0:00

Hey Prime members, you can listen to

0:02

the vanished ad free on Amazon Music.

0:04

Download the app today. I've

0:18

been racking my brain about this since she

0:20

disappeared. I had handed off flyers,

0:23

I had gone to places where I knew

0:25

she'd gone to before and I saw her

0:27

there. You know, I've just never even got

0:29

a cold lead. Somebody like, oh I saw

0:31

her a couple weeks ago and nothing. It's

0:33

like she's a ghost. Nobody had seen her.

0:36

We really don't know anybody that's

0:38

seen her after she left the

0:41

house. There's no evidence of foul

0:43

play yet. I don't think

0:45

they really have any suspects, suspects, because right

0:47

now it's still in some missing person case. It's

0:50

not a murder case or anything like that. It's

0:52

kind of one of those things that I think

0:54

right now they're just hoping that something will come

0:56

to light. I hope so too. In

0:59

late December of 2022, 30-year-old Lauren

1:02

Wilhoyt disappeared from the suburbs of

1:04

Chicago, Illinois. Lauren spoke with family

1:06

members over the phone on December

1:09

28th and she was

1:11

seen by her boyfriend leaving their home that

1:13

same day. It's believed that Lauren

1:15

may have been going to stay at a

1:17

hotel on Mannheim Road in the Melrose Park

1:19

area in the days leading up to New

1:21

Year's Eve, though in this case the facts

1:23

are difficult to pin down. After

1:25

that, Lauren was never seen or heard from

1:28

again. Her family became alarmed in

1:30

early January when her boyfriend called asking

1:32

if anyone had heard from Lauren. Since

1:35

that day, Lauren's sister Michelle has been

1:37

working diligently to piece together every clue

1:39

she can find in order to figure

1:41

out what may have happened to her

1:43

little sister. I'm Marissa and from

1:45

Wondery, this is episode 422 of The Vanished,

1:47

Lauren Wilhoyt's story. Thanks

1:55

for watching! I

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and be sure to select our show in

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the drop down menu that follows. Lauren

3:28

Wilhoyt was raised in Elmhurst, Illinois,

3:30

a Chicago suburb. Growing

3:32

up, Lauren was outgoing, popular, and

3:35

a gifted soccer player. Lauren

3:37

was the youngest of three children. Lauren's

3:39

brother and sister were both many years older than

3:41

her. In the early 2000s, they

3:44

graduated from high school and went into the

3:46

military. Lauren was still quite young

3:48

at the time. Lauren's brother and

3:50

sister were off building their military careers

3:52

and families, often living in

3:54

far away places. Due to

3:56

the distance, the siblings weren't as close as they

3:58

had once been. As an adult, Lauren

4:01

kept in close contact with her parents and

4:03

spoke on the phone with her sister Michelle on

4:05

a regular basis. Michelle is the person who

4:07

reached out to us in July of 2023, asking if we could cover

4:11

her missing sister. And today, Michelle

4:13

is the driving force behind the search efforts

4:16

for Lauren. Lauren had disappeared around

4:18

the holidays in 2022. At

4:20

the time, she had been living with her boyfriend

4:22

Mike. The two had been together for many years

4:24

and were living in a home in Melrose

4:26

Park, a suburb of Chicago. Michelle

4:29

last heard from her sister on December 28th. Lauren

4:32

had called her parents that same day too. No

4:35

one had any idea that anything was wrong. Lauren

4:37

hadn't mentioned that she was in any kind of danger.

4:40

However, in early January, Lauren's boyfriend Mike

4:42

got in contact with Michelle because he

4:44

hadn't been able to find or reach

4:46

Lauren in days. And he was wondering

4:48

if anyone else had heard from her.

4:51

Here's Michelle. I

4:53

found out that Lauren was missing

4:55

because her boyfriend Mike. I

4:57

can't remember if he texted

4:59

or called me, probably a

5:01

text or a Facebook message

5:04

asking me if I had talked to

5:06

and or heard from or

5:08

seen Lauren recently.

5:12

And you know, I replied, I was like, well,

5:14

I talked to her on the phone on

5:16

December 28th. But

5:18

no, I have not heard from her or seen

5:20

her. It was the beginning of

5:22

January, like January 4th. And then

5:25

that's when he filled me in that the last

5:27

time he had seen her. But

5:29

even his story then when we were talking

5:31

at the very beginning of this

5:33

whole mess, he wasn't

5:35

thinking clearly, couldn't totally remember

5:37

dates or times or anything

5:40

like that. But he

5:42

then informed me that

5:44

he hadn't seen Lauren since

5:46

the 28th. And then

5:48

he had waited until the 4th or

5:51

5th to even reach out to me to

5:53

see if I had heard from her and

5:56

in which case I hadn't. So I had

5:58

asked, does she do this often? Where

6:01

was she going? What happened? And all

6:03

he said was she was going to meet

6:06

someone at a hotel and has not

6:08

come back. He

6:10

said, I tried calling the hotel room. I

6:13

tried calling her phone, no

6:16

answer. And I don't remember if

6:18

he said it was for like a New Year's party

6:20

or whatever, but he wasn't going. But Lauren had told

6:22

him she'll be in room 300 at whatever hotel. And

6:26

we were just kind of like debating

6:28

what to do and probably shouldn't have

6:30

waited as long as we did. But

6:32

I think he finally called to make

6:34

a missing persons report on I think it

6:36

was the eighth or ninth of January.

6:39

I said that I would call, but he

6:41

said, no, I should be the one to

6:43

call because I was the last

6:46

one to see her. So he was actually

6:48

the one that called the police, had them

6:50

come to their house on Palmer Drive in

6:52

Melrose Park. So the police interviewed him,

6:54

took his statement, filed the report.

6:57

Mike said he called the room slash hotel on

6:59

the 29th, 30th and 31st and never heard from

7:01

her. He

7:05

tried her phone as well. And

7:07

then he said that her cell

7:09

phone finally died around January 2nd

7:12

or the 4th. He couldn't remember. And

7:14

then unfortunately, he couldn't remember which

7:17

hotel it was, even though he had

7:19

called it. She doesn't have a car.

7:21

So there was no tracking that she

7:23

was walking and she ubered or lift.

7:26

I do have green shot because

7:28

she would screenshot a lot of

7:30

random things. And I was able

7:33

to get into her iCloud

7:35

a few weeks after we hadn't

7:37

heard from her. She had

7:39

luckily just set me up as her emergency

7:42

for Apple. And she had her

7:45

GPS tracking off. She has never done

7:47

anything like this. We

7:49

also spoke to one of Lauren's close friends, Jeff. Jeff

7:51

explained that he had tried to contact Lauren to wish

7:54

her a happy new year. And she would always answer

7:56

or get back to him quickly. But this time she

7:58

was not able to get back to her. she didn't.

8:01

So he got in touch with Mike to see what was up.

8:04

I found out through Mike. I had messaged Lauren

8:06

and couldn't get hold of her. I messaged her

8:08

on New Year's Eve and that New Year's and

8:10

said, you know, Happy New Year's, didn't get anything

8:12

back. And then a couple of days later, I

8:14

reached out to Mike and I was like, Hey, everything all

8:16

right. And he's like, I got to call you. And that's

8:18

when he called me and he's like, Yeah, dude, she's missing.

8:21

I can't find her. I don't know what's up. Her

8:23

phone's off. You know, I just can't get a hold

8:25

of her. And I was like, fuck, you know where

8:28

she's at? And he's like, Nope, she was going to

8:30

forget where he said, but it was like, do your

8:32

man, hire or whatever, where she got dropped off.

8:34

And that's it. I was like, well, do you want

8:36

to go look? And he's like, sure. So I went,

8:38

I picked him up and we drove around, came up

8:40

with nothing, not even a soul had seen her, according

8:43

to, you know, all the people we talked to. Then

8:46

I got in contact with her sister, her

8:48

sister kind of led the charge for this. And,

8:51

you know, and she has a lot

8:53

of connects and things like that. She was trying

8:55

her ass off to find anything. And she really

8:57

didn't come up with anything either. She talked to

9:00

her sister and that, but she wasn't always in

9:02

contact with everybody. If I texted her ever, she

9:04

would text back. But a lot of people like

9:06

family and I know that she wasn't

9:08

always the most responsive. The disappearance date could be

9:11

when she disappeared, but it also might not be.

9:13

I hadn't talked to her for like a week

9:15

or so at that point, I texted her and

9:17

I never got anything back. And now I know

9:20

why she was gone. In

9:22

order to understand what may have happened to Lauren, we

9:25

need to go back in time. So we're

9:27

going to turn back the clock now and

9:29

start at the beginning so that we can

9:31

examine Lauren's life and the experiences that shaped

9:34

who she became in adulthood and how she

9:36

ultimately disappeared around New Year's Eve of 2022.

9:38

Lauren is eight years younger

9:41

than me and 10 years younger than my

9:44

brother. Our parents are great

9:47

people. Elmhurst, where we

9:49

grew up, is stupid rich.

9:51

My family's not. We were able to sneak

9:53

in in the early 90s just before she

9:56

was born. An old lady

9:58

passed away and we bought

10:00

her house super cheap. And that's how we got

10:02

into the rich ass Elmhurst. There's tons of money

10:04

and the parents are just throwing money at the

10:06

kids. Lauren always had to

10:08

do whatever me and Jeff were

10:10

doing. My brother played on the

10:12

Elmhurst Eagles football team and I

10:15

cheerleading for a couple of years.

10:17

So my mom sewed a cheerleading

10:19

outfit for my sister and she'd come

10:22

and she was like our little mascot.

10:24

She was always super bubbly, friendly, outgoing,

10:26

very outgoing, just a fun person to

10:28

be around. Girly tomboy,

10:30

I guess. She loved soccer,

10:32

did volleyball a little bit

10:34

and then a hair interested

10:36

her and makeup a lot.

10:39

And I joined the military my

10:41

senior year and was

10:44

pretty much gone. Went straight to

10:46

basic AIT in Iraq. So her

10:48

whole high school, I wasn't

10:51

really around because I was

10:53

military and overseas. With

10:56

Lauren's siblings being 10 and eight years older than

10:58

her, they were out of the house for

11:00

much of her childhood and teen years. They

11:02

weren't there to see what was going on. But

11:05

Lauren had a close cousin, Brittany, who was

11:07

the same age and the two became incredibly

11:09

close. We spoke to Brittany who was able

11:11

to fill us in about Lauren's teen

11:13

years. Growing up,

11:15

because we were the same age, I would say

11:18

Lauren and I just started off as really

11:20

close friends and then eventually, just as time

11:22

went on, we became best friends. It turned

11:24

into us just spending every single weekend together,

11:27

her friends became my friends, my friends became

11:29

her friends. When we got into high school,

11:31

she would come with me to my school

11:33

dances and I would go to hers. Pretty

11:35

much inseparable for a while. But Lauren was

11:38

always gorgeous and she always just

11:40

had so much confidence. Even though we're the

11:42

same age, I always feel like I was

11:44

so envious of her in this way just

11:46

because she was so confident and she's

11:48

just very strong. She didn't take shit from

11:50

anyone, she told it like it is and

11:52

she was always just the most fun to

11:54

be around. With such a ham and with

11:56

silly and goofy, made people laugh

11:59

whenever she could. I don't know, as

12:01

we got older, we were always definitely getting

12:03

into trouble with each other a lot. Doing

12:05

things we probably shouldn't be doing at that

12:07

age. We drank for the first time together,

12:09

definitely got into things we shouldn't have. But

12:12

as kids do, we just always had a

12:14

good time. We'd stay up late

12:16

at sleepovers and we would learn like the

12:18

Napoleon Dynamite dance and just watch movies and

12:20

just talk all night long to the point

12:22

where her dad would come down and yell

12:24

at us and tell us, be quiet because

12:26

we were being so loud from laughing. She

12:28

never really liked school, the academic side of

12:30

things, but she was so social with everyone,

12:33

just super popular. She was incredibly athletic. I

12:35

swear she was good at every sport she

12:37

ever tried, but soccer was her main sport.

12:39

She was an all-star soccer. She was so

12:42

good. I would always go to practices with

12:44

her and stuff and just watch her and

12:46

be so envious. As

12:49

high school progressed, Brittany says that she and

12:51

Lauren began to drift apart. There

12:53

were a few contributing factors, like Brittany began dating

12:55

someone and she spent more of a free

12:57

time with him than Lauren. But Brittany also

13:00

saw a change in Lauren and she couldn't

13:02

quite put her finger on it at the

13:04

time because she was young and naive. It

13:07

was probably around our sophomore year I started

13:09

noticing some differences and then like junior year

13:12

was when we kind of started drifting apart

13:14

from each other because I could just see

13:16

like her choices and her decision making, just

13:18

not what I would have chosen. And like

13:20

I said, we're always getting into trouble when

13:22

we're with one another. I'd come home from

13:24

hanging out with her and my mom was

13:26

so strict that she somehow found out every

13:29

single thing we did. So I would always

13:31

get grounded after hanging out with her and

13:33

it just got to the point where I

13:35

was like, I'm tired of getting grounded. But

13:37

she was just kind of wild and doing

13:39

her own things. And I also

13:41

started dating someone in high school and he lived

13:43

in a different town. So I was spending more

13:45

of my weekends with him rather than with her.

13:48

And then she just kind of started hanging

13:50

with these new friends that definitely were not

13:52

the best influences in her, I would say.

13:55

I remember after her older brother

13:57

had his first daughter, she came

13:59

inside. their

16:00

own eyes. But she thinks that her

16:02

parents didn't say much to her about it because they

16:04

didn't want to worry or upset Michelle since

16:06

she was deployed at the time. For

16:08

many years, Michelle has struggled to understand

16:10

why Lauren ended up on this path.

16:14

One of her friend's boyfriends who was

16:16

older brought it to a party and

16:18

her and the one friend were hooked

16:20

but then the one friend ended

16:23

up being able to kick it and Lauren just

16:25

never could. She used to

16:27

claim that my brother

16:29

and I abandoned her. We were

16:32

older and we both joined the

16:34

military and we didn't abandon you.

16:36

We served our country and we

16:38

were forced to leave and go fight

16:40

a war. So for the longest time

16:42

she was blaming her

16:45

addiction on us. It had nothing

16:47

to do with the upbringing because

16:49

it was the same parents that

16:52

Jeff and I were raised with. We

16:54

were overseas, it was the beginning of the war.

16:56

They didn't tell us much and she

16:58

was in and out of rehab several times.

17:01

None of it worked. Lauren's

17:03

loved ones have wondered if there was some trauma

17:05

in her life that caused all of this but

17:07

they told us that Lauren never

17:10

confided in them. Here's Brittany again.

17:12

Lauren would tell me things here and there.

17:14

It's just crazy because she comes from such

17:16

a good family and growing up she had

17:18

such a good life. I don't know what

17:20

brought her down this path. I really just

17:22

think it was just bad friends. Even when

17:25

we were best friends, she was never so

17:27

open about what she was going through. I

17:29

know one of the things she did speak

17:31

with me on was I know when Jeff

17:33

and Shelley went away in the military. I

17:35

know that really took a toll on her

17:37

and was really hard on her. Just being

17:39

worried about them and then also just not

17:41

having your siblings home when she needed

17:43

them. Besides Jeff and Shelley going away

17:45

to the military, that's the only thing

17:47

she ever told me she struggled with

17:49

and outside of that I can't see

17:51

what else would have caused this pain

17:53

inside of her. I truly

17:55

don't know. I was kind of

17:57

just hoping because we were best friends. Maybe

18:00

now that she didn't have me in her life,

18:02

she would almost feel some sort of void and

18:04

maybe be like, oh shit, like I lost all

18:06

my friends. Maybe that would have been a sign

18:08

for her to get the help she needed, but

18:10

unfortunately it wasn't. Over

18:12

the years, Lauren had minor run-ins with

18:14

the law for things like possession of

18:17

small amounts of drugs or paraphernalia. There

18:19

were times that she was incarcerated and

18:21

made efforts to turn her life around, but

18:23

nothing ever seemed to stick. So

18:26

Lauren, I believe, got her

18:28

GED in one of her

18:31

jail stays, and then she

18:33

did start going to beauty

18:35

school. She never

18:37

did finish beauty school. Significant

18:40

periods of sobriety for Lauren.

18:42

As I've said, I wasn't

18:44

always around. I've lived out of

18:46

state for the past 15 years.

18:49

So other than conversations, which

18:52

having conversations is kind of hard

18:54

to know for sure, whether someone

18:56

is sober or not. But

18:58

my best guess would be

19:01

her longest ever would have

19:03

been maybe a year. Most

19:05

recently, there was probably a good

19:08

year that we thought she was.

19:11

For many years in the lead up to

19:13

Lauren's disappearance, she had been in a relationship

19:15

with a man named Mike. Lauren's family didn't

19:18

know Mike very well. Their interactions with him

19:20

were brief and fairly surface level. But Michelle

19:22

said that he seemed like a nice enough

19:24

guy to them. High

19:27

school was where they met, but

19:29

I'm not totally sure on

19:31

the timeline. They had been

19:34

really good friends all through high school,

19:36

and then I think they just started

19:39

dating. It's been like probably six years.

19:41

He's from Elmhurst as well. They were

19:43

friends then. According to Lauren, he had

19:45

always had a crush on her in

19:48

high school, and she just never gave

19:50

him the time of day. And then

19:53

years later, they, I guess, met

19:55

back up, started dating. I

19:58

don't know an awful lot about it.

20:00

Mike other than the

20:02

few things that my sister

20:04

has said. I've met him

20:06

a few times, holidays, random

20:08

gatherings. Seems like a decent

20:10

guy loves his family, has

20:12

a couple nieces and nephews

20:15

that he talks about constantly.

20:17

Always loved my son, always

20:19

asks about him, things like

20:21

that. He also has been

20:23

in and out of jail quite

20:25

a bit throughout his adult life. Originally,

20:28

as far as I knew, he

20:30

wasn't into drugs, he just drank a lot

20:33

and had a drinking problem. But I

20:35

think as the years went on and the longer he

20:37

was with Lauren, I'm guessing he

20:39

started going to it. Or

20:41

that was a lie

20:43

and maybe he was doing drugs the

20:46

whole time too. I seem to really

20:48

care about my sister. I think

20:50

Lauren and Mike's relationship, maybe

20:52

at the beginning was probably

20:54

healthy and fine, but I

20:57

feel like the longer they dated, the

20:59

worse it got due to probably

21:01

drugs and alcohol. I always

21:04

personally thought that their relationship was

21:06

fine. I never heard anything bad.

21:09

Brittany's interactions with Mike were minimal too, but

21:11

she said that in the brief time that

21:13

she had met him, he seemed fine. I

21:17

have only met him at my grandma's

21:19

funeral a few years ago and he

21:22

seemed nice enough, but I don't know, I

21:24

just didn't have enough of an interaction with

21:26

him to really gauge him as a person

21:28

or gauge his personality. Like I said, we're

21:31

at my grandma's funeral, so we were just talking

21:33

for a little bit and then that was really it.

21:36

Lauren's friend Jeff had first met Mike through

21:38

a mutual friend and he told us that

21:40

he actually connected more with Lauren and

21:42

the two became very close. Jeff

21:45

was on. So we'd

21:47

gossip about celebrities, just the normal stuff

21:49

that's going on in their life and

21:51

they live a hectic life. Mike, he kind

21:54

of tried to be like the hustler and

21:57

so he tried to basically steer

21:59

our friendship. He wanted me to be more

22:01

friends with him. And it

22:03

really turned out that I became better friends

22:05

with Lauren, just because she was honest. I

22:08

never had to worry about something happening. Mike

22:10

there are times that, you know, I'd give

22:13

him money. He would come up with this

22:15

fanciful story about how, you know, he got

22:17

robbed or this happened or it fell out

22:19

of his pocket. Our relationship

22:21

really revolves around drugs for the most part.

22:24

You know, I did my fair share of

22:26

drugs and that through knowing them and

22:28

her disappearance kind of got me

22:31

sober. I had kind of

22:33

been wanting to anyway. And

22:35

then heard the news and I was like, all right, I'm

22:37

done. It's too dangerous, you know,

22:39

with friends all on the streets. And now I

22:41

know somebody who's just straight up disappeared. It kind

22:43

of finally clicked. I need to really be done.

22:57

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to start earning points with

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your rent payments today. Terms

25:30

apply. Lauren

25:41

seemed to have two sides of her life. One

25:44

side that she let her family see and the

25:46

other side that she kept from them. It appears

25:48

that Lauren only let her family see the positive

25:51

aspects of her relationship with Mike. After

25:53

she disappeared, they began to learn more.

25:55

Here's Michelle again. Since

25:58

she's gone missing. talking

26:00

to acquaintances of Lawrence

26:02

and his or just

26:05

Lauren. I have heard some more

26:07

menacing stories that he possibly was

26:10

abusive to her but I have

26:12

no firsthand knowledge of it. I

26:14

never saw it. She never told

26:17

me. So it's more or less

26:19

hearsay from friends of Lauren that

26:22

the relationship probably wasn't as

26:24

on the up-and-up as a

26:26

normal healthy relationship should be.

26:30

While we were researching Lawrence disappearance and

26:32

conducting interviews, it was difficult to find

26:34

people who would speak with us. Lauren's

26:36

family only knew so much. They

26:39

only knew what she wanted them to know about her

26:41

life. Jeff proved to be an invaluable

26:43

source of information about Lauren's life

26:45

and relationships because she didn't hide

26:47

so much from him. He had seen things with

26:49

his own eyes that had concerned him. From

26:52

what I had gathered, Mike and Lauren basically had

26:55

been using their entire relationship. I

26:57

think it was basically a relationship built

26:59

on using. They'd both been using drugs

27:01

and found each other. I saw

27:04

a number of things. I'm not

27:06

cool with it and Mike realized it pretty

27:08

quick that I wasn't cool with it. But

27:11

you know an abuser still is gonna do

27:13

what they want. I saw little things.

27:15

You know like there was a time that I saw him

27:17

punch her straight in the side of the head and you

27:19

know you could tell she kind of like saw stars. He's

27:21

like come on we need to get out of here. So

27:23

I got took him out and I was like probably good

27:25

for Lauren anyway. So I saw that

27:27

happen on a few occasions where you know

27:30

he'd smack her, he'd shove her. I'm not

27:32

about that. I'm not cool with violence

27:34

to women at all. I'm not one

27:36

to really fight somebody. I'm also not

27:38

gonna sit there and let somebody get

27:41

hit in front of me. I would usually try

27:43

to de-escalate it, stop it from going on or you know

27:45

I'd be like Mike let's go get him out of there

27:47

or I'd get Lauren out of there depending on who wanted

27:49

to leave. You know there's quite a few times that I

27:51

saw him smack her. Most of the time

27:53

I saw like open hand but there was two times

27:56

that I saw backhand. It would be stupid things

27:58

too when he would fly off the handle. I'm

28:00

sure when I wasn't there, it was, it

28:02

might've been worse, but she stayed with him.

28:04

There was a lot of times something like

28:06

that would happen and I'd be like, Lauren,

28:09

I understand you're addicted to drugs, but you're

28:11

a pretty girl. You've got a great family.

28:13

Why not just knock the shit off, go

28:16

home. I'm sure your parents, your relatives would

28:18

help you get sober, especially if you say

28:20

you're getting away from Mike. You really want

28:22

to do this. You'd always be like, yeah,

28:24

I know, I know. And there are

28:27

a few times where she said she was planning

28:29

on leaving him and she was trying to get

28:31

stuff together. And then it was always just that

28:33

idea would fade. There was one time that I

28:35

was with them that she had a black eye

28:37

and she said it was

28:39

from Mike. He tried not to mess up

28:41

her face. He would smack her on the

28:43

lower back sometimes so people wouldn't see it.

28:45

So he was pretty abusive, but it wasn't

28:47

all the time. He could be a sweet

28:49

guy at the same time. What kept

28:51

her there was, you know, he was a sweet guy. He

28:54

had issues and she'd been with him for so

28:56

long. And she said that he kind of changed

28:58

into that setting on the beginning. He wasn't like

29:00

that at all. And he was kind of a

29:02

scary person. He always carried around a big knife.

29:05

And so I think she was kind of always

29:07

worried too, that he would do something irrational and,

29:09

you know, maybe kill her or whatever. And

29:12

she wasn't happy, but she stayed.

29:15

I know she didn't really talk to a whole

29:17

lot of people. She was pretty isolated when she

29:19

was with him. She talked to her family and

29:21

stuff here and there. When she was with her

29:23

family, he'd want to go. Kind of think that's just

29:25

a control thing. She'd be by her family and he'd

29:27

want to be there to hear what's going on. It

29:29

wasn't a good relationship. They loved each

29:32

other for sure, but it was a very

29:34

toxic, dependent relationship. Both of

29:36

them are very codependent on each

29:38

other. After Lauren

29:40

had disappeared, Michelle was looking to speak

29:42

to anyone who knew her sister and

29:45

she was learning these things about Mike that

29:47

she hadn't known about or even suspected. Lauren's

29:50

relationship with her family had been strained for

29:52

many years due to her drug use, but she

29:54

did keep in touch. In December

29:56

of 2022, Lauren had spoken to Michelle and her

30:00

parents on the 28th. Michelle was trying to

30:02

figure out what to give Lauren as a

30:04

gift. Michelle wanted to send her something that

30:06

she could really use. Michelle recalls that Lauren

30:09

seemed fine during their phone call and after

30:11

that time she seemed to disappear

30:13

off the face of the earth with no

30:15

trace left behind. It was Mike who sounded

30:17

the alarm at first by contacting Michelle

30:19

and he was ultimately the person who

30:22

had reported Lauren missing. Mike had told Michelle

30:24

that Lauren had left home to go to

30:26

a motel but he couldn't remember which motel

30:28

it was despite the fact that he had

30:30

said that he had called the motel looking

30:32

for Lauren and the days after he had

30:34

last heard from her. Michelle had hoped that

30:36

law enforcement would jump on Lauren's missing

30:38

persons case and quickly find information that

30:41

would lead to some kind of resolution

30:43

but things didn't go as Michelle had

30:45

hoped and she's ended up doing much

30:47

of the legwork on her own like

30:49

tracking down which hotel or motel that

30:51

Lauren had allegedly gone to. I

30:54

wasn't talking to her every single day. I would

30:56

only talk to her once a month but she

30:58

always had her phone always and it was always

31:01

on. She would talk to my parents

31:03

though at least once a week if not

31:05

more. They had also just talked to her

31:07

on the 28th. I was trying

31:09

to figure out what I could give

31:11

her that would be the most useful

31:13

without going towards something like

31:16

that. I felt like it

31:18

was just normal Lauren. It was about

31:20

Christmas and if I was getting

31:22

her anything and I ended

31:24

up buying her a online

31:27

gift card just to a grocery store

31:29

because all she wanted was groceries. When

31:31

Mike reached out I had the feeling

31:33

it wasn't good just

31:35

because they have not

31:38

left each other's side for the past

31:40

five to seven years anywhere

31:42

one of them went the other

31:44

went for the most part. Lauren

31:46

has never disappeared before to my

31:49

knowledge or my parents knowledge for even

31:51

just a couple days so to us

31:54

it was a oh god

31:56

something happened but when I was talking

31:58

to Mike shortly after those

32:00

first few days, he said

32:02

that she would leave for a

32:04

day or two at a time.

32:07

They got into an argument. When

32:09

he called, he also didn't seem

32:11

super concerned that something bad happened.

32:14

I feel like he was just

32:16

more curious. Have you heard from

32:18

her or seen her? Not, shall

32:21

I think something bad happened? Do

32:23

you know? Have you heard? It was just,

32:26

have you heard from her?

32:28

More curiosity than devastation. When

32:30

I was calling and talking to the

32:32

detectives the first time about my sister

32:35

being missing, my brother is a

32:37

local fireman. I work for Department of Justice.

32:39

My husband is a federal law enforcement agent.

32:42

You need to look into this. You need to do it

32:44

now. I mean, that's why I

32:46

am doing all of this, not my parents.

32:48

I am talking to the law enforcement. I

32:50

am talking to the coroner. By

32:52

the time I got into

32:55

her Lauren's phone iCloud, it

32:57

was the end of January

32:59

that I was finally able to figure

33:01

out which hotel it was. And

33:03

prior to that, I had gone with

33:05

one of my friends and just

33:08

kind of went to each and every

33:10

hotel that was in the area with

33:12

a flyer that we have made for

33:14

my sister, asking them, have

33:16

you seen her? She's missing. Nobody would

33:18

talk. I had kept trying to

33:20

get into her iCloud. I

33:23

had remembered that sometime in

33:25

the year she went missing, she

33:28

had sent me a

33:30

request to be her recovery

33:32

person for her iCloud account.

33:35

And then it took some days to

33:37

figure out how to then be able to

33:40

get into her iCloud using

33:42

that. Mike had also given me

33:44

all of hers and his emails

33:47

and passwords, possible passwords that she

33:49

could have been using. So it

33:51

was a lot of painstaking. Enter

33:53

this email address. Let's do 12

33:56

passwords and write them all down, cross them out if

33:58

they don't work, that type of thing. to

34:00

finally be able to get into

34:02

all of her stuff. So it

34:05

was the end of January when

34:07

I finally got into emails, Facebook,

34:09

Instagram, Snapchat, iCloud, all those things.

34:11

And that is how we then

34:14

were able to figure out the

34:16

exact hotel she was at. The

34:19

last picture that she took on

34:21

her phone was a selfie outside

34:24

a hotel and I didn't

34:26

notice it at first. It was actually

34:28

my sister-in-law. I had sent her

34:30

the picture and she zoomed in

34:32

and she was like, oh my god, there's

34:34

the sign of the hotel. It's this one.

34:37

That's western South O'Hare or something

34:39

like that. And that picture was

34:41

on the 29th. And

34:44

by that point, it was already, shoot,

34:47

February. The hotel deletes their footage

34:49

after five days. So even if

34:52

by, so January 5th was when

34:54

Mike reached out to me that

34:56

he hadn't seen or heard from

34:58

her in a couple days, I

35:01

think by then the footage

35:03

would have been gone. We were hoping

35:05

it was going to be rewarding and then it turned

35:07

out it wasn't because they only kept their

35:09

footage for five days. We were like,

35:11

oh, this is it. We're going to figure out who

35:14

she was there with or where she left, which way

35:16

she went, a car, anything.

35:18

And no, nothing. So

35:21

Michelle had tracked down the motel that Lauren

35:23

had gone to shortly before she disappeared. Michelle

35:26

had known that it was on Mannheim Road

35:28

based on what Mike had told her, but

35:30

there are many motels in that area. It's

35:32

very close to O'Hare airport. Michelle

35:34

told us more about this area. Lauren's

35:38

last known location was

35:40

in Melrose Park. It

35:42

was near Palmer Drive

35:44

and Mannheim Road. That's

35:46

Cook County, Illinois. I don't know. I

35:48

guess the neighborhood was better 10 to

35:51

15, 20 years ago, but

35:53

slowly has started more crime drugs,

35:55

things like that. Mannheim

35:57

Road has a... reputation

36:02

of being kind of on the

36:04

sleazy side, lots of rundown hotels,

36:06

motels, there's all the strip joints.

36:08

So it's not a very nice

36:11

neighborhood, not place that I would want

36:13

to take kids to. That being said,

36:15

it's also not a scary bad neighborhood

36:17

either. I would be fine walking down

36:20

the street at night by myself but

36:22

only because former military I could take

36:24

care of myself. To

36:27

complicate things further, when Lauren disappeared, Mike

36:29

had a warrant. He knew that he

36:31

was putting his freedom in jeopardy when

36:33

he reported Lauren missing which made Michelle

36:35

believe that he did truly care. He

36:37

was worried about her sister. But in

36:39

the days that followed, law enforcement came

36:41

back to pick Mike up. Mike

36:44

was Michelle's most direct source of information

36:46

but with him now behind bars it

36:48

was difficult for her to establish contact

36:51

in order to confirm information with him or

36:53

for the two to compare notes. They

36:56

came back a couple days later

36:59

and arrested him because he had

37:01

some outstanding warrants. So looking back

37:03

at my notes, I started compiling them

37:05

into a timeline. Anytime I talked to

37:08

anyone I was trying to take notes

37:10

and keep track of it. In

37:12

my notes, he had last

37:14

talked to her on Saturday and then

37:17

her phone was off on Monday. So

37:20

that would have been the end of December

37:22

last year. So according to Mike, she left

37:24

the house on the 28th of December and

37:26

went to room 300 at the Best

37:29

Western O'Hare which that I didn't

37:34

find out until after he had

37:36

gotten picked up on his outstanding

37:38

warrants after he filed the police

37:40

report on January 8th. From my

37:43

conversations with him after he

37:45

was sent to jail and then

37:47

sobered up from what he told me. He

37:50

said, I'm able to think clearer now

37:52

and sober. Then he was starting to

37:55

remember more and piece things together more

37:57

but with him being in jail, it

37:59

was order to talk to him, I couldn't talk

38:01

to him all the time, or when I wanted, I couldn't

38:03

just call. When you

38:05

do a quick Google search for Lauren Wilhoyt,

38:08

you'll find that her missing date may be

38:10

listed as the 28th, 29th, or 31st, and

38:12

where she was last seen may say her

38:14

home or a motel. What we

38:16

can nail down for sure is that Lauren

38:18

spoke to her family on the 28th, her

38:20

boyfriend says that she left that day, and

38:23

Michelle found a photo of Lauren in her

38:25

iCloud account. In the photo, there was a

38:27

sign for the best Western in the background.

38:29

Michelle told us that Mike said to her that he had

38:32

spoken to Lauren on the 31st. However,

38:34

we don't know the nature of that conversation,

38:36

and we have no way to verify that they

38:38

actually spoke that day. December

38:41

31st, according to my notes,

38:43

was the last time Mike

38:45

talked to Lauren on her

38:48

cell phone. But the last time

38:50

he personally saw

38:52

her would have been the 28th,

38:54

and then her selfie that

38:56

she took out front of the hotel was on

38:58

the 29th, which is why the

39:00

dates are all kind of messed up. It's a

39:03

three-day period because I talked

39:05

around the 28th, Mike saw her on the 28th. She

39:08

was at a hotel room that was

39:11

rented from the 29th to the 31st,

39:13

but nobody saw her on the

39:16

31st, but Mike talked to her. Michelle

39:19

mentioned just then that Lauren had been staying in a room

39:21

that had been rented from the 29th to the 31st. She

39:25

told us more about what she knows of this room.

39:28

That room was rented from the 29th to the

39:31

31st. Somebody

39:34

checked out on the 31st,

39:36

and without that footage, so we don't

39:38

technically, like nobody knows, did she go

39:40

missing on the 29th, the 30th, or

39:42

the 31st? No

39:45

idea. So if you're

39:47

reading an article that says Lauren disappeared on

39:49

the 31st, we can't say for certain that's

39:52

true. Someone checked out of the

39:54

room she was allegedly staying in on the 31st,

39:56

but there's no footage to show that she was alive

39:59

or left them alone. motel alive that day

40:01

or that she was the one to check

40:03

out of the room. And for that matter,

40:05

we have no idea who checked in or

40:07

out of that room. Who was Lauren going

40:09

to meet at this motel and why? We

40:11

know the footage from the motel is long

40:13

gone, but Michelle said that investigators were able

40:15

to get a list of people who had

40:17

rented rooms when it's believed that Lauren was

40:19

staying there. And right there on that

40:21

list was the name of someone that Lauren knew.

40:25

What is even more weird

40:27

is that when we finally

40:29

figured out what hotel it was and

40:32

the cops then went, tried to get the

40:34

footage, they said the footage was gone, but

40:36

they asked can we at least get a

40:38

room list so we can see who rented

40:41

this room. This guy rented the

40:43

room for three days. Who

40:45

was this guy who had rented the room and

40:47

how did Lauren know him? Michelle told us

40:50

she had never heard of this man before

40:52

Lauren disappeared. But she began piecing together

40:54

information from speaking to Mike and her

40:56

own searches. She discovered that

40:58

his name is Kevin. He lives in the

41:01

neighboring state of Indiana and he had some

41:03

type of disagreement with Lauren shortly before she

41:05

went missing. That

41:07

one guy from Indiana, her

41:10

friend Kevin, Lauren was

41:12

talking to and the boyfriend Mike

41:14

knows about him, but never liked

41:16

him. Lauren had met up with

41:19

him a few times. So this

41:21

guy, his credit card was used

41:23

to rent the room that she was going

41:25

to. And if you look

41:27

up his arrest record, which I did, he's

41:29

a mess head and has

41:31

been arrested for resisting law

41:34

enforcement. He's been arrested for

41:36

pistol whipping his, I think,

41:38

ex life or ex live

41:40

in girlfriend intimidation with deadly

41:43

weapon, domestic battery resulting in

41:45

moderate bodily injury, pointing

41:47

a firearm at another

41:49

interfering with reporting the

41:51

crime battery resulting in

41:53

bodily injury. He pled

41:56

guilty, but he got a sentence of 365

41:58

days. was

42:00

all suspended to time served

42:02

which was one day. I have

42:05

no idea how my sister knows him.

42:08

I honestly have no idea if they

42:10

were just friends, if they ever dated.

42:12

I don't know because I had never

42:14

even heard of this Kevin guy until

42:17

Mike told me about him and that

42:19

was in January after she went missing.

42:22

I do not know how long

42:24

she knew Kevin from what

42:26

I was kind of gathering just

42:28

from looking through her iCloud

42:30

pictures because she seemed to

42:33

screenshot a lot of texts

42:35

and things. It seems like

42:37

at least a year or

42:39

two, maybe longer. He is

42:42

much older than her. He lived

42:44

down in Indiana but he would

42:46

drive up to Illinois where she

42:49

lived. So Mike, the boyfriend, had

42:51

told me that this guy Kevin

42:53

had come up just before Christmas.

42:55

He shows up at Mike's and

42:58

Lauren's house on Palmer Drive in

43:00

Melrose Park threatening Lauren. So

43:03

this guy who had rented the room that Lauren

43:05

was supposed to be staying in had been threatening

43:07

her about a week or so before she vanished.

43:09

One thing that's important to note here is that

43:11

we don't know for sure if this man was

43:13

actually ever there or if only his financial information

43:16

had been used to book the room. Since

43:18

there's no footage left for anyone to view, all

43:21

we can say with any amount of certainty is that

43:23

the room was booked in his name using

43:25

his credit card. What we know

43:27

about the disagreement between Kevin and Lauren

43:29

is that sometime prior to December 20th,

43:31

Lauren must have been with Kevin and

43:33

he accused her of stealing some post

43:36

maybe longer. He is much

43:38

older than her. He lived down

43:40

in Indiana but he would drive

43:42

up to Illinois where she lived.

43:44

So Mike, the boyfriend, had told

43:47

me that this guy, Kevin, had

43:49

come up just before Christmas. He

43:51

shows up at Mike's and Lauren's

43:53

house on Palmer Drive in Melrose

43:55

Park threatening Lauren. So

43:58

this guy who had rented the room that Lauren was supposed

44:00

to be staying in had been threatening her about

44:02

a week or so before she vanished. One

44:05

thing that's important to note here is that we

44:07

don't know for sure if this man was actually

44:09

ever there or if only his financial information had

44:11

been used to book the room. Since

44:14

there's no footage left for anyone to view,

44:16

all we can say with any amount of

44:18

certainty is that the room was booked in

44:20

his name using his credit card. What

44:22

we know about the disagreement between Kevin

44:24

and Lauren is that sometime prior to

44:26

December 20th, Lauren must have been with

44:28

Kevin and he accused her of stealing

44:30

some postal money orders. I

44:33

have some text messages

44:36

which were between Kevin

44:38

C and Mike and

44:41

these texts were from December

44:44

20th where he

44:46

says, you might advise

44:48

Lauren to get on the phone to

44:50

me or not. Because she

44:52

still has what she took from me,

44:54

she may save herself or

44:57

not. Get fucked. Kevin

44:59

showed up at their house threatening

45:01

Lauren over stolen postal checks. So

45:03

he sent text messages to Lauren

45:06

and Mike was answering the texts

45:08

to Kevin and said something

45:11

along the lines of if she

45:14

gives me back what's mine, she

45:16

may save herself. And

45:18

that was over the postal checks. And

45:20

then on December 28th, she's leaving the

45:22

house to go to a hotel to

45:24

the room that this

45:27

Kevin guy rented because they still

45:29

had the credit card statements that

45:31

Western had, that info. We

45:34

don't have proof that Lauren actually stole anything from

45:36

this man. However, if she did,

45:38

it's also possible that she could have

45:40

stolen his credit card information too. And

45:43

that opens up the possibility that Lauren could have booked

45:45

the room using his credit card. And

45:47

she didn't actually prove that they were together at that motel.

45:50

This has been a major source of

45:52

frustration for Michelle as she's been trying

45:55

to track down any verifiable information. Each

45:57

piece of new information seemed to open up a new

45:59

series. of questions. What

46:02

I don't know is because

46:04

Lauren has or had stolen from

46:06

him, did she just book it

46:08

in his name using his card

46:11

or was it actually him? I've

46:13

never talked to him so I

46:15

don't know. Pretty much since then

46:17

there has been nothing. I

46:19

haven't found any more leads so I mean

46:22

it could be either one that he

46:24

rented it and he was the one

46:26

there with her or maybe

46:28

Lauren rented it with his information.

46:30

Kevin may or may not have

46:33

been there. I have no physical

46:35

proof or even hearsay

46:37

that he was actually there. I

46:39

mean honestly in that case I

46:42

don't really have proof that Lauren

46:44

was there other than that one

46:47

picture, her selfie that she took in front

46:49

of the hotel. There's no

46:51

videos or pictures, nothing

46:53

of Kevin actually being

46:55

there either. It's all just frustrating.

46:58

I want to reach out

47:00

to Kevin myself but I'm also scared

47:02

and I don't want to get in

47:04

the way of the investigation

47:06

or mess it up. So no, I have

47:09

not personally reached out to him. With

47:12

this Kevin guy living in another state, it's

47:14

made things more difficult to investigate and Michelle

47:16

said that as far as she knows, he

47:18

hasn't really been looked into much. With

47:22

this Kevin guy being down in Indiana, I

47:24

know it's hard for them to get down.

47:26

You know it's Chicago so there's murders all

47:28

the time. I went to

47:30

the local county sheriff's down there and

47:32

gave them the flyer, kind of gave

47:34

them a quick rundown and one of the cops went

47:36

out to him because they're like, oh yeah we know

47:38

him. And I was like, yeah I bet you knew. And

47:41

that cop said that, yeah I talked

47:43

to him. I asked him if he knew her and

47:45

he said yeah and he said well when was the

47:47

last time you saw her and he

47:50

said it was a couple months ago and I asked

47:52

if he knew where she was and

47:54

he said no and that was it.

47:57

And so when I told lead detective

47:59

that, he ended up calling down to

48:01

him and he got the body cam footage

48:03

from the guy and the guy literally talked

48:05

to him for one minute and that was

48:07

it. And Cook County has gone down a

48:09

couple different times to try and make contact

48:12

with him, but they just have never been

48:14

able to make contact as far as I

48:16

know. He did note a green Chrysler in

48:18

the yard with seats removed that he thought

48:20

was kind of suspicious, but I never heard

48:22

back on anything about that. Angie's

48:36

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48:38

lot of theories about why. I thought it

48:40

was an eco move. For your words, less

48:42

paper. No, it was so you

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more iconic. Must be a tech thing.

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wondery. dude

52:00

and they only brought back half of

52:02

the money that they owed but were

52:04

given another kilo, sold it

52:06

all and then that's when she

52:09

disappeared. So she is supposedly according

52:11

to this guy on the run

52:13

with some dude and they

52:15

had been bouncing between Indianapolis

52:17

and Ohio and Kentucky supposedly.

52:20

We aren't sure if law enforcement looked into this

52:23

lead and Michelle explained that she doesn't know

52:25

much about what the police are doing today

52:27

to find her sister. They don't give her

52:29

much information. One thing that we know

52:31

is missing along with Lauren is her cell phone. Michelle

52:33

has been able to access Lauren's iCloud

52:36

account and see some information like photos

52:38

and screen sheets but the data

52:40

from Lauren's phone is something that Michelle would

52:42

certainly be interested in reviewing. Where

52:44

does that phone place Lauren after she spoke

52:46

to her family on the 28th? Who did

52:48

Lauren speak to? The

52:51

detective isn't really telling me a

52:53

whole lot because it's still an

52:55

active ongoing investigation. There's Chicago and

52:58

they're busy so they're not probably

53:00

doing much. I do

53:02

not know really anything

53:04

about Lauren's phone. The only

53:07

things that I know about her phone

53:09

is that I am in her iCloud.

53:11

She had her phone with her when

53:13

she went missing because she

53:16

took her selfie on the 29th with her phone

53:18

and then Mike, the boyfriend,

53:21

said the phone died on the

53:23

2nd and has been dead

53:25

since. I still randomly call it just

53:27

hoping and it just goes straight to

53:30

voicemail. I don't know

53:32

what the last incoming or

53:34

outgoing phone call was from

53:36

her cell phone. I was never able to

53:39

get call log details. I tried and I

53:41

don't know. I had asked the cops if

53:43

they did the warrant to

53:45

get location or anything and never of

53:47

course heard back on any of that

53:50

and that's all I know which is

53:52

not much. I don't know

53:54

whether police were able to ping her

53:56

phone or get search

53:58

warrants or anything for it. it. They

54:00

have not communicated that with me.

54:03

I have asked and they

54:05

won't tell me. As far as

54:07

I know, what the police

54:09

did after Lauren was reported

54:11

missing by Mike was they

54:13

reached out to me because I had

54:16

told Mike to give them my cell

54:18

phone number and tell them who I

54:20

am. They talked to my

54:22

parents and honestly, other than

54:24

that, they have been pretty quiet and

54:26

stand off. So I don't know

54:29

a whole lot. They were doing a

54:31

lot more in the very beginning. And

54:33

then it just kind of fell off.

54:35

The first detective on the case, Question

54:38

Mike, he visited the Super

54:40

8 and the Speedway in Melrose

54:43

Park and the Speedway employee recognized

54:45

a photo of my sister but

54:47

would not provide video of her

54:49

last visit. I know from talking

54:52

to the lead detective that they

54:54

were working on getting

54:56

the footage. No idea if they

54:58

ever did or not. Never told me. He

55:01

visited the Best Western where

55:03

he was able to get the record

55:05

of that Kevin guy renting the

55:07

room. They did list Lauren and

55:10

Namis. They brought in

55:12

an SVU detective or two and

55:14

that was in February and I

55:16

met with them in

55:18

the beginning of February as well. They

55:21

ended up being pulled from the case

55:23

shortly thereafter just because there was no

55:25

lead to work and nothing that they

55:27

could figure out. And I don't

55:29

know, other than that, it's been pretty

55:31

quiet. Supposedly, they're still working the case.

55:34

I try every once in a while

55:36

I'll text. There hasn't been any movement.

55:38

There's been no sightings. There's been nothing.

55:41

So we had a news reporter reach

55:43

out. She found out more

55:45

information than I ever did from the

55:47

police and that was just that. The

55:50

only two suspects that they have are

55:52

the boyfriend and that Kevin guy and

55:54

that's all I know. Michelle

55:57

told us that she doesn't believe that Lauren's boyfriend Mike was

55:59

responsible for the murder. responsible for what happened to

56:01

her sister. So she acknowledges that while he

56:03

was once helpful and would speak with Michelle

56:05

when he could, he stopped communicating with her

56:07

at this point. I

56:10

don't feel that the boyfriend had anything

56:12

to do with it. He just got

56:14

out end of July. I mean, he

56:16

was helping at the very beginning with

56:18

trying to find her, which is weird

56:20

why all of a sudden he

56:22

just doesn't care. Stop talking, stopped

56:25

reaching out, won't talk to you

56:27

guys. Lauren's cousin

56:29

Brittany said that she doesn't know if Mike had

56:31

anything to do with what happened to Lauren, but

56:33

she feels he must have some information that

56:35

could be helpful to the investigation. Lauren's

56:38

boyfriend, I can't help but feel

56:41

he knows more than what he's leading on.

56:43

Maybe he doesn't. I had no communication with

56:46

him. There could be something even he's not

56:48

leading on because he's in fear of getting

56:50

in trouble himself, even if he didn't have

56:52

anything to do with it. Shelly had told

56:54

me that he's not speaking to anyone. So

56:56

I can't help but feel like he definitely

56:58

knows something. But I want to know what

57:00

this Kevin guy knows. What happened? Did she

57:03

leave the hotel room? Or did he kick

57:05

her out? What happened with this Kevin guy?

57:07

He has to have answers and I don't

57:09

think we've gotten anything from him. I don't

57:11

know. When we spoke

57:13

with Lauren's friend Jeff, he told us that because

57:15

of what he's personally witnessed, he can't be

57:18

certain that Mike wasn't involved in

57:20

Lauren's disappearance. He simply can't

57:22

discount the possibility. Do

57:24

I think he could have done this? Yes.

57:27

Do I think he did? I really don't know.

57:29

I really hope not. But

57:32

it's a possibility. He was loyal

57:34

to her for a very long time. So that's why I

57:36

kind of question whether or not Mike had anything to do

57:38

with it. But I did see violence

57:40

and Mike also, you know, he had lived

57:43

in the city. He had been homeless at

57:45

a certain point. He had been in the

57:48

underground world for a long time. So if

57:50

somebody would know a place to possibly hide

57:52

a body or something, I

57:54

would assume he probably would know. There's a

57:56

lot of places people don't look in the

57:58

city, unfortunately. abandoned houses,

58:01

vacant lots. I would

58:03

hope that somebody would see or whatever, but

58:05

the reality is there's a lot

58:07

of places that somebody could hide

58:10

a body or whatever and get

58:12

away with it in the city. There's a lot

58:14

of lots nobody has stepped foot on in five

58:17

years. Houses that people haven't gone in attend. You

58:19

never know. It's kind of like trying to find a needle

58:21

in a haystack. You heard

58:24

Michelle discuss Mike getting picked up on

58:26

warrants after Lauren had disappeared. Jeff told

58:28

us that while Mike was incarcerated, he

58:30

got sober. We don't know if that's

58:32

the reason he doesn't want to speak about Lauren

58:34

today. Perhaps that brings up bad

58:36

memories and threatens his sobriety. But

58:39

even Jeff encouraged Mike to speak with us, though

58:41

Jeff said he was only met with silence. He

58:44

currently is sober. He went to jail and that's

58:46

one of the reasons why I kind of go

58:48

against that he had part anything

58:51

to do with it. He ended up talking to the

58:53

police and by talking to the police, he was found

58:55

to have a warrant and he knew he

58:57

had a warrant. So that's why I go back and

58:59

forth. If he did it, I don't think he would

59:01

have basically turned himself in for his warrant to say

59:03

that she's gone. That's one of the things that I

59:05

used to go maybe he did. I don't

59:07

know. But like I said, he's sober right now. He went

59:10

to jail for a few months, came out and he's living

59:12

in like a sober living facility. And I

59:14

never reached out to him about this. I saw

59:16

that he read it, but he didn't respond. And

59:19

so that's kind of another red flag to where I

59:21

go, well, why not? If it's going to possibly help

59:23

get her back, why would you just look at that

59:25

and not say anything? I sent him the link to

59:28

where it's like, you know, if you don't want to

59:30

talk to me, you can at least reach out to

59:32

the podcast. Nothing. Another thing I thought

59:34

about too is he says she disappeared on

59:36

this date, but did she? We don't really

59:38

know. Nobody saw her. I've kind of wondered

59:40

was she riding around using her phone and stuff for

59:42

a day or two? So my mind kind of spins

59:45

around like that. It's possible. She

59:47

might have even disappeared before then. While

59:50

we were working on researching and producing an

59:52

episode About Lauren's life and disappearance, we

59:54

couldn't help but notice some indicators that

59:56

she was likely engaging in sex work

59:58

to support herself. Mike, However, her

1:00:01

family didn't seem to know much. About

1:00:03

this, this wasn't something that she talked

1:00:05

to her family about. Perhaps she felt

1:00:07

same or embarrassment levy. She didn't want to

1:00:09

hurt or it sat some the well we were speaking

1:00:12

with chess. he told us a he did. Know

1:00:14

about this side of Lawrence life. And.

1:00:16

He worries that it could have played into her

1:00:18

disappearance and one way or another. Your.

1:00:21

Body of it so used to heroin.

1:00:23

Screech Owl basically arrow a draw. I

1:00:25

mean. Are you start off the first

1:00:27

really sign of sickness you get if you

1:00:29

start sweating profusely as you start getting super

1:00:32

nauseous years than a heavy user for long

1:00:34

time Yemen you can be viewed in your

1:00:36

guts out. You're sweating but you're freezing cold.

1:00:38

The A Bone star Jake and I mean

1:00:40

A that can last a week or longer.

1:00:43

That's definitely like one of the factors of

1:00:45

a wide as willing to do what she

1:00:47

did A controls yeah, you're sick like that

1:00:49

and I said as go away. For a

1:00:51

you know week, you know that you've got a

1:00:53

week of hell unless you do something about it.

1:00:56

And. On that's why most people end up

1:00:58

failing and relapsing as because they get

1:01:00

a day three and they're like oh

1:01:02

my god this is done for ever

1:01:04

See Basically started escorting. I did really

1:01:06

liked the whole idea of it. Neither

1:01:08

really had jobs or anything in the

1:01:10

last ten years. Mike would try here

1:01:12

and there be a blow it within

1:01:14

a day or two. From what I

1:01:16

know that gray started pretty early. She's

1:01:18

used to it. escorting for ten years

1:01:21

is other than double such as fine.

1:01:23

So super suffered really risky situations narrowly.

1:01:25

think about, look at. Around here she

1:01:27

also had to worry about Mike see came

1:01:29

back and see didn't have the money he

1:01:31

was gonna go and do have some sort

1:01:33

of rage and sit and want to repercussions.

1:01:36

are Matty there? So. She. Made sure

1:01:38

to do her job anyway she could even though

1:01:40

she was the one getting that money. Was.

1:01:42

Always going to blew me away was her money?

1:01:45

Ninety nine percent of the time. But.

1:01:47

it being a you know in that embarrass

1:01:49

year saw like well it's have my in

1:01:51

half yours because were a couple again isolated

1:01:54

or he constantly had her phone he said

1:01:56

i was that he could do the apps

1:01:58

and stuff for her A lot of

1:02:00

times he would set up the date, at least

1:02:02

know where she was going. And in the beginning

1:02:04

he might've, he might've went with her, but I

1:02:07

think they got complacent. She would go out and

1:02:09

do that. And he would expect her to split

1:02:11

half, no matter what. I said that to Lauren

1:02:13

a few times. I was like, you know, this

1:02:15

is a pretty fucked up arrangement. I'm like, you

1:02:17

go out and you sell yourself. You would send

1:02:19

her off, but he would just wait. You didn't

1:02:21

actually go and make sure that she was okay.

1:02:24

But he didn't really care. It was like, as

1:02:26

long as you're back here by this time, that's

1:02:28

fine. I mean, that was another thing.

1:02:30

She had time limits and he would be irate.

1:02:32

So again, that's another reason why I kind of

1:02:34

go back and forth. I'm like, is Mike a person

1:02:36

of interest or not? In the spring of

1:02:38

2021, she was talking to a

1:02:40

guy off app. She had his number

1:02:43

and he ended up like finding the conversation, read

1:02:45

it. And I was there

1:02:47

when this happened and he was like, what the

1:02:49

fuck is this? You know, and she's like, she's

1:02:51

like, Oh, you know, like I just, you know,

1:02:53

he's a nice guy. I'm just talking to him.

1:02:55

He went fucking berserk, berserk. It was

1:02:58

like, he's going to leave me, blah, blah, blah.

1:03:00

You know, like, you know, this guy's just, you

1:03:02

know, he's a loser. He just hiring you for

1:03:04

sex and went on this whole rant.

1:03:06

He didn't hate her or anything, but it was

1:03:09

quite uncomfortable. She tried to assure him, I'm not

1:03:11

going to go with him. I got to talk

1:03:13

to her later and I'm like, would you? And

1:03:15

she's like, well, I don't really think so. Cause

1:03:17

I love Mike. At the same time, if this

1:03:20

guy asked me, you know, I wouldn't be opposed.

1:03:22

So that's when she disappeared at first. I felt

1:03:24

like, Oh, maybe she found somebody to actually take

1:03:26

care of her. That's what I hoped. And

1:03:29

I honestly thought a couple of weeks

1:03:31

and she'd pop back up. Unfortunately, she

1:03:34

hasn't. So I wasn't

1:03:36

too worried at first and became

1:03:38

a week, two weeks longer. Jeff

1:03:42

had some information about how Lauren worked because he

1:03:44

had spent a lot of time with her and

1:03:46

she would sometimes tell him about what she was

1:03:48

doing. Well, Lauren would do

1:03:50

often. She would set

1:03:52

up a date and a lot of times

1:03:55

her dates were in the city or near

1:03:57

the city. And so a lot of times

1:03:59

what she'd have them. do is she would

1:04:01

have a trick pay for

1:04:03

an Uber. She tried to

1:04:05

go to nicer areas, but sometimes you just

1:04:07

couldn't help it. She needed the money and

1:04:10

she would go wherever she was needed. She

1:04:12

had people, they were regulars. I never met

1:04:14

any of her tricks. That was kind of

1:04:16

one of those things she kept very to

1:04:18

the side. She would share things with me

1:04:21

about certain ones, but I never actually met

1:04:23

anybody. Usually she'd be there for

1:04:25

an hour, two hours, three hours, depending on

1:04:27

what they paid. She made a couple hundred

1:04:29

bucks an hour. It wasn't nothing that she

1:04:31

was making. She would do a date and

1:04:33

then they'd be good for a couple days.

1:04:35

Luckily she wasn't walking the street either. She

1:04:37

used the apps. There's really no vetting process

1:04:39

or anything like that. She would talk to

1:04:41

people, you get their number, et cetera. She

1:04:43

would just go. She would try to talk

1:04:45

to them for a while, make sure there

1:04:47

were no red flags or anything that jumped

1:04:49

out right away. As long as she felt

1:04:51

comfortable, she would go. Mike never went with

1:04:53

her. So she was always showing up

1:04:55

alone to wherever she was going. And

1:04:58

Mike was more or less just like a

1:05:00

background pimp. He had his phone and he

1:05:02

would log into some of the apps on

1:05:04

his phone and he would pretend to be

1:05:06

her. There was a guy downtown that I

1:05:08

know of that she kind of called like

1:05:10

her sugar daddy and his number was disabled.

1:05:12

So that right there kind of made me

1:05:14

wonder like, well, he disabled his number. Can't

1:05:16

find him on Facebook. Is she

1:05:18

possibly with him? That's a question that I think

1:05:20

is still kind of unanswered. I don't

1:05:22

think anybody's ever gotten in contact with this guy. And

1:05:24

I mean, and I know the amount of money he

1:05:26

has lived in a really

1:05:28

nice apartment downtown. I knew that

1:05:31

she knew him at least a year she

1:05:33

had been seeing him. So I don't know

1:05:35

if it did evolve into something

1:05:37

else. That's what I was saying is he had enough

1:05:39

money that, you know, he wanted to get her out

1:05:41

of that life and away from Mike. And that, you

1:05:43

know, I don't know that I think she would have

1:05:45

reached out to her family by now if that's what

1:05:47

happened, but you never know. Jeff

1:05:50

had had what sounded like some near misses

1:05:52

in the past with men who may have

1:05:54

had intentions to harm her. And she told

1:05:56

Jeff about some of those experiences too.

1:06:00

herself in some risky situations. I know of

1:06:02

at least two times one where the guy

1:06:04

was trying to get her to do some

1:06:06

heroin that he had bought and

1:06:09

she was like, no, and that guy, he ended up

1:06:11

trying to like get her to do a shot with

1:06:13

it. She was like, no, I'm not doing it. I

1:06:15

want to see you do it. And he did it

1:06:17

and it caused him to overdose. When she came back,

1:06:19

she was like, I think he was trying to kill

1:06:22

me or, you know, at least subdue her. And then

1:06:24

I know like of another time where she was

1:06:27

on a date and she didn't realize the guy

1:06:29

had locked he had a deadbolt on his front

1:06:31

door. That was one of the key deadbolts. He

1:06:34

had locked her inside of the house. She ended

1:06:36

up freaking out and the guy was like, Oh,

1:06:38

it's cool. It's cool. And she ended up having

1:06:41

basically to wait for him to fall asleep and

1:06:43

she got the key and she left. She had

1:06:45

been in situations before where it was sketchy. And

1:06:47

I always told her, I understand why

1:06:50

you think you have to do this,

1:06:52

but it's so dangerous. You're gonna get

1:06:54

killed one day or taken. And that's

1:06:57

what happened. She thought she had this. She

1:07:00

can hold her own. She had this air about

1:07:02

her that even though she was down

1:07:04

and out, she still had this attitude

1:07:06

of she knew she was a good person.

1:07:09

She knew that she wasn't somebody to be

1:07:11

spit on. So she stood up for herself.

1:07:13

She acted like that but at the same

1:07:15

time, she wasn't a very big person. Two

1:07:18

guys or you know, a large man could

1:07:20

very easily overpower her. Say they had a

1:07:22

gun or something like that. She

1:07:24

could very easily be overpowered. But she, I

1:07:27

think probably the drugs kind of played into this

1:07:29

too. She kind of thought she was invincible in

1:07:31

a way. Learning that Lauren

1:07:34

was engaging in sex work opened up a lot

1:07:36

of possibilities as to what may have happened to

1:07:38

her. We know the name of the person

1:07:40

who the motel room was registered to, but

1:07:42

we can't prove they were there. Again,

1:07:44

we went back to asking the same question. Who

1:07:47

was Lauren meeting? Was it someone she

1:07:49

knew a regular, a complete stranger? We

1:07:51

don't know the answers to these questions,

1:07:54

But Jeff Also wondered about the places Lauren would go

1:07:56

to buy drugs. There was one place in particular that

1:07:58

just said that Lauren was a good person. Learn and

1:08:00

Mike had stayed out in the past before. They

1:08:02

were in their current home, just witnessed

1:08:04

some sketchy stuff go down there, and

1:08:07

some of the men seem particularly interested

1:08:09

in Lauren. I know

1:08:11

the places the zoo's getting her drugs from,

1:08:13

not all of them by any means replace

1:08:15

that we want to. there's a trap our

1:08:18

son or unless I blame and Cicero Illinois

1:08:20

where I witnessed a that trap house that

1:08:22

I knew they had lived in Now worried

1:08:24

that maybe they did something they had made

1:08:26

comments before about as sexy she was excited

1:08:29

or are there was a the first place

1:08:31

I went and saw it up there and

1:08:33

I'm like if he does either known as

1:08:35

know why didn't They truly seems like they

1:08:38

hadn't seen her. I'm pretty good at reading

1:08:40

people and. Their lies and said truly

1:08:42

seemed like they had no idea what

1:08:44

I'm talking about. I can't believe them.

1:08:46

there's a lot eyes there and if

1:08:48

she had been there somebody would have

1:08:50

seen her in slipped up and said

1:08:52

it. I could be wrong blades but

1:08:54

are so many different track houses and

1:08:56

stuff that she went to and people

1:08:58

who are drawn out a trap housing

1:09:00

the stuff on were face Fargo or

1:09:02

south Side. They're not the most morally

1:09:04

just people either never now as they

1:09:07

were somebody of daves they do is

1:09:09

use specially a drug addict tucson. An

1:09:11

escort app allows. As much as they go,

1:09:13

nobody's gonna miss them. Do whatever. You know

1:09:15

that I can go to the police. There's

1:09:17

a beagle out there that Allen says the

1:09:19

dogs allowed let alone a girl. a vulnerable

1:09:21

woman, Just told us

1:09:23

more about what he witnessed in this house

1:09:25

long before Lore and ever disappeared. As

1:09:28

Montana went out there and Lauren I'm like

1:09:31

wow they had some girls over but is

1:09:33

there a pretty young I would say maybe

1:09:35

sixteen seventeen and these guys you know on

1:09:37

and late twenties, early thirties. the girls are

1:09:39

drinking Gator Aid I as on the girls

1:09:42

on Aids and I have a sip of

1:09:44

that and the guys all at once easily.

1:09:46

no no no no you can have this

1:09:48

one of give me a different one. I

1:09:50

was on opened and I'm like her. I

1:09:53

was weird that I've noticed one of the

1:09:55

girls drinking and there was residue at the

1:09:57

bottom of her drink and. I saw

1:09:59

it. My eyes other see like

1:10:01

open do next meal chat melanie and

1:10:03

said don't say fuck and word alive

1:10:06

oh okay. Now so because you're gonna

1:10:08

go the bathroom or something like that say some

1:10:10

than it was kind of a city business and

1:10:12

those i really wanted to say like hey there's

1:10:14

something in your drink but at the same time

1:10:16

I was with a bunch of people that I

1:10:18

know each one of them had a gun and

1:10:20

then there are couple more and house while the

1:10:22

save the girl but at the same time I

1:10:24

really couldn't well of happening was they started a

1:10:26

get tired and the one girl doesn't like i'm

1:10:28

really tired and they're like oh. There's a bad

1:10:31

upstairs be want. And that was

1:10:33

pretty much my you to leave. She went

1:10:35

up there and were at John and like

1:10:37

worms I will check honor and he went

1:10:39

up there are my god I'm an expose

1:10:42

you know I can I knew what was

1:10:44

happening from what I gathered I are very

1:10:46

few days later and I asked somebody who

1:10:48

is in the house only what happened with

1:10:51

those girls know like I would easy government

1:10:53

It happens like once a week sometimes couple

1:10:55

times a week now. Like really so they

1:10:57

drug women and then gang rape I'm that's

1:11:00

one trap house and scavo they can't imagine.

1:11:02

That that's just one instance or that happens

1:11:04

once I find out when her that she

1:11:06

was gone I can have suspected them. Money

1:11:09

known I went in and a detective ask

1:11:11

in in all the different people come in

1:11:13

and out or last time he saw her

1:11:15

race or like now I haven't seen them

1:11:17

since they moved out. You have a few

1:11:19

people who would tell me on the download

1:11:22

your something really did happen and they didn't

1:11:24

I had one of the magazine as me

1:11:26

recently were on facebook or they are has

1:11:28

anything surface about Learn whilst I'm pretty worried

1:11:30

about or wherever added this deliver. The news

1:11:33

of know who? His gloves? nothing. Just.

1:11:35

Had seen the survey things happening at this

1:11:37

pace since he wished he could have put

1:11:40

a stop to that. He felt powerless because

1:11:42

the other men were armed and he wasn't.

1:11:44

He. Wondered is something like this could have happened to

1:11:46

his dear friend Lauren, though He also knows that

1:11:48

she's. Much older and streets near. The

1:11:50

terrible things can happen to anyone. He

1:11:53

told us that he holds out hope that they

1:11:55

will find for him. but as more time passes.

1:11:57

The more he worries that they won't find her

1:11:59

alive. There's a

1:12:02

lot of places that somebody could dump a

1:12:04

body or even if she's still alive, there's

1:12:06

a lot of places that you can traffic

1:12:08

somebody. She's a drug addict at the same

1:12:10

time, so if they give her heroin to

1:12:12

keep her complacent, I still have hope. I

1:12:14

don't hope that she's in that situation, but

1:12:16

at the same time, I kind of hope

1:12:18

she is. Maybe all of

1:12:20

a sudden tomorrow will wake up and she was

1:12:22

found. That's what I hope for,

1:12:24

but I don't have a whole lot of hope

1:12:26

anymore that will at least get her back alive.

1:12:28

It's because of the amount of time it's been

1:12:30

and I've been racking my brain

1:12:33

about this since she disappeared. We

1:12:35

often hear from loved ones in cases like

1:12:37

Lauren's that they feel as though not enough

1:12:39

has been done to look for their missing

1:12:41

loved one. Law enforcement doesn't seem interested because

1:12:43

of their history of drug use or sex work.

1:12:46

We see this kind of judgment from the public

1:12:48

as well. There have been nasty

1:12:50

comments on social media posts about Lauren

1:12:52

being missing, cruel things that people write

1:12:54

on social media without ever thinking about

1:12:56

how it will affect those who are longing

1:12:58

for answers. Here's Michelle again.

1:13:01

I think Lauren's lifestyle

1:13:04

could and probably did impact the

1:13:07

way that anyone and everyone is

1:13:09

looking at it. Yeah, she's a

1:13:11

drug addict. If you

1:13:14

look at past cases, police don't

1:13:16

tend to care all that much

1:13:18

about drug addicts, but at the

1:13:20

same time, I feel

1:13:23

like the detectives were trying, whether

1:13:25

they still are or not. I

1:13:27

guess that would be up for debate,

1:13:29

but the one reporter that

1:13:32

reported on it, she was

1:13:34

super nice. And I

1:13:36

really appreciated the way that she put

1:13:38

it out there and did her report

1:13:41

on it. She told

1:13:43

me she doesn't care what Lauren did.

1:13:46

She only wants her to be found. And

1:13:49

I truly felt that from her

1:13:51

and really appreciated that. And the

1:13:53

police, I think that

1:13:55

they are actually working it and trying. It's

1:13:58

hard to know for sure when The police aren't.

1:14:00

Really talking to be either and letting me

1:14:03

know where they're at our what's going on.

1:14:06

One. Thing that we can't overlook when it

1:14:08

comes to stigmas is that these crimes often

1:14:10

go unsolved because no one seems to care.

1:14:12

Vulnerable women like Lore and are targeted

1:14:15

for these reasons. And. We shouldn't

1:14:17

ignore their cases like they're disposable

1:14:19

people. We've. Seen in the past that

1:14:21

people who target. Vulnerable populations have been

1:14:23

left to continue killing for

1:14:26

years, seemingly unchecked, We. All

1:14:28

know a serial killers like Gary

1:14:30

Ridgeway the Long Island serial Killer,

1:14:32

Mani David Franklin Junior better known

1:14:34

as the Grim Sleeper. So risk

1:14:36

can the list goes on and

1:14:38

on. Gary. Raceway want? Sad I

1:14:40

picked prostitutes has my victims because

1:14:42

I hate most prostitutes. I also

1:14:44

picked prostitutes because they were easy to pick

1:14:47

up without being noticed. I. Knew that

1:14:49

they would not be reported missing. I picked

1:14:51

prostitutes because I thought I to kill as

1:14:53

many of them as I wanted without getting

1:14:55

caught. We. May know the statistics, but

1:14:57

the sigma still stand in the way as

1:14:59

a major hurdle when it comes to getting

1:15:01

people to care and when it comes getting

1:15:03

people to listen. Or take action. Lawrence.

1:15:06

Cousin Britney told us that she's been disheartened by

1:15:08

how Lauren and their family have. Been treated through

1:15:10

all of this when all. They want is

1:15:12

to find Lauren. Or

1:15:14

what? So many true crime shows and I see

1:15:16

the other cases and how much effort the place

1:15:18

for then and I'd feel like this has not

1:15:21

been the same from my understanding our from what

1:15:23

I have heard it doesn't seem. Like they're doing

1:15:25

much of anything at all. Seems like selling.

1:15:27

It has been doing her own investigating and

1:15:30

that's the worst part right now as a

1:15:32

word s and not knowing. I mean right

1:15:34

now you're just over thinking every possible situation

1:15:36

or scenario where the what could have happened

1:15:38

to her and it's just not knowing and

1:15:40

it's hard to grieve. Are fine closer

1:15:43

without any information like that and

1:15:45

added. slayer which are safe and i

1:15:47

want her well but even if she

1:15:49

is dead somewhere i'd almost rather know

1:15:51

that so we can move on and

1:15:53

greet them have entered said just these

1:15:55

questions answered crazy like a dream i

1:15:57

remember the first time they finally put

1:16:00

her case on the news, even that was

1:16:02

months and months and months after she went

1:16:04

missing. Like why did it take so long

1:16:06

just to get a short news clip on

1:16:08

her? We had done that maybe months ago

1:16:11

when it first happened then maybe we'd have

1:16:13

more information or someone would come forward. Maybe

1:16:15

we would have more answers and I mean

1:16:17

we've been posting non-stop on social media and

1:16:19

passing on flyers but I mean that only

1:16:22

goes so far. Had the media made more

1:16:24

of an effort right from the beginning it

1:16:26

probably would have been way more helpful. I

1:16:28

mean who knows but I just know

1:16:30

deep down someone knows something and they're

1:16:32

just not coming forward and that's the

1:16:34

worst part about it all. That's the

1:16:36

other part that's just so hard about

1:16:38

this all is I've seen comments like

1:16:40

we've posted on social media about her

1:16:42

being missing and some really horrible comments. Well

1:16:45

she's just a drug addict who cares about

1:16:47

her things like that and that's been like

1:16:49

one of the hardest parts about it all.

1:16:51

It's like no she's still human she's still

1:16:53

a person. She clearly does have problems but

1:16:56

that doesn't make her any less important. She

1:16:58

still has a family and friends who love

1:17:00

her and want her safe but for people to

1:17:02

be making comments like that like oh she's just

1:17:04

a drug addict who cares what happens to her

1:17:06

like she probably brought this on herself things like

1:17:09

that. You think her family likes reading things like

1:17:11

that? No. If you don't have anything I should

1:17:13

say don't say anything. So

1:17:15

what happened to Lauren Wilhoit at the end

1:17:17

of December of 2022? We know

1:17:20

that Lauren had last spoken to family on December

1:17:22

28th. Her boyfriend Mike said

1:17:24

that he saw her leave their home and that

1:17:26

she was heading to a motel. Weeks

1:17:28

after she had vanished Lauren's sister was

1:17:30

able to gain access to her iCloud

1:17:32

account where she saw a photo of Lauren

1:17:34

in front of the motel. At this point

1:17:37

the surveillance cameras had already been erased but

1:17:39

the police were able to gain access to

1:17:41

a log of registered guests. On that

1:17:44

list was the name of a man that Lauren knew and she

1:17:47

had an argument with him shortly before she

1:17:49

disappeared. He claimed that Lauren had stolen some

1:17:51

postal money orders from him and that's why

1:17:53

he was threatening her. We don't know what

1:17:55

had really gone down between Lauren and this

1:17:57

man and we don't know much about that.

1:18:00

relationship. There's no concrete evidence

1:18:02

showing that the two were together at the

1:18:04

motel. We also know that the motel registration

1:18:06

showed that someone checked out of the room on the

1:18:08

31st, but we don't know

1:18:10

who that was. Mike said that he had spoken

1:18:12

to Lauren on that day, but his account of

1:18:15

things has been a bit murky, and it's

1:18:17

difficult to know if his dates are accurate. We

1:18:19

can't see for certain that Lauren was alive and

1:18:21

well for very long after she had spoken to

1:18:24

her family on the 28th and took that selfie

1:18:26

in front of the Best Western. What

1:18:28

may have happened to Lauren is a mystery

1:18:30

at this point. We filed a record request

1:18:32

with the Cook County Sheriff's Office, though we

1:18:34

were told that they can't release records at

1:18:37

this time. Law enforcement hasn't told the family

1:18:39

much about their investigation. Lauren's

1:18:41

phone is still missing, but Michelle has

1:18:43

never been told if they've gotten phone records or

1:18:46

any data that would show where Lauren may

1:18:48

have been and when. Today, there

1:18:50

remains a number of people who could have

1:18:52

harmed Lauren or no information about her disappearance,

1:18:54

ranging from her boyfriend Mike, the Kevin guy

1:18:56

who was upset with her, and his name

1:18:59

was on the motel room, to

1:19:01

any random client, or even someone she went

1:19:03

to purchase drugs for. Despite the

1:19:05

many roadblocks in front of her, Michelle isn't

1:19:07

giving up the search for answers, and

1:19:10

she hopes that someone will come forward with information.

1:19:12

If you have any information about

1:19:14

the disappearance of Lauren Wilhoyt, please call

1:19:16

the Cook County Sheriff's Office at 708-865-4896. In

1:19:23

the very beginning, I was calling literally

1:19:26

every single hospital every few

1:19:28

days, and nobody ever had

1:19:31

any Jane Doe or anything come in.

1:19:33

You know, I check NamUs all the

1:19:35

time. I was curious because there was

1:19:37

a girl from Chicago

1:19:39

suburbs who was very similar

1:19:41

situation heroin addict, cute young

1:19:43

girl, missing forever, and

1:19:45

Cook County coroner had her

1:19:47

for months, and then finally

1:19:49

put two and two together. We've

1:19:51

tried to can this a couple times, but

1:19:54

where do you go when you don't really

1:19:56

know? She did have tracking on

1:19:58

her phone at one point. So I was

1:20:00

able to kind of get a map and she

1:20:02

would go all over the place. From

1:20:05

downtown Chicago, north side, south side,

1:20:07

all the way out to like

1:20:09

Geneva, St. Charles, and north and

1:20:11

south of there. So it

1:20:13

would be too big of an area. The

1:20:15

only places that I would think would be

1:20:17

around her house or that apartment, there's a

1:20:20

bunch of railroad tracks, right? Because

1:20:22

it's Chicago. And you see a lot

1:20:24

of drugs around that area and

1:20:26

the sex workers too. Or

1:20:29

the west side of Chicago, who knows?

1:20:32

That

1:20:37

brings

1:20:42

us to

1:20:57

the end of episode 422. I'd like to

1:20:59

thank everyone who spoke with us for this

1:21:02

story. If you have a missing loved one

1:21:04

that you'd like to have featured on the

1:21:06

show, there's a case submission form at the

1:21:08

Vanishing Podcast. If you'd like to join in on that, and

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