A young woman disappears as she heads in to work. Unraveling what happened to her would take skilled detectives and an unexpected piece of video.View source material and photos for this episode at: anatomyofmurder.com/last-shiftCan’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc
Chapter 1: Who is Savannah Gold?
But the text said, I wanted to tell you and mom I met a really great guy and we're running away together. I love him and we're leaving right now. I'll call you later when we get to where we're going.
Moments later, Savannah's brother received a similar message, one that was both suspicious and completely out of character.
Same basic, a lot of misspelled words, typos. Met a guy leaving with my boyfriend. I can't deal with this anymore. I've got to get away. And it was choppy English and it didn't make sense. And again, the fact that her family was very close, they knew what was going on. They knew the people that she was hanging out with, her friends, who she dated and all those things.
Now, Savannah had made no prior mention of meeting anyone new, so the question facing investigators, would the girl that postponed college to take care of her sick mom be the kind of person to suddenly run off with someone they didn't know? didn't seem likely.
There wasn't a time when they didn't stay in contact with each other. And so I knew there's no way that Savannah would have sent those texts. But the other thing is Savannah would not have put her mother through something like this. They just would not have happened because she loved her mom and her dad.
And there's no way that she would have put her mom through some kind of torturous thing like I'm running away and I'll call you when I can.
Calls and texts to Savannah's phone went unanswered, and so Savannah's mom decided to drive down to the restaurant and find out herself if anyone knew what was going on.
So the mom went up to the Bonefish Grill, talked to the manager, Savannah, who was always at work when she's supposed to be. She never showed up.
But strangely, Savannah's white Kia Spectra was still parked in the parking lot in front of the restaurant.
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Chapter 2: What happened the night Savannah went missing?
Savannah's car is there. It has a flat tire. Her purse is inside the car.
Okay, so maybe she got a flat tire and went for help, leaving her purse behind. And while super unlikely, maybe she left with this mysterious boyfriend in his car. There were still tons of possibilities, but none of them were giving her mother much comfort. So she did what any worried mom would do. She called the police.
Jacksonville 911, what's the location of the emergency?
Chapter 3: What were the suspicious texts Savannah sent?
I'm at Bonefish Grill. Savannah's mom did her best to convey her suspicions about her daughter's strange texts and her concern that something was wrong.
But it's very uncharacteristic. I mean, it's completely strange. I don't know what's going on and I'm really very worried. So do you want to report her missing? I do, yes. Okay.
Uniformed officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office responded to the shopping center where the restaurant was located. The first thing they noticed was that her car's tire was not just flat, it had been deliberately slashed, an ominous sign.
And while there were no other clear signs of a struggle or a robbery, the slashed tire, along with the fact that the car was left unlocked with her purse and her ID still inside, added to the concern that if Savannah had left town, She may not have done it voluntarily.
It doesn't make sense. She gets entered into the National Crime Information Center as a missing person. And the detective at the missing persons unit begins researching, going out and talking to the family, friends, looking for video in that area to see what they can find.
This being 2017 at a popular shopping center, the police were pretty optimistic that between the ATM cameras and exterior CCTV, there should be footage capturing Savannah's movements in and out of the parking lot.
So still missing persons is trying to pull camera from the shopping center. There's some footage. You can see the car pulling in, but it's at the very back of the shopping center. There's no good visual from that. There's not quite enough to say, hey, we have a criminal element to this.
But between the strange texts and her abandoned car and the slashed tire, there was certainly enough indication that Savannah could potentially be in danger.
The missing person Sergeant did on the evening of the 3rd knew, hey, this may move outside of our purview, so let's go ahead and seal and tow her car in case that needs to be processed, in case something did occur. They contacted us immediately. the next morning and said, hey, look, this is not adding up there. This is out of character. These text messages don't add up.
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Chapter 4: What clues were found in Savannah's car?
Along with his partner, Michelle Selig, Ray knew the best place to start was right at the beginning.
It's what you do. Let's go back out to the scene. Let's go talk to the family and let's get a picture. Let's pretend like we don't know anything. And let's just start like we just got this case.
Chapter 5: How did the police respond to Savannah's disappearance?
Now, Anastasia, I think it is worth talking about the fact that, as we've said, Savannah is in her 20s. So that has to be definitely a factor in some of the initial decisions on how deputies first on the scene would handle it to try to ascertain, as we've said so many times, you know, is this normal behavior?
And the text messages, while unusual, could be the reason maybe she didn't show up for work.
And again, she wouldn't be the first young person or person at all who didn't let their family know about the person that they were romantically involved with for one reason or another. And also, you know, maybe she had some sort of lifestyle that she was keeping a secret. All these things are possibilities, but again, zero outward signs or any clues leading to that conclusion.
Because again, Scott, we can look at the other side to see about the things that just didn't add up.
But I'm sure within minutes of becoming aware that her car was in the parking lot, and even though it had a flat tire, her purse, as we mentioned, and keys inside, for me, that is definitely a BRF, as you know, a big red flag. And I'm sure it was the same for those initial investigators.
And I just think you hit the nail right on the head, Scott, because again, she never missed work. And if you were going to leave town, why then when she was supposed to be at work, would she do it? And also leave your car in front of your job. Like nothing added up to any innocent explanation.
But if she was in danger, potentially the victim of an assault or kidnapping, investigators knew that time was of the essence. And so they had to act fast.
investigators zeroed in on Savannah's coworkers at the Bonefish Grill to gather any information that they might have about her relationships, her recent behavior, and any unusual events that may have preceded her disappearance.
Several employees described Savannah as well-liked among staff and said nothing unusual had occurred at work that would have raised anyone's suspicions.
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Chapter 6: What did the video footage reveal?
But there was one problem with that theory. Lee had been seen at the restaurant the following day.
He actually showed up to help with the missing persons, pass out flyers.
But that didn't totally clear him of suspicion, especially when Savannah's brother explained that he thinks he may have spotted Lee on the day his sister disappeared.
One of the things that Sharon, Ms. Gold, told us was that her son, Christopher, worked at the Bonefish Grill as well. Chris told her that when he drove into the parking lot, he saw one of Savannah's co-workers who was a manager there, Lee Rodarte. And he saw him sitting in the front driver's seat of his own vehicle. We know that Lee did not go to work that day. He was scheduled off that day.
which again was odd that he was in the parking lot. So that became a key piece of information to tip us to, wait a minute, somebody else who works with Savannah was in that parking lot as well that we need to talk to.
And the details of that conversation will turn this missing persons case into something entirely more sinister.
In August of 2017, 21-year-old Savannah Gold failed to show up for her shift at a local restaurant, and investigators were eager to talk to the man she was rumored to be having a romantic relationship with 29-year-old manager Lee Rodarte.
Who, we should remind you, was also seen parked in front of the restaurant on the day she went missing.
So the first thing that came about, maybe around 8 o'clock, 7 or 8 o'clock that Friday, we were able to get into and download the city's red light cameras, and we were able to confirm some things.
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Chapter 7: What did Lee Rodarte say during the police interview?
Arrested on an outstanding charge of driving on a suspended license, Lee Rodarte was led into an interview room. Ray knew he might just have one chance to get him to reveal critical information about what happened to Savannah.
I'll tell you one thing. Here's what I do on my interviews. I sometimes take a gigantic folder of stuff in that's messy. I'll ask another detective when I'm going in. I would just grab a huge folder and like, hey, can I borrow this? And they're like, what are you doing? I'm like, just watch. And I would just pull out stuff that didn't have anything to do with the case.
And I would just pull out papers and, man, I can't find what I'm looking for. Man, my boss is going to kill me. I don't even know. It works. Being stupid in the interview really works well for me. It's disarming. It lets you think you're in control and you're the boss.
And as you will hear, it also creates that all-important human connection between suspect and investigator, one that can pay surprising dividends, like when Rodarte admitted he lied in his initial interview about the last time he saw Savannah.
When was the last time you saw her? I didn't tell you the truth when we talked about fish. Okay. Last time I saw her was Wednesday afternoon.
He went on to explain that his relationship with Savannah had soured when he began to fear that rumors of their fling would jeopardize his job, not to mention the other relationship with another girlfriend. So on that Wednesday afternoon, he had made a plan to break it off for good.
So I was a little upset. I met her in the parking lot at Bonefish. When was this? Wednesday afternoon. Okay. You know what time or about? It was about 5.30.
The timeline and the details of his arrival matched the video evidence investigators had already collected, which was a good start.
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Chapter 8: What were the detectives' observations about Lee?
So I drove up there and I was hoping to get a chance to talk to her. I pulled in the parking lot. She pulled in a little bit after me. I parked. I said, hey, can I talk to you for a second? And then she comes and gets in the car with you? Yeah. Does she get in the front seat or the back seat? She gets in the back. And I asked why she got in the back. Okay.
She was like, I just don't want anybody to see me, you know.
And where did you get into it?
She said, you can come back here and we can talk. And so I got out and I got in the backseat. Okay, so you guys are both in the backseat now.
Security video of the parking lot showed what looked like a struggle in the backseat of the car. But this is where the evidence and Rodarte's story began to diverge.
Like I said, we agreed to go our separate ways. At that point, she had her phone in her hand. She got out of the car and walked towards the main entrance from San Jose.
Rodarte claims Savannah got out of the car and walked alone towards the parking lot exit. Details contradicted by the video. But as the old saying goes, never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake.
And she got out and it looked like she was either texting or calling somebody because as she started walking towards the, there's an entrance to the plaza. Okay, yeah, but it's closer towards 295?
Yeah.
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