Heidi Planck

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1:13Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

1:46Today, I'm discussing the case of Heidi Plank. She left her son's football game at halftime and was never seen by her family again. What followed was a trail of bizarre clues. security video from outside a swanky high-rise apartment building in downtown LA, a missing dog found wandering alone, and a company tied to a massive financial scandal. This case is truly a tangled web of information, but at the heart of it all is a woman, a mother, who still needs to be found. This is the case of Heidi Plank.

2:26It's just before 7pm on Sunday, October 17th, 2021 in downtown Los Angeles. A labradoodle named Seven is found wandering alone in the halls of the 28th floor in the luxury high-rise apartment building, Hope and Flower. But luckily he's not alone for long. While his owner isn't anywhere in sight, a couple sees Seven and takes him in. They do what I hope most people would in this situation. They take him to the vet to get him scanned to see if he's chipped, and it turns out that he was. They get his owner's information and text them, but it's radio silence on the other end. Now, either this couple was just extremely kind, Seven is an amazing dog, or both, because they keep him for three days before someone comes forward to claim him.

3:15That someone is a man named Jim Wayne. And this is where the couple's life really changes forever. because when Jim comes to pick Seven up, he explains that Seven's owner, Jim's ex-wife Heidi Plank, seems to have been missing for three days now, since the day they found Seven. Now, I'm gonna keep calling them the couple because their names haven't been released to the media. And really, I can't blame them for wanting to stay anonymous because this case, Heidi's disappearance is highly suspicious and it does include some powerful people. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This couple is stunned when they find out that Seven's owner is missing.

3:55Not only because it's obviously a very sad and strange turn of events for just two good Samaritans trying to return this dog to his owner, but also because of the heightened security measures in this particular building. Hope and Flower is named for the intersection it's located at, and it's in a pretty upscale part of LA. It's considered to be a newly revitalized area. It's essentially two skyscrapers with amazing views of the city and really the best amenities. The Ritz-Carlton is right there as well as some of the most popular entertainment venues. And according to this couple, it was outfitted with some pretty strong security measures.

4:32They tell Jim that to get to the 28th floor where Seven was found, whomever he came with had to use a keycard to get in the main door. Then you have to get past a security guard, then use a keycard again to get past a set of double doors. And once you finally make it in the elevator, you have to use the keycard again to get to your specific floor. They also maintained visitor logs and had numerous security cameras. So essentially, this couple tells Jim that they should be able to track whoever brought Seven to the 28th floor pretty easily. It's a huge break in Heidi's case. One that Jim will say really jump-started the investigation into looking for her.

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6:3139-year-old Heidi Plank was last seen on Sunday, October 17th, the day her dog Seven was found. Earlier that day, she was seen leaving her townhouse in the West LA neighborhood of Palms. The surveillance system on her home captures her walking out of her front door with Seven, turning around to lock the door, and getting into her gray Range Rover. She's wearing jeans, a white top with a smiley face on it, with a gray sweater tied around her waist and sandals. She's also carrying a cell phone, what looks like coffee in a cup, and she has a black crossbody purse on. And it seems like she's appropriately dressed for her destination.

7:09She and Seven are headed about 20 miles away to Downey to see her and Jim's 10-year-old son play in his football game. She's seen by several witnesses at this game, including Jim. Now, Jim and Heidi have been divorced for nine years at this point, but he says he could tell that something about Heidi was just off that day. He and Heidi were sitting on opposite sides of the field, but Jim sees her walking up in the stands then back down to the field kind of away from where the game was being played. He's described her behavior as antsy and says that she was obviously distracted by something. Then at halftime she came up to Jim and said that she had to go.

7:49Heidi didn't say where to and Jim didn't really push it but he remembered asking himself where she was going and what she could possibly have to do on a Sunday that would take her away from their son like this. Jim clocked this as odd immediately, but Heidi didn't have their son for another three days, so he kind of just brushes it off and continues watching the game and eventually takes their son home. As for Heidi, well, we don't know why she left the game either. Some of her friends have speculated that she might have left to run an errand for her boss, but that can't be confirmed, or if it has, it hasn't been shared with the public.

8:26But her friends know that her job as a financial controller at Camden Capital Partners was very demanding. Like, your boss says jump and you say how high type of demanding. So when Heidi's friends hear about her abruptly leaving her son's football game, it's not really shocking to them. While everyone says that she was an excellent mother, they assume that she was just once again dropping everything to take care of an errand for her boss. And this isn't the last trace of Heidi. She communicates with her son that night. It turns out he won his football game, so they were talking about the game and Heidi congratulated him on his win.

9:02But at some point that night, Heidi stops communicating and misses a call from her son. On Monday, October 18th at 7.31 p.m., he texts his mom, quote, Can you please call me back? I've called you two days in a row and you haven't picked up. The following day on the 19th at 3.43 p.m., he texts her again. Quote, please call or text me because I want to make sure you're okay and I'm worried about you. Immediately after, he texts again, saying, quote, and can you tell my dad if you'll pick me up tomorrow or not? At 5.45, he texts again, quote, can you please call me? At 6.32 p.m., Jim texts her too.

9:46He says that their son is very worried about her, hasn't heard from her, and that he hopes that she's okay. Ten minutes later, their son texts Heidi again. He asks for her to call him and says that he misses her. Now at this point, again, we're at Tuesday night, Jim says that he was definitely worried. But like I told you earlier, Heidi's son wasn't due back with his mom until Wednesday. So Jim figures that there's no way she'll miss picking him up from school. But she does. On Wednesday the 20th at 3.05 p.m., her son texts her again, quote, can you please call me? I'm with my dad. He also texts her again later, saying that he hopes that she's okay and that he loves her.

10:29It really is just heart-wrenching to read these texts, and at this point, Jim knows that there's no denying that something is seriously wrong here. He and their son go right from the school to the West Los Angeles police station to file a missing persons report for Heidi. And according to reporting by LA Magazine, at the same time, one of Heidi's friends went to her home to check on her. Heidi's Range Rover was not in the driveway, and her dog Seven was nowhere to be found. But nothing appeared to be out of place inside. Nothing appeared to be missing, and it didn't look like there were any obvious signs of a struggle.

11:03But they did find her work cell phone and laptop. It looked like Heidi never came back home after leaving the football game. The following day, Jim began calling Heidi's friends, her boyfriend, and her boss. He also asked the police to perform a welfare check at Heidi's home, but again, she and Seven weren't there, and nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. Jim is really doing the legwork at this point. He also goes to Heidi's home on multiple occasions, and begins trying to access her electronic devices to see if he can track her whereabouts. He starts with Heidi's Range Rover, and when he goes to the LAPD to ask about this possibility, the detective assigned to her case tells him that the GPS feature was never turned on and Jim sees this as immediately suspicious.

11:51He asks the detective if someone had disabled it and they tell him that they can't tell him that, only that it wasn't turned on. At this point, Jim's like, okay, what about her iPhone or her Apple Watch? Surely you can track those but it appears that the location tracking on those devices were not on either. In his interview with Dateline's Missing in America podcast, Jim says he felt like someone was trying to cover their tracks. He believes that some of these tracking services may have been intentionally disabled. He's basically banging his head against the wall at this point. He has a son turning 11 in a few days, and his mom is nowhere to be found.

12:35And there doesn't appear to be any trace of her after she left that football game. He's still calling friends and family, trying to piece together whatever he can. And then he has this epiphany. There's one more thing they might be able to track. Seven. The dog Heidi took with her everywhere. He figures seven has to be chipped. Now, obviously, there's no major directory of dogs by name or owner to look up a microchip. He has to either find this information somewhere in Heidi's home or at her vet. So Jim really takes a shot in the dark and calls his vet, thinking maybe Heidi used the same one. And he lucks out big time.

13:15Heidi does use the same vet. He calls and asks if he's microchipped. And the vet confirms that yes, he is chipped. So Jim's like, great. He gets all the information and calls the company the microchip is registered with. He's trying to add his contact information in case Seven is found. But that's when they tell him that Seven was lost but had already been found by someone. Now, I told you earlier that a friend found Heidi's laptop and her work cell phone in her home before the police did the welfare check. And apparently, Jim kept those items for about a week before turning them over to police.

13:51and according to reporting by NBC News, Heidi's phone got a text from the couple who found Seven trying to reunite him with Heidi. It was the couple from Hope and Flower. This is when everything starts to come together or at least when pieces of this puzzle begin to emerge. Of course, Jim goes to the LAPD to tell them about this but it was one of Heidi's friends that works for the next major breakthrough in her case. That friend's name is Natalie John. She's also the godmother of Heidi's son. Once she discovered that Seven was found at Hope and Flower, she hit the ground running passing out flyers in the area, trying to get media coverage for the case, and asking local businesses in the area to review their security footage for any sign of Heidi.

14:36And then she saw it. A local business had captured Heidi on camera outside of Hope and Flower. After leaving her son's football game, Heidi was seen on video outside of the luxury apartment's Hope and Flower at 6.22pm. She's in an alley right next to the building, and is basically just walking seven. Or at least it looks like she's walking seven. You can see the video for yourself on our website, VoicesHerJusticePodcast.com. But this is what I see. She's in the same outfit she was wearing at the game. But she doesn't have all the same accessories on. In the video, she's clearly missing the gray sweater she had tied around her waist and the black crossbody purse she was wearing earlier.

15:22But everything does seem fine. She doesn't seem upset, she's not running from anyone, it just looks like she's walking her dog. And that's really it. But this is crucial, because the couple reported finding Seven just 30 minutes after Heidi was captured in this video. Again, obviously Jim and Natalie tell the police all of this information, so the LAPD goes to Hope and Flower to request access to their security footage, and the owners tell them no. They were not willing to cooperate in the investigation in any way at this point, so the LAPD goes to a judge and returns with a warrant. That's when they finally confirmed that Heidi did enter Hope and Flower with Seven.

16:09So sometime between 6.22 p.m. and about 7 p.m., Heidi goes into Hope and Flower, and somehow Seven gets loose on the 28th floor while Heidi is nowhere to be found. That is a tight window. But an absolutely critical piece of evidence in this case is that according to reporting by KTLA 5 News, investigators have this footage of Heidi entering Hope and Flower, but they do not have any footage showing her leave. Nothing from Hope and Flower, nothing from the nearby business that captured her in the alley, there is nothing to prove that Heidi left that building. It's just chilling. So of course, investigators want to know why Heidi was at this random apartment complex, but just like we don't know why Heidi left her son's football game, we don't really know why she was at Hope and Flower either, at least not for sure.

17:06Jim says that as far as he knew, Heidi didn't have any connections to the building, and their son said the same. Now, while investigators are trying to find out why Heidi may have been at Hope and Flower, there are a few more developments. On October 26, Jim files for full custody of his and Heidi's son, and he wins. He argued that Heidi was missing and was seeking sole custody to enroll their son in therapy. It's really through these court documents that we learn a lot about Heidi's last communication with her son that I told you about earlier. Just three days later on the 29th, federal investigators and detectives from the LAPD serve search warrants on Heidi's home.

17:47There's actually a video of this, or at least them entering. They go in literally guns drawn. According to reporting by CBS Los Angeles, a source told them that they went in expecting to possibly find Heidi deceased, which is one reason they may have gone in ready to find some type of dangerous situation. But there's also something else that I haven't mentioned yet. Now, I told you that Heidi worked as a financial controller at Camden Capital Partners. What I haven't told you yet is that they were under investigation when Heidi went missing. And according to reporting by LA Magazine, the address registered for the company was Heidi's townhouse.

18:27And if that wasn't scary enough, public records showed that Heidi was the only employee listed. This case really is a tangled web, so stick with me here. Let's discuss this company and what we know about it. Camden Capital Partners has been described as a small investment advisory firm, and like I said, Heidi said that she was the financial controller. She'd been working there since 2017, so about four years before she went missing. But according to Jim, Heidi just wasn't qualified to be a financial controller of any company. It's not that she isn't smart or capable, it's just a very high-up position that she didn't have experience for.

19:06She'd never held a position like that previously, and didn't have a degree in accounting and wasn't a CPA. He also says that the only explanation he had for the high-end lifestyle that Heidi was living in LA was that her boss quote, floats her money when they close a deal, end quote. So who is this boss? Well, the managing partner was a man named Jason Sugarman. Heidi's friend Natalie said that Heidi went above and beyond for Jason Sugarman, doing everything from picking up his kids, collecting money, handling his taxes, and his LLCs. She was basically his right-hand person. But things weren't going so well in the office before Heidi went missing, and they really hadn't been for a while.

19:52The SEC charged Sugarman and his business partner, Jason Galanis, with securities fraud in 2019, and now in 2021, they were under investigation again. Jason Sugarman was essentially accused of defrauding his clients. In one instance, it was reported that he was accused of defrauding a Native American tribe's pension fund, reportedly taking up to$43 million, according to reporting by KTLA 5 News. So this is a huge deal. The company was officially under federal investigation. Now, we know that the LAPD had access to security footage from Heidi's townhouse, and not only did they find video of Heidi leaving before the football game, they also found footage of Jason Sugarman at her home after she was last seen on October 17th.

20:42Now, unfortunately, reporting does differ here, but within a few days of Heidi going missing, he's seen ringing her doorbell, and he's holding a box of pastries. Obviously, no one answers, so he just leaves the box on her doorstep. Why he does this is just another mystery in this case. But Jim says that Jason Sugarman really wanted whatever company property may have been in Heidi's home, specifically a company laptop, which would make sense for a man being investigated like he was. Jim says that on the day Sugarman left the pastries, his assistant called him again to ask about a company laptop that may be inside Heidi's home, and according to Jim again, said specifically that Sugarman believed that there was sensitive information on it.

21:30They also said they believe Heidi may have fled with some of the company's money, which I guess would warrant a visit with pastries. I can't piece those things together. But for the record, Jim does not believe this, and said he has a hard time in general believing that Heidi would steal like that. Either way, Heidi's disappearance is now pretty much also linked to this federal investigation. So really, it's just another layer as to why the LAPD may have come in guns drawn with warrants to search Heidi's townhouse. And they do end up finding and taking at least one company laptop found inside, along with some files and boxes of undisclosed evidence.

22:10We also know that they dusted for fingerprints. But as far as we know, not much else has come of that, or if it has, they haven't told the public. But then, a few days later on November 4th, there's another huge breakthrough in the case. They find Heidi's Range Rover in a place that no one could have expected. About two weeks after Heidi Plank went missing, her Range Rover was found in an underground parking garage a few blocks from Hope and Flower on November 4th. But what, if anything, was found in or around it is unclear. I know I keep saying it, I'm sorry, but that's the truth. I mean, I have to imagine that they did some type of forensic testing on it.

22:56But again, if they have, they haven't disclosed that to the media. According to reporting by NBC Los Angeles, detectives found and quietly impounded it to search for more evidence. And this was a big day for Heidi's case, because while none of this was known to the media at this time, they were also back at Hope and Flower looking for more evidence related to her disappearance, and they find something huge. But again, none of this is revealed for a few weeks, until detectives with the LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division told the public that forensic evidence was found inside the Hope and Flower apartment building that led them to believe an incident occurred which resulted in Heidi's death and that they know one or more individuals who were in the apartment building that day know what happened to her.

23:49While obviously it's great that there's been progress in the case, It is the worst possible outcome for any missing persons case. Jim is asked to meet with detectives in person where they break the news to him that they do not believe Heidi is alive. But they do believe they might know what happened. This is what they say. Based on their searches of the building, conducting interviews, and reviewing surveillance, they're able to piece together the following theory. They believe that on October 17th, Heidi went to Hope and Flower with Seven to either attend a party or to possibly buy drugs. Then she suffered some type of medical episode, possibly from ingesting a drug laced with something like fentanyl, and died.

24:34They believe it's likely that she was then placed into an upper-floor trash chute that went to a dumpster and trash compactor on the ground floor. It's just heartbreaking, but really all they can do is move forward. They are able to track this dumpster because it had GPS on it. So they were able to track down the exact dumpster and when and where it was emptied. This led them to the Chiquita Canyon landfill in Castaic, California, about 40 miles outside of downtown LA. And there was a massive search effort in this area. They had dozens of detectives sifting through thousands of pounds of waste.

25:13There were also agents from the L.A. City Department of Public Works, L.A. City Fire Department, the County Medical Examiner Coroner's Office, the Sheriff's Department, and they were assisted by more than 60 experts. They also brought in teams of cadaver dogs. But in the end, nothing was found related to Heidi.

25:37It's so hard to see cases like this, where they have extremely compelling evidence but just can't move forward. So Jim appeals to the public for help. He speaks at a press conference at the end of November. And he really just says that. The LAPD knows that one to maybe even five people know what happened to Heidi, but they haven't come forward. And he feels like his only option is asking the community for help. Jim asked people to call the hotline set up for Heidi, and reiterated that callers can remain anonymous. He says that at this point, he's talking to the LAPD every day, sometimes upwards of six times a day.

26:15And when he's asked about this major new development, this is what he says. It's really difficult, guys.

26:28Because we all cared for Heidi a lot.