Episode 295

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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

Well,

it's crazy, I know, right?

That's what I'm saying, man.

It's just,

it's kind of spooky stuff.

It is spooky stuff, isn't it?

We like spooky stuff around here, don't we?

Sass holes.

Hello!

Happy Thursday.

Welcome to your favorite podcast, Sword and Scale.

Season 12, episode 295.

A show that reveals that the Wars Monsters are real.

Well, if you haven't checked out Sword and Scale TV, you know, I don't know what to tell you.

We got one out right now that's pretty intense.

And

you might want to take a look if you're interested in the true crime genre, because these things are...

Whew, it takes a lot out of me to make one of these episodes.

It really does.

I mean,

wow.

So when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business.

Yikes.

There's nothing small about a small business.

You're working all of the time.

Thankfully, though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful.

You may have heard of them.

Their name is Shopify.

Shopify's point-of-sale system is a unified command center for your retail business.

It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand thousand locations.

Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient.

Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store.

All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want.

And staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge.

In fact, it's proven.

Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the market set surveyed.

So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what, Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on your side.

Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify.

Sign up for your $1 a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash sword and scale.

All one word.

Just go to shopify.com slash sword and scale and sign up.

You'll thank me later.

You will.

Shopify.com slash sword and scale.

Imagine you're 23, living in a small town in godforsaken Ohio.

Life here isn't exactly exciting, so you chase excitement wherever you can.

Parties, festivals, raves.

Do they still do raves?

New faces and old acquaintances.

Some days days you barely know half the people you're with.

You smoke of course.

You dance, you draw, and for a few hours you let the music drown everything out.

You're a free spirit.

But eventually the music fades, the lights go off and you're back in your bedroom, feeling that ache of deep loneliness that you just can't shake.

Your room is a mess, littered with sketches, collages, and little scraps of ideas that don't quite come together.

You feel like an artist, but you live like a homeless person.

The faint scent of weed lingers in the air, mingling with the smell of incense.

Probably a few hints of patchouli as well.

Gail, your gecko, is asleep in her tank.

You write little reminders to love yourself and keep going.

I mean, somebody has to, even when you feel like you don't matter, which is becoming a more frequent occurrence.

You scrawl big letters into a bullet journal, filling page after page after page.

Anyone that wants to date me wants to hurt themselves.

This

is just how things are.

You try not to think about it.

But it's there.

This feeling that you're not worthy of happiness or love.

That somehow everyone you meet will leave you in the end.

Weird.

I thought I was the only one who felt that.

It starts in January.

One cold night, you're mindlessly scrolling, checking messages.

You're used to chatting with people you know.

Random party friends, the guy from last week's smoke session, etc.

But then a message comes in from someone new.

A guy named Kun

Joe.

Who the hell is Kun Jo?

You don't know him, but you're curious.

So you accept his Facebook friend request and start chatting.

At first, there's nothing out of the ordinary.

You're used to people hitting you up out of nowhere like this, so you don't think much of it.

A few days later, after some casual banter with this guy, he sends you another message.

This one makes your heart skip a beat.

Just want to show you it's not that hard to find someone unless they don't want to be found.

I worry about my my privacy as well.

My social and personal info is on my license.

That's why I don't share, because you could show that to anyone.

And if I'm not sleeping with you, it's hard to trust you.

After this message is a screenshot of your address,

this person

knows exactly where you live.

Just saying, if anyone goes missing, it's not hard to find.

LOL.

What does that mean?

That's what you're thinking, at least.

A few days go by and more messages come through.

I can't stop.

You seem like the type that likes to be choked, force-fed, and held down.

Your stomach turns.

He's included a photo.

It's a collage of your own selfies overlaid with a sea of penises.

Does this person know that you like to do collages?

Is this their twisted way of turning something you enjoy into something

disturbing?

The next message isn't from Kunjou.

It's from a random text-me number.

I will never get you.

Was it real?

Who could be doing this?

And why?

Could it be someone you knew at another time in your life?

Could it be someone you've never met?

They're obviously dedicated to the con because the creepy messages don't let up.

It's April now and you're sitting at your dining room table with a big poster board laid out in front of you.

As you meticulously glue and place each new image, you get another message.

It's the same text-me number,

but this time, they've sent something new.

Something much scarier.

You don't want to look, but you can't help yourself, can you?

The video opens and your heart sinks.

It's you right there, sitting at your dining room table.

The camera is low, like the voyeur was crouched just outside the patio furniture, filming you through the window.

You feel your heart pounding in your throat as you replay the video, again

and again.

You look at the angle and the way the camera dips slightly as if the person holding it was crouching.

They were there.

Right there.

Only feet away from you.

And you never even knew it.

That's it.

This isn't someone just being weird.

This is dangerous.

This is someone making unwanted contact.

You close the tab and click the phone icon, frantically punching in 911.

You tell them everything.

the messages, the video, how it feels like you're being hunted.

They listen and you file a report, but it doesn't make you feel much better, does it?

So you grab your journal and you start writing.

Why can't I stop the thoughts in my head?

I don't want to look.

I don't feel safe.

I don't feel safe.

I don't feel safe.

No one loves me.

These are the words of 23-year-old Ellie Wyke.

Don't ignore your gut or red flags.

You can sense evil.

Stay in tune with your senses.

She wrote it, but it wasn't enough.

She still felt the weight of the anonymous voyeur pressing down on her every day.

There is no comfort.

There is no safety.

Only acid in my rein.

The world will go on without me.

I don't matter, but sadly, I do exist.

For Ellie, the fear wasn't just in the messages or the video.

It was in everything.

the way she thought about herself.

She felt like no one could help.

She felt completely alone.

And the truth was,

she was alone.

No one was taking her seriously.

The cop who filed the official statement was supposed to be in charge of Ellie's case, but he failed to log important evidence, and the whole thing was on a path to nowhere.

Some cops are better than others, I guess.

In the middle of this, Ellie was still looking for connection.

Something to hold on to in the chaos.

She was talking to a lot of people.

Some of them were guys she liked, but nothing was panning out the way she'd hoped.

That's when Nate Peters texted her.

Nate Peters wasn't a close friend, but they'd hung out before.

They'd smoked together, they'd gone to a few of the same parties.

He was familiar, and in this moment, familiar felt safe.

Hey, stranger.

Who this?

Nate, how's it going?

New number, my bad.

Nate, who?

Peters.

Do you know a lot of Nate's?

LOL?

Yes, actually.

Hoping it was you, though.

For Ellie, these conversations were a small escape.

Over the next few weeks, they kept in touch, and by late July, they were making plans to meet up and rekindle their friendship.

What you doing later?

Like what time later?

I have no clue.

Probably late, so I shouldn't even ask.

Yeah, if my mom's home, I wouldn't want you to come over.

In the early morning of July 28th, 2018, when they both knew Ellie's mom wouldn't be around, Nate suggested they hang out.

Ellie agreed.

I'm not bringing my phone.

Is it cool if I just knock?

Ring the doorbell a few times all at once.

See you soon.

Ellie left her house that night, unaware that everything was about to change.

The streets were dark and empty, just like her life had felt for the last few months.

It was late, and she was tired.

Tired of being scared and tired of feeling alone.

There, in the stillness of the air, she convinced herself that this was just another hangout.

That Nate was just a friend.

The alarm bells in her head fell silent.

She didn't know at the time that sometimes the familiar can hide the greatest danger.

Sometimes trusting the wrong person

can be a fatal mistake.

So, when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business.

Yikes.

There's nothing small about a small business.

You're working all of the time.

Thankfully, though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful.

You may have heard of them.

Their name is Shopify.

Shopify's point-of-sale system is a unified command center for your retail business.

It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand locations.

Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient.

Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store.

All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want.

And staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

And let's face it, acquiring new new customers is expensive.

With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge.

In fact, it's proven.

Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the market set surveyed.

So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what, Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on your side.

Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify.

Sign up for your $1 a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash sword and scale.

All one word.

Just go to shopify.com slash swordandscale and sign up.

You'll thank me later.

You will.

shopify.com slash sword and scale.

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It's time to head back to school and forward to your future with Carrington College.

For over 55 years, we've helped train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Apply now to get hands-on training from teachers with real-world experience.

And as few as nine months, you could start making a difference in healthcare.

Classes start soon in Pleasant Hill, San Leandro, and San Jose.

Visit Carrington.edu to see what's next for you.

Visit carrington.edu/slash SCI for information on program outcomes.

At just 23 years old, Ellie Weike was a free-spirited soul trying to navigate the loneliness and uncertainty of young adulthood in West Chester, Ohio.

You know, the entertainment hub of the U.S.

Just kidding.

Don't ever go to Ohio.

It sucks.

Anywho, Ellie longed for connection, filling her days with art, journaling, and fleeting friendships.

But beneath her vibrant exterior was a growing sense of fear.

For months, Ellie had been targeted by an anonymous stalker.

Unsettling messages had escalated to invasive, voyeuristic videos.

Her world, once chaotic but manageable, was becoming dangerous.

Despite making a report to the police, Ellie's cries for help went unanswered.

Her journal entries reveal the depth of her fear and isolation.

Still, Ellie tried to move forward, clinging to hope that familiarity could bring comfort.

When an old friend, Nate Peters, reached out, Ellie hoped hoped she'd find that comfort.

On July 28th, 2018, the two made plans to meet up.

After sending the text messages that arranged their meeting, Ellie was never heard from again.

At first, her absence didn't raise alarms.

It wasn't unusual for her to disappear for a day or two.

She was, after all, a so-called free spirit and had a tendency to drift between friend groups.

But when Ellie's mom returned home on August 1st after spending a few days with her boyfriend, she couldn't reach her daughter.

The house was eerily quiet.

Ellie's car had not moved, and she wasn't answering the phone.

That's when her mom made a call to the Westchester Police.

The investigation began slowly.

Ellie's lifestyle made it hard to pin down where she might have gone.

And at first, the police treated her disappearance like a young adult who'd simply walked away.

Apparently, none of the detectives working the case thought to connect the stalking report to her disappearance.

But Ellie's friends reminded them, offering up text messages where Ellie had told them each separately about her stalker.

To one friend, she said, That person started sending me texts again.

And she sent this to someone else.

Did I tell you someone's been stalking me?

Like they've been taking videos looking inside my house, watching me, and then sending them to me.

I can't afford to move right now, and I'm probably going to delete my Facebook.

I'm also buying a taser soon.

My problem is the person stalking me is anonymous, so I decid how much danger I'm in.

Police began poring through Ellie's phone records, and buried within them was a name.

And now we're going to play a little game called, Am I Smarter Than the Average Sasshole?

Can you guess what name it was?

I mean, we've only mentioned one, and it wasn't Leroy Jenkins.

It was Nate Peters.

Nate had been in contact with Ellie just hours before she vanished.

Naturally, he was the best place to start.

You go by Nate, by the way.

Yeah.

How'd you meet her?

Everybody seems to meet this girl at concerts, or camping.

No, um, so because she was friends with Zach, um, I was over hanging out with Zach, and I guess she had some like mental breakdown at the time.

We've hung out like a total of maybe three times and then uh like outside of the Zach situation.

But even then it was only maybe for an hour or so.

Okay.

I knew she had

like bipolar or other mental issues and stuff so she was prescribed to pills and things but that's about that's about all I know.

Like I said we weren't like we weren't really close or anything.

So what do you think about all this?

I have no idea what's going on.

I hope she's okay.

I haven't seen her in gosh

six, seven months, something like that.

Okay.

When's the last time you talked to her?

Probably about the last time I saw her.

When's When's the last time you had phone conversations with her?

Probably longer than that.

She'll call me, but I usually text.

Okay.

When's the last time you texted with her?

Oh, I attempted to call her

as soon as I found out, but she was missing

past that.

What day was that?

The second?

Okay.

I think, yeah.

Like, as soon as I found out, I was like, oh shit.

My phone doesn't have anything past March on it.

So it's been, you know, minimum six months since I've actually talked to her though nate was adamant about this the text messages suggested otherwise so detectives pressed him it made sense that he'd use a texting app to make these final plans if nate was the reason for ellie's disappearance uh have you ever used texting app

again you're not in any trouble

yeah here's what you gotta remember yeah okay

I'm looking for this girl.

Yeah, okay.

Everyone's looking for this girl.

Right.

You're looking for this girl.

I'm looking for this girl.

You You also got to remember that we do investigations before we're done talking to people.

Sure.

So some of these questions I'm asking you, I kind of know the answers to.

Yeah.

And I'm kind of trying to see if you're going to be honest with me or not.

Sure.

Okay.

So

would it surprise you if I told you that you were using a text app at some point to communicate with her?

Kick?

I don't know if I know.

Maybe text now.

Do you have two F text now?

I know you have to.

Text me, any of that.

So you had no plans to meet up with her over the weekend before she went missing.

Okay.

What I'm dealing with is I'm dealing with a lot of social media and a lot of apps that hides who people are

with me.

And

I'm not quite sure that some of the stuff you're telling me is completely accurate at this point.

I think you've had more contact with her text-wise,

but

I don't know that for a fact.

As the interview went on, detectives noticed that Nate seemed to be trying to steer the conversation.

It seemed like he wanted to shift the blame onto someone else.

These text apps, if you will, yeah, they give you a number.

So when we see them, they start popping up as numbers.

Okay.

Yeah.

What do you think happened to her?

Well, I mean, you know her better than I do.

No, honestly, I tell you the truth, I have no idea.

You know,

I don't know if she wanted to just pack up and run away or if she got to say anything like that to you.

Like I said, I hadn't talked to her since before March.

You guys ever more than friends?

You never slept with her?

Because, I mean, there's nothing wrong with her.

Yeah, no, no.

There's a lot of indications that she was free with herself, which is fine.

Nuggets, nuggets.

That's what I've heard.

But,

no, because she had also

talked to me about how she'd been raped and stuff.

Okay.

So I wanted to at least be that sort of guy that would not press that sort of guy who raped her, if you will.

The only person that I know was a guy named Michael Strauss.

But that was like years and years ago.

And, you know, I haven't seen him in even longer than that.

Okay.

So did she have any concerns about him hanging around here recently?

Not that I know of.

Okay.

You know, it kind of concerns me because she had told me that he had done that to her.

And then she had mentioned she had family members that had done that to her.

And then

like one of her ex-boyfriends, she said had done it to her.

And it's one of those, it seems like, you know, at what point do you say, is this person actually crying wolf, or is they instead of just like an anomalous person that constantly just gets raped?

So, this Michael Strauss guy was the next person to be hunted down.

But in the meantime, the police planned to take Nate's phone in for evaluation.

The next time they saw him, they had a search warrant in hand.

We get lied to all the time.

We definitely know quite a bit about the iOS system as well.

And we have resources to show us that if an app's been been deleted or not, we have resources to show us deleted information from a phone.

But is there any way we could we could arrange a time

today

to download certain information off of your phone within this time frame

to verify that what you're telling us is true?

Is that something that you would be that you would even consider?

Sure.

No, I understand.

I understand.

And

that's well within your right.

And I respect you for knowing your your rights.

What I would have to tell you, though, is

that

I do have a warrant to take your phone, but I've been totally upfront with you.

I'm not lying to you.

The reason that I gave you

is totally honest.

Someone is trying to use, what I believe, someone is trying to use a number associated with you, or at least linked to you, to show that you had contact with Ellie much more recent than you're telling us.

Someone is trying to use a number associated with you?

Why is this cop trying to give away their game plan?

Why is he acting like the suspect's defense attorney?

I mean, I'm all for citizens having rights, but do we really need to handhold and spoon feed suspects?

Their only possible defense strategy?

It's almost like he's saying, hey, dummy.

Say that you didn't have your phone on you.

Say you gave it to a buddy or something.

Despite these detectives seemingly really wanting to give the suspect some helpful legal tips during the interrogation, their actual job now required them to gather information on this new lead, Michael Strauss.

To better understand him, they reached out to someone who had known Michael for years,

his neighbor.

I'm a BCI agent.

Nice to meet you.

I just wonder if I can sit down with you and ask you some questions.

Yeah, you do a Tracy or Michael?

I really can't say.

Not Tristan.

There we go.

So

do you know, are you friends with anybody that lives over there?

Yeah.

They're like family to me.

With all of them?

Trissing and Noah.

Not Michael.

Yeah, so I'm not really asking about them.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

I'm asking about Michael.

This kid, also, in his early 20s, had grown up next to the Strauss family.

for over 15 years and was close friends with Michael's brother.

But Michael?

Not so much.

Those two are like my best friends.

And I mean, I know Michael.

Has Michael been with her the whole time?

Pretty much.

He lived in California, I think, for like three months.

And that was recently.

Okay.

When did he come back, do you know?

Like a month or two ago within the like yeah.

Have you ever seen who drives which car?

Like which cars does Michael drive specifically that I'm interested in that?

I don't think he has a car or he probably yeah, he probably doesn't have a dialed license if I had to guess.

I mean, what do you know about him from me now?

You're smiling.

He's an interesting character.

There's a lot about him.

The stuff in his room is kind of weird.

Like, I guess he, like, doesn't like the government and stuff like that.

He used to have, like, in his basement, like, a flag that said Marines.

And then, like, he wrote, like, lies on it.

And then, like, one that said, like, U.S.

Army, and it said, like, deception or something.

Okay.

Stuff like that.

What the neighbor says next would become crucial information for detectives once they had Michael Strauss in an interrogation room.

Like in high school he played football, but he seemed a lot more, I guess, normal in high school.

Yeah.

I mean,

I guess he's not that crazy, but

what do you know?

What about most people think he is?

What about him?

That's crazy.

The stuff that he wears, the music that he listens to,

stuff like that.

What's he doing for a living, you know?

I don't think he's had a job in a while, but he always has some story that we know isn't true about some job that he's doing or something.

But he actually, it's hard to tell.

It's hard to tell the truth from the non-truth because he actually,

when he went to California, I know he did something there.

Like, man, you wouldn't believe the amount of stories this guy says.

Like,

at one point, he said he was going there to roll blunts for Snoop Dogg.

He said, like,

he said he's going to be an actor.

He said he's going to be a film director, tattoo artist.

Because, like, Tristan and Noah, they think it's funny.

And especially Noah will, like, tell me everything he says just because he thinks it's funny.

Like, tell me his stories and stuff.

Like, famous people that he's met that we know he hasn't met

all the time.

Does he seem to believe it?

Like, he travels, like, yeah, he does.

He seems to believe his own mind, yeah.

And he gets really, really defensive if, like, somebody calls him out for lying, like,

more so than most people would, I think.

But, I mean.

They're just hard to believe.

I mean, you probably know about, like, the flashing incident that he had a few years ago.

Right.

Yeah, I do.

And how'd you find out about it?

Actually, uh,

there's a video of it on the internet.

Um,

that

all you gotta do is type in his name, and it pops right up.

This, um,

flashing incident wasn't just a strange rumor.

It was a documented crime.

Michael Strauss had been convicted of jerking off in a grocery store parking lot, an act that landed him a year of probation.

To Michael's neighbor, it was just another odd chapter in his long history of strange behavior.

But for detectives, it was something they'd tuck away in the back of their minds.

And yet, despite his oddities, oddities, Michael could come across as completely ordinary, at least on the surface.

Does he ever say anything weird about women or...

They're like when you're talking to him,

he seems pretty normal when you're talking to him other than just the crazy stories.

When the time came to bring Michael in for questioning, they already knew what to expect.

A man who couldn't resist spinning stories.

Pretty quickly, though, detectives realized that Michael's neighbor had not been exaggerating.

You said you were doing some work.

Yeah, filmmaker.

Okay.

Yeah.

I've been doing that.

Five years, six years.

I was producing, and now I'm kind of like directing and making my own stuff and everything.

I travel a lot.

It's fun.

You know, I've been living in Cali for a while, and then I just move back, visit my family, and all that kind of stuff.

And then I go back there in like a month.

The plan was just to let Michael talk.

Detectives wanted to get to know this strange

guy

with long dreadlocks piled on top of his head.

They wanted to make a false connection, making him feel like he could trust them.

You can't.

You can't, by the way.

You can't trust cops.

This was the same approach they took with everyone they interviewed in this case.

If they scared anyone away, they could lose a potential lead, and Ellie may never be found.

I wake up and I draw every day.

Sure,

even if it's the littlest thing, I always say, don't have no zero days.

Always be doing something.

What'd you draw?

Guitar player.

Dimebag.

That's one of my favorite guitar players.

Panther.

But

he died in front of me when I was 14 years old.

I was there when he got shot on stage.

All right.

All right.

Do you guys believe that?

Me neither.

Currently, you are okay?

Like, yeah, so we'll kind of explain everything that's going on.

You're about to talk to two of the lowest key people

who you talk to,

which is Tony.

We both work in the detective section.

And we've got this case of Ellie White, who's missing us.

And they came to my house already about it.

Yeah, like I told the detectives that came to my house, it's like, I haven't seen this girl.

I haven't talked to her in about five years, four or five years.

Right.

What we do when we gather, we get names and we start comparing those, we start looking into things.

And a couple things they broke down,

I don't really understand.

I don't really think it was that good of an interview

with me or with Finn in general.

So trust me,

this is the first of many we're going to do.

Okay, so

you got your own place out there?

Yeah, I'm staying with my girl that I'm taking.

Oh, cool, cool, cool.

So what kind of movies are you into?

I mean, what kinds?

I like horror movies, but I like,

I don't know if that always makes people, I don't know if that makes it judgmental or not, but like fan people think horror movies, and I did a documentary, so what I'm doing.

now is that is that is that

more so your thing but like what would you like it but i don't want to be like pigeonholed to just do that to us oh absolutely you know so like i'll i have a few ideas and do that and so is it like crazy like crazy horror stuff like i like psychological stuff i don't like like the excessive like goofy you know slasher type thing

you're not a saw kind of guy saw's cool like i said i know a couple of uh berg mark berg is the producer so he started a saw franchise and he would help work with me and all that kind of stuff i'm trying not to name drop or anything no i like him

i know that guy So do you travel with, I mean, not always.

How do you have like, do you, does that cost, do you fly out there?

Yeah, usually.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I mean, doesn't that, that was cost?

Would you got a package?

Oh, do you just say package?

Check it out.

I made pretty good money lately.

I've been actually made more money last year than I've made in my entire life.

Oh, cool.

So, yeah, like I said, I'm finally getting reward from all the hard work.

BCI, or Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, sat with Michael for hours.

This was no junior varsity interrogation.

These guys knew what they were doing as they took their time to build a rapport with him.

This was a psychological chess match, and the detectives were the only ones who could see the board.

Well, Paparazzi is annoying.

That's one thing.

Like, you just, you know, being a celebrity, you're just being like trying to go to a restaurant or something.

Yeah.

And then there's Paparazzi, hanging out, like, dude, can we get by?

You know, like, yeah,

I guess it's illegal, but I don't know.

You've never been intrigued to do that, that type of thing.

No, because I don't really glorify celebrities.

I don't really think it's that important.

I think it's harassment.

You know what I mean?

Like, you're following people around.

There's been car accidents.

Like, you know.

So, according to Michael, following someone around with a camera is harassment.

Got it.

I wonder how Scarlett Johansson feels about that.

Well, it's too, it's sometimes it's like, well, when you're behind the camera, too.

You're probably looking at it.

You look at things.

So I see my mind works with like, I just, yeah, I look at everything like a big canvas, you know, so yeah, I don't look at every little individual.

Right.

So, I mean, everything that, and I don't mean to totally get on topic, I just think is so interesting.

Sometimes that, but when you look at things, it's almost like you're,

I don't know, are you like mentally filming?

So, like,

it's a filter, you have like a filter.

You just think like this would look good on camera, and then you just start imagining that that's what you're pretty much, I guess.

Yeah, you get it.

Like, it's like you're like, oh, this is interesting.

Like, you've something happened to you, and you're like, oh, that would be interesting to jot down, or that's an interesting visual, or you know what I mean?

Especially photography, like you see things, like, okay, that's a good shot.

You know, like, that's really all come down to.

So I love photography, and I have a camera.

I can tell, like, you, like I said, you're nailing it.

Like, you can get it.

But I don't always carry my camera with, I don't always have my camera.

You wish you had it.

You're like, I wish I took a seat.

Yeah, well, sometimes there's something I know I want to take a picture of, so, you know, I'll snap it with my phone, and I might, like, geotag it to know where.

See, I'm like a 21st century guy now, too.

Yeah, you are.

You're more than a bit more.

But you can mark it, and then you can come back and maybe try to compose the same sort of work.

Well, that's when I really just do it in the moment.

Like I said, like, just take it in the moment and be like, oh, there you go.

Yeah, but to do that,

you'd have to have your stuff with you.

Sure.

So I try to keep a camera on me at all times.

Oh, really?

Sorry?

Yeah, something.

Like, I keep it on my, I carry, I wear a fanny pack sometimes.

I always carry a camera.

A seemingly innocent comment.

But I'm sure by now you can see exactly what these detectives were doing.

They weren't just making small talk.

They were laying out the groundwork, connecting Michael's words to pieces of Ellie's case that we already know.

The voyeuristic videos, the terrifying, intimate knowledge her stalker had of her life.

But while suspicion mounted against Michael, there was still another loose end to tie up.

Nate Peters.

Detectives had taken his phone in for evaluation, and now they were ready to return it, having learned some surprising information.

And then on, um, let's see, on May, on May 28th,

she texts you and says something, uh, or excuse me, someone else is calling themselves Late Peters and is texting me.

It's confusing, LOL.

And then you reply with surprise.

I think you say WTF.

And then

she responds that the subject is sending her solo reviews of another email asking if it's her, meaning asking if it's Ellie.

So my question is, is that we know that not only did Ellie text you, but she also, I think, called you a few times.

Was there any ever, was there a follow-up conversation or a follow-up phone call saying who that might have been?

Trying

purporting to be you.

No, and I'll tell you, and I'm...

Do you remember that conversation, though?

No, not at all.

And I'll tell you, like, I, you know, scouts on or swear the last time I ever remember actually talking to her, yeah, you know, which is what surprised me if that was on my phone in the first place, because now I'm actually kind of blown away.

Yeah, if you want to look at it, it's um,

so if you go to your text messages from her,

you have to scroll again, obviously, all the way back to 2017.

But you'll oh, from okay, yeah, it's 2017

when you guys were still kicking.

I was gonna say, so that's probably why, and that's why it's kind of important because if someone's trying to be you all the way back to 2017,

we want to know who it is.

What the f?

Crazy, I know, right?

That's why I'm saying, man.

It's kind of spooky stuff.

Ah, now I get it.

He's tricking him.

Wait, he tricked me.

I take it back.

This guy's really good.

At this point, detectives were pretty certain Michael Strauss had been the one not only stalking Ellie using anonymous phone numbers, but also the one posing.

as Nate Peters.

So they start by explaining Ellie's story to Michael.

They tell him about the night she received the creepy video of herself shot through the window.

It was like a self-therapy thing.

She would make collages, like cut pictures out of magazine.

I did that too.

It's like an art, like an image.

Well, I guess it is artsy, but it probably is some sort of therapy straight at me.

And

the video's over.

So we start looking around, we keep researching things, and

I want you to hear this whole thing.

I want you to hear this whole thing out.

So we have these text messages that included the video link and

the number those came back to, but when we researched this number, we found that the most commonly called number was your mom.

Okay.

So we have the link from the video and your mom and there's some some number that's in common.

Okay.

So she called my mom somebody whoever contacted her and I'm not saying Ellie did, but whoever contacted her also contacted your mom.

Not looking good, Michael.

Not looking good.

So I don't know if someone's like creeping you or what.

So we got...

That doesn't sound right.

Hold this thing out.

So I got this number.

And I've seen it.

So see this connection.

And the number,

when they

the number got researched and comes back to like Doom Studio or Doom Dread guy

so now I'm wondering if someone's setting up a profile I don't know if someone's setting up a profile with you or say for dread that sounds like my email my old old email right that's what I'm that sounds like you're starting to get why you're here I have someone's posing as you okay hear this whole thing out yeah

so

I got this and I've got someone watching her backyard.

So what am I looking at?

I'm looking at maybe a trespassing.

I'm looking at maybe a maybe a voyeurism.

Stalking has to be a

pattern of events to do that.

So

that's like, hey, I got robbed.

Someone broke under my car.

That's not robbery.

It's not really stalking.

They're misdemeanor charges.

It's not a big deal.

I need to rule out without a doubt before I can really go any further.

Because

I need to figure out what's going on.

I had people make a a fake Facebook with me one time that had all my pictures and stuff and my name and it wasn't my Facebook and I reported to Facebook and they got it taken down.

Okay.

So but that doesn't sound you need so you need to be engaged with me on this.

Okay.

And you need to

we need to I know you keep looking at the clock time.

I can't worry about the time right now because this is I gotta get through this.

Okay.

Yeah.

Either someone extraordinarily dedicated to the ruse was creeping on Michael

or you could live in reality and choose to believe that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one.

Michael's life had become a shadow of Ellie's, spent watching, waiting, and anonymously weaving himself into her world.

Michael Strauss had stalked her.

Michael Strauss

had planned this whole thing.

We're just trying to clear stuff up.

I can tell you on May 31st, if I had a timeline that said May 31st, and that number gets established, I know that a message got sent out to

seven women that says, hey, stranger.

And I know Ellie,

I fish.

Do you fish?

Not really, no.

Not really.

Ellie took the bait.

Okay.

Ellie took the bait.

The others, it might have been like, hey, what up?

Whatever.

I don't know.

It was Ellie took the bait.

And yeah, I probably did do something like that.

That's what I did.

And I probably did, like I said, I messed around.

I did mess with people.

And the thing is, I don't have names to numbers.

And I messed with a bunch of numbers.

And I prank called before.

I don't do refrigerator running or whatever.

I'm like, that is kind of funny.

It's just a classic.

That is a classic.

Yeah, you're good.

Yeah.

But

that's not.

Well, that's not, I'm not trying to like, that's not a, I'm not lying, but like, that's, I would never send a video right now.

Okay, so tell me about, tell me about the sending out of the like the text blast, hey stranger.

So were you, I mean you were casting that?

I'm like, well it's when I'm in it's when I'm out in Cali or whatever, I text people and I just like, I'd be like, especially if they're old, I have like a whole stuff of old phone numbers I used to have or whatever, and I don't know it's from my old contact list.

Okay.

He has an excuse for everything, doesn't he?

Dude, I'm not trying to say you're like a, you're the serial.

And it's only an issue because she's missing right now, and that's the problem.

It becomes becomes an issue.

So when you did that, and she kind of took the bait so to speak.

Yeah.

Because

I think we're both understanding that that was you doing that.

So

yeah, but it wasn't.

It's really, really obvious it was you doing it.

I don't want to insult anybody's intelligence or whatever.

But that's not like that.

But you weren't talking to her as you.

No, I act like I was nobody or somebody.

Well, you were.

You know what I mean?

Or like I would like come up with a name and then I'd be like, oh yeah, that's her.

Or like I'd be like, oh, it's Ben.

Well,

the name you came up with was Nate Peters.

See, I don't even remember that.

Well, I'm telling you, okay.

Okay, cool.

Okay.

Here's the one thing going on in the room right now.

You have absolutely 100% no reason to doubt what I'm saying.

Okay, yeah.

So I just wanted to throw that out there.

I'm not the guy that, I'm not, I don't bluff and I don't bullshit because I don't want to teach you either.

I don't want to see that guy.

So you were Nate Peters.

And

I think you know Nate Peters.

And when you said, hey,

well, you said, hey, stranger, she said, who is this?

And you said, Nate.

And she says, Nate who?

And you said, LOL.

What do you know a lot of Nate's?

I'm Nate Peters.

And she's like, oh, hey, what's up?

Started a conversation.

And then as that conversation progresses,

that initial conversation,

you ask her,

I hear you're being...

Watched.

Now we've established that this is you talking.

So I don't know if you heard from someone.

I don't know how that could happen.

I heard someone's watching you.

And she says, so you know I'm talking about.

I know what you mean.

I know what you say.

She says,

I heard someone's watching you.

And she's like, hey, I don't want to talk.

Don't ruin this.

That creeps me out.

And you're like, okay, because, so now we've established that you.

As those conversations are going on, there's nothing, there's nothing inappropriate about them.

There's nothing...

Let's let's take this white elephant out of the room.

Yeah, you weren't necessarily honest when we first started talking because you said you hadn't contacted her in five years, but I know you contacted her up all the way until July 29th.

I guess, yeah, I've a contact her as myself, and it was a joke, and it looks bad.

I get it.

Okay, so it looks horrible.

We know we know

we know it looks bad, we know it looks horrible, but we have to get by the optics of things.

I've got a text number

that

is

being used for this app, and it's contacting her posing as somebody else and I don't know how you got like have you ever called Nate I mean how Nate Peters

I don't know I guess as someone

the name that came to mind because

that's like freaking the most random thing in the world I mean how I mean like why not freaking Kareem Abdul Jabbar I mean how would you even know like see here's what I was wondering

did you ever think that the real Nate Peters would contact her like like at the same time you probably would?

I mean, I don't know.

I don't know.

That's fucking weird.

Like, what the fuck?

I guess you don't.

It's, you probably, it's hard to see the humor in this, especially because this is a missing person's case.

But, like,

I know what you're talking about.

It's like that crank yankers or whatever.

Yeah.

I get it.

I get it.

I get that.

Okay.

I don't think the CEO.

You don't think people are out to get me.

You think I'm like a conspiracy nut or something.

Well, no, I don't want to come off like a big conspiracy nut.

So I'm not, you know, but

also coincidences are I don't.

Sometimes you really got to beat me over the head with stuff to convince me and in this line of work Coincidences and just that conspiracy thing is is just it's just rare

and if it happens once in a lifetime where someone goes out of their way to totally do something a little long range but I got this video that's a that's of you

On my account.

On your account.

My email has been used, my phone number's been used.

All this stuff is doing towards your your phone number that's attached to the ip address that comes back to the wi-fi in your house you know i'm trying to show you that i don't know how this is being woven yeah there's a commonality between all of those things i said they're the way things are on paper they're the way things really are dude look if you stood in her backyard and if you stood in her backyard jerked off and filmed it what the fuck ever okay okay

It's embarrassing.

I get it.

I can't say I condone it.

I'm not going to put it up on a billboard.

Whatever.

It happened.

And it's just so tightly linked to stuff.

I don't want to run down that rabbit hole.

I don't think, here's what I don't think happened.

I don't think someone decided, let's see, who am I going to...

Micah Stress.

I'll set up a number.

I'll contact people.

I'm going to get a video.

I'm going to somehow plant it in his.

Yeah, but when you put that

when

you go to bake a cake

and you got a list of 10 ingredients and you got eight of them, you don't get a cake.

He comes out with some shit.

You don't know what it is.

You missed an ingredient.

If I were to take out one of these things,

I think this all makes sense.

But with all of these things together, man,

it looks like a cake.

As the hours dragged on, it became painfully clear.

Coaxing Michael Strauss into a single, honest answer was like pulling teeth.

Every lie they unraveled seemed to take an eternity, and they hadn't even broached the serious questions yet.

The ones that could take this from an interrogation

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Detectives had spent hours dancing around Michael Strauss's lies, lies, playing a slow game of psychological chess.

Every question, every comment, every seemingly innocuous detail was meticulously designed to chip away at his defense.

Despite the mounting suspicion, Ellie was still missing.

For her friends and family, the clock was ticking.

The groundwork had been laid in his interrogation, and now it was time to confront the truth head-on.

Detectives started to introduce more and more of the damning evidence they had gathered.

Ellie Weich went missing on July 29th, 2018, but her phone turned on for a brief moment on July 31st.

It turned on just long enough to ping off a cell phone tower.

If this is a cell phone tower, and the cell phone tower covers an area this big, and where this phone hit, I'm able to isolate that that phone hit in an area this big.

Okay.

And your house is here.

yeah that doesn't okay that doesn't make sense to me no so not being a believer in circum and coincidences

with with everything I'm looking at I'm like the phone's there it could be or like she was driving so tell me how it could be tell me how it could be there she was on the road her car her car is her car has not moved her car is at the house I don't know then that's something that see that's why I don't know why that's the accusation that I don't not know it's not an accusation it's total fact and I'm not accusing

her phone.

No, I wouldn't have her phone.

I wouldn't turn it on.

I wouldn't.

Yeah.

And I'm not Scooby-Doo, but it's like, I just don't know what Metlinkids, you know, like was, I don't know who helped her get out.

I don't know.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's the thing.

The stuff that I did a year ago or prior to that, the messages, yeah, that's one thing, but I don't know.

But that's the stuff we have to get answers to and clear up.

And I have.

Right.

And

absolutely you have.

Absolutely.

You have.

So.

That's so freaking embarrassing, but it's whatever.

It's truth, and I'm glad.

I'm glad you guys know.

Well, it's like I'm glad you guys know, and knowing it's like

talking on the phone is different than actually like, hey, let's go do this.

Let's go run away together.

You know what I mean?

Like, I would never run away with someone like her.

I would never, you know, even hurt.

I would never hurt anybody like her.

You know what I mean?

So it's just like, that's...

I don't know.

I don't know what else to tell you guys.

But the fact of the matter is, someone out there knows.

And what happens is, a lot of times when you have these conversations, real similar like the video thing, is someone knows something and they think, they think such worst case scenario

all my like you probably thought if you said that you made that video that the next thing that was gonna happen was put your hands up on the fucking wall you're going to jail you're going to be on the news no not that level I just feel like you're making it seem like I knew more than I do and like I'm telling you right now but you did no I knew I'm saying but something happened in the past yeah the past yeah well but current day I don't like I said I don't know what to tell you right but the but we're calling the past July 20th.

So it's not really like to me, that felt like a long time ago because I've been dealing with a lot of crap.

You know, but like it's okay, but but it's not like we're talking like you know sure.

And yeah, it seems like, yeah, it's too close.

The timeline is too close for something like that for what I did and for what this happened.

So that that's that's concerning to me.

Okay.

You know,

I totally understand.

At this point, the conversation cools down, and the two detectives leave for a minute to grab some water.

Michael is only alone for a short time, but as soon as the door closes, he's talking to himself.

Stupid.

Why am I so fucking stupid for that?

Why did I do that?

When the detective comes back into the room, they propose that Michael take a polygraph test.

They're still very cautious with their wording, and they reassure him that he's not a suspect.

They even tell him confidentially that they know he'll pass the test, reassuring him.

They just need to clear him.

Get it out of the way, you know?

Of course, They want to push this investigation as far as possible before he fully realizes he's in deep shit, and finally asks for a lawyer like he should have done to begin with.

Kind of shocking he hasn't realized it yet, right?

But like I always say, criminals are dumb.

That's why they're criminals.

I've got about three or four other things I want to talk to you about.

And

by law, if I want to ask you those things, I have to feed you.

And there's food coming.

I need to know more about your...

where your room is in your house.

is do you sleep in the basement or do you sleep in an upstairs bedroom

okay so you have a bedroom so i have some people that were over at your house um

it's just uh being thorough and um it wasn't clear what where your where your room is so searching my house i'm not i'm here i don't know that's that's why i got like computer guys walking around i don't know what they're doing

um but there was some confusion as to because i think there's stuff's there and i don't want them to i don't want them to screw anything up or take something that belongs to somebody else or do whatever.

So

we have some reason to believe that there's a white car involved and there's a white car at your residence grant that's not registered to you or whatever.

But I think you've operated a white car before.

And then when I look at it even deeper, I think, well yeah, you've operated a white car before

and not all the time.

As a matter of fact,

not even a

parents.

Ask them.

Right.

Not even a fraction of a percentage of the time

you were in that car and you were

videoing women.

And this is, once again, it's weighed on paper.

You're videotaping joggers.

And then when we looked at the search history, there's a videotaping joggers.

There's a search where you mentioned the woman's name in Mason, because it's probably on the police report and the answer was on the planet.

But it was like, that was all research.

How frustrating is this guy?

These detectives are very, very patient.

This is is insanity.

Dude, I know, but you catch what I'm saying.

I can't put that on the warrant.

I'm just telling you, I'm just trying to spell out to you what it is, why we're doing it, because you want to know why we're at your parents' house.

At this point, detectives think maybe he's got something to do with the other case, too.

Back in January of the same year, a woman in Mason, Ohio, reported to police that a guy wearing a hoodie grabbed her from behind while she was jogging alone.

She screamed and he let her go.

Why would Michael be researching this specific case?

So we got you in a white card, I got you doing the thing, and then we have the search history.

And the search history, and this is where it all kind of circles back around.

It's, you know,

Mason jogger, jogger, jogger attack,

raping jogger, forcible rape, ambush rape, porno video.

I'm not saying they're all related, but when it goes, I'm gonna get this straight.

I did not condone rape or anything.

I'm not saying you do it.

Paris sexual harassment or anything like that.

Okay.

But it has her name, and then it's like jogger rape,

ambush rape, women joggers, where do women jog in Westchester?

Something else.

And then a clown.

I don't think I ever searched where do women jog in Westchester.

I'm sorry, that's not, that can't be a search.

That is, I searched maybe like where to jog in Westchester.

Maybe jog.

I maybe did search where do women jog in.

Maybe you did, and I would never do that.

That wouldn't be part of this.

Maybe you look, maybe, maybe I read into that just seeing you.

I swear that's something I know I would never Google.

And that's the thing that's like when I did that research for the script it was after that because people said she was lying about being attacked

and

I didn't know if it was a rape or not so I searched if it was a rape or whatever where this all goes back around is I got I got the the videos in the in the white car and Mason of women joggers and I got the searches and and

I was saying the searches are sequentially and they end up with a porn video and I didn't look at the video so I don't know what the video was of, and I don't really want to know right now.

I watch a lot of, I watch a lot of types of porn.

If that's the looking what I watch different, a lot of types of different porn.

Like, I'm sorry, like, that's the conversation whenever I watch different types of, there's different types and genres of porn.

Yeah, Michael, we already know your giant perf.

The point they're trying to make is that you search for information on this local jogger attack, and then you opened up a new tab and started masturbating the porn immediately afterwards.

You get it?

Click on the full-body latex suit.

It's for

a script.

It sounds like

American Horse Star.

Yeah.

It's like that.

But it's like, yeah,

it's one of the costumes I actually do in a short film.

These searches, I will go don't get used against me because it's like that's

well once again not to be explained yeah it's not it's all not not using against but when when the when the theme of those is the they're whether it's for research or personal whatever and they're they're sexual in nature that fits right back into the circle of there's a well that sounds like someone that would do this video that would do that and then if I want to say stock, terrorize, whatever, to send it to this person, thank God you didn't send the part where you're doing taking care of business because that would have been that would have sent her off the over-the-edge.

Taking the video, going clipping it out, send it to her, asking about her what her reaction was to it, posing as somebody else while you're talking to her.

And the first part of that conversation is about, hey, I heard you're being watched, so it's kind of bringing it back up, and it kind of stimulates.

I was really going to stop the conversation there.

That's when I was like, ah, whatever.

It kind of stimulates that fear, and it's that whole thing that we have, we have this.

so I had a I had a piece added to me

and and I don't I don't I don't know where I don't know where it fits in what's the piece well

they found her ID in your room

so Micah

her ID yeah

her driver's license that was issued in July I would not know where that is that doesn't mean that can't be true You can't say that's true.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're not making none of it.

They found her ID.

they found a lock for hair

Makes sense.

It's in one of your art portfolio binders

and I got a team of guys looking at stuff

I know so here's where here's where I say this that's see that's that's it doesn't like it doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense and I need to make sense of it.

Why would she have why would I have her license on me?

I can't even begin to guess why.

There's a book on Ted Bundy and there's all kinds of stuff.

And then I've taken I've taken a lot of classes on it.

I'm not a self-proclaimed

behavioral analyst by any stretch.

But I understand

that people do stuff.

And people do stuff for dumb reasons.

And I'm a trained interviewer, and I'm a trained interrogator.

So tell me what you think.

Do you think I would do something like that?

Do you think I'm a serial killer or a kidnapper or anything like that?

I didn't start this yesterday.

And there's a lot of things I hear and what I hear is you want me to explain why that driver's licensed and why that hair is in your house.

You have no reason to you want me to explain why

full well that

I can't explain why it's there.

It makes me sick.

And when you say there's only one reason.

What's the one reason?

Well, I mean the one reason is that someone put it there.

Someone, not me, someone that accessed to the house.

It's not fucking mean.

It's not yet.

And like I said, I hate to say I'm always home, so I don't know how that would get.

You know what I mean?

Well,

we got to get to the bottom of this.

We've got to get to the bottom of this.

You know, I don't want to get to a there's no bottom, it just keeps going.

Well, the next thing you know, there's going to be like fingernails in my attic or something like that.

And like, it just, like, it just doesn't sound fucking real.

Well, I don't think we'll look for that, but I, you know, we're, we're, we've got to exit, and you know, we have, we have standards from her.

Um,

standards, maybe.

Uh, so we have like known samples from her.

We have known samples of the hair.

It's like putting myself on a chopping block.

Like, oh, let me keep evidence of stuff around my house.

You asked me why.

You asked me

why keep it?

And

I guess

if you're asking me hypothetically

why would a person keep something like that,

it would be a memento of what's happened.

And one of the reasons I went through all that book is there's some dudes that do that.

They keep driver's license, they keep an earring.

Some of you think getting gaslit by your partner is a rough ride.

Imagine being gaslit by a rapist murderer for 12 hours straight.

Then tell me about defund the police and all that nonsense.

She's been off the grid for 23, going on 24 days.

I don't think, once again, I don't think it's a design good,

but I don't think that's good at all.

I don't think quantum lead to think that she's not alive i have never

never have i ever heard of a situation where someone would have gone to such great pains to frame somebody other than

tv

ever or to the length of me doing something

that's what i'm asking like would you ever think that i would or anybody would just out of the blue decide to be like oh i'm taking someone's license i'm taking this

No,

but to be fair,

I would.

There are people that have gone to great lengths

to

develop some sort of mental relationship with somebody that ends up resulting in somebody's death and they take a memento and they take a memento of it.

Okay, so that's more believable.

Along with her driver's license and a lock of Ellie's hair, detectives found a small pink stone.

All this was inside a little tin deep inside of a crate in Michael's basement bedroom.

His super secret stash where nobody will ever find it, you know?

It was sandwiched between old art portfolios.

Ooh, I guess the cops will never find it there, huh, Michael?

What an idiot.

As they looked over the case evidence, they noticed the same pink stone hanging around Ellie's neck and an old selfie.

But they couldn't get him to admit to anything.

Not wanting to scare him out of another interview, they took his phone for analysis, took his DNA, and told him that they talked to him again when he came to pick it up.

When the next day came, a cruiser showed up to Michael's house and arrested him for stalking.

Charges are being pressed against him.

Okay, who said that?

The black chicken cop, yeah, the cop that arrested him for building custody.

Yeah,

him arrested for stalking.

He doesn't have jurisdiction

around anybody.

Yeah, we'll

sort of talk.

You can pick and choose.

If there's something you don't want to talk about, you're like...

Well, this is what it's

changed.

I've thought about a lot since we talked in the last 12 hours.

And that's why it's like I spent this morning talking with my family

and kissing them and showing how much I love them.

And I promise emotional.

Hey man, you're okay.

But just think,

I I want you to think about this.

If we start going into something that you don't feel comfortable with, dude, I want your help.

I don't want to make you upset.

No, I don't have a lot of things, but

me being helped right now does not matter.

It matters.

No, listen.

Well, we're looking out for you, so it matters a great deal to us.

I appreciate that.

And like I said, I know actors.

I know when people come on and act.

You seem very upset, man.

What's up?

Like, my mom.

I love my family.

I get that.

We know you do.

Then Michael finally starts to open up.

He explains that, get this, he makes porn movies in his free time.

And that Ellie apparently wanted to star in one of his porn films for payment.

That's what he says they plan to do the night they met up.

You know, the night that she thought she'd be hanging out with Nate Peters.

That's why I said that night when I was texting her to come over,

I did.

What night are we talking about?

Um,

20 to 28th.

28th, 29th.

88th 29th.

Saturday night, Sunday morning.

I left my house.

I took my parents' car.

I go and leave and get her in the car and I get in and go over there.

Okay.

You just drive over to her house, Lyric?

Okay.

I didn't bring my phone or anything like that.

I just brought my GoPro camera.

Okay.

I knocked on the door.

Were you going to make that video?

Or were you going to like, hey, you want to make a video?

I didn't even mention it to her at that point.

Okay.

And then I knocked on the door.

She let me in.

We went inside and we talked about it.

I stopped.

She's like, I'm waiting for my friends to get here.

I'm waiting for my friends to get here.

I'm like, okay.

And

I'm like, hey, you want to shoot this?

You want to shoot something?

I just showed her the camera.

And she's like, how much?

How much?

I said, $1.30 and 8th a week.

And she's like, give me a quarter, give me an eighth, and smoke a joint with me.

And I said, I don't have a joint right now, but I'll give you a quarter.

And then she's like, okay.

This is so messed up now.

we and then she's like all right so we i'm like we should film it in your house and i took and we had the gopro camera and she like ran up the steps and i like the cameras chasing her up the steps pov and all that runs in her room

and i jump on her bed and like i'm like i had like um

handcuffs and I was like, oh my god, so you know, it's da-da-da-da.

And I was like,

it wasn't like playful because I was like, you know, you know, I was like yelling at her and stuff.

And we were all, she was like, no, don't, don't, don't.

And there was nobody there.

There was nobody home

and

so we do that and we have sex after what filming and then yeah she's like I said she's like struggling and it's like it's the you know like a strangle like all you know in the bag and all that kind of stuff

do that she sits there for a little bit

And she's like, and she's like crying.

I'm like, are you okay?

She's like, yeah, yeah, I just had a bad day.

I've had a long day.

And I miss my mom and all this kind of stuff.

Oh, she goes out of town with her boyfriend all the time and she talks about that and everything.

And we've already talked about that.

So she's repeating it.

And I guess she just goes on and on.

And then we go outside on the porch, smoke again, and their friends are sitting in the car.

They get out of the car.

I'm like, come on.

They're like parked right three houses down from me.

And they get everything.

She goes with them.

And that's the last.

last freaking time I saw her.

Even just as it felt like they'd get a confession from them, it was just another dead end again.

Michael claimed that when the police first came to his house to ask about Ellie, he had destroyed the SD card holding their quote-unquote consensual sex tape, complete with handcuffs, strangling, and oh yeah, a bag over Ellie's head, according to Michael himself.

All right, there's like a side side position, and we have sex on the side or whatever, and that's why I might hand around her throat.

And so that's, and then like, that's when I cut them and yeah and it pretty much ends after that.

Okay.

And she acts like she just she like falls asleep and I think she was falling asleep.

Okay.

Oh,

so is this is this like snuff torture porn?

Kind of yeah.

Okay, so did it end with you choking her?

Okay, yeah.

And then that's

like

she's dead and that sentence at the end.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

And like, that's what we always do.

And I just like, or like, yeah, cover her head up and poke holes where her nose is and act like she's not alive anymore.

It's really fucked up.

Okay, so I'm just trying to get.

So

do you put a bag overhead again towards the end?

Oh, okay.

She seconds she dies from being choked.

He gets so close to telling the truth, but then it's almost like he's incapable.

Like he's unable to see himself as what he really is.

I wonder if that's contagious.

He describes this snuff torture porn video that he planned to sell and the details of what he admits he did to Ellie, add to the case another dark coincidence, he says.

After hours upon hours of painstaking interrogation, even without a full confession, Michael had revealed enough cracks in his story for detectives to piece together a detailed picture.

August 24th, 2018, was the date of Michael's last BCI interrogation.

And on the same day, Ellie's body was located in a ditch near the corner of a farming field.

She was found within a quarter of a mile of Michael's house.

Her shallow grave was concealed by shrubbery, with a barbed wire fence dividing it from the rest of the field.

A square shovel was discovered nearby.

Ellie's remains, mostly

skeletonized, told a story that was heartbreaking and horrifying.

Wrapped in a bed sheet and a purple blanket, her arms and legs were bound with duct tape, and a bag had been tied over her head.

A cord was also entangled with her body.

The coroner determined her cause of death to be asphyxiation.

So it's possible this was the murder weapon.

Though Michael hadn't spelled it out, he'd said enough.

Enough to lead detectives to Ellie and charge him with her murder.

Meanwhile, as law enforcement swarmed the field, gathering evidence and preparing for the removal of Ellie's body, a bright rainbow stretched across the sky above the crime scene.

Everyone noticed it.

People cried and took photos.

29-year-old Michael Strauss eventually pleaded guilty to all his crimes.

His sensing brought to light the horrific reality of her final moments, something that her family had not understood up until that point.

During his sentencing, Strauss appeared in court with two black eyes, the work of his fellow inmates.

The judge handed down a maximum sentence, 15 years to life for murder.

plus an additional two and a half years for stalking and abuse of a corpse, with no possibility of parole for at least 17 and a half years.

Strauss will spend the better part of his life behind bars.

On the day Ellie's family laid her to rest, something remarkable happened.

As mourners gathered at the church to say their final goodbyes, a bright neon rainbow stretched across the sky.

It was just like the one that appeared the day her body was found.

For Ellie's family and friends, these rainbows became a symbol of light, piercing through unimaginable darkness.

Her mother described them as a sign, a reminder of Ellie's enduring presence, even in her absence.

Ellie's story is one of loss, but

also of resilience.

In her journals, she wrote about her struggles, her fears, her dreams.

Though her life was cut tragically short, her words remain a testament to her spirit.

Don't ignore your gut

or red flags, she wrote.

You can sense evil.

Stay in tune with your senses.

It's a lesson for all of us to trust our instincts, to protect one another,

and to remember, even in the shadows of the darkest storm, you may find

a rainbow.

Well, that's AI Mike signing off.

Can you believe some idiots online think this is AI?

They think I'm AI?

Like,

how fucking dumb do you have to be?

AI would never be allowed to say all the shit I say.

But

there's no shortage of stupid in the world, so there's that.

Speaking of stupid, go check out our stupid merch at store.sorandscale.com.

And if you haven't signed up for Plus,

well, it's how we pay for all this stuff.

So if you like this stuff being around in the universe, then, you know, throw in a couple bucks and help support it.

Otherwise, it may not be here tomorrow.

We could make money like every other podcast, but we don't want to push shitty products on you via advertising that you probably shouldn't be buying anyway.

So we have to do some filtering around here and that, you know, lowers our revenue and that makes it hard for us to pay our employees and our bills.

So

This is an extra long guilt trip to tell you that if you've been enjoying Sword and Scale for the last X number of years for free, maybe throw in 10 bucks this month.

You know?

It's not a lot to ask.

10 bucks is not a lot to ask for years of entertainment.

And then you can listen to all the back catalog and cancel at the end of the month like you always do anyway.

All right.

I guess that's my sales pitch.

I'm not really good at sales.

I'm more a podcast guy.

I'm moderately good at that.

So,

I guess I'm rambling at this point.

So, if you want to support us, head on over to sortandscale.com, join Plus.

See you next week.

Stay safe.

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