Status: Untraced - E8: Don't Lose Your Hope

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As promised, here is Status Untraced, Episode 8.

You're listening to Status Untraced, a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast.

This podcast also contains subject matter, which may not be suitable for everyone.

Listener discretion is advised. Malana is a picturesque town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
It is secluded

and cocooned in its cultural and social fabric. However, amidst that beauty lurks a dark secret.

We've heard whispers about this village, Malana. It's here inside the Parvati Valley and known to produce what many say is the finest hashish in the world.
Each of the 350 households in Malana produces 5 kilos of hash. All of it generates a total income of about $7.8 million.
This gooey substance is highly sought after internationally. A small amount, which sells for $14 locally, will, in Amsterdam, go for at least $250.
In India, it's a criminal offense to consume, trade, or grow. But Milana doesn't really abide by country law.
It's quite obvious that this activity is illegal. Why hasn't there been any sort of intervention that has succeeded in this production? This village people there consider themselves to be the descendants of soldiers of Alexander the Great.
Great if you go to buy something there and you cannot touch them You cannot shake hands you like to leave the money on the counter and they will come and pick it up So such is there very strict Taboo on people to have outside links, but can that be a reason? No, that cannot be the reason no policeman is allowed to to come inside. And if somebody goes to complain to police, then he has to pay a fine to the panchayat out there.
So how does Milana brazenly run a drug trade? Well, it's simple. They don't allow the police in.
This story was aired on October 19th, 2016, right when search teams were looking for Justin Alexander. Justin, as we know, was dealing hashish.
In fact, he was traveling around with a kilo of it. Yet, in this entire coverage, there's no mention of him, the foreigners who become involved with the trade, or if the alarming pattern of murdered and missing tourists is tied to it in any way.
But the one fact they did cover is bizarre.

But the biggest challenge, of course, is for the law enforcement authorities to implement the law.

Why would law enforcement turn a blind eye to an illegal drug trade? What's going on here

that causes them to blatantly ignore their duties? One way to find out? Pull on the

Thank you. die to an illegal drug trade.
What's going on here that causes them to blatantly ignore their duties? One way to find out? Pull on the thread. Sometimes I get the feeling I'm lost

Just hiding it is never enough

Now I find in every mirror a ghost

Only once I saw the killer

Once I saw the killer up close

I'm Liam Luxon, and this is Status Untraced.

Episode 8, Don't Lose Your Hope.

You guys were involved with the Bruno Muskelech case. Yeah, yeah.
Muskevich. Since landing in India, I've found the stories we've been tracking have, in a way, shifted.
Take, for instance, the death of the Baba. What I gathered back in the States isn't lining up with what I've seen here.
Alex and I are scratching our heads, second-guessing every statement we've heard, wondering what we are missing. Is there anything we've overlooked? I was the first person from the two of us.
It was just unintentionally that we fell into it. As we've previously mentioned, our guides Kabir and Arsteep are no strangers to the

worlds of missing person cases. With Kabir just in from Delhi, we seize the opportunity to sit down with them both, curious as to what we can learn from the incidents prior to Justin's.
Had you guys ever worked on a crime case before? I was involved with one case way back in around the 2000, you know.

And that's when a lot of Western people were going missing from the Hamta region in Mahali. Lots of foreigner people, they were killed over there? During that time, a lot of people got killed.
And it was definitely the same group of people, but no witnesses came up. Khabir recalls a slew of horror stories about travelers who have mysteriously ended up missing or dead.
And one case stands out. It occurred almost exactly a year prior to Justin's.
A friend of mine, a guy from Poland, while he was staying here, he found out that there's somebody, a Polish guy who's gone missing. So he wanted to see if he could be of any help, and he asked me if you can help.
Bruno Musalik, a 24-year-old from Poland, was your typical college kid, full of dreams of seeing the world. He graduated and was recruited by the esteemed Ernst & Young as one of a select group of standout candidates.
But before he swapped his backpack for a briefcase, Bruno set out on a solo trip to New Delhi in July 2015. He made his way to Manali, a town just outside the Parvati Valley,

and hung out there for about a week.

Then, nothing.

No one heard from him.

His girlfriend, on August 9th, was the last to receive a, something like that, and I'll be back in two days or three days.

Bruno's father, Piotr, grew worried when he didn't hear from his son.

When Bruno missed his flight home, Piotr took action and flew to the valley.

I had a chance to speak with Piotr and his friend, Tomas, who expressed frustration with the local law enforcement.

Police in India is completely nothing, no modern equipment, nothing like a police should have, you know. So we were traveling from place to place and tried to collect any other evidences, testimonials, people who may deliver any additional details to this story.
The only clue to Bruno's whereabouts was his backpack he left at a Manali guesthouse. A sign, like Justin, that he planned to return.
To gather more information, Piotr spread missing person flyers around town. And his efforts led to a pivotal conversation with an eyewitness.
And he told me he saw Bruno in Leh with two Israeli girls. Leh is a high mountain city north of Kulu.
We went there and talking to local people around, and we found this guy in the shop. He was 100% swearing.
I recognized him, et cetera. And Bruno was, according to him, was sitting on a sofa.

And he described those two Israeli girls.

He was asking them directly, are you from Israel?

And they said, yes, yes.

Beotr and Demas went to extreme lengths to identify these two Israeli girls,

including multiple trips to India and a trip to Israel.

It led to nothing.

Later on, they got a lead from a bus driver who recognized Bruno's photo. He claimed to have dropped Bruno off in the valley around August 9th, the day of Bruno's last text.
The driver said he picked Bruno up from another part of the valley the next day. After that, we didn't find any more traces.
So after one and a half more, we came back to Poland. Weeks later, Biotr and Tomas returned to India for a second trip and found another eyewitness,

this time in New Delhi. in Delhi after arrival.
Those two guys, they were well known to the police

as a drugs dealer and illegal arms sellers.

From conversations with his son,

Piotr knew that Bruno had been spending time

with a New Delhi local named Seluja.

He didn't have any background on the guy,

but feared he could be dangerous.

Piotr relayed the tip to the police, who launched a coordinated effort to find Saludja and arrest him.

We arranged the hearing of Saludja and the police in Manali.

They interrogated about the situation with Bruno.

In custody, police demanded Siminder Saludja to reveal the WhatsApp conversations on his phone.

Thank you. about the situation with Bruno.
In custody, police demanded Siminder Saluja to reveal the WhatsApp conversations on his phone. Left with no option, Saluja complied.
He wanted him to carry some hash out from here or something. That was in the text? That was in the text, yeah.
Saluja had been guiding Bruno on where to buy and sell drugs. So Bruno bought stuff in Delhi? Yes, and stuff.
LSD? And stuff like that from Saluja. How much did he buy? No clue to that.
He basically wanted to come to Parvati and use it as recreational. And then Saluja was, you know, guiding him.
Okay, you go to this guy, and you bring some stuff for me also. They tracked down Saluja's contact.
He was in the ancient village, Milana. The Milana guy said, I never met him.
Yeah, he said he called him. He called me, but he never met me.
The Milana guy was arrested as well. But with the case having gone cold, both men have since been released from police custody.
I think that in this region, they are organizing rave parties, which is music, party, drinking, drugs, all together mixed. In the Parvati, raves are outdoor soirees attended by hundreds.
They're almost entirely unsanctioned and tend to be deep in the woods. So this is probably what tempted him to go to this region.
And it's why he said he will be back within three days. So we were thinking that maybe they used him for illegal drug trafficking.
Years have passed, and Bruno's fate remains a mystery. No further clues, no leads, just silence.
There are eerie overlaps with Justin's case, hashish dealings, dodgy meetups, and then, at nearly the same time of year, they're gone. What it means, if anything, I'm not sure.
For Piotr, the search never ended. He still makes trips to the Parvati Valley, hoping to find something, anything, to bring closure about what happened to his son.
Although it breaks my heart, I had to ask. With so few leads to follow, what drives him to keep looking? We need to share the information because I have hope maybe when someone accidentally knows about the case of Bruno and catch a new phrase, maybe.
This guy who's from Polish embassy, when we were leaving I called to him to say goodbye and he said, hey guys, one guy, he went missing for 30 years, he disappeared. Why he was hiding himself, why he disappeared, nobody knows.

And now he called me, he wants Polish passport and go back Poland.

After 30 years.

So he said, don't lose your hope, because some completely unimaginable things may happen.

As you may recall, a tourist named Aruv Agarwal recently went missing here. The case caught the attention of a Mumbai news team, who's arrived in the valley to investigate his disappearance.
We met with that team. They requested we keep our conversation off record.
But before parting ways, one of their members, a local, discreetly pulled me aside. He whispered that he knew things about Bruno, information that wasn't public.
And he was open to talk. The foreign media always said, you know, the Death Valley.

I don't call it the Death Valley.

I find myself on a dirt path in a secluded forest,

my heart racing with anticipation.

There's a whole neighborhood back here,

which is only accessible via a rope bridge that hangs over the river.

It feels like the kind of place you would go to stay under the radar.

Avoid the law.

Why should we call the Death Valley?

Because these guys are dead.

Maybe one of them is alive.

Maybe he's sitting in some part of the country.

Maybe in Kerala.

You never know.

Raz, as we'll call him, requested we meet here.

He asked to remain anonymous, but his eagerness to talk poured out like the sweat on his skin. What about Daru? We've got no clue, man.
His parents tell us that he was going to lose weight. He thought he would lose 4 or 5 kgs if he tracks to Kirganga.
That's a very stupid thing to say. Then the next day, the parents tell us,

please check Malana, maybe some sadhu took him,

and maybe he gave him drugs.

What is he, some child?

And same time, a boy does no drugs,

doesn't smoke, doesn't drink.

He had a flight next day,

so does a man come just for one day

to go to Keer Ganga and come back?

I find it tough to believe actually. There's something more to the story which they're hiding.
While he claimed to know nothing new about Daruva Agarwal's case, Raz has promised me some safeguarded clue about Bruno Moushalik. Tell me, what do you want to talk about? What do you guys want to know? Well, you were saying that you know some stuff about Bruno, and I'd love to dive into that.
There's a thought that he was just buying drugs or he was trying to sell them. We met a guy who Bruno was in touch with, Malala.
Mm-hmm. Okay? We had to pay him a lot of money to meet him actually.
He was waiting for Bruno to come to Malala, Bruna never married to Malala. So what the guy actually, Malala said is, he got down at Katagla, he got down on the bus from there, and then he supposedly came to his party.
And nobody knows after that what happened. Maybe he took some LSD, maybe he fell off the bridge, but I don't think it's easy to fall off that bridge.
Unless somebody pushes you. This is just all word of mouth.
This is just all word of mouth. Nobody knows what exactly happened.
Yeah. And I got news from a government official, which I cannot name anyone, but saying that he was murdered.
When Raz was with the Mumbai news team, he says they poked around at Bruno's case a bit. And an individual they spoke to repeated a similar story.
I can't take names because we're not allowed to take the names of the guys who we spoke to. We just spoke to someone.
He told me Bruno was murdered by a guy called Leo. By, called Leo? Yes, and it was related to drugs.
Leo is not an Indian name, and any other details about this guy is a dead end. We don't even know if he actually exists.
And the individual who made this accusation isn't responding. — He's refusing to take my calls now because the guys who were with me, the earlier team, the assholes gave him his press card.
I told the assholes, don't give your card to anyone. But he fucked it up.
So the guy refuses to speak now. So there are too many perspectives of it, you know, like everybody has their own story about Bruno.
Who do you believe? Bruno's gone. Everyone has a different story.
But with two sources allegedly claiming the same thing, we have to consider, like Justin's case, if murder could be a potential scenario. So I asked Roz, if he had to speculate, why would someone kill Bruno? Okay? The thing is, Paruti Valley is a too, correct? Their own democracy.
Yeah. You cannot touch them unless you know them very well.
But as an outsider, you cannot even touch them. The mindset is very different.
They are friendly if you have money because they know you come to buy cherished. And then they tell you on the way back down is what it sounds like.
Not now. Raz said it before.
Calling his home the Valley of Death doesn't sit right with him. But from what I'm picking up, he's saying the heavy drug scene and undercurrents of Mamanah kind of paints a target on the backs of foreigners thought to be walking around with wads of cash.
To me, that makes sense. And if true, that's a huge issue that can't be ignored.
But Roz is also quick to point out it's not that cut and dry. I have a question for you guys.
Being Americans, I mean, when a foreign tourist comes here, don't you think you'll be attracted to the culture of this place of, you know, you will want to smoke up? I think 99.9% of people will come and smoke for sure. So just a question for you guys, how is the place responsible for it? The place is never responsible, it's the individual.
Come, come, smoke up. I mean, I have no issues with smoking up, man.
Come on. But the point is, be responsible enough.
You cannot shed your responsibility, walk into a jungle drunk or maybe on some chemical and fall somewhere into a river and expect people, oh, he was murdered.

So we do not know what exactly happened to these people.

We actually have no clue what happened to these people.

We are just assuming.

There's a problem with speculating murder.

Why risk everything and kill a foreigner for petty theft?

Not saying that it doesn't happen,

but murder over some cash or a bit of drugs seems extreme. So then we come back to why Bruno? Why Justin? Were they simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is there a deeper, darker reason for their disappearances? Has there ever been openly known Israeli, Russian, and Italian mafia operating in this area? Not openly.
Not openly? There's no mafia from the other country at the moment. But you know, the locals, you can't call it mafia, but everyone does it.
There's no outside mafia, but everyone calls it mafia. Thinking about what that means, it's then a more sinister thought grips me.

What if tourists aren't targeted by chance,

but as part of a calculated plan?

Who would profit from their disappearances? He's been highlighted by the police, the department and all, as a rescue guy. Yeah.

We believe, from our research and things,

that he could be the culprit, the people going missing.

You think he's like robbing them and then taking the stuff?

He's basically murdering them. We were suspect that he didn't search Bruno, only talked about the searching and did nothing.
Korkan is a well-known search and rescuer who we've been told to steer clear of. Bruno's father, before arriving in the valley, hired the search and rescuer to look for his son.
A decision he now says he heavily regrets. For legal reasons, we've redacted Korkan's real name.
The story with F***y, we pay him maybe $150 or $100 per day to search the Bruno. And he told us he searched the Bruno all the time.
Piotr was swayed by Korkhan's online portrayal as the most heroic search and rescue operation in the Parvati. When Piotr and Tomas arrived in India, Korkhan met them at the airport and escorted them to areas where he claimed to have explored for the surge.
At one of these spots, he introduced them to some women who he said assisted the investigation. Tomas, recognizing the women were East Slavic, spoke to them in Russian to confirm these claims.
And it was completely different statements from those people. These ladies, Russian and Ukrainian ladies, they said that they never saw him.
He came there for the first time ever. So he's cheating and lying from the very beginning.
Pyotr immediately pulled the plug on Korkhan, opting instead to invest $30,000 in the Israeli private investigation firm Magnus International. He was taken aback to later learn that Magnus outsources some of their work to Kork Han.
And what's interesting about him, he finds the people who are missing, but only the bodies. But the guy, he has contact with mafia.
He knows everyone in the valley. And for me, in my opinion, I'm sure he knows what was happening.
For me, it's suspect. Crooked tales surrounding Khor Khan keep reappearing.
Later, Manu and Jagdish stop by our hotel, and Arshtip translates their story. He is not a technical guy.
He has no knowledge about how to do the proper rescue with the equipments and all these things. He's just a name.
Manu recalls a baffling incident involving Korkhan's company. They were hired to recover a body from the river.
They first let do it. He took four days.
He was like doing with the ladder. Then they thought, no, we do it this way, do it there.
After four days, they said, okay, you're done now. So should we try? They took three hours to do it.
Once the body was lifted to the road, quickly came over there, took a selfie with the body and saying, oh, the search and rescue mission successful. He made a news on that.
Has anyone tried to report as being like a fraud of a... No, no, he has very good dealing with politics and administration.
Jagdish wishes to avoid making any comment about Korkhan on record. He says, I don't want to make a personal comment regarding him because it's not a good idea to do that.
But there are lots of rumors about **** at the moment. I ask what rumor they hear most often.
But now it's a rumor that ****. Basically what he does, even if the team finds the body, they try to hide it for a few days so that the money is counting.
I'll admit, I initially brushed off Korkhan. He wasn't involved in Justin Alexander's case, so I didn't find him relevant.
Now, I'm not so sure. These murmurs, hinting he's mixed up in disappearances, is it idle talk or is it real? I can't be sure until I hear his side of things.
So I send Corcan a message on Facebook, which I can tell he's seen, but ignored. So I call him.
Hello. Hi, Mr the podcast, and ask for an interview.

Yes, sir. I'm here in Kisoul today.

Yeah, can we meet you tonight? Okay, sir. Yeah? And can you come here to the hangout? I think better to come here.
Better to go there? Can you get me an address to come to? Perfect. All right, we'll see you tonight.
Looking forward to it. It's then that I notice Arshti pacing the room.
I was saying, no, no, I don't want to go. How you feel?

What are the vibes that you're getting from him?

When he's alone. room.
I set my iPhone to record, so the audio quality isn't stellar here. But what Arsteep is suggesting is that Alex and I meet Korkhan without him.

Do you want to drop this off and stay away? No, I got organized a car from there for you guys.

So that's what I feel.

Because I don't want he to know that someone has been telling,

okay, you talk to this, talk to this.

It's what you have figured out yourself,

so that makes him more comfortable.

Yeah.

What do you think, Alex?

I think that's smart.

Yeah.

I have reservations about conducting this interview without Arsteep, but I get his reasoning.

The more of us in the room and bringing a local with us, the more guarded Korkan might

be.

As I think about it further, I consider another possibility.

What if I go solo?

Minutes before the interview, I pitch it to the team.

Kabir, who's against the idea,

reluctantly proposes a safety net,

a backup plan to put it on mute. We put it on mute.
The car is already outside. Yeah, let's do it.
Yeah. You alone? Yeah, I'm ready.
Okay. The taxi pulls up outside our hotel.
An ominous mist hangs thick in the air as I ride through the mountain roads.

Across the river lies my destination, a three-story brick fortress perched on the mountain's edge. A rusting lamp flickers above the main entrance.
All right, thank you, brother.

I'll see you soon.

A cold wind whips at my back.

Nobody comes outside.

So I knock.

What's going on, guys?

I'm guided to a large den with long black leather couches. In the corner rises a thin man in a full camouflage jumpsuit.
It's him, Korkan. Back at the hotel, Alex and the guys huddle around the phone, listening as I introduce myself.

I'm completely on edge because it's me,

Korkhan,

and six other men

I wasn't expecting to be here.

There's a lot of people there.

Yeah, there's a lot of people there.

Just a bad idea idea sending him along.

Coming up on Status Untraced.

All right, listen, I have one last rumor that I need to ask you about.

So someone told me that they believe that you or people on your team are making tourists disappear to create more business.

What do you have to say about that?

If you have tips or information on the individuals in this podcast, please email us at statusuntraced at gmail.com.

Or leave us a message at 507-407-2833.

Status Untraced is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. I'm your host,

Liam Luxon. Executive producers are Alex Vespested, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay.

Producers are Meredith Stedman and myself. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan.
Consulting producer, Jonathan Skeels. Associate editors are David Bash and Charles Rosner of GetUp Productions.
With additional editing by Sydney Evans. Artwork by Trevor Eiler.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Our theme song is Colder Heavens by Blanco White.
Mix by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group.
And also special thanks to Arsteep Sharma and Kabir Sharman. For more podcasts like Status Untraced, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us at tenderfoot.tv.
Hi, I'm Grace, host of Red Rum True Crime Podcast. These cases focus on the true victims of crime.
Why not jump in at episode 114, the tragic murder of Jasmine and Aaliyah. The main suspect in this case gave an extremely bizarre interview to a number of press reporters whilst he was drunk and reportedly high.
He speaks about an awful lot on camera and has this completely inappropriate laughing and chuckling response when talking about the case. He may even have thought he was going to get away with the double murder he'd been accused of but what he didn't know was that two undercover officers were on their way to catch him out and he easily and willingly took the bait.
You can find us wherever you get your podcasts Just search Red Rum True Crime. That's Red Rum, murder backwards, R-E-D-R-U-M, true crime.
Well, I just found out that my dad lived a secret life as a hitman for the Chicago Mafia for all these years. It doesn't make any sense.

He was a firefighter paramedic.

How the hell can he be a hitman?

I need answers.

So I am currently on a plane back to Chicago to interview everybody.

Anybody that knows anything about this.

I'm in shock.

This is absolutely insane.

I just don't understand.

I need to figure this out. and iHeart Podcasts is available now.
Binge the entire series for free on the iHeart Radio app,