NEW SHOW: The Truth About Natalie

Hi, Crime Junkies. This week, I'm taking my first, like, real, real vacation since starting this podcast eight and a half years ago. Like, truly unplugging can't be reached, or at least that is the hope as of this recording. Wish me luck. But you know I would never leave you hanging on a Monday. And actually, I've been working on something bigger than a single episode to bring you while I'm gone. I've been working on a lot, actually. There is a fan club episode available this Monday, now in video version, on our YouTube channel. A case that will be totally new to any crime junkie who isn't in the fan club. And I already prepared a new episode for you next Monday. And while you wait, how about a limited series that I EP'd with Sean Kipe? I know that you guys get deeply invested in mysterious death of cases. And this one takes the cake. It begins when 27-year-old Natalie Jones disappears after leaving a 4th of July gathering in Alabama. Nearly three months later, Natalie is found dead inside her car, hidden in the woods. Kind of. But instead of this discovery bringing answers, this discovery only deepens the mystery. The Truth About Natalie is a new Audiocheck Investigate series hosted by investigative journalist Sean Kipe. Through exclusive interviews, original reporting, and Natalie's own recordings, the series takes a closer look at what happened and why people who knew and loved Natalie believe that there are still important questions left unanswered. Today, I'm going to share episode one of The Truth About Natalie right here in the Crime Junkie feed. And if you like it, the second episode is available for you wherever you get your podcasts. Enjoy. This podcast discusses issues such as drug use, self-harm, sexual abuse, violence, and assault. Listener discretion is advised. Particle Entertainment. First, let me say that I'm not mad at nobody. This is not why I'm sharing my story. I'm sharing my story because this is my life. This is my story. This is what I made it out of. It's the truth. It happened. I have been ridiculed. That's what's wrong with the world these days because of the fact people get stuff done to them. And then they get ridiculed about it. Why? Why? It has been a long road, and God brought me out of this. And I know He's with me. I know He has a plan. And that is the only reason I'm sharing my story is because I'm hoping to help somebody along the way to not give up no matter what. I'm not going to give up. and wasn't responding to texts or calls. Most concerning was that her phone went straight to voicemail, which it never did. Natalie was the type that was glued to her phone. They knew that something was wrong, and I think that her mother really started screaming it out loudly the first. For Natalie's mother, Elaine Gordon, the panic instantly set in. The morning of July 5th, at like 6 o'clock in the morning, I started calling her phone. I never called her phone that early, you know what I'm saying? And it started going straight to voicemail. I called my roommate, Ricky, and I said, go in there, peek in Natalie's room, and see if she's in there. So he did. He come back. He said, no, she's not in here. I said, go out there and see if her car's out there in the yard. He did. No, it wasn't out there. As a matter of fact, she didn't come home. That's what Ricky said. Elaine had spent the previous night of July 4th at her friend Sherry's house. Concerned, she went straight home. So I told Sherry, I said, you need to get up. I said, you need to take me home right now. I said, my daughter's phone is going straight to voicemail, and I said, this never happens. That never happens. I don't care if she's in the shower. That phone is in the bathroom with her, you know, wherever. She's there. Elaine called the police shortly after getting home, but was told she needed to wait 24 hours before Natalie was officially considered a missing person. She called the friends she had numbers for and her children's fathers with no luck. No one had heard from Natalie. She continued to text and call her phone, too, but each time there was no response, and calls continued to go straight to voicemail. On Monday, July 6th, nearly 30 hours since Natalie last communicated with anyone, Elaine went to the Heard County Sheriff's, It was Monday morning. I was down there at 7 o'clock in the morning filing a missing report. Heard County Investigator Dan Boswell is the officer who took the initial report and would take the lead on Natalie's case. You know, when you get a missing person report, you're trying to gather as much information as you can about the person, the friends, the family, what's going on in their life at the time. And, of course, Elaine and Tabitha, Natalie's sister, they provided information that we would start looking at to try and determine where she might be. And, of course, you know, in the very beginning, you're looking at this from an aspect, why is this person missing? You know, what's going on in their life that created the situation that caused them to be missing? Or even to a point, why at the time did Elaine or her sister believe she was missing? Because they know her life better than anybody else. Despite this, Elaine tells me that at first, Lieutenant Boswell seemed to push back a bit or at least offer other possibilities for Natalie's absence, ones which did not sit well with Elaine. She just wanted to get a break. She wanted to get away from her mama and her two boys. She ran away. And I tell this man, I said, let me tell you something. Her two boys are her world. I mean, she lives and does everything for her boys. And I said, me, you know, even though we might bicker about the grandchildren, it's me, her, and her two boys. That's all our little village consists of. As Jennifer Peterson tells me, that even if by some chance Natalie had split town or needed a break from life for a few days, as she was known to do from time to time, she wouldn't just ghost everyone. She had plans on Monday that she would not have missed. Her son, her youngest son, Isaac, had a little accident in the pool and had to get a cast on his arm. And he was supposed to go back to the doctor that Monday. And that was when she was supposed to take Isaac to go get, I can't remember if it was just like an appointment or get the cast off or something like that. She would have been back to make that appointment. She loved her sons and poof, she's gone. So for her to just, just completely go missing, I think that was the first like red flag that something was wrong. And this is not something common that Natalie had ever done before. She's never just gone off the grid. An official investigation was opened by the Heard County Sheriff's Department and flyers went up around town. Not long after, friends, family, and volunteers began searching local fields and long roadways, even traveling, leaving every possible path they could find from Jackson's Gap, Alabama, where the party was, to Natalie's home in Corinth, Georgia. What else could Elaine do? Sitting around and waiting for Natalie to call or show up wasn't an option. - Oh, I'm out looking. I've got my sister and a friend of mine. We ride five and six, seven hours a day looking for her. And I mean, we rode, we rode, we rode. - Everyone's talking. Everyone's riding around on their four-wheelers or they're out in their cars. They're doing foot searches. The whole county is just crazy. - Elaine and Natalie's friends were still calling anyone she might've spoken to or that might know where she could be, though it was highly unlikely that she would leave and not tell her mother or her children about her plans. Police began questioning those closest to Natalie, looking for information, for a place to start. The first thing police did was pull cell phone records in an attempt to locate Natalie, or at least see who she'd been communicating with. - For us, one of the most important resources that assisted us in this investigation were her phone records. Having her phone number was extremely important in determining who she last contacted, who she last text, location information. All those things become extremely important because, you know, with technology nowadays, all that information's pretty closely available to you. - While investigators worked to pull phone records, Elaine provided them with Natalie's movements beginning on July 3rd, the day before she disappeared. - I was at my friend's house over at Sherry's, and she came over, and we swam, we grilled out steak, we danced. She left probably about seven o'clock, maybe, and I said, "Where are you going?" And she said, "Oh, I'm just gonna go home." And I said, "Are you okay?" Yeah, you know, she said, "Stay here with Sherry and enjoy yourself." I stayed there. I didn't see Natalie on the floor because she took Tabitha's kids and got the daughter's nails done, you know. She watched her kids that day. - And Tabitha, again, is Natalie's half-sister. They share the same father, or at least that's the consensus. No DNA test has ever confirmed this, and Elaine has her doubts. Jennifer continues on with Natalie's known movements, but she's not the only one. - She was a little bit of a social butterfly. She bounced around. She was single, and she ended up confirming with an old, I would consider him the love of her life, boyfriend that she had been putting feelers out with. He invited her out to come celebrate the 4th of July with him and his family. Natalie initially was gonna come, and she wanted to bring her youngest son, Isaac. - He gave the indication that he didn't want the kids, or the kid to come, and she said, "Sorry." She just kind of blew him off, basically. - When she picked up Tabitha's kids around noon on the 4th, Natalie confirmed she would go to the party. She took her niece to get her nails done while her nephew waited in the lobby, playing games on his phone. - She drops the niece and nephew off, and she goes back home. She grabs some things, and then she heads off, off into Alabama. - Initially, investigators knew nothing of Natalie's movements after she left the party. One would think that as they learned more, the clearer the picture would become. But with Natalie's case, everything learned about her actions that night only brought on more questions. News of Natalie's disappearance hit local media within days. Police asked local TV stations and newspapers to advertise their bolo for Natalie and her car, that hot pink Chevy. Surely, someone had to have seen that. And while they likely began this investigation just like they would any other, Natalie's family didn't feel enough was being done initially. - I know that there was a bit of back and forth between the family and law enforcement. They could not get Heard County. They didn't want me to organize a ground search. So they organized one themselves. And I think there was a bit of frustration from Natalie's friends and family. They were saying that she didn't just run away. She wasn't trying to get away. This isn't like her. And I think that they were just trying to tackle everything as best that they could early on, because those early hours are so crucial. - Several weeks after Natalie was last seen or heard from, social media began to do its thing. True crime buffs across the country picked up on Natalie's story and shared it it on their platforms, creating a buzz. People took to podcasts, YouTube, and TikTok to report on what was known about Natalie at the time, which really wasn't much. She had left the party and she hadn't been seen since. They all seemed to focus on the fact that no one had seen her hot pink car. It became a calling card for Natalie. I've seen some crazy cars in various states I've lived in, and hot pink is pretty bold. That's a bold decision. And it's rare. But on top of that, how does someone vanish in a hot pink car? That was really the biggest. The hot pink car is the focal point for me. By midsummer, the story had gone national. Still, Heard County officials were tight-lipped on the case, making no official statements, which caused citizens and even local media to chime in and wonder, why aren't they saying anything? Even if to simply dispel rumors as interest in the case grew. It became worldwide headlines at that point. You know, Natalie's case started off with local headlines, and then it rolled up into regional headlines, making Atlanta news coverage and whatnot. And then it shot all the way up to Daily Mail, which is worldwide. Dr. Phil, People. Nancy Grace. And at that point, it's pretty standard, in my opinion, that a press conference is owed to the public, and that never happened. Looking back, Lieutenant Boswell agrees that it was a mistake to keep the media in the dark the way they did. It only fueled speculation and fear in an already tense and emotional situation. During an investigation, you got to be careful what information you release. Because if there is somebody that's, possibly you're going to, you may look at, you don't want to release that information. And that's standard on any investigation, right? The one thing I would have done differently is, I mean, while we did get out on the news to try and put out there that she's missing and a description of her and as much of that information as we could, I think what I would do differently now is I would get ahead of the social media flurry of information. That came in that was so inaccurate and misleading. And put it out to the public, first off, that we are, that we're working the case, right? And just keep them updated as much as we can on that information. Then, Elaine and other members of Natalie's family started receiving odd and increasingly disturbing messages, like the one that Natalie's sister, Jessica Bishop, received. I just got a text message from some number that I don't know. That says that they have Natalie and she's sick and that there's a ransom of $7,000. Coupled with silence from investigators, rumors spread throughout the community like wildfire. The theories were just all over the place during those days. Law enforcement approached her to be a witness and they put her in protective custody. They put her through a wood chipper at this landscaping company. And then they poured acid on what was left to dissolve it. Natalie was in the back of a truck, in a cooler. She was frozen. Natalie was in a witness protection program, was being held in a cabin that she was being sex trafficked. There were unconfirmed sightings of Natalie or her car. Several attempts at extortion, one from as far away as California. Even some, who said Natalie was murdered and they knew what happened to her, but provided no real evidence. That she was tied up, you know, and being mistreated. I even received a phone call saying that they come up with $5,000, you know, and I could get my baby back. And I said, okay, I said, let me speak to her. You know, let me hear her voice. Let, just let her say something, you know? And I mean, I done made arrangements. I was just to put the towel up. From a vehicle that I had done, just got, you know, I mean, I was fixing to come up with that money if he would have showed me a picture or let me hear her voice. And then he went all the way down to $100, talking about how he wanted to get his baby, a baby doll for Christmas. Much of what circulated online was dismissed as baseless gossip and rumor. By August, police had utilized every available tool to track Natalie's movements. But progress, was agonizingly slow. They scanned footage from traffic cameras and analyzed cell phone data from the morning of July 4th, hoping for even the faintest trace of Natalie. Investigators checked her bank activity, finding no transactions or cash withdrawals since July 2nd. Helicopters combed the area in aerial searches, and officers followed up on every lead or possible sighting. Yet every effort seemed to lead to another dead end. As the week stretched on, the hope surrounding the search, began to slip away. Elaine Gordon found herself consumed with questions. Was her daughter still out there? Would she ever see Natalie again? And looming over everyone involved in the case was an unanswered question. Where could Natalie Jones be? It just, it's so perplexing to think about how does someone fall off the face of the earth? Over the summer of 2020, as the world grappled with COVID, the search for Natalie Jones intensified. Investigators now working with assistants from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation uncovered a series of puzzling clues. They learned from her family that Natalie had applied for a passport and planned a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, allegedly with a scheduled flight on July 8th. So they wondered, could she have changed her flight and left early to get to the She'd applied for her passport weeks earlier, but it wasn't issued until July 15th, a week after she disappeared. A GBI inquiry confirmed that Natalie had not left the country, at least not legally. Following multiple leads, authorities searched properties across the county, responding to reports that Natalie had been tied up in a remote cabin, drugged, or even killed. Each location turned up empty. No sign of Natalie, her car, or evidence that she'd been there. That's when all sorts of things started just coming out about that she was being sex trafficked in Whitesburg. We went there and we went to all these houses and nothing was going on at these houses. We spoke to people. There was supposedly some cabin in Whitesburg where they were going to and this information was just coming in from various individuals in that sort of place. People who knew Natalie or Elaine at the time. We got the drug task force involved. We got the GBI involved. We went door to door and knocked on all these doors. All these people asking questions of just neighbors and everything came up with zero. So we were just, we were inundated with a whole bunch of leads that ultimately led to nowhere. On August 11th, Natalie's sister, Tabitha, was interviewed by investigators. She said, She revealed shocking details. Just days before Natalie's disappearance, her recent ex-boyfriend, Jonathan, had shown up at Tabitha's house unannounced while Natalie was visiting. Jennifer elaborates further. What we had initially heard is that Jonathan came to Tabitha's house and Natalie was there and they were hanging out on the front porch. He came over within one to three days before she left. He was there for about a year and a half, like, knowing that she was there. He allegedly was making statements about, like, wanting to get back together with her. It was just this kind of macho, possessive, we're going to be together. And Natalie had made a statement somewhere along the lines of, you're not going to get away with everything that you're getting away with. Like, you're going, you're going down for this. Jonathan had been out on bond since April of 2020, stemming from charges for trafficking meth and had to wear a court-ordered ankle monitor. Shortly after Natalie went missing, he was arrested again, this time for influencing a witness, breaking his bond terms and was sent back to jail. Then in late September, investigators heard the most disparaging news to date. A cellmate of Jonathan's came forward to police with a startling claim. There was a inmate that came forward who was incarcerated with Jonathan in August, in late August of 2020, that gave testimony, that Jonathan had told him that he, being Jonathan and Natalie, were together in Alabama. And there were two other guys present. One of them wanted to have sex with Natalie and asked Jonathan for permission to have sex with her. He agreed to it. And there was, you know, some choking involved, which led to Natalie's demise. And then she was, you know, chopped up. According to the GBI file, the inmate then told police that Jonathan said after Natalie was dead and her body dismembered, they disposed of the remains in a salt mine somewhere in Alabama. But even his cellmate was initially skeptical of Jonathan's story. Why would he confess this to someone he'd only just met? Still, the confession was taken seriously because what if? You can't always discount them because you just never know. You know, addicts speak truth. People in jail cells will speak truth. You can't, you know, discredit them. By early October of 2020, Natalie's case had been shared around the globe and had created a buzz on social media. It eventually attracted the attention of Adventures with Purpose, a crowdfunded team of volunteer divers who traversed the country looking for missing persons in lakes and rivers. They are. Arrived in Heard County, Georgia around October 4th, after hearing of Natalie's case from subscribers on their YouTube page, Adventures with Purpose showed up largely unannounced and began searching bodies of water in the area, as that was another theory of the locals, that Natalie's car somehow ended up in a lake or pond in Georgia. But just as Adventures with Purpose got to work on October 6th, news broke that no one saw coming. While Samuel Ginn and his partners with Adventures with Purpose were searching various ponds in the area for Natalie, they got word that her pink car had been found. Breaking news in the search for a missing Georgia mother, Natalie Jones. Tonight, a somber confirmation from the GBI. Investigators confirmed that her car has been located, and sadly, the body of a young woman was found inside. The GBI tells us the car belongs to Natalie Jones, but the GBI has not confirmed if the body inside is hers. The car was located near the intersection of Roosterville Road and Welcome Road in Roopville, Georgia. That's when a nephew of the landowner was hired to bush hog the property and stumbled upon it. Parked along the tree line of the property and partially covered with overgrown weeds, the car's bright pink color was unmistakable, a stark contrast to the shades of green. There was no question. The unthinkable had happened. This was the car they'd been searching for over the past 93 days. In the driver's seat were the remains of a woman, and although forensic testing needed to confirm the identity of the deceased, to most, it was obvious. The remains were those of 27-year-old Natalie Jones. The search was over. Elaine tells me what she remembers of hearing this soul-crushing news. At this time, I had done put my mattress on the living room floor, sleeping in the living room, you know, by the door. I just didn't want to go in my room. I was so tired. I was just, I couldn't hold my eyes open, you know. I was just so worn out, mentally, physically, the whole nine yards. And all the. All the horrible thoughts was in my head about my baby. Somebody got her, somebody holding her, somebody mean to her. My sister, she's seen her county come down to my house, and she said, oh Lord. So she jumped up and she ran down there, and she told him, she said, stop. Let me go in here and be with her. I know what y'all here for. They came in, and this woman, she squatted down, she said, Miss Gordon, we found Natalie's car, and she's deceased. Whoa. I jumped up, and I started screaming at them, talking about y'all a bunch of failures. Y'all didn't do nothing. I told them to get out of my house. I said, I tell you, get the F out of my house right now. You're probably going to die. It was a devil in my eye. I went in, and I punched my kitchen wall. I just, I went berserk. And so nobody take me down there at the scene. Elaine's worst fear had seemingly just become a reality. She did eventually collect herself enough to go to where Natalie's car was found. Tabitha had stopped by to see if she heard the news yet, and gave her a ride. By the time she arrived, people had already begun congregating down the road from Natalie's car, because the hosts of Adventures with Purpose were already live streaming on YouTube. Investigators pushed everyone back and cordoned off the area, treating it as a potential crime scene. Not even Elaine was allowed to see Natalie's body. When I got down there, I like started like wanting to go up to the thing. And, you know, they told me to stop. You can't go past this thing. One of the deputies had his foot in the hood, popped up on the front of the car, you know, and there was a bunch of police cars up there. Elaine sat bewildered in the passenger seat of Tabitha's car, her shoulders sagging from the weight of learning of her daughter's death. Unable to fully process what was happening, all she could do was cry between long periods of expressionless stares. All anyone else could do was try to console her. After giving statements to local news, there was nothing left for her to do but go home. The only thing she could do was cry, grieve, and wait for answers. I was in shock. You know, I was in like, I was like in total shock. I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was like, how could somebody do this to her? I just screamed. I screamed so long, so many times. I couldn't believe my baby wasn't coming home. She was my world. She was my rock. She kept me in line, you know what I'm saying? Where I was just a big screw-up. Now it was time for police to pick up the pieces and figure out what happened. How did Natalie end up dead in her car? Why was she parked in this overgrown field in a rural part of the county? Why had she sent a text message saying she'd made it home when, clearly, she never did? And the biggest question of all, was Natalie's death the result of some tragic accident, or was it murder? For answers, investigators needed to comb through the evidence. And what was found did anything but provide a clear picture of how Natalie Jones' life ended, and instead only sparked more fear, doubt, and speculation. She was slumped down in the seat. She was barefoot. She's missing her belt that she was wearing that day. There were strands of hair in the door jamb. She was missing teeth, multiple teeth. They're not in the car. They're not in her clothes. They're not on the ground when you open the door. They didn't fall out. You know, where are those teeth? Is that the way you want to find somebody? That's not. I can still see it in my mind right now. The thing of nightmares that I will never be able to shake ever again, like it changed me. There's some things that just don't end. It doesn't look like a natural cause of death. I totally believe she was murdered. If you're already hooked, you can listen to the second episode right now. Just search The Truth About Natalie wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget, you can also watch a new video episode of Crime Junkie today over on the Crime Junkie YouTube channel. And I'll be back with you next week. The Truth About Natalie is an AudioChuck original produced by Particle Entertainment. I wrote and produced the series. Executive producer is Ashley Flowers. Additional research provided by community advocates for Natalie Jones. Original music written and performed by Jackson Epley. And a special thanks to Elaine Gordon and her family. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available at the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. You can find me on social media @seankypeofficial or at seankype.com. And you can email me any information about this case to [email protected]. Don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll see you next week. Have a great day.