Missing Person Stories, Scams & Support with Nina Innsted of Already Gone podcast

A true crime collaboration with the insightful and kind, Nina Innsted, creator and host of the Already Gone podcast. Together we explore the intricate world of missing persons cases, the truth about the rise of disturbing social media scams exploiting missing persons, grim realities faced by families of missing and murdered loved ones, and the critical need to strengthen resources and data to tell the whole story.

Nina covers The Great Lakes region on Already Gone so, as I do, I learned a bit about the area and, well, it is incredible (you can find me rabbit holing aboutthe phenomenon of Great Lakes' shipwrecks).

As October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month, our conversation takes a close look at the intersection of domestic violence and missing persons and the risks involved for people who are fleeing abusive situations and the need for discretion to protect them and their escape. We discuss the unique challenges for individuals leading non-traditional lifestyles, who are most vulnerable.

We share important resources for anyone who may experience a missing person in their family or circle.

With contributions from fellow podcasters and advocates, this episode is a compelling call to action for greater understanding and support in missing persons cases. More information and resources at CrimeoftheTruestKind.com episode page, and how to follow Nina's work through the Almost Gone podcast and the Missing in Michigan Facebook group.

Nina Innsted
@ninainnsted
@almostgonepod
Missing In Michigan Facebook group

Episode 73: Missing Person Stories, Scams & Support with Nina Innsted of Already Gone podcast

Chapters

• 0:00 Missing Persons and True Crime Podcasting
• 13:51 Internet Scams Targeting Missing Persons
• 27:57 Domestic Violence and Missing Persons

Transcript

Anngelle Wood: 0:00

Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood, and this is Crime of the Truest Kind. Something I have planned in this new season of the show is collaboration. Last week I dropped a bonus episode in the feed from a show I guested on over the summer with UK friends, the Red Rabbit Hole. We talked about one of the most notorious cases in Massachusetts, because crime is history and sometimes history is crime. We talked about the Bordens of Fall River.

Anngelle Wood: 0:55

We talked about the case and did a mock retrial of sorts on the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden Spoiler. She was acquitted On this week's show. A special collaboration with Nina Innsted, the creator and host of Alrmost Gone, the podcast. About Nina. She is a Michigan native, podcast host, victims advocate, as well as an administrator for the Missing in Michigan Facebook group. It is a large group with a membership totaling more than 135,000. Now Nina is well versed in missing persons cases.

Anngelle Wood: 1:37

She recently appeared on another podcast called Mind Over Murder with Bill Thomas, another Massachusetts person, and co-host, Kristen Dilley, where they talked about missing person scams and I learned a great deal of new information about what goes right and wrong when somebody becomes a missing person. I first met Nina last year when I attended my first True Crime Podcast Festival in Austin, Texas. Incidentally, that is also where I first met Bill Thomas. We bonded over Massachusetts and radio, a story for another time. Nina was one of the first people I met at that conference - me, the newbie podcaster, totally out of my element of loud rock and roll shows where I know almost everyone in that room. This was all new territory and Nina was so kind and so helpful from the first moment I walked over to her holding a plate of hummus and carrots, probably, at a podcast host mixer. In this episode, we cover a lot of territory, including this phenomenon of missing person scams and what they become. We talk about the stark realities families face when a loved one goes missing, challenges in law enforcement's response and all the barriers that exist.

Anngelle Wood: 3:00

Now about Nina. Her podcast, Already Gone, began in 2016 and covers often lesser known true crime cases in the Great Lakes area. And because I aim to learn something on every show, and I hope you do too. What are the Great Lakes? I live in Massachusetts. We have beautiful lakes and the ocean, but the Great Lakes, they're something. Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario those- those five lakes and their connecting channels form the largest fresh surface water system on Earth.

Anngelle Wood: 3:46

Those rivers and dams that connect them create an entire system about the size of the United Kingdom and France combined. Eight states border the Great Lakes. Do you know them? It's not a test - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. What else I learned about the Great Lakes? There are a lot of shipwrecks, thousands of shipwrecks. Exact number is unknown, with some estimates saying 6,000 to 10,000 well-preserved wrecks in the cold and fresh water, keeping many of them intact below the surface. Now, I had heard about this, but now I'm fascinated and the photos I've seen are incredible. And now I want to go to the Great Shipwreck Museum in a place called Paradise, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, the UP as it's known. I've heard. I had old friends from there. Now I could go on for about an hour about how awesome the Great Lakes are now that I've been obsessively looking at shipwrecks in the beautiful water of the Great Lakes, I'll rabbit hole on my own time. We toss around a lot of names in this conversation - fellow podcasters, some family members of missing and murdered people, various cases, events, advocates and the like, all of which I list on the show notes and in the episode notes at CrimeOfTheTruestKind. com.

Anngelle Wood: 5:15

You can follow Nina online NinaInstead. com. It's I-N-N-S-T-E-D, @ Nina Instead on Instagram. The Missing in Michigan Facebook group is linked in the notes. You can also search for it - Missing in Michigan. Already Gone, is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, you know all the places you choose to listen to your stories. Follow Already Gone Pod on Facebook and Instagram.

Anngelle Wood: 5:45

This is episode 73. Don't go missing in America.

Anngelle Wood: 5:50

Al right. So I like to share some . Or or data. I say it different every time. Blackandmissinginc. com says in 2023, missing persons under the age of 18, 53% were identified as white, including Hispanic. 40% identified as African American, 4% identified as Asian and Indian, 3% unknown. 50% of missing persons are labeled female, 50% labeled male. I mean that kind of does throw a wrench in. It's only ladies that disappear. I don't mean to be smug, but it is a true crime trope.

Anngelle Wood: 6:36

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Database, also known as NamUs, which is funded by the US Department of Justice, more than 600,000 people go missing every year. Approximately 4,400 unidentified people are recovered each year. Nationwide, there are roughly 6.5 missing persons per 100,000 people. In a Newsweek report, roughly 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day. In Newsweek's reporting from February 2024, they say Oklahoma has the largest percentage of missing people in America, with 16 per 100,000 residents, arizona, with 14.2. On the West Coast, just behind that, is Oregon, with 12.5 per 100,000 people, followed by Washington State at 10.8. California has 8.6. Followed by Washington State at 10.8. California has 8.6. So, comparatively speaking, new England states have some of the lowest in the US my home state of Massachusetts 2.7, followed by the smallest state in the Union, rhode Island, at 2.6. And the Great Lakes states also have some of the lowest Wisconsin, illinois, indiana 3.3 per 100,000. Michigan, neenah State, has six per every 100,000 residents, but there is no federal requirement for reporting to NamUs. Dr Jesse Goliath from the Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons told Newsweek that the real figures are higher than the federal statistics show. So what they're saying is, without mandatory reporting by law enforcement, the number of actual missing persons state by state is actually much higher than this data is telling us, or data. Nina and I are going to cover a lot of ground coming up next in our conversation.

Anngelle Wood: 8:34

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Anngelle Wood: 9:17

I learned pretty quickly when I started to meet people and really the biggest aha moment was going to the festival, looking around and getting a sense of what's happening, what people are like, who have been doing this for a little while, and then I started to meet people. You know, I started to meet families and hearing from families and that that was everything.

Nina Innsted: 9:48

Yeah, that was truly everything. It gives you a lot of perspective.

Anngelle Wood: 9:50

It sure does. How did it start for you, because you've been at it for quite a bit.

Nina Innsted: 9:57

So in 2015, my daughter developed agoraphobia, which means she didn't want to leave the house. She was eight or nine and wouldn't go to school. I couldn't leave her home alone because she was too little. So I had to quit my job, which I was fine with. I was ready to leave teaching and stay home with her and I was listening to podcasts so that I wouldn't go crazy from a lack of adult content you know adult interaction and called my husband one day and he's like, how's it going? And I'm like, oh, it's all right, you know what? I think I want to start a podcast. And he came home with a microphone A few months later I started the podcast.

Anngelle Wood: 10:38

What brought you to this format? What was it about crime that attracted you?

Nina Innsted: 10:48

I'm dating myself here, but when I was a little girl, like a toddler, the Oakland County child killer was killing kids in Oakland County where I lived and took a girl from my neighborhood. So there's always been this stranger danger serial killer vibe, and he was never caught. My whole life has been wondering who the Oakland County child killer is. So I've always been interested in true crime and then growing up my mom always had the pulp novels you know, the true crime ripped from the headlines, paperbacks laying around. So I did a lot of reading.

Anngelle Wood: 11:23

My beloved Nana, who lived well into her 90s, smoked like a fiend from when she was about 12 years of age. So I don't know what magic was inside her, but she used to read those very graphic detective magazines.

Nina Innsted: 11:37

Yeah.

Anngelle Wood: 11:38

And I was a little girl looking over her shoulder, going I don't know what's happening, but to say I liked it is seems really morbid, but something stuck.

Nina Innsted: 11:49

Yeah.

Anngelle Wood: 11:50

But my parents didn't seem to have it, or did they know, who knows? They didn't have any reservation, with my Nana reading these very graphic magazines. Yeah, I blame my Nana for at least planting the seed. And then it just grew and grew and grew until you know, before we even knew what true crime was.

Nina Innsted: 12:11

Right.

Anngelle Wood: 12:12

You know we talk about what's big in the news right now. There's this new interest in the Menendez brothers case. That was true crime. When that was going on, you know, when his, when the parents were murdered by the boys, they did it People were fascinated because it was true crime, but we didn't know what true crime was.

Nina Innsted: 12:29

Yeah, I remember leaving work to go home and watch the OJ Simpson verdict come in.

Anngelle Wood: 12:34

I remember that was bananas. Yeah, Absolutely bananas. Let's talk about the missing persons scams that are cropping up online. When I heard your episode with Bill and Kristen from Mind Over Murder, I was like these are the things.

Nina Innsted: 12:54

I've been talking about People.

Anngelle Wood: 12:56

When you say something to someone and say, hey, careful, I've gotten pushback from people when they say, well, I think their family would really want them found, and I would gently say, sometimes I would respond and say, yes, they certainly would. However, or this child was missing and has been located, this photograph you're passing around. I love that you're caring about this missing child. This child has since been found, about six months ago, and I didn't know all of those things that you explained that it's the bait and switch and who is who's baiting and what they're switching, because I know that you run Missing in Michigan. Yeah, I run the online, that amazing resource for people in the area. How soon did you figure it out that this was a game?

Nina Innsted: 13:56

I didn't realize what people were doing. I just knew they weren't real posts. You know, the first thing I look for is police contact information or a phone number of any kind. Generally these were being posted with no date, no phone number and no way to get in touch with someone. It was just like a panicked flood.

Nina Innsted: 14:18

Your feeds, you know, share widely, share this post, and over the last almost six years I've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of missing persons posts. So I know what they're supposed to look like and I know how the originating they're supposed to look like and I know how the originating poster is supposed to be acting. And not everybody acts the same. But you know there's a pretty standard set of things to look for and I just wasn't seeing them. So I'm like this isn't this, doesn't. This just doesn't seem right.

Nina Innsted: 14:51

And then I try and track down. You know I would message the person or look at their profile and go that's a fake profile. So I would just know we're deleting it, that's not legitimate. But then I realized what they were doing is they were creating these posts of a missing child or a found dog or a missing grandpa and getting people to share them widely, and then the post would suddenly convert to property for rent or for sale or an office availability, you know, some sort of sales related post. And it's just so disappointing that people take advantage of people's good nature and people wanting to help with something like that.

Anngelle Wood: 15:30

People just don't understand. They don't understand what's at stake like that. People just don't understand. They don't understand what's at stake. You see them in yard sale posts Missing dog and I have five dogs so I'm very concerned. And then you think, hmm, why are they posting this in a yard sale page? Because it's going to turn into something else. You know. Nothing tugs at your heartstrings like somebody's missing little child.

Nina Innsted: 15:56

Exactly, you worry, we worry about kids. I you know, look out for other people's kids all the time, as people should. So when you see that a child is missing, it strikes at the heart of you and you're like, oh, I've got to help, I've got to share this, do what I can to support this family in an upsetting time and then to be duped by some scammer who's looking to sell something is just gross.

Anngelle Wood: 16:21

It's abominable, but that's the nature of, unfortunately, the internet, as has been evidenced. I'm sure, throughout your course, your journey into true crime and advocacy your journey into true crime and advocacy, which is a big driver for you and is a big driver for me, as I'm learning you want to do as many of the right things as you possibly can to help families, and I recently had an interview with a family member of a woman who went missing and they found deceased and unsolved. I'm hoping to support that family more, but what I learned about their case and so many others is they have absolutely no idea what to do, how to do it, who to reach out to. They knew this family in particular. No-transcript, and their local police department says she's 23 years old.

Anngelle Wood: 17:48

no, we're not going to take a report which is so frustrating have we not moved on from that place where police officers tell family members you have to wait before we'll accept a report? Is that still happening?

Nina Innsted: 18:04

So in my experience, I've worked with a lot of police departments and I'm on the phone with the police several times a week, you know, because I'll get a missing persons report and then I'll and let them know that I've got a post on Facebook that they're welcome to share, that we're getting the person out on social media, and it really varies from department to department. The reaction I get Sometimes it's oh my gosh, great thanks for helping, and other times it's like I'm not even going to tell you that there's a missing persons report, it's none of your business. So the culture at various police departments determines the reaction they're going to get, that a family is going to get when they file a report or attempt to file a report that comes from the leadership of the department.

Anngelle Wood: 18:54

There's no rule among police forces at anywhere. They can decide whether they will or they won't. Yeah, the question came up when you were saying that Nina was. Is that also the case with a missing person who gets added into, say, one of the databases, one of the clearinghouses for missing folks? It's something that, as I understand it, law enforcement has to do, that A family member can't go to NamUs and add their loved one, correct?

Nina Innsted: 19:27

As far as I know, namus cannot be edited by just anyone. Best practice would be for a law enforcement agency, after someone's been missing for 7 to 14 days, that they would go and enter the person into NamUs. Now you look at a smaller department where they don't have missing persons, but once every couple of years they may not even know what to do. I believe they can reach out to NamUs and get support in keying their person in, but as far as I know there is no uniformity from state to state, county to county whether or not someone gets keyed in to NamUs. I have also had the experience of calling a department here in Georgia where they have a missing person listed like a long-term missing on their department webpage and me calling to ask about it and them going.

Nina Innsted: 20:20

We don't have any missing persons. What are you talking about about it and them going? We don't have any missing persons. What are you talking about? So again, it comes down to the culture of the department and then also the experiences of the department. I expect Atlanta PD to do a much better job at keying people into NamUs than I would a little two-car department in rural Georgia to car department in rural Georgia.

Anngelle Wood: 20:47

One of the things I want to do with this conversation is help arm people with the information, the steps that they can take. Now, of course, you have said all law enforcement organizations are different local versus some of the state, police, etc. What are some of the basic things we can arm people with on how to do this? Now I know that you have said be very careful of sharing your own personal contact information because of the nature of the internet and people will call and say, oh, I have them, but you have to give me money.

Anngelle Wood: 21:23

That happens, unfortunately that's called extortion Against the law.

Nina Innsted: 21:29

Still happens.

Anngelle Wood: 21:33

Still happens all the time. If I were, to say, make an infographic of some of the steps that an average citizen who finds that they're in this situation, what are the first three, four, five steps that we can guide them with in your experience?

Nina Innsted: 21:51

So the first thing you should do is notify law enforcement, make a call to law enforcement or, better yet, go into the station and file a report. If they will not take a report if it's a city department, go to the county. Ask the county sheriff to make a report. If they will not take a report if it's a city department, go to the county. Ask the county sheriff to make a report. If the county sheriff won't take it, go to the state police. Your loved one is missing. This is out-of-character behavior for them. If they are a child or a senior or medically compromised, you don't have to wait 24 hours. If they are missing, they are missing. You need to get on the radar of law enforcement as soon as possible. You need to cast a wide net, which means calling everyone you know and asking have you seen this person? Have you seen this person?

Nina Innsted: 22:37

Social media is great for getting the word out. You should have a person's name, a good photo, date and location last seen and the best way to contact law enforcement. Or, if you have to contact yourself, you can create a quick email address. You know missinggenie123 at gmailcom. You don't have to put your phone number out there. It's not safe to put your phone number out there.

Nina Innsted: 23:04

Even on Facebook, there will be people that don't respect boundaries and just want to message you to get the scoop. They just want to get the lowdown and I find that really irritating because it's wasting the person's time Getting the word out to law enforcement, calling all of your contacts to see if they have had any contact with your missing person and using social media judiciously to get the word out about your missing person. There are organizations like Missing in Michigan, in several states, in several regions, like the city of Toledo in Ohio. It's not very big but there is a Toledo missing persons page. Angie who runs that is fantastic. There are neighborhood groups that you can make your post in. I would not use the yard sale group, but most communities have a Facebook group that you can make a post in.

Anngelle Wood: 23:59

One of the things that has come up for me and I have gotten some pushback online and I'm sure you have a great deal of experience in this regard Somebody goes missing. There is a pretty big swell of information People are distributing that this person was last seen on the side of the road. Person was last seen on the side of the road. This is the only information we know. They're missing. Get the call out and they are reported to the area law enforcement agency and law enforcement is a part of this and there becomes such like a groundswell of information about this missing person and then the missing person is located, whether it be they're found and they're injured or not. The public then has a lot of questions. Yes, what I try to say to people when they're like what happened? What happened? I say very unpopular things like we don't have a right to know what happened after this if the family doesn't want us to know.

Anngelle Wood: 25:08

There comes a place where the family can say no more, no, we're not going to make comments, or the police, can you know the law enforcement will share possibly a statement from the family that says please respect our privacy, we're dealing with this, no other information is going to come out.

Nina Innsted: 25:26

And I fully support that. I often know the circumstances of how someone was found, if they were taken into custody, if they were found in hospital, if they were found as an angel, if they just showed up back at home. The two things you need to know is that they were found safe or they were found as an angel, and other than that, it's really up to the family what, if anything, they would like to share.

Anngelle Wood: 26:04

You don't have a right to know. We don't have a right to know anything that happened beyond what may have already come out and then the sleuths pick that up and oftentimes can make the case worse for the family members. But I've tried to say that in some instances where we may never know, we know this person is safe and back with their families. We may never know when it comes to children particularly. I want to wipe all that out.

Nina Innsted: 26:27

But if it isn't adults. So I totally get wanting to know. I want to know. I've had people go missing in the families, just like we found them. They're safe. You can take it down and I'm like super curious, but it's not my business. I did my part. I was a good neighbor, a good community member, and that's it. You're not entitled to the details. I get that that's frustrating and I get that we have a natural curiosity or we get invested in the story. But it's not our right to know, but it is that person's right to privacy, the desire to know. I get being curious, I get being invested, but the best course of action is to respect the wishes of the family.

Anngelle Wood: 27:11

We truly don't know what's going to happen to that family after that. Again, we don't have to know, we don't have a right to know, but that family could be going through a whole nother experience, whether it's they're in the hospital and that person is injured or worse, and they just don't want to flood the Internet sphere with any more information because at that point they're trying to protect that person. Hopefully.

Nina Innsted: 27:38

Well, or the person checked themselves into rehab and didn't tell their family, or the person is fleeing a domestic violence situation, and sharing the status of where they are or how they were found could put them back in danger. It's better to just be grateful that they were found and let it go.

Anngelle Wood: 27:57

You raised some very important points. It wasn't a traditional disappearance, we'll say, if there's such thing as a traditional, they weren't kidnapped, they didn't temporarily lose their memory. Something very serious was is to try to escape a domestic violence situation. Time is of the essence for folks and leaving. I mean it is October, it is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We should really talk about this.

Nina Innsted: 28:36

Yes.

Anngelle Wood: 28:36

We should be shouting this from the rooftops that how truly dangerous it is for someone in an abusive situation to leave. It's the most dangerous time and if they decide they're going to slip out under the radar and it becomes a very big public thing. Keeping that information quiet after the fact probably becomes that much more difficult information quiet after the fact probably becomes that much more difficult.

Nina Innsted: 29:09

Well, and that's another reason why it's really important to have a police report and a police contact, because that way you know that the person who's looking for the missing person is acting in good faith.

Anngelle Wood: 29:16

Another great point to add to it that abuser could be the one who's flooding the information right? That didn't even really occur to me until right about now. Maybe that person that is like this person's missing call me. I need to know immediately. They could be the one that's hunting them down. Lack of a more appropriate term.

Nina Innsted: 29:37

Yeah, that's trying to track the person down, absolutely. The other thing that I tell families and I come across this more often than you think is someone who lives a non-traditional lifestyle. Maybe they're transient, maybe they're struggling with addiction, maybe they're estranged from their family, but they have a friend or a network of friends that they're close with, that they keep in contact with. These people go missing and people that are unhoused go missing and people that have addiction issues go missing and people that have warrants go missing. It's not uncommon and I would never turn away someone who was missing just because of their lifestyle or their background, and I get it.