The Vanishing Point: Episode 2, End of the Road

Speaker 1 You're listening

Speaker 3 to a Tenderfoot TV podcast.

Speaker 4 Ready to level up? Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun. It's free to play with no purchase necessary.

Speaker 4 Enjoy hundreds of online social games like Blackjack, Slots, and Solitaire anytime, anywhere, with fresh releases every week.

Speaker 4 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 4 Play Chumba Casino today. No purchase necessary, VGW Group, Voidword Prohibited by Law 21 Plus, TNCs Apply.

Speaker 5 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 5 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 5 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 5 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 5 As we prepare for a new season of Up and Vanish this January, please check out The Vanishing Point, a new series from the Up and Vanish team.

Speaker 5 This podcast is absolutely free, but if you want to listen to it ad-free, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at TenderfootPlus.com or on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 6 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast and do not represent those of Tenderfoot TV or their employees.

Speaker 6 This podcast also contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 5 I've learned a lot over the last seven years of looking into missing persons' cases. And one of the biggest takeaways I have is to follow every lead.

Speaker 5 Because you truly never know what you're going to find. In episode one, our team spoke to the family of Emily Riesling.
who disappeared.

Speaker 5 Now it's time for them to talk to other people who might have some insight into her disappearance.

Speaker 1 She stayed with me for about six to eight months before she vanished, I guess, and we just became really good friends.

Speaker 1 She's going through some stuff, but

Speaker 1 aren't we all?

Speaker 2 In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Emily was staying with her close friend Tech Wes McCovey.

Speaker 2 Tech, who was also a member of the Hoopa Valley tribe, was the first person to realize that Emily was missing.

Speaker 7 Can you walk us through the moment that you knew that Emily was missing?

Speaker 1 It had been a couple days since I'd seen her. I usually am able to track her down or whatever.
She just wandered off or whatnot. And

Speaker 1 I finally asked one of my coworkers if they had seen her. They live towards the end of the road there and because the last place she was seen was down there.

Speaker 1 So anyway, my coworker told me, yeah, she had seen her down there standing on the bridge the morning before I asked, so I got off work and immediately just drove down there.

Speaker 1 I waited there probably till XB in the morning or something. She never surfaced or anything.

Speaker 1 But I mean, I always just went back down there to go look for her or wait for her to show up there.

Speaker 1 You know, must have put over like 3,500 miles in my car looking for her from White City on down to Klamath to wherever they thought she might have had a sighting.

Speaker 2 Emily vanished in October of 2021.

Speaker 2 While the Sheriff Department last placed her on Highway 169's Pequon Bridge, many of Emily's loved ones suspect she most likely went to the highway's end, a spot she visited often.

Speaker 2 This location, just 30 minutes north of Pequon Bridge, is known as the end of the road.

Speaker 7 We're going to actually go there.

Speaker 4 Yeah. What should we expect to see?

Speaker 1 Trees and a few houses and the river. It's kind of a

Speaker 1 really, really

Speaker 1 small place.

Speaker 1 The nearest door is like 30 miles from there. Everybody kind of lives up in the mountains or up the hill.
But once you get to the end of the road, there's a church and a cemetery.

Speaker 1 Right when you get to the end of the road, it'll kind of go up the hill. And there'll be a straight house where that's where the hunsuckers live.

Speaker 1 And then Frank's right on the turn right there.

Speaker 1 He lives right when you get to the end of the road.

Speaker 2 I'm Celicia Stanton. This is the vanishing point.

Speaker 8 A friend of Risling's Tech West McCovey42 has also been plagued by local whispers regarding Risling's whereabouts.

Speaker 8 Risling lived with Makobe on and off in Hoopa for around eight months before she disappeared.

Speaker 1 Everybody just kind of turned their back on her.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 she just wanted to be loved, you know? She just wanted to have somebody that's not going to judge her for the stuff that she was going through.

Speaker 2 Like we talked about in episode one, after the birth of her daughter, Emily's life began to spiral out of control.

Speaker 2 She was grappling with the effects of postpartum psychosis, a severe mental illness that affects one in 500 mothers.

Speaker 2 Unable to access the resources she needed, Emily began self-medicating. And as her friend Tech West remembers, Emily had begun surrounding herself with folks who hindered her chances of recovery.

Speaker 1 When I had first met her, some people that she were hanging out with I guess had taken her car and all her belongings that she had you know were in there and stuff and went and ditched it way out in the mountains somewhere and so she never did get it back so that was kind of a hard thing for her.

Speaker 1 Her daughter recently just gotten taken from her. She had just broken up with her baby's daddy.
He was kind of not very nice to her either. Had a lot of domestic violence, I think, there.

Speaker 2 We also heard this from Emily's mom, Judy. She felt that, in many ways, the domestic violence her daughter experienced set off a cascade of effects that isolated Emily.

Speaker 1 She was just kind of lost. I mean, you know,

Speaker 1 she needed somebody. She just felt like she was alone in the world.

Speaker 2 Tech says she wanted to make sure that Emily didn't feel alone during these hard times. But the reality was, even though there were moments of clarity, Emily's mental illness continued to decline.

Speaker 2 It all led to mounting challenges.

Speaker 1 She was in and out of trouble with the cops, or they were always kind of picking her up, or just wouldn't ever take her in. Like two times, I think they took her into a facility.

Speaker 1 She would just get right back out. But there was like several accounts of them just dropping her off of my house because they didn't really want to deal with her.

Speaker 1 You know, they were kind of tired of just having calls about her walking around.

Speaker 1 I was at the end of the road and

Speaker 1 the officer said the police force were actually like getting tired of like reporting to the calls that were about Emily. They were kind of like flipping coins on it.

Speaker 1 Like who's going to do it this time?

Speaker 2 After being spotted on the bridge, days passed with no signs of Emily. Worried, Tech launched an exhaustive search for her missing friend.

Speaker 2 In Laura's article for the Two River Tribune, Tech spoke about her efforts.

Speaker 8 Makovia spent time talking to the locals in an area called the End of the Road, just past Peck One Bridge, where Risling was allegedly last seen.

Speaker 8 McCovey believes the small group of people who live there know more than they're saying about Risling's disappearance.

Speaker 8 The folks down at the End of the Road were all acting really weird after Risling disappeared, McCovey said.

Speaker 8 She explained that she went down there to look for Risling after she failed to return to McCovey's house. I've known these people my whole life.
They're a very tight-knit community.

Speaker 8 I think everyone down there knows something, but they're not coming clean with it. They take care of each other.

Speaker 2 At the end of the road, Tech quickly gathered accounts from residents, many of who say they saw Emily around the time of her disappearance. One resident statement in particular stood out.

Speaker 1 One of the neighbor guys that lives down there, Frank, he comes over and talks to me.

Speaker 2 The End of the Road is a small community, and Frank is one of its few residents.

Speaker 2 Tech, who spoke with Frank Frank periodically about Emily's disappearance, says he initially denied even knowing Emily.

Speaker 2 It was an admission she found strange because Emily had dated Frank's son for quite some time.

Speaker 2 But then his story changed.

Speaker 1 He's telling me that Emily has walked down to the riverbar and is going to go float down to Apa Village.

Speaker 2 Apa is a small village located next to the Klamath River, a place the locals have deemed a spiritual ground. Its isolation means the only way to get there is by boat or river float.

Speaker 1 I was like, well, that's not good because she would do that. She was always at the river.
Like when she'd be upset, she'd just go down there and haul her around.

Speaker 1 That's where she would go when she needed to get a reset or like some kind of clarity. She'd just go down by the river and talk to the water.
The river at that time was not very safe at all.

Speaker 1 And so I got back to sales service and I contacted her mom and I was like, I think we need to report her missing because these guys are all saying they seen her down there two days ago, but she had apparently walked off down the river with no clothes on, no shoes on,

Speaker 1 and was heading towards Ottawa Village.

Speaker 1 Frank told me the last time he seen her was down at the river bar throwing rocks into the water. And he said, well, we asked her.
And I was like, so we, who's this, like, you and...

Speaker 1 who else you know like who's the other person that you're speaking of when you say we asked her this or you know and but they're pretty tight-knit community they all kind of acted funny i mean from how i know them to be you know i don't know it felt like to me like they were hiding something

Speaker 1 have you spoken to frank lately not like recently i mean i've seen him you know periodically here and there and stuff and it's kind of weird because as soon as i said that you know you might want to talk to him about emily he just starts crying

Speaker 1 and said starts talking these

Speaker 1 I don't know, he said that her spirit had visited him in jail while he was in there and just a bunch of other things like didn't make no sense to me but he just really gets really emotional about it

Speaker 2 according to tech getting a straight answer was hard but she kept following every lead

Speaker 1 next thing i heard you know somebody sighted her down in climate she i was like that was kind of crazy for her to be able to make it from point a to point b within just a less than a day you know walking especially, barefoot with no apparel on.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 so anyway, I ripped over to Klamath and investigated all around there, you know, talked to people that I could and asked if they'd seen her, and it turned out it wasn't her.

Speaker 1 I have several theories, but then after talking to everybody and like their different sightings and their different stories,

Speaker 1 I don't, I kind of think something bad might have happened with her and they're just all trying to cover it up.

Speaker 1 We had like a deal. I was like, if you're just taking off or whatever, at least you're gone more than two days, contact me.

Speaker 1 And you know, if you need me to come pick you up or anything, bring you clothes or something, just call me and I'll come do it.

Speaker 1 If she would have made it somewhere, she would have contacted me.

Speaker 7 Do you think there's foul play involved in Emily's disappearance?

Speaker 1 I don't know. There's like several different things.

Speaker 1 Like I found her purse belongings and stuff like scattered about the road down there in one area.

Speaker 1 It was a little bit after somebody said they had stopped and helped her out of the road. And I was like, was she just laying in the road? And they said, yeah, she was kind of just laying there.

Speaker 1 She had her sweatshirt kind of pulled over her face and they thought that she was dead or whatever. And if that were the case, then she looked like she needed help.
Why didn't you give her a ride?

Speaker 1 And it's like, oh, she didn't want to get in the car. She just wanted to head back down towards the end of the road.

Speaker 1 what purse belongings did you find in the road well it wasn't too much there was just like little uh little things of makeup they were all smashed and like ran over and stuff i knew it was her um her purse belongings because there was um itinerary for my uncle's funeral that she always packed around with her do you think somebody knows i think yeah definitely some somebody knows something more than they're saying you know

Speaker 7 do you think more than one person

Speaker 1 yeah i i do

Speaker 5 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 because with shopify turning your idea into something real has never been easier.

Speaker 5 Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, including 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.

Speaker 5 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 5 Design your website, manage inventory, handle customer service, even global shipping. Tight marketing budget?

Speaker 5 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 5 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 5 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 5 Turn those what ifs into wins and keep giving those big dreams the best shot with Shopify.

Speaker 5 Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash up and vanished that's shopify.com slash up and vanished

Speaker 3 the holidays are here and wow they're busy it's easy for your wellness goals to slip that's why i rely on broons to stay on track they're a daily snack pack of gummies that's more than a multivitamin a greens gummy or prebiotic it's all of that at a fraction of price and the best part they taste amazing 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 3 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 3 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, gr-u-n-s.co-o.

Speaker 9 Y'all, the holidays are approaching. The air is crisp and cozy.
Polished layers have never felt more essential. That's why I'm loving Quints this season.

Speaker 9 Their sweaters, outerwear, and everyday essentials feel luxurious, look timeless, and make holiday dressing and gifting so effortless. I've been living in their silk slip dress and cashmere layers.

Speaker 9 They've become my go-to for holiday gatherings, errands, and everything in between. The layered look is the best.

Speaker 9 Step into the holiday season with layers made to feel good, look polished, and last from Quince. Perfect for gifting or keeping for yourself.

Speaker 9 Go to quince.com/slash vanishedweekly for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too.

Speaker 9 That's q-u-in-ce-e.com/slash vanished weekly to get free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/slash vanished weekly.

Speaker 1 So, hello, my name is Gregor Rourke. I'm from the villages of Morak, Nashko, and Kepo.
It's along the Klamath River. I am the chief of police for the Yurok Tribal Police Department, and I am also a

Speaker 1 member of the Yurok tribe.

Speaker 2 As a Yurok citizen with 23 years of law enforcement experience, Chief O'Rourke has deep ties to his community.

Speaker 2 And while tribal police functions vary nationwide, Chief O'Rourke's force is cross-deputized with Humboldt County.

Speaker 2 This means that in addition to enforcing tribal law, Yurok police may also enforce state law.

Speaker 4 So it sounds like you being native helps build trust with the families.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 I'm not just a native police officer, but a person who's grown up, you know, being part of our culture and then moving into law enforcement.

Speaker 1 One of those unofficial roles that I kind of took upon myself was to be that liaison between our native communities and law enforcement.

Speaker 1 And so based off of my own experiences, there's times that I will get cooperation from somebody by the nature of who I am.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that community is not going to give that same level of cooperation or trust to a deputy you know who's non-native.

Speaker 1 I can't tell you how many times in my career when I would respond to a scene or call for service and the person would go, oh Greg, I'm glad it's you.

Speaker 1 So I knew Emily personally.

Speaker 1 She babysit my daughters.

Speaker 1 And that Emily was the one that everyone fondly remembers. I didn't deal with Emily professionally after she started her slide, you know, into her mental health and her substance abuse.

Speaker 1 But because of her erratic behavior,

Speaker 1 the community here was becoming resentful. And

Speaker 1 I don't, I actually, I can't say that. That's speculation.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 But, you know, what I believe is that Emily was basically burning bridges and Hoopons, so she was going to a new area downriver.

Speaker 1 She needed help.

Speaker 1 I know one of the things that the family is resentful towards is when Emily was arrested, they were relieved because she was finally in a safe place.

Speaker 2 As we mentioned in episode one, shortly before her disappearance, Emily was arrested for starting a small fire in a local cemetery.

Speaker 1 They knew where she was. They were hopeful that she would get clean, get fed, and then have potential resources to help her.

Speaker 1 But from from a criminal justice standpoint, Emily didn't need jail.

Speaker 1 She didn't, that was the last thing that she needed was to be incarcerated. But there's nothing in place up here.
There's no infrastructure to be able to help address when someone's in crisis.

Speaker 1 And that's what Emily was going through. When she got arrested, she was going through crisis.

Speaker 2 Chief O'Rourke expressed concern about the limited number of mental health resources available to the community.

Speaker 2 In fact, the only mental health hospital in the region is an hour away.

Speaker 2 But even if you can get there, getting in is its own challenge. The facility has only 16 beds available.
But as Chief O'Rourke told us, these challenges are often the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 1 I didn't have the resources or the capacity to be able to conduct both the investigative portion of it and a search and rescue portion of it.

Speaker 1 I elected to go with investigation and put my resources there to be able to try to track down weeds.

Speaker 1 And unfortunately, that left

Speaker 1 the, you know, the search and rescue portion on the reservation or the area that she was last seen unfulfilled.

Speaker 1 I can confirm that the last place that she was seen that we can cooperate was on Pequon Bridge. And it was a Monday, and I believe it was was October 13th.

Speaker 1 And she was seen naked on the bridge.

Speaker 2 Chief O'Rourke told us that clothes had been recovered in the area.

Speaker 2 But with the rainy weather they had had at the time of Emily's disappearance, forensic teams couldn't obtain the biological evidence needed to definitively prove the clothing was hers.

Speaker 2 With few leads remaining, the case went cold.

Speaker 1 Family and the community are result-oriented when it comes to a missing person. For law enforcement, we have to be evidence-oriented.

Speaker 1 And so we have to be able to conduct the search and the investigation with the potential of prosecution afterwards. And that's oftentimes in direct conflict with what the family's looking for.

Speaker 1 They want their loved one back. I don't blame them.
You know, and unfortunately, that's one of the things that the family just

Speaker 1 couldn't hear. And it put

Speaker 1 law enforcement kind of in the crosshairs of that misunderstanding. The sheriff's office has taken a lot of heat from the family, and I don't think it's necessarily been founded.

Speaker 1 This was a very in-depth investigation, and it spanned multi-agencies, us, the Sheriff's Office, and Hoopaha Tribal Police. So any lead that came in or any tip that came in, we followed.

Speaker 1 So it really was an issue of three law enforcement agencies working together towards the same goal, sharing information.

Speaker 2 According to O'Rourke, the investigation is still ongoing.

Speaker 1 We still try to follow any lead that could potentially open this up. What I can say is

Speaker 1 there is no indication of foul play, but we also have to consider the strong possibility that she drowned in the river. And without any indicator of foul play,

Speaker 1 then the likelihood of that possibility becomes stronger.

Speaker 4 So it sounds like you think most likely she drowned on the river and will never be able to confirm that.

Speaker 1 I don't say never. You know, there is a possibility that remains,

Speaker 1 you know, go out into to the ocean and then hit that current, that north current, and potentially upright Oregon. You know, it's definitely possible.

Speaker 1 But I pull a lot of bodies out of the Trinity River. The Trinity will tend to give her bodies back.
The Trinity is not greedy, but the Klamath is greedy. She tends to keep her bodies.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 That's why I turned to Quince. And the bonus, their pieces make gifting completely effortless.
This season, Quince keeps it smart and simple.

Speaker 5 $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like a little everyday luxury and wool coats that are both stylish and durable. Their denim fits perfectly and is insanely comfortable.

Speaker 5 and all without the high-end price. By working with ethical factories and top artisans, Quince delivers premium quality while cutting out the middlemen.

Speaker 5 So you get luxury pieces without the luxury markup. I'll be honest, I've been living in their cashmere sweaters.

Speaker 5 They're so soft, they look good, they hold up beautifully even through all the holiday chaos. Quince also has amazing options for home, bath, kitchen, and travel.

Speaker 5 If you're looking for a great one-stop shop for gifting, I'm telling you, Quince is where it's at. Give and get timeless holiday staples that last this season with Quince.

Speaker 5 Go to quince.com slash upandvanished for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too.
That's quince, q-u-i-n-ce-e.com slash upandvanished.

Speaker 5 Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash up and vanished.

Speaker 5 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 5 The old-school systems only respond after a break-in, but SimplySafe's active guard, outdoor protection, can stop a crime before it even starts.

Speaker 5 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 5 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 5 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 5 Right now, our listeners can save 60% off a SimplySafe home security system. Just go to simplysafe.com/slash UAV pod.
That's simply safe.com/slash UAV pod. There's no safe like SimplySafe.

Speaker 5 248 received.

Speaker 5 Patrol check. 100 bucks plane, 800, 60 bottom.
105 planes, 200, 600.

Speaker 5 Sorry, want to hear that call?

Speaker 2 The rumors about the last place Emily Risling was seen seem never ending.

Speaker 8 The last confirmed sighting of Risling was on highway 169 on Pequin Bridge.

Speaker 4 She disappeared in a place with a lot of known convicts.

Speaker 1 Frank lives in the right when you get to the end of the road. When you see the end of the road, it's going to make you scared.

Speaker 2 Inside Chief O'Rourke's squad car, our team began the hour and a half long drive down Highway 169 to Pekwan Bridge. It was time to see the end of the road for themselves.

Speaker 10 Can you imagine driving this, Jamie, just regularly? It's beautiful.

Speaker 2 The narrow road twists through the mountains and trees, the Klamath River occasionally peeking through. The forest feels both breathtaking and ominous.
This road, it turns out, is the only way in

Speaker 2 and the only way out.

Speaker 10 Can you tell us a little bit about the river and like how rough it is?

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, as pretty as the Trinity is and as the Klamath is, it's, you know, it's water. Water is a very, very powerful thing.
The river is very powerful.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 with the rocky river bottom and the

Speaker 1 wooded terrain, there's a lot of strainers.

Speaker 2 If you're unfamiliar with river strainers, think of them as a snag in a river's flow, like a fallen tree or clump of debris.

Speaker 2 River water and small objects will tend to filter through, but large items, they'll clutter in the snag, creating a perilous trap.

Speaker 1 And people end up getting a foot entrapment or get caught up in a strainer. And if you don't respect that river, it will take you.

Speaker 2 Our team ventures deeper into the woods. The distance between houses growing as the minutes pass.

Speaker 1 Do people live out here? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. It's a small community.

Speaker 1 And in regards to Emily,

Speaker 1 I think oftentimes people in the downriver community kind of get a little bit offended at some of the implication that's been going around of people downriver you know hiding Emily.

Speaker 1 How in the world did Emily get here?

Speaker 1 Probably hitchhiked or walked.

Speaker 10 Would that be common to walk this?

Speaker 1 Yeah, actually it is.

Speaker 1 You wouldn't think it, but you know quite a few people will still walk the roads.

Speaker 10 So is there any idea of what Emily would have been walking or hitchhiking down here for?

Speaker 1 Don't know, and we haven't been able to kind of uncover that. What we do know, though, based off of her prior behavior, is that she would often camp out on the river bar,

Speaker 1 you know, as part of her transient

Speaker 1 lifestyle.

Speaker 2 Just then, Chief O'Rourke pulls to a stop.

Speaker 1 Peckwan Bridge.

Speaker 2 Pekwan Bridge.

Speaker 2 Pequon Bridge is a stretch of steel connecting one side of the valley to the other. Against one of the railings, a weather-beaten flyer clings to the metal.
It's a missing persons poster.

Speaker 2 Emily, her hair a choppy brown, smiles up from the paper. In bold print, it lists a $20,000 reward for information on her disappearance.

Speaker 1 So this is the bridge that we can confirm where she's at, standing in the the middle of the bridge, naked.

Speaker 10 And who's the person that can place her on the bridge?

Speaker 1 The school bus, the whole bus.

Speaker 7 The whole bus saw her standing here.

Speaker 1 Standing on the bridge.

Speaker 10 In the middle of the bridge, the side of the bridge?

Speaker 1 On the side of the bridge.

Speaker 10 Must have been cold.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 2 The Trinity River meets the Klamath River under Pequon Bridge. a dividing point between what feels like two worlds.

Speaker 2 On the Trinity side, the water looks shallow and rocky. The Klamath, on the other hand, is dark and murky.
You cannot see the bottom, and it flows much faster.

Speaker 2 The unsettling truth is that on this side of the bridge, there's no way to tell if anything might be stuck under the rushing current.

Speaker 1 So this is a pretty high flow right here. So, you know, there's a lot of water coming down.
It's coming down fast.

Speaker 1 And you can see just, you know, like those willows and the trees just kind of hanging down.

Speaker 1 if you get caught up in that and the weight of the water is pushing on you especially with this type of you know strength I mean if you can't bench 300 pounds You're not gonna be able to push yourself off against your strainer.

Speaker 4 Yeah, this looks pretty powerful.

Speaker 1 It is powerful Could someone get swept away in this? Oh easily very easily

Speaker 7 Someone else says that to her. Maybe she floated downriver.
What does that mean?

Speaker 7 So

Speaker 1 I mean if I'm up and you know around there, you know float downriver to get here.

Speaker 9 What would people float on?

Speaker 1 Inner tube, freaking board. In October?

Speaker 1 Well, yeah. You know, cold wouldn't be smart, but it's possible.
You know, hypothermia would set in pretty quickly. I mean, the odds are, you know, she didn't do that.
But.

Speaker 4 Did people say that she looked like she was wet or anything when they saw her?

Speaker 1 No, not on the bridge. You know, a couple statements from the community people is that she was going to go down to a village further down a river, you know, by river.

Speaker 1 And she was very adamant about that.

Speaker 7 Do you know how long after she was spotted on the bridge your officer was able to respond? The next day.

Speaker 1 So it was on a Monday, and so the next two days he was down in this area looking for her.

Speaker 1 Again, the last known spot that we can confirm was here, but yet a couple miles down the road is where she was last reported seen, and that's where the family wanted us to do a search. But

Speaker 1 we just

Speaker 1 it's just too far, too big of a stretch to be able to do that search with our limited capacity here in the county.

Speaker 2 Our team sets course for the end of the road, but before they leave, something on the bridge catches their attention.

Speaker 10 All right, guys, ready?

Speaker 1 Greg, did you see this graffiti on the

Speaker 2 written on the bridge are messages, some of which feel like echoes of teenage rebellion. But then there are other messages, ones that carry a much more haunting tone.

Speaker 1 Isn't that a tribute to her? Did you see this one? Oh, I think this one says Emily.

Speaker 4 What's it say?

Speaker 8 That bitch you'll always miss.

Speaker 2 Just 30 minutes down road, the blacktop abruptly ends.

Speaker 1 So now we're at the end of the road. So you talked about, you know, the paved road.
See, it just goes right into a driveway.

Speaker 1 And so this is one of the houses that Emily was, you know, reported to stay to have stayed at. The people that live here came across her naked and brought her in and gave her clothes and food.

Speaker 4 And what facility is this right here?

Speaker 1 This is the firehouse, the Yurok Tribes firehouse. And this is where we had our operational center for the search.

Speaker 1 Frank

Speaker 1 So this is the river

Speaker 1 and then right down here is that Ploxelle Road and this can go all the way down into Klamath.

Speaker 1 So this is also a potential route that she may have went but it didn't fit within what her prior pass was by the river.

Speaker 1 So we operated out of this building for three days and then rotated out 10 different dog teams to be able to conduct the search.

Speaker 1 You know, obviously we can't go into private property, but we can bring the dogs around Curtilage to see if they pick up any type of remains.

Speaker 2 Chief O'Rourke is referring to the search that was funded by the John Francis Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to wilderness safety education and search and rescue operations.

Speaker 2 After months without answers, the John Francis Foundation stepped in and offered their services to the Risling family.

Speaker 2 During that search, cadaver dogs hit on decomposition in an area where someone had died from an accident years back. But there were no other hits for Emily.

Speaker 2 Get it, we're good, let's do it.

Speaker 2 At the end of the road, there's a broken down trailer on the riverbed. Across from it is another trailer.
This one with smoke spewing from the chimney. Someone is home.

Speaker 2 A gate surrounds the property, and an old blue payphone sits at the entrance. And maybe it's never had service.
We'd heard that this area had only gotten access to electricity recently.

Speaker 2 There's also a rusted, broken-down truck and a few dogs running around.

Speaker 7 Wait, are you knocking on Frank's door?

Speaker 1 No, I don't want to.

Speaker 2 Now that we're here, the team is a little hesitant to just go knocking on doors, particularly after some of the rumors they've heard.

Speaker 1 You don't want to?

Speaker 1 It's right there.

Speaker 7 Oh, I think one or two people could go over there and it wouldn't be too intimidating.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think that, I just don't think it's appropriate for all of us to be.

Speaker 2 Well, we would not walk up there with all of us.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't go either. If you wanted to knock on there, we're here.
He's not going to do anything.

Speaker 7 Yeah. All right.
We're going.

Speaker 2 Laura from the Hoopa Paper and Jamie from our team volunteer to go. They walk up the driveway through a maze of old machinery and abandoned items.
A few res dogs greet them on the creaky porch. porch.

Speaker 2 Looks dirty enough to.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 7 Hey Frank, it's Laura the journalist.

Speaker 5 There were a lot of rumors swirling around about Emily's disappearance. And with his inconsistent statements, Frank was at the center of many of them.

Speaker 5 What did he really know about Emily's disappearance? If anything at all? That answer needed to come from him.

Speaker 5 Next time, on the vanishing point.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of stories connection with the illegal marijuana industry that was for years people would go missing, and that was almost an accepted fact.

Speaker 1 I've

Speaker 1 I've heard a lot of things about my mom's disappearance and everything

Speaker 1 has ended with murder. And those stories are hard to hear.

Speaker 1 And what's even more crazy is that person whoever did it is probably someone we know. We all know here.

Speaker 1 And they're just walking around.

Speaker 5 Thanks for listening to this episode of The Vanishing Point. This six-part series is released weekly, absolutely free.

Speaker 5 But if you want to listen to it ad-free, subscribe to Tinderfoot Plus at TinderfootPlus.com or on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 5 The Vanishing Point is a production of Tinderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Celicia Stanton is our host.

Speaker 5 The show is written by Meredith Stedman, Alex Vespested, and Jamie Albright, with additional writing assistance by Celicia Stanton. Executive producers are Donald Albright and myself Payne Lindsey.

Speaker 5 Lead producer is Jamie Albright, along with Meredith Stedman. Editing by Alex Vespested.

Speaker 5 Additional editing by Sidney Evans.

Speaker 5 Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional production by Laura Frader and Allie Hostler.
Research by Laura Frader and Taylor Floyd. Artwork by Byron McCoy.

Speaker 5 Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Mix by Dayton Cole.
Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group.

Speaker 5 And a special thanks to Greg O'Rourke, the KIDE 91.3 radio station in Hoopa, the Two Rivers Tribune, and all of the families and community members that spoke to us.

Speaker 5 For more podcasts like The Vanishing Point, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit us on our website at tenderfoot.tv.

Speaker 5 Thanks for listening.

Speaker 11 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 11 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 6 Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.