transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:02] The Red Weather is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons or events reflects the adaptation of real, publicly available materials for creative and legal reasons. The content of this podcast is the sole responsibility of Red Weather LLC and does not reflect the views or responsibilities of iHeart Media or its affiliates. A few days before she died, I got a letter from Willow. Willow was my neighbor, and one of my best friends as a kid. We grew up in the Redwoods outside of Sebastopol, California. It's about 60 miles north of San Francisco. And even though we were just through the woods from one another, we had very different childhoods. Willow was part of a commune, or what they called it, a collective. It was a group of maybe 30 people, and it was called Tender Hearts.
Speaker 2:
[00:48] It was one guy, really. The leader, Elric, and then women and kids.
Speaker 1:
[00:53] That's Sheriff Maldonado. He was the sheriff back in the 80s and the 90s, so he ended up dealing with the Tender Hearts when neighbors would complain or if kids got into trouble.
Speaker 2:
[01:02] It was hard to wrap your head around it. It was nature and trees and praying, I guess it would be called meditating today, and drugs. It was pot, mushrooms, masculine.
Speaker 1:
[01:17] Willow's mom was a founding member of Tender Hearts, so she lived there with Willow and her sister Anna. When we were young, Willow and I were close, really close. We used to meet in the woods between our houses and spend all afternoon together, sometimes camping out. But things got complicated in our teens. By the time I got her letter, I hadn't talked to her in years. I didn't even know she had my address. She was in Panama, in Bocas del Toro. It's a series of islands close to Costa Rica. Apparently, she had gone with an organization to help sea turtles protect their habitat or something. But really, it sounds like she went to get away and to get sober. The letter was mostly about what she was up to in Panama, working in a vegan pizza place down there. Before I could write her back, I found out she took her own life. My mom saw it on Facebook. So you're still in touch with her mom?
Speaker 3:
[02:08] Well, only through Facebook. I mean, it's not like I see her or talk to her, or have private phone calls, but she posts things, and this was one of the things she posted. I was surprised. It's really sad. It's really sad.
Speaker 4:
[02:24] She was begging me to come visit her.
Speaker 1:
[02:25] This is Noah. He grew up with Willow, too.
Speaker 4:
[02:28] She begged me. She was like, please, please come visit. I'm really lonely. I need a friend. I need some help. She wrote me this poem that was very, in that context, was quite deep and dark, and basically was talking about loneliness and isolation and kind of meaninglessness of everything.
Speaker 1:
[02:43] He's now a psychiatrist up in Seattle.
Speaker 4:
[02:45] And it's really challenging. It's really, I mean, I've had a number of patient suicide. And even with that, it's really hard to reconcile that. Like, could I have done something more?
Speaker 1:
[03:01] If I was honest, I might not have even written her back. I mean, we were in very different places. She was single, childless, hopping around at different countries. I'm married, I have a kid, I live in LA, I work as a writer, director, and, as you might know, I host a podcast about the TV show I was on as a kid.
Speaker 5:
[03:20] Welcome to Pod Meets World, I'm Danielle Fischl.
Speaker 1:
[03:22] I'm Browder Strong, and I'm Wilfredell. Willow was still chasing new experiences, new people, and new places in a way that, when we were young, was exciting and admirable. But now that we're in our 40s, it felt a little desperate, erratic.
Speaker 4:
[03:40] I remember for the first few years of our friendship, you know, it was kind of like being on a drug near her. She had so much energy and excitement and spontaneity. But then I remember as she started to decompensate in our teen years, it was really challenging to be around her. I should say all this with a caveat that it's impossible for me not to use my psychiatric nosology on her now. Now looking back, I mean, she was just the archetype of someone who had clearly had a lot of childhood trauma.
Speaker 1:
[04:24] There's a few traumas Noah could be referring to here. There was the fact that she grew up on a collective in the woods. She definitely had some awful boyfriends, there were drugs, but the central trauma of Willow's life had to do with her sister, Anna. Anna was two years older than us, which isn't much, except when you're 15. Back then, she was in a whole other category of existence, and I probably would have gotten to know her better, except on Halloween night, 1995, Anna disappeared. It was a horrible time. For a couple of months there, it seemed like everyone we knew was a suspect or had a secret. We all got interviewed by the cops. People blamed Willow's mom, people blamed the tender hearts, Anna's boyfriend, people blamed the town. But no one knew what actually happened. No body was ever found, no charges ever filed. Most everyone assumed that Anna ran away, that she just wanted out of Tender Hearts or our small town, took off. But Willow never thought that. She knew her sister would never leave without her, or at least without saying goodbye. This is from Willow's letter. I know I made you promise something about the night Anna disappeared. You and Crystal Vecchio and Orion and Connor were there too. Do you remember? We pinky swore. So, here's the deal. I want you to know I don't fucking care anymore. I release your pinky, sir. I am no... I can't read this, but I think she wrote authority. But I want to know the truth. If Anna is still out there, or the person who killed her is out there, then keeping my secret is stupid. It always has been. I kept going back over the letter, going back over my memories and my relationship with Willow. I kept wondering, why did she send this to me? And why didn't she decide to tell the truth herself? In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared. She was 17. Her body was never found. No one was ever arrested. No explanation given. And back then, I lied to my parents, I lied to police, I lied to everybody, because Anna's sister Willow asked me to. I decided to go back to my hometown, interview my friends and family, and talk to police and journalists, whoever I can, to try to find out what actually happened. I am actor and filmmaker Ryder Strong. This is The Red Weather. Before I left for Sebastopol, I called up my friend Chris, because he's one of the few people who knew what Willow was talking about.
Speaker 6:
[07:58] Oh, there's the guy. Hey, what's up, Ryder?
Speaker 7:
[07:59] It's being recorded.
Speaker 6:
[08:01] What, is that you?
Speaker 1:
[08:03] No, it's the thing telling you that it's recording.
Speaker 6:
[08:05] Was that Sean Hayes? Is Sean Hayes with you, telling me that this is all being recorded?
Speaker 1:
[08:09] Chris is a comedy writer now, who also lives in LA. So, I don't know if you heard, but Willow Trainor died.
Speaker 6:
[08:16] Yeah, my cousin Torrin texted me. You're never a Torrin, right?
Speaker 1:
[08:19] No.
Speaker 6:
[08:19] Sacramento, Torrin, there was a Thanksgiving you came with. I'm pretty sure you came with me. Anyway, dude, it's crazy. I know, she killed herself. In Puerto Rico or...
Speaker 1:
[08:29] Panama, Panama.
Speaker 6:
[08:31] Well, she was always a fucking train wreck, dude. I mean, even before Anna, the kid fucking grew up in a cult.
Speaker 1:
[08:36] Well, I don't know if I would even call it that.
Speaker 6:
[08:38] I think... That's because you're a sweetheart, sweetheart, okay? I'm gonna call it a cult, because it was a creepy fucking tree cult. They were basically rural homeless before she killed herself.
Speaker 1:
[08:49] She sent me a letter.
Speaker 6:
[08:50] Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:
[08:51] I know, and saying that we can tell the truth. Chris had also made a promise, because he was with me and Willow the night that Anna disappeared.
Speaker 6:
[09:00] Who cares if we could tell the truth now?
Speaker 1:
[09:02] I know, I know, but I mean, there's so much that I don't even know about the case.
Speaker 6:
[09:07] The case? Oh, the case? Oh, the detective riders on the case now?
Speaker 1:
[09:12] There was a search party, and didn't they find a bullet in a tree?
Speaker 6:
[09:17] Bullets, yes, three bullets in a tree, multiple bullets. That's what I mean, I don't even know the basics.
Speaker 1:
[09:23] And let alone the fact of what we did.
Speaker 6:
[09:25] Well, what Willow did, right. So that is why you're recording this phone call. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 8:
[09:32] I feel like I've got this platform.
Speaker 6:
[09:36] Right, people are listening.
Speaker 8:
[09:38] It's a public figure.
Speaker 6:
[09:39] I did a podcast. All right, Columbo, well, you're not going to go solo on this. Brother, we'll be the Hardy Boys, or the Scooby Gang, and I'm not going to be Shaggy, it's Sue on the Nose. I want to be Scooby, or Velma. I'm definitely Velma.
Speaker 1:
[09:56] Testing, testing, one, two, three. I bought sound gear so I could document everything I could. I said goodbye to my wife, Alex, and her son, Indy.
Speaker 9:
[10:03] Are you recording right now?
Speaker 1:
[10:05] Yeah, I'm never going to stop rolling.
Speaker 10:
[10:07] That's the whole point.
Speaker 8:
[10:08] Okay.
Speaker 1:
[10:11] Oh, you got that.
Speaker 3:
[10:15] Okay, and you have the draft due?
Speaker 1:
[10:16] Yeah, but I've got time, so I think while I'm up there, I'll be able to get writing done without this loud guy. Hey, dude, I'm saying goodbye. I had three months to write a script, a horror movie for a small studio. It wasn't my original idea. They had brought me in after they sold the pitch, but they were paying. This sort of thing has become my life, writing movies that never get made.
Speaker 7:
[10:40] All right, bye, man.
Speaker 1:
[10:42] I love you.
Speaker 11:
[10:43] I love you, dad.
Speaker 2:
[10:43] All right, be nice to mom.
Speaker 11:
[10:45] Thank you, kid.
Speaker 3:
[10:46] All right, have fun having special dude time.
Speaker 1:
[10:49] Special dude time.
Speaker 3:
[10:50] That sounds dirty. Does it?
Speaker 1:
[10:52] All right, I love you guys.
Speaker 3:
[10:54] Love you.
Speaker 1:
[10:54] I'll see you in a week or two.
Speaker 3:
[10:57] A week or two, what?
Speaker 1:
[10:58] Yes.
Speaker 3:
[10:59] Or two?
Speaker 1:
[11:00] Bye. Hello, hello.
Speaker 9:
[11:15] The kid is back.
Speaker 1:
[11:16] I drove across town and I picked up Chris. I was glad he was coming with me. I knew there'd be gaps in memory, conflicting versions and things people maybe didn't want to think about or talk about. So I thought it'd be good to have his help.
Speaker 6:
[11:27] I am not driving.
Speaker 12:
[11:29] You at all? Not at all, you do not need to see my road rage, bro. Ooh, another fun rule. You get one moody, whiny white guy song per hour, okay?
Speaker 1:
[11:41] That's all I have.
Speaker 12:
[11:42] I know that.
Speaker 1:
[11:43] So we're going to put on your phone?
Speaker 12:
[11:44] Yeah, dude, you're getting Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett.
Speaker 1:
[11:47] He'd also, I know, keep things lighthearted. I did some research before we left LA, and when I looked into Anna's case, there was one name that kept coming up, Monica Tremblayne. All right, hi.
Speaker 11:
[12:00] Hi, how you doing? Hey.
Speaker 1:
[12:02] She was the journalist who covered the story for The Press Democrat, our local paper.
Speaker 11:
[12:06] Hey, you know we've met before, right?
Speaker 1:
[12:08] Well, yeah, I mean, we talked back in the day. I mean, I feel like my mom was there.
Speaker 11:
[12:14] No, this was way after then. It was in 2003. Yeah, I came to the graduate play when you did it with Jerry Hall. We talked for a second at the opening night party.
Speaker 1:
[12:25] Okay.
Speaker 11:
[12:26] Yeah. I was for sure. I was like, oh, he doesn't remember me. Or either you were avoiding me.
Speaker 1:
[12:31] No. Oh, God, sorry.
Speaker 11:
[12:34] Do me a favor, though. Don't look up the review of that play.
Speaker 1:
[12:38] Monica had graduated from Berkeley and then moved to Santa Rosa to work for the Press Democrat only a month before Anna disappeared. It was a small paper doing all the things a paper did in the 90s. Classifieds, town hall meetings, the kind of things today you just find online, if at all.
Speaker 11:
[12:53] You know, it was like my first real story. I mean, I was only 23 then. I was so young.
Speaker 4:
[13:00] Yeah.
Speaker 11:
[13:01] But what was interesting was that everybody, everybody at the paper assumed that Anna was a runaway. But I did not believe that. Why?
Speaker 4:
[13:11] Hmm.
Speaker 11:
[13:12] You know, there was something off in everything about this. I mean, everything just felt like there was something, there felt like there was something more, like more going on. I felt a vibe.
Speaker 5:
[13:22] Vibe?
Speaker 11:
[13:25] Um, I was younger than everybody at the paper, you know? And so when I talked to the kids, you kids, I felt closer to you than everybody else. But then, again, you guys were a bunch of white kids in this very white hippie town. Some of y'all had money. I mean, you, you were already on TV, you were famous. So it was a lot, you know, the commune, the drugs, fire.
Speaker 8:
[13:50] That's like, I want to get into all of that.
Speaker 1:
[13:52] But let's just start with this.
Speaker 8:
[13:54] What can we just do?
Speaker 1:
[13:55] Like the what where Anna was that night? Or what happened to her? Just like the pure, only the facts version of what we know.
Speaker 11:
[14:06] Anna Trainor was at a party in downtown Sebastopol.
Speaker 1:
[14:08] That would be Heather Colburn's house, a Halloween party.
Speaker 11:
[14:11] There were a lot of witnesses that said Anna was there, and she was drinking, and that she had a fight with her boyfriend.
Speaker 1:
[14:19] Or ex-boyfriend, depending on your point of view. His name is Mick Bowden. My brother Shiloh was actually there at the party.
Speaker 10:
[14:26] I remember sitting there, and I just remember he punched the window. There was a lot of screaming and arguing going on, and then I don't remember exactly what it was about, but it definitely stopped the situation. Everyone was like, whoa, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa. But it's kind of in a party scene, so I think they might have been out smoking.
Speaker 11:
[14:47] Well, yeah, Mick, he left the party an hour or so before Anna.
Speaker 1:
[14:51] More on that later.
Speaker 11:
[14:53] So she gets a ride. So she gets this ride from these three girls, Lindsay Green, Gianna Perata, and Audrey Wick.
Speaker 1:
[15:01] So I don't know if I should tell you this, but I call them the mean girls. Because weren't they pretending to help her, or, I mean, they were...
Speaker 11:
[15:09] You know, honestly, there was a lot of back and forth with that.
Speaker 1:
[15:13] Lindsay, Gianna, and Audrey gave her a ride. And when they were asked by the police, they said they drove her home.
Speaker 11:
[15:18] Lindsay told the police that they were actually messing with Anna and that they dropped her off a few miles from her house, actually.
Speaker 1:
[15:25] Like I said, mean girls.
Speaker 11:
[15:27] But we can assume, at least, that she didn't go home because then Mick got that page from Anna at 10.03.
Speaker 1:
[15:34] This was the era of pagers. We all had them, and we all had our own code that we used to let someone know if we wanted them to call us back or meet us somewhere.
Speaker 11:
[15:44] Well, first, she paged him to a phone number, which we later found out was the Juniper Street Pay Phone. And he told police that he paged her back with his code that he was going to meet her there.
Speaker 1:
[15:55] But then, the fire.
Speaker 5:
[15:56] A devastating night in western Sonoma County as fire raged over 100 acres and burned four homes in its path. Sources tell KQED...
Speaker 11:
[16:04] Well, we have that the first witness caught in the fire is at 10, 20 p.m. It started out on the Tenderheart property, and then, you know, as we know, it spread.
Speaker 1:
[16:14] No one was hurt, but a lot of loss. It was a big deal.
Speaker 11:
[16:17] Two firefighters, I don't know their names in front of me. On the way towards the fire, they saw a young woman, blonde, walking alone on Juniper.
Speaker 1:
[16:28] That was the last time anyone saw Anna Trainor. Okay, well, I have some info, some new info, maybe answers for some of this.
Speaker 11:
[16:43] Well, damn, Rider, it's only been 30 years.
Speaker 1:
[16:55] It's an eight-hour drive from LA to Sebastopol, so along the way, Chris and I talked about our hometown. Yes, I mean, when we were kids, it was like this tiny, crusty, crusty little thing.
Speaker 13:
[17:06] Crusty little thing, oh my gosh.
Speaker 12:
[17:07] We used to say that all the time.
Speaker 1:
[17:09] And now it's like, now it's like nice, nice restaurants, some cute little shops.
Speaker 12:
[17:15] Boutiques.
Speaker 1:
[17:16] Yeah, and like even the Foster Freeze is now a place that, you know, you get like milkshakes and $15 hamburgers.
Speaker 14:
[17:23] That burger is so good, yo.
Speaker 1:
[17:25] Sebastopol isn't all that different from a lot of small towns in California, but back in the 70s, it had a very particular culture. Here's how my brother Shiloh put it.
Speaker 10:
[17:33] A lot of hippies that moved from San Francisco, like our parents. But then there were also the pot growers and like that sort of edgy-ness to it.
Speaker 1:
[17:45] Kind of where the hate Ashbury summer of love crowd went to grow up. Grow some vegetables, grow some pot, and raise kids with names like Ryder and Willow. In the actual town where Chris grew up, you could still have a pretty typical suburban childhood. But outside of town, it was the wild west of alternative parenting. And there were all kinds of situations. Take my buddy Orion. He grew up on a commune.
Speaker 8:
[18:10] It was 54 acres of land. There was a ranch house where all this stuff happened, like a central ranch house that was owned in common by everybody. So this was the common land. You know, people would take turns with like running the daycare.
Speaker 1:
[18:24] It wasn't religious or spiritual, but it was certainly a countercultural scene.
Speaker 8:
[18:29] Kind of like, you know, hippie, dancey, twirl your hands and spacey, you know, kind of just like, you know.
Speaker 3:
[18:35] And tie-dye.
Speaker 8:
[18:37] Oh, so much tie-dye.
Speaker 7:
[18:38] Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[18:39] I just love that it really was that.
Speaker 8:
[18:41] It really was, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[18:43] My own home life wasn't that extreme. Chris and I pulled into my parents' place that evening.
Speaker 3:
[18:47] Hi.
Speaker 8:
[18:49] Hey.
Speaker 6:
[18:51] So good to see you.
Speaker 3:
[18:53] All right.
Speaker 12:
[18:53] Hi, Lane.
Speaker 1:
[18:55] They moved into the woods, put in a well, built our house. As a kid, we had electricity, but we didn't have TV. I was homeschooled on and off. We were vegetarians. And while my parents' property has a name, we call it Redwood Shire. Unlike Tender Hearts, that started as kind of a joke.
Speaker 3:
[19:12] As soon as we bought it, the redwoods were just so beautiful. And so dad, coming from an accounting background, he wanted to make something that was tax-free or deductible. So we made it an experimental farm, and we had to give it a name. So I said, well, it has to be Redwood.
Speaker 1:
[19:34] It also relates to my dad's name, which is, for real, King Arthur Strong.
Speaker 3:
[19:39] Well, yeah, but a lot of it came from King Arthur, like Shire, yeah. So Redwood Shire, it's just really stuck.
Speaker 1:
[19:50] Our day-to-day life was positively mainstream compared to Willow and Anna, who were literally a few hundred yards away living in tents and barns with some kind of guiding spirituality or philosophy, which I was realizing I knew nothing about, and neither did Orion.
Speaker 8:
[20:06] I think I understood what was going on more or even later when I was in my 20s or something like that. But her family, so this guy was called, what was he called? Like the father or something creepy like that, you know? Very much polyamory, but like not modern, you know, consensual, etc. Much more of kind of like dude has a bunch of wives kind of thing.
Speaker 1:
[20:28] Our lives couldn't be more different, but we were within walking distance, which is how I ended up physically smack dab in the middle of this case. And that was news to Monica. So I was with Anna's sister Willow that night.
Speaker 11:
[20:45] Yeah, you and your friends were at Connor Drake's house watching horror movies.
Speaker 1:
[20:49] Well, that's what we said. Yeah, that's what she said. But we were actually in the woods. We were on the Tenderhearts property.
Speaker 11:
[20:57] Wait, if you're on the Tenderhearts property, then you can confirm none of the adults were there?
Speaker 1:
[21:02] Yeah, I mean, we didn't, as far as we knew, no one was there. They were all on the Sunrise Seance hike. The night that Anna vanished, the adults of Tenderhearts said they were holding something called a Sunrise Seance, which was an annual tradition for them. Elric and the women would hike up Mount St. Helena for a ceremony, and apparently it involved psychedelics. Shiloh and I actually went on one of these with Orion and Willow when we were younger, like maybe 12 or 13.
Speaker 10:
[21:30] And the whole idea is you go up there and watch the sunrise. And yeah, I just remember being so tired and exhausted.
Speaker 8:
[21:40] Yeah, I did it a couple of times, but only got lost the ones.
Speaker 1:
[21:47] Oh man. To us, it was just a hike, but who knows, we were clueless kids. At the time of Anna's disappearance, none of the Tenderhearts were charged with a crime, but it was shut down within a year. I never knew why, and Willow never talked about them. Part of doing this podcast is about, finally, getting some answers about what was going on next door. So does that, does that change anything?
Speaker 11:
[22:13] I don't think so. I mean, it confirms what they said at the time.
Speaker 1:
[22:16] Yeah, so I think what we were doing, me and Willow and our friends, I think the person that it affects the most is Mick. Mick Bowden was the ex-boyfriend Anna argued with that night. Because he was also with us.
Speaker 11:
[22:30] Wait, hold on, I need to grab a pen. Hey, Ryder, you're talking to me, and that's fine, but are you going on record? Are you hoping to officially reopen this case?
Speaker 1:
[22:45] I actually wasn't sure if what I had to say would warrant that, but I was willing to find out. Our first morning in Sebastopol, Chris and I went to the police station. I thought it'd be good to do this in person and get an honest reaction in real time, but I had a lot to learn. Hello. Hi. Hi. So we're here to talk to someone about an old case from 1995. Okay. I tried to explain what we were there for, which took way longer than I expected. Juniper.
Speaker 9:
[23:16] Teenager on Juniper Road.
Speaker 13:
[23:19] Think that's county, but let me ask. Hey Ken.
Speaker 1:
[23:22] Turns out I wasn't even in the right jurisdiction. Really?
Speaker 7:
[23:26] That would be the sheriff's office, Western County. Yeah, if you're asking about a missing girl outside the town limits, we wouldn't have anything to do with that.
Speaker 9:
[23:38] That was a huge dead end.
Speaker 1:
[23:39] That was awful.
Speaker 12:
[23:40] That was so embarrassing for you.
Speaker 6:
[23:42] I gotta say, dude, you were crushing it.
Speaker 12:
[23:44] Sherlock homeschooled, cracked the case wide open. She called 911 30 years ago. Did you take that call personally?
Speaker 1:
[23:52] Idiot, dude.
Speaker 9:
[23:53] You gotta leave this in.
Speaker 1:
[23:54] No.
Speaker 12:
[23:55] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[23:55] No, no, no.
Speaker 14:
[23:56] It injures you to the listener.
Speaker 1:
[23:57] Of course, if I had just asked Monica, instead of running off and trying to play gotcha, she could have told me that the sheriff's department ran the investigation. But when she and I talked, we were deep in the weeds of my whereabouts that night.
Speaker 11:
[24:11] Mick Bolden was with you when?
Speaker 1:
[24:14] After the party, and then before Anna paged him, I think. I'm not exactly sure what the timing is.
Speaker 11:
[24:21] Well, what were you doing out there?
Speaker 1:
[24:23] Uh, it's kind of a long story. A lot of this goes back to what... Well, let me ask you this. What do you know about Anna's social life?
Speaker 11:
[24:34] I know she was in a tough spot. It was sexual. Some rumors in any window, harsh stuff with you guys.
Speaker 1:
[24:41] I'm actually surprised Monica even knows that. Anna was going through a lot that fall. There's a reason the meme girls were picking on her, and there was a reason that I was running around the woods that night with my friends. And this is the most uncomfortable part of doing this podcast, because in order to really get into the story, I'm going to have to get into what was going on among us kids in ways that will probably be hard to confront. But as it turns out, even Sheriff Maldonado, who was indeed the correct official investigator, he knew some of this.
Speaker 13:
[25:15] Well, I know she had a wreck. I do know that. I remember that.
Speaker 1:
[25:19] I tracked down Maldonado easily, just a Google away, it turns out. He's retired now, but he remembered the case immediately.
Speaker 13:
[25:27] Well, yes and no.
Speaker 7:
[25:28] I mean, we tend to assume runaway with a team like that, you know?
Speaker 13:
[25:33] But then there were also other things there. You had that home situation that she was in, and that's not something that we're used to dealing with. Then there was the fire, the fire that threw us for a loop. And then I do remember we found her car. Down south of here.
Speaker 1:
[25:51] Anna's car, technically, it was her mom's car, was found almost a month later in a parking lot near the San Francisco airport.
Speaker 13:
[25:57] Well, finding the car like that, that pushed us in the runaway direction, you know? But at the same time, we had the bullets. And then, yeah, there was just a lot of loose ends with that. Man, you're just calling me. That's bringing it back, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:
[26:20] He agreed to talk with me, so we made a plan to meet at his house and sit down for an interview. After my utter fail at the police station, Chris and I went to the Pine Cone Diner, which is one of our favorite old downtown spots.
Speaker 14:
[26:37] This is the real stuff, the stuff that everybody cuts out of their podcast, that's gonna separate...
Speaker 1:
[26:42] I know, that's... I just want to make sure that, you know, the sheriff or whoever it is, like, I want them to take me serious.
Speaker 9:
[26:48] They will. If they don't arrest you...
Speaker 1:
[26:50] Oh, come on, why would they arrest you?
Speaker 9:
[26:52] Because you lied to the police.
Speaker 14:
[26:53] Hey, guys, everything okay here?
Speaker 1:
[26:54] Uh, yeah, we're good. Thank you.
Speaker 14:
[26:56] Oh, my God, I love her. Look, all I'm saying is take a deep exhale, like, cover your faces, like, have you talked to a lawyer?
Speaker 9:
[27:07] You should.
Speaker 14:
[27:08] Talk to my brother-in-law, like, find out where you stand legally.
Speaker 1:
[27:10] Um, well, I mean, I already talked to Monica, the reporter.
Speaker 9:
[27:13] Oh, you did?
Speaker 1:
[27:14] Yeah, I zoomed in with her before I left, don't I?
Speaker 9:
[27:16] What did she say?
Speaker 11:
[27:17] Okay, okay. Well, that was always one of the big questions.
Speaker 1:
[27:21] For the first time, I had broken the pinky swear.
Speaker 11:
[27:24] I guess I'm honestly, I'm not sure. Does that answer things, or does that just create more questions?
Speaker 1:
[27:30] Right, I mean, that's kind of my whole, with this podcast, that's what I want to find out. I had told Monica the truth, that the night her sister disappeared, Willow started the fire.
Speaker 14:
[27:51] She didn't immediately say, lawyer up.
Speaker 1:
[27:53] No, no, not at all. And I know some of you might be thinking, why keep this a secret? We knew Willow had accidentally started the fire, and we thought that if it came back to her, she might get arrested for arson on top of losing her sister. But I'll be honest, I didn't really think through all that. I was 15. Willow was my friend. I didn't tell anyone because she asked me not to.
Speaker 12:
[28:21] Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 14:
[28:22] So it may not, it just might not change anything.
Speaker 1:
[28:25] Maybe not. But while we had lunch, I got out my notes.
Speaker 14:
[28:27] Fine.
Speaker 1:
[28:27] Let's just go over the theories.
Speaker 14:
[28:29] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[28:29] Let's talk about what we do know.
Speaker 14:
[28:31] Right.
Speaker 1:
[28:31] What we need to know. Theory number one, Anna ran away.
Speaker 14:
[28:36] The most likely situation by leaps and bounds.
Speaker 1:
[28:39] Okay. I mean, that's what everyone...
Speaker 14:
[28:41] She got out of a cult.
Speaker 1:
[28:41] I think that's what everyone assumes. But I have a hard time imagining that she changed her name and ran off to where and has never called anybody, and now she's just sipping martinis on a rooftop somewhere.
Speaker 14:
[28:54] That sounds lovely.
Speaker 1:
[28:55] Theory number two, someone killed Anna that night.
Speaker 14:
[28:58] Right, but who?
Speaker 1:
[29:00] Well, there's Elric.
Speaker 14:
[29:02] The guru.
Speaker 1:
[29:03] The leader of Tender Hearts.
Speaker 14:
[29:04] Yeah, he's a very shady guy.
Speaker 1:
[29:06] Yes, maybe. People who start cults are shady people. From all that I know, the cops did look into him, and he was exonerated at the time.
Speaker 12:
[29:13] Oh, exonerated.
Speaker 14:
[29:16] Look at you.
Speaker 1:
[29:17] I think in order to get more information about that, I need to talk to Lainey, because... Lainey is Willow and Anna's mom, but she hadn't responded to any of my calls or Facebook messages.
Speaker 9:
[29:26] There's gonna be a worse conversation.
Speaker 2:
[29:28] I know. So I'm not looking forward to it.
Speaker 14:
[29:31] There's also always the chance that it was a random.
Speaker 1:
[29:34] Yeah, sure. Some psycho killer just driving by on the road.
Speaker 14:
[29:38] That happens all the time.
Speaker 12:
[29:40] Have you not seen Dateline?
Speaker 1:
[29:42] On Dateline, it's always the husband.
Speaker 14:
[29:43] She was too young to have a husband.
Speaker 1:
[29:45] Yes, but the husband in this case... No, the husband in this case is Mick.
Speaker 14:
[29:49] Right.
Speaker 1:
[29:50] That is a theory. They never brought charges, but maybe once I tell the cops what we were doing that night... More coffee?
Speaker 14:
[29:58] Yes. Was the coffee here always this terrible?
Speaker 9:
[30:01] Jesus Christ.
Speaker 14:
[30:03] Well, my friend is doing a podcast, and we are trying to be very honest, so I'm just going to lay it on the table. This coffee is terrible, but you, my dear, are a delight. You're wonderful.
Speaker 5:
[30:13] Um, thank you.
Speaker 14:
[30:15] Thank you.
Speaker 7:
[30:16] Thank you.
Speaker 11:
[30:17] And if you need anything else, just wave me down.
Speaker 14:
[30:20] I might think of something.
Speaker 4:
[30:21] Okie dokie.
Speaker 1:
[30:22] Are you kidding?
Speaker 3:
[30:23] The waitress? Just chill.
Speaker 1:
[30:24] I mean, what? You want me to call Fiona?
Speaker 9:
[30:27] Just calm down, bro.
Speaker 11:
[30:28] They hit on some random waitress at the pine cone.
Speaker 1:
[30:31] Oh my god.
Speaker 5:
[30:32] What the?
Speaker 1:
[30:34] Oh, lighten up.
Speaker 6:
[30:36] Ok, excuse me.
Speaker 14:
[30:37] My friend here thinks that I was hitting on you. Now look, I'm clearly married, and...
Speaker 1:
[30:43] Ok, we got it.
Speaker 14:
[30:44] I was joking.
Speaker 6:
[30:45] Yes.
Speaker 14:
[30:45] I know. Oh, I know. She knows. Do you know?
Speaker 1:
[30:49] Yes, now I know.
Speaker 14:
[30:50] Oh, now you know?
Speaker 1:
[30:51] Yes.
Speaker 14:
[30:51] Oh, now he knows. We know.
Speaker 1:
[30:53] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, you are.
Speaker 14:
[30:54] What are you sorry for?
Speaker 1:
[30:55] For being too sensitive, for thinking that you were making her uncomfortable. You're not uncomfortable. It's fine. All good? Yes, we're good. Thank you.
Speaker 10:
[31:02] I'm sorry.
Speaker 14:
[31:04] You are such a Debbie Downer. Can you please just lighten up?
Speaker 9:
[31:07] Let's have fun.
Speaker 14:
[31:09] Don't be the brooding, sad sack, reformed child actor, ok? You're not going to crack this case, buddy.
Speaker 9:
[31:17] I know.
Speaker 1:
[31:17] I know. But I got to try. I knew I wasn't going to solve anything, but I hoped that looking back at this time in my life, I might be able to understand some things that never made sense. And in some way, and maybe this wasn't healthy, I felt like I owed that to Willow. My parents that night, around a campfire, Chris and I got into it. I guess when I just think about Willow, you know, how she was when we were teenagers.
Speaker 12:
[31:47] A complete mess.
Speaker 1:
[31:48] Right. But, you know, I wrote her off, I guess because I was out of town all the time.
Speaker 12:
[31:54] And the drugs that she did. And her bad attitude. And the way she slept around.
Speaker 1:
[31:59] Right, right, like right there. You know, we were still in the era of slut shaming. And, you know, not like you and I did that. But I definitely felt like she was going down this path, and I didn't know how to deal with it. I don't want to deal with it. Willow isn't an easy figure to describe in my life. I might have met her earlier, but I didn't really connect with Willow until I was 7 or so, when I ran into her in the woods, this barefoot girl with hand-me-down clothes. We used to meet between our properties. We'd climb trees, find salamanders, banana slugs, play house, play war. She sort of felt like an imaginary friend for a while. She was funny, fearless. I mean, I went back to my house every night, but her house back then was a teepee. Later, they had a building, a shack, but I think she still slept out in the woods a lot of nights. My brother thought she was crazy. She threw rocks at him once, and he never got over that. My mom said, she has spunk. And my dad said, watch out for that one. But, you know, that was a compliment. She was there when I broke my arm. I was there when she stepped on a yellow jacket hive. She taught me how to make a spear and how to skin a squirrel. She was my best friend. She was my first kiss. For a lot of reasons, we drifted apart in high school. Not the least of which, I ended up on a TV show for seven years.
Speaker 4:
[33:32] Best friends, bro.
Speaker 1:
[33:33] Oh, what the heck was that? Marry me. I live in a trailer park and I have no education, but my hair does this. Shut up, man. I'm going for it. I had been acting since I was little, doing plays in Santa Rosa, which is the biggest town about 30 minutes away. And then I got lucky. I was discovered. Boy Meets World took over my life, took me away from Subastable to go work in LA, put me in magazines and on TV every Friday night. And even though I still went to school back home and I flew home every weekend, it wasn't the same. I never really fit in, in my hometown. And Willow and I got older.
Speaker 2:
[34:17] We got different.
Speaker 1:
[34:20] There was a moment when it seemed like we should date, so we did. But then we went back to just being friends. I woke up one day and realized I hadn't talked to her for years. I was 20 years old when Boy Meets World ended. I moved to New York, and Willow and I lost touch. And then the letter.
Speaker 12:
[34:43] So you feel like you bailed on her.
Speaker 9:
[34:45] Kind of. Yeah, didn't you? I mean, I guess.
Speaker 1:
[34:49] Yes, because all of us guys managed to stay in touch.
Speaker 12:
[34:52] Right.
Speaker 1:
[34:53] We managed to stay friends, you and me, Connor and Orion, not Willow. And that's fucked, because I think she lost her sister and her whole family situation. I just feel like, maybe if we had told the truth back then...
Speaker 12:
[35:08] Dude, she asked us not to. She begged us not to.
Speaker 1:
[35:10] But you can see that was obviously the wrong call.
Speaker 12:
[35:14] You're in full martyr mode right now, dude. You're in for a world of pain.
Speaker 1:
[35:20] I don't understand, because you're the one that's telling me that I should be honest and leave in everything, like going to the wrong cops.
Speaker 12:
[35:25] Because that's funny, because that's entertaining, and that's not potentially going to get you arrested.
Speaker 1:
[35:30] You keep saying that. Why would we be arrested? Because Willow accidentally started a fire.
Speaker 12:
[35:34] Accidentally started a fire? That is not at all what happened.
Speaker 9:
[35:40] What are you talking about?
Speaker 14:
[35:41] What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:
[35:42] I'm talking about the pinky swear, the barn.
Speaker 9:
[35:44] Yeah, she lit the barn on fire.
Speaker 1:
[35:45] Right, with the M60s that we had because she was trying to scare Mick.
Speaker 12:
[35:48] That was not an accident. She didn't accidentally drop M60s. She saw that weed, and she lit it all on fire.
Speaker 1:
[35:55] What? This was the first I'd heard this. Apparently, the barn that Willow burned was full of marijuana.
Speaker 12:
[36:02] From floor to ceiling, wall to wall, it's the most weed I've ever seen in my life, and Willow burned it down to the ground intentionally.
Speaker 9:
[36:22] Aren't you calling this thing The Red Weather because of the fire?
Speaker 1:
[36:25] No, no, it's from a Wallace Stevens poem.
Speaker 9:
[36:27] Oh, of course, an obscure poet's even more obscure poem.
Speaker 12:
[36:33] Holy Christ, Ryder, no one cares. Willow started that fire, she took out four houses burned to the ground because she found a craft ton of drugs in that barn.
Speaker 1:
[36:42] Like, where'd the pot come from?
Speaker 2:
[36:45] We should probably find out, shouldn't we?
Speaker 1:
[36:49] I was only two days into recording, and already I felt like I had no idea what I was getting into. For what it's worth, the title's from a poem called Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock. Here it is, it's short. The houses are haunted by white nightgowns, and none are green, or purple with green rings, or green with yellow rings, or yellow with blue rings. None of them are strange, with socks of lace and peated censures. People are not going to dream of baboons and periwinkles. Only here and there, an old sailor, drunk and asleep in his boots, catches tigers in red weather. It's tough to not conform. Maybe impossible. We wear the same nightgowns, we have the same dreams, and if I think about how my parents, how Willow and Anna's mom, just the baby boomers in general, they had such high hopes. They really thought that they could change the world and remake it for us kids. And they tried. Protests, the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, running off into the woods to build houses, to join communes. I want to believe that it meant something, that it did some good, but maybe not. Maybe they were just catching tigers in red weather. The Red Weather is an iHeart podcast hosted by Ryder Strong. Sound engineering, editing, and mixing by Beau Milkes. Produced by Tess Bartholomew. Executive producers at iHeart Radio, Trevor Young and Matt Frederick. Associate producer, Beau Milkes. Original score by Kyle Morton. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to leave a review and rating. Thanks for listening.