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E111: Jeremy Bright
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When the county fair came to town. Jeremy Bright begged his mom to allow him to attend. When she agreed, she had no idea the lifelong heartache that would result. How could a 14-year-old boy just disappear from a crowd with not a single clue?
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Transcript
Podcast Inspiration and Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuth Hounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought? I'd love to try this out on my own, whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are.
00:00:18
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends,
00:00:44
Speaker
and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So, what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today. If you use our Coffee and Cases referral code,
00:01:03
Speaker
709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes. Not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now, it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
Childhood Memories and County Fairs
00:01:33
Speaker
Having grown up in a very small town, there is little that's more exciting than a county fair. Maggie and I speak often of the joys that come from living in the country, the freedom to run along wooden bridges, to explore old barns, to play without fear of the many dangers that often are unwanted side effects of more people, robberies, assault, kidnappings.
00:02:03
Speaker
But even we kids from the country crave the excitement of activity and lights. And since sometimes driving into a larger surrounding city would require both time and effort on the part of our parents, likely the county fair.
00:02:19
Speaker
was the best solution for both children and parents. Parents don't have to drive very far and children get the flashing lights, the fun, and the junk food. The county fair felt like heaven and like freedom in so many ways.
00:02:38
Speaker
When I was young, I would run around with my friends getting corn dogs, funnel cakes, and cotton candy, stuffing our bellies with all the sugary goodness. We would ride our favorite rides and just get off just to run right back around and get in line again to ride it for the 10th time in a row.
00:02:57
Speaker
My mom or my dad would be standing around on the outskirts socializing with their friends, taking brief glances as we would yell, look at us, or watch this. And that's how it would be for several days while the fair was in town. It was the only place to be.
00:03:15
Speaker
As the years passed, while my interest changed from riding the rides to going just to be social with friends or maybe to spot a crush, the fair itself never lost its attraction. And I obviously wasn't the only one. It felt like the entire county was in attendance. It was a welcomed and exciting distraction for everyone.
00:03:41
Speaker
The same was true of the Coos County Fair in Merle Point, Oregon in mid-August, 1986. It also seemed to draw the whole county to the fairgrounds to bring everyone together. But as the fair disassembled to leave town that year, they left in their wake one family who was broken because their child was missing.
00:04:08
Speaker
told by law enforcement that their 14-year-old son was likely just staying with friends while the fair was ongoing and that he would show up once the fair left town. They had impatiently waited. But the fair left with no further sign of where their son could be. And now, it had been days since anyone had seen him. In this atmosphere of excitement and joy,
00:04:37
Speaker
tragedy had struck. This is the story of Jeremy Bright.
Introduction to Unsolved Cases Podcast
00:05:18
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 case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:05:38
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, and to follow us on Instagram at Coffee Cases podcast and on TikTok at Coffee and Cases podcast. Because as these families know, conversation helps to keep their missing family member and the public consciousness helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. Maggie, today
00:06:08
Speaker
is the day. Yes ma'am. Oh my gosh. Months in the works. It is finally here. You all know that Allison and I have talked about creating a Patreon for a while now. But these last couple months we've been working hard recording fun mini episodes. We've got some full length episodes ready to go. And it feels like we're finally fulfilling a dream we've had for quite a while.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yes, it definitely does. And since it begins today, we are going to remind you one more time what you get with your membership. If you are one of the first 100 to join, you will get what will become the $8 level for only $5 a month.
00:07:02
Speaker
At that level, you will get a shout out on the show. You will get immediate access to three mini episodes about random topics. Some are funny, some are scary, but all of them are entertaining, with two more mini episodes to be released in the final two weeks of December. So once we get to those 100 patrons, we will release our very first full length episode that Allison researched, which is a crazy one.
00:07:32
Speaker
And after we get those 100 patrons each month, you will get a minimum of one full-length episode and three mini episodes. Yes. And if you sign up for a higher tier, then you will get all of those perks we mentioned, plus a card or two from us, discounts on merchandise when we launch it. Maggie and I were just tossing around ideas of like bi-monthly Zoom calls, maybe even a private
00:08:01
Speaker
Facebook discussion group, but above all else, you will also get our eternal love, which really you already have, but I'm saying that it's a perk anyway.
00:08:11
Speaker
So either pause this episode right now and sign up or make yourself a little reminder to sign up as soon as you get finished listening to this episode because if your memory is like mine, you will forget it if you don't. And trust me, you want to sign up as quickly as possible so you can be one of the first 100 to get that added monthly discount.
00:08:36
Speaker
Also, if you are still looking for that last minute gift for a true crime loving friend, one that doesn't depend on shipping because, you know, if you've waited until now, it might not be in by Christmas, then you could just give the gift of Patreon membership. But as I've said before, Sleuthhounds, nothing here is going to change. Maggie and I will still be here every week on your favorite podcasting app with our cases as normal.
00:09:05
Speaker
trying to spread the word about those lesser known cases and help those families as much as we possibly can. And with that being said, let's get into this week's case. Well, sleuthounds, after us beginning this episode together, Maggie and I have had continued horrific technical difficulties trying to get past our opening segment and actually into the case.
00:09:32
Speaker
So, we have had to come to the ultimate decision that I will be recording this week's episode by myself. However, never fear, because if you would like to hear Maggie's response to this episode, then we will be posting it to our Patreon, which, as we mentioned before, launches today.
00:09:58
Speaker
So, if you would like to hear her reaction, it will be posted, not today, but it will be posted later on this
Jeremy Bright's Disappearance
00:10:09
Speaker
week. You'll get to hear what she thought about this case. So, with that being said, please bear with me and I'm going to tell you the story of Jeremy Bright.
00:10:22
Speaker
So I did want to go ahead and start by saying that this is one of those cases where there are conflicting accounts left and right. So as I tell you about the case, I will tell you about both versions, but I am going to emphasize which version I think is most likely from my perspective. So before we get into the what,
00:10:47
Speaker
Let me tell you about the who. Jeremy Bright was 14 in the summer of 1986. He was a young, energetic, athletic, artistic, and popular boy. So every positive characteristic you can think of.
00:11:04
Speaker
He loved to draw and sketch. And while, according to an Unsolved Mysteries episode on Jeremy's case that aired January 18th, 1989, more on that later, his mother said that Jeremy excelled in multiple sports, his stature definitely made him stand out in one sport in particular.
00:11:26
Speaker
At only 14, Jeremy already stood a whopping 6 feet tall. So yes, Jeremy was a basketball player. And he even already had a size 13 foot to boot.
00:11:44
Speaker
So as he was getting ready to start high school, he was looking forward to trying out for the high school basketball team. But, Sleuthhounds, he was also a little bit anxious.
00:11:57
Speaker
You see, 14-year-old Jeremy and his nine-year-old sister Esti had just moved. They had moved with their mother from Myrtle Point, Oregon, which is only about 30 minutes inland from the Pacific Coast, to a city two hours away to the southeast called Grants Pass, Oregon. Now, if Grants Pass sounds familiar to you, as it should, it is because I covered a case
00:12:27
Speaker
on Fauna Fry, who disappeared in June of 2020, and she was from Grants Pass. So that's why that particular town may sound familiar to you.
00:12:40
Speaker
Now, why the move? That's the next question. Jeremy's mother, Diane, was going through a divorce from Jeremy's stepfather, Ollie, in 1986. And while having raised Jeremy and Estie in Myrtle Point and much of her family still living there,
00:13:00
Speaker
Diane had decided that with her decision to go back to school, to start a new career, with going through this divorce, moving was part of that fresh start.
00:13:12
Speaker
But there was one element of Jeremy and Estie's childhood that they weren't yet willing to leave behind. And that was their yearly attendance to the Coos County Fair and Myrtle Point. It was the highlight of the year and everyone went. Jeremy and Estie begged to go back to their old hometown to attend this year as well.
00:13:37
Speaker
And since Diane would be starting her new job and working anyway, and the kids would have been bored out of their wits just sitting around the home if they didn't go, she had agreed. A decision that now haunts her.
00:13:54
Speaker
It seems that even though they were divorcing, Diane and Ollie were on good terms, and from everything I read, he loved Jeremy and Esty. So Diane made arrangements for her two children to stay with Ollie while the fair was in town, and that she would come to pick them up just a couple of days later.
00:14:15
Speaker
That would allow them to have a fun time right before school would start and they could visit with their old friends whom they already missed. The first day Jeremy and Estee attended the fair was August 13th, 1986. By most accounts, Jeremy had met up with a good friend of his that night, Johnny Fish, and they had hung out all night at the fair.
00:14:43
Speaker
It was on August 13th that Jeremy called his mom Diane that night, and they made arrangements for her to pick up Jeremy and Esty on the 15th. They spoke about what fun Jeremy and Esty were already having, the plans for the next day, and again, as I said, details about that pickup two days later.
00:15:06
Speaker
According to the podcast Going West, though I wasn't able to corroborate this information with any of my other sources, Diane had also made plans herself to help out in the small town with a parade and a rodeo on the 15th, the day that she would pick up her two children.
00:15:24
Speaker
Later that evening of the 13th, around 9.40 pm, Jeremy went to a local tavern in town that was owned by his family. Some sources said it was owned by his grandmother, other sources by his grandma's brother. Regardless, Jeremy's grandmother, Diane's mom, and his stepdad, Ollie, were there.
00:15:47
Speaker
Jeremy asked his stepdad if he could get some more money for attending the fair the next day as well. I guess he's gotten a little bit too excited and had run through all of his money on day one, which if you've ever been to a fair where corn dogs are $8 and you know, you want to play the games until you actually win the stuffed animal that's worth 10 cents, you've spent all your money.
00:16:11
Speaker
So it made sense that Jeremy's excitement got the better of him as well. Ollie happily obliged and gave Jeremy the money that he requested. It was also important that Jeremy asked for that additional spending money that night when he saw Ollie because as a logger, Ollie would often leave for work in the morning around 4 a.m. so long before a young teenager would be awake.
00:16:40
Speaker
and Ollie wouldn't then be home until after the fair had already started for the evening. Jeremy told him, after getting this additional funds from Ollie, that he would be attending the fair the next day with his sister, Estie. No one really thought anything of Jeremy and Estie attending the fair by themselves because, number one, this was a different time period. It was 1986.
00:17:09
Speaker
Number two, the population of Myrtle Point was only around 2,600 people at the time. So it was a very small community. Number three, Jeremy and Esty had grown up there. So everyone either knew them or knew their family. And number four, Jeremy was 14. So he was old enough to watch over his sister and he was protective of his sister as well.
00:17:39
Speaker
So while the two of them had set out for the fair together on the 14th, and even though Jeremy was protective, he wasn't very nervous about separating from his sister at the fair for just a couple of hours. Jeremy and Estee went, each with their own set of friends, in different directions around 2 p.m.
00:17:59
Speaker
that Thursday, August 14th. But they had plans to meet up again just three hours later at 5 p.m. by the Ferris wheel. Jeremy, dressed in his blue nylon shorts, red tank top, his black windbreaker jacket, and sporting his new Nike shoes with the red laces, had walked away. But he didn't show back up to meet Esty at five o'clock.
00:18:29
Speaker
In fact, he never showed up again anywhere. When five o'clock rolled around, Essie went to the ferris wheel and she waited. And Sleuthhounds, you know how slow time passes for a child, so it must have felt like forever.
00:18:49
Speaker
when Jeremy didn't show up. Essie remembers spotting a local police officer and going up to him to let him know that her brother wasn't where he was supposed to be.
00:19:00
Speaker
Instead of being alarmed, the officer actually tried to reassure Esti that her brother was probably just with his friends. He was probably just hanging out with them. Maybe he went to stay at one of their homes. He's going to show up eventually, the officer reassured, feeling probably a little bit better.
00:19:24
Speaker
Estee tried to calm herself down as well, and she already herself had plans for that night to stay with one of her friends at a home that was only two doors down from where her stepfather, Ollie, lived. The next day when Estee returned home was the 15th, the day Diane had arranged to come to Myrtle Point to pick up Jeremy and Estee to take them back to their new home of Grant's Pass.
00:19:51
Speaker
Diane hadn't spoken with Jeremy since the 13th but she didn't really think anything about it because well back then phone calls had to take place through pay phones or home phones because the two of them had already made plans for Jeremy and Esty to come home on the 15th and because it was likely that he was just having so much fun with his friends that his mom was the last thing on his mind.
00:20:19
Speaker
According to the Going West podcast episode, Diane was busy all day herself, again, as I mentioned before, between the parade and the rodeo, that she herself had hardly any downtime to worry. She did see many of Jeremy's friends out and about that day, though, and she started to find it odd that when she spoke to them, none of them had seen Jeremy that day.
00:20:46
Speaker
though they did remember seeing him the day before, on August 14th, the day he left his sister and never came back to meet up with her at the Ferris wheel, though Diane didn't know that part of the story yet. Later that day, Diane went to Ollie's home to pick up Jeremy and Estie, but she only found Estie there waiting.
00:21:14
Speaker
There on top of a television set were Jeremy's wallet, his watch, and the keys to the family's new apartment in Grant's Pass, but Jeremy himself was gone. It was then that Diane found out about Jeremy failing to meet back up with Esty the day before.
00:21:37
Speaker
Piecing together all of the information that she'd been told by Jeremy's friends that they hadn't seen him since the 14th, from Estee that she also hadn't seen him since the 14th, Diane contacted the police to report Jeremy missing.
00:21:54
Speaker
Ollie, of course, also hadn't seen Jeremy, but with Ollie's work hours, that would have been normal.
Investigation and Theories
00:22:01
Speaker
And Jeremy could have, according to Ollie, either stayed with a friend or been in bed when Ollie got home and Ollie never would have known that he was missing. Now, in full disclosure, Sleuthhounds, the timeline I just gave you is only one account.
00:22:21
Speaker
though it's the account that makes the most sense to me.
00:22:25
Speaker
There are some accounts that have Jeremy coming to the bar to get the fair money on the night of the 14th at 940 instead of the night of the 13th. That version has Jeremy speak with his mom on the 14th, go to the fair after he speaks with his mom with both his friends, Johnny and his sister, and then come to the tavern several hours later to get money from Ollie. But that timeline,
00:22:55
Speaker
doesn't make sense to me. I get that maybe he had forgotten his wallet at home on the 14th instead of the 13th and had come to get money off of Ollie for that reason. But why would he walk to the bar instead of walking to Ollie's home to get his wallet?
00:23:14
Speaker
And perhaps the bigger question, if we are to believe this timeline of events, why would protective brother Jeremy have told Esty that he would meet her at the Ferris wheel at five, have stood her up and then show up almost five hours later after that at the bar as if nothing were amiss to ask for money for the next day. I just don't buy that he would have made plans with his sister and not shown up.
00:23:45
Speaker
However, if we believe the timeline that I told you first, the asking for the money and the plans to meet up with SD happen on different days and we avoid that conflict in the timeline. So that's why I'm more inclined to believe that first timeline of events.
00:24:06
Speaker
Now, as Maggie and I talk about all the time, as we so often find in these cases of teenagers, when Diane first called authorities, they were hesitant to believe that Jeremy had met with foul play. Instead, they said to Diane as well, just as they had to Estee, that Jeremy would likely show up once the fair left town and she shouldn't worry. But Diane was worried.
00:24:36
Speaker
When she had spoken with Jeremy on the phone, he sounded happy, but he also hadn't fought with her, argued when she said that they needed to go back to Grant's Pass on the 15th. She knew he would be ready to come home with her. And she was right. When the fair ended, the rides were compacted, the caravans rolled out of Myrtle Point.
00:25:05
Speaker
Jeremy didn't show back up then either. Law enforcement and even Robert Stack on Unsolved Mysteries believed that Jeremy might have left with the fair workers. Stack even went so far as to say that perhaps Jeremy, quote, succumbed to the romantic lure of the carnival, end quote.
00:25:30
Speaker
Now, this might sound completely off base, and I ultimately agree that it is off base, but their thinking was that perhaps Jeremy was upset by the divorce of his mom and stepdad. Upset about the recent move, nervous about starting a new school, his grades had been slipping.
00:25:54
Speaker
And maybe he just didn't share those feelings with his mom because, well, he was a teenage boy. Maybe he thought he could just run away and escape all of those emotions by doing so. It was really only after Diane and Jeremy's other family members continued to push for more investigation into the case
00:26:19
Speaker
And after three months in, the investigation was transferred from Myrtle Point Police Department to the Coos County Sheriff's Office that the theory of foul play was really considered. Even the Coos County Sheriff's Office now admits that a lot of valuable time was wasted and several clues not fully explored.
00:26:44
Speaker
There wasn't even a news report about Jeremy's disappearance until August 19th, five days after he was last seen. To this day, 35 years later, we still don't know what happened to Jeremy.
00:27:05
Speaker
However, over that time, we have gotten a few new clues and police have explored several possible theories. Let me share those with you now. First, I do just want to address Jeremy's stepfather, Ollie. Now, Sleuthhounds, I will admit that initially I was skeptical of him, wondering if
00:27:34
Speaker
he could have something to do with Jeremy, maybe because he was upset with Diane. But in everything I read, it seemed he and Diane really were on good terms. And I mean,
00:27:51
Speaker
He is also at the tavern that was owned by her family and he sees Jeremy the last time they do as well. So I would think that Diane's family would have had some sort of inclination if there were trouble between Ollie and Jeremy.
00:28:12
Speaker
And we can verify that Ollie was at work on the days that he said he was at work. But then there's that detail. The one that to me made me question that seemed to make Ollie look guilty, that Jeremy's wallet, watch, and keys were in Ollie's house when Diane came to pick Jeremy and Estee up. That at first I thought, how are you gonna explain that away?
00:28:41
Speaker
but we can. Jeremy's mom herself said that it would have been natural for Jeremy to leave behind his watch and the keys. As for the wallet, she noted that Jeremy had just recently even begun carrying a wallet at all. And because carrying a wallet was a recent change, very often Jeremy would leave it behind. So,
00:29:11
Speaker
Seeing these elements left behind did seem to indicate to Diane that Jeremy must still be around somewhere. He wouldn't have just left town altogether. But it didn't make her question Ollie or make her think that Ollie was involved in Jeremy's disappearance. So Ollie has never been considered a suspect, but I did want to bring him up to tell you why.
00:29:38
Speaker
So, Sleuth Hounds and Maggie for the Patreon response, here are the theories. Theory number one. This theory goes along with the initial police suspicion that Jeremy Bright did run away with the fair.
00:30:00
Speaker
This theory would explain why no one in all of these years has come forward to say that they witnessed any foul play, because according to this theory, Jeremy left of his own accord. At one point, several years into the investigation, police were in fact alerted that there was someone by the name of Jeremy Bright who was part of a traveling carnival that was in Florida.
00:30:30
Speaker
However, when officers went to investigate, they found that this was a young man of that same name, but that this young man had grown up in Colorado, not in Oregon. I also, if we're honest, doubt this theory because I feel like if it were something this innocent, then why wouldn't a carnival worker who knew that he left with them have gone to the police long ago?
00:30:59
Speaker
Plus, I just don't believe that Jeremy would have left his mom, his sister, and his old friends with no indication of where he was going. Now, some extensions of this theory of leaving with the carnival argue that Jeremy left, but involuntarily. That someone in the carnival, some nefarious carnival worker took Jeremy.
00:31:29
Speaker
But I just wonder how, if that theory were true, the carnival worker would have lured him away without attracting attention from anyone else and without Jeremy making a peep. Theory number two, something happened at a party.
00:31:50
Speaker
According to that Unsolved Mysteries episode that aired in 1989, there were at least two or three parties with whom law enforcement spoke who indicated that Jeremy had attended some parties during the time he was in Myrtle Point. Parties where drinking was going on.
00:32:09
Speaker
Many rumors have spread and tips come in over the years that Jeremy had gone to one such party and while there, someone had slipped him a beer that was laced with a strong illegal drug. This theory is based on the idea that either because the drug was so strong or because Jeremy had a heart murmur that this drug affected, Jeremy had died after ingesting this beer.
00:32:40
Speaker
Then the theory goes, the others at the party worried that they would get in trouble for not only the underage drinking, but also Jeremy's death had taken his body and buried it somewhere in Coos County. Now, is it likely that young boys might have gone to a party to drink? Yes.
00:33:04
Speaker
Could it also be possible that someone tragically thought that it would be entertaining in some way to drug Jeremy to watch how he would react? It is possible. But the only way I think this theory is even plausible is if there were so few people at this party that it was only those responsible, Jeremy,
00:33:32
Speaker
and maybe his friend, Johnny, based on a detail I'll get into in another theory. Because I think if there were more uninvolved parties, somebody would have told long before now. But another thing that keeps popping up in my head is that I honestly feel that if Jeremy had died accidentally, as this theory indicates,
00:34:02
Speaker
it would be more likely for someone to come forward over time. Even if they purposefully gave Jeremy a drug, if the intention wasn't death, then I think the guilt would eventually lead someone to confess. Also with this theory though, we can't forget is that for it to happen,
00:34:31
Speaker
Jeremy would have had to have told his sister he would meet her at five, not shown up because either he ditched her to go to a party instead, or this drinking party happened sometime between two and five in the afternoon. And both of those scenarios don't exactly seem likely to me. Theory three, something happened while swimming.
00:35:01
Speaker
Now, I know that sounds bizarre, and you're probably thinking, wait a minute, Allison, how did we get from the Coos County Fair to swimming and swimming in the local Coquille River?
00:35:19
Speaker
I honestly have no idea how we got there. But it is another theory based on tips that have come in over the years. And it's what's odd or funny is that it's actually the oddity of this theory that almost adds a bit to the believability of it for me because it's just so out there that it seems almost impossible to have been made up.
00:35:48
Speaker
With this theory, Jeremy and his friends had left the fair and had gone swimming in the Coquille River. If this is true, maybe Jeremy had left Estee at two thinking, okay, well, I'll be able to go with my friends, swim, and maybe be back at the fair by five. It is possible.
00:36:11
Speaker
Swimming would be a summer afternoon activity when the sun is the hottest and you need to cool off. So that part makes sense as well. But in this version of events, something goes terribly wrong while he and his friends are swimming. That something terrible was the arrival of a group of older boys from the area.
00:36:40
Speaker
The story goes, and there's a reenactment of this theory on that Unsolved Mysteries episode, that one of those older boys came to the river armed with a gun. At some point, that boy with a gun had joked that he was going to do some, quote unquote, target practice, and that he then began shooting into the water where Jeremy and his friends were swimming.
00:37:10
Speaker
Eventually, this theory goes, one of those bullets struck Jeremy in the water. But here's where the story gets even weirder. After getting shot, rumor has it that the very people who shot Jeremy then took him to a cabin near the river and attempted for weeks to nurse him back to health.
00:37:40
Speaker
However, either due to the injury itself or to infection that set an afterward, Jeremy had passed away. And the rumor goes that then the men buried him in a shallow grave in the woods.
00:37:59
Speaker
Now law enforcement has found and explored a cabin matching the details given in this theory and has explored the wooded areas around this cabin. But they found no evidence that makes this theory the theory for what happened to Jeremy.
Ongoing Investigation and Family's Hope
00:38:20
Speaker
Theory four.
00:38:22
Speaker
Terry Lee Steinhoff. And, Slutowns, you know what I'm thinking. I don't even have to say it. Three names. One local man, Terry Steinhoff, was seen around Jeremy on August 14th. Steinhoff was someone who Jeremy knew very well since Steinhoff and his sisters used to babysit Jeremy when he was younger.
00:38:50
Speaker
Some reports are of Jeremy sitting in the passenger seat of Steinhoff's truck sometime around right before five o'clock, right before Jeremy was to meet Esty. I didn't read anything about sightings of Jeremy's friend Johnny in the truck as well, but if we follow this theory, he would have been there as well.
00:39:15
Speaker
In this final theory, Steinhoff, his cousin David, a young man named Hoyt, and a fourth person took Jeremy, Johnny, and potentially others to the woods and sexually assaulted them.
00:39:37
Speaker
This is the theory that Esti, from what I've read, and I tried reaching out but was unable to make contact with her, believes is the most likely theory due to the details that I'm about to reveal. Interestingly, the four men I mentioned are the same names that come up in all of the theories when locals are willing to speak of them. Esti believes that those four,
00:40:07
Speaker
Steinhoff, his cousin David, Hoyt, and that fourth person did take at least Jeremy and Johnny to the woods and victimize them. Essie has heard of potentially two other victims, but is unsure.
00:40:27
Speaker
She thinks it's likely that Jeremy said he would tell on these four men and what they were doing that he would go tell Ollie about it. Now Ollie as a logger was a big guy and he was the kind of guy who would have made sure that the four were punished for what they did. This theory goes that when Jeremy made that threat, the four men had killed him as a result.
00:40:58
Speaker
Now, some people wonder if that is true, why these four wouldn't have also killed Johnny and would have left a living witness. But sadly, as a man in our society, we have to acknowledge the very real stigma associated with coming forward after that kind of an assault.
00:41:25
Speaker
So that would explain why they didn't fear Johnny telling anyone. Additionally, when Johnny himself came home on the 14th, though she didn't know to what issue to attribute the behavior at the time, Johnny's sister remembers Johnny acting oddly. She said that he was nervous.
00:41:51
Speaker
told them not to get in front of the windows because it was dangerous. And whenever he was asked about what happened to Jeremy, he would refuse to speak about it. While no one believes that Johnny is responsible for what happened to Jeremy, most believe that he was at least aware of what happened and whatever it was scared him so badly.
00:42:21
Speaker
His parents tried to get him therapy, according to a post Esty made on web sleuths, but he was never the same after that night. Whatever happened had traumatized him.
00:42:36
Speaker
In the years that followed, Johnny abused alcohol and drugs and had become homeless. One rumor is that during that time, a relative was driving Johnny through town and when they passed a wooded area, Johnny made a comment like, quote, if they want to find Jeremy, they should look up there, end quote.
00:43:00
Speaker
but then he was quiet and he refused to speak about it further. Could he have been speaking incoherently or was this really a memory long since buried? Sadly, Johnny can't give us information about Jeremy because he passed away in 2011.
00:43:24
Speaker
Four other of Jeremy and Johnny's friends, who they may have been hanging out with during those days, who could have had some information, were also all tragically killed in a car accident around 1988. But there are further clues that point to Steinhoff.
00:43:48
Speaker
Steinhoff later was set to go on trial, not in a link to Jeremy's disappearance, but in relation to the murder of a young woman, 32-year-old Patricia Morris. Steinhoff had made sexual advances toward the woman at a bar and she had rejected him, so he followed her and stabbed her in the throat multiple times.
00:44:15
Speaker
On January 17th, 1989, only one day before Jeremy's episode of Unsolved Mysteries aired, Steinhoff pled no contest to the murder of Patricia Morris.
00:44:31
Speaker
Now pleading no contest while it carried an automatic life sentence would make Steinhoff eligible for parole after serving only 10 years versus if he went to trial and was found guilty, it would be a minimum of 25 years before he would be eligible for parole. So his choice to plead no contest did make sense.
00:44:57
Speaker
But many still wonder if his lawyers knew about the airing of Unsolved Mysteries as well. And whether that also played a role in his decision. After all, if Steinhoff waited for trial, it sure wouldn't look good.
00:45:16
Speaker
if he were implicated in another murder charge as well. Throughout the attempts by law enforcement to get information from Steinhoff, because remember, he is at least imprisoned during this time, he was continually uncooperative and refused to discuss Jeremy's case.
00:45:37
Speaker
But Steinhoff does remain a person of interest in the case, even though we can no longer find out any information from him at all. He died of a heroin overdose in prison in 2007.
00:45:54
Speaker
After his death, police hoped that perhaps Steinhoff's father might finally admit knowledge concerning Steinhoff his son's potential complicity in Jeremy's case. However, his father stated that he would never rat out his son and would go to the grave with any information he had about Jeremy.
00:46:20
Speaker
As for the other names, Johnny's sister Cecilia Fish was leaving her sister's apartment the day after Jeremy vanished when she ran into Steinhoff's cousin David. She said he was covered in blood. When she asked him about it, he said that he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and that his girlfriend had scratched him.
00:46:47
Speaker
He laughed and said, this happened hours ago and then walked into an apartment. But in hindsight, Cecilia remembers there being far too much blood for it to have just come from a scratch. She took that information to the police. But as far as she knows, nothing was done. Steinhoff's cousin David was also later arrested.
00:47:16
Speaker
for many other crimes. The third man mentioned, Hoyt, was said to have left town soon after Jeremy disappeared, and he didn't return until after Terry Steinhoff had died in prison. And the final man, whose name I don't know,
00:47:38
Speaker
Essie recalled a story in one of her posts that she had heard long ago, though again, this is just a rumor. But the story she heard is that this fourth man's girlfriend had seen him come in through the back door of their home and immediately throw his clothes into the wash and went to take a shower.
00:48:02
Speaker
She heard that the girlfriend had looked at the clothes thinking these actions were completely out of the ordinary and that when she did see the clothes, they had blood on them. This same man, according to another rumor, gave his gun to someone and asked that person to hide it. But the person he gave it to turned the gun into police.
00:48:30
Speaker
Esty wonders if the police do have that gun in their possession. And if so, do they just need that final clue to know who fired it and where?
00:48:45
Speaker
Many believe that the locals were scared of Steinhoff and his father. And because of that, law enforcement had hoped that with both of their passings, someone might finally come forward with the information that could help them finally make a conviction. But so far, no one has. Now, Suessounds, while we don't know what happened,
00:49:15
Speaker
it does seem obvious that something did.
00:49:19
Speaker
Why else would the Coos County Sheriff's Office have drained four area wells since 1986 looking for clues? Why else are they still exploring every tip that comes in each year when the Coos County Fair comes back into town and locals are reminded of the tall, brown-haired, green-eyed young boy who disappeared all those years ago?
00:49:48
Speaker
Coos County Sheriff Craig Zanny told Jillian Ward of the world in 2018, quote, we always follow any new leads or tips. I want to give the family closure. I always think of the family. Imagine them walking through a crowd, looking at faces, wondering if they just missed him. I would like to tell the family that he's not out there someplace suffering.
00:50:19
Speaker
Here is the end of this. It's frustrating that we haven't been able to yet." That end of suffering is really all Jeremy's family's looking for. Jeremy's mother Diane said in an interview with Alice Campbell published in the Bend Bulletin on August 16th, 2011, quote, God will take care of justice for us.
00:50:48
Speaker
We want to heal. That's all." And Sheriff Zanny does believe that healing is possible. He also said to Ward in that same 2018 interview that the investigation is still ongoing. And as such, there are details they know that they cannot release to the public. But details that do make a resolution seem possible.
00:51:19
Speaker
But he did indicate that he believes that one person has the information to solve this case. That one person just needs to finally come forward to give the detail that his office needs to connect the information that they already have to come forward.
00:51:45
Speaker
So Zanny can finally make that link to prove what happened to Jeremy Bright and to finally give Jeremy the burial he deserves and his family, the closure and healing they so desperately seek.
00:52:04
Speaker
Anyone with information concerning Jeremy Bright's case or any of those believed to be connected with his case is asked to call the Coos County Sheriff's Office at 541-396-7800.
00:52:25
Speaker
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00:52:46
Speaker
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