26 | This is the Captain Speaking

31 Jan 2026 · 45 min · 23 chapters

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In short

Podcast Episode Summary: Up and Vanished - "26 | This is the Captain Speaking"

Episode Overview In this final episode of the season, host Payne Lindsey reveals recordings that provide critical insights into the investigation of Joseph Balderas' disappearance. The episode captures voices that were previously absent from the narrative, adding complexity and depth to the ongoing mystery surrounding the case.

Key Themes

  • Vocal Testimony: The episode presents a raw account from anonymous sources discussing the impact of the podcast on their lives and the misinformation being circulated.
  • Defamation and Harassment: The family of Joseph Balderas expresses concern over the harmful rumors and accusations stemming from the podcast, including claims of their involvement in his disappearance.
  • Struggle for Truth: A strong emphasis is placed on the family's desire for answers and their frustration with public speculation and harassment.

Key Discussions Family Reactions to the Podcast

  • Accusations: The family members express feelings of being unfairly labeled as suspects in Joseph’s disappearance. They describe the emotional toll the podcast has taken on their lives, including sleep deprivation and stress due to online harassment.
  • Legal Threats: Discussion about the possibility of pursuing legal action against the podcast for defamation, highlighting the challenges they face due to high costs and the complexities of freedom of speech laws.

Misinformation and Its Consequences

  • Rumors and Speculation: The anonymous sources describe the proliferation of false narratives surrounding Joseph's disappearance, including unfounded allegations of mafia connections and conspiracy theories.
  • Impact on Investigation: They elaborate on how these rumors hinder the search for truth and damage the reputations of those involved in the case.

Examination of Joseph Balderas’ Disappearance

  • Circumstances of His Last Days: The family recounts their memories of Joseph, expressing disbelief that he could have been harmed by anyone within their circle, asserting that he was well-liked and had no known enemies.
  • Search Efforts: Family members describe extensive efforts undertaken to locate Joseph, including searching the area where he was last seen and working with law enforcement.

Online Harassment

  • Social Media Backlash: Family members report experiencing harassment on social media platforms, with strangers using their personal images and stories without consent to perpetuate rumors.
  • Anonymity of Accusers: They discuss the challenges posed by anonymous comment threads where individuals feel empowered to spread misinformation without accountability.

Key Takeaways

  • Importance of Respecting Privacy: The episode stresses the ethical responsibility of media creators to respect the privacy of individuals and families affected by tragedies.
  • Impact of Media on Real Lives: It highlights the profound effects that narrative framing and public speculation can have on the families involved in cold cases.
  • Call for Community Support: The family reflects on the need for community support and understanding in the wake of ongoing investigations into missing persons cases.

Final Thoughts The episode concludes with a call for clarity and justice in Joseph Balderas' case and a reminder of the human stories behind the statistics of missing persons. The family's determination to seek the truth amidst a swirl of rumors underscores the episode's emotional depth and the complexities of public interest in true crime narratives. The implication of broader issues regarding media ethics and the consequences of unverified storytelling serves as a poignant reminder in the true crime genre.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Warning About Sensitive Content

0:50 to 1:34

Discussion on the mature themes addressed in the podcast.

“can be upsetting, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, rape, and murder.”

Introduction to Raw Phone Calls

1:34 to 2:48

Introduction to the unusual format of this episode featuring phone calls.

“There's this stupid podcast person who, like, does investigative stuff on missing people, and he started doing this podcast about Joseph.”

Reactions to Podcast Allegations

2:48 to 7:04

Anonymous source discusses the impact of a podcast on their lives amidst accusations.

“I mean, like pictures of us flying, looking for Joseph, family pictures.”

Community Gossip and Rumors

7:04 to 12:04

Details on how rumors about the case have circulated in the community.

“Well, whoever that cop guy was must have used them because they're out there online and they've got it.”

Legal Concerns Over Defamation

12:04 to 13:56

Discussion on the challenges of pursuing legal action against the podcast for defamation.

“of this guy, talking about the missing people in Nome, and then it got spun off onto Joseph, and it's gone crazy ever since then.”

Discussing Podcast Accusations

14:00 to 15:00

The speaker shares frustrations about false accusations in a podcast.

“I think that's what he's wanting us to do is go after him and respond to keep his podcast going, and we're not.”

Harassment and Legal Concerns

15:00 to 16:00

The impact of harassment and potential legal actions against the speaker's family is discussed.

“so he makes money off this stupid podcast.”

Reflections on Past Investigations

16:00 to 17:00

The speaker reflects on past incidents and how similar accusations were resolved.

“He's threatening to come up and start trouble on all this stuff.”

Conspiracy Theories and Gossip

17:00 to 18:00

Discussion on the community gossip and conspiracy theories surrounding the case.

“It had nothing to do with the people that he was blaming for it.”

Social Media Privacy Issues

18:00 to 19:00

The speaker talks about privacy concerns on social media related to the case.

Show all 23 chapters

Frustrations with the Accuser

19:00 to 20:00

The frustrations regarding the accuser's claims and actions are expressed.

“I mean, that happens all the time with bears and stuff.”

Legal Challenges and Financial Constraints

20:00 to 21:00

The financial burden of legal challenges against harassment claims is discussed.

“There's one person in Nome and they live out by Snake River, but she's the only one who stood up for the family and said stuff to us and said stuff on that deal for us and to help us.”

A Call for Support

21:00 to 22:00

A plea for community support and awareness regarding the ongoing situation.

“He used our picture off our Facebook, which I don't know how he can take our photos off Facebook when they're private.”

Addressing Rumors and False Information

22:00 to 23:00

The speaker addresses how rumors and misinformation are affecting their reputation.

“Well, he never did because Alaska Airlines never said a thing to me about it.”

Refuting the Accusations

23:00 to 24:00

The speaker emphasizes the importance of refuting false accusations against them.

“That's why I don't – what pisses me off is this guy is making money off of ruining people's reputation for his own game.”

Interviews and Public Perception

24:00 to 25:00

The role of previous interviews in shaping public perception is discussed.

“I always wondered if he was in witness protection or something.”

Historical Context of the Case

25:00 to 26:00

The historical context surrounding the case and its implications are examined.

“Why'd you lie to the investigator about the day you saw the truck?”

Future of the Investigation

26:00 to 27:00

Discussion on the future of the investigation and ongoing concerns.

Fighting Back Against False Accusations

28:03 to 29:44

Learn about the challenges faced by the family in combating false claims made against them.

“But yeah, he hasn't done pot in a really long time.”

Impact of Harassment on Family Life

29:44 to 31:29

Discover how ongoing harassment affects the family and their mental health.

“Chrissy's just stressed out all the time because this guy's constantly calling and harassing him.”

Investigating Joseph's Disappearance

31:29 to 34:17

Explore the details surrounding Joseph's disappearance and the family's search efforts.

“He lives in the freaking East Coast somewhere.”

Clarifying Misunderstandings

34:17 to 36:50

Gain insight into the family's perspective on rumors and accusations regarding Joseph's case.

“I wish I could get on there in my own words and be like, hey, you know what?”

Critique of Podcasting Ethics

36:50 to 40:39

Examine the ethical issues in podcasting, especially regarding the portrayal of sensitive stories.

“But nobody in our family would have had any reason to do anything to harm him.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00You're listening to a Tenderfoot TV podcast.

0:08Hey, Up and Vanished listeners. We want to hear from you. We just launched a survey and want to know about your favorite shows, your merch requests, and what you'd like to listen to in 2026. Give us the gift of your feedback, and you might be one of our winners to get free merch and a$100 Amazon gift card. Head over to tenderfoot.tv slash survey for more. Thanks again. Now here's the show.

0:32Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is released every Thursday and brought to you absolutely free. But for ad-free listening and exclusive bonuses, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts.

0:49Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is intended for mature audiences and may include topics that can be upsetting, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, rape, and murder. The names of survivors have been changed for anonymity purposes. Testimony shared by guests of the show is their own and does not reflect the views of Tenderfoot TV or Odyssey. Thank you so much for listening. Hey guys, it's Payne here. I'm on the road recording this from my phone, actually. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different. You're just going to hear the raw phone calls from our anonymous source with Kirk and Bonnie.

1:23These calls were obtained 100 % legally in one-party consent states. I'm holding my own comment on this until the next episode.

1:34There's this stupid podcast person who, like, does investigative stuff on missing people, and he started doing this podcast about Joseph. well it's turned into this ridiculously crazy deal where they're on this app and everybody's talking about they're just dragging all of us through the dirt the piscoyas of jake saying that we all did it to him and that we're all murderers and part of the mafia and that graham's a mafia person and we should all lose our job i mean it's bad it's all over the internet they've taken pictures from our facebook uh interviews from that time and they're posting all this stuff using it against us and using our pictures without our permission and everything.

2:17Seeing that we're the one who beat Joseph disappear.

2:24That's... I don't know what we're going to do about it yet. Graham's thinking about maybe a lawyer to sue the guy for... What do they call that? Defamation of character and harassment and everything else. He doesn't know anything. This guy doesn't even know anything. He's just making all this stuff up and dragging everybody to the dirt about it. He's got pictures of our family and this whole podcast and everything that he's stolen off of Facebook.

2:55I mean, like pictures of us flying, looking for Joseph, family pictures. He shot our bill of sale from when we sold the airplane, which... Yeah, I don't know how you get that. Who cares? I mean, I'm sure it's public information, but what does that have to do with anything? Yeah. it's just he's got all of our pictures of a squad looking for joseph but he's saying that we're the ones who killed joseph and we're the ones who are to blame for the whole thing and that's why they haven't found him because we're hiding him and we're all part of the scoya mafia and everything it's crazy they're saying there are people saying that graham is the matriarch of this whole mafia family and when kevin died was the other rumor in the room i guess there's this chat now people are talking about this whole case and one of the things they said was when kevin died there was a suicide note and in that suicide note was kevin saying that he killed joseph which is total BS.

4:02I mean, they're just making up a whole bunch of stuff for entertainment. And they don't care what it's doing to all of us. Now, his heart blew up. He had a massive heart failure. And Dude and Jake are the ones that found, and Russell were the ones who found Kevin. There's no suicide note there. No. But I mean, they're talking about you and Chris being drunk and Chris he had a affair with Joseph it's just this long, drawn out thing where we're just we're so stressed about this whole thing I don't know what to do about it Especially because Jake was his roommate so therefore they think he did it or he did something Yeah, in Graham's house, they lived in the same house Graham's old house is where Jake was staying and so was Joseph.

4:55Each had a room. But the police cleared everything already. Everybody has alibis for where everybody was. He went missing. There's so many rumors. It's so hurtful. It's really bad. It's really bad. We haven't been sleeping very much because they're just... The stuff they're saying is really bad. It's so bad yesterday I told Graham, I said you need to find a lawyer you just this corporation or library this podcast for deprivation of character or false accusations or slanders yeah, of course all of it is fake the only thing about Kevin suicide that's dumb one thing he said was Kevin was bragging about how he was an ex-cop and he knows how to get rid of evidence and when we when he got to the joseph's truck he um dusted off joseph's footprints and he didn't even go down there and that happened well kevin and i were together when we went that first day we went to the ranger to help look for him.

6:15He did nothing of that sort. He didn't strike. They think that they're saying that he crushed away Joseph's footprints. It's just so dumb. And, you know, people are talking about, well, all the Piscoyas have great prominent jobs. And, you know, like Graham is the vice president of Cork. Dude's in security. Lonnie's in charge of this investigation. and keep it great where all these all these miscellaneous need to be put on leave until they come up with you know whatever they already closed the case he's a missing person there's no everybody was cleared we all had alibis where everybody was we were at camp all of us we were all at camp building that addition that day we saw him drive by if you went missing a day later and we never saw actually who was in that truck remember we all wondered why he didn't stop to say hi yeah we were working on the building on the new edition yeah but this guy doesn't know any of us he's just making it and this is entertainment for him this is what his podcast does he finds things that make stories out of them and he just slanders people he knows absolutely nothing about he's taking pictures from our facebook and posting him on this thing saying this is who this is this who this is and and you know our pictures are all over this guy's thing now which i think that's illegal i don't think you can take people's pictures and use them without their consent maybe i can't but i don't think so and then these people get together on this app and they discuss the podcast and you don't know who they are because they're all like they're not real names or anonymous and they're the ones talking a whole bunch of stuff about this podcast and some of them are known people and it's just ridiculous it's been really bad Jake's so sad Jake's pretty upset upset no you did I haven't done it it just makes me so mad it's just wild the podcast they used for your dad's interview and posted that on the podcast right in front of it.

8:37Remember that cop interviewed us at our house to just ask us how we were helping and all that stuff and it was like that investigator guy, he came and interviewed him on the couch at the house and then later he asked if he could use that and we told him no, we don't want you to use our interviews. Well, whoever that cop guy was must have used them because they're out there online and they've got it. Because, you know, Joseph is missing and then that girl, Florence,

9:15is missing also and has been missing and not a trace of her. So this guy that does the podcast, it's like, well, those two people are missing and absolutely nothing has come up with their cases. There's got to be... Like a serial killer a gnome or something. You are a gnome and nobody's saying anything. Which there very may well be. I mean, there's been a lot of people gone missing at gnome, but... It's so bad. I don't know. I'm sure it would make me bad. He just started, like, right a few months ago. He just started this podcast because there's been still people looking for Florence. So, because there's no answers...

9:58He decided to make a podcast about it just recently and started this whole thing up. For entertainment, for viewing, for viewers, so he has viewers on his podcast. I kind of think that Joseph's sister, Selena, is also behind this because they, you know, never been to Alaska, never stepped through it out of the turn right anywhere until Joseph went busy. He doesn't understand. He found the bears. When we flew that first day, he found 29 bears. In that area. In that area. But Selena, just as the sheriff, no, that kept me in there. Somebody that did something to him. It does something. And, of course, we were all close to him, so we're the prime suspect, I guess.

10:49Sometimes they do. Sometimes they bury him. And, you know, it's such a big area. Who knows where he was buried? We just couldn't find him. I'm sure he's out there buried somewhere. We just don't know where. They do it immediately. They bury him immediately. Yep, they do. Especially if they had just eaten. They're going to bury him. Come back to it later. Come back to it later. That's what they do, but... Yeah, it's... I don't know. It's wild. It's... It's... She'll send you the guy's name so you can look it up. I don't know what that app is, though. About that app, but... You don't want to read that.

11:25It's bad. I told Julius that you just need to stop reading that. I don't want to waste any more time and hurt a gun this because it's so bad. I think they're trying to get a ride out of us to see what we'll do, to see if we'll respond to them. We don't have to get enough. They're trying to call Jake. Harassing Jake. Jake's getting all kinds of harassing messages from people saying he's a piece of shit. Where is Joseph? What do you do with him? It's really bad. And this just started like a month ago. Somebody saw a podcast of this person, of this guy, talking about the missing people in Nome, and then it got spun off onto Joseph, and it's gone crazy ever since then.

12:13So now everybody's sharing it in Nome, on Nome Post, or whatever, they're talking about it, so now everybody's into it, looking at it. It's become the way to gossip, I guess. But she'll send you the guy's picture, name, or whatever, if you want to look it up. I'm not too worried about it, because I know what we all did, and I know we just helped, and we helped look for him, and we spent a lot of time and money doing it. This guy's just an idiot, and I think he should be sued for lying and for trying to scare people. That's not right. I think he should be sued for it. Especially nowadays, you probably could win a lawsuit.

12:48like that. He probably doesn't have any money though, that's probably the deal. I know how you get paid for podcasts, probably by viewers or something. But he's been sued before for doing these same kind of things about cases he knew nothing about, just to have an entertaining channel with viewers.

13:10Crazy. What's going on with that?

13:18He feels like a gecko, for everyone who has a Börse in the blood. Until February 28th, we'll open your first order provision to 500€. FlatEx, better trade right. Investing, risk risk, and conditions are valid.

13:36We talked to a lawyer about him for defamation of character, slander and stealing our photos and everything else. and the lawyer wants$10 ,000 up front to even start, and he said we wouldn't win anyway because of the freedom of speech rules. He says anybody can say anything they want about anybody else these days, and we can't do anything about it. So we can't afford the lawyer. We can't do anything. But he's kind of stopped doing this stuff because we haven't responded to anything. I think that's what he's wanting us to do is go after him and respond to keep his podcast going, and we're not. So he's kind of stopped going on with it.

14:08So maybe eventually he's going to be over with it because he doesn't have any truth on anything. He's just lying through this. He's just slandering us and lying to everybody about everybody. Oh, my gosh. He's saying that we're tracking him on Alaska Airlines, where he goes, and that I'm looking at the manifest to tell people where he goes, which I have no – I can't look at the manifest. I have no idea who's on our flights. I'm not allowed to. Nope, all I see is numbers. I don't see the names. I just see numbers, and that's it. I can't do that. I'm not allowed to. Just a crew, but not passengers.

14:38years so oh man he's saying it's just not so all the stuff he's put on there i know i refuse to give the time of day till he's been telling me and other people are what dad are but i won't go through any of it because i won't give him the time of day because i know he's all it's all lies because i know what our family did i know what we did he's just doing this to get his podcast going so he makes money off this stupid podcast. He's just, he's a piece of shit. It's horrible. It's just bad. You know, we didn't do anything to it. We were trying to help. We were trying to help the guy, help the family.

15:20You were there through the whole thing too. Do you remember what we did for that guy and his family? Oh, yeah, it was so long ago. It was crazy.

15:31I don't know I don't remember I don't remember why idiot took a break on doing podcasts I guess well he stopped for like uh two weeks or something to I don't know if he's taking a break or what and then I don't know when he starts it up again but um Jake's probably gonna have to change his number because he keeps harassing Chrissy and Jake on the phone constantly trying to get him, calling him, trying to get him to interview. We're not giving this idiot the time of day. He's threatening to come up and start trouble on all this stuff. He's probably going to end up changing his phone number, put a restraining order on him.

16:17This guy's crazy. He's not a cop. He's not even a a real investigator. He's just a blogger running off these things that he does to people. Oh yeah, he spent 10 years harassing this other family in Alaska of a missing case. I think it was over in Toke somewhere or something. And he was assured that this guy murdered this guy and he harassed him just like he's doing with up there in Nome. Went after this guy, did all the same kind of stuff. They sued him, everything, and then 10 years later, the real killer came out and said, no, this guy had nothing to do with it. I did it. It was in Alaska. It was another missing persons case up in Alaska that he was working on for a long time.

17:04And then it ended up coming out. It had nothing to do with the people that he was blaming for it. The real guy stood up and went to jail for it. and these people sued him for defamation of character and everything else because he just makes money off of all his lies when he has no evidence and no nothing to support any of it and his his viewers just sit there and eat it up and he makes money on it and he gets away with it it's just crazy because i think it would make me too mad to know that there's some idiot out there he's totally lying about us and there's nothing i can do about it because of freedom of speech i do but that's what he's wanting from our family he's wanting us to take the bait and go after him because that keeps his podcast going and that keeps all this money coming in for him so we've all made the decision up there you know that we're not gonna go out we're not gonna acknowledge this guy we're not gonna you know go in there and start writing a bunch of stuff because that's what he wants that's what he's edging up to do he's trying to get us to to take the bait and go after him so because he's got tons of lawyers he's got lots of money he can do this all day long i mean we tried to get a lawyer and it was over ten thousand dollars just to retain the guy and then the guy says yeah you guys won't win because it's not illegal what he's doing you can say whatever he wants about somebody it's not illegal so it's like well you can't really do a lawyer because it doesn't do any good you can say whatever you want about somebody days and you can't do anything about it yeah we were up in up in home we were uh we all got together and talked about it we got a lawyer on the phone and on a zoom meeting with a lawyer and there's all of us with a lawyer he's really only going after chrissy and jake and then because he thinks those two are the ones that have done this whole thing even though the fbi the alaska state troopers everybody cleared everybody in our family a long time ago after all those interviews with us they cleared us all because we all had alibis of what we were doing where we all were doing it had nothing to do with us and that's why the case was closed because there's no evidence of anything he probably got taken out by a bear somewhere but this guy won't agree with that i don't know why somebody would want to hurt him he was such a nice person i mean you met him you knew him he was a nice guy i don't know anybody would want to do anything to him it just doesn't make any sense To me, what makes sense is he's running on a ridge with no gun, no bear spray, and he's in the most populated bear area around, and he goes missing.

19:37I mean, that happens all the time with bears and stuff. I just don't know why anybody would want to hurt him or what he would have done to somebody. The reason they're doing it is because there's a lot of people that know him that are very jealous of the Pascoya family because they're successful. They're a successful native family. all their brothers you know are successful they're all successful they're all got good jobs and people have nothing better to do a gnome except gossip about everybody else and that thread that everybody's on whatever they call that thread nobody knows who it is because you're in there as a fake name so it could be anybody there they say oh yeah i can say whatever i want now and spread gossip because nobody knows it's me on this site i think that's what's happening that people are just have nothing better to do but gossip.

20:26There's one person in Nome and they live out by Snake River, but she's the only one who stood up for the family and said stuff to us and said stuff on that deal for us and to help us. She's the only one. Everybody else is just gossip, gossip, gossip. We went through our Facebooks and we cleaned out so many people that we don't ever talk to. I mean, people somehow knew when we came up to Nome for to go hunting they saw us at the airport all of a sudden there there was talk on that thing whatever that what i'm upset about is that guy took a photo of me and bonnie getting on the flight in la to go to gnome to say hey we're heading up to gnome you're seeing there you know a picture we did and he turned it into oh they knew i was coming to gnome and he has the manifest so he saw me coming and warned everybody i was coming to know he took the picture of us off facebook and put it on his webcast, I guess.

21:22Pain. Yeah, the pain dude. He used our picture off our Facebook, which I don't know how he can take our photos off Facebook when they're private. I think that was before we blocked them all. Blocked everything. I found him and blocked him. I blocked all his businesses that he works with, media businesses. I blocked everything, so he can't get into any. Everybody has. We've all blocked everything about him. Cannot get into our Facebooks now. everybody's made their facebook private which a lot of people didn't have done before but he turned that around like we knew he was coming to know him and warned the town he was coming it's like i don't know who this guy is i don't even know what he looks like for one thing i don't know where he lives and i cannot access anything of the manifest at alaska airlines i all i get on my ipad is the number of passengers in a numerical form 175 is all i see of the people i can't see the names i'd have to log on at the counter to do what the cas csa's do and i don't have that login information i'm not even allowed to touch those computers so he he was saying that he he said which he claimed he did that he went to alaska airlines to tell them that i was in the manifest telling noam that this guy was coming up and that he was going to get me in trouble and he was looking at Tom, too, about doing the same thing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

22:47Well, he never did because Alaska Airlines never said a thing to me about it. They never called me about it. They never emailed me about it. And then he said he turned it all over to the FAA, which the FAA can't do anything about it. And I'm not worried about it. That's why I don't – what pisses me off is this guy is making money off of ruining people's reputation for his own game. and that's what's wrong and that's what we can't do anything about. We've got to let it run its course and be done because people are already starting to get tired of it because he has no new information because we're not giving him new information.

23:23We're not going after him. We're not saying a word. So it's just kind of going dead. And I think he's given up, hopefully. You told me there was never anything recovered from Joseph. No, there wasn't. How was his credit card used? two weeks after he went missing.

24:11I don't know. Maybe someone had his card. Maybe someone stole his card. Yeah, I have no idea on that one. I always wondered if he was in witness protection or something. You dropped this bomb on me that the family was involved. You were interviewed eight years ago and never mentioned it to me. We never heard about it until just recently. This guy popped up out of nowhere and started doing... He started with that girl who went missing on the beach also. We did that eight years ago. No, the reason they interviewed us eight years ago when it happened is because we were all friends with Joseph, and he was friends with our family, so we agreed to do interviews to make sure that we all were good and that we weren't involved in any of it, which we weren't, and that's why we chose to voluntarily do the interviews with the FBI and the police.

25:02Why'd you lie to the investigator about the day you saw the truck? I didn't lie to the investigator. okay we saw a blue car go by down there I don't know if it was Saturday or Sunday there were two blue cars I remember of the same kind in Nome there were two of those exact vehicles in Nome and I know when Kevin and I were working on the building we saw that one car go by and we waved and we thought it was him I don't know if there was another one that went by on Sunday because we were working at camp that whole weekend.

25:44That's eight years ago. How am I supposed to remember exact details from eight years ago when we haven't been dealing with it in eight years? We know we had nothing to do with him going missing because we were busy that weekend. We were working. We didn't even see him that weekend except for the car drive by. well join the rest of us because we're all confused too because we don't understand why all of a sudden eight years later this guy decides he's gonna get on a missing persons case and then try to ruin everybody's life for no reason when there's there is no evidence of anything which was already done and cleared way before eight years ago we were all cleared and we did all this voluntarily we didn't even have to do these interviews we did it all voluntarily to help try to find him that's why we did it and the and the actually the the interviews we did were supposed to be um what do they call it or you can't reread them or whatever what do they call that where you're not incognito but they weren't supposed to be public made public they were supposed to be private interviews that's why we agreed to do that and somehow whoever that idiot was who interviewed We just leaked them out to this guy, and this guy's got them all without our permission.

27:02So that might actually be illegal. I don't know. So you guys weren't involved in any way? No, of course not. Why would we even want to hurt Joseph? He was our friend. He was a friend of the family. Why would we want to hurt him for any reason whatsoever? We helped his family. We treated his family like family when they came up here. I mean, we spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars flying around looking for him, trying to do stuff to help any way we could. I mean, you know our family. You know we're not people that would do anything bad like that. We'd have no reason to do something like that.

27:41Nobody would. Why did Jake lie to the cops? He was very scared because he lived with Joseph. And he was young and he was scared. They were probably doing some pot and stuff in there. And I think he was, like she even said later, he was just really scared that everything was going to get pinned on him because he was a roommate. And that's why he originally lied, but told the truth after that. And he was even cleared. Was he involved with drugs? He smoked pot when he was up there.

28:15But yeah, he hasn't done pot in a really long time. But when he was a teenager, he did a little bit. Why aren't you guys protesting and trying to say your side of the story? Well, we really want to, and we would love to go after this guy and prove that he's a fraud, which a lot of other people have already done. But we can't afford it. We can't afford the lawyer. I mean, Carol was going to pay for most of it, and she can't even afford this lawyer to do what we need to do. This guy is huge. He's got massive backing behind him. He makes millions off his podcasts sitting on the East Coast, and he comes over and he just does missing persons cases because he wants to think he's an investigator.

28:58And he tries to do all this stuff, and he's never even proven anything in any of his podcast stories about anything. He's never done anything to prove that he's right. He's always been wrong on everything, and he just ruins people's lives, but we don't have the money to fight it. It costs too much. Lawyers are way too much money. and he would fall up in court so long and we just nobody can afford to do it so we just agreed well you know none of us have anything to hide our family did nothing so let him say what he wants you know if we don't go after him and we don't sit there and keep this whole thing going which is what he wants to do because that keeps his listeners listening and it keeps the money flowing we just shut up about it it'll just go away and that's it's starting to do that finally because he has no new stuff to go off of.

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29:48And it's just ruining. Chrissy's just stressed out all the time because this guy's constantly calling and harassing him. He constantly calls Jake all the time, trying to get him to do anything or Jake won't answer it. We've blocked all his numbers, but he'll start calling from different numbers. So I think he's going to actually go to the known police and file a restraining order on the number and the guy.

30:16Why did you guys not say anything to me about this before?

30:24Well, you were pretty young, and it didn't involve you in any of it, so we didn't feel like it was necessary to put you through something you didn't have to go through because, you know, we just wanted to tell the cops what our family was doing, so we were in the clear because we knew we were and that's why we chose to do the interviews with him. We didn't have to do anything because they weren't worried about you. You were just a kid. They just wanted to talk to his immediate friends and family which we kind of were. And then they did. They cleared everybody. And then that was the end of it. That's been the end of it for all these years until this guy.

31:06It pops out of nowhere and brings all this stuff up and twists everything and starts, you know, he's falsely accusing everybody with no evidence. He puts out zero evidence because he has none. He's just going off what he thinks and what he believes. He doesn't know Gnome. He doesn't know any of the family. He doesn't know about the wildlife of Gnome. He doesn't know how things work in the bush. He has no clue. He lives in the freaking East Coast somewhere. You guys both know if a bear kills something, they leave evidence. Not always. They bury him pretty quick. That's why we searched so much, because we were trying to find something.

31:44But we're not knowing where he ran exactly. You know, that's a huge area. It's hard to search that. Even though we had so many people searching, we didn't find anything. The crazy part about it is that there's nothing. I thought him and Chrissy were together at one point. No, they were never together. They were just close friends. but that guy um that that girl uh they was having an affair with the husband after joseph died just lost his marbles he was a teacher at the school he totally lost his marbles i think they got divorced and he left he just left home he just went nuts he went crazy but this guy's not saying anything about them or looking into that even though maybe it's nothing but he's not looking into that why why just all why just the Pascoy's because they're successful because you know they're in positions of of high not high power but in big positions around Nome with you know Carol and you know Tom being you know Captain Alaska and and dude being in law enforcement so So, you know, this other guy is just a teacher or whatever, so he's not a big enough story, I guess, to go down that rabbit hole.

33:05Even though maybe there's nothing there, I don't know anything about it, but I know that Joseph was messing around with that little girl. Did Kevin mess with tracks? Yeah, I know when we drove down there that one time and saw his car, we parked on the road and we were walking around his car, and it was unlocked. So, yeah, that may have messed up tracks and stuff, But at that point, none of us were thinking that, you know, something bad, bad had happened to him. You know, afterwards, because once he didn't show back up Monday for work and then they reported him missing. And then we all started, I don't remember how many days it was before we started the search.

33:38We drove down to where he had said he was going to be and we could see his truck right there. And so we walked around there, obviously looking. They may have been at the same time. I'm not sure. But I do know we went down there and we looked around that car that one time. And I do remember it unlocked, but there was just nothing of his, there was nothing there. I mean, the cops went down, went over that whole car anyway. They went through everything. We didn't mess with anything.

34:07We wouldn't have known that it was going to be a criminal case anyway at that point. We were just trying to figure out where he went.

34:19Yeah, I wish we could fight this guy. I wish I could get on there in my own words and be like, hey, you know what? You dumbass. I can't look at past your manifest. I don't know you. I don't know where you live. I don't even know what you fucking look like, much less anything. Why would I be looking for you coming to know him? I could care less where you're going. And I cannot look at that. I would get fired if I could look at people's manifests. I can't do that. I have no way to do that. Even on my company material, I'm not allowed to. We can't see that. but that would just give him more ammo to keep going after stuff no there's no way and i think that's why alaska never said anything to me if he even said anything to them i think he's lying about it i think he's just saying it to try to get a rise out of us if they track stuff very they're very good on security they would have texted me right away and be like hey do you know what's going on with this is this guy you know i haven't heard a word in months from them about any of it so i don't think he even went to a lot i think he put it on there trying to keep the story going.

35:19Were you guys aware that they were investigating possible foul play? Well, yeah, they put it right out there. That's why they came. The cops got involved right away because they were, they went missing. We couldn't find him. So of course they get involved. They have to go down these routes because we did, we weren't required to. They didn't ask us to. We did them voluntarily. There's a felony charge. If you know about foul play and don't say anything. Is that a possibility? No, it isn't because they've already cleared us and put us out of the system because we all approved where we were. I have flight manifests of where I was during the whole time when I was flying at Ryanair.

35:57All that's documented. So I'm clear. Bonnie was working at Bering Air. That's clear. Jake has, he was working. They know where he was. They know where everybody was. And that's why we did all this stuff. So they knew, hey, we saw him drive by. I don't remember what days it was, but we saw him drive by while we were working at camp that weekend, and he did not stop, which we thought was odd. We made sure that we told him that. It's like Joseph should have stopped to say hi, and he didn't. He roared on by, and that's it. We can't say, yes, it was him in the car because we can't tell. But it kind of looked like him, but he went by so fast, it's hard to see who was in that car.

36:34Maybe it was somebody totally different. Maybe somebody did take him out and kill him and bury him, and they were trying to get his car down. Who knows? I mean, nobody knows. If no one comes forth and says anything, no one's ever going to know. That's the problem. But nobody in our family would have had any reason to do anything to harm him. He was our friend. He was a family friend. Why would Jake lie to the troopers? I think maybe because they were doing, you know, some illegal drugs in the house that they all lived in. and maybe he was scared something like that. I don't know. He was young and, you know, not as mature, obviously, as he is now.

37:17And so maybe that's why he just was scared about it. But he told the truth later and it was all clear. I mean, you should call him and ask him. Call him and talk about it. He'll be open with you about it. He's a grown man now. He'll tell you everything. He'll tell you exactly why. I mean, to be better than, you know, thinking that, you know, I mean, having you think something Jake's trying to hide something, just, you know, don't be a man about it. I'm calling him up and asking him. He'll tell you. He'll tell you exactly everything that happened. The whole thing doesn't make sense because people just don't disappear off the face of the earth like that.

37:52And maybe they already looked into all that stuff in the original investigation and didn't do anything about it because they figured it out. I don't know. Maybe this guy is not putting his whole truth out there. If he's saying, well, someone is using his credit card, well, maybe he's not finishing off the story that well, the cops found out that this card had been taken and it was being used and it was canceled. You know, maybe he's just trying to spin a story to say somebody, you know, you know, did something to him and she's in his cards, you know. I'm sure the FBI turned over every single leaf in this whole thing already.

38:25I'm sure that's why it's a closed case now, because there was no evidence of anything found. Nothing. The whole family is choosing not to talk to Payne. Yeah, that's why we haven't said a word about it on anything. That's why we've deleted every single thing we can find of this guy, blocked him on all of our social medias. We've made all of our social medias private. Jake and Gwen have actually canceled all their Facebook stuff because this guy was harassing them so bad. He was taking pictures of their kids off of their Facebook. So this guy's kind of scaring them, so they closed all their accounts.

38:59We've shut down. We looked up the guy's name. If nobody did anything wrong, why is everybody so scared?

39:33but he doesn't, I mean, I haven't watched it. Is it a video or is it only, I don't know, the podcast has pictures and videos on them or not? It's on this other app then where these things are showing up then. But he's on that app and he's putting things on that app so people start talking about it. I think that's where some of our pictures have ended up on that, whatever that site is. But since then, we've, you know, we've blocked everything, so. Because he has no business getting into our stuff. This is our life he has no business prying into. You know what I mean? We don't go prying to his personal life.

40:08We don't prying to his Facebook. He's doing this as a business and making money off his lies and off his stories because he's a podcaster. This is how these podcasters make money. That's the same thing with politics. People do the same thing with politics. They slam other people. They drag dirt, supposed dirt up to try to ruin someone's reputation. Then later they find out, oh, it was all wrong. They just did it for political reasons. So this guy does it for money. He makes millions of dollars off this stuff.

40:49Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Your host is Payne Lindsey. The show is written by Payne Lindsey with additional assistance from Mike Rooney. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey. Lead producer is Mike Rooney along with producers Dylan Harrington and Cooper Skinner. Editing by Mike Rooney and Cooper Skinner with additional editing by Dylan Harrington. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Additional production by Victoria McKenzie, Alice Kanik-Glen, and Eric Quintana. Artwork by Rob Sheridan. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.

41:24Mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group. Special thanks to all of the families and community members that spoke to the team. Additional information and resources can be found in our show notes. For more podcasts like Up and Vanished, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening.

From the publisher

For the entire season, a few voices have been conspicuously absent; never speaking with Up and Vanished.

In this final episode, we present a recording that changes everything. For the first time, we hear directly from them. What they say adds a crucial new dimension to the investigation.

Joseph’s family deserves answers. Someone knows what happened.

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