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. Welcome to Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And today we're joined by Sonia Elliott, the daughter of Audrey May Heron. For more than 20 years, Soncia has lived with unanswered questions about her mother's disappearance. By being here today, she helps ensure Audrey is remembered not just as a case, but as a mother who is deeply loved and is still deeply missed. Sancia, thank you for trusting us with your voice and your story, and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Thank you for having me.

unknown 1:15

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

What we're going to do here today is a little bit different than what we've normally done is you know, we deal with a lot of difficult subjects and a lot of you know challenging conversations. So we want to start today with just kind of lightening it up a little bit. So we've come up with kind of a question game.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

All right. So your first question is are you a morning person or a night person?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Oh, um, I'm definitely a morning person. Well even on my days off, I wake up at like 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

That's terrible.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

That reminds me of my navy days. I'm so sorry. As I've gotten older, I've managed to finally stifle that. Uh and Lisa is also not a morning person.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Uh yeah, I'm what's called um an angry sleeper. So uh yeah, if if I have to be woken up early in the morning, it's uh, you know, it's not a necessarily positive experience. I was a teacher, and so I had to get up early, early, but I would adjust my hours in the summer and be up until like one or two in the morning. So I'm I'm definitely more of a night person, and I think you're probably more of a morning person.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

I'm a morning person for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, for sure, totally. All right, question number two. What are a few things that are important to you in your everyday life?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Um, probably um self-care in the form of like for me, it's fitness, working out, taking care of myself. That's a huge outlet for me. Um, helps me manage stress. Um, and then spending time with my family is another one. Um another important thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Is there a particular type of fitness workout you do, like CrossFit or yoga or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Yeah, right now I'm doing CrossFit. I've dabbled in like working out by myself. I've done like hit type workouts, but I've been doing CrossFit for probably about the past five years. I try not to be one of those people that talk about it all the time now. I know that's stigma.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I'm gonna ask one question. Um, how high is your box jump?

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Well, she's pregnant.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

So I would say non-existent.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

No jumping.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

No, no, I still jump, but I don't I only now but I can I could probably jump on a 30-inch box when I'm not pregnant pretty easily.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah, when I first got in a CrossFit, I realized I am not good at that part.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

We uh just got, what are they, kettlebells?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Kettlebells. So we're going to try to start incorporating that a little bit and we do some walking and we keep talking about incorporating more strength training. So hopefully the kettlebells will do this for us. Yes. All right.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

And our bells are great, but you can do a lot with them.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, these ones are really cool that that Michael got. They um you can like pick up only the certain ones from the handle and the other ones stay at the bottom, so it's adjustable.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, it's the it's the both flex adjustable one that I picked up, and I really I really I like the concept of how it works.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, I think that's uh that'll be really cool. We in fact we plan on getting that started today. So we'll text you later tonight, let you know if it happens. Yeah, let me know how it goes. Um and the final question is how do your friends describe you?

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Oh gosh. I don't know. I would say that my friends describe me as I would like to think fun and reliable, I would I would say. They're probably the two words they would use to describe me. I would hope.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, I would say the same. I I um work for a university, it's all online and always in the Google Team or what is it, Microsoft Teams? I always bring, I say, I bring the fun with exclamation points, and people are always like reaching out to me because kind of what we do is sort of monotonous. So every once in a while somebody would be like, Do you have a knock-knock joke? And I'm like, of course I have a knock-knock joke. Of course I have knock-knock jokes. So it doesn't get um really too, too um uh boring. So, Michael, how about you? How do you think your friends describe you?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Um it kind of depends on which friends we talk about.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Sure, yep.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Some you describe it as intense, um, some relaxed. One thing my friends will always say is I'm always fun. You know, I always try to make sure that we're doing something fun. I hate being inside. Uh-huh. And so that's even made the podcasting thing sometimes challenging as I see how nice the weather is outside. I'm like, oh crap, I've got this editing to do and I don't want to do it. So I try I try to make sure that I um around friends and stuff, they they know that they're hanging out with me, we're going out, we're going fishing, we're going hiking, we're not gonna be sitting.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Yeah, one thing people always um we always talk about is if it has a hard hat and a waiver, Michael wants to do it.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

That is correct.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

So when we met, I was like, okay, I'm gonna need to be a little more risky. So we've done all kinds of cool things like uh spelunking, going to caves, and we went actually. Yeah, it is it is really fun. I was actually reflecting on it the other day. I'm like, I can't believe I actually did that. That was wild. Like I just went for it. So yes, it sounds like all three of us, I think fun, and that's important, right? As you mentioned at the beginning, there are so many things in life that can weigh us down. And you know, sometimes we need to make sure that I don't know, I don't like the word balance, I like the word harmonize.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Am I too old for the word YOLO? Because that's how I look at it, that's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

I think you're too old for the word.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

I might be too old for that word. YOLO.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

No, I think YOLO is kind of outdated. So actually I think it's so maybe it's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

So I I I am now outdated because I said the word YOLO.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

There you go. So yes is the answer to your question. Is there something better than YOLO that we should know about?

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Oh gosh, I don't know. I'm getting a little old myself on that.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Same.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, I would also say YOLO.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I don't think I'll check with my 26-year-old and she'll be like, oh, there isn't one for you, you're old.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

We'll update our terms.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yes, we might know a little. But then she won't let me use them. She'll be like, you can't use those. Those aren't for you. All right. Well, thank you for that. That I think was so fun and a really great way um for us to get to know you a little bit and give our listeners um some knowledge about you as well. So let's talk about your mom. Um, what do you want people to know about your mom?

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Um, I guess just thought she was a a really good mom. Um, I think she was really great in all the roles that she filled in life. She was a good mom. She was a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter. She was always trying to make sure I knew how important I was to her. We spent a lot of time together. I was the oldest of uh my siblings. And there's six years between me and my sister. She was the second. So me and my mom would go out quite a bit, go to the mall, go to the movies, lunch eat, shopping, that kind of thing. And she was always calling family members, um, you know, checking on people. If something was going on in the family, making sure everyone was okay. She was always good about getting together with her friends and spending time with them. So I guess that's one thing I would like people to know that she really seemed to value the relationships and people in her life.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

I am the mother of an only daughter. And so I am so fortunate to be able to have done a lot of things with her. We take, we used to take, well, she's older now, but we girls' trips every summer. We would just go somewhere, the two of us, for like a week. Um, and they were those were so fun. Started in about middle school. That was just about the right age. So um what you're describing as far as that mother or daughter relationship, um, it really resonates um with me.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah, I feel like um if my mom was still here, we would for sure be doing something very similar to that.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Mm-hmm. So I know you were tell us a little, you were 10 when your mom went missing, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah, I turned 10 in May of that year, and then my mom went in August. So I had uh just recently turned 10 that way.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Mm-hmm. So when we ask you like your recollections, like um, you know, in the weeks before and the day that she went missing, it's gonna be a little different for you because typically we're talking to um people who were, you know, adults or even moms who have um who are missing their children. So your recollections will be a little bit different, but we'd like to hear what you remember about that day that she disappeared and maybe, you know, kind of the weeks leading up to that.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, so um unfortunately when my mom went missing, so my grandmother, my mom's mother, Charlene, she had her and her husband had a property in Florida and they had like a travel trailer that they kept on it. And I had left the beginning of August to go stay with my grandmother and her husband for a month in Florida. So I had been down there the entire month of August, and I can't remember the exact date that we returned to come back, but it was not very long before my mom went missing, maybe a few days. I remember talking to her on the phone, I think the day before we were supposed to get back. And I remember she said that she missed me. She said, You're never going away for a month ever again, not even with grandma. Then she said, I love you. I have to work. And I can't I can't remember like how many days from then she was picking me up, but she was supposed to work, and then she was gonna pick me up the next morning um after we got home. And then that was the the last time I talked to her leading up to her disappearance.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Now we have um had some conversations, as you know, with uh several people who are really close to you, Marie and Maria. It's really interesting that you recollect that um your mom was going to pick you up. Can you do you remember where she was going to pick you up? Was it going to be um at the house you lived in, or was it going to be at your grandparents' house? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

It was gonna be at my grandparents' house, my grandmother's house. We got back. I cannot remember what time we got back. Um, and it may have even been like the day my mom went missing, or maybe the day before my mom went missing, we got back. Um, but I know the day we got home or the day after, she was working uh three to eleven. And so the plan was to pick me up the next morning so I didn't have to get woken up in the middle of the night. So I was just gonna stay at grandma's mom was gonna pick me up in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

So typically that would be her getting off work, her going home, sleeping for the evening, of course, and then coming to pick you up the next morning.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Yep, and my grandmother lived in Selkirk, New York at the time. It was probably about maybe 40 minutes, give or take, you know, um, from my mom's house and freehold.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

One question that I had is because I thought this was kind of um strange, so I'm curious about the reasoning behind it. I think it's when we were talking to Maria, and um what happened is okay, you come back with your grandparents, your mom's supposed to pick you up, and then she's missing, and then it was indicated to us, I think it was either right away or very shortly after you were sent back to your dad's house. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yeah, I don't remember the timeline exactly, and I I think I wasn't told right away that mom was missing. Remember my grandmother telling me that mom couldn't pick me up that day because she ended up having to go into work or something happened, like Katie or Quinn were sick. I there was some kind of excuse. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I remember there was some kind of excuses why some mom why mom wasn't gonna be there that day to pick me up, that she would be there the next day. And I automatically knew something was wrong. Like I kind of knew my grandma was lying. Like I just had a feeling because I was not my mom. Like and I had just been gone for a whole month. So I just kind of knew something was up. Um and then I think the next day she told me my grandmother told me, like, that mom no one could find mom. She didn't use the word innocent, she was like, No one can find mom. The police are looking for her, search parties looking for her, we're gonna find her, and she's you know, everything's gonna be okay. And then what was your what was the did I answer your question?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

I'm sorry, sometimes Yeah, um, that's no problem. I was uh what you just said was really great information. What I was asking is we were it was indicated to us that, you know, even during the searches that you were sent to your dad's house right away. Like you were you were removed from the situation. So I was curious, is that true? And you know, do you know the reason why?

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Well, my dad had partial custody of me anyways. So I went and saw my dad every other weekend. My dad had custody of me. So then I feel like I was at my grandma's for a week or so after I had found out, you know, um, we couldn't find her. Um, and then the decision was just made that, you know, my dad has partial custody. Mom was missing, so I should go stay with dad until um she was found. I don't really ever being I don't really remember being asked if I wanted to do that, but I spent every other weekend on my dad and I love being at his house. So I was okay with going there. You know, at the time I didn't want to live there full time, but um I was okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

And so tell us what you can remember or even um the reports that you have read as an adult about some of the searches and some of the efforts um that were going on to find your mom.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

It's pretty vague what I know, but I know there from what I've been what I've been told and what I've seen in like past newspaper articles, there was extensive ground searches with, you know, volunteers, police, canines, helicopters, water searches, you know, in the radius where she went missing. Um and then I do remember we had some candlelight vigils in the beginning. Um, you know, we made flyers. We were just trying to get her face out there. Um, and I I'd never participated in any of the searches, but I did go to the candlelight vigils. I did help um kind of distribute flyers and try to get her face out there with Marie and um, you know, family too, my aunt and my grandmother. But you know, to my memory, that's like what I remember the most of like the beginning. I remember um I remember there were a lot of police at my house that I had lived at with my mom. So my mom's house with Jeff. There was a a big police presence there. I remember them being present with pretty much what I remember from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

And then as this um, as her disappearance continued, can you talk to us about um law enforcement's continued efforts? Obviously, initially, you know, there's a lot of support and trying to find her, and you just described the police presence. Did that change over time? Um, just kind of talk to us about the relationship that you've had with the local law enforcement.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah, so as I was growing up, it's changed hands a few times. And um, as I was growing up, my grandmother, my mom's mom, has always been the primary contact. So I really um was kind of left out of it for the most part, and then any new information or any calls automatically went to my grandmother, and then my grandmother um would keep me updated. From what I remember, my grandmother said that they were pretty good about um returning her calls when she would call. You know, sometimes a lot of time would go by without hearing anything, and a lot of the times there wasn't really anything to update us on. But it seems like whenever there was, they would call her. And then I recently took over as like the primary contact. Me and my sister, um, mostly me, but me and my sister, um, probably about five years ago. You know, as I become older and an and an adult and my grandmother's health is not the best. Um, now they'll call me or text me or um whatever her the investigator on our case right now is investigator Gabriel, and he is um he's very good about staying in contact with me. And um you know, I can text him and he will answer a question I have. Or, you know, I can text him a lead and ask that it get looked into, or if he feels like it needs to get looked into, and he's always very receptive and open um with anything I suggest or ask about. So that's um my experience so far with him has been good, but in the beginning it was mostly my grandmother, so I can only speak to you know what she told me, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yes, and you have since relocated. Do you how often do you go back or do you go back to that area? I mean, you have family there, so I would imagine that you do.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Yeah, uh we live in Arizona now in Tucson. Um, but we go home every August, September, and we go for like a three-week trip every year. We try to go. So that's nice. Yeah. So at least once a year, and then obviously, you know, if something happens, the wedding death, unfortunately, then we'll fly home for that. But um, we do a big trip every August.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah, I feel like that's a great time of year to leave Arizona and go to upstate New York. That is correct.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Oh, it's the best time. We're like it's been so hot, and we like are questioning all our choices for moving here, and then we uh go home to New York and the weather's nice, and uh then by the time we come back, it's like just the edge is just starting to come off in Arizona and things are gonna cool down and there's nice and we're ahead. So it's the perfect time to get out of here.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah, we've spent some time in the Adirondacks. Um, and we actually drove through the cat skills um one time when we were heading from where were we? Not Lake Placid, Niagara Falls, up towards the Lake Placid areas, and that was August, I think. So yeah, really, really nice. But then it got a lot colder than a lot colder faster than I was expecting. So I was like, whoa, September, let's get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

We went home to New York and I packed, I want to say, like nine pairs of shorts and two pairs of jeans, and I lived in the two pairs of jeans and black because it's so dumb next year.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I need to pack more jeans. Just never know.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah, one question I have is you talked about, you know, how investigators are picking up and taking leads that you're providing. What's some of the latest leads that you've you know been given or discovered? And you know, what was the outcome of those?

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Honestly, mostly through social media, like I might get a message from someone saying, Oh, on Google Maps, it looks like there's a Jeep in this creek here, and it's not on your mom's route home, but like it could have been like a possible route home, like it's like a side route. So things like that, I usually just send to him and I say, Hey, was this area looked at with Adventures with Purpose was here, or did you guys look in this area? And there's times when he's gone out and looked in areas, or sometimes you know, people might message me and say, like, oh, I this person said that they know who did something near mom or said it was this guy, and then I'll like pass along our information to him. I'll send him screenshots of the message so then he can contact this person. Because honestly, I I really just kind of like to stay out of it. Um, when people are bringing me these things, I would rather them just go right to him.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

No, it makes total sense to us.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yes, it does. We have um what has started real small with this podcast as the unsolved homicide of um Michael's uncle and in the neighbor in the community that we live in, and people I am experienced, what you're experiencing. People will say, I heard someone say something about, and I'm like, Well, did you notify the sheriff's office? And they're like, No, and I'm like, Would you please notify the sheriff's office and or call our tip line? Um so yes, it's sort of like this weird intermediary role. And I think it's just that push to notifying law enforcement, which is so, so important. I agree. So yeah, we I I understand have been experiencing um what you're going through with that. So talk about um the impact that this has had on you. Obviously, I mean, it is a massive impact, but we don't want to begin to believe that we understand how your mom's disappearance has has impacted you. So we'd like to hear that from you. I always struggle with this question.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

I get asked this question a lot and when I do like interviews like this, but um, it's so hard to put into words uh exactly like how something like this just, you know, impacts you. Um, but I'll try my best. You know, as a child, my entire life changed as I knew it. I moved in with my dad. I was I was growing up with my brother and sister at the time. I go from that family with my brother and sister. My dad's I'm the only child there. Um I'm no longer living on a daily basis with my brother and sister and growing up with them. I eventually had to change schools. Um so you know I had you know which is kids are resilient and I did fine but um you know it was just on top of everything. Had all my friends from Greenville school I had to change to a different school because my dad lived in a different district. Just growing up as a teenage girl without the support of your mother is tough. It's it's hard. Um I struggled a lot mentally as a teenager growing up with just um you know trying to get through school trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life trying to stay positive trying to have a positive outlook on life trying to not let my mom's disappearance affect me in a negative way which is takes a lot of work. It's hard. And there are days when it certainly does and then even you know in college when you you know all the milestones become hard because you make it through high school you graduate high school and then you know there's like the sting of your mom not being there. And you still don't really know why she's not there. It's not like you know like mom's mom's not here because of this and you have that you know you know that's the reason why it's like mom's not here and I I don't know why and um you know socks it hurts. Um and then you graduate college and like I became a nurse and like she was a nurse and that was that was like a really tough milestone that would have been great for her to be there for that to see that. And then you know it just it continues on always um then you become a mom and uh you want your mom. Um it's definitely tough. I I would guess I mean it's the only way I know but I um I envy my friends who have their moms to help them with their kids or check on them or you know they can call them in the middle of the night with questions or tears or whatever it is. Um so yeah I guess the impact is all those things kind of combined.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

And is there anything that you wanted to share about your mom that we did not give you an opportunity to share?

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Um I I don't think so I mean I I I do think one thing that is important to listeners to know is I don't my mom I know I think probably a lot of people say this about their missing lip one but my mom would not have left on her own um accord. Like she didn't just abandon her family. There was that was not her behavior at all. Um there was she had no mental illness no substance abuse she was very devoted to her family to her children um so her just up and leaving is not a it's not something that I believe happened.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

So 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 TragedyAtrueCrime Podcast at gmail dot com or by visiting our website www dotyatrucrime podcast dot com. Thank you for listening and we hope you'll join us next time