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EP141: Danielle Sleeper
5.2k Plays3 years ago
She had left before, with her kids in tow, trying to escape an unhealthy situation. This time she was just gone… without taking her children, without taking her medication, without taking her things. It has been seven long years since the Sleeper family has seen their caring and beautiful Danielle; they are still fighting to get her story out there and, most importantly, to find out answers.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
We are excited to announce that this episode is being sponsored by Zencaster, our very own podcast recording platform. Make sure you listen for more information in the middle of the episode and take a look at our show notes to know exactly why we love Zencaster so much and how you yourself can get a discount.
Podcast Recommendations: 'Dirty Money Moves'
00:00:20
Speaker
Since Maggie and I will be on vacation next week, we wanted to share a new podcast with you for all of your binging pleasure next week before we see you back here on Coffee and Cases for a brand new episode on July 28th. The host of this podcast should be a familiar name, Jamie Rice. That's right, the host of the hit true crime podcast, Murderish. She's back in action with another podcast.
00:00:48
Speaker
Her new deep dive podcast is called Dirty Money Moves, and it is one you do not want to miss. With 11 episodes already out in season one, it's the perfect time to binge. So here's a little bit about the show from Jamie herself.
00:01:05
Speaker
It was 2018 in Los Angeles, California, when a wealthy heiress walked into a bank and essentially walked out with almost $15 million, never to be seen again. I'm Jamie Rice, and on the first season of Dirty Money Moves, Women in White Collar Crime, I'm taking you on a deep dive into the life of female hustler, Mary Carol McDonald. Listen
Trust Issues and the Case of Danielle Sleeper
00:01:28
Speaker
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:35
Speaker
One thing about me is that I tend to take everyone at their word. I don't approach those I meet as someone who will be manipulative or who will lie to me. I see others the way I want to be seen as someone who genuinely cares about others.
00:01:54
Speaker
and who will keep her word, even if it means personal sacrifice. It means I give people sometimes far too many chances than they likely deserve, especially after having let me down again and again and again. It means that sometimes I can become a doormat, doing all the work for others, usually the work that no one else wants to do. However,
00:02:22
Speaker
It also allows me at times to see light where others only see the darkness. It helps me keep faith in people. Despite the reasons I remain as I am, even though I'm often let down, I will be the first to admit that my perspective is also dangerous. It means I could trust the wrong people. It means that sometimes I can ignore my gut feelings.
00:02:49
Speaker
In our case this week, the victim was a woman much like I am. She tried to always focus on joy, to help others and to enjoy life, but she was also trusting, perhaps too trusting of the wrong people. She went missing on March 22nd, 2015 and hasn't been seen again.
Mission and Audience Engagement
00:03:13
Speaker
Did she leave of her own accord or did someone
00:03:17
Speaker
betray the trust she so freely gave. This is the case of Danielle Sleeper.
00:03:59
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:04:18
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. It's love note time for Maggie and Allison. Okay, so for real. That was beautiful. Thank you.
00:04:47
Speaker
Singing the church choir But for real our love today is going out to Melissa for commenting on our Instagram post and Monica Julia and Amber for recommending us on Facebook We love that
00:05:04
Speaker
Yes. And another love note from us goes to Ashley for the sweet five star review she left saying, quote, this is my favorite podcast. I love the passion that you girls have towards solving cases, especially less heard of cases. I love Maggie's giggle as well.
00:05:26
Speaker
Keep up the fight, ladies.
Vacation Announcement and Alternatives
00:05:28
Speaker
I hope we can all work together to solve cases and spread the word." End quote. Thanks, Ashley. I do too. That one was so sweet because I am self-conscious about my laugh. So that was good for me.
00:05:47
Speaker
And the final love notes we have go to Amy and JM who joined Patreon last week and for whom we need to give major props for supporting our show, even though we meant to give you guys shout outs last week and we forgot, but you know, this is why we need a vacation. So it's going to be fine. Sorry. That's right.
00:06:09
Speaker
And speaking of vacation, remember that Maggie and I will not be posting an episode next Thursday, because we are going to take the week off and spend it with our families. This is the first time that we will have taken off since we started the podcast in December of 2019.
Danielle Sleeper Case Introduction
00:06:29
Speaker
But
00:06:30
Speaker
We gave you a suggested podcast in our intro and if you haven't yet, please consider subscribing to our Patreon page where you will have immediate access to all kinds of bonus content to help keep you occupied until we are back with our brand new episode on July 28th. And didn't you also issue some type of challenge?
00:06:56
Speaker
I did. We actually have a winner of that contest, so congratulations to Rebecca.
00:07:05
Speaker
who was the first to email us the, did you take a steamy shower, Bobby? From episode 12, the Jameson family. And I think Rebecca was as excited as I was that she got it so quickly that she got a sticker. So stickers coming at you in the mail.
00:07:28
Speaker
I need to re-listen to that because I do not remember saying that. I mean, I'm sure I did, but I have no recollection whatsoever. Yeah. So maybe we'll just, I'll find another quote. I'll post it on social media. We'll see. We'll see if you can find the episode quickly, somebody else, since we won't be here with you next week. Well, I'm excited to see what it is.
00:07:53
Speaker
what you said that you forgot that you said. Exactly. I'm excited to see what I said and be slightly embarrassed, but it's fine. And if you want to hear more embarrassing stories about us, laugh alongside us, hear some solved cases and help support the show, all you have to do is go to patreon.com slash coffee and
Danielle's Personal Struggles
00:08:14
Speaker
cases. That's all one word.
00:08:16
Speaker
where you can support us for as little as $5 a month and hear your name as a shout out during the love notes. So we hope to see you there. Yes. Okay Maggie, this week's case takes us to Magnolia, Texas. It is a small town right outside of Houston. It got its name from the Magnolia trees that had grown in the area.
00:08:40
Speaker
And its population, according to the 2020 census, was 2,359, so quite small. And while there are some articles covering Danielle Sleeper's case, much of the information that I'm going to share with you comes from the interview that I conducted with family friend Cheryl Noll. So thank you, Cheryl, for being an advocate for getting Danielle's case out there and for speaking with me.
00:09:11
Speaker
So as you can probably tell by my introduction, Maggie, Danielle herself was an advocate for others. Yeah, I could definitely tell that from how your intro went. She was somebody who would jump in to help and even those people who she had just met. For example, Danielle's cousin was on bed rest during her pregnancy.
00:09:36
Speaker
And Danielle would take her cousin to the doctor and she would even drive to her cousin's house just to brush her cousin's hair, paint her nails and spend time with her. That's so sweet. And Danielle had another acquaintance who was going to court over custody of a child. And this was somebody who Danielle didn't even really know that well, but Danielle went to court with her just so she wouldn't be alone during that time.
00:10:06
Speaker
You know, I think that from the sounds of it, Danielle has like a bleeding heart. She wants to help everybody, but I hope that she, people don't take advantage of that, which I'm sure they probably are going to, but people tend to. Yeah. Yeah. But I do feel like you're right. Those stories say so much about the kind of woman that Danielle was.
00:10:31
Speaker
And in addition to that kindness, Danielle was also very cheerful. Cheryl remembers Danielle's infectious laugh, like big mouth open, head back, as loud as loud can be. Aw. I know. And the woman who I spoke with this week, Cheryl Noll, she grew up with Danielle's family in a lot of ways. Cheryl was instant friends with Danielle's sister, Tana Cross, when they met in the ninth grade.
00:11:01
Speaker
And Cheryl and her own sister often stayed the night with Danielle and Tana, obviously at their parents' house, Chuck and Dinah Street. And the four girls, so Cheryl and her sister, Danielle and her sister Tana, hung out all the time. They even went on vacations with Danielle's family. So they were very close.
00:11:27
Speaker
Sadly, while Danielle never lost her instant connection with people, her laugh did seem to grow quieter as she often found herself in controlling relationships. Cheryl and Danielle's family saw the dynamic in Danielle's first marriage and saw that Danielle wasn't happy.
00:11:54
Speaker
So Danielle picked up her things along with her two sons from that marriage and started over. Now, Danielle did rely heavily on her family during that transition, as I'm sure any parent would welcome. Oh, yeah. Especially if it's getting her away from something bad. Mm-hmm. I mean, one thing I hope my little sleuthouse knows is that she has always got a place at home. Yeah.
00:12:18
Speaker
there is no shaman coming home. It was during that time that Danielle struck up a romance with a man, Austin, whom she had known in high school. And how old is Danielle? She is, well, she's 32 at the time of the case. Okay. So after her
00:12:40
Speaker
she got out of her first marriage. Um, she struck up a romance with Austin whom she had known for several years and he seemed laid back and just the kind of change of pace that Danielle felt she needed, but her family and friends allege that carefree attitude didn't last. And soon Danielle was living in a constant state of anxiety again.
00:13:09
Speaker
fearful of just the slightest wrong move, making Austin upset. This Austin was not the one that she had married and now she had a son with him as well.
00:13:25
Speaker
So she gets out of the first relationship. With two sons, right? And then she gets married to Austin and has a kid and he starts to change as well, which makes me wonder if he was kind of like that all the time. He just knew how to hide it. That's what I would assume. According to Cheryl,
00:13:48
Speaker
Austin's controlling nature grew stronger each passing day. First, it was a criticism of all kinds of things, her hair, her job. When Danielle held a job at Dollar General, he would call her, and if she didn't answer, he would question what she was doing at work and was she doing something that she shouldn't be doing. So then he would make her quit. So maybe she was like stalking the shelves. Right, or helping a customer. Yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So he would make her quit. But Maggie, either way is controlling, right? And I can only imagine the anxiety, right? Yeah, because you're worried about every little thing. Yeah. Yeah. On the one hand, you're thinking, oh my gosh, I'm going to get home two minutes late, right? What's he going to accuse me of doing? And then on the other hand,
00:14:40
Speaker
If you quit now you don't have a job and now you're having to rely on your husband completely because you know no longer have any financial independence.
00:14:50
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's a situation a lot of people find themselves in. Like they know they need to leave, but there's so much keeping them in that relationship that they can't. Like, you know, financial dependence, you have your kids, you know, all that stuff. So even in her second marriage, Danielle relied on emotional support gained through contact with her family and sometimes their financial support as well.
00:15:18
Speaker
Right? Because if she doesn't have a job, you know, then she might need to rely on them. Cheryl told me that one time when Austin sent Danielle to the store to buy organic food and milk for their son, for Danielle's youngest, that she bought what he asked. She bought the things that were on the list only to get yelled at and berated when she came home because she had purchased the wrong brand.
00:15:48
Speaker
First of all, a couple of things. I sometimes buy organic food, but then I've been researching it and unless you grow it yourself, it is really not organic because in the United States, they still spray it with chemicals, just not as much as they do the regular food. But I digress. If she got you the wrong brand, go yourself to the grocery store and buy it yourself.
00:16:15
Speaker
Right. And that was something that he refused to do. Oh, well, then don't complain. Right. She's here doing it. But then, you know, she feels like she's doing the right thing, gets home, gets yelled at still. So basically, Danielle felt like she could never meet his expectations, like she was always falling short. And that's not healthy for her mental health.
00:16:38
Speaker
Oh, no, that is a horrible place to be in because you can never be happy. You can never relax. You always have to be on.
CPS Involvement and Custody Issues
00:16:47
Speaker
You're always on edge because you're thinking, OK, I've got to be ready to defend myself, you know, or even make yourself callous to cold remarks from somebody who should love and protect you.
00:16:59
Speaker
And trust me, for a people person like Danielle was, like I am, like you are Maggie, that makes hardening yourself to what you feel like is a personal failure that much harder. I mean, I cannot stand to feel like I've let somebody down. Yeah, and to do that 24 hours a day, somebody that you live with who should love you no matter what. Right. And the only assurance that Danielle had
00:17:27
Speaker
And this is according to her friends and her family is basically that he was always going to be mad at her about something. Like that's the only thing that she knew for sure as a constant while he was not, according to her family and friends, physically abusive. He later began to take out his anger on inanimate objects in the home. He would break things. Right.
00:17:56
Speaker
Cheryl recalled Danielle's parents telling her that one time they were visiting Danielle and Austin had gotten so angry about something that he ripped the door off of the refrigerator. While they were there? Yes.
00:18:14
Speaker
I'm not sure how my daddy would react if Anthony ripped a refrigerator door off its hinges while he was there. Yes. And I mean, Austin was a big guy. He was around 662, around 350 pounds. But Daniel's parents, obviously, like you just said, they were worried, Maggie. And what they were mostly worried about was if he's going to act this way in front of us, what's going on when we're not around? That's true. Hadn't even really thought of that.
00:18:44
Speaker
Now, one action that happened when they weren't around did have visible consequences. Cheryl told me that Danielle and her husband had gotten into an argument, and Danielle had this long brown hair that she loved, and that during this argument, Austin held her down and cut off all of her hair all the way above her shoulders, and that Danielle had been heartbroken.
00:19:14
Speaker
First of all, it takes a very long time for girls to grow their hair out. Second, I feel like that is almost physical abuse. I mean, I don't know if it's bitter, but. Yeah, I would agree. Cheryl told me that Danielle even went to wigs with style and bought a wig afterwards because she was so self-conscious about her shorter hair.
00:19:37
Speaker
Okay, so now she's dealing with this situation with her husband who doesn't treat her the way she needs to be treated. So that's already hurting her mental health. And now she's lost all little bit of confidence she probably had because he cut her hair off. Yep, no financial independence. But at least Danielle had her kids and they brought her so much joy, Maggie.
00:20:05
Speaker
Danielle loved spending time with him, laughing, playing games. Danielle's mother, Dinah, has stated in interviews that Danielle was just as much of a kid as her boys were.
00:20:19
Speaker
She remembers Danielle jumping and loving life alongside her sons at a trampoline park. So like there's Danielle out on the trampolines right beside her sons jumping. That's awesome. Yeah. And that she was always on the lookout for new games or fun activities that they could do together. She was always bragging to anyone who would listen about something that her boys had done.
00:20:43
Speaker
And she made it her mission to be the best mom that she could be, to love them with all of her being and to always protect them. And honestly, I bet she was pretty good at that because if she's that amazing to strangers, I can honestly not imagine how good she is to her kids. Exactly. So finally telling her family that she was facing emotional and verbal abuse from her husband,
00:21:11
Speaker
She let them know that she was going to try to leave the marriage. In fact, she had tried to leave several times already. Each time she had packed up some of her things, bundled up all of the kids and left. And at least one of those times she went to her parents' house.
00:21:32
Speaker
However, she had gone back each time, convinced that things would change, convinced that while she was facing the brunt of the anger, that the kids were at least cared for and protected. Despite the fact that her friends say Danielle told them before that her husband didn't like having to care for her two oldest sons,
00:21:59
Speaker
and that instead of viewing them as his own to love and protect, that he always complained about having to take care of, quote, some other man's kids. And that makes me so sad because they can't help that they're not his biological kids. Right. And I feel like parent, step parent, like you love that kid the same.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah. And especially, I'm sure they weren't that old when he came into the picture. So it's not like you're trying to build a relationship with a 25 year old. It's a little kid. They need somebody to love. They need a dad to look up to. And I mean, they did have their biological dad, but again, the more people who love your kid and serve as a role model, the better. Yeah. Your kid can't get enough love.
00:22:51
Speaker
Right. Danielle just tried to love them enough for 10,000 parents herself. And that is why Maggie, when child protective services showed up at her door, she was devastated. The accusations that her husband Austin was physically abusing her two sons from her first marriage and being particularly aggressive with Danielle's middle son.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yes, yes. CPS was called. There are reports that are documented. And my research states that the accusations were that Austin would abuse those two sons when Danielle was out of the home. Oh, yeah. Because she wouldn't let that happen when she was there. That's for sure. Oh, sure. Exactly. Yeah. But he would do it when she was at the store, when she was running errands, when she was with friends.
00:23:44
Speaker
So do we know if that's true?
00:23:54
Speaker
And the accusations were that not only of handprint bruises on the middle son's bottom, but even a rope burn around the middle son's neck. Wow. Mm-hmm. And her two oldest children were removed from the home and taken back to their biological father's house. Which makes me sad, too, because he wasn't the best either.
00:24:23
Speaker
Well, and again, I didn't get into a whole lot of that. I know Cheryl said that she would never, he's actually the one who I believe
00:24:35
Speaker
made the report with CPS from what I read and what I understand. But if he is actually doing that for his children's own good, then Cheryl was like, I could not blame him for that. No, definitely not. Right. But Danielle was furious. She believed her children, and so she accused Austin of abusing them, which he vehemently denied.
00:25:05
Speaker
Okay, but why do that when there's literal proof that you are and you know Danielle isn't doing it? Right. So they were supposed to have a court hearing about that report. So Danielle, whose whole life was wrapped up in her children, now only had supervised visits once every two weeks with her two oldest sons.
00:25:34
Speaker
Even though it was the husband that was doing it, she also has to have supervised visits. Apparently so. So Danielle immediately met with a lawyer to find out what she had to do in order to get her sons back.
00:25:51
Speaker
And she began classes. That was something that her lawyer recommended. You need to go to classes. So she went to everyone and to every supervised visitation. She would set multiple alarms the morning of those visits because she was so afraid of sleeping through one alarm and missing that meeting where she would get to see her two sons.
00:26:16
Speaker
Because apparently, if you were late, you couldn't get in. They shut the doors. I thought that she was there like an hour early, so she wouldn't miss it. Yes, she was not about to miss an opportunity to see her babies. And sometimes, she would even stay the night at her mom's the night before the visit, because her parents' home was closer to the visitation center than hers was.
00:26:40
Speaker
Despite all of Danielle's efforts, her lawyer advised her that it might not be enough to get her son's back, everything that she was doing, especially if she was still living in that same abusive environment. Oh, well, I know what she's going to do. I guarantee you that she's going to tell Austin she wants a divorce. And that is exactly what she did. Good for her. Yes.
00:27:08
Speaker
She began her best effort to prepare for the changes that that decision would entail. So she was sleeping on the couch downstairs in their home while Austin stayed in bed. They were no longer sharing a bed.
00:27:22
Speaker
She was going to work on her resume with a new friend, Megan, whom she had just met a couple of weeks earlier. But remember, Danielle makes fast friends with people. So Danielle wanted to get things into place to start again one more time. She'd done it before, so she knew in her heart she could do it again.
00:27:44
Speaker
And she had something to look forward to, Maggie. So she's getting things in motion to start her own life over. She's gonna work on her resume. She was getting ready to go visit with her two oldest boys on Saturday, March 21st. She actually, this was the only other visit she had missed. She was sick the previous visit.
00:28:10
Speaker
like two weeks before. And so it had been almost a month. She was desperate to see them. So she was really looking forward to that. And she was supposed to go back to court that Thursday, March 26, when she believed she was going to finally get her kids back, especially once she told of her filing for a divorce and her plans to move out.
Events Leading to Disappearance
00:28:37
Speaker
So things are looking up.
00:28:39
Speaker
for her, right? She has a plan. She's going to set it in motion. Things are looking good with getting her kids back. She was going to stay the night with her mom on Friday, March 20th, but there was a torrential rainstorm. Daniel told us what year this was 2015. Okay. Yes.
00:29:02
Speaker
Danielle called her mom to let her know that she, Austin, and her youngest son were out buying toys that she was going to bring to the visit the next day when the rain had started. And so instead of driving through this torrential downpour,
00:29:19
Speaker
If you're on Patreon, you've heard the worst day of my life, you know, the dangers of parental downforce. She decided that instead of driving, she was just going to go back home and get up early the next morning for that visit with her two oldest sons. And it was about an
00:29:36
Speaker
hour to an hour and a half away, where the visitation center was. So she set about five alarms so that if she slept through one or even two of them, there would still be more to wake her up. However, that Saturday, none of the alarms woke Danielle up. And Danielle never saw her two oldest boys again.
00:30:08
Speaker
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00:30:27
Speaker
Zencaster is what Maggie and I use each week to record our episodes, and it is extremely easy to use, even if you've never used a recording platform before. You don't have to download a thing. I go to the website zencaster.com, create the session for which you can record audio, video, or both, and then email Maggie the link. She clicks, and that's it. We're ready to hit the record button and start.
00:30:55
Speaker
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00:31:15
Speaker
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00:31:32
Speaker
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00:32:06
Speaker
Okay Maggie, so not only did none of Danielle's alarms go off, she didn't wake up until the time the doors would have closed. So how do we know her alarms didn't go off and she just didn't sleep through them? Well, she was very angry and upset when she did finally wake up. Danielle actually called her new friend Megan and vented
00:32:35
Speaker
that she thought Austin had turned off all of her alarms in an attempt to sabotage her, knowing how much she wanted to see the boys. And I mean, even if she, even if she had missed the alarms, he could have woken her up to go and he didn't. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Like maybe he was at work or something like that, but nevermind.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yeah. So after accusing Austin of turning off the alarms, Danielle said that she needed to get out of the house for a little bit. Yeah, because she's probably about to slap him. Yes, yeah. So she actually left her youngest son with Austin, and she drove to town. And it was there that Danielle ran into her friend, Megan.
00:33:24
Speaker
So they made plans for the day. They decided that they were going to work on Danielle's resume and they were going to run some other errands. One errand was to run to Verizon because Danielle's phone had been acting up. Now Cheryl reports that when Verizon checked her phone,
00:33:49
Speaker
that they found a tracking app on it and they let Danielle know about it. And she had not known that it was there. Was it Austin being creepy? So she accused him of doing it. And according to Cheryl, Austin did admit to having put a tracking app on her phone.
00:34:10
Speaker
Now, I didn't see that in the research, but that's what Cheryl told me. I didn't hear, though, exactly what was wrong with her phone or whether Verizon fixed whatever problem she was having with her phone. But I know that she went by Verizon.
00:34:26
Speaker
She and Megan also bought some hair dye too because they were going to take turns dyeing each other's hair. Oh, that sounds fun. But they actually didn't have time. I know they didn't have time to do that that day because Megan and her husband Charles were hosting a barbecue at their house, which was off of Bowler Road near FM 1488 in Waller County.
00:34:50
Speaker
And since Danielle was already there, she had followed Megan back to Megan's house. Danielle had driven her suburban there. She actually called and asked Austin and their three year old son to join her at the barbecue and for him to drive his truck there. Oh, this doesn't sound like a very good mix, though. Austin doesn't do well in public. Yeah, the trouble was only beginning.
00:35:20
Speaker
Cheryl told me that it was reported that when Austin arrived that he looked through the front window at this barbecue at Megan and Charles house to see Danielle sitting on one side of Megan and Charles sofa and
00:35:39
Speaker
Danielle and Austin's mutual friend Bodhi sitting on the other side of the sofa. They're fully closed. They're sitting on opposite sides of the sofa, but that they were sharing a blanket. Okay.
00:35:55
Speaker
Cheryl claims that Austin had taken a picture of the site, but that he said he was so angry that he had driven around for a little bit to let off some steam. But Cheryl says that's the part that doesn't sound like him at all, the driving around to cool down. I just feel like he would just barge right in there. Yeah.
00:36:19
Speaker
And from what we know, Maggie, it seems that driving around didn't help because when Austin came back to the barbecue, his anger had only grown. In fact, one key detail that everyone agrees on is the heated argument that ensued between Danielle and Austin. Even neighbors came outside to see what was going on. The yelling was so loud.
00:36:48
Speaker
And this argument was happening around one or one 30 a.m. on Sunday, March 22nd. Yeah, I feel like nothing brings the neighbors out quicker than potentially hearing an argument between some people at a party. Right. And the yelling grew to new extremes when Danielle told Austin that she was not going to go home with him and that she and their son were going to stay with Megan that night.
00:37:17
Speaker
Good for her. He reportedly yelled something along the lines of, you're my wife, you're coming home with me. She's following divorce, so no. Right. Well, whoa.
00:37:33
Speaker
We'll get to that and what he says about that. But he even yelled at their son when he didn't want to come home either. And then Danielle, oh no, Danielle shielded him by moving his little body behind hers. Eventually, likely just so the yelling would subside, Danielle and Austin
00:37:55
Speaker
along with their son, drove home to Magnolia in Austin's truck. So eventually he convinced her to come home. I think, I mean, I don't know. I've never been in that situation on either end, as Danielle or as the bystanders watching all this take place. But I wish that they would not have let her go home with him. Right.
00:38:24
Speaker
Well, and they probably felt better about it because Danielle grabbed, she grabbed her cell phone. She'd been charging her cell phone at Megan's house. So she grabs her cell phone off the charger and she let Megan know that she was going to be back the very next morning so they could dye their hair and she would pick up her vehicle, right? So they had plans for the next day. So maybe they felt a little bit better about it.
00:38:53
Speaker
But Danielle never came back. Well, I was getting ready to say, knowing this show, I'm going to assume that didn't happen. Yes. A friend actually texted Danielle around 4.15 AM to ask if she was OK. So that tells you how bad the yelling match had been at the barbecue. That somebody's going to text you hours later to ask if everything is OK. But Danielle didn't respond. And that wasn't like her.
00:39:21
Speaker
The next day, because remember, it's afternoon on Sunday, the 22nd. Danielle's supposed to come back over. They're going to dye their hair. She's going to pick up her vehicle. So her friend Megan began texting her throughout that next morning and afternoon with messages like, hey, we're up. Come on over. But she never got a response.
00:39:45
Speaker
Now Austin also had plans for the next day to help some of his buddies move some furniture. So he dropped his son off at his dad's house and went to help his buddies. Around 12 or 12 30 Austin showed up to meet Megan's husband Charles and some of their other friends. But there was no Danielle in tow. So he's just like I guess they're all in the same friend group.
00:40:15
Speaker
Right, exactly. But Austin shows up, but no Danielle. I'm trying really hard not to like jump to conclusions, but it's a little difficult. So I'm trying to keep an open mind. Okay, you keep trying.
00:40:35
Speaker
So, Danielle's family have reported that when Austin was with his friends that he began making comments about Danielle being unstable and Danielle being bipolar. In an interview for Crawl Space that Dinah Street did, she mentioned something else peculiar.
00:40:59
Speaker
about Austin's time with his friends. She said, and I don't understand this, I think it's odd, which is why I'm bringing it up to you, Maggie. She said in that interview that he kept asking his friends to tell him when it was 3.30 p.m. So no one knows why, and Austin didn't say, but Daniel's mom report said he kept wanting to know when it was 3.30. Like, hey, let me know when it's 3.30.
00:41:29
Speaker
Hey, is it 3.30? Let me know when it's 3.30. Like, does he have to be somewhere? Well, that's the weird part. When 3.30 came and went, his friends let him know, like, hey, it's 3.30, but he didn't do anything or go anywhere. So what was so important about 3.30? We have no idea. That's curious though.
00:41:55
Speaker
Yeah. Because why would you want to know that? And then go nowhere, unless you're like, you know, something's going to happen at three 30 and you're going to be thinking about it at that time. And then you've made it a point to say, Hey, when is it three 30? Is it three 30? What time is three 30? When is three 30?
Austin's Story Under Scrutiny
00:42:17
Speaker
So then if you have to have an alibi, your friends are going to remember that you were there at three 30.
00:42:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't know. I'm just because I don't I can't explain the 330 comments. We're just speculating over here. That's right.
00:42:36
Speaker
When they returned to Megan and Charles' house, Megan told Austin that she still hadn't heard from her friend, right? So here's Megan's husband coming home. Austin's coming over there. She still hasn't heard from Danielle. Danielle's mom reports that Megan later told her of this conversation that she was having with Austin and of Austin's strange response to her questions. According to Danielle's mother,
00:43:06
Speaker
When Megan was saying, hey, have you seen Danielle? That Austin quipped something like, don't worry about it. She won't be coming back here again anyway. Excuse me, sir. What are you talking about? When he was asked what he meant, he replied, well, Danielle doesn't keep friends for very long. She usually just makes friends and then dumps them. That doesn't sound like the Danielle that I've gotten to know.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, that is not Danielle. Regardless, he said he was gonna go home and get Danielle and bring her back to her vehicle. So he's making it sound like she is at home. I will get to his story here in just a second. So Danielle and Austin lived about 30 to 45 minutes away from Meghan and Charles.
00:44:06
Speaker
Austin and Danielle lived on Turtle Dove Lane in Magnolia, Texas, which is located in Montgomery County, so a neighboring county. But in a September 25th, 2015 article in the Huffington Post, Megan told reporter David Lore that it was less than an hour before Austin came back saying that Danielle had, quote, flaked out on everything and up and left, end quote.
00:44:36
Speaker
So essentially there would have had to have been zero traffic and he would have had to have went very, very fast to make it to his house and back in under an hour. Exactly. If that were even possible at all. Now is when we hear his story. He said that on that Sunday morning, and remember they're not leaving the barbecue until like one or one 30 in the morning that Sunday. Okay. That they come back.
00:45:07
Speaker
and that they had gone to sleep. He in the bed, Danielle on the couch, and that he had woken up sometime around 10 30 that morning or 11 and that Danielle had still been asleep on the couch. He said he didn't want to bother her since she hadn't slept well that night before. So he left her sleeping on the couch.
00:45:34
Speaker
That's when he had taken their son over to his father's house because he needed to run those errands and help his buddies move some furniture and he was wanting to let Danielle sleep. Right.
00:45:49
Speaker
So he said then he left the house, this is what he said, to go move the furniture with his buddies. He doesn't get back until later. And he says that when he did return to the home, that Danielle was gone along with her purse and her cell phone. So that's why he said, well, she left me. He said she, quote, flaked out on everything and up and left. And he's telling all of this to Megan.
00:46:20
Speaker
So then
00:46:26
Speaker
Why did he say that I'm going to go back to the house and get her and bring her back to get her car if he knew she was already gone? Well, he's saying he didn't. He's telling her this after he gets back. Oh, he gets back. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. So he had come, she says, um, I still haven't seen her and he's like, well, that's fine. She's not going to come out back here anyway, you know, cause she just makes friends and then she dumps them. And that's when he left.
00:46:55
Speaker
but then came back less than an hour later to tell her his story about that morning and that she had up and left him. OK. So instead of Danielle coming back to pick up her suburban, Austin got into Danielle's suburban and left. OK.
00:47:19
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm gonna go ahead and pause here and point out some things and ask some questions that I feel like need to be asked. Number one, sleeping in until this late, I'm just not so sure that that's a likely scenario for somebody with a three-year-old, especially a three-year-old who according to Daniel's mom was quite active and was a mama's boy.
00:47:45
Speaker
Oh, so you're saying it wasn't going to be likely that Danielle was able to sleep that long. That's what I'm saying. Right. Like when, when he said like, Oh, we walked out, you know, I took our son with us to, I was taking him to my dad's house so she could sleep. I just, do you really think that that child on the way out the door or passing by the couch wouldn't have yelled for his mommy?
00:48:14
Speaker
Do you really think that the man you have described so far would be considerate enough to let his wife sleep in while he takes his kid to grandpa for the day? I mean, fair point. Also, Danielle's mom says that Danielle was a light sleeper, so again, I'm not finding her staying asleep necessarily a likely scenario. Now, I will admit,
00:48:38
Speaker
That it is possible though, because there have definitely been times in my life when I've been so tired that I could have slept through anything. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, you could even be shaking me Maggie and I probably would have stayed asleep. So it's possible, but not probable. Right. So what I will say is that if Danielle had indeed left Austin, which is what he's saying, right? That she flaked out and she up and left.
00:49:07
Speaker
How did she get anywhere? Well, that was the question that I had initially if she's leaving She's leaving on foot or someone's picking her up. Yeah, she doesn't have a car Yeah, her car is still at her friend Megan's house. So you're telling me that she would have left. Yeah, just walking because Remember her plan is to go where?
00:49:32
Speaker
to Megan's, but it's a 45 minute drive. So to walk there would be a pretty long walk. Extremely long. And if her plans were to leave Austin, I would assume that she would do it at a time when she had a car. And her kids. And her kids.
00:49:53
Speaker
Yes. And second, if she had plans to return to Megan's house to work on her resume, to dye her hair, to get her vehicle, the only person that I would think it would make sense to call for a ride would be her friend, Megan. Did she call Megan? Everything that I read said that she did not. That doesn't make any sense to me. You know something else that doesn't make sense to me? What's that? Why?
00:50:20
Speaker
would she have chose this day to leave? Because doesn't she have a court date coming up in which she could possibly get her sons back and she was going to tell like the judge, Hey, I filed for divorce. I'm getting a job, you know, all that stuff. Yep. That is the biggest thing that doesn't make any sense to me because I'm with you Maggie. I do not believe that she would have left
00:50:46
Speaker
you know, during this particular time, you know, and all the other times that she had left before she had left with her children. And you're telling me this time she's gonna leave without them? I mean, I guess the old ones you could say maybe because she knew they were with their dad, but she's not gonna leave the little one.
00:51:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And nobody who knows Danielle believes that she would have left Austin without taking her son with
Search Efforts and Inconsistencies
00:51:14
Speaker
her. And then, yeah, you add in the fact, like you just said, that just a few days later on Thursday, March 26th, 2015, she had that court hearing when she thought she was finally going to give back custody of her two oldest sons. She would have definitely not left only days before that. Yeah, it doesn't add up to me.
00:51:36
Speaker
And the time between when they arrived home around 1.30 to 2 o'clock on Sunday morning, super early, and when Austin says he left their home and left Daniel sleeping on the couch, the time in between cannot be accounted for since Austin says he was asleep during that time. So we have no idea what happened in those hours.
00:52:04
Speaker
Right. And it's just like when somebody says, Oh, I couldn't have possibly have killed Sally. I was at home all night watching movies, but they were at home by themselves. So there's no way to really verify that that's what happened. Right. And it doesn't mean that that's not true. It just means that we can't, we can't verify it. But around 11 30 AM on that Sunday morning, Austin did make a phone call. He called his mother.
00:52:29
Speaker
who lived in Louisiana about seven hours away to say that his son, her grandson had been asking to come visit her. And he asked his mother to make that seven hour trek to Magnolia, Texas to pick up her grandson and take him back to Louisiana with her. Okay. And as he picks up Danielle's car from Megan's on what day?
00:52:59
Speaker
on Sunday, but not until later in the afternoon. Because remember, he's helping the buddies move furniture until later in the day. Because he kept saying, tell me when it's 3.30, tell me when it's 3.30. But he calls his mom around 11.30 a.m. that morning. So basically when he says he was dropping his son off at his dad's house to say, hey,
00:53:24
Speaker
You know, he's been asking to come see you. How about you make the drive here and I'll send him back with you. During all of this time, Aggie, yes, Danielle's mother had been trying to get in touch with her to find out about how her final visit with her two oldest boys had gone. Because remember, all her mother knew is that she had planned on going to see the boys that Saturday morning. Yeah, and she was going to say that.
00:53:53
Speaker
Yep, she had stayed the night the night before, and her mom was like, oh, visit with the boys. Let me know how that goes on Saturday. Write your visit with them.
00:54:03
Speaker
So her mom keeps trying to call her on Sunday to find out how the visit went. She knew nothing about her having missed that appointment to see the boys. The sabotage. Yeah. Yeah. Of the alarms. She knows nothing about the argument that had taken place at the barbecue. But every time Danielle's mother tried to call, the phone went straight to voicemail. Hmm.
00:54:30
Speaker
It wasn't until 8 a.m. on Monday morning that Danielle's mother received a call from Austin. It was then that he told her that Danielle hadn't been seen since he reported leaving the house on Sunday afternoon.
00:54:50
Speaker
Danielle's friends had not seen her since she left the barbecue around one or one 30 that Sunday morning, however. So last the friends see her is around one or one 30 a.m. on Sunday. Austin says he sees her around 11 ish on Sunday, but doesn't call her parents to let them know until eight a.m. on Monday.
00:55:15
Speaker
And it seems like Danielle talks to her parents a lot. So I would think you would make contact with him before that, especially if she has supposedly ran away. I think calling her parents to find her would have been the first thing he did. Mm hmm.
00:55:31
Speaker
And worried, Danielle's mother actually called her husband, Daniel's father, because he worked close to where Danielle and Austin lived. And she asked him to go over to their home to help look for Danielle. And meanwhile, she continued to try to call Danielle. But again, every call.
00:55:49
Speaker
went to voicemail. After Maggie and I recorded our episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Danielle's sister, Tana Cross. I'm so grateful to her for giving me the opportunity to speak with her. She was also able to provide some clarification in terms of how her family found out about Danielle's disappearance. Here is what she said about how her family found out that information.
00:56:16
Speaker
what happened was he had called her friend Jenny, her best friend, and asked if she had seen Danielle. Jenny called me and asked if I knew where Danielle was or had heard from her, and I said, no, what's going on? And she said, I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out because she's not answering her phone. So I tried calling my sister.
00:56:42
Speaker
And of course, it went straight to voicemail, which was not normal at all whatsoever. So then I called Austin and I asked him, I said, what's going on? And he said that she was gone. He didn't know where she was.
00:56:57
Speaker
And so I called my parents. I called my mom first and then I called my dad and told them what was going on. And that's when my mom reached out to Austin to find out what was going on when she got the same song and dance about Danielle being gone. So your mom wouldn't have even spoken with Austin. Austin hadn't tried to call you guys. No, he didn't try to call any family at all whatsoever. He called her best friend.
00:57:26
Speaker
Daniel's father, Chuck, also made phone calls. He was looking for his daughter around the town, but he found nothing. He left Daniel and Austin's house very briefly between 2 and 4 p.m. on that Monday to pick up his other daughter, Tana, to come back with him and continue to search for Danielle. Danielle's mother stayed at home just in case Danielle tried to reach her or if Danielle showed up there.
00:57:57
Speaker
Right. Cause they're still thinking, okay, maybe she did leave. Now that would be odd, you know, if she left at the time that she did, but maybe she did leave. She had left before. Yeah. And we need to be home, have somebody home in case that's what happened. Right. It was in that short time though, between two and four that Chuck was gone to getting Tana that Austin's mother showed up to pick up her grandson.
00:58:22
Speaker
and immediately turned around to make the return seven hour trip back to Louisiana. That just seems so weird to me. Like it's not bad that she drove there and got her grandson and took him back. It just doesn't feel like it fits with, I don't know, just feels off to me. Yeah. And that's how her family felt too. Nothing about this felt right.
00:58:49
Speaker
Every time that Danielle had left Austin before, like I said, she had taken her children. So, Danielle's parents knew when Danielle's father had shown up and seen her youngest son still in Austin's care, he knew that Danielle had not left.
00:59:06
Speaker
she would have never left her child. Yeah, let alone send them seven hours away. Yes. And that was the other thing that bothered Danielle's family, is that to know that her, that Danielle's son was being taken across state lines seven hours away, that made them even more suspicious.
00:59:28
Speaker
And Daniel's mother reported that Danielle did not like her youngest son to go that far away, especially if she weren't going with him. You know, because she was thinking he's only three and seven hours away. That's a long way away to be away from your mom, especially the mama's boy.
00:59:47
Speaker
Mm hmm. So because Danielle didn't want him to be away from her at that great distance and for any amount of time, the fact that Austin was sending him there, that was those were some red flags for them. Very out of place. But that wasn't the only thing that struck Chuck and Tana as odd. They have reported that Austin was also acting nervous, frantic, even.
01:00:16
Speaker
They reported that the house was in complete disarray. And they said that Danielle's clothing was heaped in a pile in her closet with drawers pulled out. And it was just a wreck. But Danielle was known to keep a meticulously clean house. Girl, I wish that's what I was known for. Me too. Mine would be like, oh, it's clean. Someone has broken in and cleaned. Mine would be the opposite. I would have covered their tracks.
01:00:45
Speaker
That's right. But her family didn't believe that, even if she had been leaving Austin, that she would have left the house in such a disorganized fashion. And all that was missing, despite this wreck of a house, was her purse and her cell phone. So the two items that she had had with her from the barbecue the night before. OK, that's what I was about to say. So it's not like she necessarily had to come home to get those items. She would have already had them on her. And so why would it be a wreck?
01:01:15
Speaker
Right. And didn't she charge her phone at Megan's before she left? She did. So that makes me think it's not dead. Or at least it wasn't dead on Sunday and early Monday when people were trying to get ahold of her. Yeah, when she wasn't responding. And so her family didn't notice any other missing clothing. Danielle also had not taken her medication with her that she needed to prevent seizures. Definitely think she would have brought that along.
01:01:45
Speaker
Exactly. Also off-putting was Austin's reluctance to file a missing person report for Danielle, something that he had not yet done when he called her family on that Monday. What was his reason behind that? Well, he said, number one, that he just believed that Danielle was, you know, maybe she would come back, that, you know, she would, she had left him before
01:02:14
Speaker
So he wasn't making it into a big deal. But the number two reason he said he was afraid to file a missing person report was because of his current issue with child protective services. And he was afraid about how bad it would look. Okay. First of all.
01:02:34
Speaker
It also looks bad that you're not reporting your wife missing when she clearly is. So I think that's probably the most significant thing there. Yep, I would agree. Here is what Tana had to say in terms of what she saw when she showed up with her father at Danielle's house.
01:02:59
Speaker
The house was a wreck, which was very unusual because at that time, because CPS was involved, my sister kept everything in its place. The house was always immaculate. And he was washing clothes, but he never washed clothes. And it smelled of cleaning stuff, bleach and all that in the house, which was unusual because the house was a wreck.
01:03:26
Speaker
She had a backpack that she carried everywhere with her along with her purse that had her phone charger, her vape, all her medications, and any extra little things that she thought the kids would need. And that bag was still there at her house. And it was at this time that Chuck and Tana said, if you don't file a report, we will. Yeah, exactly.
01:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, and it was kind of a combined act that did happen. So Tana actually called the police and handed the phone to Austin. And then when they came, in essence, she wrote out the statement as Austin spoke. And so all Austin had to do was sign the report.
01:04:14
Speaker
Okay, so he sounds like he's really active, like really being proactive here. Yeah. Despite the months that ensued of putting up missing flyers, of ground searches, of draining and scouring local ponds, of aerial searches, law enforcement found nothing, though Maggie. Texas EquiSearch joined their efforts alongside the Montgomery County Search and Rescue, and they still came up
01:04:44
Speaker
empty handed. Daniel's father, Chuck, told Grace White and Matt Kieser of KHOU11, quote, it drives you crazy. You get home and you lay awake all freaking night until early in the morning and you finally get a couple hours of sleep and then you're back up at it again, end quote.
01:05:06
Speaker
Her mother added in that same article, quote, none of this fits her. None of this matches her personality. She wouldn't just get up and walk away from her children and she wouldn't not reach out to us. That just wasn't her. End quote. Yeah, exactly. It just does not fit her at all. It's not her at all. Right.
01:05:32
Speaker
Right. And Cheryl added as well that without a job in financial independence, Daniel likely wouldn't have had the funds to even last a week without reaching out to someone for help. And why wouldn't she reach out to her own family? Yeah, I mean, she's it's not like she's trying to hide it. She's done that before she's reached out to them before. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And speaking of reaching out, why wouldn't she reach out to anyone since she had a fully charged phone?
01:06:04
Speaker
I think her phone is not on her position at this point. Yeah. And that's the question. Was it turned off after something happened? Had it gotten broken? Because that's another thing that could have happened. Law enforcement told Danielle's family that her bank account has not been accessed since she was last seen, nor has she accessed her social media. However,
01:06:32
Speaker
Two days after she was reported missing, her cell phone pinged. Oh, I wonder where it was. Well, at least that's what her family was told. Though now, according to Cheryl, the family was informed that the ping information was inaccurate and there wasn't ever a ping. That's a big mistake to tell a family and then take it back though.
01:06:59
Speaker
And how can it really be a mistake? I feel like that'd be pretty cut and dry.
01:07:04
Speaker
Well, one interview I read said that when the report was filled out, and they don't know if this was on purpose or just accidental, that somehow Danielle's phone number was written down for Austin, and Austin's phone number was written down for Danielle. So could it have been his phone that pinged? And so that's why there's a little bit of confusion around it.
01:07:31
Speaker
But there were many other factors, as you can guess, that make Danielle's family suspect Austin. He didn't help pass out flyers, nor did he participate in any of the searches. Yeah, never a good look. And when he was asked why he wasn't out there helping, he said that his lawyer advised him not to do so.
01:07:59
Speaker
So I'll play devil's advocate as much as I can. And that is that, I mean, Daniel's family has suspected his involvement from the beginning. So it could be the case that he just didn't want to be around them or he felt like all the eyes would be on him if he did go. Yeah. It's like the one case we covered where the man moved and thought it was really suspicious. And the Karen, that was Karen Swift case. Yeah. So.
01:08:29
Speaker
Austin's lawyer, Katherine Shipman, stated that her client, obviously, denies any involvement in Danielle's disappearance and that he was seeking privacy because her disappearance was extremely difficult for him. OK, I will be nice and give you that. According to Austin, though, he also said that he had no idea that Danielle was planning on serving him with divorce papers.
01:08:57
Speaker
a lie detector test determine that was a lie. Yeah I that was a beep. Yeah so I mean could it be someone else and Austin is the easy scapegoat? I mean it could be because you know he doesn't have the best
01:09:18
Speaker
Like reputation, I guess. Yeah. So it could be, uh, you're going to be hard pressed to convince me otherwise, but. And there are actually a few final puzzling details that Cheryl told me that I want to bring up.
01:09:33
Speaker
And I didn't read any of these in my research. These were the ones that I heard from Cheryl, so I wanted to share them with you. Number one, she questions where Austin went in the hours that he was, quote, cooling down from seeing his wife on the couch with his friend Bodhi.
01:09:50
Speaker
So she wonders if he was plotting something during that time. Yeah, maybe he was driving around, but he's driving around making a plan. Right. Number two, when I asked why so many of the searches were of ponds and bodies of water, because I noticed that in my research. And so I asked her if that was linked to any tips that had come in. She said that there were many rumors involving water. And she said that there used to be
01:10:16
Speaker
in Danielle's backyard, a 50 gallon drum that had a screw top lid on it, but that after Danielle's disappearance, the drum had also disappeared. And she says that the family has never gotten answers to its whereabouts. Oh, that reminds me of that one story that, or the one case where she was in the water tower of that hotel.
01:10:41
Speaker
I was a lamb. Yeah. Number three, Danielle's mother was off of work the week that Danielle went missing and was in close proximity because remember Danielle would often drive there to stay so she'd be part of the way closer to the visitation center.
01:11:00
Speaker
So, Danielle's family wonders why Austin didn't call Danielle's mom, Dinah, to watch her grandson, rather than calling his mother, who had to drive seven hours to get there. Yeah, that detail does not make sense to me. Like I said, it's not bad that you called your mom and said, hey, the kid wants to see you. It just seems weird. The timing is suspect. Mm-hmm.
01:11:27
Speaker
Number four, Cheryl told me that several times law enforcement told the family that they had searched a particular property and found nothing, but that when it was people whom Danielle's parents knew, they would ask those acquaintances about the search only to be told that law enforcement had never been on their property.
Critique of Austin's Involvement
01:11:48
Speaker
That's a little weird.
01:11:51
Speaker
And number five, finally, a detail about Cheryl's work with Texas EquiSearch has always stuck in her mind. So she was actually helping them out. Like I said, she is an advocate for Danielle's family. And Cheryl drove around with Texas EquiSearch asking locals for permission to search their properties at all these places around Danielle's home. And they started on Danielle Street at one property in particular,
01:12:20
Speaker
where Danielle and Austin were known to go. Their son's baby shower had been hosted there. Austin and other locals, including some law enforcement officers, were said to have shotguns there. And there was a rock quarry located on the property with backhoes and dozers.
01:12:40
Speaker
When Texas EquiSearch drove up, Cheryl stayed in the truck, but she saw the property owner approach the gate and said, quote, He would have never killed that girl. I helped raise that boy. End quote. OK, well, at this point, Danielle is just missing. No one has said anything about her being dead. Also,
01:13:05
Speaker
Okay, I'll wait. I'll let you finish. Okay, so this seems like a really weird comment to make as soon as you show up. It's like when people are, significant others are interviewed and they talk about their partner in the past tense when they're just missing. Like you're giving more information already than what you've been asked. Also, unlike other property owners,
01:13:32
Speaker
Cheryl said that this particular property owner only allowed ground searches. So he told Texas EquiSearch that they could form two lines, but they could only follow behind him and not veer off the path. So no ATVs, no cadaver dogs, no horses. Why? Is he trying to say like the property is dangerous or something?
01:13:57
Speaker
I don't know what reason he gave, but part of me would be like, excuse me, sir. That is not how these searches work. But I guess you're getting that person's permission. So you kind of have to follow whatever rules they say, I guess. I guess so. Despite all points that have been brought up in articles by Daniel's family and by Cheryl, I will say that Austin has never been named a suspect.
01:14:27
Speaker
law enforcement has searched the home that they shared. They have searched cell phone records and his vehicle and have not divulged any specifics that would pin the crime on him. I did see in my research that law enforcement said that they had other leads that they were looking into.
01:14:49
Speaker
But I wasn't able to get any information about those leads if there are indeed other possible scenarios. And I even asked Cheryl if she knew of any other potential theories. And she said no. And the biggest problem, I think, with this case by law enforcement in general, Maggie, is that we don't even know if law enforcement has searched in the right county.
01:15:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I didn't even think about that because the barbecue is in one county. She lives in another county. Yep. So the barbecue, which is the last time her friends see her, is in Waller County. But because of Austin's testimony in his story, the police are actually searching in Montgomery County because he says that's where she was last seen.
01:15:47
Speaker
So Maggie, I'm not going to ask you about Austin in particular, but I will ask you this. Do you think that Danielle met with foul play at the hands of Austin or some other person or that she could have left of her own free will?
01:16:06
Speaker
I definitely think she met with foul play. I don't know that it was Austin. It could have been somebody else. And like you said, he just, it's easy to point the finger at him. I just don't think she would have left her kids. And that's the reason I'm going to stand behind. She was met with foul play. I would agree.
01:16:33
Speaker
On the family's Facebook page called Bring Danielle Home, also reported by KHOU11, Danielle's mother, Dinah, wrote the following, quote, sometimes we can talk about her and not cry. Sometimes we can think of her and feel the warmth of her smile and her light. Other times we cannot. The wounds can't become scars and the pain can never completely heal. There's no closure.
01:17:02
Speaker
Would closure even help now? Would we recover from this experience at all if we found her? The short answer is no." Certainly Danielle's family feels that they've lost more than just their daughter. They also lost a grandson. After Danielle went missing, her husband moved away with their son and sadly, Danielle's parents have had no contact with him.
Conclusion and Call for Public Help
01:17:33
Speaker
Even with answers, peace might seem as though it remains as long of a distance as Danielle's laughter. But what we must do is to show her family and friends that trust in people isn't always misguided, that many of us out here care, even though we don't know her family and didn't know Danielle personally.
01:18:00
Speaker
Please take a short moment and do your part. Share her story. When Danielle disappeared in 2015, she was 32 years old. She was five foot seven, weighed around 120 pounds. She had shoulder length dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She could be identified by her tattoos as well. She had a tribal tattoo on the top of her left foot,
01:18:28
Speaker
a frog tattoo on the inside of her right ankle with the names Dylan and Colton, and she had a cross tattoo on her back with a red, orange, yellow fade. I'd like to end the episode with part of the conversation that Tana and I had and her plea to all of our listeners. I just, I ask that if anybody has information, I'm sorry, about my sister, Danielle's sleeper.
01:18:59
Speaker
for her boys that are grown now and desperately wanting their mom back and answers. If anybody has information, please do not be scared to say something, to reach out and let somebody know what you know so we can get some answers and some closure, because it's been seven long years of not knowing anything.
01:19:30
Speaker
And we want to bring justice to this enclosure for our family and for her children to know. So please reach out and give some answers and shed some light on this situation.
01:19:50
Speaker
Thank you so much, Tana. I know we don't know each other, but I hope you know that you're not alone in fighting for justice because that is the whole point of why my co-host and I decided to do this podcast.
01:20:03
Speaker
we cover the cases that we feel like haven't gotten the coverage that they deserve and I just wanted to let you know that you have somebody else on your side. Well thank you so much because we try to keep it out there but I know my sister you know she wants us desperately to find her and get answers and closure but I know too because I shut down for so many years like
01:20:32
Speaker
my family, my children, my husband, they were like, you're gonna have to come back to reality. And so I had to, and I've decided that I need to be a part of my family and do life and stuff, but I don't want her story falling under the cracks like it has been and not be put out there and get some closure.
01:21:03
Speaker
I just, I'm tired of the not knowing. She's all I've got. Like that's my baby sister and I feel like I let her down because this happened and I'm supposed to protect her and I couldn't. Crime Stoppers is currently offering a $21,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to an arrest in this case.
01:21:28
Speaker
If you have any information you can remain anonymous by calling 1-800-392-STOP.
01:21:40
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from
Closing and Sponsorship Reminder
01:22:09
Speaker
you soon.
01:22:09
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:22:32
Speaker
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