AI Summary
5 min readOn an April night in 2013, 25-year-old Jessica Harringa was closing up the Exxon station in Norton Shores, Michigan, when she vanished without a trace. Her purse, her car, and $400 in cash were all left behind. The store showed no signs of struggle. The last sale had been logged at 10:52 PM. By 11:07, a customer found the store empty and called police. The mystery of what happened to Jessica Harringa would remain unsolved for years—until a terrified teenager jumped out of a moving minivan, and the same vehicle surfaced on a blueberry farm’s security camera.
The Disappearance and the Silver Minivan
Detectives found only a few clues at the gas station: a half-dollar-sized drop of blood near the back door, two small watch batteries, and a black piece of plastic from a Carl Walther laser sight—a component commonly attached to a Walther P22 pistol. A witness who worked another shift at the station came forward with a crucial sighting. Around 11 PM on the night Jessica disappeared, she and her husband saw a silver minivan pull behind the station, turn off its lights, and park. The driver got out, opened the tailgate, adjusted something, and drove away. The witness described a heavyset male with brown hair and a beard. The van’s tailgate went up and down, and the driver appeared to be adjusting something inside.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction & Episode Premise** - The episode opens with a teaser for three connected crimes: one missing woman, one murdered, one kidnapped.
- 2 (02:14) **Setting the Scene: Muskegon County, Michigan** - The narrator describes the beautiful lakeside communities of Norton Shores and Muskegon, where the crimes occurred.
- 3 (03:26) **Jessica Harringa Vanishes from the Exxon Station** - On April 26, 2013, 25-year-old Jessica Harringa disappears during her shift at an Exxon gas station.
- 4 (09:08) **The First Break: Blood, Batteries, and a Witness** - Detectives find a drop of blood, two watch batteries, and a broken plastic piece from a Walther laser sight behind the gas station.
- 5 (16:53) **Investigating Jessica's Secrets: The Married Man** - Police turn to Jessica's personal life, discovering she was having an affair with a married regular customer at the gas station.
- 6 (25:32) **A Second Crime: Rebecca Bletch Found Dead** - In June 2014, over a year after Jessica's disappearance, the body of 37-year-old Rebecca Bletch is found on a rural road.
- 7 (31:31) **A Possible Connection: The Walther P22** - Firearms experts find that the .22 caliber shell casings from Rebecca's murder may have been fired by a Walther P22 pistol, the same type of gun possibly involved in Jessica's case.
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Show Notes
An attempted kidnapping leads police to a killer. (OAD 2/3/24)
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