Chapter 48: The Disappearance of Aubrey Dameron

courtney: [00:00:00] Hi guys. I'm Courtney.

Lisa: And I'm Lisa.

courtney: And welcome to the next chapter in the book of the Dead.

Dark cast network. Indie pods with a dark side.

Hi guys. Welcome to the next chapter. Before we begin, couple of true crime updates. They have a suspect arrested for the Long Island. Murders on Gilgo Beach. Rex, huerman , I believe that's how you pronounce his name, but they're looking at crimes in Atlantic City, Vegas, and I wanna say Arizona as well, [00:01:00] because he has properties there. I think he's an architect, so lots of money, lots properties, and a creepy doll in his house. It was in a casket. I don't know. Super weird. So that's good that they have someone, they also have apparently arrested a suspect in Tupac Shakur's murder, which is great.

Lisa: That's been a long time coming.

courtney: I know. So big things happening in terms of getting justice for the victims of the Long Island Serial Killer and Tupac, so that's great.

Um, another thing really quick, we have a Patreon. Uh, they're linked to that. If you guys scroll all the way down to the, in the source notes, There is a support. The show hyperlink. If you click that, it'll take you right to our Patreon. If you want sign up, you don't have to if you don't want to, but I'm just saying,

Lisa: she's not saying, she's just saying.

I'm

courtney: just saying. Um, the only tier we have is the bookworms Here, it's $5 a month and you guys get a [00:02:00] handwritten card from me and Lisa, maybe some stickers and a free bonus chapter that you could only access. On Patreon every month. So you guys, by the time this goes out, you'll have a week to sign up for the first bonus chapter goes up.

So join the book of the Dead Library because I'm really excited about it. It'll be, I'm, I'm hoping it'll be really fun. We have a lot of plans for it. Yeah. So we are gonna jump right in now.

Lisa: Well, you forgot something.

courtney: What did, I forgot?

Lisa: You forgot to thank our first Patreon.

courtney: I did. I forgot to thank our first Patreon Kelly.

Lisa: Yes, Kelly, thank you ever so much.

Hopefully by the time, maybe not by the time you

courtney: listen to this, but I'm thinking like how, it depends on how fast the mail is. But hopefully we'll have gotten your, your card. 'cause we did send out your card in the mail and we just want you to know that we really appreciate you.

Lisa: We do. We really appreciate you.[00:03:00]

courtney: So without further ado, we're gonna jump right in. So in some indigenous cultures, there is a belief that certain people are essentially the quote, embodiment of two genders residing within one person. And that is according to i CT news.org. In many tribes, they were quote, balance keepers, thought to be the dusk between the male morning and the female evening.

And for many tribes, These people now known under the umbrella term two-spirit were held in high regard and revered within their communities. This is a case about one such individual, the disappearance of an indigenous woman. Aubrey Damron Aubrey Damron was born on October 22nd, 1993 in Oklahoma. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation and she was assigned male at birth.

She loved rock and roll and music as a whole and dreamed of being a [00:04:00] singer. And growing up, she and her uncle Christian fencer were only a few months apart, so they spent a lot of time together. They were basically raised together. They're best friends, super, super close when they were teenagers, according to Dateline, Aubrey and Christian came out as gay to each other, and eventually Aubrey told her family that she was transgender.

Her family worked really hard to come to terms with what Aubrey told them, and while it was difficult, it seems like most of her family did eventually come to accept her as who she was, which is amazing and wonderful to hear because there's such a problem with transgendered youth not being accepted in their families for who they are. For her to be getting some level of support from family members is really good.

Lisa: Absolutely.

courtney: According to Dateline Christian said of his niece's transition quote. I wouldn't say it was like a light switch, but it was a quick transition. I've always thought she was happy prior to her transition. She was a happy little boy growing up, but whenever I saw her after [00:05:00] she came out as transgender, she was just this. Beautiful, amazing young woman. And Aubrey was proud of her identity even though she faced a lot of criticism and harassment from people in school and her community. She said in a social media post quote, it's really a blessing, you know, to be able to explain my life and my story to you guys. You know, to have somebody to listen to you when you cry out and you know you're not alone. And it seems like she was just like that positivity, that positive mentality that she had that was just like part of who she was. She was always just incredibly. Positive.

Lisa: It sounds like it. And that's awesome.

courtney: Growing up in Grove, Oklahoma meant dealing with a lot of hatred from the small community because she was different from them. Grove, according to News Nation now is a small town of only like 7,000 people. So while it's really sad that Aubrey and Christian grew up with some, with so much hate surrounding their sexuality, it's almost not. Surprising that a small community was so [00:06:00] cruel at times because it's like that small town mentality.

Lisa: I just don't understand why it would bother somebody. What, you know, what you do with your life is what you do with your life.

courtney: No, exactly.

Lisa: You know what, whether, who you identify as, it doesn't matter if you're a nice person. If you're a good person, I don't care. Okay. I, I really, honestly don't care. If you're a good person, that's all I care about, and I don't understand why people have to, I don't know, shy away from, or be cruel or be mean for no reason.

courtney: No, I know, as I've said before, you can't hate people for just existing. Now, not only was Aubrey a proud transgender woman who held her head high, even when people threw slurs at her saying, She would say she would pray for them when her family wanted to retaliate. She was also a proud Cherokee woman, proud of her heritage. Christian told Dateline quote, oftentimes people would assume that she was [00:07:00] Caucasian and if you checked her social media or if you sit down and actually talk to her, she would bring up being Native American within the first five minutes of the conversation. It's just something she was proud of. She always wore that with like a badge of honor. Which is great 'cause she's proud of her heritage. She's proud of who she is. She's proud of her identity. You know, she is a transgender woman. She is a indigenous woman. That is who she is at her core, which is great. 'cause you know, a lot of people don't, I guess, feel as strongly about like their heritage and all that. Like it's just kind of, A thing that like maybe they'll mention if someone asks like, oh, what are you, you know, what ethnic background are you? But like, they won't bring it up. They won't like, you know, embrace their culture. Now, when Aubrey was around 22 or 23, she moved to New Mexico with her boyfriend, Jay Pearson. And while she was there, she also received breast augmentation surgery in Colorado [00:08:00] as part of her transition. In August of 2018 though, Aubrey moves back home to Grove, Oklahoma and moves in with her mother, brother, and stepfather. Now, according to a few sources, she moves back home because Jay has been abusive to her. He threatened to kill her, like there's, they had a really, really volatile relationship, and she also entered treatment for an alleged drug and alcohol addiction according to medium.com. According to that same article, Christian and his sister Pam Aubrey's aunt, were concerned about Aubrey moving back home as her mother stepfather and brother allegedly suffered from a methamphetamine addiction. So if she's already struggling with sobriety, I could see why moving into a home where her family members were potentially using could be not a good situation, even if Aubrey was sober. It wouldn't be a good situation. [00:09:00]

Lisa: No, because the, the temptation would be there to fall back into. What she was trying to get herself away from.

courtney: Yeah. In December of 2018, the usually very communicative, Aubrey pulled back from Pam and Christian, which was completely unlike her. And her presence on social media, which she was ordinarily very active on, fell off as well. Although there's no real explanation as to why she kind of, Distanced herself from family and kind of stopped using her social media or was less active on it. It's just something that Pam and Christian noticed that she wasn't calling as often. She wasn't online as often, so it was just something kind of weird to them. So I don't know if there was something going on in her, in her life at the time. No one really knows, but it's possible that something was going on that would cause her to pull away from. [00:10:00] Christian and Pam, who she was incredibly close to. On March 9th, 2019. Aubrey's mother, Jennifer Byrd wakes up around three 30 in the morning to use the bathroom and when she leaves her room, she sees Aubrey heading out the front door. Now at this point, Aubrey is 25 years old. So, you know, she's an adult. She can come and go if she pleases, but she was dressed all in black with a black miniskirt, black heels, black pantyhose, and a black jacket. When her mother asks where she's going, Aubrey tells her that she's going out to meet a friend. My whole thing is, what friend are you meeting at three 30 in the morning though.

Lisa: Yeah. Even though you're 25 I'd, I'd be asking the question.

courtney: It just, it just seems weird to me. Either way, Aubrey never comes home.

Lisa: Okay. And, and you're gonna let the other shoe drop. So I'm gonna ask why. Why did she not come home?

courtney: I don't know.

Lisa: You're supposed to know.

courtney: I don't know. No one knows. Two days later on [00:11:00] March 11th, her mother files a missing person's report with police. But it seems as if Jennifer didn't inform her family that Aubrey was missing.

Lisa: Can I ask why?

courtney: Well, I don't know. And it's, it's interesting that she,

Lisa: you have an awful lot of, I don't knows in this

courtney: because this case is just one big, I don't know. According to Datelines Missing in America podcast, Pam Aubrey's aunt, who again, was incredibly close with Aubrey, didn't find out until almost a week later, and it wasn't Jennifer that told her sister that Aubrey was missing.

Lisa: If I ask, how did she find out? Are you gonna tell me that?

courtney: Well, Pam told Dateline, quote, a friend of mine who's been my friend for over 30 years, she messages me and asked me if Shorty's missing, and Shorty is Aubrey's nickname. I was like, not that I'm aware of. Why? So she sent me a screenshot of one of Aubrey's friends that made a post on Facebook asking if anybody had [00:12:00] seen Shorty, you know, to have her call this number. So Pam contacts the Delaware County Police Department. She said quote, so I started asking questions and the dispatcher asked me how I was related to Aubrey. I said, I'm her auntie. I was like, you know her mom and I are sisters. And she said, well, you'll have to call your sister and she can give you the details, which. I, that's I believe protocol. Like they can't just release information to anybody. Right? 'cause they, yeah. It's like over, it could be. Exactly. It's over the phone. They don't, they don't have proof that Pam is related in any way. So I get why the dispatcher was like, well, you need to call your sister that, not mad about that.

Lisa: Okay. What are you mad about?

courtney: Well, Pam calls her sister, and Jennifer confirms that yes, Aubrey is missing. And she tells Pam what happened on the ninth. And Pam is really freaking out because not only do we come to find out that Aubrey left without her purse, so I'm assuming she had no identification on her, [00:13:00] but Aubrey's also epileptic and left the house without her seizure medication.

Lisa: Well, what, what is going on here? This, this is, This is some shenanigans. I, I can't help it. I'm calling shenanigans, like, why the first person I would be calling everybody I knew. Oh. And like, have you seen my daughter?

courtney: Thank you for that. Yeah. And Jennifer didn't do that. She didn't call her sister, who she, I'm sure knows her daughter is incredibly close to you and was like, Hey, have you seen Aubrey and Pam would've been like, no. What happened? Where's my niece and Jennifer would've been like, I don't know. And then they could've done, you know, this whole investigation, but instead, Jennifer didn't say anything and Pam didn't find out until her friend was like, um, where's your niece? And Pam goes, what are you talking about?

Lisa: I don't, I don't [00:14:00] understand why the mom wouldn't be calling everybody and. Anybody she could think of. Yeah. Like, Hey, you know, the, my, my daughter's missing. Um, I need every, you know, everybody to gather and we're gonna put up pictures, you know, like, if it stands still long enough, you're getting picture put on you kind of thing.

courtney: No, exactly. And besides the fact that she waited two days to report Aubrey missing, now I, again, Aubrey was 25 years old, so I can almost say maybe, you know, This was something that she, like, she would go out and maybe like be gone for the day or something like that. Maybe her mom wouldn't hear from her. I don't really know what their relationship was like. So I, I get maybe not worrying the first day, but you're telling me you waited two whole days. You waited 48 hours to be like, Hmm, where's my daughter? Having heard from her, haven't seen her, her purse is here, her epilepsy medication that she really needs to take because epilepsy is a dangerous [00:15:00] disorder. You know is here. It's weird.

Lisa: Why would you not? I'm sure she had her own. Good reasons that we don't know about. I'm playing, you know, I'm, I'm trying to be fair here. I get that to everybody. I'm trying to be fair.

courtney: So Pam, now that she has this information, calls the police again and this time she talks to the person in charge of the investigation into finding her niece, which is Captain Gale Wells of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office. And he is suffice it to say less than helpful. Pam told Dateline, quote, captain Wells, when I first spoke with him, he asked why I thought she was missing. I was like, well, she can be gullible and naive. And he says, well, we don't believe she's a missing person. And I'm like, why are you saying that? Like, I don't understand.

And he said, because of her lifestyle [00:16:00] and. What does that mean? Well, Pam said, what do you mean her lifestyle? I said, because she's transgender. You know she's indigenous. No, no. I was like, so what do you mean? You know? I said, you're telling me that my niece's life isn't worth searching for because of her lifestyle?

And he was like, we don't have the resources. We don't have the manpower. But yeah, we just don't believe she's missing. Just say that you don't care because she is a transgendered indigenous woman. Like, just admit your racism and bigotry and all of that. Just, just cut to the point.

Lisa: You know, my question would be to the, this police officer, um, is it your job to help people? Like that you're, you're supposed to. Okay. [00:17:00] From everything I know the whole mantra of the police is to protect and serve.

courtney: Yes. Well, he's not doing any protecting or serving. In the case of Aubrey. Well, ca, captain Wells has, I guess, some sort of explanation. It's, it's, I guess he thinks it's a good enough explanation.

It's not ,spoiler alert, but according to an article for the Cherokee, Phoenix, captain Wells said quote, what made this case unique was her lifestyle. Not only was she transgender and very sexually active, but she was also a known drug, drug abuser.

Lisa: Excuse me. Excuse me. Question. How would the police officer. Know that she was what very, excuse me, quote, unquote, very sexually active. What does that have to do with it?

courtney: I, well, that's literally, uh, first of all, [00:18:00] what is her being or not being very sexually active, have to do with anything. I literally wrote that in my notes. I also wrote, second of all, if she is or is not on drugs, what does that have to do with anything?

What does that have to do with anything? What does her being sexually active or not sexually active, have to do with anything? What does her being transgendered have to do with anything? Unless it's a hate crime, it, it has nothing to do with the fact that she's missing. This is a missing individual. If you wanna take gender out of it, she's a missing individual regardless of her sexual or. Promiscuity, whether or not she is sexually promiscuous, whether or not she uses or does not use drugs, who cares? She is still a missing person. You're telling me that because she may or may not be sexually active and may or may not have a drug addiction, she's not worthy of looking for. Say you're racist.

Just say you're racist. Say you are a bigot, so you don't care because she's transgender. Just say that because that's what you're saying without [00:19:00] saying it. According to medium.com, Christian had actually visited his sister's home. Jennifer. After he learned of Aubrey's disappearance and all of her belongings had supposedly been boxed up.

When he asked Jennifer why, she said it was because Aubrey was looking for a bottle of nail polish.

Lisa: What?

courtney: I don't know, apparently-

Lisa: did I miss something in that?

courtney: No. No. No, you did not miss a single thing apparently, according to Jennifer.

Lisa: I did hear that correctly,

courtney: yes. According to Jennifer, Aubrey's belongings were in boxes because Aubrey was looking for a bottle of nail polish.

Lisa: So if we remove all of all of these belongings, we're gonna find said bottle of nail polish. Is that the reasoning

courtney: I, I guess that is her thought process on, in. I don't know. I,

Lisa: am very confused with the cock mammie stories that I'm hearing here. I. Well,

courtney: they don't make [00:20:00] sense.

Lisa: They don't make sense if, if, honestly, I'm not saying that that is not true.

I'm not saying that her belong, that she did not personally pack all of her belongings looking for a bottle of nail polish. That is not what I'm saying. That story doesn't make sense, though

courtney: it doesn't make sense. It makes no sense.

Lisa: Okay. It just does not make sense. I can understand. At least. I know that when you were looking for something,

courtney: I trashed the place.

Lisa: It just seems like I would not think to put all of my belongings in boxes.

courtney: Yeah.

Lisa: Looking for something.

courtney: No, exactly. It doesn't make sense.

Lisa: Okay.

courtney: It's weird.

Lisa: So the tornado, I think you take to an extreme.

courtney: Okay, fine.

Lisa: It's my own personal opinion,

courtney: but putting everything in boxes is also a weird extreme.

Lisa: Yes, it, because it's like

courtney: over nail polish.

Lisa: Then you have to like, I don't know, my, my, again, I'm thinking [00:21:00] if I put everything in a box, then I have to take everything out of a box and put it away and it, it's like, no, no, no, no. It's like packing. No, I don't wanna have to do that. Thank you.

courtney: It just, there's no resolution on that. It's weird. It's the only time it's mentioned. It's weird, but

Lisa: in my opinion, it is completely weird.

courtney: Yes. According to uncovered.com on March 12th, even though the rest of Aubrey's family had yet to learn, she was missing. A friend of Aubrey's Deanette Robattham calls up Aubrey's ex Jay Pearson and tells him that Aubrey has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. She tells him

Lisa: again, did I miss something? How does, how does this friend know that she's been kidnapped?

courtney: Well, exactly that's what I'm saying. But I'm gonna, there's, there's a resolution to that. So she tells him that if he comes up with half the money, she'll put in the rest and they'll pay the ransom together.

Because [00:22:00] according to these alleged kidnappers, if they get the money, they'll let Aubrey go. Except when police. Learn about this and go to deanette and ask her about this. She tells them, I made up the whole thing. I made it up.

Lisa: If you are her friend, why would you make up a story like that?

courtney: Um, I guess she figured she'd make a quick buck. I don't know. But she, she said that she didn't believe that Aubrey was really missing. I don't know why. I guess she went now, she probably just ran off somewhere. But I will say that Danette was arrested for extortion, so at least the police did one thing right. In this investigation,

where would she have gone?

Lisa: Oh, she just ran off because, you know, she ran off to Timbuktu.

courtney: Uh, yes. Uh, I don't know. Danette asshole. That's all we need to know about that. But it was worth mentioning that even though Jay clearly an asshole, like you're an asshole for trying to extort him for money, using your friend's disappearance

Lisa: , in my [00:23:00] opinion, it's not a very good friend,

shitty friend.

courtney: Yes, absolutely. Now we're gonna, we're gonna get back up to current times, going back to when Pam and Christian find out they immediately after it's clear that the police really aren't going to be much help hit the ground running, looking for volunteers to help search and posting on social media about Aubrey's disappearance and putting up flyers.

Two weeks after her disappearance. On March 23rd, a search party is gathered at Aubrey's Home organized by Brian Smith of Oklahoma City Metro Search and Rescue Christian. Told Dateline, we got a group of about three dozen people together and we searched the entire property as well as the surrounding area.

We also got some specialists out there, some dive teams who went into with the ponds in the surrounding area and they didn't find anything.

Lisa: Can I ask a question?

courtney: Of course.

Lisa: Why did it take two weeks to do this?

courtney: Well, because the first week is, you know, no one knew. [00:24:00] The second week I Christian and. Pam, were trying to gather, I guess, enough volunteers, so that was part of the issue, why it didn't happen, like basically day one is I believe they were trying to get volunteers together, but the police were useless also, up until that point.

But I guess they got into contact. Pam and Christian got into contact with this Brian Smith person of search and rescue, or maybe the police did. I don't know who contacted him, but he was the one to come out and help gather these people.

Lisa: Well, no, that, and that's wonderful. That's not what I'm saying. I don't understand why it took two weeks.

I don't understand why, you know? 'cause after two weeks, whatever evidence that could have been gathered.

courtney: Oh yeah,

Lisa: would think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think would be long gone because you're asking somebody to remember something from two weeks ago, but I'm wondering why it took two [00:25:00]weeks. I'm wondering why the police are, are not being held accountable for their lack of action.

courtney: Your guess is as good as mine

Lisa: because I've already told you about a million times and I'm sure everybody's tired of hearing me say this. However, If you were missing and they weren't doing anything, believe me, I would be parking my butt in the police station going, um, I'm not leaving until you do something.

courtney: They also have the idea to check the neighbor's security cameras, and while the cameras don't show Aubrey at all, what they find on the way to look at the footage is a potential clue across the road from one of the homes is a. Sock with blood on it. Although according to what Pam has been told, the D N A results were inconclusive.

Lisa: Well, 'cause it's been sitting there for two weeks out in the elements.

courtney: Maybe the other thing that Pam and Christian noticed, and you may have noticed as well, is that Jennifer and Aubrey's brother and stepfather don't seem all that concerned about Aubrey's [00:26:00] disappearance. Because you know they, I haven't mentioned them being active in any of the investigation so far.

Lisa: Well, did you or did you not say that they may have had a substance abuse problem?

courtney: Yeah, but that doesn't

Lisa: No, no, but I'm just saying if there was a substance abuse problem, maybe that had taken over a little bit. Kind of.

courtney: I don't think so.

Lisa: Okay. Well, you know, I mean, if, if alcohol is involved and you go into a drunken stupor and you're, you've passed out for hours on end, maybe that could,

I mean, I get what you're saying, but I don't know.

courtney: I don't think so. And neither does Pam, because when asked if she felt that her sister knew something about what happened to Aubrey, Pam said, absolutely. Without a doubt,

Lisa: I'm not, look, I'm not defending anybody.

courtney: No, I know that. I'm just saying,

Lisa: I'm not trying to. [00:27:00] I'm trying to look at both sides and maybe if there was, you know, drugs and or alcohol involved that maybe if you're on a binge, maybe just, maybe that has taken over your, maybe it has dulled your senses,

I guess.

courtney: I dunno. Police during their investigation, Because they eventually start investigating probably due to public outrage from Pam and Christian Track Aubrey's phone and learn it last pings at a mobile home park close to her house at around 3:45 AM So approximately 15 minutes after she left her home, but there is no further movement on her. Phone. So it was either turned off or it died. In addition, according to an article for Galee, captain Gale Wells obtained a search warrant for Aubrey's social media, and they found multiple messages from the night. She disappeared with Aubrey asking friends to pick her up from her mother's house, but no one answered her. So it looked like she [00:28:00] had been trying to leave that day for a while, but no one was getting back to her. I don't. But there was no indication of why she was trying to leave, or at least nothing that was said publicly on April 6th, just shy of a month of Aubrey being missing. Jennifer claims according to a probable cause affidavit that Jay contacted her and said that he had killed her, but there is no proof that he was involved in her disappearance at all or proof that he even said that. To her. Uh, I mean, as far as I can tell, he was in New Mexico the entire time. Like I don't think he had anything to do with it.

Lisa: I'm just kind of shocked at the lack of action.

courtney: Yeah.

Lisa: By the police. I, you know, I'm like, let's not paint this any other way. The police did not do their job.

courtney: No.

Lisa: And maybe if they had done their job even two days later that there would've been. [00:29:00]Evidence to say foul play or that she said, I'm outta here and got a bus ticket to Timbuktu something.

courtney: Yeah. No, I don't know. I mean, I get what you're saying,

Lisa: but the police failed.

courtney: Yes.

Lisa: Seriously.

courtney: Absolutely. They've, they're, they've done a terrible job. They, they didn't really do any job.

Lisa: No, because if they had known that this phone pinged at 3:45 AM in a mobile home park,

courtney: yeah.

Lisa: Um, maybe they could have questioned the residents. Hey, did you see something? Do you know something? Did you hear something we have, you know, a missing person that we need help to find?

courtney: Yeah.

Lisa: Something like that.

courtney: No, I, I, I, I agree. According to the Cherokee, Phoenix, over Memorial Day weekend, a tip was received [00:30:00] claiming that Aubrey was buried in Kenwood, which is I think 30 miles from Grove, 60 miles from Grove.

I. Pam said that a search party consisting of members of teams from Oklahoma City as well as canine units from Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas searched over that weekend and came upon a shallow grave in a black jacket. But the d n a from the jacket was not conclusive either. Pam said, quote, my thought is our own family didn't even contact us and let us know that she was missing. So how can you trust them to give actual d n A of Aubrey's? They could have given them anybody's d n a. So Pam's thinking that it was inconclusive because they didn't give Aubrey's d n a, she doesn't think that Jennifer, she thinks it's possible that Jennifer just gave them anybody's d n a, whether it was her own d n a or something like that.

Although if it was her own, it would've had a hit in relation, you know what I mean? Um, there would've been a familial match, I guess, if they were testing for that.

Lisa: Mm-hmm.

courtney: But [00:31:00] it was inconclusive. Additionally in regards to the grave, Pam said that dogs hid on the grave, but Captain Wells apparently said, quote that the anthropologist couldn't be there until Tuesday.

And one of the people that was searching with us, and I looked at her and I'm like, I didn't know anthropologists took holidays off. You know, they always have somebody on call. And he said, well, they just can't get out here until Tuesday. Now the anthropologist did show up and they find a bone, but according to Dateline, this was supposedly an animal bone.

In addition, Pam says, or after the search, communication with police pretty much stopped, quote, we would receive tips and we would pass them along and just see their disregard for her life. So the police, even though they were getting some tips in via Pam and or Christian or maybe like tip lines, The police were not proactive in investigating any of it.

[00:32:00] Okay? They're not doing their job. Again, that same month, the Northeast Oklahoma missing and murdered indigenous relatives organized a rally for May 27th, and Inattendance would be three families of missing indigenous people. Pam told the Cherokee Phoenix quote, you really don't know the magnitude of this, how many people are missing until it happens to you.

She said there are many people missing from this area. Some aren't even sure how to go about reporting a missing person. We invite everyone's come out and support and to learn about the situation. Other tribes are also reaching out and they will have people here to discuss, to discuss domestic violence, which also needs understanding.

Native Americans seem more closed off when it comes to speaking about it. A number of L G B T groups will also be here in support. So they did have, you know, even though. The police aren't doing anything. The investigation's not really going far. They're, they're doing what they can to, you know, gather support and they're having this rally to [00:33:00] educate, you know, the indigenous people in the area about, you know, potential resources and signs to look out for.

So they're trying to make the best out of or really terrible situation.

Lisa: Okay. I'm gonna cut to the chase here 'cause I wanna know, did they ever find her

courtney: , I'm getting to it.

Lisa: Not fast enough. It's like you have me or you have us hooked and you're not giving us the answers

courtney: 'cause I'm going through the investigation or lack thereof.

Lisa: Well, well that's what I mean it. There's no investigation. Okay. Or a very poor job at investigating

courtney: Well. I'm gonna tell you some things on November 21st, according to uncovered, a pond is drained after cadaver dogs alerted police to this pond. However, nothing was found indicating Aubrey had been there.

No belongings or anything. I. On the one year anniversary, a candlelight vigil was held, and according to News two, Oklahoma, although there were [00:34:00] reportedly sightings of Aubrey in Oklahoma and Missouri, none of the sightings led to anything. And Christian said at at the vigil that because of Aubrey being transgender, police are not seriously looking into her case, which. It is obvious, he said, quote. It's been shown time and time again in the transgender community as well as the Native American community where these cases, they're not covered. They're not looked into because over and over again, their lifestyle is being brought up in July of 2020, according to Dateline, the Supreme Court. Issued a ruling regarding indigenous reservations. That meant the case would now be investigated by tribal police and the F B I, the director of the Cherokee Nation Marshall Service, Shannon Buhles, said quote, we have to follow the leads that Delaware County initially got. The investigator that worked Aubrey's Case initially is no longer at the Sheriff's office.

I believe he retired. And from everything I've heard, he probably didn't treat this case like I would [00:35:00] treat it. He didn't give the due respect, in my opinion, to Aubrey. And that's, that's a loss. It's a loss that now we're playing catch up on maybe a case that, I hate to say it maybe could have been solved quickly but wasn't.

So now we're having to play catch up. To fit pieces of puzzles that, that maybe those pieces don't even exist anymore. And Pam and Christian. Honestly, we're relieved that Puhl was taking over because he is in fact taking this seriously in November. And I'm not sure what year no one was specific. Like none of my sources were specific.

in November? Another search was conducted at Aubrey's home and the tracking dogs hit on the shed on the property. Okay. In the shed was a small kitty pool, like, you know, those little blue plastic kitty pools.

Lisa: Mm-hmm.

And inside was a tarp with stains on it. According to Shannon Buhl

courtney: there is evidence suggesting the shed is connected to Aubrey, but the tarp had [00:36:00]not been tested in a timely manner.

It looks like the tarp, it took them, it took the police. The original investigating police like a month to actually have it analyzed forensically for no reason

Lisa: and being outside, I understand that it was a shed.

courtney: Yeah, but there's no like temperature control or regulation or anything like that. If it was an old shed, it's possible like rain got in like that would've deteriorated any evidence.

Like I, yeah, they, they dropped another ball on that one. In January of 2021, the Aubrey alert bill is introduced at the Oklahoma legislator calling for missing adult alerts in Oklahoma. And in March that bill was renamed according to the Cherokee, Phoenix, and according to Pam, the bill was renamed. For a different missing indigenous person because quote, pay introduced the bill and immediately got feedback from lawmakers that they absolutely would [00:37:00] not support the bill being named for a transgender person.

Just say you're homophobic, like that's it. In April of this year, this bill was signed into law. It is Casey's law now, that's what it's called in 2021. Jennifer Bird gave an interview to News Nation saying she believed her daughter was dead. Quote, I felt my child pass a year ago. A mother and a child has a bond, and I felt it. I hit the floor. I'm sorry, but I really don't believe you, but that's just me. Just based on how you've acted this entire time, I don't believe you. I'm not saying you don't care that your child is missing. But that bond you're insisting that you have now, where was that bond when she first went missing? I'm just saying,

Lisa: why is he called Casey's law?

courtney: Um, there was an indigenous young man named Casey that had gone missing. So they [00:38:00] named the bill after Casey because they weren't going to pass it into law if it was named after Aubrey, because Aubrey's transgender, because apparently that matters.

Lisa: Well, it matter. I, I guess it matters to them. I don't, I don't get it.

courtney: But yeah, I don't get it either. It's been five years since Aubrey has gone missing and there has been no resolution on her case. Hopefully now that other agencies are investigating, her case will be taken as seriously as it should have been in the first place.

And it seems like Shannon Buell. Is the one to make sure it's investigated correctly. He said, quote, hopefully we find a resolution before the end of my career here and I move on. But I can promise you when I'm holding my grandchildren, I have two little granddaughters when I'm around them, I. When I'm 80 years old, she will be one of the cases I think about whether we find her or not.

She's important. [00:39:00] She's important to me. So this is not a case that's going away anytime soon. If somebody out there did something to Aubrey, don't sleep well because you have strong men and women out here that are motivated to find you. I like him. I like him too very much. You go, sir. You do your thing, and Christian still has hope.

He told Dateline quote, where is she? I lose hope, but at the same time, I see stories of people being found after years of being missing, after months of being missing. And I just, I hold onto hope that maybe, maybe just maybe everything will fall into place someday and we'll get Aubrey back at the time of her disappearance.

Aubrey was five nine, although some reports say six feet tall, so. I'm gonna say between five nine and six foot and around 130 to 150 pounds. Again, there was some discrepancies on her weight. So between one 30 and one 50, she has brown [00:40:00] eyes, long brown hair, and a Tri Quatra tattoo on her back, which is the three interlocking, interlocking.

They make a triangle. If y'all have seen charmed, it's that. With a tattoo of her nickname shorty on her upper left arm. She was last wearing a black jacket, black pantyhose, a black miniskirt, and black heels. If you know something about Aubrey's disappearance or anyone you know knows something or might know something, you can call the FBI at one 800 Call FBI or go online@tips.fbi.gov.

You can also call the Cherokee Nation Marshall Service at 9 1 8 2 0 7 38 0 0. And I, I'm hoping now that Shannon Buell and the F B I are involved, that they get a resolution on this, that they find her,

Lisa: think he will. I think [00:41:00] that man will,

courtney: I think he will too, because he is bound and determined to find her the way the police should have been.

Lisa: Yeah. You know what I mean? Fuck the, the, the original investigators. Yes. That didn't do much investigating. It's my own personal opinion, but

courtney: they didn't do any investigating. Let's be real. Fuck the Oklahoma police. I'm sorry, but,

Lisa: well, not all of them are like that

courtney: fine. That specific parts of the Oklahoma police, fuck them.

Lisa: Well, there you go. Maybe they should have done their job. You know, the whole protect and surf thing. I think they remember it. Maybe they don't. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe they'll, they don't remember that part of their, you know, their duties

courtney: maybe. But that was it. Again, those numbers as always will be in the source notes.

Again, we have a Patreon. Go check it out. It's on our Instagram in our link tree, and in that [00:42:00]hyperlink at the bottom of the source notes, one week until the bonus chapter comes out and send love to Sarah attorney because. Her rat bastard stepfather got acquitted of Alyssa's disappearance, although I believe they were going for murder.

Um, just lots of love to Sarah and her loved ones and her family, and Alyssa's loved ones.

Lisa: They need some good news.

courtney: Yeah, so, and you can listen to her family statement on her podcast. Voices for Justice if you guys are interested, um, because she did release a statement on her podcast. But anyway, that is it guys.

Or I don't have anything else for you.

Lisa: Well, we just hope you have a lovely rest of your week. We will see you next time. And we thank all of you for supporting us.

courtney: Yes.

Lisa: And listening to our [00:43:00] podcast, our little podcast.

courtney: Yes. Um,

well it's almost a year old guys,

Lisa: but it's very, uh, it's very nice to know that people like what we're doing.

courtney: Yeah. Yeah, it's really, it's really cool. Yes, and I didn't mention this in the beginning, although you'll have heard it in the intro. We did join Dark Cast Network. We joined the dark side. They do in fact have cookies and it's pretty great. So check out Dark cast Net Network on Instagram to see all of the shows that are part of the network.

There's some really great ones on there, but. Yeah. Uh, please leave a review. Give us a rating. We want to hear from you. We'll give you a shout out and

Lisa: just please be kind

courtney: or don't be kind. I'll just, we'll roast you a little bit on Instagram too.

Lisa: No, no, no, no. I, I like kind.

courtney: She likes kind. I think the mean ones are funny, although we've only ever gotten [00:44:00]like two semi not nice ones, so it's fine.

Lisa: No, no. I, no, we, we, we, we don't want mean ones, please.

courtney: All right. Fine. Be nice. Please be nice. Just be honest. You be nice, but be honest, you know, we're not asking you to give us five stars. We're just asking you to give us. An honest review. If you like us, great. If you don't like us, tell us why. Just be nice about it.

But yeah. All right guys. That's about it. We'll see you next week.

Lisa: Bye.

courtney: Bye guys. Thank you so much for listening to this chapter of The Book of the Dead. As always, check the source notes for resources used in this chapter. And don't forget that you could follow us on Instagram at Book of the Dead Pod or shoot us an email with AK suggestion at Book of the Dead pod@gmail.com.

Lisa: We just hope that you have a wonderful rest of your week. We'll be back next week with another chapter of the Book of the Dead,

courtney: and always remember to stay curious. Stay safe and stay [00:45:00] vigilant. Bye guys.

Lisa: Bye.