359: Teen Girl Seen at Lunch But Vanished by Fifth Period | Kiplyn Davis

And we can only begin, really, to imagine, the pain that these families are going through, a 15-year-old Kiblin, went missing some 14 years ago. And you can't eat, you can't sleep, because you don't think your daughter's doing the same things until she's suffering and you're suffering, too. There will never be complete closure. We'll never stop missing her. If there's other families that's going through the situation similar to this, it's just important to not give up. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Cerealist Suite. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Cerealist Suite with me. Annie Leise, your true crime bestie, here to break down another case for you today. It's Monday. And that means it is Case Deep Dive Day. Gosh, say that five times fast. Case Deep Dive Day. And so what that means is obviously what I just said. We're going to do a deep dive into a case. Now, let me just tell you, the case we're talking about today, it's one where it first caught my interest because I was on YouTube and I saw a clip of an interview from somebody involved in this case. And I was like, wait, I've never heard about this case. What is it? And so I started researching it more and more. And as I started looking, I realized there's a lot of controversy in this case. And look, I try to steer clear of anything that is like super controversial, but in this case, it feels pretty black and white to me. And I feel like a lot of you will agree with that too, maybe not all of you, but I think most of you. And so I don't know, I wanted to dig into it. And as I started researching, I kind of started going down the rabbit hole, like really circling the drain of this case. And there's a lot of information that I feel like from what I've seen out there, it's just, I don't know if people aren't doing full, like comprehensive deep dives into it. Or if because it's so controversial, they're leaving certain aspects of it out. But I'm one of those people where if I'm watching a documentary on a case, I'm also like with my phone, simultaneously googling the case, trying to figure out every little thing that I can find out. And that was no different with this case, although I wasn't watching a documentary, I was just researching it. I found myself looking up all sorts of other things that I couldn't find in one single place, if that makes sense. So then that brought me to here today and doing the deep dive. And all of those details that I knew I was trying to figure out, and I feel like you would want to figure out if you were following this case. So that was kind of like, I don't know if that was like a nothing burger or like a big word salad, but my point is we have a lot of information to go over. And I will be curious at the end of this episode, what you believe the truth really is here, regarding involvement. So I'm going to shut the f up right now. And let's get right into it because you're not here to just hear my, my rants and my rambling. You want to know about this case. So let's kick that off. Today's case takes place in Spanish fork Utah. And we're talking about a 15-year-old girl named Kipplin Davis. Now the last thing that her dad, Richard Davis, ever said to his daughter, was said in frustration during a very rushed, very chaotic morning where everybody was just running around kind of in a panic. And what he said to her would haunt him for the rest of his life. So on Tuesday, May 2nd, 1995, the Davis household it was moving at full speed as I mentioned. And this is kind of the norm for this family. Richard and his wife Tamara both worked full time, and between the two of them they had four kids, Rory, Haley, Kipplin, and Kyrissa. So mornings typically were very loud, very busy, and honestly just kind of chaotic. However, this morning was a little bit different. See, 15-year-old Kipplin Davis was the first one to wake up. She was in the middle of getting her driver's license. So this meant that she had driver's ed classes at 5.30 AM sharp before school, before school even started. So normally she would wake up at around 4.30 AM on those days. That would give her time to wake up, do her hair, put on her makeup, and then wake up her parents and get the ride to driver's ed. However, that morning she overslept. So at 5 AM, she stormed into her parents bedroom, panicked, pretty upset as well, saying that she didn't have enough time to get ready to make it to class on time. She also though had kind of already figured out a solution, at least in her mind. She's like, look, I don't have enough time to get ready, but if I miss one class, it's not the end of the world, it's going to be fine. Oh, over her dad, Richard said, uh, no, absolutely not. You are not skipping. We will figure this out, just start getting ready, and we're going to high-tail it out of here like you're not missing class. So her mom, Tamara, got up through on some clothes and she went outside to start the car because it was her turn to drive Kipplin to drivers at that morning. She and Richard I guess would trade off. So by 5.20 AM, Tamara was already sitting in the car waiting for Kipplin. Inside the house, Kipplin was rushing to get ready, and her and her dad, Richard, got into a small argument. Richard basically told her like, hey, you need to leave. You need to leave now if you're going to get there on time. To which Kipplin was like, I need to do my makeup first. I don't even have my makeup on like quit rushing me. And I will say that really mattered to Kipplin. Kipplin was pretty self-conscious, like a lot of 15-year-old girls are. Makeup wasn't just this extra step of vanity to her. It was part of feeling confident and okay when she walked into school, but Richard didn't really understand this. He was just more like, you need to get to drivers at on time. So he snapped. And that's when he said the one thing that he regrets more than anything else. He said, get your damn makeup and get the hell out of here. So Kipplin grabbed her things, shot her dad this kind of pissed off aggressive look, and then she walked out the door. And it was the last time that Richard would ever see her. After grabbing her things and cooling off a little bit, Kipplin got in the car with her mom, and they actually did make it to drivers at on time. Tamara noticed that Kipplin was pretty quiet and pretty annoyed during the drive. She had been rushed after all and her morning definitely didn't start off on the right foot, but nothing really felt out of the ordinary aside from that. And Tamara had four kids, so teenage moods were not exactly new territory. She navigated them very well. So Kipplin's drivers' ed class was held at her high school. So then once class ended, she was already where she needed to be for the day. She wouldn't need to take an extra bus. She wouldn't have to walk anywhere. She didn't need an additional ride. She was already on campus. And the rest of the morning seemed completely normal. Kipplin went to driver's ed, then she attended first, second, and third period of high school. She was seen at lunch sitting with friends in the cafeteria, smiling, laughing, talking, non-stop, just exactly like her normal self. But then she disappeared, vanished. Kipplin didn't show up for fourth period. Then when fifth period came around, she also was nowhere to be found. Now that alone was alarming because Kipplin did not ditch school ever. Not only because it wasn't her personality, but she also knew that the school would call home, and her parents would be furious if she ever ditched. But by fifth period, she still wasn't there. The school also noticed by this point. So they tried calling the phone number that was listed for the house, which remember this was back in 1995. So it was landlines, think phone connected to the wall, not cell phones. So it's not like you get an instant text message or instant phone call. More times than not, they call the landline and it goes to an answering machine, at least it did when I was in school. And it was the same for Richard and Tamara because they were both at work. Richard was running the construction company that he had built from the ground up. And Tamara was at her office job with a lifestyle company. So this call, it went directly to the answering machine, which that meant that for hours, nobody knew that anything was wrong. And we all know that in a missing person's case, especially a case involving a minor, those early hours are everything. But it wasn't until around 5 p.m. that the alarm bells finally started going off. See, her dad Richard got home first and the house it immediately felt wrong instantly. Because normally Kipplin would already be home. She would have been home by 3.30. She would be taking care of some of the things that she needed to around the house until her parents got back, working on homework, vegging out, just hanging out. She also would help her 9 year old sister Kyrissa with her snacks and homework. And even sometimes preparing dinner, the two of them were incredibly close and Kipplin loved taking care of Kyrissa. But that day when her dad got home, Kyrissa was alone. And she told her dad that Kipplin hadn't been home at all. Which even at only 9 years old, Kyrissa knew that that meant that something was wrong, that something just was not normal with that. So Richard, he felt it instantly. He knew that something was wrong. So he called Tamara to see if she had heard from Kipplin. Because usually Kipplin would call her mom after school. She would check in with her. She would let her know she was home safely. But that day, she hadn't. Which was, of course, another red flag. So Richard then drove straight to Kipplin's school, kind of scanning the parking lot to all of the surrounding areas. Just looking for any sign of her, hoping that he would spot her around the corner or see her bright red hair off in the distance and just realize that there was some sort of mix-up. Maybe she stayed late for a project. Maybe she had to make up an assignment. Maybe there was something else. But the hope being that he would find her at any second. But no matter where he looked, Kipplin wasn't there. So then after striking out at the school, Richard got back in his car and he drove to their church. See, the Davis family, they were very regular churchgoers. And Kipplin was involved in some of the youth activities that were there. However, even as Richard was driving to the church, he knew that he was kind of reaching with thinking that she would be there. Because church wasn't some sort of daily commitment, like school or school sports or clubs or anything like that. The youth group that she was in, they only met once a week. So deep down, Richard knew that he probably was not going to find her at this church. Yet it was the second place that he thought to look. He didn't know where else she could possibly be. And at this point, he was panicking, yet he was still also trying not to overreact. And there was something very important to remember here through all of this. Nobody at this point had even listened to the schools of voicemail yet. So nobody knew that she had also missed a few periods of school. That message about Kipplin missing fourth and fifth period, it was just still sitting there on their answering machine, not listened to. Because remember, right when Richard got home, he walked in, realized she wasn't there, and he immediately left and went to go look for her. Now by the time Richard finished checking the school and the church, her mom Tamra had also gotten home from work at that point. But Kipplin still was not at the house. So that's when they knew that they needed some help here. And as much as they didn't want to say it out loud, as much as they didn't want to even breathe life into it, Kipplin was missing. So Richard and Tamra contacted the police. And unfortunately, this is where the case really starts to reflect being based in 1995 and the lack of resources and technology. Because it was still very common at this point in time for police to say things like, you have to wait 24 hours. Your kid probably just ran away. We can't do anything yet. She's not technically a missing person until we hit that 24-hour mark. And that's exactly what happened, especially after the police heard about the argument that morning between Kipplin and her dad. After hearing that, the Spanish fork Utah police leaned hard into this runaway theory. Because to them, it made sense. It was this teenage girl. She got in a fight with her dad about school. She was pissed off, so she must have just left. She needed time to cool off to go blow off some steam with friends. Some sources also mentioned that during that argument, Kipplin maybe even said something about possibly running away, which likely reinforced the belief that the police had. However, I will say very few sources actually confirmed that. So it's unclear whether that detail has been exaggerated over time or maybe misunderstood over time. But either way, the police were treating this as a runaway situation. They believed that Kipplin was just a teenage runaway. However, her parents knew that that wasn't true, which call it parental intuition or just knowing your kid, whatever you want to call it. But the runaway explanation didn't make sense at all. The entire argument that morning was about hair and makeup. It wasn't about being frustrated with her parents or being mad about a rule that they had set or anything like that. I mean, we know that Kipplin cared deeply about her appearance. She wanted to look nice and look presentable when going to school. So now taking that into consideration too, with the possible theory of her running away, the idea that she would suddenly leave town without packing a bag, whether it be clothes, makeup, or anything else, that certainly didn't add up. And it also, it just wasn't who she was. She wasn't a type of kid who would run away. Kipplin was very well behaved. She never got into any trouble. She also wasn't hanging out with the wrong crowd. She had never run away before. She was active in church. She was involved in theater at her school. And every single day, she came home like clockwork. She would help her around the house. She'd take care of her younger sister, Karissa. She would check in with her mom. She was just very responsible and very reliable. She was also happy, which is definitely worth mentioning. She was very excited to get her driver's license. She was excited to turn 16 in just a couple of months. And she was looking forward to this huge milestone in her life and celebrating it with her family. She also was excited because her older sister, Haley, was getting married that August. So she was really looking forward to that as well. So then breaking off that down and thinking, okay, one very rushed chaotic morning and a small little argument with her dad would be a big enough reason for her to run away and disappear. No, absolutely not. Then once her parents finally heard that voicemail from the school, confirming that Kipling had missed two full periods, their fear only deepened because Kipling did not skip class ever, ever. And they already knew she hadn't run away. So now knowing that she skipped school on top of that, it was just in their gut. They knew this was not her. This was not their daughter. And that night on May 2nd, it was absolute hell for the Davis family. Her parents were driving up and down streets, side streets, main streets, side roads, alleyways, anywhere that they could think of in Spanish work, anywhere that they could possibly potentially cite their daughter. And I'm sure a part of them knew that the odds of them just randomly finding Kipling somewhere on one of those roads that it's probably slim chances of that happening. But when you're a parent and you're in a moment like that, there's no other option. I mean, you don't know what else to do. You just move. You just search. You just keep looking. And the last thing that you're going to do is give up hope and just like sit by and be idle, right? So they looked and looked and looked. But eventually, Richard brought Tamara back home so that she could take care of Curissa. And from there, he went back out and he just drove around alone. Back roads, nearby canyons, anywhere that his mind told him to go and look. He just didn't want to stop. He didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to feel like he failed her. He just was like, I'm not going to rest. I'm not going to sleep until I find my daughter. And this went on for days. All while the police had told them, you know, well, she'll come back eventually, but she didn't. She didn't come back. And there was no big aha come to Jesus moment where law enforcement suddenly realized that they might be wrong and that she wasn't a runaway. I mean, this runaway theory, it's stuck. It's stuck for a while way longer than it should have. For days, the family was searching for her and they barely slept. They barely ate. And they were just trapped in this place that so many families and situations like this go through where it's just this like horrible cycle of guilt. You know, how can I sleep if she's out there and might be cold? If she's out there and might be hungry, how can I rest if she's looking for us if she's scared, if she's panicked and just this constant loop. So Kiplans family just kept searching on their own, basically around the clock. Not because they thought that it would magically solve everything, but more so because doing nothing felt impossible. They also printed flyers with Kiplans photo on it, and they hung them up everywhere, hoping that someone, anyone, might have seen something. And then Haley, Kiplans older sister, had a thought, maybe a stroke of genius, maybe just, you know, sisters intuition, but she's like, you know, Kiplan was last seen at school, right? So why hasn't anybody checked her locker yet? Which it sounds obvious now, of course, in hindsight, but at the time nobody had thought to do it. Her parents obviously weren't investigators and the police weren't treating her disappearance as a priority or anything other than a runaway. So nobody had thought to go to the school where she was last seen and check her locker. But Haley, her older sister, she did think about that and she went and checked it out for herself. And what she found in Kiplans locker, it was huge. Inside Kiplans locker was everything that she had had that morning when her mom Tamura dropped her off for driver's ed. Her purse, wallet, retainer, even her makeup bag, everything. So that alone, it told her family everything that they needed to know. I mean, what runaway leaves behind their wallet, their makeup, their retainer. I mean, if Kiplan had planned to leave on her own, she would have at least thought about food and money and resources. I mean, something, but instead, all of it, anything that would have helped aid and support her during a potential runaway situation, it was just sitting there and her locker completely untouched. So to her family, this wasn't confusing anymore. This wasn't up for debate. There was absolutely no question here. Something had happened to Kiplan. But even after bringing all of this information and I guess you could call it evidence, too, to the police, it still didn't change their minds. So the Davis family did the only thing that they could think to do next. If the police weren't going to take this seriously and if they weren't going to help them, then they were going to go to the media. They hoped that if they could get Kiplan's face and name out there, then not only would maybe somebody have seen something or heard something or, you know, nowhere Kiplan had gone, but it also would put pressure on the police and force them to finally start treating this for what it was, a disappearance. And honestly, what might even be more heartbreaking than the police response was the media response because the media barely cared either. It took 10 days, almost two full weeks before a local paper even picked up this story, which I will say, calling it a story actually seems like giving them more credit than is even due. It was only 135 words long, but the desert sun finally did agree to run a story about Kiplan. But again, only 135 words, which just imagine for a moment trying to explain why the person that you love most in the world is in danger, and didn't just walk away from their life willingly. And how do you convey that in just 135 words? It's devastating. It's also very dismissive, and it felt like a slap in the face to their family and to Kiplan. And it wasn't until Kiplan had been missing for two full weeks that the police finally started taking things seriously. At that point, they held a press conference, and in the press conference, they finally asked the public for help. They asked for information, sightings, anything at all. So in that moment, very quietly, without saying it outright, the police were finally admitting something that her family had known since day one. This wasn't a runaway. This wasn't a disappearance. Something here was wrong. Kiplan vanished and foul play was involved. Now, what exactly made police change their stance is still a little bit unclear. Maybe it was the fact that Kiplan never came home like they assumed that she would, or maybe it was the mounting pressure from the community. Maybe it was something else entirely who knows, but whatever it was, it came late. And those lost two weeks. I mean, we'll never know how much they mattered. But we know that they did matter, right? I mean, they always say the first 48 hours is the most crucial window. What about the first two weeks? Those are huge windows of time in which a lot of movement can be made. But nothing happened, at least from the police's side, during those two weeks, only what Kiplan's own family was doing. Now, by this point, people in Spanish fork were talking, and rumors were everywhere, especially among kids at Kiplan's school. And almost all of these rumors centered around the same idea that Kiplan had been kidnapped and killed. Some of the rumors suggested that her body had been dumped in nearby canyons. Other rumors claimed that people had seen her walking around town, and obviously those stories contradicted each other, but they also did point to one thing. Did something bad definitely happen to Kiplan? So time passes, while also standing still for Kiplan's family. And then finally, at the two month mark, the case took a major turn. Because at this point, the FBI got involved. Now, their first step was locking down the timeline, which, thankfully, that wasn't too difficult to do. Kiplan had been at school that morning. We know that. She attended driver's ed. She attended her morning classes. She was seen at lunch with her friends after those classes. Then, sometime after lunch is when she vanished, missing fourth and fifth period. So this meant that the last people to see Kiplan were likely at the school. So the investigators started digging into her school life a little bit. Her friends, her classmates, her teachers, anybody really, who had interacted with her that day. I mean, they wanted to know everything. Was their drama? Was their tension? Was their catfighting over a boy? Was there somebody who didn't like her? But for the most part, the answer was no. People described Kiplan as kind, outgoing, very well liked. However, during all of the conversations and all of the questions and the interviews, there was one name that kept coming up. Brandon Meyer. Now, to put it bluntly, Brandon did have a little bit of a reputation. He was cocky, a little bit of a player. And in the days leading up to Kiplan's disappearance, he had apparently asked her out on a date. Now, Kiplan's parents, Richard and Tamara, had a very strict, no dating policy until 16 years old. But Kiplan really wanted to go. So she was going to do a bind her parents back, and she told Brandon yes. She did want to go on a date with him. However, just days later, Brandon cancelled. Date was off completely over, which why? If you went to the trouble of asking her, and she said yes, why would you cancel it just days later? Well, it's because as the rumors suggested, Brandon was a little bit of a player. And Brandon's girlfriend apparently found out that he had asked Kiplan out on a date. So she's the one who forced him to call it off, which, yeah, he had a girlfriend the whole time and was asking girls on dates. I mean, what a skis bag, right? But that wasn't the only reason that his name kept coming up and raising some eyebrows. See, Brandon was also missing from fourth period that day. Specifically, the very same class that Kiplan never showed up to the day that she disappeared. And it gets even worse. Brandon's girlfriend worked in the school office where attendance records were kept. And after Kiplan went missing, Brandon asked her if she could mess with his attendance to make it look like he had been in class that day. Basically, asking her to create an alibi for him forged the paperwork so that it looks like I showed up to fourth period after all. Now, luckily, she refused. She's like, absolutely not. There's no way I'm going to do this. And how the investigators learned this detail isn't totally clear. It's not clear whether she came forward or maybe if it surfaced during interviews. But either way, I mean, it raised serious red flags. This kid, this teenager asked his girlfriend to cover for him and to create an alibi and say he was somewhere when he wasn't. That's obviously very, very freaking shady, right? So the investigators went directly to Brandon. And he admitted that he did skip fourth period, but he claimed that all of it was just a coincidence. His story was that he drove home, got a flat tire, and then called a friend to come and help him. Except the problem with that. And when the investigators started poking holes in that story, is that the friend didn't back him up either. So that story quickly fell apart. This is now two alibis that Brandon tried to throw out there or tried to create that were immediately dead ends. And investigators confirmed that Brandon lied multiple times about where he was and what he was doing that day. No one could verify that he was alone. No one could verify that he had a flat tire and that that story was real. Nobody could verify that he went home that day. Everything just looked incredibly sketchy. Yet despite the lies, the missing class, the attempted alibi's and the timing of it all, the investigators quickly ruled Brandon out as a suspect, saying they didn't believe that he was involved, which that decision alone that raised so many questions and questions that really lingered for a very long time. And I don't know, maybe investigators found something behind the scenes that made them comfortable ruling Brandon out. I don't really know. But from the outside looking in, it just, it feels weird, right, where they're smoke, they're spire. And this guy who is trying to fabricate two alibis that don't pan out and is lying about his flat tire. Like, obviously he's lying for a reason, right? People don't just lie to lie. I mean, I guess some people do. But this teenage kid and he's lying coincidentally when a classmate of his vanishes, something doesn't smell right there, right? But for whatever reason, they ruled him out. So at that point, they were basically back to square one. Then, investigators started interviewing everyone at Kipplen's school. Classmates, friends, teachers, even people who weren't close to Kipplen at all, but may have noticed that something was off that day. And there was one interview in particular that stood out to them. A friend of Kipplen's named Eli told the investigators that on the day that she went missing, he saw her in the cafeteria at lunch. She was eating, she was laughing, and she was talking with a guy named Chris Jepsen. Now, Chris was a senior, so a few years older than Kipplen. She was 15 and a sophomore, but they knew each other through drama club. As I mentioned earlier, Kipplen loved theater, and Chris, he would help backstage with all of the props. Now, what's interesting about Eli's statement wasn't just that he saw Kipplen and Chris together, but Eli made it very clear that he did not like Chris. He never explained why, however, that detail does matter, and I will get back to it in a moment here. But Eli also claimed something bigger. He said that he saw Kipplen and Chris leave the school together. Now, that is a pretty serious statement in a missing person's case, right? But what exactly did leave together mean? Did he see them walk out the front doors of the school? Did he see them get into a car and drive off together? I mean, that part, it isn't totally clear. All we really know in all of this is that Eli said that he saw them leaving together. So then, of course, the next step was for investigators to go directly to Chris to start asking him about it, which Chris admitted that, yeah, he had been talking with Kipplen during lunch. He said that they were discussing an upcoming school play, but according to him, once lunch ended, Kipplen just walked out of the cafeteria alone, not with Chris, not with anybody else. And he claimed he didn't even think twice about it. He just assumed that she was heading to class like everybody else was. However, we know she never made it to fourth period. And here's where things get a little bit tricky. Chris was accounted for during fourth period. He was physically present in class. So even if Eli saw them walk out of the cafeteria together, they couldn't have actually left school together because Chris was still at school. He was there in class. So I mean, at least on paper, that gave Chris an alibi here. However, it also didn't mean that he was being completely honest and forthcoming with information. When investigators asked Chris about his relationship with Kipplen, he insisted that they were only good friends. It didn't go any more beyond that. It wasn't romantic in any way. They were just good friends, which is interesting because that detail turned out not to be entirely true. Kipplen kept a diary like a lot of young girls and young teens do. And in it, she wrote about kissing Chris. And she wrote about how excited and giddy she felt about it. So I mean, clearly there was something more going on between the two of them than Platonic Friendship. Enough that she was writing in her diary that she had a crush on him that she was feeling giddy about it that they kissed. I mean, obviously that's not just, hey, we're good friends. There's something more there. Maybe not fully reciprocated feelings, but obviously something more than Platonic Friendship. And maybe that's why Eli didn't like him. Maybe Eli knew that Kipplen had a crush on Chris and maybe he didn't trust Chris's intentions. I mean, we don't know exactly for sure, but that detail alone, it is something worth noting, not just because of the dynamic between Kipplen and Chris potentially, but because it shows that Chris hadn't told the full truth and he didn't stop talking from there. In fact, he volunteered even more information than the investigators were asking for. Chris not only explained where he was during fourth period, but he also gave himself an alibi for the evening of May 2nd. According to him, he was back at the school late that night, working on construction for the upcoming play, doing some set design. And when I say late, I mean around 10.30 pm, pretty late for high school standards, right? Which, as wild as that sounds, Chris said that he had been given a key to the school. That way he could come and go and work on the sets whenever he needed to. I personally, when I was in high school, I was never offered a key, but I also never worked on sets, and I was probably the wrong person to offer a key to, but I don't know if that's something that is very common. I'm curious what you guys tell me. And if you ever had a key to your school, or if a classmate did, but apparently that was something that was common practice back then. If you're ASB president, or I guess if you're working set design for theater, you're given a key, and you can come and go as you wish. So Chris had this key, and he went in there late night after school to work on the play set design. Chris also said that he wasn't alone. He told the investigators that two of his friends also had stopped by to just hang out with him while he was working. They were tossing around a football together on stage. Chris was doing some of this set work, and they were all just hanging out. And their names were Timmy Olsen and a Rucker Leafsen, which they backed up Chris's story. They confirmed they were all at school together that night. Exactly as he had said, they were hanging out in the theater, throwing around the football, just being typical guys. But now based on Eli's statement, the investigators had Chris, Timmy, and Rucker all on their radar. But here's the thing. Eli wasn't actually the first person to bring these names to the investigators' attention. Because Kipland's dad, Richard, he had been very quietly doing some digging on his own. Now we all already know and have talked about that on the day that Kipland went missing, her dad, Richard, was not sitting still. He was driving all around town, he was looking everywhere he could possibly think of. He was stopping and talking to friends, asking anybody who may have seen her if they knew anything at all. And during all of that, he heard something that stuck with him. Someone told him that Kipland had been talking to Chris in the cafeteria right before she missed fourth period. And I'm not sure if that detail when her dad heard it came from Eli or somebody else, but either way, Richard heard it that same day. And let me just say Spanish fork, it isn't a tiny town, but it also isn't super huge either. But the point is Richard knew a lot of the people in town. He also knew most of the kids who went to Kipland school. He also, on top of that, knew where Chris lived. So he did what any desperate parent would do and he went to Chris's house. So when he got there, he knocked on the door and Chris's sister answered, but she told him that Chris wasn't home. She didn't know exactly where he was, but she said he's probably at the school working on the play. So Richard went to the school, hoping to find Chris there so he could talk to him. And this was around 10 to 1030 that same night, that same night that Kipland had disappeared. He had already been out searching for Kipland for hours, but now he was at the school, as hopefully the next point to talk with somebody who had seen her. But when he got to the school, something immediately felt off. The school was completely dark. No lights on, no cars in the parking lot, nothing. It looked totally empty, which in the moment that didn't sit right with Richard. But he didn't understand exactly why he was having that gut feeling. But now, as we know, Chris would later tell the investigators that he was at the school that night, right around 1030 PM, along with Timmy Olsen and Rucker Leafson, two friends who confirmed that alibi, which here's the thing. These weren't 15-year-olds who were relying on rides from different parents. These were older boys, boys who had drivers licenses, who had access to cars. So if they really were there at the high school, at least one of their cars or somebody's car should have been in the parking lot that night. But Richard didn't see any, which begs the question. Were they there? Or were they not there? Now, Richard kept searching for a few more hours, and then finally, at around 130 AM, he decided to swing back by Chris's house just one last time. And this time, something had changed from the last time that he was at Chris's house. Because this time, parked outside was Rucker's truck, and Richard recognized it almost immediately. He knew Rucker. He knew the truck that he drove as well, which this detail mattered because remember, Chris claimed that Rucker had been with him at the school that night. But Rucker's truck wasn't at the school. It was parked at Chris's house. So if Rucker had been with Chris earlier, where was his truck? Why wasn't it there? Why wasn't he at the school? Was he even at the school at all? So Richard sees this, but he didn't knock on the door for a second time. Because as frantic as he was, it was very late. It was 130 in the morning. He didn't want to cross that boundary. He just was gathering some intel and then kept it moving. But from that moment on, something about those three boys just didn't sit right with him. The stories weren't lining up. The details, of course, felled off. And yet, even with the police and the FBI involved, the case just stalled. For months, nothing moved forward. No leads, no new answers, just silence. And I can't help but think that if the police had taken this seriously from the very beginning, instead of two weeks into her disappearance, maybe things would have been different. I mean, I guess we'll never know, but it is a detail that I personally can't stop thinking about. So months continued. No new details. And month after month went by. And then finally, one year after Kipplen disappeared, Richard and Tamera heard a knock at their front door. And when they opened it, it was Chris standing there. He asked them if he could talk with them, saying that there was something that he needed to get off his chest. So Richard and Tamera looked at each other, kind of, you know, giving the other one the look of like, what the heck's going on? What's he going to tell us because they knew that Chris was one of the last people to have been seen with their daughter, Kipplen. So they of course, say yes, talk to us. Tell us what do you have to say? What do you know? And Chris told them that he was very, very sorry for what had happened. But he insisted that he had nothing to do with her disappearance. And that whole conversation alone felt very strange. Why would you come to the house a year later with a nothing burger? To basically just say, Hey, can we talk? I have something I need to get off my chest and then say, I'm really sorry for what happened, but I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance. It just felt weird, weird enough that after he left, Richard immediately called the investigators. And they too agreed, this is weird, weird enough for them that they brought in Chris, Tamera and Rucker back for questioning. Investigators told them they weren't in trouble. They just wanted to talk again. They wanted to start from the very beginning from whatever they remember that day. When was the last time that they saw Kipling? What happened? And each boy was interviewed separately. Chris and Rucker stuck to their original stories. Chris said the last time he saw Kipling was when she left the cafeteria and was walking toward class. Then they said that later that night, all three of the boys were together at the school. While Chris was working on the set and the other boys were passing the football back and forth on stage. However, this time around with the investigators, Timmy's story changed. It changed completely. He claimed that on the day that Kipling went missing, he, Rucker and Kipling had all driven to a nearby canyon. And once they got there, Timmy says that Rucker and Kipling walked away together. He stayed behind in the car. And Timmy said that he just sat there waiting for the two of them to come back. But after a little while, only Rucker came back to the car. Alone. Without Kipling. Now, as different of a story as that is and as major as that is, there still are a lot of gaps in this story. The main one being, why didn't you tell this to the investigators before? But as soon as the investigator started pressing him, Timmy just panicked. He took it all back. He said he made the entire thing up. It was very bizarre. So then the investigators asked all three of the boys to take polygraph tests. And they all agreed, which interestingly enough, all of them passed with flying colors. And I couldn't find the questions that they asked, but I'm assuming that since Timmy took everything that he had said back, he probably stuck with that version for the polygraph. Investigators also even went to the canyon that Timmy had described, but they found no trace of Kipling. And then time just kept passing one year, two years, three. And then in 1999, Kipling's family had her legally declared as dead, something that they had felt in their hearts for a very long time, but never wanted to admit. And at this point, Chris, Timmy and Rucker remained the only persons of interest. And over the years, a lot of witnesses came to the investigators with very odd stories about these boys. Apparently, this group of boys were very well known for bragging that they knew what happened to Kipling. And one time, friends of Timmy's even went to investigators, claiming that while they were all at a party together, a news story came on the TV about Kipling and Timmy started joking around, saying not only did he know what happened to her and know where her body was, but that she deserved everything that happened to her. Which that's a very odd thing to say, right? But it's not concrete proof. So like I said, years had passed and these once high school boys turned into men. And Chris eventually got married. And apparently, according to his wife, one night while the two of them were watching a true crime documentary, she asked him what the worst thing he had ever done was. And his response, quote, what would you do if I told you that I murdered Kipling Davis? Her response was kind of like, what the fuck? What are you even talking about? So he immediately was like, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Like, you know, I just thought it would be funny. Like, I'm not being serious at all. But that obviously is not the kind of moment that you forget. And she absolutely did not forget that. And here's the hardest part in all of this. No matter how unsettling these stories were, his admission, if you could even call it that to his wife while they were watching that true crime documentary or Timmy bragging at parties that he knew what happened to Kipling and that she deserved it, no matter what was being said or heard over the years, it was all hearsay. No recordings, no physical evidence, nothing that the investigators could arrest anybody on. Then fast forward to 2002, seven years after Kipling disappeared. Now that June, 14-year-old Elizabeth smart was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah. And it became one of the biggest missing child cases in the entire country. I mean, it was on every single news show. Everybody was talking about it. The cover of every single magazine. I mean, her face was everywhere. TV, newspapers, just non-stop national coverage. And even if you weren't following true crime and that wasn't like something you were interested in, you knew Elizabeth smart's name. And what made it hit even harder for Kipling's parents, Richard and Tamera, was how close it all felt. Salt Lake City and Spanish fork are not very far apart. They're about an hour's drive from one another. Same state, same communities, same kind of families. However, Kipling's case had never gotten the level of attention that Elizabeth's did. So watching the world really mobilized for Elizabeth, this was painful for them. It was a reminder of everything that Kipling didn't get. And that was a very difficult pill for them to swallow. But it also, in turn, kind of lit a fire for them. They had never stopped searching for Kipling. I mean, not really. They had declared her legally dead, but they still were searching for her. They still wanted answers. They still wanted that piece of knowing what had happened to her. So this moment, this cultural shift, I would argue, and true crime, it changed something. It became a turning point. Because at that point, Richard started writing letters. A lot of them. He wrote to the police chief of Spanish fork, the county attorney, the attorney general of Utah, even the US attorney general. He wrote to anybody who may listen. And in every single letter, he begged them to look at Kipling's case again. Look at this case. Please just one more time with fresh eyes. Just tell me what you think. Take a harder look at these three men that us as well as many others believe they know more than what they initially let on. He even pushed for the case to be taken to a grand jury. And at first, I'll say there was resistance. Officials kept telling Richard and Tamra the same thing that they had heard for years. These three guys, they have alibis. There's no evidence tying them to Kipling. Their alibis checked out. They weren't involved. There's nothing that we could argue that will stand up in court. But then something changed. A new detail surface. And this detail would crack Kipling's case wide open. More balanced. You should try it too. Take home cleaning off your plate this year by using Homeaglow. Head to Homeaglow.com slash Annie Elise to get your first three hours of cleaning for only $19. That's H-O-M-E-A-G-L-O-W.com slash Annie Elise. Remember how Chris, Rucker and Timmy all said that they were at the school together that night? Doing the whole play thing, the football thing? Well, here's where that story finally starts to crack. It turns out that there was a community choir event at that school that very same evening. And that choir was using the auditorium. The exact place that Chris claimed that he was working on the sets late into the night. And not a single person from that choir who was there for that event ever saw Chris, Rucker or Timmy. Now I'll be honest. When I first heard that, I didn't immediately think, okay, that's the smoking gun. They got their guys, their whole alibis are ripped to shreds, case closed. And the reason why is because the guys had claimed that they were there around 10-30 that evening. The choir event I would assume was probably not going on that late. It was probably on the way earlier side. So technically, they still could have been there after the event. But for the investigators, this really was the detail that finally started to unravel their alibis. By 2005, after years of contradictions and years of changing stories, the police finally arrested Chris, Timmy and Rucker. Not for murder, but for perjury. Timmy was sentenced to 12 years. Chris got five and Rucker got four years. But they weren't the only ones who were charged. Because two other men were also arrested and charged with perjury. Gary Blackmore and Scott Brunson. Now, apparently, these guys weren't as heavily looked into as the other three, which is why I haven't mentioned their names until now. In fact, not many sources mention them at all, which I have to say I find that to be very interesting because they were still held accountable for lying to the investigators and they do play a major role in this case. See, Gary and Scott went to school with Kiplin and with the other three guys. And they had all been friends at one point or another. It's important to mention that Gary and Scott aren't believed to have had any part in Kiplin's disappearance. But they did know information that they purposefully kept to themselves and information that they lied to the investigators about. So when they were charged with perjury, they both took plea deals. Now, as part of his plea deal, Gary testified about something that allegedly happened back in 1998, three years after Kiplin's disappearance. He said that one night while all of the guys were out drinking together and partying together, Timmy and Rucker confessed to him to beating sexually assaulting and killing Kiplin. Then later disposing of her body. And according to Gary, this wasn't some emotional guilt-ridden confession that was being said through tears as they were drunk and trying to drink their sorrows away. He said that they were bragging during this confession, laughing even. I mean, just truly sick. So after Gary and Scott's plea deals, the state now finally felt like they had enough information to move forward with murder charges. And here's where things get interesting. They charged Timmy and Chris with murder, but not Rucker, which why it's confusing and unclear, especially since Rucker seems to be in a lot more witness accounts and stories than Chris does. But for whatever reason, they had charged Timmy and Chris. Then in 2009, the murder charges against Chris were dropped, so he ultimately only served time for perjury. But as for Timmy, in 2011, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and he also confessed to what he had seen with Kiplin, which this was eerily similar to his first story, the one that he had admitted to police in the beginning and then like bizarrely took it all back before the polygraph test. He claimed that he, Kiplin and an unnamed third person went into the canyons. He said that Kiplin and this unnamed person walked away from him because they wanted to be alone, just the two of them together, so he stayed back and waited in the car. However, in this confession, he claimed that after half an hour of them being gone, he got out of the car and he went out to go look for them. This is when he said he saw the unnamed person hit Kiplin twice in the head with a rock. After that, he says Kiplin wasn't moving. They weren't sure if she was alive or dead. He claimed that the two of them panicked and they just left her body there. Then they came back a few hours later and they found her in the same spot. She hadn't moved, so that's when they knew for sure that she was dead. Timmy claimed that he and this unknown person then dragged her body to a different location in the canyon and they buried her. Now there are two absolutely mind-blowing things about this confession. The first one being that Timmy has never named the person that he claims killed Kiplin. To this day, he still hasn't named that person. Now most people, myself included, believe that this quote unnamed person is Rucker, which would also align with Timmy's original story because he did name Rucker in that story. That story placed Rucker as the one who walked with Kiplin into that nearby canyon. The three of them all hanging out. But the second thing that stands out in this confession to me and maybe is even more infuriating is that Timmy refuses to help the authorities find Kiplin's body. He won't give a clear location, he won't go back to that canyon, and he won't point the investigators in any direction at all. And because of that, Kiplin's body still has never been found. So even though there were arrests, convictions, and even prison sentences, this case is still deeply unsolved. We can't even say with certainty who actually killed Kiplin. Now there are a lot of theories out there, but I will say the one that feels the most realistic is that Timmy and Rucker took Kiplin to this canyon, assaulted her, and then killed her. And honestly, half of that isn't even a theory. I mean, it's Timmy's own account, right? But as for Chris and what his role was in all of this, I personally don't know if he was present during Kiplin's death. I do believe that he knew the truth. We saw Rucker's truck was back at his house at 130 in the morning that night, which would have been after they killed and dumped Kiplin's body. So I would imagine that he does have some inside knowledge. I think that also might explain why the guilt somewhat ate at him for years, not enough to actually tell the truth, but I think that's why he showed up at Kiplin's parents' house years later, apologizing for what had happened saying, I had nothing to do with it, but I'm so sorry for what happened to Kiplin. I also think that's why he probably stuck with this alibi of him being at the school late that night, which really didn't make any sense at all, but I think he did that because Timmy and Rucker were his best friends. He wanted to cover for them, he wanted to protect them. And again, maybe that's why Rucker's truck was at Chris's house that night. Maybe Timmy and Rucker both came to him after it happened, and collectively the three of them all got their story straight. I mean, it seems likely, but the truth is we probably never will know. Now as for the why, why this happened, I mean, who knows? Maybe Kiplin rejected Rucker, maybe something escalated, maybe he assaulted her, and then he panicked, and he was afraid that she was going to go to the police. I mean, there are a lot of possibilities, but obviously none of them justify what happened. So after Timmy's 2011 plea deal, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Rucker served his four years and Chris served his five years. Then in 2021, Timmy became eligible for parole. However, because he still refuses to cooperate, still won't help locate Kiplin's body, his parole was denied. And interestingly enough, Timmy feels like he's been cooperative, and he feels like there's nothing else he can do to help. Take a listen. This meaning that he's due to be released by February 2026. When you listen to him talk, I think he's protecting somebody. I don't know who it is, but I think he's protecting somebody very close to him. Today, Kiplin's body has still never been found. There have been extensive searches of the canyon over the years, but nothing. No trace of her, which I can't even honestly wrap my head around that kind of uncertainty, not knowing, never knowing. I feel like it would consume me day and night. It would drive me insane. And why won't Timmy cooperate? He's already served the majority of his sentence. He's up for parole. Why not just say where she is, unless he's scared that they'll catch more charges, which I would have to look into what the statute of limitation would be for those charges, but maybe it's because Chris was involved more. Maybe it's because there was a sexual element to it. So he's worried that that type of crime will be stacked against him. Maybe there's something else entirely. I don't know. I'm really curious to know what you think about that. Like, why won't he just give up the location? And that uncertainty and that not knowing, that's the reality that Kiplin's family lives with every single day. They do have a headstone for her where they will go and remember her and pay visits to. They visit it often and they decorate it in her memory, but they also know the truth, which as awful as it is to say out loud, they know that that is an empty grave that they're standing over. And her dad, Richard, once told reporters something that really stuck with me. And it's actually the piece of the interview that made me want to start researching this case to begin with. He said that he still goes out looking for Kiplin. He'll tell his family that he's going fishing or going golfing, but he won't bring a fishing pole or golf clubs. And it's kind of just understood by everybody what he's really doing. If he says he's going somewhere alone, that he's really just out there driving around still searching for Kiplin, still hoping, still trying to bring his daughter home. And that just guts me. It has been 30 years. Kiplin should be 45 years old now, maybe with kids of her own, a life of her own. And it's just so sad that her life was not only so senselessly taken away from her, but that these pieces of shit won't even do the common decent thing of telling her parents where her remains are so that they can finally get some sense of peace in all of this. It is just so incredibly sad. Her dad also talked about how his last conversation with Kiplin, the one from that very chaotic, rushed morning, how it still haunts him. And I think that that detail alone adds a whole other, just horrible layer to this case. That guilt that he feels knowing that that's the last time that he spoke with his daughter. I mean, I have no doubt in my mind that Kiplin passed away knowing that she was incredibly loved by everybody and her family, but I still understand how that would eat at somebody. If there's other families that's going through a situation similar to this, it's just important to not give up. Be strong, continue to pray, continue to have people help you, get strength from other people. That's where you're going to get your strength and your courage should never give up. The hardest part of this case, at least for me, is the complete lack of justice. So many people believe that Rucker was the one who killed Kiplin, which honestly, it seems like he very well could have been the one who did it. It seems like the stories do line up, yet he only served four years, four years for possibly taking a 15-year-old girl's life. And the fact that Timmy has spent all of these years protecting this quote, unnamed person, whether it's Rucker or somebody else. I mean, it's enough to drive you insane. Somebody knows exactly what happened to Kiplin. Somebody knows where her body is, yet they've chosen to just be a coward and be silent. Her parents had both said that almost from the very beginning, they knew that Kiplin was gone. Richard once said, and I really want to put this on screen because I think it says everything. It says, I felt like she was gone. I didn't have any hope. The day after she disappeared, I knew she was gone. And her mom said, by the third day, I had a strong feeling she was gone. But I held out hope that she was somewhere and that she would come home for Christmas. I figured if somehow she was a runaway, then she'd surely come home for Christmas. But when she didn't come home, that was a big letdown. And think about that. While Kiplin's family was begging the police and begging the media to get involved and help them find their daughter, they weren't clinging to some unrealistic hope that she would just walk through the door. They wanted help finding her. They hoped that their gut feeling was wrong. Of course, every parent does, but deep down, they were already bracing for the worst. And they just wanted help. And what makes it even more devastating is how little attention Kiplin's disappearance received from the very start. And when it was covered, it focused almost entirely on the mystery aspect of it, not on who Kiplin actually was. Which, that's why I want to just take a minute and let you know who Kiplin was. She was 15 years old. She was only months away from turning 16. Something, as I mentioned, at the very beginning of this episode, she was so excited about. Everybody described her as very bubbly, very outgoing, and she just loved being around people. She loved being with friends, being the center of attention, and just being happy. She also had a very nurturing side to her, especially with her younger sister, Karissa. She helped take care of her. She looked out for her. She protected her. And even though their age gap was pretty big, nine years old and 15 years old, I can't help but think that they would have been incredibly close as they went into adulthood together. Years later, Karissa said that she always looked up to Kiplin. She described her as just a social butterfly. And she said that anytime she sees bright flowers, it immediately reminds her of Kiplin. Because her personality was just that bright. And it wasn't just her family who felt that way. Kiplin's math teacher also said that whenever he thought about her, what stood out most about her was her joy for life. She was positive, cheerful, respectful, never involved in any trouble or any sort of drama, just a good 15-year-old kid. The school secretary also remembered her for how put together she was, which we know that makeup was very important to Kiplin. She took a lot of pride in her appearance. She loved doing her hair and her makeup. And the secretary said that she always looked forward to seeing how Kiplin would show up each day. And one of the things that really gets me is that Kiplin was incredibly affectionate. With her family, with her friends, I mean, every single time she saw somebody, it came with a big warm hug. And I love you, like just like a squeeze just love that you could feel. And it really did make the people around her feel genuinely loved and cared for. So I can't think of a more beautiful way that she can be remembered. And I want to hear from you. I know I already mentioned it, but I want to know from you. I want to remind you, who do you think killed Kiplin? Do you think it was rocker? Do you think more than one person was involved? Was this some sort of team-up situation with the three of them together? Was Chris somebody who truly was just remorseful and eaten alive by guilt? Or did he know more than he's ever admitted to? I mean, this case, it leaves you with a lot of questions and not nearly enough answers. And who is Timmy protecting? Why won't he name that person? And why won't he say where Kiplin's body is? What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments section if you are watching this video on YouTube or in the Q&A section if you are listening on Spotify. And as a quick reminder, whatever podcast app you're listening on, make sure that you're following or you're subscribed so that you don't miss future episodes. And for my YouTube watchers, these episodes come out earlier on the podcast and the Uncensored version is on the podcast. So you can always listen early on, listen to the Uncensored version, then go back and watch the video if you want to see the photos, but YouTube, it's no secret, they like to censor me. So it comes out earlier on the podcast and it's always going to be Uncensored on the podcast. All right, let me know what you guys think and thank you so much for hearing Kiplin's story today. Until the next one, be nice, don't kill people, don't go with anyone into any canyons, and don't cover for any shitbag friend. Always tell the truth and get justice for people. Don't protect this gunbags. All right, until the next one guys, be safe. Bye.