10 | Mile 44

34m
Payne dives further into the interview tapes Andy Klamser gave to him and finds out as much as he can about Joseph's co-workers, their relationships, his phone messages, and further dives into how one of the last people to have seen Joseph had to wipe their phone the day after Joseph went missing.

Follow the show on Instagram: @upandvanished
Subscribe to Tenderfoot+ for ad-free listening, exclusive bonuses and early access. {apple.co/upandvanished}

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Press play and read along

Runtime: 34m

Transcript

Speaker 1 You're listening

Speaker 2 to a Tenderfoot TV podcast.

Speaker 3 Cold mornings, holiday to-dos, and all the hustle. I just want my wardrobe to be simple.
Pieces that look sharp, feel amazing, and that I'll actually reach for every day. That's why I turn to Quince.

Speaker 3 And the bonus, their pieces make gifting completely effortless. This season, Quince keeps it smart and simple.

Speaker 3 $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like a little everyday luxury and wool coats that are both stylish and durable.

Speaker 3 Their denim fits perfectly and is insanely comfortable and all without the high-end price.

Speaker 3 By working with ethical factories and top artisans, Quince delivers premium quality while cutting out the middlemen. So you get luxury pieces without the luxury markup.

Speaker 3 I'll be honest, I've been living in their cashmere sweaters. They're so soft, they look good, they hold up beautifully, even through all the holiday chaos.

Speaker 3 Quince also has amazing options for home, bath, kitchen, and travel. If you're looking for a great one-stop shop for gifting, I'm telling you, Quince is where it's at.

Speaker 3 Give and get timeless holiday staples that last this season with Quince. Go to quince.com/slash up and vanished for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.
Now available in Canada, too.

Speaker 3 That's quinceq.com slash up and vanished. Free shipping and 365-day returns.
Quince.com/slash up and vanished.

Speaker 3 Hey, it's Payne. We have some incredible news to share.
Our latest podcast series, Wisecrack, was just named one of the best of 2025 by Apple Podcasts. It's an amazing honor.

Speaker 3 Not only was Wisecrack selected, but the first episode called Knock Knock was also chosen as one of the best episodes of the year.

Speaker 3 We're seriously beyond grateful, and I want to thank you for supporting Tenderfoot TV. And this is your sign, if you haven't already, to check out our podcast, Wisecrack.

Speaker 3 I promise it's worth the listen. It's available now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
And thanks again to Apple for showing this show some love.

Speaker 2 Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is released every Thursday and brought to you absolutely free.

Speaker 2 But for ad-free listening and exclusive bonuses, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at TenderfootPlus.com or on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 2 Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is intended for mature audiences and may include topics that can be upsetting, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, rape, and murder.

Speaker 2 The names of survivors have been changed for anonymity purposes. Testimony shared by guests of the show is their own and does not reflect the views of Tenderfoot TV or Odyssey.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 5 Do you have any suggestions for people I should speak with about what happened to him?

Speaker 7 Well, we have a former employee that left.

Speaker 9 Her name is Christine Piscoia.

Speaker 9 She was the one who last saw him, supposedly.

Speaker 9 She sensed there was something wrong with him, too.

Speaker 5 Did she tell you that? No.

Speaker 10 Really?

Speaker 11 Really?

Speaker 5 I talked to her for a long time.

Speaker 5 She said he was perfectly normal.

Speaker 5 When did she tell you that she'd sensed that something was wrong?

Speaker 9 As soon as he disappeared.

Speaker 5 Did she say any more about that?

Speaker 9 What she told me, they went out for a new night

Speaker 10 at the bar.

Speaker 9 He came down to the beach.

Speaker 10 Saturday afternoon,

Speaker 9 she said he seemed different.

Speaker 9 She told me that she got a sense that something was wrong.

Speaker 9 Why did she tell you this? I don't know.

Speaker 9 And Joseph and I had many conversations about her.

Speaker 9 I warned him, Joseph, I know you want to be friends with her. You tell me there's nothing more but friendship.

Speaker 13 You better not play the game because she will fall hard.

Speaker 9 He said, No, Camille, she's just my good friend. I said, Then don't play her.

Speaker 3 Andy Klamser was hired by Joseph's family in the summer of 2016 to investigate his disappearance.

Speaker 6 Joseph met Christine at the Nome Court where she worked. She left the court, but they remained friends and would socialize frequently.

Speaker 6 It was a little murky to me about whether or not Joseph and Christine had a relationship at one time

Speaker 5 he conducted over a dozen interviews starting with some of joseph's co-workers are you aware of any women that joseph had been involved with in gnome even if it was just a casual one-night thing

Speaker 14 i suspected he was involved with christine but that was just a suspicion i think something's going on between those two

Speaker 14 they spent too much time together

Speaker 3 Multiple people had speculated Joseph and Christine had some sort of romantic relationship, at least at one point in time.

Speaker 6 They may have been involved at one time. It sounded like they probably did,

Speaker 6 but they were no longer involved. It switched to just being close friends, and they socialized frequently.

Speaker 3 Andy asked Christine herself about her relationship with Joseph.

Speaker 5 So were you and Joseph ever in a romantic relationship?

Speaker 13 No, we were just friends. Okay.

Speaker 5 Do you remember Joseph ever talking about anyone that he was having problems with and knowing?

Speaker 13 He never said anything, but

Speaker 13 I don't think he's the type of person to be, have someone be mad at him because he would, if there was an issue, he would ask him about it.

Speaker 13 I don't think he was that type of person to have anybody mad at him.

Speaker 5 What are your gut instincts about what you think happened to him?

Speaker 16 I don't know.

Speaker 15 I mean, like...

Speaker 8 I still have hope that he's somewhere and I just

Speaker 17 don't want, I just have a feeling that he is somewhere, he's got to be somewhere because he can't just up and leave.

Speaker 15 And I

Speaker 15 haven't given up on, I haven't lost hope.

Speaker 8 I think about him every day and keep wondering if today is the day that somebody will call me and tell me that he's found or something, but I don't know.

Speaker 3 Joseph's last communications on his cell phone leading up to his disappearance are a crucial piece of evidence in this case.

Speaker 3 We have his cell phone records, but Sprent was unable to provide the contents of his phone's text messages. All we can see are the times and the phone numbers.

Speaker 3 There are numerous texts back and forth between Joseph and Christine, Friday and Saturday, leading all the way up to the moment he drops off the grid.

Speaker 3 Because Joseph's cell phone is also missing along with him, Our only hope in finding out what him and Christine were talking about in those final moments is if Christine provided those messages herself.

Speaker 3 But the day after Joseph went missing, Christine completely restored her iPhone.

Speaker 13 would lock me out in an hour. And then it finally said connect to iTunes.

Speaker 13 It was making me wait an hour, wait 60 minutes, or, you know, wait this long.

Speaker 3 All the versions of this story that Christine told police, the first private investigator, and Andy Clamser are so damn convoluted. Her brother wanted to film something on her phone.

Speaker 10 So did he?

Speaker 3 Because you can do that without unlocking it. And did she pass her phone to her brother? If so, why not just unlock it for him?

Speaker 3 Regardless Regardless of why or how Christine restored her phone, this was extremely detrimental to the investigation.

Speaker 13 And so I just reset it to a new phone. And then when I tried to look how to back up, you know, from a previous, it wouldn't give me that option.

Speaker 13 And so I had to restore it as a new phone.

Speaker 5 Have you heard any rumors about what might have happened to him?

Speaker 16 I don't know.

Speaker 15 They were saying maybe he could have been eaten by a bear.

Speaker 15 Maybe he could have fallen.

Speaker 16 I don't know.

Speaker 3 Joseph's truck was found on Monday, June 27th, 2016, after he didn't show up for work in the morning. His truck was found at the mile 44 marker of a road called Nome Council Road.

Speaker 3 Mile 44 is pretty far out there, a decent trek from Nome proper. At least a 45-minute to one-hour drive from the beach in Nome, where Joseph was allegedly last seen with Christine.

Speaker 3 Joseph's truck itself is one of the only physical pieces of evidence we have left to analyze.

Speaker 6 Law enforcement has the ability to seize vehicles and process them for fingerprints.

Speaker 3 But the Alaska State Troopers dropped the ball on that one.

Speaker 6 That was not done. They basically just didn't explore any of that.
I think they became wedded to the theory that he was a victim of an accident.

Speaker 3 There are multiple sightings of his truck. But some of these sightings appear contradictory.
Let's start with the very first sighting.

Speaker 6 Around 3 p.m. on Saturday, a witness said they saw the truck with a man standing behind the open driver's door.
They saw a man standing by the driver's door.

Speaker 6 The first private investigator that went out interviewed the witness.

Speaker 12 Tell me your story.

Speaker 11 I was coming from my camp to council, so it was like Saturday afternoon, three o'clock or something.

Speaker 18 Truck was parked there, kind of in an unusual spot, so I slowed down just to see if anybody needed help I slowed down looked over at him and you saw somebody standing next to the truck yes he was standing right next to the truck when I went by I should say somebody was standing next to the truck because I don't know him from a car

Speaker 3 so was this actually Joseph or could it have been someone else

Speaker 6 He said that he couldn't identify the person that he saw standing there. It was just too fast and he was behind the door.

Speaker 6 A man with dark hair. That's about all they could provide.
So there's that.

Speaker 12 Was he leaning against it or 10 feet away from it? Or what do you mean?

Speaker 11 Driver's door is open. He's standing two or three feet away from the car.

Speaker 1 And so the door is partially blocking him, but I can still see him standing there and something in his hands, looking down at his hands.

Speaker 18 Whoever it was, the driver's door was open. He was standing behind the driver's door looking down at something in his hands.
And he didn't even look up, didn't wave me me down or anything.

Speaker 11 So I figured he was all right, and away I went.

Speaker 3 This man claimed to have seen Joseph's truck at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
But if Joseph left the beach at 3 p.m. in Nome and it takes nearly an hour to get out there, how could this even be possible?

Speaker 3 Either he's mixed up on the time, someone is mistaken or lying about when Joseph actually left town,

Speaker 3 or this wasn't Joseph at all. And it was somebody else standing by his truck.

Speaker 6 On Sunday, several people said that they drove by and saw the truck various times during the day Sunday.

Speaker 6 Trooper Sergeant Cross saw the truck at one o'clock.

Speaker 3 According to the Alaska State Troopers Report, Sergeant Cross saw Joseph's truck early in the afternoon on Sunday, June 26. At this point in time, Joseph had been out of communication with everyone.

Speaker 3 for nearly 24 hours.

Speaker 6 He was specific that he saw it at 1 p.m. This is a very rural area.
This is a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. If you know the way cops operate, he's going to remember it.

Speaker 6 I think that's a very credible observation.

Speaker 3 The first private investigator interviewed as many witnesses as he could. He found a convoy of two vehicles that had seen Joseph's truck at the same time on Sunday.
They were brothers.

Speaker 3 in separate vehicles driving their families to a wedding. This might be our most credible account.

Speaker 20 June 24th, 2016 was a Friday. The 25th was a Saturday.

Speaker 20 The 26th was a Sunday. And the following Monday would have been the 27th.

Speaker 10 Okay? Right. All right.

Speaker 20 You are coming back from council on what day? The 26th.

Speaker 21 Sunday, the 26th. Our family friend was getting married that day, so we were coming back in early.
Louis and I were in the same vehicle coming back, and we left council at 10 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 22 Does council have a mile marker?

Speaker 23 It does. What is it? It's at right around 74, 75.

Speaker 20 That's right in there. So to get to 44, you'd have to travel 30 miles?

Speaker 22 Yep. Do you think you left right at 10?

Speaker 23 It was very close to 10. I remember looking at the clock.

Speaker 20 From council to mile 44, about how long does that take?

Speaker 21 I would say probably 40 to 45 minutes.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I would say.

Speaker 23 We pushed the speed limit pretty good because, you know, I've been driving on it since I was 15. So, I mean, it's, we go a lot faster than just the average person would driving on that road.

Speaker 20 We're talking about leaving just right about 10 on the dot, and we're talking 40 to 45 minutes to hit mile marker 44. Dan, you believe it's between 1040 and 1045, or 10.40 and 1050?

Speaker 21 1040, 10.45.

Speaker 23 The reason it stood out, I mean, he was right on the edge of the road. When you're going to go park off the road and go do something, you pull off a lot further than he was.

Speaker 23 He wasn't pulled off very far at all.

Speaker 19 Hasty parking job.

Speaker 3 So at 1045 a.m. on Sunday, June 26th, Joseph's truck was at mile 44.

Speaker 3 It was sticking out in the road at a bizarre angle, as if it was parked there in a hurry.

Speaker 3 The angle in which it was positioned, it almost appears as if the truck was coming from the opposite direction.

Speaker 21 Saturday the 25th, we drove down to Council.

Speaker 19 And I can't remember seeing it there,

Speaker 23 but I can't say that I did or can't say whether whether it was there or not, but it seems like when we were all driving down on Saturday afternoon, if it was there, it seems like we would have seen it.

Speaker 21 If he's hurt an ankle, break a leg, whatever, he's gonna be on that ridge. A helicopter in 20 minutes is gonna find him.

Speaker 21 A helicopter in 20 minutes is gonna cover more than he can cover in hours of running.

Speaker 23 Ruling out foul play.

Speaker 23 I don't think he got lost. And if he's in that area,

Speaker 23 it'd have to be like an animal attack, I guess, you know? And man, I just really don't see that either, you know?

Speaker 19 There's gonna be something. Yeah.
In every one of his pictures, he's wearing a hat.

Speaker 21 When you get mauled by a bear, your hat's gonna fly off.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 19 There's gonna be something.

Speaker 23 And when they kill and eat stuff, it's a mess.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 19 I mean, it's bears swiping away. There's gonna be parts and pieces that the bear is not interested in.

Speaker 20 Yeah, they're not that efficient whenever.

Speaker 22 They're like wolves.

Speaker 20 It'll leave half of a carcass.

Speaker 23 So wherever the bear got him at, there'd be some kind of evidence, you know, laying there.

Speaker 23 I guess that's my problem with the bear deal. There's tons of bears.
That area was searched so good, and there's so many things that don't make sense.

Speaker 23 It just feels like a foul play deal to me.

Speaker 21 Nothing makes sense.

Speaker 19 Either he doesn't want to be found or someone doesn't want him to be found.

Speaker 23 I know the helicopter pilot, he's awesome. He worked that whole ridge over back and forth, five feet off the ground, 20 feet off the ground.

Speaker 19 There's a piece missing somewhere.

Speaker 21 If it's a girlfriend that had an argument with him on the phone, another girl in his life that's in Nome that isn't his technical girlfriend, a roommate that had a fight with him, or something.

Speaker 23 Things get botched investigations.

Speaker 7 Just simple stuff wasn't followed up on.

Speaker 23 Sonia Ivanov.

Speaker 7 A lady watched her walk down the street and get into a cop car and drive away. She called it into the cops twice.
Maybe I better not say anything more to the cops.

Speaker 7 She just got into a cop car the night she went missing.

Speaker 7 I

Speaker 23 just worked everybody over.

Speaker 10 Okay.

Speaker 3 The search for Joseph Balderis was the largest operation the city of Nome had ever conducted. His truck was found less than 40 yards from a a natural stream, visible from the road.

Speaker 3 If he actually went out there to go fishing, how far could he have possibly wandered away from his truck?

Speaker 3 There's not a single trace of him anywhere.

Speaker 3 I think everyone's had that what-if moment. What if I started my own business? What if I finally took that leap? But here's the thing.
Those what-ifs don't have to hold you back.

Speaker 3 Because with Shopify, turning your idea into something real has never been easier.

Speaker 3 Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, including 10% of all e-commerce in the US.

Speaker 3 From household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands that are just getting started. Worried you don't have a big team? Shopify helps you do it all.

Speaker 3 Design your website, manage inventory, handle customer service, even global shipping. Tight marketing budget?

Speaker 3 Shopify's built-in email and social tools make it easy to reach new customers and keep them coming back. Want to sell in person too?

Speaker 3 Shopify's award-winning point of sale connects your online and in-store sales all in one place. And if you're dreaming big, you can sell in over 150 countries with Shopify's global tools.

Speaker 3 With 99.99% uptime and the best converting checkout on the planet, you'll never miss a sale. So stop asking what if and start saying why not.

Speaker 3 Turn those what ifs into wins and keep giving those big dreams the best shot with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash up and vanished.

Speaker 3 That's shopify.com slash up and vanished.

Speaker 27 Ready to level up? Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun. It's free to play with no purchase necessary.

Speaker 27 Enjoy hundreds of online social games like Blackjack, Slots, and Solitaire anytime, anywhere with fresh releases every week.

Speaker 27 Whether you're at home or on the go, let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you. Plus, get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus.
Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.

Speaker 27 Play Chumba Casino today. No purchase necessary.
VGW Group Voidboard prohibited by law 21 plus. TNCs apply.

Speaker 12 There was such an exhaustive search for Joseph with helicopters, with people on the ground, with dogs. Maybe there was foul play involved.

Speaker 29 After everything and after all the things that I've heard and seen, I think the most likely things are that it was human involvement.

Speaker 28 Somebody either intentionally or accidentally killed him and we didn't look in the right place.

Speaker 3 On a conference call, the first private investigator recalled a bizarre incident that occurred while they were out searching.

Speaker 12 Kevin Pescoia,

Speaker 12 he is Christine's uncle. 20-year veteran of the Air Force Base.
He retired from it after 20 years, came back to Nome.

Speaker 12 He worked at the Nome Police Department for a very short period of time, about three months. For whatever reason, did not work there anymore.

Speaker 30 Kevin Pescoya?

Speaker 31 He's not talked about that much, but I think because he's an ex-cop.

Speaker 6 But he did some fuck shit.

Speaker 3 Kevin Pescoia, an ex-cop in Nome and the uncle of Christine, exhibited some weird behavior.

Speaker 12 Kevin Pescoya went around on his side-by-side and ran over all the tracks.

Speaker 12 They screamed, they yelled, what are you doing? Why did you do that? Footprints, and you just ran over them. That's bizarre behavior for somebody that has law enforcement training.

Speaker 32 Took his ATV down it and just ripped up the trail and ruined the scent. They were all like, why the fuck did you just do that? The cops don't really question him, I think, because he's an ex-cop.

Speaker 25 He might just be a bad, a dumb dummy.

Speaker 30 Yeah, dummy, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 12 You don't even have to have law enforcement training. Just a normal person knows that if you're following a foot track, you don't go run over it.
A normal person knows that.

Speaker 12 But for a cop that has been trained in the collection, preservation of evidence, that's really abnormal.

Speaker 12 He is Christine's uncle, which Christine is important because she's the last person that we know saw Joseph alive.

Speaker 3 A few months after Joseph went missing, Andy Clamser interviewed one of his coworkers in Noam.

Speaker 14 I actually went to lunch with him the Friday before he went missing.

Speaker 6 There was a music. The actual Friday before that weekend?

Speaker 14 And why I remember that is we had a visiting judge here who had been coming here off and on for several months filling in while Joseph's boss was out on sick leave.

Speaker 14 I remember that we went to lunch Friday and I remember at that lunch being annoyed with Joseph for looking at his cell phone while we were at lunch with the judge. I thought that was very rude.

Speaker 14 And it was kind of unlike Joseph. He had enough people skills to know that was rude.
But he kept doing it And then finally he said, oh, my roommate.

Speaker 14 He went over on the internet usage and he was annoyed with that.

Speaker 14 He must have got some notification from his internet provider saying that his roommate had used it all up and he was really annoyed by that.

Speaker 6 He had rented a house that was right downtown and within the last four or five months before he disappeared, had a new roommate, a local young man, understand from friends that there had been a little bit of tension between the two.

Speaker 6 The roommate was younger and there was some partying. Joseph wasn't comfortable with that.

Speaker 3 Just a few days after he went missing, she made contact with Joseph's roommate, a man named Jake. She was desperately trying to gather all the facts and build out some sort of timeline.

Speaker 3 So she texted his roommate, Jake, about the last time he remembers seeing Joseph.

Speaker 14 I texted him what's on Monday, June 27th at 11.20 at night.

Speaker 14 I'll read you what I typed. It says, hi, Jake.
Search and rescue needs to double check. What day and time did you last see him?

Speaker 5 What did Jake tell you?

Speaker 14 Jake responded,

Speaker 14 it was about 1 o'clock p.m. on Sunday when I saw him leave.
The hallway was too dark to define what colors he was wearing.

Speaker 10 Sunday.

Speaker 14 Sunday. I texted back immediately, positive Sunday.
He says, positive Sunday. He says he saw him Sunday at 1 p.m.

Speaker 3 If the roommate, Jake, saw Joseph in town at the house on Sunday, that changes everything.

Speaker 5 Could I take a picture of the text?

Speaker 6 The roommate was interviewed right away, told the troopers he was gone Saturday night with friends, but that he saw Joseph the next morning walking down the hallway in the house.

Speaker 6 Sunday morning after Joseph had stopped responding to anyone. He's the only person who claims to have seen Joseph on Sunday.

Speaker 3 Joseph's last text to his fiancé was around 10 a.m. on Saturday.
So, did Joseph drive back to his house in Nome, then go back out again the next day?

Speaker 3 And if so, why wouldn't he respond to his fiancée, Megan?

Speaker 3 It just doesn't make any sense. If Jake was the only one to have seen Joseph on Sunday, then that would mean Christine is not the last person to have seen Joseph alive.

Speaker 3 Jake is.

Speaker 3 Jake is also cousins with Christine.

Speaker 12 Christine, Jake is her cousin. The guy that lives with Joseph is her cousin.

Speaker 12 I don't like it.

Speaker 12 I kind of get a creepy feeling about it. Is there anything there? I don't know.
I have not been able to interview Jake. I set up two interviews.
He's never showed up to either one.

Speaker 12 I stayed an extra day there to try to interview Kevin Piscoia,

Speaker 12 who ran over the trail. I just know that something's not adding up right with that.

Speaker 3 Upon learning of Jake's alleged sighting of Joseph on Sunday, his family became increasingly concerned.

Speaker 3 The timeline, which was barely making any sense in the first place, was now a complete clusterfuck. The family felt that someone was lying.
They met with the state troopers at their office in Nome.

Speaker 25 I know that the timeline doesn't make sense to you, and we know that his roommate says he saw him. People are mistaken.
It could be that. It could be that he came back in, forgot his phone.

Speaker 25 There's all these theories, but I don't have the answers.

Speaker 33 Nobody does. The roommates Sunday, do you know what he said about that? Like, yes, I saw him.
I spoke to him. I saw him driving away.
Like, what level of commitment do you think?

Speaker 33 They passed each other in the home, inside the house, on Sunday.

Speaker 25 Guys, I'll be happy to go talk to Jake again.

Speaker 3 On July 3rd, one week after Joseph went missing, the Alaska State Troopers went to Joseph's house to interview his roommate.

Speaker 3 This is the actual tape from their interaction.

Speaker 26 It's just really important for us to get this timeline figured out.

Speaker 26 I mean, we don't think that anybody did anything wrong, but what's really important to us, Jake is getting these timelines figured out because if we leave a gap in any of this time sequence that happened, people are going to fill it with whatever they want.

Speaker 26 The booze, the beer bottles, and stuff, I give a damn about a beer bottle. I don't care.

Speaker 26 It's just really important to have the facts. I just want to know.
I need to know exactly what happened so I can fill that sequence because it's just important for me.

Speaker 26 You've got to understand that we're trying to help you pin this down because when we leave here, we don't have answers. Everybody's going to say, what the hell?

Speaker 26 With a homicide investigator and a technical crimes investigator here, people know why we're here and they're like, holy shit, these guys are serious.

Speaker 6 Why are they here?

Speaker 26 They don't call us in for these for just whimsical things.

Speaker 3 During this interview, Jake remains almost completely silent, saying as little as possible.

Speaker 3 The troopers asked him about his alleged sighting of Joseph at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
They too found this suspicious.

Speaker 26 On Sunday, on Sunday, when you say you saw him at 1:30,

Speaker 26 no one else saw him after that.

Speaker 26 No one saw him after you did.

Speaker 26 Let's call that last known live type thing. He didn't really talk to anybody after that.
There was no communications. There was no contact with anybody on his cell phone or anything after Saturday.

Speaker 26 And I guarantee the family is going to be asking questions.

Speaker 3 And they sure did.

Speaker 3 One of the many issues with Jake's sighting of Joseph is that it contradicts two other sightings of Joseph's truck. The two families driving to a wedding, 10.45 a.m.

Speaker 3 Trooper Sergeant Cross, 1 p.m.

Speaker 3 Something seems very wrong about this.

Speaker 3 No matter how weird Jake's story is, he's stuck with it. But some of the details and exact times have shifted in nearly every version he's told.

Speaker 32 Initially he said, I saw Joseph, we said, what's up to each other?

Speaker 31 Then he left. But then later he changed.

Speaker 32 Actually, I didn't see Joseph.

Speaker 31 I just saw his backpack and I assumed it was Joseph.

Speaker 32 And then later he was like, no, actually, I just saw a silhouette of a person and I didn't even say hi to them.

Speaker 31 It was like three times he changed his account of when and where he saw Joseph that day.

Speaker 3 Ultimately claiming that he couldn't actually tell for sure if it was Joseph because of a glare from the sun. So if it wasn't Joseph, there's just some random ass dude in your house?

Speaker 3 That's even weirder. It is possible that Jake may have his days mixed up that weekend.

Speaker 3 Regardless, he's continued to claim that it was Sunday that he saw him, 24 hours after anyone else had seen or heard from him.

Speaker 24 Why would he say he saw him on Sunday? I don't understand why he would come home Sunday, afternoon 1.30 p.m. after never getting back to his wife.
Doesn't WhatsApp message her?

Speaker 3 It's strange.

Speaker 3 Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the whole thing just seems like a mess now.

Speaker 3 Why is it that the last two people to have seen Joseph alive, allegedly, are his roommate and a woman who is rumored to be romantically involved with him, not to mention their cousins.

Speaker 3 These are the last two people to see Joseph alive.

Speaker 3 What is at least significant here is that Christine is the only person who allegedly knew where he was going.

Speaker 3 Really, he drops off after he meets Christine at the beach.

Speaker 24 Unless there's well, there's no other

Speaker 3 Christine's either trusting Jake's word, because that's her cousin, or going with the lie.

Speaker 3 Let's go back to Christine's story for a second. On Friday night, June 24th, she was at the bar with Joseph and her sister Kim until the wee hours of the morning.

Speaker 30 She claims that they're best friends and they're together all the time, but she keeps doing all these weird things, changing her story.

Speaker 30 Her story is inconsistent with her sister's accounts of what happened Saturday night. By the places that they went, by the things that they did, the stories just don't match up.

Speaker 25 Christine's sister, Kim, is like, oh yeah, I kind of thought they were a boyfriend and girlfriend.

Speaker 3 Christine and her sister Kim have conflicting accounts of which bars they were at, for how long, and when.

Speaker 3 But there are two facts that remain consistent. Both Christine and her sister Kim claim to have been at the bar with Joseph, first at an establishment called Polaris, and then a place called Breakers.

Speaker 32 And that whole story about her phone being factory restored, to me it was a lie.

Speaker 3 Joseph's friend Cyrus expressed his concerns on a conference call.

Speaker 28 The account of Friday night between Christine and her sister,

Speaker 28 and the fact that her iPhone was blanked in a way that is technically impossible.

Speaker 28 The way she said that her phone got erased, what her brother had done, and any permutation of that is not possible to have happened in that way. 100% impossible.

Speaker 3 Going through the thousands of pages of documents given to us by Joseph's family,

Speaker 3 I stumbled upon an old email exchange from that summer in 2016.

Speaker 35 She mentions her phone being locked out repeatedly.

Speaker 35 That is not normal.

Speaker 35 It's also odd she forgot the content of the last two messages Joseph sent. She claims to have looked at them but can't recall what they say.

Speaker 35 For someone that's clearly in love with Joseph, I find it highly unlikely she forgot.

Speaker 3 Home security shouldn't wait until it's too late. Personally, I've trusted SimplySafe for over five years.
And it's the only system that actually gives me peace of mind.

Speaker 3 The old school systems systems only respond after a break-in, but SimplySafe's active guard, outdoor protection, can stop a crime before it even starts.

Speaker 3 With AI-powered cameras, they can detect threats outside your home and alert trained agents who can take action immediately. Talking to intruders, triggering alarms, and notifying the police.

Speaker 3 Even if you're not there, SimplySafe has you covered. They have no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and a 60-day money-back guarantee.
It's no surprise that U.S.

Speaker 3 News and World Report has named SimplySafe the best home security system five years running. Don't miss out on SimplySafe's biggest sale of the year, 60% off.

Speaker 3 Right now, our listeners can save 60% off a SimplySafe home security system. Just go to simplysafe.com/slash UAVpod.
That's simplysafe.com slash UAV pod. There's no safe like SimplySafe.

Speaker 4 For many years, I chose to pay an absurd amount of money for what I'd consider mediocre wireless service. What's worse is I knew there had to be better options out there.

Speaker 4 Thankfully, now I know the best option, Mint Mobile. If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no.
At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no.

Speaker 4 No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS.

Speaker 4 I was able to transfer my current phone and number, and within minutes, I'd cut my wireless bill in half and was getting better service than ever before.

Speaker 4 Mint Mobile offers high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered delivered on the nation's largest 5G network for just $15 a month. Are you ready to say yes to saying no?

Speaker 4 Make the switch at mintmobile.com/slash tenderfoot. That's mintmobile.com/slash tenderfoot.
Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month.

Speaker 4 Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan, taxes and fees extra.
See Mint Mobile for details.

Speaker 2 The holidays are here and wow, they're busy. It's easy for your wellness goals to slip.
That's why I rely on groons to stay on track.

Speaker 2 They're a daily snack pack of gummies that's more than a multivitamin, a greens gummy, or a prebiotic. It's all of that at a fraction of the price.
And the best part, they taste amazing.

Speaker 2 Each snack pack has six grams of prebiotic fiber, three times the fiber of leading greens powders, and more than two cups of broccoli.

Speaker 2 Plus 20 plus vitamins and minerals, vegan, nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, no artificial colors or flavors, Groon's ingredients are backed by over 35,000 research publications.

Speaker 2 There's even Groon's kids, so the little ones can enjoy the same all-in-one nutrition. Get up to 52% off with code tenderfoot at groons.co.
That's code tenderfoot at groons, gru Ns.co.

Speaker 28 I just noticed a picture with Joseph on Christine's Facebook. It's at the bar and it says it's from mobile uploads.
Wouldn't that mean, mean, for a matter of fact, this came from her cell phone?

Speaker 3 Scrolling through Christine's Facebook, they noticed a photo she posted on June 28th, 2016,

Speaker 3 three days after Joseph went missing.

Speaker 3 And it's in the mobile uploads tab. It's a selfie photo of Christine holding her phone at the bar with Kim and Joseph right behind her.

Speaker 28 Maybe I'm just hoping for things, but I feel like this has to be a gotcha moment.

Speaker 3 Dude, this is a selfie. It's Christine, Kim, and Joseph all at the bar.
Does this not look exactly like the night she's describing? We gotta figure out what bar this is.

Speaker 3 The caption on Facebook says, this was taken about three weeks ago. Feeling concerned.

Speaker 3 Well, me too. This is Breaker's bar.

Speaker 3 If she factory reset her phone, then how on earth does she have this photo?

Speaker 3 Somebody is lying.

Speaker 2 Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Your host is Payne Lindsey.

Speaker 2 The show is written by Payne Lindsay with additional assistance from Mike Rooney. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay.

Speaker 2 Lead producer is Mike Rooney, along with producers Dylan Harrington and Cooper Skinner. Editing by Mike Rooney and Cooper Skinner with additional editing by Dylan Harrington.

Speaker 2 Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional production by Victoria McKenzie, Alice Kanek Glenn, and Eric Quintana.
Artwork by Rob Sheridan. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.

Speaker 2 Mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group.

Speaker 2 Special thanks to all of the families and community members that spoke to the team. Additional information and resources can be found in our show notes.

Speaker 2 For more podcasts like Up and Vanished, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 36 This is the story of the one. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up up and running is a top priority.
That's why he chooses Granger.

Speaker 36 Because when a drive belt gets damaged, Granger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs.

Speaker 36 And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800GRanger, clickranger.com, or just stop by.
Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 34 Every story has layers, and sometimes the truth hides in plain sight. I'm Josh Dean, host of Chameleon, the podcast about people who transform, deceive, and survive.

Speaker 3 From con artists to unbelievable yet true occurrences, we dive into stories where nothing is ever quite as it seems.

Speaker 34 Because to understand the world, you sometimes have to change the way you see it.

Speaker 3 Listen to Chameleon, wherever you get your podcasts.