Terrifying & True | The Disappearance of Amber Wilde

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A regular girl in a regular American
town, going to a regular American college

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suddenly disappears. But there's nothing regular
about that disappearance. In fact, the

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more you dig, the more you
realize so much is going on, in

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fact, is stranger than fiction.
What you are about to continue the spirits

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to be based on witness accounts,
testimonies, and public record. This is

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terrifying and true. True. In
the fall of nineteen ninety eight, the

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life of a nineteen year old college
student took a dark and mysterious is turn,

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leaving behind a void that time and
investigation has failed to fill. Despite

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the passage of more than two decades, the story of Amber Wilde's vanishing continues

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to baffle, sadden and captivate thousands
across the globe. Tonight, we're dedicated

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to understanding what happened to her and
the reasons behind her sudden and unfortunate disappearance.

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So get comfortable, and while you're
at it, make sure you're subscribed

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on your favorite podcasting app. As
we take a deep dive into another terrifying

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and true story and it gets interesting, we'll tell that story after these quick

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words. Amber was a young,
responsible girl in roll in university who randomly

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disappeared one night from her apartment.
Her parents and family have dedicated the past

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two decades to uncovering the truth behind
their daughter's disappearance. Just imagine their relentless

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pursuit, chasing leads, talking to
witnesses, and even taking on their own

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investigative missions. So far, though
the mystery endures and has left them with

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no solid answers. This particular story
has attracted a lot of public attention,

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and many theories have been put forward
that aimed to explain what happened to Amber

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Wilde. Some imagine a kidnapping scenario, while others ponder if she might have

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fallen victim to a random act of
violence. But, like I always say,

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in most true crime stories, there's
nothing as simple as black and white.

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So with that all being said,
let's dig even deeper. It all

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started on September twenty third, nineteen
ninety eight. As Amber was heading towards

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her university to attend classes. She
found herself in a car accident, having

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rear ended another vehicle. Both parties
agreed to exchange information and discuss the matter

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later that day. Although the collision
did not cause much damage, Amber's head

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had slammed against the windshield, and
this resulted in a considerable amount of pain.

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She immediately went ahead and notified her
family about this accident, to which

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her father recommended that she get herself
checked by a doctor. Also worried for

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her well being, Amber checked in
with the school's medical staff, who suspected

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a concussion and advised someone to check
on her periodically, either in person or

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via phone calls. Her father,
Steve Wilde, maintained a steady line of

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communication with her throughout the day.
Before going to sleep, Amber told him

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that she was experiencing a throbbing headache
and requested that her father call her the

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following morning to ensure she woke up
for her classes on time. However,

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the next morning, as Steve tried
to get in touch with his daughter,

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even after repeated tries, she did
not answer the phone, and when quite

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a bit of time had passed,
he realized that something was wrong. Amber

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was a very responsible child and maintained
close contact with her parents. Therefore,

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this behavior was both unusual and alarming. Fueled by parental intuition, Steve quickly

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made his way to Amber's apartment,
only to find out that Amber and her

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car were missing. Upon discovering her
absence, Steve promptly contacted the green Bay

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Police. Explaining the situation, Steve
re called, when it went twelve hours

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from our last conversation, I knew
some thing wasn't right. I had a

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key to her apartment, so I
was able to go in there, and

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nothing was going on in that apartment. Nothing jumped out and said this is

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what happened, or pointed me in
a direction as to where she was.

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Initially, the police suspected that the
accident had compromised Amber's mental functions and she

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wandered off accidentally. However, as
time passed by and she was nowhere to

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be found, other more sinister possibilities
had to be considered. The first clue

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that could provide answers to her mysterious
disappearance was found just a few days after

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she was gone, when her car
was spotted across Lambeau Field, the home

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turf of the Green Bay Packers.
Amber herself, was, still, however,

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nowhere to be found. Green Bay
Police detective David Graff described the puzzling

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scene. Her car was unlocked,
the keys were in the ignition, her

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purse was in the trunk and her
was on the front seat, still plugged

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in. Unfortunately, however, no
eyewitnesses saw who had driven the car there.

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While there could be the possibility that
her concussion had triggered amnesia which had

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prompted her to wander off, a
closer examination of her car revealed something unsettling.

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The driver's seat, usually adjusted to
accommodate her short height, had been

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moved back, which suggested that someone
else had driven the car. Meanwhile,

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another piece of the puzzle had also
emerged. Amber's car had been serviced just

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two days prior, with the odometer
reading documented, but when her car was

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found it displayed around nine hundred additional
unaccounted four miles. At this point,

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the detectives involved in the case had
classified it as a homicide given the fact

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that there had been no evidence uncovered
which would suggest that she had disappeared on

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her own. The entire focus was
now on finding the answer to one simple

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question, who would want to kill
Amber and why. Most of the leads

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that were used to understand the complexities
of this case were taken from her journal,

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in which she documented everything that had
happened in her life. Each entry

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captured daily minutia, personal exchanges and
even the most intimate of secrets. The

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first and most important thing that detectives
who studied her diary stumbled upon related to

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her pregnancy, which was a matter
that was also discussed with the family.

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Amber's aunt, Laurie Enner, was
among the first to learn of the pregnancy

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and remarked that Amber initially characterized it
as an accident, but had the intention

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to embrace motherhood. Amber's determination and
to pursue her premed studies at the University

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of Wisconsin Green Bay and prepare for
her impending parenthood was also met with support

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from all of her family, with
one exception, the alleged father of her

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child, Matt Schneider. According to
Laurie, Amber confided in Mad about her

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pregnancy, but he was not very
pleased with it and wanted nothing to do

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with the baby, and even recommended
that she get an abortion. Despite his

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reluctance, Amber reportedly tried to involve
him in her pregnancy journey, not wanting

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to deprive her child of a father
figure. In order to investigate her pregnancy

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experience further, the police reached out
to Matt Schneider and conducted interviews with him.

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However, the outcome of these interviews
was quite unexpected, as he flatly

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denied any sexual involvement with Amber,
asserting that he barely knew her and that

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they had only crossed paths a few
times. Schneider's fiance, Heidi, further

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supported his account and even suggested that
Amber had a one sided infatuation with Matt

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and had fabricated their connection both in
her writings as well as to her family.

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Upon being interviewed by local news agencies. In one instance, Heidi said,

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quote, I think it was easy
for them at first to point a

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finger at Matt. In response to
questions about how the investigation had impacted her

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family and the accusations against her husband, quote, We've been married for twenty

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years. We were high school sweethearts. I'm not a dumb woman. I

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wouldn't stay with someone if I thought
he did that. Further, she added

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that Matt was unfairly targeted by police
and that she hopes Amber Wilde's family finds

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closure. The case got even more
complex, however, as detectives found cell

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phone wrecords that clearly showed that Amber
had communic extensively with Matt via phone calls.

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If this was indeed one sided,
why would Matt receive her calls?

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And if it wasn't one sided,
then why was Matt hiding the truth and

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why was his fiance helping him?
Were they guilty of something or did Matt

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want to keep his affair from Amber
hidden from his fiance and therefore refused to

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admit the relationship, a relationship which
Amber had very frequently talked about in her

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diary. Regardless of the narrative put
forward by Heidi and Schneider, one thing

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is quite clear. The top suspect
in this case, according to both the

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police and Amber's family, was Schneider. So let's have a more detailed discussion

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about his role in this case.
During the early phases of the investigation,

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all Schneider would tell police was that
he had never had sex with Wilde,

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which was a major red flag since
Amber's perspective narrated through her diary was completely

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different and the call record stated otherwise
as well. Another factor that increased police

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suspicion was Schneider's lack of cooperation.
He had immediately gotten himself a lawyer and

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had little personal involvement in the handling
of the case. In an attempt to

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further investigate his involvement. The police
even got in touch with a friend of

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Schneider named Pettitt. Schneider and Pettitt
worked together as surveyors for a company that

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was contracted by the state Department of
Transportation. Upon being interviewed, Pettitt told

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police that his girlfriend had possibly seen
wild in her car. He then proceeded

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to give a detailed description of Amber
Wilde's car upon further questioning. He also

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informed the police that Schneider had told
him he had gone to see a movie

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and had dinner by himself after work
on September twenty third, nineteen ninety eight,

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the night during which Wilde had supposedly
disappeared. During another investigation in July

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of two thousand and fourteen, Pettitt
told investigators he was not close to Schneider

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and had only known him a couple
of months, and that they did not

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have a close enough relationship with him
that he would want to risk everything to

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help Schneider out with anything concerning Amber
Wilde. And this is where things start

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to get very fishy, because Schneider's
girlfriend now wife, had testified earlier in

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December of nineteen ninety nine at a
hearing that Schneider knew Pettit well enough to

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ask him to be an usher at
their wedding. She also reportedly told police

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in April of two thousand and fifteen
that Schneider and Pettitt had known each other

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well before they worked together in nineteen
ninety eight, and continued personal contact in

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the ensuing years. This was a
very clear contradiction to Pettitt's claim in July

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of two fourteen that the two had
just had two conversations in the years following

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Schneider's wedding in two thousand and Once
again, cell phone records also gave more

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clarity to police suspicions, as they
indicated that Schneider and Pettitt had remained in

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touch with each other for quite some
time. Despite this evidence, no arrests

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have been made so far, and
that of course includes Matthew Schneider. He

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also has not been charged with anything
in connection to Wilde's disappearance. To this

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date, authorities have not been able
to find any trace of the missing girl,

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even though numerous detailed searches have been
conducted in areas, including a thirty

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acre site in rural Portage County.
In November of twenty fourteen, as well

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as one in the Shewano area.
Detectives and police author alreadies involved in the

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case do firmly believe that Wilde is
dead and that she was murdered. In

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the words of one official quote,
with her strong family ties and she was

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determined to finish school and the things
she said about her pregnancy, there's just

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no way she just vanished. However, how she was murdered, when,

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exactly and by whom remains a mystery
still patiently waiting to be solved. The

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endurance of this cold case is simply
a testament to how much the family of

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Amber Wilde still care so deeply for
their missing child. While this is a

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story that feels like it's going to
be relatively cut and dry and then turns

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out to not be quite so cut
and dry after all. As I was

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reading about the disappearance of Amber Wilde, I was very surprised by the turn

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where the potential father of her unborn
child claims that they were never dating at

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all, and that he had a
fiance at the time who also does not

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believe he was philandering, and that
Amber Wilde's diary doesn't seem to reference anything

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about being the other woman, at
least as far as we know. This

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opens up a lot of speculation that
really tinkers with the old imagination, which

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is one of the reasons people like
true crimes so much because it makes you

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imagine, It makes you think critically, and it mortifies you. And being

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mortified can remind us we're alive.
I mean, you're subscribed to Weekly Spooky,

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00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:45.799
so clearly do you like a bit
of the morbid side of life.

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And I'm glad to have you here. But I will say reading these stories

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week in and week out, I
I really hope that these families get their

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closure. It's so heartbreaking, not
only to lose a family member, not

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only to have somebody disappear from your
life, but to never know why,

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to never know what happened. I
am a person who doesn't believe closure is

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a very realistic goal, but sometimes
you just want to have an answer,

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something to run through your mind as
you lay your head on your pillow.

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If anything develops, I'll let you
know. Terrifying and True is narrated by

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Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced by
Rob Fields, produced by Daniel Wilder,

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with the original theme music by Ray
Mattis. If you have a story you'd

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like us to cover on the program, send us an email at Weekly Spooky

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at gmail dot com. And if
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Steve King, Karen we Met,
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you all so much and we'll see
you next time right here on Weekly Spooky

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and Terrifying and True