So, as I'm driving to work on Friday around noon, I get a call from my dad's wife asking if I want to be on the Montel Show with her. Ummmm.... what? Apparently they're doing a show about cold cases and they've invited us to be on said show. We have to fly out on Monday. As in, one-business-day-away Monday. All expenses paid trip to NYC. Get my dad's story out on a national level. How could I say no?
On Monday, a stretch 300 comes to pick us up and take us to the airport. Niiiiice. The plane is on time and we're off to JFK. Flight is smooth, we land, get picked up by another car service, this time an Excursion, and we go to the hotel. The Excelsior. Not quite as nice as I would've liked, but it's not horrible. Someone from the show stops by to drop off our per diem money and Laurie and I spend the rest of the evening walking the streets of midtown Manhattan. Eating pizza in NY on a random Monday night, well, that's not so bad.
Tuesday morning the girl from the show meets us at our hotel and then flags down a cab. This isn't the nice transportation that we're accustomed to, but we can't complain. We park outside the Montel show entrance thinking, "This is it?" It doesn't look like much from outside. We get into the lobby and think, "Seriously? This is it?" The lobby looks downright dumpy. We're escorted into a tiny, rickety elevator and brought upstairs where we find the hair, makeup and green rooms. By now we're thinking, "Is this a Motel 6?" It is so much dumpier than we expected. We sit around for awhile, then get our hooker makeup on (yeah, Lolly, I should've flown you out) and our hair styled, then sit around for awhile. Finally someone from the show comes to talk to us and tells us about the other families who are on the show with us. Be warned. The next few paragraphs aren't pretty.
Family #1 is a couple who lost their 18-year-old daughter 6 years ago. She was found on a Sunday morning behind a local school. She had been beaten. Stabbed. Burned with battery acid. And strangled. Her body was found with a belt still around her neck. In the six years that this case has been ongoing every detective assigned to the case has been transferred, retired or quit the force.
Family #2 is the wife and daughter of a man who told several people in the weeks leading up to his disappearance that a business associate had been stealing from him and sabatoging his business. He went to meet with this associate to fire him and suddenly he disappeared. Despite the fact that his body was left in his vehicle only an 8th of a mile from where he was said to have gone missing, the police did not locate his large SUV. Five days after he disappeared, his body was found by a local business owner (not the police). Even though all evidence, means, and motive point to the business partner, it's been two and a half years and there's been no arrest. This is my family. Seriously.
Family #3 is the brother and sister of a girl who's body was dragged behind a car for 4 miles and left in the middle of a busy intersection. No witness has come forward with a tag number or identifaction of the driver and passenger of the vehicle that was dragging the body. The 17-year-old girl died four years ago.
The show goes well. They only talk to me for a minute and then move me into the audience, but that is fine. I feel they're spending a little too much time telling us that we need to get on with our lives. The message is supposed to be "Call if you know something so that these people can have closure!" not "Let's hope these people move on with their lives without closure." But whatever. The story is out there. An associate from the show tells us that Montel doesn't want to do any other cold case shows until one of our three cases is solved. He's going to push these three stories all season long, so that's fantastic.
After the show they basically shove us out the door. Our car service picks us up and takes us straight to the airport. Our flight is on time. Our car service is there to pick us up when we land. Aaah, once again in our stretch 300. What a wonderful way to start and end our trip. And now we're heading home.
I am sooooo excited to be with my babies again! Halle is sleeping but I wake her up, and she is happy to see me and we play for about an hour before I put her back in her crib. I'm happy to be home! Jason said, and I quote, "Halle was so good to me!" I'm glad that Jason can take care of her without me, although I don't plan to be away from her again for a long time. That was so hard and it was barely more than 24 hours.
That's my Montel story. I hope you enjoyed it. And, in case you're interested, the show is supposed to air next Thursday, September 28th. Seriously.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Wow .. I just set my DVR.
Wow! I was wondering where you'd been lately. Guess you had a good excuse! :)
We'll keep our fingers crossed (as always!) that this gives your dad's case the attention that it deserves and pushes "the law" to do something about it!
Can't wait to see you all hookered up on national TV!
I hope something positive comes from this. I'll set the TIVO too.
That is so crazy! It was so last minute and unexpected. I hope it does some good with the case. What a whirlwind!
I wasnt expecting to read that as your blog this morning. I'll be sure to watch the episode and keep my fingers crossed. how did this all come about? did she call the show? Good to hear an update. keep up posted.
Yes, it was definitely a whirlwind! The producer from the Montel show told us that she found us in the Stuart News article about cold cases that ran in May. Of all the thousands of cases she could've picked from around the country, it's amazing that our story was selected. I can only hope that's a good sign that this was meant to be and something good will come of this.
Kyle had told me about this - that is soo cool!! And, better yet that Montel will be featuring and focusing on these cases ALL season. I'm so happy for you that this is getting attention on a national level. I'm definitely setting my DVR up for this one. Seriously :)
Post a Comment