Small Town, Big Secrets — Talina Zar E2

Transcript

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets, and kids.

Speaker 5 But with Anibay, you never have to stress about messes again.

Speaker 2 At washablesofas.com, discover Anibay Sofas, the only fully machine-washable sofas inside and out, starting at just $699.

Speaker 2 Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics, that means fewer stains and more peace of mind.

Speaker 2 Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers, allowing you to refresh your style anytime.

Speaker 5 Need flexibility?

Speaker 2 Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes.

Speaker 4 Plus, they're earth-friendly and built to last.

Speaker 2 That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch.

Speaker 5 Upgrade your space today.

Speaker 2 Visit washable sofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washable sofas.com.

Speaker 4 Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Speaker 6 There's a lot going on in Hollywood.

Speaker 7 How are you supposed to stay on top of it all?

Speaker 8 Variety has the solution.

Speaker 11 Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.

Speaker 14 Where do you see the business actually heading?

Speaker 16 Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

Speaker 19 The only constant in Hollywood is change.

Speaker 21 Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now.

Speaker 22 This is Andrea Gunning from Betrayal.

Speaker 3 Are there two sides to every story?

Speaker 22 Academy Award nominee Robin Wright stars in The Girlfriend on Prime, September 10th, a psychological thriller that will make you question everything.

Speaker 22 Laura has the perfect life and a son she'd die for. But when he brings home his new girlfriend Cherry, played by Olivia Cook, Something feels off.

Speaker 22 Also starring Laurie Davidson, The Girlfriend is a twisted game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems. Don't miss The Girlfriend, streaming exclusively on Prime September 10th.

Speaker 3 Sometimes the truth is just a matter of perspective.

Speaker 24 Look, school is starting and I'm just a kid. And let's be honest, I'm not gonna shop for myself.
But we can get up to 40% off back to school essentials on Uber Eats.

Speaker 24 Did I mention I need poster board for my science fair, lunch for my field trip, and unlined note cards for my history quiz tomorrow?

Speaker 23 Or were they lined?

Speaker 24 Anyway, Uber Eats has like all the back-to-school stuff on there. So come on, let's order now on Uber Eats and get up to 40% off.

Speaker 23 We're cool, right? Cool.

Speaker 25 Not literally everything. Promotion ends 916.
It is subject to change or cancellation. Exclusions may apply.
Check out for availability.

Speaker 26 This episode mentions suicide. Please take care while listening.

Speaker 15 Little towns have their skeleton. I mean, they're not without.

Speaker 26 Greg Thompson is 53 years old and has lived within a 45-minute drive of Wagner, Oklahoma, his entire life.

Speaker 15 Wagner is a small town. I don't even remember what the population is here, right offhand.
I want to say 3,000 to 5,000 people or something, but that could be totally off.

Speaker 26 I looked it up. It's about double that, 8,000.
Still small. A place where everyone kind of knows everyone and neighbors act neighborly.
When Greg meets Talina, she's a recent transplant to the area.

Speaker 15 Outsiders don't normally take interest

Speaker 15 in what here. With Talina not being from the area, that made her even more special in my opinion.

Speaker 26 Greg became friends with Talina because he's the guy you call when you've got odd jobs that need doing.

Speaker 15 She hired me for like candyman stuff like mowing and weed eating and hanging TVs and just all kinds of handyman type stuff.

Speaker 26 In early 2020, before COVID shuts the world down, Talina is on the hunt for the perfect mattress to help her troubled sleep.

Speaker 26 This turns out to be a tedious task for the 53-year-old who buys and returns multiple mattresses in the process. But luckily, she has Greg to help her with the heavy lifting.

Speaker 15 Talina wanted to change the mattress out in her bedroom, and she got a new mattress and needed somebody to unpack it and put it on and then haul the old one off. And so I did all that.

Speaker 15 Well, a couple weeks later, she said that she didn't care for the mattress and wanted it to return. She's got another one coming.

Speaker 26 Finally, Talina finds a mattress that checks all the boxes. But now she has an extra mattress on her hands.
Luckily, she knows a family in need.

Speaker 15 She was going to gift that bed. To us, our son is like six foot one now, so like big beds are worth that for him.

Speaker 26 This is Eris Howell, another one of Talina's local friends. Eris had just closed on her very first house.
Talina had guided guided her through the process, emotionally and sometimes even financially.

Speaker 26 In fact, the bed was just one of many things Talina offered to help make Eris' new house a home.

Speaker 15 She was a part of the reason why we were able to get utilities turned on, new lock, new light.

Speaker 15 She had been saving up a nashtag for us ever since I told her that we were starting a process to buy a house.

Speaker 15 I can't even put a name to all the kitchen appliances and trinkets and items that she's put in our house and added to our lives the way she did.

Speaker 26 As COVID hits Oklahoma, Eris doesn't get to see her friend very often. Talina has rheumatoid arthritis and other health issues that make contracting the virus a real concern.

Speaker 15 She was immunocompromised, so she was taking it very, very seriously.

Speaker 26 But Talina still wants to hand off the mattress, as she promised. And so on Friday, March 27th, Talina texts Eris to organize a pickup.

Speaker 15 She was checking to see if we were coming to get to bed this weekend. That next morning, the 28th, I got a message to sent.

Speaker 28 Abort mission. I've got a terrible migraine.
I've been staying in bed today.

Speaker 15 I said, okay.

Speaker 29 Ouch.

Speaker 26 A few days go by. Having not heard from her friend, Eris checks in.

Speaker 15 On the third, I messaged her that I hope you're feeling better. I was wanting to know if I could drop my gifts and

Speaker 28 the porch and making the dogs bark because I'm sleeping a lot.

Speaker 15 I said, that's okay, maybe another time.

Speaker 26 This is her last exchange with Tolina before she goes missing.

Speaker 26 From iHeart Podcasts, I'm Melissa Joltson, and this is what happened to Talina Czar.

Speaker 28 Hey everyone, I'm on day nine of this virus, and I am pretty sure it has reached my lungs.

Speaker 26 For her to just leave people with no way of contacting her and knowing if she was alive or dead was strange to me.

Speaker 15 There were a lot of secrets that were very hard to find, and no one wanted to talk about anything.

Speaker 27 I'm a really nosy person, so that's how I got caught up in all this.

Speaker 26 I was like, this is this is crazy.

Speaker 26 Episode two:

Speaker 26 Small Town, Big Secrets.

Speaker 15 She wanted to help anybody and everybody.

Speaker 26 This is Greg, the local handyman in Wagner.

Speaker 15 She helped us volunteer picking up trash a few times.

Speaker 15 I'd heard of her giving food to people that needed it or giving them little jobs to do like me. You know, she

Speaker 15 knew that I needed something to do, so she'd give me jobs and she had other people that would, you know, do little odd jobs for her or somebody to move through the area from bigger towns and just take in the interest in what's going on here and

Speaker 15 trying to help people that live here that made impression on me.

Speaker 26 When Talina moved to Wagner, Oklahoma in late 2016, she did it with her partner Tom.

Speaker 26 They left their longtime home in Indianapolis and purchased a brown ranch house in Whitehorn Cove, a lake community near the border of Arkansas.

Speaker 26 From the outside, the home is rustic-looking, cozy, private, set back from the road and nestled among the tall trees.

Speaker 26 It's not easy to move to a totally new place when you're in your 50s and beyond, but the couple had their reasons for choosing Wagner of all places.

Speaker 26 One being they had a group of friends who were already established there, like Eris Howe.

Speaker 15 She could be exactly the person that she was here,

Speaker 15 and

Speaker 15 was a little weird, a lot silly, a little queer. Oklahoma had all the people who brought out the best of those aspects in her.

Speaker 26 The two women were several decades apart. And Eris looked up to Talina like a big sister.

Speaker 15 He always left you kind of enraptured by what she was saying because she had a unique way of telling stories. She had a very dry wit.

Speaker 26 And it helped that they shared the same offbeat sense of humor. Eris told me about one time Tolina was giving her some spices from her pantry that she no longer needed.

Speaker 15 I grabbed a bottle of dillweed and I said, oh, look, it's a bottle of my husband, the dillweed. And we laughed really hard about it.

Speaker 15 And then she snatched the bottle away from me and landed to the other room. She had a label maker.
She typed in that label, said a bottle of Jason.

Speaker 15 and I flapped it on the bottle of dillweed and handed it back. The look of absolute joy and mischief in her face when she handed me that bottle, it was like sharing the best secret.

Speaker 15 And we both fell apart in laughter.

Speaker 26 To her friends, Talina was not only kind, generous, and hilarious, she was also super smart. Here's Greg again.

Speaker 15 She was a self-proclaimed computer nerd. I called her my own little hacker.

Speaker 26 Talina was a techie and a good one. She worked on Microsoft products, fixing code errors that no one else could solve.

Speaker 15 My wife was going to school at the time for her bachelor's and didn't know anything about PowerPoint presentations and, you know, Microsoft Office and all these things.

Speaker 15 And Talina had worked for Microsoft and she'd wrote some of these programs. So she saw another opportunity to help my wife.

Speaker 15 And she started helping her with these presentations and showed her how to do it herself and things like that.

Speaker 15 If she felt like like she could help you out of the hole you're in, she was, here's all in.

Speaker 26 Talina was helpful to her community and also devoted to her partner, Tom. The two had been together for more than a decade.

Speaker 15 They had one of those bonds that, you know, everybody could aspire to. You could see, you could just look at them in a glance the way they looked at each other.

Speaker 15 They were young fool anytime they looked at each other.

Speaker 26 But Talina wasn't a homebody.

Speaker 26 She traveled a lot for work, often swinging through Indiana where she and Tom used to live and some of her extended family remained.

Speaker 26 And then

Speaker 26 while she was on one of those routine trips, the unthinkable happened.

Speaker 15 They both moved here and then like

Speaker 15 not even, I don't even think it was a year later, Tom had a stroke while she was away on work.

Speaker 15 And when she came back from work,

Speaker 15 you know, they had found him on the floor. He was still alive.
He had hung on long enough for her to say goodbye.

Speaker 26 Tom was only 59.

Speaker 26 In his obituary, he was described as a 22-year veteran of the Army and an avid gun enthusiast. The family asked that in lieu of flowers, well-wishers could donate to his favorite charity.

Speaker 26 for love of dogs.

Speaker 15 I remember after Tom and Taft and we went over to her house for the memorial.

Speaker 15 It was an intimate gathering with probably about 20 of us. And we all kind of said a word for Tom.

Speaker 15 And you could see around the house where she left sticket that they do not move, do not touch.

Speaker 15 The general assumption was those were the last items that he had cut,

Speaker 15 and she wasn't ready for those to move.

Speaker 26 Talina was shattered by the loss.

Speaker 15 They were deeply connected and while she was

Speaker 15 able to regain

Speaker 15 her joy and find life again, it wasn't the same if she couldn't share it with him.

Speaker 26 Tom's death unmoored Talina and for a long while afterwards, she battled with a stubborn depression.

Speaker 15 Her and I actually spent a lot of phone calls together afterwards because Whenever you spend an amount of your life with somebody bouncing decisions off of of them or, you know, looking for validation for a decision, you get kind of lost.

Speaker 15 And there were a lot of times where she would call me and ask me, hey, what do you think about this? That happened a lot more after Tom had passed.

Speaker 15 I had her come afterwards and I was a little nervous.

Speaker 26 This is Kim, a hairdresser in Wagner who cut Talina's hair. She remembered Talina's first appointment after Tom passed.

Speaker 15 I had my mom, who is a widow as well, come sit and be with us so that I'd have like some backup in case it got too

Speaker 15 sad. I don't like to handle that stuff and I'm not good at saying the right words.
But we got through it. There was just a few, you know, tears that were shed.

Speaker 15 Talina, she had even asked if my mom would maybe be her roommate for a while after, you know, because my dad had passed and she was living alone too.

Speaker 15 And she had been talking about finding a roommate to share in the bills and stuff.

Speaker 26 Talina didn't like living alone in the house she'd shared with Tom. Nicole, her friend in Tennessee, remembered how Talina navigated her new role as a relatively young widow.

Speaker 26 Of course she missed him greatly and missed their life together. She was dealing with it with grace and moving on with her life the best she could.

Speaker 26 She had told me that she had taken in a roommate and

Speaker 26 that was mostly more for having someone around than necessity. It was in 2019 that Talina invited Corey Bomali, a 58-year-old woman she knew through friends, to move in with her.

Speaker 26 Corey was also in a transitional period in the middle of a divorce. I couldn't get Corey to speak to me, but from what I've learned, the two had a lot in common.

Speaker 26 They were both adjusting to life without without a partner. They were both enthusiastic pet owners, sharing a singular love for animals.

Speaker 26 And they both dabbled in pagan culture and attended local Renaissance fairs for fun.

Speaker 15 After they had moved in together, every time I cut Tolina's hair, the first thing I would say was,

Speaker 15 how's your roommate going? And she always answered, the best I've ever had.

Speaker 26 It didn't take long for Talina and Corey's lives to become intertwined. Soon enough, Corey was over at Kim's getting her own haircut.

Speaker 26 While Talina was adventurous with her hair, dyeing it different colors and even doing a perm, Corey preferred a look some might call a mullet.

Speaker 15 We'd go short on the, you know, straight across top of the ears and a little bit longer in the back. It wasn't anything that I wanted to do to her, but that's what she wanted.

Speaker 26 Corey quickly fell in with Talina's social circle too. Here's Greg again.

Speaker 15 We'd had Talina and Corey over for dinner and a couple of times went out with them. You would have thought they were best friends had hadn't known each other for a long time.

Speaker 26 Greg found a kindred spirit in Corey.

Speaker 26 She too was a handyman of sorts. Strong, industrious.

Speaker 15 From the time that I met Corey Bromley, she was somebody that you know, I could relate to. And, you know, at the time I was going through things that, you know, I could talk to her about.

Speaker 26 Corey also found unique ways to make money, like buying people's old stuff and selling it on eBay. And Greg thought maybe he could do that too.

Speaker 15 I like, you know, pilfering through stuff.

Speaker 15 I had done some other work elsewhere and accumulated a bunch of things and she was helping me, you know, kind of take inventory and possibly help me sell some of it.

Speaker 26 Talina seemed to really enjoy having a friend around too. It lifted her spirits.
Here's Eris again.

Speaker 15 Having Corey there improved her quality of life. She would go out in the yard and play with the dogs.
They would go on car rides together and just take the dogs out to the lake.

Speaker 26 While Corey's presence was a comfort, there were clues that Talina was still struggling with Tom's loss.

Speaker 26 In November of 2019, a few months before COVID hit, Talina wrote a note to her friends on Facebook entitled, Grief Etiquette. Here's a reenactment of some of that post.

Speaker 28 Over the last two years, many people have said they don't know how to interact with me RE Tom's death.

Speaker 28 The anniversary of Tom's death is approaching. I'm already struggling with that combined with lonely holidays.
What I do not need right now are unsolicited videos and pics of Tom.

Speaker 28 At At this point, it's difficult for me to concentrate on work or have pockets of happiness. If I see an unsolicited pic or video during those times, I feel like I ran flat out into a wall.

Speaker 28 It's painful. If you ask first, I can respond when I'm emotionally and physically available to reminisce.
If you post on your own feed, I can choose whether or not to surf that content.

Speaker 28 If you send me or tag me in unsolicited reminiscence, I will block you to save my sanity. Please don't slap me in the face with my grief.

Speaker 28 Thanks for hearing me.

Speaker 15 Talina was never one to let anything stew.

Speaker 15 She would face it head on and address it because, you know, sitting in silence is uncomfortable. Let's figure out what went wrong and how we can avoid it in the future.

Speaker 26 Aris described Telina as assertive and good at setting boundaries.

Speaker 28 And so in April 2020, when Talina posts on Facebook, I made the decision at the onset that if it got bad enough, I would not go to the hospital. Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time.

Speaker 26 Eris does.

Speaker 15 There were a lot of parts of her life that she kept private and we respected that. Like we love the person that she

Speaker 15 gave us

Speaker 15 every time we got to see her

Speaker 15 it did seem out of character but considering the fact that she had lost her husband not so long ago

Speaker 26 people can be consumed with grease at different times it would make sense to me quick note You've heard most of Talina's cryptic Facebook post already, but there's a few lines I withheld that mention Tom.

Speaker 26 Now that you know who he is, this will make more sense.

Speaker 28 In and out of fever and chills, with Tom just out of reach,

Speaker 28 I'm going to either beat this virus or be with Tom.

Speaker 28 I see it as a win-win situation.

Speaker 28 Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time on the lake

Speaker 28 with Tom.

Speaker 26 And this part of the post, it resonates with those who knew Talina in real life, who had witnessed her debilitating depression after Tom's death.

Speaker 26 Here again is Nicole, who saw Talina just a few weeks before she went missing. I didn't take it as her being suicidal.

Speaker 26 I just took it to mean that if she passed away from COVID, she was at peace with it because she would be with Tom.

Speaker 26 Not that she was actively licking doorknobs and trying to get COVID so that she could pass away.

Speaker 26 I took it that she was good either way. And

Speaker 26 I feel like that was true Telena fashion. You know, well, if I die, I die.

Speaker 26 There's not much I can do about it. And if I live, I'll hug you again.

Speaker 2 There's nothing like sinking into luxury. At washablesofas.com, you'll find the Anabay sofa, which combines ultimate comfort comfort and design at an affordable price.

Speaker 2 And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom, starting at only $699.

Speaker 2 The stain-resistant performance fabric slip covers and cloud-like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa.

Speaker 2 With a modular design and changeable slip covers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style.

Speaker 2 Whether you need a single chair, love seat, seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anabay has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home.

Speaker 2 Right now, you can shop up to 60% off store-wide with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Shop now at washablesofas.com.

Speaker 3 Add a little

Speaker 2 to your life.

Speaker 30 It was an unimaginable crime.

Speaker 26 It's four consecutive live terms for Brian Koberger, who killed the four four University of Idaho students.

Speaker 31 The defense are on a sinking ship. It was clear at that point he was out of options.

Speaker 30 Nearly 30 months of silence until.

Speaker 32 Bombshell development Brian Koberger appearing set to accept a plea deal just five weeks before his quadruple murder trial was set to start.

Speaker 30 No trial, no testimony.

Speaker 33 He has pleaded guilty to five criminal counts, one of burglary, and then four counts of murder.

Speaker 30 In this final season, we returned to Moscow with interviews from those still searching for answers.

Speaker 13 Why did the prosecution take this?

Speaker 33 They were holding all the cars.

Speaker 15 How on earth could you make a deal?

Speaker 9 What message does that send?

Speaker 30 Listen to season three of the Idaho Massacre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 34 From Australia to San Francisco, Cullen Jewelry brings timeless craftsmanship and modern lab-grown diamond engagement rings to the U.S.

Speaker 34 Explore solitaire, trilogy, halo, and bezel settings, or design a custom ring that tells your love story.

Speaker 34 With expert guidance, a lifetime warranty, and a talented team of in-house jewelers behind every piece, your perfect ring is made with meaning.

Speaker 34 Visit our new Union Street showroom or explore the range at cullenjewelry.com. Your ring, your way.

Speaker 26 A week before Talina disappeared, she posted about her illness on Facebook.

Speaker 28 I called my doctor and was told to stay in bed and stay hydrated and self-medicate and call back or go to the ER if my temp reaches 102. I think Oklahoma's medical system is stretched thin right now.

Speaker 28 I am thankful and grateful that I do have someone watching out for me and running the household. Back to bed.
I'm exhausted. I love you all.

Speaker 26 Talina is talking about Corey, her roommate, running the household and watching out for her. Corey had been the last person to see Talina before she disappeared.

Speaker 26 On the day Talina posted her mysterious message, Corey said she'd been out running errands and came home to an empty house.

Speaker 26 The next day, Corey posted to her own Facebook page, alerting everyone to her missing roommate and asking for help. Here's a recreation of parts of the post.

Speaker 35 I called every taxi service I could think of last Eve, and drivers don't keep records.

Speaker 35 I also called our phone carrier to try and trace or track Talina's phone and was told of an app that could do this if the phone was turned on with location services activated.

Speaker 35 As of this morning, she hasn't called home and her phone still appears to be turned off.

Speaker 35 Anyone else hears from her? Please update me.

Speaker 26 A day later, Corey posts again, this time sharing insight into what Talina's experience with COVID had been like.

Speaker 35 So this is my COVID-19 rant and the state of affairs here in rural Oklahoma. Feel free to bypass this post.
I just need to rant or I will scream.

Speaker 35 Maybe I need to do that anyway.

Speaker 35 When Talina first got a fever of 100.5, we packed up and went to the ER. We expected to be able to get her a test.

Speaker 35 A tech met us outside, questioned all of her symptoms, and sent us home without even allowing us to check in.

Speaker 35 We determined that the healthcare system, at least here in Oklahoma, was not equipped to take care of everyone with viral symptoms and would only do so if you got bad enough to probably be admitted.

Speaker 35 In looking back,

Speaker 35 I think her attitude changed on that car ride home from the ER.

Speaker 26 A few days go by.

Speaker 26 Talina's friends hear nothing and start to worry she's died of COVID alone in a remote cabin.

Speaker 26 But they also start imagining other worst-case scenarios, like Greg, who speculates that maybe Talina was abducted.

Speaker 15 When she came up missing and put this big Facebook post on there saying, I'm going to the woods to die.

Speaker 15 It didn't sound like like her. We didn't, I mean, me and my wife, we talked about it.
We live on Highway 69 and Highway 69 goes from the heart of Texas all the way into Kansas.

Speaker 15 At the time, you know, there was a lot of abductions and stuff from even Walmarts, you know, over here

Speaker 15 in our area. There was ladies picked up from Walmart for suspected sex trade type things.

Speaker 15 Me and my wife watch a lot of crime shows. We're armchair investigators over here.
I mean, we get a little lead and we follow it and it, you know, we're not trained investigators is what I'm saying.

Speaker 15 And so we just didn't know something like that could have happened to Talina.

Speaker 26 Her friends think, hope, maybe Talina will emerge over the weekend. But as Saturday and Sunday come and go, their polite respect for her privacy curdles into concern and dread.

Speaker 26 And there's consensus that the police now need to be involved.

Speaker 26 On Monday, April 13th, Corey goes to the sheriff's department, but she's told that an adult woman leaving on her own is not considered a missing person, at least not yet.

Speaker 26 Four more days pass.

Speaker 26 By Friday, Talina has still not returned, so Corey tries again. This time, time, she's able to file a missing person's report.

Speaker 26 That same day, two deputies drive out to Talina and Corey's house. Because of COVID, they play it safe and don't go inside.
Instead, they talk to Corey in the driveway.

Speaker 26 They get the basic facts, like what Talina looks like and Talina's cell phone number, which they immediately try to locate.

Speaker 26 Surveying the property, the deputies note a gray shed in front of the house and several vehicles parked in the driveway, two cars and a red truck with a trailer attached.

Speaker 26 And then they turn the case over to Detective Joel Weber, who will lead the search. A few days later, he asks Corey to come back to the station to provide more details.

Speaker 29 All right.

Speaker 29 Just got cold in here. Yeah, I'm glad I wore a sweatshirt.
I'm gonna turn this up. Okay.

Speaker 26 Now, two weeks after Talina's Facebook post, Corey arrives at the station wearing a COVID mask and gloves.

Speaker 26 We don't have a recording of the conversation, but we do have a transcript, parts of which we've recreated.

Speaker 29 Let me just get some background information from you. Sure.
And then

Speaker 29 we'll kind of go from there. And I don't want you to think that you're in any trouble because you're here.
Okay, yeah. Yeah.
And that's pretty standard.

Speaker 29 It's just normally I would have come to the house, but given the situation and all that.

Speaker 26 Detective Weber asks Corey how they met and came to live together.

Speaker 29 I've known Talina about 15 years. Okay.

Speaker 29 But we've really just become close in the last couple years since her husband died. How did you originally meet up with her? There was a festival here in Wagner, Oklahoma.
Okay.

Speaker 29 that we both attended 15 years ago and my husband and I went and met her and her husband then.

Speaker 29 She had just gotten together with him and it was actually a big weekend party.

Speaker 29 So that's how we all got to know each other first. Okay.
That's interesting.

Speaker 26 Corey explains that she moved in less than a year ago in May 2019.

Speaker 29 And the two of you get together, is it because of her husband dying that you rekindle or become closer? Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 29 I was starting to have problems with my husband and initiated a divorce and she had lost her husband and really lost an interest in living.

Speaker 29 And then we were getting to know each other better and better and it just got to the point where she asked me if I would stay with her because she couldn't be alone. Sure.

Speaker 29 And then she was having

Speaker 29 I don't think she's ever been diagnosed as bipolar, but she had really up periods and really down periods.

Speaker 29 And she didn't wanna be alone during the very down periods. Okay.
So she needed a roommate.

Speaker 26 Corey tells the detective that when she moved in, she took on a lot of responsibilities for Talina, who had been struggling with her health. Corey ran errands for her, handled the household duties.

Speaker 26 They got close fast. They considered each other their emergency contacts.
Talina even listed Corey as the executor of her estate in her will.

Speaker 26 And so when Talina got COVID, Corey went into full caregiver mode.

Speaker 29 The first thing that happened, she gets bad migraines. Okay.

Speaker 29 And she finished work on a Friday, went to bed early, woke up Saturday morning with a really bad migraine that ended up lasting two days. She pretty much stayed in bed for two days with a migraine.

Speaker 29 Okay.

Speaker 29 Monday, she's due back at work, and Monday morning, she asked me to come in and take her temperature, which I did. And she was running a 100.5.

Speaker 29 And so she stayed in bed with her temperature.

Speaker 29 I can't remember if we went that day or the next day, but she pretty much kept her temperature at

Speaker 29 100.5.

Speaker 29 So we said we better go down to the hospital. We didn't know what this is.
And so we went to the ER at Wagner here.

Speaker 29 And a tech came out and asked, you know, what symptoms she was having. And we told her that she had a migraine all weekend and now she was spiking the temperature.
Sure.

Speaker 29 And they said, go home and self-medicate and look for these signs. And he said, if your temperature goes about 101 or you start developing other problems, to call back in or come back in.

Speaker 29 So we went home and she was kind of, at that point,

Speaker 29 disheartened or kind of disgusted with things that she couldn't get any help or diagnosis or couldn't even check in.

Speaker 26 By this point, there are over 2.6 million confirmed cases of COVID globally. The U.S.

Speaker 26 leads the world and New York is the epicenter with over 250,000 cases, thousands of deaths, and hospitals beyond capacity.

Speaker 26 Oklahoma was preparing for the worst, predicting a surge in COVID cases any day now.

Speaker 29 She developed a really barking cough, and sometimes she'd start coughing and couldn't stop coughing. She was starting to wheeze a little bit.

Speaker 29 And I said, you know, we do not want you catching pneumonia.

Speaker 29 So I asked her the night before, I said, let's take you back to the emergency room. I think you're bad enough now that they will admit you.
Right.

Speaker 29 And she said no.

Speaker 29 She just wanted to spend the night in her bed with one of the pups.

Speaker 26 On the morning of April 7th, Corey says she asks again if she can take Tolina to the hospital. And Talina again says no.

Speaker 29 She asked me to go out and do a few things and give her some more time to snuggle with. She's got a little Yorkie that she likes to stay in bed with.
And she just wanted to,

Speaker 29 I don't know what she just wanted to do. Did she ask you to do something specific or just leave for a while? Yeah, she just wanted me to leave her alone for a while.

Speaker 29 I wish I had never gone and run errands that day.

Speaker 26 When Corey gets home sometime in the afternoon, she goes into Tolina's room to check on her and Talina's gone.

Speaker 26 Corey can't tell if Talina has taken clothes or an overnight bag, but her phone is missing, along with some medication

Speaker 26 and Tolina's guns.

Speaker 29 She always kept a 45 magnetized to the bottom of her bed. Okay.

Speaker 29 That was gone.

Speaker 29 And she always kept a 9mm in the car. Okay.

Speaker 29 And it was gone.

Speaker 29 She really,

Speaker 29 she gets into these places where she just

Speaker 29 wants to expire. And so she doesn't really care.
She always says, you know, I've got my DNR orders. I'm not going to let anybody, you know, intubate me or whatever.
Right.

Speaker 29 And

Speaker 29 she said,

Speaker 29 she said, it's a win-win. I get to see Tom sooner.
And she talked like that a lot.

Speaker 29 She'd have good days where she'd be really excited about her job and we'd be planning a trip. And I think, this is great.

Speaker 29 She's got a reason to live. It's all good.

Speaker 29 And then she'd say, yeah, and the first chance I get, I'm gonna check out.

Speaker 29 So she'd go really high on her job or a trip and then she'd get really down and depressed and just not want to be around. Has she ever attempted suicide that you know of?

Speaker 29 She has not. She has not ever attempted it with me and I would know.

Speaker 29 Has she talked about how she would do it if she did? Constantly. Well what what is the what's her general conversation on that? Her general conversation with me

Speaker 29 that I would know when she had done it

Speaker 29 that she had a favorite little spot that she was gonna go to

Speaker 29 and I think she was going to use a gun.

Speaker 26 Corey explains that Talina was very matter-of-fact about death. Talina had already organized her own funeral and made plans for her estate.

Speaker 29 Talina's always had an end-of-life game plan ever since Tom died.

Speaker 29 She prepaid her funeral. She planned her own music and the order of songs she was going to do.

Speaker 29 She told not just me, but I think all of her friends that you would talk to that sooner or later she was gonna go join Tom

Speaker 29 on her own time.

Speaker 26 Still, Corey says she's holding out hope that Talina is alive and offers to help Detective Weber in any way she can.

Speaker 26 He asks her to watch the mail for credit card statements and phone bills that may offer clues to her whereabouts.

Speaker 29 What's tough about the situation that we're in is that we don't...

Speaker 29 there's no

Speaker 29 there's no clear evidence that a crime was committed. So because she...

Speaker 29 Everything points to her intentionally leaving.

Speaker 29 In other words, people are free to leave on their own accord anytime they want. And just because they're missing doesn't mean anything was nefarious.

Speaker 29 There's still part of me thinking that maybe someone will just call and say she's sick somewhere.

Speaker 29 Most of me is saying that when I get that phone call, it's going to be because someone found her. I'm supposed to identify her.

Speaker 2 Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets, and kids.

Speaker 5 But with Anibay, you never have to stress about messes again.

Speaker 2 At washablesofas.com, discover Anibay sofas, the only fully machine washable sofas inside and out, starting at just $699.

Speaker 2 Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics. That means fewer stains and more peace of mind.

Speaker 2 Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers, allowing you to refresh your style anytime.

Speaker 5 Need flexibility?

Speaker 2 Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes.
Plus, they're earth-friendly and built to last.

Speaker 2 That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch.

Speaker 5 Upgrade your space today.

Speaker 2 Visit washable sofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washable sofas.com.

Speaker 31 Ready to take advantage of an incredible deal at Mazda? September is the final month of eligibility for federal $7,500 electric vehicle lease cash on the new Mazda CX70 and CX90 plug-in hybrid.

Speaker 31 All Mazda current inventory is unaffected by new tariffs. See your local Mazda dealer for details.
$7,500 electric vehicle lease cash offer expires at the end of September. Don't miss out!

Speaker 33 $7,500 lease customer cash good toward 2025 CX70 PHEV and CX90 PHEV when leasing through Mazda Financial Services.

Speaker 33 Lease customer cash can be combined with other public offers, including lease incentive offers. Lease customer cash cannot be combined with APR or other customer cash offers.

Speaker 33 Lease customer cash is not redeemable as cash or cash back option. Lease customer cash is only available on approved credit.
Not all customers will qualify for credit approval or offer.

Speaker 33 Limit one discount per customer per vehicle. Lease customer cash offer only available in the United States regardless of buyer's residency.
Void were prohibited.

Speaker 33 Apply within the lease structure as a capital cost reduction. Lease customer cash is only available on participating Mazda Dealer's current inventory, which is subject to availability.

Speaker 33 Off rents 9:30-2025, and you must take delivery prior to expiration of offer. See Participating Mazda Dealer for complete details.

Speaker 1 It's time to head back to school and forward to your future with Carrington College. For over 55 years, we've helped train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Speaker 1 Apply now to get hands-on training from teachers with real-world experience. And as few as nine months, you could start making a difference in healthcare.

Speaker 1 Classes start soon in Pleasant Hills, San Leandro, and San Jose. Visit Carrington.edu to see what's next for you.
Visit carrington.edu/slash SCI for information on program outcomes.

Speaker 26 While the cops are talking to Corey, the online sleuths have their own sprawling investigation.

Speaker 27 It was super intense. I mean, we'd stay up for hours late at night.
During the day, I was always on my phone. We were always Googling something, looking up people online, reaching out to people.

Speaker 26 Everybody had their roles. Brittany, as an Arkansas native, was trying to piece together Tolina's movements and timing.

Speaker 26 Jess was the instigator, reaching out to new contacts.

Speaker 27 I probably spent 12, 14 hours on my phone or computer talking to people a day, cold calling strangers. We tried several times to break into her email.

Speaker 27 We asked her friend, Jim, who works in IT with Tolina, if he knew her passwords and he sent them to us, passwords that he knew that didn't end up working. We talked to the neighbors.

Speaker 15 The guy across the street, i called him because he had a ring camera and we thought maybe like he's seen telina leave he said it was facing the wrong direction he didn't see anything jess and some of the other girls felt more comfortable calling and talking to people than i did i was not the person that called i was sort of the fact checker this is rosie the small business owner in ohio So if people were telling me things, I would, you know, look things up and figure things out and try to see if these stories made sense.

Speaker 15 It got really fast, really intensely fast.

Speaker 26 Talina's real life friend, Nicole, starts taking advice from Jess and the sleuths. They were like, well, why isn't there a missing poster?

Speaker 15 And I thought, well, why isn't there?

Speaker 26 And so we put together a missing poster immediately, you know, after that and a post that we could share. Being in marketing, I kicked it up.

Speaker 26 You know, I contacted a friend who has a friend that's a producer of Dateline. We started missing videos.
We put together all kinds of things. We put together a team in Wagner to do a vigil.

Speaker 26 We never let them forget the name of Talina.

Speaker 26 Meanwhile, membership of the Find Talena Czar Facebook group grows rapidly to almost 400 participants. And with the growth, some growing pains.

Speaker 26 There were some people at good intentions and some people who

Speaker 26 I question their intentions. There was a a lot of trolls.

Speaker 27 Somebody had posted that they saw Telene at a truck stop in Wyoming, just out of nowhere. Oh, we, she's working at a truck stop in Wyoming at this diner.

Speaker 27 And so I think probably 40 people reached out to this woman and she's like, hey, I'm joking. It was, that's what I would do if I was going to disappear.

Speaker 27 And it was like, why would you post something like that?

Speaker 26 The group starts off public, but obviously that's a mistake. So they change it to private.

Speaker 26 Jess and some of the other original members do admin duty, vetting new requests, approving comments, keeping things civil.

Speaker 27 Some of these people are jerks. Tempers were high.
I think a lot of that came with being stuck inside, too.

Speaker 26 Jess is a true believer in the power of the crowdsource.

Speaker 27 I watched Don't Fuck With Cats on Netflix, and those people literally stopped a serial killer.

Speaker 26 They did.

Speaker 27 The internet came together and was like, look at this room, let's draw out a map.

Speaker 26 And the investigation into Talina's disappearance was, she admits, kind of fun.

Speaker 27 I really enjoy the picking apart why and the gathering information and the talking to people and sometimes being the person that knows more than the other guy.

Speaker 26 Scheming with a bunch of strangers, laughing, brainstorming together, it also makes Jess feel connected.

Speaker 27 I think the whole world did that, didn't they? I mean, I think everybody reached out to anybody they could because we all felt so isolated.

Speaker 27 Any kind of connection you could make with somebody you kind of held on tight to it because you couldn't see most of the people in your life unless they lived with you.

Speaker 26 It's a new community, united by a common goal, find Tolina Czar. But it's hard to know just how trustworthy everyone is.
And there's a name that keeps popping up in Jess's conversations.

Speaker 26 Has she talked to Tolina's close friend, Marty?

Speaker 26 Jess gets a hold of his number.

Speaker 27 I was sitting on the side porch. I smoked at the time.
I smoked cigarettes, so I didn't smoke in my house. I have children.

Speaker 27 So I stepped outside to smoke and I just called him.

Speaker 26 Did you feel nervous about doing that? No. So I think most people would not cold call someone random whose friend just disappeared.

Speaker 27 I'm very, um, I hate to say impulsive because that's not necessarily my entire personality, but a lot of stuff, if I want to do it, I just do it. I don't know.
I'm very direct.

Speaker 27 It doesn't help me make friends.

Speaker 15 Nicole had told him that I was going to call.

Speaker 27 And so when I called, he said, oh, hey, darling, how are you? He had a very grandfatherly, southern drawl, just very approachable. And I was like, oh, this guy's not scary.

Speaker 27 He sounds like anybody's grandpa. And I just said, tell me what's going on.
And that's, he just started talking.

Speaker 26 Connecting with Marty is like hitting gold for Jess and the online sleuths because he's on the ground in Wagner looking for Talina too. And he's also been talking to the sheriff's department.

Speaker 26 For whatever reason, He's willing to share everything he has with them. He's not skeptical of a bunch of strangers doing their own investigation into Tolina's disappearance.
In fact, he welcomes it.

Speaker 26 The first big clue Marty gives them has to do with Tolina's cell phone. The detectives tell him that her phone was last used on April 7th, the same day as the Facebook post.

Speaker 27 He had told us that the phone pinged in Arkansas by Lake Mammel, and it could have pinged within a 30-mile radius.

Speaker 28 Please respect my privacy and give me my alone time on the lake.

Speaker 26 Lake Mommel is a three and a half hour drive from Wagner. Brittany, who happens to be in Arkansas, starts putting together a map.

Speaker 15 We had looked up the phone towers and stuff and I went and like screenshotted the map of the lake and then put a radius over it.

Speaker 27 So we started like going on maps and finding out what could be within a 30 mile radius of where her phone pinged and

Speaker 27 just trying to figure out where she could be, what cabins were for rent, where she could stay, what lake is over there, what tiny lake, even if it's not the big lake my mouth, there's something else, a pond, or whatever.

Speaker 28 At one of my favorite hideaways at one of my favorite lakes, and I've booked it for the remainder of this week.

Speaker 15 We had come to the conclusion that there might not have been very many Airbnbs available at the time because of COVID, because of the time of the year,

Speaker 15 and because that area that her phone had teamed in is not really like an area that people go to for vacation. Like Mom Mill is just like a business town.

Speaker 15 Like that's where people work and go to school and stuff. It's not like a vacation town.

Speaker 28 Didn't feel up to driving, so I hired a ride.

Speaker 27 We called all the Uber and Lyft hubs that we could to see if their drivers kept track. of who they would pick up because she said she hired a ride.

Speaker 26 Pretty quickly, Marty becomes their main source, a person who seems to know a lot, who's just as committed as they are to finding Talina.

Speaker 26 He goes around town passing out the missing poster, helps organize the vigil, even talks to the local press.

Speaker 15 I saw her on my birthday, which is March 26th,

Speaker 15 and then I spoke to her on the phone on the 27th.

Speaker 26 During this time, Marty and Jess are in constant communication.

Speaker 27 I mean, mean, my text messages 2.27 p.m., 3.15 p.m., same days, just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, throwing ideas at each other. It was obsessive.

Speaker 26 It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Marty likes to talk.
Jess likes to listen.

Speaker 27 He would talk and talk and talk. So he'd give us information.
He'd give us names. He would give us phone numbers.

Speaker 26 In the beginning, Jess doesn't know if she should trust Marty. And that's just her baseline.
She doesn't trust anyone before they prove themselves to her.

Speaker 26 So she's kind of pretending with Marty to get him to open up to her. She'll say whatever to make him comfortable, to get the information she wants.

Speaker 27 So all of us wear masks, right? At first it was almost like copying the way he'd talked to me. I'd talk back to him that way to try to make it so it's easier for us to communicate.

Speaker 27 And then we'd go off on little talks.

Speaker 26 Even though she's acting friendly on the phone, Jess is double-checking everything Marty says. On Facebook, she can see that Telina and Marty seem to be good friends, like he said.

Speaker 26 They're tagged in each other's posts a lot, including in a photo taken at the Oklahoma Renaissance Fair in April 2018. It's Telena, Marty, and his wife, Lorianne.

Speaker 26 It's a warm day. They're dressed in shorts and t-shirts, all smiling widely.
But in the caption, Marty refers to both women as his quote wives, which is confusing.

Speaker 26 And so is Telina's name, or more accurately, names. When Jess runs a basic background check, the kind you can pay for online, nothing comes up for Telina's are.

Speaker 26 Turns out, her legal name is actually Telina Galloway. But even that name hadn't been her name for very long.

Speaker 26 Before Talina Galloway, she was Jana Lovic, and before that, that, Jana Dillman.

Speaker 26 Jess doesn't know what to make of all this.

Speaker 26 With additional research, Jess learns that Talina Czar is more of her online nickname.

Speaker 27 I'd done some internet digging, you know, basic Google stuff, and I'd Googled Telina Czar.

Speaker 27 And then that popped up with the John Norman Gorian novels.

Speaker 15 And I was like,

Speaker 27 literally, not very polite of me. What the hell are you people into? What is going on here?

Speaker 15 Gore was a world of slaves and beautiful women, of human domination by the alien secret priest kings.

Speaker 15 And it was also the world

Speaker 15 of Talina Talina.

Speaker 26 That's next week on What Happened to Talina Czar.

Speaker 26 What happened to Talina Czar is a production of iHeart podcasts.

Speaker 26 It's written, reported, and hosted by me, Melissa Jeltson, with writing and story editing by Lauren Hansen, our executive producer is Ryan Murdoch.

Speaker 26 For iHeart podcasts, executive producers are Jason English and Carl Cadel. Fact-checking by Savannah Hughley.
Zoe Denkla is our associate producer. Jeremy Thal is our editor.

Speaker 26 Original music by Aaron Kaufman with additional music by Jeremy Thal.

Speaker 26 Episodes are mixed and mastered by Carl Cadel. Voice acting by Lizzie Gore, Chris Ferry, Stephanie Frame, Pete Monica, and Molly Maslin.
Our logo is designed by Ido Moore.

Speaker 26 Thanks so much for listening.

Speaker 23 Ah, smart water. Pure, crisp taste, perfectly refreshing.

Speaker 23 Wow, that's really good water. With electrolytes for taste, it's the kind of water that says, I have my life together.

Speaker 5 I'm still pretending the laundry on the chair is part of the decor.

Speaker 23 Yep, here you are, making excellent hydration choices.

Speaker 2 I do feel more sophisticated.

Speaker 23 That's called having a taste for taste. Huh, a taste for taste.

Speaker 3 I like that. Smart water.

Speaker 23 For those with a taste for taste, grab yours today.

Speaker 2 Tired of spills and stains on your sofa?

Speaker 2 Washable sofas.com has your back, featuring the Annibay Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 2 That's right, sofas started just $699.

Speaker 2 Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slip covers made with performance fabrics.

Speaker 2 Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing.

Speaker 5 The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime.

Speaker 2 Check out washable sofas.com and get up to 60% off your Anibay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund.

Speaker 2 No return shipping or restocking fees.

Speaker 3 Every penny back.

Speaker 2 Upgrade now at washable sofas.com.

Speaker 36 Start your journey toward the perfect engagement ring with Yadav, family-owned and operated since 1983. We'll pair you with a dedicated expert for a personalized one-on-one experience.

Speaker 36 You'll explore our curated selection of diamonds and gemstones while learning key characteristics to help you make a confident, informed decision.

Speaker 36 Choose from our signature styles or opt for a fully custom design crafted around you.

Speaker 36 Visit yadavjewelry.com and book your appointment today at our new Union Square showroom and mention podcast for an exclusive discount.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart Podcast.