Diane Augat disappeared, seemingly into thin air, in April 1998. But she left behind one of the most disturbing pieces of evidence we've ever seen in a case--a severed finger. We dive into this disturbing mystery. Where is Diane Augat? Support our sponsor beam! There’s never been a better time to finally try Dream! Shop their Cyber Monday sale andget up to 50% off when you visit shopbeam.com/PROSECUTORS! To try Dream forthe lowest price of the year, head over to shopbeam.com/PROSECUTORS for upto 50% off. That’s shopbeam.com/PROSECUTORS for up to 50% off. Check out our other show The Prosecutors: Legal Briefs for discussion on cases, controversial topics, or conversation with content creators Get Prosecutors Podcast Merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/prosecutors-podcast/ Join the Gallery on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/4oHFF4agcAvBhm3o/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProsecutorsPod Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prosecutorspod/ Check out our website for case resources: https://prosecutorspodcast.com/ Hang out with us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@prosecutorspodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who is Diane Augat and what happened to her?
Let's tell the story. So Diane Young was born on February 21st, 1958 in New York. But despite being raised in New York, she and her entire family relocated to Florida, where she would spend the rest of her life. In the late 1970s, Diane married Frederick Auget, and the two seemed to have a really happy marriage in the beginning. They had three children together.
Diane stayed at home taking care of the kids. And by all accounts, Diane loved being a mom. She enjoyed caring for her children and keeping a tidy home. And she enjoyed being the stay-at-home mom. She also loved being outside, camping and fishing. All very kind of happy, healthy people. types of hobbies.
But in 1988, shortly after turning 30, Diane's life took a turn for the worse when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. That same year, unfortunately, her children were removed from her home over allegations of child abuse.
And even though Diane had been accused of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is now known as factitious disorder imposed on another, or FDIA, these claims would ultimately be proved untrue. But by the time they were proved to be untrue, it was too late. Diane's children had already been removed.
And anyone who has been a mother, certainly one who was their full-time caregiver, you can imagine that even without a bipolar diagnosis, her mental health was really deteriorating, really suffering, probably in no small part due to being separated from her children.
You ever wonder why they're always changing the names of these disorders? Like everybody's heard of Munchausen syndrome.
I think it's because it like offends somebody.
Do they not like Munchausen?
They don't like him. Munchausen?
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Chapter 2: What clues were left behind in Diane's disappearance?
We just know that at some point the bartender decided to stop serving her. because she was acting so bizarrely, but she was definitely drinking. So you have a situation where she's been drinking, she may be under some sort of mental health issue, and all this is going on while she's by herself in this vulnerable situation. So her sister is waiting for Diane to come home.
It's not as if Diane disappearing for some period of time is unusual. She gives it till the next morning when she does not come home by the next day, April 11th. At this point, she is concerned. She calls their mother.
to make sure that she's not there and also to fill her in on the situation she then calls the pasco county sheriff's department and reported diane missing diane was known to local law enforcement they understood the problems that diane had so they don't do what you see so many other times, they actually start looking for her immediately. This is not a, oh, she's a grown woman.
She can do whatever she wants or wait 24 hours. No, they're like, we get it. We get it. We'll start looking for her. Now, do they think this is going to become anything major? Probably not. They probably assume they're going to find her in a gutter somewhere or in a hospital or wandering down the road, something like that. But they are going to work trying to locate her.
So a couple of days later, time has passed and no one has found Diane. Then her mother, Mildred, comes home to a strange message on her phone. And, you know, the thing about this case, there's several things about it that are so striking. Alice mentioned this earlier. There are just spooky things that happen in this case, and this is the first one. There's a message on her phone.
We do not have it. We have not heard it. I believe it is still with the police, but we know what it says. She hits play and instantly recognizes the voice is Diane's. But Diane is not talking to her mother. She's not asking for her mother. In fact, the contents of the message are far more haunting than that. She hears Diane say, help, let me out.
Then she hears a scuffling sound, and then, hey, give me that. And then the call is abruptly ended.
And this is particularly haunting because we're not getting this call the day that she leaves Debra's house. This is like several days later. So what was happening in the interim? Had she been with this person this whole time? Or had she managed to be okay but on her own, maybe wandering about for several days and then – Finally, on day four or so, she is accosted by someone meaning her ill will.
It's also, you know, mind boggling what's exactly happening here. And she was of the frame of mind to call her mother, which was good. But how did she have access to call her mother? I don't think there were cell phones then.
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