Reed Jeppson

Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as talk of sexual assault. Please listen with discretion. All witnesses, suspects, and purses of interest are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go, Hey, guys, welcome to Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to get into a little right now in true crime, and then we're going to get into today's case. So first things up, a few updates from the last week or so. One trial I did not get a chance to talk about on here was what they're calling the All Pair affair murder trial. So key players here. We have Brendan Banfield who was married to Christine Banfield and they had a daughter, and they hired this Brazilian all pair named Juliana, and she's currently twenty five years old, so in twenty twenty three, she was in her early twenties. So what happened is allegedly not allegedly anymore because he was found guilty. So Brendan and the all Pair started an affair in August of twenty twenty two. Now keep in mind Brendan is in his thirties at this point and the all Pair Gal is in her early twenties. So they started having this affair. And then somewhere along the lines between the start of their affair and when everything transpired in February twenty twenty three, they decided that they were going to create an online profile for Christine and it was on some type of BDSM sexual fantasy role play seeking type of websites. They created this profile, This individual named Joseph Ryan answered the ad that quote unquote Christine had put up. He came to the house expecting to have this BDSM sexual fantasy to consenting adults type of encounter with Christine Banfield. So him coming to the house, him being lured to the house by this Christine profile was all set up by Brendan and the all Pair to basically get him to the house so they could stage it to make it look like he attacked Christine and then they killed him. Brendan killed him in self defense. So what ended up happening, there's a whole trial and a lot of stuff that we could easily go through. But basically Christine ended up being stabbed and killed, and then Brendan shot Joseph Ryan. And this is his quote, not mine, that he did it in self defense because Joseph Ryan had attacked his wife. That is his story, that is what he said happened. He was defending his wife, right. So turns out the all pair luckily turned on him and exposed their plot and basically took a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against him in this trial that we're talking about. So she told them everything that they did, everything they planned, They made the fake profile for Christine. This was all part of the master plan, and he was found guilty of the crimes that were alleged of him. Now, her sentencing came out, and because she did agree to testify against him, they sentenced her to what they could, which was ten years. Now, there is a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny tiny part of me that thinks that she was young and impressionable and easily manipulated by this potato of a man, Brendan Banfield. I don't see the attraction, but she was young, not that that is any excuse, but he probably was saying all the right things to her. Being very manipulative, and I guess I'm glad that she did come forward and say her side and what happened. I don't really feel like she showed a lot of remorse during the trial. During her testimony, she was just very matter of fact, which I don't know. I don't think I could live with myself if I ever participated in something like that, but I would never participate in something like that, so I really don't know. And the fact that they put the child in harm's way too, it's just unacceptable. And they lured this poor man, Joseph Ryan, who went onto a website looking for an encounter that was consensual and he went to that house with those expectations and then he lost his life because of this. And honestly, they were trying to frame him. They were trying to frame him for murdering Christine and that him being shot was just self defense because he was attacking Christine, when that wasn't the case to begin with, because they set it all up. So they sentenced her to ten years and the judge was very matter of fact, frank with her and said that she destroyed the family. She did. She took a mom away from her daughter, and now her dad's in prison for the rest of her life. So this child is never going to know a normal life. And it all could have not happened if you had just stood up and said, I'm not having any involvement in this, We're done, we're not doing this anymore. But unfortunately that didn't happen. So she is going to be sentenced to ten years, and in ten years she's going to be out. Brendan is supposed to be sent hints on May eighth, and it's suspected that he is going to be sentenced to a life in prison. He was convicted of two counts of murder, like I said earlier, So that is just a very small cliff notes version of the whole thing. Let me know if you want me to do like an in depth trial coverage of everything that went on, because I was kind of thinking it might be an interesting one to do for summer series. But I'm trying not to overwhelm myself with summer series this year because last Summer series was the Pike County massacre, and I almost went cross eyed in like the first three weeks because there was so much going on in Pike County and with everything, all the players, all the things that were going on the trials. So this might be a good one for summer series if you guys are wanting to hear more details, because the details of this one are insane. Okay, So now we're going to talk about Corey Richins. Her trial is getting ready to come up. She is facing murder charges for the murder of her husband via fentanyl, and then she's the one that wrote the children's book about grief after she allegedly killed her husband, Eric Richands. The trial is set to begin on February twenty third. They have officially seated a jury. It is supposed to last until March twenty ninth. And I was telling my friend Heather from Like Mother, Like Murder, I am not in the mood to sit through that long of a trial to rehash all of the things that Corey has said didn't happen when there's evidence that they did happen. I think a lot more is going to come out in the trial. There's been so much revealed between evidence and different people that Corey had spoken to and allegedly got fentanyl from in order to poison Eric, which eventually ended up happening but it's happening. We're getting a trial. It's going to probably last about a month. It's going to be really interesting to see all that comes out. I'm so curious what the defense has to bring because, in my opinion, I think the writing is pretty much on the wall. There is a lot of findings and a lot of discovery that has happened, and I just think that hopefully it goes in the direction I think it's going to go, and we will get justice for Eric because that poor man father husband lost his life in such a horrible way and then she tried to profit off of his death by writing a book about grief. And her day in court is coming, and I will be sure to keep you guys updated. And the name that I think will never ever leave this podcast is good old Eleg Murda. We are in the process right now of them going through the appeal because he is appealing, of course, his conviction. There is a lot that went on during that trial. We all know it. There was the situation with the Clerk of court, Becky Hill, and the jury tampering and all of that. So they had a hearing on February eleventh before the South Carolina Supreme Court and his lawyers argued for a new trial. They talked about the jury tampering, so we will see what ends up happening if he is granted a new trial. He has also been convicted of a lot of different financial crimes, so regardless of if he gets a new trial or not, he is not going to be seeing the light of day for a very, very very long time because of the financials of it all. But there is a chance he's going to get another trial, and I don't know, we'll see. If there's any more breaking news of anything, I will be sure to let you guys know. But Elec Murda is not going anywhere anytime soon. We are going to be talking about him for the rest of time, all right. Last thing we're going to talk about is the Nancy Guthrie situation. There has been a lot that has transpired over the last week. Some of it is worth mentioning, some of it is rumor and speculation. I'm not going to rumor and speculate anything about the whole Nancy situation on this podcast, but I do want to talk about a couple of things. So last week, I think it was Thursday evening, they had another lead that they were following. This is Pemat County in Arizona that they were following, and they had a few people detained. There was two people detained and then a third person from a traffic stop that was also detained, and all of those people were let go a few hours later. So the thing with all of these people being detained and everybody trying to figure out what's going on is law enforcement obviously is getting these tips now because they have released the home surveillance video of this person allegedly at Nancy's store, and although this person is masked, there's been a lot of speculation on that. So once those images were released, the video was released, law enforcement started getting a ton of tips and they have to do their due diligence and follow up on every tip. There could be somebody that said I saw Nancy Guthrie in a house in Dallas, Texas, and they would have to go to that house in Dallas, Texas and follow up on the tip. So they're getting a lot of tips. A lot of tips are coming in, and that is why I think there's people that are being detained and being questioned because a tip has come in that has led law enforcement to said address too said person to question them about what they may or may not know. Now, there's obviously a lot going on. There's a lot of rumor, there's a lot of speculation, there's a lot of finger pointing, and just none of it is really coming through with any substantial information as to where Nancy is. She's eighty four years old, she has a pacemaker, she has some health issues, she has medications she takes for some heart issues. She's on a blood thinner. Apparently this is a frail individual. She's not in tip top forty year old shape. She's elderly, she has some issues. Right, So time is of the essence in finding her, and that still has not happened yet. TMZ has been getting this correspondence from this individual who claims to know where she is, but nothing has really come forward as far as proof of life knowing that Nancy is still alive. None of that, at least that we know of, has been told to us. So they did find I guess, some DNA inside of the home that wasn't a match to Nancy's. And then they found a glove that they think could have been the gloves that the perpetrator was wearing. They found one glove apparently it had DNA in it, so they did the DNA comparison. They said, we think this is the same person. They entered that DNA into codis and there is no hit, which just means that whoever this perpetrator quote unquote, is that their DNA isn't in kodas. Not everybody has DNA and CODIS, so they're pretty much back at square one. But also important to note that everything that we're hearing being individuals on the internet consuming all of the true crime content that is being put out there, especially with Nancy's case because it is gone so viral. Everybody's talking about it, even people that aren't into true crime or talking about it. We're hearing all of this stuff that is being really by law enforcement, and it is more likely than not that the perpetrator or perpetrators are also hearing this information. And obviously Nancy has been missing. At the end of this week, it'll be three weeks, so she's been gone for a long time. If she is being held captive somewhere and a singular person or a group of people or two people have her and they're holding her hostage essentially, and they're watching the news reports and they're seeing, oh my god, they have DNA. They're not going to stick around. They're going to move their location, and if Nancy is still alive, they're going to move her as well. So there's a lot going on in this investigation that I think is really exposing PMA County and a lot of the missteps that are going on with law enforcement right now. And it's very much in the public eye that this case hasn't been handled great from the start. They have gotten a lot of criticism for releasing the crime scene too early. The sheriff for PMA County said that his team was there for twenty hours doing analysis on the scene. But they've been back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, putting up white tents, and there's just been a lot going on. I'm recording this on Wednesday night. I released this episode Thursday evening. If there is any more breaking news tonight tomorrow, I will be sure to bring you guys an update. But this one is forever changing. I do want to caution you guys though there is a lot and I'm talking a lot of speculation online. I'm going to recommend a couple people that I suggest that you guys follow if you want true and accurate reporting without speculation. Gigi Pretty Lies and Alibis. That's my girl, love her dearly and she's very fact based, matter of fact, so follow her. And then Brian Innton. He has been one of the main people reporting on Nancy's case and he is great. I love Brian Nton, I respect him. He's ethical, he does things the right way, and he is making sure that he's approaching it in a way that is appropriate, and he is doing a fantastic job. So those are the two people I would follow for updates. Brian Entton is boots on the ground going to the scenes and everything. Anytime that there's a break, he is there, so follow him for super current updates. And then Gigi as well. She'll do like a YouTube short or a little update here and there about anything that's breaking. She'll do like a short little episode on her podcast, which is pretty Lies and Alibis. Those are my two go tos because I trust them. I know that they are approaching things in the right way. And there is just so much speculation out there and it's really really easy to get sucked into it, and before you know it, there's this whole other narrative that is being spun. And I just always want to remember that there are real people behind these stories. Nancy is an elderly woman. She is a real person. She has family that love and care about her. Her family is really hurting right now because she has been missing for almost three weeks and they want to get her back. So online rumors and speculation aren't going to help bring her back. And I talk about this all the time because there is a lot of online rumor and speculation with all of these viral cases. But if law enforcement isn't coming out and saying it, I'm not going to report it as something that is active and ongoing. So that is it for right now on the Nancy Guthrie front. I still hope and pray that she has found safe and well and they are able to navigate through everything that has gone on. I pray for her safety and for her family because they are really struggling right now and they need our prayers right now more than ever. So with all of that being said, we're going to go ahead and get into today's episode. Alrighty guys, Today we are jumping into a brand new unsolved case, and I'm going to be telling you about the nineteen sixty four disappearance of fifteen year old Reed Jepson out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Now, this case has remained unsolved for the last almost sixty two years, and unfortunately, so many questions remain about what happened to Read on that fateful day. This one is a little bit of a doozy, so we have quite a bit to get into. So we're going to go ahead and get into it now. Read Taylor Jepson was born on May twenty eighth of nineteen forty nine to his parents, Elizabeth and Were Jepson. Edward worked as a doctor and Elizabeth was a homemaker, a stay at home mom. Reed was one of twelve children born to his large Mormon family. One of Reed's sisters, Helen, had passed away at only six months old. His oldest sister was named Patricia and at the time of his disappearance, she was twenty nine years old. And Reid's youngest brother was named Keith, and he was only seven years old at the time that Reed disappeared. So Reed was pretty much in the middle of the pack of his siblings. They lived in a home located at nineteen fifty one Browning Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah. The house was pretty big and it sat on a half acre lot. Although the home was in a neighborhood surrounded by neighbors, people recalled that the Jepson backyard was enormous. The Jepson family also had a summer home in Montana. Reed was a sophomore at East High schoo and he played on the high school's football team. He was also in wrestling. He was an active member of the Eagle Scouts and is described as well liked and popular amongst his friends and peers. He also was a paper boy. He and his brother actually did this job together, and at one point in time, Reid had gone to his parents because he wanted to get two dogs, and his parents did agree, but he needed to care for them and pay for them, and that is part of the reason that he took up this paper boy gig to help supplement some of the feeding and all of the other things that went along with caring for his two German short hair pointers. One of them was an adult and one was a puppy. This will come back later as a very important part of the story that one dog was an adult dog and one was a puppy. They were named Bess and Anne, and he basically won on of these dogs because he wanted to train them to eventually hunt birds. But they were his dogs, they were his babies. It was Sunday, October eleventh of nineteen sixty four, and this was a day like any other for the Jepson family. Reed and his brother John had gone to the church priesthood meeting that morning and had returned home in time for lunch. Reid went upstairs to change his clothes from his church clothes to his regular clothes, and then he went into the kitchen and opened a can of dog food. His sister Suzanne was in the kitchen and asked him what he was doing, and he said that he was going to go out back to feed the dogs. Now, the dogs were located on the jets and property in the backyard, but this was about two hundred yards away from the home. However, it was still on the properties, still in the backyard, so Suzanne had told him hurry back, lunch is going to be ready, and he said he would be back in order for him to eat lunch. And then get ready for the evening church events and stuff. He left for the backyard around twelve thirty pm. The Jepsons finished eating lunch and then headed to their evening church events, and Reid's family just assumed that maybe he had possibly gone to a friend's home, But everything kind of shifted when they came home from church later in the evening and Reid wasn't home. His parents became very concerned. Now, Reid's brother, John does recall thinking how much trouble that his brother was going to be in for not coming home and basically skipping out on his church activities. Little did he know from there, Reid would never return home again, and there was no sign of him, and also his dogs were missing. His parents called the police to report him missing. Now, there were some reports that said that Reid went missing while taking his dogs on a walk, and this mostly comes from an eyewitness that knew who Reid was and said that he saw Reid with his dogs near the Saint Mary of Watatch School and this school was about a mile away from the Jepson home. So there is a lot of reports out there that say that this was fact, that Reid actually went out to feed his dogs, and then he took them on a walk, And that was very much coming from this eyewitness account, but there are also people out there that report that that is not true. He didn't take the dogs on a walk. That wasn't his intention. His only intention was to go out and feed the dogs and then be back inside of the home for lunch, which he obviously never returned for. So if he had gone out to walk the dogs, you think that he would have said, I'm going to go walk the dogs. I'll be back in a couple of hours, not I'll be right back, and then he just didn't end up coming home. So we really don't know if this account of this person seeing red at the school is true or not. This person easily could have been mistaken thinking that they saw read that day and maybe was getting confused with another day. Because eyewitness accounts can be faulty, they're not always one hundred percent accurate. Sometimes you might see something on a specific day and you think it's the day in question, but it's really the day before or a week before, or you just see things wrong. It is entirely possible where human and human error does occur. And I will say that investigators do not substantiate this claim as being true. However, to this day, we don't know if this is accurate or not. And if this account is not true, then the last time that Reid was seen by anybody it was when he was in his own kitchen getting the food out for his dogs. And I very much think that that changes the course of this investigation and the direction that this investigation is going, because if Reid disappeared, he disappeared from his own backyard, which really, in hindsight doesn't make a ton of sense, but as we get into what I'm going to talk about later in the episode, it might start to become a little more clear. So once Reaver's reported missing, the search for him was extensive. They had on foot search parties that formed, and there was an in air search that also happened, and they very much focused their search on the foothills of the Wahstatch Mountains. And mainly the reason that they were focused on this area is because that was the last sighting that happened near the Saint Marys School. And it's also important to keep in mind that it was about a thirty to forty minute walk from the Jepson home, which really, in my mind, doesn't make a whole lot of sense that Reid left and decided he was going to go on a forty minute walk to the mountains with his dog, knowing that lunch was supposed to be ready, and that he was going to get back because he also had events at church later in the evening, and he had stuff that he needed to attend to, and he was very devoted to his faith and devoted to the time that he would spend in church. So a lot of this just didn't really make a lot of sense. There was also nothing going on in Reed's life that led anybody to believe that he voluntarily would have left on his own, especially his family. They had no reason to believe that Reid got up and decided that he was going to run away from home and just leave everything behind. So in the search that they did, they didn't find anything that led them to where Reed might have been. So it's interesting that the whole search came up with nothing, because if you were to think that that claim that the person made that said he saw Reid in front of the school was accurate, you think that they would have found something, And if they did it it almost makes you wonder if they were looking in the wrong spot, Like what if Rejebson never even left the property that day? And I know that's a really odd question for me to be bringing up, and I promise there's a reason that I'm bringing it up. It will all make sense. We're going to circle back in a little bit. But from that day forward, Reed was nowhere to be found. There was no trace of him. There was no trace of his two dogs. And I really think the whole thing about him going missing with the two dogs is so interesting because these were his dogs. They obviously would have protected Reed, so it's likely that wherever Reed went, the dogs would have gone with him. Also, you would think too that if he was walking these dogs, it would be very unlikely for a random predator just to want to approach a kid that had two dogs with him and have to battle against these two dogs in order to take this teenage boy. It just doesn't really make a lot of sense because people that are going to take a child from the street, they want an easy target and they don't want to have to fight two dogs that are going to be loyal and protective of their owner to try to take that child. So that whole thing, to me, just doesn't really make a lot of sense that we're looking at a random abduction here. But with all of that being said, the dogs never showed back up at the Jetson home. So where were the dogs and where was Red? Now? This disappearance really tore the Jepson family apart. There was a lot of public speculation that Read simply just ran off. Law enforcement kind of didn't really know what direction to go into, so there was just a lot of speculation that Read just went off on his own, And there was also a lot of speculation and scrutiny placed on the family, which I think is really sad and unfortunate. Jepson family did not know where Reed was, not having any idea where their son could be, and not just Reid's parents, but his siblings had to very much try to navigate what had happened in their lives. Now. John who is Reid's older brother by just about a year, was even brought in and questioned by law enforcement in his brother's disappearance. He was brought down to the police station and basically they were accusing him of knowing where Reed was or knowing what happened to Reid, and he just was taken aback by the fact that this had happened, and also taken aback by the fact that if they were questioning him, he knew that his parents must have given them the okay to question him like that, and he just didn't really know what to make of it. Now John has a podcast where he talks about this experience in his life, not just the losing his brother portion of everything, but then being thought to be involved in it. He was young as well. He was only I want to say, sixteen when everything went down, So it's just terrible to think about this poor sixteen year old boy who lost his brother and his best friend and then he's being brought in and questioned on everything. And he confronted his parents about it, and his parents basically said, we didn't know where else to turn. Law enforcement thought that maybe they could figure something out if they brought you in, so we just went along with it. They were desperate to figure out what happened to read as well, so I think they just kind of got caught up in everything. And obviously John was not involved in anything to do with his brother's disappearance, and it really makes me sad. That law enforcement went that route with their questioning and trying to insinuate that John had anything to do with his brother's disappearance, And I honestly think law enforcement was grasping at straws. They were trying to figuregure out what happened and solve it. So that's just kind of the direction they went, and I very much don't agree with that. So this obviously tore the Jepson family apart, and unfortunately they had more trauma coming their way. In December of nineteen sixty five, a little over a year after Reid went missing, Edward Jepson, Reid's father, took his own life, and I'm sure that he struggled so much with losing his son, not knowing where his son was, and then the grief just ate him apart inside. Over the years, Reed's disappearance faded from the headlines. Most people assumed, like I said, that he had run off, but his family knew that that simply wasn't the case. They felt that there was something more nefarious at hand. There were rumors that circled of a local pedophile that could have been connected to his disappearance, but there was no evidence at the time that was found that supported this. Of course, everybody had their own beliefs, but simply things just kind of faded into the background. But for Reed's family that never was the case. But after decades this case finally would take a turn. It wasn't until twenty ten when things changed. There was remains found in the hills outside of Salt Lake City, and Reid's sister thought that this could have been Read, so she contacted law enforcement to inquire, and it ended up turning out that these remains did not in fact belong to Read. But interestingly enough, nobody at the police department knew a thing about Reid Jepson's case because it had happened a super long time ago, and anybody that had previously worked on the case was no longer at the department. So with this phone call that Read's sister made, it did bring some renewed interest, and after all of that time, Read Jepson's case was back on the radar of those in Salt La City. And what happens next, honestly, is such a plot twist. It's crazy. I couldn't believe it when I first heard it, and it's just a testament to why it's so important that these cases stay in the forefront and stay out there because any little clue or hint could help crack a case wide open. So, with the renewed interest in Reid's case, law enforcement received a tip, and this tip was from a woman who lived in the home that was behind the Jepson's old family home located on South Christy Lane. So at the time of Reed's disappearance, the home wasn't occupied in nineteen sixty four. It was in the process of being built at the time. Now, the caller was familiar with Reed's missing person's case, but she didn't realize that he had gone missing along with his two animals, his two dogs. And when she heard the story now being back in the spotlight, she realized something, and it was the fact that a couple years before, her and her husband had been doing some renovations to their home and they were doing some digging and stuff in the backyard. Her kid was back there playing and they found some bags with bones inside of them. Now, they obviously knew pretty much right off the bat that these were not human bones. It's obviously easy to tell the difference between animal bones and human bones. But they were pretty sure that they were animal bones. They actually were pretty sure that they were dog bones, and they ended up contacting a neighbor of theirs who was a doctor, and had this guy come over and just confirmed that these were in fact dog bones, and that doctor did said, yes, they're dog bones, and they didn't really think much of it and thought that, you know, somebody had buried their family pets in the backyard and disposed of them in that way, put the bones in bags and then buried it. So they did take pictures of the bones, but they decided that they were just going to throw them away. Didn't really think much of it, but once she heard about the dogs and Reid going missing with them, she thought that maybe this could be connected to Reed's case. The photos were shared with law enforcement and it was determined that the bones did in fact belong to two dogs, one bigger and one smaller, just like read Jepsen's dogs. Now from there, they decided to get ground penetrating radar involved and check the backyard of this home, thinking that Reed could be very close, thinking that if the dogs were buried there or Reed could be close by as well. But nothing was ever found with the search, but it only makes sense that those had to be Reed's dogs. And interestingly enough, I listened to an episode of Crime Junkie podcast on this case, and when I listened to it, they said that the dog bones that were in the bags were surgically dismembered, very intricately cut, not like you would think it would typically be when you would bury an animal, because you normally would wrap an animal, maybe in a tarp, and then bury them under the ground. These were bones that were carefully taken apart and placed in these large bags. And I don't know. For me, this is just isn't normal, not normal behavior, not something a normal person bearing a pet would do. But again I digress. So the question, naturally was who owned this house when Reid went missing. Now remember, like I said, nobody was living there yet it was still in the process of being built, but it was owned and being built by a local doctor, an orthopedic surgeon. Nonetheless, now he has never publicly been named, and the info was very much out there. If you know how to online sleuth, you can find it. You can find his name, you can find his identity, it is not that difficult, but law enforcement has never publicly named him. So I am also not going to publicly name him, and more just out of respect for his family. He has family and children who are still living and I want to be respectful of them and not put his identity out there. So at the time of Reed's disappearance, he was thirty seven years old, he was married, he had two daughters, and he had also served as a medic in World War Two, and his wife was a psychiatrist. And on top of that, this guy was known for allegedly allegedly, allegedly allegedly sexually abusing his young male patients, those that were around Reed's age. Apparently there was a lot of hush hush about this, and I don't believe that he was ever formally officially charged with anything. Only one of his alleged victims filed a police report, and the Saint Louis Police Department has asked anyone with information with anything they might know about any abuse or any victims to please come forward now. In nineteen eighty two, the surgeon's wife took her own life. He would later move out of the home and leave the area, and the owners of the home that came after him, the same owners that found the bones also reported that there was a weird room inside of the home that locked from the outside, and they said it seemed just extremely odd to them, but again they really didn't think anything of it. Now, this could be an internet rumor, and I just want to preface what I'm about to say with this could be an internet rumor. But there is also a report that some people said that there was a room set up in the house with an operating table and equipment. And if he was an orthopedic surgeon, you could argue that he saw patients maybe in this room in his home, which, again in the sixties, not super unheard of. But with everything I found with researching this case is just so terrifying to me. It literally just kept me up at night once I researched everything. So once law enforcement learned of the dog bones, they brought in the surgeon and they questioned him and he basically just said that he buried the family's dogs on the property and it was nothing more than that. However, one of his children has said that the family never had a pet. They never had a dog. Now police have come forward and said they didn't find him particularly helpful or cooperative. He did take two different voice stress tests, and the first one he failed, but he ended up passing the second one, and they said with the first one, he just didn't seem like he was taking it seriously, and then when he failed, he decided to of course take the second one, and that's the one that he ended up passing. So this individual died in twenty sixteen at the age of eighty eight, and in my opinion, he likely took all of the secrets to his grave because I don't know. I think I say it a lot. I really don't believe in coincidences, and this is all just too much to not be connected in some way, shape or form. But I also want to be clear that he was never charged with anything. Even the alleged abuse was seemingly not brought to light. There was never any charges officially filed. So if this individual did have something to do with Reed's disappearance, it would take somebody that knew something from back then to come forward to finally break this case apart if this individual was involved. So that right there is Reed Jepson's story. If Reed was still alive today, he would be almost seventy seven years old. Now there is an age progress photo created by Neckmek, which is age progressed to age sixty and I will be sure to share that on my social media. When Reed went missing, he was wearing blue Levi jeans, a white cotton shirt, tennis shoes, and a reversible parka that was blue on one side and black on the other. He was about five foot six inches tall. He weighed about one hundred and forty pounds. Elizabeth, who was Reed's mother, passed away in nineteen ninety four at the age of eighty one without ever knowing what happened to her son. But Reed's siblings are still out there and they have lived most of their lives with this horrible thing that happened to them hovering over their head. Reid's still technically missing, and I think that they would love to have some answers as to what happened to their brother and finally get some resolution. Reid's niece, who is named Julie, has a YouTube channel called The Big Family Jewels, and she did a YouTube video about everything to clear up some rumors. She did a sit down interview chat with Detective Cody Logi and I'm going to be linking the interview below so you can take a listen to it. They talk a lot about the doctor speculation and they go into detail on that. They kind of clear up a lot of misconceptions and everything. So I am going to link that below so you can go through it. It's well worth the watch, and I highly recommend that you listen because it's just very, very interesting. And I'm also going to link John's podcast as well below. He has a podcast that he does with his wife, and this was just one episode where they talked about the disappearance of Read. The whole podcast is not about Read's disappearance. It's just this one episode that he devotes to that time in his life and everything that has transpired. This case is so interesting to me. I first happened upon it on Facebook. Somebody had posted about it, and it was just very vague that he went missing with his two dogs. It really didn't go into a ton of detail, and I posted it for my Unsolved Sunday spotlight that I do on Instagram and Facebook every Sunday, and then I just felt like there was more to it that I didn't really see in just like your basic Wikipedia or news article. So that's when I found the crime Junkie episode, and it was a whole can of worms that I definitely opened up and went down, and then I started researching more. I went on webslutes and there was just so much there, and that's kind of how it turned into me finding all this other stuff out about this dog and his potential alleged possible maybe involvement, allegedly, allegedly allegedly, but holy moly, it was quite the rabbit hole. And I really don't know what I think. I don't think Reid ran away, and I do think that those two dogs that were buried in the bags in the backyard were Reeds dogs. But the question still remains, where the hell is Read and what happened to him? Is he close by and they just haven't found him yet? This one is truly quite the rabbit hole, and it remains one of Salt Lake City, Utah's oldest unsolved cases. So I think if there's anything we can do as a true crime community, it's to share this episode, get it out to the masses. Maybe somebody knows something, maybe somebody will come forward, maybe somebody saw something that day. It's just another one of those cases where at the end of it, you're left with way more questions than you are answered, and I hope that twenty twenty six is the year that we get answers in this one, because it has been a long, long time and his family deserves those answers. So thank you, guys, as always for listening to this week's episode. I hope you have a fantastic weekend and week ahead. I will see you next week for a brand new Unsolved case. Remember to like, subscribe, share, rate the podcast on whatever platform you listen on, and I will see you guys next week. Stay safe and I'll see you then. Bye.