Cold case: Upstate New York nurse disappears without a trace

she was who you wanted taking care of you if you had to be taken care of nurse Audrey compassion personified my mom was a beautiful person she loved being a nurse her patients and her co-workers loved her why she was spunky and full of energy that's how I remember her a lot of life she did and audrey fit a lot into that life she had her oldest daughter Sancia when she was just 22 and while things didn't work out between her and san CEA's father they remained friends and before long Audrey would have a second chance at love what about when she met Jeff what did you think of him I like them was she happy she seemed like she was his name was Jeff Herron and he was the son of a wealthy golf course owner they were always you know huggin and the playful young couple quickly made the leap from going steady to dee dee more permanently seen here and their happy wedding photos you know even though I wasn't his child he still considered me as daughter and I still called him dad and soon there were others calling Jeff dad and Audrey mom a little girl named Katie with a newborn son named Quinn following two years after that when you think of your mom what makes you smile I remember sitting in the back put socks on her like they would sing to music in the car I don't think you're ever in the car with her without a you know music blasting in the windows down but sadly there's a reason the girls now talk about their mom in past tense Sancia was 10 years old when it happened Katie just four it was the Thursday before Labor Day weekend August 29th Audrey was working the late shift at the Medical Center while Sancia and Audrey's mother Shirley were just returning from a month-long trip to Florida I talked to her that night she was coming over in the morning she seemed upbeat yes yeah she was excited that Santi was back you know and she was gonna see science and me and there was even more reason to be excited around 9:30 that night Audrey reportedly called Jeff with big news she had just gotten a raise she was happy she had gotten that race and everything was good but everything would it be for long sometime in the middle of the night Audrey's husband Jeff says he wakes up to find the bed empty Jeff called me at 6:30 that morning and asked me if or drew was there she'd hadn't come home I'll call to the medical center where she worked revealed she left at the normal time the night before 11 p.m. so where was she Jeff continues making calls to family members and around 9:30 that morning word finally reaches Audrey stepmom who knows just what to do Audrey parents stepmother worked at Division Headquarters in the State Police and I received the phone call here at around 10 o'clock in the morning New York State Police Sergeant William fitzmorris and Lieutenant Peter kozminski are two of the first to arrive and after talking to everyone at the house they formulate a plan of attack at what point do you say alright we need to go out and hit the pavement and start searching for this woman well we did it right away we had a helicopter by that afternoon to check that route if there was an accident or something along those lines which most them turn out to be on something like that you usually want to get there as quick as possible it had rained the night before and the road leading to Audrey's home was heavily wooded and poorly lit at that point we thought she had gone off the road what is this but an exhaustive search of the 12 miles between Audrey's work and home turns up no skid marks no dented guardrails no sign of Audrey or her 4000 pound Jeep Grand Cherokee at all so investigators questioned the last known people to see her alive her coworkers talk to me about what happened that night so after the shift at eleven o'clock they came out that door walked down through the parking lot here her car was parked next to the black Chevy the second spot in they said their goodbyes and they drove out this road one of Audrey's co-workers goes on to tell police that Audrey was right behind her when she left the parking lot did the co-worker say for how long she was following her it was about five minutes I believe after that the co-worker says that you took different paths which left ten minutes between that point and when Audrey should have been home what was the mood like what were people doing there's officers there and Jeff was distraught I didn't tell science anything then because I was still hoping but Shirley can only keep it from Audrey's oldest for so long I remember as soon as my grandmother told me that she was gone I just knew she was really gone and I think that's probably when my childhood kind of ended it's been so we're did Audrey hair and go is it even possible your daughter would just disappear on her own no not at all she loved her children but if she didn't leave on her own and if it wasn't an accident that only left one option something that was nefarious in the days after Audrey heron went missing New York State Police scour every inch of the road she traveled that night did anything ever come up on the route no nothing nothing ever came up we've probably researched it a dozen times just to make sure that somebody didn't miss something each audio water along that route even a route that maybe she had taken as a detour or change for some reason then at what point did you say this is not a typical missing person case anymore probably a few days into it when we didn't come up with the car I mean that's one of the most frustrating parts and most unusual parts of this missing person case the majority of missing person cases you will come up with the car dumped somewhere or in a parking lot somewhere and since everyone was commenced dontrey never would have just left on her own all signs were pointing to foul play typically in a missing person investigation especially something as bizarre as this one you have to start at the inner circle generally the spouse boyfriend/girlfriend you always start with the people who know them know the victim and we're close to him and that meant questioning Audrey's husband Jeff did you find her husband to be cooperative somewhat at times he was and the times there was a little bit maybe not fully what did that mean unfortunately neither lieutenant Kosminski nor sergeant fitzmorris would elaborate he's been cooperative to a degree oh I would classify it as if he allow you to search the home no he allowed us to search very cooperative at the residence no problems there did anything come of that search no nothing at all no blood nothing and why would Jeff when his wife dead anyway even if she had a life insurance policy his family was wealthy and there didn't seem to be any of the other factors investigators often find in these cases do you think she was having an affair oh god no one of us would have known you got to tell one of your girlfriends yeah no II mean so no she wasn't that girl and so police continued to look elsewhere even questioning the father of Audrey's first child Sancia my mom and him ended things when I was not even one years old so during your investigation have you come up with anyone who would want to harm her or any enemies at all no no one no as far as people at work did she have any enemies no everything was seemed to be fine at work there's no reports of anything like that but that maybe Audrey wasn't the real target all the little theories that come around they don't make sense to me even the Russian theory it's the Russian theory oh they all think the Russian mob is you know took her to me the Russian mob for Audrey what the golf course that Audrey's husband's family owned the silent partner as they calm was Russian there was rumor that his father owed them money and they were warning him they they took her to warn him and as far-fetched as it seems police did investigate they left an officer there because they thought it might be ransom that maybe someone would God want money so there was this officer that stayed one or two weeks but that call never came and none of the other leads police were chasing seemed to pan out either you've drained Lakes yes you've searched by air we've done a TV we've done dog searches we did an actual house-to-house where we talked to every resident or property owner within an eight-mile circle of her residence but nothing that led them to Audrey and as weeks become months even years all trees loved ones had no choice but to settle in to the new normal well my sister she moved in with her biological father it was like me and my brother in my house and my brother was really little he was even 2 yet what happened how is this impacted your grandmother it's definitely impacted her a lot I think it's aged her LUP she struggled I would say much more than I have with it she lost her daughter it's a struggle just but all Drew's family and friends refused to accept that she can't be found each year they organize fundraisers and other events to help keep her face out there you want her to know you haven't given up no I'm sorry it's an emotional subject for obvious reasons prior but also Audrey's friends say because there's someone who should be joining them in the fight to find her who has it we put our first fundraiser round Jeff didn't go the despair me show up know and when we asked police about it did you ever see him out searching for his wife no and there was one more thing do you know if he took a polygraph I heard he did and it came back inconclusive it's been 15 years since Audrey may herand drove away from work and disappeared into the night her father passed away before ever knowing the truth the one thing he wanted was to know where she was and what happened kids you know investigators say they do suspect foul play but that they still have very little to prove it what do you need to crack this case and to bring her family answers you just need that one lead that one piece of information that points us in the direction we need to go and police do still get regular leads including one as recently as last year so did this come in as a tip to you it did and what did the tips I basically there was an indication that the her body may be located at this location it was a promising tip and cops investigated it thoroughly we came here with a team of cadaver dogs and we did search the entire property and they picked a few places where we did excavate police even went so far as to drain a large pond on the property but like their own searches it came up dry did you search the property up here too yes you did you didn't find anything at all no no sign of Audrey or her vehicle I know she'll leave and I can't fathom someone ever wanting to harm her but the only thing I know is that whoever did this to her planned or they knew what they were doing and it wasn't just a random thing and to make a person and their vehicle disappear he was likely more than one person yeah I would say there's definitely got to be more than one person that knew about this and for a lot of people in the community at least one of those persons was and still is Audrey's husband Jeff is that what everybody around here fault is that Jeff had something to do with this truth be told yes my biggest question is why has not Jeff helped in the search on our part we were trying to just get her name out there why was he not helping us that may be a good question but cops say it's not nearly enough to point the finger of guilt at Jeff it is hard for me to understand as to why he doesn't go to things more often because I want to get my mom's face out there but I think he sees it as he is protecting his children and I think that's what he does by not going to these things so much and staying away from the news and the media but what about those rumors Jeff took a polygraph test which came back inconclusive there was a report that he took a lie detector can you confirm that I can't really comment on that we did reach out to Jeff for an interview but at the time he declined do you have any persons of interest or suspects on the record no and so we're not saying that Jeff is a person of interest or a suspect but he is the spouse and normally in these types of cases you have to rule in or rule out the closest people to the missing person is that accurate I would say that no one's been ruled out in this case and with that in mind we decided to try one more time to get Jeff's side of the story are you ready for the truth no matter what the truth is yeah yeah it's like one of my biggest fears but like also I fear not knowing what happened so so then you were to find out someone did something to your mom and maybe it was someone you knew it would be hard for you but it's something you could accept yeah I need to know hey Jeff Michelle's gonna hear from Crimewatch daily we're working on Audrey's case are you home there was no answer from Jeff but just down the road we caught up with his father Ron Haran while he was out doing yard work how difficult is this been for Jeff change his life to mentally survive through it well a lot of people have pointed the finger at Jeff and it thought yeah I've thought maybe he had something to do with this what do you tell those people they're not the other thing kind of bad bone in his body as for Jeff not participating in those searches Wow got that wrong I mean not searching for his wife that's totally wrong not going to a lot of these functions functions is a good way of putting that screws them up you know for the kids and for him that just brings everything boiling and that's way on purpose and he has something to say about some of those other rumors as well did Jeff take a polygraph did he pass it Oh No so he's been willing to give his time he's been willing to take a polygraph he's willing to do what it takes to clear his name oh yeah plus he says there was never a motive for Jeff to hurt his wife in the first place most problems and marriages come from money no money issues no things that we thought may be going on but she was kidnapped you know we were gonna get a phone call or ransom you were ready to help with the ransom oh yeah you would have done it no I'm the one with them I was the one with the money so then what does Ron think happened to the mother of his grandchildren do you believe Audrey is alive no why do you say that I don't feel her where do you think the vehicle is and all of this there's a good question the only thing you can come up with with the vehicle after all this time never been found that was either crushed shredded crushed or her Anakin and the vehicle were put into a container someplace and police do stress that until they get the right piece of evidence nothing is off the table but now they need the public's help probably the worst part of the case for me is not finding it and finding that car that would least give us another jumpstart into maybe where where this case leads people at home what can they look for as far as the vehicle is concerned it's a 94 black it's a Grand Cherokee it was in New York Liberty pleat and it was x-ray 2 3 3 Union Victor a 15 minute drive a 15 years long mystery the only certainty being that all dream a heron is gone but today both of her daughters have found a way to keep their mom close following in her footsteps to become nurses why did you decide to go into nursing well my mom brought me to work a couple of times and you know I saw her patients loved her her co-workers loved her I decided that I would like to do something like that as well you're also in nursing school mm-hmm do you think it's a way to help you feel more connected to your mom well we definitely are like honoring her and that way we're all nurses so it's kind of cool if there was something you could say to your mom today what would it be we love her and we miss her and we will never ever stop looking for her even if I'm 80 years old I'll still be looking for her she deserves answers and she deserves justice once again here's a picture of Audrey heron she was driving a black Jeep Grand Cherokee with New York license plates reading x-23 3uv anyone with information about the case is asked to call the State Police at 562 8600

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 1,738,945

Rating: 4.7207222 out of 5

Keywords: Audrey May Herron, New York missing, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily

Id: 9sGGH57ytVc

Length: 20min 18sec (1218 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 26 2019