Murder With My Husband - 150. Brenda Heist - The Unexplainable Explainable Disappearance

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the abrupt disappearance of mother, Brenda Heist whose case ends with an unforeseen twist. Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: wfmz.com, author: Pam Cunningham, May 2, 2013 cnn.com, author: Laura Smith-Spark, May 4, 2013 lancasteronline.com, author: Cindy Stauffer, January 10, 2014 Newspapers.com sources: John M. Hoober III, Lancaster New Era, "Woman missing, police seek clues," 12 February 2002, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/567416007), citing print edition, p.A12 Cindy Stauffer, Lancaster New Era, "Police, family wonder, worry about missing Lititz mom," 20 February 2002, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/567416325), citing print edition, pp. A1, A12 Lancaster New Era, "Lititz woman is still missing," 7 March 2002, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/567669601), citing print edition, p. A14 Cindy Stauffer, Lancaster New Era, "Without a trace," 5 February 2003, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/566725714), citing print edition, pp. A1, A5 Lancaster New Era, "Group offers reward in case of Lititz missing mom," 27 June 2002, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/566729638), citing print edition, pp. B1, B10 Cindy Stauffer and Susan Baldridge, Lancaster New Era, "Lititz mom still missing," 12 July 2003, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/566640925), citing print edition, pp. A1, A5 Jon Butter, LNP Sunday News, "A reward and a prayer," 13 July 2003, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/565431611), citing print edition. pp. A1, A5 Cindy Stauffer, Lancaster New Era, "7 years without a trace," 5 June 2009, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/567908061), citing print edition, pp. A1, A6 Jack Brubaker, LNP Sunday News, "Still missing," 9 October 2011, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/639880705), citing print edition. pp. A1, A8 Mark Scolforo, The Paducah Sun, 1 May 2013, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/413755412), citing print edition, p.6A Cindy Stauffer, Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, 2 May 2013, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/567096747), citing print edition, pp. A1, A4-A5 Tom Knapp, Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, 12 June 2013, archived (www.newspapers.com/image/567608530), citing print edition, pp. A1, A4-A5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. We are currently trying to record with a little puppy. She has a name now. Her name is Daisy. Daisy is Murder With My Husband's mascot. Everyone give a big cheer for Daisy. Hi Daisy. So we officially have a dog. We have a, and she's actually really good. Well, she's not acting like you right now, but that's because she just woke up from a two-hour nap, so she's just a little... Little hyper. Little hyper, but we're so excited to be back and ready for another story.

All right, Gary, do you have your 10 seconds? Well, for my 10 seconds this week, I will explain... I mean, if you're listening to audio, you can't see, but I wrapped a paper towel in some blue tape around my ankle. We've been doing some remodels and stuff on our house. Long story short, I ran into something that I should have seen. It was just a big drill bit, and it cut my shin open, and it wouldn't stop bleeding for like an hour.

Yeah, and we didn't have a bandage. We didn't have a bandage bandage and I had to keep talking to people and I was doing stuff so I just grabbed a paper towel some blue tape and. If you're wondering why I have that that's why I have that. And other than that, I don't know, I feel like I just get up every night at three o'clock and take day seat at the bathroom and that's kind of been my routine lately. at three o'clock and take Daisy to the bathroom. And that's kind of been my routine lately. She does not wake me up to go potty. She goes over, she's really good. She doesn't bark or anything. She just wakes up and then starts swatting

Garrett's face really softly with her paw until she, or until he wakes up and takes her. But she has had no accidents in the bed. She's been great. Yeah. She's doing really well at potty. I'm sure we could talk for hours about our puppy because now we're a dog person, but we'll skip that and we'll get right into the episode. Alright, our episode sources are wfmz.com, CNN.com, LancasterOnline.com, and newspapers.com.

Alright, so losing a parent is one of the most painful things in life. And those who are lucky will enjoy relationships with their parents well into adulthood. Relationships that become multi-generational is your parents become grandparents. But losing a parent when you're a child leaves a hole in you, avoid in your life, where maybe you have the surviving parent filling the role of both parents or the surviving parent remarries, and then there's the uneasy acceptance of a step parent, or lack of acceptance or whatever. I mean, every situation is different.

But one thing I just can't imagine is having a parent disappear. A disappearance is the worst kind of loss because there's never any closure, at least not until a body is found. And if the body is never found, then it's a question mark that hangs over you for life. It's a question of where, and also the question of what happened. And typically, in our stories, we never really get a full answer. But what if there are cases out there with answers? Wons that then make you question every disappearance you've ever heard of. This is the kind of story that we're talking about in today's episode.

The story of a mother who disappeared without a trace. But answers came along that maybe only confused everyone even more. So when Brenda Heist was growing up, she was an Air Force brat, which means that her family, like many Air Force families, moved around a lot. And whenever she'd begin settling into a new school and making friends, her family would pull up the roots and relocate yet again. And over time, as one would imagine, this made it difficult for Brenda to form bonds with people. So when Brenda got married and had a family of her own as an adult, she wanted to make sure that her children's lives were grounded,

that they had the stability that she didn't get when she was their age. And she actually succeeded at doing just that. When they first married in 1993, Brenda and Lee Heist themselves had moved around a lot living in both Hawaii and Alaska, working in the restaurant industry. But as their children reached school age, the couple moved to Pennsylvania and settled there, buying a two-story house in the town of Lidditz in 1988. Now Lee worked as the district administration manager for a

copy-mishing company and Brenda waited tables before taking a bookkeeper job at a car dealership. But the marriage began falling apart and although Lee was 13 years older than her, Brenda saw her husband as immature and irresponsible. He had problems managing his money, and it was creating a burden for the entire family, leaving them saddled with debt and financial difficulties. And on top of that, the communication between them ranged from poor to non-existent. So by the fall of 2001, Brenda decided it was time to end her marriage to Lee. She approached him and asked him for a divorce.

And even though her parents were still married, Brenda nonetheless understood how hard divorce can be on children. And so through this, Brenda's children were her number one priority. She wanted to make sure that even though she and Lee were splitting up, there would be minimal changes to her kids' lives and routines. She remembered how it felt to be torn away from her friends again and again growing up. So she wanted to make sure that her kids continued attending the same schools and that their family still felt like a family. schools and that their family still felt like a family. So her separation from Lee was amicable as it could be, it wasn't bitter or acrimonious like many divorces are. In fact,

it was the kind of divorce that as far as divorces go was the envy of their friends. If we have to get divorced, one friend told them, we want to do it the way you guys are doing it. The Heist even agreed to continue living together as a family. And they would continue to spend holidays together and even attend events together. I actually had a friend whose parents were like this. They were divorced, but they did everything together as a family. But that's hard. That's hard to do.

And as it turns out, this arrangement wasn't working either. They tried to do and as it turns out this arrangement wasn't working either. They tried to do it and it was hard. And as the couple's mounting debt was pushing the home closer and closer to foreclosure, they realized they would need to sell the house and go their separate ways. Splitting the household into two separate households. So it was one of them not working? Like, could they just not afford it with their jobs? Do you know what was going on there?

They were both working, but according to Brenda, Lee had some spending habits and was irresponsible with their money. And according to her, he was the sole reason that they were in so much debt. Nice him, this is part of the reason why they're getting divorced. Yes, that in just lack of communication.

Yeah. But it was decided that Brenda would get full custody, and Lee would still have open visitation rights so he could see the kids whenever he wanted. In early 2002, they started getting the house ready to sell so they could put it on the market by springtime. They agreed to move into homes nearby in the same school district, so Morgan and Lee Jr.

These are the kids could continue attending the same schools. Because remember, this was important for Brenda, who in February of 2002 began setting out and looking for a new place to live all while adjusting to her new life. So the date was February 8th, 2002. It was a Friday. Brenda had taken that day off of work, as well as the day before it to go looking for housing. And after a long Friday at school, eight-year-old Morgan and 12-year-old Lee Jr.

returned home from school that afternoon, but they found the house empty, and their mother wasn't there. But that wasn't unexpected because before they'd gone off to school that morning, Brenda had sat her kids down and told them that she might be at the store when they get home that afternoon. In fact, she mentioned it a few times, so that's just where they assumed she was. It was about two o'clock when they got home.

They turned on the TV and waited for their mom to get back. They watched TV about half an hour passed and they were still home alone. So surely, mom should have come home by now. They thought this wasn't typical, mom was always home. But she's an adult, so they decided to wait some more. And then, a little after three o'clock, eight-year-old Morgan started crying. She was worried about her mom, and somehow she just felt like something was wrong. This wasn't typical. The kids called their dad, Lee, at his office in Valley Force, where he was working, which was over an hour away.

They said, hey, mom never came home. And he said, well, let's just wait a little longer. Maybe she got tied up. She doesn't come home soon. He said, call me back. Another hour passed. Lee, Jr. then called his father again. Lee Sr. was like, okay, let's just

wait a little bit longer. Your mother's an adult like maybe she just got caught up at the store. You kids are gonna be okay. Just keep watching TV. I'll be home soon. And then another hour passed. The sky was growing orange as evening drew near. Morgan once again phoned their dad in a tearful panic. He said, okay, 20 more minutes. Let's wait. And if she doesn't show up, we'll do something. Do you think that's weird? I mean, hindsight, yes, because we know this type of story. But also I feel like as a dad, you're probably like, okay, she probably just got caught up running errands. The kids are safe. Like, I know they're safe, they're calling me, everything's all right. Also, they're divorced. Yeah. And I know that they were still active in each

other's lives, but I'm sure that there was still changes being made in their relationship at this point. He just, it's waiting an hour. Let's wait an hour. Let's wait 20 minutes. We also probably didn't want to come home from work early. Yeah, for sure. So they wait the 20 minutes and Brenda still didn't show up. So shortly before his work day ended, we got into his car and raced home. And when he got there, there was no trace of Brenda. He immediately picked up the phone and called the lit its police. And they issued a below. That's a beyond the lookout bulletin. Okay. She must have taken off. Lee immediately told police one filing the report.

She had a lot on her mind with the impending divorce and the cell of the house. Brenda's brother, Bill Coppin Haver, also thought at first that maybe that's what had happened. Maybe she just took a time out for the weekend, a little breather. The last time Bill talked to his sister was 10 days earlier and she sounded stressed. But it also sounded like she still had everything under control like she was managing it. And how many moms just leave their kids? Like how often does that really happen? Right. And Brenda's mother, Jean, talked to her only two days earlier and nothing sounded out of the ordinary. Sure stressed because she's going through a divorce

and putting the house up for sale and trying to find new living, but Brenda was still Brenda. So recalling the conversation, Jean said that Brenda sounded excited about her kids' activities, about the basketball team, about how proud she was that Morgan had dribbled the ball down the court and made a shot showing off to the boys on the team. Brenda being the only girl among five brothers had been very proud of Morgan for holding her own on the team, Brenda being the only girl among five brothers had been very proud of Morgan for holding her own on a team of both boys and girls. But the consensus among her family and friends was this, Brenda absolutely would not have just walked out on her children.

Everyone was an agreement about this. And police investigators examined Brenda's computer. They found nothing on it nothing in any of her correspondences that offered the Fainus clues to what happened to her they were looking for an affair a sign of a double life nothing also her telephone records seem normal so everyone was Confounded how does a mom who was so adamant about her children's well-being just leave them home alone and disappear? Good old ex-husband. Well, fear, worry, and panic consumed those who cared about Brenda as the hours she was missing turned into days. And then five days after she was last seen, Brenda's white mercury was found parked on a street in the city of York, which was about 30 miles away, four blocks away from the bus station.

So please are like a finally elite. Maybe she did actually run away. But when investigators checked the bus station's fares, they couldn't find any evidence that Brenda had purchased a ticket. And it would have shown up because by this time bus tickets just like train and plane tickets required anyone purchasing a ticket to show ID. Speaking of which, they checked airline and train registers as well, but they found no trace of Brenda there either.

So there's no trace that she got on any public transportation to leave, but then her car was also found only 30 miles away. The police at this point decided to impound her car to process it for potential clues. And aside from the fact that her keys were missing, they found nothing out of the ordinary. There was no sign of any struggle, of any violence or foul play, no blood anywhere inside the vehicle, nor were there any signs of a struggle or a break in inside the high-home. Because members, she could have went home, so they're looking for anything.

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had to go on was shortly before her disappearance Brenda had withdrawn about $2,000 from the family bank accounts and she didn't deposit her paychecks. She also had taken about $200 from a petty cash account in her workplace. So she had taken some money out. That's a little weird. But none of this was enough money for Brenda to have skipped town and begun a new life somewhere else. And again, no one who knew her believed she would just up and leave her two children. Have they not investigated the, because her husband yet?

Well, of course they're suspicious, but they're just saying innocent until proven guilty, let's look at every single angle. And they first have to knock out the shiran away. But everyone is like, no, no, no. Brenda was like one of those 1950s mothers, like June Cleaver, heavily involved in all aspects of her kids' lives. She coached her daughter's basketball team. She was a room mother at school. She was the kind of mother who kept a watchful eye on her children and always knew where they

were at all times. In fact, for some, her relationship with her kids was even a bit intense, like very much a helicopter parent. But no one would argue that she wasn't absolutely devoted to them. So this just didn't add up. And as the days wore on, the family waited, they waited for some sign of Brenda, waited for her to walk through the door, they prayed every single night, but their prayers remained unanswered. Nobody heard a peep from her. What?

I mean, I'm just still in the ex-husband, I know. That seems obvious, but I just don't know where else she would go. Well, what would have happened? It's not just you. This led the investigation, which was led by Detective John Skullfield at the Littitz Police Department, to turning their focus to one person and one person only. It's the same person that Garrett is talking about. Lee Heist, the husband slash ex-husband. So Lee sat

down with a detective and went through his activities on the day that Brenda Vanished. He said he got to work that morning in Valley Forge, which is a commute over an hour away. Brenda, he said, had gone out that morning to look for housing and just before lunch, he said that he'd called home from work and talked to her for a little while, which was something he did every day. She was going to expect a call from him even after they split. They had continued this tradition. They talked for a bit about laundry

that needed to be done and dinner that night, which was pork chops, which were defrosting in the refrigerator. He told her that he might be late coming home from work that night and she told him, be sure to call before you leave so that we know when to expect you home. And that was the conversation.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him. And that was all he could offer to investigators, who later verified his alibi and it seemed to check out. They confirmed that he had been at work all day from early morning until the time he left. Well, after his kids called him to report Brenda missing. So Lee openly wondered in an interview with the Lancaster New Era if maybe something didn't just snap.

And Brenda felt she needed to get away. This was his explanation. He claimed that if she decided to return, her family would welcome her with open arms. There would be no heart feelings. All I'm concerned about is her safe return," he said. It's her call. I want to let her know I'm here to help in any way I can.

So he is not suspecting foul play. But based on everything they'd heard from friends and family, police just weren't buying this. She never leave her kids. There was also no evidence that she'd taken anything with her. All of her clothes were still in her closet. Her makeup was left behind. Her toothbrush.

The laundry had been neatly piled on the laundry room floor before she went missing. Breakfast dishes were in the sink, and the pork chops really were defrosting in the fridge. And the longer that Brenda remained missing, the more her friends and family began to suspect foul play. And even though the husband's alibi checked out, detective Skowfield remains suspicious of him because we know that people murder for hire, but of

course Lee and Cicity had nothing to do with it from the very beginning. And the husbands always do. They always say they have nothing to do with it. So police called Lee back into the station for a polygraph test. Lee took the test and he passed with flying colors. But the police continued to question him and probe him, releasing him, but knowing that he was their only suspect so far, I mean, with nothing else to go on. Who else do you turn to? Meanwhile, as the weeks passed, Brenda's brother Bill, who lived in Texas, kept an ear out for the phone, and his eyes leapt to the caller ID box every time the phone rang, hoping

that it would be Brenda. As the months wore on, Brenda's family members began to fear that she was dead. How could you not? They would talk with each other about possible explanations for why she went missing, like maybe it was an emotional breakdown, or she had amnesia, or there was a carjacking, or an abduction, but foul play really did seem like the most likely scenario. The uncertainty of all of this tortured them. No one took it harder than Brenda's dad, who had been battling an illness and slid downhill rapidly after Brenda's disappearance.

In fact, he didn't even make it to the end of the year. In December 2002, Brenda's dad passed away never knowing what happened to his daughter. Gosh, and again, it's 2002, so it's knowing what happened to his daughter. Gosh. And again, it's 2002. So it's just so much easier to disappear. I mean, it could be wrong, but then it is now. Right. And when Brenda hadn't shown up to the hospital where he was dying and didn't attend

his funeral, that's when everyone's worst fears were more or less confirmed. Something terrible had happened to her. They knew it. She was either being held captive somewhere or she had been kidnapped and murdered. If there was anywhere that Brenda's father was able to find comfort in his dying days, it was in his faith. And in his belief that if Brenda was dead, at least she was now in a better place. And Brenda's mother shared this perspective. That's the only way she could cope with all of this. Meanwhile, Lee and the children received support from their church. The pastor kind of acted as a trustee on behalf of Brenda when the house was finally sold,

which was sold in order to avoid a foreclosure, so they didn't get a lot of money out of it. Also, Lee had quit his job after Brenda's disappearance to look after the kids. But when he tried to return to work, he struggled to find a job which only led them to slip deeper and deeper into debt. The fellow members of the church were praying for him to eventually land a job, but perhaps he couldn't get one because of the shadow of his disappeared wife, the clad of suspicion it cast over him. I mean, in the local area, everyone was talking about him behind his back saying,

for sure, he did something to her. And it doesn't seem at least to me right now, there doesn't seem like there's any motive. Like what does he get out of killing his wife if he did it? Doesn't sound like there is any insurance money. There isn't insurance policy, but you have to have a body. Yeah, true. Okay. So yeah, so that's out of the question. Right. Now he just can't work and has to take care of the kids. Well, and on top of that a lot of

His children's lives were changing because a lot of other parents in the area no longer let their kids go over to the Heist house. It just doesn't seem like there's any Good motive. Right and all of this really did put a heavy strain on Lee and his frustration with the local police grew and grew because They are still telling people that he's their only suspect Which is making it hard for him to have a functioning life and he eventually got to a breaking point So he sat down one day and wrote a five-page letter to the Littitt's Police Department demanding answers and transparency He wanted the police to tell him officially that he was no longer a suspect.

He had an airtight alibi, he passed the polygraph, so why were they still only looking at him? He wanted to know why they didn't involve any outside agencies, no one had contacted the FBI, and why the case had not got a national attention, it had only been local. But part of his motivation in writing the letter was to signal to police that he was still invested in finding out what happened

at Brenda. He was like, I still care about her. And in response to the letter, Detective Skullfield sat down with him to give him at least some of the transparency that he wanted. Skullfield explained that over two dozen people had been interviewed and Brenda's information was entered into the National Crime Information Computer as a missing person, and her DNA was added to the national database. He says that they followed multiple leads, but they wouldn't give him what he was really after to declare him cleared as a suspect. Everyone was still a suspect, according to Scofield.

Especially considering they still had no idea what had even happened to Brenda. By the end of 2003, the second year of Brenda's absence, Lee and the children were living in a split-level townhouse where the only remaining trace of Brenda was now a dated picture hanging on the wall of the living room. Lee had to finally give away Brenda's clothing. Morgan and Lee Jr. were in counseling and wouldn't talk about their mother's disappearance with anyone but their father I mean imagine how this affects children Brenda's mother Jean stopped expecting to hear from her daughter and instead each time she'd hear about a woman's body being discovered

She just weighed around for confirmation that it was Brenda's but it never was over the next several years Hope dimmed completely over the next several years, hoped dimmed completely. Seven years. Two of Brenda's five brothers died during that time. Oh my gosh. Brenda's mother moved to Texas, Brenda's son and daughter grew up.

Lee Jr. moved through high school. The daughter's 19 now. Right, he played on the high school football team, and honestly, Detective Skowfield actually became really close with the kids. He went to their football games, he had pizza with them. He actually never gave up on trying to solve Brenda's disappearance. It was one of those cases that kind of haunted him and he kept her file on his desk all these years.

Brenda's social security number was actively monitored, but there was never any activity on it. I thought you were going to say her social security number for a second. Oh yeah, I'm going gonna say it out to everyone. And no credit cards were ever open in her name. So, Scofield kind of unofficially considered the case, a homicide case. He really believed that Brenda had been kidnapped and murdered and that was it.

And that was it. And he also started to doubt that it would ever be solved. Lee Jr. eventually graduated from high school and enrolled at Westchester University to study criminal justice. Morgan moves through high school excelled in sports, graduated with excellent grades and began attending Westchester University just like her brother. And Lee eventually did find work again as a trainer for a convenience store chain. He actually ended up meeting another woman in 2009. They flew to Hawaii together and got married. Then in the summer of 2009, Lee began petitioning to have Brenda declared legally dead. So this

brought the Brenda Heist disappearance back into the news cycle where it was pointed out that there was a $100,000 life insurance policy hanging in the balance. The Lee insisted this wasn't his motivation, which is. Oh, that's hard because that's the first thing that I would think of. But also, it's been years, it's been years and like a hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money, but is it that much money to risk killing someone for? And then waiting eight years to collect. Like, that's a long time.

No way. He just tells the public, listen, I just wanna put the pass behind me. I wanna move on. This is my last step. It's over. He told the judge, we've begun new lives. The kids have graduated.

They're making their own lives. It's time that we close out on this chapter. And the judge agreed with him. So Brenda Heist was declared legally dead on June 4, 2009, and the $100,000 life insurance policy was paid out to Lee. By April 2013, it had been more than 11 years since Brenda had gone missing. Lee Jr., like I said, graduated from college. He was training to become a police officer. Actually, the mystery of his mother's disappearance is what influenced his career path. Yeah. He actually hoped to be able to work on his mother's cold case one day. It was early on a Friday evening at the end of the month when a call came

in to the Littitts Police Department. It was a phone call that would break the case wide open. All right, let's hear it. A phone call that the detective never thought would come. The mystery of Brenda Heist's disappearance was about to be a mystery. If it's her, no longer. There's no way. It was a call that triggered waves of shock and awe through the department. And that call came in from another police department. Over a thousand miles away, near the southernmost tip of the United States in Key Largo, Florida,

a woman who appeared to be homeless walked into the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, approached a deputy, and explained to him that she was on probation and had recently been arrested under an assumed name. But more importantly she said she was a missing person and her real name was Brenda Pice. Now don't believe it. I do not believe this. So they then call the Littitz Police Department and as soon as detective Skowfield learned about this development, he asked the agents to implore to email him a picture of the woman. Brenda's picture had been sitting on his desk all these years.

And when he saw the picture of the homeless woman, he instantly recognized her as Brenda Heist. There's no way. There is no way. So before calling Lee, before talking to anybody, he boards a plane and he flies to Florida. When he arrives, he found himself face to face with the missing woman that he had long presumed dead and had haunted him for all of these years, for whom the only kind of phone call he had expected for years was going to be one that was reporting that her remains had been discovered.

But now, in 2013, it seems like Brenda Heist was alive right in front of him and honestly, looked worse for where. She very clearly appeared to have been living on the streets, not taking care of herself. Her skin was weathered, her hair was stringy and dyed blonde. She had heavy bags under her eyes and her teeth were in very poor condition. There's a lot of people who have been looking for you for a long time. Detective Skullfield told her. I mean, he's like, where the freak have you been? Brenda then hung her head in shame and her eyes filled with tears.

She began telling school filled the whole story, starting from the day that she went missing back in February 2002. Jumping into an ad and it is native. I use their body wash. I use their shampoo, we use their sunscreen, everything. They're deodorant. We are big native fans over here. And the funny thing is is I caught myself wanting to buy native products at stores and then I was like, why am I doing that? Murder with my husband literally has a code. You can use promo code husband and get money off your native purchases.

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Yes, you energy, energy for everything. Kath the banner now to learn more. It was on a Thursday and a Friday of that week. She said that she really had taken two days off from work to go look for housing. And it was after realizing that she would be unable to support her children and live independently on the salary She was earning she set out Friday morning to apply for government housing assistance So that's what she was doing Friday

But she was turned down and this was a devastating blow for her left her filling hopeless Not knowing what to do, she says she went to a neighborhood park, she sat down on a bench and she cried. And that's when, according to her, she was approached by three homeless people, two men and a woman. They asked her what was wrong, they struck up a conversation with her and they befriended her. The homeless people told her that they were leaving that day to escape the cold and they were going to travel to South Florida where the weather was sunny and warm. They were going hitchhike there, they said, and Brenda was more than welcome to join them

if she wanted to. And so Brenda tells Detective Skofield, she made an impulsive decision totally on a whim, none of it was planned, and she left with those three homeless people. She said she first drove her car to where it was found in the city of York, and then she and the trio hitchhiked their way down to Key West. Which there's to make sense. Why not just drive the car? Yeah, I don't understand.

The whole journey down South took them about a month, she said. Along the way, she claims they slept in tents, hidden among the trees, and over the 10 years that she lived in South Florida, she said she slept on her bridges, scavenged for food from fast food dumpsters, and panhandled. And she sometimes did day labor jobs, cleaning houses and boats.

The types of jobs where she was paid in cash and she didn't have to present an ID because she didn't have hers. She'd also worked as a housekeeper, it was learned for much of her time in Florida. She had actually lived in a camper with a man named Jim. But that relationship went bad and when she moved out she began living in a tent community that was subsidized by the city of Key West. During her time in Florida,

Brenda hadn't told a soul that she had children or was married. She was generally quiet and talked a little about herself. When people asked her about herself, she'd say she was a widow that her husband Lee had died years earlier. She never had any children. The name she went by was Kelsey Smith. And under that name, she now had a criminal record. She had some minor infractions, marijuana charges, traffic violations, but then she was charged with forgery for stealing the driver's license of a woman whose house she cleaned and presenting it as her own. In the end, and after a recent arrest for a probation violation, she said she was now tired of running and tired of lying. It had been 13 years

and she wanted to go back to being Brenda Heist. I don't know, man. I am so confused. I don't know what to say. Like how can this be real? Right. So, Detective Skowfield confirms that it's her. He confirms that it's her. And now- So how does he confirm it's her? Do they do like finger print DNA? Yes, they had it all. Oh, so it's her. It's her. So Detective Skowfield while talking to Brenda in Florida is like, you had a whole life. He shows her pictures of her children who are now grown. He's like, I went to their football games. I came over for dinner. She barely recognized them. She broke down crying in front of him. She told Skowfield that she thought about them every single day, but she just

couldn't bring herself to reach out to them. Oh my God. She kept justullfield that she thought about them every single day, but she just couldn't bring herself to reach out to them Oh my god She kept just telling herself that they were better off without her once she had done what she'd done So now detective Skullfield has to get back and Contact her children and tell them that the mother that they believe had been murdered Was actually alive and he has to tell Lee hey I'm sorry you've been under suspicion for 13 years and couldn't get a job and this really,

really affected your life, but your ex-wife is actually alive. And as you can imagine, her ex-husband and now grown children did not warmly receive the news of her resurrection from the dead. 100%. Once they moved past the shock of it all, they were really angry.

Lee was angry because of the effect that Brenda's disappearance had had on their children. Okay, now I'm going to say I'm kind of glad he got the money. Right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And her children are like, we were abandoned. Like you completely abandoned us. Neither Morgan nor Lee Jr. wished to see their mother. When Detective Skofield told them that she had been found they were like we want nothing to do with her.

And Morgan made her fillings to her mother known on Twitter. She actually tweeted, you deserve to rot in hell for what you have done to me. Brenda was not going to have an easy time transitioning back into being Brenda Heist like she wished, especially with pending charges against her down in Florida for the probation violation, which was because she had felt to check in with authorities in Tampa, which had been a condition of her probation. Also, it later came out that Brenda's account of her time in Florida wasn't entirely truthful. And you have to understand that when this news broke, headlines were like, mother missing for 13 years found living perfectly fine in Florida. And so all these people start coming forward and going,

no, she wasn't all her time in Florida wasn't necessarily that bad. According to some friends, there were periods of time where she lived happily, she lived with roommates, she was dating, drinking, swimming, tanning, had a job, so you can really understand the hurt and anger her children must have been feeling when she resurfaced. And though she didn't face any charges in Pennsylvania

related to her disappearance, because you legally can disappear, she was arrested and taken to jail in Santa Rosa County on the charges of failing to report to her parole officer. So while she's awaiting sentencing, Dr. Phil interviews her on his show. Oh, because you can just imagine like as you show this, you are hearing this. These cases never turn out like this. This never happens. And she was in an orange jumpsuit sitting in gel as his production surprised her by bringing her mother onto the show

during the interview. She was sentenced to a year in gel, but only served six months. And after she got out, she went to live with family, not Lee and her children in Texas. She did reach out to her children by sending them a short note, but she didn't pressure them into seeing her and certainly they weren't ready. And I can't blame them. You know, I would feel hurt abandoned and betrayed if my mother did this to me. It's really a tragic story all around. Is there not more to this? Like that is what happened? That is what happened. But I want to touch on the fact that I think Brenda probably had some serious mental health issues and an inability to cope and problem solve. And they were things that were

well hidden under life circumstances that suddenly just became really challenging for her. And so she escaped. She fled all of her problems. She ran away. But if she was glossing over parts of her decade in Florida, like she wasn't telling the truth to police when friends came forward and said, no, she had a full life in Florida. Maybe misrepresenting stuff about that time, who's to say it really wasn't impulsive decision. Yeah. I mean, what if it was more planned than she claimed?

Why dump the car? She'd mentioned to her kids multiple times. She was going to be at the store, so don't worry if I'm not home when you get home. That's true. Everything feels a bit off and that's the issue. But I find this story important to focus on because every time we talk about a disappearance, that the body's never found. Someone literally just ups and disappears.

Everyone goes down these rabbit holes of, that the bodies never found. Someone literally just ups and disappears. Everyone goes down these rabbit holes of, oh my gosh, there was alien abduction or someone probably kidnapped them. She was used for brain, and she was used for testing and blah, blah, blah. Or a serial killer definitely got them. What was the strange behavior?

They had to have been on drugs? Like we all go down these true crime rabbit holes when there's disappearances like this. But what if people truly just disappear? What if these missing people really could just be out there? really could just be out there. Like, it's a possibility. Brenda's story took over the internet when everyone realized that she really did just up and leave that day. She made a self-ass decision.

One, I'm sure she deeply regrets, but I'm sure it was more coming out of a place of hurt and fear and sometimes people truly do just vanish. I don't know, I thought there was definitely more to this. I thought you were gonna twist around and be like, we did this, but dude didn't do anything. No.

She literally just took off and that's, I don't know, I'm not, I wanna say I don't judge someone for that, but at the same time you're like kids, so I do judge you for that. Right. Which is why I touched on the mental health aspect of it because it affected so many other people, and it's, I don't know, it's hard,

but probably a whole other topic. That's just crazy. That's crazy. Right. And it wasn't like it was like, oh, a year or two. That's the thing too. You know what I'm saying? It's like a year or two.

I'll be care to get away. I'll be care to get away. I'll be care to get away. I'll be care to get away. I'll be care to get away? It's like a year or two. I'll be getting it away. Okay, like this. I need to go back to my life. 13 years. Like there's something else going on after 13 years. And just the whole story of the hitchhikers and her dropping her car and just hitchhiking and not taking any something about it feels a little off. And again, we do not know her mental state of when this all happened, and I know that this can happen. Which is just why I want to give you this perspective of this story that's like it was a vanishing for 13 years. People thought Brenda Heist was dead, just like many of our cases. But then she turned up. So that was the mysterious disappearance and discovery of Brenda Heist.

Crazy. Okay, you guys. Well, that was our fun little twist of a case for this week's episode. A reminder that we do a watch party and our murder with my husband, world on Mondays, every single Monday. So if you haven't checked it out, come hang out with us tonight and we'll see you next week with another episode I love it. I hate it. Goodbye!