The Search for Alissa

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1:55We're not in the office anymore. it's bold relentless and endlessly rewatchable discover why critics give it 93 on rotten tomatoes you're so fired oh am i no help is coming send help rated r now streaming on hulu and hulu on disney plus i got some news yesterday and it is the morning so please excuse my voice. I just find that hopping on here and doing this in a very candid way is so much better than scripting it out. I think that there is a time and place for scripts, and certainly you'll continue to see those in the future. But for things like this, I think to truly convey what it's like to be a family member in true crime, I just need to sit down and record it.

2:51No bells, no whistles, no script. So as you guys know, in March, we did the first ever search for Alyssa. This is something that was, my goodness, years in the making. We'd been talking about this search and planning for the search for over a year. And of course, you know, out in the desert, we were looking for acclimate weather for us so that we would be safe and the dogs would be safe. And finally, after over a year of planning, we made it happen. We got a bunch of people out into the desert, a bunch of dogs out into the desert, and we did it. We searched these areas that were specifically picked by Alyssa's detective.

3:32We didn't go randomly. We didn't go based off of what we felt. We were given guidance by law enforcement, which is exactly what we wanted. As much as I would love to explore all the areas I personally feel Alyssa may be, I think that going with what law enforcement thought was more important than chasing my whims, if you will, for the very first search. that being said um as you know i've been pretty tight-lipped about it and that's because the dogs alerted to something or an area or i'm not really sure anymore and let me tell you why um yesterday i got an email from alissa's detective basically saying that whatever the dogs alerted to in whatever style they alerted to, it just wasn't enough for them to follow up, not them or the local police out in California where we were searching.

4:33So essentially, even though multiple dogs alerted at the same spot, they've deemed it not enough to take action. and if I'm being honest, as soon as I saw like the email preview, um, I knew, I knew. And yeah, I cried. I cried a lot yesterday. Um, but I think overall, there's an acceptance now that this is the way it is in Alyssa's case. After years of bringing them Texas EquiSearch and Cadaver Dog teams and free volunteer searchers and being turned down every single time, finally, I went a little bit rogue and used still very, you know, credible organizations to help do this search who were in communication with law enforcement.

5:30We had members of law enforcement out there with us. This is just the way it goes in Alyssa's case. I just don't know what to say anymore. It feels a lot like when I interviewed my dad in 2017 and he said, come to the deathbed and I'll give you all the honest answers you want to hear. Oh wait, actually I'll confess to anything if they give me lethal injection within 10 days of that confession. That's what this feels like, is like, what more? What more can I possibly do? And at what point does someone who's paid to do this work step in? And I hate to be that way, but at what point do they take something and run with it?

6:25I don't know and I'm not gonna lie right now I'm in the middle of crafting this Nancy Guthrie series and the irony is not lost on me is not lost on me I can't imagine in a million years them doing a search where law enforcement told them to search a dog alerting to an area and them saying no we're not gonna follow up and I think that's what gets me is that there's no standard across these cases. I'm not shocked that this happened in Alyssa's case. Alyssa's case has always been treated like this from day one when she was reported missing and no police officer came out to our home all the way up to the big 2026 where law enforcement tells us to search somewhere.

7:17We search, the dog's alert, and they say not good enough.

7:24This is another reason I think that I'm so deeply uncomfortable with fundraising is because I know how this department is. I know how law enforcement is in general with Alyssa's case. And, you know, I don't think it's necessarily them picking on Alyssa. I think that it is these older cases where it has to be an insanely good reason for them to put any resources into it. That's just my hypothesis. after being the point person on this case for most of my life at this point, all I can do is guess because there's zero transparency into why they do or don't do what they do. I'll get a vague answer, but when I compare it to other cases, it still doesn't make any sense to me.

8:12And I think it goes back to that media pressure. I let it slip during the trial and I never got it back. again if this were a case that were dominating the headlines right again a Nancy Guthrie a Gabby Petito whatever you want to say

8:31I don't think they'd be brushing us off like this so I do want to apologize to everyone who donated to make this happen um the way it was explained to me was that if the dogs alerted to an area, they would take this seriously and go look. And in my very foolish mind, still my idealistic mind after all these years, I thought, yeah, that makes sense. Of course, if we have all these dogs out here and enough of them alert to one area, why wouldn't they want to search? That makes perfect sense to me. And then this happens. So I'm so sorry to everyone who donated. And again, like this is why I shy away from fundraisers.

9:20I know that times are hard right now and every dollar, every penny that people give, I know takes away from something else, especially right now. So I'm so sorry. Thank you for donating. If you want your money back, please come to me and I'll give it to you personally. This is not fair. This is not the way that it should have gone. And all I can do is pivot and move forward, which is exactly the plan. I know where this happened. I don't have all the information that was gathered out there, but I have a good amount to pick up and run with it. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. Even if that's not Alyssa out there, that could be someone.

10:02And for me saying that it's not enough to take action, that's not my standard of being a human being. That can be their standard of being a human being or policy or whatever you want to call it, whatever PC term you want to put on it to give excuses to not take action. That's fine. For me on a basic human level, I'm going to keep going forward with it. Because I think anybody who's been in this position, who's been a part of a long-term cold case like this decades and decades and decades, it hits different.

10:47I mean, this is potentially like the biggest break in Alyssa's case ever. I mean, ever. They've never looked for her. We go out, multiple dogs alert in the same area, and somehow it's not good enough to even follow up on.

11:09So the plan is to pivot, move forward, and figure out another way to investigate this. I think at this point, inviting the police is more of a formality in Alyssa's case, and if I can get those answers privately funded, that's fine. I don't need the Phoenix police to say, good job, you did it, and to officially recognize it. I don't need them to help. I think that, I mean, I would love for them to help, but I think at this point, it's been proven time and time again that their help is not necessary in many, many ways, and this apparently is one of them. So, I'm going to pivot. I'm going to figure it out, I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

11:59Because again, even if that's not Alyssa, it could be somebody. And I don't care who you are, what your background is, how old your case is, what's going on, what your family's like, no person should stay unidentified in this country. If we have the resources to send police officers out to get shoplifters at the Dollar Tree, you cannot convince me that we don't have resources to investigate this.

12:35If we have resources to investigate white-collar crime, the rich moving money around, we have money to investigate a missing child.

12:55but I'm not in control of how they allocate those funds so I'll do what I have to do follow up and see what I can do to at least bring somebody answers or at the very least just eliminate this and not make it one more thing I have to think about every day for the rest of my life as a what if. Because I think that's the damage too, right? It's not just that this goes unexplored and they think it's unlikely to be what we think it could be, right? I think it's the peace of mind for me and checking that off the list and knowing I did everything I could do to fully investigate what was found out there.

13:41Because as it stands, it has not been investigated. And that's unacceptable. It not being Alyssa, I can understand. It not being a person, I can understand. But simply saying, we don't think this is worth investigating,

13:57that's not an answer I'm going to accept. So that means I'll go forth and I will investigate it myself or, I mean, most likely hire somebody with the actual skill set to investigate. I think that that's the best move going forward. That way I don't have to live with the what ifs so that a future generation someday won't have to pick up my notes and wonder about a what if and 20 years from now go back and look at that area because the Phoenix Police Department didn't want to use the resources. You know, it's funny. I think people like to assume that detectives and police departments are doing absolutely everything they can to solve these cases all the time.

14:51And I used to think that too. But it's not. And that's not the way it works. It's a big game of Whoever has the most media gets the most resources. Whoever has the most affluent family members gets the most resources. Whoever is chosen gets the most resources. They are not allocated equally. And while I try to continue to shine a light on that system and, you know, march towards equality there for these cases, I have to do what I can in the background for Alyssa too.

15:30so I guess that's what's going on with the search. The dogs, many of them, alerted to this one specific area, and the police once again said, not good enough, we're not going to do anything. I've been here before, and I'll see the other side again. For now, I think the best thing you can do to help Alyssa's case is keep sharing it.

16:02because if it was still as big as it used to be, if every video about Alyssa was still getting, you know, millions and millions of views, I don't think that this would have been the answer from them. It's heartbreaking. It's a stupid, heartbreaking game that families have to play, but you cannot tell me that they don't have to play it because we do. too. Sometimes it comes naturally, right? Sometimes the media picks up a case and it goes insane, and the family doesn't have to do anything for that media momentum, right? But a lot of the times, families just like me are all fighting for the same airtime, and there's just not enough.

16:46So please, once again, I'm asking you to share Alyssa's case. If you feel like police should investigate when dogs alert to an area of potential human remains, please share Alyssa's case. If you think that poor kids from West Phoenix deserve the same resources as Nancy Guthrie in the Catalina foothills of Tucson, please share Alyssa's case. If you feel like you wouldn't have millions and millions and millions of dollars to stimulate the media and do what needs to be done to get media attention in this world, please share Alyssa's case. If you think that missing kids deserve a police officer to show up at the door to take a report and talk to the parents, please share Alyssa's case.

17:37I feel like I've been so fortunate in so many ways and so unfortunate in others, and it's such a hard thing to reconcile because I am so grateful for everything this community has done, and I think stunned that it's still not enough.

18:00Stunned that 25 years after the fact, I had to coordinate the first ever search for a missing child. and really, in the area, the detectives immediately wanted to search over 20 years ago, or about 20 years ago.

18:29You have a missing child. Detectives who investigated said, we want to look exactly here because we think we know exactly who did this and possibly where.

18:41but we're not going to expend the resources.

18:48Meanwhile, a murderer, pedophile, domestic terrorist is still walking the streets free.

19:00I don't know. The justice system kind of feels like the public library right now. Like, I can use it, right? With all of its red tape and fees, potentially, and, you know, all that. Or I can just go buy the damn book myself and get it done.

19:19So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to move forward. And I'm going to bring Alyssa home.