Crime Junkie: MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Adrienne Salinas

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Hi Crime-Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers.

And I'm Britt.

And the story I have for you today is about a young woman who on the verge of finding herself

ends up tragically lost instead.

This is the story of Adrian Salinas.

Rick Salinas ist paniking.

It's Father's Day and he hasn't been able to reach his daughter, Adrian.

Not just today, but yesterday either.

And even though Adrian is 19 and living out on her own with some friends, there's no way

she wouldn't at least call him back, especially now that it's Father's Day.

I mean, the two of them are super close since he raised her and her little brother on his

own.

All the calls he keeps making to Adrian's phone are going straight to voicemail.

So he gives one of her roommates Shanie a call.

Und as soon as she answers, the question practically spills from his mouth.

Is Adrian there?

But instead of the answer he's hoping for, his heart plummets.

Not only is Adrian not there now, but she also hasn't been there since Friday night.

Well, technically Saturday morning, but like middle of the night kind of Saturday morning.

Like she just left the house in the middle of the night?

Yes, but not alone.

According to an episode of People Magazine Investigates called Darkness in the Desert,

Shanie tells Rick that Adrian probably is where she always is when she leaves for a day

or two at her boyfriend Franz.

She even saw them leaving together from their apartment during this party that they were

throwing.

So for a minute, Rick feels this wave of relief.

I mean, he knows Franz and Franz a good kid.

He's been in Adrian's life for all their lives really since the two were in 8th grade.

So what Shanie says is reassuring enough for Rick to take a breath and just wonder if

maybe he's overreacting.

He hangs up with Shanie and then obviously calls Franz just to make sure that his daughter

really is there and she really is alright.

But when he makes that call, that little reserve of hope that he's clinging onto just drains

out of his body.

Because Adrian isn't with Franz either.

In fact, he doesn't know where she is and he too has been trying to reach her.

But Shanie said they've left together.

They did and Franz confirms that.

He said that he and Adrian did leave together somewhere around 2.40 in the morning.

Because apparently, I guess they got into an argument at the party.

Adrian was jealous about Franz talking to other girls.

And it was way too chaotic at Adrian's place to talk anything out.

Like the party had actually gotten pretty wild.

So they left and went to Franz's place to talk.

I repeat, they left together.

So yes.

Sorry, they did.

But Franz tells Rick that they didn't actually stay at his place very long.

Really only like a few minutes.

And then I guess Adrian decided that she wanted to go back to her place, back to the party.

So they drove back to her place in Tempe.

But according to Franz, he didn't make it all the way there.

So, this is strange, but he says that a few blocks away from her place, she like jumped out of the car and said that she was going to walk the rest of the way.

And that is the last that he saw of her.

So she jumped out of a moving vehicle to walk home?

What am I missing?

Well, I don't know if it was moving per se.

I get the impression that they were maybe out of stoplight or stop sign or whatever.

But I think the whole point is she's still really upset.

And so I don't know if this was kind of like, you know, a dramatic teenager move to like test him.

Will you run after me?

Like, it seems to be just kind of like an escalation of this argument that they were having.

And she was like, I don't want to be in the same car as you.

I'm just going to walk home.

Right.

But we know she's not at her place now.

So what happened?

Well, she isn't there now, but actually we do know she got back to her place then.

Because Franz said that he called Adrian's other roommate, Rebecca, to tell her about this whole hopping out and walking home thing.

And he's like, hey, just give me a call when she gets there so I know she's home safe.

So it's not like he just even pieced out on her a little.

Like he could have followed her.

But he calls to say, let me know she at least makes it.

And he says that Rebecca did call him back and said Adrian is home.

So I'm going to need to hear that from Rebecca.

I mean, same for Rick.

As reporting from the state press by Nicholas Mendoza outlines,

as soon as he's off the phone with Fran, he jumps into his car, drives straight to Adrian's place.

And when he gets there, Rebecca is actually home.

And she tells him that, yes, I did call him because I did see Adrian come back

at around maybe 3 30 ish in the morning, just like Franz said.

But Rebecca adds something interesting.

She says that Adrian didn't stay there for long.

Apparently she charged your phone, packed an overnight bag and then said she was going to go back to Franz and she left in her own car.

This is in the middle of the night after a big party.

She's probably not in a state to drive, I assume.

I don't know for sure.

It was, like I said, a wild party based on other stuff I've kind of put together from earlier that evening,

like the fight, her jumping out of the car.

Again, I don't know how intoxicated she was, if at all, but it probably wasn't the best idea.

No. So I guess my question is, why didn't she just have Fran take her back?

I'm so confused with the back and forth between their places and the transportation of it all.

I mean, I think the problem is there's no rational explanation other than she was upset and wanted him to know it.

I mean, 19-year-old me was doing some weird stuff.

You know what I mean?

19-year-old me was getting engaged, so I'm not sure.

Yeah, also weird stuff for 19.

So yeah, I mean, again, I just think she was in a heightened emotional state.

So you're not necessarily like making the most responsible decisions.

So is dad suspicious of Fran at all?

Like, what's their relationship like?

Well, no, so Rick isn't suspicious of Fran.

He just doesn't see Fran ever hurting his daughter.

And like I said, he's known this kid since he was in middle school.

But either way, I mean, he's done trying to figure out where his daughter is on his own.

So according to reporting by William Pitts for 12 News,

that's when he calls the Tempe Police Department to report Adrian missing.

They agree to meet at Adrian's apartment to take the report.

But when they get there, things get even more confusing.

So Rebecca tells them the same thing.

She told Rick, Adrian came home early Saturday morning, 3.30 ish,

left again in her car to presumably go back to Fran's.

And when they look, Adrian's car is actually gone.

But when they go into her room, they find her car key.

And everyone swears up and down that she only has one car key.

So are the roommates caught in a lie or are they just as confused as everyone else?

They're just as confused as everyone else.

Like, I mean, if they wanted to lie,

they would just say she had a spare key or that she wasn't home at all.

You know what I mean? Right.

And honestly, again, if they were going to lie,

it would have made more sense to say that she didn't come home.

Because there's all this other stuff that doesn't add up with the idea

that she packed up to go to Fran's for a couple of days.

Like her purse with all of her cards in it.

Like, I mean, we're talking ID, Bank cards, all of that,

which you think she would need, if she were going to go drive somewhere,

are there at her apartment.

There's also clothes on the floor,

which her roommates identify as being the same clothes she was wearing Friday night.

But they also say they never saw her in anything but those clothes.

And we do know she came back to charge her phone and stuff.

But when Rebecca saw her leave, she says she was still in that same outfit.

So at some point, she came back again?

I mean, maybe?

Like, there's totally a world where she could have packed everything up, left,

maybe realized she left something behind, purse keys.

I don't know, went back to the apartment to grab it and then decided to change

clothes at that point before she left for what is this now, like a third time.

OK, but then she still left her purse and keys.

I'm sorry, I don't think so.

I know, that's the part that doesn't make sense.

It is all so mysterious.

It's like they are missing a giant piece to this puzzle.

But later, that same day, investigators come across a 911

call from the night Adrian went missing.

That actually could be that missing piece.

It could be the key to finding her.

Around 345, Saturday morning, a woman had called 911

to report a car driving erratically.

Now, the woman who called wasn't her, but she describes how this car sped

past her, going way too fast on a tight curve and actually

that car crashed into the median.

And this wasn't like a quick, like jump onto the curb kind of thing.

Two of the tires were fully blown out.

So she says that she stopped to actually check on the driver,

thinking that they could be injured.

But before she could get to the car, it just sped off.

And the description that she provided of the car, as well as the license

plate number, which she had, are both matches for Adrian's vehicle.

So the question becomes, where is that vehicle now?

Because according to reporting by NBC News from 2015, it was long gone

by the time police arrived at the crash site Saturday morning,

like where the woman said that she saw it crash into the median.

When they got there, it was again, no idea where it was.

So as far as they can tell, no one's even seen it since.

How close was this accident to Adrian's apartment?

Or, or, I don't know, even Franz for that matter.

I guess I'm trying to triangulate where all this is happening.

That's a good question.

I'm thinking it's pretty close.

I don't know the exact distance, but my best guess is like a few minutes away.

I mean, I know for sure this is all happening within Tempe.

And Fran, what I do know, actually lives in Scottsdale, which is like,

you know, could be a 15 minute drive-ish, maybe a little bit more.

And we know it was her driving her car.

Well, I mean, I guess no.

But that's kind of what everyone is assuming at this point,

just based on the timeline that they put together so far.

Because, I mean, all of it's tight.

Again, what we know is Adrian left with Fran at 2.40.

Rebecca saw her come back at around 3.30, then leave again.

And then this 911 call comes in at 3.44.

So literally less than 15 minutes since she's leaving with a bag or whatever.

So after learning this, this is now Sunday evening.

Investigators put out a Bolo for Adrian's car.

And I'm going to tell you straight up that my source material is a little

contradictory on this next chain of events.

Some sources say that Rick and Fran find the car on Sunday evening.

Some say that investigators find it Monday morning.

But what I know for sure is that whenever it is found,

it is only found a few blocks from Adrian's apartment.

And I know that investigators are able to examine it by Monday morning.

So, they're thinking she probably drove the red car toward her neighborhood,

ditched it a few blocks away for whatever reason, and then walked home.

And that's maybe when she left her key and pursed there at the apartment.

Yeah, I think that's what would make sense.

The one thing I wasn't able to find is whether or not the car was drivable.

Again, we know two tires were blown out.

And that sped away.

Yeah, so maybe like that's as far as she could get.

And then she was within walking distance from her place.

The problem is, after this point, the roommates don't see her come back

or much less like leave for a third time.

But you think she has to make it back, right?

In order for her key and her clothes to be there and her personal.

I don't know.

Right. All this was going down.

I wouldn't say in the middle of the night, but like very, very early morning.

They might not have been around or awake to see or hear her come in and leave.

I mean, I guess that's a possibility.

I can't really find a clean answer as to when this rager ended

or when anyone went to bed, but you got to think.

I mean, if they were still awake, we've already established

there's, you know, more than a little drinking going on.

So maybe memories or perceptions aren't necessarily at their peak.

Totally fair.

So does finding the car help?

Well, about that.

Ashley, I know that tone.

I do not like that tone.

Well, investigators look through the car.

They photograph the car.

But they don't actually impound the car or process it for evidence.

What do they even do with it then?

Like I said, they look at it and then they release it to the family,

at least according to what I read from William Pitts on 12 News.

Well, did they see anything when they looked at it before passing it off?

Well, I don't think they saw anything that screened foul play.

Otherwise, I assumed then they would have kept it.

I mean, in theory, I know.

Well, so here's the thing.

So again, I know they took some pictures

and I think there's some stuff documented,

at least that's what made it into the reporting.

So there was a notebook and a Blackberry,

probably Adrian's Blackberry, sitting in the driver's seat.

But they don't go through any of it before giving it back to the family.

No, they just document that it's there.

Because again, they're saying foul play is still TBD.

But to be fair, it's not like they're not doing anything.

Because the same day that they found the car,

then released it to the family,

they obtain what they call exigent records

for Adrian's phone from that night that she went missing.

That's a new one.

What exactly are exigent records?

I didn't know either. I had to look it up.

OK, good.

It's a limited set of phone records

that investigators can basically get, I mean, ASAP without a warrant,

which I didn't even know was a thing.

So what they get basically shows all of the calls

that Adrian made and received that night.

And they show when she received text messages,

although I don't think they show the contents of those texts.

That's what you need a warrant for.

Basically some preliminary information.

Yeah.

You know what would show the context of those texts, though?

The Blackberry.

The freaking Blackberry sitting in her driver's seat.

I know.

It doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

But I mean, I know they need a warrant

for the contents of her records, right?

So I'm wondering if maybe they can't just start going

through someone's phone that they come across.

Like it could get sticky.

But they don't think it's foul play yet.

So what's sticky about finding a missing person?

I know.

You would also think, too, like if you're going to release it back to her family,

I bet her family would be like, yeah, go through it.

But can they give permission when she's 19

and like owns the phone?

I don't know.

Either way, they're still able to glean

some important information from the exigent records.

Like the first thing they notice

are the 40 plus calls Adrian made to Fran

in those early morning hours.

OK, thank you for circling around back to Fran,

because you haven't said anything

about investigators interviewing him yet.

Yes, because they haven't talked to Fran yet.

What?

Yeah.

Talking to the boyfriend, however good of a kid he is,

is like Missing Girl 101.

That's probably taught the same day they cover

not giving back the Blackberry.

I know, but it's not to say that they don't, right?

Like, again, they're still trying to figure out what's going on.

They know Dad talked to him.

They actually do track him down on Monday.

So, I mean, within quick succession.

And when they track him down,

he's like in a park hanging up, missing persons, fires for Adrian.

And when they ask him to come with him for questioning,

he agrees, zero hesitation.

And he is really upfront with them.

He's also devastated, or at least seems to be.

And he says the same thing that he told others

about them fighting, them leaving together,

driving back to her place together, her hopping out.

He didn't see her after that.

And he says that he just went home and went to bed.

And then he woke up Saturday to just a ton of missed calls from her.

And maybe more significantly,

he also woke up to a text from her.

This was from 4.43 in the morning.

And that text said that she was coming over again.

4.43, but if she's in that accident around 3.45,

that doesn't add up.

I know.

And we know it was 4.43.

Like, he showed them the message.

They can see when her calls and text stopped.

Like, they confirm this is true.

Yeah, Fran lets them see whatever they want.

He is telling the truth.

There is a text from exactly 4.43

from her saying she's coming over.

Okay, then what has she been doing for an hour?

I mean, we know Fran's place isn't within walking distance,

but what year is this?

Like, child of the internet,

the Blackberry Era gives me some very much reference,

but it was 2013 when this happened.

Okay, yeah, 2013.

So we're in the Blackberry Era,

but did the greater Uber period even begin by then?

If so, what was it even like in Tempe?

Even now, at that time of day,

it's super tough to get an Uber.

Yeah, I know.

I can remember being in Chicago around this time

and getting an Uber and it being, like, very new to me.

So I don't know if it was, like, super prevalent.

I don't know if it was being used a lot in Tempe.

If she requested one, if that's a thing,

like, as far as I can tell,

there's no record of anything like that.

Okay, I feel like a broken record at this point,

but you know what could really help them figure this out?

Dude, I know the Blackberry.

But Fran, this whole Blackberry situation gets even worse,

though, because when a detective realises

the next day that the car hasn't been processed,

they're like, oh, okay, we actually got to get that back.

So I'm wondering if it got released accidentally,

because they seem all of a sudden like,

oh man, we probably needed that.

Like, just kidding.

Yeah, so they go to get it.

This is Tuesday now, just a day after releasing it.

So it's actually not too long.

It's not like we're missing weeks of time.

The problem is, when they go to get it,

the Notebook and the Blackberry are just straight up gone.

Well, yeah, that's what happens

when you don't secure evidence from day one.

But, I mean, the car was released to her family,

so they would have the stuff, right?

Just go get it from them.

Well, Adrienne, the mom says she has the Notebook,

but no one has the Blackberry.

And they're 100% sure it was there.

I mean, they took pictures of it.

Well, then who the fuck took it out?

I don't know, because as weird as this sounds,

I don't know who all had access to the car.

I'm not sure investigators do a whole lot to figure that out.

So they just never end up finding it.

Which, Ashley, all of this was preventable.

Yeah, I mean, it looks bad.

There's no way around it.

But to me, I'm like, this doesn't seem like an innocent oopsie.

Like, it seems intentional, right?

Like, who had access?

I don't know.

I don't. To me, I'm clearly missing something supercritical,

because the phone was there.

You take pictures of it, you release it.

The phone is gone so much of like that night and the contents of her.

I don't know, like it seems important.

It seems like maybe something someone took.

Who could have taken it seems so significant?

It does, but only to us apparently.

What I will say is that even though the Blackberry is gone,

there is still hope.

Maybe they can still work with the exigent records they have.

Because while almost all the outgoing calls are to Fran,

there's one that's not.

And this one might turn out to be the most important call of all.

According to that 2015 reporting from NBC News,

this call was made a little after 4.20.

Saturday morning.

So this is about 25 minutes before she sends that text to Fran,

saying that she's coming back.

And the call she makes was to a local cab company.

The Olden Days Uber.

Yes.

So obviously investigators want to go talk to this cab company

like yesterday to figure out if they took a fare,

who the driver was, where she went, all of it.

So they contact them and they find out it's kind of this family gig.

It's owned by a guy named Thomas Simon Sr.

and his son Thomas Simon Jr.

And his son, Junior, is one of the drivers.

And just for clarity's sake, when I refer to Tom from here on out,

I'm referring to Thomas Simon Jr.

the son, if I need to talk about the dad, I'll say senior or whatever.

So anyways, Tom confirms that he was the one

who'd been in contact with Adrian that morning.

So investigators decide to interview him in

an unusual way, is how I would put it.

I'm not sure I've ever seen this before.

But basically what they do is they set up a call

with both Tom and his dad, Tom Sr. on the line.

And Tom Sr. is in his office, but Tom Jr.,

the son, is driving passengers to the Grand Canyon.

Wait, yeah, he's just driving passengers

while he's being interviewed by police.

About a missing girl that was probably in his cab

on a conference call.

When is this page of the investigators manual taught?

What?

I don't know if they were trying to just make it happen

as quickly as possible, which I can kind of appreciate.

But I feel like you lose a lot of control in a situation like this.

The other part I can't decide is,

is this a crime junkies cab ride dream or the ride from hell?

Because can you imagine being in the backseat on one end of the conversation

while you're being driven, not to even just go get dinner,

but to this quite literally the Grand Canyon,

a super remote area in the middle of nowhere

and a guy is being interviewed about a missing girl

who's in control of your vehicle.

Right. I mean, on one hand, you're like,

ooh, literally inserted into an active investigation.

But also, like you said, the cab driver of the cab,

you are currently in, heading to the Grand Canyon,

is being questioned about the disappearance of a person that was in his cab.

In his cab.

Yeah, and I kind of like, again, I want you to want to be cool

and be like, oh, I'd be like taking notes and what I,

but I think I would be panicking in real life

and I would be like, get me out of the car.

But also, where are you going to roll to?

You're in the middle of nowhere.

I've driven out to the Grand Canyon.

There's nothing.

I still can't get over the conference call, though.

Like, I'm so confused.

Yeah. So this is how they decide to do it.

They do this conference call.

And when they talk to him, according to an episode

of the Unresolved Docu-Series from local media outlet Arizona's Family,

Tom says, yeah, he talked to Adrian that morning.

He agreed to meet up with her at this AMPM.

That's a few blocks away from her apartment.

And he warned her that he wasn't close.

Basically, he's like, listen, I'm finishing up this other affair.

It's going to be about a half hour before I get there.

And she apparently said she was fine with that.

She was just going to wait.

So he says, as he got close, he called to reconfirm their ride.

And when he called, Adrian said that she actually wasn't there yet,

but she would start walking that way.

Oh, walking that way from where?

Well, he says he doesn't know.

I'm assuming from her apartment, just based on, again,

what we know, the timeline, her going back and forth.

She had to have gone back to her apartment.

We know that and we know this is close.

So again, all Assumption.

The problem is when Tom pulled into the parking lot just minutes later,

he says Adrian wasn't there.

He parked, he waits a bit.

He tries calling her, doesn't get an answer,

calls a couple more times, still no answer.

And he says eventually he got out of his cab,

just walked around a bit, had a smoke.

But after waiting for about 10 minutes,

he figured he got stood up, so he left, finishes his night.

The way he always does, drives to his dad's house,

dropped off the lease money and went home and went to sleep.

What about Adrian's phone records?

Does the story match up with those?

Like, we know that she called him once.

That's how we got here.

But what about any incoming calls from him?

Yeah, they're there.

It all matches up.

Really?

Yeah.

I'm not gonna lie, that's not the answer I was expecting.

So, okay, phone records line up.

What about surveillance footage?

I mean, ampm is like a convenience store, right?

Like, they would have security cameras.

They do.

And honestly, it's pretty comprehensive coverage at that.

Covers like pretty much the whole parking lot.

So, naturally, investigators get that footage.

And even that backs up Tom's story as well.

They see him pull in, they see him sit there,

they see him get out, walk around, have a smoke.

They see him get back in the cab, drive away.

And the whole time, Adrian is nowhere in sight.

So, this seemed so promising.

But, I mean, as quickly as they were onto this

and thinking this was the missing piece of the puzzle,

this lead just starts fizzling out.

Well, until maybe it isn't.

It unfizzles?

It unfizzles big time.

Because within days, investigators get an interesting tip.

So, remember how Tom was with passengers

when he took that conference call?

I want to call it interrogation, but maybe just questioning.

Ashley, I'm obsessed with it.

How could I forget?

Well, one of those passengers was supremely weirded out

by the whole thing.

Surprise, surprise.

What is a surprise is that they weren't just weirded out

about the conversation that the driver was having.

You know, I'm sure that was disturbing enough.

According to that People Magazine Investigates episode,

it's what Tom did after he hung up the phone,

how he acted that really weirded them out,

because it was bizarre.

Go on.

Well, to start, the passenger claims

that his overall demeanor was just sketched,

like super stressed out,

which, to be fair, being interviewed by investigators

about a missing girl who you might have

like last had contact with is stressful.

But once he was off the call,

before they even got to their destination,

he pulls over to the side of the road

and starts rifling around in his trunk.

Oh, hell no.

If I'm those passengers and I'm still in the car

after that call, nope, this is what I'm gone.

See ya.

I think they wanted to, but like I said,

I don't know if you've been to the Grand Canyon,

but there's stretches of the drive

where there is nothing and no one.

There's nowhere to go.

And Britt, I haven't even gotten

to the scariest part yet.

So he's rifling through the trunk.

And the passenger reports that as he's doing this,

he proceeds to pull out what the passenger swears

is a hacksaw.

And then he just starts mumbling to himself,

saying something like, hey, how did that get in there?

I don't even know how to respond to that.

The only answer is full body chills,

cause that is terrifying.

Yeah, I mean, how could he not know

he was driving around with a hacksaw?

I mean, it's in his cab.

And regardless, why would you let the people

who overheard his missing girl conference

call know about a hacksaw?

So again, like chills through and through for me.

It all seems so sinister.

And I know this is gonna sound weird,

but what the passenger or passengers tell the investigator

is that they got the impression that when he found it,

he was like truly genuinely flustered

that he found a hacksaw in his trunk.

So they didn't feel like he was like,

you know, showing this hacksaw like randomly

to threaten them.

He was just surprised.

I guess.

But to me, I'm like,

what made you immediately go to your trunk to begin with?

Now, whatever the reason, he went to his trunk,

whatever the reason, the hacksaw was in there.

I mean, this is all strange enough

that according to reporting by William Pitts for 12 News,

within a few days, investigators put Tom under surveillance.

And a few days after that,

they asked him to sit for a polygraph,

which he actually declined.

He says he doesn't trust those things.

I mean, same, but I'm a crime junkie.

That's his excuse.

I mean, my first thought is,

is he experienced with the criminal justice system?

Does he have a record?

So this is what straight,

as far as I can tell, he doesn't.

Though it's worth noting, his dad has a record.

So that could influence his decision.

I mean, he may have through his dad

had interactions with law enforcement

or again, know that polygraphs are kind of BS.

He also has a lawyer apparently,

because his lawyer advises him not to cooperate anymore.

So maybe his lawyer told him not to.

Well, but this guy's already layered up.

I mean, that's kind of telling, right?

Yeah, I mean, I guess most people don't just have

like an attorney right away,

but here's the thing,

I don't know the succession of when all of this is happening.

To be fair, if someone called me

and it was like you were the last person to talk to

a girl that was missing,

it's a crime junkie rule.

I'd probably get a lawyer.

So I don't wanna like necessarily fault him

for following the rules,

which we have so cautiously set out.

Right, right.

And I mean, it's not bad advice for a guy

who drives around getting surprised by his own hacksaws

to especially for that guy, yeah.

But here's the thing,

Investigators aren't just about to let him like clam up,

maybe get rid of potential evidence.

So they come back real soon with search warns,

some for his apartment, for his cab,

and for his DNA.

DNA, why are they taking his DNA?

To be honest, I'm not sure.

Maybe they can compare things to Adrian's car, maybe,

you know, I know a lot of times-

The car, the one that got contaminated

when they didn't process it right away, really?

That's the one.

But what I will say is again,

I was just throwing that out there,

it's very possible that they're asking for this

in case she was ever found

and there's some kind of physical evidence on her.

Who knows, if he died,

if he moved to another state,

it'd be a lot harder to get,

you wanna get it now while you can.

So they bring him down to the station for a buckleswab,

which provides an opportunity for Investigators

to see if maybe he'll talk then.

And also just to observe him.

And boy, does that become an experience

for everyone involved.

I don't know that I can properly convey

the utter weirdness of this interview.

I mean, in the beginning,

like Tom's handcuffed and shirtless,

shoeless too.

And he's in this interrogation room

by himself, just waiting.

So, he starts playing hacky sack

with this red solo cup.

You can paint such a picture.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

But, I mean, truly, like, I mean, the whole time.

I mean, his demeanor is just so strange.

Even once the interrogators come into the room.

Like, the best way I can describe it

is he's acting like a child,

who feels like he's being picked on by a teenager.

He's angry.

He's also a little embarrassed,

like his feelings are hurt or something.

And it's all just, it's just very odd for a grown man.

And then once they actually take the buckleswab,

he gets straight up hostile.

He starts yelling at them.

As the unresolved docu-series shows

in an episode titled Faces in a Crowd,

he calls one of them a fucking creature

and tells them they're effing assholes

and that he hates them all.

But just to confirm, he's not under arrest.

No, I mean, he's only in custody

because they have a warrant for his DNA.

So once they're finished getting that sample,

they have to let him go.

Well, they had a warrant for his apartment in his cap.

I mean, do they find anything there?

Anything more worries them than a surprise hacksaw at least?

They don't.

And they don't even find evidence

of any kind of cleanup either.

I mean, this dude's like a messy guy

and he lives in a super messy apartment.

His cab maybe isn't quite as messy,

but I definitely wouldn't call it clean.

And through all of that,

there's literally nothing that ties him to Adrienne

or her disappearance.

I don't even think they find the infamous hacksaw.

Whoa, now the hacksaw is gone?

Yeah.

It's even more suspicious to me.

I mean, if he had a hacksaw around the time of her disappearance,

okay, not great, but okay.

But now this hacksaw is gone?

Like, he got rid of it by the time his stuff is searched?

I mean, I find that more than a little bit problematic.

Oh, same.

Like, to me, this is, it's circumstantial,

but it's like, we know what happened.

I would definitely be asking him about it.

Well, and the thing is, he's been under police surveillance.

I mean, when did he get rid of it?

How did he get rid of it?

It's a bit of a riddle, isn't it?

And I don't really have an answer

for the whereabouts of the surprise hacksaw.

If he still got it and then disposes of it later,

I don't think they know,

because as far as I can tell,

they don't keep him under surveillance for long.

But even though they collect the DNA,

they let him go, they take away the surveillance,

this guy ends up right back on their radar,

not too much longer later.

Because like, two weeks after the DNA sample ordeal,

Tempi PD gets another tip about this guy.

It's a little bit of a game of telephone,

but here's what happens.

A woman calls in and says that her cousin,

who works at the apartment complex where Tom lives,

was doing some kind of maintenance work outside,

when he heard a woman screaming from inside Tom's apartment.

And to him, it sounded like someone was trying

to cover this girl's mouth with their hand

or muffled the screams in some way.

And when this cousin turned down his music

to try and hear what was going on,

the music inside Tom's apartment got turned up

to like max volume.

Which is when you'd call the police.

But that's not what happened.

It seems super messed up,

because I don't think this woman's tip comes

while this was happening or even right after.

Like, it's not a 911 call.

I think it's just a call to a tip line that she makes.

So it seems like basically what happens

that her cousin mentions this to her later

when they're just like hanging out

and she's the one who feels like,

hey, maybe someone should know about this.

So it's not even super clear

when this screaming incident actually happened.

All we know is that it happens

sometime after Adrian disappeared.

Obviously after hearing this,

investigators go to Tom's apartment

as soon as they can.

But surprise, surprise,

he doesn't wanna let them in.

Like those bridges have been burned.

And when they try and follow up

with this woman who originally made the tip,

probably hoping she'll help them

get in touch with her cousin

so they can get more information,

maybe get a warrant,

they can't reach that woman again.

And actually, they never reach her.

So by the way, if you're listening,

police would love to talk to you again

and you might be the only person

who could move this forward.

But because they can't,

this tip, like the hacksaw tip,

goes nowhere.

And I can't help but wonder

who that woman was that was her screaming

or what happened to her.

Ashley, come on, couldn't it have been Adrian

and she hasn't been found yet?

It could have been.

Again, the question is like,

well, then if she was still alive a while

after she didn't die the evening she went missing,

is she still alive now?

Where has he been keeping her?

Or where did he keep her?

It doesn't make sense.

And again, if not her, then who?

But because they never were able

to get back in contact with that woman

who left the tip,

this is kind of where things stall out for a while.

I mean, there are massive searches for Adrian.

Tempy PD even gets the FBI involved

to assist in the investigation

and her family and friends do everything they can

to keep attention on her disappearance,

like holding fundraisers for reward money.

They go door to door asking if anyone had seen her.

Investigators have been interviewing everybody

from the party,

but there is just no sign of her anywhere.

Now, on July 21st,

just over a month after Adrian disappeared,

Tempy gets hit with a massive rainstorm,

like the worst of the summer.

It causes major flash flooding

in the foothills of a nearby mountain range,

the superstition mountains,

which drain down to an area called Weeks Wash.

According to another episode

of the Unresolved Docu series

called A Secret in the Desert,

there is enough flooding in Weeks Wash

to quote, uproot trees and move cars

and to unearth a buried body.

And unearth a buried body, it does.

Cause just a few weeks later, on August 6th,

Investigators in Tempy get a call

from the Apache Junction Police Department.

They have jurisdiction over much of Weeks Wash

and they tell the Tempy police

that a local property owner discovered

the remains of a female.

So, how far is this Weeks Wash place

from where Adrian lived in Tempy?

I mean, it's probably like 40 minutes or so.

So, what you're not saying is,

if this is Adrian,

she didn't just end up here by accident

or by her own volition.

Well, most certainly not, no.

Are there any obvious signs of cause of death?

No, I mean, the problem is that

by the time they're finding this

because of the length of time

that she was probably out there

because of the flooding,

the remains are too decomposed

at least to tell just from looking at her.

And I mean, again, to reiterate,

like the remains aren't even whole when they're found.

I mean, it's grim,

but basically they're found without a skull

and that could be from decomposition.

It could be from animal activity.

It doesn't necessarily mean

that she was left that way.

So, it doesn't necessarily mean

that a hacksaw was used.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

So, anyway, the autopsy is performed on August 9th

and by the 15th,

DNA analysis confirms what everybody already suspects

that the remains do belong to Adrian.

Now, the forensic pathologist

who performs the autopsy

isn't able to determine a cause of death

because again, the remains are just too decomposed.

So, without that

and without more information,

he classifies the manner of death as undetermined.

And it's not totally clear

when investigators classify the case as a homicide.

They say on August 15th that it is,

but then they clarify on August 16th

that it's yet to be determined.

But again, I don't know the back and forth.

And I mean, from the circumstances,

I don't think anyone is doubting what they're dealing with.

And no matter what they're saying,

I mean, they're certainly putting the dedicated resources

of a homicide investigation into the case.

Like, from the jump,

they send over 100 people out to search

a four-mile stretch of Weeks Wash,

which is no small feat.

At least once, according to a reporting by Catherine Holland,

the search has to be temporarily called off

due to, quote, excessive heat and encounters

with numerous rattlesnakes.

Holy shit.

And the worst part is that these searches

don't give them any more information

on Adrian's disappearance or her death.

They can't determine with any certainty

how long she'd been out there

or even how long she'd been dead.

But the forensic pathologist does find

that the condition of her remains is consistent

with the amount of time that she'd been missing.

So is it possible that she was alive

for some amount of time after her disappearance?

I mean, definitely not the whole time,

but yeah, we don't know.

We just don't know.

I mean, all I can think about

are those screams coming from Tom's apartment.

I know me too.

And I mean, I assume they're thinking about that as well.

That's gotta be in the back of their minds.

And here's the next thing.

I don't know exactly where this fits into the timeline,

but I know that at some point,

investigators obtained Tom's phone records

from around the time Adrian disappeared.

Like, I mean, we know that they already have

a pretty good idea of his interactions

with her from reviewing her records.

But they can find out potentially more with his, right?

Like was he calling when?

Anyone else?

Was there any unusual activity?

And there is something that stands out to them immediately.

So the morning of Adrian's disappearance.

Around the time when Tom says that he went home

and went to sleep, his phone is shut off.

And it stays shut off for a solid 12 hours.

And sure, that might not be weird for some people,

but we all have our habits and our routines.

And when they look at the history of his phone records,

that's not something he does always,

when he gets home after a long night.

As far as they can tell, it's not part of his routine at all.

It happens just like kind of on this one-off occasion.

But as suspicious as that is,

as suspicious as Tom is,

investigators are no further along

in determining what happened when Adrian's family

marks the anniversary of her disappearance

with a vigil on June 15th of 2014.

They don't have any more answers

than they had the previous summer.

But then, less than a year later in February of 2015,

investigators get another tip.

I am going to lose it

if this is another tip about Tom too.

It's not about Tom.

This tip is from a man named Keen.

And Keen thinks that investigators should look into his friend,

or his former friend, an alleged serial killer

named Brian Patrick Miller.

And you guys, we actually covered this guy

in our April 2023 headlines episode.

So if you're curious, you can check that out

for some, you know, more in-depth information.

And you might have already heard of this guy

by another name, his nickname, the Zombie Hunter.

The what now?

Yeah, the Zombie Hunter.

So just a month before, he'd been charged

with a couple of grisly murders in Phoenix

of young women that he had abducted

when they were out alone in the evening.

Now, mind you, all of those were from like

way back in the early 90s.

And Keen, this guy that's now calling in,

I mean, initially, he was outraged

at his friend's arrest.

Like Brian, sure, he might be a strange dude,

but he knew him.

I mean, they met due to their shared love of steampunk.

Steampunk, what, exactly?

Steampunk, so if you don't know what it is.

Again, this is something I didn't either.

I had to look it up, and I still,

I don't 100% get it.

The best I can describe, it's like retro futurism

set in the Victorian era.

That's very specific, okay.

It's a vibe, for sure, but strange dude or not.

When Brian's arrested, Keen was sure

that his friend wasn't a serial killer,

which he explains in an interview,

in an episode of the Unresolved Docuseries

called The Zombie Hunter.

And when he heard someone mention Adrian's name

in a crowd of Gawkers that gathered

at Brian's house after his arrest,

just like watching police put up crime scene tape,

he kind of remembered her case.

I think mostly because she reminded him

a little bit of his sister.

So, for some reason, this spurs Keen

to do kind of a deep dive into Brian's social media.

I guess I think he's trying to prove to himself

that his friend had nothing to do with Adrian's death.

But the more he dove in,

the more convinced he ends up becoming

that maybe Brian did have something to do with it.

And I'll try and simplify

like how he makes this connection the best I can,

cause it's a little tangled.

So without getting too far into Brian's

history of violence, just know it is deep

and it's disturbing.

Like remember that both of the homicides

he was charged with,

the women had allegedly been abducted

while they were out alone in the evening.

Both of their bodies were found

soon after their disappearances.

They were horrifically mutilated.

And interestingly enough,

one of the women was actually decapitated.

And we know Adrian's remains

were found without a head.

Right, but again, not necessarily

like through intentional decapitation.

We don't know one way or the other.

So anyways, Keen's going through this,

he sees on Brian's social media

that Brian had been in Tempe,

the weekend Adrian disappeared.

And not just in Tempe,

but like a mile from her place.

And he couldn't believe his eyes

when he's seeing this.

And then he was even more shocked

when he came across a post of Brian's

about going for an early morning,

like pre-dawn bike ride,

the morning of June 15th.

The morning Adrian disappeared.

Which would have put him out,

basically in Adrian's Neighborhood,

around the time she is walking

toward the AMPM alone.

On top of that, Keen knew

that Brian was super familiar

with Weeks Wash and the Supercision Mountains.

He used to actually work at a Renaissance Fair

in that area every single year.

Add to this the fact that Brian was known

to be really bitter about women.

And he vented a lot about it.

Drove around in an old cop car,

splattered with fake blood

and called himself the zombie hunter.

And Keen thinks it might just be too many coincidences.

I mean, I kinda agree with him.

That is so many coincidences.

But just as a side note,

what the fuck is it with serial killers

giving themselves nicknames recently?

Not cool, bro.

I know, I think we had the Hannibal.

Yeah, that was in the Lena Reyes Getty's episode

in the Fan Club recently.

And actually, this is like a good point.

I was listening to something else.

I don't remember what it was.

It was someone from the FBI talking.

And they were saying like,

we always encourage the media

not to give these guys nicknames

because this often spurs people,

makes them think that they're gonna be famous.

And you see this as proof, right?

Like, nobody gave him this name,

but himself, because he wanted to be

what has been put out there by media.

Well, and I kind of also think personally

that it fuels the hysteria.

Like, we see a lot like in the smiley face killer.

You know, like, it kind of gives a name to something

that people can be afraid of.

Yeah.

And you know, as far as naming goes,

I bet a whole bunch of crime junkies out there are saying,

but guys, you have to have three or more victims

to be a serial killer.

And you know, we know from the early 90s,

he is looked at for two.

And you're not wrong,

but authorities believe that he was responsible

for at least one other death,

a girl who disappeared near his house in 1992.

And he basically admitted as much according to his ex-wife.

All in all suffice it to say,

I mean, given the brutality of his known crimes,

they don't think for a minute

that those were his only victims.

So I think that's why they're calling him a serial killer.

As People Magazine investigates,

lays out in their episode on this case,

Investigators in Adrian's case

take Keen's tips seriously.

They bring him in and interview him.

They even have a search warrant served on Brian's house

looking for any evidence connecting him to Adrian.

And even in doing so,

they're not able to find anything

that connects him to her death.

Maybe the evidence just wasn't detectable.

I mean, there's a pretty long gap of time

between when she went missing

and when they're looking at the sky.

There is.

I mean, it's possible that anything that was there is gone.

But there are other things beyond the lack of,

I don't get, I don't even know what they were looking for,

DNA, something else.

But there's stuff that makes them have their doubts.

Like the fact that there's no evidence

that Adrian was attacked with a knife.

Again, they would kind of expect,

even in just skeletal remains,

to see some of that like marking from a knife,

which they did not see in Adrian's case.

And what we know from at least the known past crimes

that Brian is responsible for,

is that knives are what he used.

And they like pulled his phone records too.

And they find that his phone

didn't ping anywhere near weeks wash

in the days following Adrian's disappearance.

So, that's where things stand today.

Adrian's death and disappearance still remain a mystery.

And investigators don't have any official suspects.

Though they also say they haven't ruled anyone out

as a person of interest.

Not Fran, not Tom, not Brian.

Though I don't necessarily even like lumping Fran in with them

because I don't see him nearly at all in the way.

I see Tom and Brian.

As recently as July of 2022,

they were still actively working the case

and following up on new leads.

So you know the drill crime junkies.

Someone out there has gotta know something.

If that's you, if you have any information

about the disappearance and death

of Adrian Salinas in June of 2013,

you can call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI

or you can call the Tempe Police Department directly

at 480-350-8311.

You can find all of the source material

for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.

And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast.

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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