Hi, crime junkies and happy Friday.
I know today is usually just fan club Friday where all of you fan club members get Monday's episode early and at free and that episode is still there waiting for you in the crime junkie fan club app.
But I also wanted to drop in with a little something else for everyone today.
You probably know by now that I can do this thing where I fall down rabbit holes hard.
If there is a case just like right with conspiracy, there are so many theories that you need a string board.
I'm there. And there is a case like that currently being investigated with so many twisty paths that have to be explored.
And it is all about to start unfolding around 2.30 a.m.
on November 2nd, 2007 18-year-old Justin Gaines left a popular club called Wild Bills.
Now before leaving the club, he made maybe a dozen phone calls to his friends and people he knew looking for a ride home but no one was able to pick him up.
So he got into a black car with a blonde woman but he's never been seen again.
Law enforcement and even a private investigator believed that they would find Justin within a week.
But all of these years later his family is still looking for him.
Still looking for answers.
In Drowning Creek, a new podcast from Waiveland.
Host Sean Kuype takes on the most complex case he's encountered yet as he works to pick apart two decades of mystery.
And you guys I know I alluded to this earlier but there is a lot of mystery and so many wild theories in this case.
Rumors about Justin being murdered circulated all over.
And there were theories about infamous killers being involved.
People like Israel keys and the smiley face killer.
There were even people talking about connections to the cartel.
But among all of that there were some more local names that kept popping up.
And there was someone who even comes forward later with a confession.
But still to this day no one has ever been convicted in association with Justin's disappearance.
So Sean is going out there going on the ground and exploring every option that this case presents.
And for the first time ever law enforcement has opened up their files on this open and active case because they believe it's solvable.
But getting answers relies on witnesses coming forward and people talking.
With drowning Creek Sean's goal is to do just that get people talking.
You're going to hear tips that have been called in stuff that has never been publicly released until now.
And you're even going to get the first ever public interview with the individual who has historically been the prime person of interest.
There is still hope for finding answers.
Sean's investigation is still ongoing and you are not going to want to miss what he has uncovered.
So I'm going to play the first episode of Drowning Creek for you right now.
But then be sure to go follow Drowning Creek wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss new episodes that come out weekly.
Here's episode one. This podcast is intended for mature audiences.
And the personal discretion is advised.
On November 2nd 2007 18 year old Justin Gaines walked out of a popular club in Duluth, Georgia, just northwest of Atlanta.
In the early morning hours he was spotted climbing into a car with a young woman and was never seen again.
Despite dozens of volunteers searching, flyers hanging on local businesses, extensive news coverage, and even the Georgia National Guard lending their services, there was no trace of Justin Gaines yet seemingly vanished.
There were no answers to explain his disappearance in the case eventually went cold.
Eight years later, that would all change.
A new lead gave investigators insight into what happened to Justin that night and this story would take a sinister turn.
At some point there was a tussle and he chokes him out and they thought that they had killed him.
So they wrap him up in a paint tarp.
I thought he was dead but it wasn't dead and then one shoots him.
They put him in a van and haul him away.
Investigators in Gwyneth County are hoping to identify human skeletal remains found in the Kula.
It's a fun death. The disappearance of Justin Gaines takes a gruesome turn as law enforcement sources reveal new details and what they're now calling a murder investigation.
When this county police searched every square inch of these woods off of Georgia Highway 316 and drowning Creek Road in the Kula.
A detailed confession alleged that Justin Gaines was robbed and murdered and that his body was dumped in nearby Lake Lanier.
When Justin's body resurfaced days later he was moved, stuffed into a large metal box and thrown down a well.
A suspect confessed to exactly what happened to Justin Gaines and named everyone who was involved in his death.
Dilling glass said he killed Justin.
He took that earring out of Justin's ear the night that he was killed.
So why, to this day, has no one been arrested for his murder?
The problem with this case is not just that we don't have a body.
It's that we don't have a crime scene.
We don't have any physical evidence of death.
We don't have a mass of blood.
We don't have a murder weapon.
We don't have fingerprints.
To me there's no such thing as a conspiracy that can't be broken.
When you've got more than two people, somebody's eventually going to talk and there are a lot of people in this.
In my mind, if we could find that body, that would be the key to the whole puzzle.
I believe that if his body was found, people would start talking.
And that's where I come in.
I'm here to get people talking.
He's here, Billis Marn.
They would rather believe a lie in the truth.
They don't want to believe the truth.
They don't want justice.
They want to conviction.
No matter how you dress it up or make it go, I never tilt that way.
The things that I'm going to give you and show you are my health proofs too.
There's a lot of things that people don't know.
There's a lot of things that people ain't heard.
From Wavelin, I'm Sean Keiden.
And this is Drowning Creek.
Georgia in the fall is beautiful.
Even in early November, temperatures often hang right around a comfortable 60 to 65 degrees, and the leaves have begun by this point to change to shades of crimson, yellowish gold and orange as they fall and cover the sidewalks and yards in a blanket of color.
Justin Gaines and a few friends lived together just off the Okone campus of Gainesville State College in Athens.
In 2007, Justin was a freshman.
And this was the first time he'd lived away from his parents.
As any college freshman is, Justin was full of hope and excitement.
Even if he hadn't quite figured out what it was he wanted to do with his life.
On the afternoon of Thursday, November 1st, he made the hour-long drive to his parents' home in Snellville, Georgia to change clothes and hang out with his siblings and his folks before going out that night.
His mother, Erica, and stepfather, Steve and Wilson, still kept his bedroom just the way it was before he moved out because he sometimes came home from school to stay for the weekend.
But also, I think, just in case.
He disappeared into his old room and picked out the clothes he would wear out that night.
The last outfit he would ever wear.
He would decide with Stephen's approving eye on a gray Abercrombie shirt, stylishly ripped jeans and tennis shoes.
Justin was never shy about getting a second opinion on something, especially on how he looked.
If he needed any help or any guidance or, you know, mom, do you think I should move into this place?
This is what I'm looking to do for college, applied for this.
And he always asked for it, opinion.
And I mean, he walked in and he was like, to my husband, hey, Steve, what shirt should I wear tonight for the ladies?
I remember my husband saying, you know, wear that shirt.
I'm going to go with your blue eyes.
Don't wear that brown shirt.
It looked like shit. Maybe the most important part of Justin's outfit, though, a huge diamond earring that never strayed far from his left ear.
He liked the way it looked, but it also said, I've got style and money.
It was Cubic's Arconium, but who could tell?
Justin was all about his image.
He worked out all the time and his bright blue eyes complimented his baby face.
His friends called him Gaines or sometimes Gainesda, but that was more of a nickname he seemed to try and implement himself.
His friends just went along with it.
He grabbed some cash and left his wallet behind in the bedroom.
On his way out, Steven asked Justin if he wanted to make a few extra bucks over the weekend, something he did from time to time to earn extra cash.
Justin said, sure. At that time, we owned a roofing company and we would have Justin clean gutters on the weekend.
We'd pay him $150 per house.
Justin loved money. He loved working.
So he was also come home for that.
He came in, talked to all the siblings, asked what to wear.
We hung out for about an hour and a half and then his friend Chris picked him up and took him out to Wildbills.
That's Justin's mother, Erica Wilson, though she loves to talk about her son.
When I first sat down with her, I could tell that the energy in the room had changed a bit as soon as she mentioned Wildbills.
Wildbills was a huge club.
It actually had one of the largest dance floors in the southeast at the time.
They held 18 and up nights each week to appeal to the younger crowd.
Eventually, every one of a certain age seemed to make their way through Wildbills front doors.
It's also the last place Justin was seen.
A lot of nights it was country at Western, but on Thursday nights, back in the day, we had 95-5, the B.O.T.
and it was Thursday Thursday, 21 to drink 18 to party.
We would go up there a lot on Thursdays.
At night, he was there. There was probably over 3,000 people.
Thursday Thursday is popular with the college crowd in most cities.
Most clubs in or near college towns have them.
The drinks are cheap. There are tons of people and everyone is there looking to have a good time to blow off steam from a hard week at school.
If you're looking for it, there are plenty of people willing to hook up for the night.
Chris, one of Justin's roommates at school, picked him up sometime between 6 and 7 pm.
Justin knew he'd be drinking that night, so he opted to leave his car and his parents' driveway.
Chris and his girlfriend picked Justin up.
First place, they stopped just quick trip at the top of our street because Justin had worked there for many years.
Justin and his friends went to quick trip that evening to get mixers for vodka.
They would use bottles of gatorade or a similar drink and spike it.
That way, they could ride around and drink inconspicuously.
Around the time Justin was nearing his Brookwood High School graduation, drinking became more of a common pastime for him.
You could even say it was becoming a problem.
At 17, 18, he would go up to wildbills that I knew on Sundays for a teen night.
But then I realized during his senior year, one day I went to found him in his room and I was like, what are you doing at school time?
I thought, man, I smell alcohol.
And he had the band on his arm and he went to school.
He ended up having to come home because, of course, he said, oh, they were just having me do mouthwash, but that was just him lying to mom.
So I think during his senior year, he was sneaking out or going out somewhere on Thursday nights, going up to wildbills with a fake ID and drinking.
And he was drinking a lot more than I realized.
Alcohol is a bit of a sensitive subject for Erica.
When he was little, I was always against alcohol because I had a bad relationship with his father because of it.
And I'd always tell him no bears, bad bears, bad.
And I remember him being four years old and I pulled him to a convenience store and there would be a bud-wise around the window.
He'd be like, no, mom, you can't go here.
So I'm not sure if he was open with me because he knows I had a bad experience with alcohol.
I still think about that.
Maybe he never really told me about his drinking because he knew how bad I hated it because of his father and what I experienced.
Justin had recently been arrested for underage drinking near his school in Athens where police found him passed out in his car alongside a bottle of vodka.
He was scheduled to appear in court a few weeks after his disappearance and Erica tells me that he had a lawyer and was prepared to face the music.
Whatever that might mean for him.
It was likely just a small fine and at most a few hours of community service.
But that night, Justin and his friends went cruising for a while after dropping by the quick trip, stopping at a local pool hall nearby and pre-gaming in the parking lot.
I believe at this point, Justin had been drinking in the car to save money so he didn't buy it in there and Justin's cheap.
Justin's cheap. He was probably going to save some girls with biodeurinks maybe.
Who knows. That's why I believe he drank before he went in there.
So I don't think he had a ton of money on him.
Justin, Chris and Chris's girlfriend, Amanda, arrived at Wildbills at approximately 11.40 pm, more than four and a half hours after leaving his parents' house.
Justin has a VIP pass that some girl gave him or someone gave him.
And him, Chris and Chris's girlfriend at the time went into line.
Justin did use a fake ID to get in that night.
He was in the 21 and older lane and Chris and his girlfriend were in the 18 to 20.
And then when they get up to the main thing, Justin gave some, his pass, say, let him in.
Chris and his girlfriend passed him and get him in.
And Chris and his girlfriend at that point, leave Wildbills.
Justin says, oh, don't worry, I'll find a way home.
Chris and his girlfriend decided that they were going to go to a friend's house and hang out instead because they couldn't get into the VIP area with Justin, who had assured them that he'd find a ride home later that night.
Justin danced and mingled inside the club and at some point seemed to get into an altercation with an unidentified male.
It was allegedly over dancing with a girl, it's not really clear, but there wasn't a fight.
Eric tells me what she's been able to piece together regarding this as it's the first time I've heard any semblance of motive for her son's disappearance.
I have heard that Justin saw a gentleman slap a girl, a buser girl, and Justin went over and said, hey buddy, you know, treat women like that.
And the guy said, just go away, get away, and that they were supposedly eyeing Justin the whole night.
So that is where the fight, you know, confrontation is supposed to have taken place.
Justin also continued to drink when in the club.
He had his fake ID, but he also knew several of the bartenders who would serve him, knowing that he was underage.
I mean, I'm sure he was drinking.
Someone he went to school was there was one of the bartenders, and she made it seem to me that he wasn't really drunk.
There was another older lady, and she also said that Justin seemed fine, but I mean, they also knew Justin was underage and they were serving him all night, because the one girl went to school at Justin, so she knew.
So I've heard, you know, conflicting things.
Sometime before 1am, Justin began asking around for a ride, and by 1.30am, he was seen outside the front of the club looking at his phone.
He repeatedly texted and called nearly a dozen friends, a total of 24 times, to come pick him up.
But with no luck, because few answered, and everyone else had work or class in just a few hours.
They just chalked it up to Justin being Justin, he'll figure it out.
Justin did have cash on him, but it's unclear as to why he didn't call a taxi at this point when he was seemingly out of options.
He never called his parents, something Erica still can't understand or seem to get passed.
It haunts me to this day that he didn't call that night when he made hundreds of phone calls, hundreds, you know, tons of phone calls and texts, but not once to us.
It's because he knew how much I hated alcohol.
And I worried about him drinking and being like a biological father.
That's all I looked at, you know, he didn't want to disappoint us, but I would never be disappointed any of my children.
But for whatever reason, Erica and Stephen, along with everyone else who's ever known him, have not seen or heard from Justin gain since.
He simply vanished. At first, Erica didn't think much of the fact that she hadn't heard from Justin when she woke up the next day.
I mean, after all, he was a college kid now and he had his own life.
He was pretty responsible for the most part and she would see him on Saturday when he stopped by to meet her husband, Stephen, to clean the gutters.
So now it's Friday, early Friday morning.
Justin had told us that he'd be home on Saturday morning so he can go clean the gutters and do the job to make money.
So I didn't expect him home Friday night.
So nothing, Justin went out Thursdays with his friends, his with Chris, Friday, it's all good.
When Erica and Stephen hadn't heard from Justin by Saturday morning, though, the worry immediately began to set in.
This wasn't like Justin.
Saturday morning, he's not home to go clean gutters.
Justin doesn't miss an opportunity to make money.
So my son and I said something's wrong, something's wrong.
He's like, honey, he's probably just helping.
He's probably cleaning the gutters strong like no, baby.
You know, he has two days of work lined up, something's wrong and he's like, everything's okay.
You know, don't worry. He's 18.
It's probably, you know, maybe met a girl or something.
You know, it's okay. It's not answering his phone because now I'm the mom and why aren't you working?
You're supposed to make it this money for college, you know?
And he's not answering my phone.
It was going straight to voicemail.
So I couldn't get a hold of him and I'm upset.
Steven had tried to be the voice of reason and call Erica's fears.
But when they still hadn't heard from Justin by Sunday morning, it was apparent that something was definitely wrong.
On Sunday, still can get a hold of him.
I tell him, he's not my husband's like, oh, so I start calling Justin's friends back then it was my space.
So got on one of my kids my space and I start messaging Justin's friends and calling his friends and, you know, they're like, oh, no, Justin's fine.
You know, we haven't heard from, but you know, we're sure you're fine.
He's fine. And of course, he has to go back to Athens before Monday for school.
Worry quickly turned to panic as Erica began calling friends of Justin's, even taking to social media to try and track him down.
But she had no luck. And everyone kept telling her not to worry.
Justin's probably fine.
But sometimes a mother just knows.
He's not home on Sunday.
I'm calling his old girlfriend because they were very close still and no one's heard from him and they're all saying it's okay.
And then late Sunday night, I get a phone call from all his friends.
It's like 15 people on the phone and they're like, something's wrong.
We can't find Justin. Chris was expecting Justin to pick him back up.
It's car sit in my yard so I know he's not there and his friends all call and they said, something's wrong.
We can't find Justin. Erica didn't know it yet, but her entire world was about to come crashing down around her.
From Saturday, I just knew something was wrong Saturday.
But everyone assured me.
He was okay. Everyone a mess of God.
He gangster fun. He's out there.
He's probably fine. Don't worry about it.
And then on Sunday night, I mean, there's just tons of these kids on this call.
I mean, and they're just all freaking out saying, you know, something's wrong.
They can't find them. But my mom got on Saturday because he wasn't there.
Just told me something's wrong.
So on Sunday night, I reported I'm missing.
Late Sunday night, Erica called the Gwyneth County Police Department to file a missing person's report.
Officers arrived at the Wilson home to take the report, but they didn't seem to take her son's disappearance very seriously at first.
This officer tells me, oh, don't worry.
Most people come back in a few, you know, in so many hours.
It's not really necessary.
And then this guy goes home and tells his wife who post on social media.
Oh, my God, my husband just took a report and he has a really bad feeling about this one.
He's at my house. You know, tell me, oh, don't worry.
You know, most, you know, missing people come back and 40 add.
They're just selling their oats, I think, was this exact word.
He's probably just selling some oats.
They didn't even turn it in right away or make it urgent or anything, you know.
But then he goes home and tells his wife, you know, that he has a bad feeling.
And then at me as a mom, I have to read that.
Gwyneth Scan was an online forum for all things Gwyneth County.
It no longer exists, but at the time, it was a heavily visited site.
And Erica immediately began using it as a blog to post information about Justin and to ask for help finding him from the community.
She also posted her contact information on the site.
There were so many posts about Justin Gaines that Gwyneth Scan actually gave the thread its own page.
Thousands of people were communicating with each other and directly with Erica.
There were thoughts and prayers offered.
And even a few tips began to come in.
But while some of the information seemed promising, some things Erica read and heard were just playing cruel.
That he was off Steve Reynolds Boulevard and then they chipped his body away and you'll never find it.
The very first one was that they put Justin through a wood chipper and you would never find his body.
It was just some horrible things.
I just started running outside screaming, hitting the house.
My husband's like, what's wrong?
What's wrong? I'm like, oh my God, they're telling me I'd never, you know, and I just lost it.
I couldn't process it. My neighbors probably thought I was crazy because I literally was just running outside screaming, screaming because I mean, it just pushed me over the edge here and there.
People even tried to extort the grieving family while at their lowest point.
Hey, send me money because we know your sons and Peru and we'll get you pictures of your son if you send us money.
I mean, some people are telling you what they've heard but other people are just cruel.
A man calling himself Pepe even told Erica that he had helped Justin get a fake ID to cross over the Mexican border from Texas.
Within days of his disappearance, the investigation was officially underway.
Justin's friends and volunteers in the community rallied together and began passing out flyers, knocking on doors and forming impromptu search parties.
He's trying to lay low to avoid getting in trouble for something or, you know, as more time passed, obviously, the confidence and him being passed out on someone's couch somewhere dropped pretty substantially.
After that, it was, you know, something that happened.
Mike Heiser was friends with Justin since their sophomore year of high school.
They initially bonded over their love of playing poker.
We had a math class together or something like that.
And, you know, I had never talked to him previously and he said something to the effect of the teachers in the middle of teaching.
And he yelled across the classroom and he said, hey Heiser, you want to play poker this weekend?
You know, that was the start of the friendship.
Met up that weekend, played poker, me, him and a few other buddies.
And that's how it started.
Was just us sitting around, you know, playing $10 cash games of poker.
Mike was involved in the search for Justin immediately.
He left school in Valdosta as soon as he heard from his mother that Justin was missing.
This was personal for him, not only because the two were close friends, but also because Justin helped the young quiet Mike Heiser come out of his shell a bit, something that made a huge impact on him.
And that to me, like that changed my whole high school experience from there because then I became, you know, you are the sum of the fight people that you spend the most time with.
So then I became a little bit more outgoing.
I became a little bit more of a class clown and high school became much more enjoyable.
And you know, I was able to learn how to make new friends.
By nature, I'm actually very introverted.
Justin helped me to break out of that shell.
Mike's brother Patrick also participated in the early search parties and tells me what it was like.
First night was really like the core people.
It was that group of people that were the high school friends.
A lot of us when we first came there, I thought we were going to find them, like almost immediately.
We thought we were going to find him and oh, he tried to walk.
He's on the side of the road.
He's in a gully. He's hurt.
Like, we don't know what's going on.
First like five days were like gut wrenching.
I mean, we were searching until two or three o'clock in the morning every night.
And it was trace back where he would go if he got a ride, right?
We searched, we searched, we searched, we searched, we searched.
And it crossed off all these x's, places where you think he could be.
But both of the high's brothers said that the searches seemed unorganized and at times almost pointless.
I remember one where we all met up at Wild Bills and then basically sprawled out.
And then another one that felt like it was just a wild goose chase that felt totally unorganized as opposed to like searching in like grid sections or I used search for someone as you create a grid, then you go search in each spot in that grid, see if you come up with any clues.
Whereas, you know, this felt like we were just driving out to a spot basically and glancing around for anything suspicious.
And it was like this feels disorganized.
Local news outlets kept the public constantly updated on the case and word of Justin Gaines vanishing seemed to spread everywhere.
Erica and Stephen pleaded for anyone with information to come forward.
They didn't care who was responsible.
They just wanted their son home safe.
They wondered if he was hurt, if he was cold, if he was hungry.
I've heard this from the mothers of other homicide victims.
The mothers were concerned that their son or daughter is not getting enough to eat or that they're cold.
I thought that was odd to have a commonality.
You have cases like that where the mothers are concerned about that.
Bob Polno has worked as a private investigator since the early 70s.
Probably the last 15 or 20 years my PI work was handling only major felonies.
The seven deadly sins as I call them murder, aggravated assault, rape, child less station, you know, what have you.
This day is after Justin's disappearance made news headlines, Bob Polno serendipitously caught a broadcast covering one of the search parties.
Bob wasn't supposed to be home that day.
He should not have seen Justin's picture on TV.
But that would prove to be a pivotal moment in the Justin Gaines case.
I had rushed home to get some paperwork that I needed for a couple of people I needed to interview in Duluth that day.
I needed those papers and I forgot to take it early that morning.
I looked at the TV as I was passing by to get to my desk and had Justin Gaines picture on there.
They had missing across the TV screen and I just saw a short blip of that.
When veteran private detective Bob Polno caught a breaking news feature stating that Justin Gaines was missing, he took notice.
Justin was from the same small town of Snellville that Bob lived in.
And by the looks of the search party on TV, they were going to need all the help they could get.
They had a video of these young people searching for Justin Gaines and they were all masked in front of Wild Bill's nightclub parking lot and it looked chaotic to me.
It was not organized, it appeared.
So I just went on with what I was doing and grabbed my notes and went on to my areas, which happened to be in that area of Wild Bill's.
Sheerly out of curiosity, Bob pulled into Wild Bill's parking lot after finishing work for the day.
What he saw didn't impress him.
I sat there in my car and looked at them running and walking along and it appeared to be as disorganized in person as it was on TV.
Seeing how disorganized the search parties really were, Bob thought they'll never find that kid this way.
He participated in enough of these kinds of searches and had enough experience under his belt to know that much.
Bob is a tough, known on-sense kind of guy.
He's old school. He's very good at what he does.
So he found someone who seemed to be in charge and kindly offered his help.
He and I sat at just a moment and I told him that I know him and I used him Texas named Tim Miller, who works for a company named Texas EQ Search, which was a national search team rescue team.
And I had had passed experiences and cases for victims where I had used Tim Miller as company to search for bodies.
Tim Miller and his Texas EQ Search team were soon called in at Bob Pullmo's urging.
The rescue team initially began with searches on horseback but by now had evolved to utilizing ground searchers, side scans sonar, ground penetrating radar, boats, aircraft, drones and ATVs.
They had the experience, know-how and equipment that was needed and the clock was ticking.
Cases like this were right up Tim Miller's alley.
He and his team have performed thousands of searches in conjunction with law enforcement agencies all over the country and abroad and they've been successful in finding hundreds of missing people, both alive and dead.
Soon after Tim Miller's team arrived, Georgia's National Guard came to help as well and they set up headquarters at a nearby church.
Justin's mom visited wildbills every Thursday night.
There were over 3,000 people there that night he went missing.
Someone had to have seen something.
I used to go up there every Thursday after he went missing to hand out flyers and look at people and just tried to, you know, see if anyone seems suspicious.
And what else could she and Stephen do, really?
Searching for Justin consumed them.
It became their every waking breath.
It didn't even go to work anymore.
Finding Justin was their job now.
We were in that church for probably 4 months.
My husband didn't work every day for 4 months.
We went out looking for Justin.
But I mean because there's not a handbook about what happens when you're a kid goes missing.
You don't want to do. Week after week, it was the same routine.
Wake up, search for Justin, cry yourself to sleep.
Wake up a few hours later and do it all over again for months.
Eventually, the volunteers dwindled as they went back to work and school, the rescue team and the National Guard left.
And suddenly, it was just Erica and her family.
They were there and you're feeling confident.
You have all these people here.
You have guidance. You know, you finally know what you're doing.
You know, or you're going to do something.
And that's end of the week.
You know, you're hoping something.
But then the week they're like, oh, well, of course at this point, it was going to be Thanksgiving.
So, you know, well, you know, if you need anything, let us know.
We're going to leave. It's Thanksgiving and, well, Thanksgiving, what's the big deal?
My kid still missing. But I mean, you can't expect people to be there all the time.
I mean. The holidays hit hard.
First Thanksgiving, then Christmas.
No festive decorations.
No urge to give or receive gifts.
Who could care about that?
The Wilson home was no longer the cheery place it once was, as Erica's fears were becoming a reality that her son might not ever come home again.
Now that the search was all but officially over, there was no daily task to keep Erica, Steven, and their six other children preoccupied.
The real effects of Justin's disappearance slowly took hold and everyone dealt with it differently.
It was a dreadful time and everyone, especially his siblings, felt the weight of Justin's absence.
They were all very different.
Some of our kids went to counseling.
Our oldest son was in Ohio State at the time.
He had a really hard time.
You know, he had to go through counseling and things.
Our one son, Jordan, is very open and would talk about it all the time.
But they were all different, unfortunately, when Justin was missing in the beginning.
I mean, I wanted to look for Justin, but my daughter played sports and I was very involved with my kids.
My kids were my life. And I stopped.
I stopped, you know, made her coach pick her up and she'd be like, Mom, please go, no, I can't go and can't go.
But I mean, I stopped going to their games.
I didn't want to do anything.
I wanted to look for Justin or sleep.
You know, or cry or be Nancy Drew.
I mean, I'd stay on the internet all night.
I mean, I wanted to do anything, but I'm not the same person I was.
I'll never be. The stress was extremely difficult for Steven as well because he had to not only take care of the other children and Erica, but he also had to go back to work because with eight mouths to feed, they needed the money.
It wasn't fair to him because I mean, he was handling, you know, worried about coming home, making sure I'm okay.
The kids and everything when he's suffering too, they're all our kids.
I mean, it's not his, mine, art, you know, it's all the same.
You know, so he's hurting just as bad as me.
If I look back at him, I should have been more supportive of him because, you know, it's not just poor me.
It was the whole family.
Erica had become a shell of her former self, a hollow, empty void wrapped in skin.
She no longer recognized in the mirror.
She felt that if she wasn't looking for Justin, she was somehow failing him.
And because he was never found, she couldn't even properly mourn him or say goodbye.
The depression cut slow and deep.
She was spiraling further and further down.
It was all she could do for a while to even get out of bed.
I was ready to give up and just spend the rest of my time and cry my life away.
But I mean, it's not something you can do.
One day my daughter said something about, mom, you, this isn't you, where you always did this with me and I was like, no.
And she left that day to go do whatever it was, softball at the time or basketball.
And something clicked and said, you know what, Justin, what it wanted, that she needed to get up and focus.
So I tried to stay strong now and you know, being in a fun kit, not good.
I mean, that doesn't help anyone.
It doesn't help Justin.
It doesn't help your kids.
It doesn't help your spouse.
While all of this was playing out, Bob Pullnow had been doing what he does best, investigating.
He'd managed to get a copy of the security footage from Wild Bill's that night.
The footage gave clues as to Justin's movements inside and outside the club, but he was out of view of the camera when he disappeared.
Bob poured through the footage over and over again, taking note of who came and went, what they wore, and if they were with or even near Justin.
The footage showed Justin dancing, shaking hands and high-fiving friends, and making dozens of calls and texts out front while looking for a ride.
Then he walked out of view.
There wasn't much to go on.
Unfortunately, Bob found a witness who was willing to talk.
James Irving was friends with Justin having met him in college.
James was someone who I found that actually witnessed Justin with a blonde girl inside Wild Bill's that night seated at his table with him.
James saw the same blonde girl getting in the car with Justin Gaines and two other people in a black 2006 Dodge charger with heavily-tended windows, shiny paint, and oversized 22 inch rims with a Georgia tag.
They got in this car. There was a male driver and an unidentified passenger on the driver's rear.
James Irving's eyewitness account placed Justin with several other people in Wild Bill's parking lot around 2 a.m.
He was certain it was Justin because he spoke to him briefly.
Justin got in the passenger side of the rear.
The blonde girl got in the front and he drove away and James says to Justin as he rolled down his window, leaving the club and he's seizing getting this car with this girl and he didn't know the girl.
He told me he didn't think that Justin knew those people he was with and he'd never seen before.
So he said, hey, take care.
See you around at school and Justin said, yeah, be cool.
You know, something like that.
And he got in the car. Irving's account was one of the first real leads Bob and the Gwyneth County police had to go on.
And it's huge because whoever Justin got into that car with might be the last people to see him alive.
The only problem is, at the time, they didn't know who those people were and it all seemed to center around a mystery blonde girl.
Bob knew how important this lead was and would not let the case go.
That car was and is a focal point of the investigation.
The blonde girl, of course, is.
Now nearly 16 years after Justin went missing, huh?
That's where I come in. And for what is maybe the first time, investigators have opened the files on an active case to a podcaster.
To me. Justin County Sheriff Joe Chapman, whose department is primarily handling Justin's case at this point, explained his views on me coming into the fold.
I see it as a positive, you know, not all in my position, have that viewpoint.
But at this point in time, man, we've thrown rocks, we drug routes, we dug wells, done everything you can do.
And here I am getting ready to retire.
And I don't think the one coming behind me is going to feel that way.
I just don't think it will have the attention that it has right now.
But the sheriff tells me that not everyone was as compelled at first to open the case files to me, including the investigator assigned to Justin's case, former FBI agent Mike Reising.
I said, hey, these guys with the podcast, okay?
Well, you know, Sheriff, I don't like giving asses where you're going to like it this time.
You're going to talk to this man.
He said, okay. So I was kind of interested in how that conversation was going to go.
Yeah, that makes two of us.
And I know it won't be easy, but my goal here is simple.
To reinvigorate the case surrounding the disappearance of Justin Gaines.
But also to find out if there is information from witnesses that has not yet come to light, to find Justin's remains if he is in fact deceased, as believed.
And ultimately, to find out exactly what happened to him the morning of November 2nd, 2007.
And after just a few weeks of looking into this case, people are talking.
When I began this investigation in early summer of 2023 in a Hail Mary attempt, I wrote a letter to one of the main suspects in this case.
A man named Dustin Dillon Glass, who's currently in prison in Georgia for unrelated charges.
His name has been synonymous with Justin Gaines for many years now.
And for good reason. He confessed to taking part in Justin's murder, describing it in detail.
Though no one has yet been charged with Justin's murder, police believe that Glass is the key to unlocking the mysterious disappearance of Justin Gaines.
In my letter, I asked Glass to speak with me on the record about Justin, honestly thinking I'd never hear back from him.
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