Kristal Reisinger: Part 4 - Fried Rice

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1:23up 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 crystal risinger vanished in the summer of 2016 from the small town of crestone colorado a place known for its spirituality its isolation and as i'd come to learn its secrets Crystal was a mother, a poet, a deep thinker. And she didn't just disappear. Someone made her disappear. And now, after years of dead ends, we're closer than ever to knowing who is responsible. For years, two names kept coming up.

2:12Two men who, by all accounts, were some of the last people to see Crystal alive. But now, they're both dead. Catfish John and Dreddy Bryan. Which in a case like this can feel like the end of the road. But it isn't. Because the truth didn't die with them. It's still out there. In the people who knew them. The ones who were there. And the ones who have stayed silent all this time. And now you can help. But only if you're brave enough to come forward.

3:09From Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, this is Up and Vanished. I'm your host, Payne Lindsey.

3:18so four years ago in july of 2021 i got an email at first it seemed like just another tip one of the hundreds that come in for cases like this but this one was different a woman reached out to me with something she said i needed to hear this is the transcript of our email exchange An inmate in Sumter County, Florida says he has information for you. He won't contact the CBI, and definitely not the county sheriff, but he says he will talk to you. I responded, do you know this person, and could you put me in contact? Yes, I do. He's my boyfriend. Okay, great. Here's my cell phone number. When I talked to him a few days ago, he said he had information.

4:04He isn't currently allowed phone calls, but you can e-message him on the Securus app. Does he know something about Crystal? He's on restriction, and he's an inmate. He can't make phone calls for 15 days, but he can message you on the app. He says he knows what happened to Crystal. He used to live with Catfish. He's from Crestone. All you need is a secure account to talk to him. He told yesterday, in a jail recording, that he had some information. He said, has information for Payne Lindsay, specifically for you. She told me there was a man sitting in prison, someone with intimate knowledge, of Crystal Reisinger's disappearance.

4:48And he wanted to confess, but not to police, not to an attorney, to me specifically. That email changed everything. It sent my investigation on an entirely new course, one that led me straight to a man with the nickname Rice, which may sound familiar. Jetty Brian, Cat, there was a guy, Rice, Rice came to my name. Four years passed, and that nickname, Rice, slowly faded into the background. That is, until just a few weeks ago. But let's back up. From the very beginning, from the very start of season two, all the way back in 2018, state law enforcement, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, was in contact with us.

5:40Dozens and dozens of phone calls, meetings, texts, for months. I just never aired these recordings. We had a sort of handshake agreement, keeping our relationship professional, keeping it out of the public eye. And because I kept my word, because I never released those tapes, something happened that almost never does in cases like this. They started to trust me. They started to trust the podcast. Let's go back. Hey, man, it's Payne. Hey, Payne, how are you? Years after season two was done airing, I got a random phone call one day from an investigator at the CBI. His name was Kevin, and he told me that the original investigator, now retired, had vouched for me.

6:28And because of that, and only that, he wanted to speak with me regarding Crystal's case. Because now, the state of Colorado has an entire cold case unit dedicated to finding out what really happened to Crystal. And for the first time, we're actually working together. Unofficially, but officially. I've been doing this a long time and law enforcement is getting a bad rap right now. And if we can resolve that, you know, if I can make even one person go, hmm, maybe the cops aren't that bad. Yeah. That's important to me, too. Yeah. I told a few people that we were doing this and they're like, why did they agree to do that with you guys?

7:06I was like, honestly, I think they just, you know, are willing to try stuff. First of all, I can't believe I've been sitting here with one of these things on. I'm serious. Because I've been doing this. I can tell. A long, long time. And I have never done this. I never thought I would. I always told myself never. Could you just tell me like in your own words, like why you decided to reach out to me in the first place to talk about Crystal's case? So in reviewing the case, there was people that you talked to that I don't know that would have talked to law enforcement. And I think it was important for me to have that information for my investigation.

7:46information. I think we talked previously that there's people that don't want to talk to law enforcement that will talk to you. And that information may or may not be valuable, but I would like to at least be able to review it and see how it might be applicable to what I'm doing in my investigation. So that was my number one reason. The number two reason is I felt you guys actually cared about this case. I did listen to your podcast and I thought that you did a good job. You were very thorough and you had a lot of community interest. With your community interest, I was hopeful that I could get a message out that we're still working on this case and we want to resolve it.

8:27I did not work on this case. This case was handled by other agents. I'd heard about it and then I heard other people talking about your podcast and, oh, it's very interesting. So I listened to it and I thought, wow, this is great. Fast forward to last year, this case was assigned to me and I recalled your podcast. I re-listened to it and I thought you had valuable information. Sometimes I think that the media is helpful. Sometimes I don't think they are. And in this instance, I thought you guys were trying to be very helpful. Just your overall perspective that you generated through the podcast that you cared about crystal her family and you also wanted a resolution how many times have you called a podcaster to help figure it out zero i have never called the media for anything in any one of my cases of course we want the resource that the media has to offer to us is to get the word out there to get a picture out to get video out and ask for assistance from the public.

9:38We need their help in these cases. We need their help in the majority of the cases we work. But have I ever just reached out to somebody such as yourself and said, can we talk about this? I think you have information that might be valuable. I've never done that. What I gathered from listening to your podcast is you had a genuine real-life connection to this case and you want to solve it as much as I do. You want to know what happened to Crystal. So not knowing you, but knowing kind of your take on this case and who you are, I think some people, they're more apt to talk to you than they are to law enforcement.

10:16But why is that, you think? Well, I think some people have things to hide. There's multiple reasons why they might not want to talk. People are reluctant to talk to law enforcement because of the culture that they're raised in or poor experiences with law enforcement in the past. I think it's easier for you to say, hey, I'm looking at this case and I just want to chat with you about it. You know, if I show up and say that they get worried that they're going to be in trouble or I'm going to think they're hiding something or they fear that I'm there to arrest them, which is not the case. I just I need help.

10:53I need their information. So what I'm looking for in your information is corroboration of things we may already know, potentially new information that may not have been shared by the multitude of people that you talk to. And something that might lead to new information in this case, maybe a new name that was overlooked that we never heard of because somebody mentioned them to you, but they never mentioned them to law enforcement. Things of that nature is what I'm looking for. And hopefully it opens new doors. and gets us started down a new path. I'm not sure what happened. I think that's what we're trying to get to the bottom of here.

11:32And with a partnership that with CBI and our local communities, in this case, Swatch County Sheriff's Office, I think we'll figure out what happened in this case. But we need the public to help us too. I do think it's solvable and although difficult, because a lot of the people involved in this case are from an alternate culture. Some of them are not very friendly with law enforcement. Some of them just are not friendly with government, period. So I think that's one hurdle. The age of the case really, it's a little bit old. I wouldn't call it excessively old. So again, sometimes time works in our favor in these cases.

12:17And I think that's potentially the case here. Most people want to share information even though they're scared. I think somebody knows what happened in this case, whatever it may be. I think somebody knows. They just need to pick up the phone, give us a call, and we'll come and talk to them. And hopefully we can get a resolution. If that person you're talking about who may be the linchpin in solving this with whatever information they may have, if they were to hear this, what would you say to them? Call me. I'm just a regular guy. I just come out and meet with you, and we can talk. That's it. I think if this was your sister or your mom or your family member, you would want somebody to do that for you, and I know I would if it was my family.

13:08If you think from that perspective, there's really no risk. You can provide information. You don't even have to give me your name right up front. We can talk. And then we can make some decisions on if your information is valid and we can move forward from there. My primary focus is this case. I'm not interested in, unless you're going to tell me about another murder or another missing person, it's not of a concern to me as to your history or what your involvement in some criminal activities may have been in this case. If it's narcotics or, you know, those kind of things, that is not a concern.

13:43My concern is the disappearance of Crystal. The biggest thing, again, is a phone call or a piece of information, you know, walking into our offices or walking into the office of the sheriff and providing that piece of information, even though you might be scared. That is the key to get this thing rolling. And I stand behind that 100 percent that we need that help from the community. how could we help beyond this point i i spent a lot of time in the san luis valley uh everybody knew about this podcast so i can't say that that's you know i spent i don't spend as much time there now but i don't think that if i went down there today people would say oh are you down here for crystal right but back a year and a half ago two years ago you knocked on somebody's door or you were doing some, are you here for the Crystal Ressinger thing?

14:41And I think that probably is part of what you were able to build with this. I think this, just this conversation today is important to build that kind of trust. Hopefully people can see that, you know, I think you took a risk coming to meet me and sharing your whole work with me, which I greatly appreciate. what do we have to do to solve this case? And I will try. This is a try. And maybe it's going to be the breaker that gets us to where we need to go. Law enforcement is really helpful. That's why we're here. We're not bad people. We're just normal people doing a job that some people don't like right now.

15:29And it's unfortunate. But again, I go back to that kind of notion, if this was your family, if this was your sister, what would you do? You'd do the right thing. And that's what I need you to do. I'm a huge fan of luck. Yeah. I'd rather be lucky than good any day. And I think in this case, we need a little bit of luck. These cases are difficult. Do I think it's solvable? Yes. Does that mean it's going to be solved? Not necessarily, but I won't give up.

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17:46Last month, the team and I went to Denver to attend a ceremony held on the court steps of their capital, Colorado's official missing persons day. This day serves as a stark reminder of the void left behind when a loved one vanishes and a painful and persistent question mark are etched into the hearts of families and communities across our state. The numbers are sobering. As we stand here today, 680 individuals remain missing in our state. When I took over as Executive Director in 2013, we had around 240 missing persons under suspicious circumstances. That number, you just heard of 688, more than doubled in that time.

18:33The database that we have started in 1970. The explosion of missing persons is stunning, to say the least. Every day we wake up to have a cup of coffee and look at these beautiful Rocky Mountains. Our loved one is not with us. We're re-victimized every day, every single day. It's time that the community step up and get involved. Pick up the phone, even if it's uncomfortable, and call the authorities. Your name will not be outed, but get the information that you have to the authorities so that they can help these families behind me. The easy wrong is to simply do nothing at all and keep the information that you have about a significant case to yourself and live with that and go to the grave with it.

19:31I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. Please do the hard right over the easy wrong. Christopher Enoch Abeyda, Dora Alcaraz, Emilio Allegra Martinez. One by one, they read out all the names of every missing person in Colorado. Blake Alcandari. Shada Gamey. Michael Cody Gilkison. Joshua Tain Glasser. Philip Gomez. Daniel Alexander Gomez-Vasquez. Dolores Susan Regonza. Terrence Redfern. Steven Reddy. Crystal Ann Reisner. It was powerful. Extremely emotional. and then her name, Crystal Reisinger. Hearing it out loud in front of dozens of other families desperate for answers, with law enforcement standing next to me, everything about this just felt different, like a line had been finally drawn.

20:41There's no more waiting, no more hoping someone will finally say something. The time is now, and trust me when I say we're closing in. Joe Cale was a prior agent who worked at the FBI and had a relationship with Payne because Joe was the original investigator on this case. One of them. When you first called me, you had listened to that, right? I had listened to all of them. But Joe had vouched for me. Joe, the only reason I talked to you is because of Joe Cale. That's what I was telling them. I was like, the only reason he really talked to me is because I never burned Joe. Nope. not a lot of cops like to play with journalists, you know, especially true crime podcasters.

21:26You know, that's probably your worst nightmare. Just for sure. At first glance, right? But he's one of the first, you know, I guess law enforcement agents that gave a shit about us. We were doing the story either way. And like we can, you know. He knew some of your information was valid. Yeah. And you guys were. I'm not really asking you for anything, but we can have an open channel and I'm not going to burn you. I'll prove it. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And he, what I thought was a cool thing was you guys could talk to people that we can't talk to. Yeah. Or they talk to you. And vice versa. Yes. And then you shared that information with us certainly has been invaluable.

22:06So for us, I mean, we're planning on doing like a recap. And I mean, one, so much has happened since 2018. Oh, for sure. Even just like, this suspect's dying. Yeah. You know. Dready Brian's day. Catfish's day. Yeah, so like really the story is mostly like a recap of everything before anything that's happening with you right now. Sure. But I would be curious to know what would be smart for me to say or highlight or point at. Just like last time. That's a really closed off community. Yeah. And they need to know that they can trust the cops. and we talked about this last time. The drugs will be a thing that they're scared of.

22:47I could care less about the drugs. How do they believe you? That's not what I'm after. They just look at the unit that I work in, homicide unit. Right. I'm not a drug guy. Yeah, right. Is it hard to get that across to them? For sure. But I think a lot of them. There is people down there that know, maybe not know my name in particular, but they know CBI. And CBI is usually not down there for drugs. They're down there for major homicide cases, missing persons, things like that. So the public's help in this is going to be cute. Yeah. You know, and these guys are dead. If it's these two guys or third guy or fifth guy or all five of them, ten of them, how many ever it is, a lot of them are dead.

23:32Mm-hmm. And if somebody knows something, I don't have to be scared of these guys anymore. I know everybody was terrified of that group of people, and I don't blame them. Chris Terry Dukes. We were scared at one point of the idea of who this person was and what he was capable of. He's created this persona, and the community knows this persona, and he's gone. Yeah, gone. And I think dispelling some of the fear would be really helpful from my perspective. Again, we talked about the reward last time, reminding people that, hey, there's money out here for you to come forward. that leads to her remains or the resolution of this case.

24:14Yeah. Because money always talks. We're talking a lot of money, and that could change somebody's life with the right piece of information. If you're somebody who is tangentially involved, who knows information that could potentially solve this case, right? I'm just guessing here, but they might have the fear that they would go down for this murder, even if they didn't do it. And they'd almost want to know that, like, they'd have immunity from that, like, in some way. Like, I know that's, like, a thing that you can't probably promise anybody. Yeah, there's legal ways for us to, if they cooperate, they don't get charged, right?

24:54There's legal ways. Many a time I've sat down with people and they've shared information in exchange for, you know, leniency or even maybe not getting charged. so I don't know how you would say that to the general public. Well, I mean, I think you just said it in a way that was perfect. Like, yeah, this is something that happens. It does exist. It does happen. And if you are that first person to talk, then that's the most likely. I don't even think it has to be. I'd listen to ten people. If they all had something to offer that led me to her or led to her remains and led to her resignation, really I'm interested, like I said before, let's find her first and then we'll decide what happened.

25:32And that's always the way I want to go because then I can give that peace. We get rid of the biggest problem here, which is not knowing where she is. And, you know, a no body case is super hard. So if we get there, then we move forward. So in these instances, if there's five, and I think there's probably multiple people that know in this instance. Absolutely. Everybody down there is connected. In the drug world, in the criminal world, they all know each other down there. So, and stories travel. Whether the stories that they know, are exactly accurate, that's for me to decide later. Build the facts and build the case.

26:10What connects what doesn't. Exactly. So any bit of information is helpful. But yeah, there is legal ways to do that. Where if somebody came forward and said, hey, I want to talk, but I'm scared I'm going to get charged, we'd work with them in some regard. Yeah. So I want that message to get out there, but I also want the message that they should be compelled to talk at this point. Where, like, on the opposite side of that, if you keep running down the trails that you're on and you connect these dots, I would imagine that same leniency won't be there as the time has expired or is expiring. Yeah.

26:49Because we're still working. Exactly. You've continued, we've continued. We're going to continue to work on this thing until we resolve it. Yeah. And the bad guys should know that. So, yeah, I mean, you guys, like I said last time, that's one of the reasons why I agreed to talk, because I think you can be super helpful in this case. Everybody knows in Lindsay and Up and Vanished and Presto and the Valor. They all know it. Every time I go down to them, oh, that's the Up and Vanished case. Everybody says it. So that leverage is helpful to me. These people, this dude's lazy. Yes. And he would have to, well, first of all, he'd probably employ somebody to help.

27:26Yes. and I just don't think these guys are smart enough to do what it would take to do that. Absolutely not. And they may be connected with somebody who knows more than them. And money and drugs talk. Like since we've talked, there's quite a few things that have happened. It's certainly moving along. Like nothing to jump for joy about. Yeah. But there is more than there's some things that have occurred that investigatively give me places to move. So it's not stiff. I love that. Yeah. I've followed some leads to some places. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah. And we searched since last time we met. Oh, awesome.

28:05We've searched some places. I'm willing to share that with you. Anything good, bad, or neutral? Just neutral right now. But it certainly is leading to other things. Okay. Okay? So it's still... In like an evidentiary standpoint or reactionary from the individuals? More of an individual, like, investigatively. Yeah. leading to people that hopefully will be willing to discuss this case. Any names that, I don't have to put them out, that like of people that I talk to in the podcast that I can poke? There is some people, but there's other people that you've never heard of. Is ****** one of them? I know that name.