Going West: True Crime - Kristen Modafferi // 126

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

In 1997, a newly 18-year-old woman headed to San Francisco for the summer to attend UC Berkeley for a Photography course. But after work one afternoon, she seemingly vanished out of thin air. Weeks later, an anonymous call came into a local news station from a man claiming to know exactly what happened to her. Between a suspicious newspaper personal ad, potential ties to a well-known serial killer, and new bewildering DNA evidence, this case is loaded with incredibly conflicting suspicions. This is the story of Kristen Modafferi. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3004677/Sister-missing-teen-begs-accused-killer-Robert-Durst-come-clean-help-end-18-years-agony-family.html https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/kristinsmart/episodes/2017-09-09T17_48_46-07_00 https://greensboro.com/and-then-there-were-only-three/article_cbf88701-484d-502c-a918-d5881868b7a0.html https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/kristen-modafferi https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/ca-kristen-modafferi-18-san-francisco-23-june-1997.46/page-12 https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article25556242.html https://medium.com/the-shadow/the-strange-disappearance-of-kristen-modafferi-94e5301e714a https://charleyproject.org/case/kristen-deborah-modafferi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. How the heck are you guys? Heath and I just dropped a crazy new Patreon bonus episode on Palette Gabbara Farah, who is actually known as the John Bane of Mexico. The cases have a lot of similarities. It's a devastating case. It's insane. If you join Patreon, you can listen to it. Yeah, so just head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast.

That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash going west podcast. You can listen to that episode and dozens and dozens of others ready for you to binge. So go check it out if you're interested. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. We have another crazy case for you. I'm so surprised that this case that we're talking about today that I hadn't heard of it until last week because there'm so surprised that this case that we're talking about today, that I hadn't heard of it until last week because there's so much to this case, it's so ridiculously crazy, and I'm really excited to get into it today and see what you guys think about it. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about this one today.

Alright, guys, this is episode 126 of Going West, so let's get into it. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in In 1997, a newly 18-year-old woman headed to San Francisco for the summer to attend UC Berkeley for a photography course. But after work one afternoon, she seemingly vanished out of thin air. Weeks later, an anonymous call came into a local news station from a man claiming to know exactly what happened to her. Between a suspicious newspaper personal ad, potential ties to a well-known serial killer and new bewildering DNA evidence, this case is full of incredibly conflicting suspicions. This is the story of Kristen Modiferry. When Kristen was born, she already had an older sister to look up to, but after Kristen came two more girls, so four girls in the Motiferry family.

Kristen's father Bob worked as an electrical engineer while Debbie worked as a school teacher. But as the girls began to grow up, Bob and Debbie decided to relocate the family all the way down the east coast to beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina. They were all extremely close, and the girls were still very young when this happened, and Kristen actually was just in elementary school, so she pretty much grew up in Charlotte. She was described by her sisters as being a funny and free-spirited person, and she was also very intelligent. She worked really hard in school and during her years at Providence High School,

she worked at a local pizza place to save money while still getting excellent grades. So excellent that she was awarded a park scholarship, which covered her college tuition for four whole years, which is huge, like that is an amazing accomplishment. So after graduating high school in 1996, Kristen headed over to North Carolina State University in Raleigh, which is about a two and a half hour drive from her parents' home in Charlotte

to study industrial design, and she lived in the dorms. Yeah, and Kristen wasn't just incredibly intelligent, but she was also extremely creative. She loved painting, exploring, and above all, photography. That was like her main love. So when her first year of college came to a close in May of 1997, she prepared to take the next step in her adult life and go to California. Kristen discovered that the University of California at Berkeley offered a summer photography

class, and of course, UC Berkeley is an amazing college. So she was thrilled to have that opportunity, and not to just take a photography course, but to live on the west coast for the first time in her life. Since Kristen was only 17, and just weeks away from her 18th birthday, her parents were naturally a bit hesitant about her moving so far from home. But Kristen had her mindset on going, and she did a lot of research online birthday, her parents were naturally a bit hesitant about her moving so far from home. But Kristen had her mindset on going and she did a lot of research online about where she

could live during her stay. And she eventually came across an old Victorian home on Jane Avenue in Oakland, which is right next to Berkeley, on Craigslist, and some people were looking to fill one of the rooms. The house is a five bedroom three bathroom home built in 1911, and in 1997, it was occupied by four young men, Justin, Griffin, Hans, and his brother Kurt. It's just about five miles from the UC Berkeley campus, so it seemed like a great spot to call home, despite the fact that she'd be living with four guys, which didn't seem to be an issue at all. The room that was available had previously been a young woman named Rosie Levine's room,

who was actually Griff and Cherry's girlfriend, one of the housemates, but they had an amicable breakup and Rosie actually went to Paris, France for the summer, so Rosie's room was available. I listened to the Dennis Mayan podcast on this case because he's a close friend of the Modifairy family, and he cares a great deal about this case, and he actually released an episode about her roommates that has a lot of information. And I also found information on these particular roommates on web sleuths, and by the way, case sources are always in our episode descriptions if you guys are interested. But basically, the house situation was a bit complicated because the people who owned

the house at 274 Jane Avenue, the house that they were living in, were going through a foreclosure since they weren't paying the mortgage. And an eviction notice was put on the house, but it takes a handful of months to actually evict someone in the state of California. So the roommates who were just renting the house from the owner didn't have to be out until the end of the summer. So that worked out perfectly for Kristen to just move in there for the summer, do her photography course, and then go back to North Carolina to continue her studies.

And by the way, the photography course that Kristen was taking offered credits that she could apply to North Carolina State University. And she was also going to take an elective belly dancing class at UC Berkeley since they offered credits for her actual college as well. So she was just going to do the photography course and the belly dancing for the summer kind of have a laid back, you know, easy elective summer. Yeah, she was just gonna enjoy a couple classes that she really wanted to take

and then she was gonna head back east for her regular courses. Yeah, and this was such a great thing for her to do for the summer, like just get away, also, you know, get some college credits out of the way, but have like a very long trip to the San Francisco area.

Right, she was just kind of planning on this being almost a vacation slash a win-win because she's getting credits for this. Yeah, total win-win. So Griffin who was a web designer in his late 20s was kind of in charge and was in contact with Kristen and they agreed to rent the room and the guys were looking forward to having her. And they even picked her up from the airport in Oakland on June 1, 1997, which was her 18th birthday. Kristen's classes weren't scheduled to begin until Tuesday, June 24, so she was about to have over three weeks to be able to explore the Bay Area, find a job, and have some fun,

and she was really excited about this. But first and foremost, she really needed to find some work so that she could pay her rent and support her life there. So that same week, as she was walking around San Francisco, she walked into a coffee shop called Spinelli's Coffee, which was located in the Crocker, Galeria, and the Financial District, hoping to get a job. And funny enough, the coffee shop wasn't even hiring, but the boss liked Kristen so much that she offered her a job anyway. Kristen just

had that ambitious, electric personality, and the boss really thought that she would be a great employee. But she wouldn't be able to offer Kristen full-time employment, so Kristen gladly accepted the job and quickly found another part-time job at Cafe Muse, which was located in San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art, or Moda. And she worked there on the weekends, so at both jobs she began working as a barista. For a visual, her jobs were just a half mile away from each other, but about 10 miles from her home in Oakland. And since she didn't have a car, she took the bar into the city whenever

she wanted to go out in San Francisco or she had to work. And for those who aren't familiar with the Bay Area, the bar just stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit, so it's just their subway system. So Kristen quickly got these two jobs and was ready to start her summer. She was so excited. She began working immediately and on her days off since she still hadn't started her Berkeley courses yet, she would explore the city. Weeks later on Monday, June 23, 1997, Kristen went into Spinelli's coffee to work a shift as usual, and she got off at 3pm. Before leaving, she asked some of her coworkers

for directions to Baker Beach, which is right near the Golden Gate Bridge, about seven miles from her work, in the opposite direction of where she lived. But it being her last day before Berkeley courses began, she wanted to have a little fun and even potentially attend an unknown party that was supposedly at this beach.

But I only found two sources that stated that there was a party and I read another source say that she wanted to take some nice photos so she'd be prepared for her upcoming course at Berkeley. But then I also read that she didn't state why she wanted to go there and that she just asked for directions. So just a heads up, the reason for her going to the beach seems unclear and any of the reasons listed are possible.

I mean, she's in California, why wouldn't you want to go to the beach? You know what I mean? Well, that too. I mean, it's beautiful. Yeah, so there could be so many reasons, but basically, we're not sure, but she did ask for directions to this beach. Although Kristen seemed like she was going right to the beach after work, one of her co-workers saw her walking around the second floor of the Crocker Galleria 45 minutes after she got off work, so at around 3.45 pm. With an unidentified blonde woman, and by the way, the Crocker Galleria is a three-floor shopping mall, so Spinelli's coffee was located inside that shopping mall.

The following day, which was the much-anticipated first day of her photography class on Tuesday, June 24, 1997, 18-year-old Kristen Motiferry didn't show up to the UC Berkeley campus. It being college, people don't show up for class all the time, and since no one there knew Kristen personally, no one was alarmed at her absence. But as we already know, just based on the information we've discussed in this episode, Kristen was hardworking, responsible, and incredibly passionate. She had also already paid her $925 tuition for the summer, which would be around $1,500 today.

That week, Spinelli's cut a $400 check for her on payday, but she never showed up to pick it up. Considering her rent was $500, this would have been a check that she would have wanted to pick up. Between both of her jobs, she was definitely making enough to pay her bills, rents, etc. But she definitely had two jobs for a reason. So her not picking up her check was pretty weird. Her roommates noticed on the night of June 23rd, so the night that she was possibly going

to head to Baker Beach, that Kristen didn't come home as well. But they had only known her for a few weeks, and they didn't know her schedule, so this really wasn't out of the ordinary They're just kind of like well. We don't know where she's at. Yeah, for all they knew she was with a boyfriend or with a friend Or she was staying closer to campus like they didn't know and she didn't have a cell phone So they didn't know how to reach her They were just kind of like she didn't come home and hope she's okay, but I don't know exactly. Yeah, no real reason to be concerned Then she missed a shift at work, and her coworkers grew concerned.

On June 25th, so the day after the start of her photography course, her father Bob called the house and left a message for Kristen with one of the housemates, who said they would have Kristen call him when she got home. But they didn't mention not seeing her for two days. Then the following morning, which was Thursday, Kristen still hadn't returned home, and her housemates now began to worry, especially when they heard from Kristen's co-workers about her missing work. Bob Motiferry called the house again that day to check in on Kristen, once again, who he was worried

about, but just kind of hope that she hadn't been returning his calls since she'd been busy with work and classes. But then the roommates informed him that they hadn't seen Kristen in three days, and that she also hadn't shown up to work. Since multiple days had passed already and no one seemed to know where Kristen was, Bob and Debbie jumped on a plane the very next morning, which was Friday, June 27, 1997. After landing in San Francisco, her parents went straight to the Oakland Police Department to report Kristen missing. But sadly, it being a Friday, investigators put off her case until Monday, June 30th.

So at this point, a week after she disappeared, because not only was it the end of the work week, but Kristen was an adult, which I can only imagine was so frustrating for her parents who knew something was wrong, and it's like, okay, she's an adult, but she's been missing for days, seemingly vanished. Right, imagine that.

You fly all the way out, I mean across the US, to California to find your daughter, and the police are just like, yeah, we'll pick that up on Monday. Yeah, so frustrating. So the Motiferry spent the weekend doing their own searching, including in Kristen's bedroom.

And that's when they found a Bay Guardian newspaper sitting in her trash can with a personal ad circled. It read, Friends, Female seeking friends to share activities who enjoy music, photography, working out,

walks, coffee, or simply the beach, exploring the Bay Area. Interested, call me. Unfortunately, when Bob and Debbie showed this to police that week, they were unable to find who placed the ad because the Bay Guardian had already ridden the records for that particular

paper, which was routine for them. So investigators pondered if Kristen wrote that ad herself, or if someone else did, and if Kristen potentially met up with them and was met with foul Play, they just couldn't determine who exactly placed that ad. It's interesting because we know that Kristen loved coffee and photography and was interested in going to Baker Beach. So this sounds a lot like she wrote this ad because it sounds like all of her interests. And she was new to the area, so maybe she thought this would be a good way to make friends. But I don't know why she would circle her own ad and then throw it away. Like to me, her circling

the ad was her saying, ooh, you know, this person could be a really good friend to make while I'm here for the summer. I just, you know, I wish we knew. But either way, the ad makes me wonder a lot if she disappeared because she met up with someone who was no good. Yeah, I mean, I had that exact same thought. I was like, why would she circle her own ad? Like, typically if you see an ad in the paper, you circle it yourself and you're like, oh, that sounds interesting. Yeah, so that's why reading that they pondered if she wrote it,

I'm like, I see that because that's all her interest, but I don't know why she'd circle her own ad, but I have never done that, so maybe someone else out there knows more about that and wants to comment. And I also want to mention that if you don't know anything about answering personal ads and papers and how that works Like I didn't there's a general number listed at the top and you would call the paper to respond to an ad So there wasn't a phone number listed which is why we don't know who placed the ad. I did try to find the exact ad on newspapers.com because I wonder

how exact the description from the internet is but I couldn't find it no matter how much I fiddled with the words. So this is all we have to go off of and we just we don't know who wrote this. At this point, investigators were fully on the hunt to find out what happened to Kristen Modiferry. They were looking for an 18-year-old, 5-foot-six-brunette with fair skin, shoulder-length hair, and brown eyes, who weighed around 140 pounds. When investigators interviewed Kristen's co-workers at Spinelli's coffee, they discovered that Kristen had expressed interest in going to the beach that day, the day that she was last seen.

One of them thought that she was going to take pictures at Lans and Lookout, which is a couple miles from Baker Beach. While other police officers began interviewing other people close to Kristen, dozens of national park service rangers and San Francisco police headed to Baker Beach and and the lands and look out with bloodhounds hoping to find clues leading to Kristen. Interestingly enough, the bloodhounds were able to insinuate that Kristen had left the Crocker Galleria where she worked and walked to a nearby bus stop. Her scent was then picked up at Ocean Beach which is right next to Baker Beach and carried on to the outside of Cliff House, which is a restaurant at Lans End.

And there, there's a lookout area for people to watch the sea lions sunbathing, and just kind of take in the views. Then the bloodhounds picked up her scent again to a steep cliff overlooking the ocean. And as I already mentioned, the area is incredibly scenic, and basically a perfect place to take breath- breathtaking photos. Of course, her last scent trail being picked up near Cliff is very concerning, but there was no evidence in that area that she or anyone had fallen off. And since it's an incredibly popular tourist destination, and it was peak tourist season,

it would be super unlikely that something would have happened to her there without multiple people witnessing it. So although it's possible a rogue wave could have taken her out to sea, police ruled this out because of how crowded the area always was, especially at that time of year. So police began discussing the possibility with the modifaries that Kristen had just gone off and disappeared voluntarily. But they didn't believe this for a moment and explained to police how excited she was for her courses at Berkeley, how excited she was for the summer, and how much she was looking forward to returning to college in the fall. And soon after, police heard a concerning story from Kristen's co-workers and wondered if her naivety put her in a dangerous

situation. Shortly after Kristen arrived to Northern California, she attended a concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, which is an hour south of Oakland by car, but over two hours by barred. But when the concert ended, she was stranded because the last barred back to Oakland had already left and there wouldn't be another until the morning. It's unknown why she didn't take a taxi, but Kristen decided that she was going to spend the night sleeping on a bench at a train station.

But before she could do this, a young man who had been at the same concert struck up a conversation with her and told her that it wasn't safe to sleep on the bench and that she could crash at his brother's house. She agreed and went to the house with this young man and she slept on the couch alone. The following morning, the young man drove her to work and then visited her a few more times in the weeks to follow before she disappeared. It doesn't seem to be the co-workers concerned that this particular young man did anything to her since he honestly could have that night that she slept on the couch, but instead that since she had done something pretty reckless before, she could do it again,

and that maybe Kristen had met someone else and gotten into a bad situation. So, the modifaries put up a $10,000 reward in hopes of finding out what happened to Kristen. Bob and Debbie were undeniably devastated, but so were Kristen's three sisters. Allison who was 20, Lauren who was 15, and Megan who was just 7. They didn't have any cousins and were excited to have kids of their own someday, so they'd have a bunch of cousins for their kids. So they worried so deeply about what could have happened to their sister and so did every last person who knew Kristen.

Sadly, no real leads were coming through and the family felt hopeless and really unsure of what to do. Bob and Debbie actually went on the Mori Povitch show to kind of help spread awareness about their daughter's case, and they raised the reward to $50,000. Then an anonymous donor donated 20 billboards around the San Francisco area to help the family, so this would spread the word locally about Kristen and hopefully bring in new tips. Then on July 10, 1997, so about two and a half weeks after Kristen disappeared, police got an interesting tip from a local news station from a man calling in,

claiming to know what really happened to Kristen Motiferry went missing, a man called KGOTV, which is an ABC news station out of San Francisco, and explained that Kristen was murdered by two women who then disposed of her body under a wooden bridge near Point Reyes, California, which is about an hour's drive north of San Francisco. Shortly after, the police were able to trace the call, and as discovered, it was made by a 36-year-old man named John Toshio Numa, who happened to live near the Crocker Galleria where Kristen worked at Spinelli's coffee. When they reached out to John, he denied being the one to call, but eventually came out and said that he did call, and that he had lied. The two women he implicated had apparently been giving his girlfriend a hard time at work, so he wanted to get them in trouble for something. When police called in the two women for questioning, they told a bit of a different story.

See, they worked at the YMCA with John's girlfriend Jill Lampo, and they had a lot of issues with her and didn't feel as though she was a good fit for the job. And they were preparing to fire Jill when Jon O'Numa allegedly began harassing them. So Jon himself began to look very suspicious. Because even though it seemed his tip was, you know, maybe too specific to be a lie, they really looked into these two women as potential suspects and felt strongly that John himself could be involved instead. And unfortunately, I know some of you might be wondering, were one of the women blonde,

I was not able to find the information. On top of this, another female witness came forward and explained that John had abused her and threatened to kill her shortly after Kristen Modifairy disappeared. The woman then stated that John said, now you know what happened to Kristen Modifairy. Oh wow, yeah. Uh-huh. It's just, you know, I mean that's something.

Yeah, that's something. And apparently, multiple other women have come forward claiming to have raped, and or tortured by John O'Numa. It's been said that his girlfriend Jill Lampo was the one that helped lure women in, and John did the abusing. So with all this information, police conducted a search warrant of John O'Numa's home and discovered Jill's journal that had pages missing

from the very time that Kristen disappeared. That is so weird. That is very, very weird. I mean, very suspicious. What was written in those pages? I mean, of all the days to tear out pages of your journal. I mean, come on. Yeah, and it's also worth mentioning that Jill had brown hair, so unless she was wearing a wig, she wasn't the woman that Kristen was seen with at the mall. In John's San Francisco apartment, police also discovered sizable amounts of blood, and this was obviously incredibly alarming.

So they took samples in for DNA testing, and it turned out that the blood belonged to a cat, which is definitely still weird, but Kristen's blood wasn't found. Sizable amounts of a blood from a cat, like, what? Yeah, like what happened? Were you just butchering cats in your apartment, you psycho? That's also extremely concerning. Yeah, very concerning.

So I'd love to know more about that. Yeah, so they didn't really discover all that much, but what they did discover is that Jon O'Neumah was known to place personal ads in the Bay Area newspapers looking for women. So this is definitely an interesting potential here. So maybe Jon wrote that ad in the paper pretending to be a woman looking for a friend as a new way of luring women in. Or did Kristen write the ad in either Jill or John respond to it? I'm kinda just trying to imagine John putting this ad together and to me like the photography

thing is kinda specific, like I don't really see some sick man thinking to put photography, you know what I mean? I don't know, that just, it seems. But this makes me wonder if it's possible that John had maybe been into Spanelli's at some point and had a conversation with Kristen because people like this, people like John, you know, there's that potential for them to be stalkers and try to gain information about their victims, which will help them then lure them in. So it's possible that he got that information and he put the ad in the paper kind of already knowing these things about Kristen.

Well, isn't it interesting that so many conversations and things could have happened behind the scenes that we don't know in this investigation? Like, I mean, this is totally just out of my brain. But what if John went in, met her, they got to talking, she explained her interest. I don't know, just in passing conversation. And then he also brought up, oh, you know, since you're new to town, you should check the personal ads for a friend or something.

Like, I don't know, but it's like, who knows? Like, that could have happened. Yeah, and of course, these are just theories. So don't take any of this to heart. It seems like it would be like very specific. It would have to work out perfectly, but I mean, who knows? Well, if we're talking about the fact that John Lewers women in in the first place.

True. There's always going to be that potential for him, for that scenario to be true. Just from all the allegations against him that we know of at this point because we're not done, it seems like the dude is very just a bad guy, super sketchy, and just a horrible horrible man all around. Yeah, he's a creep. That he is, and within two years actually of Kristen's disappearance, Jon O'Numa moved to Kanyeohei Hawaii, which is on the island of Oahu, where he was later evicted in 2002 from a $1.4 million home.

First of all, let me just say how suspicious that he moved to an island. But I don't know if he's from there. I couldn't find that information, but I always think it's weird when people move after they're suspected in a case. But yeah, absolutely. But people move all the time. He's and I know that very well from halfton. We move. So when his property manager went into the attic, they found a briefcase hidden away in the attic that belonged to John. And inside were various articles on Kristen Motiferry. And this is huge.

The way I'm thinking of it is that it was so hidden that he forgot to pack it up when he moved. Yeah, and that's just... Why would you do that? That's just incredibly strange and a weird thing to do. We already know that you lure women, and now you have this briefcase with articles about Kristen Motiferry inside of it. Yeah, I mean red flags like to the max. Yeah, and John was actually evicted because the locals discovered that he was potentially connected to Kristen's case, and it just made them feel unsafe.

Another really interesting connection is that apparently, Jill Lampo, who's John's girlfriend, had dated a man named Matthew Luke, and he worked at the same coffee shop as Kristen did. But just like John, he claims to know nothing about Kristen's case and maintains his innocence, and since there's no body, police can't do much but wonder and just hope they confess. So there is that connection there, so it's possible that Kristen had talked to Matthew Luke, Matthew Luke, and had given him details about her life, and then that was relayed to Jill Lampo. Maybe it was an operation, maybe the three weren't cahoots together trying to mess with

women. Yeah, very strange, though. The years passed and Kristen never turned up. Norted her remains, and her case sadly went cold, but her family remained incredibly dedicated to the case and even hired a private investigator to help in their search for her. Just about six years ago in 2015,

the private investigator had a cadaver dog that was known to have a world-class reputation. Take a look at the home where Kristen lived in Oakland, and that dog seemed to pick up the scent of human remains at the home where Kristen lived in Oakland, and that dog seemed to pick up the scent of human remains inside the home's basement. And the police sergeant who was handling the dog asked local police to excavate that particular concrete slab in the basement and also thought that the roommates should be re-interviewed.

Which is really interesting, and by the way, this police officer was an officer in a different area of California, so all he could do was tell them what he thought they should do, and I mean this is huge. Yeah, it's very strange. I mean, obviously when a cadaver dog hits on a place, it's very concerning. But police didn't do a thing here. Two years later, a forensic anthropologist visited the home in 2017 and scanned the area with a proprietary device that he had developed himself that's supposed to detect

human decomposition. And crazy enough, the device pinpointed a detection of human remains between the home Kristen lived in and the house next door to 7-8 Jane Avenue. And that's not the only strange evidence regarding the neighbor's home. A chemical signature that proves the presence of human blood was found near a concrete slab at the bottom of the neighbor's porch steps. And when this sample was tested, it matched both the samples of Bob and Debbie Modiferry since they had provided samples for testing when their daughter went missing. So that's incredibly crazy, which means that the decomp directly next door to the house Kristen was staying at, which was in a residential neighborhood, was a halfway house at the time she was living there.

Realtor.com says that this home has 11 bedrooms and although Kristen didn't know about the halfway house when she moved in, the people living there were probation violators for Alameda County, which is where Oakland is. Many know that Oakland has a lot of crime and it has significantly more crime than Berkeley and San Francisco, and it wasn't very safe overall even in 1997. And in fact, in 1983, Oakland was referred to as the year's crime capital of the Bay area by the National Journal. And crime continued to escalate during the 80s and 90s

and even into today. And that's not to say Oakland is a bad place though, you know, I'm not hating on Oakland at all, but knowing that Kristen lived in Oakland and next to a halfway house can, you know, be a concerning thought. But since we don't even know if Kristen returned to Oakland the day she was last seen,

something could very likely have happened to her in San Francisco. But it's important to discuss the house next door anyway, especially because of this DNA found. Because just like he said, I mean, this is a proprietary device that this man created, and that's what picked up this DNA. So I don't know how reliable that device was by any means, but I do think it's crazy that it matched the DNA of the Motifairy family.

Yeah, and especially because there was a lot of trouble at that halfway house. There were apparently drug raids and dog fighting rings, and the front doors to both the house that Kristen stayed in and the halfway house were just a stone's throw away from each other. And check out our social media accounts for photos of this case, including the house. Instagram is at going west podcast, Twitter at going west pod, and then we have a Facebook discussion group as well. So it makes you wonder if beautiful young Kristen was met with foul play with one of the men at the halfway house.

And then of course many people wonder about her roommates, but by all accounts they were cooperative and very helpful. And again, Dennis Mann of Dennis Mann's podcast, who is also a family friend of the modifaries, didn't episode on the roommates and gave some really great information regarding what they're doing today and what conversations he had with them. And he said Griffin and Rosie Levine, the girl who went to Paris, France and had Kristen's room before her, are married now in that he does web design. Justin works with Wells Fargo and has spoken to him on many occasions and has been very cordial and he actually only lived in that house one week

before Kristen moved in. And then Hans Obsull has also been very helpful. Hans Brother Kurt, though, has not responded to any of Dennis' efforts to discuss Kristen or her case. But Dennis wonders if this is because Kurt's the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where he represents clients regarding privacy laws and things of that nature, so maybe he just doesn't want to accidentally implicate himself in anything because he's innocent. The only potential strange thing about the roommates is that they didn't call Kristen's parents themselves, and they also opened Kristen's mail while she was gone. But their supposed reason for doing this was because they hoped to come

across any answers as to where she was. Sadly, the DNA evidence wasn't found until 20 years after Kristen disappeared. But if her remains are in either of those homes, they can still be discovered. It's just up to the Oakland Police Department to do the necessary test to find out what we all, especially Kristen's family, want to know. A couple years before this information was discovered,

Kristen's older sister, Alison, who now works as a yoga teacher, made a public plea for Robert Durst to come forward and be honest with police if he had anything to do with her sister's disappearance. And for those who don't know, Robert Durst is a now 78-year-old man who was 54 when Kristen disappeared, and he's a real estate heir from New York, who was arrested for the murder of his wife Kathleen McCormick

Durst, who disappeared in 1982. Robert was arrested in 2015 and is believed to be connected to numerous other murders and disappearances of women, including a 16-year-old girl named Karen Mitchell, who disappeared from Yorika, California, which is a four-and-a-half-hour drive north of San Francisco in November of 1997, so just five months after Kristen. At the time that Kristen disappeared, Robert Durst was living in San Francisco, and police did look into him as a potential suspect in Kristen's case. But since Kristen seemingly vanished from thin air, it's hard to pin it on him. Authorities don't believe at this time

that Robert Durst was involved, but he was a potential suspect at one point. And we actually covered Robert Durst on our Patreon about a year and a half ago, so if you join, you can also listen to that episode, or just watch the jinx on HBO. And I don't know that I think Robert Durst is involved due to lack of evidence, although he is a horrid, horrid man nonetheless, but I do think that Jon O'Numa is undeniably

sketchy, like he's either just a total, horrible and abusive creep or he's involved. I think it's weird that he called in, that you know, weird that he apparently made that comment to a woman who he was in the middle of abusing that now she knew what happened to Kristen Motifari, and I think it's scary that he had a hidden briefcase with articles on Kristen's case. But it also can't ignore the fact that recent DNA could point to either one of the roommates being involved or someone in the halfway house. I just can't get over the cadaver dog head on the concrete under the basement. And then the DNA being found at the base of the neighbor staircase that connected to

Kristen's family's DNA. Like that's bizarre to me. Yeah, I just think that there's, I think that what's really confusing in this case is that there are a couple different theories and really good ones Yeah, yeah exactly. There's each theory has Some sort of evidence that could link to Kristen in some way so that's what's confusing here because Could be the roommates could be people from the halfway house could be John could be Robert Durst

Although I think that that's probably the least likely scenario. But still, I mean, this is just very confusing. And I know somebody else owns that house now, somebody bought it, I think, in 2018. So after this DNA was found, so I know somebody owns the house, but I think it would be of great importance to excavate that basement concrete just to see and do more digging at these two houses because if there's nothing there we can rule it out. Exactly, and that's what needs to be done. They need to be ruled out. But also, maybe evidence that she was killed at one of the homes or her remains are there,

so it's really important to follow up on this. And I also think it's very bizarre that the blonde woman that Kristen was seen with at the mall has never come forward. Like, it's possible she just ran into Kristen and they were walking around and then never saw each other again and the woman somehow never learned of Kristen's disappearance, but it just seems very strange, especially because this case was so highly publicized in that area at the time. And I do also wonder if she's the woman from the newspaper ad.

Some speculate that it was Jill Lambo maybe in a wig or that it was Robert Durst because he sometimes would cross dress, so maybe it was him dressed as a woman, but I read somewhere that the woman looked young and Robert Ders was in his fifties, so and Jill would have been in her late twenties or early thirties. This blonde woman could be totally unrelated, but I just don't know why she wouldn't have come forward. In 1999, Christen's act was introduced and then signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 2000. And this law, quote, provided assistance to law enforcement and families in missing persons' cases of those over the age of 17. And it also authorized $1 million per year to help support various

organizations, including the National Center for Missing Adults. But Kristen's law expired in 2005 when funding ran out, but is continued with volunteer efforts. Although Kristen's disappearance was showcased on America's most wanted, unsolved mysteries and more, her case remains unsolved. Her family is still out there desperately searching for answers. So if you know anything regarding Kristen Modifari's case, please call the Oakland Police Department at 510-238-382-1. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and like I always say next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This case is so devastating because Kristen was only 18 years old, she had her whole life ahead of her, and just the fact that there are so many questions is so infuriating because I really just don't know where I fully stand, but I think Jon O'Numa personally I think that guy knows more than he's leading on. Yeah, and I think he needs to be reinvestigated. I agree. If you guys need more going west, if you need more Daphne and Heath, we do have over 42

bonus episodes on our Patreon, including the one we just released on Paulette Cabara Farah, again who is referred to as the John Bene of Mexico, that case is so devastating and so so so bizarre. And now we have to give things to all the people who joined our Patreon in this past week, you guys are awesome, so big thanks going out to Emma, Snow White, Nina, Thank You Carly, Michelle, Desiree and Samantha. Thank you so much to Jessica, Jacqueline, Helen, Hannah, Gina, Thank You Jasmine, Natalie, and Kendra. And big thanks going out to Katie, Melissa, Zenya, Queen's Justice, thank you, Queen's Justice, Kira, Sherry, and Jenna. Thank you so much to Melissa, Jasmine, Sarah,

Crystal, and Andrew. And last but not least, thank you so much to Ledi, Sarah, Nina, Charmaine, and Aaron. You guys are amazing. You help keep the show going. your support means the world to us and Thank you so much everybody out there for just listening to us ongoing west Thanks for tuning into this week's episode. We love you guys so so much and also thanks for sharing this show If you've been sharing going west we really really appreciate you also if you want to leave us a review on Apple podcasts

We do so we love. Especially the nice ones. Yeah, really. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and don't be a stranger. Thank you. you