In short
Up and Vanished: Episode 9 - Where The Kings Might Be
Episode Overview In this episode of *Up and Vanished*, host Payne Lindsey continues the investigation into the mysterious disappearances of two individuals, Florence Okpealuk and Joseph Balderas, in Nome, Alaska. The episode highlights Lindsey's persistent quest for truth amid challenges posed by the local law enforcement's lack of responsiveness.
Key Themes and Concepts
Disappearances in Nome, Alaska
- Florence Okpealuk and Joseph Balderas went missing from a small coastal town, Nome, Alaska.
- The isolation of Nome creates a unique environment for rumor and misinformation, complicating the investigation.
Communication and Misinformation
- Lindsey receives alarming news from a family member of Florence regarding a supposed body found, which later turns out to be false.
- The episode emphasizes the emotional toll and chaos caused by conflicting reports in small communities.
Law Enforcement Challenges
- Lindsey expresses frustration over the lack of action from local law enforcement, including the Alaska State Troopers and the FBI.
- He highlights the disparity between public expectations of law enforcement and their actual responses to missing person cases.
Investigation Process
- Lindsey and his team undertake a thorough review of both cases, trying to connect dots with the limited available information.
- The episode reveals the complicated nature of investigations into cold cases, necessitating discernment about which leads to pursue.
Joseph Balderas
A Closer Look
- Background: Joseph was charismatic and loved Alaska. He planned to marry his fiancée, Megan, shortly before his disappearance.
- Last Known Movements:
- Joseph allegedly went out with friends on the night of June 24, 2016, and was seen at local bars.
- His last confirmed communications were with Christine, a friend, who claimed to have seen him at the beach on June 25.
Contradictory Accounts
- Lindsey uncovers discrepancies in witness accounts regarding Joseph's last hours, particularly from Christine and her sister Kim, raising suspicions about the accuracy of their testimonies.
- Investigations reveal that Christine's phone was wiped clean shortly after Joseph's disappearance, which adds to the mystery.
Theories and Speculations
- Lindsey explores various theories about Joseph's fate, including potential wildlife encounters, accidents, or foul play.
- The lack of evidence found during searches, along with conflicting testimonies, raises more questions than answers about what happened to Joseph.
Emotional and Psychological Impacts
- The emotional weight of missing persons cases is highlighted through Lindsey's reflections on the impact on families and friends.
- The episode captures the sense of urgency and despair that accompanies the search for missing individuals.
Conclusion This episode of *Up and Vanished* intricately weaves together the stories of Florence Okpealuk and Joseph Balderas, illustrating the complexities of unresolved cases in remote communities. Lindsey's investigative journey underscores the importance of perseverance in seeking justice and truth while navigating the challenges posed by misinformation and law enforcement inadequacies.
Key Takeaways
- The isolation of Nome contributes to a unique culture of rumor and misinformation.
- Law enforcement's lack of response can hinder the resolution of missing persons cases.
- Witness testimonies can often conflict, complicating investigations.
- Emotional toll on families is significant, as they grapple with uncertainty and loss.
- The investigation into cold cases requires tenacity, attention to detail, and often leads to more questions than answers.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00You're listening to a Tenderfoot TV podcast. Toyota-thon is on, so stop by your local Toyota dealer for incredible year-end deals on the cars, trucks, and SUVs known for their legendary reliability, like the stylish and efficient Camry, the ready-for-anything RAV4, or check out a rough-and-rugged Tacoma or Tundra, all with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers. Visit BuyAToyota.com, the official website for deals, to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. Welcome to Radio Rental. The scariest stories you've ever heard in your life. All told by real people. And off we go.
0:50This wasn't a human being that I saw. There's something here in this house, something not of this world. There was a woman moving through the hall. I stepped back and I was completely alone. Radio Rental is available now. Listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:33physical, 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.
1:57Hello. Hey. I'm so scared. I'm so scared. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. They phoned her head. They phoned her head. They called me on my phone and said that the fisherman's class is hooked out, and then he pulled the fucking head in. So they have to go identify her. Okay, we'll just... I'm so fucking scared. It's okay. I know, I know. It's very scary. I feel fucking scared. I want to be by myself. I need some abuse. I can't be by myself. Okay. Where's your brother at? Why don't you call your brother and tell him what you told me? He's not answering. No response. He's not answering. I'm going to fucking go crazy.
2:48I'm by myself right now. I don't fucking be by myself. I don't fucking be by myself.
2:59Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. I just got a call from Blair. She's really upset. She said that they found a head in the water, and they think that it might be flow, and they want her to go identify it. That's all that I know. So I said I would call you, and I don't know any more details than that. Okay. Okay. Thank you for calling.
3:38Every single part of a missing person's case is a tragedy. The weight of this kind of loss I truly cannot imagine. The searching, the not knowing, and the constant fear of finding out the worst. A few months ago, I had just flown back from Alaska, and I met my younger brother, Mason, at a local bar in Atlanta for a beer. The first question he asked me was, how's the case going? By the time the beers hit the table, I checked my phone, and I noticed five missed calls from Blair, Flo's sister. This was unusual. I had an awful gut feeling. I stepped away into the bathroom and called her back.
4:45Fifteen minutes later, I'm back sitting next to my brother, who's looking at me like I'm insane. And all I could say was, you're not going to believe what just happened. What my instincts told me was that Blair was seriously in distress, and something bad had really happened here. So I started calling other friends and family at Florence, for them to find Blair as soon as possible to figure out what happens next. Throughout the next several hours, I received various texts, anxiously awaiting some form of update.
5:23Who told her this? Are the police involved? Was it a real human head they found in the water? Is this Florence Okpialik's body? Then things became a little muddier, and that skeptic part of my brain kicked in. Did anyone actually find anything at all?
5:47The rumor mill in a small town like Nome, Alaska is incomparable to almost any other town in the lower 48. And I've seen my fair share of unsolved murders in small-town America. Osceola, Georgia. Crestone, Colorado. Browning, Montana. But Nome is different. Much more isolated from the rest of the world. And sometimes people simply start saying shit. And most of the time, it's hurtful, negative, and false. The tricky part is, sometimes, they're telling the truth. It's so easy for it to get lost in the sea of white noise. The following morning, I was up at 6am sharp, in full investigation mode. Calling and texting everyone I could think of.
6:39Also being conscious that a false alarm like this is devastating.
6:51Ultimately, I did find the truth. No head was found in the water. No body either. No clothing. Nothing at all, actually. Just a couple of drunk townies spreading lies to Flo's sister, arguably in her most vulnerable state. When the cat's out of the bag that someone, anyone serious at all, is actively pursuing the truth in a disappearance, people start to act strangely. Sometimes it's almost like people can't help themselves and have to say something no matter how nonsensical it is. And other times, people are intentionally making up false rumors to throw off an investigation. In this case, I think we're dealing with the latter.
7:38Needless to say, things are complicated. The trickiest part in navigating a true crime investigation of this nature is knowing when to divulge what information and when, and what to do with all the tips we're receiving literally daily in the meantime. You can't keep chasing all the white rabbits, but you can't ignore them either. And right now, I'm sitting on a mountain of information, and I'm hoping that somewhere in there is a real answer. So, it's been a while. I know I said June, and now it's August. I'm sorry. It's also been a while since Florence Okpialik went missing, and Joseph Balderas.
8:211 ,435 days since Flo went missing, 2 ,963 since Joseph did. And I'm emphasizing this truly because of how dumbfounded I've become by the lack of response in both of these cases by law enforcement themselves. Whether it be the Alaska State Troopers, the known police, or even the FBI. But to be honest with you, I never thought they'd help solve these cases to begin with. If a loved one goes missing, no one's first thought is a podcast being a real thing. It's the law enforcement that should be doing interviewing, not investigative journalists, not private investigators. You can give people authority, but you can't make them care.
9:07So let's zoom out for a second. A lot, and I mean a lot, has happened since we left off. And my brain feels scrambled. But maybe this is what it feels like when you're starting to get close to something. You can feel it. Blurry in the moment, but slowly it all starts to come into focus. And maybe it's just the wishful thinking in me. That magical thinking. Or maybe sometimes you just strike at the right time. I came to Nome, Alaska with zero expectations. But from the second I touched down there, I knew in my gut there was a serious problem with their law enforcement. Frankly, I don't care why these cases are unsolved.
9:48That's a different investigation altogether. I'm not here to poke at their mishaps, pitfalls, and any mistakes that were made. But what I do care about, and what my stubborn self can care a little too much about sometimes, is someone standing in the way of finding the truth. We're either going around you or through you. I have a team of some of my very best friends. Day in and day out, night after night, we've never stopped dissecting these cases. And the break that we took was just what we needed for the dust to settle and for the case to start breathing again. And so, let's dive right into it.
10:32But first, let's recap where we left off. This guy, I just know he was a cab driver in town, and a lot of people didn't like him. He was a cab driver for Checker Cab. He dropped everybody else off but her. And he says, you know what, I could have killed you, and nobody would have known about it. The gentleman who owned the tent, the minor, this minor may have been involved. We just didn't have the help that we needed to find her. Why aren't the police doing anything? There was a man. He was sitting here drinking, and he was talking about... I seen her down West Beach. She was partying with some of the miners down there.
11:17Do you feel like the police have done enough to solve her case? No. It feels and looks like they haven't done anything. The number of missing people does not really match the population of the area. Is the police chief in today? No, he is out the office this week. May I ask you folks here to watch birdie? Records request with governments, they can be months long. He pulled out a knife. This guy, his name starts with J. You're in a town with 3 ,000 people. You're telling me no one saw anything, no one has come forward? I don't even know his last name. What was the name that you knew him about? Oregon John.
12:09I was the last person to see her alive, besides the guy that killed her.
12:30Da-da-da-da-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
12:55As a listener, you need to know that there have been two things going on here. I've talked a lot about serendipity, and I don't know what it all means, but sometimes weird shit just happens. Stuff you can't really explain. You may recall from episode one of this season, the email I received from Deila about Florence Akpialik's case, after we were looking into it, and before we ever told a soul about this season at all. I also received another email. Hi, I'm the attorney for Joseph Balderas' family. Joseph went missing under suspicious circumstances in Nome, Alaska during the summer of 2016. The Alaska State Troopers treated it as a lost hiker case and barely conducted an investigation.
13:45We're at a dead end with our investigation, which is why I'm reaching out to you. We hired a private investigator. His name is Andy Clamser. One of Joseph's friends contacted me early on. Everybody was pretty consistent about what they said about Joseph. Charismatic, smart, loved Alaska, planning to get married. You're dealing with basically a successful professional person who just vanishes. The reality is, our investigation into the disappearance of Florence Okpialik and Joseph Valderas started on the very same day. Let's go back in time two years ago. Hi, it's Katie. Hey, Katie, it's Payne.
14:33I received an email from a woman named Katie. She's an attorney and a family friend of Joseph's. I'm good friends with Joseph where I was, and we all just really did anything we could think of to try to figure out what happened to Joseph. I think the first goal is to find him, to give his family some peace, and the second goal would be to figure out what happened. I reached out to you. Andy Klanser was our private investigator, put a lot of resources into using him. We were immediately blessed with the years of hard work put in by Joseph's family and numerous private investigators. And they sent us more documents, audio, video, in-depth records and files than I've personally ever seen.
15:18This gave us an amazing vantage point from the beginning. And the more we looked into Joseph's case, the more Flo's case became intertwined. As you peel back a layer, there's something new that's odd and doesn't make sense.
15:37I'm an attorney. I worked in the DA's office in Anchorage for a couple of years. I wasn't anti-law enforcement. I wanted to support the troopers and think they were doing a good job. The troopers did such a shitty investigation. In the early weeks after Joseph disappeared, she helped connect the dots. Working pro bono, finding trusted private investigators, doing all the work that law enforcement didn't. Andy Clamser, who you've heard before on the podcast, took on this case full time, and he's been investigating it for years now. His truck was found parked, backed into a pullout. It became a very big deal in Nome quickly.
16:15It's really unusual to not find the body, especially since they had a half dozen different teams of tracking dogs out there. If he got attacked by a bear, that would have been super messy. You'd think that the dogs would have found that. And bears don't eat backpacks. When they heard the news he was missing, Joseph's friends and family frantically made their way to Nome, spearheading the search efforts. For days on end, with the help of helicopters, planes, search dogs, and dozens of individuals on the ground, their search ultimately yielded nothing. In the eyes of Joseph's sister, Selina, this just wasn't sitting well.
16:54And before long, like everyone else, she began to hear other twisted tales of what may have really happened. On their last day in town, Joseph's sister, Selina, and several family friends all met with the Alaska State Troopers at their office in Nome. Selena recorded their conversation. This is from eight years ago, right after Joseph went missing. I'm trying to coordinate and getting dogs in and out, and I'm still collecting the maps, and we're doing that. And again, we're limited. There's only so much less, and we want to find it. I go to a scene to investigate a domestic violence assault. My reports aren't written by the time I get back to jail.
17:32I have to do it later. That's basically what I'm telling you. The documentation part is so important for us because we're human who happen to be troopers, and we forget things. I paid Trooper Strobel to come in on his day off to document what he did for those two days. He came in on his Saturday. He was sitting in here going through the log, seeing who was here, and sitting in his computer and typing. And he typed for probably four hours. Yeah. So was that it of the investigation? Well, no. No, there's... We follow up every single lead. Every single lead that comes to us, we follow it up. And...
18:15We're not trying to attack y 'all at all, because I kind of feel like y 'all are feeling like we are, and we're not... we're just trying to... We're just desperate at this point. You're reaching for it. Yeah, we don't have much time here. We're desperate. We want to know what happened to our brother, and we need to know now. And even if my brother isn't alive, we need to find him. So even if he's not alive, we want him back. So we need to do anything we can. That's why we're asking all these questions.
18:53The Boulderis family was living a nightmare. having traveled across the entire country, searching for Joseph and yielding nothing. Then being faced with the reality that they're going to have to go back home soon, without Joseph, without answers. And now, a shit ton more questions. Unfortunately, we're trying to explain to you the Department of Public Safety's position. We've had to call off searches before when we didn't want to. But the decision is made not just from a standpoint of the time, but the lack of clues. Here's the thing, the lack of clues is in itself a clue. What kind of clue is it?
19:37Well, we need to figure that out. We need to take five steps back and shake it off and revisit. And it starts by, quote, starting from the beginning. The state's conclusion, he had been attacked by a bear or had some kind of accident. and they just didn't find the body. That scenario, that he was attacked by a bear, somehow the body was hidden, those pieces weren't fitting together. Look, it's Alaska. It's Nome, Alaska. Population 3 ,000. There is clearly some serious wildlife out there. The state of Alaska alone is home to approximately 30 ,000 grizzly bears. Between the year 2000 and 2017, there were seven recorded fatalities from grizzly bear attacks.
20:29While these fatal encounters most certainly have occurred, and do occur, statistically, they're exceedingly rare. Grizzly bears are scary, powerful creatures, and they can most certainly kill you. They usually leave behind a familiar chaotic and graphic scene. Human remains are usually scattered about, personal belongings left damaged, and there's general signs of a struggle, like disturbed vegetation, blood, bear tracks. These things are almost always found at the scene. But for Joseph, however, he just simply vanished. If he did die by a bear attack, then the bear itself left not one trace of it.
21:09Being killed by a bear is already a statistical anomaly. But this is an even bigger one. Joseph does go camping and he goes hiking and he's very smart. He's not stupid. He's traveled all over the world. He's not stupid. He knows. Also, what's so weird is on his tablet, there was so much information about bear safety. There was. Joseph Balderas carried an extreme love and respect for wildlife. Joseph was also someone who understood and respected both the beauty and power of mother nature a few summers before he went missing he documented a trip to alaska with his brother and friends welcome to alaska this is it this is my little piece of home here
22:03that's open ocean out there I don't know if you can tell the waves and some pretty good sized swells I'm not going to be out here too long I just wanted to come get a picture of it and video you can certainly feel the magnitude of the ocean when you're on this you don't really want to fuck around out there Gives me the heebie-jeebies just being there here. Cruise ship. That's a badass boat on his camera. Yeah, I can't get that good of a zoom on it. Is that an Australian boat? Russia? Huh, Joseph? Well, that one we saw in this town, remember, it was from Russia. You see there's beautiful women on there.
22:46That's neat.
22:50We gotta do this for LVM. Hey, Buffalo!
23:17He knew how to have a good time. But he also knew how to stay safe. The more you look into it, the more unanswered questions and red flags there were. There's some very suspicious things. His fiancée was alarmed right away. His usual practice was to stay in touch with her multiple times a day. Joseph wasn't responding to anything. So for him to not respond to her messages was very unusual. Joseph was just weeks away from moving to Juneau, Alaska, to reunite with his fiancée, Megan, right before he disappeared. He's talked to me about her. He was very in love with her. He would text her right away.
24:09She sent us all the messages. I mean, they're like, there is no wait time. If she messaged him, he messaged her right back. Good morning, Meg. I hope you have a good Friday. In fact, I know you will. I'm sure Cafe International is going to be hopping today and I'm sure you're gonna have a good lunch and I'm sure you're gonna have good walks and a good hike. But I just wanted to say also that I love you and have a great day, babe. Bye.
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27:05I love you, Meg and Renee, and I hope you have a great day. Bye, my love. This is Joseph. He would send these to his fiancée, Megan, pretty often. Random voice notes in between all their texts and calls. Hey, good morning, Meg. I hope you slept well. I know I slept a little bit better, good sleeper, but it's a nice day out here. I hope you have a nice day, and I look forward to talk to you later. All right. Bye, love. Megan, I love you, and I want you to have a great day today. And I hope you know, well, I know that you know that you're the most amazing person in the world to me. Bye, my love.
27:46With his family's permission, we did our best to recreate Joseph's voice, to take you through his text communication with his fiancée, Megan, leading all the way up to the day that he vanished. Megan and Joseph mostly texted on WhatsApp, and they would do this throughout the day, every day, never taking too long to respond to each other. They were clearly in love. I just had pizza again tonight, but it was so good. Love you. Oh, baby, you're cute. I'm on my nightly stroll. I would whistle at you if I saw you. I had dinner with the judge and co-workers. Fun night, but I'm beat. We can talk tomorrow, honey.
28:28You should get some shut-eye. Love you. Well, I'd like to talk for a little bit. At least say goodnight. I'm not going to sleep. It's not even nine. Okay, me too. I love you, Meg. Easily, our earliest hour to get off the phone. Goodnight, love. Love you, Jojo. Goodnight, my love. Love you, my darling. Forever. Here's a song for you, Everywhere, by Fleetwood Mac. Love you more than anything. Have the best day ever. I love you, baby. You mean everything to me. I love the song, too. Gonna listen to it on the way to work. On Monday, June 27th, 2016, Joseph did not show up for work in the morning, and he was officially reported missing.
29:20So sometime between Friday, June 24th and Sunday, June 26th, something happened. Thursday night, June 23rd. I love you, Megan Renee, more than anything.
29:39Friday, June 24th. The start of the weekend, he ultimately disappeared. First salmon of 2016. pink and obviously first fillet job on the beach in 2016. He sent Megan a picture of some fresh salmon he had caught. Thanks for the call, baby. Loved hearing your voice. You are the love of my life. I love you. You're the most beautiful woman in the world, my love. I'm heading back out. Sweet dreams. And you are the most handsome man in the world, my love. Sweet dreams. Have fun. Thinking of you. Are you home safe? I love you. Saturday morning, June 25th, around 9.30 in the morning. Yep. Probably going to head back out later to another river where the kings might be.
30:41Love you, Meg. This is Joseph's last outgoing message to his fiancée, Megan. Since then, he has not opened or read any other message that was sent to him. Love you so much, baby. I dreamt of you all night.
31:02Couch shopping. Wish you were here.
31:07Good night. Love you so much.
31:14I'm honestly getting a little worried now because I haven't heard from you and I can't sleep. Please text when you can and let me know you're safe. I'm worried.
31:41Because we don't know what happened to Joseph, we don't know when it happened either. In my mind, answering the second question is our first order of business. Accurately stitching together his last moves has been an exhaustingly tedious task. But with the help of original eyewitness testimony and Joseph's cell phone records, we've been able to pinpoint in approximate time that things start to get a little weird. Not long after Joseph went missing, the first PI the family hired traveled to Nome to conduct his own interviews, gathering statements from people who knew him. This is the earliest account we have on record.
32:19Today's date is July 28th. It's Thursday, 2016, approximately 7.05 p.m. Alaska time in the matter of Joseph Balderas. If everybody can announce who's on the phone, Selena, if you could start. The PI held a phone conference with Joseph's friends and family. Christine is important because she's the last person that we know saw Joseph alive. So she's a really important figure. Yes, yeah, we've been looking at her, putting together timelines with her. The first private investigator keyed in on a woman named Christine, a friend of Joseph's who lived in Nome. According to witness statements and Christine's own personal testimony, she is the last person to have seen him alive that weekend.
33:07Late in the evening, on Friday, June 24th, Joseph was alive and well. And we know this with great certainty, based on the texts with his fiancée, and more importantly, a phone call he placed to Megan earlier that night. Sometime after Joseph spoke to Megan on the phone, he allegedly goes downtown to the local bars in Nome. At around midnight that Friday night, he meets up with his friend Christine. According to Christine, her sister Kim was there also, making it two eyewitness accounts. Whatever happened to Joseph happened after midnight on Friday, June 24th. Over the course of the next few hours, Joseph's timeline starts to get a little confusing.
33:48The first private investigator interviewed Christine just a few weeks after he went missing. The purpose in me talking with you is I'm trying to kind of nail down his last steps to see if there's any way that I can put together some type of timeline. And I'm just going to give you these dates in case you forgot. June 24th, 25th, and 26th were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The 27th was a Monday, okay? Is that your understanding too? Yeah. I have a hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast, so. I know looking back a couple of weeks can be tough sometimes. You went out with Joseph on Friday or Saturday?
34:31It was Friday because he texted me about 12.15. That's what I was doing. And so I called him. He's like, well, I'm just getting some food. I was just wondering if he wanted to go out and have a few drinks. I said, okay, well, we're not quite leaving yet. And I don't think we met up with him until about one o 'clock. One o 'clock in the morning? Yeah. So technically Saturday. Yeah. And Polaris was the first place you went to? Yeah. We met up with him at Polaris.
35:00Who's we? Me, Kim, and Joseph. my sister and I met up with him. And we only stayed there probably for a shot and a drink, a shot and a beer. And then we went to... And a shot and a beer takes about how long for you guys? We were probably there for 20 minutes. And then after that, we just started visiting with people. And I don't know what he did after, but I know Kim and I had went to BOT. So according to Christine's testimony here, their night started at a local bar downtown called Polaris. She was there at the bar with Joseph, alongside her sister, Kim. They had a shot and a beer, and eventually moved down the street to a different bar, a bar called Breakers.
35:46BOT is the nickname for a bar downtown called the Board of Trade. You might remember this from Close Case. Let me back up a little bit. When you guys were at Polaris, Was there anybody else that you can remember him talking to? No, he was just there talking to us. How late do you think you were out that night? Until bar break. When's that? 2.45. And would you have been at BOT at that time then? Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to estimate the time you were at breakers for how long? Probably would say about a half an hour. So about until 2 o 'clock? Yeah, because usually that's when people head to BOT.
36:21So as far as this case is concerned, you would have no know abouts really where he went that night after 2? No. Okay. Because, I mean, I didn't text him, but I didn't call to check on him either, because usually he goes home. I mean, I've never known him to go to an after party. I mean, we didn't drink a lot all the time together, but I can know that he's not one to go out and party because of his job. and so I would say he probably went home. Backing up here for just a second, Christine initially meets Joseph at Polaris with her sister Kim for a shot and a beer. They eventually move to a bar called Breakers and from there, she parts ways with Joseph and Christine and her sister Kim go to the BOT bar, Board of Trade, just Christine and her sister, without Joseph.
37:17After interviewing Christine, the private investigator talked to her sister Kim in a separate room, in an attempt to gather her recollection of that night. And this is when things get way more confusing, or may I even say concerning. Hey Kim, I was hoping to chat with you. My name is Link. Nice to meet you. Okay, so Friday night you and your sister go out. Take me from there. Where do you go and what time? We went to Polaris. and then we must have been there for like half an hour maybe. Who's we? Me and her. Just you and her? Yeah. She said Joseph on his way over, and I said, okay. Then he comes and gets a beer.
38:03Do you know about what time he showed up? Like 12.30 maybe.
38:11And then he had a beer, and we went over to Breakers. and we stay there till about 2.30 and then I came home. They met Joseph at Polaris. Then they moved to a bar called Breakers. Got it. But then, according to Kim, she goes home, by herself, leaving Joseph and Christine together. And she never mentions or remembers going out to the BOT bar. Do you ever remember going to the BOT that night? Did you? Could you have or not? I don't think we did that night. I usually tend to try to not go to BOT because I usually see people I don't want to see. So I don't think we did. He was there. He was only there with us at Polaris and then at Breakers.
39:07You know, it was just that's where we hung out most of the night. And then him and Chrissy, I really felt like third will. Were he and Chrissy kind of kissy-kissy boyfriend-girlfriend, hold hands type relationship? Or just more brother-sister type relationship? I thought about that they were like boyfriend-girlfriend.
39:34I separated Christine and Kim into separate bedrooms. Did you hear how different their testimonies were? Their statements? Yeah, those were the red flags that came up across, you know, every red flag, I guess. Both Christine and Kim have very different recollections of that night. And hey, sometimes after a night of drinking, that can happen. Did we go here or there? What was the last spot? But when someone goes missing afterwards, these details become extremely important. In Christine's version, they partied ways with Joseph after the second bar called Breakers, and she spent the rest of her night with her sister Kim at the BOT bar.
40:15But Kim says she went to Polaris, then Breakers, and then went home afterwards, by herself. Just her. Leaving Joseph and Christine together. Kim also seemed to have a different viewpoint on Christine and Joseph's relationship. I thought about that they were like boyfriend-girlfriend. But Christine claims they were only friends. So you guys were never boyfriend-girlfriend then? No, we were just friends. We're good friends. My family adopted him. We took him right in. He fit right in. And my family thought we should date, but him and I, just friends. Better off friends. Mm-hmm.
40:59The differing accounts of Friday night are indeed confusing, but they could also mean absolutely nothing. Let's fast forward a few hours to the following morning, Saturday, June 25th, 2016. The PI asked Christine about the next day. The next day, about what time did you call him on Saturday? About 10.30. So at 10.27. It was about 10.27. You called him and said? We just talked about just generally whatever. I mean, there's really no specific, you know, okay, well, what are you going to do today? Well, I'm going to go to the beach and it's nice out. I'm going to eat. I'm going to shower. I'm going to clean up and then take the kids to the beach.
41:40About how long did you guys talk for? Probably about 20 to 25 minutes. Nothing specific, just real, like him and I were always real random. Whatever came up is whatever we talked about. Right. You don't remember any specific statements he ever made of, I'm going here, I'm going to do this or that? No, we talked about that at the beach. And so 1027 was when I first talked to him that day. And then I got, I showered, I cleaned up, and then I called him. The following morning, Christine makes a phone call to Joseph's cell phone at approximately 1030 a.m. Joseph's family provided us his cell phone records, which list out all ingoing and outgoing calls and texts, and the length of the calls.
42:21The contents of the text messages themselves aren't logged. According to Joseph's cell phone records, the call Christine made to his phone that Saturday morning lasted 27 minutes. So, not a quick call. I know I called him before 12.15, because it was about 12.18 is when I called him and he said he was coming to the beach. I said, okay, well, I'm already here. This is where I'm at. Look for my truck. He's like, okay, well, I'll have my blue truck. I said, okay, I'll see you. And then a few minutes went by, and then he came down there. And then we were there probably until about 2.30-ish, quarter to three, because by then it started getting really hot.
43:01Was he pretty hungover? It didn't seem like it. So you hung out at each beach for approximately how long? Probably about until 2.30, quarter to three, just about two hours. We let the kids play, just hung out. And so I asked him what he was going to do because I was like, well, it's nice out. I'm going to get ready. I'm going to get things and go to camp. You're welcome to go if you want. My gram's camp. And I was like, well, what are you going to do? He's like, well, I'm going to go fishing. And at that time, I didn't think there was any fish, but it's just my judgment because there's usually not.
43:33He's like, well, I'm going to go fishing. I said, where? He's like, at the mouth, at Nome River Mouth. I said, okay, so you don't want to go to camp? He's like, no. I said, why are you going to go fishing? There's really no fish. You're just going to go and look. He's like, well, I'll just go and look. Fishing where? At the mouth of the Nome River. And I kind of was like, why? There's no fish. He's like, I'm just going to go look. So I said, OK. And then that was that. Christine claims Joseph drove to meet her at the beach. Joseph stayed there at the beach with her until about 2.45 p.m., a little over two hours.
44:10At the time, Christine had her kids with her, as well as her sister Kim's kids, and apparently they were on the beach together with Joseph. These kids were pretty young, between four and five years old. She then invites him to go to her family's camp with her for a get-together they were having. But Joseph declines, and he tells Christine that he's going fishing, at the mouth of the Gnome River. Then Joseph gets in his truck, drives away, and was never seen again. Here's Joseph's sister, Selena. So it's just kind of weird that he partied all night, like literally till the wee hours, and then he gets up early and wants to go fishing.
44:47Kind of weird. No other eyewitnesses could place Joseph on the beach that day, despite the beach area itself being widely visible from the road and the general public. I left before him, and so I don't know which direction he went after that. Anything else you can think of that might be important? I've been trying to think but I have no idea I did angry and mad but I don't know where he is or was he upset about anything not that I know of because he was excited that he had mentioned to me before not the same weekend but had mentioned to me before that him and Megan were going to get married. I said, okay, well, I started asking questions that how long you've been dating?
45:39Wow, did you meet her? What do you guys plan to do? Because he was moving to Juneau, because his term was done here in August. And he seemed excited about it. And I said, okay, well, you guys have, let's see, you've been single for six years, right? He's like, yeah. And now you've been dating for what, six months ish. Yeah, you know, it was five months, six months and I was like and you're going to get married I was like don't you think that's a little dumb Joseph so in your mind you know the question I asked you earlier is do you have any idea what happened so in your mind one of the options that you don't think happened is he just walked off and just on purpose just trying to disappear you don't think that I don't know why he would do that yeah I don't see why I mean I don't think so so you essentially are concluding that that well, you couldn't really get lost out there, but you're thinking maybe that nature had a role in this?
46:38I have no idea. I mean, I'm still having faith that he's out there somewhere. Bear with me for a second. Saturday morning, Christine calls Joseph's cell phone in a call that lasts 27 minutes. She doesn't remember what they talked about. She places another call to Joseph sometime after 12 p.m. noon, and then they meet up at the beach and stay there for about two hours. Sometime after 2.45 p.m., Joseph hops in his truck and drives off to go fishing, but no one has seen him since then. Looking through Joseph's cell phone records, something about that Saturday meeting at the beach that apparently lasted over two hours didn't really make sense to me.
47:18Here's why. I can see the call Christine made to him at 10.36 a.m., a 27-minute call. Then, at 12.46 p.m., Christine calls Joseph's phone again. This call lasted about a minute and five seconds. Based on Christine's account, this would presumably be the call she made where Joseph agrees to meet her at the beach. And if they spent over two hours there, then Joseph must have arrived at the beach pretty quickly after this 12.46 p.m. call. But here's what his records show. After Christine's call at 12.46 p.m., Christine texts Joseph at 12.55 p.m. Then she texts Joseph again at 1 p.m. Then she calls Joseph a third time at 1.18 p.m., a call that lasted 48 seconds.
48:05This is about 45 minutes to an hour after Joseph is supposed to have already been at the beach with her. Maybe her times are off. But then, at 1.32 p.m., Christine again texts Joseph. By this point, if what she's saying is true, Joseph should most certainly be at the beach already, especially if they stayed there for over two hours, like she says, and that he left no later than 2.45pm to go fishing. So, in conclusion, we're pretty much missing an entire hour here. Either that, or Christine was calling and texting Joseph when they were together at the beach, when she was literally right in front of him.
48:40Mmm, I just don't like it. We only have Joseph's phone records to go off of. Joseph's actual cell phone is missing along with him. So the only way we could find out more about what they were talking about that day is from Christine's phone. The private investigator asked Christine if she could supply the text to his family. Do you still have the text that you can refer to? I had to restore my phone because the passcode got disabled. I was not very happy. But we didn't get to see those texts. My brother disabled my phone. He messed with my pen, you know. That night? No, that day. Sunday? Sunday.
49:19Oh, no. And so I was so mad because, I mean, everything I had was, you know, the text messages, the call logs, they were still there. And then he disabled it. And I couldn't remember my pin code because, you know, on the iPhones, I could use my thumb. And so that's what I was using. And so he disabled it. So every pin code I thought I thought it would be, I used and it wasn't. So it ended up disabling it. And then I had to connect to iTunes to restore it. Her phone was completely wiped on Sunday. I don't work at the Apple Store or Genius Bar, but I'm loosely familiar with what she's talking about.
49:59If you try to put in the wrong pin code enough times on an iPhone, eventually, after a while, it will lock you out of the phone forever. Then you'll have to plug it into your computer to reset and restore it to its last saved moment on iCloud. So her phone is erased immediately after Joseph disappears. Her entire phone is erased. That is a little bit kind of concerning. You know, that leads you to kind of lean towards the idea that maybe she... I highly doubt. No, I've met her. Yeah, she's definitely lying. And her account of the phone lock, for instance, is actually impossible. 29-year-old brother was taking a picture and locked her phone.
50:41Yeah, that's not true. That cannot be true. She said her brother, I believe it was her brother, did something with, you know, you have your code to get into it. And then he did it so many times that she had to factory reset it, which didn't make any sense. That's not how, you know, that's not what happens. So it was just this like really flimsy excuse. Very weird timing, for sure. On every iPhone, you can take a picture without having to unlock it. There's literally a camera icon on the bottom right of the home screen. I don't know why it didn't back up because I have it automatically synced to iCloud as a backup, and it didn't.
51:23And so when I went to restore my phone Sunday night, I had to create it as a new one. So all the text messages, all the call logs, everything I had on my phone was gone. But even if you create it as a new one, your iCloud didn't save all your old data? No, nothing came up to ask me if I wanted to pick this date. You know, how you can go back and say, okay, back it up to this day. It never did ask me. It just asked if I wanted to set up as a new one or whatever the other option was on iTunes. One, that's not the laptop that I, I didn't sync this to a laptop because my laptop's gone. And so I didn't sync it to that one because that one didn't have iTunes.
52:03I had to download iTunes Sunday to restore it. Regardless of why or how Christine had to completely restore her phone that day, it's just a major red flag, plain and simple. Sometimes it can be really easy to nitpick the small details in a case like this, or hyperanalyze someone's behavior. But when you start adding up all these other weird things about Christine's account that weekend, her sister's completely different recollection of Friday night, phone records that don't match the narrative, and the possibility that her and Joseph were more than just friends, this starts to become something you should not and cannot ignore.
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54:20Trying to make sense of it all is maddening. The reality is, we simply need more information. So we kept digging, going through files and papers, all provided by the private investigators and Joseph's family. Before Christine was ever interviewed by the private investigator, she was initially interviewed by the Alaska State Troopers. We got our hands on the official police report. According to the official police report, Christine claims that she was with Joseph at the beach on Saturday from approximately 2.45 p.m. to 3.15 p.m. Wait, what? Christine told the PI she was with him for over two hours and that he left the beach no later than 2.45.
55:03So was she with Joseph for 30 minutes or two hours? And did he leave the beach at 2.45? Or is that when he got there? There now feels to be way more than just a lot wrong with Christine's story. But why? Why? That's a question that's always bothered Joseph's family. And one thing you'll learn about the Balderas' is their fighters. Their investigation has never stopped. A few years later, Joseph's sister, Selina, managed to get her hands on another set of phone records — Christine's phone records — and they make things even more puzzling than they already are. Just like Joseph's phone logs, they don't show the contents of their texts, but I can see way further back in their communication.
55:48Going back several months, between April 29th, 2016 and June 24th, 2016, the night she met Joseph at the bar, Christine never once called Joseph. Literally not one time. Only texts. But she texted him frequently. Then, all of a sudden, starting that Friday night, Christine calls Joseph a total of 16 times in a period of less than 24 hours. Then, he goes missing. What is the deal here?
56:23And what about Joseph's last message to his fiancée Megan that morning? Around 9.30 a.m., he allegedly texts his fiancée Megan via WhatsApp, saying, Yep, probably going to head back out later to another river where the kings might be. Love you, Meg. And then from that exact moment forward, he never opens or reads any more of her messages. By any account of Christine's story, Joseph didn't leave to go fishing until at least 2.45 p.m. or even as late as 3.30, meaning Joseph was still in town, in Nome, with cell service, but for over five hours, he didn't even read or open his fiancée's messages.
57:07This was completely out of character for him. I asked the private investigator Andy Clamser to put me in touch with Megan, Joseph's former fiancé, to ask her about those messages. And the very first thing she told me has sent me down an entirely new rabbit hole. The tone and nuance of his last text message to me on Saturday morning just seemed different. He said, love you, instead of I love you. It just seemed strange. I don't think it was really him. Coming this season, in chapter two of Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun. There was also an issue with apparently texting your friends to try and get them to create an alibi.
57:55I was nervous and I didn't know how to deal with it. I was trying to save my skin. Same skin from what though? It's not like you were doing anything wrong.
58:07The roommate lied about his whereabouts on Saturday night. Payne, I have a video. It has to do with Balderas. I'm scared. Trust me.
58:47Up and Vanished in the Midnight Sun is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Your host is Payne Lindsay. The show is written by Payne Lindsay 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.
59:22Mixed 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.
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From the publisher
The second chapter of Up and Vanished: In The Midnight Sun returns, in this continuation of the series Lindsey returns his focus back to the last frontier. Florence Okpealuk and Joseph Balderas both went missing from the small coastal town of Nome, Alaska where Payne and his team attempt to continue on with or without the local law enforcement's blessing.
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