When I came through Customs, they asked me the purpose of my visit. I told them about my son and the Customs officer there had already known about his disappearance, which was kind of hopeful to me when I first arrived that they were at least looking for him. They had a picture of him there at the Customs office.

office. I came through on a ship. We actually went to some of the ships, passed out flyers to them. We just did a whole lot. Just no results. There's nothing. But we kept bringing up our concerns to the RCMP. To me, you got to do your job and rule it out.

This is really the perfect storm and worst case scenario for someone's disappearance. You're in the middle of nowhere. It's a different police force that you're not familiar with as far as being American. You don't really know the people. There's all of these strange things happening in conjunction with the situation.

Nick has a son that just graduated. That was the other red flag. He missed his birthday, which was July 7th. If he had just walked off or anything, we believe he definitely would have contacted his son.

Last week, we brought you part one of Nicholas Marion's story. You learned about his life growing up in the Orlando, Florida area, and his eventual move to British Columbia after marrying a woman from there. After relocating, the distance between Nick and his loved ones in the U.S. seemed to widen. In retrospect, Nick appeared increasingly isolated and dependent on his new wife. Months before his disappearance, Nick's mother passed away, and while he remained strong for those around him,

The emotional toll began to show over time. In June 2024, Nick and his wife traveled to Yubo, British Columbia, to attend the Lake Town Shakedown Festival, staying at a property owned by one of her friends. His wife said that Nick was struggling that weekend and didn't even want to go. Nick's wife said that he left early Sunday morning to go for a walk and never returned, and

and she ultimately reported him missing later that day. Nick's family quickly made their way to Canada upon hearing of his disappearance, diving headfirst into the search efforts. But as they began to ask questions, doubts started to surface about the details they were being told. Was everything truly as it seemed, or was there more to Nick's disappearance than anyone realized?

I'm Marissa, and from Wondery, this is episode 481 of The Vanished, Nicholas Marion's story part two, Breaking Point.

As a dog owner, I've tried countless pet foods, but nothing compares to Ollie. Ollie delivers clean, fresh nutrition in five drool-worthy flavors made in U.S. kitchens with human-grade ingredients. No fillers, no preservatives, just real food that's gently cooked and delivered fresh. From fresh beef with sweet potatoes to fresh lamb with cranberries, your dog might eat better than you do. And with Ollie's personalized meal plans and unlimited routine health screenings,

You're not just feeding your dog, you're investing in their long-term health and happiness. If you're like me, your dogs are part of the family, and you want to make sure they're well taken care of. That's why I switched to Ollie for my dogs, and they love it. Just fill out Ollie's 30-second quiz to get started. For any first-timers, Ollie will send out your pup's first box with two weeks' worth of meals and a guide of how to gradually switch them over to their new diet.

Dogs deserve the best, and that means fresh, healthy food. Head over to ollie.com slash vanished. Tell them about your dog and use code VANISHED to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus, they offer a clean bowl guarantee on the first box, so if you're not completely satisfied, you'll get your money back. That's O-L-L-I-E dot com slash vanished, and enter code VANISHED to get 60% off your first box.

Hi, this is Steve Buscemi, you know, the actor. Well, now I'm an actor and podcast host. From piece of work entertainment and campsite media in association with Olive Productions comes Big Time, an Apple original podcast. Each episode follows the story of one misfit with big dreams who isn't afraid to bend a few rules or take a shortcut to get there. Well, who steals bees? I was duped. I shoot you in the leg.

This is Big Time. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.

At the end of part one, you heard Nick's father Carl describe shocking phone calls and text messages that he received from the son of Nick's wife. When this situation occurred, Carl went directly to Dory to confront her about her son's actions. He felt it was important to address the tension and clear the air, especially given the gravity of the situation. Carl was hoping to understand why things had escalated the way they did, and he wanted to make sure that everyone involved was focused on finding Nick, rather than

Rather than getting caught up in personal conflicts, it was a difficult conversation, but Carl believed it was necessary in order to move forward and ensure that their primary concern, finding Nick, remained the focal point.

I said, why is your son calling me with all this animosity against Nick and all these racial slurs about my son? And then he told me that my son was dead in the woods and I needed to deal with it. Does he know something that I don't know? And she's like, no, he's just emotional. And he was upset because he's been taking on the burden of helping find Nick and doesn't feel appreciated. I'm like, yeah, but to say those words are something that just spills out your mouth like that.

I mean, I don't care how emotional you are. The words like that, you said he had poison blood. My whole family had poison blood. And that's why Nick's gone and all this. I mean, you don't say that. I mean, I can understand, like, I'm not being appreciated. I'm doing all I can to help find your son. And I feel like I'm not being appreciated. I could understand a comment like that. But the words he said, he's not 10. He's 24.

The RCMP apparently didn't see that or think that was anything and just basically said, "Yeah, Dory explained to us how upset he was and he feels really bad for saying that." None of us bought that. I'd seen the RCMP bought that unless they're keeping their cards close to their chest. As I was wondering more about the Canadian laws that they don't really disclose a lot of their investigation during the investigation.

I'm hopeful that that's what's happening and they're just not making us aware of what they're doing behind the scenes. But from our perspective, it appears that they're not doing all that needed to be done. And it's been careless because so much time has elapsed.

The home that he resided in has never been searched. See if any foul play was there. There's just a number of things that didn't take place that now could be cleaned up by, you know, a blind man. There's something that just not sitting right about the whole story.

Marilyn and Cola were also completely stunned when things took such a drastic turn with Dory's son. The situation was not only entirely unexpected, but felt utterly unnecessary, especially at a time when they were all focused on finding Nick. The added tension only intensified an already overwhelming situation, leaving them shaken and frustrated.

In the beginning, I really never thought that there would be so much resentment from them about them being together. But as things have unfolded and as we are now in present, it seemed to be a lot of turmoil, a lot of resentment. The kids lived with their dad while Dory was here. Dory was here for quite a while, months before they finally went back to Canada.

And kind of had to start over by living with her mom because she obviously wasn't going to go back to the home that she was married and raised her kids in. The older son has made it extremely clear that he doesn't give a care in the world that Nick's missing and has said some things.

very hard, rough things. I know that when Kelly was diagnosed, Nick had a really hard time with that. He was her firstborn. They were extremely close. And he had a really hard time dealing and grasping and understanding that it was going to end. It was

It was a terminal illness. At one point, the oldest son said, get over it. Get over it. People die every day. That was kind of the relationship. He told me about his issues with Sebastian. Because Sebastian, I guess, would also say really mean things to his mom, too. It wasn't even just directed at Nick specifically. He was pretty mean to both of them. My son had visited us.

Out there, they're very close, brotherly versus cousins. And I know he had witnessed a couple of times because myself not knowing when I flew out there when he was missing, I had mentioned Sebastian and Simon was like, he's a bad guy.

He kind of had already formed red flags about him and I was unaware prior. So when he was out there, there must have been some kind of tension or something that he was aware of. Even on the phone when I talked to Nick and Dory was on the phone with Nick, they disclosed that it was a pretty rough relationship between them and her oldest son.

that there had been some things in the past. And actually, the comment about get over it, people die every day, Dory was actually the one who told me on the phone with Nick what her son said. So it wasn't even Nick that was trying to talk bad about Sebastian.

As things progressed, the circumstances became increasingly strange. Dory's son appeared to be taking control, steering events in a direction that felt unsettling. Cola was there to search for her brother, not get caught up in unnecessary drama. With everything unfolding so quickly, it was hard to understand the motivations behind certain behaviors, making it even more difficult to focus on the one thing that mattered most, finding Nick.

At first, he was very controlling of Dory. You couldn't talk to her unless you went through him. Him and her brother. She was between them. So they were very guarded about anybody and everybody. So I feel like that was very odd. But I think that it just started to show itself. He was very cocky, not upset. You couldn't see any emotion on him.

It was just very aloof. There was no, I'm so sorry, Carl. He called him with a horrible, horrific exchange between the two of them about what a loser Carl is and that his son's probably dead. It was worse than that.

When my dad came out to Canada, we met with Dory and Sebastian for like two seconds, kind of like Marilyn said, he was very protective over Dory. Dory didn't even show up to the last day of the SARS meeting when they said they were calling off the search. She wasn't there. Sebastian had taken her to go meet with somebody. The leader of the SARS team literally talked to me and my dad and said, well, Dory has to figure out what life looks like without Nick and she needs to get a lawyer.

And then we met with them for breakfast to come up with a course of action. My dad paid for everybody's breakfast. My dad gave them money to go print off more flyers for Nick. My dad was being very kind and very nice. At this point, they had raised over $10,000. Our family is

As soon as Nick was missing and there was a GoFundMe, all of us were donating because we were under the impression that that money was going to be used as resources to find Nick so that we could hire drones if we needed to, so that we could use it to get a PI if we needed to. That money was being raised so that we find Nick.

It was not. And so when my dad and I were there the first week, he was messaging Sebastian like, hey, will you look into some drone companies that are out here? Because we're in a foreign country. We don't know who's who. It's going to Dory, apparently. But she posted that she hired teams to look for Nick when every single person that has been out there to look for Nick have been volunteers. At one point, I had

suggested when we had that Zoom meeting with her, informing her that we were interested in getting a private investigator, I had suggested, let's use some of that. And she explained that that was for lodging. Since she didn't physically live in this area, Yubo, she had to pay for places to stay and this and that.

And he flipped out about that because we were saying we could use some of the money that's raised to help find Nick to hire a drone team. We can cover more ground in the woods. That was the conversation to where he responded back to my dad, calling me an angry dyke, calling Nick's first wife, the C word, C-U-N-T, saying that my dad was a deadbeat dad.

And this is all over text messages. And I have all of those text messages too. Then he calls my dad after those text messages because my dad's like, what the hell is going on? Just starts cussing at my dad. Nick's dead in the woods. Deal with it. With his little thing that he likes to say, deal with it, deal with it. And my dad was on the phone like, why do you say that? What do you know? My dad was being calm until it got to a point where he's like, you have poison blood. Your whole family has poison blood. That's why Nick did this. And he's dead in the woods and deal with it.

And my dad's like, why don't you come over here and say that in my face? Then it got to that point. But at first, this was all coming from him. And it was just so much animosity and anger.

Who comes out to a missing person's father and says all that? This happened the day after we went around to hospitals and shelters. The day after somebody said they found footprints, we went to go meet them and go through a whole hike. Me and my dad were hiking all morning long. We get back, let's just take a little nap and then we'll get back out there. After taking a nap, this is what my dad woke up to from Sebastian, unprovoked, completely unprovoked. It was crazy and so unnecessary.

Cola shared with us a series of text messages that were sent to her father by Dory's older son, Sebastian. The messages were deeply aggressive, threatening, graphic, homophobic, and downright mean. We decided to share these graphic text messages to provide context and demonstrate the difficult and hostile environment that Nick's family was subjected to during their search for him. The language and tone in these messages reveal the level of aggression they encountered, which only added to the already overwhelming situation.

The tone seemed to be an overbearing attempt to protect his mother, with little regard for anyone else. He instructed Carl to manage Cola and Nick's ex-wife, adding that his mother didn't need dramatic children, adding more stress to her life. If they couldn't be kind and patient, then fuck right off, ending the text with, I won't say it again. A follow-up message read,

If I hear one more thing about Cola or that terrible woman calling my mom with anything but compassion, I will cause a fucking scene. Deal with it. Carl had not yet responded. When several other texts were sent, these messages read, Do you understand me? I'm not fucking around. You don't want me making y'all's life even harder than it already is right now. Tell those angry bitches to pipe the fuck down or I'll get the cops involved. And you can continue your search efforts from the States.

you're a little bitch, couldn't be a half-decent father for 38 years.

and taking it out on me and my family. Not a real man by any stretch of the imagination. A soft little bitch. Your angry dyke daughter is a bigger man than you. Carl responded, None of your childish words are stopping us from finding out the truth, my friend. Dory's son wrote back again, Police are aware of your violent threats. You're incredibly unintelligent and taught your kids how to be just like you. That's why he did this.

That text ended with a smiley face. The next one said, Have the day you deserve. Reading these messages, the anger and hostility were palpable. And it's easy to understand why Nick's family felt that these messages were red flags. There was yet another perplexing layer to this situation. When Cola went to the RCMP to voice her concerns about Dory's son, she said she was met with a response that didn't align with the facts. The officers told her something that she knew to be untrue.

They just trusted his word. Did they look into it to verify that he actually had an alibi and was where he said he was? Doubtful, because when I sat down with RCMP with my dad, Officer Pratt told me that Nick and Sebastian had never met. So that's what they told him, that Nick didn't even know Sebastian. I said, that's a lie. Two years ago, I met Sebastian with Nick when I came to visit.

And they've had issues with each other for quite a long time. So to say they never met is odd. He also said that Sebastian and Dory weren't even speaking when Nick went missing. He used the word they were estranged. But he also used the word estranged when he referred to Nick and his family here in the States. We were estranged. And that's not true either. We're not estranged from Nick. We were never estranged from Nick. We all talked to Nick often.

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 Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify or Apple podcasts. Imagine this. You help your little brother land a great job abroad. But when he arrives, the job doesn't exist.

Instead, he's trapped in a heavily guarded compound, forced to sit at a computer and scam innocent victims, all while armed guards stand by with shoot-to-kill orders. Scam Factory, the explosive new true crime podcast from Wondery, exposes a multi-billion dollar criminal empire operating in plain sight.

told through one family's harrowing account of sleepless nights, desperate phone calls, and dangerous rescue attempts. Scam Factory reveals a brutal truth. The only way out is to scam their way out. Follow Scam Factory on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.

There was a noticeable shift in Nick's behavior after he moved to Canada. With his family so far away, they were unable to witness the changes in him on a daily basis or fully grasp what was driving them. Some family members had visited Nick, but their time with him was limited, offering only brief glimpses into his life after the move.

When they traveled to search for him, however, they began hearing stories that didn't align with what they knew of Nick, deepening the uncertainty and raising even more questions about his life in Canada. I think we totally surprised her the way that we reacted and got our asses out there immediately. I think that caught her off guard. She wasn't expecting that for us to be in the trenches and we're here to look for Nick.

I think it kind of changed how it was going to play out. I was staying at a hotel and her mom was a block away and Dory coordinated, oh, my mom wants to meet you. My mom wants to meet you. So I said, well, I'll go down and have a drink. And the mom started to explain to me how they came to live with her, Nick, their

thinking he could slick talk her, calling her mom or what have you. She's like, I'm not your mom. You're going to have to do better than that. Your mom's a little hard, I guess, in that situation. And she started then telling me about all the traumas that Nick had with his family and how he's had to isolate himself. And that's why he went to Canada.

which is not true, and started bad-mouthing Kelly, his mom, to the point where it really upset me. And I explained to her that if she was in good health, she would have walked to Canada to find her son. You're getting the wrong narrative. I don't know if it's from your daughter or from Nick, but you need to start asking real questions because that is not the situation.

It ended on a rough note a day after I did apologize to her, but I was beside myself that she would even fix her mouth to talk about my sister like that. When I know the truth, truth, it was...

It was very disheartening. He would send groceries when Kelly was so sick that she couldn't go to the grocery store anymore and have them delivered to the house. He's the most loving, biggest heart. And that was him growing up. He was always just very sensitive and loving. And for this to have unfolded the way it did was just so appalling to me.

Once he got there, I don't know what happened, but everything had changed as far as he wasn't able to come see us ever and just morphed into, I guess, her being mom and Dory being his wife. It was crazy the way it all unfolded.

And then when we went to go see him and Kelly was sick, he was just this light up the room, definitely controlled situation because of their dynamics. But it was still that sweet, happy-go-lucky, tell jokes for it to spin into this a year later. And now he's missing.

Doesn't make sense. So it's almost like once they snuck him into Canada, however he got into Canada, like the police said, we have no record of him entering Canada.

Don't know how they pulled that off, but he was never able to leave. I know that when we felt like the police weren't doing anything, my son had called immigration to put in a report just because we thought, hey, if he's really trying to escape...

and get wherever, immigration will put a hotspot on him. But unfortunately, if it's not a crime committed, they don't really go looking for you, but overstate his visit type of situation. But again, that was not fruitful because no one's seen him.

Considering the known circumstances of Nick's disappearance, we wondered if Nick had a history of mental health challenges. Was this part of a larger pattern, or was this behavior that his wife described something new? We asked Cola about this, and she said the only time she ever saw Nick struggle with his mental health was toward the end of his first marriage. Nick was 27 years old at the time and having some difficulty processing the end of his marriage.

While visiting Cola in Texas, she took Nick to the hospital. He later returned to Florida with their mother and took medication for a few weeks. But Cola emphasized that this was a temporary situation, triggered by the stress of his divorce. It wasn't an ongoing issue, and after that, Nick seemed to recover and move on with his life.

Cola wonders if Nick was being isolated from his family leading up to his disappearance. They had always been close, but now he wasn't communicating much. There's a piece of writing, allegedly penned by Nick, that Cola finds troubling. She isn't certain exactly when this was written, but it states,

I will learn something new today. I will plan for tomorrow so we can be successful. I will try to only manifest greatness, blissfulness, and absolute love. I will solve a problem that can be solved. I will think and take my time before speaking out loud. Cola has read this over and over and wonders why Nick would write that he wouldn't talk about his family. When Nick disappeared, he left his phone behind. However, his family began receiving text messages from a number that they believed to be Nick's.

it was turned into RCMP and there was some miscommunication there because the phone was turned in and then people in our family were still getting text messages from Nick's phone when RCMP had it. So me and my dad showed up. What phone did she give you? Because we just got a text message from Nick. She would text me on his thread and

And then I'd be like, what are you doing? Stop. This is Nick's phone. She pulled it off like, oh, this is the business phone. I don't know if Nick had a separate personal phone or not, but the phone that they took was the business phone. What RCMP told us was that he was using a text me now app.

app to communicate. So the phone number that we all have saved for Nick was a phone number that was on text me now, which I guess story had the login to because she was still texting us from that phone number. That was Nick's phone number while RCMP had the phone. We weren't aware at the time because we were just, if she gave you the phone, how is he texting us right now? Which was another traumatic thing during that time.

Of course, every time because I've got him programmed as Nicholas with a blue heart. So every time it would pop up, I was thinking, oh, my gosh, it's Nick. But it would be her saying, oh, I'm going home for the day. Why are you using Nick's phone number to contact us when you have a phone and we have your phone number?

Cola has remained hypervigilant, constantly looking for any inconsistencies or clues. But as the months have passed since Nick's disappearance, the emotional and mental toll on her has become increasingly evident.

Right before my dad and I left, we were talking to a PI. We wanted somebody to help figure out what's going on and get some answers because my dad and I would go to RCMP. Hey, this doesn't add up. We found this that contradicts that story. We need to hire somebody that's going to help us get some answers. So me and my dad and the PI went to actually go check out the property where they were staying and found

As soon as we got out of the car and started walking towards the property, her friend and her friend's husband, they came out when we were there and we were like, hey, do you mind if we just look in the trailer they were staying to see if we see anything? And they were like, yeah. The neighbor called us and let us know that somebody was on our property. So we came out, feel free to look, and they left right away. The friend was pretty closed off. It wasn't like she was extremely talkative, so she wasn't giving a lot of...

of information. They didn't stand there with us. This is where they were staying. No tour or anything like that. It was go ahead and look, we're leaving. So we went next door and talked to the neighbor because Dory said that Nick was at the trailer all day Friday and Nick smoked cigarettes. So the fact that the neighbor called them as soon as we got to their property to let them know that somebody was on their property, we talked to him and

hey, did you ever see my brother? And showed a picture and they're like, no, I never saw him until I saw the flyer that he was missing. And that's strange if he was here all day.

an observant neighbor who his living room literally faces where the trailer is said that they never saw Nick there and supposedly he was there Thursday, Friday and Saturday so I found that a bit odd especially because he does smoke cigarettes so he would have went outside to smoke I feel like but he was helpful he let us know he didn't see anyone there but then

But then with the vendors, too, the P.I. went to interview people that were working next to Dory. They told the P.I. that Dory told them that Nick was day drinking with friends on Friday.

That's not what she told the police. That's not what she told us. Is she just saying that to strangers just because? Or was he really day drinking? Did he relapse? Did something happen? Because we're all told he's been sober for a while. So I don't know why if your partner's in sobriety, you would tell somebody that they're off day drinking with friends. So I found that pretty strange. The hardest part has been trying to figure out what is actually true and what is a lie.

This is already a very hard situation when somebody you love goes missing and you have no answers. Where are the footprints? Where is there a body? And then you have his wife and people in her family acting really suspicious. And it's very complicated because there's little things that are being lied about. And you're like, why are you lying about this if you have nothing to hide?

I couldn't listen to the Zoom meeting because when things weren't making sense and adding up, I was already kind of like, I need to have my vigilance side on. I need to be documenting everything. I need to be taking notes of what's going on. I would try to talk to Dory to get more information about what was his state of mind like before this happened. Do you think he would go here? Do you think he would go there? But it got to a point for me where it was just very emotionally taxing. And I was angry. This is not a freaking joke. This is my brother. I

I had to tell my family, I can't keep doing this with this person. When they had the Zoom meeting about the PI, I even had to have my wife listen to the audio because it was just at that point for me, I was already dealing with a lot of things. I can't pretend with this person anymore. And it's not going to be conducive to us finding out what happened to Nick. On the meeting, they disclosed we're thinking of hiring a PI or we want to have a PI. She said...

Well, didn't you already? And she threatened to have the PI arrested. I don't understand because if you're looking for your husband who went missing and you don't know what happened to him, why would you threaten to arrest the PI who's trying to just find out what happened to Nick and where he is?

Last week, Carl mentioned some tips that came in early in the search for Nick. They came from people who thought they may have seen Nick. However, Cola said that while they were there searching for Nick, it began to feel as though she was being sent on a wild goose chase. She couldn't help but wonder, were these tips legitimate, or was someone deliberately throwing out red herrings to mislead them?

When I talked to RCMP, because I was really curious, what are these sightings? Who said they saw them? When they say they saw him? The officer said a woman saw him on a trail when she was walking her dog. And

And the two sightings of him the first day with the woman and the family, the sighting was by the same person. There was a guy that was at the camp site that was right across from the trailer where they were staying who said he saw Nick leave the trailer or walk from the trailer. If that's true or not, I don't know because the police didn't bring that up to our attention as a sighting. And again, it's coming from Dory as a source. And she was waving to the guy in town.

I was sitting with her. We were outside of the coffee shop. A camper was coming up the road and she was just waving and smiling and carrying on. And I thought, who the heck is that? And she said, that person had the first sighting of Nick. The excitement and the way you were seeing somebody, your best friend again, seen in six months. It was a very unusual where it just gut punched me where I thought, that is odd.

It was that guy that Dory told us saw him first. I don't know if that was reported to police or not, what police told me. The other sighting, it's a retired firefighter

We go talk to Glees and they're like, well, we're not really sure about that. He saw him from behind. He said he was smoking something that looked like a joint. Nick doesn't even smoke marijuana. His choice is alcohol, not marijuana. He doesn't like it. It makes him paranoid and stuff. And this sighting was from behind. It wasn't even in front of his face. So it could have been anybody sitting there.

The firefighter who said he was from the back smoking marijuana, sitting on the beach. He was barefoot. So where did he put his Jordans and his socks? Even SARS, they're not finding footprints. He's wearing Jordans. They're distinctive in the ground. My dad, when he showed up, had a pair of Jordans. You can see it in the sand making marks. They didn't find any marks of his shoes.

If he's barefoot, where are his shoes? Where's he? Without a shirt, he's got a distinctive, huge tattoo on the back of his shoulders with his last name that goes across his back from shoulder to shoulder. That would have been the first thing you see when you see the back of Nick without a shirt on.

Dory kept harping on this. Oh, no, he's been seen. He's here. He's here. He's here. And it just would make our frustration level go sky high because we could see that that wasn't the way that Nick was. Nick was one. He wouldn't walk on grass without his shoes on. He's very particular about certain things.

So he's certainly not going to take off his shoes and walk through the wilderness. If that was the case, where are his shoes? I called Marilyn when she was on the way and I said, I'm very frustrated because I want to be out here looking for Nick in the woods. And Dory wants to sit around at the coffee shop and the pub and just talk to people and cry. And I don't want to do that.

I want to be out looking for my brother. The whole time I was out there looking for my brother, she went out into the woods to look for Nick for about an hour and a half, two times. I didn't understand that personally, but I know everybody handles things differently, but it was frustrating.

And Marilyn and I are out looking for Nick. And Dory would come up and say, oh, somebody said they saw Nick here or somebody stealing food from the farmer's market. So we think it's Nick. And it was just constant torturous. Another time I'm with Dory before Marilyn gets here. And she said, yeah, I don't know. Nick was OK. But the last message he got from you and your dad just really triggered him. And he just wasn't the same after that. Why would you say that when you're trying to look for somebody and figure out where they are, what happened to them?

SARS search and rescue called off the search within the first week, and she wasn't even there the last day that they called off the search. So she was already gone. She was already back home. I think four or five days of him going missing, she actually went to the hospital. Nervous breakdown kind of situation. So she got medication and IVF.

A lot of the times we tried to connect with her, she was taking her medicine, couldn't talk, was going to see a therapist. And I'm thinking that's what Nick needed. I'm certain if she doesn't know what happened to him, that she's definitely devastated. But I think that there's definitely things that aren't totally forthright.

As far as I know, every time that we've called the police station, they either say she's not feeling well, she hasn't met with us, she's not meeting with us, that she's refused at a certain point to meet with them. One time we were at the coffee shop, I was with Dory and we saw two police fly by and

And I said, let's go. They might know something. And she said, I am not talking to them. Absolutely not talking to them. Now, again, that was another time where I was like, this is different than what I would think how somebody would act in this situation.

Cola continues to feel frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation. Despite expressing her concerns to law enforcement directly, she feels that her voice is not being heard and that her worries are not being properly addressed or followed up on.

A lot of concerns that I have have kind of been shut down or ignored. But at the same time, I've also read online that that's just kind of how RCMP works. They're very closed about things. They could be investigating things and just not letting you know because they don't want to harm the investigation in any way. But

From my perspective, from outside looking in, it doesn't seem there's any kind of investigation going on because anything that I bring to the attention as this is a red flag, and there's been so many examples, all I can do is just keep documenting to send over to them so that there's evidence and documentation that that was done. They're going to trust the original narrative. They're not going to look into another direction. So I sent Officer Pratt a lot of the different red flags and things I've documented. I said...

I know you have a large caseload and our family, the Marion family is very appreciative of you trying to find Nick and all of the energy and resources that you've put into this. And I know that your resources are limited and there's only so much you can do. I wanted to send you all of these things that we find odd, strange to be red flags. I think it's worth looking into. And I never got a response from him. This was last week that I sent that to him. I haven't heard anything back from that.

When Marilyn went to Canada to help Carl and Cola search for Nick, she said that Dory's son was supposed to pick her up from the ferry, which didn't end up panning out. So one of Dory's friends came instead. During the time they spent together, the friend mentioned something to Marilyn that made her wonder what really happened when Nick disappeared.

When I flew in, Dory wasn't available. She was going to send Sebastian, and he wasn't interested in seeing me or picking me up from where the ferry takes you to Victoria. So she sent one of her friends who knew Nick very well. And when we were driving to Victoria,

The location, which is an hour and a half, so it was pretty long. We had lots of conversations. She did say that Dory confided in her and said when Nick left that morning that he said it's all my fault, which leads me to think there was a confrontation or some kind of disagreement.

That's what she told this friend. There was always a bit of embellishing between her and Nick. So you never quite knew what the real real was unless you were there and saw it with your own eyes. You couldn't quite decipher what was real and what wasn't. So then when this happened, of course, we were just spinning around.

our heads trying to figure out what's real, what's not, what is she telling us, what is she telling other people, but what really, really, really happened. At 24, I lost my narrative, or rather it was stolen from me, and the Monica Lewinsky that my friends and family knew was usurped by false narratives, callous jokes, and politics. I

I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. So I think listeners can expect me to be chatting with folks, both recognizable and unrecognizable names, about the way that people have navigated roads to triumph.

My hope is that people will finish an episode of Reclaiming and feel like they filled their tank up. They connected with the people that I'm talking to and leave with maybe some nuggets that help them feel a little more hopeful. Follow Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Reclaiming early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Hey everybody, we have some exciting news that we want to share. If you want to go on an adventure with Generation Y, we'd love for you to join us. January 26th through the 30th, 2026, we'll be sailing from Miami to the Bahamas on Wondery's first ever true crime cruise aboard the Norwegian Joy.

Aaron and I will be there to chat, hang out, dive into all things true crime, and we're thrilled to be joined by some familiar voices in the true crime podcasting world. Surti and Hannah from Red Handed, Sashi and Sarah from Scamfluencers, and Carl Miller from Kill List.

Super excited to hang out with them too. We've got some cool activities, interactive mysteries we can solve, testing our forensic skills with a blood spatter expert, and so much more. So for some sun, fun, and just the right amount of mystery solving, come join us. Ready to jump on this seriously epic adventure? Book your cabin right now at ExhibitCCruise.com.

Trying to make sense of what happened to Nick, Kola reflected on a time when he seemed to want to distance himself from his relationship, wondering if that desire could have played a role in Nick's disappearance.

When I was in Canada and visiting before he went missing two years prior, there was a moment because like I said, their relationship together could be kind of up and down. Like if they were good, they were really good. And if they were bad, it wasn't good. And there was a time where Nick, I was telling him like, I'm about to go busk and figure out my own life. And he's like, I'll come with you. I said, you're married and stuff.

for him to say that in that moment. But I think it was just frustration because they were arguing. But a part of him also wasn't happy with how the dynamic and how things were working there because he wanted to kind of run away with me when I was there, which is why when the story was, oh, Nick just woke up and he went for a walk and just didn't come back. I asked, well, were you guys fighting? Because I know you guys fight and it's normal couples fight.

So it's normal if you guys fought, he was upset and he walked away. And I just really wanted to know because his behavior may have been different. If he was angry and he was upset, storming off and walking and going farther rather than staying at a radius of you, if you guys didn't fight at all and he just got up, I'm never going to return. I kind of found, I guess, the story itself a little bit odd because I know that they fight. I've been around them when they fight. And for him to just get up and walk off and

never come back. Just it didn't make any sense to me based off what I've seen. One source of distress for Nick's family is that while they acknowledge he was having a hard time after his mother's passing, they hadn't seen any signs that he was struggling as deeply with his mental health as his wife has suggested. Until they find Nick and understand what happened, they believe every possible avenue should be explored. Here's Marilyn.

The day I was leaving, I told Cola, I want to sit outside the search compound. I want to talk to them before I leave. And I waited. He came out and he sat next to me and held my hand and explained that he knows that this is very tough because in these situations when mental illness takes over and you don't want to accept, he gave me that speech. And I said, I hear you.

And I understand because I am a nurse, so I get mental health. But I want to make sure that every rock is turned over, that we're not just cashing it up as that because his wife says that. We need to make sure that we are vigilant. And if that's the case and when it's all said and done and we find evidence of that,

Then I can accept that. But what I can accept is that we've just hung it up to dry. This is what we're going to say it is. And now we have no proof of that. No body.

no evidence that he's harmed himself. And he just kind of tried to be very, oh, well, I understand where you're coming from. And it was to pacify and just say, we've already kind of nailed what has brought us to today and being missing for several days without any kind of proof besides what she says.

Marilyn also explained that after that Zoom meeting, communication broke down even further, and they've since lost all contact with Nick's wife. This is a common pattern we see in missing persons cases. When answers are elusive, suspicion tends to spread in various directions, leaving some feeling as though it's difficult to determine who can be trusted, while others feel blamed. The uncertainty often deepens the divide, making it harder for anyone to come together with shared goals.

So the first week, Dory was really upset. I mean, as soon as somebody walked up, whether she knew them or not, she just started bawling. Again, everybody handles things very differently. I think at the time, I was very much in survival mode. Go, go, go. I need to find my brother kind of thing. And she was kind of more, I'm upset. I'm distraught. I can't do anything but cry.

After the Zoom meeting, she had her brother with her and one of her good friends. They actually said she can't do this anymore and ended the meeting. But I feel like after that, it really put a strain and calls. After that, I never received another one. One of the last contacts I have with Dory was her saying somebody sighted somebody walking near...

Lansing. And I was just thinking to myself, oh, maybe this fucker tried to walk home. Referred to my brother as this fucker maybe tried to walk home. Is this Sebastian texting on Dory's phone? Don't know. Maybe. But the fact you're referring to my brother who's missing as a fucker is pissing me off. And I had to stop communicating. And when I did stop communicating with Dory, I never heard from Dory again on my end.

When someone goes missing, their loved ones often obsessively revisit the few clues that they have, hoping to uncover something they may have overlooked. Maybe they just need to move a few of the puzzle pieces around, and the picture will become clear. Cola has a video from Saturday, June 29th, when Nick attended the Busta Rhymes concert. Cola mentioned some things about his appearance in the video that stood out to her.

I have a video of Nick from the concert from that Saturday night. It's definitely possible it could be the lighting. But to me, it looks like he has a knot on his head and he looks angry to me. Just knowing my brother, I grew up with him. I know when he's pissed because sometimes he's been mad at me. And I know the look when something is upsetting him to the point where he's so mad that he's silent.

And that was the look that it looked like to me. And it did look like he had a knot on his head. And I even tried to ask Dory, did Nick get into a fight before he went missing? And then she said when he was at the hospital, he got slammed down or something and that he had bruises or mark on his face or something along those lines. It just looked so sad. That's how I felt. It

It wasn't jaw clenched or anything like that. It was just sad, lost.

During a phone call, Cola asked Dory about potential injuries to Nick's head and face. Dory suggested that they may have been from when Nick was tackled during his hospitalization. Considering how much time had passed since that event, Cola found it odd that Nick would still have traces of injuries on his face. Another detail that stood out to Nick's family was their initial belief that he would be found quickly and that there would be a reasonable explanation for everything. However,

However, they felt his wife's behavior painted a starkly different picture, as she seemed to act as though Nick would never return. So when Nick was missing the first week or getting into the second week, she sent all of us a shrine that she made of Nick and her house, which we found strange because he's missing, right? We don't know what happened to Nick. We were still hopeful we're going to find him.

That's what we're here to do. That's what the search team's doing. Maybe he was just, I don't want to be in these woods and I didn't want to be here in the first place and maybe hop the bus. And that's what we were hoping. Again, this is the first week she's messaging me, my dad, Marilyn, pictures of a shrine that she made with salt and water on the shrine and candles and pictures. And then she had this note on the shrine that was really odd because we were raised Catholic.

And we went to church quite a bit growing up. And the writing was, oh, cosmic brother. Weird stuff I don't feel like Nick would say because he believes in God. And the handwriting was too pretty to be Nick's handwriting. And I even have a Father's Day card he sent my younger brother that was in the drawer at the house that I opened up to look at Nick's handwriting. The way he processes T's and his H's or his A's.

Looking at that verse, this note that was written because I asked who wrote that. And she said, Nick wrote that because it didn't look like Nick's handwriting. Because of that weird note in the shrine and the thing that her son said about poisoned blood, I said, is there a cult or something in this area? Could he have been stuffed into a cult because he was sad and going through things and in a vulnerable state? My mind has thought of so many different options and so many different things and just trying to piece together so many different things. But

The first week Nick is missing and when we're still all looking for Nick, she very much was behaving like she already knew he was gone. And that to me is another red flag. Why are you acting in a way where you know he's not here anymore?

Nick's friend Jeremiah never had the opportunity to observe interactions between Nick and his wife firsthand, so he's had to rely solely on secondhand accounts to reflect on. However, Jeremiah did notice a change in Nick, though it's unclear whether that shift stemmed from his relationship or other factors. Since Jeremiah works in mental health, we asked him how, in general,

Relationships can impact a person over time. From an outsider's perspective, Nick had always been viewed as strong by those around him. But as Jeremiah pointed out, you never truly know what's going on beneath the surface.

Doing the type of work that I do, I work with all different types of relationship problems, codependency, enmeshment, enabling, all these things, abusive relationships, controlling relationships. And I really wish I could have gotten an eye. Should have, could have, would have, I guess. But it's one of those things. So it's hard to get a read on someone's.

When there's that kind of enmeshment in their relationship, it's hard to really know what's going on with the person on an individual level. But it's also very telling. When you're compromised, you're psychologically compromised, things going on in your life, and you're vulnerable, depending on what those vulnerabilities are, there can be all kinds of financial vulnerabilities, psychological vulnerabilities. I think a person's, their typical kind of personality and character can be in an abusive relationship. Things can shift and change. Nick, what's your take on this?

had a strong personality. He didn't let people walk over him. He had a big voice. He was not passive or weak at all. And so to see him shift and to see him so isolated and quiet, I think there were things situationally that were contributing to that. You can't make it to your mom's funeral. You can't make it to your son's graduation. I mean, these are huge. These are huge life milestones for someone.

For Jeremiah, the circumstances surrounding Nick's disappearance have been a constant source of confusion. Nothing seems to make sense. On top of that, there's the added frustration of being so far away and trying to navigate communications with law enforcement in another country.

I mean, the whole thing, this is really the perfect storm and worst case scenario for someone's disappearance. You're in the middle of nowhere. It's a different police force that you're not familiar with as far as being American. You don't really know the people. There's all of these strange things happening in conjunction with the situation, such as the trailer, such as him not coming out all day, supposedly. So I talked to Corbin.

cola. She told me that there was no bathroom. And I just thought to myself, well, you can't tell me that someone is not going to use the restroom all day. There's no sighting of his shirt being found. Also, in reading some of the Facebook messaging with unconfirmed sightings, I knew it wasn't him. And then there's the theory, well, maybe he just ran off. And okay, well, you run off

Nowadays, it's not like the 1950s when people would just abandon their lives and they would create a new alias. Now, everything, you need your debit card. Everything is digital. So it's not like you can just go and start over with nothing. So that theory of, well, maybe he just ran off. Logically, there's no way that that happened. The one thing too that I thought was strange was it was written somewhere. Don't approach him if you see him. So this was like the first or second day. Someone said, if you see him, don't approach him.

And I read that, and I read it out loud, and I looked at my wife, and I said, "Why in the hell, under any circumstances, would you not approach somebody who's missing?" There's just no logical reasoning. And I think the reasoning that was written there was that, well, he doesn't want to be found. Alluding to that, and I said to myself, "Well, it doesn't really matter if he wants to be found or not. He needs to be found." I found that as odd.

when someone's missing. A person like that needs an intervention. They need to be approached. He couldn't have gotten that far on foot, in my opinion, without finding some trace of his body. Now, obviously, they found the shirt. That's not necessarily a trace of his body. And the limitation that the family has because of it being in another country and trying to get the embassy involved and the FBI involved,

It's like an additional layer of difficulty around this whole situation is that there's this lack of investigation and there's not really anything, at least up to this point, that can be done about that, or at least that has been done about that. It's my hope that it will. As we know, the longer these things go on, the harder all of this is, obviously.

Marilyn may not know exactly what happened to her nephew, but she firmly believes that until they find him, every possible lead should be explored. However, based upon what the RCMP has told Nick's family, they don't believe that's the case. They never checked her phone. That was an issue that I had from the very beginning because here in the States, we're going to do a lie detector, this, that, and they never treated her as anything but.

but a mourning wife that husband has disappeared. She was never, ever, ever taken down to talk to at the police station. She was always able to get out of that by saying, I'm upset, I'm upset. Like I said, when the police drove by, my heart was just pounding out of my chest. They've got something, let's go, let's go. And she said, absolutely not. I'm not talking to them. They just want to accuse somebody. That's what she said.

Jeremiah acknowledges that he wasn't present to observe how Nick was doing around the time of his disappearance and doesn't have a clear understanding of his mental health state leading up to June 30th. Still, he doesn't believe Nick was the type of person who would simply walk away and abandon his life. I can't speak to a certainty around his mental status for sure. But I do want us to circle back to that and him vanishing because I've just seen

seen things, heard things, read things that his mental state could have been a contributing factor. And when you know someone so well, and now granted, if someone's in the midst of an acute mental health crisis, they behave in ways that they normally wouldn't. So I know that is a fact. However, I just want to hit home that I knew this person really, really well. I know this person would have not gotten up and wandered away. And people can interpret that however they want. But Nicholas was not, that was not who he was. And it

His family and his close friends, we desperately want to know what happened to him. And I think it probably haunts all of us not knowing. And I wanted to advocate for him. I got on this podcast with you today because I'm looking at this as a way of trying to advocate for my friend. No matter where he is or what happened, this is the least I can do because I love him and I love his family. And I just hope and pray that we can get some answers.

So what happened to Nicholas Marion during his trip to the Lake Town Shakedown Festival in late June 2024? There are still many unanswered questions surrounding Nick's time there. His wife has said that Nick didn't attend the festival on Friday, and a witness from the festival said that she had told him that Nick was day drinking with someone, despite having been sober for some time. If that's true, who was the other person?

Even more puzzling, they were staying on a property owned by one of Dory's friends. Yet the friend's husband said that he never saw Nick the entire weekend. A neighbor, who seemed to have a keen awareness of what was going on, also said that he never saw Nick. Carl and Cola mentioned that the trailer they were staying in didn't have a working bathroom. How could Nick have never entered the house to use the restroom? We do know that Nick attended the festival on Saturday, as photos and videos show him at the Busta Rhymes concert.

Their car battery died that day and a man helped them jumpstart the vehicle. Although Dory claimed Nick wasn't talking to anyone, this eyewitness reported that Nick did speak with him. Afterward, they returned to the trailer and the next morning Nick set out for a walk, while Dory went to the festival, expecting to hear from Nick.

But when he failed to return, she reported him missing. Once Nick's relatives began arriving from the U.S. to assist with the search, tension quickly grew between them and Dory and one of her sons. Nick's family felt attacked by Dory's son, who seemed to feel the need to protect his mother. Is Dory simply a grieving spouse who's been unfairly suspected due to the lack of answers, or is there more to the story?

In the months since Nick's disappearance, his family has reflected on his relationship with Dory and feels he had become increasingly isolated. They couldn't even get him alone on the phone. While they don't dispute that Nick was struggling after the passing of his mother, they question the narrative surrounding his mental health as they weren't there to witness it themselves. Nick's family wants law enforcement to explore all possible leads and carefully examine the red flags they believe could point to foul play.

For them, the accumulating strange details are too significant to ignore, and they firmly believe that Nick's case deserves a thorough investigation. They're determined not to give up, resolute in their commitment to uncover the truth, as they continue on with their relentless search for him, because they know Nick would have never given up on them.

2024 was an incredibly difficult year for Nick's family, marked by the loss of his mother and just months later, Nick's disappearance. Cola admitted that while it seems unlikely, she still holds onto the hope that Nick is out there somewhere. And if he isn't, she takes comfort in believing that he's with their mother. With few answers to go on, all they have are their own experiences and what they've witnessed, but nothing seems to add up.

Nick's family has decided that if a year passes without any word from him, they're going to hold a celebration in Florida to honor Nick, surrounded by his loved ones and his favorite music. Kola knows they may never get the answers they're desperately seeking, but they feel compelled to celebrate Nick's life, his legacy, and the profound impact he's had on all of them.

March is especially difficult, as it marks both Nick's birthday and the anniversary of their mother's passing. Not hearing from him a year after their mother's death has left Cola with little hope, but she continues to believe that anything is possible, holding on to the hope that one day Nick may just show up on her doorstep.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Nicholas Marion, please call the Lake Cowichan RCMP Detachment at 250-749-6668 and reference file number 2024-1151.

It's maybe economical, but she moved out of a home that Nick knows, my son knows. I mean, if he did come back, she's gone. And that we don't know where she's at because of no communication now. She's not even communicating with my mom. And she gave some stuff to my daughter while we were there, like Nike jacket and a couple other items. But that was about it. I don't know what she did with the other stuff.

Since she has moved, what hurt I think so much is what did she do with his things? She never once reached out to his family to say, would you like this or a box of his things? Just absolutely no communication. The only way I knew that she had moved was Facebook.

That brings us to the end of episode 481. I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this series. 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 California. 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. Find yourself looking for a new job or change in career? Monster.com is here to help. We are not only here to bring you job postings, but also AI interview prep and salary tools, expert career advice, and top-notch resume services.

We've got everything you need to land your perfect job fit. Discover the magic of finding the ideal job with Monster.com. Your future starts now. Visit Monster.com today. Your next job opportunity is just a click away.