Status: Untraced - E8: Don't Lose Your Hope

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0:55But don't wait, these year-end savings won't last. Shop the entire Toyota lineup and find a great deal today on buyatoyota.com. 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. This wasn't a human being that I saw. There's something here in this house. Something out 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. As promised, here is Status Untraced, Episode 8.

1:45You're listening to Status Untraced, a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. This podcast also contains subject matter, which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

2:09Malana is a picturesque town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is secluded and cocooned in its cultural and social fabric. However, amidst that beauty lurks a dark secret. We've heard whispers about this village, Malana. It's here inside the Parvati Valley, and known to produce what many say is the finest hashish in the world.

2:37Each of the 350 households in Malana produces 5 kilos of hash. All of it generates a total income of about 7.8 million US dollars. This gooey substance is highly sought after internationally. A small amount, which sells for$14 locally, will, in Amsterdam, go for at least$250. In India, it's a criminal offense to consume, trade, or grow. But Milana doesn't really abide by country law. It's quite obvious that this activity is illegal. Why hasn't there been any sort of intervention that has succeeded in this production? This village, people there, consider themselves to be the descendants of soldiers of Alexander the Great.

3:24If you go to buy something there and you cannot touch them, you cannot shake hands, you will have to leave the money on the counter and they will come and pick it up. So such is their very strict taboo on people to have outside links. But can that be the reason? No, that cannot be the reason. No policeman is allowed to come inside. and if somebody goes to complain to police, then he has to pay a fine to the panchayat out there. So how does Milana brazenly run a drug trade? Well, it's simple. They don't allow the police in. This story was aired on October 19th, 2016, right when search teams were looking for Justin Alexander.

4:07Justin, as we know, was dealing hashish. In fact, he was traveling around with a kilo of it. Yet, in this entire coverage, there's no mention of him, the foreigners who become involved with the trade, or if the alarming pattern of murdered and missing tourists is tied to it in any way. But the one fact they did cover is bizarre. But the biggest challenge, of course, is for the law enforcement authorities to implement the law. Why would law enforcement turn a blind eye to an illegal drug trade? what's going on here that causes them to blatantly ignore their duties? One way to find out? Pull on the thread.

5:00Sometimes I get the feeling I'm lost Just hiding it is never enough Now I find that in every mirror I go Only once I saw the killer Once I saw the killer I'm close I'm Liam Luxon, and this is Status Untraced. Episode 8. Don't lose your hope.

5:41You guys were involved with the Bruno Muskevich case. Yeah, Muskevich. Since landing in India, I've found the stories we've been tracking have, in a way, shifted. Take, for instance, the death of the Baba. What I gathered back in the States isn't lining up with what I've seen here. Alex and I are scratching our heads, second-guessing every statement we've heard, wondering what we are missing. Is there anything we've overlooked? I was the first person from the two of us. It was just unintentionally that we fell into it. As we've previously mentioned, our guides Kabir and Arshteeb are no strangers to the worlds of missing person cases.

6:26With Kabir just in from Delhi, we seize the opportunity to sit down with them both, curious as to what we can learn from the incidents prior to Justin's. Had you guys ever worked on a crime case before? Uh, I was involved with one case way back in around the 2000s, you know. That's when a lot of Western people were going missing from the Hamta region in Mahali. Lots of foreigner people, they were killed over there. During that time, a lot of people got killed. And it was definitely the same group of people. But no witnesses came up. Kabir recalls a slew of horror stories about travelers who have mysteriously ended up missing or dead.

7:13And one case stands out. It occurred almost exactly a year prior to Justin's. A friend of mine, a guy from Poland, while he was staying here, he found out that there's somebody, a Polish guy, who's gone missing. So he wanted to see if he could be of any help. and he asked me if you can help. Bruno Musalik, a 24-year-old from Poland, was your typical college kid, full of dreams of seeing the world. He graduated and was recruited by the esteemed Ernst & Young as one of a select group of standout candidates. But before he swapped his backpack for a briefcase, Bruno set out on a solo trip to New Delhi in July 2015.

7:59He made his way to Manali, a town just outside the Parvati Valley, and hung out there for about a week. Then, nothing. No one heard from him. His girlfriend, on August 9th, was the last to receive a message.

8:27Bruno's father, Piotr, grew worried when he didn't hear from his son. When Bruno missed his flight home, Piotr took action and flew to the valley. I had a chance to speak with Piotr and his friend Tomas, who expressed frustration with the local law enforcement. Police in India is completely nothing, no modern equipment, nothing like a police should have, you know. So we were traveling from place to place and tried to collect any other evidences, testimonials, people who may deliver any additional details to this story. The only clue to Bruno's whereabouts was his backpack he left at a Manali guesthouse.

9:05A sign, like Justin, that he planned to return. To gather more information, Piotr spread missing person flyers around town. And his efforts led to a pivotal conversation with an eyewitness. And he told me he saw Bruno in L 'E with two Israeli girls. Lay is a high mountain city north of Kulu. We went there and talking to local people around, and we found this guy in the shop. He was 100 % swearing. I recognized him, etc. And Bruno was, according to him, was sitting on a sofa. And he described those two Israeli girls. He was asking them directly, are you from Israel? And they said, yes, yes. Beotar and Damas went to extreme lengths to identify these two Israeli girls, including multiple trips to India and a trip to Israel.

9:59It led to nothing. Later on, they got a lead from a bus driver who recognized Bruno's photo. He claimed to have dropped Bruno off in the valley around August 9th, the day of Bruno's last text. The driver said he picked Bruno up from another part of the valley the next day. After that, we didn't find any more traces. So after one and a half months, we came back to Poland. Weeks later, Piotr and Tomas returned to India for a second trip and found another eyewitness, this time in New Delhi. This lady recognized Bruno with two guys in Delhi after arrival. Those two guys, they were well known to the police as a drugs dealer and illegal arms sellers.

10:49From conversations with his son, Piotr knew that Bruno had been spending time with a New Delhi local named Saludja. He didn't have any background on the guy, but feared he could be dangerous. Piotr relayed the tip to the police, who launched a coordinated effort to find Saludja and arrest him.

11:20In custody, police demanded Siminder Saluja to reveal the WhatsApp conversations on his phone. Left with no option, Saluja complied.

11:40Saluja had been guiding Bruno on where to buy and sell drugs. So Bruno bought stuff in Delhi? Yes, and stuff. LNC? And stuff like that from Saluja. How much did he buy? No clue to that. He basically wanted to come to Parvati and use it as recreational. And then Saluja was, you know, guiding him. Okay, you go to this guy and you bring some stuff for me also. They tracked down Saluja's contact. He was in the ancient village, Malana. The Malana guy said I never met him. Yeah, he said he called him. He called me, but he never met me. The Milana guy was arrested as well. But with the case having gone cold, both men have since been released from police custody.

12:27I think that in this region, they are organizing rave parties, which is music, party, drinking, drugs, all together mixed. In the Parvati, raves are outdoor soirees attended by hundreds. They're almost entirely unsanctioned and tend to be deep in the woods. So this is probably what tempted him to go to this region. And it's why he said he will be back within three days. So we were thinking that maybe they used him for illegal drug trafficking.

13:07Years have passed, and Bruno's fate remains a mystery. No further clues. No leads. Just silence. There are eerie overlaps with Justin's case. Hashish dealings. Dodgy meetups. And then, at nearly the same time of year, they're gone. What it means, if anything, I'm not sure. For Piotr, the search never ended. He still makes trips to the Parvati Valley, hoping to find something. Anything. to bring closure about what happened to his son. Although it breaks my heart, I had to ask. With so few leads to follow, what drives him to keep looking? We need to share the information because I have hope maybe when someone accidentally knows about the case of Bruno and catch a new place, maybe.

14:06this guy who's from Polish embassy. When we were leaving, I called to him to say goodbye. And he said, hey, guys, one guy, he went missing for 30 years. He disappeared. Why he was hiding himself, why he disappeared, nobody knows. And now he called me. He wants Polish passport and go back to Poland. After 30 years. So he said, don't lose your hope because some completely unimaginable things may happen. As you may recall, a tourist named Aruv Agarwal recently went missing here. The case caught the attention of a Mumbai news team who's arrived in the valley to investigate his disappearance. We met with that team.

14:57They requested we keep our conversation off record. But before parting ways, one of their members, a local, discreetly pulled me aside. He whispered that he knew things about Bruno, information that wasn't public. And he was open to talk.

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17:41The foreign media always said, you know, the Death Valley. I don't call it the Death Valley. I find myself on a dirt path in a secluded forest, my heart racing with anticipation. There's a whole neighborhood back here, which is only accessible via a rope bridge that hangs over the river. It feels like the kind of place you would go to stay under the radar. Avoid the law. Why should we call it the Death Valley? Because these guys are dead. Maybe one of them is alive. Maybe he's sitting in some part of the country. Maybe in Kerala. You'd never know. Raz, as we'll call him, requested we meet here.

18:19He asked to remain anonymous, but his eagerness to talk poured out like the sweat on his skin. What about Daru? What do you think? We got no clue, man. His parents tell us that he was going to lose weight. He thought he would lose four or five kgs if he tried to Kirganga. That's a very stupid thing to say. Then the next day, the parents tell us, please check Malana. Maybe some sadhu took him. and maybe he gave him drugs. What is he, some child? And at the same time, a boy does no drugs, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink. And he had a flight next day, so does a man come just for one day to go to Kirganga and come back?

18:58I find it tough to believe, actually. There's something more to the story which they're hiding. While he claimed to know nothing new about Dhruv Agarwal's case, Raz has promised me some safeguarded clue about Bruno Moushalik. Tell me what you want to talk about, what do you guys want to know? Well, you were saying that you know some stuff about Bruno and I'd love to dive into that. There's a thought that he was just buying drugs or he was trying to sell them. We met the guy who Bruno was in touch with in Malala. Mm-hmm. Okay? We had to pay him a lot of money to meet him actually. He was waiting for Bruno to come to Malala, but Bruno never married to Malala.

19:40So what the guy actually Malala said is He got down At Katagla He got down on the bus from there And then he supposedly came to his party And nobody knows after that what happened Maybe he took some LSD Maybe he fell off the bridge But I don't think it's easy to fall off that bridge Unless somebody pushes you This is just all word of mouth Nobody knows what exactly happened Yeah And I got news from a government official which I cannot name anyone, but saying that he was murdered. When Raz was with the Mumbai news team, he says they poked around at Bruno's case a bit, and an individual they spoke to repeated a similar story.

20:22I can't take names because we're not allowed to take the names of the guys who we spoke to. We just spoke to someone. He told me Bruno was murdered by a guy called Leo. Called Leo? Yes, and it was related to drugs.

20:41Leo is not an Indian name and any other details about this guy is a dead end we don't even know if he actually exists and the individual who made this accusation isn't responding he's refusing to take my calls now because the guys who are with me the earlier team the assholes gave him his press card I told the assholes don't give your card to anyone But he fucked it up. So the guy refuses to speak now. So there are too many perspectives of it. You know, like, everybody has their own story about Bruno. Who do you believe? Bruno's gone. Everyone has a different story. But with two sources allegedly claiming the same thing, we have to consider, like Justin's case, if murder could be a potential scenario.

21:33So I asked Roz, if he had to speculate, why would someone kill Bruno?

22:03me on drugs. You know, earlier in the 90s, a lot of foreigners used to come with money. They would go up to buy charas for Malana. Charas is concentrated hashish. And when they would finish buying charas and come on the way back, they would be killed by the same guys who sold them the charas. And the money would be taken back. That's why people used to disappear. That's why nobody likes the people from Malana. These village people don't like the Malana people. They say they're godly people, okay? There is no proper court or anything. They don't follow the Indian constitution. Because they have their own democracy up there too, correct?

22:42Their own democracy. Yeah. You cannot trust them unless you know them very well. But as an outsider, you cannot even trust them. The mindset is very different. They are friendly if you have money because they know you come to buy cherries. And then they kill you on the way back down is what it sounds like. Not now. Raz said it before. Calling his home the valley of death doesn't sit right with him. But from what I'm picking up, he's saying the heavy drug scene and undercurrents of Mamanah kind of paints a target on the backs of foreigners, thought to be walking around with wads of cash. To me, that makes sense.

23:16And if true, that's a huge issue that can't be ignored. But Roz is also quick to point out it's not that cut and dry. I have a question for you guys. being Americans I mean when a foreign tourist come here don't you think you'll be attracted to the culture of this place of you know you'll want to smoke up I think 99.9 % people will come and smoke for sure so just a question for you guys how is the place responsible for it the place is never responsible it's the individual come come smoke up I mean I have no issues with smoking up man come on but the point is be responsible enough you cannot shed your responsibility walk into a jungle drunk or maybe on some chemical and fall somewhere into a river and expect people, oh, he was murdered.

24:01So we do not know what exactly happened to these people. We actually have no clue what happened to these people. We are just assuming. There's a problem with speculating murder. Why risk everything and kill a foreigner for petty theft? Not saying that it doesn't happen, but murder over some cash or a bit of drugs seems extreme. So then we come back to why Bruno? Why Justin? Were they simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is there a deeper, darker reason for their disappearances? Has there ever been openly known Israeli, Russian, and Italian mafia operating in this area? Not openly. Not openly?

24:44There's no mafia from the other country at the moment. But you know, the locals, you can't call it mafia, but everyone does it. There's no outside mafia, but everyone calls it mafia. Thinking about what that means, it's then a more sinister thought grips me. What if tourists aren't targeted by chance, but as part of a calculated plan? Who would profit from their disappearances? This guy, he's been highlighted by the police, the department and all as a rescue guy. Yeah. We believe from our research and things that he could be the culprit. The people who are missing. You think he's like robbing them and then taking the stuff?

25:33He's basically murdering them.

26:02We'll see you next time. We'll talk you through step-by-step guidance so you can master new apps, games, and skills faster. Try now at windows.com slash copilot. This episode is brought to you by 20th Century Studios upcoming comedy, Ella McKay. From Academy Award-winning writer-director James L. Brooks, Emma Mackey plays Ella McKay, an idealistic young woman who juggles family and work in a story about the people you love and how to survive them. featuring an all-star cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Loudon, Kumail Nanjiani, Iowa Debrey, Julie Kaffner with Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson, Ella McKay in theaters December 12.