SPEAKER_01 0:00

In Tragedy, a true crime podcast, we discuss missing persons cases, violent crime, and other sensitive topics that may be difficult for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com for early access to new episodes. And join our Facebook community, Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast, for updates, discussions, and ways to support the families we feature. On the night of August 29th, 2002, Audrey May Turk Heron finished her shift as a nurse at a local healthcare facility in Green County, New York. It was late, close to 11 o'clock, but nothing about that night suggested it would be anything other than routine. Audrey had worked late hours before. She knew the drive home well. When she left work, she got into her black 1994 Jeep Cran Cherokee bearing New York license plate X233 UV and began heading westbound on State Route 23 through the town of Catskill. Home was only 12 miles away. That short drive should have taken minutes. Instead, it became the final known chapter in Audrey May Turk Heron's life. Audrey was last seen traveling west on Route 23 at approximately 11 p.m. That sighting is the last confirmed moment anyone can place her in the world. She never arrived home. She never called to say she was running late. She never appeared anywhere else. And from that moment forward, both Audrey and her vehicle vanished without a trace. When Audrey did not arrive home, concern quickly set in. This was not someone who disappeared casually. Audrey was employed, dependable, and rooted in her routine. According to those who knew her and to subsequent media reporting, there was no indication that she planned to leave her life behind. She had just completed a shift at work. She was driving home. Everything about her actions pointed towards normalcy. But normalcy ended somewhere along Route 23. That stretch of road runs through a mix of populated areas and rural darkness. In 2002, much of it was poorly lit at night. There were no traffic cameras tracking every vehicle, no license plate readers quietly logging movement. If a car left the roadway, there were few immediate systems in place to capture that moment. As investigators began to look for Audrey, they focused first on the most logical explanations. Had she experienced a medical emergency while driving? Had her Jeep broken down? Had she been involved in a crash that somehow went unreported? Searches were conducted around Route 23 and surrounding areas. Law enforcement looked for signs of an accident, debris, or stranded vehicle. Nothing was found. What made Audrey's case particularly troubling was the complete absence of physical evidence. Her Jeep was never discovered, abandoned along the roadway. It was not found damaged. It was not impounded, towed, ticketed, or located in any database under another plate or VI. Both Audrey and the vehicle were gone, as if they had been erased together. Local and regional news outlets reported on the case in the weeks and months that followed, highlighting how unusual it was for a nurse to vanish during such a short, familiar commute. State police issued missing person alerts describing Audrey, her route, and her vehicle. Over time, her case appeared in missing person databases and anniversary coverage, each retelling, reinforcing the same unanswered question. How does a woman disappear on a 12-mile drive, taking her car with her, without leaving a single confirmed trace? As the investigation continued, no evidence emerged to support a voluntary disappearance. There were no confirmed sightings of Audrey after that night. No financial activity suggested she had traveled elsewhere. No communications indicating she had reached out to anyone. Media reports consistently noted that Audrey had not made plans to leave, had not packed belongings, and had not expressed a desire to start over somewhere new. Years later, new leads prompted additional attention. In 2016, reporting confirmed that New York State Police conducted searches in the Catskill area after receiving new information. Those efforts included targeted searches along roadways and areas of interest identified through investigative leads. Once again, no confirmed evidence was recorded. Audrey remained missing. The passage of time has only deepened the mystery. Audrey disappeared during a period when technology sat in an uncomfortable middle ground. Cell phones existed but offered limited location data. GPS was not standard in vehicles. Surveillance infrastructure was sparse, especially in rural areas. If Audrey's Jeep left the road into wooded terrain or water, it could remain concealed for decades. If she encountered another person, there may have been no witnesses. If something went wrong quickly, there may have been no opportunity for her to call for help. Today, more than 20 years later, Audrey May Turk Heron is still missing. Her black Jeep Grand Cherokee, New York Plate X233 UV, has never been located. There have been no arrests, no confirmed discoveries, and no public resolution to her case. What remains is a quiet but haunting absence. Audrey left work at the end of a normal shift. She drove onto a familiar road, and she headed home. Somewhere between where she was last seen and where she was expected to arrive, something happened that stopped her journey entirely. Audrey's case endures because it could happen to almost anyone. A short drive, a familiar route, a night like any other. Her disappearance reminds us that not all mysteries announce themselves with violence or chaos. Some arrive silently in the space between working and home, leaving families and communities with nothing but questions. Someone may still remember something about that night on Route 23. A vehicle pulled over where it shouldn't have been, had lights in the distance, something that felt insignificant at the time. Even now, decades later, that memory could matter. Audrey May Turk Heron deserves answers. She deserves to be found, and her story deserves to be told carefully, accurately, and with persistence until the silence surrounding her disappearance is finally broken. Welcome to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

And I'm Michael. And one thing that's great about this particular episode, which by the way is episode 39, we are also now the first episode of our second season.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Season two. Yes. We do know that most podcasts we've heard make it to about 10 episodes. So I would say we're doing a really good job.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, I would say so.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

I mean, we still I still consider us new, but people are like, How long have you been doing this? And they're like, that's not new. How many episodes do you have? They're like, you're not new anymore. You can't say you're new anymore.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, we can't say that anymore.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

We do want to thank our listeners and all of the people who have come to the podcast and have really grown this community for us. And we do have some um big numbers that we want to share with you.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, I mean, one of the things we look at is our metrics all the time. And yeah, we're not driven by the metrics, but we do watch the metrics to kind of understand who our audience is, what they're, you know, what they're responding to, things like that. So we make sure that we're covering the right stories and in the right way. And at this point, we're averaging anywhere between 3,000 to 3,500 listens per month. In fact, December was our highest month ever. So our personal best.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yes. And thank you to those of you who are in our Facebook community if you haven't joined us, Tragedy True Crime Podcast on Facebook. I did put a little thing out near the end of December. Um, and thank you for those of you who tuned in and helped us get to where we are today. So we really, really appreciate our listeners. Something else that's kind of cool that has happened is we have been featured again on the 20 best victim stories podcast on FeedSpot. So the first time this happened, I think you just kind of came across it. You were like, look at this. I'm like, That's true. What are you talking about? This time we actually got an email um from the founder of Speed Feed Spot um congratulating us on making this 20 best victim stories podcast list of 2025.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

So we've done it now two times in a row.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

We've done it twice. Um, again, very exciting. You know, when we started this, we were just going to start with one story and talk about what happened in your family and and bring some light and exposure to that case. Um, and it's gotten so much bigger than that, um, which is great. Not something I think I was expecting in the beginning. I'm not sure what you were expecting.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

I don't know if I was really expecting anything. I mean, uh again, we've talked about it a number of times where what we want to do is just tell the story of Jody Kilgore, and we were just amazed by the amount of community feedback we got, both positive and some negative. And it just led to people bringing us more and more cases. And originally we're like, well, okay, what do we do next? Do we do anything next? Is this over? And the next thing you know, another case. In fact, I would say almost half a dozen cases have been brought to our attention just over the last 30 to 40 days.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, that's a really good point. Thank you for bringing that up. I do have people reaching out to me in Messenger or by our V our email and sending us new case suggestions. So keep those coming. It's really nice to know that you guys have things that you trust us with our stories, and and those are things that we are absolutely looking into. And there's something really interesting when you're kind of just scrolling through, like on this um acknowledgement that we got for FeedSpot. We're just scrolling and I'm like, wait, that's our branding. Like, that's the thing that you made. That's us. Um, so that's really that's really great. So thank you to all of our listeners for helping us get to that point.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

All right, so before we really get started into our our case summary today, or at least our questions around our case summary today, let's talk about some of our case updates. So the first one is Jody Kilgore. We've had some major developments in the Jodie Kilgore case. We've had multiple off the record conversations from people that we were really surprised were finally ready to speak with us. So this has been massive. We're still going through a lot of the details that we've been that we've collected. And those details have led to additional questions, additional interviews, additional people we're tracking down that we think will have a pretty significant impact on our perception of what's going on with that case and maybe some of the developments that we believe to be true, and now we're kind of discovering that, well, maybe they're not true. So it's going to be pretty interesting as we f you finish sifting through all that.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yes, and we're sort of in a similar place with Cody Haney's disappearance out of Liberty County. We went and spent some time over there. The sheriff's office happened to be closed that day, but we we actually taped a note on the door of the sheriff's office, um, hoping that they would reach out to us. So we're waiting for them to reach back out to us, and then also some other people that we believe might have some information that will be helpful as we try to piece together what may have happened to Cody. So more on that one as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

What's that deputy's name?

SPEAKER_01 12:31

The lead detective on Cody's case is Detective Tadlock. And when we left our little note there stuck on the door, we wrote it for both Detective Tadlock and for Sheriff Arnold. So we're hoping to hear back from from both.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Yeah, we haven't heard from either one of these guys. And how long has it been? About a week.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

It was last, yeah, it was last week when we drove over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

And now let's get back into our season two case, new case, the disappearance of Audrey Heron.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

All right. So after listening to the case summary that you did earlier, um one of the biggest questions I want to start with is how did we get this case?

SPEAKER_01 13:06

So uh we know that a lot of the cases that we are getting come from members of the community. And that's that's really great. And please keep doing that. We love that you do that for us. In this case, I did something a little bit different. There's a a web page, a Facebook group called Map the Missing. Map the Missing does a lot of work on creating a map of missing people. Uh, I've been in communication with the moderators of that Facebook group, and I asked them, I said, we're getting ready to start season two. Is there a case that has really stuck with you that you think would be good for us to start our season two case? And they said Audrey's case immediately. Um, and then they gave me a couple of the names of people who have been fierce advocates for Audrey, and I reached out to one of them, and that's kind of how it got started. And from that first person, she gave us some additional people to talk to.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Um, it's my understanding too that this case has been featured on a number of other shows, including the Montel Williams show, for those out there that may remember that.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

I remember Montel. But yes, that is correct. Um, this case and several of the people that we sp have spoken with were on the Montel show. There's also a YouTube, I think it's a series. I think we watched like one, two, three, or four. It was kind of broken up into like 10-minute segments, maybe from Crime Watch Daily.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Pretty sure it was three, three episodes.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, they were real short. I shouldn't say it's a series, they're just real short, sort of chopped up. Um, there is also another thing on YouTube called Nurse Vanish 21 years ago. And this is put on by Adventures with Purpose. And we've we've spoken about them before. They're similar to um Sunshine State Sonar and the organ other organizations we have worked with who do water searches for vehicles. So there's that. Um, also, shout out to one of my favorite podcasts, by the way, um, Inhuman, a true crime podcast. I've been listening to them for several years, and their episode 393 was on Audrey's disappearance. Um, and then of course, there are a lot of local news coverage and things like that. So this may be a name that is familiar to people. Um, if you you are familiar with the Lacey Peterson disappearance, it happened around the same time, just on the opposite side of the United States.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

And there's a little bit of conversation we've had where they think that people some of the people involved in this case believe that because of Lacey Peterson, this particular case did not get a lot of coverage or at least a lot of attention.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, the coverage started to die off as soon as um Lacey Peterson went missing. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Aaron Powell All right, one of the other questions I really have regarding the case is we know a couple things about a phone call that was supposed supposedly made, and we know some details around a coworker that they kind of left at the same time. I can't remember whether it was her following um her coworker or vice versa. And can you tell us, you know, why that was important to talk about and what came of that?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yes, we do know that Audrey called her husband at about 9.30 that evening. So about an hour and a half before her shift was supposed to end, because she had some great news to share. She had just found out that she had received a raise. And so he they they talked at 9.30, celebrated that she was getting that raise, and then um she, you know, hung up the phone and went on to her shift, which ended at 11 p.m. Now, sometimes she would work a double. So, you know, this is a wife and a mother, and she's doing her best to contribute. So there were times that she would work a double shift, right? She can still get home um before her husband needs to leave for work. And so that that is something that she did frequently. However, we understand that when she did that, she would call her husband and let him know that she was going to work a double shift. Because I mean, if I'm working late, I used to work late, right? Sometimes I would get home at 11 p.m. Um if I'm not home by like two or three, I would imagine that you and you woke up, you'd be a little worried.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Yes. And so she did let him know that she was not work, she did not call to say she was working an extra shift. Um, and that was pretty routine. If she wasn't gonna work, she she would call and tell him. Um, in respect to the person who left at a similar time that she did, what seems to have happened is these people were co-workers and they had a very short conversation um out in the parking lot before Audrey headed home and then they just happened to leave the parking lot together. Now, this person, a coworker, reported that she uh followed Audrey's car out of the parking lot only because I think they drove along the same route, right? She's not like following her to, you know, in that I I got followed. Um, and I think initially the thought was this was probably the last person to see her alive. And so this became a pretty important person talking about following her, and then she turned onto her own route and that was it. As it turns out, it seems um further on this person recanted that story and said that they hadn't done that. And so there was some weird things happening there. Like we know that sometimes people want to be involved in what they perceive as something big. Um, and that seems to be what has what happened in this case.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

So she didn't really spot her at all. Once they got in their car, it sounds to me like she drove away, but she kind of made up this story.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

That seems to be the case, yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

All right, so the next question I have is let's talk about the technology, let's talk about the route. We you already said in your story that we they're you know, we're talking about 2002 here. So we're not talking about cameras everywhere. If we have cell phones, it's likely a bag phone. It's it's you know, tracking capability of cell phones back then was not necessarily something very well understood. And even if it was understood, it wasn't incredibly accurate. So let's talk about what we was she ever caught on camera? Was she seen by anyone else? And let's talk about the route a little bit. Tell me about the route.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

So this is a pretty straightforward route, 12 miles along Route 23 through the town of Catskill. And that's pretty much it. It's a route that she was very familiar driving with this particular evening. Um, it's August. So I think I remember hearing from someone that it was a little rainy, but we're not talking about a snow or blizzard or uh, you know, while driving in a lot of rain can be dangerous. It doesn't seem like it was super rainy, obviously no ice. And a drive she did all the time. Turn out of the hospital that she worked at and pretty much drive straight home.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

And she wasn't caught on any cameras at all from other businesses, banks, anything on this route home. There's there wasn't any opportunity for that, or we don't know about that yet.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, I do not believe there was any opportunity for that.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

All right, so we when you talk about the 12-mile route, I watched the special that we found on YouTube, the three-part special, and what they talked about, including when they interviewed the law enforcement officers associated with the case, is that this was incr this was scrutinized tremendously. There were helicopters in the air. There was every mile of this road was looked at. They were looking for guardrails that were damaged, any kind of damage to the to the terrain or trees around it, any kind of evidence of screeching of brakes, sliding off the road. And they found not only did they not find the Jeep, they didn't find any indication of any accidents along this 12-mile stretch. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yes, that's true. And additionally, Adventures with Purpose was able to support the family years after she disappeared. This was at the request of advocates and local law enforcement, and their work focused primarily on waterways and bodies of water that are accessible and along State Route 23 and any nearby roads, obviously areas where vehicles can enter water, which we've learned a lot about with several of our stories. So they did that work and nothing, no Jeep, Grand Cherokee, anywhere along that route that they could find. And we are hoping that we can have them come on and talk a little more in depth on what they did.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Okay. So one of the things we've also noticed in cases, in uh so far, all the cases we've covered, is there seems to be someone that you think should be involved and isn't involved. Now, when you bring this person up, first of all, we're not we're not making any allegations at all. We just notice this this tends to stick out. And a lot of people have questions, and that's going to be Jeff Heron.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, so this is Audrey's husband at the time of her disappearance. And the first place that we really saw that was in the crime watch daily thing that we saw on YouTube. And you can see the reporter, she goes up to the house and she knocks on the door a few times and she says who she is and where she's from, and and that she wants to speak with him, and nobody ever comes to the door. Now, they do end up kind of going down the street and happen across his dad, who lives down the street and he's out on a lawnmower. So they speak to him briefly. We will we also know after speaking with some people really close to Audrey's story that Jeff was demonstrating some uncharacteristic behavior um and just really didn't it didn't appear to them that he was part of, wanted to be part of the solution. Something that is interesting that we do know is that he, according to the people we we have spoken with, Jeff woke up at like 2.30 in the morning and Audrey wasn't there. Um, and apparently he washed some dishes um and just went back to bed. That seems really strange to the people who were close to Audrey because she's left at 11 o'clock. She didn't indicate that she was working a double shift. And uh he they they would have loved for him to already make a phone call, start making phone calls because she's very late. Um and he doesn't do that. Apparently he just heads on back to bed.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

All right, that's really all the questions I have about the case summary. So what do people do if they want to reach out?

SPEAKER_01 23:07

So there are two ways that people can reach out if they think they have information relevant to Audrey's case. The first one is the number for the New York State Troopers. That's 518-622-8600. Also, they can email the lead detective right now, and that's Michael Gabriel, G-A-B-R-I-E-L-L-E at Troopers.ny.gov. Audrey is classified as missing under suspicious circumstances, and she was last seen on August 29th, 2002, driving westbound at 11 p.m. on Route 23 in the town of Catskill, New York. She was driving a 1994 Black Jeep Grand Cherokee license plate X233 UV, and she was five feet tall and 105 pounds at the time of her disappearance. You've been listening to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. Our purpose is to honor victims by sharing their stories through the voices of friends, family, and those whose lives were forever changed. If today's episode resonated with you, we encourage you to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast so these important stories continue to be heard. Together, we can preserve their memories and ensure their voices are never forgotten. If you have ideas for cases we should cover or questions about what you heard, you can connect with us through our Facebook group, Tragedy a True Crime Podcast, on X at Tragedy Podcast, by email at TragedyA True Crime Podcast at gmail.com, or by visiting our website www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time.