Crime Junkie

“Well, Fox News published an article April 21 about a family who died in a plane crash just recently. On board was a, quote, decorated veteran pilot, aerospace engineer, and defense researcher, James Tony Moffitt. And also his son who was up and coming in the field, Andrew Moffat. Their plane crashed in South Carolina, but they were from Huntsville, Alabama, the same city that chemist and entrepreneur Amy Eskridge called home. Now Amy's 2022 death was ruled a suicide, but she has been grouped in with that list of scientists.”

“Now on to update number two, Rick Valerio. Now remember, this is the guy who was sitting on his horse crying in front of a church. The one who told the tourist that he had just found his cousin decapitated in the mountains. Now Mata confirmed more about that second interview he did with him him after the body cam one that you saw in our episode, but there wasn't much more. He said that in that follow-up, Valerio admitted that he is intoxicated every time he's on a horse, but not much else came from the interview.”

“So originally, when we talked to Sierra, she thought that that interaction happened in September, about three months after Melissa went missing. Mark though, he remembered it happening in July. Well, they were both slightly off, and Sierra confirmed for us that she checked the notes on her phone, and now she is confident that that interaction happened on exactly August 8. Now Sierra had a note in her phone because this woman, Wendy is her name, gave Sierra her phone number. Now is it even weirder that this woman gave her her number than would go on to deny knowing her? Thank you for asking. Yes. It is.”

“And you wanna know the strangest part of all? John s Smith, the one who is actually tied to the number connected to Wendy, he is connected to a company called Caterpillar Inc. According to their website, Caterpillar Inc is shaping the future as the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel electric locomotives, Backed by one of the largest independent global dealer networks and financing services through Cat Financial, the company's primary business segments, power and energy, construction industries, and resource industries are solving customers toughest challenges through a commitment to commercial excellence and advanced technology. So are you ready for it? Caterpillar Inc has mad contracts with the Department of Defense.”

“I found an old presentation from 2011 that was made by Los Alamos National Laboratory for its work with the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Caterpillar Inc was a contributor on the study. So I know the 2011 connection between Los Alamos and Caterpillar was years before Melissa went missing. But maybe Mark's idea that Melissa got help from some subcontractor of the lab isn't that far fetched after all. Or maybe there is still information to be found.”

“Well, Fox News published an article April 21st about a family who died in a plane crash just recently. Onboard was a quote, decorated veteran pilot, aerospace engineer and defense researcher, James Tony Moffat. And also his son who was up and coming in the field, Andrew Moffat. Their plane crashed in South Carolina, but they were from Huntsville, Alabama. The same city that chemist and entrepreneur Amy Eskridge called home. Now, Amy's 2022 death was ruled a suicide, but she has been grouped in with that list of scientists. And before her death, she said in an interview that Huntsville was the biggest deal you've never heard of.”

“Namely, the Mondragon family has a PI working on their behalf, who they met through a missing person support event. This man, Thomas McNally, is licensed to practice in Arizona, but according to New Mexico's Regulation and Licensing Department, he's not licensed in the state of New Mexico, where Melissa went missing. McNally's tactics have been aggressive. He has been making a series of strongly worded public Facebook posts calling for Mark to be investigated as a person of interest, and naming other members of the Casias family. That's kind of putting it lightly.”

“He said that in that follow up, Valerio admitted that he is intoxicated every time he's on a horse. But not much else came from the interview. Other than Mata says he has not been able to establish any connection between Rick Valerio and Melissa. As for the blue truck that he had, in our episode, we were interested to know if anyone had searched it, knowing that there was a sighting of a blue truck near Melissa when she was last seen walking down Highway 518 And the answer is, kind of. So Mata told us he did look at it, but only visually, like he walked around it.”

“So, toward the end of Melissa's episode, I told you about a strange encounter that Sierra had with a woman who came to her work not long after her mom went missing, to give her $50 in graduation money. Supposedly, this woman was a long-time friend of Melissa's, so she drove 300 miles from where she lived in Colorado with her fiance or her husband to give her this $50, no card, that yes, she could have mailed. There is something to this encounter that I believe is really important. I just need to get to the bottom of it. But that is somehow getting harder to do, even though I now have more details.”

“The phone number was connected to a John S. Smith. The picture that Nina found was for John A. Smith. Nina was able to find pictures of John S. Smith, and they are not the same people. But she had Marilyn send those photos over to Sierra too of John S. Smith. And Sierra said that she didn't recognize him. And I don't know if your brain is breaking the way that mine was, but like, this doesn't make sense. Wendy is real. Wendy is connected to John S. Smith. But Wendy showed up to visit Sierra in tandem with a completely different John A. Smith.”

“And you want to know the strangest part of all? John S. Smith, the one who is actually tied to the number connected to Wendy, he is connected to a company called Caterpillar Inc. According to their website, Caterpillar Inc. is shaping the future as the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel electric locomotives. Backed by one of the largest independent global dealer networks and financing services through Cat Financial, the company's primary business segments, power and energy, construction industries and resource industries are solving customers' toughest challenges through a commitment to commercial excellence and advanced technology.”