0:01

We have two dogs in our home. Aria

0:03

is a two-year-old puppy who definitely

0:05

needs help with her portions. And

0:08

Nala is a ten-year-old dog who is living a

0:10

great life. And we want to keep feeding her

0:12

well so she can hang in there with us

0:15

for a lot longer. The

0:17

Farmer's Dog makes it easy to keep them

0:19

healthy, which can give you more quality years

0:21

with them. The Farmer's

0:23

Dog makes and delivers fresh, healthy dog

0:25

food. It's recommended

0:27

by vets, nutritionally balanced, and

0:30

made from human-grade ingredients in

0:32

safe, clean kitchens. It's

0:34

the best option for dogs at all life

0:36

stages. It doesn't matter if

0:39

your dog is young or old. It's

0:41

always the right time to begin investing in their

0:43

health, helping you

0:45

live more healthy, happy, and full

0:48

years together. You

0:50

can get 50% off your

0:52

first box at thefarmersdog.com. Let

0:57

the Farmer's Dog know we sent you. Use

0:59

our code or click podcast after you sign

1:01

up for your first box. On

1:07

March 16, 2000, two sheriff's deputies were

1:09

shot in Atlanta. Jamil

1:11

Al-Amin, a Muslim leader and former

1:13

black power activist, was convicted. But

1:16

the evidence was shaky, and the whole truth didn't

1:18

come out during the trial. My

1:21

name is Mosi Secret, and when I

1:23

started investigating this case in my hometown, I

1:26

uncovered a dark truth about America. He

1:29

said to me, you want

1:32

me to take care of them, you know, for

1:34

not doing something to pay you or something like

1:36

that? I said, no, what you talking about? But

1:38

I had no idea who

1:41

he, you know, who he had become. That's how

1:43

he approached you? You know what he meant when he

1:45

said that? Yeah, I'm thinking

1:49

murder. In a minute, you know. I think

1:51

that's what he was thinking too. From

1:55

Tenderfoot TV, Campside Media, and

1:57

iHeart Podcast, Radical is available

1:59

now. Listen for free

2:01

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

2:03

or wherever you get your podcasts.

2:31

The

2:36

views and opinions expressed in this podcast

2:39

are solely those of the podcast author

2:41

or individuals participating in the podcast and

2:44

do not represent those of TenderfootTV

2:46

or their employees. This podcast

2:48

also contains subject matter which may not

2:50

be suitable for everyone. Listener

2:53

discretion is advised. As

3:01

you might remember, in Season 3 of Up and

3:03

Vanished, I covered the case of

3:05

Ashley Loring Heavy Runner, a

3:07

23-year-old Indigenous woman who went missing from

3:10

the Blackfeet Reservation in Brownie, Montana in

3:12

2017. Since

3:15

Season 3, countless listeners have reached

3:17

out about other cases of missing Indigenous

3:19

people. It's been powerful to

3:21

see how many of you really truly care, but

3:24

the sheer number of cases that need

3:26

attention is overwhelming. We wish we had

3:28

the ability to cover all of them. While

3:30

I've been working on a new season of Up and Vanished, I

3:33

sent a satellite team to look into

3:35

several missing persons cases that were linked

3:37

together by one single location. Over

3:40

the next six episodes, you'll get to go on this

3:42

journey with them. A journey

3:44

to the vanishing point. What

3:55

is happening to these women? Who

3:58

do you think is preying on them? Are

4:00

they the victims of trafficking serial

4:03

killers that have maybe set their sights on

4:05

more rural areas? What do we

4:07

know? And

4:14

a few years ago, I was the victim

4:16

of a huge financial crime. One

4:18

that forced me to navigate the criminal justice system

4:21

for the first time. It

4:23

was that experience actually that prompted me to

4:25

want to dig deeper into true crime stories,

4:28

to tell them with the kind of

4:30

nuance that I'd experienced firsthand. It

4:33

all led to my podcast, True

4:35

Crime, where I tell the stories

4:37

of real people murdered, missing, and

4:39

misled with more context, more nuance,

4:41

and a lot more questions. I'm

4:44

deeply interested in shedding light on the kinds of

4:46

stories that we tend to brush under the rug.

4:50

And that is what brings me here today, talking

4:52

to you. By now,

4:54

you might have heard about the MMIP movement.

4:57

It's the movement for missing and murdered

4:59

Indigenous persons, and it's been steadily gaining

5:02

nationwide attention over the last several

5:04

years. Recently, I joined the

5:06

Tenderfoot TV team, and they've covered some of

5:08

these cases in their series Up and Vanished.

5:11

One year has passed since Ashley Loring

5:13

was last seen on the Blackfeet Reservation.

5:16

There's something wrong happening in Montana and

5:18

on these reservations, and the only way

5:20

to fix this or move forward is

5:22

to cover it and to talk about

5:24

it. There's

5:27

been an uptick in exposure for

5:29

cases like Ashley's, and yet many

5:31

of these cases are still overshadowed.

5:34

And ever since Up and Vanished season 3, we've

5:37

been hearing about a lot of them. I've

5:39

been following your new season about Ashley Loring. I'm sure

5:41

you may have been contacted regarding the open and

5:43

unsolved case. My

5:46

sister, a mother of two, was recently killed by

5:48

her boyfriend. So now the Up and

5:50

Vanished team is going to bring you along the

5:52

gorgeous Pacific Northwest coast up to Hoopa, California, home

5:55

of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. This

5:57

lonely stretch of foggy coastline is what's...

6:00

Some think of as a doorway to heaven on

6:02

earth, others as a gateway

6:04

to hell. There's

6:06

a long list of unsolved cases here. We're

6:09

going to look into five of them. This

6:12

is the Vanishing Point, an up

6:14

and vanished series. You

6:45

have reached Tenderfoot TV. At the

6:47

tone, please record your message. Hi,

6:51

my name is Laura Freighter. I'm an

6:53

investigative journalist based in Oakland, California.

6:56

I'm working on a bunch of stories

6:58

for the Two Rivers Tribune, the newspaper

7:01

based on the Super Reservation in Northern

7:03

California. We have various missing

7:05

people out there, various unsolved murder cases.

7:10

Last year, we were contacted by Laura Freighter,

7:13

a journalist who'd been covering MMIP

7:15

cases in Northern California. She'd

7:17

been writing these articles for the Two Rivers

7:19

Tribune, the sole newspaper in

7:22

Hoopa Valley. I got

7:24

into these cases because I study

7:26

federal Indian law as part of

7:28

my PhD. And then

7:30

one day I was thinking about getting

7:32

back into journalism. I hadn't written for

7:34

any publications in many years. And I

7:36

was on a database looking at statistics

7:38

regarding missing indigenous women in Humboldt County.

7:41

And suddenly I see Emily Risling

7:44

on the list. Thirty-three-year-old Emily Risling,

7:46

a mother of two, was last

7:49

seen near this village in October.

7:52

And then in the preceding weeks, I

7:54

could not get Emily off my mind. She's

7:57

my age. She has two young kids. I thought

7:59

that was a good time. There must be like

8:01

a newspaper in her community that's looking

8:03

for coverage and I can do that. I don't have

8:05

to get paid, I don't care. I just want to

8:07

be helpful in some way and use my PhD research

8:09

in a productive way. Laura discovered

8:11

the true reverse tribune and reached out to the

8:13

staff. Little did she know,

8:16

the paper was run by a sole employee,

8:19

editor in chief, Allie Hoeffler. I

8:22

sent Allie on Facebook and I

8:24

sent her a couple messages. The

8:27

craziest thing was, she never checks her

8:29

Facebook messages. She just happened to see

8:31

my message that day saying, you know, I

8:33

want to write about Emily Risling. Are you willing?

8:35

You don't have to pay me. She called me

8:37

up. That was, gosh, 18 months

8:39

ago now. Laura researched

8:42

Emily Risling's case for months, interviewing

8:44

family members over the phone and

8:46

following tips. I wanted to write

8:48

for the paper because I think that Community News

8:51

is democratic, it validates people's experiences and

8:53

you should see yourself in your local

8:56

community newspaper. Laura's

8:58

first article was published last March. Okay,

9:02

do you want me just to go through each PDF or

9:05

stop between highlights? All

9:08

right, I'm reading from through one of Emily's then.

9:12

Back in October, 2021, Emily Risling, 32, a

9:16

mother of two young children and a member

9:18

of the Hoopa Valley Tribes, vanished. According

9:20

to the Yurok tribal police chief, Mirgo Rourke,

9:23

the last confirmed sighting of Risling was on

9:25

Highway 169 on Paquin

9:27

Bridge on Monday, October 11th, 2021. Since

9:31

Risling disappeared, her case has been marked

9:33

by rumors, you hear things everywhere.

9:36

At the store, where people text you things, they

9:39

say they heard something from someone else but no

9:41

one wants to talk. There

9:44

was only so much Laura could do from

9:46

afar and hundreds of miles away,

9:49

Ali had her hands full on the front lines

9:51

of multiple causes, all while running

9:53

the newspaper by herself. Without

9:56

gaining as much traction on the cases as they'd

9:58

hoped, Laura suggested. that they

10:00

try to get the stories into an even bigger

10:02

market. With podcasting, we all

10:04

know that it's incredibly accessible. It's

10:07

the modern way of storytelling. It's

10:09

global. And I wasn't super familiar

10:11

with the American podcasting platforms because I'm not

10:13

from the US. And then somebody one day

10:15

at a yoga class says to

10:17

me, have you heard of Up and Vanished? And

10:20

I said, I haven't actually. And I looked

10:22

it up, and I thought, oh, they've actually

10:24

covered a native woman for season three. So

10:26

this seems like a great platform to return it

10:29

to the rest of

10:31

history. How

10:37

did you actually sleep last night? If

10:39

it wasn't an absolute dream, then you

10:41

need to upgrade to the softest, most

10:43

luxurious sheets from Boland Branch. Their signature

10:45

sheets are made from toxin-free organic cotton

10:47

and get softer with every single wash.

10:50

Millions of Americans love their sheets. And right

10:52

now, you can feel the difference with their

10:54

best sales of the entire year. So

10:56

hurry to B-O-L-L in branch.com to

10:59

shop their biggest sales with free

11:01

shipping and extended returns. Exclusions

11:03

apply. See Cypher details. When

11:06

things feel a bit chaotic,

11:08

Instacart helps deliver milk and

11:10

sausage. Add a little

11:12

life to your cart. Get

11:15

stuff from literally all your stores,

11:17

from Baby Wipes to Al Bacor.

11:20

Add a little life

11:22

to your cart. Instacart

11:25

helps get your groceries.

11:28

Your first three deliveries

11:30

are free. Download Instacart.

11:32

Add life to cart. Terms apply. Nestled

11:43

deep in the rugged wilderness of

11:46

California's extreme northwest, the

11:48

Hupa reservation sits on 144

11:50

square miles of mountainous terrain

11:53

and redwood forl. When you

11:55

search for it on a map, its border appears

11:57

as a square box. That

12:00

is no accident. For

12:03

generations, the Hupa tribe existed peacefully,

12:06

their lives interwoven with the landscape.

12:09

But when the gold rush of the mid-1800s lured

12:12

in hordes of white settlers, the

12:14

Hupa way of life was disrupted forever. In

12:18

1851, the U.S. Congress created what

12:20

we now know as the reservation system. In

12:23

California, four reservations were created.

12:27

Hupa was one of them. Today,

12:30

3,000 people live on that land, many

12:33

of whom are members of the Hupa

12:35

Valley tribe. Welcome home. Hi.

12:44

How's it going? How are you? What

12:49

do you think of Hupa? I

12:51

like it so far. Yeah.

12:55

It looks like Scotland. Did you

12:57

drive in from Reading today? From Eureka. Oh, from

13:00

Eureka. Okay. This

13:02

is Allie Hossler. She's indigenous

13:04

and a member of the Hupa Valley tribe. Not

13:07

only is Allie extremely proud of

13:09

her heritage, but she possesses

13:11

an exceptional wealth of knowledge about the

13:13

history of her people. Hupa

13:18

is, in my opinion, the

13:20

most beautiful place in the world, and it will

13:23

always be the most beautiful place in the world.

13:25

There's the Trinity River cut

13:28

through the mountains and

13:31

flows through the Hupa Valley. The

13:33

Hupa Valley is the heart of

13:35

the Hupa tribe when our international

13:38

territory spans into the mountain areas

13:40

to fight away. The

13:44

92,000 acres of land the reservation

13:46

spans is only about

13:49

one fifth of the Hupa

13:51

tribe's original territory. Through

13:54

all these years, the Hupa people have

13:56

maintained their fight to reclaim their stolen

13:58

land from the federal government. meetings

16:00

and I feel like we talk about

16:02

the same thing over and over for

16:04

years on end and

16:06

there's a

16:08

lot of money pouring into this town for

16:11

help with different things but it's not

16:13

getting where it needs to be. Ali

16:17

gave our team a tour of the land that

16:19

her ancestors have called home for hundreds of years.

16:22

As she showed them around the somber

16:24

truth of how her community has been

16:27

neglected was inescapable

16:30

even in the small moment. Gotta

16:32

have a wood stove around here. Oh

16:34

my back, do you lose? Electricity.

16:36

Constantly. Really?

16:40

Yeah. How often? Lately

16:43

like one or two times a week and

16:45

then sometimes for a week at a time.

16:48

Like, I'll see this place over here. You know,

16:51

tarps for roofs. Trailers with

16:54

tarps over them. I mean it's just

16:56

people are living like this. Children are

16:58

living in this type of scene.

17:02

I mean if you just drive around

17:04

Hoopa aimlessly and look around you'll see

17:06

that the standard of living

17:08

is really low. With

17:11

her Hoopa roots, Ali understandably has

17:13

a lot of relatives in the

17:15

valley. In fact, she's related

17:18

to not one but two of the folks

17:20

whose stories will be covering this season. And

17:23

one of those is Emily Risling. Her

17:26

case is one of

17:29

these status cases. Because

17:34

it was a whole year

17:37

that there

17:40

were so many opportunities to intervene

17:42

and her family begged

17:44

for help. And the community

17:47

begged for help. And

17:49

the people who could provide that help

17:51

didn't step up. Having

17:54

followed Emily's case for some time, Ali

17:57

introduced our team to the people who knew her best.

18:00

I am Mary Risling.

18:02

Today I turned 25. I

18:06

am Hoopa Yurok in Karuk and I am the

18:15

sister of Emily Risling

18:18

who went missing in October 2021.

18:20

Growing up she was my biggest

18:26

role model. I wanted to be

18:28

like my sister. I wanted to hang out with

18:31

my sister any chance I got. I was

18:33

like her little shadow I guess. I have older

18:35

parents and so it was really me and my

18:38

sister quite a bit. You know she was my

18:40

second mom. Just

18:43

smart, beautiful, the most caring.

18:45

She was always there for me if I needed

18:47

something. If I needed someone to call,

18:49

to confide in, it was

18:52

her. She knew all my biggest secrets.

18:54

I don't know if she kept

18:56

them secrets. You know

18:58

she was still who I talked to. She was

19:00

always there for me. The

19:03

Risling home is a living tapestry

19:05

of Emily. Family

19:07

photos are framed on every wall,

19:10

proof that Emily used to be here.

19:13

That she smiled and danced. That she was

19:15

surrounded by people who loved her. In

19:19

a glass cabinet they keep her moccasins. The

19:22

leather almost untouched. All

19:24

of it now just a memory of

19:27

the time before everything changed. Mental

19:31

health was something that majorly

19:33

affected her in the time that

19:35

she went missing. In that time

19:38

you know we didn't have the best relationship and

19:41

so we didn't spend a lot of time together in the

19:43

last you know year or so. The article

19:47

that Laura wrote through a holistic picture

19:49

of the person Emily was. A

19:52

loving sister, mother, and friend. But

19:55

also like so many of us, a woman

19:58

with her own struggles. Risling,

20:01

a University Oregon graduate who studied

20:03

political science, suffered from severe health

20:05

problems prior to her disappearance. I

20:08

think people thought she was just on

20:11

drugs or abusing other substances, as Alice

20:13

explained. But what a lot of

20:15

people don't realize is that it often starts with the

20:17

mental health problems, and then people turn to

20:19

other things to help them numb the pain. Emily

20:23

was a very outgoing person in

20:26

high school. She

20:29

was president of her high

20:31

school class for four years. She was really

20:34

a go-getter. This

20:37

is Emily and Mary's mom, Judy

20:39

Risling. After graduating from

20:41

U of O, she went

20:43

to work for a TANF program, and she

20:45

helped a lot of other Native

20:48

people with resources, people

20:50

that were having difficulties. When I

20:52

said she was loyal, I

20:54

always run into people that tell me

20:56

how helpful Emily was to them in

20:59

their time of need. After

21:02

she had her daughter

21:04

postpartum psychosis kicked in,

21:08

she became pretty delusional.

21:12

It came to light that Emily was having

21:14

some mental issues. As

21:16

that progressed, I think

21:18

she started to perhaps self-medicate.

21:23

I don't know. I

21:25

don't know. According

21:28

to her family, despite their efforts to

21:30

connect her to resources, Emily

21:32

would slowly lose everything. With

21:35

nowhere to live and concerns about her ability

21:37

to care for her children, social

21:39

services got involved, and Emily's two

21:42

kids were placed in the care of her parents.

21:45

It was hard for me to watch her not be

21:48

with her kids or not take that responsibility.

21:51

I know how hard it was on her son

21:53

to not be with his

21:55

mother when she

21:57

no longer had a house, when she kind

21:59

of let go of the person she was, it

22:01

was really hard for me to see

22:04

her do that without being frustrated in her.

22:07

And so, you know, out of my immediate family, I was

22:11

kind of the one to confront her about that.

22:14

And, you know, that did

22:16

kind of push her away from her relationship.

22:21

So that's why, you know, the last few times when

22:23

I saw her, you know, I tried to

22:25

let go of that. You know,

22:27

I didn't try to focus on all the

22:29

bad stuff. This more, you

22:32

know, I get a minute or two with my sister.

22:37

I thought about this a

22:39

number of times really trying to pinpoint when the

22:41

last time I saw her was, I

22:44

think she showed up at my

22:46

mom's house. And I was watching her

22:48

daughter at the time. I didn't

22:51

quite know what to do. At that

22:53

point, her mental health was pretty far gone. And, you

22:56

know, I had her one year

22:58

old daughter with me trying to take

23:00

care of her. I remember asking

23:03

her where I could take her. And she

23:05

said, well, you know, let's go to the bank. She had to

23:07

get some money from the bank. I took her

23:09

to the bank. And I

23:11

remember calling my mom while she was in there.

23:13

I said, you know, I don't know what to

23:16

do. I really don't

23:18

have anywhere to take her. I don't want

23:20

to drop her off, you

23:22

know, on the side of the street. It

23:24

was really tough. According

23:27

to the county, you know, she couldn't be around her daughter

23:29

at that time. So I couldn't just keep her with me.

23:31

I ended up driving

23:33

her out to Hoopa to

23:36

her friend's house where she had been staying for

23:39

the last few months. And

23:42

it was

23:44

like one of the hardest drives I've ever

23:46

made. It was

23:48

pretty rough. But I

23:51

think that's the last time I saw her. And at

23:53

least at the end of that,

23:55

I was able to, you know, give her a good

23:57

hug. And I just said, you know, please stay safe.

24:02

I told her how much I loved her. Yeah,

24:05

at least I was able to do that." Emily's

24:13

life seemed to spiral further and

24:15

further out of control until

24:17

she was nearly unrecognizable to the people

24:19

who loved her. In

24:22

the depths of her struggle, she was often

24:24

seen walking around town in various states of

24:26

undress. Post

24:28

on the local Hoopa page show that residents

24:30

were concerned and frustrated that there

24:32

seemed to be no help for the

24:35

quote, naked woman. I

24:37

think California in itself is a rough

24:41

place to have a mental

24:43

illness, considering that you

24:45

can't force somebody to

24:48

get help unless they want it. So

24:51

if someone is out of their right mind and

24:53

doesn't think they need help, good

24:55

luck trying to help

24:58

you. And that's the

25:00

case with my sister. At

25:02

a certain point, you know, she thought everything was going to

25:04

be okay. So to tell

25:06

him that it wasn't okay, this is not

25:08

okay, you know, walking

25:10

around naked, it's not okay. You

25:15

couldn't get through to her. You couldn't. Emily

25:19

was oftentimes walking around

25:21

nude. And many

25:24

times in Hoopa, they

25:26

would just simply pick her up and give her

25:28

a ride to where she wanted to go. I

25:31

was constantly begging them to pick her up on

25:33

a 5150. And

25:36

they were always saying that she didn't meet

25:38

the criteria for that. Code

25:42

5150 of the California Welfare and

25:44

Institutions Code permits police and mental

25:46

health professionals to transfer an individual

25:48

experiencing a mental health crisis. And

25:51

they can do that involuntarily. The

25:54

individual is brought to a facility

25:57

for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation

25:59

and stabilization. To qualify,

26:01

though, you have to be gravely disabled

26:03

or considered a danger to yourself or

26:05

others. Emily

26:07

was determined not to meet either of

26:10

these criteria. For

26:12

families like Emily's, a 5150 is often

26:14

a desperate attempt to get help

26:16

for their loved ones. When

26:18

it isn't an option, families

26:20

seek any viable alternative, including

26:23

intervention from the criminal justice

26:25

system. They

26:28

did get arrested for a

26:30

small fire in the Hupa

26:32

Cemetery, and they

26:35

took her to jail. And really, as

26:37

her family, we thought, this

26:39

is our golden ticket to

26:42

get her some help. And

26:44

it's a small community. We knew the people in

26:46

the DA's office, so we had already been talking

26:48

to them about trying to

26:51

find a dual treatment facility for

26:53

Emily. We

26:56

went to court, even

26:58

though everybody was advocating to keep

27:00

Emily in jail until we

27:02

could find this help for her. The

27:05

judge decided to let her go,

27:08

and it was

27:10

within a week that she disappeared. You

27:27

don't know what happened. You don't

27:29

know if she was trafficked. You

27:33

don't know if she was murdered. You don't

27:35

know if she did suicide or what. Emily's

27:39

father, Gary Rizzling, grapples

27:41

with what might have happened to

27:43

his daughter and how the

27:45

system failed her. None

27:48

of the systems are working.

27:50

They're really incomplete. It's a

27:52

sad, sad, tragic thing that's

27:55

happening. Emily's not

27:57

the only one. I talked to my

27:59

cousins. There's plenty of people

28:01

that walk around who are either naked

28:04

or yelling and screaming in the same

28:06

boat. The last

28:08

confirmed sighting of Emily was on Highway 169

28:10

at Pequon Bridge. Located

28:13

across the Klamath River in a remote part

28:15

of the Yurok Reservation, Highway 169 dead

28:18

ends at the end of the road. A

28:21

bus full of children and a driver saw Emily

28:23

that cold autumn day standing

28:25

naked on the bridge. One

28:28

student, the child of a tribal police officer,

28:30

alerted his father. When

28:32

Emily couldn't be tracked down afterwards, concern

28:35

for her whereabouts grew. I

28:38

drove down there a number of times to where she

28:40

went missing and drove around by myself and

28:43

looked around. But we

28:45

need people that are

28:47

knowledgeable about investigations

28:49

and how to find

28:51

someone. People that can serve

28:53

warrants, that can do interviews with people

28:55

that are suspects. I

28:58

believe if there was a proper investigation, she

29:00

would have been found. There

29:03

was no sign of Emily. She

29:05

just vanished. Mary

29:08

told us that there wasn't a fully fledged

29:10

search party until a foundation focused on wilderness

29:12

safety got involved six months

29:14

later. They got

29:17

search dogs, cadaver dogs, and they did a

29:19

three day search. And that was really the

29:21

biggest thing to have happened in

29:23

efforts to find my sister. You

29:26

know, it wasn't successful. You

29:28

know, the tribal agencies aren't equipped, you

29:30

know, with enough people or knowledge to

29:33

do something like that. That's

29:36

why there's so many missing and murdered indigenous

29:38

women and people on different

29:40

reservations because there just aren't the resources,

29:43

the manpower to really do anything about it.

29:47

I've heard stuff from tribal

29:50

police departments and everything and

29:53

people tell you why something

29:55

can't be done. I

29:57

think it's idiotic to say, well, we don't have

29:59

the manpower. We're not trained. Somebody

30:02

has the responsibility. Hopefully

30:05

if there is another search, then we

30:07

can get some answers. But at this

30:09

point we're at a standstill. It's

30:12

just kind of sitting. My mom calls law

30:15

officials every week to try to get

30:17

movement. And I just

30:20

keep calling Sheriff Honsil every week. It

30:22

takes him about three weeks to finally

30:24

return my call. I

30:27

have told him my frustration with him

30:32

and the Yurok police. Now

30:35

there were some jurisdictional problems because

30:37

Emily is a Hupa tribal member.

30:41

She was last seen on the

30:43

Yurok reservation. And

30:45

then there's the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department.

30:48

So, you know, who is going to

30:50

look for her? Who is going to

30:52

investigate it? So

30:54

who's in charge when someone is

30:56

murdered or goes missing on tribal

30:58

land? Particularly in reservations and village

31:00

areas, there is a maze of

31:02

jurisdictions, of policies, of procedures, of

31:04

who investigates what. And

31:07

unfortunately the Sheriff's Department put it

31:09

in the lap of the Yurok

31:12

tribal police that kind of

31:14

got it off of his lap. Of

31:16

course I don't think that was the right decision. I

31:20

really feel like they don't have enough

31:23

manpower to have search done six

31:25

months later. It has to be

31:28

right away. It has

31:30

to be immediate. You can't wait six

31:32

months then to go and try

31:34

to find somebody. It

31:40

was not uncommon for Emily to go

31:42

for periods of time where nobody heard

31:45

from her. This

31:47

is Chief O'Rourke, the Chief of the Tribal Police

31:49

Department that was put in charge of Emily's

31:51

case. He elaborated on his

31:53

experience with the search for Emily. So

31:56

the family wasn't super worried before making a

31:58

report until the greater... length of time

32:00

path. And so typically when law

32:03

enforcement starts a search, you start from a

32:05

central point and then grid out from there.

32:07

We weren't able to do that with Emily

32:10

because we can confirm where she

32:12

was last seen, but then

32:14

we also had several unconfirmed reports of where she

32:17

was rumored to have been or people she was

32:19

rumored to have been around. And that was miles

32:22

away when the

32:24

formal police report came in of

32:26

Emily being missing. I

32:29

remember gathering my officers that were

32:31

on duty and telling

32:33

them, this is not going

32:35

to end well and we're going to get

32:37

called to the carpet and you guys need

32:40

to document everything that you do on this

32:42

case. You know, the terrain,

32:44

the mental health, the

32:46

substance use, the time of year,

32:48

the circumstances. I

32:51

didn't know how it was going to end, but I didn't

32:53

believe it was going to be a happy one. Chief

32:56

O'Rourke states that his department performed the

32:59

best search possible given the circumstances and

33:01

resources. But Emily's

33:03

family, well, they

33:05

feel differently. So

33:08

has there been a thorough investigation? I

33:12

don't think so. The

33:14

Yurok police and Sheriff

33:16

Hansel felt there wasn't

33:18

enough evidence for another

33:21

search, which of course

33:23

I thought was absurd because that's what

33:25

we're looking for, right? Is evidence. We

33:29

strongly believe that there could be

33:31

foul play involved. What

33:35

made her not worthy of an

33:37

immediate search? Is she

33:39

not worthy of a full search

33:42

because she was

33:44

native? We're close

33:46

to the ocean here. We have somebody that goes

33:49

kayaking and disappearing. Oh, they've

33:51

got the helicopters out. You know,

33:53

they've got everybody searching. You

33:56

know, was my daughter not worthy of that?

34:00

But you can never give up. I'm never

34:02

going to quit calling them. I'm never going

34:04

to quit asking them

34:06

for help. You

34:08

just become kind of a thorn in

34:11

somebody's side until somebody does something. I'm

34:14

71 now. Am

34:17

I going to know something before I die? Of

34:21

course, we keep that little bit

34:23

of hope that Emily really is

34:25

out there somewhere. You

34:27

can't give up on that. I

34:29

can't give up on that for her children. But

34:34

the odds are she is not. People

34:39

that didn't want to talk to the

34:42

authorities would call

34:44

myself or Emily's dad

34:47

and give them information, right? But

34:52

the police just saw that as

34:55

secondhand information, thirdhand

34:58

information, and they

35:00

really couldn't do anything because they wanted those people

35:02

to come forward to them. And

35:04

that was really frustrating. Judy

35:08

told us about rumors that she and Gary

35:10

had heard about their daughter's case, including

35:13

a map that they were told would lead to

35:15

Emily's body. Well, it

35:17

was a woman that she had overheard

35:20

a conversation. We

35:22

even have a map

35:25

that she drew, and

35:27

it had a location where she felt

35:29

Emily was buried. The

35:32

police would later tell us that the map could

35:34

never be substantiated. After

35:36

hearing all this, we spoke with Sheriff Hansel

35:38

of Humboldt County Police. We wanted

35:40

to talk to him more about Emily's case and the

35:42

tips that had come in over the years. One

35:45

of the things that was really concerning

35:48

was that there was a lot of

35:50

people that knew information supposedly that didn't

35:52

wanna talk to us, or

35:55

basically said, oh, you should know, the rumor out

35:57

there is this, and said, okay, great, but we

35:59

can't. have to have a rumor. Can't

36:01

write search warrants off a rumor. If

36:03

someone knows something, they need to come

36:05

and talk to us. And we can

36:07

write search warrants based upon first-person eyewitness

36:09

statements. And someone said, I last saw

36:12

Emily here. She was hurt. Someone hurt

36:14

her a year, you know,

36:16

or she was buried at a certain location.

36:18

But people, you

36:21

know, in small communities, need

36:23

to talk. And

36:25

rumors get started. And that could

36:28

be very detrimental to investigations. You

36:31

know, how a missing person's investigation works is

36:34

if we have a last known location and

36:37

someone missing on a trail, then

36:39

we know where to start. If

36:42

someone's reporting missing in the area

36:44

of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation,

36:46

we don't know where to start without some

36:48

kind of specific information. We're left at the

36:51

mercy of who knew this person the most

36:53

and where they could have gone. And

36:56

that's the case of Emily Risling. When

37:03

we asked the family what could have happened,

37:05

they couldn't say for sure. But

37:07

they don't think any theory should be shot

37:09

down. And they're afraid law

37:11

enforcement has written off some leads

37:13

prematurely. She may have not

37:16

been in the right mental state, but she

37:18

would not have hurt herself. Law

37:20

officials are saying there was no foul play,

37:22

even though, you know, she disappeared in a

37:24

place with a lot of known

37:27

convicts. You know, she was hanging around a

37:29

lot of little shady people.

37:31

And, you know, I know that something

37:33

just went wrong. Police

37:36

records say Emily's last known location

37:38

was Pecan Bridge. But this

37:40

place that Mary's referring to, the one

37:42

rumored to be associated with darker

37:45

activity where Emily would sometimes be

37:47

seen, that's just past

37:50

the bridge. Some

37:52

people refer to it as the end of the road. And it

37:55

kind of is. There's not

37:57

much there. There's no cell service. You

37:59

know, there's There's no stores, there's

38:01

a couple houses, and that's all you're

38:03

gonna find down there at the end of the

38:06

road. Broken down cars. It

38:09

is a beautiful place if you

38:11

think about the river, if you think about

38:13

all the green forest, but since

38:15

my sister went missing, I

38:18

just think about how many people could

38:20

be missing in that forest or that river. Emily

38:24

likely did not disappear around

38:26

the Peckwam Bridge. She

38:28

disappeared at the end of the road. Now

38:32

don't get me wrong, there are

38:34

old native families that have lived down

38:36

there their whole life, but when you

38:38

get to a remote place, like at

38:40

the end of the road, people

38:43

that are trying to hide

38:45

from law enforcement, it

38:48

is the perfect place for them. There

38:51

are at least six known

38:53

felons that live in that

38:55

area. She disappeared at the

38:57

end of the road. You

39:00

need to see the end of the road, and

39:02

then you're gonna have a different perspective of

39:04

what could have happened to Emily. And

39:08

when you see the end of the road, it's

39:12

going to make you scared. Next

39:19

time on The Vanishing Point. I

39:22

have several theories, but then

39:24

after talking to everybody and

39:27

like their different sightings and their different stories,

39:30

I kind of think some thought might have

39:32

happened with her and they're

39:34

just all trying to cover it up. Do

39:37

you think somebody knows? I think, yeah,

39:39

definitely somebody knows something more than they're saying,

39:41

you know. Do you think more

39:44

than one person? Oh, yeah, I

39:46

do. Thanks

39:54

for listening to this episode of The Vanishing Point.

39:57

This six-part series is released weekly. free,

40:01

but if you want to listen

40:03

to it ad-free, subscribe to Tenderfoot

40:05

Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on

40:07

Apple Podcasts. The

40:13

Vanishing Point is a production of Tenderfoot

40:15

TV in association with Odyssey.

40:18

Celicia Stanton is our host. The

40:20

show is written by Meredith Sedman, Alex

40:23

Vespicev, and Jamie Albright, with

40:25

additional writing assistance by Celicia Stanton.

40:28

Executive producers are Donald Albright and

40:31

myself, Kane Lindsey. Lead

40:33

producer is Jamie Albright, along with

40:35

Meredith Sedman. Editing by

40:37

Alex Vespicev. Additional editing

40:40

by Sydney Evans. Supervising

40:42

producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional

40:45

production by Laura Frater and Ali

40:47

Hossler. Research by Laura

40:49

Frater and Taylor Floyd. Artwork

40:51

by Byron McCoy. Original

40:54

music by Makeup and Vanity Set.

40:56

Mixed by Dayton Cole. Thank you

40:59

to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at

41:01

UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and

41:03

the Nord Group. And a special

41:05

thanks to Greg O'Rourke, the KIDE

41:07

91.3 radio station in Hoopa, the

41:10

Two Rivers Tribune, and all

41:12

of the families and community members that spoke to

41:14

us. For more podcasts

41:16

like The Vanishing Point, search Tenderfoot

41:18

TV on your favorite podcast app, or

41:21

visit us on our website at

41:23

tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening.