Skye Budnick

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1:53Voices 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. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

2:22Today, I'm discussing the case of Skye Budnick. On March 31st, 2008, 21-year-old Skye Budnick is sitting in her living room in Southington, Connecticut. She's eating a freshly baked cupcake, courtesy of her mother, and grinning at her older sister. Skye had asked their mom to make her a batch of cupcakes just like old times when she was little. She's the baby of the family, so her older sister Megan kind of metaphorically rolls her eyes at this, as Skye grins and happily eats the cupcakes. Megan's four years older, and remembers going off to school along with her older brother Matt, while Skye got to stay home and do fun things like bake cupcakes with their mom.

3:03In Megan's words, Skye was 21 and perfectly capable of making her own cupcakes. Skye was living at home while studying Japanese culture at Central Connecticut State University. She's sweet and shy and very into anime. But Skye definitely just hasn't flown the nest yet. So when Megan sees Skye smiling and talking about how their mom made these cupcakes for her, Skye gets the typical older sibling treatment from Megan. The kind of non-verbal, sarcastic, grow-up. But of course, hindsight is 20-20. When Megan reflects on this now, things look completely different. She thinks that Skye asking their mom to bake these cupcakes may have almost been a goodbye of sorts.

3:47because the very next day, Skye packed a small bag, drove her car to the airport, and took a one-way flight to Japan without telling anyone. This is the case of Skye Budnick. We know so little about Skye's disappearance that I knew her sister Megan's participation in this episode would be vital. Of course, she can and will tell us about who Skye is as a person and certain patterns and habits that may help us find her. But she and her mom are some of the only people who have actually ever looked for Skye. Essentially, they're leading the charge and know more than anybody about the investigation into finding Skye.

4:31Now, you guys know that my goal here is to always make you feel for the person I'm talking about. I really am forever optimistic that if I can make you care about people like Skye, you'll take a few seconds out of your day to participate in our call to action and to share the case. And hopefully, if we're really lucky, we'll generate some leads. That's the entire goal of this show and why I'm here right now. But as we look at Skye's case, our best hope of understanding what may have happened to her is by understanding her. Like I mentioned earlier, Skye is shy and reserved. As the youngest, she's babied pretty hard and Megan admits that Skye was always their dad's favorite.

5:12But when Skye was about eight, Megan told me that she began to notice that she was changing and becoming more introverted. Here's Megan. Probably like fourth, fifth grade. She definitely became a bit more introverted. She definitely kind of retreated to like her own like corner of the house. She had some friends that lived next door, but they had like a falling out. And Skye had firm boundaries. If something just wasn't like, you know, if she wasn't comfortable with something, then it was done. Like that friendship was over. And she did that throughout her life. life um I actually just the other just yesterday actually I had a DM from somebody that used to live across the street from us and they were she was the same age as Skye and she reached out to you know say hey you know I see what you're doing for Skye's case and you know that's amazing and I remember all these like weird teenage talks with Skye when we would walk to the bus stop and I don't I remember this girl pretty well because to Skye she was a good friend but I don't think most of the people that she considered good friends considered Skye a good friend you know Skye had you know she put up walls she wasn't like always down to hang she was a homebody so because of that just because of who she was it kind of it just kind of cemented the fact that she was an introverted person and in my household everybody was as sky became more introverted she did find hobbies that she really enjoyed megan told me that sky got super into anime and spent a lot of time in bookstores curating her manga collection.

7:21She also really just enjoyed playing video games with her older brother Matt. But Skye struggled as she entered high school. During high school, Skye definitely became more depressed. It started probably then. She had told my mom that she had a group of friends at school and something happened and the girls didn't want Skye sitting at the lunch table with them anymore. But Skye had nowhere to go, so she continued to sit there, and they just made her life, like, just terrible. But she wasn't one to, like, stand up or be confrontational or, you know, confront anybody in any way. So she didn't have a great time in high school.

8:12It wasn't until she went to college and she found a group of people that had the same interests. After enduring the horrors of high school and graduating, Sky enrolls at Central Connecticut State University and focuses her studies on learning about Japanese culture. And like Megan told us, Sky found friendship here and even joined the anime club. Sky continued to live at home but did work a few different jobs. She used a lot of her extra cash to build up her collection of anime toys, manga, and anything related to Japan. But by her junior year, Skye was falling behind in her classes. Specifically, she struggled with oral presentations in her Japanese class.

8:57She'd just freeze up and have what Megan would liken to a panic attack. But for Skye, the consequences of failing her classes, specifically Japanese, were bigger than her just losing some money, time, and having to retake a class. Failing meant that she couldn't study abroad in Japan, which is something she really wanted to do. It turns out she was failing all of her classes, and nobody knew. We didn't find this out until, um, it was actually a few months before she left, because she was, uh, she wasn't able to do a study abroad program. So her goal was to go to Japan and everybody knew that and it was just like I remember my mom telling me like because like they would have like these like late night like talks so Skye would get into my mom's bed and they would just kind of discuss the day and whatnot and my mom you know was just like if school isn't for you it's okay like you can find another way and she's like this is your dream if you want to go to Japan like you can you know figure it out and if you like want to study abroad then just get your grades up it's okay like if you need help ask for help and I think it was after that then she started seeing a therapist Megan told me that she didn't notice a major change in her sister at this time.

10:30Nothing that would make anyone suspicious that Skye may want to leave. But she did. On March 31st, 2008, Skye asked her mom to make her those cupcakes, just like old times. And the next day, she boarded a plane to Japan without telling anyone. BJ's Wholesale Club makes holiday hosting so easy, we called in Thanksgiving's original host to talk about it. Pilgrim here. We could have used BJ's back in the day. Imagine stepping off a boat then foraging for your first thanksgiving it's a whole new world now bj's brings thanksgiving right to your door with free same day delivery on your first order of 100 or more we're talking turkey squash pies all at prices so good they'll knock the buckle right off your hat for terms visit bjs.com slash thanksgiving and get the same great savings online as in club this is a real good story about bronx and his dad ryan real united airlines customers we were returning home and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Captain Andrew.

11:31I got to sit in the driver's seat. I grew up in an aviation family and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age. That's Andrew, a real united pilot. These small interactions can shape a kid's future. It felt like I was the captain. Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever. That's how good leads the way. When Skye's family realizes that she's missing, they can't even imagine where she might be. so they begin scouring her room for anything that might point them to where she's gone. And it seems like Skye took almost nothing with her. Megan told me that Skye didn't own a cell phone, so there's nothing we can pull from there.

12:08It was really just her debit card, laptop, and Nintendo DS that she took with her. So initially, it doesn't really look like she's going to be gone for long. But of course, they want to know what the heck's going on, so they get into Skye's email account. And that's when they see it. just a few days prior sky booked a one-way ticket to japan yeah um with sky being missing in japan so initially when we had called the police here in southington connecticut they didn't take it seriously they were just like okay we'll be there in like two hours or so you know um and then Then when my brother found the email, the police officer then told us, oh, go to the airport, see if you can find her car, see if that's like, you know, where she went.

13:02And when we found the car, we let them know and they're like, oh, OK. And then they started just kind of checking with airlines and it was confirmed that she went to Japan. so when we found all that out um it was it's so it was so hard to believe because it was just such like a ballsy move and then and then we were told that in order to file a missing persons report we have to physically go to japan japan has different like rules and protocols and i mean having a missing person in the states is hard enough to understand because every state you're going to deal with different laws and different protocols.

13:50So we didn't know what we were in for in terms of what Japan's policies were. So my mom and I go to Japan because you gotta. so we get to japan and they were so on top of it they were formal they were respectful they were dealing with like two crazy people who just were so out of their element and they were so kind to us and i remember talking with my mom about it and we were like oh thank god she's missing here but it then became really clear that there really wasn't much they could do unless there was a lead unless something came in they're not gonna just stop what they're doing and scour the country for this American woman um and that was upsetting because you I think as a kid like culturally like when you're growing up they tell you like the authorities have your best interest at heart and they will always be there to help you and that is one of the biggest lies and and it doesn't matter where they're from it doesn't matter if they're in japan or in the states if you think about it like objectively these people are doing a job i don't think anybody really loves their job and with their job like they have standards and protocols they can't really go outside like the lines and they have restrictions in terms of manpower time and budget and when you realize that you're just like oh like we're kind of on our own and being in Japan that that made it so much worse because of the distance because of the language barrier the cultural barrier just all of it Megan and her mother Susan stay in Japan for about two weeks trying to find any trace of sky that they can they hand out flyers try to speak with locals and even managed to put together a press conference.

16:12I was working with MTV at the time and they had like producers and stuff in Japan. So we were able to kind of finagle something that way. And then like word got out and a lot of reporters showed up to the press conference And I thought that was really cool. And then that was the only time after we had the press conference is when some leads came in. And, you know, that's when they were able to verify Sky was seen in a few different areas. So I don't know the exact location of there was a kiosk that I think he was Australian or Austrian. At this point, I can't remember. And I also have never had access to the police records.

17:05So even to this day, when I went to Japan, even Japan won't open up the police records for the U.S., for like the U.S. marshal that was with us and the detective from Southington that came with us. So, yeah, that person helped Sky out at a kiosk to get a ticket somewhere. and then there was a taxi driver i believe the taxi driver was in nabori batsu and then there was two different inns where the workers confirmed that she stayed and when we went in 2008 and when we found out that she was in nabori batsu me and my mom were like well let's go but then the police were like no no no like we already questioned everybody there's really nothing you can do over there.

17:55And we didn't understand that at that time. And it was a huge regret that we didn't go. But it was also like, well, we don't know where it is. We don't know how to communicate with anybody. So it was kind of like, OK, like, you know, it was the right decision at the time. But eventually, Megan had to fly back home. Her mom did stay behind a little bit longer, hoping she'd be right behind Megan with Skye. But that didn't happen. then it became clear that we're going to be leaving without her and without maybe any answers and we were told that um the Japanese authorities would check in if anything came up and nothing really came up even if we were trying to call in to look for updates we would just get like hung up on because you know you're calling a Japanese police station and you're speaking English and they're just like never mind like so things like that became really apparent that it wasn't going to be easy to get any any updates anything like that and since it was in a different jurisdiction the police in Southington at that time wanted like nothing to do with it they're just like, well, it's over there.

19:18And so we didn't even have a connection between the police in the States and like the Japanese police. We know that Skye got help from the man at the kiosk, and she visited and stayed at a few ends. Megan will go deeper into that later in the episode, but after this, there's just no real trace of Skye. We know that Skye didn't have a cell phone, but she did take her laptop and Nintendo DS, which could access the internet. Her digital footprint completely stopped after she went missing. But Skye's family did find something else in her email that was extremely disturbing. She drafted what appears to be a suicide letter to a friend that she never sent.

20:06This is something her family considered immediately in Skye's case, and they were upfront about that with the officials and the media. They believe Skye may have taken this trip in order to die by suicide. But Megan and Skye's mom Susan thinks that there may be more to that. They think it's very possible that Skye was communicating with someone who helped her, or at the very least encouraged her to go to Japan. I lean towards the theory that somebody helped her, that she made a connection online in some way. and had started some sort of relationship. Because the reason why I don't think that she went there solely to commit suicide is because of the effort it takes to just get yourself out there.

21:02You're going to be flying. You're going to be traveling for a solid 24 hours to get from Connecticut kit and then have your layover in DC, a layover in Tokyo. You got to go through customs and immigration. And then you got to take another domestic flight to Hokkaido. And then you have to take a train from there to go to where you're going. It's just, that's a long, that's a long time to be alone with your thoughts. And unless she was in a different mental state, if something happened something like some sort of episode happened i can't see her just going to end her life there this was something that she a place that she wanted to go you know and to go to where she went it would take a lot of planning in 2008 to make that happen you can't just like be on your phone and use like hotels tonight and be like oh i'm gonna stay here like no yeah like none of that was happening so it was planned it had to have been planned and somebody gave her the itinerary in some way and was making sure she like followed through um that to me is the only thing that makes sense just also because of sky's like personality it's not that i don't believe she's capable it's just i i know how frustrated and scared she would be by herself in that situation like she took after my dad my dad's the type of guy who needs to prepare over prepare like if there's a new doctor's appointment, like a new doctor, okay?

22:59He has to do like a dry run like a few days before to make sure he knows. Skye was the same way. Skye wasn't just like, oh, let's just go do this. You know, Skye was like going to complain if it was too hot or too cold. Like, you know, she always had to be like in her safe space or else she wouldn't do it. She had, when she had to start working. My parents were like, you're in college, you need a part-time job. She had all these weird excuses to like not work certain jobs. She's like, well, if I can't see the whole store, I can't work there. You know, just like all these like weird little things to just be safe be prepared to like calm herself so yeah she's 21 yeah she's an adult but you have to factor in like the personality type and the lengths to where to you know what she did to get to where she was going like it just the missing part to me is who helped her you know but since there's nothing i mean it's just a theory there's nothing to go on you know as i was speaking with megan i told her that one aspect of the theory of sky potentially dying by suicide that troubled me was the money remaining in her bank account.

24:34Nearly a thousand dollars, which would go a long way in Japan in 2008. I will say that I understand completely why suicide is the prevailing theory in this case. What I couldn't wrap my head around was how a 21-year-old who had been dreaming for years of going to Japan didn't spend their money. it could have like another theory too is just she was met with an accident like she wanted to go out she wanted to explore she wanted to just like break out of her shell and that's something i could completely understand and relate to and to be so bold as to take a one-way trip to japan like would be like the ultimate like fuck you to my like to the constraints that i've been living in and then just either getting lost and getting into an accident in some way like that's feasible um but there's just so many other little things that i'm just like i just don't get it megan and i discussed what sky would look like in japan the idea that she might be an easy target she has no cell phone no form of gps and according to conversations her family had with her professor Skye didn't know enough Japanese to really blend in.

25:55We know she asked a local vendor for help with travel. Basically, Skye likely would have looked like a tourist and stuck out pretty badly. Of course, it's just a theory. But I think it's worth considering that Skye may have been met with foul play, even if she had planned on dying by suicide. That would certainly explain why she didn't use all her money. But unfortunately, this is where Skye's trail ends. Authorities and Skye's family spent years trying to match her to unidentified bodies in the area, but there was never a match. Skye's case has pretty much been sitting for over a decade without any updates.

26:34Then, in 2020, when the world locked down, Megan joined TikTok and began making videos about mental health and her journey to find Skye. At the end of 2021, she created a podcast exploring the case called Surviving Sky. But as the world was rapidly changing, we know that DNA technology was too. And that's when Megan realized that this is an avenue they have to explore. But like filing a missing persons report, Japanese authorities required Megan and her mother to submit their DNA samples in person. So in 2024, Megan and her mom fly back to Japan.

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28:22But much to their surprise, they're joined by a local Southington, Connecticut detective. So it seems promising. We met with the U.S. Marshal and the detective at our hotel. They stayed at the same hotel. And the U.S. Marshal, so it became bigger than we realized. at first because I know prior to us even going, the detective was telling us that there's all these like closed door meetings. And I'm like, why? Like, what do you have to discuss? It's like, can we go? Can we not? And it has to be like on their timeframe. So they gave me a date at one point and it was like literally the next week. I'm like, okay, we'll manage.

29:05We'll figure this out um and then also they were like oh we need you to sign an NDA you can't talk about any of this and I was just like okay so like what what am I getting into please just anyways it wasn't um it wasn't fun at first so we meet with the U.S. Marshal the U.S. Marshal has a binder full of like anything I've ever posted like on TikTok any movement that Skye had any like message board that she came up on it was like thick so I was like okay cool um and they said that they went they so basically the U.S. Marshall is a part of a new agency that deals with Interpol and the FBI, and their main thing is to deal with missing people and fugitives.

30:08And I was like, that's amazing. Okay, great. This is needed. And so they use Sky's case as like a bargaining thing to help with a fugitive transfer in Japan. so it was kind of like part of like this package deal so he then told me that throughout their investigations like they had not been able to track anything in terms of Skye's um like digital footprint after she went missing so there's nothing um they also checked with like a sex crimes like division and nothing came up there as well yeah they checked IPs and nothing came up there and basically Japan agreed to the DNA because during that time period there were a lot of unidentified remains out in the Naboribetsu area so it was basically going to help them close a case if it came up positive and then it would give us some closure as well so that was you know a lot of info um and then the following day we go to the meeting and it's very formal they have this like card exchange where everybody in the room presents like their business card and there was about like seven chief inspectors from like Hokkaido, Sapporo, Noboribatsu and then like their associates.

31:48And me and my mom, we give the DNA. The detective had actually taken my dad's DNA and took it with him prior to going. And he was like, well, let's just see. And I was like, oh, I don't want to offend them because they said we physically have to be there. But they took it. And I was like, amazing. Megan and her mom leave this meeting feeling more hopeful than ever that they might finally get some answers about Sky, and they take this opportunity of being back in Japan to go visit the areas they wanted to visit on their first trip. We left Sapporo, and we went to Naboribetsu like the following day.

32:30And Naboribetsu is this kind of run-down tourist town. I'd say its heyday was probably in like the 70s or 80s. And it's in a national park. It is beautiful. But I don't know if it was just the weather and just like the rain and the fog and the just overall dreariness at times that just made it very like ominous feeling. Basically, like even I wouldn't even go for like a day trip, maybe like a half a day trip. It's like that kind of place. And we stayed there for two days. And as soon as me and my mom got there, we were like, we should go. like it just didn't feel great we were like we had panic attacks like every night we went to the two inns the sky was last seen at one of them was like right across from where we were staying and it was pretty run down it may have looked better 16 years ago but we were like okay we didn't have like the confidence to actually go into them so we were like outside looking at the property and stuff like that it just felt like it's been 16 years i don't think the same people work there if they did i don't want to ask anybody it just it was too much um and then the other one it was probably like five miles away and on a map you can look at it and be like oh you can totally walk that it might take a while but you can walk that um but you can't even in a car it took like like 20 minutes to get there it was up in the hills i mean mountains so in the winter nabori has like good skiing um but sky's not a skier sky's not a hiker sky was not like athletic it just wasn't in her wheelhouse that wasn't what she was into so when we got up to the second inn we were like what the fuck what the fuck with this place because it was so far out there um anything around it was like abandoned one burning question i had for megan was if this inn this area may have been something that was once featured in one of sky's favorite animes or manga or if the area was some stunning tourist attraction, but she told me that she didn't think so.

35:01We like looked into a few, but like, it didn't really connect in that way. Because anything that would have made sense would have been like Tokyo, you know, not all the way up in like Hokkaido and Sapporo, Naboribatsu. It just did it and it's rural it's rural to the point where we had an um an issue at one point where it was sunday and i was like down to like two or three yen and this was after we took the cab up to like the second inn and i didn't have enough yen to pay and i was like oh they'll take a card and they didn't nobody in town took a card and it was sunday and banks were closed and uh it became it became a thing yeah but like even in 2024 when they're not taking cards or anything like that like it's that kind of rural where why would a 21 year old american like go out there without knowing or without being told it was like in like kind of like a valley area but in the mountains you're surrounded by beautiful like forests but the forests are I've never really seen forest this dense like you can't look into like you know when you look into like the you know the woods you see like the trees you see space there is no space there's no space it's like a wall of trees a wall of trees and then all the underbrush is bamboo like you're not just like casually taking a stroll into this forest.

36:42You are not. And then it's also filled with bears. Megan even hypothesized that maybe Skye ended up taking the wrong train, but even then she would have had to travel 20 minutes in a taxi to get to the inn. She has no idea why Skye went there and considers it one of the biggest mysteries in her case, but she does feel that Skye likely never left the area. So I have no idea why she went there. It's, that's one of the biggest mysteries because it makes no sense. It's, I just got the feeling when I was there that she never left there. you know like i don't know if it was something where she took it upon herself and just kind of like went into the woods or if because she stayed at two different ends somebody was watching her instructing her and like you know making sure she was alone i don't i don't know if we'll ever know and also i don't know if she is out there um like if her body is out there it would be like a hundred percent possible to never find her body.

37:57Ultimately, the employees at the inn did confirm that Skye was alone on her trip. They never saw anyone else with her, and her name was the only one on the reservation. The trail really does stop in Naboribetsu in April 2008. So for now, all Skye's family can do is wait and see if the DNA yields any results. Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded, so you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you, like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. Said you hear about Dave.

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39:17So, what happened to Skye Budnick? I think we went over the most likely scenario here. Skye discussed dying by suicide, and specifically in Japan. While it does appear to be completely out of character for her to take this journey, and many steps along the way don't make perfect sense, we know it's possible. I think it's fair to say that foul play or Skye being in some type of accident is also possible until we can prove otherwise. Which brings me right to our call to action. You guessed it, directly from Megan. I think in order to keep Skye's memory alive, Skye's case alive, is to just continue to share.

40:04Share her story and, you know, really think about what might have happened because it just kind of helps everyday people in their own lives kind of like be more aware of their own surroundings and their own family members and it keeps you mindful and just reaching out to a friend that you haven't talked to in a while who might have been struggling and I think if Skye's case could, you know, I mean, I have no idea what's going to happen. I could get answers that she's no longer with us, but then again, that's going to give us more questions. I can get a call and say that there's no hits and then I'll live with that the rest of my life um i don't know if the work is done at this point so i think the best thing is to just keep sharing her story until until we know what the next step is because yeah we're in We're in a bit of a limbo right now, but, you know,

41:24I think just learn, if it helps other people be better people, then that's a win.