Shownotes Transcript
Liberty County, Florida. That is where they found his car. And that is where they initially searched for him. The car was in a very remote location. There were no fingerprints in the car. There were no fingerprints on the car. No trace. Nothing that indicated anything. One of the sheriff's
said initially, and I didn't take offense to it because it just seemed like such an odd thing, but he said if there was a case of alien abduction, this could be it because there is nothing, no footprint, no tire prints. It just looked like the car was just sat down right there and it was locked and that's all.
It makes a really tough situation even harder. It just makes no sense. Wake up one day and he's just gone. It's crazy how a grown man could just go missing like that. How is there just no evidence of where he went or what happened?
In late February of 2023, 37-year-old Nicholas Downey rented a car in Florida to visit his wife in Mississippi. He made it there safely, but the visit was brief. Nick needed to head back to Florida and return the rental car. On the drive home, he spoke with his wife one last time, and after that call, he vanished without a trace.
His disappearance wasn't immediately obvious, until his wife tried calling him again the next morning. After several unanswered calls, someone finally picked up, but it wasn't Nick. It was a deputy from the Liberty County Sheriff's Office. The officer explained that Nick's rental car had been found abandoned on a remote property in Liberty County, Florida. Nick was nowhere in sight. In fact, there wasn't even a footprint left in the sand to follow. A
A K9 tracking team was brought out to search the area, but they turned up nothing. There were no tracks, no belongings, and no signs of a struggle. Even more baffling, the car was discovered far off any logical route Nick would have taken back to return the vehicle. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance have left his loved ones and investigators grasping for answers.
In fact, the case has grown so confounding that some law enforcement officials have half-joked, though with a note of unease, that the only explanation left might be something not of this world. Alien abduction is a theory that's been whispered, not out of belief, but out of pure desperation to piece together what can't be explained.
Over two years later, what happened to Nick Downey remains a haunting and unsolved mystery. I'm Marissa, and from Wondery, this is episode 485 of The Vanished, Nicholas Downey's story. When it comes to spending, sometimes it's out of sight, out of mind. That's why I'm here.
That daily coffee habit? Those streaming subscriptions? They add up fast without you even noticing. Rocket Money helps you spot those patterns so you can do something about them and keep more money in your pocket. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money's dashboard gives you a clear view of your expenses across all of your accounts.
You can easily create a personalized budget with custom categories to help you keep your spending on track. There's unusual spending activity, or if you're close to going over budget. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash MIA today. That's rocketmoney.com slash MIA.
That's rocketmoney.com slash MIA. rocketmoney.com slash MIA.
With the Spark Cash Plus card from Capital One, you earn unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase, and you get big purchasing power so your business can spend more and earn more. Stephen, Brandon, and Bruno, the business owners of SandCloud, reinvested their 2% cash back to help build their retail presence. Now that's serious business. What could the Spark Cash Plus card from Capital One do for your business? Capital One. What's in your wallet?
Find out more at CapitalOne.com slash SparkCashPlus. Terms apply.
37-year-old Nick Downey had weathered his fair share of ups and downs, but he was the kind of person who could always find a way to bounce back. His life seemed to move in cycles, periods of success followed by setbacks, but Nick had a knack for turning things around. In February of 2023, Nick's wife Holly was staying at a rehabilitation facility in Mississippi. Nick, who was working in Florida at the time, was determined to visit her. To make the trip, he arranged
He arranged to rent a car through his mother Stacy's account on Turo, an app that allows users to rent vehicles directly from private owners. Nick's mother Stacy shared more with us about what Nick had planned for that trip. I rented a vehicle through my account because it was easier. I had done that numerous times. His vehicle wasn't running great. He had a work vehicle, but he couldn't take the work vehicle because the workers needed it, this truck. So...
I rented a car off of Truro. I rented a Tesla and he was to go on Thursday night and then he was going to return to Sarasota on Sunday evening to go back to work on Monday.
Nick picked up the Tesla his mom had rented for him on Thursday, February 23, 2023, with plans to return it that weekend. He made the drive to Mississippi, hoping to spend time with his wife, but when he arrived, he was disappointed to learn that he wouldn't be able to see her. Holly had only recently been admitted to the rehab facility, and as part of the program's rules, she wasn't yet allowed visitors. Still, Nick didn't leave empty-handed.
He was able to drop off some of her personal belongings and speak with her over the phone. Here's Holly. I was only allowed to use the phone in the first week, very little. I was allowed to call him to have him bring me my stuff. And then I was wanting him to stay because I was going to be able to get a visit with him in a couple days. But he said he had to get that car back because they were monitoring it. But he said he was going to go back and get the car back and then fly back to see me. But that didn't happen.
Nick began the long drive back to Florida, planning to return the Tesla to its owner and then fly back to visit Holly again soon. As he made his way toward the Tampa area, a trip that should have taken him roughly nine hours, he spoke to Holly on the phone. But something didn't sit right with her. Call it intuition or a gut feeling, but Holly sensed that something was off. That unease she felt still lingers, made all the more painful by the memory of their final conversation. Her
Her last words to Nick continue to haunt her to this day. When he was on his way back, he was acting weird. I was really intuitive, and I just had a really strong feeling that something bad was going to happen to him. The last thing I ever said to him was, please be careful. I've met a lot of women lately whose husbands have died, and that's just my biggest fear. Please be careful. And that was the last thing I said to him.
By Monday, February 27th, Holly started calling Nick to check in and make sure he had made it back safely, but he wasn't answering. At first, she tried not to panic. Still, something felt off. When the calls continued to go unanswered, she reached out to Nick's family to see if they had heard from him. Nick's mother, Stacy, wasn't immediately alarmed. She assumed Nick was just laying low or maybe avoiding Holly's calls for personal reasons. But as more time passed with no word from Nick, concerns
concerns slowly began to grow. Monday morning, I got up. My husband is a very early riser, dark outside riser. When I got up, he said, Holly called and said that Nick is missing. And I went on into the kitchen to get coffee because in my mind, I was thinking they've had an argument and he's driven over there. He won't talk to her.
Stacy had just woken up when they had gotten the call, and it took her a moment to process what she had heard. Then something clicked. She remembered an incident from the night before. Since the Tesla was rented under her name, the car's owner had contacted Stacy when it wasn't returned on time. Assuming that Nick was just running late, Stacy didn't think much of it. She paid for an extra day and went to bed, figuring everything was fine. But now, in the light of morning, and with no word from Nick,
That small detail started to feel a lot more significant. I talked to him right up until, I think, late afternoon on Sunday. And Holly had spoke to him about an hour after that. So after like 9 p.m. on Sunday, nothing. And...
also I was getting information from the fellow that I rented the vehicle from because it was supposed to be returned Sunday evening and it was not. And so I had extended the rental to cover it till Monday morning. So that's in the background. But then when my husband said, Holly says Nick is missing, like I said, I just thought,
An argument went on, got coffee, came back. And so it wasn't until a couple of hours before I realized Holly called again and we spoke again. What is going on? Then I had been texting and trying to call him and I was getting no response.
which was unlike him. But I thought maybe he's sleeping, he's dreaming all night because he would have pushed it to the very last minute. So it wouldn't have been crazy for someone to tell me he left Mississippi at three in the morning, he got home at seven, he's sleeping half the morning. That wouldn't surprise me.
Stacey ran through every possible explanation in her mind, trying to stay calm. Maybe Nick's phone had died. Maybe he was catching up on sleep. Surely she thought he'd reach out to someone at any moment. Meanwhile, back in Mississippi, Holly continued calling Nick's phone over and over. Then finally, someone picked up, but it wasn't Nick. On the other end was a sheriff's deputy from Liberty County, Florida, a reporter for the
a rural stretch of land in the state's panhandle. The deputy explained that he had responded to a call about an abandoned Tesla found deep in the woods on a hunting lease, and Nick was nowhere to be found.
I called his phone, and I thought he was joking with me because they were like, "Who is this?" I said, "What do you mean, who is this? This is your wife." They were like, "This is Officer Chase Taylor with Liberty County, Florida, asking if I've talked to Nick." And I hadn't since the night before when he was on his way. They told me that they found the car there because the guy that owns the property called and said, "There's an abandoned car on my property." The first day, I still had hope that maybe he was just wandering around.
Even though I was in rehab, they let me get a list of hospitals, checked all the jails around the surrounding area, see if anybody had any run-ins with him. And of course, they all said no. It was my hope in the first couple of days that something happened and Nick ran somewhere and I would find out. But of course, I learned quickly that that was not the case.
Nick had no known ties to Liberty County, Florida. In fact, it wasn't even close to his destination. It was only about halfway there. And more puzzling, the Tesla had been found on a remote hunting lease, far off the main roads. There was no clear reason for Nick to have been anywhere near that area. Holly was stunned. Nothing about the situation made any sense. She was still in the rehab facility in Mississippi.
which severely limited what she could do. She couldn't just get up and go search for Nick herself. Meanwhile, Stacey was hundreds of miles away at home in Kentucky, trying to piece together what was happening from a distance. Both women were desperate for answers, but neither could understand why Nick, or the car he was driving, had ended up so far off of his intended route. The
The location where the Tesla was found was roughly 36 miles south of the interstate Nick had likely been traveling on. It wasn't a place you'd stumble upon by accident. Liberty County law enforcement quickly mobilized, launching a search of the area surrounding the abandoned vehicle. But from the start, the situation felt strange and deeply troubling.
From that point, Holly kept calling Nick's phone. By midday, I think, a policeman answered the phone where they had found his car, the rental car, off the interstate. To my understanding, off of a paved road. It was a hunting preserve that was a lease and
And the property goes long periods of time where no one is there because something's not in season or that's not what they hunt there. But there were long periods of time where there would be nothing, no activity. And 25,000 acres is this property. It just so happened on that morning, a couple of the people who leased this were starting to scout.
because spring was coming, winter is over and they're trying to
scout property or whatever they're doing. And so they were on foot. But when they approached the property, there is a cable across the entryway. To my understanding, with as much information as I've been able to get, it's just a single stranded steel cable across two poles. The Tesla almost cleared it. So there was damage to the very top of the car. And then there was white paint all
which was the color of the car, on that cable. The Tesla was locked and still had charge on it, by the way. It could have gone further. It was described to me like if it was an ATV trail back in the woods, and it had went maybe another, I think I was told, three football fields further back after they hit the cable, and the car was just stopped on one of these little trails.
And so the hunters, as they're scouting, see this and called the police. From there, they had done the flyover because it was such a remote area. There's a local prison there. And they had dogs that, I guess, are trained to seek people, maybe escapees or something. That was my thinking. There was nothing. No footprints. And it was just such a bizarre thing.
Stacy later learned that the owner of the Tesla Nick was driving had been keeping an eye on the vehicle remotely, tracking its location to make sure it was being returned as scheduled. At first, everything appeared normal. He could see the car traveling back in his direction. But then, suddenly, the car veered off course. It was no longer headed toward its expected destination. Concerned, the owner tried reaching out to Nick.
Up until that point, Nick had always been responsive to the owner's messages. But now, nothing. Just silence.
It had, I guess, communication, maybe it's text message on the dash or something. He was communicating through the app and he a couple of times said, why are you going that direction? Those kinds of questions, but nothing that he felt like offered any information or any rationale for him going this way or that way. He was telling him, you're headed off course. There are no charging stations.
in that proximity, those types of things. Nick at some point stopped responding, but Nick had been texting him, as had I. The Tesla owner did show me the different places that he stopped so I could pinpoint it on a map to see the path he was following was in fact headed towards Sarasota.
But then in some point, the vehicle just seems to take a turn that is the exact opposite direction that he should have been traveling.
Nick had been traveling along Interstate 10, the most direct route back to Florida to return the Tesla. But the last known location of the vehicle was puzzling. The Tesla's GPS data showed that on the night Nick disappeared, the vehicle had stopped just off of the interstate, in an area where there was a charging station. Surveillance footage from the station confirmed the car had been there.
But the video was too grainy to determine with certainty whether it was Nick behind the wheel. The uncertainty only deepened the mystery. Was Nick still driving the vehicle at that point? Or had something happened to him along the way?
The last place that shows that he stopped was in Marietta, Florida. There is a charging station in close proximity to a McDonald's. There was security video, which I have tried to get, but I can't, shows a single person
approaching the McDonald's, I guess, from the Tesla charging stations. It shows a male figure, but they said that the video was so grainy, it was of no use. Someone else could have been in the vehicle, just not sitting up. But that shows a single person approaching from the Tesla, approaching the McDonald's, and then that was confirmed online.
A stop because when they found the vehicle, there was a receipt, the amount of money that would have been changed from a 20. And it showed in the receipt a 20 was tendered and the change given was there in the vehicle with the receipt from McDonald's.
If it was indeed Nick behind the wheel at the McDonald's and charging station in Mariana, Florida, the next part of his journey is where things become mysterious. This is when Nick should have gotten back on the interstate, but we know that the car was found 36 miles southeast of the highway, on a remote hunting lease where it had been abandoned. No one knows why Nick would have gone in that direction, or even if he was the one driving at all. Could he have taken a wrong turn? Perhaps. But why not simply turn around? It would be a great idea to see if Nick was actually driving.
It wouldn't have taken 36 miles to realize he had gone off course. The unanswered questions continue to stack up, leaving everyone who knew Nick perplexed and uneasy. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Growing up was the extent of your financial education along the lines of money doesn't grow on trees. Well, true. That's true.
That cliche didn't teach us much about the saving and budgeting lesson we need in life. Pick up where your parents left off teaching you about money with Greenlight. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families that helps kids learn how to save, invest, and spend wisely. Parents can send money to their kids and keep an eye on kids' spending and saving. Meanwhile, kids and teens build money confidence and skills in a fun, accessible way.
like with games. I've been using Greenlight with my teenagers for years, and I love that it has given them a sense of financial independence while also teaching them the benefits of saving. Greenlight is the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and for families to navigate life together. Start your risk-free Greenlight trial today at greenlight.com slash vanished. That's greenlight.com slash vanished to get started.
greenlight.com slash vanished. Once the temperature started rising, I realized I was back in the same worn-out rotation. Same tank, same shorts, same everything. So I gave my daily uniform an upgrade with quints. Their pieces are easy, elevated, and somehow make you feel more put together without even trying. Like 100% European linen shorts and dresses from $30.00.
swimwear, Italian leather platform sandals, and so much more. And one of my favorite things about Quince is that they only work with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. I ordered some t-shirts from Quince. They're the perfect staple item.
That can go with almost anything, whether you're trying to dress up or dress down. I've found their quality to be amazing, especially for the price. Treat your closet to a little summer glow-up with Quince. Go to quince.com slash vanish for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash vanish to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash vanished
Now that we've explored some of the details of Nick's disappearance, we're going to rewind and take a closer look at Nick's life, and the events that brought him to the point in his life when he ended up vanishing in February 2023. Here's Stacey again.
We're from Kentucky. I live in Kentucky. He's the oldest of four. The oldest are three boys, and then my youngest is a girl. We are retired military, so we were sort of all over until he was about 14, and then we've been in Kentucky since that time. We stayed in Kentucky, and my husband was deployed there.
in the Middle East. He was definitely not loud, but he was definitely confident. He was fiercely intelligent. He had a memory that just was crazy.
I would say his intelligence, probably third grade, I think they wanted to let him skip a grade and I wouldn't. He is very charismatic. He's well spoken. He was very well liked. You either liked him always or you liked him at first and then would run into some sort of conflict because he was not going to do anything he didn't want to do.
Nick had two children from a previous marriage, and they lived in Kentucky with their mother, not far from Stacy. According to Holly, Nick had spent several years in the Army, and it was his experiences during his deployments that seemed to linger with him long after he had returned home. Those years, filled with challenges and trauma, appeared to haunt him throughout life, leaving scars that he struggled to cope with.
He did four tours in Iraq. He's in the army. He got blown up and he saw two of his really good friends die right in front of him. And he died in the helicopter and they brought him back. So just a lot of trauma from that. And he's got a huge, huge scar on his neck from being blown up. Very, very lucky to be alive. And he's been diagnosed with PTSD for sure.
Throughout his life, there were periods that Nick turned to substances as a way to self-medicate, coping with the weight of his past. But despite the struggles, he always managed to pull himself back together. Stacey described Nick's life as one of extremes. He was either at the very top, riding high, or falling straight to the bottom. There seemed to be no in-between for Nick, just sharp, unpredictable swings between success and hardship.
He did a lot of work for FEMA through storm cleanup. He had a tree service. He had an office in California, one in San Antonio, and then one in Georgia at one time. And then once he found himself not doing so well, and I think that was at the time that I wasn't aware, but that he became involved with drugs. And apparently he had had some sort of drug problem
for a number of years, and I just wasn't aware, which I think I am usually pretty tuned into those things, but he was the oldest. He had his own family. He lived away, and so I just wasn't aware. Nick has either been highly successful or...
just the bottom that he could be over the course of his life. He believed that he could fix anything. If you were mad, you weren't going to stay mad for very long. Like, he could sort of schmooze things over. Obviously, I love him. He's my son, but he definitely had faults. He...
went through a rehab facility. And this is probably four or five years ago. And when he completed that, he went to an old business associate that he had had back when he had his company. And so that's how he got to Mississippi. He went down there for work.
When things were going well for Nick, everything seemed to fall into place. He excelled at his work, bringing in natural talent and drive that made him successful. During one of those brighter periods, he saw an opportunity to start fresh and decided to branch out to Florida, eager for a new chapter in his life.
They had a rental there in Gulfport, and he was over doing storm cleanup. He was working with a man there in Gulfport, a young fellow who had just started a tree service. Maybe it was a year or two old, but he had never ventured to do storm cleanup, and he
Nick had a lot of experience with that, so they decided to go and do storm cleanup in Florida. So they set up an office in Sarasota. So Nick had an apartment in Sarasota. They were just living over there temporarily to get things going, and they had set the office up and were getting contracts.
Holly shared that she had met Nick before the move to Mississippi. Both had faced their own battles with addiction, but they were determined to leave that part of their lives behind. Together, they shared a common goal, to build a better future for themselves, free from the shadows of their pasts.
We met because I'm from Indiana and he's from Kentucky, which are right beside each other. And he was a friend of my sister's. I have a twin sister. They had just met. She introduced me to him and we worked together ever since for the most part. But things just weren't working in Indiana. We just wanted a fresh start. He used to own a tree business and he had gotten in contact with this guy who owned a tree company and
And after a hurricane came to Mississippi, he wanted him to sell tree work here. So that's how we ended up here in Mississippi. We were together for over six years, off and on, but we were mostly on because we were both addicts. And it's just really hard for me to talk about because I don't want people to think that just because he was an addict that he's not worth finding, I guess. Because even though we were in addiction, we built our lives completely...
Went from homeless, getting out of jail to part owners and two businesses in Florida with three houses. We were very functioning at the end. And that's what made it so hard is we were at the best place of our lives. And this happened. We had a house in Mississippi still. But then after Hurricane Ian hit Florida, we went down to Florida with that company, got one 27-hole golf course and a couple 18-hole golf courses.
of work making tens and tens of thousands of dollars and started a roofing company while we were down there. We were doing huge things.
Holly explained that there were a series of events leading up to Nick's disappearance. Things had started to unravel again after they both found themselves in trouble. As a result, Holly was sentenced to spend time in a rehab facility in Mississippi. The pressure of their circumstances seemed to push Nick back into a familiar, painful place. And despite their shared resolve to build a better life, old patterns began to resurface.
That fell apart. Lots of ups and downs from having nothing to having a lot. We worked our way up. After he lost that job, we caught a charge. He wrote a bad check to AT&T, and we got arrested. And that's what started the whole me going to rehab and then him bringing me my stuff and him going missing. So we missed court for that charge because of a hurricane in Florida. We had just gotten me this moped. I had just left our office, got pulled over,
Because the guy ran my plates and then they sentenced me to rehab. Nick brought me my stuff from Florida. That's when everything happened. I just don't want for people to think, oh, well, he's just strung out somewhere because he's definitely not. I firmly believe that he is not alive. I believe something happened to him. But I just don't want to shed the negative drug stigma on him because he was just not that.
Looking back on everything that had transpired, Holly can't help but wish she could go back and change the events that led up to Nick's disappearance. If none of that had happened, if she hadn't ended up in rehab, Nick wouldn't have been driving back and forth to visit her. The chain of circumstances that led to that moment seemed so fragile, and she often finds herself lost in those what-if or if-only thoughts.
It's a painful reality that many loved ones of the missing wrestle with, wondering how different things might be if they had made different choices or taken different paths.
It's just hard not to beat myself up because I feel like, well, if I would have never went to rehab, he would have never brought me my stuff to go to Mississippi and go back to Florida. I try not to take it that way, but we were doing really good. We were making a bunch of money. And being as that, we were making tens of thousands of dollars every two weeks. We didn't owe anybody money. There was none of that. There was no customers that he had owed money. That's why this is so hard for me is because he was a changed person.
Because he was so, so smart. He could use it in bad ways, but he changed and was using it for good and working his ass off and didn't need to rip anybody off or anything like that. I definitely thought about that. Everything was going super good.
Nick didn't get to see his mom in person very often, as they lived in different states, but Stacey said they were very close and kept in regular contact. From her perspective, Nick had been doing well, though his life had its ups and downs. From what she could tell, Nick seemed to be in a better place recently, stable, focused, and hopeful for the future. But as with many things in his life, the stability seemed fragile, and no one could have predicted how things would unravel so quickly.
It had been a little while since I'd seen him, maybe seven months. I think we were there to see them in August and he was gaining weight. There's definitely a physical component to that lifestyle and he looked really well. We FaceTimed sometimes.
several times a week. He was such a mama's boy that he was always telling me every little thing and especially the couple of weeks prior to this that Holly was away. I would talk to him more because
because it was just him and the dog. And so I felt like he was on the right path and doing well. But she said that he seemed fine, other than she said he had been a little anxious in recent weeks. But I, again, didn't think much about that because Nick did not do well on his own.
And since they were apart for that couple of weeks, him being anxious would make perfect sense to me. He is very codependent. Coming up on two weeks, he would have been missing her very much and would be, you know, a little out of sorts. Other than that, she thought he seemed fine. He said just his normal anxiety or anxiousness that it'll be another two weeks before I can join him again. And he couldn't stay here. He had to go back to work.
Don't let allergy season slow you down. Get common allergy meds for as little as $15 with GoodRx so you and your family can stop allergy symptoms before they start. GoodRx is free and easy to use. Just search for your prescription on the website or app, compare prices, and get a free coupon to show your pharmacist.
Save at over 70,000 local pharmacies nationwide, including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Publix, Kroger, and many more. Check GoodRx before every trip to the pharmacy to save up to 80% on both brand and generic medications. Did you know GoodRx rewards you for saving money too? Join us for a free trial today.
Join GoodRx Rewards today and earn points every time you use a coupon. Remember, GoodRx is not insurance, but works whether you have insurance or not, and it could even beat your copay price. I use GoodRx all the time, and I've found that it often beats my copay prices. Stop allergies before they start and save big on allergy medications this season with GoodRx. Go to GoodRx.com slash vanished. That's GoodRx.com slash vanished.
Audible ignites your next action-packed adventure with thrills of every kind on your command. Dive into The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. Massfully narrated by Jack Hawkins and Louise Brealey. From electrifying suspense and daring quests to spine-tingling horror and romance in far-off realms, unleash your adventurous side with gripping titles.
Discover exclusive Audible Originals, hotly anticipated new releases, and must-listen bestsellers that hook you from the first minute. Because Audible knows there's no greater thrill than the one that speaks to you. Discover what lies beyond the edge of your seat. Start your free 30-day trial at audible.com slash wonderypod. That's audible.com slash wonderypod.
When the Tesla was found, there were two phones inside. Stacey hoped that the devices may provide some answers, but unfortunately, neither phone has led to any further clues, leaving everyone with more questions than before. Stacey told us more about the items found inside the cars.
There were two phones in the vehicle. I think one was a work phone and one was his phone. I don't know what was found on them. I do know early on they said there was nothing of any help on the phones. But, I mean, his computer was in his office and there was other things and none of that was looked into. So I don't know. The whole thing just seemed odd to me. There was two phones, a receipt changed from a 20.
a drone in the backseat, which he had just purchased for work. And I think a couple of camping things were in the trunk. But he was an avid outdoorsman. He has worked as a guide in extreme hunting. He's been to Canada hunting. He's an extreme outdoorsman. He must have been taking stuff from home. And it wasn't like a lot of things. I think there was a cookware, like campfire cookware,
The Tesla was abandoned on a remote property not far from a prison. Since Nick disappeared, there have been no reported sightings of him, though the isolation of the area makes you wonder if anyone would have been around to see him. The location, so far off the beaten path, and the lack of witnesses or any clear evidence of his presence only adds to the eerie uncertainty of what happened.
I was told early on by a local reporter there, it was such a remote area. And because the prison is there, it would not be someone that you would be walking. And once you got so far, people would notice. What is someone doing walking out this far? That kind of thing. And no one could say anything about seeing anything.
During the investigation into Nick's disappearance, the Liberty County Sheriff's Office uncovered a puzzling clue from a license plate reader. The information seemed to offer a potential lead, but Stacey isn't sure what to make of it. It was an unexpected piece of the puzzle, yet it raised even more questions.
There is a license plate reader that is on the edge of town. And so when people enter the town, it would pick up a license plate. And there are only two roads into this little town. And
The Tesla shows coming around to this area where the license plate reader is. And then the Tesla turning around a bit before that and going all the way back around town. As far as space, geographically, it's a very large town because it backs up to National Forest. But the population and business type, it's a small town, but it just covers a lot of land.
So it shows it goes this way and then turns around and goes all the way back the other way to enter this town limits or city limit that is more populous and comes in town the other way, which seemed like it would be someone who knew that area to go back around. But it was just strange that...
They could have come right into this more industrialized area with businesses, but yet they turned around a little distance before that and went all the way back around this huge area to come into town the other way and drive to this turkey, which is where they found the car.
Holly told us more about her conversations with law enforcement regarding the information they had gotten from the license plate reader. She had no idea what to make of it, and neither did law enforcement, leaving everyone confused.
He said he wasn't being followed, but he was driving like he was being chased. I was like, what? I mean, I don't know. That stuck with me. And he said he was alone because that was one thing. I was like, if they have cameras and they can see somebody else in the car, are they sure it was him? I just assumed that it was him. I didn't think until later to ask, are you sure it was him? Or if they could even see that it was him, they didn't.
They did say that he was alone, so I guess they could see somebody in the car at least, but they said he was alone and he was not being followed, but he was driving like he was being chased. If whoever was driving wasn't being followed but was driving like they were being chased, then maybe it was not him and somebody that did just do something and was in a hurry to get rid of the car.
That's the only thing that makes sense to me. How do we know that it was him? And if it was somebody that was driving like they were being chased, maybe it was somebody else in the car. I just wish I could see the footage.
We reached out to the Liberty County Sheriff's Office to request an interview and records. While they never responded to our interview request, they did provide us with the records we asked for. These documents confirmed much of what Stacy and Holly had shared with us. The abandoned Tesla had been reported by a man who spotted it on his hunting lease, located northeast of Turkey Creek Road. The vehicle was found parked in the middle of an unnamed dirt road.
The deputy who responded to the scene began inspecting the car and noted the presence of two cell phones, along with clothing, a backpack, and a receipt from a McDonald's in Mariana, Florida. The report also mentioned the visible damage to the car, including a cracked windshield and damage to the hood. The officer theorized that the damage was caused by a large cable that was used as a makeshift gate on the road.
When the vehicle's license plate was run, it led officers back to the owner, who explained that the Tesla had been rented, but was overdue for return. He provided the officer with Stacy's phone number. The officer obtained permission from the vehicle's owner to search inside, and the owner was able to remotely unlock the car. That's when the officer located some identifying information for Nick, including a registration and a list of emergency contacts.
Further investigation revealed that the Tesla had passed a plate reader on Dempsey Barron Road at 8.24 p.m. on February 26, the night before the car was found. The officer contacted the owner once again to see if he could tell them when the vehicle came to a stop where it was abandoned. He said that it was between 1 and 2 a.m. Notably, the report stated that the car was found about four to five miles from the location of the plate reader. This
This raised an important question. If Nick was the person who was driving the vehicle, what had he been doing between 8.24 p.m. and 1 or 2 a.m., especially considering the short distance of 4 to 5 miles between the plate reader and where the car was ultimately abandoned? Officers canvassed the area for any footprints or other signs of Nick's presence, but found nothing. The Liberty Correctional K-9 tracking team was called in to assist, but their efforts to locate Nick were unsuccessful.
The same day, an aerial search was conducted with the assistance of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. But again, nothing of evidentiary value was found. Between February 27th and March 7th, additional searches were conducted by the canine team, Florida Fish and Wildlife, and the assistance from a neighboring county. Still, no new clues emerged. A phone dump was performed on Nick's phone.
but it provided no substantial leads. On March 7th, the Liberty County Sheriff's Office received footage from the Walton County Sheriff's Office, showing the Tesla at a charging station just off of the interstate. They could see a white male matching Nick's description around the vehicle, though the footage was too grainy to tell for sure, but the report notes that no other individuals were visible. On March 8th, a five-acre grid search was conducted near the Tesla's location, but again, nothing was found.
Given the McDonald's receipt discovered in the car, officers contacted the McDonald's in Mariana, along with other neighboring businesses. The footage from McDonald's was poor quality and only confirmed that a white male was the sole occupant of the vehicle. After leaving the McDonald's, the report notes that the car was seen traveling east on Interstate 10, the direction Nick should have taken to return the vehicle. The question remained, if Nick did get back on the interstate, did he exit further down the road?
and somehow end up at the hunting lease? If that's what happened, why did he exit the interstate and head in that direction instead? Additionally, footage from a nearby barbecue restaurant showed the Tesla at the charging station, then entering the McDonald's drive-thru, before moving out of view. The driver was never visible in the footage.
The vehicle was towed for processing to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on March 9th. All evidence was collected and placed into evidence, but no further reports of testing results were included in the records we received. And that's where the records end. Stacey has spent the last two years going over the few clues that Nick left behind, and she often finds herself questioning one unsettling thought. Was it truly Nick who abandoned the Tesla in Liberty County? As our family...
Mostly my daughter and myself have tried to figure out what has happened. It is our belief that it was not Nick who drove the car to Liberty County. Whatever happened, happened either in that Marietta, Florida charging station, McDonald's area or something. But Nick was not the one who drove the car to Liberty.
Liberty County. I know that the car was found at like 1030 in the morning and they did all that all day. So it was within hours, which was another indication that he was not there.
But somehow the car got there because they used something like a shirt or something, maybe something out of his backpack and couldn't pick up the scent. So it would seem like he wasn't there because you can't disguise that.
Holly, too, struggles to reconcile the few clues they've collected. What could it all mean? If it was Nick driving the Tesla, why did he go so far off course? Why would he have turned down that remote dirt road, well off of the route he should have been on? It doesn't make sense to her. Nick had always been practical, and a wrong turn would have been easy to correct, especially given how close he was to the interstate.
Holly finds herself haunted by these questions, wondering if something went terribly wrong during Nick's drive, or if there's more to the story that no one can yet explain.
He's definitely not one to get lost. He knows his way around. He's been all over the United States. He could tell you how to get from anywhere and what roads. He did not get lost. He would have had to have known he was going the wrong way. It is just so weird because I've talked to Officer Chase Taylor a lot because he's over the case and just how many weird circumstances there are. He said they have cameras showing who comes in the county and leaves the county, and he
And he said that he had drove an hour outside of the county and then turned around and came back. He was driving like he was being chased. I don't know what he meant by that, but that's what he said. It's very weird because I don't even know what to make of that. I was like, well, maybe he picks somebody up because I do that. He would never do that, but he knows that I do that, pick people up that are stranded. I didn't know if maybe that happened, but then...
Officer Chase Taylor told me, he said, it's illegal to walk on the interstate where he pulled off of to end up in this sandy area where the car was found. He said he just doesn't think that that's what happened. Because that's what other people seem to think too. From what they said, it drove through a private property cable and cracked the windshield, messed up the paint, and then was drove another four miles past that after that happened. That
That's what makes me think right there. Somebody did something to him somewhere else and ditched the car there because I just feel like it was such a hidden area. I just feel like somebody that knew the area ditched the car there. Nick would not have known where that was. That's just the only thing that makes sense to me. Of course, I feel like I'll never know, but that's just what I feel strongly about.
And I asked Officer Taylor about that because he's called me. What do you think has happened? And he was like, the crime rate here is so low. There hasn't been a murder here in years and years. And I was like, I guess that doesn't mean that one couldn't happen. Nick would have not ended up there and he would have never left his phone. He just wouldn't have left that stuff there. I just feel like it wasn't him that put the car there. He was just headed back to our office in Sarasota. He had only made it three hours away from Mississippi, but hours away from Sarasota.
I just feel like he stopped somewhere. He's just such a big guy. Unfortunately, women go missing. I mean, I know men do too, but it's just so hard for me to see how a veteran guy that's as big as he is, something like that can happen to him. But I just wish I knew. And another thing that just doesn't make any sense is because Officer Taylor told me that the car was found in a sandy lot, but there was no footprints outside the car. How is that possible? They
They searched by thermal imaging with the helicopter like three times, did a grid search. That's just what makes me think that something happened somewhere else and somebody that knew the area ditched the car there. But I just don't understand how there's no footprints or other tire marks. I was like, was there blood in the car? And he said, no, there was no blood. So, I mean, that made me feel better for a second.
If it was Nick behind the wheel of the Tesla, was he alone in the car? As far as anyone knew, Nick wasn't in the company of anyone else. No one had reported hearing another voice when they spoke to Nick over the phone. And the grainy surveillance footage seemed to show him alone. At least the person on camera appeared to be by himself. But the footage was poor quality, making it difficult to confirm any details with certainty. Could Nick have picked someone up along the way?
Stacey confirmed that Nick had been alone during his brief stay in Mississippi, but that still leaves room for other questions. Could someone have joined him during his drive back to Florida? And if so, who were they? The lack of any clear evidence of another person, coupled with the poor quality footage, only leaves more unanswered questions.
Once he got to Gulfport, he stayed that night at his house, and the landlord was able to confirm that. He spent the night at the landlord's home. He could just look out a certain part of his house and see lights on and movement. Nick came to see him the next morning, paid the rent, and it was just Nick.
Stacy mentioned that she's never had a chance to review the footage from the McDonald's and expressed a desire to see it for herself. She believes that doing so would give her clarity and allow her to determine with certainty whether it was Nick driving the Tesla at that time.
I wish that I could see the video from McDonald's because it may be grainy and unrecognizable, but his walk, even when our kids were younger, the boys would be upstairs. If Nick walked across the floor...
I knew that it was Nick. He just walked sort of awkward. He was a nice looking guy, but he was also sort of goofy. He had this walk and his daughter has the same walk. Heavy footed, but it's exactly how Nick walked. With his shoulders sort of forward and he was a tall guy and he had long arms. He was sort of lanky. I would know his walk. And so in my mind, that would just help narrow because that's a long stretch knowing where to look at things.
614 miles. If we can narrow it even a couple hundred and then maybe find something else, I would know his walk, even if I couldn't see his face. Could Nick have made a wrong turn and ended up lost and stranded in Liberty County? While that theory seems unlikely, especially given the numerous chances he had to turn around, Stacey has still considered the possibility. He was an avid outdoorsman and I
His friends that he had hunted across the country and into Canada were contacting us saying, hang in there because if anyone could survive in the wilderness, Nick could do it. But they said that one side they felt was really impassable because of the thickness of the marsh and the...
what have you, and water. Those were the things that they indicated is the reason they did that five acre. They went just about 100 foot on either side of those ravine type marshy areas.
It's treachery and that kind of thing. Also, on that one side, as I mentioned, I don't know the exact proximity of that, but the prison was down however far. So there would not have been any place to go. And I don't know if he was on the edge of this punching preserve or the edge of this 25,000 acres or whatever. But I know that that was a factor on one side. Then you encountered prison grounds.
One reason Stacey finds it difficult to believe that Nick got lost is that he had all of the technology he could need at his disposal. With two phones and the Tesla's features, it seems unlikely he'd get lost. The Tesla owner was also reaching out to Nick, and Stacey can't come up with a reasonable explanation for why Nick stopped responding. If he had needed directions, he could have easily used the car's systems to get back on track.
He was able to see location or whatever. The Tesla owner indicates on communication through the Turo app. He says, why are you going off the wrong way? And there's not a charging area back there. Indicating you're going to get out there and get stuck because there's no chargers out there. Nick doesn't respond.
Technology was not something he shied away from. He was often saying, did you know your iPhone could do this? Being lost or anything like that, there's no way because he had a charge on his phone and he had a charge on the car. So if he were in trouble in those ways, he would have definitely. Also, my understanding is there's route assistance on
on that model of Tesla. What I don't understand on this, I have a couple of friends here in town that have Teslas. They have cameras on the outside and even some on the inside. And I would think, again, this is just occurring to me as I'm saying it out loud, because it's such an emotional issue that...
Often your mind can't think logically because it's so clouded with emotion and trying to keep panic in check. But if you had a rental, a vehicle of upwards of $60,000 that you leased out to people, even with a deposit or credit card, I would think you would have the cameras enabled to protect your property.
It's true that Teslas are equipped with cameras, and footage from the vehicle could potentially be a key piece in solving this case. However, it remains unclear whether the cameras were disabled or if the footage was lost because it wasn't retrieved in time. What Holly was told is that they were ultimately unable to obtain any video from the Tesla on the night that Nick vanished.
Somebody was like, Teslas have cameras all over them. And I didn't know that. So when I had found out about it, probably like four or five months ago, I asked him, Officer Taylor. And he said, unfortunately, we couldn't get any information off of the cameras. And also, Nick had an Apple Watch on. And I didn't think of that till like a year. I was just in such a panic mode. I didn't even think the cops had his phone. They could have searched on his phone for his Apple Watch, but that didn't happen either.
There's just a lot of things that I wish I would have known then that I know now. Holly also struggles to understand why Nick would suddenly stop communicating with the Tesla's owner. Up until that point, there had been consistent interaction. So the abrupt silence raises more questions for her. It's hard to make sense of why he would cut off contact for seemingly no reason at all.
I was begging him to stay. I was like, they're going to let me see you in a couple days. Please don't go back yet. He was just adamant. I have to get this car back. And so I know that he was in contact with him. The guy had messaged him and said, why are you going that way? There's no charging stations that way. And then never got a response back.
One question we asked Holly, given her familiarity with Nick's habits, was whether it would have been like him to seek out drugs in a random place while traveling, or if that kind of behavior would have been completely out of character. This is what she told us.
He would have never just met up with a random stranger. No. We had a lot to lose, and he knew how serious I was about getting clean, and he would have never just went to somebody's house. Because, I mean, he was in an area where he knew nobody, where nobody would have known where he was at, but nobody would also have been looking for him because he hadn't ripped anybody off.
We had worked for years to do everything the right way, and so there's a zero percent chance somebody would have been looking for him to do anything to him that he knew. Since Nick was a Mississippi resident working in Florida, and the car was ultimately discovered in Liberty County, Florida, Stacey said the case has been complicated by jurisdictional challenges, issues she's still trying to navigate even now, more than two years later.
The last communication with Liberty County Sheriff's Department, which has been well over a year since we've had any return phone calls, gotten anyone on the phone, anything like that, but our understanding is
He had to be reported missing in the area that he was last confirmed to be in. The last person to see him that we can confirm was in Gulfport. So Gulfport had to be the one to have lead on the case and declare him a missing person, which, you know, was hours back the other direction.
And it's trying to get anyone to communicate about anything. I don't understand all that because a lot can happen in nine hours and over the course of that distance. It just didn't seem to make sense to me. But I have heard while listening to your podcast, I am familiar with that being an issue across the state line and back and forth, which is unfortunate.
And my thinking early on was we tried to give Liberty County. We weren't calling every five minutes, even though we wanted to. I know that they have to investigate things. So consoling a mother or family hours away has to take a backseat to Liberty.
Them trying to figure out what has happened and ultimately where he is. And Liberty County is such a small place and their crime rate is just minute compared to Gulfport. So I felt better at the time that Liberty County, they had more attention on it.
maybe smaller resources, but their resources, they were more directed toward a smaller caseload. Where Gulfport, the crime rate there is crazy. And there's always someone missing, murdered. Violent crime is really high there. I just felt like he would be one of an insurmountable number of cases.
I've been corresponding with the director of Mississippi Repository for Missing Persons, I think it's called. So they told me about NCIC and NamUs. They were able to get some things corrected on their website, but they said I had to have, it has to be an officer with a case number to get him listed on.
I thought, well, I can't even get them to call me back. There is nothing that is too bizarre because this is the world we live in. Things turn up maybe not even where you're looking. That's why a national database was created, because things aren't always in these nice little packages. So I had tracked along that highway and just through every county, I
I check in every other week with every county's coroner's office. On their websites, you can search through their unclaimed bodies. I tried to get cadaver dogs early on to go through the area over there.
where the car was found. Most of the time, they're nonprofits. I certainly do not have a great deal of resources, but if you will just tell me what it is, I will find it. I will come up with whatever. And that wasn't the issue, but the three we contacted, they just stopped calling us back. My daughter is relentless. I have to emotionally, I just can't
keep it together day after day after day. So I have to do it as I am able to call because getting frustrated with someone on the other end of the phone, it does no good to get them frustrated with you because then you get nowhere. Who doesn't feel bad for someone that has lost a family member? Compassion, there's not a shortage of that, but there's just a shortage of effort.
or action. But now, like I said, it's been well over a year since I've gotten anyone to call me back. And that's just baffling to me because the truth is whatever it is. And whatever that is, is really all there is. So if you don't have anything, you don't have anything. But totally disregarding us is just unacceptable.
For the past two years, Holly has replayed countless scenarios in her mind, searching over and over for the answers. But no matter how many possibilities she considers, none of them seem to offer a reasonable explanation for her husband's disappearance.
Any scenario, still, it's been two years and I just still just sit here and play over and over in my head what could have happened. But I have to make myself stop because I'll just drive myself crazy because I had a feeling from the beginning. Everyone was like, oh, he'll pop up, he'll pop up. But I just had a feeling that I was never going to find out what happened to him. Something told me that I'm never going to know. And that's the worst feeling is not knowing. I watch the news a lot and have news apps. A notification will pop up, remember?
remains have been found. I Google how far away that area is from where the car was found. That happens a couple times a week. Maybe that's him. When this all first happened, his
His mom, I remember, she's like, I don't think he made it out of those woods. Why would he just be dead in the woods? Unless somebody did something to him. I just strongly felt like he was not in the woods, but I still didn't know where the hell he was. I mean, it was just for such a big man to just disappear out of freaking thin air. I could see why she thought that, but I knew they'd already done thermal imaging and they found nothing. So Officer Chase Taylor, he's literally just called me before and we've
We've talked on the phone for over an hour that day. He's like, I'm just really sorry. I haven't been able to solve this for you. I run his name every couple of weeks to see if he's had any running with law enforcement. I firmly believe that he is not alive because there's just no way he could be. We were literally together 24-7. We lived together. We worked together. We did not leave each other's side. We were so close. When I got arrested, he came and slept at the jail. If
If he was gone on his own will, I would be with him. He's definitely not gone on his own will. He's not just out there living life somewhere. I know a lot of people think that he's just out there doing drugs, but that's 1000% not. He would have never left on purpose. He wouldn't have got lost. He had two phones and GPS, and he was so good with directions. He would have known how to get back on the interstate, especially if it was right off the interstate. It is
It just doesn't make any sense. Me and my therapist, we were like, it's like he got abducted by aliens. And then the next day I was talking to Chase Taylor and he was like, it's like he got abducted by aliens. Because I mean, he just vanished out of complete thin air with literally no trace. How does that happen to a grown man?
So what happened to Nick Downey after he left Mississippi to head back to Florida in order to return the vehicle he had rented? We know that on Sunday, February 26, 2023, Nick had been in contact with Stacy, Holly, and the owner of the Tesla. Everything seemed normal until it wasn't. Suddenly, all contact stopped. The Tesla owner, tracking the vehicle remotely, watched as Nick veered off course and tried to reach out, but received no response.
Surveillance footage captured the Tesla near a McDonald's just off of Interstate 10.
which was the correct route to Nick's intended destination. Although the video was too grainy to definitively confirm the driver's identity, the white male seen in the footage did match Nick's general description. According to Sheriff's Office records, the Tesla did return to Interstate 10, but by the next morning it was found abandoned, approximately 36 miles southeast of the McDonald's and charging station where it had last been seen.
It was far off course, and no one knows why. Nick didn't know anyone in that area. He had no reason to be there. Could Nick have gotten lost? It's possible. But with two smartphones and in-car GPS, it's difficult to believe he simply got turned around without correcting course.
When deputies responded to the scene, they found the Tesla abandoned on a remote hunting lease. The car was damaged, apparently from driving under a makeshift gate. Inside they found Nick's belongings: the phones, clothing, and other personal items. There was no sign of a struggle, no blood, nothing to suggest a crime had occurred inside the vehicle. But what stood out was the absence of expected clues. No footprints in the sand, no tire tracks nearby.
Absolutely nothing. Deputies quickly called in a canine tracking team from a nearby correctional facility, but the dogs couldn't pick up Nick's scent. When that search came up empty, helicopters were called out to scan the area. In the days that followed, the search efforts grew. The canine tracking team tried again. Ground crews conducted grid searches, yet not a single trace of Nick was ever found.
Only the abandoned vehicle. A license plate reader showed that the Tesla was spotted at 8.24 p.m. on Sunday night. Vehicle data provided by the owner revealed it came to a stop at the final location between 1 and 2 a.m. But here's the strange part. Those two points were between four and five miles apart. So if Nick was the one driving...
What had he been doing for all of those hours? The mystery of Nick Downey's disappearance continues to haunt both his loved ones and law enforcement. Despite the pieces of the puzzle that they've gathered, no one has been able to put them together in a way that makes sense. Today, they hold on to hope that by sharing Nick's story, that it might compel someone, anyone with information to come forward.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Nicholas Downey, please contact the Liberty County Sheriff's Office at 850-643-2235. So many things have popped up as you think more.
your mind tries to reconcile what's happening and coming up on two years lots of questions more questions come up and we've not had any information from the very beginning
I've mapped it out because I checked through coroner's offices along that route. Just anything to get it narrowed down, just being able to find him, it just seems crazy that there's nothing.
I mean, unfortunately, I'm thankful that it's under such odd circumstances because I feel like that's what's made them care. They wanted to figure out what the heck happened. No footprints. I remember thinking that that was weird because how did they not find tracks? How did he just get out of the car if it was him that put the car there and just flowed away, you know, with no footprints? That doesn't make sense. That's part of the reason why I just
sit here and play scenarios over and over my head. How is that even possible? When I talked to Officer Taylor about it, he just says how low the crime rate is there, and I don't feel like that really matters. Anything could happen anywhere, no matter the crime rate, because something did happen, clearly, or else he wouldn't be missing. ♪♪
That brings us to the end of episode 485. I'd like to thank Holly and Stacey for speaking with us. 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 at thevanishedpodcast.com.
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 Washington. Thanks for listening.
If you like The Vanished, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect... He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione. ...became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history. I was targeted...
premeditated and meant to sow terror. I'm Jesse Weber, host of Luigi, produced by Law & Crime and Twist. This is more than a true crime investigation. We explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever. He's awoken the people to a true issue.
Finally, maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our health care system. Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery+. You can join Wondery in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.