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E207: Lauren Dumolo
4.4k Plays2 years ago
Lauren Dumolo was on a path to gain back custody of her daughter. After losing one of her two jobs due to cutbacks and additional personal trauma in early 2020, she was having to try even harder to gain back her financial stability. Unfortunately, that is when she was diagnosed with brief psychotic disorder, Baker Acted, and lost her second job as well. After returning home for the final time on June 18th, it was less than 24 hours later that Lauren Dumolo would be a missing person. Though there is no shortage of suspects or suspicious people in her case, more than three years have passed with no answers. Where is Lauren and who isn’t telling the truth?
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Discretion Advised
00:00:00
Speaker
Due to the sensitive nature of several events within this episode, listener discretion is advised.
Lauren's Connection to Four Freedoms Park
00:00:09
Speaker
The three-acre Four Freedoms Park in Cape Coral, Florida with a beautiful view overlooking Bimini Basin was the perfect spot for her daily meditations. Only a six-minute walk from her apartment, it was a daily ritual for her to go there in the mornings to cleanse all the negativity
00:00:29
Speaker
and begin the day with good energy. And with all the chaos and uncertainty in her life recently, she likely felt like she needed to do just that. She considered it her safe place.
Memorial Bench and Family's Vow
00:00:43
Speaker
Her sister Cassie told reporter Chuck Bellaro of the North Fort Myers neighbor in June 2022, quote, this is where she would find herself and ground herself.
00:00:56
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I know it's stormy, but that's what gives us the wonderful sunsets and sunrises, which is why she chose this place. She was one with nature, believed in the power of love and light. For a long time, I didn't understand it and laughed at it. Over the last two years, I do believe in all of it." Her other sister, Lindsay, said something very similar.
00:01:25
Speaker
It's just a really cool little park. I don't know. It's like on the water. So there's like a little area of like sand, like the mini beast. And like I said, is right there. There's a bunch of boats. It's really, really pretty, but more in love to meditate. And she would go down to a little sand area, each area, and meditate.
00:01:48
Speaker
And she just got some clarity that way. She was very spiritual and she was, you know, always trying to, again, manifest, getting her daughter back. And, yeah, it was just very nice and quiet and peaceful there. That's why, after she disappeared in mid-June 2020, her family chose that spot to mark their dedication to finding her and to never letting her memory fade.
00:02:14
Speaker
They chose one year after her disappearance to install a bench cozily close to the water's edge so others could relax as she once did here and so they could feel close to her. The bench is inscribed with the phrase, Lauren is always with us, our angel. Hashtag bring Lauren home.
00:02:41
Speaker
It's a prayer her family still whispers at night in dreams of what tomorrow may bring and yells loudly in the day for all to hear. Our daughter, our sister, our friend has yet to be found. She's lost and needs our help. Peace was something that she so desperately sought and it's something that eludes her family now.
00:03:10
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until they have answers. This is the case of Lauren DeMolo.
Introduction to Coffee and Cases Podcast
00:03:51
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.
00:04:10
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.
00:04:28
Speaker
I have one quick announcements with Helms before I get started, and that is to let you know that we will be taking next week off here at Coffee and Cases since next Thursday is Thanksgiving. And I don't know about you, but I will be busily cooking and baking up a storm. So I will be back with you in two weeks from today.
00:04:56
Speaker
Also, before I get into the case this week, I wanna tell you about another podcast with close ties to the DeMalo family who has done a deep dive on this case. A lot of information I'll be providing comes straight from them. And I want to encourage you to check out their podcast after you hear this episode so that you can learn even more from various members of Lauren's family
00:05:21
Speaker
and those close to the case. A huge thank you goes out to that podcast called Complicit for their hard work and insights. A second thank you this week goes out to Lauren's sister, Lindsay, with whom I had the pleasure to speak in preparation for this episode.
00:05:43
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her gratitude in helping to get the word out about her sister's case and her desire for closure were moving. And I hope that you listeners will do your part as well in sharing this episode, talking about this case, and as always, helping this family know that they are not alone.
00:06:07
Speaker
Like some cases I've covered before, I actually felt called to cover this one because of a statement I read in my research. Lauren's sister, Lindsay, the one with whom I spoke, recalled that on the People magazine cover that had featured Lauren's image on the front, Lauren was immediately beside of another young mother with whom she shared many similarities that Lindsay noticed.
00:06:37
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that other young mother was Andrea Knaple, whose case we covered in episode 171.
00:06:47
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As you know from the introduction, our case this week takes place in Florida, but that's not where Lauren's life began. Lauren, born on July 14th, 1990, had grown up in New York and Maryland in a household with her father, her younger sister Cassie, and after her parents divorced with a stepmother and step-siblings.
00:07:12
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Lauren's mother, called Anne on the Complicit Podcast, so that's what I will be calling her here as well, had moved to Florida and had two more daughters and two more sons of her own. Because of the distance, Lauren and her mother weren't incredibly close, but it was a relationship that Lauren, as well as her sister Cassie, was interested in strengthening as she got older.
00:07:38
Speaker
So when Lauren and Cassie were entering into adulthood, both in their 20s, they moved to Florida to be close to their mother and to their other siblings and to begin a journey to do just that. I'm so glad that she did because the move did enable Lauren to draw extremely close to those siblings. Here's what Lindsay stated was her favorite
Lauren's Move to Florida and Family Ties
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memory with the fun loving Lauren.
00:08:08
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I love just getting coffee with her and I would take my daughter and she would take her daughter into the park and we would just like watch our daughters grow up together and play with each other. We also love going down to the yacht club. It was about two miles away from our house, which was
00:08:28
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you know, this nice little like restaurant, bar, tiki hut, on the water and we would just like lay out and, you know, have a cocktail or listen to music, live music. And we probably did that a couple of times a month, you know, it was just like one of my favorite things to do. We loved, you know, sunbathing and we just love music and hanging out, especially with our daughter.
00:08:52
Speaker
But the journey to draw close to her family wasn't the only journey that Lauren was on. She was on another journey as well. When Lauren was a teenager, she had been involved in a traumatic car accident and for pain management had been prescribed oxycodone, a drug she would later become addicted to and which would lead her down a path to other drug use as well.
00:09:18
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but she was on a journey to recovery, sparked mostly by a miracle that came into her life in 2014, the birth of her daughter, Michaela. Both Lauren and Michaela's father were in active recovery right after Michaela was born.
00:09:37
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According to my talk with Lauren's sister, Lindsay, Lauren had given birth to Michaela while in a sober house and had a little over three years of wonderful memories with her daughter and three years of winning her daily battle with addiction before losing that battle in 2018. And with that loss, also losing custody of her daughter to her daughter's paternal grandmother.
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But Lauren was not one to give up without a fight. It just wasn't in her. Rather, she used the goal of getting custody of Michaela back as motivation to stay clean. And she had done so by 2020 for the past two years. She wanted to prove herself to herself and for her daughter. So she submitted to random drug tests to prove her sobriety.
00:10:32
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And she worked extremely hard to show that she was financially stable, which meant moving out from her mom and stepfather Victor's apartment to her own one bedroom apartment, just a short walk down the road from her mother and holding down two jobs. During this time, it was also through her mother and stepfather Victor that Lauren was introduced to Gabrielle Pena called Gappy by all who knew him.
00:11:02
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worked with Victor at the Flooring Company, and who also, at one point, stayed in a room in Anne and Victor's apartment. Lauren and Gabby began seeing one another, and when Lauren moved into her own place off of Coronado Parkway, Gabby went with her. And Lauren's brother moved into the spare room with Anne and Victor.
00:11:25
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But this relationship with Gabby was one Lauren treated differently than she had many prior relationships. With past boyfriends, she had always confided in her friends about her praises and her arguments with them, as many people do. However, there were longtime friends of Lauren who would later say that she rarely spoke of Gabby with them. Perhaps this was because Lauren and Gabby's relationship was tumultuous. They were constantly on again, off again,
00:11:55
Speaker
When Lauren was not in a relationship with Gabby, a man named Carl would come back into her life. However, despite any back and forth between Gabby and Carl, Lauren always gravitated back to Gabby, even though friends say she knew their relationship wasn't stable as it should be.
00:12:15
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Although Lauren wasn't the most forthcoming with her family and friends about her relationship, she would confide
Unstable Relationship with Gabby
00:12:21
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in her daily acquaintances, like the workers at the local 7-Eleven, where she would walk nearly every day.
00:12:29
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They later indicated that Lauren had told them of Gabby not pulling his financial weight in their relationship, disappearing when rent was due, of him not being there for Lauren when she needed a most, of him being controlling and telling her what to wear, and even told them of a history of abuse in the relationship with Gabby.
00:12:51
Speaker
It was abuse that Lauren's father learned about in May, 2020, May 22nd, in fact, which was a significant date as it pertains to Lauren's life. You see, Lauren had recently found out that she was pregnant. However, since there had been a brief previous period when she and Gabby had separated and she and Carl were together, she was unsure who the father of the child might be.
00:13:20
Speaker
She knew either way, though, that she was not in a financially secure, she had lost one of her jobs as a result of cutbacks during the pandemic, nor a healthy enough situation to bring a child into the world and had made the decision to have an abortion. It was a procedure scheduled to take place on May 22nd, and Gabby was to go with Lauren to the clinic to support and to help by paying for the procedure.
00:13:50
Speaker
However, when it came time to go, Gabby was nowhere to be found, so Lauren had gone to the appointment and gone through the procedure alone. By that evening, Lauren made a tearful phone call to her father, Paul, but it was something traumatic other than the surgery that she had to tell him or rather show him. She shared with him images of bruises on her arm
00:14:18
Speaker
and on her neck where she and Gabby had gotten into a physical altercation. Her father immediately wanted to come to the aid of his oldest daughter to protect her. But as we will now forever be reminding listeners of cases that took place in 2020, COVID-19 was in its early stages here in the US and travel was being both restricted and discouraged as ways to help slow the spread of the virus that we didn't yet understand.
00:14:49
Speaker
Meanwhile, the situation went from bad to worse for Lauren. By the end of May 2020, Lauren was not acting like her usual self. Rather than the seeker of love and light that her sister Cassie mentioned in the quote in our show's introduction, she became convinced that she was being followed, that someone was after her was doing something to her or slipping her something. She grew paranoid,
00:15:19
Speaker
even of neighbors in her apartment complex, sure that they were saying nasty things about her and she wanted to move to get away. According to an interview with Lauren's aunt Sue, mom and sister on complicit, Lauren had even mentioned that voices were telling her that the world was going to implode unless she killed herself. According to Lindsay,
00:15:45
Speaker
She was saying so many weird things. She was saying that the world was going to end. Basically, life is about to make sense. The paranoia was mounting, and her family began calling her often to check on her. On June 1, Lauren did something else that concerned her family.
00:16:07
Speaker
She left a picture and a letter for her daughter at her mom and Victor's apartment. It wasn't the act, but what was in the letter that had them concerned. She wrote, quote, you're my only reason for life and without you I have no life. You're my heart and soul and I'll be with you even when I'm not. You're my angel baby and now I'll be your angel, always watching over you, end quote.
00:16:36
Speaker
The fear was that the implication of the letter could be that Lauren would soon be an angel watching over her daughter. At the very least, the letter sounded like Lauren was sad and feeling desperate to have Michaela back. Either way, she was in a position that needed checking on. A few hours later on the first though, Lauren wasn't responding to anyone's calls. Instead,
00:17:06
Speaker
they would go straight to voicemail. Cassie was so worried that she called police, but found that not enough time had passed to file a report. By that evening, her family did receive a call, but it wasn't from Lauren. Instead, it was a call back from the Cape Coral Police Department, calling to say that they had taken Lauren to the hospital for a psychiatric hold.
00:17:35
Speaker
she had been Baker acted, a law that we've previously discussed on the show in our coverage of Diane August's case way back in episode 10. As a reminder, Florida outlines in the law that an individual should undergo an involuntary mental health examination and institutionalization provided they meet certain criteria.
00:17:59
Speaker
that they are showing signs of mental illness, they do not understand why they need to be evaluated, or they're posing a threat to themselves or others. At that point, the individual is taken to a mental health facility and held for a mandatory 72 hours
00:18:18
Speaker
of evaluation and observation. At this point, after the 72-hour minimum, the individual may be held longer or released from care at that time. Law enforcement detailed to family what had caused the Baker Act to be enforced.
Psychiatric Hold Under Baker Act
00:18:37
Speaker
Police had received a phone call from someone in Four Freedoms Park reporting that a woman acting erratically had jumped into Bimini Basin.
00:18:46
Speaker
and acted as though she was frantically swimming away from someone or something. That woman was Lauren DeMalo. By the time police arrived at the park, Lauren was back on dry ground, but upon seeing law enforcement, again jumped in the water and began again frantically swimming away.
00:19:10
Speaker
Once the police were able to get Lauren on the beach again and were able to speak with her, her responses seemed to them nonsensical. She spoke to them of hearing voices and of her fears that she had previously disclosed to family that someone was after her. Lauren was taken to a facility where she was held from June 1st until June 8th, past the minimum 72 hours.
00:19:36
Speaker
A drug test given three days into Lauren's stay came back showing only suboxone and marijuana, revealing that she was actively controlling her addiction to heroin. But according to the complicit podcast, Lauren had tried to harm herself while in the facility by doing things like banging her head against the floor. She was diagnosed with brief psychotic disorder.
00:20:03
Speaker
According to family, the doctors felt the most likely cause of the sudden onset of paranoia and erratic behavior was due to a chemical imbalance that was a direct result of the abortion procedure on May 22nd. When she was released, Lauren was prescribed an antipsychotic medication that Victor gave Gabby the money to purchase. The prescription was dropped off at the pharmacy to be filled, but it was never picked up.
00:20:34
Speaker
When Lauren had jumped into the water on June 1st, her cell phone had been in her pocket and had fallen out in the water. That phone was never recovered. So, if there were truly someone threatening Lauren, the proof of it, for now, is lost as well. She had taken to using an old phone that she still had, and since she used Wi-Fi anyway to communicate on her cell phones, the transition was an easy one.
00:21:04
Speaker
Her family continued to reach out to her after she returned home, worried about her and wanting to make sure everything was okay. And it seemed that it was. Once Lauren returned home, she was again her happy and fun-loving self. On June 13th, Lauren and Gabby had actually met up with Lauren's sister Cassie and Cassie's children for a beach day.
00:21:29
Speaker
Cassie recalls the smiles, the playfulness, the laughter, and the easiness of the day, and likely, because of that, thought that the worst was behind them. But that was far from being the case. The very next morning, on June 14th, Lauren called Sister Lindsay early, around 6 a.m., just to ask how she was doing, and continually asked if Lindsay was okay.
00:21:57
Speaker
Such a phone call, especially at that hour, was out of character. Just a few hours later, Gabby would call Paul, Lauren's father, to say he was again worried about Lauren's mental health. From speaking with family and in the research that I've completed, the choice to call Paul here is a bit confusing.
00:22:21
Speaker
From my understanding, Gabby hadn't ever met Paul and definitely wasn't close to him. But the biggest point of confusion is based on the fact that Paul was in California, not there in Florida where he could pop in and check on Lauren.
00:22:40
Speaker
On the contrary, Gabby knew Lauren's sisters and he knew and had even briefly lived with Lauren's mom and stepdad, all of whom lived just blocks away. In my mind, if you were worried about Lauren and Lauren's mental health, why call someone who wasn't even local and who had a much more limited capacity to help?
00:23:07
Speaker
I feel like we can't say that he just wanted to keep Paul in the loop because then he would have called multiple people, including Paul, and not just Paul. Regardless, Gabby told Paul that Lauren was again talking nonsensically about aliens, about people being after her, about evil.
00:23:31
Speaker
Worried first and foremost about his daughter and her safety, Paul urged Gabby to again have Lauren admitted if he truly felt that that was what was best for her. So Lauren was Baker acted again on June 15th. This time she was only kept the minimum 72 hours and was released on June 18th.
00:23:58
Speaker
Now, listeners, I don't want you to get the impression that Lauren, because she'd been Baker acted twice in a short period of time, had lost touch with reality. Quite the contrary. Sadly, because she had missed so much work from being Baker acted, she was let go from her second job as well. Remember, she lost the first one due to cutbacks as a result of the pandemic.
00:24:23
Speaker
Finding herself jobless when she was released on June 18th, her actions were that of a responsible mother who was applying for a multitude of jobs so that she could get right back on her feet, still with that laser focus to gain back custody of the daughter she loves so much.
00:24:44
Speaker
We know based on witness statements and from video surveillance footage that Lauren spent the day on the 18th walking around to various businesses in the area, including one local gas station to get job applications.
Job Search and Custody Battle
00:24:59
Speaker
A maintenance man who serviced Lauren's apartment building along with several others in the area said he saw Lauren in the morning of the 18th and that she had asked him if he knew of any apartments in the area because she was trying to get out of a quote,
00:25:14
Speaker
bad situation." What that situation was that she was referring to, she didn't clarify. And by that evening of the 18th, Lauren called her sister Cassie around 6.30 pm to talk. They talked mostly about her fears of her current financial situation and about finding a job. When they got off the phone, they had plans to continue the conversation the next day.
00:25:42
Speaker
but that was the last time her family would hear from Lauren. On Friday, June 19th, Gabby and Victor worked a double shift for the flooring company. Victor reported that Gabby seemed in good spirits that day.
00:25:55
Speaker
because he said that he and Lauren had talked for hours the night before and had begun the process of working through the problems that had long since plagued the relationship. On the way home on the 19th, around 9pm or so, Victor recalled that Gabby made a comment, something to the effect of, it's weird, I haven't heard from Lauren today.
00:26:18
Speaker
According to Victor, as he told the complicit podcast, Lauren would often call Gabby during the workday and, if Gabby didn't answer, would call Victor's phone to talk to Gabby, but Victor didn't receive a call that day from Lauren either. I will add here that I've never heard it mentioned one way or the other whether Gabby, once he grew concerned about not talking to Lauren during the day, tried to call her right then.
00:26:46
Speaker
I know that's what I personally would do, though. The person Gabby did call was Paul when he got home and Lauren wasn't there. He told Paul that he had kissed Lauren goodbye that morning before work, but that she hadn't called him like she usually did and that she wasn't at home and he was worried. Again, this choice to call Paul
00:27:12
Speaker
doesn't make sense to me. I mean, I'm glad he did because of the pressure that you'll soon hear that Paul placed on him. But if Lauren isn't there in your apartment, one of the places she would logically be is with one of her local family members. But they weren't the ones who were called. At first, Paul suggested the rational. Maybe Lauren went to the store. Maybe she went to her mom's apartment.
00:27:41
Speaker
So Paul suggested that Gabby call and check and Paul suggested that Gabby have Lauren call him when she returned.
00:27:51
Speaker
The next evening on the 20th, after never receiving a call from Lauren, Paul spoke again with Gabby and found that he still hadn't seen Lauren, though Gabby had been away from the apartment at work all day. Again, Paul asked Gabby to have Lauren call him. The next day was Sunday, June 21st, 2020, Father's Day. Even though days had now passed without hearing from Lauren,
00:28:19
Speaker
Paul was expecting to receive at least a message. Lauren always sent him a message on Father's Day. In fact, he chuckled, remembering, as reported by Caitlin Greenawkel for the Fort Myers News Press, that she would sometimes sign her Facebook post to him with, your favorite daughter. Paul had five daughters with Lauren being the eldest. That was just like her to say something funny like that.
00:28:48
Speaker
When Father's Day passed with no contact from Lauren, that was when Paul knew something was wrong. He told reporter Vanessa Bain for an article on January 25th, 2021, quote, that Sunday was Father's Day and she always, always called me on Father's Day, no matter what, no matter what. And that was the first time I didn't hear from her on Father's Day. Everyone always asks me how I knew when it was bad.
00:29:18
Speaker
and I knew it was bad then." When Paul hadn't heard from Lauren, he called Gabby and told him to file a missing persons report, something Gabby had not yet done.
Father's Day and Missing Persons Report
00:29:33
Speaker
calling back later to check on the progress of the report. Paul was told by Gabby that he had called, but either not enough time had passed to file a report or no officer had shown up. Sources differ in the reasons that were given.
00:29:50
Speaker
Regardless, hearing that a report had not been filed, Paul himself called the police station when he was told that no one had ever even called about filing a report in the first place. Remember what I said a moment ago about being glad that Paul was called because he applied pressure? Well, when he called Gabby back, he demanded that Gabby immediately go file a report and to give him the case number.
00:30:20
Speaker
to prove that he had done so. This time, Gabby did file a missing persons report and even told the police that Lauren's father had demanded that he do so and that he send the case number when he had. In the statement to police, Gabby stated that Lauren, quote, was not answering her cell phone. Lauren was last seen wearing a t-shirt and shorts, a known color.
00:30:47
Speaker
Gabby stated Lauren had left for days before in the past and not contacted anyone." Case number now in hand, Paul called the Cape Coral Police Department the next day to ask about what was being done with that specific case.
00:31:04
Speaker
What he learned was disheartening. Something had happened and there was a clerical error of some sort, which meant that the case didn't immediately get flagged as a missing persons case, at which point an investigator would immediately get assigned to it. Now, they would have to wait until Wednesday, June 24th, when the person who took the report would be back and could fix the error. Keep in mind that the last time family had spoken with Lauren,
00:31:34
Speaker
was June 18th. If they waited until Wednesday, that would mean almost six days would have passed. Paul made plans to come to Florida and Lauren's local family, her sister Cassie, her sister Lindsay, and Lindsay's fiancé Matt.
00:31:50
Speaker
began searching for Lauren on their own. If you're wondering where Lauren's mother, Ann, stepdad Victor, and boyfriend Gabby were in these searches, the complicit podcast, as well as news articles on Lauren's case, make it clear that they did not participate in the searches. Some sources state that Ann and Victor initially thought the belief that Lauren was missing was a bit of an overreaction.
00:32:17
Speaker
Other sources recount that Anne was rather ill during this time. She had several health battles she was fighting that were the result of her own addictions to alcohol, which precluded her from searching. Victor acted, according to sources, as though he didn't get involved because he didn't want to overstep bounds and get in the way. And Victor told Complicit that Gabby was doing, quote, his own investigations, end quote.
00:32:45
Speaker
I don't know what the truth is in this case, but I did want to share what was in the sources. On Tuesday, June 23rd, Cassie, Lindsay, and Matt decided to search Lauren and Gabby's apartment to see if they could find any clue as to where Lauren might be. They contacted Mother Anne, who had a key to Lauren's apartment, though she kept pressing that she needed the key back when they were finished searching.
00:33:11
Speaker
It later came to light that the key Ann had in her possession was Gabby's key. And he had, when Lauren hadn't returned, abandoned the apartment. One thing was for sure from their search. They saw no evidence of drug abuse in the apartment. They also found a cell phone beside the bed, but it wouldn't turn on. While the three were in the apartment searching, Gabby also showed up.
00:33:42
Speaker
Since he no longer had a key to get in, he must have somehow known that Lauren's family would be there so that he could get in. Much to the family's surprise, Gabby grabbed a television set and took it from the apartment while making a statement about taking it because Lauren, quote, wasn't coming back, end quote.
00:34:05
Speaker
Despite the shock, her family did have the wherewithal to think to ask Gabby about the cell phone that wouldn't turn on. Gabby walked out of the room they were in and into another room. When he came back, he had a second cell phone in his hand that he said was Lauren's.
00:34:23
Speaker
That did seem accurate because this second cell phone had data from just the last 10 days on it and that was fitting since remember she had lost her phone in the water and when released on June 8th from the First Baker Act had resorted to using an old phone.
00:34:42
Speaker
What her family couldn't explain was why, if Lauren had gone somewhere, she hadn't taken her phone with her as she always would. Because she would connect to public Wi-Fi in various places to send Facebook messages, send pictures to family, etc.
00:35:04
Speaker
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00:38:19
Speaker
Lauren's family handed the phones over to law enforcement, who were able to verify certain activity with the phone. First, Lauren, or someone using Lauren's phone, had connected with the apartment Wi-Fi on the 19th at 10 a.m., where there was attempted communication with Gabby via Facebook Messenger.
00:38:41
Speaker
I've read in some sources that Gabby's phone did ping at the job site where he worked a shift that day, but it was a call that Gabby says he never received. Second, they were able to verify that that was the last time her phone was used. And third, they were able to locate a message sent via the TalkU app, which allows for wifi calls and texts, to two people asking, you guys coming?
00:39:10
Speaker
It was sent on the evening of June 18th. You'll hear more about who the message was sent to in a bit. However, I feel it necessary to point out the contradiction that Lauren's family picked up on with this third detail.
00:39:26
Speaker
They point out that Gabby told Victor that he and Lauren had spent the whole night of the 18th together, talking before going to bed and then kissing her goodbye when he left the morning of the 19th. He said nothing about anyone else coming over to their apartment as the message, you guys coming, would seem to indicate. The only other implication of that message would imply that Lauren, too, went somewhere else that evening.
00:39:57
Speaker
other than her apartment, asking if others were headed to that separate location as well. But that would imply that Lauren had not been at home talking to Gabby all night. So either Lauren left the apartment after Gabby went to sleep, or there's more to the story than what Lauren's family was hearing.
00:40:21
Speaker
Paul arrived in Florida on Wednesday, June 24th, the same day that Lauren's case was officially labeled as a missing person. And he began searching with Lauren's sisters. Since Lauren's apartment had already been searched, they began making the walk from Lauren's apartment to Four Freedoms Park. After all, this was a place Lauren went to nearly every single day in the mornings to meditate.
00:40:47
Speaker
The maintenance man, who said Lauren asked him about available apartments, also said that he saw Lauren around 8.30 a.m. on the morning of the 19th walking toward Four Freedoms Park. And it was also the site of her first erratic actions. It made sense to make their way there. They found no clues on that day.
00:41:15
Speaker
Several days later, on June 27, again making the walk to Four Freedoms Park, the family noticed several officers near Bemini Basin. When they made their way over, they heard that the police presence was there for Lauren, and for a very specific reason. Recall that the missing persons report was delayed by several days. As a result, an initial clue had been overlooked. On June 20,
00:41:44
Speaker
A patron of Four Freedoms Park had turned in a purse and shoes that had been found on the beach area near Bimini Basin. The items, which included keys to her apartment as well as her wallet with ID, were Lauren's. It seemed the family's hunch that there was a connection to the park was correct.
00:42:05
Speaker
They continued their walks from the apartment to the park, always vigilantly looking for clues that they may have previously missed. Then another clue appeared in plain sight. The family had already spent the majority of July 2nd searching for clues in Lauren's disappearance, speaking with those who lived along the walk, handing out flyers when they decided to go to the park one final time.
00:42:35
Speaker
That was when Matt saw it, something red near the water. Lauren's sister, Lindsay, knew immediately that it was Lauren's shirt. She had been with Lauren when it was purchased, and it was one that Lauren wore often because she adored it. But the family couldn't for the life of them understand not only how it got there, but how it got there in the condition it was in.
00:43:05
Speaker
Although they're on the wet sand near the water, they were called that the shirt wasn't dirty and it wasn't wet. If anything, it appeared to be freshly laundered. Plus, they walked this part of the park nearly every day. They would have noticed her shirt had it been there previously. It felt planted.
00:43:35
Speaker
Curious as well about how it got there, law enforcement were able to obtain security footage from a camera on the corner of a nearby building. According to police, the family have never seen the footage, it appeared that a man was walking along the beach when he kicked up something in the sand. It looked like he bent over, picked up the shirt, and then laid it back down.
00:44:00
Speaker
It was their opinion that the shirt hadn't been seen previously because it had been buried in the sand until this man disturbed the sand by walking. Again, that doesn't make sense either because if that were true and it had happened just before Lauren's family saw it, having been buried in the sand for almost two weeks, the shirt would have been sandy and dirty and it wasn't.
00:44:32
Speaker
A public search for Lauren with more than two dozen volunteer attendees was held on July 7th at the park, where Lauren's father and Lauren's sisters were also present and extremely grateful for all the volunteers who showed up to help.
Cadaver Dogs' Indication without Charges
00:44:48
Speaker
They were unable to locate any additional clues. So when the family came back to the park two weeks later on July 20th, they were armed with a new sort of support, cadaver dogs.
00:45:01
Speaker
To be fair, before I tell you what the dogs hit on, and they did make hits, I want to clarify that these were not search and rescue dogs that would be trained to hit on Lauren's specific scent. Instead, these are highly skilled trained dogs taught to hit on the scents of the chemicals released in human decay.
00:45:25
Speaker
The Complicit Podcast has a whole episode dedicated to the cadaver dogs and what they discovered. But here's a synopsis. The dogs were initially brought to Four Freedoms Park since that was where several of Lauren's items had been recovered. But the dogs were not interested in the park. Instead, they immediately made their way to an apartment complex across the street and straight up to one of the apartment doors.
00:45:55
Speaker
It was the door to Ann and Victor's apartment. In the search, there were three specific places the dogs indicated. One was a curtain in the apartment. A second was some storage containers behind the apartment complex. And the third was the flooring company work van that Victor and Gabby used.
00:46:20
Speaker
I don't know exactly what final verdicts were, but all of the items were processed with the van also being taken in for processing. And no charges have been filed. No arrests were made. And the van was returned days later.
00:46:40
Speaker
asked about what might have caused the cadaver dogs to indicate on those items, Victor explained that the flooring company would often clean and renovate the homes of the recently deceased, so those chemical compounds may be in the van. Again, remember, these dogs are not trained on Lauren's scent, just that of human remains. As to why the dogs indicated inside the department, Victor explained that he and Ann had a cat
00:47:09
Speaker
that have recently died in there. That, at least, was not an explanation that the family accepts, since these dogs are trained not to indicate on the chemicals involved in animal decomposition, but only to hit on the compounds unique to humans.
00:47:29
Speaker
Clearly, no arrests were made and no suspects named. The results were not enough to prove any involvement in foul play. So, the search continued. Eventually, Paul returned to California, but with a plan to come back for a huge rally he'd been organizing to take place in October. Paul loved his motorcycle, so he had used connections in that interest.
00:47:55
Speaker
to plan a We Ride for Lauren bike rally and vigil. And it couldn't have come at a better time. The family needed that event to keep their minds focused on the goal of finding Lauren and as a distraction from other family tragedy that had struck the previous month in September. On September 14th,
00:48:17
Speaker
Lauren's mother Anne had been hospitalized and was not doing well. She had a UTI that had gone septic and had additionally developed pneumonia. She was in and out of coherent consciousness from the time she was admitted to the hospital.
00:48:34
Speaker
Now, this may not on the surface seem related, but I need to tell you about Anne on September 14th, the day she went to the hospital because some believe there could be a connection with Lauren, as you'll soon see when I explain some unique, in some cases and in others, inexplicable details.
00:48:58
Speaker
On the morning of September 14th, Lauren's brother Jeffrey, who had moved in with Ann and Victor when Lauren and Gabby moved into their own apartment, had been trying to get ready for work when he discovered that his mom was in the central shared bathroom in the apartment. He had accidentally walked in on her and apologizing, had closed the door and finished getting ready before leaving for work. When he returned home from work later, he found a note from a maintenance man that the maintenance man would return later to finish a work order.
00:49:28
Speaker
And Jeffrey found that the bathroom door to the shared bathroom was now locked. And calling for his mom, he got no response. Worried that his mom was likely in the bathroom since no one else was at home and she wasn't responding, Jeffrey broke into the bathroom only to find his mother unresponsive on the bathroom floor and blue.
00:49:56
Speaker
It was then that she was taken to the hospital. Knowing that the maintenance man had been there because of the note left behind, they contacted him. According to the maintenance man, a work order had come in and he had used a master key to enter the apartment to complete work.
00:50:14
Speaker
He said he had entered the bathroom to turn on the faucet, again, sources vary, to either wash his hands or to get air out of the waterline, but that he had seen Anne sitting on the toilet with her head down like she was praying. He apologized, locked the door, and closed it. But something about the maintenance man's recantation of events doesn't sit right with those close to the family for several reasons.
00:50:44
Speaker
First, the family did some digging and were never able to locate a work order that had been placed to be done that day. Second, this maintenance man was the same maintenance man who said Lauren had asked him about apartments on June 18th and who said he saw her on the morning of the 19th around 8 30. Thus making him one of the last people to say he saw Lauren.
00:51:13
Speaker
Yes, he was the maintenance man at both apartment complexes. Remember, they were in close proximity to one another. A final detail that didn't sit right to them came to light when Lauren's dad, Paul, decided to run a background check on the maintenance man only to find out that he used to live in Racine, Wisconsin. Now, even though Racine is a decent sized town between 70 and 80,000 residents,
00:51:43
Speaker
It is a long way from Cape Coral, Florida, and it was also the hometown of Lauren's boyfriend, Gabby. In fact, the two only lived about 12 miles apart. Now, all of this could be just one giant rabbit hole, and I don't want to get too much into speculation since
00:52:06
Speaker
That is easy to do in this case, and these details could just be coincidences. But I did want to make you aware. Also related to Anne's hospitalization were a couple of other strange statements and occurrences that took place. During her stay, Anne's son Jeffrey asked her at one point what she remembered from the 14th, the day she was hospitalized. She told him that she had been with Lauren
00:52:36
Speaker
thinking she must be confused again because recall that she was in and out of coherency. He asked if she remembered that Lauren was missing. And Anne said that she did remember that, but that she was with Lauren. Trying to probe further, he asked if she knew what happened to Lauren. Anne responded, Michael.
00:53:04
Speaker
However, she was unable to explain who Michael was and the family didn't know a Michael. Anne had been in and out of coherence for some time and she had begun acting anxious when Victor would visit. So visitations have been limited to just immediate family. Was this Anne speaking from a delusional state or was she trying to give her family an answer?
00:53:33
Speaker
We don't know because before the family could gain clarity, Anne lost her life. She developed COVID-19 and that compounding with her other illnesses led to her death. It was how she likely developed COVID. That's the other strange occurrence. On the day of the rally, someone came to the hospital to visit Anne and signed in as Lauren's sister, Lindsay.
00:54:03
Speaker
except it wasn't Lindsay. Lindsay was at the rally. Whoever this was, number one, knew that only family would be allowed to visit Anne and thus knew that they had to give a fake name. And number two, for some reason, had taken this opportunity knowing everyone else would be preoccupied to come visit. Who was this woman?
00:54:32
Speaker
And why did she need to see Anne? Was it this woman who exposed Anne to COVID since Anne's doctors, nurses, and Lauren's family consistently tested negative? Was this visit in some way connected to Lauren?
00:54:50
Speaker
As you can see, there is no shortage of theories related to Lauren's disappearance. I wanted to remind you concerning several of those and to fill in a few more blanks for you now. One theory some have posited is that Lauren took her own life. Most who propose this theory do so because the letter that Lauren left for Michaela
00:55:15
Speaker
Lauren did also previously make the comment to her aunt that she felt she needed to take her own life in order to save the world. Had she experienced another mental break and that same feeling had returned? Personally, I don't know if I believe this theory.
00:55:35
Speaker
always before she had spoken with family about her fears and her thoughts, almost as though she were cognizant that they were intrusive and not correct thoughts. Even when she had jumped into the water before, believing someone were coming after her, she had done so with all of her clothes on. And if we believe those who say they saw her the morning of the 19th, that would mean, since her personal items were found on the beach at Four Freedoms Park,
00:56:03
Speaker
that Lauren had not only been there, but had stripped down in broad daylight before getting into the water. The park is too busy for me to believe that happened.
00:56:17
Speaker
A second theory that Lauren's family, and I do as well, dismiss is that Lauren left of her own free will. Since, according to The Maintenance Man, Lauren was looking for a different apartment because she wanted to get out of a, quote, bad situation, end quote,
00:56:34
Speaker
Some speculate that she left completely in order to escape whatever that situation may have been. But what I keep coming back to, what my gut keeps telling me is that Lauren had been fighting to gain back custody of her daughter. And I don't feel like someone that intent on proving herself to get her baby back would then just completely give up on that journey to disappear and never see her child or her family again.
00:57:04
Speaker
And why would she have even been going around to get job applications if her plan were to leave? Also, while we're on the subject, why would she have been getting job applications from places within walking distance of her current apartment if she truly had told the maintenance man that she was wanting to leave to get out of a bad situation? Here's what Lindsay told me of the theories that she feels can be ruled out.
00:57:31
Speaker
Definitely suicide or her willingly wanting to leave because she would never do that. She loves her family too much. A third and final theory is foul play, that someone set out to harm Lauren. Unfortunately, we have no shortage of people who those familiar with the case look to as having more information concerning Lauren than they've been forthcoming with.
00:57:55
Speaker
The first of these people is Gabby. I want to preface this discussion by saying that Gabby was given a polygraph by law enforcement. He has publicly stated that he passed the polygraph and though that statement has never been confirmed nor denied by law enforcement, he has also not been named a suspect in Lauren's disappearance. However,
00:58:18
Speaker
due to the violence and turbulent nature of their relationship, actions that appear callous like the taking of the television, and the lack of participation in searches for Lauren, he has made it to the top of many people's shortlist.
00:58:35
Speaker
Gabby has maintained his innocence and has even publicly stated his own theories as to what may have happened to Lauren, both of which happened early on in the search for her since he has more recently declined to comment. In one interview, he stated his belief that Lauren may have relapsed.
00:58:55
Speaker
Specifically, in his interview, he stated, quote, so my thing is that she went out with one of her friends, her friend got her all messed up on drugs, and I don't know after that, end quote. He said he was scared for her, but quickly clarified, quote, I don't need to be nervous because I really didn't, you know, I don't know anything, end quote. He stated that he did not believe she would have left of her own free will.
00:59:24
Speaker
In another interview though, Gabby maintained that Lauren was not using drugs again. In fact, at no point did Gabby mention a relapse to Lauren's family.
00:59:36
Speaker
In this statement, he proposed that Lauren had perhaps been out hunting for apartments and someone had taken advantage of her being alone, vulnerable, trusting, and easy to overpower. He stated, quote, maybe she was looking for an apartment to get out of where we were at. So I was thinking she was looking for an apartment around. And I don't know. Maybe someone took advantage of that. And that was that and never came back.
01:00:06
Speaker
That's my theory." A second person with potential information, according to those familiar with the case, is the maintenance man. While I've already outlined his connections to the case and don't have much more to add here, I wanted to mention him because many see his role in this narrative as far too coincidental.
01:00:28
Speaker
A third person we haven't explored yet much is Carl, the man with whom Lauren was involved when she and Gabby were on the outs, and the other man who could potentially have been the father of the unborn child. A girlfriend of Carl's, when asked about Carl's potential involvement in Lauren's disappearance, said that no one would find her, meaning Lauren, because she's in the Gulf of Mexico.
01:00:54
Speaker
Now, Carl was incarcerated at the time when Lauren disappeared and wasn't released until nine days after her disappearance. So this theory isn't without its complications. However, Carl had previously been charged with the tampering of human remains after a young woman had OD'd in his apartment and he had disposed of her body along a roadside wrapped in a carpet.
01:01:22
Speaker
Many wonder if he had been involved with the disposal of a body before. Might he be involved in a similar crime again? The fact that he was incarcerated would mean that he had not acted alone. However, since Carl is a named suspect in Lauren's case,
01:01:44
Speaker
That implies to me that there's at least enough evidence and reason to believe that his involvement is plausible. A fourth avenue under this theory is another one that we haven't fully explored yet. The recipients of the You Guys Coming, Talk You message, Josh and Jose.
01:02:09
Speaker
While I haven't talked about him yet in the episode other than the message Lauren sent, there are a couple of people who place Lauren and Josh interacting in her final hours that we can account for. Once by Josh himself and another account from a third party.
01:02:27
Speaker
Josh told law enforcement that he actually saw Lauren on the morning of the 19th. He said she was walking past his apartment away from Four Freedoms Park when they spotted one another and they waved at each other. He said this took place at 10 a.m. on the 19th. Let me pause because that account creates problems.
01:02:50
Speaker
You see, if Josh is telling the truth and he saw her at 10, then she couldn't have also been in her apartment calling Gabby at 10, which implies that someone else was in the apartment using her phone to do so. And if the phone call from the apartment was Lauren using her phone to try to call Gabby, then that means that Josh is lying and didn't see Lauren at 10.
01:03:20
Speaker
or he was confused on either the time he saw her or the day, since her trip to the park was when she made almost daily. A second person also came forward to say she saw Lauren and Josh together, but on the evening of June 18th and not the morning of the 19th. She told police that she had attended a party that evening at Josh's apartment, and not only was Lauren in attendance at the party,
01:03:47
Speaker
but that she saw Lauren and Josh talking before the two went into his bedroom and closed the door. The woman stated that she had left to go on a date, but had returned to the party later that same night. When she returned, however, she said she saw Josh, but that Lauren was no longer there. If her memory is correct and Lauren was at a party on the night of the 18th,
01:04:14
Speaker
then it isn't also true that Lauren and Gabby had been home all evening talking through their problems. So whose memory is not serving them well?
Speculations Around Lauren's Disappearance
01:04:26
Speaker
What does seem odd with this theory is that Lauren texted you guys coming to Josh, number one, and to a man named Jose.
01:04:37
Speaker
But if the party had been at Josh's house, why would Lauren have asked him if he were coming? Of course he would be. It's at his house. That's not a logical question to ask. Was the female witness confused about the date of the party? Had Lauren gone somewhere else on the 18th? Or was she at home all night as Gabby maintains?
01:05:07
Speaker
As for Jose, he was seen at the party as well, that was presumably on the evening of the 18th, and he has known connections to Carl. Could there be a connection that law enforcement has been exploring since Jose was also named a suspect in the case?
01:05:30
Speaker
Or as a final potential, could there be someone we don't yet know involved in Lauren's disappearance? Could Gabby have been right in his initial fear that someone took advantage of Lauren and perhaps it was someone else entirely?
01:05:50
Speaker
Lauren's father, Paul DeMolo, told reporter Caitlin Greenacle of the Fort Myers News Press in an article published June 19th, 2021, around the one-year anniversary of Lauren's disappearance. Of the emotional toll, he said, quote, I am at the point between anger, frustration, and heartbreak. The pain is there every single day, and our hands are tied, end quote.
01:06:18
Speaker
Part of his pain, and that for Lauren's siblings, comes from fear. Fear from all directions. Fear that they'll never know the truth, coupled with a fear that the truth means Lauren is never coming home.
01:06:34
Speaker
Lauren's father spoke of that latter fear to Vanessa Bain of NBC2 News. Bain wrote, quote, Lauren's family is holding out hope that they'll be reunited with her someday. But the reality of the case is hitting her father hard. I think she was murdered, her father said. I think something happened and either she got into an argument with somebody or someone tried to sexually abuse her or take her.
01:07:05
Speaker
and she was murdered. Until I have actual evidence that it was something else, that's my belief." Despite the fear of the worst case scenario, Lauren's father Paul still believes that's better than the current situation, saying in that same article,
01:07:26
Speaker
Not knowing is worse than knowing. I don't think people realize that. I never realized that. The not knowing leaves you always wondering. I don't think we're going to find her alive, but I'd at least be able to give her a proper burial." Lindsey feels fear from yet another place. The fear that they didn't do enough. She said,
01:07:57
Speaker
If I can go back to, you know, everything, I feel like I failed her a little bit. I think we all feel that way. Sleuthhounds, I want to ask of you precisely what is asked in the six month statement released by Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers. Quote, pause for a moment and look at Lauren's photo. If you live in the Cape, did you ever see her, especially around the downtown area near Four Freedoms Park?
01:08:27
Speaker
If you frequented North Fort Myers where she worked, do you remember the last time you saw Lauren? We're looking for any small tidbit of information that can help detectives track where Lauren may have been before she went missing. I'll end with the following plea from Lindsay.
01:08:49
Speaker
My name is Lindsay and my sister's name is Lauren Demolo and if you have any information regarding her disappearance, please come forward.
Family's Plea for Information
01:08:58
Speaker
She's missed terribly and her family wants to find out answers. She loves very much. Anyone with information concerning Lauren Demolo's disappearance is asked to call the Cape Coral Police Department at 239-574-3223.
01:09:18
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 you soon.
01:09:48
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:10:11
Speaker
It's love notes with Allison. I just wanted to let you know how very much I appreciate your continued support while Maggie is on maternity leave and how much it has meant to get your notes of encouragement along the way. So please keep those coming. You can always reach me on our Facebook page.
01:10:34
Speaker
or you can email at coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. I love hearing from you, so just send all the messages you want.
01:10:44
Speaker
I want to give a shout out to our new Patreon member of the CNC fam, Chris. Welcome, Chris. I am so happy to have you with us. And if you are listening to this episode and you are interested in getting episodes released a day early and ad free, as well as bonus content, be sure to check out our Patreon page listed in the show notes. It's a great way to support the show.
01:11:13
Speaker
We actually do use some of the proceeds to keep the show going and also use some of the proceeds to help out families in the cases we cover here on the show in various capacities. So your support is greatly appreciated. And for you, it's really a win-win. You get to support the show and these families and you get bonus content.
01:11:39
Speaker
There are also many tiers to choose from that can easily fit your budget, some for less than a pack of gum. Also, if you feel so inclined and join our Patreon at the $12, $15 or $20 a month level, then you not only have my eternal love, but you will be the recipient of quarterly swag boxes.
01:12:02
Speaker
And if you join anytime now through the end of December and are still in that top tier, 12, 15, or 20 in February, then you will receive a swag box then. That swag box in February will contain, spoiler alert, some coffee and cases clothing merch. So check out the link to our Patreon in the show notes.
01:12:28
Speaker
especially because with next week off for Thanksgiving, you just might need some bonus content to fill that void. And with that, all of my love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next time, sleuth hounds.
01:12:49
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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