WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.879
To listen ad free visit sinspod dot com slash subscribe
2
00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:06.000
starting at two ninety nine a month. You'll also get
3
00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:08.919
access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you joined
4
00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:12.439
through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show.
5
00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:15.000
This week on.
6
00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.239
Sins and Survivors, we covered the disappearances of Abby Roberts
7
00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:21.359
and Philip Johnson that have remained unsolved for more than
8
00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:24.399
thirteen years. Get ready as we put in a little
9
00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:27.519
overtime on Swingshift and go behind the scenes into what
10
00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:31.600
went into making the unsolved disappearance of Abby Roberts and
11
00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:32.520
Philip Johnson.
12
00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:46.719
Hello subscribers, Hello subscribers, Welcome back to another Swingshift episode.
13
00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:48.840
Welcome back, Maga subscribers.
14
00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:50.320
Thank you for being subscribers.
15
00:00:50.359 --> 00:00:56.079
Another another episode, another Swingshift.
16
00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:59.039
What day would this episode be being released? I don't
17
00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:00.600
even know what day would come out?
18
00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:04.280
June seventeenth, June.
19
00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.439
Seventeenth, though, I think okay.
20
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:10.200
I think that's the day. All right, good times. Thank
21
00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.040
you for doing the research on this one.
22
00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:15.640
And please share Abby and Phillips missing posters. You were
23
00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:17.239
saying something about research.
24
00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:19.280
Yes, thank you for doing the research on this one,
25
00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.040
because I was doing a lot of editing, and I
26
00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.680
didn't get mine done in time, so we had to
27
00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:25.920
do this one a week earlier.
28
00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.680
Yeah, so yeah, you really busted through this one. You
29
00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:29.280
did a good job.
30
00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:31.879
Thank you. This one is really sad.
31
00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:39.560
Yeah, it really is a little confusing, and.
32
00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:39.920
And there are definitely some I feel like there are
33
00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:43.319
some obvious questions and theories that come up that I
34
00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:47.159
hesitate to even talk about in our swingshift episode.
35
00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.719
Yeah, and I think that's partly what makes ethical true
36
00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:54.560
crime the challenge, and when you don't want to speculate
37
00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:56.879
and you want to remember that these are real people.
38
00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:58.640
These are real people who live in our community.
39
00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:03.120
Yes, we definitely don't speculate. We don't use somebody of something.
40
00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:06.120
We mentioned it briefly in the episode where I kind
41
00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:08.680
of said it vaguely that you know, from our research,
42
00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:12.080
we could see that the family had lived in the
43
00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:17.560
community for a long time. I did find an obituary
44
00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.919
for I think your grandfather, but it might have actually
45
00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:23.879
have been a great grandfather, And just when it listed
46
00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:28.199
out the children and then the grandchildren and then the
47
00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:31.680
great grandchildren, I was and said that the person was
48
00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:36.159
the man had been a resident. I believe of Henderson,
49
00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:38.479
and I was like, wow, this family's lived here for
50
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:41.800
a very long time, and there's a lot of them.
51
00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:46.000
It is a very large family. So there are neighbors,
52
00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.759
you know, very you know, not that I know, not
53
00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:52.280
that we know them personally, but not literally. Are not
54
00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:56.800
literally our neighbors, not to my knowledge. And then the
55
00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:01.319
fact that their children very likely are you know, in
56
00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:07.719
our community, and you know they're like teenagers, and you know,
57
00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:09.719
the kids know how to search up stuff on the Google.
58
00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:11.520
So you know, you just got to want to be
59
00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:14.120
cautious about We're always cautious about using the names of
60
00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:19.280
young people. But by that same token, Abby's been missing
61
00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:25.000
for thirteen years, Philip's been missing for thirteen years, and
62
00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:27.319
it's pastime. And like I said in the we said
63
00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:31.639
in this the episode. The detectives at the time, you know,
64
00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:34.159
in twenty fifteen, they were like, we're going to retire
65
00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.599
and we hope this gets solved, and you know, it's
66
00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:38.879
just it's just heartbreaking.
67
00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:44.599
This is a tough one, Yeah, it really was.
68
00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:49.120
It blows me away that they just seemingly disappeared into
69
00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:52.479
thin air, right Like this is one of those cases
70
00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:57.719
where you you know, like the police always say, you know,
71
00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.599
in the things we watch when they're interviewed, people don't
72
00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:06.400
just disappear. Human bodies do not just disappear like if
73
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:09.039
you if you burn a human body. They are very
74
00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:12.680
difficult to get rid of unless you work at a crematorium.
75
00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:13.719
Even then there is.
76
00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:16.439
Debris.
77
00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:23.399
And it's not clear they had any enemies or no.
78
00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:26.920
I mean, there's no mention of any motive against them.
79
00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:31.040
Maybe the police have something in their files, but it
80
00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:33.839
seemed like they were they didn't have a lot of leads.
81
00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:36.399
There wasn't a lot in the in the press about
82
00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:40.240
about that, no description of any other individuals involved, or
83
00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:43.800
any other cars or any other locations. They were very
84
00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:48.000
clearly going through the couple's belongings and trying to trace
85
00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:50.720
where they had been. Like we talked about how they
86
00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:53.879
found a receipt for a storage facility, so they went
87
00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.199
and searched the storage facility to try and figure out
88
00:04:56.199 --> 00:04:58.160
maybe where they had gone. And then they found the
89
00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:00.959
receipt for a different storage facility, so they went into
90
00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:05.360
California again and searched and it's just it's it's becoming
91
00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:09.920
so creepy. The longer we've spent you know, really researching
92
00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.360
and and hearing more for true crime is starting to
93
00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:16.920
really creep me out. The more and more the the
94
00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:19.920
whole abandoned car thing like the car being found and
95
00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:21.920
they're just being no trace of the person. I feel
96
00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:29.000
like you've covered several several several cases of disappearances Stephen.
97
00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:30.439
Cocher, Stephen Bradley.
98
00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:37.680
Actually Stephen Bradley's car was abandoned in like Elsnore, and
99
00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:42.480
that's actually really close to Paris, California.
100
00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:44.600
Where the storage place was, Yeah.
101
00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.160
Which kind of gave me like creepy vibes too. I mean,
102
00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.959
California is huge, and like the LA area is just massive.
103
00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.759
It's like no coincidence. But just you know, the more
104
00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.000
we do the work, the more you start to like
105
00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:59.519
see the coincidences, and it's just, you know, they that
106
00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:04.319
we've actually know of probably many more cases that if
107
00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:07.959
we thought about it for longer, of young men disappearing
108
00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:13.279
in their cars being the thing that's left behind, and
109
00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.079
it's just just sad. And then I did have that
110
00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:20.959
part in there about Philip's mom. You know, he comes
111
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:22.560
by the house, he has the kids. He says, hey,
112
00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:24.199
will you take care of the kids for me? She's like, hey,
113
00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:26.519
no problem. She had no idea that that would be
114
00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:29.399
the last time she saw him. She didn't think it
115
00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:31.519
was weird that Abby wasn't with him, Like why would
116
00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.000
she think that was weird? And like, you know, Abby's
117
00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.839
coworker was texting with her on October second, So I
118
00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:39.120
mean it's like, yes, the last time anybody saw them
119
00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:42.439
together was October twenty ninth. I couldn't find the specifics
120
00:06:42.439 --> 00:06:45.040
of how and when. I assume they drove together to
121
00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:48.720
work together. You know, that's probably what the last time
122
00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:50.639
anybody saw them was. Like they left for work that
123
00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:54.439
day on September twenty ninth. People saw them leave work together.
124
00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:56.959
And because they it was specifically said they were in
125
00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.519
their car together when they were seen, I'm just kind
126
00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:05.240
of guessing that but or somebody saw them leave for
127
00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:10.879
work together from their house. But you know, I don't
128
00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:15.639
it seems like Abby was you know, was around, was present,
129
00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:19.040
was chatting with people on October second, and he dropped
130
00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.879
the kids off on October third, So you know, maybe
131
00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:25.800
they did have Yeah, who knows, it's so unknowable. I
132
00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:28.800
don't think, and like we do have evidence that, you know,
133
00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:32.319
Philip went to the bank on the fourth and the fifth.
134
00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:34.399
Who knows what that was about.
135
00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.120
It feels like now that you say that, there are
136
00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:41.040
like a lot of parallels with the Stephen Bradley. I
137
00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:45.120
guess a lot of disappearances have parallels like that. M
138
00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:50.079
similar stories. We talked one time about you remember we
139
00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:52.759
had this conversation where I don't know where we were,
140
00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:55.920
but we were like, if we disappeared, this would be
141
00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.199
the fiction that people came up at.
142
00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:00.240
Why we disappeared? Where was that?
143
00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:03.600
Oh? It was when we had when our flight got
144
00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:07.399
canceled and we had to travel, Yes, and we had
145
00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:10.199
we did very odd things in order to get home.
146
00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:11.680
Oh my god, you want to tell a story.
147
00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.319
I feel like we told it on Swing Shift once before.
148
00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:16.279
Let's tell it again. It's a fun story.
149
00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:20.360
I don't see if I can if I can remember
150
00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.120
the specifics of it.
151
00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:26.240
It was the was it the trip to Tucson? Tucson, Okay.
152
00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.480
So we flew to Tucson and we our kid was
153
00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:31.439
looking at the University of Ours.
154
00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:33.159
And we rented a car to get around the city.
155
00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:34.559
Right, So we flew there on.
156
00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.480
That frontier Frontier and then you know, frontier flies from
157
00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.559
Las Vegas like once a week so or something. Yeah,
158
00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:47.080
and we rented a car while we were there, but
159
00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:48.120
we rented.
160
00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:52.440
It, oh, from the Tucson airport. No, No, we flew
161
00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:53.039
through Phoenix.
162
00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:55.120
We flew through Phoenix. So we flew into Phoenix. Then
163
00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:56.919
we'd rented a car there because it was much cheaper
164
00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:58.639
to flying in Phoenix. Because it was a big weekend
165
00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:01.960
in Tucson. Drove, we rented and we did this all
166
00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.200
through Expedia because we were like, we're gonna save a
167
00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:09.600
little money and were and drove Phoenix, drove Phoenix to
168
00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:11.720
Tucson and we went to Eg's.
169
00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:17.320
Yeah, this is okay, very bizarre story. But this is
170
00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.840
the second time this week that Eg's has come up
171
00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:21.559
in conversation, which is very weird.
172
00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:24.039
Really Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be weird if you
173
00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:24.639
lived in It.
174
00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:26.320
Wouldn't be weird if we lived in Tucson. But it
175
00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:26.919
is weird that.
176
00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.200
Right, we don't. We don't have Egs here.
177
00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:32.080
Shout out to, Shout out to. So we drove down
178
00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:34.600
and we did the college stuff and then we went
179
00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:35.879
to the airport and we were like, all right, cool,
180
00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:37.919
we we're gonna home. Now we're going We're gonna go home,
181
00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.639
so we drove, We drove back to no.
182
00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:43.000
We were gonna what were we going to do?
183
00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.960
We woke up in the morning to drive back to
184
00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:48.240
Phoenix to go, and we found out our flight was
185
00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:51.279
counseled yes, So we were like, okay, what do we
186
00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:51.799
want to do?
187
00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:56.679
So we were like, well, the salt option was to
188
00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:57.480
just drive.
189
00:09:57.240 --> 00:10:00.440
Home, right, because we we both have work and we
190
00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:03.600
didn't want to spend another two I think we'd have
191
00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:06.039
to leave on Tuesday, and we didn't want to spend
192
00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:12.200
another two night or whatever, another night in Tucson or
193
00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:14.080
or Phoenix, or buy.
194
00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:17.279
Tickets and go to school.
195
00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:21.080
So we just decided, forget it, We'll take the credit.
196
00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.840
Because Frontier offered us full refund plus one hundred dollars.
197
00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:26.600
I think it was something outrageous, and I was like,
198
00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:27.320
I'm just gonna take.
199
00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:31.519
This from four flights on their airline front.
200
00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:38.120
Which funny enough ended up getting candled anyway, never again.
201
00:10:38.679 --> 00:10:41.759
But we uh so then we were like, okay, well
202
00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:45.080
we'll just drive home. We'll just we'll just convert this
203
00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:50.039
car rental, this one, this Tucson car rental to a
204
00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:51.879
one way rental, and we'll just drive.
205
00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:55.399
It so we could not do that. No, they would
206
00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:57.120
not let us change it because we rented on Expedia.
207
00:10:57.279 --> 00:10:59.120
We couldn't rent the car in Phoenix. We had to
208
00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.639
rent the car in Tucson.
209
00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:04.519
Maybe, yes, that's right. They wouldn't rent us a one
210
00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:08.480
way from Phoenix to Vegas. We had to do a
211
00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:12.600
one way from Tucson. So we had to rent a
212
00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:15.360
car from the Tucson Airport to take us one way.
213
00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:19.480
So I rented that car and me and our son
214
00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:22.360
got in that car. But we still had to return
215
00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:26.240
our regular rental car to the Phoenix airport. So we
216
00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:29.360
drove in tandem to the Phoenix Airport for you to
217
00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:32.120
drop off our original rental car, and then you got
218
00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:34.639
in the Tucson rental car and then we drove home.
219
00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:37.200
But we were like, if anything happens to us on
220
00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:40.279
this trip, everyone is going to have to like it's
221
00:11:40.279 --> 00:11:42.399
going to do like some forensic accounting and be like
222
00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:47.639
why did these dodos like rent these rent three what
223
00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.080
were they doing? Why did they rent these cars? Why
224
00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:53.600
did why did they go to two different egs? Why
225
00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:54.519
were they not together?
226
00:11:54.759 --> 00:11:56.840
We went to we had a miscommunication, ended.
227
00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.399
Up a two different we're not together. We were not
228
00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:02.600
together because we were doing too like you were going, Yeah,
229
00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:06.679
you had to go return the car. You were like
230
00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:08.440
just ahead of us because I think you had to
231
00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:09.600
fill it up with gas or whatever.
232
00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:12.480
I don't remember together in Phoenix, scouse.
233
00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:16.639
So then I took like the sky Harbor skytrain from
234
00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:18.000
the car rental.
235
00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:19.720
Had to go all the way to rent the car,
236
00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.320
and I just waited in like regular pickup passenger pick
237
00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:23.120
up short term.
238
00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:26.679
Park, and then it was a five hour drive to.
239
00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.039
Last days five hour drive to let's see.
240
00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.600
Similar. Yes, people would have been confused a similar thing. Oh,
241
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:35.399
we did a similar thing from Indianapolis.
242
00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:40.000
No, no, yeah, we canceled our flight, so then we
243
00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:46.080
use those flight credits to go to freaking Indianapolis, and