Status: Untraced - E3: The Legend You Live

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Hopefully you're already familiar with our newest show, Up and Vanish Presents, Status Untraced. It topped the Apple Podcast charts at number one for a week.
And previously, we've aired episodes one and two in this feed. And over the next few weeks, we'll be airing the remainder of the season, episodes three through 10.
So if you haven't listened to the first two episodes, stop right now and search Status Untraced in your podcast app. That's Status Untraced, a new show presented by Up and Vanished.
Follow the show and listen to the entire season right now. And it's even ad-free for Tenderfoot Plus subscribers.
Again, this is Up and Vanished Presents Status Untraced, episode three. Hope you enjoy the show.

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.

Never seen you this giddy. Put this in your back pocket and you can just hand it to him.

It's kind of funny how this comes full circle.

Alex suggested someone we should visit, Someone he worked with in the past. So we took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from L.A.
to Malibu. Nice to meet you.
Our host welcomes us inside his bungalow home. A familiar place for Alex, who spent countless hours in this same living room, piecing together another missing person case.
One interview into another, the whole way through. Alex knows, too, this is my day.
Like, boom, boom, boom, until 9 p.m. But then the rest of my week is, like, just empty.
This is Neil Strauss, a New York Times bestselling author and the host of the podcast To Live and Die in L.A. All right, so let me go on my computer because I might want to read his.
Yeah, that'd be great. While Neil has experience with true crime, that's not why we're here.
We're here because he knew Justin Alexander. So I ran a men's group called The Society.
We have survival intensives where they learn how to evade interrogations and survive torture and escape from handcuffs. And Justin joined in 2012 and was just a really positive, interesting, connected guy.
I really, really liked him. As we're chatting, Neil grabs his laptop and pulls up a document he says he hasn't read since 2013.
So yeah, so when someone joins the group, the first thing I do is I talk to them for half an hour and I see like who they are and what they're about. And I'll ask them a number of questions.
And then I'll sort of read between the lines of what they say. So his goal is he wanted to improve his confidence, learn to command a room in any situation, be generally happier and more awesome, and become the best person he can be in just about every arena, which is so Justin, because he wants to do everything, right? The best in everything is a very ambitious goal.
He also later said in five years he wants to be retired. Retired meaning traveling and not needing to make decisions based on money.
He wanted to be single, collecting amazing stories and doing cool stuff that he'll remember forever. It's interesting that he puts that he wanted to be single, that that was like something that was important on there too.
Yeah. Like I remember him saying like, I normally break up with someone when they ask me to marry them.
So he definitely was your classic avoidance. Then I'll see where they're at in terms of their emotional state, anxiety, joy, depression, guilt.
And what's interesting is with the positive emotions, super high. I asked about depression, guilt, anger, on a scale of one to 10, he said his a zero so right away, you know There's somebody who's actually denying their emotional reality that that was the first to me sign that there's more Going on underneath and even he's aware of Which brings us back to your? Original assessment of him in a way right so this is what I wrote at the time and this is had not met him yet.
We just talked on the phone for half an hour, which was interesting to look back on it when Alex contacted me. I wrote, has turned himself into an awesome, adventurous, self-made guy.
However, at some point, all this is going to blow up on him. And he's going to realize he may have taken his life in partly the wrong direction, as a reaction to the way he was raised.
Definitely needs some inner work, to the degree that his five-year goals actually change. Otherwise, he will have an existential crisis in ten years, also completely emotionally disconnected from himself.
Interesting that, just to look back on him, like, it appears to be close to what happened. It almost gives me the chills to read it.
I get the feeling I'm lost Yes, hiding, man, is never enough Now I find that every mirror of course Only once I saw the killer Once I saw the killer of course I'm Liam Luxon, and this is Status Untraced. Episode 3, The Legend You Live.
I don't fucking know what happened, but my feelings for what I know about Hashish and the area and what travelers do there, if he did get involved with some crooks, I am like 90% sure that it had to do with Hashish.

You probably remember this voice from the last episode.

This is Linda Barini, Justin Alexander's former romantic partner and first responder on his disappearance. She's the one who told me about the mafia who lurk in the Parvati Valley and the dangers of dealing hashish.
And I think the porter, the famous porter, yeah, I think that's a key element. As a reminder, there were only three people on Justin's trek.
Justin, the Baba, and a porter, a guy hired to carry supplies. I don't remember if he mentioned the porter or not.
It's like I've been racking my brain for years trying to remember that detail, but it's not clear. And that's very unfortunate.
Because what do they need a porter for? For a kilogram of rice? This porter's name is Anil Singh Kumar. He might be the only person from the hike that's still alive.
But he's nearly impossible to find. The names Anil and the surnames Singh and Kumar are extremely common in India.
It's essentially the American equivalent of Matthew Johnson. And just as a point of interest, there are no white pages in India.
We know little about Anil Kumar. He was hired by the Baba and, like him, never reported Justin as missing.
As far as I know, they don't know anything about the porter. I don't know if you were able to get some more information, but there was this porter and then there wasn't.
While Linda was the original point of contact, she never actually made it to India. At some point, I got pushed out of the equation and they wouldn't listen to me.
I was a pain in the ass. I was a pain in the ass, I admit it.
But it was a bunch of people that had never been to India. We really need to speak to someone who had boots on the ground.
So I asked who I should reach out to for more answers. Did you talk to Jonathan? I recognize the name in connection with articles about Justin's disappearance.

He's reported as Jonathan Skeels, one of the two men who found Justin's belongings off the hiking trail. I know that everybody was trying their best.
I know it. I know it in my heart, Jonathan you know but it will also seem

very detached you know like people cared for a couple of months and then you know the thing froze over and then that was it yeah well thank you for being willing to talk about it I know it's a lot I want to find out what happened if If somebody figures out what happened,

I will help 100%.

While the offer for help is reassuring,

this is the last I hear from Linda.

I don't hold it against her.

I come to find that's just how this group of people

around Justin operate.

Spontaneous, constantly on the move, and rarely checking their inboxes. I learned this the hard way.
After Linda, I attempted to speak with everyone involved in the search for Justin. And it wasn't easy.
While I did land a few interviews, one refrain echoed throughout those conversations. Jonathan Skeels was at the center of it all.

So all I could do was hope this self-proclaimed investment banker turned skee-bum would pick up our call.

Hello.

Hey, what's going on?

Hey, how's it going?

Good, good.

We got a good connection on my end.

Thankfully, he did.

Thank you. We got a good connection on my end.
Thankfully, he did. Did you know Justin before this as well? Yeah, yeah, we had met in 2015 and stayed in contact.
He was friends with common friends. Surprisingly, Jonathan Skeels, the man who spearheaded the ground search for Justin, hadn't known Justin very long.
Only a year. So I ask why he decided to look for him.
I was like, well, I've been to the area where he's missing. I have lots of very influential friends in India.
I have the financial means, I have the time, I'm pretty savvy. And I was looking at all these other friends of Justin's that were making nice social media posts, but no one was doing anything about it.
And I was like, well, I would not feel good if I didn't go and help. Now, I'm not trying to float my own boat there, but that's the reality of it.
We continue to talk, and it becomes evident that skills, like we've been told, possesses the secrets of the search, intimate details we couldn't have learned anywhere else. With what he shares, Alex and I are able to piece together a timeline of the 2016 events.
We're going to take you on a journey through this timeline, and I want to emphasize that these details are crucial. Because when you see this case in its entirety, the facts appear in a whole new light.
It begins August 18th, 2016.

I should return mid-September or so.

If I'm not back by then, don't look for me.

Justin puts on his Instagram and blog the ominous message,

saying he's headed with Baba Rawat to a spiritual ground called Montalai Lake. Two days later, he makes what will be his final post to Instagram and last calls to his mother, father, and Linda Barini.
Mid-September comes and goes, and Linda, worried, contacts their mutual friend Chris Lee, who is in the Purvati Valley. She was like, yeah, I feel something's wrong.
Have you seen Justin? I was like, no, but he's up there and he's planning to stay for a while, you know, so I wouldn't get worried about Justin. He's a big boy.
A few days later, with no word from Justin, Chris hikes eight kilometers into the mountains to a campground called Kirganga. It's where Justin started the trek and where he was supposed to have returned.
And when I did go, the Bubba was back. He was in his hut, but there was no Justin.
So I went over and interrogated him gently, you know. And I think at that time he had told me that they were walking back together and that Justin had decided to turn around and go back towards the lake with another group of trekkers.
And I found that a little bizarre. I told Linda what I had heard, but that's kind of like when we started to feel that, yeah, there might be something a little weird going on.
September 30th. Linda Barini informs Justin's mother, Susie Reeb, of the concerns, and the next day, they launch a GoFundMe titled Find Justin Alexander with a goal to raise $25,000.
Word of Justin's disappearance spreads, and a friend of the family reaches out with a tip. They found a pivotal photo of Justin on Facebook.
It was uploaded by an Indian hiker who supposedly passed Justin on the trail.

In it, the hiker holds Justin's flute walking staff, grinning.

Justin stands next to him wearing a gray headband and a dark brown shawl.

His mouth is clenched, and his face appears worn and tired.

It is now the last known image of Justin Alexander. Around this time in early October, Chris also reports Justin's disappearance to the local police.
However, they are slow to take action. It was just like, oh yeah, okay, another white boy lost in the mountain.
It's not like common-common, but it's happened quite often.

In contrast, through the GoFundMe gaining traction,

more people learn about Justin's disappearance,

including Jonathan Skeels.

I told the group that I was working for,

I have to go to India and figure out what's happened to my mate.

I don't know when I'll be back.

Sunday, October 9th. Skeels meets Susie Reeb at Heathrow Airport.
Together, they embark on the long flight to New Delhi, where they meet with embassy officials, plead for help, and then continue north to the mountains. It's like an 8 a.m.
arrival. 10 a.m., we were sitting in the offices of the superintendent of police and had the barber brought in for questioning right in front of us.
And did you and Susie do the questioning? Yeah, I got video of us hearing him explain his side of the story. Is that something they usually allow you to do? I'm sure that wouldn't happen in Mumbai or Delhi, but in these hodunk little backstations, you know, there was a lot of attention being brought to it.
So they were trying to appease me in any way. As Baba Rawat is interrogated, officers and locals who are in the room translate his words.
The first story was that Justin went back up into the mountains after they had a disagreement. The next version was Justin was ahead of him,

and it was pretty clear that his story was changing.

There was just too many versions.

The porter is also questioned, but let go.

In the following days,

Skeels gathers stories about the Baba's reputation.

He was very much a fake holy man.

He was overstealing from all the different camps, And, you know, he had a serious drug habit. October 13th.
As urgency mounts, Susie Reeb files an official missing persons report. And Skeels pays for a helicopter to scour the vast mountain terrain.
We just went flying around, just getting a survey in the air

and just hoping that someone crawled out

behind a rock with a broken leg,

you know, waving a flag.

Unfortunately, nothing is found.

October 15th.

Finally gaining momentum with police,

Babur Watt is apprehended

and put in a cell on a 15-day hold. October 16.
After much persuasion, the state government grants Skeels another helicopter trip. Accompanied by an Indian mountaineer, they are dropped at the suspected location where the last photo was taken.
Skeels says that along the entire hiking trail is the powerful and immense Parvati River. It's well accepted that the river, it tears up bodies and stuff that's never found.
They talk about this one incident where a bus went off the side of a cliff, and the river never gave the bus back or the 50 people that were in it. They descend the mountain, scanning on and off the trail.
A couple hours later is when we were leapfrogging each other to bandage points looking down around the river. And that's when he spotted his slew.
We found a bunch of items. There was like a headband he was wearing, and lighter, and a couple other bits.
It was the only point on the trail that's like knife edge, and all it would take is someone behind you to come up and just give you that tiny little nudge. Anyone could have pushed him there.
October 21st. Just after 7 p.m., the only prison guard on duty at the Manikaran police station, allegedly steps outside to use the bathroom.

When he returns, he discovers Baba Rawat

hanging by his cloth doughty.

There's two ways that story ends.

He was committed suicide because he was ashamed

of what he did or, you know,

maybe the local police were liking all the extra attention

that was being bought because of the missing American

and maybe they just, you know, kindly strung him up. October 23rd.
A peculiar update is made to the GoFundMe. The porter, Anil Kumar, is now assisting police search teams in the mountains.
Just a few days later, on October 26th, there's another development that changes things. The Porter, who until recently had been accompanying a police search team up in the valley, has now been placed under formal arrest and is being held in suspicion of foul play.
Again, in the most unusual of events,

Jonathan Skeels and Susie Reeb are allowed to interrogate the porter.

Skeels goes on to tell us that he dismissed Anil Kumar because he didn't speak English and therefore viewed him as illiterate, uneducated, and simple-minded. The presumption seems more like prejudice and also doesn't prove Anil Kumar clear of suspicion.
And do you speak the native tongue? No. Did you get a translator? No, no.
He went over at certain social class and I started speaking English. Did you get like a guide or anything to help you through that? I had at my disposal a guy to help out, but I didn't specifically get a guide, no.
Preparations are made for a final helicopter trip. This time, a full police team joins Jonathan Skeels, as well as Susie Reed, and a tracker named Tom McElroy.
We went back with an Indian forensic team that was kind of a joke. You know, all the flows off the side of the mountain were starting to freeze over, and it was getting cold.
At that point, they're like, well, prime suspect dead. The family is accepted that their son is not coming back.
So their interest in solving the mystery waned pretty quickly. Days later, a final team hikes to the location where Justin's items were found.

They hope to uncover more belongings or a body, but they return empty-handed.

Eventually, Susie Reeb flies home to Oregon.

In honor of their missing friend, Jonathan Skeels and Tom McElroy ride Justin's Royal Enfield motorcycle through the Lailadoc Pass. And the porter, Anil Kumar, is released.
What is the process of even finding someone over there? Oh, like if you had the name of a police officer and you wanted to track him down? Exactly. No, you'd have to go to the area, find out who was involved, look at all reports.
You'd need me, basically. I have mixed feelings about this search.
On one hand, I'm impressed by Jonathan Skeels. He sacrificed weeks of his own time and leveraged every resource he could muster to try to find Justin.
He didn't have any experience in this type of work. He didn't even know Justin that long.
He just wanted to do a good thing. Skills threw his entire being into the effort to influence law enforcement and Indian officials to take action.
On the other hand, that sort of influence gives me pause. Was due diligence conducted to look at this case from all angles? And how many potential leads, like the porter, were glossed over? Skeels, who holds all the cards, doesn't share more with us.
So for now, this is everything we know. No problem.
Have a good one. Thank you.
Yeah, have a good one. Bye.
Hey. Hey.
Yeah. So we're going to have trouble really getting more from him, I think.

Yeah.

For the next six months, Alex and I continue to research the case.

And we keep coming back to the interrogation videos of the Porter and the Baba,

which Skeels claims to have.

When we last talked, he wasn't prepared to share them with us. But to get any further

on this case, I need to know what was said in that room. So I come up with a plan and

purchase a ticket, determined to change Skeels' mind. you Welcome to Cabo.
Please remain seated with your seatbelt down until you go. I'm going to go.
I'm going to go. I'm going to go.
I'm going to go. What's up, dude? Good to see you.
Two hours northeast of Cabo San Lucas, I pull into a gravel drive. And my host, the long-haired New Zeal, Jonathan Skeels, greets me outside.
Awesome. When did you get here? Four days ago.
Okay. I've gotten to know Skeels well since our initial call, but to get to know each other better, we decided to meet up.
It's happenstance that he's here in La Ventana, Mexico, at the same time as someone else I want to meet. So he offered that I could crash at his place.
Yeah, I've got a mezzanine up here for you. Thank you so much.
Yeah, it's not much of a balcony, but the sun comes worthy of our day. La Ventana is known as one of the best locations in the world for kite surfing.
And in the distance, surfers rip through the blue ocean waves.

There's a thrill in watching them glide through the air.

That evening, we head to a sandy bar.

And mingling around fire pits, I meet a handful of travelers.

Some who say they're here on vacation.

And some who, like Skeels, are living from moment to moment, drifting through. Being here is surreal.
A place Justin Alexander would likely have visited, with the kinds of people he would hang out with, swapping stories, or making adventurous plans to spearfish or surf the next day. For the first time, I can imagine what it must have been like to be him.
I mean, motorcycles is what connected all of us, but we weren't really what you'd call motorcycle guys. We were just kind of Peter Pan fuck-off sort of guys that wanted to feel freedom.
This is Justin Chatwin. He claims to be a full-time drifter, but what he's best known for is his acting work, namely playing the character Jimmy slash Steve in the series Shameless.
This idea of just nomadism, like let's just live for today and wherever we end up tonight,

we'll get a hotel and then tomorrow we worry about tomorrow. Yeah.
And we all got caught up in this, what if we never came home? I mean, we talked about it, but it wasn't like... Well, Johnny, you actually did it.
You like never really went home. As Chatwin mentioned, he, Skeels, and Justin Alexander

connected over their shared love of nomadism and motorcycles.

Although Skeels and Chatwin stay in touch,

they actually haven't seen each other in a while.

In fact, the last time they were together was in 2016,

when they learned Justin Alexander was missing. Both of us didn't know him.
He was an acquaintance of mine. He wasn't even a friend.
Would you call him a friend? No. You'd call him an acquaintance? He was an acquaintance, like a guy who was like, oh, cool, definitely possibility of becoming friends.
Yeah, that's true. I would completely agree with that.
Chatwin says he first crossed paths with Justin Alexander in May 2015

while motorcycling in the Mojave Desert.

They kept in contact through Instagram

and eventually reconnected at a party in Big Sur.

And he was kind of, he was pretty quiet in crowds.

Didn't say much, but really good one-on-one.

And the ladies loved him.

And the ladies loved him.

After that party, Chatwin remembers leaving with Justin. We got gassed together, and then I said, see you later.
And when I left, I felt really sad. I don't know, I felt, it was almost like I felt sorry for him.
Like I felt like he was really lonely and wanting companionship and wanting a friend. And that was the last time you saw him? I think that was the last time I saw him.
Yeah, I was like looking forward to getting to know him more, but hung out with him maybe four times. Me once? Yeah.
You know, people often ask me why I went, you know, why did I drop everything to go do it? Because I him that one night That's the only time I remember I hadn't had the deep conversations like Justin had but I had observed the nature of the man and I was impressed and And so yeah, I I decided that I'd be disappointed in myself if if I didn't go it just didn't seem very dangerous to me until Johnny got there and kind of,

he texted me like a few things.

You sounded traumatized.

Oh, really?

And dark.

And I was like, oh, this is serious.

It's all a bit of a blur. I mean, those days were pretty intense,

the first couple months in India.

I was always getting the half-truce out of Linda

and then had one epic blow up with her.

I was like, Linda, I need all the information this time,

not just the parts that you want me to hear.

Because I'm out here going in front of the police

Thank you. had one epic blow up with her, like, Linda, I need all the information this time, not just the parts that you want me to hear.

Because I'm out here going in front of the police,

and if it turns out that, you know,

something Yeltsa Ward was going on,

they could put me in jail.

And then, so what did she give you?

You know, for a long time she held out that he was carrying these vials of LSD.

Justin's father also mentioned the LSD vials. But this knowledge was never shared with the police or media.
What was reported is that Justin had two backpacks, one which he took on the trek and is missing. The other was found at a guest house in Kalga.
What was in the bag? Well, so in his bag was just like regular little bits of clothes, like his, you know, medical kit, survival stuff, his passport and his credit card. And before I even got there, I was in contact with Chris, and, you know, Chris cryptically told me that there was like a kilo of hash in his bag.
A kilo of hash is 2.2 pounds. That's a significant amount.
I told him, you got to get rid of that. Because that would have immediately become the focus.
And I needed the full support of the local police in conducting the search. So I told Chris, I said, just make that disappear.
But was he, Justin wasn't short on money, was he? He wasn't flush. So I don't think he was trafficking.
I think he had purchased advantageously and was, you know, selling it to other travelers just to fund his travels. Oh, you think he was selling, huh?

Well, he reportedly had two vials of LSD and one had dried up.

And he was upset about that.

And then he had like 120 tabs of Viagra.

Justin wrote online that he planned to travel more after India and possibly the rest of 2016.

So carrying medical supplies in bulk wouldn't be unusual. But 120 pills of Viagra? That's a striking number.
Yeah, I question why he had it. I mean, you know, maybe he was selling that too.
I don't know. I don't know.
I've traveled a lot and I've always said if you're looking for trouble and you're mixing in kind of darker worlds, you're gonna find it. And it just sounds like that whole drug culture in India, it just seemed shady.
99.9% of the people that go to the valley as drug tourists aren't doing what he did. He was really testing his physical skills.
It wasn't all about a drug trip. These two debate theories for what feels like hours.
And I take a step back to just listen, as Skeels seems to be revealing details that he hadn't previously shared with me. It's then that Chatwin asks Skeels his thoughts on what really happened, and I'm left stunned.
I'm confident that he's murdered. What's that? I'm pretty confident that he's murdered.
The reason why is what kind of gets me. Well, I'm confident that he was murdered.
What's that? I'm pretty confident he was murdered. The reason why is what kind of gets me.
Well, okay, so this barbara probably lived on like $100 a month. So if you suspect, you know, the foreigner has a few hundred dollar bills in his pocket, he's got a phone, he's got maybe some other valuables.
But why Justin then? Like, you could pick an easier target. The weakest link could have killed Goliath on this corner.
Just the one place where you'd be walking behind someone and you'd just tap them, and they would have gone right over it and not be able to self arrest. And when the barber is questioned, he wouldn't have one story and change the story or get back and not report the fact that the guy was missing.
Right? Maybe they're afraid that they'll be blamed for his murder. Yeah.
Yeah, I didn't necessarily consider that, just because of how shifty the guy was. The guy getting hung out of nowhere in the jail cell makes you go, there's something else.

Like that's what makes me go,

yeah, maybe there is something more.

Did you guys interview other Babas that knew him?

That Baba?

Yeah, everyone spoke badly about him.

He was the bad Baba.

Why would Justin pick that Baba

to go into the mountains with?

He was the guy that he had struck up a relationship with.

Trusting the wrong people?

Yeah, trusting the wrong people again.

I don't dismiss Skiels' theory.

His assessment is the closest thing we have to a possible motive for murder.

The problem is, as Chatwin just demonstrated, it can be easily challenged.

In an attempt to open the conversation and try to hear their thoughts on other scenarios, I ask if either of them believes Justin could still be alive. I mean, one of the hashtags that he used a lot was live your legend, you know? The whole thing of creating your own legend is Definitely something that he was playing with.

He wouldn't have done this to his mother.

He had such a tight connection with his mother.

But haven't you ever had that thought of just,

what if I just could get away from everyone and everything

and just one day just start over as a new person

without all my old shame and old feelings and just recreate myself. I fucking have had that thought.
What if you actually did it? I don't know. More and more it just seems like a bit of a story of drug addiction gone bad.
But I don't mean just drug addiction. I mean like addiction to escape, addiction to fantasy, not wanting to feel your pain, not wanting to be who you are.
And Instagram provides a perfect platform for the whole world to do that. Yeah, that's so true.
And then you can trick the whole world into thinking you're somebody you're not. And then all of a sudden you wake up one day and you're like, who's this character I've been playing? And I relate to that because I'm an actor.
I put on roles sometimes. And I'm like, why am I feeling all these feelings? I mean, in a way, we all play parts.
And eventually it's really easy to get caught up in fantasy. And I think that's a form of addiction.
And if you're constantly needing things outside yourself to be okay, you can get into a little bit of trouble. I think the thing that we all have in common is that we all are kind of discontent with the lives that we live and the world we live in, and we want more so we we look outside into the world of being like well maybe maybe Buddhism works or maybe living in India for a bit worker you know if I become a kite surfer in La Ventana you know maybe that's it so we're curious and you seek and and there is a really amazing element of Justin that was that side too.
He was just trying to be a better man. Yeah.
What do you think? What do I think? To be honest, I really don't know. When I look at the facts, this is what I'm certain of.
Justin was hiking down from Montalai Lake in early September with Babur Awat and Anil Kumar. On his way down, he passed by a group of hikers who took a photo with him.
His two LSD vials, iPhone, and hiking backpack were never recovered. In the backpack that was found, he had a kilo of hash and 120 tabs of Viagra.
And his flute, butane lighter, backpack rain cover, headband, scarf, and umbrella were found off the side of the hiking trail. To make any conclusion, I need more evidence.
And the only person I know who has some, I happen to be rooming with. All right, so I know what you said before was like, you're thinking was that like, the company doesn't stop, right? Yeah.
I return with Jonathan's skills to his La Ventana apartment.

I understand, like, that could be a possibility, but, like, why not just steal it from him, right?

Did you see?

We continue to talk possibilities, and to heat up the debate, I poke holes at his murder theory.

I think you've got to contemplate how remote this area was. Sure.
You know, there was going to be no witnesses. Yeah.
Eventually, to prove with certainty that Justin was murdered, Skeels offers to show me what I've been looking for. Such a remote, wide place.
Well, these were trekking trails.

There was one trail up, one trail down.

Yeah.

Right beside a river.

It's a glacier-fed river.

It's called the Pimpavati Trail.

He opens his laptop,

and within a drop box close to a terabyte in size,

are all the photos and videos from the 2016 search,

including the interrogations. Next time on Status Untraced.
I saw the flute. Flute, flute.
Yes. Oh my God.
So this is what I spotted here. I see the flute of the guy who is missing.

Oh god. This is the flute right?

It looks like it. It's fresh.
You can take out the search.

Oh shit! 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 Steadman and myself. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan.
Consulting producer, Jonathan Skeels. Associate editors are David Bash and Charles Rosner of GetUp.
Thank you. Heavens by Blanco White.
Mix by Cooper Skinner. Voice acting provided by Johnny Lavallee and

Teodora Rummel. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing,

and the Nord Group. As we've unlocked new photos and videos from the search for Justin Alexander,

be sure to check out our Instagram, at statusuntraced,

where we'll be sharing some of that exclusive content. 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. The shocking new true crime series, Crook County, from Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Podcasts is available now.
Binge the entire series for free on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.