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

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Speaker 5 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 7 I know there's going to be a twist, wasn't there?

Speaker 8 A massive twist.

Speaker 9 At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 5 I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and the New Yorker.
Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.

Speaker 10 As promised, here is Status Untraced, episode 8.

Speaker 2 You're listening to Status Untraced, a production of Tenderfoot TV, in association with Odyssey.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 9 We've heard whispers about this village, Malana.

Speaker 13 It's here inside the Parvati Valley and known to produce what many say is the finest hashish in the world.

Speaker 19 Each of the 350 households in Malana produces 5 kilos of hash.

Speaker 20 All of it generates a total income of about 7.8 million US dollars.

Speaker 9 This gooey substance is highly sought after internationally.

Speaker 15 A small amount, which sells for $14 locally, will, in Amsterdam, go for at least $250.

Speaker 15 In India, it's a criminal offense to consume, trade, or grow. But Milana doesn't really abide by country law.

Speaker 11 It's quite obvious that this activity is illegal. Why hasn't there been any sort of intervention that has succeeded in this production?

Speaker 26 This village people there consider themselves to be the descendants of soldiers of Alexander the Great.

Speaker 26 If you go to buy something there, you cannot touch them, you cannot shake hands, you'll have to leave the money on the counter and they will come and pick it up.

Speaker 26 So, such is their very strict taboo on people to have outside links.

Speaker 11 But, can that be a reasoning?

Speaker 26 No, that cannot be the reason. No policeman is allowed to come inside.

Speaker 26 And if somebody goes to complain to the police, then he has to pay a fine to the panchayat out there.

Speaker 16 So, how does Milana brazenly run a drug trade?

Speaker 15 Well, it's simple. They don't allow the police in.

Speaker 27 This story was aired on October 19th, 2016, right when search teams were looking for Justin Alexander.

Speaker 15 Justin, as we know, was dealing hashish.

Speaker 14 In fact, he was traveling around with a kilo of it.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 14 But the one fact they did cover is bizarre.

Speaker 29 But the biggest challenge, of course, is for the law enforcement authorities to implement the law.

Speaker 24 Why would law enforcement turn a blind eye to an illegal drug trade?

Speaker 31 What's going on here that causes them to blatantly ignore their duties?

Speaker 12 One way to find out,

Speaker 32 pull on the thread.

Speaker 32 Sometimes I get the feeling I'm lost.

Speaker 32 Can't sign

Speaker 32 it, it's never enough.

Speaker 32 Now I find in every mirror I close.

Speaker 32 Oh, that once I saw the killer,

Speaker 32 once I saw the killer of clothes.

Speaker 16 I'm Liam Luxon, and this is Status Untraced.

Speaker 9 Episode 8.

Speaker 33 Don't lose your hope.

Speaker 8 You guys were involved with the Guno Muskovich case.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 25 What I gathered back in the States isn't lining up with what I've seen here.

Speaker 22 Alex and I are scratching our heads, second-guessing every statement we've heard, wondering what we are missing.

Speaker 25 Is there anything we've overlooked?

Speaker 34 I was the first person from the two of us. It was just unintentionally that we fell into it.

Speaker 31 As we've previously mentioned, our guides Kabir and Arsheep are no strangers to the worlds of missing person cases.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 15 Had you guys ever worked on a crime case before?

Speaker 35 I

Speaker 34 was involved with one case way back in around the 2000, you know. That's when a lot of

Speaker 34 Western people were going missing from the Hamda region in Malik.

Speaker 37 Lots of fauna people were killed over there at the time.

Speaker 34 During that time, a lot of people got killed, and it was definitely the same group of people, but no witnesses came up.

Speaker 38 Kabir recalls a slew of horror stories about travelers who have mysteriously ended up missing or dead.

Speaker 15 And one case stands out.

Speaker 16 It occurred almost exactly a year prior to Justin's.

Speaker 34 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.

Speaker 34 So he wanted to see if he could be of any help and he asked me if you can help.

Speaker 13 Bruno Musalik, a 24-year-old from Poland, was your typical college kid, full of dreams of seeing the world.

Speaker 36 He graduated and was recruited by the esteemed Ernst ⁇ Young as one of a select group of standout candidates.

Speaker 22 But before he swapped his backpack for a briefcase, Bruno set out on a solo trip to New Delhi in July 2015.

Speaker 22 He made his way to Manali, a town just outside the Parvati Valley, and hung out there for about a week.

Speaker 39 Then,

Speaker 12 nothing.

Speaker 27 No one heard from him.

Speaker 22 His girlfriend, on August 9th, was the last to receive a message.

Speaker 34 Last communication was with his girlfriend Casey.

Speaker 37 I'm going to Kosovo, something or other, and I'll be back in two days or three days.

Speaker 14 Bruno's father, Piotr, grew worried when he didn't hear from his son.

Speaker 15 When Bruno missed his flight home, Piotr took action and flew to the valley.

Speaker 13 I had a chance to speak with Piotr and his friend Tomas, who expressed frustration with the local law enforcement.

Speaker 40 Police in India is completely nothing, no modern equipment, nothing like a police should have, you know.

Speaker 40 So we were traveling from place to place and try to collect any other evidences, testimonials, testimonials, people who may deliver any additional details to this story.

Speaker 24 The only clue to Bruno's whereabouts was his backpack he left at a Menali guesthouse.

Speaker 13 A sign, like Justin, that he planned to return.

Speaker 15 To gather more information, Piotr spread missing person flyers around town, and his efforts led to a pivotal conversation with an eyewitness.

Speaker 41 And he told me he saw Bruno in leh with two israeli girls leh is a high mountain city north of kulu

Speaker 40 we went there and talking to local people around and we found this guy in a shop he was 100 swearing i recognized him etc and bruno was according to him was sitting on a sofa and he described those two israeli girls he was asking them directly i am from israel they said yes yes beoter and damas went to extreme lengths to identify these two Israeli girls, including multiple trips to India and a trip to Israel.

Speaker 24 It led to nothing.

Speaker 22 Later on, they got a lead from a bus driver who recognized Bruno's photo.

Speaker 24 He claimed to have dropped Bruno off in the valley around August 9th, the day of Bruno's last text.

Speaker 27 The driver said he picked Bruno up from another part of the valley the next day.

Speaker 40 After that, we didn't find any more traces. So after one and a half months, we came back to Poland.

Speaker 9 Weeks later, Piotr and Tomas returned to India for a second trip and found another eyewitness, this time in New Delhi.

Speaker 40 This lady recognized Bruno with two guys in Delhi after arrival. Those two guys, they were well known to the police as a drugs dealer and unleagnor arms sellers.

Speaker 15 From conversations with his son, Piotr knew that Bruno had been spending time with a New Delhi local named Saluja.

Speaker 12 He didn't have any background on the guy, but feared he could be dangerous.

Speaker 16 Piotr relayed the tip to the police, who launched a coordinated effort to find Saluja and arrest him.

Speaker 41 We aroused the hearing of Saluja and the police in Manali, they interrogate about the situation with Bruno.

Speaker 16 In custody, police demanded Seminder Saluja to reveal the WhatsApp conversations on his phone.

Speaker 24 Left with no option, Saluja complied.

Speaker 34 So he wanted him to carry some hash out from here or something.

Speaker 8 That was in a text?

Speaker 34 One that was in the text, yeah.

Speaker 24 Saluja had been guiding Bruno on where to buy and sell drugs.

Speaker 8 So Bruno bought stuff in Delhi.

Speaker 32 Asset and stuff. Al-LSD.

Speaker 23 Then stuff like that from Saluja.

Speaker 8 How much did he buy?

Speaker 34 No clue to that. He basically wanted to come to Parvati and use it as recreationally.

Speaker 37 And then Saluja was, you know, guiding him. Okay, you go to this guy and you bring some stuff for me also.

Speaker 23 They track down Saluja's contact.

Speaker 28 He was in the ancient village, Malana.

Speaker 34 The Malana guy said he never met him.

Speaker 37 Yeah, he said he called him.

Speaker 34 He called me, but he never met me.

Speaker 38 The Malana guy was arrested as well.

Speaker 22 But with the case having gone cold, both men have since been released from police custody.

Speaker 40 I think that in this region

Speaker 40 they are organizing rave parties, which is music, party, drinking, drugs, all together mixed.

Speaker 22 In the Parvati, raves are outdoor sores attended by hundreds.

Speaker 23 They're almost entirely unsanctioned and tend to be deep in the woods.

Speaker 40 So this is

Speaker 40 probably what temptate him to go to this region, and it's why he said he will be back within three days.

Speaker 40 So we were thinking that maybe they used him for illegal drug trafficking.

Speaker 31 Years have passed, and Bruno's fate remains a mystery. No further clues, no leads, just silence.

Speaker 31 There are eerie overlaps with Justin's case.

Speaker 36 Hashish dealings, dodgy meetups, and then, at nearly the same time of year, they're gone.

Speaker 15 What it means, if anything, I'm not sure.

Speaker 30 For Piotr, the search never ended.

Speaker 31 He still makes trips to the Parvati Valley, hoping to find something,

Speaker 36 anything, to bring closure about what happened to his son.

Speaker 6 Although it breaks my heart, I had to ask,

Speaker 9 with so few leads to follow, what drives him to keep looking?

Speaker 43 We need to share the information because I have hope maybe when someone

Speaker 43 accidentally knows about the case of Bruno and catch a new phrase,

Speaker 41 maybe.

Speaker 40 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.

Speaker 40 Why he was hiding himself, why he disappeared, nobody knows. And now he called me, he wants Polish passport and go back Poland

Speaker 40 after 30 years.

Speaker 40 So he said, don't lose your hope, because some completely unimaginable things may happen.

Speaker 25 As you may recall, a tourist named Daruv Agarwal recently went missing here.

Speaker 15 The case caught the attention of a Mumbai news team who's arrived in the valley to investigate his disappearance.

Speaker 14 We met with that team.

Speaker 27 They requested we keep our conversation off record, but before parting ways, one of their members, a local, discreetly pulled me aside.

Speaker 31 He whispered that he knew things about Bruno, information that wasn't public.

Speaker 9 And he was open to talk.

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Speaker 19 The foreign media always said, you know, the Death Valley. I don't call it the Death Valley.

Speaker 15 I find myself on a dirt path in a secluded forest, my heart racing with anticipation.

Speaker 22 There's a whole neighborhood back here, which is only accessible via a rope bridge that hangs over the river.

Speaker 13 It feels like the kind of place you would go to stay under the radar.

Speaker 25 Avoid the law.

Speaker 19 Why should you call the Death Valley? Because these guys are dead. Maybe one of them is alive.
Maybe he's studying in some part of the country, maybe in Kerala.

Speaker 19 You never know.

Speaker 25 Raz, as we'll call him, requested we meet here.

Speaker 9 He asked to remain anonymous, but his eagerness to talk poured out like the sweat on his skin.

Speaker 17 What about Dharuv? What do you think?

Speaker 44 We got no clue, man.

Speaker 19 His parents tell us that he was going to lose weight. He thought he would lose 4-5 kgs if he tries to kill Ganga.

Speaker 19 That's a very stupid thing to say.

Speaker 19 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?

Speaker 19 And same time, a boy does no drugs, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink. And he had a flight next day.
So does a man come just for one day to go to Kirganga and come back?

Speaker 19 I find it tough to believe actually.

Speaker 19 There's something more to the story which they're hiding.

Speaker 22 While he claimed to know nothing new about Dharuv Agarwal's case, Raz has promised me some safeguarded clue about Bruno Mushalik.

Speaker 19 We met the guy who Bruno was in touch with in Malana.

Speaker 18 Okay?

Speaker 19 You had to pay him a lot of money to meet him accidentally he was waiting for Bruno to come to Malana, but Bruno never made it to Malala.

Speaker 19 So, what the guy at

Speaker 19 Malala said is, he got down

Speaker 19 at Katagla, he got down on the bus from there, and then he supposedly came to face party.

Speaker 19 And nobody knows after that what happened.

Speaker 19 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.

Speaker 25 This is just all word of mouth.

Speaker 19 This is just all word of mouth. Nobody knows what exactly happened.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 19 And I got news from a government official, which I cannot name anyone, but

Speaker 19 saying that he was murdered.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 19 I can't take names because we're not allowed to take the names of the guys who we spoke to. Which I spoke to someone, he told me

Speaker 19 Nuna was murdered

Speaker 19 by a guy called Leo

Speaker 19 called Leo, yes, and it was related to drugs.

Speaker 12 Leo is not an Indian name.

Speaker 15 And any other details about this guy is a dead end.

Speaker 14 We don't even know if he actually exists.

Speaker 15 And the individual who made this accusation isn't responding.

Speaker 19 And he's refusing to take my calls now because the guys who are with me, the earlier team,

Speaker 19 the asshole gave him his press card.

Speaker 19 I told that asshole, don't give your card to anyone.

Speaker 19 But you fucked it up. So the guy refuses to speak now.

Speaker 19 So there's too many

Speaker 19 perspectives of it. You know, like everybody has their own story about Bruno.

Speaker 19 Who do you believe? Bruno's gone.

Speaker 13 Everyone has a different story.

Speaker 13 But with two sources allegedly claiming the same thing, we have to consider, like Justin's case, if murder could be a potential scenario.

Speaker 14 So I asked Roz, if he had to speculate, why would someone kill Bruno?

Speaker 44 You know what,

Speaker 19 a lot of people from Europe and from the US are carriers of drugs.

Speaker 19 So there's a five times profit in it, but more than that. So many people do it.

Speaker 19 And most of the guys are Europeans.

Speaker 18 Okay?

Speaker 19 Thing is, Parathi Valley

Speaker 44 is a place, 100% economy

Speaker 44 on drugs.

Speaker 19 You know, earlier in the 90s, a lot of foreigners used to come with money. They would go up to buy charas to Malana.

Speaker 16 Charas is concentrated, Hashish.

Speaker 19 And when they would finish buying Charas

Speaker 19 and come down the way back, they would be killed by the same guys who sold them the charis.

Speaker 19 And the money would be taken back. This people used to disappear.
They said nobody likes the people from Malana. These village people don't like the Malana people.

Speaker 19 They say they're godly people, okay?

Speaker 6 There is no proper

Speaker 19 court or anything. They don't follow the Indian constitution.

Speaker 17 Because they have their own democracy up there too, correct?

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 19 You cannot trust them unless you know them very well. But as an outsider, you cannot even trust them.
The mindset is very different.

Speaker 19 They are friendly if you have money, because they know you come to buy terrace.

Speaker 17 And then they tell you on the way back down, is what it sounds like.

Speaker 44 Not now.

Speaker 35 Roz said it before.

Speaker 15 Calling his home the valley of death doesn't sit right with him.

Speaker 16 But from what I'm picking up, he's saying the heavy drug scene and undercurrents of Mamana kind of paints a target on the backs of foreigners, thought to be walking around with wads of cash.

Speaker 28 To me, that makes sense.

Speaker 32 And if true, that's a huge issue that can't be ignored.

Speaker 24 But Roz is also quick to point out, it's not that cut and dry.

Speaker 19 I have a question for you guys, being Americans. I mean, when a foreign tourist come here,

Speaker 19 Don't you think he'll be attracted to the culture of this place of, you know, you will want to smoke up?

Speaker 19 I think 99.9% 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

Speaker 19 come come smoke up I mean I have no issues with smoking up man come on but but the point is be responsible enough

Speaker 19 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.

Speaker 19 We are just assuming.

Speaker 15 There's a problem with speculating murder.

Speaker 17 Why risk everything and kill a foreigner for petty theft?

Speaker 15 Not saying that it doesn't happen, but murder over some cash or a bit of drugs seems extreme.

Speaker 32 So then we come back to why Bruno?

Speaker 23 Why Justin?

Speaker 16 Were they simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is there a deeper, darker reason for their disappearances?

Speaker 38 Has there ever been openly known Israeli, Russian, and Italian mafia operating in this area?

Speaker 18 Not openly.

Speaker 20 Not openly? There's no mafia from the other country at the moment, eh?

Speaker 15 But you know, the locals, you can't call it mafia, but everyone does it.

Speaker 16 There's no outside mafia, but everyone calls it mafia.

Speaker 13 Thinking about what that means, it's then a more sinister thought grips me.

Speaker 16 What if tourists aren't targeted by chance, but as part of a calculated plan?

Speaker 15 Who would profit from their disappearances?

Speaker 21 This guy, he's been highlighted by the police, the department and all as a rescue guy.

Speaker 7 We believe

Speaker 7 from our research and things that he could be the culprit, the people who are missing.

Speaker 8 You think he's like robbing them and then taking the stuff?

Speaker 21 He's basically murdering them.

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Speaker 43 We will suspect that he didn't search the Bruno, only talk about the searching and did nothing.

Speaker 31 Corkhan 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.

Speaker 31 A decision he now says he heavily regrets.

Speaker 15 For legal reasons, we've redacted Corkhan's real name.

Speaker 31 Piotra was swayed by Corkhan's online portrayal as the most heroic search and rescue operation in the Parvati.

Speaker 31 When Piotra and Tomas arrived in India, Corkhan met them at the airport and escorted them to areas where he claimed to have explored for the search.

Speaker 31 At one of these spots, he introduced them to some women who he said assisted the investigation.

Speaker 36 Tomas,

Speaker 31 recognizing the women were East Slavic, spoke to them in Russian to confirm these claims.

Speaker 46 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.

Speaker 46 So he's cheating and lying from the very beginning.

Speaker 36 Piotr immediately pulled the plug on Corkhan, opting instead to invest $30,000 in the Israeli private investigation firm, Magnus International.

Speaker 31 He was taken aback to later learn that Magnus outsources some of their work to Corkhan.

Speaker 43 And interesting about him,

Speaker 43 he finds the people who are missing, but only the bodies. But the guy he have contact with, Mafia, he know everyone in the valley.
And for me, in my opinion, I'm sure he knows what was happening.

Speaker 43 For me, he's suspect.

Speaker 39 Crooked tales surrounding Corkhan keep reappearing.

Speaker 31 Later, Manu and Jagdish stop by our hotel. And Arshdeep translates their story.

Speaker 37 He is not a technical guy. He has no knowledge about how to do the proper rescue with the equipment and all these things.
He's just a name.

Speaker 15 Manu recalls a baffling incident involving Corkhan's company.

Speaker 31 They were hired to recover a body from the river.

Speaker 37 They first let

Speaker 8 do it.

Speaker 37 He took four days. He was like doing with the ladder.
Then they thought, no, we do it this way, do it. After four days, they said, okay, you're done now.
So should we try?

Speaker 37 They took three hours to do it. Once the body was lifted to the road,

Speaker 37 quickly came over there, took a selfie with the body and saying, oh,

Speaker 37 search and rescue mission successful. He made a news on that.

Speaker 8 Has anyone tried to report

Speaker 28 as being like a fraud of.

Speaker 37 No, no, he has very good dealing with the politics and administration.

Speaker 36 Jagdish wishes to avoid making any comment about Korkhan on record.

Speaker 37 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

Speaker 37 at the moment.

Speaker 25 I ask what rumor they hear most often.

Speaker 37 But now it's a rumor.

Speaker 17 that

Speaker 37 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 scouting.

Speaker 31 I'll admit, I initially brushed off Corkhan.

Speaker 31 He wasn't involved in Justin Alexander's case, so I didn't find him relevant.

Speaker 39 Now,

Speaker 36 I'm not so sure.

Speaker 31 These murmurs hinting he's mixed up in disappearances, is it idle talk? Or is it real?

Speaker 15 I can't be sure until I hear his side of things.

Speaker 36 So I send Corkhan a message on Facebook, which I can tell he's seen, but ignored.

Speaker 39 So I call him.

Speaker 35 Hello. Hi, Mr.

Speaker 46 Yes, sir.

Speaker 28 My name is Liam Lux and I'm a producer from the U.S.

Speaker 24 I'm over here.

Speaker 9 I introduce myself to Corkhan, explain the podcast, and ask for an interview.

Speaker 42 Yes, sir, I'm here in Kasul today.

Speaker 18 Do you want to meet or yeah?

Speaker 42 Can we meet you tonight?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 42 and can you come, can you come here to the hangout?

Speaker 18 I think better to come here.

Speaker 45 Better to go there?

Speaker 42 Can you get me an address to come to?

Speaker 18 Perfect.

Speaker 17 Alright, we'll see you tonight. Looking forward to it.

Speaker 22 It's then that I notice Arshdeep pacing the room.

Speaker 20 How you feel what are the vibes that you're getting from him?

Speaker 22 I set my iPhone to record, so the audio quality isn't stellar here.

Speaker 15 But what Arsteep is suggesting is that Alex and I meet Corkan without him.

Speaker 45 No, I organize a car for me for you guys.

Speaker 37 So that's what I feel.

Speaker 47 Because I don't want he to know that someone has been telling, okay, you talk to this, talk to this.

Speaker 37 It's what you have figured out yourself so that makes him more comfortable.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 What do you think, Alex?

Speaker 15 I think that's smart. Yeah.

Speaker 15 I have reservations about conducting this interview without Ars Teep, but I get his reasoning.

Speaker 25 The more of us in the room, and bringing a local with us, the more guarded Corkon might be.

Speaker 15 As I think about it further, I consider another possibility.

Speaker 35 What if I go solo?

Speaker 16 Minutes before the interview, I pitch it to the team.

Speaker 22 Kabir, who's against the idea, reluctantly proposes a safety net, a backup plan, to keep tabs on me.

Speaker 10 You can

Speaker 34 call us, we can listen to you, the speaker, just to hear the conversation.

Speaker 33 I just gotta put it on mute first.

Speaker 37 You gotta put it on mute.

Speaker 47 The car is already outside.

Speaker 6 Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 17 Yeah, I'm ready. Okay, then you need to put that on the map.

Speaker 9 The taxi pulls up outside our hotel.

Speaker 22 An ominous mist hangs thick in the air as I ride through the mountain roads.

Speaker 15 Across the river lies my destination, a three-story brick fortress perched on the mountain's edge.

Speaker 27 A rusting lamp flickers above the main entrance.

Speaker 17 All right, thank you, brother.

Speaker 16 I'll see you soon.

Speaker 9 A cold wind whips at my back.

Speaker 9 Nobody comes outside.

Speaker 23 So I knock.

Speaker 36 I'm guided to a large den with long black leather couches.

Speaker 23 In the corner, rises a thin man in a full camouflage jumpsuit.

Speaker 16 It's him, Corkan.

Speaker 15 Back at the hotel, Alex and the guys huddle around the phone, listening as I introduce myself.

Speaker 22 I'm completely on edge because it's me, Corkan,

Speaker 15 and six other men I wasn't expecting to be here.

Speaker 44 A lot of people there.

Speaker 9 Coming up on status on Traced.

Speaker 33 Alright, listen, I have one last rumor that I need to ask you about.

Speaker 33 So, someone told me that they believe that you or people on your team are making Taurus disappear to create more business.

Speaker 22 What do you have to say about that?

Speaker 23 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.

Speaker 38 Status Untraced is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey.

Speaker 22 I'm your host, Liam Luxon.

Speaker 38 Executive producers are Alex Vespested, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Producers are Meredith Stedman and myself.

Speaker 13 Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan.

Speaker 16 Consulting producer, Jonathan Skeels.

Speaker 38 Associate editors are David Bash and Charles Rosner of GetUp Productions.

Speaker 6 Productions, with additional editing by Sidney Evans, artwork by Trevor Eiler, original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.

Speaker 38 Our theme song is Colder Heavens by Blanco White.

Speaker 38 Mix by Cooper Skinner.

Speaker 38 Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group. And also special thanks to Arsdeep Sharma and Kabir Sharman.

Speaker 38 For more podcasts like Status Untraced, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us at tenderfoot.tv.

Speaker 48 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 48 From con artists to unbelievable yet true occurrences, we dive into stories where nothing is ever quite as it seems. Because to understand the world, you sometimes have to change the way you see it.

Speaker 48 Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.