Morgan Collum
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Talking Dateline: The Last Mile
So growing up, Molly lived in Oakland, California with her mom and dad and younger brother Scott, older brother Jake. And we would receive VHS tapes from them, kind of showing the escapades of their life in California. And I remember the first time I actually met Molly, I remember we were eating spaghetti at my grandma's house.
Dateline NBC
Talking Dateline: The Last Mile
and Molly was sitting in the high chair and she was the messiest baby I had ever seen. By the time she got done eating the spaghetti, I think she had meat and noodles in her nostrils and in her hair and all over her shirt. And I remember they took her out of her high chair And threw her in the tub. I mean, she was an infant at this point, but it was it was really funny.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
There's a certain spot when you're on that road where you can see our grandparents' farm.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
She would always put her phone on do not disturb when she was running because that was her time.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
Well, you know, Brooklyn is very close to Interstate 80. And the talk of someone taking her, possibly putting her into like the sex trafficking world, human trafficking world, that was definitely talked about. And that was a really horrible place to be mentally, thinking, you know, who has her? Who knows where she's at?
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
Molly was just a ball of sunshine to be around. I love her so much. Who has her? Who knows where she's at? I knew there was an answer out there.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I'm a Christian woman. I knew I had the Spirit of God with me. I wasn't alone, and I had to do this for Molly.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
No, it doesn't. It doesn't, but it's good to know that at least justice has been served in the way that it can.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I'm doing okay. Therapy helps. Sharing Molly's story helps. doing things that honor Molly and her life help.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
It never crossed my mind to say, hey, that's probably not safe to do that.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
You know, we got to have her and we can carry on Molly's legacy in such beautiful ways and pay tribute to the life that she lived here on Earth. Music
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I remember distinctly messaging her saying, wow, it rained so much last night and the thunder was really loud.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
This sounds so silly, but we took great pride in our Snapchat streak. I think we were in the 600s, so it was pretty cool.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I checked my phone and I saw I had a missed call from my dad. I had a missed call from my brother. I had a missed call from my Aunt Laura. And I just knew in that moment, this isn't good.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I was overwhelmed with that. You know, in that moment, I just wish that I had better answers for people, and I didn't. And that's when it started to get scary.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
Right. And, you know, I had several people say to me, well, are you sure she didn't run away? Did I maybe question it for a minute? Yeah, sure. But then I thought, no, this is Molly. This isn't what she does.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
We had a mission, and we knew what that mission was. It's terrible. It eats you up. I knew I had to do this for Molly.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I will never forget that day. I was parking my vehicle thinking, you know, we'll be lucky if we get 20 people that show up because it is a Friday. It's during the work week. Are people going to be able to take time off to come and help us with this? We had people on four wheelers. There were helicopters there. People by the hundreds.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I was looking at Molly's Instagram, and I'm talking to her friends as well, like, hey, is anything going on that Molly didn't want to share with me?
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
I'm kind of that protective, overbearing cousin who's like, well, nobody's ever going to be good enough for Molly, but I think Dalton treated her really well and she felt very loved by him.
Dateline NBC
The Last Mile
It really is such a beautiful route. You get out there and you're just surrounded by nature.