This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. On November 2, 2000, 718 year old Justin Gaines walked out of a popular club in Duluth, Georgia, just northwest of Atlanta. In the early morning hours, he was spotted climbing into a car with a young, young woman and was never seen again. Despite dozens of volunteers searching, flyers hanging on local businesses, extensive news coverage, and even the Georgia National Guard lending their services, there was no trace of Justin Gaines. He had seemingly vanished. There were no answers to explain his disappearance, and the case eventually went cold. Eight years later, that would all change. A new lead gave investigators insight into what happened to Justin that night, and this story would take a sinister turn.

At some point, there's a tussle and he chokes him out. And they thought that they had killed him. So they wrap him up in a paint tarp.

They thought he was dead, but it wasn't dead. And then one shoots him. They put him in a van and haul him away.

Investigators in Gwinnett county are working to identify human skeletal remains found in Dekula.

It's a process.

The disappearance of Justin Gaines takes a gruesome turn as law enforcement sources reveal.

New details in what they're now calling a murder investigation. Linnet county police searched every square inch of these woods off of Georgia Highway 316 and Drowning Creek Road into creek. A detailed confession alleged that Justin Gaines was robbed and murdered and that his body was dumped in nearby Lake Lanier. When Justin's body resurfaced days later, he was moved, stuffed into a large metal box and thrown down a well. A suspect confessed to exactly what happened to Justin Gaines and named everyone who was involved in his death.

Dylan Glass said he killed Justin.

He took that earring out of Justin's.

Ear the night that he was killed. So why, to this day, has no one been arrested for his murder?

The problem with this case is not just that we don't have a body, it's that we don't have a crime scene. We don't have any physical evidence of death. We don't have a mass of blood. We don't have a murder weapon. We don't have fingerprints.

To me, there's no such thing as a conspiracy that can't be broken. When you've got more than two people, somebody's eventually going to talk. And there are a lot of people in this.

In my mind, if we could find that body, that would be the key to the whole puzzle.

I believe that if his body was found, people would start talking.

And that's where I come in. I'm here to get people talking.

These hillbillies, man, they would rather believe a lie than the truth. They don't want to believe the truth. They didn't want justice. They want a conviction. No matter how you dress it up or make it look, I never killed that butt. The things that I'm gonna give you and show you, I'm gonna have proof, too. There's a lot of things that people don't know. There's a lot of things that people ain't heard.

From Waveland. I'm Shawn Cuyp, and this is drowning. Creek, Georgia in the fall is beautiful. Even in early November, temperatures often hang right around a comfortable 60 to 65 degrees, and the leaves have begun by this point to change to shades of crimson, yellowish gold, and orange as they fall and cover the sidewalks and yards in a blanket of color. Justin Gaines and a few friends lived together just off the Oconee campus of Gainesville State College in Athens in 2007. Justin was a freshman, and this was the first time he'd lived away from his parents. As any college freshman is, Justin was full of hope and excitement, even if he hadn't quite figured out what it was he wanted to do with his life. On the afternoon of Thursday, November 1, he made the hour long drive to his parents home in Snellville, Georgia, to change clothes and hang out with his siblings and his folks before going out that night. His mother, Erica, and stepfather Stephen Wilson still kept his bedroom just the way it was before he moved out because he sometimes came home from school to stay for the weekend. But also, I think, just in case, he disappeared into his old room and picked out the clothes he would wear out that night.

The last outfit he would ever wear, he would decide with Stephen's approving eye on a gray abercrombie shirt, stylishly ripped jeans and tennis shoes. Justin was never shy about getting a second opinion on something, especially on how he looked.

If he needed any help or any guidance or, you know, mom, do you think I should move into this place? This is what I'm looking to do for college. Applied for this. He always asked for opinion. And, I mean, he walked in and he was like, to my husband, hey, Steve, on what shirt should I wear tonight for the ladies? I remember my husband saying, you know, wear that shirt. Go with your blue eyes. Don't wear that brown shirt. It looked like shit.

Maybe the most important part of Justin's outfit, though, a huge diamond earring that never strayed far from his left ear. He liked the way it looked, but it also said, ive got style and money. It was cubic zirconium, but who could tell? Justin was all about his image. He worked out all the time, and his bright blue eyes complemented his baby face. His friends called him gaines or sometimes gainsta, but that was more of a nickname he seemed to try and implement himself. His friends just went along with it. He grabbed some cash and left his wallet behind in the bedroom. On his way out, Steven asked Justin if he wanted to make a few extra bucks over the weekend, something he did from time to time to earn extra cash. And Justin said, sure.

At that time we owned a roofing company and we would have Justin clean gutters on the weekend. We'd pay him $150 per house. Justin loved money. He loved working, so he was also coming home for that. We came in, talked to all his siblings, asked what to wear. We hung out for about an hour and a half, and then his friend Chris picked him up and took him out to wild bills.

That's Justin's mother, Erica Wilson, though she loves to talk about her son. When I first sat down with her, I could tell that the energy in the room had changed a bit as soon as she mentioned wild bills. Wild bills was a huge club. It actually had one of the largest dance floors in the southeast at the time. They held 18 and up nights each week to appeal to the younger crowd. Eventually, everyone of a certain age seemed to make their way through Wild Bill's front doors. It's also the last place Justin was seen.

A lot of nights it was country western. But on Thursday nights, back in the day, we had 95. Five the biot, and it was Thursday. Thursday, 21 to drink, 18 to party. He would go up there a lot on Thursdays. That night he was there. There was probably over 3000 people thirsty.

Thursday is popular with the college crowd in most cities. Most clubs in or near college towns have them. The drinks are cheap, there are tons of people, and everyone is there looking to have a good time to blow off steam from a hard week at school. And if you're looking for it, there are plenty of people willing to hook up for the night. Chris, one of Justin's roommates at school, picked him up sometime between six and 07:00 p.m. justin knew he'd be drinking that night, so he opted to leave his car in his parents driveway.

Chris and his girlfriend picked Justin up. First place they stopped was quick trip at the top of our street. Because Justin had worked there for many years.

Justin and his friends went to quick trip that evening to get mixers for vodka they would use bottles of Gatorade or a similar drink and spike it. That way they could ride around and drink inconspicuously. Around the time Justin was nearing his Brookwood High school graduation drinking became more of a common pastime for him. You could even say it was becoming a problem.

At 1718 he would go up to wild bills that I knew of on Sundays, 14 night. But then I realized during his senior year, one day I went to found him in his room and I was like, what are you doing at school time I thought, man, I smell alcohol. And he had the band on his arm and he went to school. He ended up having to come home because of course he said, you know, oh, they were just having me do mouthwash but you know, that was just him lying to mom. So I think during his senior year he was sneaking out or going out somewhere on Thursday nights, going up to wild bills with a fake id and drinking. And he was drinking a lot more than I realized.

Alcohol is a bit of a sensitive subject for Erica.

When he was little I was always against alcohol because I had a bad relationship with his father because of it. And I'd always tell him, no, bear is bad, bear is bad. And I mean, I remember him being four years old and I pulled to a convenience store and there'd be a Budweiser on the window. He'd be like, no, mom, you can't go here. So I'm not sure if he was open with me because he knows I had a bad experience with alcohol. I still think about that. Maybe he never really told me about his drinking because he knew how bad I hated it because of his father and what I experienced.

Justin had recently been arrested for underage drinking near his school in Athens where police found him passed out in his car alongside a bottle of vodka. He was scheduled to appear in court a few weeks after his disappearance and Erica tells me that he had a lawyer and was prepared to face the music, whatever that might mean for him. It was likely just a small fine and at most a few hours of community service. But that night Justin and his friends went cruising for a while after dropping by the quick trip, stopping at a local pool hall nearby and pre gaming in the parking lot.

I believe at this point Justin had been drinking in the car to save money so he didn't buy it in there. And Justin's cheap. Justin's cheap. He was probably gonna see if some girls would buy him drinks, maybe, who knows? So that's why I believe he drank before he even went in. There. So I don't think he had a ton of money on him.

Justin, Chris and Chris's girlfriend Amanda arrived at Wild Bill's at approximately 11:40 p.m. more than four and a half hours after leaving his parents house.

Justin has a vip pass that some girl gave him or someone gave him and him. Chris and Chris's girlfriend at the time went into line. Justin did use a fake id to get in that night. He was in the 21 and older lane, and Chris and his girlfriend were in the 18 to 20 lane. And then when they get up to the main thing, Justin gives them his pass. They let him in. Chris and his girlfriend pass didn't get him in. And Chris and his girlfriend at that point leave wild bills. Justin says, oh, don't worry, I'll find a way home.

Chris and his girlfriend decided that they were gonna go to a friend's house and hang out instead because they couldn't get into the vip area with Justin, who had assured them that hed find a ride home. Later that night, Justin danced and mingled inside the club and at some point seemed to get into an altercation with an unidentified male. It was allegedly over dancing with a girl. Its not really clear, but there wasnt a fight. Erica tells me what shes been able to piece together regarding this as its the first time ive heard any semblance of motive for her sons disappearance.

I have heard that Justin saw a gentleman slap a girl, abuse a girl, and Justin went over and said, hey, buddy, you don't treat women like that. And the guy said, just go away, get away. And that they were supposedly eyeing Justin the whole night. So that is where the fight, you know, confrontation is supposed to have taken place.

Justin also continued to drink when in the club. He had his fake id, but he also knew several of the bartenders who would serve him, knowing that he was underage.

I mean, Sherry was drinking, someone he went to school was, there was one of the bartenders and she made it seem to me that he wasn't really drunk. There was another older lady and she also said that Justin seemed fine, but I mean, they also knew Justin was underage and they were serving him all night because the one girl went to school with Justin, so she knew. So I've heard, you know, conflicting things.

Sometime before 01:00 a.m. justin began asking around for a ride. And by 01:30 a.m. he was seen outside the front of the club looking at his phone. He repeatedly texted and called nearly a dozen friends, a total of 24 times to come pick him up, but with no luck because few answered and everyone else had work or class in just a few hours. They just chalked it up to Justin being Justin. He'll figure it out. And Justin did have cash on him, but it's unclear as to why he didn't call a taxi at this point, when he was seemingly out of options. He never called his parents, something Erica still can't understand or seem to get past.

It haunts me to this day that he didn't call that night, when he made hundreds of phone calls. Hundreds, you know, tons of phone calls and texts, but not once to us. Maybe it's because he knew how much I hated alcohol and I worried about him drinking and being like his biological father. That's how I look at it, you know, he didn't want to disappoint us, but I would never be disappointed any of my children.

But for whatever reason, Erica and Steven, along with everyone else whos ever known him, have not seen or heard from Justin Gaines since. He simply vanished. At first, Erica didnt think much of the fact that she hadnt heard from Justin when she woke up the next day. I mean, after all, he was a college kid now, and he had his own life. He was pretty responsible for the most part. And she would see him on Saturday when he stopped by to meet her husband Stephen to clean the gutters.

So now it's Friday, early Friday morning. Justin had told us that he'd be home on Saturday morning so he can go clean the gutters and do the job to make money. So I didn't expect him home Friday night. So, you know, nothing. You know, Justin went out Thursdays with his friends. It's with Chris, you know, Friday, it's all good.

When Erica and Steven hadn't heard from Justin by Saturday morning, though, the worry immediately began to set in. This wasn't like Justin Saturday morning.

He's not home to go clean gutters. Justin doesn't miss an opportunity to make money. So I said to my husband, I said, something's wrong. Something's wrong. He's like, honey, he's probably just, you know, he'll probably clean the gutters tomorrow. I'm like, no, baby, you know, he has, you know, two days of work lined up. Something's wrong. And he's like, everything's okay, you know, don't worry. You know, he's 18. He's probably, you know, maybe met a girl or something, you know, it's okay. He's not answering his phone because now I'm the mom. And why aren't you working? You're supposed to be making this money for college, you know? And he's not answering my phone. It was going straight to voicemail, so I couldn't get ahold of him. And I'm. I'm upset.

Steven had tried to be the voice of reason and cull Erica's fears, but when they still hadn't heard from Justin by Sunday morning, it was apparent that something was definitely wrong on Sunday.

Still couldn't get ahold of him. I told him he's now my husband's like, oh. So I start calling Justin's friends. Back then, it was MySpace, so got on one of my kids MySpace, and I start messaging Justin's friends and calling his friends, and, you know, they're like, oh, no, justin's fine. You know, we haven't heard from him, but, you know, we're sure you're fine. He's fine. And of course, he has to go back to Athens before Monday for school.

Worry quickly turned to panic as Erica began calling friends of Justin's, even taking to social media to try and track him down. But she had no luck, and everyone kept telling her not to worry. Justin's probably fine, but sometimes a mother just knows he's not home.

On Sunday, I'm calling his old girlfriend because they were very close still, and no one's heard from him, and they're all saying, it's okay. And then late Sunday night, I get a phone call from all his friends. It's like 15 people on the phone, and they're like, something's wrong. We can't find Justin. You know, Chris. Chris was expecting Justin to pick him back up his car sitting in my yard. So I know he's not there. And his friends all call, and they said, something's wrong. We can't find Justin.

Erica didn't know it yet, but her entire world was about to come crashing.

Down around her from Saturday. I just knew something was wrong Saturday. But everyone assured me he was okay. Everyone. I messaged on, don't worry. Gangster's fine. He's out there. He's probably fine. Don't worry about it. And then on Sunday night, I mean, there's just tons of these kids on this call. I mean, and they're just all freaking out, saying, you know, something's wrong, they can't find them. But my mom got on Saturday because he wasn't there. Just told me something's wrong. So on Sunday night, I reported a missing.

Late Sunday night, Erica called the Gwinnett County Police Department to file a missing persons report. Officers arrived at the Wilson home to take the report, but they didn't seem to take her son's disappearance very seriously.

At first this officer tells me, oh, don't worry. Most people come back in a few, you know, in so many hours, it's not really necessary. But then this guy goes home and tells his wife, who posts on social media, oh, my God. My husband just took a report, and he has a really bad feeling about this one. He's at my house, you know, telling me, oh, don't worry. You know, most, you know, missing people come back, and fort he had, they're just sowing their oats, I think, was his exact word. He's probably just so on some oats. They didn't even turn it in right away or make it urgent or anything, you know? But then he goes home and tells his wife, you know, that he has a bad feeling. And then me, as his mom, I have to read that.

Gwinnett scan was an online forum for all things Gwinnett county. It no longer exists, but at the time, it was a heavily visited site, and Erica immediately began using it as a blog to post information about Justin and to ask for help finding him from the community. She also posted her contact information on the site. There were so many posts about Justin Gaines that Gwinnett scan actually gave the thread its own page. Thousands of people were communicating with each other and directly with Erika. There were thoughts and prayers offered, and even a few tips began to come in. But while some of the information seemed promising, some things Erica read and heard were just plain cruel.

That he was off Steve Reynolds Boulevard, and then they chipped his body away, and you'll never find it. The very first one was that they put Justin through a wood chipper, and you would never find his body. It was just some horrible things. I was. I just started running outside, screaming, hitting the house. My husband's like, what's wrong? What's wrong? I'm like, oh, my God. They're telling me I'd never, you know, and I just lost it. I couldn't process it. My neighbors probably thought I was crazy because I literally was just running outside screaming, screaming, because, I mean, it just pushed me over the edge.

Hearing that people even tried to extort the grieving family while at their lowest point.

Hey, send me money, because we know your sons in Peru, and we'll get you pictures of your son if you send us money. I mean, some people are telling you what they've heard but other people are just cruel.

A man calling himself Pepe even told Erica that he had helped Justin get a fake id to cross over the mexican border from Texas. Within days of his disappearance, the investigation was officially underway. Justin's friends and volunteers in the community rallied together and began passing out flyers, knocking on doors, and forming impromptu search parties. Some friends still held out hope at first that Justin had just decided to go off the grid for a few days and would turn up fine, or had even fled the state to avoid the upcoming court date for his underage drinking arrest. Though I think, honestly, that was just their coping mechanism of choice, refusing to believe the voice in the back of their head telling them this likely wouldn't end well. As time passed, hope turned to heartbreak and despair.

It all felt so, you know, basically hopeless in terms of things that are most likely is, you know, he's either running from the law, he's trying to lay low to avoid getting in trouble for something, or, you know, as more time passed, obviously the confidence in him being passed out on someone's couch somewhere dropped pretty substantially after that. It was, you know, something bad happened.

Mike Heiser was friends with Justin since their sophomore year of high school. They initially bonded over their love of playing poker.

We had a math class together or something like that. And, yeah, I had never talked to him previously, and he said something to the effect of the teachers in the middle of teaching, and he yelled across the classroom and he was, hey, Heiser, you want to play poker this weekend? You know, that was. That was the start of the friendship. Met up that weekend, played poker, me, him, and a few other buddies. And that's how it started, was just us sitting around, you know, playing dollar ten cash games of poker.

Mike was involved in the search for Justin immediately. He left school in Valdosta as soon as he heard from his mother that Justin was missing. This was personal for him, not only because the two were close friends, but also because Justin helped a young, quiet Mike Heiser come out of his shell a bit, something that made a huge impact on him.

And that, to me, like, that changed my whole high school experience from there, because then I became, you know, you are the sum of the five people that you spend the most time with. So then I became a little bit more outgoing. I became a little bit more of a class clown, and high school became much more enjoyable. And, you know, I was able to learn how to make new friends. By nature. I'm actually very introverted. Justin helped me to break out of that shell.

Mike's brother Patrick also participated in the early search parties and tells me what it was like.

First night was really like, the core people. It was that group of people that were the high school friends. A lot of us, when we first came there, thought we were going to find him. Like, almost immediately, we thought we were gonna find him in, oh, he tried to walk. He's on the side of the road. He's in a gully.

He's hurt.

Like, we don't know what's going on. First, like, five days were, like, gut wrenching. I mean, we're searching until two or 03:00 in the morning every night. And it was traced back where he would go if he got a ride, right? We search, we search, we search, we search, we search. And you cross off all these X's places where you think you could be.

But both of the Heiser brothers said that the searches seemed unorganized and at times, almost pointless.

I remember one where we all met up at wild bills and then, you know, basically sprawled out, and then another one that felt like it was just a wild goose chase. That felt totally unorganized. As opposed to, like, searching in, like, grid sections. Or how you search for someone is you create a grid, then you go search in each spot in that grid, see if you come up with any clues. Whereas, you know, this felt like we were just driving out to a spot, basically, and glancing around for anything suspicious. And it was like, this feels disorganized.

Local news outlets kept the public constantly updated on the case. And word of Justin Gaines vanishing seemed to spread everywhere. Erica and Steven pleaded for anyone with information to come forward. They didn't care who was responsible. They just wanted their son home safe. They wondered if he was hurt, if he was cold, if he was hungry.

I've heard this from the mothers of other homicide victims. The mothers are concerned that their son or daughter is not getting enough to eat or that they're cold. I thought that was odd, to have a commonality of cases like that where the mothers are concerned about that.

Bob Pulno has worked as a private investigator since the early seventies, probably the.

Last 15 or 20 years. My PI work was handling only major felonies. Seven deadly sins, as I call them. Murder, aggravated assault, rape, child molestation, you know, what have you.

Just days after Justin's disappearance made news headlines, Bob Poulno serendipitously caught a broadcast covering one of the search parties. Bob wasn't supposed to be home that day. He should not have seen Justin's picture on tv. But that would prove to be a pivotal moment in the Justin Gaines case.

I had rushed home to get some paperwork that I needed for a couple of people I needed to interview in Duluth that day. I needed those papers that I had forgotten to take early that morning, looked at the tv as I was passing by to get to my desk and had Justin Gaines picture on there. They had missing across the tv screen, and I just saw a short blip of that.

When veteran private detective Bob Pullneau caught a breaking news feature stating that Justin Gaines was missing, he took notice. Justin was from the same small town of Snellville that Bob lived in. And by the looks of the search party on tv, they were going to need all the help they could get.

They had a video of these young people searching for Justin Gaines, and they were all amassed in front of Wild Bill's nightclub parking lot. And it looked chaotic to me. It was not organized. It appeared. So I just went on with what I was doing, grabbed my notes, and went on to my interviews, which happened to be in that area of Wild Bill's.

Sheerly out of curiosity, Bob pulled into Wild Bill's parking lot after finishing work for the day. And what he saw didn't impress him.

I sat there in my car and looked at them kind of running and walking along, and it appeared to be as disorganized in person as it was on tv.

Seeing how disorganized the search parties really were, Bob thought, they'll never find that kid this way. He'd participated in enough of these kinds of searches and had enough experience under his belt to know that much. Bob is a tough, no nonsense kind of guy. He's old school. He's very good at what he does. So he found someone who seemed to be in charge and kindly offered his help.

He and I chatted just a moment, and I told him that I know a man in Houston, Texas, named Tim Miller who works for a company named Texas Ecusearch, which is a national search and rescue team. And I had had past experiences and cases for victims where I had used Tim Miller, his company, to search for bodies.

Tim Miller and his Texas ecusearch team were soon called in at Bob Pullno's urging. The rescue team initially began with searches on horseback, but by now had evolved to utilizing ground searchers, side scan sonar, ground penetrating radar, boats, aircraft drones, and ATV's. They had the experience, know how, and equipment that was needed, and the clock was ticking. Cases like this were right up Tim Millers Alley. He and his team have performed thousands of searches in conjunction with law enforcement agencies all over the country and abroad. And theyve been successful in finding hundreds of missing people, both alive and dead. Soon after Tim Millers team arrived, Georgias national guard came to help as well and they set up headquarters at a nearby church. Justin's mom visited wild Bill's every Thursday night. There were over 3000 people there the night he went missing. Someone had to have seen something.

I used to go up there every Thursday after he went missing to hand out flyers and look at people and just try to, you know, see if anyone seemed suspicious.

And what else could she and Steven do, really? Searching for Justin consumed them. It became their every waking breath. They didn't even go to work anymore. Finding Justin was their job now.

We were in that church for probably four months. My husband didn't work every day for four months. We went out looking for Justin. But I mean, because there's not a handbook about what happens when your kid goes missing. You don't know what to do.

Week after week it was the same routine, wake up, search for Justin, cry yourself to sleep, wake up a few hours later and do it all over again for months. Eventually the volunteers dwindled as they went back to work and school. The rescue team and the national Guard left and suddenly it was just Erica and her family.

They were there and you're feeling confident. You have all these people here, you have guidance, you know, you finally know what you're doing, you know, or you know you're going to do something and that's end of the week. They, you know, you know, you're hoping something but then the week they're like, oh, well, of course at this point it was going to be Thanksgiving so, you know, well, you know, you know, if you need anything, let us know. We're going to leave. You know, it's Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving, what's the big deal? My kids still missing. But I mean, you can't expect people to be there all the time.

I mean, the holidays hit hard. First Thanksgiving, then Christmas. No festive decorations, no urge to give or receive gifts. Who could care about that? The Wilson home was no longer the cheery place it once was. As Ericas fears were becoming a reality that her son might not ever come home again. Now that the search was all but officially over, there was no daily task to keep Erica, Stephen and their six other children preoccupied. The real effects of Justin's disappearance slowly took hold and everyone dealt with it differently. It was a dreadful time and everyone, especially his siblings, felt the weight of Justin's absence.

They were all very different. Some of our kids went to counseling. Our oldest son was in Ohio state at the time. He had a really hard time. You know, he had to go through counseling of things. Our one son, Jordan, is very open and would talk about it all the time, but, I mean, they were all different. Unfortunately, when Justin went missing, in the beginning, I mean, I went and looked for Justin, but my daughter played sports, and I was very involved with my kids. My kids were my life. And I stopped. I stopped, you know, made her coach pick her up, and she'd be like, mom, please go. No, I can't go and can't go. And. But, I mean, I stopped going to their games. I didn't want to do anything. I wanted to look for Justin or sleep, you know, or cry or be Nancy Drew. I mean, I stay on the Internet all night. I mean, I want to do anything, but I. Not the same person I was. I'll never be.

The stress was extremely difficult for Steven as well, because he had to not only take care of the other children and Erica, but he also had to go back to work because with eight mouths to feed, they needed the money.

It wasn't fair to him because, I mean, he was handling, you know, worried about coming home, making sure I'm the kids and everything when he's suffering, too. They're all our kids. I mean, it's not his, mine, our, you know, it's all the same, you know, so he's hurting just as bad as me if I look back at him. I should have been more supportive of him because, you know, it's not just poor me. It was the whole family.

Erica had become a shell of her former self, a hollow, empty void wrapped in skin she no longer recognized in the mirror. She felt that if she wasn't looking for Justin, she was somehow failing him. And because he was never found, she couldn't even properly mourn him or say goodbye. The depression cut slow and deep. She was spiraling further and further down. It was all she could do for a while to even get out of bed.

I was ready to give up and just spend the rest of my time, cry my life away, but, I mean, it's not something you can do. One day, my daughter said something about, mommy, this isn't you, or you always did this with me. And I was like, no. And she left that day to go do whatever it was, softball at the time, or basketball, and something clicked and said, you know what? Justin wouldn't want this. She need to get up and focus. So I try to stay strong now. And, you know, being in a funk, not good. I mean, that doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help Justin. It doesn't help your kids. It doesn't help your spouse.

While all of this was playing out, Bob Pullneau had been doing what he does, investigating. He'd managed to get a copy of the security footage from wild bills that night. The footage gave clues as to Justin's movements inside and outside the club, but he was out of view of the camera when he disappeared. Bob pored through the footage over and over again, taking note of who came and went, what they wore, and if they were with or even near Justin. The footage showed Justin dancing, shaking hands, and high fiving friends, and making dozens of calls and texts out front while looking for a ride. Then he walked out of view. There wasn't much to go on, but fortunately, Bob found a witness who was willing to talk.

James Irving was friends with Justin, having met him in college. James was someone who I found. They actually witnessed Justin with a blonde girl inside wild Bill's that night. Seated at his table with him, James saw the same blonde girl get in the car with Justin Gaines and two other people in a black 2006 Dodge Charger with heavily tinted windows, shiny paint, and oversized 22 inch rims with a Georgia tag. They got in this car. There was a male driver and an unidentified passenger on the driver's rear.

Irving's eyewitness account placed Justin with several other people in the wild bill's parking lot around 02:00 a.m. and he was certain it was Justin because he spoke to him briefly.

Justin got in the passenger side rear, the blonde girl got in the front, and he drove away. And James says to Justin as he rolled down his window leaving the club, and he sees him get in this car with this girl, and he didn't know the girl. He told me he didn't think that Justin knew those people he was with. He'd never seen them before. So he said, hey, take care. See you around at school. And Justin said, yeah, that'd be cool, you know, something like that. And he got in the car.

Irving's account was one of the first real leads Bob and the Gwinnett county police had to go on. And it's huge, because whoever Justin got into that car with might be the last people to see him alive. The only problem is, at the time, they didn't know who those people were. And it all seemed to center around a mystery blonde girl. Bob knew how important this lead was and would not let the case go.

That car was and is a focal point of the investigation. The blonde girl, of course, is now.

Nearly 16 years after Justin went missing. Well, that's where I come in. And for what is maybe the first time investigators have opened the files on an active case to a podcaster. To me, Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman, whose department is primarily handling Justin's case at this point, explained his views on me coming into the fold.

I see it as a positive. You know, not all in my position have that viewpoint, but at this point in time, man, we've. We've thrown rocks, we've drug ropes, we've dug wells, done everything you can do. And here I am getting ready to retire, and I don't think the one coming behind me is going to feel that way. I just don't think it will have the attention that it has right now.

But the sheriff tells me that not everyone was as compelled at first to open the case files to me, including the investigator assigned to Justin's case, former FBI agent Mike Rising.

I called Mike, and I said, hey, these guys with the podcast going to call? Well, you know, sheriff, I don't like giving. I said, well, you're going to like it this time. You're going to talk to this man. He said, okay. So I was kind of interested in how that conversation was going to go.

Yeah, that makes two of us. And I know it won't be easy, but my goal here is simple. To reinvigorate the case surrounding the disappearance of Justin Gaines, but also to find out if there is information from witnesses that has not yet come to light, to find Justin's remains, if he is, in fact, deceased, as believed, and ultimately to find out exactly what happened to him. The morning of November 2, 2007, and after just a few weeks of looking into this case, people are talking. When I began this investigation, in early summer of 2023, in a Hail Mary attempt, I wrote a letter to one of the main suspects in this case, a man named Dustin Dillon Glass, who's currently in prison in Georgia for unrelated charges. Glass's name has been synonymous with Justin Gaines for many years now, and for good reason. He confessed to taking part in Justin's murder, describing it in detail. Though no one has yet been charged with Justin's murder, police believe that Glass is the key to unlocking the mysterious disappearance of Justin Gaines. In my letter, I asked Glass to speak with me on the record about Justin, honestly thinking I'd never hear back from him, because who the hell am I?

Two weeks later, I was on the phone with him.

So listen. Yeah, man. So I got your letter, right? Man, for a long time, I've sat here and watched the world talk bad about me. You want the truth about that? With you, I'm gonna give you all the way the truth. I'm gonna give you a hundred percent of truth, man. When you hear everything that really happened, like, it's gonna blow your mind.

Drowning Creek is an original production of Waveland. I wrote and created the series and the original score. Executive producer is Jason Hoch. Associate producer is Leo Culp. Sound engineering by Shane Freeman. Special thanks to Erica Wilson and her family. If you have any leads on this case, please contact me@infocype.com and if you love the series, please leave a review and tell your friends. Follow waveland on Instagram at wavelandmedia for more on this series and upcoming new shows, and you can also find me on social media at Seancipe official or@seancipe.com as always, thanks for listening.