For many years, Angela carried the memory of meeting those men with April and Rose. Despite being Rose's best friend, investigators did not reach out to Angela in 1998. Angela has always felt that these men were somehow connected to what happened to the girls.

I knew right away. Immediately, I knew the feeling that I got from them and the vibe I got from them. The fact that Rose said that she had kept in contact. I've always known that they had to have played a part. That was one of the first things that I told the BCA. Investigators didn't come speak to Angela until after the informant came forward in 2000. Still, they didn't disclose the informant's identity, leaving Angela unable to make the connection at the time.

The BCA came and questioned me, 2000, 2001, I think it was. It was a while afterwards. They said all I knew was that an informant had gone to the police. I didn't know why, if he had been arrested, he was trying to make a deal. All I knew was that an informant had gone to the police and said he knew where the girls were buried and that he had helped bury them. That's all I knew right then. I had no idea anything about the guys, whether they were involved or who the informant was or...

any backstory or anything else. I did not even know that Kip was the informant until a few months ago, within the last couple of months. For Angela, learning this was a moment where it felt as if everything clicked into place all at once. Those creepy men with a van at Taste of Minnesota, whom she'd always suspected. It turned out that one was the informant and another was the alleged killer, though the third man was not implicated by the informant, at least as far as anyone that we spoke to is aware.

What if the informant's account is either false or only partially true? Sydney has spoken with the investigator on the case today and shared what she was able to confirm regarding the informant's claims.

So I had asked the BCA investigator and I was able to actually find all this information and stuff on my own. And he's like, no, it's okay to share all the information that you found. It's okay to say these names. The three guys were John, Ted, and Kip. Kip ends up being the informant. It was January of 2000 where Kip actually came forward. He said,

I have information on a double homicide that occurred back in St. Paul with some girls that were from up north. He didn't know their names, but he described April and Rose pretty perfectly. They ended up putting it together that, okay, he's talking about April Geyer and Rosanna Forgum, who had disappeared from up north. And what he said was that his friend named John had killed both girls, strangled them at an apartment in St. Paul, and

And that the two guys, so Kip and John, drove their bodies up north to an area not too far from St. Cloud, but in Wadena. It was like some rural farmland that I believe the informant had family that lived there. But they drove their bodies up there and ended up burying the girls. And he came forward with this information. And what he wanted in exchange was he was like, I need you to get my girlfriend away from this guy, John, because he's capable of hurting her. He's capable of killing her.

And in exchange, if you do that, I'll give you this information, which he did. He was there and saw this guy, John, kill and strangle both girls. They stripped them of their belongings and got in the car and drove up together, John and this informant Kip, to bury them. I have never found any type of documented motive that's been disclosed or even suspected at all. It says...

He witnessed his friend murder two teenage females in St. Paul in 1998. So I don't have any documentation of any type of motive, and I haven't come across any. John, Ted, and Kip, they were super close. All lived in St. Paul. I do not know for sure if Ted was at that apartment or not. It was reported that both John and Kip were there with both girls.

There were quite a few searches done and I know that he was also administered polygraphs. He led them out to the spot in Wadena. Two things. One is, so there's a second site that was reported to be like a burn pit where they burned the girls' belongings and that sort of thing. That he did correctly lead them to and they did find family confirmed belongings of the girls that were found charred up.

There was some metal left from like a purse and some from like jeans, you know, like the button and that sort of thing. And so they were able to identify the purse as belonging to Rose. So they found that. But the area where the bodies reportedly were, they weren't able to find. And what's really challenging is the area is extremely rural farmland, as far as you can see where the location is. There's a creek that essentially runs into the

the Leaf River. I know the informant had said that while they were trying to dig, the hole kept filling up with water. So then two years goes by and they're looking in this area. And so I think it could be a combination of things. I think it's possible that he doesn't quite remember the exact area where they are. But I do know also that the informant, a decade later, did lead law enforcement agents back to the exact same spot that he had led them previously.

I really do believe he's telling the truth, but searching is such a challenge and it really depends on water level and we get crazy winters up here. That's kind of a big holdup. There's some type of relationship. I believe it's actually with the informant Kip that had a relationship. Maybe it was extended family members, something like that. That person doesn't own it anymore. It is private property and at various points throughout time, they have gotten permission from

from the owner in order to be able to dig and do some searches. Sydney decided to dig into the backgrounds of each of these men, and what she learned was startling. When I was doing research and looking him up, I found there was an article out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida from 1984 where it lists him and another guy that murdered this guy, were charged with second-degree murder, and were held in Broward County Jail.

All three of the guys, but especially this John guy, he does have extensive history of substance abuse and that sort of thing, as well as mental illness. But his criminal history is pages and pages long. And most of it comes back to quite a bit of assaults. He has passed charges for weapon possession, disorderly conduct, trespassing. So yeah, he does have history of violence. There's also another report where he was arresting

arrested and charged with assault. He went and basically beat his upstairs neighbor in this apartment building, beat him with a brick. And the victim in that case actually said he's a killer, referencing his past, I think, with this incident in Florida where he was charged with a second degree murder. And I haven't been able to find any follow up on that specific incident in terms of what ended up happening. But he absolutely has a pretty violent history.

After hearing this from Sidney, we looked into these three men ourselves, and Sidney was right. An April 12, 1984 article in the Fort Lauderdale News titled Police Charged Two Drifters With Murder reported that John and another man, both from St. Paul, Minnesota, were charged with second-degree murder. John and the other man met the victim on the beach, and together they went to buy drugs. The

An argument broke out at an apartment, and the victim was pushed through glass slats on a door. An artery in his arm was cut by the broken glass. The victim ran from his attackers, but he was bleeding out and later collapsed. The article states that John, and possibly the other attacker, continued to beat the victim as he lied there. The victim was rushed to an area hospital, where he later died.

Taking a look at what's available on the Minnesota Court Records website, it lists convictions dating back to 1983 for offenses such as burglary, felonious theft, fleeing police, escape from custody, assault, domestic assault, assault with a dangerous weapon, etc. The Minnesota Court Records also show multiple dockets from 2013 to 2019 related to civil commitments for mental illness and chemical dependency.

Beyond John, one of the other men that April Rose and Angela met at Taste of Minnesota, Ted, who was not implicated by the informant, also has a long criminal record. The Minnesota Court Records website shows convictions dating back to 1987 for crimes including felony escape, assault, theft of a motor vehicle, burglary, and so on.

And the Minnesota Court Records website documents that the informant himself has a history of convictions dating back to 1988 for crimes including burglary, receiving stolen property, assault with a dangerous weapon, fleeing, etc.

Going back to a point that Angela made earlier, at the time, she could tell that these men were much older. She thought they were creepy and had no reason to be hanging out with teenagers, or even April. Angela guesstimated that these men were around their mid-30s when they encountered them in July 1998, and she was right. According to Minnesota court records, at the time, John would have been 37, Ted 36, and Kip 32.

Rose had confided in Angela that she continued to have contact with John after she returned home to St. Cloud, and she was making plans to visit him in St. Paul. John was 22 years older than Rose. It sounds as though John may have been grooming Rose over the phone during those weeks in between their chance encounter at the festival, and when Rose and April ultimately vanished in August.

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While the men that April and Rose met at Taste of Minnesota seem like solid suspects in the case, we have to consider other possibilities as well. Earlier, Angela mentioned Walter, a man she believed April was seeing around that time, who had an apartment in St. Paul. Angela remembered visiting April at Walter's apartment in the lead-up to the girls going missing.

When Angela and Rose went to St. Paul for the Taste of Minnesota Festival, they reconnected with April, and it's Angela's memory that April was staying at Walter's apartment at that time. Elena shared her insights about Walter and April's relationship.

I believe my grandmother said she was 16 years old when she had first gotten into a relationship with him. And they had remained friends and involved up until her disappearance. And it's rumored that they were dating at this time again, and it was confirmed by several people. At least they think they were together again.

Gloria mentioned that she didn't know Walter well, but she was aware that he and April had an on-again, off-again relationship over the years. She was later told that April and Walter had rekindled their relationship shortly before her disappearance.

I met him a couple of times and he was out to our house. He seemed like a normal young boy. He did have a different boyfriend and Walter was out of the picture. The way I understand it and I've been told is that they reconnected. Walter turned out to be not such a nice guy. Over the years, I had not even seen him.

I did a couple times in my early years when they first started dating, like when she was 15, 16, and I never saw him after that. Angela had encountered Walter roughly six weeks prior to the time April and Rose vanished. So we asked her to tell us what her impression of Walter was.

I met him very, very briefly, but I don't know if she was just moving in or just moving out. I just remember it seemed kind of tense between the two of them, and he just seemed like an ass, just to be honest. He didn't seem like he wanted Rose and I there at all. I mean, he wasn't very friendly, or he really didn't say anything to Rose or I.

Gloria later connected with Walter's sister, who informed her that Walter had been in possession of some of April's clothing after her disappearance. Instead of returning the items to April's family, his sister said that he destroyed them.

We were told by her that at the time, apparently Walter was moving her from one place to the other and had her clothes in his van. He had a white van at the time, the way I understand it. And the

The sister believes that he burned the clothes. She was 12 years old at the time, but she says, I remember seeing April's clothes in his van and him burning something late at night. And we live about over a mile from where his parents lived and where he was and why he didn't bring the clothes to me instead of burning them.

Jamie said that Walter wasn't on her radar when Rose vanished. In fact, she didn't learn about this man until just recently.

We've just been trying to dig up what we can of dirt and find out anything on our own since we're kind of left in the dark. Walter, I mean, I hadn't heard of him prior to recently. I think that he had dated April at one time. Other than that, I don't know if there is any involvement with the case at all or if he just happened to be one of her ex-boyfriends or something like that.

With renewed interest in the case prompting discussions about April and Rose, Gloria was told that Walter was acquainted with the men April and Rose had met at the Taste of Minnesota.

Over the years, in fact, a couple of years ago, maybe, I learned that this one boyfriend of hers, ex-boyfriend of hers, the fact that really blew my mind was informant and the guys knew each other. I did not know they were acquainted until just recently. When I learned that, I called up BCA and

and told them I had new information, which wasn't new because they knew it, but they never told me. Walter is dead now. I did not know that until recently either. I see his dad and his stepmom quite often since we live right here in this little small town. They never said anything to me.

Elena said that Walter has emerged as an alternate theory in the case, and when she began digging into his criminal history in the years following April and Rose disappearing, she found some unsettling information.

There's an alternate kind of story going about Walter. I think it's very plausible. They had a not-so-good relationship. It was sort of abusive. And there's this story going about how it possibly could have been him. He had destroyed a van at that point in time. He, unfortunately, is no longer alive. He took his own life in prison. But there's that alternate story.

Walter's last charge is the criminal sexual conduct. What it says here is it was somebody under the age of 13. And we brought up Walter for the first time. My grandmother, she's like, I had no idea he was even in contact with April.

A February 4, 2010 article in the Mille Lacs Messenger reported that on the eve of Walter's sentencing for his recent convictions of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, he attempted to end his own life in the county jail, but he was revived. Walter was potentially facing decades of jail time for those charges, and his previous convictions for multiple felonies, including fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, burglaries, theft, etc., would be taken into account at sentencing.

Though he was initially revived and transported to a hospital, Walter died two days later. Digging a little deeper into Walter's history, Walter was charged for an earlier felony conviction for fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in late October of 1998, just a couple of months after April and Rose vanished.

The offense date was listed as March 1, 1998, which would have been months prior to when they went missing. This specific charge was for engaging in sexual contact with someone who was at least 14 but less than 16 years of age, and the actor is more than 36 months older or in a current or recent position of authority.

It's unclear whether or not April or Rose knew about this, because he wasn't charged until after they went missing. But what stands out as alarming is that Rose was in the same age range as the victim in this case. In the 2008 case, the victim was under the age of 13. There's always been this question of how April and Rose met back up, since they've discovered that April had been arrested for a brief period of time after the girls were last seen by their families. Elena has thought a lot about this,

There's a lot of people saying that she was dating Walter again. But after she had gotten released from jail, they had somehow made their way to St. Paul. A month prior, they ended up attending Taste in Minnesota there. But they ended up going back, you know, to hang out with the same people and party. And maybe something happened with her boyfriend and she ended up going there. I'm not sure.

Many believe that Rose and April intended to travel to St. Paul so that they could hang out with the guys they met at the festival. However, no one is aware of how they plan to travel there. Witnesses have come forward claiming that April and Walter had gotten back together, and she was staying at his St. Paul apartment, at least some of the time, and may have been in the process of moving in with him. Walter's family lives near Gloria, not far from St. Cloud.

so it's a possibility that he may have traveled back and forth between the cities. Walter's sister later told Gloria that Walter had April's belongings in his van because he was helping her move, and he later burned the items.

Had John or one of the other men traveled to St. Cloud to pick up Rose and April? Or is it possible that Walter was their ride, as he was in the area to help April move? And something transpired, leading April to be arrested and held for a period of days, and Rose was left with Walter until April's release.

This was a possibility we felt we couldn't completely ignore, despite the fact that the other men seemed like likely suspects. Running with that theory for just a moment, if Rose was left with Walter, could he have done something to Rose? And April learned of it after she was released. We know that Walter had victimized another teen in Rose's age range in early 1998. Can

Considering that he may have known that he was under investigation for the March 1998 crime that he was later charged with, could that have been a motive to silence both Rose and April? Additionally, let's assume for a moment that it is in fact true that April was moving in with Walter. If April was killed by John and Walter never saw or heard from her again, wouldn't you assume that he would be looking for her, especially if it's true that they had gotten back together?

When we spoke to Gloria, she said that Walter never came around asking about April, which to her stands out as strange.

Angela finds this gap in time where they can place April alive and well in a local jail, but no one knows where Rose was, to be troubling. She believes that Rose was likely with John, whom she had met at Taste of Minnesota, but she has no way to know for certain. Learning that April had been incarcerated around this time has caused a lot of confusion. Angela has a lot of questions, but the main one remains, where was Rose?

I know there's a lot of questioning about the timeline. Apparently, April had spent the weekend in jail and everybody's question is, where would Rose be? And I thought, well, if she was in town here, she would have been at home. I mean, I know that she spent the weekend in jail here in St. Cloud and I had looked, but it doesn't say what she spent the weekend in jail for. Did she get arrested in St. Cloud? Did she turn herself into jail for that weekend? Maybe she got arrested in St. Paul and they found out she had a Stearns County warrant.

And so they brought her back up here. That would make a big difference because, oh, that would place them down there August 13th. Even little tiny things like that. I don't think people really realize how significant those insignificant things really are. Literally, the only thing that I can think of is that Rose stayed down there with John.

while April had gone to jail for the weekend. Because if that wasn't the case, she would have been at home. But I don't know. I mean, I could be completely wrong because I don't even know who all they were associating with or hanging out with. But I do know that they had plans to go down there and see him. But then we don't know how April ended up getting arrested or where or one question after another after another.

Sydney has done her best to make sense of this very confusing part of the timeline, and she has her own thoughts on where Rose was. But without more information, it still remains a theory. Rose had been in touch still with this John guy, and it's believed that she went down there to St. Paul to see him. Angie didn't really get a good vibe from John. He was older.

but he lived down in St. Paul. So what we are thinking is that it's likely that Rose went down to St. Paul to see John. And this is while April is still in jail. And April's really on again, off again, boyfriend named Walter, who his name comes up quite a bit, lived in St. Paul as well, not far from where John and these guys lived. And so the thought is that

It was likely Walter, how she would have gotten down to St. Paul. She had put all her belongings in Walter's van and planned to essentially move down to St. Paul with Walter. So that's where the connection comes in. There's some time shortly after April was released where they both would have connected back down.

down in St. Paul. It's fuzzy. I know the investigators have it narrowed down in terms of when they do believe the girls were actually killed. But those days before, I don't think it's really known exactly where Rose was. But she did have plans to go down to St. Paul to see John during that time.

Angela has always felt that the three men they met at Taste of Minnesota must have had something to do with what happened to April and Rose, and she hasn't come across further information that's ever changed her mind.

Well, I don't think any of them are innocent. I mean, if you help somebody cover something up or help dispose of somebody, it makes you pretty guilty yourself. But I've looked into John. This is just recently, actually, to see if my hunch was correct or if there's anything from his past that would make, oh, OK, so I'm not wrong about why I feel the way I feel. I mean, I've always felt it in my stomach. Not necessarily him alone, per se, but they had something to do with it or the reason that the girl...

the girls are gone. After looking into his criminal history, absolutely. I think they said that the belongings had been burnt. But when they didn't find the girls, why would some of their belongings be there but not them? Say that was originally where the girls were.

and they were moved or something like that, why wouldn't they have made sure that they moved the belongings also? It's just kind of confusing because it just leaves more questions. So many, so many questions, and there's nobody that seems to be able to answer any of them. It's very, very frustrating. One lingering question about the informant is, if his account is true, why didn't his information lead to the discovery of the girls? Additionally, what was his level of potential involvement in all of this?

The families have never been informed of any kind of motive for harming April and Rose. Did the informant suggest that his friends simply lashed out and killed them? Was there something that happened that sparked his rage? There are significant gaps in the narrative, though it's possible that he disclosed more to law enforcement than has ever been revealed to the families or the public.

While Angela believes that these men are likely responsible, she still questions how truthful the informant's story was. What was the extent of his involvement, and did it go beyond merely helping to dispose of their bodies? As far as I know, his family owned land up there, so the area was familiar to him. I think he probably would have remembered more than somebody who had just been there a handful of times or

just visited he was no saint either you have this informant who comes to you tells you that he knows where these two missing girls are buried and that he had helped bury them wouldn't you ask these questions obviously you know your your main thing is okay well let's try to find the girls take whatever information that this guy is willing to give while he's willing to give it questions like why and with more detail i just feel like so what really happened because i feel like there was no

additional information, they would have dug in a little bit. Maybe they did. He just wasn't willing to give any of the information, but why wouldn't he have been willing to? He already went forward and confessed to helping bury them. I mean, it's not like he would get into any trouble or any more trouble by saying what the motive was or the reasoning or what led up to somebody else killing these girls. Despite the fact that Angela has always felt that those guys were responsible, she also acknowledges that there are other possibilities as well.

There's a lot of talk about the guy that April was seeing, Walter. And she was seeing the guy, Richard, that my boyfriend at the time was roommates with and who I actually recently tried to contact to see if he maybe had any information or had talked to them. But apparently he had committed suicide, which seems to be a recurring thing even in this, which is probably just an odd coincidence. But Walter, he committed suicide as well. Even Walter, his record, I mean, he was a pedophile. That's what he was in jail for.

Sidney said that she hasn't been able to confirm that Walter knew the other men for sure, or find any eyewitnesses who place him with them around the time that April and Rose vanished. But there are also no independent witnesses outside of the informant who place April and Rose with John, so Walter has remained a possibility in the eyes of many, though Sidney doesn't believe he's considered a person of interest at this point in time.

When I first started looking into this case, the name Walter, Walter, and I'm like, oh God, Walter must be involved. It definitely makes sense. He had a pretty sketchy background. We do know that they had reconnected by the time she disappeared. And I think a lot of that was because she was having to move, needed a place. And so essentially was planning just to move down to St. Paul, at least for the time being. So what I've been told by Angie, who was there when both Rose and April initially met these three guys,

was that April kind of brought them over and introduced them. The whole plan all along, I think they were staying at Walter's apartment where April had moved in, but I don't believe that Walter was there at the time, at least when they initially met. And then since it's not confirmed really any time after that dates or anything that they were together, I cannot say for sure if Walter knew them. I know given Walter's past, and I know both families have...

have their suspicions about him. And I guess what I can say about that, he's not believed to be a suspect at this time. It sounds like their relationship, we know, is pretty volatile between him and April and the relationship was super on again, off again, but he is not viewed as an actual suspect in their disappearance currently. So,

So the hard part has been still to this day, there are quite a few people that hadn't been questioned. And those that I think were in 2000, they weren't really able to say specific dates because it had been two years. So there are some people, there's one guy that specifically recalls Walter stopped by his place because I believe Walter had had a child with his now wife at the time. And so Walter stopped by at their place with both Rose and April. It

It was during the middle of the week and they were going to go back to St. Paul. And then that weekend on Friday, I think there was going to be a party down in St. Paul. He remembers driving down there for this party and he remembers that it was supposed to be on a Friday because Walter had owed him a bit of money and said that he would give it to him on Friday. So they drove down there and then when they got there, they weren't allowed into the apartment. The roommate of Walter's was...

upset. It looked like there was a tussle and now he has to clean up the whole apartment. And I know Walter's van wasn't there and then he didn't see the two girls. And then ultimately they had to beg for money in order to be able to have the gas money to drive back home because they were relying on having this money because Walter was supposed to pay him back. There clearly wasn't a party and he didn't see anyone, was told that they had to leave. Again, he's not able to say for sure what date that was. I just don't know.

Ultimately, I mean, he would have a little habit of disappearing as well. So there are suspicious things. I know after the girls went missing, he had kind of, with contact, fallen off the face of the world for a little bit. I think if it weren't for the informant coming forward and providing the names, and we know there's at least some truth to what he said, because the only thing that's ever been found to prove

show anything happened to the girls was a result of him coming forward, you know, and finding some of those belongings and stuff that had been burnt. And so I really believe him. And I think law enforcement really believes him. But on face value, without that information, I absolutely would think that Walter would be a huge suspect for sure. I personally, I wonder, given he lived in St. Paul, I don't think he would have necessarily been involved, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that he could have made

maybe been there or seen what had happened or at least knew what happened because yeah there are things like that where he did have her belongings he did kind of skip town for a little while and leave his van that had a lot of her belongings at his dad's house so there definitely are some unanswered questions in terms of what his awareness was of what happened to the girls for sure

The informant's story has come into question because Rose and April are still missing. Despite that, Sidney believes that he was telling the truth back in 2000. Essentially, at this point, it's like, okay, we know that the informant and likely John burnt up some of their belongings. We don't have their bodies. We don't have any type of physical evidence to prove that there was a violent crime committed. But I do know that

A few years after the fact, they did search one of the apartments. I don't know for sure if that would have been Walter's apartment or John's apartment in St. Paul. I'm not aware of them finding anything at all. I know Walter's vehicle was scrapped.

the van but again I don't think that was involved with this I know that John drove a van I assume that they were able to at least identify like a VIN number or something because they were so familiar with him but I can't speak to if they forensically searched the van or anything like that but I know that they don't have any physical DNA evidence of anything at this point it

It's hard because even though I do believe the informant is telling the truth, the information was initially provided while he was in rehab. And all three of these guys have pretty extensive mental health and chemical dependency stuff. And so I think at this point, it would be really easy to

to be able to say like, okay, well, this doesn't actually prove anything. And so the difficult part I think has been tracking down people that were aware of what happened at the time and that are willing to speak about it, but then also finding people that remember

remember and can provide specifics. It's been a long time and I know that that reported burial site, it looks very different than it did at the time. So the BCA investigator, Chad, he's awesome. I think if anyone is going to be able to solve this, I really do think it's him. He also has a few of these cold cases he's really looking into. And I know he really does believe that

this is one that can be solved. And he encourages people definitely to reach out to the BCA tip line. And then there's also a BCA cold case email as well. And I know some of the things that would be the most helpful, anything that can help to kind of build a timeline of that time in August, where people were, where people lived. And hopefully there's someone that has been told something could come forward and help connect some of those missing pieces.

Earlier, you heard Angela discuss her frustrations about how Rose and April were portrayed in an early article, which seemed to focus in on Rose's history of truancy. And Angela said that was blown out of proportion. While it's true that Rose often arrived late to school, she wasn't a troublemaker. Today, there's a push to spread awareness about Rose and April, and they're often met with criticism from the public due to various statements about April and Rose that have circulated online.

often accepted as fact and repeated without question. It's nearly impossible to reel misinformation back in once it's been put out there for public consumption. It's been said that April and Rose had a history of disappearing together for extended periods of time, and that Rose spoke of plans to run away to California. If you were to do a quick Google search, you'd find those stories still included in databases and online forums today.

Angela firmly refutes these claims and said they've made it more difficult to get the public involved and to care about these two missing young women.

That is not even possible for them to have done that. Maybe a couple of days, but they didn't really disappear. That makes it sound like they would take off together for weeks or months at a time. They didn't even know each other long enough to do that. She never once said anything about going to California or wanting to go to California or even mentioning California. Even if she did want to take off and go to California, it would not be 26 years that we hadn't heard from her. She was never planning on taking off with April, going anywhere other than St.

St. Paul. That is literally the furthest that I had ever heard her talk about having plans to go. People just start coming out of the woodwork and just saying things just to say things. That's another thing that people are just going to be deterred from wanting to try to help find them. They're going to be like, oh, well, they'll show up again. They did every other time. Jamie shares Angela's perspective on this issue. Even after all of these years, they have yet to uncover the origin of these statements about the girls.

I don't know where any of these details have come from. Nothing that I ever know of that she was planning. And then it gets spread. She didn't leave with anything. She left with the clothes on her back, planning to be home.

When the investigation into what happened to April and Rose began, their cases were being handled by different agencies. Later, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension took the lead on the case. Jamie said that her family didn't always have a great working relationship with law enforcement, but they do today, and that's a relief. She's confident that now, their cases are in good hands.

My information now is that the lead of the case is the BCA. Previously, we felt like we were left in the dark. Most recently, though, I have been working with a new investigator. He's responsive. He has empathy.

And even in the 26 years that this case has been open, I mean, it has gone through a number of different hands. And I guess I can't be mad that it's changing hands because that's also more people and more eyes and more brains thinking of different angles. I guess I'm just hoping that

Soon, maybe some of the things we are doing, the new articles, the billboards, hopefully those lead to some new people that the police haven't talked to yet. And one can only hope that this matter is resolved now since time has gone by. People's relationships with people that they were friends or boyfriends or whatever, girlfriend of, those relationships die and fade.

That's what we're looking for. We need people that have information to please come forward and help with the case and with finding our loved ones. Angela agrees with Jamie on this point. You can't make up for lost time, but the current investigator has given everyone a glimmer of hope.

The investigator that is currently working this case, I think he's probably done more than all of them combined. The way I understand it is he's going through everything and trying to weed out what is fact, following up on the leak over again and get new information.

So hopefully it's been long enough. And I know John deserves, you know, at least have his daughter. Being a parent myself, I cannot imagine what he's going through. 26 years is a long time. Evidence is going to be harder and harder to come by. They're not going to charge anybody with anything until they find the girls, I think, though, because it's too easy with our judicial system to be able to

get away with things. If you don't have absolute solid evidence that somebody has done something, then there's always that chance that you don't get a conviction from it. And then later on, if you get that evidence, you can't retry them because double jeopardy. I would rather be able to find where she is and let her dad be able to bury her and have that closure. To me, that's more important than even having a conviction. I think Chan just wants Rose too. He just wants to know where his daughter is.

Jamie and Rose's father, John, has been a driving force since the beginning, and he later started a social media group as part of his quest for answers. Jamie said that while her father is very active in the group, Rose remains a very difficult subject for him to speak about.

It's very difficult for him to keep a level head, I guess. At the beginning, I can remember him printing out every email he ever got in talks with this person or that person and documenting everything that he had found. He was, and still is, almost trying to figure out himself. Since we haven't really gotten official answers or any information,

Motion on the case as far as closure, he's looking every day for closure. This is something you live with all day, every day. And even when she is found, we're still going to have to live with it just in a different way. But, I mean, he's, I don't want to say desperate for answers, but he wants answers. He's heartbroken. That's his oldest, his first daughter. So it's hard for him. It's hard for me too, but the more you do it...

I don't want to say the easier it is, but you can try to grasp your emotions a little better. It's never going to be easy to talk about her. Angela gave us so much key information about her encounter with the three men at Taste of Minnesota. She was a crucial part of telling April and Rose's stories. But she told us that she almost didn't do it. She said she was inspired by Rose's father's presence on social media and how that's reinvigorated the investigation.

John, he's never going to give up. I wouldn't. I won't. Rose is my best friend and we still will never ever give up. Not until we have some closure and we can lay her to rest the way that she should be. But I think a lot of it has to do with so many people.

offering their help. Sydney, for instance, you getting the word out there more with social media now, it's a lot easier to get information out there and to find new information that you weren't aware of. John has his Facebook group. It's actually helped connect some people. I wouldn't be doing this podcast if I hadn't joined the group and spoken with Sydney. I almost didn't do it, but Sydney said that she thinks it would be good. Then I was thinking about it and I was like, yeah, you know what? Anything helps

Honestly, I don't talk about Rose a lot. It's not an easy thing for me to do. But I think about it every single day. There isn't a single day in the last 26 years that I have not thought about her. And think about that day we met them. I feel almost kind of responsible in some way, which I know, obviously, it's not my fault. I'm not responsible. But I was there when they met John, Ted, and Kip. And then plus being the one that introduced April and Rose, sometimes I can't help but to get that feeling a little bit.

Right before this episode was due to air, we learned from Sydney that John, the man the informant implicated in the murders of Rose and April, had passed away, which felt like a blow to the investigation. If he was, in fact, responsible, they would never get a confession or justice. But they aren't giving up. At the end of October, law enforcement returned to the farmland in Wadena to continue searching for April and Rose. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything during that search.

So what happened to April Geyer and Rosanna Forcum in August of 1998? We know that things were initially difficult to piece together, because there wasn't definitive information pointing to them being together when they disappeared. They were reported missing to different jurisdictions at separate times.

Two years later, an informant came forward with a story about his friend killing Rose and April. He claimed that he helped bury their bodies. However, extensive searches failed to locate their remains in the area that the informant led investigators to, though we were told that some of their belongings were recovered and they had been burned.

Investigators were never able to find physical evidence to support the informant's story, which has left this case in limbo for 26 years. We were told that the informant has continued to cooperate with law enforcement in this case, which many believe lends credibility to his claims. We also know from Angela that they had met these men at a festival roughly six weeks prior to when April and Rose vanished.

Rose told Angela that she was communicating with the man the informant implicated in their murders. Angela recalls Rose telling her that she had plans to meet up with him. These men were significantly older than Rose and April. And it sounds like this man had been grooming Rose over the phone in the lead up to her disappearance. Additionally, considering his criminal history, it doesn't seem like much of a leap to imagine that he could be responsible for this.

Beyond the men they had met at the festival, there's also April's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Walter. April's family was told that he was in possession of her belongings and burned them. Why would Walter do that? Walter went on to commit serious crimes himself and ended his own life while he was incarcerated.

Walter was also convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for a crime that occurred months prior to the disappearances of Rose and April. The victim in that case was over the age of 14, but under 16, and Rose was just 15. Could Walter have had something to do with this? Or was he just another bad player who was in their orbit, and a distraction for investigators to clear off of the table?

As we were preparing to cover April and Rose, we contacted the BCA to inquire about an interview, which they declined, though they stated the following. While I can't provide specifics, I can tell you that this is very much an active and ongoing investigation. The BCA continues to urge anyone with information about what happened to come forward. You can provide information anonymously if you choose.

Even if you don't know everything, a tidbit of information can be a missing piece that helps us get the answers we need for these families. Contact the BCA tip line at 877-996-6222. Having gone through this, things like this come out in other areas of your life. My daughters, I am so, so beyond overprotective of my kids. I think that they both were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's sad.

The media coverage for this, this is what had disappointed me the most. There was hardly none. They were on the news one time and then they had made this deck of cards that had their pictures on them. And that was basically it for a long time. And then I believe in 2012,

Many years later, they were on the news once again, but it was for 30 seconds talking about cold cases. And then I think that was it. Everybody who knew the girls or knows this case, there was no media coverage at all.

It has been a very hard 26 years of waiting for answers. So I'm very thankful that it's gotten a spotlight a little bit again. We have some billboards up to hopefully get some new tips. I imagine somewhere someone knows something that they have not told law enforcement. Somebody was friends with somebody and they confided in them.

Because, I mean, how can you do such a ferocious act and not feel bad about it or need to tell somebody? But someone knows something, and we just need them to come forward and help put these last couple pieces together so we can bring her home.

That brings us to the end of episode 464. I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this story. If you have a missing loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com. If you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page and discussion group on Facebook. You can also find us on Instagram. If you like our show, please give us a five-star rating and review. You can also support the show by contributing on Patreon, where you can get early and ad-free episodes.

Be sure to tune in next week. We'll be covering a case from Maryland. Thanks for listening.

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